Linux Software

July 2, 2020

Tusk, The Best Evernote Client for Linux and Its Review

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An application called Tusk is the best Evernote client for Linux and its review. Many Linux people want Evernote in Linux thus the Evernote officially recommends NixNote2 and Tusk to run Evernote on Linux. Both of them are not official application, it is only apps which can work well on Linux to handle the Evernote.

Tusk, Everntoe Client App on Linux

Tusk become unofficial Evernote client for Linux and used by many people in more 140 countries. Tusk is the best Evernote as a client for Linux environments trusted by the open source community. Tusk is developed using ElectronJS so this application looks like a browser. It means that the interface of Evernote will be same as the Evernote webpage looks.

Tusk Evernote Client for Linux

Tusk Features

  • Black, Dark & Sepia Themes
  • Focus, Compact & Auto-Night Modes
  • Local & Global Keyboard Shortcuts
  • Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts
  • Export Notes as PDF & Markdown files
  • Note Printing
  • Scalable Interface
  • Note Navigation
  • Yinxiang Support
  • Cross Platform
  • Automatic Updates
  • Deep OS Integration
  • Drag and Drop Files

How to Install Tusk on Linux

Tusk is recommended for you who able to open this apps online because it will load the Evernote in same way the browser does. To install Tusk simply follow these:
  1. Open the latest release of Tusk on Github
  2. Choose and download the .deb file
  3. Install it by double clicking the software
  4. Done! You can access the application from Menu >> Office >> Tusk

Tusk Review, A Cross-Platform Evernote Alternative

Tusk is a cross platform electron based Evernote alternative, so you can install it on Linux, Windows and Mac. Installing also very simple all you need is to download the package that right for you from the Github. About the interface, Tusk such as the website version of Evernote added with menu bar as desktop application.

The most uncomfortable thing is you can not read your note for offline viewing. Its frustrating as if you are offline it will show a blank screen. If you want a capability to read Evernote offline, you can switch Tusk into NixNote2 but the interface is standard.

We have compared to another Evernote alternative on Linux and we found that we haven’t seen anything special about Tusk. This main features are the extra theme options it provides its users and probably it’s passion for minimalist design.

July 1, 2020

youtube-dl Facebook Youtube Video Downloader for Linux

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How to download Facebook and Youtube video on linux? One of the popular Youtube downloader for Linux Mint and Ubuntu is youtube-dl . It runs on Terminal so it is very light weight and easy to use.

Because of its amazingness to handle video download process, youtube-dl many integrated in other application and can run under Windows and Mac too.

Best Video Downloader for Linux

With this software you can download audio and video in any format only using Terminal, The sofware called youtube-dl . By using URL of the Youtube video or other site video URL you can download them easily. One of the best features of this apps is that will help you decide and choose the best video quality in case multiple options are available.

Estimating Video Size Using youtube-dl

You can try this command to know the estimated download size of the video : youtube-dl -F URL

For example you can run:

youtube-dl -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWD6pB7R1V0

The output is:
youtube-dl the best video downloader for linux


From the picture above, this app give estimated size when you choose a video format. When you not select the format you will get the best available format from the video you will download.

We will you the usage of the format code above. Say you want to download the video as mp4 with 1280x720 resolution and 950k (see line 3 from bottom), it has format code as 136, then you have to download using command as below:

youtube-dl -f 136 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWD6pB7R1V0

Also when you want to download the audio m4a (see format code 140) then you have to execute these command on Terminal:

youtube-dl -f 140 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWD6pB7R1V0

How to Install youtube-dl

As the best tool to download youtube video, youtube-dl is available in the repository so that you can install it directy from your Terminal by executing these:

sudo apt install youtube-dl

Insert your Linux login password when needed, wait installation process and youtube-dl is ready to go.

How to Use youtube-dl

The youtube-dl has a manual page that you can read and practice. For me it is enough to download Youtube and Facebook video by executing command with format:

youtube-dl URL

Or download multiple video simply add the URL twice, the format become like this:

youtube-dl URL URL

Change the URL by using video URL Youtube or Facebook, for example:

youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWD6pB7R1V0


Download Youtube with Subtitle with youtube-dl


This application packed with capability to download the youtube subtitle if the subtitle is available on the video. To do so you can add parameter when downloading as follow:

youtube-dl --write-description --write-info-json --write-annotations --write-sub --write-thumbnail URL

Just something like that and it will download the video best available, you need not to set the video format first.

How to Update youtube-dl

If you installed youtube-dl from repository then you will receive update from the system update or update manager. Please note that distribution packages are often outdated, so when needed you may install the update by hour hand directly without waiting the repository to update. For youtube-dl update you can check their website http://yt-dl.org/ and check your installed version then compare to website version.

To check version installed simply execute youtube-dl --version
This will return the installed version such as 2020.03.24

The mechanism to update you need to uninstall it, download latest version from the official website, then reinstall again. In short, below command will do the task:

sudo apt remove youtube-dl

 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl

 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl

 hash -r

 sudo youtube-dl -U

youtube-dl Review

ClipGrab also a software to download youtube on Linux, but we prefer using youtube-dl because it is very simple and can resume download when connection fail or you interupt the download process. By default youtube-dl tries to download the best available quality, i.e. if you want the best quality you don't need to pass any special options, youtube-dl will guess it for you by default. But sometimes you may want to download in a different format, for example when you are on a slow or intermittent connection.

June 29, 2020

Brave Browser for Linux Review & Install Dark Reader

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This is Brave Browser for Linux review - Brave browser almost two years old now. Brave becomes my daily linux browser after switching away from Chrome and we'll be sharing with you today everything you need to know what's great about it, please note that this review not sponsored by Brave.

Brave remains my go-to web browser since its beta 2018, and Brave browser is a great Google Chrome alternative browser for you who are looking to switch. The interesting thing that Brave's Basic Attention Token (BAT) allow you earn crypto for watching ads which is unique value to Brave user. The built in adblocker have been integrated into the browser makes our browsing even faster without disruption, and the important part is on privacy which break from browsers like Google Chrome.

5 Reason Why Choose Brave Browser

Privacy Concern: Brave Shield
This browser blocks data-grabbing ads and trackers when we visit websites and ads include software that tries to identify you. They want to track your every move across the web and Brave blocks all this, allowing you to browse freely.

Fast Browsing
Based on our experience, Brave browser is fast even faster than firefox or Google Chrome, Brave claims that it can loads major news sites up to six times faster than Chrome, Safari and Firefox on mobile and desktop.

Tor Browser Integrated: More Privacy
The world know that with Tor Browser you can surf the website anonimously, and Brave browser have integrated the Tor so when ever you want you can surf the web using Tor withour installing Tor browser.

Earn Brave Reward
Braves unique cryptocurrency integration with its native basic attention token now basic attention token is used to pay users like us for viewing anonymously matched ads inside. you get 70% of the proceeds for giving your attention and brave keeps 30% for the services that they're providing and giving you this browser serving the ads so on and so forth.

Easy Customize
Brave browser packed from Chromium engine, it means that the Chrome extension can be installed on Brave. This compatibility is superior to beat the Google Chrome.

Brave Browser for Linux

How to Install Brave Browser in Linux

This manual tested on Linux Mint 20 Ulyana also work on Ubuntu to install Brave browser using Terminal:


sudo apt install apt-transport-https curl

 curl -s https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/brave-core.asc | sudo apt-key --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/brave-browser-release.gpg add -

 echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list

 sudo apt update

 sudo apt install brave-browser

Open Brave Browser Linux Mint

After installation process, you can open Brave browser by clicking Menu >> Internet >> Brave Web Browser. This way is on Linux Mint, if you prefer using Terminal you can also run the Brave browser by typing command below:

brave-browser

Installing Dark Reader for Dark Theme

If you like dark theme it is not complete if you are not install the Dark Reader, so it will make totally black the page you visit. Dark Reader is a Chrome extension or Firefox add-on that you can install directly into your browser. Please head to darkreader.org to install this extension on your Brave browser.

Brave Browser for Linux Review

Brave browser is lightening fast with built in ad blocker capability. This will make our browsing faster and faster because there is no disturbing ads. Using Chromium engine it able to take advantages of installing extension. If you love totally dark for the page you visit, please activate the Dark Reader! Nice article? We want you share, please.

June 28, 2020

2 Task Manager for Linux to Monitor Memory and CPU Usage

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In Linux, we can check and monitor the memory usage, cpu usage in real time from the Terminal command or using graphical interface. Also we can see the up time, kill or end process of unwanted application from our running machine.

Linux is the most stable operating system, thus it been used as server OS long time ago until now. Beside as a server os, it is also used as desktop operating system for daily computing needs, such as for college, for office work, even for scientis. Today's Linux is not command based again because the maturity of desktop environment that you can choose and use it as you like, for me I prefer xfce because it stability and eye catching enough.

Occasionally, we need to check the cpu usage and memory which is used by our system. This is needed when we feel our computer runs heavy and lag because of any application consume lots of RAM or CPU. To do this, we can use Terminal or using GUI to monitor them.

How to Monitor Memory and CPU Usage

Chechking or monitoring computer resouce in Linux is easy. When you become a webmaster you will this tool frequently to avoid the unwanted things. There is 2 application for task manager in Linux called "htop" that run in Terminal and "Task Manager" GUI way.

Task Manager Console for Linux

HTOP is very well known task manager in Linux. This application runs using Terminal so that you have to open terminal and type htop then hit enter to see the cpu and RAM usage. If you have not installed it yet, you can install by executing these command below:

sudo apt install htop

Wait until installaton progress finished, after that type htop to see the running applications on your system. To close this application you need to hit Ctrl+C button, Hitting F10 button is needed when you work on a Linux server. Here is mine:

Using HTOP to Check RAM and CPU Usage and Availability

HTOP Review

By using application called HTOP you can control any running process and stop them when ever you want. Controlling the cpu usage will prevent your machine hang or freeze, because you don't want any application using more cpu. Now let's we see the interface: it has pretty and simple interface. For the first time I open the htop it provide an understandable value. You can also sort the usage by clicking the CPU or MEM (highlighted with green color), it is very good and simple apps.

Task Manager GUI for Linux

Desktop Environment (DE) will provide task manager by default. For example I am using xfce desktop, can access the task manager from Menu >> System >> Task Manager.

Task Manager Linux GUI

Task Manager Linux Review

Task manager for Ubuntu / Linux Mint / other distro is a feature which provide detailed programs and running processes on your system. It display numbers of resource usage to measure performance and process, also see which program that not responded.

Conclusion

There are several program to check the RAM or CPU in real time, but the most favorite and widely used is htop because it simplycity and stability.

June 25, 2020

[Fixed] Touchpad Tap Not Working on Linux Mint 20 Ulyana

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Are you sure the touchpad not working on Linux Mint 20 Ulyana for laptop? NO! Touchpad tap not working on Linux Mint XFCE only need "Mouse and Touchapd Setting". This article will show you how to configure it properly, please note that the touchpad tap not clicking is not a bug.

A touchpad is a pointing device packed with a tactile sensor, the specialized surface that can translate the motion and position of a user's fingers to a relative position on the operating system that is made output to the screen. Touchpads are a common feature of laptop computers as opposed to using a mouse on a desktop (Wikipedia, 2020).

Touchpad is one component that plays an important role in laptops. Instead of the mouse role, the touchpad makes it easy for every laptop user to click on an application or any file. So that, when the touchpad error will make it unable to work properly, you feel uncomfortable of doing computing activities.

Touchpad Not Clicking on Linux Mint

By default, the Linux Mint 20 Ulyana XFCE configuration for touchpad is the tap function works as not click function. If you want to make the tap works as click button, you need to make a little setting as follow:
  1. Open your Menu >> Settings >> Mouse and Touchpad
  2. It will show the "Mouse and Touchpad" configuration dialog
Touchpad Not Work Linux Mint 20 Ulyana

The next step, please select the "Touchpad" on the "Device" section. Please make sure you enable the touchpad device, also give a check mark for "Tap touchpad to click"
Now you can try your touchpad to click!

Still Not Solved?

On some laptops usually have a special key on the keyboard to activate and deactivate the touchpad. So you can accidentally press the button so that the touchpad does not work. To fix this, look for a button on the keyboard that has a touchpad pictorial icon. Usually the button is between the F1 - F12 keys. If you find it successfully, you only need to press the Fn + key combination to activate the cursor.

If the above methods do not succeed in fixing your laptop's touchpad that is not functioning, there is a possibility of damage occurring at the hardware level or you could say your touchpad is damaged. Therefore it would be better if your laptop is taken to a laptop service center to be checked by experts.

June 19, 2020

57 List of Linux Alternative to Windows Applications

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Complete List of Linux Alternative to Windows Applications

Now days so many Linux alternative to Windows applications that can we apply to make our life easier and better in computing tasks. Here we go, list of Linux software which equivalent to Windows for you who are migrating or seeking the alternative Linux apps. Read the article completely!



Linux Alternative to Windows Applications

Windows Software Equivalent in Linux

You can see the linux software review by following the provided link on every software name. To make more comfortable and easy reading, we categorize the software into a group based also we show in a similarity table as follow:

A. Software Category: Accessories


Linux Application
Installed by Default
Windows Application
Archive Manager Yes WinRAR, Win Zip, 7Zip
Bulk Rename Yes Bulk Rename Utility
Calculator Yes Calculator
Disks Yes Disk Management
Document Viewer Yes Foxit Reader, PDF Reader
Fonts Yes Fonts
F.lux NO F.lux, *Night Light*
Gnote Yes Sticky Notes, One Note
Image Viewer Yes Photos
Onboard Yes Onscreen Keyboard
Parcellite NO CLCL
PeaZip NO PeaZip, WinRAR, Win Zip, 7Zip
Plank NO (No, it is exclusive to Linux)
Redshift Yes *Night Light*, f.lux
Shutter NO Lightshot, Snag It
Task Manager Yes Windows Task Manager
Text Editor Yes Notepad
File Manager Yes Windows Explorer
USB Stick Formatter Yes *Format*


B. Software Category: Development



Linux Application
Installed by Default
Windows Application
Anaconda Navigator NO Anaconda Navigator
Geany NO Geany, Notepad++
Kite NO Kite
Sublime NO Sublime
Visual Studio Code NO Visual Studio Code





C. Software Category: Graphics


Linux Application
Installed by Default
Windows Application
DigiKam NO ACDSee
Document Scanner Yes Windows Fax and Scan
Drawing Yes Microsoft Paint
GIMP Yes Adobe Photoshop
Inkscape NO Adobe Illustrator
Pix Yes Photos


D. Software Category: Internet


Linux Application
Installed by Default
Windows Application
Brave NO Brave
Network Monitor NO cFosSpeed
Firefox Yes Firefox
Google Chrome NO Google Chrome
Skype NO Skype
Thunderbird Yes Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook
Yandex Browser NO Yandex Browser


E. Software Category: Multimedia


Linux Application
Installed by Default
Windows Application
Audacious NO Winamp
Audacity NO Audacity, Adobe Audition
Celluloid Yes Media Player Classic
Clementine NO AIMP
Kdenlive NO Filmora, Adobe Premiere
SMPlayer NO SMPlayer
Open Shot NO Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere
VLC NO VLC


F. Software Category: Office


Linux Application
Installed by Default
Windows Application
Libre Office Yes Libre Office, Microsoft Office
Open Office NO Open Office
WPS Office NO WPS Office, Microsoft Office
PDF Editor NO Foxit Phantom



G. Software Category: System


Linux Application
Installed by Default
Windows Application
Driver Manager Yes Device Manager
GParted Yes Disk Management
Htop NO (No, it is exclusive to Linux)
Software Manager Yes Microsoft Store
Task Manager Yes Windows Task Manager
Terminal Yes Command Prompt
Timeshift Yes System Restore
Update Manager Yes Windows Update Manager



Best Software in Linux

All software list we provided here is the best Linux application specially for Linux Mint and already tested by our team for a daily use. 
Linux Mint