) m o c . r k c i l F ( y Full Circle h THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY p a r ISSUE #60 - April 2012 g o t o h P o u d B D : o t o h p NNEEWW GGRRAAPPHHIICCSS SSEECCTTIIOONN LEARN GIMP AND INKSCAPE! full circle magazine #60 full circle magazine is neither affiliated wit1h, nor endorsed by, Canonical Ltd. contents ^ HowTo Full Circle Opinions THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY Python - Part 32 p.06 My Story p.28 Linux News p.04 My Desktop p.55 LibreOffice Pt14 p.08 My Opinion p.34 Columns Prey p.11 Command & Conquer p.05 Ubuntu Games p.49 I Think... p.38 GIMP - Beanstalk Pt1 p.14 Linux Labs p.22 Q&A p.45 Review p.40 Inkscape - Intro p.18 Ubuntu Women p.47 Closing Windows p.24 Letters p.42 Graphics The articles contained in this magazine are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This means you can adapt, copy, distribute and transmit the articles but only under the following conditions: you must attribute the work to the original author in some way (at least a name, email or URL) and to this magazine by name ('Full Circle Magazine') and the URL www.fullcirclemagazine.org (but not attribute the article(s) in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you must distribute the resulting work under the same, similar or a compatible license. Full Circle magazine is entirely independent of Canonical, the sponsor of the Ubuntu projects, and the views and opinions in the magazine should in no way be assumed tfoulhl acivrecleCamnaognaiczainlee#nd6o0rseme2nt. contents ^ EEDDIITTOORRIIAALL This magazine was created using : Welcome to another year of Full Circle! t's April 2012, and that means Full Circle is five years old this month. Time has certainly flown by, but I've enjoyed every issue of it, and I've no intention of stopping. Raise your I glasses (of whatever) to another year of Full Circle. Cheers! Being a birthday edition, I've added a few new things here and there. I'm starting a monthly GIMP series, and I'm joined by Mark Crutch who'll be teaching you Inkscape each month. Our articles join the usual suspects of Python and LibreOffice, and, to round off the HowTo section, we have an article on Prey - which will help you locate a lost/stolen Full Circle Podcast laptop/phone. I hope you never have to use it. Not only do we have the usual Ubuntu Games Released monthly, each episode articles, but Dougn has submitted some Ubuntu Games news, and will, hopefully, supply covers all the latest Ubuntu news, more news as and when he can. Don't feel left out though, as, like I always say, you're more opinions, reviews, interviews and than welcome to submit your news and articles. listener feedback. The Side-Pod is a new addition, it's an extra (irregular) short-form podcast If you're interested in how Full Circle takes shape each month, then have a read of the which is intended to be a branch My Story I've written. It shows you what we're doing week by week. of the main podcast. It's somewhere to put all the general technology and non-Ubuntu stuff As ever, Full Circle isn't just me. I want to say a big thank you to all the people who are that doesn’t fit in the main the unseen heroes of each issue. The writers, the proof readers, the translators, and, of podcast. course, you, the readers. Hosts: Robin Catling All the best, and keep in touch! Ed Hewitt Ronnie Dave Wilkins [email protected] http://fullcirclemagazine.org full circle magazine #60 3 contents ^ LLIINNUUXX NNEEWWSS Torvalds Shortlisted for HP will certify Ubuntu Ubuntu Linux Comes 2012 Millennium Tech 12.04 on some Proliant Preloaded on Two New EPUB Prize servers Laptops Finally, we have mobile editions of Full Circle on the downloads he Technology Academy INUX VENDOR Canonical uying a computer with page. At the moment, there are Finland has shortlisted has announced that its Linux preloaded is a only a couple of issues online, Linus Torvalds for its 2012 upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 great option in many but we're hoping to have back T Millennium Technology L long term support (LTS) B ways: Not only do you issues online shortly. If you've Prize, worth over €1 million Linux distribution will be certified know everything will “just work,” any problems with the epub (US$1.3 million). for a number of HP's Proliant but you also get your “vote” for file/formatting, you can drop an servers. Linux officially counted as a email to Jens at: There is one other shortlisted concrete sales statistic, thus [email protected] candidate for this year's prize, HP Proliant servers command helping to paint a more accurate Japanese stem-cell researcher significant market share and picture of the free operating Big thanks to Jens, and the Shinya Yamanaka. although Linux vendors such as Red system's true market share. beta testers, for making them a Hat and Oracle have already reality. The prize, awarded every two received certification, Canonical's A few weeks ago [...] a new years, has previously honored Ubuntu 12.04 LTS will be the first high-end Linux laptop from other contributors to the field of version of Ubuntu to be certified on ZaReason that's available [was information technology. a number of HP Proliant generation released] with a variety of Linux Google Currents 8 servers. As part of HP distributions preinstalled, but this In 2004 Tim Berners-Lee won certification, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS past weekend two more Google Currents has been the first Millennium Technology drivers and management software moderately priced contenders released worldwide, so install it Prize for his creation of the will be included as part of HP's from System76 made their official on your Android/Apple devices, technology underpinning the Proliant warranty. debut. [The Lemur Ultra, and the search for 'full circle' (in the worldwide Web. Pangolin Performance.] app) and add issues 55-60 to Source: theinquirer.net your app. Or, you can click the Source: pcworld.com Source: pcworld.com links on the FCM download page for those issues. full circle magazine #60 4 contents ^ CCOOMMMMAANNDD && CCOONNQQUUEERR Written by Lucas Westermann TTiippss && TTrriicckkss IIII s a follow-up to last seconds). month's article, I decided A reader, John, recently I hope that this information has to supply a few more explained his ToDo list setup to me The colours script I use is the been useful, and, as always, if you A tips and tricks that mesh (while suggesting I write the above last script on this page: have any questions, comments, or well with previous articles. I'll cover Conky tips in an article: done and http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash- suggestions, you can email me at (briefly) how to configure Conky done), and I thought it was a very Prompt-HOWTO/x329.html. It [email protected]. If you do for Japanese, a reader's solution versatile way to go about it. As I've essentially writes the colour codes email me, please include “C&C” or for ToDo lists, and a useful script explained in the past, my system to the terminal, resulting in a table “FCM” in the subject line. I've been for displaying your current terminal simply utilizes a python script and a of the colours, helping you when debating whether or not I should colour scheme. folder of reminder files, meaning I you're either customizing your do an article of C&C on my can update it on-the-fly with any Bash prompt, or else when you're configuration files and favourite Displaying Japanese in Conky is text editor. The script John uses, trying to find colours that you like. I programs – if any reader is fairly simple, and consists of the however, offers an Anroid and save this script in my scripts folder interested in reading that, please following three steps: iPhone app, which is a bit easier to as “colors” and defined an alias send me an email and let me know. • Override any UTF-8 locale with do quickly. The script he uses is within my .bashrc for “sh the setting “override_utf8_locale called “todo.txt”, and is written by $pathToColors” (replace yes” (minus the quotes) Gina Trapani (her homepage is: $pathToColors with your actual • Enable XFT (X FreeType) fonts http://ginatrapani.org/). Combined path), to save myself having to using the setting “use_xft yes” with the following script (that he write it every time. You can also (minus the quotes) found on the Ubuntu Forums – I create a symbolic link in /usr/bin/ • Then choose a font that supports was unable to find the exact or add your script folder to your the language, for example: “xftfont thread, otherwise I'd have linked to $PATH, but seeing as the colors VL Gothic:size=10” (minus the it), you can have a nicely formatted only matter for your terminal, it's quotes). list in Conky. The script is here: simply easiest to create an alias. http://pastebin.com/FnHGkcXw. The script looks something like the This is useful if you, for Once you've added some items to image shown right. example, have Japanese in your the todo.txt file, you need to ToDo list (if it's displayed by conky), simply test the script (and possibly For anyone interested in the Lucas has learned all he knows from in case any of your scripts return adjust the path to todo.sh), and actual colors I'm using, they can be repeatedly breaking his system, then Japanese characters, or if you use then add it to conky using, for found here: having no other option but to Japanese in any other way within example, ${execi 60 todo-list} https://github.com/lswest/dotfiles/ discover how to fix it.