Kubuntu computer users benefit from its full featured file manager and desktop. Here's my personal collection of tips & tricks on Kubuntu you might find them useful -- as I use and teach it daily for years. You will be able to do everything easily and easier, like bulk conversion as well as managing files more efficiently plus some others. Now let's go and enjoy!
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The Basics
- KDE: Kubuntu's user interface, the K in Kubuntu name, formerly means Kool Desktop Environment.

- Dolphin:
Kubuntu's file manager, you access folders & disk drives with it.

- Konsole:
Kubuntu's terminal, you command with it.


1. File Manager Split
Press F3. You can compare two different folders in one window side by side.

2. File Manager's Konsole
Press F4. You can open an integrated Terminal right within Dolphin without opening a separate one -- automatically following wherever you are in the filesystem. Excellent feature both for teaching and working currently exclusive for KDE users only.
(Picture of Dolphin with F3, F4, and F11 features all enabled simultaneously)

3. Bulk Image Resizer+Converter
Right-click several pictures and Convert them at once or Resize as you wish, easily and quickly. Excellent feature exists only for KDE users today. Extremely useful for graphic designers and alike. Read the guide here.

4. Additional Info View
Press F11. You can see file preview & properties on the right panel. Very useful for example if you have wide screen.

5. Tooltips Preview
Useful for previewing between images quickly in zoom. Enable it from the menu Settings > Configure Dolphin > General > Show Tooltips > OK.

6. Bulk Renaming
Use KRename to change name of multiple files at once. As its name suggests, KRename is a part of KDE and Kubuntu. Very useful for those who often work with thousands of files. Read the guide here.

7. Android File Transfers & More
On Kubuntu, right-click and send to Android -- and vice versa -- on Android, hold tap and share to Kubuntu desktop. You can transfer multiple files at any time with as many devices as you want. This works with wifi connection (no internet required). Excellently useful for daily use, for example, to transfer photos. The name of this feature is KDE Connect. Read the guide here.

8. Drag and Drop Pictures
You can drag and drop pictures right from the appearing notification or the image viewer Gwenview to anywhere. This convenient feature means you can send them quickly to Telegram. I benefit from this as a teacher.

8. Quick Access
Like magic, press some keys and computer does exactly a thing you want -- that is fully supported on Kubuntu. You can make custom shortcut keys to open a certain feature, program, or command -- or combination of them. You can also create new and edit existing start menu items. To do so, go to System Settings > Shortcuts to associate keys with commands you want -- and right-click start menu > Edit to change its items.

10. Quick Kill Programs
There are several ways to quickly kill hanged program. These are useful for troubleshootings:

- Press Ctrl+Esc then find program name then right-click and Kill
- Press Alt+F2 then type xkill then Enter then click the Skull cursor on an app
- Open Konsole and type killall firefox to force close Firefox, just change firefox with other program's name

11. Money Currency Check
Press Alt+F2 and type 1 USD in IDR to convert one dollar to Indonesia's Rupiah. Just change the IDR to JPY, CNY, or MYR for Japan's, China's, or Malaysia's currency respectively. This requires internet access.

12. 3D Cube Desktop
Useful for entertainment and inviting people to use same OS like yours. Enable it under System Settings > Desktop Effects > Cube > change the shortcut key to Win+S or anything else you like > Apply > play it.  Like example below when a student shows his Kubuntu to me via a Jitsi meeting.


That's all. I hope you enjoy it!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

You can video call without phone, number, nor email. Here, if you can video call, of course you can do group chat, voice, upload files, and share screen too. Thanks to Element and several other choices, now this is possible. It is very useful for everybody in teams or groups today especially when work from home becomes a norm. What to prepare and how to do it? This article explains it briefly special for you and your friends.

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Choices

Your choices are between  Element, Movim,  Session, Jami, Jitsi, and Big Blue Button. You and your friends should choose one choice. This excludes choices with phone or email requirement such as Signal or Zulip. They all support voice calls except one as explained briefly below:

- Element
Access: https://app.element.io
Matrix based complete communication solution.

- Movim
Access: https://movim.eu
The best Xmpp messenger with voice - video - share screen features.

- Session
Access: https://getsession.org
Australian messenger, no web & video/voice calls currently.

- Jami
Access: https://jami.net
GNU operating system's telephony, accessible everywhere except at web.

- Jitsi
Access: https://meet.jit.si
Public video call platform which is free - instant - stable, no signup.

- BBB
Access: https://bigbluebutton.org
Public video call like Jitsi plus education tools integration.

 (An example of Movim/Xmpp communication anonymously)

Preparations

• You and your friend (at least two persons).
• Yours and your friend's devices (at least two devices). The device may be a computer, a laptop, or a smartphone.
  
• An internet access for both.
• Webcam (optional).
  
  

Communication

This simple tutorial picks up one example, that is Element, that can represent all choices presented here. The signup is anonymous, easy & quick, with all the most complete features you can get for free (gratis). To do communication is like below:

1) Turn on your computer, laptop, or phone.

2) With web browser, go to https://app.element.io.

3) Register, make yourself a username & a password.

4) Login, welcome yourself for the first time.

5) Make a call, by finding and voice/video calling him/her.

6) Make a group call, by making a group and do group voice/video call with members

(Element desktop & phone users voice calling to each other)

For more specific guide with pictures, please read more Element here, Jami here, Jitsi here, BigBlueButton here, Movim here, and finally Session here.

Notes

The Communication section above is applicable to all choices except Session (for today) mentioned here. You can use Jitsi instead of Element, for example, to do so, and so do other choices like Jami or Movim. Enjoy your communication!

See Further

- List of Video Calling Solutions

Learn more about other choices like Mattermost or RocketChat.

- Alternative World List

Learn more about our alternative world in a bigger picture.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

First time encountering Free Libre Open Source Software? First time using GNU plus Linux computers? Want to get friends and supports? want to know more about software freedom? Join our community -- the Free Software community. In this list you will see biggest discussion forums in form or web forums, mailing lists, etc. Once again, I don't make distinction whether each forum is official or not. This is a short version of my old longer list (see here, see here) so you can immediately see and join!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.1) Free Software Foundation

The FSF (Free Software Foundation) along with The GNU Project are the pioneer and the source of all Free Software Movement around the world. If you want to know free software, you see the FSF. There are discussion forums you can join:

- LibrePlanet
- Trisquel OS Forum
- Parabola OS List

2) The GNU Project

GNU is the first and only free software operating system. Our GNU/Linux comes from GNU and the project is the source of all distros we know -- and inspired the other new free OSes like FreeDOS and ReactOS. There is top discussion forum you can join:

- GNU-Linux-Libre List

3) The Linux Project

You must have heard about Linux, right? Linux is the most popular symbol of our Free Software community -- and actually it is a program among other programs in our OS. Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) is the most active public email discussion place on the internet. However, there are many public discussion places for The Linux Kernel such as below:

- LKML
- Kernel Newbies
- Super User
- ServerFault
- AskUbuntu

4) LibreOffice Community

Thanks to LibreOffice, we have the best Free Software office suite everywhere. Thanks to the predecessors too, OpenOffice.org and Sun Microsystem, without you all this great goodness will never be a reality.

5) KDE and GNOME

KDE and GNOME are the symbols of our Free Software community when we talk about computer user interface -- compared to Windows' and macOS' -- representing the other choices like Cinnamon and Deepin. They are so cheerful & easy to approach as they are more closer to humans than, say, low level things which need deep thinking like kernel or the OS. So join them here:

- KDE Forum
- GNOME Forum

6) Debian Community

The oldest combination of GNU operating system plus Linux which had most number of derivative distros. Debian is the source of the most popular distro, Ubuntu, hence the source to others too, from A to Z, like Antix and Zorin.

- Debian Lists

7) Fedora Community

When I talk about Fedora community here, I mean the mainline RPM family including Red Hat, CentOS and everything else related. 

- What Can I Do For Fedora
- Users List

8) Ubuntu Forums

When people talk about "Linux", they talk about Ubuntu in my country. That describes how popular Ubuntu is as the most popular symbol of GNU/Linux operating system. See discussions on the net you will always see Ubuntu among the results.

- The Forum
- AskUbuntu
- Users List

9) Linux Mint Forums

The traditionalist Ubuntu from Ireland, Linux Mint, touched the hearts of many computer users everywhere. That is why the discussion forums are so strong for years up to today -- it is very vast and active society on the net! Both the News Site and Web Forum are busy with discussions among the users and the developers --often, commented directly-- an amazing & admirable experience you will never find with Microsoft or Apple.

The Blog

Where news announced and people coming by to leave comments, a lot, and developers answer, a lot too.

The Forum

Where everything about Mint discussed vastly and widely everyday.

10) openSUSE Forums

The green chameleons, European operating system family SUSE and openSUSE made big parts of our Free Software Community. We know the most complete and user friendly control panel, Yast, is there. If you ever had an openSUSE computer, you will know what I mean. Join them at the forum!

11) Computer Graphic Forums

Do you do computer graphics and photography? You know, today we are strong --actually since years-- thanks to the community in both 2D and 3D fields. Feeling weak? Have some friends and join them!

PIXLS.US

The photographers and graphics users are here -- the only professional community talking tools like Rawtherapee, GIMP and Darktable with their beautiful list of software. I suggest everyone to see this one first before anything else in libre graphics.

Libre Graphics World

This community's name names the graphics part of our Free Software Community -- yes, it literally is. The new website is now LibreArts.org and the old one was LibreGraphicsWorld.org.

Blender Community

One of the best 3D animation communities on earth thanks to the great tool, Blender, that has been made the movies like Sintel and Tears of Steel.

FreeCAD Community

Architectural buildings & mechanical drawings are covered with the tool FreeCAD. We have a strong community here -- they love to share their house & machinery designs there.

Libre.Graphics

A very simple website that sums them up nicely. Good for starters!

12) The Privacy Projects

Learned that computing privacy is important? Most likely you heard that from our Free Software Community. You can join us:

- Privacy Tools IO

This is the user-friendly computing-privacy resource on the net. The discussion happens on web forum and GitHub.

- Prism Break 

This is a really good resource similar to Privacy Tools that teaches us to use Free instead Nonfree software, and the independence, for security of our data and communication. The discussion happens on GitHub.

- F-Droid Community

Nothing like F-Droid on other than Android system even on GNU/Linux itself. Thanks to the strong F-Droid and also The Guardian Project communities, we can learn so much from them that Free Software, security & privacy, and independence are very important -- as a golden bonus, they made everything easy.

Afterwords
That's all from me. Of course there are so many others not mentioned here so you can learn further (see here, see here) and explore yourself. I wish you the best experience. Happy computing!

See More

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After learning Open & Save, now we will learn about Fonts, before we learn about Making Text later. This Part III of the tutorial for students series discusses what are fonts, how we use fonts, and to get them to design & illustrate with Inkscape on computer. You will learn from here font families like Sans Serif Mono as well as their styles Bold Italic Regular aside from basic knowledge about fonts across operating systems with examples and pictures included. Happy learning and let's go!
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.[ In this series: Preamble | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 ]

About Computer
To understand the rest of this simple tutorial, it is good to learn a little bit of computing. The main topic is computer -- it is an electronic machine which works with operating system (OS) otherwise it won't. In short, to display text on screen, computers use digital files --in fact, a certain type of programs-- called fonts, that styles how a b c ... z being drawn on screen.



By OS, it is a choice between GNU/Linux - Windows - macOS. By fonts, it is like applications, there are so many fonts (sometimes called typefaces) such as Times New Roman or Liberation Serif, they can be copied and used between different OSes. You obtain new fonts as files with a certain format, .ttf and .otf are the most popular ones, either from your friends or by downloading from the internet.

A user sees choice of fonts on his computer via programs, mainly a word processor (like Writer), or an illustrator (like Inkscape), or file manager (like Nautilus).

A Font
Fonts are choices and shapes.  Fonts (also called typefaces) are a part of computer operating systems (OS). Talking about fonts always involves a talk about OS choices. An OS brings its own fonts and will be different to other OS’ fonts for a user. For a user of Windows OS, you’ll be accustomed to these names – Arial, Courier, and Times New Roman. For a user of GNU/Linux OS, instead, you’ll know Liberation, DejaVu, and Free. A font consists of alphabets, numbers, and other characters in certain shapes. Every font is a file stored in a folder and used to draw text on screen. Fonts are the shapes of those text. Choices of fonts are choices of text shapes. Fonts are universal so they can be stored, copied, and used across OS choices – so you can use Arial on GNU and Liberation on Windows for example. Thus, a font is a collection of letters - numbers – characters drawn in certain style of shapes Bold - Italic - Regular which can be used repeatedly to produce text with computer. 

Types of Font
Serif, Sans, and Mono families are three kinds of font.

The particularity of Serif family is they are sharp. Look at the tips of every letter. Examples of Serif family fonts:
    • Times New Roman
    • Liberation Serif
    • FreeSerif
    • DejaVu Serif 


The particularity of Sans family is they are dull. They do not have “serif” and thus the name “sans-serif” meaning “without-sharp tips”. Examples of Sans family fonts:
    • Arial
    • Liberation Sans
    • FreeSans
    • DejaVu Sans 

The particularity of Mono family is they are square. Pick a letter and you will see the width and the length are equal – so are other letters. Seeing text in Mono fonts is like seeing text typed with the old typewriter machines. Examples of Mono family fonts:
    • Monospace
    • Courier New
    • Liberation Mono
    • DejaVu Mono
    • FreeMono 

Styles of a Font
Every font has some set of styles a computer user can choose. An excellent example is Ubuntu or DejaVu font with the most complete style choices. However, most fonts usually only have the first three styles. They are:
 - RegularThe default choice.
- BoldThicker text.
- ItalicLeaner text.- CondensedThinner text, narrower letter's width.
- LightThinner text, smaller letter's stroke.- Bold Italic, Condensed Bold, Condensed ItalicCombinations of available styles.

Sizes of a Font
A font supports multiple size. This makes computer can resize enlarge or shrink text very easily. To change a text size from one to another, thanks to fonts, a user clicks whatever size he wants on the computer and it changed. Below is my name typed with a Sans font with five different size (8, 10, 12, 15, and 20 points).

OSes and Their Fonts

Computer OSes bring some fonts by default and a user can add more if he wishes. You are good to know this as different OS creates different traditions or habits to the users because of their default fonts. What you need to know is that fonts are universal so ones from an OS can be used in the other OSes and vice versa -- that means Arial can be used on GNU/Linux, Liberation can be used on Windows, and vice versa, so does with Apple Garamond from MacOS. Below is OSes and their default fonts: - Windows: Arial, Comic Sans, Helvetica, Times New Roman
- GNU/Linux: Liberation, DejaVu, FreeFont- MacOS: Apple Garamond, Lucida Grande, Andale Mono

Where to get more fonts? 

 

Getting more fonts is as easy as copying some files to computer. Among the ways to get them:

- Ask your friends for copies
- GNU FreeFont 
- Liberation Font
- Libertine Font
- Ubuntu Font
- Comfortaa Font 
- Dafont.com

How To Install A Font
Fonts are installed on your OS, not in your application. A font is a stored file with the extension .ttf or .otf. To install one, double-click a font file and press Install button. Once a font has been installed on your OS, you can use them on Inkscape.


See a Font In Inkscape,  enable Text Tool (T) and font selector will appear on the toolbar.  Click the font selector drop down and selections of font with their examples will appear.
Use a Font To use a font is to benefit from its shapes. Once a font is installed, you can type text in Inkscape with that font with its choices of shape (Bold - Italic - Regular)
To apply a font to a text, first select the letters in the text with Text Tool then select a font from the selector. To add more fonts to Inkscape, is to add them to the operating system (OS). See above to do it. Summary That's all. From this part, you learned about what is font, a brief explanation about computing and OS, understanding font families and their particularities, and of course how to get and use fonts in computer graphic design with Inkscape. Next time, according to our table of contents, we will learn to text -- do the basics of dealings with alphabets, letters, numbers, and everything else of writings. Enjoy learning and see you in the next part!

to be continued...
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Portable apps make GNU/Linux computer easier to users. Do you know AppImages? They are portable applications you can download officially and run on your GNU/Linux computers. Lately, I found more prestigious Free Software apps proudly made available as AppImages for example Enve2D (animation), Digikam (photography), Zulip (communication), even FlightGear and Red Eclipse (games) among others as mentioned below. Now let's see and quickly get them all!

 (Big software such as FlightGear game is now in AppImage | Image source)

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For whom this is?For everyone using GNU/Linux computer with whatever choice of distros who wants to run an app quickly like in Microsoft or Apple computers.

How To Play

Double click an AppImage file after making it executable. See here for a guide.

Security

KeePassXC

Everyone should have a password manager so they does not need to remember many accounts. KeePassXC is the exact reality of that, it helps you save your usernames, passwords, emails, bank accounts, etc. with a key password only you know. Fortunately, now it is AppImage, you can download and run it instantly.

Communication & File Sharing

Session | Zulip | RetroShare | StatusIM

Good news comes from communication front! Aside from more new instant messengers coming, now they can be downloaded as AppImages as well, so you can run then easily or help test quickly on multiple distros. No other portable solutions (Flatpak, Snap) can be as fast as AppImage for testing! Among them are Session (the no metadata), Zulip (the email-like collaboration), RetroShare (the peer to peer), and StatusIM (the cryptocurrency stylish) messengers.

Graphics

Digikam | Rawtherapee |  Enve2D

Good news comes again and again from Graphics front. Now Digikam (photo manager & processing like Lightroom), Rawtherapee (raw photo processing), and Enve (2D animation maker) can be downloaded as AppImages for your GNU and Linux computers.

 (A pretty sight of Rawtherapee the darkroom photo tool | Image source)
Video Production

Kdenlive | Cinelerra | Olive | OpenShot

The hidden treasure, Cinelerra (GG version), is alive alongside Kdenlive and the new challenger Olive. Cinelerra is the best, most complete, professional video editor for GNU/Linux although not many people know it while Kdenlive is a more popular, user friendly alternative to it and Olive is still a new thing. The good news is that we can download and use them as AppImages now.

Multimedia

FreeTube

Enjoy YouTube freely from your desktop, that is FreeTube purpose. This means you are free from nonfree JavaScript and also privacy surveillance -- e.g. no login activities recorded. 
 UtilityEtcher Want to make a USB bootable? Use Etcher. Now it can be downloaded and run instantly.

Games

FlightGear | OpenRA | Red Eclipse

Awesome news comes from gaming front! Now the piloting aircraft simulator FlightGear, the Red Alert-like strategy OpenRA, and the multiplayer first-person shooting Red Eclipse are available as AppImages too like any other ones mentioned above. This means just download and play like the old times!

Earlier Applications

So we will not forget, there were several important Free Software apps which already in AppImages officially before these above. They are:

- our office suite LibreOffice

- the illustrator Inkscape

- the painter Krita

- the gif screencaster Peek

Interesting Links

Finally, to close this article you can learn & benefir more from AppImages by seeing these interesting links:

Apprepo - the new AppImageHub.

AppImageHub - curated list of AppImages you can download. Think of this like Softpedia or Majorgeeks but for GNU/Linux instead.

The AppImage Project - the source of this magic. Thank you very much Probono for inventing it.

Let's be productive!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Movim is a free, beautiful looking, complete communication solution which is like a combination of Facebook, WhatsApp and Blogger. With Movim you can connect to friends, make posts and blog news, create groups, plus voice & video calls -- aside from its Xmpp network. See features it offers and you can expect it can be used for many purposes including online meetings and classrooms. This simple guide exists to help you start Movim. Let's go!

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About Movim and Features

 "The social platform shaped for your community…and that federates with the others"

Movim (https://movim.eu) is a Free Software project based on a worldwide network called Xmpp. With Movim, you will get an identity that looks like purplesky@movim.eu. It federates (connects) you with other social networks & instant messengers and it is web based everyone can access, to give you the differences with the alternatives. You can think Movim as an alternative to WhatsApp, as well as an alternative to Twitter or Blogspot if you want. You do not need to install any application and you can access it on your phone as well. Movim relies on donation and you can help fund it to support its development.

Features of Movim in brief:

• Free
• Cross platform, accessible via web and Android
  
• No phone number or email required
  
• Based on decentralized, standard network Xmpp
• Can be used with Xmpp clients of your choice
  
• Beautiful user interface & easy to use (rare feature)
• Emoji, photos, files sharing
• Groups and channels (similar to Telegram's)
  
• Voice, video calls & screen sharing
• and many more!

Movim is the most user friendly Xmpp today!

About Xmpp

Once you read about Movim, immediately you will find about Xmpp. It is Jabber, also known as Xmpp, a secure, decentralized, and federated technology everyone can use to chat online existed strongly since 1990's. To give you how great Xmpp network is, actually when you use WhatsApp you use Xmpp, so does with Google Talk and Jitsi, so when you use those you are using Xmpp. To give you a few of its benefits, Xmpp is not controlled by a single company (so unlike Twitter) it is hard to shut down by anyone.

Below is the basics guide to start Movim.

1. Registration

• Go to movim.eu then click Try It then click Mov.im choice to register. 
• Alternatively, just go to https://mov.im instead and register.
• Once registered, you will have a Movim username that looks like purplesky@movim.eu.

 

2. Login

• Go to www.movim.eu then click Try it then login with your Movim account.
• Alternatively, you can login with Xmpp accounts if you have one.
• Once logged in, you will see a welcome message on Movim. 

This is your first time discovering Movim, congratulations!  To understand Movim user interface, learn from picture above the left - middle - right area:

• Left area: the basics including your profile, create new post, news, EXPLORE, and CHAT pages aside from notifications and sign out buttons.
• Middle area: the post box and timeline where everything happens. 
• Right area: the news happening in Movim worldwide.

3. Invite your friends 

• Give this tutorial to your friend.
• To share a group, copy group link and send it to your friends. 
• To share a channel, do the same as with group.

 

4. Find Friends 

• You can find me as purplesky@movim.eu at Movim. Feel free to say hello!
• Go to EXPLORE page.
  
• Ask people their Xmpp accounts.

Basically to get new friends, you go to EXPLORE or CHATS page. Below is the explanation. 

EXPLORE: click the Compass button and you see a list of current news in the Movim world. From here you see currently popular tags and thoughts from many people. Click a news and you can add the author as friend. 

CHATS: click the Chats button and you see a list of people you can add. To add a new friend, simply click his/her name and click the People+ button.

 

 5. Post and Comment

Movim is a weblog platform as well as a social network. You share a post and people comment on it. People can also Like it or Share it to others. You can make a post (just like a 'tweet' or a 'status') which is visible publicly (the world can see) or privately (visible only to Movim users). See this blog post example. This means you are given the Blogspot-like and also Facebook-like capabilities to share stories! 

To write a post, like example below, simply write your thoughts on the post box and send. To like, press Love button. To comment, press Dialog Balloon button. To reshare, press Paper Plane button.

6. Chat

Click a friend to start chatting. You can send text, documents, files, photos and uniquely doodles (drawings) with your friend. Below is a chat between two persons namely purplesun and purplesky. Notice also the Telephone and Camera buttons on top.

7. Groups & Channels 

• Join a group.
  
• Create new group.
  
• Create new channel.
  
• Invite friends to it.

Movim features groups and channels so you can make your communications better. A group can contain many people to chat to each other under one topic. A channel is your broadcasting tool -- to give news updates to as many as people as you wish. To join one, go to CHAT and click PLUS button and explore chatrooms.

• To create a group, go to CHAT > click PLUS button > select Group Chat > name it > Create > a new group created. 
• To create a channel, go to CHAT > click PLUS button > select Channel > name it > Create > a new channel created. 
• To invite someone else to your group or channel, add their username or send them an invite link. Find your invite link under your Group logo > Add New Member.
  

 

8. Calls

 

Calls are divided to voice - video - screen sharing. 

• To call a friend, simply click the phone button beside his/her name and wait for the acceptance. 
• To call with a video, instead of the phone button, click the camera button and when he/she accepts it both of you will see each other's face. This requires webcams.
  
• To call with screen sharing, that is, your screen appears on his/her screen and vice versa, first do a video call and then click the Screen button and select Entire Screen. 

You can kill webcam by clicking the camera button so the camera got a slash line.
 Notes: at the moment, Movim can do these 3 things only for 2 persons at a time (no conference) and the screen sharing is not working on Android. We all wish the best improvements soon appear at Movim. I can confirm the official Movim app for Android from F-Droid today is unable to do screen sharing and using Firefox Mobile is a better experience.

8. File Sharing With Movim you can upload photos, screenshots, documents, programs, and any other type of files to your friends.  To share a file, enter a chat > click PLUS button > Upload > a file chooser dialog appears > select one file > Share > the file sent to your friend. Note: at the moment, Movim can share one file per upload and no multiple upload or multi files drag-and-drop either (unlike Telegram's). We wish it will be added soon by the developers. 
Summaries

 

We are happy with Movim --the easiest Xmpp chat-- today. To sum up everything, it offers us all:

• Free software & gratis access.
• Friends, group chat and blogging in one place.
  
• Video, voice calls with 2-ways screen sharing.
• Web, desktop and smartphone supports.
  
• Front & back cameras support for phone. 
• and many more!

 My comments are like the following. I as a Telegram user --who also explore others-- feel Movim is good for most people (casual persons). We all can access Movim completely without phone number (advantage over Telegram) and the use is truly easy (advantage over Element) and the messaging is reliable (advantage over Jami). Some features are not present at the moment but they are acceptable considering it is highly potential thanks to Xmpp as its underlying technology. Finally, in the alternative world, I believe, people who felt satisfied with Mastodon will feel Movim satisfying too. That's all and happy chatting!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This tutorial is the 2nd of the Inkscape for Students series. Below you will learn about graphics formats, the graphic format SVG, and how to open & save graphics, including how to insert ones in a document. Let's learn!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.
In This Series Preamble - Introduction & Table of ContentsGetting Started - Download & Run The Program

Graphic Formats

What is a graphic format? Computer processes graphics, sounds, and programs as information, can be created and stored, and these information are distinguished by certain formats. For graphics, computer user works with photos or drawings with formats like PNG, JPEG, and SVG among others. In a computer, photos or drawing are displayed as files with names such as scenery.jpeg, icon.png, design.svg according to each graphic format. Inkscape can open and save wide choices of graphic formats below:

Formats to Open:

• PNG
• JPEG
• SVG
• Adobe Illustrator's AI
  
• CorelDRAW's CDR 
• AutoCAD's DXF
  

Formats to Save:

• PNG
• PDF
• PostScript
• EPS

 

 

Default format:

Inkscape as a computer program has its own graphic document format which is called scalable vector graphics (SVG). SVG to Inkscape is like AI to Adobe Illustrator and CDR to CorelDRAW. When you drew and saved a document in Inkscape, by default it is in SVG graphic format. This SVG format has many benefits and among them is it is widely accessible by any computer user with graphics or web browser programs. For example, you will see SVG is the format of many logos of many articles on Wikipedia -- you can download them and open them in Inkscape.


Open and Save
 

• To open a graphic document, click menu File > Open.
• An Open File dialog will appear.
• Click the file and click Open button.
• Picture opened.
  

• To save a graphic document, click menu File > Save.
• Choose a graphic format.
• Choose a folder as a place to save it.
• Click save button. 
• Picture saved.
  

Insert

 

To insert a picture into an existing document, you do:

• Open your computer's file manager.
• Find a picture.
• Drag and drop it to Inkscape document.
• Picture inserted.

 

Summary
That's the basics of basics of computer graphic design with Inkscape. Here you learned what are graphic formats, how to open, how to save, and how to insert them. Next time you will learn about fonts, how to get and use them. Happy learning!

To be continued...

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 115%; background: transparent }

For you Kubuntu users who want to know what you can enjoy with Groovy Gorilla version or 20.10, here's a summary. In short, you will get the most beautiful LibreOffice ever plus continuation of the convenience. This release from the year 20 and the month 10 can be downloaded at www.kubuntu.org and you will get nine months of official support freely. Let's go!

Ofice suite – LibreOffice 7 included now features the prettiest “ribbon-like” interface ever. It's better than version 6.

Web browser – Firefox included is now capable to encrypt your connections. This ability is called DNS over HTTPS also known as DoH.

Email – the old Kmail is now replaced with Thunderbird that features a freshly refined look.

Larger Pin – can your desktop environment pin an opened tray? Kubuntu can do that since years and now with more visible pin button.


Animations and Looks – better animations, better user experience. Now every progress is displayed as a nice animation for each taskbar entry, such as, taking a delayed screenshot. And resizing a widget is not as difficult as before, because the handles are now look larger and clearer.


Night Color – love your eyes health, and on the tray you can enable that.

Audio player – the old Amarok and the less user friendly Cantata now replaced with the easier, beautiful audio player Elisa.


Wacom – do you have a popular drawing tablet? Now Kubuntu adds a special setup on the Settings.


Reading – now Okular becomes prettier with a tidier look and still with multitab.

Applications – how is your software center? Now Kubuntu features a better and faster Discover. We can now set either Snap or Normal repository as default by a click.

Happy computing!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

What is your choice after switching from Zoom? You should choose Free Libre Open Source Software solutions like mentioned in this article. This list offers you choices of video call platform which are accessible using both computer & phone, free at no cost access, and also do not require you to install app. I wish this list helps every student, teacher, school, and university in the world. Please help me share! 

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.

Forewords

I teach computer course in Indonesia with Telegram as the classroom and Jitsi as the video conferencing. I present this list for everyone who need the best video calls and as always they are free software, free services. This is motivated a lot by my #Messengers  poll at Mastodon in general, then my #BetterThanZoom post, and a member of FSF India in particular (thank you all friends who have been participated).

(Better Than Zoom | This attracts so many people at Mastodon | Important: the correct RocketChat address should be https://rocket.chat)

1. Jitsi

“More secure, more flexible, and completely free video conferencing” - the best conferencing I use in my classroom that is the easiest for everyone to join and just work. No signup needed. There are a lot of Jitsi servers which can be accessed for free (gratis). Where to join? Official instance (recommended, no limits) | Framasoft Jitsis | LibreHost Jitsis.

2. BigBlueButton

“Engage Your Online Students” - widely used in schools and has integration with learning platforms like Moodle, it is the crystal clear voice and video conferencing BBB. It features share screen, whiteboard, and file sharing. Registration needed. Where to join? Official instance (recommended (60 min. limit)) | Framasoft BBBs | LibreHost BBBs.

3. Element

“Element is a messenger and collaboration app.” - the full featured federated messenger with video conference, file sharing, and screen sharing ability. It is built on a network called Matrix. Where to join? Official instance (recommended, available in all devices).

4. Movim

“The universal messaging standard” - Movim is a web based Xmpp, with full featured social networking with voice and video call as well as whiteboard, file sharing & screen sharing aside from groups and channels (similar to Telegram) which can be used in education. Registration required, but phone number or email not required. Where to join? Movim (recommended).

5. Mattermost

“Mattermost is a high trust, open source collaboration platform built for developers.” - it is the enterprise grade, full featured Slack alternative with voice and video conferences. Registration required. Where to join? Official instance. 

6. Rocket Chat

“The ultimate communication platform.” - a professional grade group communication suite with voice and video conference (Jitsi) features. It is proud to be Zoom alternative. It requires registration for both organizer and participants. Where to join? Official instance.

7. P2P Chat

“No-nonsense video calls. No logins. No tracking. Free forever.” - a peer to peer video conferencing via web browser. Very easy to use. Can be used for desktop and phone. No screen sharing at the moment. Where to join? Official instance. 

Note: if you know programming, please consider to help the development.

8. Nextcloud Talk

"Screensharing, online meetings & web conferencing without data leaks." - the professional server storage and communication solution. Registration required for both organizer and participants. Where to join? Official choices.

Worth Mentioning

There are other alternatives which are seriously capable in voice and video calls mentioned below. All available in all major operating systems.

Jami – an official part of GNU Operating System, serverless communication with group chat and crystal clear video conferences capability. See our Jami Tutorial.

OBS – Open Broadcaster Software is a magic used by Free Software Foundation to stream international video conferences with the ability to combine multiple of your apps screens at once.

OpenMeetings – similar video call solution like Jitsi from the infamous Apache Foundation rich of features.

Afterwords

That's all. There are still many other choices like Signal or Threema so I suggest you to see my Mastodon poll What is your choice?. Finally, I wish this list helped you find your best conferencing.

Further Reading

Free Software Foundation | Better Than Zoom

The GNU Project | Proprietary Sabotage: "This demonstrates what we've said for years: using proprietary software means letting someone have power over you, and you're going to get screwed sooner or later."

Rocket Chat (Features) | Mattermost (Features)

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Are you facing issues with Element's security phrase and key? Here's an easy guide, step by step, everyone can practice to setup them. You are required to have Element on two devices, web and phone pair is better, to do that. Hopefully this helps you and now let's go!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.Basics

• Phone is better to never logout.
• Desktop is better to always login after phone.
• Security phrase is different to password and different to key.
  
• Security phrase and key are better created on desktop.
• You need a password manager app like KeePassXC.

Final goals should look like below that means everything is okay and verified.

 (Results wished from practicing this tutorial)

1. Do not have Element?

Register freely at Element.io and download the Android app on F-Droid. This is already explained in Element Basic Guide.

2. Do not have a password manager?

Get KeePassXC. Follow this tutorial to setup one. Run it and save your pair of Element username password as an entry on it. This is also explained already in KeePassXC Basic Guide. For Android, install KeePassDX from F-Droid as it can reads XC's database.

3. First Login

Do your first login on desktop. Go to app.element.io and login. If you do not know how, learn it at Element Basic Guide. Once logged in, you see the first welcome message.

4. Setup Security Phrase and Key

Go to menu > Security & Privacy > Secure Backup > Setup > Set up secure backup dialog appears > Choose Enter a security phrase > generate a pass phrase with your KeePassXC password manager > copy and paste that pass phrase to Element > Continue > copy paste it once again to confirm > Save Your Security Key appears after your Security Key has been generated automatically > download it, save the file named recovery-key.txt in KeePassXC app > Continue > finished. Now, you have an Element password, a Security Phrase, and a Security Key, and finally once you have these guys everything will be easy. Important: make sure you saved them all in KeePassXC and never lost them.

When Element asks you Security Phrase, open KeePassXC, and copy-paste it.

5. Verify Other Sessions

While Element Desktop is still active, now we will login from the second device that is a Element Mobile (Android or iOS). Open Element Mobile > login with your username and password > a notification appears on desktop "New login. Was this you? Later | Verify" > same notification also appears on phone > click Verify on both devices > desktop will show two verification options, either it is QR Code or Emojis > select QR Code > a QR Code appears on desktop > scan it with your phone > click verify on both devices > done. 

Alternatively, if you cannot scan QR (perhaps your camera won't work), you still can verify by Emoji. When the verification choices appear, select Emoji, a set of cute Emojis will appear on both devices > click They match on both devices > verified > done.

Conversely, you can do Desktop Login after Phone Login above, and the methods are just the same.

Important: for your convenience, it is better if your Element Mobile (Android or iOS) to be always logged in and never logged out.

6. Trust a Device

Once you logged in with multiple devices, you may be asked to verify the other device. Element can be used just fine without this but you can do it if you want. This is a security that is good for us. When you encounter this, as long as you had Security Phrase on your hands, everything is easy as follows:

On desktop:

Click your profile photo / avatar > Security & Privacy > click Verify Them > your profile appears > under Security section, you should find green devices marked TRUSTED > if not, click it > Verify > a notification appears on Element Mobile > verify it either with QR or Emoji > done. 

On phone:

Click your profile photo > Settings > Security & Privacy > Active Sessions > Show All Sessions > you should see all devices marked green and trusted > if not, verify it like above either with QR or Emoji > done.

 When Element asks for Security Phrase, open your KeePassXC, and copy-paste it.

7. Verify This Login

Desktop Login, that is a login done when phone is already logging in, will ask to Verify This Login. Steps to do so: make sure phone is logged in first > go to desktop > login > Verify This Login appears asking for another device verification > a notification appears on phone > tap it > now on the desktop the two choices, QR and Emoji, appear > verify it like explained above > done.

8. When to skip verification?

Element can be used just fine with skipping verification. When you need to skip? When both devices are logged out, then either one (much easier if it is desktop) wants to login, select SKIP and continue to Element. Once a device logged in successfully, now you can verify both like explained above. 

When Element asks you Security Phrase, open KeePassXC, and just copy-paste it.

That's all. Hopefully this will be useful to you!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Continuing email beginner's guide, now we Ubuntu users who have Android can read our emails anywhere anytime in both devices. It's a wonderful experience. On computer we use Thunderbird, while on phone we use K-9, both are free software. This tutorial uses Disroot email account as example, thanks to its gratis IMAP feature. Now, let's go!

(Ubuntu and Android devices conveniently sharing emails)

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.

Notes

This tutorial is applicable to Disroot as well as Gmail, Yahoo!, Protonmail, Tutanota and other email services for computer and phone. For recommendations, consider to see here and see here.

1. Install Required App

Fortunately, Ubuntu users do not need to install anything anymore. But for Android users, you will install K-9 Email Client, it is available at free software center F-Droid.

(This is the free software K-9 Mail)

2. Setup Email on Thunderbird

You need to run Thunderbird following Disroot rules.

Create a new existing email account > setup email dialog appears > type your name > type your email address, such as mine malsasa@disroot.org > type your password > checkmark the 'remember password' option > click Continue > wait for Thunderbird checking up your setup > accept and continue > congratulations, you got your Email configured on your Ubuntu computer! For more detailed configs with pictures, see here.

Tip: make use of KeePassXC on Ubuntu so will never forget your own passwords.

3. Setup Email on K-9

You need to run K-9 following Disroot rules.

Run K-9 > welcome screen appears > tap Next > Incoming server settings: see picture below >  tap Next > Outgoing server settings: see picture below > tap Next > You're almost done!: give a name to this account (see picture) and go next > congratulations, you've got email on your phone.

(Picture: step by step to setup K-9 by example) Tip: make use of KeePassDX on Android so it remembers your passwords for you. It's compatible with KeePassXC. Available at F-Droid.

 

4. Start Mailing

Now your inbox is readable in two devices, both your computer and phone, so every time new mails come you will get notified and can read them anywhere. You can send email everywhere to, either it is from computer or phone, it is no problem.

• Thunderbird: select your Disroot account > click Write > write an email > send.
• K-9: tap your Disroot account > tap Compose > write it > send.
  

 (Composing a new email with K-9 [left] and Thunderbird [right])

Closing Words & More Tips

Let's start good communication once again. Below is some useful tips you can read to enhance your emailing experience.

Encryption Made Easy with Enigmail

Thunderbird + Gmail Setup

Thunderbird + Mailo Setup

Happy emailing!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The year 2021 starts with a big moment of #DeleteWhatsApp. It is when millions of people leave this proprietary software and look for better alternatives. At January 20th, I made a poll in Mastodon titled What is your choice after switching from WhatsApp? which I never thought would attract so many people. I put three choices in that poll Telegram - Signal - Element and people responded with some other alternatives such as XMPP - Threema - Jami and more. Now I present you this article as an introduction to alternative messengers mentioned in the discussion with short explanations so you can try them or refer to good sources. Enjoy sharing once again!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.

 
(The poll at Mastodon | Don't have a Mastodon account yet? Signup freely at Floss.social and let's be neighbors!)

Note: this article is a long version of Help Quit WhatsApp.

How To Play Messengers

This article is for everyone so a simple explanation for mass is required. The term instant messenger (IM) is a term that includes the likes of WhatsApp, Telegram, and Line. There are many IMs with diversity of choices. Every name mentioned here is either a software IM, or, a standard of IM. Software IM is like Signal: you can install it. Standard IM is like Xmpp and Matrix: you do not install one, but rather choose a software that works with that standard, such as Kaidan and Element respectively.

Element
Main article: Element ReviewElement is a complete communication solution. It is cross platform, require no phone number nor email, and extensible with widgets. It is accessible from web (no additional app required) as well as desktop and phone apps. For office purposes, it can be alternative to Slack (groups, team collaboration, file sharing) while for daily ones clearly it is capable to replace WhatsApp (voice & video conferences). What makes Element different is federation, social independence (companies can create their own messengers), and bridges (connect to other brand messengers outside). Download Element at element.io.

Jami

Main article: Jami ReviewJami is the new challenger to all, that is, a modern messenger without server. You can try it instantly without phone number, and your account is stored in your device not in a company's server, and it can work within local area network (see, it's really unique, right?). It is under High Priority Projects of Free Software Foundation, an official part of GNU Project, and also already a built-in part of the fully free distro Trisquel 9. I already reviewed it (see here) and showed you it's voice-video calls are functional. Download Jami at jami.net.


Matrix
This is not a software IM, but a standard, and is the technology behind Element.  Known software choices that work with this standard, other than Element, are Fractal and NeoChat. This advanced technology is the one that allows us to communicate without phone number, federate, achieve social independence, and equipped with voice & video conferences, and beyond, to be extensible with extensions.

Session
Main article: Session ReviewCan you imagine a messenger that combine Bitcoin, Tor and Signal? Session, derivative of Signal, is a serverless messenger whose slogan is "Send messages, not metadata.". It is cross platform, features group chats, and with a unique feature on phone that forbids you to take screenshot. However, up to today it does not have voice and video calls yet. Download Session at getsession.org.

Signal

The rising star! Signal is a secure messenger praised by security experts and the secret is that actually the security technology behind it is used by WhatsApp. Now everybody talks about it right after the #DeleteWhatsapp events not to mention some popular persons recommended it (see here, see here). According the Mastodon discussion, there are so many participants who use and recommend it. Download Signal at signal.org.

Telegram
The most user friendly as well as feature rich messenger among ones here. It is GNU GPL licensed, available in all platforms including web access, has incredibly useful bots system, and really fast. It is very easy to invite WhatsApp users to Telegram according to my experience. I use it myself and Ubuntu Buzz had a channel there. Download telegram at telegram.org.
Threema
Threema, the previously proprietary software, is now Free Software (GNU AGPL). It is available as phone and web versions. On the Mastodon discussion, surprisingly, many participants use and suggest Threema. Currently, you can also follow the discussion at FSF's LibrePlanet about its change. It features basic chats, file sharing, as well as voice/video calls. Download Threema at threema.ch.

XMPP

Gajim | Kaidan | Conversations | Dino | Movim | Blabber

Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol or XMPP (also known as Jabber) is a long standing standard of internet direct communication. It is among the pioneer of our modern federation and decentralization. It existed long before Matrix, loved by many, and you can see in the Mastodon discussion most people who didn't choose presented choices chose XMPP. To communicate over XMPP, you choose an application, with choices mentioned above. For now, thanks to friend @LPS's suggestion, I can say Blabber is good as it supports mainstream features like groups and video calls.

Further Readings

For you with capacity and readiness to study, you can learn further from these:

Proprietary Sabotage - The GNU Project has a nice saying we can learn a lot: "This demonstrates what we've said for years: using proprietary software means letting someone have power over you, and you're going to get screwed sooner or later."

Switching.Software - the most user friendly resource of alternatives for computer beginners. You will find things from here mentioned there.

Droid-Break.Info - very user friendly resource of alternatives for your Android phone.

Infosec Handbook - "When it comes to security, privacy, usability, and support for different operating systems, Signal is the clear winner. "

PrivacyToolsIO - you will find Signal, Jami, and Element mentioned there.

PRISM Break - gives you XMPP, Signal, and RetroShare.

High Priority Projects - you will find the Swiss-based Wire from here.

Free Software Directory | PRISM Section - FSF's recommendations on messengers.

Secure Messaging Apps - comparison of all mentioned above from a security measurement that currently recommends Signal.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Element (formerly Riot.im) is a modern all in one messenger for everyone. Featuring basic chat to file sharing as well as video conferencing, it is designed for users of web, GNU/Linux, Windows, MacOS, plus also Android and iOS. In this regard, Element is a great alternative to WhatsApp or Telegram. This basic tutorial will show you, after introducing it (see here and here), how to use it on Ubuntu and your phone. Let's go!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.

About Element

Element is a technology built upon Matrix -- that is, a full featured communication system designed after the internet. It is federated (diverse but interconnected) and available as Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS). Some key features are easy signup (no phone number required) and bridges (connect to other brand messengers like Slack or Telegram).

Element Web

Go to https://app.element.io. 

This is Element Web. This is the easiest access for everyone to try Element as one just needs existing web browser.

(Element can be accessed from a web browser like Firefox)

Element Desktop

This is Element Desktop, the messenger in form of a stand alone program. You can have it on computer and laptop with all major operating systems.

On Ubuntu, you have two options*, either install it the standard way, or simply run an AppImage.

Install it standard way (official source):

1. Copy paste this command line to Terminal:

$ sudo apt install -y wget apt-transport-https

2. Download a security thing of Element:

$ sudo wget -O /usr/share/keyrings/riot-im-archive-keyring.gpg https://packages.riot.im/debian/riot-im-archive-keyring.gpg

3. Create new sources.list:

$ echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/riot-im-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.riot.im/debian/ default main" | sudo tee
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/riot-im.list

4. Refresh your Ubuntu software sources:

$ sudo apt update

5. Install Element Desktop:

$ sudo apt install element-desktop

Once installed, you will find Element on start menu. 

  (Notice the green logo? That's Element.)

Install it AppImage way:

1. Download the file from GitHub/Srevinsaju.
2. Give executable permission to that file.
3. Double click it so Element Desktop runs.
4. Add new entry to start menu.
   

No actual installation nor root privilege required.

*) Note: as per today, Element Desktop is not available yet in both Debian and Ubuntu repositories, only in their own repository; while the AppImage is still unofficial.

Phone

For Android users, I suggest everyone to have F-Droid first and later install Element. For iOS users, grab Element at the App Store.

(Screenshots of Element Mobile taken from an Android phone)

Create an Account

To use Element Messenger, one must be registered first. An account will look like mine @purplesky alias Malsasa. To register, follow these:

1. Enter Element Web, Desktop, or Phone.
2. Click Sign Up.
3. Under Create account page, there are 3 input boxes, then enter a desired username, a desired password, and repeat that password once.
   
4. Click Register.
5. Solve the human verification.
6. Accept the Terms of Service and continue.
   
7. Congratulations, you got a new Element account!
   

Login

Once you have an account, you can start messaging! To message, you login first:

1. Enter Element Web, Desktop, or Phone.
2. Enter your Element username and password.
3. Click Login button.
4. If asked for anything, answer with yes or according to your concerns.
5. Congratulations, you are now on Element!

Find a Friend

To search Element friends,click plus (+) beside People section.  You can contact me @purplesky by typing this username there and you should find it has real name Malsasa.

If your friends do not use Element yet, invite them! You can send this article or tell them to try Element.

 

(Direct Messages [DM] is the friendly dialog to find friends)

Join Groups

There are already so many groups in Element. To find those:

Click Compass button (Explore more rooms button) > a list appears > click join button to join > or type some keywords e.g. technology or cooking and click join > you joined a group. Now start greetings!

Create a Group 

In Element, groups are called rooms. To create a new group is easy.

Click explore room button > click Create A New Room > name the group as you wish > name the address as you wish > follow next instructions > your group created. Now you can invite your friends to join!

Share Files

To share photos, videos, documents, everything else is easy.

You can press paper clip button and select files (more then one is okay) and send. Alternatively, drag and drop from file manager is quicker.

Voice and Video Calls

Calling and video conferencing work.

 

Click phone button to call your friend. On a group, this calls all members. 

 

Click camera button to video-call your friend. On a group, this will be video-conference.

Logout

Lastly, to close your session, you must logout. To do so, click your username / avatar > Sign Out. That's all.

Further Exploration

After you practice this basic tutorial, you can read the official documentation. I wish you got new excellent experience with Element (Matrix) and please tell your friend. Let's start sharing once again!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This is for Trisquel users who have Android or Apple phones. This tutorial explains how to share files between your desktop and your phone via wireless or cable without using KDE Connect. This 'magic' is called Syncthing -- a cross platform app. It is an easy and quick app to transfer your photos and everything between devices just like the proprietary software SHAREit  but with privacy and security for you. I have made similar guide before (see here) but for Trisquel 9 it is a little different so this is for you. Now let's start sharing!

 (Sharing everything seamlessly)

Summary 

Put some photos in folder named Sync, and they will be transferred to folder with same name on phone. Do the same thing on phone, then likewise will happen to computer. Syncsynthing does it automatically via wifi or cable.

PreparationsTrisquel's Syncthing is console based and not graphical (there is no syncthing-gtk package) so the preparations are slightly different:

• Install Syncthing both on Trisquel laptop and Android phone[1].
• Create a new folder named Sync on both laptop and phone.
  
• Start Syncthing on both devices[2].
• On phone, first add new device (laptop), then second, create new folder[3].
• On laptop, after two notifications appear: first add new device (phone), then second, add new folder (from phone)[4].
• Preparations done = both devices say 'up to date'.
• Jump to start sharing.
  

Start Sharing

Just like summary above:

• From laptop: put files in Sync folder.
• From phone: put files in Sync folder. 
• They will automatically transferred to each other via network used.

Explanations

Below is all the procedures to setup Sycthing on Trisquel 9:

[1] Laptop installation:

(notice that this is not syncthing-gtk package)

$ sudo apt-get install syncthing

[2] Phone installation:

First install F-Droid the play store alternative and then install Syncthing from that.

[3] Phone preparation:

1. On laptop, press Alt+F2 > type syncthing > press Enter > wait a few seconds > Abrowser appears with the web address 127.0.0.1 > Syncthing web ready to use.
2. Still on laptop, on Syncthing web, click menu > Show QR Code.
   
3. On phone, open Devices page > tap plus button > Add Device dialog appears > tap QR Code button > a scan screen appears > scan QR Code on laptop screen > your laptop detected.
4. Still on phone, type the name: Trisquel Laptop > tap check mark button > a new device "Laptop" added in Syncthing phone.
5. Still on phone, open Folders page > tap plus button > Create Folder appears > type the name: Sync > change directory path to a folder that will connect to the laptop > enable "Laptop" selection > change folder type to: Send & Receive > tap check mark button > a sync folder created.

[4] Laptop preparation:

1. Wait for a few seconds, 1st notification of a new device i.e. your phone appears > click Add button > change Device Name: Android Phone > Save > a new device "Phone" added.
2. Not too long after that, 2nd notification of a new remote folder i.e. Sync sent from your phone appears on Syncthing web > accept it > change Folder Label: Sync > change Path: /home/master/Sync by replacing master with your own username > add check mark to Monitor filesystem for changes > add check mark to Phone > Save > a sync folder "Sync" added.
3. Up to date status with green background appears like picture below. 
   
4. Now your devices are ready to share files.
   

Enjoy sharing!

Here is my review of Trisquel 9.0 Etiona the newly released computer operating system. It is the successor of Flidas and now based on Ubuntu 18.04. It brings the latest improvements by excellently keeping its user friendliness from the family of most secure operating systems on earth. As always, I choose the Regular Edition, with MATE Desktop choice, to report this to you. We will see what’s new in this release and why I call it Software Freedom Vehicle now continuing Successful Freedom in the past. With Etiona, everyone can see that Free Software as well as copyleft are already practical and now we can see that even clearer than before. Let's go!
(The Freedom Vehicle)
Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.About Trisquel 9
Nine released last year on October 16th or two years after Eight released. Codenamed Etiona, it is now the successor of the fifteen years living of the completely free software operating system Trisquel GNU/Linux. If Eight was based on Ubuntu Xenial, now Nine is based on Bionic continuing tradition to follow Ubuntu Long Term Support editions as basis, while in reality the latest Ubuntu LTS is already Focal Fossa. For this version, Trisquel presents 4 editions --while preserving both 32 and 64 bit supports-- namely Trisquel Regular (MATE), Triskel (KDE) and this is new, Trisquel Mini (LXDE), and Trisquel Sugar. Nine is available for everyone to download at https://trisquel.info or purchase as personal computers at Respects Your Freedom.


(Nine showing its own system details on right side and Add/Remove Applications [trisquel-app-install] on left side)

Programs included in this version are in general MATE Desktop 1.20, Abrowser 81, Icedove Email Client 68, LibreOffice 6, GIMP 2.8, GNU Jami (instant messenger) 2020, Linux-libre kernel 4.15, GNU Bash 4.4, GPG 2.2, Synaptic Package Manager 0.84, Python version 2 and 3, LightDM 1.26, Xorg 7.7, Back In Time (backup tool) 1.1.2, Electrum Bitcoin Wallet, PDF Shuffler (split and merge tool), and without snapd nor flatpak. Names marked bold are the newly added ones!

1. Hardware
Fortunately, in this ninth version we see more mass productions of Trisquel laptops. By it I mean now there are vendors who ship laptops prebuilt with Trisquel worldwide from both Europe and United States. More than that, we acknowledge Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certifications for several laptops which are guaranteed to be working perfectly with Trisquel! This is a great win in hardware front we badly need for GNU/Linux since years. What I mean is, we really need GNU operating systems to be mass produced (just like Windows) so free software will become a norm in the world (instead of nonfree software) and we now see the realization with Trisquel. You can buy such laptops from RYF.

(Laptops with Trisquel preloaded)
Hardware used for this review is my ThinkPad T430: Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM, Intel HD graphics, Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6250 wifi, 20GB hard disk partition with EXT4 filesystem.
As I do not purchase an RYF but already had one laptop, I installed Trisquel Etiona on it. And based on my observation, I can report this list of working and not working hardware of my ThinkPad T430:

• CPU: ok
• GPU: ok
• RAM: ok
• Sound: ok
• LAN: ok
• HDD: ok
• DVDROM: ok 
• Webcam: ok
• Microphone: ok
  
• Bluetooth: not working
• Wifi: not working

 
If you read GNU FSDG carefully, you will understand that hardware not working with Trisquel is hardware that requires nonfree software -- in other words, you already bought that but it's still completely owned by the manufacturer. So, my bluetooth and wifi are not working on Trisquel 9 because they are nonfree hardware. From software freedom point of view, this is good, as this protects me as the user from surrendering my freedom. 
Note: if we want to buy device replacements that work with Trisquel, like bluetooth or wifi, we can find plenty information at h-node.org aside from RYF too.

2. Daily Purpose & Connectivity

Accessing files and folders, making documents, connecting to the internet, all work well with Trisquel. If you don’t find your laptop wifi working, as a temporary solution use your USB Tethering from smartphone or mifi, so you can connect to the internet. 
(Trisquel 9 appearance)

For the desktop, by default Super key (Windows key) is not usable so you use mouse click to open start menu every time. However, if you change the start menu applet into Advanced Mate Menu, then you can use Super key just like me. (As you may know I am accustomed to KDE so this is big plus to me.)

In this version, Trisquel includes GNU Jami. It is a complete messenger like Telegram, but serverless, and already includes video call feature. Previously called Ring, it is a High Priority Project by the Free Software Foundation that falls into category of telephony (Real-time voice and video chat). As far as I know, Trisquel is the first OS to include it out of the box (ever see a distro includes Telegram or Signal by default?).  This is actually what makes me excited to try Etiona at first time. And after I tried Jami on it, I feel it is incredible, the video call is amazing. This means Trisquel is one step ahead in promoting software freedom by promoting its fellow free messenger.
(Connectivity between my Trisquel laptop and a phone: two ways video call with Jami including file sharing and share screen abilities)

3. Graphics Purpose
Photo editing, drawing, and making animations work with Trisquel Nine.

(Graphic editing programs even the 3D ones work well! Oh, yeah, and illustration drawing works too  like making educational posters.)

There’s professional applications namely GIMP (like Photoshop), Inkscape (like CorelDRAW), Scribus (like PageMaker), and Synfig (like Macromedia Flash MX) as well as Blender (like 3D Max), FreeCAD (like AutoCAD), and on the above I show you Sweet Home 3D (like SketchUp but for interiors) displaying rooms and furniture design viewed from aerial view as well as my two illustration design works from last year (see here and see also here).


4. Educational Purpose
Trisquel itself is an education vehicle – it is an important part of teaching that all computer users should have their software freedom. By version nine, Trisquel conveys this teaching to the world. It truly demonstrates you a computing is possible with completely free – without proprietary parts – kernel, repository, and built-in applications plus you can bring it home. Most distros cannot exercise this as many of them in fact still include nonfree software. As a consequences of this software freedom, Trisquel is guaranteed to be free from virus (malware) as well. If we consider most shallow reason, unlike Windows or macOS, Trisquel helps schools to save money as it is completely gratis along with all software it gives. In this regards, Trisquel proves the teaching that education should exclusively use free software. For the sake of practical example, here's my online teaching activities done with Trisquel. As some of you might know, I use Telegram and Jitsi to make remote classes with my people in Indonesia. (An online classroom on Jitsi)

Above is my student showing his Kubuntu desktop to me via video call (it is called share screen) when I was using Trisquel. We communicate via voice call and I continuously give him instructions to do while I watch everything he does on screen, whenever a mistake happens I can immediately correct it. The technology you see on that picture is called Jitsi.

(An online classroom on Telegram)

And above is a voice group call between my students and me. I want to talk to them again after a while we didn't meet. This conference was held right after Telegram announced this long awaited feature, voice group, which enables me to call multiple students at once. We discuss about computing, Free Software, and GNU/Linux as usual at that moment just like usually we do. As a teacher, I feel everything goes smoothly!

5. Amusement Purpose
Gaming, audio playback, and watching movie all work well with Trisquel Nine. Yes! Trisquel can play MP3 as well as MP4 too thanks to VLC Media Player. Perhaps, some of you thought that a completely free OS can not play nonfree formats like mp3 or mp4, right? In fact, Trisquel plays both just fine. The software to play both are free so it includes them without problem. That’s among the basic features Trisquel has. (Browser playing flawlessly a latest video by the FSF "Fight to Repair" | Playing mp4 and mp3 flawlessly: one is The Alps Top Ten video and another one is Ubuntu from Wikipedia read out loud as audio | Playing Mahjongg game among other built-in games | Notice that to save space, the Trisquel panel can be switched vertical at left) Above is Mines and Mahjongg games as well as a playback of a streaming video. Available in the repository more video games such as Age of Empires-like 0 A.D., Counter Strike-like OpenArena, Diablo-like Flare RPG, and Crash Team Racing-like Super Tux Kart. More apps and games can be added if you wish (and you can explore thousands!) from the Add/Remove Applications.

6. Shortcomings

From people-who-install-os' perspective, especially for people-who-don't-have-compatible-hardware, Trisquel does not work with most wifi chips such as Broadcom BCM4313 or Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (both are mine). If you fall into this category of people, you will find Trisquel 9 not satisfying as your wifi won't work. (Note: mine is not working too, but I am prepared about this and connect using my mifi's USB tethering instead.) 

Speaking about graphics, I found only a little --non significant-- glitch on my ThinkPad when I enabled Marco compositor that is drop shadow of context menu not rendered properly. 

Lastly, speaking about convenience, I think many programs are not friendly with window resizing, as some can be resized to be so tiny while others can't (mostly are GNOME apps). For example, below I can shrink Viewnior and Caja windows but no matter how much I resize them, I cannot make both GNOME's Mahjongg and Mines windows as tiny as them, so this hinder me to make beautiful screenshot with all of them on one screen. This is less convenient to me, as I feel it decreases desktop harmony for the user.

Conclusions 

Trisquel 9 is:

• already empower real computers (RYF) and shipped worldwide,
  
• available for 32 bit and 64 bit,
• available in KDE edition aside from Regular MATE, Mini LXDE, and Sugar Kids edition,
  
• can be installed in both bios legacy and uefi modes,
• includes HPP's telephony GNU Jami (so it is friendlier with phones),
• includes all necessary applications and give abilities to get more, and
  
• supports education as its slogan says!
  

 So congratulations Trisquel Developers! Once again you reach a success in software freedom and now Trisquel became freedom vehicle that is ready to bring to schools, universities, governments as well as individual computer users. I encourage you all dear readers to try Trisquel 9. Please share this to your friend!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Recently, people got awareness to leave popular proprietary software WhatsApp. We even saw # Delete Whatsapp hashtags on social networks. For Ubuntu users who want to switch away from it here's alternatives, namely Telegram and Element, which are free and easy, and available for Ubuntu too. Fortunately, today both are also available for users who use Debian, Mint GNU/Linux, and other Ubuntu-family computers. For Android users, both are already available at F-Droid. They are Free Libre Open Source Software also known as FLOSS. We hope these will always be friendly and useful for us forever. Please share this with your friends!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.Telegram

A full featured social media platform that is the most user friendly and convenient. Telegram has desktop (GNU GPL), phone (F-Droid), and web versions too. It supports GNU/Linux, Windows, and macOS as well as Android and iOS. You will find you and family switching easier to Telegram than any other alternative. It permits seamless multi device. Requires phone number. Its official website is https://telegram.org.

Download: Telegram Desktop | Telegram Android | Telegram iOS | Telegram Web

Element

A full featured social media platform too. Today Element (formerly called Riot.im) already has video & voice conferences features aside from file sharing. Available for desktop, phone, and web too. It supports all OSes Telegram does support (mentioned above). Special feature is, it is bigger than any other messengers, as it gives the user also the server software (e.g. for companies to create their own messenger without reliance to third party). Does not require phone number. Its official website is https://element.io.

Download: Element Desktop | Android | iOS | Web | Server Version

How To Install

As stated above, Telegram is already available in Ubuntu's repository while Element is available for Ubuntu. Here's quick guide to install both so your PC and laptop got these friendly messengers.

Telegram Desktop:

$ sudo apt-get install telegram-desktop

Element Desktop:
Follow official guide or much more simpler get unofficial AppImage.

Learn More

How To Delete Your WhatsApp Account (AndroidCentral)

Intro to Element/Matrix (Ubuntu Buzz) 

Privacy Tools, PRISM Break, and Secure Messengers (more alternatives)

Signal  (another free & secure messenger, now praised worldwide)

Help Quit GitHub (similar post to this but about code hosting)

Enjoy sharing once again!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Here's simple command line guide for you computer user who find Ubuntu GNU/Linux for the first time. These commands are all built-in, you do not need to add anything to use them. They are useful to you, for instance, to read your complete computer information and of course to know about basic commands. Why learn commands? Because commands are fast as you will learn below. You will also see further references to learn more at the end of this article. Have fun learning!

(Welcome to friendly computing! We hope the commands are fre)
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Summary

• uname 
• lsb_release
• lsblk
• lshw
• lsusb
• sleep

 

How To Play

• Find a program named Terminal (or Console) from start menu.
• Type a command and press Enter to execute it.
• If asked for your password, type anyway and press Enter, no stars will be displayed. 
• Something like master@master:~$ is called shell prompt.
  
• Press TAB to automatically complete file name.
  
• Close Terminal if your tasks finished.

 

Uname command

$ uname -a

This will give you output similar to mine like below:

Linux master 5.8.0-25-generic #26-Ubuntu SMP Thu Oct 15 10:30:38 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

That means our kernel is Linux, operating system is GNU/Linux, and x86_64 code means we use 64 bit computer while i686 means we use 32 bit ones instead.

LSB Command

$ lsb_release -a

This will give you output similar to mine too:

master@master:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.10
Release: 20.10
Codename: groovy
master@master:~$

That means my operating system is Ubuntu version 20.10 codenamed groovy.

Lsblk Command

$ lsblk

This will give you details of your hard disk drive like mine:

master@master:~$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 298,1G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 97,7G 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 178,8G 0 part
├─sda4 8:4 0 1K 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 1,5G 0 part
└─sda6 8:6 0 19,5G 0 part
sdb 8:16 1 14,3G 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 1 95M 0 part /boot/efi
├─sdb2 8:18 1 955M 0 part [SWAP]
└─sdb3 8:19 1 13,3G 0 part /
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
master@master:~$

That output of mine means there are two hard disk drives I currently use, sda and sdb, and my Ubuntu partition is under sdb named sdb3. We know this from where the slash ( / ) is located. From my output we also know that my sda hard disk is 300GiB, where my sdb is only 14GiB, we know these from the SIZE column. You just need to understand yours like mine. Starting today, you will be accustomed to these names, sda sdb sdc ... , to call hard disk drives. It is similar to C, D, E, ... if you know Microsoft Windows partition names.

Tip: Lsblk is a short for list block devices (storages)

Look closer, you will see a strange device named sr0. That is my dvd-rom as this laptop Lenovo ThinkPad has one.

Lshw Command

$ lshw -short

This will give you details of your computer hardware like mine:

master@master:~$ lshw -short
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
H/W path Device Class Description
=========================================================
system Computer
/0 bus Motherboard
/0/0 memory 4GiB System memory
/0/1 processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3320M CPU
/0/100 bridge 3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Co
/0/100/2 display 3rd Gen Core processor Graphic
/0/100/14 bus 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset F
/0/100/16 communication 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family M
/0/100/16.3 communication 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset F
/0/100/19 enp0s25 network 82579LM Gigabit Network Connec
/0/100/1a bus 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family U
/0/100/1b multimedia 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family H
/0/100/1c bridge 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family P
/0/100/1c/0 generic MMC/SD Host Controller
/0/100/1c.1 bridge 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset F
/0/100/1c.1/0 wlp3s0 network Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Tayl
/0/100/1c.2 bridge 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset F
/0/100/1d bus 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family U
/0/100/1f bridge QM77 Express Chipset LPC Contr
/0/100/1f.2 scsi1 storage 7 Series Chipset Family 4-port
/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0 /dev/cdrom disk DVD+-RW GT32N
/0/100/1f.3 bus 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family S
/0/100/1f.5 storage 7 Series Chipset Family 2-port
/0/2 system PnP device PNP0c01
/0/3 system PnP device PNP0c02
/0/4 system PnP device PNP0b00
/0/5 input PnP device PNP0303
/0/6 generic PnP device LEN0015
/1 scsi4 storage
WARNING: output may be incomplete or inaccurate, you should run this program as super-user.
master@master:~$

This output is rather long for first timer. But, you can just read the CPU, RAM, and GPU for starter. From my output, we know that my processor is Intel Core i5, my memory is 4GB, and my video graphic adapter is Intel HD Graphics. Again, you just need to understand yours like mine.

Tip: Lshw is a short for list hardware. 

You must noticed the warning so that you run this command as super user. To do so, edit above command like this:

$ sudo lshw -short Lsusb Command

$ lsusb

This will give you information what USB devices being used like mine:

master@master:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04f2:b221 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd integrated camera
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0a5c:21e6 Broadcom Corp. BCM20702 Bluetooth 4.0 [ThinkPad]
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0781:5567 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Blade
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:c077 Logitech, Inc. M105 Optical Mouse
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
master@master:~$

This output of mine means I have at least one SanDisk USB drive and one Logitech mouse among other attached USB devices. 

You can play with this! Do it once and then try to remove an attached USB, such as flash drive, and do it once again, see the difference. You will eventually be able to notice the information particular to a device! In the past, this command was truly useful to use USB modems.

Sleep Command

$ uname -a; sleep 2; lsb_release -a; sleep 2; lsblk; sleep 2; lshw -short; sleep 2;

This will do four of above commands at once, but not so fast, they do with delay time 2 seconds each. 

So now you know what sleep is here, right? Yes, that is the delay command. So you understand what 2 means too, right? Right, that is the two seconds. And now you see what semicolon ( ; ) means, right? Correct, it is to combine several commands at once in one line (it saves you Enter keystroke!). You can play too with this! Try to combine all commands with 5 seconds delay instead.

A Little Understanding

Did you notice the shell prompt? A shell prompt, as mentioned beforehand, is a sign that a terminal is ready, is doing something, or is finished doing something. It is ready by a blinking cursor - waiting you to type. It is working by displaying outputs instead and will be appear again once the outputs finished. It is finished by being ready. My shell prompt is different to yours, perhaps, because our usernames are different, and our computer names too. To understand it, feel free to see below explanation.

master@master:~$

• master - my username is master. 
• @ - a sign to link between a user and a computer.
• master - my computer name is also master. Please do not be confused, o dear readers.
• : - sign to begin address.
• ~ - an address sign, will change automatically once I changed directory, and change back to ~ if I go to my Home directory.
• $ - authority sign, dollar ( $ ) means I logged in as normal user (without authority), while hash ( # ) means I logged in as super user (admin, user with full authority, also known as root user).

 

Learn More

Finally, you should not end up here. To learn further, here's our beginners guide to command lines in seven parts. These are written based on my computer course books in Indonesian.

Part 1 Navigation

Part 2 Copy & Delete

Part 3 Combination

Part 4 Editing

Part 5 Reading Manuals

Part 6 Software Installation

Part 7 Third Party Repository 

Enjoy your learning!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This is the traditional beginner's guide for you who have his/her Kubuntu computer updated, this time, to the version 20.10 codenamed Groovy Gorilla. In this version several new things added such as the Network Speed widget and the ability to have Metered Connections you can adjust with this short tutorial. Okay, now let's explore!

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Take Care of KWallet & Wifis

First thing to do for many people is to connect to the internet. Connected at the first time, special to Kubuntu, you will be asked for (1) inserting the wifi's password and (2) making a new KDE Wallet's password. For the wifi's password, once you typed it and press Connect, the KDE Wallet will appear. Do not worry, you just need to create a password and repeat it once, and then select Blowfish encryption option. I suggest you to use same password as your system password. After this, you can connect to that wifi safely without entering password again.

(KDE Wallet initial settings dialog)

Set Metered Connection

In short words, it is to save your internet quota. For every network you will connect to, you can set metered to it, so Kubuntu will not download big updates automatically (rather, you will do that manually). To do so, focus on Network Manager: connect to a connection (wifi or cable) > click Settings button > select the connection name > General Configuration > set Metered: Yes > OK > disconnect > connect again. 

(See the cursor: the configuration for my own 'XLGO' wifi connection)

Add Network Speed Widget

As always with Kubuntu, we can add network widget, but in this 20.10 version it is improved so perhaps you will find it different. It is now merged with some other widgets so the configuration is mixed up. To show current speed, click the chart.

To make a widget like below:

• Create a new empty panel
• Add Widget
• Find Network Speed
• Drag and drop widget to empty panel
• Edit panel
• Adjust the length to suit your taste
• Still on the Edit panel mode, select Autohide or Windows Go Below, which one you like more.
  

(Creating network speed widget on top of screen)

Disable Screen Edge

You saw animation when pushing cursor to top-left corner? Perhaps it doesn't help you productivity so you may want to disable it. To do so, go to System Settings > find Screen Edges > you see 8 points on screen picture > click the top-left point > No Action > OK. This disables the automatic animation. Feel free to test it!

(Screen Edges configuration)

Add Photo Frame

You can display photos on desktop thanks to Frame widget. It is useful also for teaching, for example, so your students always see important messages you want to convey when you do screen sharing or class presentation. To add one, right-click on desktop > Add Widget > find Frame > drag and drop it to desktop > a blank frame created > click Configure button on it > Path > Add Files > add photos as you wish > OK > finished.

For other widgets such as analog clock, the procedure is the same.

(Photo display widget)
Application Recommendations
To close this list, here's my usual apps to install on Kubuntu you can try:

• KeePassXC - password manager everyone should have.
• AQEMU - virtual machine that is free and user friendly. 
• uBlock Origin + HTTPS Everywhere - install this to your Firefox web browser to block ads and secure every single one of your connections. 

That's all. I wish Covid-19 pandemic soon will end and we will enjoy safety and healthiness once again. I hope you are happy with Kubuntu! 

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

You might have been familiar with being blocked to visit Wikipedia or Reddit or such sites in your country. That means your network, DNS path in particular, is not secure. If you can make it secure, you can visit that sites just like other sites normally. You can do that with the previous DNSCrypt Guide or fortunately these days it is even more simpler, enable Dns Over Https (DoH) on your web browser. This simple guide is applicable to Ubuntu, Mint, Trisquel (Abrowser), PureOS (PureBrowser), and any other GNU/Linux systems. Now let's go secure!

 

(Visiting Reddit.com/Ubuntu social media discussion with DoH)

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Before and After

In my country, Reddit is blocked. That means for me I will never be able to visit that site unless I protect my network, DNS path in particular, with encryption. This way no third-party should be able to block or redirect my browsing anymore. After enabling DOH, magically I can visit Reddit normally. This gives me same result but with easier setup as DNSCrypt. No rebooting the computer, no closing the browser.

Before:

Failed to visit Reddit.com

After:

Successfully visit Reddit.com

SettingsRun Firefox (Ubuntu, Mint, others). Run Abrowser if you use Trisquel. Run PureBrowser if you use PureOS. Either one, the configurations are the same as below:

• Go to Preferences.
• Search for DoH.
• Found in the Network section.
• Scroll down until you find Enable DNS Over HTTPS.
• Enable it. You see the provider is Cloudflare by default.
• OK. 
• Start browsing!

  (DoH settings in Firefox)

That's all. I hope this is useful for you.
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Here's my own Open Street Map's basic guide for everybody. To start using OSM, go to MapQuest.com and we will show you the rest. Happy traveling!

 (Open Street Map with all locations including China, India, Japan, Thailand and everything else written in Latin English)
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What OSM Can Do?

1. View world map
2. View a country
3. View a specific location (state, city, etc.)
4. Navigation (zoom, pan)
   
5. Satellite view
6. Directions
7. Share
   

And many more beyond this intro article!

About OpenStreetMap

OSM is officially located at https://openstreetmap.org. It is an open service everyone from any other website can use. In the nutshell, it is actually a software, that is free, so everyone can put in their own server (if they have one) to make their own Google Maps alternative. OSM is a proud community product by Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) society worldwide just like Wikipedia where everyone can edit its content. Why MapQuest? Because MapQuest (a version of OSM) is easier to read than the original. It displays all cities with latin alphabet instead of local ones (العربية, 日本語, ไทย, etc.).

 

1. View World Map

• Go to MapQuest.
• By default we will see a certain country e.g. United States.
• Click minus (-) button to zoom out until you see...
  
• World map viewed.

2. View a Country

• Go to MapQuest.
• Drag the map to go to a country you know, or,
• Type country name on the left panel and press Enter,
• Country viewed.
  

 

3. View a Specific Location

• Go to MapQuest.
• Drag the map to a city, region, state, or any other specific location you know, or...
• Type the city name in the left panel and press Enter,
• City viewed.

4. Navigation

Navigation served as vertically-sorted buttons on right:

• Arrows: move (pan) your position.
• Center black button: reset map.
• Plus button: zoom in.
• Minus button: zoom out.
• Find me: go to your position (if your location tracker is on).
• Satellite view: switch map to the real photographic version.
• Traffic: enable special features such as live webcam on roads (e.g. at Washington DC).
• Share: share link or embed code of current viewed map.
• Print: print the map or save as PDF.
  

5. Satellite view

 

• Click Satellite button and map switched to real photographic version.
  
• Click same button to revert back to normal map.
  

6. DirectionsOpen Street Map can help you find shortest route to a city. Use Directions feature for that:

• Go to MapQuest.
• Click Directions button (the green one). 
• First, find a city.
• Then, find a destination city.
• Click Get Directions, and...
• Routes to that destination appeared with distinct line colors.
• Tip: click each route line to see the distance.

7. Share

Let me share with you. Below is Jakarta, Capital of Indonesia live from Open Street Map. This map is live, you can drag it, move it, zoom it as you wish. You can make a map like this on your website by sharing the embed code. Simpler than this, I can also give you just the link (mapq.st/38dRV54). How to do that?

To share a map link:

• Go to MapQuest.org and find a city you want.
• Click Share button.
• A popup appears with several information.
• Copy the link. 
• Share the link with your friends.
  
  

To embed a map in your web page:

• After clicking the Share button,
• Click Embed button.
• Copy the html code at bottom.
• Paste the code in your website page as html.
  
• Publish your page.

Afterword

Now you have a user friendly online map. It is free software, respects you privacy (e.g. not by Google), from the proud FLOSS community, everyone can edit, and more importantly everyone can use easily. I believe your first journey with MapQuest will be easy. Finally, you can read the documentation on MapQuest itself and of course on Open Street Map in general. I wish this intro is useful for you. Now let's explore more!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.