Give Your Computer the Boot

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Kill and Resurrect the Master Boot Record
How to (carefully) back up and restore the Master Boot Record (MBR)
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Bypass the Boot Manager
Save your system from a broken or missing kernel
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Set a Bitmap Boot Screen for LILO
You can have a splash screen for just about everything these days, including your bootloader
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Create Your Own LILO Boot Splash
Create or modify any picture for use as a LILO boot splash background
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Display a GRUB Boot Splash Background
Add a graphical background to your GRUB bootloader
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Create a GRUB Boot Splash Background
Create your own personalized boot splash backgrounds for GRUB
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Jazz Up Your Debian System Boot
Boot Debian with an optional graphics screen and progress bar, and spiff up your text consoles by running them in graphics mode
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Graphics on the Console

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Redefine Keyboard Actions

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Energize Your Console with Macro Music Magic
Redefine keys to issue commands at the command line
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Take a Screenshot from the Command Line
Who needs a graphical tool to grab a screenshot? The command line has everything you need
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Put Your Command Prompt on a Diet
Change your bash prompt to show extra information without cluttering the area around your command prompt
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Simplify Changing Directories
This hack makes it ridiculously easy to jump right to your favorite directories from the command line
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Colorize Files in Your Pager

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Switch Users Fast

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Double Your KDM (KDE) Login Screens
Set up the graphical login manager KDM to run on two different screens when you boot the computer
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Double Your GDM (GNOME) Login Screens
Set up the graphical login manager GDM to run on two different screens when you boot the computer
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Get Multiple Desktops the Macho Way
Power users don't need no stinkin' graphical login managers, so here's the command-line way
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Scrap X11 for Fancy Login Consoles
Qingy is an attractive replacement for X Windows-based graphical login managers such as XDM, GDM, and KDM
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Personalize Your Qingy Theme

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Take Your Screens Black

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Spice Up Your Desktop with Creative Mouse Cursors
Replace the boring default mouse pointer, resize cursor, wait cursor, and the rest with colorful custom animated cursors
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Convert CursorXP Themes for Use with Linux
Convert custom cursor themes meant for Windows for use with Linux
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Use Windows and Mac Fonts
Spruce up your desktop with your favorite fonts from other operating systems
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Never Miss Another Reminder
Flash your reminders on your desktop on top of any applications you are running
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Make Applications Trigger On-Screen Alerts
Many applications can run a program when an event occurs. Use XOSD to make these alerts really grab your attention
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Heat Up Your Keyboard with Hotkeys
Activate those special Internet and multimedia keys on your keyboard
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Get Hotter Hotkeys with LinEAK
LinEAK turbo charges the whole concept of customizing how your Internet/multimedia keyboard works
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Access Windows and Mac OS X from Linux
No need to move to another computer; just sit put and access them all
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Run Your Desktop over the Internet
You can access your desktop system and run graphics applications from remote systems at close to full speed, even over dial-up connections
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Access Your Programs Remotely
The full power of your desktop and its applications never need to be more than a network connection away
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Add Depth to Your Desktop
Drop shadows add a dimension of depth to every window and pop up on your desktop. The 3D effect is truly mesmerizing
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Give Your Desktop X-Ray Vision

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Make Konqueror a Window into Remote Spaces
Use the KDE Konqueror file manager to access remote files as easily as local ones
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Konquer Remote Systems Without Passwords
Use some of Konqueror's powerful protocol connections without being bothered by password requests
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Ai Karamba! Flashy KDE Gadgets!
Spiff up your KDE desktop with various information panels and interactive gadgets
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Start Applications in Weird and Wonderful Ways
Start your applications in customized ways to make your programs run exactly how you want them to
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Script Hacks with DCOP
Use the KDE scripting tool of choice to tweak your desktop for maximum flexibility
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Create Your Own KDE Right-Click Menu Actions
Create custom menu actions for when you right-click a file, directory, or group of files and/or directories
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Make KDE Even Easier to Use
Beautify and enhance the usability of KDE by patching it with experiment code
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Give Depth to Your KDE Windows
Create a 3D effect with drop shadows for all open KDE Windows
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Lock Down KDE with Kiosk Mode
Control exactly what your users can tinker with, and what they can't change at all
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Run KDE on the Bleeding Edge

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Randomize Your GNOME Wallpaper

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Grow Your GNOME with gDesklets Steroids
Spiff up your GNOME desktop with various information panels and interactive gadgets
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Create Your Own GNOME Right-Click Actions
Create custom menu actions in the Nautilus file manager
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Compile a Bleeding-Edge GNOME Desktop

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Share Applications and Monitors with screen

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Stop Using Terminal Command-Line Switches
Power users switch window managers almost as often as "Alias" character Sydney Bristow changes hairstyles. Here's a way to deal with the fact that each window manager starts up X terminals differently
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Ultimate Terminal Transparency
You want a lightweight terminal, but you want it to look cool
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View Microsoft Word Documents in a Terminal
Avoid the load time of OpenOffice.org and view Microsoft Word documents in a terminal
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Display PDF Documents in a Terminal
You can view PDF documents in a terminal or console; no graphical desktop is required
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View Word and PDF Files from Within Mutt

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Reduce OpenOffice.org Startup Time
seems
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Read Yahoo! Mail from Any Email Client
Use your Yahoo! webmail account in a normal email client
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Encrypt Your Email
Because you have a right to privacy
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Reclaim Your Email with procmail
Manage your email automatically without depending on your email client
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Convert Your Mailbox
Don't let your old email become stranded in a format that your new mail program can't read
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Configure Firefox Under the Covers
To keep the Firefox GUI preferences simple, some of the more interesting but less common options were moved under the covers by the developers
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Eliminate Annoying Browser Stalls
Here's a method to short-circuit the part of the web page that is stalling your browser
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Get Browser Plug-ins Working
Liven up the Web with a plug-in or two
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Create an Internet Phone
Talk to the world and save money while doing so
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Motion Capture and Video Conferencing Fun
Keep an eye on the world with your webcam
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Put Screenshots Automatically on the Web
Show off to the world what you're up to
The Code
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Scan for Wireless Networks
Detect which networks are available in your area
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Map Your Meatspace
A bird's-eye view of the world on your Linux desktop
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Connect to a Microsoft PPTP VPN

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Play Restricted Media Formats
For licensing reasons, not all distributions come preconfigured to play several popular media formats
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Automate Your Life with cron

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Update Your Clock via the Internet
Staying in time is easier when you let someone else set your clocks
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Start Desktop Applications Automatically
Start tools, utilities, and applications automatically as soon as you start your favorite desktop or window manager
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Don't Let Elvis Leave the Building
Keep a program running in the background by automatically restarting it whenever it exits
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Clone Your Linux Install
Deploy a single installation of Linux across many computers
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Forward Ports over SSH
Keep network traffic to arbitrary ports secure with SSH port forwarding
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Take Control of New User Setups
Customize how each new user account is configured by default
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Send Email Alerts for System Events
Track log entries and send an email to yourself when something looks suspicious
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Create a Passwordless Login
Forget about those passwords and make administering a remote server easier
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Magically Empower Your Network Cable
Configure your Ethernet devices simply by plugging in or unplugging the cable
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Protect Yourself from Windows Applications
Minimize the risk of viral infection in Windows emulators and Windows documents
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Build a Custom Firewall Computer
Turn an old, underpowered computer into a lean, mean, firewall machine
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Link Monitoring in Linux with Wavemon
Monitor radio parameters in real time using Wavemon, a curses-based tool for Linux
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Make Network Backups

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Recover from Debian Disaster
Restore your Debian system from even the most seemingly unrecoverable disaster
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Prelink for Performance
Increase your application's performance by up to 50%
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Grab the Latest Source Code

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Speed Up Compiles
distccDistccdistccdistcc
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Compile a Kernel

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Upgrade Your Kernel to 2.6
Hot rod your computer with a new kernel
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Use CKO to Make Your Desktop Go to 11
Make your desktop quick and responsive, without making your music player skip, or your videos drop frames
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Tweak Your Kernel Without Recompiling

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Make an Internet Connection Using Bluetooth and a Mobile Phone

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Perfect USB Devices with Project Utopia
Kick your desktop into the Plug and Play world with your USB devices
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Optimize Your Refresh Rates
Reduce eyestrain by fine-tuning your monitor's refresh rates
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Print to Unsupported Printers
Use a Windows machine as a print server, when you can't print from Linux
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Control Your Power with ACPI
Extend the life of your laptop battery by limiting your computer's appetite for power
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Use an iPod with Linux
You don't need a Windows PC or Mac to use an iPod
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Sync Your iRiver with Linux
Use Linux to copy your songs and create the iRiver database
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Boost Hard-Drive Performance
Get the best possible performance from your IDE hardware
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Accelerate Your Gaming

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