Best Linux distros of 2020 for beginners, mainstream and advanced users

Different Linux distros can all work with Linux software and applications, and of course, any cloud-based apps that run through a browser. However, Linux distros come with a variety of different ranges of bundled software. Some might come with a lot of basic applications already pre-installed, while others will have the barest minimum. And, as mentioned, Linux is very customizable, far beyond what normal Windows or Mac users may be used to. Users can commonly configure everything from their desktop to security and privacy settings. Altogether, this is why it helps to have a good idea of what different Linux distros can offer. Do you need a GUI more familiar to Windows? Are you more concerned about privacy? How comfortable are you with typing commands rather than clicking icons?

today's howtos

• How to Install Bodhi Linux 5.1 + VMware Tools on VMware Workstation

• Repairing a corrupt ext4 root partition

• How to Use SQL LIKE Statement in MongoDB

• How to Install Debian GNU/Linux 10.5 with XFCE Desktop + VMware Tools on VMware Workstation

• How to Keep Things Organized With TreeLine

This week in KDE: fixing up Plasma 5.20

Okular’s editable forms are no longer mis-rendered when inertially scrolling (Kezi Olio, Okular 1.11.2) When your scanner can almost but not quite fit a particular page size, Skanlite will now display the option to scan to that page size anyway (e.g. 215mm wide scan beds now give you the option to scan using the US Letter page size) (Kåre Särs, libksane 20.12) The text of Elisa’s keyboard shortcuts are now translated properly (Nikunj Goyal, Elisa 20.12) Clearing the clipboard history on Wayland no longer crashes Plasma (David Edmundson, Plasma 5.20) Improved the Plasma SVG cache heuristics such that various things which might sometimes be invisible after upgrading Plasma now show up like they’re supposed to (Arjen Hiemstra, Plasma 5.20) On Wayland, clicking on a Task Manager entry while that entry’s tooltip is visible no longer crashes Plasma (Vlad Zahorodnii, Plasma 5.20) On Wayland, clicking on a Task Manager thumbnail now activates that window, as you would expect (Marco Martin, Plasma 5.20) Also: KDE Plasma 5.20 Should Be Crashing A Lot Less Under Wayland

Legacy: Dennis Ritchie's Lost Dissertation and FTP Fadeout

• Discovering Computer Legend Dennis Ritchie's Lost Dissertation

• FTP Fadeout

  Here’s a small piece of news you may have missed while you were trying to rebuild your entire life to fit inside your tiny apartment at the beginning of the COVID crisis: Because of the way that the virus shook up just about everything, Google skipped the release of Chrome version 82. Who cares, you think? Well, users of FTP, or the File Transfer Protocol. During the pandemic, Google delayed its plan to kill FTP, and now that things have settled to some degree, Google recently announced that it is going back for the kill with Chrome version 86, which deprecates the support once again, and will kill it for good in Chrome 88. (Mozilla announced similar plans for Firefox, citing security reasons and the age of the underlying code.) It is one of the oldest protocols the mainstream [Internet] supports—it turns 50 next year—but those mainstream applications are about to leave it behind. Today’s Tedium talks about history of FTP, the networking protocol that has held on longer than pretty much any other.