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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Explore related content: boot CD, file synchronization, image file, ISO, rsync, synchronization, Ubuntu, zsync

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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Explore related content: boot CD, Brasero, burn CD, ISO, Karmic, live CD, Lucid, releases, Ubuntu

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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February 21, 2010 | Software and Downloads

gEdit is the main text editor for the default desktop environment in Ubuntu. It’s also available on Windows and Mac. It can open multiple files in tabs in a single window. I often have tens of files open when working on a project. It’s a pain to have to open every single file again when switching projects.

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February 18, 2010 | Software and Downloads

Here’s a neat little application that makes a picture of your mouse movements as you use your computer. It’s sort of hokey, but I guess you could use it to track how people use your website.

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Explore related content: Anatoly Zenkov, GUI, Java, Linux, Mac, MousePath, software, Ubuntu, UI, user interface, Windows

February 12, 2010 | Windows

There are reports that Microsoft’s latest update for Windows XP is crashing a lot of users’ computers. When you apply the patch and reboot, Windows says: “A problem has been detected and Windows has been shutdown to prevent damage to your computer.”

Here’s the procedure to uninstall the patch so you boot again.

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January 16, 2010 | HowTo

Earlier this year, X.org made a boneheaded move to drop the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace key combination as a default for killing the X Server. Huh? The X Server is the part of a Linux operating environment that provides graphics. Once in a while it may lock up, usually due to bad drivers. Other times programs just happen [...]

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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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