Working With Files in Linux: Kludges and Solutions

A year ago, I made the best and worst mistake of my life: I messed up my GRUB boot list, and didn't have the wherewithal to fix it. I was so frustrated, that I chose to abandon the Microsoft axis altogether. What would I do without the tools I used in Windows? I found myself relying on some very helpful roundups online. You know "The 5 best apps for this or that", and the like.

It turns out, after you read 50 or so Linux roundups that don't help you at all, you find one shining program( or solution )in the rough that takes care of your issues. Sometimes, you end up using a combination of programs together, with varying degrees of success. Then, you have the "kludge". This is a programming term that basically means " an inefficient, clumsy way to get the result you want". I have plenty of those, and have detailed a few of my favorites below.

I'm not saying that you will see much of a difference in the programs I suggest in this roundup. Depending on how new you are to the Linux scene, you might stumble onto something you aren't currently using. What I will offer are unique and occasionally "kludgey" solutions to get the job done.

PDF's: These gave me a real problem when I started using Linux full-time. Don't get me wrong, Linux has plenty of PDF readers/writers. When it came to editing them all, I hit a bit of a roadblock. I have to amend PDF's(photo and text-based) on a regular basis. So what are the solutions I found?

- PDFedit: This is okay, provided you are satisfied with having a one-shot edit. By that, I mean that you can access the document and change it, but it does not have an "undo" function. Hopefully, they will add this feature in future. You have to close the document in order to "undo" any changes. I only use this for highlighting text based PDF's. For image based PDF's I choose...