Linux Blimp

Mimipenguin is a free and open source, simple yet powerful Shell/Python script used to dump the login credentials (usernames and passwords) from the current Linux desktop user and it has been tested on various Linux distributions.

Additionally, it supports applications such as: VSFTPd (active FTP client connections), Apache2 (active/old HTTP BASIC AUTH sessions but this requires Gcore) and openssh-server (active SSH connections with sudo command usage). Importantly, it’s gradually being ported to numerous languages to support all imaginable post-exploit situations.

How does Mimipenguin Works?

To understand how mimipenguin works, you need to keep in mind that all if not most Linux distributions store a great deal of such critical information as: credentials, encryption keys, as well as personal data in memory.

Particularly usernames and passwords are held by processes (running programs) in memory and stored as plain text for relatively long periods of time. Mimipenguin technically exploits these clear-text credentials in memory – it dumps a process and extracts lines that have a likelihood of accommodating clear-text credentials.

It then tries to perform a calculation of each word’s chances of being present by determining hashes in: /etc/shadow, memory, and regex searches. Once it finds any, it prints them on standard output.

Installing Mimipenguin in Linux Systems

We will use git to clone the mimipenguin repository, so first install git on the system if in case you don’t have it.

$ sudo apt install git 		#Debian/Ubuntu systems
$ sudo yum install git		#RHEL/CentOS systems
$ sudo dnf install git		#Fedora 22+

Then clone the mimipenguin directory in your home folder (any where else) like this:

$ git clone https://github.com/huntergregal/mimipenguin.git

Once you have downloaded the directory, move into it and run mimipenguin as follows:

$ cd mimipenguin/
$ ./mimipenguin.sh 

Note: If you encounter the error below, use the sudo command like so:

Root required - You are dumping memory...
Even mimikatz requires administrator

From the output above, mimipenguin provides you the desktop environment along with the username and password.

Alternatively, run the Python script as follows:

$ sudo ./mimipenguin.py

Note that sometimes gcore may hang the script (this is a known problem with gcore).

Future Updates

Below is a list of features yet to be added in mimipenguin:

• Improving overall effectiveness
• Adding more support and other credential locations
• Including support for non-desktop environments
• Adding support for LDAP

mimipenguin Github repository: https://github.com/huntergregal/mimipenguin

Also, check out:

1. How to Password Protect a Vim File in Linux
2. How to Generate/Encrypt/Decrypt Random Passwords in Linux
3. How to Protect GRUB with Password in RHEL / CentOS / Fedora Linux
4. Resetting/Recovering Forgotten Root User Account Password in CentOS 7

Do share any additional ideas relating to this tool or issues of cleartext credentials in memory in Linux via the comment section below.

Source

There is a wealth of information on the web that you probably want to keep up to date with; from news, to how tos, guides, tutorials and more. Imagine having to visit, on a daily basis, all your favorite blogs or websites – it’s a bit of a challenge, especially if you have a tight schedule. This is where RSS comes into play.

RSS (Rich Site Summary or also Really Simple Syndication) is a popular and standardized web format used to deliver regularly changing content on the web. It is employed by blogs, news-related sites as well as other sites to deliver their content as an RSS Feed to internet users interested in it.

RSS feeds enable you to see when blogs or websites have added new content so you can get the latest headlines, videos and images within a single interface, immediately after being published, without necessarily visiting the news sources (you have taken the feeds from).

To subscribe to a feed, simply go to your favorite blog or site, copy the RSS URL and paste it into your RSS feed reader: do this for sites you visit frequently.

For example, Tecmint.com RSS feed URL is:

https://www.tecmint.com/feed/

In this article, we will review 14 RSS Feed readers for Linux systems. The list is not arranged in any particular order.

1. FeedReader

FeedReader is a free, open source, modern and highly customizable RSS client for Linux desktop. It supports keyboard shortcuts, comes with a fast search and filters feature, and supports desktop notifications. FeedReader also supports tags for categorizing and sorting articles. Importantly, it offers amazing consistency in article formating.

It allows you to save your feeds to pocket, instapaper or wallabag for later reading. You can also share feeds with friends via twitter, telegram or email. And it supports podcasts. In addition, you can choose from four themes and use the dconf-editor to tweak it.

Last but not least, it works with third-party applications (such as Feedbin, Feedly, FreshRSS, InoReader, LocalRSS, Tiny Tiny RSS, TheOldReader, and more) to extend its functionality.

Install FeedReader in Linux

FeedReader can be easily installed using Flatpak on all major Linux distributions.

$ flatpak install http://feedreader.xarbit.net/feedreader-repo/feedreader.flatpakref
$ flatpak run org.gnome.FeedReader

2. RSSowl

RSSowl is a free, powerful, cross-platform desktop RSS feed reader that runs on Linux, Windows and MacOS. It helps you to organize your feeds the way you want, under various categories, instantly search, and read feeds conveniently.

It allows you to save searches and use them like feeds and supports notifications. It also offers news bins for storing news entires that you consider very important. RSSowl also supports labels for associating keywords with news entries and more.

3. TinyTiny RSS

Tiny Tiny RSS is a free open source web-based RSS/Atom reader and aggregator, powered by AJAX. To host it, you need to setup a LEMP or LAMP stack on your system. Then use a web browser to read news; there is an Android app for mobile users.

It supports keyboard shortcuts, several languages and allows for feed aggregation/syndication. TT RSS also supports podcasts and allows you to share new entries in various ways including via RSS feeds, social networks, or sharing by URL, and many more.

It supports flexible article filtering, and automatically identifies and filters duplicate articles. It comes with multiple themes to customize its look and feel, and there are plugins to extend its core functionality. You can integrate it with external applications via a JSON-based API. In addition, it supports OPML import/export and more.

4. Akregator

Akregator is a very powerful news RSS/Atom feed reader for KDE, designed to get feeds from hundreds of news sources. It is easy to use and very convenient. It ships in with an embedded browser for reading news in a simple and convenient way, and can be integrated with Konqueror to add news feeds.

Install Akregator in Linux

If you are using KDE desktop, most likely Akregator is already installed. If not, you can use the following command to install it.

$ sudo apt install akregator

5. FreshRSS

FreshRSS is a free open source, fast, lightweight, powerful and customizable web-based RSS feed reader and aggregator. It is a multi-user application and has a terminal interface for those who like to work from the command-line. To self-host it, all you need is to install a LAMP or LEMP stack on your system.

It is easy to use, very responsive with good mobile support. FressRSS supports anonymous reading mode, and instant notifications from compatible sites, via PubSubHubbub. It comes with various extensions to improve its core functionality, and an API for (mobile) clients.

6. Selfoss

Selfoss is a free open source, modern, lightweight and multipurpose web-based RSS reader, developed using PHP (therefore self-hostable). It can also be used for live stream, mashup, and as a universal aggregation.

It comes with amazing mobile support (apps) for Android, iOS and tablets. It supports plugins for further tuning, and it also supports OPML import. In addition, you can integrate it with other external applications or develope you own plugins with the help of a Restful JSON API.

7. QuiteRSS

QuiteRSS is a free open source, cross-platform and feature-rich RSS feed reader. It works on Linux, Windows and MacOS. It comes in a multitude of languages around the world. It automatically update news feeds on startup and via a timer.

QuiteRSS supports shortcuts, OPML import/export, quick search in browser, and filters (user, feed and news filters). It also supports notifications (pop-up and sound), displays new or unread news counter on your system tray.

If you don’t want to view images in preview, this application allows you to disable them. And for security minded users, it allows you to configure a proxy either automatically or manually. It also comes with an ad-lock, internal browser and so much more.

Install QuiteRSS on Linux

Simply add the following PPA to install QuiteRSS on Debian based systems.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:quiterss/quiterss
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install quiterss

8. Liferea (Linux Feed Reader)

Liferea is a free open source, web-based feed reader and news aggregator for Linux. It is considered one of the best RSS feed readers on Ubuntu Linux. It has a simple interface allowing you to easily organize and browse feeds.

It comes with an embedded graphical browser, supports reading articles while offline, and supports podcats. It also provides news bins for permanently saving headlines, and allows you to match items using search folders. And Liferea can be synchronizes with InoReader, Reedah, TheOldReader and TinyTinyRSS.

Install Liferea in Linux

$ sudo apt-get install liferea  [On Ubuntu/Debian]
$ sudo dnf install liferea      [On Fedora]

9. OpenTICKR

OpenTickr is a free open source, highly customizable GTK-based RSS reader that shows feeds in a TICKER bar on your Linux desktop with a fast and smooth scroller. It’s a native Linux program developed using C with GTK+ and Libxml2; it can also run on Windows with MinGW support.

It supports bookmarking of your favorite feeds, and allows you to easily play, pause or reload the current feed. Other than using remote XML resources, you can use it with any text file. In addition, it is highly scriptable, since all its parameters can be passed from command-line, and much more.

10. MiniFlux

MiniFlux is a free open source, very simple, lightweight and fast RSS/Atom/JSON feed reader, developed in Goand Postgresql. It is easy to install and use, and comes with a few useful features. It comes in six languages: Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, and Polish.

It supports OPML import/export, bookmarks, and categories. For YouTube lovers, it allows you to play videos from channels directly from within the program. In addition, it supports multiple enclosures/attachments such as videos, music, images as well as podcasts. With it, you can also save articles to external applications or services.

11. Newsbeuter

Newsbeuter is a free open source, terminal-based RSS/Atom feed reader for Unix-like systems (Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and others). With it, you can connect to any feed source via a highly flexible filter and plugin system. It supports configurable keyboard shortcuts, podcasts, a search facility, category and tag system, as well as OPML import/export.

Newsbeuter uses a powerful query language to set meta feeds and you can automatically delete unwanted articles via a killfile.

Install Newsbeuter on Linux

Newsbeuter is available to install from the default system repository using following command.

$ sudo apt-get install newsbeuter

12. Snownews

Snownews is a free open source, simple, lightweight, fast and fully featured command-line RSS feed reader for Unix-like systems, with color support.

It is a native Unix program written in C and has few external dependencies (ncurses and libxml2). It comes with an embedded HTTP client which follows server redirects and automatically updates feed URLs that point to permanent redirects (301).

It supports HTTP proxy and authentication(basic and digest methods), feed categories, OPML import, and uses fully customizable keyboard shortcuts. Snownews also uses a local cache to minimize network traffic, hence boosting its performance. Furthermore, you can extend it via plug-ins; it is available in several languages, and much more.

13. Newsroom

Newsroom is a free open-source, simple, modern and cross-platform command-line utility to get your favorite news, developed using NodeJS. It runs on Linux systems, Mac OSX as well as Windows.

14. Newsboat

Newsboat (a fork of Newsbeuter) is also a free, open source and simple terminal-based RSS/Atom feed reader. It only runs on Unix-like systems such as GNU/Linux, FreeBSD and MacOS.

Summary

RSS is a standardized format used to deliver regularly changing content on the web. In this article, we have explained 14 RSS Feed readers for Linux systems. If we have missed any application in the list above, let us know via the feedback form below.

Source

In this article, I have reviewed of some the best photo editing software available on different Linux distributions. This fifteen are not the only photo editors available but are among the best and commonly used by Linux users.

Don’t Miss: 8 Best Video Editing Softwares I Discovered for Linux

1. GIMP

GNU image manipulation program (GIMP) is an open source photo editing tool that has features such as:

1. image composition
2. photo retouching
3. image authoring

GIMP is highly customizable and pluggable through third party plugins and its users range from graphic designers, photographers, graphical illustrators and even scientists.

2. Photoshop WINE

Many users who have migrated from Windows to Linux may just enjoys this, it is one of the most popular photo editing tools available. Though you can not install it directly on Linux, but you can use WINE to install it and use it on many Linux distributions.

3. Pinta

Pinta is also a great photo editing application which works similar to Windows Paint.NET. Just think of it as a Linux version of Windows Paint. It simple and easy to use allowing users to do quick photo editing.

4. DigiKam

It is an open source and good photo editor for dedicated photographers in KDE, it offers easy to use functions to enhance usability.

It has the following features:

1. directory for tutorials on how to use it
2. facial recognition support
3. easy photo importing and exporting to different formats

5. ShowFOTO

ShowFOTO is a standalone image editor under the digiKam project. It is free and comes with all the standard photo editing functionalists such as transformation, adding effects, filtering, metadata editing and many more.

It is light weight and not feature rich though it is a good image editing software that doesn’t require other software to run.

6. RawTherapee

RawTherapee is a free and open source photo editor for optimizing digital images. It is feature rich and powerful when you need quality digital images from RAW image files. RAW files can be modified and then saved in compressed formats as well.

It has many features as listed in project homepage including:

1. variety of supported cameras
2. exposure control
3. parallel editing
4. color adjustment
5. option of using secondary display
6. metadata editing and many more

7. Fotoxx

Fotoxx is also a free and open source photo editing and collection management tool. It is intended for dedicated photographers who need a simple, fast and easy tool for photo editing.

It offers photo collection management and an easy way to navigate through the collection directories and subdirectories using a thumbnail browser.

It has the following features:

1. use simple clicks to transform photos
2. ability to retouch photos in enormous amounts of ways
3. artistic photo transformation such as animations
4. access to work with meta-data and many more

8. F-spot

It is a free and open source, feature rich photo editing and management software for Gnome desktop environment. F-spot allows users to edit, modify, save, organize, find and share images easily.

It has some of the following user feature:

1. Photo editor with rich colour adjustment functionalities
2. Tag icon editor
3. export images to the web
4. create photo CD

9. UFRaw

UFRaw which stands for “Unidentified Flying Raw” is a software that reads and manipulates RAW images files from various types of digital cameras. You can use it independently as a standalone software or as a GIMP plug-in.

UFRaw uses Dave Coffin’s raw conversion utility DCRaw to read raw images and its color management workflow is based on Little CMS. This allows a user to apply ICC color profiles to images being edited.

10. GTKRawGallery

GTKRawGallery is another free and open source workflow oriented photo editing and retouching software. It also works with raw 16 bit color depth camera images using tools such as Exiftool, Dcraw and Imagemagick.

It allows users to do the following:

1. image browser and photo album manager
2. image modification tools for 16 bit/channel post-processing
3. batch Processor to speed up workflow and batch conversion with different available styles
4. fast image tagging
5. color Management
6. print support
7. advanced Metadata Editor
8. dropbox uploader
9. facebook, Flickr and Picasa Web Albums Publisher

11. LightZone

LightZone is also a free and open source photo editing software for photographers which offers RAW file processing and editing. It offers powerful, highly flexible and customizable tools that a user can build in a stack. The stack of tools can be turned on or off, readjusted, rearranged to fit user needs in different sessions.

12. Pixeluvo

Pixeluvo is also a powerful layer-based image editing software that offers its users RAW image processing, color correction tools, different image enhancement filters and many more.

It has the following features:

1. fix perspective distortion
2. Add a vignette to your photos
3. transform the feel of an image with the Quick Color filter
4. add text or captions to your images
5. remove noise and JPEG compression artifacts
6. boost image detail
7. add a tilt-shift effect to images
8. image spot-heal tool
9. clone tool
10. text tool
11. warp tool
12. filter brush and many more

13. Photivo

This is also a free and open source photo editor for Linux users. It is feature rich can also offers RAW and bitmap file processing under 16-bit processing in a non-destructive manner. It is known have some of the best powerful and flexible photo editing algorithms available.

It has the following features:

1. 16-bit internal processing with LCMS2 color management
2. works with RAW and bitmaps files
3. integration of Gimp workflow for import and export
4. adaptive saturation.
5. film grain simulation
6. cross processing
7. black and white conversion.

14. AfterShot Pro

AfterShot Pro is powerful, fast, highly flexible and pluggable photo workflow and management software. It offers RAW processing functionalists and advanced non-destructive photo editing.

You can store images in folders and use meta-data tools to search images by keywords, tags and even camera setting and many more. It is up to 30% more faster under the new 64-bit performance.

15. Darktable

Darktable is a free and open source photography workflow software and also RAW file developer. It is a virtual light table and darkroom for photographers which helps them to manage their digital negatives in a database.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading and hope you find this article useful, if you know of other good photo editors available in Linux.

Source

Audio and Video are two common sources of information sharing we see in today’s world. May it be publishing any product, or need of sharing any information between huge community of people, or a way of socializing in the group, or sharing of knowledge (e.g. as we see in online tutorials) audio and video hold a great place in this highly expressive world which wants to share their ideas, prove themselves and do all possible steps which brings them in limelight.

 21 Best Music Players That Are Worth Trying On Linux

Video players are the channel for people to see videos. There is a huge list of uses of these videos in our life, few of them namely being: watching movies, online tutorials, broadcasting a social message to huge mass of people, for fun and laughter (i.e. funny short videos), to name a few. Video Players provide a means to view and even customize the appearance of Videos as we desire.

Below is the list of some quality open source video players which are available on Linux. Usually you can find that most video players differ only in User interface, there backend which is made of shared libraries remains same for many if not all the players.

So, the distinguishable feature in most Video Players is UI, then libraries used internally, and then any other additional feature which only that player supports that attracts attention. Based on these factors, we have shortlisted few Video Players which are:

1. VLC Media Player

Initially released in 2001 under VideoLAN project, VLC Media player is one of the most powerful media player which is available on large number of OS including but not limiting to: Linux, Windows, Solaris, Android, iOS, Syllable etc.

It is written in C, C++ and Objective C and released under GNU GPLv2+ and GNU LGPLv2.1+. It supports large number of encoding / decoding libraries avoiding need for calibrating any kind of plugins.

VLC supports wide variety of audio and video formats including subtitle support. It is one of the few players providing support for DVD on Linux. Other features include: providing ability to play .iso files so that users can play files on a disk image directly, ability to play high definition recordings of D-VHS tapes, can be installed and run directly from USB flash drive or external drive, its functionality can be extended via Lua scripting. Also, apart from all this, VLC also provides API support by providing various API’s, and browser plugin support in Mozilla, Google Chrome, Safari etc.

Website: http://www.videolan.org/

2. XBMC – Kodi Media Center

Formerly known as Xbox Media Center (XBMC) and now Kodi, this cross-platform player is available under GNU General Public License and in 69+ languages. It is written with C++ as core with python scripts as addons available.

It allows complete flexibility to user to play both audio and video files and that to from internet podcasts, and all media player files from both local and network storage.

Open source nature of Kodi has helped it gain a lot of popularity as modified parts of this software are being used along with JeOS as an application suite or framework in variety of devices including Smart TV, set top boxes, network connected media players etc.

It provides a lot of features as addons which are added as python scripts which include: audio and video streaming plugins, screensavers, visualizations, themes etc. It provides support of a lot of formats including: Audio Formats like: MIDI, MP2, MP3, Vorbis etc, Video formats including: MPEG-1,2,4, HVC, HEVC, RealVideo, Sorenson etc.

Website: http://kodi.tv/

3. Miro Music and Video Player

Formerly known as Democracy Player (DTV), Miro is a cross-platform audio and video player and Internet television application developed by Participatory Cluture Foundation. It supports numerous Audio and Video formats, some in HD quality. Written purely in Python and GTK and released under GPL-2.0 +, this player is available in more than 40 languages.

It is able to play various file formats including: Quick Time, WMV, MPEG files, Audio Video Interface (AVI), XVID. It also integrates RSS news aggregator and podacatcher, a BitTorrent client and a media player. Its video converter is based on FFmpeg and converts various video formats.

It has ability to notify and automatically download a video once available. It received a great reception with its download link appearing on front page of Pirate Bay in 2009 under heading “We Love Free Software”. Apart from this it received positive critical reviews with rating of 9/10 in Softonic.

Website: http://www.getmiro.com/

4. SMPlayer

It is another cross-platform media player and a graphical front end for the likes of Mplayer and its forks, written purely using Qt library in C++. It is available in multiple languages and only on Windows and Linux OS, released under GNU General Public License.

It provides support for all the default formats as in other media players. Talking about its features it provides: Support for EDL files, Configurable subtitles which can be fetched from Internet, numerous Skins downloadable from Internet, Youtube browser, Multiple speed playback, Audio and Video filters and equalizers.

Website: http://www.smplayer.eu/

5. MPV Player

Written in C, Objective-C, Lua and Python, MPV is another free and cross platform media player released under GPLv2 or later with latest stable release being 0.21.0 on 20 October 2016. It is based on MPlayer and focuses mainly on modern systems which has led to advancements in original code of MPlayer and introduction of new features.

Transformation from MPlayer to MPV player has led to deprecation of “slave mode” which was earlier part of MPlayer but now has been discontinued due to broken compatibility.

Instead of this, MPV can now be compiled as a library which exposes client API’s for better control. Other features include: Media Encoding functionality, smooth-motion which is a form of interpolation between two frames for smooth transition between them.

Website: https://mpv.io/

6. Gnome Videos

Formerly known as Totem, it is the default media player for Gnome based desktop environments. It is written purely in C and uses GTK+ and Clutter libraries. From initial stages only, its development was in two stages, one stage used GStreamer multimedia framework for playback and other version (> 2.7.1) was configured to use xine libraries as a backend.

Although xine version had better DVD compatibility, but was discontinued as GStreamer version evolved many folds over time with introduction of DVD compatible features, and its ability to support wide variety of formats including playlist formats like: SHOUTcast, M3U, SMIL, Windows Media Player format, and Real Audio format.

Other features include: still capturing, loading of subRip subtitles, ability to adjust brightness, contrast and saturation during playback. GNOME 3.12 added support for direct video playback from online channels like: Guardian and Apple.

Website: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Videos

7. Bomi (CMPlayer)

Another powerful and highly configurable video player which promises to fulfill all the requirements one expects from a good video player. It is based on MPV player. Various features that are provided by Bomi include: easy to use GUI, playback tracking/ recording and ability to resume playback later, subtitle support and ability to render multiple subtitle files, hardware accelerated decoding by GPU, and other features that are by default provided by other video players.

Website: https://bomi-player.github.io/

8. Banshee Music and Video Player

Initially called Sonance, Banshee is another open source cross-platform media player developed in GTK# (C#) which is available on Linux platform on many Linux distributions. It was initially released in 2005 under MIT License. It uses GStreamer multimedia framework which adds in lot of functionality including support for lare number of audio and video formats.

Some features provided by this media player include: Multimedia keys support, iPod manager which allows transfer of audio and video between system and iPod, Podcasting which enables Banshee to subscribe to feeds, notification area icon which it adds in GNOME. These all features are because of Banshee’s enhanced plugin architecture.

Website: http://banshee.fm/

9. MPlayer

Another multi-lingual cross platform media player developed by MPlayer team, available for all major Operating Systems i.e. Linux, Mac, Windows and even other systems including OS/2, Syllable, AmigaOS, AROS Research Operating System. It is purely written in C and released under GNU General Public License.

In itself, it is a command-line media player which has ability to play: Video, Audio from Physical Media like: DVD, CD etc and Local file system.

In case of Videos, it can play lots of video input file formats including: CINEPAK, DV, H.263, MPEG, MJPEG, Real Video, and even is able to easily store the streamed content to a file locally.

Other features which make it one of great media players include: supporting variety of output driver protocols like: X video extension, DirectX, VESA, Framebuffer, SDL etc, easy integration with multiple GUI front-ends written in GTK+ and Qt, MEncoder which can take input file or stream and can translate into any output format after applying various transformations and subtitle support for Videos.

Website: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/

10. Xine Multimedia Player

Released under GNU General Public License, Xine is a cross-platform multimedia player written purely in C. It is build around a shared library xine-lib that supports multiple configurable frontends.

Development of Xine project dates back to year 2000 when even running DVD’s was manual and tedious process. Other media players which share the same shared library as of xine are: Totem and Kaffeine.

Apart from supporting physical media, container formats like: 3gp, Matroska, MOV, Mp4, Audio formats, Network Protocols, Xine also supports various Video Devices like: V4L, DVB, PVR and Various Video formats like: Cinepak, DV, H.263, MPEG series, WMV etc.

One advantage of this media player is its ability to manually correct audio and video streams synchronization.

Website: https://www.xine-project.org/

Conclusion

These are some selected video players which are available on Linux platform. If you use any other video player, do write to us in comments and we will include it in our list.

Source

Web Browser is a software which provides an interface to surf the web. With introduction in around 1991, there development and advancement has advanced many folds till the current stage which we see today. Earlier there used to be mostly text based sites with few having images and graphical content, hence only text based browsers sufficed with some of early browsers being: Lynx, Netscape and Opera.

But, with advancement of technology to support of audio, video, images and even flash content, browsers also need to be that advanced to support such content. This has pushed the advancement of browsers to what we see today.

A modern browser requires support of many softwares which include: web browser engine like: Geeko, Trident, WebKit, KHTML etc, Rendering engine to render the web site content and display in proper format.

Linux being open source community gives freedom to developers across the globe to experiment with features they expect from an ideal browser.

Some Open Source Browsers in Linux

Below are listed some Open Source web browsers which are just perfect to be listed here. Usually the features which distinguish a normal to a good browser are: Ability to support all types of data including: audio, video, flash and HTML and HTML5, fast performance, memory friendly to adjust to old and new systems completely, ability to support maximum architectures like: Intel, AMD and operating systems like: Windows, Mac, Unix-like, BSD to name a few.

1. Google Chrome

Accounted as the most popular web browser in smartphones and PC’s with more than half usage share of web browsers, Google Chrome is a freeware developed by Google. It forked from Chromium whose code is modified with certain add-ons to structure it. It uses WebKit layout engine till version 27 and Blink thereafter. Written mostly in C++, it is available for many Operating Systems including Android, iOS, OS X, Windows and Linux.

Features provided by Chrome include: bookmarking and synchronization, enhanced security, malware blocking, and addition of external plugins like: AddBlock etc available in Google Web Store which is provided as a default extension in Chrome. Also, it supports user tracking feature which can be enabled if required.

It is fast because of inbuilt mechanism it uses, also is very stable with tabbed browsing, speed dials and incognito (private browsing ) mode, provides custom themes which can be installed as an extension from web store. It is widely accepted as one of default browser which can be found in almost all systems, with mostly positive reviews.

2. Firefox

One of the popular Web Browsers, Firefox is also Open Source and available for major operating systems including: OS X, Linux, Solaris, Linux, Windows, Android etc. It is written majorly in C++, Javascript, C, CSS, XUL, XBL and released under MPL2.0 License.

Since its introduction, it has been praised for its speed and security add ons and even is often termed as spiritual successor of Netscape Navigator. It uses Geecko web engine in all the supported platforms leaving the latest one on iOS which doesn’t use Geecko.

Features supported by Firefox include: tabbed browsing, spell checking, incremental find, live bookmarking, private browsing, add-on support which allows easy integration of many features. Apart from these, it supports many standards including: HTML4, XML, XHTML, SVG and APNG etc. It has been one of the popular web browsers in many Asian and African countries with more than a billion users around the world.

3. Opera

Another popular web browser, Opera is one of the earliest one we have till date, with initial version released in 1995, 20 years ago. It is written in C++ with availability marked for all Operating Systems including: Windows, OS, Linux, OS X, Symbian and Mobile phones including: Android, iOS. It uses Blink web engine, whereas earlier versions used Presto.

Features of this browser include: speed-dial for quick search, tabbed browsing, downloads manager, Page Zooming which allows Flash, Java and SVG to be increased or decreased as per user requirements, deletion of HTTP cookies, browsing history and other data on click of a button. Despite of its criticism for compatibility, and other UI related issues, it has been one of the favourite browsers with total of around 291 million users in mid of 2015.

4. Chromium

Widely known web browser, which forms the base from where Google Chrome takes its source code, Chromiumis another Open Source web browser available for Linux, Windows, OS X and Android Operating Systems. It is mainly written in C++ with latest release being in December 2016. It is designed with minimalistic user interface so as to make it lightweight and fast.

Features of Chromium include: a tabbed window manager, support for Vorbis, Theora, WebM codecs for HTML5 Audio and Video, Bookmark and History and Session management. Apart from Google Chrome, Chromium also forms base for large number of other Web Browsers some of which are still active while others have been discontinued. Some of them are: Opera, Dartum, Epic Browser, Vivaldi, Yandex Browser, Flock (discontinued), Rockmelt (discontinued) and many more.

5. Midori

Midori is an open source web browser developed In Vala and C with WebKit engine and GTK+ 2 and GTK+ 3 interface. With initial stable release in 2007 and latest stable release being in August 2015, Midori is currently the default browser in many Linux distros including: Manjaro Linux, elementary OS, SliTaz Linux, Bodhi Linux, Trisqel Mini, SystemRescue CD, old versions of Raspbian.

Major Features provided by it include: HTML5 Support, Bookmark Management, Private Browsing, Windows, Tabs and Sessions management, Speed Dial, Easy integration of extensions which can be written in C and Vala, Unity Support. Midori has been mentioned as one of the alternative web browsers for Linux by LifeHacker and many other sites including: TechRadar, ComputerWorld and Gigaom.

6. QupZilla

QupZilla is another known web browser which started merely as a Research Project with first release in December 2010 written in Python, and later releases being in C++ with goal to develop a portable web browser. It is licensed under GPLv3 and available for Linux, Windows, OS X, FreeBSD.

QupZilla uses WebKit engine with QtWebKit to be in sync with mordern web standards. It provides all the functions of a mordern web browser including: Speed Dial, built-in Add Block feature, bookmark management, etc. Additional features which would make you opt this browser include: Performance Optimization with memory consumption lower than most famous web browsers including Firefox and Google Chrome.

7. Konqueror

Another multi-purpose Web Browser and File Manager, Konqueror is another one in the list. Developed in C++(Qt) and available for Operating Systems including: Linux and Windows and licensed under GPLv2. As the name shows, Konqueror (starting with ‘K’) is the default browser for KDE Desktop environment, replacing the then known KFM.

As a web browser, it uses KTML derived web rendering engine and also supports JavaScript, Java applets, CSS, Jquery. Its rendering abilities are unquestionable and better than most web browsers which highlights its performance optimization.

Other features include: Customizable search services (even custom search shortcut is also included which can be added), ability to show multimedia content within web pages due to integrated Kpart, Ability to open PDF, Open Document and other specific file types, integrates I/O plugin system which allows several protocols including: HTTP, FTP, WebDaV, SMB etc, ability to browse through local file system of user. Konqueror Embedded is another embedded version of Knoqueror which is also available.

8. Web (Epiphany)

Originally named as Epiphany is another we browser which deserves a mention in the list. Written in C (GTK+) it was originally a fork of Galeon and since then has been part of GNOME project and complies to GNOME’s guidelines at each stage of its development.

Initially, it used Geeko engine but with version 2.20, it started using WebKitGTK+ engine. Web provides support for Linux and BSD Operating Systems with source code available under GPLv2.

Features include: HTML4, CSS1 and XHTML support including support for HTML5 and CSS3, inbuilt plugins of Adobe Flash and IcedTea, bookmark and “smart bookmark” feature which allows easy search in find-in-as-you-type manner, full integration with GNOME features including GNOME Network Manager, GNOME printer etc, and other features supported by most browsers. While it has received mixed reviews, one capability for which it is praised by many is its fast launching and page-load capability.

9. SwiftFox

A browser based on Mozilla Firefox, SwiftFox is the next one in list. It is build exclusively for Linux with code bring completely Open Source under MPL 1.1 and binaries proprietary.

SwiftFox is optimized version of Firefox for Linux platform. It employs Binary Code Optimization technique with -O3 level compilation, optimization specific to architectures including: AMD, AMD64, Intel.

Other features which make it more advanced from Firefox are: increased security, Pango disabled for reduced package size and rendering. Its version 1.5.6.0 has been reported to have increased speed by about 1.7%.

10. Pale Moon

Another browser based on Mozilla Firefox, Pale Moon is a replacement for Firefox on Linux, Windows and Android. It is developed in C/C++ with Source Code available under MPL2.0 License. It retains the user interface seen in previous versions of Firefox, focusing only on web browsing abilities. Its latest version will use Gonna, which is fork of Geeko, a web browser engine of Firefox.

Pale Moon focuses on speed optimization features and utilizes Microsoft C Compiler’s speed optimization, auto-parallelization features. Also, it removes unnecessary add on features which are not required i.e. crash reporter, accessibility hardware features, and targets Windows Vista and later OS due to which it may fail on older hardwares. Other features include: DuckDuckGo default search engine, IP-API geolocation service, functional status bar and enhanced customization.

11. Links

Links is an Open source text and graphical web browser which is written in C and available for Windows, Linux, OS X and OS/2, Open VMS and DOS systems. It is released under GPLv2+ License. It is one of those browsers which has many forks based upon it including: Elinks (Experimental/Enhanced Links), Hacked Links etc.

This is ideal browser for those who want to experience GUI elements in a text only environment. Links 2 being the latest version was released in September 2015 and it is advanced version of Links which supports JavaScript which results in much fast web browser.

Main highlight feature of Links is that it can run in graphics mode even for those systems which do not have X Server because of its support for Graphic drivers for X Server, Linux Framebuffer, svgalib, OS/2 PMShell and Atheos GUI.

Don’t Miss:

 Best Command Line Web Browsers for Linux

Conclusion

These were some of the Open Source Browsers available on Linux. If you have some personal favorites, do mention them in your comments and we would include them in our list too.

Source

It has become a common and good practice to record an important desktop session, say a case where you want to played a hard level of a game and want to observe how you possibly achieved later on Or you intend to create a video tutorial, a how-to article or a guide, or any other activity to do with recording your desktop session, then screen recording software can help you accomplish all the above.

In this review guide, we shall cover some of the best screen recording and live video streaming software that you can find for your Linux desktop.

Don’t Miss: Record Linux Terminal Sessions using ‘script’ and ‘scriptreplay’ Commands

Don’t Miss: Showterm.io – A Linux Terminal Recording Tool

1. SimpleScreenRecorder

SimpleScreenRecorder is an application that enables you to record other applications and games running on your screen. It is a simple yet powerful and feature rich screen recorder with an easy to use interface.

For installation and usage read: How to Record Programs and Games Using Simple Screen Recorder in Linux

Some of its notable features include:

1. Qt based simple GUI
2. Can record entire screen or part of it
3. Directly records from OpenGL apps
4. Good audio and video synchronization
5. Helps to reduce video frame rates for slow machines
6. Support for pause and resume functionality
7. Shows statistics during the recording process
8. Supports previewing during recording
9. Sensible default settings, no need to alter anything and many more

Visit Homepage: http://www.maartenbaert.be/simplescreenrecorder/

2. recordMyDesktop

recordMyDesktop is a lightweight and powerful screen session recorder for your Linux desktop, it offers users some great features including choosing video and audio quality, a command line interface which allows recording and encoding only.

Additionally, it offers a clear GUI with basic functions that is few and direct user options, supports recording HD videos plus many more. Although it works exceptionally well, recordMyDesktop has got one major limitation, that is, its output is limited Theora video and Vorbis audio formats.

Visit Homepage: http://recordmydesktop.sourceforge.net/

3. Vokoscreen

Vokoscreen is a great screen recorder that records both video and audio in multiple formats, most importantly, it is user-friendly.

It offers some great features such as:

1. Recording the entire screen or application window or selected area
2. Allows access of the webcam while recording
3. Supports one application window recording
4. Magnification of selected area plus many more

Visit Homepage: http://www.kohaupt-online.de/hp/

4. ScreenStudio

Screenstudio is a powerful screen recording software for Linux that enables users to record HD video files. It works on Linux and Mac OS X and has some of the following components:

1. Supports both audio and video recording
2. Supports using overlay text and connection to webcam
3. Supports streaming of desktop sessions to Twitch.tv, UStream or Hitbox
4. Built around ffmpeg
5. Supports several video file formats including mp4, flv and so on

Visit Homepage: http://screenstudio.crombz.com/

5. Kazam Screencaster

Kazam is also a simple yet powerful screen recorder that you can use on your Linux desktop, it captures your screen content, records a video file and optionally audio from a supported input device.

You can now find it in the Universal Ubuntu repositories, but you can use a stable PPA to avoid waiting for latest releases from Ubuntu repositories.

It has some great features and some of these include:

1. Outputs recorded video in VP8 or WebM formats
2. Supports exporting videos directly to YouTube
3. Enables users to add text such title and description
4. Simple GUI and many more

Visit Homepage: https://launchpad.net/kazam

6. Byzanz-record

Byzanz-record is also a powerful text-based screen recorder for Linux, for those who love to work from the terminal, it can be a great alternative to the screen recorders we have looked at above.

It comes with some exceptional features and these include; enabling users to record desktop sessions to animated GIF files, supports recording of entire desktop, a single application window or a given screen region.

It offers recording functions directly from the command-line but users who prefer a GUI can take advantage of the panel applet. For more help on how to use this tool, check for its man pages at:

$ man byzanz

7. VLC Media Player

VLC is more than just a screen recorder, it is a popular, free, open-source and cross-platform media player that runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

VLC supports several (almost all) video and audio formats, it is also feature rich and one of its great features is recording desktop sessions. Therefore, you can use it as a screen recorder on your Linux desktop.

Visit Homepage: http://www.videolan.org

8. OBS (Open Broadcaster Software)

OBS is a free, open source and cross-platform video recording and streaming application, it can work on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.
It has got several powerful features and the notable features include:

1. Supports encoding using H264 and AAC
2. Supports Intel QSV and NVENC
3. Supports unlimited number of scenes and input sources
4. Outputs files in MP4 or FLV formats
5. Allows access to webcam, capture cards and so on during recording sessions
6. Highly extensible through plugins, developers can use APIs to code their own plugins and many more

Visit Homepage: https://obsproject.com

Source

An IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is simply a software that offers much needed programming facilities and components in a single program, to maximize programmer productivity. IDEs put forward a single program in which all development can be done, enabling a programmer to write, modify, compile, deploy and debug programs.

In this article, we will describe how to install and configure Vim editor as a Bash-IDE using bash-support vim plug-in.

What is bash-support.vim plug-in?

bash-support is a highly-customizable vim plug-in, which allows you to insert: file headers, complete statements, comments, functions, and code snippets. It also enables you to perform syntax checking, make a script executable, start a debugger simply with a keystroke; do all this without closing the editor.

It generally makes bash scripting fun and enjoyable through organized and consistent writing/insertion of file content using shortcut keys (mappings).

The current version plug-in is 4.3, version 4.0 was a rewriting of version 3.12.1; versions 4.0 or better, are based on a comprehensively new and more powerful template system, with changed template syntax unlike previous versions.

How To Install Bash-support Plug-in in Linux

Start by downloading the latest version of bash-support plug-in using the command below:

$ cd Downloads
$ curl http://www.vim.org/scripts/download_script.php?src_id=24452 >bash-support.zip

Then install it as follows; create the .vim directory in your home folder (in case it doesn’t exist), move into it and extract the contents of bash-support.zip there:

$ mkdir ~/.vim
$ cd .vim
$ unzip ~/Downloads/bash-support.zip

Next, activate it from the .vimrc file:

$ vi ~/.vimrc

By inserting the line below:

filetype plug-in on   
set number   #optionally add this to show line numbers in vim

How To Use Bash-support plug-in with Vim Editor

To simplify its usage, the frequently used constructs as well as certain operations can be inserted/performed with key mappings respectively. The mappings are described in ~/.vim/doc/bashsupport.txt and ~/.vim/bash-support/doc/bash-hotkeys.pdf or ~/.vim/bash-support/doc/bash-hotkeys.tex files.

Important:

1. All mappings ((\)+charater(s) combination) are filetype specific: they are only work with ‘sh’ files, in order to avoid conflicts with mappings from other plug-ins.
2. Typing speed matters-when using key mapping, the combination of a leader ('\') and the following character(s) will only be recognized for a short time (possibly less than 3 seconds – based on assumption).

Below are certain remarkable features of this plug-in that we will explain and learn how to use:

How To Generate an Automatic Header for New Scripts

Look at the sample header below, to have this header created automatically in all your new bash scripts, follow the steps below.

Start by setting your personal details (author name, author reference, organization, company etc). Use the map \ntw inside a Bash buffer (open a test script as the one below) to start the template setup wizard.

Select option (1) to setup the personalization file, then press [Enter].

$ vi test.sh

Afterwards, hit [Enter] again. Then select the option (1) one more time to set the location of the personalization file and hit [Enter].

The wizard will copy the template file .vim/bash-support/rc/personal.templates to .vim/templates/personal.templates and open it for editing, where you can insert your details.

Press i to insert the appropriate values within the single quotes as shown in the screenshot.

Once you have set the correct values, type :wq to save and exit the file. Close the Bash test script, open another script to check the new configuration. The file header should now have your personal details similar to that in the screen shot below:

$ test2.sh

Make Bash-support Plug-in Help Accessible

To do this, type the command below on the Vim command line and press [Enter], it will create a file .vim/doc/tags:

:helptags $HOME/.vim/doc/

How To Insert Comments in Shell Scripts

To insert a framed comment, type \cfr in normal mode:

How To Insert Statements in a Shell Script

The following are key mappings for inserting statements (n – normal mode, i – insert mode):

1. \sc – case in … esac (n, I)
2. \sei – elif then (n, I)
3. \sf – for in do done (n, i, v)
4. \sfo – for ((…)) do done (n, i, v)
5. \si – if then fi (n, i, v)
6. \sie – if then else fi (n, i, v)
7. \ss – select in do done (n, i, v)
8. \su – until do done (n, i, v)
9. \sw – while do done (n, i, v)
10. \sfu – function (n, i, v)
11. \se – echo -e “…” (n, i, v)
12. \sp – printf “…” (n, i, v)
13. \sa – array element, ${.[.]} (n, i, v) and many more array features.

Insert a Function and Function Header

Type \sfu to add a new empty function, then add the function name and press [Enter] to create it. Afterwards, add your function code.

To create a header for the function above, type \cfu, enter name of the function, click [Enter] and fill in the appropriate values (name, description, parameters and returns):

More Examples of Adding Bash Statements

Below is an example showing insertion of an if statement using \si:

Next example showing addition of an echo statement using \se:

How To Use Run Operation in Vi Editor

The following is a list of some run operations key mappings:

1. \rr – update file, run script (n, I)
2. \ra – set script cmd line arguments (n, I)
3. \rc – update file, check syntax (n, I)
4. \rco – syntax check options (n, I)
5. \rd – start debugger (n, I)
6. \re – make script executable/not exec.(*) (in)

Make Script Executable

After writing script, save it and type \re to make it executable by pressing [Enter].

How To Use Predefined Code Snippets To a Bash Script

Predefined code snippets are files that contain already written code meant for a specific purpose. To add code snippets, type \nr and \nw to read/write predefined code snippets. Issue the command that follows to list default code snippets:

$ .vim/bash-support/codesnippets/

To use a code snippet such as free-software-comment, type \nr and use auto-completion feature to select its name, and press [Enter]:

Create Custom Predefined Code Snippets

It is possible to write your own code snippets under ~/.vim/bash-support/codesnippets/. Importantly, you can also create your own code snippets from normal script code:

1. choose the section of code that you want to use as a code snippet, then press \nw, and closely give it a filename.
2. to read it, type \nr and use the filename to add your custom code snippet.

View Help For the Built-in and Command Under the Cursor

To display help, in normal mode, type:

1. \hh – for built-in help
2. \hm – for a command help

For more reference, read through the file :

~/.vim/doc/bashsupport.txt  #copy of online documentation
~/.vim/doc/tags

Visit the Bash-support plug-in Github repository: https://github.com/WolfgangMehner/bash-support
Visit Bash-support plug-in on the Vim Website: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=365

That’s all for now, in this article, we described the steps of installing and configuring Vim as a Bash-IDE in Linux using bash-support plug-in. Check out the other exciting features of this plug-in, and do share them with us in the comments.

Source

Knowing how to fast and effectively edit files via command line is vital for every Linux system administrator. File edits are performed on a daily basis, whether it’s a configuration file, user file, text document or whatever file you need to edit.

This is why it is good idea to pick a favourite command line text editor and master it. It’s good to know how to work with other text editors, but you should master at least one so you can perform more complex tasks when needed.

In this tutorial, we are going to show you the most common command line text editors in Linux and show you their pros and cons.

Note however that we will not cover a complete guide how to work with each one of them as this can be a complete other article with explanation.

1. Vi/Vim Editor

First in our list is the infamous Vi/Vim (Vim comes from Vi improved). This is a very flexible text editor that can perform many different operations on text.

For example you can use regular expressions to replace text snippets in a file using vim. This of course is not the only benefit. Vi(m) provides an easy way to navigate between lines, words paragraphs. It also includes text highlighting.

Vim may not be the most user friendly text editor, but it is often preferred by developers and Linux power users. If you want to install this command line text editor on your system, you can use the command associated with your OS:

Install Vi/Vim Editor in Linux

$ sudo apt-get install vim         [On Debian and its derivatives]
# yum install vim                  [On RedHat based systems]
OR
# dnf install vim                  [On newer Fedora 22+ versions]

If you want to see our complete coverage of vi(m), please follow the links below:

1. Learn and Use Vi/Vim as a Full Text Editor in Linux
2. Learn ‘Vi/Vim’ Editor Tips and Tricks to Enhance Your Skills
3. 8 Interesting ‘Vi/Vim’ Editor Tips and Tricks

2. Nano Editor

Nano is probably one of the most used command line text editors. The reason for this is it’s simplicity and the fact that it’s preinstalled in most of the Linux distributions.

Nano doesn’t have vim’s flexibility, but it will definitely do the work if you need to edit a large file. Actually picoand nano are quite similar. Both have their command options displayed at the bottom so you can choose which one to run. Commands are completed with key combinations of Ctrl and a letter displayed at the bottom.

Nano has the following features that you can use out of the box:

1. Get Help
2. Write out
3. Justify
4. Read File
5. Where is (search)
6. Previous page
7. Next page
8. Cut Text
9. Uncut Text
10. Cur Pos (Current position)
11. Spell check

Install Nano Editor in Linux

$ sudo apt-get install nano         [On Debian and its derivatives]
# yum install nano                  [On RedHat based systems]
OR
# dnf install nano                  [On newer Fedora 22+ versions]

You can check our complete guide for editing files with Nano editor on this link:

1. How to Use Nano Editor in Linux

3. Emacs Editor

This is probably the most complex text editor in our list. It’s the oldest command line editor available for both Linux and UNIX based systems. Emacs can help you be more productive by providing an integrated environment for different kinds of tasks.

At first the user interface may look somehow confusing. The good thing is that emacs has a very detailed manual that will help you with file navigation, edits, customization, setting up commands. Emacs is the ultimate tool used by advanced *Nix users.

Here are some of the features that make it the preferred choice over the previous editors we mentioned:

1. Emacs server platform enables multiple hosts to connect to the same Emacs server and share the buffer list.
2. Powerful and extensible file manager.
3. Customization beyond a regular editor – as some say it’s an OS within the OS.
4. Commands customization.
5. Can change to Vi(m) like mode.

Emacs is a multi-platform editor and can be easily installed with the commands shown below:

Install Emacs Editor in Linux

$ sudo apt-get install emacs         [On Debian and its derivatives]
# yum install emacs                  [On RedHat based systems]
OR
# dnf install emacs                  [On newer Fedora 22+ versions]

Note: In Linux Mint 17 I had to run the following command to complete the installation:

$ sudo apt-get install emacs23-nox

Conclusion

There are other command line editors, but they barely even reach the functionality that the above 3 provide. Whether you are a Linux newbie or a Linux guru, you will most definitely need to learn at least one of the above mentioned editors. If we’ve missed any command-line editor in this article, please don’t forget to inform us via comments.

Source

A media server is simply a specialized file server or computer system for storing media (digital videos/movies, audio/music, and images) which can be accessed over a network.

In order to setup a media server, you need computer hardware (or perhaps a cloud server) as well as a software that enables you to organize your media files, and makes it easier to stream and/or share them with friends and family.

In this article, we will share with you a list of 10 best media server software for Linux systems. By the time you complete this article, you will be able to choose the most appropriate software to setup your home/office/cloud media server powered by a Linux system.

1. Kodi – Home Theater Software

Kodi (previously known as XBMC) is a free and open source, highly customizable media server software. It is cross-platform and runs on Linux, Windows, MacOS; iOS and Android. It is more than just a media server; it’s an ideal entertainment center software with a fabulous user interface and several other media server software appliances are based on it.

$ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install kodi

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install kodi

$ sudo dnf install --nogpgcheck \  https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
$ sudo dnf install kodi

------------- Install Java in Debian and Ubuntu ------------- 
$ sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jre  [Install Java 8 in Debian/Ubuntu]
$ sudo apt-get install openjdk-9-jre  [Install Java 9 in Debian/Ubuntu]

------------- Install Java in Fedora and CentOS ------------- 
$ sudo sudo yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk

$ sudo dpkg -i subsonic-x.x.deb                    [On Debian/Ubuntu]
$ sudo yum install --nogpgcheck subsonic-x.x.rpm   [On Fedora/CentOS]

------------- Install Java in Debian and Ubuntu ------------- 
$ sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jre  [Install Java 8 in Debian/Ubuntu]
$ sudo apt-get install openjdk-9-jre  [Install Java 9 in Debian/Ubuntu]

------------- Install Java in Fedora and CentOS ------------- 
$ sudo yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk

$ sudo dpkg -i Madsonic-x.x.xxxx.deb                         [On Debian/Ubuntu]
$ sudo sudo yum install --nogpgcheck Madsonic-x.x.xxxx.rpm   [On Fedora/CentOS]

Are you a music producer and use Linux as your primary operating system, then music production is going to become easy for you after reading this article.

There are good music production software in Linux just as it is in Windows and Mac OS, though a few features may vary but the underlying functionalities mostly are the same.

Here, I will look at some free and open source software that you can use for music production purposes or music creation.

1. Audacity

It is free, open source and also a cross platform application for audio recording and editing. Therefore it can run on Linux, Mac OS X, Windows and other operating systems. Audacity has the some of the following features:

1. Records live audio through a microphone, a mixer or from other media.
2. Import and export files from and to different sound formats.
3. Copy, cut, paste, delete options for easy editing.
4. Large range of keyboard shortcuts.
5. Add sound effects.
6. Extensible with various plug-ins and many more.

Visit: Audacity Homepage

2. Cecilia

It is an audio signal processing software that allows users to do sound exploration and music composition, and it is intended for use by sound designers. It can run on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

It allows you to create a customized GUI by following a simple syntax. Cecilia has in-built modules that allow users to add sound effects and also for synthesis.

Visit: Cecilia Homepage

3. Mixxx

This is a music mixing software that can help you become a professional DJ. It is available on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. It can help you test you audio after complete production by mixing it with other audio files while listening to it.

Therefore having it in a studio can be so helpful just in case the user is also a sound producer.

It has some of the following features:

1. Four decks with advanced controls.
2. In-built sound effects.
3. Quad sampler decks.
4. Designer skins.
5. Record and broadcast functionality.
6. DJ hardware support and many more.

Visit: Mixxx Homepage

4. Ardour

It is available on Linux and Mac OS X and allows you to record, edit, mix and master audio and MIDI projects. It can be used by musicians, soundtrack editors and composers.

Ardour has some of the following features:

1. Flexible recording.
2. Unlimited multichannel tracks.
3. Importing and exporting audio files of different formats.
4. Extensible through plug-ins and In-line plug-in control .
5. Automation and many more.

Visit: Ardour Homepage

5. Hydrogen Drum Machine

It is an advanced drum sampler developed for Linux and Mac OS X operating systems though it is still experimental in OS X.

Hydrogen machine has some of the following features:

1. User friendly and modular
2. Fast and intuitive GUI
3. Pattern based sequencer
4. Multilayer instrument support
5. Jack audio connection kit
6. Import and export drum kits and also export audio files to different formats plus many more

Visit: Hydrogen Drum Machine Homepage

6. Guitarix

This is a virtual guitar amplifier and is available on Linux but can be built to work on BSD and Mac OS X. It runs on the Jack audio connection kit and works by taking signal from a guitar and processes it mono amp and a rack section. It also has in-built modules to allow you add effects to the rack.

Visit: Guitarix Homepage

7. Rosegarden

It is a music composing and editing application available on Linux and it is intended for use by music composers, musicians can can be used in a home or small scale recording environments.

Great understanding of music notations makes it interesting for users who know and understand music notations. Furthermore, it also has some basic support for digital audio.

Visit: Rosegarden Homepage

8. Qtractor

It is an audio Audio/MIDI multi track sequencer designed specifically for personal home studios. It runs on Linux as the target operating system.

It has some the following features:

1. Use of Jack Audio Connection Kit for audio and Advanced Linux Sound Architecture sequencer for MIDI as multimedia infrastructures.
2. Support for different audio formats such as WAV, MP3, AIFF, OGG and many more.
3. In-built mixer and monitor controls.
4. Loop recording.
5. MIDI clip editor.
6. Non-destructive and non-linear editing.
7. Extensible through unlimited number of plug-Ins plus many more.

Visit: Qtractor Homepage

9. LMMS

LMMS (Let’s Make Music) is a free, open source and cross-platform software for making music on your computer, made by musicians, for musicians. It comes with a user-friendly and modern interface.

LMMS also comes with playback instruments, samples and plugins. It is bundled with ready-to-use content such as a collection of instrument and effect plugins, presets and samples to VST and SoundFont support.

10. MuseScore

MuseScore is also a free, open source and easy to use, yet powerful tool for creating, playing and printing beautiful sheet music. It supports input via MIDI keyboard and also supports exporting to and from other programs via MusicXML, MIDI and more.

11. Smart Mix Player

Smart Mix Player is a free and configurable auto DJ player for Linux and Windows. All you need to do is configure it let the player mix songs automatically.

It plays audio files as a non stop mix; unlike other commonly used music mixing software out there that mix songs at the end, Smart Mix mixes like a real DJ.

12. Renoise [Not Open Source]

Renoise is a premium, powerful, cross-platform, and fully-featured Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) with a unique top-down approach.

Renoise features a wide range of modern features that allow you to record, compose, edit, process and render production-quality audio using a tracker-based approach. Importantly, it comes with Redux, a powerful yet affordable sampler and sequencer in the VST/AU format.

13. Virtual DJ [Not Open Source]

Virtual DJ is a premium, powerful, widely used, feature-rich and highly-configurable music mixing software. Many DJ hardware devices such as those from ‘Pioneer’ include built-in support for ‘Virtual DJ’. Unfortunately, Virtual DJ is designed to run on Windows and Mac OS X only.

To run Virtual DJ on GNU/Linux, you can use Wine, a tool that lets you run some of MS Windows software on GNU/Linux.

14. Aria Maestosa

Aria Maestosa is a free and open-source midi sequencer and editor for Linux, that enables you to compose, edit and play midi files with a few easy clicks in a user-friendly interface providing score, keyboard, guitar, drum and controller views.

Summary

There are lot of music making and mixing software out there for the Linux operating system, we have just looked a few. You can let us know of what you are using by leaving a comment or make give some additional information on the ones we have looked at.

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