GIMP in a Pinch: Life after Desktop

So my Dell XPS 13 DE laptop running Ubuntu died on me today. Let’s just say I probably should not have attempted to be efficient and take a bath and work at the same time!

Unfortunately, as life always seems to be, you always need something at a time that you don’t have it and that is the case today. I have some pictures that I need to edit for a website, and I only know and use GIMP. I took a look at my PC inventory at home, and I had two options:

Macbook Air: My roommate’s computer
HP Chromebook 11: A phase of my life where I attempted to streamline my life and simplify which lasted two weeks

My roommate was using his computer, so it really only left me with one option, the chromebook. I also did not have a desire to learn another OS today as I have done enough distro hopping in the last few months. I charged and booted up the chromebook and started to figure out how I could get GIMP onto it. Interestingly enough, there are not many clear cut options to running GIMP on an Android device. There was an option to run a Linux developer environment on the chromebook, but it required 10GB of space which I didn’t have. Therefore, option two was to find an app on the Google Play Store.

Typing GIMP brought me to an app called XGimp Image Editor from DMobileAndroid, and I installed and loaded it with an image to only find this:

This definitely is nothing like GIMP and appeared to be very limited in functionality anyway. I could see why it had garnered a 1.4 star rating as it definitely is not what someone would expect when they are looking for something similar to GIMP.

So I took a look at the other options, and there was another app called GIMP from Userland Technologies. It does cost $1.99, but it was a one-time charge and seemed to be the only other option on the Play Store. Reviewing the screenshots and the description of the application seemed to suggest that this would be the actual GIMP app that I was using on my desktop so I went ahead and downloaded it. Installation was relatively quick, and I started running it and to my surprise, here is what I saw:

It appears that the application basically is a Linux desktop build that automatically launches the desktop version of GIMP. Therefore, it really is GIMP. I loaded up an image which was also relatively easy to do as it seamlessly connected to my folders on my chromebook.

6 Best Linux Desktop Environments to Try in 2022

Are you looking for the best Linux desktop environments for your desktop? Then this article is particularly for you. Want to find the notable mentions, the best features, and what you might be fond of? Get to know about the 6 best Linux desktop environments to try in 2022 from here. So, let’s dive in!

Budgie

Budgie is a GNOME-based Linux desktop. It’s developed and used by Solus Linux distribution. With the help of GNOME stack components, the Budgie desktop is written. Budgie offers a unified notification feature and its customization center is called Raven. It gives access to the calendar, system settings, power options, and media player. Elements on the desktop, eg. applications are implemented as Applets.

Budgie is easily customizable. Its developers’ team put a lot of effort into modifying Budgie’s desktop elements, such as Budgie Menu that sorts names of categories alphabetically, Icon Tasklist applet which has some new features included. Linux distros including Manjaro and Ubuntu have spins based on this Linux desktop environment. Also, Fedora users can fetch Budgie from the COPR repository.

Deepin DE

The Deepin DE Linux desktop is developed by the Deepin Linux distribution. It’s based on WebKit and HTML5. Deepin uses Go and QML for designing its components. Besides the desktop, Deepin components make use of the dock and control center and the application launcher. Deepin DE’s tweakable parameters can be accessed using a hidden panel.

The Deepin desktop almost replicates the aesthetics and usability of Mac OS X. It has a neat and clean interface having only the dock at the bottom. The touch-screen gestures are also supported by the desktop. The Deepin desktop offers configurable hot corners that allow you to access the control panel and the applications menu. With this, all of the aspects of the desktop can be managed. The desktop can be fetched through the third-party repositories while installing.

GNOME

GNOME is a very popular Linux desktop environment. Many Linux distros use GNOME. GNOME is simple to use and can be customized. The modern and touch-feature-enabled user interface provides an amazing experience. Also, the GNOME desktop can extend its functionalities via GNOME Shell extensions.

However, GNOME isn’t a good choice for older computers or systems having less than 4GB RAM. Some major Linux distributions that use GNOME as their preferred desktop environment are Fedora, Pop!_OS, OpenSUSE, Debian, and Ubuntu. So, those of you who are looking for something different than the traditional Windows layout, try GNOME.

5 Distributions Of Linux To Consider For Your Server

Linux servers are everywhere. There’s a good chance a number of your favorite websites are running on infrastructure that’s powered by Linux, not to mention streaming services, social media platforms, gaming networks, the list goes on. The only thing more staggering than the number of Linux servers there are in the wild, is how many distributions you have to choose from. The distros that are available for download are countless, and the purpose of each ranges from general purpose operating systems, to task-oriented tools such as Clonezilla. If you’re just getting started with deploying Linux in your data center, choosing the right distribution can be confusing. If you utilize a cloud provider for your Linux infrastructure, the number of choices is at least somewhat curated, but you still have a choice to make. Which distribution is right for your environment? In this article, we’ll discuss some important concepts to keep in mind – and we’ll go over the finer points of some of the more popular options. There’s no shortage of opinions online regarding desktop distros, but in this article – we’re going to focus on server deployments.

Watch the video version of this article

First and foremost, there is no one general answer that’s correct. If there was only one suitable choice, then you wouldn’t see so many comments online arguing which distribution is best (and this article wouldn’t be necessary). The correct answer as far as which distro is superior is the one that enables you or your organization to accomplish the goal you’ve purchased the server for. All distributions are worth checking out, but some will focus on certain areas more than others. Let’s take a quick look at some of the more popular choices, along with the pros and cons of each.

Read the doc

Sending Emails? Send them from Linux Terminal

Does your job require sending a lot of emails on a daily basis? And you often wonder if or how you can send email messages from the Linux terminal.

This article explains about 6 different ways of sending emails using the Linux terminal. Let’s go through them.

sendmail Command

Use the sendmail command to send emails to one or more people at once. Sendmail is one of the most popular SMTP servers in Linux. You can easily send emails directly from the command line using the sendmail command. To route the information, the sendmail command makes use of the network configured on your system. 

Let’s execute the following commands to create a file having email content.

cat /tmp/email.txt

Subject: Terminal Email Send

Email Content line 1

Email Content line 2

The Subject will be the line used as a subject for the email.

Now, to send the email, use the following syntax.

sendmail user@example.com

mail Command

Just like Sendmail, you can use the mail command for sending emails from the terminal. Use the below-given command for this purpose.

mail -s “Test Subject” user@example.com

Here -s defines the email subject. 

To send an attachment included within the email, type the below-mentioned line.

mail -a /opt/backup.sql -s “Backup File” user@example.com

Here -a is used to include attachments. If yours is a Debian-based distro, use -A because it uses the mailutils package.

If you have to send emails to multiple recipients at a time, add comma-separated emails in the following manner.

mail -s “Test Email” user@example.com,user2@example.com

mailx Command

The GNU Mailutils is a combination of multiple utility packages. All Mailutils can operate on mailboxes starting from UNIX maildrops, maildir, and all the way up to remote mailboxes. These mailboxes are accessed with IMAP4, POP3, and SMTP. Mailutils is made for developers, regular Linux users, and system administrators. 

For the installation purpose, use the following command.

sudo apt install mailutils

The mailutils package is mainly made of 2 commands, mail and mailx, and they both function in a similar manner.

7 Important Linux Commands for Every Linux User

Linux might sound scary for first-time Linux users, but actually, it isn’t. Linux is a bunch of open-source Unix operating systems based on Linux Kernel. These operating systems are called Linux distributions, such as Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint.

Since its inception in 1991, Linux has garnered popularity for being open-source. People can modify and redistribute Linux under their own brand. When using a Linux OS, you need a shell to access the services provided. Also, it’s recommended to run your Linux OS through a CLI or command-line interface. CLI makes time-consuming processes quicker.

This article presents a guide to 7 important Linux commands for every Linux user to know. So, let’s begin.

cat Command

cat is the shortened form of “concatenate”. It’s a frequently used multi-purpose Linux command. This command is used to create, display, and copy a file content on the standard output.

Syntax

cat [OPTION]… [FILE]..

To create a file, type:

cat >

// Enter file content

To save the file created, press Ctrl+D. And to display the file content, execute:

cat

cd Command

The cd command is used to navigate through the directories and files in Linux. It needs either the entire path or the directory name depending on the current directory.

Syntax

cd [Options] [Directory]

Suppose you’re in /home/username/Documents. You want to navigate to a subdirectory of Documents which is Photos. To do that, execute:

cd Photos

To move to an entirely different directory, type cd and then the directory’s absolute path.

cd /home/username/Movies

The above command will switch to /home/username/Movies. Apart from this, the commands, cd.., cd, and cd- are used to move one directory up, to go to the home folder, and to go to the previous directory respectively.

Reminder: Linux’s shell is case-sensitive. So, make sure you type the name’s directory as it is.

echo Command

The echo command displays a line of text or string passed as an argument. It’s used for the purpose of debugging shell programs in the Linux terminal.

Syntax

echo [Option] [String]

Other examples of the echo command are:

echo “String”: This displays the string within the quotes.

echo -e “Learn nBy nDoing”: Here the ‘-e’ tag allows the echo command to understand the backslash escape sequences in the argument.