Mandriva Linux 2011 RC1 Disk Images are Available to Download!

Mandriva is a German based GNU/Linux distribution that from the beginning was drifted towards the Qt written awesome KDE desktop rather than Gnome. Although the first versions used to come with an installer GUI written GTK but I actually haven't  tried it in a while so it could be changed by now.But the thing is, even at that time where I used RedHat as my primary OS and those were the days where I was a bit new GNU/Linux (still learning) and...

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How to Install Virtualbox 4.0.10 in Ubuntu 11.04/10.10?

Oracle, the developer behind the highly stable (and popular) cross-platform virtualizer called Virtualbox has released a new version few days ago which makes it now the 4.0.10 version. As any other durable virtualization utility, using this powerful app, as long as you have the Memory (RAM), CPU power and the HDD space... sky is the limit ;-).Anyhow, as always this maintenance release brings few new improvements rather than features such as...

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Wanna an Oxygen KDE Theme for Your Firefox Web Browser?

The Qt written (the GUI actually) gorgeous looking KDE desktop went through a lot of changes with the introduction of the version 4 some time ago. In the past KDE came with daunting amounts of options and a huge right-click menu ;-), etc but with the KDE4... I personally think the developers have done an extremely good job by reducing some features thus the desktop in general looks much more polished and simple as well.Anyhow, as mentioned above...

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Ubuntu One Files - The Official Android App for Ubuntu Cloud!

Some actually kinda like the idea of cloud computing but every time I heard about it... it makes me feel a bit scared :/. I really don't like the idea of storing my personal files in someone else's server. It doesn't matter anymore whether the cloud computing or the storage, etc strategies are risky ... many people have accepted that thus the rest is give a very little chance resist or to go with the flow which is a bit sad.But, if you happened to...

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Vagalume - The Last.fm Music Client GUI (GTK+) for GNU/Linux!

For those of you who haven't heard of Last.fm (highly unlikely ;-)), it's one of the biggest online music streaming source in the world. Although not just a free music source but it's actually more than that since they have a database that holds thousands or millions of album-data such as artist, year, album name, etc which is used to "fetch" missing data in your local audio files by many audio players for GNU/Linux such as Clementine, Banshee, etc...

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How To Install Nvidia 275.09.07 Driver in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot & 12.04?

Installing the proper VGA driver in GNU/Linux is not the most easiest (not user friendly is the best word I guess) thing. This is because, usually you have to get the Kernel-source code and then get the driver from the vendor, change the run-level and finally you'll have to let the driver to build the Kernel modules (loadable "plugins")... which is kind of a long process. Although I'm not entirely sure about if there's a PPA available for ATI but...

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traGtor - ffmpeg Encoder GUI for GNU/Linux (one of the best!)

I maybe wrong on this one but I think the origin of the Qt written KDE desktop actually comes from the German programmers. But the point is for good or worse..., unlike with Gnome, KDE has a philosophy that make sure the desktop and almost all the other applications come with a lot of options/features by default.This was visible from the birth of KDE. But then again the reason for all those features is actually has nothing to do with the toolkit...

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How To Install Instantbird (IM Client) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

Are you addicted to Internet Messaging so much that your mom has to IM you whenever the dinner is ready? (just kidding, so it in a movie :D). Anyhow, if you use GNU/Linux as your primary operating system and use a lot of IM clients such as AIM, MSN, Jabber, etc nonetheless, then other than using application after application for each IM client protocol... shouldn't you be be using an IM clients that supports various protocols by default thus you...

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The Importance of Running Applications Using Command-Line Interface in GNU/Linux

These days you certainly don't have to rely on the GNU/Linux command-line interface that much even though it's the foundation of the entire operating system. This is because nowadays we have powerful GUI tools written in various toolkits such as GTK+/Qt, etc which makes the life of a someone who's even new to GNU/Linux much more "comfortable" without a doubt. But quite ironically, many users, beside all those excellent package manager GUIs, etc still...

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Canonical Store Launches a Neoprene Laptop Sleeve!

Canonical, unlike any other Linux distribution uses a lot of ways to promote their operating system, Ubuntu. At their store now we have Mugs, Ubuntu T-shirts, Ubuntu Mouse and USB pen drives, etc. Although I'm not sure when they launched this (it has to be done very recently since it says "New Item", still) but now they even have an official Laptop Sleeve available for purchasing!.This is actually a pretty cool move since Laptops, Tablet PC's and...

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How to Install Orta Theme Pack in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Natty Narwhal?

Gnome desktop is well known for its simplicity but some (including me) finds it too simple because when it comes to customizing the desktop according to your preference easily... well I've got two words for ya... "good luck", cause you're gonna need it. Lets forget the other aspects of the desktop... but they don't even give you the ability to change the colours of the themes (title bars, buttons, fonts, etc) for instance because some core developers...

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How to Install Parole in Ubuntu (a GTK+ Written Media Player for GNU/Linux)

Although Totem media player (actually a front-end for the Gstreamer - multimedia framework) is widely in use because of its ease of use and clean GUI... but I don't think the more experienced GNU/Linux users will be using it all the time because it certainly lack a lot of features (advanced options such as - fixing audio/video syncing related issues, add video effects, etc). But as said for everyday use ... the GUI is impressively "clean" and many...

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"We're Done With Linux", Says Nokia

Nokia the mobile phone giant is having some troubles at the moment (well it's been a while now for them, and many "others" included) without a doubt. It's said that this year along (so far) Nokia's stock price is reduced by more than 40%! which obviously raises concerns, which is apparent.Anyway, in a recent interview with Helsingin Sanomat (magazine), Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop said that ..."I have talked a lot about how we increase our staff’s accountability,...

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Muon Suite 1.2 Beta 2 is Out (Qt Written Package Manager for Kubuntu 11.04 +)

Since I've written about Muon Suite before I won't be going into all the details all over again. Anyhow for those of you who are new to Muon (well we all are in a way, lol), it is a package manager GUI written using the Qt toolkit (owned by Nokia corporations) aimed at the Kubuntu/KDE Linux desktop.It's actually becoming apparent that why Kubuntu team "invented" this package manager because the current package manager GUI when compared with the Ubuntu...

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How to Install Firefox 5 in Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10 ?

Unless you want to get the all new "Unity desktop" or the latest versions of the GNU/Linux Kernel and other applications easily... no one has to abandon their, now the bit "old" Ubuntu 10.04 or 10.10 versions. On the other hand if you slightly older PC/Laptop hardware (especially the GPU or the VGA card) and don't want a computer that finds its hard to keep up with the OS, yes you'll be better off with those "old" Ubuntu Linux versions.Unlike with...

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paprefs - An App to Configure PulseAudio Preferences in Ubuntu Linux Easily (GUI)

When it comes to computing there are main two types of programs. One type is the software applications that operates with the hardware devices (which are "invisible" to the PC users) and then there's the other kind which works with the users which are usually GUI such as Totem, Office suit, mail-clients, etc.But there is also another type of applications which fall in between the two of the above types. They actually act as the "middle-man" between...

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Install CPU-Fire Applet in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

Although we have several applets for managing and displaying the CPU usage in GNU/Linux (Gnome desktop specifically). But almost all of them use the same boring "standard" methods such as bars, etc while displaying the CPU usage :/. For a change, would you like to have an applet (a small application/plugin which uses the already existing desktop environment such as Gnome or Qt-KDE, etc) that displays "fires" as a way of resembling the CPU usage!....

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Ekoore - The Ubuntu Linux 11.04 Powered Tablet PC Series!

Although we have the MeeGo powered WeTab Tablet PC which also supports GNU/Linux in general (obviously) but the latest news is that an Italian based manufactured called Ekoore has released a series of Tablet PCs that come pre-installed Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by default!. Although I said a "series" of products, actually you can choose between two Tablet PC models called Drake and ET10TA. And unlike with others (such as the WeTab) Ekoore does allow...

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How to Make Gnome Desktop Automatically Change the Wallpaper?

Despite all the criticisms against it, still the one of the oldest parts of the GNU, the GTK+ written (now uses the GTK3+ toolkit with the Gnome 3) Gnome is one of the most popular choices among the GNU/Linux users when it comes to the desktop. The GUI is extremely simplified thus it's pretty easy to learn to use it (especially if you're coming from the Mac OSX environment :D) but as mentioned, most of the time we'll have to depend on "external"...

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DeVeDe - An Excellent DVD/SVCD/Divx Video Disk Creator for GNU/Linux!

Well, VCD had their days. Now it's the era of DVDs, Blue-ray disks and also the extremely popular low bitrate optimised Xvid and Divx codecs/players as well :D. Not as a user who enjoys watching them, but as a video disk author, as always with GNU/Linux, it's still a bit hard to find applications that lets you easily create DVD or VDC, etc videos. But if you search in the proper place there's always "that" which fits :D. In that instance, there is...

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How to Install Geeqie (Image Viewer) in Ubuntu Linux 11.04?

Geeqie is a powerful image viewer for Gnome desktop written in GTK+ tookit. Although it does come with lot of options and features but I find that GUI to be a bit confusing. For instance, to your left it shows the folders and the image thumbnails (which can be customised, sort, etc) and to the right is the actual image viewer. But for some reason, still the interface when comparing with others such as gThumb or F-Spot for example is not that user-friendly...

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No More Synaptic (package manager) in Ubuntu Linux 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot!

The days are gone where people used to think that GNU/Linux has the "ability" to scare away the newbie :) yet when it comes to doing certain things, GNU/Linux can still be a bit hard to "tolerate". But the rest assured, thanks to the hard work of the developers and the users... nowadays, it is very user friendly.But as said, there are certain aspects (installing/uninstalling applications) where you might get you into trouble. In the old days there...

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