This tutorial explains how someone can setup C++ language and Qt Software Development Kit on Ubuntu 21.10 for doing software development that is world-class, full-featured, complete and crossplatform under free software licenses. For your information, Qt is the material that built professional computing software like Kubuntu, KDE and Telegram. With this tutorial you will get a full set of tools ready to use consisted of an advanced IDE Qt Creator, a GUI editor Qt Designer, a lot of code examples Qt Examples, an internationalization tool Qt Linguist and a documentation viewer Qt Assistant aside from the compiler G++ and the build tool QMake. Let's start!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.The GoalWe want to install full Qt Software Development Kit that consists of a working set of Qt Creator, Qt Designer, and Qt Linguist as well as its full set of excellent code examples to produce applications with C++ programming language.

Installing Compiler
First, we install the C++ compiler that is GNU G++.
$ sudo apt-get install g++

 

Installing SDK
Second, we install necessary software packages that constitute a full Qt SDK.
$ sudo apt-get install qtbase5-dev qtcreator qtbase5-examples qtbase5-doc-html

Note: in Ubuntu Impish, there is no qt5-default package anymore unlike in the previous versions like Focal and Bionic thus here we change it with qtbase5-dev package instead.

The Result

Once installed properly with command lines above, you will have a working Qt Creator, the integrated development environment, with all examples fully available and its feature called 'Desktop Kits' ready to use. Qt Designer, Qt Linguist, and Qt Assistant should also be working for you.

Happy hacking!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This tutorial will explain step by step to install Parabola computer operating system with GNOME Desktop to a virtual machine. Let's practice!

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About Parabola

Parabola is a Latin American computer operating system and a GNU/Linux distribution that is completely free software, continuously evolving new software versions aka rolling release and is based on another very popular and powerful GNU system called Arch Linux.  Among the choices of completely free OSes, Parabola is the only one that offers the most number of packages and the most up to date on software versions. Its official website is located at https://parabola.nu.

Advantages of Parabola:

• Available for 32-bit and 64-bit computers.
• Can run on computer as old as Intel Pentium / AMD Athlon with 500MB memory.
• Lightweight and fast by default.
  
• Latest software packages' versions everyday. This is the real difference to Ubuntu.
  
• Tens of thousands free software packages for all human computing purposes including office suites, utilities, multimedia tools, education and software development applications and games.
• For example, these mean one can empower and revive his old computer, as old as possible, with latest software packages, as new as possible, and without trampling his full control away from his own computing.
• Respects your freedom, security and privacy unlike Windows and MacOS.

 

For Whom This Tutorial Is

This tutorial is based on Parabola's official installation guide. Thus, this is for computer users in general and Ubuntu users in particular who are already accustomed to GNU/Linux command lines and directory structure. You can practice this tutorial on AQEMU mainly, and if you don't use it, you can alternatively use another virtual machine like VirtualBox or Xen or Virtual Machine Manager.

If you are not accustomed to command lines, please do not practice this to your computer but instead first learn, practice and exercise a lot with command lines. You can start off by reading our Beginner's Guide. 

Basic KnowledgeWe will install Parabola with the following configuration:

• Computer: a virtual machine made by AQEMU 
• ISO: parabola-2021.08.11-dual.iso (systemd, not OpenRC)
• CPU: 2 cores
• RAM: 1500 MB
  
• Network: automatically provided by AQEMU (gns3)
  
• Booting mode: BIOS Legacy
  
• Partition table: msdos (aka MBR)
  
• Hard disk: /dev/sda
  
• Filesystem type: ext4 
• Root filesystem: /dev/sda1
  
• Disk size: 20 GB
• Kernel: linux-libre-lts
  
• Swap partition: -
• EFI partition: -
  
• Hostname: master
  
• Administrator user name: root
• Administrator password: master
• Normal user name: master
• Normal user password: master
• Init: systemd
  
• Desktop: GNOME 41
• Display server: Wayland
• Display manager: GDM

 

How To Play

Because we will install an OS inside a VM using AQEMU, you should prepare yourself to these things:

• TAB key, to automatically complete a command, a name, or an email address.
  
• View > Display Scaling ON, to view whole screen without scrollbars if you enabled single-window mode. 
  
• View Reinit VNC, when the screen is not responding, do this.
  
• Send Keys > Clipboard, when you need to copy and paste a command line from the host's web browser into the guest's terminal.
  
• Send Keys > Ctrl+Alt+F1/2/3/4/5/6/7, when you need to switch between seven terminals.
  

 

Booting

1. Run AQEMU virtual machine program. 

2. Start your Parabola virtual machine in it. 

3. Select the first option on the boot screen when you see a tiger cartoon.

4. Parabola black screen will show by a welcome message and a command line shell.

5. You are ready to continue next step.

Step 1. Preparations

After successfully booted into Parabola's black and white welcome screen, we will do these preparations all done by typing a command and pressing Enter multiple times as the following.

Your first command is to initialize Parabola's keyring:

# pacman-key --init

Then refresh Parabola's repository data:

# pacman -Syy

Then install Parabola's necessary keyrings:

# pacman -S archlinux-keyring parabola-keyring

Then populate the keyrings:

# pacman-key --populate archlinux parabola

To this point, you are ready to continue next step. 

Step 2. Disk Setup and Mount

After finishing preparation step, now we will format the hard disk, not your physical but the virtual one inside AQEMU, as the storage for Parabola system as following. You should be accustomed already to fdisk command before doing this. 

First, format the hard disk using fdisk by doing (1) write msdos partition table to it (2) create a partition (3) give boot flag to that partition (4) write changes to disk (5) quit fdisk command.

# fdisk /dev/sda

Then format the partition, not the hard disk, as EXT4 Journaling Filesystem.

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

Then mount the newly created partition into the necessary folder.

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

To this point, you are ready to continue next step. 

Step 3. Configure System Externally

The genius of GNU/Linux technology is its system installation: it is actually just a folder that is connected to a disk partition, then via the live system we put necessary software packages that constitute an operating system inside the folder, then we configure this folder to become a functional operating system from the outside and inside, finally we leave that folder, resulting in an installed computer operating system stored in the disk. This is more or less what people call bootstrapping in computing and the tools we use to do bootstrapping are pacstrap from the outside and arch-chroot from the inside. This step requires internet access.

First, install the minimum system into the folder. Please note that we use systemd so we use 'base' only without additional packages.

# pacstrap /mnt base

Then, optionally we install additional systemd-based base into the folder.

# pacstrap /mnt parabola-base

Then, we install Parabola's kernel that is linux-libre-lts. We do not need to install any other kernel.

# pacstrap /mnt linux-libre-lts

Then, we install Network Manager. It is necessary for Parabola to connect to the internet. 

# pacstrap /mnt networkmanager

Then, we install GRUB bootloader. It is necessary for Parabola to boot up.

# pacstrap /mnt grub

Then, optionally we install wpa_supplicant. It is necessary for Parabola if installed to a laptop with wifi.

# pacstrap /mnt wpa_supplicant dialog

To this point, you are ready to continue next step.

Step 4. Configure System Internally

After finished configuring Parabola externally, now we will configure Parabola internally as the following.

First, generate filesystem table file. It is necessary so that Parabola can recognize your hard disk partitions. 

# genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Then, we enter the inactive, not-yet-installed Parabola system.

# arch-chroot /mnt

Then, we setup Parabola's hostname.

# nano /etc/hosts
----------------------------------------------------------------------
127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost
127.0.1.1 master.localdomain master

Then, we setup the same for the second necessary place. This is necessary because we use systemd and not OpenRC.

# nano /etc/conf.d/hostname
----------------------------------------------------------------------
master

Then, we setup a timezone. Change Asia/Jakarta with yours e.g. Asia/Tokyo

# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Jakarta /etc/localtime

Then, we generate a necessary system file called initramfs that accompanies the kernel and bootloader otherwise your Parabola system will not boot.

# mkinitcpio -p linux-libre-lts

Then, we install GRUB bootloader to your virtual hard disk.

# grub-install /dev/sda

Then, we generate configuration file of the GRUB bootloader based on commands above.

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Then, we create password for su command or root username that will be used later.

# passwd

Then, we create a normal user by username:master and password:master.

# useradd -a -m master
# passwd master

Then, we add the normal user to system's groups like wheel, root, audio, video and network.

# gpasswd -a master wheel
# gpasswd -a master root
# gpasswd -a master audio
# gpasswd -a master video
# gpasswd -a master network

Then, once again we install Parabola's keyrings. Please remember that this does not install the keyrings into the live system, but the system being installed we are currently in. 

# pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring parabola-keyring

Finally, full upgrade Parabola.

# pacman -Syu

To this point, you finished all the required bootstrapping processes. You are ready to continue next step. 

 

Step 5. Finish System Installation and Restart

After finished the bootstrapping processes, now we finish the system being installed to be ready to use.

First, we exit from the folder we were in and back to live system. Please notice the red shell of the Parabola live system as the sign thet you have successfully exited.

# exit

Then, we unmount (disconnect) the folder from your virtual hard disk.

# umount /mnt

Finally, we restart the virtual machine.

# reboot

To this point, you finished the whole Parabola installation. You are ready to add GNOME Desktop Environment next step. 

Step 6. Post-install and Setup GNOME Desktop

To this point, you have a ready to use Parabola system. You can already use it non-graphically by using command lines, for example, installing some programs, playing audio and web browsing in text mode. However, as you can see it is still "barebone" or without usable desktop environment. To have Parabola Desktop, we should install a desktop, and we choose GNOME here to respect The GNU Project's history.  

Check your network interfaces:

# ip link

Enable your network interface:

# ip link set gns3 up

Give working IP address and DNS to your enabled network interface:

# dhcpcd gns3

Test your internet access:

# ping -c 3 gnu.org && ping -c 3 parabola.nu && ping -c 3 gnome.org

Start keyring initialization once again:

# pacman-key --init

Refresh Parabola's repository data once again: 

# pacman -Syy

Install Parabola's necessary keyrings:

# pacman -S archlinux-keyring parabola-keyring

Populate Parabola's keyrings:

# pacman-key --populate archlinux parabola

Install complete GNOME Desktop Environment:

# pacman -S gnome

Start gdm login screen to login to GNOME. Please notice systemctl is part of systemd.

# systemctl start gdm

Finally, login to Parabola Desktop with username:master and password:master then you should see your computer ready to use with Parabola GNOME Desktop System.

Congratulations!

Final Result

Below is Parabola GNOME Edition. 

Troubleshooting

If you encounter errors in general and GPG keys in particular, please refer to the three online documentations namely 

Parabola Installation

Parabola Keyring

Pacman Troubleshooting

 

Acknowledgement

Bill Auger and Denis Carikli, both are Parabola developers, from #parabola chatroom at Libera Chat helped me greatly and so patiently installing Parabola after one week of failure. We say thank you to Parabola community in general and both developers in particular.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This tutorial explains how to install Microsoft Windows applications on Trisquel operating sistem. This workaround uses a popular program called Wine, that is, a technology that allows GNU/Linux system to run a lot of W32 executable programs. With Wine, we technically can run both categories, libre software and proprietary software, however in this tutorial we only give examples using libre software. We will install and run W32 version of Gimp, Inkscape, and Super Tux Kart. Enjoy!

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Basic Knowledge

• By "Windows programs" here we mean computer software in binary executable form created to run on Microsoft Windows.
  
• Basically a lot of (if not all) Windows programs can run with Wine on GNU/Linux system, except for some which are new or have specific issues.
• To run an EXE program, click to run with Wine, then it runs. 
• To run an MSI installer, we cannot click to run it, but instead use a command line.

 

Advantages

Excluding purely proprietary software purposes, there are many benefits of running Windows programs with Wine as the following:

• Help you develop a version of free software for Windows users without having Windows, if you are a developer.
• Help you test a version of free software, if you are a software tester or community contributor. 
• Help you run a free software that is not available for GNU/Linux (yet), if you need to do so.
• Help you educate others to explain the importance and benefits of free software over proprietary software, if you are a teacher.
  
• Help you run an older version of software whose the developer has gone or passed away, if you are an organization.
• Run Windows programs without buying Windows or accepting its license or suffering its viruses.
  

Step 1. Install Wine

Run the following command line in your Terminal:

$ sudo apt-get install wine-stable

Step 2. Run EXE Program with WINE

1. Find the location where you store Windows installers or program files. 

2. Right-click an EXE file. 

3. Open with Wine Windows Loader.

4. The program runs. Continue to next step.

If you don't find the open with option, select Open With Other Application > Open With dialog will open > click Use custom command > type 'wine' without quotes in the text box > Open > the program runs.

Step 3. Run MSI Program with WINE

1. Locate where you store MSI program files.

2. Open Terminal with the address in that location.

3. Run the following command line by changing [file.msi] to the actual file name like, for example, inkscape-1.2.3.msi or scilab-3.2.1.msi.

$ wine msiexec /i [file.msi]

4. Program installer runs. 

5. Finish the program installation. Continue to next section.

Step 4. Run Installed Program

Open start menu > Wine > Programs > click one program > the program runs.  

 

Step 5. Cleanup and Uninstallation

Do this step only if you need to do so. 

1. Visit your desktop by minimizing all active windows. 

2. You might see many unnecessary files you might not want. 

3. Select unnecessary files, for example, those with .lnk filename extension.

4. Delete.

5. To uninstall a program, go to start menu > Wine > Programs > click "Uninstall this program" or "Remove this program" or similar things > finish the uninstallation process > you uninstalled that program.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This tutorial explains step by step how to install Guix Operating System with GNOME desktop on a virtual machine. We will use the user friendly AQEMU, thus you can exercise this too with another tools if you want. This tutorial can be viewed as a beginner's guide for you who want to try out computing with Guix. By this, we hope you find installing Guix Desktop is reasonably easier compared to any other source code based operating systems. Welcome to GNU system!

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See also Let's Try Guix.

Where To Download Guix

Guix System can be downloaded at the official website https://guix.gnu.org/en/download by choosing one of GNU Guix System installers available, either the x86_64 or the i686 edition (64-bit and 32-bit PC choices, respectively). Once downloaded, you will have a file with the name more or less looks like guix-system-install-1.3.0.x86_64-linux.iso. 

What Versions are Available

Guix System is not available in multiple desktop editions so there is no Guix GNOME or Guix KDE and no LiveCD version. Instead, Guix System is available as an online installer that requires internet access to work with choices to download GNOME or Xfce at the installation time and resulting in a ready to use desktop system.

Create a New Virtual Machine

To install Guix GNOME on a virtual machine, we create one with following specifications. We use AQEMU Virtual Machine (visit our beginner's guide if you are a newcomer) to do this.

• 64-bit PC
• 2 GigaByte memory
• 20 GigaByte hard disk
• Networking enabled
• Default graphics option
  
• BIOS Legacy booting mode

(AQEMU displaying the virtual machine configuration for Guix System)

Insert Guix System Image File

After making the virtual machine, then we insert the operating system file to it. To do so, on the unstarted Guix vm, click Media, click Add CD/DVD ROM, select the guix-system-*.iso file, image file inserted. Continue to next section.

(ISO image preparation on the virtual machine)

Boot Up Guix

After inserting the image file, then we boot up the virtual computer to run Guix System installer. To do so, click the Guix vm, click menubar VM, click Start, a display port will open acting as a monitor, Guix System installer will be displayed, you are ready to install Guix System. Continue to next section.

(Guix System when booting into its installer)

How To Play

Guix installer does not allow mouse click interactions. Thus, to navigate the system installer, press TAB and Shift+TAB to jump from one choice to another one and back, press SPACE to give check mark, and press ENTER to select an option.

Step 1. User Identity

• Select language
• Select territory
• Select installation type 
• Select a timezone
• Select a keyboard layout
• Name your computer 

1. Locale language: choose English and continue. 

2. Locale location: select United States and continue. 

3. GNU Guix install: select Graphical install... option and continue. 

4. Timezone: select a timezone e.g. Asia/Jakarta. 

5. Keyboard layout: select English (US). 

6. Hostname: type a name for your Guix computer e.g. we name ours 'master'. Continue to next step.

(Locale language)

Step 2. System Setup

• Substitute server discovery
  
• Create administrator account
• Create user account
  
• Select a desktop environment
  
• Enable network

1. Substitute server discovery: select Enable and continue. 

2.  System administrator password: create a password for root user. 

3. User creation: create a username for yourself and a password.

4. Desktop environment: give check mark to GNOME among the options.

5. Network service: select Mozilla NSS Certification and continue next step.

(Subsitute server discovery)

(System administrator password)

 (User creation)

(Desktop environment)

(Network service)

 

Step 3. Partitioning, Processing and Finishing

• Start Guided partitioning 
• Select disk
• Select partitioning scheme
  
• Create required partitions
• Review the summary in form of code
• Start the actual installation
• Wait the process to finish

1. Partitioning method: select Guided - using the entire disk. 

2. Disk: select the virtual machine's hard disk. In this example, we select ATA QEMU HARD DISK (20GB).

3. Partition scheme: select Everything is one partition. 

4. Guided partitioning: the installer will display a proposal of disk partitions that will be formatted. Accept it by selecting OK. Continue. 

5. Format disk?: accept this by selecting OK. 

6. Preparing partitions: please wait for the disk formatting process is taking place. 

7. Configuration file: the installation plan will be displayed in form of code written in a language called Scheme. Accept this by selecting OK.

8. Waiting: the actual installation process will take place. When this process takes place, do not disable your internet access and do not shutdown the virtual machine. Please wait for several minutes until you see a final message saying "Please ENTER to continue".

(Partitioning method)

(Guided partitioning)

(Configuration file)

(The actual installation process)

Restart and LoginOnce finished, the installer will ask you to Reboot then press Enter and you should be able to see Guix login screen like below.

(Guix System login screen)
 

Final ResultOnce you finished the whole installation process, you will see, in your virtual machine, your desktop running after seeing the welcome message saying "This is the GNU system". As you can see, we successfully install Guix System and can run many computer programs like LibreOffice and Telegram Desktop natively on it. This is Guix Desktop System, the GNU operating system with the GNU desktop, GNOME, for your computer. Congratulations!

(AQEMU window showing Guix GNOME running)


This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Slitaz GNU/Linux is an Swiss computer operating system that is user-friendly, super lightweight and very fast to install, with a spider logo, for both desktop and server. It can run on a quarter of a GB memory. Its installation image is only fifty megabytes, full desktop included, with LiveCD capability. We overview Slitaz in this article with short highlights on where you can get it, available versions and how its desktops and applications are. Happy discovering!

 About Slitaz

Slitaz is a computer operating system originated from Switzerland and is a GNU/Linux distribution. It empowers both desktop and server and both i386 and x86_64 kinds of computers. It is a rare distro that collects three special advantages together, that is, being actively developed, very small, and full-featured (easy to use included). Slitaz offers 5000 software packages on its official repository and is installable through its own package manager called Tazpkg.

Features and Advantages

• Slitaz is Free Libre Open Source Software. 
• Supports three architectures, i386, x86_64 and ARM.
  
• Fast booting, fast performance, very fast system installation.
• Lightweight.
  
• Small and full featured.
• Automatic hardware detection.
• Independent, it is a combination of GNU and Linux by itself, has its own package manager named Tazpkg and own package format .tazpkg, not a derivative of Debian or other distribution.
  
• Features LiveCD as well as installer.
• Offers more than 5000 software packages for general computing purposes, like any other GNU/Linux, including office suites, utilities, programming and multimedia tools, and games.
  
• Reasonably easier to use compared to another super lightweight desktop systems like TinyCore and Puppy.
• Can be used for file rescue, data recovery, and disk forensic purposes.
  

 

Where to get Slitaz

Visit https://www.slitaz.org to freely download Slitaz. For 32-bit computer, select slitaz-rolling.iso and for 64-bit computer select slitaz-rolling-core64.iso.  

Available Versions and Editions

Currently, Slitaz released a new version every week without version numbers -- a method of release also known as rolling release. Its latest version at the moment we write this article is by 14 November 2021 or very up to date.

Installation Process

Uniquely, Slitaz has its own system installer and it is web browser based and it is very crazy fast. We should know that Slitaz is just 50MB small (or forty times smaller than Ubuntu) so it is not strange the installation process could be so fast. No other GNU/Linux has such installer.

Desktop Environment

Slitaz offers LXDE as its default desktop environment and PCManFM as its file manager and Faenza as its icon theme. It works very fast from since login time, faster than Lubuntu. However, it offers drop shadow effects by right-click context menu on desktop.

Applications Included

By default, Slitaz includes a set of applications from the Accessories to the System Tools categories for basic computing purposes like file exploring and web browsing. Some apps are, among the others, Midori (web browser), Leafpad (text editor), Slitaz Installer, MtPaint (drawing), and GColor (color selector).

Applications Available in the Repository

Additionally, the user may install more applications available in the repository. Please be aware that on our Slitaz 5 Rolling Release system, many of popular names will not work after installation. To search through these five hundreds packages, Slitaz offers an online search engine at https://pkgs.slitaz.org. Several names we can tell at the moment are, among the others, Abiword, Frozen Bubble, Gimp, LibreOffice (via a metapackage), Inkscape, Scribus, GCC, QEMU, and SMPlayer, Wireshark and Xarchiver. Please note that just like any other non-FSDG distro, Slitaz also provide proprietary software and among the others are Vivaldi (via a metapackage).

To install packages, Slitaz has its own package manager called Tazpkg. The interesting difference to Ubuntu's APT is that Tazpkg can do multiple installation processes simultaneously while APT cannot. A summary of several most used commands compared to Ubuntu:

Refresh repository database:

• apt-get update
• tazpkg recharge

Search for packages:

• apt-cache search [keyword]
• tazpkg search [keyword]

Install a package:

• apt-get install [package_name]
• tazpkg -gi [package_name]

Daily Uses

We can use Slitaz to do normal life like file exploring, web browsing, email reading, and play some games with the default applications.  

However, available applications as mentioned are limited for now, in number and in version and in ability to run, as there are many outdated applications (even though Slitaz is now rolling release) will not work after installation. Unfortunately, we report here that these apps not working on our system namely AssaultCube, Emacs, Firefox, MPV, SMPlayer (running but not playing any video), VLC, Warzone 2100 and Zoneminder.

 

System Settings

Slitaz includes its own control panel called Tazpanel. It is actually the Slitaz's own web browser that acts as a user interface to the web-based system settings. It is able to show system info, configure our network and boot, and even package management.

Ability to Run Microsoft Windows Programs

Yes, Slitaz is able to run and install executable programs made for Windows via the program called Wine. This includes both normal applications and games. Below is Flare, an adventure game licensed under GPL3 for Windows ran on Slitaz.

IssuesIn our discovery, Slitaz system had these issues:

• Number of packages is still far smaller than Debian's and Ubuntu's, which are tens of thousands, so any Slitaz user may experience missing packages.
• Missing many packages which are normally available on other distros.
  
• Failed to run many available programs.
  
• Too old versions for many programs.
  
• No built-in archive manager like File Roller or Ark, so extracting from file manager is not easy by default.
  
• It does not provide two most full-featured desktops, KDE and GNOME.
• It also does not have external repositories (unlike Ubuntu with PPA, Arch with AUR) although it does support manually creating custom packages.
  
• Its 64-bit version also failed to run many 64-bit AppImages.

 

Summary

Slitaz in general is a very good and full-of-potentials operating system for old desktop computers especially the 32-bit ones when today there is no modern operating system for such particular purposes. It is simple, yet hacky, customizable by its own style through the Tazpkg and its scripting ("Cooking") technology. It is truly lightweight, small and empowering real machines but please note as mentioned above it is reasonably limited or is more suitable if you indeed wanted a limited environment e.g. making a learning playground for children or simply reusing your aging boxes.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Do you have an old desktop PC or laptop? We have happy news to you. You can reuse it, rather than throw it away or leaving it unused. To revive your computer, install a GNU/Linux operating system that supports old computers and is actively supported. This will give your old computer a fresh life once again, for general purpose, as well as for specific purpose like multimedia creativity and programming. You can receive latest software and security updates by using one of them on your old machine. Finally, we compile these choices in alphabetical order from antiX to Zorin OS that still support up to 15 years old computers a.k.a. 32-bit PCs with tens of thousands latest software packages. Happy computing!

 (Trisquel Mini, a good operating system for old PCs,
displayed in low resolution)

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Why Not Using Windows or MacOS?

Modern Windows operating system versions like 8, 10 and 11 are heavy and requiring reasonably new and expensive hardware and slowly forcing end-users to leave behind their old computers or even throw them away. Likewise, MacOS even cannot be used unless on its own hardware brand, the Apple Macintosh. Please note as well that in the Free Software Foundation had already warned us of their serious non-repairable security issues with both proprietary software OSes. Why not using them? Because now it is practically impossible. However, it is possible and very good to use the best alternative according to our Free Software Community, the GNU/Linux operating system to revive and breathe new life to your old computers.

Old ComputersWhat is an old computer? It is a desktop PC or laptop that is considered old, or slow, or not capable enough by today's norms and you can identify yours if it is one of these examples. It is often also called as i386, i686, or x86.

• Intel Pentium desktop.
  
• Intel Atom netbooks.
• AMD Athlon PCs and laptops.
• Old models of Acer, ASUS, Lenovo, and TOSHIBA desktops and laptops. 
• PCs with BIOS Legacy and under 4GB memory.
  

OS Choices

The simplest way to explain what you need to do is you should find a low-resource, lightweight free software desktop system with either LXDE or Xfce that is still supporting i386 and actively developed. For that reason, there are several OS choices suitable for old PC revival:

• antiX
  
• AV
• Bunsenlabs
  
• Debian
• Devuan
  
• Fedora Spin LXDE
• Lubuntu
• LXLE
• MX
  
• Sparky
  
• Trisquel Mini
  
• Zorin OS Lite

 

antiX

antiX is a lightweight full-featured operating system based on Debian. Specifically, antiX is systemd-free similar to Devuan and Hyperbola and is promised to run on a 32-bit 256MB system old computer. Its latest version is 21 codenamed Grup Yorum based on Debian Bullseye released this year. Download antiX at https://antixlinux.com/download.

AV GNU/Linux

Audio Video GNU/Linux, that is the long name, an operating system specialized for multimedia creativity and production. In other words, AV is an alternative to Ubuntu Studio with the core difference its latest version still supports both 32 and 64 bit computers. Download AV at https://www.bandshed.net/avlinux.

 

Bunsenlabs

Bunsenlabs, formerly Crunchbang, is a lightweight, fast and customizable operating system. It supports both 32 and 64 bit kinds of computer. Its latest version is called Lithium released in 2020 and based on Debian Buster. Download Bunsenlabs at bunsenlabs.org/installation.html.

Debian

The universal free software operating system from the United States that leads the whole GNU/Linux world. Its latest version as well as tens of thousands of its software packages are available for both 32 and 64 bit computers. Its latest version today is 11 codenamed Bullseye. Download Debian at https://www.debian.org/CD.

Devuan

Devuan is another full-featured, Netherland origin, universal operating system derived from Debian. The key difference is that Devuan is completely free from a component called systemd. It supports both 32 and 64 bit architectures and uses Xfce as its default desktop environment by its full edition. Its latest version is 4.0 codenamed Chimaera. Download Devuan at https://www.devuan.org/get-devuan.

Fedora Spin LXDE (64-bit) 

Fedora is the Hawaii origin, leading edge operating system in the world of GNU/Linux and is the basis of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.  It has an LXDE edition, namely Fedora Spin LXDE, that is suitable for older computers, however it does not 32-bit, and is an exception in this list as you can still use it on an old 64-bit computers anyway. Its latest version today is 35. Download Spin LXDE at https://spins.fedoraproject.org/en/lxde.

Lubuntu 18.04 LTS

Lubuntu Bionic Beaver or version 18.04 LTS is still available and supported today available for both 32 and 64 bit. Lubuntu Bionic can be downloaded at cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/18.04/release/.

LXLE 

LXLE is a full-featured GNU/Linux operating system specialized for aging computers. It is available for both 32 and 64 bit architectures. Its latest version is 18.04.3 that is based on Ubuntu Bionic Beaver released 2019. LXLE can be downloaded at https://lxle.net. 

MX

MX is a fast, lightweight and desktop-oriented operating system based on Debian GNU/linux and is a relative to antiX. Today, MX is the number one ranked by Distrowatch.com. The difference is that MX offers KDE, Xfce and Fluxbox desktop environments. Download MX at https://mxlinux.org/download-links.

 

Sparky GNU/Linux

Sparky is a fast and lightweight operating system based on Debian and is available for both 32 and 64 bit computers with several choices of desktop environment.  It offers two editions namely stable and rolling release. Latest version is released this year that is version 6.1 codenamed Po Tolo. Download Sparky at https://sparkylinux.org/download.

 

Trisquel Mini

The completely free software operating system Trisquel with LXDE desktop is called Trisquel Mini. It is available for both 64 and 32 bit computers along with tens of thousands applications for general purposes offered on its repository. Its latest version today is 9 "Etiona". Download Trisquel Mini at https://trisquel.info/en/download.

Zorin OS Lite Edition

Zorin OS is an Ireland, European desktop operating system geared to become an alternative to Windows and macOS with a Lite Edition among its official editions. This edition is specialized to empower up to 15 years old computers with tens of thousands software packages for both 32 and 64 bit architectures. Download OS Lite Edition 15.3 https://zorin.com/os/download.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This tutorial explains step by step to upgrade an Ubuntu desktop from version 21.04 Hirsute Hippo to 21.10 Impish Indri with command lines. You will need to prepare a good internet access, enough disk space, and some patience to work with it. Good luck!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.Requirements

• Ubuntu 21.04 Hirsute Hippo installed.
  
• Internet access that is fast and reliable (unlimited one is the best).
• Free time, as it could take more than one hour.
• Enough free disk space, please give at least 5GB free.
  

(Ubuntu 21.04 Hirsute Hippo before upgrading)

Step 1. Reload

Firstly, do the Reload command line below. 

$ sudo apt-get update

This command introduces your Ubuntu Hirsute to its latest updates from its repository. This does not install nor upgrade any new program.

(The update command)

Step 2. Upgrade Current Version to Its Latest

Second step is to upgrade 21.04 to its fullest. This does not upgrade your system to Impish Indri version yet.

1. Do the Upgrade command line.

This command takes about 400MB on a fresh Hirsute Hippo and should be bigger on a used system. This may takes time up to 1 hour.

$ sudo apt-get upgrade --yes (The upgrade command)

2. Do the Dist-Upgrade command line.

Once upgrade succeeded, do the dist-upgrade below. This command takes about 200MB on a fresh Hirsute and should be bigger too on a used system. 

$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade --yes

(The dist-upgrade command)

Step 3. Restart

Reboot your Ubuntu computer and continue the next step.

Step 4. Upgrade System to New Version

After rebooting, now you do several final steps to finish the upgrade.

1. Do the Do Release Upgrade[1] command line.

2. Accept with yes (first time).

3. Accept with yes (second time).

4. Accept with yes (third time).

5. Accept with yes (last time).

6. Restart. 

Command line:

$ sudo do-release-upgrade 

This process takes up biggest download as well as disk space on a fresh system, that is, a 1GB, and should be more on a used system. As a consequence, this may takes up longest time too.

The Result

Once restarted, Ubuntu system should now be 21.10 Impish Indri. Congratulations!

(Ubuntu 21.10 Impish Indri after upgrading)

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Do you work with multiple Ubuntu computers? You might want to unify or sync all your browsers' bookmarks into one, when you bookmarked something in one, all other browsers got the same and vice versa. You can do that freely and safely with XBrowserSync, a Firefox addon, with a secure service behind. To use XBrowserSync, follow the procedures below. 

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About XBrowserSync

XBrowserSync is a free software Firefox web browser addon, licensed under GNU GPL, as well as a bookmark synchronization service. It is available for Firefox and Chrome. Its official website is located at https://www.xbrowsersync.org.

Similar Solutions

XBrowserSync is an alternative or a replacement to following bookmark sync choices:

• Firefox Sync (MPL)
  
• EverSync (proprietary)
  
• Xmarks (proprietary)
  
• iCloud Bookmark (proprietary)
  

Step 1. Add XbrowserSync

Visit https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/xbs and Add the addon to Firefox. Once added, there will be a blue cross (X) sign on your toolbar.

Step 2. Create Account and Login

XBrowserSync is a little bit different in account creation. In the beginning, you will be asked to create a password → repeat password → accept the server → account created with a random ID given by XBrowserSync not you → take a note of the pair of ID and password.

Step 3. Setup Other Browsers

Do the step 1 and 2 on the other browsers on the other computers you have, except you just login with ID and password without creating any new password. If you are dualbooting, do it on the other operating system. This way, the automatic synchronization can be done. The result is, if there are bookmarks in one device, the same bookmarks will be available on the browser on the other computers.

Step 4. Start Bookmarking

• Bookmark a website and it will be saved to XBookmarkSync on all devices. 
• Check the bookmark on the other browser on the other computer, it should exists there. 
• If bookmarking does not work, check whether the XBookmarkSync has already logged in or not.

 

Happy browsing!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ubuntu 21.10, the latest release of the most popular desktop operating system from the GNU/Linux community, has been released this October and you perhaps have the system already on your computer. Once installed, you might want to know what to do after that for your daily purposes, with several configurations, additional apps and games. Enjoy Ubuntu computing!

 

 Summary

• Ubuntu Intro
• System Check
• User Setup
• Update
• LibreOffice
• Applications Recommendation
• Games Recommendation
  
• Browser Setup
• Email Setup
• Printer & Scanner Setup
• I Want to Master Ubuntu!

 

Ubuntu Intro

Your Ubuntu version is 21.10, codenamed Impish Indri, released in the year 2021 the month 10. Your system components are, among the others, GNOME user interface, Wayland graphics platform, Firefox web browser, LibreOffice document editor, and Snap software store.

System Check

Open Activities Menu → type "about" without quotes → About System will be displayed → click About → your system specifications will open. 

Open Disks from the Activities Menu → your disk storage information displayed. For example, you may check the internal hard disk drive's partitions or see which one is the Windows partition (if you are dualbooting).

Open System Monitor → your active programs information displayed → your graphs of system resources utilization can be displayed under Resources tab.

User and Disk Storage Setup

Want to change your user's password or avatar? Open System Settings → Users → Unlock → enter your password → click the profile picture to change the avatar → click the Password section to change it to a new one.

It is better to automount disk partitions so manual clicks will be unnecessary anymore for your personal use. To do so, follow this Automount Guide.

It is also better to rename every unnamed disk partition so they will appear clearly on your file manager. Follow section 5. Rename a Partition in this Disk Utility Quick Guide.

Update

Open Software Updater from the Activities Menu → let it download necessary information → updates list will be displayed → click Update to update Ubuntu. 

Note: on the contrary, if you live with limited internet access e.g. expensive data price and want instead to disable automatic updates, click your currently connecting network → More Settings → click the Gear → give check mark to Metered connection only. 

 

User Interface Adjustments

Do you deploy Ubuntu for older people? It is often useful if you adjust the font size and/or decrease the display resolution. 

To adjust font size, run System Settings → Accessibility → click Large Large → system font size adjusted. This kind of display is very important to many older people and friends with impaired vision.

To adjust display resolution, on Settings go to Displays → click Resolution → select one lower option e.g. 1024x768 → Keep Changes → resolution adjusted.

LibreOffice

Want to learn LibreOffice with ease? You can start from our LibreOffice Guide The Series and practice chapter by chapter.

Want its modern user interface? To turn the modern UI on, click menu View > User Interface > select Tabbed > modern user interface activated. 

Applications Recommendation

Need specific-purpose applications? Ubuntu got them for you and here's several of them you can grab from Ubuntu Software. To install one, open Software from the Activities Menu → type a name of application or its description → click Install → the application is installed.

• Telegram - the fast and FOSS messenger of hundreds of millions of people.
• OBS Studio - a professional screen recording, livestreaming and broadcasting tool.
• Shotcut -  a very good video editor.
  
• Filezilla - an FTP client used by many people working with server and website.
• Blender - the world-class 3D animation maker.

 

Games Recommendation

Want to play video games? On Ubuntu there are amusing and educational games you can play together with kids or play with friends and colleagues. Here's several titles:

• 0 A.D. - an RTS of ancient warfare with Age of Empires-like look and feel with beautiful graphics and water effects. Can be played multiplayer too.
  
• Red Eclipse - a 3D single/multiplayer shooting game with amazing graphics and weapons. Can be played offline.
  
• Flare - a full fledged RPG with Diablo-like look and feel and is amusing to play alone.
  
• SuperTuxKart - a 3D racing game with cute characters you can play dual-player with kids. See our overview.
  
• TuxMath - an education game your kids can learn by playing. Suggestion for you, you can just play the game while your kids try to answer the questions verbally.
  
• TuxTyping - an education game to train keyboard typing skill for all ages.

Browser Setup

Firefox is Ubuntu web browser. For starter, you might want to enhance several things for better browser experience.

• Enable DNS encryption: follow this Firefox DOH Guide.
  
• Enable ad blacker: you can install uBlock Origin, our recommendation.
• Get rid of cookies warnings: you can use I don't care about cookies.
  
• Enable bookmark sync: to unify your bookmarks, you can use XBrowserSync.
  

 

Email and Online Accounts Setup

To setup Thunderbird with Gmail, follow this guide. With another email brands, you can follow Mailo Guide or Disroot Guide.

As an example, if you want your file manager to access read-and-write your online storage like Nextcloud, then you can follow this Nextcloud Guide.

Printer and Scanner Setup

Have a printer or scanner to work with your Ubuntu computer? Follow here the Printing Guide and the Scanning Guide. We recommend the plug-and-play Canon MP160 printer-scanner device if you want to purchase one and a fine secondhand is also recommended.

Want to buy a working printer or scanner for Ubuntu? You cannot buy one without knowledge, but get the ones proven to be compatible with GNU/Linux. Visit https://h-node.org database to find compatible printers and scanners then buy the one you find suitable to your needs.

 

Source: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)
A fully Ubuntu compatible printer-scanner-photocopy device

 

I Want To Master Ubuntu

Finally, if you are serious to learn Ubuntu for your computing, urther you can learn Ubuntu Full Guide slowly chapter by chapter. Good luck!

 

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This tutorial will explain how to install Ubuntu 21.10 into your computer. The result of this tutorial is your computer will run Ubuntu operating system and can be viewed as alternative to Windows or macOS. This installation is flexible, as you may choose to install normally (to the internal hard disk) or externally (to USB flash drive or external HDD) in either BIOS Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT mode, for either dualboot or singleboot purpose. You will start everything by downloading the operating system itself, make required preparations, make a bootable medium, then booting and finishing the installation procedures step by step. Good luck!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.What You Can Do With This Tutorial

Install Ubuntu operating system into your computer with:

• a USB flash drive storage (default in this article)
• an internal hard disk drive storage, or
  
• an external hard disk drive storage
  
• do it in dualboot mode (default in this article), or
  
• do it in singleboot mode
• do it in UEFI-GPT mode, or
  
• do it in BIOS-MBR mode
  

 

Requirements

A 64-bit Intel or AMD computer with minimum 2GB memory.

• A blank USB flash drive (as bootable medium) >=8GB.
  
• A blank USB flash drive (as target installation storage) >=16GB or,
• A free disk space >=20GB in the internal hard drive (as target installation storage)
• GPT-formatted storage if the computer is in UEFI mode
• MBR-formatted storage if the computer is in BIOS Legacy mode
• Knowledge and experience in operating system installation, otherwise ask someone with knowledge to accompany you.

Preparations

1. Format your target installation storage (the blank USB flash drive) as GPT if your computer is UEFI. If you don't know how, follow this tutorial.
2. Make backup of your important data if there is Windows in the computer or you want to do dualboot.
3. Once your preparations are ready, continue to the next section.

GPT Formatted Disk

Download

Ubuntu 21.10 Impish Indri can be downloaded in this link address. Once downloaded, you should have the file named ubuntu-21.10-amd64-desktop.iso by size about 3 GigaByte. Continue to the next section.

Make a Bootable USB

Firstly, you should have a bootable medium of Ubuntu that will act as an installer. This is the same requirement as any other operating systems. The cheapest medium today is USB flash drive. To make a bootable USB, if you have Windows or MacOS, follow this tutorial, otherwise if you have already a GNU/Linux system, follow this tutorial instead. Once you made a bootable USB, continue to the next section.

Boot Up Computer

1. Turn on your computer and immediately enter the BIOS user interface.
2. Check up if your computer is booting in either BIOS Legacy or UEFI.
3. Switch the booting priority to USB as the number one.
4. Save and reboot.
5. You should see Ubuntu running on screen and welcoming you.
6. You are ready for Ubuntu installation.
7. Continue to the next section.

Installation

Once all preparations and booting finished, do the following procedures:

Step 1. Select Language

Choose English and click Continue. This can be changed later once it is installed.

Step 2. Select Keyboard

Choose English (US) keyboard layout and click Continue.

Step 3. Select Network

Choose "I don't want to connect..." and click Continue.

Step 4. Select Updates

Choose "Normal installation" and click Continue.

Step 5. Select Partitioning Type

Choose "Something else" and click Continue and answer Yes if asked to mount a disk drive. This will open the Disk Partitioner window. Now, do the following procedures:

• 1. Create an EFI System Partition
• 2. Create a SWAP partition
• 3. Create a ROOT partition
• 4. Select Bootloader Placement
• 5. Start Install Now

EFI SYSTEM PARTITION

1. Create EFI System Partition:

• Select free space under your blank USB flash drive.
• Click Add... button.
• Fill the size 200.
• Select the location Beginning.
• Select Use as: EFI SYSTEM PARTITION.
• Click OK.
• An EFI SYSTEM PARTITION by 200 MB size and FAT32 filesystem created.
• A free space remaining available as a result.

SWAP PARTITION

2. Create SWAP Partition:

• Select free space remaining in your blank USB flash drive.
• Click Add... button.
• Fill the size 1000.
• Select the location Beginning.
• Select Use as: SWAP AREA.
• Click OK.
• A SWAP PARTITION by 1000 MB size (1 GB) created.
• A free space remaining available as a result.

ROOT PARTITION

3. Create ROOT Partition:

• Select the free space remaining.
• Click Add... button.
• Let the size as is, as the remaining free space = root partition size.
• Let the location as is.
• Select Use as: EXT2 Filesystem.
• Select Mount Point: as slash ( / ).
• A ROOT PARTITION by remaining GB size and EXT2 filesystem and slash mount point created.

4. Select Bootloader Placement:
Under Boot Loader Install section, select /dev/sda if the target USB flash drive is /dev/sda, or select /dev/sdb if it is /dev/sdb, accordingly. Place your bootloader in your USB if you install the OS in USB, place it in HDD if your install OS in HDD, and so on, accordingly.


5. Start Install Now:

• Click Install Now and read carefully all the summary on screen.
• Make sure the planned to be formatted disk is only the target USB flash drive.
• Make sure the planned to be formatted partitions are only partitions in the target USB.
• Otherwise, go back, fix the mistakes until you see this summary shows no mistakes.
• Click Continue once everything is correct.
• The actuall installation starts and you cannot go back anymore.

For Hard Disk Drive installation:
Do the same procedures as above, except select Use as: EXT4 Journaling Filesystem instead of mentioned EXT2 Filesystem.

For BIOS-MBR installation:
Do the same procedures as above, except do not create EFI SYSTEM PARTITION.

For dualboot installation:
Do the same procedures as above, but to hard disk drive's blank partitions you have already prepared instead to the USB, and please note to not select Windows partition(s) to be deleted.

Once everything done correctly, continue to the next step.

Step 6. Create User Identity

1. While the installation is taking place, now select your timezone, for example Asia/Jakarta then Click Continue.
2. Create username and password for the use with the operating system, and select Login Automatically, then click Continue.

Step 7. Wait for The Process

After creating user identity, you will now wait for about 15 minutes for the installation to finish. You can have a cup of coffee or play with kids for a while.

Step 8. Finish

Once finished, Ubuntu will say "Installation Complete, Installation has finished..." on screen then click Restart Now, then once you saw black screen saying Remove the installation medium, please remove the bootable USB, and finally let your computer reboot using the target USB flash drive still plugged in.

The Result

Once installed properly, your Ubuntu Impish Indri computer would look like this one as the one on our computer. Congratulations!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

We know that Debian in every release is distributed in multiple volumes of CDs and DVDs which are numbered 1, 2, 3 and so on. One Debian release may amount to 20 GigaBytes total or equal to dozens of CDs or DVDs.  Officially, Debian provides only CD1 and DVD1, while the rest of CD2 to CD50, DVD2 to DVD10, not provided in the Debian server and neither Debian mirrors. Although CD1 or DVD1 is sufficient to install Debian to computer, some people, like teachers and students, might want the additional CDs or DVDs for no internet access purposes. The official way to download the additional CDs or DVDs is by using a program called Jigdo. This tutorial explains how to do that simply and easily picture by picture.

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Benefits

• Able to download additional Debian images from DVD-2 to DVD-10
  
• Able to download older versions of Debian
• Faster than normal direct download
• Clever, as it actually creates an ISO by downloading individual packages from available repositories then rejoining them
  
• Does not waste community servers' resources
  

 

Requirements

• Enough free disk space.
• Internet access (unlimited and fast one is strongly recommended).
• Access to a computer where jigdo can run.
  
• Basic knowledge in using command lines.

We will practice this using Debian 11 Bullseye released 2021 which for both CDs and DVDs choices, available in more than 8 architectures including amd64 and i386. You might find this article and apply it to any previous or later versions of Debian.

 

Debian Links

These are the download links of three different Debian versions today, namely, 11 (Stable), 10 (Oldstable), and 9 (Oldoldstable). Please remember that the contents would change in the future and might also removed permanently by The Debian Community. However, you can learn and adapt the links for the future. Thanks to Jigdo, you can still download old versions of Debian for a foreseeable future when the image files no more available.

Debian 11 Bullseye released 2021 ("current")

Debian 10 Buster released 2019 ("latest-oldstable")

Debian 9 Stretch released 2017 ("latest-oldoldstable")

Old Versions Download Center

How It Works

What we will actually do? We will use jigdo, a special internet download manager, to smartly create a Debian ISO image file in our computer disk drive by downloading separate Debian packages from nearest Debian repositories and then automatically assembling them. This resulting in same result as downloading an ISO image file but smartly reducing The Debian Community's resources to provide massively expensive multiple CDIMAGE servers. We will download one of these five Debian DVDs:

• https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-dvd/debian-11.1.0-amd64-DVD-2.jigdo
• https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-dvd/debian-11.1.0-amd64-DVD-3.jigdo
  
• https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-dvd/debian-11.1.0-amd64-DVD-4.jigdo
• https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-dvd/debian-11.1.0-amd64-DVD-5.jigdo
• https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-dvd/debian-11.1.0-amd64-DVD-6.jigdo

 

Step 1. Install Jigdo Program

Do this command line on your Terminal. This will result in a new command line on your Ubuntu or Debian system called jigdo-lite.

$ sudo apt-get install jigdo-file

 

Step 2. Download Debian Using Jigdo

Copy a .jigdo link and paste it as jigdo-lite's option on your Terminal like example below → answer first question by pressing Enter → answer second question by typing this link http://deb.debian.org/debian/ → download starts → wait for the download process to finish. How long this process will take time depends on your internet access.

$ jigdo-lite https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/jigdo-dvd/debian-11.1.0-amd64-DVD-2.jigdo

Step 3. Debian Downloaded Successfully

Once finished, you will get the complete ISO image file corresponds to the jigdo file. For example, if you downloaded debian-11-amd64-DVD-2.jigdo, then you get debian-11-amd64-DVD-2.iso ready to use. Repeat Step 1 to Step 3 for another volume(s) of Debian DVDs.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This simple tutorial will explain how you can prepare a hard disk or a USB flash drive with GUID Partition Table (GPT) technology for the purpose of operating system installation on UEFI computer. You can read this before installing a GNU/Linux distribution to your modern PC and laptop. Good luck!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.

Basic Knowlegde

For operating system installation activities today, there is a formula, saying more or less, MBR storage for BIOS Legacy computer and GPT storage for UEFI computer. Speaking simply, BIOS Legacy→MBR while UEFI→GPT. This is why if your computer is UEFI, your storage (hard disk, USB flash drive, SSD) should be GPT, before you install your operating system(s) on it. This is also why this tutorial exists to inform you how to format your hard disk as GUID Partition Table or GPT.

 

Preparation

Is your storage (hard disk, SSD, USB flash drive) already containing your working operating system? If it is, you must make backup of your data properly. If you don't do that, you cannot blame others if there is a mistake in your disk partitioning activity and you might loss all your data.

Create a USB bootable medium with Ubuntu operating system on it. To do so, if you have a Windows computer, learn here. If you have a GNU/Linux computer, learn here. If you do not have Ubuntu, you can download one here. Once a USB bootable is ready, continue to Step 1.

Step 1. Run A LiveCD

Boot up your Ubuntu bootable USB. Then continue to Step 2. Note: next time, when you got accustomed to do this activity, you will be able to do formatting without a LiveCD.

 

Step 2. Run Disks Utility

Open the start menu and access the hard disk or the USB flash drive you want to format. Picture below displays a selected hard disk drive by size 20GB with the partition table MBR (Master Boot Record). Continue to Step 3.

Step 3. Format

Click menu (triple dots button) → Format → first option, select Quick Format → second option, select GPT (Compatible with modern systems and hard disks) → click Format... → click Format once again to answer the question → wait for the process → finished formatting the disk storage. Now you should see The Result.

The Result

You should now see Partitioning: GUID Partition Table information of the storage and it should not be Master Boot Record. See picture below. This hard disk or USB flash drive is now ready for operating system installation in UEFI mode.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Do you have an old computer?  Do you love KDE Plasma? If your desktop or laptop was produced before 2011 or has memory no more than 4GB, it might be 32-bit, like those with Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon processor. You can revive it with one of KDE Plasma Desktop systems mentioned in this article, for example, Debian or Tumbleweed, and you can do your daily work with up to date applications and even games.

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Terminology

PC 32-bit is often also called x86, i386, i486, i586, or i686. Operating systems mentioned below provide their ISO image files with either one of these terms. Read Explanation of AMD64 and I386 Architectures.

KDE Plasma is one among many Free Software Desktop Systems. It helps the user to interacts with their computer more easily. It is modern, traditional looking, has familiar feelings, simple by default and powerful when needed. It is the oldest FSDS as well as the most full featured one.

Debian KDE

Debian is the largest and most universal computer operating system on earth based on GNU and Linux. Debian supports all free software, all hardware types, and being highly influential as the basis of hundreds of other operating systems including Ubuntu. Debian 11 "Bullseye" supports PC 32-bit and you can benefit from its tens of thousands of software packages to empower your old desktop and laptop. You can choose to install either Debian Full DVD by later selecting KDE Plasma as the desktop, or, download Debian Live KDE and install it easily.

Download Debian DVD: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/i386/iso-dvd/

Download Debian Live KDE: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/i386/iso-hybrid/

Mageia

The true successor of the discontinued Mandriva (was the first user-friendly distro before Ubuntu, a KDE distro before Kubuntu), full featured and well documented. Mageia 8 is available as PC 32-bit DVD installer in which the user can install with KDE Plasma. 

Download Mageia: visit mageia.org/en/downloads → select Classic Installer → select 32-bit → select Direct Link.

 

openmamba

openmamba GNU/Linux is an Italian operating system created by mambaSoft with rolling-release update method. It supports PC 32-bit and is available with KDE Plasma. 

Download openmamba: https://openmamba.org/en/downloads

 

Porteus

Porteus is a portable purpose, user-friendly desktop operating system based on Slackware GNU/Linux. It is actively developed, and its latest version 5 today supports PC 32-bit with KDE Plasma.

Download Porteus: visit http://porteus.org/porteus-mirrors.html → click one link from list of links → select i586 → select latest version folder by newest date → download Porteus-KDE-*-i586.iso.

Slackware
This is the oldest living GNU/Linux, and at the same time, the oldest KDE distro although it is advanced user oriented. Slackware, being not as known as Ubuntu in mainstream, is very actively developed thanks to the committed community behind it. Slackware version 14.2 (released 2016) is still available for PC 32-bit, can be upgraded to Slackware Current for latest packages, and can also be equipped with Slackbuilds.org repository as well. At the time we write this article, Slackware 15 Beta has been announced and also still support PC 32-bit with KDE and all mentioned features.

Download Slackware: http://www.slackware.com/getslack

 

Trisquel KDE 

Triskel is the name of Trisquel KDE Edition, named in the same spirit of "Kool", the K letter of the KDE name. Trisquel is a stable operating system based on Ubuntu which is completely free software without any nonfree software inside and is officially endorsed by the Free Software Foundation. You can install Triskel 10 (the latest version today) and benefit from its tens of thousands of 32-bit software packages. Download Triskel: visit https://trisquel.info/en/download → select KDE Edition → select 32-bit → click download ISO.

Tumbleweed

Tumbleweed is the name of openSUSE rolling-release edition, that is, the only one that still supports PC 32-bit. Tumbleweed does not number itself with version numbers, unlike Ubuntu 20.04 or Windows 7, but instead whatever version downloaded from the official website is always the latest version. You can install the DVD version with KDE Plasma Desktop and benefit from its supplying latest version of tens of thousands of 32-bit software packages. 

Download Tumbleweed for installation: visit https://get.opensuse.org/tumbleweed → click Download → click Download beside Offline Image under Intel/AMD 32-bit (i686) section.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This is a list of Free Software Desktop Systems, like KDE and GNOME the desktop environments, and like Kubuntu and Ubuntu the operating systems, and whether one is available as a complete computer to purchase. In this article, you will find useful information and further readings about the user interface choices available on GNU/Linux and BSD computing platforms. This will be used further on UbuntuBuzz.com to accompany every desktop related explanation.

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.

What is Desktop

Desktop is everything visual one sees and interacts with on a computer's monitor. Desktop, also known as Graphical User Interface (GUI) by software, is consisted of several separate components, usually a combination of a display server, a display manager, a window manager, a desktop shell, desktop libraries and applications. Clear examples of desktop would be KDE (as the software), and Kubuntu (as the operating system), and KFocus (as a the computer desktop system).

 

What is Free Software Desktop System

Free Software Desktop System (FSDS) is any computer system which the desktop software is free as in Free Software Definition. This includes all free software operating systems, mainly GNU/Linux, and BSD included. This means either per component or as a whole combination. Thus, for example, KDE in itself is considered an FSDS, and Kubuntu operating system as a whole combination is also an FSDS, and a computer powered by either KDE or Kubuntu can be considered an FSDS too. Not included in FSDS everything that is not desktop, among them are mobile phone systems, server system, and embedded system. Opposite to FSDS is Proprietary Software Desktop System.

Why This Explanation is Important

To Free Software Community, explaining how to switch from nonfree to free software is important and desktop is the biggest part among all in computing as it includes most of billion computer users. To Ubuntu Buzz, the website where this explanation first originated, explaining desktop is very important as this website is generally a collection of desktop-centered tutorials and reviews. Without explanation, as we have so many (perhaps, too many) terms in this field, we tend to waste our time explaining without clear direction nor understandable terms, and it is always difficult to explain this field to people with no prior knowledge. To simplify how we talk, we need to unify how we call something, and this Free Software Desktop System explanation is our result. We will link to this article whenever we need to explain about desktop in the future. This explanation is highly inspired by The GNU Project's Free System Distribution Guidelines (FSDG). 

 

Cinnamon SystemsLinux Mint Cinnamon Edition is the one Cinnamon system. Several other Cinnamon systems exist, for example Fedora, Debian, and Manjaro. Cinnamon system is available officially as desktop computer and as laptop offered by many vendors. Cinnamon system is known by its traditional look and feel, historically was a derivative of the early GNOME 3, and the flagship desktop of Linux Mint. Among the features of Cinnamon system:

• Born 2011
• Ireland origin
• Based on GTK3
• Traditional look and feel
• Developed as the official desktop environment of Linux Mint
• Modular, supports addons to increase functionalities
  
• Licensed under GNU GPL
• Components: Nemo (file manager), Muffin (window manager), Pix (picture organizer), Xviewer (picture viewer), Xed (text editor), Xreader (pdf viewer), Xplayer (multimedia player), and Control Center.
• Official website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch 

  

Deepin System

There is one Deepin System that is deepin OS.  Originated from China, based on Qt Framework (the same library as KDE's), and publicly known as deepin OS. It's known as the completely unique desktop with its own applications suite and praised by many for its user interface's beauty. Among the features of Deepin system:

• Born 2013
• China origin
• Based on Qt
• The unique, desktop-effects equipped user interface
• Developed as the official desktop environment of deepin OS 
• Has its own development library named DTK
• Licensed under GNU GPL
• Components: File Manager, Dock, App Store, Text Editor, Music, Videos, Downloader, System Monitor, System Settings
  
• Official Website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch

Elementary System

There is one elementary system that is elementary OS. The name of its desktop environment is Pantheon. Elementary system is available as branded desktop and laptop computers purchasable from stores like StarLabs.  It is known to be beautiful, sleek, more macOS-like yet unique and has its own style. Among the features of  elementary system are:

• Born 2011
• United States origin
  
• Based on GTK
• Developed as the user interface of elementary OS
• Has its own Human Interface Guidelines
  
• Licensed under GNU GPL
  
• Components: Files (file manager), Pantheon (desktop shell), Pantheon Greeter (display manager), Gala (window manager), AppCenter (software center), Wingpanel (top panel and start menu), Switchboard (control panel).
• Official Website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch

Enlightenment Systems

Enlightenment Among Enlightenment systems are Enlightenment itself, Bodhi and Elive. It is known to be low-resource, lightweight and fast, yet simple and rich with desktop effects. Enlightenment is classified as "desktop shell" (like gnome-shell in GNOME) and not a complete application suite (unlike GNOME) thus it includes desktop activities like launching apps, managing windows, but no file manager.

• Born 1999
• Based on Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (not GTK, not Qt either)
• Licensed under BSD License
  
• Components: Enlightenment (window manager and compositor), Terminology (terminal emulator), Rage (multimedia player), Ephoto (image viewer), and EDI (integrated development environment).
• Official Website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch

GNOME Systems

Among GNOME Systems are GNOME itself, Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Librem. Included in GNOME systems are several other heavily-tweaked GNOME, among others, Endless and Zorin. It is known by its unique and innovative ways to use, dynamics, and number of distros which use it as default. GNOME computers are available to purchase from several brands such as Purism, System76, and Entroware. Among the features of GNOME systems:

• Born 1999
• United States origin
• Based on GTK
• The most popular desktop system (as the default user interface of Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat and Librem)
• The widest available as purchasable, ready-to-use computer systems
  
• The most derived desktop system (as mostly other desktops are based on it including Cinnamon, MATE and Unity)
• Developed as the official desktop of GNU Operating System
• Has its own software libraries named GTK
• Has its own Human Interface Guidelines
• Modular, supports extensions to increase functionalities
• Licensed under GNU GPL
• Components of GNOME among the others: Nautilus (file manager), File Roller (archive manager), Rhythmbox (audio player), Evince (pdf reader), Gedit (text editor), and Software (app store).
• Official Website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch
  

KDE Systems

Among KDE Systems are KDE itself, Kubuntu, PCLinuxOS and FreeBSD KDE. KDE systems are available to purchase from several brands such as KFocus, Slimbook, and Laptop With Linux (laptops). KDE systems, by software alone, can also be downloaded gratis in form of the software set itself or as a whole operating system already mentioned. Among the features of KDE Systems:

• Born 1996
• Germany origin
  
• Based on Qt
• Has its own software libraries named KDE Frameworks
• Has its own Human Interface Guidelines 
• Widely available as purchasable, ready-to-use computers
  
• Modular, supports addons to increase functionalities
• Licensed under GNU LGPL and GPL
• Dolphin (file manager), KWin (window manager), Plasma (desktop shell),  Calligra (office suite), Okular (pdf reader), Krita (digital painter),  Falkon (web browser) are among its applications
  
• Traditional look and feel (Windows-like), modern style and highly customizable
• Complete, full featured, consistent and professional in overall
  
• Official Website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch

LXDE Systems

Among LXDE systems are Lubuntu (prior to 2018), Parabola, and Trisquel Mini Edition. The name LXDE stands for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment. It is known by its minimal visuals, low-resource and high-speed features, as well as ability to revive old and low-specs computers. Among the features of LXDE are:

• Born 2006
• Taiwan origin
• Based on GTK
  
• Components: PCManFM (file manager),  Openbox (window manager, not part of LXDE itself), LXPanel (the taskbar), Leafpad (text editor), LXDM (display manager), LXTerminal, Xarchiver (archive manager), GPicView (image viewer), and LXDE Common (control panel).
• Official Website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch
  

LXQt Systems

Among LXQt systems are Lubuntu 18.10 upwards, Artix, Fedora and Garuda. It is best known as a more modern version of LXDE with Qt instead of GTK as its basis, hence the name, LXQt. It preserves the lightweightness and the look and feel of LXDE but modernize it further with new features. Among the features of LXQt are:

• Born 2013
• Taiwan origin
• Based on Qt
• Licensed under GPL and LGPL
  
• Components: PCManFM-Qt (file manager), Panel (the taskbar), Archiver, LXImage (image viewer), and Admin (control panel).
• Official Website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch
  

MATE Systems

Among MATE systems are Ubuntu MATE, Trisquel, GhostBSD and OpenIndiana. There are heavily tweaked MATE systems such as Mint. It is best known as the active continuation of GNOME 2, preserving its look and feel, as well as enhancing it further with new features while being completely free software, highly crossplatform and well documented. Among the features of MATE are:

• Born 2011
• Argentina origin
  
• Based on GTK3, previously GTK2 (GNOME 2)
• Licensed under GNU GPL and LGPL
  
• Components: Marco (window manager), Caja (file manager), Pluma (text editor), Atril (pdf reader), Engrampa (archive manager), Eye of MATE (image viewer), Terminal and Control Center.  
• Official Website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch
  

UKUI System

There is one UKUI System namely Ubuntu Kylin, the official Ubuntu variant for Chinese people, as it is the official user interface. The name UKUI stands for Ubuntu Kylin User Interface. It a relatively new desktop system, created to be useful, convenient and intuitive. At a glance, one might say that it resembles either Windows 8 or deepin system. Among the features of UKUI System are:

• Born 2017
• Based on Qt (v3.0), previously GTK (v2.0)
  
• Developed as the user interface of Ubuntu Kylin
• Traditional layout, modern and equipped with desktop-effects
• Components: Peony (file manager), UKUI Kwin (window manager), UKUI Greeter (display manager), Kylin Network Monitor, and Control Center (control panel).
• Official Website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch
  

Unity Systems
Ubuntu in between 2011 to 2017 was the one Unity system. Precisely, since version 11.04 up to 16.10, Ubuntu used Unity desktop environment as its user interface, hence, a Unity system. Today, there is one active Unity system namely Ubuntu Unity. It is known thanks to Ubuntu branding as well as its simplicity, uniqueness, a faster alternative to GNOME at that time, the HUD, and the Global Menu features. Among the features of Unity system are:

• Born 2010
• United Kingdom origin
• Based on GTK and Qt
• Developed for Ubuntu Desktop at its time 
• Licensed under GNU GPL and LGPL
• Non-traditional look, simple and unique feel thanks to its Dash, HUD, and Global Menu
• Components including LightDM (display manager), Unity (desktop shell), Nautilus (file manager), Unity Tweak Tool (advanced configuration) and System Settings (control panel).
• Official website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch

Sugar Systems

Among Sugar systems are Trisquel Sugar and Fedora SoaS. Sugar is known to be specific desktop environment for school and education purposes. It would look and feel very different to desktop users in general as it does not adopt "desktop metaphor" (the concept implemented by all other desktop systems) so on Sugar there are no folders and windows.

• Born 2006
• United States origin
• Based on GTK
  
• Originally the desktop system of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project
  
• Developed for school, education and children learning purposes
• Has its own Human Interface Guidelines 
• Licensed under GNU GPL
  
• Children-friendly user interface with minimal text, more pictures
• Official Website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch
  

TDE Systems

Among TDE Systems are TDE itself, Q4OS, Alt, Exe and TTOS GNU/Linuxes. TDE is known to be the successor of the discontinued KDE 3, hence the name Trinity Desktop Environment, keeping the low-resource and look-and-feel features alive while giving the users full featured desktop. Among the features of TDE systems are:

• Born 2010
• Based on KDE 3.5, Qt 3.5
• Has its own development framework named TQt3
  
• Small, lightweight, fast, efficient and actively maintained
• Components: Twin (window manager), Konqueror (file manager and web browser), Amarok (audio player), Kate (text editor), Konsole (terminal emulator).
  
• Official website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch

Xfce Systems

Among Xfce systems are Xubuntu, Devuan, and MidnightBSD. There are heavily tweaked Xfce systems like Linux Mint, Manjaro and MX. Xfce systems are known to be fast and lightweight, low-resource, low-specs friendly and highly customizable. Xfce systems are often regarded as alternative to LXDE systems.

• Born 1996
• Based on GTK (not GNOME derivative)
• Has its own development framework called Exo
• Has its own Human Interface Guidelines
  
• Implements Unix philosophy by principles
• Modular, supports addons to increase functionalities 
• Licensed under GPL, LGPL, and BSD licenses
  
• Components: Xfwm (window manager), Thunar (file manager), Catfish (search tool), Orage (calendar), Mousepad (text editor), Parole (multimedia player), and Settings (control panel). 
• Official Website, Wikipedia, Distrowatch
  

See Also

Super Tux Kart, a 3D funny racing game with many desktop systems' mascots as the player characters. 

Opendesktop.org, a download place of third-party extensions for Free Software Desktop Systems. This website is a collective of multiple FSDS websites like Pling, KDE-Store and GNOME-Look.

Extensions, the download place for GNOME users to install addons e.g. to add theme switcher and network meter functionality.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This tutorial explains how to setup Zorin OS 16 to a computer for end-users. This includes methods to install either to internal hard disk or external drive storage, even a USB Flash Drive, dualboot or singleboot, and with either UEFI-GPT or BIOS-MBR options. Please make backup  if you are dualbooting and be extra careful following every single step. Let's start!

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Want a Zorin OS Computer?

Most computer and phone users, those billions of people, do computing without installing an operating system manually by themselves. If you want that way instead, you can simply purchase a quality computer preinstalled with Zorin OS. Visit Zorin Shop for more information. As the opposite, if you instead want to install Zorin OS manually to an existing computer, this whole tutorial is for you.

(Star Labs, a computer offered with Zorin OS)
 

Installation Types

There are various ways to install Zorin OS by this tutorial:

1. Install Zorin OS into your internal hard disk, without existing Windows OS.
2. Install Zorin OS into your internal hard disk, dualboot with Windows.
3. Install Zorin OS into an external storage, like a USB flash drive.
4. For any one of those three, installation may be in either BIOS/MBR mode or UEFI/GPT mode. 

 

Preparations

Before doing the installation, you should prepare minimum requirements below. We consider the most affordable and easiest way to install Zorin OS for most computer users, including you, is by installing it to a USB flash disk, for this solves and prevents many issues e.g. enabling end-users to dualboot without the risks of destroying stored data not to mention this gives many advantages e.g. portability. This tutorial practices the installation to a USB flash disk (installation type no. 3) that is automatically enable dualboot (if any) and reasonably safer and easier to do for new users.

System requirements:

• CPU: 64-bit Intel or AMD with 1GHz speed
• RAM: 2 GB
• Storage: 15 GB (for Core & Education)
• Display: 800x600 resolution

Required tools and materials:

• Knowledge and experience in installing operating systems
  
• Zorin OS 16 Core Edition image file
  
• 1 x USB flash drive as the bootable medium
• 1 x USB flash drive as the OS disk storage (for flash drive installation)
• 20 GB free hard disk space (for hard disk installation)
• GPT-formatted hard disk (for UEFI installation), MBR-formatted one (for BIOS installation

Where to Download Zorin OS

Once preparations fulfilled, you should have Zorin OS itself. Zorin OS 16 can be downloaded from www.zorinos.com. If you do now know how to download one, follow our guide here. You will receive the file named Zorin-OS-16-Core-64-bit.iso by size about 2.9 GB. Once downloaded, follow next step to make a bootable medium.

(Official Download Page of Zorin OS)

Making Bootable Medium

In order to install Zorin OS, you must have a bootable medium. To make a bootable medium, or in other words, write your Zorin OS to a USB flash drive, click here if you are an existing GNU/Linux user and click here if you are a Windows or MacOS user. Once created, follow next step to boot up your computer.

Booting Up Computer

Plug your bootable USB in → immediately, turn your computer on and enter BIOS → turn the BIOS option to boot into USB → save and restart → your computer now booting and should display Zorin OS on screen. Once Zorin OS booted up, follow the Installation procedures next step.

(The desktop of Zorin OS with the system installer opened)

Installation

The actual installation procedures start and end here.  

Step 1. Choose a Language. 

Select English (US) from the selection and click Continue.  

Step 2. Choose a Keyboard.

Select English (US) too and click Continue.  

Step 3. Choose a Network.

Select 'I do not want to connect ..." and click Continue. This will make the process faster and the user can still update afterwards anyway. 

Step 4. Choose an Update Method.

Deselect all choices and click Continue. 

Step 5. Choose Installation Type.

The option "Erase Disk and Install Zorin" is only suitable for Installation Type no. 1. The option "Something Else" is the option we use here. So select Something Else → click continue → disk partitioning step will show → follow next step.

Step 6. Make Disk Partitions and Bootloader

In this step, we will make disk partitions required by Zorin OS into your computer's storage. As mentioned, you may install Zorin OS into internal or external storage, either BIOS-MBR or UEFI-GPT, and we gives example of the external one with UEFI-GPT. 

1. Create EFI SYSTEM PARTITION
2. Create SWAP PARTITION
3. Create ROOT PARTITION
4. Place The Bootloader
5. Begin The Installation
6. For BIOS-MBR Installation
7. For For Dualboot Installation
   
   

1. Create EFI System Partition: 

We select free space under our blank USB (32GB) → click Add → change Size into 200 → change Use as into EFI SYSTEM PARTITION → click OK → an EFI System Partition successfully created by size 200MB and fat32 filesystem.

 

2. Create SWAP Partition:

We select free space remaining → click Add → change Size into 1000 → change Use as into SWAP → click OK → a SWAP partition successfully created by 1000MB (1GB) size.

3. Create ROOT Partition: 

We select free space remaining → click Add → do not change the size (about 30GB) → change Use as into EXT2 Filesystem → change Mount Point into slash character ( / ) → click OK → a ROOT partition successfully created.

4. Place the bootloader:

In this example, our blank USB address is /dev/sdc, and accordingly we place the bootloader also in /dev/sdc. If your installation destination is /dev/sda instead, then accordingly place the bootloader into /dev/sda too. 

5. Begin the installation: 

We click INSTALL NOW → a summary of installation will open before we start the actual installation → read the summary carefully and click Go Back to fix any mistake, if any, otherwise click Continue to start the actual installation → follow the next step.

6. For BIOS-MBR Installation: 

If your computer is not UEFI-GPT, but a BIOS-MBR instead, then do the above procedures but do not create EFI System Partition and follow the next step. 

 

7. For Dualboot Installation:

If your computer has an existing operating system, mostly Microsoft Windows, you should install Zorin OS in a separate partition in the same disk, or, install it into an external disk. If you followed procedures above successfully, you did a dualboot already and follow the next step.

Step 7. Final Preparations

1. Select a Timezone
2. Create Username and Password
3. Wait for the process to finish

 

1. Select a timezone:

The installer will ask for the user's country and region → select a country e.g. here we selected Asia/Jakarta as we live in west Indonesia → continue to username creation.

2. Create Username and Password:

The installer will ask for creating username and password → create your username → create your password → create your computer's name → select automatic login if you want Windows-like experience, otherwise don't change → continue to wait for the process.

 

3. Wait for the process to finish:

The installer will perform the actual system installation and we should wait for several minutes. In our experience, this could take up to about 30 minutes. You can have a cup of coffee or chit-chatting with family while this process taking place.

Step 8. Finish

Once installed successfully, Zorin OS will notify you 'Installation Complete, Installation has finished' on screen. When this happens:

1. Click restart now
2. Plug off the bootable medium USB when notified
3. Wait for your computer to restart.
4. You see Zorin OS installed and is ready to use.

(The result is Zorin OS 16 Core installed to a computer with a USB drive storage)

Congratulations!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This is an overview of deepin OS for everyone who looks for the best alternative operating systems for their computing. It is a GNU/Linux distribution that is well made, artistic and beautiful, practically easy to use, and at the same time unique no other Free Software Desktop Systems could ever thought to be. We made this review based on version 20.2.4 and hopefully this can give you pictures of deepin OS. Lastly, we still hope that deepin OS will soon be mass produced so people can just purchase a deepin laptop or deepin PC they want to start their software freedom.

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See also Review of Deepin OS 20 | Comparison of Deepin, Mint and elementary | Comparison of File Chooser Dialogs | File Searching on Deepin

Glossary

We use several terms to refer to several things: 

Free Software Desktop Systems: or FSDS, desktop operating systems and/or desktop environments and/or every GUI system in the Free Software Community. This includes the OSes, like Ubuntu and elementary OS, as well as the desktop environments, like GNOME and Pantheon.

Mass production: computing delivered to mass users in form of an assembled (preinstalled) computer, that is, the hardware and the software preinstalled altogether beforehand, so that the end-users do not install nor take care of the hardware and software by themselves. For example, Android is mass produced, while GNU/Linux in general is not.

Unique User Interface

deepin OS look is unique to itself, not similar to Windows, not MacOS either, not even Android. We think the deepin desktop is artistic, simple to see, simple to use -- it hides complex features without removing them and reveal them when needed beautifully.  We think, more importantly, the deepin desktop is well made to be unified, a single style ruled all components in a way so the user could find things quickly by his/her intuition alone. The desktop's visual consisted of wallpaper in the background, a single, long and transparent dock at bottom, full of deepin style icons, and a functional desktop area where apps and files can be placed on. Before deepin OS, there was no GNU distributions with such look. This user interface has a name, that is, DDE (Deepin Desktop Environment), and is created from the same materials that created KDE, that is, Qt.

(deepin OS, the whole user interface with start menu opened and desktop shortcuts placed on the blue-pink wallpaper)

Simplicity

You will be able to appreciate how deepin OS is simple in everything for end-users. As mentioned, it is simple to look at and simple to use, by intuitions alone, and simplicity can be felt everywhere in it -- a sign of how deepin OS developers thought much for end-users. The best example is File Manager. The developers successfully made it looks simple for its full functionality with those many features. First run will show you a complete overview of your computer, closely similar to what Windows Explorer did, in which other Free Software Desktops did not. Just click to access all your files and disk drives. It is so simple, no menubar even, but powerful when needed (borrowing KDE's slogan), as it is capable to search, network share as well as connect to a server. There are many other examples, among them we mentioned below:

• Start menu, called Launcher (same as KDE's), allows user to find applications in a vertical list, also equipped with a search, where latest apps will automatically placed on top.
  
• Uninstalling, start menu allows user to remove an installed app by simply right-clicking it. No other Free Software Desktops have such feature.
  
• Make desktop shortcuts, File Manager allows user to easily 'Send to Desktop' every file or folder to make its desktop shortcut. deepin has this feature when GNOME removed it and KDE has it no more.
• Open as administrator, File Manager also allows user to open a folder as root simply by right-clicking. 
• Auto-mount, a feature Windows users always enjoy without realizing, they do not need to manually "open" every partition (drive) every time. deepin OS users enjoy this feature so easily as it is available right in the Settings of File Manager, no need to install something or perform command line to make it works.
• Proxy an application, by just right-clicking an app on start menu we can launch that app to connect to the internet through a proxy configuration equipped (optionally) with username password authentication. The user can setup the proxy address first at the System Settings. Being a Chinese system, the developers seem to know very well how important is this feature to exist. 
  

(The most complex component of a desktop system, its System Settings, successfully made this simple by deepin OS)

User Manual

deepin OS has its own full manual that explains what deepin OS and its components are, and also, how to use it all, again well made in deepin OS style. Today, only KDE from the Free Software Desktops has such complete and thorough manual, while KDE is not an OS while deepin is. Read deepin OS manual, you will be amused by its beauty, well written text and a lot of pictures. In our community, the phrase "RTFM" could change into "RTBM" meaning Read The Beautiful Manual thanks to deepin.

(Deepin Manual displaying Overview section explaining deepin OS)

Desktop Search

There is a magnifier glass button (

Fedora 34 released this year. 

 

Part 1, Flatpak Integration

What is Flatpak? Flatpak to GNU/Linux users in a simplest sense is like APK to Android users, EXE to Windows users and DMG to MacOS users, that is, a name of application format they can run for their OS. In the future, you will often see Download Flatpak option beside of Download EXE and Download DMG options for the same application everywhere.

As a summary, F34's integration of Flatpak means, in the future, Fedora users would be able to install applications and games they like from Software with the way of Flatpak. Everything about Flatpak on F34 is mostly centered at Software including adding new repository and removing installed apps. Our experience in general is that in the beginning F34 works very slow, crashes often, even stopping other programs to run when installing Flatpak.

Our specification to do this F34 Flatpak review:

• Internet access with 6MB/s download speed.
• F34 installed on 32GB disk with Btrfs filesystem.
  

Flatpak Advantages

What advantages does F34 get from Flatpak integration? Among them:

• Unifying end-users' method to get apps for their computers.
• Unifying software developers in delivering their apps and updates to end-users.
• Availability of software cannot be obtained in standard way. For example, Natron.
  

First Step

Our first steps to try F34's Flatpak is:

1. We upgrade Fedora system to its fullest.

2. We run Software.

3. We wait for it preparing.

4. Software displays all applications available. 

5. We explore for apps and games available.

6. We install multiple apps and games which are Flatpaks:

• ZeroAD, an ancient warfare strategy game.
  
• Red Eclipse, an excellent first person shooting.
  
• FeedReader, a news subscriber program.
  
• GIMP, the image editor of FLOSS community.
  
• Inkscape, the vector editor.
  
• SuperTuxKart, a cute and playful 3D racing game.
  
• Stellarium, a beautiful desktop planetarium.
  
• OBS Studio, a professional crossplatform broadcasting tool.
• Kooha, a simple desktop screencast recorder.
  

Once installed, these apps will be displayed on Activites Menu on Fedora.

Application Information Displayed

Every application has its own detailed information. One can learn what to be installed to his/her computer by reading that information. We report here from top to bottom of Software window.

- App format chooser

- App name

- App picture(s)

- App description 

- App version history

- App details (repository, license, size)

- App rating and review

In terms of Flatpak, format chooser and app details are the most important sections. Under format chooser, user can select to install an app either from standard version (RPM) or Flatpak version. By default, Fedora 34 has its own Flatpak repository (registry.fedoraproject.org) and if user adds Flathub (see next section), then the choices increased by one that is Flathub (dl.flathub.org). The check sign (

This tutorial explains how a user can search for files and folders on a Kubuntu computer. This tutorial applies to Dolphin, the file manager of Kubuntu, thus also applies to any other systems that use Dolphin like KaOS and openSUSE.

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Step 1. Open File Manager

On Kubuntu, your file manager's name is Dolphin.

Open start menu → click Dolphin → file manager will open. Alternatively, click Home folder on desktop.

Step 2. Visit Where You Want To Search

Before searching, open the folder where you want to do file searching. In this example, we open our DATA partition where we store many of documents, videos, programs and other files. 

Step 3. Search

Click magnifier glass (

This tutorial explains how user can search for files and folders on a deepin OS computer. deepin OS, formerly Hiweed, is a Chinese computer operating system first launched in 2004 and comes with its own user interface that is beautifully unique called DDE. This involves File Manager, the file manager of deepin OS, and in this article we use the OS version 20 and the program version 5.2. Let's start.

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On deepin OS, your file manager's name is File Manager.

Step 1. Open File Manager

Open start menu → click File Manager → File Manager opened.

Alternatively, click File Manager on the bottom panel.

Step 2. Visit The Place You want To Search

Go to the folder where you want to do file searching. In this example, we go to our DATA partition where we store many of documents, videos, audios and other files. 

Step 3. SearchClick magnifier glass button to the top → type what you want to search → press Enter.

For example, type "flower" without quote to search for files and folders with flower in their names. Similarly, keyword "pdf" is for PDF documents, "mp4" is for videos, "mp3" is for audios, and "doc" is for document.

Step 4. Advanced SearchDo a search → search result appears → click filter button right beside magnifier glass → options will appear → change the option(s) to suit your searching needs → filtered search result appears.

• 1st Example: on a given search result, you can filter by File Size: 1 MB ~ 10 MB to find documents and other files with that size range.
• 2nd Example: you can also filter by Time Created: Last year to find files you created last year.
• 3rd Example: you can also combine filters, like File Size and Time Created at the same time, to find, let's say, huge files you created this year.

(File Manager showing advanced search result of huge files created this year)

Tips and Tricks
Beyond the search functionality, to help your search you can also do these:

Recent Files: go to Recent (above Home on your file manager's left panel) to find out files and folders you accessed around lately.

Show Hidden Files: press Ctrl+H to reveal hidden files and folders so you can find one among them. On deepin OS, hidden files are files or folders which each of names started with a dot such as .MyDocuments or .mytext.txt.

Sorting: right-click empty area → Sort by → Time Modified will show you latest edited files and folders on top while alternatively Sort By → Type will arrange up your files according to their file types so you can find a certain file quicker.

Happy searching!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This explanation article is for beginners in The Free Software and GNU/Linux Community. You will certainly meet terms like amd64, i386, and ppc64el as choices when getting copy of a software or an operating system. In short, these terms refer to choices of computer's CPU products (also known as processors) which would determine choices of software and operating systems that you can run on it. In practice, knowing these terms may benefit you to select correctly software and operating systems for your computer. Now let's start learning!

(Debian is the best example of choices between i386, amd64 and ppc64el for computer users)
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What is my computer?

Most PCs and laptops today are amd64. Most PCs and laptops produced in 1990's and before 2011 are i386. Several latest technology computers aimed for the future and could be replacing amd64 and i386 produced as ppc64el. For example, PCs with Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Althlon Classic are all i386 (also known as PC 32-bit) while today PCs with Intel Core 2 Duo and AMD Phenom onwards are all amd64 (also known as PC 64-bit).

 

What is Central Processing Unit?

CPU or Central Processing Unit is the most crucial part of a computer that represents computer itself. All talk about architectures, including amd64 and i386 and ppc64el, is about CPU. It is produced as a small, lightweight, thin rectangle silicon chip equipped with many downwards-pins attached to computer's internal motherboard and not visible by end-users unless by disassembling the computer.

Intel i386, the first CPU of i386 architecture.
Picture linked from Wikipedia Page, Wikimedia Commons.

AMD Opteron, the first CPU of amd64 architecture.
Picture linked from Wikipedia Page, Wikimedia Commons.

What is computer architecture? What's the examples?

Computer architecture (also known as Instruction Set Architecture) is the generic design of a CPU in form of a technical document written by computer architects in which the implementation is the CPU product itself. A computer architecture determines its implementations and later determines end-users' choices of software and operating systems. Examples of architectures including x86 and POWER. These two architectures might be divided into several more, namely amd64 and i386, and ppc64el. There are other architectures, like ARM and MIPS, not discussed in this article.

 

What's 32-bit and 64-bit?

A computer architecture is based on mathematics of the power of 2. This means 2 power 0, 2 power 1, 2 power 3 and goes next to 2 power 32 (called 32-bit) and goes further to 2 power 64 (called 64-bit) today. Every computer architecture in this modern age is generally divided into two technology generations, 32-bit generation and 64-bit generation, showing difference in how much information the processor can process at a time. Today, 64-bit computers are the norm and sold everywhere; while the 32-bit ones are not produced anymore but still around us and considered legacy technology.

In practice, this means

• by hardware, Personal Computers sold since 1980's to date are generally divided into two generations, the 32-bit ones, and the 64-bit ones; while 
• by software, the operating systems for that computers are also divided into two generations, 32-bit and 64-bit.
• by history, in general all computers produced between 1980 to 2010 are 32-bit while those produced 2011 afterwards are 64-bit.
  

What is i386? What's the examples?

i386 (also known as IA-32, x86, x86_32, and PC 32-bit) is a choice of computers from the family of Personal Computer which is based on 32-bit technology. This architecture was first invented by Intel hence the name i386, and AMD later adopted it, resulting in availability of both i386 processors in the market. Historically, all 1990's produced computers are i386 hence the examples of i386 processors are Intel Pentium and AMD Athlon.

There are general rules of i386 computers: an i386 computer can run any i386 software and any i386 OS. No amd64 software, no amd64 OS either, can run on an i386 computer. This is its difference to amd64.

What is amd64? What's the examples?

amd64 (also known as x86_64, x64, PC 64 bit, and 64-bit) is a choice of computers produced by both AMD and Intel from the family of Personal Computers which is based on 64-bit technology. This architecture was first invented by AMD, hence the name amd64, and later adopted by Intel, resulting in both processors availability in the market. In practice, end-users might buy an amd64 CPU from either AMD or Intel. Examples of amd64 processors are AMD APU and Intel Core. 

There are general rules of amd64 computers: an amd64 computer can run any  amd64 software and can also run any amd64 OS with an exception that is, it can also run any i386 software and OS. This exception is one among benefits of amd64 over i386.

 

What is ppc64el? What's the examples?

ppc64el (not to be confused with PowerPC or ppc64) also known as IBM POWER Little Endian is a choice of computer from OpenPOWER Foundation starting with its POWER8 generation of architecture. CPU examples of ppc64el are IBM POWER8, POWER9 and Power10 while computer example of it is Raptor Talos II (that is a PC preloaded with Debian ppc64el). Today, this computing choice is new and still very expensive.

There are general rules of ppc64el computers: a ppc64el computer can run any ppc64el software and any ppc64el OS. No any i386 nor amd64 software and OS can run on ppc64el.

To know more about ppc64el, please refer to OpenPOWER Foundation and IBM.

Where to find examples of amd64, i386, and ppc64el?

All computer operating systems today offered as amd64. In practice, Windows and Ubuntu today are amd64 only (meaning, no i386 version anymore).

All GNU/Linux operating systems in the past were offered as i386, while now only a few remaining to be available as i386. For example, in the past, Windows 95 and 98 were all i386, while 10 onwards are all amd64 only. Several distros which still offer i386 versions are among others Debian, Devuan, MX and Trisquel.

Many major GNU/Linux operating systems today also offered as ppc64el. For example, see Debian, Devuan, Fedora, openSUSE, Red Hat, and Ubuntu.

IMPORTANT NOTE: in fact, the reason why all major operating systems (Windows, MacOS, GNU/Linux) discontinued their i386 versions is that because i386 computers themselves were no longer produced since a long time (10 years ago at the moment we publish this article) so they gradually switched and focused to amd64 instead. Please note that in the future, all operating systems and software developers might discontinue i386 completely.

Relationship between software, OS, and architecture choices

Your hardware choice determines your operating system choice and later determines your software choice. The general rule is that an architecture runs operating systems matched that architecture and runs software matched that architecture as well, otherwise, the operating systems and/or the software will not run. In practice, this means generally if your computer is i386, you should run an i386 OS, and later run i386 software on it. You should not run an amd64 OS on that computer, as it will not run. Likewise, you should not run an amd64 software on that computer, as it will not run as well. Generally, same practice applies to i386, amd64, and ppc64el as well as any other architecture.

What to do with these three choices?

Finally, what you should do when seeing choices of amd64, i386, and ppc64el?

• If your computer is amd64, choose operating system that is for amd64, and choose software that is for amd64 as well. 
• If your computer is i386, choose operating system that is for i386, and choose software that is for i386 as well. 
• If your computer is ppc64el, choose operating system that is for ppc64el, and choose software that is for ppc64el as well.
  

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.