30 Jun 2015

Jdrivesync: your Google Drive synchronisation client for Linux

Google Drive is an instrument that is used by many. Of course, there are many alternatives to it like Dropbox or Yandex.Drive, but nevertheless many prefer a Google-backed solution. One of the reasons for me was an ability to have several services under one "roof", one account.

Google released clients for its Drive for many platforms: Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS and so on. Unfortunately, an official Linux client is still a missing part of the puzzle. That is why developers worked to create unofficial clients for Google Drive.

Grive was a solution for many. It worked on Ubuntu, Debian and so on... It was distributed in source code only, so you had to compile it for your own OS. Unfortunately, things changed in April 2015. Grive no longer works. The reasons behind this issue are given here.

Is there an alternative to Grive? Yes, there are several options:
  1. Insync. This is a paid option. I leave it for those who interested.
  2. Ocamlfuse. It is a heavy-weight solution. I tried it in the past, and was not 100% happy about it.
  3. Jdrivesync. This is the free option I've never tried before.
Let's explore it!

24 Jun 2015

Mageia 5 KDE: quick screenshot tour

Mageia 5 is a distribution that many people where waiting for. Initially scheduled for November 2014, it was finally released on the 19th of June 2015.

Let's have a look at this distribution with a quick screenshot tour. This is not intended to be a full-scale review, just a quick glance.

23 Jun 2015

Ubuntu 15.04: evolution continues

Everyone knows the distribution that I am going to review today. It is one of the most famous distributions in the world, leader of the Distrowatch chart and base for many forks and spins.

Canonical releases new versions of Ubuntu family distributions every 6 months. Ubuntu 15.04 was released in April 2015, and you can buy the disk with this version on BuyLinuxCDs.co.uk or via a special post on this blog.

Although it is very easy to download an ISO image from Ubuntu's official web site, people order these disks from me, so I decided to take one of them for a personal test-drive. The distribution's ISO image is about 1.2 Gb in size.

So, DVD with the 64-bit Desktop version Ubuntu 15.04 is in the DVD-drive of my Toshiba Satellite L500-19X. Reboot. Choose to boot from DVD. Let's go!

16 Jun 2015

How-to: different headers and footers on even and odd pages in LibreOffice

LibreOffice Writer is a great Free Open Source tool for writing, no one can argue. Its features are good for both the home users who simply need to write a note to a friend, and to professional authors who need to write texts that many other people read.

Of course, professional texts should look professional. LibreOffice Writer has tools for that! Some time ago I told you how you can insert page numbers in the footers or headers of your pages. Then I told you how you can start page numbering from a certain number – useful for books that have title page or pages created with other tools. Today is the time to uncover yet another useful feature of LibreOffice Writer.

2 Jun 2015

Ruth Suehle: Red Hat and Fedora derivatives and forks are part of the community

No one will argue that Linux world is more fragmented than the worlds of other operating systems. Each distribution has its fans, developers and haters.

There are few companies among this ocean of distributions that work closely with the community and help the Linux world to improve. Would it be interesting for you to see what people in these companies think like? Let's talk to one of them!

Let me introduce: Ruth Suehle!