The eventual release of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal is almost here. And we have already featured the essential to do list after installing Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. Now, not everyone among you is going to install the latest Ubuntu from scratch. So here are the two ways in which you can upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal directly from Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat.

How to Upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?
There are two ways in which you can upgrade to latest Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. One is by using the Ubuntu 11.04 Live CD and the other one is directly via internet.

How to Upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04 using Ubuntu Live CD?
This is the easier method of the two. Though you need to have the Ubuntu 11.04 Live CD already downloaded to do this. In the new Ubuntu installer menu, there is an option to upgrade from Ubuntu 10.10 to Ubuntu 11.04 directly.

As you can see, the Ubuntu installer has automatically detected the Ubuntu 10.10 already installed in my laptop and the second option in the list is ‘Upgrade Ubuntu 10.10 to 11.04′. Select the option and click forward. Simple as that.

How to Upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04 via Update Manager using Internet?
Hit Alt + F2 and copy-paste the following command.
update-manager -d

Update Manager will open up and it will take you through the required steps for upgrading to Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal from Ubuntu 10.10.

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Ubuntu 11.04 ‘Natty Narwhal’ will be released in another 8 days or so. We have followed the development of Ubuntu 11.04 very closely. In fact, we have reviewed all the previous developmental releases of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal so far including Alpha 1, Alpha 2, Alpha 3 and Beta 1 releases. In my opinion, the overall Ubuntu 11.04 experience is so much better and involving if you know some essential Ubuntu Unity keyboard and Mouse shortcuts. So here are a bunch of very basic yet useful Ubuntu 11.04(Unity) keyboard shortcuts.

Ubuntu Unity Shortcuts
Super Key(Windows Key) – Opens dash.
Hold Super Key – Invokes Launcher.
Hold Super Key and hit 1, 2, 3 etc – Open an Application from Launcher. When you hold the Super Key, specific numbers will be displayed in order above each application.
Alt + F1 – Put keyboard focus on the Launcher, use arrow keys to navigate, Enter launches the application, Right arrow exposes the quicklists if an application has them.
Alt + F2 – Opens dash in special mode to run any commands.
Super + A – Opens up application window from launcher.
Super + F – Opens up files and folders window from launcher. Both these shortcuts can be viewed by simply holding the Super Key as well.
Super + W – Spread mode, zoom out on all windows in all workspaces.
Super + D – Minimize all windows(acts as Show Desktop). Hitting it again restores them.
Super + T – Opens trash can.
Super + S – Expo mode (for everything), zooms out on all the workspaces and let’s you manage windows.
Ctrl + Alt + T – Launch Terminal.
Ctrl + Alt + L – Lock Screen.
Ctrl + Alt + Left/Right/Up/Down – Move to new workspace.
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Left/Right/Up/Down – Place window to a new workspace.
F10 – Open the first menu on top panel, use arrows keys to browse across the menus.

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Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal beta is already here and in a few days time, the final release will happen. We have already reviewed the latest Ubuntu 11.04 beta and we think it is ready for prime time, well, almost. We did encounter some amount of instability in the new Ubuntu Unity mostly because of Compiz, but overall we believe Ubuntu 11.04 is going to be a release to look forward for. Leaving all that aside for now, let’s just concentrate on things you could do after installing Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal.

Things to do After Installing Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal
Many things about this post will be similar to our previous write up on things you need to do after installing Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat. But not everything. Ubuntu with classic GNOME desktop is now defunct and Ubuntu Unity has come to replace it. Unity is the new face of Ubuntu and there will be no more special desktop and netbook editions of Ubuntu. Instead, Ubuntu Unity will simply took its place. Now, let’s take a look into the things you need to do after installing Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal.
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GNOME 3 (with GNOME Shell) is truly great and I especially like how easy it is to extend it through extensions like the new ThemeSelector extension.

ThemeSelector GNOME Shell extension is a new, unofficial GNOME Shell extension that adds a new tab in the Activities overview where all the GNOME Shell themes (not GTK themes!) installed under ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/themes show up. To change a theme, all you have to do is click it and you don’t even have to reload GNOME Shell.

To use the ThemeSelector extension, you need to install GNOME Shell Extensions and the GNOME Shell User Theme extension. But don’t worry, despite a first look on the installation steps below, installing all of these is actually quite easy. Read on!

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If you travel frequently, it can be frustrating to have to use a system that doesn’t have your favorite open source software already installed. Fortunately, many of the most popular open source applications come in portable versions that you can take with you on a USB thumb drive or other portable media.
What makes an application portable? These apps can run from any portable device (a thumb drive, CD, DVD, portable hard drive or other device) without needing to be installed directly on the hard drive of the system you’re using. They also don’t leave behind any files on the host system, and they don’t interfere with other software installed on that system.

For this list, we’ve compiled some of the best portable open source applications available. Some of these were originally designed by the project owner to be portable. Others are open source applications that have been re-packaged for portability by a third party.

Several groups, notably PortableApps.com and winPenPack, have created suites of portable open source applications. Others offer directories with many individual portable apps. Because these collections and directories are so helpful, we put them at the top of our list. Other individual portable applications come next, organized by category.

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Here is another great all purpose Linux distribution with lots of the newest software only a few clicks away. Although things don’t appear to have changed much in recent years there are still some great improvements under the hood. OpenSUSE is known as a reliable distribution with a diverse selection of options making it another great choice for desktops and servers alike. Lighter desktop editions of OpenSUSE might be a better for choice for laptops however. I have already covered OpenSUSE 11.4 KDE for those who are interested, here I will focus on the OpenSUSE Gnome desktop.

OpenSUSE 11.4 Features

Enjoy the improved scalability of virtual memory management introduced in Kernel 2.6.37.
Find step by step instructions now included during installation, just click help.
CD or DVD downloads are available, in your choice of 32 bit or 64 bit architecture.
Available desktop environments include KDE, Gnome, IceWM, TWM, LXDE, and XFCE.
Zypper has introduced a new MultiCurl back-end for faster package management.
OpenSUSE now includes the latest versions of Xen, VirtualBox and KVM, you will also get reliable integration with VMware and HyperV.
GLib 2.26 will now include support for Gsettings.
The first major distribution to ship with GTK 3.0 for your development needs.

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Vertigo is a new fun arcade game for Linux which is based on Ogre3D and BulletPhysics Engine. The game is completely free, open source and cross platform.

About Game

You are a probe and your mission is to maneuver your way to the other end of the warp tunnel. Your probe is set with 2 shields to protect from fire and ice drones, but only 1 shield is active at a time. You have to flip shields in time to protect yourself, and you can possibly move left and right to avoid some obstacles.

It’s a pure reflex game, so be quick. Coupled with awesome music score, you will quickly get lost into and want more of it. There is nothing too serious about this game. Just pure fun for quick time pass.

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This just in (from the openbsd-misc mailing list): The FlashVideoReplacer add-on for Firefox works in OpenBSD with the help of gecko-mediaplayer, which is now an OpenBSD package.

For OpenBSD, the testers reported this combination working in OpenBSD-current. I’ve since found that it works for Vimeo videos in OpenBSD 4.8-release and could very well work for YouTube in 4.9-release.

This just hit the openbsd-misc mailing list today, and I hope more reports to flow in over the next day or so, helping us figure out exactly what this Firefox add-on is capable of.

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I wanted to experience the thrill of browsing anonymously, or to a navigation system that does not easily reveal the information on the connection you use. The choice of which software to use is gone on Tor, but only because it is the most famous. Personally, I proceeded to download the latest version of TOR available for my GNU/Linux directly from its site.

Tor, as program in itself, is a command line program. Installing it, it adds itself at the services that the Linux will start automatically at every boot.

But I like the easy things, and with Linux they often are so. In this case, the easiest way for me to use Tor is the use of a graphical front-end. For this purpose we will use Vidalia, which is based on the Qt graphics libraries vers. 4, while we know that Gnome 2 is based on Gtk. But patience, that’s okay.

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If you’ve been paying attention over the past couple of months you’ll know that tablet PCs are big business. You’ve probably even played with an iPad if you’ve ventured into any of the many hardware retailers in your local mall.

Everyone loves the idea of a tablet PC. They’re ultra-portable, super attractive and sometimes even small enough to fit into your pocket or a small bag. What’s not to love about something that does most of the work of a laptop but doesn’t take up much more space than a large cellphone?

If you’ve only being paying a little bit of attention over the past couple of months you might also assume that Apple’s iPad is the only tablet PC available. A bit like the iPod is the only digital music player available. The reality is that there are a stream of tablet PCs heading the consumers way in the coming months. So, before you rush out and buy an iPad here’s a wrap of the tablet PC options available:

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