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Updated: 1 hour 41 min ago
Download Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine and Official Flavours with Torrents and Checksums
Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine released this Thursday, 17 October 2019 as planned. Canonical, the company that develops Ubuntu, publishes the announcement at mailing list and website with webinar What's new in Ubuntu 19.10 that will be held 24 October 2019. You can read the official announcement published at mailing list and website. Not less important, you can read Release Notes, detailed information, of Eoan Ermine and all Flavours at Ubuntu Wiki. As usual, I listed here all download links of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu and all desktop Flavours with torrents and checksums. You just need to click the link you want and download it. Happy downloading!
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On Ubuntu 19.10: Install Guide | Review | GNOME 3.34 | Unity Desktop
Ubuntu
Download: ubuntu-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
[ 2.3GB ][ torrent ]
Official Flavours
1. Kubuntu
Ubuntu with KDE desktop, closest user experience to Windows, with biggest number of built-in apps among all Flavours.
kubuntu-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
[ 2.1GB] [ torrent ]
2. Lubuntu
Ubuntu with LXDE desktop, the most lightweight variant among all Flavours.
lubuntu-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
[ 1.6GB][ torrent ]
3. Xubuntu
Ubuntu with XFCE desktop, lightweight and old-computer friendly.
xubuntu-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
[ 1.5GB ][ torrent ]
4. Ubuntu MATE
Ubuntu with MATE desktop, same user experience with the old GNOME2 but with a lot more features.
ubuntu-mate-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
[ 2.1GB ][ torrent ]
5. Ubuntu Studio
Ubuntu with multimedia creative capabilities such as movie making and audio production.
ubuntustudio-19.10-dvd-amd64.iso
[ 3.6GB][ torrent ]
6. Ubuntu Budgie
Ubuntu with Budgie desktop, the unique user interface from Solus OS.
ubuntu-budgie-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
[ 2GB][ torrent ]
7. Ubuntu Kylin
Ubuntu with UKUI desktop designed for Chinese users.
ubuntukylin-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
[ 2.4GB ][ torrent ]
Checksums
Use command line sha256sum to reveal hash checksum value of your downloaded ISO and compare that value to this table. Use Ctrl+F on browser to find yours. If it's matched, then the ISO is safe, but if it's not matched, the ISO is broken and you can repair it with torrent without re-downloading from zero.
SHA256SUM
96a8095001d447bbb9078925d72f7a77a3f62fbd78460093759af4394ce83d79 *ubuntu-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
e56388512a0610bd991192b197a13f1496c107377d9c96d332939c08e305b028 *kubuntu-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
761c4603f689b1a109d67bde3f2ca0bcc750ce973ac8c1a8e98ca188bbc3e760 *lubuntu-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
55cdc548aa160354c78ff1b92f7bfeaa540c2ce31a7e6d37581cf000d93bd40a *xubuntu-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
ce4ce47be7ba9ad497741c346de38bc631935ed762eea8bf5d3a5ace4af6d219 *ubuntu-budgie-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
d46703f4f8be6adc4a38c622611dc3d72307deea5804bd649c46bebb5da7470b *ubuntustudio-19.10-dvd-amd64.iso
ce4ce47be7ba9ad497741c346de38bc631935ed762eea8bf5d3a5ace4af6d219 *ubuntu-budgie-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
a75014eebf2809d57c8a14234324d8775b0afe555076d5b9b974f30842518d23 *ubuntukylin-19.10-desktop-amd64.iso
Let's enjoy 19.10!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
How To Install Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine to USB Stick with UEFI Guide
(Ubuntu Eoan Ermine installs in only 15 minutes and the progress showing LibreOffice among its features)
This tutorial explains steps to install Ubuntu 19.10 safely to your computer either with BIOS or UEFI initialization system. This tutorial mainly guides you to install the OS into an external storage and hence USB Flash Drive is used, but you can practice same installation into normal internal storages, namely Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and Solid State Disk (SSD). You will create at least 2 partitions, and particularly add 1 more partition if your computer is UEFI-based system, and perform 8 steps to finish the installation. Happy working with Eoan Ermine!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
On Ubuntu 19.10: Review | GNOME 3.34 | Unity Desktop
Preparations
Tools:
Second: create 2 blank partitions in the bigger sized USB, first partition 14GB or more, and second partition at best 1GB only. First one will be root partition, and second one will be swap.
Third: only for UEFI system*, add one more partition by 100MB only. This third partition will be EFI System Partition. If your computer is BIOS system and not UEFI, then do not make this.
Fourth: if your computer is not empty (e.g. not freshly purchased, already has other OS installed) then you must make backup of all data that are important to you. I strongly suggest you to ask experienced technician nearby to guide you in installing Ubuntu and making backup if you do not have prior experience with OS installation. Show this tutorial to him/her.
*) Computers that were sold since 2011 are mostly --if not all-- UEFI systems.
Booting
1. Select Language
Choose English anyway.
2. Select Keyboard
It is English-US by default and it is safe. If you work with Japanese keyboard for example, select Japanese instead, and so on.
3. Select No Network
Choose I don't want to connect so installation will not require internet access to continue.
4. Select Full Installation & No Update
Choose Normal Installation so everything within Ubuntu will be installed. Because we chosen No Network before, we see here Update option disabled and that's normal.
5. Select Manual Partitioning
Choose Something Else so you enter advanced partitioner page.
6. Partitioning
Before anything, this is how the partitioner should look like showing the USB Flash Drive with 2 partitions already created beforehand.
First, create main partition:
Second, create swap:
Special for UEFI: create EFI partition:
Third, select bootloader storage:
Summary appears before actually proceeding the installation:
7. Select Location
While progressing, select geographical location where you now live in.
8. Create Password & Wait
Create your own username and password. The password here will also be your sudo password.
After all the inputs you just need to wait the rest of progress to be finished. This should take no longer than 15 or 20 minutes.
Once finished, installer will be closed, and it shows "Installation Complete" message. Click Restart Now to reboot and enjoy your new operating system.
Final Result
Here is Ubutu Eoan Ermine running from a 32GB USB pendrive after freshly installed. Congratulations to all Ubuntu developers for this beautiful system.
And before each time entering into Ubuntu, your computer with this USB pendrive should show bootloader that looks like below. It means everything is OK and you are ready to work. Happy working!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
This tutorial explains steps to install Ubuntu 19.10 safely to your computer either with BIOS or UEFI initialization system. This tutorial mainly guides you to install the OS into an external storage and hence USB Flash Drive is used, but you can practice same installation into normal internal storages, namely Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and Solid State Disk (SSD). You will create at least 2 partitions, and particularly add 1 more partition if your computer is UEFI-based system, and perform 8 steps to finish the installation. Happy working with Eoan Ermine!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
On Ubuntu 19.10: Review | GNOME 3.34 | Unity Desktop
Preparations
Tools:
- Your computer and it must be 64-bit.
- ISO image of Ubuntu 19.10.
- 2 USB Flash Drives, one at least 8GB, another one at least 16GB.
- Making bootable media
- Making 2 partitions
- For UEFI: add 1 more partition.
- Make backup of your data.
Second: create 2 blank partitions in the bigger sized USB, first partition 14GB or more, and second partition at best 1GB only. First one will be root partition, and second one will be swap.
Third: only for UEFI system*, add one more partition by 100MB only. This third partition will be EFI System Partition. If your computer is BIOS system and not UEFI, then do not make this.
Fourth: if your computer is not empty (e.g. not freshly purchased, already has other OS installed) then you must make backup of all data that are important to you. I strongly suggest you to ask experienced technician nearby to guide you in installing Ubuntu and making backup if you do not have prior experience with OS installation. Show this tutorial to him/her.
*) Computers that were sold since 2011 are mostly --if not all-- UEFI systems.
Booting
- Boot up your computer with USB as first bootable media.
- Ubuntu 19.10 screen appears with pink-orange color and black top-panel.
- Select "Try Ubuntu" instead of "Install Ubuntu".
- Desktop of Ubuntu appears with "Install Ubuntu 19.10" button on desktop.
- Double-click "Install Ubuntu 19.10" to start the installer.
- Ubuntu Installer appears and you are ready to install the OS.
1. Select Language
Choose English anyway.
2. Select Keyboard
It is English-US by default and it is safe. If you work with Japanese keyboard for example, select Japanese instead, and so on.
3. Select No Network
Choose I don't want to connect so installation will not require internet access to continue.
4. Select Full Installation & No Update
Choose Normal Installation so everything within Ubuntu will be installed. Because we chosen No Network before, we see here Update option disabled and that's normal.
5. Select Manual Partitioning
Choose Something Else so you enter advanced partitioner page.
6. Partitioning
- Creating main partition
- Creating swap
- Creating ESP for UEFI system
- Choosing bootloader place
Before anything, this is how the partitioner should look like showing the USB Flash Drive with 2 partitions already created beforehand.
First, create main partition:
- Select the biggest partition prepared in USB stick, example here the 30GB one.
- Click Plus button
- Edit Partition window appears
- Size: let it be
- Use as: EXT2 for USB stick, and EXT4 for Hard Disk or Solid State Disk
- Format the partition: enabled
- Mount point: /
Second, create swap:
- Select the smaller partition prepared in USB stick, example here is the 1.4GB one.
- Click Plus button.
- Edit Partition window appears.
- Size: let it be
- Use as: swap area
- OK
Special for UEFI: create EFI partition:
- Select your third partition on USB stick, the 100MB one.
- Click Plus button.
- Give it filesystem: FAT32
- Give it mount point: /boot/efi
- OK.
Third, select bootloader storage:
- If the root partition is /dev/sdc1, then place bootloader in /dev/sdc.
- If the root partition is /dev/sdb1, then place bootloader in /dev/sdb.
- If the root partition is /dev/sda1, then place bootloader in /dev/sda.
- And so on.
Summary appears before actually proceeding the installation:
- Installer will inform you for the last time your plans above to change your disk.
- Read carefully so no partitioning nor bootloader placement mistake would occur.
- Click Continue once you are sure everything is correct.
- By continuing, the real installation starts and you cannot go back anymore.
7. Select Location
While progressing, select geographical location where you now live in.
8. Create Password & Wait
Create your own username and password. The password here will also be your sudo password.
After all the inputs you just need to wait the rest of progress to be finished. This should take no longer than 15 or 20 minutes.
Once finished, installer will be closed, and it shows "Installation Complete" message. Click Restart Now to reboot and enjoy your new operating system.
Final Result
Here is Ubutu Eoan Ermine running from a 32GB USB pendrive after freshly installed. Congratulations to all Ubuntu developers for this beautiful system.
And before each time entering into Ubuntu, your computer with this USB pendrive should show bootloader that looks like below. It means everything is OK and you are ready to work. Happy working!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Unity7 Desktop on Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine
(Unity7 is still always be with Ubuntu even in this Eoan Ermine release)
This guide will explains installation of Unity desktop environment, the lovely user interface that dismissed since 2017, on Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine. Thanks to Dale and Khurshid Alam of Unity7 Maintainer Team, even today we can enjoy this Dash and HUD-powered desktop once again in latest Ubuntu version. I hope this article helps people who still love Unity just like myself. Let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
1st. Install Unity
Command:
$ sudo apt-get install unity-session
Total size:
40MB
Description:
This installs all packages that provide Unity 7 desktop. These are stuffs that Unity7 Maintainer Team, leaded by Khurshid and Dale, working on.
2nd. Install Lenses
Command:
$ sudo apt-get install unity-lense-applications unity-lense-files
Total size:
1MB or less.
Description:
This installs at least ability to search installed apps, and, a package needed by Unity Tweak Tool.
3rd. Install Unity Tweak & CCSM
Command:
$ sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool compizconfig-settings-manager
Size:
5MB or less.
Description:
This install Unity Tweak --that specifically helps you to tinker with the desktop-- and CCSM --to tinker with the window manager, our beloved Compiz--.
(Unity Tweak Tool appearing over Eoan's wallpaper Flight dive)
4th. Install Ambiance Theme
Command:
$ sudo apt-get install light-theme
Size:
1MB or less.
Description:
This brings both Ambiance and Radiance themes, the dark and light ones of Ubuntu 16.04, back to 19.10.
5th. Enable Theme and Animation
Run Unity Tweak and go to Themes section and enable Ambiance.
Run System Settings and go to Appearance and enable Workspace Switcher.
Run CCSM and make sure Animation is enabled, and Ubuntu Unity Plugin is also enabled.
Still at CCSM, enable Expo, and go to its Behavior > Animation > switch it to Zoom.
6th. Relogin
Logout and then login by selecting Unity as session choice at login screen.
7th. Testing
I'm glad I find out that Unity7 works well on my testing at 19.10. Working Unity desktop should looks like 16.04 once again but with 19.10 wallpaper on 19.10. Precisely, this means you should see the Dash menu, vertical panel, HUD, and Alt+Tab switcher all being transparent and not opaque.
A working Unity7 desktop on 19.10 Eoan Ermine looks like below with smooth drop shadow under black panel, window border, and icons:
Alt+Tab switcher looks nice with transparency:
Launcher, the vertical panel, looks transparent against windows below it:
Global Menu and Head's Up Display work with menubar-styled apps like Firefox, Rhythmbox, LibreOffice, GIMP, Inkscape, etc.:
Workspace switcher works well with animation:
Shortcomings and My Gratitude
I am aware that this tutorial doesn't include LightDM as I failed to enable it as default DM on this 19.10. So here I use built-in GDM3 instead. I am also aware that LightDM appearance is more suitable to Unity rather than GDM3's, but at the moment I don't know how to make it works. Do you know some workaround? Please add it on comment. Thanks!
One more shortcoming is that Unity System Settings still read OS name as 19.04 (Disco Dingo) and not 19.10 (Eoan Ermine). I guess this is only because Eoan at the time I write this article is still in development stage and I believe this will be corrected once it officially released.
Finally, I would love to say huge thanks to Unity7 Maintainer Team leaded by Dale and Khurshid and also good luck for you using Unity. Happy working!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
This guide will explains installation of Unity desktop environment, the lovely user interface that dismissed since 2017, on Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine. Thanks to Dale and Khurshid Alam of Unity7 Maintainer Team, even today we can enjoy this Dash and HUD-powered desktop once again in latest Ubuntu version. I hope this article helps people who still love Unity just like myself. Let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
1st. Install Unity
Command:
$ sudo apt-get install unity-session
Total size:
40MB
Description:
This installs all packages that provide Unity 7 desktop. These are stuffs that Unity7 Maintainer Team, leaded by Khurshid and Dale, working on.
2nd. Install Lenses
Command:
$ sudo apt-get install unity-lense-applications unity-lense-files
Total size:
1MB or less.
Description:
This installs at least ability to search installed apps, and, a package needed by Unity Tweak Tool.
3rd. Install Unity Tweak & CCSM
Command:
$ sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool compizconfig-settings-manager
Size:
5MB or less.
Description:
This install Unity Tweak --that specifically helps you to tinker with the desktop-- and CCSM --to tinker with the window manager, our beloved Compiz--.
(Unity Tweak Tool appearing over Eoan's wallpaper Flight dive)
4th. Install Ambiance Theme
Command:
$ sudo apt-get install light-theme
Size:
1MB or less.
Description:
This brings both Ambiance and Radiance themes, the dark and light ones of Ubuntu 16.04, back to 19.10.
5th. Enable Theme and Animation
Run Unity Tweak and go to Themes section and enable Ambiance.
Run System Settings and go to Appearance and enable Workspace Switcher.
Run CCSM and make sure Animation is enabled, and Ubuntu Unity Plugin is also enabled.
Still at CCSM, enable Expo, and go to its Behavior > Animation > switch it to Zoom.
6th. Relogin
Logout and then login by selecting Unity as session choice at login screen.
7th. Testing
I'm glad I find out that Unity7 works well on my testing at 19.10. Working Unity desktop should looks like 16.04 once again but with 19.10 wallpaper on 19.10. Precisely, this means you should see the Dash menu, vertical panel, HUD, and Alt+Tab switcher all being transparent and not opaque.
A working Unity7 desktop on 19.10 Eoan Ermine looks like below with smooth drop shadow under black panel, window border, and icons:
Alt+Tab switcher looks nice with transparency:
Launcher, the vertical panel, looks transparent against windows below it:
Global Menu and Head's Up Display work with menubar-styled apps like Firefox, Rhythmbox, LibreOffice, GIMP, Inkscape, etc.:
Workspace switcher works well with animation:
Shortcomings and My Gratitude
I am aware that this tutorial doesn't include LightDM as I failed to enable it as default DM on this 19.10. So here I use built-in GDM3 instead. I am also aware that LightDM appearance is more suitable to Unity rather than GDM3's, but at the moment I don't know how to make it works. Do you know some workaround? Please add it on comment. Thanks!
One more shortcoming is that Unity System Settings still read OS name as 19.04 (Disco Dingo) and not 19.10 (Eoan Ermine). I guess this is only because Eoan at the time I write this article is still in development stage and I believe this will be corrected once it officially released.
Finally, I would love to say huge thanks to Unity7 Maintainer Team leaded by Dale and Khurshid and also good luck for you using Unity. Happy working!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Overview to Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine
(Ubuntu 19.10 with new wallpaper on background and app grouping feature on start menu with latest kernel, latest GNOME and LibreOffice)
We are excited to welcome the latest Ubuntu called Eoan Ermine that planned to be released this month at Thursday, 17 October 2019. This short overview shows several new things I found in this Ubuntu 19.04 development edition (as per 12 October 2019, frozen status, before official release). Thanks to the daily ISO, we know that Ubuntu Eoan has new features such as grouping apps on start menu, new icons for apps and disks, and latest version of GNOME 3.34 and LibreOffice 6.3. I once again divided the article into only 3 parts so you could enjoy this review easily. Okay, let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
Part 1. Desktop and Icons
Thanks to GNOME 3.34, the Thessaloniki user interface, now we can group apps with names we can choose. Simply drag-and-drop an application on start menu to other app to group, drag it out again to ungroup, and right-click to rename. This way our messy start menu could be shorter and tidier.
Things that catch my attention mostly are new icons of LibreOffice and others that look rounder right now. I like it, however.
My Solid State Disk (SSD) partition got new icon with 'SSD' text on it.
LibreOffice got updated to 6.3.2.2 with a lot of new features.
Firefox got updated to version 69 with a lot of improvements.
Part 2. Resource Loads
I find that CPU load is high and unstable at live session Eoan. This happens for 10 minutes or so each time the system started. Once cause of this is ld.so as a part of snapd group of services (as you could see at picture below). One more thing is the memory load reaches 1.3GiB, while you see last time openSUSE Tumbleweed (GNOME 3.34) live session was only +/-800MiB. Honestly I dislike this and I wish the final version loads to be lower. The ISO image I use is like mentioned, daily build as per 12 October after freeze stage announced.
Part 3. Details
This release is 19.10 which is Ubuntu version in the year 2019 and the month 10th with codename Eoan Ermine (E E) after 19.04 Disco Dingo (D D). The biggest internal change is the kernel component, now Linux 5.3, and the user interface, now GNOME 3.34.1. For testing before release planned at Thursday 17 October 2019, you can download Eoan at Daily-Live server.
Talking about details, actually Eoan Release Notes document already published we could read, but please notice is still incomplete as 19.10 still also not published yet today. Once released officially, this document will be updated just like prior Ubuntu releases we experienced.
Talking about the ISO image itself, on 12 October I get the 2.3GB sized with MD5SUM presented below. It's huge compared to 2.0GB of 19.04, and 1.8GB of Bionic, and 1.4GB of Xenial. It's not final, the official release might have lesser size ISO.
Do you want to get notified when Eoan published? Subscribe your email to Ubuntu-Announce mailing list! You know, all announcements of Ubuntu are always published firstly at Ubuntu Announce Mailing List. See for example, 19.04 and 18.04 announcement. So 19.10 will also announced firstly via email.
Further readings that can satisfy your curiosity about Eoan are here:
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
We are excited to welcome the latest Ubuntu called Eoan Ermine that planned to be released this month at Thursday, 17 October 2019. This short overview shows several new things I found in this Ubuntu 19.04 development edition (as per 12 October 2019, frozen status, before official release). Thanks to the daily ISO, we know that Ubuntu Eoan has new features such as grouping apps on start menu, new icons for apps and disks, and latest version of GNOME 3.34 and LibreOffice 6.3. I once again divided the article into only 3 parts so you could enjoy this review easily. Okay, let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
Part 1. Desktop and Icons
Thanks to GNOME 3.34, the Thessaloniki user interface, now we can group apps with names we can choose. Simply drag-and-drop an application on start menu to other app to group, drag it out again to ungroup, and right-click to rename. This way our messy start menu could be shorter and tidier.
Things that catch my attention mostly are new icons of LibreOffice and others that look rounder right now. I like it, however.
My Solid State Disk (SSD) partition got new icon with 'SSD' text on it.
LibreOffice got updated to 6.3.2.2 with a lot of new features.
Firefox got updated to version 69 with a lot of improvements.
Part 2. Resource Loads
I find that CPU load is high and unstable at live session Eoan. This happens for 10 minutes or so each time the system started. Once cause of this is ld.so as a part of snapd group of services (as you could see at picture below). One more thing is the memory load reaches 1.3GiB, while you see last time openSUSE Tumbleweed (GNOME 3.34) live session was only +/-800MiB. Honestly I dislike this and I wish the final version loads to be lower. The ISO image I use is like mentioned, daily build as per 12 October after freeze stage announced.
Part 3. Details
This release is 19.10 which is Ubuntu version in the year 2019 and the month 10th with codename Eoan Ermine (E E) after 19.04 Disco Dingo (D D). The biggest internal change is the kernel component, now Linux 5.3, and the user interface, now GNOME 3.34.1. For testing before release planned at Thursday 17 October 2019, you can download Eoan at Daily-Live server.
Talking about details, actually Eoan Release Notes document already published we could read, but please notice is still incomplete as 19.10 still also not published yet today. Once released officially, this document will be updated just like prior Ubuntu releases we experienced.
Talking about the ISO image itself, on 12 October I get the 2.3GB sized with MD5SUM presented below. It's huge compared to 2.0GB of 19.04, and 1.8GB of Bionic, and 1.4GB of Xenial. It's not final, the official release might have lesser size ISO.
Do you want to get notified when Eoan published? Subscribe your email to Ubuntu-Announce mailing list! You know, all announcements of Ubuntu are always published firstly at Ubuntu Announce Mailing List. See for example, 19.04 and 18.04 announcement. So 19.10 will also announced firstly via email.
Further readings that can satisfy your curiosity about Eoan are here:
- LibreOffice latest release notes
- GNOME latest release notes
- Kernel 5.3 release notes
- Eoan official release notes
- Distrowatch detailed preview of Eoan
- OMG! Ubuntu nice preview of Eoan
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Must Have Browser Addon for Mastodon User
It is Simplified Federation. It's a skipper, it skips our username input whenever we want to Follow or Favorite a user from different Mastodon server. Indeed, in Mastodon today we still cannot work in only one browser window as every of such external interaction opens a new small window. But thanks to this addon, it's a lot more easier now. I will show you how to install it on Mozilla Firefox as it needs a little setup. Let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
On GNU/Linux community: Mastodon intro | Mastodon list | Telegram list | RSS list | Computer vendors | Invidious | Twitter list
Firefox Version
Make sure you have Firefox 66 at least. In fact, I failed to install it on old Firefox prior to 66. For instance, default Firefox on Ubuntu 19.04 is compatible with this addon.
Find the Addon
Browse to AMA page: Simplified Federation. Click Install Addon button. Addon installed.
Setup Your Username
It's a skipper, remember? So firstly you need to input your Mastodon username and the addon will automatically input that every time for you. Where to input it? Go to Firefox addon manager (press Ctrl+Shift+A) > find there Simplified Federation > click Preferences > scroll down > type your Mastodon username there, for example, mine is ademalsasa@floss.social > make sure your internet access is active.
Test it!
Go to Mastodon, follow somebody on different Mastodon instance, you will not need to enter your username anymore.
Before:See, it still ask for my username when I follow GNOME Brasil
After:Nice, it doesn't ask for my username anymore!
About Simplified Federation and my wishes
It's licensed under MIT X11 free software license. The source code is available at GitHub. It's a Firefox addon by rugk. Talking about wishes, I don't know who could make it, but I wish we don't need to open new window anymore each time interacting with people at Mastodon, just like our experience with Twitter. For now, everything is enough in my opinion.
Enjoy Mastodon!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
On GNU/Linux community: Mastodon intro | Mastodon list | Telegram list | RSS list | Computer vendors | Invidious | Twitter list
Firefox Version
Make sure you have Firefox 66 at least. In fact, I failed to install it on old Firefox prior to 66. For instance, default Firefox on Ubuntu 19.04 is compatible with this addon.
Find the Addon
Browse to AMA page: Simplified Federation. Click Install Addon button. Addon installed.
Setup Your Username
It's a skipper, remember? So firstly you need to input your Mastodon username and the addon will automatically input that every time for you. Where to input it? Go to Firefox addon manager (press Ctrl+Shift+A) > find there Simplified Federation > click Preferences > scroll down > type your Mastodon username there, for example, mine is ademalsasa@floss.social > make sure your internet access is active.
Test it!
Go to Mastodon, follow somebody on different Mastodon instance, you will not need to enter your username anymore.
Before:See, it still ask for my username when I follow GNOME Brasil
After:Nice, it doesn't ask for my username anymore!
About Simplified Federation and my wishes
It's licensed under MIT X11 free software license. The source code is available at GitHub. It's a Firefox addon by rugk. Talking about wishes, I don't know who could make it, but I wish we don't need to open new window anymore each time interacting with people at Mastodon, just like our experience with Twitter. For now, everything is enough in my opinion.
Enjoy Mastodon!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
GNU/Linux Communities at Reddit
(Reddit forum of Ubuntu where many people participating and interacting)
Our GNU/Linux community information is naturally centralized at Reddit for news and discussion, it's not a secret. For instance, all big GNU/Linux distros have Reddits. Even often, news from a FLOSS project comes first at Reddit and being discussed a lot there rather than other social networks. See for example news of r/KDE and r/LibreOffice there (notice that unique Reddit IDs?). If you feel unfamiliar with this, you can think Reddit like Facebook or Twitter, but amazingly faster to browse, with greatly less picture and more text. With this list, after registering you can find your first community on Reddit for example r/Ubuntu and r/linux4noobs. Speaking personally, as an active GNU/Linux user I love Reddit and actually I use DNSCrypt just because I want to visit it. Also, if you're tired of other social networks you can give Reddit a try and I believe you will love it! I wish you will find nice people and friends there. Now let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.On GNU/Linux community: Mastodon intro | Mastodon list | Telegram list | RSS list | Computer vendors | Invidious | Twitter list
Join Reddit
It is a good thing a GNU/Linux user to have a Reddit account because so many people are there discussing and reporting stuffs about GNU/Linux and Free Software. You can register a new Reddit account here. It's gratis.
Part 1. GNU/Linux in General
1. Ubuntu
Official Reddit forum of Ubuntu, with several Ubuntu developers as admins.
/r/Ubuntu
Lubuntu
Lightweight variant of Ubuntu with LXDE desktop.
/r/Lubuntu
Kubuntu
KDE edition of Ubuntu, familiar by default and powerful when needed.
/r/Kubuntu
Xubuntu
XFCE edition of Ubuntu.
/r/xubuntu
Ubuntu MATE
MATE edition of Ubuntu.
/r/UbuntuMATE
Ubuntu Studio
Multimedia creative operating system with audio and video editing capabilities built-in.
/r/ubuntustudio
2. Mint
Official Reddit forum of Mint.
/r/linuxmint
3. Elementary OS
Official Reddit forum of elementary OS.
/r/elementaryos
4. LibreOffice
Questions & answers, news, and talks about LibreOffice --the free office suite for everyone--.
/r/libreoffice
6. GNU
News and discussion about GNU Project.
/r/gnu
7. Free Software
News and discussions representing free software movement.
/r/freesoftware
8. Open Source
News and discussions representing open source movement.
/r/opensource
9. openSUSE
The green lizard RPM family with YaST operating system.
/r/openSUSE
(/r/linux4noobs is a friendly community for everybody to start with GNU/Linux)
10. Linux
Very active discussions about Linux, GNU/Linux, and free software. No support question here.
/r/linux
11. Linux4Noobs
You can make questions and get answers about GNU/Linux here.
/r/linux4noobs
12. Linux Hardware
This is an amazing Reddit where you can ask questions about what hardware supports GNU/Linux, how to get things working, places to buy from, etc.
/r/linuxhardware
(Fun thing about /r/linuxquestions is that the logo is the Tux penguin with several question marks, hence, Linux Questions)
13. LinuxQuestions
This subreddit is for any question pertaining to GNU/Linux from beginner to advanced.
/r/linuxquestions
14. LinuxUnplugged
Famous podcast about GNU/Linux by Jupiter Broadcasting.
/r/linuxunplugged
15. GNU/Linux Gaming
News and talks related to video games on GNU/Linux.
/r/linux_gaming
16. Desktop Environments
KDE
The desktop of Kubuntu, Slackware, Mandriva, and openSUSE.
/r/kde
GNOME
The desktop of Ubuntu and Debian.
/r/gnome
MATE
The desktop of MATE Editions of Ubuntu and Mint.
/r/matedesktop
XFCE
The desktop of Xubuntu.
/r/xfce
LXDE
The desktop of Lubuntu.
/r/lxde
Openbox
Popular window manager that is lightweight and easy to custom.
/r/openbox
17. Solus
Ikey Doherty's distro, the origin of Budgie Desktop in GNU/Linux world.
/r/SolusProject
18. Manjaro
The most popular Arch-based desktop distro with green logo.
/r/ManjaroLinux
19. Fedora
The icon of RPM family distros, innovative, always latest GNU/Linux distro basis of Red Hat OS.
/r/Fedora
20. Mageia
The 2nd successor of Mandriva, after ROSA.
/r/Mageia
21. OpenMandriva
The 3rd successor of Mandriva, after Mageia.
/r/OpenMandriva
22. Debian
The origin of Ubuntu, the universal operating system community at Reddit.
/r/debian/
23. Arch
The simple source-oriented distro with Pacman, well known for its Wiki and AUR, the distro which Manjaro and Parabola based on.
/r/archlinux
24. Mozilla
Community talking about Firefox, Thunderbird, and other Mozilla-related stuffs.
/r/mozilla
25. Tecmint
The Reddit of the famous Tecmint.com tutorial website by its founder Ravi Saive.
/r/Linux_Tecmint
26. OMG! Ubuntu
The most popular news & tutorial blog talking about Ubuntu by Joey E. Sneddon
/r/omgubuntu
27. GIMP
GNU Image Manipulation Program, the free Photoshop for GNU/Linux.
/r/GIMP
28. Inkscape
Vector graphic editor that is free similar to Illustrator or CorelDRAW.
/r/Inkscape
29. Godot
Free, excellent, 2D and 3D game engine.
/r/godot
30. Synfig Studio
2D animation program.
/r/synfig
31. Purism
Place to talk about Librem computers and PureOS GNU/Linux and their news.
/r/Purism
Part 2. Worth Mentioning
Many other Reddits are good although they are not closely related to GNU/Linux. I present you here:
ThinkPad
It's not secret that many ThinkPad laptops are completely compatible with GNU/Linux.
/r/thinkpad
DeGoogle
Privacy community that seek ways to switch away from Google services.
/r/degoogle
Qt Framework
The software library that creates KDE and their applications.
/r/QtFramework
PrivacyTools.io
Privacy community that recommends secure software and services for computer users.
/r/privacytoolsIO
BitCoin
Free software-based digital money, yes it's money, known publicly for its mining and expensive value.
/r/btc
Tor Project
The Onion Router - Privacy and Security for All
/r/TOR
WineHQ
The thing that enables Windows applications to run on GNU/Linux system.
/r/winehq
Raspberry Pi
Mini board computer with ARM processor that runs GNU/Linux.
/r/raspberry_pi
Part 3. BSD Communities
Berkeley Software Distribution or BSD is another free operating system aside from GNU. Thus, BSDs are not GNU/Linux. It was once proprietary (nonfree), but fortuntely at 1990's it became free software like GNU/Linux. We today know BSD in 3 most popular names, namely FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD.
FreeBSD
/r/freebsd
OpenBSD
/r/openbsd
NetBSD
/r/NetBSD
Dragonfly BSD
/r/dragonflybsd
GhostBSD
/r/GhostBSD
TrueOS (formerly PCBSD)
/r/TrueOS
Reddit Access Blocked?
If your internet access is blocked to visit www.reddit.com, simply use DNSCrypt on your GNU/Linux system and your browser will be able to access it again. Read my latest tutorial on Tor+DNSCrypt on Ubuntu. Go ahead!
I hope you find this list useful!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Our GNU/Linux community information is naturally centralized at Reddit for news and discussion, it's not a secret. For instance, all big GNU/Linux distros have Reddits. Even often, news from a FLOSS project comes first at Reddit and being discussed a lot there rather than other social networks. See for example news of r/KDE and r/LibreOffice there (notice that unique Reddit IDs?). If you feel unfamiliar with this, you can think Reddit like Facebook or Twitter, but amazingly faster to browse, with greatly less picture and more text. With this list, after registering you can find your first community on Reddit for example r/Ubuntu and r/linux4noobs. Speaking personally, as an active GNU/Linux user I love Reddit and actually I use DNSCrypt just because I want to visit it. Also, if you're tired of other social networks you can give Reddit a try and I believe you will love it! I wish you will find nice people and friends there. Now let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.On GNU/Linux community: Mastodon intro | Mastodon list | Telegram list | RSS list | Computer vendors | Invidious | Twitter list
Join Reddit
It is a good thing a GNU/Linux user to have a Reddit account because so many people are there discussing and reporting stuffs about GNU/Linux and Free Software. You can register a new Reddit account here. It's gratis.
Part 1. GNU/Linux in General
1. Ubuntu
Official Reddit forum of Ubuntu, with several Ubuntu developers as admins.
/r/Ubuntu
Lubuntu
Lightweight variant of Ubuntu with LXDE desktop.
/r/Lubuntu
Kubuntu
KDE edition of Ubuntu, familiar by default and powerful when needed.
/r/Kubuntu
Xubuntu
XFCE edition of Ubuntu.
/r/xubuntu
Ubuntu MATE
MATE edition of Ubuntu.
/r/UbuntuMATE
Ubuntu Studio
Multimedia creative operating system with audio and video editing capabilities built-in.
/r/ubuntustudio
2. Mint
Official Reddit forum of Mint.
/r/linuxmint
3. Elementary OS
Official Reddit forum of elementary OS.
/r/elementaryos
4. LibreOffice
Questions & answers, news, and talks about LibreOffice --the free office suite for everyone--.
/r/libreoffice
6. GNU
News and discussion about GNU Project.
/r/gnu
7. Free Software
News and discussions representing free software movement.
/r/freesoftware
8. Open Source
News and discussions representing open source movement.
/r/opensource
9. openSUSE
The green lizard RPM family with YaST operating system.
/r/openSUSE
(/r/linux4noobs is a friendly community for everybody to start with GNU/Linux)
10. Linux
Very active discussions about Linux, GNU/Linux, and free software. No support question here.
/r/linux
11. Linux4Noobs
You can make questions and get answers about GNU/Linux here.
/r/linux4noobs
12. Linux Hardware
This is an amazing Reddit where you can ask questions about what hardware supports GNU/Linux, how to get things working, places to buy from, etc.
/r/linuxhardware
(Fun thing about /r/linuxquestions is that the logo is the Tux penguin with several question marks, hence, Linux Questions)
13. LinuxQuestions
This subreddit is for any question pertaining to GNU/Linux from beginner to advanced.
/r/linuxquestions
14. LinuxUnplugged
Famous podcast about GNU/Linux by Jupiter Broadcasting.
/r/linuxunplugged
15. GNU/Linux Gaming
News and talks related to video games on GNU/Linux.
/r/linux_gaming
16. Desktop Environments
KDE
The desktop of Kubuntu, Slackware, Mandriva, and openSUSE.
/r/kde
GNOME
The desktop of Ubuntu and Debian.
/r/gnome
MATE
The desktop of MATE Editions of Ubuntu and Mint.
/r/matedesktop
XFCE
The desktop of Xubuntu.
/r/xfce
LXDE
The desktop of Lubuntu.
/r/lxde
Openbox
Popular window manager that is lightweight and easy to custom.
/r/openbox
17. Solus
Ikey Doherty's distro, the origin of Budgie Desktop in GNU/Linux world.
/r/SolusProject
18. Manjaro
The most popular Arch-based desktop distro with green logo.
/r/ManjaroLinux
19. Fedora
The icon of RPM family distros, innovative, always latest GNU/Linux distro basis of Red Hat OS.
/r/Fedora
20. Mageia
The 2nd successor of Mandriva, after ROSA.
/r/Mageia
21. OpenMandriva
The 3rd successor of Mandriva, after Mageia.
/r/OpenMandriva
22. Debian
The origin of Ubuntu, the universal operating system community at Reddit.
/r/debian/
23. Arch
The simple source-oriented distro with Pacman, well known for its Wiki and AUR, the distro which Manjaro and Parabola based on.
/r/archlinux
24. Mozilla
Community talking about Firefox, Thunderbird, and other Mozilla-related stuffs.
/r/mozilla
25. Tecmint
The Reddit of the famous Tecmint.com tutorial website by its founder Ravi Saive.
/r/Linux_Tecmint
26. OMG! Ubuntu
The most popular news & tutorial blog talking about Ubuntu by Joey E. Sneddon
/r/omgubuntu
27. GIMP
GNU Image Manipulation Program, the free Photoshop for GNU/Linux.
/r/GIMP
28. Inkscape
Vector graphic editor that is free similar to Illustrator or CorelDRAW.
/r/Inkscape
29. Godot
Free, excellent, 2D and 3D game engine.
/r/godot
30. Synfig Studio
2D animation program.
/r/synfig
31. Purism
Place to talk about Librem computers and PureOS GNU/Linux and their news.
/r/Purism
Part 2. Worth Mentioning
Many other Reddits are good although they are not closely related to GNU/Linux. I present you here:
ThinkPad
It's not secret that many ThinkPad laptops are completely compatible with GNU/Linux.
/r/thinkpad
DeGoogle
Privacy community that seek ways to switch away from Google services.
/r/degoogle
Qt Framework
The software library that creates KDE and their applications.
/r/QtFramework
PrivacyTools.io
Privacy community that recommends secure software and services for computer users.
/r/privacytoolsIO
BitCoin
Free software-based digital money, yes it's money, known publicly for its mining and expensive value.
/r/btc
Tor Project
The Onion Router - Privacy and Security for All
/r/TOR
WineHQ
The thing that enables Windows applications to run on GNU/Linux system.
/r/winehq
Raspberry Pi
Mini board computer with ARM processor that runs GNU/Linux.
/r/raspberry_pi
Part 3. BSD Communities
Berkeley Software Distribution or BSD is another free operating system aside from GNU. Thus, BSDs are not GNU/Linux. It was once proprietary (nonfree), but fortuntely at 1990's it became free software like GNU/Linux. We today know BSD in 3 most popular names, namely FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD.
FreeBSD
/r/freebsd
OpenBSD
/r/openbsd
NetBSD
/r/NetBSD
Dragonfly BSD
/r/dragonflybsd
GhostBSD
/r/GhostBSD
TrueOS (formerly PCBSD)
/r/TrueOS
Reddit Access Blocked?
If your internet access is blocked to visit www.reddit.com, simply use DNSCrypt on your GNU/Linux system and your browser will be able to access it again. Read my latest tutorial on Tor+DNSCrypt on Ubuntu. Go ahead!
I hope you find this list useful!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
An Intro to Mastodon for GNU/Linux Users
Mastodon is a Twitter-like social network that is free software-based and federated. Being free means society controls the software running behind the server, and being federated means the social network is independent against central authority. In Mastodon, we can follow & text to anybody in same social network but unlike Twitter, there are no ads and we can follow & talk to users in other social networks. Speaking technically, Mastodon is one among today's so-called Fediverse social networks, it's based on modern ActivityPub technology, its source code is written in Ruby language, and therefore we can easily host our own Mastodon servers. I wish to support wider adoption of Mastodon in our GNU/Linux community so I tried to write this very short introduction that I divided into only 3 parts. Start with JoinMastodon.org and go ahead!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.On GNU/Linux community: Mastodon list | Telegram list | RSS list | Computer vendors | Invidious | Twitter list
Part 1. Posting
In this part we learn that Mastodon has post, repost, reply, hashtags, trending now, just like Twitter.
Twitter's post is limited to 160 character, while Mastodon's is 500. Twitter user says "tweet" and "retweet" while Mastodon user says "toot" and "boost". Reply, retweet ("boost"), and favorite are the same, however. This buttons trio appears at every tweet ("toot") bottom, with same button placement as Twitter's.
What is allowed to post? Mastodon allows uploads of picture, audio, and video.
RSS Feed is available in every Mastodon profile, surprisingly. So, unlike Twitter, even without Mastodon account you can subscribe the toots of any Mastodon user by using RSS Feed program like Akregator or Liferea. You can find RSS URL of a profile, for example Ubuntu's (@ubuntu@ubuntu.social), by pressing Ctrl+U on Mozilla Firefox browser.
Part 2. User Interface
In this part we learn about Mastodon appearance. Below is my Mastodon Home as example. Mastodon looks very similar to Twitter, but the text box is on left column instead of center.
A Mastodon profile will publicly look like this. Every profile has URL like this https://floss.social/@ademalsasa for example. This is my personal profile. The unique thing about Mastodon profile is that we can add maximum 4 information at right panel, to show who we are with category we can decide ourselves.
TweetDeck-like interface on Mastodon is available built-in, just enable Advanced View at your profile preferences.
Tweeten and Whalebird, respectively are Twitter's and Mastodon's desktop clients. The user interface are different, as Whalebird is more like Slack (and hence Mattermost and Riot/Matrix) than actual Mastodon. Alternatively, you can use other software for GNU/Linux here.
Part 3. Registration and Fediverse
In this part we learn about registration, social activities, federation, and fediverse in Mastodon.
(This is JoinMastodon.org is where you can create new account)
Registration model of Mastodon is different to Twitter. How different it is? First thing is you can create new Mastodon account at JoinMastodon.org. That is to compare, you may create new Twitter account only in www.twitter.com while you may create new Mastodon account not only in www.mastodon.social but also in a lot of other Mastodon servers (instances) available you may choose. Unlike Twitter, in Mastodon, user in one server can follow and talk to user in other server. Every Mastodon server is created and ruled by different maintainer (you may choose one with Terms of Service / Privacy Policy that suits you), not centrally controlled by a single company like Twitter Inc. This is all because Mastodon is federated, just like how internet is all federated, except Twitter.
(Registration page of Mastodon: example here is from Fosstodon.Social instance)
Social activities at Mastodon started at an instance. An instance is for example Mastodon.Social or Floss.Social website. After having an account there, you can find new friends, new community, even new friends from other social networks.
Discover users, See what's happening, and Try a mobile app are 3 links for us to find new friends at Mastodon.
For example, in Mastodon.Social instance the links would be:
See what's happening, or, Live Stream at your Mastodon profile is similar to recent news at your Twitter profile. It shows news from multiple sources either you followed them or not.
About page explains who hosted the Mastodon instance you are in, and what is the rule, including funding/donation information if any.
For example, at Floss.Social instance where I'm in, the server is maintained by Michael Downey (Michael, you have my gratitude), and you can see the About Page here.
Community model of Mastodon is also different to Twitter. Twitter user can only contact Twitter user, and cannot follow nor talk to user in other social networks. On the other hand, Mastodon user can contact any Mastodon user in any Mastodon server. Beyond, Mastodon user can also contact user in other social networks, namely, Hubzilla, GNU Social, Pleroma, PeerTube, and PixelFed. This means not only users are connected, but also the servers and the social networks themselves. This is why we call Mastodon federated.
Below is the Fediverse, interconnected social networks forming a giant social network:
(PeerTube, YouTube-like federated video sharing) (GNU Social, another Twitter-like federated microblog)
(Pixelfed, Instagram-like federated photo sharing)
(Friendica, a mix of Facebook-like and Twitter-like federated macroblog)
(Misskey, Japanese SNS-like and almost Friendster-like federated microblog) (Diaspora*, Facebook-like federated social media)
Rules in Mastodon are also different to rules in Twitter. In Twitter, there is only one pair of Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (TOS/PP) because it's controlled by one company. There is no alternative TOS/PP in Twitter, so if you disagree that, you cannot use the social media. On the other hand, if you dislike TOS/PP in a Mastodon server, you still can use Mastodon, by registering to other Mastodon server. In fact, there are strict and loose rules among Mastodon servers. For example, compare between Ubuntu.Social's and Floss.Social's TOS/PP. Thanks to federation, community model of Mastodon allows such thing cannot be found at Twitter.
Part 3. GNU/Linux Community
Last part, you can follow and talk to these GNU/Linux and F/LOSS communities at Mastodon. I listed here several projects like Kubuntu and Manjaro, as more complete list I had published yesterday here, plus several individual people in our community worth to know.
Distros:
Projects:
People:
I know this short article is short and a lot of stuffs remain unmentioned here. But I believe this is enough for you to explore Mastodon by yourself. Thank you Mastodon, thank you whole Fediverse, and you all have my gratitude GNU/Linux community. Go ahead and enjoy Mastodon!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.On GNU/Linux community: Mastodon list | Telegram list | RSS list | Computer vendors | Invidious | Twitter list
Part 1. Posting
In this part we learn that Mastodon has post, repost, reply, hashtags, trending now, just like Twitter.
Twitter's post is limited to 160 character, while Mastodon's is 500. Twitter user says "tweet" and "retweet" while Mastodon user says "toot" and "boost". Reply, retweet ("boost"), and favorite are the same, however. This buttons trio appears at every tweet ("toot") bottom, with same button placement as Twitter's.
What is allowed to post? Mastodon allows uploads of picture, audio, and video.
RSS Feed is available in every Mastodon profile, surprisingly. So, unlike Twitter, even without Mastodon account you can subscribe the toots of any Mastodon user by using RSS Feed program like Akregator or Liferea. You can find RSS URL of a profile, for example Ubuntu's (@ubuntu@ubuntu.social), by pressing Ctrl+U on Mozilla Firefox browser.
Part 2. User Interface
In this part we learn about Mastodon appearance. Below is my Mastodon Home as example. Mastodon looks very similar to Twitter, but the text box is on left column instead of center.
A Mastodon profile will publicly look like this. Every profile has URL like this https://floss.social/@ademalsasa for example. This is my personal profile. The unique thing about Mastodon profile is that we can add maximum 4 information at right panel, to show who we are with category we can decide ourselves.
TweetDeck-like interface on Mastodon is available built-in, just enable Advanced View at your profile preferences.
Tweeten and Whalebird, respectively are Twitter's and Mastodon's desktop clients. The user interface are different, as Whalebird is more like Slack (and hence Mattermost and Riot/Matrix) than actual Mastodon. Alternatively, you can use other software for GNU/Linux here.
Part 3. Registration and Fediverse
In this part we learn about registration, social activities, federation, and fediverse in Mastodon.
(This is JoinMastodon.org is where you can create new account)
Registration model of Mastodon is different to Twitter. How different it is? First thing is you can create new Mastodon account at JoinMastodon.org. That is to compare, you may create new Twitter account only in www.twitter.com while you may create new Mastodon account not only in www.mastodon.social but also in a lot of other Mastodon servers (instances) available you may choose. Unlike Twitter, in Mastodon, user in one server can follow and talk to user in other server. Every Mastodon server is created and ruled by different maintainer (you may choose one with Terms of Service / Privacy Policy that suits you), not centrally controlled by a single company like Twitter Inc. This is all because Mastodon is federated, just like how internet is all federated, except Twitter.
(Registration page of Mastodon: example here is from Fosstodon.Social instance)
Social activities at Mastodon started at an instance. An instance is for example Mastodon.Social or Floss.Social website. After having an account there, you can find new friends, new community, even new friends from other social networks.
- A Twitter ID would be @ademalsasa
- A Mastodon ID would be @ademalsasa@floss.social
Discover users, See what's happening, and Try a mobile app are 3 links for us to find new friends at Mastodon.
For example, in Mastodon.Social instance the links would be:
See what's happening, or, Live Stream at your Mastodon profile is similar to recent news at your Twitter profile. It shows news from multiple sources either you followed them or not.
About page explains who hosted the Mastodon instance you are in, and what is the rule, including funding/donation information if any.
For example, at Floss.Social instance where I'm in, the server is maintained by Michael Downey (Michael, you have my gratitude), and you can see the About Page here.
Community model of Mastodon is also different to Twitter. Twitter user can only contact Twitter user, and cannot follow nor talk to user in other social networks. On the other hand, Mastodon user can contact any Mastodon user in any Mastodon server. Beyond, Mastodon user can also contact user in other social networks, namely, Hubzilla, GNU Social, Pleroma, PeerTube, and PixelFed. This means not only users are connected, but also the servers and the social networks themselves. This is why we call Mastodon federated.
Below is the Fediverse, interconnected social networks forming a giant social network:
(PeerTube, YouTube-like federated video sharing) (GNU Social, another Twitter-like federated microblog)
(Pixelfed, Instagram-like federated photo sharing)
(Friendica, a mix of Facebook-like and Twitter-like federated macroblog)
(Misskey, Japanese SNS-like and almost Friendster-like federated microblog) (Diaspora*, Facebook-like federated social media)
Rules in Mastodon are also different to rules in Twitter. In Twitter, there is only one pair of Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (TOS/PP) because it's controlled by one company. There is no alternative TOS/PP in Twitter, so if you disagree that, you cannot use the social media. On the other hand, if you dislike TOS/PP in a Mastodon server, you still can use Mastodon, by registering to other Mastodon server. In fact, there are strict and loose rules among Mastodon servers. For example, compare between Ubuntu.Social's and Floss.Social's TOS/PP. Thanks to federation, community model of Mastodon allows such thing cannot be found at Twitter.
Part 3. GNU/Linux Community
Last part, you can follow and talk to these GNU/Linux and F/LOSS communities at Mastodon. I listed here several projects like Kubuntu and Manjaro, as more complete list I had published yesterday here, plus several individual people in our community worth to know.
Distros:
Projects:
People:
- Martin Wimpress (leader of Ubuntu MATE)
- Alan Pope (Canonical folk that is active at Snapcraft)
- Federico Mena Quintero (co-founder of GNOME)
- more
I know this short article is short and a lot of stuffs remain unmentioned here. But I believe this is enough for you to explore Mastodon by yourself. Thank you Mastodon, thank you whole Fediverse, and you all have my gratitude GNU/Linux community. Go ahead and enjoy Mastodon!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Tor and DNSCrypt on Ubuntu 18.04 Made Easy
(Ubuntu Bionic connected to the internet via Tor and it's easy to setup)
This simple tutorial will show you to install two privacy tools, The Onion Router (TOR) and Dnscrypt-Proxy, on Ubuntu Bionic Beaver. We will make use of existing Mozilla Firefox browser instead and just configure system wide proxy using Ubuntu System Settings. We do not install Tor Browser or any other additional stuffs to make everything simple for everybody. Okay, let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
Summary
1. Install Tor and DNSCrypt
Two commands below install Tor and dnscrypt-proxy programs into Ubuntu system:
$ sudo apt-get install tor
$ sudo apt-get install dnscrypt-proxy
2. Enable DNSCrypt & Change its Resolver
In a Terminal:
$ sudo systemctl start dnscrypt-proxy.service
Configure it: run command line to edit DNSCrypt configuration > you see there fvz-anyone as resolver > replace it with cisco as resolver > save. Final correct DNSCrypt configuration should look like below.
(See line with ResolverName code)
3. Test Tor and DNSCrypt
Before configuring them permanently, we need to see if quick install above worked perfectly.
For Tor, run it from command line[1], set Ubuntu to proxy all applications at 127.0.0.1:9050 SOCKS point, and then go to check.torproject.org website. Successful Tor connection will show Bootstrapped 100% done at Terminal and green onion Congratulations at browser. See below.
[1]:
$ tor
(All pictures above are large enough, simply click one to see it larger)
For DNSCrypt, it works if you get dnscrypt enabled! message to the output of the command line dig @127.0.2.1 txt debug.opendns.com. See below.
(See the white line)
Once both testings worked, you are ready to configure them permanently below.
4. Configure Tor and DNSCrypt Permanently
For Tor, you need to setup it runs every startup. For DNSCrypt, you need to change resolver to 'cisco' and force your system to use 127.0.2.1 instead of 127.0.0.53 resolver point.
Tor setup:
Run Startup Applications from start menu > add Name: Tor > add Command: tor > add Comment: The Onion Router > press OK > see picture below for example.
DNSCrypt setup:
Remove your resolvconf package[1] > remove your original resolv.conf file[2] > create new resolv.conf file[3] > write it so Ubuntu system will always look at 127.0.2.1 for resolving all DNS connections[4] > save. Final setup should give you /etc/resolv.conf always pointing to 127.0.2.1 point where dnscrypt-proxy working in your Ubuntu system.
[1]:
$ sudo apt-get remove resolvconf
[2]:
$ sudo rm -fv /etc/resolv.conf
[3]:
$ sudo touch /etc/resolv.conf
[4]:
Write these lines into that new file and save:
nameserver 127.0.2.1
options edns0
Final output will be like this:
To revert back if you dislike the configuration, see official DNSCrypt guide link below.
5. Final Testing
Restart your Ubuntu computer and re-test both Tor and DNSCrypt like above with internet access.
For Tor, go to check.torproject.org and make sure it shows green onion saying Congratulations.
For DNSCrypt, check /etc/resolv.conf[1] and make sure it doesn't change from 127.0.2.1, and run dig command again[2] but this time without @127.0.2.1 anymore.
[1]:
cat /etc/resolv.conf
[2]:
dig txt debug.opendns.com
Result:
(This output means our Ubuntu system is already using 127.0.2.1 as the point of DNS resolving, so we do not need to specify it anymore in dig command)
For DNS leak, see DNS Leak Test website and make sure the resolver appeared is only from OpenDNS LLC because we used cisco resolver above. That means your DNS is not leaked and that's good. But if the DNS resolver shown there is from your Internet Service Provider (ISP), then it is DNS leak, and that's not good.
Do you want latest Tor instead?
For your information, you above installed Tor from universe Ubuntu repository which does not provide latest Tor program. In fact, at the moment, Tor program from universe is still at version 0.3.2.10 while actually latest Tor is already at 0.4.1.6. Do you want latest Tor? If so, read Tor Project guide instead. You can also follow latest version announcements at Tor Blog.
Further Readings
I hope you find this guide useful!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
This simple tutorial will show you to install two privacy tools, The Onion Router (TOR) and Dnscrypt-Proxy, on Ubuntu Bionic Beaver. We will make use of existing Mozilla Firefox browser instead and just configure system wide proxy using Ubuntu System Settings. We do not install Tor Browser or any other additional stuffs to make everything simple for everybody. Okay, let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
Summary
- 1. Install Them
- 2. Enable DNSCrypt
- 3. Test Them
- 4. Configure Permanently
- 5. Final Testing
- Bonus
- Further Reading
1. Install Tor and DNSCrypt
Two commands below install Tor and dnscrypt-proxy programs into Ubuntu system:
$ sudo apt-get install tor
$ sudo apt-get install dnscrypt-proxy
2. Enable DNSCrypt & Change its Resolver
In a Terminal:
$ sudo systemctl start dnscrypt-proxy.service
Configure it: run command line to edit DNSCrypt configuration > you see there fvz-anyone as resolver > replace it with cisco as resolver > save. Final correct DNSCrypt configuration should look like below.
(See line with ResolverName code)
3. Test Tor and DNSCrypt
Before configuring them permanently, we need to see if quick install above worked perfectly.
For Tor, run it from command line[1], set Ubuntu to proxy all applications at 127.0.0.1:9050 SOCKS point, and then go to check.torproject.org website. Successful Tor connection will show Bootstrapped 100% done at Terminal and green onion Congratulations at browser. See below.
[1]:
$ tor
(All pictures above are large enough, simply click one to see it larger)
For DNSCrypt, it works if you get dnscrypt enabled! message to the output of the command line dig @127.0.2.1 txt debug.opendns.com. See below.
(See the white line)
Once both testings worked, you are ready to configure them permanently below.
4. Configure Tor and DNSCrypt Permanently
For Tor, you need to setup it runs every startup. For DNSCrypt, you need to change resolver to 'cisco' and force your system to use 127.0.2.1 instead of 127.0.0.53 resolver point.
Tor setup:
Run Startup Applications from start menu > add Name: Tor > add Command: tor > add Comment: The Onion Router > press OK > see picture below for example.
DNSCrypt setup:
Remove your resolvconf package[1] > remove your original resolv.conf file[2] > create new resolv.conf file[3] > write it so Ubuntu system will always look at 127.0.2.1 for resolving all DNS connections[4] > save. Final setup should give you /etc/resolv.conf always pointing to 127.0.2.1 point where dnscrypt-proxy working in your Ubuntu system.
[1]:
$ sudo apt-get remove resolvconf
[2]:
$ sudo rm -fv /etc/resolv.conf
[3]:
$ sudo touch /etc/resolv.conf
[4]:
Write these lines into that new file and save:
nameserver 127.0.2.1
options edns0
Final output will be like this:
To revert back if you dislike the configuration, see official DNSCrypt guide link below.
5. Final Testing
Restart your Ubuntu computer and re-test both Tor and DNSCrypt like above with internet access.
For Tor, go to check.torproject.org and make sure it shows green onion saying Congratulations.
For DNSCrypt, check /etc/resolv.conf[1] and make sure it doesn't change from 127.0.2.1, and run dig command again[2] but this time without @127.0.2.1 anymore.
[1]:
cat /etc/resolv.conf
[2]:
dig txt debug.opendns.com
Result:
(This output means our Ubuntu system is already using 127.0.2.1 as the point of DNS resolving, so we do not need to specify it anymore in dig command)
For DNS leak, see DNS Leak Test website and make sure the resolver appeared is only from OpenDNS LLC because we used cisco resolver above. That means your DNS is not leaked and that's good. But if the DNS resolver shown there is from your Internet Service Provider (ISP), then it is DNS leak, and that's not good.
Do you want latest Tor instead?
For your information, you above installed Tor from universe Ubuntu repository which does not provide latest Tor program. In fact, at the moment, Tor program from universe is still at version 0.3.2.10 while actually latest Tor is already at 0.4.1.6. Do you want latest Tor? If so, read Tor Project guide instead. You can also follow latest version announcements at Tor Blog.
Further Readings
- Official guide dnscrypt-proxy on GNU/Linux
- Ubuntu documentation on Tor
- Official guide Tor on Ubuntu
- What is a DNS leak?
I hope you find this guide useful!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
GNU/Linux Communities at Telegram
(LibreOffice's Telegram group link opened in a web browser with links for you to join using either Telegram Desktop or Telegram Web)
I listed here popular English-based GNU/Linux community's Telegram groups and also several FLOSS websites' Telegram channels like Kubuntu support group and OMG! Ubuntu site channel. To make it easier for you and me, I don't make distinction between official and unofficial ones. For some communities, like CentOS group below, I listed the non-English one while I didn't find the English one. I also listed more resources at the end so you can find more Telegram groups you would love. I wish everybody could join and make good friends there and I also want for more GNU/Linux communities to make their own Telegram groups. Enjoy!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
About Telegram
Telegram is a free software modern chatting application that is mostly similar to WhatsApp. Telegram is available in all platforms namely GNU/Linux, Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS. Telegram also has web interface just like WhatsApp's. Download Telegram Desktop (GNU GPLv3) for your GNU/Linux at https://desktop.telegram.org.
Background
This is a little bit reasoning behind making of this list: I want every community and every GNU/Linux website to consider making Telegram group / channel for themselves. For example, at the time I made this list, first I could find Kubuntu's group but not Ubuntu's despite I like both distros; and second, I could find OMG! Ubuntu's channel but not Tecmint's despite I like both sites. However I publish this article at 7 October 2019 so I believe this state will surely change in the future.
General:
GNU/Linux in general:
Distros:
Ubuntu:
Ubuntu Studio:
https://t.me/joinchat/GOahGRO58UkXsnNQmx4dVg
UBPorts (Ubuntu Touch):
https://t.me/ubports
Mint:
https://t.me/LinuxMintGroup
Kubuntu:
https://telegram.me/kubuntu_support
Lubuntu (channel):
https://t.me/LubuntuOfficial
elementary OS:
https://t.me/elementaryosusers
openSUSE:
https://t.me/openSUSE_group
Fedora:
https://t.me/fedora
CentOS:
CentOS Indonesia: https://t.me/centosID
Arch:
https://t.me/archlinuxgroup
Manjaro:
https://t.me/Manjaro
Solus:
https://t.me/solusproject
Neon:
https://telegram.me/kdeneon
Kali:
Kali Indonesia: https://t.me/KaliLinuxID
Deepin:
https://t.me/deepin
Parrot Security OS:
https://t.me/parrotsecgroup
Qubes Security OS:
https://t.me/joinchat/B8FHpkEToMfgdREGV7wzRQ
Antergos*:
https://t.me/Antergos
Endeavour OS (Antergos successor):
https://t.me/Endeavouros
EndlessOS:
https://t.me/EndlessOS
*) Discontinued distro, I listed it here with respect to their developers' effort up to today. I express my gratitude and sympathy to them.
Applications:
Mozilla:
https://telegram.me/mozillian
LibreOffice:
https://telegram.me/libreoffice
KDE:
http://t.me/kdeplasma
GNOME:
GNOME Indonesia: https://t.me/gnomeid
GIMP and Inkscape:
GimpScape Indonesia: https://telegram.me/gimpscape
Krita:
Krita Taiwan: https://t.me/KritaTW
Kdenlive:
https://t.me/kdenlive
Vim:
https://t.me/VimUserGroup
Emacs:
https://t.me/emacs_en
C++/Qt:
https://t.me/CplusplusQt
Websites:
OMG! Ubuntu:
https://t.me/omgubuntu
It's FOSS:
https://t.me/itsfoss_official
UbuntuBuzz:
https://t.me/ubuntubuzz
Distrowatch:
https://t.me/distrowatch
System76 (US-based GNU/Linux computer vendor):
https://t.me/system76_news
Interesting Resources
For you wanting more Telegram groups, you could read these lists by communities. See here, KDE has resource page listing their Telegram groups, so do Fedora and some other distros. I hope more free software projects & distros to follow them in supporting Telegram community.
I hope you find this list useful!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
I listed here popular English-based GNU/Linux community's Telegram groups and also several FLOSS websites' Telegram channels like Kubuntu support group and OMG! Ubuntu site channel. To make it easier for you and me, I don't make distinction between official and unofficial ones. For some communities, like CentOS group below, I listed the non-English one while I didn't find the English one. I also listed more resources at the end so you can find more Telegram groups you would love. I wish everybody could join and make good friends there and I also want for more GNU/Linux communities to make their own Telegram groups. Enjoy!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
About Telegram
Telegram is a free software modern chatting application that is mostly similar to WhatsApp. Telegram is available in all platforms namely GNU/Linux, Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS. Telegram also has web interface just like WhatsApp's. Download Telegram Desktop (GNU GPLv3) for your GNU/Linux at https://desktop.telegram.org.
Background
This is a little bit reasoning behind making of this list: I want every community and every GNU/Linux website to consider making Telegram group / channel for themselves. For example, at the time I made this list, first I could find Kubuntu's group but not Ubuntu's despite I like both distros; and second, I could find OMG! Ubuntu's channel but not Tecmint's despite I like both sites. However I publish this article at 7 October 2019 so I believe this state will surely change in the future.
General:
GNU/Linux in general:
- GNU/Linux: https://t.me/linux_group
- Belajar GNU/Linux Indonesia (BGLI): https://t.me/GNULinuxIndonesia
Distros:
Ubuntu:
- Ubuntu Hong Kong: https://t.me/ubuntuhk
- Ubuntu Indonesia: https://t.me/joinchat/CP_eKUB_OC64g_lXYusTPQ
- Ubuntu Cinnamon: https://t.me/ubuntucinnamon
Ubuntu Studio:
https://t.me/joinchat/GOahGRO58UkXsnNQmx4dVg
UBPorts (Ubuntu Touch):
https://t.me/ubports
Mint:
https://t.me/LinuxMintGroup
Kubuntu:
https://telegram.me/kubuntu_support
Lubuntu (channel):
https://t.me/LubuntuOfficial
elementary OS:
https://t.me/elementaryosusers
openSUSE:
https://t.me/openSUSE_group
Fedora:
https://t.me/fedora
CentOS:
CentOS Indonesia: https://t.me/centosID
Arch:
https://t.me/archlinuxgroup
Manjaro:
https://t.me/Manjaro
Solus:
https://t.me/solusproject
Neon:
https://telegram.me/kdeneon
Kali:
Kali Indonesia: https://t.me/KaliLinuxID
Deepin:
https://t.me/deepin
Parrot Security OS:
https://t.me/parrotsecgroup
Qubes Security OS:
https://t.me/joinchat/B8FHpkEToMfgdREGV7wzRQ
Antergos*:
https://t.me/Antergos
Endeavour OS (Antergos successor):
https://t.me/Endeavouros
EndlessOS:
https://t.me/EndlessOS
*) Discontinued distro, I listed it here with respect to their developers' effort up to today. I express my gratitude and sympathy to them.
Applications:
Mozilla:
https://telegram.me/mozillian
LibreOffice:
https://telegram.me/libreoffice
KDE:
http://t.me/kdeplasma
GNOME:
GNOME Indonesia: https://t.me/gnomeid
GIMP and Inkscape:
GimpScape Indonesia: https://telegram.me/gimpscape
Krita:
Krita Taiwan: https://t.me/KritaTW
Kdenlive:
https://t.me/kdenlive
Vim:
https://t.me/VimUserGroup
Emacs:
https://t.me/emacs_en
C++/Qt:
https://t.me/CplusplusQt
Websites:
OMG! Ubuntu:
https://t.me/omgubuntu
It's FOSS:
https://t.me/itsfoss_official
UbuntuBuzz:
https://t.me/ubuntubuzz
Distrowatch:
https://t.me/distrowatch
System76 (US-based GNU/Linux computer vendor):
https://t.me/system76_news
Interesting Resources
For you wanting more Telegram groups, you could read these lists by communities. See here, KDE has resource page listing their Telegram groups, so do Fedora and some other distros. I hope more free software projects & distros to follow them in supporting Telegram community.
- Hendi's List (Indonesia only)
- Awesome Telegram List (by ebertti)
- Awesome Telegram List (by learn-anything)
- Awesome Telegram List (by stkw0)
- List of Awesome Telegram Lists (by lorien)
- Telegram Search Engine
- KDE's List
- Fedora's List
- openSUSE's List
- Arch's List
I hope you find this list useful!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
GNU/Linux Communities at Mastodon Social Network
(Ubuntu at Mastodon, among many other GNU/Linux communities at Mastodon today)
Mastodon is a Twitter-like social network but unlike Twitter, it's free software-based and federated. In order to support adoption of Mastodon, I make this list of GNU/Linux and FLOSS communities at Mastodon we can follow and talk to. As Mastodon is mostly new thing for everybody, below you can also learn most used terminology such as fediverse, toot ('tweet'), boost ('retweet'), etc. Let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
On our community: Invidious | Riot/Matrix | Twitters | RSS | H-Node.org | Source Codes | Compatible Computers
Mastodon Logo and Terminology
Twitter logo is like this,
and Mastodon logo is like this.
So you now know both. And if a community website shows a Mastodon logo, see KDE's below for example, it means they have Mastodon, you can follow and talk to them there.
Talking about terminology, while every Twitter user says tweet and retweet, every Mastodon user says toot and boost. In both, we also use follow, unfollow, and followers. But only in Mastodon we say federation and instance, meaning unlike Twitter, Mastodon is decentralized (no central company control) and we can register new account at any Mastodon server provided by any organization. A Mastodon user can follow and talk to user in any instance because in Mastodon not only users are connected but servers are also connected, that is federation.
Join Mastodon
You can join Mastodon by creating new account in https://joinmastodon.org.
Ubuntu
Worldwide most popular GNU/Linux operating system.
https://ubuntu.social/@ubuntu
Kubuntu
KDE variant of Ubuntu.
https://mastodon.technology/@Kubuntu
Ubuntu MATE
MATE desktop variant of Ubuntu.
https://ubuntu.social/@ubuntumate
Ubuntu Studio
Audio/video creative variant of Ubuntu.
https://mastodon.art/@ubuntustudio
Debian
The base of Ubuntu and almost all other distros.
Gentoo
The source code oriented flexible distro.
https://fosstodon.org/@gentoo
Solus OS
The distro where Budgie desktop created.
https://mastodon.cloud/@SolusProject
Void GNU/Linux
sasasa
https://chaos.social/@VoidLinux
PantherX OS
A new distro based on Guix Package Manager with its own Qt5-based desktop environment.
https://pantherx.social/@franz
MX GNU/Linux
Recently popular XFCE-powered lightweight distro based on Debian.
https://mastodon.social/@mxlinux
Nitrux GNU/Linux
The AppImage oriented distro.
https://mastodon.cloud/@Nitrux_NX
GNOME
The GNU OS desktop environment.
https://floss.social/@gnome
KDE
The oldest desktop environment of GNU/Linux.
https://mastodon.technology/@kde
LibreOffice
Free, libre office suite program we all know.
https://mastodon.cloud/@ribalinux
elementary OS
Modern, sleek, innovative distro based on Ubuntu.
https://mastodon.social/@elementary
openSUSE
The green lizard operating system with YaST amazing control panel.
https://fosstodon.org/@opensuse
Purism Librem
The GNU/Linux laptops and smartphones company.
https://mastodon.social/@Purism
Krita
Free, libre image editor and digital animation program similar to Corel Painter.
https://mastodon.art/@Krita
Inkscape
Free vector image editor similar to Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW.
https://mastodon.art/@inkscape
Libre Graphics Meeting
International conference of graphic designers who use free/libre software.
https://post.lurk.org/@lgm
OMG! Ubuntu
The most famous Ubuntu news site and I like it.
https://floss.social/@omgubuntu
Manjaro (unofficial)
The most popular desktop variant of Arch which is easy to install and use.
https://botsin.space/@manjarolinux
Darktable
Professional darkroom photo manager program similar to Adobe Lightroom.
https://framapiaf.org/@darktablefr
Libre Lounge
Podcast focused in computer user freedom topic.
https://floss.social/@librelounge
GIMP
The free and libre Photoshop for everybody.
https://mastodon.at/@GIMP
Linux Tech More
Tutorials and videos from LinuxTechMore blog.
https://mastodon.technology/@linuxtechmore
FreeCAD
Free software Computer Aided Design for 2D and 3D similar to AutoCAD.
https://fosstodon.org/@FreeCAD
Tor Project
The Onion Router, a security and privacy tool every internet user should use today.
https://mastodon.social/@torproject
FOSDEM
Free/Open Source Software Developer Europe Meeting.
https://fosstodon.org/@fosdem
Liberapay
Crowdfunding place that funded Mastodon and other free software projects.
https://mastodon.xyz/@Liberapay
Nextcloud
A full replacement to Google Suite that is free software.
https://mastodon.xyz/@nextcloud
Matrix.org
The next internet communication protocol that is federated with nice desktop client.
https://mastodon.matrix.org/@matrix
Switched to Linux
Getting real work done on GNU/Linux.
https://fosstodon.org/@switchedtolinux
Gaming On Linux
Everything about playing video games on GNU/Linux.
https://mastodon.social/@gamingonlinux
Godot Engine
User friendly 2D and 3D game maker software that is free.
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@godotengine
Ribalinux
Video podcast for GNU/Linux and BSD installation tutorials.
https://mastodon.cloud/@ribalinux
Tuxedo Computers
Remember my GNU/Linux computer list? This is Tuxedo's Mastodon.
https://linuxrocks.online/@tuxedocomputers
Pinebook Laptops
Have you ever seen KDE Pinebook (ARM) laptop? That's cool and this is their Mastodon.
https://fosstodon.org/@PINE64
SwagArch
(discontinued, unfortunately)
Arch derivative that often says GNU more than Linux.
https://mastodon.technology/@swagarch
FOSSJobs
Do you want to find a job in free software & open source world? See this Mastodon.
https://fosstodon.org/@fossjobs
This Week In Linux
Uptodate News from multiple sources about GNU/Linux.
https://mastodon.social/@ThisWeekinLinux
uGet Download Manager
Desktop download accelerator that is fast and similar to IDM.
https://mastodon.social/@uGet
Guardian Project
Related closer to Android and Replicant, it's security project that develops Orbot and many other user-friendly security tools for mobile phone.
https://social.librem.one/@guardianproject
ProtonMail
Email service that is secure, open source-oriented, very user-friendly, and recommended by PrivacyTools.io and Sven's Restore Privacy at least per 2 October 2019.
https://mastodon.social/@protonmail
Command Line Magic
GNU/Linux command lines, short with explanations, and handy.
https://mastodon.social/@climagic
Tuxdigital
Podcast that talks about recent FOSS news, gaming, design with GNU/Linux.
https://mastodon.social/@TuxDigital
TuxPhones.com
New website interestingly focused at Librem, Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, postmarketOS and such GNU/Linux smartphones.
https://fosstodon.org/@tuxdevices
Big Daddy Linux
Podcast publishing of its YouTube channel with same name.
https://linuxrocks.online/@BigDaddyLinux
Destination Linux
Podcast by 4 people talking about GNU/Linux and gaming on it.
https://linuxrocks.online/@DestinationLinux
OSTechNix
News and tutorials from Open Source-Tech-*Nix website.
https://floss.social/@ostechnix
Interesting Mastodon Servers
Servers, also called instances, are Mastodon's equivalent to Twitter's server. Twitter server is only one, that is, www.twitter.com, so you register there. But Mastodon servers are many, for example Mastodon.Social or Floss.Social, so you register to any of them, then talk and follow any user in any server, as Mastodon's servers are interconnected. I recommend you to start with Floss.Social server if you are new in Mastodon. Start to explore people there, find out projects such as GNOME and others, and have fun.
Floss.Social
Register | [TOS]
FOSSTodon
Register | [TOS]
Librem One
Register | [TOS]
Happy tooting!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Mastodon is a Twitter-like social network but unlike Twitter, it's free software-based and federated. In order to support adoption of Mastodon, I make this list of GNU/Linux and FLOSS communities at Mastodon we can follow and talk to. As Mastodon is mostly new thing for everybody, below you can also learn most used terminology such as fediverse, toot ('tweet'), boost ('retweet'), etc. Let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
On our community: Invidious | Riot/Matrix | Twitters | RSS | H-Node.org | Source Codes | Compatible Computers
Mastodon Logo and Terminology
Twitter logo is like this,
and Mastodon logo is like this.
So you now know both. And if a community website shows a Mastodon logo, see KDE's below for example, it means they have Mastodon, you can follow and talk to them there.
Talking about terminology, while every Twitter user says tweet and retweet, every Mastodon user says toot and boost. In both, we also use follow, unfollow, and followers. But only in Mastodon we say federation and instance, meaning unlike Twitter, Mastodon is decentralized (no central company control) and we can register new account at any Mastodon server provided by any organization. A Mastodon user can follow and talk to user in any instance because in Mastodon not only users are connected but servers are also connected, that is federation.
Join Mastodon
You can join Mastodon by creating new account in https://joinmastodon.org.
Ubuntu
Worldwide most popular GNU/Linux operating system.
https://ubuntu.social/@ubuntu
Kubuntu
KDE variant of Ubuntu.
https://mastodon.technology/@Kubuntu
Ubuntu MATE
MATE desktop variant of Ubuntu.
https://ubuntu.social/@ubuntumate
Ubuntu Studio
Audio/video creative variant of Ubuntu.
https://mastodon.art/@ubuntustudio
Debian
The base of Ubuntu and almost all other distros.
Gentoo
The source code oriented flexible distro.
https://fosstodon.org/@gentoo
Solus OS
The distro where Budgie desktop created.
https://mastodon.cloud/@SolusProject
Void GNU/Linux
sasasa
https://chaos.social/@VoidLinux
PantherX OS
A new distro based on Guix Package Manager with its own Qt5-based desktop environment.
https://pantherx.social/@franz
MX GNU/Linux
Recently popular XFCE-powered lightweight distro based on Debian.
https://mastodon.social/@mxlinux
Nitrux GNU/Linux
The AppImage oriented distro.
https://mastodon.cloud/@Nitrux_NX
GNOME
The GNU OS desktop environment.
https://floss.social/@gnome
KDE
The oldest desktop environment of GNU/Linux.
https://mastodon.technology/@kde
LibreOffice
Free, libre office suite program we all know.
https://mastodon.cloud/@ribalinux
elementary OS
Modern, sleek, innovative distro based on Ubuntu.
https://mastodon.social/@elementary
openSUSE
The green lizard operating system with YaST amazing control panel.
https://fosstodon.org/@opensuse
Purism Librem
The GNU/Linux laptops and smartphones company.
https://mastodon.social/@Purism
Krita
Free, libre image editor and digital animation program similar to Corel Painter.
https://mastodon.art/@Krita
Inkscape
Free vector image editor similar to Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW.
https://mastodon.art/@inkscape
Libre Graphics Meeting
International conference of graphic designers who use free/libre software.
https://post.lurk.org/@lgm
OMG! Ubuntu
The most famous Ubuntu news site and I like it.
https://floss.social/@omgubuntu
Manjaro (unofficial)
The most popular desktop variant of Arch which is easy to install and use.
https://botsin.space/@manjarolinux
Darktable
Professional darkroom photo manager program similar to Adobe Lightroom.
https://framapiaf.org/@darktablefr
Libre Lounge
Podcast focused in computer user freedom topic.
https://floss.social/@librelounge
GIMP
The free and libre Photoshop for everybody.
https://mastodon.at/@GIMP
Linux Tech More
Tutorials and videos from LinuxTechMore blog.
https://mastodon.technology/@linuxtechmore
FreeCAD
Free software Computer Aided Design for 2D and 3D similar to AutoCAD.
https://fosstodon.org/@FreeCAD
Tor Project
The Onion Router, a security and privacy tool every internet user should use today.
https://mastodon.social/@torproject
FOSDEM
Free/Open Source Software Developer Europe Meeting.
https://fosstodon.org/@fosdem
Liberapay
Crowdfunding place that funded Mastodon and other free software projects.
https://mastodon.xyz/@Liberapay
Nextcloud
A full replacement to Google Suite that is free software.
https://mastodon.xyz/@nextcloud
Matrix.org
The next internet communication protocol that is federated with nice desktop client.
https://mastodon.matrix.org/@matrix
Switched to Linux
Getting real work done on GNU/Linux.
https://fosstodon.org/@switchedtolinux
Gaming On Linux
Everything about playing video games on GNU/Linux.
https://mastodon.social/@gamingonlinux
Godot Engine
User friendly 2D and 3D game maker software that is free.
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@godotengine
Ribalinux
Video podcast for GNU/Linux and BSD installation tutorials.
https://mastodon.cloud/@ribalinux
Tuxedo Computers
Remember my GNU/Linux computer list? This is Tuxedo's Mastodon.
https://linuxrocks.online/@tuxedocomputers
Pinebook Laptops
Have you ever seen KDE Pinebook (ARM) laptop? That's cool and this is their Mastodon.
https://fosstodon.org/@PINE64
SwagArch
(discontinued, unfortunately)
Arch derivative that often says GNU more than Linux.
https://mastodon.technology/@swagarch
FOSSJobs
Do you want to find a job in free software & open source world? See this Mastodon.
https://fosstodon.org/@fossjobs
This Week In Linux
Uptodate News from multiple sources about GNU/Linux.
https://mastodon.social/@ThisWeekinLinux
uGet Download Manager
Desktop download accelerator that is fast and similar to IDM.
https://mastodon.social/@uGet
Guardian Project
Related closer to Android and Replicant, it's security project that develops Orbot and many other user-friendly security tools for mobile phone.
https://social.librem.one/@guardianproject
ProtonMail
Email service that is secure, open source-oriented, very user-friendly, and recommended by PrivacyTools.io and Sven's Restore Privacy at least per 2 October 2019.
https://mastodon.social/@protonmail
Command Line Magic
GNU/Linux command lines, short with explanations, and handy.
https://mastodon.social/@climagic
Tuxdigital
Podcast that talks about recent FOSS news, gaming, design with GNU/Linux.
https://mastodon.social/@TuxDigital
TuxPhones.com
New website interestingly focused at Librem, Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, postmarketOS and such GNU/Linux smartphones.
https://fosstodon.org/@tuxdevices
Big Daddy Linux
Podcast publishing of its YouTube channel with same name.
https://linuxrocks.online/@BigDaddyLinux
Destination Linux
Podcast by 4 people talking about GNU/Linux and gaming on it.
https://linuxrocks.online/@DestinationLinux
OSTechNix
News and tutorials from Open Source-Tech-*Nix website.
https://floss.social/@ostechnix
Interesting Mastodon Servers
Servers, also called instances, are Mastodon's equivalent to Twitter's server. Twitter server is only one, that is, www.twitter.com, so you register there. But Mastodon servers are many, for example Mastodon.Social or Floss.Social, so you register to any of them, then talk and follow any user in any server, as Mastodon's servers are interconnected. I recommend you to start with Floss.Social server if you are new in Mastodon. Start to explore people there, find out projects such as GNOME and others, and have fun.
Floss.Social
Register | [TOS]
FOSSTodon
Register | [TOS]
Librem One
Register | [TOS]
Happy tooting!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Making Trisquel Works with GLIM Multiboot Maker
(With a little configuration, Trisquel can be made USB multiboot with GLIM)
Trisquel is by default not supported by GLIM. So, this tutorial provides you support for Trisquel 8.0 "Flidas" for both Regular and Mini editions. In case you don't know, Trisquel is fully free software GNU/Linux distro that is user friendly based on Ubuntu. I publish this in 1 October 2019 so in the future GLIM may be changed to support Trisquel by default.
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
On multibooting: Multisystem | GLIM | MultibootUSB | Aguslr's MBUSB | For openSUSE
Summary
Before and After
By default, Trisquel ISO does not appear on GLIM bootloader but Ubuntu ISOs do appear. See below, it's none.
After editing the configuration, Trisquel appears. See below, it shows its logo and name.
1. Configurations
For configuring, what we need to do is only to create a new inc-trisquel.cfg plain text file and edit the existed grub.cfg file. Particularly for grub.cfg below, simply copy-paste the code here between ubuntu and xubuntu sections there. All located in [USB]/boot/grub/ directory. See last screenshot to place them correctly.
inc-trisquel.cfg:
# Trisquel
for isofile in $isopath/trisquel/trisquel*.iso; do
if [ ! -e "$isofile" ]; then break; fi
regexp \
--set 1:isoname \
--set 2:version \
--set 3:variant \
--set 4:arch \
"^${isopath}/trisquel/(trisquel-([^-]+)-(.+)_([^-]+)\.iso)\$" "${isofile}"
menuentry "Try Trisquel without installing ${version} ${arch} ${variant}" "${isofile}" "${isoname}" --class trisquel {
bootoptions="boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile splash quiet"
set isofile=$2
set isoname=$3
loopback loop $isofile
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz $bootoptions
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd
}
menuentry "Install Trisquel" {
bootoptions="iso-scan/filename=$iso_path boot=casper splash quiet noprompt only-ubiquity --"
set isofile=$2
set isoname=$3
loopback loop $isofile
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz $bootoptions
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd
}
done
grub.cfg:
for isofile in ${isopath}/trisquel/trisquel*.iso; do
if [ -e "$isofile" ]; then
menuentry "Trisquel >" --class trisquel {
configfile "${prefix}/inc-trisquel.cfg"
}
break
fi
done
Screenshot:
Files placement along with other files seen in file manager:
2. Icon
Place a Trisquel icon with file name trisquel.png to [USB]/boot/grub/themes/invader/icons/. Correct placement should appear like below in file manager. Feel free to download the Trisquel icon below.
Trisquel logo PNG 48x48
Trisquel logo PNG 32x32
Trisquel logo PNG 24x24
Logo source in SVG here.
Testing
Restart your computer with USB booting option enabled. Then you should see GLIM bootloader showing Trisquel among other OSes. Happy sharing!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Trisquel is by default not supported by GLIM. So, this tutorial provides you support for Trisquel 8.0 "Flidas" for both Regular and Mini editions. In case you don't know, Trisquel is fully free software GNU/Linux distro that is user friendly based on Ubuntu. I publish this in 1 October 2019 so in the future GLIM may be changed to support Trisquel by default.
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
On multibooting: Multisystem | GLIM | MultibootUSB | Aguslr's MBUSB | For openSUSE
Summary
- Edit configurations
- Insert icon file
- Test
Before and After
By default, Trisquel ISO does not appear on GLIM bootloader but Ubuntu ISOs do appear. See below, it's none.
After editing the configuration, Trisquel appears. See below, it shows its logo and name.
1. Configurations
For configuring, what we need to do is only to create a new inc-trisquel.cfg plain text file and edit the existed grub.cfg file. Particularly for grub.cfg below, simply copy-paste the code here between ubuntu and xubuntu sections there. All located in [USB]/boot/grub/ directory. See last screenshot to place them correctly.
inc-trisquel.cfg:
# Trisquel
for isofile in $isopath/trisquel/trisquel*.iso; do
if [ ! -e "$isofile" ]; then break; fi
regexp \
--set 1:isoname \
--set 2:version \
--set 3:variant \
--set 4:arch \
"^${isopath}/trisquel/(trisquel-([^-]+)-(.+)_([^-]+)\.iso)\$" "${isofile}"
menuentry "Try Trisquel without installing ${version} ${arch} ${variant}" "${isofile}" "${isoname}" --class trisquel {
bootoptions="boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile splash quiet"
set isofile=$2
set isoname=$3
loopback loop $isofile
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz $bootoptions
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd
}
menuentry "Install Trisquel" {
bootoptions="iso-scan/filename=$iso_path boot=casper splash quiet noprompt only-ubiquity --"
set isofile=$2
set isoname=$3
loopback loop $isofile
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz $bootoptions
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd
}
done
grub.cfg:
for isofile in ${isopath}/trisquel/trisquel*.iso; do
if [ -e "$isofile" ]; then
menuentry "Trisquel >" --class trisquel {
configfile "${prefix}/inc-trisquel.cfg"
}
break
fi
done
Screenshot:
Files placement along with other files seen in file manager:
2. Icon
Place a Trisquel icon with file name trisquel.png to [USB]/boot/grub/themes/invader/icons/. Correct placement should appear like below in file manager. Feel free to download the Trisquel icon below.
Trisquel logo PNG 48x48
Trisquel logo PNG 32x32
Trisquel logo PNG 24x24
Logo source in SVG here.
Testing
Restart your computer with USB booting option enabled. Then you should see GLIM bootloader showing Trisquel among other OSes. Happy sharing!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Windows-key on Xubuntu/XFCE and Trisquel/MATE
Here's quick notes about enabling Windows key for start menu on two different systems: Xubuntu (XFCE) and Trisquel (MATE). This key is located between your Ctrl and Alt keys, and beside that, also called Super or Meta key on GNU/Linux. However, you can run these on other GNU/Linux distros which use respective desktop environments. Happy working!
Xubuntu (XFCE Desktop)
(XFCE 4.14 with Super key enabled)
Other distros known with XFCE:
Trisquel (MATE Desktop)
(Trisquel 8.0 with Super key enabled)
Other distros known with MATE:
Enjoy!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly. This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Xubuntu (XFCE Desktop)
- Go to System Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts.
- Choose xfce4-popup-whiskermenu.
- Double-click it.
- Press Win key (Super key).
- Close.
- Go ahead.
(XFCE 4.14 with Super key enabled)
Other distros known with XFCE:
- Ubuntu Studio
- Mint XFCE
- MX
- Debian Live XFCE
- Fedora Spin XFCE
- openSUSE Tumbleweed XFCE
Trisquel (MATE Desktop)
- Go to MATE Tweak > Interface.
- Save current layout.
- Change it to Redmond layout.
- Enable advanced menu.
- Close.
- Go ahead.
(Trisquel 8.0 with Super key enabled)
Other distros known with MATE:
- Ubuntu MATE
- Mint MATE
- Debian Live MATE
- Fedora Spin MATE
- Manjaro MATE
Enjoy!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly. This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Invidious Everywhere
(Invidious website showing a YouTube channel)
Do you know Invidious? On Invidious, you can watch all YouTube videos safely and without ads with ability to download all of them. Technically, it means Invidious acts as an intermediary between you and YouTube and plays videos without JavaScript. This also means privacy, that is Google will not be able to record you! But the problem is all YouTube links on the net linked to youtube.com and not invidio.us. Many people still don't know Indivious as well. So we always need to rewrite every link to invidio.us to watch every video. This makes life difficult. Fortunately, thanks to several Firefox addons below, we can automatically change all youtube link to invidious instead, even the embed ones on webpages and social medias! This makes life easy. Finally, Invidious is free software licensed under GNU AGPL you can have the source code from GitHub. Let's make Indivious everywhere!
Addons
Here are several free software licensed addons you could use but I suggest you try the first one below.
Use Example
Link: every video URL on every webpage will automatically changed to Invidious URL instead of YouTube URL. When you click one, you open Invidious and not YouTube.
Embed: every embedded video on every webpage will automatically turned into Invidious embed frame, not YouTube's anymore.
Acknowledgement
Thank you omarroth for creating Invidious (the software) and make it online for us (the service). Thank you YouTube and its community for providing all the actual videos online so we can watch and download them.
My Personal View
I support Degoogle Movement as being done by PrivacyToolsIO, DeGoogle at Reddit, and such other communities. One among most difficult things for us to leave from Google is YouTube, of course. Personally, I found Invidious from Trisquel forum, a community of a 100% free software operating system, as they really actively talk about relationship between privacy and free software. Once I know it, I felt very happy, I do not need to browse YouTube anymore. And I think using Invidious is much more better than fussing around with YouTube alternatives like PeerTube or BitChute services. Finally, enjoy YouTube everywhere without nonfree Javascript!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Do you know Invidious? On Invidious, you can watch all YouTube videos safely and without ads with ability to download all of them. Technically, it means Invidious acts as an intermediary between you and YouTube and plays videos without JavaScript. This also means privacy, that is Google will not be able to record you! But the problem is all YouTube links on the net linked to youtube.com and not invidio.us. Many people still don't know Indivious as well. So we always need to rewrite every link to invidio.us to watch every video. This makes life difficult. Fortunately, thanks to several Firefox addons below, we can automatically change all youtube link to invidious instead, even the embed ones on webpages and social medias! This makes life easy. Finally, Invidious is free software licensed under GNU AGPL you can have the source code from GitHub. Let's make Indivious everywhere!
Addons
Here are several free software licensed addons you could use but I suggest you try the first one below.
- Invidition (by booteille, public domain)
- Invidio Quick Redirect (by Austin Moore, MIT/X11 license)
- Invidious Redirect (by Doron Behar, public domain)
- Invidicious (by JanKKM, MIT/X11 license)
- Privacy Redirect (MIT/X11 license)
Use Example
Link: every video URL on every webpage will automatically changed to Invidious URL instead of YouTube URL. When you click one, you open Invidious and not YouTube.
Embed: every embedded video on every webpage will automatically turned into Invidious embed frame, not YouTube's anymore.
Acknowledgement
Thank you omarroth for creating Invidious (the software) and make it online for us (the service). Thank you YouTube and its community for providing all the actual videos online so we can watch and download them.
My Personal View
I support Degoogle Movement as being done by PrivacyToolsIO, DeGoogle at Reddit, and such other communities. One among most difficult things for us to leave from Google is YouTube, of course. Personally, I found Invidious from Trisquel forum, a community of a 100% free software operating system, as they really actively talk about relationship between privacy and free software. Once I know it, I felt very happy, I do not need to browse YouTube anymore. And I think using Invidious is much more better than fussing around with YouTube alternatives like PeerTube or BitChute services. Finally, enjoy YouTube everywhere without nonfree Javascript!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Android Reverse Tethering with Ubuntu 18.04
(Android phone got internet access from Ubuntu laptop via cable)
That magical program is Gnirehtet (tethering reversed) available as Android app and GNU/Linux desktop programs. With this program, without root access at all, we can easily share internet access via USB cable from laptop to smartphone by utilizing USB Tethering in reversed mode. Finally, the topology will be phone -> USB -> desktop -> wifi -> internet. I show you here how to do it with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Enjoy!
On wifi hotspot sharing: KDE | GNOME | Budgie | File Sharing/SFTP
Why reverse tethering?
There are several strong reasons to do this:
My Specification
I use 2 operating systems on 2 different machines:
Laptop:
Phone:
1. Obtain Gnirehtet
As I said, Gnirehtet is divided into two parts, one for you phone (.apk) and one for your GNU/Linux desktop (program written in Rust language). Download it here.
2. Install Gnirehtet to Android phone
3. Install requirements on GNU/Linux
The only requirement according to the official documentation is adb, so:
$ sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb
Note: distros other than Ubuntu should have same package but either with same or different name. For example, Debian's is android-tools-adb, Arch's is android-tools, and so on.
4. Connect to the internet on desktop
Connect your Ubuntu GNU/Linux to a wifi hotspot internet access.
5. Enable USB Debugging on Android
On your phone, on Android system settings, turn on USB Debugging. Usually it is located at Developer section. Do not enable USB Tethering here.
6. Share internet access from desktop
Running:
$ ./gnirehtet run
You should run this command where the executable program located.
Stopping:
Press Ctrl+C on the same Terminal.
7. Accept connection on Android
On your phone, you will see Allow USB debugging? and accept it. You will also see Reverse tethering enabled message notification. This means you are ready to go online on your phone. Oh, and yes, you can give check mark Always allow from this computer so you do not need to tap anymore next time.
8. Go online!
You should see Gnirehtet: Reverse tethering enabled notification on your phone. Your phone should be connected to the net at this point. Try to run Telegram, F-Droid, Orbot, or web browser on Android and see if they can download something.On desktop, on GNOME environment if you have
Succcessful connection would show [VPN] logo on Android's top panel:
And also saying Reverse tethering enabled message:
Hope this will be useful!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
That magical program is Gnirehtet (tethering reversed) available as Android app and GNU/Linux desktop programs. With this program, without root access at all, we can easily share internet access via USB cable from laptop to smartphone by utilizing USB Tethering in reversed mode. Finally, the topology will be phone -> USB -> desktop -> wifi -> internet. I show you here how to do it with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Enjoy!
On wifi hotspot sharing: KDE | GNOME | Budgie | File Sharing/SFTP
Why reverse tethering?
There are several strong reasons to do this:
- Saving cost, so you only need internet access on one device (laptop) and do not need to buy data for phone.
- Security, as you do not expose your phone identity when at a public hotspot place.
- Speed, especially if your phone data service is slow while your public hotspot on laptop is fast. Share it, dude.
- Size, so you can download big sized files on phone when your data service is limited but public hotspot is unlimited. For example, to upgrade all Android applications.
My Specification
I use 2 operating systems on 2 different machines:
Laptop:
- Ubuntu 18.04
- Linux kernel 4.15 (default)
- Wifi internet from a public hotspot
Phone:
- Android 6.0, not rooted
- No SIM card (no carrier, no internet access)
- Data, Wifi, and Hotspot options disabled
- USB Debugging support
- USB Tethering support
- A USB cable
1. Obtain Gnirehtet
As I said, Gnirehtet is divided into two parts, one for you phone (.apk) and one for your GNU/Linux desktop (program written in Rust language). Download it here.
2. Install Gnirehtet to Android phone
- Send the gnirehtet.apk file from computer to phone.
- Install the APK file on Android.
3. Install requirements on GNU/Linux
The only requirement according to the official documentation is adb, so:
$ sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb
Note: distros other than Ubuntu should have same package but either with same or different name. For example, Debian's is android-tools-adb, Arch's is android-tools, and so on.
4. Connect to the internet on desktop
Connect your Ubuntu GNU/Linux to a wifi hotspot internet access.
5. Enable USB Debugging on Android
On your phone, on Android system settings, turn on USB Debugging. Usually it is located at Developer section. Do not enable USB Tethering here.
6. Share internet access from desktop
Running:
$ ./gnirehtet run
You should run this command where the executable program located.
Stopping:
Press Ctrl+C on the same Terminal.
7. Accept connection on Android
On your phone, you will see Allow USB debugging? and accept it. You will also see Reverse tethering enabled message notification. This means you are ready to go online on your phone. Oh, and yes, you can give check mark Always allow from this computer so you do not need to tap anymore next time.
8. Go online!
You should see Gnirehtet: Reverse tethering enabled notification on your phone. Your phone should be connected to the net at this point. Try to run Telegram, F-Droid, Orbot, or web browser on Android and see if they can download something.On desktop, on GNOME environment if you have
Succcessful connection would show [VPN] logo on Android's top panel:
And also saying Reverse tethering enabled message:
Hope this will be useful!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Finally We See XFCE 4.14 and GNU/Linux Distros with It
(XFCE 4.14 on Xubuntu Eoan Ermine beta version)
Now after Plasma 5.16 in June and a month before GNOME 3.34 in September, actually, in silent, the latest XFCE 4.14 released at 12 August 2019 after four years of development. Congratulations to XFCE Developers and especially Simon Steinbeiss and here's my short overview of latest XFCE I was waiting since 2015. I'm also looking for right time to write my own review next time. Here we go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
Important Links
1. Announcements
XFCE released slowly and not as fast as KDE or GNOME. So in 12 August 2019, after many years of development, this is the historic release announcement from official xfce-announce mailing list. It's announced by Simon Steinbeiss, the release manager of this time. Previous release was 4.12 announced by Nick at 2015.
(XFCE 4.14: sixteen core components and their versions)
Then below is announcement from the official website.
(https://xfce.org/about/news/?post=1565568000)
Simon Steinbeiss also announced XFCE 4.14 personally in his blog here. His message on that article is "In any case, enjoy Xfce 4.14 and join us to make 4.16 a great (and shorter) cycle!".
(https://simon.shimmerproject.org/2019/08/21/xfce-4-14-released-yeah-like-a-week-ago)
This time, the team published an Online Tour for us to see how well XFCE 4.14 doing.
(https://www.xfce.org/about/tour)
And, all screenshots of 4.14 are prepared.
2. Desktop & Applications
Here's how default XFCE looks like at Xubuntu 19.10 pre-release version.
And here's Thunar File Manager with new ability to customize our right-click actions and also Ctrl+= to zoom in. More information about new features you could find at 4.4 Changelog.
3. Distros with XFCE 4.14:
I listed here desktop GNU/Linux distros that already have latest XFCE built-in and they have LiveCD+Install capability. Important: Eoan, Adelie, and Rawhide are currently (25 September 2019) in development or beta and not in stable state for daily use so proceed with your own risk. Once you download, make bootable, and run one, you enjoy 4.14 instantly and can install the OS into your computer.
(If you download Xubuntu Eoan for example, you will get latest XFCE, and run it to watch online videos like LinuxScoop's review)
(Get openSUSE webpage)
*) I think Adelie is very interesting, not because it's name and mine, but because its website says "Truly Libre Software" I could expect it includes only libre software without any proprietary ones. It's really interesting if someday Adelie could be in same page with Trisquel on FSF's free distros list.
Upgrade XFCE to 4.14
Thanks to Repology.org, as per 25 September 2019, we can tell that users of Arch, Debian (Unstable), and Fedora 30 can already upgrade their XFCE to 4.14 among other distros. For libre distro users, currently Parabola is ready. Next time we surely will see more distros adopt this latest XFCE and we just need to wait.
Some Commentaries
I'm writing this when I'm very busy with teaching in my online class and distributing USB pendrives. I'm very happy with them. And because we now have latest Plasma, latest GNOME, and latest XFCE, I surely am happy too and I hope I have more time to review XFCE 4.14 soon. It's a great experience for me to manually search between distros (especially openSUSE) and make use of Repology.org to find latest XFCE on them. I hope this simple post helps out a lot for everybody.
Enjoy XFCE 4.14!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Now after Plasma 5.16 in June and a month before GNOME 3.34 in September, actually, in silent, the latest XFCE 4.14 released at 12 August 2019 after four years of development. Congratulations to XFCE Developers and especially Simon Steinbeiss and here's my short overview of latest XFCE I was waiting since 2015. I'm also looking for right time to write my own review next time. Here we go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
Important Links
- Announcement (web)
- Announcement (mailing list)
- Announcement (Simon's)
- Release Notes (changelog)
- Discussion (Reddit)
1. Announcements
XFCE released slowly and not as fast as KDE or GNOME. So in 12 August 2019, after many years of development, this is the historic release announcement from official xfce-announce mailing list. It's announced by Simon Steinbeiss, the release manager of this time. Previous release was 4.12 announced by Nick at 2015.
(XFCE 4.14: sixteen core components and their versions)
Then below is announcement from the official website.
(https://xfce.org/about/news/?post=1565568000)
Simon Steinbeiss also announced XFCE 4.14 personally in his blog here. His message on that article is "In any case, enjoy Xfce 4.14 and join us to make 4.16 a great (and shorter) cycle!".
(https://simon.shimmerproject.org/2019/08/21/xfce-4-14-released-yeah-like-a-week-ago)
This time, the team published an Online Tour for us to see how well XFCE 4.14 doing.
(https://www.xfce.org/about/tour)
And, all screenshots of 4.14 are prepared.
2. Desktop & Applications
Here's how default XFCE looks like at Xubuntu 19.10 pre-release version.
And here's Thunar File Manager with new ability to customize our right-click actions and also Ctrl+= to zoom in. More information about new features you could find at 4.4 Changelog.
3. Distros with XFCE 4.14:
I listed here desktop GNU/Linux distros that already have latest XFCE built-in and they have LiveCD+Install capability. Important: Eoan, Adelie, and Rawhide are currently (25 September 2019) in development or beta and not in stable state for daily use so proceed with your own risk. Once you download, make bootable, and run one, you enjoy 4.14 instantly and can install the OS into your computer.
(If you download Xubuntu Eoan for example, you will get latest XFCE, and run it to watch online videos like LinuxScoop's review)
- Xubuntu Eoan Ermine
- Adelie GNU/Linux
- Fedora Rawhide XFCE
- openSUSE Tumbleweed XFCE
(Get openSUSE webpage)
*) I think Adelie is very interesting, not because it's name and mine, but because its website says "Truly Libre Software" I could expect it includes only libre software without any proprietary ones. It's really interesting if someday Adelie could be in same page with Trisquel on FSF's free distros list.
Upgrade XFCE to 4.14
Thanks to Repology.org, as per 25 September 2019, we can tell that users of Arch, Debian (Unstable), and Fedora 30 can already upgrade their XFCE to 4.14 among other distros. For libre distro users, currently Parabola is ready. Next time we surely will see more distros adopt this latest XFCE and we just need to wait.
Some Commentaries
I'm writing this when I'm very busy with teaching in my online class and distributing USB pendrives. I'm very happy with them. And because we now have latest Plasma, latest GNOME, and latest XFCE, I surely am happy too and I hope I have more time to review XFCE 4.14 soon. It's a great experience for me to manually search between distros (especially openSUSE) and make use of Repology.org to find latest XFCE on them. I hope this simple post helps out a lot for everybody.
Enjoy XFCE 4.14!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
How To Install BlankOn 11 Uluwatu to USB Pendrive
(BlankOn Uluwatu running from a 16GB USB stick)
This tutorial explains the installation procedures of BlankOn 11 operating system to a 16GB USB stick. This way, it's safer for your data and more portable. To practice this installation, I took off internal Hard Disk of mine and performed installation with only two USB flash drives attached: one acted as installer, one as target. After installation finished, I placed my Hard Disk back to my laptop. To warn you, my installation took so long time about 1 hour and more, longer than average GNU/Linux distros' which is about 15 minutes. While installing, you will need to watch out file size growth as the BlankOn installer --at the moment-- does not show any progress information at all. However, finally it's a success and the USB stick is now powered by BlankOn Uluwatu I can bring anywhere I go. Okay, let's proceed!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
Summary
In short, installing BlankOn is different in several aspects to Ubuntu:
1. Create Bootable Media
Write BlankOn .iso file with GNOME Disk Utility into USB stick. However, I use BlankOn-11.0.1-desktop-amd64.iso as the image for this practice.
2. Booting & Entering the LiveCD
Boot up your computer with the BlankOn USB. Then the black screen with "Hello" and Continue using Live CD" messages appeared with timeline bar on right side of your screen.
(1st: language selector)
3. Entering LiveCD & Yellow Desktop
Do not enter Install BlankOn section first. Instead, click Continue LiveCD button so you see the yellowish BlankOn Uluwatu desktop.
(The yellow wallpaper of Uluwatu)
4. Go Back to the Installer
From the desktop, press Ctrl+Alt+Left, so you see the installer once again. Click Install Blankon button.
(1st: get ready for the installation)
5. Select Timezone
Let's continue. Here, in this example, I simply choose Asia/Jakarta.
(2nd: region selector)
6. Select Target USB
Among CruzerBlade and CruzerGlide I attached, the latter is the target I want to install BlankOn to. So I select CruzerGlide here. If you wonder why, as I said above, I had already removed my hard drive so we only see flash drives here.
(3rd: disk selector)
7. Perform Clean Install
Select Clean Install and then press Next button. This will do your BlankOn system as default setup BlankOn has into your USB stick. Yes, in this tutorial you do not need Advanced Partitioning.
(3rd: clean Install)
8. Determine Username & Password
Create your own username and password for your system. The password here will also be your sudo password.
(4th: personalization step)
9. Read Installation Summary & Proceed
For the last time, BlankOn will present you your choices. Read it carefully and make sure once again you didn't make any mistake. If anything is good, then proceed with Install button.
(5th: information being presented)
10. Progressing
You will see progress bar running on your screen. But as I said above, there is no percentage nor detailed information about what actually happened. So see next step.
(6th: installation begins)
11. See Actual Progress & Wait
Go back to desktop with Ctrl+Alt+Right so you see the yellow screen again. On this screen you can run programs.
Keep those 3 Terminals running to see the progress being developed. In particular, watch output of df command there, as it's the actual growing size of the target system. See pictures below.
On my system this process took almost 2 hours. You need to wait it patiently.
(Do not panic: the "STDERR device [...] write-protected" is okay)
(Finished installation takes up to around 38000M in Used column in df output)
Finished
Press Ctrl+Alt+Left again to check the installer. Once successfully installed, BlankOn will say "Installation Finish [sic]" and you can reboot.
(7th: finished statement)
Successful installation will give you a working USB with BlankOn Uluwatu. Happy working! (Default setup will make root partition 14.7GB on a 16GB flash drive)
Credits
I would love to thank Derek Taylor's DistroTube channel in his BlankOn video that inspired me to do watch df above to tell BlankOn installer is progressing. I also would love to express my gratitude to all BlankOn developers for making it greater on Uluwatu. For anybody capable, if you are interested in developing and improving it, see BlankOn installer on GitHub. It's 50% written in JavaScript language right now.
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
This tutorial explains the installation procedures of BlankOn 11 operating system to a 16GB USB stick. This way, it's safer for your data and more portable. To practice this installation, I took off internal Hard Disk of mine and performed installation with only two USB flash drives attached: one acted as installer, one as target. After installation finished, I placed my Hard Disk back to my laptop. To warn you, my installation took so long time about 1 hour and more, longer than average GNU/Linux distros' which is about 15 minutes. While installing, you will need to watch out file size growth as the BlankOn installer --at the moment-- does not show any progress information at all. However, finally it's a success and the USB stick is now powered by BlankOn Uluwatu I can bring anywhere I go. Okay, let's proceed!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
Summary
In short, installing BlankOn is different in several aspects to Ubuntu:
- It cannot be made multiboot either with MultiSystem nor MultiBootUSB. It should be made singleboot with GNOME Disk Utility or such.
- It lacks progress information while installing.
- Its partitioner is reported buggy with somebody had their hard disk wiped out[1]. It's really still in development. This is why I took off my hard disk first before actually doing it.
- Ctrl+Alt+Right: switch workspace to right, to see the desktop.
- Ctrl+Alt+Left: switch workspace to left, to see the installer.
1. Create Bootable Media
Write BlankOn .iso file with GNOME Disk Utility into USB stick. However, I use BlankOn-11.0.1-desktop-amd64.iso as the image for this practice.
2. Booting & Entering the LiveCD
Boot up your computer with the BlankOn USB. Then the black screen with "Hello" and Continue using Live CD" messages appeared with timeline bar on right side of your screen.
(1st: language selector)
3. Entering LiveCD & Yellow Desktop
Do not enter Install BlankOn section first. Instead, click Continue LiveCD button so you see the yellowish BlankOn Uluwatu desktop.
(The yellow wallpaper of Uluwatu)
4. Go Back to the Installer
From the desktop, press Ctrl+Alt+Left, so you see the installer once again. Click Install Blankon button.
(1st: get ready for the installation)
5. Select Timezone
Let's continue. Here, in this example, I simply choose Asia/Jakarta.
(2nd: region selector)
6. Select Target USB
Among CruzerBlade and CruzerGlide I attached, the latter is the target I want to install BlankOn to. So I select CruzerGlide here. If you wonder why, as I said above, I had already removed my hard drive so we only see flash drives here.
(3rd: disk selector)
7. Perform Clean Install
Select Clean Install and then press Next button. This will do your BlankOn system as default setup BlankOn has into your USB stick. Yes, in this tutorial you do not need Advanced Partitioning.
(3rd: clean Install)
8. Determine Username & Password
Create your own username and password for your system. The password here will also be your sudo password.
(4th: personalization step)
9. Read Installation Summary & Proceed
For the last time, BlankOn will present you your choices. Read it carefully and make sure once again you didn't make any mistake. If anything is good, then proceed with Install button.
(5th: information being presented)
10. Progressing
You will see progress bar running on your screen. But as I said above, there is no percentage nor detailed information about what actually happened. So see next step.
(6th: installation begins)
11. See Actual Progress & Wait
Go back to desktop with Ctrl+Alt+Right so you see the yellow screen again. On this screen you can run programs.
- Run a Terminal, and invoke command:
- Run second Terminal, and invoke too:
- Run third Terminal, and invoke for the last:
Keep those 3 Terminals running to see the progress being developed. In particular, watch output of df command there, as it's the actual growing size of the target system. See pictures below.
On my system this process took almost 2 hours. You need to wait it patiently.
(Do not panic: the "STDERR device [...] write-protected" is okay)
(Finished installation takes up to around 38000M in Used column in df output)
Finished
Press Ctrl+Alt+Left again to check the installer. Once successfully installed, BlankOn will say "Installation Finish [sic]" and you can reboot.
(7th: finished statement)
Successful installation will give you a working USB with BlankOn Uluwatu. Happy working! (Default setup will make root partition 14.7GB on a 16GB flash drive)
Credits
I would love to thank Derek Taylor's DistroTube channel in his BlankOn video that inspired me to do watch df above to tell BlankOn installer is progressing. I also would love to express my gratitude to all BlankOn developers for making it greater on Uluwatu. For anybody capable, if you are interested in developing and improving it, see BlankOn installer on GitHub. It's 50% written in JavaScript language right now.
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
GNOME 3.34: Between Fedora Rawhide and openSUSE GNOME:Next
(GNOME:Next LiveCD running Thessaloniki lighter, faster, and more complete)
When I was writing about GNOME 3.34 yesterday, I only tested it on Fedora Rawhide, and I forgot that there is openSUSE special rolling edition. It is called openSUSE GNOME:Next and the ISO Image is available to run it as LiveCD. To date GNOME:Next includes 3.34 already and when I test it now, I'm impressed, I like GNOME 3.34 on openSUSE rather than on Fedora Rawhide! It's already fast on Fedora but it's faster and lighter on openSUSE. More than that, this openSUSE special edition includes built-in more GNOME Apps than Fedora's, like, Boxes, Buider, Fractal, Fragment, and more. It's more GNOMEish than Fedora! Now let's see it.
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
What is GNOME:Next?
When talking about the actual distro, GNOME:Next is simply pre-Tumbleweed openSUSE shipped with latest GNOME built-in. When talking about repository, it is simply a special repository of openSUSE containing latest version of GNOME. We can download ISO Images of GNOME:Next at here.
(Download page of GNOME:Next ISO image)
Regarding Fedora Rawhide, it is the rolling release version of Fedora which includes latest versions of all packages. We can download ISO Images of Rawhide at
What apps included?
Thessaloniki announcement mentioned several GNOME Apps, among them Music, Boxes, Games, Polari, and Sysprof. On Fedora, I must install them manually as they are not built-in. But on openSUSE, they are all built-in already, and plus several more, among them Fragment, News, and Recipes. This made me rethink that perhaps actually, equivalent distro to KDE Neon for GNOME is not Fedora Rawhide, but openSUSE GNOME:Next!
Screenshots of start menu presenting all installed apps:
Towards Tumbleweed and 32-bit!
Like I said above, GNOME:Next is a developmental stage before openSUSE Tumbleweed. For your information, Tumbleweed is the rolling edition of openSUSE, just like Rawhide of Fedora. This means, soon we will see Tumbleweed available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions to bring GNOME 3.34 for us. As a comparison, starting next release, Fedora will not support 32-bit anymore.
(Tumbleweed installers are both 32-bit and 64-bit: we can expect to run GNOME 3.34 on i386!)
It is more interesting this way!
I think Fedora Rawhide is interesting but after seeing I think openSUSE GNOME:Next is more interesting to test Thessaloniki. I like it instantly.
Try it, never regret it!
As an Ubuntu user, for GNOME lovers and seekers I encourage you to test GNOME:Next as soon as possible and I believe you will never regret it. By test I meant just run LiveCD session as it does not have option to install it to your computer. However, it's really great as latest GNOME testbed. Thanks, openSUSE Team!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
When I was writing about GNOME 3.34 yesterday, I only tested it on Fedora Rawhide, and I forgot that there is openSUSE special rolling edition. It is called openSUSE GNOME:Next and the ISO Image is available to run it as LiveCD. To date GNOME:Next includes 3.34 already and when I test it now, I'm impressed, I like GNOME 3.34 on openSUSE rather than on Fedora Rawhide! It's already fast on Fedora but it's faster and lighter on openSUSE. More than that, this openSUSE special edition includes built-in more GNOME Apps than Fedora's, like, Boxes, Buider, Fractal, Fragment, and more. It's more GNOMEish than Fedora! Now let's see it.
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
What is GNOME:Next?
When talking about the actual distro, GNOME:Next is simply pre-Tumbleweed openSUSE shipped with latest GNOME built-in. When talking about repository, it is simply a special repository of openSUSE containing latest version of GNOME. We can download ISO Images of GNOME:Next at here.
(Download page of GNOME:Next ISO image)
Regarding Fedora Rawhide, it is the rolling release version of Fedora which includes latest versions of all packages. We can download ISO Images of Rawhide at
What apps included?
Thessaloniki announcement mentioned several GNOME Apps, among them Music, Boxes, Games, Polari, and Sysprof. On Fedora, I must install them manually as they are not built-in. But on openSUSE, they are all built-in already, and plus several more, among them Fragment, News, and Recipes. This made me rethink that perhaps actually, equivalent distro to KDE Neon for GNOME is not Fedora Rawhide, but openSUSE GNOME:Next!
Screenshots of start menu presenting all installed apps:
Towards Tumbleweed and 32-bit!
Like I said above, GNOME:Next is a developmental stage before openSUSE Tumbleweed. For your information, Tumbleweed is the rolling edition of openSUSE, just like Rawhide of Fedora. This means, soon we will see Tumbleweed available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions to bring GNOME 3.34 for us. As a comparison, starting next release, Fedora will not support 32-bit anymore.
(Tumbleweed installers are both 32-bit and 64-bit: we can expect to run GNOME 3.34 on i386!)
It is more interesting this way!
I think Fedora Rawhide is interesting but after seeing I think openSUSE GNOME:Next is more interesting to test Thessaloniki. I like it instantly.
Try it, never regret it!
As an Ubuntu user, for GNOME lovers and seekers I encourage you to test GNOME:Next as soon as possible and I believe you will never regret it. By test I meant just run LiveCD session as it does not have option to install it to your computer. However, it's really great as latest GNOME testbed. Thanks, openSUSE Team!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Getting GNOME 3.34 on Various GNU/Linux Distros
(Test GNOME Thessaloniki in comfort with openSUSE GNOME:Next)
I like to list out popular GNU/Linux distros that already ship latest desktop environment. For GNOME 3.34 case, currently I found Desktop Live distros that include it built-in to be Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE. You can download them and immediately test GNOME. Other names worth mentioning but I don't present them here are Alpine GNU/Linux, Debian, and Mageia. I write this at 17 September so things might change by day later. By this article, I also want to introduce several special distros like GNOME:Next and a certain awesome community service like Repology for you. Enjoy GNOME 3.34!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
1. Ubuntu Eoan Ermine
Good news for Ubuntu users, we will see next Ubuntu to bring GNOME 3.34. Today, by reading the manifest file, we know that Ubuntu 19.10 being developed is already with 3.34. Note: by Eoan Ermine it means all flavors (K/L/Xubuntu) are also available as latest versions.
2. Fedora Rawhide
When thinking about latest GNOME, up to today I always think about Rawhide, partly because I saw many GNOME developers are also Fedora developers. Indeed, current Rawhide includes GNOME 3.34 already and I made a review based on it.
3. openSUSE GNOME:Next
openSUSE is actually a really huge project, as for both KDE and GNOME, it has its own flavors, namely Krypton and GNOME:Next. While Leap edition kept GNOME in old version, there is GNOME:Next edition that moves forward to latest GNOME, and currently it includes 3.34 built-in.
Worth Mentioning: Debian Experimental
Experimental is not a name of Debian image, instead, it's actually a special repository containing latest software including currently GNOME 3.34. We cannot download any ISO image of it as they do not exist. But we can install Debian Buster GNOME anyway and then upgrade completely using Experimental repository. I placed Debian here instead of other distros, let's say Arch and Gentoo, despite the fact that those others also provide GNOME 3.34, because Debian distinctly provides Desktop Live editions while those others do not.
Do You Know Repology.org?
Imagine you can ask availability for a certain software package, let's say, gnome-shell, in what distros and by what versions without downloading any ISO of distros. Repology.org is an awesome search engine to query packages among hundreds of GNU/Linux distros. This search engine is what I used so I see latest 3.34 is available on Ubuntu, Fedora, and other distros. To test it, try to search gnome-shell package there and see Badges page to see 3.34 availability on various distros today.
(It's easy to tell what distros provides latest gnome-shell: the green ones!)
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
I like to list out popular GNU/Linux distros that already ship latest desktop environment. For GNOME 3.34 case, currently I found Desktop Live distros that include it built-in to be Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE. You can download them and immediately test GNOME. Other names worth mentioning but I don't present them here are Alpine GNU/Linux, Debian, and Mageia. I write this at 17 September so things might change by day later. By this article, I also want to introduce several special distros like GNOME:Next and a certain awesome community service like Repology for you. Enjoy GNOME 3.34!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
1. Ubuntu Eoan Ermine
Good news for Ubuntu users, we will see next Ubuntu to bring GNOME 3.34. Today, by reading the manifest file, we know that Ubuntu 19.10 being developed is already with 3.34. Note: by Eoan Ermine it means all flavors (K/L/Xubuntu) are also available as latest versions.
- Download: eoan-desktop-amd64.iso (1.9GiB)
- Alternative download: iso.qa.ubuntu.com
- Manifest file: eoan.manifest
2. Fedora Rawhide
When thinking about latest GNOME, up to today I always think about Rawhide, partly because I saw many GNOME developers are also Fedora developers. Indeed, current Rawhide includes GNOME 3.34 already and I made a review based on it.
- Download: Fedora-Rawhide.iso (1.9GiB)
- Alternate download: rawhide
- Manifest file: source-directory
3. openSUSE GNOME:Next
openSUSE is actually a really huge project, as for both KDE and GNOME, it has its own flavors, namely Krypton and GNOME:Next. While Leap edition kept GNOME in old version, there is GNOME:Next edition that moves forward to latest GNOME, and currently it includes 3.34 built-in.
- Download: gnome-next.iso (950MiB)
- Manifest file: gnome-next.manifest
Worth Mentioning: Debian Experimental
Experimental is not a name of Debian image, instead, it's actually a special repository containing latest software including currently GNOME 3.34. We cannot download any ISO image of it as they do not exist. But we can install Debian Buster GNOME anyway and then upgrade completely using Experimental repository. I placed Debian here instead of other distros, let's say Arch and Gentoo, despite the fact that those others also provide GNOME 3.34, because Debian distinctly provides Desktop Live editions while those others do not.
- Download: -
- Alternative download: GNOME Live
- Manifest: gnome-shell 3.34
Do You Know Repology.org?
Imagine you can ask availability for a certain software package, let's say, gnome-shell, in what distros and by what versions without downloading any ISO of distros. Repology.org is an awesome search engine to query packages among hundreds of GNU/Linux distros. This search engine is what I used so I see latest 3.34 is available on Ubuntu, Fedora, and other distros. To test it, try to search gnome-shell package there and see Badges page to see 3.34 availability on various distros today.
(It's easy to tell what distros provides latest gnome-shell: the green ones!)
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Internet Speed Indicator for GNOME 3.34
I love to know whether my internet access is being used or not on desktop so I always use speed indicator on my top panel. Usually I use NetSpeed by hedayaty but when reviewing GNOME 3.34, it failed to work, so I tested Simple net speed by bijignome and it worked. It shows both upload and download speed just like NetSpeed. I'm using it now and it's nice. If you don't know how to install it, simply follow this guide. Happy working!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
A Simple Review of GNOME 3.34
(GNOME 3.34: it's now faster and smoother!)
Not too long after KDE Plasma 5.16 released this June, GNOME released its latest stable version 3.34 this Thursday, 12 September 2019. This release codenamed Thessaloniki and named after the Greece city where latest GUADEC conference took place. I tested 3.34 on Fedora since last Friday. This is my short report on my findings over this latest GNOME version. Let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
Links
Its Release Schedule
First, let's see latest GNOME Project's schedule. As you can see at ThirtyPointThree (notice odd number) page, we can see the date planned to release 3.34 (ThirtyPointFour, notice even number) is Thursday 12 September 2019. For your information, the project has unique numbering for GNOME releases, where odd number is used for development (non-stable version) and even number is used for the actual release (stable version). We clearly see here that 3.34 is indeed planned after GUADEC being held.
(Release plan of GNOME 3.34 from its official wiki)
Its Relase Announcement
I love GNOME announcements in their presentation! I like the design, the layout, and how short their words to describe multiple technical stuffs that are hard to describe. The announcement publication for GNOME 3.34 --as always-- divided into 5 sources: mailing list (first place), web announcement (simple), release notes (long), developer notes (long), and video (YouTube, Invidious). See the web announcement and I believe you will like it too.
(Epiphany browser showing Thessaloniki release announcement beautifully)
1. GNOME Thessaloniki
GUADEC 2019, the international GNOME conference, was held in Thessaloniki, Greece from 23 until 28 August. So GNOME 3.34 codenamed after GUADEC team this year, Thessaloniki. There were many, many interesting talks there as we could see here. Watch more than 40 videos of it at Ubicast!
(The cool badge --as always-- of this year's GUADEC conference)(Badge license: Public Domain; badge source: PNG, SVG, more)
(The venue on its official website --via OpenStreetMap, of course--)
All and all, I like the badges. They are gorgeous!
2. New Wallpaper
The new wallpaper is adwaita-day. It looks modern, glossy, translucent for me and I like it. Somehow, it reminds me to Qubes OS's logo.
(A fresh GNOME 3.34 look on Fedora Rawhide)
3. Performance Improvement
Good news for us, it is better now! Try it! I ran 3.34 on Pentium 4GB laptop and it ran smoother and more responsive from LiveUSB. I felt the start menu worked far smoother both in overview and icons modes. See picture below, normally running 8 programs like these would be very heavy on my laptop, with much lagging to switch between programs and to show/hide overview like this. But on 3.34, I don't know why, it's so smooth. I'm glad!
(The system runs Firefox, Kdenlive, Krita, Inkscape, System Settings, and 3 Nautilus)
4. Music
Now, GNOME Music (package name: gnome-music) automatically scans ~/Music directory so whenever we put MP3s there it will instantly read it.
(Music --not to be confused with Rhythmbox-- reads my audio files automatically from my Home directory)
5. Epiphany and Firefox
Now, GNOME Web (package name: epiphany) features Pin Tab. Simply right-click a tab and select Pin Tab to keep it on the browser. Outside of official apps, if we run Mozilla Firefox on GNOME 3.34, its top bar joined with tab bar, you can see the close button is now at same level with tabs line, although originally both are separated. I don't think I'm accustomed to this, though. I tried version 66 (native RPM) and 69 (AppImage) and both run the same.
(GNU and GIMP websites pinned, while GNOME website opened on Epiphany)
(Left: with menubar on; right: without menubar; compare these to Epiphany above)
6. System Settings and My Night Light
It's now located under System Settings > Devices > Displays > Night Light tab. When GNOME included this since 3.24, I was very glad, as I was an active Redshift user (until now) and since then I do not need to install it anymore as my desktop already has that feature built-in.
7. Nautilus File Manager and Sysprof
Now, it reports "Could not paste files" whenever we press Ctrl+V on a protected directory.
(Nautilus 3.34)
On development side, GNOME 3.34 introduces new face of Sysprof (an advanced but user-friendly profiling tool for programmers) to profile performance of applications. It now can measure any application's usage of battery, energy, network, and disk.
(Sysprof main page)
9. AppImages
I believe some of you know that I like AppImage --portable application format for GNU/Linux-- more than Snap than Flatpak. I ran Kdenlive, Krita, and Inkscape from their portable executable files and they look okay on GNOME 3.34. The title bars (header bars in GNOME terminology) in my vision look very huge though, but I think that's okay.
(Running portable apps on GNOME 3.34)
10. My Comments
That's all for now. As always, I love how simple and beautiful GNOME release announcement was. After testing in 3 days, I immediately like this version more than the previous one for the speed improvement and I hope Ubuntu and other distros adopt it soon. Ah, I forgot, regarding Ubuntu, good news for us: next October's Ubuntu Eoan Ermine will feature 3.34! Regarding GNOME, I don't know if this is coincidence or what, but this year's KDE Plasma is faster and smoother and so is GNOME. I think next GNOME 3.36 will be faster and better as well. Finally I would love to say thank you GNOME developers! You all did well in last 6 month.
How do you think about 3.34? Let me know in the comment section!
Donate
You can help develop GNOME by donating to the project. See GNOME Friends page for more information.
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Not too long after KDE Plasma 5.16 released this June, GNOME released its latest stable version 3.34 this Thursday, 12 September 2019. This release codenamed Thessaloniki and named after the Greece city where latest GUADEC conference took place. I tested 3.34 on Fedora since last Friday. This is my short report on my findings over this latest GNOME version. Let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
Links
- Release Announcement
- Release Notes
- Detailed Notes
- Announcement (Mailing List)
- Language Support
- Source Code
- Video
- Donation
Its Release Schedule
First, let's see latest GNOME Project's schedule. As you can see at ThirtyPointThree (notice odd number) page, we can see the date planned to release 3.34 (ThirtyPointFour, notice even number) is Thursday 12 September 2019. For your information, the project has unique numbering for GNOME releases, where odd number is used for development (non-stable version) and even number is used for the actual release (stable version). We clearly see here that 3.34 is indeed planned after GUADEC being held.
(Release plan of GNOME 3.34 from its official wiki)
Its Relase Announcement
I love GNOME announcements in their presentation! I like the design, the layout, and how short their words to describe multiple technical stuffs that are hard to describe. The announcement publication for GNOME 3.34 --as always-- divided into 5 sources: mailing list (first place), web announcement (simple), release notes (long), developer notes (long), and video (YouTube, Invidious). See the web announcement and I believe you will like it too.
(Epiphany browser showing Thessaloniki release announcement beautifully)
1. GNOME Thessaloniki
GUADEC 2019, the international GNOME conference, was held in Thessaloniki, Greece from 23 until 28 August. So GNOME 3.34 codenamed after GUADEC team this year, Thessaloniki. There were many, many interesting talks there as we could see here. Watch more than 40 videos of it at Ubicast!
(The cool badge --as always-- of this year's GUADEC conference)(Badge license: Public Domain; badge source: PNG, SVG, more)
(The venue on its official website --via OpenStreetMap, of course--)
All and all, I like the badges. They are gorgeous!
2. New Wallpaper
The new wallpaper is adwaita-day. It looks modern, glossy, translucent for me and I like it. Somehow, it reminds me to Qubes OS's logo.
(A fresh GNOME 3.34 look on Fedora Rawhide)
3. Performance Improvement
Good news for us, it is better now! Try it! I ran 3.34 on Pentium 4GB laptop and it ran smoother and more responsive from LiveUSB. I felt the start menu worked far smoother both in overview and icons modes. See picture below, normally running 8 programs like these would be very heavy on my laptop, with much lagging to switch between programs and to show/hide overview like this. But on 3.34, I don't know why, it's so smooth. I'm glad!
(The system runs Firefox, Kdenlive, Krita, Inkscape, System Settings, and 3 Nautilus)
4. Music
Now, GNOME Music (package name: gnome-music) automatically scans ~/Music directory so whenever we put MP3s there it will instantly read it.
(Music --not to be confused with Rhythmbox-- reads my audio files automatically from my Home directory)
5. Epiphany and Firefox
Now, GNOME Web (package name: epiphany) features Pin Tab. Simply right-click a tab and select Pin Tab to keep it on the browser. Outside of official apps, if we run Mozilla Firefox on GNOME 3.34, its top bar joined with tab bar, you can see the close button is now at same level with tabs line, although originally both are separated. I don't think I'm accustomed to this, though. I tried version 66 (native RPM) and 69 (AppImage) and both run the same.
(GNU and GIMP websites pinned, while GNOME website opened on Epiphany)
(Left: with menubar on; right: without menubar; compare these to Epiphany above)
6. System Settings and My Night Light
It's now located under System Settings > Devices > Displays > Night Light tab. When GNOME included this since 3.24, I was very glad, as I was an active Redshift user (until now) and since then I do not need to install it anymore as my desktop already has that feature built-in.
7. Nautilus File Manager and Sysprof
Now, it reports "Could not paste files" whenever we press Ctrl+V on a protected directory.
(Nautilus 3.34)
On development side, GNOME 3.34 introduces new face of Sysprof (an advanced but user-friendly profiling tool for programmers) to profile performance of applications. It now can measure any application's usage of battery, energy, network, and disk.
(Sysprof main page)
9. AppImages
I believe some of you know that I like AppImage --portable application format for GNU/Linux-- more than Snap than Flatpak. I ran Kdenlive, Krita, and Inkscape from their portable executable files and they look okay on GNOME 3.34. The title bars (header bars in GNOME terminology) in my vision look very huge though, but I think that's okay.
(Running portable apps on GNOME 3.34)
10. My Comments
That's all for now. As always, I love how simple and beautiful GNOME release announcement was. After testing in 3 days, I immediately like this version more than the previous one for the speed improvement and I hope Ubuntu and other distros adopt it soon. Ah, I forgot, regarding Ubuntu, good news for us: next October's Ubuntu Eoan Ermine will feature 3.34! Regarding GNOME, I don't know if this is coincidence or what, but this year's KDE Plasma is faster and smoother and so is GNOME. I think next GNOME 3.36 will be faster and better as well. Finally I would love to say thank you GNOME developers! You all did well in last 6 month.
How do you think about 3.34? Let me know in the comment section!
Donate
You can help develop GNOME by donating to the project. See GNOME Friends page for more information.
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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CentOS 8.0-1905
CentOS is a community-run project which builds its distribution from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The project's goal is to provide a binary compatible, nearly identical experience to Enterprise Linux, but without the commercial support provided by Red Hat. This makes CentOS an attractive option for people who want to have a distribution with long-term support and the same technology Red Hat provides, but feel they do not need vendor support. I reviewed Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8), briefly covering the distribution's installer, software and settings management, several of its Workstation features, and a few of its server technologies, such as Cockpit. I ran into several issues during that experience - some of them relating to documentation, some dealing with permission problems, some due to missing applications in the official repositories - and I was curious to see if CentOS would provide the same experience, problems and all. One could assume so given CentOS uses the same source code, but CentOS has its own website and repositories so I thought it would be worth giving it a test run and seeing what differences, if any, I could spot. In particular, I planned to focus on the strengths and weaknesses I observed in the conclusion of my RHEL 8 review.
Before I get to my experiences with CentOS 8.0.1905, I feel it is worth mentioning that CentOS is now available in two branches: CentOS Linux, the traditional, fixed release operating system based on RHEL; and CentOS Stream. The new Stream branch is described as a rolling release platform which will fit in somewhere between Fedora and RHEL. The idea appears to be that software and concepts will get their initial testing in Fedora. Then Red Hat will fork a version of Fedora to be the basis of a future RHEL release. Changes and improvements that would normally be made internally within Red Hat prior to the next RHEL will become available for the public to try and comment on in CentOS Stream. Ideally, the plan here seems to be that this will give a larger portion of the community a chance to try new ideas and report issues, giving Red Hat more feedback and a chance to polish their commercial offering.
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