I just had the opportunity to download Google Chrome for Linux yesterday..I believe I was a little late off the mark but in fairness, they were supposed to email me about it when it became available and they didn’t.  So, at any rate I finally got it..I’ve been waiting excitedly as I do love to do these reviews lol..

So, what can I say about Google Chrome for Linux so far?  For one thing, it’s minimal.  I am used to everything under the sun being available with my beloved Opera browser.  Chrome is very minimalistic and there is definitely a large audience that surely appeals to.  For my part, it was a strange feeling but not unpleasant at all.  At first, I couldn’t figure out why it looked a little off and then I realized that by default, the system window decoration is disabled.  Once I enabled that, it looked right, and nice.  There’s not much to it but it is full of rounded edges and smooth lines.  I was taken to a page reminiscent of Opera’s speed dial, where one of the pages was just for themes.  I personally didn’t find any of the so called artist themes to be very good at all, but a couple of Google’s own themes were quite nice and I ended up with a nice deep and dark blue, a color I don’t yet have as one of my now four web browser colors.

The address bar at the top dominates much of the toolbar real estate but that’s okay; it does double duty as a search bar too (with Google of course) and you can add other search engines too..I added them all but Bing since I don’t do Microsuck products.  The new tab page (that has the speed dial like setup) contains your most frequently visited pages, with the option to pin them there to keep permanently or they can change as often as you browse different places.  In the Firefox tradition, there are lots of extensions to choose from.  Of course, one that I had to have was mouse gestures but it proved a difficult task to find one that worked with Linux (take a cue from Opera!)  I also got a Tab manager and a Scroll Searcher that takes whatever text I am searching and finds the isntances of it on the resulting pages and I can click on it and go straight to that text.  I really like that!

There was an option to import settings and bookmarks and such but it didn’t do Flock or Opera and Firefox just takes up real estate on my hard drive and little else.  Tabs are moveable, removeable, and droppable.  Browsing in “incognito” mode keeps your browsing out of the history.  There are several important options to tweak but few overall, keeping with the minimalist nature.  Last but not quite least is the web page options button that drops down for cut/paste options and so forth.  The address bar slides out when needed and hides when it’s not.

As to browsing itself..I had mixed emotions on it.  There for the first few times I searched things and periodically afterwards, this browser gets my highest honor of “Wow-fast.”  Then, at other times, it’s slow, usually when doing a keyword search..this could be one of the extensions I installed, no idea.  I will keep an eye on it in the future. 

To summarize, I enjoyed the experience of using this browser and will keep it around to see what else it can do.  It is very intuitive and there’s no real learning curve to it at all, making it super newbie friendly for anyone.

testing

Okay, I have been busy for those of you who may be wondering why I haven’t rushed to put out a review of Linux Mint 8. The reason is that I have been installing it. As I make no secret of it, while I try to be impartial, I do prefer Linux Mint as my choice of Operating System. Unfortunately, for me, this install has not been as much fun as it usually is. First of all, my backup data disk went awry when Brasero ate my entire .opera file, which contained all my backups for my mail accounts, passwords, speed dial boxes and bookmarks. Yes, yes I did shed a few tears as you may imagine. Even worse, as I had been neglecting my Opera community for quite some time now, I had no idea about Opera Link. <–cries some more. So it has taken me the better part of 5 days to reset everything..and I do mean everything. So I am not writing this review of Linux Mint 8 in the best of moods, so please bear that in mind. Okay here we go!

Running a Linux Mint 8 Live CD, I boot into an adorable Linux Mint logo that’s animated! Then the splash screen really grabs my attention. I understand Zwopper of the Mint community is to “blame” for this beautiful background. Nice Job!

As I dutifully read the release notes, I first checked out the Update Manager. The default time on the auto-refresh has been changed to 15 minutes instead of 5, which is much better although I still set mine to run just twice a day. My favourite feature of the new and improved Update Manager is that you now have the option to ignore updates from any packages that you specify. This is great, as I got really tired of running through long lists of updates wishing that I wouldn’t get Tomboy updates! Additionally, from the Update Manager you can choose your software sources from a list or add your own (I added the GetDeb repository) and you can also choose which server to download from as well as view the security keys. The Update Manager has been vastly improved!

On to one of my favourite Minty features, the MintMenu. The Menu Preferences option (accessed by right clicking the MintMenu icon) has been greatly improved also. There are now options for showing the side pane, recent documents, and you can change the main button icon size, button text and you can input your own search command if you don’t wish to use the Gnome default. You can show or hide application comments, category icons, their size, and the colors used on the menu <–that was particularly useful to me as I use a dark theme, so I had to change the menu background to dark also to be able to read it. On the favorites section of the menu, you can adjust how many columns there are as well as adjust the size of the icons here too. You can even swap the names in the menu entries with the generic names. A very nice new feature (for those who use the menu way more than I do) is the ability to now add custom places to the Places section and rearrange them in the list. I’m a Gnome-Do addict so I don’t make use of that much, but many people will be very happy with that feature. On the System section, you can’t add any custom items but you can remove some things if you don’t want them there.

On to themes…
As usual, Mint has the best backgrounds of anyone. My big gripe though is that there were a couple of really pretty ones for Gloria that were not included with Helena *cries* so now I am going to have to go after them if I want them back (and I do). The Minty good themes are here, with Aurora Mint, Carbon, Felicia and Cassandra Mints, Peppermint (which is cute), Shiki-Dust and Wise (odd name, good theme) but I was dismayed to see WildMint in there (bleh!) Speaking of themes, the LOGIN THEME IS HIDEOUS!!! Can you tell I don’t like it? I mean, seriously, someone have a brain fart? (Yeah, I’m annoyed about that..I miss my zombies greeting me when I log in!)

(I rip myself from that line of thinking with an audible pop!) Okay, so on to other various items…Wireless worked right out of the box with one click to choose my wireless connection. A new item, Disk Utility, in the Control Center was nice, giving me all the dirty details of my partitions, file system info whatnot. I kinda miss the Computer Janitor though..that was nice. As for the sound improvements, my laptop is so much louder now, I am very happy about that, although going into Sound is different now and I didn’t have the opportunity to ‘test’ the items like I did before but since the sound is better I guess I can’t complain. The Upload Manager has been changed, but to what degree I’m unclear about, since I never have cause to use it, I’ll have to let someone else review the good and bad on that (sorry!)

The Software Manager..uh, both of them? lol..okay somehow there are two entries in the Control Center that I just now caught (as I used it from the menu earlier) but anyway, whichever one you want to use is greatly improved! You can now install multiple apps at the same time and it’s great to see the reviews still there and ratings..those help a newbie a lot. I love the screenshots showing up in the lower corner, out of the way and thereby more useful. More info (when clicked) pops up with..more info..right away instead of having to wait on it to load. I also like the categories, being able to choose from what I can install, what I have installed, and what changes I’ve made..that’s good stuff right there.

Oh, yes, about the install screen on the Live CD, I really enjoyed the install screen. It was great having something to read while I waited, as I didn’t have anything to make for a snack! And afterward, booting and shutdown are much faster on this version than on Gloria (not that they were slow then)

SUMMARY:

Things I liked:
MintMenu improvements
Software Manager Improvements
Disk Utility
Major Sound Improvements (Pulse Audio)
Update Manager Improvements
Beautiful Artwork

Things I didn’t like:
WHERE IS MY GNOME-DO???? It’s a Gnome Desktop after all! (I installed it but still..geez!)
The most amazingly hideous login screen I’ve ever seen on any distro, ever!
Computer Janitor went away
I would have liked to be able to test my sounds
Totem (as usual) <–someone kill that app for good and put it out of its misery.
Log in screen no longer configurable at all….THIS IS ALMOST A DEAL BREAKER! (fortunately I’m not that shallow yet)
Won’t remember my time zone

Okay, on one hand the improvements made on Helena were great, but the bad things were really bad..kind of a mixed bag here but as far as newbie friendliness goes (and of course that’s what I review based on) I do of course give Helena a resounding A, and a definite A for looks too. I think if some of the obvious things are fixed (HIDEOUS LOGIN SCREEN) then this will be the best Mint yet!
I saw a comment on the forums about how Mint shouldn’t necessarily follow the release schedule of Ubuntu. I think I agree with this. After all, if Ubuntu was doing it right, Mint wouldn’t be called “Ubuntu done right.” I think more time should be taken to make sure things are the best they can be, even if it means impatiently waiting
Oh, and one final thing..something I would like to see is Mandriva’s amazing interactive firewall <–I reviewed the latest Mandriva and that was the best feature on the whole distro.

Check out my latest blog entries!

From: http://www.newlinuxuser.info/blog.html

Linux Mint 8 is now out! Enjoy!

From: http://www.linuxmint.com/

The 8th installment of Linux Mint, called Helena, is out now.  In about 4 days I will download it and give it a review.  Why wait?  Well, normally I would just go ahead and download it, try it and review it but since Linux Mint is my installed operating system of choice, I want to wait a few days to make sure there aren’t any major bugs that need fixing first.  Of course, even if there are, Clem and Gang will be all over it within a day.

So look for my review of Linux Mint 8 Helena in a few days.  Congratulations to Clem and Company for getting this rolled out.

The 8th incarnation of Linux Mint, named Helena, is just about here. As of this writing, the RC1 (or release candidate 1 for us nerds) is being tested and the bugs getting flushed. I can’t wait for the new version, to see what Clem and Company have done to wow us this time. As soon as it comes out, I will be reviewing it (and installing it of course!)

to be continued…

Recently, I was talking to a friend of mine and he mentioned how he had Google Voice but he never used it.  I was curious about it, so I researched it and found out that Google Voice is a phone manager service.  I’m going to quote heavily from the website because there is so much to tell.

About Google Voice
“Google Voice gives you one number for all your phones — a phone number that is tied to you, not to a device or a location. Use Google Voice to simplify the way you use phones, make using voicemail as easy as email, customize your callers’ experience, and more.

Google Voice isn’t a phone service, but it lets you manage all of your phones. Google Voice works with mobile phones, desk phones, work phones, and VoIP lines. There’s nothing to download, upload, or install, and you don’t have to make or take calls using a computer.

Google Voice will let you define which phones ring, based on who’s calling, and even let you ListenIn^TM on voicemail before answering the call. We use smart technology to route your calls. So, if you’re already on a Google Voice call, we’ll recognize it and use call waiting to reach you on the phone you’re on.

Note: At this time Google Voice is only available in the U.S.”

If it sounds like Google Voice does a lot, that’s because it does! Check out the features list:
“
* A single Google forwarding number to all of the user’s phones
* Free calls and SMS in the US and Canada
* Calling international phone numbers for as low as US$0.02 per minute
* Call screening. Announcement of callers based on their number or by an automated identification request for blocked numbers
* Listening in on someone’s recording of a voice message before taking a call
* Blocking calls from specified numbers
* Send, receive, and store SMS online
* Answering incoming calls on any configured phone
* Call routing. Selection of phones that should ring based on calling number
* Voicemail transcripts. Reading of voicemail messages online
* Listening to voicemail online or from a phone
* Notification of voicemail messages via email or SMS
* Personalized greetings based on calling number
* Forward or downloading of voicemails
* Conference calling
* Call recording and online archiving
* Switching of phones during a call
* Viewing the web inbox from a mobile device/phone
* Customize preferences for contacts by group
* Ability to change your number for a fee
* Specifying an existing phone number instead of the Google Voice number on initial setup for use with limited functionality, such as some voicemail functions.[18] and using the voice mail system for the user’s phone number (mobile devices only).[19]“

Okay so now you have an idea of what it is and what it does, I’ll relate my experience with it and why I like it so much.

First, I chose my new Google number. You can use your existing number but with limited functionality. For choosing the new number, you can search either by area code or by zip code. I recommend the latter as it’s easier to get local calling numbers this way. Then you set up your own numbers for GV to verify. I used my home number and my cell number. Then you are taken to your GV account, where you can set up GV’s voicemail to replace the voicemail you have already.

I set up GV voicemail for my home phone but not for my cellphone. Then you can record whatever you want your voicemail to be. It doesn’t want to recognize instrumental versions of songs (I tried to record the theme song of Transformers but I ended up with a funny song by Peter Griffin) so I recommend something with words. To receive notifications of new voicemails, you can either call your GV number, or you can get email notifications or text messages (which I chose). Not only does the text message tell me I have a new voicemail but it also gives me a transcription of the actual message!

There is caller id in and out, a do not disturb option, call screening with an available option to listen in while the voicemail is being left.

Calls in the U.S. made with your GV number are free! Calls to other countries are rated by country but still very good rates.

You can group contacts in 3 different ways, and can manage groups setting up greetings and which phone to ring specific to each group.

My favorite things about GV are the transcribed voicemails texted to me and the free calls that I can make outside my local calling area.

I could use some traffic on my blog..if you care to help, check out http://pariah73.blogspot.com

Here in a week or so, whenever I get the time, I will be switching web hosts..I keep getting crappy ones with outages out the wahzoooo I will probably switch my main site NewLinuxUser.net over to Weebly..They are fantastic, never a down time since I’ve been using them for my second site and best yet, free with no ads!! Weebly rocks!