50 handy Ubuntu time-saving tips

The end of October saw the much anticipated release of Ubuntu 8.10 - affectionately called the Intrepid Ibex.

It's a release that sees Ubuntu going from strength to strength.

And with its popularity reaching stratospheric proportions, we thought that now was the perfect time to pool together our favourite tips into one place.

If you've never tried Ubuntu, there's never been a better time to dive in. If you're already a convert, read on to discover how to get the best from your installation.

System performance

1. Shorten the boot menu timeout
If you're fed up of waiting for the boot menu to timeout before your favourite operating system launches, open '/boot/grub/menu.lst' with a text editor and look for the line starting with 'timeout'. Just lower the number to its the right. This is the number of seconds the menu system will wait before booting the default operating system (0 or 1 is not recommended).

2. Monitor boot performance

One of the best utilities you can install for checking your system's performance is called 'bootchart'. After installation and a reboot, 'bootchart' will create a complex graph of everything that's running and taking up resources as your system boots, and place an image of the graph in the /var/log/bootgraph folder.

3. Improve boot speed
When the boot menu appears (you might have to press escape) select the default Ubuntu boot option and press 'e'. Cursor down to the line starting with 'kernel' and press 'e' again. You're now editing the boot parameters, and you need to press space and add the word 'profile'. Press return followed by 'b' to boot. Disk access during your boot sequence will now be profiled, which means that subsequent booting should be faster.

4. Trim unwanted services
The default Ubuntu installation takes an over cautious approach to background services. Bluetooth tools may be be running, for example, even if you don't have the hardware. Disable the services you don't need by opening the Services window from the System>Administration menu. Be careful not to disable services you rely on.

5. Monitor CPU usage
You might think that CPU monitors are purely for geeks trying to steal a few extra cycles from their overclocked processors. But this isn't true. A discreet CPU monitor is the best way detecting a wayward process that's slowing down the rest of the system. Right click on the desktop panel, and select 'System Monitor' for our favourite. There's a similar applet for KDE.

6. Manage your processes
If you do detect a process on your system that's stealing more CPU cycles than it really should, then you need to end that process to get those cycles back. Save all your work, and use the Ubuntu process manager. This is part of the System Monitor tool, and this can be opened from the System>Administration menu.

7. Be nice to one another
If you use the System Monitor to manage your running tasks, you might have noticed the 'nice' column. 'nice' is basically a task's priority, and ranges between -20 to 19. If you have a CPU heavy task running, such as a 3D calculation for example, increasing the nice will lower its priority, and make your system feel more responsive.

The default Gnome desktop

8. Enable Gnome Auto login
A lot of us are the sole users of our computers, and it makes little sense navigating through a login screen before getting to our desktops. You can enable auto-login for a default account on your Ubuntu machine by selecting 'Login Window' from the System> Administration window. Switch to the 'Security' page, enable 'Automatic Login' and select the user.