This article is particularly tested for Java 8 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS running in a Virtual Box. 

How to install Java 8 in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

If you are trying to install Oracle Java 1.8 in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus but failing, here's a short and tested tutorial to download and install it. We are installing JDK by using third party PPA from webupd8 team. 

Before installation Java in your Ubuntu system, you can check if you already have it by typing java -version. If you get an output like this, then you can proceed with the below steps. 

$ java -version

The program 'java' can be found in the following packages:

 * default-jre

 * gcj-4.9-jre-headless

 * gcj-5-jre-headless

 * openjdk-8-jre-headless

 * gcj-4.8-jre-headless

 * openjdk-9-jre-headless

Try: sudo apt install <selected package>

The first step is to download and add webupd8 java repository. Open terminal and type the following command,

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:webupd8team/java

ambarish@ambarish:~$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:webupd8team/java

[sudo] password for ambarish: 

... [skipping in between outputs]

gpg:               imported: 1  (RSA: 1)

OK

sudo apt-get update

ambarish@ambarish:~$ sudo apt-get update

Hit:1 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease

Hit:2 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease   

... [skipping in between outputs]

Fetched 120 kB in 2s (46.6 kB/s)                   

Reading package lists... Done

The second step is to install Java 8. 

This will download the Oracle JDK installer from Oracle website and invoke the installation process for you. 

sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer

ambarish@ambarish:~$ sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree       

Reading state information... Done

... [skipping in between outputs]

Oracle JDK 8 installed

Oracle JRE 8 browser plugin installed

Setting up gsfonts-x11 (0.24) ...

Once the download completes, you will have the set up in front of you. Just follow the instructions, accept to terms and conditions and finish. 

This will successfully install Java 8 in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Once you are done with the installation, you can validate it by typing the following command in terminal :

java -version

This will show output like this.

ambarish@ambarish:~$ java -version

java version "1.8.0_101"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_101-b13)

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.101-b13, mixed mode)

Tags : How to install Java 8 in Ubuntu 16.04

Once you have downloaded the Fedora 24 ISO file, you will need to burn it to a DVD or create a live USB. Burning to a DVD is simple process in Windows and right clicking on the ISO file and choosing burn to disc will do the job for you. A live USB can be used to try out the Fedora OS without installing it, or can be used to install as a primary OS or in a dual boot with Windows. That depends on your choice and preference. Here's how you can create a Fedora 24 live USB boot device. 

In Windows 10 host.

Download the liveUSB Creator from Fedora website : https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/

Once the download completes, trigger the installation set up and finish it. 

Launch the installation, and select the live CD image and the target device which will be the Pen Drive. 

You can also download the Fedora version if you do not have the ISO file already downloaded. 

Live USB creator works perfect in Windows 10 and is a complete non-destructive install i.e. you do not need to format or remove data from your Pen Drive and it won't harm the already present data there. 

It also supports the automatic downloading the various Fedora releases and the application will automatically detect all of the removable devices. 

Live USB creator allows the persistent storage creation, i.e. lets you allocate extra space on your USB stick where you can save files and changes in the OS which will persist in the next boot. 

Creating live USB for Fedora from Ubuntu

The first way to create a Fedora 24 live USB is by using the Unetbootin software. You can download the Unetbootin software from the Ubuntu Software Center. Unetbootin allows for the installation of various Linux/BSD distributions to a partition or USB drive, so it's a no different from a standard install, only it doesn't need a CD. It can create a dual-boot install or replace the existing OS entirely. Once you launch the software, you will get the below screen.

Select the desired Distribution and the Version, navigate to the path where you have stored the ISO diskimage which you have downloaded. Select the type which should be "USB Drive" and drive of the removable media. Once done, click OK and a live Fedora 24 bootable USB drive will be created which you can use to try / install Fedora 24.

Second method to create a live USB for Fedora 24 is through the command line. 

Plug in the USB disk and find out the disk its mounted on.

sudo fdisk -l

For me, it was /dev/sda3. Next step is to unmount this device

unmount /dev/sda3

Format the pen drive before you create the bootable disk and use the isohybrid command for an ISO to be recognized by the BIOS.

sudo mkdosfs -n 'driveName' -I /dev/sda3 -F 32

isohybrid filename.iso

Next step is to create the live USB from the ISO file. Use the dd command : 

sudo dd if=filename.iso of=/dev/sda3 bs=4k

Once done, you can sync and eject the device.  

sync

sudo eject /dev/sda3

Once you are done with creating live USB for Fedora 24, you can try installing Fedora 24 in Virtual Box. You can return to the complete installation for Fedora 24 for other details. 

If you have a series of photographs/images which you want to use as your Desktop Wallpaper as a slideshow in Ubuntu, you will need to have Shotwell - an application that is installed by default in Ubuntu.

Login in to your Ubuntu system and search for Shotwell in Ubuntu.

Navigate to File > Import from a folder, and select the images you want to set as desktop background in slideshow.

Once you have imported, select the pictures from the collection.


Now navigate to File > Set as Desktop Slideshow. It will ask for the time duration for which you want to set one particular image. Select according to your preference and you are done.

Variety - for creating desktop wallpaper slideshows in Ubuntu/Linux

There is another open source application for changing wallpaper in Linux named Variety. It is packed with great features and is easy to use. The advantage of Variety over the Shotwell is that not only you can create wallpaper slideshows from your local images, but also from online sources and allows you to rotate them on a regular intervals and provides easy ways to separate nice images from the junk. It also can display a nice digital clock.

How to install Variety on Ubuntu

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peterlevi/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install variety variety-slideshow

Variety not only runs for Ubuntu, but also supports most Ubuntu variants like Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Linux Mint and also on some other Linux distributions like Arch, Fedora and Debian.

LibreOffice is one of the most widely used office suite for Linux users. It is a free and open source office suite developed by The Document Foundation comprising programs to do word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, diagrams and drawings, databases and much more. LibreOffice provides compatibility with Microsoft Office and the documents can be imported to LibreOffice that are developed in MS Office. 

Application included in LibreOffice

Writer Similar to MS Word, it works as a word processor and can be used as a basic text editor. 

Calc A Spreadsheet program

Impress A presentation program, can be exported to swf format hence can be viewed on any system with Adobe Flash Player.

Draw A vector graphics editor and diagramming tool 

Math Designed for creating and editing mathematical formula

Base A database management system

LibreOffice is licensed under LGPLv3. 

In this article, I am going to tell you how to remove earlier LibreOffice installations and install LibreOffice 4.2 on Linux. The article mainly focus on installing LibreOffice 4.2 on Debian/Ubuntu based distributions. 

Uninstall earlier LibreOffice installation

You can install LibreOffice 4.2 along with previous versions without much problem. In case you want to uninstall the earlier version to free up your resources, 

sudo apt-get remove libreoffice-core

Install LibreOffice 4.2 in Linux

You can download LibreOffice 4.2 from the official website.

libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/

You can extract this tar.gz file through terminal or by right clicking on it and extracting it.

After extracting, open a terminal and navigate to the current directory using cd command. Read more : Keyboard shortcuts within Terminal

Finall, install the LibreOffice package you have downloaded. 

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

To install the program shortcuts in the menu, navigate to the "desktop-integration" sub directory, and run the following command

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Finally, you have installed LibreOffice 4.2 in your Linux system. This process will work in all Debian based / Ubuntu based distributions like Mint, *buntu, Debian etc. 

Audacity is a open source and free audio recorder and editor distributed under the GNU General Public License. Audacity is a cross-platform software available for major Operating Systems like Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X and other OS and its interface is available in many languages.

Features

• Record live audio
• Record computer playbacks
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings
• Edit common sound files
• Cut, copy, slice or mix sound clips
• Editing the speed or pitch of the sound
• and much more. 

Download Audacity

You can download the free audio recorder Audacity for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X from these links: 

Download Audacity for Windows 

Download Audacity for GNU/Linux

Download Audacity for Mac

Linux users can alternatively download the source code and compile it by running the command in the Audacity source directory

./configure && make

Learn More : How to install a .tar.gz file in Linux

 Audacity in Linux.

Audacity is one of the best free audio recorder and is in the list of highest downloaded software on sourceforge. You can download and install the free audio recorder and find out how it works for you.

Tor prevents somebody watching your internet connections from learning what sites you visit and provides anonymity online by hiding your physical location. It is an open source free software that helps you defend against traffic analysis and  protects your freedom and privacy online. Tor browser supports multiple platform and can be installed on Linux, Mac OS X, Windows and even Android.

Tor protects you by bouncing your connections through over 5000 distributed network of relays all around the world. Tor encrypts the original data and the destination IP address several times and sends it through these relays. Each relay then decrypts a layer of encryption to reveal only the next relay in the circuit to pass the remaining encrypted data. The last relay finally decrypts the innermost encryption layer and sends the original data to the destination without knowing the source IP address.

In this article, you will know how to install Tor browser in Linux and Windows.

Install Tor browser in Linux

Step 1: The first step towards installing Tor in Linux is to download it.

Download links: 

32-bit Tor browser bundle
64-bit Tor browser bundle

Step 2: Now run the following command to extract it. 

tar -xvJf tor-browser-linux32-3.6.1_en-US.tar.xz

Replace 32 with 64 if you have downloaded Tor browser bundle for 64-bit Linux.

Step 3: Switch to the Tor browser directory by typing

cd tor-browser_en-US

Step 4: To run the Tor browser run the following script

./start-tor-browser

Note: Do not unpack or run Tor browser as root.

If you have downloaded Tor browser for any other language, replace en-US with that language code given in the file you have downloaded.

Install Tor browser in Windows

Step 1: Download the Tor browser for your system.

Download Links:

Tor browser for Windows

Step 2: Install it by running the exe file and following the instructions.

Click on the Start Tor Browser.exe to run Tor browser and click on connect in the dialogue box. A browser will open.

Installing Tor Browser in Mac

Download the Tor browser for Mac and clicking on it will unarchive it. Click on Tor browser application to run it.

Other benefits of installing Tor browser

1. Tor browser can be used to visit onion sites that are on deep web (also called hidden web). Learn more about hidden web on wikipedia.

2. It can be used to browse websites that has been blocked by your Internet service provider.

Points to keep in mind while using Tor-browser

You do not have complete anonymity since cookies, plugins, javascrips and other third parry factors may still makes your identity vulnerable. Read the Tor FAQs to understand everything about it and how you can customize your apps to remain anonymous.

Drupal is a Content Management System that runs on a LAMP server. Drupal is a free software package that allows you to easily organize, manage and publish your content, with an endless variety of customization. 

It is an open source software maintained and developed by various enthusiasts all across the world. Its free to download and use, and redistribute. Drupal provides an easy way yo host blogs, forums and a variety of other contents. It has huge collection of add-ons modules for functionality like advertising, chat boxes, e-commerce, multimedia tools and instant messenger etc. Drupal can be used to everything from personal blogs to even an enterprise applications. Thousands of add-on modules and designs are available for you. 

Technical Requirements to install Drupal

For Drupal 7, you need the following to get started:

Apache Web Server

PHP 5.2 or higher

MySql 5.0 or higher

These three are a part of LAMP architecture. 

Now, the main part is how to install Drupal on Linux. Lets see it. 

Install Drupal on Linux

Method 1 : LAMP server installation

You can install Drupal in Linux by installing the entire LAMP stack. 

sudo tasksel install lamp-server

If the tasksel command is not there in your system by default, install it first by

sudo apt-get install tasksel

Method 2: Install Drupal Package from Ubuntu repositories

You can install Drupal 6 or Drupal 7 from the Ubuntu Repositories

sudo apt-get install drupal6

or

sudo apt-get install drupal7

After installing, register the Drupal module with Apache:

sudo cp /etc/drupal/6/apache2.conf /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/drupal.conf

and restart Apache sudo service apache2 restart

Method 3 : Install from Ubuntu software center

You can install both Drupal 6 and Drupal 7 from Ubuntu Software center. 

Final Step after installing Drupal in Linux

Open your browser and open http://localhost/drupal/install.php (replace drupal with drupal6 / drupal7 according to your install), create an account and login. Finally, follow the instructions to finish loading the database and configuring the site.

Other useful links:

Drupal website 
Drupal on wikipedia 

With Photoshop not available for Linux, GIMP is the best Photoshop alternative for Linux users. GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program and can be used to perform various tasks such as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It can be used as a simple paint program, for mass image rendering, as an image format converter etc. It can handle almost all file types and have plugins that allows easy addition of new file formats and new filter effect. 

Features

GIMP provides you a customizable interface where you can change the view and the behavior according to your preference. It features a full screen mode allowing you to preview your artwork and simultaneously do the editing work. GNU Image Manipulation Program is one of the best alternative for photshop and the major reason is its photo enhancement features. These enhancement process help you eliminate lens barrel distortions. The included channel mixer gives you the flexibility and power to enhance your black and white photograph and give it a touchy look. 

GIMP supports various file formats like bmp, gif, jpeg, mng, pcx, pdf, png, ps, psd, svg, tiff, tga, xpm, and many others. The GIMP architecture allows to extend format capabilities with plugins available. 

GIMP for Linux

GIMP for Mac OS X

GIMP for Windows

Downloads

 

GIMP is freely available under Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. You can download the photoshop alternative from its download page http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ according to your preference. If you are having problems in installing GIMP on your system, you can find the installation help here.

There is a official documentation available for GIMP. The documentation includes user manuals for different languages, tutorials and books. The documentation is available at http://www.gimp.org/docs/

Linux is free and open and has various graphical desktop environments to suit your preference and need. However, if you have been a Mac user for a long time and has migrated to a Linux environment, and still want to enjoy the Mac OS X look and feel, Macbuntu is for you. 

Read : Install Linux Ubuntu on Oracle VM Virtual Box

Macbuntu is a Mac OS X transformation pack for Linux. It is an open source project designed to transform Linux appearance and layout into a Mac OS X environment. Although, Macbuntu is largely dedicated to Ubuntu, it can be used in other Debian based Linux Operating Systems.

Features of Macbuntu

Macbuntu significantly transforms your Linux environment to that of a Mac OS X environment. Simple to use and giving the pleasure of Mac on a 100% Linux environment, its popular among the user who do not want to get away with the Mac GUI but want to experience the power of a Linux system. 

Macbuntu provides its own sound themes and includes Paw-OSX and Paw-Ubuntu Plymouth theme. Extensive work has has been done to incorporate Mac OSX backgrounds and fonts. Login screens, cursors, icons, docky and top panel has all been imitated to that of a Mac environment. 

How to install Macbuntu on a Linux system. 

Download Macbuntu file from Sourceforge.net Mabuntu page. 

Extract the .tar.gz file you have downloaded on your desktop and run it. You can read how How to install from a .tar.gz file in Linux.

Follow the instruction and you are done. 

You have successfully transformed your Linux into Mac OS X. [It's just a transformation pack much like you get a Windows 7 transformation pack for XP].

Note: Sourceforge mentions that it is not compatible with Ubuntu Netbook edition and The Global Menu does not current work correctly for all applications.

Krusader is an advanced orthodox file manager for KDE and other Unix/Linux environment similar to GNOME or Midnight Commander for Linux or Total Commander for Windows. Krusader is developed by the Krusader Krew and is published under GNU General Public License. Krusader's user interface is based on orthodox file manager which has two windows called panels where either one of the panel is active and the other is inactive.

Main features of Krusader File Manager

Extensive archive handling

Mounted file system support

File transfer with FTP

Advance search modules

Internal viewer and Editor

Directory Synchronization

File content comparisons

Powerful batch renaming

File encryption and decryption

Built in disk usage tool etc.

Supporting a wide variety of archive formats, Krusader file manager is highly customizable, user friendly and have a pleasant look.

Installing Krusader on various Linux Distributions

Debian, Ubuntu, Mepis

apt-get install krusader

Fedora

yum install krusader

Mandriva

urpmi krusader

Gentoo

emerge krusader

You can download the stable and beta version of Krusader file manager get-krusader.

Download krusader documentation pdf file

Krusader has a detailed documentation and you can download the pdf documentation here. 

First of all, .tar.gz files cannot be "installed". These files are gzip-compressed tarballs equivalent to .zip files in Windows platform. .tar.gz files usually contains the source of a program and it needs to be extracted before you compile the program from the source. So, to 'install' a .tar.gz file in Linux, you need to extract it first on your hard-drive and then compile the program from the source. 

How to install a .tar.gz file in Linux

Step 1: The first step is to extract the gzip-compressed tarballs archive to a folder. You can extract an archive by right-clicking on it and choosing the appropriate option. Alternatively, you can extract an archive through terminal :

tar xzf file.tar.gz 

file is the package-name.

Step 2: Now, use the cd command to navigate to the destination folder where you have extracted the .tar.gz archive. 

The next step is to build the binaries:

./configure
make

To install it in the system, use the following command in the terminal:

sudo make install

To summarize up, the process of installing a .tar.gz file includes downloading the file, unpacking it to the preferred choice and then compiling the program from the source.

Note 1: Usually, the installation instructions are provided in the .tar.gz archive in a text file named either 'README' or "INSTALL'. It will include all the installation procedure. 

Note 2: Before downloading and compiling a source, why not to search it in the software center. Searching an application in the software center ensures that you download the latest and stable release of that software and you do not have to go through this compilation processes. 

Linux has evolved and so is its software base. However, sometimes you wish you could use the Windows application on Linux that has still not been ported to Linux platforms. There are some applications exclusive to Windows like its Office suite which will never be ported to Linux. There are tens of thousands of applications and Games that are more of made-for-Windows. For example, Adobe Photoshop is still not available to Linux users and you can't play Counter Strike on your Linux system.

Is their any way to run Windows Application on Linux that are not available. Yes, there is a solution. You can use WINE to run windows applications on Linux.

WINE is an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator" and is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows application on Linux systems.Wine enables Linux, Mac, FreeBSD and Solaris systems to run Windows application without owning a copy of Windows. WINE is an open source and free software. Approximately, half of Wine's source code is written by volunteers with help from some commercial sections like CodeWeavers.

Why not to use VMWare to install Windows within Linux?

Well, you can always install any Virtualization software to install Windows Operating System and install and use applications that are not available in Linux. However, there are some restrictions. Using Virtual Environment will eat up your resources to a great extent. Plus you still need to buy a genuine copy of Windows OS in order to use it. 

Download Wine for your system. 

You can download Wine from the http://www.winehq.org/download/. Alternatively, you can search in the Ubuntu software center and search fro WINE to install it. At present the stable version is wine 1.6.2 and the beta version available is wine 1.7.19. 

Windows Application that you can run on Linux.

There are 21297 windows applications that can be run on Linux and the list is growing. There are 3 categories under which the software are grouped - Platinum, Gold and Silver. 

Applications which install and run without any problems and flawlessly on an Wine installations are grouped under Platinum. Gold list apps are those which run flawlessly with some special configurations. Silver list includes applications that can be run with minor issues that do not affect typical usage.

Some of the popular applications are: 

• Command and Conquer 3
• The Sims 3 all
• Left 4 Dead
• Adobe Photoshop CS2 and CS3
• Microsoft Outlook 2010 (32-bit) etc.

You can see the complete Windows Application list that can be run on Linux with the help of wine are listed on Wine App Database. 

These applications are categorized in the Platinum, Gold and Silver.

Which software applications you are running through wine and how's it working? Do share with our readers. 

There are commands that you can use in Terminal to get your system information like disk space usage, free and used memory, information about running processes and system resources, machine and kernel information etc.

Getting system information in Linux - Terminal commands

> Open Terminal. 

df   The df command displays filesystem disk usage for all mounted portions. However, it will provide the system disk usage information in a blocks. You can use df -h to generate report in megabytes and gigabytes instead of blocks, h stands for "human readable".

du   du commands displays the disk usage for a directory. Variants are du -s, du -h, du -sh. s stands for "Summary" and h means "Human Readable".

free   It displays the amount of free and used memory in the system. free -m will give the information in megabytes.

top   top is table of processes. It displays information on your Linux system, running processes and system resources that includes CPU, RAM and swap usage. It all displays the number of tasks being run.

You may have to press "q" to exit.

uname -a   The uname command with -a option prints all system information, including machine name, kernel name and version, and a few other details.

lsb_release -a    The lsb_release command with the -a option prints version information for the Linux release you're running.

ip addr   It prints the ip address of your machine. 

These 7 commands will help you in getting basic system information in Linux. Do I miss something? Please add it in the comment section and I will update the post.

Note: I am using Linux Mint 16 Petra in Oracle VM Virtual Box 4.3.2 r90405.

Linux has evolved from the traditional command line interface to graphical user interfaces. There are various Linux desktop environments which support high resolution graphical way of handling everything with some clicks. However, there is a group of Linux users who still prefer the command line way of doing almost everything, the reason behind is that is faster and more powerful. Command line has been and will always be an integral and important part of any Linux distribution. In this article, I am sharing the keyboard shortcuts that you can use within the command-line terminal.

Starting a terminal.

You can start a terminal by searching it in the "Dash" in Unity desktop environment. In Gnome, navigate to Application Menu > Accessories > Terminal.

You can alternatively use Ctrl + Alt + T to open the terminal in almost every Linux distribution with any desktop environment.

Keyboard shortcuts within Terminal.

The list do not cover the terminal commands but the keyboard shortcuts within a Terminal that can be used to handle the commands in an efficient way.

Enter   Run a command

Up Arrow   Show the previous command.

!$   Repeats the last argument of the previous command.

Ctrl-a   Move the cursor to the start of the line.

Ctrl-e   Move the cursor to the end of the line.

Alt-x   Move the cursor to the next occurrence of x.

Alt-Ctrl-x   Moves the cursor to the previous occurrence of x.

Ctrl-u   Delete everything from the beginning of the line to the cursor position.

Ctrl-k   Delete everything from the cursor position to the end of the line.

Ctrl-w   Delete from the cursor to the start of the word.

Ctrl-y   Paste texts from the clipboards.

Ctrl-t   Swap the two characters before the cursor.

Ctrl-l   Clear the screen with the current line at the top of the screen.

Ctrl-x Ctrl-u   Undo the last changes.

Ctrl-Alt-r   Undo all changes to the line.

Ctrl-Alt-e   Expand command line.

Ctrl-r   Allows you to type a part of the command you're looking for and finds it.

Alt-p   Non-incremental reverse search of the history.

!!   Execute last command in the history.

!abc   Execute last command in history beginning with abc.

!n   Execute nth command in history.

^abc^xyz   Replace first occurrence of abc with xyz in last command and execute it.  

Ctrl-d   Log out of current session, similar to exit

This is a list of the keyboard shortcuts you can use within a terminal to handle things in a better way. Try these gradually and you will save lot of time and effort.

Do I miss something? Please comment if you know some more keyboard shortcuts withing terminal which is not in the above list.

Update: +Jörg Linuxfreund pointed out that the Ctrl + Alt + T doesn't work in all Linux distributions/ desktop environments.

Opening a terminal in KDE. KDE comes with a console application Konsole. You will find it in Programs > System. You can try Alt + F2 which opens a small windows where you can type the application name konsole. In case Konsole is not there, you may try "xterm" that will do the same work for you.

Other Popular terminals for KDE are tilda and yakuake. You can download the stable release of yakuake here.

So here it comes, the free and open source operating system for mobile devices from Mozilla - Firefox OS. Built entirely on HTML5 and other web standards, Firefox ensures freedom from the restrictions of existing proprietary platforms. Firefox OS is a Linux-kernel based open source operating system for mobile devices using open standards such as HTML5, JavaScript and open web APIs. 

Firefox OS is brought to you by Mozilla, a global nonprofit organization that emphasizes principle over profit. Firefox believes in a Web that should be cared for, not a commodity to be sold. Firefox OS is created by Mozilla which created one of the best and most widely used Web Browser Firefox and most likely, you are reading this article through it.

Firefox OS is still in the initial stage and is available on ZTE Open, LG Fireweb or an Alcatel One Touch device. Currently Firefox OS is available in 14 countries across the globe:

• Brazil with Vivo
• Chile with Movistar
• Colombia with Movistar
• Germany with Congstar
• Greece with Cosmote
• Hungary with both Telenor and T-Mobile
• Italy with TIM
• Mexico with Movistar
• Montenegro with Telenor
• Peru with Movistar
• Poland with T-Mobile
• Serbia with Telenor
• Spain with Movistar
• Uruguay with Movistar
• Venezuela with Movistar

 Features.

Adaptive App Search. Firefox provides an adaptive search feature which enables the user to get information on any subject right when the user needs it.

Firefox Marketplace. Marketplace is a source for the best apps for Firefox OS. The app center is growing and enthusiast all over the world - the same people who contributed in the development of Open Source software and distributions are constantly working to improve it.

Open Source browser. Firefox OS contains the free and open source web browser Mozilla Firefox - the fast, smart, safe way to connect to the web.

Integration with the social media. Any updates from Twitter and Facebook will be right there in your notification, anywhere.

Other features. Firefox OS provides built in style features for fun, creative shots. You can enjoy the FM Radio and it is loaded with navigation tool, includes directions, traffic and local transit information.

Is Firefox OS the next big thing. 

Will Firefox OS be able to resist the dominance of Android and iOS? Time will tell. Firefox OS is still in the initial stage and has lot to cope up. Android has a large following and with Nokia acquisition by Microsoft, Windows 7 is getting its market share too. Its upon the enthusiast and the manufacturers to adopt it and bring open-ness in the Mobile OS.

I am personally looking for an Firefox OS device in India. The day it will be released, I will have. Will you?

Firefox OS Official Webpage.

Firefox OS on wikipedia

Linus Torvalds shares his thought on git in Google Tech talk.

Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. 

In this more than an hour talk, Linus talks about the git, the source control system he built himself. 

What's more funny to begin with: Some of you have probably heard of Linus Torvalds, those of you haven', you are the people with Macintoshes on your laps.

The video is quite a bit older, uploaded on YouTube on  May 14, 2007, but is still relevant.

GCC, GNU Compiler Collection is a compiler system supporting various programming languages like C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, Ada and Go. GNU Compiler Collection is released under the GNU GPL license by the Free Software Foundation. Developed as the official compiler for GNU Operatin System, GCC has been adopted by most of the operating environments like Linux and BSD. Versions are also available for Windows and other operating systems.

If you have installed any Linux distribution on your system, chances are you already have GCC. In case, you do not have pre-installed gcc you can follow these steps.

Installing GNU Compiler Collection in Debian [Command Line]

Open Terminal and type the following command: 

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential manpages-dev 

Find the version and the installation directory

$ whereis gcc

To check the directory in which gcc is present.

$ gcc --version

To check the version installed.

Graphical way to install [Debian User]

You can install gcc through the Add/Remove Software box. Navigate to System Tools > Add/Remove Software.

Search for gcc. Select the packages which you want to install (recommended for advance users who have all the knowledge about packages), else just select all the packages and install them.

Installing gcc in other Linux Distribution

If you are using Fedora, RedHat or CentOS, you can use the yum command to install gcc.

# yum groupinstall 'Development Tools'




If  are using Linux Mint, run these commands in the terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install g++-4.7 c++-4.7

Are you using any other Linux Distribution? Help our readers to install gcc on their Linux system by giving the terminal commands in the comments.

Note: It is most likely that your system already has gcc installed. Do check it first before manual installation.