How-To Geek

If you want to use Linux to breathe life back into an old PC, you're going to want one of the desktop environments (DEs) designed to be lean and fast. Based on my experience, this is how I'd rank each of the most popular options.

Back in August, Sling TV revealed its new day pass feature, allowing you to watch sports games or other traditional TV broadcasts without signing up for a monthly subscription. Now you can try it out for just $1, following Disney's failure in court to block its rollout.

Blender 5.0 has arrived, bringing with it a massive list of updates across the entire program. The developers didn't hold back this time, and it feels like most of the pipeline has new features, all of which are welcome because they make the application better.

Plug-in hybrids have long had a bit of a reputation for being finicky, thanks to their complicated powertrains. But that’s old news—today’s PHEVs are more reliable than ever, often matching traditional gas cars and EVs in dependability.

If you want to develop browser extensions for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and other browsers, you’ve probably seen the phrase ‘WebExtension’ in support documents. Even though WebExtensions and Chrome extensions are (somewhat) interchangeable terms for the same technology, you do need to be aware of the differences for cross-browser extension development.

Keeping track of your spending is the best way to ensure that you live within your means and can put money aside for a rainy day. Budgeting software such as YNAB can help you keep track of your financial transactions, but you have to pay to use the service. Now I'm self-hosting my budgeting software and saving money instead of handing it over to someone else.

You shelled out a grand for a new smartphone, and the last thing you want is to see it lying on the ground, cracked and damaged. The natural inclination is to slap on a case, right? While cases are pretty standard practice, you should know that not all are created equal.

For many, maintaining a perfect lawn is a constant battle. Thankfully, robotic mowers are turning this chore into a hands-off experience. Yardcare is no newcomer to the world of garden solutions. With popular models like the Yardcare E400, V100, and M800plus selling tens of thousands of units and finding their way into homes everywhere, the brand has earned a stellar reputation and user trust in the lawn and garden equipment space.

Choosing your first Linux distro can be a daunting experience. Ask the community where you should start, and you’ll get ten different answers. If you know what to look for in a Linux distro, then you'll be able to choose on your own. The key is to do a little research and understand what actually matters when you’re starting. Your first Linux experience depends less on the distro's name and more on a handful of practical things I'm going to cover here.

Finding the right sedan in 2025 often means choosing between comfort, efficiency, or everyday usability, but one Japanese model manages to deliver all three without compromise. It offers upscale refinement, intuitive tech, and a cabin that feels far more premium than its price suggests, making it a standout for drivers who want luxury without luxury-car headaches.

Git is an enormous program, with nearly 200 sub-commands and countless options among them. You probably only use a handful, those reliable stalwarts like init, add, commit, and branch. But some commands go way further than the basics, and can radically improve your coding life if you get to know them.

Globbing is like regular expressions for your filenames. Unfortunately, it’s often misunderstood, despite being an essential command-line skill that everyone knows at least something about. Turn that superficial knowledge into a better understanding.

Most people don’t think about DNS at all. I know I didn’t, at least not until I started running into those little internet headaches that never quite go away. You know the ones I'm talking about, pages that hang for a second before loading, apps that stall when they try to reach the internet, or smart home gadgets acting like they're waking up from a long nap. A lot of that slow, messy behavior can be traced back to DNS, the quiet system your devices rely upon to look up every site and service. When your ISP’s DNS is slow, unreliable, or quietly gathering more data than you realize, you'll likely feel it even if you're not sure why.

A lot of people come to Linux because they think it's magic, but they also make a lot of mistakes. Here are some things you want to avoid if you want to get the most out of Linux.

Arduino boards are a popular choice for DIY electronics, but it's not always clear how to get started with building projects and programming. There's now one more solution to that problem: a new starter kit built around the UNO R4 Wi-Fi board.

Self-hosting and homelabbing can be a great way to save money on subscriptions and reduce how much you depend on big tech companies for your essential services.

You don't need to pay to have something read out loud to you. The free tier of ChatGPT can read any text aloud in an impressively natural way. You can do it on your phone or desktop, and you're not limited to how long the text can be.

Large speakers, to put it bluntly, are a pain. They're difficult to find just the right place for, and it's even worse if you are in a small space. Smart speakers can be a decent solution, but their designs may not be to everyone's tastes. Sure, a black or white speaker is the norm, but it can still look bad sitting on a shelf, especially if your decor is set up in a way that's less tech-focused.

GitHub is the world's biggest software development platform and code repository, and right now it's having some problems. Even though the GitHub site and most web functions are working as intended, Git operations are failing for many people.

Desk space is a limited and highly valuable resource. If you have a gaming PC, you know how quickly accessories, peripherals, and gadgets pile up. Fortunately, with a single accessory, I managed to move most of the clutter off my desk without sacrificing functionality or convenience.