The Linux desktop comes with a variety of multimedia players, such as Xine, MPlayer, and Amarok. Yet all digital media players are only as good as the files they have to work with, and preparing those files requires the best tag editor you can find. I checked out half a dozen of the more popular and stable graphical ID3 tag editors available for Linux.

Using the built-in heading styles in your Writer document means that OOo can handle the styling automatically for you and also you can generate tables of contents and more with the built-in tools. Note that this tip assumes that all your headings are set up in this way.

With diff-ext, GNOME users can compare and merge files from within Nautilus. If, instead, you use KDE 3, try out kdiff-ext from the same site, which works with Konqueror. Each utility handles paths to files and directories and invokes an external diff tool to perform the grunt work.

The Linux blogosphere was buzzing last week with chatter about an article that asked who the top 10 geeks of all time are. Topping the list was Linus Torvalds, and notably absent were both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs -- omissions that sparked significant discussion.

Mention Jimmy Wales and you automatically think Wikipedia; however, that is not his only love child. The Wikia search engine is his latest offspring; or least it was when it was launched in January 2008. Wikia has been devised as a free software and open source alternative to Google and othersNow.

Linus Torvalds is known, rightly so, as the creator of the Linux kernel. What began as his own hobby project now powers major data centres, enabled the netbook market to exist, and has given rise to many a user group install-fest. It's no wonder his opinion is canvassed regularly but the answer may not always be what you expect. Here are some of the best and most defining.

Basically anything you will want to do in terms of media is available through Mythbuntu. Once I hooked it up to my network I immediately had movie, music, etc. off the Internet. I cannot emphasize how easy to set up it was.