Customised heart

One of the strengths of the open source

MEET THE TEAM

This issue we’re customising our Linux desktops. What’s your go-to desktop of choice and do you have a top customising tip for our dear readers?

Google slams Linux kernel

The tech behemoth believes the Linux kernel is in need of major investment to improve security

LibreOffice 7.2 released

The latest version of the venerable office suite is now available. Will more businesses choose to use it?

Devs love Linux (but prefer Windows)

Latest Stackoverflow results offer interesting insights

SCORES ON THE DOORS

Keith Edmunds is MD of Tiger Computing Ltd,

HERD IN THE CLOUD

Matt Yonkovit is Percona’s Head of Open Source

Mozilla gets chatty

Mozilla Common Voice adds 16 new languages to its roster

Russian RISC-V designed CPUs

Eight cores, 2GHz and coming to laptops by 2025

Krita 5.0 beta released

Digital painting application receives a big update

VIRTUAL SUMMER

Lubosz Sarnecki is a senior software engineer working

Distro watch

What’s down the side of the free software sofa?

IT’S ABOUT TIME, TOO

Jon Masters has been involved with Linux for

KERNEL WATCH

Jon Masters summarises the latest happenings in the Linux kernel, so that you don’t have to

ONGOING DEVELOPMENT

Matthew Wilcox has worked hard on a patch

Answers

Got a burning question about open source or the kernel? Whatever your level, email it to lxf.answers@futurenet.com

MAILSERVER

WRITE TO US Do you have a burning

Helpdex

shane_collinge@yahoo.com

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Just do it Like most people, I would

DroidCam

Version: 1.8 Web: https://github.com/dev47apps/droidcam D roidCam is a

Fractal

Version : 4.4 Web : https://gitlab . gnome.org/GNOME/fractal

Polyfoto

Version: GIT Web: https://github.com/shanedrabing/polyfoto T he photo

ImprovedTube

Version: 3.232 Web: https://github.com/code4charity/YouTube-Extension : H ere

LSD

Version : 0.20.1 Web : https://github . com/Peltoche/lsd

Pam_usb

Version : 0.7.3 Web : https://github.com/mcdope/pam_usb S ecurity

Billiards

Version : GIT Web: https://github.com/tailuge/billiards T he world

Blues Brothers

Version : GIT Web : https://github.com/cyxx/blues B lues

EasyEffects

Version : 6.0.3 Web : https://github.com/wwmm/easyeffects I n

Latte Dock

Version : 0.10 Web : https://invent.kde.org/plasma/latte-dock T his

Classic pseudo-3D racing road effects

With a bag of 10p pieces in hand, Andrew Smith whisks us back to the classic arcade days to recreate pseudo-3D racing games

Linux Mint 20.2 “Uma”

Discover the highlights from this month’s packed DVD!

Elementary OS 6.0 “Odin”

FREE AS IN AWESOME MIN SPECS: 4GB RAM,

LINUX LOVES WINDOWS

Linux comes baked into Windows 11, so get the most out of Microsoft’s latest by using Linux!

AMD Ryzen 7 5700G

The AMD APU makes a more-than-welcome return for Chris Szewczyk.

XPG Gammix S50

PCIe Gen 4 and TLC memory for a price you can afford? Jeremy Laird would never fall for that old tale…

Pop!_OS 21.04

A desktop distro that offers a different way of working… Neil Bothwick spends a night on the tiles with Pop!_OS

NixOS 21.05

A complete working distro created from a single configuration file sounds different, and Neil Bothwick discovers that it is

EndeavourOS 2021.08

Arch Linux is beginning to rival Ubuntu as the starting point for modern distros. Neil Bothwick looks at one such distro

Linux Mint 20.2

Jonni Bidwell is running low on mint metaphors and time, but the promise of some budget mojito mix expedited this review

Griftlands

Management love a tough negotiation but not with the staff, so Sam Greer will be getting a quick visit from the LXF shock troops right about now…

Digital art programs

Donning a big shirt and a beret, Michael Reed examines five open source art packages, and discovers how they can help him tap into his creativity

The range of painting tools

What features does the application have and what tasks can it handle?

Brush and pencil options

Brushes are a fundamental part of digital painting

User interface and experience

Is the creative process helped or hindered?

Image processing and retouching

Some of the software on test can edit existing images, such as photos

Documentation and tutorials

What resources exist to help you learn how to use the software?

Text handling

Often, when working with images, you’ll need to work with text, too

Working with lines and shapes

How is vector drawing handled in this month’s Roundup candidates?

The Verdict

Digital art programs

CUSTOMISE MINT 2O!

Linux Mint is fantastic, but it’s also flexible, malleable and tweakable. Jonni Bidwell shows you how to truly make it your own

The joy of tinkering

Sort out roll-backs so you can customise Linux Mint with impunity and immunity (to problems)

Tweaking Cinnamon

See how easy it is to make your mark on Linux Mint’s flagship desktop environment and beyond!

Installing KDE Plasma

Transform your desktop with the smooth, svelte, sumptuous experience that is KDE Plasma and go complete next-gen with the Wayland too!

Ultralight Mint

Embrace minimality and learn some keyboard gymnastics with the featherweight Sway desktop

New scheme to recycle old Raspberry Pis

Putting a stop to the running joke of everyone having a drawer full of unused Pis

SparkFun qwiic pHat

Les Pounder wants another slice of Raspberry Pi and he needs it real ‘qwiic’! Complaints about bad gags to the usual address…

Drawing shapes with maths and code

Les Pounder shows how we can use simple maths to draw patterns and shapes, just like a classic childhood toy

Pinhole photography with the HQ Camera

Interchangeable lenses enable us to experiment with that historical curiosity, the pinhole camera, Mike Bedford shows you how

Building a better file server with the Pi

Christian Cawley shows you how to get the most out of your Raspberry Pi-powered Nextcloud server

IT’S A VIRTUAL SERVERWORLD

From his caravan in a field in North Wales, David Rutland takes you on a touring holiday through the world of virtual private servers

Better man pages

A fondness of reading is a good habit to inculcate, but Shashank Sharma believes it requires more than spending quality time with man pages

Add real power to your clipboard

Nick Peers dons his best hiking gear and goes hunting for a simple clipboard tool to rule them all. CopyQ is happy to oblige

Going back to 8-bit with the Atari 800

Les Pounder goes back to a time before E.T. cartridges were buried in the desert and 48KB was considered lots of RAM

Understanding the power of certificates

Stuart Burns walks through what certificates are, setting up a certificate server in your local network and how to use it

Create, edit and use custom mapping data

If you like Google Maps you’re going to love QGIS. Mike Bedford shows you how to get started and introduces some of its functionality

Get better Steam and Proton gaming

Michael Reed looks at what it takes to run a large variety of games under Steam, including those designed to run on Windows

Build a dynamic app security pipeline

Dynamic Analysis Security Testing takes centre stage in the third instalment of our Web Application Security series with Tim Armstrong.