Fresh Lucid Lynx Install? Time to grab some software

The following is a list of software I recommend downloading on your fresh Lucid Lynx install.

1. Run updates (just in case it isn't as fresh as you think!)
• System > Administration > Update Manager
• While we are here let's take a moment to adjust the settings (button is in the lower left hand corner of the Update Manager window)
• I prefer to have Ubuntu check for updates weekly, and to install security updates without confirmation. Choose whatever suits you though. Hit close to save and exit.
2. Open up the Ubuntu Software Center and search for the following:
• Applications > Ubuntu Software Center
1. Ubuntu Restricted Extras
• This gets you set up to play MP3s, Java, Flash, and installs the core fonts used in microsoft (and a lot of websites)
2. VLC
• A simple video/audio player
3. HomeBank
• For personal accounting
4. Advanced Desktop Effects Settings
• This lets you play around with some of the more advanced effects that your computer is capable of. You often have to install this for other effects altering tutorials, so it is nice to just get it installed now.
• Let's finish of DVD playing by unlocking the DVD reader we downloaded. To do this we have to enter some code into Terminal
1. Open up an instance of terminal by going to Applications > Accessories > Terminal
2. Terminal doesn't like keyboard shortcuts, so when you go to paste code you have to right click and select paste. That said.
3. Paste the following code:
   

   sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

3. Now for the software where you have to visit their sites
• This can be a bit confusing, but you are looking for files that end in .deb (instead of .exe) and are built for i386 or 32bit computers. i386 is just a fancy way of saying 32bit. And because there are two ways to say it everybody disagrees about which is correct.
1. Picasa
• A great photo organizer that lets you upload photos to your web albums account, and e-mail them.
• http://picasa.google.com/linux/download.html#picasa30
• Again you want the .deb file for Debian/Ubuntu i386. This is the second option.
• Download, double click, and hit install. If it says there is an error or something is corrupt, then download it again.
2. Skype
• Perfect for online chatting.
• http://www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/choose/
• Lucid Lynx was released in April of 2010 (so it is 10.04), this is above 8.10, and we want the 32-bit release.
• Download, double click, and hit install. If it says there is an error or something is corrupt, then download it again.
4. And last but not least the random ones that sneak through the cracks in the ground.
1. Community Themes, is quite what the title suggests. You don't like the greys and blacks around your windows? Neither did I!
• You can download this one by clicking on community themes there are tougher ways to grab it, but after all the good work you've done today this one is a freebie

I'll keep this post updated with any software I stumble upon.  If there is something you want your computer to do that it isn't doing then browse around the Software Center.

Best of luck
Knoxy

Free Icons: For Web Design

When webdesigning (or creating a portfolio) it is nice to drop in some icons. Consider a necessary tool in design, along with photos, text and color pallets.

For Action Buttons Around The Site

• A few good music media themed icons
• Some great white on black rounded rectangles, general web dev
• Nice Clean Simple Sketch icons
• Green and Blue, Big and textured with feeling

For In Text Graphics

• Flat Screen TV
• City Icons, nice high res
• High Res; Sailboat, car, pie chart

Networking Icons

• Shiny Clouds
• Smudgy Paint
• Polaroid type
• Gradient Circles

as a side note on my way to learning wordpress and understanding it's enigmas, here is a great theme.
http://www.dizenoco.com/brave-zeenat-free-wordpress-theme/
the psd and the theme are free, fancy j-query and all sorts of interesting goodies.

After browsing around the Wordpress database for themeing (Codex) I blew a raspberry in the air and started searching. Here is my best find on Learning to Theme by theme shaper. Seems to meet my needs and walk you through the ugly. Most importantly it'll be more fun than disassembling someone else's theme. Everytime I have to do that I feel like a cross between a surgeon and an archeologist. I constantly find myself thinking, "is that glyph outdated or is that a spleen, and therefor somewhat necessary?"

Photoshop Tutorials

If you don't mind the english language being butchered at every full stop then these photoshop web design tutorials are for you.

They give a great idea of designing with a web 2.0 look, using layer effects and a variety of tools. It isn't always the best explanation of what the tool does, but usually isn't too hard to grasp. Also the colors that are chosen aren't web safe (so make sure you aren't trying to select web safe!).

Most of the designs are dark with light text, but they look great.

http://www.grafpedia.com/category/tutorials

Lorem Ipsum - Greeking Out

Lorem Ipsum is dummy text that you can place when you want to see how something would look. It really comes in handy in layouts for web and any media with blocks of text. It mimics how real words look. Even sentence and paragraph length.

And now it isn't just on lipsum.com
You can download a version built with Python for windows (.exe) or Linux (.deb).

So hop on over to the google code projects page and download that sucker

LAMP Stack / Joomla / WordPress

Linux Apache MySQL PHP (the makings of a common server)

If you are a developer for Wordpress or Joomla you need to setup an environment (local server) to run these programs on your computer so that you can test things without having to be on the internet.

The developers at Ubuntu are a godsend and have made the actual LAMP stack installation heaps easier than in the past. In applications > accessories > terminal :

sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

wow, that is so much easier than having to dual boot with turn-key or going through the old process

Finishing off the details is pretty straight forward. Briefly the steps are listed below, for detailed steps with screenshots, hand holding, and all the superfulous writing you could hope for go to TuxTweaks

phpmyadmin is supposed to make life easier too, so let's install that while the ball is rolling

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-auth-mysql phpmyadmin

 Select apache2, and dbconfig-common using tab and space bar.

Cool, now we can actually set up where we want to host all of the files
I've decided to go with /webdev/joomla and /webdev/wordpress. Both will be located in my home folder. Again if you need serious hand holding go visit TuxTweaks for this tutorial with screenshots.

cd
mkdir webdev
cd /webdev
mkdir joomla wordpress
cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
sudo cp default joomla
sudo cp default wordpress
sudo gedit joomla

In this gedit window you need to get yours to look like this

ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
ServerName joomla

DocumentRoot /home/yourID/webdev/joomla/
Directory /
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
/Directory

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All

Repeat with wordpress instead of joomla in there.

sudo a2ensite joomla wordpress
sudo gedit /etc/hosts

Then enter in:

127.0.0.1 localhost joomla wordpress

And back in terminal

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

If you get a reload error like me then:

echo "ServerName localhost" | sudo tee /etc/apache2/conf.d/fqdn

And then run the reload script from above. And now we need to change some permissions!

sudo chown -R USERNAME /etc/phpmyadmin

Ok! Now we can download the newest version of Joomla and Wordpress and extract them to their respective folders. We still need to set up a mysql database for each so let's do it (almost seeing the light at the end of the tunnel).
Pull up firefox and navigate to "http://localhost/phpmyadmin/"
Log in with root, and whatever password you created.
Now click on privileges at the top > Add new User, and enter in the following:
Joomla
local> localhost
password>
password>

and then click the radio button for creating a new database as well (middle one), then find go at the bottom and click that.
Repeat for wordpress.

Now when you navigate to http://joomla/ or http://wordpress you get an installation page. It should be pretty straightforward. The mysql database is the what you created earlier(joomla or wordpress), username you just made (joomla or wordpress), you have your password. On Joomla they try and get a little tricky at one part, in the bottom box they want you to type joomla again.

To remove the installation directory for joomla (it will prompt you):

sudo rm -R webdev/joomla/installation/