xpressubuntu

I’m very pleased to announce the release of budgie-remix based on the solid 16.10 Ubuntu foundations.

For the uninitiated, budgie-remix utilises the wonderful budgie-desktop graphical interface from the Solus team.

This is our first release following the standard Ubuntu release cycle – alphas, betas, release candidates.  Certainly eventful with this release we are very proud with the results.

Th…

budgie-remix 16.10 beta 2

The very latest budgie-remix distro based on the firm 16.10 Ubuntu foundations is now available for testers.

More details available on the project-page – and download links are available from sourceforge.

I have submitted many of the budgie-remix key packages to Debian and these are now available direct from the Yakkety repositories:

budgie-desktop,

Moka icon theme,

Faba icon theme,

arc-theme.

S…

new rhythmbox 3.4 released

Unusually early this time, Rhythmbox 3.4 has been released.

Its available for Yakkety users – but I’ve done some judicious hacking and its now also available for 16.04 users as well.

(screenshot taken with rhythmbox 3.4 + my alternative-toolbar plugin)

Thanks to the key Rhythmbox maintainer Jonathan Matthew we have a good release that incorporates a variety of fixes and improvements over the…

budgie-remix 16.10 wallpaper contest

budgie-remix 16.10 Yakkety Yak Wallpaper contest We invite everyone to contribute – even if you are not currently a budgie-remix user :) For guidelines, rules & submissions : Official Flickr group https://www.flickr.com/groups/budgie-remix-16-10/  

Actually we released last week but since this is my first Planet Ubuntu blog seems like an opportune moment😉 Using the superb Budgie Desktop, we are pleased to follow the official Ubuntu and community flavour release cadence and offer up a new release incorporating the mass of updates since 16.04 in April. Download links are here. Our first release was released immediately after 16.04 – built…

Rhythmbox Alternative-Toolbar goes dark…

Taking some time-out from budgie-remix matters, I’ve released an update to my plugin for rhythmbox called alternative-toolbar.

For those not in the know, this plugin gives rhythmbox a stylish makeover – introduces a compact bar for most desktops and a headerbar for GNOME based desktops.

In this release the following changes have been made:

Option for dark theme

Display Browse Categories…

Writing Python Applets for the budgie-desktop

Well here is my first budgie-desktop applet:

Seen this before?  Well yes – this is the Indicator SysMonitor app-indicator which has been updated to support budgie-desktop.

In-fact … it works much better under budgie because you don’t have to fiddle with applet ordering to stop applets jumping around with the SysMonitor label values grow/shrink in size. Just use Raven to order the applet…

budgie-remix 16.04 is now out!

The budgie-remix team are proud to announce the 16.04 release of budgie-remix.

Built upon the superb 16.04 Ubuntu LTS package archive, this is our very first full release using the excellent budgie-desktop from the Solus Project team.

64bit and 32bit ISO’s are available as well as bittorrents for these ISO’s – remember to keep seeding please!

We have a fantastic and enthusiastic growing community…

budgie-remix release candidate 1

As we march madly onwards towards the 16.04 release of budgie-remix, I’m pleased to announce our first release candidate.  Please grab these from our download site and give these a good workout.

Have a look at the README – the known issues should be looked at.

Feedback any issues on our launchpad bug-tracker, discuss via our google+ and reddit communities.

As always – many thanks to the…

budgie-remix changes post beta 2

Its been a busy time since beta 2 was released – so here is a quick run-down of what is new (remember to do a full update to get the latest changes)

New Dock Added.  Oft asked is the addition of a Dock.  We know via feedback received by the budgie-remix team that many people use a launcher to aid their workflow.  The icon tasklist included with budgie is rather limited at the moment – although we…

budgie-remix beta 2 is now available

The budgie-remix team are pleased to announce beta 2 of budgie-remix is now available.

We are hoping this is the final beta before our LTS release soon after the official Ubuntu release date (24th April).  If you haven’t already heard we’ve got the thumbs up for budgie-remix by Martin Wimpress – we look forward to working towards official status.

Screenshot Tour

We haven’t been idle in the last…

budgie-desktop gets a very stylish new release

budgie-desktop has just received its latest update (v10.2.5) – and its packed full of rather nice tasty stuff.  So forget about your choccy easter eggs – delve in, update and enjoy.

 The main panel has been rather nicely been fixed up. Notable visual changes includes the ability to blend the panel applets with the panel itself – a visual treat in itself.

The whole panel nicely reveal itself on…

IMPORTANT: New package repository for budgie-remix and budgie-desktop users

With immediate effect the budgie-desktop repository “ppa:fossfreedom/budgie-desktop” has been deprecated. What this means is that ppa:fossfreedom/budgie-desktop will no longer receive updates … but don’t worry read on :)

Since budgie-remix is a community distro we want to encourage everyone to contribute. We can achieve this through a new team repository where people can join and contribute.

T…

budgie-remix beta 1 is now available

Spread the word – get your friends and your friends-friends to share … budgie-remix beta 1 is now available!!

Its been less than a month since Mark Shuttleworth expressed his support for a budgie-desktop version of Ubuntu.

Well its now available – in both 64bit and 32bit forms.

So what’s in this beta 1 release since the previous tech-preview

A range of appswe think fit in with budgie’s simple &…

For those testing an installed version of tech-preview 2 (keep updating!) these are the current default applications budgie-remix probably (emphasis on probably) ship with.  Let me know your thoughts.

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Accessories:

Files (Nautilus) is shipping with v3.18 not v3.14 as in base Ubuntu.  This is combined with GNOME Sushi – nice piece of software to view the contents of what you have highlighted – just press the Space bar

GNOME calculator

Gnote – note taking software

Main Menu (Alacarte) – allows customisation of the menu

GNOME Photos

Gedit Text Editor

Games:

Solitaire

Mahjongg

Mines

Sudoku

Installing the package gnome-games has two dozen games to choose from – the chosen four are those that Ubuntu has selected as the default.

Graphics:

Simple Scan

Internet:

Chromium Webbrowser

Firefox Web-browser customised with the Arc Darker firefox theme

Transmission BitTorrent client

Not decided yet (but leaning toward firefox) on the default browser … ship with both?

Office:

Libreoffice with sifr as the default toolbar style

Sound & Video:

Rhythmbox customised with Alternative Toolbar and Tray-icon for controlling via the panel

Video Player (Totem)

Sundry:

Orca Screen Reader

Power Statistics

System Tools:

GNOME Control Centre Settings

GNOME Software Centre

Administration:

Ubuntu Software Updater

Preferences:

Startup Applications

Additional Drivers

GNOME Disks

GNOME Online Accounts

Utilities:

Archive Manager (file-roller)

Evince PDF Document Viewer

Image Viewer (eog)

GNOME Screenshot

GNOME Terminal

  … and xfdashboard – press CTRL+TAB – this gives a gnome-shell like dashboard

Getting started with developing with budgie-remix

budgie-remix is hosted on GitHub for development.  For anyone who wishes to contribute to the development of budgie-remix, this article is the starting point.

It consists of a number of sub-projects – some are still work in progress.  Obviously the number of sub-projects will grow as the project matures – below is the current structure:

budgie-de…

displaying the appmenu in budgie

Quick tip for budgie-desktop PPA users who maybe wondering where GNOME based apps display their AppMenu.

There is a bug upstream with 10.2.4 of budgie-desktop that does not display the GNOME AppMenu for applications like Rhythmbox, Totem, Nautilus etc.

Until this is fixed correctly in the source, here is a quick terminal command to get those pesky AppMenus displaying again:

gsettings set…