End Users

end users

Using the Synaptic Package Manager to Clone Installed Software to Another Computer

The GNU/Linux ecosystem is blessed with many tools to clone a hard drive image which can be used to reinstall your Debian-based distro in an emergency or duplicate on another machine, but sometimes yo ...

by Gary Richmond – 7/11/2012

end users

Backing up Your Desktop Settings with Ubuntu-Tweak

There is no shortage of backup software in GNU/Linux. From full clones of hard drives to browser bookmarks there's something for everyone. However, sometimes you just need to be more selective about w ...

by Gary Richmond – 7/10/2012

end users

Ubuntu's HUD: fixing the keyboard binding conflicts

Last week I finally took the leap and did an online upgrade from Ubuntu 11.10 to 12.04 (Precise Pangolin). To my relief it was a flawless operation and one of the things I wanted to experiment with th ...

by Gary Richmond – 7/3/2012

end users

The Dolphin File Manager: Smarter and Faster with Keyboard Shortcuts

People like Dolphins. They're fast and smart and swimming with them is on many people's "ten things to do before you die" list. Not me though. The nearest I'll ever get to a Dolphin is the one sitting ...

by Gary Richmond – 7/2/2012

end users

Four Smart Things to do with the ALT+F2 Run Command in KDE

One of the first things that newcomers to GNU/Linux learn to do is to bypass big Start menus and blank screens (like Fluxbox) and use `ALT+F2` to launch an application by simply typing in its name. Ev ...

by Gary Richmond – 6/29/2012

end users

Adding Context Menus in the Dolphin File Manager

The concept of the right-click context menu has been around since forever but you don't have to be content with the defaults that come with your software, especially file managers. KDE's Dolphin and K ...

by Gary Richmond – 6/27/2012

end users

Deepin Software Centre: GUI Software Frontend Done right

Newcomers to Ubuntu will only really know about installing software via the Ubuntu Software Centre. Synaptic is no longer bundled by default (though still available) but all us, veterans and newbies a ...

by Gary Richmond – 6/22/2012

end users

Listen to your books (ePUB or PDF) with Okular, KDE's PDF Reader

Okular is the PDF reader for the KDE desktop. You can run it under any other desktop environment too, but you can also get some more mileage out of it with these three simple tips. PDFs are very commo ...

by Gary Richmond – 6/21/2012

end users

Prettify Your Server with h5ai

h5ai is a "modern web server index." What's that, you may ask? Basically, it's a simple software that prettifies the default interface the Apache web server uses to list files in a directory. This may ...

by Dmitri Popov – 6/19/2012

end users

How to Convert RSS Feeds into EPUB files with Calibre

For my money Calibre is one of _the_ most indispensible pieces of software in GNU/Linux. It can handle all your e-books in all the major formats, including PDF, EPUB and Mobi. It supports up to thirty ...

by Gary Richmond – 6/15/2012

end users

Things You Didn't Know You Could do with the Gwenview Image Viewer

Gwenview is the default image viewer for the KDE desktop. Out of the box it's good looking but nothing obviously exceptional. Except for two things: Phonon and plugins. That combination really does ma ...

by Gary Richmond – 6/12/2012

end users

Running Chrome with less memory: disable extensions

In my last article on Chromium I explained how to add a command switch to the desktop icon's launcher tab to add a Purge Memory button to the task Manager. Browsers need memory, like memory and in fac ...

by Gary Richmond – 6/11/2012

end users

Dashboard Plugin: A better way to search, find and open files in Gedit (Part Two)

In Part One about Gedit I covered three neat plugins to make it more productive and user friendly. More recently, I discovered another plugin that I simply couldn't ignore. The good news is that it re ...

by Gary Richmond – 6/5/2012

end users

Instant Web Galleries on Your Server with Bizou

So, you just got back from a trip, and you have tons of photos you want to share with the world. While there are dozens of photo sharing services to choose from, uploading megabytes of photos doesn't ...

by Dmitri Popov – 5/31/2012

end users

Improve Gedit with three Extra Plugins (Part One)

The first thing you should always do after installing software (apart from viewing the manpages) is to check and see if it supports plugins. If you are not a programmer or hacker it really is the easi ...

by Gary Richmond – 5/29/2012

end users

Burning a Data CD/DVD with Nautilus

Despite the rise of USB sticks for data storage and booting GNU/Linux distros, there's still a place for the humble writeable CD and DVD. Most readers, including me, probably fire up a big hitter like ...

by Gary Richmond – 5/28/2012

end users

Help create a new free standard, by funding a great Kickstarter project!

As part of a project to create a non-DRM fixed media standard for high-definition video releases, Terry Hancock has launched a Kickstarter campaign which will produce two Lib-Ray video titles and play ...

by Tony Mobily – 5/27/2012

end users

How to install Speed Dials in Firefox -- and how to back them up

When Opera invented "speed dials", they quickly became an important wish list item in all other browsers. Speed dials allow you to visually "see" (via screenshots) a list of most recently visited web ...

by Gary Richmond – 5/23/2012

end users

Basics of mapping with KML

Two of the most useful free (as in beer) software applications from Google are Google Earth, which runs on your computer, and Google Maps, which runs as a Web service. You can use both Google Earth an ...

by Bob Mesibov – 5/21/2012

end users

DRM books need to disappear. NOW. (Or, my horrific experience with www.kalahari.com)

DRM turned a 10 minute purchase into a 2 and a half nightmare (and counting). I wanted to buy a book: I ended up in a journey which made it dead clear that in a sane world, there is absolutely no spac ...

by Tony Mobily – 5/17/2012