Showing posts with label pinguy os. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pinguy os. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Pinguy OS 14.04 Mini Available For Download
Pinguy OS 14.04 Mini, an Ubuntu remaster that comes with a large number of tweaks by default, has been released today.
Pinguy OS Mini is a stripped down version of Pinguy OS which comes with all the tweaks and fixes available in the main Pinguy OS version, but without most of the applications installed in Pinguy OS. Like the main version, it uses GNOME Shell (3.10) as the default "shell".
The main (full) Pinguy OS version comes with multiple applications for some tasks, for instance there are multiple video players, audio players and web browsers, this allowing the users to try the apps for themselves and decide which is best for them. This is especially useful for users with slow Internet connections. In Pinguy OS Mini, there's only one web browser: Firefox, only one audio/video player: VLC and so on, so it can be used as a tweaked base on top of which you can add your favorite applications.
Pinguy OS 14.04 Mini is not completely stripped-down though: besides VLC and Firefox you'll also find Gedit, Shutter, Nemo, an image viewer and Filebot installed by default, along with some system tools such as GNOME Tweak Tool, Boot Repair, Y PPA Manager and others, available by default.
Pinguy OS 14.04 mini includes all the tweaks included with the full Pinguy OS 14.04 version, such as:
- Netflix woriks out of the box thanks to Pipelight;
- Peerflix and the Firefox scripts about which we wrote a while back are included by default;
- TRIM is enabled for SSDs;
- Liquid Prompt is used by default by the GNOME Terminal;
- The Filebot scripts which we covered recently are included;
- A data recovery script that uses TestDisk is included with Pinguy OS 14.04 Mini;
- TLP (a tool that applies various tweaks to your laptop to save battery power), zram-config, preload (a daemon that stores the frequently used files in memory for faster startup times) and Profile Sync Daemon are included by default;
- And of course, codecs, Java (icedtea and OpenJRE), G-talk plugin and so on are all installed by default;
- many other tweaks.
Also, Pinguy OS Mini looks the same as the main Pinguy OS version: they use the same GNOME Shell extensions, both use Docky and a cool Conky setup, etc.
For more information on Pinguy OS 14.04 (full version), see our alpha 2 post: Pinguy OS 14.04 Alpha Available For Testing
Pinguy OS 14.04 (the full version) will be released in about a week.
Download Pinguy OS 14.04 Mini
Known issues / notes:
- Auto login is disabled by default but you can enable it after installing Pinguy OS via GDM3Setup / Login Screen settings;
- Torrent Streaming via Firefox is not enabled by default. To be able to stream torrents directly from Firefox, open a torrent from Firefox and select to open it with /usr/bin/Torrent-Video-Player For magnet links, select to open the torrent with /usr/bin/Magnet-Video-Player.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Pinguy OS 14.04 Alpha Available For Testing
Pinguy OS 14.04 alpha, an Ubuntu remaster that ships with many popular applications and tweaks, is available for testing.
Pinguy OS is an Ubuntu remaster that uses GNOME Shell by default, customized with extensions such as Gno-Menu, Media Player Indicator, Top Icons and more. It comes with many useful applications and tweaks by default, making Pinguy OS a great alternative for those who don't like to tweak or install applications but want everything to work out of the box.
For instance, in the latest Pinguy OS 14.04 alpha, Netflix works out of the box. Pinguy OS also includes, since version 13.10: TLP (a tool that applies various tweaks to your laptop to save battery power), zram-config, preload (a daemon that stores the frequently used files in memory for faster startup times) and Profile Sync Daemon, among many other tweaks.
Changes in Pinguy OS 14.04 alpha
For 14.04, Pinguy OS comes with some interesting new applications and tweaks available by default. For instance, Peerflix and the Firefox scripts about which we've talked about recently (which allow you to click a torrent in Firefox and start playing it immediately using VLC) are available by default:
Another important change is that TRIM is now used by default. TRIM allows the OS to "inform a solid-state drive (SSD) which blocks of data are no longer considered in use and can be wiped internally". Without using TRIM, the SSD speed decreases after a while so if you have a solid-state drive that supports TRIM, you should enable it so your SSD remains fast over time.
There are also some new default applications:
- FileBot, an application that allows you to batch rename Movie and TV Show files;
- Plex (with various customizations such as the UnsupportedAppstore) has replaced XBMC;
- GNOME Do (quick launcher);
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| Plex Home Theater in Pinguy OS 14.04 alpha |
Other changes include:
- Netflix works out of the box (at least in theory but there's a bug and I had to remove the ~/.wine-pipelight folder to get it to work);
- Liquid Prompt available by default;
- Added Panel OSD GNOME Shell extension (lets you configure where to display the notifications);
- Added Audio Output Switcher GNOME Shell extension (adds a switch for selecting the audio output to the system menu);
- Many bug fixes.
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| Netflix in Pinguy OS 14.04 alpha |
For the GTK theme, Pinguy OS 14.04 continues to use Zukitwo but unlike the previous releases, elementary is no longer used for the window borders and Faience is used instead:
And of course, Pinguy OS 14.04 alpha also includes all the changes available in Ubuntu 14.04 since it includes the same Linux Kernel, xorg server and so on.
Default applications
Among the applications included by default with the latest Pinguy OS 14.04 alpha are: Firefox 28, Thunderbird 24.4.0, LibreOffice 4.2.1, Nemo 2.0.8, Clementine 1.2.1, Steam 1.0.0.45, Skype 4.2.0.11, VLC 2.1.2, GNOME Documents 3.10.1, Empathy 3.10.3, Deluge 3.6, Calibre 1.25.0, Plex Media Server 0.9.9.5.411 (and Plex Home Theater 1.0.11.213), Spotify 0.9.4.183, GNOME Tweak Tool 3.10.1 and Ubuntu Software Center 13.10, among others, on top of GTK 3.10.7 and GNOME Shell 3.10.4.
Like Ubuntu 14.04, the latest PinguyOS alpha includes the 3.13.0-18 Ubuntu Linux Kernel, Xorg server 1.15.0 and Mesa 10.1.0.
And as usual, codecs, Java (icedtea and OpenJRE), G-talk plugin and so on are all installed by default.
Download Pinguy OS 14.04 alpha
Pinguy OS 14.04 is in alpha and you should only use it for testing purposes!
Download Pinguy OS 14.04 alpha (64bit only available while in alpha)
For support, visit the Pinguy OS forums.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Pinguy OS 13.10 Alpha Released With GNOME 3.10
Pinguy OS 13.10 alpha, an Ubuntu remaster that ships with many popular applications and tweaks, is available for testing.
Pinguy OS 13.10 alpha ships with GNOME 3.10
Pinguy OS 13.10 is based on Ubuntu 13.10 and like the previous releases, it uses GNOME Shell with various customizations / extensions by default.
Unlike Ubuntu 13.10, the latest Pinguy OS alpha uses GNOME 3.10 and not 3.8, so you'll get all the goodies available in the latest stable GNOME release: the new compact System Menu, pagination in the GNOME Shell app picker, client side decorations for applications such as Nautilus, GNOME Documents, GNOME Tweak Tool and so on, all the System Settings improvements and more. You can read more about what's new in the latest GNOME 3.10, HERE.
Desktop customizations
Like in the previous releases, Pinguy OS 13.10 alpha uses a stylish, minimalistic Conky setup at the top of the desktop, which displays the current date and time, RAM and CPU usage as well as network download/upload speeds. Docky is still present and there are two instances: one at the bottom, used as a taskbar / app launcher and a second one at the left with auto-hide enabled by default, which lets you quickly access the folders in your home directory.
For the menu, Pinguy OS 13.10 alpha ships with the official GNOME Shell Applications Menu extension (used in the GNOME Classic session introduced with GNOME 3.8). This menu allows you to quickly access installed applications and it also provides access to the Activities Overview, as you can see in the screenshot below:
The Activities hot corner is disabled by default, but like I was saying above, you can access it from the menu and of course, using the default Activities keyboard shortcut (Super key).
Other GNOME Shell extensions included (and enabled) by default in the latest Pinguy OS 13.10 alpha:
- Activities Configurator: lets you configure the Activities button (text, padding, hide text or icon, hot corner sensitivity, etc.);
- AppIndicator Support: the extension we wrote about a while back that adds Ubuntu AppIndicator support to GNOME Shell, though you need to set the indicators placement in panel from its settings (via GNOME Tweak Tool) for it to work;
- Media player indicator: Ubuntu Unity-like sound indicator;
- Messaging Menu: Unity-like messaging menu;
- Skype Integration: adds some features of Skype to GNOME Shell: make use of shell notifications, integrate contact search, add a Skype menu button and more;
- Topicons: shows legacy tray icons on the GNOME Shell Top Bar;
- User Themes: lets you change the GNOME Shell theme;
- Workspace Indicator: displays an indicator on the GNOME Shell Top Bar that displays the current workspace and lets you switch between workspaces;
- Appsearch: searches the software repository and provides results in the GNOME Shell overview.
There are also quite a few extensions that are installed but not enabled by default because they haven't been updated to support the latest GNOME Shell 3.10 yet (although not all will be enabled even after they are updated - some are just to give the user a choice), like Axe Menu, Slingshot App Launcher, Coverflow Alt-Tab, System Monitor, Weather and more.
For the GTK theme, Pinguy OS 13.10 alpha uses Zukitwo, with elementary window borders and Zukitwo as the default GNOME Shell theme. The default icon theme is the beautiful Faience Azur, but more are available, like elementary, all the Faience and Faenza icon themes and more.
Tweaks available by default
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| Netflix under Pinguy OS 13.10 alpha (screenshot via PinguyOS forum) |
Pinguy OS 13.10 alpha ships with various tweaks that contribute to a great default experience:
- Pipelight is installed by default so you can watch Netflix and other video streaming services that require Silverlight in Pinguy OS, without having to configure anything;
- TLP, a tool that applies various tweaks to your laptop to save battery power, is installed by default in the latest Pinguy OS 13.10 alpha;
- zram-config, an upstart script that enables Zram, is used by default for better performance. With this tweak, a RAM based block device is created which acts as a swap disk, but is compressed and stored in memory instead of swap disk (which is slow), allowing very fast I/O and increasing the amount of memory available before the system starts swapping to disk;
- preload is installed by default - this is a daemon that stores the frequently used files in memory for faster startup times;
- Profile Sync Daemon, a tool that moves the web browser profile to RAM, reducing disk writes and providing increased speed and responsiveness, is installed by default but not enabled. For how to enable/configure it, see THIS article.
Default applications
As usual, Pinguy OS ships with quite a few applications installed by default. The latest Pinguy OS 13.10 alpha includes the following applications: Firefox 24, Empathy 3.8.4, Shotwell 0.15.0, LibreOffice 4.1.2, Nautilus 3.8.2 (but 3.10 is available as an update), Gedit 3.10.0, GNOME Documents 3.10.0, GNOME Contacts 3.10.0, Shutter 0.90.1, Steam (steam-launcher) 1.0.0.43, PlayOnLinux 4.2.1, Totem 3.8.2, Pinta 1.3, Rapid Photo Downloader 0.4.6, Deluge 1.3.6, Nautilus-Dropbox 1.4.0, Friends App 0.92.0, Mumble 1.2.3, Remmina 1.0.0, Thunderbird 24.0, XChat 2.8.8, Calibre 1.0.0 (but 1.5.0 is available as an update), Arista Transcoder 0.9.7, Cheese 3.10.0, Clementine 1.1.1, gtkpod 2.1.3, Skype 4.2.0.11, VLC 2.0.8, XBMC 13.0 alpha8, OpenShot Video Editor 1.4.3, Spotify 1.4.3, Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.6, GParted 0.16.2, FileZilla 3.7.3, GNOME Tweak Tool 3.10.0, Ubuntu Software Center 13.10 and more on top of GTK 3.10.
Like Ubuntu 13.10, the latest PinguyOS alpha includes the 3.11.0-12.19 Ubuntu Linux Kernel based on the upstream 3.11.3 Linux Kernel, Xorg server 1.14.3 and Mesa 9.2.1.
And as usual, codecs, Java (icedtea and OpenJRE), Adobe Flash, G-talk plugin and so on are all installed by default.
Download Pinguy OS 13.10 alpha
Pinguy OS 13.10 is still in alpha so use it for testing only!
Download Pinguy OS 13.10 alpha | torrent (64bit only available while in alpha)
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Pinguy OS 14.04 Released, See What`s New
After releasing the Mini ISO about 2 weeks ago, +Antoni has released PinguyOS 14.04 (full) recently, an Ubuntu (14.04) remaster that ships with many popular applications and tweaks.
Pinguy OS is an Ubuntu remaster that uses GNOME Shell (3.10) by default, customized with extensions such as Gno-Menu, Media Player Indicator, Top Icons and more. It comes with many useful applications and tweaks by default, making Pinguy OS a great alternative for those who don't like to tweak or install applications but want everything to work out of the box.
Changes in Pinguy OS 14.04 LTS
 |
| Netflix works out of the box in Pinguy OS 14.04 |
Pinguy OS 14.04 ships with some new tweaks by default:
- Neflix works out of the box thanks to Pipelight;
- Peerflix is installed by default and so are the Firefox scripts which we've covered recently, which allow opening torrent files in Firefox and playing them directly with VLC;
- TRIM is enabled for SSDs;
- Liquid Prompt is used by default by the GNOME Terminal;
- The Filebot scripts which we covered recently are included;
- A data recovery script that uses TestDisk is included with Pinguy OS 14.04.
These are the new tweaks included with Pinguy OS 14.04 but there are many other tweaks / apps that improve the user experience available by default such as TLP (a tool that applies various tweaks to your laptop to save battery power), zram-config, preload (a daemon that stores the frequently used files in memory for faster startup times) and Profile Sync Daemon.
Pinguy OS 14.04 also ships with some new default applications: GNOME Do, Filebot (an application that allows you to back rename movie and TV show files) and Plex (with various customizations such as the UnsupportedAppstore), which has replaced XBMC:
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| Plex Home Theater |
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| Plex Home Theater - UnsupportedAppStore |
GNOME Shell customizations
The latest Pinguy OS 14.04 ships with GNOME 3.10 by default but it was tweaked so you can easily upgrade to GNOME 3.12 - according to Antoni Norman, to make it work with GNOME 3.12, he had to add Restore-Extensions to startup which forces the extensions to start and "if you want to add extra Extensions and have them start you will need to remove Restore-Extensions from startup".
Pinguy OS 14.04 continues to use Docky, like in the previous releases: a bottom dock used as a taskbar / app launcher and a second dock at the left with auto-hide enabled by default, which lets you quickly access the folders in your home directory.
For the menu, Pinguy OS 14.04 uses Gno-menu, a traditional styled GNOME Shell menu "that aims to offer all the essentials in a simple uncluttered intuitive interface". The Activities hot corner is disabled by default but you can enable it from the Gno-menu preferences or you can access the Activities Overview by using the Super (Windows) key:
This Pinguy OS release ships with 5 new extensions:
- Panel OSD GNOME Shell extension (lets you configure where to display the notifications);
- Audio Output Switcher GNOME Shell extension (adds a switch for selecting the audio output to the system menu);
- Better volume indicator (displays the volume level while scrolling the indicator and allows you to toggle mute using the scroll/middle button)
- Insensitive message tray (renders the bottom message tray insensitive so that it doesn't show up automatically when the mouse pointer is placed at the bottom edge of the screen.);
- An extension that makes GNOME Shell ignore requests to hide the titlebar for maximized windows.
Besides the extensions mentioned above, Pinguy OS 14.04 uses the following GNOME Shell extensions by default:
- AppIndicator support: use AppIndicators in GNOME Shell;
- Coverflow alt-tab;
- Frippery move clock: moves the clock to the left of the status menu button;
- Gno-menu;
- Media player indicator;
- TopIcons (displays legacy tray icons in the top bar);
- User themes.
For the GTK theme, Pinguy OS 14.04 uses Zukitwo, with Faience window borders and Zukitwo-Light as the default GNOME Shell theme. The default icon theme is the beautiful Faience Azur, but more are available, like elementary, all the Faience and Faenza icon themes and more.
Default applications
Applications included by default with Pinguy OS 14.04: Nemo file manager (the patched version I maintain, without Cinnamon dependencies), Firefox 29, Thunderbird 24.5, LibreOffice 4.2.3, Clementine 1.2.3, Steam, Skype 4.2.0.11, VLC 2.1.5, Empathy 3.10.3, Deluge 1.3.6, Calibre 1.36.0, Plex Mediaserver 0.9.9.7.429 and Plex Home Theater 1.0.13.222, Spotify 0.9.4.183, GNOME Tweak Tool 3.10.1 and Ubuntu Software Center 13.10, among others, on top of GTK 3.10.8 and GNOME Shell 3.10.4.
And of course, codecs, Java (icedtea and OpenJRE), G-talk plugin and so on are all installed by default.
Like Ubuntu 14.04, the latest PinguyOS includes the 3.13 Ubuntu Linux Kernel, Xorg server 1.15.1 and Mesa 10.1.0.
Download Pinguy OS 14.04 LTS (full)
For support visit the Pinguy OS Forums.
Pinguy OS Mini ISO: Pinguy OS 14.04 Mini Available For Download
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Pinguy OS 13.10 Released [Screenshots, Video]
Pinguy OS 13.10 (based on Ubuntu 13.10) has been released with GNOME 3.10 by default, along with some new tweaks.
Pinguy OS is a remastered Ubuntu with a lot of useful default applications - great for those who don't like to do a lot of tweaking and want an OS that "just works".
This is the final 13.10 release but it's called beta because only LTS releases are considered stable.
Non-LTS Pinguy OS releases use bleeding edge software - for instance, the latest 13.10 ships with XBMC 13 alpha as well as GNOME 13.10 which isn't included by default in Ubuntu 13.10 so it's not considered fully stable.
The latest Pinguy OS 13.10 ships with the GNOME 3.10 desktop with GNOME Shell as the default "shell", customized with various extensions. Since GNOME 3.10 is used, it means you'll get all the goodies available in the latest stable GNOME, which aren't available in Ubuntu 13.10 by default: client side decorations for applications such as GNOME Tweak Tool, GNOME Documents and so on, the new GNOME Shell System Menu, pagination in the GNOME Shell app picker, all the System Settings improvements included in GNOME 3.10 and more. You can read more about what's new in GNOME 3.10, HERE (also see: How to install GNOME 3.10 in Ubuntu 13.10).
Pinguy OS 13.10 video
Below you can watch a quick Pinguy OS 13.10 overview:
(direct video link)
GNOME Shell customizations
Pinguy OS 13.10 continues to use Docky, like in the previous releases: a bottom dock used as a taskbar / app launcher and a second dock at the left with auto-hide enabled by default, which lets you quickly access the folders in your home directory.
For the menu, Pinguy OS 13.10 uses Gno-menu, a traditional styled GNOME Shell menu "that aims to offer all the essentials in a simple uncluttered intuitive interface". The Activities hot corner is disabled by default but you can enable it from the Gno-menu preferences or you can access the Activities Overview by using the Super (Windows) key:
Other GNOME Shell extensions enabled by default in Pinguy OS 13.10:
- Frippery move clock: moves the clock on the right;
- Media player indicator: Ubuntu Unity-like sound indicator;
- Messaging Menu: Unity-like messaging menu;
- TopIcons: shows legacy tray icons on the GNOME Shell Top Bar;
- User Themes: lets you change the GNOME Shell theme;
- Workspace indicator: displays an indicator on the GNOME Shell Top Bar that indicates the current workspace and lets you switch between workspaces;
- Appsearch: searches the software repository and provides results in the GNOME Shell overview.
- Ignore request hide titlebar: makes GNOME Shell ignore requests to hide the titlebar for maximized windows.
For the GTK theme, Pinguy OS 13.10 uses Zukitwo, with elementary window borders and Zukitwo as the default GNOME Shell theme. The default icon theme is the beautiful Faience Azur, but more are available, like elementary, all the Faience and Faenza icon themes and more.
Tweaks available by default
Pinguy OS 13.10 ships with various tweaks that contribute to a great default experience:
- Pipelight is installed by default so you can watch Netflix and other video streaming services that require Silverlight in Pinguy OS, without having to configure anything;
- TLP, a tool that applies various tweaks to your laptop to save battery power, is installed by default in the latest Pinguy OS 13.10;
- zram-config, an upstart script that enables Zram, is used by default for better performance. With this tweak, a RAM based block device is created which acts as a swap disk, but is compressed and stored in memory instead of swap disk (which is slow), allowing very fast I/O and increasing the amount of memory available before the system starts swapping to disk;
- preload is installed by default - this is a daemon that stores the frequently used files in memory for faster startup times;
- Profile Sync Daemon, a tool that moves the web browser profile to RAM, reducing disk writes and providing increased speed and responsiveness, is installed by default but not enabled. For how to enable/configure it, see THIS article.
Default applications
In Pinguy OS 13.10, Nemo is the default file manager, replacing Nautilus. Along with Nemo, there are also two nice plugins installed by default: IMDB Thumbnailer (sets movie covers fetched from IMDB as thumbnails in Nemo / Nautilus) and Cover Thumbnailer (displays images as folder thumbnails, useful for image folders or music folders that include cover art):
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| IMDB Thumbnailer with Nemo file manager - screenshot via PinguyOS Forum |
Another interesting change in the latest Pinguy OS 13.10 is the addition of the Windows version of Adobe Flash, used instead of the native Linux Flash (which only receives bugfixes) thanks to Pipelight. And also, as I mentioned above, Silverlight has been added and enabled by default with the help of Pipelight:
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| Native Firefox with Adobe Flash Player 11.9 and Microsoft Silverlight plugins, both running under Wine with Pipelight |
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| Netflix under Pinguy OS 13.10 (screenshot via PinguyOS forum) |
A new default application has been added: Variety, a cool wallpaper changer that can automatically download wallpapers from sources such as Wallbase, Flickr, Wallpapers.net and more.
Among the applications included by default with the latest Pinguy OS 13.10 are: Firefox 25, Thunderbird 24.1.1, LibreOffice 4.1.3, Nemo 2.0.8, Clementine 1.2.0 (but 1.2.1 is available as an update) Steam 1.0.0.45, Skype 4.2.0.11 VLC 2.0.8, GNOME Documents 3.10, Empathy 3.10.2, Deluge 3.6, Calibre 1.13.0, Cheese 3.10, XBMC 13 alpha, Spotify 0.9.4.183, GNOME Tweak Tool 3.10.1 and Ubuntu Software Center 13.10, among others, on top of GTK 3.10.5 and GNOME Shell 3.10.2.1.
Like Ubuntu 13.10, the latest PinguyOS includes the 3.11.0 Ubuntu Linux Kernel, Xorg server 1.14.3 and Mesa 9.2.1.
And as usual, codecs, Java (icedtea and OpenJRE), G-talk plugin and so on are all installed by default.
Download Pinguy OS 13.10 (beta 3 - final)
For support visit the Pinguy OS Forum.
Create A Custom Ubuntu Or Linux Mint ISO With PinguyBuilder
PinguyBuilder is a script which allows creating a customized Live CD/Live USB (remaster) of Ubuntu or Linux Mint, that can be used either as a distributable ISO or as a backup.
The script is a fork of remastersys, created by the Pinguy OS developer and it's actually the tool used to build Pinguy OS.
PinguyBuilder allows creating a complete system backup (including user data) or a distributable ISO or filesystem and from its UI, it allows selecting a boot menu picture, Plymouth theme as well as the user whose settings will be used as default.
Other features include: EFI support (including EFI partition on ISO), offline install of grub-efi-amd64-signed (so it works with Linux Mint), MDM and GDM support and more.
The tool comes with a GTK user interface but it can also be used from the command line - simply run "sudo PinguyBuilder" and follow the instructions.
It's important to mention that you can't build an ISO larger than 4GB and you'll need GDebi to install PinguyBuilder or else the app may not start, according to its release notes (GDebi is no longer required).
Download PinguyBuilder
Version 3.x is for Ubuntu 14.04 and version 4.x is for Ubuntu 15.04+. For Ubuntu 15.10, you'll need to manually download and install xresprobe (download: 32bit | 64bit) because this package is not available in the official repositories any more.
Important note: remove remastersys before installing PinguyBuilder to avoid any incompatibility issues.
Important note: remove remastersys before installing PinguyBuilder to avoid any incompatibility issues.
Make sure you read the FAQ on its download page before installing PinguyBuilder!
Thanks to Antoni for the tip!
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