How-To Geek

Ever since COSMIC was announced in summer 2024, it's been a recurring subject Linux discussions and headlines. I tracked it from its alpha, beta, and full release phases. After giving it a try myself, though, I didn't find it to fit my needs. Here's why.

Despite early criticism and plenty of skepticism from enthusiasts, one American coupe has done what few expected: it won the North American Car of the Year award for 2026. In a field packed with fresh rivals and evolving tastes, this model’s blend of performance, style, and overall engineering impressed judges enough to top the competition, proving that even controversial designs can succeed when the execution is right.

There are a million and one Markdown editors out there, and many of them are actually pretty great. Despite the available options, I'm now using VSCodium almost exclusively when I need to work with Markdown. This is why.

IKEA is known for its furniture, but it’s the little odds and ends that can easily justify a visit on their own. Phone accessories are no exception. Here are some of the best you can currently find at the store, and you may also be able to order them online if you don’t have an IKEA in your area.

The used-car market is packed with Volkswagen Arteons at surprisingly low prices, making it a tempting pick for anyone after a slick, tech-loaded luxury sedan that won’t break the bank.

Are you concerned about your digital footprint? Does it bother you that anyone listening can observe which websites you visit? Most people don't know what DNS is or how much information it leaks. I'll share with you what the problem is and how to fortify yourself against snoopers.

Not all Raspberry Pi projects require a display, like home servers and DNS sinkholes. But not all projects are alike, and sometimes your choice of display can greatly influence the end result.

Without Spotify Premium, I've been building out my collection of MP3s and lossless FLAC song files. I still miss the Spotify interface for when I'm working on my desktop, though. Fortunately, I found a replacement that works with my media server.

If you associate IKEA with affordable flat-pack furniture and kitchen utensils with unpronounceable names, you might have overlooked the fact that the company has been at the forefront of the smart home revolution for decades.

People often confuse Excel's LAMBDA and SCAN functions because they often appear together in formulas. However, they aren't the same: LAMBDA is the "brain" that defines the logic, and SCAN is the "vehicle" that carries it out. Here's how to tell them apart.

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition is a powerful laptop capable of doing most anything you'd ever ask of it. Unfortunately, there is one minor quirk that makes it difficult to recommend.

Are you looking at buying a NAS, but have no idea what a NAS even is? A NAS can be many things, but here, I’ll break down what a NAS is, what it isn’t, and whether you actually even need one.

BMW has M. Mercedes has AMG. Cadillac’s answer is V-Series—and it’s always been the quiet menace of the luxury performance world. The original CTS-V was basically a Corvette in a tailored suit, and Cadillac hasn’t lost that energy since.

When I first started using Zigbee devices in my home, I wasn't impressed. The devices would regularly drop off the network, causing automations to fail. The solution was a $5 accessory that made all the difference.

KDE developers are already gearing up for Plasma 6.7, and the upcoming update is bringing some great quality-of-life features like an instant dark mode toggle and system-wide push-to-talk. The team is quickly moving past the initial Plasma 6 launch and focusing on more improvements.

Many automotive tools can be quite expensive, but there are definitely some that are budget-friendly and vital to have in your vehicle. Portable, battery-powered tire inflators are one of those tools.

If you’re shopping for a new family sedan, you might be surprised to learn that the money set aside for a brand-new Toyota Camry can now buy something far more upscale on the used market. Thanks to rapid depreciation in the luxury segment, a refined midsize sedan with premium materials, sharp styling, and a far more exclusive badge has quietly slipped into mainstream pricing territory. For value-focused buyers, that shift changes the conversation entirely.

There's a ghost in your Excel spreadsheet. It's that invisible text box you keep accidentally clicking, or the chart that refuses to be selected. Instead of losing your mind, use the Selection Pane, the hidden sidebar that reveals every object on your sheet so you can manage them with ease.

Technically my first true smartphone in the modern sense was a really rather awful Samsung Galaxy Ace, but before that it was my wife's iPod Touch that showed me that the whole full touchscreen thing could work, and finally loosened my grip on my Blackberry.

Neovim is already quite powerful out of the box, but getting the most out of it is less about piling on plugins and more about choosing the right ones. The plugins below are not popular because they are fashionable, but because they solve specific annoyances that show up after you have spent enough time inside the editor (usually longer than you planned).