If you found a software setup file ending with the format (.deb) then this means the file is a Debian package that is designed especially for Debian based machines. If you are a newbie to Linux this may seem a little bit annoying because you may need some extra steps to install those Debian packages. But do not worry we are here to help you do so.

During this tutorial, we are going to show you step by step how to install a Debian package on Ubuntu. We shall discuss two basic methods:

• Installing Debian Packages via Command-Line (Terminal)
• Installing Debian Packages via Graphical User Interface (Software Center Application and GDebi Application)

But before we start our guide let’s first ensure that you have an updated Ubuntu system using the following two commands:

In the command line method, we are going to use the terminal to install a Debian package. Basically, you can use the terminal using one of the two methods:

• via dpkg command
• via GDebi command

In general, if you are using the dpkg command  you can use the following command format:

Where you need to replace the “path_to_Debian_Package” with the path of your Debian package. Therefore, for example, to install ASC Music Debian package you would use a command like the below one:

Our second command-line method is to use the GDebi command. In case you have not installed the GDebi on your system then use the following command to install it:

Next, let’s use the GDebi command to install a Debian package by using the following command:

When the installation completes successfully you should get a message like the below one:

The easiest method to install a Debian package is to use the graphical user interface way. Again, you can choose between one of the two methods:

1. Using Software Center
2. Using GDebi Application

During this method, we will be using the default Software Center that comes with Ubuntu. Luckily, there are not many steps, you just double-click on the package you need to install. Then install it via Software Center application. Let’s have a closer look at the steps as following:

Step 1. Check the Debian package in your Downloads directory.

Double click on the Debian package.

Step 2. As you can notice the Software Center will open. Now you can press the Install button to start the installation.

Step 3. You may be required to provide the sudo password for authentication. As you can see, the installation of the Debian package is in progress.

When the installation completes successfully you can get a screen like the below one with a Remove button instead. The Remove button can be used to uninstall the Debian package from your system.

Now you should have installed the Debian package successfully.

In the second graphical method, we can use the GDebi application. In this method, you should have the GDebi package installed. If it is not installed then you can use the following command to install it:

Now let’s use the GDebi application.

Step 1. First, move to the directory where the Debian package is located. Then right-click on the Debian package and choose “Open with Another Application”.

Step 2. From the recommended applications menu choose the GDebi Package Installer. Then click the “Select” button.

Step 3. The GDebi application will open and load the Debian package.

Step 4. After the Debian package loads, you can click the Install Package to start the installation.

Step 5. As you can notice, the installation bar at the below of the GDebi installer.

Step 6. After the installation finishes successfully you should get a message like the below one.

Congratulations, you have just learned multiple methods for installation the Debian package on your Ubuntu Linux system. The tutorial should work on Ubuntu-based Linux distributions including Linux Mint, elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more.

Computer Networks facilitate the sharing of information and resources between multiple nodes linked together. It is regarded as the backbone of telecommunication in the field of technology.

The other crucial term under networks is Computer Network security. It refers to the set of rules and configurations adopted to prevent and monitor network misuse, data modification (integrity), and denial of network access and resources.

Having understood these two terms, now we can look at Network Scanning. Network scanning mainly deals with security in computer networks. It is a procedure used to identify nodes on a network, services offered by different devices, identify network security systems in place, the operating systems, protect networks from attacks, and check the overall network health.

In this post, we have handpicked the six best Network Scanners for Linux systems. When choosing a network scanning tool, a network administrator must understand the scanning capabilities of a particular utility and the functional areas it covers.

At the top of our list is Nessus. It is a popular tool used by network administrators to scan for issues in a network. Initially, Nessus was distributed as a freeware utility. That quickly changed with time; currently, it’s available as a commercial utility. However, there is still a free package of Nessus that only comes with limited features and capabilities.

Nessus comes in 3 packages, each having different capabilities. They include Nessus Home, Nessus Professional, and Nessus Manager or Nessus Cloud. Nessus has been designed to make the whole process of networking, scanning simple and straightforward.

• Support for a wide range of systems, including cloud, OT (Operational Technology) devices, and traditional IT assets
• It is available with 70,000 plugins offering various vulnerability scanning services on a network.
• It offers support for network inventory with the available advanced features, e.g., automated scans, multiple network scans, and asset discovery.
• Offers accurate visibility into a network
• Support for both IPv4 and Ipv6 network scans.
• It offers support for automated scheduling of scans and analysis.
• Generate customized reports and notifications

Download Nessus

Nikto is an open-source web server scanner distributed under the General Public Licence (GPL). Nikto analyses and performs rapid tests on web servers for up to 7000, potentially malicious applications and files. It also checks for outdated server versions and checks for server configurations objects like HTTP options, index files, etc.

• It provides HTTP proxy support.
• Nikto supports report generation in several file formats, including XML, HTML, NBE, or CSV.
• Offers support scanning for multiple servers and ports via input file, which can include Nmap output.
• Enhances security by authenticating hosts with Basic and NTLM.
• Enables users to tune scans and include/exclude various vulnerability checks.
• Nikto provides a platform for report customization.

Download Nikto

OpenVAS is a free and open-source network security scanning utility distributed under the General Public Licence (GPL). Regarded as a vulnerability assessment tool, OpenVAS scans a network for connected servers, firewalls while listening for any configuration errors in the services running on these devices.

It comes with a unique feature that enables the assessment of solutions and reveals the false negatives and false positives. For any false positive, OpenVAS provides a report of why a particular vulnerability was flagged.

The tool supports three types of scans. They include a Full Scan, Web Server Scan, and WordPress Scan.

A full scan tests the network and all connected devices like servers and web applications for any vulnerabilities. A web server scan is used to test networks for any web servers and web application vulnerabilities. The WordPress scan, like the name suggests, examines a system for WordPress and web server vulnerabilities.

• OpenVAS is an excellent vulnerability scanning utility with solution management.
• Provision of reports for risk assessments and mitigation.
• Support for intelligent custom scans.

Download OpenVAS

Angry IP scanner is a free and open-source network scanning tool used to perform IP addresses and Port scans. Every single scan provides information about nodes on the network like hostnames, MAC addresses, NetBIOS information, frequently used IP ranges, web servers presence, etc.

To speed up the network scanning process, Angry IP Scanner implements a multi-threaded approach with each thread scanning a different range of IP addresses. You can save the results in various file formats like CSV, TXT, and XML.

• It supports the scanning of rapid IP addresses and ports.
• Implements multi-threaded scanning.
• Support for several file formats – CSV, TXT and XML.

Download Angry IP Scanner

Nmap is another popular tool available for both Network administrators and penetration testers. As the name suggests, Network Mapper (NMAP) maps a network and checks for vulnerabilities. It identifies nodes on a network, available hosts and services offered, discover open and closed ports, etc. The Nmap Scripting Engine helps in detecting network security issues and configuration errors.

Nmap is available as a Command-line (CLI) utility but has a GUI client known as Zenmap. Nmap can be used on small networks, scanning a single host and vast networks with thousands of nodes and subnets.

• Ease of use
• Nmap Serves as a network inventory and mapping utility.
• Support for port scanning and auditing.

Download Nmap

Qualys Freescan is a free and open-source network scanning utility that helps businesses streamline their security and compliance solutions. It scans the network for URLs, IP addresses, and local servers for vulnerabilities.

It performs three primary checks on a network;

• Vulnerability checks: Tests a network for malware attacks and SSL issues.
• OWASP: Checks for security issues in web applications.
• SCAP checks: (Security Content Automation Protocol) checks computer configurations against security contents, i.e., SCAP.

• Qualys performs detailed network vulnerability checks.
• Support for web application auditing.
• Qualys responds to threats in realtime.
• It supports only up to 10 free scans.

Download Qualys Freescan

Every network has its weakness in terms of bugs, loopholes, and even misconfigurations. All these can lure an attacker into exploiting the vulnerabilities. Network monitoring is, therefore, a critical activity that every network administrator should carry out from time to time to prevent intrusions. Network scanning tools make such a task much more comfortable and straightforward.

As an administrator, you will need to make a tough decision on which tool is best for your network. I would suggest you go for a utility that provides advanced exploit detections, comprehensive port scanning, and web vulnerability assessments.

In this article, we have looked at some of the best Linux network scanning tools, and luckily, most of them are freeware. Go through each of them and pick one which is best suited for your network.

Are you looking to expand your knowledge base on how temporary files are handled in Linux? Well, to help you out, here is a quick and comprehensive read on everything you need to know about the Linux /tmp directory.

The /tmp directory in Linux based systems contains necessary files that are temporarily required by the system as well as other software and applications running on the machine.

For example, when you are writing a document, all the content inside that document is saved as a temporary file inside the /tmp directory. After you have saved it, it gets stored in your preferred location, and the temporary file gets removed once you exit the document.

Both /tmp and /var/tmp are used by programs as well as the system itself to store data temporarily. However, the key difference is for how long the data is stored inside these filesystems. The data retention period for /var/tmp is much more extended than that of the /tmp directory.

By default, all the files and data that gets stored in /var/tmp live for up to 30 days. Whereas in /tmp, the data gets automatically deleted after ten days.

Furthermore, any temporary files that are stored in the /tmp directory get removed immediately on system reboot. As such, the /var/tmp directory is used by programs to store data that needs to be preserved between reboots temporarily.

The files and data that are stored inside the /tmp directory are only a few KB in size. It is doubtful, albeit possible, for the /tmp directory to fill up.

For an average system, there needs to be millions of temporary files stored in the /tmp directory to fill it up. This shouldn’t be something you should worry about if you run a single-user system that gets frequently shut down, as the rebooting system removes all the stored files in the /tmp directory.

However, if you are a system admin running a server that rarely gets rebooted and hosts thousands of users, then the /tmp directory filling up is a practical problem.

With more temporary files piling up in the directory, it is going to slowly eat up all the storage space, which is terrible news for the overall system health.

Unless you know what you are doing, it isn’t recommended that you go around deleting the files inside the /tmp directory. These are important and required by the software running on your system. Removing them can potentially cause a system crash. Since the files and data stored in the /tmp directory get automatically deleted upon system reboot, it isn’t something you need to worry about actively.

However, as discussed earlier, for servers that run for months on end, it is necessary to clean up the temporary files from time to time before it floods the /tmp directory. To do this, we encourage you to take a more systematic approach instead of just deleting all the /tmp files by the bunch.

Here we have put together a detailed read on how to properly manage the Linux /tmp directory to help out system admins.

There are two things you need to consider when trying to manage the Linux /tmp directory. First, you need to know how to determine which files to remove from the /tmp directory, as randomly deleting the files will disrupt users’ activities.

Secondly, you need a way to automate the /tmp directory clean up process as it is going to be impossible to search and routinely delete the temporary files manually.

Considering these two points, the perfect solution would be periodically deploying user file housekeeping scripts using crontab. For example, let’s suppose that you want to routinely delete all user files stored in the /tmp directory that has not been used for the last three days.

Well, you can put this to action by first informing the users on your server about your new temporary file deletion policy, so that they can modify their usage activities accordingly. Next, you will need to write a script that will help you find all these files.

Here is an example that you can try:

The above script will find all the /tmp files that haven’t been accessed in the last three days but will exclude all the files owned by the root user. To delete all these files, you will just to do a slight edit to the above script:

To run this script periodically, you will need to copy the above text in a file and make it executable. For this tutorial, we will be creating the file tmp.cleanup.sh.

Next, we will set up a crontab command that will execute the script every 6 hours. To do this, first enter the following command in the terminal:

This is going to open the crontab file in the editor. Next, you will need to copy and paste the given command in the editor and then save & exit.

This is going to run the script in /opt/scripts/tmp.cleanup.sh, every 6 hours, so you don’t have to worry about the /tmp directory getting flooded and eating up your system storage.

Of course, you are free to program the crontab to execute the script in any periodic interval you want. Here is an in-depth guide on how to create a crontab command to help you out.

In the course of manually deleting the /tmp files, some users accidentally end up deleting the /tmp directory itself. Mess ups like this can and do happen. However, you can quickly restore the deleted /tmp directory using the discussed method.

All you need to do is enter the following commands in your terminal:

The first line creates a new /tmp directory. The second line gives all users (owner, group, and other) access and permission to read, write, and run files in the /tmp directory.

Next, you can enter this command to check all the permissions of the /tmp directory to make sure all your users will be able to use it.

Once you have checked everything is a-okay, you will need to reboot your system. This will ensure that the programs start using the newly created /tmp directory.

So that covers everything you need to know about the Linux /tmp directory. However, if you still have some burning questions that we left out from this read, then feel free to ask them down in the comments section. We will happily resolve it to help you develop a better understanding and appreciation for Linux.

Since its release, the Ubuntu Software Center has proved to be a reliable utility for users who want to install applications graphically without the hassle of executing multiple Terminal commands. It’s an easy to use tool that provides users even with search functionality enabling them to look up for any application they need and install it with a single click. Additionally, most of these applications available are entirely free for use.

Let’s get into details and learn how to effectively use the Ubuntu Software Center for installing and managing the applications.

Even with all these fantastic features, we can still tweak the Software Center to make it even more efficient. Below are five great tips you can apply while using Ubuntu Software Center.

By default, the Software Center uses the primary server for your country and region to download packages and updates for your system. That is done to increase download speeds. However, we can improve the download speed even more by using a local server like that of a university that often hosts many repositories.

Follow the steps below to see how you can change your download server.

i) Launch the “Software & Updates” application from the applications menu.

ii) Navigate to the Ubuntu Software menu. It should probably be the first from the left. From the image below, you can see my default server is set to the United States.

iii) Click on the drop-down list, and you should see the “Other” option. Click on it. You will be surprised by the number of servers that will be listed. Select the server closest to you.

iv) If you have no idea which to select, click on the “select best server” option on the top right of the winLaunch Software & Updatesdow.

This option will test all the servers available and closest to you for the fastest server. That will give your software and updates download speeds an amazing boost. It is even more useful when Ubuntu servers are slow, especially when a new edition of Ubuntu is released.

This feature is mainly implemented by blogs and websites, providing tutorials on how to carry out various tasks on Ubuntu. They provide users with a single-click link that will take them directly to the Ubuntu Software Center to download the particular package.

Unfortunately, not all bloggers use this method. Some still use the command-line instructions using the “apt” package manager. For example, “sudo apt-get install.” However, there is a solution to this for you as a reader.

With the Apt-Linker chrome extension, any “sudo apt-get install” command will automatically convert to a clickable link. Installing this extension is as simple as clicking any installation link.

With the introduction of the Software Center in Ubuntu systems, software installation was made even more straightforward. Users don’t have to execute multiple commands on the Terminal to install commonly used software like Skype or VLC media player.

With the search feature, users can look up for any application they need to install. For example, to install Android Studio IDE, I can search for it on the Software center.

The Ubuntu Software Center can also be used to install “DEB” packages. Instead of using the command-line, which will need you to execute several commands, you can use the Software Center. To do so, Right-click on the “deb” package and select the option “Open with Software Install.”

Updating and upgrading the Ubuntu system is pretty straightforward. All you have to do is run the commands “sudo apt update” and “sudo apt upgrade.” Even though this method is very efficient, you might need to upgrade only particular applications in the system. That is where the Ubuntu Software Center comes in handy.

Launch the Software Center. You should see three tabs at the top – “Explore,” “Installed,” and “Updates.” Click on the “Updates” tab. If you have any applications that need to be updated, they will be listed here. You can decide to update all of them or update a specific application.

You can use the Ubuntu Software Center to remove and update native applications and apps installed using snap and flatpak. To do so, launch the Software center and lookup for the specific application. You should see a “Remove” next to it. Click on it to uninstall.

Alternatively, you can click on the “Update” tab to see which applications require updates. This method is very efficient for new users who are just getting into Linux and find the whole Terminal thing overwhelming.

Ubuntu has two leading Software apps where users can download applications. The Ubuntu Software and Snap Store. The default software app is the Ubuntu Software, but it is the Snap store under the hood. All apps available in the Snap store are snap packages while the Ubuntu Software can contain both Snaps and apt packages.

These available snaps on Ubuntu Software are regarded as free, and you can download them without the need for a snap store account. However, to download and install private snaps, you will need a snap store account. Follow the steps below to create a snap store account if you don’t have one.

i) Launch Ubuntu Software application.

ii) Click on the “hamburger menu drawer” icon at the top-right.

iii) Click on the “Sign in” button.
iv) If you already have a snap store account, select the option “I have a Snap Store or Ubuntu One account.” If not, choose “I want to register” to get started with creating a new account.

Not only did the Ubuntu Software simplify the overall process of installing software, but also uninstalling applications. If you are getting into Linux systems, the Ubuntu Software can be a reliable utility before you get a good understanding of the Terminal package management commands. You can use it to remove Native apps, snap packages, and Flatpak applications.

Just like any other operating system, Ubuntu uses drivers to manage most of the hardware components. However, unlike Windows operating systems where users need to search for drivers and install them manually, Ubuntu identifies and installs the required drivers for your order automatically.

However, there is a catch. Most of these hardware components have both open-source drivers and proprietary drivers. By default, Ubuntu will install the open-source ones. In some cases, that might cause some problems since the open-source driver might not work as well as that provided by the hardware manufacturer. I faced these issues, mostly with wireless adapters and graphic cards.

To install additional drivers, follow the steps below;

i) Launch the “Software & Updates” app.

ii) Click on the “Additional Drivers” tab. You will see a list of devices together with their additional drivers, which you can install. You can decide to install the driver by selecting it and clicking on “Apply Changes.”

If you ever want to go back to using open-source drivers, click on the “Do not use” option. Note, your PC will need to restart after switching the drivers.

Canonical publicly launched the Canonical live patch service, enabling you to apply kernel security updates without rebooting the system. It directly patches the running kernel. It, however, doesn’t affect the regular kernel updates. You will have to install those the proper way and reboot to apply changes.

If you are running a server or having some dedicated computer, it would be best to set this up. As soon as a security update is rolled out, you want to have it running on your system as quickly as possible. Follow the steps below to setup Ubuntu Livepatch.

i) launch the “Software & Updates” application.
ii). Click on the Livepatch tab. To enable Ubuntu Livepatch, you need to sign in with your Ubuntu one account. If you don’t have it, you can create one here.

If you wish to have your system updated more frequently, you can change the update settings on the Update and Software application. Launch the “Software & Updates” app and navigate to the “Updates” tab.

Here, you will be presented with several options for how you want to receive your updates. For example, in my system, I want it to check for updates daily and automatically download and install security updates.

The Ubuntu Software Center is a handy application and is getting even better with time. We have more and more packages and features being introduced. Currently, there is a rating and review feature that shows customer feedback about the application and Livepatch being the latest. If you found this article useful, feel free to share the link with friends.

Google Chrome is the most popular web browser for desktop computers for a good reason. It comes with a lot of cool features and functionalities that appeal to casual users as well as tech-savvy professionals.

With that being said, CentOS already ships with the much loved and equally feature-rich Mozilla Firefox. However, if you have a long history with Google Chrome and want to use it on your CentOS system as well, then we are here to help.

The problem is that since Google Chrome isn’t an open-source application, it isn’t available in the official CentOS repository. As such, we have put together a step-by-step workaround to help you add Google Chrome to your YUM repository and then install it.

First, we will need to create this file: /etc/yum.repos.d/google-chrome.repo. You can do this by entering the following command in the terminal:

Once the file is created, you will need to open it using your favorite editor. We will be using the nano editor for this tutorial. After opening the file, you will need to enter the following text and then save the file.

Following these steps, you have successfully enabled the Google Chrome YUM Repository. Its time to install the Chrome web browser.

Next, we will be using the yum command to install the browser and make sure to pull all of its dependencies onto your system. To do this, first enter the following command in the terminal:

This is going to give us the following output.

As you can see, the repository should show the latest version of Google Chrome i.e., version 84. Now that we are sure we are getting the newest version, it is time to install the browser using the following command:

This is going to install the browser along with all its dependencies on your system.

After installing any new software or application, it is a good practice to check for any updates. You can do this by entering the following command in the terminal:

This should give you a similar output screen, as shown below:

On our system, it is showing that everything is up to date, and all the necessary dependencies are installed. That’s great news! It’s time to start the browser.

To start Google Chrome, you can enter the following command. As you can see, there is no need for you to enter sudo, as you can access it as a regular user.

This is going to bring up the following output screen as well as the pop-up box asking you to make Google Chrome your default browser, and whether you want to send usage stats to Google.

You can keep the options checked or uncheck them if you like. Once done, hit Ok, and the Google Chrome browser should open up. You can start browsing the web using it.

With Google Chrome successfully installed, you will also be able to run it using the GUI as well with the option to pin it to your Favorites.

So this is how you can install Google Chrome on CentOS. As you can see, it is relatively simple and doesn’t involve too many complicated steps. The same steps and commands will apply when trying to install Chrome on Fedora as well as on CentOS/RHEL 7.X.

The most important and crucial part would be enabling the Google Chrome YUM repository, as we showed earlier. Make sure to copy the text exactly as shown here, and you should be good to go.

However, if you do end up facing some errors during the installation procedure, then leave a comment explaining your problem. We would happily help you to troubleshoot the issue.

It’s fair to say that most of us lose essential data in our computers either through accidental deletion, virus attacks, permanent removal of files, etc. at some point. Some of these files contain critical information that cannot be assumed and needs recovery. In this post, we will discuss some of the best data recovery available for Linux systems. The fantastic part is that most of them are opensource and freely available for use.

The process of Data recovery is the retrieving of either lost, damaged, inaccessible, or corrupted data from storage devices. They can range from storage media like Hard drives, SSD, USB drives, DVD/CD, and other electronic storage devices.

As strange it may sound, the data is not ‘actually’ deleted from the hard disk after you remove the file from your Linux system (or any OS if it matters) using the delete key. The operating system just marks the memory sector of the deleted file location as available space for the next write sequence. It means anyone can use a special tool to get access to that memory sector and recover the data before other data overwrites it. The special tool I’m talking about is the File Recovery tool.

Currently, there are many Linux data recovery software in the market, giving users a large pool to choose the right one. In this article, we will focus on the six best recovery tools available for Linux, and also show you how to install them on the most common Linux distributions.

TestDisk is an opensource Data recovery tool mainly used to retrieve damaged partitions. It is also useful in recovering a non-booting disk if an error was caused by harmful software, virus, or even accidental file deletion. It is a powerful command-line utility that is easy to use and fast to understand.

Installing this highly reliable utility is fast and easy. You can download the TesDisk setup file from the link below or use the command-line to install it.

Download TestDisk

Install TestDisk on Ubuntu and Debian

Install TestDisk on Red Hat and CentOS 7

Install TestDisk on Fedora

Install TestDisk on Arch Linux

• TestDisk enables you to gather necessary information about a corrupted drive.
• Recover deleted partitions.
• It’s a cross-platform application that runs Linux, Windows Operating Systems, MacOS, and many more Operating System.
• TestDisk can be used to re-build broken partition tables.
• It is used to rewrite the corrupted MBR (Master Boot Record).
• It can be used to backup partitions EFI GPT partitions.

Ddrescue is a free and open-source command-line utility distributed under the GNU license. Ddrescue is used in retrieving data when a read error occurs. You can download the Ddrecue setup file from the link below or use the Terminal commands.

Download Ddrescue

Install Ddrescue on Ubuntu

• Rescues data easily and fast by reading only the specified blocks.
• Enables users to stop/pause an ongoing activity and resuming at any time.
• Can recover necessary data efficiently in spit of disk errors and bad sectors.
• It highlights the bad sector on a drive.
• Ddrescues keeps track of logs about its advancement; therefore, reducing redundant scanning.

It is one of the most reliable tools when all others fail. Written in C programming language, SafeCopy performs data recovery from bad sectors on a storage drive. You can download the SafeCopy setup file from the link below or use the command-line to install it.

Download SafeCopy

Install SafeCopy on Ubuntu

• Since it’s written in C language, SafeCopy can execute low-level I/O operations.
• SafeCopy works in the background without slowing or bringing the computer to a deadlock.
• It’s available for use in 16 different languages.
• It can continue from the exact position of recovery in case a storage drive disconnects. (For example, a USB drive could disconnect either accidentally or due to faulty storage).
• SafeCopy can be used to fix errors in several storage media like DVD/CDs, Floppy drives, Hard drives, USB drives, etc.

Redo Backup and Recovery is one of the available data recovery utilities with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and released under the GNU GPL3. It is regarded as an easy-to-use tool even for newbies getting into Linux systems and have less knowledge about the Terminal commands.

Redo Backup and Recovery is available as an ISO file which can be used to create a bootable USB/CD to boot your PC. Since this tool is platform-independent, users can retrieve a lot more data from different partitions. Download Redo Backup and Recovery tool from the link below.

Download Redo Backup and Recovery

• Redo Backup and recovery come with a few essential applications enabling you to carry out other tasks while recovering data. They include a text editor, browser, file manager, and Terminal.
• Available for use as a bootable USB/CD.
• It’s one of the few recovery utilities that make use of Partclone to clone disk partitions.

PhotoRec is another amazing data recovery utility from CGsecurity. The other is TestDisk. PhotoRec was developed to accurately recover deleted images/photos and other graphic media files. It’s a free and open-source utility distributed under the GNU General Public Licence.

You can download the PhotoRec setup file from the link below or use the command-line install it.

Download PhotoRec

Install PhotoRec on Ubuntu

PhotoRec comes along with the TestDisk Data Recovery utility. Therefore, to work with PhotoRec, we will install TestDisk.

Launch Photorec with the command below.

• Comes with an intuitive and interactive interface
• PhotoRec supports a wide range of file formats
• Can recover damaged or lost photos from CD drives, Hard drives, and even digital cameras
• PhotoRec can discover unseen or unexplored data to recover photos even when the media storage is severely damaged.

Mondo is a free and highly reliable command-line data recovery utility available for most Linux distributions. It comes with several unique features and has been in the market for a long time used by large and tiny companies to recover/backup/restore data extensively. Mondo works with a wide range of storage media devices.

Download Mongo Rescue

• Used to verify the reliability of your system
• Can be used to perform several partition management features like resizing, formatting and partitioning
• It works with both RAID and Non-Raid devices
• Mondo is available for both Linux and Windows and can be used to recover the Master Boot Record (MBR).
• Can be used to verify the integrity of recovered data

I hope this article has given you enough information on the best Linux file recovery software available to download, and you can now make a choice on which tool best fits your needs. If you are a primary user, any of the tools above will be of great help. However, for advanced users with special needs on file recovery, they will need to go for one with the required features.

It’s important to note that most of the data recovery tools available, retrieve lost data using the metadata left in the drive. That is not a hundred percent guarantee you will recover every single byte of the data. At times, some of the files might be overwritten so much until the metadata itself is no longer useful. Therefore, it’s best always to have a backup of any critical data in your system.

Which tool do you use for data recovery in your Linux System? Feel free to share with our readers in the comment section below.

NFS or Network File System is a distributed file protocol that allows you to share a file or even an entire directory with others over a network. It establishes a server-client environment, where a client machine can access data shared by the NFS server as if they were locally mounted.

In this tutorial, we will go over detailed installation instructions for setting up NFS Server on CentOS. The step-by-step guide will cover how to set up the NFS server on the server-side as well as the client-side. Let’s get started.

To start, here is a step-by-step guide on setting up the NFS server on your CentOS 8 system.

First, we will need to install nfs-utils on our system. It is the NFS server package that functions as the NFS daemon. To install it, you need to enter the following command in the terminal:

We are running a clean install of CentOS 8 and nfs-utils is already installed on our system. It might be the same on your machine as well. If not, then the package will get installed, following which we move on to the next step.

Now that you have nfs-utils installed on your system, you will need to start the nfs-server service, configure it to start automatically at system boot, and finally verify its status to check if everything is working as intended.

To do this, you will need to enter the following commands in your terminal:

The output should be similar to, as shown in the image below:

The active sign means that the NFS server is working perfectly. You should note that all the associated services that are necessary to run an NFS server or mounting NFS shares are also activated via the above command. These services include nfsd, nfs-idmapd, rpcbind, rpc.mountd, locked, rpc.statd, rpc.rquotad, and rpc.idmapd.

Also, in case you are interested, here is the address for the NFS server configuration files:

• /etc/nfs.conf – This is the main configuration file for the NFS daemon and tools.
• /etc/nfsmount.conf – This is the NFS mount configuration file.

Now that you have set up your NFS server, it is time to create a shared file system on the server that is going to be accessible from the client system. For this tutorial, we will create the directory /mnt/nfs_share/docs by using the following command:

Next, to avoid any file restrictions on the NFS shared directory, we will configure the directory ownership using the following command:

This allows the client system to create any files in the shared directory without facing any permission issues. Also, if you wish to enable all permissions – read, write, and execute to the NFS shared folder, then you can do so using the following command:

For the changes to take place, you will need to restart the NFS daemon using this command:

It is time to export it so that the client system can have access to it. To do this, we will need to edit the /etc/exports file. While editing the file, you can grant access to a single client only, or multiple clients, as well as the entire subnet.

If you wish to grant access to the entire subnet, then you will need to use the following syntax:

Here “subnet” needs to be replaced with the system’s subnet. Otherwise, you can specify multiple clients one at a time, on a separate line using this syntax:

Here is a look at the other parameters using in the command and what they mean:

• rw – This parameter gives read and write permissions to the NFS shared file/folder.
• sync – This parameter requires the changes on the disk to be made first before they are applied.
• no_all_squash – This parameter will map all the UIDs & GIDs from the client requests that are identical to the UIDS and GIDs on the NFS server.
• root_squash – The parameter will map requests from the root user on the client-side to an anonymous UID / GID.

Using our setup, we will grant access to our client machine with the IP 10.0.2.16. To do this, you will first need to open the /etc/exports file using this command.

Next, you will need to add the following line inside the file:

Once done, save and exit the file. Now, using the cat command, confirm that the entry was registered. To do this, enter the following command in your terminal:

You should see something similar to the following image:

Now it is time that we export the above-created folder, so it becomes available to client systems. To do this, we will need to use the following command:

Here, the -a option means that all the directories will be exported. The -r option will re-export all the directories. And finally, the -v option will display a verbose output.

However, just to be sure that the export list is a-okay, we will run this command as well:

And that’s it! We have successfully created and exported our NFS shared files. Now its time to move on to the next step.

Our NFS server set-up is complete. The only thing left to do is to configure the firewall rules such that it allows the NFS services.

This includes the following three services – nfs, rpc-bind, and mountd. And to allow these services through the firewall, we need to enter the following commands in the terminal:

Once done, make sure to reload the firewall for the changes to take effect. To reload the firewall, use this command:

With the firewall configured, it is time to set up the NFS client system.

Here is a step by step procedure on how to set up the NFS client system on CentOS 8.

First, we will need to install the necessary packages for accessing the NFS share folder that’s in the NFS server. To do this, enter the following command in the terminal:

Next, we will display the mounted NFS shared folder on the server using this command:

We will need to create a directory that we will use to mount the NFS share. To do this, use the following command:

To mount the remote NFS shared directory that’s on the local client system, we will need to use the following command.

Where 10.0.2.15 is the IP address of the NFS server. To verify that the remote NFS share has been mounted, you can use the following command:

Finally, to make the mount share stable even after a reboot, we will need to edit the /etc/fstab file and then add the following entry:

Once done, save and close the file, and you are good to go.

After going through all the above steps, we have successfully configured a client-server connection using NFS. However, we need to check if the setup is working before we can call it a day.

To do this, we will first need to create a test file in the NFS server share directory and then check to see if it’s present in the client NFS mounted directory. So first, let’s create the test file in the NFS server directory using the following command:

Head on to the client-side and enter this command in the terminal to check if the test file is available.

If you see the file, then it means that the NFS connection is working correctly.

That was our in-depth guide on how to set up the NFS server on CentOS 8. We hope you found this tutorial to be useful and that it helped you in sharing files and directories with your client systems. You may be interested in setting up an FTP server on your CentOS machine.

Having Java on your Linux system is necessary for running a lot of essential software. We have put together a comprehensive guide on how to install Java on Pop!_OS. We shall show you how to install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) as well as the Java Developer Kit (JDK) using the apt command.

Apart from that, we will also show you how to install both OpenJDK and the official Oracle JDK.

By default, Pop!_OS 20.04 comes with Open JDK 11 – an open-source version of JRE and JDK. To check if your Pop!_OS installation also has it pre-installed, you need to type the following commands in your terminal.

First, you will need to update the package index using this command:

Next, enter this command to check if Java is installed on your system.

If Java is installed, it will show you the version number of the JRE. However, in case it is not installed, you will get the following message on screen:

To install Java on your system, you can type in the following command:

This command will only install the default JRE – Java Runtime Environment from OpenJDK 11. To install the default JDK – Java Development Kit from OpenJDK 11, you will need to enter another command:

With both JDK and JRE installed, you will be able to run all Java-based software on your Pop!_OS system. To make sure that Java is correctly installed on your system, enter the same command as before:

This time, you should see an output similar to one shown in the below image:

To verify that JDK has been appropriately configured, you can check the version of the Java compiler on your system using this command:

You should see an output similar to the one shown below:

So, this is how you install JRE and JDK from OpenJDK. However, if you want to install the official Oracle JDK, then you will need to follow a completely different method.

Here’s a step by step guide on that to help you out.

OpenJDK should be enough to help you run most Java-based applications on Pop!_OS. However, some software requires you to have the official Oracle Java Development Kit (JDK) installed on your system.

Note: We recommend installing Oracle JDK 11 because it is the current LTS (Long-Term Support) version, and will receive updates and support till 2026.

Unlike OpenJDK, Oracle JDK isn’t available via package managers because of terms related to licensing and distribution. As such, to install Oracle JDK 11 on your system, we must follow a workaround. Here is a step-by-step process, so you can methodically follow the installation procedure.

First, you will need to head on over to the official Oracle JDK website and download the latest JDK: jdk-11.0.7_linux-x64_bin.tar.gz as shown in the image below:

Next, you will need to create a new directory folder where you will extract the contents of the downloaded file. To do this, open the terminal and type in the following command:

Sometimes, you might already have this file in your system, in which case, the above command will generate an error message telling you the “file exists”.

Either way, your system has the /usr/lib/jvm directory. We will need to enter the following command to change to this directory:

Next, we will extract the downloaded file to this directory using this command:

Note: This command states that the jdk-11.0.7_linux-x64_bin.tar.gz is located inside the /Downloads folder. If you have downloaded it elsewhere, then change the pathway accordingly.

Next, you will need to configure your system so that Oracle JDK 11 runs smoothly. To do this, first, you will need to open the environment variables files by entering this command in the terminal:

We have used the nano text editor for this tutorial. However, you can use any other text editor that you like.

This is how the environment file looks like before any modification:

After opening the file, you will need to alter the existing PATH folder by adding the following bin folder:

Make sure that colons separate the PATH variables. Once done, add this environment variable at the end of the file:

Here is the edited environment file to help you see where you need to add these paths and variables.

Next, you will need to inform your system where Java is installed on your system. To do this, enter the following command in your terminal:

To finalize the installation of your Oracle JDK 11, it is time to run some commands to see if everything is working correctly.

First, let’s see if the system prints the location of Java and javac as we configured in the previous steps. To do this, enter the following commands in the terminal:

As you can see, the system can locate both the OpenJDK installation as well as the OracleJDK installation.

Once you get this output, restart your system. Again, open the terminal and type in the following command:

Note that in the output, you see Java version instead of OpenJDK version – which was the output when Oracle JDK 11 was not installed. You can also see that the system is running on build 11.0.7 LTS – the one that we installed. If you get the same output, then it means that our installation of the Oracle JDK 11 was successful.

We just went over how you can install both OpenJDK and Oracle JDK on your Pop!_OS system. To complete the tutorial, let’s also go over how you can uninstall these packages as well.

Since you already have Oracle JDK installed, you might want to uninstall OpenJDK from your system. This can be quickly done by entering the following command in the terminal:

This will remove OpenJDK along with all its dependencies and configuration files.

Instead of removing OpenJDK, you might want to remove Oracle JDK. To do this, you need to enter the following commands.

1. $ sudo update-alternatives --remove "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk[version]/bin/java"
2. $ sudo update-alternatives --remove "javac" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk[version]/bin/javac"

You need to replace the jdk[version] with the version installed on your system. Since we just installed jdk-11.0.7, we will be using that in this tutorial. Here is a look at the output screen:

Once done, type in the following command:

If you see this line “command ‘java’ not found”, then it means you have successfully uninstalled Java from your system.

Setting up an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Server on your Linux PC will allow you to transfer files between your system and a remote machine. We will show you how to set up an FTP server on CentOS.

Linux already has a ton of open-source FTP servers that you can use for the job. This includes popular servers like PureFTPd, ProFTPD, as well as vsftpd.

You are allowed to use any one of the FTP servers as you like. However, in this tutorial, we will be installing and using vsftpd, short for Very Secure FTP Daemon. It is a fast, stable, and secure FTP server that will help you transfer files to and from a remote system in a jiffy.

So without further ado, let’s get started:

First, we will need to install vsftpd on CentOS. To do this, enter the following command in the terminal:

With vsftpd installed on your CentOS system, you should configure it so that it starts and boot automatically. This can be done using the following command:

Once that’s done, verify the vsftpd service status by entering this command:

An output screen similar to the one below will appear. You should see that vsftpd is not “Active” on your CentOS system.

With vsftpd active and running on your system, you will need to configure the server settings. To do so, you will need to access the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf configuration file. This can be done by opening the configuration file in the nano editor by entering the following command in the terminal:

With the file now opened in the editor, there are several changes you need to make to set up vsftpd on your system. Let’s go over them one by one.

First, let’s configure the FTP server to allow access only to the local users. To do this, you will need to find the anonymous_enable and local_enable directives in the file and edit them as shown in the image below:

As you can see, you will need to set anonymous_enable=NO and local_enable=YES.

Next, you will need to configure the FTP server to allow uploading and deleting files.

To do this, you will need to locate the write_enable directive and change it to YES, as shown in the image.

Once done, you will want to limit the total number of user logins i.e., you only want certain users to log in to your FTP server. To do this, first, locate this line in the .conf file – userlist_enable=YES. After that, add these two lines into the file:

Use the image below as reference:

You can also choose to enable this option. If you do, you will have to explicitly specify which users you want to give access to the FTP server. To allow the users, you will need to add their usernames to the /etc/vsftpd/user_list file with only one username in each line.

You might also want to set up passive FTP connections.

As such, here we will show you how you can specify the minimum and maximum ranges of the ports by adding a couple of lines inside the .conf file.

All you need to do is scroll down to the end of the file and add these two lines, as shown in the image.

We will also discuss how you can open the range in your firewall later in this tutorial.

Finally, there comes the question of securing the FTP connection by using SSL/TLS. To do this, you will need to have an SSL certificate and configure your FTP server to use it.

However, for the sake of this tutorial, we will be generating a self-signed SSL certificate using the OpenSSL tool and then use it to encrypt our FTP transmission.

So, first things first, you will need to use OpenSSL to generate a new SSL certificate. You can do this by entering the following command in the terminal:

Running the above command will generate a 2048-bit private key as well as a self-signed certificate. Both of these are valid for ten years and saved in the same file.

After creating your new SSL certificate, open the vsftpd configuration file using the previous command:

Scroll down and add the following lines as shown in the image:

And that’s it. You have successfully configured the SSL certificate for your FTP server.

Once done, recheck the vsftpd configuration file to see if all the following settings are as it is:

After you have made sure that all the above changes have been made to the file, you will need to save it. Once saved, restart the vsftpd service using the following command:

If you have a firewall enabled along with the FTP server, then you need to configure the firewall so that it allows the FTP transmissions.

To do this, you will need to enter the following commands into the terminal:

The above command opens up port 21 – which is the FTP command port, and port 20 – which is the FTP data port.

You will also need to enter this command as well:

This command opens up the 30000-31000 passive ports range, which we configured previously.

Once done, you will need to reload the firewall using the following command:

Now that you have set up your vsftpd server on your CentOS system, it is time to create a new FTP user and test it out.

First, let’s create a new FTP user (newftpuser) by using the following command:

Next, you will need to set a password for the new user. To do this, use this command:

Make sure that the password is a strong one and longer than eight characters.

After creating the new user, you will need to add it to the FTP user list. This can be done by entering the following command in the terminal:

Finally, you will need to create an FTP directory tree where you will set all the correct permissions. To do this, you will need to enter the following series of commands in the terminal:

By now, your FTP server is fully functional and ready to go. You can now connect to it using any FTP client like FileZilla. Just make sure that the FTP client can also be configured to use TLS encryption as it is being used to encrypt the FTP transmissions.

One thing you should keep in mind when creating a new FTP user is that, unless explicitly specified, the user will have SSH access to the server.

If you wish to disable shell access from the user, you will need to create a new shell that will print a message informing the user that – “This account is limited to FTP access only.”

To do this, you will need to enter the following command in the terminal:

The above command will create the /bin/ftponly shell and execute it.

Next, you will need to append the new shell into the list of valid shells that are located inside the /etc/shells file. This is done using the following command:

And as the final step, all you need to do is change the user shell to /bin/ftponly using this command:

Also, for any future FTP users, you can use the same command to change their shell so that they can only have FTP access.

Choosing the perfect Linux distribution to set up your server can be confusing since Linux provides a limitless number of options. The main reason behind these many distributions is because Linux is an opensource platform. Anybody with the required skills can contribute to the development or build and release their distribution. Currently, there are more than 600 Linux Desktop and Server distributions in the market.

Despite these many distributions, there are two principal Linux server distributions dominant in the market – CentOS and Ubuntu Server. Both are excellent choices for a server, and they both have their advantages over the other.

In this CentOS vs. Ubuntu comparison, we will look at the key features of both operating systems to guide you in choosing the right distributions for your Virtual Private Server.

Before shedding light on these two well-matched opponents’ features and services, let’s have a brief look at each of them.

CentOS is an open-source Linux distribution based on RHEL or Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red hat is a popular name in the industry and widely-supported distro by lots of corporate IT applications.

First released in May 2004, CentOS is an enterprise-class operating system whose overall development is supported by the community. Its close relation to RHEL has given it a lot more amazing features from Red Hat.

CentOS is highly stable and secure. That is made possible by the fact that CentOS enjoys official support from Red Hat. It is also highly customizable to fit your needs.

The Ubuntu Server is developed by Canonical and open source developers around the world. It is based on Debian architecture. Since its first release in 2004, Ubuntu has been a perfect choice for personal and professional use. It’s an opensource operating system that gets frequent updates to fix any identified bugs.

Ubuntu is one of the easy to use Linux distro even for a newbie. It has excellent developers’ community support with a high probability that any issue arising is likely solved somewhere online.

Now let’s look at the difference between the two distributions.

That is one of the main differences between the two. While CentOS is forked from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Ubuntu is Debian-based.

Since both distributions are based on a different operating system, a difference in package management is expected. CentOS uses the yum command while Ubuntu Server uses apt or apt-get (for older distributions) to download and install packages.

The difference in package managers might have an impact on which distribution to go for. If you are an RHEL user, then CentOS will seem quite familiar. The same case for Ubuntu if you are a Debian user. However, if you are just getting started with Linux operating systems, the package managers shouldn’t be an issue.

Unlike Ubuntu Server, where we have regular updates and upgrades, CentOS has less frequent updates. This feature has made the latter to be considered more stable than Ubuntu. However, it also poses a drawback for CentOS as you can’t access new third-party software and packages from the CentOS official repository. You will have to download them manually. However, this doesn’t mean Ubuntu is unstable or secure – it is comparatively less stable than CentOS.

In terms of security, both systems try to provide top-notch security features.

CentOS comes pre-installed with SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux). It’s a security mechanism available in kernels of Linux distributions like CentOS, RHEl, and Fedora Linux.

SELinux manages the overall server security by applying restrictions on how requests are processed in a server and define how users interact with sockets, ports, and directories. Additionally, SELinux enables obstructing software packages installation and can also terminate a running process on regular use.

On the other hand, Ubuntu enhances security using the AppArmor (Application Armor). AppArmor is a Kernel Security feature available for distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, and OpenSUSE. It manages server security restricting program capabilities with the per-program profile. Each program profile can allow or deny socket access, network access, and overall file permissions (Read, Write, and Execute).

Considering these two security features, SELinux seems to be much more complete and an ambitious security tool than AppArmor. While AppArmor lets you define a particular program’s capabilities and what it can or not do, SELinux is a vast universe. It permeates everything, giving the entire system a more sophisticated security infrastructure. It allows you to implement the main security paradigms in access control theory.

CentOS has a longer release cycle and a much longer support cycle. CentOS 6, for example, was first released in 2010 and will be supported until November 2020 with five (5) minor point releases. On the other hand, Ubuntu has Long Term Support (LTS) releases, which are released every two years. These LTS releases are supported for up to 5 years.

If you are a user who values consistency and long support cycle, then CentOS is for you. And now that it is officially a part of Red Hat, it makes an excellent choice.

Currently, (as of 7/2020), the popular operating systems used for Web Hosting Services are Ubuntu, Debian, and CentOS. Even though statistics show that Ubuntu server usage in hosting services is mainly for small and medium-sized business sites/servers, there is still a catch.

The large volume of servers using Ubuntu-Server OS’s for hosting services has proved the dominance of Ubuntu Server in the Hosting market. The graphs below from Google Trends and Stack exchange provide a graphical representation of the comparison between these two OS.

If you are looking forward to using a control panel for your web hosting services, then CentOS would be a reliable option. That is because it offers several management panels necessary for hosting web management. They include; cPanel, Webmin, and DirectAdmin. These control panels are only available for RedHat systems like the CentOS.

Ubuntu doesn’t support the cPanel but comes with other alternatives like Webmin/Virtualmin and VestCP.

CentOS updates are not as regular as those of Ubuntu. That is an additional reason for its stability, but it also poses a challenge. Many of the core systems run on older software packages. To get the recently released software, you will have to do so manually. CentOS is an excellent choice if you need a cPnael for web hosting or running medium-sized businesses.

Even though CentOS has a smaller user base than Ubuntu, it still holds a strong online community and has the provision of premium services options if you so desire.

In terms of the number of packages available, Ubuntu beats CentOS and by far. There are over ten thousand packages available for users in the official repository. CentOS, on the other hand, has only a few thousand tools. Therefore, if you are looking at the number of packages available for the two operating systems, Ubuntu will win.

However, the number of packages does not matter if you are looking for particular packages. Software packages like the cPanel are only available for Red Hat systems like CentOS. Even though Ubuntu has tried to provide alternatives, most of the CentOS tools have dominated the Hosting industry.

Among all Linux distributions, Ubuntu is one of the most user-friendly and the easiest to use. That is mainly because the Canonical team behind its development is focused more on usability. With the Ubuntu Server, you have the provision of a GUI that can be installed later and help manage your server efficiently. You can also run other utilities from the Terminal.

Another feature about Ubuntu concerning the ease of use is the large community available. You will find lots of tutorials and solutions to any problems online compared to any other distro.

CentOS also has the provision of control panel tools like the cPanel, which is useful for web hosting services. However, there are still alternatives for Ubuntu available in the market.

In terms of tutorials and guides, CentOS has very few available learning materials online compared to Ubuntu. It might seem even more overwhelming for a new Linux user. However, despite all these, most experienced Linux users go for the CentOS, especially if they are familiar with the Red Hat Linux architecture. Also, most web servers available today run on CentOS.

Ubuntu is known for its excellent support for container virtualization. Since June 2019, the Canonical team behind Ubuntu development announced full enterprise support for Kubernetes 1.15 kubeadm deployments, its Charmed Kubernetes, and MicroK8s; the widespread single-node deployment of Kubernetes. That has made Ubuntu Server a more reliable operating system for cloud deployments and expanding its influence in the market.

CentOS is also not left behind in this area. It competes with Ubuntu by providing three private cloud choices and a public cloud platform through AWS. It also offers excellent documentation and a mature platform for users to apply its features further.

Ubuntu comes with a custom-designed pack for gamers called the Ubuntu GamePack. Ubuntu GamePack doesn’t come installed with games but with PlayOnLinux, Wine, Lutris, and the Steam client. It provides a platform to play games available for Windows, Linux, Console, and Steam.

The Ubuntu GamePack also includes support for Adobe Flash and Oracle Java. It gives users a fantastic experience while gaming online. Ubuntu GamePack is optimized to launch more than six thousand Windows and Linux games. If you have worked with Ubuntu, you can go for the Ubuntu Desktop for gaming.

Unlike Ubuntu, CentOS is not well optimized for gaming services. However, if you want to work with CentOS and still experience the gaming thrill, try Fedora Games Spin. It’s a Fedora-based platform for gaming available for CentOS, RHEL, and Fedora users. Accompanied by an XFCE Desktop environment, Fedora Games Spin comes with over two thousand Linux games.

Both of these operating systems are entirely open source and free to use. Depending on your needs and personal preference, you can choose any of the two distributions to manage your server.

If you are a beginner, then I would suggest you go for Ubuntu since its more comfortable to use and has lots of tutorials available. Additionally, the Ubuntu server has proven to be more powerful. If you are running anything on Amazon’s EC2 platform, the Ubuntu server would be a great choice.

If you are a Linux veteran with a good background in Red Hat Linux, go for CentOS. Also, if you are focused on offering web hosting services, then CentOS will be an excellent choice.

However, at the end of the day, your choice will highly depend on personal preference. You can make use of virtualization technology to test both of them before making a choice. Take a look at our article on The 10 Best Linux Server Distros For Home And Businesses.

There are many choices for desktop environments for Linux based operating systems. Mainly, you can install any DE of your choice on most of the Linux based distributions, even if they are not offered as a package officially. In our recent articles, we discussed the best of KDE and Cinnamon. In this article, we present to you the top reasons why you should consider Xfce as your desktop environment.

The Xfce desktop environment is one of the oldest GUI based DEs that became available for the Linux distributions. Started in 1996 (for reference, Linux 0.1 was released in 1991), it was started as an alternative to CDE (Common Desktop Environment) that belonged to the UNIX system. It has some very distinctive features, but the ones that stand out the most are its simplicity and lightweight nature.

Xfce is still actively in development and is one of the major DEs in the game. Despite that, Xfce receives little attention compared to specific other major DEs like GNOME or KDE. Many users think that it looks old and drive away from it instantly. While I can partially agree to that, a little tweaking can make it look quite ‘modern.’ Let us go into more in-depth details of the DE.

Xfce has become quite synonymous with simplicity over the years. Just to clarify, ‘simple’ here does not mean minimal. It means that getting things done is much more comfortable. Users won’t have to look around too long to find what they want. For example, the Settings Manager is, in my opinion, the best among all other major DEs. It is straightforward and well categorized. Similar to this one example, all other components of Xfce are well structured.

Another popular and important aspect of Xfce is its lightweight nature. Xfce is quite a small package and is light on the system resources as well, in most of the cases. For example, here, on idle mode, Xfce is using just ~400 Mb of RAM on my system. With Firefox open and a 1080p video playing, it went up to 1.20 GB. Not bad at all, is it?

Now, as a result of everything that is already mentioned before, it translates to the fact that Xfce performs well on most hardware. It is fast, really responsive, and gets the job done. After a little experimentation and experience, users can go around the system quickly and take advantage of optimal productivity. The CPU usage at idle (or low activity) state is very minimal.

The structure of Xfce is entirely modular. Most of all elements of the DE are separate, which makes the system much more configurable. For example, the default window manager is Xfwm; the configuration system is Xfconf, the desktop manager is Xfdesktop, and the session manager is Xfce4-session. These things are usually fused and not replaceable in most DEs. The settings of all components are brought together in the Settings Manager to provide a unified interface for ease.

In Xfce team’s own words:

“Xfce embodies the traditional UNIX philosophy of modularity and re-usability. It consists of a number of components that provide the full functionality one can expect of a modern desktop environment. They are packaged separately, and you can pick among the available packages to create the optimal personal working environment.”

Xfce has excellent scope for configurability. From the interface to the hardware preferences, everything can be tweaked around easily. The Settings Manager covers almost everything that is required. As for the look, there are websites such as this available to get various icon themes and system themes.

The Xfce project is stable. There are a few bugs here and there, and they are mostly issues due to hardware drivers. System usage is quite smooth overall. The update cycle is remarkably steady. Xfce 4.14 was recently released after almost 4.5 years of development! All components of the DE work together very well to provide a smooth experience to the users.

One of the most distinctive features of Xfce is the panel. It is highly configurable with several plugins provided by the Xfce team. The width and height of the panel can be changed, and users can locate it on the screen as they desire. You can also place the panel in the middle of the display if that is what you want.

You can add as many panels as you wish. By default, one of the panels that Xfce already provides is placed as a dock on the bottom of the screen. Certain other configurations are given, like the bar opacity, icon size adjustment, etc.

The built-in plugins are excellent. They span over multiple applications and requirements. I will list some of the plugins that I find most useful:

CPU Graph plugin: This shows CPU usage graphically right on the panel. It comes in handy if you want to track how much strain any application putting on your system. I find myself looking at this plugin a lot whenever I test a new program, a new distribution based on Xfce or different hardware from my usual.

Pomodoro plugin: This is a great productivity plugin. The Pomodoro technique is widely used to increase one’s productivity. It follows a pattern of alternating work and rest periods. For example, 25 minutes work, 5 minutes rest. Xfce provides a plugin to keep track of time when using this technique. This brings the Pomodoro timer on the panel timer on the panel. NOTE:: This plugin is 3rd party. The link can be found here, along with the installation instructions.

Mail Watcher plugin: This plugin can be used to get notified of E-Mails from multiple services in one place.

Notes plugin: This is not a very uncommon feature, but the Notes panel plugins make it accessible on another level. The ability to create different note groups and customization of the Notes application makes it even more useful.

Verve Command-Line plugin: This is a somewhat helpful feature. Using this seemingly empty line, users can launch applications, go to websites, search using DuckDuckGo, open E-mails, and open directories altogether. Find more about it right here.

Workspace plugin: Workspaces are a great productivity feature on desktops. Xfce was one of the first DEs to adopt this feature, and hence, this feature is quite mature on Xfce. For better accessibility, you can see the workspaces right on the panel, with a miniature view of the windows opened in each one of them.

Other than all this, the application applets appear on the panel (though Status Notifier plugin) as they would on any system.

All the program that you install on Xfce looks good no matter what the original DE it was developed for, or whether the graphical development kit was Qt or GTK. GTK, Qt, GNOME, Electron, etc. everything seems to delve into the system. All GTK programs run flawlessly, but with Qt programs, there are smaller issues. What if you wanted to change the theme of Qt programs? And there is the possibility that some Qt apps might be misbehaving. In that case, some programs are available for the theming and configuration of Qt apps, specifically, like Kvantum.

No matter who you are, if you use an operating system, it will likely break once in a while unless you are incredibly regular on a very stable distribution. Maybe due to an update or perhaps due to a mistake made by the user. In other DEs, most things are integrated into each other. If you break, say, the application menu, you are probably going to have to reconfigure the whole DE again. On Xfce, as we mentioned, things are modular. If the menu breaks, reinstall just that! It is quite simple to do.

Now we finally come out of the general features of the DE itself and onto the software components that you are going to use. The software utilities are a part of the DE itself, and when talking about a DE, we have to take them into account as well. We will thus go through some of them, one by one.

Thunar (File Manager): The default file manager of Xfce is named Thunar and is quite a capable program. It is mostly pretty with simple features like viewing items in list mode/icon mode, changing the size of items, a panel for shortcuts to other drives, partitions or folders, tab functionality, etc. It is stable and has all the basic features users need.

Catfish (Search): Catfish is the default searching application in Xfce. It is lightweight to use and quite functional. It searches through all files in the home directory and provides all necessary functionality. Users can restrict search results based on the modification date. There are two different appearances to choose from.

Xfce-Terminal (Terminal): The Xfce-Terminal has excellent functionality. There are a lot of options for appearance configuration, of course. You can change any factor of anything appearance-related. But if you want to change how your prompt looks like that are more of a job for the .bashrc file in your home directory (we do have a guide for that right here). One feature of Xfce-Terminal that is uncommon, and quite desired in the drop-down mode. Most terminal programs don’t have this, and this is a handy little feature if you know when to summon it and can be learned quickly from experience.

Mousepad (text editor): Mousepad is quick, and gets the job done. There are essential features to change the color theme, font styling, searches, etc. Mousepad does have a particular feature that makes it suitable for programming. Granted that it isn’t an IDE, but there are some basic requirements checked. There is syntax highlighting, auto-indentation, line-wrapping, highlighting matching brackets, toggling line numbering, configurable tab size, which is rare, and a great feature, etc. All of these features make it an excellent solution for programming, with a terminal included to compile/execute the program scripts.

If the reasons excite you enough to switch to XFCE desktop, there are a handful of fantastic Linux distros to choose from including Manjaro XFCE Edition, Linux Mint Xfce, Linux Lite, MX Linux, Xubuntu, Fedora Xfce Spin, and Zorin OS. All these are excellent choices to try out XFCE.

Xfce is overall a great DE. It provides a very stable, feature-filled, and forthright experience. The customization options are high, and the configuration for keyboard shortcuts and an overall personalization is excellent. It can suit all kinds of people very well, those who don’t want to look around too much to do something, and those also who make their system truly theirs. Sadly, from a recent event, we have come to know that the development of Xfce has not been very active lately. We hope that the team gets a lot of support again, and we see more fantastic progress in the future.

Having total control over your network is essential to prevent programs from overusing your network resources and slowing down the overall performance. This is why you should install a network monitoring tool on your system, giving you a visual overview of everything that’s happening on your network.

To help you out, we have put together a list of the ten best Linux network monitoring tools. All the tools mentioned here are open-source and follows an easy and intuitive UI (mostly command-line based) to help you monitor the bandwidth usage on your network.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Starting off our list, we have IFTOP (Interface TOP), a simple and straightforward network monitoring tool for Linux. It is a command-line utility that can help you get a quick overview of the network activities on an interface.

It is ideal for Linux users who just want to check in why their network speed dropped all of a sudden. You will get access to a list of all the network usage bandwidth updated in real-time.

Here are some notable features worth mentioning:

• Extremely lightweight and user-friendly
• Ideal for single-user Linux systems
• Follows a TOP-like command-line interface
• Option to specify which interface you want to monitor

if you’re going to install IFTOP on your Ubuntu PC, type in the following command in your terminal.

Up next, we have VnStat – another console-based utility that can help you monitor network traffic and bandwidth utilization. The tool will also give you a daily as well as a monthly overview of bandwidth consumed.

One of the best features of using this tool is that it will automatically log all the network traffic statistics by default that are still accessible even after a system reboot. This way, you can always come back at a later time and view the data to spot any abnormalities in bandwidth usage.

Some other key features include:

• Light and minimal user interface
• Populated statistics persist through system reboots
• Can be used without root permission
• Option to configure the data retention period
• Ability to monitor multiple interfaces at the same time

Installing VnStat on your Ubuntu PC is just one command-line in the terminal.

IPtraf is a Ncurses-based network monitoring utility that you can use to track the incoming and outgoing network traffic. It is super easy to use and offers a lot of configuration options to help you get the exact information you are looking for.

The tool is ideal for monitoring IP traffic, viewing general network information of an interface, as well as for getting detailed interface statistics.

Here is a more detailed look at some of its key features:

• A general statistics interface displaying a lot of insightful data
• LAN stats module that can display network activity stats on other devices in your network
• Supports a wide range of “network cards”
• Supports Ethernet, FDDI, ISDN, SLIP, PPP, and loopback interface types.
• Full-screen, menu-based usage.

If you want to install IPTraf on your Ubuntu system, you need to use the following command in your terminal.

Monitorix is a dedicated monitoring utility that can track both system resources and network bandwidth. You can also use the tool to monitor embedded devices as well.

The tool is powerful enough to help you track usage stats and network traffic data coming from potentially unlimited network devices. This makes it an excellent option for monitoring small to medium-scale networks.

Here is a look at some of its highlighted feature:

• Supports both IPv4 and IPv6 connections
• Shows packet traffic and traffic error graphs
• Works with up to 9 discs per network interface
• Supports an unlimited number of processors or cores.
• Can monitor an unlimited number of devices per network

You can install Monitorix on your Ubuntu PC by typing in the following command in your terminal.

bmon, short for Bandwidth Monitor, is another lightweight and straightforward network monitoring and debugging tool for Linux. It can track all the network-related stats on your system and then display it in a human-friendly fashion, which makes it readily digestible.

The tool supports various output methods that allow you to visualize the stats in different ways.

Here are its key features:

• A simple and easy to use the command-line tool
• Displays networking related stats in a visually pleasing way
• Option to get the networking data as a programmable text output which is easy for scripting

If you want to try out bmon on your Ubuntu system, enter the following command in your terminal.

Darkstat is a web-based network traffic analyzer; however, you can launch it via the command line as well. It is super lightweight and will display your network traffic statistics in real-time.

The tool works by capturing network traffic information from your system, along with computer usage statistics. It then renders the data in a graphical format using HTTP. This makes it super quick to spot any sort of abnormalities in bandwidth usage.

Here we have highlighted all of its key features:

• Comes with a web interface that can show all traffic data in graphical format over HTTP
• Uses a child process to support asynchronous reverse DNS resolution
• Supports both IPv4 and IPv6
• Embedded web-server with deflate compression

To install Darkstat on your Ubuntu PC, you need to enter this command in your system terminal.

iPerf/iPerf3 is a handy networking tool that was designed to test and monitor the maximum bandwidth achievable on IP networks. It comes with a robust feature set that can help you track the network throughput over TCP, SCTP, and UDP.

That being said, the tool requires a server and a client to perform the tests. As such, it isn’t for Linux PC users who are simply looking to measure the network speeds on their system.

Here is a complete look at some of its main features:

• Can help measure bandwidth over TCP and SCTP
• Can help measure packet loss and delay jitter over UDP
• Supports both IPv4 and IPv6
• Run the server as a daemon (-D option)
• The server handles multiple connections; doesn’t exit after a single test

To install iPerf/iPerf3 on your Ubuntu PC, just type in the following command in the terminal.

CBM, short for Color Bandwidth Meter, is a clean and simple network monitoring tool designed explicitly for Ubuntu Linux and its derivative distros.

It is essentially a little command-line tool that can display the network traffic going through all your connected devices. The displayed output is colored to make it more user-friendly. It is ideal for new Linux users who can get overwhelmed by all the data on the screen.

Here is a quick look over some of the main features:

• Simple, uncluttered UI that’s easily understandable for beginners
• Displays essential data, including bytes, received, bytes transmitted, and total bandwidth used.
• All network stats are displayed in the colored output.
• Shows network statistics of all connected devices in the network

If you are looking to install CBM on your Ubuntu system, then just enter the following command in the terminal.

With nload, you have a simple console application that offers real-time monitoring of network traffic and bandwidth usage. This, too, is targeted at users of single Linux systems but can be used for small Linux networks.

The tool first collects all the network traffic data and then displays them using two graphics showing the incoming and outgoing traffic.

These are some of its highlight features worth noting:

• Simple, easy to read interface that visualizes the output.
• Displays graphs showing incoming and outgoing traffic. You also get the stats on the total amount of data used as well as the min/max network usage.

You can use the following command to install nload on your Ubuntu system.

Htop was developed as an alternative to the TOP (Table of Process) program designed for UNIX. It is an interactive process viewer and manager for the Unix-like system, including Linux and its popular distributions.

However, Htop is a much more advanced Linux process tracking tool than “TOP.” We have a dedicated article discussing how to use Htop, which you might find useful.

Overall, it is a powerful tool that can not only help you monitor the network activities on your system but can also kill any process that’s taking up resources without knowing the PID.

Here is a quick look at its main functionalities:

• Lightning-fast – hence displays all the system data in a matter of seconds.
• You can kill any process without knowing the PID.
• Extremely user-friendly – supports mouse operations
• Option to scroll both horizontally and vertically to see all the listed processes.

There is no need to install Htop separately on your Ubuntu system. You can invoke the tool by simply typing the following command in the terminal.

So these were our picks for the ten best Linux network monitoring tools. We hope you found the list to be useful and that it helped you in finding the best network usage tracking utility for your Linux system/server.

As you can see, we have included a diverse range of tools that are suited for single Linux systems to users running a small to medium scale network. These tools should help you efficiently monitor the network activities and detect any abnormalities that might be compromising the performance.