Ubuntu, another choice

So you’ve downloaded Ubuntu 10.10, made yourself a freshly minted copy and installed it with haste. Now what? Here is our guide to the top 10 post-install must-do’s that will help ensure you get off to a marvellous start with the Maverick Meerkat. 1. Run Update Manager Just because you’ve installed the latest version of Ubuntu doesn’t mean that there won’t be some updates and patches waiting for you. Make sure you run the update manager (if it doesn’t update you first) so that you’re benefitting from the latest fixes and features. 2. Enable graphics card drivers for 3D fun If you want to use advanced desktop effects such as Compiz (3d Cube, wobbly windows) then you will need to enable the “official” drivers for your graphics card. Ubuntu should automatically detect and alert you that 3D drivers are available. If so, you will see a ‘circuit board’ icon appear on the top panel. Click this and follow the prompts. If Ubuntu fails to detect any hardware (do be patient as this isn’t always ...

I have just spent 2 hours working thru this as I REALLY wanted to give Evolution a go (Thbd is just getting too heavy IMO, they ruined it with TB3!). Anyway after a lot of trial and error, here is my final solution for Evolution and GoDaddy. Incoming/Receiving Email Server: pop.secureserver.net:995 Security: SSL Encryption Authorization type: Login Sending Email SMTP Server Configuration: smtpout.secureserver.net:465 Security: SSL Encryption Authentication type: Login Works 100% of time now! :D

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu project, this week announced that the next version of Ubuntu will incorporate a global menu bar for all of its applications. The new universal menubar will only be enabled by default on the netbook edition of Ubuntu 10.10 " Maverick Meerkat ". Neowin.net - Ubuntu 10.10 for netbooks to have single menu bar design

In the netbook edition for 10.10, we’re going to have a single menu bar for all applications, in the panel. Our focus on netbooks has driven much of the desktop design work at Canonical. There are a number of constraints and challenges that are particular to netbooks, and often constraints can be a source of insight and inspiration. In this case, wanting to make the most of vertical space has driven the decision to embrace the single menu approach. It’s all about vertical pixels Netbooks are conventionally small-and-wide-screen devices. A common screen format is 1024×600. There’s plenty of horizontal space, but not a lot of vertical space. So we’ve been lead to explore options that really make the most of the vertical space. This is important because the main thing people do with a netbook is surf the web. And most pages will fit horizontally in a netbook screen, but they require quite a lot of vertical scrolling. The more we can optimise the use of vertical space, the...

Super-fast and great-looking, Ubuntu is a secure, intuitive operating system that powers desktops, servers, netbooks and laptops. Ubuntu is, and always will be, absolutely free. Ubuntu 10.10 is Released

Giant software companies like Microsoft have gotten where they are today by charging high prices for their products, and many enterprise users simply accept those costs as part of doing business. Times have changed since the early days of desktop computing, however, and there are now many more alternatives to those pricey packages--including options that are not only free but also open, meaning that users can modify and customize them to suit their own needs. If you're tired of exorbitant software costs and the vendor lock-in that tends to go with them, then consider some free, open source alternatives. You'll save a bundle, and you'll wonder why you didn't make the switch sooner. How to Save $2325 Per Desktop on Business Software - PCWorld Business Center

These Apps have been tested on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) 32-bit, OpenSUSE 11.3 (GNOME) 32-bit , and Fedora 12 (GNOME) 32-bit. Just Download, Make Executable, and Run! http://www.portablelinuxapps.org/

Everyone knows the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything is "42", but for the first time we can reveal the question. It is this: how many command-line tricks must a man memorise? You see, graphical user interfaces are all well and good, but when you want to get real work done it's time to switch to the terminal. And so, we squeezed our brain cells, dug through dusty piles of old issues of Linux Format, and sat reflecting quietly over many a pint of ale, all with the goal of bringing you this: 42 awesome new command line tricks we think you ought to commit to memory. We've tried to include a few that are easier for our, er, less-experienced readers to enjoy, but we think even the most hardened Linux veteran will learn something new over the next 12,000 words. So, strap yourself in and get ready for command-line heaven: it's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and we're all out of gum... (PS: if you're looking for general Linux...

About LibreOffice LibreOffice is a productivity suite that is compatible with other major office suites, and available on a variety of platforms. It is free software and therefore free to download, use and distribute. Download LibreOffice The following software packages are intended to give you a first impression of what LibreOffice is. Currently we are in the process of combining the work of many contributors, and improving how to make the software available to our users. There are known issues, so please consider reading the release notes below for a list of known issues being worked on, the most obvious being the missing language packaging situation. This beta release is not intended for production use! Download and install this for the English version to be used on Microsoft Windows. Download and install this for the English version to be used on various GNU/Linux 32-bit distributions. Download and install this for the English version to be used on various GN...

Having problems installing something on your new Ubuntu operating system? "Where's the EXE?" , "Where do I need to extract this to?" , "How do I run it?" , "Where did it go?" - have you been thinking questions like these? Don't worry, installing software, themes and other things on Ubuntu is actually very easy! This guide will help you understand with screenshots, instructional videos and to-the-point language. Translations: Português (Portuguese) , Magyar (Hungarian) The package manager Installing software with Synaptic The 3 steps: Search, mark and apply But what if my program isn't available through Synaptic? I installed it, but where did my program go? How do I uninstall the program? Installing software with the terminal Installing a package manually ( .deb , .rpm , .tar.gz , .package , klik:// → .cmg , .sh , .bin , .exe , ...) Appendix Enabling extra repositories Using CDs as offline repositorie...

This is a discussion on I have installed Linux.. What next? within the Getting started tutorials forums, part of the Linux Getting Started category; I have seen lot of questions like ... I have installed fedora 2/Debian on my PC. What next? I have installed Linux.. What next?

Below you will find a list of discussions in the Getting started tutorials forums at the nixCraft Linux Forum. So much to read, so little time! If that is your problem, we have solution. Read our FAQ and tutorials to help you cut through the clutter of information overload. Only members of "contributors" group can post new tutorials. Other members can just reply to thread. Linux Getting Started - Getting started tutorials at nixCraft.com - Page 2

With classes, homework, and projects–not to mention your social life–time is truly at a premium for you, so why not latch onto the wide world that Google has to offer? From super-effective search tricks to Google hacks specifically for education to tricks and tips for using Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, these tricks will surely save you some precious time. 100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time in School | Online Colleges

Customizing Grub2 boot menu The grub boot menu Ubuntu uses has bothered me since I first saw the SUSE implementation of grub. So, after installing the latest 9.10 beta, I decided it was time to figure out how to get rid of that awful black grub menu. Two days later, here is what I have figured out. Find an image I used the cool heron image from a previous release of ubuntu. Find it here . My desktop resolution is 1280X1024 so that's what I trimmed down this image to match. You'll have to save this image in PNG/TGA format. You'll see why later so just make sure this is the format you use. Customizing Grub2 boot menu - Ubuntu Forums

When Canonical broke the news recently that Ubuntu 10.10 will include uTouch 1.0, a multitouch and gesture stack, it caused a flurry of excitement about the Linux release's potential for use in tablets . Thanks to the new technology, users of Ubuntu 10.10--also known as Maverick Meerkat--will be able to switch applications or tabs within an application, for example, using gestures. Android users have already been enjoying the power of touch, of course, but this new technology will bring it to the Linux desktop. Ubuntu 10.10 is currently in its third alpha release, with the final version expected on October 10. Current home and business users of older versions of Ubuntu will have to decide if the benefits make it worth upgrading the free software. Though changes will inevitably happen over the next few weeks, here's a summary of some of the key features that are currently expected. 1. Simpler Installer Ubuntu 10.10 is expe...

We love Linux, and want to make it easier for others to do so, too. This first edition of the Lifehacker Pack for Linux includes our favorite apps that get things done and make your desktop great. Linux isn't quite like Windows or Mac, as there are many, many distributions, usually running on one of two desktop systems (GNOME or KDE). We've chosen to write this list up from the perspective of a standard, GNOME-based Ubuntu user. Ubuntu is what the Lifehacker editors use, it's what most of our Linux-leaning readers use , and it's generally popular and frequently updated. Many of these apps can be downloaded and installed on other Linux systems, of course—check the Download link, or search out its name in your own system's package installer. If you are using Ubuntu, you can also install these apps by clicking the "Install in Ubuntu" link after each item. It's a link that prompts your own Ubuntu system to search out and install an app from ...

August 28, 2009 by: Allen Sanford Cinelerra has three main functions: capturing, compositing, and editing audio and video with sample level accuracy. It’s a movie studio in a box, he best of the best …. Yaddie, Yaddie, Yaddie. Cinelerra is not community approved and there is no support from the developer. Donations to community websites do not fund Cinelerra development. However there is a community version and here is how you install it on Ubuntu. buntu: Install Cinelarra: Linux Video Editing « Blogternals : "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Just a heads up, we talk about and mention Ubuntu in the article but this will really work for any distro. Some of these instructions may vary just a bit for Logical Volumes but you should easily be able to figure out the slight differences. Having the “/home” directory tree mounted on it’s own partition has several advantages amongst them is being able to reinstall the OS (or even a different distro of Linux) without losing all your data. Different reason have left some of us not installing a separate partition for “/home” when we first installed Ubuntu. Now for what ever reason we need to move “/home” to its own partition. First, we need to create a partition of sufficient size for your “/home” directory. You do what ever you need to do here before we continue just make sure you have an empty partition somewhere to work with that is big enough and that you know what file format it uses I suggest ext3 or ext4. Next, mount the new partition: ? View Code SHELL mkdi...

When I made the switch to Ubuntu Linux on my desktop computer (that is, if you can call triple-booting Windows XP, Vista, and Ubuntu a "switch"), I was a little worried about finding the applications and tools that would make me as productive working in Ubuntu as I am working on Windows. After a little searching around the interweb, however, I've been more than impressed with the number of great, full-featured applications available for Linux, many of which outshine their Windows counterparts. And what's best - they're all totally free. Here are my top 10 favorite applications and tweaks that made replacing Windows with Ubuntu a breeze. Taking a page from Mark Pilgrim's essential software list, I've included the necessary command line code to install most of the applications below; if you don't like Terminal, you can use Ubuntu's very friendly Add/Remove software application interface (Applications -> Add/Remove...). Where I haven't in...

Today, you will learn how to install Ubuntu Gutsy (as a second operating system) on your PlayStation 3 gaming console. This will not replace the PS3 operating system (called XMB). Ubuntu will run as an alternative OS on your PS3 console. Ready Are you excited Let’s go! Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon has greatly been improved for the PS3 hardware. It can now recognize all the components of your PS3 console, like the Blu-ray unit, the Gelic network card, USB and Bluetooth ports, and the sound system! Installing Ubuntu (Linux) on your PS3 | Hack N Mod

A huge reason many people don’t want to try Linux, a free open source OS, is because it typically involves formatting or repartitioning their hard drives. Learn how to give Ubuntu a try on your Vista or XP machine without altering the original state of your hard drive. Full article here: How to Install Linux without Formatting or Partitioning | Hack N Mod

Jabber is more than Instant messaging. You probably all know Jabber as an instant messageing protocol. And if you still don't use it, I recommend you to try But people know less that XMPP (the protocol behind Jabber) is more than just instant messaging. XMPP is a protocol that simply allow you to exchange XML fragments between clients. So possibilities are infinite. With this post, I want to show to others KDE developers some of the XMPP possibilities that could improve KDE. Jabber is more than Instant messaging. - Gof's weblog

One of my favorite geek shirts is my ZaReason ' Friends help friends use Linux ' shirt, which I was in the mood to wear last night after I helped my friend move to Linux. My non-technical friend was suffering from a sickly Windows Vista PC. She'd caught herself a nasty virus (she blames an old Red Hot Chili Peppers video, but we'll never know for sure). Other people had suggested that my budget-conscious friend move to Linux. Tip #1: Don't tell your non-technical friends to move to Linux. Please, just don't do this. If you do this, you set them up to hate it. Your friend might be like my friend, who just wants her email, music, and internet to work. My friend doesn't want to install, configure, or troubleshoot. Yes, she's certainly smart and capable enough, but she's just not interested. She's got two teenagers and some chickens to raise and a business to run, and she'd rather live without her computer than spend hours tweak...

Media Center PCs have been around for almost a decade—even longer if you count earlier forays like Gateway's Destination PC lineup from the mid-1990s. It's not just about PCs, either. More recently, we've seen set-top box media extenders and media-focused game consoles like the Xbox 360 and PS3, as well as targeted peripherals like the Slingbox PRO-HD and the Hauppauge HD PVR . All have garnered their share of fans. Unfortunately, many media center setups are inflexible. The Apple TV is probably the worst example; it's tough to do much with that box unless you're a slave to the iTunes Store. ( Or unless you hack it .) But even Windows 7 and the Xbox 360 can be unnecessarily limiting when it comes to your media. That's where Linux comes in. Granted, a lot of the fun is thanks to the hobbyist nature of the OS, at least on the consumer end. There's also a distinct feeling of getting something for nothing—and in many cases, better performance than ...

Microsoft has long pooh-poohed Linux as a desktop competitor. But a recent filing with the Security and Exchange Commission has the company admitting for the first time that Linux represents a significant threat to Windows. TechFlash reports that in Microsoft's recent annual filing with the SEC, it listed for the first time Ubuntu's maker Canonical, and Linux distributor Red Hat as competitors to its Client division, which makes Windows. Previously, TechFlash says, Red Hat was listed but only as a competitor to its Business and Server & Tools divisions. Full article here: Microsoft Admits Fear of Linux - Business Center - PC World

For productivity, Linux can compete with Windows and Mac as Linux has a great set of productivity applications. While some applications run on all platforms, there are others just available exclusively on Linux. Here is a list of 10 apps that are focused on getting things done quickly and effectively. Daily Artisan » 10 Handy Productivity Tools in Linux

There are quite a few possibilities to take the Linux distribution Ubuntu for a test drive. It can be run from Live CDs, run in a virtual machine or installed on a free partition on the computer system even from within Windows (using Wubi ). Portable Ubuntu adds another possibility to these choices by offering to run Ubuntu directly in Windows without installation or configuration at all. The Linux distribution can be downloaded directly from its Sourceforge page. It comes as a 438 Megabyte self extracting executable that requires 1.86 Gigabytes on the computer’s hard drive after extraction. Users can then immediately start Ubuntu in Windows by clicking on the run_portable_ubuntu.bat file that is located in the root directory of the software program. Starting portable Ubuntu in Windows will open a command line window which will remain open all the time. This command line window contains information about background processes and the state of the Ubuntu system. The Ubuntu dock at th...

The new style of Ubuntu is driven by the theme "Light". We've developed a comprehensive set of visual guidelines and treatments that reflect that style, and are updating key assets like the logo accordingly. The new theme takes effect in 10.04 LTS and will define our look and feel for several years.   Ubuntu has seen a tremendous amount of growth and change since it was conceived in 2004. Back then it was a small project with strong ambitions and a handful of developers passionate about delivering a world class Linux Operating System that can compete on every level with Microsoft and Apple. We adopted a style based on the tagline "Linux for Human Beings", and called it "Human". Six years on we have made incredible progress. Ubuntu is a global phenomenon: we have carved out a pervasive culture of quality and design, thoughtful usability and great technology all fused together in a project that maintains the same commitment to community an...

You might have heard about the well known command line utility called FFMPG which converts videos from one format to another. If you are a developer or system administrator and you develop or administer Linux based apps then you probably know how complex it is to work with the command line utility to convert videos. WinFF makes it easier, you can easily convert files with the GUI interface rather than stuffing your head with the difficult and long commands of FFMPG. To put in a netshell, it is the graphical interface for FFMPG. The key features of this tool include the support for multiple formats and multiple languages. Further this tool can also be used on different versions of Windows. It also doesn’t require any external codecs. The installation of this tool is very simple, just open the terminal and run the following command to install it. sudo apt-get install winff Once the installation is over, you can launch it from Applications > Sound &Video > Video Co...

Old hardware? Want a faster boot up? Need to free some system resources? Want snappier applications? This is for you. Note, I wouldn’t suggest doing anything within this if it doesn’t make sense to you. Tux Training » Blog Archive » How to make Ubuntu extremely fast

Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04 is a comprehensive beginners guide for the Ubuntu operating system. It is written under an open source license and is free for you to download, read, modify and share. The manual will help you become familiar with everyday tasks such as surfing the web, listening to music and scanning documents. With an emphasis on easy to follow instructions, it is suitable for all levels of experience. Download now Alternative download options Features Easy to understand - our manual has step by step instructions and is jargon-free A picture is worth a thousand words - lots of screenshots to show you how to do tasks All in one place - conveniently located in one file, so you don’t have to look all over the web for help Progressive learning curve - start with the basics, and learn as you work through each chapter Dozens of languag...

Most computers these days come with a myriad of sensors to monitor the temperature of your computer. These sensors are generally located on the processor and the motherboard, and you might also have sensors on your video card. On top of that, all S.M.A.R.T-enabled hard drives have built-in temperature monitoring. The temperature of your computer is a vital thing to keep track of – heat and computers don’t mix very well. Unfortunately, Ubuntu doesn’t setup your computer’s sensors automatically; but you can follow these steps to enable the temperature sensors in your computer in Ubuntu, or any other version of Linux. While sensor-monitoring is somewhat hardware dependant, this guide will work for most users. It involves heavy use of the command-line, but don’t worry – I will walk you through it step-by-step. Enabling Hardware Sensors in Linux | Techthrob.com :

Linux infrastructure was heavily used in Avatar's graphics rendering done by Weta Digital. (C) Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Weta Digital is the digital visual effects company which worked on the visual effects of the flora and fauna of Pandora. To achieve the impressive visual effects, Weta Digital have modified their in-house software Massive and used their 10,000 square foot Data Center with more than 40,000 CPUs. The Data Center of Weta Digital was re-built in 2008 and consists of 34 racks and more than 4,000 Hewlett-Packard blade servers with a 104TB of RAM. Ubuntu is at the core of all of this, running on all of the rendering nodes, and 90% of the desktops at Weta Digital, according to Paul Gunn , the data center's systems administrator. The "farm" is in fact an Ubuntu Server farm and does not run Red Hat Linux as previously reported by the Media. Processing 7 to 8 gigabytes of data per second, running 24 hours a day and 17.28 gigabytes per minute...

Need to monitor Linux server performance? Try these built-in command and a few add-on tools. Most Linux distributions are equipped with tons of monitoring. These tools provide metrics which can be used to get information about system activities. You can use these tools to find the possible causes of a performance problem. The commands discussed below are some of the most basic commands when it comes to system analysis and debugging server issues such as: Finding out bottlenecks. Disk (storage) bottlenecks. CPU and memory bottlenecks. Network bottlenecks. See here : 20 Linux System Monitoring Tools Every SysAdmin Should Know

K3b 2.0 released Today the reformed K3b team within the KDE Community is proud to release the final 2.0 of the premier disk recording application, codenamed “Komeback”. Although pre-release versions have already enjoyed widespread adoption, we'd like to recap some of the highlights of this release. K3b 2.0 marks the last milestone in the effort to port one of the most popular disk recording applications to KDE's current Platform 4. Although some parts still use legacy libraries, the application takes advantage of the new platform and integrates better with it. Solid, the KDE hardware layer, is now used for hardware detection. On the interface front K3b 2.0 is a direct port of its KDE3 predecessor. The overall look remains the same but it now uses modern widgets. For example, file browser shows a list of KDE's global Places and takes advantage of the breadcrumb bar. The icons have also been updated to match the rest of the Oxygen theme. ...

ScrapBook is a Firefox extension, which helps you to save Web pages and manage the collection. Key features are lightness, speed, accuracy and multi-language support. Major features are: Save Web page Save snippet of Web page Save Web site (In-depth Capture) Organize the collection in the same way as Bookmarks Highlighter, Eraser and various page editing features Full text search and quick filtering search Text edit feature resembling Opera's Notes SCRAPBOOK :: Firefox Extension

Here is the list of the free utilities compiled in categories according to alphabetical order. These utilities represent an excellent alternative to the commercial programs, some of them are even better. Freeware Utilities - Downloadpedia

ImageMagick ® is a software suite to create, edit, and compose bitmap images. It can read, convert and write images in a variety of formats (over 100) including DPX , EXR , GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PDF, PhotoCD, PNG, Postscript, SVG, and TIFF. Use ImageMagick to translate, flip, mirror, rotate, scale, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves. The functionality of ImageMagick is typically utilized from the command line or you can use the features from programs written in your favorite programming language. Choose from these interfaces: G2F (Ada), MagickCore (C), MagickWand (C), ChMagick (Ch), ImageMagickObject (COM+), Magick++ (C++), JMagick (Java), L-Magick (Lisp), NMagick (Neko/haXe), MagickNet (.NET), PascalMagick (Pascal), PerlMagick (Perl), MagickWand for PHP (PHP), IMagick (PHP), PythonMagick (Python), RMagick (Ruby), or TclMagick (Tcl/TK). With a language interface...

The developers behind the GNOME project have gathered in the Netherlands this week for the annual GUADEC conference . During a meeting that took place at the event, the GNOME release team made the difficult decision to delay the launch of GNOME 3, the next major version of the popular open source desktop environment. The new version has been deemed unready for mass consumption and will need another round of refinements before it can achieve the level of maturity and robustness that is expected by the software's users. Although the news will likely disappoint some enthusiasts, it is consistent with the GNOME development community's conservative approach to release management and strong emphasis on predictability. GNOME consists of open source applications and development frameworks that form a complete desktop computing stack. It provides a number of the core components that make up the default user experience in many mainstream Linux distributions...

Many Linux enthusiasts associate desktop Linux with their repetitive daily routine. Same old, same old. Looking to mix things up a little, I thought it’d be fun to take a more entertaining look at what we can do with our Linux boxes. I’m listing ten noteworthy Linux applications that I find very fun to use. After all, Linux is more than a mere efficient platform. It can also provide a great deal of entertainment as well. Top Ten Apps That Make Linux Fun To Use

The recent history of the Amarok music player is like a scaled-down version of KDE's recent past. Like KDE 4, the Amarok 2 series was greeted with a user revolt that has only gradually quieted. And just like KDE 4 inspired Trinity KDE for those who preferred KDE 3, so Amarok 2 inspired Clementine , a fork of Amarok 1.4. The supporters of both Trinity KDE and Clementine make similar claims for their preferences: in both cases, the retro-apps are described as faster, easier to use, and outfitted with a better feature set than the most recent versions. But is that so? An examination of basic features suggests that reality -- as usual -- is more complex than the claims. For one thing, Clementine is only at version 0.4 -- hardly, really, out of alpha release. Its feature set is incomplete, so it is handicapped in a comparison from the start. For another, despite Clementine's unfinished state, both music players fulfill their functions extremely well. In fact, a...

Mythbuntu is a community supported add-on for Ubuntu focused upon setting up a standalone MythTV based PVR system. It can be used to prepare a standalone system or for integration with an existing MythTV network. Unlike similar projects, Mythbuntu keeps close ties with Ubuntu and all development is given back to Ubuntu. This architecture allows simple conversions from a standard desktop to a Mythbuntu machine and vice versa. The development cycle of Mythbuntu closely follows that of Ubuntu, releasing every six months along side Ubuntu releases. Mythbuntu

Maybe the command line isn’t your favourite place to hang out, but to be an effective Linux admin, you need to be able to wield a few essential commands. These 10 commands are guaranteed to simplify your Linux admin life. I understand that many of you don’t want to use the command line in Linux (or in any operating system, for that matter). But the truth is, to be a good administrator, you have to know the command line. Why? Well, with Windows there are times when the command line is the only thing that can save your skin. With Linux, the command line is vast, reliable, flexible, fast ... I could go on and on. And of the 2119 possible commands from the /usr/bin directory (in Mandriva Spring 2008) and the 388 possible commands from /usr/sbin/, a few are indispensable. Here are 10 of them that might make your Linux admin life — or your introduction to Linux — a whole lot simpler. I could make this easy and go with the most used commands (cd, ls, rm) but instead, I am going to go wit...

By Nixie on July 21st, 2009 It’s easy to learn the basics of video editing, especially in Linux! This software is based on the FFMPEG and MLT frameworks so it can handle almost any video file format you throw at it. This quick tutorial will teach you how to put together a video complete with titles, transitions and effects, the program I used is called Kdenlive ; It’s like Sony Vegas, except it’s free and open-source! Linux Tips, Tricks, Tools News and Howtos

During my years of Linux advocacy , I am usually asked a very basic question “what makes Linux better than [insert OS here].” The answer is a result of years of developing and honing the perfect answer to a non-technical person. I usually start with explaining that there are two fundamental schools of thought in the programming world. One that conceals and forbids any changes in functionality, while the other is open and encourages customization to fit ones needs. The conversation naturally goes from there to giving examples of Open Source programs this person might be using unwittingly. Here are 7 programs that the whole Open Source community is very proud of. Daily Artisan » 7 Apps Every Open Source Enthusiast Should Brag About

Welcome to Linuxsecurity.com's WebLinks Resource Archives. Scroll down and find resources ranging from Cryptography to Security sources, to Network Security and everything in between. Many articles are on the older side, but are still very useful. But don't stop here. When your done in this section, take a look at our Features section including some of our most recent and detailed HowTos. Or why not check on recent Advisories to track your distribution of choice. Whether you're new to Linux and security, or you're a seasoned developer you'll find a wealth of security information for Open Source here at Linuxsecurity.com. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to email us at info_at_linuxsecurity.com. Resources - The Community's Center for Security

Ubuntu Tweak is an application to config Ubuntu easier for everyone. It provides many useful desktop and system options that the default desktop environment doesn't provide. With its help, you will enjoy with the experience of Ubuntu! Download Now! Ubuntu Tweak - Let's rock with Ubuntu

Sometimes the GUI is just too slow. Learn how to resize images, add drop shadows, splice mp3s, clone hard drives and more with the command line. Here are a few tasks that you might want to consider using the command line for. 7 Tasks You Shouldn’t Use a GUI For

Many new comers are afraid of that “haunted Terminal”. Why open a console when you can do it via GUI? This article is not against the use of terminal but for noobs (and pros too) these GUI tips may prove more productive. How many times have you thought to “configure the boot menu” or “change mount points” but afraid of it because you have to enter that “Haunted Manson”. 1, 2, 3 are packages and can be installed via Synaptic Package Manager (another helpful GUI for managing packages) and then searching for it. 5+1 GUI tips to make Ubuntu still easier | yabBLOG

At the request of our readers and because today is Independence Day in the United States, we have decided to revive our old desktop customization tutorial for the Ubuntu OS and other major Linux distributions powered by the GNOME desktop environment. This step-by-step tutorial was created for the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) operating system and it will teach you how to change the looks of your Linux desktop into an eye-candy, practical, simple and modern one. In other words, to pimp your desktop and change its looks Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop Customization Guide - Step by step tutorial with screenshots - Softpedia

Finally! The much discussed about F-Spot vs Shotwell battle is over. The new default image organizer app for Ubuntu Maverick 10.10 is going to be Shotwell. This is a much needed change and F-Spot was simply not enough. Most of the times when I tried F-Spot, it just keeps crashing on me. Shotwell on a other hand feels a lot more solid and is better integrated with GNOME desktop. Shotwell is also completely devoid of Mono. What's new in Shotwell 0.5.2? Shotwell recently released the Shotwell version 0.5.2. And here are the features. Photos can be tagged and organized by tag, creating a new tool for managing your photo collection. Printing support. Photos can be published to Google's Picasa Web Albums service. Photos can be set as your desktop background directly from Shotwell. Photo import runs in the background, making imports smoother and more fluid. Rock solid and feels a lot more responsive and light. Full article here: Meet Shotwell - The F-Spot Replacement For Ub...

The Open-PC project, which developed an open source Linux PC based on community survey requests, says its KDE-flavored nettop will ship next month. The Open-PC is equipped with a 1.6GHz dual-core Atom N330 with 3GB RAM, but the nettop's high $500 price has stirred some controversy. Open source nettop designed from survey requests

Long-term support (LTS) version of popular desktop operating system generally available on 29 April LONDON, April 27, 2010: Canonical announced today the upcoming release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop Edition, the latest version of the popular Linux desktop distribution, which includes three years of support through free security and maintenance updates. It will be available for free download on Thursday 29 April and will be pre-installed on a range of machines from a number of manufacturers in Summer 2010. The desktop edition of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS will feature extensive design work, faster boot speed, social network integration, online services and the Ubuntu One Music Store. "Ubuntu 10.04 LTS challenges the perceptions of the Linux desktop, bringing a whole new category of users to the world of Ubuntu," said Jane Silber, CEO, Canonical. "Changes like the new look and feel and the addition of a music store, layered on top of our relentless focus on delivering an intu...