An updated post for VirtualBox 2, Ubuntu 8.04, and 8.10 is available. I’m running a few Ubuntu virtual machines for testing new software. My favorite virtualization software, VirtualBox, is much easier to use with the additional drivers (called “Guest Additions”) that allow higher screen resolutions, better display performance, and mouse integration. For Ubuntu 8.04 guests, [...]

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WinFF is a easy to use graphical interface to the command line FFmpeg video and audio tool. WinFF makes it easy to encode many videos to a wide range of formats all at once. Its FFmpeg back-end should handle just about any video you have. Visit WinFF’s download page and select the latest Debian/Ubuntu package. [...]

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[update] For updated instructions on installing CheckGmail, see Updating CheckGmail to Fix Login Errors. Always have a browser tab open to your Gmail account? CheckGmail is an application that can monitor your Gmail account for you. It’s unobtrusive, feature-rich, and easy to configure. Install CheckGmail from the package checkgmail (click the link to install), or [...]

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Firefox 3 Release Candidate has been released. It includes only minor performance, UI, and compatibility tweaks. If no issues are found with the release candidate, it will become the final release. Ubuntu 8.04 shipped with Firefox 3 Beta 5, which is now one version behind. There’s some confusion on whether Firefox would be updated in [...]

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I’ve enjoyed regularly changing up my GTK and Metacity themes, but until recently I have never switched to a new cursor set. There are many high-quality cursor themes available, and they are easy to install in GNOME. There are some packages containing cursor themes in the Ubuntu repository: comixcursors, crystalcursors, and oxygen-cursor-theme (click any of [...]

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