English — OpenDNS – Windows and *nix

Due to relatively recent security scares with DNS servers I switched to OpenDNS, which is a great free to use service providing increased functionality for the user when using DNS servers.

English — Build A Real Time Audio Studio

Linux is a fantastic platform for audio production. Find out how to build the perfect production environment.

English — Tutorial: Boot Linux Over A Network

Configure your Linux installation, or get a broken system up and running without the need for optical discs and other hardware.

English — The Future Of Gnome DE Looks Promising

One thing we have learned from KDE4 is that its not a good idea to make drastic change to a desktop environment that the users have been used to for a long time. Hopefully the Gnome developers will keep that in mind as they work on Gnome 3.0 release for next year. Gnome is known for making subtle incremental changes instead of doing major overhaul, but the changes they have planned for Gnome 3 is much bigger than we have come to expect from Gnome.

English — Modify xorg.conf for better performance

Most distributions configure your graphics card and display automatically, but xorg.conf is still well worth fiddling with. It's a text file that contains all the configurations details required by the X server to deliver a graphical display and provide a connection between your keyboard, your mouse, and the computer. Read on to understand how xorg.conf works, tweak it for maximum performance and add functionality.



In many ways, xorg.conf sits on the surface of your installation like the broken walls of some lost building on an archaeological site. The file contains the last vestiges of what was once a complex and convoluted configuration file, using a syntax and language from a time gone by. Over the years, those old structures have been removed, rebuilt, subverted, tweaked and squeezed through several generations of users, distros and hardware. It has finally got to the point where many modern distributions (such as Fedora 10) eschew xorg.conf completely, taking advantage of the automatic configuration hidden within the newer versions of X.org.

English — Ubuntu installed in 6 mintues and booting in 15 to 20 seconds

Ubuntu installed in 6 mintues and booting in 15 to 20 seconds

-------------------------------------------------------------



Ubuntu 9.04 continues to amaze.



Got a Quad Core with 10,000 RPM Raptor SATA drive.

Installed Ubuntu in 6 - 7 minutes.

(From pressing install button to booting up and displaying a web

page from the real internet in firefox)



Installation was from an ext2 formatted SD Card!! (Details

of how to make one enclosed below.)



Boot time is 15 to 20 seconds (thats including typing in the username

and password).



Installing additional software like KDE and compiz pushes

the boot time out to 30 seconds.

English — Gnome Terminal profile scripts

Hi all,



I'd like to publish two Python scripts I've written to enhance the

usability of gnome-terminal. These scripts allow you to create a pull

down menu in the gnome-panel with gnome-terminal sessions.



- gnome-terminal-menu.py adds all the defined Gnome Terminal sessions to

the Gnome menu.



- gnome-terminal-new-profile.py creates a new Gnome Terminal session to

start a SSH connection to the supplied parameter. ie:

gnome-terminal-new-profile.py server.gnome.nl creates a new session

which connects to server.gnome.nl.



The new gnome menu (directory) can be added to the gnome-panel to allow

quick connect by choosing "add to panel", "copy launcher from menu",

click "gnome-terminal" and press Add.



Please let me know if you found this usefull.



greetings,

Dick

English — Delete Unnecessary Files From Your Desktop With BleachBit On Ubuntu 9.04

This guide shows how you can install and use BleachBit on an Ubuntu 9.04 desktop to delete unnecessary files. BleachBit deletes unnecessary files (such as cache, cookies, Internet history, localizations, logs, temporary files, and broken shortcuts) to free valuable disk space, maintain privacy, and remove junk. It wipes clean Adobe Reader, APT, Bash, Beagle, Chromium, Epiphany, Firefox, Flash, GIMP, Google Earth, Java, KDE, OpenOffice.org, Opera, RealPlayer, Second Life viewer, Skype, VIM, XChat, Yum, and more.



I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

English — Xubuntu 9.04 vs Debian 5.0.1 Xfce

Yes, it's Ubuntu release week and yes, we'll be looking at Ubuntu for our feature article. Instead of a review of what everyone already knows, this week I thought we'd take a look at how the newly released Xubuntu 9.04 compares to Debian Lenny with an Xfce desktop. Xfce is a desktop environment built using the GTK+ graphical libraries, similar to GNOME. Unlike GNOME however, its focus is on being lightweight. Creator Olivier Fourdan writes: "Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for various *NIX systems. Designed for productivity, it loads and executes applications fast, while conserving system resources." Xubuntu is based on Ubuntu, but instead of providing a GNOME desktop, they provide Xfce. They also include much of the functionality that its larger parent offers. Debian, on the other hand, is based on, well, itself and offers a multitude of desktop offerings, one of which is Xfce. How do the two compare?



I've played with most of the Xubuntu releases which have come out, but haven't found them as lightweight as I had hoped. Xubuntu tended to include much of the GNOME desktop applications and services to provide richer functionality, at the cost of system resources. I got my hands on an old Dell Dimension 4500 desktop machine, with an Intel 2 GHz processor and 384 MB of memory. Not the most powerful machine in the world these days, but it seemed suitable for this task.

English — Tuning for RAM nerds

If you have two or more gigabyte of RAM, then you’ve come to the right place. I’m going to show you how you can get the maximum out of your machine by a low effort.



This howto covers turning off swapping, shrinking caches as well as creating temporary file systems for faster access.