Pimp Your Linux

A fresh install of Ubuntu reveals a polished desktop, and a well thought out layout. Unfortunately, a fresh install of Ubuntu lacks many programs, especially for people that are used to using their computer as a multi-media machine. In this article, I will show you the first thing that should be done after installing ubuntu. In many of my other articles on pimpyourlinux, I’ve mentioned how to install multi media codecs, but fortunately, there is an application that will not only install support for MP3’s, but also the latest popular movie codecs. Whether you use the codecs for your ipod, or for your backups, this applications will get you started on making your ubuntu install a multi media machine!

Check out how to install it here .

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A trend that seems to be popular these days is the ability to search for files and media on your computer in real time.Apple was one of the first major operating systems to jump on the band wagon with it’s nifty tool, Spotlight.

Searching your desktop now can be achieved at lightning speeds by using databases to store all of the information about your files on your computer. The major draw back to programs such as Google desktop, and spotlight, is that it has to index your computer.

Indexing places all of the metadata (or information about your files) into a giant database. This can prove time consuming, and in some cases, can even clutter up your hard drive. However, there are some great advantages too. Instead of just searching for the name of a file, these new search engines can actually traverse through the content of a file, even if it’s a pdf, or a word document. Software developers can also write plugins to let the search engine see the inner content of their files.

Check out how to install Google Desktop for Linux.

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If you are just starting out with linux, and have no idea how to uncompress a gzip file, or do other simple commands, check this out. It will improve your speed with the Linux operating system. If you have some tips and tricks of your own, please stop by our forums, and post them in the general discussion area.

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You’ve downloaded and installed Linux, but now you realize that you can’t play movies on it! In some countries playing DVD files through DEcss is illegal, so in many cases Linux distributions choose not to let you watch DVD’s right out of the box.As well, you’ll notice that your favorite codec might not be installed on a fresh distro. This article will show you how to not only get your DVD player working in Ubuntu, but also how to get your favorite codecs. Did you know that it’s possible to watch windows media files in Linux? iPod videos that are encoded in h264 can also be viewed, and encoded. Let’s get started on making your Linux distribution a Movie machine.

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So you’ve installed Linux on a separate partition on your hard drive. You’ve probably noticed that you can see your Windows XP hard drive, but why can’t you write to it? Odds are, you are using Windows XP, the majority of the internet is. The problem with most Linux distributions is that they don’t come with support for writing to Windows XP’s NTFS partitions. Check out my article here about how to get Linux reading and writing to your Windows XP drive, and how to get Windows XP to read/write to your Linux drive.

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Perhaps your company is just switching to Linux, to save on costs. Or, maybe you’re starting University, and you have no idea how to get around the Linux Systems they’ve just installed. Or if you’re like me, you’re curious about how Linux works, and you have it installed at home. Either way, if you are interested in working with the terminal, and using common admin commands, this is the right place for you. Below are the top 10 commands for the Absolute Newbie administrators. Remember, if this is the first time you’ve used one of these commands, you can simply type “man” then the name of the program to get help on each of these commands. Click here to read the top 25 commands.

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Are you interested in moving to Linux, but have no idea how the terminal works? Are you used to commands like “dir” in dos, but have no idea how to do them in Linux? Well, then this is the site for you. If you’ve just started University Computing Science, or if you’ve just started Linux on your job, this is a great guide to get you started with the basic commands. Click here to find out more.

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It’s common knowledge that in windows there are several keyboard shortcuts that will make your life easier, such as the control-alt-delete command. But did you know that Linux has a myriad commands at your disposal? Check out the top 10 most useful Linux shortcuts here, and start making your day more productive.

If you have any great shortcuts, post on our forums to help our members, and the community grow.

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Using Linux, especially for the first time, can prove to be very difficult. Check out our top 5 Linux tricks for newbies, and spread the word. If you have any cool tricks up your sleeve, post them on our Forums, we’d love to hear from you.

Find out how you can be more productive in linux, check out our top 5 linux tricks here .

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Monday at the WWDC Steve Jobs announced that Safari would be ported to Windows. Many people in the audience found this more shocking than the new features offered in the leopard operating system. The reasons behind the port still remain unclear. However technical bloggers everywhere point out that Safari on Windows will act as a Trojan horse, producing a safari halo effect that will draw more Microsoft users to the Macintosh environment.Apple would also like to boost their browser market share. Just last year Firefox made millions of dollars on user Google searches. If you are running Firefox right now, you’ll notice that in the upper right hand corner, there is a search box. Most of us thought that this was out of convenience for the user, but in reality, the Firefox team gets a cut every time a user does a search through their browser. It is no wonder that the default homepage in Firefox is a Google search box.

Firefox is offered across all 3 platforms, what is stopping Safari? There are plenty of Linux users out there that use the Google search box in Firefox, and I believe that apple could make millions of dollars by releasing Safari for Linux. Click here to find out if Safari can install in Linux

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