Ubuntu is one of the fast-growing favourite Linux distros out there and it’s been fun to see more and more questions present themselves. The thing to remember about Ubuntu is that it’s just Linux under the covers and widening your search for an answer usually gets you where you want to go.

In this case, just drop to your command line and type adduser <username> . Your machine will then walk you through a set of questions asking you to specify things like password, home directory, etc. Pretty easy once you know how. And don’t forget to keep your passwords strong. Using dictionary words, even one as obscure as myoripped, could mean that your new account could easily be compromised. Always remember to add some numbers and play around with case with it.

Good luck!

switching things around so that Windows becomes the default operating system should be pretty straightforward. First, click the Software Centre icon on the left and search for and install ‘StartUp-Manager’, typing in your password when prompted.

Now launch Startup-Manager (click the Ubuntu icon at the top left, type StartUp-Manager and click the icon when it appears). Finally, on the Boot options tab, open the dropdown menu below the ‘Default operating system’ heading, choose your Windows XP installation and click Close.

Next time the PC is started, Windows should start automatically. That wasn’t hard at all, certainly easier than finding a shop that sells high school class rings that’s open after 5:00pm!

Windows 7 has raised the bar as far as people’s expectations are concerned. The great thing is that you can normally find everything it supplies for other operating systems too; and Ubuntu is no exception.

With regards to the wall paper rotation utility, you’re looking for something called Desktop Drapes that you can find under System -> Preferences after you install it. If sits in the system tray and you can choose the option to “Shuffle Periodically” from the system tray’s context menu. So you can set up a slideshow with photos of advert of natural anti aging product or pictures of family members. It’s all up to you!

Check it out!

As you can well imagine, there’s no version of Windows Live Writer which will work on Ubuntu. Instead you can find other software packages that will work just as well for you.

The one I would recommend is called Blogilo (which used to be called Bilbo) and sports many of the features that you can find on Windows Live Writer. Installing it is pretty easy, just head to Applications -> Internet after you’re installed Ubuntu.

So go ahead and give it a whirl. It doesn’t matter if you’re blogging about your girlfriends or the best diet supplement on the market; or even the latest holiday you were on, you shouldn’t be constrained by the platform you’re using; there are packages available on each one of them.

An ISO file is a disk image, meaning it’s a copy of the entire contents of a CD or DVD. There are a couple of things you can do with this file; for example, you can open the ISO file and extract the individual files from it. I like using a program like 7-Zipp to do this. So, for example if you had an ISO file with the best work Philly had to offer; and didn’t want to waste a DVD, you could point 7-Zip at it and just extract the file you’re interested in.

The thing about Ubuntu is that you will need to boot from the disk image, rather than extract files, and the easiest way to do this would be to burn it to disk. You can use software like the ISO Recorder to do this. It’s a straight-forward (free) application that takes you ISO file and creates a disk with it, allowing you to boot right off it and install Ubuntu on your hard disk.

Ubuntu can play these videos but the software you need to do this doesn’t come installed with Ubuntu because it’s not strictly open-source. It’s quite easy to install though; here’s how you do it.

• Click on the Applications menu and then on Add/Remove
• Set the top option to All available applications
• Type ubuntu-restricted-extras in the search box and press enter if the restricted extras entry does not appear.

You can also do this via Terminal if you wish. Just click on the Applications menu, Accessories and then Terminal. Type:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Press Enter, type in your password when prompted and press Enter. A bunch of text will appear on the screen, but when it stops, your software will be good to go.

Check it out by popping down to YouTube, you can watch a video on effective weight loss pills, your local zoo or maybe even some racing.

This is a relatively simple change to make. Start Ubuntu as normal, Click on Applications, Accessories and then Terminal. Type sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst.

This will load a text editor with the settings used to set up the menu. There are plenty of instructions included in the text. Any line beginning with a # is meant for human consumption.

The top option, default, is which of the options in the menu is selected when the menu appears. It starts counting from 0 not 1 in the list that starts after the line ## ## End Default Options ## ## Count the number of lines starting with title (including the one title Other operating systems:) until you get to the one for Windows and replace 0 with that number. It will probably be the fifth option, in which case replace 0 with 4. The timeout setting is the number of seconds that the menu will wait for you to press a key.

One word of caution, be careful not to change any other text or the gboot menu may not work properly. Precision is rather important here, maybe not like what you find in Vacheron watches but important anyway. It’s probably worth taking a backup before you start.

I got this question from a friend I met at the chemist the other day. I was just picking up some Ventolin (yup, I suffer from asthma sometimes) and he was picking up something called Differin. Anyway, he was pretty excited about his new Ubutu install, and was even talking about how the company behind Ubuntu is registered locally in the Isle of Man. He was pretty green though, so he still had a few things to learn. I’ll be perfectly honest, I’m not a Linux buff, so I actually had to look this one up. But I did find the answer:

Turns out that Ubuntu doesn’t ship with the software needed to play DVDs or MP3s, but adding the software is really really easy. Click the Applications menu and choose Add/Remove. Enter your password, then make sure that the tool is set to show all available applications. Type “restricted extras” into the search box and click Enter. Click on the box next to the entry ubuntu-restricted-extras, click on “Mark for Installation” and then click on Apply.

That’s all you need to do, Ubuntu will download and install the needed files. I’d be curious to see what other software is available there, whether they have exotic stuff like satellite decoding software or live video casting solutions, or whether it’s just plain vanilla packages that you expect to get with any operating system.