This is the fourth of Inkscape For Students the series after we learned about Fonts before, now we will learn how to create text. When doing design with computer, you will find text is an important part -- you will earn so much by just learning text alone. This is why this series invite you to practice firstly with text before shapes and colors. Now let's learn and practice!

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Summary

• Fill and Stroke 
  
• Text Tool (T)
• Write text
• Choose font
• Color text
• Formatting text
• Transforming text

 

1. Fill and Stroke

 

Fill is color of the content. Stroke is color of the outer line. Picture below will help you understand it.

Text above is an English word WELCOME! typed with the font Liberation Sans with four different styles. The red fill as well as the black stroke can be replaced with green, blue, yellow color etc. This is the basic of text coloring.

2. Text Tool 

Text Tool (T) is the tool you will use to make text in Inkscape. It is located on vertical panel on left, above Gradient and under Calligraphy tools. When it is activated, you will see a Text Toolbar on top and Text Properties on the sidebar on the right.

Below is Text Toolbar divided in 4 sections:

Descriptions:

• (i) font selector, format selector, text size selector.
• (ii) vertical distance, alignment, super/subscript, horizontal distance.
• (iii) horizontal distance, word distance, horizontal kerning.
• (iv) making vertical, horizontal, rotational text; writing mode, text direction Left-Right (like Latin) / Right-Left (like Arabic).

3. Create Text

Use Text Tool (T) and click on the canvas and type a word and press Esc. This is the basic of making text in Inkscape.

4. Change Font

Use Text Tool and click the text and block select it and select a font from Font Chooser on toolbar. For example, change a text font (typeface) from Times New Roman to Liberation Serif.

5. Change Text Size

- Using Select Tool (S)
- Using Text Tool (T)

Use Select Tool and select the text and 8 arrows appear around it and drag one to resize the text either it is shrinking or enlarging. 

6. Color Text

- Color Swatches
- Color Palettes
- Eyedrop Tool (D)

To color a text, select the text, and click a color from the palette. To color the outline of text, hold Shift and click a color. To copy an existing color from an imported picture into the text, first select the target text, second activate Eyedrop Tool (D), and finally click the existing color.

7. Format Text

Formatting a text means making it looks like what you want. Changing its thickness (Bold), leanness (Italic), and of course size (Size) and alignment (Alignments) are things involved in it. You can use Inkscape to create such formatted text.

• To make a text bold, use Text Tool to select it and click Bold.
• To make it italic, do the same and click Italic.
• To align a paragraph left, do the same to it and select align left. 
• To align a paragraph justified, first use Text Tool to create a text box, then make a paragraph in it, select all, and finally select align justified.
  

Below is example of basic text formatting. They are an English word WELCOME written in three different formats namely regular (default formatted), bold, and italic.

Below is example of alignments. They are welcome words in several different languages aligned left, center, and right, and also justify.

8. Text Spacing

Text spacing can be controlled freely in Inkscape. You can make blank distance between writings as you wish, either it is vertical or horizontal, either it is between letters or even words.

Vertical spacing. Change this to control space between stacked text lines.

Horizontal spacing, letter wise. Change this to control space between letters, numbers, or characters selected.

Word spacing. Change this to control space from word to word.

Kerning. Adjust this to 'move' a letter horizontally so it pleases your sight while surrounded by another letter(s). Learn more about kerning here.

Below is example of vertical spacing:

9. Transform Text

 

Text can be transformed in a way or another in Inkscape. They are resizing, rotating, and flipping. 

• To resize a text, use Text Tool, select it, and select a size among size selections (12pt, 16pt, etc.) from the Font Selector. 
• Alternatively, resize text by Select Tool, select it, and drag one of 8 arrows surrounding it around. Additionally, holding Ctrl key will make it proportional.
• To rotate a text, use Select Tool, click the text, click it once again, and drag one of 8 rotating arrows surrounding it. Additionally, holding Ctrl will guide your rotation rigidly. 
• To flip a text, use Select Tool, click the text, and click either Horizontal or Vertical flip button on the toolbar.
  

Afterwords

That's all for this time. You have learned basics text creation in Inkscape including how to type, color and manipulate it. Next time, according our Table of Contents, we will learn about drawing and coloring. Finally, I wish you enjoy this. See you next time!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Codeberg is now the only Gitea-based code hosting with its own user guide & documentation! This guides everyone to start their public software development with ease -- similar to the guide GitHub users enjoy for years. I like Codeberg as I frequently mentioned it (see here, see here) as the Free Libre Open Source Software code hosting. It is certainly good news and everyone is invited to improve the documentation together. Congratulations, Codeberg!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

You want to try LibreOffice Online for free, right? For your information, it is Writer, Calc, and Impress made accessible on the web browser developed by the infamous Collabora. For a long time, there was barely free service to try but now you and I can try. This article invites you to try it by showing how it looks like. Enjoy!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.See also another let's try: Jami | Movim | Element | Video Call

What is it?

LibreOffice Online (also called Collabora Office) is the computer office suite program LibreOffice made web based i.e. you access it using web browser without installing anything to your computer. Speaking about the technology, it is integrated with Nextcloud on the server.

Where to try it for free?

I am lucky I got a gratis account at OperationTulip.com. Follow my previous guide to access it. If you cannot get a free account then, simply go to Nextcloud Signup and choose one among several providers that says they provide LibreOffice Online there.

WriterCreate a Writer document by clicking (+)  button > New Document > Writer online appears. On the Operation Tulip, it looks like below.

Calc

Create a Calc document by clicking (+) button > New Spreadsheet > Calc online appears.

ImpressCreate an Impress document by clicking (+) button > New Presentation > Impress online appears.


Document Formats

LibreOffice Online supports document formats (choices when doing Open or Save As) as mentioned below:

• Document: odt, doc, docx, pdf
• Spreadsheet: ods, xls, xlsx, pdf
• Presentation: odp, ppt, pptx, pdf

Afterwords

There are a lot of features unmentioned here such as collaborative team editing. For now, I think it should be enough for us to try and benefit from it. Finally, see you next time on the LibreOffice topic!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

I deleted my flash disk drive. There were many files and folders within it -- now they are gone. Don't throw away nor wipe it out first, that's the advice I often heard. The secret is, actually we can save those data -- this is called recovery or undelete -- with certain hardware or software. Fortunately, gratefully, there is the best recovery software on GNU/Linux we can use, that is Testdisk, that has a very high success rate and is able to recover my data. I managed to recover 100% of one of my important folders with it. Below I share with you how I use it. You can practice this either on flash drive, hard disk, or SSD. I wish you success!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.Preface

I deliberately sacrificed my "hard disk" (a 32GB EXT2 USB flash disk drive actually) by doing resizing and experienced fatal failure. My data inside were Kubuntu operating system and thousands of files (yes, I installed OS not within HDD but simply USB flash drive). I want to test the Testdisk Tool as many of my friends said using it they managed to recover their hard disks by 100%, 90%, or 80% or so. That's really nice and now is my chance to do it too! Please keep in mind that recovery does not guarantee 100% success and results may vary between us -- so do this at your own consent and responsibility.

Requirements

• You understand your own filesystem (directory structure, folder names, hidden files, addresses of your disk partitions, etc.).
• You have basic ability of Terminal's command lines.
• If you don't, you ask a friend who does.

 

How To Play

- Press Enter and Q to go next and go back, respectively.

- Press P and Shift+C and C to list files, Copy selected files, and recover them, respectively.

- Use arrow keys to move selection.

- Press colon ( : ) key to select one file/folder.

- Red and green text mean unselected and selected, respectively.

- Read carefully text on bottom every time you select a thing.

 

Get Testdisk

Add the program Testdisk first to your computer.

$ sudo apt-get install testdisk

First Step

I scan my flash disk drive. This is to find deleted disk partitions.

- Run the command line. 

- Select [ No Log ], continue.  

- List of drives appear including the deleted drive.

- I select the deleted drive.

- Select [ Proceed ], continue.

- Select [ Intel ] if the Hint says Intel, continue -- choose accordingly. 

- Name of the deleted drive appears with list of commands underneath.

Second Step

I list my deleted files. This is to see the files and folders which are supposed to be deleted or wiped out.

- I select [ Analyze ], continue.

- Select [Quick Search] command, wait.

- Partitions in GREEN appear.

- Select the deleted partition.

- Select [ Deeper Search ] command, continue.

- Wait for the process to finish. This may take a long time.

- Once finished, list of partitions appear. 

- Select the deleted partition.

- Press P key.

- List of directories appears from that deleted partition.

Third Step 

Finally, I copy and paste, copy a deleted folder from deleted partition, and paste it to my laptop hard disk drive. Recovery done!

- List of directories appears. 

- I navigate to the directory and files I want to recover.

- I select a file by pressing colon ( : ) key, the file goes GREEN.

- I press Shift+C, now my Home file system appears.

- I choose a destination folder within my HDD filesystem.

- I press C to process the recovery and save the files in the destination.

- Wait for the process to take place. The screen will say "Copying, please wait... 9458 ok, 0 failed". This may take long time. 

- Once finished, the screen will say "Copy done!".

- Files and folders recovered in the destination folder.   

 

Results

Below are my recovered folders and files. I just need contents of my Documents (99% success) and Pictures (100% success) -- because my business and teaching data were there (including my GnuPG key). Finally I can backup my Ubuntu Buzz screenshots as well as sales data.

My recovered 'Documents' folder:

My recovered 'Pictures' folder:

My sales data fortunately recovered:

IMPORTANT: please take notes that recovery may not always 100% success. So there will be some inconsistency or errors such as this example above, some strange files incorrectly placed in that folder.

Afterwords

Recovery is highly possible with Testdisk. In my case above, I got 100% success rate. There is no guarantee we can always recover perfectly but it is certainly worth trying. Do not throw away, nor write anything into, nor wipe out a deleted hard disk drive you have! I wish you success.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Academics people and alike tend to love documents written with LaTeX -- one of the best text creation systems you can run on computer. The benefit is, the resulting document is truly beautiful. To start making LaTeX document on Ubuntu, you can start with the user friendly application, Gummi, which features preview. This short tutorial includes examples for basic texting and several math formulas. Now let's learn!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.What is LaTeX? 

It is best to know LaTeX from the examples so you can grab PDF documents from KDE (KBibTex) and arxiv.org (Guix) among plenty plenty others to see how a LaTeX document looks.

(A beautiful book you can write too -- this is page 9 of KDE KBibTex program's user manual which is produced with LaTeX)

Basics

In LaTeX, basically you create everything with a start and an end. Everything is code with some frequent examples shown below.

Bold: \textbf{?}

Italic: \italic{?}

Underline: \underline{?}

Footnote: \footnote{?}

Bullets list: \item

Preparations

Install software needed to write LaTeX documents on your computer. Just run command below:

$ sudo apt-get install gummi texlive
First Step

Open start menu and run Gummi application. 

 

Create A Document

- Click File > New > a blank document appeared.

- Copy and paste this LaTeX code below.

- You instantly see the preview on the right.

- Click File > Save > give it file name document.tex > OK.

- Document created.

The code:

\documentclass{article}
\title{\textbf{Hello, \LaTeX!}}
\author{Ade Malsasa Akbar}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\section{Introduction}
Hello, this is my document written with not word processor but {\LaTeX}.

\section{Basic Text}
I am a knowledge seeker who loves knowledge and now trying how good
{\LaTeX} is. Apparently, it is truly beautiful! It supports
\textbf{BOLD}, \emph{ITALIC}, \underline{UNDERLINE}, and also bullets
and numberings. Do not forget pictures as well.

\section{Mathematics Text}
Below is some examples of math formulas.
\newline
Basic addition: $ 1 + 1 = 2 $
\newline
Basic multiplication: $ 2 \times 2 = 4 $
\newline
Basic fraction: $ \frac{1}{2} $
\newline
Basic trigonometry: $ \cos (2\theta) = \cos^2 \theta - \sin^2 \theta $
\newline

\end{document}
The result:
The program when writing:
Example above should be self-explanatory that basically, \textbf{?} is BOLD; while mathematically every formulae should be wrapped in $     $ (a pair of dollar signs) and \times is multiply sign. You can grasp the rest yourself.  To create another document, simply copy paste example above and adjust everything else as you wish.

Edit Document

From the example above, please try to:

• change the author name to yours,
• change the title as you wish,
  
• make some other bolds, italics, and underlines;
• change the formulas by adding more additions, fractions, and cosines or sines;

Create PDF

Click menu File > Export as PDF > a PDF document produced in same folder as the .tex (dot tex) document file. Now your document can be opened in all computer devices including smartphones and can open collaborations with people across different operating systems.

 

Afterwords

That's all as a starter. I wish you feel the best experience of writing from here. For more exercise, try to read Wikibooks of LaTeX it gives you so many many examples to try. Enjoy writing!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

It is exciting that now big software projects are using GitLab for their own development. Debian, the universal operating system, and KDE, the best computer user interface plus applications compilation, and also Trisquel, the completely free software computer OS are among them. You can click those mentioned links to get involved in the software developments. It is certainly a good news as it is good example for the other projects in sovereignty of the infrastructure (borrowing Trisquel's terms). I made this article after the Rocky Linux's one as I just realized how important it is. However, as an addition it is also good if there is a project maintains their own Gitea (instead of GitLab) infrastructure as both are certainly libre software. I wish the best for them all!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This is a good example, that, Rocky Linux is now using GitLab, not GitHub, for its public development (software packaging) that everyone can join. We see in February 2021 it proudly presents its own serve  we can see it here https://git.rockylinux.org. Rocky is a continuation of CentOS GNU/Linux which is now in rapid development with its rapidly growing (despite new) community. This means Rocky is following Debian, Trisquel OS and the other big OS projects to use the Free Software code hosting GitLab (and alike). This is certainly a good news to see more libre software forge being used in real life by big projects. To contribute to Rocky, especially when you are sysadmins and in server businesses, you can click here to Get Involved. Finally, I wish the best for Rocky and its development.

Kubuntu computer users can make their Google Drive or Nextcloud accessible right from the file manager. This means quick backup and sharing. Now we will learn how to integrate Kubuntu's file manager, Dolphin, with the online storage, Nextcloud, so we can upload and download files right from our Home folders. Let's go!

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Basics

- Kubuntu
your computer operating system.

- KDE
your Kubuntu's user interface.

- Dolphin
your file manager.

- Nextcloud
the online storage, a technology alternative/replacement to Google Drive.

- Operation Tulip
one among choices of Nextcloud services. It is at https://operationtulip.com.

If you have Operation Tulip account, then the configuration you will use:

• Server: cloud.operationtulip.com
• Username: your username
• Password: your username
  

- dolphin-nextcloud
the software package needed to do this all.

Preparations

1) Install the package dolphin-nextcloud
2) Go to start menu > Online Accounts > Add new account > select Nextcloud, and
3) Enter the configuration of your account > OK > Kubuntu and Nextcloud successfully integrated.
4) Nextcloud be a disk drive on your file manager.

Tips & Tricks Before Uploading

It is best to encrypt your files before uploading (making backup) online. To do so,

- Right-click a folder,
- select Compress to,
- select type ZIP,
- make your password for this folder and OK,
- save the password to KeePassXC (click here for guide) so you will not forget, and
- upload the encrypted ZIP.

 

Browse Files 

• Make sure your internet access is on.
  
• Open your file manager (where you see Home).
• Click the Nextcloud storage drive.
• You browse your files.
  

 

Upload Files

Copy paste files or folders to the Nextcloud drive.

Download Files

Copy paste files or folders from the Nextcloud drive.

Miscellaneous 

- To turn off (not remove) this Nextcloud-Kubuntu integration, you simply turn off the configuration at System Settings > Online Accounts.

- To remove completely this integration, after doing the turn off, you uninstall the programs installed before. 

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Kubuntu computer users benefit from its useful tool KNotes that is helpful to use everyday. For example, you can keep frequently used text in it and copy paste them quickly at any time you wish, such as chat group rules (including classrooms) and your online payment information. This is a list of tips and tricks using the sticky notes. Hope you will like it!

 Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.

First Launch

When you first launch KNotes, you might find it asks for a storage location, so just follow and choose the place offered. Once launched, you can use it. See below, when all my notes are being opened on my Kubuntu laptop (I apologize it is all in Indonesian language as all my students & buyers are Indonesians).

 

What you can note?

For example, in quick way you can keep:

- basic notes, as in studying & learning 

- your groceries and schedules 

- your payment info, so buyers can pay money quickly to you

- phone numbers

- people's names & addresses

- rules & similar texts

- and many more!

Run at Startup 

Add KNotes in Autostart. To do so, open your start menu > Autostart > click Add Program ... > type knotes > select KNotes app > OK > done. Now Knotes will always be active on your system tray.

Create A Note

Click New Note when you right-click the yellow KNote logo.

Open a Note

Click a note among notes when you click the yellow logo.

Change Note's Name 

Double-click an opened note's title.

Color Notes

Paint it red, green, blue or one of available colors. To do so, right click an opened note's title > Preferences > Display Settings > change the Background color > OK > done. Do the same to the other notes. Example below showing my notes used in my daily life especially for teaching and commerce.

Search

Have many notes? No problem. Find a certain note easily with search. To do so, right click the yellow one > Find > type a keyword on the appearing dialog > found it. Example below is searching a frequently used word 'gnu' among my notes.

Show Notes Number

Finally, it can display '10' if you have 10 notes, and so on. To do so, right-click the yellow logo > Configure > Misc > give check mark to 'Show number of notes' > OK > done.

Afterwords

Some example from my daily life as I teach & trade via Telegram (a free fast messenger) are that KNotes is extremely useful to me for copy pasting classroom rules and also sending my buyers a price list + bank account as I sell GNU/Linux bootable flash drives. What I do? For years, I just need to copy and paste right from my system tray -- yes, the yellow logo!

That's all & happy computing!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.

Choices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 (An example of Movim/Xmpp communication anonymously)

Preparations

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

Communication

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

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

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

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

4) Login, welcome yourself for the first time.

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

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

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

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

Notes

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

See Further

- List of Video Calling Solutions

Learn more about other choices like Mattermost or RocketChat.

- Alternative World List

Learn more about our alternative world in a bigger picture.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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

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

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

- LibrePlanet
- Trisquel OS Forum
- Parabola OS List

2) The GNU Project

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

- GNU-Linux-Libre List

3) The Linux Project

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

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

4) LibreOffice Community

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

5) KDE and GNOME

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

- KDE Forum
- GNOME Forum

6) Debian Community

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

- Debian Lists

7) Fedora Community

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

- What Can I Do For Fedora
- Users List

8) Ubuntu Forums

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

- The Forum
- AskUbuntu
- Users List

9) Linux Mint Forums

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

The Blog

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

The Forum

Where everything about Mint discussed vastly and widely everyday.

10) openSUSE Forums

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

11) Computer Graphic Forums

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

PIXLS.US

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

Libre Graphics World

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

Blender Community

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

FreeCAD Community

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

Libre.Graphics

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

12) The Privacy Projects

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

- Privacy Tools IO

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

- Prism Break 

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

- F-Droid Community

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

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

See More

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

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



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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

OSes and Their Fonts

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

Where to get more fonts? 

 

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.

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

How To Play

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

Security

KeePassXC

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

Communication & File Sharing

Session | Zulip | RetroShare | StatusIM

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

Graphics

Digikam | Rawtherapee |  Enve2D

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

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

Kdenlive | Cinelerra | Olive | OpenShot

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

Multimedia

FreeTube

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

Games

FlightGear | OpenRA | Red Eclipse

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

Earlier Applications

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

- our office suite LibreOffice

- the illustrator Inkscape

- the painter Krita

- the gif screencaster Peek

Interesting Links

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

Apprepo - the new AppImageHub.

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

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

Let's be productive!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates. 

About Movim and Features

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

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

Features of Movim in brief:

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

Movim is the most user friendly Xmpp today!

About Xmpp

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

Below is the basics guide to start Movim.

1. Registration

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

 

2. Login

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

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

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

3. Invite your friends 

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

 

4. Find Friends 

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

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

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

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

 

 5. Post and Comment

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

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

6. Chat

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

7. Groups & Channels 

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

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

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

 

8. Calls

 

Calls are divided to voice - video - screen sharing. 

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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

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

Graphic Formats

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

Formats to Open:

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

Formats to Save:

• PNG
• PDF
• PostScript
• EPS

 

 

Default format:

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


Open and Save
 

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

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

Insert

 

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

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

 

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

To be continued...

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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


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


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

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

Happy computing!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.

Forewords

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

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

1. Jitsi

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

2. BigBlueButton

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

3. Element

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

4. Movim

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

5. Mattermost

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

6. Rocket Chat

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

7. P2P Chat

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

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

8. Nextcloud Talk

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

Worth Mentioning

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

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

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

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

Afterwords

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

Further Reading

Free Software Foundation | Better Than Zoom

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

Rocket Chat (Features) | Mattermost (Features)

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.Basics

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

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

 (Results wished from practicing this tutorial)

1. Do not have Element?

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

2. Do not have a password manager?

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

3. First Login

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

4. Setup Security Phrase and Key

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

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

5. Verify Other Sessions

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

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

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

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

6. Trust a Device

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

On desktop:

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

On phone:

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

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

7. Verify This Login

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

8. When to skip verification?

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

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

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

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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

(Ubuntu and Android devices conveniently sharing emails)

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Notes

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

1. Install Required App

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

(This is the free software K-9 Mail)

2. Setup Email on Thunderbird

You need to run Thunderbird following Disroot rules.

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

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

3. Setup Email on K-9

You need to run K-9 following Disroot rules.

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

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

 

4. Start Mailing

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

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

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

Closing Words & More Tips

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

Encryption Made Easy with Enigmail

Thunderbird + Gmail Setup

Thunderbird + Mailo Setup

Happy emailing!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.