UNIX: Introduction to Beginners

What is UNIX? 

UNIX is an operating system which was first developed in the 1960s, and has been under constant development ever since. By operating system, we mean the suite of programs which make the computer work. It is a stable, multi-user, multi-tasking system for servers, desktops and laptops.

UNIX systems also have a graphical user interface (GUI) similar to Microsoft Windows which provides an easy to use environment. However, knowledge of UNIX is required for operations which aren't covered by a graphical program, or for when there is no windows interface available, for example, in a telnet session.

Types of UNIX :-

There are many different versions of UNIX, although they share common similarities. The most popular varieties of UNIX are Sun Solaris, GNU/Linux, and MacOS X.

Here in the School, we use Solaris on our servers and workstations, and Fedora Linux on the servers and desktop PCs.

The UNIX operating system:-

The UNIX operating system is made up of three parts; the kernel, the shell and the programs. 

The kernel:

The kernel of UNIX is the hub of the operating system: it allocates time and memory to programs and handles the filestore and communications in response to system calls.
As an illustration of the way that the shell and the kernel work together, suppose a user types rm myfile (which has the effect of removing the file myfile). The shell searches the filestore for the file containing the program rm, and then requests the kernel, through system calls, to execute the program rm on myfile. When the process rm myfile has finished running, the shell then returns the UNIX prompt % to the user, indicating that it is waiting for further commands.

Hacking Mobile Number (Spoof Identity)

Duplicate/Create And Send SMS By It :

Welcome,This is my First post about mobile hacking,In this post,We are going to create any mobile number (police,fire department,ex-girlfriends,etc) and send messages,Sure this method has only 75% success rate,but it works like a charm for the most time.In spoofing attack the attacker (you)  make himself a source or desire address.This post is only for education purposes,and this trick can be traced back to the source very easily,So don't create a scene.

So What Do WE Need :

#SET-Social Engineering Toolkit, Available On Backtrack. 

#Brain-To Sense what is wrong and what is right,And to follow this procedure.

Step 1 :

Open "Social Engineering Toolkit" in Backtrack 5 (mine OS)  by Opening your backtrack console & Typing 

cd /pentest/exploits/set

Step 2 :

Once the directory is opened,Type "./set" to fire up the social attacking kit.

Step 3 :

Now select option number 7.This module allows you to specially craft SMS messages and send them to a person. You can spoof the SMS source if you want to,its not that hard.

Step 4 :

Now select option 1 "Perform a SMS Spoofing Attack”

Step 5 :

Select how the "spoofed-sms" should distribute,you could send it to many people or just one,Your choice.

Step 6 :

Now you need to enter the number of the receiver (victim), make sure to enter with country code.Example : +919907015143 for India,

Step 7 :

Now select 1 for pre-defined Templates,that is helpful to newbies, of-course you can create your own.

Step 8 :

On this step you need to choose the templates,I will choose the "Boss" one,you can use according to your situation.

Step 9 :

Now you need to select the service which will send that crafted SMS you created,You can choose whatever-the-hell you want,If you have an Android Emulator that is just great.

Step 10 :

POOF ! You just send an spoofed message,which is capable of stopping war or creating it,depends on you.

Like This Post ? Spotted any mistake ? Leave your feedback on the comment section BELOW.

What is the Registry?

The Registry is a database used to store settings and options for the 32 bit versions of Microsoft Windows including Windows 95, 98, ME and NT/2000,XP,Vista,7 and above. It contains information and settings for all the hardware, software, users, and preferences of the PC. Whenever a user makes changes to a Control Panel settings, or File Associations, System Policies, or installed software, the changes are reflected and stored in the Registry.
                                                     The physical files that make up the registry are stored differently depending on your version of Windows; under Windows 95 & 98 it is contained in two hidden files in your Windows directory, called USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT, for Windows Me there is an additional CLASSES.DAT file, while under Windows NT/2000 the files are contained seperately in the %SystemRoot%\System32\Config directory. You can not edit these files directly, you must use a tool commonly known as a "Registry Editor" to make any changes (using registry editors will be discussed later in the article).

The Structure of The Registry:The Registry has a hierarchal structure, although it looks complicated the structure is similar to the directory structure on your hard disk, with Regedit being similar to Windows Explorer.
                                                                                                       Each main branch (denoted by a folder icon in the Registry Editor, see left) is called a Hive, and Hives contains Keys. Each key can contain other keys (sometimes referred to as sub-keys), as well as Values. The values contain the actual information stored in the Registry. There are three types of values; String, Binary, and DWORD - the use of these depends upon the context.
 
There are six main branches, each containing a specific portion of the information stored in the Registry. They are as follows:


* HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT - This branch contains all of your file association mappings to support the drag-and-drop feature, OLE information, Windows shortcuts, and core aspects of the Windows user interface.

* HKEY_CURRENT_USER - This branch links to the section of HKEY_USERS appropriate for the user currently logged onto the PC and contains information such as logon names, desktop settings, and Start menu settings.

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - This branch contains computer specific information about the type of hardware, software, and other preferences on a given PC, this information is used for all users who log onto this computer.

* HKEY_USERS - This branch contains individual preferences for each user of the computer, each user is represented by a SID sub-key located under the main branch.

* HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG - This branch links to the section of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE appropriate for the current hardware configuration.

* HKEY_DYN_DATA - This branch points to the part of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, for use with the Plug-&-Play features of Windows, this section is dymanic and will change as devices are added and removed from the system.

Each registry value is stored as one of five main data types:

Pop a banner each time Windows Boots

To pop a banner which can contain any message you want to display just before a user is going to log on, go to the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WinLogon
Now create a new string Value in the right pane named LegalNoticeCaption and enter the value that you want to see in the Menu Bar. Now create yet another new string value and name it: LegalNoticeText. Modify it and insert the message you want to display each time Windows boots. This can be effectively used to display the company's private policy each time the user logs on to his NT box. It's .reg file would be:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

"LegalNoticeCaption"="Caption here."

Disabling Display of Drives in My Computer

This is yet another trick you can play on your geek friend. To disable the display of local or networked drives when you click My Computer go to :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Now in the right pane create a new DWORD item and name it NoDrives. Now modify it's value and set it to 3FFFFFF (Hexadecimal) Now press F5 to refresh. When you click on My Computer, no drives will be shown. To enable display of drives in My Computer, simply delete this DWORD item. It's .reg file is as follows:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

"NoDrives"=dword:03ffffff

Ban Shutdowns : A trick to Play on Lamers

This is a neat trick you can play on that lamer that has a huge ego, in this section I teach you, how to disable the Shut Down option in the Shut Down Dialog Box. This trick involves editing the registry, so please make backups.

Launch regedit.exe (Type regedit on RUN and Press Enter,  and go to) :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
In the right pane look for the NoClose Key. If it is not already there then create it by right clicking in the right pane and selecting New > String Value.(Name it NoCloseKey ) Now once you see the NoCloseKey in the right pane, right click on it and select Modify. Then Type 1 in the Value Data Box.

Doing the above on a system disables the Shut Down option in the Shut Down Dialog Box. But on a  machine if the value of NoCloseKey is set to 1 then click on the Start > Shut Down button displays the following error message:

This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.

You can enable the shut down option by changing the value of NoCloseKey to 0 or simply deleting the particular entry i.e. deleting NoCloseKey.

Instead of performing the above difficult to remember process, simply save the following with an extension of .reg in NOTEPAD and add it's contents to the registry by double clicking on it.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

"NoClose"="1"

How To: Change Your Ip In Less Then 1 Minute

1. Click on "Start" in the bottom left hand corner of screen 2. Click on "Run" 3. Type in "command" and hit ok

You should now be at an MSDOS prompt screen.

4. Type "ipconfig /release" just like that, and hit "enter" 5. Type "exit" and leave the prompt 6. Right-click on "Network Places" or "My Network Places" on your desktop. 7. Click on "properties"

You should now be on a screen with something titled "Local Area Connection", or something close to that, and, if you have a network hooked up, all of your other networks.

Simple Trick To Convert A Webpage To PDF File

In this post i will teach a simple trick or browser feature that let you convert any web page into PDF file format, which might help you to read your favorite articles offline.

So lets get started :

How To Save Web Page To PDF File ?

1. Open the Google Chrome Browser on your PC or MAC.

2. Then go to the web page that you want to convert as a PDF. 

3. Now press Ctrl+P on Windows PC or Command+P if you are on a Mac to Open the the Print 

    dialog on Chrome Browser. 

4. Now Change the destination to “Save As PDF” and hit the save button.

5. The current web page will instantly be downloaded as a PDF document. 

10 Open Source Tools For Building Scalable Web Applications!

When you're designing a web application, scalability and performance are very important. Every developer must take these two steps into consideration before building their application. To do this effectively, you need the best tools. Here are 10 of the most popular ones.

1. Apache HTTP Server: Extensible, fast and highly scalable. These are the qualities of the Apache HTTP server that make it immensely popular. Of course, there are other features too.

2. Tomcat: This open source software holds configuration and management tool. While the Apache Tomcat tool is an implementation of Java, it can also be configured using configuration files from XML. You can use it to implement JSP along with Java servlet specifications.

3. Modsecurity: This is a web application firewall that can be embedded into the web server infrastructure. It is also amongst the top available open source WAF solutions.

4. Memcached: This is an open source distributed caching system that is generic in nature. It has a simple design and delivers very good performance.

5. Varnish: This is a web application accelerator or HTTP reverse proxy. It is a very high speed software that can speed up the process delivery immensely.

10 WordPress Shortcodes and Plugins You Might Want To Try

Ref - websitedesigninoakville.com

If you are not familiar with shortcodes, a shortcode is a WordPress-specific code that lets you do creative things with scripts and code. Since you won’t have to fill your posts and pages with long ugly codes, they be condensed into just one line of code – a shortcode.

                In a nutshell, a shortcode is basically a shortcut to a long script or piece of code. Even though WordPress has its own set of shortcodes that you can use within your blog’s posts and pages, there are a whole lot more shortcodes available out there, with a ton more flexibility to offer.

                                           Shortcodes can be inserted manually into your blog theme or via a plugin. The problem is finding one that suits what you want to do on your blog. In this post, I’ll showcase 10 WordPress plugins that add shortcode functionality to your blog, along with 10 codes that you can add yourself.

WordPress Plugins

Here are some plugins that allow you to use or custom build shortcodes for use on WordPress. Where relevant, an alternative plugin that does pretty much the same thing is suggested after each plugin.

1. Shortcode

A simple plugin that adds several useful shortcodes for you to show off your blog’s contents quantitatively. A few of the codes include:

• [postcountbr]   – displays total number of published blog posts
• [catcountbr]     – displays total number of categories that contain one or more posts
• [tagcountbr]     – displays total number of tags that contain one or more posts
• [totalwords]     – displays total number of words in published posts
• [commentcount] – displays the total number of approved comments
• [pagecount]       – displays the total number of published pages 

What are Exploits? How important are Exploits for Hacking ?

Ref- itpro.co.uk

A tool developed by hackers that is used to perform malicious attacks on computer systems. They are usually scripts that are designed to exploit weaknesses in software over a network, most commonly the Internet.
        "Zero-Day" is a common type of exploit.You can hack in many different ways with many different procedures. Kevin Mitnick created hacking history with just a phone and a dream. Hackers, Exploit writers and Defacers are always the challenge for Security Experts and Compa-
nies.An attacker can write exploits because of some misconfiguration, unsecure development and is lacking IT management.
                 
There are various Exploit Database sites available with thousands of Exploits.

For example:
 

What is NAGIOS ?

Nagios is a system and network monitoring application. It watches hosts and services that you specify,alerting you when things go bad and when they get better. Nagios was originally designed to run under Linux, although it should work under most other unices as well. 
                                                                                                                           Nagios is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation. This gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify it under certain conditions.

Some of the many Features of Nagios include:

1) Monitoring of network services (SMTP, POP3, HTTP, NNTP, PING, etc.)

2) Monitoring of host resources (processor load, disk usage, etc.)

3) Simple plugin design that allows users to easily develop their own service checks.

4) Parallelized service checks.

4) Ability to define network host hierarchy using "parent" hosts, allowing detection of and 
     distinction between hosts that are down and those that are unreachable.

5) Contact notifications when service or host problems occur and get resolved (via email,  
    pager, or user-defined method) .

6) Ability to define event handlers to be run during service or host events for proactive 
     problem resolution.

7) Automatic log file rotation.

8) Support for implementing redundant monitoring hosts.

9) Optional web interface for viewing current network status, notification and problem 
     history, log file, etc.

System Requirements : 

                            The only requirement of running Nagios is a machine running Linux (or UNIX variant) and a C compiler. You will probably also want to have TCP/IP configured, as most service checks will be performed over the network. 
                                 You are not required to use the CGIs included with Nagios. However, if you do decide to use them, you will need to have the following software installed...

1) A web server (preferrably Apache).

2) Thomas Boutell’s gd library version 1.6.3 or higher (required by the statusmap and
      trends CGIs)


Downloading The Latest Version

You can check for new versions of Nagios at http://www.nagios.org.

What is a Content Management System?

A content management system is software that allows you to create and manage webpages easily by separating the creation of your content from the mechanics required to present it on the web.
In this site, the content is stored in a database. The look and feel are created by a template. Joomla! brings together the template and your content to create web pages.

Logging in

To login to your site use the user name and password that were created as part of the installation process. Once logged-in you will be able to create and edit articles and modify some settings.

Creating an article

Once you are logged-in, a new menu will be visible. To create a new article, click on the "Submit Article" link on that menu.
The new article interface gives you a lot of options, but all you need to do is add a title and put something in the content area. To make it easy to find, set the state to published.

You can edit an existing article by clicking on the edit icon (this only displays to users who have the right to edit).

Template, site settings, and modules

The look and feel of your site is controlled by a template. You can change the site name, background colour, highlights colour and more by editing the template settings. Click the "Template Settings" in the user menu. 
The boxes around the main content of the site are called modules.  You can modify modules on the current page by moving your cursor to the module and clicking the edit link. Always be sure to save and close any module you edit.
You can change some site settings such as the site name and description by clicking on the "Site Settings" link.
More advanced options for templates, site settings, modules, and more are available in the site administrator.

Site and Administrator

Your site actually has two separate sites. The site (also called the front end) is what visitors to your site will see. The administrator (also called the back end) is only used by people managing your site. You can access the administrator by clicking the "Site Administrator" link on the "User Menu" menu (visible once you login) or by adding /administrator to the end of your domain name. The same user name and password are used for both sites.

14 Tips & Tricks To Get More Out Of Google Drive

There are many cloud storage services out there, one of which is Google Drive. We’ve pitted it against Dropbox and SkyDrive, another two crowd favorites and each cloud storage service have their strengths and limitations that would cater to a wide range of customer needs. But if you have decided on Google Drive, here are some handy tips to help you work better with them.
                                          The good thing about Google Drive is that it’s linked to your Gmail account and of course, the 5 GB free storage space. It also supports basic document editing through web browsers. But we have found 15 more tips and tricks that to get more out of Google Drive.
    

Attach files directly to your mail.

1. Attach Google Drive Files On Gmail

Because Google Drive is linked to your Google account, you can attach files stored in Google Drive directly to your Gmail.
Unlike traditional attachments where you first have to upload an attachment, attaching a file through Google Drive does not require you to re-upload the file. The filesize limit does not apply since a link is given for the email receiver to download.

Nano Linux.. ! A very tiny Linux distribution with GUI,,, SIZE UPTO approx 14 MB

Nanolinux is a very tiny Linux distribution based on MicroCore Linux with busybox.

It uses Nano-X instead of X11. FLTK 1.3.x is used as the GUI toolkit. The window manager is SLWM.

The following applications are included:

1) Dillo browser.

2) FlWriter text processing program.
 
3) Sprsht spread sheet program.

4) FLTDJ personal information manager.

5) Antipaint paint program.

6) Fluff file manager.
 
7) NXterm terminal emulator.

8) Flcalc calculator.

9) FlView image viewer.

10) Fleditor.

11) Games: Tuxchess, NXeyes, Checkers, Blocks, Mastermind.

12) Truetype fonts, UTF08 support.

Top 10 Most Notorious Hacker Groups Ever!

Yes, a 'hacker' is a person who has extraordinary knowledge of computers and is skilled at exploiting weaknesses in computer networks. Yes, it is not the perfect definition, but the basic idea is, the 'term' hacker doesn't automatically mean criminal. While some are activists (hacktivists), others are ethical. Then there are those who do use their skills for criminal activities. In any case, one thing that is certain is that a hacker is a person who possesses extraordinary grasp over computers and deserves some respect for the same. When a few of them get together, well, that is indeed a scary proposition!

Here are the 10 most notorious hacker groups to have ever touched a keyboard.

1. Chaos Computer Club: This group made a name for itself by hacking the Bildschirmtext computer in Germany and taking 134,000 Deutsch Marks from a bank in Hamburg. They did this to prove that the security system was flawed and returned the money they took the next day. They also protested against the French nuclear testing using hacking, by exposing a Trojan horse spyware device being used by the Germany government. The group was formed on 12 September 1981 in Berlin.



2. Global kOS: Pronounced Global Chaos, this group created as much of it as they could, that too on a global scale. Their members included AcidAngel, Shadow Hunter, The Assassin etc. and the group has been credited with providing a number of automated hacker tools to the world. One of the most famous out of these tools was ‘Up Yours’, which was used to bring down the websites of 40 politicians, MTV and the Ku Klux Klan. There are also tools like kOS crack and BattlePong.

3. The Level Seven Crew: This hacker crew took its name from the seventh level of hell, as depicted in Dante’s Inferno. In this, the seventh level is ‘the violent’ level. In 1999, the first crew hacked into 60 high profile computer systems. These included names like NASA, Sheraton Hotels and The First American National Bank. They are believed to be the first group to have hacked into a Moroccan domain. The group was known for their hacktivism and disbanded in 2000.



4. globalHell: This group was co-founded by Patrick Gregory, a street-gang member from Houston, Texas. It has been said to be behind the destruction of data on 115 websites, information trafficking and millions of dollars worth of damages. Ironically, Gregory had turned towards computers to escape his gang life. Rather, he ended up creating a 60 member crew of hackers, who treated the internet like their streets and wreaked havoc. 

Gregory’s crew has also been credited with online extortion and defacing the United States Army’s website when they wrote “global hell will not die”, on it. Interestingly, Chad Davis, another co-founder for the group, was arrested in 1999 and sent to prison for six months, along with a fine of $8,054, became an independent security consultant later.

5. TeaMp0isoN: This group was started in 2010 by a 16-year-old hacker with the alias TriCk. TeaMp0isoN was responsible for hacking into NATO, Facebook and the English Defense League. In addition, this group stole personal data from Tony Blair by hacking into his email account. They also attacked Research In Motion, the company that developed the BlackBerry, in 2011, by defacing their blog. They did this because the company planned to help the police during the England riots that year. The group wrote on the blog, “We are all for the rioters that are engaging in attacks on the police and government.”

10 Tech Job Interview Questions Asked By Real Companies..!

Interviews can be very interesting sometimes. No matter how many books you read, some interviews will still surprise you. The good folks over at CIO.com compiled this list of odd questions that were asked at real interviews for tech jobs. Take a look and see if you have any answers for them...

1. “If you were a pizza delivery man, how would you benefit from scissors?”

This question was asked at an Apple interview for the position of Specialist.

2. “Why is a tennis ball fuzzy?”

This was an interview question asked to a candidate trying for the position of client manager for Xerox.

3. “If you could throw a parade of any caliber through the Zappos office, what type of parade would it be?”

Employer Zappos asked this question off a candidate interviewing for Customer Loyalty Team Member.

4. “How does the Internet work?”

Akamai asked this question to a candidate applying for the position of Director.

7 Facts About CentOS That You Should Know

What do you do when you want to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) without paying for it? The answer is simple, you use CentOS. This is a Linux distribution that is derived from RHEL, but is available for free. But, while this distro is available for free, you have to sacrifice on some aspects. One of these is the fact that the CentOS team doesn’t offer any support services. Still, CentOS is amongst the most popular Linux distros today, which makes these facts about the OS all that more important to know. If you’re going to choose a distro for your projects, then you might as well know as much as possible about it.

1. The CentOS team, which makes this repackaged version of RHEL, is a volunteer group. The team takes the source packages from RHEL that are publicly available and repackages them into binaries. They distribute this software through public mirrors and Red Hat itself has no partnership with CentOS. 

2. No Support: This is actually quite surprising for a popular Linux distro. While CentOS has been used commercially by many companies, no support is provided by the team yet. So, you’re basically depending on IT consultants for support purposes.

3. Major releases come a little later: The time difference between the release of a major version for RHEL and CentOS has been increased considerably over the years.

4. Catching up to Red Hat: Being what it is, CentOS can not overtake Red Hat. This is because the team always has to wait for the company to release the packages before it can repackage them. So, if there is a critical security issue that has been discovered, RHEL will get the solution much faster than CentOS.

9 Ways To Sort Files In Linux Environment

Sorting files is important for meaningful output and is useful while dealing with DB files, CSV, xls, log files and text files. By default, the sort command will sort according to alpha-bates, sorting according to single character vertically. If it finds the same character in two lines, then it will move on to sort the second character.

There are 9 ways to do that according to www.linuxnix.com. You can mix and match them as per your requirement.

• 1:To sorting file names according to alpha-bates: sort filename.txt.

• 2: If you have a file with host names in the third column, to sort it according to the column, use K for sorting that. Like, sort k3 filename.txt.

• 3: To sort/ etc/password file according to home directories, sort will by default take space/tabs as field separators. In etc/passwd file, the field separator is : and this can be done with t option. sort -t: -k6 /etc/passwd 

• 4: To sort according to number, etc/passwd file according to UID, use -n option to do that. Sort will not understand numbers by default, so, use -n to make sure sort command understands it.sort -n -t: -k3 /etc/passwd. Without -n option sort will by default sort only first numerical char. 

10 Mistakes People Often Make On Facebook!

Social networking is at the core of everyone's lives today. There is a lot of talk about what to do and what not to do. But there are some common mistakes that people make on the website, which often even result in hilarious stories. Here are 10 of the most common ones!
                                                          

1. Too many petitions for causes: It is very good to be concerned about social and other just causes, but that doesn’t mean you can flood other’s timelines. Post it as your own status if you must, it gives others the option to decide whether they want to read it or not. 

2. Updating status messages about things you did when you were under the influence of alcohol: An US teen got arrested after he posted a status message about driving drunk. His status said, “Driving drunk…classic ;) but to whoever’s vehicle I hit I am sorry. :P.” Not only is it uncool, it is often of no consequence to anyone but you.

3. Photos of you as a kid on your profile picture: Make an album, post those pictures to that, share that album, make it public if you want, but don’t make it your profile picture. Many or most of your friends didn’t see you when you were that young. A recent profile picture is easier for them to relate too and doesn’t leave them confused amongst all the posts showing on their News Feeds.

Top 12 Linux Distros And Their Usage

While many would argue that the list is not complete but we have tried to bring to you some of the key Linux distros. That's not it. This article also helps you determine the best distro that suits your need.
          Let's analyse certain major Linux distros and their anticipated purpose:

1) Ubuntu: Ubuntu was once considered as the standard Linux distribution for beginners, but due to Ubuntu Unity, that title no longer belongs to Ubuntu, but that doesn’t mean it is useless. Very soon, Ubuntu is likely to emerge with the first trustworthy Linux tablet

2) Linux Mint: This is the effective standard for beginners. Linux Mint introduced great and user friendly features in Ubuntu and enhanced GNOME 3- a combination that provided an incredible environment for beginners as well as old users of Linux.

3) Fedora: If you want an advanced version of Linux, go for Fedora. Even those, looking for pure take on GNOME 3, opt for Fedora. 

GNOME 3.12 Spoilers: GNOME Control Center Changed To Settings In Documents 3.11.4

 Even as the GNOME developers are working hard on the next major version, GNOME 3.12, due for release on 26 March this year, a third development version of GNOME Documents is out now available for testing. GNOME Documents 3.12 software is the main document viewer of the GNOME 3.12 desktop environment. The latest version boasts of a number of updates over its previous ones.

             The version, GNOME Documents 3.11.4 now hides the search bar when moving from overview to preview. The GNOME Control Center has now been renamed to Settings. Further, the Grid/List controls have been moved to the toolbar, GtkActionBar is now used for the selection toolbar, the PreviewNavButtons show/hide code has been simplified. Translation updates have also been added to this new development release. 

                                                         

Meanwhile, the much awaited GNOME 3.12 will include many new features, such as a full port to the Wayland display server, GNOME Software application, system support, support for Facebook photos in the GNOME Photos application, Zimbra integration, as well as a Videos application. 

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS To Come With GRUB 2.02 Beta 2

While many users are still checking out the brand new Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth and the Canonical developer team are already working on the next version, Ubuntu 14.04: Trusty Tahr. Furthermore, buzz has it that Ubuntu distributions might implement the most recent version of GRUB, still in beta stage in Trusty Tahr. It must be noted here that Canonical doesn't usually pick packages that are still in the Beta stages but it just might make an exception for the GRUB 2.02.
                                          According to developers they would like to upgrade to GRUB 2.02 that represents a year and a half of upstream development and contains many new features, for trusty. GRUB 2.02 Beta 2 features some very interesting features, like support for the experimental 64-bit ext2, better DM-RAID partition handling, TrueCrypt ISO loader, multiboot2 boot-services EFI specification, and more. 

“Obviously I want to be very careful with substantial upgrades to the default boot loader. So, I've put this in trusty-proposed, and filed bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1269992 to ensure that it doesn't reach trusty proper until it's had a reasonable amount of manual testing,” said Colin Watson, the technical lead for the Ubuntu Foundations Team.

Ubuntu 14.04 will be the next long-term support (LTS) version of the operating system. Many new features that were introduced in Ubuntu 13.10, such as scopes, will be fine-tuned in Trusty Tahr. Other features that didn't make it into the full version of Ubuntu 13.10, but made it into the new mobile version, Ubuntu Touch, will be included in all versions of Ubuntu 14.04. Prominent among these are image-based updates and the Mir graphics stack.

Main high points of Ubuntu 14.04, according to Shuttleworth, will be "performance, refinement, and maintainability."