Linux Blimp

OpenBSD is a free project that delivers a multi-platform UNIX-like operating system that is portable, efficient, secure, and based on the 4.4BSD platform. It is a powerful server product used on hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide.

Availability, boot options, supported platforms

The operating system is freely available for download from the dedicated section (see above) as ISO images or binary packages that allow users to install it over the network. The ISO images can be burned onto CD discs, bootable directly from the BIOS of most PCs.

OpenBSD supports binary emulation of most programs from SVR4 (Solaris), FreeBSD, Linux, BSD, SunOS and HP-UX. It can be installed on a wide range of architectures, including i386, sparc64, alpha, m68k, sh, amd64, PowerPC, m88k, sparc, ARM, hppa, vax, mips64, and mips64el.

The CD image boots automatically without user interaction and will ask them if they want to manually install, upgrade or automatically install the operating system, as well as to drop to a shell prompt.

Manual or automatic installation

A standard (read: manual) installation will require users to choose a keyboard layout, set the hostname, choose a network interface and configure it with IPv4 and/or IPv6, as well as to set a new password for the root (system administrator) account.

In addition, you can choose to start the SSH and NTP services when the system starts, choose if you want to use the X Window System or not, setup a user, choose a timezone, partition the disk drive, and install sets.

Among the included software packages available for OpenBSD, we can mention the GNOME, KDE and Xfce desktop environments, the MySQL, PostgreSQL, Postfix and OpenLDAP servers, the Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Emacs, Vim and Chromium apps, as well as the PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl/Tk, JDK, Mono and Go programming languages.

Bottom line

Summing up, OpenBSD is a powerful and highly acclaimed server-oriented BSD/UNIX operating system that provides us with state-of-the-art software, including OpenSSH, OpenNTPD, OpenSMTPD, OpenBGPD, OpenIKED, and mandoc.

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The content of this article has been contributed by Liam Proven, Technical Writer at the SUSE Documentation Team. It is part of a series of articles focusing on SUSE Documentation and the great minds that create the manuals, guides, quick starts, and many more helpful documents.

The Wanderer

I am a wanderer. My name is Liam Proven. I’m an Englishman with an Irish citizenship, living in the Czech Republic, working for a German company – that pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? But there’s more…

I was born in the North-West of England, just outside Liverpool. But my family moved to Nigeria when I was small, and stayed for nearly 10 years. Thus many of my early memories are from there. When we came back to England, or rather Liverpool, my parents couldn’t find a place they liked. And if that weren’t enough, unfortunately one day I got shot in the back riding my bicycle after school. So my parents decided to move somewhere quieter – and safer – than Liverpool. They picked the Isle of Man, a little independent island nation with the world’s oldest continuous government. That’s where I spent my teens.

I went to lots of different kinds of schools, in England, West Africa, and finally the Isle of Man. Most subjects I was good at – except mathematics, history, and French. Somehow I even passed French. But only because I was pig-headed: The teacher asked me to drop out as I was bottom of the class. Of course, that made me determined to prove him wrong! In addition, I thought French would be more use than, for example, Religious Studies. To paraphrase Terry Pratchett, at least there was empirical evidence that France was real – I’d been there.

Things Never Happen as Planned

My mum wanted me to be a doctor, and my dad wanted me to take over running the “family business” – running an old people’s home. I wasn’t interested, I’m afraid. My heroes predominantly were several leading scientists. Botanist David Bellamy, who later became a climate-change sceptic and so fell off my list. James Lovelock, who formulated the Gaia hypothesis. Richard Feynman, not merely for his giant intellect but his wit and humor, ability to explain things, and his curiosity. Richard Dawkins, who I’ve seen speak once . My plan was to be a biologist, possibly a marine microbiologist. So I started to study biology.

Things turned out differently. Unfortunately I crashed my bicycle at the end of the first year, smashing my right forearm. It needed three surgeries: First they implanted screws and metal plates, and when those snapped, I got a bone graft from my right hip. I couldn’t use my arm for roughly a year, but being 18 years old and cocky, I didn’t listen to the advice of my parents, my doctors and my tutors. I went back to university and did my second year with one hand. (I’m left handed. I thought I could cope. I was wrong.) That was my first big life mistake. In just one year, I went from winning the department prize for best student to being at the bottom and threatened with expulsion. No wonder I nearly failed and messed up my degree. But even more important, I discovered that there were no jobs in biology without a doctorate!

Tech Times

So I went off to do stuff with computers instead. They were only my hobby so far. But people would pay me money to make them work. My first real job was a “junior software support” position. I had applied for a junior hardware engineer job, but they quickly worked out I knew little about hardware. I taught myself the PC and Mac by porting my home-grown suite of fractal-graphics generators to DOS and System 6. Since then I had a dozen different jobs or so. My most stressful job by far was running a stockbrokers’ dealing room in the City of London. That’s the equivalent of a heart-surgeon in IT. My systems were extremely reliable, but when both the uplinks to HQ failed, we lost hundreds of millions of dollars per hour, and there was nothing I could do about it.

And I spent a long time freelancing, doing IT consultancy and technical journalism. I’ve been published around the world, on at least 4 continents, in multiple languages. I have two tiny specialist books on Amazon for download. That does feel good. There were some British IT journalists I hugely admired, and who had some influence on my career. The late Guy Kewney sticks out, and Dick Pountain. I was lucky enough to work with, and become friends with, both. But regrettably, in my view, the tech journalism market is dying.

Even if I was an early adopter of Windows – I used Windows 2.01 – these days I strongly prefer working with Linux. I first tried Linux in 1996, with Lasermoon Linux-FT – the first ever live CD distro. I installed it but wasn’t brave enough to change my bootloader. I thought that Linux was going to be the next big thing. That was a good call. The first distro I used as my main desktop for a while was Caldera OpenLinux, with KDE 1.0. It was interesting but a lot of stuff didn’t work back then in the late 1990s. By 2001, I was using SUSE Linux Professional full-time. I had a multiprocessor PC at home and I didn’t like Windows XP much. At that time I had also already started to install and write about SUSE and Red Hat server stuff. Computers and building up technical knowledge were my hobby for a long time. I played around and learned. Now, to be honest, I use a Mac at home. I got tired of fixing my own computers. My laptops are second-hand ThinkPads with Linux, though – as I like 1980s and 1990s mechanical “clicky” keyboards.

Starting Again …

About a decade ago, I decided to switch from tech journalism to documentation. SUSE is my third such role. As mentioned, I used to be a SUSE user in my early days with desktop Linux. Thus I was delighted to be offered a role with a FOSS company again, and it feels good to be back. What I like most about my job as a Technical Writer is that I get to use two of my skills at once – technical knowledge and being able to write. SUSE somehow feels “pleasantly anarchic”. My colleagues are all absolutely wonderful. And the products work extremely well.

Nevertheless, sometimes I’m generally tempted to ‘start again’. I’m always keen on learning. Languages are a major interest (Czech is proving an exceptionally tough one, though). In all likelihood, I would study linguistics, or computer science. Contrary to popular belief, I think modern computers and software are terrible and we’ve lost a huge amount in the last few decades. We’re also approaching the next big paradigm shift in computing, after the minicomputer to microcomputer shift – and I’d like to help prepare for that.

Until Brexit, I was never engaged with politics at all. However, in the current worldwide political mood where freedom of expression can turn into a real risk, and where human rights are spurned, one cannot look away anymore. If I could have three wishes, my first wish would be a sudden end of the current mass dullness that paves the way for despotism. Secondly, I would ask for extra lifespan and perfect health. And my third wish would be to get more wishes! Then I’d ask for super-human power, which would let me add a few dozen extra Earth-like planets to the solar system and seed them with life. Perhaps something smarter than us can evolve before the Sun explodes.

If I won $1 million today, I would buy a Harley Davidson with a sidecar, and ride it round the world, while listening to “Chasing Rainbows” by Shed Seven. And of course with a copy of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” in my pocket.

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News briefs for October 25, 2018.

SUSE
recently joined the OpenChain Project, which makes “open source license
compliance simpler and more consistent”. HPCWire notes that “conformance
with the OpenChain Specification confirms that an organization follows the
key requirements of a quality open source compliance program, and builds
trust between organizations in the supply chain”. In addition, SUSE is the
“first enterprise Linux distributor to earn conformance with the OpenChain
Project Specification”.

Pine64 is making a Linux smartphone that runs KDE Plasma. According to the FOSSBYTES
post,
the devices will be called PinePhone and PineTab, and Pine64 will begin
sending the first PinePhone developer kits to selected devs for free in November. The
open-source Linux smartphone is expected to start at around $100.

The Linux Foundation has released the first developer kit for its EdgeX
Foundry project, which is for “developing open source edge computing
middleware”. The kit is Ubuntu-based and is “built around an octa-core Samsung
Artik 710 Starter Kit teamed with a GrovePi+ I/O board. Future kits will
include an Artik 530 kit, and eventually, a Raspberry Pi/GrovePi+
combination.”

The Tor Project has announced that Mozilla will match all donations to the
project through the end of the year. ZDNet
reports that Mozilla matched $200,000 in donations to Tor last year.
This year, Tor plans to use the funds to “increase the capacity
modularization and scalability of the Tor network”; “better test for,
measure, and design solutions around internet censorship”; and “strengthen
development of the Tor Browser for Android”.

A new version of RaspEX Linux for Raspberry Pi has been released. This new
version as based on Ubuntu 18.10 and uses the LXDE desktop. According to Softpedia
News, “RaspEX LXDE Build 181022 is powered by the Linux 4.14.76 LTS
kernel built for the ARMv8 architecture, which means that it supports the
original Raspberry Pi 3 Model B single-board computer, as well as the
latest Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ variant. However, you can also use a 32-bit
kernel, Linux 4.14.74 LTS.” New packages included in this version are
Raspotify (a Spotify Connect client for RPi), Putty, RealVNC and Samba.

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QuBits 2018-10-25

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Introduction

mod_proxy is a proxy/gateway for the Apache server. It allows you to direct Apache requests to other sites and/or ports within the web server. It can also support load balancing algorithms as well. This guide assumes you already have Apache 2.2 installed from source to build the modules. To read more about it you can review the module documentation on Apache’s mod_proxy page

Install mod_proxy

Go to the source directory of the Apache installation

cd /usr/src/httpd-2.2.24

Replace the path with where you downloaded the Apache installation.

Reconfigure the existing apache configuring appending the mod_proxy lines

./config-nice –enable-proxy=shared

Rebuild Apache:

make

Install the new Apache

make install

Once you have done that you will want to edit the Apache Configuration to load the modules

vim /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Add the following modules and save the file

LoadModule proxy_module lib/apache/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module lib/apache/mod_proxy_http.so
LoadModule proxy_balancer_module lib/apache/mod_proxy_balancer.so
LoadModule proxy_connect_module lib/apache/mod_proxy_connect.so
LoadModule proxy_ftp_module lib/apache/mod_proxy_ftp.so
LoadModule proxy_scgi_module lib/apache/mod_proxy_scgi.so
LoadModule proxy_ajp_module lib/apache/mod_proxy_ajp.so

Restart Apache to load them

service httpd restart

Configure mod_proxy

Once mod_proxy is loaded you can now configure it to work on domains.

Reverse Proxy Configuration:

<VirtualHost 192.168.1.10:80>
ServerName domain.com
ProxyPreserveHost On
ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
</VirtualHost>

This example will pass requests to the same server on port :8080. You could utilize this to pass requests do a different application, java, ruby, tomcat etc.

SSL Reverse Proxy Configuration:

<VirtualHost 192.168.1.10:443>
ServerName domain.com
ProxyPreserveHost On
ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
SSLCertificateFile /path/to/certificate.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/certificate.key
SSLCertificateChainFile /path/to/chainfile.crt
</VirtualHost>

This configuration is almost identical except you are setting the variables for SSL Configuration.

Load Balancing Proxy Configuration:

This allows you to utilize multiple back-end servers with a single Apache front-end load balancing the requests.

<Proxy balancer://cluster>
BalancerMember http://192.168.1.10:8080/
BalancerMember http://192.168.1.11:8080/
</Proxy>

<VirtualHost 192.168.1.10:80>
ServerName domain.com
ProxyPass / balancer://cluster
</VirtualHost>

You would add in the IP addresses for each of the members to be load balanced as BalancerMember.

Once you have added the new configurations, you go ahead and restart apache again to load in the new mod_proxy settings

service httpd restart

May 22, 2017LinuxAdmin.io

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Many people using Linux are doing so for application programming, system administration and other command line tasks. When it comes to command line tasks, Terminal Emulator is the heart of the Linux system. It is one of the most used tools by Linux users. There are many user friendly graphical distros like Software Centre, Integrated Development Environments are available for Linux but many users prefer terminal to perform tasks quickly and efficiently.

Terminal is the default emulator in most of the Linux distros and it is used for various tasks like programming, system administration, network monitoring, etc. But it has some limitations which you might have faced while performing various tasks.

Most Linux distributions ship with default terminal emulators such as xterm, Gnome Konsole or Shell, but these are not good enough for many of us who are continuously engaged in programming and other command line tasks. So today in this article we are going to have in-depth look at the 7 best Terminal alternatives which you can use on Ubuntu.

1. Tilda

Tilda is a terminal emulator which is more or less similar to popular terminal emulators such as Gnome Shell, Konsole and xterm, etc. But it has some features you will not find in any other normal terminal emulator. Tilda is not a full window terminal emulator instead it can be pulled down and up from the top of desktop screen using special key on keyboard, generally it is F1 key.

Apart from this feature, Tilda is a highly configurable terminal emulator as you can notice in below screenshot that there are many options to configure tilda, you can customize its appearance, background and text colors, window size, scrolling preferences etc. Also you can customize keybindings according to your needs.

During testing Tilda worked flawlessly which is a pro and other positives are tabs support, works on minimal dependencies and one feature I really enjoyed is its transparent nature which lets you see information from application running under Tilda window. But there are some annoying bugs that came to my notice during testing like you need close Tilda window completely before shutting down your system and some minor glitches that doesn’t made much difference on overall performance of this emulator.

2. Guake

Guake is another drop-down terminal emulator on our list, it is written in python and developed for Gnome Desktop Environment. Basically Guake is inspired from First Person Shooter video game Quake, it adopts behavior of Quake’s console, dropping down from the top of desktop screen on hitting keyboard key F12.

Guake is also a highly configurable terminal emulator as you can see in below screenshot you can customize its color palette, appearance, keyboard shortcuts, scrolling pattern and you can also tweak shell and quick open.

Testing of this terminal was smooth and I have found some pros as follows, fast and lightweight, support for multiple tabs, highly configurable, and most importantly it is very user friendly emulator despite being lightweight and running on minimal resources. But there are some cons which might persuade you guys to choose other emulator, first of all it is not a cross-platform terminal emulator and occasionally it becomes unresponsive and slows down a bit even if you have powerful hardware.

3. Cool Retro Term

Remember those days when we used to work on those really big old-school cathode ray tube monitors? That was some fun isn’t it? With the next terminal emulator on our list which is Cool Retro Term, I am going to take you back to good old days of command line work. This emulator will give you look and feel of working on cathode ray monitors with bloom around characters.

If your system hardware is powerful enough to handle some decent graphics requirements of this terminal emulator then this one is definitely for you. Certainly you will enjoy nostalgic feel you get while working around with Cool Term Retro.

While testing this emulator I realized that it’s always not a good idea to have more special effects and transitions than needed. Same is applicable to Cool Retro Term, but the good thing is you can disable all these features in this emulator then it works flawlessly and could prove to be a decent alternative to default Terminal emulator in Ubuntu.

Despite having some unique features in it Cool Retro Term have some of its cons like it demands very powerful resources to run smoothly and as it is heavily dependent on KDE libraries for its majority of special effects, running this emulator on other systems will require you to download large number of KDE libraries.

4. Terminology

Terminology is a terminal emulator based on Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL), developed for UNIX, BSD, Linux and other platforms. If you have ever used xterm emulator then you will find Terminology almost similar to it in many aspects.

Default Terminal emulator in Ubuntu has some of its limitations like you cannot open URLs, files, videos or images directly in its window instead you have to be dependent on other graphical application to view them. But using Terminology you can preview all these things in its window itself. Apart from that is a highly customizable Terminal emulator with features like splits which splits the window into two panes.

Some of the pros in Terminology are you can put an image in background or set a color scheme for pane in split mode, font size adjusts itself according to the size of the window. But what it really lacks is a scrollbar and support for wide range of modern colors, configuration is also complicated sometimes which is a notable con for this emulator.

5. Terminator

Terminator is an open-source and cross-platform terminal emulator developed in Java. Based on the Gnome Terminal, Terminator adopts most of its features and gets updated as soon as Gnome Terminal gets updated. If you’re a programmer or a system administrator and work on multiple tasks at same time then Terminator can be most useful emulator for you as it helps you split your multiple tasks into individual panes under a single window.

Terminator is a slightly heavyweight emulator which might require you to have some decent hardware. But it offers some really good features like split window mode for working on multiple panes at a time, full customization support, automatic logging, drag and drop and many more.

If you have older system and have minimal hardware resource then you might face some difficulty to run this emulator, its text search feature is also not up to the mark sometimes. These are the some of the issues I have faced during testing.

6. Sakura

Sakura is a simple yet powerful terminal emulator based on GTK and libvte. To run this emulator you don’t need to have full GNOME desktop installed as it runs on very few dependencies. It is a decent terminal emulator with not much feature on offer but it can get your work done without any problem.

Some of the features and positives I have found during testing are, it starts-up very quickly even on machines running on minimal hardware, support for all the modern colors, and multiple tab support. One thing I noticed is that there are not many configuration options available for users in Sakura Terminal Emulator.

7. Yakuake

Yakuake aka “yet another kuake” is another drop-down terminal emulator on our list. It is very similar to Konsole as far as front end and some features concerned. When you press F12 key on keyboard it automatically slides downward from the top of desktop screen and on hitting same key it slides back to top.

It is a lightweight terminal emulator with features like full customization support, tabbed window, split layout, enhanced terminal emulator, quick search, unlimited scrolling and many more features.

Some of the cons in Yakuake for me are its over dependence on KDE libraries and sometimes it slows down a bit after continuous usage.

So these are the 7 best alternatives for Terminal in Ubuntu. The Terminal emulators listed here are tested on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and could work easily on older releases depending on the hardware resource you have. So that’s it for today, if you have anything to say feel free to ping us at @LinuxHint and @SwapTirthakar

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The EdgeX Foundry IoT middleware project announced nine new members including Intel, and launched an Ubuntu-driven development kit based on an octa-core Artik 710 module.

The Linux Foundation’s EdgeX Foundry project for developing open source edge computing middleware has released its first developer kit. The Ubuntu-based kit is built around an octa-core Samsung Artik 710 Starter Kit teamed with a GrovePi+ I/O board. Future kits will include an Artik 530 kit, and eventually, a Raspberry Pi/GrovePi+ combination.

At the recent IoT Solutions World Congress, the EdgeX Foundry project also announced nine new members, including Intel, and debuted a Smart Building Automation Use Case Community Demo. The demo showed off the platform’s ability to bring together heterogeneous solution components, including different vendors, connectivity standards, operating systems, and hardware types.

Artik 710 Starter Kit Interposer board (left) and EdgeX conceptual diagram
(click images to enlarge)

 

EdgeX Foundry was

announced

in 2017, with a goal of developing a standardized, open source interoperability framework for IoT edge computing. In August, the project released a v2

California

version of the middleware, which will be succeeded by a “Delhi” release in November. Delhi will provide EdgeX’s first management features, as well as improved security features such as access control and security bootstrapping. It will also offer C and Golang-based Device Service SDKs and a reference GUI.

Based largely on technology created by Dell, EdgeX Foundry is creating and certifying an ecosystem of interoperable, plug-and-play components to create an open source EdgeX stack for IoT edge computing. The cross-platform middleware will mediate between multiple sensor network messaging protocols as well as multiple cloud and analytics platforms.

EdgeX architecture
(click image to enlarge)

 

Dell is one of three Platinum members alongside Analog Devices and Samsung. With the new additions, the membership has reached 70. The new members are Basking Automation, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), DATA AHEAD, CertusNet, Intel Corp., Redis Labs, the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG) /Embedded Lab, Windmill Enterprise, and ZEDEDA. Previous members include AMD, Canonical, Cloud Foundry, Linaro, Mocana, NetFoundry, and VMware.

EdgeX developer kits

The Artik 710 based EdgeX developer kit is initially available as a community-supported product. Developers independently purchase the kit from Samsung and download the upcoming EdgeX Delhi software from the EdgeX repository on GitHub. Informal, community-based tech support is available via forums like the EdgeX Rocket Chat.

Artik 710 Starter Kit boardset with Artik Interface II Board at right

This initial kit, as well as future kits, will also soon be available as part of a commercial track that offers professional support. The commercial kits are designed primarily for EdgeX members but are available to anyone. Commercial options will include “kits based on supported versions of the EdgeX framework itself (neutral to any plug-in value add), kits based on specific IoT platforms, and microservice plug-ins for value-add such as analytics, data orchestration and security,” says the project.

Samsung’s Artik 710 and Artik 530, which will form the basis of an upcoming EdgeX kit, switched their BSPs from Fedora to Ubuntu in Oct. 2017. The Artik 710 module features a 1.4GHz, octa-core, -A53 SoC with a Mali T400 GPU while the Artik 530 has a 1.2GHz, quad-core, -A9 SoC. Both include hardware security elements.

The 49 x 36mm modules integrate 1GB DDR3 RAM, 4GB eMMC flash, and an Ethernet PHY. They also include dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n (WiFi 4), Bluetooth 4.2, and Zigbee/Thread (802.15.4).

The Artik 710 Developer Kit is a double board set. The Interposer Board provides the Artik 710 plus Gigabit Ethernet, micro-HDMI, and micro-USB OTG ports. There’s also an LVDS interface and antenna connectors. The Platform Board sits under the Interposer board and provides a USB 2.0 host port, SD slot, audio jack, JTAG, 5V DC input, and MIPI-CSI and -DSI connections.

The EdgeX version of the Artik 710 kit also includes the optional Artik Interface II Board, which connects the bundled Seeed GrovePi+ I/O board. The GrovePi+ Starter Kit also provides a dozen Grove sensors and LEDs, plus a backlit LCD, buzzer, relay, and button.

Eagleye 530 (left) and the GrovePi+ Starter Kit available on both the Artik 710 and Eagleye EdgeX kits
(click images to enlarge)

 

The GrovePi+ Starter Kit is also part of Samsung’s

GrovePi+ Starter Kit for Eagleye 530

board, which will form the basis of the upcoming Artik 530 kit. Unlike the Artik 710 kit, the Artik 530 equipped

Eagleye 530

is a single board with a Raspberry Pi like layout, footprint, and 40-pin GPIO interface. The Eagleye 530 is further equipped with GbE and HDMI ports, 2x USB 2.0 ports, and micro-USB OTG and power ports. There’s also an SD slot, audio jack, and MIPI-CSI camera interface. Unlike the Artik 710 kit, the Eagleye 530 does not require the Interface II Board to hook up the bundled GrovePi+ board.

The GrovePi+ board will also be available in a future EdgeX kit that runs on the a href=”https://www.seeedstudio.com/GrovePi+-Starter-Kit-for-Raspberry-Pi-A+,B,B+&2,3-(CE-certified)-p-2572.html” target=”new”>GrovePi+ Starter Kit for Raspberry Pi. Other development kits are also under consideration. Even if Intel had not joined the project, one of them was likely to provide an x86 chip.

“Intel’s involvement in EdgeX Foundry will help drive scale and accessibility of solutions for both our customers and businesses of all sizes,” stated Stacey Shulman, Intel’s chief innovation officer for Retail Solutions.

This article is copyright © 2018 Linux.com and was originally published here. It has been reproduced by this site with the permission of its owner. Please visit Linux.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.

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By Jack M. Germain

Oct 25, 2018 11:00 AM PT

Linux apps now can run in a Chromebook’s Chrome OS environment. However, the process can be tricky, and it depends on your hardware’s design and Google’s whims.

It is somewhat similar to running Android apps on your Chromebook, but the Linux connection is far less forgiving. If it works in your Chromebook’s flavor, though, the computer becomes much more useful with more flexible options.

Still, running Linux apps on a Chromebook will not replace the Chrome OS. The apps run in an isolated virtual machine without a Linux desktop.

If you are not familiar with any Linux distribution, your only learning curve involves getting familiar with a new set of computing tools. That experience can pique interest in a full Linux setup on a non-Chromebook device.

Why tool around with adding Linux apps to the Chromebook world? One reason is that now you can. That response may only suit Linux geeks and software devs looking to consolidate their work platform, though.

Want a better reason? For typical Chromebook users, Linux apps bring a warehouse of software not otherwise available to Chromebooks. Similarly, the Google Play Store brought a collection of apps to the Chromebook that had been beyond the limitations of the Chrome Web Store for Android phone and tablet users. The Debian Linux repository expands the software library even more on the Chromebook.

Curiosity Trumps Complacency

I have used a series of Chromebooks to supplement my Linux computers over the years. When Android apps moved to the Chromebook, I bought a current model that supported the Play Store. Unfortunately, that Asus C302CA wimped out as a Linux apps machine. See more below on why that Chromebook and others fail the Linux apps migration.

I replaced that Asus Chromebook with a newer model rated to run Linux apps, the Asus C213SA. It came preconfigured to run both Android and Linux apps. The Play Store was already enabled and installed. The Linux Beta feature was installed but not activated. Completing that setup took a few steps and about 15 minutes.

As I will run down shortly, these two relatively recent Chromebooks have a world of differences under the hood. They both run the same qualifying Chrome OS version. They have different classes of Intel processors. Google engineers blessed one but not the other with the ability to run the new Linux apps technology.

The process of running Linux apps on a Chromebook requires loading the essential Linux packages to run a terminal window in a sandbox environment within the browser User Interface. You then use APT commands to get and install desired Linux applications.

Work in Progress

The original concept for the Chromebook was to tap into the Google Chrome browser to handle everyday computing chores that most users did in a browser on a full-size computer anyway. You know — tasks that involve Web surfing, emails, basic banking, reading and writing online.

The software tools were built in, so massive onboard storage was not needed. The always-connected Chromebook was tethered to your Google Drive account.
Chromebooks ran the Chrome browser as a desktop interface. Google’s software infrastructure was built around Google Docks and Chrome apps from the Web Store.

Then came integration of Android Apps running within the Chromebook environment. That let you run Android apps in a Chrome browser tab or in a separate window. The latter option gives the illusion of being a separate app window, as on an Android phone or tablet.

Not all Chromebooks can run Android apps, though. The older the model, the less likely it has Android support. Now that same concept is integrating Linux applications within the Chromebook environment. Linux apps run as a standalone program in a special Linux container on top of the Chrome OS.

Long-Term Impact

You have two options in managing Linux software on a Chromebook. One is to use the APT command line statements within a terminal window to get and install/uninstall each Linux application. The other strategy is to use APT to install access to the Debian software repository and use a graphical package manager tool to install and remove Linux applications.

This process forces the Chromebook to do something it was not designed to handle. It must store the Linux infrastructure and each installed application locally. That added storage impact will do one of two things: It will force devs to cram more storage capacity into the lightly resourced Chromebooks; or it will force users to limit the extent of software downloading.

Either way, the ability to run Linux apps on a qualified Chromebook expands the computer’s functionality. In my case, it lets me use Linux productivity tools on a Chromebook. It lets me use one computer instead of traveling with two.

Refining Progress

Running Linux apps on qualified Chromebooks is not Google’s first attempt to piggyback the Linux OS onto Chromebook hardware. Earlier attempts were clunkier and taking advantage of them required some advanced Linux skills.

Chrome OS is a Linux variant. Earlier attempts involved using
Crouton to install the Linux OS on top of the Chrome OS environment. Google employee Dave Schneider developed the Crouton OS. Crouton overlays a Linux desktop on top of the Chrome OS. Crouton runs in a chroot container.

Another method is to replace the Chrome OS with the
GalliumOS, a Chromebook-specific Linux variant. To do this, you must first switch the Chromebook to Developer Mode and enable legacy boot mode.

Like other Linux distros, you download the ISO variant specific to your Chromebook and create a bootable image on a USB drive. You can run a live session from the USB drive and then install the Gallium OS on the Chromebook. GalliumOS is based on Xubuntu, which uses the lightweight Xfce desktop environment.

What Crostini Does

The Crostini Project is the current phase of Google’s plan to meld Linux apps onto the Chrome OS platform. The Crostini technology installs a base level of Linux to run KVM, Linux’s built-in virtual machine (VM).

Then Crostini starts and runs LXC containers. It runs enough of Debian Linux to support a running Linux app in each container.

The Crostini technology lets compatible Chromebooks run a completely integrated Linux session in a VM that lets a Linux app run. This latest solution does not require Crouton and Developer Mode. However, the particular Chromebook getting the Linux Apps installation might need to change modes to either Beta or Developer channels.

With the help of Crostini, the Chrome OS creates an icon launcher in the menu. You launch the Linux apps just like any Chromebook or Android app by clicking on the launch icon. Or you enter the run command in the Linux terminal.

Making It Work

In an ideal computing world, Google would push the necessary Chrome OS updates so all compatible units would set up Linux apps installation the same way. Google is not a perfect computing world, but the Chromebook’s growing flexibility makes up for that imperfection.

Not all Chromebooks are compatible with running Linux apps using Crostini. Instead, there is a minimal setup for newer Chromebooks that come with Linux Beta preinstalled. Other Chromebook models that have the required innards and the Google blessing have a slightly more involved installation and setup process to apply.

The ultimate installation goal is to get the Linux (Beta) entry listed on the Chrome OS settings panel.

What You Need

Installing Linux apps requires your Chromebook to be running Chrome OS 69 or later. To check, do this:

• Click your profile picture in the lower-right corner.
• Click the Settings icon.
• Click the Hamburger icon in the upper-left corner.
• Click “About Chrome OS.”
• Click “Check for updates.”

Even with Chrome OS 69 or newer installed, other factors determine your Chromebook’s suitability to run Linux apps. For example, Linux runs on Chromebooks with an operating system based on the Linux 4.4 kernel. Some older Chromebooks running Linux 4.14 will be retrofitted with Crostini support. Others will not.

According to Google’s
documentation notes, any Chromebook outfitted with the Intel Bay Trail Atom processors will not support Linux apps. That seems to be the reason for my Asus C302CA failing the Linux suitability test.

Other bugaboos include 32-bit ARM CPUs. Also a negative factor are firmware issues, limited storage and RAM capacities.

Overall, few current Chromebooks have the basic hardware needed: Crostini, kernel 3.18 based on the Glados baseboard with the Skylake SoC, and an adequate processor. Those basic system requirements could change as Google engineers fine-tune the Crostini technology. Of course, newer Chromebook models no doubt will become available as the Crostini Project moves beyond it current beta phase.

Here is a
list of Chromebooks that are expected to receive upgrades OTA to support Linux Apps eventually.

Ultimate Compatibility Test

Even if your Chromebook seems to have all of the required hardware and lets you activate Crostini support, Google specifically must enable one critical piece of technology to let you run Linux. This is the major rub with the process of putting Linux apps on earlier model Chromebooks.

Google also must have enabled the Linux VM for your hardware. Find out if your Chromebook has been blessed by the Google gods after completing the channel change and flag activation: Open Chrome OS’ built-in shell, crosh; then run this shell command —

vmc start termina

If you get a message saying that vmc is not available, your quest to put Linux apps on that particular Chromebook is over.

You can skip the crosh test if you do not see “Linux (Beta)” listed on the Chrome OS Settings panel (chrome://settings). Linux will not run on your Chromebook, at least not until Google pushes an update to it. If you do see “Linux Beta” listed below the Google Play Store in the settings panel, click on the label to enable the rest of the process.

Getting Started

Some models that can run Crostini include newer Intel-powered Chromebooks from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung. Check this source for a crowdsourced
list of supported Chromebooks.

If your Chromebook supports Crostini and is new enough, Crostini support already may be installed in the stable channel by default. In that case, change the flag in the Chrome OS [chrome://flags] on the Chrome browser’s address line to enable Crostini.

Otherwise, you will have to apply several steps to get all of the working pieces on the Chromebook. This can include switching your Chromebook from the stable update channel to the developer channel or the Beta channel, depending on the hardware and the make/model. You also will have to download special software using commands entered into a terminal window.

If you have a recent Chromebook model with built-in Linux apps support, you will see “Linux Beta” listed in the left column of the Settings Panel [chrome://settings]. All you have to do is click on the label and follow the prompts to enable the Linux apps functionality.

The Linux terminal and Geany Linux app display in the Chrome OS menu along with Chrome and Android apps.

Making It Linux-Ready

If your Chromebook is not already set with Linux enabled, first, switch it to developer mode and then enable the Crostini flag. Here is how to do each step.

Do this to change Chromebook modes:

• Sign in to your Chromebook with the owner account.
• Click your account photo.
• Click Settings.
• At the top left, click Menu.
• Scroll down and click “About Chrome OS.”
• Click “Detailed build information.”

Next to “Channel” click the Change channel button and select either Beta or Developer. Then click the Change Channel button. Depending on your Chromebook model, either one could be what your hardware needs. I suggest starting with Developer channel. If that does not install the Linux Beta software, redo the process in the Beta channel.

When the channel change operation is completed, click the “Restart your Chromebook” button.

Caution: You can reverse this process by changing back to the stable channel at any time. Google servers automatically will force a power wash when you restart your Chromebook to return to the stable channel. When you sign into your Chromebook, you will have to do an initial setup just as you did when unboxing it, but Google will restore most if not all of your previous software and settings. Make sure you backed up any documents stored locally, however.

Do this to set the Crostini flag to enabled:

• Click on the address bar.
• Type chrome://flags and press Enter.
• Press Ctrl + F on your keyboard.
• Scroll down the list to find “Crostini.” Type Crostini in the search bar. Select Enable.
• Click Restart at the bottom of the screen.

Final Steps

At this current phase of Beta Linux on Chromebooks, once you get to seeing “Linux Beta” on the Chrome Settings Panel, you must download the final pieces manually to get and run Linux apps. Open the Chrome settings panel, click the Hamburger icon in the upper-left corner, click Linux (Beta) in the menu. Then click “Turn on.”

The Chromebook will download the files it needs. When that process is finished, click the white circle in the lower-left corner to open the app drawer. You will see the Linux Terminal icon. Click it.

Type in the command window and then press the Enter key to get a list of Linux components that need updating:

sudo APT update

Then type in the command window and press the Enter key to upgrade all the components:

sudo APT upgrade

When that’s finished, type y to remove excess files. Press Enter.

Now you are ready to download the Linux apps to make using your Chromebook more productive and more flexible. At least for now, you must open the Linux terminal window and enter APT commands to install or remove your selected Linux apps.

This is a simple process. If you have any uncertainty about the commands, check out this helpful
user guide.

Using It

This article serves as a guide for the current state of running Linux apps on compatible Chromebooks. It is not my intent to review specific Chromebooks. That said, I have been very pleased with my latest Asus Chromebook.

The only thing lacking in the 11.6-inch Asus C213SA is a backlit keyboard. The Asus C302CA has both a backlit keyboard and a one-inch larger screen. They both have touchscreens that swivel into tablet format and run Android apps. Losing a tiny bit of screen size and a backlit keyboard in exchange for running Linux apps is a satisfying trade-off.

My original plan was to install a few essential tools so I could work with the same productivity apps on the Chromebook that I use on my desktop and laptop gear. I was using Android text editor Caret for much of my note-taking and review article drafts. It lacks a spellchecker and split-screen feature. However, it easily accesses my cloud storage service and has a tabbed structure, making it a close replacement for my Linux IDE and text editor app, Geany.

I installed Geany as the first Linux app test on the Asus C213SA Chromebook. It worked like a charm. Its on-screen appearance and performance on the Chromebook was nearly identical to what I experienced for years on my Linux computers.

Proof positive! The Linux IDE text editor Geany shares screen space with the Chrome OS on a compatible Chromebook.

The Linux Beta feature on Chromebooks currently has a Linux files folder that appears in the Chrome OS Files Manager directory. Any document file that you want to access with a Linux app must be located in this Linux files folder. That means downloading or copying files from cloud storage or local Chromebook folders into the Linux files folder.

It is a hassle to do that and then copy the newer files back to their regular location in order to sync them with other Chromebook and Android apps or cloud storage. If you do not have to access documents from Linux apps on the Chromebook, your usage routine will be less complicated than mine.

Bottom Line

The Linux apps’ performance on Chromebook in its current Beta phase seems to be much more reliable and stable than the Android apps integration initially was. Linux apps on Chromebook will get even better as Crostini gets more developed.

Chrome OS 71 brings considerably more improvements, according to various reports. One of those changes will let the Linux virtual machine be visible in Chrome OS’ Task Manager.

Another expected improvement is the ability to shut down the Linux virtual machine easily.

An even better expected improvement is folder-sharing between the Linux VM and Chrome OS. That should resolve the inconvenience of the isolated Linux files folder.

Is it justifiable to get a new “qualified” Chromebook in order to run Linux apps on it? If you are primarily a Linux distro user and have settled for using a Linux-less Chromebook as a companion portable computer, I can only say, “Go for it!”

I do not think you will regret the splurge.

Want to Suggest a Review?

Is there a Linux software application or distro you’d like to suggest for review? Something you love or would like to get to know?

Please
email your ideas to me, and I’ll consider them for a future Linux Picks and Pans column.

And use the Reader Comments feature below to provide your input!

Jack M. Germain has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open source technologies. He has written numerous reviews of Linux distros and other open source software.
Email Jack.

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There are a number of options for one to choose from when starting a blog. Most times, the service you end up choosing would depend to a large extent on several factors. By considering those factors, it is possible for you to subscribe to the right platform and optimize the needed results.

Some of the factors to be considered include target audience, content, and the motive behind running such a website. There are a number of blogging platforms that are geared towards education, others are perfect for entertainment. Still, some platforms can multitask while using a number of extensions (plugins) to ensure smooth running

In this article, we would be looking at three of such platforms. We would examine their features, which would help us understand the most optimal way to use them.

Meeting the Platforms

WordPress.com is an all-rounder blogging portal owned and created by Automattic. It is one of the popular blogging platforms, mostly used for personal blogs. It has a wide range of extensions and plugins that could serve in transforming the platform into more than just a blog page.

WordPress.org, however, is like a parent version of the above platform. An estimated 32% of websites use this software, including news sites and entertainment hubs, as well as the website you’re reading this on. It’s also a popular software used in the creation of various apps including games and banking apps.

Blogger.com is also a well-known platform, and one of the oldest blogging platforms around. It is very easy to use. Developed by Pyra Labs and later acquired by Google in 2003, the platform has served millions of personal bloggers, including students, due to its relatively simple nature and free access.

Our analysis is based on these three platforms. By looking through what each of them offers, it becomes easier for us to decide which platform is suited best for whichever purposes.

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is a very versatile portal used by millions of bloggers worldwide. It can easily be used by the beginner, as well as advanced bloggers. One of its really useful features is found in the ability to own multiple domains for one user.

Another feature that can be found is the link management, which is mostly integrated. WordPress. com is also search-engine friendly, and there are features that allow regular quotes to be converted to smart quotes.

WordPress.com is useful for study-related blogs, as well as for beginners who are just starting out in the venture of owning a personal domain. Thanks to its free domain, it offers a sense of flexibility plus the ability to customize one’s personal space.

WordPress.org

With a third of web processes occurring on WordPress.org, there is no doubt about the versatility of the portal. However, WordPress.org is mostly a building platform, since it’s known to support application development. Therefore, it would be the most suitable for game development, and the development of different apps for banking, communication, and entertainment. It might also be suitable for developers of themes, widgets, and graphic content (clip art, wallpapers).

In general, WordPress.org is preferred by many users for its easy-to-use features, plus the ability to create limitless projects. In addition, its self-hosting services are easy to go through. Through constant upgrades, this platform continues to be relevant per time. This is a great plus.

Most people choose WordPress.org over WordPress.com because of the full control users get with WP.org. When you’re hosting WordPress yourself, you get full control over how your website looks, behaves, and everything else. While with WP.com, you’re quite limited.

Blogger.com

Blogger.com is a bit of an ‘old school’ platform. Similar to its counterparts, the portal is very versatile, with initial access provided free of charge. A fee applies to those who would want to purchase their own domain (username).

Blogger.com is also a good place for hosting, but this feature is not explored that much. This is because there is a notion among audiences that blogspot extensions are only used by amateurs. Perhaps, this explains why it is not constantly used.

Blogger.com can be considered as the starting hub for beginner blogs, as well as the perfect platform to establish a writing service. Customization is also a popular feature to the portal, with tools available at hand to meet all customer needs.

But there’s a snag: because this platform was developed for beginners, it has limited customization features, which makes it less favorable than WordPress among professional and well-experienced bloggers. If you are planning to have a first-hand experience of owning your own space, without further advancements, then this is the space for you. However, if you wish to develop beyond the scope that you are, it would be advisable to switch to another platform where you would have the option of choosing your own domain name and full control over your website.

That’s the gist of it. There’s more to learn about each platform, but you get the basic idea. So in conclusion, if you want full control over your website and buying your own web hosting, go with WordPress.org. If you’re a beginner that just wants an easy way to create a website/blog go with WordPress.com or Blogger.com

In an era where content has to be interactive, it is very important to consider all technical properties and weigh the cost options of every system available, to ensure maximum use of whatever services that are offered to you.

About the Author

This article was submitted to us by a third-party writer. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views and opinions of ThisHosting.Rocks. If you want to write for ThisHosting.Rocks, go here.

The article is provided by the authors from the au.edusson writing service.

Neal Davis is a real-world blogger and a social media influencer. Neal and his wife live in rural mid-Michigan. He is also a business coach educating people on how to work with their personal websites.

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Python is a high-level interpreted programming language. The first version of Python was released in 1991. In this article we are not going to discuss what kind of language it is or how you can use it but to show you how you can install it on your Linux system.

If you are a Python programmer or you want to run some program which requires latest Python version then you are on the right page, we will show you how you can install latest Python version on your Linux(Debian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint/other distributions), currently Python reached at 3.7.x version. Making other Python version default in Linux can make Python applications and desktop components unusable which use certain version of Python. It is better not to set any Python as default in Linux (PS: You can set as default, if you know how to fix if something goes wrong). It is easy to revert back any Python version. Lets start…

Python 3.7.x

We are going to show you two ways to install Python 3.7.x, the PPA method is for Ubuntu/Linux Mint/and Ubuntu dervatives. The second method is universal that means you can install Python 3.7.x on any Linux distribution (Fedora, CentOS, RedHat, openSUSE, Manjaro, ArchLinux etc.)

Install Python 3.7.x using PPA in Ubuntu/Linux Mint

PPA is fairly simple way to install Python:

Available for Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic/16.04 Xenial/14.04 Trusty/Linux Mint 19/18/17/and other related Ubuntu derivatives
To install Python 3.7.x in Ubuntu/Linux Mint open Terminal (Press Ctrl+Alt+T) and copy the following commands in the Terminal:
If you want to install Python 3.6 then use this command(Ubuntu 16.04/14.04/Linux Mint 18/17):

For Python 3.5 use this command (Ubuntu 18.04/14.04/Linux Mint 19/17):

For Python 3.4 use this command (Ubuntu 18.04/16.04/Linux Mint 19/18):

For Python 3.3 use this command (Ubuntu 18.04/16.04/14.04/Linux Mint 19/18/17):

Install Python 3.7.x using source

Using this method you can install Python 3.7.1 in any Linux distribution (Debian, Fedora, CentOS, Manjaro, ArchLinux, openSUSE, Ubuntu etc.)

That’s it

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