Here is a quick list of useful Ubuntu applications. Leave me a comment if you know of a good Ubuntu application that I have omitted. Enjoy!

If you have installed software and codecs for watching DVDs on Ubuntu as per this post, then this guide will get you started ripping and burning DVDs using Brasero (the CD/DVD burning application included with Ubuntu) and an application called K9Copy, which is similar to the popular program DVD Shrink for Windows.

Due to copyrights, Ubuntu (currently Hardy Heron 8.04) is distributed without codecs to play many of the most prevalent media formats including DVD video (unencrypted and encrypted), Flash (.swf and .flv extensions), QuickTime movies (.mov ), MP3s (.mp3), Windows Media Audio and Video (.wma and .wmv), and unencrypted ACC files (.acc, .mp4, and .m4a). [...]

At home, I’ve installed a Netatalk Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) file server on a machine running Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) so that I can easily share files between my Macs (mostly running OS X 10.5.3) and the Ubuntu machine (see this post for details). Using an open source network service discovery protocol similar to Apple’s [...]

I was inspired by the Ubuntu logo and the Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) default background to created some new widescreen wallpapers. Click on the images to download them from my Picasa web album.

I have a machine running Mac OS X (currently Leopard 10.5.2) and another running Ubuntu (currently Hardy Heron 8.04) and have been striving to get these two machines to interact more harmoniously on my local are network (LAN). In particular, I’ve been trying to get my Ubuntu machine to act more like a Mac in [...]

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have computers running both Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) and Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04). Both of these operating systems have very attractive default desktop backgrounds. Leopard has the purple nebulous looking star field (below right) and Hardy has the modern artsy looking heron (below left). However, these very different looking wallpapers make my machines [...]

If you have installed Netatalk following this post and Avahi following this post, it is fairly straightforward to share a USB printer connected to your Ubuntu machine with Macs on your local area network (LAN) via AppleTalk. By default, Netatalk installs and runs the print sharing service called papd. So, after the printer is installed [...]

Using Firefly, your Ubuntu machine can host an iTunes media server which, with the help of Avahi installed as per this post, will show up in the iTunes “SHARED” list and will be accessible via Front Row. The following guide (written for Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 and OS X Leopard 10.5.2) will get you started.

The image at left shows a windowed VNC session where I am sharing the desktop of my Ubuntu machine (running Hardy Heron 8.04) with my Mac (running OS X Leopard 10.5.2). If you have installed Avahi following this post and are running Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04), then it is easy to configure Ubuntu to use [...]

If you followed this guide, your Ubuntu machine can now serve files to Macs on your local area network (LAN) using AFP. It would be nice if this Ubuntu/Netatalk Apple file server was discovered automatically by your Macs. This can be accomplished by installing Avahi, an implementation of Zeroconf similar to Apple’s Bonjour that allows [...]

Apple computers communicate with one another using the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP). Using the freely-available implementation of this protocol called Netatalk, Ubuntu (currently Hardy Heron 8.04) can interface with Mac OS X (currently Leopard 10.5.2) and you can set up a AppleShare file server on a Ubuntu machine that is accessible to Macs on your [...]

In a previous post I walked you through the installation of BIND9 (Berkley Internet Name Daemon Version 9) on Ubuntu (currently Hardy Heron 8.04) and configuring the installation to function as a caching name server on your local area network (LAN). Caching DNS records on a local server will hopefully boost your network’s performance. [...]

In previous posts, I shared instructions for setting up a Ubuntu LAMP (Linux, Apache, mySQL, PHP) server and configuring Apache and mySQL to host new sites complete with phpmyadmin and cgi-bin access. I thought it would be useful to write a follow-up guide on setting up of an Ubuntu DNS (Domain Name Service) server on [...]

In a previous post, I shared step-by-step instructions for setting up a Ubuntu LAMP (Linux, Apache, mySQL, PHP) server on your local area network (LAN). I also showed how you could customize the server installation to include all of the niceties of Ubuntu’s Desktop GUI. If this installation was successful, you should be able to [...]