Using the Linux Operating System

I have been using the Linux operating system since the 1990's, both for home and work. Here I will post tips and tricks for daily use of Linux.

[usinglinuxos]

It is nice to know that walgreens pharmacy gladly shows their internal data structure (that would be handy to hackers) including credit card fields when their server is broken. Does anyone test this stuff anymore?

[iamlinuxuser]

May it be. #lol #laugh #Linux #linuxlife #linuxjokes #linuxcomics #Linuxtrolls #linuxisbetter #iamlinuxuser #gnu #funny #fedora #fun #tech #trolls #memes #mssucks #microsoft #apple #archlinux #debian #ubuntu #uselinux #cool #computer #computers #computerjokes #computermemes #joke #jokes

[susfu-deactivated20151005]

[iamlinuxuser]

this one is doomed

[usinglinuxos]

I remember seeing one of these in a crash/reboot loop at an ATM way back when.

[usinglinuxos]

I tried out a new linux distrobution named  Qubes OS this week.

This OS is very unique and is designed to limit the effects of spyware/malware/virus/keylogging by virtualizing the different parts of your online day.   Banking, work, play, personal, and even one-time-use browsers all live in separate virtual “computers” within your system.    For example, in my screenshot, if there was malware on the craigslist website, it would not know anything about the other browser windows.   Each “lifestyle” browser window is color coded so you know which ones are protected at a certain level.  The red one is disposable, everything about it is completly and securly wiped from the machine when you close it.  The yellow and green ones save your history but separatly from eachother. It uses VM templates to spawn each window, so it is pretty amazing at disk space saving for what it is doing.   The useage of it was pretty effortless, most of the time you did not know you were using virtual machines for each window.

Since it uses VM technology, you should also be able to add Microsoft Windows in the mix, so you can launch windows applications. Because of the security, there are some limitations such as sharing files between windows, but there are work arounds for those. This is not for everyone, but for someone who is concerned about desktop security, or someone who dabbles in not-so-safe parts of the internet, or even if you live where erasing your tracks is important, this may be something to look at. Overall, I was very impressed with Qubes.  It is one of the most unique operating systems I have ever used.

[usinglinuxos]

How to RIP DVD’s using ElementryOS.   [NOTE: It may be illegal to rip movie dvds where you live, I am doing this for disks that were created personally - check your local laws before ripping media!) I wanted to RIP a family members DVD they created with one of those direct to DVD Video cameras.   It was a vacation video from years back, they wanted to preserve it and watch it on a tablet.     Many Linux operating systems do not enable DVD ripping by default, but it is easy to get it configured so you can. First lets install a few extra programs to make your life easier: 1) Install VLC - The VLV media player is one of the best media players supporting most of your video and audio formats. Grab it from the Software Center or run the following command from the terminal.  sudo apt-get install vlc 2) Install Multimedia codecs - Extra codecs allow for decoding and playback of additional multimedia file formats that are otherwise protected by patent laws in some countries.   run the following command from the terminal. sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras libav-tools 3) Support for playing encrypted dvds - run the following command from the terminals.   sudo apt-get install libdvdread4 sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh 4) install HandBrake - HandBrake will convert DVD video to a smaller file that can be used to play on a verity of devices (see photo, right side of program window).  Install it from the Software Center by searching for handbrake or from the terminal  sudo apt-get install handbrake 5) You should now be able to easily rip a DVD disk to a computer video file format using handbrake.

[usinglinuxos]

Fixing issues with ElementryOS linux randomly hanging

The most recent install of ElementaryOS brought with it some kind of incompatibility bug where the computer would freeze randomly while scrolling a web browser window.    Problem exists in both Chrome and Firefox, so I didn’t think it was a browser issue.  And this computer was super stable before ElementaryOS, so I set out to fix it.   After a few experiments, I found that updating the Kernel a few versions made it very stable, it has not stumbled once since.

Here is how I fixed ElementryOS randomly hanging: 1) download either the 32 or 64 bit version of the newer kernel here:  http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.17.1-utopic/ Make sure you download the headers, headers all, and the linux-image for your kind of OS  (32 bit are the i386 versions.)   You need all three files.

2) open a terminal window

3) change to the downloaded files location in the terminal with a command like:

cd ~/Downloads

4) run the following command in the terminal window:

sudo dpkg -i linux*.deb

5)  When that is complete, reboot your computer

6) done!

[usinglinuxos]

Screenshot of my current daily use system.   I switch linux flavors (there are a lot of styles and components to choose from!) every few months just to try something new out.   I have been running this for a few weeks, and enjoy the simplicity and speed it has, even on my older system.    This is  ElementryOS. http://elementary.io/

[usinglinuxos]

Tux is the official mascot, logo, identity of most linux distributions. A cute little fellow, but also really powerful!

[usinglinuxos]

This is how it started.   I think my first install was in 1995. It has come a long way.