[OSS] Pithos Pandora Client

Open Source Spotlight — Pithos Pandora Client

Hey everyone!  Today I am introducing a new segment on Open Source Software (OSS) called Open Source Spotlight (also OSS ;-) ).  For my first entry in the OSS series, I am showing off Pithos, an excellent Linux-native open source application designed to bring Pandora to the desktop.

The interface is minimalistic and only does exactly what you want Pandora to do, stream music.  To make it even better, it also allows for Last.fm scrobbling, media key support, Ubuntu Sound Menu integration, an (optional) system tray icon, and song notifications.

The biggest selling point was at one point that it avoided the flash website which meant less resources and better battery life.  Pandora has since transitioned to HTML5 where available, but that doesn’t mean this program has lost its usefulness — song notifications and sound menu support are enough to make it awesome for me.

Again, Pithos is only available for Linux.  If you’re running Ubuntu, you can find Pithos in the Ubuntu Software Center or easily install it with the PPA (Otherwise, instructions here):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kevin-mehall/pithos-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pithos

In consideration for Pandora, the developer does recommend “subscribing to Pandora One, or at the very least, clicking ads on pandora.com.”  Really, that’s not so bad considering the amount of free content Pandora gives you.

Let me know what you think about Pithos, or if you’ve got other (legal) methods for streaming your music!

Ubuntu 11.10 Review

By Tom Smylie (US Fish & Wildlife Service, Image Archive) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Every six months, the Ubuntu family of operating systems continues to mature and grow.  On October 13, Ubuntu 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot” came into the hands of millions with its diversified family.  As expected, we saw new releases of each desktop variant — Ubuntu (Gnome/Unity), Edubuntu (Ubuntu for classrooms), Kubuntu (KDE), Xubuntu (XFCE), and the newest member of the family, Lubuntu (LXDE).  This is a particularly exciting release because it offers a number of new and updated technologies (and thus features) including a much-improved Unity interface and the latest and greatest Gnome/GTK3.  Read on to learn more about this exciting release!

What’s New with Ubuntu

Ubuntu 11.10 brings with it a huge list of changes and improvements.  Most notably are the improved Unity and Dash and Gnome 3, but there is oh so much more to see.

  • Linux kernel 3.0.0.12
  • Gnome/GTK3
  • Improved Unity/Unity-2D with better performance and new “lenses”, which allow you to quickly find the information you’re looking for
  • Applications, Music, and Places lenses available out of the box
  • A brand new Alt+Tab / Alt+` switcher
  • New and improved Ubuntu Software Center
  • Mozilla Thunderbird finally replaces Evolution as the default email client
  • Deja Dup has been included by default to make backups a breeze
  • Gwibber has been refreshed and now has better performance and a sleek new interface
  • LightDM replaces GDM, and the login screen now has a splash of Ubuntu flair
  • Mozilla Firefox 7 — or better yet, Firefox Stable.  With each new release of Firefox, expect version updates!
  • LibreOffice 3.4

Hardware Requirements

Ubuntu has never been known as the lightweight in the Linux arena, but that’s acceptable thanks to its alternative desktop offerings (Lubuntu and Xubuntu).  However, most people easily meet the requirements:

  • 1GHz CPU (x86 — Pentium 4 or better)
  • 1 GB RAM (system memory)
  • 15 GB hard drive space
  • 800x600 screen resolution
  • CD/DVD Drive or USB port for installation

Installation

One of the nicest things about Ubuntu is that it is so darn easy to install.  If you’ve never installed Ubuntu (or even another operating system) before, check out my demo video.  It is uncut and unedited, and Ubuntu installs in just over nine minutes — and yes, that’s fast. 

 

The Desktop

When you first log in to Ubuntu, your desktop is a clean canvas with the Unity bar on the left and a single panel at the top.  Clicking the Ubuntu icon will open the dash, which contains all of your applications and any lenses you have installed.  By right-clicking on an application icon on the Unity bar, you can pin/unpin the application, as well as use any special application shortcuts.

The default behavior for the Unity bar is to autohide any time an application window enters its space, including maximized windows.  I personally find this feature to be a blessing as it allows applications to enter a distraction-free mode and favors my productivity.  However, if you’re not a fan of this, it can be easily configured by heading over to the Ubuntu Software Center and searching for “compizconfig”.  Just use the Unity plugin to configure it, as well as other settings to make Unity yours.

A controversial change that was introduced with Gnome 3, as well as some Linux distributions like elementaryOS was the complete disabling of the desktop for file storage.  While this promotes tidiness (files go into a proper folder structure), it steals others’ sanity.  Ubuntu leaves the desktop enabled, so users have the option to store their current projects (and/or junk) on the desktop.  After all, if you like your desktop to be clean, you don’t have to store your files there.

The Unity Interface

The Unity interface includes some of the best design elements seen in Mac OS X and Windows 7, as well as offering some unique Ubuntu features to make your life even easier.  The major items are shown in the screenshot above. 

All GTK and QT applications, as well as Firefox, Thunderbird, and Google Chrome have their application menus moved to the top panel, similar to Mac OS X.  This feature is also available to LibreOffice by installing the package “lo-menubar”.  This helps applications look cleaner and use less screen real estate, especially when maximized. 

Overlay scrollbars are a design idea taken largely from mobile devices, and also seen in Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion”, though Ubuntu implemented those first.  Unfortunately, these are only available to GTK applications, so they’re unavailable in Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Google Chrome, and QT applications.  If you would like to revert to the old style scrollbars, just remove the package “overlay-scrollbar”.

Unity Quicklists are a convenient shortcut to application shortcuts and can be customized.  Just follow the links on this page.

Ubuntu “Light Themes” Ambiance & Radiance

Ambiance (Left) vs Radiance

I am a huge fan of Ubuntu’s Ambiance and Radiance themes.  Ambiance is Ubuntu’s default, darker offering which really sets it apart from other operating systems.  While consisting of a number of dark elements, it still manages to be usable and easy on the eyes.  Radiance is the lighter version of Ambiance, using more of a cream-colored base for the system theme.  I personally prefer Radiance over Ambiance, but you should make sure to check both out.

Conclusion & Links to Other Resources

Overall, I am immensely impressed by the work that the Ubuntu community has done with this release.  Unity is turning out to be a powerful and efficient workspace that is useful at home and in the office.  The design team has made strides in the theme and overall user experience.  The default selection of applications is a set of quality and stable options.  Most of all, Ubuntu 11.10 just feels “right”.  It’s easy to use daily with no concerns for stability.

If you want to learn more about Ubuntu, check out some of these links.  Join the worldwide community of Ubuntu users!

Distro Hopping [Summer 2011]

Above: My Linux Mint Debian Edition Desktop

Updates recently have been few and far between, and its largely because I can’t keep an Operating System on my laptop.  What’s up with that?

As many of my friends know, I move to the next Ubuntu release at Beta 1.  That time has come, and I immediately jumped into the release scramble.  Typically, Ubuntu betas are pretty darn stable (ignore Unity).  In the past, I’ve loaded up my Ubuntu release, cleared out the cruft, and ran with a pristine operating system.

Unfortunately, this time Unity (still) doesn’t work, Gnome 3 (Shell and Fallback) is horribly crippled by Ubuntu’s hackiness, and even Xubuntu was seeing some serious glitchiness (WHY?! — Don’t remind me its a beta)

Annoyed by a hacked around distribution, I decided to take another turn with Fedora 15.  Fedora ships with default Gnome 3.0.1 and with a few tweaks can really be a great operating system.  My only annoyance remained with the font rendering — the one hack that Ubuntu does right.  There is a project which offers some tweaked packages that improve on font readability by Infinality, but it still wasn’t enough for me.

I wanted three things:

  • Stability
  • Modern packages
  • Ubuntu’s top-class font rendering

The Linux Mint team offers a solution to picky people such as myself: Linux Mint Debian Edition.  This is a rolling release version of Linux Mint based on Debian Testing.  The LMDE team created their own repository of fully tested packages to be released to users, guaranteeing both modern and stable packages.

Where LMDE falls short is the lack of Ubuntu’s Jockey Driver Finder/Installer program.  At first installation, my Dell Latitude E6400 lacked graphics acceleration (NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160) and wireless (Broadcom 4315) drivers.

A powerful community is without a doubt where Linux Mint excels.  I found tutorials for both in the forums.  After following some very detailed instructions (NVIDIA, Wireless), I had a system running at 100%.  Needless to say, I was pleased.  Of course, I’ve only had LMDE installed for about 15 hours, so we’ll see how things go and if I am still content later this week.  Stick around for some repeat information on getting these drivers installed, or see you next time!

NVIDIA Drivers on LMDE

Open up a root terminal (Menu -> Accessories -> Root Terminal), then type the following commands:

apt-get update

apt-get install nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-settings nvidia-xconfig

nvidia-xconfig

That’s all there is to it!  Restart your computer and enjoy.

Broadcom STA Drivers on LMDE

Open up a Run window (ALT + F2) and enter ‘gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list’ and add the following:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free

Save this file, but don’t close it.  We’ll come back to it shortly.

Open up a Root Terminal (Menu -> Accessories -> Root Terminal), then type the following commands:

apt-get update

apt-get install module-assistant wireless-tools

m-a a-i broadcom-sta

modprobe -r b44 b43 b43legacy ssb

modprobe wl

Go back to your gedit window and remove the last line that you added to it.  Then go back to your Root Terminal and issue another ‘apt-get update’.

That’ll do it!  Restart your computer and go find some wireless access points!

—Sean

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