Paid Softwares start to appear on Ubuntu Software Center

Its more of a taste of things to come. Paid softwares have started to appear on Ubuntu Software Center. The only one currently in the Ubuntu Software Center is World of Goo. This is one incredibly popular game and has quite taken the Linux world, which is mostly devoid of path breaking games, by storm.

Description:

The Wikipedia page of World of Goo reads:

World of Goo is a physics-based puzzle game by 2D Boy, an independent game developer consisting of Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, both former Electronic Arts employees, released for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and WiiWare. It was nominated for the Seumas McNally grand prize, Design Innovation Award, and Technical Excellence at the Independent Games Festival.

Installation:

The game costs $19.95 on the Ubuntu Software Center. Although this is not a free game, there is a demo of World of Goo which can be found here. The demo is, of course, free. So if want to make sure that you're spending money for the right game, do download the demo and try.

Upon clicking the "Buy" button (which has replaced the "Install" button for this game) on the Ubuntu Software Center, you'll led to your Ubuntu account page where after signing in, the payment gateway will be seen. Thereafter its pretty simple.

VLMC - VideoLAN Movie Creator

VLMC or VideoLAN Movie Creator comes from the same good folks who gave us the awesome VLC Media Player. VideoLAN Movie Creator is basically a video editor and creator running on Windows and Linux. Without a doubt this is one project which has caught the attention of many users of VLC softwares. Personally, I'm pretty excited as well. I know Ubuntu has loads of video editors in its repositories but when VLC makes one, well, it definitely catches the attention.

However, the project is very much in its infancy and VLMC is in testing phase as of now. They havent announced any specific installation guides/instructions for Ubuntu users. But fret not my friends, for you can use VLMC via Wine (yes, the all purpose Windows emulator). So, for Ubuntu users, download the Windows version and run it under Wine. It works perfectly.

Screenshot:



How to Download:

To download VLMC (testing) you need to go to their official site (and download the Windows version of the software): www.trac.videolan.org/vlmc/wiki/Downloads

World Of Goo

Image via Wikipedia

Not a very enticing name for a game dont you think? Anyway, World of Goo is a physics based puzzle / construction game. The millions of Goo Balls who live in the beautiful World of Goo don't know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious.

Although the game can get extremely challenging at times, its surprisingly fresh both in terms of graphics and gameplay. It has a Windows, Mac as well as a Linux (yeah!) version. Mind you though, this is a closed-source game (albeit it uses many open source elements). Also, its not a free game, the full version of the game costs $20. However there's a demo version available on their website which is completely free to download. Hence, you could give it a try before you decide to buy.

Official Site of World of Goo : www.worldofgoo.com
Download links : www.worldofgoo.com/dl2.php?lk=demo

Wine Application Database

I'm not sure how many of you know of this, but WINE (the Windows emulator for Linux) has an application database which lists how each and every software will work on it. It has Platinum, Gold and Silver categories which is representative of the functionality/responsiveness of the program. So before you buy a Windows game or a software, you might want to check out if the game/software is included in the list.

Link : Wine Application Database

Yahoo Messenger for Ubuntu

I presume most of you must be really missing Yahoo Messenger since you shifted to linux/ubuntu. Apparently there is indeed a Linux version of Yahoo Messenger. It can be found here. Now this one's the official release. However this release has loads of problems. First up, there's no specific software for Ubuntu and also, there's no 64 bit version of this unix version of yahoo messenger.

Fortunately though there's a way out. And this time its a proper app with no issues whatsoever. Its called Gyache. Its a great replacement for yahoo messenger, has loads of features. Spam blocking mechanisms are superb and more importantly looks and feels much like the good old yahoo messenger for Windows. Here's the download page. Try it out!

Image: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Install WINE

Wine (Microsoft Windows Compatibility layer) is one of the most loved softwares on Ubuntu. What it does is allows you to run Windows files on Ubuntu. Say you want to play a game which doesnt have a Linux counterpart, or say a software whose windows versions are popular, what do you do? Simple, install Wine and play the game exactly as you would on Windows!

So how do you install Wine? Well thankfully its in the Ubuntu repositories.

First up go to Ubuntu Software Center and type "Wine", you'll get the following search results:



Next select the Wine beta option (its better to select beta since it has loads of bug fixes compared to the stable version, ironically! :) ) as shown in the previous pic and install it:



Thats it! Now whenever you come across a .exe file or any Windows supported file, just right click on it and select the option to open the file with Wine. It will then run exactly as it would on Windows.

Extra Tips:

Here's some really useful info. Wine actually modifies your Firefox tahoma font and unfortunately that will make all your firefox fonts look really really weird! Eg. bold fonts would look like regular fonts etc. There's a way to undo the damage without affecting Wine at all. What you need to do is go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. From there, search "ttf-tahoma-replacement" in the search bar. It will obviously be installed on your system (considering you've already installed Wine).

So what you do is basically select the package and mark for complete removal of it (just the "ttf-tahoma-replacement" package, nothing else). Click on "Apply" to remove the pack.



And once you have removed the font pack, your synaptic should look like this once you search for "ttf-tahoma-replacement" again in the search bar (the pack should be deactivated/unselected):



I had to figure this thing out by myself. I havent found any other tutorial which explains this Firefox font problem solution.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed finding it out!

Ubuntu is seriously cool!

Just check out my desktop pics of some Ubuntu themes below. Cant imagine Windows looking that cool!

Also, the bundled and available apps are awesome. Pidgin, a messenger client logs you in to gtalk, IM, and facebook chat (yea you heard me right, facebook chat!) all at the same time, which is stunning! This is seriously better than anything I have ever used. There's even a faster version of firefox on linux and its called "Swiftfox". And for a change, it actually does what its name suggests. I noticed all these only because I installed it on my hard disk. Most people who use Live CD, most probably haven't used these features. However, all is not hunky dory. The thing is Ubuntu requires some basic knowledge of Linux and how it works. But the thing is, the Ubuntu forums are so brilliantly remarkable, they have already covered solutions of all problematic areas you are likely to face as a new user.

I seriously wonder when I'm gonna stop blogging about Ubuntu. It stuns me every single time I log in!

Can I really trust Ubuntu?

Now that I have the Ubuntu disk and have been using the "boot via CD" option, it is getting extremely tempting to go for an all out installation of Ubuntu on my hard disk, since without a proper root directory it is very difficult to install applications.

I already have Windows installed on my system, so the options I'm left with are a) format/create a partition and install Ubuntu or b) install Ubuntu on an existing partition. Obviously the second option seems the more viable one as of now since I'm in no mood to sacrifice my hard disk data. However I'm starting to have second thoughts about it, what if my hard disk gets screwed up? What if I lose data? What if my PC slows down? Is Ubuntu worth all these risks?

Well just too many worries. I'll wait till the time I'm ready to format my hard disk. Till then, I'll use the CD booting option.