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Changing your icons allows you to change the look and feel of your system. It mainly changes the standard icons to something new.

The first place to look for icons would be gnome-look.org. Click icon on the left. Or just click here. Search around for something that you like.

I like to keep my system looking dark since it doesn’t hurt my eyes too much. With my background being a night picture of London, it was only fitting for me to choose an icon theme that was mainly black. My favorite set is called black-white 2 gloss.

Once you’ve found your icon set, you will need to download it. I usually download everything to my desktop just so that I can find it easily, but that is up to you.

Your file should…

If you are used to using Windows, you probably have a favorite font.  Even if you use Open Office, you still need to have Microsoft fonts installed so that when you open documents created in Word they will look right.

Also, most web pages are created with Microsoft fonts in mind. So, if you have Microsoft fonts installed, web pages will look the way they were intended to.

To install the fonts make sure you have the multiverse repositories enabled.  To do this, click System -> Administration -> Software Sources.  When the window appears, make sure there is a check mark beside all of the repositories except “Source code”

Once you have done this, type the following code in the terminal to update the available software:
sudo apt-get update
When the update is finished, run…

Almost all new processors have the ability to scale down their frequencies.  With laptops this allows you to save a ton of battery life.  Read my previous post on how to save battery life in Linux.

With desktops (and laptops), scaling the CPU frequency will not only save you money on your power bill but will also let your computer run cooler.  Why would you want your computer running at full speed all of the time when you don’t need it?  Instead, here is how to scale your CPU frequency for on demand performance.

Step 1:
Right click on one of the panels (top or bottom of screen) and then choose ‘Add to panel.’

Step 2:
When the Add to Panel…

With all Linux distributions come updates, especially with new versions.  Usually these updates consist of security fixes and new versions of core software.  However, every so often new kernels are released.  The Linux kernel is the core of all distributions.  When these are updated, most of the time your Grub boot menu will become cluttered with multiple kernels.  Here is how to edit your Grub boot menu.

To begin, open the boot menu list in your favorite text editor.  The following code will open the list using gedit, with sudo privileges.
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
Once the gedit window opens, you will see a text file with lots of information included.  Don’t worry if you don’t understand what some of the text…

Why would I want to configure my systems sounds? My answer: why not? You can actually do this in Windows, but that’s for another day.

You could play ‘Hey Jude’ by the Beatles when you log on and ‘Hello, Goodbye’ when you log off. Hopefully you can choose some more personal songs, but I’m a Beatles fan, so why not?

Please note that the file needs to be .wav format.

Step 1: (In Gnome) System -> preferences -> Sound

Step 2: Click on the ‘Sounds’ Tab at the top. You’ll see a windows that looks like this:

Step 3: Select which option you would like to add or modify the sound to. Your options will look like this:

As a college student, I like to be able to wake up, look at my computer, and instantly know what the weather is like outside. I know I could simply look out a window or even open a window, but I’d rather use the computer.

An easy way to find out what the weather is like outside is to open up your trusty browser and go to weather.com. However, those of us using Ubuntu or another distro with gnome can get the weather forecast in the top bar (without having to open a browser). Here are two ways of getting the forecast in the top bar:

Way 1:

• Right click in the top bar
• Select ‘Add to Panel’
• Scroll down and find ‘Weather Report’ -left click and then click ‘Add’

Now you should have a new…

This post is the next in the series on the newest version of Ubuntu (Hardy Heron). Be sure to check out the most recent Linux Friday posts for other tips on the newest Ubuntu.

There are a few ways to install software in Ubuntu. The first being Add/Remove Applications. To open this window click Applications -> Add/Remove…

Here you can click and install software by category or by searching. As you can see you can sort the search results by the name of the application or popularity.

The second way to install software is using the Synaptic Package Manager. To open this window, click System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager…