What's Next? Isis!

After the release of Luna, some of us may have sat back and watched the amazing reviews roll in. But the elementary team is already back at it. So what's in store after Luna?

The next release will be named Isis after the Egyptian mother-goddess whose popularity continued well into the Greco-Roman period. Keeping the theme of mythic goddesses, the elementary team may wish to draw parallels between the primacy and strength of Isis or the beauty of her femininity. Or maybe the name just sounds awesome!

But enough of the myths, let's get to the facts! Here are a few exciting goals for this release:

• AppCenter. The dependency on the Ubuntu Software Center was a glaring inconsistency in Luna. The USC is slow. And it is ugly. There are now plans to include a beautiful, lightweight AppCenter to Isis with both free and paid apps.
• Automatic driver detection. Continuing to making elementary the most usable operating system available, the team is pushing to polish the installation process by taking out some of the guesswork.  This will be especially nice for all those with NVidia drivers.
• Universal Accounts Dialog. Although not officially confirmed for Isis, there is a strong chance that a system-wide accounts dialogue will be created to hold online profiles, usable by all elementary apps.
• Name changes. Goodbye, Empathy, Geary, and Shotwell. Hello, Chat, Mail, and Photos! The apps will stay the same. Only the names are changing to something a little more intuitive.
• Much more. Check out the launchpad page for a full list. 

Excited, yet?

[EDIT (10/21/2013): As mentioned by Daniel Foré in the comments, these goals are not promises. They are part of a wishlist. All the more reason to support the team!]

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eNumix uTouch Icon Theme

The famous and gorgeous icon theme Numix uTouch from Deviantart user me4oslav with over 245 icons has been modified by us to work with elementaryOS Luna.


We dig it's style and love how complete it feels with the large collection of application icons.


It is now available through the Community PPA, if you haven't added the PPA, check out this post. If you have it added, continue installing it in the Terminal with:
sudo apt-get install elementary-enumix-utouch-icons

Apply the theme with elementary Tweaks and enjoy.

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Birdie Needs Your Help!

Birdie, our favorite elementary OS styled Twitter client, has started an Indiegogo campaign. It is trying to raise funds to:

• Implement missing Twitter features
• Make Birdie rock solid, without crashes and weird bugs
• Integrate and test Birdie on the most popular distributions, so Birdie feels great whether you use Ubuntu, elementary OS, Fedora, etc.
• Optimize Birdie so it runs and feels faster
• Create packages and repositories for the most popular distributions
• Continue developing free open-source software that everyone can use, modify and redistribute

So head on over to Indigogo and contribute what you can!

If you want to try out Birdie, it is available in our Community PPA! If you have the PPA activated, install it through the Terminal with: sudo apt-get install birdie-granite

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5 New Awesome Elementary Themes

Recently, Deviantart users kxmylo and rhoconlinux have been working hard on themes, specifically tailored to work with elementaryOS. We have added them to our Community PPA for your convenience. Let's have a look, shall we?

Blue

The Blue theme from kxmylo does not only bring a warm and friendly feeling to your desktop, it also comes with custom icons to polish this great theme. If you have the Community PPA enabled, simply install the theme with your Terminal:
sudo apt-get install elementary-blue-theme Use elementary Tweaks to change your theme and don't forget to use the Blue icon theme as well.

Colors

Another great theme from kxmylo is Colors. It playfully brings a colorful and beautiful palette to your elementaryOS desktop. Install it with:
sudo apt-get install elementary-colors-theme

Lion

The OSX inspired theme Lion from kxmylo brings a vibrant and polished look to your Desktop that is definitely worth checking out:
sudo apt-get install elementary-lion-theme

Champagne

This elementary based theme from rhoconlinux brings a nice alternative to the default elementaryOS theme. Get it with:
sudo apt-get install elementary-champagne-theme

Milk

The final and very professional theme Milk from rhoconlinux brightens up your desktop and brings a lot of features with it, such as Wingpanel Slim compatibility. Install it with:
sudo apt-get install elementary-milk-theme
Be sure to thank Camilo "kxmylo" Higuita and Rho Con Linux for their hard and awesome work!

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Community PPA Update #1

A lot has happened recently in the elementary community, so it's time for a round up.

CABLE

For starters, +Eduard Gotwig released a new version of the IRC client Cable, which is based on Sushi IRC. It brings visual improvements and a lot of bug fixes, like the buggy user list it used to have, with it.

The newest version is available through the Community PPA, and can be installed with: sudo apt-get install cable

elementary Tweaks

Elementary Tweaks has gone through a lot of changes. The most obvious is the new UI, which was done by +Tom Beckmann. The flexibility of the new UI allows more settings to be added.
Additionally to the new UI, Terminal settings have been added by Tom Beckmann and, thanks to the work of +Heath Paddock, Wingpanel Slim can now be aligned.

Icon theme emod

+Luca Di Martino has been working on an impressive new flat icon theme for elementary OS. He recently release the icon theme, which, of course, is also available through the Community PPA: sudo apt-get install elementary-emod-icons

New Plank Themes

Due to the new popular trend of using Plank in Panel mode, +Kevin Kleinman released 3 new Plank themes: sudo apt-get install elementary-plank-themes

Time off

Elementary Tweaks development and the Community PPA maintenance will be put on hold for a week, as I am taking some time off for a beach vacation. You can still send me questions/feedback/suggestions for elementary Tweaks and the Community PPA per email at versable@gmail.com and I will check my inbox when I get back.

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Finally, Elementary Tweaks!

While elementary OS is certainly great out-of-the-box, users have and will always tweak it to their preferences. We have posted a lot of How-To articles that let you delve deep into the system and add new functionality, change appearances and so forth.



A tool similar to Gnome Tweak Tool or Ubuntu Tweak, specifically tailored to elementary OS, has been requested many times before. Well you are in luck my friend, because here is just that: elementary Tweaks!



With elementary Tweaks, you can change themes, configure advanced Plank options, tweak animation timings, configure Files and Slingshot. And the best of all? It is written as a plug and therefor integrates into switchboard!



But that's just the icing on the glorious tweaking cake, now comes the frosting. I have packaged the Nitrux and the El Faenza icon theme that were specifically tailored for elementary OS for you. Additionally, I've thrown in some awesome elementary themes from DeviantArt user kxmylo.



It doesn't stop here! You may have noticed the Workspace Overview and Show Desktop icon settings in the first screenshot. They add functional icons that just do what they say to Plank and are based on +Tom Beckmanns Vala script, Sergey "Shnatsel" Davidoffs .desktop file and the icons from our friend TraumaD91.



Enough with the teasing, let's get you hooked up with elementary Tweaks. First of all, if you haven't already, activate the elementary Community PPA by opening your terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and typing:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:versable/elementary-update
sudo apt-get update
Then install elementary Tweaks:
sudo apt-get install elementary-tweaks
Optionally, install additional elementary themes: sudo apt-get install elementary-dark-theme elementary-plastico-theme elementary-whit-e-theme elementary-harvey-theme
And the optimized icon themes: sudo apt-get install elementary-elfaenza-icons elementary-nitrux-icons
How about a bunch of Plank themes: sudo apt-get install elementary-plank-themes

ISSUES

Elementary Tweaks works great as it is. There are, however, some issues with the theming. After you have changed a window decoration or an interface theme it might not apply correctly. Just log out and back in and everything should be fine. Also bear in mind that elementary OS only supports GTK 3.4 themes. If there is another problem, don't hesitate to post a bug here and I'll try to fix it as soon as possible.

TRANSLATIONS

Currently elementary Tweaks is available in English and German, but with your support it can be available in your language too! Just set up an account on Launchpad, read the Translation Guide and start translating!

CREDITS

Although I did write this plug, it is heavily based on code from +Tom Beckmann, so much credit goes to him as well.

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elementary Forum

There are a lot of ways to get help and interact with other elementary Luna users. One of the most popular of these methods has been the g+ community, boasting around 3,000 members.

However, g+ presents some limitations, especially when attempting to find important content from past conversations. The elementary forum started a little over a month ago to correct this problem and add more permanence to solutions of common questions.

There has been a little traction, but it really should be more frequented than it is. So head on over, browse the FAQ's and be sure to register. Maybe even post a question or answer one while you're there!

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Install and use Indicator Synapse

Yesterday +Eduard Gotwig pointed me to a new Synapse frontend, Indicator Synapse, a search indicator made by +Tom Beckmann. The indicator is similar to Spotlight. When installed, it adds search functions elementary OS currently lacks.



As of now, the indicator has some bugs and did glitch for me, but it had no problems finding everything I searched for.

You can either get indicator synapse from the Community PPA or Eduards PPA.

Here are instructions for installing indicator synapse from the Community PPA. If you already have the Community PPA added, you may skip this step. Open up the Terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and type:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:versable/elementary-update
sudo apt-get update

Now install the package indicator-synapse:

sudo apt-get install indicator-synapse

Log out and back in and you should be all set!

INSIGHT

The future of the indicator is uncertain, since the Synapse Project seems abandoned (The last revision on Launchpad was uploaded in 2012). A viable option would be to fork it for elementary OS, which would require it to be properly maintained and have active developers work on it.

Update: Indicator Synapse has since been updated. It is now possible to launch the search indicator with the keyboard shortcut ALT+SUPER+SPACE

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Announcing a Community PPA

Elementary Update is proud to announce the creation of a community PPA. This PPA is the product of a lot of hard work and aggregation by Mike Langfermann.
The PPA includes many third-party applications such as agenda, foto, birdie, and gazette.

It also includes plank themes and a lot third party icons.
To use the PPA, paste into the terminal: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:versable/elementary-update
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install PACKAGE-NAME We hope you enjoy the new PPA. Please thank +Michael Langfermann
for all his work!

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Crowd-Funding Games Weekly #3

Once again, here are a couple of games with Linux support currently crowd-funding, as well as some looking back on the projects we previously featured.

Stonehearth

Stonehearth is a cross-platform voxel in which you can build "cities" and castles, craft weapons, and embark on epic quests. Surprisingly good looking thanks to excellent textures, the distinct medieval theme, and with nearly 5 times the $120,000 goal, it's already hit stretch goals for PvP and Co-op multiplayer.

The campaign ends in two-and-a-half days, and you can get a copy of the game for $15 (slated for release in September 2014, which is a good 16 months away). Beta access is $30, and scheduled for December 2013.

Stonehearth on Kickstarter

Ray's The Dead

Convert your victims and discover your past, and the events that lead to your untimely death as you play as Ray, a suddenly-resurrected zombie with a spark of intelligence and a giant light-bulb sticking out the back of his head that is used to control his zombie hordes.

You can pre-order Ray's The Dead for $15, which gets you either a DRM-Free copy for Windows, OS X or Linux, or a Steam key, pending the passing of Steam Greenlight. There is also 500 copies up for an early bird offer of $12. $50 gets you beta access.

Ray's The Dead on Kickstarter

Flashbacks

A.N.N.E was fully funded, raising $100,000 towards a $70,000 goal.

AR-K also raised it's funds, cutting it a little close with $101,564 for a goal of $100,000.

Jagged Alliance: Flashback encountered a surprising drive towards the end of it's campaign, raising $100,000 in it's last three days alone.

Rawbots has seen a surge recently, but still hasn't raised 10% of it's $300,000 target, and ends in less than a week.

Son of Nor has also seen a recent influx, but still has yet to be funded, with less than three days left.

Realm failed to reach it's funding goal, raising less than half of it's target.

Dog Sled Saga more than doubled it's goal, just reaching it's last stretch goal of $14,000.

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Steam Sales

Rochard   -   $9.99   -   75%   -   $2.49

Rochard is a side-scrolling space-platformer with inspiring graphics and gameplay. It's something I'm currently playing through and thoroughly enjoying.

Spectraball   -   $4.99   -   33% off   -   $3.34

A puzzle-solving platformer, Spectraball is the only game on this list I must admit to not having played. For this price, I soon won't have to though!

Steel Storm: Burning Retribution   -   $4.99   -   40%   -   $2.99

Steel Storm: Burning Retribution is a top-down old-school shot'em up. With myriads of levels, enemies, and community content, I don't think you can ever actually say you've finished this.

All offers end 27th May.

Flashbacks

The ever beautiful Realm sadly wasn't funded, raising just short of half it's goal. Jagged Alliance: Flashback gained some serious funds in the last few days and just made it's goal, and anyone that listened to me either got the 4 classic-pack games for $5, or that and Flashback for $25 (I got the latter). A.N.N.E also got funded, barely breaking the $100,000 mark,

Finally, (just in case you're new to my posts) Dog Sled Saga is an adorable 8bit masterpiece, and you can get the game for just $5. Hurry, their Kickstarter only has two days to go!

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Welcome to elementary OS

So, you made the decision to switch to elementary OS? Great!

Now, maybe you are new to the elementary world and want to test some things out, tweak here-and-there a bit, install this, customize that...

Well, here are things you could do after installing elementary OS.

CUSTOMIZATION

After a fresh install, elementary already looks nice, but there are some nice tweaks you can do.

PLANK

So, why not give Plank another theme? There are many nice ones, but there are already some included in elementary.

It may look like this:

Here's how to install plank themes, and here is the Top 5 best Plank themes.

You may want to categorize applications, grouping icons in Plank. These look like this:

Here is the guide.

OTHER THEMES

If you don't like the grey-ish window (eGTK) theme of elementary, you may enjoy the dark elementary theme.

Find out more about it here.

Oh, and why not make Chrome fit in more in elementary?

ICONS

Some icons of 3rd party applications, such as Dropbox, look horrible in elementary. Thankfully, there are icons made by the community to fit them elementary's theme.

Dropbox Wingpanel icons 

Dropbox System Folders

Make LibreOffice look elementary-ish

You may also try a whole new icon set:

Nitrux Icons

El Faenza

APPLICATIONS

There are many cool and useful elementary-style applications that most people don't know about about. Here are some you may want to try out.

The Top 5 of the best elementary-Style 3rd party applications...

... such as Birdie:

You may also want to get stuff done... Pomidor Style.

"Gazette" by +Eduard Gotwig, is a news service for your desktop, showing current news, the local weather, and recently changed / used files.

And that's how you install it.

GENERAL TWEAKS

Besides applications you can install, and themes you can apply, there are also general tweaks you can do.

Maybe, you're often visiting Google+, so you want to easily visit it with a shortcut. For things like this, you can create web apps. Check out this 4 part web-app series.

Midori, elementary's standard web browser, does not have the ability to run flash, which is needed for things such as YouTube. Don't worry, you can easily add flash to Midori.

You can preview files, such as documents and photos with the application Gloobus.

You may also upgrade the Kernel to version 3.9 in Luna Beta 2. Just follow these kernel upgrade steps.

OTHER THINGS

Are you a gamer? Then you should read these popular articles by +Lewis Goddard.

Say "Hello!" to the community and check out other places, where you can find a community around elementary.

But that wasn't everything! There's still much you can do. Browse through elementary update and other places. And let us know when you find cool tweaks and things to improve the elementary experience.

Contact Us

Email

Describe yourself

• eOS developer
• eOS user
• app developer
• other

What's on your mind?

Thank You

Thanks for dropping us a line. elementaryupdate is a community effort. The more we care, the better this project becomes!

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