Full Circle Magazine - Issue 116 EN

Full Circle
THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY
Photo: Tomi Knuutila (Flickr)
ISSUE #1 1 6 - December 201 6
AR D U I N O
PROGRAMMING IN PYTHON
full circle magazine #1 1 6
Fu ll Ci rcle M a g a zi n e i s n e i th e r a ffi li a te d wi th , n o r e n d o rse d b y, Ca n o n i ca l Ltd .
contents ^
Full Circle
HowTo
Python
p.1 8
LaTeX With Zim
p.21
Program With FreePascal p.23
Inkscape
Graphics
THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY
Linux News
p.04
Command & Conquer
p.1 6
Chrome Cult
p.31
LinuxLoopback
p.XX
Linux Labs
p.34
Ubuntu Devices
p.39
My Opinion
p.41
p.XX
Review
p.40
Letters
p.XX
KODI Room
p.43
p.27
Q&A
p.46
Interview
p.XX
Ubuntu Games
p.47
The articles contained in this magazine are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This means you
can adapt, copy, distribute and transmit the articles but only under the following conditions: you must attribute the work to the original author
in some way (at least a name, email or URL) and to this magazine by name ('Full Circle Magazine') and the URL www.fullcirclemagazine.org (but
not attribute the article(s) in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you must distribute
the resulting work under the same, similar or a compatible license.
Full Circle magazine is entirely independent of Canonical, the sponsor of the Ubuntu projects, and the views and opinions in the magazine should in no way be
2
contents ^
assumed to have Canonical endorsement.
ED I TO RI AL
This magazine was created using :
WELCOME TO THE LAST ISSUE* OF FULL CIRCLE.
he usual suspects are here with some LaTeX, FreePascal, Inkscape and Python. We also have
some Android and KODI for you from Charles, and (of course) some Q&A from Gord.
Ubuntu Games this month focuses on a golden oldie that's been revived. If you're old (like me)
and remember the classic 'Command & Conquer' game then you'll definitely want to read about
OpenRA which is an open source implementation of that engine. RA being for 'Red Alert' which
came after C&C. It allows you to play the original C&C, Red Alert, and even the predecessor to
C&C, Dune.
In his Python column, Greg is laying the ground work for getting your Arduino hands dirty with
some Python. No actual Python this month, but this is for those of you new to Arduino,
wondering which one to buy, and then next month there'll be some Python.
Alan Ward gives us his opinion on why not all Android devices are a good thing. Especially since
Google recently announced that their Nexus 5 (one of which I own) won't be getting Android 7
(Nougat). Is this a good time then to switch to Ubuntu Touch on your device?
And, before I go and leave you in peace, I hope you're also listening to the Full Circle Weekly
News. I'm hoping that the holiday season won't affect the schedule any. To listen: check the main
FCM site, or listen via the various other outlets that are listed on the main site (Stitcher etc.).
All the best, and keep in touch!
Find Full Circle on:

goo.gl/FRTMl
facebook.com/fullcircle
magazine
twitter.com/#!/fullcirclemag
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http://www.magzter.com/
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Weekly News:
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http://tunein.com/radio/FullCircle-Weekly-News-p855064/
Ronnie
ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.org
* The last issue of 201 6 that is. :)
contents ^
N E WS
Submitted by Arnfried Walbrecht
THE FULL CIRCLE

WEEKLY N EWS
ZERO NE H OSTING
LAUNCHES N EW CLOUD
CONTROL PANEL FOR LINUX
AND WINDOWS VPS
H OSTING SERVICES
CANONICAL RELEASES
SNAPD 2.1 8 SNAPPY
D AEMON FOR U BUNTU CORE
1 6 AND U BUNTU 1 6.1 0
Source:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/c
anonical-releases-snapd-2-1 8snappy-daemon-for-ubuntu-core1 6-and-ubuntu-1 6-1 0-51 0488.shtml
ALT LINUX 8.1
napd 2.1 8 is here three weeks

WORKSTATION RELEASED
erOne Hosting's Linux and
after the snapd 2.1 7.1 point
Windows VPS Hosting plans
release, bringing a large number of WITH LINUX KERNEL 4.4.34,
are now available with a new Cloud improvements and many fixes for
MATE & KDE D ESKTOPS
Control Panel. The new control
the most annoying issues reported
panel offers to all clients the
by users since then, improving the
t's been a long time since we last
convenience of distributing their
Snappy experience on Ubuntu. On
wrote about ALT Linux, but it
resources on multiple VPS servers top of that, the Snappy team also
looks
like the development team
in whichever way they need them
announced today a new candidate
was quite busy updating the
to be configured. Clients only need core snap.
independently-developed
to buy their resources, starting
GNU/Linux distribution with the
from 2GB RAM and 1 vCPU core
Prominent new features of
and scaling up to 1 28GB RAM and
snapd 2.1 8 include the "snap info < latest Open Source technologies
24 vCPU cores, and then distribute name|path >" command for viewing (see below for details). ALT Linux
8.1 Workstation ships with both
them on as many VPS servers as
details about a certain Snap
they need.
package, support for the "snap find MATE 1 .1 2.1 and KDE Plasma 5
--section=< name >" command, the desktop environments.
Source:
ability to view featured Snaps using
Taking a closer look at the
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/3 the "snap find" command without
1 5521 4
any other arguments, and support internals of the ALT Linux 8.1
Workstation operating system, we
for delta downloads on slow
can notice that it's powered by the
connections.
long-term supported Linux 4.4
kernel, version 4.4.34 is included in
the ISO images, as well as all the
A short podcast (<1 0min)

with just the news. No chitchat. No time wasting. Just
the latest FOSS/Linux/
Ubuntu news.
RSS:
http://fullcirclemagazine.
org/feed/podcast
contents ^
NEWS
recent software releases, including OpenStack.

the LibreOffice 5.2 office suite and
Mozilla Firefox 45.5.0 ESR web
Produbans global footprint
browser.
includes 1 0 datacenters across four
countries that support all of Grupo
Source:
Santanders businesses, including
http://news.softpedia.com/news/a Banco Santander, S.A., one of
lt-linux-8-1 -workstation-releasedEuropes largest banks and among
with-linux-kernel-4-4-34-mate-kde- the largest banks globally by
desktops-51 0491 .shtml
market value. It specializes in
Infrastructure and IT Operations,
itself on providing reliable
PRODUBAN CHOOSES RED priding
and modern IT services that can
H AT AS TECHNOLOGY
keep the bank at the forefront of
innovation.
PARTNER TO D ELIVER
M ODERN CLOUD SERVICES

WITH KUBERNETES AND
CONTAINERS ON
O PEN STACK
ed Hat, the worlds leading

provider of open source
solutions, announced that
Produban, the IT services arm of
the Spanish banking leader Grupo
Santander, has picked Red Hat as
its technology partner to create a
modern cloud infrastructure with
Red Hat OpenShift Container
Platform on the Red Hat
OpenStack Platform, marking what
is believed to be one of the worlds
first production deployments of
Kubernetes and containers on
from a feature and application

perspective too. Windows 1 0 and
macOS Sierra, for instance, are
chock-full of some exciting
software that is simply not
available on Linux, such as
Microsoft Office and Adobe
Photoshop, although alternatives
(LibreOffice and Gimp for
example) can sometimes be
passable.
With all of that said, Microsoft

has delivered an incredible feature
to Linux-based desktop operating
systems by way of the latest Alpha
version of its Skype client. What is
Source:
this exciting feature of which I
http://militarytechnologies.net/201 6/1 1 /27/prod speak? Well, the newly-released
Skype for Linux 1 .1 3 allows users
uban-chooses-red-hat-asto send SMS text messages from
technology-partner-to-deliverthe operating system!
modern-cloud-services-withkubernetes-and-containers-onSource:
openstack/
http://betanews.com/201 6/1 1 /27/
M ICROSOFT ENABLES LINUX microsoft-linux-sms-skype/
DESKTOP USERS TO SEND

SMS TEXT MESSAGES WITH
LATEST S KYPE ALPHA
inux-based desktop operating

systems can sometimes be
incredible for productivity and
security, but they can be deficient
J OLLAS S AILFISH OS NOW

CERTIFIED AS RUSSIAN
GOVERNMENT S FIRST
ANDROID ALTERNATIVE
5
he future for one of the few

remaining alternative mobile
OS platforms, Jollas Sailfish OS,
looks to be taking clearer shape.
The Finnish company which
develops and maintains the core
code, with the aim of licensing it to
others, announced Sailfish has
achieved domestic certification in
Russia for government and
corporate use.
In recent years the Russian
government has made moves to
encourage the development of
alternatives to the duopoly of USdominated smartphone platforms,
Android and Apples iOS
flagging Sailfish as one possibility,
along with Tizen. Although Sailfish
looks to have won out as the
preferred Android alternative for
Russia at this point.
The government has said it
wants to radically reduce its
reliance on foreign mobile OSes
to 50 per cent by 2025 vs the 95
per cent of the market garnered by
Android and iOS in 201 5.
Source:
https://techcrunch.com/201 6/1 1 /2
9/jollas-sailfish-os-now-certifiedas-russias-first-android-alternative/
contents ^
NEWS
Source:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/u
buntu-1 6-04-2-lts-lands-january-1 9201 7-with-ubuntu-1 6-1 0-s-linux-48-kernel-51 0572.shtml
U BUNTU 1 6.04.2 LTS

LANDS J ANUARY 1 9, 201 7,
WITH U BUNTU 1 6.1 0' S
LINUX 4.8 KERNEL
CANONICAL ANNOUNCES
THE AVAILABILITY OF
anonical's Leann Ogasawara
informed about the upcoming U BUNTU ADVANTAGE VG ON
second point release of the
AWS M ARKETPLACE
Ubuntu 1 6.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus)
Linux-based operating system.
After publishing the release

schedule for the Ubuntu 1 7.04
(Zesty Zapus) operating system,
which is currently under heavy
development, it appears that
Canonical also managed to update
the current Xenial road map with a
release date for Ubuntu 1 6.04.2
LTS (Xenial Xerus) as of Thursday,
January 1 9, 201 7.
Ubuntu 1 6.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus)
is a long-term supported release,
which means that it will receive
security fixes and software
updates for five years, until April
2021 . During this time, the OS
usually gets a total of five point
releases. Currently, Ubuntu 1 6.04
LTS and 1 6.04.1 LTS are powered
by the LTS Linux 4.4 kernel branch.
Livepatch Service for rebootless

kernel upgrades for your Ubuntu
1 6.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) images
using the long-term supported
Linux 4.4 kernel.
Additionally, buyers will get

direct access to Canonical's
Landscape (the SaaS version)
system management tool if they
plan on using the Ubuntu Linux
operating system at scale, access
to Canonical's Knowledge Hub and
all the latest security fixes, as well
anonical and Amazon Web
as up to 24/7 Web- and telephoneServices (AWS) are to deliver
based support from experts in the
best-in-breed cloud support by
field, along with an option to get a
allowing AWS users to purchase
the Ubuntu Advantage (UA) Virtual dedicated Canonical support
Guest package, which promised to engineer.
deliver the professional support
Source:
needed to be successful in the
cloud. The announcement was
made November 28, 201 6, as part anonical-announces-theavailability-of-ubuntu-advantageof Amazon's AWS re:Invent 201 6
vg-on-aws-marketplaceconference dedicated to cloud
51 0565.shtml
experts around the globe.
We believe that those of you

who will attempt to purchase
Canonical's Ubuntu Advantage
Virtual Guest professional support
package via the AWS marketplace
need to know all of its benefits. As
such, we're informing you that
you'll get access to Canonical's
ZENTYAL SERVER 5.0 O UT

N OW B ASED ON U BUNTU
1 6.04 LTS, ADDS N EW
HTTP PROXY M ODULE
T
6
he Zentyal development team

announced the release and
immediate availability for

download of the Zentyal Server 5.0
Linux-based server-oriented
operating system with Active
Directory interoperability.
Based on Ubuntu 1 6.04 LTS
(Xenial Xerus), Zentyal Server 5.0
comes with the latest Open Source
software and GNU/Linux
technologies, including an
untouched Samba 4.5.1
implementation from upstream,
which puts a layer of performance
to the AD (Active Directory)
interoperability of the small
business server.
Zentyal Server 5.0 also ships
with the trusted SOGo 3.2.1
groupware server, which features a
brand-new, modern web-based
user interface based on recent
technologies and designed to offer
users an improved look and feel
with its stunning visual effects, as
well as more usability and
improvements on the ActiveSync
implementation.
Source:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/z
entyal-server-5-0-out-now-basedon-ubuntu-1 6-04-lts-adds-newhttp-proxy-module-51 0603.shtml
contents ^
NEWS
U BUNTU -B ASED TRISQUEL
GNU/LINUX 8.0 "FLIDAS"
ENTERS D EVELOPMENT WITH
MATE 1 .1 2.1
he development team behind

Trisquel GNU/Linux, a 1 00%
libre distribution based on the
Ubuntu Linux operating system,
announced the availability of the
first Alpha images for the
upcoming Trisquel GNU/Linux 8.0
release.
Dubbed Flidas, Trisquel
GNU/Linux 8.0 is powered by a
Linux-Libre 4.4 based kernel and
built around the lightweight MATE
1 .1 2.1 desktop environment. The
inclusion of MATE, which is a fork
of the old GNOME 2 desktop,
should enchant many of the oldschool Trisquel users, and it looks
like the team also did some
polishing to both the control
center and file manager
components.
Being an Alpha version and all
that, the first development ISO
images of Trisquel GNU/Linux 8.0
"Flidas" do not yet contain a
predefined software collection,
nor a Live or text mode (CLI)

installer.
Source:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/u
buntu-based-trisquel-gnu-linux-80-flidas-enters-development-withmate-1 -1 2-1 -51 0625.shtml
CANONICAL OFFERS DIRECT

D OCKER SUPPORT TO
U BUNTU USERS
nterprise Ubuntu users

running Docker in production
now have a new source for Docker
support: from Canonical.
Canonical and Docker
announced joint support for the
commercial edition of Docker
Engine on Ubuntu. The pair also
will provide updates for Docker on
Ubuntu through an application
delivery system Canonical
originally devised.
This isn't the first time Docker
has partnered with an enterprise
vendor to offer support. HP
Enterprise, for example, includes
support with its Docker-ready
hardware and software products,
and Microsoft offers the same as

part of the out-of-the-box
enterprise experience for the new
version of Windows Server.
David Messina, SVP Product and
Corporate Marketing of Docker,
cited a "large, positive overlap of
enterprise users that use Ubuntu
[and] that use Docker" as a key
motive. "We see a significant
install base of Ubuntu users using
Docker, and we collectively
thought this was a great
relationship, but not the only one
of its kind."
CHROME 55 ROLLING OUT TO

M AC, WINDOWS, AND
LINUX, KILLS FLASH BY
DEFAULTING TO HTML5
ver the past year, Google

Chrome has been
implementing a multi-phase plan
to de-emphasize Adobe Flash.
Rolling out now to Mac, Windows,
and Linux, Chrome 55 will take the
major step of defaulting to HTML5
on the majority of sites.
In September with version 53,

Chrome blocked Flash-based page
Docker and Canonical also allow analytics and other background
customers the choice of whichever elements. A version later Chrome
support channel they're most
began rewriting embedded
comfortable with. If a company
YouTube Flash players to use
already has a relationship with
HTML5. Taken together these
Docker, it can use that. If it's
changes improve security, reduce
already a Canonical customer, it
power consumption, and lead to
can employ its existing Canonical
faster load times.
service contract.
Chrome 55 takes the larger and
Source:
more user-facing step of
http://www.infoworld.com/article/ defaulting to HTML5. Sites that
31 46044/applicationonly support Flash are exempted,
development/canonical-offersas are the top 1 0 sites on the web
direct-docker-support-to-ubuntufor a year:
users.html
YouTube.com, Facebook.com,
Yahoo.com, VK.com, Live.com,
contents ^
NEWS
Yandex.ru, OK.ru, Twitch.tv,

Amazon.com, and Mail.ru.
Linux-based operating systems,

including the recently released
Fedora 25. Talking about Fedora, it
Source:
appears that GNOME Software
https://9to5google.com/201 6/1 2/0 3.22.3 makes it possible to upgrade
1 /chrome-55-stable-adobe-flashtwo Fedora Linux versions at once.
html5/
Source:
GNOME SOFTWARE 3.22.3 http://news.softpedia.com/news/g
LETS U SERS U PGRADE TWO nome-software-3-22-3-lets-usersupgrade-two-fedora-linux-versionsFEDORA LINUX VERSIONS AT at-a-time-51 0663.shtml
A TIME
And today, we see the GNOME

Software 3.22.3 update landing in
the stable repositories of various
ANOTHER SPEED BOOST
Obscurity is not always a bad

thing when it comes to Linux
distros. You can find some very
worthwhile alternatives to your
current operating system. Refracta
is a big surprise in a small package.
Version 7.1 .0 also offers

capabilities like a void return type
and class constant visibility
modifiers. But a key PHP advocate
stressed performance. The
upgrade "[provides] up to 35
percent better performance in
CPU-intensive workloads," said
Zeev Suraski, CTO at PHP tools
producer Zend.
Many look-alike desktop distros

are difficult to distinguish from
run-of-the-mill garden varieties.
Others offer new adopters
something unique that makes
using them fun and productive.
prefixing the type name with a

question mark. This signifies that
as well as the specified type, null
can be passed as an argument, or
returned as a value, respectively,"
documentation states.
Source:
http://www.technewsworld.com/st
Source:
ory/841 29.html
http://www.infoworld.com/article/
31 47300/applicationN EW PHP RELEASE BRINGS development/new-php-releasebrings-another-speed-boost.html
REFRACTA 8.0 I S A PINTSIZED POWERHOUSE
new maintenance version of

the GNOME Software package
manager has been released on the
efracta is a somewhat obscure
first day of December 201 6,
Linux distribution that offers
versioned 3.22.3, for the GNOME
exceptional functionality and
3.22 desktop environment.
stability.
As you might know, GNOME
3.22 got its second and last
scheduled point release last
month, which also brought us the
GNOME Software 3.22.2
maintenance update, but it looks
like some bugs needed to be fixed
for the graphical package manager
used by default in popular
GNU/Linux distributions.
Refracta is one of the few fullservice Linux distros that makes an

easy and more convenient
replacement for pocket Linux
options such as Puppy Linux.
he PHP 7 line, which debuted a

year ago, has received its first
point release upgrade, improving
performance and featuring
nullable types.
Nullable types in 7.1 allows a

check type to be of some type or
null. "Type declarations for
parameters and return values can
now be marked as nullable by
KDE FRAMEWORKS 5 N OW
AVAILABLE AS A SNAP FOR
SNAPPING KDE APPS ON
U BUNTU LINUX
ong-time KDE Community

developer Harald Sitter has
been working lately on creating a
sharable KDE Frameworks Snap
that would make snapping of KDE
applications for Ubuntu and other
GNU/Linux distros a lot easier and
fun.
In a recent blog post, the
developer explains how he
managed to bundle KDE apps as
Snaps while trying to make them as
small as possible. The size of the
downloadable binary Snap and
Flatpak packages, as well as
contents ^
NEWS
AppImage or other similar

technology, always appeared to
have been an issue for most users.
Linux Lite, used for installing,

updating or removing software
packages.
In order for Snaps and Flatpaks

to be adopted by the masses, they
need to be smaller, and thanks to
the hard work of Harald Sitter,
there's now a Snap version of the
KDE Frameworks 5 collection of
add-on libraries for Qt 5, which
KDE developers are using to
develop KDE applications for the
Plasma 5 desktop environment.
Besides adding Internet

connection checks for Lite
Software and Install Updates,
along with clearer descriptions for
included apps, Jerry Bezencon also
released a new version of the Lite
Tweaks utility, another in-house
built tool that only Linux Lite users
can enjoy.
Source:
Source:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/li
http://news.softpedia.com/news/k nux-lite-3-2-users-get-newde-frameworks-5-now-available-as- versions-of-lite-software-anda-snap-for-snapping-kde-apps-on- tweaks-update-now-51 0742.shtml
ubuntu-linux-51 0745.shtml
integration and conversation

pinning. Sounds cool, right?
Source:
http://www.androidpolice.com/20
1 6/1 2/07/latest-telegram-updatebrings-ifttt-conversation-pinningupdated-photo-editor/
KORORA 25 LINUX
RELEASED, B ASED ON
FEDORA 25, SHIPS WITH
CINNAMON 3.2, MATE
1 .1 6
LINUX FOUNDATION N AMES

N ETWORKING &
O RCHESTRATION CHIEF
he Linux Foundation is
announcing Arpit Joshipura
has joined the organization's
executive leadership team as
General Manager, Networking &
Orchestration. Joshipura's
appointment reflects the growing
importance of open source in the
networking industry.
The Linux Foundation hosts

open source networking projects
including OpenDaylight, OPNFV,
ubbed Gurgle and based on
OPEN-O, FD.io, Open vSwitch,
the recently released Fedora OpenSwitch, IO Visor, ON.Lab,
25 Linux distribution, Korora 25
CORD and ONOS. Through these
arrives today, approximately five
and related initiatives, The
LINUX LITE 3.2 U SERS G ET LATEST TELEGRAM UPDATE months after the release of Korora projects
Linux Foundation is bringing
N EW VERSIONS OF LITE
BRINGS IFTTT,
24 "Sheldon," and ships with up-to- together hundreds of developers,
date GNU/Linux technologies and
DevOps professionals and business
SOFTWARE AND TWEAKS,
CONVERSATION PINNING ,
Open Source software projects,
executives from around the world
U PDATE N OW
UPDATED PHOTO EDITOR ,
including the Linux 4.8 kernel.
to undertake this massive
AND MORE
transition and to change an
inux Lite 3.2 has been released,
Source:
industry.
and many users are already
sers of Telegram, there's a
http://news.softpedia.com/news/k
enjoying the lightweight
great update to the app
orora-25-linux-released-based-onSource:
distribution on their PCs. The
available. This new version brings a fedora-25-ships-with-cinnamon-3- http://www.lightreading.com/open
developer is hard at work to
few big changes, including some
2-mate-1 -1 6-51 0807.shtml
-source/industry-bodiesimprove various parts of the
Android-specific ones. The most
groups/linux-foundation-namesoperating system. Lite Software is notable ones for the messaging
networking-and-orchestrationthe graphical package manager in service as a whole are IFTTT
chief/d/d-id/728891
9
contents ^
NEWS
AMD STRENGTHENS GAMING LINUX KERNEL 4.8.1 4 H ITS
AND VR ON LINUX WITH
THE S TREETS WITH
GRAPHICS IMPROVEMENTS
N UMEROUS N ETWORKING
I MPROVEMENTS & MORE
indows is the indisputable
platform of choice for

gaming and VR, but Linux is
catching up fast as graphics
companies ramp up driver and
hardware support for the OS.
inux kernel maintainer Greg

Kroah-Hartman announced the
release of Linux kernel 4.8.1 4, the
fourteenth maintenance update to
the most advanced kernel series.
Source:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/li
nux-kernel-4-8-1 4-hits-the-streetswith-numerous-networkingimprovements-more-51 0874.shtml
U BUNTU -B ASED KDE N EON

U SER LTS EDITION D ISTRO
O UT WITH PLASMA 5.8 LTS
he development team behind

the KDE Neon GNU/Linux
Linux kernel 4.8.1 4 is here only
days after the December 8 release distribution have announced the
of Linux kernel 4.8.1 3, which wasn't availability of an LTS (Long Term
Support) flavor of the KDE Neon
a big patch. However, it looks like
User Edition operating system.
today's update brings some more
improvements, and according to
The biggest news is AMDs
As you might know, KDE Neon is
the appended shortlog and the diff
support for FreeSync on Linux PCs. since the previous version, it
usually distributed as User Edition
FreeSync can improve the
changes a total of 56 files, with 388 and Developer Edition 64-bit Live
rendition of games and highISO images. While the former is
insertions and 1 64 deletions.
definition video by allowing GPUs
shipping with the latest stable KDE
to communicate directly with
Plasma, Frameworks, and
Linux kernel 4.8.1 4 is all about
displays, reducing image stutter
Applications releases, the latter is
networking improvements, as it
and lag time. Images are drawn up updates the networking stack with targeted at developers and
on the screen while they are being a bunch of changes and fixes to the bleeding-edge users who want to
rendered in GPUs.
test drive the pre-release versions
Datagram Congestion Control
of these technologies.
Protocol (DCCP), Distributed
Source:
Switch Architecture (DSA), IPv4,
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3 IPv6, Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol
Source:
1 4831 3/componentshttp://news.softpedia.com/news/u
(L2TP), Netlink, packet scheduler,
graphics/amd-strengthens-gaming- and Transparent Inter-process
buntu-based-kde-neon-user-ltsand-vr-on-linux-with-graphicsedition-distro-out-now-with-kdeCommunication (TIPC)
improvements.html
plasma-5-8-lts-51 0887.shtml
implementations.
10
AMD is showing more love for
Linux than ever before. The
company announced hardware and
driver updates that will strengthen
gaming and VR on the OS.
POPULAR CENTOS LINUX

SERVER GETS A MAJOR
REFRESH
entOS doesn't get many

headlines. But it's still the
server Linux of choice for many
hosting companies, data centers,
and businesses with in-house Linux
experts. That's because CentOS,
which is controlled by Red Hat, is a
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
clone. As such, it reaps the
benefits of RHEL's business Linux
development efforts without
RHEL's costs.
So, now that CentOS 7 1 61 1 ,
which is based on RHEL 7.3, has
arrived, one expects to see many
happy companies moving to it.
Source:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/pop
ular-centos-linux-server-gets-amajor-refresh/
contents ^
NEWS
CANONICAL' S SNAPD 2.1 9
SNAPPY D AEMON LAUNCHES
FOR U BUNTU CORE 1 6 &
U BUNTU 1 6.04
napd 2.1 9 is here almost three

weeks after the release of
Snapd 2.1 8 and only one week
after its first maintenance update,
version 2.1 8.1 . According to the
release notes, which we've
attached at the end of the article
for your reading pleasure, Snapd
2.1 9 is a major update
implementing numerous
improvements and new features.
FIREFOX 50.1 .0 LANDS IN D OKY B ECOMES LINUX

U BUNTU ' S REPOS, M ULTIPLE FOUNDATION G OLD
SECURITY VULNERABILITIES M EMBER
FIXED
he Linux Foundation
ozilla released the Firefox

50.1 .0 web browser a couple
of days ago, and it looks like they
patched a total of 1 3 security
vulnerabilities, which could have
been used by an attacker to crash
the application or run programs as
your login if the users were to
open a malicious website.
Canonical urges users of the

Linux OS to update the
Prominent new features include popular
Mozilla
Firefox
packages as soon as
support for classic confinement,
possible. Firefox 50.1 .0 is now
the merge of snap-confine into
available in the stable software
snapd, the ability to display the
repositories of the Ubuntu
last refresh time, support for
versions mentioned above, so
parsing and exposing snap.Info
sure that you run a full
aliases, move to xdelta3 as default make
delta format for the Snappy Store, system update to install it.
as well as AppArmor support for
Source:
classic confinement to the
http://news.softpedia.com/news/fi
interfaces.
refox-50-1 -0-lands-in-ubuntu-srepos-multiple-securitySource:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/c vulnerabilities-fixed-51 0952.shtml
anonical-s-snapd-2-1 9-snappydaemon-released-for-ubuntu-core1 6-ubuntu-1 6-04-51 091 9.shtml
announces Doky has become a

Gold member of The Linux
Foundation. Doky is an onlinebased operating system, providing
unique features such as a seamless
cloud collaboration and storage
solution and a quickly growing,
fully integrated set of virtual
desktop apps. Doky calls its service
"fluid computing."
Doky offers a free web and
mobile platform that can replace
the functions of a local computer,
allowing users to access their
desktop, data, tabs and more
securely from any computer,
anywhere, anytime.
Source:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/d
oky-becomes-linux-foundationgold-1 70000447.html
11
N VIDIA 375.26 LINUX

G RAPHICS D RIVER I S O UT,
LEGACY O NES SUPPORT
XO RG SERVER 1 .1 9
vidia released a bunch of

updated graphics drivers for
UNIX platforms, including
GNU/Linux on 64-bit, 32-bit and
ARM, as well as FreeBSD and
Solaris operating systems.
Nvidia 375.26 is out as the
latest long-lived branch, which
means that it's recommended for
all users running a previous version
of the graphics driver on their
Linux, BSD, or Solaris distributions.
This release resolves numerous
issues reported by users lately, and
adds initial support for Nvidia
Quadro M3000 SE GPUs.
Source:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/n
vidia-375-26-linux-graphics-driveris-out-legacy-ones-support-xorgserver-1 -1 9-51 0981 .shtml
contents ^
NEWS
CENTOS LINUX 7.3 N OW
AVAILABLE FOR ARM
ARCHITECTURES, SUPPORTS
RASPBERRY PI 3
201 6.09, replacements of the

unmaintained rootfs-resize
package with cloud-utils-growpart,
SELinux support for Raspberry Pi 2
and 3 devices.
entOS developer Fabian

Arrotin announced the release
and general availability of the
CentOS Linux 7 (1 61 1 ) images for
ARM (armhfp) hardware
architectures.
Source:
entos-linux-7-3-now-available-forarm-architectures-supportsraspberry-pi-3-51 0982.shtml
The big news comes just two

days after the release of the
CentOS Linux 7 (1 61 1 ) updated
installation mediums for 64-bit
platforms, which have been
rebased on the upstream source
code of the Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 7.3 operating system from
Red Hat Inc. CentOS Linux 7 (1 61 1 )
port for ARM is a welcome addition
to the growing list of GNU/Linux
distributions for single-board
computers and embedded devices.
Supporting the popular
Raspberry Pi 3, Raspberry Pi 2,
Banana Pi, CubieTruck, and
Cubieboard SBCs, CentOS Linux 7
(1 61 1 ) userland for armhfp
includes some exciting
technologies, among which we can
mention Linux kernel 4.4 LTS,
updated uboot images to version
SEMI CODE OS N EW
LINUX D ISTRO FOR
PROGRAMMERS AND WEB
D EVELOPERS
emiCode OS is a Linux
distribution developed
specifically for programmers and
web developers. Based on Ubuntu
1 4.04, it uses the familiar GNOME
desktop environment and comes
preloaded with a good selection of
developer tools. The early beta
version, SemiCode OS v0.1 , is
available for download and testing.
If we take a look at the vast list
of various Linux distributions,
there are specialized solutions for
hackers, power users, artists, and
gamers. But, theres a dearth of
distros that claim to serve the

unique needs of programmers,
probably, because most Linuxbased operating systems are
customizable and a developer can
install all the useful tools in no
time.
Source:
https://fossbytes.com/semicodeos-linux-distro-programmers/
CONSUMERS NOT TAKING

I OT SECURITY SERIOUSLY
ost UK consumers are

vulnerable to cyber-attackes
because they do perform vital
firmware updates on their PCs and
connected devices.
An IoT security survey from
software provider Canonical fond
that only 31 % of consumers carry
out firmware updates regularly
and perhaps most surprising of all,
as many as 40% of those who own
connected devices have never
performed any kind of firmware
update on them.
According to the Canonical
survey, most users feel that it is
not their responsibility to keep the
firmware of their devices up-to-
12
date.
Almost half of those
questioned in the survey were
unaware connected devices in the
home, such as Wi-Fi routers, could
be used to attack other devices,
spy on their owner or bring down
websites.
Source:
http://www.electronicsweekly.com
/news/consumers-not-taking-iotsecurity-seriously-201 6-1 2/
LINUX M INT 1 8.1 'SERENA'

IS HERE FOR CHRISTMAS!
WILL YOU INSTALL THIS
OPEN SOURCE HOLIDAY GIFT ?
inux Mint is an operating

system that I simultaneously
love and hate. I love it because it
makes Linux easy to use for home
users. I sometimes hate Linux Mint
because it is essentially just a
tweaked version of Ubuntu -- I'd
rather see users choose
Canonical's OS as intended. True,
Mint's tweaks are actually very
good, but I am not sure it warrants
an entirely different operating
system -- even if the final product
is rewarding.
contents ^
NEWS
But OK, if you love Linux Mint
and use it regularly, I have very
good news -- version 1 8.1 'Serena'
is finally here. Yes, Santa Claus has
delivered an early Christmas gift!
There are two desktop
environments from which to
choose -- Cinnamon and Mate.
Thankfully there is no KDE version
to further confuse things, but I
digress. Will you download Linux
Mint 1 8.1 ?
the little things add up to the

overall user experience.
Also new in DebEX LXQt Build

1 61 209 is the addition of Refracta
tools, a collection of utilities that
Source:
make it easier for anyone to build
http://betanews.com/201 6/1 2/1 6/l their own Live CD/DVD ISO images
inux-mint-1 8-1 -serena-christmasbased on the DebEX Barebone
open-source-mate-cinnamon/
operating system and using the
Debian Testing packages.
D EBEX LXQ T LINUX OS
Additionally, the Google Chrome
browser was replaced with Tor
N OW B ASED ON D EBIAN 9 web
Browser.
version, Black Lab Linux 8.0, was

released on November 1 0, 201 6,
but only now is available for
download, a bit early than
expected though.
While Black Lab Linux 8.0

"Onyx" did not arrive on the 1 st of
November, as initially planned, the
developers kept their word and
published the download links on
December 1 5, as promised, and
AND LXQ T 0.1 1 .0,
you can grab the Live ISO images
DebEX LXQt Build 1 61 209
POWERED BY KERNEL 4.9
with GNOME, KDE, Unity, Xfce,
Most users will want to target
replaces Build 1 61 025, which
the Cinnamon desktop
shipped with the Xfce 4.1 2 desktop LXDE, and MATE desktop
ebEX LXQt (also known as
environments right now through
environment version of the
environment.
DebEX Barebone) Build
our website, but please note that
operating system, as it offers a
1 61 209 is now the most advanced
it's only supported on 64-bit
more modern appearance with
Source:
version of the Linux-based
greater eye candy. Don't get me
http://news.softpedia.com/news/d machines.
computer OS. It's rebased on the
wrong, Mate has its place too -ebex-lxqt-linux-os-now-based-onDebian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch"
The OS is based on the Ubuntu
ideally on machines with lower-end operating system, which is still in
debian-9-and-lxqt-0-1 1 -0-powered1
6.04
LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating
hardware -- but some folks with
by-kernel-4-9-51 1 021 .shtml
development and should hit the
system, ships with Linux kernel 4.4
high-end machines prefer the
streets in early 201 7, and the
LTS, and offers various modern
simpler design. Different strokes
recently released Linux 4.9 kernel. B LACK L AB LINUX 8 N OW
functionalities, such as full UEFI
for different folks, as they say.
and exFAT support, Google Drive
READY FOR D OWNLOAD,
Right, Willis?
The newest LXQt 0.1 1 .0
integration, systemd and Upstart
desktop environment is included as B ASED ON U BUNTU 1 6.04
support, along with the latest
Linux Mint 1 8.1 comes with the well, and DebEX LXQt now ships
versions for the pre-installed
updated Cinnamon 3.2 which looks with the Nvidia 375.20 proprietary
hat that means exactly for
applications.
to be wonderful. The Mint team
graphics driver for an out-of-theend users is that there will
touts a new screensaver/ login
box Nvidia GPU experience. As
be a 45-day waiting period before
Source:
screen in the desktop
expected, all the pre-installed
you can freely download a new
http://news.softpedia.com/news/
environment, and yeah, it looks
packages have been updated to
release of the GNU/Linux
merry-christmas-black-lab-linux-8good. I know what you are thinking their latest versions as of
distribution after its official
-- does that matter? Uh, yeah! All
December 9, 201 6.
announcement. As such, the latest now-ready-for-download-based-onubuntu-1 6-04-51 1 01 3.shtml
13
contents ^
NEWS
REMOTE CODE E XECUTION
B UG FOUND IN U BUNTU
Q UANTAL
remote code execution bug

has been patched in the
default installation of Ubuntu
Desktop affecting all default
installations of Quantal version
1 2.1 0 and later. According to
researcher Donncha OCearbhaill,
the bug allows for code injection
when a user opens a specially
crafted malicious file. The flaw is
tied to the default file handler
used by Ubuntu that determines
what programs open which file
formats. OCearbhaill privately
disclosed the vulnerability on Dec.
9 and a patch was made available
Wednesday.
OCearbhaill said that when
Ubuntus default file handler was
called upon to launch Apport, the
operating systems default crash
handler and reporting software, it
handles those requests in a unique
way that could create conditions
exposing the OS to remote code
execution. Under those conditions,
he said, the Apport crash file
descriptor (or report fields) has a
byte pattern that could be used to
create an exploitable file. Thats

because when an unknown file
crashes, Apport parses the crash
files and displays a pop-up
message to users indicating a crash
occurred with the option to show
details. Within that context an
attacker could plant malicious
crash files or .pyfile files on the OS
that can trigger take advantage of
the vulnerability.
Source:
https://threatpost.com/remotecode-execution-bug-found-inubuntu-quantal/1 22561 /
CANONICAL RELEASES
SNAPCRAFT 2.24 SNAP
CREATOR TOOL FOR U BUNTU
1 6.04 AND 1 6.1 0
received some attention in

Snapcraft 2.24, adding prepare,
build, and install scriptlet support,
along with support for in-snap
libraries instead of using the
system ones. Moreover, the
get_build_properties() function
was implemented in the Maven,
Gradle, CMake, WAF, and SCons
plugins.
Among other noteworthy
features added in the Snapcraft
2.24 release, we can mention the
implementation of the "[list]registered" command for listing
registered Snaps, idempotent
store installs for tests, support for
downloading and validating
packages on branded stores, and
unittests improvements for the
ARMhf hardware architecture.
It also looks like many of the

napcraft 2.24 arrives
approximately two weeks after supported sources have been
the 2.23 milestone, and it looks like refactored into modules, including
Bazaar, DEB, Local, Git, Base,
it's yet another big release that
Mercurial, RPM, Tar, Subversion,
adds many cool new features,
ZIP, and Script. A more stable FTP
especially those that have been
source is now used for tests,
implemented in the 2.1 9 build of
the Snapd Snappy daemon, such as "aliases" support was added to
"apps," and the parser now uses
classic confinement support and
the same version method as
the ability to build classic Snaps.
"snapcraft."
The pluginhandler component
Last but not least, testtools are
14
now being used as the base of all

unit tests, origin{branch,commit,tag} support was
added to the parser, the Rust
plugin has been updated to fetch
dependencies in pull, a source
value was implemented to the
error message, and plugins can
now be an alias of list-plugins.
Source:
anonical-releases-snapcraft-2-24snap-creator-tool-for-ubuntu-1 604-and-1 6-1 0-51 1 074.shtml
AFTER IGNORING LINUX FOR

YEARS , ADOBE RELEASES
FLASH 24 FOR LINUX
dobe has just released the

first final Adobe Flash Player
stable release, Flash Player 24, for
GNU/Linux in years.
The company announced back
in September 201 6 that it would
bring back Flash for Linux from the
dead. This came as a surprise as it
had ignored Linux for the most
part when it comes to Flash.
Adobe promised back then that
it would provide a Linux version of
Adobe Flash Player that would be
contents ^
NEWS
in sync with the company's regular

Windows and Mac releases of Flash
Player.
LINUX M INT 1 8.1 OS

RELEASED O FFERING
SUPPORT U NTIL 2021
of the same app updates and

improvements to the underlying
code of the operating system, but
updates to the MATE desktop
A beta release of Flash 23 was
operating system are more
new version of the Mint Linux modest. It now uses DuckDuckGo
released at the time with the
operating system has been
promise that a final version would
instead of Google as the default
released this week as Linux Mint
be made available.
search engine in the MintMenu
1 8.1 which brings with it plenty of application, and several key
new features for users to enjoy as features have been switched to
This beta version was only
available through the Adobe Labs well as refinements to make the
GTK3.
website. Once installed on a device desktop experience even more
comfortable to use.
running Linux, browsers like
Source:
Firefox or Pale Moon would pick up
http://www.geekyAs well as a wealth of new
the plugin automatically giving
gadgets.com/linux-mint-1 8-1 -osfeatures Linux Mint 1 8.1 will also
users options to run most Flash
released-offering-support-untilbe supported until 2021 and comes 2021 -1 9-1 2-201 6/
content on the Internet.
with a choice of either Cinnamon
or MATE desktop environments
Most? Adobe stated back then
both of which includes a wealth of
that the Linux version of Flash
updates for the 1 8.1 release.
Player would not support some
features, GPU 3D acceleration and
Linux Mint 1 8.1 Cinnamon
support for premium video DRM
includes a new version of the
for instance. The company
desktop environment with a new
recommended the Chrome web
browser and its integrated version screen saver, new animations, and
other visual tweaks. Theres also
of Linux for that as it does not
support for auto-rotation on
have that limitations.
tablets or other computers with
accelerometers, support for
Source:
https://www.ghacks.net/201 6/1 2/ vertical panels (letting you put the
panels on the left and right sides
1 8/after-ignoring-linux-for-yearsadobe-releases-flash-24-for-linux/ of the screen instead of the top
and bottom, and updated apps.
Linux Mint 1 8.1 MATE has many

15
The Ubuntu Podcast covers all

the latest news and issues facing
Ubuntu Linux users and Free
Software fans in general. The
show appeals to the newest user
and the oldest coder. Our
discussions cover the
development of Ubuntu but
arent overly technical. We are
lucky enough to have some
great guests on the show, telling
us first hand about the latest
exciting developments they are
working on, in a way that we can
all understand! We also talk
about the Ubuntu community
and what it gets up to.
The show is presented by
members of the UKs Ubuntu
Linux community. Because it is
covered by the Ubuntu Code of
Conduct it is suitable for all.
The show is broadcast live every
fortnight on a Tuesday evening
(British time) and is available for
download the following day.
podcast.ubuntu-uk.org
contents ^
CO M M AN D & CO N Q U ER
P h o to T i p s
Written by Lucas Westermann
ver the course of this last

month, Ive helped to take
numerous photographs of hats for
my mother, who is a milliner. In
doing so, Ive found a good set of
tools for tethered shooting
(controlling the camera via a
computer), removing backgrounds,
and, in general, enhancing shots a
little. I previously used the
Windows and OSX-only Adobe
Creative Cloud, which I no longer
pay for. So, I needed to find a new
approach.
How I used it was pretty simple

- I simply ran:
gphoto2 --capture-image-anddownload --filename=IMG.JPG
This resulted in the image

(IMG.JPG) in the current working
directory. I updated the filenames
as I took photos, but, if you set up
intervals, or take a batch of photos
at once, it will auto-increment. By
default, photos are called
capt0000.jpg. It also offers a few
preview options, though my
camera didnt support it. Instead, I
TETHERED SHOOTING
simply use the viewfinder to adjust
the zoom/focus, and relied on my
For this, I investigated a few
tripod to keep everything steady
options - Darktable being the most between shots. Once the photo
familiar-looking. Unfortunately, it was taken and downloaded, I
didnt work with the Canon EOS
checked it and either moved on to
400D (a.k.a. Rebel XTi). After a bit the next hat, or took another
more researching, I discovered
photo.
gphoto2. This is a command-line
tool that lets you remotely take
Overall, this was pretty
photos - even setting frames and
painless, and felt easier and
intervals. Perfect for taking both
quicker to me than Lightroom did.
normal and timelapse photos.
If you dont like the command-line,
Some features work with only
you may not appreciate this tool,
certain cameras, but the tool will
but I would still recommend giving
tell you when you try to use it.
it a shot. If you find yourself using
the same options over and over

again, a small bash script could cut
down on what youre typing.
B ACKGROUND REMOVAL
The photos we took were taken
on a black backdrop, which worked
pretty well. However, if the photos
are later used for an online shop,
or if we find the background too
dark, I wanted to investigate
background removal - so we could
swap out the background for
something lighter. I was looking for
a quick and easy solution, as
opposed to using something like
the GIMP and the foreground
select tool. Unfortunately, the only
such options I found were either
Windows or macOS-only, or an
online tool with a credit-based
payment plan (for downloading
the results). If you dont mind
paying for a tool and running it on
another computer/OS, or are okay
with paying for credits to
download the photos from an
online tool, you can check out:
https://autoclipping.com/
https://clippingmagic.com/
PhotoScissor (software)
16
Super PhotoCut (macOS-only)

For those of us not able (or
willing) to take those approaches,
we have a few limited options.
Either we can use GIMP, or
ImageMagick, to remove the
backgrounds.
U SING I MAGEM AGICK

If youre planning to use
ImageMagick, I would recommend
taking the time to take an empty
background photo. The reason for
this is because ImageMagick can
find the difference between two
photos, and remove anything the
same (i.e. the background). For the
process, you can visit here.
Unfortunately, I cant use this
approach, as I dont have a
background photo of the setup,
and the lighting conditions varied
from day to day.
There are a variety of
approaches you can use. If you
have a relatively simple
background, there are a few things
you can do. For this example, Im
going to remove the textured
contents ^
COMMAND & CONQUER

background from an ArchLinux
wallpaper I had lying around.
The original image:
Overlay the map to the original

image, and remove the
background.
convert walmfmzzz.jpg
boolean_mask.png -alpha Off
-compose CopyOpacity
-composite
walmfmzzz_threshold.png
Generating a difference mask:

convert walmfmzzz.jpg $
+clone -fx 'p{0,0}' $
-compose Difference
-composite -modulate 100,0
-alpha off difference.png
Turning the mask into a

threshold map:
convert difference.png
-threshold 25%
boolean_mask.png
Note: play with the threshold

here in order to reduce the
selection to just the object you
want.
As you can see, it removed all of

the background, and the object
itself (the Arch logo) is still in
pretty decent shape. You could
now place it on a different
background, or colorify just the
object and place it back onto the
original image. Unfortunately, I
couldnt get this approach working
for more complex backgrounds.
GIMP
The process here is tedious, and
not very effective (in my
experience at least). There are a
variety of ways to do it. There is a
foreground select tool, where you
can outline the object you want to
keep, and it will do its best to give
a good selection of it (which has

never worked well for me). Or you
can duplicate the layer, make it
grayscale, and then play with levels
or a paintbrush, until the object
you want to keep is painted white,
and everything else is black. Then
create a layer mask on the original
image layer, and copy & paste the
grayscale layer into the mask. It
should result in an okay cut-out of
the object. Afterwards, you can
zoom in and slowly paint anything
in black or white with a small brush
that should be transparent or
visible.
easy as the paid options I listed

above. Depending on your
preparation and the background
you want to remove, you may be
able to automate the process to
some degree with ImageMagick.
Do you know of a better way to
do this? If so, I would be thrilled to
hear about it. Feel free to email
any questions, suggestions, or
general comments to me at
lswest34+fcm@gmail.com.
I dont find this process to be an

effective way to remove
backgrounds for anything besides
a single photo here and there, and
it is extremely tedious when you
have complex backgrounds - I
often end up with a halo of visible
background around the object, or
else I get jagged edges from trying
to paint it out.
CONCLUSION
Gphoto2 is a wonderful solution
for tethered capture - but
unfortunately, I havent found an
approach to removing
backgrounds that is as quick and
17
Lucas has learned all he knows from
repeatedly breaking his system, then

having no other option but to
discover how to fix it. You can email
Lucas at: lswest34@gmail.com.
contents ^
H OW-TO
Written by Greg D. Walters
elcome back to our

continuing journey to
control our world using Python,
the Raspberry Pi, and
microcontrollers like the Arduino
Uno. In this leg of our journey, we
will be learning the basics of the
Arduino.
This requires us to have a basic
understanding of the Arduino and
the Arduino programming
language, which, unfortunately, is
NOT python, but based on the C
language. The good news,
however, is that it won't take you
long to get the hang of it, and we
won't have to get too deep into it
for the things we will be doing.
THE ARDUINO
M ICROCONTROLLER
The Arduino (quoting from the
Arduino.cc website) is an opensource electronics platform based
on easy-to-use hardware and
software. It was released as opensource hardware and software,
meaning that the plans and parts
list are available for you to make
P yth on I n Th e Rea l World - Pt 73
your own Arduino from scratch.

Basically, it allows you to read
inputs and control output pins on
the board in a process very similar
to the GPIO pins on the Raspberry
Pi.
Digital Pins
PWM Pins
Analogue Pins
Clock Speed
UNO
14
6
6
16Mhz
window to open with the new

source code. I've copied it here
(next page) so we can discuss this
very simple project.
You can get the genuine

Arduino boards for around $35
USD, but there are good clones out
Of course, the first thing you
there (especially the Sparkfun Red
will notice is that the source code
Board) for around $20 USD.
MEGA
54
16 (counted in Digital Pins)
16
16Mhz
is in the C programming language.

Not to worry, it's pretty simple for
what we will be doing.
The part at the top is a block
comment which starts with the /*
and ends with the */. Like
There are two boards that I

would suggest for our projects.
The UNO and the MEGA. shown
top right is a breakdown of the
two.
Depending on your desire to go
beyond our basic projects, you
might want to consider going with
the Mega board.
Bottom right is an image of a
standard (albeit dusty) Arduino
Uno board.
Open the Arduino IDE and
select File | Examples | 01 .Basics |
Blink . This will cause another
18
contents ^
HOWTO - PYTHON
Python, the C compiler ignores

these block comments. The lines
that start with // are single inline
comments and can be put
anywhere in code. However, once
the compiler sees the //,
everything else on that line is
ignored.
/*
Blink
Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.
Most Arduinos have an on-board LED you can control. On the Uno and
Leonardo, it is attached to digital pin 13. If you're unsure what
pin the on-board LED is connected to on your Arduino model, check
the documentation at http://www.arduino.cc
This example code is in the public domain.
modified 8 May 2014
by Scott Fitzgerald
*/
// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
// initialize digital pin 13 as an output.
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
}
// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
// turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
delay(1000);
// wait for a second
digitalWrite(13, LOW);
// turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
delay(1000);
// wait for a second
}
There are two functions that

must be included in every project...
the setup function and the loop
function. You can write your own,
but there must be these two. The
setup function runs every time the
board is powered on, or the reset
button is pressed. Once the setup
function finishes, the loop function
is called (at least in this example),
and it runs continuously doing all
turning off the LED, wait another
the steps within it.
second, and then start the process
all over.
In this setup function, we only
have to tell the board that pin
Plug your Arduino board into
number 1 3 will function as an
the USB port of your computer and
output pin. On the Uno and Mega, click on the round check-mark
there is an onboard LED that is
button to compile and verify your
connected to pin 1 3, so we will be code. Once it reports that the
controlling that, as well as the
compile has completed
actual pin, and not have to worry
successfully, click on the button
about any external components
next to it (the one with the arrow
this time.. In the Loop function, we pointing to the right) to upload
send, via the digitalWrite function, your code to the Arduino board. In
a High signal turning the LED on,
a few moments, if everything
wait 1 second (using the delay
worked well, you should see the
function), set it back to a low signal
LED on the Arduino start to flash

on and off in one-second cycles.
milliseconds to delay. In this case

we are waiting 1 000 milliseconds,
which is one second. Let's change
both of the delay calls to 250
milliseconds and see what
happens.
If you got any error messages

on the upload, check the settings
under the Tools menu item. The
board needs to be set to the type
of board you are using, Port should delay(250);
be the one connected to the
Don't forget to end the
Arduino (which is USUALLY sensed
statement
with a semicolon. Click
for you).
on the check button (re-compile)
and then upload to the board.
Now let's start to have a little
fun modifying this code. The delay
Hopefully it is now blinking
function takes one parameter,
twice a second.
which is the number of
19
contents ^
HOWTO - PYTHON
Now let's get a bit more

creative. Let's make the board
blink in Morse Code the SOS signal.
That is three short blinks, a bit of
delay, three long blinks, a bit of
delay and three more short blinks.
I won't try to get fancy at this
point, but will simply copy and
paste more digitalWrite and delay
calls with the appropriate delays.
Here is the modified loop function.
Compile and upload the code.
Next time, we will start working
with some of the components we
used in the earlier Raspberry Pi
projects, so grab some LEDs and
resistors from your component
archives to be ready.
Until then, play with some of
the sample projects that you find
in the Arduino IDE and have fun.
void loop() {
digitalWrite(13,
delay(150);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(150);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(150);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(150);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(150);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(1000);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(500);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(150);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(500);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(150);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(500);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(1000);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(150);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(150);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(150);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(150);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(150);
digitalWrite(13,
delay(2000);
}
HIGH);
LOW);
HIGH);
LOW);
HIGH);
LOW);
HIGH);
LOW);
HIGH);
LOW);
HIGH);
LOW);
HIGH);
LOW);
HIGH);
LOW);
HIGH);
LOW);
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
turn
wait
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
the
for
LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)

a second
LED off by making the voltage LOW
a second
a second
a second
a second
a second
a second
a second
a second
a second
a second
a second
a second
a second
a second
a second
a second
a second
Greg Walters is owner of RainyDay
Solutions, LLC, a consulting company

in Aurora, Colorado, and has been
programming since 1 972. He enjoys
cooking, hiking, music, and spending
time with his family.
20
contents ^
H OW-TO
La TeX E xport Wi th Zi m
Written by John Kerr
aTeX can be found in the most

surprising places. It is not only
the ability to compose in LaTeX
that can be found, it is the ability
to export data in a *.tex file which
is then compiled to produce the
pretty .PDF file. The financial
package Grisbi can do that, as well
as Gnumeric. It is not uncommon. I
have seen others, they just do not
come to mind right now. However
the programs export only the .tex
file, we need the rest of the LaTeX
packages to compile.
other pages, simple formatting, and

inline images. Pages are storedin a
folder structure, like in an outliner,
andcan have attachments. Creating
a new page is as easy as linking to a
nonexistent page.
advertised in Synaptic.
Zim is full of surprises, and,

hang on, I will get to LaTeX in a few
Zim looks like any other text
minutes. Under the Edit menu we
editor, with text formatting such as find Templates, where we can
bold, italic, underline and strikeselect a template to use for the
through. The top menu bar also
way Zim looks when you open it,
has a link icon, an attachment icon, and a choice of six HTML
All data is storedin plain text
and a calendar icon that will start a templates. We can choose from
files, with wiki formatting. Various
journal section on your Index
three LaTeX document styles,
plugins provide additional
column as soon as you click on a
default Markdown, and RST. But
functionality, like a task list
day in the calendar.
wait! There is more! In the
manager, an equation editor, a tray
Templates menu there is a link to
icon, andsupport forversion control.
get more templates online at:
https://github.com/jaapZim can be usedto:
karssenberg/zimThe ability to do a .tex export of * Keep an archive ofnotes
wiki/wiki/Templates.
* Take notes during meetings or
files can be found in the desktop
lectures
Wiki application called Zim. You
Another Pleasant Surprise:
* Organize task lists
can find Zim in the Ubuntu
Third-party html export templates
* Draft blog entries andemails
repositories. I found Zim one day
There are export templates that
* Do brainstorming
As for page formatting, click on will allow you to export your files
when I was just skimming through
the Format menu and we find just as a complete Wiki in HTML
the lists of software as they are
So,
all
that
I
was
expecting
was
about everything we need for
found in the Synaptic Package
format. This feature enables us to
a text editor that would permit me everyday documents and more:
Manager, and I thought that Zim
run an instant website on
to link to my files. An editor and
looked interesting. Here is the
something as small as a Raspberry
some kind of organiser. File format
description from Synaptic:
Pi. The following is a cut and paste
exporting in LaTeX, HTML MHTML,
from the Zim web site:
RST or Markdown is not
Zim is a graphical text editor
usedto maintain a collection ofwiki mentioned, this is a bonus that I
EIGHT-FIVE-ZERO
found later. In fact, the more I
pages.
looked into Zim, I realised that this
A template for exporting
application was much more than as
Each page can contain links to
21
contents ^
HOWTO - LATEX EXPORT WITH ZIM

content from the Zim program as a
website. It is designed to be
responsive for viewing in all
devices. Specifically, it is designed
as "mobile-first," (dropping
navigation to the bottom of the
screen), and will enable right-side
navigation only if the device is of
significant width and in landscape
mode. Available on github
(https://github.com/jrm4/EightFive-Zero)
template offers some pointers to

customize the design to fit the
users need. For more information,
or to download the template, go to
the github page
(https://github.com/ecodiv/Ecodivmobile).
LATEX E XPORTING
Yes it is about time I got to this.
Here is a short entry I made to Zim:
ECODIV-RESPONSIVE
Template to export your Zim
notebook as a responsive/adaptive
website that can be viewed in
desktop and mobile devices alike.
You can find more information, or
download the template, on this
github page
(https://github.com/ecodiv/Ecodivresponsive). For an example, see
http://ecodiv.org/ and
http://notebook.ecodiv.org/
ECODIV-MOBILE
To export this as a LaTeX file:

Click on File >Export >Single Page
Forward
Under Format select LaTeX
Choose a template
Forward
Give the output file a name and
or select the directory it is to go
into
Click OK
Copy the .tex file in whole or
part into your LaTeX editor, You
will need to provide the preamble.
There may be gremlins and you
may have to make some edits such
as:
Remove the [1 ] from the first
line.
Replace any or using your
LaTeX editor.
Any words that have capitals in
the middle of them are treated by
Zim as a link. So a word like CanLii
will have to be broken up (Can Lii)
and the code for the link removed.
Take care of those gremlins and
you should have a very nice .PDF
file with all of your formatting
intact. Your Latex editor will alert
you of any changes like this that
need to be made.
Template to export your Zim

notebook as a website with mobile
theme. Build with jquerymobile to
create a website with a focus on
mobile devices, but which will also
look good on the desktop. The
I would not want to use Zim as

22
my main LaTeX editor, but it is nice

to know that after you have done
some work within Zim, you have an
option to export in a LaTeX
document format that can be
imported into an existing
document or be a LaTeX document
on its own.
I will be using Zim to create an
internal website at the law library
where I work. Zim automatically
saves any edits that you make to
the file. I like this feature I cant
forget to save before closing. To
date, it is the best organiser, note
taker, journal creator, and back up
LaTeX editor, that I have found.
Zim is the creation of Jaap
Karssenberg . Thank you Jaap.
This article was written using

Zim, LibreOffice, and Shutter on a
Raspberry Pi3.
contents ^
H OW-TO
Written by Alan Ward
n this series of articles, I will be

building a text-based application
with Free Pascal, using its textbased interface for user
interaction. This will be combined
with other, more modern,
technologies such as database
access using SQL and Web access
with HTTP. The final aim of the
project is to demonstrate how
Pascal can be used to build a
modern application, while avoiding
the overhead associated with a
graphical interface that uses a
widget set such as GTK or Qt.
In the previous part of this
series, we put our complete
application together using Free
Vision for the user interface, Sqlite
to create a local database, and
CURL and XML to retrieve fresh
data from an RSS feed from the
Web to update our database. In
this part, we will see various ways
in which our application can run on
a Raspberry Pi.
THE RASPBERRY PI FAMILY

AND U BUNTU
Prog ra m m i n g Wi th FreePa sca l - Pt6
The Raspberry Pi family of

single-board computers is gaining
popularity as an inexpensive means
of learning more about computers,
about electronics, and how to
interface these two worlds
together. However, they are
actually complete computers in
their own right, and with
processors starting at a 32-bit, and
running at a clock speed of 600
MHz upwards, they can arguably
outperform any type of Personal
Computer sold up to and including
a 1 997 Intel Pentium II. So, while
having substantially less
computational power than a
modern desktop, they are still well
capable of running an interface
such as Free Vision that was
originally designed for computers
equipped with the Intel 8086 and
80386 processors.
The Raspberry Pi family is
actually based on two different
series of processors: the RPi
versions A, B, and B+ have a
Broadcom System-on-a-Chip (SOC)
based on the ARMv6 architecture,
while the RPi 2 and RPi 3 models
are based on the ARMv7
architecture. This has implications

for the operating system, since
Ubuntu is available only for the
ARMv7 architecture. So, for models
RPi 2 and 3, we can download an
Ubuntu 1 6.04 Server image from
the official downloads section
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releas
es/1 6.04/release/; at the time of
writing the latest version was file
ubuntu-16.04.1-preinstalledserver-armhf+raspi2.img.xz. This
will give us access to the apt

command and repositories, and we
can install the latest Free Pascal
version 3.0 packages as described
for a normal desktop or laptop
computer.
On the other hand, for the
earlier ARMv6 versions of the RPi,
we will need to get a Debian
(Raspbian) image. Raspbian is a
very acceptable alternative for
Ubuntu Server, with only two major
differences. The first one is the
default user (login name: pi /
password: raspberry) instead of
Ubuntus (ubuntu/ubuntu). The
second is that Debians
repositories provide a slightly
older version 2.6 of Free Pascal,
23
which may present a few changes

compared to version 3.0 - though
nothing of consequence unless we
use the graphical programming
environment known as Lazarus.
However, for both versions, we
find clues to indicate that the main
target of the Free Pascal project is,
indeed, the Intel 32-bit
architecture. A few of the libraries
do not seem to have been carried
over correctly to the ARM build.
For our project, the only one of
note is the XMLReader unit, so we
will not be able to implement the
RSS reader, while the other
libraries (Free Vision, Database and
CURL) seem to work correctly. This
would no doubt be a minor
inconvenience, but one to take into
account and check if the RPi is
important for the readers plans.
In any case, it may be worth
noting that programs compiled for
the Intel 32- or 64-bit architectures
will not work directly on an RPi,
since the processor architecture is
different and the machine
language instruction sets are not
compatible. This means a recontents ^
HOWTO - PROGRAMMING WITH FREEPASCAL
compile will be required. There are

two techniques to do so.
The first is to install the Free
Pascal compiler on the target RPi,
then simply transfer our Pascal
source code files over. They are
recompiled on the RPi itself. Once
done, the binary files (executable
programs) may be copied over to
and used directly on further RPis,
since they are now binarycompatible with the ARM
processor.
A second technique may be of
interest when compiling
applications for a very lowpowered platform. Known as crosscompiling, the application is
compiled on a more powerful
computer such as a desktop, but
specifying that output must be in
the machine language of the
second, low-powered architecture.
This is often the case when
designing apps destined for mobile
phones and tablets. It is also
possible to use our desktop to
compile for the RPi, however the
process is rather involved and
documentation is scarce.
Since the RPi has sufficient
power to compile its own
programs on-board without being
too slow about it, I would suggest
readers go this route and avoid
delving into cross-compiling.
U SING THE RASPBERRY PI

DIRECTLY
All generations of the RPi have

an output to connect a screen,
analog composite video (yellow
RCA jack) for versions A and B, and
HDMI for all. There is also at least
one USB port to connect an
external keyboard, so nothing
more is needed to use an RPi as a
terminal to run a Free Vision
program.
The advantage of starting out
from Ubuntu Server or an

equivalent version of Debian is
that the RPi comes up directly in
text mode. The user simply logs in
at the console, and starts up the
application from the command
line.
Applications are quite
responsive, even on an earlier B
model. The RPis 51 2 MBytes of
RAM should not be overtaxed,
though this will depend on the
actual data usage of our program here, I was getting by on less than
90 MBytes for the operating
system and the application
altogether. On the other hand, the
screen image over an analog feed,

while working, is not too
satisfactory. HDMI should be
preferred if at all possible, even if
we are working just with a text
console.
Depending on the foreseen use
of the device, a user could even be
automatically logged into the
console, and the Free Vision
application launched immediately
upon login.
THE RASPBERRY AS AN
APPLICATION SERVER
One of the nicer characteristics

of Free Vision applications is that
they work well over an SSH
connection. Since our RPi already
comes with an SSH server (both in
Ubuntu Server and in Raspbian), it
can immediately become an
application server by simply
installing our applications binary
file in the users home directory.
One can then SSH over from ones
preferred computing device such
as a computer or a tablet, and
access the application. The low
network overhead also helps
application responsivity.
The Raspberry Pi 3 allows us to
24
contents ^
HOWTO - PROGRAMMING WITH FREEPASCAL
go one step further, and avoid the

need for a physical network
connection through the use of the
inbuilt WiFi adaptor. To set this up
from the command line, we cannot
depend on Network Manager that
may be familiar to Ubuntu desktop
users. Instead, we will need to
install wpa-supplicant by hand since we are all using WPA
encryption by default on our
networks, are we not? So:
the WiFi connection come up

automatically, each time the RPi is
started up. Add lines:
apt install wpasupplicant
The final installation is rather

minimal, consisting just of the RPi
3 itself, micro-SD card and a
telephone charger for power. It can
be placed in a suitable location, but
please do make sure it has
sufficient ventilation since the
more powerful processor on this
model can have issues with
overheating.
Now, we need to create a hash

of our WiFis WPA key:
wpa_passphrase essid key
where essid should be replaced

with our networks identification,
and key with the WPA key. This
command should reply with the
required hash code:
# wpa_passphrase myessid
12345678
network={
ssid="myessid"
#psk="12345678"
psk=407c7d4b572bf701afc06ddd6
886cf33ce4f4f2e924d7f12cebe54
628d74013e
}
We can now edit file

/etc/network/interfaces to make
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid myessid
wpa-psk
407c7d4b572bf701afc06ddd6886c
f33ce4f4f2e924d7f12cebe54628d
74013e
naturally, replacing these values

with your own as appropriate.
front end, but the data repository

will need to be moved to a
separate database system and
accessed over the network.
In this part of our series on
using Free Pascal with Ubuntu, we
saw various ways in which our
application can run on a Raspberry
Pi, turning it either into a
lightweight terminal or an equally
lightweight application server. In
the next part, we will focus on
what makes the Raspberry Pi
unique, and will build a Free Vision
interface to make use of the

General Purpose I/O ports on this
small board computer.
Alan holds a PhD in Information and

the Knowledge Society. He teaches
computer science at Escola
Andorrana de Batxillerat (highschool). He has previously given
GNU/Linux courses at the University
of Andorra and taught GNU/Linux
systems administration at the Open
University of Catalunya (UOC).
Such a setup would be

sufficient for light database work,
such as entering a sale or a bill of
lading in a business, or data entry
on the move for a scientific
application. The data entered can
then be transferred periodically to
a larger computer and be
integrated into its database. If
large data handling capacities are
needed, the RPi can still work as a
25
contents ^
26
contents ^
H OW-TO
I n k s ca p e - P a r t 5 6
Written by Mark Crutch
the mapping, therefore, is to alter

Changing the slope to a smaller
the slope and the intercept point value, 0.5 in this case, reduces the
a pair of values provided by the
brightness of the image:
Linear option in the filter. The
identity line has a slope of 1 that
is, for every increase of 1 along the
x axis, the y value also increases by
1 . By setting it to a value of 2 we
can make the slope steeper,
causing the output to appear
brighter. Here's how it looks for
one channel in the filter dialog:
By changing the intercept you
can alter the contrast of the image;
In practice, this primitive maps
you may also want to tweak the
the input values to a range from 0
slope to ensure you don't also
to 1 rather than 0 to 255, but the
change the brightness at the same
result is the same: with the default
time (unless that's your intention).
settings in the filter (Identity),
As well as showing the effect
For example, setting an intercept
every input channel is mapped to
on the slope, I've also included a
of 0.5 with a slope of 1 would give
the output without being affected. grayscale version of Mona, with
you this result:
The purpose of the Component
the right-hand side showing the
A single color channel of a
Transfer filter is to play around
result of applying this change to all
single pixel is represented by a
with
that
simple
45
graph
to
let
the color channels:
number from 0 (no color) to 255
you change the way that input
(completely saturated). The
distribution of the values is linear values are mapped to output
ramping up along a straight line values.
and the default settings for the
Basic mathematics tells us that
Component Transfer primitive
a straight line graph like this can
Bear in mind that color
leave this line untouched. A value
channels can't go below 0 or above
of 0 into the filter results in 0 out. be defined by the slope of the line
and
the
point
at
which
it
intercepts
1 27, so the graph changes shape
1 36 in gives 1 36 out. And so on.
when you hit these limits. As you
This can be represented as a graph, with the y-axis. One way to modify
here's one last filter primitive
to visit in this series, which I've
kept until last simply because it's a
new addition in 0.91 , so isn't
available to users who are still
using version 0.48. The filter is
called Component Transfer, and its
purpose is to use a function (called
a transfer function) to adjust the
distribution of values within each
color channel (or component). It
allows you to adjust brightness or
contrast, or to set hard thresholds
for posterization effects. As usual,
I'll begin by considering the filter's
operation on a single color
channel, then you can extrapolate
from there to how it behaves with
three channels plus alpha.
where the value of the channel

coming into the filter is shown on
the x-axis, and the value that
comes out of the filter is shown on
the y-axis.
27
contents ^
HOWTO - INKSCAPE
can see, it becomes horizontal

halfway along the x-axis, washing
out any values above 1 27 by
turning them completely white.
Compensating for this by changing
the slope to 0.5 preserves the
detail a lot more, because all 255
input values are mapped, rather
than just clamping half of them.
The intercept value can also be

negative, to give a darker output,
again with reduced contrast. It's
worth noting that the slope can
also be negative, which inverts the
mapping so that larger input
values are converted to small
output values, and vice versa. With
a slope of -1 and an intercept of 1 ,
the output from the channel is
completely inverted:
The linear mode of this filter

primitive assumes that you want a
simple mapping from input to
output, to adjust the brightness or
contrast by altering the slope and
position of a single line. But there
are times when a single straight
line (even one that flattens out at
the limits of the color range) just
doesn't cut it. What happens if you
want the output to ramp up, then
down again, such that values at the
extreme ends of the range are
mapped to low numbers, whilst
those in the middle are mapped to
high numbers? For that we have
the Table mode.
Table may be a little
misleading, as the table you have
to supply is one-dimensional. List
might have been a better name,
but table is what the SVG Working
Group decided to go with, and
what Inkscape exposes. The
numbers in the list represent the
start and end values for a series of
straight line segments; the number
of values in the list determines
how many segments there are. For
example, the table below has five
values (you can use spaces and/or
commas to separate them):
These five values give rise to

four separate segments in the
graph, causing the output values to
ramp up and down rapidly as the
input varies:
A table consisting of just (0, 1 )

would be the same as the identity
mapping, whereas (1 , 0) would
invert the image. To flatten a
section of the line, use the same
value twice in succession: (1 , 0.5,
0.5, 0) gives an inverted image
where the details in the low and
high values are preserved, but the
middle third of numbers are all
mapped to 1 27:
the line ramps smoothly between

them. Sometimes, however, a
smooth transition is the last thing
you want. Suppose that you have
to reduce the number of colors in
an image (posterizing), or even
reduce it down to a stark blackand-white version. For these cases
there is the Discrete mode.
With discrete mode you still
provide a table of values, but
rather than defining start and end
points that will be interpolated
between, you provide a list of the
only output values that are
allowed, and Inkscape will map
them to sections of the input
range. Provide only two numbers
and any input value of 1 27 or less
will be mapped to the first value,
1 28 or greater will be mapped to
the second value. Instant
monochrome! Provide four
numbers and values from 0-63 will
be mapped to the first, 64-1 27 to
the second, and so on.
Except there's a bug in Inkscape

that prevents it working correctly.
In discrete mode the last value in
your list is skipped so if you
As you can see, the input range provide two values expecting to
get a monochrome output you'll
is divided evenly based on the
number of values in your table, and find that every input value is
mapped to the first number, and
28
contents ^
HOWTO - INKSCAPE
the second is never used. The

workaround is obviously to provide
three numbers (typically just
duplicating the last one), but then
the filter will not work correctly in
other SVG programs or web
browsers. The issue is tracked on
Launchpad as bug #1 046093, and a
fix has been committed for the
forthcoming 0.92 release of
Inkscape, which is good but it
does also mean that if you provide
an extra value to get the filter to
work in 0.91 , your image will look
wrong when you upgrade to 0.92.
inverting the output at the same

time:
because it allows lower values to

change at a different rate than
higher values.
The Gamma mode takes three
parameters: Amplitude, Exponent
and Offset. The output value from
the transfer function is calculated
using the following formula:
Notice the similarity to the

Linear mode with slope values of
0.5 (to darken) and 2 (to lighten).
output = Amplitude
Gamma mode often gives a more
inputExponent + Offset
detailed result, particularly where
are subtle changes in the
That is, the input value (which is there
in the range 0 to 1 ) is raised to the darker areas of the input range.
power of the Exponent value,
Although I've used a grayscale
multiplied by the Amplitude and
image to illustrate this filter, in
added to the Offset. Often the
practice you can use a different
Amplitude is left as 1 , and the
function for each color
Offset as 0, so the output is simply transfer
component, and also for the alpha
the input raised to the power of
useful for leaving the
the Exponent. For an Exponent of channel
alpha channel untouched in
2, therefore, the result looks
Identity mode whilst you alter the
something like this:
color channels, or alternatively for
only affecting the alpha channel
whilst the colors remain
untouched.
One thing you've undoubtedly

noticed about all of the modes so
far is that the graphs consist
entirely of straight lines either
horizontal ones in the case of
Discrete, or angled in the case of
For the examples below I've
Table, Linear and Identity. The last
pretended that Inkscape works the option adds a bit of curvature to
way it should just bear in mind
the graph, but don't get too
that when I say (0, 1 ) you should
excited; it doesn't allow you to
actually use (0, 1 , 1 ) to get it to
draw an arbitrary Bzier curve, but
work on the current release.
rather just supply three
Speaking of which, here is that
parameters for a gamma
monochrome output, using a
correction curve.
discrete table containing (0, 1 ):
In case you're not familiar with
gamma correction, it's a non-linear
mapping of input to output values,
which is used to adjust the
brightness and contrast of an
image to compensate for
differences in perceived brightness
To lighten an image simply use
at the ends of the range. Think of it an exponent value of less than 1
This one uses values of (1 , 0.75, as a more sophisticated option
such as in this example with a value
0.5, 0.25, 0) to posterize Mona
than just changing the slope and
of 0.5.
down to five shades of gray, whilst intercept using the Linear mode,
29
To finish, therefore, here's a

final image of Mona in all her
colorful glory, with four different
component transfers applied. The
top left quarter has a Table (1 , 0)
applied to just the green channel,
with the others left as Identity; the
top right uses Table (0, 1 , 0, 1 , 0) on
contents ^
HOWTO - INKSCAPE
all the color channels; the bottom

right uses Discrete (0, 0.25, 0.5,
0.75, 1 ) on the color channels to
posterize the image, and the
bottom left uses Table (1 , 0) on all
the channels to produce a
photographic negative effect.
THE O FFICIAL FULL CIRCLE APP FOR U BUNTU TOUCH
rian Douglass has created a
fantastic app for Ubuntu Touch

devices that will allow you to view
current issues, and back issues, and
to download and view them on your
Ubuntu Touch phone/tablet.
I NSTALL
Either search for 'full circle' in the
Ubuntu Touch store and click
install, or view the URL below on
your device and click install to be
taken to the store page.
https://uappexplorer.com/app/
fullcircle.bhdouglass
Image Credits
La Gioconda (aka Mona Lisa) by
Leonardo da Vinci
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:M
ona_Lisa,_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci,_
from_C2RMF_retouched.jpg
Mark uses Inkscape to create three

webcomics, 'The Greys', 'Monsters,
Inked' and 'Elvie', which can all be
found at
http://www.peppertop.com/
30
contents ^
CH RO M E CU LT
Z o h o W ri te r
Written by S. J. Webb
here are sharp differences

between Google Docs and
Zoho Writer in layout. I prefer
using Zoho Writer due to its easier
interface and increased options.
However, my work uses the Google
Ecosphere, so I typically write my
files in Zoho Writer. I then upload
the finished work to Google Drive
for collaboration. Another reason I
use Zoho is to lessen my
dependence on Google. To access
my Zoho Writer, I enter
docs.zoho.com in my browser. I
usually use my Google+ for logging
into it. Zoho opens up to your
cloud folder with your saved work
like Google Docs.
options of fonts, table insertion,

etcetera, are located at the top.
Zoho Writer has the formatting
options to the left of the
document. Zoho Writer
immediately saves your work to
their cloud, similar to Google Docs.
The documents can be saved and
exported to a .PDF, .DOCX, or .ODT

file format. Zoho Writer can open
.ODT formats easily, unlike Google
Docs.
What are the options that make
Zoho better than Google Docs? An
online guide can be found here:
https://www.zoho.com/docs/writer
/help/content_category.htm. This
guide explains some of the
features and a general how-to for
various tasks. The features that
make Zoho Writer attractive are:
interactive spell check, personal
dictionary, thesaurus, electronic
As a random thought, I
mentioned the Zoho for Linux for
convergence capability. I would not
install that option onto your
Ubuntu machine. The app is
incredibly cumbersome, slow, and
difficult to remove. I simply use my
browser. I have used Zoho in
Firefox and Qupzilla.
Google Docs has a traditional
feel of classic word processors like
LibreOffice. The formatting
31
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CHROME CULT
signature, and text to table

conversion. I do not use their Mail
Merge or Wordpress options.The
insert picture option within a
document is rather unreliable.
The interactive spell-check has

numerous sub-features. Autocorrect can be enabled and
customized. Auto-complete is
available for typing. The personal
dictionary does a better job than
Google's personal dictionary. The
thesaurus is useful for my abstract
writing. The electronic signature
uses the Adobe Sign option. The
text-to-table conversion is useful
for my data analysis sections for
manuscripts.
There are numerous options to
Zoho Writer. It is not a perfectly
polished online cloud processor,
but the wide range of options
trumps the bad areas. So exactly
what are the bad areas? You can do
co-editing with track changes in

Zoho. However not many people
employ Zoho Writer, unless it is
mandated at the enterprise level.
Therefore the co-editing is useless.
The one option that is extremely
annoying is the Zoho Contact Chat.
If the chat server goes down, Zoho
Writer will attempt to contact the
server consistently. There is no
way to remove Zoho Contact Chat.
Sometimes there is a slight lag in
using Writer, this lag can be
frustrating. Yet the app does a nice
job of mimicking Google Docs with
the consistent document saving to
the cloud.
Zoho Writer is not a Google
32
Docs killer, but it is an acceptable

replacement for individual use.
This entire article was written
using Zoho Writer. I would give it 4
out of 5 stars.
SJ Webb is a Linux Hobbyist and
Research Coordinator. He enjoys

fishing, hot rodding, and spending
time with his kids and wife. He
thanks Mike Ferarri for his
mentorship.
contents ^
H OW-TO
Wri te For Fu ll Ci rcle M a g a zi n e
Written by Ronnie Tucker
G UIDELINES
he single rule for an article is

that it must somehow be
document.
REVIEWS
Images should be JPG, no wider

than 800 pixels, and use low
compression.
G AMES/APPLICATIONS
linked to Ubuntu or one of the

many derivatives of Ubuntu
(Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc). Do not use tables or any type of
bold or italic formatting.
RULES
There is no word limit for articles,

but be advised that long articles
may be split across several issues.
For advice, please refer to the
Official Full Circle Style Guide :
http://url.fullcirclemagazine.org/7
5d471
Write your article in whichever
software you choose, I would
recommend LibreOffice, but most
importantly - PLEASE SPELL AND
GRAMMAR CHECK IT!
In your article, please indicate

where you would like a particular
image to be placed by indicating
the image name in a new
paragraph or by embedding the
image in the ODT (Open Office)
If you are writing a review,

please follow these guidelines :
When you are ready to submit
your article please email it to:
articles@fullcirclemagazine.org
TRANSLATIONS
If you would like to translate
Full Circle into your native
language please send an email to
ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.org and
we will either put you in touch with
an existing team, or give you
access to the raw text to translate
from. With a completed PDF, you
will be able to upload your file to
the main Full Circle site.
When reviewing games/applications please state clearly:
title of the game

who makes the game
is it free, or a paid download?
where to get it from (give download/homepage URL)
is it Linux native, or did you use Wine?
your marks out of five
a summary with positive and negative points
H ARDWARE
When reviewing hardware please state clearly:
make and model of the hardware

what category would you put this hardware into?
any glitches that you may have had while using the hardware?
easy to get the hardware working in Linux?
did you have to use Windows drivers?
marks out of five
a summary with positive and negative points
You don't need to be an expert to write an

article - write about the games, applications
and hardware that you use every day.
33
contents ^
L I N U X L AB
Zoom ta k T8H V2 An d roi d Box
Written by Charles McColm
inding just the right device for

a particular purpose can be
daunting. For this review of the
Zoomtak T8H V2, it seems
important to give some backstory
as to how we ended up with this
Android box over others. The
backstory is a bit lengthy but
shows how our needs changed and
the kinds of features we ended up
looking for.
Our next small entertainment

system was the Pivos XIOS DS
Media Play. There were several
things that made the XIOS DS
Media Play a really good machine
for its time. The XIOS DS Media
Play was a lot smaller than our
netbook, and it had a much smaller
infrared receiver, yet still had
enough USB ports for all our
external drives. The XIOS DS was
also made of thick plastic and had

a good quality physical power
switch. On top of this, because it
ran Android, it could also run
Android apps. XBMC/KODI was still
in its infancy on Android devices,
but the Pivos group had also
developed a trimmed down Linux
flavour just for the Media Play that
ran XBMC/KODI much faster than
the Android+KODI distribution did.
Our first television-based

entertainment system was a PVR
built using MythDORA, the Fedora
Linux distribution of Myth TV.
When cable started switching from
analog to digital, we switched to
XBMC/KODI. About this time, we
also gave a lot of thought to
switching to a smaller box. Our
first small entertainment system
was a netbook running
XBMCbuntu, a Lubuntu-based
distribution with XBMC. It was
quite flexible, but it suffered from
cable-itis, with VGA, sound, power,
infrared receiver, and external
drive cables all sprouting from it.
Because of the keyboard it was
also difficult to clean.
It was clear Pivos made a great

effort to develop a good quality
device. Unfortunately, this
trimmed down Linux wasnt quite
as flexible as running Android or a
full Linux distribution, and more
powerful Android devices started
to appear about six months after
we bought our XIOS DS. It also
made less sense for us to run a
small box as our main unit since we
needed a power cord for the two
hard drives, plus a power cord for
the XIOS DS. It seemed kind of
redundant to have a small device
with several other devices plugged
into it.
Although its a step backward in
terms of size, we switched out the
XIOS DS for a mid-tower Core 2
Quad-based Ubuntu Linux+KODI
system. This gave us the flexibility
we wanted from the operating
system and allowed us to add a
third storage drive all within one
unit. This solution proved good for
our living room, but we also
wanted access to the same videos
in other rooms. I gave away the
XIOS DS shortly after we switched
to a PC, that meant looking for a
34
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LINUX LABS
flashed it with an older Android 4.4 enough for us to disqualify it. It

firmware and in the process
was the Shields focus on PLEX
bricked the unit.
Last boxing day our local
rather than KODI, and overall
computer store had a super sale on
design, that kept us looking.
Having used several boxes to
the MyGica ATV 582, a quad core
run XBMC/KODI we wanted our
CPU, octa-core GPU, Android box,
We considered several boxes
built around running XBMC/KODI. next KODI box to be something
but ultimately ended up with the
special: excellent build quality, a
The ATV 582 is well built, but we
Zoomtak T8H because it fulfilled
physical power button, a good
preferred the design of the XIOS
most of our requirements:
remote, more powerful than our
DS. The ATV 582 also lacks a
Sturdy metal case
last KODI machine, faster
physical power button, a feature
A physical power button
connectivity, and a sub-$200 price 64bit Amlogic S905 Quad Core
we found ourselves missing. The
tag. At the time we were looking. it ARM Cortex A53 processor
MyGica ATV 582 is noticeably
seemed the NVidia Shield was the (2.02GHz)
faster than the Pivos XIOS DS:
most powerful device. The 1 6GB
menus transitioned smoother,
2GB DDR3 RAM (twice the ATV
version of the Shield was slightly
movies populated faster, and it
582)
responds quicker overall. We might out of our price range, but not
1 6GB internal storage (twice the
be still using it if I didnt
accidentally brick it during a
firmware upgrade. We loved the
remote control, but after about 5
months it started developing
problems. The remote on the ATV
582 uses a button cell 3 volt
battery that slid into the bottom.
Either the battery ran out really
quick or the contact points were
degrading to the point where the
remote frequently failed to
function without removing and
reinserting the battery. These
problems seemed to compound
themselves when I upgraded the
ATV 582 to Android 5.x. Suddenly
the machine got a lot slower and
the remote barely functioned, so I
35
new Android box.
ATV 582)
Both Gigabit ethernet and
Wireless AC
HDMI 2.0 for up to 4K display
3 x USB 2.0 ports
One of our requirements was
extra storage. We were pleasantly
surprised to see that the Zoomtak
T8H had a full-sized SD card reader
slot rather than the micro-SD on
most devices. We were also
pleasantly surprised at the
thought given to the power
button, it glows blue when on and
soft red when off. You might not
think its much of a big deal, but
try sleeping with a bright blue LED.
The soft red light the T8H gives
when turned off is so little that its
barely noticeable. The T8H also has
a nice LED readout so you always
know the time (at least while the
T8H is on).
Zoomtak has built the T8H with
KODI in mind. Our box came with
the option to install a build of
KODI complete with a slew of
extra plug-ins (most of which we
really didnt want). We opted to
use the vanilla KODI and install our
own plug-ins as we needed them.
Its a bit like buying a brand-name
PC versus building your own (we
didnt want all the extra fluff).
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LINUX LABS
Performance at 1 080p is as
good as we expected; it played
Bluray-quality video both stored
on our network and streamed from
the Internet without any problem.
In terms of benchmarks, the
Zoomtak T8H scored 35700 on the
popular AnTuTu benchmark
compared to 23583 on the MyGica
ATV 582. When we were deciding
we noticed that some 32bit
Amlogic processors were actually
rated faster/better than the
Amlogic S905. Part of the reason
we decided on that particular
processor was the fact that it was
64bit.
T8H, weve never had to reboot it

because of heat or crashing. In
fact, its crashed less than our
desktop PC. That was at least until
we tried installing the factory build
of KODI. The factory build is a one
click install off the Media
Manager application. The
installation takes several minutes.
In one Youtube video we found for
the T8H, the installation ran over 6
minutes without much happening this wasnt the case for us as the
download started happening
almost right away. The installation,
however, left us wondering if it
had hung or not, KODI became
unresponsive just sitting at the
KODI Jarvis 1 6.1 screen. Patience is

a virtue, but we were having none
of that, and exited out of KODI and
software rebooted the machine.
After a second try, we waited a bit
longer on the KODI hanging screen
and were rewarded by the factory
build.
The factory build comes with a
slew of add-ons, many of which
didnt work. Even after configuring
Yahoo Weather to our particular
city, it still complained. We
changed the region to Canada, and
that made no difference. Several
reboots eventually seemed to fix
the issue with the Yahoo add-on.
From Factory, the T8H came

with KODI 1 6.1 and Android 5.1 .
The default Android screen is well
laid out and reminds us a bit of the
screen on the MyGica ATV 582, but
with a couple of nice additions: a
panel with tips, and a larger clean
memory tile. The ATV 582 has the
clean memory function as well,
but its not quite as convenient as
it is on the T8H.
When playing video, the
aluminum body of the T8H remains
quite cool, Zoomtak has done a
bang-up job of dissipating heat. In
the 3 months weve owned the
36
Performance took a bit of a hit,

just as it tends to when you load
up a PC with a lot of software,
though scrolling through menus
was acceptable. While Im sure
there are lots of people who would
appreciate the effort put by
Zoomtak into providing add-ons
like Exodus (for TV and Movies),
Kids channels, sports, and various
IPTV channels, sorting through
what worked and what didnt was a
bit of a mess. Ultimately, we use
our box mainly for streaming the
content we have stored on our
server, so we went back to the
stock build of KODI.
The T8H isnt without issues.
The first of which is the company
failed to include batteries for their
remote control. Every small KODI
box weve ever bought has
included batteries with the
included remote. At $1 79CDN (a
special at the time), one would
expect that Zoomtak wouldnt
cheap out with such a small thing.
On the positive side, the T8H only
takes two AAA batteries so
purchasing them isnt expensive.
We love the size of the remote,
its a little larger than the MyGica
ATV 582 remote. Unfortunately it
lacks the keyboard on the reverse
contents ^
LINUX LABS
side. You can buy Zoomtaks

FLIP2 remote which includes a
keyboard on the other side for an
extra $44.95 CDN (or just buy the
T8H with the FLIP2 for
$209.99CDN). Given that the
MyGica ATV 582 included this at
almost half the price point of the
T8H without the FLIP2, its a bit
disappointing to see it not
included.
KODI and not for web or file

browsing. Below these buttons are
buttons for Audio, 1 6:9, Full
Screen, and Favourites. Again,
mostly a waste of buttons in our
opinion. One button could be used
to toggle between aspect ratios,
and television remotes include
these and the audio option. The
only useful button here is the
Favourites button which brings up
the Favourites menu in KODI. This
We could maybe forgive the
is one of the most useful buttons
lack of a keyboard on the remote if on the remote control since you
the numeric keypad also produced can add your favourite content by
letters properly as every other
clicking the menu button on the
numeric remote weve used has.
remote and choosing Add to
Something seems off about the
Favourites.
programming for this remote.
Normally, if you hit a number a
couple of times youre able to
produce a letter. For example, hit
number 2 twice and you get the
letter A, three times and you get B,
four and you get C. That doesnt
work out of the box with the T8H.
The remote also lacks
convenience keys for Music, TV
Shows and Movies instead opting
to use the keys to launch Android
apps (KODI, Apps, File and Web).
The only one of these buttons we
use is the KODI button, so the rest
are wasted and we expect most
people would buy this box to run
The remotes performance is a

bit lackluster compared to other
remotes weve used. With our feet
up in line with the T8H the IR
remote seemed to have difficulty.
While most IR remotes have some
difficulty when line-of-sight is
being blocked, we havent had as
much an issue in the past as weve
had with the T8H remote. Perfect
line-of-site seems particularly
important with this remote.
shortly after boot, the T8H doesnt

have enough time to synchronize
the LED clock with Android.
Although it wasnt an issue for us,
its worth mentioning that the
wireless antenna is not detachable.
Although the T8H has ports for
component out to older TVs,
Zoomtak doesnt include a
component cable. The T8H also
features optical audio out, but
again doesnt include a cable. An
HDMI cable is included with the
Another noticeable issue is that T8H.
the time on the front of the T8H
and the time in KODI are not
Despite all the T8Hs
always synchronized, even after
shortcomings, its still a decent
the box is on for several minutes. It Android box. Im not sure my
seems that if you load KODI
decision to buy it would have
changed if stacked up against the
less expensive ($1 59) newcomer
the MyGica ATV 485 Pro. MyGica
have changed the batteries on
their remote to AAA, and still
include the flip keyboard. The
AnTuTu performance of the ATV
485 Pro is a full 1 000 points higher
than the T8H using the same 64bit
Amlogic processor. Its worth
mentioning that, since owning this
box, weve reviewed it in a couple
of places including on the Zoomtak
website (reviews require approval
on their site). We werent overly
positive in either of the reviews,
but had no feedback from
37
contents ^
LINUX LABS
Zoomtak, which was a bit

disappointing since Youtube
videos of the Zoomtak factory
made it seem like they really cared.
Conversely, when we had an issue
with our MyGica ATV 582, staff
were more than helpful trying to
troubleshoot.
The overall build quality of the
T8H, and its metal box, really make
us love this unit. The remote
control is disappointing, but
performance on the unit is great at
1 080p both streaming from local
network storage and the Internet.
Bought directly from Zoomtak
Canada, our unit came with a 1
year manufacturer's Warranty.
Star Rating: 3 out of 5
Cost: $1 79.99 CDN or $209.99
for unit plus Flex2 remote (with
keyboard on the other side)
Charles is the author of Instant
XBMC, and the project manager of a

not-for-profit computer reuse
project. When not building PCs,
removing malware, and encouraging
people to use GNU/Linux, Charles
works on reinventing his blog at
http://www.charlesmccolm.com/.
38
contents ^
U B U N T U D E VI C E S
Written by Ronnie Tucker
OTA-1 4
his list is only a highlight of the

few changes available in this
update. Please check the detailed
list for all the changes included in
this OTA. OTA-1 4 generally
consists only of selected most
important changes, in contrast to
the usual rc-proposed/based
releases so far.
Fix vibrations when other

vibrations are enabled
Fixes for alarm issues
...and more!
D ETAILED CHANGES
Milestone:
https://launchpad.net/canonicaldevices-system Commitlog:
http://people.canonical.com/~lzem image/+milestone/1 4
czak/landing-team/ota/ota1 4.commitlog
FRAMEWORK VERSIONS
No change in framework versions.
I MPORTANT FEATURES
New Unity8 spread design
Oxide 1 .1 7
Opus audio codec support in
qtmultimedia
B UGFIXES
Fixes for SMS notifications not
arriving when phone is locked
Device appearing off during
image update
39
contents ^
R E VI E W
m i n i tu b e
Written by Brian Bogdan
have been using Linux since

Jaunty. I was wanting to try
Ubuntu, but was tethered to
Windows. But when I received a
nice widescreen all-in-one, I took
the plunge. Never have looked
back, and am enjoying Xenial
(1 6.04 LTS)
complete helping you save

keyboard clicks.
Browse allows you to look at
what's trending on Youtube, split
into clickable categories. I actually
don't use the browse function as I
don't usually just surf YouTube I
usually know what I'm looking for,
so I use the Search and
Subscriptions buttons.
I have quite a few programs

that I run on my PC many of them
equal to or better than their
So you search for what you
Windows/Mac counterparts. The
want
to watch, and when you click
choices out there are so great, it's
on the result, it opens in the main
hard to write about just one. My
favourite part is being able to get Subscription window. If you would
an application for free, test it, keep
it or look for another that suits me
better.
like to save this (and other videos

by the same creator), just click
Video in the top menu and
subscribe to the creator. On all
videos available from that author,
and on the subscription page, a
thumbnail will appear and it will
have a numbered notification of
unwatched videos by that creator.
When you then choose the
thumbnail, all videos will be on the
left with a thumbnail and the title,
length, etc.
Playback can be set to auto or
So I managed to whittle this

down. I am writing about Minitube.
You hooked on youtube? This app
is for you. I use this app daily and
its the one entertainment app I
would miss.
manual. I use manual as I don't

necessarily want to watch all
videos in the order newest-tooldest. Or not at all. So I choose
manual. I also set playback to 720P,
as that works well with my 23 inch
display and standard video card,
GeForce 9300M. The video is crisp
even full-screen mode. (Of course
if the video is recorded at very low
resolution, it likely won't get any
better, though in my daily use that
is rare).
Though this is not an
application exclusively for Linux
(it's ported for Windows), it is still
free, but not free as in Beer. You
accept the agreement and can
donate if you like. I paid $1 0. I use
it daily.
I wholeheartedly recommend
this simple, but effective,
application.
The interface is super simple

with just three buttons to get you
going, Search, Browse and
Subscriptions. The search screen is
simple and minimalistic, with auto-
Download it at
http://flavio.tordini.org/minitube
40
contents ^
MY O PI N I O N
Locked D evi ces
Written by Alan Ward
Running the latest and greatest

version of an operating system
may not be a priority for many
users. However, keeping
(relatively) safe from hacking and
malware does mean upgrading the
applications - and app developers
tend to have limited resources. It
would be unreasonable to ask
them to make sure their
applications run on ten or twenty
past versions of each operating
system; limiting support for earlier
versions runs, at best, to two or
three versions back. So upgrading
an operating system is, in fact, a
crucial part of the modern users
Unfortunately, not supporting
electronic devices for a long period strategy to avoid digital mishaps.
of time has become the norm.
The prospect of having to retire
Apples line has better support
a smart device within a two-tothan most, but even for iPhones
three year time period does not
there comes a cut-off point from
which the operating system cannot strike me as smart at all. In fact, it
makes no economic sense for the
be upgraded. It is even worse for
user. The devices battery may well
many models of Android devices,
specially when considering lower- require more frequent charging,
but replying to a voice call or
priced items. In some cases, no
watching kitten videos on Youtube
operating system upgrades have
should be well within the
been made available at all to
device owners. This has personally capabilities of a three-year-old
device.
happened to me twice.
On the bright side of things,
ecent news concerning
Googles Nexus line of
smartphones and tablets is not too
good for owners. As Ars Technicas
Andrew Cunningham reports, The
Nexus 5 and2013 Nexus 7 won't
receive the Android7.0 Nougat
update from Google today.
(http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2
01 6/08/android-nougat-dropssupport-for-nexus-5-and-201 3nexus-7/). We are talking about
devices that, in some cases, have
been released less than three
years back.
Googles Nexus line of devices

were known for their unlocked
bootloaders. This is the bit of
software that plays about the
same part as the BIOS on a
computer. Specifically, it allows the
device to be booted in a special
mode, from which another version
of the operating system can be
installed, a process known as
flashing the device. This can be
done without needing the
approval of the previous system or
the help of its update application.
Having an open bootloader is
quite a big deal. An alternative
version of the devices operating
system can be installed, if
available. So can Ubuntu Touch, if
the device is on the list of
supported hardware
(https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/D
evices). And, as we all know,
Ubuntu has a good record of
providing support for each version,
and of carrying on support for
specific hardware from one version
to the next.
In any case, I had bought a 201 3
Nexus 7 tablet mainly to test out
41
Ubuntu Touch. It has worked

flawlessly for me, both under
Android 5 and 6, and under
Ubuntu. Going forward, I will be
able to continue enjoying it and
using it with an up-to-date Internet
browser beyond the famous threeyear limit but only under Ubuntu.
Thats fine with me, and more so as
it saves me from the cost of having
to replace a perfectly functional
device.
When, eventually, I need to
replace one of my smart devices, I
will insist on having an open
bootloader on the new one. Being
locked into one companys plans
for device turnover is something I
will no longer stand for.
Alan holds a PhD in Information and

the Knowledge Society. He teaches
computer science at Escola
Andorrana de Batxillerat (highschool). He has previously given
GNU/Linux courses at the University
of Andorra and taught GNU/Linux
systems administration at the Open
University of Catalunya (UOC).
contents ^
LE T TE RS
If you would like to submit a letter for publication, compliment

or complaint, please email it to: letters@fullcirclemagazine.org .
PLEASE NOTE: some letters may be edited for space.
Join us on:
goo.gl/FRTMl
facebook.com/fullcircle
magazine
twitter.com/#!/fullcirclemag
linkedin.com/company/fullcircle-magazine
ubuntuforums.org/forum
display.php?f=270
FULL CIRCLE N EEDS YOU !

Without reader input
Full Circle would be an
empty PDF file (which I don't
think many people would find
particularly interesting). We
are always looking for articles,
reviews, anything! Even small
things like letters and desktop
screens help fill the magazine.
See the article Writing for Full
Circle in this issue to read our
basic guidelines.
Have a look at the last page of
any issue to get the details of
where to send your
contributions.
42
contents ^
KO D I Room
Ti ps a n d Tri cks
Written by Charles McColm
n the first couple of KODI Room

articles, I focused on add-ons. It
occurred to me that for this third
issue it would be good to cover
some of the basics, both of dealing
with local KODI media, and getting
the most out of all the content
added to KODI.
Before you add movies,
television shows, or music to KODI,
its important to get the naming
convention correct. The KODI wiki
is the best place to consult for how
to name your movies, television
shows, or music videos. Movies
generally follow the format of:
Show name sXXeXX.extension
For example:
Rent a Goalie s02e05.mkv
In this example, the show is

Rent a Goalie, season 2, episode 5.
You can also organize files in
subdirectories by year or season,
but I like this method since it
makes finding files simpler.
Music videos follow the format:
Artist - song.extension
For example:
ACDC - Thunderstruck.mp4
Music in mp3, flac, or other

audio-only format, is a little bit
different. All music files should
have proper ID3 tags. If youre not
sure how to rip your CD collection,
check out the Linux Labs article in
Issue #1 1 4 of Full Circle Magazine.
Back in Issue #88 you can also find
information on how to rip DVDs
with Handbrake.
Once you have your content
sorted into directories, youll need
to tell KODI where to look for the
media and what type of media
Movie name (date)

DVD/Blueray.extension
For example:
Guardians of the Galaxy
(2014) DVD.mkv
Television shows are a bit tricky

because there are a couple of
requirements: first, all episodes for
a particular show need to be in a
subfolder named after the show,
and, second, the names should
follow the format:
youre adding. For movies,

television shows and music videos,
click the Videos menu option.
Next, select Files and Add Videos.
A new window opens up and you
can either enter the path to the
movies, television shows, or music
videos directory, or you can
browse your file system until you
find the folder containing your
media.
Just above the OK and Cancel
button, KODI asks you to name the
media source. In this example, Ive
named the folder Movies, but you
can give it a more descriptive
name, and you can have multiple
sources for the same kind of
content. At home, we use separate
folders for Bluray and DVD content
so weve added a couple of
different sources with different
names to help divide the content.
Weve also separated out DVDs we
ripped a long time ago without
subtitles from DVDs weve ripped
recently with the subtitles by using
separate folders and media source
names.
Once you click OK, a new screen
43
contents ^
KODI ROOM
appears asking you to set the

content type. From this menu, you
will choose what type of content
the folder contains. In the top lefthand side, click the arrows just
under the text This directory
contains. KODI will cycle through
the following content types: none,
music videos, TV shows, and
movies.
To the right of This directory
contains, you can choose the
scraper to use. The way KODI
gets information about a movie is
to scrape it off a site. KODI
comes with a select group of
scrapers for each content type. In
our screenshot, The Movie
Database is the default for the
movies content type, but others
like IMDB are available. Some
content types have more scrapers
available that you can add by
clicking the Get more option. Click
the OK button. KODI will ask if you
want to refresh the information
for all items within the path. Click
Yes so the scraper can scrape the
movie information.
Depending on how many
movies KODI has to scrape, it may
take a few seconds to several
minutes. Dont worry too much
about selecting the Movies are in
There are a couple of reasons for

this: sometimes you actually have
the same movie saved twice with a
slightly different name, sometimes
youve removed a duplicate movie
or renamed a movie and when it
got scraped it added a second
movie to the library, and
sometimes you have duplicates
because youve got a Bluray and
DVD version. What we want to do
is clean the library, so, the next
time auto update runs (or you
manually scrape content), all old
content will be removed.
separate folders option, weve
found KODI scrapes movies in
named subdirectories regardless
of whether this option is selected
as long as scan recursively is
selected.
Sometimes youll find yourself
in a situation where a movie shows
up twice in your media library.
44
Click System > Video

Change the Settings Level at
the bottom of the screen from
Standard to Advanced. You can
now scroll down the right-hand
side until you see the Clean library
option. Click Clean library and click
Yes when prompted.
contents ^
KODI ROOM
This tip wont remove extra
movies if you still have multiple
files with the same name, but it
fixes the duplicate scraped
information from the library when
youve deleted a file or changed a
filename.
Everyone has run into them;
movies or television shows where
the audio suddenly dips to a below
perceptible level. Whats worse...
as we get older, most of us tend to
have an even more difficult time
hearing. Subtitles are a great way
to see what sometimes cant be
heard. There are a couple of ways
to enable subtitles. If youve
ripped a Bluray or DVD with
subtitles embedded, you can
enable them by hitting the Enter
key on a keyboard or clicking the
OK button on your remote when
your movie first starts. Next, click
the symbol that looks like a square
with a line at the bottom, a fly out
menu appears where you can
Enable or download a subtitle.
from repository > Subtitles

Then choose the source for the
subtitles. For movies in English, we
like Subscene.com.
OpenSubtitles.org has recently
shifted to require people to log-in
before downloading subtitles.
Once you have a subtitle source,
you can use the same process, or
clicking OK on the remote, while
the media is playing to download
a subtitle. Sometimes downloaded
subtitles are slightly off. You can
try to fix this by selecting Subtitle
Offset from the fly out menu
thats activated when you try to
download or enable a subtitle.
The last tip for this month

works whether you want to play
local, network, or streaming
Internet content. First find the
movie, television show, music
video, music or streaming content
you want to play. On a keyboard,
you can press the c key (for
context menu), remote controls
usually label this as Guide or Menu.
A window appears. Choose Add to
favourites to add the movie to a
special favourites menu. On the
default KODI skin, you can see your
favourites by clicking on the Star
on the bottom left of the screen,
right beside the Exit/Power
button. We like to favourite
television shows because it lets
you quickly access other episodes

without sorting through your
entire television show collection.
Got a KODI tip you think would
be helpful, feel free to email tips
to Full Circle Magazine:
letters@fullcirclemagazine.org, or
send them to me directly:
chaslinux@gmail.com.
Charles is the author of Instant
XBMC, and the project manager of a

not-for-profit computer reuse
project. When not building PCs,
removing malware, and encouraging
people to use GNU/Linux, Charles
works on reinventing his blog at
http://www.charlesmccolm.com/.
You wont be able to download

subtitles until youve set up a
subtitle source in KODI. To set up a
subtitle source:
Click System > Add ons > Install
45
contents ^
Q &A
If you have a Linux question, email it to: misc@fullcirclemagazine.org , and

Gord will answer them in a future issue. Please include as much
information as you can about your query.
Compiled by Gord Campbell
several files that can not

Q beI'versync.
Progress of
operation is done to 1 00% but
once at 1 00% Kubuntu "1 7.04"
returns me an input/output error
(5).
I firstly check if HDD had some

bad sectors with smartmontools
and badblocks commands, but no
bad sectors.
(Thanks to sudodus in the

Ubuntu Forums) You checked
for bad blocks, but did you check
and try to repair the file system?
Unmount the partition and:
sudo e2fsck -f /dev/sdxy
where x is the drive letter and y is

the partition number.
partition is 1 2
Q GB,My and1 4.04is root
now 95% full. How
can I find and possibly remove
excess "stuff" that may be filling
up the root partition?
You can delete the .deb files

for all the updates you have
installed over the years. Once
installed, the .deb files serve no
purpose.
sudo apt-get clean
Also, use Synaptic Package

Manager to "completely remove"
most of the old kernels, then run:
sudo update-grub
I'm trying to install VMware
Q Workstation
1 2.5.2 on Ubuntu
1 6.1 0. I ran a "sudo chmod +x

VMware-Workstation-Full-1 2.5.24638234.x86_64.bundle" in my
terminal, but I don't know where to
go from here.
Go to this page:
https://www.vmware.com/support
/pubs/ws_pubs.html
Download the Using VMWare
PDF. It includes a section on
installation.
I want to get pictures from

Q Canon
EOS camera.
integer?
https://goo.gl/xZnV4d
As ajgreeny suggested, just

use the file manager. Details
depend on what version of Linux
you are using, and perhaps which
Canon camera you have.
* How can I track time from the

command-line?
https://goo.gl/IUMq0Z
TOP QUESTIONS AT
ASKUBUNTU
* How to check whether a partition

is mounted by UUID?
https://goo.gl/mfWjzY
f you are nervous about clicking

on a short goo.gl URL, you can
get information about it quite
easily. Copy the URL, paste it into
your browser's address bar, and
add a plus-sign. Now goo.gl will tell
you where it goes, as well as
statistics about its use. (Thanks to
askleo.com for the tip.)
* What is the command to remove

all files but no folders?
https://goo.gl/2Z9z90
* Music notation software for

Ubuntu
Mark the files you want to copy, https://goo.gl/YiFJyR
go to Pictures. and perhaps make
* Do GUI based applications
and go to a folder such as
201 61 228, then paste the files into execute shell commands in the
background?
the folder.
https://goo.gl/8HhywK
* How to capture disk usage

percentage of a partition as an
46
* How to block specific username

from ssh?
https://goo.gl/7Qsjjk
* My Ubuntu 1 6.04 goes into a
state of limbo when suspended
https://goo.gl/ZI4t3M
contents ^
U B U N T U G AM E S
Open RA
Written by Christopher Hart
here were many games

developed during the late 80s
and early 90s that became cultural
icons in their own right. They
became the yardsticks by which
future games in that genre would
be measured. Super Mario Bros for
Platformers. Doom for FPS games.
Ultima for RPGs. Myst for
adventure games.
In 1 993, a developer called
Westwood Studios released one
of the most ambitious game titles
in history up to that point. A game
set in an alternate Earth but
modern times, telling a story from
both sides of a fictional war. They
used all the tricks they could to tell
a compelling story from both sides
of a war, complete with hammy
acting in the video cut-scenes that
would play before each mission.
game) called Red Alert. This game

took what worked in the original
and improved on it. Better art,
sound, everything.
same engine as Red Alert, it did

not fare very well critically with
IGN and Gamespot giving it 5/1 0
each.
The following year, they

released not one but two
expansion packs, Counterstrike
and The Aftermath, adding all this
goodness to an already great
game.
All these games are among my

favourites of all time, and I have
bought every edition of these
games that I could find. But, during
the past few years (since I made
the switch to Linux), I could not
enjoy them as much in an emulated
environment (Dosbox or
Virtualbox). However, I was
surprised when I found out about
OpenRA whilst browsing around
Google. When I had heard that
Then, in 1 998, Westwood

Studios went back to one of their
original successful games and
remade it. Dune 2000 was
released, and although it used the
Command & Conquer and Red

Alert, including the addon packs,
became freeware, I was looking for
a way to get these games running
in Linux.
I was surprised when I not only
managed to find this program, but
also saw that it was open-source,
updated to use the hardware
acceleration of modern video cards
using OpenGL and cross-platform
positional sound built upon
OpenAL. The people behind this
not only managed to recreate the
engine powering up these games,
they also allow you to download
the assets that would be needed to
play the game from a server (if you
do not have the CD or the freely
available ISO files previously
downloaded).
G AMEPLAY
I am talking about Command &

Conquer. After it found very quick
success, Westwood pushed out an
expansion pack the following year,
The Covert Operations in 1 996. In
1 996, they released the first spinoff game (which was planned as
another add-on to the original
47
While I (and possibly you) love

the classic RTS gameplay,
multiplayer game design has
evolved significantly since the
early 1 990s. The OpenRA mods
include new features and
gameplay improvements that bring
contents ^
UBUNTU GAMES
them into the modern era:

A choice between right click
and classic left click control
schemes.
Overhauled sidebar interfaces for
managing production.
Support for game replays (during
single and multiplayer) with an
observer mode designed for online
streaming.
The fog of war that obscures the
battlefield outside of the line-ofsight of your controlled
units/buildings.
Civilian buildings that can be
captured and used for strategic
purposes.
Units gain experience as they
fight, improving with each rank.
Therefore these are classic

controls the universe!
games with modern standards that Establish a foothold on the desert
work in each mod.
planet Arrakis, where your biggest
threat is the environment.
PLOT/STORY
With the game being focused

more on the multiplayer, there is a
large single-player component
with many of the original missions
being recreated in this engine.
But each of the 3 mods have
separate stories:
D UNE 2000
Three great houses fight for the
precious spice melange.
He who controls the spice
COMMAND & CONQUER

TIBERIAN D AWN
An alliance of nations fights to
protect Europe and northern Africa
from a mysterious terrorist
organization and the valuable but
toxic alien mineral, Tiberium, that
is slowly spreading over the world.
never existed, the Soviet Union

seeks power over all of Europe.
Allied against this Evil Empire, the
free world faces a Cold War turned
hot.
H OW TO I NSTALL THE
ENGINE AND GAMES
You can either get the latest

stable version, or testing version,
of the engine from their website
located at
www.openra.net/downloads. You
can choose either the more stable
less feature-rich version, or the
COMMAND & CONQUER but
more feature-rich and possible
RED ALERT
very buggy and unstable testing
version. Once the small file (about
In a world where the Third Reich 20 MB) has been downloaded,
48
contents ^
UBUNTU GAMES
either by double-clicking the file

(thereby opening up the default
.deb installer), or by opening up a
terminal and typing in the
following:
Windows: %USERPROFILE%\My
Documents\OpenRA\Content\$M
OD
or%ProgramFiles%\OpenRA\Supp
ort (portable installation)
Mac OSX: ~/Library/Application
Support/OpenRA/Content/$MOD
Linux: ~/.openra/Content/$MOD
(Note: Linux is case-sensitive, so
you have to change .MIX to .mix)
you have the original media,

though.
TIBERIAN D AWN
The installation of the movie

files is quite straightforward here.
You need both the GDI and Nod
disc for the installation, as each
Assuming that is where youre
contains a different set of movies.
downloading the file from.
Insert the GDI disc.
where $MOD is the mod ID:
Copy the MOVIES.MIX file from
ra for Red Alert
Now to get the game data.
the CD to the cnc game content
cnc for Tiberian Dawn
directory and rename it to movies d2k for Dune 2000
gdi.mix.
AUTOMATIC INSTALLATION
Insert the Nod disc.
(RECOMMENDED)
On the first run, the game will
Copy the MOVIES.MIX file from
ask whether you want to download the CD to the cnc game content
OpenRA will prompt you to
a stripped-down version
directory and rename it to moviesinstall the original game content
automatically (as both the full
nod.mix.
the first time that you launch a
motion video and music
mod. This process occurs
soundtrack are optional). For a
RED ALERT
automatically from inside the
wholesome multimedia
game: the game client can
experience, you should copy the
The steps here are a bit more
download a minimal set of game
complete *.MIX content from the
involved, as the .MIX files we are
files from the internet, or copy the original game CD.
interested in are actually contained
full game content (including music
in yet other .MIX files, so we have
and movies) from an original install I NSTALLING THE FULLto extract them first. Here, too,
cd.
you need both the Soviet and
MOTION VIDEOS
Allied disc.
M ANUAL INSTALLATION
Insert the Allied disc.
The FMVs take up most of the
space on the original game media Copy the MAIN.MIX file from the
If you would like to install the
CD to your ra game content
(~500MB each), so they are not
game files manually, then you may included in the downloaded game directory.
copy the *.MIX files to:
assets. They can easily be added if Open a terminal/console window,
49
sudo dpkg -i
~/Downloads/openra(rest_of_file_name).deb
change to the directory where you

installed OpenRA.
Run the following command:
"./OpenRA.Utility.exe ra --extract
movies1 .mix"
Move movies1 .mix from the
OpenRA installation directory to
your ra game content directory.
Insert the Soviet disc.
Copy the MAIN.MIX file from the
CD to your ra game content
directory (you can overwrite the
existing one).
Open a terminal/console window,
change to the directory where you
installed OpenRA.
Run the following command:
"./OpenRA.Utility.exe ra --extract
movies2.mix"
Move movies2.mix from the
OpenRA installation directory to
your ra game content directory.
D UNE 2000
This one is easier again. In fact,
the Copy from CD option in-game
during the asset installation will
already copy the movies, in
contrast to the other two mods.
If you have the need to install
them manually, it's still easy since
it just involves copying files from
the CD to your hard drive. This will
contents ^
UBUNTU GAMES
work correctly only for the assets

from the English version of the
game, as the files are named
differently for other languages.
Insert the Dune 2000 disc.
Move the contents of the movies
directory on the CD into the
Movies (note: upper-case!)
subdirectory of the d2k game
content directory.
Optionally: if you have a nonEnglish version of the game, you
have to rename the movie files to
match their English counterparts,
so, for example, from a_br01 _g.vqa
('g' for German) toa_br01 _e.vqa ('e'
for English).
System requirements:
Shader Model 2.0 capable GPU

(Radeon 9500+ / GeForce FX5200+
/ GMA X31 00+)
1 GB Free Hard Drive Space
51 2MB RAM (the game itself uses
~1 00MB)
Sound
3 Button Mouse
Network Card (desirable)
Display capable of at least
1 024768
So... basically any pc made in
the last 1 0 years.
CONCLUSION
Christopher is a simple technician
who loves games and movies. I have

just started a website
(willbeone-techtips.co.za) where I try
to upload a couple of times a week.
While this is an amazing piece

of work that is slowly improving all
the time, I cannot wait until they
implement their next feature into
the game: support for Command &
Conquer 2 Tiberian Sun!
I will happily rate this game an
extremely well-deserved 4/5 stars.
50
contents ^
PATRO N S
PATRONS
Bill Berninghausen
Jack McMahon
Linda P
Remke Schuurmans
Norman Phillips
Tom Rausner
Charles Battersby
Tom Bell
Oscar Rivera
Alex Crabtree
Ray Spain
Richard Underwood
Charles Anderson
Ricardo Coalla
Chris Giltnane
William von Hagen
Mark Shuttleworth
Juan Ortiz
Joe Gulizia
Kevin Raulins
Doug Bruce
Pekka Niemi
Rob Fitzgerald
Brian M Murray
Roy Milner
Brian Bogdan
Scott Mack
Dennis Mack
John Helmers
JT
Elizabeth K. Joseph
Vincent Jobard
Chris Giltnane
Joao Cantinho Lopes
John Andrews
D ONATIONS
John Niendorf
Daniel Witzel
Douglas Brown
Donald Altman
Patrick Scango
Tony Wood
Paul Miller
Colin McCubbin
Randy Brinson
John Fromm
Graham Driver
Chris Burmajster
Steven McKee
Manuel Rey Garcia
Alejandro Carmona Ligeon
sinia vidovi
Glenn Heaton
Louis W Adams Jr
Raul Thomas
Pascal Lemaitre
PONG Wai Hing
Denis Millar
Elio Crivello
Rene Hogan
Kevin Potter
Marcos Alvarez Costales
Raymond Mccarthy
Max Catterwell
Frank Dinger
Paul Weed
Jaideep Tibrewala
Patrick Martindale
Antonino Ruggiero
Andrew Taylor
CHA CHA CHA CHANGES

Our admin went AWOL for months, and
I had no idea if/when the site
would/wouldnt get paid. Initially the
plan was to move the site and domain
name to my hosting, but eventually I
managed to track him down and get
the FCM domain name, and site hosting
transferred to me.
The new site is now up. HUGE thanks to
Lucas Westermann (Mr. Command &
Conquer) for taking on the job of
completely rebuilding the site, and
scripts, from scratch, in his own time.
The Patreon page that Ive set up is to
help me pay the domain and hosting
fees. The yearly target was quickly
reached thanks to those listed on this
page. FCM is not going away. Dont
worry about that.
Several people have asked for a PayPal
(single donation) option, so Ive added
a button to the side of the site
A big thank you to all those whove

used Patreon and the PayPal button.
Its a big help.
https://www.patreon.com/
fullcirclemagazine
51
contents ^
Full Circle Team
H OW TO CO N TRI BU TE
Editor - Ronnie Tucker
FCM#1 1 7
FULL CIRCLE NEEDS YOU!
A magazine isn't a magazine without articles and Full Circle is no

exception. We need your opinions, desktops, stories, how-to's,
reviews, and anything else you want to tell your fellow *buntu users.
Send your articles to: articles@fullcirclemagazine.org
Deadline :
Sunday 08th Jan 201 7.

Release :
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Full Circle Magazine - Issue 116 EN

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Full Circle

THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY

Photo: Tomi Knuutila (Flickr)

ISSUE #1 1 6 - December 201 6

Fu ll Ci rcle M a g a zi n e i s n e i th e r a ffi li a te d wi th , n o r e n d o rse d b y, Ca n o n i ca l Ltd .

LaTeX With Zim

Program With FreePascal p.23

THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY

Command & Conquer

This magazine was created using :

WELCOME TO THE LAST ISSUE* OF FULL CIRCLE.

All the best, and keep in touch!

Find Full Circle on:

* The last issue of 201 6 that is. :)

full circle magazine #1 1 6

Submitted by Arnfried Walbrecht

THE FULL CIRCLE

ALT LINUX 8.1

napd 2.1 8 is here three weeks

A short podcast (<1 0min)

full circle magazine #1 1 6

recent software releases, including OpenStack.

M ODERN CLOUD SERVICES

ed Hat, the worlds leading

from a feature and application

With all of that said, Microsoft

DESKTOP USERS TO SEND

inux-based desktop operating

J OLLAS S AILFISH OS NOW

he future for one of the few

U BUNTU 1 6.04.2 LTS

Linux-based operating system.

After publishing the release

Livepatch Service for rebootless

Additionally, buyers will get

We believe that those of you

ZENTYAL SERVER 5.0 O UT

he Zentyal development team

immediate availability for

he development team behind

nor a Live or text mode (CLI)

CANONICAL OFFERS DIRECT

nterprise Ubuntu users

and Microsoft offers the same as

CHROME 55 ROLLING OUT TO

ver the past year, Google

In September with version 53,

Yandex.ru, OK.ru, Twitch.tv,

Linux-based operating systems,

And today, we see the GNOME

ANOTHER SPEED BOOST

Obscurity is not always a bad

Version 7.1 .0 also offers

Many look-alike desktop distros

prefixing the type name with a

REFRACTA 8.0 I S A PINTSIZED POWERHOUSE

new maintenance version of

Refracta is one of the few fullservice Linux distros that makes an

he PHP 7 line, which debuted a