How-To Geek

Modern TVs have mediocre sound because of their slimline designs, so you'll need a quality soundbar, like Sony's HT-S40R, for a more cinematic experience.

By now you’ve probably heard of ArtCraft and developer Brandon Thomas, who created open-source alternatives to seven applications in Adobe's Creative Cloud suite. Thomas said on Hacker News that he was motivated by Adobe’s dark pattern cancellation policy. If you're not familiar, Adobe's annual plans billed monthly can carry an early termination fee, something many customers may not realize when signing up. He also expressed his frustration with existing Linux alternatives, writing, “I'm sick of GIMP, Krita, and Inkscape being the best Linux and open source have to offer.”

Plugging your phone in and seeing something unrecognizable in your status bar is not a particularly fun experience. Often, you charge your phone because your battery is about to run out, or you need it charged so you can use it the next morning. In these scenarios, the last thing you want is to find out there is some sort of problem.

When it comes to Linux desktop environments, three names get all the attention: GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Cinnamon. However, there are dozens of other desktop environments that are just as good, if not better, depending on your specific use case. So, if you’re tired of these mainstream options, here are three overlooked desktop environments worth trying out.

When I bought my Milwaukee M12 tools, I thought they would just be something to hold me over until I eventually got 18V tools. However, after using them for years, I realize that there are simply some jobs that are better suited for 12V tools over 18V tools, and I'm so glad that I bought the M12 kit when I did instead of waiting to just buy 18V tools.

I guess most people don't start out with the idea they're going to build a small data center in their own home. It's usually a more organic process; a Plex server here, a Home Assistant Raspberry Pi there...

We’re less than two weeks away from Halloween, and the streamers are starting to stock up on spooky movies that fit the season. One of those films is heading to Prime Video this week. It’s a gothic romance inspired by a landmark novel. Hulu is adding a compelling thriller produced by the filmmaker behind Barbarian and Weapons.

I've long wondered what the different reasoning efforts of an AI model actually change when doing things like making websites, so I decided to try the same website prompt on every Opus 5.5 reasoning level. The results genuinely surprised me.

Bambu Lab might be one of the best 3D printer brands out there in my opinion, but that doesn't mean I agree with every decision it makes. That's why I've deployed these three open-source utilities to help me take back control of my printer—and I think you should do the same.

Excel's SWITCH is a logical function that is primarily used for data manipulation. It evaluates an expression against a list of values, and returns a result corresponding to the first matching value.

Let's face it. Apple simply isn't targeting yearly upgrades like it did years ago. It's not surprising; smartphones aren't as exciting as they were back then. There are no game-changing features to debut anymore.

I've been collecting DVDs, Blu-rays, VHS tapes, cassettes, and vinyl records for about 15 years. In spite of the renewed interest in physical media that we've seen in 2026, I'm almost certain that it's just a trend, and my expectations for the future are more or less pessimistic. I don't believe that there will be a successor to Blu-ray, and I expect to see a lot of media enthusiasts offloading their collections in the next decade.

Windows 11 is a widely adopted operating system in the PC world; hence, Microsoft tries to push its apps and services by default. While most PC geeks are aware of this and clean up their system right after setting up the OS, there's a high chance you might not have. Microsoft's key offerings and services on Windows 11, like Widgets, the Edge browser, OneDrive, Teams, and Copilot, silently eat up your memory during OS startup or in the background and increase your CPU load.

I don't know about you, but I feel like Wi-Fi hasn't fundamentally changed in years. New Wi-Fi standards are constantly improving throughput and efficiency, such as the introduction of the 6GHz band with Wi-Fi 6E, but why hasn't Wi-Fi evolved in the opposite direction, too?

I've used Adobe applications for many years, since the good old days when you didn't have to pay every month to keep using your software. Premiere Pro has always been my go-to video editing tool, but it's expensive and often overkill for many video editing projects. On a whim, I decided to see what Codex could do using a few free and open-source tools, and the results were impressive enough that I said goodbye to Premiere Pro.

Linux history is full of projects that thrived for years before their stewards walked away. Some faded quietly, others ended abruptly, and all left devoted communities behind. Unfortunately, many maintainers barely get paid for their work, so it often becomes a passion project. And passions fade. Here are just some examples of that.

Faced with the prospect of having someone house-sit in a few weeks, I suddenly need to make my smart home a little more accessible to guests. Smart switches are something I’ve yet to install, so my smart home still doesn’t function like a dumb home with augmentations.

It's been a while since I had to deal with a serious storage-related problem in Windows, which is likely why I didn't pay much attention to Storage Sense. I've stumbled upon it many times in Settings, but I figured I was all good because I use Disk Cleanup and regularly check what's on my computer.

I don't expect miracles from my ASUS laptop's battery, but I'd like it to last longer when I unplug it. Dimming the screen and closing apps only got me so far, so I went looking for a less obvious Windows tweak. I eventually found a processor setting that made a noticeable difference.

When I got back into 3D printing a few years ago, I focused on printing large things. That's why my first CoreXY printer was a Creality K1 Max, with a build volume large enough to print a complete cosplay helmet in one go.