Get Your (Linux) Game On: Steam Autumn Sale Highlights

Brush away the fluff from under your mouse, crack those knuckles and sound the bargain klaxon – the latest Steam sale is upon us! 
Valve’s game sales are always incredibly popular, and it’s easy to see why with discounts on some games being as high as 80%! Now, with more Linux games available on Steam than ever before, we take a look at our favourites, all of which are available for Linux.
All of these games listed below are on sale until 3rd of December, with many more great deals available for 48 hours every day up until then.

Awesomenauts

 

Awesomenauts

The fun platformer game Awesamenauts has been slashed by 50% to £3.49/$4.99. It’s mainly a multiplayer game where you get assigned in teams with strangers which fight against each other. It’s sort of a cross of a platformer and a tower defense game. You can also customise and upgrade your character.
The game comes with enticing graphics and is continually updated, making this a lasting purchase.

Buy Awesomenauts on Steam

Euro Truck Simulator 2

Euro Trucking Simulator 2

Euro Truck Simulator 2, together with the Going East! expansion pack cost only £6.79/$11.89 in the sale, a cut of 66%.
Alternatively, you can get base version for £5.09/$8.49, or if you already own it, the Going East! expansion pack costs just £3.99/$6.49 for the duration of this sale.
Much as the name suggests, ETS2 is a trucking simulator.  It’s centered around western and central Europe, with the expansion pack adding more of central Europe and east Europe. It’s a fun, relaxing game with good graphics and a vibrant community centered around the World of Trucks website.
A free demo is also available if you’re unsure about it, but so far I’ve played 53 hours of it and loved it!

EuroTruck 2 on Steam

Worms Reloaded

Worms Reloaded

Another cool game that’s been discounted this week is Worms Reloaded.
Currently rocking with a decent 66% off, the title can be bought for £6.11/$6.79.  A modern remake of the classic PC game, Worms Reloaded features lucid graphics, and simple game mechanics while losing none of the silly gameplay that made it such a hit back in the day.

Buy Worms Reloaded on Steam  

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Community driven Core Apps convergence

Convergence is going to be a major theme for Ubuntu 14.04, not just at the OS and Unity 8 levels, but also for the apps that run on it. The Core Apps, those apps that were developed by the community and included by default in the last release, are no exception to this. We want to make sure they all converge neatly and usefully on both a tablet and on the desktop. So once again we are asking for community design input, this time to take the existing application interfaces and extend them to new form factors.

 

How to submit your designs

We have detailed the kind of features we want to see for each of the Core Apps on a Convergence wiki page. If you have a convergence design idea you would like to submit, send it as a file attachment or link to it online in an email to design@canonical.com along with any additional notes, descriptions, or user stories.  The design team will be reviewing the submitted designs live on their bi-weekly Design Clinics (Dec 4th and Dec 18th) at 1400 UTC.  But before you submit your ideas, keep reading to see what they should include.

Extend what’s there

We don’t want to add too many features this cycle, there’s going to be enough work to do just building the convergence into the app.  Use the existing features and designs as your starting point, and re-imagine those same features and designs on a tablet or desktop.  Design new features or modify existing ones when it makes the experience better on a different form factor, but remember that we want the user to experience it as the same application across the board, so try and keep the differences to a minimum.

Form follows function

There’s more to a good design than just a good looking UI, especially when designing convergence.  Make sure that you take the user’s activity into account, plan out how they will access the different features of the app, make sure it’s both intuitive and simple.  The more detail you put into this the more likely you are to discover possible problems with your designs, or come up with better solutions that you had originally intended.

Think outside the screen

There is more to convergence that just a different screen size, and your designs should take that into consideration.  While it’s important to make good use of the added space in the UI, think about how the user is going to interact with it.  You hold a tablet differently than you do a phone, so make sure your designs work well there.
On the desktop you have even more to think about, when the user has a keyboard and mouse, but likely not a touch screen, you want to make sure the interface isn’t cumbersome.  Think about how scrolling will be different too, while it’s easy to swipe both vertically and horizontally on a phone or tablet, you usually only have a vertical scroll wheel on a desktop mouse.  But, you also have more precise control over a mouse pointer than you do with a finger-tip, so your interface should take advantage of that too.

Resources available to you

Now that you know what’s needed, here are some resources to help you.  Once again we have our community Balsamiq account available to anybody who wants to use it to create mockups (email me if you need an account).  I have created a new project for Core Apps Convergence that you can use to add your designs.  You can then submit links to your designs to the Design Team’s email above.  The Design Team has also provided a detailed Design Guide for Ubuntu SDK apps, including a section on Responsive Layouts that give some suggested patterns for different form factors.  You can also choose to use any tools you are comfortable with, as long as they Design Team and community developers can view it.

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Switching Monitor Profiles

It's funny, when your home office is your couch, you tend to forget how nice it can be when you dock a laptop and have all the extra screen real estate a monitor brings. For many years, I left my work laptop docked at work, and when I worked from home, I just VPNed in with a personal laptop. Lately though, I've recognized the benefits of splitting personal life and work, so I've taken to carrying my laptop with me when I go to and from the office. Because we invested in a docking station, it's relatively simple to transition between a laptop on my lap and a laptop on a desk with an extra monitor—except for one little thing: my external monitor is in portrait mode.
It must have been about two years ago that I started favoring widescreen monitors in portrait mode (Figure 1). Really, all I need to get work done is a Web browser and a few terminals, and I found if I keep the Web browser on the laptop screen, I can fit a nice large screen session or two in all the vertical space of a portrait-mode monitor. This makes reading man pages and other documentation nice, plus I always can split my screens vertically if I need to compare the contents of two terminals (see my "Do the Splits" column in the September 2008 issue for more information on how to do that: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10159). The only problem with portrait mode is that all the GUI monitor configuration tools tend not to handle portrait-mode monitors well, particularly if you want to combine them with a landscape-mode laptop screen. So, I found I needed to run a special xrandr command to set up the monitor and make sure it lined up correctly with my laptop screen. Plus, every time I transition between docked and undocked modes, I need to move my terminal windows from the large portrait-mode monitor over to a second desktop on my laptop screen. This all seemed like something a script could figure out for me, so in this article, I explain the script I use to transition from docked to undocked mode.

Figure 1. Kyle's Current Desktop Setup
Basically, my script needs to do two things when it's run. First, it needs to run the appropriate xrandr command to enable or disable the external display, and second, it needs to reset all of my windows to their default location. Although I could just have one script I run when I'm docked and another when I'm undocked, I can find out my state from the system itself, so I can keep everything within one script. I've set up a script like this on my last two work-provided laptops and on the ThinkPad X220, I was able to use a /sys file to gauge the state of the dock:

#!/bin/bash
DOCKED=$(cat /sys/devices/platform/dock.0/docked)
case "$DOCKED" in
  "0")
     echo undocked
   ;;
   "1")
     echo docked
   ;;
esac

Unfortunately, on my new laptop (a ThinkPad X230) this file no longer can detect the dock state. At first I was annoyed, but when writing this column, I realized that this made the script potentially more useful for everyone who doesn't have a docking station. My workaround was to use xrandr itself to check for the connection state of a video device my external monitor was connected to that was present only when I was docked. If you run xrandr with no other arguments, you will see a list of a number of different potential video devices on your system:

$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1366 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192
LVDS1 connected 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 
 ↪277mm x 156mm
   1366x768       60.0*+
   1360x768       59.8     60.0  
   1024x768       60.0  
   800x600        60.3     56.2  
   640x480        59.9  
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

In the above case, the laptop is not docked, so only the primary monitor (LVDS1) is connected. When I docked the device and ran the same command, I noticed that my monitor was connected to HDMI3, so I could grep for the connection state of HDMI3 to detect when I'm docked. My new skeleton script looks more like this:

#!/bin/bash
xrandr | grep -q "HDMI3 disconnected"
case "$?" in
  "0")
    echo undocked
  ;;
  "1")
    echo docked
  ;;
esac

In your case, you would compare the output of xrandr when docked (or when an external monitor is connected) and when undocked, and use that to determine which device it corresponds to.
Now that I can detect whether I'm docked, I should do something about it. The first thing I need to do is to enable output on my external monitor (HDMI3), tell xrandr that it's to the right of my laptop screen, and set it to portrait mode by telling xrandr to rotate it left:

/usr/bin/xrandr --output HDMI3 --auto --right-of LVDS1 --rotate left

This works fine; however, the way that the portrait-mode monitor and my laptop line up on the desktop makes moving a mouse between the two rather awkward. When I move from the top of the laptop screen to the far right edge, the mouse pointer moves a foot up to the top of the external monitor. Ideally, I'd like the mouse pointer to more or less be lined up when it crosses between screens, but because one monitor is landscape and the other is portrait, I need to tell xrandr to place my laptop monitor lower in the virtual desktop. Depending on your respective resolutions, this position takes some tinkering, but I found the following command lined up my two displays well:

/usr/bin/xrandr --output LVDS1 --pos 0x1152

This takes care of my screen when I'm docked, so when I'm undocked, I basically have to undo any of the above changes I've made. This means turning the HDMI3 output off and moving the position of LVDS1 back to the 0x0 coordinates:

/usr/bin/xrandr --output HDMI3 --off
/usr/bin/xrandr --output LVDS1 --pos 0x0

The complete case statement turns out to be:

#!/bin/bash
xrandr | grep -q "HDMI3 disconnected"
case "$?" in
  "0") # undocked
    /usr/bin/xrandr --output HDMI3 --off
    /usr/bin/xrandr --output LVDS1 --pos 0x0
  ;;
  "1") # docked
    /usr/bin/xrandr --output HDMI3 --auto --right-of LVDS1 
    ↪--rotate left
    /usr/bin/xrandr --output LVDS1 --pos 0x1152
  ;;
esac

After I saved the script, I bound a key combination on my desktop I could press to execute it whenever I docked or undocked. Of course, ideally I would set up some sort of udev script or something like it to run the script automatically, but so far, I haven't found the right hook that worked on my laptop. The only other addition I've made is after the above case statement, I sleep for a second and then call a reset_windows shell script that uses wmctrl, much like I discussed in my November 2008 Hack and / column "Memories of the Way Windows Were" (http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10213), only it also contains the same case statement so it moves windows one way when docked and another when not:

#!/bin/bash
xrandr | grep -q "HDMI3 disconnected"
case "$?" in
        "0") # undocked
        wmctrl -r 'kyle-ThinkPad-X230' -t 1
        wmctrl -r 'kyle-ThinkPad-X230' -e '0,2,24,1362,362'
        wmctrl -r snowball -t 1
        wmctrl -r snowball -e '0,2,410,1362,328'
        ;;
        "1") # docked
        wmctrl -r 'kyle-ThinkPad-X230' -t 0
        wmctrl -r 'kyle-ThinkPad-X230' -e '0,1368,0,1080,1365'
        wmctrl -r snowball -t 0
        wmctrl -r snowball -e '0,1368,1387,1080,512'
        ;;
esac

Of course, the above wmctrl commands are completely custom to my terminal titles, but it should serve as an okay guide for getting started on your own. In my case, I want to move two terminals to the second desktop when in laptop mode and to the external monitor on the first desktop when docked. Why not just combine the two scripts? Well, I want to be able to reset my windows sometimes outside of docking or undocking (this script also is bound to a different key combo). In the end, I have a simple, easy-to-modify set of scripts I can use to keep windows and my desktops exactly how I want them.

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Web Administration Scripts

During the past month or so, I've also been dealing with an aggressive DDOS (that's a "distributed denial of service") attack on my server, one that's been a huge pain, as you might expect. What's odd is that with multiple domains on the same server, it's one of my less-popular sites that seems to have been the target of the attacks.
So, that's the jumping off point for this article's scripts: analyzing log files to understand what's going on and why.
To start, a handy check is to see how many processes are running, because my DDOS was characterized by a ridiculous number of comment and search scripts being triggered—hundreds a minute. How to check?
The ps command offers a list of running processes at any given time, but for many versions, all you see is the Web server "httpd" without any further details. The -C cmd flag narrows down output only to those processes, like this:

: ps -C httpd
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
20225 ?        00:13:21 httpd
28162 ?        00:00:01 httpd
...
5681 ?        00:00:00 httpd
5683 ?        00:00:00 httpd <defunct>
]]>

(Note the "defunct" process that's about to vanish.)
So one easy test is to see how many httpd processes are running:

$ ps -C httpd | wc -l
108

That seems like a lot, but this server is hosting several sites, including the super-busy AskDaveTaylor.com tech-support site, which sees more than 100k hits/day. So how does this vary over time? Hmm...still working on the command line:

$ while /bin/true
> do
>   ps -C httpd | wc -l
>   sleep 5
> done
108
107
103
99
94
91
87
84
91
121
120
116

So there's a max of 121 and a min of 87. But, what if I actually want to analyze this and get min, max and average over a longer period of time? Here's how I solve it:

#!/bin/sh
# Calculates the number of processes running that matches
#   a set pattern over time, producing min, max and average.
min=999; max=0; average=0; tally=0; sumtotal=0
pattern="httpd"  # ps -C pattern
while /bin/true
do
  count=$(ps -C $pattern | wc -l)
  tally=$(( $tally + 1 ))
  if [ $count -gt $max ] ; then
    max=$count
  fi
  if [ $count -lt $min ] ; then
    min=$count
  fi
  sumtotal=$(( $sumtotal + $count ))
  average=$(( $sumtotal / $tally ))
  echo "Current ps count=$count: min=$min, max=$max, tally=$tally 
  ↪and average=$average"
  sleep 5 # seconds
done
exit 0

Notice in the script that I'm not falling into the trap of calculating the average by having a running average and somehow factoring in the latest value as a diminishing additive, but instead I use a sumtotal variable that keeps having the latest processor count added. That divided by tally is always the average, although at some point this probably would be greater than MAXINT (2**32) and would start to produce bad results. On a modern computer, however, that should take a while. (And the quantum, the period of time between iterations, also can be adjusted. Five seconds might be too granular for a process that's going to be run for hours or even days.)
The following are the first few lines of output. Notice how the minand max vary as the different values are calculated:

sh processes.sh
Current ps count=132: min=132, max=132, tally=1 and average=132
Current ps count=128: min=128, max=132, tally=2 and average=130
Current ps count=124: min=124, max=132, tally=3 and average=128
Current ps count=123: min=123, max=132, tally=4 and average=126

If I let the script run for a longer period of time, the values become a bit more varied:

Current ps count=90: min=76, max=150, tally=70 and average=107

During the 15 minutes or so that I ran the script, an average of 107 "httpd" processes were running, with a minimum of 76 and a max of 150.
Armed with that information, another script could keep an eye on things via a cron job, like this:

#!/bin/sh
# DDOS - keep an eye on process count to 
# detect a blossoming DDOS attack
pattern="httpd"
max=200   # avoid false positives
admin="d1taylor@gmail.com"
count="$(ps -C $pattern | wc -l)"
if [ $count -gt $max ] ; then
  echo "Warning: DDOS in process? Current httpd count = 
  ↪$count" | sendmail $admin
fi
exit 0

That's a superficial solution, however, and it has two problems: 1) what I'd really like is to be able to identify the potential DDOS based on processor count and watch to see if it's sustained over the next few invocations of the script, and 2) once it's triggered, if it is a DDOS, in addition to everything else, I'll also start drowning in e-mail from this script saying essentially the same thing each time. Not good.
What the script needs is contextual memory so it can differentiate between a sudden spike in traffic and a persistent DDOS attack. In the former case, the script might trigger positive, then the next time it runs, it's all within acceptable limits again. In the latter case, once the attack starts, it'll probably just accelerate.
That's the opposite of the e-mail non-repeat condition though, because in the latter case, I want to know that the e-mail has been sent and not send it again within, say, a 60-minute window.
I'll dig in to both of those situations another time. For now, I need to get back to my server and keep bringing things back on-line, program by program, to try to avoid any problems. Stay tuned!

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Ubuntu Linux server with ARM processor rolled out by Boston Limited

The Viridis Microserver will run on ARM Cortex-A15 processors and is certified to run Ubuntu Linux 13.10

 

Boston Limited has announced a new server based on ARM processors and certified to run Ubuntu Linux 13.10, a move that could further stir up growing interest in ARM servers.

When it ships, the Viridis Microserver will be one of the few commercially available ARM servers. Top server makers like Hewlett-Packard and Dell have announced their intent to release ARM servers, but only a handful of products from small vendors are commercially available.
Other ARM server makers include Penguin Computing and Aeon Computing. Advanced Micro Devices is expected to start selling ARM servers in next year's first quarter.
Boston Limited did not respond to requests for comment on price or worldwide availability of Viridis Microserver.
There is a growing interest in ARM servers as low-power alternatives to x86 servers, which dominate the data center. Some believe that low-power ARM cores are more power-efficient in processing search, social networking and other Web requests.
ARM server adoption is expected to grow with the released of 64-bit ARM chips next year from companies like AMD, Calxeda, AppliedMicro and others. Right now ARM-based servers support 32-bit addressing.
The Viridis Microserver design is centered around Calxeda's EnergyCore ECX-2000 system-on-chip (SOC), which was released late last month and has CPUs based on ARM's Cortex-A15 design. The microserver has six ECX-2000 SOCs, each of which draws just six watts of power, has four CPU cores running at 1.8GHz, 10 Gigabit Ethernet links, 16GB of DDR3 memory and 4MB of cache.
With certification to run Ubuntu Linux, the Viridis Microserver will have the drivers to support the Calxeda chip. Software development for the ARM architecture is still in its infancy, with software packages being developed by Linaro, and Oracle and ARM working to tweak the Java programming language for ARM's 32-bit and upcoming 64-bit chips.
The natural applications for the Viridis Microserver server would be for Web hosting, or for someone who wants an ARM server to test applications, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.
"We haven't seen the exact market for these products emerge yet," McCarron said. "It's early to say where it'll fit."
The ultra-low power server market is still very small, and ARM-based servers will start in the 2U form factor and work their way up, McCarron said.
The Viridis Microserver was announced at the Supercomputing Conference being held in Denver this week.

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‘Household Brands’ Interested In Ubuntu for Phones and Tablets, Says Shuttleworth

Mark Shuttleworth has said that an ‘interesting set of household brands’ are looking at putting Ubuntu Touch on their own phones and tablets.
The Ubuntu founder was speaking in the keynote address at the Ubuntu Developer Summit which kicked off this week.
No specific names, details or dates were offered up alongside the tantalising tidbit, though Mark did hint at one point that he expects Ubuntu Touch devices to be available to buy within the next couple of years.

Ubuntu Tablets = Renewed Opportunity

As mentioned by Jono Bacon recently, honing the Ubuntu Tablet experience will be the ‘key focus’ of the Ubuntu 14.04 development cycle. This was touched upon by Shuttleworth in response to a question on whether Ubuntu plan to make dual-booting Touch with Android easier (they are):

“I’m excited about the tablet form-factor because I think it’s going to be a lot easier for people to enjoy Ubuntu on a tablet [because] doing it on a phone full time is a bit of a deep-device commitment – [though] we’ve heard some interesting reports of government departments using it because we don’t work for the NSA!” 

Other notable points mentioned in the keynote included:

• Helping developers tailor Ubuntu Touch apps for the desktop
• Stable, dependable and performant desktop experience based on Unity 7
• Point releases of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS won’t be introducing Mir or Unity 8
• Ubuntu on ARM x64
• Sidestage to be re-introduced to tablet
• Supporting Android apps on Ubuntu ‘is a goal – but not a focus’ right now

‘Shuttleworth must be hoping that some of those interested household names make a firm commitment soon…’

This latter point appears to represent an about-turn, if true. Earlier in the year Canonical’s Richard Collins told Engadget that there were no plans to “engineer middleware for running Android apps [on Ubuntu Touch]“.
Android apps or not, Shuttleworth must be hoping that some of those interested household names make a firm commitment soon. The longer the gap the more ground competitors are gaining.
Samsung and Intel’s open-source mobile OS ‘Tizen’ recently gained the backing of a further 36 companies, including an array of mobile networks, electronics bigwigs and game publishers.

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System 76 Ubuntu Touchscreen Laptop Now Available to Pre-Order

Ubuntu PC makers System 76 have unveiled a new touchscreen notebook running Ubuntu 13.10. 
The Darter Ultra Thin features a 14.1-inch HD multitouch display that works out of the box with Ubuntu. It’s housed in a slender 0.9″ thick chassis weighing in at 4.60 lbs (around 2 kg). Battery life is estimated at around 5 hours – which, for Linux and its power management issues, is actually quite impressive!
Alongside the touchscreen the laptop also offers more traditional methods of input, namely a multi-touch trackpad and chiclet-style keyboard.

Pricing starts at $899 for the base model specification. This gets you:

• Intel i5-4200U @ 1.5Ghz (Dual core)
  
• 4GB DDR3 RAM
• Intel HD 4400 Graphics
• 500 GB 5400 RPM HDD
• Integrated WiFi & Bluetooth
• 1MP Webcam

As with all System 76 computers you can craft your dream machine by bumping up specifications and adding optional extras. Options on offer for the Darter include:

• Intel Core i5 & i7 CPUs
• Up to 16GB DDR3 RAM
• Dual-storage, including SSD + HDD combo

All essential ports are provided:

• HDMI out
• Ethernet
• 2 x USB 3.0
• Separate Headphone & Mic Jacks
• SD Card Reader

For more information on the Darter Thin head over to the System 76 website where, until October 28th, you can pre-order the Darter Thin and pay just $5 for ground shipping in the US.

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Linux E-Mail App ‘Geary’ Updated With IMAP Fixes

Desktop Linux e-mail app Geary has been updated with a number of key bug fixes.
In the first update to the popular mail client since October’s major release of version 0.4, a number of issues have been corrected. They include a problematic crash that occurred when an IMAP connection timed out.
Other fixes listed by Yorba, the non-profit organisation behind the app, include:

• Compile-time support for WebKitGTK 2.2
• IMAP STARTTLS Connection Failure Bug Fix
• IceWarp IMAP Servers Crash Fix
• IMAP Connection Timeout Crash Fixed
• CamelCased MIME Type Fix, Preventing Blank E-mails
• Missing RTL Icons Added

Geary 0.4.1 can be installed on Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.04 from the official Yorba PPA.
Ubuntu 13.10 users should find this latest update available from the Ubuntu Software Center (or, if already installed, via the Software Updater) in the coming weeks.

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Maxthon Web Browser Arrives on Linux With Early Alpha Builds

Cast your minds back to September. Valve made a series of anticipated announcements, GNOME 3.10 was released, and a barely known browser (with a legion of fans) confirmed that it was heading to Linux.
Fast forward a couple of months and work on Maxthon – a freeware browser based on the open-source Chromium browser stack – has come on fast. In fact, limited-access alpha build testing is already underway!
Although we don’t have access to early development builds one of our readers, Ben B., does. Being a sporting chap, he sent over a handful of screenshots of Maxthon for Linux as it currently looks, along with word on how it’s performing.
Now, prepare yourself for a sense of deja vu because as Maxthon is based on Chromium it does, in places, look very similar to versions offered up by Google & co. This won’t always be the case; I fully expect the main UI to fall in line with the Windows and Mac versions as development progresses.

OMG! Maxthon!

Familiar Settings

Maxthon Start Page

UI differences aside, these early alpha builds are also missing a number of features that make Maxthon more than a nondescript Chrome-clone. But, as it’s only an alpha, this is understandable.
One thing it has already nailed is performance, according to Ben:

“It seems very fast and snappy. It’s obviously based upon Chromium as shown from the UI/settings menu. Works pretty well.”

Not Just Another Browser

So so far, so good. And while there will be some of you who scoff at the idea of ‘yet another browser’ being made for Linux, Maxthon has more than a few neat tricks up its sleeve to make it a unique proposition:

• Available for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android & Windows Phone
• Unified UI across platforms
• “Cloud Push” allows sending of web content from one device to another
• “Cloud Sync” keeps tabs, bookmarks etc in sync across devices
• “Cloud Download” stores back-up of web downloads in cloud
• ‘Split Screen’ feature enables viewing two web-pages side-by-side
• Supports Chrome extensions 

Many of the features listed above were covered in greater detail in our September post, so click through to read that if you’re curious. Alternatively, hit play on the video below to learn more about how these features work.

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5 DEADLY LINUX COMMANDS

Linux today is well known and well reputed one of the most powerful operating system. Linux user can perform numerous such tasks that a windows or Mac user can’t even imagine.

Sometimes Linux can go extreme upto the extent that it can do serious damage to the system.
Linux system dont even ask user for confirmation once the command is given and simply performs its task.
hardware of your computer within a few seconds.

 Because of these harmful activities of linux it is recommended to use it only if you are good at giving commands and have in depth  knowledge of linux commands.

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5 Deadly linux commands that can Destroy one’s System

---

1. Command > rm -rf / = It will Delete Everything
Explanation : It is a combination of three keywords.
First is : rm It will remove all the files followed by this command.
Second is : -rf This will run rm command in more effective way and will remove everything ( all files and folders inside the specified folder )without asking confirmation from the user.
Third is : / This will start removing the data from the root directroy and will delete everything from the computer including the data of removable media.

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2. Command > :(){ :|: & };: = Shell function that gets repliacated.
This command creates a shell function , which once get initialized starts to create multiple copies of itself.It results in taking quickly all the memory and power of CPU.It makes computer freeze or not responding. This is also known as Denial Of Service Attack.

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3. Command > mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 = This command will format the hard disk
Explanation : This command is again composed of two keywords.
First is : mkfs.ext4 : This part of command will create a new ext4 file system on following device where this command will get executed.
Second is : /dev/sda1 ;This part of command specifies the 1st partition on the first hard disk which is probably in use by the user. Similarly, This Command > mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb2 will Format the second partition on the second hard disk with ext3 File system.

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4. Command > /dev/sda – Write Any content Directly to a Hard Drive.
Explanation : This command will execute normally as other commands in linux do. But output of this command will directly be sent to the file system (NTFS or FAT ) of the Hard Drive. It will result into damaging the file system of the computer.

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5. Command > mv ~ /dev/null – Beware it Will Move your Home Directory To Black hole.
Explanation : Moving any of your content and data to following path : /dev/null means you want to destroy it.
It means /dev/null is a black hole where once anything sent , can not be recovered back.

Note:Many of these commands will only be dangerous if they’re prefixed with sudo on Ubuntu – they won’t work otherwise. On other Linux distributions, most commands must be run as root.

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Linux Mint 16 “Petra” Cinnamon RC released!

The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 16 “Petra” Cinnamon RC.

Linux Mint 16 Petra Cinnamon Edition

Linux Mint 16 is the result of 6 months of incremental development on top of stable and reliable technologies. This new release comes with updated software and brings refinements and new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use.
New features at a glance:

• Cinnamon 2.0
  
• Login Screen
• USB Stick support
• Performance improvements
• Software Manager
• System Improvements
• Artwork Improvements
• Main Components

For a complete overview and to see screenshots of the new features, visit: “What’s new in Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon“.
Important info:

• PAE required for 32-bit ISOs
• EFI Support

Make sure to read the “Release Notes” to be aware of important info or known issues related to this release.
System requirements:

• x86 processor (Linux Mint 64-bit requires a 64-bit processor. Linux Mint 32-bit works on both 32-bit and 64-bit processors).
• 512 MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
• 5 GB of disk space
• Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution
• CD/DVD drive or USB port

Bug reports:

• Please report bugs below in the comment section of this blog.
• Please visit https://github.com/linuxmint/Roadmap to follow the progress of the development team between the RC and the stable release.

Download:
Md5 sum:

• 32-bit: b88c71ed43b199a934a3105d2a7c3455
• 64-bit: 232b8e3de36abccdaedc1dd904e2bded

Torrents:

• 32-bit
• 64-bit

HTTP Mirrors for the 32-bit DVD ISO:

• Argentina Cooperativa Telefonica de Villa Gobernador Galvez Ltda.
• Argentina Xfree
• Australia AARNet
• Australia Internode
• Australia uberglobal
• Australia Western Australian Internet Association
• Australia Yes Optus Mirror
• Austria Goodie Domain Service
• Bangladesh dhakaCom Limited
• Belarus ByFly
• Belgium Cu.be Solutions
• Brazil Universidade Federal do Parana
• Bulgaria Telepoint
• Canada University of Waterloo Computer Science Club
• China Qiming College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology
• Czech Republic Ignum, s.r.o.
• France Gwendal Le Bihan
• France IRCAM
• France Ordimatic
• France RTS Informatique
• Germany Artfiles
• Germany Copahost
• Germany FH Aachen
• Germany GWDG
• Germany Hochschule Esslingen University of Applied Sciences
• Germany killerhorse.eu
• Germany NetCologne GmbH
• Greece Hellenic Telecommunications Organization
• Greece National Technical University of Athens
• Greece University of Crete
• Greenland Tele Greenland
• Iceland Siminn hf
• India Honesty Net Solutions
• Ireland HEAnet
• Israel Israel Internet Association
• Italy GARR
• Luxembourg root S.A.
• Netherlands NLUUG
• Netherlands Triple IT
• New Zealand University of Canterbury
• New Zealand Xnet
• Norway Communica
• Poland ICM – University of Warsaw
• Portugal CeSIUM – Universidade do Minho
• Portugal Universidade do Porto
• Romania ServerHost
• Russia Yandex Team
• Serbia University of Kragujevac
• Singapore 0x.sg
• Singapore NUS – School of Computing – SigLabs
• Slovakia Rainside
• South Africa University of Free State
• South Korea KAIST
• South Korea NeowizGames corp
• Spain Oficina de Software Libre do Cixug
• Sri Lanka Lanka Education and Research Network
• Sweden DF – Computer Society at Lund University
• Sweden Portlane
• Switzerland SWITCH
• Taiwan NCHC
• Taiwan Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology
• Taiwan TamKang University
• Ukraine OSDN.Org.UA
• United Kingdom Bytemark Hosting
• United Kingdom University of Kent UK Mirror Service
• USA James Madison University
• USA MetroCast Cablevision
• USA mirrorcatalogs.com
• USA Nexcess
• USA University of Maryland, College Park
• USA University of Oklahoma

HTTP Mirrors for the 64-bit DVD ISO:

• Argentina Cooperativa Telefonica de Villa Gobernador Galvez Ltda.
• Argentina Xfree
• Australia AARNet
• Australia Internode
• Australia uberglobal
• Australia Western Australian Internet Association
• Australia Yes Optus Mirror
• Austria Goodie Domain Service
• Bangladesh dhakaCom Limited
• Belarus ByFly
• Belgium Cu.be Solutions
• Brazil Universidade Federal do Parana
• Bulgaria Telepoint
• Canada University of Waterloo Computer Science Club
• China Qiming College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology
• Czech Republic Ignum, s.r.o.
• France Gwendal Le Bihan
• France IRCAM
• France Ordimatic
• France RTS Informatique
• Germany Artfiles
• Germany Copahost
• Germany FH Aachen
• Germany GWDG
• Germany Hochschule Esslingen University of Applied Sciences
• Germany killerhorse.eu
• Germany NetCologne GmbH
• Greece Hellenic Telecommunications Organization
• Greece National Technical University of Athens
• Greece University of Crete
• Greenland Tele Greenland
• Iceland Siminn hf
• India Honesty Net Solutions
• Ireland HEAnet
• Israel Israel Internet Association
• Italy GARR
• Luxembourg root S.A.
• Netherlands NLUUG
• Netherlands Triple IT
• New Zealand University of Canterbury
• New Zealand Xnet
• Norway Communica
• Poland ICM – University of Warsaw
• Portugal CeSIUM – Universidade do Minho
• Portugal Universidade do Porto
• Romania ServerHost
• Russia Yandex Team
• Serbia University of Kragujevac
• Singapore 0x.sg
• Singapore NUS – School of Computing – SigLabs
• Slovakia Rainside
• South Africa University of Free State
• South Korea KAIST
• South Korea NeowizGames corp
• Spain Oficina de Software Libre do Cixug
• Sri Lanka Lanka Education and Research Network
• Sweden DF – Computer Society at Lund University
• Sweden Portlane
• Switzerland SWITCH
• Taiwan NCHC
• Taiwan Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology
• Taiwan TamKang University
• Ukraine OSDN.Org.UA
• United Kingdom Bytemark Hosting
• United Kingdom University of Kent UK Mirror Service
• USA James Madison University
• USA MetroCast Cablevision
• USA mirrorcatalogs.com
• USA Nexcess
• USA University of Maryland, College Park
• USA University of Oklahoma

Enjoy!

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The MintBox 2 is available!

he MintBox 2 is now available and can be ordered from CompuLab at http://fit-pc.com/web/products/mintbox/

The MintBox 2 will also soon become available from Amazon.com and Amazon.de for US and European customers.
Overview of the MintBox 2
The MintBox 2 is a mini-computer which connects to TVs or computer monitors via HDMI or DisplayPort. It comes with 8 USB ports as well as in/out audio jacks, eSATA, Ethernet, Wifi and Bluetooth so you can connect it easily to any network or device.
The unit feels very special and very unique. It’s small, about the size of a router, so it fits behind your keyboard, your TV and it’s easy to bring with you anywhere you go.
It’s extremely sturdy and completely silent. There is no plastic, the case is entirely made of solid die-cast aluminum and acts as a heat sink, so there are no fans inside of it.
It boasts 4 times the processing power of the previous generation and comes with a 5 years warranty.

The MintBox 2 shines by its versatility. Its form-factor provides a fantastic compromise between desktop computing and mobility. It’s as if your desktop environment could come with you. A desk, a chair and a large screen is all you need. Connect a full size keyboard to the unit and there you are: operational and fully productive anywhere you go.
The MintBox 2 was previewed in June: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2383 . We’ll soon post a full in-depth review.
Specifications
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-3337U Processor (dual-core 64 bit, 3M Cache, 1.80 GHz up to 2.70 GHz, 17W TDP)
Integrated GPU: Intel® HD Graphics 4000 with dynamic frequency up to 1.1 GHz
Chipset: Mobile Intel® HM76 Express Chipset
Memory: 4 GB DDR3 upgradable up to 16 GB
Main storage: Internal 500 GB 2.5” hard disk (upgradable)
Operating system: Linux Mint 15 “Olivia” 64 bit
Extra storage: mSATA socket + 2x eSATA ports
Display: HDMI 1.4a 1920 x 1200 + DisplayPort 1.1a 2560 x 1600 dual-head
Audio: S/PDIF 7.1 channels + stereo line-out / mic
Networking: 2x Gbit Ethernet
Wireless networking: 802.11b/g/n dual antenna up to 150 Mbps + Bluetooth 4.0
USB: 2x USB 3.0 + 6x USB 2.0
Serial: RS232 full-UART
Expansion: Full-size mini-PCIe (shared with mSATA) + half-size mini-PCIe (used for WLAN)
Enclosure: Passively cooled fanless die-cast aluminum case
Dimensions: 19 cm (w) x 16 cm (l) x 4 cm (h)
Weight: 1150g
Input voltage: 10V – 15V DC (12V PSU 100V-240V AC included)
Power consumption: 10W – 26W
Operating temperature: 0°C – 50°C
Warranty: 5 years (2 years for the hard disk)

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Ubuntu OIL announced for broadest set of cloud infrastructure options

Today at the OpenStack Design Summit in Hong Kong, we announced the Ubuntu OpenStack Interoperability Lab (Ubuntu OIL). The programme will test and validate the interoperability of hardware and software in a purpose-built lab, giving Ubuntu OpenStack users the reassurance and flexibility of choice.

We’re launching the programme with many significant partners onboard, such as; Dell, EMC, Emulex, Fusion-io, HP, IBM, Inktank/Ceph, Intel, LSi, Open Compute, SeaMicro, VMware.

The OpenStack ecosystem has grown rapidly giving businesses access to a huge selection of components for their cloud environments. Most will expect that, whatever choices they make or however complex their requirements, the environment should ‘just work’, where any and all components are interoperable. That’s why we created the Ubuntu OpenStack Interoperability Lab.

Ubuntu OIL is designed to offer integration and interoperability testing as well as validation to customers, ISVs and hardware manufacturers. Ecosystem partners can test their technologies’ interoperability with Ubuntu OpenStack and a range of software and hardware, ensuring they work together seamlessly as well as with existing processes and systems. It means that manufacturers can get to market faster and with less cost, while users can minimise integration efforts required to connect Ubuntu OpenStack with their infrastructure.

Ubuntu is about giving customers choice. Over the last releases, we’ve introduced new hypervisors, and software-defined networking (SDN) stacks, and capabilities for workloads running on different types of public cloud options. Ubuntu OIL will test all of these options as well as other technologies to ensure Ubuntu OpenStack offers the broadest set of validated and supported technology options compatible with user deployments. Ubuntu OIL will test and validate for all supported and future releases of Ubuntu, Ubuntu LTS and OpenStack.

Involvement in the lab is through our Canonical Partner Programme. New partners can sign up here.

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Red Hat offers enterprise-grade cloud management for OpenStack

Red Hat Inc. announced Tuesday next release of its cloud management platform, Red Hat CloudForms 3.0. Based on a robust feature set stemming from Red Hat's acquisition of ManageIQ last year, this new release of CloudForms adds enterprise-grade cloud management capabilities for Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform as well as enhanced management capabilities for Amazon Web Services (AWS).

CloudForms already provided essential enterprise-level management and automation capabilities for various infrastructure platforms, such as VMware vSphere, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and Amazon AWS. CloudForms 3.0 expands support of these features to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform, providing cloud administrators and operators with both new capabilities for managing OpenStack as well as the ability to integrate OpenStack into existing environments through unified management.
CloudForms 3.0 also expands its support for AWS, enabling users to seamlessly manage workloads running in public clouds together with workloads in their private clouds. With CloudForms 3.0, organizations now have greater choice and flexibility in building both their private and hybrid clouds.
CloudForms installs as a virtual appliance, enabling users to centrally manage and automate workload lifecycles through self-service provisioning and IT process workflows, assess capacity and utilization, enforce quotas, workload placement, and orchestrate post-provisioning operations.
CloudForms’ Adaptive Management Platform anchors various features to automate OpenStack and other cloud infrastructure platforms, including seamless self-service portals that provide users with role-delegated, automated self-provisioning of catalog-driven IT services, with requisite request approvals and integration with enterprise service catalogs. Cloud Lifecycle Service Management spans from provisioning to retirement, with automatic aging, tracking and monitoring of services.
It also offers advanced chargeback, quotas and metering, with detailed usage tracking by configurable classifications and support for multiple rates tables (fixed cost, allocation and usage) and reservation based chargeback, continuous discovery and insight from automatic, agent-free discovery of OpenStack instances and relationships and capacity and utilization, along with configuration tracking and drift comparison, and unified operations management offering multi-site federation that provides “single pane of glass” visibility across cloud and virtual infrastructures, including runtime operations, service configuration, utilization, events, timelines, reports and customizable dashboard mash-ups.
Enterprises looking for ways to flexibly extend datacenter capacity and achieve greater efficiencies and cost savings are, in many cases, moving workloads to public clouds such as AWS. With CloudForms 3.0, enterprise users can now seamlessly view, request and deploy workloads in AWS from the same management framework they use to manage services in their private cloud and virtual infrastructures.
CloudForms leverages AWS’ capabilities for end-to-end lifecycle management of Amazon workloads, including abilities to provision Amazon Machine Instances (AMIs) in a policy controlled manner, through enterprise defined self-service portals and service catalogs. State policies are enforced on source AMI’s as well as instance placement into destination regions and availability zones. Identity and group affiliations also condition what can or cannot be provisioned per enterprise regulatory, business and IT rules.
It also supports Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), a logically isolated section of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud containing user defined virtual networks. Users can select authorized VPC/subnets to provision and run their workloads, which are managed by CloudForm's policies. It integrates with Amazon's Identity and Access Management (IAM), which, together with CloudForm's Role Based Access Control (RBAC) and permissions, give enterprises complete control over provisioning and managing Amazon workloads and resources, and track Amazon workload performance and usage, alerting administrators and users to performance thresholds.
CloudForms is also offered as part of Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure, a comprehensive offering introduced in June 2013, designed to support organizations on their journey from traditional datacenter virtualization to OpenStack-powered clouds. Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure combines Red Hat CloudForms, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform for comprehensive open hybrid cloud enablement.
CloudForms 3.0 is generally available.
 

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The Unity 4.0 Game Engine is now Available for Developers to Create Games for Ubuntu/Linux

Unity Technologies has announced recently via its website the official availability of the Unity 4.0 game engine that has known a series of improvements compared to previous versions. Canonical has also stated that the Unity game engine will allow developers to publish their projects to Ubuntu via Ubuntu Software Center, which will be surely interesting and exciting for the Ubuntu community.

Here are some of the new features in this latest release:

Mecanim, the new animation system to animate any character or object 

Real-time shadows for all platforms 

DirectX 11 rendering 

Shuriken particle system updated with world collision functionality 

Adobe Flash and Linux as two new platforms 

Cross-platform dynamic fonts

Unity 4.0 is not free and costs $1500, but can be evaluated for 30 days from this page for Windows and Mac OS X platforms.

This move will surely bring more game developers that will create many good games running on our Ubuntu/Linux computers.

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How to Check 3D Acceleration (FPS) in Ubuntu/Linux Mint

In this guide, we will see some commands needed for checking  3D Acceleration / FPS for both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards under the following distributions:

• Ubuntu 13.10/13.04/12.10/12.04 or older
• Linux Mint 15/14/13 or older

If you have more commands and tools that are not listed here, please mention them below (comment form).

Getting Started

First of all, install this dependency via the terminal:

sudo apt-get install mesa-utils

Before running the commands below, make sure 3D acceleration is enabled or not by entering this command:

/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p

1. Glxinfo

You can use glxinfo to check 3d acceleration and rendering. Here are some commands you need to run from the terminal:

glxinfo -i | grep render

or

 glxinfo -i | grep direct

or

glxinfo -i | grep openGL

The output returned will give you information about your graphics card (AMD or Nvidia).

2. Glxgears

You can also use glxgears to test 3D Acceleration (FPS). Simply run this command:

glxgears

or

glxgears -info

3. xvinfo

You can also use "xvinfo" to check information about your video card. You can run it with this command:

xvinfo

4. For owners of AMD (ATI) graphics cards, you can use this command to check your graphical performance:

fglrxinfo

or

fgl_glxgears

5. Glxspheres

To be able to use Glxspheres under Ubuntu/Linux Mint, you need first to install it as follows:

Installation (64-bit)

Via the terminal, issue these commands:

cd /tmp 

wget http://goo.gl/L7rsGZ -O virtualgl_2.3.3_amd64.deb 

sudo dpkg -i --force-depends virtualgl_2.3.3_amd64.deb 

sudo apt-get -f install

Then run it with this command:

/opt/VirtualGL/bin/glxspheres64

Installation (32-bit)

For 32-bit systems, install Glxspheres with these commands:

cd /tmp 

wget http://goo.gl/O5AyjX -O virtualgl_2.3.3_i386.deb 

sudo dpkg -i --force-depends virtualgl_2.3.3_i386.deb 

sudo apt-get -f install

Then run it with this command:

/opt/VirtualGL/bin/glxspheres

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Install NavalPlan On Ubuntu For Project Management

NavalPlan is a free planning tool written in Java that can be used to manage your projects (project management). It is mainly built for companies and organizations that seek to solve some common planning, administrating, and scheduling problems.

Here are some concepts this tool is based on:

• Tasks Tagging
• External Integration
• Criteria Assignments
• Resource Allocation
• Company Load Control
• Resources Management, etc 

To install NavalPlan on Ubuntu 10.10/10.04, launch the terminal and issue these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreplan/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install navalplan

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Install the Nitrux OS (3.1.5) and Compass Icon Themes From PPA in Ubuntu/Linux Mint

A new version of Nitrux OS icon theme has been released for Ubuntu/Linux Mint users. In this tutorial we will see how to install it from PPA for the following distributions:

• Ubuntu 13/10/13.04/12.10/12.04
• Linux Mint 15/14/13

Changes in Nitrux OS (3.1.5):

Featured: NITRUX-mono-dark now supports dark themes completely!. 

Revised Icons: Kontact, PCManFM, Nautilus, Jdownloader, Kazam. 

Fixes: New Icons: Xdiagnose, KDE System Settings (Joystick, Trackpad, Mouse), Google Music Manager, Net Activity Viewer, pyRenamer, Searchmonkey, System Testing Qt, Unity Mail, Gnome Weather icons.

Nitrux OS Installation

Open the terminal and enter these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/nitrux 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install nitruxos

You can use Gnome Tweak Tool to enable this theme.

A new icon theme has also been released from the same developer of Nitrux Os which is called the Compass icon theme.

You can try it by running the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/icons2 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install compass-icons

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A List Of Best 15 Ubuntu 12.04 Themes For Unity and Gnome Shell

In this page, we will introduce 15 best GTK3 themes that you can use with Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) under Unity or Gnome Shell. The themes are also compatible with other Ubuntu versions (12.10/11.10, Linux Mint 13, etc.). To make the installation of these themes easier, I have uploaded them all to our custom PPA. You can add our PPA with these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/gtk3

sudo apt-get update

To enable these themes, you can use GNOME TWEAK TOOL, MyUnity, or use simply the commands provided with each theme given below. Gnome Tweak Too can be installed with this command:

sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

1. Elementary GTK Theme

sudo apt-get install elementary

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'elementary'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'elementary'

2. Zukitwo

sudo apt-get install zukitwo

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'zukitwo'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'zukitwo'

3. SLAVE GTK3 Theme

sudo apt-get install slave-gtk3

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'SLAVE-GTK3'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'SLAVE-GTK3'

4. Boomerang 

sudo apt-get install boomerang

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Boomerang'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'Boomerang'

For Boomerang-Deux:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Boomerang-Deux'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'Boomerang-Deux'

5. Zukiwi

sudo apt-get install zukiwi

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Zukiwi'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'Zukiwi'

6. Elegant Brit GNOME3

sudo apt-get install elegant-brit-theme

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Elegant_Brit'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'Elegant_Brit'

7. GnomishGray

sudo apt-get install gnomishgray

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'GnomishGray'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'GnomishGray'

8. Drakfire Zuki 

sudo apt-get install drakfire-zuki

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Drakfire-Zuki'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'Drakfire-Zuki'

9. DeLorean_Noir

sudo apt-get install delorean-noir-theme

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'DeLorean_Noir'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'DeLorean_Noir'

10. Yellow and Black Attack

sudo apt-get install yellow-n-black-attack

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Yellow-n-Black-Attack-GTK'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'Yellow-n-Black-Attack-GTK'

11. Ice Cream GTK

sudo apt-get install ice-cream-theme

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Ice-Cream-GTK'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'Ice-Cream-GTK'

12. Light-Greyness-Dark-Grey-GTK

sudo apt-get install light-greyness-dark-grey

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Light-Greyness-Dark-Grey-GTK'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'Light-Greyness-Dark-Grey-GTK'

13. ICE Redux

sudo apt-get install ice-redux

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'ICE-Redux'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'ICE-Redux'

14. Oceanic Dark

sudo apt-get install oceanic-dark

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Oceanic-Dark'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'Oceanic-Dark'

15. Mac OS X Lion Theme

sudo apt-get install macx-lion

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Mac-X-Lion'

gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/metacity/general/theme 'Mac-X-Lion'

You can make these themes more attractive by using an icon theme from this list.

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