Archive for June 15th, 2007

30 Days with Ubuntu - Day 2

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on June 15, 2007
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I didn’t have much time to mess around with it. Just let a lot of apps install using the lovely Add/Remove programs utility, and let it run the whole day. Everything installed fine, except that kde apps are crashing when they’re closed. I got amarok running, and it was as pretty as ever. Also customized the look to make it look like MacOS X.

Screenshot of Desktop:

The desktop did look pretty pretty after I was done with it, with a new icon set and gtk theme, I was ready to go. Beryl and emrald kept dying on me though, had to use metacity for the time being. Probably start beryl tommorow via the console and look for matching error dumps on the net. But no time to do that today.

Otherwise, I got a fully configured full fledged desktop in under an hour of total work. All codecs and drivers are installed, the look is unique. This is just linux so far. As far as the ubuntu portion is concerned, the add and remove programs is a welcome change, though I remember the gnome control center being there in the feisty fawn alpha version that I’d reviewed when it came out.

End of day 2:

Pros: Awesome Add/Remove programs feature. Never needed to touch the terminal.

Cons: Beryl died on me. Never needed to touch the terminal.

Check out Likno Drop-down Menu Trees

Published
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admin
on June 15, 2007
in Uncategorized
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(This is a paid Review) In the field of usability, having a decent navigation system is of utmost importance. One tried and tested method of organizing information hierarchically and using navigation is by the method of trees. I checked out Likno Menu Trees recently.They have a huge array of multiple levels JavaScript drop down and tree menus that are pretty easy to customize which I found out after downloading their trial. This cross browser, fully compliant menu suite is quite intuitive and easy to use.

Major features are:

1. Easy to use themes, which can be downloaded/purchased for a nominal cost. Also very easily customizable.

2. Fully JavaScript and CSS compliant with right click menus and the likes.

3. Advanced navigational systems like tab order navigation and selecting multiple items in trees. Also auto collapse like explorer functionality exists.

4. A very comprehensive client side API for searching, extracting, etc.

5. Many free themes.

My opinion on this product:

Most websites nowadays abstract information and it’s hidden at such a depth and for aesthetic purposes, there are very few items in every menu. The user has to navigate very hard to find what he/she is looking for. But using a structured menu like this one, it can vastly improve the usability of your website if you have several articles or items. I liked a couple of themes, they were really nice.

Pros of this product:

Very easy to set up, very easy to use, and very easy to maintain or update. Perfect for a beginner or a designer who doesn’t have time to code in a huge navigational system for a large website. Full featured software allows you to create light industrial strength menus for your website.

Cons of this Product:

The themes don’t completely blend in with the current trends in web design. In my humble opinion, it seems a little old-fashioned. Reminds me of some old websites, as nobody uses background patterns or other design philosophies emphasized in the overview section. But some better themes which are available for download and a little clever css can change all that.

You can download(evaluation) or purchase Likno Drop down Menu Trees.

[tags]javascript,navigation,review[/tags]