Envy and Java updates

I’ve been meaning to write about some updates for Envy, that uber tool for installing graphics drivers in Linux, but I keep closing Thunderbird before remembering to write. There’s also a new plugin coming for Java, but you’ll need to use Firefox 3 to get the benefits of it.

With Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” on the horizon, the developer is working on an update to Envy. EnvyNG (“Next Generation”) will only support Ubuntu Hardy, although for those who don’t (or haven’t yet) upgrade to Hardy or use Debian (stable) will still be able use Envy Legacy. EnvyNG will sport better integration with Ubuntu including working better with Ubuntu’s linux-restricted-modules and the Ubuntu provided Nvidia drivers. EnvyNG will also automatically build and install the necessary modules every time you get an upgraded kernel, plus you’ll no longer be asked if you want to configure your xorg.conf (it will finally be done automatically.

There’s more to be said about EnvyNG, but I’ll let the developer do it in his two blog posts about it. The second includes news about new interfaces including screenshot. And for those of us who aren’t on the bleeding edge with Ubuntu Hardy he’s promising an update to Envy (Legacy) “soon.”

For those who like blood Ubuntu Hardy Alpha 5 should have come out yesterday. There’s a list of apps included in Alpha 5 you can ready Andre Gondim’s post. I have to admit that I’m looking at that list, as well as the promise that from here out there’s just bigfixes, and my finger’s getting itchy on the upgrade trigger. (I’ve got news on the version of Ubuntu after Hardy but I’ll save that for a post all its own.)

Java and Firefox 3

The Firefox development team has been working with the Java devs and Firefox 3 will get a brand new plugin for the Java SE 6 runtime environment (JRE). The new plugin, available only for Firefox 3, will have increased reliability, a better user experience and the ability to select a specific version of the JRE to run a particular applet, and more. The new plugin is still in beta but should come out around when Firefox 3 gets uncaged. If you want to help test it you can get more info and links from posts on Planet Mozilla from Henrik Gemal and Robert Accetura, as well as in the release notes.