Memografía

Last week Pidgin 2.6.0 (and later 2.6.1) got finally released. It has a couple of nice goodies like audio&video support for XMPP and theming support, but the truth is, I was waiting for this update because they fixed the ability to save and use animated emoticons.

Upgrading Pidgin to the new version in a standard Ubuntu installation is quite easy, just follow the instructions detailed here and update. However, it won’t work in Jolicloud unless you make a small change to the second command to make the repository believe we are using Ubuntu Jaunty:

echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ppa/ubuntu \     `lsb_release --short --codename` main | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pidgin-ppa.list

Replace the bold text with “jaunty”, without quotes, so the whole thing ends up as

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com \ 67265eb522bdd6b1c69e66ed7fb8bee0a1f196a8

echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ppa/ubuntu \    jaunty main | \ sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pidgin-ppa.

Copy and paste both commands on a terminal and upgrade. That’s all.

Jolicloud is a new OS for netbooks that offers, among other things, a software installer based around Prism applications (basically, webpages on a stripped down browser) and a few system staples like VLC.

While the idea is good there’s not a lot of software available through their system yet and typing apt-get in a terminal, while easy, can get confusing for someone used to a GUI. The alternative, Synaptic, a graphic package manager, offers way too many alternatives and also ends up being confusing to a new user.

Ubuntu solved this dilemma by implementing a very simple application installer that anyone can use. Jolicloud doesn’t include it but it’s very easy to add it.

Open a terminal window (Accessories > Terminal in the launcher or press [ALT] + F2] and enter gnome-terminal) and copy&paste the following command:

sudo apt-get install gnome-app-install

Write your password when it asks for it and that’s it.

Note: The shortcut for the app should appear in Accessories (logging off may be necessary) but if not, it can be added via Preferences > Main Menu.

Update: Add/Remove seems to have been added to the default installation of jolicloud alpha 2c.