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Issue 174 (September 2013) - Upgrade your desktop

Click here to get the DVD via BitTorrent

Click here to get just the source code used in tutorials

We asked in the latest Tuxradar podcast for the reasons that you change distro. The most frequent one was the choice of desktop. But you don't have to ditch your whole distro in order to get a new user interface: you can follow our Technical Editor Ben's advice and find the desktop that's right for you, so you end up bossing your Linux machine around rather than it controlling you. Elsewhere in the magazine we've more desktoppery, as we follow Linux Torvalds' advice and tweak Gnome with a tool called Gnome-Tweak-Tool, and the Unity/KDE 4/Gnome 3 debate rumbles on in the letters pages. Back in the world of Real Work, we manage multiple machines with Puppet, get a better filesystem with btrfs and learn how to buy Aeroflot tickets to Caracas without anyone finding out, with our roundup of the finest anonymising distros known to man. All that, plus reviews (Snow Linux. Noobs, the Mirabox, er, Prison Architect), news and other essential free software information, delivered on 100% recycled electrons or 100% chlorine-free paper.

On the DVD: Mint Mega Mix (64-bit), Bodhi, Siduction, Snowlinux, Gnome Tweak Tool, Hotpicks, books, and more.

 Features

Upgrade your desktop

Get the features, the looks and the freedom with the ultimate desktop environment. (Ben Everard)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Raspberry Jams

We investigate the growing network of Raspberry Pi gatherings that bring together people of all ages (Les Pounder)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Terminal Velocity

Say goodbye to the crusty old plain text command line, and discover the funkiest thing since wobbly windows. (Mike Saunders)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Dr Brown's Administeria

Debain and BTRFS (Chris Brown)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Gnome Tweak Tool

Get a desktop like Linus (Andrew Gregory)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Interview: Simon Bennets

We chat with Mozilla's web security guru (Ben Everard)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 Coverdisc

On the disc

Mint 15 mega mix, Bodhi, Siduction, Tutorial code and more (Neil Bothwick)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

The best new open source software on the planet

Data Crow, Antivirus Live CD, Bill Reminder, Darkhttpd, Gramps, Tomb, Fish, OpenBVE, SpaceZero, Prwd, Notepas (Mike Saunders)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 Tutorials

Encryption

Get started using public key encryption to protect your e-mails (Neil Bothwick)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Grub 2

Get to know your bootloader (Carl Fletcher)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Lightworks

The professional-level video level tool is coming to Linux. Find out how to use it. (Seth Kenlon)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Puppet

Make changes to all of your systems at the same time (Jonathan Roberts)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 Coding Academy

Code Concepts

We go back to basics and take a look at encryption (Ben Everard)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

C++ part 2

Pointers and smart pointers (Alec Ross)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Kotin: Moving on from Java

We introduce Kotin, a simple language that tries to fix some of Java's flaws (Juliet Kemp)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 Reviews

Prison Architect

It's like SimCity, but it works and it's in a prison. (Graham Morrison)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Mirabox

It's small, it's and ARM computer, but is it any good? (Ben Everard)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

NOOBS

The new Raspberry Pi installer aims to simplify the task of getting started with the Pi. (Ben Everard)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Snow Linux 4

The perfect antidote to the summer sun comes in Mate and Cinnamon flavours (Mayank Sharma)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Anonymising distros

Worried about your privacy online? Take a look at these three anonymising distros to help you stay safe. (Marco Fioretti)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 More

News: All the latest news from the Linux universe

Upton and Stallman FTW, Ouya, Lubuntu for Munich, Gnome 3 and Bug number 1 (Andrew Gregory)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

What on Earth: OpenColorIO

Get the lowdown on the open source system that keep all the colours in our digital movies crisp, bright and beautiful (Marco Fioretti)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.