Install Microsoft Fonts in Ubuntu

If like me you use Linux+ OpenOffice at home but are forced to use Microsoft Office at work/ school, you may want to install Microsoft fonts on your Linux machine. This will ensure that a document created in MS Word will look like it's supposed to in OpenOffice. Web browsing will also be a lot smoother as most, if not all, websites are designed with MS fonts in mind.

To get MS fonts you will need to install a package called msttcorefonts. The package contains the following font types:

• Andale Mono
• Arial Black
• Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Comic Sans MS (Bold)
• Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Impact
• Times New Roman (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Trebuchet (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Verdana (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Webdings

To install on Ubuntu, you need to first enable the 'Universe' repository. Once you have done that, go ahead and type the following into your terminal:

$sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

To see the changes you will need to refresh the fonts cache, use the following command:

$sudo fc-cache -fv

If there are any other fonts you wish to install that aren't included in this package, all you have to do is copy the font files to the ~/.fonts/ directory. Enjoy.

100th Post

I am sure my fan(s) will be delighted to hear that I have finally reached my 100th post on mopedia. I wrote my first post on the first of December 2007 and here we are now 10 months and 99 more posts later.

The site has gone through a lot of changes during that time, I started off with zero CSS and very little HTML knowledge. Along the way I have learned so much about blogging, programming and the topics I write about. The look of my blog has also come a long way from the default template to the customized one that you see now. And I am sure there will be a lot more tweaks and changes to come.


I now look forward to the next 100 posts.

Ubuntu on a Acer Aspire One

Here is a very nice demonstration of Ubuntu running on the Acer Aspire One. The 8.9" netbook has an Intel Atom processor, 1 gig ram, 8 gig storage and Intel GMA 950 graphics.

The default OS of this device is Linpus lite. I have never heard of this Linux distro before but I had a little play around with it in the shops and I think it looks really smart and sleek.

Notice how smoothly Compiz is running. The author also has Photoshop running through Wine.

EEE PC 1000H vs 1000 SSD

When I first decided to buy an eee pc, I had my eyes firmly on the 1000 Linux version. I thought SSD vs HD was a no contest; I just assumed the SSD would be faster, lighter, more durable and less power hungry.

Unfortunately, as it turns out the 1000 Linux version has two separate drives, a fast 8GB and a slow 32GB. As you can see from the tests conducted by jkkmobile, the 32GB SSD has a very poor write performance.







The 32GB is a much cheaper SDHC card. Another advantage the 1000H has over the 1000 is you can use standard 2.5 inch hard disks. Whereas you would need special ZIF to mini pci-e adapters for the 1000.

Here is a video showing the difference between the 1000 and 1000h.



So my advice to anyone looking to buy a 10 inch eee pc is to look at the 1000H. You can always change the OS and if you really want an SSD drive there are plenty of very fast 2.5 inch ones around.

Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex Features

The next version of Ubuntu has gone into feature freeze; this means that no new features will be added and the focus now is on fixing bugs and polishing things up. So, I thought this would be a good time to compile a list of some of the interesting features we can expect in Intrepid Ibex. However, unlike Hardy Heron, it was much more difficult to pick out the interesting features. There simply isn't a lot to get excited about( for the average user anyway). After spending ages going through the list, I did manage to pluck out a few which I find interesting.

3G Networking Support

A lot of people are predicting that netbooks/laptops with 3G cards are going to be very popular in the future. Having 3G support will allow Ubuntu to be a real alternative to Windows in that area. Version 0.7.x of the Network Manager will also bring better network management.

Cleanup-Cruft

If like me you dual boot Ubuntu and Windows you may find it annoying that every time there is a kernel upgrade the old kernel is not deleted, this results in a massive boot menu full of old Ubuntu versions. This will thankfully change with Intrepid Ibex. A new tool called system-cleaner will clean up not just old kernels but a whole load of others settings and packages for a better Ubuntu experience.

Better Flash Experience

Although there have been many improvements in this area, Flash in Linux can still be a pain. With this feature, they are aiming to provide users with a more pleasant experience both with installation and usage. There will also be better support for free Flash alternatives; with the long term aim of shipping Ubuntu with a open source Flash alternative.



Guest Account

If you want to allow others to use your computer but have limited user rights; the addition of a guest account by default is a welcome feature. The guest account will have its own 'Home' folder but have restricted system access along with no permanent hard disk storage.

USB Installation Images

If you own a eee pc or any other netbook, installing the next version of Ubuntu should be much simpler than it is now. I am looking forward to buying an eee pc and I'm hoping this feature gets implemented.

Better Login Speed

The time that Ubuntu takes to go from the GDM login prompt to a usable desktop is too long; it should be made faster. A feature that's always welcome.

Kernel Crash Dump

It's very rare but if you do encounter a kernel crash, it will be much easier to provide a bug report with a crash dump file available.

Automatic Printer Driver Download

Instead of shipping with loads of printer drivers included, Intrepid Ibex will automatically download your printer driver package from the OpenPrinting database.

Ubiquity Visual Refresh

I didn't really know what Ubiquity was until I read this feature. Ubiquity, which is the tool you use to install Ubuntu, will get a makeover.

Encrypted Private Directory

Will provide a default location for users to securely store sensitive data using filesystem encryption.

Nautilus Tabs Support

GNOME 2.24.x will bring support for tabs in Nautilus along with the ability to restore files from Trash.



After reading through the list again I guess there is a few things to look forward to. I hope these features make it in the final release. If I have missed anything let me know.

Playdeb: Ubuntu Games Repository

A lot of people new to Linux are under the impression that once you start using a Linux distro you have to abandon any and all gaming. Sure, you won't be playing Crysis like games on Linux anytime soon, however there are plenty of quality games out there.

I don't play games as often as I used to, but it would still be nice to have good games available when I get bored or need to relax. It's not very easy finding games for Linux, they tend to be scattered around the web. Now, users of Ubuntu, and any Debian based distro's I presume, have a repository created specifically for games.

Playdeb is brought to you by the same people who created Getdeb.net. Installing games is as simple as clicking a link. To start using Playdeb you need to install two deb packages. The first package is an updated version of AptUrl, which enables software to be installed from links in websites. The second deb adds the Playdeb repository to your list of sources. Once you have done that, you can go to the list of games and start installing.


Playdeb is currently in beta and so has a limited number of games available, but keep an eye on it because the list will be expanding soon.

Google Chrome: First Impressions

I've went ahead and downloaded Google's new browser, after spending a few minutes playing around with it my first impressions are: it's fast and very light.

Unfortunately there is no Linux version as of yet, only the windows version has been released. There was a noticeable speed increase when loading most of the sites I went on compared to Firefox and IE 7. Didn't notice any big differences between Chrome and Opera, they were both very fast. One area where there is much more noticeable difference between Chrome and Firefox is memory usage. From what I've seen, Chrome uses much less memory than Firefox. With one tab open Firefox was using 88143k, whereas Chrome had a combined memory usage of
27956k.

Chrome is very similar to Safari, they are both based on WebKit, and they both load my blog incorrectly. As you can see from the screenshot below, Chrome can't seem to load my Navigation menu properly. I also get some alignment issues in both Safari and Chrome. I used to think coding for IE was a pain but getting things to work in Safari and now in Chrome is going to be trickier. If something looks mis-aligned in IE, all I have to do is add a # in front of some extra alignment code and it's fixed, however no such fixes seem to exist for Safari. Another big annoyance I have with Safari and Chrome is that holding down the middle-mouse button doesn't scroll.



The browser looks very nice, I like how the address bar also acts as a search bar without an extra box next to it like in Firefox. The tabs being at the top feels a little weird, being used to Firefox for so long, but it won't take long for someone to adapt to it. Just like the comic said the browser creates a new thread for every tab, I tried killing one of the processes and all that happened was one of the tabs closed.


Here is the browser in Incognito mode. A very useful feature but I prefer the noscript/cookie control plugin options for Firefox.


So to sum it up Chrome is a very light and fast browser, however I am not going to be replacing Firefox anytime soon. Not until they add proper scrolling and I can figure out how to make my site look like the way it looks in all other browsers. Anyway they still yet to release a Linux version. Anyone else tried it? Let me know what you think of it.

Update: Another reason why I won't be using Chrome is because of the following part of the license agreement:

"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services."

Update 2: Google have changed the Terms of Service for Chrome, the above no longer applies. You are free to surf the web using Chrome.

Google Chrome Browser

Google has released a comic to tell you about the browser its been working on, you can see the comic here. Chrome, as its been called, is based on the open source Webkit engine. Google claims to have created a browser for the 21st century with a fresh view on security, stability and speed.



Some of the features of the new browser include:

New JavaScript engine called V8

V8 is a JavaScript Virtual Machine built from scratch to improve browser speed and performance. As well as reducing bloat, chrome will allow you to view the performance of web pages and plug-ins, the process manager will let you see how much resource is being used by a particular component.

The browsers available now are all single threaded applications, chrome on the other hand will run every component and tab as a separate process. The modular nature will improve stability; if one of the tabs or components crashes it will not take the entire browser down.

The best thing about V8 is that it's open source and independent of the browser itself. This means that other browsers and developers can use it.

Tabs and 'Omnibox'

Tabs is not a new feature, however as mentioned above, each tab in chrome will be independent with its own address bar dubbed 'Omnibox' by Google. The address bar will feature smart auto-completion and search capabilities. Unlike Firefox, the tabs in chrome will be above the address bar and every time you open a new tab you will be presented with a page with 9 of your most visited websites along with other bookmarked sites.



The above feature is similar to Opera's 'speed dial'.

There is a privacy feature called 'incognito' which will allow you to surf without storing any information such as cookies.

Enhanced Security

Google has made security its top priority for chrome. As well as running each component separately, each tab will also be sandboxed to prevent malware from installing itself. Each process will run with least privileges to prevent them accessing sensitive areas.


A lot of people have been criticizing the look of the browser but I like it, it's very simple and elegant and I like the colour blue(as you can probably tell from my site).

Google plans to release a beta version of the browser tomorrow. Looking forward to trying it out. Check out the links below for more info.

Links:
Google Blog
Chrome comic