“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” goes the old saying. What looks great to me, might not be very appealing to you. Most GNU/Linux distributions pick default images that are bland, inoffensive, and boring, all of which have their place, but we can do better. This article will look at making your GNU/Linux machine look beautiful.

Amarok is a popular audio player under Linux. It can manage external storage devices, transfer music to your iPod, display lyrics, and play various formats. Although Amarok supports scripts to extend its functionality, not many users know about the powerful features that these simple plugins can provide.

Firefox 3 is in testing, with the latest build, beta 4, released Monday. Mozilla is aiming for a final release of its flagship product before the end of the first quarter of 2008. Let's take a look at the changes coming down the pike.

If you are an avid gamer, you probably dual-boot your favorite Linux distribution with Windows, because that's where you find most new cutting-edge games. But what if you could run your Windows games on Linux? PlayOnLinux is an open source Python-scripted front end that helps you install and play tons of Windows-only games -- and then some!

This short guide explains how to install the Amazon MP3 Downloader on Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). The Amazon MP3 Downloader is required for album purchases on Amazon.com, and makes downloading songs fast and easy.

Over the last few days I’ve received questions about Linux. So… This is a quick post that hopefully will answer most of the ones I thought were helpful.

A while ago, Id Software released the source code for the Quake 3 engine. They did not, however, release all the maps and models under a free license, so at the time, you still had to buy the game to play it. No more! Thanks to the OpenArena project, there's a cross-platform Quake client with free models and maps.

Intel’s new Silverthorne and Diamondville processors are due to be released sometime during the second quarter of this year, according to this article on Computerworld. The chips are built and specialized to run Linux.Ubuntu Mobile Edition is made for this platform, and has been built in collaboration with both Nokia and Intel.

The GNOME Foundation announced the release of version 2.22 on Wednesday, an update that offers enhanced multimedia support, new file system, and enhanced e-mail, internationalization and accessibility features. GNOME is used in many popular Linux distributions from Ubuntu, Novell, Red Hat, Mandriva and Debian.

Whenever I hear people discussing GNU/Linux's prospects for becoming more popular, I'm reminded of a comment by Tommy Douglas, the social democrat who became a hero for introducing universal health care into Canada. If he could press a button and gain a million voters who did not understand his policies, he said, then he would not press that button. He meant that he was not in politics simply to be elected, but to gain supporters for his ideals -- and that he was determined not to lose sight of his long term goals while pursing short term ones.

Here’s the scenario:

1) I wanted an easy way for friends to migrate to Linux (I’m using Ubuntu).
2) Personally, I needed a way that Ubuntu could install itself while I go do something else.

A lot of people complains about Wine looks. But not everyone realizes that one can make it look neat easily. This article preents a few simple tips to convert your default Wine to a special one.

ISO image files (*.iso) are useful things. They were originally developed as a standard for storing data on CD-ROM, and hold not just files but also all their associated data structures as well -- things like directories, file attributes and boot code - which geeks call 'metadata'.

Services like Flickr and Picasa seems like an obvious way to share your photos with the world. But if you are the do-it-yourself type and prefer to share your photos from the convenience of your own server, give Pixelpost a try. This MySQL/PHP-based application allows you to publish a photoblog and tweak it any way you like. Better yet, you can extend Pixelpost's functionality via addons, so you can turn your basic photoblog into a powerful photo publishing platform.

Linux has proved to be much more resistant to malware than Windows, especially when it comes to viral infections, but any remote exploit makes it just as susceptible to worms, trojans, and rootkits as any other platform. Given all the fuss in the news recently about compromised Linux/Apache servers being responsible for infecting Windows users with malware when they visit those compromised sites, we thought it would be a good time to take a look at three of the best rootkit/malware detection tools available for Linux desktop and SOHO users. Here's a brief comparison of three popular choices: Chkrootkit, Rootkit Hunter, and Ossec.

If you’re a heavy terminal user, you probably often use multiple terminal windows or tabs at once. The Terminator terminal lets you split one window into a resizable grid of terminals. You can easily monitor all of them at once at once, prevent your screen from being clutted with terminal windows, as well as use your screen real estate more efficiently.

Five months ago, I wrote an article about the next version of Ubuntu’s roadmap for Hardy Heron 8.04 LTS, with my own personal ideas of ideas were most interesting that had been proposed.

Let me itterate something important: these are just my ideas, I’m just a spectator. Nobody called me up and said, “Hey Wayne, thanks for the heads up on dual monitor support, we’ll get right on that!” I’m pretty sure Ubuntu developers know that dual monitor support is pretty important for those who have two monitors.

What would it take to get more Linux users playing video games? A better selection of native games for the Linux platform? It has been tried over and again with very limited results. But perhaps it's worth trying again, this time with real, obtainable tools and help? Enter Garage Games.

One of the things I always enjoy when creating presentations, letters, videos, graphics and other documents is playing with different fonts. Fonts can change a boring text-only presentation or paper into an exciting, stylish, wild or classic experience. Yes, it is very easy to get carried away, but that is part of the fun -- trying to achieve the perfect balance between form and function.

Ever wonder how you get your panel, tooltips, pop-up and drop down windows transparent? You’ll be enlightened by this thread. I know you can get your panel transparent an easier way, but this doesn’t keep the panel from the theme you are using, and this doesn’t give transparent menu’s, tooltips, …

A type of application software that functions as a personal organizer is called personal information manager (PIM). As an information management tool, a PIM's purpose is to facilitate the recording, tracking, and management of certain types of "personal information" such as personal notes, address books, significant calendar dates, reminders, email, RSS/Atom feeds, voicemail and more.

I’m not particularly fond of backing up my data. I know I should do it and I feel pretty smug when it is done, but it is a time-consuming and frustrating process. Mainly because it requires a whole lot of thinking on my part: which files do I want to back up? where should I store them? What format? And to date I haven’t really found the one tool that makes baking up truly simple.

GUI calculators may be user-friendly, but they don't offer much comfort for a command-line power user. Fortunately, console-based tools such as bc, Genius, and Calc offer distinct advantages over their GUI counterparts.

This post is an update to my previous instructions for Firefox 3 Beta 3.
Mozilla Firefox Beta 4 was released on Monday, March 10th. Want to try it out today in Ubuntu? Here’s an easy one line command that will install it in Ubuntu (or another Linux distribution) alongside your existing Firefox. Please note: the Firefox 3 Beta 4 release is intended for testing purposes only.

Every six months, the GNOME team prepares a new and revolutionary release of the ever popular GNOME desktop environment. Today, we are proud to introduce you to the latest and greatest features of an 100% FREE and open source desktop. Whether you are on a Solaris machine or the latest Ubuntu distribution, GNOME is there and with every new release it makes your life... Simply Beautiful!