Section: How To

Discover an eclectic mix of tutorials covering everything from ways to install neat apps, or enable new features, to workarounds for known issues, and configuring your Ubuntu system.

Reduce the Firefox 4 menu button to an icon in Linux

Firefox 4 comes with many new features not least of which is a ruddy fat 'menu bar' button when the traditional menu bar is hidden. Reducing it to just an icon is a relatively easy 'hack' and the result is far easier on the eye....

17 January 2011
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Play Angry Birds under wine on Linux

Rovio media have no plans to actually bring Angry Birds to Linux, with their previous statement it being something they were 'looking into' since translated as 'no plans at all.' Still, if you're an Angry Birds fan looking to get your feathery fix on Linux you still can - using everyone's favourite binary beverage 'Wine'.

17 January 2011
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Change the way websites look in Firefox

Last night I featured a neat 'Ubuntuizing' Chrome extension for Wikipedia that replaced Wikipedia's web font with the fancy new Ubuntu one. Reader rainstride saw that and got in touch to share something most customization anoraks will have a hard time resisting: the ability to change every font displayed on every website.

16 January 2011
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How to Change Sidebar colour in Nautilus-Elementary

Change the colour of Nautilus-Elementary's side to gain better integration with your favourite theme. Ambiance is a fantastic theme and Nautilus-Elementary easily sets the standard for user-friendly file-managers. When both are used together things don't always look as good as they could. Here's how to remedy that with some copy-and-paste pizazz.

16 January 2011

This Ubuntu homepage replacement is slick and informative

New and old Ubuntu users alike will find something to love in this colourful homepage replacement by Ryan Kelln.

16 January 2011
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How to Maximise screen space in Ubuntu

Squashed for screen space? Whilst my desktop has 1440x900 glorious pixels to fill my netbook sadly doesn't. As such I tend to run all my apps max­i­mized on my netbook, I noticed that by removing the title bar from app windows could free up some much needed room - but how do you go about doing it?

13 January 2011
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How to quickly get your Android phone to show in Banshee, Rhythmbox

My favourite music player, Banshee, didn't recognize my Android phone 'out of the box', despite other Ubuntu apps such as Shotwell and Nautilus, doing so. If you're in the same position you'll want to try this crazy-simple solution that pals Banshee and your handset up in no-time.

12 January 2011
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Tips for Ubuntu 11.04 testers

So you're playing around with Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha and, well, things are going a bit awry. Here are a few useful tips harvested from AskUbuntu that may save you a headache or two...

10 January 2011
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How to make your favourite GTK+ theme ‘borderless’

We've fallen in love with 'Borderless' Metacity theme mods of late - the elementary example we feature was particularly striking. Rather than wait for your favourite theme maker to add a borderless-variant for you to install why not do it yourself? OMG! Ubuntu! reader zach4618 sent in a super easy guide on how to 'mod' a theme yourself.

9 January 2011
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How to Add a Compiz Expose button to Docky

You want to trigger ‘expose’ in Maverick like you’ve seen in Unity? Dan Rabbit sent me over a mail with a quick ‘how to’ on, well, how to do just that! 1. Install Compiz Config […]

9 January 2011
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How to quickly install Virtualbox 4.0 in Ubuntu

Want to easily upgrade to the latest version of virtual machine application 'Virtualbox'? You now can using the following small script.

4 January 2011
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Create a ‘wingpanel’ effect using the default gnome panel

Reader Vjjustin has written up an interesting little tutorial on creating a ‘wingpanel’-style panel using nothing more than the default GNOME panel.

29 December 2010