Not a lot of people have tried Opera or even heard much about Opera as the browser has always watched from far away as Internet Explorer, then Firefox, and now Google Chrome are taking the stage of Internet prominence. However, is that relatively small amount of attention deserved? Not really

Sometimes, the regular clock apps that come with Android just aren’t enough. They’re fine for simple things, and features like Smart Alarm make them decent, but that’s all it can do. In any case, if you’re not happy with the stock alarm clock, there’s only one thing you can do – get a new one. However, there are plenty of alarm clocks out there. So what’s the best one?

Ever since Instagram was introduced on iOS, people have been easily adding filters to their images to make them look better, or cooler, or any other adjective you can think of. The only downside to Instagram is that it is only for iOS and Android devices, so it cannot be used while you’re on your desktop, laptop, or other daily driver. What can you possibly use instead?

For quite a while now, Linux users have constantly been discussing whether the open source operating system will ever experience a “year of the desktop” where Linux’s desktop market share suddenly rises in relatively dramatic fashion. What are the actual chances of it happening, or can you even call it the “year of the desktop”?

Popular Linux distributions make it pretty easy to encrypt your home folder or even entire partitions if you’d like, without many issues. This is a great option to have if you’re someone who needs their data, whether it’s the home folder or entire partitions, that need to be encrypted. In most cases, all you need to do is select a check mark, and it’ll take care of the rest.

Linux systems are so ridiculously flexible and configurable, it’s downright crazy. A huge part of why Linux is so flexible is because of its modular structure. Every single system component and program is split up into many different packages that can easily be removed, added, or replaced by something else. Absolutely no part of the operating system has an exception to that rule, including the Linux kernel itself.

No operating system will have support for every single piece of hardware out of the box, and it’s important to know which ones have that support. There’s always a driver for that piece of Windows hardware, but with Linux, you do not have that guarantee, so the overall hardware support is smaller. You can figure out, however, which pieces of hardware do have Linux support by checking hardware databases.

If you’re using a Linux distribution like Ubuntu or Fedora, you’re also using the Linux kernel, the core that actually makes your distribution a Linux distribution. Your distribution constantly asks you to update your kernel. Why should you do this when it’s been running just fine?

Just a little over a week ago, a lot of news was made in the world of personal cloud storage, where Dropbox added more sharing features, SkyDrive introduced their new synchronization application for desktops, and Google Drive was unveiled. Soon after, plenty of new comparisons were made between the different services. However, despite the “Big Three” being the most discussed, there may be some worthy services that are being left out.

Whether you like to admit it or not, we all make heavy use of our computer’s spell checker. They save us from all sorts of typos and downright horrible spelling. Thankfully, more powerful software such as Microsoft Word also includes a decent grammar checker to make sure that your sentences also make sense, and aren’t just spelled right. Life is great until you come to the browser.