Orangeinks

A New Life for your Old PCs and Netbooks

What do you do with an old laptop or netbook once it cannot handle the software upgrades that seriously make them crawl to their death? If you want to stick with your favorite operating system, then you should upgrade the hardware or buy a new one. Another thing that you can do is install an operating system that takes up little space and requires less RAM and Processor speed to run. If you’re asking where you can find such an OS, then you’re in luck. The guys at Ubuntu made this awesome Ubuntu variant called Lubuntu.

Lubuntu is a desktop project by Ubuntu. The main objective here is to create a lightweight operating system that’s less resource hungry and more energy-efficient. They made this happen by using light weight applications and a lightweight GUI (Graphical User Interface).

Lubuntu is targeted at “normal” PC and laptop users running on low-spec hardware. The minimum system hardware requirement for Lubuntu is a Pentium II or Celeron system with 128 MB of RAM. It’s probably a bottom-line configuration that may yield slow yet usable system with Lubuntu. It should be possible to install and run Lubuntu with less memory, but the result will likely not be suitable for practical use. This simply means that it’ll run great on computers from five years ago. Another great treat is that Lubuntu can be used by those who aren’t really familiar with Linux command line tools.

If you’ve been meaning to try out Linux but don’t have enough resources for full-featured mainstream distributions (distros), try out Lubuntu on your old computer and see how it works out for you. Who knows, you might find a suitable function for your old laptop that’s been lying around since your last upgrade.

Download Lubuntu

Tags: desktop, Laptop, linux, Lubuntu, Netbook, operating system, OS, ubuntu

Windows 7: How to Customize an Awesome Minimalist Desktop

Customizing a minimalist desktop is very easy. Select the most basic colored theme, throw in a blank wallpaper and remove every icon on your desktop. But, how do you make a Minimalist theme that rock? This guide will redirect you to several resources that I think would be of great use to you. Not just in customizing a minimalist desktop but in customizing your desktop to fit your needs.

This is what your desktop would probably look after you’re done with the customization. (See Image)

click image for a larger view

• The wallpaper may vary depending on your taste and how you treat minimalism. You can start looking for minimalist wallpapers at MinimalWall.

• First of all, you need to have an application called RainMeter. It’s a windows application that allows you to uber-customize your desktop. Download the free application and install.

• Assuming that you’ve already installed RainMeter, go and download that awesome fully functional Corner Clock plugin.

• You can also download the Simple Recycle Bin plugin if you want.

• To install the plugins, simply extract them to your Documents library under the Rainmeter/Skins folder. The CornerClock and RecycleBin folder should be side by side with Rainmeter’s Illustro. Now, right click the Rainmeter icon on your taskbar and press “refresh all”. You should now be able to see the new plugins present in Rainmeter.

• The next step is to customize your CornerClock. You can do so by going to where you extracted CornerClock a while ago (documents/Rainmeter/Skins/CornerClock). Look for the UserSettings file and open it with notepad. Here, you can edit the color of the text, change the font, change the time format and edit the custom text that appears with the clock. See image below.

click for full size image

• Now that you’re all done with the customization, all that’s left for you to do now is to clean up your desktop icons. Hide them or delete them, it’s up to you.

You can also check out another awesome customized desktop at Lifehacker.

 

Tags: Custom Desktop, desktop, Minimalist, RainMeter, wallpaper

RainMeter: One of the Best Windows Desktop Customization Tool

Rainmeter is an awesome Windows customization application. You can empower your desktop with an expandable library of useful tools. You can use handy notes, application launchers, weather and feeds from your favorite website and your computer system.

You can rearrange and modify those tools to suit your personal style. Rainmeter is a great alternative to using Windows gadgets. The level of desktop customization using this application is – you could say that “I own my desktop”.

Rainmeter can display various performance data in different formats. It can measure CPU load, Allocated Memory, Network Traffic, Windows Performance Data, Uptime, Free Disk Space, etc.

The data can be displayed e.g. in a histogram, a bar, bitmap frames or just plain numbers. Rainmeter also includes a plugin interface to extend the capabilities with 3rd party plugins.

Another great thing about Rainmeter is that it will run on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and has both 32bit and 64bit versions. And it’s FREE.

Note: Be careful in downloading skins for RainMeter. Some of them may contain viruses.

There has suddenly been a rash of uploads to deviantART.com, in the Rainmeter area, of skins which are simply copies of an existing deviation with a virus added. These can be identified by the fact that they have comments disabled, or have some comments “hidden”. PLEASE help us to help you. Read the comments for any skin you are tempted to download from deviantART.com. On the right of the deviation, near the bottom, there is a section for “Statistics”. The first item in this is “Comments”. If they are “Disabled”, or when you look at the deviation there are any “Hidden by owner” entries below it in the comments area, DO NOT download this skin.

 

Tags: Custom Desktop, desktop, Desktop Theme, RainMeter

GMDesk: Google Apps on your Desktop

Google web apps are great and what makes it even better is it’s free. The only thing is that if you’re using most of them, you need to open different tabs on your browser or clutter you desktop with widgets/gadgets. Google recently release a desktop application which will allow you to access different Google web services in just one desktop application.

GMDesk is an application where you can run Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Picasa, Google Reader and Google Maps on a single desktop application. This is a great way to access your Google applications without opening them on your browser. Just access in the menu which service you want to use and once you are logged in your Google account. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts to easily switch to different services on your GMDesk. It also supports Google Apps access as well.

To install GMDesk, you need to have Adobe Air installed in your computer. If you do not have Adobe Air installed, just head over to their site and click download and if the engine does not detect Adobe Air in your computer, will automatically install it.

Tags: application, desktop, Gmail, GMDesk, google calendar, Google Docs, Google Maps. google, Google Reader, Picasa

Panoramic Desktop from 360Desktop

360Desktop is a Windows application that transforms your desktop into a panoramic workspace. They are calling it Desktop 2.0, a convergence of web and desktop. The application also comes with a widget loader where you can install your favorite widgets by placing in the embed code in the add widget window.

This is a pretty neat application which will help you organize your desktop in an entirely unique way. Just download the rather small application (5.93 MB), install and run. You can select from a variety of panoramic images to display in your 360Desktop. The application is unobtrusive. It will not replace your current wallpaper or desktop setting. You can close it anytime you want if you wish to revert to your normal desktop.

When I tested the application, I noticed that it will not let you to browse the other part of the panoramic image as long as you have a maximized window present in your desktop. It’s like a locking mechanism for the application so that it will not move the desktop around when you are working on something important. Also remember to minimize your windows before closing 360Desktop or you will be left with a cluttered desktop with off centered windows. Aside from that, it’s a cool app to have around in your Windows machine.

You can check out the application in action by watching the video below.

Tags: 360dekstop, application, desktop, panoramic, Windows