Adobe Flash player is one of the most used plugins for browsers. Flash player is used to play animation, most of the online games as well as playing streaming online videos. Many online video websites like Youtube and Metacafe use adobe flash player to play the video. Adobe flash player is undoubtedly the most necessary plugin for your browser.

 Flash plugin is a Netscape/Mozilla type plugin. Any browser based on Netscape or Mozilla can use the Flash plugin. This package currently supports the following browsers: Mozilla, Mozilla-Firefox, Firefox, Iceweasel and Iceape. Also Galeon and Epiphany can use the Flash Plugin. Konqueror can also use the Flash plugin if konqueror-nsplugins is installed.

 There are basically two ways to install flash player on Ubuntu. The first method involves command line way which might be a bit difficult for people who are new to linux. Using command line to install flash players may be a bit difficult if there are dependencies involved. So, in this guide we will take the second way which involves a few clicks and it is best method for people who prefer the GUI way. This is the most easiest way to install Adobe Flash plugin. So, here are the steps involved in installing adobe flash plugin,

1. Go to application and than select Ubuntu Software center.
2. 
3. On the Ubuntu Software center window, go to search filed and type “Flash”
4. By now, you should see a list of software and among them we are looking for one with Flash icon.
5. 
6. Once you gave seen that, click on it and then click on More Info.
7. Now you will see a new window with Install button right next to the Flash icon.
8. 
9. Just click on the install button and installation process should start automatically.

    

   That is it. You have just installed flash plugin with writing a single command. Isn’t that great !

Oh one more thing. The screenshot you are seeing is the one when you already have flash on your system. I already have flash plugin on my system while writing this so, I just wanted to save some bandwidth by not downloading it again. Call me lazy !!! But the screen should look the same for the system which doesn’t have flash plugin.

If you have any trouble let me know on the comments and I will try to help you out.

Windows is not the only Operating system out there. There are several others like Mac OS X, UNIX and Linux. Out of these Linux is the most important and easily available OS. Most importantly its free and open source. You can get various distribution of Linux like Ubuntu, Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Fedora, Open SUSE, Red Hat etc. Out of these only Red Hat is an enterprise version; rest of the distribution is free. You can download the .iso available in sites or you can request a free CD of ubuntu. I will be guiding you through the process of migrating on Linux. Before we start lets talk about some reason to adopt Linux for you. Here are some reasons for you to use Linux.

1. Free and open source: All Linux distribution is free and open source. You have all the access to the source code and you can modify it as you please.
2. Linux is fast: You can find various distribution of Linux according to your hardware configuration. Linux runs on a very low hardware configuration. You will surely get a good distribution of Linux for your hardware.
3. Stable: Linux is very stable. Some people might think it otherwise by my experience with Linux says that it’s very stable if you know what you are doing. Crash problem is Linux is rare.
4. Rapidly developing: Linux is changing day by day. A new stable version of Linux is available every year or so. You will get help in few days if you encounter any bug.
5. Programs: Linux has a variety of free and open source software available of download from Internet. You can also get commercial software if free software doesn’t satisfy your needs.
6. Wide application: Linux can be found from super computers to handheld devices. Apache is popular in web server and is Linux based. You might be surprised by Linux has been incorporated in wrist watch as well.
7. Easy to use: It is said that Linux is for geeks, but that’s not true. Linux is suitable for all users from newbie to Experts. Installing ubuntu is very easy and you can install it along with other OS like windows. One you install Linux you don’t have to take care of drivers and stuffs like that. Most hardware is compatible with Linux and if any hardware is not installed properly than you can get plenty of helps in configuring that hardware in sites or Forums.
8. Easy Internet: Linux has been configured well for easy internet access. You don’t have to configure your LAN Card etc. Install Linux and use internet, as easy as that.     

This is only a few ones. Once you start using Linux you will find out many more.      

1. Web browsing experience in Ubuntu is enhanced by award winning browser Firefox, which has been well known for its fast and safe web browsing. But you can also choose various other open source browsers for Ubuntu.
2. Openoffice.org enhances its features which is free and open source office application software. It is fully compatible with Microsoft Office package. With the help of openoffice, you can create professional presentation, documents and spreadsheets.
3. As always, Ububtu has thousands of free software to offer. Ubuntu software center is the place where you will get chance to download open source applications. Categories of software include office, programming, graphics, sound and video, games and education. These softwares are very easy to find, install, use and remove.
4. You can get IM Client like Empathy in Ubuntu to get connected with your friends and Families. Empathy can connect to various chat accounts like Gmail, MSN, Yahoo, AOL, Jabber, QQ and much more. Evolution Email can provide easy access to your email.
5. Ubuntu 10.04 offers New Me Menu with the help of which you can access your Facebook and Twitter accounts with single click. These will definitely make your social networking activity much easier.
6. Now in Ubuntu 10.04 is an online store that will help you buy music with just a few clicks. With Ubuntu One’s file-sharing magic you can store your music online and listen to it from other computer and music player.
7. Ubuntu offers software like F-Spot which can be used to view and edit your photos. If you want some advance photo editing software, you can easily find one from Ubuntu Software center.     
8. All Ubuntu users are offered a free Ubuntu One Account that can be used to store all kind of files online so that you can access then anywhere.
9. Ununtu takes very less time to start and its super fast. Get your works done quickly with Ubuntu 10.04
10. If you are game enthusiast then you can download hundreds of games including puzzles, adventure, tactical challenges and more. These games are totally free to use.
11. Ubuntu is considered as one of the most accessible desktop operating system. Whatever may be your economic or physical circumstances, you can definitely rely on Ubuntu.

So, are you excited? If yes then what are you waiting for? Go here and start downloading Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

Google defines Linux web hosting as “The definition of Linux Web Hosting is when a company is allowed to build their web sites on the Linux Operating System, which is an open-source …”

When we choose hosting for our site, we first look at the operating System that server is using. And most of us prefer Linux web hosting server then others. This might just be a trend but there are some clear benefits of linux web hosting.

Here are some features of Linux web hosting server:

1. Linux is the most popular OS on server now a day.
2. Almost all Linux web hosting server provides FTP access and facilities like telnet or SSH is typical to Linux web hosting server then server with other OS.
3. Linux web hosting server will serve you well with HTML and JavaScript.
4. CGI and Perl access is most common facility of Linux web hosting server. These scripts are used for programming the forms.
5. Almost all Linux web hosting server will provide PHP, ASP and ColdFusion. They are server side script that is used for form processing. They are very vital now a day.
6. Linux web hosting server is also equipped with database management if you are planning to make a dynamic site from various platforms like wordpress. Most of Linux web hosting server is equipped with mySQL database management system.
7. Linux web hosting server is thought to be more secure than others but this claim need some verification and study.

These are some features of Linux web hosting server. If you are planning to buy a web hosting account the why not give it a try to Linux web hosting.

Good luck.

Installing Ubuntu – The easiest way

Installing Linux into your system sometimes becomes a very difficult task for most of us especially when we are new to Linux. Fortunately, there is a very easy way of installing Ubuntu along with your windows OS so that you can get a good taste of Linux (Ubuntu). Actually the installation of Ubuntu along with your Windows machine is as simple as installing any other software in Windows OS.

In this post I will give you a step by step guide on installing Ubuntu along with Wndows OS.

Here are some steps that you have to follow while installing Ubuntu.Go to Ubuntu site and get the latest version of Ubuntu. Currently its 9.10 (This is the latest version, released in October of 2009 and maintained until 2011) or you can go for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Released in April 2008 and maintained until April 2011 – ideal for large deployments). Download link: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Download the ISO image and burn it into a blank CD. Now, you are ready to use Ubuntu. You can either run the CD as a live one where you will use Ubuntu without changing anything to your system. To use as live CD, simply put Ubuntu CD into CD tray and Restart your computer. Then follow onscreen instruction.If you are planning to install ubuntu into your system the here are some easy guidelines for you.

Put your Ubuntu CD on the drive and you will see like this (if it doesn’t auto run the you will have to double click on your CD drive icon)

Choose the option “Install inside Windows” Once you have done that, you will see this

This is the vital step. In this step, you will choose the drive where you want to install ubuntu, select username and password and installation size. Lets discuss these settings one by one. I have marked numbers in screen shot and lets discuss them one by one.

1. In this option you will choose the drive where you want to install Ubuntu. My recommendation is that you make a separate partition of at least 10GB for ubuntu installation. You have to select the drive here.

2. In this setting, you will choose the Installation size for ubuntu. This is simply a reservation size that Ubuntu can use for storing system files and your files as well. My suggestion is that you allocate a minimum of 6GB for this option because you might have a lot of files to store one you get hang of ubuntu.

3. In this step you will have to set the username and password for root user. A root user in ubuntu is simply an Administrator equivalent of Windows with some twist. Make sure that you remember this password because this will be required for installing various software and other administrative work on ubuntu.

Once you are done with these setting, press install and you are ready to install ubuntu.

The screenshot you are seeing above is of installation process. Wait for some time and the installation will be completed. That’s it!

Now restart your computer and select Ubuntu from the boot selection menu.

congratulations! You have installed ubuntu inside windows and now you are ready to enjoy the Ubuntu OS and its features.

You have a variety of choices on Linux distribution. Depending on your hardware configuration or your level of expertise you can find a good Distro. Now let’s gain some knowledge of various distro that are available.

1. Arch Linux: KISS principle based distributions.
2. CentOS: Derived from the same source as Red Hat.
3. Fedora: Sponsored by Red Hat and maintained by community.
4. Gentoo: OS especially used to compile applications from source code. Especially designed for expert users.
5. Knoppix: First distribution which is capable of running from removable media without installing into hard drive.
6. Kubuntu: KDE version of Ubuntu
7. Linux Mint: Compatible with ubuntu and a popular distribution.
8. OpenSUSE: Sponsored by company Novell and derived from Ubuntu.
9. Oracle Enterprise Linux: Commercially supported by Oracle and a derivative of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
10. Red Hat Enterprise Linux: Maintained and commercially supported by Red Hat and a derivative of Fedora.
11. Slackware: First Linux distribution founded in 1993. Maintained by Patrick J. Volkerding.
12. Ubuntu: Undoubtedly the most popular desktop distribution derived from Debian. It is maintained by Canonical. Ubuntu also has its Netbook version called Ubuntu netbook remix. Ubuntu is the distro that we would be talking about in detail.
13. Xubuntu: It is Xfce version of desktop distro Ubuntu. This is a very light weight distro with functionality of bigger distro like Ubuntu or Opensuse. This is especially designed for PC with low configuration.

There are many other distribution that you can get. I have listed only a few that I remembered. You can choose any one that you like. But I like Ubuntu so, I will be discussing about Ubuntu only.

Ubuntu is a community developed Linux-based operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. It contains all the applications you need – a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more.

Ubuntu Philosophy

ü      Every computer user should have the freedom to download, run, copy, distribute, study, share, change and improve their software for any purpose, without paying licensing fees.

ü      Every computer user should be able to use their software in the language of their choice.

ü      Every computer user should be given every opportunity to use software, even if they work under a disability.

The Ubuntu promise

• Ubuntu will always be free of charge, including enterprise releases and security updates.
• Ubuntu comes with full commercial support from Canonical and hundreds of companies around the world.
• Ubuntu includes the very best translations and accessibility infrastructure that the free software community has to offer.
• Ubuntu CDs contain only free software applications; we encourage you to use free and open source software, improve it and pass it on.