My Thoughts

Assalamo alaykom,

Sabily team is proud to announce the code name of Sabily 10.04: Manarat

Manarat is the plural of the Arabic word Manara which mean in English and other languages Minaret:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minaret

Welcome Sabily Manarat

The Ubuntu development community announced today the availability of Ubuntu 10.04 alpha 2, a new prerelease of the next major version of the Ubuntu Linux distribution. This alpha is the first Ubuntu release to completely omit HAL, a Linux hardware abstraction layer that is being deprecated in favor of DeviceKit.

The alpha release introduces a few new applications, including the Pitivi video editing tool and the GBrainy game. Some of the other planned changes to the default application set have not yet been made. The GIMP, which is scheduled for removal from the default installation during this development cycle, is still included in alpha 2. Some other applications that are planned for inclusion in 10.04, such as Gwibber, aren’t ready yet and have been pushed back to alpha 3.

The Pitivi video editor

The latest version of the GNOME desktop environment is included in alpha 2, bringing some noteworthy improvements to the Nautilus file manager. It has gained support for a dual-pane file view and the tabs have been moved to the bottom of the window.

Nautilus file manager with a dual-pane view in Ubuntu 10.04 alpha 2

Last month, we gave you an inside look at Canonical’s plan to overhaul the GNOME panel. The Ubuntu developers adopted KDE’s Status Notifier specification with the goal of helping to build consensus around a compelling cross-desktop solution. The panel overhaul is underway and some of the earliest work on that effort is visible in alpha 2. Rhythmbox is the first application to include a new status notifier menu.

Rhythmbox music player with new status notifier menu

One of the major goals for Ubuntu 10.04 is an improved startup experience, with a ten-second boot time. Considerable progress on boot performance has been made over the past year, but the goal still hasn’t been reached yet in alpha 2. Other facets of the boot experience improvement effort have landed, such as the migration from usplash to Plymouth.

Ubuntu 10.04 is a long-term support (LTS) release, which means that it will be supported on the desktop for three years and on the server for five years. The primary focus of the development cycle is stability rather than feature enhancements. It will enter feature freeze earlier than average Ubuntu releases and will also have a longer beta test period.

The alpha release is available for download from the Ubuntu website, but it’s not yet ready for use in production environments. For additional details about the alpha release and a complete list of known issues, you can refer to the official release notes.

Bismilleh walhamdolilleh wassaleto wasselemo ala rasolilleh,

The Sabily team is proud to announce the release of Sabily 9.10, codename “Gaza”. Sabily is the new name of Ubuntu Muslim Edition, the Operating System designed by and for Muslims (but non-Muslims are very welcome to use it too ).

Sabily 9.10 is available as a Live DVD (so you can test it without installing anything on your computer), with 2 versions:

• Small version (1 GB): contains the main Sabily packages (artwork, islamic applications) and Arabic support
• Full version (2.8 GB): same as above plus multimedia, education and miscellaneous packages, besides offline Quran recitations provided by www.versebyversequran.com: Muhammad Siddeeq al-Minshawi, Huzify, Sa’ad al-Ghamadi and Mishary Rashed Alafasy
  Note: the offline recitations are useful if you are not connected to the Internet (all Sabily versions provide online recitations)

What’s new in this release:

• “Noor” application: new Quran Browser
• Sample books for Thwab
• “Fsool” application: the Sira of The prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him)
  
• “Rejaal” application: Men around the prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him)..a flash bibliography of 60 Sahabi
• “Arabeyes Qamoos”: Arabic-English dictionary

Note: the three last software exist only on the full version

What’s changed:

• New theme (grub image + xsplash…)
• New structure of “Islamic Software”
• Monajat is re-developed in Python

Main features:

• Parental control tool installed (WebStrict)
• Zekr (Quran study tool), able to play Quran recitations
• Prayer times apps: Minbar and Firefox ‘Pray Times’ add-on
• Thwab (encyclopaedia)
• Custom artwork: usplash, login screen, Islamic wallpapers and theme.
• Full support for Arabic language.
• The full version of the DVD contains multimedia, scientific, educational and many other useful software

Download Sabily 9.10 (Gaza) here.

Sabily beta is released and the expected time to release a stable version is on 27 of this month, a screen cast made by Abdelmonam Kouka:

Sabily 9.10 (Gaza release) beta – LiveCD from Abdelmonam Kouka on Vimeo.

I was amused with the Gnome 3 when I first used it on my Ubuntu 9.10, it is really great and I can’t wait to see it as the default on Ubuntu…

To Install

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

To run

gnome-shell –replace

Also you could write a shell script to run it in silent mode:

1. create an empty file an call it “gnome-shell.sh”.
2. fill in it the script above “gnome-shell –replace”.
3. right click on the file ==> properties.
4. go to permissions tab and and allow to run the file as executable.
5. double click on the file and choose “Run”.

Here is a screen shot from my desktop.