App Review | UbuntuHandbook

Try Out the New Security Center in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: September 14, 2024 — Leave a comment

Ubuntu is working on a new desktop security center and prompting-client. Here’s how to try it out in current Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

It’s an experimental new feature that will land in next Ubuntu 24.10. Which, provides graphical interface to make it easier for users to control the file/folder access permission for Snap apps.

For example, when browsing web via Firefox (the preinstalled Firefox is a Snap package). You found a good image and want to save it to local folder, or you just want to download something. Before the downloading process starts, it will pop-up a dialog as the screenshot shows you, asking for user permission to allow writing to the file or folder.

Pop-up for file/folder access permission

In App Review security

Alpaca – New GTK4 App to Chat with AI Offline

Last updated: July 25, 2024 — Leave a comment

Want to chat with AI models locally without internet connection? Here’s a simple app can do the job in Linux Desktop!

It’s Alpaca, a free open-source application written in Python programming language. It uses Ollama as backend to manage and chat with multiple AI models, without needing any API keys.

By using GTK4 plus Adwaita toolkits, it provides a modern and simple graphical interface that’s well integrated into Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation and other Linux with GNOME desktop.

In App Review AI Chatbot, Ollama Client

Mission Center – Modern Task & Service Manager App for Linux

Last updated: July 23, 2024 — Leave a comment

Looking for a system monitor, task manager, and service manager app for your Linux Desktop? Try Mission Center!

It’s a free open-source application written in Rust programming language, and uses GTK4 + LibAdwaita for its modern user interface that’s well integrated into Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation, and other Linux with GNOME Desktop.

With it, you have a Windows Task Manager look like interface that can monitor your CPU, Memory, Disk, Network and GPU usage with graphs.

Mission Center

In App Review system monitor

6 Sticky Notes App for Linux Desktop in 2024

Last updated: July 11, 2024 — Leave a comment

Looking for Microsoft Sticky Notes alternative app for Linux Desktop? Here I’m going to introduce some for you.

Sticky Notes is useful to write your sudden idea, to-do lists, and important messages on computer screen. There are quite a few free open-source sticky notes apps for Linux Desktop. And, here are some of them still work in 2024.

In App Review note-taking app, sticky notes

LocalSend – AirDrop Alternative to Transfer files over Local Network

Last updated: July 5, 2024 — Leave a comment

Looking for an app to transfer files and send messages over local network? LocalSend is good choice that works for most devices.

LocalSend is a free and open source application which promotes itself as alternative to Apple’s AirDrop. It’s a cross-platform app that allows to securely send files and messages over local network without an internet connection.

It works in Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Fire OS. Meaning you can use the file transfer app in most PC and mobile devices. And, the app doesn’t require an internet connection or external servers. It uses REST API for secure communication. All data is sent securely over HTTPS, and the TLS/SSL certificate is generated on the fly on each device.

In App Review network

6 Free Apps to Edit / Annotate PDF Files in Ubuntu Desktop

Last updated: June 28, 2024 — 4 Comments

Looking for an app to sign, annotate, or edit PDF files in Ubuntu Linux? Here I’m going to introduce some for you!

PDF, stands for Portable Document Format, is a file format that’s popular for office use. Besides using Adobe Acrobat, Linux has quite a few applications that can edit this file format.

1. Firefox

In App Review PDF

9 Lightweight Linux Distributions for Beginners

Last updated: June 11, 2024 — 4 Comments

Looking for lightweight Linux Distributions that play smoothly on old PC or laptop with low end specs? Here are some of them for you!

Advanced users can always install and set up a lightweight desktop environment manually on top of current OS. However, for beginners and those who don’t want to take time customizing the desktop, then a ready to use distribution is a better choice.

In Linux world, XFCE, MATE, LXQt/LXDE are commonly used desktop environments for lightweight distributions, though there are also many others for choice. And, here are 9 of them for beginners.

In App Review

Install & Manage Flatpak Apps with This Full-Featured Tool

Last updated: April 7, 2024 — Leave a comment

Have many Flatpak app packages installed on your Linux desktop or mobile? Here’s an app to install, remove, downgrade, and manage app data with a simple graphical interface.

Flatpak is getting popular in today’s Linux, and some (e.g., Linux Mint, Fedora, and Pop!_OS) even have it support out-of-the-box. User can install (or uninstall) a Flatpak package by either using system package manager or running a Linux command in terminal. And, there’s a popular graphical tool Flatseal to manage permissions for each app package.

For users who want to get more controls for their Flatpak app packages, there’s a free open-source tool warehouse available for choice.

In App Review, Howtos flatpak

Varia – Modern New Download Manager for GNOME Desktop

Last updated: March 5, 2024 — 1 Comment

Looking for a download manager for Ubuntu, Fedora, or other Linux with GNOME Desktop? Try Varia!

There are quite a few downloading apps for Linux Desktop. And, uGet is one of them that I prefer, which is however not updated for a few years.

For GNOME, the default desktop in Ubuntu and Fedora Workstation, there’s now a new download manager called Varia. It’s based on aria command line download utility, which is lightweight, super fast (support downloading from multi-sources in parallel), and supports HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, SFTP, BitTorrent and Metalink.

Varia is written in Python programming language, and uses GTK4 + Libadwaita for its user interface, that’s modern and well integrated with GNOME Desktop.

In App Review download

Ptyxis – New Container-Focused Terminal Emulator for GNOME

Last updated: March 1, 2024 — Leave a comment

Prompt, the container-oriented terminal emulator, now is re-named to Ptyxis!

GNOME Developer Christian Hergert announced the Prompt terminal emulator a few months ago. It “marries the best of GNOME Builder’s seamless container support, the beauty of GNOME Text Editor, and the robustness of VTE.” described in the blog post.

Due to name confusion to other product, the terminal emulator now has a new name called “Ptyxis”, according to this post “The extremely nice people at Panic let me know they had a product that might be confused with Prompt and I agreed it could be confusing.”