Jason Fitzpatrick

There’s no one true desktop environment for Linux. Unlike competing operating systems like Windows, Linux users have a choice of many different desktop environments, all with their own styles and strengths.

You can install one of these desktop environments after installing your Linux distribution and switch between desktop environments from the login screen. You can also choose to install a Linux distribution that comes with the desktop environment. For example, you can get Ubuntu in many different flavors.

Last year we shared a beautiful collection of Earth view wallpapers with you and today we are back with more. Send your desktop into near-Earth orbit with the second in our series of ‘Views of Earth’ Wallpaper collections.

Special Note: We were lucky enough to find two mini-sets (3 each) that show Earth at different points in its rotation. Both are back-to-back in the second half of this week’s collection.

Do you have what it takes to solve wicked shape-based puzzles? Then get ready to test your puzzle solving skills with Amazing Stick’s Puzzles HD. This matchstick based game will definitely make you think, and quite possibly scratch your head in frustration as you work to find the solutions to each level!

The game currently has four sets of puzzles with a total of 176 levels, so there is plenty of puzzle solving fun to keep you busy for quite some time. Even better is that more sets are due to be added in the future!

The game has some basic rules that need to be kept in mind while playing, such as the rule about border sticks.

Did you know that there has been an ‘uninterrupted’ human presence in space ever since November of 2001? That is rather awesome when you think about it, but all of the people who have spent time in space were born and grew up on Earth. What would things be like for a person who was conceived and born in space though? Vsauce discusses the impact this would have on human physiology in this terrific video.

What if You Were Born in Space? [YouTube]

One the things that really irritates me about Outlook is that when you click reply it doesn’t close the original message. Here’s how to change that.

You’re not a Jolly Roger flying pirate, you’re just somebody that wants to backup the ebooks they paid for and read them on the devices they want to read them on. Follow along as we show you how to liberate your Kindle books.

Sure, everyone involved can come up with a variety of excuses — they aren’t technically misleading customers, it’s all in the fine print, and these are the standard ways the industry operates — but hardware has been advertised in many misleading ways.

We’re not the only ones calling these marketing gimmicks misleading. Some of these tricks have even been the subject of class-action lawsuits for misleading consumers. Today we will look at 8 ways hardware manufacturers attempt to pull the metaphorical wool over the consumer’s eyes.

Have you ever needed to know what a remote device thinks the value of a metric is? HTG explains what the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is and how can you use it to monitor network devices.

Image by istargazer

Frequently asking questions about the smallest and most subtle elements of your computing experience can yield interesting insights into computers and their history. Today we look at the little block of text that sits at the front of the command line.

Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.

If you are a Raspberry Pi enthusiast, then you are going to love this latest bit of news. Camera boards are now available to add to your favorite Raspberry Pi device and we have the links you need to learn more about the latest bit of hardware goodness as well as where to buy the new boards.

Camera board available for sale! [Raspberry Pi Website] Special Note: This link includes plenty of how-to goodness to get your new camera board up and running!

Raspberry Pi Camera Board Page [element14 Community]

Raspberry Pi Order Page [RS Components]

Windows 8 ships with a built-in SkyDrive app however it doesn’t allow you to add files to your SkyDrive account. For that we have the Desktop SkyDrive app which has a handy selective sync feature as well.

Note: We will assume that you have the desktop SkyDrive installed.

Geeks have had their own “money” for some time, but typically it is within the context of online gaming. While this digital currency does possess intrinsic value, the market for it is usually limited to other gamers. However, 2009 gave rise to another form of digital currency, bitcoin, which has demonstrated some global demand as a medium for exchange.

Image credit: Zack Copley

Editor’s Note: we want to make it very clear right up front that we are not recommending that you invest in Bitcoins. It’s very likely that you will lose money.

Whether you’re using a Chromebook or you’re just interested in switching from installed desktop apps to browser-based ones, web-based software can replace many of the programs people use on their computers — and can often improve on them.

One advantage to using web-based apps is that they’ll natively sync across you devices — for example, to your smartphone. Your data will always be backed up and accessible away from your computer.

The Metro Bing app makes it really easy to search the internet, unfortunately it also filters its results by default. Here is how to change that.

Have you ever had the need to bulk restore your Citrix-Xen VMs for a disaster recovery (DR) solution, or just to test that your backups are working? HTG explains how to use Xen-Phoenix, a free bash script, for VM restoring.

Photo Credit: Ryan McCurdy via Compfight cc

Like we’ve mentioned in “How To Backup Citrix Xen VMs for Free with Xen-pocalypse“, one of the nice things in Citrix Xen is that many of its features are free of charge. With that said, if you want the “Automated VM protection and recovery” feature, you would have to start paying for the “Advance” license. Again, it is not that we at HTG are dismissing the value of a true backup solution, but if you’re on a tight budget, have already gotten the VM images out of the hypervisor and are in need of a way to automate your “test restore”/”DR refresh” procedures, you might find Xen-Phoenix to be a perfectly reasonable solution before you make the budget commitment.

Do you love old school tower defense games? Then get ready to wage war against invading hordes of goblins, orcs, trolls, evil wizards, and more in Kingdom Rush! This classic game puts your strategic planning and thinking skills to the test as you work to defend town after town from the coming onslaught. Will you be able to save the kingdom or will it fall to the forces of evil?

Your campaign map awaits… The first battle will occur at Southport, but as you can see many encounters lie ahead of you as you fight to defend the kingdom

The game provides an easy-to-follow set of instructions to help you dig in and prepare for the upcoming battle.

Let the battle begin!

Wave 6 and the enemy is marching in stronger than ever! Defend! Defend! Defend!

A first victory at Southport, but the campaign is only getting started. Good luck and have fun battling the evil hordes!

The official trailer provides a quick overview of what game play looks like…

Price: 0.99 (U.S.)

Kingdom Rush [iTunes App Store]

Kingdom Rush Homepage

Official Kingdom Rush Trailer [YouTube]

Google’s once-a-year developer conference began just a short while ago and we have the links you need to watch the event live as well as watching recorded talks you may have missed. So grab your favorite refreshments, sit back, and enjoy all the Google goodness!

You can watch a live feed using this link and monitor the progress of today’s conference talks via the sidebar on the right side of the screen (see screenshot above).

Watch Google I/O 2013 Live

You can also watch all of the recorded talks on the Google Developers Live website shortly after I/O.

One of Evernote’s selling points is that all your notes, clippings, and other bits and bytes are stored both on the Evernote servers and your local device. If that’s not enough data security for you (and it shouldn’t be), read on as we show you how to properly backup your Evernote notebooks.

A laptop is a marvel of engineering. So much work goes into designing and manufacturing all the individual pieces of hardware before combining them with software that’s taken decades to build. After going through all this work, laptop manufacturers are paid to make their laptops slower and more frustrating to use.

The PC ecosystem’s race to the bottom and cut-throat pricing means that many computer manufacturers aren’t focused on providing a good experience — they’re focused on releasing the cheapest laptops possible and making some additional money by loading the laptop with bloatware.

Making the most efficient use of the free storage space provided by Google has been a quirky business at times. Perhaps you are a ‘heavy’ user of Google Drive and Google+ Photos, but have lots of space left in Gmail and wish you could trade that storage space out. Consider your wish granted! Google is in the process of merging all storage space across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google+ Photos into one unified and shared storage space that you can use as best suits your needs.

The basic free consumer offering will see users with 15 GB of storage space to access while apps customers will start with 30 GB. The 25 GB upgrade limit for Gmail will also be done away with once the merge is completed.

Learn more about the updated storage setup by visiting the blog links and official Google announcements via the links below.

Google Drive triples free storage to 15GB [CNET News]