15 Tips For a Better Linux Experience
The beauty of Linux is in users ability to do large amount of customization to have a unique user expereince. So today we will look in to some tips for a “better” Linux experience. The term “better” here is relative, because what works for me might seem a distraction for some or plain annoying to others; some of this “tips” might appeal to beginners, while advanced users might find it too easy. Hopefully some of these tips will be helpful to some of you.
1) Turn on your computer remotely by sending “magic network packets” to WakeOnLan supported network cards. This can be very helpful if you run a server at home but only access it occasionally. There is no need for you to have the server running all the time.
2) If you dual boot with windows, accessing Linux file system from your windows installation might be important for you. There are three windows applications that can help you do this: Explore2fs, Ext2 Installable File System, DiskInternals Linux Reader.
3) Similarly to have read/write access for Windows NTFS file system, you can use NTFS-3G. Most recent popular Linux distribution has NTFS-3G installed out of the box.
4) Share a single mouse and keyboard with multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, with support for copy and paste. Thanks to Synergy, the most popular free KVM software switch out there.
Synergy in action.
5) Recovering data from damaged media can be handled by several Linux tools including some LiveCD, specifically built to help recover data. Parted Magic, Ubuntu Rescue Remix, SystemRescueCd, Foremost (data recovery), Ddrescue.
6) If you are a blogger like me and enjoy using desktop client over web editors, you will find these clients useful: Gnome Blog, Drivel Journal Editor, BloGTK, Thingamablog, Bleezer, QTM.
7) If you are a webdeveloper/designer, you will often find yourself testing a website across many platforms and browsers. IEs4Linux is a great painless way to check how IE browser will render your website. You could use services like browsershots, but I had mixed results with them.
8) Does your iPod miss iTunes? Here are three itunes alternative which will do most of what your iTunes would do, not an exact replacement; but does the job: Amarok, Banshee, Rhythmbox.
9) Follow multiple files by creating multiple windows in your console with the help of MultiTail, also known as tail on steroids.
10) Use Terminator to split your screen space with many terminal windows, both horizontally and vertically.
11) For even better control over your terminal display and customization and complex functions, GNU Screen is a much better choice over terminator; however terminator serves only one purpose.
12) Use RSIBreak to help prevent Repetitive Strain Injury. RSIBreak will force you to take short break, depending on your configuration, so that you don’t over-work yourself.
RSIBreak
13) If you find yourself working on a dumb terminal (hello sysadmins) or prefer working on terminals, you will find newsbeuter to be an excellent RSS reader for the console.
14) I know some will disagree with me on this, but conky is an excellent compliment to your desktop experience. If properly configured, it can add a lot of value to your desktop environment. Check out this very creative conky setup and read about it here.
15) Do you do podcasts? rootprompt has a great article with huge resources for both Linux podcasters and listeners.
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I think this is all the information that would be required to convince a Windows user to swtich ……. : -) ,……… nice list !
5) Also DVDisater - thats the one I use
6) I would recommend ScribeFire(a firefox Plugin) for this.
7) Installing VirtualBox and Windows and IE inside it will work as well - in my case it was a much better solution than Ie4Linux - if you can stand the boot time
Desktop Effects (compiz)?
I’m an editor, so sometimes I do work for free :P
You said “cronky”
While that sounds cool, I don’t think it’s what you meant.
fixed.
:)
Binny V A: You shouldn’t have any boot time if you save the system state in Virtual Box. From nothing to windows desktop in 5 seconds, with the applications I use already running.
There is so much more to add to this list but I’ll just add one since you mentioned terminals a few times: MOC, command line music player, for when you dont want to bother with x
Ever since discovering Gnome-Do, I can’t function without it.
http://do.davebsd.com/
It definitely belongs in this list.
I think an excellent iTunes replacement that i dont hear many people talk about is Floola (www.floola.com). It is cross platform (win, mac, and linux) and it is very simple and easy to use. My wife learned how to operate it in and add songs with it in about 20 seconds. Just thought it would be worth mentioning here since it wasnt on your list.
Synergy is an awesome app but it is not a KVM solution it is only a KM solution. It says so on their own website. It still is the best at what it does. Any OS and any amount of OSes all with one keyboard and mouse. Note: do not use at work unless you plan to send it through a ssh tunnel because the traffic is unencrypted.
Livecd’s are slow?
Pretty sure Puppy3.01 is under 100mb, and loads fully into ram if you have more than 256mb. Fastest OS i’ve used, and you can take the cd out after it loads.
has everything a noob/win user would need off the bat to see if linux was for the
Great article, but you forgot Songbird as an iTunes replacement :)
Still in Beta, but well worth a look as it has good iPod support!
> 1) Turn on your computer remotely by sending “magic network packets” to WakeOnLan supported network cards.
WakeOnLan is a hardware feature. If your computer is shut down, and you send a packet for it wake up, I think that when it boots, linux isn’t already magically running reading the packets.
> 14) I know some will disagree with me on this, but conky is an excellent compliment to your desktop experience.
I don’t disagree. Conky is great.
Screen is also a great utility. Well worth passing the learning curve.
Good article, I keep saying I’m going to try Linux instead of Windows XP. As it seems to be getting more and more popular
@mors yes, I know. But if you were so kind enough to read the article you would notice that it shows how to do it with linux, and it mentions right at the beginning of that article that it is a hardware feature.
Awesome tips!
#6 is my favourite!
OT but any idea if rootprompt is dead?
i used to subscribe it but the last update was from may
I switched to Ubuntu Hardy this year as I got sooo frustrated with Vista on a new notebook. I must say I’m very impressed. Thanks for the post. I Stumble you :)
The number one tip for having a happy Linux experience is not to make comparisons. Just accept it for what it is and try to do things the Linux way.
Forget about anything you have done before and prepare for a new experience, and a better one to my way of thinking. To compare Linux to Windows is regressive thinking.
It is most important to remember offers real choice and there are several ways to do many things. The only thing to do is to jump in with both feet and try to embrace something new and different.
There are new adventures daily in Linux. It is never dull or boring. If you don’t like something, then there are many more offerings from different distros, to different desktops and themes. There are multiple ways of doing things. You can master the commandline or use the GUI.
I go for the max. My Ubuntu has the Compiz cube with different wallpapers, a skydome in the background, a cap on top and bottom and maximum visual effects. I have dozen or so different desktops installed and can choose a different one for each day of the week. I have Google Gadgets or Screenlets on my desktop with RSS feeds and utilities handy. I can have a Gnome or KDE bar on top and a Mac-like AWN bar on the bottom and, if it suits me, I can have a Windows XP bar on the bottom with a Gnome or KDE bar on the top. I can run Windows applications in Gnome and can cut and paste, drag and drop and share devices between them.
I don’t say these things to brag. Each of them is available to anyone with a fairly recent system (mine is 3 years old). I want to illustrate that the only limitation is your willingness to learn and your imagination.
Thanks for the tips, but why stop at 15? The sky is the limit with Linux. It is time for people to get excited about the whole package. It is the real thing, unlike anything you may be used to. Don’t put limits on yourself and what you can do and don’t settle for second best. Use Linux, any distro and then go from there.
songbird is the perfect replacement for itunes on linux– it SYNCS!!!
“IEs4Linux is a great painless way to check how IE browser will render your website.”
It’s never painless to see IE render a webpage…