Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux helpSpecial Offers
NewsVac: News from around the Web
-
Linux command line language translation
1 year, 1 month ago
It has been a long time since we came out with our bash script for command line language translation, and we've finally gotten our head's out of the figurative bowl of spaghetti and found a great online project that already handles this sort of thing. You need to know all those different ways or you'll end up skinning your cat the same way over and over. -
Epiphany, the ultimate GNOME browser
1 year, 1 month ago
Is Epiphany right for you? Well, maybe. You should probably be using Ubuntu, not Kubuntu, Xubuntu, or the other derivatives. You should also probably prefer ease of use and simplicity over power (not that Epiphany doesn’t have power). And you also have to accept that Epiphany won’t have as many add-ons as Firefox, although there are a lot. If you’re OK with all of the above, Epiphany is a great option. -
Web site for the KDE Utilities launched
1 year, 3 months ago
At utils.kde.org you can now find a lot of information about the KDE Utilities. -
GUADEC breaking new ground, starting from Istanbul
1 year, 4 months ago
The ninth European GUADEC conference in Istanbul earlier this month not only set the direction for GNOME 3.0, the next major release of the Unix and Linux desktop, there was also plenty of action on the GNOME Mobile front. -
Lighten up your desktop with LXDE
1 year, 4 months ago
LXDE is a new project to provide a lightweight and fast desktop environment. It's designed to keep resource usage low and leave all components independent. It looks good too. -
Ah Another Opportunity for Desktop Linux
1 year, 4 months ago
My colleague Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols recently wrote a piece on his fine Practical Technology blog called Dear Microsoft, Thanks for the help, Linux in which he argues that Microsoft’s ill-timed decision to cut off easy access to XP tomorrow (June 30th) combined with its announcement it would be releasing the next version of Windows in January, 2010 effectively lends a death blow to Vista and creates a huge opportunity for desktop Linux. With all due respect to my esteemed colleague, this is not the first time I’ve heard such a prediction. -
Top 10 Linux financial tools
1 year, 4 months ago
"Many people don't realize the wealth of applications that are available for Linux. I am asked all the time about X and/or Y application on Windows and whether there's an equivalent on Linux. Most of the time the answer is yes .... " -
Apple vs. Google vs. Linux vs. Microsoft: the fight for the desktop is on!
1 year, 5 months ago
" ... Linux is beginning to get some actual traction, showing up on a number of low cost 'Netbook' offerings and MID (Mobile Internet Devices); it is starting to look like even this platform may have some legs .... " -
Five ways the end-user desktop will look different in five years
1 year, 5 months ago
"eWeek's Debra Donston has penned down five ways the end user desktop in enterprises will look different in five years. While some of her ideas and predictions make a low of sense, there are a few things which are slightly debatable. Mostly, the reliance on virtualization and web applications." -
Desktop Software Still Alive
1 year, 7 months ago
As I’ve said before, developers are the lifeblood of an operating system. Without them, an operating system would be lifeless and not that exciting. -
Step by step: using Samba to join a Windows domain
1 year, 7 months ago
"In this article, I give you the steps you need to use Samba to join to a Windows domain. The primary domain controller will serve as the password server for the domain .... " -
Hassle-Free PC
1 year, 11 months ago
Personal computers were supposed to make our lives easier. Instead, these beasts have turned us all into part-time IT administrators, our lives given over to downloading upgrades, installing patches and updates and drivers and antispyware, decrypting error messages and screaming at stalled applications. Enough! -
Xmonad 0.4 released
2 years, 1 month ago
Xmonad 0.4 has been released. "xmonad is a tiling window manager for X. Windows are arranged automatically to tile the screen without gaps or overlap, maximising screen use ... Window layouts are applied dynamically, and different layouts may be used on each workspace. Xinerama is fully supported, allowing windows to be tiled across several physical screens ...." -
Publishing high-quality documents with Kile
2 years, 1 month ago
"TeX and LaTeX produce impeccably laid-out documents, and are the only practical way to show some mathematical equations. This GUI tool acts as an "integrated development environment" for the command-line document preparation tools .... " -
I have lost my Wow
2 years, 1 month ago
"Last week, I mentioned that Mozilla is planning to give the Firefox browser a makeover. Alex Faaborg had mentioned that they plan to integrate the look of Firefox with Microsoft's Windows Vista and Apple's Mac OS X. The problem was Alex had failed to mention anything about the Linux operating system .... " - More News
Linux.com : Desktop Software
Condensing with Open Text Summarizer
Properly speaking, Nadav Rotem's Open Text Summarizer (OTS) is not a summarizer at all. True summaries generally involve rewording contents at a higher level of generality while preserving the meaning, not just producing a condensed version of the original the way that OTS does. However, within its limits, OTS is an efficient tool for automatically producing abstracts of non-fiction, that, in the last 15 months, has received favorable mention from at least four academic publications, including one in which it outperformed similar utilities, including commercial ones such as Copernic and Subject Search Summarizer.
Managing your movie collection with Griffith
For a long time, I recorded a basic list of all the backups I made of my movie collection in a scruffy notebook. In due time, I found that relying on a simple piece of paper was wishful thinking. I then endured the laborious process of migrating my list to a spreadsheet on my computer -- but that still wasn't enough. Eventually I found Griffith, a movie collection manager, and was pleasantly surprised to discover what it was capable of.
How to sync Evolution with Google's PIM apps
While I'm a die-hard Google user -- especially the PIM apps -- I still appreciate offline applications for the integration with the desktop, speed, and features they sport. The Evolution contact and calendaring application is a great example: it's as feature-packed as Microsoft Outlook, but with GNOME integration, and it's fast. Gmail, by comparison, is slow and lacks any desktop integration. In a perfect world, Evolution would sync with Google's PIM apps. Unfortunately, there aren't any good, easy-to-use, comprehensive guides for setting up Evolution to sync with all of these apps -- until now.
Bidirectional filesystem syncing - DirSync Pro vs. Unison
Everyone knows and loves rsync, the command that lets you clone a directory tree to another disk or system with the ability to keep the clone fresh in an incremental and bandwidth-efficient manner. Sometimes, however, you want to sync in the reverse direction. With bidirectional filesystem syncing tools, there is no primary filesystem -- you just tell the tool to make sure both target directories, or clones, are identical. Here's a hands-on look at two tools designed to accomplish that task: DirSync Pro and Unison.
Browse all your source code revisions with ViewVC
For programmers on big projects, a version control system for managing source code is vital, but working on files in a large project from one of these programs' command-line interfaces is cumbersome. Worse, the results of the commands lack highlighting to show the differences between files and revisions. ViewVC is a handy browser-based code viewer that allows users to browse a source code tree managed by either CVS or Subversion, look at changes, compare revisions at the file or line level, and perform other operations -- just about anything except allow users to check out or commit files.
TiddlyWiki derivatives help you get things done
TiddlyWiki excels at managing notes and text snippets, but can you tweak it for other uses? If you take a look at some applications based on TiddlyWiki, the answer appears to be a resounding yes. With TiddlyWiki derivatives, you can manage tasks, track projects, keep tabs on contacts, and organize book collections. Like the original TiddlyWiki, each derivative consists of a single HTML file which you have to download to your local hard disk. Open the downloaded file in a browser, and the TiddlyWiki-based tool is ready to go.
Doing a diff without touching the command line
With diff-ext, GNOME users can compare and merge files from within Nautilus. If, instead, you use KDE 3, try out kdiff-ext from the same site, which works with Konqueror. Each utility handles paths to files and directories and invokes an external diff tool to perform the grunt work. With diff-ext you can easily compare two files with different names, from different directories, or whole directory trees.
Back-of-the-napkin calculations with Frink
Linux users have a myriad of calculators and unit conversion tools at their disposal. To set itself apart, Frink aims to track units for you and give you a way to quickly perform little conversions and real-world calculations without burdening you with needless details.
Find your way with tangoGPS
If you want to turn your netbook or conventional laptop into a nifty open source navigation system, you need two things: a USB receiver and a GPS-enabled navigation application. You can buy a GPS receiver cheaply at virtually any gadget store or on eBay. And there are actually several GPS-enabled navigation applications out there, including Navit, GPSdrive, and Roadnav. These are fine applications, but if you are looking for GPS software that offers the right amount of features wrapped in a sleek and user-friendly interface, try tangoGPS. This lightweight GPS-enabled navigation application can pull maps from different sources and has a few clever features up its sleeve.
Does cb2bib remove drudgery from bibliography creation?
Many academics and students share a dirty secret: They hate the drudgery of assembling bibliographies. The cb2bib utility attempts to remove some of the drudgery, at least so far as online references go. Designed primarily for use with BibTeX, cb2bib can also be used with other formats once you export the results. However, whether the application actually makes bibliographical tasks easier seems questionable.
Manipulating CD/DVD images with AcetoneISO2
Burning discs reliably ceased to be an area of concern for Linux a long time ago, thanks to tools such as K3b and GnomeBaker. Another tool, AcetoneISO2, aims to be the Swiss army knife at managing disc images. This utility can convert many different image formats, such as .nrg, .bin, and .img, to ISO, and can generate, compress, encrypt, extract, and mount ISO images. It can also mount Mac OS *.dmg files as images, rip DVDs to Xvid AVI files, split and merge images, and more.
Three to-do list managers for GNU/Linux
Never forget an important task again with these great to-do list managers for Linux.
New Xfce beta focuses on usability
Xfce version 4.6 is shaping up to be more significant than most minor releases. Besides fixes and enhancements that are invisible to the casual user, the first revision in almost two years of GNU/Linux's third most popular desktop includes numerous changes to applications such as the calendar, mixer, and logout dialog, a new configuration engine, and usability changes to the desktop. Their combined effect is to increase the usability of Xfce without sacrificing any of the speed for which the desktop is well-known.
Four password lockers that can help you keep your Web logins secure
It is good practice to use a different password for each Web site you need to log in to. Good passwords tend to be long and contain a wide selection of characters. That can make remembering all your passwords difficult. But you can make things easier on yourself by storing passwords for various Web sites in an encrypted file on your computer. I'll take a look at a four programs that give you easy access to your passwords when you need them and protect the password file itself against compromise.
Mandriva One video tour
We loaded and ran the 2009 (10th Anniversary) edition of Mandriva Linux One, which we reviewed earlier this week. It's pretty, it's smooth, and it had a few problems with the GUI software install/remove utility that would leave a new user scratching his head, but overall, it's a nice update to a distro that started out with the idea that ordinary, non-technical computer users should be able to install and run GNU/Linux without expert help -- and that still adheres to this principle.
Setting mouse gestures with EasyStroke and Gestikk
For some reason, mouse gestures have never fully caught on with desktop users. Movements of the mouse that launch a command or simulate a combination of keys are ideal for those who prefer not to move their hands constantly between the mouse and the keyboard, or who have trouble typing because of some physical challenge. Yet many users have never heard of mouse gestures, and they are apparently so little in demand that, nine months after the KDE 4 releases began, KDE has yet to implement any of the software or settings that enabled mouse gestures in earlier versions of the desktop. Meanwhile, GNOME has never had more than a limited selection of gestures available in the Mouse Preferences -> Accessibility tab. Under these circumstances, the recent releases of Easystroke and Gestikk are welcome additions to the desktop. Similar to each other in operation and layout, either is a reasonably satisfactory way to set up and manage mouse gestures.
PSPP brings an industry standard statistical tool to Linux
Today's information systems give organizations and governments the ability to collect and access metaphorical mountains of information. But, this information is completely useless unless we are able to find and understand the relationships and trends hidden in these mountains. For projects involving complex research protocols, high-end statistical analysis tools such as SPSS and SAS are useful, but they come with high price tags and proprietary licenses. PSPP is an open-source clone of SPSS, one of the most commonly used proprietary statistical packages.
Mozilla launches video accessibility drive
Video and audio support will soon be built directly into Firefox, by way of the free Vorbis and Theora codecs, and Mozilla is using the opportunity to advance multimedia accessibility for hearing-impaired and seeing-impaired users. Although HTML 5 does not officially include Ogg Vorbis and Theora as baseline codecs for the new VIDEO and AUDIO tags, Mozilla has adopted them for its own implementation. Researcher Silvia Pfeiffer is leading a Mozilla Foundation-funded effort to integrate support for closed captioning and other multimedia accessibility features into the Ogg formats and their implementation in Firefox.
Picasa 3 for Linux: A video tour
Google's Picasa is all about photos -- it helps you instantly find, edit, and share all the pictures on your computer. Although it isn't released as open source it is free to download and use from Google's Web site. The new version 3, which is currently in beta, is available for Windows as well as Linux.
Clocks for time travelers
Whether you believe that punctuality is "the politeness of kings" or "the art of guessing how late the other fellow is going to be," you can count on your Linux box for information about local times across the globe, so that you can plan a punctual VoIP call, stock transaction, or meeting. Here are some world clocks that work well on the desktop.
