Linux Blimp

After nearly two weeks of benchmarking, here is a look at our most extensive Linux x86_64 compiler comparison yet between the latest stable and development releases of the GCC and LLVM Clang C/C++ compilers. Tested with GCC 8, GCC 9.0.1 development, LLVM Clang 7.0.1, and LLVM Clang 8.0 SVN were tests on 12 distinct 64-bit systems and a total of 62 benchmarks run on each system with each of the four compilers… Here’s a look at this massive data set for seeing the current GCC vs. Clang performance.

With the GCC 9 and Clang 8 releases coming up soon, I’ve spent the past two weeks running this plethora of compiler benchmarks on a range of new and old, low and high-end systems within the labs. The 12 chosen systems aren’t meant for trying to compare the performance between processors but rather a diverse look at how Clang and GCC perform on varying Intel/AMD microarchitectures. For those curious about AArch64 and POWER9 compiler performance, that will come in a separate article with this testing just looking at the Linux x86_64 compiler performance.

The 13 systems tested featured the following processors:

– AMD FX-8370E (Bulldozer)
– AMD A10-7870K (Godavari)
– AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (Zen)
– AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X (Zen)
– AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX (Zen)
– AMD EPYC 7601 (Zen)
– Intel Core i5 2500K (Sandy Bridge)
– Intel Core i7 4960X (Ivy Bridge)
– Intel Core i9 7980XE (Skylake X)
– Intel Core i7 8700K (Coffeelake)
– Intel Xeon E5-2687Wv3 (Haswell)
– Intel Xeon Silver 4108 (SP Skylake)

The selection was chosen based upon systems in the server room that weren’t pre-occupied with other tests, of interest for a diverse look across several generations of Intel/AMD processors, and obviously based upon the hardware I have available. The storage and RAM varied between the systems, but again the focus isn’t for comparing these CPUs rather seeing how GCC 8, GCC 9, Clang 7, and Clang 8 compare. Ubuntu 18.10 was running on these systems with the Linux 4.18 kernel. All of the compiler releases were built in their release/optimized (non-debug) builds. During the benchmarking process on all of the systems, the CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS were maintained of “-O3 -march=native” throughout.

These compiler benchmarks are mostly focused on the raw performance of the resulting binaries but also included a few tests looking at the compile time performance too. For those short on time and wanting a comparison at the macro level, here is an immediate look at the four-way compiler performance across the dozen systems and looking at the geometric mean of all 62 compiler benchmarks carried out in each configuration:

On the AMD side, the Clang vs. GCC performance has reached the stage that in many instances they now deliver similar performance… But in select instances, GCC still was faster: GCC was about 2% faster on the FX-8370E system and just a hair faster on the Threadripper 2990WX but with Clang 8.0 and GCC 9.0 coming just shy of their stable predecessors. These new compiler releases didn’t offer any breakthrough performance changes overall for the AMD Bulldozer to Zen processors benchmarked.

On the Intel side, the Core i5 2500K interestingly had slightly better performance on Clang over GCC. With Haswell and Ivy Bridge era systems the GCC vs. Clang performance was the same. With the newer Intel CPUs like the Xeon Silver 4108, Core i7 8700K, and Core i9 7980XE, these newer Intel CPUs were siding with the GCC 8/9 compilers over Clang for a few percent better performance.

Now onward to the interesting individual data points… But before getting to that, if you appreciate all of the Linux benchmarking done day in and day out at Phoronix, consider joining Phoronix Premium to make this testing possible. Phoronix relies primarily on (pay per impression) advertisements to continue publishing content as well as premium subscriptions for those who prefer not seeing ads. Premium gets you ad-free access to the site as well as multi-page articles (like this!) all on a single page, among other benefits. Thanks for your support and at the very least to not be utilizing any ad-blocker on this web-site. Now here is the rest of these 2019 compiler benchmark results.

With the PolyBench-C polyhedral benchmark, what was interesting to note is that for the most part the Clang and GCC performance across this diverse range of systems was almost identical… But the interesting bit is the Intel Xeon Silver 4108 and Core i9 7980XE CPUs both performing noticeably better with GCC over Clang. Potentially explaining this is those two CPUs have AVX-512 and perhaps better utilized currently on the GCC side.

Of interest with the FFTW benchmark was seeing GCC 8.2 doing much better on the 2700X / 2990WX / EPYC 7601 Zen systems but the performance dropping back with GCC 9.0. On the Intel side, both AVX-512 Core i9 / Xeon Scalable systems saw nice performance improvements over Clang with GCC 8.2 and now moreso with the upcoming GCC 9.1.

The HMMer molecular biology benchmark was interesting in that with a number of systems the Clang performance was better than GCC, but for the older AMD systems and select Intel systems, GCC was still faster. So this case was a mixed bag between the compilers.

MAFFT is bringing better performance on the range of systems tested with GCC 9 compared to the current GCC 8 release, but that largely makes its performance in line with Clang.

The BLAKE2 crypto benchmark was one of the cases where Clang was easily beating out GCC on nearly all of the configurations.

The SciMark2 benchmarks always tend to be quite susceptible to compiler changes and in some cases like Jacobi, GCC is performing much faster than Clang.

Clang was generating faster code over GCC on the twelve systems with the TSCP chess benchmark.

On the AMD Zen systems, the Clang-generated binary for VP9 vpxenc video encoding was slightly faster while the Intel performance was close between these compilers. The exception on the Intel side was the Intel Core i9 7980XE with seeing measurably better performance using GCC.

With the H.264/H.265 video encode tests among other video coding benchmarks there isn’t too much change with most of the programs/libraries relying upon hand-tuned Assembly code already. But in the case of the x265 benchmark, the AVX512-enabled Xeon Silver and Core i9 Skylake-X processors were yielding better performance on GCC.

The OpenMP performance in LLVM Clang has come a long way in recent years and for many situations yields performance comparable to the GCC OpenMP implementation. In the case of GraphicsMagick that makes use of OpenMP, it depended upon the operations being carried out whether GCC still carried a lofty lead or was a neck-and-neck race.

With the Himeno pressure solver, on the AMD side GCC performed noticeably better than Clang with the old Bulldozer era FX-8370E. On the Intel side, GCC tended to outperform Clang particularly with the newer generations of processors.

As for compiler performance in building out some sample projects, compiling Apache was quite close between GCC and Clang but sided in favor of the LLVM-based compiler. When it came to building the ImageMagick program, using Clang led to much quicker build times than GCC. GCC 9 is building slower than GCC 8, which isn’t to much surprise considering the newer compilers tend to tack on additional optimization passes and other work in trying to yield faster binaries at the cost of slower build times.

When it came to the time needed to build LLVM, the Clang compiler was still faster though on the newer Intel CPUs was quite a tight race.

There were also cases where GCC did compile faster than Clang: building out PHP was quicker on GCC than Clang across all of the systems tested.

The C-Ray multi-threaded ray-tracer remains much faster with GCC over Clang on all of the systems tested.

The AOBench ambient occlusion renderer was also faster with GCC.

The dav1d AV1 video decoder was quicker with Clang on the older AMD systems as well as the older Intel (Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge) systems while on the newer CPUs the performance between the compilers yielded similar video decode speed.

LAME MP3 audio encoding was faster when built under GCC.

In very common workloads like OpenSSL, its performance has already been studied and well-tuned by all of the compilers for the past number of years.

Redis was faster on the newer (AVX-512) CPUs with GCC where as on the other systems the performance was similar.

Interestingly in the case of Sysbench, the AMD performance was faster when built by the GCC compiler while the Intel systems performed much better with the Clang compiler.

Broadly, it’s a very competitive race these days between GCC and Clang on Linux x86_64. As shown by the geometric means for all these tests, the race is neck-and-neck with GCC in some cases just having a ~2% advantage. Depending upon the particular code-base, in some cases the differences were more pronounced. One area where GCC seemed to do better on average than Clang was with the newer Core i9 7980XE and Xeon Silver systems that have AVX-512 and there the GNU Compiler Collection most often outperformed Clang. In the tests looking at the compile times, Clang still had some cases of beating out GCC but with some of the build tests the performance was close and in the case of compiling PHP it was actually faster to build on GCC.

Those wishing to dig through the 62 benchmarks across the dozen systems and the four compilers can find all of the raw performance data via this OpenBenchmarking.org result file. And if you appreciate all of our benchmarking, consider going premium.

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Posted On: Feb 7, 2019

Amazon Elasticsearch Service now enables you to deploy your instances across three Availability Zones (AZs) providing better availability for your domains. If you enable replicas for your Elasticsearch indices, Amazon Elasticsearch Service distributes the primary and replica shards across nodes in different AZs to maximize availability. If you have configured dedicated master nodes while using multi-AZ deployment, they are automatically placed into three AZs to ensure that your cluster can elect a new master even in the rare event of an AZ disruption.

If you have already launched domains with “Zone Awareness” turned on (two AZ configuration), you can now easily reconfigure them to leverage three AZs. You can enable three AZ deployments for both existing and new domains at no extra cost using the AWS console, CLI or SDKs. Three AZs are supported in the following regions: US East (N. Virginia, Ohio), US West (Oregon), EU (Ireland, Frankfurt, London, Paris), Asia Pacific (Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul), and AWS China (Ningxia) region, operated by NWCD.

To learn more, read our documentation.

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Pine64’s 2019 line-up of Linux-driven, open-spec products will include Rock64, Pine H64, and Pinebook upgrades plus a PinePhone, PineTab, CUBE camera, and Retro-Gaming case.

At FOSDEM last weekend, California-based Linux hacker board vendor Pine64 previewed an extensive lineup of open source hardware it intends to release in 2019. Surprisingly, only two of the products are single board computers.

The Linux-driven products will include a PinePhone Development Kit based on the Allwinner A64. There will be second, more consumer focused Pinebook laptop — a Rockchip RK3399 based, 14-inch Pinebook Pro — and an Allwinner A64-based, 10.1-inch PineTab tablet. Pine64 also plans to release an Allwinner S3L-driven IP camera system called the CUBE and a Roshambo Retro-Gaming case that supports Pine64’s Rock64 and RockPro64, as well as the Raspberry Pi.

PinePhone Development Kit (left) and PineTab with optional keyboard
(click images to enlarge)

 

The SBC entries are a Pine H64 Model B that will be replace the larger, but similarly Allwinner H6 based, Model A version and will add WiFi/Bluetooth. There will also be a third rev of the popular, RK3399 based Rock64 board that adds Power-over-Ethernet support. (See farther below for more details.)

Pine H64 Model B (left) and earlier Pine H64 Model A
(click images to enlarge)

The launch of the phone, laptop, tablet, and camera represents the most ambitious expansion to date by an SBC vendor to new open source hardware form factors. As we noted last month in our hacker board analysis piece, community-based SBC projects are increasingly specializing to survive in today’s Raspberry Pi dominated market. In a Feb. 1 Tom’s Hardware story, RPi Trading CEO Eben Upton confirmed our speculation that a next generation Raspberry Pi 4 that moves beyond 40nm fabrication will not likely ship until 2020. That offers a window of opportunity for other SBC vendors to innovate.

It’s a relatively short technical leap to move from a specialized SBC to a finished consumer electronics or industrial device, but it’s a larger marketing hurdle, especially with consumer electronics. Still, we can expect a few more vendors to follow Pine64’s lead in building on their SBCs, Linux board support packages, and hacker communities to launch more purpose-built consumer electronics and industrial gear.

Already, community projects have begun offering a more diverse set of enclosures and other accessories to turn their boards into mini-PCs, IoT gateways, routers, and signage systems. Meanwhile, established embedded board vendors are using their community-backed SBC platforms as a foundation for end-user products. Acer subsidiary Aaeon, for example, has spun off its UP boards into a variety of signage systems, automation controllers, and AI edge computing systems.

So far, most open source, Linux phone and tablet alternatives have emerged from open source software projects, such as Mozilla’s Firefox OS, the Ubuntu project’s Ubuntu Phone, and the Jolla phone. Most of these alternative mobile Linux projects have either failed, faded, or never took off.

PiTalk

Some of the more recent Linux phone projectss, such as the PiTalk and ZeroPhone, have been built around the Raspberry Pi platform. The PinePhone and PineTab would be even more open source given that the mainboards ship with full schematics.

Unlike many hacker board projects, the Pine64 products offer software tied to mainline Linux. This is easier to do with the Rockchip designs, but it’s been a slower road to mainline for Allwinner. Work by Armbian and others have now brought several Allwinner SoCs up to speed.

Working from established hardware and software platforms may offer a stronger foundation for launching mobile Android alternatives than a software-only project. “The idea, in principle, is to build convergent device-ecosystems (SBC, Module, Laptop/Tablet/ Phone / Other Devices) based on SOCs that we’ve already have developers engaged with and invested in,” says the Pine64 blog announcement.

PinePhone (left) and demo running Unity 8 and KDE
(click images to enlarge)

 

Here’s a closer look at Pine64’s open hardware products for 2019:

• PinePhone Development Kit — Based on the quad -A53 Allwinner A64 driven SoPine A64 module, the PinePhone will run mainline Linux and support alternative mobile platforms such as UBPorts, Maemo Leste, PostmarketOS, and Plasma Mobile. It can also run Unity 8 and KDE Plasma with Lima. This upgradable, modular phone kit will be available soon in limited quantity and will be spun off later this year or in 2020 into an end-user phone with a target price of $149.The PinePhone kit includes 2GB LPDDR3, 32GB eMMC, and a small 1440 x 720-pixel LCD screen. There’s a 4G LTE module with Cat 4 150Mb downlink, a battery, and 2- and 5MP cameras. Other features include WiFi/BT, microSD, HDMI, MIPI I/O, sensors, and privacy hardware switches.

  

  Pinebook Pro (left) and earlier 14-inch Pinebook
  (click images to enlarge)

   

• Pinebook Pro — Like many of the upcoming Pine64 products, the original Pinebooks are limited edition developer systems. The Pinebook Pro, however, is aimed at a broader audience that might be considering a Chromebook. This second-gen Pro laptop will not replace the $99 and up 11.6-inch version of the Pinebook. The original 14-inch version may receive an upgrade to make it more like the Pro.The $199 Pinebook Pro advances from the quad-core, Cortex-A53 Allwinner H64 to a hexa-core -A53 and -A72 Rockchip RK3399. It supports mainline Linux and BSD.
  

  SoPine A64

  The more advanced features include a higher-res 14-inch, 1080p screen, now with IPS, as well as twice the RAM (4GB LPDDR4). It also offers four times the storage at 64GB, with a 128GB option for registered developers. Other highlights include USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, a USB Type-C port that supports DP-like [email protected] video, a 10,000 mAh battery, and an improved 2-megapixel camera. There’s also an option for an M.2 slot that supports NVMe storage.

• PineTab — The PineTab is like a slightly smaller, touchscreen-enabled version of the first-gen Pinebook, but with the keyboard optional instead of built-in. The magnetically attached keyboard has a trackpad and can fold up to act as a screen cover.
  Like the original Pinebooks, the PineTab runs Linux or BSD on an Allwinner A64 with 2GB of LPDDR3 and 16GB eMMC. The 10-inch IPS touchscreen is limited to 720p resolution. Other features include WiFi/BT, USB, micro-USB, microSD, speaker, mic, and dual cameras.
  Pine64 notes that touchscreen-ready Linux apps are currently in short supply. The PineTab will soon be available for $79, or $99 with the keyboard.
• The CUBE — This “early concept” IP camera runs on the Allwinner S3L — a single-core, Cortex-A7 camera SoC. It ships with a MIPI-CSI connected, 8MP Sony iMX179 CMOS camera with an m12 mount for adding different lenses.The CUBE offers 64MB or 128MB RAM, a WiFi/BT module, plus a 10/100 Ethernet port with Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) support. Other features include USB, microSD, and 32-pin GPIO. Target price: about $20.

  

  The CUBE camera (left) and Roshambo Retro-Gaming case and controller
  (click images to enlarge)

   

• Roshambo Retro-Gaming — This retro gaming case and accessory set from Pine64’s Chinese partner Roshambo will work with Pine64’s Rock64 SBC, which is based on the quad -A53 Rockchip RK3328, or its RK3399 based RockPro64. It can also accommodate a Raspberry Pi. The $30 Super Famicom inspired case will ship with an optional $13 gaming controller set. Other features include buttons, switches, a SATA slot, and cartridge-shaped 128GB ($25) or 256GB ($40) SSDs.
  

  Rock64 Rev 1

• Rock64 Rev 3 — Pine64 says it will continue to focus primarily on SBCs, although the only 2019 products it is disclosing are updates to existing designs. The Rock64 Rev 3 improves upon Pine64’s RK3399-based RPi lookalike, which it says has been its most successful board yet. New features include PoE, RTC, improved RPi 2 GPIO compatibility, and support for high-speed microSD cards. Pricing stays the same.
• Pine H64 Model B — The Pine H64 Model B will replace the currently unavailable Pine H64 Model A, which shipped in limited quantities. The board trims down to a Rock64 (and Raspberry Pi) footprint, enabling use of existing cases, and adds WiFi/BT. It sells for $25 (1GB LPDDR3 RAM), $35 (2GB), and $45 (3GB).This article is copyright © 2019 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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SUSE Linux Enterprise Server has been around a while, but this is the first official release.

SUSE has released its enterprise Linux distribution, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), for all major ARM server processors. It also announced the general availability of SUSE Manager Lifecycle.

SUSE is on par with the other major enterprise Linux distributions — Red Hat and Ubuntu — in the x86 space, but it has lagged in its ARM support. It’s not like SLES for ARM is only now coming to market for the first time, either. It has been available for several years, but on a limited basis.

“Previously, SUSE subscriptions for the ARM hardware platforms were only available to SUSE Partners due to the relative immaturity of the ARM server platform,” Jay Kruemcke, a senior product manager at SUSE, wrote in a blog post announcing the availability.

“Now that we have delivered four releases of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for ARM and have customers running SUSE Linux on ARM servers as diverse as the tiny Raspberry Pi and the high-performance HPE Apollo 70 servers, we are now ready to sell subscriptions directly to customers,” he added.

SLES is available for a variety of ARM server processors, including chips from Cavium, Broadcom, Marvell, NXP, Ampere, and… Qualcomm Centriq. Well, who can blame them for taking Qualcomm seriously?

Because it covers such a wide range of processors, the company has come up with a rather complex approach to pricing — and Kruemcke spent a lot of time on the subject. So much so he didn’t get into technical details. Kruemcke said the company is using a model that has “core-based pricing for lower-end ARM hardware and socket-based pricing for everything else.”

Servers with fewer than 16 cores are priced based on the number of groups of four processor cores. Each group of four cores, up to 15 cores, requires a four-core group subscription that is stackable to a maximum four subscriptions. The number of cores is rounded up to the nearest group of four cores; therefore, a server with 10 cores would require three four-core group subscriptions.

Servers with 16 or more cores use the traditional 1-2 socket-based pricing.

Subscriptions for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for Arm and SUSE Manager Lifecycle for ARM are now available directly to customers through the corporate price list or through the SUSE Shop.

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Lights Off is an open source piece of software that provides users with a really beautiful and fun puzzle game, specifically designed for the GNOME desktop environment. It is distributed as part of the GNOME Games initiative.

It’s a very popular and fun puzzle/board game where the main objective is to turn off all of the tiles on the board. With each click, the player will toggle the state of the clicked tiles, as well as their non-diagonal neighbors.

Features hundreds of levels

The game is played on a 5×5 grid and features hundreds of levels. To start a new game, players will have to go to Game -> New Game or access the “New Game” entry from the GNOME panel if running the program under the controversial desktop environment.

It can be played using either the keyboard or the mouse, simply by selecting or clicking on a single tile. On the first level, if you click the right tile, it will complete the level and automatically display the next one.

Players can navigate between levels without restrictions

The game has been designed in such a way that it allows users to navigate between levels without restrictions, by using the back and next button provided under the main board. The big blue digital display will show the current level.

Advanced levels are very difficult and it will require a lot of time to complete them. It’s a memory game, so you’ll have to remember the clicked tiles and what non-diagonal neighbors it triggers when clicked, with the ultimate goal to turn them all off.

Designed for GNOME

It is possible to click on both blank and occupied tiles, but you will have to read its manual for detailed strategies and examples. The game integrates well with the GNOME desktop environment, but it can also be used on other open source graphical interfaces.

Puzzle game Board game GNOME game LightsOff Puzzle Board Tile

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This select set of Linux commands can help you master the command line and speed up your use of the operating system.

When coming up to speed as a Linux user, it helps to have a cheat sheet that can help introduce you to some of the more useful commands.

In the tables below, you’ll find sets of commands with simple explanations and usage examples that might help you or Linux users you support become more productive on the command line.

Getting familiar with your account

These commands will help new Linux users become familiar with their Linux accounts.

Command	Function	Example
pwd	Displays your current location in the file system	pwd
whoami	Displays your username – most useful if you switch users with su and need to be reminded what account you’re using currently	whoami
ls	Provides a file listing. With -a, it also displays files with names starting with a period (e.g., .bashrc). With -l, it also displays file permissions, sizes and last updated date/time.	ls ls -a ls -l
env	Displays your user environment settings (e.g., search path, history size, home directory, etc.)	env
echo	Repeats the text you provide or displays the value of some variable	echo hello echo $PATH
history	Lists previously issued commands	history history | tail -5
passwd	Changes your password. Note that complexity requirements may be enforced.	passwd history | tail -5

Examining files

Linux provides several commands for looking at the content and nature of files. These are some of the most useful commands.

When coming up to speed as a Linux user, it helps to have a cheat sheet that can help introduce you to some of the more useful commands.

In the tables below, you’ll find sets of commands with simple explanations and usage examples that might help you or Linux users you support become more productive on the command line.

Getting familiar with your account

These commands will help new Linux users become familiar with their Linux accounts.

Command	Function	Example
pwd	Displays your current location in the file system	pwd
whoami	Displays your username – most useful if you switch users with su and need to be reminded what account you’re using currently	whoami
ls	Provides a file listing. With -a, it also displays files with names starting with a period (e.g., .bashrc). With -l, it also displays file permissions, sizes and last updated date/time.	ls ls -a ls -l
env	Displays your user environment settings (e.g., search path, history size, home directory, etc.)	env
echo	Repeats the text you provide or displays the value of some variable	echo hello echo $PATH
history	Lists previously issued commands	history history | tail -5
passwd	Changes your password. Note that complexity requirements may be enforced.	passwd history | tail -5

Examining files

Linux provides several commands for looking at the content and nature of files. These are some of the most useful commands.

Command	Function	Example
cat	Displays the entire contents of a text file.	cat .bashrc
more	Displays the contents of a text file one screenful at a time. Hit the spacebar to move to each additional chunk.	more .bash_history
less	Displays the contents of a text file one screenful at a time, but in a manner that allows you to back up using the up arrow key.	less .bash_history
file	Identifies files by type (e.g., ASCII text, executable, image, directory)	file myfile file ~/.bashrc file /bin/echo

Managing files

These are some Linux commands for changing file attributes as well as renaming, moving and removing files.

Command	Function	Example
chmod	Changes file permissions (who can read it, whether it can be executed, etc.)	chmod a+x myscript chmod 755 myscript
chown	Changes file owner	sudo chown jdoe myfile
cp	Makes a copy of a file.	cp origfile copyfile
mv	Moves or renames a file – or does both	mv oldname newname mv file /new/location mv file /newloc/newname
rm	Deletes a file or group of files	rm file rm *.jpg rm -r directory

Creating and editing files

Linux systems provide commands for creating files and directories. Users can choose the text editor they are comfortable using. Some require quite a bit of familiarity before they’ll be easy to use while others are fairly self-explanatory.

Command	Function	Example
nano	An easy-to-use text editor that requires you to move around in the file using your arrow keys and provides control sequences to locate text, save your changes, etc.	nano myfile
vi	A more sophisticated editor that allows you to enter commands to find and change text, make global changes, etc.	vi myfile
ex	A text editor designed for programmers and has both a line-oriented and visual mode	ex myfile
touch	Creates a file if it doesn’t exist or updates its timestamp if it does	touch newfile touch updatedfile
>	Creates files by directing output to them. A single > creates a file while >> appends to an existing file.	cal > calendar ps > myprocs date >> date.log
mkdir	Creates a directory	mkdir mydir mkdir ~/mydir mkdir /tmp/backup

Moving around the file system

The command for moving around the Linux file system is ls, but there are many variations.

Command	Function	Example
cd	With no arguments, takes you to your home directory. The same thing would happen if you typed cd $HOMEor cd ~	cd
cd ..	Moves up (toward /) one directory from your current location	cd ..
cd <location>	Takes you to the specified location. If the location begins with a /, it is taken to be relative to the root directory; otherwise it is taken as being relative to your current location. The ~ character represents your home directory.	cd /tmp cd Documents cd ~/Documents

Learning about and identifying commands

There are a number of Linux commands that can help you learn about other commands, the options they offer and where these commands are are located in the file system. Linux systems also provide a command that can help you to learn what commands are available related to some subject – for example, commands that deal with user accounts.

Command	Function	Example
man	Displays the manual (help) page for a specified command and (with -k) provides a list of commands related to a specified keyword	man cd man -k account
which	Displays the location of the executable that represents the particular command	which cd
apropos	Lists commands associated with a particular topic or keyword	apropos user apropos account

Finding files

There are two commands that can help you find files on Linux, but they work very differently. One searches the file system while the other looks through a previously built database.

Command	Function	Example
find	Locates files based on criteria provided (file name, type, owner, permissions, size, etc.). Unless provided with a location from which to start the search, find only looks in the current directory.	find . -name myfile find /tmp -type d
locate	Locates files using the contents of the /var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db which is updated by the updatedb command usually run through cron. No starting location is required.	locate somefile locate “*.html” -n 20

Viewing running processes

You can easily view processes that are running on the system – yours, another user’s or all of them.

Command	Function	Example
ps	Shows processes that you are running in your current login session	ps
ps -ef	Shows all processes that are currently running on the system	ps -ef ps -ef | more
pstree	Shows running processes in a hierarchical (tree-like) display that demonstrates the relationships between processes (-h highlights current process)	pstree pstree username pstree -h

Starting, stopping and listing services

These commands allow you to display services as well as start and stop them.

Command	Function	Example
systemctl	The systemctl command can start, stop, restart and reload services. Privileged access is required.	sudo systemctl stop apache2.service sudo systemctl restart apache2.service sudo systemctl reload apache2.service
service	Lists services and indicates whether they are running	service –status-all

Killing processes

Linux offers a few commands for terminating processes. Privileged access is needed if you did not start the process in question.

Command	Function	Example
kill	Terminates a running process provided you have the authority to do so	kill 8765 sudo kill 1234 kill -9 3456
killall	Terminates all processes with the provided name	killall badproc
pkill	Terminates a process based on its name	pkill myproc

Identifying your OS release

The table below lists commands that will display details about the Linux OS that is running on a system.

Command	Function	Example
uname	Displays information on OS release in a single line of text	uname -a uname -r
lsb_release	On Debian-based systems, this command displays information on the OS release including its codename and distributor ID	lsb_release -a
hostnamectl	Displays information on the system including hostname, chassis type, OS, kernel and architecture	hostnamectl

Gauging system performance

These are some of the more useful tools for examining system performance.

Command	Function	Example
top	Shows running processes along with resource utilization and system performance data. Can show processes for one selected user or all users. Processes can be ordered by various criteria (CPU usage by default)	top top jdoe
atop	Similar to top command but more oriented toward system performance than individual processes	atop
free	Shows memory and swap usage – total, used and free	free
df	Display file system disk space usage	df df -h

Managing users and groups

Commands for creating and removing user accounts and groups are fairly straightforward.

Command	Function	Example
useradd	Adds a new user account to the system. A username is mandatory. Other fields (user description, shell, initial password, etc.) can be specified. Home directory will default to /home/username.	useradd -c “John Doe” jdoe useradd -c “Jane Doe” -g admin -s /bin/bash jbdoe
userdel	Removes a user account from the system. The -foption runs a more forceful removal, deleting the home and other user files even if the user is still logged in.	userdel jbdoe userdel -f jbdoe
groupadd	Adds a new user group to the system, updating the /etc/group.	groupadd developers
groupdel	Removes a user group from the system	groupdel developers

Examining network connections

The commands below help you view network interfaces and connections.

Command	Function	Example
ip	Displays information on network interfaces	ip a
ss	Displays information on sockets. The -s option provides summary stats. The -l option shows listening sockets. The -4 or -6 options restrict output to IPv4 or IPv6 connections.	ss -s ss -l ss -4 state listening
ping	Check connectivity to another system	ping remhost ping 192.168.0.11

Managing security

There are many aspects to managing security on a Linux system, but there are also a lot of commands that can help. The commands below are some that will get you started. Click on this link to see these and other commands on 22 essential Linux security commands.

Command	Function	Example
visudo	The visudo command allows you to configure privileges that will allow select individuals to run certain commands with superuser authority. The command does this by making changes to the /etc/sudoers file.	visudo
sudo	The sudo command is used by privileged users (as defined in the /etc/sudoers file to run commands as root.	sudo useradd jdoe
su	Switches to another account. This requires that you know the user’s password or can use sudo and provide your own password. Using the – means that you also pick up the user’s environment settings.	su (switch to root) su – jdoe sudo su – jdoe
who	Shows who is logged into the system	who
last	Lists last logins for specified user using records from the /var/log/wtmp file.	last jdoe
ufw	Manages the firewall on Debian-based systems.	sudo ufw status sudo ufs allow ssh ufw show
firewall-cmd	Manages the firewall (firewalld) on RHEL and related systems.	firewall-cmd –list-services firewall-cmd –get-zones
iptables	Displays firewall rules.	sudo iptables -vL -t security

Setting up and running scheduled processes

Tasks can be scheduled to run periodically using the command listed below.

Command	Function	Example
crontab	Sets up and manages scheduled processes. With the -l option, cron jobs are listed. With the -eoption, cron jobs can be set up to run at selected intervals.	crontab -l crontab -l -u username crontab -e
anacron	Allows you to run scheduled jobs on a daily basis only. If the system is powered off when a job is supposed to run, it will run when the system boots.	sudo vi /etc/anacrontab

Updating, installing and listing applications

The commands for installing and updating applications depend on what version of Linux you are using, specifically whether it’s Debian- or RPM-based.

Command	Function	Example
apt update	On Debian-based systems, updates the list of available packages and their versions, but does not install or upgrade any packages	sudo apt update
apt upgrade	On Debian-based systems, installs newer versions of installed packages	sudo apt upgrade
apt list	Lists all packages installed on Debian-basedsystem. With –upgradable option, it shows only those packages for which upgrades are available.	apt list apt list –installed apt list –upgradable
apt install	On Debian-based systems, installs requested package	sudo apt install apache2
yum update	On RPM-cased systems, updates all or specified packages	sudo yum update yum update mysql
yum list	On RPM-based systems, lists package	sudo yum update mysql
yum install	On RPM-based systems, installs requested package	sudo yum -y install firefox
yum list	On RPM-based systems, lists known and installed packages	sudo yum list sudo yum list –installed

Shutting down and rebooting

Commands for shutting down and rebooting Linux systems require privileged access. Options such as +15 refer to the number of minutes that the command will wait before doing the requested shutdown.

Command	Function	Example
shutdown	Shuts down the system at the requested time. The -H option halts the system while the -P powers it down as well.	sudo shutdown -H now shutdown -H +15 shutdown -P +5
halt	Shuts down the system at the requested time.	sudo halt sudo halt -p sudo halt –reboot
poweroff	Powers down the system at the requested time.	sudo shutdown -H now sudo shutdown -H +15 sudo shutdown -P +5

Wait, wait, there’s more!

Remember to consult the man pages for more details on these commands. A cheat sheet provides only a quick explanation and a handful of command examples to help you get started.

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Imagine that you have a Hard Disk that requires you to resize a chosen partition. This is possible on Linux thanks to LVM. With this in mind, this article will teach you how to Configure LVM on Linux Mint. However, you can apply this tutorial to any Linux distribution.

What is LVM?

LVM is a logical volume manager developed for the Linux Kernel. Currently, there are 2 versions of LVM. LVM1 is practically out of support while LVM version 2 commonly called LVM2 is used.

LVM includes many of the features that are expected of a volume manager, including:

• Resizing logical groups.
• Resizing logical volumes.
• Read-only snapshots (LVM2 offers read and write).

To give you an idea of the power and usefulness of LVM, I will give you the following example: Suppose we have a small hard drive, for example, 80Gb. The way the disk is distributed would be something like that:

• The 400Mb /boot partition
• For root partition / 6Gb
• In the case of the home partition /home 32Gb
• And the swap partition is 1Gb.

This distribution could be correct and useful but imagine that we install many programs and the root partition fills up, but in personal files, there is practically no data and the /home partition has 20 Gb available. This is a bad use of the hard disk. With LVM, the solution to this problem is simple, since you could simply reduce the partition containing /home and then increase the space allocated to the root directory.

LVM vocabulary

In order to make this post as simple as possible for the reader, it is necessary to take into account some concepts intimately related to LVM. Knowing these concepts effectively will make better understand the full potential of this tool:

So, let us start:

• Physical Volume (PV): A PV is a physical volume, a hard drive, or a particular partition.
• Logical Volume (LV): an LV is a logical volume, it is the equivalent of a traditional partition in a system other than LVM.
• Volume Group (VG): a VG is a group of volumes, it can gather one or more PV.
• Physical Extent (PE): a PE is a part of each physical volume, of a fixed size. A physical volume is divided into multiple PEs of the same size.
• Logical extent (LE): an LE is a part of each fixed-size logical volume. A logical volume is divided into multiple LEs of the same size.
• Device mapper: is a generic Linux kernel framework that allows mapping one device from blocks to another.

Configure LVM on Linux Mint

First of all, you must install the lvm2 package in your system. To do this, open a terminal emulator and write. Note that to execute this command you need super user privileges.

Next, I am going to use fdisk to verify which partitions I have. Of course, you must also do this to ensure which are your partitions as well.

As you can see, I have a second hard drive. In order for LVM to do its job, it is necessary to prepare the disk or partitions to be of the LVM type. Therefore, I have to do some work on the second hard disk called sdb.

So, type this command:

Next, press “n” key to create a new partition. Then, Press enter. Next, press “p” key to set the partition as a primary. Then, Press enter. Now, you have to press 1 to create it as the first partition of the disk. Then, Press enter.

So, the next step is press “t” key to change the system identifier of a partition. Then, Press enter. And select LVM partition. To do it, type “8e”. Then, Press enter. So, type “w” key to write all the changes.

Finally, check the partition.

NOTE: If you are going to work with several partitions, you must repeat this process with each of them.

Now, we are ready to continue.

Create the Physical Volume (PV)

To work with LVM we must first define the Physical Volumes (PV), for this we will use the pvcreate command. So, let us go.

Check the changes.

NOTE: If we had more than one partition, we would have to add them all to the PV.

Create the Volume Group (VG)

Once you have the partitions ready, you have to add them to a volume group. So, type this command:

Replace “volumegroup” by the name you want. If you had more partitions you would only have to add them to the command. For example:

You can write the name what you want for the VG. So, check the volume group with this command:

Create the logical volumes (LV)

This is the central moment of the post because in this part we will create the logical volumes that will be like a normal partition.

So, run this command:

This command creates a logical volume of 4G of space over the previously created group.

With lvdisplay you can check the LV.

The next step is to format and mount the VL.

Now, create a temporal folder and mount the VL on it.

Now, check the VL.

Increase or decrease the size of the logical volume

One of the most phenomenal possibilities of LVM is the possibility to increase the size of a logical volume in a very simple way. To do this, type the following command.

Finally, it is necessary to reflect the same change in the file system, for this, run this command.

Check the new size:

Final thoughts

Learning to configure LVM in Linux Mint is a simple process that can save many problems when working with partitions. To do this, I invite you to read more about the subject since here I have shown you practical and simple examples on how to configure it.

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These days we often package our new programs in containers, and we then manage those containers with Kubernetes. That’s great as far as it goes, but if you’re a programmer, it’s still missing a vital part: An integrated development environment (IDE). Now, Red Hat is filling this hole with Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces, a Kubernetes-native, browser-based IDE.

Also: Why IBM bought Red Hat: It’s all open source cloud, all the time

CodeReady is based on the open-source Eclipse Che IDE. It also includes formerly proprietary features from Red Hat’s Codenvy acquisition.

This new IDE is optimized for Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat’s Docker/Kubernetes platform and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Red Hat claims CodeReady Workspaces is the first IDE, which runs inside a Kubernetes cluster. There’s been other IDEs, which can work with Kubernetes — notably JetBrain’s IntelliJ IDEA with a plugin — but CodeReady appears to be the first native Kubernetes IDE.

With CodeReady Workspaces, you can manage your code, its dependencies and artifacts inside OpenShift Kubernetes pods, and containers. By contrast, with older IDEs, you can only take advantage of Kubernetes during the final phase of testing and deployment. CodeReady Workspaces lets you develop in OpenShift from the start. Thus, you don’t have to deal with the hassle of moving applications from your development platforms to production systems.

Another CodeReady plus is you don’t need to be a Kubernetes or OpenShift expert to use it. CodeReady handles Kubernetes’ complexities behind the scenes, so you can focus on developing your containerized applications instead of wrestling with Kubernetes. In short, CodeReady includes the tools and dependencies you’ll need to code, build, test, run, and debug container-based applications without requiring you to be a container expert.

Must read

• Meet IBM’s bleeding edge of quantum computing (CNET)
• How IBM Watson is revolutionizing 10 industries (TechRepublic)

CodeReady also includes a new sharing feature: Factories. A Factory is a template containing the source-code location, runtime and tooling configuration, and commands needed for a project. Factories enable development teams to get up and running with a Kubernetes-native developer environment in a couple of minutes. Team members can use any device with a browser, any operating system, and any IDE — not just CodeReady — to work on their own or shared workspaces. You can also bring other programmers into your CodeReady projects by simply sending them a shareable link.

In a statement, Brad Micklea, Red Hat’s senior director for developer experience and programs, said:

“The rise of cloud-native applications and Kubernetes as the platform for modern workloads requires a change in how developers approach building, testing and deploying their critical applications. Existing developer tooling does not adequately address the evolving needs of containerized development, a challenge that we’re pleased to answer with Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces.”

With CodeReady, developer teams can:

• Integrate with your preferred version control system with both public and private repositories
• Control workspace permissions and resourcing
• Better protect intellectual property by keeping source code off hard-to-secure laptops and mobile devices
• Use Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or Active Directory (AD) authentication for single sign-on

All-in-all, this is a no brainer. If you’re developing with Kubernetes and containers on OpenShift, get CodeReady. Period. End of statement. Better still, CodeReady is available without charge to anyone with an OpenShift subscription. Just join the Red Hat Developer Program, download, and get to work.

Related Stories:

• Red Hat acquires Codenvy, adds it to cloud development portfolio
• Red Hat introduces Kubernetes Operators software development toolkit
• The rise of Kubernetes epitomizes the transition from big data to flexible data

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Making the news rounds a few months back was “WLinux”, which was the first Linux distribution designed for Microsoft’s Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on Windows 10. But is this pay-to-play Linux distribution any faster than the likes of Ubuntu, openSUSE, and Debian already available from the Microsoft Store? Here are some benchmarks of these different Linux distribution options with WSL.

 

 

WLinux is a Linux distribution derived from Debian that is focused on offering an optimal WSL experience. This distribution isn’t spun by Microsoft but a startup called Whitewater Foundry. WLinux focuses on providing good defaults for WSL with the catering of its default package set while the Debian archive via APT is still accessible. There is also support for graphical applications when paired with a Windows-based X client. For this easy-setup, quick-to-get-going Linux distribution on WSL, it retails for $19.99 USD from the Microsoft Store though often sells for $9.99 USD.

 

 

Whitewater Foundry also offers WLinux Enterprise. Rather than being a Debian-based WSL operating system, WLinux Enterprise is derived from the EL7 / Scientific Linux 7 package set. WLinux Enterprise is also available from the Microsoft Store where it has a listed retail price of $99.99 USD though is on sale for $5.99.

 

 

Whitewater Foundry had sent over some review keys for WLinux a while back so I decided to do some WSL options currently on Windows 10: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, openSUSE Leap 42.3, and Debian Stretch. There has been indications of Intel engineers exploring WSL support for Clear Linux, which would be quite interesting given its performance focus, but so far we haven’t seen that offering premiere yet via the Microsoft Store.

 

The same system was used for all of this benchmarking, which consisted of an Intel Core i9 7980XE, ASUS PRIME X299-A motherboard, 4 x 4GB DDR4-3200MHz memory, Samsung 970 EVO NVMe SSD, and GeForce GTX TITAN X. Windows 10 Pro x64 was running on the system with all available system updates as of Build 17763. For supported tests, besides the WSL Linux distributions tested there are also results from the bare metal Windows 10 installation. All of these Linux and Windows benchmarks were carried out using the Phoronix Test Suite.

 

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Feb 7, 2019 12:45 PM PT

If you need a task manager application to run on your Linux operating system, tap into a software category filled with options that go far beyond the to-do list app you have stuffed into your smartphone.

Keeping up to date with multiple daily activity calendars, tons of information, and never-ending must-do lists can become a never-ending challenge. This week’s Linux Picks and Pans reviews the top open source task management and to-do apps that will serve you well on most Linux distributions.

Over the years, I have used these task management/to-do list applications on my own Linux computers. Few of them were capable of easily syncing their information to my tablet and my smartphone. The number of project management and to-do list tools have proliferated for Android devices in the last few years, but that is not the case with similar apps for Linux.

In fact, several of the better-known Linux apps in this category that I previously used or reviewed have disappeared. Most of the others have not had a feature update in years.

Task management and to-do list apps for Linux are a mixed bag. This category reflects an overlapping of features and functions. These standalone solutions go beyond the integration in Google Calendar provided by
Google Tasks.

Several of the products in this roundup offer complex interfaces that let you take the information with you on other devices. Some of the applications have sparser features and show signs of aging.

The applications included in this roundup are not presented in any ranked order. Some are readily available in distro repositories. Other packages require manual installation.

Task Coach Masters Details

How a task manager app handles details determines its real usefulness.
Task Coach goes out of its way to help you keep track of the details. Version 1.4.4, released on Dec. 2, 2018, is simply the latest example of this app’s ability to keep you on target and in control of your projects.

TaskCoach is actually two tools in one. It is both a personal task tracker and a to-do manager. It does both routines well. Other apps in this category usually excel at doing one or the other.

It is a master in combining composite functions with a basic task list. Its features include tracking time on task, categorizing activities, and keeping tabs on subevents aligned with larger projects.

Task Coach lacks an inviting or intuitive user interface, but it is still very functional.

If Task Coach did just those things, it would be a nearly perfect solution. Its additional two tricks put this app over the top in usability. You can add notes to each task and include attachments.

Task Coach makes it easy to maintain a variety of task lists on multiple computers, mobile devices and operating systems. Versions exist for Windows, OS X, Linux, BSD, iPhone, iPod touch and Android.

Task Coach lacks an inviting or intuitive user interface, but it is still very functional. Its detailed configuration panel gives you numerous choices to fine-tune the way it works.

For example, you get about nine tabs with multiple choices on each to set up the application’s general look and feel. These tabs include Window behavior, Files, Language, Task Dates, Task Reminders, Task Appearance, Features and Font Editor options.

The window display shows existing tasks on the left side of the application window. Next to the task name are the planned start and due dates for each task. Right-click the task name line to access available actions. Click the desired action or use that option’s keyboard shortcut.

You can double-click the task name line to access subcategories for entering additional sub-levels of information about the task. These categories contain the most important detail controls for getting Task Coach to manage and organize your tasks’ activities.

The right side of the application window shows categories and sub-categories you create for a task. This is where you can search for specifics in all of your tasks using filters.

Use Task Coach’s progress slider to track your ongoing completion stages. Double-click on a category to provide a detailed description, add notes about each task, and attach supporting documents to the file package.

The crowning glory of the Task Coach tracking system is the Budget tab. It lets you assign the maximum amount of time you allot for a task. It displays a bar showing the time spent on a task and the time remaining to complete it on schedule.

The Revenue option lets you calculate your billing or earning amounts. This budget feature can eliminate the need for any separate billing calculation tool.

Task Coach is a very useful application to help you drill deep down into sub-tasks and multiple categories. It becomes even more valuable if you work on different computers and need an app that lets you store its data file on a portable drive or in the cloud.

GNOME ToDo: Listicles and More

Gnome ToDo version 3.28 is a task management application that is designed to integrate with the GNOME desktop. Fear not if you run something else. It fits in perfectly with many Linux distros without regard to desktop flavor.

It is a simple app that in many ways mimics the look and feel of Google’s Notes app, but it is not embedded into the Chrome browser. gToDo creates multiple lists, sets alarm notifications when tasks are due, automatically purges completed tasks if you desire, exports tasks to HTML format, and sorts them according to priority.

This app also shows the upcoming due date or status of tasks, and can highlight or hide your tasks until their due time is reached.

Gnome ToDo has a simple interface showing little more than a single pane with tasks and related information.

This app’s real beauty lies in its simple interface. It has little more than a single pane that shows tasks and related information.

The interface also shows add/remove buttons and a category filter dropdown box. Otherwise, it is devoid of overlapping right-click menus.

Everything you need is found in a few dropdown menus. The design is simple with high functionality.

gToDo automatically purges old tasks. It also highlights past due items and upcoming tasks.

Hovering over the tray icon displays scheduled tasks and provides for quick updates. It is easy to set up several different categories within a list.

If you prefer to keep separate lists for different activities, you can — and it is just as easy to set alarms and priority notifications, regardless of how you configure one or more lists.

AKIEE: Abandoned Potential

The game plan that drives most ToDo lists and task manager apps is a two-part thought process. Either you have a task to do or you are done with it.
Akiee adds a third part to that plan: doing It.

Akiee has a few other things going for it as well. It makes it easier to stay focused on your next task. Its unique algorithm-based ranking system helps you decide what to do next.

It avoids letting you waste time pondering inconclusive priorities. This approach to ordering your tasks makes it easy to decide what to do next. This, in turn, makes it a reliable tool to build your projects one step at a time.

Akiee adds an in-progress element (Doing) as part of its simple-to-use user interface.

One of Akiee’s best features is its universal access. Akiee does not hide your to-do list in a database. You can store your Akiee task file in your cloud account — think Google or Dropbox — to access it over the Web.

Rather than impose its own platform, Akiee stores your task lists in a Markdown file that is readable in any text editor you use. This gives you access to your tasks on all of your computers and on your smartphone as well. You can arrange the order of your tasks easily, instead of just changing priorities and due dates of your tasks.

It is built with Node-Webkit, Clojurescript and React. It is available for Linux, Mac and Windows.

Akiee’s tasks have three states: To-do, Doing and Done. This way you can focus on the tasks you are currently working on.

Akiee has one major drawback, however. Its developer has not updated the application in more than four years. It is barely into beta phase and may not be compatible with every Linux distro.

To use it, download from here, Unpack the binaries files, and then click on the Akiee file to run it.

Remember the Milk: Forgets Nothing

Remember the Milk used to be one of my favorite to-do apps — but until recently, it was not an app, at least not for Linux users. It was a nifty smartphone and tablet tool. I had to piggyback the RTM service in my browser when I ran my Linux-powered desktop or laptop computers.

Now RTM is available for Linux as a standalone app. However, it is available only in 32-bit and 64-bit versions for Fedora and Ubuntu so far.

The app lets you see your tasks with one click of the cow launcher icon. You also can keep a thin version of the app on your screen at all times. Plus, desktop notifications appear in the notification center to make sure that you do not forget what you need to do.

Remember the Milk sports a somewhat cluttered user interface. Tasks and other features are accessible with a single click in most cases.

The Smart Add feature makes it fast and easy to add your tasks. Enter in a single line the task and its due date, priority, repeat reminder and tags. The app sorts the details and displays them in the appropriate locations within the window display.

The RTM app sends you reminders as you direct by email, text, IM, Twitter and mobile devices. Track your to-do items your way. You can create multiple lists and even organize them with colors and tags.

RTM’s project management feature lets you set subtasks to break down tasks into segments to give you a step-by-step description of what the task entails. Create any number of subtasks for a task, and even add subtasks to your subtasks.

The app makes it easy to track tasks in a project involving a team of collaborators. You easily can send entire task lists or delegated subtasks to your cohorts.

Easily plan and track multipart projects by attaching files to your tasks. The RTM app connects to Google Drive or Dropbox to keep all related information in one place. The supporting data can be documents, spreadsheets, presentations or photos.

RTM’s search wizard lets you search your tasks easily to find what you assigned to a particular person, or subtasks due by a certain date. You can search for tasks by the priority number or tag you assigned.

Two other features make Remember the Milk a top-notch task management tool. One is Smart Lists. These are special lists based on search criteria. Keeping on task is close to foolproof with some 50 different search operators. The other is the ability to synchronize with other tools you use.

For instance, you can integrate your lists with Gmail, Google Calendar, Twitter, Evernote, If This Than That (IFTTT), and more.

If the app is not compatible with your Linux distro, go to the
Remember the Milk website and sign up for the free Web-based service. You will have access to most of the same features as the RTM app

GnoTime: Not Just a Tracking Tool

The GnoTime Tracking Tool, formerly known as “GTT,” comes close to doing it all: keep to-do lists on target, organize your ideas, and track your projects.

GnoTime also can serve as your diary or work journal. Even better, it can track how much time you spend on projects, and generate reports and invoices based on that time log.

The graphical user interface in GnoTime takes some getting used to, however. This is especially the case if you keep a lot of open panels. The top row of the main application window is typical of a traditional GUI design.

GnoTime’s user interface is a familiar sight with clickable icons for the app’s features.

The similarity ends there, however. Access to all program features is available from the top row of dropdown menus. A limited toolbar provides quick access to some of the same functions. The categories make a lot of sense.

A limited toolbar row is located below the dropdown menus. You can click icons to open a New Entry, Activity Journal, Timer Stop and Start, Help and Quit. These serve as default shortcuts to the most essential menu options.

The app suffers from a busy interface. Tracking several projects fills in a lot of data in the various display panels of the main application window. For instance, the currently active projects display in a large window under the toolbar row. It shows details that include importance, urgency, status, total time spent, current working time, project title, description, and new diary entry.

Each line contains the summary data for a particular project. Click on a project line to see more specific data in two resizable panels under the project summary window. The Properties menu opens a tabbed panel that lists Projects, Rates, Intervals and Planning. Each tab has even more precise billing and time tracking options to regulate calculations for billing and reporting.

The Journal panel is a dizzying array of links to other panels and windows in the tracking system. The Journal panel presents a series of diary entries. Each one can be a short or long note about a project, a to-do list entry, or any comment you want to add to the mix.

The Journal lists each entry as a hot link that shows in blue the date of the entry and the starting and stopping time of the item. Elapsed time is shown but is not a link. Clicking on any of the linked elements opens a larger window with the related details.

Select Reports/Query to open the Custom Report Generator for the active project. Then select from the dropdown menu the custom report you want to generate. The options are Journal, Big Journal, Invoice, Daily, Status and ToDo. You can refine the date range for the compiled data. Or you can select a Daily, Monthly or Custom activity report. When you have completed all selections, click the Generate Report button. The results display in an XML file format in yet another window that pops open.

More cool features include the ability to maintain multiple to-do lists. This is a huge advantage over having tasks for different activities scrunched together in one list manager.

The Running Timer tallies time totals for each project or task viewable by day, week, month or year. It measures the amount of time that I sit at the computer actually working. When the keyboard or mouse is idle, the clock stops. If it stays stopped for too long, the program nags me to start it up again.

The Gnome Time Tracker is a very flexible and comprehensive tracking toolbox that auto-saves as I work. Despite GnoTime’s propensity for desktop clutter, its interface is simple to use.

GnoTime comes in pre-compiled binaries/packages for Debian, Ubuntu, RedHat/Fedora, Suse and Gentoo Linux families. Check your distro’s package manager tool. Otherwise, you will have to download a tarball file and manually compile from source. That is the only way to get the latest version, which was last updated on April 17, 2017. In that case,
go here.

Toodledo: Cloud-based Organizer Extraordinaire

One of the more modern and highly advanced options for managing your projects and keeping your task lists on schedule is
Toodledo. This highly customizable service lives in the clouds and syncs to all of your devices. It is platform-agnostic and connects from your browser to apps on your other supported devices.

Toodledo’s expansive user interface shows a highlighted view of all data for each module. Each component is a click away in the left panel.

Toodledo is a detailed solution that you might find more of an overkill approach. The interface provides labels, infinite lists that you can subdivide into categories, and much more.

Toodledo combines to-do lists with project management features with an added ability to tack on notes and attach files. Among this solution’s many talents is the ability to make custom to-do lists, create structured outlines, track your habits, write long notes, and comment on goals and projects.

One of its unique features is the Schedule module. It helps you to make the most of your free time and create repeating tasks. It can send you reminders based on your current location and let you view tasks on a calendar.

It is a great digital assistant for your personal needs. It is a superior method to stay connected and scheduled with your collaborators. You can assign tasks to your associates and track time spent on a project.

You can use Toodledo to record your ideas in the notes section. You can set and track goals. The entire system is based on the Get Things Done (GTD) method developed by David Allen. This approach organizes tasks to focus your energy and creativity on completing those tasks in a stress-free manner.

The basic version is free. It provides most of the core features but places a limitation of 30 items per list or outline. Other limitations also exist when using the basic version. Standard tier (US$2.99/month and Plus tier ($4.99/month) are also available.

Bottom Line

Task management applications for Linux offer an overlapping range of features and user interfaces. I deliberately avoided ranking these Linux products. I also suspended the usual star rating for each one in this roundup.

Task management and to-do List software for Linux is a software category being overshadowed by cloud services and dedicated apps on portable devices. That is one reason open source applications available for the Linux platform lack many new contenders.

The titles in this roundup offer a variety of options. They have a range of functionality that may take time to learn and use effectively. Compare the features and find the best choice for your needs.

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