Saturday, April 27, 2013

How to install Google Chrome in Ubuntu (13.04)

There is a problem with Ubuntu 13.04 that disallows Google's Chrome web browser from being installed without making a fuss. In short, the problem is that google needs libudev0 (>= version 147), but that package is not available in the repositories.

The Solution
libudev0 may not be in the Ubuntu repositories, but it IS in the parent-distribution (Debian)'s repositories. We can go there and download libudev0, and then install the program.

1) Go to http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/u/udev/libudev0_175-7.1_amd64.deb and download the .deb

2) Install the file like you normally would (double click it in Files or use dpkg -i).

3) Download the Google Chrome package from https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/thankyou.html?brand=CHMB

4) Install the Chrome .deb file however you comfortably do so.

Extra
If you messed up beforehand, you will want to run "sudo apt-get install -f" from the Terminal to clean any broken packages that apt tried to get.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Ubuntu 13.04 Beta Review ** April 12th, 2012

I am the average Joe Linux user. Ubuntu helped to ease me into the world of Linux gently before plunging into the world of commands and ttys. I have this nostalgic love for Ubuntu, and even if I don't agree with some of their latest goals (let me go on record by saying I do like their direction of mobile) I have always considered it a very friendly distribution. This was before I used 13.04 beta.
What's the ruckus?
Well, Ubuntu is that gateway Linux distribution that the newcomers will use to make the transition easy, right? Well, the latest Ubuntu is going to give them the idea that Linux is inheritly buggy, slow, and crash-prone which is not the case at all. Canonical has been working so hard on its mobile operating system, display server, startup manager, and all of its other pet projects that they forgot to make a good distribution. Whoops!

What is even worse is that this is a long term release. We will be stuck like this for a long time. Imagine if Windows Vista had become the de facto Windows computing environment  of the world. We'd all be on Linux if that were the case, and 13.04 makes me want to move to Windows.

The Problems
One of my biggest problems was the lack of improvement over 12.10, and even 12.04. 12.10 was a copy+paste of 12.04 with some features like shopping and web lenses with previews (which are very helpful, in my opinion) and some optimizations of both user experience and resource consumption. 13.04 is exactly that distribution with one or two minor features and some new icons. There was going to be a VERY desirable feature for lenses included, but they were dropped at the last minute like Wubi.

At one point I had the gnome-settings-manager crash, which also brought down compiz and gtk-window-decorator. This left my desktop in an unusable state where windows did not even reply to keyboard commands. I had to switch to a TTY and pkill lightdm to solve the trouble.

I have also had countless popups telling me there are "problems with the system", and a few of those notifications crash themselves and become unclosable, even after a pkill. I call them the kamikaze windows.

Another big problem is the lack of workspaces. Yes, they aren't included at all by default, folks. They can be enabled through compiz, but that's an unneccessary step, especially considering the option for workspace keyboard combinations are included in the settings manager. While we're talking about the settings manager, let me just warn you that every now and then keyboard shortcuts will decide not to work, so be ready for that.


The Verdict
Now that the venting is over, it is fair to say that this IS A BETA. It most certainly will get better with the final release, but for now it is in an almost unusable state. "Do not use on production machines" is a warning that Canonical gives that I would actually advise following.