Opera is a web browser that runs on several operating systems including Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and FreeBSD. There's also versions that run on mobile devices.
Opera running on Xubuntu 12.04
Opera's features include:
Tab stacking: Dragging one tab over another allows you to create groups of tabs. Now, you can keep dozens of webpages open, organized and under control.
Mouse gestures: Perform common browser actions with a quick flick of your mouse. Hold down the right mouse button on a webpage to show a visual guide that indicates how to perform available gestures.
Extensions: Extend Opera’s functionality by visiting the extensions catalog. Download videos, automatically translate languages and much more. Extensions can also show handy information in your Speed Dial.
Opera Turbo: Boost your browsing speed on crowded Wi-Fi hotspots, tethered mobile phones or dial-up connections. One click turns it on.
Speed Dial: Preview your favorite sites every time you open a new tab and open them with a click. Choose the layout and the background you prefer and add handy extensions that can show useful, live information.
Opera Link: Synchronize your Speed Dials, bookmarks, passwords and other useful data across all your computers and devices.
Password manager: The first time you log in to a website, Password Manager can save the password. Next time, just press Ctrl + Enter and you’ll be logged in. Passwords can also be securely synchronized with Opera Link.
Zoom: Magnify webpages to read them more easily or zoom out to fit more on screen. Opera’s zoom resizes everything, not just text. You can also toggle images off for readability and faster page loads.
Install
First we need to add the Opera repository, then you can choose to install the stable version or the development version. Open a terminal window and run:
Skype is a service and application that allows users to communicate with peers by voice, video, and instant messaging over the Internet. Skype also has features such as file transfer and videoconferencing.
Skype 4.0 running on Xubuntu 12.04
Phone calls may be placed to recipients on the traditional telephone networks. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free of charge, while calls to landline telephones and mobile phones are charged via a debit-based user account system.
Bellow are provided instructions for installing Skype on any Ubuntu based distribution, from version 12.10 all the way back to 9.10.
Gespeaker is a GTK+ frontend for eSpeak and Mbrola. It allows to play atext in several languages providing settings for voice, pitch, volume, speed and word gap. There's also the possibility of recording the text played to a WAV file.
Gespeaker running on Xubuntu 12.04
Even though Gespeaker latest version (0.8.1-1 at the time of this writing) is dated from June 2010, the version in Ubuntu repositories is still 0.7.3, so in this article we'll install the latest version the project's repository.
Gespeaker can use Mbrola to play text with a more realistic speech. The installation of Mbrola support is accomplished in two steps:
First we need to install the mbrola package running this on a terminal window:
sudo apt-get install mbrola -y
Then the package for a particular language must be installed. See here the available packages. For example, the command for installing the Portuguese language is:
sudo apt-get install mbrola-pt1 -y
Checking if mbrola voices are detected
Usage
Gespeaker can be accessed via Applications Menu >Multimedia > Gespeaker or typing the following command: gespeaker.
If you have Mint Menu installed and tried to assign a keyboard shortcut to bring it up, you might have noticed that when you hit the shortcut nothing happens. In this article we'll learn how to fix that.
MintMenu running on Xubuntu
Install
Open a terminal window and run:
sudo apt-get install python-keybinder && sudo sed -i 's/from deskbar.core.keybinder import tomboy_keybinder_bind as bind_key/from keybinder import bind as bind_key/' /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/mintMenu.py && killall mintmenu
After running this, you'll see a dialog informing that the applet crashed. Just hit the reload button. After reloading you can try hitting the keyboard shortcut to summon the menu.
The keyboard shortcut can be changed in the menu preferences's 'Main button' tab (right-click on the menu button and select 'Preferences' from the pop-up menu). For instance, you can assign the Super key (Windows key) by typing Super_L as the keyboard shortcut. But since Xubuntu uses the Super key in some shortcuts (eg, Super_L+1 opens gmusicbrowser), maybe it's better to assign <Control>Super_L as key combination. After changing the keyboard shortcut run killall mintmenu to force it to reload.
Wirble is a Ruby Gem that provides Tab-Completion and syntax coloring for the Ruby interpreter, irb. In this article we'll see how to install it and configure it.
Now that Wirble is installed and irbrc is properly configured, (re)open irb and then you can start using the "TAB" key to auto-complete while typing a Ruby instruction. Only the results will be colorized, not the instructions typed.
Desktop notification are little pop-up windows used to inform the user about an event or display some form of information without getting in the user's way. In Xfce there's a daemon called xfce4-notified which implements the Freedesktop desktop notifications implementation and it's possible to customize its settings. Lets learn how.
Xfce Destkop Notification
Customize notifications
Open a terminal window and run:
xfce4-notifyd-config
Xfce Notifications Configuration
The notifications properties dialog is so simple that it doesn't require much explanation. The theme, the position on screen, the time before disappearing and the opacity can be customized.
Notification themes
The notification theme can be changed, however, it's not easy to find new themes. They usually come bundled in GTK themes. Some GTK themes provide a xfce4-notifyd theme, just check the presence of the directory xfce-notify-4.0 inside the GTK theme directory. When a GTK theme that has a notification theme is installed, (re)open xfce4-notifyd-config to change the notification theme. See here how to get GTK themes.
