To save money, I cobbled together a computer for my mother out of cast-offs left over from my own upgrades. She doesn't need a cutting-edge computer because she's not a power user, but she does need a reliable machine to run a few basic applications and to access the Internet. I moved my mother from Windows to Ubuntu Linux, and the experience was a surprisingly smooth one.

We all know that when you simply delete a file it's possible to recover it later. Sometimes this is useful, if you accidentally delete something important; but most of the time this is a problem, and you really want that file gone forever. This howto will explain how to delete a file in linux securely and permanently, so it can never be recovered.

Ubuntu seems to be the latest, greatest thing in the world of operating systems. The creators of Ubuntu have done some good things in terms of making Linux easier to use and in providing guidance for Linux newbs. But with newbs you bring ignorance, and there are a couple things I’ve been seeing that are kind of ridiculous.

Last year, Dell began offering Ubuntu on non-corporate desktops and laptops... With this offering came a lot of discussion over what Dell should include with each computer sold... comments ran the gamut from FOSS purity to legal questions to even questioning Dell's motives. Clearly the FOSS community is pulled in all directions trying to satisfy users. Is there any happy medium? Can the community balance the requests of purists and pragmatists and still release usable products?

This is a look at the fourth Alpha release of Hardy; including many of the applications that are now included by default and the major changes that will improve stability and usability. Among these are the addition of Firefox 3 and Remote Desktop on the applications side, and a new method for systems control known as Policy Kit, which enables the administrator to unlock certain functions for normal users.

Ubuntu is one of the widely used GNU OS which is considered as Newbie friendly . But still there are few things to work .. Here is a small/quick guide that will let you enable Playback for any type of Audio/Video files.. Since most users get baffled after they fail to play media files. So I thought of posting a guide which will let you play every Media files like DivX,Real Media,AC3,MPEG4 to name a few .. So lets get started .

One of the reasons free operating systems are so great is because of their bug reporting features. Ubuntu is no exception. Like most other GNU/Linux operating systems, Ubuntu allows users to file bug reports using its bug reporting site, Launchpad. In the free software world, each user becomes a potential beta tester and gets the chance to contribute to the community without ever coding or writing documentation. Unfortunately, Launchpad’s bug reporting tool often scares away users who have no idea what a ticket, project, or distribution is.

This Ubuntu application adds actions to the corners of the screen in GNOME, such as switching virtual desktops and controlling the volume. You can even enable the screensaver and control the screen brightness on your laptop.