(Ubuntu 19.10 with new wallpaper on background and app grouping feature on start menu with latest kernel, latest GNOME and LibreOffice)
We are excited to welcome the latest Ubuntu called Eoan Ermine that planned to be released this month at Thursday, 17 October 2019. This short overview shows several new things I found in this Ubuntu 19.04 development edition (as per 12 October 2019, frozen status, before official release). Thanks to the daily ISO, we know that Ubuntu Eoan has new features such as grouping apps on start menu, new icons for apps and disks, and latest version of GNOME 3.34 and LibreOffice 6.3. I once again divided the article into only 3 parts so you could enjoy this review easily. Okay, let's go!

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Part 1. Desktop and Icons
Thanks to GNOME 3.34, the Thessaloniki user interface, now we can group apps with names we can choose. Simply drag-and-drop an application on start menu to other app to group, drag it out again to ungroup, and right-click to rename. This way our messy start menu could be shorter and tidier.



Things that catch my attention mostly are new icons of LibreOffice and others that look rounder right now. I like it, however.


My Solid State Disk (SSD) partition got new icon with 'SSD' text on it.

 
LibreOffice got updated to 6.3.2.2 with a lot of new features. 


Firefox got updated to version 69 with a lot of improvements.



Part 2. Resource Loads
I find that CPU load is high and unstable at live session Eoan. This happens for 10 minutes or so each time the system started. Once cause of this is ld.so as a part of snapd group of services (as you could see at picture below). One more thing is the memory load reaches 1.3GiB, while you see last time openSUSE Tumbleweed (GNOME 3.34) live session was only +/-800MiB. Honestly I dislike this and I wish the final version loads to be lower. The ISO image I use is like mentioned, daily build as per 12 October after freeze stage announced.

 

Part 3. Details
This release is 19.10 which is Ubuntu version in the year 2019 and the month 10th with codename Eoan Ermine (E E) after 19.04 Disco Dingo (D D). The biggest internal change is the kernel component, now Linux 5.3, and the user interface, now GNOME 3.34.1. For testing before release planned at Thursday 17 October 2019, you can download Eoan at Daily-Live server.


Talking about details, actually Eoan Release Notes document already published we could read, but please notice is still incomplete as 19.10 still also not published yet today. Once released officially, this document will be updated just like prior Ubuntu releases we experienced.


Talking about the ISO image itself, on 12 October I get the 2.3GB sized with MD5SUM presented below. It's huge compared to 2.0GB of 19.04, and 1.8GB of Bionic, and 1.4GB of Xenial. It's not final, the official release might have lesser size ISO.


Do you want to get notified when Eoan published? Subscribe your email to Ubuntu-Announce mailing list! You know, all announcements of Ubuntu are always published firstly at Ubuntu Announce Mailing List. See for example, 19.04 and 18.04 announcement. So 19.10 will also announced firstly via email.



Further readings that can satisfy your curiosity about Eoan are here:

• LibreOffice latest release notes
• GNOME latest release notes
• Kernel 5.3 release notes
• Eoan official release notes
• Distrowatch detailed preview of Eoan
• OMG! Ubuntu nice preview of Eoan

Okay, now, we just need to wait until 17 October. Enjoy!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

It is Simplified Federation. It's a skipper, it skips our username input whenever we want to Follow or Favorite a user from different Mastodon server. Indeed, in Mastodon today we still cannot work in only one browser window as every of such external interaction opens a new small window. But thanks to this addon, it's a lot more easier now. I will show you how to install it on Mozilla Firefox as it needs a little setup. Let's go!

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On GNU/Linux community: Mastodon intro | Mastodon list | Telegram list | RSS list | Computer vendors | Invidious | Twitter list


Firefox Version

Make sure you have Firefox 66 at least. In fact, I failed to install it on old Firefox prior to 66. For instance, default Firefox on Ubuntu 19.04 is compatible with this addon.

Find the Addon

Browse to AMA page: Simplified Federation. Click Install Addon button. Addon installed.



Setup Your Username

It's a skipper, remember? So firstly you need to input your Mastodon username and the addon will automatically input that every time for you. Where to input it? Go to Firefox addon manager (press Ctrl+Shift+A) > find there Simplified Federation > click Preferences > scroll down > type your Mastodon username there, for example, mine is ademalsasa@floss.social > make sure your internet access is active.



Test it!

Go to Mastodon, follow somebody on different Mastodon instance, you will not need to enter your username anymore.

Before:See, it still ask for my username when I follow GNOME Brasil


After:Nice, it doesn't ask for my username anymore!

About Simplified Federation and my wishes

It's licensed under MIT X11 free software license. The source code is available at GitHub. It's a Firefox addon by rugk. Talking about wishes, I don't know who could make it, but I wish we don't need to open new window anymore each time interacting with people at Mastodon, just like our experience with Twitter. For now, everything is enough in my opinion.

Enjoy Mastodon!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Reddit forum of Ubuntu where many people participating and interacting)
Our GNU/Linux community information is naturally centralized at Reddit for news and discussion, it's not a secret. For instance, all big GNU/Linux distros have Reddits. Even often, news from a FLOSS project comes first at Reddit and being discussed a lot there rather than other social networks. See for example news of r/KDE and r/LibreOffice there (notice that unique Reddit IDs?). If you feel unfamiliar with this, you can think Reddit like Facebook or Twitter, but amazingly faster to browse, with greatly less picture and more text. With this list, after registering you can find your first community on Reddit for example r/Ubuntu and r/linux4noobs. Speaking personally, as an active GNU/Linux user I love Reddit and actually I use DNSCrypt just because I want to visit it. Also, if you're tired of other social networks you can give Reddit a try and I believe you will love it! I wish you will find nice people and friends there. Now let's go!

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Join Reddit
It is a good thing a GNU/Linux user to have a Reddit account because so many people are there discussing and reporting stuffs about GNU/Linux and Free Software. You can register a new Reddit account here. It's gratis.

Part 1. GNU/Linux in General

1. Ubuntu
Official Reddit forum of Ubuntu, with several Ubuntu developers as admins.
/r/Ubuntu

Lubuntu
Lightweight variant of Ubuntu with LXDE desktop.
/r/Lubuntu

Kubuntu
KDE edition of Ubuntu, familiar by default and powerful when needed.
/r/Kubuntu

Xubuntu
XFCE edition of Ubuntu.
/r/xubuntu

Ubuntu MATE
MATE edition of Ubuntu.
/r/UbuntuMATE

Ubuntu Studio 
Multimedia creative operating system with audio and video editing capabilities built-in.
/r/ubuntustudio

2. Mint
Official Reddit forum of Mint.
/r/linuxmint

3. Elementary OS
Official Reddit forum of elementary OS.
/r/elementaryos


4. LibreOffice
Questions & answers, news, and talks about LibreOffice --the free office suite for everyone--.
/r/libreoffice

6. GNU
News and discussion about GNU Project.
/r/gnu

7. Free Software
News and discussions representing free software movement.
/r/freesoftware

8. Open Source
News and discussions representing open source movement.
/r/opensource

9. openSUSE
The green lizard RPM family with YaST operating system.
/r/openSUSE


(/r/linux4noobs is a friendly community for everybody to start with GNU/Linux)
10. Linux
Very active discussions about Linux, GNU/Linux, and free software. No support question here.
/r/linux

11. Linux4Noobs
You can make questions and get answers about GNU/Linux here.
/r/linux4noobs

12. Linux Hardware
This is an amazing Reddit where you can ask questions about what hardware supports GNU/Linux, how to get things working, places to buy from, etc.
/r/linuxhardware

(Fun thing about /r/linuxquestions is that the logo is the Tux penguin with several question marks, hence, Linux Questions)
13. LinuxQuestions
This subreddit is for any question pertaining to GNU/Linux from beginner to advanced.
/r/linuxquestions

14. LinuxUnplugged
Famous podcast about GNU/Linux by Jupiter Broadcasting.
/r/linuxunplugged

15. GNU/Linux Gaming
News and talks related to video games on GNU/Linux.
/r/linux_gaming

16. Desktop Environments

KDE
The desktop of Kubuntu, Slackware, Mandriva, and openSUSE.
/r/kde

GNOME
The desktop of Ubuntu and Debian.
/r/gnome

MATE
The desktop of MATE Editions of Ubuntu and Mint.
/r/matedesktop

XFCE
The desktop of Xubuntu.
/r/xfce

LXDE
The desktop of Lubuntu.
/r/lxde

Openbox
Popular window manager that is lightweight and easy to custom.
/r/openbox

17.  Solus
Ikey Doherty's distro, the origin of Budgie Desktop in GNU/Linux world.
/r/SolusProject

18. Manjaro
The most popular Arch-based desktop distro with green logo.
/r/ManjaroLinux

19. Fedora
The icon of RPM family distros, innovative, always latest GNU/Linux distro basis of Red Hat OS.
/r/Fedora

20. Mageia
The 2nd successor of Mandriva, after ROSA.
/r/Mageia

21. OpenMandriva
The 3rd successor of Mandriva, after Mageia.
/r/OpenMandriva

22. Debian
The origin of Ubuntu, the universal operating system community at Reddit.
/r/debian/

23. Arch
The simple source-oriented distro with Pacman, well known for its Wiki and AUR, the distro which Manjaro and Parabola based on.
/r/archlinux

24. Mozilla
Community talking about Firefox, Thunderbird, and other Mozilla-related stuffs.
/r/mozilla

25. Tecmint
The Reddit of the famous Tecmint.com tutorial website by its founder Ravi Saive.
/r/Linux_Tecmint

26. OMG! Ubuntu
The most popular news & tutorial blog talking about Ubuntu by Joey E. Sneddon
/r/omgubuntu


27. GIMP
GNU Image Manipulation Program, the free Photoshop for GNU/Linux.
/r/GIMP

28. Inkscape
Vector graphic editor that is free similar to Illustrator or CorelDRAW.
/r/Inkscape

29. Godot
Free, excellent, 2D and 3D game engine.
/r/godot

30. Synfig Studio
2D animation program.
/r/synfig

31. Purism
Place to talk about Librem computers and PureOS GNU/Linux and their news.
/r/Purism


Part 2. Worth Mentioning
Many other Reddits are good although they are not closely related to GNU/Linux. I present you here:


ThinkPad
It's not secret that many ThinkPad laptops are completely compatible with GNU/Linux.
/r/thinkpad

DeGoogle
Privacy community that seek ways to switch away from Google services.
/r/degoogle

Qt Framework
The software library that creates KDE and their applications.
/r/QtFramework

PrivacyTools.io
Privacy community that recommends secure software and services for computer users.
/r/privacytoolsIO

BitCoin 
Free software-based digital money, yes it's money, known publicly for its mining and expensive value.
/r/btc

Tor Project
The Onion Router - Privacy and Security for All
/r/TOR

WineHQ
The thing that enables Windows applications to run on GNU/Linux system.
/r/winehq

Raspberry Pi
Mini board computer with ARM processor that runs GNU/Linux.
/r/raspberry_pi

 

Part 3. BSD Communities
Berkeley Software Distribution or BSD is another free operating system aside from GNU. Thus, BSDs are not GNU/Linux. It was once proprietary (nonfree), but fortuntely at 1990's it became free software like GNU/Linux. We today know BSD in 3 most popular names, namely FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD.

 
FreeBSD
/r/freebsd

OpenBSD
/r/openbsd

NetBSD
/r/NetBSD

Dragonfly BSD
/r/dragonflybsd

GhostBSD
/r/GhostBSD

TrueOS (formerly PCBSD)
/r/TrueOS


Reddit Access Blocked?
If your internet access is blocked to visit www.reddit.com, simply use DNSCrypt on your GNU/Linux system and your browser will be able to access it again. Read my latest tutorial on Tor+DNSCrypt on Ubuntu. Go ahead!

I hope you find this list useful!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Mastodon is a Twitter-like social network that is free software-based and federated. Being free means society controls the software running behind the server, and being federated means the social network is independent against central authority. In Mastodon, we can follow & text to anybody in same social network but unlike Twitter, there are no ads and we can follow & talk to users in other social networks. Speaking technically, Mastodon is one among today's so-called Fediverse social networks, it's based on modern ActivityPub technology, its source code is written in Ruby language, and therefore we can easily host our own Mastodon servers. I wish to support wider adoption of Mastodon in our GNU/Linux community so I tried to write this very short introduction that I divided into only 3 parts. Start with JoinMastodon.org and go ahead!
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Part 1. Posting
In this part we learn that Mastodon has post, repost, reply, hashtags, trending now, just like Twitter.

Twitter's post is limited to 160 character, while Mastodon's is 500. Twitter user says "tweet" and "retweet" while Mastodon user says "toot" and "boost". Reply, retweet ("boost"), and favorite are the same, however. This buttons trio appears at every tweet ("toot") bottom, with same button placement as Twitter's.
What is allowed to post? Mastodon allows uploads of picture, audio, and video.


RSS Feed is available in every Mastodon profile, surprisingly. So, unlike Twitter, even without Mastodon account you can subscribe the toots of any Mastodon user by using RSS Feed program like Akregator or Liferea. You can find RSS URL of a profile, for example Ubuntu's (@ubuntu@ubuntu.social), by pressing Ctrl+U on Mozilla Firefox browser.


Part 2. User Interface
In this part we learn about Mastodon appearance. Below is my Mastodon Home as example. Mastodon looks very similar to Twitter, but the text box is on left column instead of center.




A Mastodon profile will publicly look like this. Every profile has URL like this https://floss.social/@ademalsasa for example. This is my personal profile. The unique thing about Mastodon profile is that we can add maximum 4 information at right panel, to show who we are with category we can decide ourselves.

TweetDeck-like interface on Mastodon is available built-in, just enable Advanced View at your profile preferences.
Tweeten and Whalebird, respectively are Twitter's and Mastodon's desktop clients. The user interface are different, as Whalebird is more like Slack (and hence Mattermost and Riot/Matrix) than actual Mastodon. Alternatively, you can use other software for GNU/Linux here.


Part 3. Registration and Fediverse
In this part we learn about registration, social activities, federation, and fediverse in Mastodon.

(This is JoinMastodon.org is where you can create new account)

Registration model of Mastodon is different to Twitter. How different it is? First thing is you can create new Mastodon account at JoinMastodon.org. That is to compare, you may create new Twitter account only in www.twitter.com while you may create new Mastodon account not only in www.mastodon.social but also in a lot of other Mastodon servers (instances) available you may choose. Unlike Twitter, in Mastodon, user in one server can follow and talk to user in other server. Every Mastodon server is created and ruled by different maintainer (you may choose one with Terms of Service / Privacy Policy that suits you), not centrally controlled by a single company like Twitter Inc. This is all because Mastodon is federated, just like how internet is all federated, except Twitter.

(Registration page of Mastodon: example here is from Fosstodon.Social instance)
Social activities at Mastodon started at an instance. An instance is for example Mastodon.Social or Floss.Social website. After having an account there, you can find new friends, new community, even new friends from other social networks.

• A Twitter ID would be @ademalsasa
• A Mastodon ID would be @ademalsasa@floss.social

Discover users, See what's happening, and Try a mobile app are 3 links for us to find new friends at Mastodon.

For example, in Mastodon.Social instance the links would be:

• https://mastodon.social/explore
• https://mastodon.social/public
• https://joinmastodon.org/apps

See what's happening, or, Live Stream at your Mastodon profile is similar to recent news at your Twitter profile. It shows news from multiple sources either you followed them or not.

About page explains who hosted the Mastodon instance you are in, and what is the rule, including funding/donation information if any.

For example, at Floss.Social instance where I'm in, the server is maintained by Michael Downey (Michael, you have my gratitude), and you can see the About Page here.

Community model of Mastodon is also different to Twitter. Twitter user can only contact Twitter user, and cannot follow nor talk to user in other social networks. On the other hand, Mastodon user can contact any Mastodon user in any Mastodon server. Beyond, Mastodon user can also contact user in other social networks, namely, Hubzilla, GNU Social, Pleroma, PeerTube, and PixelFed. This means not only users are connected, but also the servers and the social networks themselves. This is why we call Mastodon federated.

Below is the Fediverse, interconnected social networks forming a giant social network:


(PeerTube, YouTube-like federated video sharing) (GNU Social, another Twitter-like federated microblog)

 (Pixelfed, Instagram-like federated photo sharing)


(Friendica, a mix of Facebook-like and Twitter-like federated macroblog)

(Misskey, Japanese SNS-like and almost Friendster-like federated microblog) (Diaspora*, Facebook-like federated social media)


Rules in Mastodon are also different to rules in Twitter. In Twitter, there is only one pair of Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (TOS/PP) because it's controlled by one company. There is no alternative TOS/PP in Twitter, so if you disagree that, you cannot use the social media. On the other hand, if you dislike TOS/PP in a Mastodon server, you still can use Mastodon, by registering to other Mastodon server. In fact, there are strict and loose rules among Mastodon servers. For example, compare between Ubuntu.Social's and Floss.Social's TOS/PP. Thanks to federation, community model of Mastodon allows such thing cannot be found at Twitter.

Part 3. GNU/Linux Community
Last part, you can follow and talk to these GNU/Linux and F/LOSS communities at Mastodon. I listed here several projects like Kubuntu and Manjaro, as more complete list I had published yesterday here, plus several individual people in our community worth to know.
 

Distros:

• Ubuntu
• Kubuntu
• Manjaro
• openSUSE
• more

Projects:

• KDE
• GNOME
• GIMP
• FreeCAD
• more

People:

• Martin Wimpress (leader of Ubuntu MATE)
• Alan Pope  (Canonical folk that is active at Snapcraft)
• Federico Mena Quintero (co-founder of GNOME)
• more

I know this short article is short and a lot of stuffs remain unmentioned here. But I believe this is enough for you to explore Mastodon by yourself. Thank you Mastodon, thank you whole Fediverse, and you all have my gratitude GNU/Linux community. Go ahead and enjoy Mastodon!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 (Ubuntu Bionic connected to the internet via Tor and it's easy to setup)
This simple tutorial will show you to install two privacy tools, The Onion Router (TOR) and Dnscrypt-Proxy, on Ubuntu Bionic Beaver. We will make use of existing Mozilla Firefox browser instead and just configure system wide proxy using Ubuntu System Settings. We do not install Tor Browser or any other additional stuffs to make everything simple for everybody. Okay, let's go!

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Summary

• 1. Install Them
• 2. Enable DNSCrypt
• 3. Test Them
• 4. Configure Permanently
• 5. Final Testing
• Bonus
• Further Reading

1. Install Tor and DNSCrypt

Two commands below install Tor and dnscrypt-proxy programs into Ubuntu system:

$ sudo apt-get install tor
$ sudo apt-get install dnscrypt-proxy
2. Enable DNSCrypt & Change its Resolver
In a Terminal:
$ sudo systemctl start dnscrypt-proxy.service
Configure it: run command line to edit DNSCrypt configuration > you see there fvz-anyone as resolver > replace it with cisco as resolver > save. Final correct DNSCrypt configuration should look like below.

 (See line with ResolverName code)
3. Test Tor and DNSCrypt
Before configuring them permanently, we need to see if quick install above worked perfectly.

For Tor, run it from command line[1], set Ubuntu to proxy all applications at 127.0.0.1:9050 SOCKS point, and then go to check.torproject.org website. Successful Tor connection will show Bootstrapped 100% done at Terminal and green onion Congratulations at browser. See below.

[1]:
$ tor


 (All pictures above are large enough, simply click one to see it larger)
For DNSCrypt, it works if you get dnscrypt enabled! message to the output of the command line dig @127.0.2.1 txt debug.opendns.com. See below.

(See the white line)
Once both testings worked, you are ready to configure them permanently below.

4. Configure Tor and DNSCrypt Permanently
For Tor, you need to setup it runs every startup. For DNSCrypt, you need to change resolver to 'cisco' and force your system to use 127.0.2.1 instead of 127.0.0.53 resolver point.

Tor setup:
Run Startup Applications from start menu > add Name: Tor > add Command: tor > add Comment: The Onion Router > press OK > see picture below for example.



DNSCrypt setup:

Remove your resolvconf package[1] > remove your original resolv.conf file[2] >  create new resolv.conf file[3] > write it so Ubuntu system will always look at 127.0.2.1 for resolving all DNS connections[4] > save. Final setup should give you /etc/resolv.conf always pointing to 127.0.2.1 point where dnscrypt-proxy working in your Ubuntu system.

[1]:
$ sudo apt-get remove resolvconf
[2]:
$ sudo rm -fv /etc/resolv.conf
[3]:
$ sudo touch /etc/resolv.conf
[4]:
Write these lines into that new file and save:
nameserver 127.0.2.1
options edns0
Final output will be like this:

To revert back if you dislike the configuration, see official DNSCrypt guide link below.

5. Final Testing
Restart your Ubuntu computer and re-test both Tor and DNSCrypt like above with internet access.

For Tor, go to check.torproject.org and make sure it shows green onion saying Congratulations.

For DNSCrypt, check /etc/resolv.conf[1] and make sure it doesn't change from 127.0.2.1, and run dig command again[2] but this time without @127.0.2.1 anymore.

[1]:
cat /etc/resolv.conf
[2]:
dig txt debug.opendns.com
Result:

(This output means our Ubuntu system is already using 127.0.2.1 as the point of DNS resolving, so we do not need to specify it anymore in dig command)
For DNS leak, see DNS Leak Test website and make sure the resolver appeared is only from OpenDNS LLC because we used cisco resolver above. That means your DNS is not leaked and that's good. But if the DNS resolver shown there is from your Internet Service Provider (ISP), then it is DNS leak, and that's not good.



Do you want latest Tor instead?
For your information, you above installed Tor from universe Ubuntu repository which does not provide latest Tor program. In fact, at the moment, Tor program from universe is still at version 0.3.2.10 while actually latest Tor is already at 0.4.1.6. Do you want latest Tor? If so, read Tor Project guide instead. You can also follow latest version announcements at Tor Blog.


Further Readings

• Official guide dnscrypt-proxy on GNU/Linux
• Ubuntu documentation on Tor
• Official guide Tor on Ubuntu 
• What is a DNS leak?

I hope you find this guide useful!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 (LibreOffice's Telegram group link opened in a web browser with links for you to join using either Telegram Desktop or Telegram Web)
I listed here popular English-based GNU/Linux community's Telegram groups and also several FLOSS websites' Telegram channels like Kubuntu support group and OMG! Ubuntu site channel. To make it easier for you and me, I don't make distinction between official and unofficial ones. For some communities, like CentOS group below, I listed the non-English one while I didn't find the English one. I also listed more resources at the end so you can find more Telegram groups you would love. I wish everybody could join and make good friends there and I also want for more GNU/Linux communities to make their own Telegram groups. Enjoy!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.


About Telegram

Telegram is a free software modern chatting application that is mostly similar to WhatsApp. Telegram is available in all platforms namely GNU/Linux, Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS. Telegram also has web interface just like WhatsApp's. Download Telegram Desktop (GNU GPLv3) for your GNU/Linux at https://desktop.telegram.org.


Background
This is a little bit reasoning behind making of this list: I want every community and every GNU/Linux website to consider making Telegram group / channel for themselves. For example, at the time I made this list, first I could find Kubuntu's group but not Ubuntu's despite I like both distros; and second, I could find OMG! Ubuntu's channel but not Tecmint's despite I like both sites. However I publish this article at 7 October 2019 so I believe this state will surely change in the future.

General:
GNU/Linux in general:

• GNU/Linux: https://t.me/linux_group
• Belajar GNU/Linux Indonesia (BGLI):  https://t.me/GNULinuxIndonesia

Distros:
Ubuntu:

• Ubuntu Hong Kong: https://t.me/ubuntuhk
• Ubuntu Indonesia: https://t.me/joinchat/CP_eKUB_OC64g_lXYusTPQ 
• Ubuntu Cinnamon: https://t.me/ubuntucinnamon 

Ubuntu Studio:
https://t.me/joinchat/GOahGRO58UkXsnNQmx4dVg

UBPorts (Ubuntu Touch):
https://t.me/ubports

Mint:
https://t.me/LinuxMintGroup

Kubuntu:
https://telegram.me/kubuntu_support

Lubuntu (channel):
https://t.me/LubuntuOfficial

elementary OS:
https://t.me/elementaryosusers

openSUSE:
https://t.me/openSUSE_group

Fedora:
https://t.me/fedora

CentOS:
CentOS Indonesia: https://t.me/centosID

Arch:
https://t.me/archlinuxgroup

Manjaro:
https://t.me/Manjaro

Solus:
https://t.me/solusproject

Neon:
https://telegram.me/kdeneon

Kali:
Kali Indonesia: https://t.me/KaliLinuxID

Deepin:
https://t.me/deepin

Parrot Security OS:
https://t.me/parrotsecgroup

Qubes Security OS:
https://t.me/joinchat/B8FHpkEToMfgdREGV7wzRQ

Antergos*:
https://t.me/Antergos

Endeavour OS (Antergos successor):
https://t.me/Endeavouros 

EndlessOS:
https://t.me/EndlessOS

*) Discontinued distro, I listed it here with respect to their developers' effort up to today. I express my gratitude and sympathy to them.

Applications:
Mozilla:
https://telegram.me/mozillian

LibreOffice:
https://telegram.me/libreoffice

KDE:
http://t.me/kdeplasma
GNOME:
GNOME Indonesia: https://t.me/gnomeid

GIMP and Inkscape:
GimpScape Indonesia: https://telegram.me/gimpscape

Krita:
Krita Taiwan: https://t.me/KritaTW

Kdenlive:
https://t.me/kdenlive

Vim:
https://t.me/VimUserGroup

Emacs:
https://t.me/emacs_en


C++/Qt:
https://t.me/CplusplusQt

Websites:
OMG! Ubuntu:
https://t.me/omgubuntu

It's FOSS:
https://t.me/itsfoss_official

UbuntuBuzz:
https://t.me/ubuntubuzz 

Distrowatch:
https://t.me/distrowatch

System76 (US-based GNU/Linux computer vendor):
https://t.me/system76_news

Interesting Resources
For you wanting more Telegram groups, you could read these lists by communities. See here, KDE has resource page listing their Telegram groups, so do Fedora and some other distros. I hope more free software projects & distros to follow them in supporting Telegram community.

• Hendi's List (Indonesia only)
• Awesome Telegram List (by ebertti)
• Awesome Telegram List (by learn-anything) 
• Awesome Telegram List (by stkw0)
• List of Awesome Telegram Lists (by lorien)
• Telegram Search Engine
• KDE's List
• Fedora's List
• openSUSE's List
• Arch's List

I hope you find this list useful!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

  (Ubuntu at Mastodon, among many other GNU/Linux communities at Mastodon today)
Mastodon is a Twitter-like social network but unlike Twitter, it's free software-based and federated. In order to support adoption of Mastodon, I make this list of GNU/Linux and FLOSS communities at Mastodon we can follow and talk to. As Mastodon is mostly new thing for everybody, below you can also learn most used terminology such as fediverse, toot ('tweet'), boost ('retweet'), etc. Let's go!

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On our community: Invidious | Riot/Matrix | Twitters | RSS | H-Node.org | Source Codes | Compatible Computers

Mastodon Logo and Terminology
Twitter logo is like this,
and Mastodon logo is like this.
So you now know both. And if a community website shows a Mastodon logo, see KDE's below for example, it means they have Mastodon, you can follow and talk to them there.

 Talking about terminology, while every Twitter user says tweet and retweet, every Mastodon user says toot and boost. In both, we also use follow, unfollow, and followers. But only in Mastodon we say federation and instance, meaning unlike Twitter, Mastodon is decentralized (no central company control) and we can register new account at any Mastodon server provided by any organization. A Mastodon user can follow and talk to user in any instance because in Mastodon not only users are connected but servers are also connected, that is federation.

Join Mastodon
You can join Mastodon by creating new account in https://joinmastodon.org.



Ubuntu
Worldwide most popular GNU/Linux operating system.
https://ubuntu.social/@ubuntu

Kubuntu
KDE variant of Ubuntu.
https://mastodon.technology/@Kubuntu

Ubuntu MATE
MATE desktop variant of Ubuntu.
https://ubuntu.social/@ubuntumate

Ubuntu Studio
Audio/video creative variant of Ubuntu.
https://mastodon.art/@ubuntustudio
 

Debian
The base of Ubuntu and almost all other distros.

• https://fosstodon.org/@debian
• https://framapiaf.org/@debian

Gentoo
The source code oriented flexible distro.
https://fosstodon.org/@gentoo

Solus OS
The distro where Budgie desktop created.
https://mastodon.cloud/@SolusProject

Void GNU/Linux
sasasa
https://chaos.social/@VoidLinux

PantherX OS
A new distro based on Guix Package Manager with its own Qt5-based desktop environment.
https://pantherx.social/@franz

MX GNU/Linux
Recently popular XFCE-powered lightweight distro based on Debian.
https://mastodon.social/@mxlinux

Nitrux GNU/Linux
The AppImage oriented distro.
https://mastodon.cloud/@Nitrux_NX

GNOME
The GNU OS desktop environment.
https://floss.social/@gnome

KDE
The oldest desktop environment of GNU/Linux. 
https://mastodon.technology/@kde

LibreOffice
Free, libre office suite program we all know.
https://mastodon.cloud/@ribalinux

elementary OS
Modern, sleek, innovative distro based on Ubuntu.
https://mastodon.social/@elementary

openSUSE
The green lizard operating system with YaST amazing control panel.
https://fosstodon.org/@opensuse

Purism Librem
The GNU/Linux laptops and smartphones company.
https://mastodon.social/@Purism

Krita
Free, libre image editor and digital animation program similar to Corel Painter.
https://mastodon.art/@Krita

Inkscape
Free vector image editor similar to Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW.
https://mastodon.art/@inkscape

Libre Graphics Meeting
International conference of graphic designers who use free/libre software.
https://post.lurk.org/@lgm

OMG! Ubuntu
The most famous Ubuntu news site and I like it.
https://floss.social/@omgubuntu

Manjaro (unofficial)
The most popular desktop variant of Arch which is easy to install and use. 
https://botsin.space/@manjarolinux

Darktable
Professional darkroom photo manager program similar to Adobe Lightroom.
https://framapiaf.org/@darktablefr

Libre Lounge
Podcast focused in computer user freedom topic. 
https://floss.social/@librelounge

GIMP
The free and libre Photoshop for everybody.
https://mastodon.at/@GIMP

Linux Tech More
Tutorials and videos from LinuxTechMore blog.
https://mastodon.technology/@linuxtechmore

FreeCAD
Free software Computer Aided Design for 2D and 3D similar to AutoCAD.
https://fosstodon.org/@FreeCAD

Tor Project
The Onion Router, a security and privacy tool every internet user should use today.
https://mastodon.social/@torproject

FOSDEM
Free/Open Source Software Developer Europe Meeting.
https://fosstodon.org/@fosdem

Liberapay
Crowdfunding place that funded Mastodon and other free software projects.
https://mastodon.xyz/@Liberapay

Nextcloud
A full replacement to Google Suite that is free software.
https://mastodon.xyz/@nextcloud

Matrix.org
The next internet communication protocol that is federated with nice desktop client.
https://mastodon.matrix.org/@matrix

Switched to Linux
Getting real work done on GNU/Linux.
https://fosstodon.org/@switchedtolinux

Gaming On Linux
Everything about playing video games on GNU/Linux. 
https://mastodon.social/@gamingonlinux

Godot Engine
User friendly 2D and 3D game maker software that is free.
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@godotengine

Ribalinux
Video podcast for GNU/Linux and BSD installation tutorials. 
https://mastodon.cloud/@ribalinux

Tuxedo Computers
Remember my GNU/Linux computer list? This is Tuxedo's Mastodon.
https://linuxrocks.online/@tuxedocomputers

Pinebook Laptops
Have you ever seen KDE Pinebook (ARM) laptop? That's cool and this is their Mastodon.
https://fosstodon.org/@PINE64

SwagArch
(discontinued, unfortunately)
Arch derivative that often says GNU more than Linux.
https://mastodon.technology/@swagarch

FOSSJobs
Do you want to find a job in free software & open source world? See this Mastodon.
https://fosstodon.org/@fossjobs

This Week In Linux
Uptodate News from multiple sources about GNU/Linux.
https://mastodon.social/@ThisWeekinLinux

uGet Download Manager
Desktop download accelerator that is fast and similar to IDM.
https://mastodon.social/@uGet

Guardian Project
Related closer to Android and Replicant, it's security project that develops Orbot and many other user-friendly security tools for mobile phone.
https://social.librem.one/@guardianproject

ProtonMail
Email service that is secure, open source-oriented, very user-friendly, and recommended by PrivacyTools.io and Sven's Restore Privacy at least per 2 October 2019.
https://mastodon.social/@protonmail

Command Line Magic
GNU/Linux command lines, short with explanations, and handy.
https://mastodon.social/@climagic

Tuxdigital
Podcast that talks about recent FOSS news, gaming, design with GNU/Linux.
https://mastodon.social/@TuxDigital

TuxPhones.com
New website interestingly focused at Librem, Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, postmarketOS and such GNU/Linux smartphones.
https://fosstodon.org/@tuxdevices

Big Daddy Linux
Podcast publishing of its YouTube channel with same name.
https://linuxrocks.online/@BigDaddyLinux

Destination Linux
Podcast by 4 people talking about GNU/Linux and gaming on it.
https://linuxrocks.online/@DestinationLinux

OSTechNix
News and tutorials from Open Source-Tech-*Nix website.
https://floss.social/@ostechnix

Interesting Mastodon Servers
Servers, also called instances, are Mastodon's equivalent to Twitter's server. Twitter server is only one, that is, www.twitter.com, so you register there. But Mastodon servers are many, for example Mastodon.Social or Floss.Social, so you register to any of them, then talk and follow any user in any server, as Mastodon's servers are interconnected. I recommend you to start with Floss.Social server if you are new in Mastodon. Start to explore people there, find out projects such as GNOME and others, and have fun.

Floss.Social
Register | [TOS]

FOSSTodon
Register | [TOS]

Librem One
Register | [TOS]

Happy tooting!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 (With a little configuration, Trisquel can be made USB multiboot with GLIM)
Trisquel is by default not supported by GLIM. So, this tutorial provides you support for Trisquel 8.0 "Flidas" for both Regular and Mini editions. In case you don't know, Trisquel is fully free software GNU/Linux distro that is user friendly based on Ubuntu. I publish this in 1 October 2019 so in the future GLIM may be changed to support Trisquel by default.

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
On multibooting: Multisystem | GLIM | MultibootUSB | Aguslr's MBUSB | For openSUSE

Summary

• Edit configurations
• Insert icon file
• Test

Before and After
By default, Trisquel ISO does not appear on GLIM bootloader but Ubuntu ISOs do appear. See below, it's none.
After editing the configuration, Trisquel appears. See below, it shows its logo and name.
 
1. Configurations
For configuring, what we need to do is only to create a new inc-trisquel.cfg plain text file and edit the existed grub.cfg file. Particularly for grub.cfg below, simply copy-paste the code here between ubuntu and xubuntu sections there. All located in [USB]/boot/grub/ directory. See last screenshot to place them correctly.

inc-trisquel.cfg:
# Trisquel
for isofile in $isopath/trisquel/trisquel*.iso; do
  if [ ! -e "$isofile" ]; then break; fi
  regexp \
    --set 1:isoname \
    --set 2:version \
    --set 3:variant \
    --set 4:arch \
    "^${isopath}/trisquel/(trisquel-([^-]+)-(.+)_([^-]+)\.iso)\$" "${isofile}"

menuentry "Try Trisquel without installing ${version} ${arch} ${variant}" "${isofile}" "${isoname}" --class trisquel {
        bootoptions="boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile  splash quiet"
        set isofile=$2
        set isoname=$3
        loopback loop $isofile
        linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz $bootoptions
        initrd (loop)/casper/initrd
      }

menuentry "Install Trisquel" {
        bootoptions="iso-scan/filename=$iso_path boot=casper splash quiet noprompt only-ubiquity --"
        set isofile=$2
        set isoname=$3
        loopback loop $isofile
        linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz $bootoptions
        initrd (loop)/casper/initrd
      }
done
grub.cfg:
for isofile in ${isopath}/trisquel/trisquel*.iso; do
  if [ -e "$isofile" ]; then
    menuentry "Trisquel >" --class trisquel {
      configfile "${prefix}/inc-trisquel.cfg"
    }
    break
  fi
done
Screenshot:


 
Files placement along with other files seen in file manager:


2. Icon
Place a Trisquel icon with file name trisquel.png to [USB]/boot/grub/themes/invader/icons/. Correct placement should appear like below in file manager. Feel free to download the Trisquel icon below.

Trisquel logo PNG 48x48 
Trisquel logo PNG 32x32
 Trisquel logo PNG 24x24
Logo source in SVG here.


Testing
Restart your computer with USB booting option enabled. Then you should see GLIM bootloader showing Trisquel among other OSes. Happy sharing!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Here's quick notes about enabling Windows key for start menu on two different systems: Xubuntu (XFCE) and Trisquel (MATE). This key is located between your Ctrl and Alt keys, and beside that, also called Super or Meta key on GNU/Linux. However, you can run these on other GNU/Linux distros which use respective desktop environments. Happy working!


Xubuntu (XFCE Desktop)

• Go to System Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts.
• Choose xfce4-popup-whiskermenu.
• Double-click it.
• Press Win key (Super key).
• Close.
• Go ahead.

 (XFCE 4.14 with Super key enabled)
Other distros known with XFCE:

• Ubuntu Studio
• Mint XFCE 
• MX
• Debian Live XFCE
• Fedora Spin XFCE
• openSUSE Tumbleweed XFCE

Trisquel (MATE Desktop)

• Go to MATE Tweak > Interface.
• Save current layout.
• Change it to Redmond layout.
• Enable advanced menu.
• Close.
• Go ahead.

(Trisquel 8.0 with Super key enabled)
Other distros known with MATE:

• Ubuntu MATE
• Mint MATE
• Debian Live MATE
• Fedora Spin MATE
• Manjaro MATE

Enjoy!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.  This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 (Invidious website showing a YouTube channel)
Do you know Invidious? On Invidious, you can watch all YouTube videos safely and without ads with ability to download all of them. Technically, it means Invidious acts as an intermediary between you and YouTube and plays videos without JavaScript. This also means privacy, that is Google will not be able to record you! But the problem is all YouTube links on the net linked to youtube.com and not invidio.us. Many people still don't know Indivious as well. So we always need to rewrite every link to invidio.us to watch every video. This makes life difficult. Fortunately, thanks to several Firefox addons below, we can automatically change all youtube link to invidious instead, even the embed ones on webpages and social medias! This makes life easy. Finally, Invidious is free software licensed under GNU AGPL you can have the source code from GitHub. Let's make Indivious everywhere!

Addons
Here are several free software licensed addons you could use but I suggest you try the first one below.

• Invidition (by booteille, public domain)
• Invidio Quick Redirect (by Austin Moore, MIT/X11 license)
• Invidious Redirect (by Doron Behar, public domain)
• Invidicious (by JanKKM, MIT/X11 license)
• Privacy Redirect (MIT/X11 license)

Use Example
Link: every video URL on every webpage will automatically changed to Invidious URL instead of YouTube URL. When you click one, you open Invidious and not YouTube.

Embed: every embedded video on every webpage will automatically turned into Invidious embed frame, not YouTube's anymore.

Acknowledgement
Thank you omarroth for creating Invidious (the software) and make it online for us (the service). Thank you YouTube and its community for providing all the actual videos online so we can watch and download them.

My Personal View
I support Degoogle Movement as being done by PrivacyToolsIO, DeGoogle at Reddit, and such other communities. One among most difficult things for us to leave from Google is YouTube, of course. Personally, I found Invidious from Trisquel forum, a community of a 100% free software operating system, as they really actively talk about relationship between privacy and free software. Once I know it, I felt very happy, I do not need to browse YouTube anymore. And I think using Invidious is much more better than fussing around with YouTube alternatives like PeerTube or BitChute services. Finally, enjoy YouTube everywhere without nonfree Javascript!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 (Android phone got internet access from Ubuntu laptop via cable)
That magical program is Gnirehtet (tethering reversed) available as Android app and GNU/Linux desktop programs. With this program, without root access at all, we can easily share internet access via USB cable from laptop to smartphone by utilizing USB Tethering in reversed mode. Finally, the topology will be phone -> USB -> desktop -> wifi -> internet. I show you here how to do it with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Enjoy!

On wifi hotspot sharing: KDE | GNOME | Budgie | File Sharing/SFTP


Why reverse tethering?
There are several strong reasons to do this:

• Saving cost, so you only need internet access on one device (laptop) and do not need to buy data for phone.
• Security, as you do not expose your phone identity when at a public hotspot place.
• Speed, especially if your phone data service is slow while your public hotspot on laptop is fast. Share it, dude.
• Size, so you can download big sized files on phone when your data service is limited but public hotspot is unlimited. For example, to upgrade all Android applications.

And personally mine is to write this article for you.

My Specification
I use 2 operating systems on 2 different machines:

Laptop:

• Ubuntu 18.04
• Linux kernel 4.15 (default)
• Wifi internet from a public hotspot

Phone:

• Android 6.0, not rooted
• No SIM card (no carrier, no internet access) 
• Data, Wifi, and Hotspot options disabled
• USB Debugging support
• USB Tethering support
• A USB cable

1. Obtain Gnirehtet
As I said, Gnirehtet is divided into two parts, one for you phone (.apk) and one for your GNU/Linux desktop (program written in Rust language). Download it here.



2. Install Gnirehtet to Android phone

• Send the gnirehtet.apk file from computer to phone.
• Install the APK file on Android.

3. Install requirements on GNU/Linux
The only requirement according to the official documentation is adb, so:
$ sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb


Note: distros other than Ubuntu should have same package but either with same or different name. For example, Debian's is android-tools-adb, Arch's is android-tools, and so on.

4. Connect to the internet on desktop
Connect your Ubuntu GNU/Linux to a wifi hotspot internet access.



5. Enable USB Debugging on Android
On your phone, on Android system settings, turn on USB Debugging. Usually it is located at Developer section. Do not enable USB Tethering here.


6. Share internet access from desktop
Running:
$ ./gnirehtet run

You should run this command where the executable program located.

Stopping:
Press Ctrl+C on the same Terminal.



7. Accept connection on Android
On your phone, you will see Allow USB debugging? and accept it. You will also see Reverse tethering enabled message notification. This means you are ready to go online on your phone. Oh, and yes, you can give check mark Always allow from this computer so you do not need to tap anymore next time.


8. Go online!
You should see Gnirehtet: Reverse tethering enabled notification on your phone. Your phone should be connected to the net at this point. Try to run Telegram, F-Droid, Orbot, or web browser on Android and see if they can download something.On desktop, on GNOME environment if you have

Succcessful connection would show [VPN] logo on Android's top panel:
 
And also saying Reverse tethering enabled message:



Hope this will be useful!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(XFCE 4.14 on Xubuntu Eoan Ermine beta version)
Now after Plasma 5.16 in June and a month before GNOME 3.34 in September, actually, in silent, the latest XFCE 4.14 released at 12 August 2019 after four years of development. Congratulations to XFCE Developers and especially Simon Steinbeiss and here's my short overview of latest XFCE I was waiting since 2015. I'm also looking for right time to write my own review next time. Here we go!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.
Important Links

• Announcement (web)
• Announcement (mailing list)
• Announcement (Simon's)
• Release Notes (changelog)
• Discussion (Reddit)

1. Announcements
XFCE released slowly and not as fast as KDE or GNOME. So in 12 August 2019, after many years of development, this is the historic release announcement from official xfce-announce mailing list. It's announced by Simon Steinbeiss, the release manager of this time. Previous release was 4.12 announced by Nick at 2015.

(XFCE 4.14: sixteen core components and their versions)
Then below is announcement from the official website.

(https://xfce.org/about/news/?post=1565568000)
Simon Steinbeiss also announced XFCE 4.14 personally in his blog here. His message on that article is "In any case, enjoy Xfce 4.14 and join us to make 4.16 a great (and shorter) cycle!".

(https://simon.shimmerproject.org/2019/08/21/xfce-4-14-released-yeah-like-a-week-ago)
This time, the team published an Online Tour for us to see how well XFCE 4.14 doing.

(https://www.xfce.org/about/tour)
And, all screenshots of 4.14 are prepared.


2. Desktop & Applications
Here's how default XFCE looks like at Xubuntu 19.10 pre-release version.


And here's Thunar File Manager with new ability to customize our right-click actions and also Ctrl+= to zoom in. More information about new features you could find at 4.4 Changelog.



3. Distros with XFCE 4.14:
I listed here desktop GNU/Linux distros that already have latest XFCE built-in and they have LiveCD+Install capability. Important: Eoan, Adelie, and Rawhide are currently (25 September 2019) in development or beta and not in stable state for daily use so proceed with your own risk. Once you download, make bootable, and run one, you enjoy 4.14 instantly and can install the OS into your computer.

 (If you download Xubuntu Eoan for example, you will get latest XFCE, and run it to watch online videos like LinuxScoop's review)

• Xubuntu Eoan Ermine

Just like latest GNOME 3.34, latest XFCE 4.14 is also already included on Eoan Ermine. Download Xubuntu 19.10 daily build if you want to test it right now. Or wait until it released officially next October.

• Adelie GNU/Linux

This is a new musl-libc distro*, similar but different to Alpine, which already included XFCE 4.14. Interestingly, the installers are small approximately 300-400MB only. Download it here.

• Fedora Rawhide XFCE

Fedora Spin XFCE Rawhide Edition already included XFCE 4.14. Its manifest currently tells that xfce* packages there numbered 4.14. Download it here.

• openSUSE Tumbleweed XFCE

Once again, openSUSE helps people to test latest desktop environment versions in LiveCD with convenience. This is the only distro here to provide 32-bit XFCE (simply choose the i686 for it). To my understanding, it included 4.14 right now based on Factory information. Download it here.

(Get openSUSE webpage)
*) I think Adelie is very interesting, not because it's name and mine, but because its website says "Truly Libre Software" I could expect it includes only libre software without any proprietary ones. It's really interesting if someday Adelie could be in same page with Trisquel on FSF's free distros list.

Upgrade XFCE to 4.14
Thanks to Repology.org, as per 25 September 2019, we can tell that users of Arch, Debian (Unstable), and Fedora 30 can already upgrade their XFCE to 4.14 among other distros. For libre distro users, currently Parabola is ready. Next time we surely will see more distros adopt this latest XFCE and we just need to wait.

Some Commentaries
I'm writing this when I'm very busy with teaching in my online class and distributing USB pendrives. I'm very happy with them. And because we now have latest Plasma, latest GNOME, and latest XFCE, I surely am happy too and I hope I have more time to review XFCE 4.14 soon. It's a great experience for me to manually search between distros (especially openSUSE) and make use of Repology.org to find latest XFCE on them. I hope this simple post helps out a lot for everybody.

Enjoy XFCE 4.14!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

  (BlankOn Uluwatu running from a 16GB USB stick)
This tutorial explains the installation procedures of BlankOn 11 operating system to a 16GB USB stick. This way, it's safer for your data and more portable. To practice this installation, I took off internal Hard Disk of mine and performed installation with only two USB flash drives attached: one acted as installer, one as target. After installation finished, I placed my Hard Disk back to my laptop. To warn you, my installation took so long time about 1 hour and more, longer than average GNU/Linux distros' which is about 15 minutes. While installing, you will need to watch out file size growth as the BlankOn installer --at the moment-- does not show any progress information at all. However, finally it's a success and the USB stick is now powered by BlankOn Uluwatu I can bring anywhere I go. Okay, let's proceed!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.


Summary
In short, installing BlankOn is different in several aspects to Ubuntu:

• It cannot be made multiboot either with MultiSystem nor MultiBootUSB. It should be made singleboot with GNOME Disk Utility or such.
• It lacks progress information while installing. 
• Its partitioner is reported buggy with somebody had their hard disk wiped out[1]. It's really still in development. This is why I took off my hard disk first before actually doing it.

You also need to know several gestures we will use here:

• Ctrl+Alt+Right: switch workspace to right, to see the desktop.
• Ctrl+Alt+Left: switch workspace to left, to see the installer.

All in all, we still can install BlankOn Uluwatu into a flash drive with this tutorial.

1. Create Bootable Media
Write BlankOn .iso file with GNOME Disk Utility into USB stick. However, I use BlankOn-11.0.1-desktop-amd64.iso  as the image for this practice.

2. Booting & Entering the LiveCD
Boot up your computer with the BlankOn USB. Then the black screen with "Hello" and Continue using Live CD" messages appeared with timeline bar on right side of your screen.

(1st: language selector)
3. Entering LiveCD & Yellow Desktop
Do not enter Install BlankOn section first. Instead, click Continue LiveCD button so you see the yellowish BlankOn Uluwatu desktop.

(The yellow wallpaper of Uluwatu)
4. Go Back to the Installer
From the desktop, press Ctrl+Alt+Left, so you see the installer once again. Click Install Blankon button.

(1st: get ready for the installation)
5. Select Timezone
Let's continue. Here, in this example, I simply choose Asia/Jakarta.

(2nd: region selector)
6. Select Target USB
Among CruzerBlade and CruzerGlide I attached, the latter is the target I want to install BlankOn to. So I select CruzerGlide here. If you wonder why, as I said above, I had already removed my hard drive so we only see flash drives here.

(3rd: disk selector)
7. Perform Clean Install
Select Clean Install and then press Next button. This will do your BlankOn system as default setup BlankOn has into your USB stick. Yes, in this tutorial you do not need Advanced Partitioning.

(3rd: clean Install)
8. Determine Username & Password
Create your own username and password for your system. The password here will also be your sudo password.

(4th: personalization step)
9. Read Installation Summary & Proceed
For the last time, BlankOn will present you your choices. Read it carefully and make sure once again you didn't make any mistake. If anything is good, then proceed with Install button.

(5th: information being presented)
10. Progressing
You will see progress bar running on your screen. But as I said above, there is no percentage nor detailed information about what actually happened. So see next step.

(6th: installation begins)
11. See Actual Progress & Wait
Go back to desktop with Ctrl+Alt+Right so you see the yellow screen again. On this screen you can run programs.

• Run a Terminal, and invoke command:

$ cat /var/log/blankon-installer.log

• Run second Terminal, and invoke too:

$ cat /var/log/blankon-installer.parted.log

• Run third Terminal, and invoke for the last:

$ watch df /target/

Keep those 3 Terminals running to see the progress being developed. In particular, watch output of df command there, as it's the actual growing size of the target system. See pictures below.

On my system this process took almost 2 hours. You need to wait it patiently.


(Do not panic: the "STDERR device [...] write-protected" is okay)
 (Finished installation takes up to around 38000M in Used column in df output)
Finished
Press Ctrl+Alt+Left again to check the installer. Once successfully installed, BlankOn will say "Installation Finish [sic]" and you can reboot.

 (7th: finished statement)
Successful installation will give you a working USB with BlankOn Uluwatu. Happy working! (Default setup will make root partition 14.7GB on a 16GB flash drive)
Credits
I would love to thank Derek Taylor's DistroTube channel in his BlankOn video that inspired me to do watch df above to tell BlankOn installer is progressing. I also would love to express my gratitude to all BlankOn developers for making it greater on Uluwatu. For anybody capable, if you are interested in developing and improving it, see BlankOn installer on GitHub. It's 50% written in JavaScript language right now.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(GNOME:Next LiveCD running Thessaloniki lighter, faster, and more complete)
When I was writing about GNOME 3.34 yesterday, I only tested it on Fedora Rawhide, and I forgot that there is openSUSE special rolling edition. It is called openSUSE GNOME:Next and the ISO Image is available to run it as LiveCD. To date GNOME:Next includes 3.34 already and when I test it now, I'm impressed, I like GNOME 3.34 on openSUSE rather than on Fedora Rawhide! It's already fast on Fedora but it's faster and lighter on openSUSE. More than that, this openSUSE special edition includes built-in more GNOME Apps than Fedora's, like, Boxes, Buider, Fractal, Fragment, and more. It's more GNOMEish than Fedora! Now let's see it.

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates directly.

What is GNOME:Next?
When talking about the actual distro, GNOME:Next is simply pre-Tumbleweed openSUSE shipped with latest GNOME built-in. When talking about repository, it is simply a special repository of openSUSE containing latest version of GNOME. We can download ISO Images of GNOME:Next at here.

(Download page of GNOME:Next ISO image)
Regarding Fedora Rawhide, it is the rolling release version of Fedora which includes latest versions of all packages. We can download ISO Images of Rawhide at

What apps included?
Thessaloniki announcement mentioned several GNOME Apps, among them Music, Boxes, Games, Polari, and Sysprof. On Fedora, I must install them manually as they are not built-in. But on openSUSE, they are all built-in already, and plus several more, among them Fragment, News, and Recipes. This made me rethink that perhaps actually, equivalent distro to KDE Neon for GNOME is not Fedora Rawhide, but openSUSE GNOME:Next!

Screenshots of start menu presenting all installed apps:



Towards Tumbleweed and 32-bit!
Like I said above, GNOME:Next is a developmental stage before openSUSE Tumbleweed. For your information, Tumbleweed is the rolling edition of openSUSE, just like Rawhide of Fedora. This means, soon we will see Tumbleweed available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions to bring GNOME 3.34 for us. As a comparison, starting next release, Fedora will not support 32-bit anymore.

(Tumbleweed installers are both 32-bit and 64-bit: we can expect to run GNOME 3.34 on i386!) 
It is more interesting this way!
I think Fedora Rawhide is interesting but after seeing I think openSUSE GNOME:Next is more interesting to test Thessaloniki. I like it instantly.

Try it, never regret it!
As an Ubuntu user, for GNOME lovers and seekers I encourage you to test GNOME:Next as soon as possible and I believe you will never regret it. By test I meant just run LiveCD session as it does not have option to install it to your computer. However, it's really great as latest GNOME testbed. Thanks, openSUSE Team!


This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Test GNOME Thessaloniki in comfort with openSUSE GNOME:Next)
I like to list out popular GNU/Linux distros that already ship latest desktop environment. For GNOME 3.34 case, currently I found Desktop Live distros that include it built-in to be Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE. You can download them and immediately test GNOME. Other names worth mentioning but I don't present them here are Alpine GNU/Linux, Debian, and Mageia. I write this at 17 September so things might change by day later. By this article, I also want to introduce several special distros like GNOME:Next and a certain  awesome community service like Repology for you. Enjoy GNOME 3.34!

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1. Ubuntu Eoan Ermine
Good news for Ubuntu users, we will see next Ubuntu to bring GNOME 3.34. Today, by reading the manifest file, we know that Ubuntu 19.10 being developed is already with 3.34. Note: by Eoan Ermine it means all flavors (K/L/Xubuntu) are also available as latest versions.

• Download: eoan-desktop-amd64.iso (1.9GiB)
• Alternative download: iso.qa.ubuntu.com
• Manifest file: eoan.manifest

2. Fedora Rawhide
When thinking about latest GNOME, up to today I always think about Rawhide, partly because I saw many GNOME developers are also Fedora developers. Indeed, current Rawhide includes GNOME 3.34 already and I made a review based on it.

• Download: Fedora-Rawhide.iso (1.9GiB)
  
• Alternate download: rawhide
• Manifest file: source-directory

3. openSUSE GNOME:Next
openSUSE is actually a really huge project, as for both KDE and GNOME, it has its own flavors, namely Krypton and GNOME:Next. While Leap edition kept GNOME in old version, there is GNOME:Next edition that moves forward to latest GNOME, and currently it includes 3.34 built-in.

• Download: gnome-next.iso (950MiB)
• Manifest file: gnome-next.manifest

Worth Mentioning: Debian Experimental
Experimental is not a name of Debian image, instead, it's actually a special repository containing latest software including currently GNOME 3.34. We cannot download any ISO image of it as they do not exist. But we can install Debian Buster GNOME anyway and then upgrade completely using Experimental repository. I placed Debian here instead of other distros, let's say Arch and Gentoo, despite the fact that those others also provide GNOME 3.34, because Debian distinctly provides Desktop Live editions while those others do not.

• Download: -
• Alternative download: GNOME Live
• Manifest: gnome-shell 3.34

Do You Know Repology.org?
Imagine you can ask availability for a certain software package, let's say, gnome-shell, in what distros and by what versions without downloading any ISO of distros. Repology.org is an awesome search engine to query packages among hundreds of GNU/Linux distros. This search engine is what I used so I see latest 3.34 is available on Ubuntu, Fedora, and other distros. To test it, try to search gnome-shell package there and see Badges page to see 3.34 availability on various distros today.

(It's easy to tell what distros provides latest gnome-shell: the green ones!)
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

I love to know whether my internet access is being used or not on desktop so I always use speed indicator on my top panel. Usually I use NetSpeed by hedayaty but when reviewing GNOME 3.34, it failed to work, so I tested Simple net speed by bijignome and it worked. It shows both upload and download speed just like NetSpeed. I'm using it now and it's nice. If you don't know how to install it, simply follow this guide. Happy working!

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(GNOME 3.34: it's now faster and smoother!)
Not too long after KDE Plasma 5.16 released this June, GNOME released its latest stable version 3.34 this Thursday, 12 September 2019. This release codenamed Thessaloniki and named after the Greece city where latest GUADEC conference took place. I tested 3.34 on Fedora since last Friday. This is my short report on my findings over this latest GNOME version. Let's go!

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Links

• Release Announcement
• Release Notes
• Detailed Notes
• Announcement (Mailing List)
• Language Support
• Source Code
• Video
• Donation

Its Release Schedule
First, let's see latest GNOME Project's schedule.  As you can see at ThirtyPointThree (notice odd number) page, we can see the date planned to release 3.34 (ThirtyPointFour, notice even number) is Thursday 12 September 2019. For your information, the project has unique numbering for GNOME releases, where odd number is used for development (non-stable version) and even number is used for the actual release (stable version). We clearly see here that 3.34 is indeed planned after GUADEC being held.

 (Release plan of GNOME 3.34 from its official wiki)
Its Relase Announcement
I love GNOME announcements in their presentation! I like the design, the layout, and how short their words to describe multiple technical stuffs that are hard to describe. The announcement publication for GNOME 3.34 --as always-- divided into 5 sources: mailing list (first place), web announcement (simple), release notes (long), developer notes (long), and video (YouTube, Invidious). See the web announcement and I believe you will like it too.

(Epiphany browser showing Thessaloniki release announcement beautifully)
1. GNOME Thessaloniki
GUADEC 2019, the international GNOME conference, was held in Thessaloniki, Greece from 23 until 28 August. So GNOME 3.34 codenamed after GUADEC team this year, Thessaloniki. There were many, many interesting talks there as we could see here. Watch more than 40 videos of it at Ubicast!

(The cool badge --as always-- of this year's GUADEC conference)(Badge license: Public Domain; badge source: PNG, SVG, more)

(The venue on its official website --via OpenStreetMap, of course--)
All and all, I like the badges. They are gorgeous!

2. New Wallpaper
The new wallpaper is adwaita-day. It looks modern, glossy, translucent for me and I like it. Somehow, it reminds me to Qubes OS's logo.

(A fresh GNOME 3.34 look on Fedora Rawhide)
3. Performance Improvement
Good news for us, it is better now! Try it! I ran 3.34 on Pentium 4GB laptop and it ran smoother and more responsive from LiveUSB. I felt the start menu worked far smoother both in overview and icons modes. See picture below, normally running 8 programs like these would be very heavy on my laptop, with much lagging to switch between programs and to show/hide overview like this. But on 3.34, I don't know why, it's so smooth. I'm glad!

(The system runs Firefox, Kdenlive, Krita, Inkscape, System Settings, and 3 Nautilus)
4. Music
Now, GNOME Music (package name: gnome-music) automatically scans ~/Music directory so whenever we put MP3s there it will instantly read it.

(Music --not to be confused with Rhythmbox-- reads my audio files automatically from my Home directory)
5. Epiphany and Firefox
Now, GNOME Web (package name: epiphany) features Pin Tab. Simply right-click a tab and select Pin Tab to keep it on the browser. Outside of official apps, if we run Mozilla Firefox on GNOME 3.34, its top bar joined with tab bar, you can see the close button is now at same level with tabs line, although originally both are separated. I don't think I'm accustomed to this, though. I tried version 66 (native RPM) and 69 (AppImage) and both run the same.

(GNU and GIMP websites pinned, while GNOME website opened on Epiphany)
(Left: with menubar on; right: without menubar; compare these to Epiphany above)

6. System Settings and My Night Light
It's now located under System Settings > Devices > Displays > Night Light tab. When GNOME included this since 3.24, I was very glad, as I was an active Redshift user (until now) and since then I do not need to install it anymore as my desktop already has that feature built-in.



7. Nautilus File Manager and Sysprof
Now, it reports "Could not paste files" whenever we press Ctrl+V on a protected directory.

(Nautilus 3.34)
On development side, GNOME 3.34 introduces new face of Sysprof (an advanced but user-friendly profiling tool for programmers) to profile performance of applications. It now can measure any application's usage of battery, energy, network, and disk.

(Sysprof main page)
9. AppImages
I believe some of you know that I like AppImage --portable application format for GNU/Linux-- more than Snap than Flatpak. I ran Kdenlive, Krita, and Inkscape from their portable executable files and they look okay on GNOME 3.34. The title bars (header bars in GNOME terminology) in my vision look very huge though, but I think that's okay.

(Running portable apps on GNOME 3.34)
10. My Comments
That's all for now. As always, I love how simple and beautiful GNOME release announcement was. After testing in 3 days, I immediately like this version more than the previous one for the speed improvement and I hope Ubuntu and other distros adopt it soon. Ah, I forgot, regarding Ubuntu, good news for us: next October's Ubuntu Eoan Ermine will feature 3.34! Regarding GNOME, I don't know if this is coincidence or what, but this year's KDE Plasma is faster and smoother and so is GNOME. I think next GNOME 3.36 will be faster and better as well. Finally I would love to say thank you GNOME developers! You all did well in last 6 month.

How do you think about 3.34? Let me know in the comment section!

Donate
You can help develop GNOME by donating to the project. See GNOME Friends page for more information.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 (BlankOn Uluwatu with start menu and settings sidebar opened and Nautilus File Manager running on the middle)
BlankOn is a GNU/Linux system developed by YPLI group from Indonesia with its own desktop environment called Manokwari. Its latest release is XI under the name Uluwatu. However, this desktop system is not too well known in international community, although I've also been reviewed it in 2017, so I think it's my chance to present you how it looks like and what's inside of it you could try. Enjoy!

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About BlankOn

• Current version: 11
• Current codename: Uluwatu
• Release date: 2018 
• Architecture: 64-bit only
• Derived from: Debian Stretch
• Package manager: APT
• Package format: DEB
• Desktop environment: Manokwari
• File manager: Nautilus
• Developer: YPLI
• Website: https://blankonlinux.or.id

Uluwatu
Uluwatu is a place in Bali island, Indonesia. It is the eleventh codename released 2018 after Tambora, or BlankOn X, released 2017. Since this release BlankOn available only as 64-bit version.

(Detailed technical info about Uluwatu: Sources.list content, lsb_release and uname outputs)
Manokwari
Here's how BlankOn Uluwatu looks like. This desktop is called Manokwari. It's a typical MacOS-like interface but with left and right sidebars. Left sidebar appears when we click the "OI" start menu. Right sidebar, similar to Budgie Raven or Deepin Settings, appears when we touch the cursor to left edge of the screen. Technically, on Uluwatu, Manokwari included is version 1.0.20.


(A typical top panel and bottom dock desktop)
Some characteristics of it:

• Tooltip bar, unique black additional panel under top panel when you hover the cursor to a running app.
• Click running app = minimize.
• Under start menu, right-click app > Add to Desktop =  add it to dock.
• Drag app from dock to trash logo = remove it from dock.
• No right-click on desktop.
• No icons on wallpaper area.
• No Super key to open start menu.

Theme and Icons
Built in ones are Bromo theme and Tebu-Flat icons set. Bromo, however, is actually a name of a volcano in East Java, Indonesia, and tebu is simply Indonesian for sugarcane. Apparently, Uluwatu includes GNOME Tweaks as its theme configuration tool. This means we can customize Manokwari desktop to use a lot of GTK3+ themes available online.


(An overview of several icons within Tebu Flat icon theme)
(Tweak Tool showing Bromo and Tebu-Flat icons enabled on Uluwatu desktop)
AppImages
Portable application format for GNU/Linux, known as AppImage, runs very very well on BlankOn Uluwatu even in LiveCD mode under only 2GB RAM. If you didn't know, AppImage is similar to DMG on MacOS or EXE on Windows, in terms of applications running without installation. See below for example, I can run 3 different applications quickly by just double-clicking 3 .appimage files: Kdenlive Video Editor, Krita Digital Painter, and Peek Desktop Recorder. See also tooltip bar under top panel, it reads correctly logos and names of the three programs. This means you can work well with AppImages* on BlankOn XI.

(Left: Krita, middle: Peek, right: Kdenlive, bottom: Nautilus showing all AppImage files of those programs; top: hovered cursor shows the long tooltip bar)
*) Hundreds more AppImages like LibreOffice and GIMP are available at Probono's AppImageHub
Flatpak Support
One among biggest changes in BlankOn in this release is obviously Flatpak inclusion. If you didn't know, Flatpak is new way to install latest apps for GNU/Linux users across different distros. Since BlankOn includes GNOME Software Center by default along with Flatpak support, you can install, easily, thousands apps from BlankOn's repository and hundreds more latest apps from Flathub. However, Flatpak runtime included is version 0.10.4.
 (Firefox showing Flathub website and Software Center is ready to INSTALL GNU Octave mathematical simulator) Download BlankOn
You can download ISO Images of Uluwatu at BlankOn CDimage server.

People's Posts About Uluwatu
Here's list of several interesting documents around Uluwatu, developers, and users we can find online.  However, they are all in Indonesian.

• Uluwatu Release Notes in English
• BlankOn Team: Uluwatu Collaboration Page (GitHub)
• BlankOn Team: Uluwatu Issue Reports (GitHub)
• Estu Fardani: BlankOn XI Uluwatu Release Announcement
• Estu Fardani: Upgrade Tambora to Uluwatu
• Sokhibi Imgos: Install Epson Printer
• K.L.A.S.: Uluwatu Release Party 
• Ludy.web.id: Uluwatu Presentation for Beginners

(Official release information of BlankOn Uluwatu)
Interested to Join the Development?
BlankOn Development is centered at its wiki. BlankOn Project uses Indonesian language in entire of its wiki and discussions. But you can contact them in English below:

Contacts:

• BlankOn Dev mailing list
• BlankOn Dev Telegram
• BlankOn GitHub
• BlankOn Dev Trello Board

My Commentary
I really like the yellow wallpaper in this release. The icon theme is great. And I just realized when writing this post that single-click on app minimizes it on Manokwari. I like that. Perhaps I dislike some features, like no Super key to open the menu, but right-panel is responsive, I don't need to click anything(unlike Raven) nor push it hard (unlike Deepin's panel). What impressed me more are the fact that AppImages run smoothly here and it includes Flatpak support built-it. Finally, I hope everybody could try BlankOn Uluwatu and give me thoughts about it. And we all waiting for next Blankon. Enjoy!   

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

 (Unsupported Ubuntu release, i.e. version 14.10 Utopic, can install programs once again)
If your Ubuntu version reached its End of Life (EOL), it will not install software anymore. You can still use the system without time limit but you cannot get more applications nor security updates. This article explains with example to take care of Ubuntu 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" which has been EOL since 2015 so it can install programs once again (but without updates). This tutorial can be used for other EOLed versions of Ubuntu for example 10.10 or 17.04. I hope this helps.

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Codenames
Dealing with EOL means dealing with Ubuntu codenames as you can see some of them below:

• 12.10 = Quantal Quetzal
• 13.04 = Raring Ringtail
• 14.10 = Utopic Unicorn
• 15.04 = Vivid Vervet
• 15.10 = Wily Werewolf
• 16.10 = Yakkety Yak

More codenames you can see at Wiki Ubuntu:Releases.

Change Your Sources.List
Change 'archive.ubuntu.com' URL into 'old-releases.ubuntu.com'.
Change 'security.ubuntu.com' URL into 'old-releases.ubuntu.com' as well.

For example, for 14.10 Utopic Unicorn, default Sources.List file should look like this:
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic-security main restricted
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic-updates main restricted
After changing, it should look like this:
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic main restricted
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic-security main restricted
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic-updates main restricted
Reload
Do:
$ sudo apt-get update
Successful command will report downloaded indexes in KB sizes without any error message.

Install Applications
Try some programs for example:
$ sudo apt-get install gimp
$ sudo apt-get install pidgin
$ sudo apt-get install audacity kdenlive deluge
It should work now.

Final Result
As example, here's GIMP running on 14.10 freshly installed in 2019.


What is EOL?
Each Ubuntu release has support duration, meaning, a certain period of time where Canonical provides software repository (including security updates) for it. When the support duration ended, it is called End Of Life, meaning Canonical deletes the repository (including security updates) for it. Once your Ubuntu system reached EOL, you cannot install software anymore nor receive any updates. For example, in 2019, versions considered EOL are 12.10, 14.10, and 17.04, among others.

This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

(Plasma 5.16 with notifications and Do Not Disturb feature enabled)
KDE Plasma Desktop version 5.16 has been released last June with slogan "Now Smoother and More Fun". In this article I present you several nice things on 5.16 according to my opinions as a KDE user, among them are, new Do Not Disturb feature and safely remove multiple partitions. I like this release very much. I present this short review for people who are still using old Plasma today and I'm grateful to all KDE developers for this awesome release. And here we go!

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Do You Want To Test Plasma 5.16?
Simply download current version of KDE Neon operating system and boot it on your computer. It features 5.16.x. However, this review is written using Neon 5.16.4. With this, you do not need to install anything to your current GNU/Linux system just to see what's new on latest Plasma.


1. The Blue Wallpaper
It's Next by Santiago Cezar, an artist from Argentine, who won Plasma wallpaper contest first held ever. You see, the opening words of the contest were very wonderful that winner wallpaper will appear on thousands computers around the world including those in NASA and CERN; and that the winner prize would be SLIMBOOK PC. I really like the wallpaper. Cezar, you did awesome art and congratulations you won the prize!

(His wallpaper and his name appears on Plasma 5.16 on latest KDE Neon operating system)

2. I Notice a New 'Show Desktop' Icon
The first impression I got with 5.16 is the hollow box icon on right end of taskbar panel. It's the Show Desktop button. And since this version Plasma can do show desktop with Super+D shortcut keys just like Microsoft Windows. However, personally I always manually set Super+D to do it on Plasma versions prior to 5.16 so now I'm glad I do not need to do that anymore.




3. I See Brand New Notification
The biggest change on Plasma 5.16 I noticed is the notification system. To make it short, it's all about Do Not Disturb feature. Visually it's different, functionally it got many additional features. Prior to this version, there was no specific settings available for notification behaviours except for the bell sounds. Fortunately, now we got complete control over them with Notification section under KDE System Settings. One thing more I noticed anew is the Broom button to clear all notifications. It's small but cute!

Notification tooltip:


Notification tray with brand new Do Not Disturb switch:

 
Closer look at DND, Preferences, and the new Broom button:

  
4. What is 'Do Not Disturb' mode anyway?
DND mode will make all applications mute but save their notifications on tray. DND gives you options how long the mute to apply, either 1 hours, 4 hours, or until computer turned off. This new feature is closely related to the new Notification Settings, as every individual application can be set to respect DND or not. By default, only Spectacle Screenshot Tool set to disrespect DND (always show notification anyway) but you can turn it off as you wish. Oh man, this is amazing.


(Show in do not disturb mode: because of this option turned on by default, Spectacle disrespects DND, but you can turn it off later)
 5. New Notification Settings!
Here's the new notification preferences you can find out under KDE System Settings > Personalization > Notifications. The preferences are divided in two, one for global settings, and one for individual applications.

Below's the global settings for notifications.

It allows you to change screen positions of popup, timeout of it, show progress bar or not, and more.



And below's the settings of individual applications with first one is Plasma Discover.

This settings section allows you to enable/disable individual application's notification, enable it in DND mode, and control the sounds with Configure Events button there. You see, there are nearly all applications installed being presented here under our control. Among them are VLC, Bluetooth, Konsole, and more.



6. New Progress Bar
It is now showing both on tray and on notification popup. It looks modern and also cool with the old Oxygen dark them.


(Copying files progress bar is showing on Dolphin's notification popup)
7. Right-Click > Properties on External Drives
Yes, I wanted this feature for a long time and fortunately 5.16 actually brought it out for us. I believe many people will love this instantly.

 (Properties of a USB Flash Drive attached: it shows the Properties Dialog with information such as 21GiB total capacity, 5.9GiB free, and 79% used, and ext4 filesystem)
8. Eject All at Once!
I like this feature the most as I work with my external hard disk with multiple partitions so it's hard for me to eject partitions manually one by one every time. Thanks to 5.16, I do not need to do that anymore, as there is Remove All button now.


(Left: Dolphin with a lot of external disk partitions attached; right: Safely Remove All button under cursor)
8. And It Still Looked Very Good with the Old Dark Theme
I like KDE 4 era with Oxygen theme and I like its black variant. Fortunately, Plasma 5.16 brings that theme built-in and I see AppImage Program (Kdenlive Video Editor here) looks very good with it. Try it yourself and let me know your comments.

(Kdenlive running as portable application on GNU/Linux: Plasma theme looks matched with Kdenlive default dark theme)
New Lock/Login Screen
See new '>' button there?

Old lock screen prior to 5.16:

New lock screen on 5.16:


Control Vaults from Dolphin
Dolphin now features "Open This Vault" whenever we right-click a black Vault folder. If you didn't know, Vault is a new Plasma feature to lock folders with password only you could open. You might see Vault similar to Folder Lock on other operating system. Starting at 5.16 version, everything is much more easier as it included right on file manager.

Copy Time/Date
My favorite feature, copy current time to clipboard, still exists on the taskbar's clock. With this, I can simply select and then paste current date on my article or text message in neat format, like Wednesday, 11 September 2019 14.01 for example, so it looks professional. I am grateful this feature doesn't get removed in this version. I like KDE Plasma because it's consistent and this one is just another example of its consistency.


My Commentary
There are a lot of things I don't cover here as you can see yourself in the official video, release notes, and detailed info by KDE Project. But, new features I find in this release are neat and I like them. As KDE user, I am satisfied. I can feel Plasma 5.16 runs so smooth as shown by latest Neon OS performance being real good on an 8-years old 2GB laptop. Not to mention, it also looks great with old desktop theme. In my opinion 5.16 does good and better once again. Kudos to all KDE developers! (and congratulations to Cezar!)


This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.