May 5th, 2012 by Aseem Kishore
In Part 1 of this 2-part article, we discussed gDesklets, an older (but still useful) program for placing gadgets, or widgets, on your Ubuntu Linux desktop. While gDesklets isn’t quite as visually appealing as Screenlets (it’s fairly obvious that it’s an older program), gDesklets certainly has its uses. If you’re the type of person who [...]
May 4th, 2012 by Aseem Kishore
In helping a friend make the transition from Windows to Ubuntu, one of the “missing” features was the idea of desktop gadgets (or widgets). Windows has them built-in, thanks to the Windows Desktop Gadgets framework. And even if you don’t like the ones from Windows, Windows users (and Mac as well), can try out Yahoo [...]
May 2nd, 2012 by Aseem Kishore
In Ubuntu 11.10, when you logged into your computer, or changed users, the login screen looked pretty much like this. With the decision to start using LightDM as the login manager, it was very simple to change the login screen background. We wrote about it in this article. All you need is a simple text [...]
April 29th, 2012 by Aseem Kishore
About a week from now (April 26), the newest version of Ubuntu (12.04) will officially be released. At that point, it’s a safe bet to assume the Ubuntu software servers will be hammered pretty hard for a day or so, as everyone attempts to upgrade. If you want, you can get a jump on that [...]
April 25th, 2012 by Aseem Kishore
Firefox, as is true of any Web browser worth anything, keeps track of your browsing history. This not only lets you keep a record, should you need such a thing, but also makes it easier to get back to websites you’ve previously visited. In Firefox, this is revealed when you start to type a name [...]
April 22nd, 2012 by Aseem Kishore
One of the biggest knocks against the VLC multimedia client is its looks. Instead of having a smooth, modern-looking appearance, it sometimes seems a bit clunky. This could likely have something to do with its toolbar, which seems a bit out of place, especially in Linux. Compare, by way of example, the toolbar used by [...]
April 6th, 2012 by Aseem Kishore
Along with Ubuntu’s new Unity interface and the not-always-smooth upgrade from KDE3 to KDE4, one of the larger adjustments Linux users have needed to make in how they interace with their computer was with the release in April of 2001, of GNOME 3. GNOME 3 moved away from the traditional desktop metaphor, instead using a [...]
April 1st, 2012 by Aseem Kishore
As the years go by, it isn’t too uncommon to have amassed a large collection of documents. For most people, those documents will likely be HTML files, TXT files, RTF files, and of course files from Microsoft Office: DOC, XLS and PPT. You might not have all those file types, but it’s very likely you [...]
March 24th, 2012 by Aseem Kishore
Not too long ago, we highlighted a handy indicator applet called Calendar Indicatorthat made it simple to view your Google Calendar events in the Ubuntu Unity Panel. Simply add the PPA, install the indicator applet, and configure it. It’s a nice tool that works for what it does. For those Ubuntu users who use Evolution [...]
March 22nd, 2012 by Aseem Kishore
In Linux, you have a wide variety of desktop environments to choose from. GNOME, KDE and Xfce are among the more popular choice. Each has its own set of default applications. As an example, Xfce uses Mousepad as its text editor (or Leafpad, depending upon the distro), while KDE distros generally use Kate and GNOME [...]