CoyIM – A GTK+ Chat Client Focus on Safety and Security

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Looking for an XMPP Jabber client for Linux? CoyIM is a free open-source GTK+ client that focus on safety and security.

CoyIM is written in Go programming language with GTK+ framework. It works on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS. The chat client has built-in support for Tor, OTR and TLS.

The Tor support allows users to become anonymous while chatting, OTR makes end-to-end encryption of communication possible, and TLS adds another layer of encryption for the communication with chat servers.

CoyIM features:

  • Support of the latest OTR.
  • Detection of Tor (if installed) and connection through it.
  • Use of Tor Onion Service for a known server.
  • Use separate Tor circuits for each account.
  • Insert random delays before connecting each account.
  • SRV lookup for the server over Tor if available.
  • Import from Pidgin, Adium, Gajim or xmpp-client.
  • Save all your configuration in an encrypted file.

How to Install CoyIM:

For Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04, you can simply install the chat app from the universe repositories by running command in terminal:

sudo apt install coyim

For the latest release, as well as Windows / Mac OS packages, go to the official download page:

The Linux package is a single executable file. Simply add executable permission via file’s Properties > Permissions dialog and then run it to launch the software.

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Vivaldi 3.4 Released with Configurable Context Menus

Last updated: October 15, 2020

Vivaldi web browser released new stable 3.4 version that features configurable context menus, automatic reloading pages, and Vivaldia, the real 80s arcade-style game.

Vivaldi 3.4 release highlights:

  • Configurable context menus (right-click menus).
  • Add custom links to menus.
  • Automatic reload pages. Right-click on a tab, move over Periodic Reload menu entry and select reload interval.
  • Capture a screenshot directly into a new note.
  • New plus icon to select a custom image for non-synced profiles.
  • Drag’n’drop support creating Speed Dial folder
  • Vivaldia, a real 80s arcade-style game

How to Install Vivaldi 3.4 in Ubuntu:

The official Ubuntu .DEB packages are available for download at the link below:

Grab the deb matches your OS, then install it via Ubuntu Software or Gdebi package manager. Or run command in terminal:

sudo apt install ./Downloads/vivaldi-stable*.deb

Vivaldi also has an official apt repository, with it you can install the browser and get future updates through Software Updater utility.

Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcut or by searching for terminal from application menu. When it opens, run following commands one by one:

1. Download and install the repository keyring:

wget -qO- https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

Typer user password when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. Add Vivaldi repository via command:

sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb/ stable main'

3. Finally check updates and install the web browser via command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install vivaldi-stable

Or upgrade from an old version via Software Updater utility.

(Optional): To remove Vivaldi apt repository from you system, launch Software & Updates and navigate to Other Software tab.

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Pitivi Video Editor 2020.09 Released, How to Install in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: October 14, 2020

Pitivi video editor 2020.09 was released a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and derivatives.

It’s been more than 2 years since the last stable release, Pitivi 2020.09 features a plugin system, easy Ken-Burns effect, developer console plugin, timeline markers, user-interface and workflow improvements, a refactored media library, new keyboard shortcuts, and much more.

How to Install Pitivi in Ubuntu:

The new release has been into Ubuntu 20.10 universe repository. For Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint and other Linux, it can be installed via Flathub repository.

1. Open terminal from system application launcher, then run command to install Flatpak (if you don’t have it):

sudo apt install flatpak

For Ubuntu 18.04, you have to add the PPA first before installing the flatpak daemon:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alexlarsson/flatpak && sudo apt update

2. Then add the flathub repository by running command:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

3. Finally install Pitivi video editor:

flatpak install flathub org.pitivi.Pitivi

Uninstall Pitivi Flatpak package:

For any reason, you can remove the flatpak package easily by running command in terminal:

flatpak uninstall org.pitivi.Pitivi
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Linux Kernel 5.9 Released! How to Install it in Ubuntu

Last updated: October 12, 2020

Linux Kernel 5.9 was released a day ago. Linus Torvalds announced that:

Ok, so I’ll be honest – I had hoped for quite a bit fewer changes this last week, but at the same time there doesn’t really seem to be anything particularly scary in here. It’s just more commits and more lines changed than I would have wished for.

The bulk of this is the networking fixes that I already mentioned as being pending in the rc8 release notes last weekend. In fact, about half the patch (and probably more of the number of commits) is from the networking stuff (both drivers and elsewhere).

…

Linux 5.9 features initial Intel Rocket Lake graphics, NVMe zoned namespaces (ZNS) support, 32-bit x86 Clang build support, initial support for Radeon RX 6000 “RDNA 2” graphics cards, and more.

How to Install Linux Kernel 5.9 in Ubuntu:

The mainline kernel packages for Linux 5.9 (64-bit) are now available for download at the link below:

Select generic for common system, and lowlatency for a low latency system (e.g. for recording audio):

  1. linux-headers-5.9.0-xxxxxx_all.deb
  2. linux-headers-5.9.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb
  3. linux-modules-5.9.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb
  4. linux-image-xxx-5.9.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb

Alternatively you can download and install the kernel binaries via terminal commands ( open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T):

cd /tmp/

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.9/amd64/linux-headers-5.9.0-050900_5.9.0-050900.202010112230_all.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.9/amd64/linux-headers-5.9.0-050900-generic_5.9.0-050900.202010112230_amd64.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.9/amd64/linux-image-unsigned-5.9.0-050900-generic_5.9.0-050900.202010112230_amd64.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.9/amd64/linux-modules-5.9.0-050900-generic_5.9.0-050900.202010112230_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Once installed, restart your computer and enjoy!

Uninstall Linux Kernel 5.9:

Restart your machine and select boot with the previous kernel in boot menu ‘Grub2 -> Advanced Option for Ubuntu’. Then run command to remove Linux Kernel 5.9:

sudo dpkg --purge linux-image-unsigned-5.9.0-050900-generic
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Liferea 1.3.3 Released with Webkits Intelligent Tracking Protection [PPA]

Last updated: October 11, 2020

Liferea, Linux Feed Reader, released version 1.3.3 a few days ago with a lot of improvements. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04.

Liferea 1.3.3 release highlights:

  • Implement support for Webkits Intelligent Tracking Protection
  • Add Ctrl + 0 hotkey to reset zoom
  • Add debug printing of SAX parser errors
  • CSS color update on theme change without restart
  • Fixes view mode switch
  • Default to https:// instead of http://
  • Progress bar support when loading web pages
  • Drop CDF channel support
  • Drop PIE aka. Atom 0.2/0.3 support
  • Drop RSS namespace “blogChannel” support

Install Liferea 1.3.3 via PPA:

1.) Open terminal from application launcher and run command to add the unofficial PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Type your password when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2.) Then check updates and install the news reader via commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install liferea

or update the old package (if installed) via Software Updater utility:

Uninstall:

As the PPA also contains many other applications, you may remove the PPA either via Software & Updates > Other Software, or by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

And remove the feed reader if want via command:

sudo apt remove liferea
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MPZ – New Linux Music Player for Big Local Collections

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Looking for a Linux music player to manage large local collections? Mpz is a new open-source player that does the job.

If you like to organize your music in folders, then this player might be for you. It doesn’t try to index all the files into a library, but rather treats your files and folders as a library and provides a convenient way to create playlists directly from folders. Similar to Foobar2000’s Album List, but it’s not an attempt to clone.

The main feature is 3-columns UI allows you to quickly create playlists from folders via middle-click and switch between playlists.

Other mpz features include:

  • Built with Qt/C++ with fast and responsive native UI;
  • Supports internet radio in m3u and pls playlists formats;
  • Supports CUE sheets;
  • Supports MPRIS on Linux for remote control;
  • Configuration in 2 yaml files
  • Supports global media keys and non-global shortcuts.

How to Install mpz in Ubuntu:

The software developer maintains binary packages for Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora, openSUSE, etc, which are available to download at the link below:

For Ubuntu, grab the deb package and install it either via Gdebi or apt command in terminal:

sudo apt install ./Downloads/mpz*.deb

(Optional) To remove the music player application, run command:

sudo apt remove mpz
In App Review
 

LazPaint – Raster Image Editor Similar to Paint.Net / PaintBrush

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Looking for an image editor similar to Windows Paint.Net or Mac OS PaintBrush? LazPaint is the open-source image editor that works on Linux.

LazPaint is an image editor with layers and transparency. It’s written in Lazarus (Free Pascal) and uses BGRABitmap library. With OpenRaster format support it can interoperate with MyPaint, Gimp and Krita.

Features include:

  • Read and write a variety of file formats, including layered bitmaps and 3D files.
  • Tools: many tools are available to draw on the layers.
  • Select parts of an image with antialiasing and modify the selection as a mask.
  • View: color window, layer stack window and toolbox window.
  • Command line support.
  • Keyboard shortcuts support.

How to Install LazPaint in Ubuntu:

The image editor offers .deb packages available to download at the link below:

Just grab the latest deb package, and install it by running command in terminal:

sudo apt install ./Downloads/lazpaint*.deb

Once installed, open it from system application launcher and enjoy!

(Optional) To remove LazPaint simply run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove lazpaint
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[Quick Tip] Drag and Drop Pasting File / Folder Path into Terminal

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Familiar with Linux commands? You may already know many tips and tricks that will save you a lot of time.

Here are some that I have been using for a long period of time, including Tab auto-completion, when you type something in Linux terminal and hit Tab, it auto-completes the command or file path, or outputs all possible options.

And Ctrl+Shift+V will do paste text to terminal instead of Ctrl+V. Without copying to the clipboard, you can simply select / highlight the text and use mouse middle-click to paste into terminal.

Today I found a new terminal tips that I didn’t know before. Thanks to the reddit, I’m going to share it with you by following steps.

1. Drag and drop file or folder to paste the path into terminal.

Just drag and drop a file or folder into terminal, and you’ll see the full path pasted with single quotes. It’s useful if there’s special character in file path or you just don’t want to type …

2. Drag and drop a selection of text into terminal.

You can also drag and drop a selection of text into terminal, so you don’t need to do copy and paste with context menu clicks or keyboard shortcuts.

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Voice Chat App Mumble 1.3.3 Released with Stability Improvements[PPA]

Last updated: October 7, 2020

Mumble, open source, low-latency, high quality voice chat software, released version 1.3.3 a few days ago. PPA updated for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and Ubuntu 20.04.

Changes in Mumble 1.3.3 include:

  • Fix chat box invisble (zero height)
  • Fix handling of invalid packet sizes
  • Fix race-condition leading to loss of shortcuts
  • Link in About dialog is now clickable again
  • Fix sizing issues in ACL-Editor
  • PulseAudio now always samples at 48 kHz
  • Fix server crash due to problems when using PostgreSQL

How to install Mumble 1.3.3 in Ubuntu:

The official release PPA has made the packages for all current Ubuntu releases.

1. Open terminal either from system application launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, paste below command and hit Enter:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mumble/release

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue adding the PPA.

2. If an old release was installed, simply upgrade Mumble via Software Updater:

Or run commands one by one in terminal to check updates and install the chat utility for gamer:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mumble mumble-server

Uninstall Mumble:

You can purge the PPA which also downgrade the VoIP chat app to the stock version via command:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:mumble/release

To simply remove mumble, either use system package manager or run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove mumble mumble-server
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Python 3.9.0 Released, How to Install via PPA in Ubuntu

Last updated: October 6, 2020

Python programming language 3.9.0 was released with new features and optimizations. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and Ubuntu 20.04 via PPA.

Python 3.9.0 is the first version default to the 64-bit installer on Windows. Windows 7 is unsupported.

Python 3.9.0 release highlights:

  • Module State Access from C Extension Methods
  • Union Operators in dict
  • Type Hinting Generics In Standard Collections
  • Flexible function and variable annotations
  • Python adopts a stable annual release cadence
  • Relaxing Grammar Restrictions On Decorators
  • Support for the IANA Time Zone Database in the Standard Library
  • String methods to remove prefixes and suffixes
  • New PEG parser for CPython
  • Garbage collection does not block on resurrected objects;
  • os.pidfd_open added that allows process management without races and signals;
  • Unicode support updated to version 13.0.0;
  • when Python is initialized multiple times in the same process, it does not leak memory anymore;
  • A number of Python built-ins (range, tuple, set, frozenset, list, dict) are now sped up using PEP 590 vectorcall;
  • A number of Python modules (_abc, audioop, _bz2, _codecs, _contextvars, _crypt, _functools, _json, _locale, operator, resource, time, _weakref) now use multiphase initialization as defined by PEP 489;
  • A number of standard library modules (audioop, ast, grp, _hashlib, pwd, _posixsubprocess, random, select, struct, termios, zlib) are now using the stable ABI defined by PEP 384.

How to Install Python 3.9.0 in Ubuntu:

1.) Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, or by searching for ‘terminal’ from system application launcher.

When terminal opens, run command to add the “deadsnakes” team PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2.) Then run commands to refresh system package cache, and install Python 3.9:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install python3.9

3.) Once successfully installed, check your system Python versions (python –version):

4.) (NOT Recommended) To use Python 3.9 as the default python3, run commands:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/bin/python3.8 1

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/bin/python3.9 2

For Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04, replace python3.8 in the code with system’s default python3 version..
And you can then switch between the two Python3 versions via command:

sudo update-alternatives --config python3

NOTE: Due to known bug, terminal won’t open if you changed python3 symlink. An workaround is recreate a symlink via command (Replace python 3.8 with your system default python3 version):

sudo rm /usr/bin/python3; sudo ln -s python3.8 /usr/bin/python3

Uninstall:

To uninstall the Python3.9 packages, run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove python3.9 python3.9-minimal

To remove the Deadsnakes PPA, launch Software & Updates and go to Other Software tab, then remove the repository line and close the window.

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