We have seen Android apps that lets you remotely control Banshee, VLC, Amarok etc. But how about a more holistic approach? Linux Remote Control aka LRC is a WebApp that turns any device with a web browser (that has HTML5 support) into a full-fledged remote control for systems that run any Linux based distros. Tested it on Ubuntu 13.10 and I have to say I'm impressed! Here's how you install and setup Linux Remote Control in Ubuntu.

After Metro: Last Light FPS and Football Manager 2014, Portal 2 is the latest blockbuster game from Steam to reach our shores. If you don't know already, Portal 2 is the award winning sequel to genre-defining first-person puzzle platformer, Portal. Both the sequel and the original were huge successes across platforms. Portal was released for Linux sometime in mid-2013 along with the likes of Dota 2, Half Life 2 and Left 4 Dead 2.

The recent acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook (for a whooping $16 billion!) has prompted a lot of people to switch to other WhatsApp look-alikes for fear of their privacy. But are there any WhatsApp alternatives that are really secure? Let's find out. Three of the finest secure, private and cross-platform WhatsApp alternatives for Android.

I don't know about you, but I'm a big HUD fan. And I swear by my keyboard. If you're like me, here's a development you would not want to miss. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS will debut keyboard filtering for Unity spread feature, which is pretty great news for keyboard junkies like me. 

Upstart is an event-based replacement for the init daemon which handles starting of tasks and services during boot, stopping them during shutdown and supervising them while the system is running. The project was kick-started in early 2006 by Canonical. Systemd is similar to Upstart in core philosophies, but comes with added advantages. Initial release was in 2010. Mark Shuttleworth, in his latest blog post, has announced the switch to Systemd from Upstart.

Like many other niches, music production was not really a Linux forte. But that's changing now and like what happened to the video editing scene, popular music production tools are finding its way into Linux. Though I love listening to all kinds of music, I'm no music production expert. And hence I can't pass informative judgments on any of the applications you're going to read about in the article below. Consider this blogpost as a brief introduction to different music production tools available for Ubuntu and Linux, and not as a review per se. So here we go again. 10 useful music production tools for Ubuntu and Linux.

Why is Linux faster than Windows? It's a very potent question which immediately stirs up a lot of debate, like we saw before. Some say its a myth. But most Linux users know it isn't, partially because almost everyone who adopted Linux were disgruntled Windows users once. But still, what makes Linux faster? I don't think many in the Linux community are aware of the exact reasons. I bumped up on this reddit thread recently which answers the whole why-linux-is-faster-than-windows question so eloquently. Here are the excerpts.

image via sticky comics

Music on Console aka MOC is perhaps the most lightweight and easy-to-install music player for Linux I have ever tested. And don't be intimidated by the fact that MOC is a console only player. Once you spend enough time with MOC, it becomes as easy to use as any other alternative music players for Linux. Moreover, if you're a fan of MPD plus NCMPC combination who doesn't like to jump through hoops just for installing and setting it up, MOC might be the alternative you have been looking for. It's right there in Ubuntu repositories by default.