Tag: open sourcce

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Ventoy: The Ultimate Multi-Boot USB Tool

Giving friends and neighbors a bootable USB drive containing your favorite Linux distribution is a great way to introduce neophyte Linux users to the experience we all enjoy. Many people have never heard of Linux, and putting your favorite distribution on a bootable USB drive is a great way to break the ice.

I taught an introductory computer class to a group of middle schoolers a few years ago. We used old laptops, and I introduced the students to Fedora, Ubuntu, and Pop!_OS. When the class was over, I gave each student a copy of their favorite distribution to take home and install on a computer of their choice. They were eager to try their new skills at home.

A friend introduced me to Ventoy, which (according to its GitHub repository) is “an open-source tool to create bootable a USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files.” Instead of creating separate drives for each Linux distribution I want to share, I can make a single drive with all my favorite Linux distributions on the drive!

As you might expect, a USB drive’s size determines how many distributions you can fit on it. On a 16GB drive, I placed Fedora Cinnamon and Fedora KDE Plasma and still have over nine gigabytes free to hold other distributions.

Get Ventoy

Ventoy is open source, with a GPL v3 license, and available for Windows and Linux. There is excellent documentation on downloading and installing Ventoy on Microsoft Windows. The Linux installation happens from the command line, so it can be a little confusing if you’re unfamiliar with that process. Yet, it’s easier than it might seem.

First, download Ventoy. I downloaded the archive file to my desktop. Next, extract the ventoy-x.y.z-linux.tar.gz archive (but replace x.y.z with your download’s version number) using the tar command (to keep things simple, I use the * character as an infinite wildcard in the command):

$ tar -xvf ventoy*z

This command extracts all the necessary files into a folder named ventoy-x.y.z on my desktop.

You can also use your Linux distribution’s archive manager to accomplish the same task. After downloading and extracting, you can install Ventoy to your USB drive.

Install Ventoy and Linux on a USB

Insert your USB drive into your computer. Change the directory into the Ventoy folder, and look for a shell script named Ventoy2Disk.sh. For this script to work correctly, you must determine the correct mount point for your USB drive. 

$ lsblk

The results show that my USB drive is mounted at /dev/sda. On your computer, the location could be /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc or something similar.

Once you’re sure of your drive’s location, run the script:

$ sudo sh Ventoy2Disk.sh -i /dev/sdX

This formats the drive and installs Ventoy to your USB. Now, you can copy and paste all the Linux distributions that will fit on the drive. If you boot the newly created drive on your computer, you’ll see a menu with the distributions you have copied to your USB drive.

Build a portable powerhouse

Picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0

Ventoy is your key to carrying a multiboot drive on your keychain, so you’ll never be without the distributions you rely on. You can have a full-featured desktop, a lightweight distro, a console-only maintenance utility, and anything else you want.

I never leave the house without a Linux distro, nor should you. Grab Ventoy, a USB drive, and a handful of ISOs. You won’t be sorry.

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Navigating the AI Revolution: Balancing Innovation, Privacy, and Open-Source Alternatives

Everywhere you look, whether in print or on the web, the rage is AI. I’m part of the group that sees potential in machine learning and how it might reshape our educational systems. All the major tech companies have embraced it, and at the same time, many folks are sure that it spells the end of authentic authorship. In addition to some of the slop created with artificial intelligence, there is a growing concern for our privacy. Some people allege that their original works are being used to train large language models without permission.

In the past couple of years, I have asked folks in higher education and K-12 if their institutions have policies stipulating how teachers and students can use this emerging technology that continues to proliferate. With few exceptions, such policies do not exist. There are the Luddites who refuse to acknowledge its presence, some who believe in ubiquity but have very few policies, and those who stipulate no policy.

Most major operating systems and many of their applications now incorporate AI features, making it challenging to avoid them. However, there is a solution: high-quality, freely accessible software. This solution consists of open-source software that does not include artificial intelligence algorithms. The best part is that you don’t have to give up your existing operating systems unless you choose to. If you decide to switch, I recommend considering one of the major Linux distributions, as they can help extend the life of your hardware and software.

LibreOffice is a comprehensive office suite that includes a word processor (Writer), a spreadsheet application (Calc), and presentation software (Impress). It allows you to save your work in open formats, ensuring you always have access to your documents. When using proprietary software, those programs save your work in formats that are inaccessible unless you continue to purchase a license for that product. LibreOffice uses open documents, which ensure that your job is always accessible to you. LibreOffice is also available on Linux, MacOS, and Windows and is open source.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a fully featured alternative to proprietary photo editing software and includes embedded AI capabilities. Gimp is used for image manipulation, editing, free-form drawing, converting between various image file formats, and other specialized tasks. The software is extensible through plugins and supports scripting for enhanced functionality. It is open source with a GPL v. 3 license.

Inkscape is a free, open-source vector graphics editor available for Unix-compatible systems, including Linux, Windows, and macOS. It provides a robust set of tools and is widely used for creating artistic and technical illustrations, such as cartoons, clip art, logos, typography, diagrams, and flowcharts. Inkscape uses vector graphics to ensure sharp printouts and renderings at any resolution, unlike raster graphics, which are limited by pixel dimensions.

Blender is a robust, open-source software suite for 3D modeling and animation, extensively utilized across diverse industries such as animation, visual effects, art, and 3D printing. It provides a comprehensive array of modeling, texturing, sculpting, rigging, animation, rendering, compositing, and motion-tracking tools within a single, versatile application.

Audacity is a free and open-source digital audio editor for Windows, macOS, and Linux. In addition to recording audio from various sources, Audacity provides extensive post-processing features for all types of audio. These features include effects such as normalization, trimming, and fading in and out. Audacity can record multiple tracks at once. Audacity natively supports importing and exporting WAV, AIFF, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and other formats compatible with the libsndfile library. However, due to patent licensing restrictions, the FFmpeg library required for handling proprietary formats like M4A (AAC) and WMA is not included with Audacity and must be downloaded separately.

VLC is a free, open-source, and portable media player and streaming server created by the VideoLAN project. It supports desktop operating systems and mobile platforms, including Android, iOS, and iPadOS.

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Balancing Power and Portability: The journey of a technophile

When I attended All Things Open a year ago, I carried a Hewlett-Packard DevOne, which I had purchased the year before. Two years ago, I was anxious to try the DevOne because I wanted to try an AMD Ryzen 7 with Linux. It was a platform I had never used. I have been a solid Intel user for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. I liked the size and feel of the computer, but in an all-day conference where I attended all the keynotes and other sessions using the computer for note-taking, tweeting, and tooting, I was disappointed in the battery life.

I came home, put the laptop for sale on E-bay, and decided I was going to buy one of the newer 15-inch M2 MacBook Air computers. I have enjoyed using the MacBook to experiment with Stable Diffusion, DiffusionBee, Llamafile, Ollama, and other applications. I took the MacBook to a half-day conference in mid-April and have used it sparingly since then, but I was determined to give an actual test at All Things Open earlier this week. It surpassed all my expectations for its exceptional battery life. I attended all the keynotes and many sessions where I took notes and live-tooted what I was seeing and hearing, and at the end of the day, each day, I had around seventy percent of battery life. That is simply amazing.

I’m not ready to ditch Linux. I’m writing this article on my main desktop, which runs Linux Mint Cinnamon, but I am impressed with the battery life of the M2 MacBook Air. I have found the M2 chip equal to almost everything I have used it for. Apple has introduced the new MacBook Pro with an M4, sixteen gigabytes of RAM, and 512 GB drive with three Thunderbolt ports and HDMI. I came close to buying one today. I learned while I was at All Things Open that it might make sense for me to get a MacBook with a bit more RAM to continue experimenting with locally hosted large language models.

Being a technophile has its rewards and challenges, and I am presented with another one now. Apple will give me a five hundred eighty dollar trade-in on the M2 MacBook Air. The new MacBook Pro has a fourteen-inch display, and the MacBook Air has a fifteen-inch display. I like the larger display, but there is no doubt that there are compelling reasons to go with the newer, more powerful MacBook Pro with lots of expansion. Should I pay another two hundred dollars for a terabyte of storage, or should I stay with the stock of five hundred twelve gigabyte drives? Lots of decisions.