(I use Rsync command to sell USB sticks with GNU/Linux)
Recently, I distribute GNU/Linux USB sticks with a bunch of video tutorials inside and I use Rsync command to copy the files with best reliability. I like Rsync because it is clear with progress and verbose messages, and in my cases it's often faster, more stable. I then use the same Rsync command to copy the ISO image files to USB as --you may know-- I am currently experimenting with GLIM and Aguslr's Multiboot USB tools. This works very well. Tutorial below shows you the command lines and examples.

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Command:$ rsync --append --progress [ISO_NAME] [DESTINATION_FOLDER]
My examples:
Copying Ubuntu to USB:
$ rsync --append --partial --progress ubuntu-18.04-desktop-amd64.iso /media/master/GLIM/boot/iso/ubuntu/
Copying Trisquel to USB:
$ rsync --append --partial --progress trisquel_8.0_amd64.iso /media/master/GLIM/boot/iso/trisquel/
If I want more verbose output so I will see if any error occurs:
$ rsync -vvv --append --partial --progress trisquel_8.0_amd64.iso /media/master/GLIM/boot/iso/trisquel/
Rsync can resume your interrupted transfer as long as it's not caused by your Ctrl+C (cancel) key.

Short version of above commands is this:
$ rsync -vvvaP trisquel_8.0_amd64.iso /media/master/GLIM/boot/iso/trisquel/
In practice, I really use the short version a lot. I prefer that. As a side note, you saw 'GLIM' name above because I am currently experimenting with GLIM USB maker.

Convenience:
What's add more convenience to me is of course the integrated terminal within Dolphin File Manager on KDE I always use. With this, I don't need to type the address path of my ISO image file from external HDD.

(I run the command with only file manager without separate terminal window)
And of course, Bash shell up/down key to reveal previous commands is very useful I use if every time. Not to mention Ctrl+R to find previous "rsync" command I performed. Everything is convenient this way. 
Important Note
You are fortunate if you have healthy hard disk drive and other hardware. My external HDD and cable and USB ports are considerably broken so no matter how good Rsync is I will always experience errors and problems. Thanks to reliability of Rsync, I can have problems number reduced a lot. However, I am still doing distribution business with these set of broken hardware up to today. I wish you don't experience this hardship.
Happy working!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Booting a USB stick with multiple GNU/Linux distros)
After MultiSystem (2015), and then Multibootusb (2018), now I found GLIM tool (2019) by Matthias Saou to easily create multibootable USB to run and install GNU/Linux distros. GRUB2 Live USB Multiboot (GLIM) is a user friendly program to setup any USB stick to run multiple GNU/Linux LiveCD systems with fancy bootloader. GLIM supports both 32-bit and 64-bit computer either with BIOS Legacy or UEFI. With GLIM you can have multiple OS installers in one USB drive, take example Ubuntu and Fedora and Mint, to install them to computers so it saves a lot of your time. The difference between GLIM and the two tools mentioned above is, that using GLIM is easier, you simply need to copy ISO images you want to your USB stick without running application. Awesome, right? Then, how to use GLIM? This tutorial explains it with examples in easy way and with screenshots. Go ahead and happy doing business!

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About GLIM

• Supported distros here https://glee.thias.es/GLIM. 
• Website here https://glee.thias.es.
• Source code here https://github.com/thias/glim.

Background
Let me share one thing to you. As you may know, I distribute GNU/Linux operating system in Indonesia --an archipelagic state located at equator between Malaysia and Australia-- so I always looking for new way to create better multiboot USB. The problem I could not tackle up to today is creating working multiboot for Debian Live and Manjaro. Fortunately, GLIM solved that for me, as now I can make them. Thank you Matthias Saou!

Summary
In order to create multiboot USB with GLIM, you need:

• USB stick with disk name 'GLIM'
• ISO image files of the distros
• GLIM program itself
• Command line access
• Directories named after distro names in the USB stick

1. Formatting USB
Use your GNOME Disk Utility to format your USB stick with these properties:

• Partition table: MBR
• Filesystem: FAT32
• Label: GLIM

 (My USB stick as example: it's a 16GB SanDisk Cruzer Blade I made MBR and FAT32; notice the mount point /media/master/GLIM/ as it's important)
2. Download GLIM
To make USB bootable, of course you must have the GLIM software first. Download GLIM from GitHub. On the page, simply click Clone button and click Download ZIP. You will get a compressed file named glim-master.zip by about 1MB.

(Web browser showing GLIM website with full information and screenshot about its use)
3. Installing GLIM to USB
As long as your USB stick is named 'GLIM', you can install GLIM (the bootloader) into USB by running GLIM shell script.

First, extract the glim-master.zip you got from GitHub.

Second, enter the glim-master/ folder it gave you.

Third, run the shell script named glim.sh inside it without sudo:

$ ./glim.sh

And follow whatever asked with Y there.

Finally, successful GLIM setup will say "GLIM Installed! Time to populate the boot/iso directory".

See picture below: successful GLIM setup will create directory structure and files in USB stick like this.

(Structure of my USB drive with GLIM configuration files)
4. Copying ISO to USB
For example, to make Debian bootable in this USB,

• Create folder debian/ under GLIM/boot/iso/ directory.
• Copy the ISO image of Debian to GLIM/boot/iso/debian/ directory.
• For other distros, for example Ubuntu and Fedora, create directories ubuntu/ and fedora/ under iso/ just like debian/ directory above. For other distros, see notes below.

(Copying process of Debian into USB: it must be stored in GLIM/boot/iso/debian/ folder)
Up to this step, one GNU/Linux OS is successfully made bootable in the USB stick. Repeat copying process above for other distros if you wish multiboot.

• Pro tip: I use rsync to copy big ISOs faster and more reliable to USB stick with resume capability like downloading with BitTorrent.
• Caution: make sure your external HDD storage and its cable are healthy and not in any broken state.

Testing
Reboot your computer with USB option as first boot, then you should see the unique GLIM bootloader like mine below. Press Enter to run selected OS, press Esc to cancel.

Pro tip: I don't have spare computer so I test every USB stick with QEMU virtual machine. It is very easy and handy.

Happy working!

Notes

• Debian Live burnt in GLIM way installs a lot more longer than with GNOME Disk Utility (GNU dd). On my sample, it takes about 45 minutes while normally under 20 minutes.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 ﴾!السَلامُ علَيكُم﴿ (May peace be upon you!)
This tutorial will show you how to write Arabic & Latin on GNU/Linux especially Ubuntu, Trisquel, and elementary OS so you can switch between them easily at any time. In particular, we will use built-in keyboard layout called Arabic Buckwalter beside the English US one here. They will appear as selections on system tray on your desktop panel. This way, you can write documents and have chat on the net with both Latin and Arabic letters. I take these 3 distros as example means you can practice this on any other GNU/Linux systems that also use GNOME3, MATE, and Pantheon desktops. Let's go!

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Wait, learn the basic things first!
Arabic language and Arabic typing are two different things on GNU/Linux. If you want to write Arabic, you need to enable Arabic keyboard, not Arabic language support. On the other hand, if you want you user interface to look Arabic, you enable Arabic language support, not Arabic keyboard. The settings of keyboard are available on every operating system's control panel.

1. Ubuntu
This is also applicable to: GNOME variants of Debian, Fedora, and openSUSE.

Go to System Settings > Region & Language:

• See Input Source column
• Click plus button ("+")
• Click triple dot button on bottom
• Click Others
• Find and select Arabic Buckwalter
• Click Add
• It will be added as new layout under the default ones
• It will also appears on system tray on the top panel

Results:
(LibreOffice Writer with Arabic alphabet table and top panel with Arabic Buckwalter enabled)
2. Trisquel
This is also applicable to other distros: MATE variants of Mint, Ubuntu, and Fedora.

Go to System Settings > Keyboard > Layout tab:

• Click Add
• Select Arabic Buckwalter
• Click Add
• It will be added as new keyboard layout
• It will also appear on system tray on the bottom taskbar

Results:

(Trisquel user simply needs to click the Arabic selection on taskbar to write arabic text)



Note that Trisquel's keyboard switcher is located on bottom unlike Ubuntu's or elementary's. Other MATE based systems may be different.

3. elementary OS
This is also applicable to other distros: Fedora Pantheon.

Go to System Settings > Keyboard:

• Click plus button ("+")
• Find and select Arabic Buckwalter
• Click Add
• It will be added as new keyboard layout
• It will also appear on top panel

Results:


(Similar to Ubuntu, elementary OS user just needs to click the top panel to switch between Arabic and Latin to type)
Everything is fortunately easy here, right? Happy working!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Disk Utility on Ubuntu 19.04 is indeed very handy)
GNOME Disk Utility is an awesome tool to maintain hard disk drives that shipped with Ubuntu. It's called simply "Disks" on start menu on 19.04, anyway. It's able to format hard disks and USB sticks, create and remove partitions, rename partitions, and check disk health. Not only that, it also features writing ISO into disk and vice versa, create ISO image of a disk. This tutorial explains in brief how to use it for 8 purposes. Let's go!

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(I use Disk Utility version 3.32 that came preinstalled with Ubuntu Disco Dingo)
1. Viewing Active Disks
Attach your disk drives and let the Disk Utility reads them. Names of disks shown on left panel. If you select one, it shows the partitions that disk has.

(Pay attention to information inside red boxes: it shows very much details about each disk and each partition selected)
2. Viewing Details of Partition
Disk Utility shows detailed info of each partition on bottom part of its window. You can read important details such as:

• Partition name
• Size in GB and Byte
• Device address (/dev/sda1, /dev/sdc1, etc.)
• UUID
• Partition type
• Filesystem name (FAT, NTFS, EXT4, etc.)
• Mount address (e.g. /media/yourname/MYUSB/)

(GIF animation: click each partition name to view its properties)
3. Format Disk and Partition
Hard disk, flash disk, or other storage drives can be formatted (write partition table into) with Disk Utility. Of course, you can also create, delete, rename, repair, and modify partitions in every disk drive.

Formatting a disk drive:

(Utilize the triple dot button on top)
Formatting a partition within a drive:

(Pay attention to the gear button on Volumes area)
4. Burn ISO into USB Stick
I always use Disk Utility to burn GNU/Linux images that are not compatible with multiboot tools (mine are MultiSystem and Multibootusb) such as Debian Live, Deepin, Mageia, BlankOn, and so on.

On Ubuntu especially, and other distros as well, simply right-click an ISO Image file and select Write with Disk Utility to write it into USB stick. Very handy, right?

(Writing ISO right into USB stick is just one touch on Ubuntu thanks to Disk Utility)
5. Rename a Partition
I believe you don'twant multiple partitions with same name, right? You can rename each partition by selecting it > click gear button > Edit Filesystem > type name you wish > OK.

(Renaming a partition)
6. Make ISO out of a Disk Drive
This is the very convenient way to make full backup or clone of disk drive. As you may know, I ever said I distribute GNU/Linux USB in my home country Indonesia, so I include every USB with backup instruction based on this awesome utility.

To create ISO image, select a disk drive from left panel > click triple dot button on top > Create Disk Image > determine storage location > let it process the rest > ISO Image created.

(Making backup of a whole USB stick is easy)
7. Check Disk Health
Every hard disk drive has internal health information called S.M.A.R.T. The Disk Utility can read that information for us. Simply click triple dot button on top > SMART Data & Self Test > click Start > let it process a while > it shows all information.

(SMART information of my solid state disk)
8. Benchmark
Even more special, Disk Utility features benchmark, so we can test disk drives' read/write speed. Example below depicts my test result of SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB resulting read speed average of 27MB/s.

(Benchmark result of my USB stick)
9. Enable Automount
I've written about this here, in short, it enables you to easily enable automatic mounting of partitions you like. No command line needed, simply click and done. Now everybody can manage their hard disks very easily on GNU/Linux. What you need to do is to enable Mount at system startup on each partition's Mount Options. Amazing, right?

(Automount settings)

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 (Bootloader, Debian, and Ubuntu)
Ubuntu 19.04, or Disco Dingo, and Debian 10, or Buster, are two latest versions in 2019 of two most popular GNU/Linux distros I already wrote about here and here. This tutorial explains dualboot installation procedures in simple way for Ubuntu Disco Dingo and Debian Buster computer operating systems onto a portable USB Flash Drive. There are 2 advantages of this kind of portable dualbooting; first, it's safer for your data in internal HDD and second, you can bring both OSes with you everywhere you go. You will prepare the partitions first, then install Ubuntu, and then install Debian, and finally finish up the GRUB bootloader, and enjoy. Go ahead!

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The Plan

• 1) Prepare 3 USB drives, one as Debian installation media, one more as Ubuntu installation media, and last one as the storage of both OSes.
• 2) Prepare the 32GB drive 3 partitions, one later for Debian system, one for Ubuntu system, and one for swap space.
• 3) First, install Ubuntu to the Ubuntu partition.
• 4) Second, install Debian to the Debian partition.
• 5) Install GRUB Bootloader to the 32GB USB stick.

Recommendations

• Read full installation tutorials of Ubuntu Disco here and Debian Buster here. This tutorial will not explain every single step but only the partitioning one for each system.   
• I recommend 32GB or more capacity of USB stick to store both systems. 16GB is too small for dualbooting.
• I recommend you to use Debian Live Edition instead of Debian Regular as it's now featured with Calamares easy installer. 
• I recommend in this article EXT2 Filesystem for both main system partitions. 
• I recommend small size partition under 1GB for swap.
• I suggest you (if you can) to detach your internal hard disk drive before doing this. I did it while practicing this today.

1. USB Preparation
My example is:

• First, 16GB USB stick as Ubuntu bootable installer
• Second, 16GB USB stick as Debian bootable installer
• Third, 32GB USB stick as storage target (treated as external HDD)

Use the program GNOME Disk Utility to burn the ISO of Ubuntu and ISO of Debian to USB sticks.

This is important: create the partitions before you install the OS. For the third USB stick, format it into 3 partitions:

• First, 15GB FAT, for Ubuntu.
• Second, 14GB FAT, for Debian.
• Third, the rest, for swap partition.

See picture below.


(The preparation: target USB stick divided into UBUNTU, DEBIAN, and SWAP partitions before installation being performed)
3. Installing Ubuntu
First task is to install Ubuntu. As I said above, I don't show all steps, but only the partitioning. You need to do:

• - select the second 14GB partition
• - format it as filesystem: EXT2
• - select its mount point: /
• - select the third ~500MB partition
• - format it as: SWAP
• - select bootloader location: the location of the USB stick (here, /dev/sda)

Anyway, this bootloader of Ubuntu will be replaced by Debian's on next section.

Then proceed the rest of installation until its finished.



2. Installing Debian
Second task is to install Debian. Once again, I don't show all steps here but the partitioning only, as it's the most important. You need to do:

• - select the first 15GB partition
• - format it as filesystem: EXT2
• - select its mount point: /
• for bootloader, see next section

 
(Calamares partition editor: editing second 14GB partition to be Debian system partition)
(Partition editor dialog: pay attention to format, ext2, and /)
4. Installing Bootloader
Third step is installing final bootloader. Still on the Debian installation, now it's the thing:

• - select bootloader location: the drive name of 32GB USB stick (here, it's /dev/sda)

Bootloader will show selection of 2 OSes every time you boot the USB stick. It will show you Debian logo there instead of Ubuntu logo (see picture on next section).

Then once again finish the installation process for about 30 minutes. 
5. Enjoying the Results
Finally, you will be able to run Ubuntu Disco and Debian Buster from USB stick. Your USB stick is now like a portable HDD with dualbooted OSes. You can boot the USB on other computers as well. And, every time it boots up, it shows selection between both OSes so you can select any one every time you need it. How can it be not convenient?

Bootloader looks like this:



Ubuntu and Debian desktops look like these:


They run fast and well on old laptops: ASUS X44C 2GB and Acer Aspire One 756 4GB. Yes, they run from a USB stick. Thanks to my brother Tegar for lending me his laptop.

Useful Tips
If you see closer, the partition names of both systems are not distinct. We better rename them to "UBUNTU" and "DEBIAN" respectively. Simply use GNOME Disk Utility to rename each partition. Run it > select the USB stick name > select partition of Ubuntu > click options button below it > Edit Filesystem > type the name UBUNTU > OK. Do it "DEBIAN" for partition of Debian.

(Where to click the option button)
 (Final result: see bottom-left corner for names of partitions; see top toolbar of each view panel showing "DEBIAN" and "UBUNTU" respectively)

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 (After setting things up, LibreOffice displays copied arabic text correctly)
You may notice that Arabic text copied from Zekr Quran Reader looks not right on LibreOffice Writer. That's right, it's because of the Right-to-Left switch has not been enabled on LibreOffice. Fortunately, it's really easy to handle. I will take chapter 1 Al Faatiha as example. Straight to the point, here's the setup.



Before:

 (Left: Zekr with correct arabic text; right: Writer got errors displaying ayat number spacing)
After:

(See top-right corner, the Right-to-Left (RTL) button; now the arabic text displayed correctly)
Configuration:

• Go to menubar Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages.
• Give check mark to Complex Text Layout > select Saudi Arabia. 
• OK.
• You should see two new buttons on your toolbar, RTL and LTR.
• If not, right-click your toolbar > Visible Button > enable Right-to-Left > enable Left-to-Right.

(Enabling complex text layout setting)
(Put RTL button on the toolbar if not presented yet)
Note: I did this on LibreOffice 5.4. Newer versions might be different.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Straight to the point, the final command line is this:
$ sudo umount -v /dev/sdb?* && udisksctl power-off -b /dev/sdb
Fortunately, you can make shortcut to that long command to be, for example:
$ magic
Explanation goes below. 

There are only 3 steps.

On KDE, more precisely on Dolphin File Manager, press F4 key so you see Konsole appears on its bottom:

 (Without leaving your file manager, you can do command lines; that's Dolphin)
To understand the command, we learn first where is the location of our partitions:
$ lsblk 
(From this, we know that they are in /dev/sdb drive denoted as /dev/sdb1 to /dev/sdb10)
Second, we unmount all attached partitions of external hard disk:
$ sudo umount -v /dev/sdb?*

(Unmounting process with detailed progress info)

Third, we safely remove the disk drive:
$ udisksctl power-off --block-device /dev/sdb
(Safely remove the disk drive)
The final result should present you all partitions disappeared and lsblk shows /dev/sdb no more.

 (The lsblk shows only the internal /dev/sda means the external drive /dev/sdb has been removed)
Example above given by considering /dev/sdb as the external disk drive we want to unmount. If lsblk output shows you it's not /dev/sdb but /dev/sdc instead, then use /dev/sdc. And so on.

See? Nothing hard.

Important notes explained below.

• 1) GNU/Linux OS reads every disk drive attached in special identifier, like, /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc. To know them, use lsblk command. 
• 2) The OS reads every partition with number following its disk drive identifier, like, /dev/sdb1 or /dev/sdb2, which is a partition inside /dev/sdb disk drive.
• 3)  
• 4) The umount and udisksctl commands work with special identifier of partitions and disk drives, respectively.
• 5) The -v option of umount command means verbose that is to show the process currently being done. 
• 6) The && sign means making a combination of two commands.

Making short version described below.

To make such long command short, you simply need to create an equation, that is in the .bashrc file of yours. Please be aware that this example is limited to /dev/sdb only, so this is not perfect, and you are free to learn more about this.

1) Edit it with editor:
$ nano ~/.bashrc
2) Scroll down.

3) Write this as new line at bottom:
alias magic="sudo umount -v /dev/sdb?* && udisksctl power-off -b /dev/sdb"
4) Save:
Ctrl+O

5) Exit:
Ctrl+X

6) Try it out:
$ magic
Enjoy!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Ubuntu in 3 different releases: GNOME2 era, Unity era, and GNOME3 era)
Knowing Ubuntu releases is important to understand it better. Ubuntu is released twice a year, more precisely, every April and October, hence the number 04 and 10 in every version. It has special release called Long Term Support (LTS) released once in two years, only when the year number is even, hence all LTS version numbers are ended with 04. More importantly, you will also see 3 different periods of Ubuntu Desktop, that have been going through GNOME2, Unity, and GNOME3 eras, with OpenOffice.org and then LibreOffice as the main office suite. You will also see Ubuntu siblings like Kubuntu and Mythbuntu. I hope this will be interesting enough for everybody to read. Go ahead, and learn more about Ubuntu!

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Summary

• 1) Windows Releases
• 2) Ubuntu Releases
• 3) Codenames
• 4) Architectures
• 5) Editions
• 6) Periods
• 7) Repositories
• 8) Official Flavors
• 9) Retired Flavors
• 10) See Bigger Picture

1. Windows Releases
Microsoft released Windows in these versions so far:

• Windows XP (2001)
• Windows Vista (2007)
• Windows 7 (2009)
• Windows 8 (2012)
• Windows 8.1 (2013)
• Windows 10 (2015)

In short, Windows release schedule is not predictable (unlike Ubuntu in every 6 month); we do not see in each release different Editions based on its user interface, nor third-party variants, nor codenames; and we do not talk about repository on it. And, Windows' user interface has no name (we say the OS "Windows" and the desktop environment "Windows" as well). I hope this information can help you to understand Ubuntu better.

2. Ubuntu Releases 
Ubuntu releases its new version 2 times every year. More precisely, Ubuntu is always released in April and October, hence it has only 04 and 10 version numbers of all releases*. Based on support lifespan, releases divided into two classes, one Long Term Support (LTS), and one Regular (non-LTS). The LTS ones are released every two years when the number of year is even (see below) and the Regular ones are released every 6 month except when LTS released.



(Release announcements on Ubuntu.com website of 18.04 LTS, 18.10, and the old 7.04 versions)

LTS:

• Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (2010)
• Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (2012)
• Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (2014)
• Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (2016)
• Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (2018)

Regular:

• Ubuntu 10.10 (2010)
• Ubuntu 11.04 (2011)
• Ubuntu 12.10 (2012)
• Ubuntu 13.04 (2013)
• Ubuntu 17.04 (2017)
• Ubuntu 19.04 (2019)

Complete list of releases is here.

What's the difference between Regular and LTS? There are two things, first, recentness of package versions, and second, time duration of the official support from Canonical.

The first one means, for example, LibreOffice on 19.04 will be newer compared to LibreOffice on 18.04 LTS, and to get that newer version, users of 18.04 should upgrade to 19.04.

The second one means security updates. LTS has 5 years time span of updates, while Regular has only 9 month. The updates are provided by professional team in Canonical to several hundreds of packages in the 'main' repository. This means, for example, if you use 19.04 and 18.04 LTS simultaneously, then the former will not supported anymore in 2020 but the latter will receive updates until 2023.

Actually there is one more fact, the third one, the secret fact behind support lifespans is, that whenever any version reached end of support, the repository will be officially deleted in the internet, so users of that version would not be able to install software anymore. This condition is called End of Life or EOL. You will still however can use the OS forever but you cannot install software from its repository and will not receive updates anymore.

*) Only one exception exists, that is 6.06 Dapper Drake, which is the only 06 ending number while Ubuntu experienced late 2 month extra to release.

3. Ubuntu Codenames
This one is the uniqueness of Ubuntu: each release is named in alphabetical fashion.

LTS:

• 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx"
• 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin"
• 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr"
• 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus"
• 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver"

Regular:

• 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat"
• 11.04 "Natty Narwhal"
• 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal"
• 13.04 "Raring Ringtail"
• 17.04 "Zesty Zapus"
• 19.04 "Disco Dingo"

Complete list of code names is here.

What's this means? This is important, as there are 2 things: first, you will often hear Ubuntu user says "Bionic" to mean 18.04 or "Maverick" to mean 10.10 and on and on; second, this codename is the code your repository works with. So for every release, in your system configuration, the address to get software is not notated in number, take example 18.04 and 10.10, but in name, that are "bionic" and "maverick", respectively. You cannot use "bionic" repository on maverick, for example, and vice versa.

Who decide codename of Ubuntu? Of course, Mark Shuttleworth, the father of Ubuntu, the founder of Canonical Ltd. We can see every announcement of the codenames published on his blog. See his posts for example, Yakkety and Cosmic.

4. Ubuntu Architectures
Based on architecture, Ubuntu Desktop is now only available as 64-bit (called amd64) after a decade had been available also for 32-bit (called i386). For instance, the latest release at the moment, 19.04 Disco Dingo, is 64-bit only, while 16.04 Xenial Xerus, is still available in both 32-bit and 64-bit.

5. Ubuntu Editions
Based on edition, Ubuntu is available mainly as Desktop and Server operating systems, as we could see on the download page.

 (Left: Ubuntu Desktop main page; right: Ubuntu Server main page; both screenshots taken August 2019)

6. Ubuntu Periods
Speaking in popular fashion, the time of Ubuntu Desktop up to today can be divided into 3 different eras:

• GNOME2 era (2004-2010)
• Unity era (2011-2017)
• GNOME3 era (2017-now)

What's this? To speak casually, Ubuntu experienced 3 different user interfaces. This means you may find friends knowing Ubuntu from any one among those eras. Originally, it came with GNOME2 for 6 years, later it came with Unity for 6 years, and finally since 2017 it came with GNOME3 up to today. These three names are names of user interface developed for GNU/Linux Desktop. However, the desktop we see on 18.04 and 19.04 is called GNOME3.

How was GNOME2 era? In this era, Ubuntu came with double panel, top and bottom, it's a highly customizable desktop yet lightweight and usable. It shipped with OpenOffice.org, the predecessor of LibreOffice. At that time, Canonical was still sending Ubuntu CDs at no cost worldwide. Do you remember? Yes, it was the famous ShipIt program we no could not see anymore since 2010. GNOME2 itself ended by its developers in favor of the completely new GNOME3 at 2011.

 (Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope with GNOME2 desktop and OpenOffice.org on its start menu)
How was Unity era? In this era, Ubuntu came with top and side panel, with full screen menu, with Global Menu, and with HUD revealed every time Alt key being pressed. This era also changed because of its switch from OpenOffice.org to LibreOffice since Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. However, Unity was a great innovation as a reaction to people's dissatisfaction against GNOME3. Unity was not quite customizable, honestly, but people (finally) loved it at that time, for its simplicity and features it possesses. In my personal opinion, even today, I still like Unity era the most for its modernity and sleekness.

(Ubuntu with Unity desktop and the HUD running to read menubar of Mozilla Firefox)
How is GNOME3 era? This is the era when we see Ubuntu today. The layout is similar to Unity, but without HUD and Global Menu, and (unfortunately) more loads to RAM. Canonical decided to leave Unity behind and use GNOME3 instead on version 17.04 at 2017.

(Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo with GNOME version 3.30)
7. Ubuntu Repositories
What is a repository? Repository, for you coming from Windows world, more likely is not something you familiar with. Ubuntu user installs all software from repository: a place in the internet containing thousands of software built specially for a certain Ubuntu version. For Windows user, they don't work that way, instead, they visit different webs to collect different applications. In this regard, repository is a central place that collects all software for Ubuntu.

The important thing is, every release version brings its own repository, worth more than 20GB or more software packages (and still increasing!). This means 18.04 has 18.04 repository, 19.04 has 19.04 repository, and on and on. Every repository is solely for its version, meaning, repository for 18.04 is not usable on 19.04 for example, and vice versa. This means versions of software in each Ubuntu version is fixed, and this is the point distinguishing between Ubuntu and 'rolling' distro like Arch.

What's the difference to Windows? This is important, thanks to Ubuntu being free software, updating the OS means updating all software installed. This is contrast to Windows, as updating the OS only updates the OS itself, not the third-party programs you have, so you must update everything one by one separately. For example, updating Windows doesn't update Photoshop or AutoCAD there; but updating Ubuntu does update the OS and does update GIMP and Warzone 2100 you installed there. This is related to what I mentioned before, because Ubuntu user installs all programs from central repository, but Windows user installs from different sources. Why? It's because the software Ubuntu distributes are free software, so Canonical is granted full rights to redistribute updates of them; but the software you mostly find on Windows like MATLAB or Ulead Studio are proprietary (nonfree), so even Microsoft is prohibited to redistribute updates of them.

Repository contents, viewed from inside Ubuntu:

(Synaptic Package Manager, a tool to browse, search, install thousands of software from the repository)
Repository contents, viewed from web browser:
(However, all packages are stored under 'pool' directory there and sorted alphabetically)
8. Official Flavors
On this side, Ubuntu is also different to Windows, as Ubuntu permits unlimited redistribution by user (both with and without modification) while Windows forbids it. That is why we can see Official Flavors, modified operating systems ("distros") created and maintained by users in special communities. Today, we have 7 actively developed Flavors, namely:

• Kubuntu (2005)
• Xubuntu (2006)
• Ubuntu Studio (2007)
• Lubuntu (2009)
• Ubuntu Kylin (2013)
• Ubuntu MATE (2014)
• Ubuntu Budgie (2016)

 (Left: kubuntu.org; right: xubuntu.org; bottom: lubuntu.me)

9. Retired Flavors
With full respect and gratitude to all the developers, I also listed here Flavors that were once active but no longer available:

• Mythbuntu (2007-2016)
• Edubuntu (2005-2016)
• Ubuntu GNOME (2012-2017)

We can learn much from them that each distro, even the popular one, needs enough developers and also support from us the users to maintain it. Without cooperation, we will see another distro stopped being developed like Edubuntu. This fact will eager every one of us to contribute to distro we love! I hope this section can be a contribution to them at least to attract new developers joining from among you.



(Left: Ubuntu GNOME website; right: Edubuntu website; bottom: Mythbuntu website accessed via Internet Archive from a 2016 snapshot)

10. See The Bigger Picture
Okay, so now let's see the bigger picture of all:

1. Every 6 month, Ubuntu releases a new release. 
2. Every release, there are 2 main Ubuntu editions (Desktop & Server), and also there are 7 Flavors (Kubuntu et. al.).
3. Every operating system released is available in either 64-bit only or with 32-bit architecture.
4. All of them install software from one common repository. 
5. Each release has its own repository and new repository is not compatible with old one.
6. Each one of them is distributed via internet as an ISO Image file typically in huge size (1GB or more). 
7. Latest Regular and LTS versions of them are supported, except the End Of Life (EOL) version that is not supported anymore (i.e. the repository removed officially).

And finally, as real example, let's see our latest and next releases:

• Latest Regular is 19.04 "Disco Dingo" released April 2019.
• Latest LTS is 18.04 "Bionic Beaver" released April 2019. 
• Next Regular will be 19.10 planned October 2019.
• Next LTS will be 20.04 planned April 2020. 

Next One
That's all for now. According to our plan yesterday, next time I will talk about Applications on Ubuntu. I hope you enjoyed this and encouraged to try Ubuntu. Have a good time!

to be continued...

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Launchpad, the site where source code of Ubuntu can be obtained)
I am currently distributing GNU/Linux in Indonesia. As you know, distributing libre software that is licensed under GNU GPL and such other licenses, requires you to distribute the source code too. A question pops up: where to get source code of a GNU/Linux system along with whole source code repository it possesses? For example, where to get Ubuntu's source code DVD and its source code repository? To answer that question, I decided to make a series of notes regarding my search in source code of popular GNU/Linux distros. Criteria I made are (1) whether a distro provides source CD or not, (2) where the official source code packages repo located, (3) where the raw source codes located, and finally (4) how to get them for end users. I also tried to find (5) mirrors of the source code repo. I am starting here with Ubuntu, of course, and next time I will look at Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, and Trisquel. I hope this article and the next ones will help anybody to understand how important the source code is and ease them to distribute free as in freedom software. Enjoy!

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This Series
I planned to make 5 articles in this series for 5 popular distros:

• Ubuntu
• Debian
• openSUSE
• Fedora
• Trisquel

But I don't know the future, as many interesting distros available there (especially the fully free ones), perhaps I will add more if I consider it's interesting.

Terminology

• Source code: refers to generally original form of every software written in programming language. A source code file written in C++ language would have .cpp extension, while Python is .py, and so on.
• Binary code: software in executable form processed from source code. This is what you run / execute on your computer.
• Distro: an operating system like Ubuntu or Fedora, which takes source code from multiple sources worldwide, and process them all to be binary code in the form of operating system itself and repository. 
• Binary code package (.deb, .rpm): executable program format. Debian family uses .deb format while Red Hat family uses .rpm format.
• Source code package: source code of a software that is already packaged as package by a distro developer. So for a given software, let's say Warzone, Ubuntu has its own package packaged by Ubuntu developers, while Fedora also has its own package, although the software is the same.
• Raw source code: or development source code, source code that is written and published independently by its original developer.
• SRPM (.srpm): source RPM, that is source code package format of RPM-based distros such as Fedora, Mageia, and so on.
• Tarball (.tar.gz, .tar.bz, .tar.xz): raw source code package format.

1. Source Code CD
Source code CD or simply source CD is ISO image file containing source code of the executable ISO of  GNU/Linux distro and/or its repository. Fortunately, very fortunately, Ubuntu provides source code DVDs downloadable in ISO images. Why fortunate? Because with them, you do not need to find source code one by one that is wasting your time. And actually, this is the reason I wrote previous article and now this article as well.

Address: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/source/bionic/source

(We can see 5 ISOs with total size by 16GB or more here)
2. Source Code Packages Repository
Packages here means source code in .tar.gz format packaged by Ubuntu developers to be obtained using APT command line at end-user's side. This is the secret behind 'deb-src' code in your sources.list file.

• Address: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/
• Additional info: the source code package is located same directory with binary code package

3. Raw Source Code Repository
All raw source code packages of Ubuntu are located at Launchpad. The raw ones are source code packages that are publicly available online to be developed together.

• Address: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/
• Example 1: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/0ad/+publishinghistory
• Example 2: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libreoffice/+publishinghistory
• Example 3: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vlc/+publishinghistory

Note: 0ad, libreoffice, and vlc are package names for the realtime strategy game 0 A.D., and free office suite LibreOffice, and crossplatform media player VLC.

4. How To Get The Source Code
The easiest one, simply download them all source code ISOs and burn them to DVDs.

For individual source packages, either use apt-get source [name] command line or download manually from Launchpad website above.

For whole source repository, you would need APT-MIRROR tool to download them all. Please beware the size may be gigantic (my friend Dheny Muhammad Ismail said Ubuntu 18.04's was 100GB). Prepare fast and unlimited internet access + large free disk space before downloading.

That's all I can bring you for Ubuntu. Next time, I will write on source code of Debian.

to be continued...

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 (Deepin 15.10, Mint 19, and Elementary 5.0 showing their desktops with start menu opened)
I tried to make this article to help everybody find a desktop choice among Deepin, Mint, and Elementary operating systems. I select them because they are solely focused on desktop and have developed their own user interface. They are all GNU/Linux systems from Debian family, but with several distinctions you may love to see. For example, they differ on their own file managers, user interface layouts and built-in apps and several more things. You will also find which one still supports 32-bit PC nowadays, which one supports Flatpak by default, and more. Finally, I wish you can empower your PC and laptop with one of them. Enjoy!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.

How old are they?

• Deepin started 2004, so, 15 years ago.
• Mint started 2006, so, 13 years ago.
• Elementary started 2011, so, 8 years ago.

For convenience sake, I use here all first-letter capitals of their names as it's hard to type names with first-letter lowercase. Their versions I used to make this comparison are, respectively, 15.10 and 19 LTS and 5.0. However, from above, it's clear that Deepin is the oldest one and Elementary is the youngest. And here, when I say Mint, I mean "Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition" of course. Okay, let's go.

1. Desktop Environment
This is the most important thing to compare: each has its own D.E. Deepin has DDE, Mint has Cinnamon, and elementary has Pantheon. This is what makes them unique compared to other desktop distros, let's say, for example, Kubuntu and Fedora, as most distro projects do not develop their own D.E.

 (Left: DDE; right: Cinnamon; bottom: Pantheon)

• Deepin: full-screen + normal start menu, icons on desktop, bottom dock, bottom tray, Super key OK, right-click OK, theming OK (on sidebar), movable panel
• Mint: normal start menu, icons on desktop, bottom panel, bottom tray, Super key OK, right-click OK, theming OK (on System Settings), movable panel
• Elementary: top-down start menu, NO icons on desktop, top panel, top tray, Super key does not open start menu, NO right-click, NO theming, NOT movable panel

Speaking about design, the most distinct one here is Pantheon, as it has its own Human Interface Guidelines (HIG), just like Apple Mac OS with its HIG, a detailed documentation to construct on how apps and user interface should look like. This HIG is the cause of how Elementary behaves and every app developer designs their app to look like what we've seen. For example, why, you say, Elementary does not have minimize buttons? The answer is, because, the HIG says so. Another example, we apps on Elementary lack settings? Because, the HIG says so. Concerning HIG, Deepin and Cinnamon do not have such thing. To help you learn more about this, do not forget that in our GNU/Linux community, we also have KDE's HIG and GNOME's HIG.

Speaking about themes, Mint is the most customizable, meaning, clear settings available to switch, add, remove, and mix desktop themes. Seeing Elementary in particular, in my opinion I always think it's designed to be unchanged, so we rarely see custom themes for it, just like what we see with Mac OS. Within the OS itself, we do not see any theme switcher available. Seeing Deepin, there is theme switcher available, but to compare with Mint's, it's still very limited.

(Mint with theme choices opened)
Speaking about technology, DDE is based on Qt, while both Cinnamon and Pantheon are based on GTK. If you do not have idea what is Qt or GTK, they are computer programming library to help you create awesome desktop application. So we can say DDE is on same boat with KDE, as KDE is the biggest thing created with Qt, while saying Cinnamon and Pantheon are in the same boat with GNOME, as GTK is the material that created GNOME.

2. File Manager

• Deepin: DFM, multitabbing, no split vertical, quick search
• Mint: Nemo, multitabbing, split vertical available, quick search
• Elementary: Pantheon Files, multitabbing, no split vertical, limited search

(Left: DFM, right: Nemo, bottom: Pantheon Files)
 As a consequence to have own D.E., then, they have their own file managers too. Deepin has Deepin File Manager, Mint has Nemo, and elementary OS has Pantheon Files.

Speaking about search, the only one shortcoming I could say is limited search on Pantheon Files. Try Elementary, try to Ctrl+F anywhere, try to search anything you accustomed to, I believe you will be rather disappointed. It does not show all results (only limited number of them), it shows results in tooltip instead of main area, without indicator (like spinning icon) while its working, and it's rather slow. On the other hand, search on Deepin and Mint are quick and complete.

3. Desktop Extensions

• Deepin: no
• Mint: yes
• Elementary: no

Only Mint supports extensions (called "Applets") while Deepin and elementary have no such thing. With extensions I mean like GNOME with its Shell Extensions or KDE with its Widgets, you can add more functionalities to your desktop like network indicator or notes. We do not know whether in the future Deepin and Elementary will have such, but, at least, Elementary HIG does not say anything about "extension" nor "add-on" at all.

(Mint with clock and picture slideshow applets appearing on left side with applet manager running on the middle)

4. ISO Availability & Backgrounds

• Deepin: +/-2.5GB, LiveCD+Install, 64-bit only, mirrors available, no torrent
• Mint: +/-1GB, LiveCD+Install, 32-bit and 64-bit available, mirrors available, torrents available
• Elementary: +/-1GB, LiveCD+Install, 64-bit only, no mirrors, torrent available

Deepin, formerly Hiweed, is now a Debian derivative (after for a long time being an Ubuntu derivative). Latest version, 15.11 is derived from Debian 10 Buster. Perhaps, the most interesting, extrinsic fact about Deepin is its developed by Chinese community.

Mint is an Ubuntu derivative focused on desktop only and consistently provide 32-bit version along with the 64-bit one up to today. Latest version, 19 LTS, is derived from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Elementary is also an Ubuntu derivative solely focused on desktop with clear Human Interface Guidelines that fundamentally constructs how the design of the U.I. and the apps should look. Latest version, 5.0 Juno, is derived from Ubuntu 18.04.

To sum it up, because these 3 are Debian family, they are all using APT/DEB as their software management system. So the package format (.deb) is the same as Debian and Ubuntu, and basically user uses APT to install software. Only Mint provides & supports 32-bit version. Only Deepin does not have official torrent download. Only Deepin does not compatible to PPAs as its derived from Debian not Ubuntu.

5. Software Center
Deepin has App Store, Mint has Software Manager, and elementary OS has AppCenter.


(Left: Deepin App Store, right: Mint Software Manager, bottom: Elementary AppCenter)
With each own software center, they can install software from each official repository (.deb packages). With software center, you can search software in fancy ways, with screenshots available but technical info hidden, iconic and easy. For Deepin and Mint, there is one more thing, as they can also install more software from Flatpak repository (see Flathub.org).

6. Alternative Package Managers
Among Flatpak and Snap solutions available today, Deepin and Mint include the former, while Elementary includes none of these. This means Software Center on that two can help you search & install additional applications, but not on Elementary. However, Flatpak is a new thing in our community, it's a huge platform to find & install software with new format that works across different GNU/Linux distros.

7. Control Panels

• Deepin: sidebar
• Mint: System Settings
• Elementary: Switchboard

 
Deepin has its unique right-panel System Settings, while Mint has System Settings, and elementary has Switchboard. So, the most unique one here is Deepin, with its sidebar as control panel, you click the gear button on the dock to reveal it (similar to BlankOn's Manokwari and Solus' Raven).

Speaking about search in settings, Deepin does not have it, while Mint and Elementary have. With Deepin, you must scroll up/down to navigate to the setting you want.

8. Applications

Deepin has its own set of apps:

• Movie, video player
• Music, music player
• Manual, help reader
• Boot Maker, ISO image writer for USB
• Repair, troubleshooting tool
• Remote Assistant, remote desktop tool
• Screen Recorder, screencasting tool
• File Manager
• Voice Recorder
• Screenshot
• Image Viewer
• Terminal
• Cloud Print
• User Feedback

Mint has:

• Nemo, file manager
• Xed, text editor
• Xplayer, video player
• Xreader, PDF viewer
• Pix, image viewer

elementary has:

• Pantheon Files, file manager
• Pantheon Music, audio player
• Pantheon Videos, video player
• Pantheon Mail, email client
• Switchboard, control panel
• AppCenter, software center

Seeing these, we can say that Deepin has biggest number of applications developed by themselves with their own design and purposes. Take for example, the Deepin Manual, it's very very beautiful, with a lot of pictures, and I have never seen any other manual from other distros displayed in such pretty way. What I can say is that talking about applications, Deepin is a real and serious desktop project.

More interestingly, in case of office suite, they are also distinct to each others, as Deepin brings WPS Office, Mint brings LibreOffice, while Elementary brings none of them. In my opinion, from free software community point of view, I love Mint's choice the most.


9. Repository
Among these three, only Deepin has its own independent repository without additional ones. Since version 18, Mint already has own repository with own Web Package Search feature here. Elementary really uses Ubuntu's repository and additionally their official repository as PPA you can find here.

10. Multiboot
Speaking about creating multiboot USB with MultiSystem tool, deepin is NOT ok, but both Mint and elementary are OK. This means you maybe managed to burn deepin ISO and run LiveCD well, but the system installation will always failed. Meanwhile, for the rest two LiveCD and System Install work perfectly.

My Opinions
The only one thing I feel missing from them three is to be shipped with computers. You see, like my previous comparison article, Ubuntu and Ubuntu MATE has System76 and Entroware to ship the operating systems with their branded PCs and laptops, and of course, the OSes had been tested to be working out-of-the-box with the hardware. We will be really happy if we could see in near future, for example, Entroware to ship PCs and laptops with Deepin, Mint, and Elementary worldwide. I believe you would also love if Asus, Acer, Dell, Toshiba, and Fujitsu, sell their laptops preinstalled with these three, right? In particular, Deepin is from China, and many electronic components said "Made In China", so why we could not see a laptop shipped officially with Deepin? To be honest to you, actually the nearest has already happened with Mint and MintBox mini PC, I say congratulations for them, but I would really love to see Mint Laptops more than that. This is my last opinion of them.

Finally, if you want to choose among these three, feel free to consider my 10 points above. I wish you will find the best one for your PC and laptop. Enjoy!


This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 (LibreOffice 6.2 is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit PC from official DEB Packages)
This tutorial for Debian 10 explains how to install LibreOffice version 6.2 with 4 alternative solutions which are DEB, AppImage, Flatpak, and Snap (or I call it simply D.A.F.S.) you may choose one. They all do not remove the already installed version. If you want 32-bit version, choose DEB instead. If you want something else, read on, perhaps you will see good things other than AppImage. I hope this helps everybody. Go ahead and get LibreOffice 6.2 on Debian!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.[ On Debian 10: Install Guide | Downloads | Mozc/Hiragana | WTDAI ]
[ On DAFS: Snap Guide | Snap Offline & Parallel | KDE Snaps | Using AppImage | Recommended AppImages]


Why bother?
Because up to today, version 6.2 is not available in all repositories of Debian including even Sid and Experimental. Alas, versions 6.1 and 6.3 are available. Hence, we cannot simply apt-get install libreoffice to upgrade the version to 6.2. So, we need other way (at least at the moment) to get this particular version. Okay, let's go to the D.A.F.S.

 (packages.debian.org site shows no 6.2 version available currently in Debian Buster (stable) repository and others)
1. DEB Packages
Download: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download (select DEB from the option)

Advantages:

• Native, normal format of Debian applications.
• Parallel, does not replace the already installed version.
• Small, the compressed package is only 170MB, it's smaller than AppImage, Flatpak, and Snap versions. 
• Easy, no additional tool required and finished with only 1 command.
• 32-bit and 64-bit versions are available.. 

Disadvantages:

• Uninstallation is difficult, you need to remove every package name one by one. 
• Complex by number of files, as the package consists of 42 different files.

Actually, LibreOffice is already available as DEB packages provided nicely for us in here 64-bit and here 32-bit. This is the only one option if you are still using 32-bit computer*. This DEB version is packaged by LibreOffice Project and not by Debian Project. To install it, simply extract the .tar package, get the folder with a bunch of files in .deb format, and:

To install, do this command in that DEBS directory:
$ sudo dpkg --install *.deb
And to uninstall, do this command in the same directory:
$ ls | sed 's/.deb//g' | cut --delim="_" -f1 | xargs sudo dpkg --remove
(Successful installation of LibreOffice 6.2 from DEBS packages on Debian Buster)
*) Unless you yourself want to built 32-bit version of AppImage, or Flatpak, or Snap package.

2. AppImage
Download: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/appimage

Advantages:

• Simple, only one file.
• Easy, no command lines use needed, no runtime, no additional tool required, no installation needed and just double-click to run the program.
• Quick setup, it's the quickest one among other solutions here. Try working with different distros in one computer with AppImage, you will know what I mean.
• Portable, you can bring it on USB Stick everywhere you go.
• Parallel, does not replace the already installed one. 
• Small, it's only 248MB that is smaller than Flatpak and Snap versions.
• Uninstallation is easy, as it does not install anything & simply delete the file if you wish.
• No internet access, you can download the .appimage file on other computer and run that file without internet access on Debian computer.

Disadvantages:

• Unpopular, many people still don't know about AppImage. 
• Bigger than DEBs version, by 248MB vs 170MB. 
• 64-bit only, official built is not available for 32-bit PC architecture*.

To install it, simply download the .appimage file, give it Executable permission, and double-click it.

(Successfully running LibreOffice 6.2 from AppImage package on Debian Buster without installation)

*) However, if you wish, you can built it yourself as the source code is available + AppImageKit is there for packaging AppImage.

3. Flatpak

Download: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/flatpak

Advantages:

• Parallel, it does not remove the already installed one.
• Available, it's compatible to Debian 10.
• Integrated, it's controllable using GNOME Software Center. 
• Uninstallation is easy, with just 1 command.

Disadvantages:

• Huge, or giant, to install LibreOffice alone we need to download 900MB of total data. Flatpak version is the biggest among all solutions here. 
• Needs direct internet access, you access the internet in order to get the Flatpak first and then get the intended program later on the Debian 10 system. 
• Complex setup, it requires command lines use, it needs you to add repository URL first to download the intended program.
• Slower setup, it's the slowest solution compared to all solutions here. It downloads the most size, it requires the most time, you will know it if you try to work with different distros in one computer.
• Not independent, you need to install additional tool to make it works.
• Not portable, more complicated (time, effort, size) if you want to bring it everywhere in USB stick. AppImage is better here.
• 64-bit only, not 32-bit version currently available. 

To install it, you need to install the flatpak program first using apt-get, and then add new repository URL, and finally install LibreOffice using flatpak.

$ sudo apt-get install flatpak
$ flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
$ flatpak install org.libreoffice.LibreOffice
To uninstall it, run this command:
$ flatpak remove org.libreoffice.LibreOffice

(LibreOffice 6.2 running on Debian 10 from Flatpak package)
4. Snap

Download: https://www.libreoffice.org/download/snap

Advantages:

• Parallel, it does not replace the already installed version.
• Available, it's compatible to Debian 10.
• Uninstallation is easy, just by 1 command.
• Simple setup, no additional repository URL entry needed.

Disadvantages:

• Huge, second to Flatpak solution as it needs to download 400MB of data.
• Not portable, running the .snap file on other distros requires additional tools and direct internet access.
• Not independent, you need to install additional tool to make it works. 
• Slower setup, it's slower than AppImage although it's still quicker than Flatpak by its size and requirements of direct internet access.
• Needs direct internet access, you access the internet in order to get the Snapd first and then get the intended program later on the target computer and these cannot be done using other computer.
• 64-bit only, currently no 32-bit version available. 

To install it, you must install Snapd first (the required runtime) and then install one more required Snap package and finally install LibreOffice Snap itself.
$ sudo apt-get install snapd
$ snap install core
$ snap install libreoffice
To uninstall it, run this command:
$ snap remove libreoffice

 (LibreOffice 6.2 running on Debian 10 from Snap package)

References

• AppImage website
• Flatpak website
• Snap website 
• Differences between Snap, AppImage, and Flatpak (Askubuntu)
• Comparing AppImage, Flatpak, and Snap (Verummeum)
• Cross Distro Applications (Nitrux Project Blog)
• AppImage vs Snap vs Flatpak (Ostechnix)
• Solutions: Snappy, Flatpak, and Appimage (Datamation)
• Comparing LibreOffice 6.2 from AppImage, Flatpak, and Snap (UbuntuBuzz)

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This tutorial explains easy procedures to update GRUB Bootloader of GNU/Linux system after you install it to USB so it recognizes all other operating systems installed on the same computer if it didn't. For this, I practiced it on my previous Debian 10 on USB stick. You can also practice this on Deepin 15.10 or Ubuntu 19.04 or other OSes. You do not need to install additional program as we will use only command line here. Enjoy!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.[ USB stick installation guides: Deepin 15.10 | Ubuntu 19.04 | Debian 10 ] [ Download links: Deepin 15.10 | Ubuntu 19.04 | Debian 10 ] [ WTDAI: Debian 10 | Ubuntu 19.04 | Kubuntu 19.04]

Before
By default, my Debian on USB stick will boot like below with only 1 name of OS shown "Debian GNU/Linux". However, in fact, my computer has 4 other OSes. So I cannot boot to other OSes.



After

By running command line below, my bootloader recognizes 4 other OSes correctly as shown in this picture. They are "KDE neon", "Trisquel", "Ubuntu Yakkety", and "Ubuntu 19.04". So now I can boot to any other OSes.



Method

• 1) Boot into your GNU/Linux system within the USB. Example here is Debian 10.
• 2) Run command line below and let it recognizes all other OSes in your computer. 
• 3) Reboot.
• 4) You will see your USB bootloader to look like "After" one above. 

Command line:
$ sudo update-grub
Picture:

 (update-grub command managed to recognize 4 other OSes)
Happy working!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Debian 10 GNOME)
Debian 10 LTS, known as Buster, released with 7 desktop environments in 2019. This short article reveals the GNOME Edition for you. Unlike usual, I tried to break down the download pages more longer for you to give you clearer vision on what and where to download. I divided this article into 6 parts which talk about: ISOs, LTS, Calamares system installer, login sessions & RAM loads (fortunately, it's only ~800MiB right now!), user interface, and of course applications. I hope this overview helps everybody to reach Debian and try it as soon as possible. Happy reading!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.[ On Debian 10: Install Guide | Downloads | Mozc/Hiragana | WTDAI ]

Summary

• 1) About ISO images
• 2) LTS
• 3) Calamares
• 4) Wayland & Xorg, and Memory Loads
• 5) User interface
• 6) Apps

Important Information
Before starting anything, here  official news from Debian Project about Buster:

• Release Announcement: (web), (email)
• Release Notes: (all)
• Install Guide: (all)
• LTS info

1. About ISO Images
I myself interested in how vast Debian ISO images number are. Really, it's amazing. I would love to make an overview to where and what are available to us from Debian, that are, ISO images. So I broke it down to 9 sub-parts below.

1.1. Central download page
All downloads of Buster are centralized in one parent directory cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/ aka debian-cd/ page. From this directory you would see both Install-Only and Live-Install editions (10.0.0/ and 10.0.0-live/ pages), and then go down to multiple architectures Debian supports (amd64/ and i386/ pages among others), and then go further to both DVD and CD versions for each edition (iso-dvd/ and iso-cd/ pages). You will always go back to this URL so I suggest you to bookmark it.


1.2. CD and DVD
Debian 10 is still available as both CD and DVD sizes. You may choose.

• [URL: iso-cd] CD version is no more than 700MB size and is no more than 1 disk for desktop. (In fact, the desktop edition is only one, that is, XFCE edition)
• [URL: iso-dvd] DVD versions are bigger roughly between 2 and 4GB, and for each architecture, each is available in 3 disks. It includes multiple desktop including KDE, GNOME, LXDE, etc. so it represents the size. (Note: to install Debian, only DVD1 is required)

The secret is, Live Editions are all DVDs, no CD version for them. The CD versions are available only for Install-Only editions.

(Left: DVD editions (see URL: iso-dvd/); right: CD editions (see URL: iso-cd/); both are 64-bit versions; see the highlighted blue on address bar and pink on the page)
All ISO images of Debian Buster are hybrid ISO, meaning, can be written to CD or USB storage. I myself distributed Debian this month to my friend in Indonesia using both DVD and USB, like I had pictured below:

(A DVD of Debian Buster and one of Mageia 7.1, both are just released this month)
1.3. Install-Only and Live-Install
Simply, it's like Windows installer and Ubuntu installer, one can only install without running as LiveCD, and one can install or run as LiveCD. Debian 10 is available in both types, Install-Only and Live-Install, with certain advantages:

Install-Only:

• Advantage: available in 10 different computer architectures possible in the world.
• Disadvantage: cannot run in LiveCD mode, meaning, you must install it to use it. 

Live-Install:

• Advantage: it features LiveCD mode, meaning, you can run the system fully without installing it; and also it features Install mode, meaning, you can install it permanently. In other words, this type is equal to all regular Ubuntu Desktop versions. This is a feature Microsoft Windows does not have.
• Disadvantage: only available in 2 architectures, i386 and amd64, or more popularly called 32-bit and 64-bit.

1.4. BT and Non-BT
Normal download of Debian 10 is by you right-clicking a link and click Save As. That is the iso-dvd/ or iso-cd/ webpage for you. This is called HTTP download.

(Left: direct-download page for DVD versions (see URL: iso-dvd/); right: direct-download page for CD versions (see URL: iso-cd/))
But faster download is by you downloading the .torrent file to download the actual huge file while in the same time everybody else worldwide uploads the file to you. That is the bt-dvd/ or bt-cd/ download page for you.

(Left: BitTorrent page for DVD versions (see URL: bt-dvd/); right: BitTorrent page for CD versions (see URL: bt-cd/))
What's this? BT means BitTorrent, that is actually a small file you open with certain BitTorrent client, to download the actual huge file.

Why Debian distributes ISOs as Torrents? Because it helps distribute huge files more quickly and more efficiently, compared to the HTTP way, as it reduce loads to Debian's server and spreads huge files to more people really far more quicker.

For example, by using HTTP download I could get Debian DVD in 2 hours (no resume), but with BitTorrent download I could get it in 15 minutes only (always can be resumed) with my internet access.

1.5. Sizes and Architectures
Talking about architecture support, Debian's slogan is "The universal operating system", that slogan is true. It is the OS that support most computer architectures available in this world, including variants of X86, ARM, MIPS, IBM Z, and PowerPC. As a comparison, see Windows 10 at Wikipedia, it supports no more than 4 architectures.

What's the good thing? This means Debian 10 is universally available for most type of computers available in the world including servers, boards, and more.


 (Left: Install-Only edition page with 10 different architectures; right: Live-Install edition with 2 architectures)
1.6. Source Code CDs
Fortunately, Debian always released with source code CDs. Buster's complete source code in ISOs are available at: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/10.0.0/source/iso-dvd/.

For what is this? You see, the GPL license and several other licenses in Debian required the distributor to distribute the source code as well if they distribute the binary code. So the rule is simple: you distribute Debian DVD, you distribute the source code DVD as well. Debian Project really helps us in this case: by providing source code DVDs for us. You see, other distros such as Manjaro and Mint, do not distribute source code DVD so we cannot easily download it and distribute it accompanying the regular DVD.

(All source code of Debian Buster in DVD sizes)
1.7. Checksums
Debian is provided with 4 kinds of verification way, MD5, SHA1, and SHA256, and SHA512. The actual files MD5SUMS, SHA1SUMS, and SHA256SUMS, and SHA512SUMS are always available in every directory where ISO images are available. Take example here.


1.8. LiveCD & Desktop Environments
Yes, Debian Live is LiveCD edition of Debian aside from the Standard (Install-Only) edition as mentioned above. It's available with 7 different desktop environment, namely

• GNOME
• KDE
• XFCE
• LXDE
• LXQt
• Cinnamon
• MATE

 
What's the goodness? This means you can run Debian Buster with desktop you love without installing it. To compare it, say Microsoft Windows or Debian regular, you must install it first to enjoy the desktop and run the apps, meaning you must format your hard disk drive in order to try it.

1.9. Installation Media
As it's a hybrid ISO, we can burn it either to CD or USB. Important thing to tell you is, that I failed to create a working multiboot USB either with MultiSystem or Multibootusb: the LiveCD session works but the installation to actual disk always failed. I don't know why. So, unfortunately, currently I cannot distribute a multiboot USB with Debian 10 Live to people.

(I can make other OSes work in multiboot way, but why no any Debian Live Edition there? Because making it multiboot won't work for installation)
Up to this point, I hope now you have more ideas about where and what to download and how it would behave after you actually run / install Debian 10.

2. Long Term Support
Yes, Debian 10 is an LTS release for 5 years support lifespan for 4 different computer architectures. Those arch. supported are i386, amd64, armel, and armhf; meaning if you use PC and Server 32-bit or 64-bit then you got LTS. This is a really good news as we now have an equal 5 years LTS distro other than Ubuntu, and more, for all 7 desktop environments variants, and even more, for a lot of different kinds of computers. Support will be provided by a special team of Debian LTS Team and Debian Security Team working together. We are very happy and grateful Debian 10 being an LTS.

Regarding LTS, here are several important links:

• Official statement about Buster as 5-years LTS
• debian-lts-announce (LTS users are recommended to join this list) 
• LTS Info
• LTS FAQ
• LTS Security Advisories
• Help funding LTS project 

3. New installation system
What I love is the fact that starting at Buster release, Debian Live Edition is featuring Calamares System Installer (same as what Manjaro & Neon are using) in all of its 7 varians. Calamares is far more user friendly than the traditional installer of Debian, not to mention it works even in LiveCD mode, equal to Ubiquity System Installer of Ubuntu. I already satisfied installing Debian Buster several times with it. Thanks to Calamares, now, I can easily recommend Debian Live instead Debian Regular to everybody to install Debian. Great work, Debian developers!

(How nice Debian 10 features this easy-to-use system installer!)
4. Login Sessions & Memory Use

On GNOME edition, Debian gives us both Xorg and Wayland session, with the latter one as default.To switch between sessions, simply logout, and choose either "GNOME Xorg" or "GNOME", respectively.

 (Left: on Wayland session; right: on Xorg session; bottom: GNOME Classic session with top and bottom panels)
What's good in this? This way, Debian Project could get more bug reports (and perhaps bugfix cooperation) regarding the new technology Wayland from more users, while the users themselves can still fallback to the old technology Xorg if they wish to. This would help Wayland advancement dearly while still providing convenience for long-time users.

What's the difference between Xorg and Wayland, anyway? Well, for most users, we will not notice that as it's more likely very technical. But anyway, Wayland is a new technology with new working methods focused in security to replace the old Xorg. To give you more info, both KDE and GNOME projects are now trying to make their desktops work with Wayland more than with Xorg.

Regarding memory usage, here is a good news, it's much more lower right now compared to last year among most GNOME distros. The average load is 800MiB at idle time at first login right after successfully installed.

(Left: Wayland session uses 885MiB, right: Xorg session uses 865MiB; these are far more better than the usual load of 1GiB or more of GNOME)
5. User Interface

Debian 10 GNOME Edition features GNOME desktop version 3.30. Up to today, latest version available is this one, while 3.32 is only available at Experimental repository.

(Left: Debian 10 from LiveCD, notice the pink icon of system installer on top-left corner; right: LibreOffice 6.1 included, and running well on Buster; bottom:
installed Debian 10 system with Nautilus and Software Center are version 3.30)
6. Applications
All editions feature LibreOffice, and with GNOME Edition you got Firefox ESR, Evolution Mail Client, standard GNOME Apps & Games, Fcitx & Mozc, and GoldenDict.

 (Start menu showing apps installed by default from Buster GNOME Edition)

(Left: Synaptic showing a total of 50000 packages from Debian 10 'main' repository, right: Software & Updates dialog showing 'main' and 'source' repositories enabled, while heading the system to U.S. server)
(Original sources.list file of an installed Buster GNOME system: it features three repos of buster, buster-updates, and buster-security and with all source code repos enabled deb-src)
Some words
I really like LTS on Debian. I also love the LiveCD variants available, I think it's brilliant decision to have them. What's more for me as a GNU/Linux distributor on my home country, I really appreciate and am grateful for all Source CDs available perfectly (you see, many other distros don't distribute such). All and all, in a short period of time, I am running Debian 10 installed on a USB stick with ease and no glitch. And, it's easier on RAM now, as it loads only ~800MiB, unlike some 1.2GiB some times ago. My system specs. is as usual Acer Aspire One 756 Intel Pentium 4GB, and it's flawless with GNOME. Lastly, with this, I encourage everybody to try Debian 10 out and I recommend its GNOME Edition as you first choice. Go ahead and happy working!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Successful deepin 15.10 installation result)
This tutorial explains procedures to install deepin 15.10 to external storage such as USB Flash Drive or Hard Disk. This way, deepin can run everywhere you go. You will prepare at least 32GB USB drive, create two partitions, and then install deepin into the larger one. Regarding filesystem type, I highly recommend using EXT2 for flash drive and EXT4 for hard disk (or SSD). Finally, you can also practice this tutorial to deepin 15.11. Enjoy your installation!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
[ Previous deepin releases: 15.8 | 15.7 | 15.6 ] [ My deepin reviews: 2019 | 2018 | 2017 ] [ My deepin tutorials: Bootable | MicroUSB ]

Summary

• 1) Select Language
• 2) Create username
• 3) Select geolocation
• 4) Partitioning
• 5) Waiting & finishing

Preparations

• USB drive capacity
• Boot up
• Disk identifier

First: you must provide at least 20GB free space in the target installation media. deepin cannot be installed to 16GB flash drive. So, for USB Flash Drive, you must have at minimum 32GB one, and for external HDD, it must be at minimum 128GB.

My gears to practice deepin installation to USB stick:

• 32GB SanDisk Cruzer Blade, unformatted
• 16GB SanDisk Cruzer Blade, as deepin LiveCD Installation media
• Acer Aspire One 756, with internal HDD removed

Second: boot up; while booting your installation media, select Deepin Failsafe, so you enter the LiveCD mode of deepin.




Third: know the identity of your USB drive: on deepin LiveCD session, go to start menu > find GParted Partition Editor > run it > find your USB drive. For instance, my USB drive is identified as SanDisk Cruzer Blade /dev/sdb 29.25GB on my system.



Step 1: Select Language
Choose English and give check mark to "I accept the license"*.


*) For you interested in free software licensing, read GPL FAQ in ClickThrough section about this. deepin is still a GNU/Linux system however, with or without this EULA, it already gives you unlimited rights to use it.

Step 2: Create Username
Determine your own username and password here. Also, the password will be your sudo password.


Step 3: Select Geolocation
Select your geolocation. This selection will determine your date & time and numbering format.


Step 4: Partitioning

• 1) Select advanced mode
• 2) Create main partition
• 3) Create swap partition
• 4) Select bootloader location
• 5) Read summary carefully

First, select advanced mode on the three choices on top. This will bring us manual partitioner just like we saw on Ubuntu's. 


Second, create main partition by Filesystem: EXT2, Mount point: /, and Size: 28GB (28000MB). We deliberately let the remaining space for the second partition (swap) below.


Third, create swap partition by Filesystem: SWAP and Size: 2GB (2000MB) or equal to the remaining space left by main partition above.

 
Fourth, the most important step in this tutorial, select bootloader location to be the USB drive location and not your internal HDD. For example, as you saw on the initial steps, here the SanDisk Cruzer Blade 32GB is located at /dev/sdb so the bootloader location should be /dev/sdb as well.



Fifth, read summary carefully here, examine that everything is CORRECT and does not touch your internal HDD at all. For example, according to this tutorial, there must be 2 partition to be formatted, /dev/sdb5 as EXT2 and /dev/sdb as SWAP if you install it on USB Flash Drive. For HDD or SSD, I recommend EXT4 instead of EXT2.


Step 5: Waiting

• Waiting
• Finishing

Wait for the actual process to take place. This should not take more time than 1 hour. On my practice, this needs more or less 40 minutes long.

 
Once finished, deepin will say "Successfully installed" on screen and let you reboot by clicking Experience Now button.

 
Final Result
Successful installation will give you a working deepin GNU/Linux system version 15.10 like below. Yes, you run it from a USB stick. Happy working!



This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Like yesterday I did it on KDE Plasma on Neon , now I also do it on GNOME 3 on Debian 10. If you have two speakers on left and right, it is very easy to adjust the volume independently by using built-in System Settings in the Sound section. Simply slide the Balance slider to left or right. For instance, I adjusted it to right (as my left one is currently broken) so I will listen to sound from the right speaker only. And vice versa. That's it.



This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Debian Buster GNOME running nicely)
Debian GNU/Linux 10 codenamed Buster released this July. I have collected all necessary download links here, install guide to USB here, and this is the time for the traditional post-installation tips. I mentioned 10 tips and tricks below to help you familiarize yourself with Debian 10 GNOME Edition including how to bring back tray icon & desktop shortcuts, change repository mirror location, switch between Wayland and Xorg, take care of Nautilus and other built-in programs, and more. I also mentioned two bonuses in the end so I hope you could learn more about Debian. Enjoy Debian Buster!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
[ On Debian 10: Install Guide | Downloads | Mozc/Hiragana ]


To make everything easier...
Before you perform tips and tricks below, it's better to put two tools, System Settings and GNOME Tweaks, on the left dock.

(Simply run the program and add it to favorites)
Summary

• 0. Wayland and Xorg
• 1. About printscreen
• 2. Terminal
• 3. GoldenDict
• 4. Shotwell
• 5. Firefox and Evolution
• 6. LibreOffice
• 7. Desktop icons
• 8. Nautilus
• 9. Desktop tweaks
• 10. Software & repository
• [Bonus #1]
• [Bonus #2]

0. Switching between Wayland and Xorg
For decades, Debian always used Xorg as its default desktop session. But starting from 10.0, now, Debian uses Wayland by default while still having Xorg as side option. However in Wayland desktop session, you cannot run Synaptic Package Manager with administrator privilege. So, you would still need Xorg session for many cases. At least, for now. To switch to Xorg desktop session, logout > see the login screen > click the gear icon > select Xorg > and finally login.
 
1. PrintScreen Problem
On my installation, Debian seems to be crashed every time I pressed PrintScreen button. The GNOME Screenshot tool also crashes the screen if I run it manually. Apparently, this is happened when on the installation I selected Indonesia as region but United States as formats (see developers discussion here). You may encounter same problem too so:


Quick solution:

• Go to system settings > Region and Language > change both two into United States > restart your computer.
• Now try PrintScreen or Shift+PrintScreen. It should work.

Alternative solution:

• 0) Install Scrot first by command line: sudo apt-get install scrot
• 1) Go to System Settings > Device > Keyboard > find out Save Screenshot to Pictures > click it > press Backspace > now the original shortcut key is gone.
• 2) Still on the Keyboard section > scroll down to bottom > click that plus button > give name to it My own screenshot tool > give it command scrot -d 5 > give it PrintScreen as the key > OK.
• 3) Now when you press PrintScreen, Debian calls Scrot with delay 5 seconds, and saves the picture to your Home directory.

(The GNOME Screenshot tool)
2. Terminal
(GNOME Terminal logo)
Once installed, pressing Ctrl+Alt+T does not run Terminal Emulator, unlike we usually do on Ubuntu. So go to System Settings > Device > Keyboard > scroll down to bottom > click that plus button > give it name Terminal Emulator > give it command gnome-terminal > give it shortcut key Ctrl+Alt+T > OK.


3. GoldenDict Dictionaries
The awesome desktop dictionary, GoldenDict, does not installed with dictionary files so unfortunately you cannot find any word in it. The secret is, fortunately StarDict’s dictionary files are compatible to GoldenDict.

So here as example, we can import StarDict’s ones. Run GoldenDict > go to menubar Edit > Dictionaries (F3) > Dictionaries dialog opened > open the Files tab > click Add > navigate to the directory where you saved StarDict’s dictionary files > OK. Now try to find any word. Congratulations!


Download a lot of StarDict's dictionaries here:

• A lot of dictionaries (official)
• Indonesian<->English (compiled by atoz)
• More dictionaries (compiled by Cihar) 
• More dictionaries (compiled by tuxor1337)

(GoldenDict shows meaning of "buku" in Indonesian as "book" in English)
4. Shotwell by default
Debian opens photos with Image Viewer by default instead of Shotwell. If you often crop pictures, like me, you better make default opening to Shotwell instead. Go to System Settings > Details > Default Applications > Photos > change it to Shotwell. Now try to open any photo you will always run Shotwell.

(Shotwell features very handy crop tool)

5. Firefox and Evolution
As usual, it's better take care of Firefox as soon as you installed it.

Addons:

• HTTPS Everywhere: to force all browser connections to be secure (encrypted). It's a must for public wifi users.
• uBlock Origin: to block all ads + online trackers and to toggle it on/off quickly at any time.
• Privacy Badger: a really good complement to uBlock Origin in blocking online trackers automatically.
• Startpage.com: so your default search engine uses StartPage instead of Google.
• GNOME Shell Connector: to enable installation of GSE.

Autoupdate:

You may choose to disable these to prevent Firefox takes up your bandwidth without your concern. Personally, I strongly prefer to disable all of them. Anyway, we can still update manually at any time. Set each one with the disable value provided.

•     App.update.auto [default: true] [disable: false]
•     App.update.enabled [default: true] [disable: false]
•     extensions.update.enabled [default: true] [disable: false]
•     browser.search.update [default: true] [disable: false]

Buster includes GNOME Evolution as the mail client program. It is a very nice mail reader and also a beautiful desktop calendar. You can read your Gmail (IMAP/POP3) with it. You can integrate your Google Calendar account with it. If Gmail and Calendar work well, then other similar online services should work as well. Last but not least, setup email encryption for it is easy.

6. LibreOffice ribbon
Buster brings LibreOffice version 6.1 which already featured with Notebookbar (Ribbon-like interface). However, it’s not enabled by default, so you need to enable it: go to menubar Tools > Options > Advanced > give check mark to Enable advanced featres (maybe unstable) > OK > Restart LibreOffice. Now, go to menubar View > Interface > Tabbed. Happy working!

(Writer, Calc, and Impress running with Notebookbar enabled)
7. Desktop icons
Okay, how to put shortcuts on the desktop area like we did on KDE or Android? Easy, first, install Desktop Icons extension from official E.G.O. website.

(Buster with GNOME 3.30 and active shortcuts on desktop)
Next, what you need to do is to put everything on your own ~/Desktop directory. You can place folders, files, audios and videos, and of course apps. For apps, see picture above, simply copy apps you want from /usr/share/applications to it.


8. Nautilus file manager
(Nautilus logo on Debian Buster)
Sorting: I love to sort files by newest on top, just like this blog, and your social media posts. To do so, click the black triangle on menu button > click Last Modified > all sorted nicely now. See picture below.

Shortcuts: I always create quick accesses on left panel to my frequently used folders on my other partitions. You can do so: go to the folder you want > go up one directory > drag and drop that folder to left panel > rename it as you wish. See picture below, I add name such as [p1] for partition number 1 and so on.

 (Left: sorting by latest on top; right: creating shortcuts to folders on other partitions)

9. Desktop tweaks
(The Tweaks logo)
Fortunately, GNOME Tweak Tool is included by default on Buster. More good news, it already preloaded with a lot of Extensions.

Window:
Enable minimize and maximize button by going to Tweak Tool > Window Titlebars > toggle Minimize on > toggle Maximize on > see the result.



Extensions:
You may interested in these ones:

• Alternatetab: do not group same items on Alt+Tab anymore.
• Applications menu: XFCE-like drop down start menu.
• NetSpeed: as you may know from my previous articles, it's my favorite download/upload indicator for GNOME 3 desktop.
• Places status indicator: quick drop-down menu to go to folders. Similar to GNOME2’s.
• Top Icons Plus: to place on the top panel running apps like Telegram, Pidgin, Tomboy Notes, and such.

(NetSpeed showing its information)
10. Software and repository

• Reload
• Add/remove programs
• Change repository mirror

Debian provides you more than 50,000 software packages for all computing purposes possible at no cost. In order to add more software to your system, you need to Reload first, and then use package manager to find and install them.

Reload: of course you will need to reload your repository index:
$ sudo apt-get update

(The reloading process)
Add/remove programs: once reloaded, now, you can see thousands of software packages available at Synaptic Package Manager or GNOME Software. They are actually stored in the internet (that place is called repository) so you will need network access to get them. If you don't have Synaptic yet, install it by:
$ sudo apt-get install synaptic apt-xapian-index
Repository setup: you can change the default repository server Debian headed to into server located in your home country. For example, I can change default U.S. located server source into Indonesia by using Software & Updates tool from the start menu. See picture below, I changed the U.S. server into Kartolo server in Indonesia.

(Repository settings)
[Bonus] Nice apps to have
KeePassX is a handy password storage so you could save multiple accounts' credentials there. When you forget some, you open KeePassX, as only you know KeePassX's master password.

(KeePassX logo)
Telegram (GPLv3+) is a popular chatting platform used by many libre software communities and suitable to replace either WhatsApp or Skype. I maintain online classes on Telegram since 2017 as my effort to educate about Libre Software and GNU/Linux in Indonesia. Several chat groups you can join at Telegram are:

• GNU/Linux
• Ubuntu
• deepin international
• KDE Plasma 
• Plasma Mobile 
• Kubuntu
• ...more groups 

(Telegram Logo)
[Bonus] External Resources
Interesting resources to find apps for Debian:

• FSF Directory: an encyclopedia of 16000+ free software you could get from Debian's repository. 
• Equivalent Apps Debian vs Windows: short table to compare popular apps between both systems.
• Privacy & security apps: most apps (if not all) recommended by PrivacyTools.io are available for you in Debian repository.

Useful resources to learn more about Debian:

• Official wiki: this is where to start everything.
• Official doc: all documentations maintained by Debian Project.
• Official intro: basic knowledge about Debian for you.
• FAQ: list of answers by Debian for your common questions.
• Mailing lists: a lot of email channels of Debian users and developers. Including support and development ones.
• IRC channels: chat groups on IRC networks talking about Debian. The community is most active on both mailing lists and IRCs worldwide.
• Resources: list of a lot of learning sources maintained by Debian Project itself for you.

Acknowledgement
I am a long time StarDict user and even now I am still using it on my latest Neon Operating System. I recommend it to people I know. Thank you Huzheng for creating such truly useful and valuable program.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(KDE-based OS monitoring its own upload and download traffic)
Don't you realize your GNU/Linux operating system takes up your internet bandwidth without your consent? Do you want to browse the web more effectively to save up your net quota? I compile my own tips and tricks here in helping myself save my network bandwidth everyday as I'm using GNU/Linux desktop like KDE Neon and Trisquel. I hope these simple stuffs can help you too to avoid spending bandwidth unnecessarily. Enjoy!

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1. Use Easy Image Blocker
Images (PNG/JPG/GIF) are the largest loads in every webpage you visit. With Easy Image Blocker extension, you can disable all images in certain website, while retaining images in others. For example, you can let images shown, but block images on Facebook.com only, as you know it's the one most consuming your bandwidth. This way, you can save your bandwidth more efficiently.

2. Use uBlock Origin
With uBlock Origin, you can block all ads on the web and also all online trackers. It also automatically blocks YouTube's ads. Regarding online trackers, visiting a website today mostly is not visiting one thing, as it may connects you automatically to multiple other websites without your consent. So, browsing today mostly consumes more bandwidth. That's why uBlock Origin is very important.

3. Monitor your upload/download traffic

• On KDE, simply add Network Monitor widget.
• On MATE, add Network Monitor applet to your panel.
• On Unity, install indicator-multiload and run it and scroll on it to show Net Speed indicator.
• On GNOME, install NetSpeed Indicator extension by hedayati. 

(KDE-based operating system showing Network Monitor panel [top], KSysGuard with Network History as the third graph [middle], and traffic graph of current wifi hotspot connection [bottom])
4. Watch your download managers
Do you have KTorrent or Transmission? Watch out, do not let then run without your consent while your internet access is on! Because bittorrent client can either upload or download in full speed at any time an external connection established so that can consume your bandwidth really a lot.

(KTorrent with all entries are in STOP state is safe for our bandwidth as it wont upload nor download) 
5. Use Zsync
If you wish to download Ubuntu or other GNU/Linux distros, use zync to cut down the bandwidth needed up to 50% as long as you have previous or similar version of the ISO image. It's a lifesafer. 

6. Offline Webpage Reading
I often save webpages so I can read them when I have no internet connection. You can either save page by Ctrl+S (resulting in a folder + an HTML file), or save as PDF (by Ctrl+P and choose Print To File). There is the third choice, that is using Zotero, and I used it too. Either way, you can reduce the need to go online just to read webpages.

 (My collection as my hobby is pressing Ctrl+S on web browser...)

That's all. I hope these help you a lot.
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

deepin 15.11 released this July with the slogan "Better Never Stops" just three months after the previous 15.10 last April. Here's official direct download links from official server, SourceForge, OSDN, and also several mirrors, and of course torrents provided by community. Just like usual, I strongly recommend you to use BitTorrent way instead and then verify your ISO to be identical with the official one. Finally, so you can safely burn that ISO to DVD or USB and run deepin GNU/Linux. Happy downloading!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.[ Previous deepin releases: 15.10 | 15.8 | 15.7 | 15.6 ] [ My deepin reviews: 2019 | 2018 | 2017 ] [  My deepin tutorials: USB | MicroUSB | Install ]

Official Download
deepin 15.11 ISO 64-bit (2.3GB)

Note: if you have no idea which one to download, simply click this link and download it.

Sourceforge (Official)
deepin 15.11 ISO 64-bit

Note: SourceForge is the most popular, gigantic source code hosting for many GNU/Linux projects since long before GitHub. 

OSDN (Official)
deepin 15.11 ISO 64-bit

Note: Open Source Development Network (OSDN), similar to GitHub, is a centralized source code software hosting that provides download for many GNU/Linux and libre software projects.


Mirrors
Simply right-click and Save Link As from one of below links:

• Taiwan
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Australia
• UK
• Brazil

More mirrors worldwide are available on Deepin website.

(A lot of servers providing deepin ISO download from multiple countries)
Torrents
Currently, there are torrents from LinuxTracker community and also Distrowatch. Simply download one with your favorite BitTorrent client program (I recommend KTorrent and Transmission) and after completely retrieved, verify the ISO file with the official checksum below.

• deepin 15.11 ISO 64-bit (LinuxTracker)
• deepin 15.11 ISO 64-bit (Distrowatch) 

Checksums
Once your hash value and one of these official values matched, it's verified, then the ISO you have downloaded is OK.

MD5SUM:
daaf33cb284797cba582b99e8cc59a0a  deepin-15.11-amd64.iso
SHA256SUM:
3b61802d83ec40c5c32eb6719ea641de75b8fa72b5e8bced48429172bc53f0f7  deepin-15.11-amd64.iso
References

• Release announcement and notes (15.11)
• Development plan
• Deepin mirrors list

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Imagine your laptop's left speaker is broken so every time you play something you hear noisy sound although the right speaker is normal. Then, you want to disable or reduce left speaker's volume while retaining the right one. On KDE system like Kubuntu, I find no such configuration on either its System Settings or Sound Volume tray. In fact, my left speaker is actually broken now so I need control for both of them on Neon GNU/Linux. Fortunately, I managed to do so installing PulseAudio Volume Control. The procedures are simple:

1) Install the tool:
$ sudo apt-get install pavucontrol
2) Run PulseAudio Volume Control.

3) See Output Devices tab.

4) Click shield button on top-right corner, so you see two sliders: Front Left and Front Right.

5) For example, I reduce the Front Left slider to 14% but let the Front Right 100%. This way, I can hear normal playback sound once again by using only the Right Speaker.

6) Try to play audio.

Happy working!
 


This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Recently, I encountered a problem with KNotes --my most frequently used thing on KDE-- in which it refuses to create new note. If I click New Note on its menu, normally it pops up a new yellow box on screen I can write on it, but suddenly it shows nothing. However, simply viewing existed notes works without problem. In short, I fixed it by changing the storage folder of the notes to the one owned by KNotes. To do so, run KNotes > right-click it > Configure > Collections > pay attention to Folders tab > make sure the folder name is Notes under Notes > make sure the folder where the note will be saved pointed to Notes/Notes > OK. Now you should be able to create new note once again. Happy working!

(Correct setup so KNotes can add new note)

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.