Using Appcelerator Titanium with Ubuntu

As anyone can tell by reading other posts in this blog, I am a programmer and I try and use various programming languages and methods all the time. I found Titanium a few months ago and started using it when it was only version 0.7. It has matured very quickly since then and it makes for an interesting platform to develop on. To describe it in a just a sentence it allows for crossplatform desktop application development using only HTML and Javascript. You can also use PHP, Python, and Ruby, but you don't have to. There is also a mobile development side that works quite well also. For a full desciption of what it can do head over to Appcelerator.com.

Follow these steps to install for Ubuntu 9.10:

1. Navigate to Appcelerator.com and click download Titanium.
2. Click on the link to download either 32-bit or 64-bit Linux. If you are unsure just use the 32-bit.
3. Extract the archive and put the extracted folder anywhere you want. Personally I have a folder where I keep any downloaded programs in my home folder.
4. There is an executable file called "Titanium Developer" inside of the extracted that you can then run and follow the directions to install it. I usually choose to install it into my home folder because I had problem with installing it anywhere else.
5. The last thing you may want to do is create a shortcut either on the desktop or in the menu so you can easily start Titanium Developer. This can be done with the alacarte program.

Go ahead and start creating your desktop programs, and relish in the fact that you did not have to use any other language besides the ones you already use for web development.

Testing Out Lucid Lynx

If you head over to http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ you can get the most recent build of Lucid Lynx. I went ahead and created a Virtual Box VM since I didn't have time to reformat my hard drive. Seems pretty stable to me, but go ahead and try it out for yourselves.

Install Gnome Do from PPA in 9.10

I always like to have the latest and greatest of Gnome Do. This can be achieved by installing from their PPA. These instructions are for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala so they may not work with older versions. Follow the steps below if you want to install Gnome Do from PPA.

1. Open System > Administration > Software Sources
2. Click Other Software tab and then click the Add button.
3. Add these two lines one by one.

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

4. Click Close and then Reload. It will complain about a GPG error but we will fix that in the next steps.
5. Open up a terminal and input these commands.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 77558DD0
sudo apt-get update

6. Now you can install Gnome Do with this command.

sudo apt-get install gnome-do

Congratulations! You now will have the latest Gnome Do installed on your system. Now when the next release of Gnome Do happens you will get it right away instead of waiting for it to be put into mainstream.

Ubuntu Google Web Toolkit Setup

It's easy to get started with the Google Web Toolkit and Ubuntu 9.04. There are a couple of steps you will want to take to ensure a proper setup.

First let me start by mentioning that the easiest way to do this is to use Eclipse. Eclipse is a full-featured Java IDE. Many complain that it is too slow, crashes, etc. Since Google developed a plugin for Eclipse and most likely their software engineers are using it, I think it would be best to use it as well. Now on to the actual steps.

Get Eclipse Installed and Working

1. Don't use synaptic to install Eclipse. If you already have it installed through synaptic that's okay, but you will have two versions of Eclipse on your computer.
2. Download the latest copy of Eclipse at http://www.eclipse.org/downloads. Don't worry about all the different versions. Just download the Eclipse Classic at the bottom of the list.
3. Extract to a directory on your hard drive. I happen to put all of my programs that I install manually in a folder, /home/username/Software. This helps me keep track of all my programs I've installed manually.
4. You should be able to start Eclipse either through the command line (after you change to the directory) or by double-clicking eclipse inside of the folder.

Install Google Web Toolkit Plugin

1. Start Eclipse if you haven't already.
2. Help > Install new software...
3. Click the add button. Put GWT Plugin for name and paste in for the url:
   
   

   http://dl.google.com/eclipse/plugin/3.5

4. Check the boxes labeled Plugin and SDKs. 
5. Follow through the wizard. You will have to agree to the license.
6. Once you finish with that window you will want to restart Eclipse. After that you can begin working with GWT in Ubuntu.

This worked for me on 32bit and 64bit Ubuntu. Hopefully you will be able to start building your Google Web Toolkit applications in Ubuntu.

Upgrade Ubuntu Desktop from 8.10 to 9.04

Doing a distribution upgrade always makes me feel uncertain. I used to use another flavour of Linux that was very poor at upgrading. In fact, every time I tried to upgrade between versions it broke. I ended up doing a clean install every time there was a new version. Since switching to Ubuntu I have not had that problem, but I must be scarred from my previous experiences because I still get uneasy about upgrading. I have even waited to make sure that other people can do successful upgrades.

Ubuntu makes it dead simple to perform a distribution upgrade. All one really needs to do is to run update-manager. Generally this runs each time after you start up to check for upgrades but you may have disabled that. Once the program finds that there is a new distribution there is a button that can be pressed to perform a distribution upgrade. Even though the upgrade is seamless I suggest making a backup before you perform the upgrade. You should see some similar screens on your computer that I have posted here. You pretty much let it work and at the end it will want you to reboot.

If you have a successful reboot then the upgrade went fine. If you had some issues then you may want to check out the Ubuntu forums or try to google it.

9.04 Ubuntu Netbook Remix

So I just got an Asus 1000HA and I just had to put the netbook version of Jaunty on it. This was actually very easy to do by way of this tutorial. Having such a portable computer has never been better.

Of course the default install is lacking as far as applications goes. Once I have all of the applications that I use installed, I'll give a run down of what I did after the installation. For now, I'm just happy that it installed just fine without having to do anything special.

Just 2 days left for Ubuntu 9.04

I have been pleasantly surprised with the improvements to Ubuntu. I have been using the Beta since its release on my computer at work. I have only experienced a couple of issues related to printing, but printing is not a huge issue for me. What have been your experiences with Ubuntu 9.04? What do you like, or not like? Leave a comment below.