Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux helpSpecial Offers
NewsVac: News from around the Web
-
The Big X Window Manager Guide (with Screenshots)
6 days, 10 hours ago
This time we’ll take a look at the various interesting window managers for the X Window System which aren’t (necessarily) a part of a certain desktop environment. So what are window managers? Officially, a window manager in GNU/Linux is a piece of software which controls placement and appearance of windows in a graphical user interface in X. So, what you get is a module which could be used in a desktop environment, or as a desktop environment (in conjuction with other modules, such as a idesk). All the WMs listed here can easily be obtained through your distribution’s respective repositories. You can also visit the project’s website and download the WM from there. -
Exaile Music Player Review - A Good Choice for the GTK Fans
1 week ago
Exaile is an audio player built in GTK, and although it's not as popular as Banshee, Rhythmbox or Audacious, it's feature-complete and offers a unique concept by using multiple tabs for showing several playlists, each one in its own tab, and other dozens of good features which an audiophile will definitely find useful. -
KDE on KDE 4.0
1 week, 1 day ago
There has been a bit of a dustup about KDE 4.0. A lot of opinions have been expressed, but I thought you might like to hear from KDE. So I wrote to them and asked if they'd be willing to explain their choices and answer the main complaints. They graciously agreed. -
As shares tumble, Nvidia faces minor meltdown
1 week, 3 days ago
Nvidia is going through some trying times, grappling with defective chips, falling shares, and a resurgent AMD-ATI. -
Audio/Visual synthesis for Linux: the new art, part 1
3 weeks, 2 days ago
"The Linux Journal recently published an article I wrote on Jean-Pierre Lemoine's AVSynthesis, a program designed for artists working with the computer as a medium for the synthesis of image and sound. I'm fascinated by that program, so I decided to research the existence of similar software. This article presents the current findings from that research .... " -
ATI Radeon HD 4850 Linux performance
3 weeks, 2 days ago
"Last week we exclusively shared the steps AMD was taking to make an evolutionary leap in Linux support with same-day support for their brand-new Radeon HD 4800 series, Linux drivers shipping on the product CD, some manufacturers showcasing Tux on the product packaging, and their proprietary Linux driver reaching a feature parity with their Windows driver .... " -
Where Is Mainstream Video Content On Desktop Linux?
1 month, 1 week ago
One has to admit, regardless of their feelings of just how idiotic the idea behind Digital Rights Management (DRM) may be, it is frustrating to watch the other two platforms have content we cannot enjoy ourselves. -
10 Best KDE Applications Not Included in KDE
1 month, 1 week ago
Review of the best ten applications which don't ship by default in KDE: Amarok, K3b, KTorrent, DigiKam, Kid3, KVirc, Gwenview, Kaffeine, KDevelop, Yakuake. -
Is OGG Theora Still A Viable Codec?
1 month, 1 week ago
Don’t misunderstand me, as I’m not preaching the value of proprietary codecs. Despite Theora's shortcomings with rendering speed and overall playback quality in comparison to proprietary alternatives, this does not mean that all open source codecs are loosing ground in the fight for your video viewing freedom. -
Flickrfs -- a virtual filesystem for accessing Flickr photos
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Adding photos to Flickr using web browser can be a very annoying procedure. Thus, the better solution is to use tools, which enable us to maintain our Flickr account directly from the file manager or desktop application. Linux users may choose several solutions. . I will present Flickrfs and Desktop Flickr Organizer. -
The Progress Of X.Org 7.4
2 months, 2 weeks ago
If all goes according to plan, X.Org 7.4 will finally be released this month. This release isn't quite as elaborate as X.Org 7.3, which introduced input hot-plugging, EXA enhancements, and RandR 1.2 to just name a few features, but X.Org 7.4 is another update better enhancing this X server. In this article, we are presenting a release overview of the features to be found in X.Org 7.4, what's been delayed, and how this release is panning out. -
An open palette: Tux Paint's Bill Kendrick
2 months, 2 weeks ago
Bill Kendrick on Tux Paint, Tux4Kids, the GSoC, computer games, KDE, Debian, the spread of Linux and open source software in education. -
Amazon's Linux answer to iTunes is a winner
4 months, 2 weeks ago
"Are you a Linux user suffering from iTunes store envy? If so, Amazon has a deal for you. While any good Linux media player, like my own personal favorite Banshee, will let you rip music from CDs, there hasn't been a good source to buy music online for Linux players ... until now." -
KDE 4.0: Everything that has an end, has a beginning
6 months ago
This review's based on KDE 4.0 installed on openSUSE 10.3. If you're running openSUSE 10.3, KDE 4.0 is extremely easy to install. (Apologies to the Wachowski brothers for the title.) -
LV2 audio plugin standard released
6 months, 1 week ago
"LV2 is a standard for plugins and matching host applications, mainly targeted at audio processing and generation .... LV2 is a simple but extensible successor of LADSPA, intended to address the limitations of LADSPA which many applications have outgrown. While LADSPA has been quite successful with many plugins and hosts, it is quite limited and can't be extended without breaking existing implementations. LV2 in contrast is designed with extensibility in mind right from start."" - More News
Linux.com : Graphics & Multimedia
Manage and play your audio files over the Web with Ampache
Ampache is a LAMP application that gives you a Web interface to your music collection, allowing you to search, rate, and play your music over the network. It even offers transcoding support to allow clients to play back lossless-encoded FLAC files from the server and stream them to clients as MP3 audio files.
A case for text-based DVD rippers
At a time when graphical DVD rippers and encoders propose to make the backing up of your movies just a click away, a text-based application may actually be the best tool for the job.
Book review: Blender 3D: Architecture, Buildings, and Scenery
You probably know the open source 3-D modeler Blender for its animation tools, which have brought audiences short films Elephants Dream and Big Buck Bunny. But Blender can create realistic 3-D models for any purpose, as Allan Brito's Blender 3D: Architecture, Buildings, and Scenery (Packt Publishing, $45) presents. This book approaches Blender as an architecture visualization tool, detailing the features built in to the editor and the techniques that make architectural modeling differ from crafting game or video effects.
Banshee 1.0 is more than an audio player (video)
Banshee 1.0 is finally here, and the development team has added a truck load of new features; making it not only an audio player but a full blown media player and manager. This video discusses all of the new and improved features of version 1.
Big Buck Bunny builds a better Blender
Big Buck Bunny is the colorful product of the Peach open movie project: an animated short released online and on DVD. But in addition to the 'toon itself, Peach has produced an altogether different yield: improvements to the Blender 3-D modeling application. Like its predecessor Project Orange, Peach pushed the open source tool forward with the demands of a real-world media production, in a way that hobbyist usage cannot. Could other free software projects use the same model?
Three image extensions for WordPress
Images are an important part of an attractive, eye-catching blog. Well-chosen images can highlight and capture the essence of your communication, helping your audience to better appreciate your message. Here are three WordPress extensions that help you gain more control over the photos and graphics you want to display on your blog.
Creating DVD subtitles using Linux tools
My mother is completely deaf without her cochlear implant, so closed captions and subtitles on DVDs are standard fare in our house. However, when I make a home movie, I haven't always had a way to subtitle it for her. You can make a video with captions that are part of the video itself, but I could find no way to turn them off -- until I found SRT files and learned how to author a DVD with them using open source tools.
New media center OS is pleasing to the eye and ear
Acoustic Reality is a Danish company that sells speakers, amplifiers, storage devices, cables, and other products to build top-shelf home entertainment centers. It recently released eAR OS Free Edition, a free media center system built on top of Ubuntu that features a free version of the Acoustic Reality software technology used in the $100 eAR RT-OS Enterprise Edition and in the company's hardware Media 4 products. It provides a user-friendly media center along with a nice implementation of Ubuntu.
gPodder's no plodder when it comes to podcasts
Catch all of your podcasts in style with gPodder, a Python application designed to retrieve and organize your podcasts for easy playback.
Tuxpaint is fun for kids and adults
My granddaughter has been sitting on my lap at the computer since before she could even hold herself up. She was only a few months old when she became interested in the mouse and began learning to place the cursor on the screen. A friend of mine laughed at us and stated that I'd "have her compiling kernels by the time she was three." Well, she's three years old now, and though she's not compiling kernels yet, she is having hours of fun on her own thanks to Tuxpaint.
Controlling your camera from your computer with gPhoto
Both of the big powerhouses in the digital SLR camera market -- Canon and Nikon -- make software with which you can control your camera from your PC through an attached USB cable. It is a nice tool for situations when manually triggering the shutter might cause shake (such as long exposures), or for automating multiple shots at timed intervals. But, naturally, the camera makers don't supply this software for free operating systems -- and just as naturally, the open source world has an answer. You can perform the same remote operation functions using gPhoto.
Transform images into videos with images2mpg
images2mpg, a simple utility that's part of the KDE Image Plugin Interface (KIPI), lets you create an MPEG file from image files. Relying on a handful of command-line tools including the ImageMagick suite and mjpegtools, images2mpg creates wonderful videos from your images and even lets you insert your favorite song as the background. It supports SVCD, DVD, VCD, and XVCD video formats.
Manage Ogg audio streams with OGMtools
When I make videos, I almost always use Ogg to encode the audio. Storing the audio in Ogg saves space on my machine without sacrificing quality. However, I invariably need to loop, concatenate, or change the audio in some way, which can be difficult. For many of these tasks I turn to the OGMtools suite to make the process easier.
aiSee helps create graphs with complex layouts
If you need robust graphing software, consider aiSee, a cross-platform graph package that supports nested graphs, exports to many bitmap and vector formats, and handles graphs with as many as a million nodes. aiSee is free for noncommercial use under its own license.
Novell ushers in Moonlight
Earlier this month Novell quietly released Moonlight -- a Linux client for Microsoft's Silverlight technology. Silverlight is a .Net-based cross-browser, cross-platform plugin for delivering rich media to the Internet. In a nutshell, it is Microsoft's version of Adobe Flash.
Tweak photos with Fotox
Compared to powerful and feature-rich photo applications like F-Spot and digiKam, Fotox looks decidedly underpowered. But while Fotox is no match to those powerhouses featurewise, this lightweight tool can come in handy when you have to perform basic photo editing fast and with minimum fuss.
Rawstudio turns 1.0
The free software RAW photo converter Rawstudio released version 1.0 in April, marking the culmination of two years of work. This release carries on the Rawstudio tradition of providing a lightweight, dependable tool for photographers.
Adobe releases Adobe Flash Player 10 beta for Linux
Adobe Systems is reaching out for Linux desktop users with its announcement today that the first beta of Adobe Flash Player 10, a.k.a. Astro, is now available for Linux, as well as Windows and Mac OS X.
aTunes tries to be the best of two worlds
Are you looking for a free and open source music player that you can use no matter which operating system you boot or switch to during the day? Meet aTunes, a small competitor to both Amarok and Apple's iTunes. Its name sounds like a hybrid of the two, and it tries to have a unique combination of the best of both user experiences.
FusionCharts Free: Cross-platform charts that rock
It has been said that the best things in life are free. While this isn't always true, it applies in this case. If you've struggled with GNUplot, JPgraph or other charting applications, FusionCharts Free is a breath of fresh air. Have you dreamed of finding a charting and graphing application that is simple to install, easy to configure, and drop-dead gorgeous? Stop dreaming and download a copy of FusionCharts Free. You'll be producing professional quality charts and graphs in no time.
