Linux Desktop

In the last few years, this way of life has changed substantially, and Linux users are becoming less and less reliant on the command line. The command line is still there, but if you want to control and administer your computer in an entirely gra...

It is fairly common knowledge that KDE Konqueror functions as both a file manager and a browser. What you might not realize is that Konqueror can load modules that allow it to support many other protocols. Konqueror even handles the mundane protoc...

You might already be familiar with the KDE wallet system. The KDE wallet saves usernames and passwords for you so that you don't have to enter them each time you access a site that requires them. You can use the wallet to store your usernames a...

This tip involves two programs, karamba and superkaramba. The author of the original program, karamba, is Hans Karlsson (karlsson.h@home.se). The karamba project started out as a clone of a Windows program called Samurize, which displayed system ...

With modern desktop environments, starting applications is a straightforward conceptyou either click an application icon or you type in the name of a program. Simple. But if you look under the hood of this simplicity, you'll find a number of tri...

For most users, interaction with the desktop is a simple process that is limited to clicking buttons and typing things in from the keyboard. Although fine for most cases, this normal form of interaction limits what you can accomplish with an appl...

When you use KDE, do you ever find yourself having to click too many times to do a simple operation, or resort to opening up a terminal to do a task at the command line that should have been a no-brainer feature of KDE? Now you can add your own ...

This is actually a combination of code hacks that improve KDE in several ways. Some of the changes are purely cosmetic, but some enhance the usability of KDE, especially the sidebar in the Konqueror file manager and web browser. This collection o...

You can give your application windows and other on-screen elements (such as menus and dialog boxes) a really nice 3D effect if you add drop shadows to them. The active window seems to pop right out at you, and you don't even need geeky cardboard ...

System administrators typically spend a lot of their time fixing trivial problems for users who have accidentally changed their settings in some way. When an inexperienced user moves a desktop icon into the trash or sets a mime-type to open with ...

The rapid pace of development means something new or interesting is always in the development code. This hack shows you how to compile and run all the newest code in advance of official binary releases. The first thing to be aware of when you a...