A quick scan at the hits-per-day rating over a DistroWatch reveals Mint keeps climbing while Ubuntu keeps falling:Said honestly, I can’t say I’m surprised. In the Linux community there’s been quite a lot of backlash over the default Unity interface that was released in June 2010. And when I say “backlash”, I’m not putting...

Most of you are probably familiar with the "Guest" account in Windows (which has been around for a long time), but Ubuntu 11.04 makes using a guest account so easy it’s awesome. All that’s required on the Ubuntu desktop to quick-change to a guest account is to simply click the power icon at top right, and switch. That’s it. Yeah, I...

Pretty much all keyboards today come with the Windows key on them. This key is actually quite useful on Windows machines as way to launch shortcuts and, of course, open the Windows Start menu. So to add similar functionality and have the Windows key open your Ubuntu Applications menu, just run this command from the console: gconftool-2 –set...

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS was released yesterday so feel free to download it. As is my usual practice I installed the OS in VirtualBox to test it out. The way to get better graphical capabilities in VirtualBox session is to install what’s called VirtualBox Additions. While the session is active, you click Devices then Install Guest Additions, like this:When using...

The 10.04 LTS release of Ubuntu happens tomorrow (and yes I’ll be sure to download a copy), however some Linux users prefer a lighter GUI so overall operation is faster. The first obvious choice for those that prefer a light GUI is Xubuntu, which uses XFCE. But then there those not too hot on XFCE either. The lightest of the light as far as I’m aware...

Let’s face it, XP is old. Really old. However in the business world, Win2000 and WinXP still have a strong foothold on the desktop. But thankfully XP is finally losing its grip. By the end of 2010 it’s speculated that 50% of business will be using Windows 7. This is largely due to the fact that more IT admins have given Win 7 the thumbs up as a...

If there’s two things Ubuntu has always been, it’s brown and orange. This has a striking resemblance to the not-so good looking nature of, say, a shag living room carpet circa the 1970s. You can’t convince me that a brown interface with bright orange icons looks good. Not a chance. Ubuntu has been like that for quite some time. While it’s...

Netbooks by nature do not have optical drives, so the way to install Ubuntu Netbook Remix, abbreviated UNR, is to use the usb-creator program to create a bootable USB stick.This program is on the UNR 9.10 ISO image itself. To access it, burn the UNR image to a CD or alternatively use an ISO mounting program in Windows, such as Virtual CloneDrive (free, works...

In 2007 I did a video on how to share files/folders to Windows with Ubuntu. But since version 8 of that OS the way in which this is done has changed a bit. It is simplified somewhat, but the drawback now is that in order to change the Workgroup name you must edit a configuration file manually instead of having the ability to do it in the GUI like before. In the...

Although I should have done this last month when it was released, I finally got around to downloading Ubuntu 9.04 to see what was new. What I found that the most significant upgrades to the OS had almost nothing to do with the interface itself. From what I understand the Ubuntu team was going to revamp the UI in 9, but it couldn’t be completed in time so...

Need your Linux fix? Ubuntu’s new version 9.04 is available today and with it some genuinely significant updates, such as: GNOME 2.26 The biggest improvement (for me) is that GNOME does better multi-monitor setup now with this version. Multi-monitor troubles with a Linux GUI have been a longstanding complaint of mine, and while Ubuntu 8 was a huge...

With Ubuntu it is important (as it is in XP) to know certain network command functions. When most people have a problem with their router, cablemodem or DSL modem, they simply reboot the computer to renew the IP address. You do not have to do this. Instead you can simply shut down the network interface and restart it. ifconfig ifconfig is the command used in...

The default email client that comes bundled with Ubuntu is Evolution. Make no mistake, this is a really good email client (arguably just as good as Mozilla Thunderbird that also runs under Ubuntu easily). Setting up an IMAP-enabled Gmail account in Evolution is fairly straightforward as long as you know where to enter in the SSL stuff and other odds and ends....

In Windows XP I use KeePass Password Safe, however in Ubuntu I was wondering if there was a similar program I could use there as well. It turns out there is and it’s nearly identical to the Windows version, called KeePassX. The great thing about KeePassX is that if you’re already using KeePass there is literally no learning curve whatsoever. ...

A common issue many have when installing Ubuntu in Virtualbox is that the default virtual resolution is limited to a maxium of 800×600. By installing the Guest Additions that come with Virtualbox, you can easily get any screen res you want. See video for details.THIS VIDEO IS AVAILABLE IN HD RESOLUTION. Click here to go to the YouTube page and click the...

Full disclosure: I personally subscribe to the philosophy that “benchmark = lie”, simply because there are so many factors which can influence results and typically the benchmark results have little bearing on actual practical use. That said, I know a lot of readers probably do not share my opinion and enjoy reading about – and performing...

Just about every week on the PCMech LIVE show I am asked (more or less), "Where do I go to get a list of Linux distros that people actually use?" The answer I always give is DistroWatch. Is that place the be-all/end-all for all things Linux? No (because there are many), but it’s a darn good start to get the news on what’s going on with...

One of the big perks of using a Linux distribution is having a choice of what window manager you want to use. You can check out what’s available for Linux window managers and desktops here. The one I’ll be concentrating on is fluxbox, a window manager. Fluxbox is one of the lightest window managers you can use for a graphical Linux environment. To...

Those who use the Ubuntu operating system understand that when you go to Add or Remove applications, there are "main" apps and then everything else. The "main" apps obviously work the best. These are the ones that are in Ubuntu’s main file repository, such as Mozilla Firefox and the OpenOffice suite. WINE is currently not in...

In this series I’m going to covers the ins and outs of using Linux as your primary home computer operating system. It will cover in a realistic sense what you can and moreover cannot do with it. This is not going to be a technical explanation of how the Linux file system works but rather it’s immediate differences between it and...