4 Key Changes to Look Out for in Linux Kernel 5.6

While we’ve already witnessed the stable release of Linux 5.5 with better hardware support, Linux 5.6 is next.

To be honest, Linux 5.6 is much more exciting than 5.5. Even though the upcoming Ubuntu 20.04 LTS release will feature Linux 5.5 out of the box, you should really know what Linux 5.6 kernel has in store for us.

In this article, I’ll be highlighting the key changes and features that you can expect with Linux 5.6 release:

Linux 5.6 features highlight

I’ll try to keep the list of features up-to-date whenever there’s a piece of new information on Linux 5.6. But, for now, let’s take a look at what we already know so far:

1. WireGuard Support

WireGuard will be added to Linux 5.6 – potentially replacing OpenVPN for a variety of reasons.

You can learn more about WireGuard on their official site to know the benefits. Of course, if you’ve used it, you might be aware of the reasons why it’s potentially better than OpenVPN.

Also, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS will be adding support for WireGuard.

2. USB4 Support

Linux 5.6 will also include the support of USB4.

In case you didn’t know about USB 4.0 (USB4), you can read the announcement post.

As per the announcement – “USB4 doubles the maximum aggregate bandwidth of USB and enables multiple simultaneous data and display protocols.“

Also, while we know that USB4 is based on the Thunderbolt protocol specification, it will be backward compatible with USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and Thunderbolt 3 – which is great news.

3. F2FS Data Compression Using LZO/LZ4

Linux 5.6 will also come with the support for F2FS data compression using LZO/LZ4 algorithms.

In other words, it is just a new compression technique for the Linux file-system where you will be able to select particular file extensions.

4. Fixing the Year 2038 problem for 32-bit systems

Unix and Linux store the time value in a 32-bit signed integer format which has the maximum value of 2147483647. Beyond this number, due to integer overflow, the values will be stored as a negative number.

This means that for a 32-bit system, the time value cannot go beyond 2147483647 seconds after Jan. 1, 1970. In simpler terms, after 03:14:07 UTC on Jan. 19, 2038, due to integer overflow, the time will read as Dec. 13, 1901 instead of Jan. 19, 2038.

Linux kernel 5.6 has a fix for this problem so that 32-bit systems can run beyond the year 2038.

5. Improved Hardware Support

Obviously, with the next release, the hardware support will improve as well. The plan to support newer wireless peripherals will be a priority too.

The new kernel will also add the support for MX Master 3 mouse and other wireless Logitech products.

In addition to Logitech products, you can expect a lot of different hardware support as well (including the support for AMD GPUs, NVIDIA GPUs, and Intel Tiger Lake chipset support).

6. Other Changes

Also, in addition to all these major additions/support in Linux 5.6, there are several other changes that would be coming with the next kernel release:

• Improvements in AMD Zen temperature/power reporting
• A fix for AMD CPUs overheating in ASUS TUF laptops
• Open-source NVIDIA RTX 2000 “Turing” graphics support
• FSCRYPT inline encryption.

Phoronix tracked a lot of technical changes arriving with Linux 5.6. So, if you’re curious about every bit of the changes involved in Linux 5.6, you can check for yourself.

Now that you’ve known about what’s coming with Linux 5.6 release – what do you think about it? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Check Hardware Information on Linux Graphically With Hardinfo

There are ways to get hardware information about your system in Linux. And majority of them are command line based solution.

As a desktop Linux user, if you feel more comfortable with a graphical application, let me tell you about a tool that you can use to get information about your system hardware.

The tool is called Hardinfo (short for hardware information). It is a system profiler and benchmark for Linux systems. It displays hardware (and some software) information in a neat GUI tool.

Hardinfo interface

Install Hardinfo on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions

Hardinfo is a popular application and it should (hopefully) be available in all major Linux distributions’ repository.

On Ubuntu, Hardinfo is available via the universe repository. Normally it should already be enabled but no harm in verifying it:

Make sure to enable universe repository

With Universe repository enabled, you should find it in the Software Center. Just search for Hardinfo and you should see an application named System Profiler and Benchmark. That’s actually Hardinfo. You can click install here.

Hardinfo in Ubuntu Software Center

Alternatively, if you prefer installing applications via command line, you can use the following commands to enable universe repository and then install Hardinfo:

sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt install hardinfo

You should be able to find Hardinfo in your distribution’s software manager. You can easily install it via the package manager on your system. Please check and verify it.

Using Hardinfo to get hardware information on Linux

Once installed, you can start the application by looking for it in the menu:

Search for Hardinfo in application menu

Once you start it, you should see various parameters in the left sidebar and if you choose them, you can see related information on the right side.

A summary of system hardware

For example, you can see the processor information:

Processor Information

You can see what networking interfaces are available for your system:

Network Interface Information

You may also check the CPU temperature among other things:

Sensor temperature

All these information can be found in command line, specially from the /proc directory. But is is always good to have a tool that gives you all this information in one user-friendly interface. Don’t you think so?

I know there are other tools for getting system hardware information on Linux. If you prefer some other tool, which one is it?

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Meet FuryBSD: A New Desktop BSD Distribution

In the last couple of months, a few new desktop BSD have been announced. There is HyperbolaBSD which was Hyperbola GNU/Linux previously. Another new entry in the BSD world is FuryBSD.

FuryBSD: A new BSD distribution

At its heart, FuryBSD is a very simple beast. According to the site, “FuryBSD is a back to basics lightweight desktop distribution based on stock FreeBSD.” It is basically FreeBSD with a desktop environment pre-configured and several apps preinstalled. The goal is to quickly get a FreeBSD-based system running on your computer.

You might be thinking that this sounds a lot like a couple of other BSDs that are available, such as NomadBSD and GhostBSD. The major difference between those BSDs and FuryBSD is that FuryBSD is much closer to stock FreeBSD. For example, FuryBSD uses the FreeBSD installer, while others have created their own installers and utilities.

As it states on the site, “Although FuryBSD may resemble past graphical BSD projects like PC-BSD and TrueOS, FuryBSD is created by a different team and takes a different approach focusing on tight integration with FreeBSD. This keeps overhead low and maintains compatibility with upstream.” The lead dev also told me that “One key focus for FuryBSD is for it to be a small live media with a few assistive tools to test drivers for hardware.”

Currently, you can go to the FuryBSD homepage and download either an XFCE or KDE LiveCD. A GNOME version is in the works.

Who’s is Behind FuryBSD?

The lead dev behind FuryBSD is Joe Maloney. Joe has been a FreeBSD user for many years. He contributed to other BSD projects, such as PC-BSD. He also worked with Eric Turgeon, the creator of GhostBSD, to rewrite the GhostBSD LiveCD. Along the way, he picked up a better understanding of BSD and started to form an idea of how he would make a distribution on his own.

Joe is joined by several other devs who have also spent many years in the BSD world, such as Jaron Parsons, Josh Smith, and Damian Szidiropulosz.

The Future for FuryBSD

At the moment, FuryBSD is nothing more than a pre-configured FreeBSD setup. However, the devs have a list of improvements that they want to make going forward. These include:

• A sane framework for loading, 3rd party proprietary drivers graphics, wireless
• Cleanup up the LiveCD experience a bit more to continue to make it more friendly
• Printing support out of box
• A few more default applications included to provide a complete desktop experience
• Integrated ZFS replication tools for backup and restore
• Live image persistence options
• A custom pkg repo with sane defaults
• Continuous integration for applications updates
• Quality assurance for FreeBSD on the desktop
• Tailored artwork, color scheming, and theming
• Directory services integration
• Security hardening

The devs make it quite clear that any changes they make will have a lot of thought and research behind them. They don’t want to compliment a feature, only to have to remove it or change it when it breaks something.

FuryBSD desktop

How You Can Help FuryBSD?

At this moment the project is still very young. Since all projects need help to survive, I asked Joe what kind of help they were looking for. He said, “We could use help answering questions on the forums, GitHub tickets, help with documentation are all needed.” He also said that if people wanted to add support for other desktop environments, pull requests are welcome.

Final Thoughts

Although I have not tried it yet, I have a good feeling about FuryBSD. It sounds like the project is in capable hands. Joe Maloney has been thinking about how to make the best BSD desktop experience for over a decade. Unlike majority of Linux distros that are basically a rethemed Ubuntu, the devs behind FuryBSD know what they are doing and they are choosing quality over the fancy bells and whistles.

What are your thoughts on this new entry into the every growing desktop BSD market? Have you tried out FuryBSD or will you give it a try? Please let us know in the comments below.

If you found this article interesting, please take a minute to share it on social media, Hacker News or Reddit.

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What Amazon Kindle? Here’s an Open Source eBook Reader

When it comes to an eBook reader, the choices are limited. The market is dominated by Amazon's proprietary Kindle along with a few other options like Kobo, Nook and Onyx.

An interesting news for open source enthusiasts is that a developer, Joey Castillo, is working on creating an open source eBook reader appropriately named Open Book.

Open Book: An open source eBook reader

The Open Book aims to be a simple ‘open’ device that “anyone with a soldering iron can build for themselves”.

It’s hackable so if you are into DIY stuff and you have some knowledge, you may tweak it to your liking. For example, Joey use TensorFlow Lite to give voice commands for flipping the pages on Open Book. You can do things like this on your own on this open hardware device.

Voice commands on the #OpenBook with #TensorFlowLite. When I added a mic amp for voice, I considered this a “someday” feature; I didn’t imagine one could hack it together in an evening! Major credit to @adafruit; their TFL Arduino port makes this possible. https://t.co/ix5UK03F3o pic.twitter.com/PfXZx99A9y

— joey castillo (@josecastillo) December 13, 2019

If that kind of scares you because you are not really into tinkering with hardware, I have a good news for you. Open Book was named winner of Hackaday’s Take Flight with Feather contest!

This means that when the hardware is ready, you should be able to purchase it from DigiKey. You should be able to fit the device as an eBook reader or experiment with it, if you feel like doing it.

It kind of reminds me of Game Shell, a single board computer based retro gaming console that could be tinkered into many other things.

Open Book specifications

There are two versions of Open Book: Open Book Feather and E-Book Feather Wing. The eBook wing does less than the Open Book Feather, mainly because it’s limited to using only the pins available via the Feather header.

You may guess from the name that the project uses Adafruit’s Feather development boards.

Here are the main specifications for the Open Book (both versions):

• 4.2 inch, 400 x 300 pixel ePaper display
• SAMD51 ARM Cortex-M4 32-bit processor
• 7 buttons for navigation (directional pad, select button and page turn buttons)
• status LED lights
• A microSD card reader
• Headphone jack

The display seems a bit small, isn’t it?

Open Book release, pricing and availability

Open Book is the winner of Take Flight with Feather competition by Hackaday. This means that at least 100 Open Book boards will be manufactured and made available for purchase.

Liliputing noted that Adafruit will be handling the manufacturing, and Digi-Key will eventually be selling Open Book boards.

At this point, it’s not clear how much will it cost and exactly when it will be available.

Remember that it’s an open source project. You can find all the circuit designs, source code on its GitHub page and if you have the skills, get the required hardware components and build an Open Book on your own.

Open Book on GitHub

Otherwise, wait for a couple of months (hopefully) for the release of the Open Book boards and then go about experimenting with the device.

If you like the project and want to support it, you can help Joey on Pateron. You can follow the updates on the Open Book on the Patreon page, Joey’s mailing list or Joey’s Twitter account.

Do you think the project has potential? Would you buy one when it is available? What do you think of it?

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Joplin: The True Open Source Evernote Alternative

Brief: Joplin is an open source note taking and to-do application. You can organize notes into notebooks and tag them. Joplin also provides a web-clipper to save articles from the internet.

Joplin: Open source note organizer

If you like Evernote, you won’t be too uncomfortable with the open source software, Joplin.

Joplin is an excellent open source note taking application with plenty of features. You can take notes, make to-do list and sync your notes across devices by linking it with cloud services like Dropbox and NextCloud. The synchronization is protected with end to end encryption.

Joplin also has a web clipper that allows you to save webpages as notes. The web clipper is available for Firefox and Chrome/Chromium browsers.

Joplin makes the switch from Evernote easier by allowing importing Evernote files in Enex format.

Since you own the data, you can export all your files either in Joplin format or in the raw format.

Features of Joplin

Here’s a list of all the features Joplin provides:

• Save notes into notebooks and sub-notebooks for better organization
• Create to-do list
• Notes can be tagged and searched
• Offline first, so the entire data is always available on the device even without an internet connection
• Markdown notes with pictures, math notation and checkboxes support
• File attachment support
• Application available for desktop, mobile and terminal (CLI)
• Web Clipper for Firefox and Chrome
• End To End Encryption
• Keeps note history
• Notes sorting based on name, time etc
• Synchronisation with various cloud services like Nextcloud, Dropbox, WebDAV and OneDrive
• Import files from Evernote
• Export JEX files (Joplin Export format) and raw files.
• Support notes, to-dos, tags and notebooks.
• Goto Anything feature.
• Support for notifications in mobile and desktop applications.
• Geo-location support.
• Supports multiple languages
• External editor support – open notes in your favorite external editor with one click in Joplin.

Recommended Read:

EncryptPad – Encrypted Text Editor For Linux

Looking for a text editor with encryption in Linux? Meet EncryptPad, a text editor with built-in encryption.

Installing Joplin on Linux and other platforms

Joplin is a cross-platform application available for Linux, macOS and Windows. On the mobile, you can get the APK file to install it on Android and Android-based ROMs. You can also get it from the Google Play store.

For Linux, you can use AppImage file for Joplin and run the application as an executable. You’ll have to give execute permission to the downloaded file.

Download Joplin

Experiencing Joplin

Notes in Joplin use markdown but you don’t have to know markdown notations to use it. The editor has a top panel that lets you graphically choose the bullet points, headings, images, link etc.

Though Joplin provides many interesting features, you have to fiddle around on your own to check things out. For example, the web clipper is not enabled by default and I had to figure out how to do it.

You have to enable the clipper from the desktop application. From the top menu, go to Tools->Options. You’ll find the Web Clipper option here:

Enable Web Clipper from the desktop application first

The web clipper is not as smart as Evernote’s web clipper that allows to clip portion of a web article graphically. However, you still have good enough options here.

It is an open source software under active development and I do hope that it gets more improvement over the time.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a good note taking application with web-clipper feature, do give Joplin a try. And if you like it and would continue using, try to help Joplin development by making a donation or improving its code and documentation. I made a sweet little donation of 25 Euro on behalf of It’s FOSS.

If you have used Joplin in the past or still using it, how’s your experience with it? If you use some other note taking application, would you switch to Joplin? Feel free to share your views.

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Oh, Bummer! Rocket League is Ending Support For Linux

If you’ve enjoyed playing Rocket League on Linux, you will be disappointed to know that Pysonix, the developer team behind Rocket League announced that they will be dropping support for Linux and Mac in March, 2020.

If it was just another casual game on Steam, I wouldn’t mind- but Rocket League is a quite popular online multiplayer game across every platform.

In fact, Rocket League was one of my favorite games to play on Linux (in addition to CS: GO). Even though I haven’t played it for a while – it is a bummer that I won’t be able to play it either.

So, this is definitely sad for Linux gamers who were looking forward to having fun in a popular online multiplayer game that required a decent hardware configuration to work flawlessly.

Why are they ending support?

In their announcement, they mentioned:

As we continue to upgrade Rocket League with new technologies, it is no longer viable for us to maintain support for the macOS and Linux (SteamOS) platforms. As a result, the final patch for the macOS and Linux versions of the game will be in March. This update will disable online functionality (such as in-game purchases) for players on macOS and Linux, but offline features including Local Matches, and splitscreen play will still be accessible.

Well, this certainly does not explain why they’re dropping support for Linux/Mac. But, it looks like the game will get its final patches in March.

After that, you will not be able to play multiplayer sessions – but will be restricted to the local multiplayer sessions (or split-screen).

Maybe you can try using Wine or Steam Play to play it on Linux? Doesn’t sound good though.

Some furious users/gamers on Reddit mentioned that this is a result of Epic Games acquiring Rocket League developer Psyonix. I wouldn’t comment on that one – feel free to share your thoughts in the comments though.

How to get a refund for your Rocket League purchase

To get a refund for your purchase of the Rocket League, you need to open a ticket on the Psyonix Support page.

If you’ve purchased it recently in the ongoing Steam sale – you might just get an instant refund from Steam if you initiate a refund.

If you have no plans to play it on a Windows machine (or trying Proton/Wine) on Linux – you should apply for a refund.

Wrapping Up

While this may not be a big-shot game for the platform but dropping support for Linux is not helping to improve the gaming scene on Linux.

If a game that worked quite well on Linux drops support for it – how can we expect newer games to consider adding support for Linux?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments down below.

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How to Turn on Dark Mode in Firefox

More and more operating systems, applications and websites are adding support for the dark mode as people try to reduce eye strain.

Mozilla recently added support for dark mode. You can activate it in four easy steps. Let me show you how.

Enable dark mode in Mozilla Firefox web browser

Step 1: In Firefox, go to the the top right corner and open the menu by clicking the hamburger menu.

Click on the menu icon

Step 2: Click on the “Addons” menu entry. You could also use the Ctrl+Shift+A keyboard shortcut. On the “Addons” page you will see a list of the extensions that you have installed or disabled.

Firefox Dark Mode Step 2

Step 3: Now we need to switch to the themes page. You can do that by clicking “Themes” on the left hand of the screen.

Firefox Dark Mode Step 3

Step 4: You will see the “Dark” theme. Click on the “enable” button to immediately activate the dark mode.

Enable Dark Theme

Note: If you have Firefox Sync turned on, dark mode will be activated on all your Firefox installs.

Turning on Firefox’s dark mode only affects the browser’s theme. It does not change the website that you visit.

But that fails the point of using a dark theme if suddenly a web-page goes full bright into the eyes.

That would be inconvenient, won’t it? If you want to turn on dark mode for all the websites you visit, you can install Dark Reader.

Enable dark theme for the websites in Firefox with Dark Reader

Dark Reader is an open source browser extension available for Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

You can get Dark Reader extension for Firefox from this page. Just click on the Add to Firefox button to add this extension.

Dark Reader extension in Firefox

You may need to restart Firefox to see the changes into effect. Here’s a screenshot of It’s FOSS homepage with Dark Reader:

It’s FOSS Homepage in Dark Mode with Dark Reader

Dark Reader also provides you some options to set the intensity level of darkness, accent color etc. You can turn off dark mode on selected websites.

Dark Reader customization options

You can enjoy the dark mode on Firefox completely now. If you are using Chromium on Linux, you should be able to use Dark Reader on Chromium as well.

If you found this article interesting, please take a minute to share it on social media, Hacker News or Reddit.

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Wine 5.0 is Released! Here’s How to Install it

Brief: A new major release of Wine is here. With Wine 5.0, running Windows applications and games on Linux is further improved.

With some efforts, you can run Windows applications on Linux using Wine. Wine is a tool that you may try when you must use a software that is available only on Windows. It supports a number of such software.

A new major release for Wine has landed i.e Wine 5.0, almost after a year of its 4.0 release.

Wine 5.0 release introduces a couple of major features and a lot of significant changes/improvements. In this article, I’ll highlight what’s new and also mention the installation instructions.

What’s New In Wine 5.0?

The key changes in 5.0 release as mentioned in their official announcement:

• Builtin modules in PE format.
• Multi-monitor support.
• XAudio2 reimplementation.
• Vulkan 1.1 support.
• Microsoft Installer (MSI) Patch Files are supported.
• Performance improvements.

So, with Vulkan 1.1 support and multi-monitor support – Wine 5.0 release is a big deal.

In addition to the key highlights, you can also expect better controller support in the new version considering thousands of changes/improvements involved in the new release.

It is also worth noting that this release is being dedicated to the memory of Józef Kucia (lead developer of the vkd3d project)

They’ve also mentioned this in their release notes:

This release is dedicated to the memory of Józef Kucia, who passed away in August 2019 at the young age of 30. Józef was a major contributor to Wine’s Direct3D implementation, and the lead developer of the vkd3d project. His skills and his kindness are sorely missed by all of us.

How to install Wine 5.0 on Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Note

If you have Wine installed before, you should remove it completely to avoid any conflict (as you wish). Also, the WineHQ key repository key was changed recently, you should refer to its download page for additional instructions on that according to your Linux distribution.

The source for Wine 5.0 is available on its official website. You can read more about building wine in order to make it work. Arch-based users should be getting it soon.

Here’ I’ll show you the steps to install Wine 5.0 on Ubuntu and other Ubuntu-based distributions.

First, remove existing Wine install with this command:

sudo apt remove winehq-stable wine-stable wine1.6

Download the official Wine repository key and add it:

wget -q0 - https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key | sudo apt-key add -

Now the next step involves adding the repository and for that, you need to know your Ubuntu version first.

For Ubuntu 19.10, add this repository:

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ eoan main' 

If you are using Ubuntu 18.04 or Linux Mint 19.x, use this command to add the repository:

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ bionic main'

For Ubuntu 16.04 and Linux Mint 18.x series, you can use this command:

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ xenial main'

Now that you have added the correct repository, you can install Wine 5.0 using this command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable

Wrapping Up

Have you tried the latest Wine 5.0 release yet? If yes, what improvements do you see in action?

Let me know your thoughts on the new release in the comments below.

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Here’s a Kubuntu Exclusive Linux Laptop Priced at $2285

We have a lot of manufacturers focusing on Linux laptops nowadays. For instance, the latest $200 Pinebook Pro laptop. And, of course, System 76 also makes some of the best Linux laptops for several years.

Now, The Kubuntu Council, MindShareManagement Inc, and Tuxedo Computers teamed up to come up with a premium Kubuntu-powered laptop for power users: Kubuntu Focus.

Here, let me highlight some of the key specifications of the laptop and what you need to know about it.

Kubuntu Focus Specifications

Here’s what it offers:

• CPU: Core i7-9750H 6c/12t 4.5GHz Turbo
• GPU: NVIDIA RTX-2060/2070/2080
• RAM: 32GB Dual Channel DDR4 2666 Mhz RAM expandable up to 64 Gigs
• Storage: 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe SSD
• Display: 16.1” matte 1080p IPS
• Keyboard: LED-backlit, 3-4mm travel
• Chassis: Metal and plastic, 0.78”
• Broad suite of curated apps pre-loaded
• Two-year warranty (1 Year limited warranty for the base model)
• User expandable SDD, NVMe, and RAM
• Superior cooling

What’s special about Kubuntu Focus?

The spec sheet is obviously impressive and it is quite competitive to what System 76 offers.

The design, the keyboard, the RGB lighting, and the screen may not be the strongest points for the laptop. You might just get a powerful laptop in that range from other manufacturers as well (and save money in the process).

However, with Kubuntu Focus, you get a customized and tailored Kubuntu experience. And, apparently, it does not look like the stock Kubuntu 18.04 LTS experience at all.

You can also take a look at Jason Evangelho’s first impressions on the laptop to know more about it. Here’s also a video for it by Jason:

Price & Availability

The base model costs $2285 and the top-end model would cost you about $3,550.

Even though you cannot choose a lower configuration for the processor (as of now), you can choose to increase the RAM, change the graphics card, and opt for a 2-year warranty when you head to purchase it.

You can purchase it right now from its official Shopify page.

kubuntu Focus

Apart from Pinebook, none of the Linux laptops have inexpensive offering. Kubuntu Focus takes it to the next level with a premium offering that costs above $2000.

What do you think about the ‘Kubuntu Focus’ laptop? Will you consider buying it? Let me know your thoughts on it in the comments below.

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ProtonVPN Applications are Now 100% Open Source

Brief: ProtonVPN becomes the first VPN provider to open source its client applications and undergo an independent security audit.

In this age of surveillance, VPNs have become a powerful tool in safeguarding your privacy.

But can you trust your VPN service provider? On more than one occasion, the VPN providers have been caught logging, snooping or sharing data with third party. What to do in such cases?

I have shared a list of privacy focused VPNs for Linux in the past and ProtonVPN is one of them. The good news is that ProtonVPN has just open sourced all its apps and underwent an independent security audit.

ProtonVPN open sources its applications

Swiss-based company Proton is run by CERN scientists. Their secure email service ProtonMail is hugely popular among privacy enthusiasts. It is used by over 20 million people worldwide.

Proton has always put its focus on security and transparency. They have a strict no logging policy for their VPN services even for the free version.

To ensure their commitment, they worked with renowned security firm SEC Consult on a full security audit, which verified the security of Proton’s software.

Transparency is again the motive behind releasing ProtonVPN applications’s source code under open source license.

By open sourcing all of its client code, ProtonVPN is allowing security experts from around the world to inspect its encryption implementations and how the company handles user data, giving users more confidence the company is adhering to its strict privacy policy.

VPN services can technically access some very sensitive user data, which is why users should choose services with a track record for transparency and security. This trust must be earned, and by publishing our code, we hope to demonstrate our commitment towards always going above and beyond when it comes to security and putting users first.

Dr. Andy Yen
CEO and Founder, Proton

Getting ProtonVPN

ProtonVPN has clients for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and Linux. You can get the source code for the clients on their GitHub repository.

If you like what ProtonVPN is doing and want to support them while securing your privacy, you may opt for their service.

There is a limited free offering from ProtonVPN but the premium version offers more features like high speed servers, multiple VPN connections, servers in more countries.

You can get 20% off on ProtonVPN annual offer and 33% off on their two-year plan. More details can be found on their website.

It’s FOSS is an affiliate partner with Proton. Please read our affiliate policy.

Your thoughts

I like when companies show their commitment to transparency and openness. Protonmail has done it in the past and they have done it again.

German-based Tutanota is another privacy-oriented service that I highly recommend. Unfortunately, they don’t offer VPN service yet.

Do you use ProtonMail or ProtonVPN? How is your experience with Proton services? By going open source, do you trust them more? Do share your views in the comment section.

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Syncthing: Open Source P2P File Syncing Tool

Brief: Syncthing is an open-source peer-to-peer file synchronization tool that you can use for syncing files between multiple devices (including an Android phone).

Usually, we have a cloud sync solution like MEGA or Dropbox to have a backup of our files on the cloud while making it easier to share it.

But, what do you do if you want to sync your files across multiple devices without storing them on the cloud?

That is where Syncthing comes to the rescue.

Syncthing: An open source tool to synchronize files across devices

Syncthing lets you sync your files across multiple devices (including the support for Android smartphones). It primarily works through a web UI on Linux but also offers a GUI (to separately install).

However, Syncthing does not utilize the cloud at all – it is a peer-to-peer file synchronization tool. Your data doesn’t go to a central server. Instead, the data is synced with all the devices between them. So, it does not really replace the typical cloud storage services on Linux.

To add remote devices, you just need the device ID (or simply scan the QR code), no IP addresses involved.

If you want a remote backup of your files – you should probably rely on the cloud.

Syncthing GUI

All things considered, Syncthing can come in handy for a lot of things. Technically, you can have your important files accessible on multiple systems securely and privately without worrying about anyone spying on your data.

For instance, you may not want to store some of the sensitive files on the cloud – so you can add other trusted devices to sync and keep a copy of those files.

Even though I described it briefly, there’s more to it and than meets the eye. I’d also recommend reading the official FAQ to clear some confusion on how it works – if you’re interested.

Features of Syncthing

You probably do not want a lot of options in a synchronization tool – it should be dead simple to work reliably to sync your files.

Syncthing is indeed quite simple and easy to understand – even though it is recommended that you should go through the documentation if you want to use every bit of its functionality.

Here, I’ll highlight a few useful features of Syncthing:

Cross-Platform Support

Syncthing on Android

Being an open-source solution, it does support Windows, Linux, and macOS.

In addition to that, it also supports Android smartphones. You’ll be disappointed if you have an iOS device – so far, no plans for iOS support.

File Versioning

Syncthing File Versioning

Syncthing utilizes a variety of File Versioning methods to archive the old files if they are replaced or deleted.

By default, you won’t find it enabled. But, when you create a folder to sync, that’s when you will find the option to toggle the file versioning to your preferred method.

Easy To Use

While being a peer-to-peer file synchronization tool, it just works out of the box with no advanced tweaks.

However, it does let you configure advanced settings when needed.

Security & Privacy

Even though you do not share your data with any cloud service providers, there are still some connections made that might gain the attention of an eavesdropper. So, Syncthing makes sure the communication is secured using TLS.

In addition to that, there are solid authentication methods to ensure that only the devices/connections you allow explicitly will be granted access to sync/read data.

For Android smartphones, you can also force the traffic through Tor if you’re using the Orbot app. You’ll find several other options for Android as well.

Other Functionalities

When exploring the tool yourself, you will notice that there are no limits to how many folders you can sync and the number of devices that you can sync.

So, being a free and open-source solution with lots of useful features makes it an impressive choice for Linux users looking to have a peer-to-peer sync client.

Installing Syncthing on Linux

You may not observe a .deb file or an .AppImage file for it on its official download webpage. But, you do get a snap package on the Snap store – if you’re curious you can read about using snap apps on Linux to get started.

You may not find it in the software center (if you do – it may not be the latest version).

Note: There’s also a Syncthing-GTK available if you want a GUI to manage that – instead of a browser.

Syncthing

You can also utilize the terminal to get it installed if you have a Debian-based distro – the instructions are on the official download page.

My experience with Syncthing

Personally, I got it installed on Pop!_OS 19.10 and used it for a while before writing this up.

I tried syncing folders, removing them, adding duplicate files to see how the file versioning works, and so on. It worked just fine.

However, when I tried syncing it to a phone (Android) – the sync started a bit late, it wasn’t very quick. So, if we could have an option to explicitly force sync, that could help. Or, did I miss the option? Let me know in the comments if I did.

Technically, it uses the resources of your system to work – so if you have a number of devices connected to sync, it should potentially improve the sync speed (upload/download).

Overall, it works quite well – but I must say that you shouldn’t rely on it as the only backup solution to your data.

Wrapping Up

Have you tried Syncthing yet? If yes, how was your experience with it? Feel free to share it in the comments below.

Also, if you know about some awesome alternatives to this – let me know about it as well.

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Evernote’s Official Linux Client is Coming Soon

Brief: One of the most popular notes organizing tools Evernote has a good news for Linux users. They will be releasing an Evernote desktop application for Linux this year.

If you are an Evernote fan, you probably have been missing it on Linux desktop. There is the web version available but you cannot use it offline if you are not a premium user.

Linux (almost) always has a way around. So, there are some third party applications that let you use Evernote on Linux. There are also some alternative applications to Evernote available on Linux.

A native Linux client for Evernote has been requested for a long time and the good news is that it should finally be coming to Linux in the year 2020.

Official Evernote client for Linux

In a recent blog post, CEO Ian Small revealed the planned updates for Evernote for the year 2020.

Ian mentions that a new client for Windows, Mac and Linux is onto the launching pad.

The re-engineered web client (in limited release), the new mobile clients (in first preview), and the (as yet unreleased) new clients for Windows, Mac, and (yes!) Linux, along with the ongoing re-architecture and data migration we’ve been doing in the cloud, will set up Evernote to be able to innovate and ship with quality at a pace we haven’t seen in a long time.

Ian Small
CEO, Evernote

It’s not clear at this point if the official Linux client will be an Electron version of the re-designed web client or a native application.

In simpler terms, an Electron app uses Chromium and Node.js to create a desktop application. Sometimes developers just wrap the web version in the form of an Electron application. Which is somewhat like running the service in a web browser. For example, Slack on Linux is an electron application.

I would prefer that Evernote develops a native application for Linux rather than an Electron app.

There is no set deadline for the Evernote Linux client release though. Since it is mentioned in the roadmap of 2020, it should be coming this year. Fingers crossed!

Evernote is not an open source application. If you want an open source application with similar features as Evernote, I recommend using Joplin.

What do you think of this announcement? Will a Linux client for Evernote entice you enough to get their premium subscription? What do you think?

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How to Set or Change Timezone in Ubuntu Linux [Beginner’s Tip]

When you install Ubuntu, it asks you to set timezone. If you chose a wrong timezone or if you have moved to some other part of the world, you can easily change it later.

How to change Timezone in Ubuntu and other Linux distributions

There are two ways to change the timezone in Ubuntu. You can use the graphical settings or use the timedatectl command in the terminal. You may also change the /etc/timezone file directly but I won’t advise that.

I’ll show you both graphical and terminal way in this beginner’s tutorial:

• Change timezone in Ubuntu via GUI (suitable for desktop users)
• Change timezone in Ubuntu via command line (works for both desktop and servers)

Method 1: Change Ubuntu timezone via terminal

Ubuntu or any other distributions using systemd can use the timedatectl command to set timezone in Linux terminal.

You can check the current date and timezone setting using timedatectl command without any option:

abhishek@nuc:~$ timedatectl 
                      Local time: Sat 2020-01-18 17:39:52 IST
                  Universal time: Sat 2020-01-18 12:09:52 UTC
                        RTC time: Sat 2020-01-18 12:09:52
                       Time zone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +0530)
       System clock synchronized: yes
systemd-timesyncd.service active: yes
                 RTC in local TZ: no

As you can see in the output above, my system uses Asia/Kolkata. It also tells me that it is 5:30 hours ahead of GMT.

To set a timezone in Linux, you need to know the exact timezone. You must use the correct format of the timezone (which is Continent/City).

To get the timezone list, use the list-timezones option of timedatectl command:

timedatectl list-timezones

It will show you a huge list of the available time zones.

Timezones List

You can use the up and down arrow or PgUp and PgDown key to move between the pages.

You may also grep the output and search for your timezone. For example, if you are looking for time zones in Europe, you may use:

timedatectl list-timezones | grep -i europe

Let’s say you want to set the timezone to Paris. The timezone value to be used here is Europe/Paris:

timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Paris

It won’t show any success message but the timezone is changed instantly. You don’t need to restart or log out.

Keep in mind that though you don’t need to become root user and use sudo with the command but your account still need to have admin rights in order to change the timezone.

You can verify the changed time and timezone by using the date command:

abhishek@nuc:~$ date
Sat Jan 18 13:56:26 CET 2020

Method 2: Change Ubuntu timezone via GUI

Press the super key (Windows key) and search for Settings:

Applications Menu Settings

Scroll down a little and look for Details in the left sidebar:

Go to Settings -> Details

In Details, you’ll fine Date & Time in the left sidebar. Here, you should turn off Automatic Time Zone option (if it is enabled) and then click on the Time Zone:

In Details -> Date & Time, turn off the Automatic Time Zone

When you click the Time Zone, it will open an interactive map and you can click on the geographical location of your choice and close the window.

Select a timezone

You don’t have to do anything other than closing this map after selecting the new timezone. No need to logout or shutdown Ubuntu.

I hope this quick tutorial helped you to change timezone in Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. If you have questions or suggestions, please let me know.

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Zorin Grid Lets You Remotely Manage Multiple Zorin OS Computers

One of the major hurdles institutes face is in managing and updating multiple Linux systems from a central point.

Well, Zorin OS has come up with a new cloud-based tool that will help you manage multiple computers running Zorin OS from one single interface. You can update the systems, install apps and configuration all systems remotely using this tool called Zorin Grid.

Zorin Grid: Manage a fleet of Zorin OS computers remotely

Zorin Grid is a tool that makes it simple to set up, manage, and secure a fleet of Zorin OS-powered computers in businesses, schools, and organizations.

When it comes to managing Linux distributions (here, Zorin OS) on a multitude of systems for an organization – it is quite time-consuming.

If it will be easier to manage Linux systems, more organizations will be interested to switch using Linux just like the Italian city Vicenza replaced Windows by Zorin OS.

For the very same reason, the Zorin team decided to create ‘Zorin Grid‘ with the help of which every school, enterprises, organizations, and businesses will be able to easily manage their Zorin OS-powered machines.

Zorin Grid features

Zorin Grid Features

You might have guessed what it is capable of – but let me highlight the key features of Zorin Grid as per its official webpage:

• Install and Remove Apps
• Set software update and security patch policies
• Monitor computer status
• Enforce security policies
• Keep track of software and hardware inventory
• Set desktop settings
• Organize computers into groups (for teams and departments)
• Role-based access control and audit logging

In addition to these, you will be able to do a couple more things using the Zorin Grid service. But, it looks like most of the essential tasks will be covered by Zorin Grid.

How does Zorin Grid work?

Zorin Grid is a cloud based software as a service. Zorin will be charging a monthly subscription fee for each computer managed by Zorin Grid in an organization.

You’ll have to install the Zorin Grid client on all the systems that you want to manage. Since it is cloud-based, you can manage all the Zorin systems on your grid from a web browser by logging into you Zorin Grid account.

You choose how to configure the computers once and the Zorin Grid applies the same configuration to all or specific computers in your organization.

The price has not been finalized. Artyom Zorin, CEO of Zorin Group, told It’s FOSS that schools and non-profit organizations will get Zorin Grid for a reduced pricing.

While client-side software for Zorin Grid will be open source, the Zorin Grid server won’t be open source initially. Releasing it under an open source license is tentatively on their roadmap.

Artyom also told that they plan to support other Linux distributions starting with Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distros after launching Zorin Grid for Zorin OS systems this summer.

In case you decide to migrate from Windows to Zorin OS for your organization or business, you will find a useful migration guide by the Zorin OS team to help you switch to Linux.

Zorin Grid

Wrapping Up

Let me summarize all the important points about Zorin Grid:

• Zorin Grid is an upcoming cloud based service that lets you manage multiple Zorin OS systems.
• It’s a premium service that charges for each computer used. The pricing is not determined yet.
• Educational institutes and non-profit organizations can get Zorin Grid for a reduced pricing.
• Initially it can only handle Zorin OS. Other Ubuntu-based distributions are on the road-map but there is no definite timeline for that.
• The service should be available in the summer 2020.
• Zorin Grid server won’t be open source initially.

Zorin Grid looks to be an impressive premium tool for organizations or businesses that want to use Linux while also being able to maintain their systems easily.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind paying for the service if it makes deploying and using Linux easier, in general.

Of course, it does not support every Linux distro as of yet – but it is indeed a promising service to keep an eye out for.

What do you think about it? Do you know of a better alternative to Zorin Grid? Do share your views in the comments.

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