I’m blogging tonight using my System76 Darter Pro which is now nearly three years old. The laptop came with Pop!_OS installed on it and I kept using that Linux distribution for much of the first two years. Last year I made the switch to Linux Mint and I enjoy that very much. Whether I’m running Pop!_OS or Linux Mint my computer runs as well as it did when it was new nearly three years ago. Linux and free software provide the best value for most users and yet daily I encounter folks who have never heard of Linux or free software. Last week I helped a friend access their inaccessible Microsoft Word and Excel files by installing LibreOffice 7.2 on their Windows laptop. I hoped to encourage this person to upgrade their Windows 7 operating system which is out of date with the Linux option. Their computer which is a Hewlett-Packard DM4-2070us is an excellent candidate. It has an i5 processor and six GB RAM. One of the impediments for my friend is the need to edit PES files for a Brother embroidery machine. I found an open source workaround using the Inkstitch extension with Inkscape. I wish I was more proficient with that application than I am.
Pop!_OS 20.04 Window Tiling
One of the really useful and neat features of Pop!_OS 20.04 and what sets it apart from the standard Ubuntu 20.04 release is window tiling. It’s quite amazing and I know that I’m going to find this really useful going forward. I really have to hand it to the UX team at System76 who thought of this in the first place. Jason Evangelho has a great article about Pop!_OS and shared this video from System76 about the new UX feature.
If you’re not familiar with Pop!_OS and or new to Linux you really ought to give it a try.
Upgrade Day
Pop_OS 20.04 was released a couple of days ago and for whatever reason my System76 laptop wouldn’t upgrade to the latest release. I had rebuilt the computer is February after outsmarting myself one day. Learning the hard way is frequently the best way to learn. In any event I had been running Pop_OS 19.10 and the automatic update just wouldn’t work even after following the excellent documentation on System76’s website. I followed the link to download Pop_OS 20.04, burned the ISO to a USB drive, backed up my system with Cronopete and did a fresh install on my Darter Pro. It all went well and now I’m back in business and blogging. I installed Ubuntu 20.-04 earlier this week on a 2015 MacBook Air that I own. Earlier today I installed a Chromebook for a friend and she returned a Dell 7470 that I had loaned her last year. After getting home I installed Pop_OS on that computer too. This has been upgrade day at the house. I’m eager to explore the nuances of Pop_OS 20.04. What version of Linux are you using? Be sure to leave a comment. Some of my favorite Linux apps are Gnome-Tweaks, GnuCash, KSnip and Cronopete. What are your favorite Linux apps?
What is a Happiness Manager?
I’ve been listening to Linux for Everyone since its inception almost two years ago. I’ve been a Linux user for almost twenty years and it’s my daily driver for most of the last fifteen years. Prior to December 2018 most of my LInux machines were repurposed Dell computers. That changed following a trip to Denver in 2018. I was the guest of System76. I was their for the rollout of their Thelio line of Linux desktops. One of the first people I met at the factory was Emma Marshall. She’s the Happiness Manager. Emma is one of the happiest and zaniest people I’ve ever met. I remember walking in the door of the factory and seeing Emma and her team. Hanging from the large LCD display of her computer was a rubber fish. I told her how much I liked the fish as it reminded me of friend I used to teach with. Emma offered to give me the fish as a keepsake. Following the day long factory visit System76 took us to downtown Denver for a wonderful meal and socializing. When it came time for me to leave and hail the Lyft driver who would take me back to the hotel, Emma made sure that I made the right connection. She’s a wonderful person and I was pleased to see that Jason Evangelho had a nice interview with her on his podcast today.