4 Ways to Use Whatsapp Messenger on Your Computer

I have recently written about the Telegram Messenger, the secure way to exchange messages with your friends via Internet using your mobile device or computer.

However, Telegram is not the market leader in the world of mobile messengers. Who is? I think you guessed it right: Whatsapp.

Whatsapp was initially designed to work on mobile phones. As in Telegram and other mobile messengers, your account with Whatsapp is your phone number. But does it mean that a mobile device is the only way to use Whatsapp? As in the Telegram case, the answer is "no".

There are several ways to use the Whatsapp messenger on your computer. I specifically don’t mention "Linux" here. I will explain later why.

4 tools to play Windows Games on Linux?

Linux operating systems gives the stability that Windows platform somewhere fails to deliver. But what about gaming? Can we compare Windows and Linux on gaming front? I don't think it will be a fare game to compare both on this aspect. Users who want to go with gaming will rarely use Linux and users who are comfortable with Linux operations will rarely go for Windows. Both are big competitors to each other and both have respective pros and cons.

But when it comes to gaming then Windows leads Linux somewhere. What does that mean, can't we play games on Linux? Well it's not true and today we can easily play most of the Windows games on our Linux system. Here I will showcase some tools that will convert your Linux machine into a gaming ware.

5 ways to use the Telegram messenger on your Linux computer

Mobile technology develops rapidly nowadays. Do you remember that just 5-8 years ago the most you could get from your mobile device was phone calls and text messages?

Today your smartphone can do more than a typical computer could do 10 years go. Plus, smartphone is also mobile and very often connected to the Internet.

One of the areas that grows exponentially now among smartphone applications is instant messengers. The ability to send your friends messages through the Internet attracts many users, especially as these messages cost many-many times less than standard text messages (SMS). "Many-many times" actually means free. You only pay for the traffic you use, which is quite cheap except for roaming cases. And you can send cross-border messages at the same [nil] price as local, which is impossible to achieve for Mobile Network Operators.

If you still don't understand what messengers I am talking about, I'd like to name two: Whatsapp and Viber. You should have heard at least one of these names.

But I will not talk about these apps. I don't use them. I don't trust them.

What do I use? I use Facebook Messenger and Telegram.

Facebook Messenger - because I use Facebook anyway. But what is Telegram you may ask?

Telegram is a relatively new player on this market. It has three benefits that make it stand out for me:

1. it is open source.
2. it is secure – you can get a serious prize for breaking its security!
3. it is absolutely free and will never push ads.

At least, these are promises for now. And I trust them.

Telegram is available on your mobile phone AND on your desktop both, which is quite convenient when you share your time between both.

It is quite clear how you can use your messenger on the phone. But how can you run Telegram on the desktop? There are actually five ways to do so. Let's have a look at them.

Linux-running car: can you feel me?

This is probably the least Linux related post on this blog... but still it has some words about Linux.

Tesla is one of the hottest discussion topics for few last years. Yes, this is a state-of-the art car that drives on electricity and offers you a pure pleasure... At least, that's what many reviewers and ads tell you.

I have had a chance to look inside this car and even sit in it. That's why I want to share my opinion on it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Another year has gone. It was a nice year. A year when I returned to blogging. A year when many troubles went away. A year of hope. A year of love.

Let me wish to all of my readers

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

I wish you all the best in the coming year!

See you all in 2016!

Stay tuned to Linux notes from DarkDuck.

How-to video: Removing old kernels in Ubuntu

Once new kernel passes the test system, Ubuntu offers you to install it through its update system.
At the same time, old kernel remains in the system. It means that after some time of using Ubuntu, you may have a number of old kernels. They take your disk space and also may clutter the GRUB menu, although the latter issue is resolved in newer versions of Ubuntu.

This video shows you the way to remove old obsolete kernels from your Ubuntu installation.

The same approach is valid for whole Ubuntu family and derivatives: Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Zorin OS, Linux Mint and so on.

Please remember that the "best practice" is to keep at least two kernels in the system: the current and the previous one. This is to ensure the fallback solution if current kernel fails for whatever reason.

How many old kernels do you have in your system? How often do you remove the obsolete kernels?

DarkDuck is looking for the hosting provider change

Hello to all my subscribers.

Let me use this blog post for my personal rather than Linux-oriented need. I promise we will come back to Linux very soon.

You may be aware that I run this blog along with some other sites, one of them being buylinuxcds.co.uk. That's why I need a hosting provider. My current one is Awardspace.

I cannot recommend them high enough for their quality of service. Their technical support is exceptional. Their uptime and bandwidth are very good.

However, their price is no longer competitive. I feel like I can find a better price to host my sites. Maybe that is what you can help me with?

So, what do I need?

• I have 3 different domains to host (one .com and two .co.uk), some of them having sub-domains of 3rd and 4th levels. None of these sub-domains should be lost, but not all of them will be hosted by my new potential hosting provider. For example, this blog will remain on Blogger.
• Worpress installation and all surrounding infrastructure (PHP, MySQL and so on)
• My current provider says I use 1.2Gb of disk space and 25Gb of monthly traffic. I think it is an overestimation, but let's stick to these numbers.
• It should not necessarily be a free hosting. I am OK to pay a reasonable amount if that's lower than my Awardspace renewal offer.

Can you recommend any hosting provider who can meet my requirements? If yes, please leave a comment here or email me: darkduck at darkduck dot com.

PS. I will honour affiliate links, if you provide them.