I usually create quick, short videos of less than 5 minutes duration. But recently, I published a hands-on Nano editor guide that goes over 20 minutes.
That's rare for me. But if you like longer videos on a topic, perhaps I can create videos on Linux commands and Bash scripting. Please let me know your feedback 😄
We have been claiming that gaming on Linux has improved but has it really? Sourav takes it to testing by running his favorite Windows-only game on Linux.
We take a quick look at Open Euler 24.03, a Linux ecosystem by Open Atom, an open source foundation backed by Huawei, Tencent, Baidu and other Chinese tech giants.
On Brave Browser, you can take screenshots of websites.
Click on the top-right hamburger menu and select Save and Share > Screenshot.
This will give you a familiar selection rectangle, through which you can select a specific section of the website. Once a section is selected, it will be copied to your clipboard.
You can also click the download button to save the image to local storage.
🤣 Meme of the week
Microsoft cannot move forward without it, can it?
🗓️ Tech Trivia
MIT's Whirlwind became the world's first computer to allow users to enter commands using a keyboard on July 4, 1956, signalling a move away from dials, switches, and punch cards.
🧑🤝🧑 FOSSverse corner
Pro FOSSer and long-time contributor ernie shares a concerning report from Akamai, showing the current state of the internet security landscape.
These days, newer devices have started coming with onboard AI chips. The correct technical term for the 'AI chip' is NPU, which stands for neural processing units.
If you have got an NPU on-board, you may wonder whether your system is utilizing it.
In this tutorial, I'll share how I monitor NPU usage on my Rockchip processor.
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This method discussed here is only valid for NPU that comes integrated into Rockchip processor. I tested it with my ArmSoM Sige7 device which has a RK3588 processor.
You can check if your system has npu with this command:
dmesg | grep -i npu
Analyze the output to figure out if there is an NPU or not.
Checking Rockchip NPU utilization
Thankfully, Rockchip utilizes the debugfs feature. Debugfs is a special type of virtual filesystem that provides debug information in real time, similar to what you get with proc.
The file that will give you the NPU usage at any given time is:
/sys/kernel/debug/rknpu/load
Here's what it shows when I ran it on my ArmSoM device. It shows the usage for all three cores of the NPU:
As you can see, it just gives the NPU usage at the moment and ends it. Not very useful if you want to monitor the NPU usage.
An alternative can be to combine it with the watch command which will run the same command as above but every two seconds (by default):
watch sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/rknpu/load
Here's a screenshot I was running a LLM locally that utilized the NPU:
To stop the running watch command, press Ctrl+C.
📋
To actually see the NPU usage, you should run a program that is supposed to use NPU. Otherwise, it will always be 0 for all cores.
There is another way of monitoring NPU usage. I found it when I was experimenting with the ezrknpu project to run LLMs with Rockchip NPU.
The project has a ntop.sh script that shows the NPU usage in a top command like manner. Which is not entirely true because the top command doesn't pollute the screen. The ntop.sh script, on the other hand, floods the screen with all those lines and they don't go away after you press Ctrl+C.
The content of the script is:
#!/bin/bash
# Title: ntop.sh
# Author: Pelochus
# Brief: A very basic 'top' style program that shows the status of the NPU in Rockchip's SoCs
# Variables
CLEAR=""
# Parameters check
if [[ $1 = '-h' ]]
then
echo
echo "ntop Help"
echo
echo "-c: Clears output every refresh"
echo "-h: Shows this help screen"
echo
echo "For more information visit https://github.com/Pelochus/ezrknpu"
echo
exit
elif [[ $1 = '-c' ]]
then
CLEAR="clear"
fi
while true; do
eval $CLEAR # If empty, will not clear
cat /sys/kernel/debug/rknpu/load
sleep 0.5
done
The important part is the while loop at the end. Here's an example of NPU usage check with this script.
Conclusion
As you can see, there is no standard top like command that shows the NPU usage for various manufacturers. At present, I only have Rockchip so my exploration was limited and thus this tutorial was limited to Rockchip NPU. If I get access to more such hardware, I'll write about them too.
Upskilling yourself can never go wrong. With the current burst of AI/ML, learning the skills required to utilize AI (or have a career) has become important.
While the domain of AI is infinite, with countless things to learn, you can always have a head start over the others with the courses I am about to list down. Whether you are a non-techie, or have a technical background, these courses aim to cover the essentials.
The best part is that all the courses are completely free and will help you gain knowledge and experience. Some come with certifications to help you in your career.
So without further ado, here are the best free AI courses:
1. Generative AI for Everyone
Curated by DeepLearning.AI and taught by one of the most highly regarded professors, Andrew Ng, Generative AI for Everyone is a great place to start for most beginners.
It is presented in an obvious and understandable way. The course consists of three modules for tackling the basics. After this course, you will have an idea about Large Language Modules, Deep Learning, and Generative AI skills.
You are guided across tasks requiring generative AI capabilities in everyday life. So, you can put it to work after you complete the course. The course can be accessed for free using Coursera, you will need to pay a fee if you need the certification.
Introduction to Generative AI is a free introductory course from Google is a great icebreaker for people who are looking to learn the workings of AI without being extremely technical. This course helps you cover topics about how generative AI works and how it is different from other machine-learning mechanisms. This course will also make you comfortable with some Google AI tools.
The course consists of an hour of content, at the end of which, you receive a badge of completion.
3. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python
Offered by the renowned Harvard University, CS50's Introduction to AI with Python develops your skills in many foundational AI tasks. CS50, the most popular IT course online, is a prerequisite for this course. It is taught by the same professor, David J.Malan who is also one of the most eminent Computer Scientists.
The course spans 7 weeks and covers topics such as AI algorithms, game-playing engines, handwriting recognition, and machine translation. You will have to devote nearly 10 or more hours a week to finish this course. While this is a beginners' course, reviewers have pointed out that knowing the Python programming language (or any other programming language) should help you get through the course faster.
It is available through edX. If you require a certificate at the end of the course (which is optional), you will need to pay a fee for that.
Developed by fast.ai, Practical Deep Learning course takes people with some coding experience, all the way to becoming industrial-grade AI developers. Throughout the course, you learn about Computer vision, NLP, Collaborative filtering, and much more. You will also be using many advanced techniques.
Interesting fact: students from this course have developed an AI algorithm that outperformed the one from Google. Beyond that, the course also holds testimonies from many renowned universities and professors alike.
Highlights:
7-week course
Professional-ready learning
Incredible testimonies
Learn about various techniques in Machine Learning
Some of the first AI models made available to the public were Chatbots. IBM's AI Chatbots without Programming offers you the opportunity to build just that with no programming knowledge required.
This course is mostly a codeless experience as it uses IBM's own assistant Watson, as the backend for the bot that you develop. This makes this course beginner-friendly and makes it easy for children and students with no programming experience to take an interest in AI.
It is available on edX platform. So, it is free to access and requires an optional premium if you want the certificate.
If you are keen to learn something specific for your business, like focusing on Microsoft's AI tools and implementations, Transform Your Business with AI is the perfect pick.
In this course, you mainly go through how Microsoft is putting AI into its tools, products, and services, you also learn to create a framework for your AI. It consists of four modules, all of which can be finished in around 3 hours.
Highlights:
Learn how to integrate and use Microsoft AI into your business
This is the second entry of a course by Harvard on the list. Unlike some others, there is little to no prerequisite for this course. Here you will learn the basics of machine learning and many popular machine learning algorithms.
By the end of the course, you will have built a movie recommendation system and learned how to perform cross-validation to avoid overtraining. All of this will come in use for building your AI projects and help you master machine learning.
Highlights:
Beginner Course
Less time commitment of 2-4 hours a week
Build your recommendation algorithm
8. Natural Language Processing with Deep Learning
Available for free on YouTube, this course by Stanford University is for those who want to master human language processing in AI models. This course teaches you about Deep Learning and Neural Networks, which will help you create your own NLP model by the end of the course.
However, there is a prerequisite of proficiency in Python, Calculus, Algebra, Probability and Statistics, and foundational machine learning. This course is not for beginners but does end up with you having developed specialization skills in NLP.
Highlights:
Numerous prerequisites
Intermediate level
Taught by some of the best professors in the world
9. Generative AI Essentials: Overview and Impact
A free AI online course presented by the University of Michigan. It focuses on the generative AI capabilities, with tools like ChatGPT as an example.
Generative AI Essentials is a short course (3 hours of content) that helps you get up to speed with generative AI tools and how they work, and how they can be useful. You can access the course for free on Coursera. To get a certificate, you need to pay a fee.
Elements of AI is a website dedicated to offering free online AI courses for non-technical readers. It is an initiative by the University of Helsinki and MinnaLearn.
You can expect to learn about AI fundamentals, how to build AI, and how to use it for business.
After you are done learning about AI, you might need a way to certify your mastery over them. This is where Certifications come into play. Below, I have listed down a few AI Certifications you can get, to make your way into the industry.
📋
Certifications are completely optional and some can be expensive. Do your research before opting for any of them.
1. Generative AI LLMs
This certification exam, provided by NVIDIA, helps you to validate your skills related to fundamental ideas for creating, integrating, and managing AI-powered applications with NVIDIA products that use generative AI and large language models (LLMs).
The course costs $135 and consists of 50 questions, that you have to finish in an hour. The certificate is valid for up to 2 years once you have taken the exam.
Microsoft's AI certification exam is a good way for you to showcase your skills in machine learning, and Microsoft Azure-related services. You may also be eligible for ACE College Credit, which gives you extra college credits upon passing this exam.
Costing $99, this assessment is 45 minutes long. It is a closed-book exam and is available in many languages for the convenience of the examinee.
Amazon Web Services is known for numerous things, and of course, it includes AI and ML certifications. This exam tests numerous bases of AI, ranging from use cases, all the way to security and compliance of AI systems. This also opens the gate to multiple AI job roles.
The exam is available in English and Japanese. It costs $75 and is 120 minutes long, consisting of 85 questions.
Wrapping Up
With the help of these courses and certifications, you can jumpstart your career in AI/ML or just get comfortable using AI tools to boost your productivity and integrate it in your business.
There are technical and non-technical courses for AI. You can opt for the one that suits your use-case and per your technical skills (if any). Some are advanced, while others are for complete beginners, pick the one you find best!
💬 I hope you find all the AI courses listed helpful in your learning journey! Did I miss any of your favorites? Let me know in the comments!
Author Info
Swayam Sai Das is a student exploring the realms of Linux as an Intern Writer at It's FOSS. He is dedicated, when trying to push ranks in FPS games and enjoys reading literature classics in an attempt of putting on an academic facade.
If you are a Linux user and have ever searched for a stable and lightweight desktop environment, then you have definitely heard of Xfce.
It is fast, consumes minimal system resources while still offering a user-friendly UI that looks good. Not to forget, it also features one of the best file managers for Linux,i.e. Thunar. Undoubtedly, baked in utilities like this, its lightweight nature, and some customizability makes it a good pick for many.
So, what distribution should you pick to use Xfce as the desktop? Fret not, here, I have a list of the best Linux distributions for Xfce desktops that will get the job done.
1. Debian + Xfce
Debian is a solid distribution for all kinds of things. After using it myself, and reading countless user reviews online (so it's not just me), Debian is easily the most stable distro on this list.
When you choose to install Debian on your system, the installer gives you the ability to pick the desktop environment, you can pick Xfce to get started.
If you are new to Linux, the look might feel retro and old-fashioned, However, the good thing is that you can customize it to your heart's content. Xfce on Debian possesses vast software choices and an efficient experience, making the pair very formidable.
Whether you are a newbie or a veteran, this is the best way to use vanilla Xfce desktop on a distribution.
MX Linux's flagship edition comes baked with Xfce desktop. So naturally, Xfce works very well with it. With MX Tools, a very versatile program, and being one of the best Systemd-free distributions, my experience with MX Linux was interesting.
As it is based on Debian's stable version, you have all of Debian's repository at your disposal when you are using MX Linux. It comes with Flatpak enabled and backports ready to use, which Debian does not. Not to forget, the MX tools that I mentioned, offer a range of useful functions, from system management to allowing users to customize their experience effortlessly. All of these features make up for an outstanding distro that you can use with Xfce.
All in all, MX Linux works great out of the box and comes with loads of useful utilities for you to get things done.
Based on Ubuntu, Linux Mint is one of the most popular distros in the community. While its flagship edition features Cinnamon, its Xfce version does not disappoint.
Linux Mint comes pre-installed with useful apps like Warpinator, Software Manager, and many other applications. Linux Mint fares better than Ubuntu for many users. So, if you don't like something about Ubuntu, chances are Linux Mint will be your next best bet.
The customized experience out of the box with Linux Mint Xfce is refreshing. And, it should be the perfect pick if you do not like the vanilla Xfce look.
Peppermint OS is yet another Debian-stable-based distro. Naturally, you can use all of Debian's repos like you could with MX. Peppermint is good for those who like to take control of their system, offering different variants (mini/standard/fully loaded).
The better Peppermint Welcome screen makes it easy for beginners to give it a try, providing you instructions on important utilities.
Overall, the experience might seem similar to Debian, as it is based on that. Interestingly, you get another edition based on Devuan. If you want a Systemd-free Xfce distro, the Devuan-based Peppermint OS should be a good pick.
Fedora is well-known for its flagship GNOME desktop. But their spins are fantastic offerings as well. Fedora Xfce spin is an interesting choice for what it offers.
It is a bleeding-edge distro but offers simple and useful utilities out-of-the-box.
It comes with default applications like Pidgin, a messaging client. Moreover, it has Gnumeric that lets you create lightning-fast spreadsheets. It also features easy accessibility to all settings without the need to use commands.
Fedora might not be known for its Xfce desktop but, nonetheless, it is a very solid option.
Xubuntu is an official Xfce flavour of Ubuntu. So, it is like Linux Mint, as a distro based on Ubuntu, but with Ubuntu's style of customizations and snap support out of the box.
If you like the support for Snaps, and Xubuntu's customized experience, Xubuntu will be a safe distro experience for beginners.
Other than that, Xubuntu is lightweight and efficient, so users can try it out.
Arch Linux is tough for beginners. But, if you want to use Arch and Xfce, I would recommend Manjaro. It is a distro based on Arch and, above all, it makes it easy for users to configure things whether you are a newbie or an experienced user. Offering three official desktops, GNOME, Plasma, and Xfce, Manjaro is a versatile distro.
One downside is the fact that Manjaro only offers a 64-bit version. Other than that, the system itself is designed to work fully 'straight out of the box' with features. It comes with pre-installed GUI Software Managers to easily install software and update your system to and with codecs to play multimedia files.
All in all, Manjaro is an excellent choice if you are someone who is into Arch Linux. I have another Arch-based recommendation as you read on.
A distro based on Slackware inevitably aims for stability as its main goal. While previously Salix used to have seven different desktop editions, since 2016, it switched to Xfce only.
Salix offers three different modes of installation, depending upon the preference of the user. Core mode only installs the minimum packages required for the OS to run giving full control to the user. Basic mode installs core packages along with Xfce, a web browser, and other utilities. Full mode installs all applications you might need in your life.
Salix is a good choice if you want to run a simple and fast distribution.
Famous among security professionals and penetration testers, Kali Linux offers Xfce as its default desktop environment. Like a few others on this list, Kali Linux is also based on Debian.
Right out of the box, it contains a pre-configured desktop with all the necessary utilities and tools. It contains all the essential system managers and has many specialized tools for cybersecurity and breach testing. Overall, Xfce on Kali Linux complements security among users who work in the field.
Even though Plasma might have replaced Xfce as Endeavour's default environment, Endeavour remains one of the best Arch Linux-based distros for Xfce.
EndeavourOS's customization and user-friendly utilities has made it make a mark among Arch-based Linux distros. Even with all the customizations, you get a good Xfce experience.
With more than enough options available in the distro space, one can really explore and see what suits them best. While Debian and Ubuntu-based distros remain the popular choice, there are Systemd-free options and Arch-based options. Not to forget, there is a Fedora spin.
So, you have plenty of options to choose from, as per your use-case, you can choose the one that fits the best.
Exploring these distros will not bode pointless, as I have listed them after 'distro-hopping' myself, or you just to stick to what works best in the first attempt. 😎
💬 What is your favorite Xfce based Linux distro? Let me know your thoughts!
Author Info
Swayam Sai Das is a student exploring the realms of Linux as an Intern Writer at It's FOSS. He is dedicated, when trying to push ranks in FPS games and enjoys reading literature classics in an attempt of putting on an academic facade.
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