The small details: Panel layouts

April 13, 2016 — Articles — The small details

In this series the Xubuntu team present some of the smaller details in Xubuntu to help you use your system more efficiently. Several of the features covered in this series are new for those who will be upgrading from 14.04 LTS to 16.04 LTS. We will also cover some features that have been in Xubuntu for longer, for those that are completely new to the operating system.

In 2015, the Xubuntu team created and introduced the Xfce4 Panel Switch, a tool that allows you to work efficiently with panel layouts. The tool allows you to either choose from presets available, and create and backup your own. Let’s have a look!

Switching panel layouts

Xfce4 Panel Switch is an intuitively simple tool to use. Simply select one of the presets and press Apply Configuration (first button from the left) to immediately start using the new layout. On the default installation, you can choose from Xubuntu Classic, Xubuntu Modern, Xfce 4.12, GNOME2 or Redmond.

Saving, exporting and importing

If you’re someone who prefers to create a completely customized layout, the tool has something for you as well. To put the tool to the test, why not create a new panel setup?

To edit panel preferences, go to Settings Manager → Panel and from the opening dialog, add and remove panels and change panel settings as you like. You can even change its orientation or even have it as a Deskbar so you can move it about the desktop.

When you are ready, go back to the panel switcher and press Save Configuration to save the setup. You can now switch between your newly created layout and the presets whenever you want.

Finally, you can use the Export and Import options to move your layouts to and use them on any machine with the tool installed.

My media manager: The cloud

April 12, 2016 — Articles — My media manager

Xubuntu 16.04 LTS will be the first Xubuntu release without a default media manager. To help those without a favorite one, we’ve put up this series where some of the Xubuntu team members talk about their favorite media managers. Later in the series we discuss some cloud services and other media manager options in the Ubuntu repositories. Enjoy!

In addition to the more traditional media managers which manage local collections, more and more people use cloud based streaming services. In this article, we talk about the cloud services and players used by the Xubuntu team.

Google Play Music

Google Play Music is available widely in the world, coverage areas including most of the Americas, Europe, Australia and more. You can use Google Play Music for free, but paid subscription options are available. Their song catalogue covers 35 million songs.

David: I mainly listen to music locally, CDs and vinyls. At work I usually use Google Play Music. Apart from their huge catalogue, there’s also the possibility of uploading up to 50000 songs, using the Google Play Music Manager API.

Elizabeth: I also listen to a lot of music locally, typically MP3s I’ve bought or created from CDs. However, I also have a monthly subscription to Google Play Music for the latest music I don’t feel compelled to buy directly. I’m using the web-based player in Google Chrome on Xubuntu, but it also seamlessly integrates with all my Android devices (including my watch!) via the Android apps.

Pandora

Pandora is available in Australia, New Zealand and the United States only. Their song catalogue is between one and two million songs.

The easiest way to use Pandora on Xubuntu is the web interface at pandora.com. For those seeking tighter or geekier (read: more fun) integration with the desktop, there are unofficial GTK+ and terminal clients available. The GTK+ client, Pithos, includes sound indicator and notification support. The terminal client, pianobar, allows station management and playback, as well as keybinding support. Both clients are available in the Ubuntu repositories.

Sean: I stream all of my music. I have a small music library from when I was younger, but became bored with my own lack of variety. While I occasionally use Spotify, I almost always stream Pandora, switching between the web interface, Android application, and the Pithos GTK+ client. If I’ve got music playing, it’s coming from one of my 50+ Pandora stations.

Spotify

Spotify is available widely in the world, coverage areas including most of the Americas, Europe and Australia. You can use Spotify for free, but paid subscription options are available. Their song catalogue covers about 30 million songs.

Currently, the easiest way to use Spotify on Xubuntu is the web interface at play.spotify.com. Playing and browsing works well with the web interface, but if you want desktop integration (sound indicator and notifications), you will have to install the desktop client. The desktop client isn’t available from the Ubuntu repositories directly, but Spotify offers their own repository and instructions on setting the desktop app up at the Spotify website. Please note: The desktop client is unsupported by Spotify. Since it’s closed source, it is also unsupported by the Xubuntu team. That said, our experience says it works well for most of the people and is totally worth trying if you want to use Spotify with desktop integration.

Pasi: While I mostly listen to music locally, I occasionally use Spotify to listen to new music that I want to try before I buy. For this purpose the web interface is more than good enough – the collection is also large enough to find most of the things I’m looking for.

The small details: Personal information integration

April 11, 2016 — Articles — The small details

In this series the Xubuntu team present some of the smaller details in Xubuntu to help you use your system more efficiently. Several of the features covered in this series are new for those who will be upgrading from 14.04 LTS to 16.04 LTS. We will also cover some features that have been in Xubuntu for longer, for those that are completely new to the operating system.

We have talked about customizing in this series before, but now we take a look at another aspect of it; personal information and its integration.

The Xubuntu team has created an application called Mugshot to manage your personal data. With Mugshot, you can change your personal information, including your user image, name and initials and it will take care of integrating the information in supporting applications like the login screen, LibreOffice Writer and Calc, Pidgin.

Adding your personal information

To run Mugshot, go to Settings Manager → About Me. To add your personal information, simply fill in the form.

The first installed user and any added admin users will be able to change any field. Normal users can change their image and most of the fields, this type of user will not be able to change phone numbers.

To add a user image, click on the placeholder image on the left side of the dialog and select your preferred user image. If you have a webcam connected, you can use it to take a photo of yourself to use.

Finally, click Apply and you are done!

The small details: Text editor and terminal color schemes

April 8, 2016 — Articles — The small details

In this series the Xubuntu team present some of the smaller details in Xubuntu to help you use your system more efficiently. Several of the features covered in this series are new for those who will be upgrading from 14.04 LTS to 16.04 LTS. We will also cover some features that have been in Xubuntu for longer, for those that are completely new to the operating system.

Customization is one of the strengths of Xubuntu and Xfce alike. Along with the customization options and sensible default settings, the Xubuntu team is committed to shipping some alternatives where appropriate.

Today we take a look at two color schemes Xubuntu provides for the Mousepad text editor and the Xfce4 terminal emulator: Xubuntu Light and Xubuntu Dark. As the names imply, these are themes with light and dark backgrounds. The rest of the color schemes are designed to visually integrate with each other – and with the rest of the operating system.

Changing the color schemes

To change the color scheme in Mousepad, go to Edit → Preferences, and from the View tab, select your preferred Colour scheme.

To change the color scheme in the Xfce4 terminal emulator, go to Edit → Preferences, and in the Colors tab, use the Load Presets… dropdown to select your preferred color scheme.

The small details: Window manager shortcuts

April 6, 2016 — Articles — The small details

In this series the Xubuntu team present some of the smaller details in Xubuntu to help you use your system more efficiently. Several of the features covered in this series are new for those who will be upgrading from 14.04 LTS to 16.04 LTS. We will also cover some features that have been in Xubuntu for longer, for those that are completely new to the operating system.

Last time we talked about the default, application shortcut keys in Xubuntu. In addition to the application shortcut keys, you can specify shortcuts for window manager actions and a special key to grab and move windows more quickly. Let’s take a look how to do that!

Window manager shortcuts

The window manager shortcuts let you perform all kinds of actions for windows, including cycling windows, resizing them and showing the desktop. Some of the most useful are listed below:

Alt+Tab for cycling and changing windows (Shift+Alt+Tab for cycling backwards)
Super+Tab for cycling windows for the same application
Alt+F5 for maximizing windows horizontally
Alt+F6 for maximizing windows vertically
Alt+F7 for maximizing windows (both vertically and horizontally)
Alt+Space for the window operations menu

You can find and edit all window manager shortcut keys from Menu → Settings Manager → Window Manager → tab Keyboard.

The grab and move key

Xfce uses a special key that helps you grab and move windows. By default, this key is Alt.

When you press the key and drag the window with the left mouse button, you can move the window. When you press the key and drag the window from a corner with the right mouse button, you can resize the window.

To change the grab and move key, go to Menu → Settings Manager → Window Manager Tweaks → tab Accessibility and change the Key used to grab and move windows setting.