Table of Contents

From The Chief Editor's Desk

Texstar's Heartbreaking Announcement

Short Topix: Yahoo Pulls The Plug On Messenger

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

Long Awaited GIMP 2.10 Released

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: KS4UA

ms_meme's Nook: The OS I Left Behind Me

Net Neutrality: Now What?

YouTube, Part 5

Microsoft Buys GitHub: The Good, Bad & Ugly

PCLinuxOS Knowledge Base

GIMP Tutorial: Create A User Bar

PCLinuxOS Bonus Recipe Corner

Repo Review: QWinFF

Tip Top Tips: pmwf (Poor Man's Weather Forecast) - Three Day Weather Forecast

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Screenshot Showcase

From The Chief Editor's Desk

It's summer here in the U.S. midwest, and it has been H-O-T! Summer has barely arrived, in a meteorological and astronomical sense, but we've been getting pelted by hot temperatures for a while now. This week it's supposed to get up to 98° F (36.6° C). Add on to that some atrocious humidity that's typical for this time of year, and you have miserable conditions. The kids are taking advantage of their summer, though, sleeping in until 11:30 nearly every morning.

Of course, with summer comes all the summer chores that need to be done and kept up with. Mowing the lawn, ripping out a rotting fence, and keeping the vegetable garden watered are just a few of the tasks I've managed to accomplish or keep up with, so far. That's all in addition to keeping up with magazine tasks, being Mr. Mom on the days Laura works, and working a full time job. And I wouldn't change one single thing, although it would be nice to have more time off together with Laura so we can do more "family" things. We love bicycle riding, and our work schedules have pretty much all but eliminated that from the things that we are able to do. We can only cram in just so much in the little time we have off together.

********************

This month's magazine cover features hot dogs on the grill. The picture is from the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. Yes, we know it has absolutely nothing to do with Linux. BUT, it has everything to do with summer. And what self respecting Linux user doesn't enjoy a good hot dog cooked on the grill? Can you think of a more versatile summer food? The ways to prepare and serve hot dogs are virtually endless. You can boil, roast, steam, broil, grill or fry them. You can slice them up and put them on pizzas or in casseroles. Most people put them on a bun, and serve them up with just about anything and everything you can think of to put on them. You can top them with chili, cheese, bacon, jalapeños, coleslaw, sauerkraut, onions, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard (all types), relish (all types), salsa, lettuce, cabbage, beans, guacamole, tomatoes, and just about anything else you can imagine. If you can think of it, it can probably go on a hot dog. You can top them with any single item, or multiple items in just about any combination. Hot dogs are famous worldwide, from Thailand, to Chile, to the U.S., to Russia, to Germany, to Japan ... and every point in between.

If you'd like more information on the versatile hot dog, check here and here. And these aren't the only place to find more information on hot dogs. Just type "hot dog" into your favorite search engine, and I bet you don't make it through 10 pages of results before you're up making yourself a hot dog to munch on.

Oh ... and by the way ... July 23rd is National Hot Dog Day in the U.S.

Until next month, I bid you peace, happiness, serenity and prosperity.

Texstar's Heartbreaking Announcement

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

For nearly 15 years, PCLinuxOS has been a beacon on the Linux shoreline, offering both beginning and seasoned Linux users a stable, easy-to-use desktop experience. During that time, one man -- Texstar, a.k.a. Bill Reynolds -- has captained the PCLinuxOS ship through waters both calm and rough. PCLinuxOS is Texstar's baby. Without him, PCLinuxOS would have never been.

But, on June 15, 2018, forum visitors were informed of some serious and stoic news from Texstar. Here is Texstar's announcement:

Hey guys, I'm not doing well. Cancer is kicking my butt. I just wanted you to know that I most likely won't be around much longer. I also wanted to thank you all so much for your friendships and sharing the PCLinuxOS journey with me through the years. Please pray for me.

Texstar's announcement was followed by eight pages of well wishes, encouragement and prayers from forum members towards the battle he is facing. This is a huge announcement not only because of its subject matter, but also because it comes from someone who doesn't typically share a lot about his private and personal life.

Texstar took a sabbatical about 10 years ago to deal with a similar situation. He entrusted stewardship of PCLinuxOS to a group of developers, administrators and moderators that proved themselves untrustworthy. As a result, a near coup occurred, forcing Texstar's earlier-than-planned return to wrestle control of the PCLinuxOS reins from those that he had trusted. In the aftermath, feelings were hurt, divisions formed, and many of the developers from that time left PCLinuxOS to form their own distro (which has since gone extinct). Those who remained loyal to Texstar stayed and worked to help rebuild things that were left in disarray from the emotional departure of those who tried to take over.

Since then, however, Texstar has quietly chosen his "inner circle" a bit more wisely, having learned some hard lessons a decade ago. As a result, the appropriate and right people are in place to see that PCLinuxOS carries on for the foreseeable future, in the event that Texstar is unable to remain at the helm.

The PCLinuxOS Magazine joins all PCLinuxOS forum members and users in offering our well wishes and prayers for success in Texstar's fight against cancer. We also hope for the continuation of PCLinuxOS for many, many more years.

Short Topix: Yahoo Pulls The Plug On Messenger

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

EU Copyright Reform Proposal

You knew it had to be too good to last. The EU Parliament made a splash last month when it started enforcing the GDPR (see last month's magazine). The GDPR was a good thing that addressed user privacy with a law that actually had teeth and was enforceable.

They must not have been able to help themselves. They just had to go and do something stupid. Right on the GDPR's heels comes a new copyright proposal that creates a "link tax", and "places a new general obligation on internet platforms and websites to pre-monitor user content on their website for copyright infringements."

You know that interesting news story or photo you share with your friends and colleagues on social media? Well, under the new copyright proposal, you would need to get a license from the news outlets just to share it. That's referred to as the "link tax" part of the new proposal. But let's say you share a Cold War era headline; that original publisher may have long ago gone out of business, and there would be no one to provide that license. Oh, don't worry, because if you go ahead and share that headline, you'll be in violation of the new copyright proposal.

It would also require all internet platforms to scan user content for any possible copyright infringements. Without saying exactly how this should happen, it's unclear if websites need to develop in-house procedures for scanning user content, or hire outside companies to do it for them. YouTube has tried to "roll their own," but faces frequent criticism for wrongly flagging original content as being a copyright violation. It's a quite complicated task that is next to impossible to do. In either case, it's going to be costly, and possibly costly enough to force some (many?) out of business.

According to the EFF, "Under Article 13 of the proposal, sites that allow users to post text, sounds, code, still or moving images, or other copyrighted works for public consumption will have to filter all their users' submissions against a database of copyrighted works. Sites will have to pay to license the technology to match submissions to the database, and to identify near matches as well as exact ones. Sites will be required to have a process to allow rightsholders to update this list with more copyrighted works."

C'mon, EU Parliament! You're doing this all wrong! Copyright laws have already become way, way too onerous, and extend "protections" for far too long of a time. The copyright laws already stifle innovation, expression and the sharing of knowledge. To do what you propose doubles down on that. You should be easing copyright laws to foster innovation, expression and the sharing of knowledge. Y'all are going about this completely wrong!

The committee vote was June 20, and the full parliamentary vote should take place either in early July or late September. Let's all hope that this vote fails miserably, or the failures will be upon us like a wet towel in the middle of a humid summer.

Google Kills Off Inline Chrome Extension Installation

In an effort to improve security and transparency, Google is killing off inline installations of Chrome extensions. Starting in June 12, new extensions are unable to access the Chrome Web Store call function that would allow them to launch an inline install. Instead, users will be redirected to the Chrome Web Store so they can take a look at the extension before choosing to install it.

On September 12, inline installation will be disabled for existing extensions, as well. Users will be directed to the Chrome Web Store to install the needed browser extension.

Starting with Google Chrome 71, due out in December, 2018, the inline install API will be removed from the browser altogether.

If Google really wants to improve security, let's hope they take a different approach to the Chrome Web Store than the hands off approach they have taken with the Play Store for Android. The latter is chock-full of malware-laden apps. If the Chrome Web Store fares no better, it's going to be up to the end user to thoroughly check out extensions to insure security, which is going to be hit-or-miss at best.

Yahoo Pulls The Plug On Messenger

After 20 years of service, Yahoo! is pulling the plug on Yahoo! Messenger. After July 17, 2018, Yahoo! Messenger will no longer exist. Initially released as Yahoo! Pager in March, 1998, its name was changed to Yahoo! Messenger one year later.

If you've been around computers for any length of time, you have probably used Yahoo! Messenger to chat with friends and family, both near and far. It quickly became a very popular program, and "the" program to use to chat it up.

Yahoo! has slowly been taking features away over the years. In August, 2012, all public chat rooms were shut down. You used to be able to use Pidgin and Kopete to connect to the Yahoo! Messenger service. As of March, 2016, only Android, iOS and web browser clients were allowed, and you could no longer connect with non-Yahoo! programs, such Pidgin and Kopete.

If you're interested, you can download your chat history to a personal computer for the next six months. You can click here, sign in, select a verification method and enter the account key, click "download," and enter the email where you want the file sent. After you've downloaded your chat history, Yahoo! recommends deleting the Yahoo! Messenger program from your computer or device.

While there currently is no replacement for Yahoo! Messenger, but there is a new invite-only group messaging app currently in beta, called Yahoo! Squirrel. If you're interested in participating in the beta for Yahoo! Squirrel, you can request an invitation at squirrel.yahoo.com.

So long, Yahoo! Messenger! We had some fun and interesting times!

Your Smartphone Battery May Be Spying On You

Believe it or not, your smartphone's battery may be offering up information about what you do with your smartphone, based on your battery's power consumption.

A study by researchers from the University of Texas in Austin, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Israel Institute of Technology described how rigged smartphone battery can collect information from the power-hungry components of your smartphone to reveal the activity of the user. The "rigging" consisted of implanting a microcontroller to sample power flowing in and out of the battery at a 1 kHz sample rate.
The above graphic shows the power consumption from the battery by just typing W-E-L-C-O-M-E. The chance of someone reading the information, though, is remote. Whomever reads the information will have have the phone in hand, and then use AI to learn the power drain patterns, take into account battery capacity, etc. But there is an additional threat, called exfiltration. If a user visits a certain website that has been properly setup, the data can be downloaded from the battery to the website, and the smartphone user is none the wiser.

According to the report, the battery is a very attractive attack vector because "all the phone activity is exposed." An attacker can correlate power flows with a keystroke, the context of the keystroke (like if someone is visiting a website at the time) and "the events that preceded or followed it," such as taking a photo or making a phone call.

Just what we needed! I have enough to worry about from all the three and four letter government agencies invading my privacy. Now, all of a sudden, those budget priced phone batteries from China on eBay don't look so attractive. How do I know that cheap battery doesn't contain one of these chips? That's part of the problem; I don't.

Gmail's New Design, Like It Or Not

Well ... someone uncaged Google's summer interns and turned them loose, much to the chagrin of those of us who actually might try to use Google's products. This time around, changes are coming to Gmail.

Oh, don't expect much change in functionality. After all, it is email. There's not a whole lot you can do with tried and true email. That part is pretty much set. But what Google is f-f-f-f-fidgeting with is mostly cosmetics and aesthetics.

There are a few new features, such as offline and confidential mode, but those modes will be turned off by default when the new version reaches general availability in July.

Gmail's update focuses on AI-powered productivity improvements, such as suggested replies, as well as collaboration, and security. It also integrates Calendar, Tasks, Keep, and Add-ons so they can be used from within Gmail.

The rollout has been gradual over the past month or so (it just became available to me at the end of June). It will continue to roll out over the month of July, but users can opt out of the "new" Gmail. However, come October, the option to opt out goes away, and everyone using Gmail will be forced to use the new Gmail interface.

So what are my first impressions, you might be asking? Well, as expected, nothing new that initially appears to be of any substance. And, yes, lots of cosmetic changes. But the interface feels much more sluggish as things fade in and out under your mouse cursor. There definitely is a lag time as I move the mouse around the Gmail screen, not with my mouse, but with the highlighting of the objects below my mouse cursor. Since I just made the switch to the new Gmail as I was writing this article, I've only been using it for less than an hour. But sluggish definitely is my first impression.

Microsoft Drops Win7 Support For Some CPUs

Yes, I know. I'm acutely aware that this is a Linux magazine. But I also know that there are quite a few PCLinuxOS users who either run Windows 7 in VirtualBox, or who dual boot PCLinuxOS with Windows 7.

But the CPUs that Microsoft is dropping support for with Windows 7 is what struck me as odd: Pentium III CPUs. Really? I never realized that Windows 7 would even run on a Pentium III, available from around the turn of the century. Don't get me wrong ... I loved my P3 computers, even though they all maxed out at 512MB RAM. I even still have some of them around here, in working condition. But I wouldn't have even thought of attempting to install Windows 7 on any of them.

More specifically, Microsoft is dropping support for CPUs that don't include the SSE2 multimedia instruction set. That would include the Pentium IIIs. The issue first arose in March of this year when Microsoft sent out an update that refused to complete because the computer didn't support the SSE2 multimedia instruction set.

Of course, all the P3 CPUs are 32 bit processors, and PCLinuxOS abandoned the 32 bit version some time ago. So, it's highly unlikely that anyone reading this is dual booting PCLinuxOS and Windows 7 on a P3 computer. But, that's not to say that some of you might not be running 32 bit Windows 7 in VirtualBox.

I can only imagine how slow and disk-intensive running Windows 7 on a computer with a P3 CPU would be. The things you learn ...

Wi-Fi Alliance® introduces Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3™ security

Wi-Fi Alliance® introduces Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3™, the next generation of Wi-Fi® security, bringing new capabilities to enhance Wi-Fi protections in personal and enterprise networks. Building on the widespread adoption of WPA2™ over more than a decade, WPA3™ adds new features to simplify Wi-Fi security, enable more robust authentication, and deliver increased cryptographic strength for highly sensitive data markets. As the Wi-Fi industry transitions to WPA3 security, WPA2 devices will continue to interoperate and provide recognized security.

WPA3 security continues to support the market through two distinct modes of operation: WPA3-Personal and WPA3-Enterprise. All WPA3 networks use the latest security methods, disallow outdated legacy protocols, and require use of Protected Management Frames (PMF) to maintain resiliency of mission critical networks. Key capabilities of WPA3 include:

WPA3-Personal: more resilient, password-based authentication even when users choose passwords that fall short of typical complexity recommendations. WPA3 leverages Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE), a secure key establishment protocol between devices, to provide stronger protections for users against password guessing attempts by third parties.

WPA3-Enterprise: offers the equivalent of 192-bit cryptographic strength, providing additional protections for networks transmitting sensitive data, such as government or finance. The 192-bit security suite ensures a consistent combination of cryptographic tools are deployed across WPA3 networks.

Wi-Fi Alliance introduced enhancements and new features earlier this year for Wi-Fi Protected Access®, the essential family of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ security technologies, to ensure WPA2 maintains strong security protections as the wireless landscape evolves. WPA2 continues to be mandatory for all Wi-Fi CERTIFIED devices. As market adoption of WPA3 grows, the new generation of Wi-Fi security will become required for all Wi-Fi CERTIFIED devices. WPA3 maintains interoperability with WPA2 devices through a transitional mode of operation, and Wi-Fi users can remain confident they are protected when connected to secured Wi-Fi CERTIFIED networks.

"WPA3 takes the lead in providing the industry's strongest protections in the ever-changing security landscape," said Edgar Figueroa, President and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. "WPA3 continues the evolution of Wi-Fi security and maintains the brand promise of Wi-Fi Protected Access."

You can read the entire news release from the Wi-Fi Alliance here. Since this was just announced June 25, 2018, I wonder how long it will be before we a) start seeing routers supporting WPA3, and b) how long before WPA3 support comes to Linux.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

Grilled Ribs with Cherry Cola Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients

5 to 6 lb pork baby back ribs
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 teaspoon garlic pepper blend
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup barbecue sauce
1 can (12 oz) cherry cola
1/4 cup cherry preserves
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
1 to 2 teaspoons buffalo wing hot sauce or other hot sauce

Directions

Heat oven to 350¯F. Cut ribs into serving-size sections. Rub ribs with seasoned salt, garlic pepper and ginger. Place ribs in 15x10x1-inch pan, overlapping slightly. Bake uncovered about 1 hour 30 minutes or until tender.

Meanwhile, in 2-quart saucepan, mix barbecue sauce, cola, preserves, mustard and buffalo wing sauce. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer uncovered 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until flavors are blended and sauce is slightly thickened.

Heat coals or gas grill for direct heat. Cover and grill ribs over medium heat 10 to 15 minutes, turning and brushing occasionally with barbecue sauce mixture to glaze.

Heat remaining barbecue sauce mixture to boiling; boil and stir 1 minute. Serve sauce with ribs.

Tips:

Precooking the ribs in the oven or microwave shortens the grilling time, helps tenderize the meat and removes some of the fat.

You can use regular cola instead of the cherry cola if you like.

Long Awaited GIMP 2.10 Released

by Meemaw

GIMP 2.10.0 was released on April 27th and 2.10.2 was released on May 20th.

GIMP has always been wonderful, but in the 2.10 version, many things have been corrected and added. I'm sure this article will only scratch the surface, but I wanted to give you some highlights of the new version.

One of the newest things you'll see when you upgrade to GIMP 2.10 is that there are more themes and more icons. When you first open it after updating, GIMP will open with the Dark theme and Symbolic icons, which are now the default. No worries, you can open the Preferences and change the theme and the icons. The themes are Dark, Light, Grey and System. The icons are Legacy, Color, Symbolic and Symbolic-inverted. Symbolic and symbolic-inverted are the same design, but Symbolic is grey (suitable for the dark theme) and symbol-inverted is dark grey (suitable for a lighter theme). Legacy icons are the traditional icons GIMP has had forever, so you can use them if you decide they are irreplaceable. I chose the light theme with the color icons. The added zing here is that you can choose what size your icons are. In the drop-down, choose "Guess icons size from the resolution", "Use the icon size from the theme", or "Custom size". When you choose Custom size, the slider at the bottom will activate and you can choose Small, Medium, Large and Huge. If you need things a bit bigger, this is great. The icon set in the image below is the "Color" set.

GIMP's big news is that GEGL is now being used throughout the program. I know it is an image processing library, but I really don't understand it very well, so I'll quote from the release notes:

Here is what it boils down to:

You now have both linear and perceptual versions of most blending modes.

There is now a linear version of the Color Invert command.

You can freely switch between the two at any time via Image > Precision submenu.

You can choose which mode is displayed in the Histogram docker.

You can apply Levels and Curves filters in either perceptual or linear mode

When higher than 8-bit per channel precision is used, all channels data is linear.

You can choose whether the gradient tool should work in perceptual RGB, linear RGB, or CIE LAB color space

Color Management has been revamped. In previous versions, it was a plug-in, but now it's a core feature. When you start a new project in GIMP, you'll find that the Create New Image window has much more to select. Just click on Advanced Options.

Color space, Precision, Gamma and Color profile are new choices. Until I learn a bit more, I'm sticking with the defaults above (other than my choice of fill).

Layers and masks have many more choices to help enhance your creation. Clicking on the layers dock, you'll see a "mode choice" button at the top with two choices, Default and Legacy. Default is the new mode collection, and Legacy is the modes that were in GIMP 2.8. You can see there are more choices in Default.

Creating a new layer, you can also see that the New Layer window has more choices:

Also, if you always want an alpha channel in your layers, you can enable automatic generation of the alpha channel in imported images upon opening them. See Edit > Preferences > Image Import & Export for ways to do this on Import.

The Transform menu has been extended and there are a few more tools:

Unified Transform

You can use this tool to stretch a photo any direction (rather than having to pull up different tools). As you can see, there are more handles and the photo is changed differently depending on which handle you grab (and which way you move it).

Warp Transform

This tool will stretch a chosen part of your image (not like the smudge tool). When I started, the egg yolk was a circle.

Handle Transform

This tool will stretch or rotate an image while the handle holds it in a specific spot. The circle in the upper left corner is the handle.

Blend tool becomes Gradient tool

GIMP has renamed the Blend tool to Gradient tool and changed its default shortcut to G. This is only the start of the change!

The new tool pretty much makes the old Gradient Editor dialog obsolete. Now you can edit the gradient right where you drew it, on your creation, adding and deleting stops and colors as you go. You can even start with a pre-made gradient, then develop it into a different one right there.

Better selection tools

The Foreground Select tool is more selective now. Two new masking methods are now available for that.

The Select by Color and Fuzzy Select tools both have a Draw mask option to display future selection area with a magenta fill. The Fuzzy Select tool also got a Diagonal neighbors option to select diagonally neighboring pixels.

With the Free Select tool, closing the selection now doesn't make the selection automatically. Instead, you still can tweak positions of nodes, then press Enter, or double-click inside the selection, or switch to another tool to confirm the selection.

The Intelligent Scissors tool now lets you remove the last added segment with Backspace key, and GIMP now checks, whether the first and the last segments are distinct before closing the curve.

Digital painting improvements

GIMP 2.10 has many improvements requested by digital painters. The one I noticed right away was the MyPaint Brush tool. It has a number of different brushes that GIMP didn't have before, except in a GIMP fork called GIMP-Paint.

Many of the tools have additional choices. From the release notice:

The Smudge tool got updates specifically targeted in painting use case. The new No erase effect option prevents the tools from changing alpha of pixels. And the foreground color can now be blended into smudged pixels, controlled by a new Flow slider, where 0 means no blending.

All painting tools now have explicit Hardness and Force sliders except for the MyPaint Brush tool that only has the Hardness slider.

Most importantly, GIMP now supports canvas rotation and flipping to help illustrators checking proportions and perspective.

A new Brush lock to view option gives you a choice whether you want a brush locked to a certain zoom level and rotation angle of the canvas. The option is available for all painting tools that use a brush except for the MyPaint Brush tool.

New Symmetry Painting dockable dialog (click on Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Symmetry Painting), enabled on per-image basis, allows to use all painting tools with various symmetries (mirror, mandala, tiling...).

One of the things I found that is really great (at least for me) is the split view on the new filters. Activating split view (circled) allows you to see the difference between what you started with and what you are doing with the filter.

Don't know which filters are the new and improved? Look for the icon in front of each filter. I think the big G means it's a new &/or improved version, and the gear is the legacy filter, but I may be wrong.

Exposure, Shadows-Highlights, High-pass, Wavelet Decompose and Panorama Projection are new filters aimed at photographers. I intend to try each of them to see how awesome they are.

Many more changes are present. You'll have to open GIMP and see what you can find. I haven't even covered half of the improvements.

For further information, see the release notes:
https://www.gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.10.html

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: KS4UA

As told to YouCanToo

What is your name/username?

KS4UA is the username on the PCLinuxOS forum. I won't explain where it comes from, but some other folks could probably figure it out rather quickly.

How old are you?
Old enough. Seriously...I was born in the 1950's and grew up (allegedly) in the 1960s-70s. If you are good with arithmetic, you would be able to figure out my chronological age. So that's about all I want to say about that.

Seriously, I am still alive and kicking and grateful for every day that I can get up and move around without additional assistance.

Are you married, single?
Been married a while. Over 30 years now. And very happy to be married to a wonderful woman. She is the exact opposite of me in many ways, which makes it a challenge in some ways and other ways very complimentary, to be in this relationship. I guess that's what you call it!

How about Kids, Grandkids (names and ages)?
We have two kids, who are now in their late 20s and early 30s. No grandkids yet, but we are hopeful someday.

Do you have pets, what is your favorite?
No pets currently living with us. There are two neighbor's dogs that we are step-parents to, but that's about it.

Are you retired, still working and if working, what do you do?
Unfortunately, I am not yet re-tired. Just tired.

I tell people that I am part of "Generation W". We are the generation that has to work until we expire.

What do I do? Hmm...that's a good question. Too hard to explain in a short form, so let it just be said I am involved with "government work" and it's very interesting. Keeps me busy and is a challenge. It involves engineering, software and hardware, and it's "high visibility". So I think I will stop right there.

Where do you call home? What is it like? IE: weather, scenery
Home....hmmm...that's a good question. We have lived in many parts of the USA, but we are living in N. Alabama at the present time, which is "robust" in the weather department. It's "wild weather" in the springtime (Dixie Tornado Alley), "hot and humid" in the Summer (this is the Deep South after all), pleasant in the Fall (lots of tree colors...close to Appalachia), and "relatively mild" in the Winter...at least compared to "Up North."

Where did you go to school and what is your education level?
I have a BA degree, and almost an MA degree (long story) for what they are worth. I went to college in Iowa at two different schools back in the 1980s. One college is closed now and the other one was a state university.

As far as "education level", I have been "getting educated" for many years. There is always some new course, some certification, etc. that I am involved with. Not going to go into more details, but let's just say...I have had "enough" formal education....and have learned how to "learn on my own" for many of the important lessons in life.

What kind of things you like doing? hobbies, travel, fishing, camping?
Oh I wish I had more time for things like that. Travel, fishing, camping all sounds like fun. Honestly, my work life and other responsibilities take up so much of my life, I don't have time to do much of any of that. I get out to hiking occasionally, when the weather is nice. Also, my wife and I are avid birdwatchers. I play around with Ham Radio some. Other than than, I am rather boring.

Why and when did you start using Linux?
It was probably in 1998....Red Hat....whatever version they were pushing at the time. I had a job as a webmaster for a small company and we put Red Hat on a Dell machine, setup Apache, Perl, etc. and it ended up on the "World Wide Web!". I did HTML and Perl scripts for them, got them a decent "Web Face" (especially for 1998-1999 time frame), then ended up taking another job with a different company.

I had previous experience with a much larger company, where we used SYS V *nix for a long time, so the move to Linux was not a hard one. In fact, I was very impressed at how mature Red Hat was clear back then, compared to the "commercial" Unix that we sold with our hardware and software!

Over the next few years, I went from Red Hat, to Mandrake, and then somehow found PCLinuxOS. That was it...I have been using PCLInuxOS ever since.

What specific equipment do currently use with PCLOS?
My signature has two of the systems I use at home. I try to put PCLinuxOS on every laptop or desktop that comes my way.

Do you feel that your use of Linux influences the reactions you receive from your computer peers or family? If so, how?

My "family" probably could care less what I use, because they have their own systems (IOS and Android mainly). My "peers" are kind of like me. They use Windows when forced, and otherwise like MacOS or Linux. Of course, all the peers on the PCLinuxOS forum would be using PCLinuxOS, so we get along fine.

What would you like to see happen within PCLOS that would make it a better place. What are your feelings?
I think Texstar and all of the others do a great job with PCLinuxOS. I have no complaints!

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight is an exclusive, monthly column by YouCanToo, featuring PCLinuxOS forum member. This column will allow "the rest of us" to get to know our forum family members better, and will give those featured an opportunity to share their PCLinuxOS story with the rest of the world.

If you would like to be featured in PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight, please send a private message to youcantoo, parnote or Meemaw in the PCLinuxOS forum expressing your interest.

ms_meme's Nook: The OS I Left Behind Me

OGG                                                   MP3

Net Neutrality: Now What?

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Net neutrality. There's a topic that is divisive for many internet users. And yes, that division crosses political boundaries. But this article isn't about the political nature of the net neutrality debate, and we'll try to stay away from the politics of this topic as much as possible. Instead, we'll try to focus on explaining net neutrality, what the ramifications of net neutrality (or the lack of it) are, and what it might mean for internet users around the globe. Like it or not, net neutrality (or the lack of it) doesn't affect just U.S. internet users.

Source: EFF

Background (U.S.)

To start off with, we're labeling this section as pertaining to the U.S. Many, many other countries around the world have some form of net neutrality. From what we hear over here on the western side of the Atlantic, Spain appears to be one of the leaders in net neutrality. Of course, you should check the laws of the country you live in to ascertain the level of net neutrality in your area.

The term "net neutrality" has been around since about 2003. It was first noted in a paper published in the Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law. It outlined the concept, and described instances of abuse by telecom companies in the years preceding it.

In 2004, the FCC outlined "internet freedom guidelines." This was the FCC's first attempt to protect the internet without resorting to regulations. However, by 2008, the FCC was involved in a lawsuit with Comcast over the latter's throttling of torrent traffic.

In 2010, the FCC attempted to codify net neutrality and place restrictions on ISPs with the FCC Open Internet Order. But the FCC lost a 2014 court case against Verizon, when the court ruled that ISPs weren't classified as common carriers. This hampered the FCC's enforcement authority of the FCC Open Internet Order.

Then, the FCC passed a net neutrality rule in 2015 that classified ISPs as "common carriers," similar to telephone companies, under the FCC's Title II designation, under the Communications Act of 1934. Essentially, this reclassification states that ISPs are merely delivering a common, public service, and aren't necessarily distributing a proprietary product. This is along the lines of how your telephone company works, or how Federal Express works. FedEx doesn't own the packages it delivers to your house. Instead, they are the "service" that delivers the product.

In December, 2017, the FCC, under the "guidance" of the new FCC director Ajit Pai, a former lobbyist for Verizon, repealed the 2015 net neutrality regulations. Certainly, there can't be any conflict of interest there, especially after the broadband community spent nine years and millions of dollars lobbying the FCC to not regulate ISPs. The voting on the repeal by the FCC regulators was directly along "party lines" (sorry, but this is fact ... no political commentary intended or implied), with a 3-2 vote. Three "conservative" members voted for the repeal, and two "liberal" members voted against the repeal. As a result, the net neutrality rules from 2015 ended June 11, 2018.

Finally, the latest push to restore net neutrality focused on utilizing the Congressional Review Act of 1996 (hereinafter referred to as the CRA). This act basically allows for Congress to overturn bad regulations enacted by federal agencies. On May 17, 2018, the U.S. Senate voted to overturn the FCC's repeal of the 2015 net neutrality rules. However, the CRA stipulates that both chambers of Congress must act, essentially requiring a joint resolution to overturn a ruling. The U.S. House of Representatives refused to bring the resolution to a vote, resulting in the repeal of the net neutrality rules as voted on by Ajit Pai's FCC in December, 2017.

Explaining net neutrality

Basically, net neutrality forces ISPs to treat all internet traffic equally, without regard to the type of data it may be, or its source. This creates a "level playing field" for all data and all content providers, whether they are an established provider, or they are a brand new startup.

In the past, ISPs could and would "throttle" certain types of data, for a myriad of reasons. For example, in the U.S., Comcast was notorious for throttling torrent files. They erroneously believed that the only thing torrents were used for was "illegal" file sharing of music, movies and pirated software. That left those who downloaded something like ... say ... PCLinuxOS via a torrent download -- perfectly legal software that was neither music, movies or pirated software -- suffering with slower download speeds because of the throttling of torrent data. In some cases, the ISO couldn't be successfully downloaded via torrents because the throttling was so severe.

Once the FCC passed its net neutrality laws in 2015, ISPs were no longer allowed to throttle the traffic it did not "agree" with. Thus, torrents got the same bandwidth as Netflix, who got the same bandwidth as Google, who got the same bandwidth as the new mom and pop startup selling custom sweaters out of the back room of their house. In effect, net neutrality afforded everyone with a presence on the internet the same bandwidth and the same access to customers.

Without net neutrality, ISPs can go back to throttling internet traffic at will. Without net neutrality, ISPs are now free to charge an extra fee to content providers for preferential bandwidth, essentially creating an internet fast lane for those able or willing to pay the extorted toll.

Thus, without net neutrality, Comcast could charge Netflix an extra fee to insure that their data stream stays in the "fast lane" of the internet. But let's say that Netflix doesn't pay that "toll" to Comcast, opting to instead pay the "toll" to AT&T. Now, AT&T customers will get full HD movies streamed into their homes with little buffering, while Comcast customers will get their movies interrupted with periodic buffering and pixelation of the movie image due to not paying the internet "fast lane" toll. Not only does Netflix stand to lose customers due to perceived poor service on Comcast, but Comcast will also lose customers when those customers flock over to AT&T's internet service to get the better Netflix experience.

Meanwhile, the mom and pop startup selling custom sweaters out of the back room of their house starts off with an additional disadvantage (because we all know there aren't enough disadvantages to getting a new startup off the ground). Because they are a brand new company, they most likely don't have the money necessary to pay the toll to be in the internet fast lane. Thus, they are less likely to be able to compete with a similar business that has been around for a while that is able to pay the toll. Hence, being relegated to the internet "slow lanes," the new mom and pop startup's webpages, catalog and order pages all load much slower. This may cause them to lose customers they might have otherwise been able to serve, which ultimately affects the profits of the mom and pop startup, as well as their ability to grow, thrive and survive.

Without net neutrality, there's nothing to prevent an ISP from entering into agreements with content providers to provide preferential bandwidth to one company over that company's competitor. As such, Google could sign a "preferred provider" agreement with Comcast that gives preference to Google's search engine over Yahoo's. Then, customers will find that Google's search engine provides faster results than Yahoo's. Users start to abandon Yahoo in favor of Google's "faster" search engine, affecting the number of visitors to Yahoo, and thus, affecting their profits, reputation, and status in the search engine market.

Read more about net neutrality

Without a doubt, this is a huge and wide ranging topic. It would be impossible to cover this topic completely here in the pages of The PCLinuxOS Magazine. So, here are some additional resources that you can use to better educate yourself on the issue of net neutrality.

Tech Republic's Net Neutrality: A Cheat Sheet

Electronic Frontier Foundation's net neutrality statement

Wikipedia's Net Neutrality topic

The Real Daily's article on net neutrality repeal

L Article from the New York Times on how net neutrality repeal could affect users

The ACLU's explanation of net neutrality

Of course, if you just enter "net neutrality" as your search term in your favorite search engine, you're likely to find many, many, many more references to not only exactly what net neutrality is, but also find many resources expressing the pros and cons of net neutrality.

For what it's worth, The PCLinuxOS Magazine wholly supports net neutrality. We feel that the installment of internet "fast lanes" will have a negative impact on fair competition, stifle innovation and new startups, reduce the free flow of information, and creates an uneven playing field that favors large corporations and companies over those with less resources.

Summary

We've shown you several examples why the repeal of net neutrality is not a good thing. The repeal only serves the interests of the ISPs, without considering the needs and interests of internet users. In fact, a vast majority of U.S. based internet users are overwhelmingly in favor of net neutrality, according to most polls.

Having an internet that heavily favors those who are able to "pay the toll" is neither open nor fair. Already, in too many instances, the flow of information is restricted by the unprecedented consolidation of information outlets. The lack of net neutrality gives those who are able to pay preferential treatment and preferential access to higher bandwidth to get their message out. Meanwhile, the rest of us metaphorically sit in bumper to bumper traffic in the more common "slow lanes" of the internet.

Net neutrality definitely levels the playing field, providing the same bandwidth to the little guys and new guys as the big boys and established boys. It is only in that environment that new ventures can realize their full potential, and it is only in that environment that new ideas can take root and grow.

YouTube, Part 5

by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

In this article I will talk about two great tools for creating videos: Mednafen (multi-emulator) and Simple Screen Recorder.

Mednafen

Mednafen is a versatile multi-emulator for PCLinuxOS. It emulates 10 different systems, with several emulation cores, some being unique, while others have been incorporated into the project.

It is not, however, an ordinary emulator: Mednafen has features that make it unique:

Physical support for joystick / gamepad.

Versatile input configuration system; assign multiple physical buttons to a button or virtual action.

Multiple graphics filters and sizing modes.

Save states.

Rewind of games in real time.

Screenshots saved in PNG format.

Movie recording in QuickTime format.

Sound recording in MS WAV format.

Loading games from compressed gzip and (pk) zip files.

Network playback (using an external dedicated server program).

Built-in cheat engine

support On-the-fly patches for individual games.

What interests us is its ability to record gameplay movies in QuickTime format (Apple MOV).

To do this, you must invoke Mednafen from the command line.

So to capture a video gameplay, the following command must be entered in a terminal:

$ mednafen -qtrecord video_name.mov ROM file or ISO of the game you want to record.

Example:

To record a Sonic gameplay from Mega Drive, the command would be
mednafen -qtrecord sonic.mov sonic.gen

The gameplay video will be recorded in the folder where Mednafen is invoked.

Some settings have to be made to adjust the recordings to the hardware you have.

Open the mednafen.cfg file, which is in the .mednafen folder, in the user's /home directory, with the text editor of your choice.

In the opened file, look for the line qtrecord.vcodec.

This line defines the codec that will be used in the video capture. There are three possible options:

raw

cscd

png

Raw: The raw format is a fast codec, computationally, but will cause a huge file size and may exceed the sustained write rate of your storage medium.

CSCD - CamStudio Screen Codec: A good balance between performance and compression ratio, but it does require a very powerful machine (a Corei3 minimum), and, depending on which system will be emulated, 32-bit systems(Playstation, Saturn and Game Boy Advance) will require more processing power. As an example, a 15-minute video capture generated a 10GB file.

PNG: It has a better compression rate than "cscd", but it requires a lot more CPU power, that is, you will need a much more powerful CPU. If you're out of HD space, and with a good CPU, that might be an option.

The resulting video file must be processed with a converter, such as Winff (or any other video converter), to adapt the video to a usable resolution for later editing.

Simple Screen Recorder (SSR)

Simple Screen Recorder is a Qt-based screencasting software made for Linux operating systems, which was created as a simpler alternative for programs like ffmpeg/avconv and VLC.

It is a fantastic screen recorder, much better than Record My Desktop (it is able to record OpenGL screens), and, very light in resources, so much so that it is better than some native capture methods of other programs that I have already addressed in this series of articles, which cause a certain LAG when recording, or, the resulting files are very large. SSR gets a good ratio between used resources and generated file size.

Now let's focus on the SSR settings.

Note: I will indicate the settings for better performance on very modest machines (as is the machine I use to capture my gameplays).

SSR will be in the Video section of the PCLinuxOS menu.

Home screen

After the opening screen above, click Continue.

First screen of settings

Here we begin to configure how the recordings will be. You can create a profile, with all the specific settings and save it, not having to repeat the process each time you use the program. In my case, since I do not have much variety in my recordings, I did not make a profile.

First, indicate whether it will be recording a full screen, or just a part. SSR allows you to record part or all of the screen, with or without the cursor.

If you want to set a resolution, you can do so in the Width/Height fields. Set the frame rate (I always put it at 30, so it's easier to generate videos later).

Leave unchecked the Scale Video option. That option consumes computer processing, since each frame has to be processed individually, which generates a LAG in the process.

If you want to save the cursor, enable this option.

Now the audio.

I think recording Gameplays, the audio is indispensable (careful with commercial songs, but, I'll come back to that later).

Well, SSR allows three possible backends to capture audio: Jack, ALSA, and Pulseaudio.

If you have a fairly powerful machine, enough to run the game, Pulseaudio and SSR, this is the simplest option. Just select Pulseaudio, indicate what the audio source will be, and the recording will go smoothly.

DETAIL: If you are going to make a voice over narration, about the game or whatever is that you are capturing, record the audio on a separate track. Do not record on the track of the game/program you are capturing.

It is very easy to run into some problem, and to jeopardize everything. When the narration is recorded separately, you can re-make, remove noises or cut parts you did not like without losing the soundtrack of the game/program that was recorded. I, for example, use my cell phone to record my voice-overs and then edit and mix it to the final video.

Jack is more complicated to do, but it works very well, consumes less resources than Pulseaudio and has a very good quality. PCLinuxOS already comes with Jack2, the latest version of Jack audio, and you will also need QJackCtl, a GUI that makes it easy to control the Jack audio daemon (start/stop and settings).

Now open QJackCtl and, before doing anything else, click the Settings button. Most of the default settings are fine, you just need to make a few changes:

Make sure the "realtime" checkbox is checked in the parameters tab, and in the advanced tab, check that the "No Memory Lock" is unchecked.

Set the rate to 44100, because that's what SimpleScreenRecorder will use. Other sample rates will still work, but it's not very useful since SimpleScreenRecorder will resize it to 44100 anyway.

Set the length size to a reasonable value, for example, 512 or 1024. Lower values will decrease latency, but will increase the likelihood of you getting xruns (clicks or short interrupts in audio). The best value depends a lot on your sound hardware and the performance of the Linux drivers for that hardware. USB sound cards usually perform better here. With a special real-time kernel and the right hardware, you can reduce the latency to one millisecond, but I do not recommend doing this: it introduces a lot of overhead, it can cause xruns and you probably will not notice the difference anyway, in 10ms latencies or less.

Set the number of periods to 2. If this does not work correctly, even with very large period sizes (that is, you still get xruns), try 3 or 4.

Setting up Jack

Set the number of input and output channels to 2, because SimpleScreenRecorder currently only supports stereo.

After choosing your settings, click the ''Start'' button and wait a few seconds. If all goes well, the status display should light up and contain only green and yellow text. If things go wrong (you get xruns), the text will turn red.

You should always be sure that JACK is running before starting any application that tries to use JACK, because they may try to start JACK (in the background), which will confuse QJackCtl (if this happens you should find the process jackd and kill it manually).

You can test JACK with any application that supports JACK (for example, Audacity). Most normal applications do not support JACK, so you'll need what's called an ALSA-to-JACK bridge. There are two ways to do this. The classic method uses an ALSA loop device. It always works, but it adds a lot of latency which is annoying. There is a much better solution: the JACK plugin for ALSA.

To use this plugin, you need to install the lib64ALSA-plugins-jack package. This package enables the PCM Jack output, which can be used by ALSA without problems.

But to use it, it is necessary to configure the .asoundrc file, in the user's /home directory, and route the audio through JACK to perform the capture.

Create an .asoundrc file with the following content:

# override default
pcm.! Default {
    type plug
    slave {
        pcm "rjack"
    }
}

# ALSA-to-JACK bridge
pcm.jack {
    type plug
    slave {
        pcm "rjack"
    }
    hint {
        description "JACK bridge"
    }
}
pcm.rjack {
    type jack
    playback_ports {
        0 "system: playback_1"
        1 "system: playback_2"
    }
    capture_ports {
        0 "system: capture_1"
        1 "system: capture_2"
    }
}

This will cause the JACK plugin to be the default ALSA device. Most applications simply use the default, so this is usually all you need to do.

Some applications may have a way of selecting the sound input/output within the application. In this case, you must use 'default' or manually select 'jack_system'.

Now you can use SimpleScreenRecorder with the backend JACK. SimpleScreenRecorder can automatically make connections for common use cases (by recording your microphone and/or speakers), but if you need to fine tune the control, you can manually manage connections with QJackCtl by clicking the 'connect' button (not to be confused with the 'patchbay' button, which is used to automatically apply predefined connections).

You can also combine SimpleScreenRecorder with several other JACK applications to apply real-time audio effects.

When you are finished with JACK, first close all applications that use the sound system, delete the .asoundrc file in your personal folder (or just rename it so you can use it again later) and stop JACK via QjackCtl.

Configuring with ALSA

Using SSR with ALSA is the option that least overloads the system, and, is quite easy to configure. How does it work?

By placing the audio input as ALSA, the SSR will capture the audio from the source defined in the Source dialog box, in the case of the figure below, [hw: 0,0] HDA Intel ALC662 Rev1 Analog.

That is, the SSR will record the audio of this ALSA sound input in the gameplay video. But you will need to plug a special cable, P2 Y, to take the audio output to the external speakers / headphones, and inject the audio into the input specified in the configuration.

The cable required is similar to the figure below.

I advise you to inject the audio into the rear MIC input, which is stereo and captures the sound on two channels, and has filtering in the input. I even tried to inject the audio in the input IN of the computer, but, the noise level is very high. At the MIC input there is already capacitor filtering, which cuts the noise level to acceptable standards.

Now configure the levels in ALSAmixer, press F4, capture devices, and configure them.

Note that this setting is specific to my setup. Yours may be different, then identifying what the MIC devices are and setting up the correct device should be done before starting the recording, otherwise the video gameplay will be mute. The volume output, in my case, I leave in 86% of the total value in the volume control. You can experiment with different values so that you do not leave the audio to low or too loud with distortions.

This type of setup is the one with the least resources consumed by the computer, since only the application you want to capture and the SSR will run, unlike the other options, that involve two or more daemons, that generates a greater overhead.

Now, continuing the configuration, press Continue on the SSR, and a screen like the one below should appear.

Select the YouTube profile, define the file name and where it will be recorded, check the Separate file by segment, and add timestamp boxes.

Set the container (I always use MP4), the codec (h.264 is a standard) and the preset (for gameplay Superfast is the best).

The audio (MP3) and bit rate (I usually leave at 160KBps).

Press continue, and, the recording start screen will appear. Press Start recording and you're done. Your video will start to be recorded.

When you are finished recording, if you are satisfied with the result, press Save recording, otherwise press Cancel recording.

Experiment with SSR until you find a setting you think is best for you, as it has a variety of settings, and the fine tuning between them is what produces the best results.

So we finished another article in the YouTube series, and next month we will have the final chapter of this series.

Microsoft Buys GitHub: The Good, Bad & Ugly

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

You really can't blame Linux users for viewing Microsoft with skepticism and with a wary eye. In 2001, then Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, "Linux is not in the public domain. Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches. That's the way that the license works." And, it wasn't just Ballmer's words. Those words were backed up by "actions," with Microsoft attacking Linux with such tactics as sponsoring SCO's copyright attack on Linux to claiming that Linux violated unnamed Microsoft patents, to endless FUD assaults. Those underhanded tactics were even applied to Android, built around a Linux kernel. To this day, Microsoft still rakes in billions of dollars from those dubious intellectual property rights claims against Android. Ballmer has since "repented," and reports that he now "loves" Linux, according to a 2016 article on ZDNet.

Yeah. Right. Suuuuure.

Then, in 2014, Satya Nadella took over the helm as the Microsoft CEO. All of a sudden, we had a Microsoft top executive publicly declaring "Microsoft LOVES Linux." Microsoft joined the Linux Foundation as a platinum corporate sponsor and code contributor in 2016. They "open sourced" the .NET framework libraries in 2014. While Microsoft was the fifth largest code contributor to Linux when they joined, they don't even get a mention in the 2017 kernel report. Say WHAT?! This sounds like something from the "Twilight Zone" television series (your pick on which incarnation), right? Cue the music ... Do-do-do-do, Do-do-do-do. Certainly, Rod Serling would have fun with this one if he were still with us.

Indeed, Microsoft has employed the "embrace, extend, extinguish" way of doing business ever since the 1990s against technologies that competed with their idea of how things should go or work, coupled with their desire to completely control every market they were involved with. Given their way of doing business over the years, you couldn't fault anyone for feeling as if we are in the second stage of that credo. Let's hope GitHub doesn't go down the same path as Nokia, Hotmail and Skype. Instead, let's hope it goes more down a path similar to other Microsoft acquisitions, especially lately, like LinkedIn, where the transition has been seamless and quite calm. Most users don't even realize that Microsoft now owns LinkedIn.

So, the intense distrust among Linux users has deep, deep roots. Even if the tree has been trimmed back, it's not hard to imagine that many feel those deep roots may yet spring forth new vegetation. In a way, many view Microsoft's involvement with Linux as a proverbial "Trojan Horse."

Microsoft Buys GitHub

Yes, that bastion of open source development has been purchased by Microsoft for $7.5 billion (U.S.). Without a doubt, everyone has their price. Microsoft just gave the two guys who started GitHub 7.5 BILLION reasons to sell to what many call "the enemy." Reportedly, Microsoft paid 25 times annual revenue for GitHub, which is expected to take in $300 million in revenue this year.

At one point, Google was mentioned as a possible buyer for GitHub, but in the end, Microsoft won out, because of the current GitHub CEO's relationship with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. It is also widely thought that Microsoft's "style" is better aligned with that of GitHub, especially when it comes to collaborative coding and code sharing. GitHub has been an acquisition target for several years, not only by Microsoft and Google, but also (reportedly) Amazon, the Chinese company Tencent, and Atlassian.

It's unlikely that Microsoft will make any money directly from the purchase of GitHub. Many in the tech sector view it more as a goodwill gesture from Microsoft to the developer community, and an effort to create closer ties to the developer community. Plus, Microsoft is already one of the largest contributors to GitHub, making its purchase even more sensible.

Reactions

As you might imagine, the reaction from GitHub developers and users has been quite mixed. The old distrust of Microsoft and Microsoft's motives has come roaring to the forefront.

Some GitHub developers immediately "closed up shop" and moved their open source projects to GitHub competitors and alternatives (which we'll list a little later on).

Still other developers have taken a more sensible "wait-and-see-what-happens" approach. The sale of GitHub to Microsoft won't be finalized until later this year, so many are just waiting to see what changes and what the fallout is before pulling up roots and moving.

Surprisingly, the Linux Foundation has been very supportive of Microsoft's purchase of GitHub. Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation, thinks that Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub is a good thing.

"The bottom line: This is pretty good news for the world of Open Source and we should celebrate Microsoft's smart move," says Zemlin in a Linux Foundation blog entry.

He continues:

"So what does this mean for open source? I expect generally good things. Microsoft has the means and the expertise to make GitHub better. They brought in Nat Friedman as GitHub's CEO, someone I have known for years and has been well-respected in the open source community for a couple decades. Nat is clear that Microsoft is walking their talk stating, "I'm not asking for your trust, but I'm committed to earning it. I can't wait to help make the GitHub platform and community that's special to all of us even greater." I believe he means it.

Should the open source community be concerned? Probably not. Buying GitHub does not mean Microsoft has engaged in some sinister plot to "own" the more than 70 million open source projects on GitHub. Most of the important projects on GitHub are licensed under an open source license, which addresses intellectual property ownership. The trademark and other IP assets are often owned by a non-profit like The Linux Foundation (see the Kubernetes example above). And let's be quite clear – the hearts and minds of developers are not something one "buys" – they are something one "earns" (see Nat's quote above).

Why would Microsoft do this? It seems simple to me. Steve Ballmer was half right with his famous "developers, developers, developers" cheer (worth a re-watch here.) He just didn't factor in the "open source" developers that he famously discounted. Satya Nadella has righted that oversight in a spectacular way this week. Microsoft has always loved developers and wants to make a business of providing developers with great tools in order to help them to create great technology. It is literally their mission on the about page of their web site: "To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more." Today more than 28 million of those developers are on GitHub.

Why the sudden change? This is not a sudden change. Microsoft has become a top contributor to Linux and Kubernetes, they develop and distribute Linux-based products, they open sourced .NET, and they are backers of The Linux Foundation, the Apache Software Foundation, the Open Source Initiative and many similar efforts. Their commitment to open source has been active for years."

I recommend taking the time to read the entire blog entry. It may calm or ease some Linux users' fears. GitHub's current and outgoing CEO, Chris Wanstrath, posted a blog entry to help ease the fears of GitHub users and developers, as well. Although I was unable to find Wanstrath's actual blog post, the full post was reposted here.

Alternatives to GitHub

Like I mentioned before, I doubt anyone would question any Linux user's apprehension about Microsoft's GitHub acquisition. Linux users have reason to be fearful, given Microsoft's less than friendly treatment of Linux in the not-too-distant past. Those "wounds" are still relatively fresh.

So, for those who aren't waiting around to see what happens with Microsoft at the helm of GitHub, there are alternatives. Some of them might be quite familiar. Many of these GitHub alternative sites reported a 10-fold increase in traffic after the announcement of Microsoft buying GitHub.

The full list is available in an article over at the TecMint site. I'll list the alternatives below, but will send you over to the TecMint site for all the bloody details about each site.

GitLab: probably the most likely replacement for GitHub. They just announced that they were moving off of Azure Cloud (a Microsoft product) to Google Cloud.

Bitbucket: designed more for professional coding teams, education users and open source projects qualify for free accounts.

Beanstalk: a powerful, secure and high-performance platform for managing source code repositories.

Launchpad: ran by Canonical, the Mark Shuttleworth company supporting Ubuntu.

SourceForge: a free open source software development and distribution platform built to specifically uplift open source projects. It is hosted on Apache Allura, and supports any number of individual projects.

Phabricator: an open source application that helps software companies to create/build better software, which is built using PHP language and available under Apache 2.0 open source license for Linux, MacOSX, and can be run in any platform. It can even run in Windows, but it is totally based on Linux support. Phabricator has been used by Facebook before. The first version of Phabricator was built by Facebook with lots of features, such as reviewing and auditing codes, tracking bugs etc.

GitBucket: an open source, highly pluggable Git platform that runs on JVM (Java Virtual Machine). It comes with features such as a repository viewer, issues tracker, pull requests, documentation and wiki, as well as a plugin system to extend its core features.

Gogs: a free open source, lightweight, extensible and cross-platform self-hosted Git service that has minimal system requirements. It is easy to install, and tiny enough to run on a Raspberry Pi. Gogs is probably the easiest and fastest way to setup your own self-hosted code hosting solution for your open source project.

Gitea: a free open source, easy to install, community managed fork of Gogs. It is also a simple and fast method of setting up a self-hosted Git service for open source software development.

Apache Allura: an open source, flexible, extensible and pluggable project hosting platform, which was initially developed at SourceForge.

I wouldn't be surprised to see other code collaboration and code sharing sites appear in the wake of the GitHub purchase by Microsoft. One thing that has become abundantly clear during my time with Linux (now in my second decade) is how resilient and determined Linux users are.

Summary

It's incredibly easy to see and understand the initial reaction of some open source advocates to Microsoft's purchase of GitHub. Microsoft hasn't had a great track record of cooperation and collaboration with Linux until just very recently, and the wounds from all of Microsoft's attacks on Linux are still fresh, raw and unhealed.

Yet, if we are indeed witnessing a kinder, gentler, more sensible Microsoft under Satya Nadella, then it might make sense to wait a little longer and see how Microsoft's stewardship of GitHub plays out. But, quite simply, there hasn't been time for the dust to even settle. Heck, the sale hasn't even been finalized yet.

Even as optimistic as I want to be, there's still a bit of apprehension and skepticism in the back of my mind regarding Microsoft. Their history is one of trying to scorch Linux with a flamethrower. Frankly, I don't really know what it would take for me to trust Microsoft again, other than time for the wounds to heal and time to see the results of this kinder, gentler, more sensible Microsoft, if it is indeed real.

PCLinuxOS Knowledge Base

by ms_meme

The PCLinuxOS Knowledge Base is a wonderful place to find information and how-tos. I thank the many volunteers who give their time to write the articles. I am not new to PCLinuxOS, but still find myself learning new things. The PCLinuxOS Knowledge Base, along with forum help, is a great place to learn and improve Linux skills.

OGG                                                   MP3

Installed PCLinuxOS
To Linux I was new
Overwhelmed and dumbfounded
Didn't know what to do

Petrified and mystified
Perplexed through and through
Befuddled and bewildered
I simply had no clue

Stunned and astounded
About to cry boo hoo
Found PCLinuxOS Knowledge Base
And now I know how to

Everything I wanted to know
And things I never knew
A wealth of information
All topics of value

Up to date and first rate
My fears it did subdue
I check and recheck often
Always finding something new

I never will be an expert
But no longer sit and stew
I love all the articles
Written by the PCLinuxOS crew

GIMP Tutorial: Create A User Bar

by Meemaw

A lot of people have userbars in their signatures, and many of them are really wonderful! Ours are usually made by one of our wonderful artists and donated on the forum. However, they aren't too difficult, so let's make one.

You can use any dimensions, but let's use 300 pixels wide x 50 pixels high. It doesn't matter whether you start with foreground or background color, because we're going to change it. Select your gradient tool. Set your foreground and background color to something that you like. Set the gradient to "FG to BG". Click at one end of your bar and drag to the other end to make your gradient. I went kind of diagonally (top left to bottom right), but you can make your gradient however you want.

If you want some sort of picture on it, add a transparent layer and put it there. I added our well-known PCLinuxOS Ring. Put whatever text you want on this layer as well. While you're at it, select the text and add a layer behind it. Choose Select > Grow and grow your text selection by 1 px, then fill it with a dark gray. This will highlight your white text. Before you de-select the gray, click on Filters > Light & Shadow and give it a 2 px drop shadow.

Now add another layer and click on the ellipse tool. Make an ellipse from one end to the other. Make it stretch just under half way down the userbar. Fill it with the color white.

Lower the opacity to around 50 to give the userbar a 3D effect.

If you desire, you can put a black border around the whole thing. The easiest way for me was to change the Image > Canvas Size by 2 px, centering the change, then adding one last layer on the bottom, filled with black.

Many of the people on the forum have made userbars, and many of them are just awesome! This one was simple, but with different effects (a striped background, for example) or fancier text, I'm sure yours can be just as wonderful.

PCLinuxOS Bonus Recipe Corner

One-Pot Swedish Meatballs with Egg Noodles

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 cup Panko crispy bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onion
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 egg
1 TBSP butter
1 carton (32 oz) chicken broth
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
4 cups medium egg noodles (from 16-oz bag)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In large bowl, mix beef, bread crumbs, onion, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, 1 teaspoon of the salt, the pepper and allspice until well combined. Add milk, Worcestershire sauce and egg. Shape mixture into 12 (2-inch) meatballs.

2. In 5-quart Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add meatballs; cook 8 to 11 minutes, gently turning occasionally, just until browned on all sides.

3. Add broth, whipping cream and remaining 1 teaspoon salt; heat to boiling. Stir in noodles; return to boiling. Reduce heat; simmer 15 to 18 minutes, stirring occasionally, until meatballs are thoroughly cooked and no longer pink in center (165°F), pasta is cooked and sauce is thickened. Stir in remaining 2 tablespoons parsley.

TIPS:

For extra Swedish flair, serve with lingonberry jam.

Just keep stirring! This easy one-pot cooks quickly, so don't forget to stir often to prevent noodles from sticking.

Repo Review: QWinFF

by CgBoy

QWinFF is a GUI frontend for FFmpeg, which allows you to quickly and easily convert audio and video files to a variety of common formats. It should be able use any format that FFmpeg can.

The interface is well designed, and easy to use. Media files can be added by dragging and dropping them into the program, or by using the Add Files button in the top left corner. Multiple files can be added at the same time. You can set QWinFF to shutdown, suspend, or hibernate the computer when all the files have finished converting.

When you add media files, a new window will open with the output settings. Here you can set the media format and preset, and the output folder. If you click on the Edit button, another window will open with more conversion options. You'll be able to set things like the audio bitrate, sample rate, the number of audio channels, audio volume, video bitrate and resolution, video cropping options, the option to deinterlace the video, the overall speed of the media file (it'll slow down the audio, but still keep the same pitch), and additional FFmpeg options. Once you've added the media file, those settings are still accessible by right clicking on the file and selecting Set Parameters.

If you right click on the media file and select Cut, a new window will open where you can cut the beginning and end of the media file off, and preview the changes made. It can be a little tricky to use, but it works well enough.

Summary

QWinFF might not be as advanced as a media converter like Handbrake, but it's easier to use for simple tasks, like converting a batch of audio files all to mp3. Although you could just use FFmpeg on its own from a command line, a GUI is much nicer.

Tip Top Tips: pmwf (Poor Man's Weather Forecast) - Three Day Weather Forecast

Editor's Note: Tip Top Tips is a semi-monthly column in The PCLinuxOS Magazine. Periodically, we will feature -- and possibly even expand upon -- one tip from the PCLinuxOS forum. The magazine will not accept independent tip submissions specifically intended for inclusion in the Tip Top Tips column. Rather, if you have a tip, share it in the PCLinuxOS forum's "Tips & Tricks" section. Your tip just may be selected for publication in The PCLinuxOS Magazine.

This month's tip comes from hakerdefo.

pmwf displays current weather conditions with a three day weather forecast for almost any location in the world. pmwf shows information for following weather parameters:

Weather Condition

Minimum Temperature

Maximum Temperature

Atmospheric Pressure

Humidity

Wind Speed

Wind Direction

One extra package is needed by pmwf. It is called jq. Installing jq is pretty easy. Just download and put jq binary somewhere in your $PATH with execute permissions.

jq binary for 64-bit
jq binary for 32-bit

Next, save the pmwf script somewhere in your $PATH with execute permissions.

Open the pmwf script in your favorite text editor. Right at the beginning of the file you will find four empty variables local_latitude, local_longitude, ocal_unit & api_key. You need to assign latitude & longitude of your location to the variables local_latitude & local_longitude. Chances are that you don't know latitude-longitude values for the place you live. No worries! It's easy. Tageo has geographic coordinate information of over 2,667,417 places across 193 countries. Go to this Tageo page and search for the latitude-longitude of your location.

Next, you need to assign your preferred units system to the variable ocal_unit. There are two main units systems in use. metric and imperial. Which one should you use? If you prefer to measure temperature in Celsius (Centigrade) & distance in Kilometres (km), use metric. And if you prefer to measure temperature in Fahrenheit & distance in Miles (mi), use imperial.

The final step is to get an API key from OpenWeatherMap. Don't worry. It's simple, and their free plan is good enough for our needs. Here is the link to the sign up page of OpenWeatherMap.

After registration, you'll get your unique API key. Assign this key to the api_key variables of pmwf script.

At this point, the variable section at the top of the pmwf script will look like this for someone in London, UK:

local_latitude=51.500
local_longitude=-0.117
local_unit=metric
api_key=your_api_key_here

And for someone in New York, US it would look like

local_latitude=40.714
local_longitude=-74.006
local_unit=imperial
api_key=your_api_key_here

Save the pmwf script file after assigning the variables. Open terminal, type pmwf, hit "Enter" and you'll have current weather conditions with a 3 day weather forecast of your location.

As with just about anything, your mileage may vary. While it works for most people, it may (on occasion) not work for you.

Question? Query? Suggestion? Bug? Shoot them!

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Scrappler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Sudoku

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Crossword

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

WordFind

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Cryptograms

From the computer of ms_meme:
Everyday I work the daily crosswords and cryptograms in the paper. I like the cryptograms as they are wise/silly sayings of famous people.
The magazine article about secure passwords made me think of the cryptograms. We have people in the forum who are always posting famous/wise/silly sayings.
I have made a few into cryptograms, and hope our readers will enjoy them.

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Screenshot Showcase

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