Chromebooks run an operating system called chromeOS which, no matter what some people say, is more than just the Chrome web browser. You can even argue that chromeOS is Linux, at least under the hood. That said, you can tap into more of the power of Linux on a device running chromeOS. At least one manufactured in the last few years. How? By setting up a Linux environment that runs on top of chromeOS.

In a post that I’m sure will trigger more than a couple of people (and probably lose me some readers), I’ll walk you through the basics of enabling and using Linux on a Chromebook.

Why Not Just Use …

It’s not up to me to determine anyone’s use case. For anything. And that includes whether or not they decide to run Linux on a Chromebook. And I’m sure there is more than one such use case.

It could be that, as a Chromebook user, you want to explore Linux a bit before jumping in. Or you might want to use both Linux and chromeOS on the same device, and not install something like GalliumOS (a small Linux distribution rolled especially for Chromebook), which might not be available for their particular Chromebook. Or it could be any other reason you might have.

With that out of the way, let’s continue.

Enabling Linux

While the terminology used is a bit techie (as you’ll see in a moment), setting up and using Linux on a Chromebook isn’t all that onerous. It’s actually quite point and click.

To get going, fire up and log into a Chromebook. While writing this post, I was using one loaned to me by a friend — a Lenovo IdeaPad Duet, in case you’re wondering.

Next, go to the Chromebook’s settings and search for linux, as shown below:

In the Linux development environment section of the screen, click Turn on to start a wizard that walks you through the setup process.

Click Next to display the setup screen. On that screen, you can enter a user name and change the amount of disk space available on the Chromebook for Linux (out of the box, that’s 10 GB). Here are the settings that I used:

Once you’ve done that, click Install. Installation takes a couple of minutes. Once the process is finished, a terminal window like the one below displays.

Getting Started Using Linux

In that terminal window, you can fiddle with various common Linux commands. Among the applications that are standard kit is the vim text editor. Here’s me embracing my inner geek and editing a draft of this post in vim:

And, before you ask, you can install Emacs too …

But, as we all know, Linux is more than just the command line. You can also install desktop applications in your new Linux environment. Let’s look at how to do that.

Installing Applications

The version of Linux that runs on Chromebooks is based on a distribution called Debian, which uses a package manager called apt. To install an application, whether desktop or command line, type this in the terminal window:

sudo apt install [app-name]

Where [app-name] is the name of what you want to install. Let’s say that LibreOffice Writer is what you want to install. To do that, type this command:

sudo apt install libreoffice-writer

Here’s what it looks like running on a Chromebook:

And here’s me browsing the web on a Chromebook using GNOME Web:

If you can’t install something using apt, you can load Flatpak or snap in your Linux environment to widen your choices — learn more about them in this post.

Launching Linux Applications

You can fire up the applications that you’ve installed (including the terminal window) from the Linux Apps group in your Chromebook’s launcher. Here’s an example:

You can also launch desktop applications from a terminal window. Say, for example, you’re working at the command line and need to use LibreOffice Writer. Just type lowriter, press Enter, and away you go.

Working with Files

After you’ve set up Linux and installed your applications, you’re generally good to go. But what about files?

In your Linux environment, you have a /home directory — for example, /home/scott. Any files that you create are saved in this directory. You can, of course, create folders under the directory in a terminal window using the mkdir command.

You can also access your Linux /home directory from your Chromebook’s Files app. You’ll find that directory in the navigation pane of the Files app under Linux files. From within the Files app, you can create folders in your /home directory and copy files into it, as I did:

You can also right click on a folder in the Files app and select Share with Linux. Any chromeOS folder that you share is available in your Linux environment under /mnt/chromeos/MyFiles.

Getting Rid of the Linux Environment

I know more than a couple of people who use Linux beside chromeOS on their Chromebooks almost daily. But Linux isn’t for everyone. Maybe after giving it a go, you’ve found that Linux isn’t for you. Maybe your experiment was successful and you want to install Linux on a computer that you have lying around. Or perhaps you want to free up some disk space on your Chromebook after test driving Linux.

To get rid of the Linux environment on your Chromebook, go to Settings and search for linux. Click Linux development environment. Then, click Remove as shown below:

On the dialog box that displays, click Delete.

Final Thoughts

Chromebooks aren’t for everyone. I get that. But, as I mentioned earlier in this post, I’m not arrogant enough to view myself as the final arbiter of how anyone gives Linux a test drive or what computer and operating system they use. For those with few technical chops, but who want to give Linux a try, enabling Linux on a Chromebook is a quick and easy way to do that.

— Scott Nesbitt

Let’s jump in, shall we?

Add Times

Every Linux distribution comes with a desktop calculator. Which is great when you need to work through various figures. But that calculator isn’t all that great when it comes to computing time. Which is where Add Times comes in.

Add Times is aimed at people who need to log time spent of long tasks — for example, drivers and pilots. But anyone who needs to track time for timesheeting or invoicing might find it useful, too. Including full-time employees, freelancers, and contractors.

The application has a spare interface, one that’s easy to use. You enter time as hours and minutes — for example, punch in 247 for 2 hours and 47 minutes. Click + to add another block of time. Keep doing that until you’ve tracked all of the time and then press Enter to get a total, as shown below:

Flatsweep

When you remove software that you installed using Flatpak, there are often some residual files left over in a hidden directory in your /home folder. As you install and uninstall software over time, those straggling files can accumulate over time. To be honest, it’s a pain to go into that folder and zap all of those files.

Flatsweep helps you clean up that problem. It scans the hidden directory that I mentioned a paragraph ago, the one containing the lingering files. Flatsweep then lists the folders, as shown below:

If you need to, deselect any folders that you don’t want to get rid of, and then click Clean. In second or two, those errant files and folders are gone.

Switcheroo

Sometimes, you need to quickly convert one or more image files from one format to another. Sure, you can open it in an application like The GIMP or Pinta and save that image with a new extension. Or you can jump to the command line and use something like imageMagick to do the deed. But do you really need anything that heavy? Give Switcheroo a try instead.

Switcheroo converts images between these formats: PNG, JPG, WebP, HEIF, GIF, PDF, and ICO. You can also change some characteristics of the images (as you’ll see in a moment).

To use Switcheroo, fire it up and then click Open Images …. Select the images to convert and then click Select Images. The images that you selected, along with Switcheroo’s options, display as shown below:

You can select a new format for the images, whether you want to compress them into a .zip file, change the quality of the images, change the background colour, and resize them.

When you’re ready to go, click Convert. You’ll be asked to choose a location, and once you do it takes only a few seconds (depending on the number of images you have) for the Switcheroo to do its work.

On the open source side of the fence, the most widely-known and widely-used browser is Firefox. Firefox has its fans but it also has its detractors. So much so that some folks have taken that browser’s source code and have spun up their own variations on the theme of Firefox.

One of those, which I started test driving in September, 2023, is LibreWolf. Let’s take a look at it.

How LibreWolf is Different from Firefox

The two browsers share much of same DNA. However, Librewolf branches off from Firefox in a few ways.

First, there’s LibreWolf’s strong emphasis on user privacy and security. It includes several privacy settings and features enabled out of the box. Those settings and features aim to minimize the collection of your data and websites tracking you. LibreWolf also disables certain Firefox features that can compromise your privacy.

LibreWolf incorporates other security measures to protect you while you’re browsing. It includes built-in ad-blocking and disables potentially vulnerable third-party plugins, and removes any proprietary components.

There’s more to that, which you can learn about at the LibreWolf website.

Getting LibreWolf

As with most Linux software these days, there are a few ways to get LibreWolf on to your computer. Some of those are detailed on this page. That page also includes information about how to install LibreWolf on those other two operating systems, in case you’re wondering.

You can also install the browser via:

• Flatpak,
• As an AppImage, or
• Using your Linux distribution’s software centre.

Using the Browser

For the most part, using LibreWolf is just like using Firefox. You get the same interface, the same controls, and all of the key features. Here’s what it looks like when you first start it:

And here’s what LibreWolf looks browsing this site:

And a slightly more graphically intensive site:

If you’re switching from Firefox (and I discuss some of the mechanics of this in a moment) you should have no problem using LibreWolf. I can’t categorically say that it’s faster than Firefox (I don’t know how to measure that), but LibreWolf does appear to start up and load web pages slightly quicker on my StarLite laptop. But, to be honest, the ordinary user doesn’t care about incremental increases in speed and performance as long as their browser doesn’t run glacially slow or crash when they use it. LibreWolf did neither while I used it.

If, like me, you use a few (or more than a few) Firefox add-ons, you can install them in LibreWolf. I had no problem installing the add-ons that I regularly use, but your mileage may vary.

Security

LibreWolf’s main selling point, as far as people who embrace it are concerned, is its focus on security. As I mentioned several paragraphs back, LibreWolf has a number of privacy and security settings enabled by default — for example, strict Enhanced Tracking Protection and sending websites a do not track signal. It also disables the browser’s built-in password manager, doesn’t include Firefox’s data collection and telemetry options, and has removed integration with the Pocket read-it-later tool.

On top of that, LibreWolf disables search and form history, as well as autofilling forms. It also packs the uBlock Origin add-on by default and deletes cookies and data when you exit, without having to tweak the settings. If you’re interested, you can get a full list of the privacy and security features at the browser’s website.

That said, sometimes LibreWolf’s safeguards are a bit too strict. For example, when I enter or follow a URL with www in it, and am redirected to the URL without it (which is not unknown on the web), I get a warning that the secure version of the site isn’t available when that secure version actually is.

That said, I’d rather be safer than sorrier. It’s easy enough to go into the browser’s settings to change your level of security — not just decreasing that level but also increasing it.

Moving from Firefox

What if you want to replace Firefox with LibreWolf, and still get the Firefox experience that you’re used to? If you use Firefox Sync, then that’s easy. Firefox Sync backs your up bookmarks, information about which add-ons you use, website passwords (if you let Firefox save them), your settings, and the like.

In LibreWolf, click the stacker menu and select Settings > Sync. From there, search for sync. In the results, click Enable Firefox Sync, as shown below.

On the message that displays, click Restart LibreWolf Now. When the browser restarts, click the stacker menu and beside the new menu item Sync and save data, click Sign In as shown below:

Enter your email and password, and after about 30 seconds or so all of your data from Firefox syncs with LibreWolf. If you use add-ons that require a user name and password, you’ll need to enter those credentials to use the add-ons.

If you’re not using Firefox Sync, you can try:

• Backing up and restoring your Firefox profile (I’m not sure how well that works, though), or
• Exporting your bookmarks and making a note of the add-ons that you’re using, then import your bookmarks into LibreWolf. Once you’ve done that, go to the Firefox add-ons site and install your add-ons.

I offer no guarantees that will work. If it doesn’t, please don’t blame me.

If use uBlock Origin in Firefox, don’t need to reinstall it — as I mentioned earlier, a version comes baked into LibreWolf.

Final Thoughts

When I first decided to try LibreWolf, I didn’t know what to expect. And, more to the point, I didn’t think I needed to use something other than Firefox — I was more than happy with using Firefox as my main browser. But as I used it, my period of test driving LibreWolf kept getting longer and longer. LibreWolf gradually grew on me. So much so that I’m using it as my day-to-day window into the web. Sometimes, I even forget that I have Firefox installed on my laptop.

— Scott Nesbitt

To make installing applications easier, and avoid spiralling people into dependency hell, a pair of package management systems have gained a lot of traction in the Linux world over the last few years. Those systems? Flatpak and Snap.

Both are controversial. Both regularly raise the ire of people in certain corners of the Linux world. And I’m not going to go into any of that — if you’re interested, turn to your favourite search engine.

That said, Flatpak and Snap aren’t going away any time soon. So let’s take a look at how to use both Flatpak and Snap to install software from the Linux command line.

What are Flatpak and Snap?

Flatpak and Snap, as I mentioned a couple of paragraphs back, are package management systems. The idea behind them is to simplify the installation and management of software on Linux by including dependencies (like libraries or other software) with applications. The idea is to ensure compatibility of those applications across different Linux distributions.

Flatpak

Flatpak was created by the GNOME project. It’s a sandboxed environment, meaning the applications that you install using Flatpak are isolated from the rest of your system. This reduces the likelihood of conflicts and making updating those applications easy.

If you need to install Flatpak, you can find instructions at the Flatpak website.

Snap

Snap, on the other hand, was developed by Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu). Like Flatpak, Snap offers a sandboxed environment for applications (called snaps). The idea is to ensure the security and compatibility of applications across various Linux distributions.

Snap relies a program called the snap daemon to install and manage snaps. The snap daemon comes as part of many Linux distributions. If you need to install it, you can find instructions on the Snapcraft website.

Installing Applications with Flatpak

Let’s assume that Flatpak is installed on your computer — either as standard kit with your distribution or because you installed it yourself. So how do you install applications with it?

You can do that in two ways. One way is to search for an application on the Flathub website, copy the command to manuallly install it, and then paste that into a terminal window. Or, if you know the name of the application, you can open a terminal window and use this command to search for an application:

flatpak search [application-name]

For example:

flatpak search kooha

The case of the application’s name doesn’t matter — using Kooha and kooha return the same results.

Once you’ve found the application that you want to install, run this command:

flatpak install [application-name]

You’ll be asked to type Y or n. Type Y to install. Flatpak adds a shortcut to the application to your desktop menu.

Installing Applications with Snap

Let’s assume that the snap daemon is installed on your computer. So how do you install an application using snap?

As with Flatpak, you can do that in two ways. You can search for an application on the Snap Store, copy the command to manuallly install it, and then paste that into a terminal window. Or, you can find the name of the application by typing this command in a terminal to search for it:

snap find [application-name] | more

For example:

snap find notes | more

Adding | more to the command breaks a long list of results into individual pages that you can scroll through by pressing the spacebar on your keyboard.

When you’ve found the application that you want to install, run this command:

sudo snap install [application-name]

You’ll be asked to enter your password. Once you do that, the application installs and you can fire it up from your desktop application menu.

— Scott Nesbitt

There are still some people who shy away from Linux because they believe that regularly jumping to the terminal is a must when using it. Power users often reside there, that’s true, but I know more than a few people who’ve been using Linux for years and who’ve never once been on the command line.

While I don’t believe that you need to use the command line to get the most out of Linux, a little knowledge of the command line can go a long way. Let’s look at three useful terminal commands. You might not always use them, but they can come in handy when you need them.

ps

Use ps to display information about the applications and processes that are running on your computer. The command displays several bits of information including a numeric identifier for an application or process (called its PID), the name of the user who started application, and more.

The ps command has a number of options, but you really only need to know one of them. To see what applications and processes are currently running, type:

ps -u [your-user-name]

Where [your-user-name] is just that. In my case, for example, that’s scott.

What you wind up with is a long list. You’ll need to scroll up in the terminal window to see all of it. You can get around that by typing:

ps -u [your-user-name] | more

Adding | more to the command puts what’s essentially a page break what ps spits out. Here’s an example:

Press the spacebar on your keyboard to move to the next page.

kill

Use the kill command to shut down an unresponsive program. The program that you’re shutting down doesn’t need to be a command line program, either — it can be one running on your desktop, too.

To use the kill command, you first need to get the PID of the program that’s frozen using the ps command. A program’s PID is the number on the left side of the screen, as shown below:

Once you have the PID, type this at the command line:

kill [PID]

Let’s say that the Firefox web browser has decided to stop responding. Use the ps command to get it’s PID — here’s an example:

In this case, Firefox’s PID is 4109. Now, type this at the command line:

kill 4109

If that doesn’t work, you can add -9 to the command to brute force the shutdown of Firefox (or any stubborn program), like this:

kill -9 4109

which

Use the which command to find the executable file for an application. It searches the directories listed in the PATH environment variable set in a file called .profile, which resides in your /home directory.

Why use it? I find which to be useful when I need to add an application to a menu using a utility like Pin It!. Using which is faster than stumbling around in a file picker.

To run the command, type this in a terminal window:

which [executable-name]

So, if you want to find where the executable pdflatex resides, type:

which pdflatex

The command display the full path to the executable file — for example, /usr/bin/pdflatex.

As I mentioned at the top of this post, you might only use these commands once in a while. But they’re definitely handy when you need them.

— Scott Nesbitt

Sure, you can do that in your web browser by right clicking on a link and choosing a save option. But if you can do that, and more, with two terminal commands: cURL and Wget. Let’s take a quick look at the basics of how to use both of them.

using cURL

In case you’re wondering, cURL is short for Client for URLs. cURL’s primary purpose in life is to move data between computers — like between a web server and your desktop or laptop.

How do you use it? Crack open a terminal window and from there, go to the directory in which you want to save the file you’re going to download. Then, enter this command:

curl -O [URL]

Replace [URL] with the full URL (along with the file name) of what you want to download.

Let’s say you want to download the file Super-Terrific-Demo.ogv from the website of online conglomerate CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet. To do that, use this command:

curl -O https://compuglobalhypermeganet.io/media/Super-Terrific-Demo.ogv

Some Useful Options

cURL has several other options that you might find useful. Here are two of them:

If your download stalls for whatever reason, you can re-run cURL with the -C option. The download restarts at the point at which it stalled.

You can also run cURL in the background by adding the -b option to command. That way, you can use the same terminal window (or the same tab in the terminal window) to do other tasks while a file is downloading.

Using Wget

Wget, short for World Wide Web get, differs from cURL in that you can use it to grab a single file, to download the contents of directories, or to grab entire websites.

To download a file using Wget, go to the command line and navigate to the directory in which you want to save what you’re going to download. Then, type this command:

wget [URL]

Replace [URL] with the full URL to the file that you want to download. If you don’t specify a file name, Wget pulls down the entire directory.

Two Handy Options

Here are two options that come in handy when you’re using Wget.

To download a file but save it on your computer with a different name, add the option –output-document=[new-file-name], where [new-file-name] is the name and extension that you want to give the file.

To resume a stalled or stopped download, add the –continue option to the command. Wget picks up from where the download stopped.

Getting More Information

This post just barely scratched the surface of what cURL and Wget can do. If you’re interested in diving more deeply into both, here’s some information that can help you:

• cURL man page
• Wget manual

I’m still moving in, so publishing might be a bit sporadic over the next week or two. But in all the ways that matter, this is the same Open Source Musings that you’ve come to expect.

Feel free to keep checking back for new posts. Or subscribe to the RSS feed.

While I try to do as much of my work as I can in plain text, one limitation that I run into is project management. I prefer a slightly more visual representation of where moving parts of my projects are while I’m working on them.

For that, I use a simple kanban board. While kanban boards are widely used in software development, manufacturing, and elsewhere they’re also a great tool for personal projects.

On the open source side of the fence, you can turn to applications like WeKan or Nextcloud Deck to do the job. But what if you don’t want to turn to the web and, instead, have a kanban board on your desktop?

The open source pickings in that area are a bit slim. While I found what looked to be a promising open source desktop kanban app, but I couldn’t get it to run. Then I ran into Focalboard, from folks behind the Mattermost collaboration tool.

I spent a few weeks using Focalboard to manage a couple of projects. Let’s dive in and find out what came of that.

Getting Focalboard

There are three versions of Focalboard. The one I downloaded, which was most relevant to me, was the Personal Desktop edition. Grab the file focalboard-linux.tar.gz (there are also versions for the macOS and Windows desktops).

Once it’s downloaded, extract the archive to a folder somewhere on your computer. From there, double click on the file focalboard-app. After a few seconds, Focalboard runs and displays this screen:

You’ll learn what to do next in a moment.

(Focalboard doesn’t add itself to your desktop or application menu after you start it. To do that, you can use a little utility like Pin It!.)

With that out of the way, fire up Focalboard and you’re ready to go.

Adding a Board

A board is a container for the tasks in a project. It also defines your workflow for that project — a kanban board is really just a set of columns that represent a stage of work.

As you saw, when you start Focalboard for the first time you need to create a board. You can do that by choosing one of the templates that come with the application.

Of the templates, I only found two that were potentially useful for my purposes — Personal Tasks and Project Tasks. Your mileage will vary. Choose a template and then click Use this template.

That said, you don’t need to use a template. You can click Create an empty board. You get a blank canvas that you can set up as you see fit:

Click + Add a group to add a column to the board. Then, double click header of column and type a name a name for it — for example, Drafts. You can also click the ellipsis (...) beside the name of the column to select a colour for the column’s header:

Repeat that until you’ve added all the columns that you need for the board. Here’s what a simple board looks like:

You can add as many boards as you need. Usually, that’s one per project. However, I know people who, when working on big projects, break those projects down into segments, with a board for each segment.

Adding Additional Boards

So what happens if you want to create another kanban board? Click +Add board at the bottom of Focalboard’s left pane. A familiar window, containing a containing a list of templates that you can use, displays :

From there choose a template or click Create an empty board. Then, add and configure columns.

Adding Cards to Your Board

Cards are the individual tasks on your board. To add one, click +New under a column. A blank card displays, as shown below:

Give the card a descriptive name — for example, Write Focalboard post. You can click +Add a property to insert a field, a date, a URL, or more on the card. On one of the boards I created, I added a text field labelled Publication Date to my cards.

You can also add a description to the card and click Attach to attach a file to the card if you need to.

When you’re creating a card, Focalboard adds an icon to that card (as you can see in the screen capture above). It’s not my kind of thing, so I constantly find myself clicking the icon and selecting Remove icon. More on this in a few paragraphs.

Here’s a card that’s ready to be added to the board:

Repeat that for every task in your project.

Here’s an active board:

Using Your Board

Focalboard works like any other kanban board application that you might have used in the past. You move cards through a project’s workflow by dragging them to the next column on the board. You can also change the order of the cards in column by dragging and dropping them vertically.

As well, you can show or hide the attributes that you’ve added to a card by clicking the Properties above the column headers. Here’s an example from one of my boards:

Other Features

You can create a template by clicking +Add board and then clicking +Create new template. From there, add columns and properties to the board. When you save it, it’s added to the list of template that displays the next time you click +Add board.

If you’ve used another kanban board application — like Trello, Asana, Notion, Jira, or Todoist — you import data from them by clicking Settings and choosing Import. You can also export an archive containing your boards in Focalboard from the Settings menu.

Do you remember me mentioning the annoying icon that’s added to every card that you create on a board? You can stop that from happening by turning off Random icons option under the Settings menu. At least, that’s the idea. Whenever I do that, the setting doesn’t persist the next time start Focalboard.

Final Thoughts

Focalboard is a good option if you want to use a kanban board to manage your personal projects without having to turn to a web-based application — open source or otherwise. It’s easy to use and while it may seem a bit basic, Focalboard does just enough and does it well.

But in my drive to simplify and consolidate various things digital in my life, I now work with notes mostly on my desktop. That, in turn, recently drew me back to an application that I’d investigated in past.

Meet QOwnNotes. If you’re familiar with it, QOwnNotes might seem like a strange choice for me — it packs more features than I need or use. But you can also make it as barebones or as complex as you need or want.

After I took QOwnNotes for a lengthy test drive, I came away with new appreciation for it. Let’s jump in and see what I discovered.

Getting QOwnNotes

The fastest, easiest way to install QOwnNotes is to use the software centre (or whatever it’s called) in the Linux distribution that you use. I installed it on my laptop using the Zorin OS Software app.

You can also download an AppImage, or install it via Flathub or as a snap. The choice is yours.

If you’re of more technical bent, you can compile the source code.

Getting Started with QOwnNotes

When you start it up, you’ll notice that QOwnNotes has something of a cluttered user interface:

Out of the box, QOwnNotes reminds me of the Geany text editor in that the interface contains a lot of what I don’t need or use. But like Geany, you’re not stuck with all of that.

You can change the look and feel of the interface by clicking Note > Settings. Ignore most of what you see, and jump to the Interface section of the Settings window. These are the key items I changed:

• Layout — Select Minimal.
• Editor fonts — I set those to IBM Plex Mono (my monospace font of choice).
• Toolbars — I removed most of the buttons from the main toolbar, since I never use them.

Here’s what the QOwnNotes window looks like after I set it up to fit my needs:

QOwnNotes has quite a few more settings. Feel free to poke around in them.

Selecting a Folder For Your Notes

Some people keep all of their notes in a single folder and use either tags or search to quickly find the notes they needs. And QOwnNotes has a pretty decent search function.

I’m not one of those people. I prefer a bit of organization, which comes in the form of folders. In QOwnNotes’ settings under Note folders, you add one or more sets of folders. You could, for example, have a folder for personal notes and separate ones for your projects.

Those folders don’t need to be in the same directory on your computer — you can, for example, point QOwnNotes to a folder in your /home directory and to the notes folder in Nextcloud.

Taking Notes

Either click the New note icon on the toolbar or press Ctrl+N on your keyboard. Your new note contains a default title, which consists of the word Note followed by the current date and time. Here’s an example:

Change the title and then start typing. QOwnNotes supports target="_blank"Markdown, which you can add by hand or using a toolbar icon.

Here’s an example of a note:

And here’s an example of a preview of a note, which you can call up by clicking the Show Note preview panel button on the toolbar:

QOwnNotes automatically saves your notes as plain text files, with the extension .md, to the folder that I mentioned a few paragraphs ago.

Adding Images to a Note

You can also add images to a note by either:

• Pressing Ctrl+Shift+I on your keyboard and pointing QOwnNotes to that image, or
• Copying the image to your clipboard, right clicking, and selecting Paste html or media

In both cases, QOwnNotes adds the Markdown code for the image. When you preview the note, the image displays along with the text of the notes.

Importing Notes

You don’t have to start from scratch. If you use Evernote, Joplin, or Tomboy, you can import the notes that you have in those applications — learn more about how to do that at the QOwnNotes website.

You can also import text files on your computer. From the Note menu, select Import > Import notes from text files, and then point QOwnNotes to the folder containing the text files that you want to import.

Installing Scripts

While QOwnNotes has a number of settings and features, you can add more to the application using scripts. They are, as you’ve probably guessed, like little programs that extend the capabilities of QOwnNotes.

To install a script, click Notes > Settings. In the Settings window, click Scripting. From there, click Add script and then select Search script repository. This window displays:

Find the script that you want and then click Install. To be honest, I’ve only found five scripts to be useful. They are:

• ATX Headline - Tells QOwnNotes to use hashtags (#) to format headings.
• Blank Note - Adds a button to the toolbar which, when I click it, creates a note with no heading or text.
• Export notes as one HTML file - Enables me to select multiple notes and save them as a single HTML document.
• Paste HTML as GitHub Markdown - If I’ve copied some HTML from somewhere, this script converts it to Markdown when I paste it into a note.
• Duplicate note - Makes a copy of a note. This is useful when I use a note as a template.

Final Thoughts

QOwnNotes comes very close to being my ideal note taking application. While it does pack far more features that I use, it’s fairly easy to streamline the user interface to make it seem like many of those features aren’t there.

While I’m still not entirely sure I’ll continue to use QOwnNotes into the future, for now it’s working for me. With QOwnNotes, I can quickly jot down, organize, and use my notes. And isn’t that the point of a tool like this?

When I moved overseas, those dictionaries went to new homes. Since then, I haven't replaced those tomes. When I need a dictionary, I turn to the Linux command line and use dict. And, no, doing that isn't as geeky or techie as it seems.

Let's take a quick look at using dict to look up new and unfamiliar words.

Getting dict

You can quickly install dict with a desktop package manager like Synaptic. But that's not the only way to do the deed. You can also install it from the command line — it is a command line application after all ...

If you're using a Linux distribution based on Debian (like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, or Zorin OS) you can install dict in a terminal window using this command:

sudo apt install dict

If you're not using a distribution based on Debian, try using your distro's equivalent command — for example, pacman on Arch Linux or dnf on Fedora.

Using dict

When you need to find the meaning of a word, crack open a terminal window, then type dict [word] — for example:

dict woolgathering

Here's the result:

dict's results often go beyond the bottom of a terminal window. To get around that, you can add | more after the command like this:

dict woolgathering | more

Here's the result:

Adding | more breaks the results up. You can move to the next page or pages by pressing the Space bar on your keyboard.

You can also get the definition of a phrase by surrounding the words that make up the phrase with quotation marks. For example, to look up the meaning of free software, type:

dict "free software"

Using Other Dictionaries

When you ask dict to look up a word, it turns to one or a small handful of its available dictionaries. The dictionaries that the application chooses is based on the context of the word or phrase that you enter. For example, if you enter a more archaic word, dict will scour the older dictionaries at its disposal.

But those dictionaries aren't your only choices. You can focus your look up on a single dictionary. dict gives you access to a number of dictionaries — some general purpose, some specialized, and a few for foreign languages.

You can view the available dictionaries by typing:

dict -D | more

Which looks like this:

Let's say you want to look up a word or phrase using The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. To do that, type:

dict -d foldoc [word or phrase]

For example:

dict -d foldoc "open source license"

Which returns this:

Final Thoughts

There's a lot more that you can do with dict. What I've outlined in the previous few hundred words is how I use dict. Your mileage may vary.

That said, even though dict is a command line utility, it's not overly techie. It's easy to use and it's useful. On top of that, it saves me time when I need to look up a word or two.

Two or three years ago, when I was using elementary OS as my main Linux distribution, I came across an application called Planner. At the time, I thought it wasn't all that bad a piece of software but it didn't pique my interest. When I heard a new version had been released, I decided to give it a peek.

I finally got around to doing that in the winter (in the southern hemisphere) of 2023. Let's jump into Planner and take it for a spin.

Getting Planner

If you use elementary OS, you can install Planner from the AppCenter. It's also available in the software centres for other distributions. Check yours to see if you can install Planner from there.

Or, if you prefer, you can install Planner as a FlatPak.

Using Planner

When you first start Planner, you choose to save your information on your computer, to hook Planner into service that uses CalDAV (like Nextcloud Tasks), or to link it to a popular to-do list application called Todoist. Here's what that looks like.

Once choose an option, you're stuck with it. If you want to switch to something else, click on the Settings icon and then select Delete all my app data. This wipes out all your data, and you get a clean slate. Start again from the window above.

In case you're wondering, for this post I chose to work locally.

To start using Planner, click +. A card displays where you can enter details about a task, as shown below.

Click Schedule to add start or due date for that task. This is optional, but can come in handy later (as I'll discuss in a few paragraphs). Once you've done that, click Add Task.

Working with Projects

Out of the box, every task you create goes into Planner's Inbox. If you need to, you can add projects to group tasks around single theme.

To add a project, click + beside the Projects label in the sidebar. In the window that displays, enter a name for the project and optionally choose a colour for it. Here's an example:

Here's a list of projects in Planner's sidebar:

To add a task to a project, click +.

Working with Sections

You can also add sections to a project. This helps make your tasks a bit more granular or can reflect stages in your project.

Add a section by going to a project. Then, click ... and select Add section. Type a name for the section and then press Enter. Add a task to the section by clicking ... to the right of the section's header and selecting Add task.

Here's example:

Planner and Your Calendar

If have added start or due dates to your tasks, they'll appear in the Scheduled section. To view them, click Scheduled in sidebar. Once there, you can navigate to the day on which you plan to start one or more tasks, or when they're due. Here's an example:

If you have an external calendar synced with your desktop, any events or appointments on that day also display (as shown in the image above).

Sharing Your Tasks

If have an email client installed on your desktop, you can email list of tasks in a project to yourself (or someone else) by clicking ..., selecting Share, and then selecting Email.

Also on the Share menu is the Markdown option. Selecting that option copies tasks as a Markdown-formatted checklist to your clipboard. From there, you can paste the checklist into a text editor, a dedicated Markdown editor, or any other productivity app that supports Markdown.

Changing Planner's Settings

Planner's settings are fairly basic. You can choose:

• The date and time format Planner uses,
• How you want to sort your tasks, and
• Which project is one that Planner focuses on when you start it.

You can also enable dark mode and which events to sync from a calendar that's linked to your desktop.

As as I said a paragraph or two ago, Planner's settings are fairly basic. Realy, what more do you need?

Final Thoughts

Planner is a nice little application that combines your desktop tasks and synced calendars in one place. It might not have all the bells and whistles that hardcore productivity hackers demand from their apps, but so what? Planner isn't designed for them. It's designed for the average computer user who wants to get things done.

If I ever decide to go back to using only digital tools to stay organized, I'll definitely give Planner another look.

— Scott Nesbitt

That said, there are more than a few solid Markdown editors for the Linux desktop — I've looked at a few over the life of this blog, as you might recall.

It's time to look at three more. So let's jump in, shall we?

Formiko

You can do more with Formiko than edit Markdown files. You can also use it work with files formatted with reStructuredText. For the purposes of this post, I'm only looking at it as a Markdown editor. In that capacity, Formiko does a good job.

The editor itself is quite minimal. Aside from a basic toolbar at the top and a running count of words and characters at the bottom, you get a canvas on which to edit, as shown below:

You can also preview the file that you're working on or have a split screen — the editing pane on the left and the preview on the right. Here's an example:

One useful feature of Formiko is the ability to format previews and output with a CSS file of your choosing. Here's an example of a preview using a CSS file that I cobbled together:

If you need to export your file, you can only save it as HTML. If you're using a custom CSS file Formiko applies that to the resulting HTML file.

Formiko doesn't have too many options. Aside from being able to use a custom CSS file, you can also change the orientation of the split screen preview (with the editor on top and preview below), as well as the engine with which to preview and export your files. I'd like to be able to be able to change the editor's font; it's just a bit too small for my liking.

ThiefMD

ThiefMD is one of the more feature-filled Markdown editors I've taken for a spin in a while. In addition to Markdown, you can also use ThiefMD to write screenplays using Fountain, a Markdown variant for working with scripts. Even though you can do all that (and more) with it, ThiefMD doesn't feel heavy.

When you first fire up it up, you're asked either to open a single file or add a directory:

The first option is obvious — you can work on standalone Markdown files. The second option is for when you have a project like a book. You can use ThiefMD to manage, keep track of, and work on the components of that project. At the time I wrote this post, I didn't have a bigger project that I was working on, so I only used ThiefMD to edit individual files.

That said, ThiefMD is great for doing that. You get a simple, clean interface that's a blank canvas for your writing. Here's an example:

You can also preview your work side-by-side with the raw text, as shown here:

In addition to that, you can select Publishing Preview from the hamburger menu to get an idea of what you're working on will look like when you export it. Here's an example:

You can export your work as HTML, a PDF, an EPUB, a .docx file, a LaTeX file, or as an MHTML file.

What sets ThiefMD apart from Formiko (and many other Markdown editors) is that it's very configurable. I'm not going to look at all of ThiefMD's configuration options, but here are some of the highlights. You can:

• Download files to change the look and feel of the application.
• Get CSS files to change the format of exports.
• Change the font used in the editor.
• Set the margins of PDFs.
• Connect to ThiefMD to several blogging platforms — including WriteFreely, Ghost, and WordPress — and publish directly to a blog from the editor.

And quite a bit more.

Marker

Market is a minimal but useful editor for the GNOME desktop. It doesn't offer much in the way of features, but don't let that put you off. It's still very usable and useful.

Start Marker up and you get a split-screen view, like this:

Open a file formatted with Markdown and you get a running preview in addition to the text that you're editing, as shown below:

You can turn the preview off if you need to — I do, mainly because I find it a bit distracting and it takes up editing space.

If your documents are of a more techie bent, you can add equations, Mermaid diagrams, and graphs created with a tool called Charter. You can also pop open a window in which you can add hand-drawn diagrams or a signature to your documents.

You're not stuck with Markdown files, either. You can export your documents in these formats: HTML, PDF, RTF, .odt, .docx, and LaTeX. Aside from the HTML export (more on this in a moment), the results are adequate.

Marker only has a handful of customization options. To get to them, click the stacker menu in the top-right corner of the screen and then click Preferences. Some of those options include:

• Enabling text wrapping and where the right margin is.
• Enabling the spelling checker and syntax highlighting.
• Showing line numbers.
• Setting the tab width.

You can also apply styles to your previews. Marker comes with 18 stylesheets. When you export your documents to HTML, the resulting file uses the stylesheet that you're currently using for your preview. here's an example:

Final Thoughts

Formiko, ThiefMD, and Marker all have their strong points. If you're looking for an easy-to-use Markdown editor you can't go wrong with any of them.

— Scott Nesbitt

Thanks to the support of the Open Source Initiative, that community now has a new home: OpenSource.net. That site's in its early stages, but there's still quite a bit to learn there.

As a former Opensource.com correspondent, it's great to see the community find a new corner on the web. And I'm hoping that it grows and thrives. You can help make that happen by sharing your knowledge.

(Note that Opensource.com is still around but the site's not being updated. And there's no guarantee Red Hat will keep it running into the future.)

— Scott Nesbitt

The utilities I'm about to look at are ones that you might not always use, but they are handy to have around when you need them.

Let's jump in, shall we?

Breathing

Sometimes, we all just need a break. It doesn't have to be very long — only a minute or two, but that's enough time to refocus ourselves and relax a bit.

That's where Breathing comes in. It does one thing and one thing only: helps you reset by getting you to breath slowly and regularly for a short period.

When you start up Breathing, you get the button shown below:

When you click Go, a countdown starts and you breath in and out at the cadence Breathing dictates, like this:

Desktop Files Creator

Not all software comes in a nice package. Sometimes, you download an Electron app or an AppImage. But when you do that, the launcher for that application doesn't automatically appear in your applications menu.

Sure, you can create a desktop file but that's a bit of a chore. You need to know the structure of that file, then have to save it in a hidden folder in your /home directory. It's a bit more work than it's worth.

Why not let Desktop Files Creator do the heavy lifting for you? As its name states, it creates that file I mentioned a paragraph ago. All you need to do is fill in a few blanks, as shown below:

Those blanks include the name of the application, where it is on your hard drive, and the location of its icon. All of that looks something like this:

Click Create and then click OK. You'll need to log out and log back in before you see the icon in your application menu.

Paper Clip

You probably don't need to do it very often, but there might come a time when you need to modify the metadata of a PDF file. Information like the title, the author, the date the PDF was published, keywords, and more.

Sure, you can try to regenerate the PDF or pull it into a PDF editing application to make those changes but why grapple with that bulk when you can use a lightweight tool like Paper Clip instead?

Using it is pretty simple: fire up Paper Clip, then open a PDF file. The PDF's metadata displays, as shown below:

In the example below, I'm adding some keywords to the metadata and I've changed the Modification Date:

Once you've made your changes, click the stacker menu in the top-right corner of the window and then click Save.

— Scott Nesbitt

Part of that process had me pondering what my ideal note taking application would look like. The results of that pondering, to be honest, surprised me. Well, just a little ...

Let's take a peek at what my ideal note taking tool looks like.

(Remember that what's below is a picture of my ideal tool. It might not be what's ideal for you, but that's OK. Not everyone uses applications in the same way and for the same reasons, or needs the same things from an application.)

To start, my ideal note taking tool must be free and open source software. That's a deal breaker. The name of this blog is Open Source Musings, after all ... I try as hard as possible to live my life in FOSS, so that rules out more than a couple of desktop note taking applications that have become popular in recent memory.

The primary way that application saves individual notes must be as plain text files. I don't want to have to deal with a SQLite database (or any database), even if the application has the option to export notes as plain text. Exporting is something else I don't want to deal with. Why add another step to the process?

Of course, my ideal note taking tool must support Markdown. It doesn't need to have a Markdown preview function, but syntax highlighting would be a nice feature. And the tool should have the option to save the files that make up my individual notes with the extension .md.

I should also be able to set the note editor's font and the size of that font. Yes, I do have specific likes and requirements around that, especially now that I'm older and my eyesight isn't quite what it once was.

My ideal tool should recognize folders and subfolders on my hard drive. That's how I organize my notes — using folders to group them in categories or projects. Barring that, the application should allow me to tag notes and filter those notes using those tags.

A built-in search function is also a must, especially if the tool doesn't support folders and/or subfolders. That search function doesn't need to have complex search syntax. It should be quick and simple.

Speaking of simple, the interface should be just that. And minimalist. Two panes (one listing my notes, and one displaying the note I'm working on), a basic toolbar or easily-accessible menu, and not much else.

The application itself should also be simple. It shouldn't have too many frills, it shouldn't do 42 things that I don't need it to do. It should have the features that I use. If there are any extras, they should be few. And it shouldn't require me to shoehorn the way I work into the tool's design.

Finally, not being able to sync with an online service is an option. I've found that rarely, if ever, do I look at or add to my notes while using a phone or tablet. Being able to use my notes across devices or being able to store them on someone else's computer is no longer the big selling point it once was.

There's nothing on the Linux desktop that meets my requirements to the letter. A small handful of note taking applications come close, but not close enough. What I'm looking for combines elements of Paper, Iotas, Auer Notes, Notable (no longer open source), and nvALT with a bit of Standard Notes mixed in for good measure.

While writing this post, I could hear the strains of the What about ...? and Why not just use ... choruses. The tools that the members of those choruses usually suggest are, for the most part, just too much for my needs. I don't need all of the features of those tools. I don't need their bulk and their complexity. And I definitely don't need the idiosyncrasies baked into many of those tools.

Maybe, one day I'll find that ideal FOSS note taking application. Well, the one that's ideal for me. Until then, I'll stick with what I'm using. It might not be perfect, but it's more than good enough.

— Scott Nesbitt

So, it's time to look at another pair of desktop tools to help you manage your passwords. Let's dive in, shall we?

Secrets

Secrets uses the popular KeePass password database format to store and secure your passwords. The user interface is simpler and cleaner than most other password management applications based on KeePass. But don't let the lack of (visible) options put you off. Secrets does its job well.

When you first first it up, you can either create a safe or open an existing one. A safe is simply the KeePass database that holds your passwords. If you create a safe, you'll also need to secure it with a password.

Once you've done that, click the + icon on the toolbar to add a login or to create a group (more on groups in a moment). Let's say you're adding a new login. This screen displays when you click +:

You can add a name to identify the entry in your safe along with a URL, as well as user name and password for the login. You can further identify the entry by changing its colour and/or adding an icon.

A couple of paragraphs ago, I mentioned creating groups. Groups are a way to organize similar types of passwords — for example, Communication to keep your logins for chat and email services in one place. Here's an example of the groups from my safe:

So you have a login saved in Secrets. Now what? To use it, find the login. Copy the username and password, as shown below:

Then paste them into the the login box for whatever you're trying to log into.

Master Key

Master Key is even simpler than Secrets, but it's also as effective. And Master Key is a little different from Secrets.

As with other applications of this type, you need to create and secure a password database when you first start Master Key. But it's when you add a login that the differences become apparent, as you can see in the image below:

While you can add the domain name and user name for the login you're adding, Master Key generates the password for you. You can choose the number of characters in the password, as well as whether to include uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. That will, in theory at least, create a more random and secure password.

As with Secrets, when you want to log into something, find the entry in Master Key. Then, copy the user name and password as shown below:

After that, paste the information into the destination login box and you're ready to go.

Final Thoughts

Both Secrets and Master Key are easy to use, easy to set up, and easy to maintain. There's not a lot of visual clutter — you get the basic password management functions that you need, and not much else.

Admittedly, using these two applications isn't as convenient as using something like, for example, Bitwarden in your browser. However, your passwords aren't on someone else's computer. You're in control of your information. For many of us, that's all that matters.

— Scott Nesbitt

For the slides, I could have fired up LibreOffice Impress or shaken the rust of my skills with Reveal.js. But I just needed simple slides, created quickly. Which gave me the excuse to try out an application that's been on my radar for a while: Spice-Up.

Let's take a look at it.

Getting Spice-Up

Spice-Up is made for elementary OS. So, if you use that Linux distribution you can grab it from the AppCenter.

What if you don't use elementary OS? You can find it in software centres of other distributions. You can also install Spice-Up via Flathub. So much for being locked into elementary OS ...

Once it's installed, fire it up. You're greeted by this window:

Using Spice-Up

Create your first slide deck by clicking New Presentation. You're given the choice of seven templates that you can use:

Click on one and you're ready to go.

Creating Slides

Once you select a template, it creates a desk with the title slide visible, as shown below.

You can change or delete the text that's there. Using contols in the top of the application window, you can add these to a slide:

• A text box,
• An image, or
• A shape

Add another slide by clicking the + icon in the bottom left of the window. Continue building your slides by adding text, images, and/or shapes until the deck is done. If you've created slides before, that's probably nothing you haven't done in another presentation tool. Just so you know, Spice-Up saves your work as you type.

Here's a completed slide deck in Spice-Up:

Modifying Your Slides

Admittedly, the templates that come with Spice-Up aren't anything too fancy. They do, however get the job done. You can, though, modify your slides by:

Changing the background colour of a slide, as shown below:

Changing a slide's background pattern, as shown below:

And adding a transition, as shown below:

You should change all of those settings on the sole slide in the deck immediately after you create a new presentation. From there, you can clone the slide to reuse them. I'll be looking at how to do that in a moment.

Other Functions

While Spice-Up is a fairly basic application, it does have some useful features. The first of which is the ability to add presenter notes to a slide. Do that by clicking the Presenter Notes icon on the toolbar to open an editing box, as shown below:

If you have a slide with elements that you want to reuse, you can clone it to make an exact duplicate of the slide. This is useful, for example, if you have a list in which you want to highlight a different item in each slide, while dimming the other items in the list. To clone a slide, press CTRL+D on your keyboard.

You can also save a slide deck as a PDF file by clicking the Export to PDF button on the toolbar, as shown below:

Viewing Your Slides

Click Start Presentation button in the top-right corner of the window.

Spice-Up goes into full screen mode, with your first slide loaded. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move between the slides.

Viewing Your Slides Without Spice-Up

According to the developer, you can also launch your slide deck in a browser — your slides are in what's essentially an HTML file (with some JavaScript, CSS, and SVG thrown in for good measure), but with the extension .spice.

When I tried to open one of those files in Firefox, the browser just kept spawning tabs. I had to shut down the browser. The Chromium-based browser I tried only displayed the HTML source of the .spice file. And Web just wouldn't recognize the file.

However, when I changed the extension to .html, all three browsers opened the slides. I only needed to switch to full screen mode to get the full effect.

A Trio of Small Problems

After you create a slide deck, it's given the name Untitled Presentation. You can only change that name on the Welcome screen. It would be more convenient to be able to do that on the slide editing screen.

While you can save your presentations as a PDF, you can't export them to formats that other presentation tools (like LibreOffice Impress) can read. That's probably not an issue for Spice-Up's intended audience, but I'm sure for some people that would be a make or break omission.

As I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, you can add presenter notes to slides. That said, I couldn't figure out how to display the notes when viewing a slide deck.

Final Thoughts

On the rare occasions that I give a talk, slides are mainly prompts. My slides are never anything fancy — no motion, animation, or embedded whatevers. Often, those slides are just simple text and or image. Or just a word, a la the Takahashi method.

For what I need to do, Spice-Up works as well for me as other slide creation tools. It's a quick and easy way to build and organize slide decks of the kind that I prefer to use.

— Scott Nesbitt