Linux guides

It’s easy to forget that Linux is not only open-source and free, it’s also fun. Gaming is one area where Linux is a bit underrated, yet there are some decent multiplayer options around. We’ve only chosen games that are free and will run on a recent version of Ubuntu/Xubuntu (or our own variant, UserOS Select 10.10, from PC User's April 2011 edition). They don’t need the latest hardware, so if you have at least a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 CPU and Nvidia GeForce FX-series or ATI Radeon 9000-series graphics card, you’re (almost) ready to go.

Every operating system has what’s called a kernel, the meat between the two slices of bread that are your software applications and computer hardware. Windows, Linux and Mac OS X all have kernels. You can access most of the features in Windows through the Windows API (Application Programming Interface). In Linux, you can find out much about your computer hardware (and what’s happening with the kernel itself) by using what’s known as the proc file system.

We received a question recently from a reader asking how to get a printer working in UserOS Select 10.04, our Linux-based operating system which we including on PC User's October cover DVD. To get our operating system down to just 370MB, a lot of things had to go and printing was one of them. However, getting it back again is pretty easy and you can even hook up to a printer on your home network.