BleachBit -- the open source system clean-up utility for Windows and Linux -- has added several new features to its latest version that make it an even better tool for removing unneeded files files from your computer. Support for Google Chrome and Chromium has been greatly improved: BleachBit can now remove everything from DNS prefetch data, to autofill history and DOM storage. Support for HTML5 localStorage cleaning has also been improved and now works with Opera.

On Linux systems, BleachBit can now remove swap files (in addition to swap devices). The Windows version has added the option to remove Windows Update uninstallers -- including hotfixes and Internet Explorer patches. BleachBit's list of supported programs has also grown significantly since we last wrote about the program, and it's well worth checking out the full list of features to see just how much digital crud it can remove from your hard drive.

It was only a matter of time: a page on the Chromium Projects website has emerged, detailing how to install Ubuntu on a Cr-48 netbook. The process is, understandably, a little risky -- but it's not like there are any tech bloggers out there that don't know how to use Linux, right?

Snarkiness aside, the process is actually very easy. You have to hack at the SSD's filesystem a little and fiddle with the Chrome OS kernel, but if you do everything right, you should be rewarded with a dual-boot system capable of running both Ubuntu and Chrome OS.

The best bit, though, is that you have to enable 'developer mode' to escape Chrome OS's 'verified boot' security measure. To do this, you need to flip a switch on the back, under the battery, as per the hilarious instructional photo shown after the break.

We've shown you what some of the new Chrome web apps can do, but even if some of the apps are just links to existing web pages, installing from the web store allows for a few extra customizations. More »

Now that Chrome version 8 has hit the standard Stable channels, it's possible for anyone to peek at the early web app style that will come with Chrome's Web Store—once again. Just as before, right-click on a shortcut to Chrome, hit Properties, then edit its shortcut target to add --enable-default-apps on Windows. Mac and Linux users, Google Operating System has the command line switch you'll need. What Chrome webapps are you most looking forward to seeing made official? [Google Operating System] More »

Adobe just released a beta of the newest Flash player, complete with lower CPU usage and full screen dual-monitor playback. Chrome, though still uses its built-in, stable version of Flash. Here's how to get the beta goodies in Chrome. More »

As a quick follow-up article to the Adobe Flash 10.2 beta announcement, we thought we'd show you how to disable Google Chrome's built-in Flash plug-in so that you can use a pre-release build like the 10.2 beta. It's a quick and simple process, but please remember that once you've disabled Chrome's built-in Flash you won't get the benefit of Chrome's internal Flash updates.

1. Download the Flash plug-in that you'd like to use with Chrome (10.2 can be found here).
2. Fire up Chrome and type about:plugins into the address bar; hit enter.
3. Click on Details in the top right of the window to expand the plug-in details.
4. Find the Flash plug-in that's listed as being in the Chrome directory and hit Disable (shown above).
5. Check which version of Flash you have by heading here.

That's it -- now you can jump on over to Adobe's Stage Video demo and watch as your CPU basically idles as you play HD video. If you want to reverse the procedure, just re-enable Chrome's built-in Flash plug-in and it'll take priority over the pre-release version.

Firefox/Chrome: The Lightning Reveal extension for Google Chrome reveals what lies behind Amazon's Lightning Deals before they're live on Amazon.

Chrome/Firefox/Opera/Safari: If you're unhappy with Facebook's new small font size (or other annoyances), userscript Better Facebook gives you over 75 extra options with which you can tweak Facebook to your liking.

Every time Facebook redesigns their home page, the entire internet seems to erupt (usually unnecessarily) in anger. Recently, however, Facebook changed its default font size for the news feed to a smaller font that is significantly harder to read, and it's a pretty legitimate complaint. Luckily, user script Better Facebook has you covered with a new feature that allows you to force a certain font size.

There's a lot of work going on in the background, but Dev Channel subscribers of Google Chrome might not even notice they've been upgraded overnight to Chrome 9. Tweaks to the JavaScript engine, the off-by-default hardware acceleration, and some of the extension handling are present, but most of the work listed in the lengthy changelog relates to features not quite ready for primetime. Chrome 9 arrived for Windows, Mac, and Linux users running the Dev channel release. [Google Chrome Releases] More »

Chrome/Firefox: The SiteLauncher browser extension adds a one-stroke keyboard launcher to your favorite sites in Chrome and Firefox. More »

Chrome: We've shown you many ways to avoid the less appealing folk on the internet, but if you find some communities are just too troll-infested, Comment Blocker will hide all comments on a specific site with a quick shortcut. More »

Having used Nautilus (the default file manager in Ubuntu) for several years, I have really no complaints about it. It does its jobs well and you can also install scripts and actions to increase its functionality. However, after installing Nautilus Elementary, I am surprised by the simplicity and the enhancements that it adds to the file manager, which makes Nautilus even more user-friendly and useful. If you haven’t install Nautilus Elementary yet, you got to give it a try.

Let’s take a look at the magic that Nautilus Elementary adds to your Nautilus /> id="more-23092">

Terminal in Nautilus

Most of the newbie that just started using Ubuntu (or any other Linux distro) are scared of the terminal, and the bash command. What Nautilus Elementary does is to embed a terminal right inside your Nautilus. Simply press F7 or go to View -> Embed Terminal to reveal the terminal.

We have previously covered how to convert PDF file to Word document, but if you are looking to convert your PDF into images, spreadsheet, HTML or even SWF files, then you got to give PDFTiger a try. The best of all, it’s free for now.

PDFTiger is having a time-limited giveaway promotion for… well, you already guess it, PDFTiger. PDFTiger is both a PDF conversion tool as well as a PDF creator. From existing PDFs, you can convert them to DOC, RTF, TXT, BMP, JPG, GIF, TIF, HTML or SWF files with only 3 mouse clicks. You can also create PDF file from Word, Excel, Powerpoint, text, Images and all printable files. /> id="more-22905">

Features of PDFTiger

• convert a PDF document into Word with only 3 mouse clicks.
• preserves the original quality of the PDF files
• converts both text and images. Users can convert the entire PDF or selected pages only
• convert multiple files in the batch mode
• also a PDF creator that quickly and accurately creates PDF documents from Word, Excel, Powerpoint, text, images and all printable files.

To enjoy this free giveaway:

Regardless which platform you are using, there’s bound to be a calculator included in the stock OS. For simple calculation, these calculators work fine, but if you want to do more complex calculation, like solving an algebraic expression, it won’t make the mark.

Qalculate is a powerful calculator for Linux that can solve complex mathematical expressions, units conversion, graph plotting and many more sophisticated functions. /> id="more-22941">

Install Qalculate

If you are using Ubuntu, you can get it from the Ubuntu Software Center, or just install it via the command:

sudo apt-get install qalculate

What is Qalculate capable of doing?

Simple calculation

Needless to say, which calculator doesn’t perform simple calculation?

This is gonna be a quickie. If you’ve installed the latest Ubuntu 10.10, loved the new default Ubuntu font and want to have the same font available on your other systems running Windows or Mac, you may look no further. The Ubuntu font, which is actually a family of fonts, is not only royalty free and open source, but also gratis. It is an open-type ttf based font family, designed by renowned font foundry Dalton Maag, which is based in London.

If you’ve come to believe that Ubuntu is bad at typography, this is the moment where you should give it another chance.

Download the Ubuntu Font [Take the link for the zip file, in the second β line]

For Linux users who have been using the dev build of Google Chrome, you can now head over to the “about:labs” page and enjoy some Labs feature.

The “about:labs” page has been around for the Linux build for quite some time, but unlike the Windows version, nothing was available. In the latest update of Google Chrome, the “about:labs” now comes with several features like Tabbed Settings, Remoting, Page Info Bubble, Disable outdated plug-ins, XSS Auditor and Background WebApps.

Here’s a short breakdown of what each feature does:

Tabbed Settings

Instead of a new window, the Chrome Settings is now opened in a new tab.

Remoting

Allows Remoting Client support.

Page Info Bubble

The page info is now shown as an info bubble instead of a dialog window.

Disable outdated plug-ins

As its name implies, disable outdated plugins to reduce security vulnerability

XSS Auditor

Enables WebKit’s XSS Auditor (cross-site scripting protection). This feature aims to protect you from certain attacks of malicious web sites. It improves your security, but it might not be compatible with all web sites.

Background WebApps

Run installed web apps in the background at system startup and even after all windows are closed.

Activating about:labs features

1. Ensure that you are using a dev build of Google Chrome (you can get the deb file here)

2. Open a new tab and type “about:labs” (without the quotes) in the URL bar.

3. Choose the feature you want and click the “Enable” link.

4. Restart Google Chrome

That’s it.

We have seen such interesting desktop modification concepts like right click menu alternative mockup, creative button concepts by IZO design etc. Warning themes concept is another interesting idea worth a look. The rationale behind the concept to make it clear to the user that, opening something like a filebrowser as root is not the 'normal' way to do things and such actions could damage their system.

Themes to Make Being Root Scary

Chrome: Graph Your Inbox is a fascinating Chrome extension that takes Gmail search queries and returns a graph displaying email frequency over time. It may not sound sexy, but it can expose all sorts of interesting things about your communication. More »

Filed under: Linux, Canonical, Beta