Speed up your Ubuntu 12.04 with preload

Preload is nice little application that could make your linux system a lot faster. Preload is an adaptive readahead daemon. It monitors applications that users run, and by analyzing this data, predicts what applications users might run, and fetches those binaries and their dependencies into memory for faster startup times.

Preload packages are available for almost all linux distributions. And it is available by default in the Synaptic Package Manager and Ubuntu Software Center in Ubuntu. Alternatively, you can install it via Terminal. Type this command

 sudo apt-get install preload

Thats it. Preload will run silently in the background. If you want to further tweak Preload, conf file is available at /etc/preload.conf.

Note that installing preload will not make your system boot faster and that preload is a daemon that runs with root priviledges.

And see the difference.

BackBox Linux

BackBox is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. It has been developed to perform penetration tests and security assessments. Designed to be fast, easy to use and provide a minimal yet complete desktop environment, thanks to its own software repositories, always being updated to the latest stable version of the most used and best known ethical hacking tools.

Download 

How to: Enable screen lock in Linux Mint 13

In Linux Mint 13, the screen lock feature is disabled by default. After being idle for a while, the screen will be dimmed and you can re-activate it by moving the mouse or hit a key. For security reasons, you may want to enable the screen lock feature. Here is how to do it:

Hit Alt + F2 and run "mateconf-editor" to open the Mate configuration window. Go to apps > mate-screensaver then check the line "lock_enabled". You can also edit the line idle_delay to change the minutes of inactivity time before the screen lock is activated.

Malys Black/Blue Icons Updated to version 1.5 for Ubuntu/Linux Mint via PPA

Install Malys Blue/Black Icons on Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/11.10/11.04/10.10/10.04/Linux Mint/or any Ubuntu based Distribution

Malys UniBlue/UniBlack Icons updated to ver1.5 and added new icons in this version. For other distro's check source links.
Install Tools to change icons: Gnome-Tweak-Tool, Ubuntu-Tweak

Malys UniBlue Icons

To install Malys-Uniblue-Icons on Ubuntu/Mint open Terminal (Press Ctrl+Alt+T) and copy the following commands in the Terminal:

•   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:noobslab/icons
•   sudo apt-get update
•   sudo apt-get install malys-blue-icons

Malys UniBlack Icons 

 To install Malys-UniBlack-Icons on Ubuntu/Mint open Terminal (Press Ctrl+Alt+T) and copy the following commands in the Terminal:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:noobslab/icons 
• sudo apt-get update 
• sudo apt-get install malys-black-icons

Google Plus Gnome Shell Theme

Half-left has designed another great Gnome Shell theme and this time it is based on the look and feel of the social network website, Google+.

Download Google+ Gnome Shell Theme

Instructions

Make sure you have user-theme-extension installed. Load the GNOME Tweak Tool (available in Ubuntu Software Center) and go to "Theme" section. Click the Shell Theme box and locate the zip file downloaded from link above. Select the theme in the drop down box.

source:  http://www.ubuntuvibes.com