When you power on your computer, the first software that runs is a bootloader that invokes the computer's operating system. GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader, is an integral part of many Linux systems. It starts the Linux kernel. Here's some background on GRUB, and some tips on installing and configuring the software.

A news aggregator eliminates the need for surfing the Web as much. Instead of going to all the Web pages you have bookmarked to read your favorite blogs, news, or media presentations, you can simply add an RSS/RDF or Atom syndication format to Liferea and have all the news feeds at your command.

I was discussing VNC this afternoon with some students and the question came up on how to secure VNC. As you may have noticed most network protocols do not have much for built in security. Many rely on other programs for their network security needs, such as ssh. This is also the case with VNC.

Traditional weather reports will give notice of vague forecasts and severe weather alerts in your general area. The code and tools presented in this article will allow you to create precise detection zones so you can receive a page, SMS, or e-mail a few minutes before a precipitation event is likely to occur at the monitored location.

Yesterday, Apple computer released Safari for windows, proving that the company does have the desire to expand their enterprise and myriad programs to other platforms. However, they so far have neglected the Linux user. Will apple release iTunes for Linux? Not anytime soon. So what solutions does the open source community have?

People have been arguing about which Linux desktop environment is better for years. However, we need a "rational" way to decide. So, I've put together a list of things to compare the two.

Ubuntu does not come with a graphical tool to disable services. The Boot-Up-Manager (BUM) is the most comprehensive and user-friendly tool for Ubuntu.

While GNOME registry size isn't nowhere near the size of Windows registry, and thus shouldn't slow your computer too much, it's still nice to have a tool that cleans unused and obsolete entries.