1. MAMP
   • even though you already have Apache and PHP installed (oh, and Ruby as well), you also need the mySQL; basically it’s not that trivial to add the popular DB to the mix, and this is where MAMP comes into play: it provides the sqlite for quick and easy part, and also mySQL for the more complicated items
   • it also includes the phpMyAdmin in case you don’t want to use  more powerful tool
   • download it from the official page or from sourceforge
   • installation is pretty straightforward, but do take a look at the last section here
   • start the MAMP application
   • the path to your webroot is /Applications/MAMP/htdocs
2. Editor
   1. Aptana is for heavy users
      • since it’s based on Eclipse, you’ll quickly find your way around
      • download it from here and use the online documentation in case you run into trouble
   2. Smultron is a light-weight, extremely capable and configurable editor
      • please don’t get fooled by the looks of it, take your time and explore it; it’s a valuable companion
      • the SourceForge page of the Smultron project
      • get directly the improved interface, a patch which appeared on the internet because many users complained about the icons
3. a developer’s file manager: muCommander
   • usually you’ll find yourself limited by the multitude of Finder windows, so you’ll miss the MidnightCommander / TotalCommander / etc. software; meet muCommander; since it runs on amy platform, you might just take it with you on your other environments and modernize the old mc
   • here’s an alternative download source

That should be it. Congratulations!

Are you using something else to this mix? Tell us all about it.

1. add the following repository at the end of your /etc/apt/sources/list file:
   • [sourcecode]deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main[/sourcecode]
2. add the GPG key using the following command:
   • [sourcecode]sudo apt-key adv –recv-keys –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0xfbef0d696de1c72ba5a835fe5a9bf3bb4e5e17b5[/sourcecode]
3. update sources list:
   • [sourcecode]sudo apt-get update[/sourcecode]
4. install the Chromium browser:
   • [sourcecode]sudo apt-get install chromium-browser[/sourcecode]

[...] install the Skype repository. Open a terminal and type:

su -c 'gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/skype.repo'

In that file copy the following lines:

[skype]
name=Skype Repository
baseurl=http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/fedora/updates/i586/
enabled=1
gpgkey=http://www.skype.com/products/skype/linux/rpm-public-key.asc
gpgcheck=0

Now you can easily install/update skype by typing:

su -c 'yum install skype'
su -c 'yum update skype'

1. run this command (a2enmod == apache2 enable module):

   a2enmod rewrite

2. edit this file /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default; you can use the following command:

   sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default

3. make sure you have there AllowOverride All directive for the default directory (this will make all the subdirectories inherit this behaviour):

   DocumentRoot /var/www
   	<Directory />
   		Options FollowSymLinks
   		AllowOverride All
   	</Directory>
   	<Directory /var/www/>
   		Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
   		AllowOverride All
   		Order allow,deny
   		allow from all
   	</Directory>
   

4. restart apache and enjoy!

   sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Note: I use gedit because it’s my home desktop computer. On a server where you have no graphical interface at your disposal (and no gedit for that matter), you can safely use you favorite editor (nano, pico, vi) so all you have to do is replace

sudo gedit

with

sudo nano

if your favorite is nano.

Open the alsa config file by:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

at the end of the file just paste the following lines:

options snd-pcsp index=-2
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel model=hp-m4
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=1

Solution came from this forum thread. Thanks guys.

What software package to use?

There are a lot of solutions out there, I’ve tried a bunch of them, but only got one to work: GTK recordMyDesktop.

How to install it?

If you’re a command-line tekkie, go ahead and type this:
sudo apt-get install gtk-recordmydesktop

Alternatively, you can install gtk-recordmydesktop from the Synaptic package manager.

How do I use it?

I recommend you to use the documentation section on the package’s website.
Here are some quick tips to get you started:

• open the app using Applications > Sound & Video > gtk-recordMyDesktop
• go to the Advanced settings and change the settings to fit your needs (hint: you might want to use maximum number of frames, which is 50, for smoother videos)
• click Record and the gtk-recordMyDesktop window will minimize to a small red dot at the bottom left of your screen; when you are finished recording, you will click this button
• after you’re done, click Save As to write the file in your filesystem
• I assume you will not be happy with the .ogv extension if you have windows clients, so you will want to make .mpg; here’s how you do this in the command line: ffmpeg -i my_saved_file.ogv my_destination_file.mpg

Do you have a 3D-capable graphics card? If you don’t, it’s time to go get one now, because otherwise you won’t be able to play with Compiz.

Graphics card drivers should be in place

I have an Nvidia graphics card, and I had already installed the proprietary driver for it. If you haven’t done that already, you should do it now. Installation is done from the Hardware Drivers too, which can be started from System > Administration > Hardware Drivers. It should tell you that there’s an NVIDIA graphics driver available for your system. To install it, click on Activate, wait for the NVIDIA driver to be downloaded and installed. A computer restart is needed in order to use the new driver.

Install Simple Compizconfig Settings Manager & Enable Compiz

Open the Synaptic Package Manager (System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager), select the package simple-ccsm (simple Compizconfig settings manager) and install it.

Go to System > Preferences > Appearance and select Custom on the Visual Effects tab.

Hurray! You’ve just enabled Compiz!

Configure & play around with Compiz

Open the CompizConfig Settings Manager by going to System > Preferences > CompizConfig Settings Manager.

Here’s a nice list of shortcuts for you to use while playing around.

Have fun!

P.S. 1: there’s nothing special to do in the case of 64-bit architectures, as you may have already noticed.

P.S. 2: you might want to check out Forlong’s Blog for further details on how to customize Compiz.