Full Circle THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY ISSUE #75 - July 2013 OOUUYYAA CCOONNSSOOLLEE IS IT WORTH THE WAIT? full circle magazine #75 1 Full Ciircle Magaziine iis neiither affiiliiated wiith,, nor endorsed by,, Canoniical Ltd.. contents ^ HowTo Full Circle Opinions THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY My Story p.29 Python p.08 Columns LibreOffice p.11 Command & Conquer p.06 Ubuntu News p.04 My Story p.30 Tasks, Cmd Line & Conky p.14 Ask The New Guy p.23 Ubuntu Games p.43 Review p.31 GIMP - Photo Restoration p.16 Linux Labs p.27 Q&A p.40 Software Showdown p.34 BACK NEXT MONTH Inkscape p.18 My Desktop p.45 Ubuntu Women p.45 Letters p.38 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#nd7o5rseme2nt. contents ^ EEDDIITTOORRIIAALL This magazine was created using : WELCOME TO ANOTHER ISSUE OF FULL CIRCLE! he usual Python, LibreOffice and Inkscape HowTo's are here, but Nicholas has taken T this month off. The email said something about him getting married. Sounds like a lame excuse to me. Replacing this month's Blender article is a short piece I wrote a little while ago on restoring old photographs using GIMP. My initial post on Google+ (using a different source photo) managed to get me on the 'What's Hot' list, so that's my claim to fame. We also have an interesting HowTo on mashing Google Tasks, the command line, and Conky. This results in task notifications via Conky. Very interesting. Many thanks to all of you who stepped up and sent in your desktop screens. In honor Full Circle Podcast of such bravery, I've tweaked the layout to give larger screens. While that may seem Released monthly, each episode covers all the latest Ubuntu news, great, it doesn't leave much space for the text. We'll see how it goes and maybe next opinions, reviews, interviews and month I'll give it a 2.1 release. listener feedback. The Side-Pod is a new addition, it's an extra Plenty for you gamers this month. I'm reviewing Euro Truck Simulation 2, and this (irregular) short-form podcast which is intended to be a branch month's Ask The New Guy is discussing Steam and the Ubuntu Software Centre. of the main podcast. It's Speaking of games, please send in your game reviews. Once again, from dozens of somewhere to put all the general writers, most have left and we're down to just one regular writer (Joe). Please, give technology and non-Ubuntu stuff generously! that doesn’t fit in the main podcast. Well, I shan’t take up any more of your time. Keep sending in your articles and letters Hosts: and enjoy the issue. • Les Pounder • Tony Hughes • Jon Chamberlain All the best, and keep in touch! • Oliver Clark Ronnie [email protected] http://fullcirclemagazine.org full circle magazine #75 3 contents ^ UUBBUUNNTTUU NNEEWWSS Written by The Ubuntu News Team MIR PLANS IN 13.10 kubuntu-will-not-follow- Kubuntu, Lubuntu, UbuntuKylin, /01/the-juju-charm-championship- Jono Bacon announces that Mir, 7000017443/ and Ubuntu GNOME. She points begins/ Ubuntu’s new display server • Mir, XMir and Unity 7 to land in out that there have been some designed for fast, efficient, and Ubuntu 13.10 by default - adjustments to the release UBUNTU DEVELOPER extensible display across devices, http://iloveubuntu.net/mir-xmir- schedules, lists the release details SUMMIT: 27-29 AUGUST is to be made default as XMir (an and-unity-7-land-ubuntu-1310- for Ubuntu flavors that have implementation of X on Mir) for default participated in the release, and 2013 users running open-source drivers • Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander provides links to the downloadable The Ubuntu Developer Summit in Ubuntu 13.10 along with Unity 7. Switching To Mir Display Server By images. will be taking place Tuesday, 27th He also mentions proprietary Default - http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/06/ Aug 2013 through Thursday, 29th drivers will fall back to X in 13.10 http://www.webupd8.org/2013/06 27/13-10-saucy-salamander-alpha- Aug 2013 from 2pm UTC to 8pm but will get XMir support in 14.04 /ubuntu-1310-saucy-salamander- 1-released/ UTC. As usual, the event is LTS, and he explains the decision is switching.html completely open and accessible to necessary to make Mir production- • XMir will be Default in Ubuntu SHARE YOUR everyone at summit.ubuntu.com. stable for 14.04 LTS. Bacon also 13.10, Fallback X Session to be http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/07/ INFRASTRUCTURE, WIN A answers users' possible questions. Removed from Ubuntu 14.04 LTS! - 11/ubuntu-developer-summit-27- http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/06/ http://www.techdrivein.com/2013/ PRIZE 29-august-2013/ 27/mir-plans-in-13-10/ 06/xmir-will-be-default-in-ubuntu- Jorge O. Castro welcomes us to 1310.html the Charm Championship and MARK SHUTTLEWORTH: TWO Various press outlets and blogs • Mir in Ubuntu 13.10, announces that there is "a total of WEEKS WITH IR have covered this change. Here’s a Benchmarking, and More - USD $30,000 in major prize M Mark Shuttleworth writes about selected sampling from our http://www.jonobacon.org/2013/0 money." He provides links to the his experience using Mir for the editors: 6/28/mir-in-ubuntu-13-10- competition rules and how to enter past two weeks. He notes that the • Mir To Ship As Default Display benchmarking-and-more/ the competition. system feels smoother using Mir, Server in Ubuntu 13.10 http://www.jorgecastro.org/2013/ and that X and Compiz appear to -http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/201 AUCY 07/01/share-your-infrastructure- 13.10 (S be using less memory and fewer 3/06/mir-display-server-to-ship- win-a-prize/ SALAMANDER) ALPHA 1 CPU cycles than when X was default-in-ubuntu-13-10 Also be sure to check out the directly handling the hardware. He • Ubuntu to default to Mir stack in RELEASED! related post at the Canonical Blog: then goes on to discuss 13.10, Kubuntu will not follow - Kate Stewart announces the “The Juju Charm Championship competition, the importance of http://www.zdnet.com/ubuntu-to- availability of the first Alpha begins” making the Mir decision, and default-to-mir-stack-in-13-10- release of Saucy Salamander from http://blog.canonical.com/2013/07 full circle magazine #75 4 contents ^ UBUNTU NEWS expresses his desire for other Canonical is working with software addresses-stolen-7000018336/ (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/eliasps | variants and distributions to providers to address how the • Ubuntu forums breached, 1.8m https://launchpad.net/~eliasps) consider Mir. attackers were able to gain access. passwords pinched - http://www.markshuttleworth.com Jane also says Canonical has begun http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013 /archives/1269 the process of notifying all users /07/21/ubuntu_forums_breached_ Many Thanks to the Ubuntu whose details were compromised 18_passwords_pinched/ News Team for their contribution Also be sure to check out the by email and apologizes “for the this month. the following other stories relating breach and ensuing WELCOME NEW MEMBERS to Mark’s blog post: inconvenience.” News this month comes from: • Mark Shuttleworth after running http://blog.canonical.com/2013/07 AND DEVELOPERS Mir for two weeks: "I’m /21/notice-of-security-breach-on- Results from the Developer https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuW nonetheless surprised that the ubuntu-forums-site/ Membership Board Meeting 17 eeklyNewsletter/Issue323 system feels smoother than it did June 2013: pre-Mir" The security breach is also https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuW -http://iloveubuntu.net/mark- covered in the following stories:- Approved as a Contributing eeklyNewsletter/Issue324 shuttleworth-after-running-mir- • Ubuntu Forums Hacked, 1.8 Developer: two-weeks-i’m-nonetheless- Million Passwords, E-Mails & • Louis Bouchard ( https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuW surprised-system-feels-smoother- Usernames Stolen - https://launchpad.net/~louis- eeklyNewsletter/Issue325 it-did http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/201 bouchard | • Mir For everyone - 3/07/ubuntu-forum-hacked-users- https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LouisBouc https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuW http://www.jonobacon.org/2013/0 advised-to-change-passwords hard ) eeklyNewsletter/Issue326 7/10/mir-for-everyone/ • Ubuntuforums hacked, "if you • Mark Shuttleworth: 'Mir has were using the same password as At the the Developer delivered what we hoped’ - your Ubuntu Forums one on Membership Board meeting 2013- http://www.zdnet.com/mark- another service (such as email), you 07-01: shuttleworth-mir-has-delivered- are strongly encouraged to change • MOTU Application and PPU what-we-hoped-7000017897/ the password on the other service upload rights for the Ubuntu ASAP" - Server packageset granted to Robie Basak NOTICE OF SECURITY BREACH http://iloveubuntu.net/ubuntuforu ms-hacked-if-you-were-using-same- -https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RobieBas ON UBUNTU FORUMS SITE password-your-ubuntu-forums- ak/ServerDeveloperApplication Jane Silber writes that there one-another-service-such has been a security breach on the • Ubuntu forums hacked; 1.82M The 12:00 Membership Board Ubuntu Forums site, logins, email addresses stolen - welcomed one new member on ubuntuforums.org.