now that I'm back in gOS, I needed to reset the clock to UTC. I'm perfectly capable of opening a terminal and using the command line to set the clock, but I can't believe that the casual, new-to-Linux user with gOS has no other way to set the time. No GUI, big problem.

You may find our Python alarm clock too geeky or complicated, so I thought I should share with you an easier way to use your Linux desktop (particularly Ubuntu and other GNOME-based distributions) as alarm clock.

Say you want to write a small shell script that locks up your GNOME desktop at specific intervals. What command would you use? In this case, your best bet would be gnome-screensaver-command –lock This has the same effect as you pushing the Lock Screen button in GNOME. You can forge a small shellscript and use this to lock up your desktop when someone launches an application.

The GNOME 3 edition features the latest release of the GNOME 3, which is GNOME 3.8. While the default GNOME Shell is still the same that I’m not a very big fan of, there are some useful and very user-friendly features that factor nicely into my desktop computing needs. The calendar is not one of those features I like, but the clock, me likes!

One of the visual improvements in this new version of Ubuntu is on the clock that sits on the Gnome panel. It now shows much more information. Apart from time and date, it now shows the weather conditions for your current location. It was disappointing to see that Xubuntu didn’t have it by default, so I have written a very easy and small guide on how to install it in Xubuntu.

Although a command line isn't a necessity anymore in modern desktop Linux distributions, there are many situations where it's still the most efficient way to perform and automate tasks. One good solution is an alternative terminal application for GNOME called Terminator.

Admit it. You enjoy using the command line in Linux. You only have a graphical interface so people in the office don't look at you strangely. So why not embed a terminal window into the Gnome desktop and have a soothing desktop picture and the power of the command line all at once?

Several months ago, I posted here a rather geeky tip on how to turn your Linux box into an alarm clock using a Python script. This time, I’ll keep it simple by showing to you some free and open-source programs that you can easily install and use to make your Linux desktop as an alternative or shall I say an improvised alarm clock.

This is a little something that everyone should have, if they even consider life at the terminal. And for a terminal system, it’s pretty cool.