On the Personal Edition Controversy, LibreOffice Board Assures the Community That it Will Remain Free Software Forever

LibreOffice 7.0 will be released in soon and you may see it labelled as Personal Edition. This labelling and its tagline have created a sort of controversy.

LibreOffice Personal Edition? What’s the issue?

LibreOffice is working on the major release of version 7.0. An alert beta user noticed that LibreOffice 7.0 is labelled as Personal Edition and the user opened a bug report seeking clarification on the ‘Personal Edition’ term.

Libre Office Personal Edition

This created some sort of controversy as some people pointed out that terms like “personal edition” and “intended for individual use” could hamper the growth and use of LibreOffice.

You can read in the bug report that many users were confused over the term “intended for individual use”. One user wrote:

I’m clearly against any of “personal use”, “individual use” or “private use” or similar. With such terms LibreOffice cannot be used in education and non-profit organization.

Another LibreOffice user a wrote a blog post expressing his displeasure over this.

LibreOffice clarification on “Personal Edition” label

The outrage forced the LibreOffice board to release an official statement.

The board assures that LibreOffice is not opting for a new license and users won’t lose any functionality.

None of the changes being evaluated will affect the license, the availability, the permitted uses and/or the functionality. LibreOffice will always be free software and nothing is changing for end users, developers and Community members.

They further clarify that this Personal Edition tagline is part of their upcoming marketing plan. They want to differentiate between “the current, free and community-supported LibreOffice from a LibreOffice Enterprise set of products and services provided by the members of our ecosystem”.

What is this LibreOffice Enterprise edition?

Today, LibreOffice is developed by volunteers and ecosystem companies (companies that use or sell product/services based on LibreOffice). Out of that, 68% of the contribution to source code if from the ecosystem companies, 28% from volunteers and only 4% from actual The Document Foundation (LibreOffice’s governing organization) developers.

Image Credit: Italo Vignoli

As per TDF marketing person Italo Vignoli’s presentation, the proposal (not confirmed yet) is to “to reduce the perception that The Document Foundation (TDF) is a software vendor, providing support and other services.”

So, he proposes using the term LibreOffice Engine for the core LibreOffice. LibreOffice Personal Edition becomes the community supported version.

The LibreOffice Enterprise is basically LibreOffice Personal edition with support offered by the ecosystem.

At the same time, effort is put to improve LibreOffice the ecosystem of members. These members may have “certified by LibreOffice” kind of stamp, and they could provide the “Libreoffice Enterprise” to their business customers.

The proposal is to let ecosystem brand their own product based on LibreOffice Enterprise. So let’s say an XYZ ecosystem member starts offering “XYZ Office Suite” based on “LibreOffice Enterprise edition” to its customers.

What do you think of LibreOffice Personal and Enterprise segregation?

The long-term plan to have an enterprise ecosystem model is a good thinking. However, using a tagline like “volunteers supported, not suggested for production environments or strategic documents” gives a negative impression.

It could be perceived as if LibreOffice Personal is an unstable product not safe for important works. This tagline must be rephrased.

What do you think of the entire episode? Are you satisfied with the explanation of LibreOffice board? How do you see the segregation of LibreOffice Personal and Enterprise edition.

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How to Enable Snap Applications Support in Linux Mint 20 (If You Really Need to Use Snap)

The newly released Linux Mint 20 doesn’t have Snap support enabled by default.

Sooner or later, you may encounter a situation where an application version is only available as Snap package and then you need to enable Snap support.

If you go about enabling Snap in Mint 20 like you do in other Linux distributions, you’ll encounter an error like this:

E: Package 'snapd' has no installation candidate

Snap installation needs slight extra effort in Linux Mint 20

Normally, this error means that the package is not available in the repository but that’s not the case here. Snap is explicitly blocked here and you have to remove this block by removing the /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref file.

If you are comfortable with Linux command line, you can easily delete this file and enable snap support.

If you are not comfortable with the terminal, I discuss a slightly safer way of doing it and that is to move the file instead of removing it.

Enable snap support in Linux Mint 20

In a terminal, type the following command to move the nosnap preference file to your home directory:

sudo mv /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref ~

Now you can go on and install the snapd daemon like always:

sudo apt install snapd

Once the snap support is enabled in Linux Mint, you can use the snap commands to install applications in Snap format.

You can use the Nemo file browser and delete the file you copied in the home directory. Safer this way, if you are afraid of the rm command in terminal.

Why Linux Mint explicitly disabled Snap support?

Snap is a universal package format that can be installed in any distribution that supports snapd. This is one of the biggest advantage of snap packages.

These snap packages are ‘containerized’ meaning that these packages contain all the dependency within the package and they don’t rely on and interact with the system’s installed packages and libraries (mostly). Snap packages are automatically updated to newer versions.

But snap packages have some negative points as well. They are huge in size. If an apt package is 100MB in size, the snap package of the same application may have 1 GB of size.

Apart from that, snap applications take longer to load and they also take more disk spaces.

But that’s not the reason why snaps are banished from Linux Mint 20.

Linux Mint team took a hard decision of blocking Snap by default after Ubuntu went on to blurring the line between apt packaging system and snap packaging system.

When you use apt to install an application, you expect an apt package to be installed. But that’s not the case in Ubuntu 20.04 (Mint 20 is based on this Ubuntu version). In Ubuntu 20.04, if you use apt to install Chromium browser, it installs a snap version of this browser.

Mint team is clearly not happy with this violation:

A year later, in the Ubuntu 20.04 package base, the Chromium package is indeed empty and acting, without your consent, as a backdoor by connecting your computer to the Ubuntu Store. Applications in this store cannot be patched, or pinned. You can’t audit them, hold them, modify them or even point snap to a different store. You’ve as much empowerment with this as if you were using proprietary software, i.e. none. This is in effect similar to a commercial proprietary solution, but with two major differences: It runs as root, and it installs itself without asking you.

And hence they decided to explicitly blocked snap support from Mint 20.

To snap or not snap, that is the question

As always, there is a way in Linux to get what you want. So, you can bypass this blockage and enable snap package support in Linux Mint 20.

As I mentioned in the beginning, you may face certain situations where an application is only available as Snap and then you may need Snap support. But till then, you can enjoy Linux Mint 20 without snap.

What about you? Are you going to use snap or not? What do you think of the overall ‘no snap in my distro’ approach?

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Meet RecApp, a New Screen Recording App for Linux Desktop

Brief: RecApp is a simple open-source screen recorder tool. It doesn’t boast of huge features but gives you enough to record your screen with a simple user interface.

We have plenty of screen recorders available for Linux. Abhishek prefers to use Kazam while I like using SimpleScreenrecorder. Neither of us use the GNOME’s built-in screen recorder.

Recently we were contacted by the developer of RecApp, a new screen recording tool. Since I like experimenting with different applications, I took it upon myself to cover RecApp as this week’s open source software highlight.

RecApp: A fairly simple screen recorder for Linux desktop

RecApp is an interesting open-source screen recorder tool that does not depend on FFmpeg and utilizes free GStreamer modules. If you’re curious, it’s written in GTK.

If you were looking for a simple and open-source solution to record your desktop screen, RecApp could be a solution.

Features of RecApp

Even though RecApp doesn’t offer a lot, it does have the necessary features to record a desktop screen. Here’s what it lets you do:

• Tweak frames per second settings
• Add a delay to the recording
• Select the screen region to record
• Toggle between high quality and compressed quality.
• Ability to record audio from apps
• Toggle to record the cursor or not
• Choose the folder for saving the video
• Supports mp4, webm, and mkv formats

The best thing about RecApp is that you don’t have a separate preference box to tweak settings., which makes things less confusing. You get everything in just a single screen and that’s all you have to follow.

Installing RecApp on Linux

Primarily, it offers a Flatpack package. So, you can simply refer to It’s FOSS guide on using Flatpak to install it.

For Fedora, you can utilize the terminal and type in the command to install it:

sudo dnf install recapp

Download RecApp

Conclusion

Though RecApp is a fairly new project but it worked mostly fine in my usage on Pop OS 20.04. So, take that with a pinch of salt.

RecApp has a simple interface and is easy to use. However, the aspect ratio of the video recorded wasn’t perfect in my case. It was not completely 1080p and I couldn’t find a way to change that. Other than that, I didn’t have any other issues recording my screen.

What do you think about RecApp? What screen recorder do you use to capture your desktop?

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How to Make a Transparent Background in GIMP [Step by Step Guide]

Removing the background is one of the most used graphic design procedures. There could be many reasons why you would want to do that.

For example, you don’t like the background, you want to add the image to another background, or you simply want to make the image transparent.

When you make the image background transparent, you can use the colour according to the background of the new image. If you put a transparent image on top of a blue image, the image will now have a blue background. This is quite handy in graphic designing.

You can use GIMP to remove the background from an image. I am going to show you how to do that step-by-step in this GIMP tutorial.

How to Make a Transparent Background in GIMP

Step 1: Open up the image as a layer

As I have mentioned before, you need to get used to isolate different images and actions as layers. This tutorial is so simple that if you just open your image, it will still be fine. Although I want to maintain a good habit and open my image as following.

File -> Open as Layers

Open As Layers

Step 2: Use the Fuzzy select tool

The Fuzzy Select tool is designed to select areas of the current layer or image based on colour similarity. This tool will help us to select the unwanted background with one click.

Step 3: Add Transparency

An alpha channel is automatically added into the Channel Dialog as soon as you add a second layer to your image. It represents the transparency of the image.

If your image has only one layer (like our example), this background layer has no Alpha channel. In this case, to Add an Alpha channel.

Layer -> Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel

Step 4: Delete the background

Press the Delete keyboard button to remove the background.

If you have other different coloured regions that you need to remove, click on them and delete them.

You might have to repeat the steps 2 to step 4 if necessary. I have to remove the blue background in this example.

Step 5: Export the image

To export the image go to File -> Export As, choose PNG file format and click on Export. All done!

Did it work for you?

I took a simple example in this case. If your image background has lots of colors, you may have to repeat step 2 to step 4, deleting each color one by one.

This was another tutorial in our GIMP series to help you accomplish common editing image editing tasks. We, at It’s FOSS, will be sharing more such tutorials. Stay tuned and do subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

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Purism’s Ultra-Secure Linux Machine is Now Available in a New Size

Purism is well-known for its privacy and security focused hardware and software while utilizing open-source technologies. Not to forget the latest Purism Librem Mini.

After a good success with Librem 15 and 13 series laptops, Purism has unveiled Librem 14.

Librem 14 looks like a perfect laptop for an open-source enthusiast who’s concerned about the security and privacy of a laptop.

In this article, we will talk about Librem 14 specifications, pricing, and its availability.

Librem 14: Overview

Similar to other variants in the series, Librem 14 offers all the essential security features like the hardware kill switch to disable webcam/microphone and its secure PureBoot boot firmware.

Librem series is one of the rare few laptops that come preloaded with Linux. Purism uses its own custom distribution called PureOS. If you’re curious, you can also browse the source code for it.

As a key highlight of Librem 14 laptop, here’s what Purism mentions:

The most distinctive feature of the Librem 14 is the new 14″ 1080p IPS matte display which, due to the smaller bezel, fits within the same footprint as the Librem 13.

Even though that’s not something mind-blowing, it is good to see that they’ve made the laptop fit within the same footprint as its predecessor.

It’s a great decision targeted for users who do not want a lot of changes with their laptop upgrade or may appreciate a compact dimension of the laptop.

Librem 14: Specifications

Along with the key highlight, Purism’s Librem 14 offers an impressive set of specifications. Here’s what you get:

• Intel Core i7-10710U (Comet Lake)
• 14″ Matte (1920×1080) Display
• Intel UHD Graphics
• RAM Up to 32GB, DDR4 at 2133 MHz
• 2 SATA + NVMe-capable M.2 slots
• 1 HDMI Port (4K capable @60Hz max)
• USB Type-C Video Out (4K capable)
• 3.5mm AudioJack
• Gigabit Ethernet Adapter with Integrated RJ45 Connector
• Atheros 802.11n w/ Two Antennas
• USB-C Power Delivery Port
• Weight: 1.4 kg

It’s slightly disappointing to see Intel chipsets in 2020 — but considering the presence of PureBoot and other features that Librem 14 offers, an Intel-powered secure laptop makes sense.

Nevertheless, it’s good to see them including USB Type-C video port. Without dedicated graphics, it may not be a steal deal for power users but it should get a lot of work done.

Also, it’s worth noting that Purism offers anti-interdiction services to detect tampering during shipments for high-risk customers. Of course, that wouldn’t prevent tampering — but it’ll help you know about it.

Librem 14: Pricing & Availability

For now, Librem 14 laptop is available for pre-orders with an early big base price of $1199 ($300 off from its regular price) that features 8 Gigs of RAM and 250 GB of M.2 SATA storage.

Depending on what you prefer, the price might go up to $3,693.00 with the maxed out configuration with anti-interdiction services included.

You can expect the orders to start shipping in the early Q4 2020.

Pre-Order Librem 14

What do you think about Purism’s Librem 14 laptop? Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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openSUSE Leap 15.2 Released With Focus on Containers, AI and Encryption

openSUSE Leap 15.2 has finally landed with some useful changes and improvements.

Also, considering the exciting announcement of Closing the Leap Gap, the release of openSUSE Leap 15.2 brings us one step closer to SLE (SUSE Linux Enterprise) binaries being integrated to openSUSE Leap 15.3 next.

Let’s take a look at what has changed and improved in openSUSE Leap 15.2.

openSUSE Leap 15.2: Key Changes

Overall, openSUSE Leap 15.2 release involves security updates, major new packages, bug fixes, and other improvements.

In their press release, a developer of the project, Marco Varlese, mentions:

“Leap 15.2 represents a huge step forward in the Artificial Intelligence space, “I am super excited that openSUSE end-users can now finally consume Machine Learning / Deep Learning frameworks and applications via our repositories to enjoy a stable and up-to-date ecosystem.”

Even though this hints at what changes it could involve, here’s what’s new in openSUSE Leap 15.2:

Adding Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning packages

Unquestionably, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning are some of the most disruptive technologies to learn.

To facilitate that to its end-users, openSUSE Leap 15.2 has added a bunch of important packages for new open source technologies:

• Tensorflow
• PyTorch
• ONNX
• Grafana
• Prometheus

Introducing a Real-Time Kernel

With openSUSE Leap 15.2, a real-time kernel will be introduced to manage the timing of microprocessors to efficiently handle time-critical events.

The addition of a real-time kernel is a big deal for this real. Gerald Pfeifer (chair of the project’s board) shared his thoughts with the following statement:

“The addition of a real time kernel to openSUSE Leap unlocks new possibilities. Think edge computing, embedded devices, data capturing, all of which are seeing immense growth. Historically many of these have been the domain of proprietary approaches; openSUSE now opens the floodgates for developers, researchers and companies that are interested in testing real time capabilities or maybe even in contributing. Another domain open source helps open up!”

Inclusion of Container Technologies

With the latest release, you will notice that Kubernetes is included as an official package. This should make it easy for end-users to automate deployments, scale, and manage containerized applications.

Helm (the package manager for Kubernetes) also comes baked in. Not just limited to that, you will also find several other additions here and there that makes it easier to secure and deploy containerized applications.

Updates to openSUSE Installer

openSUSE’s installer was already pretty good. But, with the latest Leap 15.2 release, they have added more information, compatibility with right-to-left languages like Arabic, and subtle changes to make it easier to select options right at the time of installation.

Improvements to YaST

While YaST is already a pretty powerful installation and configuration tool, this release adds the ability of creating and managing a Btrfs file-system and enforcing advanced encryption techniques.

Of course, you must be aware of the availability of openSUSE on Windows Subsystem for Linux. So, with Leap 15.2, YaST compatibility with WSL has improved as per their release notes.

Desktop Environment Improvements

The desktop environments available have been update to their latest versions that include KDE Plasma 5.18 LTS and GNOME 3.34.

You will also find an updated XFCE 4.14 desktop available for openSUSE Leap 15.2.

If you’re curious to know all the details for the latest release, you may refer to the official release announcement.

Download & Availability

As of now, you should be able to find Linode cloud images of Leap 15.2. Eventually, you will notice other cloud hosting services like Amazon Web Services, Azure, and others to offer it as well.

You can also grab the DVD ISO or the network image file from the official website itself.

To upgrade your current installation, I’d recommend following the official instructions.

openSUSE Leap 15.2

Have you tried openSUSE Leap 15.2 yet? Feel free to let me know what you think!

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How to Create a Pareto Diagram [80/20 Rule] in LibreOffice Calc

Brief: In this LibreOffice tip, you’ll learn to create the famous Pareto chart in Calc.

The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 Rule, The Law of the Vital Few and The Principle of Factor Sparsity, illustrates that 80% of effects arise from 20% of the causes – or in layman’s terms – 20% of your actions/activities will account for 80% of your results/outcomes.

Although the original observation is related to economics, it can be widely adopted and used across all aspects of business, economics, mathematics, and processes. In computer science, the Pareto principle can be used in software optimization.

Let me show you how to create a Pareto diagram in LibreOffice spreadsheet tool, i.e. Calc.

Creating Pareto diagram in LibreOffice Calc

To be able to create a Pareto diagram, you need these three basic elements:

• The factors, ranked by the magnitude of their contribution
• The factors expressed numerically
• The cumulative-percent-of-total effect of the ranked factors

First, enter the data in a spreadsheet. Now let’s get started!

Step 1: Sort the data

Mark all rows from first to the last and at the Data tab click on the Sort option. At the Sort Criteria tab choose Sort key 1 and change the entry to Number of Errors or whichever name you choose. Make sure to tick Descending and finally OK.

Step 2: Create the Cumulative Percentage values

To calculate the cumulative percent of a total, you will need one formula for the first cell (C5) and a different formula for cells C6 and below.

Generic formula for the first cell

=amount/total

In the example shown, the formula in C5 is: =B5/$B$15

Generic formula for the remaining cells:

=(amount/total)+previous cell result

In the example shown, the formula in C6 is: =(B6/$B$15)+C5

By dragging the fill handle down, you will get the correct formulas for the remaining cells.

Step 3: Create the Pareto diagram

To create the chart go to Insert tab and then click on the Chart option.

In the upcoming Chart Wizard choose the chart type Column and Line with Number of lines set to 1 and click Next.

Select the correct data range $A$4:$C$14 by either using your mouse in the data range selector or by entering it manually. Leave the settings Data series in columns, First row as label, First column as label and click Next.

The following Data Series window should have everything filled in correctly, click Next.

In the last window enter titles and remove the legend:

• Title: Pareto chart
• X axis: Error Type
• Y axis: Number of Errors
• Untick Display legend
• click Finish.

And this is the result:

If the red line appears without any value, select it, then right click > Format Data Series > Align Data Series to Secondary y-Axis > Click OK.

Step 4: Fine tune the chart

The range of the secondary y-axis is set to 0 – 120 , it needs to be up to 100.

Double click on the secondary y-axis . In the Scale tab, untick Automatic and enter 100 as the maximum value. Then click ok.

All done!

Conclusion

Using a Pareto chart to analyze problems in a business project allows focusing efforts towards the ones offering the most considerable improvement potential.

This is one of the many real-life scenario where I have used LibreOffice instead of other proprietary office software. I hope to share more LibreOffice tutorials on It’s FOSS. Meanwhile, you can learn these rather hidden LibreOffice tips.

Which LibreOffice functionality do you use the most? Let us know at the comments below!

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