March 21, 2010 | Linux/Unix

As I mentioned in a article on Ubuntu Boot CD images, there’s a new boot CD image every day because the new version is being tested out. When the new version is finally released, work starts on version next, and daily builds start to come out again.

The problem is downloading a new 700MB file daily seems wasteful, and that’s 21GB of download per month, which your ISP may or may not like.

The solution is zsync, a binary file sychronization program. Read on to find out how it works.

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March 16, 2010 | Linux/Unix

Ubuntu’s getting ready to release the next version of it’s open-source operating system. The current version is Karmic Koala (9.10, released October 2009), and the next version will be Lucid Lynx (version 10.04, to be released April 2010).

Here’s how to create a boot CD.

This’ll let you try the OS just by rebooting and without installing anything on your computer.

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March 3, 2010 | Linux/Unix

Chromium is the open-source version of the Google Chrome web browser. It excludes some of the URL-tracking stuff in Chrome.

Here’s how to install it on Ubuntu.

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February 22, 2010 | Linux/Unix

The Ubuntu Panel is a system panel that appears at the top of the screen in Ubuntu. Unlike Windows, Ubuntu has two panels: one on top, and one on the bottom.

I have the top panel set to auto-hide. But, the other day, it hung for some reason. Here’s how to fix it.

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January 11, 2010 | Linux/Unix

Mads Rosendahl created a great little video explaing the Ubuntu release schedule in very simple terms. Ubuntu Release Schedule One thing I didn’t know was that, according to the video, if an Ubuntu release is delayed, it’s year-month version (like 9.10 for Ubuntu Karmic released in October 2009), is also changed. I had been under [...]

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December 27, 2009 | HowTo, Linux/Unix, Power User

Some reasons you might want to lowercase your filenames include: 1. Most webservers are case-sensitive. Because of this, most websites stick to the rule of having all files in a single case, namely lower. 2. If you’re using the command line to manipulate files, it’s easier when all the files are lower case. It’s a [...]

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November 28, 2009 | Linux/Unix, News

The Ubuntu Linux distribution is dropping the GIMP graphics program from its installation CD. While it won’t be installed on fresh installations, the program will be able to be installed via Ubuntu Software Center. Users who have the GIMP installed will continue to have it installed after future Ubuntu upgrades. This move had generated quite [...]

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November 26, 2009 | Linux/Unix, News

KDE is undergoing a marketing exercise in renaming itself and its various products: The phrase “K Desktop Environment” won’t be used KDE means the community and an overarching brand Various KDE products’ new names: KDE Plasma Desktop and KDE Plasma Netbook KDE technologies become the KDE Platform The KDE Applications remain the same KDE 4.3 [...]

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November 23, 2009 | Linux/Unix, News

The latest release of Ubuntu, the easy-to-use Linux distribution, is out. With a version number of 9.10 (which stands for October, 2009), it’s code-named Karmic Koala. Some features of the new release include: The Ubuntu Software Center. This is an application that replaces the old Application Add/Remove. It’s nice for browsing available software, and you [...]

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November 21, 2009 | Linux/Unix, Power User

I talked yesterday on how RedHat made a change to Fedora 12 to allow normal users to install any piece of (signed) software from the Fedora repositories without a root password. Slashdot reports that RedHat reversed the policy after an onslaught of community criticism. Owen Taylor (longtime employee of RedHat) made what seems to me [...]

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