With the past few releases, Ubuntu has been focusing more and more on their homegrown desktop Unity. Some people love it, but a lot of us don’t. Fortunately, as with all things Linux, there are many alternative options. For those of us who just can’t find a way to unite with Unity, here are 5 great options that you might find you like better.
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Joshua Price
5 Alternatives to Unity in Ubuntu Oneiric
By | October 27, 2011 | 11 Comments
Getting Started with Amazon EC2
By | October 20, 2011 | 1 Comment
When Amazon first launched their Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) in 2006, many people were a bit surprised. Those of us who’d always just thought of Amazon as a retailer were skeptical that they’d have much to offer. In the 5 years since then, Amazon has proven that they’re serious about this business and in making EC2 a world-class cloud computing platform. While there have been hiccups, Amazon Web Services in general are typically regarded as among the best in the business. In this guide, we’re going to cover the basics of cloud computing in general and Amazon EC2 in particular.
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Linux Running Too Slow? Here’s How to Find the Cause
By | September 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment
I think it’s safe to say that most people familiar with both Linux and Windows would tell you that your average Linux install would outperform an equivalent Windows install on the same machine. That may not always be the case, and some people might have contradictory stories to share, but that’s sure been this author’s experience. In fact according to Top500.org, about 90% of the world’s top supercomputers are running Linux. While the kernel and OS may lend themselves well to high-performance computing, there are often hardware and software issues on the desktop which can cause major lag. Today, we’ll cover some diagnostic tips and tools to help you figure out where your problem might be.
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More Useful and Interesting Bash Prompts
By | September 19, 2011 | 2 Comments
A while back, we listed 8 Useful and Interesting Bash Prompts. That turned out to be one of our most popular articles, and still generates user response and feedback. This time we’ve found a few more gems, as well as some handy tips and tricks for having the coolest shell prompt on the proverbial block.
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4 More Things You Didn’t Know VLC Could Do
By | September 8, 2011 | 2 Comments
VLC is great – it’s as simple as that. It’s so full of useful features that we’re already on our second article about some of the lesser known (but still really great) things it can do. Last time, we covered some gems such as the ability to normalize the audio tracks or transcode videos. This time we’ve got a few more great features from this fantastic media player that your average user may not know.
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Crave Invoice Review + Free Giveaway [Update: Contest Closed]
By | September 1, 2011 |
As I recently learned while trying to start up my own business, finances are hard. REALLY hard. I mean, I’ve written software and compiled custom kernels and built unique Linux systems for years, but trying to track assets and liabilities and equity and invoices and balance sheets… it’s just beyond me, and I need software to help. Judging by the sheer number of financial applications online, I’m certainly not the only one. I went in search of software to make things easier and one I came across was Crave Invoice. While not specifically intended for my type of business, I wanted to give it a shot. Here’s that experience, both the good and the bad.
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How to Build a Lightweight Linux for your Low-End Laptop
By | August 31, 2011 | 7 Comments
Like many of you, I occasionally come into possession of an older laptop. Usually, it’s something that used to run Windows XP, sometimes even older. You always hear that Linux is supposed to be so great for resurrecting old hardware, but many modern desktop distributions with all their bells and whistles end up chugging along just as slowly as Windows did. In those circumstances, you can either throw the machine away, or build your own custom install tailored toward the needs of the machine. Today we’re going to put together a Debian installation tailored specifically toward the needs of an older laptop.
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How to Integrate Google Reader and Google+
By | August 25, 2011 | 3 Comments
Like many of you, I use a lot of Google products. It’s hard not to – they’re usually useful and free. To date, nearly everything Google has released has been a game-changer in its field. Earth, Maps, Gmail, Android, and countless other tools have each raised the bar for what we expect out of software, particularly on the web. When Google released Google+ a short while ago, that left many of us “power users” wondering if/when it would be integrated with Google Reader, the fantastic RSS feed reader. There have been a few plugins/extensions/etc released by third parties with the aim to fill this gap until Google makes it official, but so far the best of the bunch seems to be RSS Share for Google+ and Google Reader. It connects the two services so seamlessly that it’s easy to forget that it’s an addon.
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6 More of the Coolest Chrome Web Apps
By | August 17, 2011 | 2 Comments
Almost a year ago, we shared a few of the more fun and useful web applications for Google Chrome. Since then, several great new apps have been added to the Web Store, and a few of them really stand out. Sure, many of them are little more than links to a existing web app, and have little to do with Chrome, but the convenience and availability (and in some cases, the price) is often tied to the Web Store. Angry Birds, for example, is normally a paid app which is free for all Chrome users, and the Chrome version also includes a few extra features and levels. Today we’ve gathered up some of the very best from the Web Store, and you may be surprised at what we found.
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How to Play MP3s From The Linux Command Line
By | August 11, 2011 | 1 Comment
At first, this may sound pointless. After all, aren’t there dozens of perfectly good GUI music apps out there? Haven’t we all found something we like, or at least don’t hate? Perhaps that’s true, but how much happier would you be if your music app of choice used a whole lot less resources? Or what if you could type in a command on your laptop from anywhere, and have music start playing from the speakers on your desktop? If you’re in to pranks, that works just as well on a friend/co-worker’s computer. Today’s topic is mpg123, an app which can (among other things) make a great GUI-free media player.
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