Everyday Linux User

Introduction

Over the past month or so I have been looking at classic gaming from an Everyday Linux User's point of view.

I started off by looking at retrogaming in general within Linux including the options available such as where to get games and how to set up controllers.

I followed up that article with a guide showing how to run DOS games using PlayOnLinux. The importance of using PlayOnLinux for this purpose comes into play when you also want to run classic Windows games within PlayOnlinux. Being able to play all the games you want using one application as a launchpad has to be a good thing. For those of you wanting to run DOS games using DOSBox on its own there is a guide for that as well.

Last week I wrote a review about a Linux distribution designed for gamers called Play Linux. The intentions of Play Linux are clear and that is to be the best gaming Linux distribution around.

This week has been somewhat challenging as my internet connection let me down once more. I was however afforded more time to test this week's distribution which is SparkyLinux Gameover Edition and that is the topic of today's review.

Before I start though I wanted to mention another article you might be interested in which looks at 5 of the best games emulators for Linux that I wrote for linux.about.com.

Installation

I mentioned in my previous review of SparkyLinux that the installer isn't as straight forward as some of the others that are available.

To download SparkyLinux visit http://sparkylinux.org/download/.

The GameOver edition of SparkyLinux is 3.8 gigabytes in size so If you have a poor internet connection you can always buy a DVD or USB drive with SparkyLinux pre-installed.

The SparkyLinux website has a full installation guide available at http://sparkylinux.org/hard-drive-install/

First Impressions

SparkyLinux Gameover Edition uses a basic LXDE setup and the whole distribution is geared towards games with no frills and spills for anything else.

There is the standard LXDE panel at the bottom with a menu, the ability to switch between virtual desktops and icons for setting up bluetooth, wireless networks, audio settings and the all important clock. (Actually the clock is very important because you can easily lose track of time. I was up until 1 a.m the other day playing Sensible Soccer).

On the right side of the screen a list of useful metrics are displayed via the Conky interface. CPU usage and memory usage are probably the most useful pieces of information.

At the top of the screen is another LXDE panel with icons to key games, Steam, PlayOnLinux, DOSbox and a number of different games emulators.

Connecting To The Internet

Let's get the standard review features out of the way first.

To connect to a wired or wireless network click on the network icon in the system tray and choose the network you wish to connect to and enter the security key if required.

Flash and MP3

As with the Razor-QT version of SparkyLinux, Flash works without a hitch and MP3s are playable with no extra steps required.

Applications

In this section I would normally list all the applications for a distribution but with the Gameover edition it isn't possible. I will try and cover as much as possible though.

Accessories

Conky (Displays system settings)
PCManFM (File Manager
Sparky Screenshot (Screengrabber)
USB Image Writer (Writes ISO images to USB drives)
USB Stick Formatter (Formats USB drives)
XFBurn (Burn images and audio to disk)
XArchiver (Zip file management)

Graphics

Camorama (Webcam viewer)
ImageMagick (Image editing)
XPDF (PDF viewer)

Internet

Dropbox (Online file storage)
Iceweasel (Web browser)
Pidgin (Instant messenger)
Transmission (Bittorrent client)
uget (Download management)

Sound and Video

Radiotray
VLC Media Player

Games

0 A.D, 3D Chess
Airstrike, Alien Blaster, Amphetamine, Armagetron Advanced, Ascii Jump, Asylum, Atomix
Balder 2D, Barrage, Battle For Wesnoth, Battle Tanks, Berusky, Billiard-GL, Biniax 2, Black Box, Blobby Volley 2, Bloboats, Blow Wars, Blockout 2, Brain Party, Bygfoot
Chess, Chromium BSU
DesMuMe (Nintendo DS Emulator), Desura, Dosbox (DOS Emulator)
Einstein, Extreme Tux Racer
Five or more, Flare, FooBilliard, Four in a row, Freecraft, Freedroid, Frozen Bubble, Funny Boat
Gnome Video Arcade (GUI for MAME), Gnubik, Gnugo, GTKAtlantic, Gunroar,
Hearts, Holding Nuts
Iagno, I have no tomatoes
Klotski
LBreakout 2, Lights Off, Liquid War, LTris
Maelstrom, Mahjongg, Mastermind, Megaglest, Mines, Minestest, Mokomaze, Monsterz, Moonlander
Nestopia (NES Emulator), Netpanzer, Neverputt, Neverball, Nibbles
OpenArena
PCSX (Playstation Emulator), Performous, Pingus, PlayOnLinux (GUI for WINE)
Quadrapassel
Robots
Scorched 3D, Secret Maryo Chronicles, Slime Volley, Snake 4, Snowballz, STEAM, Stella, Sudoku, SuperTux, SuperTuxKart, Swell Foop
Tali, Teeworld, Tennix, Tetravex, Tetzle, Transcend
Virtualboy Advance (Gameboy Advance Emulator)
Warzone 2100, Widelands
XMoto
Yabause (Sega Saturn Emulator)
Zaz, ZSNES

This distribution is aimed at gaming and therefore other than games and emulators there isn't all that much to SparkyLinux. There are no office applications, so you can't even be tempted to do any work and the graphics, audio and video applications are kept to the bare minimum.

I like the fact that Radiotray was included. Radiotray lets you choose to listen to a large number of online web radio stations by choosing them from a menu linked to the LXDE panel.

Steam is obviously included, as is PlayOnLinux. Last week when I reviewed Play Linux I suggested that maybe there wasn't enough to make it stand out on its own as yet but the Gameover Edition of SparkyLinux cannot be accused of the same thing.

There are games in the bucket full including a whole host of Linux specific titles such as Battle For Wesnoth, SuperTux and SuperTuxKart.

There are emulators available for most of the best games consoles from the past 30 years although there are some notable exceptions such as a Nintendo 64 emulator.

For those of you who like really old games there is Stella which emulates the Atari 2600.

ZSnes is a games emulator for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Nestopia is a games emulator for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

Videoboy Advance is a Gameboy Advance emulator. As well as allowing you to play Gameboy Advance games you can also run Gameboy Colour and standard Gameboy games as well.

The screenshot above is for Manic Miner which was excellently updated for the Gameboy Advance. If you want to emulate DS games there is DesMuMe.

The Yabause emulator lets you play Sega Saturn games but as you can see from the image above the results aren't always perfect. SparkyLinux lacks an emulator for Sega Mastersystem, Megadrive, Genesis and Gamegear games. To be honest there aren't that many good Sega emulators out there. My own personal preference is Kega Fusion.

For Playstation fans there is the PCSX emulator which works reasonably well although there is the odd glitch.

For MAME users the Gnome Video Arcade has been included which provides a nice graphical user interface for choosing games.

I found it quite difficult at first working out where to put the ROM files but got there in the end. (/usr/share/games/mame/roms).

Installing Applications

SparkyLinux has a tool called APTus which combines a few key system tasks such as upgrading the system, updating package lists, selecting repositories and of course installing new programs.

The APTus installer simply asks for the name of the program you wish to install which is great if you know the name of the program but not so good if you don't.

Fortunately Synaptic is also included which provides a decent search facility.

Controllers

SparkyLinux has a joystick calibration tool to enable you to configure your joysticks but it might be worth reading my article about Retrogaming with Linux as it provides advice on how to set up controllers for older games.

Summary

There is a lot to like about Sparkylinux Gameover Edition with its abundance of games, choices of emulators and the fact it comes with Steam, PlayOnLinux and Dosbox pre-installed.

The system was stable in the most part but you can't always guarantee what an emulator is going to do and on the odd occasion my screen resolution changed.

With so many games available the LXDE menu system felt a bit overloaded. Ways around this problem include adding your favourites to the panel at the top or installing either Slingscold for a nicer dash style display or Cairo as a dock.

All in all, SparkyLinux Gameover Edition provided me with the most fun that I have had in ages and it has been a welcome guest during my internet free week.

Thankyou for reading.

Introduction

4MLinux is a mini Linux distribution. The name stems from the 4 Ms which are Multimedia, MiniServer, Maintenance and Mystery. To be honest the 4th M really should be a G because there is no mystery, the 4th component is definitely games. I guess that 3MAnd1GLinux doesn't really roll off the tongue.

The reason I have chosen to review this distribution is because of the gaming element. You can read all about 4MLinux by clicking on this link.

Minimum Requirements

The requirements listed on the 4MLinux website state that you need 256 megabytes of RAM for 4MLinux but 1 gigabyte for the all in one edition.

Where To Get 4MLinux

To download 4MLinux click this link.

The file size for 4MLinux is only 392 megabytes in size.

Instructions for creating a Live USB drive and Live CD can be found here. Basically if you are creating a live CD use CD/DVD burning software or to create a live USB use UNetbootin.

Installing 4MLinux

I wouldn't personally recommend installing 4MLinux as a dual boot distribution. If you are going to install it I would use a dedicated machine or a virtual machine on an existing computer using VirtualBox.

In order to install 4MLinux you will need to boot from the live USB or CD.

Before you can install 4M Linux you need to partition the drive. This will wipe all the data on the drive so make sure you have backed up anything you need.

The partition tool can be found by clicking on the menu icon and selecting the maintenance category followed by partitions and then part wizard. You will be asked whether you want to install the software which of course you do.

Select the drive that matches your hard disk and then select each partition in turn and delete them. Now create two new partitions, one for 4MLinux formatted to EXT4 and a small swap partition.

To install 4MLinux, click on the menu icon in the bottom left corner. Navigate to the 4MLinux menu category and click on the installer.

The installer is a shell script and it is an incredibly quick process. Click "Enter" when you see the welcome message.

You will be asked where you want to install 4MLinux. Choose the one that isn't the swap partition.

You will be asked whether 4MLinux is to be the only operating system on your computer and to be honest if you are going to use 4MLinux this is the only thing I can recommend. By saying yes to this question the lilo bootloader will be installed.

A summary of changes will appear. Click yes if you want to continue with the installation. It took less than a minute to install on my test computer which is 8 years old. (I think I am actually exaggerating when I say it took a minute, it might be even less than that).

Reboot your computer and you will be asked to create a password for the root user. Enter the password you wish to use. The final step is to choose your timezone.

You can now login to 4MLinux. Until you create another user you have to login as root.

To start the graphical user interface type startx.

First Impressions

4MLinux uses the JWM window manager which is extremely lightweight. There is a panel at the bottom and a panel at the top. You can also toggle conky on and off to provide statistics.

The icons on the bottom panel from left to right are for the menu, show desktop, internet connection, audio settings, language/keyboard, printer settings, touch screen settings, bluetooth settings, eject CD/DVD and workspaces. In the bottom right corner are icons for volume control settings, a calendar, a performance monitor and the all important clock.

The menu is a basic affair with categories down the left side linking to sub categories and applications.

Connecting To The Internet

This section is usually quite short but for 4MLinux connecting to the internet was surprisingly challenging.

On the menu there is an internet category with a settings sub menu and 4 options:

Configure
WiFiScan
WPA Gui
Connect

The Configure option lets you choose whether you plan to connect via ethernet or wireless and then whether to use WPA Supplicant to connect to the internet.

The WiFiScan option simply lists the available WIFI networks.

WPA Gui is a graphical tool for setting up an internet connection and Connect runs a script to connect to the internet.

So here is the problem. I wanted to connect to a wireless network and so I chose WPA GUI. The only option shown is for ethernet. I therefore ran the configure option and chose to use WLAN (wireless).

I double clicked on the network I wanted to connect to and I was shown a properties window to set up the connection.

This screen isn't the most intuitive you will ever see and it took a fair amount of trial and error to choose the correct authentication, encryption and key to get a valid connection.

Despite the connection being set up correctly, clicking on the connect option within WPA GUI didn't create an actual connection to the wireless network.

I therefore chose the Connect option from the internet settings menu and this finally gave me a connection.

I would like to say now though that this was not just an A to B to C to D to get it working. There was a lot of messing around before it worked. On subsequent reboots the connection remains intact and I can simply select the connect option from the internet settings menu or bottom panel.

Flash and MP3

MP3s worked without a hitch but Flash was an altogether different proposition and for reasons I will come to later a little bit on the strange side.

The web browser for 4MLinux is Qupzilla and this is a fairly basic web browser. There are options though for installing Firefox and Seamonkey. Here comes the bizarre bit. The Firefox link asks whether you want to install Firefox, but not the Linux version of Firefox. The installer installs the Windows version and uses WINE to run it and the installer asks if you want to install Flash which is also the Windows version. Even more bizarre is that the Seamonkey link also installs the Windows version.

Applications

The applications that are installed with 4MLinux depend on the version that you have installed. I installed the full version and so have the complete set.

Internet

Links, QupZilla, FireFox (Windows Version), SeaMonkey (Windows Version) - Web Browser
Thunderbird - Email Client (Windows version via WINE)
FTP
IRC
P2P
SSH

Maintenance

XFE, Midnight Commander - File Manager
GnuParted - Partitioning Tool
PartWizard - GUI Partitioning Tool
FDisk / CDisk - MBR Disk Management
GDisk / CGDisk - GPT Disk Management
TestDisk, PhotoRec, GnuDDRescue - Recovery
ClamAV - Antivirus
System Monitor
InfraCode - CD/DVD Creator
7Zip, PeaZip - Archive Tool
UNetbootin - USB Disk Creator

Multimedia

QMMP, Xine (Audio Players)
MPlayer, SMPlayer (Media Players)
SMTube (YouTube Player)
FFMPEG, Audacity - Audio File Editing
ImageMagick - Image Editor

MiniServer

Apache, SQLLite, VNC

Games

Snake, Tetris, Mines, Towers, Casino, GnuGo, NetToe, Chess - Console Games
Rocks, Lin City, ZBlast, WinBoard, MahJongg, Koules, Galaga, Jump - XGames
Eyes, Penguin - XToys
BattleShips, Blubbels, CoorCode, FairSeaBattle, Hexalate, Peg-E-Game - QTGames
TuxRacer, Circus, Kobo, LBreakout, LBreakout 2, LMarbles, LTetris, Doom, Heretic, Hexen, Quake, Quake 2, Fairdoom, Digger, Jump Man, Mario, PacMan, Wolf 3d - SDL Games

Other

WINE - Play Windows Software Within Linux
LibreOffice Installer, Skype Installer, VirtualBox Installer, Java RE Installer

As mentioned earlier there are some strange inclusions such as the Windows versions of FireFox and SeaMonkey but there are some reasonably good software choices for a lightweight distribution such as QMMP, MPlayer and ImageMagick.

There is a decent selection of Linux based games whether they are designed for the console, XGames, SDL Games or QT.

The variety on offer actually makes 4MLinux quite fun and I spent a number of hours playing the novelty games and the old school classics before finally settling on the real aces which are Doom, Quake and Wolf 3D.

DOSBox and WINE are also installed making it possible to install and play your old DOS and Windows games.

Installing Applications

If you want to install packages that aren't already installed you have to navigate to the /var/4MLinux folder where there is a list of available packages.

To install an application type zk <filename>. The choices are fairly limited.

Customisation

Changing the wallpaper is possible by selecting an option on the desktop. A small application will open which allows you to choose from a variety of different images.

You can also toggle the visibility of the top panel and conky. You can also toggle 3D effects on and off.

Summary

4MLinux is one of the more unique Linux distributions available. The developers have obviously tried to get in as much as possible without taking up too much memory and disk space.

The 4 Ms stand for Maintenance, MiniServer, Multimedia and Mystery.

For maintenance purposes it would be adequate for rescue purposes but the hit and miss nature of trying establish a WIFI connection was worrying and I'm not sure whether the tools included are better than the tools included for other rescue disks.

As a server it would be fine enough for development purposes but are there enough development tools available and could you really trust it as a real server?

For multimedia 4MLinux has media players and editors which are ok but nothing better than any other distribution.

That leaves Mystery which really stands for fun and games. The games will keep you amused for quite a while and the inclusion of DOOM and Quake was a good call.

The choice to include Windows versions of FireFox and SeaMonkey seems a bit nonsensical and the lack of a real package manager makes 4MLinux feel limited.

4MLinux as a fully installed distribution is not really going to benefit the everyday Linux user but you could run it as a live image for playing games. For anything other purposes expect to spend time working through issues.

There are other small distributions that do a very similar thing to 4MLinux, such as Knoppix and various flavours of PuppyLinux including Simplicity, MacPup and PuppyArcade. It is hard to recommend 4MLinux over any of those distributions.

Thankyou for reading.

Introduction

Sometimes when I get involved in a task I lose track of time. This can have really bad consequences if left unchecked such as forgetting to pick up my daughter from the bus stop or forgetting to take stuff out of the oven.

I am also the type of person that becomes so involved in their work that I can easily forget to stop for food and neglect to take breaks.

If I know I am going to be working from home I now set up a job to pop up a message at certain points in the day to remind me to do something.

To schedule tasks in Linux there are two useful tools that are worth knowing about:

at
cron

In this guide I am briefly going to touch upon these two commands and then I am going to show you the Everyday Linux User way which I find to be much easier.

Scheduling A Job To Occur Once Using at

The at command makes it possible to run a task in the future. For instance using the examples from my introduction I might want to set a task to run at 3 PM to remind me to pick up my daughter from the bus.

There are various tools for sending a message to the screen including xmessage which is very basic and the one I like to use which is kind of novel called xcowsay.

xcowsay displays a picture of a cow and the message you would like displayed within a speech bubble.

The syntax for the at command is as follows:

at <time>
> command

There are various ways to specify the time such as by specifying the hours and minutes or by specifying midnight, noon or teatime. You can specify to run the command today, tomorrow, in 5 days time or 5 weeks from now.

Here are a few examples for setting the time you want to run a scheduled task:

at 9:45 PM - runs command at 9:45 pm
at 10:00 AM - runs command at 10:00 am
at 9:30 PM tomorrow - runs command at 9:30 pm tomorrow
at 4:00 PM + 3 days - runs command 3 days from now at 4 pm
at 10:00 AM Jun 25 - runs command at 10 am on June 25th

The command element can be any command but to display output to the screen the command needs to know which screen to send it to.

Therefore to run a program such as xcowsay you would do the following:

at 11:00 PM

> export DISPLAY=:0 && xcowsay "Time for bed"

This command will run at 11 PM. The export display=:0 tells the job to display output to the screen and xcowsay displays the text "Time for bed" in a speech bubble coming from a cartoon cow.

The at command is useful if you want to run a command in the future only once.

If you want to see all the commands that are set to run in the future type atq

10Fri Oct 24 22:09:00 2014 a gary

Of course the at command can be used for much more powerful things than just displaying messages.

If you want to remove a scheduled task run the atrm <jobid>. The job id can be seen by running the atq command. The job ID is the number on the left.

Scheduling A Recurring Job Using cron

cron is useful for scheduling jobs that are to occur again and again.

For instance, if I work from home between Monday and Friday I might want to be notified when it is lunchtime and to schedule drinks breaks.

To schedule a task you have to use the crontab -e command which opens a file as follows:

The command in the above screenshot displays the message "Have lunch" every weekday at 12:30.

The timings look a bit weird when you first see them but basically from left to right they are:

Minutes
Hours
Day Of Month
Month
Day Of Week

If you look at the command in the screenshot again you will see it looks as follows:

30 12 * * 1-5 command

So the first number as shown by the key above is minutes. That means at 30 minutes past the hour the command specified is going to run.

If the command was 30 * * * * then the command would run 30 minutes past every hour on every day.

The second number in the key above is hours. That means that at 12:30 the command will run.

Again if the command was 30 12 * * * the command would run at 12:30 every day.

The third number is the day of the month. In the command above it is set to * which means every day.

The fourth value is the month. In the command above it is set to * which means every month. You can specify any month number between 1 and 12.

Finally the 5th number is the day of the week. Therefore if you want the command to run every Monday you specify 1.

As you can see my 5th number is set to 1-5. This means the command will run on every day between 1 and 5. (i.e. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday).

If you want a command to run every 5 minutes between 9 AM and 5 PM every day you would use the following syntax:

*/5 9-17 * * * command

The /n (where n is the number to skip by) means the command will run all the time but skip by the number specified by n.

If you want to run a command at multiple times in the day you can use a comma to separate the times as follows:

5 12,15,18 * * * command

The above command will run at 12:05, 15:05 and 18:05.

Saving the file and exiting the program automatically updates cron and the events will start firing as and when they are supposed to.

Using corntab to schedule a task

The corntab website provides a visual crontab editor for helping to schedule cron jobs.

This makes it easier to add recurring jobs without remembering the rules from the previous section.

All you have to do is select each category (minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week) and visually select the values you are looking for. You can enter the command you want to run in a dedicated text box.

This provides you with the command that you need to paste into the crontab editor.

As good as corntab is there is an even easier way to schedule tasks.

Schedule Tasks Using gnome-schedule

The easiest way to schedule tasks is to use Gnome Schedule (gnome-schedule)

Gnome Schedule can be found within the package managers of most distributions.

When you run gnome-schedule a list of tasks will appear. The tasks can be one-off tasks or recurring.

To add a new task click on "New".

You can now choose whether to set up a recurring task or a one off task.

If you click on the "A task that launches recurrently" button the following screen appears:

The description field makes it easier to differentiate between recurring tasks.

The command field is used to enter the command that you want to run. You can also choose whether the command is to run as an X application or not.

There are two ways to define the time and date. You can choose the basic option which lets you specify whether the task runs every minute, every hour, every day, every month or on reboot. The advanced option lets you enter the specific minute, hour, day, month and weekday.

The rules for the advanced section are the same as for entering manually into the crontab file. The good thing about the graphical tool is that it gives you a preview telling you exactly when the command will run.

Click "Add" to add the command to the list of recurring tasks.

To schedule a one-off task click on the "New" button and select "A task that launches one time".

When the window above appears enter a description of the task and choose whether it is an X application or not.

Select a date and time to run the command and enter the task within the task window.

Click "Add" to schedule the task.

Summary

Scheduling tasks is made much easier by using the Gnome scheduling tool.

The examples I have given above are very simplistic and in reality cron jobs are used for much more sophisticated tasks such as scheduling backups.

Cron jobs are more useful on computers that are kept on for long periods of time but can be useful for providing reminders during the day.

It is worth reading the manuals for cron (man cron) and at (man at)

I hope you found this guide useful.

Introduction

After reading my article on installing and playing Minecraft using Ubuntu, a reader asked whether it was possible to play other games using Ubuntu such as "The Sims" and "Civilisation".

I have written articles previously showing how to use PlayOnLinux to install classic Windows and DOS games. The user in question was having issues with a missing file error so it made me wonder whether there was a problem that I could resolve.

I therefore decided to try out "The Sims" to see if I could install it and play it on a computer running Ubuntu.

The version I am using is "The Sims 3" which I bought on CD a couple of years ago and I haven't really found time to play it yet.

Install PlayOnLinux

PlayOnLinux is available in the Ubuntu Software Centre.

Open the Software Centre by clicking the icon on the launcher that looks like a folder with an "A" on it or by pressing the super key (Windows key) on your keyboard and search for "Software Centre".

Once you have the Software Centre open use the search box in the top right corner to find "PlayOnLinux" and then click "Install".

You can also use the terminal to install PlayOnLinux. The quickest way to open a terminal window in Ubuntu is to press CTRL, Alt and T at the same time.

Within the terminal window type the following:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install playonlinux

Install The Sims

There are lots of steps to follow and lots of screenshots but it is fairly straight forward.

First things first, place the CD in the drive and open PlayOnLinux.

Click "Install a program".

Choose the games category and then click the "install a non-listed program" link.

Click "Next" at the welcome message.

The next screen asks if you want to create a program in a new virtual drive or edit an existing one.

Generally you would edit an existing one if you have made a mistake.

Click "Install a program in a new virtual drive" and then click "Next"

Enter a name for the virtual drive for your application. It can't contain spaces. As this guide is about installing "The Sims" it might be a good idea to go with "The_Sims".

Click "Next".

You can now configure various aspects of the virtual drive. For instance you can choose a specific version of WINE or configure WINE to base itself on a different version of Windows or to change the screen resolution. You can also install extra libraries.

I always leave all this stuff until after the installation.

Click "Next".

You can now choose whether to create a 32 bit or 64 bit installation.

The version of The Sims I am using is "The Sims 3" which was released as a 32-bit binary and therefore I chose to create the 32-bit Windows Installation.

Click "Next".

The next step is to choose where you are installing from.

If you aren't installing from CD click the "Select another file" and navigate to the location of the installer.

If you have a CD click on the CD-ROM and click "Next".

The installer for "The Sims" should start.

Choose your setup language and click "OK".

At "The Sims installer welcome screen" click "Next".

Choose your location and click "Next".

Check the box to accept the terms and conditions and click "Next".

(You have read them first though haven't you. I mean, we all read the terms and conditions. They are incredibly important after all).

Enter the product key that came with your version of "The Sims". If you bought a CD it should be on the back of the booklet inside the CD case.

Click "Next".

You can now decide whether to go for a typical installation or a custom installation.

I chose the "Typical Installation".

Click "Next".

Click "Install" to begin the installation.

After the installation has finished you will be asked whether you want to participate in their customer experience improvement scheme.

I never say yes to these things but if you want to check the box.

Click "Next".

EA, please just let me play the game!.

Yet more questions. Do you want to install the latest download manager?

Again I chose no as I'm not sure how well this would work using PlayOnLinux. Click "Next".

Done. Well almost.

The Sims has now been installed but there are still a few more steps before you can play it.

Click "Finish".

Create a shortcut for The Sims within PlayOnLinux and on your desktop by selecting TS3.exe.

Click "Next"

You can now try The Sims from your desktop or from within PlayOnLinux by clicking on the icon but I found that it messed with my screen resolution.

To fix this from within PlayOnLinux, select Configuration from the toolbar. When the configuration screen opens click the "WINE" tab.

Click on the "Configure WINE" option and when the "WINE Configuration" window loads click on the "Graphics" tab.

Check the "Emulate a virtual desktop" checkbox and then enter the screen resolution for your monitor.

You can find your screen resolution information by clicking the settings icon on the launcher (cog and spanner).

From within the configuration settings select "Screen Display".

Your screen resolution will be displayed.

After setting the screen resolution, click "Ok" to finish configuring WINE.

Summary

I have played the game a few times in the past few days and I have been able to load and save games flawlessly and play without any errors.

I hope this guide helped and thankyou for reading.

Another Great Free Roleplaying Game

I have teamed up with GoodGame Studios to bring some great online games to the Everyday Linux User website which can be played from your browser.

The good news is that the games are all free to play. November's game is GoodGame Empire.

Become the lord of a castle and turn your small fortress into the capital of the entire kingdom in this exciting online strategy game.

Establish a mighty army to defend your realm and extend your territory. Forge alliances with other players worldwide to crush your enemies, and become the sole ruler of a mighty empire!

GOODGAME EMPIRE OFFERS:

Become the lord of a castle and turn your small fortress into the capital of the entire kingdom in this exciting online strategy game.
Establish a mighty army to defend your realm and extend your territory.
Forge alliances with other players worldwide to crush your enemies, and become the sole ruler of a mighty empire.
Combat against other players and an alliance system
A dynamic world map Strategic battles using various units and siege tools
The ability to upgrade your castle with numerous buildings
Resource Outposts for securing more supplies
An entertaining campaign with missions and attractive rewards

Click here to play GoodGame Empire

Introduction

It is amazing what the word "ultimate" does to a title.

In all truth this guide will show you how to install Ubuntu MATE on a computer with a standard BIOS. If you are looking to install on an EFI based system then a future guide will cover that.

How To Download Ubuntu MATE

Click this link to visit the Ubuntu MATE download page

There are two versions available for download, 14.04 which is the long term support release and 14.10 which is the latest release. (Unless you are reading this beyond April 2015 in which case 14.10 will no longer be the latest release).

There are a number of download links available as well as bittorrents. I found the download links to be fairly unstable and on a few occasions the download dropped out. The bittorrent worked much better. If you aren't going to use the bittorrent it is worth using a download manager so that you can resume from where you left off if a dropout occurs.

When the ISO file has finished downloading, you will need to either burn it to a DVD or create a bootable USB drive.

To burn the ISO to a DVD use your favourite DVD burning tool.

Click here for a guide to create a bootable Linux USB drive.

Boot Into Live Ubuntu MATE USB/DVD

Leave the DVD or USB drive you created in the previous step connected and reboot your computer.

A menu should appear with an option to "Try Ubuntu MATE". Select this option.

If no menu appears, restart the computer again and look for the key required to enter your BIOS setup. It will flash up very quickly as you boot up and will either be a function key or the escape key.

When you are in your BIOS look for the boot order. Make sure that the device you are using for booting Ubuntu MATE appears before the hard drive in the boot order.

Installing Ubuntu MATE

To start the installer click on the "Install Ubuntu MATE" icon on the desktop.

The installation is fairly straight forward.

The first step is to choose your language and click "Continue".

You now have the option to connect to the internet. There are advantages to being connected such being able to have updates automatically applied during the installation.

If you have a poor internet connection and it is likely to drop out I would recommend not connecting and to apply updates after the installation.

If you choose to connect, select your preferred network and enter a password if required. If you do not want to connect choose the "I don't want to connect to a wi-fi network at this time" option.

Click "Continue' to move on.

The third screen shows you how prepared you are for installing Ubuntu MATE.

To install Ubuntu MATE you should:

Have at least 6.3 gigabytes of disk space
Be connected to the internet
Be connected to a power supply

The 6.3 gigabytes hard drive space is the only must have of the three options.

I discussed the internet option in the previous step and whilst it is useful for applying updates during installation it can also be a hindrance if you have a poor internet connection.

You only need to be connected to a power supply if your battery isn't going to last for the period of time that the installation takes. Generally if you have more than 45 minutes worth of power left you are fine.

The installation will take anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour depending on your machine's credentials and of course if you choose to download updates, your internet connection speed.

There is a checkbox at the bottom of the screen asking whether you want to install third party software. By checking this box you will be able to play MP3s and watch Flash video files. I generally leave this unchecked and install the Ubuntu Restricted Extras package after the main installation has completed.

Click "Continue" to move on.

The next screen is likely to be different to the one shown above but will have similar options.

Prior to installing Ubuntu MATE I had a version of Linux called Lubuntu installed. The installer has picked this up as being another version of Ubuntu and so the options I received were to:

Erase Lubuntu and re-install (although I would be installing Ubuntu MATE)
Dual boot Lubuntu and Ubuntu MATE
Erase Lubuntu and install Ubuntu MATE instead (note everything will be erased)
Something else (Set up the partitions the way you want them)

If you are coming from Windows the options are likely to include options to erase Windows and install Ubuntu MATE, install Ubuntu MATE alongside Windows or something else.

This guide shows you how to install Ubuntu MATE as a sole operating system and so the option to choose is erase the current operating system (i.e. Windows) and install Ubuntu MATE.

Make sure you have taken a backup of the current operating system in case you need any of the files in the future or you need to get the original operating system back. Use Macrium Reflect To Do This On Windows Systems.

Choose the appropriate option and click "Install Now".

The next step is to choose your time zone. Simply click on your location and click "Continue".

As well as selecting your timezone it is important to choose the correct keyboard layout for your computer.

Select the language and format of your keyboard and then click "Continue".

The final step is to set up the default user. Enter a name, a username and a password for the user.

Select whether you want to login automatically or whether you require the user to log in on each and every boot.

Post Installation Tasks

After you have finished installing Ubuntu MATE you should open up the Ubuntu Software Centre and search for the Ubuntu Restricted Extras package if you chose not to install the third party extras.

This will allow you to listen to MP3 files, play Flash videos and use common fonts such as Arial, Verdana and Tahoma.

Introduction

One of my favourite gadgets is the trusty Acer Aspire One D255 Netbook. It isn't very powerful and in modern standards is not particularly cool but it is small, lightweight and great for taking on journeys.

Up until last week the netbook was running Lubuntu 14.04 and before that it was running Lubuntu 13.10 and before that Lubuntu 13.04. I have tried a number of different distributions on this netbook over the years but Lubuntu has been the go to distribution because of its performance.

I was preparing to write about the latest Lubuntu 14.10 release but instead decided to give the new Ubuntu MATE edition a go after seeing it in action as a live distribution on my far more powerful Toshiba Satellite Pro.

The specifications for the Acer Aspire One D255 are as follows:

Intel Atom Processor N450 1.66 ghz, 512kb cache
1 GB Memory
160 GB HDD

The Atom processor isn't particularly powerful and there is clearly a shortage with regards to memory so any operating system that is installed on this netbook has to manage its resources well.

There are many benefits to using Lubuntu on this netbook. The performance is excellent. The desktop doesn't have lots of panels taking up screen real estate and the applications installed are all lightweight.

There are some issues with using Lubuntu. Abiword is both a blessing and a hindrance. I use Abiword for preparing articles for this site and for about.com on the way home on the train.

Whilst Abiword is great for basic notetaking and for maybe writing the odd letter it isn't as fully featured as LibreOffice Writer.

Lubuntu doesn't have any presentation tools or anything like LibreOffice draw. There is however Gnumeric for creating spreadsheets. I can honestly say that I have never used Gnumeric on this netbook, which means it is not a necessity.

On a netbook the most commonly used applications are the audio players, video players and of course the web browser. Lubuntu has Firefox, Audacious and MPlayer for these purposes.

So how well does Ubuntu MATE shape up against Lubuntu on this netbook?

How to get Ubuntu MATE

The first step of course is to show you where and how to get Ubuntu MATE.

The installation steps in these reviews can take up quite a bit of room so I decided to create a separate article showing how to download and install Ubuntu MATE.

The first thing to note is that the download kept failing with a network error and so I had to use the bittorrent link in order to retrieve the ISO.

The installation also took quite a while on the Acer Aspire One D255 netbook. It was a process that took around 30 minutes which was a fair bit longer than Lubuntu.

In complete contrast the installation of Ubuntu MATE on the Toshiba Satellite Pro took around 10 minutes to complete.

First Impressions

If you used to use Ubuntu before Unity was released then you will notice that the Ubuntu MATE edition bares a striking resemblence to Ubuntu 10.04 (and every version prior to that).

The desktop has the traditional two panels associated with Ubuntu (circa 2010).

The top panel has three menus:

Applications
Places
System

The "Applications" menu consists of a list of categories including accessories, education, graphics, internet, office, sound and video, system tools and universal access.

Clicking on a category shows a sub-menu with the applications that are available for the chosen category.

The "Places" menu links to various folders on your computer including your home folder, the desktop, external devices, network folders and servers.

You can also search for files and view your most recently accessed documents.

The "System" menu lets you configure your computer.

For instance you can add printers, configure networks, keyboard layouts and display settings.

The top panel for Ubuntu MATE also includes system panel style icons such as network settings, audio settings, power settings and the calendar.

The bottom panel has an icon to show the desktop and a list of all the currently running applications. There are also workspace switching icons and the recycle bin.

Connecting To The Internet

Connecting to the internet with Ubuntu MATE is dead simple.

Simply click on the appropriate network icon in the system tray which is located in the top right corner and then choose the network you wish to connect to. If required enter the security key for the network.

Customisation

One of the nicest things about Lubuntu is the ability to customise the desktop.

Unlike the main version of Ubuntu that comes with the Unity desktop the Ubuntu MATE edition also provides a wealth of customisation options.

You can choose to leave the standard two panel setup as it is or you can remove one of the panels or add more panels.

The panels can also be set up the way you want them to be. For example the bottom panel can be amended to work more like a dock with a series of commonly used applications.

Each panel can have other items added to it including application launchers, clocks, applets, window selectors, weather reports, etc.

The thing that nearly everybody likes to change is their desktop wallpaper.

With Ubuntu MATE it is simply a case of right clicking on the desktop and choosing "Change desktop background".

A window appears with a number of available backgrounds. You can also choose your own by clicking on "Add" and navigating to the image.

Applications

The thing that sets Lubuntu and Ubuntu MATE apart is the choice of applications.

Lubuntu strictly sticks to lightweight applications such as Abiword and Gnumeric and lightweight games.

Ubuntu MATE has pretty much the same applications available as the default Ubuntu Unity edition.

Accessories

Engrampa Archive Manager - Zip File Management
Galculator - Calculator
Pluma - Text Editor

Education

LibreOffice Math

Graphics

Eye Of MATE - Image Viewer
Shotwell - Photo Manager
LibreOffice Draw

Internet

Firefox - Web Browser
Hexchat - IRC Chat
Thunderbird - Email Client
Pidgin - Instant Messenger
Transmission - Bittorrent Client

Office

LibreOffice Calc - Spreadsheet
LibreOffice Draw - A bit like Visio
LibreOffice Impress - Presentation tool
LibreOffice Math - Maths tools
LibreOffice Writer - Word processor
Atril Document Viewer - PDF Viewer

Sound And Video

Brasero - Disc Burning
Cheese - Webcam Viewer
Rhythmbox - Audio Player
Totem - Video Player

The main thing to note is that Ubuntu MATE provides a more complete set of applications.

Thunderbird is a decent email client for those of you that still prefer to use a mail client over the standard webmail tools that are provided by services such as GMail.

Rhythmbox is a better audio player than the one provided by Lubuntu. You have the ability to import your music collection, listen to podcasts, Last.FM and there is great support for external audio devices such as MP3 players.

The Shotwell photo manager is a great tool for viewing all your images and totem is a decent video player.

All of these tools are great for when you are on the move and the fact that you can use Firefox for browsing the web makes Ubuntu MATE a great choice.

There is a little bit of a trade off though in terms of performance. Whilst using LibreOffice on the netbook there was a little bit of degradation. The cursor hung at various intervals and the menus would sometimes get stuck as shown below.

It is worth noting that if you are using Lubuntu then there is no need to switch to Ubuntu MATE in order to use LibreOffice, Rhythmbox or Shotwell. All of these applications are available in the Lubuntu repositories.

Similarly if you choose to use Ubuntu MATE and you find that LibreOffice is too overkill you can install Abiword, Gnumeric and any of the other tools that come with the default Lubuntu installation.

At this point of course the only difference between Lubuntu and Ubuntu MATE is the desktop environment.

Installing Applications

There are a couple of tools provided by Ubuntu MATE for installing further applications.

The main application is the Ubuntu Software Centre.

The Software Centre provides a list of categories and a search tool to make it easy to find and manage software installations.

The alternative to the software centre is to use the apt command line tool.

In order to play MP3 files, watch Flash videos and play Flash games you either need to have checked the third party tools option whilst installing Ubuntu MATE or you can install the Ubuntu Restricted Extras package.

Issues

There were no real issues running the Ubuntu MATE edition on the netbook except that compared to Lubuntu there was more lag.

The menus in LibreOffice refused to hide once they were shown on the odd occasion.

Whilst importing music into Rhythmbox and importing photos into Shotwell the system became a little bit unresponsive but these two processes took most of the processing power of the netbook.

The netbook worked well when performing simple tasks such as watching videos, listening to music or browsing the web.

Summary

If you are going to use an older style netbook such as the Acer Aspire One then Lubuntu still rules due to the lighter desktop and lighter applications.

Ubuntu MATE wins when it comes to the choice of applications. Rhythmbox, Shotwell and LibreOffice are far better than the Lubuntu equivalents.

On a slightly more powerful machine the Ubuntu MATE edition is perfect. It certainly outperforms the Unity version on both my Dell Inspiron and Toshiba Satellite Pro.

Ubuntu MATE provides a glimpse of where we might have been today if Unity hadn't been developed. Having lived with Unity for 3 years though I have to say that I now prefer Unity over the older style interface. MATE might be fast but does it make you more productive?

This was the main reason that I chose to compare Ubuntu MATE with Lubuntu as I believe it is in direct competition for older style computers or computers with less power.

I think the Unity version of Ubuntu is superior to Ubuntu MATE and I also think that the Cinnamon version of Mint is better than the MATE version of Mint.

A more interesting comparison might be to compare Ubuntu MATE with the MATE version of Mint. Will Ubuntu MATE win back some of the users that switched to Mint because of Unity?

Personally I like the double panel that Ubuntu MATE provides over the single Mint panel. Other than that there really isn't much reason to switch back to Ubuntu or switch from Ubuntu MATE to Linux Mint.

If you are yet to make the decision as to whether to choose Ubuntu MATE or Mint then it really is difficult to separate them. You can read my review of the Mint MATE edition here (note version 17 has been released since then).

So to sum up, Lubuntu for speed and performance, Ubuntu MATE for applications and the toss of a coin to choose between Ubuntu MATE and Mint MATE.

It is worth noting that Ubuntu MATE worked reasonably well on the netbook but you don't have to have many applications open for performance to degrade. Lubuntu performs better with more applications open but limited memory, limited graphics and a limited ATOM processor obviously provides a somewhat limited experience.

Using Ubuntu MATE with lighter applications will make things slightly better but there is always going to be that trade off between performance and usability.

Finally, before I sign off, why is Ubuntu MATE called Ubuntu MATE?

Ubuntu is called Ubuntu because it is the main product.
Kubuntu is Ubuntu with the KDE desktop.
Xubuntu is Ubuntu with the XFCE desktop.
Lubuntu is Ubuntu with the LXDE desktop.

So why not Mubuntu? Why is it Ubuntu MATE? The same question could of course be asked for Ubuntu Gnome. Gubuntu anyone?

Thanks for reading.

Service Update

The Google anti-spam approach for handling comments isn't working.

Last night I had to delete upwards of 700 spam comments from this blog which was both time consuming, dull and annoying. This morning they were back.

I have therefore decided to change the comments section so that you can no longer post comments anonymously. The only way to post comments is to sign up for a Google account.

I am sorry for the inconvenience that this will cause to those of you who leave genuine comments.

Nobody wants to read about virility drugs or designer handbags on a blog about Linux, so I had to do something.

If you have any comments that you would like to make about this service update feel free. Some of you might not like to sign up to Google to leave comments, if that is the case I am on twitter (@dailylinuxuser) and there is an email link in the top right corner.

Update On The Update

Well limiting the posters to Google only accounts didn't work. The spammers just created a Google account.

I have turned on comment moderation for the time being until whoever it is that has decided to spam the site gives up and moves on.

Introduction

This week I wrote a tutorial at About.com showing how to dual boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu.

I have written a number of installation guides over the past few years. On many occasions I have included the installation steps as part of the reviews but for trickier installs and for more recent reviews I have created separate guides.

This article lists all of the Linux installation tutorials and guides that I have created with a brief description of each one.

1. How To Dual Boot Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 14.04

I have written a couple of guides about dual booting Windows 8 and Ubuntu. This is the updated version with extra steps incorporated for the 8.1 release of Windows.

The guide shows you:

how to backup Windows 8.1
how to create a bootable USB drive
how to shrink the Windows partition
how to turn off fast boot
how to turn off secure boot
how to install Ubuntu
how to use boot repair
how to fix the Windows 8 boot loader

I am about to update the guide once again as the process appears to be getting easier. One of the key updates in the new guide will be how to backup Windows 8.1.

I can no longer recommend using the native Microsoft backup and recovery tools. I have been let down by them too many times.

Instead I recommend following this guide for backing up all versions of Windows.

Click here to read how to dual boot Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu

2. Install Ubuntu Alongside Windows 8 In 10 Easy Steps

This was the original Ubuntu and Windows 8 dual boot guide.

The guide shows

how to backup Windows
how to shrink the Windows partition
how to create a bootable USB drive using UNetbootin
how to turn off fastboot and secureboot
how to install Ubuntu
how to partition the disk
how to run boot repair

Click here to read how to dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 8

3. How To Dual Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu

I created this guide as an alternative to the Linux Mint and Windows 7 dual boot guide which appears later in the list.

The guide shows

how to backup Windows 7
how to shrink the Windows partition
how to download Ubuntu
how to create a Ubuntu DVD
how to create a Ubuntu USB drive
how to install Ubuntu
how to partition the hard drive

There are full step by step instructions as well as screenshots

Click here to read how to dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 7

4. How To Install Ubuntu and Minecraft On A Chromebook

I try to cover as many devices as I can get my hands on when writing installation guides.

I was lucky enough to get hold of a Chromebook and this guide provides the basic concepts for dual booting Ubuntu and ChromeOS on a Chromebook.

The guide shows you:

how to create recovery media
how to switch to developer mode
how to download Crouton
how to run Crouton
how to switch between Ubuntu and Chrome
how to install extra packages and Synaptic
how to install Minecraft

Click here to read how to dual boot Ubuntu and ChromeOS on a Chromebook

5. How To Install Ubuntu As A Virtual Machine In Windows

If you want to try Ubuntu out as a virtual machine then follow this guide.

There are step by step instructions and screenshots. At the time of writing there was an issue with Virtualbox which has now been resolved but the guide is still perfectly valid.

The guide shows

how to get VirtualBox
how to install VirtualBox
how to download Ubuntu
how to create a virtual machine
how to install Ubuntu

Click here to read how to install Ubuntu as a virtual machine within Windows

6. Upgrade Ubuntu From 13.04 To 13.10 When Dual Booting With Windows 8

Ubuntu 13.04 and 13.10 are both very much in the past but the guide works for upgrading from 13.10 to 14.04 and 14.04 to 14.10.

If you want to upgrade Ubuntu within a dual boot system this guide shows you how to do that.

The guide shows

how to backup Windows
how to backup Ubuntu
how to upgrade Ubuntu
how to fix Grub

Click here to read how to upgrade Ubuntu when dual booting with Windows 8

7. How To Install Linux Mint Alongside Windows 7

If you would like to try out Linux as a dual boot system then this guide shows how to install Linux Mint alongside Windows 7.

Linux Mint is one of the more popular Linux distributions because it has a very familiar look and feel and because it is easy to use.

The guide shows you

how to create Windows 7 recovery media
how to get Linux Mint
how to create a bootable Linux Mint DVD
how to make a bootable Linux Mint USB drive
how to boot into a Linux Mint live desktop
how to partition your hard drive
how to install Linux Mint

The guide has full step by step instructions incorporating screenshots for clarity.

Click here to read the Linux Mint and Windows 7 dual boot tutorial

8. How To Install Linux Mint Alongside OSX on the MacBook Air

This guide shows how to dual boot Linux Mint and OSX on a MacBook Air.

The guide shows you

how to backup the MacBook Air
how to get Linux Mint
how to create a bootable USB drive
how to partition the drive
how to boot into Linux Mint
how to install Linux Mint
how to fix the boot loader
how to fix the Grub menu
how to connect to the internet

As with the other guides this one comes with step by step instructions and screenshots.

Click here to read the Linux Mint and OSX dual boot tutorial

9. How to install Linux Mint As A Virtual Machine Using Windows

Virtual machines are a popular method for testing out distributions and Linux Mint is one of the more popular Linux distributions.

This guide shows how to install Linux Mint as a virtual machine using Virtualbox within Windows.

The guide includes:

how to get Oracle Virtualbox
how to download Linux Mint
how to install Virtualbox
how to create a virtual machine
how to install Linux Mint

Click here to read how to install Linux Mint As A Virtual Machine

10. How To Dual Boot Windows Vista and Linux

If you are still running Windows Vista then you might consider dual booting with Linux for a while before deciding on your next move (whether that will be a new Windows 8 computer or a full time switch to Linux).

This guide shows

how to create a bootable DVD and USB
how to backup Windows Vista
how to prepare your disk for installing Linux
how to install PCLinuxOS

There are screenshots to help you through each step.

Click here to read how to dual boot Windows Vista with PCLinuxOS

11. How To Dual Boot Windows XP and Linux

I wouldn't particularly recommend dual booting Windows XP and Linux anymore because Windows XP is out of support.

However if you want to do it, this guide shows how to dual boot PCLinuxOS and Windows XP.

The guide includes steps for:

how to create a bootable DVD and USB
how to backup Windows XP
how to prepare your disk for installing Linux
how to install PCLinuxOS

There are screenshots to help you through the installation process.

Click here to read how to dual boot Windows XP with PCLinuxOS

12. How To Replace Windows XP With Lubuntu

This tutorial is for those of you running Windows XP on an older computer.

Lubuntu is a great replacement for Windows XP and will be supported for a number of years to come.

This guide links to other tutorials which show how to create a live DVD and USB drive as well as step by step instructions for replacing Windows XP with Lubuntu.

Click here to read how to replace Windows XP with Lubuntu

13. How To Upgrade From Lubuntu 13.10 To 14.04

If you already have Lubuntu installed then this guide shows how to upgrade to the next version.

The guide shows you how to backup your system, how to update the system and how to upgrade.

You can use this guide for upgrading from 14.04 to 14.10 as well

Click here to read the Lubuntu upgrade tutorial

14. The Ultimate Ubuntu MATE Installation Guide

This guide shows how to install Ubuntu MATE.

In the main it shows the installation procedure one step at a time and includes screenshots.

The guide also links to other guides which show how to backup your computer and how to create a bootable DVD and USB drive.

Click here to read the Ubuntu MATE Installation Tutorial

15. How to replace your operating system with Zorin OS 9

This guide shows how to install Zorin OS 9 on a non-UEFI based computer.

As with the Ubuntu MATE tutorial it links to another guide showing how to create a bootable USB drive.

Click here to read the Zorin OS 9 Installation Tutorial

16. A Guide To Setting Up Makulu Linux In Virtualbox

Makulu has been one of the distributions of the year as far as I am concerned. It combines ease of use with a nice blend of pre-installed applications and some really amazing artwork not seen since Fuduntu disappeared.

This guide shows you how to set up Makulu Linux as a virtual machine.

Click here to read how to set up Makulu as a virtual machine

17. How To Install openSUSE

If you are looking for an alternative to the Debian and Ubuntu based distributions then it is worthwhile checking out openSUSE.

I spent a number of weeks during the middle of the year writing articles about the KDE version of openSUSE including posts about the KDE games, picture editing software, Kopete, Konqueror, Choqok, KMail, KTorrent and audio players.

This guide shows you:

how to download openSUSE
how to create a bootable DVD
how to create a bootable USB
how to install openSUSE

Click here to read how to install openSUSE

18. How To Install Peppermint Linux In 10 Easy Steps

Another great distribution for older machines, Peppermint Linux provides a way of integrating web applications into the desktop for a seamless experience.

This guide shows you:

how to download Peppermint OS
how to run a live DVD/USB
how to install Peppermint OS

The guide doesn't show how to create the live DVD and USB but it does link to another tutorial showing how to use UNetbootin to create a bootable USB.

There are full step by step instructions with screenshots.

Click here to read how to install Peppermint Linux

19. Installing And Booting Multiple Distros On A USB Drive

This guide shows how to use YUMI to create a USB drive with multiple live distributions installed on it.

The guide shows

how to get YUMI
how to add Linux distributions to a USB drive

Click here to read how to create a multiboot Linux USB drive

Summary

Number 20 is on its way and will be released sometime in the next fortnight.

Having all of the Linux installation tutorials listed in one place will hopefully make them easier for you to find.

Simply bookmark this page and every time I add a new installation tutorial I will add it to this list.

Thankyou for reading.

Introduction

The most popular graphics package in the world is much like the most popular search engine in the word. The name of the package isn't just a noun, it is now also a verb.

When you want to find information about something you don't just search on the internet for it, you Google it. The ability "To Google" didn't exist 20 years ago but it is now a term used daily in the office in which I work. For instance "The program keeps crashing with a strange error", "Have you tried Googling it to see if there is a solution".

Other search engines don't have the same clout. You don't hear people say "Have you Bing'd it?" or "Have you Duck Duck Go'd it?".

The most popular graphics package is Photoshop. Any picture that appears to be doctored in any way is now said to be "Photoshopped".

Photoshop is a difficult act to follow and the closest thing that Linux has to Photoshop is GIMP. Expecting somebody to move from Photoshop to GIMP is probably as difficult as getting somebody to switch from Google to Bing. It doesn't matter how good GIMP is it probably isn't going to happen. GIMP users though are also unlikely to switch to Photoshop.

There is a category of user though that couldn't care less about either Photoshop or GIMP because there are just too many features and the learning curve is just too high.

Some people are more than happy drawing pictures or editing basic images using Microsoft Paint and that is what this article is about.

Linux has a number of applications that provide similar functionality to MS Paint and in this article I will be looking at 8 of them.

Microsoft Paint

To be able to compare Microsoft Paint with some Linux alternatives I thought I would start off by showing the features of the latest version of Paint.

Paint is one of those programs that hasn't changed much over the years but the latest version in Windows 8.1 does have the now standard ribbon bar.

The ribbon bar has a number of shapes to choose from and they can be drawn onto a variable sized canvas.

The lines for the shapes can be set at varying thicknesses and can be one of a preset colour palette or a user defined colour. The shapes can be filled in or left empty.

Text can be added to the canvas. The text can be set to one of a number of fonts, font sizes and styles such as bold or underline.

The image can be resized and saved in a number of different formats.

There is nothing particularly special about Microsoft Paint but it is a good toy for kids to play with. It can also be used for resizing images and for adding funny captions to photos.

Imagemagick

Imagemagick doesn't look anything like MS Paint and it is much better for editing photos than it is for drawing images.

You can create a canvas in the same way as you can for MS Paint and you can add all sorts of shapes including triangles, rectangles and circles.

The width of the lines can be adjusted and you can fill in the shapes using different colours.

There are some nice effects such as wavy lines and bricks that can be used to fill shapes and as you can see in the image above there are some nice shading effects.

One feature that appears to be missing is the ability to add text.

Image Magick doesn't look as clean as MS Paint but it is easy enough to use. I don't think it would suit younger children in the same way that MS Paint would.

Kolour Paint

As part of the KDE desktop, KolourPaint looks much like the versions of MS Paint that would have been released with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

This is probably the closest package that I have found to Microsoft Paint on Linux. The package is lacking the predefined shapes that come with Microsoft Paint but you can create basic rectangles, circles and polygons. There is also the ability to add text with varying fonts.

You can resize images using KolourPaint and save them in a number of different formats including JPEG, BMP and PNG.

This is an ideal package for kids to use for creating pictures.

MT Paint

I found MT Paint to be horrendously difficult to use which begs a question, "Who is it for?".

The toolbar has a number of tools including the ability to paint, select shapes, fill shapes, draw straight lines, clone, make a selection, make a polygon selection, add a gradient, lasso selection and add text.

The issue I found was getting it to keep any of the selections to hold and then to fill the selections with colours. It just isn't very intuitive.

You can resize the canvas and adding text was simple enough. The image can be saved in a number of different formats although JPEG doesn't appear to be one of them.

Gnome Paint

Gnome Paint is the Gnome equivalent of Kolour Paint.

At first glance Gnome Paint looks much the same as Kolour Paint and older versions of MS Paint. There are tools for drawing, erasing, and selecting shapes including circles, rectangles, rounded rectangles and polygons.

Gnome Paint works quite well but there are a few issues.

First of all there appears to be no way of editing the colour palette so you are stuck with the 32 colours.

If you select the text tool a message appears stating that this function is not yet available.

It isn't obvious how to finish editing a polygon. You basically continue selecting the shape until you are finished and then right click. There are no clues that this is the case and it is fairly unintuitive.

Gnome Paint could also do with some tool tips so that it is obvious when picking an item in the toolbox what that tool does.

GNU Paint

GNU Paint is another drawing program that looks and acts much like MS Paint. The actual design is more basic than Gnome Paint but functionality wise it is more advanced.

You can create basic shapes such as rectangles and circles and you can add free format lines.

The colour palette enables you to add more than the default 32 colours and the text function works.

Not quite as easy to use as Kolour Paint and it is a shame that there is no undo feature. Your average child would get to grips with it in no time at all.

Tux Paint

Tux Paint is unique compared to all the other packages and clearly the target audience is children.

The Tux Paint package is great. Not only can you add the standard shapes such as circles and rectangles but there are a whole host of effects that can be added such as grass, rain and bricks.

There is also a number of pre-defined images or stamps that can be added including Tux the penguin.

Grafx

Do you remember Deluxe Paint from the Commodore Amiga? Grafx is a clone of that package.

Some things from the past belong firmly in the past and in my opinion the Deluxe Paint way of doing things is definitely in that category.

The application is far too difficult and convoluted compared to many of the other packages.

I couldn't get to grips with the software at all. The mouse would get lost on the screen and even doing something as simple as changing the canvas background was too challenging.

I could have read the manual but I couldn't get the mouse to behave long enough to click on the icon.

XPaint

XPaint provides a good balance between functionality and ease of use. There is a canvas and a toolbox.

Each shape can be filled in or left hollow. There are a plethora of colours to choose from and you can define your own.

The text tool works well and there are even a few extras including filters. The shapes to choose from include rectangles, circles and polygons.

The Verdict

The best and most complete package was Tux Paint. It isn't a clone of MS Paint and has far more features, yet it is still easy to use.

The next best was Kolour Paint. It was more in line with the traditional paint package and included most of the features of MS Paint except the colour palettes were limited and there weren't as many predefined shapes. XPaint is also a decent enough application for basic drawing purposes.

Image Magick and GNU Paint were both reasonable but not really spectacular. Image Magick is much better utilised for basic image editing such as cropping and resizing photos.

Gnome Paint wasn't as polished as Kolour Paint but given a bit of love and care could easily be improved.

MT Paint, well, I'm not sure what the purpose of MT Paint is and Grafx is just overly confusing with no really good selling point.

Thankyou for reading.

GoodGame Empire

Spoiler alert. This article has nothing to do with Linux.

This is a review of the game "Goodgame Empire" which is a free online strategy game that you can play in your browser or via your Android phone.

Goodgame Empire is about building up a medieval village by expanding a settlement, building battlements, adding buildings, building up armies and collecting taxes.
You start off with a small settlement and through various tutorials expand the settlement by adding buildings and troops.

The game is multifaceted. Your job is to make sure that your villagers are happy and that your village remains guarded against enemy attacks.

You can add more troops and add buildings to help train the troops and then set about attacking other villages controlled by other players.

Planning attacks involves building up and placing troops and choosing whether to attack head on or outflank the opposition.

You have different types of warrior to help you attack enemy villages and they must be placed wisely to prevent annihilation.

The game isn't all about attacking other villages though. You have to keep the villagers happy and that is achieved by adding decorative features and keeping them well fed.

In order to be able to afford new troops, food and decorative features you have to earn money. You can earn money by adding new buildings where people can settle and then collect taxes from those people.

The game starts off quite slowly as you learn all of the features but once you get into it becomes quite addictive.

Goodgame Empire is free to play.

Click here to play.

The subjects that I write about on Everyday Linux User really just scrape the surface in terms of what Linux really is.

The point of Everyday Linux User is to help ordinary people decide whether they want to make the transition to Linux and to help them make that transition.

The idea is to let the average person find out about the best Linux distributions and the purpose of those distributions.

Beyond the reviews I also provide how-to guides including tutorials for creating live USB drives, testing virtual machines and installing the Linux distributions that I review.

I also write reviews of applications such as video editors, audio players, video players, graphics programs, office suites and games emulators.

There are areas that I don't touch and that is because I, in Linux terms, am just an end user or at best a power user. I know how to drive the thing and I have a rudimentary understanding of the engine but if you ask me to change a gasket and I am likely to end up with a warped head.

“How Linux Works (2nd Edition)”, authored by Brian Ward, is a book that really shows you the inner workings of Linux.

For those of you that bought the original version of "How Linux Works" it is worth knowing that the second edition has been completely revised and expanded with new content.
You won't find instructions for dual booting Ubuntu with Windows 8 in “How Linux Works” and nor will you find out how to install a particular graphical environment. That is not what
“How Linux Works” is about.

“How Linux Works” looks at the inner workings and details the philosophy of why Linux works the way it does.

The book is over 300 pages and split into 16 chapters. It starts with a chapter called “The Big Picture” which highlights the various levels that encompass a Linux system. At the very lowest level there is the physical hardware such as your hard drive and RAM. In the middle sits the Kernel which manages the memory, process and device drivers and at the top is the user space (which is the area Everyday Linux User focuses on).

The 2^nd chapter gives an overview of the basic commands used within Linux such as ls, cat, awk, grep and find. This chapter also covers the Linux folder structure.

The Linux folder structure is actually a very important concept to understand but most consumers of GNU/Linux probably don't venture much further than their own home folder.

For day to day use it isn't really an issue not knowing what all the other folders are for because package managers deal with installing applications and graphical tools handle settings but when it comes to switching from one distribution to another or upgrading a distribution that doesn't provide an upgrade tool it is vital to know the folders you need to back up.

Chapter 3 gives an overview of devices, how the dd command works and provides details of udev.

The book has lots to offer on almost every aspect of the Linux architecture but there is one chapter that should make most Linux newbies add this book to their basket and that is the chapter on disks and file systems.

The disks and file systems chapter gives a really good insight into partitions and file systems. One of the most common questions I am asked is “how do I partition my hard drive?” and that is usually followed by “how big should my swap partition be and do I need it?”.

How Linux Works has a good section detailing what swap space is and the reasons it is used. By understanding how something works and why it exists you can make a better judgement as to whether you need it or not.

Following on from the disks and file systems chapter there is another great chapter detailing the often hazardous and touchy subject of bootloaders. There is a good section showing how to install and configure Grub as well as information about UEFI.

Other chapters in the book deal with networking, resource utilisation, system configuration and shell scripting.

Before the finale, “How Linux Works” briefly encroaches into the world of Everyday Linux User looking at desktop environments, window managers and applications. What sets “How Linux Works” apart in this area though is the way it approaches the subject, giving a great amount of detail about how X works and the tools available. The book also touches upon potential forthcoming technologies such as Wayland and MIR.

My day job is as a software developer, writing Windows and web applications. I am also a qualified SQL Server database administrator. One thing that I have barely touched upon is developing software for Linux, although I have developed websites using PHP and MySQL.

For the uninitiated, working out how to obtain the source, edit the source and compile the packages is a daunting and confusing experience. “How Linux Works” gives a great overview on this very subject and helps to join up some of the dots.

In the past I have found books of a similar ilk as “How Linux Works” to be quite dry and difficult to read. They are usually very good for helping to get to sleep at night. “How Linux Works” is different though. It is very well written and each subject is clear and provides a good level of information without burying you in detail.

I would be lying if I told you that I understood every word that I read from cover to cover but on the whole I gained a lot of knowledge by reading this book and I thoroughly recommend it, especially if you want to get to grips with the inner workings and stray away from the comforts of the desktop.

“How Linux Works” is available from Amazon, nostarch.com and all major booksellers.

Introduction

It has been quite some time since I last reviewed a Puppy Linux distribution and I forgot how much fun it could be.

Barry Kauler has stopped developing Puppy Linux but the mantra has been taken up by the community and there are two main forks. Slacko Puppy is a version of Puppy Linux which utilises the Slackware Repositories and Puppy Tahr utilises the Ubuntu repositories.

In the past I have reviewed Lucid Puppy and Precise Puppy and I felt it was about time to give Puppy Tahr a go.

How To Get Puppy Tahr

I have written a guide at about.com showing how to download Puppy Tahr and how to create a bootable Puppy Tahr USB drive.

You can use UNetbootin to create a USB drive but I would advise using the tools that come with Puppy Linux.

After you have created a bootable USB drive it is worth rebooting your computer and creating the save file before continuing. The save file is used to provide persistence within Puppy Linux.

If you would prefer to you can click here to buy a Puppy Tahr DVD or Puppy Tahr USB Drive.

First Impressions

As it has been so long since I last reviewed Puppy Linux I am going to treat this as a whole new review as opposed to just listing the changes since the last version.

The first thing you should notice is that Puppy Tahr boots insanely fast even on the oldest of computers.

The screen is split into a number of different sections.

At the bottom is a standard panel with a menu and quick launch icons for showing the desktop, opening the web browser and opening a terminal. Next to the quick launch icons are the virtual workspace icons.

In the bottom right corner are icons for the firewall, clipboard manager, power settings, network settings, storage, audio settings and a clock.

There are lots of icons on the desktop.

The icons on the left side of the screen are split into 6 distinct rows.

The first row is about navigation and setting up Puppy Linux. Icons are included for the file manager, mounting drives, installing Puppy, setting up Puppy, opening an editor and opening a terminal window.

The second row of icons is about productivity. Abiword, Gnumeric, MTPaint and Inkscape Lite.

The third row of icons are web based tools including the browser icon, email icon and chat icon.

The fourth row is more of a mish-mash and includes icons for a calendar and media player.

The fifth row has one icon for connecting to the internet and the sixth row also has one icon which provides access to the quickpet tool which I will come to later.

Just above the panel at the bottom of the screen you will see a list of icons for the drives that are currently mounted.

On the right side of the screen there are further icons and these are for locking the screen, archive management and recycle bin.

There is one final icon which is located to the centre of the screen. This icon saves any changes you have made since the last savepoint to the save file.

The Puppy menu is a fairly basic affair. The menu has a list of categories and hovering over a category brings up the items within that category.

You can open the Puppy menu by clicking the icon in the bottom left or right clicking on the desktop.

Puppy Setup

The Puppy Setup tool can be accessed by clicking on the "Setup" icon on the desktop.

From the setup tool you can change your language (keyboard layout, language, timezone), choose startup options, configure your mouse and keyboard, adjust your audio settings, change your screen resolution, setup 3D graphics and setup a printer.

When Puppy boots it loads in a default save file. You can add further save files for Puppy to load during boot up by clicking on the "Startup" button in the Puppy Setup screen. You can also load extra kernel modules and drivers.

A single package in Puppy Linux is called a PET. An SFS file (save file) is like a collection of packages (PETs) which can be loaded all at once.

Simply download the SFS file and place it in /mnt/home and then click the button in the SFS-Packages tab and load the SFS file in.

Connecting To The Internet

The initial setting up of the internet connection in Puppy Linux has always been a little bit hit and miss.

There are a number of tools available for setting up an internet connection but I find it is a case of trial and error trying to find the one that is going to work for each particular release of Puppy Linux.

To set up an internet connection either open up the Puppy Setup application and choose "Internet" or click on the "Connect" icon on the desktop.

There are a number of options to choose from. If you want to connect to an ethernet or wireless connection choose the "Wired or Wireless LAN" option.

As mentioned previously there are a few options to choose from for connecting to the internet.

Simple Network Setup
Frisbee
Network Wizard

The Simple Network Setup in theory is the easiest way to get connected and the Network Wizard is the most difficult but more complete tool for adjusting settings.

The good news is that once you have your network set up you don't have to go through the same pain again. (Unless of course you need to connect to a different network).

Flash And MP3

Flash isn't installed by default but can easily be installed by clicking on the Quickpet icon.

I will cover that application more fully later on but to install Flash simply click on Quickpet, choose the "Internet" tab and click on "Flash".

You will be given the option to choose from a number of different versions of Flash.

MP3s didn't provide any cause for concern and played straight away without having to install codecs.

Applications

Puppy Tahr has a lot of applications installed by default but they are in the main lightweight in nature meaning that the performance is exceptional.

For productivity there is Abiword and Gnumeric. (Word processing and spreadsheets). These applications won't set your world on fire but are functional.

Inkscape Lite is fairly good as a drawing package but I'm not that enamoured with MTPaint which is the closest Puppy Linux gets to a Microsoft Paint clone.

I am quite impressed however with the Palemoon web browser. It is lightweight but has all the features I am looking for in a browser including tabs, bookmarks, decent rendering and the ability to play Flash videos. (Once Flash is installed).

I am also impressed with Sylpheed which is the email client. Again it is lightweight in nature but connecting to GMail was easy and the client supports many of the basic features you would expect from an email client.

There is an IRC chat client called XChat which has been pretty much a standard for IRC chat until recently. (Hexchat seems to be the client of choice for many distributions now though).

For watching videos the VLC media player is available and for listening to music there is DeaDBeeF. My main complaint with DeaDBeeF is the name. Trying to work out which letters to capitalise is a nightmare.

DeaDBeeF isn't going to win awards for beauty and it isn't as fully featured as Rhythmbox or Clementine but it sticks to the mantra of doing one thing and doing it well.

Puppy has a lot of little applications that make it stand out. For instance there are CD Rippers and DVD rippers. There is also an application called pupRadio/pupTelly which lets you stream online radio and television programs.

Installing Applications

There are two main ways to install applications using Puppy Linux. The first wy is to use the Quickpet application.

I touched upon this earlier on in the review.

Basically the Quickpet application provides a tabbed display split into categories:

Browsers
Internet
Audio
Video
Graphics
Games
Office and Other
Useful PETs
Desktops
Drivers

The Browsers tab lets you choose from a list of browsers including Firefox, Chromium, Seamonkey, Opera, Chrome, Tor and Slimboat.

The Internet tab gives options for installing Java, Flash, Skype, etc.

The Audio tab provides links for other audio players such as Guayadeque and qmmp. You can also install Spotify.

The Video tab has links to video players and editors and the Graphics tab has links to applications such as GIMP.

The Office tab has links for LibreOffice and fun stuff such as Virtualbox and WINE.

The Useful Pets tab has links for things like Conky and the Desktops tab lets you install LXDE and Compiz.

The other way to install applications is via the Install icon on the desktop.

The Install application not only enables you to create installation media for Puppy Linux it also provides links to the Puppy Package Manager.

You can also install official SFS files such as LibreOffice and Spotify from the Install application.

The Puppy Package Manager is a fairly standard application.

There is a list of repositories to choose from in the top left corner and below that a list of package types.

In the centre is a list of categories. Selecting a category changes the list of applications in the right pane.

Customising The Desktop

Puppy Linux provides a whole host of tools for customising the desktop including a wallpaper changer, theme changer, theme maker, icon changer, etc.

Puppy is like a swiss army knife of small Linux tools.

For something that comes in such a small package it is truly amazing.

Users

Puppy Linux is set to run as a single user system and therefore you are always the root user on a Puppy Linux system.

For those of you who feel uncomfortable about running as a root user you can change Puppy to run in either Spot or FIDO mode.

Summary

Puppy Linux continues to be a tremendous distribution. The performance is incredible and the amount of quality applications that are provided in such a small download is breathtaking.

The default applications won't appeal to everyone and they are built for functionality over style but the Quickpet application makes it possible to install old favourites like LibreOffice and GIMP.

It would be good if Puppy could get around booting on UEFI based machines but modern machines probably aren't the target market at the moment.

I would definitely recommend Puppy Linux for netbooks, older laptops and for computers that have no hard drives. It proves once and for all that you can teach an old dog (of a computer) new tricks.

Thankyou for reading.

I was idly looking through the press releases and news stories when I came across this article which talks about the new Debian fork called Devuan.

Devuan is a complete fork of the Debian system minus systemd.

I know that there are lots of people who aren't happy with the inclusion of systemd as part of the next release of Debian but to make such a radical decision to clone the entire thing and start your own project could be deemed overkill.

I can understand a single developer or a handful of developers taking a Debian or Ubuntu base and then creating a new distribution with a specific purpose in mind. I actually think smaller distributions are a good thing because they come up with and implement ideas that might not reach the light of day in one of the base distributions.

Many people are of the opinion however that it is better to pool resources and have just a few distributions where everybody works together to make those distributions as good as they can possibly be.

I am not sure that the Devuan fork is a good thing. In a democracy, we vote for people to make decisions on our behalf and if we don't like the decisions they make we either vote them out again or we move to another country that is more aligned to our way of thinking. In Linux terms this would mean if we don't like Debian then we would switch to another distribution.

In the UK at the moment there is a rail project being implemented which aims to reduce journey times between the north and the south, called HS2. It has greatly divided opinions as to whether it is or isn't a good idea.

People who live in the areas where the new infrastructure is being implemented aren't particularly happy. Where they used to overlook rolling green fields as far as the eye could see they now have heavy machinery and rail tracks. They are obviously against the idea.

People who live in the north and who regularly visit London will see the rail link as a good idea and will be happy that it is being implemented.

There are of course another group of people. The unaffected. These people don't care if HS2 is or is not implemented. They can see the argument from both sides but are largely uninterested.

The one thing that nobody is thinking of doing is creating an exact clone of the United Kingdom and moving it slightly to the left.

If a few developers working on their own Linux distribution is seen as counterproductive then what effect does it have when a whole group of developers take a mammoth distribution such as Debian and decide to fork it?

The people who are against systemd may well go over to Devuan but at what cost? Is productivity going to be as good, is it going to move forward as a distribution at the same pace as Debian would have had they stuck with it?

The people who are for systemd now have less people working on the distribution but are partly responsible for the split.

The people that lose out the most are those who don't care either way about systemd. There are now two projects instead of one with less people working on each.

What do you think about the new Devuan project? Is it a good idea or should the people involved look for a comprimise?

Being a sysadmin is a difficult job, but we can help. We’ve compiled a list of a few awesome apps perfect for any admin looking to make things a bit easier.

Being a systems administrator is a difficult, often thankless job. You’re one of the people responsible for keeping the entire IT infrastructure of your business up and running. What that means is that whenever something doesn’t work the way it should, all eyes immediately turn in your direction.

You can hardly be blamed for looking to make your life a bit easier. I’d actually recommend that you do so, truth be told. The less time you spend slogging through all the basics of administration, the more time you can devote to improving your server.

To that end, I’ve compiled a list of a few of the best sysadmin apps on the web; tools that any Linux administrator worth their salt should consider using.

ServerAuditor(Remote SSH)

ServerAuditor is quite possibly one of the most powerful remote SSH clients on the web. Even better, it’s available on Android, iOS, and the Chrome Web Store - meaning that you’ll have access to it no matter what system you’re using. Free users gain access to its highly-secure SSH terminal; users who shell out for a subscription, meanwhile, gain access to multiplatform synchronization through the cloud, an easy, Python-based SSH config tool, tabbed navigation*, an SFTP client*, and a screen widget that allows you to view all servers and active connections*.

*Android only.

Alternatives: ConnectBot, Prompt 2

Cura SysAdmin (Remote Server Administration)

If you’re running a Linux server, then Cura’s pretty much the best tool you’ll find if you’re looking for remote management. It makes maintenance, configuration, and general administration incredibly simple, equipping you with a personalized Terminal emulator, a Syslog module that lets you read logs directly from your server, a monitor that visually graphs your resource usage, login monitoring with notifications, general server statistics, and a remote wipe feature (in the event that your smartphone isn’t already equipped with one).

Alternatives: Servers Ultimate, Server Admin Remote

Server Monitor(Remote Monitoring)

If you’re just looking for a general monitoring app, then Server Monitor is just the ticket. It adds a widget to your Android device that allows you to monitor any number of servers. It allows you to keep track of everything from accessibility to ping between hosts. Better still, it’ll notify you if and when your server goes down - allowing you to respond immediately to any problems it may have encountered.

Alternatives: Pingdom, Pulseway

Hacker’s Keyboard(Usability/Ease Of Use)

Have you ever tried to configure your server through your Smartphone or Tablet and found yourself frustrated by the lack of functionality? If so, Hacker’s Keyboard should be like a dream come true. It’s a tool designed to make the soft keyboard on your tablet or phone a bit more like the one you’d find on a standard desktop - including separate number keys and arrow keys.

Alternatives: N/A

PushBullet(Productivity)

Last but certainly not least, we’ve a bit of an unusual choice for our fifth entry- an application known as PushBullet, which allows you to link all your devices together for a more unified workspace. That might not sound particularly useful at first glance, until you consider the fact that, as a systems administrator, you’re probably working with at least two or three separate devices on a daily basis.

As such, the capacity to link all those gadgets together into a single workstation - that includes files and notifications, by the way - should prove invaluable.

Alternatives:Trello

Anyway, there you have it - a few of our favorite apps for systems administrators. Got a suggestion of your own that didn’t appear on this list? Give us a shout in the comments - we’d love to hear from you!

About Graeme Caldwell -- Graeme works as an inbound marketer forInterWorx, a revolutionary web hosting control panel for hosts who need scalability and reliability. Follow InterWorx on Twitter at@interworx, Like them onFacebook and check out their blog,http://www.interworx.com/community.

Times Square

As the year draws to a close I just want to say a big thankyou to everybody who has visited this blog during 2014.

Here are a few highlights from the year:

Over 100 articles added to the site
Those articles generated 4,931,288 pageviews
The current total pageview count is over 10.5 million

There have been guest posts from the following people:

There have been interviews with the following people:

The blog has been mentioned in the following podcasts:

A big thankyou has to go out to sites that link to Everyday Linux User as well:

I would also like to thank the following people:

860 Feedburner Subscribers (Link in top right corner)
337 Email Subscribers (See the box on the right)
307 Twitter Followers (@dailylinuxuser)
91 Google+ Followers
Anyone who has commented on the articles

I would also like to thank the following people who have also helped to contribute during the year.

Amy Breuckman
Robert Schulties
Katherina Wittke
Reuben Rowles-Doble
Marlon Rigel

Of course the other person I have to thank is my Wife, Stephanie, who loses a lot of my time, as I write these articles. This year I turned 40 and my wife took me to New York as a surprise.

The significance of the photo is therefore from our time in New York and the fact that it is of Times Square, where many people will of course be seeing in the new year bells.

Happy New Year to all of you and of course my fellow Linux bloggers:

Dmitry (Linux Notes From Dark Duck)
Jim Lynch (JimLynch.com)
Igor Ljubuncic (Dedoimedo)

The first new article of 2015 will be out on Sunday, 4th January.

If you can't wait that long then visit About.com as a new article will be appearing tomorrow.

Introduction

It has been just over a year since I last reviewed Xubuntu, so this review is well overdue.

Xubuntu has been one of my favourite distributions for a long time and for a number of very good reasons.

Xubuntu comes with the XFCE desktop environment which means that it is lightweight and highly customisable.

What I also like about Xubuntu over some of the other XFCE based distributions is that it doesn't overload you with applications. You get just enough to cover the bases but it is then up to you to install what is important for your needs.

Finally, I also like the fact that Xubuntu has two panels. Oh wait a minute. The latest version of Xubuntu doesn't have two panels. It does however have an improved menu system.

Not to worry though, I will show you how to put the other one back in and actually this leaves scope to install another dock that I really like, Cairo.

How To Get Xubuntu

You can download Xubuntu by visiting this link.

There are two versions available, Xubuntu 14.04, which is the LTS release and Xubuntu 14.10 which is the one that I am reviewing in this article.

I have written a guide showing how to create a persistent Xubuntu USB drive using the downloaded ISO image.

I have also written a guide showing how to install Xubuntu to your hard drive.

Alternatively, Click here to buy a Xubuntu USB drive.

First Impressions

The XFCE interface that comes with Xubuntu has been greatly simplified. There is now just a single panel at the top of the screen and a handful of icons on the desktop.

In previous versions there used to be a second docking panel at the bottom of the screen which included launchers to commonly used applications. This is no longer there.

The top panel has a single menu icon in the left corner and in the right corner, icons for power settings, network settings, audio settings and the all important clock.

The new menu has a really nice user interface with a search box at the top, a list of categories to the right and the applications listed in the main panel to the left.

The items in the menu change depending on the category that you have selected. By default your favourite items are shown.

You can add items to the favourites menu by right clicking on them and selecting "add to favourites".

Customising Xubuntu

I have a full article lined up about how to customise Xubuntu and so I'm not going to go too far into it here but needless to say that the XFCE desktop makes Xubuntu the perfect playground for people who like to pimp their distro.

Lets start with a few basic things. First of all changing the desktop background is simply a case of right clicking on the desktop and choosing "Desktop Settings".

There are a number of nice stock photographs included with Xubuntu 14.10 but you can also choose to have a plain colour or one of your own images.

To choose one of your own images click on the folder dropdown and change it to the location where your background image resides.

Alternatively copy the background image to /usr/share/xfce/backdrops.

Another thing you might wish to change is the number of icons and the type of icons that appear on the desktop.

Click on the icons tab from within the desktop settings screen.

From the icons tab you can choose the size of the icons and the default desktop icons such as file system, wastebasket and removable devices.

One thing missing from the Xubuntu panel is a workspace switcher. To add a workspace switcher, right click on the top panel and select "Panel -> Add new items".

Scroll down to the bottom of the list and click on "Workspace Switcher" and then "Add".

The workspace switcher will appear after the clock. You can move it along a bit by right clicking on it and selecting "move".

There is currently only 1 desktop active within Xubuntu so to make the workspace switcher useful right click and choose "properties".

Click the "Workspace Settings" button and from the window that opens increase the number of workspaces to the amount you require.

When you get back to the properties window increase the number of rows and click close.

Finally lets deal with the missing panel. Right click on the top panel and choose "Panel -> Panel Preferences".

To add a new panel click the plus symbol. A new panel will appear as a little box.

Drag the panel down to the bottom of the screen.

Change the mode to "Horizontal".

Adjust the row size, set the length and check the "automatically increase the length" checkbox.

I always set the length to a value shorter than required so that it expands automatically.

Click on the items tab to start adding items.

For me, the point of the 2nd panel is to add launchers to my most commonly used applications.

You can add new items to the bottom panel in the same way you added a new item to the top panel.

An alternative to adding another XFCE panel is to install cairo-dock which gives your desktop an altogether different look and feel.

Connect To The Internet

Connecting to the internet using Xubuntu is fairly straight forward. Click on the network icon in the top right corner and choose the wireless network you wish to connect to (unless you wish to connect via ethernet cable in which case just connect up and go).

After selecting a wireless network you will be asked to enter the security key. (You only have to do this once, on subsequent boots the key will be remembered)

Flash And MP3

Nothing has really changed with Flash and MP3 settings within Xubuntu (or Ubuntu) since the outset.

During the installation stage you have the chance to check a box that enables you to play Flash videos and MP3 audio.

If you chose not to check the box during the installation stage, you will still be able to install the Xubuntu Restricted Extras package.

Flash is a bit of an issue now within Linux as no further updates are released for it. The best way to overcome this is to install Google's Chrome browser. Flash will hopefully become a non-entity in the future.

Applications

As mentioned during the introduction. Xubuntu has enough applications to get you started and then it is up to you to install anything else you need.

The applications are lightweight and responsive which makes Xubuntu great for older hardware and netbooks.

Accessories

Archive Manager
Calculator
Catfish File Search
Thunar File Manager
Screenshot
Terminal Emulator
Xfburn Disk Burning

Games

Mines
Sudoku

Graphics

Document Viewer (PDF viewer)
GIMP Image Editor
Ristretto Image Viewer

Internet

Firefox Web Browser
Pidgin Instant Messenger
Thunderbird Email Client
Transmission Bittorrent Client

Multimedia

gmusicbrowser Audio Player
Parole Media Player

Office

Abiword Word Processor
Gnumeric Spreadsheet
Orage PIM

If you use office tools for writing letters and keeping budgets then Abiword and Gnumeric will suffice. If you need more functionality then you will need to install something like LibreOffice.

You won't find a better image editor for Linux than GIMP and I find it interesting that this application is included because it isn't at all lightweight in nature.

Thunderbird is one of the best email clients available for Linux and Firefox is arguably the best web browser.

I really like gmusicbrowser as an audio application. It is uncomplicated and basic and it has a nice feature that lets you change the look and feel so that it looks like many of the other audio players you may have used including iTunes, Rhythmbox and Exaile.

Installing Applications

To install further applications within Xubuntu you can use the Software Centre.

The software centre has a list of categories down the left and a list of new and top rated items.

The most useful part of the interface is the search box.

Enter the name of the application or a keyword to describe the application in the search box to reveal a list of results.

What's new?

The release notes for Xubuntu 14.10 can be found here.

Issues

I have been using Xubuntu on one of my laptops since October and I can honestly say that I haven't seen any nasties.

There are some listed issues within the release notes though as follows:

com32r error on boot with some live usb sticks (1325801)
Virtualbox can start with a black screen (1378423)
Black background to Try/Install dialogue (1365815)
Qt apps don't use the Gtk+ style by default, workaround is to install qt4-qtconfig and set the style there

Summary

Xubuntu just keeps rolling on really. If you are looking for a distribution to customise or something lightweight then there aren't any other distributions that I would consider before Xubuntu.

I don't like the fact that the bottom panel has been removed and I instantly put it back again. (Hardly a reason for me to consider using anything else).

If you want to get serious work done then with a bit of customisation Xubuntu will stay out of your way.

If you want to jazz your desktop up then Xubuntu lets you add all the glitz and glamour you require.

Xubuntu works great on old and new hardware.

I have nothing at all bad to say about Xubuntu. It is still one of my favourite distributions.

Thankyou for reading.

Introduction

(Article published on the 11th January, 2015)

I have reviewed every version of Peppermint Linux since version 2 and it is a distribution that I have only had positive things to say about.

(Read the reviews here: Peppermint 4, Peppermint 3 and Peppermint 2).

I wasn't actually planning to do a review of Peppermint 5 yet. This article was going to be about the 2000+ games that have just been added to the Internet Archive site as they are all playable via a web browser.

I was planning to write an article stating that Peppermint 5 would be the perfect distribution to use to play those games for the following reasons:

the lightweight nature of the desktop
It is easy to set up XBOX controllers and bluetooth controllers
You can easily map joystick commands to key strokes
The ICE application within Peppermint which lets you turn any web application into a desktop application.

Unfortunately it didn't all go to plan and for this reason I have instead decided to write a review about Peppermint Linux 5, highlighting the issues that I found.

Installing Peppermint 5

Click here to download Peppermint Linux 5.

You will find links halfway down the page to download 32-bit and 64-bit versions. You can also purchase a USB stick on the same site.

This guide shows how to install Peppermint Linux.

First Impressions

Before I start I wanted to give you a bit of background information about Peppermint OS 5 (all of this information can be found in the release notes)

Peppermint 5 is a bit of an eclectic mix of Ubuntu, LXDE, XFCE and Mint. The main Peppermint distribution is based on Ubuntu 14.04 which is the long term support release.

The desktop is LXDE but the window manager is XFWM4 which is part of the XFCE desktop. The graphical package manager MintInstall is part of the Linux Mint distribution.

Visually what you see when you first log in is a dark desktop background with a single panel at the bottom.

The panel has a menu icon in the bottom left and a series of icons in the bottom right including workspaces, power settings, network settings, audio settings, the clock and a power button.

The menu is a fairly basic affair with a list of categories and items within the category.

This sort of menu system is fine until you have lots of items within a particular category. The menus become harder to scroll through at this point.

Connecting To The Internet

To connect to the internet click on the network icon in the bottom right corner. A list of available networks will appear.

Choose the network you wish to connect to and enter the security key (if required).

Flash and MP3

The default browser within Peppermint is Chromium and Flash just works without any further intervention.

The default audio player is Guayadeque. Although it is a fairly basic audio application, it works and is easy enough to use.

Unfortunately when I imported my Billy Idol Greatest Hits CD it wouldn't play. This is a slight regression. In Peppermint 4 this error didn't appear but it was present in Peppermint 3.

The easiest way to get MP3s to play is to install one of the "restricted extras" packages. I will go into this in more detail later. (or check the install Fluendo option when installing Peppermint)

Applications

The unique selling point of Peppermint over Lubuntu and other similar Linux distributions is the way that it integrates web applications as desktop applications. There are therefore only a handful of applications that are installed by default and many of the items link to web applications which require an internet connection.

Accessories

Archive Manager
Calculator
PCManFM
Screenshot
Terminal
GEdit Text Editor

Games

2D / 3D Chess (Web Application, requires internet connection)
Entanglement (Web Application, requires internet connection)
First Person Tetris (Web Application, requires internet connection)
Mahjongg (Web Application, requires internet connection)
Solitr (Solitaire) (Web Application, requires internet connection)

Graphics

Document Viewer
Mirage Image Viewer
Pixlr Image Editor (Web Application, requires internet connection)

Internet

Transmission Bittorrent Client
Chromium Web Browser
Dropbox
ICE (Tool to embed Web applications and Desktop applications)

Office

GMail (Web Application, requires internet connection)
Google Calendar (Web Application, requires internet connection)
Google Drive (Web Application, requires internet connection)

Sound And Video

Gnome MPlayer (Media Player)
Guayadeque (Audio Player)

Installing Applications (Desktop Applications)

The graphical application manager used to install applications within Peppermint is the Mint Installer.

You can browse for applications by selecting a category and searching through the list. Each item has a rating which has been provided by Linux Mint users. This provides a useful guide when deciding whether to go with one application or another.

To find a specific application use the search box in the top right corner. If you want to install the "Restricted Extras" package in order to play MP3s search for "restricted".

Normally when I am installing the "Restricted Extras" package I choose the one relevant to the system I am installing against. For instance if I am using Ubuntu I select the "Ubuntu Restricted Extras" and for Lubuntu I select the "Lubuntu Restricted Extras" package. It isn't perfectly obvious which package you should choose for Peppermint, I went for the Lubuntu one and it resolved the MP3 playback issue mentioned earlier.

Turn Web Applications Into Desktop Applications

You should hopefully be able to see that Peppermint OS is much like any other Linux distribution with a graphical desktop, a series of applications and the ability to install further applications from a graphical package manager.

The one thing that sets Peppermint OS apart is the ICE editor which makes it possible to turn web applications into desktop applications.

The ICE application is available from the Internet category on the Peppermint menu. When the application loads you can enter a name for the program, paste in the URL of the web application and select the menu you wish the application to appear under. You can also select an icon or use the favicon of the site that hosts the web application.

The application will appear under the menu category you selected and when you click on the icon the application will load in a window much like any other desktop application.

As you can see from the image above, I used the ICE application to create a desktop application version of Grooveshark and.it works perfectly.

I read an article during the week which states that over 2000 classic MSDOS games have been added to the Internet Archive.

I checked out the site and it is possible to play all of the games within a browser window using a customised version of the MESS emulator. Some of the comments that I read said that the archive have gone for quantity over quality and that it is hard to search for games.

I checked out the archive and there is a certain amount of browsing involved to find games but I actually think that is a good thing, a bit like a lucky dip. When you find a game that you like you can simply bookmark the page.

With Peppermint OS I thought that you could turn each of the games into a desktop application using the ICE application and you would then be able to select them from your games category.

Unfortunately the ICE editor loses some of the path when you paste in the URL as the next screenshot demonstrates.

One of the reasons I believe Peppermint uses the LXDE desktop is the fact that it is easy to create menu items.

Every item you create using the ICE editor has an associated .desktop file within the folder /home/<user>/.local/share/applications.

If you open up a .desktop file it has a series of configuration settings as follows:

[Desktop Entry]

Version=1.0

Name=Prince Of Persia

Exec=Chromium-browser --application=https://archive.org/stream/msdos_Prince_of_Persia_1990/Prince_of_Persia_1990.zip

Terminal=false

X-MultipleArgs=false

Type=Application

Icon=/home/gary/.local/share/ico/princeofpersia.ico

Categories=gtk;Game;

MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml_xml;

StartupWMClass=Chromium

StartupNotify=true

The Name entry is the name of the application and the Exec entry is the application which will run.

The issue occurs because the Exec string has been truncated. The bit after application= should be https://archive.org/stream/msdos_Prince_of_Persia_1990/Prince_of_Persia_1990.zip?module=dosbox&scale=2. Notice that everything after the ? has been truncated.

Now obviously to get the game working I changed the text in the file and saved it and then the game worked properly as shown below.

If the ICE application worked perfectly and you followed this guide to set up your joypad using QJoypad as shown in this guide then you would have a decent retro gaming machine.

The ICE editor is a great tool but it is a shame that it doesn't quite work for all applications.

Customising Peppermint

The LXDE desktop has loads of customisation features as shown in this guide.

Within Peppermint, the desktop wallpaper is kind of dull and the whole appearance can be spruced up by right clicking and selecting desktop settings.

You can change the wallpaper by choosing one that is installed on your computer. If you don't have any good images to use search on Google Images.

I decided to create a desktop application using ICE to search Google Images for desktop wallpapers. This would be a nice little desktop tool for changing wallpapers but unfortunately it failed for the same reason as the Internet Archive games.

The "Desktop Preferences" application which is used to change the wallpaper has other settings such as changing desktop icons.

One of the items in "Desktop Preferences" is a checkbox which when clicked should "show menus provided by window manager when desktop is clicked". I checked this box and this had the effect of turning off the right click menu and nothing else happened. I think the problem may be the use of the XFWM window manager mixed in with LXDE settings.

Issues

Most of the issues that I found are listed within the release notes.

To summarise:

ICE loses some of the path when creating desktop applications
Some desktop preference settings don't work
The ability to play MP3s straight out of the box have regressed, requiring the restricted extras package to be installed
The Chromium browser has issues when you minimise and maximise as shown below.

Summary

I really like Peppermint OS but there appears to be some regression and more issues since the previous release.

I am not sure of the reasons for mixing and matching LXDE and XFCE components but I think it would be a good idea to just standardise so that you only use LXDE or XFCE and not a combination of both.

If the ICE bug can be fixed then the use of Peppermint with the Internet Archive would enable you to use a machine with low specifications as a retro games console. (Ultimately what I was trying to do initially).

Peppermint is a good distribution with some good concepts but I think it has become a little bit confused with its identity.

Hopefully Peppermint 6 will resolve some of the issues mentioned.

Introduction

This is a strange article for me to write as I am normally in a position where I would advocate installing Ubuntu and getting rid of Windows.

What makes writing this article today doubly strange is that I am choosing to write it on the day that Windows 7 mainstream support comes to an end.

So why am I writing this now?

I have been asked on so many occasions now how to remove Ubuntu from a dual booting Windows 7 or a dual booting Windows 8 system and it just makes sense to write the article.

I spent the Christmas period looking through the comments that people have left on articles and it is time to write the posts that are missing and update some of those that have become old and need attention.

I am going to spend the rest of January doing just that. This is the first step. If you have Windows 7 dual booting with Ubuntu and you want Windows 7 back without restoring to factory settings follow this guide. (Note there is a separate guide required for Windows 8)

The Steps Required To Remove Ubuntu

Remove Grub By Fixing The Windows Boot Record
Delete The Ubuntu Partitions
Expand The Windows Partition

Back Up Your System

Before you begin I recommend taking a backup of your system.

I also recommend not leaving this to chance nor Microsoft's own tools.

Click here for a guide showing how to backup your drive using Macrium Reflect.

If you have any data you wish to save within Ubuntu log into it now and back up the data to external hard drives, USB drives or DVDs.

Step 1 - Remove The Grub Boot Menu

When you boot your system you will see a menu similar to the one in the image.

To remove this menu and boot straight into Windows you have to fix the master boot record.

To do this I am going to show you how to create a system recovery disk, how to boot to the recovery disk and how to fix the master boot record.

Press the "Start" button and search for "backup and restore". Click the icon that appears.

A window should open as shown in the image above.

Click on "Create a system repair disc".

You will need a blank DVD.

Insert the blank DVD in the drive and select your DVD drive from the dropdown list.

Click "Create Disc".

Restart your computer leaving the disk in and when the message appears to boot from CD press "Enter" on the keyboard.

A set of "Systems Recovery Options" screens will appear.

You will be asked to choose your keyboard layout.

Choose the appropriate options from the lists provided and click "Next".

The next screen lets you choose an operating system to attempt to fix.

Alternatively you can restore your computer using a system image saved earlier.

Leave the top option checked and click "Next".

You will now see a screen with options to repair your disk and restore your system etc.

All you need to do is fix the master boot record and this can be done from the command prompt.

Click "Command Prompt".

Now simply type the following command into the command prompt:

bootrec.exe /fixmbr

A message will appear stating that the operation has completed successfully.

You can now close the command prompt window.

Click the "Restart" button and remove the DVD.

Your computer should boot straight into Windows 7.

Step 2 - Delete The Ubuntu Partitions

To delete Ubuntu you need to use the "Disk Management" tool from within Windows.

Press "Start" and type "Create and format hard disk partitions" into the search box. A window will appear similar to the image above.

Now my screen above isn't going to be quite the same as yours but it won't be much different. If you look at disk 0 there is 101 MB of unallocated space and then 4 partitions.

The 101 MB of space is a mistake I made when installing Windows 7 in the first place. The C: drive is Windows 7, the next partition (46.57 GB) is Ubuntu's root partition. The 287 GB partition is the /HOME partition and the 8 GB partition is the SWAP space.

The only one we really need for Windows is the C: drive so the rest can be deleted.

Note: Be careful. You may have recovery partitions on the disk. Do not delete the recovery partitions. They should be labelled and will have file systems set to NTFS or FAT32

Right click on one of the partitions you wish to delete (i.e. the root, home and swap partitions) and from the menu click "Delete Volume".

(Do not delete any partitions that have a file system of NTFS or FAT32)

Repeat this process for the other two partitions.

After the partitions have been deleted you will have a large area of free space. Right click the free space and choose delete.

Your disk will now contain your C drive and a large amount of unallocated space.

Step 3 - Expand The Windows Partition

The final step is to expand Windows so that it is one large partition again.

To do this right click on the Windows partition (C: drive) and choose "Extend Volume".

When the Window to the left appears click "Next",

The next screen shows a wizard whereby you can select the disks to expand to and change the size to expand to.

By default the wizard shows the maximum amount of disk space it can claim from unallocated space.

Accept the defaults and click "Next".

The final screen shows the settings that you chose from the previous screen.

Click "Finish" to expand the disk.

As you can see from the image above my Windows partition now takes up the entire disk (except for the 101 MB that I accidentally created before installing Windows in the first place).

Summary

That is all folks. A site dedicated to Linux has just shown you how to remove Linux and replace it with Windows 7.

Any questions? Use the comments section below.

Introduction

Last year I wrote an article called "Analysis Of The Top 10 Linux Operating Systems".

The premise behind that article was to look at the top 10 distributions of 2013, as listed on Distrowatch, in order to define their suitability for the average computer user.

There was a little bit of confusion with that article because in the comments some people thought it was just a list of my favourite distributions:

"I may be a bit fanboy-ish, but, what about Enlightenment DE?"

"I think Gentoo as well deserves few words in this article. Maybe the most complex user experience, the real hard way...I am not using it, maybe never will, but it is there... "

Another complaint that I received was that I called them the "top 10 Linux Operating Systems". I have therefore changed the title this year to say the "top 10 Linux Distributions".

Just to be clear then, this is a list of the top 10 Linux distributions of 2014 as defined by Distrowatch. The point is to show how suitable the distributions are for the Everyday Linux User.

1. Linux Mint

It is quite clear to me why Linux Mint is number one in the list. It is easy to install, provides a very familiar desktop experience and provides access to a massive repository of free software.

Linux Mint takes everything that Ubuntu has to offer and packages it in a non-complicated yet stylish manner.

Everything you need to get you started is ready without having to install codecs, drivers and extra packages.

LibreOffice, GIMP, FireFox, Thunderbird, Banshee and VLC are all included by default and the Mint Installer provides a nicer interface than Ubuntu's Software Centre.

Click here for a full review of Linux Mint 17

2. Ubuntu

If Linux Mint is the most popular distribution on Distrowatch then Ubuntu is the most well known.

Personally I actually prefer Ubuntu to Linux Mint but I can understand why some users prefer Linux Mint.

The Unity Desktop is great when you get used to it but some people prefer the more traditional offering provided by the Cinnamon or MATE desktops.

Ubuntu is easy to install and comes with a fairly complete set of applications installed by default including LibreOffice and Rhythmbox.

You can install Fluendo during installation in order to play MP3 files or you can install the Ubuntu Restricted Extras package post installation.

Ubuntu runs better on modern hardware so if you have an older computer you might prefer to use one of the other flavours such as Xubuntu, Lubuntu or Ubuntu MATE.

Click here for a full review of Ubuntu

3. Debian

Debian is the Linux distribution that many other distributions are based on. Debian has a huge set of repositories and makes itself easy to build upon.

Last year I suggested that Debian was a next step distribution as it is harder to install and doesn't come with all the features of Ubuntu or Mint.

When I tried Debian a few months ago my opinion changed somewhat. It is still easier to install and use Linux Mint and Ubuntu but if you download and use the minimal Debian ISO you are able to choose everything you want as you go along and there are options for installing a desktop with a base set of applications.

The most confusing thing about Debian is the website. For instance here is a link to the downloads page. Pretend that you are a new user and try to find the correct download image to install Debian.

If you are an average computer user you might want to try either Ubuntu or Mint first and then move to Debian later.

Click here for a review of Debian.

4. openSUSE

openSUSE is the first distribution in this list that doesn't have any links to Debian. (Other than the fact that they are both Linux distributions).

There are various desktop variations available for openSUSE including Gnome 3 and KDE.

I tried the KDE version of openSUSE in 2014 and I really liked it. Ubuntu and Mint are in my opinion easier to use but openSUSE is a great alternative.

The KDE desktop provides a level of familiarity for ex-Windows users and the default installation of openSUSE includes LibreOffice, Firefox and Amarok.

Multimedia codecs aren't included by default and you have to connect to an alternative repository in order to install them.

The graphical package installer is called Yast and is a little bit rough and ready compared to the Mint installer and the Ubuntu Software Centre but it is less fussy.

Click here for a full review of openSUSE.

5. Fedora

I haven't tried Fedora since version 18. Version 21 has just been released.

Fedora is based on Red Hat Linux and has been used as a place to try out new things. This generally means that Fedora is cutting edge with all the latest features but at the same time some things work well and some things don't.

Last time I tried Fedora the installer was tricky to fathom out and getting things like MP3s to play wasn't as straight forward as it is for other distributions.

I think it is unfair to trust my experiences of an older version of Fedora to help you make up your mind whether it is for you or not.

This review of Fedora 21 by Dedoimedo states that the installation turned out to be a very difficult task. There were also issues with installing the codecs.

Dedoimedo installed the KDE version and the default applications were Firefox, KMail, Amarok and the Calligra suite.

To get a balanced opinion here is a review of Fedora 21 by Jim Lynch. Jim went for the Gnome desktop environment.

Jim's opinion of the installer is that it is quite good albeit different from the type of installer that many Ubuntu and Mint users will be used to.

The Gnome version of Fedora comes with LibreOffice, Rhythmbox and Firefox.

I think the most important part of either review that Everyday Linux Users should be aware of is in Jim's summing up of Fedora:

Now one question remains: should you use Fedora? You most certainly can use it as your main desktop distribution, but remember that Fedora 21 Workstation is geared toward developers. Casual users can and should check it out, but there are things in it that might have no appeal to non-developers (such as the DevAssistant). If that’s a deal breaker for you then Linux Mint, one of the Ubuntus or some other distribution might be a better option.

6. Mageia

Mageia is my "Eleanor". For those of you who haven't seen "Gone In 60 Seconds", "Eleanor" is the term that Nicholas Cage gives to a Ford Mustang which is a beauty of a car that has always managed to get him into trouble.

Mageia is clearly popular and I know of many users who swear by Mageia but I have always found it tricky to use when compared to Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, PCLinuxOS and many other distributions.

Mageia is based on what used to be Mandriva (Mandrake) Linux.

When I last used Mageia I found the installation fairly straight forward and I could play MP3s straight away but I had to install the Flash player so that it worked with Firefox.

The last version I tried was version 3 and version 4 is now out and therefore it is worth looking at other people's reviews to determine whether it is suitable for the average computer user.

I couldn't find a review of Mageia 4 from Dedoimedo so here is a link to his review of version 3. It is very short. It won't take long to read.

For a more positive review of Mageia, read this one from the "My Linux Explore" website. Arindem Sen rates it 8.7 out of 10.

I rate Mageia's latest release quite high for the additional level of user control it provides in installation and usage. Mageia 4 is perfect for users looking for a stable KDE spin which is aesthetically pleasing and gives reasonably good performance. Personally I rate Mageia KDE as the best among Mandriva forked distros (including ROSA and PCLinuxOS).

I would personally check out PCLinuxOS first but Mageia should be an option for the Everyday Linux User.

7. Arch

There are different types of people who drive cars. For instance there are drivers who get in the car and drive from A to B but have no idea how to put petrol in it. At the other end of the scale there are the drivers who know everything about their car having customised it to within an inch of its life. There are obviously various other groups of driver in between.

The same analogies work for computer users. Some computer users know how to use a web browser but probably don't even know it is called a web browser. These users would definitely be better off using Linux Mint than Arch.

The average computer user might find learning Arch tricky and for many users it would be unnecessary to go down this route.

Bizarrely one of the questions I get asked the most is "Which distribution should I use?". Now that doesn't really sound too bizarre because I review distributions but when that question is backed up as follows it worries me a little bit:

I am thinking of switching to Linux for the first time, which distro would be best? I was thinking either Ubuntu or Arch.

I suspect that some of these users have been on Reddit which has an evangelical Arch following whereby the answer to the "which distro should I use" question is always Arch.

Arch has great documentation and if you decide you wish to go down the Arch route then there is a clear set of guidelines showing how to get where you want to be but there is a learning curve and if you are in the class of casual computer user who likes to surf the web and do a little bit of gaming then it might not be for you.

You know that you are entering unchartered waters when you find it difficult to find reviews of a Linux distribution. I suspect that many reviewers steer clear due to the complexity levels involved.

Click here for a review of Arch Linux.

8. Elementary

Elementary is the first entry into this list that wasn't in last year's list.

If Arch is one to be wary of then Elementary is certainly a Linux distribution that many Everyday Linux Users would appreciate.

Based on Ubuntu, Elementary provides a really stylish user interface which is clean and lean.

Elementary is more lightweight in nature than Linux Mint or Ubuntu and so works well on older hardware as well as modern computers.

I had issues getting Flash to work when I last tried Elementary but that was some time ago now. MP3s don't work from the outset but the moment you try and play one for the first time you are asked whether you want to install the necessary plugins.

Click here for my review of Elementary OS.

Here is a counter review of Elementary OS by Dedoimedo.

9. CentOS

I have never used CentOS and it is new to the list for this year. According to Wikipedia, CentOS is a community Linux distribution which aims to be functionally compatible with it's parent distributiion, Red Hat Linux.

If Fedora has been something of a playground for trying out new features then CentOS is more of a stable, secure and user centric distribution.

With that in mind CentOS should be perfect for the Everyday Linux User and I aim to review this distribution this year.

Here is something that doesn't really add up though. Whilst looking for reviews of CentOS I felt the impression was largely negative, for instance:

I feel CentOS 7 has been rushed out to market too early, with less than its flawless and most stringent QA that used to be in the past. It comes with a few glaring problems that do not belong in a serious distro. And since you can't be having any extras, its merit as a desktop candidate is even further reduced. - Dedoimedo

There is a thread at Linuxquestions.org which has a number of disgruntled would be users.

10. Zorin

ZorinOS is definitely a distribution worth checking out if you are an Everyday Linux User. If you come from a Windows background you will appreciate the attention to detail in making the transition as easy as possible.

Multimedia codecs are installed by default meaning you can play Flash videos and listen to MP3 audio without ferreting through software repositories.

The software that comes pre-installed is fairly extensive as well with GIMP, Firefox, LibreOffice and Rhythmbox all available.

Zorin has a lot of desktop gadgets and effects including wobbly windows and desktop cubes.

Unique tools include the ability to change the desktop to look like Windows 2000, Windows 7, MacOS and Gnome 2.

Click here for a full review of ZorinOS.

Summary

For the average desktop computer user I would recommend Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Zorin, Elementary and openSUSE as first choices with Debian, Fedora, Mageia and CentOS as secondary options. I would only choose Arch if you really want to control every aspect of your computer from top to bottom or you have an interest in learning more about the underpinnings of using Linux.

The three distributions that were in the top 10 last year that aren't in this year are PCLinuxOS, Manjaro and Puppy Linux.

They haven't slipped far down the order with Puppy at number 11, PCLinuxOS as 15 and Manjaro at 16. You might want to check out them out.

Click here for last year's analysis of the top 10 Linux distributions.

Thankyou for reading.