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Welcome to the 152nd issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!

The power of collaborative development is doing wonders in the world of computing. Open source software is no longer just a cheaper alternative to those premium software tools, but now they are technically superior and user centric too. There are open source alternatives now for all types of software’s in cloud computing, OS, editing tools, office suites and the list just goes on. Today we take a closer look into UM Player (Universal Media player), an Open Source media player which is in fact gaining huge user base in Ubuntu community too.

So I am reading this article about the big Apple malware fail and see this challenge in the comments: Hey, Linux luvvers: tell me how to install OpenType fonts so they're available to all apps and all users. Go ahead, I have pretty much the whole weekend…I am always up for a challenge.

LXer Feature: 20-Jun-2011

In the Roundup this week we have both the killing of the Linux Desktop and the fall of OpenOffice.org, Jeff Hoogland talks about the first time Linux experience, 10 ways in which Ubuntu can improve Unity, Graham Morrison's top 10 Linux distros of 2011 and our own Hans Kwint asks why Gnome and Ubuntu don't understand 'usability'. Enjoy!

DoudouLinux is a Debian-based distribution targeting young children, with a goal to make computer use as simple and pleasant as possible. The project's version 1.0,doudou_linux code name "Gondwana".

This document describes how to install a Postfix mail server that is based on virtual users and domains, i.e. users and domains that are in a MySQL database. I'll also demonstrate the installation and configuration of Courier (Courier-POP3, Courier-IMAP), so that Courier can authenticate against the same MySQL database Postfix uses. The resulting Postfix server is capable of SMTP-AUTH and TLS and quota. Passwords are stored in encrypted form in the database. In addition to that, this tutorial covers the installation of Amavisd, SpamAssassin and ClamAV so that emails will be scanned for spam and viruses. I will also show how to install SquirrelMail as a webmail interface so that users can read and send emails and change their passwords.

In SpaceChem you combine atoms to form molecules and move, grab, rotate them over a pair of circuits. You have to try to fit different types of actions for each level to get everything in tandem between both the circuits. On each of the circuit, you get a Waldos, a helper which executes the command you lay down on the circuit path. The ultimate aim is to create a reaction where the final result is creation of a chemical substance. The game contains over 50 mind twisting puzzles. Fans of chemicals, alchemy and periodic tables will find this game to be highly fun.

First of, I never ever been a fan of Adobe Air apps, their lack of integration with the native OS UI (At least on Linux) is a big turn off of me. Hence when Adobe announced that they would be pulling the plugs off adobe air for Linux. My reaction, similar to that of many Linux users, was Meh

Nailing down the Linux kernel power regressions (see Linux Has Major Power Regression and Another Major Linux Power Regression Spotted) has made a big step forward this weekend. Not only to fix up these major kernel power regressions that are hitting many mobile Linux users, but to look further into the state of Linux power management is now possible and to closely analyze other areas of the Linux stack to find other areas for improvement.

Well it looks like the incubator is working full time at 4D, as a new platform for Apps has just been pressed out, in less than 2 years and is waiting for developers to test their skills on it.

Google is activating some 400,000 new Android devices every single day now(source) and Android is already the fastest growing and most popular smartphone OS in many parts of the world. In tune with its rising popularity, Android's applications base is also showing stupendous growth. We have already featured a bunch of must have open source Android applications and now here is a collection of Android apps dedicated to travelers among you.

Yesterday, my kids were making a home movie to send to my mother in law. They'd made up some songs, which I'd recorded and were shooting the video to go with them. I suggested that they should edit the video in iMovie on my macbook pro. I figured that they should be able to cope fine with it - they've used macs at school to edit video and together with the "legendary" ease of use and "just works" approach of Apple software, it should be no problem. Sadly, they never got to try.

Do you have DVDs that you want to back up or take portable? Of course you do. Well, ripping those DVDs doesn’t have to be a major chore. In fact, ripping DVDs can be quite easy. If you’re a Linux user, you have a number of excellent options. And you can turn to the command line or go GUI. Going GUI can be a bit easier, especially if you only rip DVD once in a blue moon. With a GUI application, you don’t have to worry about remembering (or forgetting) lengthy command strings. Presented for your consideration OGMRip. It’s an easy-to-use and efficient GUI application for ripping DVDs. Let’s take a look at how to use it.

In the spirit of the famous article by Edsger Dijkstra, Microsoft says, in a piece entitled "WebGL considered harmful", that the 3D technology is not secure enough for its products. The blog post lists three reasons for this conclusion: first, browser support for WebGL gives web applications direct access to hardware; second, there could be security flaws in third-party software (such as in graphics drivers); and finally, Microsoft says that operating systems do not currently offer any protection against denial-of-service attacks on graphics cards. "We believe that WebGL will likely become an ongoing source of hard-to-fix vulnerabilities. In its current form, WebGL is not a technology Microsoft can endorse from a security perspective." However, Microsoft itself plans to access graphics card hardware directly in the upcoming Silverlight 5. In other words, the criticism of WebGL may stem not only from security concerns, but also from marketing interests.

"The thing people used to care about, and the reason they chose Windows, was because there was a huge number of applications available for the platform, so they had the inertia of having lots of installed users and that led to lots of applications users could use," said Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin. "What users care about now from the applications perspective is the Internet."

The Bordeaux Group 50% off sale will end on Sunday June 19th 2011. The price for Bordeaux for Linux and BSD will go from the current $10.00 per license to the normal selling price of $20.00 per license.

The Fuduntu team is pleased to announce the general availability of Fuduntu 14.10. This release continues our tradition of small incremental improvements bringing new versions of several important packages, and bug fixes to the Fuduntu Linux distribution.

Physics is a natural science concerned with the study of matter and energy applying laws that govern natural phenomena. It encompasses the study of the universe from the largest galaxies to subatomic particles, covering mechanics, radiation, heat, electricity, sound, magnetism and the structure of atoms.

First of all, I’d like to point out this article doesn’t include full-fledged IDEs, I’ll leave those for another article. So in conclusion you won’t find here Emacs, nor Vim or Eclipse and so on. This article overviews text editors, which may or may have not features belonging to a programming environment, like indentation or syntax highlighting, but aren’t full-blown development environments.

I use iptables by many years and used it also for complex solutions and only recently i’ve discovered ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall), the ubuntu version, or better developed to ease iptables firewall configuration, ufw provides a user friendly way to create an IPv4 or IPv6 host-based firewall. By default UFW is disabled.