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Linux podcasts are a great resource for people to learn more about Linux while not sitting infront of the computer.

One of my all-time-favorite podcasters, Chess Griffin has decided to end his podcast with the 100th episode. The reason for this is that Chess thinks 100 episodes is a great number (and it is) to end with, considering the fact that a lot of time has passed since the first episode of Linux Reality. He also wanted more free time for work on other projects and to be with his family.

This is a small tribute.

Chess is/was one of the best Linux podcasters out there. Most of his shows are informative, interesting, easy to understand and simply professional. Timeless lessons for both newbies and Linux gurus alike. I encourage every reader to download one and give it a spin on your mp3 player. You’ll be surprised, I promise!

I wish you luck in the future, Chess!

I know a lot of people who use open source every day, from OpenOffice to the GIMP and Linux, open source has something for everyone. Recently I was asked how could someone give back to the developers of Free Software?

There are projects which need your help now!

The thing is that when you tell someone about participation in a certain open source project they immediately think of programming, and they say “Hey I’m no geek dude, I can’t do [insert programming language here], there’s no way I can contribute to this project , even though I’d like to.

And that’s where it pretty much ends in most cases.

But you know what? You can help your favourite project, even if you’re not tech-savvy! And here’s a list five ways to do it.

You can find instructions on how to help your favourite open source project on its respective website. Don’t worry, most projects make it easy for you to find the links.

Donations

An open source project always needs money, but since the software is mostly free of charge, many open source developers use donations as a means to finance web hosting, events etc. Even a few dollars can help. I have personally donated to a few projects, I gave a small amount to Wikipedia twice!

Did you know you can use these donations for tax-deduction, too?

Documentation

Good software should be well documented. You use it everyday, so why not help write a part of the users’ manual or something similar? It will help both developers and other users a LOT.

Translation

Nothing to add here really. We all know how much work needs to be put into translating software. A local group translated OpenOffice to Slovenian and it’s been a tough job. With your help, your favourite software may become available in your language!

Bug reporting

Unlike the Windows crash report window (according to a podcast I’ve listened to not long ago), there is actually someone on the other side who reads your bug report. The Free Software magazine has a great article on reporting bugs in Ubuntu Linux, for instance. As open source projects change a lot with every new version, your bug may get fixed very quickly.

Spreading open source

Promote GNU. Promote Linux. Just like open source made your life easier, spread the gift of Free Software to your colleagues, friends and relatives.

Good Luck!

Why is the Dock becoming more and more popular? It’s probably got something to do with clever window management, doesn’t it? Well, in my opinion it’s just the eye candy, though I’m sure that people appreciate the psychological trick; every tried to open 2 instances of a program with a Dock?

Now here’s a list of 5 different Docks you can use on Linux. They have different system requirements. Rock out!

5. SimDock

I’ll start off with a little low.end dock. Just enough to get you started. While SimDock isn’t extremely advanced, it offers a full-fledged dock, all in one little .deb package and no window compositing effects required, which means you’ll be able t run it on low-end machines without any problems.

4. Ksmoothdock

Smooth zooming, low requirements. I like SimDock, but many users tell me Ksmoothdock looks and works better with their KDE DE.

3. Kiba Dock

Small, nice, free. What more could you ask for? Kiba-dock was originally a project meant to demo the Akamaru physics engine, but it ended up being a separate project.

2. Engage Dock (for Enlightenment)

Ever wondered how the gOS dudes made a smooth little dock for the gPC? Well, here’s your answer. It’s cool even without the Green theme I heard it can run without Enlightenment, too. Dreamlinux uses it with XFCE, for instance.

1. Avant Window Navigator

The big guy. This is the Dock with the bad-ass themes, icons and plugins. Everyone who has compositing turned on uses AWN these days. Why? It’s powerful, customizable and pretty. I use it sometimes, although it affects Ubuntu’s loading time. (it’s Compiz’ fault, really). If you got the power, go for it!  Also, check out the AWN wiki.

Update:

0.5 Cairo Dock

Another cool dock, which also requires compositing effects.

Ubuntu is certainly one of the best newbie-user-oriented Linux distros out there, but many Linux fans forget to point out that there are many other Ubuntu distributions to choose from.

So why not the original Ubuntu?

Sometimes people look for other versions of  Linux, which support RPM, for instance, or have a different philosophy, or were made for older workstations. Combining one of these features with the famous Ubuntu user-friendliness helps you find the Linux for you!

You probably expected I’ll name Ubuntu Studio, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Server Edition or Ubuntu mobile… but let’s find something a bit more interesting, shall we?

GNewSense – freedom for all! The GNewSense team rebranded Firefox to BurningDog, removed all the non-free packages and included Nethack. It’s the GNU Dream, Ubuntu style.

Ubuntu Satanic Edition – The Ubuntu Christian Edition wasn’t the only spin-off. Ubuntu Satanic is more of a series of themes which you can download onto another Ubuntu distro. It’s still cool, though.

OpenGEU – gOS guys, now you can finally let someone to who knows his Linux show you what the E17 desktop, a great looking desktop for low end computers (with a dock!) can do. It simply looks great.

ZeBuntu – It’s an Ubuntu distro which is supposed to support apps for BeOS. If you don’t know what BeOS is, go away -_- Now, you get the power of Linux and you’re free from Haiku OS!