1. Thou shalt not log in as root. Use “sudo” or “su -” for administrative tasks.

Recently I upgraded my mum from Windows XP to Ubuntu. I’m not the only one who has done the same thing. As many of you already know, even Dell now includes an option to have Ubuntu as the pre-installed operating system, rather than Windows.

Have you used Vista? It is like a foreign alien or something and the stupid pop-up, “Windows needs your permission”. What is pretty funny, is yes, the Mac commercial with the security guy is an accurate depiction.

If graphical synchronization tools like Toucan are not flexible enough for your needs, you might want to try Unison, an easy-to-use yet powerful synchronization utility.

Linux has come a long way in the past two years. Today much of what needs to be done on a Linux machine can be done using a mouse and a little pointing and clicking. Occasionally, however, there are things that still require a little under-the-hood tinkering, where a rudimentary understanding of the command line comes in handy.

So you are trying to drop that MS Office habit but find yourself struggling thanks in part to features missing from Open Office (Oo) such as a solid grammar check feature. As it turns out, there is a solution for Oo users looking for this kind of functionality, be it about as ‘craptacular’ as the one for MS Office.

Eight must-know Linux commands that will turn any Linux novice into an apparent command line guru. Go on. Impress your friends and family.

Free Software - joy; proprietary software - tears.