Firefox 3.0b3 in Ubuntu

This one comes straight from Rich Burridge's Blog: How to stop Firefox 3.0b3 in Ubuntu to move itself to the current virtual desktop when clicking a link:

browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground=True in about:config

Usability: Device Dock

Browsing Theme suggestions for Ubuntu 8.04, I found an interesting idea: Device Dock. The original author writes on this page: Here is my device dock, simple yet in principle should be quite effective, This allows someone to keep their desktop tidy no matter what device the mount and unmount from their computer, icons don't get muddled up yet you can still easily access your icons from the desktop.


I would even go so far and say it would be even cooler if we could make it so that unmounting is just a matter of dragging the icons either just out of the dock or somehow make it easy to unmount the devices by dragging them somewhere. That would clearly make using removable devices easier to use and leave the desktop uncluttered. I could also imagine some fancy animation for the icons, so you will get notified when a new device has been mounted. Maybe even hide and slide-in the dock when it's not used, so it could also be above other windows. Just some random thoughts :)

MacBook Ubuntu: Keypad enter opens Terminal

Here's just a short note I want to put somewhere in case I really decide to re-install Ubuntu on my MacBook and want the nice "open terminal" functionality of the keypad enter button (the button on the right side of the right apple key): Add the following line to ~/.Xmodmap:

keycode 108 = ISO_Level3_Shift

After that, you can configure the key in System, Preferences, Keyboard Shortcuts. After logging in again (and letting Ubuntu load the Xmodmap file for you), the next terminal is just one keystroke away! Improves my productivity a lot :) The rest of setting up Ubuntu on a MacBook (including nice tweaks such as OS X-like font rendering and the correct color profile) can be found at the MacBook Ubuntu Community page.

MacBook Linux Live CDs

Last week, Ubuntu 7.10 came out, and so I thought I might give it a try on my August 2006 MacBook (non-Pro). Today, I tried out the Fedora 8 Test 3 Live CD - the same thing Ubuntu provides with its "Live Desktop" CD (boot system from CD, try it out, if you like it, you can install it to your hard disk).

Guess what? Ubuntu 7.10 crashed with a distorted screen, while Fedora 8 booted happily with a very nice boot splash that even had mouse support. It also seems like Fedora 8 is more advanced, technology-wise with its PulseAudio (very cool) and NetworkManager 0.7, although I think the version of NetworkManager in Fedora 8 Test 3 isn't the NM version that will be put in F8.

Anyway, testing these "new" releases of the flashy, user-friendly Linux distros showed me some really neat things (PulseAudio is what I want to have installed soon :), but I'm perfectly fine with my Debian testing/unstable system, which is cool, dpkg-based, fresh and already set up to my taste :) I also like the way Debian keeps most things "vanilla" and doesn't try to brand the whole Desktop with logos of the distro, and a special GTK+ and icon theme, opposed to the fully-branded Fedora and Ubuntu distros, although I'd like to see the new Fedora GTK, Metacity and GDM themes available as a package in Debian, because the look is quite nice.