Mathusalem

Now, here's an idea that should have been thought of a long time ago: Integrate a universal progress bar into the desktop environment.

Luckily, Steve Fr�cinaux's finally started working on it, and it's first implementation is called Mathusalem.

The author's breakdown of Mathusalem 0.3 gives a good explaination of how it works (and includes a nice screenshot).

Last week, version 0.4 was released and shows some more progress, including:
- Nautilus integration via extension.
- Improved Epiphany integration.
- Only show the status icon when there is an active task.
- Show a notification bubble on task completion/failure.

Very cool stuff, although I think it might make more sense for this to be implemented as a GNOME panel applet. Either way, the author knows clearly what he's doing, so he probably knows better than I. Google's Summer of Code is over now, but let's hope the author keeps developing Mathusalem - it's just too clever of an idea to let go to waste.
Another one to watch.
:)

If you'd like to keep up-to-date with Mathusalem, it can be followed on the author's blog here.
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The Agora Project

The Agora Project seems like an interesting idea for a library.

dpope from the Compiz.net forums explains that:
Several people expressed interest in working on a library that would package opengl graphics/animation in a useful way so that this functionality can be cleanly and easily integrated into windowing libraries such as gtk or qt.

Quinnstorm later suggested:
[W]hat if agora was the frameworks, and CoDE was the actual desktop environment?

To which MacSlow replied:

Sure, that's the main idea behind "Agora". Be a framework or library (libraries) pulling together the nice low-level bits like OpenGL, cairo, gstreamer & Co and offer a solid set of ready to use animations, effects and filters for everything put on the screen. Kind of the Xgl/compiz on the application- and toolkit-level of things.

What you want to build with it afterwards... the next gtk+, Qt or desktop-environment is up to you.

It looks like this might the Linux community's answer to Apple's CoreImage and new CoreAnimation APIs (and probably others as well). It'll allow application programmers to add a little more bling to their apps. However, don't get too excited yet - Whatever the Agora Project ends up becoming, it's certainly at least a year off. Building a library that melds together several APIs requires a deep understanding of each of those APIs, which is not something tha comes easily. However, if the project attracts good talent like MacSlow (who's made a name for himself by creating some pretty cool apps), it certainly won't be an impossible feat. We'll see where this one goes. :)

If you'd like to follow or contribute to the development, check out the Agora Project forum that has been set up.
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Mark Shuttleworth Responds to Ubuntu breakage

Mark Shuttleworth has responded on his blog about the Ubuntu update breakage that occurred last week.
If there is a silver lining to the error, it is that it happened during the one week in six months when we have the core distribution development team together in one place. This gave us the opportunity not just to analyse and fix the issue, and to talk about the sequence of events that led to the problem, but also to discuss the processes we must improve to further reduce the likelihood of a repeat. The team is now more aware than ever of the responsibility we assume given extraordinary rate of adoption of Ubuntu.

It's a well-written piece, and left (at least) myself with a restored confidence in the Ubuntu team for taking this as seriously as it deserves to be taken.

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Ubuntu X Breakage Update

Yesterday, an Ubuntu security update/bug fix apparently broke the Xorg server (ie. graphics capability) of any user who downloaded the update.

From reports on the Ubuntu Forums, it seems (for now, at least) that the breakage affects all users that have upgraded, and is not limited to a certain subset of hardware.

There is now a large green note at the top of the Ubuntu forums pointing to the new fix.

Ubuntu Demon is reporting that a fix has been published, but that users should wait until the new "xserver-xorg-core_1.0.2-0ubuntu10.4_i386.deb" is uploaded to the Ubuntu servers.

Update: The new package has hit the update servers, everyone's safe to update again.
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Linux's Public Image

I was engaging in a random Skypecast a few days ago, and I found myself talking to a Mac user who was considering installing Linux on one of his Macs.

He explained to me that he was reading about Red Hat Linux, and that he saw there was a lot of console-based stuff going on in the screenshots. From what he was telling me, I got the impression that he didn't realize there IS a graphical interface for Linux (X, or Xorg these days).

I explained to him that he should try looking at Fedora Core or Ubuntu Linux, since much of the information on Red Hat Linux on the internet is very outdated (that's the price of being around forever, I guess). I continued to tell him that any recent version of these operating systems feature a user-friendly graphical interface that rivals the usability of Windows and OS X. (I was speaking about Gnome from experience, but I wouldn't discount KDE at all here.)

This is precisely one of the reasons why I blog about Linux - I want to spread the word about what Linux is really like today, and where it's going.

I've talked to so many people who've reacted to the word "Linux" with, "Oh, all that text-based stuff?". The Linux community needs to do everything they can to shake this image. Somehow I don't think billboard advertisements are going to show people what Linux is really like.
Frankly, the Ubuntu Video project is going to be more effective in this area. Cool YouTube videos don't hurt either. :)

I'm curious to see what other people think the best way to show people what Linux is really like is. Any thoughts?

Also, have you ever talked to someone who had an extremely outdated view of what Linux is like? Share you story in the comments below!
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Ubuntu Update Breaks Xorg

Oops.

At least I had the benefit of seeing this thread before I updated my machine. If you've got an Ubuntu 6.06 machine, I suggest not doing any Xorg-related updates until this is fixed.

Judging from the number of posts and views in that thread and the small amount of time it's been up, I think this is one's a biggie.

If you've already busted your X server, or expect you're going to do it by accident, write down the solution:
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-core=1:1.0.2-0ubuntu10


Edit: There's a sticky at the Ubuntu Forums outlining a slightly different fix.

I think this is pretty much the Ubuntu team's nightmare right here - Pushing out a regular security update or bug fix that ends up breaking every user's system. (At least it's repairable, although I think any non-power user would have a hard time finding the fix.)

The shock factor for a new user when they reboot their PC and are greeted by a friendly non-graphical login is going to leave quite the mark on Ubuntu's good reliability record.
(I have a machine at work set to automatically install security updates, I wonder if it's going to get busted too...)
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