Google Talk video & voice chat FINALLY comes to Linux

It’s raining where I am but the sun is most certainly shining in my head: Gtalk users on Linux can finally use both voice and video chat. Adding such support has been Google’s top video chat request

Head over to Gmail.com/videochat to download the plugin. It’s even packaged up in a neat .deb!

So, why the wait? Google engineer Justin Uberti talks about the trouble the Linux port posed: "This release required significant engineering to develop an all-new video rendering solution and an all-new PulseAudio-based audio handler, along with work to support 64-bit and countless webcam compatibility tests. We spent a lot of effort to make it fully feature-complete, with all the same goodies as the Windows and Mac versions, and we're happy to now support Google voice and video now on all major desktop platforms."

For SUSE or Fedora users wanting a slice of the action fear not - he also says that “[they’re] planning on adding RPM support soon as well.”

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GoogSysTray 1.2.0 Released - adds previews, new features

A new version of popular Google services notification tray application (!) GoogSysTray has been released.

This version adds Google Docs support, mail previews, new Gmail features, Gnome Keying support & “a bunch of new translations”.

What is GoogSysTray?

From the official homepage: -

“Googsystray is a system tray app for Google Voice, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Reader, and Google Wave. The idea is to be able to keep track of all that stuff without having to keep a bunch of browser tabs open, or constantly checking them.

It notifies on new messages, alerts, etc., and provides basic services quickly (Reading or sending a new SMS message, or marking an email read, for example.”

Download

Download the .deb of the latest release by clicking the button below. (Thanks to JD in the comments!)

Launch GoogSysTray from the applications menu.

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Just how popular is Chrome/ium on Linux? answer: Very

Google Chrome for Linux will be one year old on Friday 4th June. Crazy non?
To mark this relatively minor milestone I’ve decided to take a look at how Google Chrome’s growth on Linux has, well, grown in that time. I can only base my findings on my blog as a whole with some outside context provided by net statistic providers.

Google Chrome: Popularity in general

Chrome's current worldwide usage across all major operating systems is, as of April 2010, residing at a healthy 6.73%. This position makes it the third most popular browser behind Firefox & Internet Explorer.

But what about on Linux?

Google Chrome on Linux

Chromium – the open-source version of Google Chrome which implements the same feature set as Chrome, but reneges on the built-in updater and Google branding – was available several months before an official Google-endorsed version.

These early builds were very basic – at first lacking even tabs and the start-page!



The development, like Chrome itself, sped along at remarkable pace and the first pre-alpha release of Google Chrome proper was made available on the 4th June 2009.




Development on the official Chrome was, again, extremely rapid and official betas for Mac OS X and Linux were released on 8 December 2009, with the Linux feature set almost comparable to that of Chrome for Windows – lacking only bookmark sync.

Google Chrome usage on Linux

To judge how popular Google Chrome is on Linux I'm going to look at visits to OMG! Ubuntu! over three separate months: the month of the first pre-release back in June 2009, again 6-ish months later in January 2010 and then in April this year.

The results below show the top 3 rated browser for Linux users visiting OMG! Ubuntu! plus Midori’s share just for kicks, though note that Midori users often identify their browser as Safari in order to get it working with GMail thus Midori results are Midori + Safari/Linux combined. It should also be noted that Chromium and Chrome do not display independently but as one browser ‘Chrome’.

% of visits made using referenced browser on Linux.

June 2009 – The month of Google Chrome’s first official Linux release

• Firefox: 86.90%
• Chrome: 2.64%
• Opera: 3.75%
• Midori: 0.13%

January 2010

• Firefox: 56.93%
• Chrome: 31.49%
• Opera: 3.12%
• Midori: 0.87%

April 2010

• Firefox: 55.52%
• Chrome: 36.53%
• Opera: 2.82%
• Midori: 1.23%

As you can see – Chrome has grown massively in almost one year – largely at the expense of Firefox which has seen its share tumble from a mighty 86.90% to 55.52% in just under a year.

If we go full month-by-month breakdown we can see the adoption of Chome happens incredibly rapid, with each milestone bolstering its market share: -

2009

• June:  2.64%
• July:  3.39%
• August: 8.72%
• September: 11.56%
• October: 20.02%
• November: 21.75%
• December: 30.77% [first beta released]

2010

• January: 31.49%
• February: 33.02%
• March: 34.69%
• April: 36.53%
• May 1st – 23rd: 37.36%

Where now?

My disclaimer still rings true: These stats only represent Linux-based visitors to OMG! Ubuntu! and certainly are not flawless – Chromium, for example, is not counted as separate from Google Chrome in analytics. They do, nonetheless, give an insight into the meteoric rise of Chrome/ium and the seemingly dramatic fall of Firefox.

With Chromium set to be the default browser in Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition – and potentially the default browser in Ubuntu 11.04 Desktop – Chrome’s market share on Linux can only rise.

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Preview the slick new (new) Ubuntu 10.04 Firefox Start page

With Ubuntu 10.04 having switched its default search engine from Google to Yahoo! and then back to Google again we’ve had a few ‘new’ Firefox start pages to look at this cycle.

The latest, and final, iteration is, I'm sure you will agree, easily the best looking this cycle – if not in Ubuntu’s history. To my mind only the Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron start page looked as wholesomely designed as this.

No GMail no hablo

Whilst it may be nice to look at it does have its flaws. There are no ‘quick’ links to Google services as with Mozilla’s own start page – even after entering a ‘search’ as the Ubuntu start page uses Google Custom Search. Sadly it seems there is a trade-off for beauty.

See it for yourself, fishies*

You can check it out (and set it as your default homepage in any browser of your choice) using the following link: http://start.ubuntu.com/10.04/

*The community icon is a fishbowl. No offence intended.

Thanks to Paul

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Ubuntu 10.04 drops yahoo! will use google as search engine

Ubuntu 10.04 will still use Google as the default search engine, despite a deal having previously announced a switch to Yahoo! search.

Reasons for the switch-ahoo cited by Rick Spencer, Ubuntu Desktop team, were based on “user experience, user preferences, and costs and benefits for Ubuntu and the browsers and other projects that make up Ubuntu.”

That, or it could be that they found most users where switching the search back to Google anyways.

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GoogSysTray Puts Google Reader, GMail, Wave notifications in your panel tray

Version: 1.1.4 GoogSysTray is a notification area application that alerts you to updates for your various Google services, such as GMail, Google Reader and Google Wave.

Application to get Google Reader updates in Ubuntu System Panel Features GoogSysTray allows for each of its supported services notifications to be manually configured. Want an icon? Check. Want to display unread count? Check. Only want e-mails with certain tag to alert you? Check. The following services are currently supported: -

• GMail - Choose specific tags or folders to be notified about
• Google Reader - Specify number of unread items needed before alert
• Google Voice - Send SMS
• Google Calendar - Set check frequency
• Google Wave - Set notification options on unread messages

Setting Up Your Google Account In GoogSysTray Setting up your Google Account in GST is a quick affair.

• Right click the 'G' icon in the system tray
• Choose 'Preferences'
• In the 'General Tab' click 'Add' in the top right-hand corner
• Enter your Google Account details in the pop-up dialogue window.

If it from the 'General' tab that you can toggle services on/off. Resources Whilst running with 4 accounts configured, all showing icons, the application was using around 14MB RAM. Fairly light. Download http://sourceforge.net/projects/googsystray/files/googsystray-1.1.4/googsystray_1.1.4_all.deb/download Installation Double-click on the .deb file to install and launch it, once installation has completed, from the Applications > Internet sub-menu.

Thanks to aNoble & MB

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ChromeOS Application Icons

The ChromeOS application menu has some pretty cool icons for applications – so much so I've cheekily popped some of them here for your downloadable convenience. All are 128x128 and would look great in docks and menus for your webapps.

Right click and save as to download.

Mail

[GMail, Hotmail/LiveMail, Yahoo! Mail]

Google Apps

[Calendar, Reader, Docs, Youtube, Tasks, Picasa Web, Contacts]

 

Other

[twitter, facebook, calc, hulu]

Copyright belongs, one would imagine, to Google.

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Install Google Picasa Photo Viewer In Ubuntu

Google Picasa on Windows comes coupled with an awesome image-viewer. Sadly Google didn’t make this available for Linux users of Picasa, but, thanks to Irakli Gozalishvili and a soul known as Caiacoa, you can install it in Ubuntu with a .deb!

Of course, in order to use the photo viewer you do need to have Picasa 3.0 beta installed.

What is Picasa Photo Viewer?

From the Google Photo Blog: -

We designed Photo Viewer to be a better, faster image viewer. A quick double-click on any photo will give you a beautiful full-screen view (with Picasa edits applied) and puts a select few options at your fingertips: you can quickly rotate an image, star it, upload it to your Picasa Web Albums drop box, or play a slideshow with other photos from the same folder.

What else can it do? Tap the scroll wheel on your mouse to discover how nice it is to have a fast, smooth zoom at hand when reviewing your photos, or try the 'More Options' button to bounce an image to your printer, blog, or favorite photo editor.

Install Google Picasa Photo Viewer

Download the .deb @ http://www.caiacoa.de/Transfer/PicasaPhotoViewer-1.0.3.deb

Now you can open a photo with the viewer by right-clicking and then open with > custom command > PicasaPhotoViewer

Set As Default

To set it as the default image viewer right click an image > properties > open with > PicasaPhotoViewer.

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MurrinaChrome – Best Chrome-like GTK Theme Yet

A few days ago I posted a gorgeous Emerald theme based on Google Waves’ interface.

In that post I mentioned i couldn’t find a decent GTK theme to match it. Thankfully reader Nicolas came up trumps and suggested MurrinaChrome – a light Google-toned theme that is more than a match for the Wave Emerald theme!

Because the wave emerald theme has been left with a white border around windows you might want to set MurrinaChrome’s background colour to White so that it matches, or edit the Google Wave Emerald theme.

Download

You can get MurrinaChrome @ http://www.cimitan.com/murrine/node/130

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Canonical ‘contracting engineering’ to Google

Canonical (the commercial funder/creator of Ubuntu) are contributing ‘engineering’ to Google (for ChromeOS, presumably) under contract.

The official statement posted on the Canonical blog reads as follows.

Congratulations to Google on the open sourcing of Google Chrome OS

When Chrome OS was announced in June we saw this as a positive development, bringing choice to the consumer. We considered how open source development is as much about co-operation as it is about competition. Google have made it clear that they are keen to develop Chrome OS openly and we have had the pleasure of hosting a number of the Google team at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Dallas over the last few days where we have been able to see that openness in action.

In the interest of transparency, we should declare that Canonical is contributing engineering to Google under contract.  In our discussions, Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson made it clear that they want , wherever feasible,  to build on existing components and tools from the open source community without unnecessary re-invention.   This clear focus should benefit a wide variety of existing projects and we welcome it.

On the consumer side, people will ask about the positioning of Chrome OS and Ubuntu. While the two operating systems share some core components, Google Chrome OS will provide a very different experience to Ubuntu.  Ubuntu will continue to be a general purpose OS running both web and native applications such as OpenOffice and will not require specialised hardware.

So 2010 looks set to be a very exciting year. In addition to delivering Ubuntu experiences with both existing and new OEM partners, we will be working with Google on Chrome OS based devices.

Chris Kenyon  VP of OEM Services, Canonical

This is, of course, good news for everybody concerned and it is great that two giants (one in Linux, one in web) are able to work together to better benefit users everywhere.

I also had a very big grin on my face during the press event when Sundar Pichai thanked a few projects in particular – Ubuntu being one of them.

You can find out more about Canonicals' engineering services @ http://www.canonical.com/services/engineering

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Video Conferencing Coming To GMail Chat

Reports are circulating that GMail chat – the web-based version of Google Talk/GTalk – will be adding multi-user video chat/video conferencing to this other Google services in the coming months.
GMail Chat only supports one-to-one video chat at present.

Linux Users

Linux users can currently use the video chat feature via Empathy (with caveats attached), but with ChromeOS merely a few months away from beta release one could assume that an official GTalk client native to Linux, or at least improved support/support for other clients such as Empathy, may also be on it’s way.
A stretch, sure, but a fantastic time to make available such a client.

"This [current Gmail capability] is the first step in a much broader set of features we hope to roll out over the next six to 12 months around video [and voice] chat capabilities. It's a great opportunity for us to push that space along."

~Rishi Chandra, a Google Apps product manager.

{via SFGate}

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10 Reasons Why Google Chrome Should Be Your Default Web Browser

An official version of Google Chrome has been available to try out for several months.

It fully supports flash and extensions, is super fast to both start-up and load pages and is so incredibly stable you will wonder why it’s not already been signed off and labeled “beta” already!

Below are 10 reasons why i think it should be your default browser.

Speed #1
First things first – Chrome is super fast. Quick, swift, pronto, whatever! it’s really fast at loading pages. Try two pages side-by-side in Firefox and Chrome and see.

Speed #2
A common complaint about Firefox in Ubuntu is the time it takes to start-up/launch/open. It’s not the most instant launching application!

Chrome, however, opens pretty much instantly allowing you to not have to waste time waiting to be able to do what you need to…

Extensions

“I’ll switch to chrome when it get’s adblocker!! Until then no way!!”

This may or may not be a shock to you – but Google Chrome already has extensions! Tons of them!
Including: -

• Adblockers
• YouTube video downloader's
• Last.FM players
• Weather updates
• Xmarks bookmarks sync
• Flash blockers
• Gmail and Google Reader notifiers
• Google Calendar alerts
• Easy RSS subscription button
• IE8-esque accelerators
• Smooth scroll
• Cookie Cleaner
• Session save
  

And this is just the beginning!

You can find these and plenty more on awesome Chrome User site chromeplugins.org.

Functionality already built in

A lot of people who use Firefox may have plenty of add-ons – but many of these addons are not needed in Google Chrome because they’re already built in!

For example, the features that the following add-on’s provide are already built into Chrome : -

Addon FaviconizeTab Addon
A “faviconize tab” feature can be reached by right clicking a tab and choosing ‘pin tab’. This shrinks it down to just it’s favicon and keeps it open.

Speed-dial
Google Chrome’s “new tab” page is a speed-dial, allowing quick and painless access to your most popular sites.

Hide Menu
Chrome doesn’t have the traditional layout of a main menu on top – it tucks all of it’s options away in logical system and preference buttons.

Take Your Chrome Bookmarks Everywhere!

Google Chrome has built in bookmark syncing – meaning no more third party applications and extra logins – just use your Google Account and access all of your bookmarks on any computer using Chrome!

You can enable this feature suing the --enable-sync flag. 

Userscripts
You can use the thousands of userscripts available at userscripts.org with Chrome!

Just create a folder called ‘'User Scripts’ in: -

• ~/.config/google-chrome/Default

and pop your download userscripts in it.

Note: You'll need to add --enable-user-scripts as a flag to your launcher.

Flash
Google Chrome has been flash-friendly for quite a long time and it is incredibly stable already. It's also fully HTML5 ready.

GTK Me Bebbe!
Google Chrome can use your gtk theme for ultimate desktop integration. Just go to the wrench icon > options > customize > Use GTK / use system borders. 

It can be a bit hit-and-miss with some GTK themes as it pick up the colour for the border from the "highlight" colour in the GTK theme.

Firefox uses your GTK theme also, so this isn't exclusive to Chrome, but a feature people might not know about nonetheless!

Themes
If you don’t like the way your GTK theme looks on Chrome, why not try out a Chrome Theme? You can find plenty of them over @ https://tools.google.com/chrome/intl/en/themes/index.html.

• Glow goes very well when using the ‘Impression’ theme.
• Folders is great with light coloured themes.
• Earthy goes well with most dark themes – particularly shiki-dust and Karmic’s Human theme.

Web Apps On Your Desktop
Google Chrome also offers the ability to create application shortcuts to your favourite online applications - such as Google Docs, Avairy Suite, GTalk, etc.

You simply go to your favourite web app, hit the Control menu in Chrome and choose 'Create Application Shortcut'.

They run in their own separate windows and is a great way to get Google Tasks on your desktop amongst others!

Avairy Pheonix Image Editor & Google Tasks running as desktop web apps.

Whilst this functionality can be acheived in Firefox it doesn't require an addon or external package in Chrome.

Download Google Chrome

You can download the latest version of Google Chrome @: -

Dev channel (for 32-bit systems): google-chrome-unstable_current_i386.deb
Dev channel (for 64-bit systems): google-chrome-unstable_current_amd64.deb

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Run Google Tasks On Your Desktop With Google Chrome Or Mozilla Prism

Run Google Tasks on your desktop - complete with all the features from the online version thanks to Mozilla Prism.

Installation

You can install this via the standalone Mozilla Prism package from the repo's however i suggest using the Prism Add-On for Firefox - and you'll see why in a bit!

Firefox Prism Add-On: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6665

Or

Standalone Prism: sudo apt-get install prism

Configure

Once installed you need to point your Firefox browser towards one of the following: -

• http://mail.google.com/tasks/ig

Or you can use a nicer (but far larger!) version designed for Android using: -

• http://mail.google.com/tasks/android

Firefox users should now go to tools > Convert Website To Application to "prism' the tasks app.

Standalone Prism users open Prism and enter either of the above addresses in the URL field of the new Prism App window.

For the best effect with Google Tasks leave all of the navigation/status/etc options unchecked.

Check 'Install Shortcut On Desktop'. 

Firefox users have the option to change the icon used for the application. You can leave the icon as it is (it will be pixelated, mind)



or you can specify your own one. For Google Tasks i use the following : -

You'll find the launcher placed on your desktop. You will need to double-click it and mark it as trusted for the icon to show.

You can move this icon anywhere you like! I created a Google Apps entry in my Main Menu where i keep mine: -

Update: 

You can also create the same effect but using Google Chrome/Chromium. You just need to use the "create  application shortcut" button from the control menu.

Although chrome doesn't give you an option to change the icon, it's simple enough to do yourself. Just right click the app shortcut, go to properties, click on the icon and choose a new one!

Google Tasks running Google Chrome

There are big differences between using Chrome or Firefox to make shortcuts - it's purely down to which browser you use.

That said, any extensions used in Chrome will also work in Chrome Shortcut Apps unlike Prisms which can't. (E.g adblockers, userstyles, etc)

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Install Picasa 3.5 In Linux

Google this week released Picasa 3.5 for Windows and Mac. Sadly no Linux version was offered, a fact Google blamed on the lowly adoption figures they have for Picasa on Linux.

I think that's a shame because Picasa is such an incredible application - its photo editing, its photo management, it's integrated web services... All are just first class.

Picasa 3.5 brings with it: -

• Facial recognition
• Geo-tagging
• Better text tool
• Awesome Tagging tools
• Photo importing improvements

There are two option to install Picasa 3.5 in Linux.

First is to simply install the Windows version via Wine. It runs okay but lacks some of the basic Linux integration that Picasa for Linux comes with.

The second is to go one further and replace Picasa 3.0 for Linux with 3.5. Everything works (bar what never has) and it runs off of the same self-contained Wine install that Picasa for Linux does - meaning you don't lose any integration with Gnome.

This article is about installing 3.5 as a Linux version.

You will need Picasa 3.0 already installed, as well as WINE.

You can either grab a .deb of 3.0 from

• picasa.google.com/linux

or add the Google testing repository to 'Software Sources'

• deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ testing non-free

Update/reload your sources after adding and then

• sudo apt-get install picasa

To install Wine: -

• sudo apt-get install wine

Get 3.5 FOR WINDOWS

Now grab a copy of Picasa 3.5 for windows!

• http://dl.google.com/picasa/picasa35-setup.exe

Install this in wine by double-clicking on it, etc.

Installing 3.5 in Linux

Copy the installed Picasa 3.5 from

/home/YOUR_USER_NAME/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Google/Picasa3

to the

/opt/google/picasa/3.0/wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Google/Picasa3

directory.

You'll likely need to do this as root so

• gksu nautilus

via a terminal to gain access.

Providing you already have Picasa 3.0 for Linux installed, all of the above directories should be there.

Once done, that's it! Fire up Picasa 3.5 from your

• Applications > Graphics > Picasa

menu and all of the new features are there ready and waiting.

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Integrate Google Docs With Ubuntu

The following plug-ins, scripts and extensions add Google Doc integration throughout Ubuntu.

 

Upload To Google Docs Via Nautilus

You can easily upload a file to Google Doc’s via a Right Click with this User Script for Nautilus.

Once installed you need simply right click on the file you wish to send and choose ‘Send To Google Docs’.

You will be prompted for your login details. Enter them and click OK.

Your file will be uploaded and, if successful, a confirmation dialog will appear.

Download

http://code.google.com/p/nautilus-gdoc/

Installation

To install any script, simple copy the downloaded script into your User Scripts folder, which is located @ home/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts 

 

Google Doc OpenOffice Extension

You can import and export documents to and from your Goolge Doc’s account through OpenOffice Writer thanks to the ooo2gd extension.

Sadly this extensions cannot sync your documents, so any changes made to an imported document will need to be exported back to Google Docs.

You can download the extension @ http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/ooo2gd

Once downloaded, install via the Extensions menu in OpenOffice and be sure to RESTART OpenOffice for the extension to take effect!

You can now access your files via the new “floating” add-on menu.

[Note: This extension also works with ZohoWriter]

 

Your Google Docs Files… In Nautilus!

If you’re feeling really brave you could always try out Thibault Saunier’s Google Summer Of Code project that aims to cohesively integrate Google Doc’s with Nautilus; allowing the user to view, manage and edit their Google docs and folders in the same way as if they were local documents/folders.

(Somewhat like having a folder called “Google Docs'” which when you go into shows all your Google docs files as if they were regular documents on your computer – simply double click one to open it in OpenOffice, GoogleDocs, etc.)

You can find the patched version of Nautilus – and the various other dependences needed over at @ http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=591178

 

Google Docs As A Desktop Application

GMDesk lets you run Gmail, Google Calendar, Maps, Docs, etc as a stand-alone application. Being an Air Application, you will need to install Adobe Air to use it. (x64bit tutorial here.)

Although GMDesk only works when online, it still offers a great way to manage and edit your documents free from the clutter and distraction of your normal web-browser.

Download GMDesk @ http://www.robertnyman.com/gmdesk/

However if you require the option to edit your documents offline, then installing Google Gears in Firefox is a better solution. Google Gears lets you sync and use Google Docs offline – and syncs all changes back when a connection if re-established.  It can also sync your GMail, Calendar and more.

(Sadly, Google Gears won’t run inside Mozilla Prism.)

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Google Earth 5.1 Brings Better Performance, Smoother Fun

Google’s 3D desktop application “Google Earth” has been updated to 5.1 – but brings with it some incredible speed and memory improvements.

"Fast is better than slow."

“For the newest version of Google Earth, we've been hard at work making it faster.” Peter Birch, Product Manager at Google said in an announcement on the Official Google Maps blog.

Adjustments under the hood have lead to better memory optimization and start up times. Images are drawn with improved compressed technology resulting in better performance across the board and Google have also worked on minimizing the number of frame-drops (“Stuttering”) when you whizz around the globe, giving a richer, smoother and more impressive experience.

Download

Google Earth is provided as a .bin file – meaning it’s essentially platform agnostic.

Download @ http://earth.google.com/

Thanks to Alex Chitu over @ Google Operating System

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