Have you tried watching YouTube in Firefox lately? Because you can't anymore, at least by default. Firefox disabled Adobe Flash plugin for its oft criticized security holes which are only getting worse by day. Now, System76 joins the bandwagon. Adobe Flash is slowly but surely fading away.

System76 removes Adobe Flash from all its Products
Back in the day, Steve Jobs received a lot of flak for not including Flash in his flagship product, the iPhone. But in 2015, tables have turned. Adobe Flash is no more the Internet's darling. In fact, it has become that ugly product that nobody wants to ship, yet they have to for reasons we all know. But that is changing.

"In 2007, System76 was granted a license from Adobe to pre-install Flash on all our laptops and desktops. Back then, Flash was the only way to unlock all the wonders of the Internet. In terms of making a great first impression, especially those new to Ubuntu, this was an important detail," the company said in a blog post the other day.

"So from 2007 till today, we’ve pre-installed Flash in our golden images. But starting tomorrow, we wont be," they added. Tomorrow as in July 15th, 2015. Slowly but surely, the story of Adobe Flash is coming to its glorious end. If you're using Ubuntu or its derivatives, you might want to try removing Flash from your computer and see for yourself how good the Internet works without Flash already. Execute this command in Terminal.

sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-installer

In today's Internet, Flash is fast becoming a liability. You will see that for yourself once you remove it. But if you didn't liked the result, you can always reinstall the flashplugin for Ubuntu.

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer

However, if you truly need Flash, you’ll probably be safest using Google Chrome, which includes an embedded Flash implementation that is sandboxed in a way that should mitigate the inevitable Flash zero-days to come. But still not a fool-proof solution since one Flash zero-day has already manged to punch through the sandbox, so it’s still prudent to avoid Flash altogether. So what do you think? Are you ready for a Flash-free Internet? Let us know.

Adobe Flash is in the news again. You might have noticed it already if you're using Firefox. The security holes that comes with Flash just can't be ignored anymore and Mozilla has decided to take action and has stopped loading Flash by default in its marquee product. But that's another news. Here, we'll discuss an awesome Firefox extension that lets you play Flash videos in your local media players like MPV.

Open Flash Videos in MPV in Ubuntu using this Fierfox Extension
If you are not a regular here, you might be wondering what this MPV is all about. It is a very lightweight media player for Ubuntu based on MPlayer. Over the last year or so, I've fallen in love with this little media player for Linux called MPV so much so that it has replaced VLC as my go-to app for all things media in my Ubuntu desktop.

Installing MPV is rather easy. Detailed instructions can be found in our earlier MPV short review. Once you've installed it, fire up your default web browser, Firefox that is, and go to this extension page:

Install Watch with MPV Extension for Firefox

And you're good to go. Now on, whenever you load a page containing Flash video like YouTube for example in Firefox, notice this button on top-right corner (along with other extensions) that says 'Play with MPV'. So far in Ubuntu 14.10, this extension is working as well as it says. I'm really impressed, what about you?

Time and again, Ubuntu keeps popping up whenever there's some Google product launch. Remember Google's Project Tango or that bit of news about the use of a 'lightly custmozied Ubuntu' in Google's Driverless Car project? Given its widespread use inside Google, it's no surprise than Google is an Ubuntu Advantage Customer.

Snappy Ubuntu Core is a new rendition of Ubuntu with transactional updates - a minimal server image with the same libraries as today’s Ubuntu, but applications are provided through a simpler mechanism. It is fast and nimble, and is finding new takers from across the industry. Erle Robotics, makers of a wide range of robotic hardware and tools that include state-of-the-art drone technology, are using Snappy Ubuntu Core as their platform of choice.

It is official. The first smartphones running Ubuntu for Phones OS are almost here. BQ is the vendor and they will launch the Ubuntu edition of their popular mid-range smartphone, Aquaris E4.5, across Europe in the coming weeks. 

image above does not represent the actual Ubuntu Phone
 eventhough the hardware used is the same 

Robotics is not new to Linux. But it is good to see one in live action. Here in this video featuring Honda's ASIMO Robot, Ubuntu can be spotted doing all the dirty work behind the scenes. 

It is a pretty well know fact that open source 3D graphics tools like Blender is not just a hobbyist software anymore. The fifth official open movie from Blender Foundation "Gooseberry" is already under active development. In that respect, Ranadheeran is one of its kind. It's probably the first "open" movie to come out of India, created with the sole purpose of showcasing the capabilities of open source 3D graphics tools such as Blender, GIMP etc.

This is a dream come true. Though there are ways to make Netflix work in Ubuntu 14.04 (like using Pipelight for example), this must be the easiest. All you need is the latest Google Chrome from dev channel and an extension called User Agent Switcher. That's it! Let's get started.

Blender is perhaps open source's biggest poster child for years now. And in every year or two, Blender foundation showcases the product's 3D graphics capabilities by releasing animated movies created exclusively using Blender software. They are called "open movies" and you're free to download and reuse the movies the way you want, standing true to its open source credentials. Now its time for the fifth one codenamed "Gooseberry", and unlike its predecessors, the project's goal would be to produce a feature length animated film.

Locally Integrated Menus were a hugely anticipated feature since the introduction of universal menu in earlier Unity. 'Click to Minimize' is a similar functionality asked by many in the community. Well, it has been delivered. The latest iteration of Compiz Config Settings Manager (CCSM) has the Click to Minimize feature in the Launcher settings as an experimental functionality. And it will probably make it as a default Unity Launcher behaviour prior to the release of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS codenamed "Trusty Tahr".

I don't know about you, but I'm a big HUD fan. And I swear by my keyboard. If you're like me, here's a development you would not want to miss. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS will debut keyboard filtering for Unity spread feature, which is pretty great news for keyboard junkies like me. 

Meizu is a Chinese smartphone manufacturing company that is rumored to release an Ubuntu Touch based smartphone in the near future. There were some leaked photos of a Meizu smartphone running Ubuntu Touch. But this video unequivocally proves that the device is for real. But still, there are no official dates of arrival or anything. Also, I don't think the guy who did this demo is not much of an experienced Ubuntu Touch user either. 

The great smartphone revolution which kick-started with the introduction of iPhone in 2007 wouldn't have happened without Corning's scratch-proof Gorilla glass technology. Most flagship smartphones today, be it Android or iOS based, has the latest Gorilla glass as one of its most important component. A Day Made of Glass was an incredibly popular video by Corning back in 2012 which looked into the future of display technology.

Another instance of Ubuntu being used in fields most of us are not even aware of. This video popped up on reddit a few hours ago. Skip to 01:00 to see Ubuntu in action. 

Be it Ubuntu or any other platform, one thing I learned over the years is the fact that people like to download their favorite YouTube videos and would want to keep a local copy of it no matter how hard it is. Luckily, there are plenty of tools to do this in Ubuntu without any hassles. Here, we'll explore 5 of the most capable YouTube video downloading tools for Ubuntu.

Minitube: When it comes to "conventional" YouTube video streaming and downloading in Ubuntu, nothing beats Minitube. You can type any keyword, and Minitube will give you an endless stream of videos to watch, as simple as that. Minitube does not use the Flash Player either, which means lesser CPU consumption. And of course you can download videos in the quality you choose with the click of a button. What more, Minitube is available for download in default Ubuntu repositories (Edit: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS supported). Click the link above.

Youtube-dl: Command line tools are a big no-no to many. But I would argue otherwise. Youtube-dl is the best and easiest way to download YouTube videos in Ubuntu. It is fast and obviously nimble. And make no mistake, it has quite a wide range of functionalities. But if all you need is to download the best quality version of a particular video, open up the Terminal and type "youtube-dl<space><link to the video>". Does that look complicated? A more detailed installation and how-to-use instructions can be found in our previous post on Youtube-dl.

Gmediafinder: A good Minitube alternative loaded with YouTube streaming and downloading capabilities. In my experience, Minitube has been more stable and a little bit more easier to use when compared Gmediafinder. But it gets the job done. To install it though, you have to add the following PPA and it is not readily available in Ubuntu Software Center (Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10 and Ubuntu 13.04 supported). Just do the following in Terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:s-lagui/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gmediafinder

Movegrab: Yet another command-line tool for downloading YouTube videos in Ubuntu. Somehow, I am finding it difficult to download YouTube specific videos using Movgrab at the moment, even though I didn't had any problem with sites like Dailymotion. Many consider Movgrab to be a superior alternative to my favorite Youtube-dl. More details and how-to-use instructions on Movgrab at WebUpd8. Do the following in Terminal to install Movgrab.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install movgrab

YouTube Downloader Script: Here's a simple cross-browser script that will add a download button to the YouTube page, literally. It will let you download your favorite videos in MP4 format (HD, Full HD and even 4K supported). See installation instructions below,

For Firefox: You need to download Greasemonkey extension for Firefox first. Afterwards, simply visit the script download page and install it.
For Chrome/Chromium: Install Tampermonkey extension first. And then, like before, visit the script download page and hit Install button on top.

Make no mistake, almost all the tools featured above (except the cross-browser script) does support other popular sites like Dailymotion, Vimeo, Metacafe, Liveleak, Blip.tv etc. apart from YouTube. Try them out and let us know your feedback. Thanks for reading.

Recommended: Top 5 Video Editors for Ubuntu/Linux

Google's now-famous driverless cars initiative seems to have kick-started a new kind of war. Various manufacturers are fighting tooth and nail to bring the most advanced driverless car technology to the market as fast as they can. But what's even more intriguing to me was the presence of Ubuntu, first on Google's driverless cars, and now here, on this Mercedes-Benz driverless research car. Autonomous long-distance drive technology demonstration on a Merc.

The first Ubuntu Touch powered smartphone is supposed to arrive in the first half of 2014. When you put that into perspective, there's not much time left for Canonical. Ubuntu Touch already got over-the-air update capability among many other essential features. But the eco-system needs further focus. That's where apps such as these comes into play. The default Music app for Ubuntu Touch has improved manifold over the past several months. Here's how it looks like now. A quick video featuring Ubuntu Touch Music app. 

Only last week we came to know that the upcoming Sony Play Station 4 (PS4) is based out of FreeBSD. And it is a fairly common knowledge that Google uses a modified version of Ubuntu at their workplaces. Now, it seems like Linux is being used at even more unheard of places. Google's driverless cars are a pretty familiar phenomenon in tech circles. But I don't think many are familiar with the fact that they are running a modified version of Ubuntu at its core!

In the earlier days, downloading of YouTube videos in Ubuntu required nothing more than a simple copy and paste action. But those clever hacks won't work in newer versions of Firefox or Chrome. That's were dedicated tools come in. And when it comes to the downloading of YouTube videos in Ubuntu, nothing beats Youtube-dl, a powerful command line tool for easy downloading of high quality videos from YouTube.

Wondering what MKBHD is all about? They are kind of a YouTube sensation for everything tech related. I was in the process of preparing an "Ubuntu Edge explained" post and then I saw this MKBHD video detailing Ubuntu Edge. And I thought, this is as good as it gets. So here it is, "Ubuntu Edge Explained by MKBHD."