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Unofficial Ubuntu BlogMahmudin Asharnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1342125Ubuntubuzzhttps://feedburner.google.com
URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ubuntubuzz/~3/bede4Q94KGQ/deepin-158-gnulinux-download-links-mirrors-and-torrents.html
Updated: 1 week 1 day ago

Compilation of GNU/Linux Distros Which Provide Source ISO CD Downloads

Friday 4th of January 2019 03:58:00 PM

If you want to redistribute (or, sell) GNU/Linux distros in CD or USB media, it's safe to include it with source code CDs. The problem is, some very popular GNU/Linux distros like Manjaro or even PureOS does not provide source code ISO (at least for now), so you can not easily download the source ISO to burn them to CD (you should do it manually from source repositories). In order you want to know which popular distros with source code ISO CD available, I compile this list for you. Among them are Trisquel, Debian, Slackware, Ubuntu, and KDE Neon. I include here their respective download links and some additional information.

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1. Trisquel
Source code ISO:

2. Debian
Source code ISO:

Source code ISO for Live Editions (GNOME, KDE, XFCE, LXDE, MATE, Cinnamon):


3. Slackware
Source code ISO:

4. Ubuntu
Source code ISO:
Special note: Official Flavors (K/X/Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE/Budgie/Studio/Kylin) do not provide their respective source code ISOs and they do not point out clearly where to obtain; but all are included in one place within all source code ISOs above per release version. You can check, for example, source code of Kubuntu 18.04 is available on Source DVD2 of 18.04 along with Ubuntu MATE's source code and others'.

5. KDE neon
Source code ISO:

List of Distros Without Source Code ISO
Here's my compilation of distros I found out with no source CDs aside from binary CDs available. In other words, you can download binary ISO of them, but you cannot download the source ISO corresponding every release. Technically, you should create your own "source CD" by manually downloading the source packages from their respective source repositories. Please give me information if you know otherwise so I can revise these. I would be very glad if there is more distro to provide source code ISO. Thank you!

  • Mint
  • elementary OS
  • deepin
  • Fedora
  • openSUSE
  • Solus
  • Mageia
  • OpenMandriva
  • MX
  • CentOS
  • Manjaro
  • PureOS
  • UTUTO
  • EndlessOS
  • KNOPPIX
  • BlankON
  • IGOS Nusantara

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

    Copy Date/Time To Clipboard Is (Apparently) Back on KDE Plasma 5

    Tuesday 1st of January 2019 04:43:00 PM
    Did you use copy date/time to clipboard feature on KDE 4? I did that a lot and I loved that. That was one thing I missed since the inception of KDE 5. But, fortunately, and personally shockingly, I met this again starting from my updated KDE 5.13.5. It made me very happy and shocked in the same time when I ran latest Plasma 5.14.4 few days ago: "amazing, since when did this feature come back?" like that. When I went back to my Plasma 5.13.5, it's there too, and finally I obtained information that it's available again since Plasma 5.13.0 from April 2018. So let's see how is it now. Enjoy!

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    Note: apparently, this feature existed even since KDE 3. See report by tukkek here.

    How does it look?
    On KDE 4, it looks like this. This picture is by Bernhard Schiffner (brschiffener) at KDE bug track:


    (Screenshot by Bernhard S. without particular license from KDE bug tracker page)
    On KDE 5, it had ever lost, it had been missing for a long time.

    But I found out on my current system that starting from my updated Plasma 5.13.5, this feature exists. You may see last section below that actually this was added again since 5.13.0 at 11 April 2018. Thank you all KDE developers!

    (Right-click digital clock > Copy to clipboard > choose time format)
     (Digital clock widget placed on desktop area also has this feature)
    For what is it?
    All purposes which need time information (date/clock). You can easily copy and paste current date into your text editor or web browser, suppose you are a writer or an office employee.  For example, me, I wrote many LaTeX documents as a hobby and I put every date from this KDE feature. Now, I'm teaching online so I can paste current date & time quickly to my announcements. And many other possibilities you can create your own.

    (Copying date/time information with my locale (Indonesia) to Writer)
    What is KDE Plasma?
    If you use GNU/Linux computer operating system, for example, Kubuntu or openSUSE, you will find your desktop is named "Plasma". Yes, the desktop is actually software and it developed by "KDE" community. The current generation is Plasma 5, with latest version 5.14.4.

    Technical, historical information
    The best information I can obtain is the history on KDE bug tracker dated back to April 2018 on Plasma release version 5.13.0 created by Bernhard Schiffner. You can see that this bug fix was first added on the release of Plasma 5.12.9 (a month before 5.13.0) by Jonathan Riddell here. You can see the report listed among other reports here. To be precise, the program we are talking about is namely Digital Clock within KDE Plasma Workspace source code and the source code file name is DigitalClock.qml. Thank you bschiffner and all KDE developers. You've done great thing!

    More links if you are interested:

    Unless specifically noted, this article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

    Beautiful Desktop Effects on Lubuntu LXQt

    Saturday 29th of December 2018 06:37:00 AM

    At the last moment I wrote the WTDAI, I found out Compton settings to be very very interesting. In other words, we can make our old computer runs beautiful desktop OS featuring translucent window and drop shadows (similar to macOS). As it would be too complicated to explain on a simple WTDAI, I make a separate tutorial here starting with finding out the config, enabling it, and making the effects right for you. This tutorial is based on Lubuntu 18.10 and should be effective for the next releases and other LXQt distros as well. Enjoy!

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    More about Lubuntu LXQt: download links | install guide | review | WTDAI


    Result First
    Here's screenshots of the Lubuntu LXQt with Compton enabled. You can make your desktop to look like this.

     (Start menu with drop shadow)
    (Right-click menu with drop shadows)
    (Translucent title bar of a window)
    (Every window got its own drop shadow)
    Wait, what's Compton?
    To understand the concept, a user needs to know "window manager" and "compositor". In a graphical desktop, there is an unseen component responsible for drawing all window borders, namely "window manager" ("WM"). Openbox is an example of a WM. If you terminate a WM, you will find your screen rather disappointing, i.e. no border on window and you cannot move/close/minimize any. A compositor is an additional component responsible for drawing effects namely drop shadow, translucency, and animation on every window. If you terminate it, you still have normal windows, but without effects anymore. Compton is an example of a compositor. On GNU-like operating systems, it's very very common for users to combine WM and compositor. And this is what you will see in this artice.

    Where's the config?
    It's under two places:
    • Start menu > LXQt Settings > Window Effects
    • Start menu > LXQt Settings > Session Settings > Basic Setting

    Enabling and Disabling
    On Lubuntu, it's very easy:

    • Go to Session Settings: select Compton and press Start. See if it says "Running".
    • To disable, just go there again and select and press Stop. See if the word "Running" is not there anymore.
    (This is where you control your compositor running)

    Tweaking Shadow and Translucency
    These simple configurations are enough for starting. The Window Effects has 4 distinct settings:
    • Shadow: enable only "Enable client-side" and "Don't draw"; give values of Blur radius="10", Translucency="0.70"
    • Opacity: give values for menus="1.00", for inactive and active windows="1.0", for titlebars and borders="0.70"
    • Fade: disable "Fade windows"
    • Other: let it be default "X Render"
    • Press OK when finished configuring.
    See also gif animation below. You can play the values as you wish later. Have a nice experiment!

    (Gif animation: showing configurations of the four tabs)
    Tweaking Terminal Transparency
    This additional tweak will make your desktop perfect. Open your terminal and go to menu bar File > Preferences: Appearance > set value of Terminal Transparency="50%". The transparency can only work if Compton is enabled. It will look like this.

    (Translucent terminal)
    Advanced Configuration
    Experinced users may prefer configuring Compton using its config file. You can find it on ~/.config/compton.conf. Take references from Arch wiki and of course Compton wiki itself.

    (File manager with the directory, and text editor with the configuration text)
    End Words
    That's all. I hope you get a smooth, beautiful, and tear-free desktop now with Lubuntu LXQt on your old computers. Surely now 32-bit computers can be revived with modern look. Happy reviving, happy working!

    This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

    What To Do After Installing Lubuntu 18.10 LXQt Edition

    Friday 28th of December 2018 04:25:00 PM

    Following installation guide and review, this is the traditional compilation of suggestions after having a fresh Lubuntu 18.10 --the first LXQt edition--. You will notice the first thing here is about network manager as this new edition lacks nice feature on that. Five more things are about some nice tweakings in the file manager and the user interface. As generally Lubuntu is for old computers, you will be happy to have legacy Microsoft Windows theme, won't you? Go ahead, tweak once and use forever!

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    1. Get A Better Network Manager
    Wicd is a very good alternative to the default one.
    $ sudo apt-get install wicd
    (Wicd network manager showing access points from a public hotspot place)
    2. Setup File Sorting
    I like detailed list view. I hope you'll like it too. To change file sorting on your file manager:
    • View mode: go to menu bar Edit > Preferences > switch it to Detailed List View > OK.
    • Sorting: go to menu bar View > Sorting > By Modification Date > Descending.
    • Keep your choices: under View, enable Preserve settings for this folder. 

    Unfortunately, right now, there is no way to preserve one settings for all folders like we find on Dolphin. I wish next time LXQt will have that.

    (File manager preferences > Behavior > Default view mode: Detailed list view)
     ("Preserve settings for this folder" and sort by "modification date"/"descending")
    3. Switch Between KDE, Windows, and Unity Themes
    Lubuntu brings those three themes currently. You just need to adjust the settings using LXQt Configuration Center. The formula are:
    • Unity: Widget style=default, Icons theme="Ubuntu Mono Dark", LXQt theme="Ambiance"
    • KDE: Widget style="Breeze", Icons theme="Oxygen", LXQt theme="
      Kde-plasma"
    • Windows: Widget style="Windows", Icons theme=default, LXQt theme="System", and configure your start menu to have the icon

     (Lubuntu with KDE Plasma appearance)
     (Lubuntu with Windows 98 appearance)
    (Lubuntu with Unity appearance)
    4. Alternative Image Viewer
    I crop pictures a lot, really a lot. Default image viewer here does not have crop feature.  I recommend you to install GNOME Shotwell instead. It's the long time image viewer of Ubuntu original. More than it, you can re-associate all pictures (PNG and JPEG) to be opened in Shotwell instead by right-click > Properties > switch the Open with field into "Shotwell" > OK.

    $ sudo apt-get install shotwell
    (Shotwell image viewer with crop feature)
     (Associating PNG images with Shotwell instead of the default one)
    5. Edit Repository Sources
    Up to 18.04, Lubuntu uses GNOME Software as the app store. But starting from 18.10 Lubuntu uses Discover, a different app store. Accompanying it, Lubuntu also replaced Synaptic with Muon Package Manager. You need to explore once again with them. But where is your repository settings on Discover?
    • Discover: bottom Settings button > top gear button > type your password > Software Sources opened. 
    • Muon Package Manager: menu Settings > Configure Software Sources. 
     (Muon and Discover)
    6. Configure File Search
    The last one, default search settings need a little adjustments:
    • enable Case insensitive
    • enable Search in sub directories
    This way, your search will function like popular file managers (Dolphin, Nautilus, Windows Explorer).

    (On file manager: go to menu bar Tool > Find Files)

    This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

    A Compilation of 32-Bit Desktop GNU/Linux Distros in 2018

    Thursday 27th of December 2018 04:25:00 PM
    (SLAX GNU/Linux, one among many up to date 32-bit distros in 2018)
    Many of us still have healthy old PCs and laptops. Being "old" means 32-bit, so if you want to run GNU/Linux there you need 32-bit version of GNU/Linux. The problem we're facing is we find many distros have removed their 32-bit versions. This means we need to find distros which are still supporting 32-bit. And this article provides you a compilation of those. You will find here Flavors of Ubuntu, Fedora Spins, Debian Live, and more and more are keeping 32-bit versions. You can choose one among them to empower your old computer with latest version of free software with long duration of support. I mentioned here information such as latest release, support lifespan, editions as well as what distros which are not supporting 32-bit anymore so you can compare and decide which one suitable the most for you. Go ahead, happy downloading, happy working! 


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    Popular Distros Which are Not 32 Anymore
    The i386 architecture (we call it 32-bit) is too old today similar to floppy disk ("diskette") considered old at its time. So, no wonder both side of computer manufacturers and GNU/Linux projects do not produce them anymore. In fact, many popular distros have abandoned 32-bit support. Among them are:
    • Ubuntu original[1]
    • Kubuntu[2]
    • Ubuntu Studio[3]
    • Ubuntu Budgie[3]
    • Ubuntu MATE[4]
    • KDE neon
    • elementary OS
    • openSUSE (Leap only)
    • deepin
    • Manjaro, Chakra, KaOS, Antergos
    • PCLinuxOS
    • CentOS
    • Sabayon
    • PureOS 
    • Solus
    • Netrunner 
    • Tails

    Of course, I don't mention here non-desktop distros such as Arch-family and Dragora-like. You can make Arch a desktop distro indeed, but it needs installation and special configuration further so this example does not count as desktop distro.

    Footnote:
    [1] Since 17.04 (2017). This means 17.04 onwards are 64-bit only.
    [2] Since 18.10 (2018). This means 18.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS are still supporting 32-bit.
    [3] Since 18.10.
    [4] Since 18.10.

    1. Fedora Spins
    Important: latest Fedora original also keeping 32-bit support!

    Fedora Spins are similar to "Ubuntu Flavors" or "Debian Live" on their respective terms: they are desktop environment based variants which are LiveCD. All Fedora Spins come preinstalled with Firefox and LibreOffice.

     
    2. Debian Live
    Important: Debian regular (non-live) is also keeping support for 32-bit.

    Do you know that Debian also has Live editions? You can think Debian Live similar to Ubuntu Flavors and Mint Editions, as it provides all desktop environments available on those both distros.


    3. Ubuntu Flavors

    Important: Ubuntu original up to 16.04 LTS still supports 32-bit.

    Distinguishing Ubuntu "original" with "Flavors" is important. The original indeed doesn't provide 32-bit anymore, that's true. But the Flavors still provide that, namely Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Budgie, and Ubuntu Studio. All flavors come preinstalled with Firefox and LibreOffice. See download links compilation for 18.04 and 18.10.

    Kubuntu


    Xubuntu

    Lubuntu

    Ubuntu MATE

    4. Mint
    The favorite of many, Mint is a long-standing desktop oriented distro derived from Ubuntu. Mint existed before Manjaro, has been already popular before Mageia, had ever been ranked #1 on Distrowatch (up to now it's still among the top 5), and often recommended by people around us if we want first experience to GNU/Linux. If you think Ubuntu is user-friendly, Mint is considerably more friendly, crafted solely for desktop and even the team developed its own desktop environment, Cinnamon. All editions of Mint has user interface that resembles Microsoft Windows making them very suitable for you switching from that proprietary operating system. It comes preinstalled with Firefox and LibreOffice. Mint is an incredibly active community both in their blog and in their forum.


    Footnote:
    *) Deprecated since 19.

    5. Trisquel
    Personally my favorite one, Trisquel is a complete desktop OS and a 100% free software one. If you would love to choose one among 8 of them today, for beginner, I believe you'd choose Trisquel instead. It uses Linux-libre kernel instead of Linux vanilla one. Comes preinstalled with Abrowser and LibreOffice.


    6. Sparky
    Sparky is a Debian-based GNU/Linux distro which is both fixed and rolling release.



    7. MX
    I would love to say personally MX is Mepis antiX as it's a join force between those two communities. MX offers a lightweight distro with XFCE desktop by default.


    8. openSUSE Krypton
    You can consider Krypton as a replacement to Manjaro in rolling basis as it keep 32-bit support while Manjaro abandoned it. Krypton is based on openSUSE rolling release named Tumbleweed. It's the advantage of it over Argon which only supports 64-bit. Krypton uses zypper package manager and the great YaST as its control panel. Repository for Krypton is the one original from openSUSE plus special KDE repositories.


    9. SLAX
    "Your pocket operating system"

    That's SLAX official motto. It was originally a Slackware derivative, but is now based on Debian instead. It's a hobby project by Tomas Matejicek. SLAX is a small, portable, USB-stick desktop operating system which you can run on one computer to another one without installation. It's only 200MB in size. It includes Chromium web browser, PCManFM, XTerm, and more by default. Its package manager is apt. If you're able to run Ubuntu then you will be able to run SLAX this way. However, it does not have any bug tracker nor public coding place nor wiki, but its blog is very lovely with a lot of users' comments.

    10. Salix
    Salix is a Slackware-based lightweight XFCE distro. It's fully compatible with Slackware so Salix users can use Slackware packages and vice versa. Salix is compatible to Slackbuilds and AlienBOB repositories. Salix features slapt-get as its package manager by default (not slackpkg, nor pkgtool). It provides both InstallOnly and LiveDVD versions. Just like Slackware, Salix does not use systemd.


    11. Porteus
    Porteus is a Slackware-based multiple-desktop lightweight distro that is portable. It's designed to be run from a USB stick with persistent capability by default. From a pure user point of view, seeing Porteus is similar to seeing Debian Live, regarding its desktop environment editions. More than that, a distinct feature compared to SLAX and Salix is that Porteus has KIOSK Edition.

      
      Closing Words
      That's all. I hope you will be satisfied with my list. Actually, at the moment I'm writing, I found out more distros to be keeping 32-bit support such as heads (a free-only fork of Tails) and Q4OS. Beside those, there are Calculate and Pentoo (both are Gentoo derivatives). I believe there are still many options available out there. But I don't compile those here as I want a simpler list (honestly, I also don't have enough time for more). I am really glad I can mention one libre distro here (Trisquel) and also I find such distro like SLAX which is technically amazing. How can a 270MB distro gives a beautiful translucent desktop with Chromium browser, PCManFM, Debian repository, and full networking capability? You'll soon feel what I felt if you tried it. Try them, revive your old computers, and find your favorite one. I hope this compilation helps you a lot and helps reduce computer waste around the world. Happy working, happy reviving!

      This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

      Search in Multiple Places Simultaneously on GNU/Linux with Krusader and PCManFM

      Tuesday 25th of December 2018 08:24:00 AM
       
      How to search in multiple partitions or folders at once? Basically you cannot do it with Nautilus or Dolphin file manager, respectively. But you can do it with Krusader or PCManFM file manager, on any desktop environment. I will demonstrate an example to search for ISO files stored on different partitions of an external hard disk drive. Enjoy!

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      Good News
      First is their wide coverage. Krusader is originally a file manager of KDE, while PCManFM is of LXDE. But both of them can be used on any other desktop environment. For example you can use Krusader on XFCE, or PCManFM on GNOME.

      Second is about LXQt. The new file manager, PCManFM-Qt, can already do multiple search just like its predecessor, PCManFM. This increases our choices of file manager to do this. So no matter which one of both I mention, the feature is just the same.

      Krusader
      This is how Krusader, the twin panel file manager, looks. If this is your first encounter with it, know two things: icon between Back and Home is the partition list, and, Ctrl+S for search (not Ctrl+F here).

      (Krusader File Manager initial user interface)
      To do multiple search, do the following:
      • 1) Press Ctrl+S to open search dialog.
      • 2) Type .iso as the keyword on the Search for box
      • 3) Click folder button on under Search in frame
      • 4) A folder select dialog appears
      • 5) Select a partition from the external hard disk and OK
      • 6) The partition address appears on the box
      • 7) Press down button right before the folder button
      • 8) The partition address inserted down in the list box
      • 9) Repeat step 3 to 8 for another partitions
      • 10) Press Search button to start multiple searching.

      This is how search dialog looks like:

      (Adding multiple search locations)
      And finally this is the result:

       (Notice the Ext column: it shows that all found files have extension of .iso)
      PCManFM
      I take this example from Lubuntu 18.10 so it uses PCManFM-Qt, not the old PCManFM. But don't worry as the feature is exactly the same.

      • 1) Go to menu Tool > Find Files.
      • 2) Type the keyword *.iso (don't forget to use star)
      • 3) Activate Case insensitive and Search sub directories
      • 4) Click Add button
      • 5) A folder select dialog appears
      • 6) Navigate to open a partition (clue: on Ubuntu, all external storages are located under /media/{username})
      • 7) Press Open button
      • 8) The partition address appears on the list box
      • 9) Repeat step 4 to 8 for another partitions
      • 10) Press Search to begin multiple searching.

      This is how PCManFM looks:

       (PCManFM-Qt on Lubuntu 18.10; PCManFM on prior versions looks very similar)
      This is the search dialog:

       (Use star ( * ), activate 'Case insensitive' and 'Search in sub directories')
      This is the result:

       (Notice all files found have extension of .iso)






      Further Readings

      This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

      The Tale of Always-Latest KDE Distros: Krypton, Neon, Chakra, KaOS, and Fedora KDE

      Sunday 23rd of December 2018 03:47:00 PM

      I love KDE. I want an article introducing GNU/Linux distros dedicated to latest KDE so I write this one after my list of XFCE distros. By latest here I mean a distro which the ISO image is produced often (say, daily) to contain latest KDE release in the all three components of the Plasma, the Applications, and the Frameworks. I selected 5 distros: KDE Neon, openSUSE Krypton, Chakra, KaOS, and Fedora KDE. I hope you find your favorite one here. Read on and enjoy!

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      Latest KDE
      Before proceeding, we need to know what is currently latest KDE versions and their respective release date:
      To see list of components and/or detailed information of each, follow their respective links above.

      1. KDE Neon
      https://neon.kde.org
      Neon is an official operating system of KDE Slimbook laptops, it's a stable but always with latest KDE as it's a distro from KDE itself. No wonder it's the first distro to release any new KDE changes directly to the users. If you're accustomed to Kubuntu and Mint KDE, you will find Neon to be similar and familiar. ISO image of latest neon is always produced once there is a new KDE release. So if you download neon after an announcement from KDE, you can be sure it has the latest KDE packages announced.

      • Download: https://neon.kde.org/download (choose the User-Stable Edition instead)
      • Architecture: 64-bit only
      • Package search: https://packaging.neon.kde.org
      • Documentation: https://docs.kde.org
      • System installer: Calamares
      • Comment: I tried neon 5.14 (from 20-Dec-2018 05:53 ) and basically I got Plasma 5.14.4. The base system is based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. The repository special for KDE is located at archive.neon.kde.org and it provides truly latest KDE Plasma, Applications, and Frameworks.
      (KDE neon 5.14 which brings Plasma 5.14.4 as well (well, of course))
      2. openSUSE Krypton
      https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Argon_and_Krypton

      openSUSE officially has two versions, Leap (fixed) and Tumbleweed (rolling).  Being a long-time KDE distro, apparently, openSUSE has two edition of always-latest KDE versions which are Argon (based on Leap) and Krypton (based on Tumbleweed). I selected Krypton as it's the one still supporting 32-bit aside of 64-bit. So it's a good alternative if you cannot use neon and a good choice if you are already familiar with openSUSE family.


      (openSUSE Krypton with KDE 5.14.4)
      3. Chakra
      https://chakralinux.org

      Chakra is originally a derivative of Arch GNU/Linux but soon after it became a stand-alone rolling-release distro. Chakra very explicitly states itself as dedicated distro for KDE and Qt on the main webpage. If you know Hyperbola OS, it's a mix between stable release (ala Debian) with rolling release (ala Arch): it's similar to half-rolling release model of Chakra. Chakra has considerably stable core system (for now, the only installer available is dated 2017 "Goedel") while you can update applications infinitely everyday to get the latest KDE. Not like any other system here, newest ISO image of Chakra is not produced often. Similar to Arch with AUR, Chakra also has a centralized Chakra Community Repository (CCR). However, Chakra is not compatible to Arch, repo and packages from Arch are not recommended to install on Chakra. If you want to try both rolling and KDE-centric distro for your first time ever, Chakra is a good start.

      • Download: https://www.chakralinux.org
      • Architecture: 64-bit only 
      • System installer: Calamares
      • Package search: -
      • Documentation: https://community.chakralinux.org/t/welcome/8
      • Comment: I only run Chakra from LiveCD and it has Plasma version 5.10.5. But once installed, and properly upgraded, latest Chakra (as per 23 December 2018) would have Plasma version 5.14.4 dated at 2018-Nov-29 10:39 from official repo. This is the only difference to all other systems here: Chakra needs to be installed (not LiveCD) and upgraded for you to enjoy the latest KDE.
      (Chakra Goedel with KDE 5.10.5)
      4. KaOS
      https://kaosx.us

      KaOS, in similarity with Chakra, is an explicitly dedicated distro for KDE and Qt, with rolling release model. KaOS was the only one GNU/Linux distro ever had a goal to switch the kernel into illumos kernel (illumos is a non-GNU free operating system derived from source code of OpenSolaris and has a derivative named OpenIndiana). KaOS is a unique distro which deliberately "select" its users: those who have tried many distros and already found out the best choice is with KDE ones. Just similar to Arch with AUR and Chakra with CCP, Kaos also has centralized KaOS Community Packages repository (KCP). If you are tired in distro-hopping and in fact a long-time KDE fan, then I belive KaOS will be more suitable for you than Chakra.


      (KaOS 2018.10 with KDE 5.14.0)
      5. Fedora KDE
      https://spins.fedoraproject.org/kde

      Fedora, a GNOME distro, has many Spins ("Flavors" in Ubuntu terminology) including Fedora KDE. Fedora is widely known as a cutting-edge (latest technology platform) operating system where many free software solutions introduced on it earlier compared to any other distros. So, no wonder Fedora KDE gives you very latest version of KDE packages (and for power users: you will get more latest if you change the repository into Rawhide). Fedora itself is a fixed release distro, but if you use Rawhide repo it will be rolling release. If you missed KDE on Red Hat Enterprise, or found out too old KDE versions on CentOS, then Fedora is the best RPM distro to test latest KDE for you.


      (Fedora KDE 29 with Plasma 5.13.5)

      End Words
      That's all. I think some of you may wonder why I don't include Mageia and Netrunner here. Also, I don't include Q4OS even though it re-continuing the development of KDE 3. The reason is because I want an always-latest KDE distro like neon either it's modeled after Ubuntu (fixed-schedule release) or after Arch (rolling) and they have something new or unique. Netrunner is rolling enough, but there are already Chakra and KaOS for that. Manjaro KDE is same. Mageia is like Kubuntu for not being latest-version pursuer. Perhaps you would say Dragora or GuixSD? No, they even don't have ISO image with KDE built-in. And yes, I don't list Kubuntu here as it's not always-latest, or you must use third-party repository to obtain them. So I hope this is clear.

      With five distros here, I can test a latest software from KDE only with LiveCD without altering my working operating system. You can take advantage of what I'm saying, plus, new experience in the rolling ones. And yes, if you cannot use KDE neon as your computer is 32-bit, there are still Fedora KDE and Krypton for you. (And for what I said in the beginning, you can see PureOS Plasma being very promising dedicated KDE distro which is fully free software but unfortunately it's not officially released yet.) Finally, I hope you'll like this list and enjoy them all!

      References


      This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

      Text to Speech on GNU/Linux Part 3: Orca on KDE

      Saturday 22nd of December 2018 06:32:00 AM
      Continuing the second part: this article discusses about screen reading on KDE. This means you can automatically read out loud every key press, start menu, user interface of program, as well as text document in it. The program used is GNOME Orca Screen Reader which is integrated very well to KDE Plasma. You will learn the basic knowledge, requirements and how to install them, configuring KDE and Orca to work together, running and closing Orca, and of course how to tweak the speech for the speed and voice type. I hope you can help yourself and anyone with this brilliant technology so everybody can use computer regardless their impairments or disabilities.

      Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
      Summary
      • Demonstration Video
      • Preparations (Requirements, Installations, Enabling/Disabling)
      • Read out loud keyboard key presses
      • Read out loud start menu and context-menu
      • Read out loud file manager
      • Read out loud text document

      Demo Video
      This video is hosted at PeerTube (not YouTube). This first video demonstrates only in 3 minutes how to start/stop screen reader and read out loud everything.

      (Video: basic running and stopping Orca Screen Reader on KDE; also explains how to open Orca Settings)
      [Download: 9MB video]
      Basic Knowledge
      • Orca is originated from GNOME. But it is compatible with KDE.
      • Orca is a high-level layer closer to you, and it makes use of lower-level layer consisted of speech-dispatcher and espeak. Notice, here, you meet them both one more time. Read again Part 2 and Part 1 for that.
      • Orca starts with Super+Alt+S and stops with same key combination.
      • Orca can read out loud everything: key presses from keyboard, start menu and context-menus, user interface of each program (including file manager), text files, etc. on your screen.
      • Orca has Configuration window which can be activated by invoking command orca --setup or by pressing key combination Insert+Space.  
      • "Desktop frame" or "frame" in general is Orca's language to call a window or a box section of user interface. This differentiates places whether it's a window or a menu, an entry of menu or child entry of that menu, to make them recognized easier by blind user. It is very important.
       
      Requirements
         
        • gnome-orca
        • espeak
        • speech-dispatcher

        On Ubuntu family operating systems, you can run the installation command:

        Install the dispatcher:
        $ sudo apt-get install speech-dispatcher
        Install the synthesizer:
        $ sudo apt-get install espeak
        Install the screen reader:
        $ sudo apt-get install gnome-orca
        Enabling and Disabling Screen Reader
        Special on KDE, go to System Settings > Accessibility > Screen Reader > give check mark to Screen reader enabled > Apply. Logout and then login again. You just need to do this once.

        (KDE settings for screen reader)
        Turning on and off are easy at any time:
        • Press key combination Super+Alt+S until you hear the sound "Screen reader on".
        • Press Super+Alt+S again to make it "Screen reader off".

        Prepare Your Start Menu
        Beware, default Plasma start menu style is not readable by Orca. You must switch it first to "Application Menu" style.
        • Right-click start menu > Alternatives > Application Menu > Switch.

        (This classic style start menu is compatible with Orca)
        1. Reading Your Key Press
        First, most basic feature of Orca is reading out loud every keyboard key press. You can try it out starting with alphabets, and then numbers, and then punctuations. See video below.

        (Video: Orca reads out loud every tap of keyboard keys)
        [Download: 1MB video]
        2. Reading Start Menu
        Second, Orca can read out loud your start menu one by one. Be patient to point out your cursor also one by one as Orca needs several seconds delay to read between them. The demo is included in the first video above. 
        Problem might occurred: if you don't hear anything, or readings become incomplete, perhaps KDE Plasma need to be restarted: press Alt+F2 and type plasmashell --replace and press Enter. 
        3. Reading Context Menu
        To read context-menu (menu appearing when you right-click an item), you need to point and wait for several seconds until you hear the reading voice. Again, watch the first video above.
        Problem might occurred: same as above, if readings are not complete, restart your desktop: press Alt+F2 and type plasmashell --replace and press Enter. 
        4. Reading File ManagerFourth, Orca can read out loud your file and folder names, document and multimedia file names, as well as the menu bar of your file manager. It can read out bookmark and partition names as well. See video below.
        (Video: Orca reading file manager interface including file and folder names, menus, and partition names)
        [Download: 9MB video]
        5. Reading Text Document
        Fifth, Orca can read text document. After running Orca, then run the text editor, then open the text file. With your cursor, block a word, or a line of text, or a paragraph to read it out loud. I use KWrite editor as example here.  Open up a plain text document and try to read out loud with Orca. It's very easy. See video below.
        (Video: Orca reading text document in KWrite editor) [Download: 2MB video]
        Further Readings
        Before you read everything else, read Ali Miracle interview by It's Foss, a blind programmer and a real Orca user. He is a developer of GNU/Linux distro named Uruk.

        Next Part...
        That's all for now. For the next part, I will discuss about reading out loud LibreOffice Writer document with Orca as it needs special handling. You will need to install a certain program in order to do that. I hope you can help yourself and anybody more with this. Go ahead, enjoy!

        to be continued...

        This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

        Text to Speech on GNU/Linux Part 2: Okular to Speech

        Thursday 20th of December 2018 07:42:00 AM
        Continuing the first part: Okular PDF Reader has read out loud (text to speech) feature but it needs configuration to make it works. You might find that there are very limited number of documentations available on the net about this case and if you find them you will know how complicated they are. So in this article I make it simple for you and I guarantee it's very easy to do this on Ubuntu (including Kubuntu and Neon). Ah, yeah, I include here a demonstration video you can play (don't worry it's hosted on PeerTube server, not YouTube). You will start with several basic knowledge below, then install everything needed, and then do the job. I hope this may help you to help anyone with disabilities or impairments to use GNU/Linux. Enjoy!

        Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
        Demo Video
        This is a video screencast of me enabling Okular to read out loud a PDF document about Unix history. It's only 1 minute and is very easy. This demonstrating how to start it, run the text to speech, and close it. Hear this out!

        (Video hosted on PeerVideos.com (a good PeerTube service), freely licensed, and freely downloadable)
         Basic Knowledge
        You need several basic information mentioned below in order to run this TTS system on your GNU/Linux:
        • Different GNU/Linux distro may have a few different settings.
        • Like a hamburger, there are layers: your GNU/Linux system -> sound server -> dispatcher -> synthesizer -> program to open text (Okular)
        • TTS on Okular PDF Reader is basically cooperation between programs: synthesizer reads the text and translate it to speech, then dispatcher catches it,  and dispatcher sends it to sound server, finally you hear the speech.
        • Dispatcher here is a program called speech-dispatcher, must be active for TTS system to run otherwise no speech could be heard.
        • Sound server here is a program called pulseaudio, as we use Ubuntu as example (other distro may use alsa instead)
        • Synthesizer here is a program called espeak, one among many synthesizers available on GNU/Linux.
        • Short definitions: dispatcher is the connector between synthesizer and other programs; sound server is the built-in program that produce sound output on your GNU/Linux; synthesizer is the real thing that do Text To Speech (TTS). 
        • Okular needs a certain additional program ("plugin") to do TTS. It's called qtspeech5-speechd-plugin on Ubuntu. Without this, Okular will not read out loud.

        Requirements
        • speech-dispatcher
        • espeak
        • okular 1.4 or later (or, any version where you can see "Speak..." options under Tools menu)
        • qtspeech5-speechd-plugin (special Qt5 plugin for Okular to do TTS)
        • correct timing and configuration

        Step 1 install all requirements:
        Install the dispatcher:
        $ sudo apt-get install speech-dispatcher
        Install the synthesizer:
        $ sudo apt-get install espeak
        Install the speech plugin for Okular:
        $ sudo apt-get install qtspeech5-speechd-plugin
        Note: in this moment the version of Qt is 5. In the future, when you still read this article, you may find the version changed and the package version or name changed as well. This article is based only on current version.

        Step 2 activate the dispatcher:
        Run the dispatcher first:
        $ speech-dispatcher -d
        Make sure dispatcher is active:
        $ ps aux | grep speech-dispatcher
        It's active if you see many lines of red string "speech-dispatcher" started with /usr/bin/speech-dispatcher. If you see only one red string started with grep, then it's inactive.

        Step 3 do text to speech:
        You must run Okular after speech-dispatcher. Otherwise, Okular cannot read out loud. If such case happens, simply restart Okular

        Run Okular:
        • Run Okular from start menu. Alternatively, press Alt+F2 and type okular.

        Open a PDF:
        • Drag and drop a PDF onto Okular window. Then the document appears.

        Read it out loud:
        • Go to menu bar Tools > Speak Current Page. It works! You should hear the text being read out loud.

        Read whole document:
        • Select Speak Whole Document to read out loud all text on all pages. It works!

        Read a certain paragraph:
        • Press Ctrl+4 so your cursor turns into text selection cursor.
        • Select a paragraph.
        • Right-click > Speak Text. It works!

        Stop the speech:
        • Go to menu bar Tools > Stop Speaking. 

        Step 4 stop the dispatcher:
        Run killall for speech-dispatcher:
        $ killall speech-dispatcher
        Once speech-dispatcher killed, Okular can no more read out loud.

        Common Errors
        I met some errors which are nowhere to find the easy solution on the net. Fortunately, I found the solutions and they are easy to do. I hope you can solve these problem yourselves.

        Error number 1:
        No text-to-speech plug-ins were found.

        Explanation: this happens when you run Okular from command line and you click the speak button. This is because you don't have qtspeech5-speechd-plugin package installed. The solution is to install it. On other distro, this package may have different name.

        Error number 2:
        Failed to connect to speech-dispatcher.

        Explanation: with Jovie (not espeak) this happens when you run any TTS but you don't have speech-dispatcher program or it's not active. The solution is to install or activate speech-dispatcher first.

        Further Reading
        In case you want to learn more, here's references including those from speech-dispatcher. 

        Next Part...
        That's all for now. I hope you can read out loud all your PDF documents now. At this moment you can only read out loud with default configuration. This means, you may find the voice is not satisfying: too fast, too harsh, etc. On the next part, I will discuss about Orca Screen Reader first, and later, I planned to write one part for configuring our TTS system (speech-dispatcher + espeak) to suit our needs including changing voice genders, languages, punctuation, speed, and more. I hope this helps everybody. Enjoy!

        to be continued...

        This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

        Text to Speech on GNU/Linux Part 1: Type to Speak

        Wednesday 19th of December 2018 04:59:00 PM
        Text to Speech (TTS) is a technology to assist disabled people in reading-by-hearing for those who cannot see and in speaking-by-typing for those who cannot speak. eSpeak Speech Synthesizer is an amazing program on GNU/Linux to help anybody helping themselves (or, helping others who have disabilities and impairments). This article is one part of my new series in GNU/Linux accessibility and I want this to be easy for everybody. I will explain to you in this first part the basics by using espeak as a perfect example for first timers. You will learn how to type the text and let computer speaks it loud. This way, you can help anyone who is mute to speak using their computer.
        Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.

        Summary
        • Know the requirements
        • Install required programs
        • Try the basic speech
        • Try to control the speed of speech
        • Try to change the language of speech
        • End words & what's next

        Requirements:
        You should install this software on your GNU/Linux. On Ubuntu, the package name is espeak. Other distros may have different package names. Install it:
        $ sudo apt-get install espeak
        Exercise:
        Run espeak command:
        $ espeak
        Type hello! and press Enter. What voice do you hear?

        Type my name is bonnie and press Enter. What voice do you hear?

        Type what is your name? and press Enter. What voice do you hear?

        Press Ctrl+C to close the program.


        See? It works. But, you will find that all those speaking out voices are too fast. You can slow them down.

        Second Exercise:
        Run espeak -s 100 -g 10 command:
        $ espeak -s 100 -g 10
        Type hello there, I am coming again! and press Enter. How is it now?

        Type now you can speak using computer! and press Enter. How does it sound?

        Type just type to say what you want to say! and press Enter. Is it perfect now?

        Press Ctrl+C to close the program.


        You see, the parameter -s is speed, and -g is gap. Speed is reading speed in word per minute, by default it's 160. Gap is pause gap between words, by default it's 1. Play with the numbers to find out your suitable composition.

        Now, you can change the language of speaker to your native one. I give you example here Indonesian (espeak code: "asia/id").

        Third Exercise:
        Run espeak in Indonesian:

        $ espeak -s 100 -g 10 -v asia/id
        Type halo and press Enter.

        Type nama saya bonnie and press Enter.

        Type siapa namamu? and press Enter.

        Type halo, saya datang lagi! and press Enter.

        Type sekarang kamu bisa berbicara dengan komputer! and press Enter.

        Type ketik saja untuk mengatakan apa yang mau kamu katakan! and press Enter.

        Press Ctrl+C to close the program.


        If you wonder what those sentences mean, they are just translations of English sentences we used above.

        Further Readings
        If you want to know more about accessibility technology especially TTS on GNU/Linux, here several good starting points:

        Next Part...
        That's all. Thanks Jonathan Duddington for creating espeak. I really hope this article helps you and other people a lot, especially those with impairments. For the next part, I will explain about Text To Speech from PDF reader. I will use KDE Okular for that. Okay, enjoy, and let's help people with accessibility technology!

        to be continued...

        This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

        Bring Back Desktop Icons on GNOME 3.30

        Monday 17th of December 2018 01:25:00 PM

        If you use GNOME 3.30 or later, you may find that 'icons on desktop' feature does not exist anymore. You cannot add anything to your personal Desktop folder like you usually did. Fortunately, thanks to csoriano, this removed feature can be added back by installing Desktop Icons  extension. You will find this extension useful if you use latest GNOME on Fedora, Arch, openSUSE, and Ubuntu if the Nautilus version is over 3.26. This article shows how it looks from openSUSE Tumbleweed GNOME. Try it and enjoy!


        Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.


        Install the ExtensionTo install a GNOME Shell Extension, go to the website and click the 'ON' button there. Ubuntu users should be fine with this tutorial. Once installed, you don't need any tweaking, simply try it. If you want to change the icon size, use GNOME Tweaks tool.


        (The 'ON' button and GNOME Tweaks showing the configurations)
        At A Glance
        See, it's like below. You can put either it's program, folder, or any file on desktop. For example, put a folder, Firefox and Image Viewer.


        (Icons on desktop in action)
        Grid Arrangement
        Icons placed on desktop are arranged in grid tidily. You can drag-and-drop icon here.

        (Grid arrangement of icons)
        How To Play
        How to put desired icons on desktop? Copy and paste any folder or file to your personal Desktop folder. For programs, copy the .desktop file from /usr/share/applications to there. Then see your wallpaper. That's it! Unfortunately, for now, you cannot drag-and-drop them directly from Nautilus to desktop. I hope next release of Desktop Icons will have such feature.

        (Putting files, including application shortcuts, on Desktop make them icons on desktop)
        This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

        Download User Guide Books of All Ubuntu Flavors

        Sunday 16th of December 2018 09:47:00 AM
         This is a compilation of download information of user guide books of Ubuntu and the 5 Official Flavors (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, and Ubuntu Studio). You can find either complete user guides (even for server edition), installation guide, or tutorials compilation; either in PDF or HTML format; plus where to purchase two official ebooks of Ubuntu MATE. On the end of this tutorial, I included how to download the HTML-only documentation so you can read it completely offline. I hope you will find all of books useful and you can print them out yourself. Get the books, print them, share with your friends, read and learn Ubuntu All Flavors.

        Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
        Also download gratis ebooks from UbuntuBuzz: Ubuntu Beginner's Guide | Ubuntu Package Management System | Zotero for Newbie

        1. Ubuntu Manual Book
        • Title: Ubuntu Desktop Guide, Ubuntu Server Guide, Ubuntu Installation Guide
        • Topics: complete user guide, installation guide
        • Version covered: 18.04 LTS, for desktop and server
        • Format: PDF, HTML
        • Download: https://help.ubuntu.com

         (PDF, for 16.04 LTS server version)
        (PDF, installation manual for 16.04 LTS 64-bit version)
        (HTML, for 16.04 LTS desktop version)
        2. Kubuntu Manual Book
        • Title: Kubuntu Manual Documentation
        • Topics: complete user guide (installation guide included)
        • Version covered: 16.04, 18.04 LTS, 18.10
        • Format: PDF, EPUB, HTML
        • Download: https://kubuntu.org/support

        (PDF, for 16.04 LTS)
        (EPUB, for 16.04 LTS)
        3. Xubuntu User Guide Book
        • Title: Xubuntu Documentation
        • Topics: complete user guide
        • Version covered: 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS, 18.10
        • Format: PDF, HTML
        • Download: https://xubuntu.org/help

        (HTML, for 16.04 LTS)
        (PDF, for 16.04 LTS)
        4. Lubuntu Handbook

        (HTML, for 18.10)
        (HTML, for 18.04 and prior releases)
        5. Ubuntu Studio Audio Handbook

         (HTML, Audio Guide Book)
        6. Ubuntu Studio HowTos


         (HTML, general howto for all Ubuntu Studio versions)

        7. Ubuntu MATE Books
        • Title: Upgrading from Windows or OSX, Using Ubuntu MATE and Its Applications
        • Topics: complete user guide
        • Format: PDF, EPUB
        • Buy: https://ubuntu-mate.boutique

        (Ubuntu MATE: Upgrading from Windows or OSX)
          (Using Ubuntu MATE and Its Applications)
        8. Ubuntu MATE Community Manual

        (HTML, thorough guide book by community)
        Download for Offline Reading
        Some documentations below are only available in HTML format, not in PDF. Basically, you can either read them online or save as (Ctrl+S) one page by one page to read them offline. But to make all things easier, you can "mirror" instead (download the whole documentation) so you can read the website without connecting to the internet. To do this, you just need GNU wget download manager which is already included on Ubuntu.

        For example:

        To download Lubuntu Handbook:
        $ wget -c --mirror -l 1 -np -p -k https://manual.lubuntu.me
        To download Ubuntu MATE documentation:

        wget -c --mirror -l 1 -np -p -k notabug.org/mignu/gnu-indonesia/wiki

        $ wget -c --mirror -l 1 -np -p -k https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/tips-tutorials-and-guides-index/14519
        That's all. These examples can be applied to any other documentation available on the net as you wish. Go ahead and try!

        Happy reading! Happy printing! Happy sharing!

        This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

        Lubuntu 18.04 and 18.10: Between LXDE and LXQt

        Saturday 15th of December 2018 09:00:00 AM

        This is a review comparing two versions of Lubuntu, 18.04 LTS with LXDE and 18.10 with LXQt. It's about Bionic Beaver and Cosmic Cuttlefish. This means this is the last review of Lubuntu with LXDE. You will find here how they differ in cases of appearance, default applications set, file manager, network manager, package manager, and so on. Very fortunate for us that both version (and even next version Disco Dingo) keep supporting 32-bit architecture so we can still use any of them on our oldest PCs or Macintosh possible. They're only between +/-250 and +/-350MB in RAM usage. They're lightweight, computer-reviving, and compete operating systems worth to try. Go ahead, happy reading and happy working with Lubuntu!

        Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
        All about 18.10: Download Links | Installation Guide | Ubuntu Review | GNOME 3.30 Review

        Summary
        • A Brief Bionic LXDE aka Lubuntu 18.04 LTS
        • A Glance Cosmic LXQt aka Lubuntu 18.10
        • 1. Installer Comparison
        • 2. Size Comparison
        • 3. Appearance Comparison
        • 4. Memory Usage Comparison
        • 5. Applications Comparison
        • 6. File Searching Comparison
        • 7. Split Vertical Comparison
        • 8. Super Key Comparison
        • 9. Panel Comparison
        • 10. Network Manager Comparison
        • 11. Utilities Comparison
        • 12. Support Lifespan Comparison
        • 13. AppImages
        • 14. Control Panel Comparison
        • Contribute!
        • Further Reading
        • References

        A Brief Lubuntu 18.04 LTS
        18.04 is the last version of Lubuntu with LXDE. Fortunately it's a Long Term Support edition. It will be supported officially by Lubuntu Team for 3 years. This means 32-bit computer users will have this lightweight OS supported up to 2021. We can imagine running old PCs with latest free software and security updates for that period of time. (Oh yeah, and it's just about support, but for your time of use is not limited at all)

        (Lubuntu 18.04 LTS with PCManFM and start menu)
        (Gif animation: Lubuntu 18.04 start menu one by one)
        A Glance Lubuntu 18.10
        18.10 is a brand new Lubuntu which starts its debut using LXQt desktop environment. FYI, LXQt is a descendant of LXDE which uses Qt instead of GTK as its library basis. Finally it switched to LXQt after long long time testing since 2013. What you will see changed for the first time is the file manager: it's now PCManFM-Qt. Also, noticeable changes are Super key to open the start menu, and there is a search feature now. Honestly, you will find out Lubuntu 18.10 resembles Kubuntu more right now.


        (Lubuntu 18.10 with PCManFM-Qt File Manager and start menu)
        (Gif animation: Cosmic LXQt start menu one by one)
        1. Installer Comparison
        Finally, Lubuntu comes with Calamares on 18.10 after long time coming with Ubiquity system installer up to 18.04. This means Lubuntu LXQt now has more modern user interface to install the OS which is also commonly used on PureOS, Neon, Netrunner, Manjaro, Sabayon, and OpenMandriva. I've published tutorial to install Lubuntu 18.10.

        In general, installing Lubuntu 18.04 is no difference to Ubuntu. It's a generic 10-steps to install like what you saw on most of our tutorials. Traditionally, all Ubuntu users will be familiar with this one.

         (The traditional installer, named Ubiquity, which is used up to 18.04 LTS)
        As it switched to Calamares on 18.10, you will find new experince with slight differences in steps to install, like, the username creation is before starting the formatting process. As addition, users coming from Manjaro will feel like home here.

        (The brand new installer of Cosmic LXQt)
        Fortunately, both 18.04 LTS and 18.10 support both 32-bit and 64-bit. Making them both suitable as lightweight and computer-reviving operating systems. You have old PCs and Macintosh? Try the 32-bit one!

        (32-bit and 64-bit versions available on Lubuntu 18.10 download server)
        And, it looks like next release of Lubuntu (19.04 codenamed "Disco Dingo") will keep support 32-bit architecture as well. See official announcement here.

        (Disco Dingo will keep supporting 32-bit!)
        More information about the installer or version is available on https://lubuntu.me/downloads/.

        2. Size Comparison
        If you look at built-in applications on 18.10, it's no wonder the ISO image size became 60% bigger compared to 18.04. Bionic is still 1.0GiB, while Cosmic already reached as far as 1.6GiB.

        (Comparing between the two ISO images)
        3. Appearance Comparison
        At a glance, no big difference between the two. But now on 18.10 you will find changing themes and everything about customization easier and not scattered anymore like before. Surprisingly, just like LXDE, LXQt desktop itself does not have own window manager, and as a result Cosmic LXQt still uses Openbox Windows Manager.

        First glance:

        This is how Lubuntu normally looks like up to Bionic. It's a standard LXDE system with much Openbox Window Manager options.

        (Bionic LXDE)
        And this is how Lubuntu 18.10 looks like starting from Cosmic. To be honest, it's more KDE-ish (or Plasma-ish). No wonder as it being rebuilt using Qt, same framework which built KDE. However, this beautiful interface is drawn by Openbox as well.

         (Cosmic LXQt with built-in KDE Plasma theme enabled)
        Icons on desktop:

        This feature receives many improvements which is nice on 18.10. We got a "Trust Selected Executables" now, so we don't need to edit properties one file by one file like on GNOME 3.26. I like this! Aside of that, it's very easy to rearrange icons by select them > right-click on one > uncheck Stick to Current Position. Ah yeah, you can drag-and-drop application from start menu to desktop area to make shortcut. Also, you can make shortcut (symlink) from file manager! If you dislike how GNOME removed these features, you will feel like home on LXQt!

        (Gif animation: icons on desktop and easiy give "Trust" to them)
        (Gif animation: drag-and-drop from start menu or from file manager to make shortcuts)4. Memory Usage Comparison
        To put it simply: 18.04 takes ~240MB, while 18.10 takes ~350MB. It's now on par with Kubuntu 18.04 and KDE neon which take similar ~350MB. But still, as a lightweight OS, it's still the most lightweight in RAM use compared to other Official Flavors. This number is still very reasonable for use on old PCs with even only 512MB of RAM as long as you don't burden it too much.


        Bionic LXDE:

        +/-240MB

        (LXTask says 240MB of RAM used)
        Cosmic LXQt:

        +/-350MB

         (qps says 350MB of RAM used)
        5. Applications Transition
        Surprisingly, starting from 18.10 Lubuntu ships with LibreOffice and not Abiword+Gnumeric duo anymore. Here's a short list showing the transition and the newly added programs. No wonder the ISO got really bigger now. Personally, athough it's big, I like this change so much.

        Changing Applications

        • Abiword -> LibreOffice Writer
        • Gnumeric -> LibreOffice Calc
        • mtPaint -> LibreOffice Draw
        • Sylpheed -> Trojita Mail Client
        • Hexchat -> Quassel IRC Client
        • Leafpad -> Featherpad Text Editor 
        • Simple Scan -> Skanlite Scanner Manager
        • Xfburn -> K3B CD Burner
        • Galculator -> KCalc
        • LXTerminal -> QTerminal

        Newly Added

        • QtPass (password keeper, like KeePassX)
        • QTransmission (Qt version of Transmission BitTorrent)
        • Qlipper (clipboard tool, similar to KDE Klipper)
        • VLC (audio/video player)
        • Qpdfview (PDF reader)
        • BlueDevil (bluetooth manager)
        • Plasma Discover (software center)
        • Muon Package Manager (similar to Synaptic Package Manager)

        Removed

        • GNOME Disk Utility (disk and partition formatter)
        • HardInfo (system info and device manager)

        6. File Searching Comparison
        Not much changes in purely user sight, Ctrl+F is still not embedded into toolbar (so, not like Dolphin or Nautilus), so it opens a new window with more options. For new comers to Lubuntu, at first glance this may felt very inconvenient, but if you look closer actually it's pretty good as it gives you searching features like regex, case insensitive, by content, and even multiple places at once. A new user just need to get accustomed to use the options available.

        The only noticeable change is the shortcut key. On 18.04, it's Ctrl+Shift+F. But on 18.10 it's refined back to Ctrl+F. 

        (Cosmic LXQt searching, no difference to Bionic LXDE one)
        And... on 18.10 now it supports Ctrl+I filtering like Dolphin! Wow, it's my favorite feature from KDE and it's now on LXQt.

        (Ctrl+I, my favorite feature of KDE now available on LXQt)
        7. F3 Comparison
        On Bionic LXDE you can still use split vertical feature but on Cosmic LXQt you cannot. Simply press F3 like usual to split up. I hope LXQt Developers will strongly consider this nice feature to be added on next version of PCManFM-Qt.

        (Split vertical feature on Bionic LXDE)
        8. Super Key Comparison
        More surprise, now Lubuntu accepts Super key to open/close start menu. However, up to 18.04 LTS we use Ctrl+Esc to open and Esc to close the start menu. I'm waiting for this feature since a long time ago. This change on 18.10 really made me happy.

        18.04 LTS:

        (No matter how many times you tap Super key, it won't open, unless it's Ctrl+Esc)
        18.10 LXQt:

         (Super key opens, tap it again to close; I love that)
        9. Panel Comparison
        Panel receives many improvements on 18.10 LXQt. Again, it's more KDE-like if you see the configuration of the taskbar. On LXDE, the language is longer, for example, to express "Disable window grouping" it takes longer wording "Disable combine multiple applications into a single button". More than that, panel is now more configurable (with more settings) and more efficient (you can make it double row now). Really, now on LXQt, these things gotten simpler and better.

        Bionic LXDE:

        (Gif animation: overview of LXDE panel)

         (Right-click on panel > Task Bar Settings > Taskbar: uncheck Show windows... and Combine ... into a single button options)
        Cosmic LXQt:

        (Taskbar settings: if you're familiar with KDE, you will find these Taskbar settings very similar)

        (Panel settings: starting from size, position, auto-hide, color and transparency, to use separate icon theme with desktop icon)
        With above settings, you can make it double row like what you found on Trisquel like this:

        (To configure: right-click panel > Configure Panel > set Rows count=2 > set Size=48)
        10. Network Manager Comparison
        I should say Network Manager on 18.04 LTS is far better than 18.10. I admit it. You will feel it yourself once you tried. But for most PC users with ethernet cable or USB tethering from smartphone, and some laptop users who use wifi hotspot without password, this one is enough.



        If you find Network Manager (command line: nm-tray) on Cosmic is not convenient, you can use Wicd as a replacement. If you cannot connect to your favorite wifi, simply use USB Tethering from your smartphone to install Wicd. It should looks like below.

        (Wicd running on Lubuntu 18.10 replacing the default network manager)
        11. Utilities Comparison
        For example, let's compare the PDF readers. On 18.04, it's GNOME Evince, a standard all around ebook viewer. It does not support multitab. While on 18.10, it's Qpdfview with multitab feature.

        Bionic LXDE:

        (Opening three PDF books will open three different windows)
        Cosmic LXQt:

        (Qpdfview opening three PDF books the same as 18.04 above, but in multiple tabs)
        12. Support Lifespan Comparison
        As usual, for LTS version, each of Official Flavors got 3 years support from each official team, while for Regular version each got 9 month support. What does it mean "support" is clear if you read the output of ubuntu-support-status command line like below. The support is the improvements and security updates for certain group of software packages (not all packages in the repo supported).

        For 18.04 LTS, Lubuntu-specific and LXDE-related packages are supported by the Lubuntu team for 3 years. Plus, base Ubuntu system got supported by Canonical team for 5 years. This means you will get updates for both in terms of desktop programs and in core system up to 2021 and 2023, respectively. That is the meaning of Long Term Service (LTS) on Lubuntu.

        (Bionic LXDE: showing sources.list and support status of 3 years from Lubuntu Team and 5 years from Canonical)
        While on 18.10, Canonical will give support for 9 months. After that period ended later on July 2019, you will receive no update anymore, and you cannot install more programs from official repo, but you still can run the Lubuntu forever without limit. That's the meaning of Regular (non-LTS) release.

        (Cosmic LXQt: 9 month lifespan until July 2019)
        13. Can They Run AppImages?
        Yes, they can!

        AppImage is the single-executable application format. As you read this article, you saw those Gif animations above, then you saw that these two Lubuntu can run AppImage. More precisely, I run Peek Gif application AppImage on them. Yes, I can aso run Inkscape, GIMP, LibreOffice appimages and so on. Try them out! 

        (Portable applications running: LibreOffice, Inkscape, GIMP, GEDA gSchem in clockwise order)
        14. Control Panel Comparison
        One more surprise, Cosmic brings its own control panel now, called LXQt Configuration Center on start menu.

        (Cosmic LXQt: the system settings)

        (Bionic LXDE does not have a centralized settings)

        15. Package Management System
        On 18.04 LTS, we got GNOME Software (as application store) and software-properties-gtk. On other hand, starting with 18.10, we got Plasma Discover and software-properties-kde. It is clever decision, I like this, as nowadays GNU/Linux desktop app stores still often got error (from purely user perspective) so user has one more option to do software installation more precisely using the alternative one included built-in. I really missed when Ubuntu started to deprecate Synaptic in favor of Software Center only so I think this Lubuntu decision is a better one. In conclusion, although everything is changed on 18.10, you don't have to worry as the alternatives are as good as the original ones.

        This reminds me to the old time with 9.10 while we still use GNOME 2 on Ubuntu with Software Center included along with Synaptic Package Manager. Redundant? Perhaps, from technical perspective only, but practically it's useful for many users especially those don't have technical skills to tweak. It's very nice old time.

        Bionic LXDE:

        (Left: Synaptic Package Manager, right: GNOME Software)
        (Software & Updates: software-properties-gtk, they way on Lubuntu to edit repository addresses)

        Cosmic LXQt:

        My comment here is that the software center, called Discover, got better and better now in appearance and in configurations. More than that, Muon Package Manager is a good alternative to Synaptic, it's also detailed and precise, with ability to help software installation in offline condition. Both Discover and Muon are connected to Software Sources (application to edit repository addresses). These completeness, alternative readiness, and integration make you don't need to worry anymore about installing software or adding new repositories (PPA) to your Lubuntu 18.10.

        (Back: Discover Application Store, front: Muon Package Manager)
        (Software Sources: software-properties-kde, an equivalent to software-properties-gtk from prior Lubuntu versions)
        16. Some Problems
        I have some noticeable issues with 18.10:
        • Not safe to upgrade from 18.04 to 18.10. It's recommended for you to do a fresh install.
        • Search on start menu sometimes doesn't work.
        • Network manager is very confusing and not usable.
        • With file manager: no F3 and no zoom.
        However, fortunately I don't find any noticeable issue on 18.04 LTS.

        Conclusions
        • For most users, I recommend Lubuntu 18.04 LTS instead for the sake of usability and support duration.
        • For first timer who installed/want to install 18.10 LXQt, go ahead and you will get beautiful user interface and very nice experience, but I recommend you to use Wicd instead of default network manager.
        • For LXQt desktop pursuer, Lubuntu 18.10 is a great example of LXQt system. Try it first.

        And finally my thanks to brother Alwan Rosyidi for pointing me out for the first time about Lubuntu 18.10 having LXQt. Without his clue, I would be late to hear about it and this review will me too late to publish.

        Contribute to Lubuntu
        There are many ways to participate to Lubuntu development for everybody. You want to help your own operating system? Then here you have the ways. They are mainly separated in two options:


        Further Readings

        This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

        How To Install Lubuntu 18.10 LXQt Edition

        Friday 14th of December 2018 12:46:00 PM

        This tutorial explains step by step to install Lubuntu 18.10 "Cosmic Cuttlefish". It's available for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. This is the first edition ever comes with LXQt Desktop Environment and also Calamares System Installer. This means Lubuntu Cosmic will have a slightly different steps to install as it does not use Ubiquity anymore. You will prepare two blank partitions, and one more if your computer initialization system is UEFI (not BIOS), and go through 10 steps until all finished. Happy working, enjoy Lubuntu LXQt!

        Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
        All about 18.10  Download Links | Original Review | Original WTDAI | GNOME 3.30 Review

        Preparations
        1. Create two partitions. One of >=20GB to be the main partition, and one of 1GB to be the swap partition. Do this with program to edit disk partition like GParted. If you don't have idea about partitioning, ask a technician near you to do it.

        2. If your computer is a UEFI system (UEFI is new generation BIOS; all computers more recent than 2010 should have it), you should create one 200MB partition. This will be your /boot/efi partition.

        3. Create Lubuntu 18.10 installation media with a USB Flash Drive. If you computer cannot boot using USB (old PCs are usually like that), create a DVD instead. Follow tutorial in making USB here, or tutorial in making DVD here.

        4. Unless your data storage is empty, and you're confident with your experience, make backup of all your important data. Save them in a safe external storage.

        As example, these are my prepared partitions. Use lsblk command to know all your partitions.

         (Output of lsblk: /dev/sda2 of 20GigaByte will be my main partition)
        Booting
        Insert your USB media and boot your computer into USB. You should see Lubuntu 18.10 screen showing many options and select first option "Try without making changes". On the desktop, run the Install Lubuntu 18.10 program. This launches Lubuntu Installer (also called "Calamares").
        1. Select Language
        Select your language from the selection on the bottom.



        2. Select Time Zone
        Point your time zone on the map. If you cannot, use the drop-down menu available instead.


        3. Select Keyboard Layout
        Unless you need non-Latin alphabet (like Arabic, Japanese, or Russian), choose the default layout.



        4. Select Manual Partitioning
        If your system is UEFI, first follow the Special Section below.
        First: choose "Manual Partitioning" (equal to "Something Else" on Ubiquity) and go next. Always choose manual so you won't have to worry.


        (Focus on the "Manual partitioning" option)
        Second: be sure the hard disk choice is your intended hard disk if you have 2 or more of them. But if it's only one, nothing to choose so just go ahead.

        (Make sure it's the right hard disk to see the right partitions)
        Third: create your main partition: select the first prepared (bigger one) partition > Edit > let the Size untouched > Format > Filesystem: EXT4 > Mount point: / > OK.

        (Creating 20000MB=20GB partition: Format checked, EXT4 Journaling Filesystem, / mount point)
        Fourth: create your swap partition: select the second prepared (smaller one) partition > Edit > let the size untouched > Format > Filesystem: linuxswap > OK.

        (Creating >=1GB swap partition)Special For UEFI
        If your system is UEFI, you should make a /boot/efi partition of 200MB.

        • Select the third prepared partition of 200MB. 
        • Edit.
        • Set EXT4 Filesystem.
        • Set mount point to /boot/efi.
        • OK.
        • Now go back to the creation of main and swap above.

        5. Put Bootloader on Place
        Choose the hard disk name where your main partition belongs as the bootloader place. For example, as my main one is /dev/sda2 then the bootloader place is /dev/sda. See picture below.

        (Notice the WDC hard disk here is named /dev/sda, yours maybe different)
        6. Create Your Credentials
        Determine your own username and password. The password here will be your sudo password also.

        (Creating username, password, and hostname)
        7. Read the Summary
        Summary of installation plan will be shown. Please examine one by one and be sure there is no mistake in this plan. If you feel anything goes wrong, you can still change it, simply go Back and correct it. This is the last step before executing the real installation.

        (Read the summary)
        8. Start the Installation
        The installer will as you to "Install Now". After this, you cannot go back anymore. If you are sure everything is right, then Install Now.

        (Only if you are sure, go Install Now)
        9. Wait
        Once installation is performed, you will see a beautiful slideshow showing features and nice things about Lubuntu 18.10. You will wait in approximately no more than 15 minutes.

        (Progress of installation with progress bar, percentage, and short detail of what's going on)
        10. Finish
        Finished installation will ask you to restart the computer. It says "All done" and "Restart now". Just follow it and congratulations! Happy working and enjoy Lubuntu 18.10 LXQt Edition!

        (Press Done and your computer will restart automatically)
        This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

        List of Twitters of Free Software Projects and Communities

        Sunday 9th of December 2018 02:58:00 PM
        Continuing my list of RSS feeds, now it's a list of more than 60 Twitters of free/libre open source software community. Aside of software and distro projects, this includes also organizations, companies, computer vendors, desktop environments, conferences, and programming languages. I even list Twitters of BSDs and several other free OSes here. Please be aware that this long list is small, there are still so many other important projects not listed here (not to mention, several of them don't have Twitters) so please discover them yourself. I hope you can find the one you love and follow their information updates. Go for your journey!

        Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.

        Big Organizations
        FSF https://www.twitter.com/fsf

        The Linux Foundation https://twitter.com/linuxfoundation

        OSI https://twitter.com/OpenSourceOrg

        Apache Foundation https://twitter.com/TheASF

        Blender Foundation https://twitter.com/blender_org

        The Document Foundation https://twitter.com/tdforg

        Software Freedom Conservacy https://twitter.com/conservancy

        KDE e.V. https://twitter.com/kdecommunity

        GNOME Foundation https://twitter.com/gnome

        RISC-V Foundation https://twitter.com/risc_v


        Distros
        Debian https://twitter.com/debian (unofficial)

        elementary OS https://twitter.com/elementary

        Ubuntu https://twitter.com/ubuntu

        Kubuntu https://twitter.com/kubuntu

        Xubuntu https://twitter.com/xubuntu

        Lubuntu https://twitter.com/lubuntuofficial

        Ubuntu MATE https://twitter.com/ubuntu_mate

        UBports (formerly Ubuntu Touch) https://twitter.com/UBports

        Fedora https://twitter.com/fedora

        CentOS https://twitter.com/centosproject

        openSUSE https://twitter.com/openSUSE

        deepin https://twitter.com/linux_deepin

        Manjaro https://twitter.com/ManjaroLinux

        Mageia https://twitter.com/mageia_org

        Gentoo https://twitter.com/gentoo

        Linux Mint https://twitter.com/linux_mint

        Desktop Environments
        KDE https://twitter.com/kdecommunity

        GNOME https://twitter.com/gnome

        XFCE https://twitter.com/xfceofficial

        LXDE https://twitter.com/lxde (I'm not sure if it's official, please inform me)

        Application Projects
        LibreOffice https://twitter.com/libreoffice

        Mozilla Firefox https://twitter.com/mozilla

        GIMP https://twitter.com/gimp_official

        Inkscape https://twitter.com/inkscape

        Krita https://twitter.com/Krita_Painting

        KiCAD PCB https://twitter.com/kicad_pcb

        Netbeans https://twitter.com/netbeans

        Eclipse https://twitter.com/EclipseJavaIDE

        MySQL https://twitter.com/MySQL

        MariaDB https://twitter.com/mariadb

        WordPress https://twitter.com/WordPress

        VLC https://www.twitter.com/videolan

        Conferences
        Linux Conferene (Open Source Summit) https://twitter.com/eventslf

        GNOME's GUADEC https://twitter.com/guadec

        KDE's Akademy https://twitter.com/akademy

        Debian Conference https://twitter.com/debconf

        Seattle GNU/Linux Conference (SeaGL) https://twitter.com/seagl

        Libre Application Summit (GNOME LAS) https://twitter.com/lasgnome

        FOSDEM https://twitter.com/fosdem

        Google Summer of Code (GSOC) https://twitter.com/gsoc

        SCALE https://twitter.com/socallinuxexpo
         
        Programming Languages
        Python https://twitter.com/ThePSF

        Perl Foundation https://twitter.com/perlfoundation

        Java https://twitter.com/java

        Rust https://twitter.com/rustlang

        C++ (Conference) https://twitter.com/CppCon

        GNU R https://twitter.com/_R_Foundation


        Development Frameworks
        GTK https://twitter.com/GTKtoolkit

        Qt Framework https://twitter.com/qtproject

        Laravel https://twitter.com/laravelphp

        CodeIgniter https://twitter.com/CodeIgniter

        ElectronJS https://twitter.com/electronjs

        Meteor https://twitter.com/meteorjs

        AppJS https://twitter.com/appjs

        Haxe https://twitter.com/haxelang


        Companies
        Canonical https://twitter.com/Canonical

        Red Hat https://twitter.com/RedHat

        SUSE https://www.twitter.com/SUSE

        Collabora https://twitter.com/collabora

        Fluendo https://twitter.com/fluendo

        KDAB https://twitter.com/kdabqt

        Linaro https://twitter.com/linaroorg


        BSD Operating Systems
        FreeBSD https://twitter.com/freebsd

        NetBSD https://twitter.com/netbsd

        OpenBSD https://twitter.com/openbsd (again, I'm not sure if it's official)

        GhostBSD http://www.twitter.com/GhostBSD1

        TrueOS (formerly PCBSD) https://twitter.com/trueos


        Other Free Operating Systems
        ReactOS https://twitter.com/reactos

        HaikuOS https://twitter.com/haikuOS

        FreeDOS https://twitter.com/FreeDOS_Project

        OpenIndiana (formerly illumos and OpenSolaris) https://twitter.com/openindiana


        Computer Vendors
        They are interesting. They make laptops and PCs with built-in GNU/Linux.

        Vikings https://twitter.com/Vikingslibre

        Technoethical https://twitter.com/technoethical

        System76 https://twitter.com/system76

        Slimbook https://twitter.com/SlimbookEs

        Purism https://twitter.com/puri_sm

        Raspberry Pi https://twitter.com/Raspberry_Pi

        Pine64 https://twitter.com/thepine64


        Finally, I hope this helps you to discover your own community. Go ahead! 

        This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

        Enabling 3D Desktop Cube in 2018 on Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Ubuntu MATE

        Thursday 6th of December 2018 03:41:00 PM

        For both long-time and new users, even in 2018, you can still enable 3D Desktop effects on Ubuntu GNU/Linux variants. Compiz, the famous 3D compositor in old time (most of us know it), is still alive. KWin, the 3D compositor of KDE, is also still there. You just need to know how to enable 3D on each desktop environment. Here, I use Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Ubuntu MATE as examples. Enjoy the nostalgia!

        Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.

        Kubuntu
        Representing distros share KDE Plasma Desktop, Kubuntu does not use Compiz, but instead KWin, KDE's own window manager. The settings are available under KDE System Settings already, so you don't need CCSM on KDE.

         (3D desktop on Kubuntu 18.04)
        Ubuntu MATE
        Representing other distros share MATE Desktop, Ubuntu MATE has two compositors built-in "Marco" and also "Compiz". You can enable Compiz first, then using CCSM you enable 3D Cube. Just like our old-old times. (Note: other distros may need Compiz installed by hand.) 

        (3D desktop on Ubuntu MATE 18.04)
        Xubuntu
        Representing all other distros using XFCE, Xubuntu (honestly) does not bring Compiz by default. XFWM4, the built-in window manager does not have 3D, so you will need Compiz there. No problem, in this case you just need to install Compiz later.

         (3D desktop on Xubuntu 18.04)
        Configurations
        They're grouped in two, Compiz and KWin, both are the compositors. Compositor is a component of desktop environment that is responsible to draw 3D effects. If you wonder, the secret is, often a window manager is also a compositor. So no matter what distro are you using now, if you use MATE / XFCE then go follow Compiz below; but if you use KDE then go follow KWin instead. Those are the only difference.

        1) Compiz configuration:

        • Fulfill the requirements: install Compiz and CCSM* first.
        • Enable Compiz for whole desktop: run CCSM > give check mark to Window Decoration
        • Enable Compiz: press Alt+F2 and execute  compiz --replace
        • This will make your window borders changed to Compiz style (you'll notice)
        • Make 4 workspaces: run CCSM > General Options > Desktop Size > make it all 4
        • Enable all 3D Cube effects: give check marks to Desktop Cube, Rotate Cube, and Cube Reflection & Deformation
        • Try it: hold Ctrl+Alt and drag your desktop. You should see 3D Desktop Cube here
          (Click to enlarge the picture)
        2) KWin configuration:

        • Go to KDE System Settings > Desktop Behavior > Desktop Effects
        • If you don't see "Desktop Cube" there, perhaps it's hidden, then click drop-down menu before next to box > uncheck > uncheck. Now see if "Desktop Cube" is available
        • Give check mark to Desktop Cube
        • Try it: press Ctrl+F11 and you should see 3D Desktop Cube
         (Click to enlarge picture)
        *) In order to install Compiz and CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM), on Ubuntu MATE, Xubuntu, Mint MATE / XFCE, Trisquel, simply execute this command:
        $ sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager

        That's all. Have fun with 3D Desktop again!

        This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

        A Journey on Budgie Desktop #3: Applets

        Wednesday 5th of December 2018 02:01:00 PM

        Continuing second part, here I will discuss about Applets which can be added to Budgie Desktop. I highlight several of more than 20 applets available today: NetSpeed, Clocks, Brightness, Alt+Tab, Global Menu, Workspace Wallpapers, Weather, and Screenshot applets. If you wonder what it is, an "applet" in Budgie is the same as "extension" on GNOME or "widget" on KDE Plasma. Now, for this article I make a journey in installing them and putting them around my desktop and I have much fun. I really love to see things that I didn't see on another desktop environments before and I find many here. Who know that we can still use global menu even in Budgie, considering Unity has been dropped and Budgie itself is still new? Who know tif here is a splendid screenshot tool (with more features than built-in GNOME Screenshot) created solely for Budgie? I won't know until I tried them. I hope it will be more interesting for you this time and you can go try them now. Enjoy!


        Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.


        Summary
        • Intro: Budgie Welcome, Available Applets, and Installing
        • 1) NetSpeed Applet
        • 2) Multiple Time-Zone Clocks Applet
        • 3) Brightness Applet
        • 4) Alt+Tab Switcher Applet
        • 5) Global Menu Applet
        • 6) Different Workspace Wallpapers Applet
        • 7) Weather Applet
        • 8) Screenshot Applet
        • End Words

        A. The Budgie Welcome
        Budgie Welcome is not a part of Budgie Desktop. It's a program developed by Ubuntu Budgie developers. In this case, you won't find Budgie Welcome on Solus OS, the origin OS of Budgie Desktop. Anyway, this program helps you a lot to find and install Budgie Applets (called "Extensions" on GNOME or "Widgets" on KDE). Once you run it, click Install Software > Budgie Applets > and applets selection should appear.

        (Budgie Welcome, a introductory program for Budgie Desktop users)
        B. Available Applets
        There are two different things between Ubuntu Budgie and Solus, that, users of former OS can install all third-party applets using Budgie Welcome while users of latter OS can only install some using eopkg package manager (at least, up to today). The reason is because those applets are already brought within Budgie Welcome thanks to "budgie-extras"; while on Solus OS most of them are not in repository yet. However, all applets are available from respective developers in GitHub. If you use Solus, you can compile them up from source yourself. To mention some:


        Here's Ubuntu Budgie's Budgie Welcome program. You can see this selection page of Applets by clicking Install > Applets.

        (Budgie Welcome showing applets ready to be installed)
        C. Installing Applets & Enabling Them
        On Solus, there are only some applets already available in the eopkg repo. On Ubuntu Budgie, fortunately, all applets are already included within aforementioned Budgie Welcome.

        Solus OS:
        Looking for available applets:
        $ eopkg search budgie
         (Click to enlarge picture)
        You see, there is an applet named budgie-haste-applet.

        Installing one applet, for example Haste:
        $ sudo eopkg install budgie-haste-applet
        Ubuntu Budgie:
        Click Install Applet button on the Budgie Welcome program.

        Enabling:
        To enable an applet, use Budgie Settings, go to Panel section, and press ' + '  button to add one. Use up and down arrows to move an applet up and down in arrangement. See this Gif animation for example.

        (Gif animation: adding an applet "Hot corner" to panel)
        Now, I will highlight some applets I feel interesting. After this, feel free to have another journey with the rest of applets not mentioned here. Enjoy!

        1. NetSpeed (aka System Monitor)
        Perhaps some of you knew that this is the kind of applet I love the most. With this, you know upload/download speed, so you know how your limited internet data plan being spent. However, the official name is System Monitor.


        Settings:

        (The name on Budgie Settings: System Monitor)
        2. Multiple Time-Zone Clocks
        You can display multiple different clocks (e.g. for your overseas team members) with this one. Click + and you get new clock. Click magnifier icon and your browser appears with world map https://www.timeanddate.com/time/map/ to help you determine the time zone for each clock. Each clock time zone is determined by +[number] or -[number], for example, +7 for Jakarta/Asia and -7 for Denver/USA. This way, all will show accurate times for each name of members you write on bottom of each clock. For me who live in Indonesia (a country with triple time zones), this is useful.

        (One clock for one team mate, for example)
        Settings:

        (The name on Budgie Settings: ClockWorks)
        3. Brightness
        Honestly, it's my first time seeing two sliders on one brightness controller. They are Light and Dim sliders, with 0-976 and 10-100 scales, respectively. If you scroll down them both to zero, your screen will get completely black. However, its Github page doesn't explain more about how it works.


        Settings:

        (The name on Budgie Settings: Advanced Brightness Controller)
        4. Expose (Alt+Tab Switcher)
        This applet replaces the original Budgie's Alt+Tab switcher to have window thumbnails. Honestly, I like thumbnail style better than just icon style like the original one. However, on my machine this applet is a bit slow, it delayed window switching. I hope this applet to become faster next time.

        Before:



        After:


        Settings:

        (The name on Budgie Settings: Window Previews)
        5. Global Menu
        Now, number of desktop environments that support global menu is increasing with Budgie Desktop as it has the applet. We know that GNU/Linux desktop started popularizing this macOS-like feature since Unity Desktop inception (Ubuntu 11.04), followed by KDE Plasma, MATE, and finally now Budgie. If you combine it with transparent panel, it would look perfect.

        (Global menu with built-in theme of Budgie enabled)
        Settings:

        (The name on Budgie Settings: Global Menu)
        6. Different Workspace Wallpapers
        Do you remember old times with KDE when you can place different wallpapers on different workspaces? On Budgie Desktop, you can do it again thanks to Workspace Wallpaper Applet. Once installed, restart your machine, and add it up on Budgie Settings > Panel > Add New Applet > choose Wallpaper Switcher. It won't show any icon on panel but now you can change wallpaper on each workspace you have so they all differ.

        Result:

        (First and second workspaces showing different backgrounds; notice the workspace switcher applet on bottom panel)
        Settings:

          • First, you should add Workspace Switcher applet on your panel.
          • Second, add the Workspace Wallpaper applet to panel.  It won't show any icon, indeed.
          • Now, right-click on desktop area > Change Background > select a wallpaper.
          • Then, go to next workspace and change its wallpaper too.
          • Do change wallpapers for the rest.
          • Finally, try to switch between workspaces and you should see different wallpapers.

          7. Weather on Desktop
          Notice the clock floating on the wallpaper area on Ubuntu Budgie? This applet does the same thing but for weather forecast instead. It's really nice to put this along with that clock. However, of course, to have this works you will need internet access.


          Settings:

          (The name: Desktop weather; see the City and Set custom position sections there)

          8. Screenshot Tool
          Hey, really, this one is a splendid applet. It's similar to Shutter Screenshot Tool but smaller and integrated well to Budgie Desktop. It features delay time enabled by default, upload to Imgur directly, custom file name, capturing from different display, and many more. All in this simple applet. So far, this is my favorite applet from Budgie Desktop. Very nice work, Stefan Ric!

          (Screenshot of the screenshot tool)
          (Gif animation: taking a screenshot and upload to Imgur in only two clicks)

          (Gif animation: settings of Screenshot applet including delay time and upload destination selection)
          End Words
          That's all. I hope this part encourage you enough to have a journey yourself on Budgie desktop. Start with Ubuntu Budgie and have a nice day. Next time, I will discuss about customization including icons and themes. This will also include the Budgie Settings that mentioned above. Happy working!

          to be continued...

          This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

          Insert Lorem Ipsum on LibreOffice Writer

          Friday 30th of November 2018 03:47:00 PM
          Just like on Scribus, we an also insert Lorem Ipsum dummy text on LibreOffice Writer. Simply go to menu bar Tools > AutoText (Ctrl+F3) > Standard > Lorem Ipsum > Insert. Done! This is on LibreOffice  5.1 on GNU/Linux; you may find the menu differs on other version. We don't need any extension to do this. Happy writing!

          (Inserting Lorem Ipsum on new document)
          Thanks to karolus et. al. from LibreOffice QA community for this!

          This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

          Trisquel 8 Friendly Manual Part 4: Be Productive

          Friday 30th of November 2018 03:21:00 PM

          This is the 4th part of Trisquel 8 manual for beginners. It's continuation to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd parts. Now, it's time to be productive: by examples, you will learn how to create colorful schedules (with Icedove), make a text document (with LibreOffice Writer), and edit a photo (with GIMP). I hope you can develop more creativity by trying these. Enjoy!

          Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
          1. Making Calendar Schedules
          • Click the '7' icon on top-left corner.
          • Select 'Month' tab.
          • You see a blank calendar of one month.
          • Create new calendar "Local" > select a color > OK. Repeat for other colors. Make sure you have some colors available.
          • Double-click a date > choose a calendar > give it a title > OK > a schedule with selected color created. Repeat for other schedules.

           (Next month calendar with some schedules in different colors)
          2. Making Text Document
          Basic things about making text document are two things: page format and paragraph format. Find them on menu bar Format > Page and Format > Paragraph.

          Page format covers these:
          • Page type such as A4, A5, F4, Legal, Letter, etc.
          • Width & height
          • Orientation (portrait or landscape)

           (See Format: A4, Width: and Height:, and Margins fields)
          Paragraph format covers these:
          • Indentation
          • Line spacing such as single, double, 1.5, etc.
          • Drop caps
          (See Indent First line: 3 cm and Line Spacing: Double)
          Using those two formattings, we get this example using standard Lorem Ipsum dummy text: 
          (Notice the surrounding margins, first-line indentation, and the double line-spacing)
          3. Cropping a Picture

          The most basic (but often needed) thing is cropping. Using built-in GIMP, this is very easy:
          • Right-click a picture > Open With GIMP > picture opened.
          • Press Shift+C
          • Drag and drop a rectangle area on the picture
          • Press Enter
          • Picture cropped.

          (Resize the crop box by four small box on its corners)
          End Words
          That's all. By these basics, you can develop your creativity to make more. Enjoy Trisquel!

          to be continued...


          This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

          Fun Desktop Computing with Debian KDE Part 3: Applications

          Friday 30th of November 2018 01:48:00 PM

          Continuing second part, in this part I discuss about applications on Debian KDE including how to run them from start menu, knowing application file format (.deb), finding more applications and install them, changing file type associations, and changing startup applications. You are also able to put applications (shortcut icons) on desktop area and also on panel. I hope this part will help you a lot to manage applications. Enjoy!

          Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.

          1. Where's Your Applications?
          This is your start menu. Click the logo to open the start menu. Your applications are here. You can type the name to search or click through the categories of applications.

          (Hover your cursor to start menu then it will say "Application Launcher" with KDE gear logo)
           (Start menu opened with categories starting from Education to Utilities)
          2. What Applications are Installed?
          On Debian KDE, of course you will find this set of applications:
          • Firefox ESR and Konqueror (web browsers)
          • LibreOffice (a package of word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation programs)
          • Dolphin (file manager)
          • Gwenview (picture viewer)
          • Dragon Player (video player) and juK (audio player)
          • K3B (CD and DVD burner)
          • Kopete (chatting & instant messaging program)
          • KMail (email client)
          • KOrganizer (desktop calendar & scheduling)
          • Akregator (RSS feed reader)
          • Ark (compressed files manager)
          • Kate (text editor)
          • KDE System Settings ("control panel")
          • Discover (software installation center)
          • KNotes (desktop sticky notes)
          • GoldenDict (multi-language handy dictionary)

            (Start menu showing some applications under Office category)
            3. What is the Format?
            Debian gives you applications both in source code and binary code forms. All applications distributed by Debian are stored in a place called repository. Installable (executable) application is in .deb file format. Normally, all Debian users will install software in this executable form. In contrast with Gentoo, for example, Gentoo only gives you applications in source code form, not in binary code form. This means in Debian all software are "precompiled" (already processed) by Debian Maintainers (we owe them); while in Gentoo the users themselves should "compile" every software. Anyway, .deb file format in Debian is similar to .exe in Windows or .dmg in macOS (although they are different in how they work).

            (Example: two Debian packages in .deb format; notice the software name "geany" and "midori" and architecture name "amd64")
            4. What Applications are Available?
            So many. There are currently more than 10,000 packages in Debian prepared for you to install. All available gratis.


            (debian.org site even says 50,000 number of packages)
            5. Editing Your Start Menu
            Right-click start menu > Edit > KDE Menu Editor showing.

            (KDE Menu Editor: here you can add new item, rename, edit, change icon, etc. of all applications on Debian KDE)
            Debian KDE has a list-style menu too if you turn the start menu into "Application Menu". Select that from right-click start menu > Alternatives. See below.

            (Start menu ala Windows XP: a list-style menu rather than category-style launcher)
            6. Putting Applications on Desktop
            Debian KDE permits you to place icons on desktop area and panel. Fortunately, it's as easy as drag and drop; and you can also right-click and choose either Add To Desktop or Add To Panel from start menu. What you need to do first is changing desktop layout from "Desktop" into "Folder View" as this layout resembles Windows' and macOS' experiences.

             (Applications [the icons] on desktop and on panel)
            To change the layout, simply right-click on desktop area > Configure Desktop > Desktop Settings dialog showing > select Layout: Folder View > OK. Now try to add some applications to desktop area.

            7. Using Application Store
            Discover is the thing for you finding more applications and install them. You can find many, many kinds of them such as video and image editors, video games, download managers, useful utilities, even software development tools. When you start Discover for the first time ever, it will need internet access to download some MBs data. After that download session, you will eventually see Discover showing all applications.

            To install some:
            • Find an application. For example, keyword image manipulation will give you GIMP.
            • Click "Install" button after the program name.
            • Discover will proceed the download and display you a progress bar.
            • Finished installation will turn the Install button to Remove button.
            • Find the installed program from the start menu.

            7. Using Konsole
            Read more about APT command lines here.

            Software installation on Debian KDE is around three actions: finding, installing, and removing. It's the same as using Discover above, using Konsole would teach you three commands respectively:

            • $ apt-cache search [keyword]
            • $ sudo apt-get install [package_name]
            • $ sudo apt-get remove [package_name]


            Configure Default Applications (Or, File Association)
            By default, pictures open in Gwenview and mp3s open in juK. Every other file opens in their respective application. Do you know that these associations could be changed? Yes, you can, by right-click a certain file > Properties > File Type Options > Application Preference Order: move up your preferred one to the top > OK.

            (Editing file type association)
            Configure Startup Applications
            Do you know if system boots up with certain applications you can disable? Where to do it? Go to start menu and find Autostart.

              (The Autostart shows three programs enabled at startup: desktop notes, RSS feed reader, and email client)
            End Words
            That's all. I hope you really can manage your own applications now. Next time I will discuss about controlling your system with generally needed things: editing the panel appearance, managing running processes, changing the language, and some others. Enjoy Debian KDE and happy working!

            to be continued...

            This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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