Let me admit that I’m not an Ubuntu fan. This is not because that it’s getting all the limelight in the Linux world and I am a Fedora user. I don’t use it much becuase it’s too user-friendly. Yes, it’s so user-friendly that I’m not getting the fun of using Linux. No doubt after a brief stint with RedHat9 in my teens, it’s Ubuntu 6.04 which made me Linux lover again.

Thanks to FSDaily, I recently came across an excellent post regarding useful exercises for geeks[1]. What surprised me about it was that Workrave was not mentioned at all. Here I take a brief look at this great piece of free software designed with one purpose: combating repetitive strain injury (RSI).

[1]http://www.fsdaily.com/Community/12_Essential_Exercises_for_Geeks

In previous installments of the crash course, you've learned how to build a simple basket tool, a task manager, and even a word game. This time, let's take a look at how you can use the skills you picked up from those exercises to create a simple application launcher, which will allow you to start virtually any application without leaving the convenience of OpenOffice.org.

With the 3DMark patch, the games will recognize your systems pixelshader and DirectX levels, allowing you to play more games, and turn up the graphical settings on many games. You will need the following things: Wine source 3Dmark patch (0.9.58 and earlier) or 3Dmark patch (0.9.59 and higher)

Linux? That's only for geeks, right? Like its forerunner Unix it conjures up visions of terminal windows and cryptic commands. I've used Windows for decades now, and I switched to the Mac a couple of years ago. I've also watched Linux grow up, but always considered it marginal; not something the average person would use on their desktop or laptop. Until a couple of weeks ago that is.

Years ago I already played a bit with Linux (It was Redhat 5.0 on my 386). At that time I thought the operating system wasn't yet ready for the desktop and after a while I reinstalled Windows. Things changed when Ubuntu 5.04 was released. This was the first time I really enjoyed Linux; the most important things worked, it was easy and it was just great!

Without viruses and other malware, Linux is typically much harder for the average user to mess up. But if you are setting up a GNOME desktop for someone who seems to do things like delete the window list, or for public use, then you should lock down the desktop. Pessulus is a graphical lockdown editor for GNOME.

The essence of Plasma revolves around two basic concepts: Plasmoids and Containments. Plasmoids are Applets, small applications that live on the desktop. Containments are applets as well, they act as container for Plasmoids. That's it. Really. On a default desktop, there are two main elements: the Panel and the desktop itself. Both are containments in the Plasma sense.