If you’re anything like me, sometimes you just crave a particular kind of game. Maybe it’s an FPS, maybe a puzzle game, maybe a new Real Time Strategy. Lately for me, it’s been games of economy. SimCity and Tycoon type games – where you build up your business/city to greatness through clever monetary strategy. As a Linux user that naturally left the question “Are there any good economic games for Linux?” The following should be a helpful (though certainly not exhaustive) guide to a few of the best economic games for Linux.
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4 of the Best Economy Games for Linux
By | August 4, 2011 | 2 Comments
How to Check for Rootkits on Linux, BSD, and OSX
By | July 28, 2011 | 4 Comments
Those of us in UNIX-land (and yes, Mac people, that includes you) don’t often have to deal with malware. There is room for debate about the exact reasons for that, but few would argue that Linux, BSD and OSX get hit as hard or as often as Windows. This does not, however, make us immune to malware. We all download software online, and even those who stick with only their software provider’s packages can still be afflicted by bugs or security holes which may allow nasty people or software inside. As the old saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Today we’d like to show you some ways that you can scan your system to make sure there are no nasty rootkits lurking in the shadows.
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Living with Fedora – A Debian/Ubuntu User’s Take on Fedora 15
By | July 21, 2011 | 47 Comments
I’ve been a die-hard Debian fan for about 10 years, and I’ve written several articles on the subject. That said, most of our Linux-savvy readers are Ubuntu users, so that’s been my main desktop OS for as long as I’ve been a MakeTechEasier writer. Ubuntu has always been fine, and generally got the job done without hassle, however this past release (11.04, Natty Narwhal) has been the cause of a rift among many Ubuntu users. This release pushed Unity, their homegrown desktop environment, front and center. Like many others, I’ve never managed to get a feel for Unity. After weighing my options, I decided to jump ship and try out Fedora 15. It’s the first Fedora I’ve tried since Core 1, and things certainly have changed.
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Manage Your Finances (Simply) in Linux with wxBanker
By | July 15, 2011 | 6 Comments
Money. It’s something that most of us don’t have enough of. And what we have, we want to hold on to and keep track of.
For many people, an old fashioned spreadsheet is perfect for their needs. The rest of us need a little something more. Not with the features, of say, ,KyMyMoney or GNUCash but something that isn’t as confusing or convoluted as a spreadsheet can be.
Presented for your approval: wxBanker, a software that makes it easy to manage your finances. It might not have every bell or whistle, but it does have most of the bells and whistles that you actually need.
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How to Disable Automatic Workspaces in Gnome 3 (And Other Shell Tweaks)
By | July 14, 2011 | 3 Comments
As we’ve mentioned several times before, a few of us here at MakeTechEasier are big fans of Gnome 3. Sadly, since the project is still fairly young, it’s not nearly as configurable or feature-rich as its 2.x cousins. At the moment, the standard install provides no quick and obvious way to change many of the settings, so applications like the Gnome Tweak Tool have been created to give users a few more options. Even those tools, however, still leave many desirable options out – such as the ability to manage your workspaces by hand. Initial builds of Gnome Shell showed a linear or grid-based approach that this author, for one, prefers to the current automatic approach. Here’s how to get some of that back.
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Posting to Tumblr From The Linux Desktop With Grumblr
By | July 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment
In mid-June 2011, something interesting happened. The number of blogs hosted by a scrappy upstart blogging platform called Tumblr surpassed those of the venerable (and immensely popular) WordPress.com. That was an impressive feat, considering Tumblr was launched over four years after WordPress.com.
The content on Tumblr consists of tumblelogs, which are somewhere between full-blown blogs and microblogs like Twitter. And a tumblelog is simple to set up and use, which adds to the popularity of Tumblr.
If you’re a Linux user and want to start using Tumblr, you’re not stuck with heading over to the site. There are a couple of Tumblr clients for the Linux desktop. Let’s take a look at how to post to Tumblr using Grumblr.
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The 7 Best Minecraft Editors and Utilities for Linux
By | July 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment
For an independent game with no storyline, no tutorial, and graphics that make Windows 95 look slick, Minecraft has developed an amazing following. Who could have ever predicted that shuffling virtual cubes around could be so fun and so full of possibilities? And if, somehow, you find yourself running out of ideas for your virtual world, many clever folks have come up with tools to improve, extend, and just plain cheat. While there are dozens of such tools out there, not all of them are Linux friendly. Of those, several seem to do the same job. We decided to run through all the Minecraft utilities for Linux we could get our hands on, several from each category, to find out what works and what’s better left to the Creepers.
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The Beginner Guide to Writing Linux Shell Scripts
By | June 30, 2011 | 2 Comments
For starters – let’s clarify that headline. Linux has more than one possible shell, and scripting any of them is a subject that can easily pack a full book. What we’re going to be doing is covering the basic elements of a bash script. If you don’t know what shell you’re using, it’s probably bash. The process will be familiar to anyone who’s worked with DOS’s bat files, it’s essentially the same concept. You just put a series of commands into a text file and run it. The difference comes from the fact that bash scripts can do a LOT more than batch files. In fact, bash scripting isn’t all that far from a full-fledged language like Python. Today we’ll be covering a few basics like input, output, arguments and variables.
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7 Linux Shell Tips For Increased Productivity
By | June 16, 2011 | 4 Comments
Love it or hate it, the command line is here to stay. Sure, there are new options emerging like TermKit but it’s unlikely that the command line will ever really go away. Those who take the time to master it can run productivity circles around their peers, but with the astonishing assortment of CLI tools available, where do you even begin? We’ve compiled a few of the most useful tools and tricks into this guide to help new users gain some new knowledge, and old pros learn some new tricks.
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7 Beautiful Conky Configurations for Your Linux Desktop
By | June 9, 2011 | 3 Comments
By now, most heavy Linux users are pretty familiar with Conky – the incredibly useful and versatile tool for displaying pretty much anything on your desktop. That includes “geeky” things like CPU usage, network activity, and hostname as well as more “casual” info like time, weather, and even Twitter updates. What many don’t know, however, is that Conky can be not only useful but beautiful as well. Today we’re going to cover a few of the most gorgeous Conky configurations to show you what can be done.
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