What is Linux

 This is still in beta version and not recommended to install in production systems

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/howto-install-skype-2-1-beta-in-ubuntu.html

What’s new in this release:

* Skype’s SILK codec for outstanding quality with negligible bandwidth usage,

* HQ video support,

* PulseAudio support,

* SMS send support (*Sending SMS requires available Skype Credit),

* Contact groups,

* Contact labels, or tags, for easier contact organization,

* Chat window improvements (typing notification, message editing, s/geeky text/replacement/, new emoticons),

* Nicer contact list with mood messages and video capability icons,

* Nicer tray icon.

More detailed release notes can be found from here

Install Skype 2.1 beta in Ubuntu

First you need to remove the existing version of skype using the following command

sudo apt-get autoremove skype skype-common

Now you need to download .deb package from here and install the downloaded package using the following command

sudo dpkg -i skype-ubuntu-intrepid_2.1.0.47-1_i386.deb

 I just performed an installation of Zend Optimizer which is a free runtime application that enables php to run files encoded by the Zend Guard running on a server.

You can download it from
http://www.zend.com/en/products/guard/downloads
Selecting the proper Package.

Download it through shell

wget http://downloads.zend.com/optimizer/3.3.3/ZendOptimizer-3.3.3-linux-glibc23-i386.tar.gz 
in my case i m using x86 32 bit version

untar the package

tar -xvzf ZendOptimizer-3.3.3-linux-glibc23-i386.tar.gz

Go to the directory

cd ZendOptimizer-3.3.3-linux-glibc23

start the installation by running

./install

A welcome screen appears with terms and conditions.

Installation directory: /usr/local/Zend

Location of php.ini
by default it comes as /etc/php5/cli

But it has to be /etc/php5/apache2
(*depending upon your apache installation and linux server*)

The installation process will relocate php.ini file from /etc/php/apache2 to /usr/local/Zend/etc

A symbolic is created for php.ini in /etc/php5/apach2 pointint to /usr/local/Zend/etc/php.ini
php.ini -> /usr/local/Zend/etc/php.ini

If anything goes wrong with the installation , the old php.in is backed up during installation by zend automatically in /etc/php5/apache2 [ which is named as php.ini-zend_optimizer.bak ]

if YOU are not too sure ,YOU can always make a back up of this file.

to complete the installation , you need to restart the web server.

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

or you can do it at the end of installation when it prompts to restart the web server

to check if zend optimizer is working or not , you put a small php file with the phpinfo() in it .

when you run that file you will get similiar kind of output as following

This program makes use of the Zend Scripting Language Engine:
Zend Engine v2.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2007 Zend Technologies
with Zend Extension Manager v1.2.2, Copyright (c) 2003-2007, by Zend Technologies
with Zend Optimizer v3.3.3, Copyright (c) 1998-2007, by Zend Technologies

http://www.linuxweblog.com/blogs/manoj/20080624/zend-optimizer-installation-ubuntu

 KDE Community Ships Second Translation and Service Release of the 4.3 Free Desktop, Containing Numerous Bugfixes, Performance Improvements and Translation Updates .October 6th, 2009. Another month has passed since the release of KDE 4.3.0, so today the KDE Community announces the immediate availability of KDE 4.3.2, a bugfix, translation and maintenance update for the latest generation of the most advanced and powerful free desktop. KDE 4.3.2 is a monthly update to KDE 4.3. It ships with a desktop workspace and many cross-platform applications such as administration programs, network tools, educational applications, utilities, multimedia software, games, artwork, development tools and more. KDE’s award-winning tools and applications are available in more than 50 languages.

Read more here

 Display available memory

[root@]# cat /proc/meminfo

 As of yet the dropbox team haven't released a .deb file for Ubuntu 9.10 (32/64 bit), I'm sure they'll release one by the time 9.10 is released, but I can't wait that long. So what we're basically going to do here is compile it from source, it's not all that scary...

Step 1

Download the source files from here www.getdropbox.com/downloading and unzip it (right click and "Extract Here").

Step 2

We now need to install the dependencies in order to build our install files from source.
Open up your Terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install libnautilus-extension-dev libnotify-dev python-docutils

Follow the prompts and it should a a few minutes to download and install everything.

Step 3

Navigate to where you created your /nautilus-dropbox folder (it'll probably have a version number after it) in the Terminal, in my case:

cd /Downloads/nautilus-dropbox-0.6.1/

Step 4

Once inside type the following commands into your Terminal:

./configure
make
sudo make install


Run each command one after another, they'll run for just a couple of seconds each.

Step 5

After installing it simply log out and log back into your system, navigate to Applications → Internet → Dropbox, click “OK” and it'll download and install the daemon and then prompt you for your dropbox details.

As you can see it's a pretty easy install and it's been working great for me!

If you have any questions, comments or tips, please leave a comment below.

1. Backup your data!!

2. Map out your goals for LVM. Do you just want some expandable space for media files? Do you want to move your /home into LVM? Do you want to move everything under LVM? If you want to put everything under LVM, you should create a separate /boot partition (100MB should be fine) - otherwise you may not be able to boot your system.
3. You're going to need some free space to setup your volume groups. You can use:
   1. Free space on your primary hard drive.
   2. A partition that you are not using any more. (such as the Windows partion you haven't booted in 6 months, that is what Qemu/VMWare are for isn't it??)
   3. A new blank hard drive you've added to your system.
4. Format your free space/partition/new drive using your favorite disk management tool to "Linux LVM". Also use some of this space to create your separate /boot partition (100MB, ext3, bootable flag) if you are planning on putting everything under LVM.
5. Now that you have an LVM partition you can create your volume groups on. Note that you don't need a single large partition formated to Linux LVM, you can format as many smaller LVM partitions as you like, and combine them into a single filesystem using the power of LVM later - this is the preferred method as it allows more flexibility.
6. Install "lvm2" from the Ubuntu repositories. ("sudo aptitude install lvm2")

7. Optionally install "system-config-lvm". Here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=216117 is a forum thread on how to install it from Fedora RPM, (its not available in Ubuntu repositories.)

8. Load the LVM module - modprobe dm-mod. You can skip this step in Jaunty (9.04) because the dm-mod module is compiled into the kernel.

9. If that works without any errors, you can go ahead and add dm-mod to the end of your /etc/modules file (sudo nano /etc/modules). This will autoload LVM when Ubuntu starts - very important if you plan on moving your system directories under LVM. 
10. Configuration Read  Here

 By default, the root account password is locked in Ubuntu. This means that you cannot login as root directly or use the su command to become the root user. However, since the root account physically exists it is still possible to run programs with root-level privileges. This is where sudocomes in - it allows authorized users (normally "Administrative" users; for further information please refer to AddUsersHowto) to run certain programs as root without having to know the root password.

This means that in the terminal you should use sudo for commands that require root privileges; simply prepend sudo to all the commands you would normally run as root. For more extensive usage examples, please see below. Similarly, when you run GUI programs that require root privileges (e.g. the network configuration applet), use graphical sudo and you will also be prompted for a password (more below). Just remember, when sudo asks for a password, it needs YOUR USER password, and not the root account password.

Ubuntu is also setup initially with the first user having the right to become root through SUDO by being a member of the Admin group. Subsequent users that need root privileges simply need to be added to this group.

It is advisable to NEVER change the root password from it's default hash for many reasons. If you need persistent root access simply use sudo -i.