I can’t tell you how many times I have used a man page only to find either an error (due to author not updating) or that the man page itself was confusing and needing my own personal tweaking. Now, if you are unsure as to what a man page is, you should know that Linux [...]

I wanted to continue with the rescue theme, but since Partimage is limited in it’s file system support, I thought I would go another route. That route? Gparted. Gparted is an amazingly flexible tool that serves as a graphical partition editor built for the GNOME desktop environment. But Gparted can do much more than just [...]

In my last article I showed you how to save a partition from a drive to a local image file using the Partimage tool (see my article “Copy partitions on your system with Partimage“). And although (as a reader did point out) Partimage is limited by not supporting ext4 file systems, it still has plenty [...]

Partimage is a unique open source rescue tool in that it can be used as an installed application or as a stand alone rescue tool with SystemRescueCD. So if whether your system is working or not, Partimage might be able to save you. But what does Partimage do? Partimage saves partions (in various formats) to [...]

How many times have you migrated from one Linux box to another, only to say goodbye to your email and knowing you were going to have to set your email client up all over again. Oh sure you could tar up that ~/.evolution directory and hope that it worked. Most likely you would wind up [...]

I have said it over and over again, Linux installations needs a Welcome Screen. This would be a huge help for new users who often are not sure where to turn for help, or what Linux is all about. Well, OpenSuSE has one of the closest things to a Welcome Screen that you will find [...]

So far in our OpenSuSE series we have covered OpenSuSE (see “Why not try OpenSuSE“), YaST (see “YaST: Yet Another Setup Tool“), and Installing software (see “Installing software in OpenSuSE with YaST“). This time around we are going to take a look at how to install software in OpenSuSE using the command line. I realize [...]

Let’s continue our hayride with OpenSuSE. The last time we visited this operating system we took a look at the stellar YaST tool (see my article “YaST: Yet Another Setup Tool“). From within that tool you could easily access the YaST Software Installation tool for OpenSuSE. This tool is about as user-friendly as any of [...]

Continuing with our look into OpenSuSE, we examine YaST. One of the best things going for OpenSuSE (and SuSE as well) is their take on the tried and true “control panal” YaST. YaST is, quite literally, a one-stop-shop for configuring Linux. Among the cornucopia of Linux configuration tools, YaST might very well be the top of the [...]

I spend much of my time here on Ghacks using and talking about Ubuntu. So much so one would think it’s the only game in town. Well, it’s not and I am going to spend a bit of time focusing on different distributions. The first distribution I am going to focus on is OpenSuSE. OpenSuSE [...]

A long time ago, in order to scan your Samba shares, you used a tool called LinNeighborhood. That tool was essential if you wanted your Linux box to be able to see any Windows shares (unless you were brave enough to know the command line equivalents. Well years have passed and LinNeighborhood is now pyNeighborhood. [...]

For those who are less than fortunate and have severe vision problems, using a computer can be a task that is nearly impossible without either the help of others or some form of assisted technology. There aren’t tons of options available, but at least the options that are there work well and allow those who have [...]

Are you tired of that pesky GNOME keyring reminder popping up everywhere you go? You know what it does right? The GNOME keyring manager manages passwords for things like ftp connections, email password logins, wireless network authentication, and much more. Typically this is set up encrypted – by default this is the case with the [...]

The developer of the lightweight pdf reader Sumatra has released version 1.1 which is available as a direct download from the project homepage. Sumatra is a resource friendly and minimalistic alternative to heavyweight pdf readers like Adobe Reader. Its minimalistic design and speed make it an ideal pdf reader for users who want work with [...]

If you are looking for a command line utility to handle all of your Linux backup needs, you really need look no further than this tool that bases itself off of the perennial backup favorite rsync. Rsnapshot takes the rsync utility and makes it more useful than it already was. With rsnapshot you can retain multiple [...]

File managers can get a bit over-crowded in their layout and in their use of space. Although I am a big Nautilus, I am a bigger fan of efficient, clean workspaces. To that end, I like to have a file manager that is quick, easy to use, and looks good. Naturally, because Nautilus is open [...]

I do a lot of writing about Linux – for Ghacks and for other sites. One of the issues I come across often is how Linux is perceived and what it needs to do to continue to grow. It’s a very complex issue based on a lot of pre-determined opinions and deeply embedded history. Often I reach [...]

If you haven’t experienced Pandora radio you don’t know what you’re missing. Pandora can stream music to your web browser specifically tuned to your tastes. Imagine having that ability right on your desktop – always at your fingertips? Pretty cool eh? Well as of now there is no stand alone Pandora client for Linux nor [...]

It’s Friday and that means we’re all ready for the weekend. But that also means we’re ready for some fun. Because of that I thought it would be fitting to do an article on some of the cooler Linux tips and tricks that I have come across over the years. This article will be a [...]

Not many of today’s Linux users remember the days when you could (and sometimes had to) compile your own kernel. If you had a special device or special needs for the kernel there was no other way to get it to work. Today most kernels work out of the box with most hardware. But there [...]

For those that use Flckr, it’s always easiest when you have a simple tool that allows quick and painless file uploading. Although logging onto the web site and using the built-in Flickr uploader isn’t difficult, when you have a number of images, or when you upload frequently, this can be a real hassle. So having [...]

Today we continue on with our Wallpaper theme! You’ve already seen how to Manage your wallpaper in GNOME as well as how to set up a changing rotation of wallpapers with Wallpaper Drapes (see “Desktop Drapes for GNOME“). Now it’s time for something a bit different. Most wallpaper applets pretty much do the same thing: They [...]

The latest “series” of articles for Linux here on Ghacks revolves around beautifying your desktop…specifically, desktop wallpaper. The first article was all about Managing wallpaper in GNOME.  I wanted to continue that particular subject by introducing a simple little tool (that hasn’t actually been updated since 2008 – but still works like a champ) called [...]

There have been numerous articles on Ghacks covering the topic of Wallpaper. So I thought I would chime in with a short series on the subject. A lot of users think focusing on wallpaper is pointless. I disagree. Not only is the idea of personalizing your PC important, but it also allows for companies to [...]

If you’ve started using Ubuntu 10.04 already, you are probably having a fairly good experience. What a lot of people might not know is just how deeply that good experience goes. An issue that has plagued Linux since inception is fonts. Whether it be the lack of “standard” fonts (and by standard I mean Microsoft) [...]

When a text editor’s catch phrase is “Scribes: It’s about the experience, not features.” you have to wonder what you are in for. However, Scribes is a very different editor. Scribes is all about making you productive. In fact, the developers of Scribes declare you will become exponentially more productive when using their tool. Why? [...]

If you’ve been following my series on Linux text editors you have read about a number of different variations on this theme. Some editors have been very GUI friendly, some have been just shy of a text-based editor, and some of them fall somewhere in between. Many people seem to prefer the in between editors [...]

Okay, so the title is a bit misleading. Using xjed will not make you a Jedi Knight, but it will help you in your quest to become a Jedi-level programmer. Right? Wrong. xjed is a text editor that was designed with programmers in mind. It’s an X11 version of the Jed editor which offers numerous [...]

If you’ve followed my recent text editor series you will have noticed I included a text editor that is also a collaborative tool (see my article “Kobby: KDE collaborative text editor“). In that article I mentioned that Kobby can work with the GNOME equivalent Gobby. But to do so they need a server running. The [...]

My series of articles covering text editors wouldn’t be complete without a collaborative tool. I have already covered (some time ago) Gobby (see my article “Collaborate in real time with Gobby“) and now it’s time to re-visit this topic from the KDE perspective. The KDE equivalent of Gobby is, to no surprise, Kobby. Kobby is [...]

In my most recent series of articles I have been highlighting different Linux text editors. Why? Because a lot of users hate using text based editors. Although a big fan of the text-based editor (I like the simplicity and the speed), I can see where a solid GUI tool would be far more appealing to [...]

In my last article I introduced you to Gedit (see “Gedit: No more text-based editor for you!“) and, as promised, this time around we will examine the KDE equivalent…Kate. Kate is an interesting beast in that it is comprised of two parts: KatePart (which is the underlying editor that is also used in other KDE [...]

If you have been reading Ghacks long enough you know I am partial to the Nano text based editor. For many users that editor (or one like it) is all they need. Because of the simplicity of the tools, why slow down your work with a GUI right? But for some, those GUI-less editors are [...]

Disk space is cheap, but there are still situations where you’d like to reclaim space. For me, one of them is getting the maximum of the free Dropbox account I use to synchronize my applications between work and home. hey, don’t say my sysadmin I do this, he’d get a heart attack from the sole [...]

I will preface this by saying, I always suggest a clean installation. But for those of you who’d prefer to at least first attempt an upgrade, the technology is already in place for you to do so. Upgrading Ubuntu is not a terribly challenging task. It can be, depending up your network speed and machine, [...]

Evolution is the groupware suite for the Linux operating system. It is, for all intents and purposes, Outlook for Linux. The only downfall is, out of the box, it doesn’t play well with Exchange 2007. But, like every other hurdle the Linux community has come up against, a work around was created. The work around [...]

Quite some time ago I did an article titled “Konqueror tips and tricks“. Well, it’s been some time now and I thought it was time I revisited this topic. Like KDE 4, Konqueror keeps getting better and better. As you might already know, Konqueror is no longer the default file manager for KDE. Now it [...]

Lately I have been going on and on about the Ubuntu Music Store. So much so, it would seem I have forgotten the other music store that is friends to Linux. Not so. I am still a fan of the Amazon MP3 store and last night I took the opportunity to purchase something. I was [...]

If you have been reading Ghacks within the last month, you know that I have become a big fan of what will eventually become GNOME 3. That replacement is currently under the title GNOME Shell and it is already quite a stunning piece of work. I have covered GNOME Shell in a few pieces here [...]

I had recently been on a roll with the Ubuntu One Music Store. In that series I spoke a lot of Rhythbox, because that was the “default” player supporting Ubuntu One Music Store. But Rhythmbox isn’t the only player in town. Oh no. In fact, another outstanding player gets plenty o’ lovin’ from the Ubuntu [...]

For many Linux users, The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Project) seems to mostly be a tool of mystery and confusion. The biggest reason for this is lack of exposure. Most users that complain about The GIMP’s interface really only need to get to know the interface. I have covered The GIMP a few times here [...]

I had been hoping to accomplish this for some time now. At work we work under a Windows domain and I have a Ubuntu test machine that I have been hoping to join to that domain. Finally, thanks to Likewise-Open5, it happened. And, believe it or not, it’s not all that difficult. Oh sure you [...]

As promised (in my article “How do I find my network information in Linux?“) I am going to introduce you to the netstat command. This command is a very useful tool for discovering networking information such as routing tables, network connections, interface statistics, masquerade connections, and multicast memberships. But it’s not quite as simple to [...]

Taking a cue from Martin’s helpful article (see “How do I find my IP Address“) I thought it would be a good idea to offer the same information for the Linux operating system. But with Linux there is one issue to get around – that of the number of different tools available to use to [...]

It’s about that time. Ubuntu 10.4 is coming out and I am finally going to migrate my primary desktop away from Elive to Ubuntu. In this process it will be necessary to migrate my currently running Claws Mail installation from one machine to another. For some applications (think Outlook) this would be a tedious (and [...]

I’m on a roll with Ubuntu One Music Store and I thought I would finish it by showing you how to burn those purchases songs/albums onto CD. Of course, if you haven’t already, you will want to check out the previous two articles: Manager your Ubuntu One Account, and Ubuntu One Music Store has arrived. [...]

Yesterday I wrote about the Ubuntu One Music Store (see my article “Ubuntu One Music Store has arrived“). This little feature is starting to drum up a lot of excitement throughout the Linux community. Although this feature is also drumming up a lot of anger from other distribution communities, it is an outstanding new service [...]

This morning I woke up to write an article for Ghacks. I was searching around for inspiration while I was updating my Ubuntu 10.4 beta install. Near the end of the update I thought “Let’s just check to see the status of the Ubuntu One Music Store”. So I fired up Rhythmbox and, to my [...]

There are a lot of backup tools out there. From the overly simple to the overly complex. Many of those backup tools go unnoticed and unused. Some of them get recognized as the outstanding projects they are. One of those tools is Luckybackup. This tool was awarded Sourceforge’s best new project of 2009. There is [...]

We are plowing forward with the eGroupware installation. We have already been introduced to eGroupware (see my article “eGroupware: Your Exchange replacement has arrived“), we have also seen how to take care of all the prerequisites (see my article “How to install eGroupware“), and finally we’ve seen how to create the header.inc.php (see my article [...]