Over the years, my experience with Fedora has been an unpredictable rollercoaster. Some of the releases were really splendid, some rather bad. The thing is, you can't really know until you try. The one thing that can be established with a moderate level of certainty is that Fedora's overall quality has gone up. It's transformed from a purely beta-quality tester thing into an almost reasonable home usage distro, although short-lived and with a heavy dev focus.

As such, it does need changes to make accessible to the ordinary users. Since I do derive joy from writing guides and tutorials that help people use their systems more effectively, I've written numerous tweaking articles for Fedora (and other distros), which show how to obtain codecs, extra software, and such. Today, we shall take this up another notch. Follow me.

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This sounds like a rather obscure title, don't you think? Well, picture this. You have an Ubuntu distro flavor installed, in my case Kubuntu 18.04 Beaver or KDE neon, and you want to reboot. For some odd reason, clicking the right button through the system menu does not do anything. There's no restart happening. OK, so you go for a command line trick.

You open a console window and you type sudo reboot. Only you receive the following error message: Failed to start reboot.target: Transaction is destructive. See system logs and 'systemctl status reboot.target' for details. What. At this point, it seems like a hard boot is the only option. But then, that's not really a solution. Let's investigate.

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Say you have a small form-factor device with a high-resolution display. Case in point, my Slimbook Pro2 laptop, which comes with fourteen inches of equity and 1920x1080 pixel grid. This means things are rendered rather small, and if you wish to read or interact with the desktop environment and the applications in a meaningful way, you will strain your eyes - unless you're twenty and a developer, in which case you have bionic eyes.

Prompted by this serious ergonomic need, I started fiddling with different options and settings, to see if I could adjust the viewability in KDE, and make the small screen shows things in a slightly enlarged manner. This turned out to be a rather long and non-trivial exercise. In this guide, I will show you how to properly and elegantly scale the KDE desktop, GTK applications (both 2.0 and 3.0 editions), Firefox and Chrome browsers with tips that also apply to all operating systems and use cases, and then some. After me.

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Say what you will about Chrome, but over the years, it has maintained a rather consistent look & feel. The changes are mostly done under the hood and they do not interfere with how the user interacts with the browser. But occasionally, mostly guided by their wider influence in the OS space, especially the mobile world, Google has made some stylistic changes. Most notably, they introduced Material Design to the Chrome UI, and now, there's another facelift.

I noticed the new looks in the freshly updated Chrome 69 in Kubuntu Beaver, and I wasn't too happy. The font is gray and pale, ergo contrast isn't as good as it should be, and the new round design feels odd. So I decided to change this back to the older style. Let me show you how you can do this.

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File system conversion is not an everyday thing. For that matter, it’s not even an every year thing. But when you do need to convert from one format to another, the operation is usually long, tedious and sometimes destructive. Most often, you would copy files to a backup location, re-format the partition, then copy the data back. The notion of being able to do a seamless, live conversion sounds like a cool thing.

Fstranform is a tool designed to offer in-place file system conversions without a need for a backup. This program does its magic by mounting several loopback devices and uses them to shuffle bytes to and fro while it restructures the file system layout. The advantages – if proven successful, of course – are in that you do not need to worry about backup devices (could be many terabytes), and you could potentially save time. Sold! Let’s see how it works.

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Several days ago, I happily posted an article showcasing my first impressions with a recently purchased Slimbook Pro2 laptop. I was extremely pleased with how the experience went. The laptop looks the part, behaves the part. I installed Kubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver LTS on it, and things only got better from there.

I didn't elaborate much on the actual operating system experience. But this is why we're here. I want to give a detailed overview - and yet another Kubuntu 18.04 review - of the actual setup, the hardware part, speed, performance, battery, all the important bits and pieces. After all, I intend to use this machine for serious work, and everything has to be super green. So let's see.

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WordPress is the most popular Content Management System (CMS) and blogging platform in the world. There are a lot of good reasons for that. It is accessible, simple and intuitive to use, and highly flexible, with a bewildering range of professional plugins and themes. Over the years, it has asserted itself as the dominant choice for those looking to create dynamic, responsive websites. I am a happy user, too. I've been using it myself since 2012, on my book writing blog. Unfortunately, all this goodness is poised to go down the drain.

WordPress 5.0, the next major release, is going to feature a revised UI (the backend) using a framework called Gutenberg. This new UI looks like it's going to take away all the good things that made WordPress so cool, and destroy the beautiful elegance, efficiency and simplicity with something that feels like an abstract, touch-optimized experiment. Let's discuss.

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Here we go. My Slimbook Pro2 has arrived! About two weeks ago, I decided to try something new: see if I can use Linux - Kubuntu in particular - for serious desktop work. While I've used Linux professionally for more than a decade, on the desktop side, Windows remains the favorite son. But we might have a credence revival here, so to speak, proverbially. Thus, it beginneth. Forgive the pun, if you can.

Strangely, most of the feedback from readers was negative, pessimistic or both. People shared their experiences with Linux-carrying hardware vendors, and the impressions were not good. Some people warned me that my Wireless was going to suck. Others expressed dismay or dismissal for the Slimbook website. Now that the laptop has arrived, it is time to put the rumors, gossip, expectations, and desires to a test.

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Sometimes, seemingly trivial things can be daunting. Say you're writing a document in Microsoft Word. Say you're using headings (title, headings 1, headings 2, etc.), and then you want to create a table of contents, too. But then you realize you haven't really numbered your headings. You want to do this retrospectively, and you realize it's not an easy task.

In this guide, I'd like to show you how you can create smart, flexible multilevel lists with numbering and bullets, so that you can style your document headings with precision. This will also help you create more professional papers and your tables of contents will be better looking, too. Let's do it.

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Several weeks ago, we tested VMware Player 14. It was simple, versatile, robust - and not quite as rich in features as I had expected. Which is why I'm going to test the Workstation today. Indeed, the free Player is a tech demonstrator for the much more powerful and ultimately more expensive VMware Workstation Pro.

If you're on a hunt for a useful, Jack-o'-all-Trades virtualization product, you will normally be told about two principal products: Oracle VirtualBox and VMware Workstation. Years back, I bought the Workstation on several occasions, and it proved to be a valuable piece of software: Unity mode, reasonable 3D support, and it worked seamlessly both in Windows and Linux. But then, upgrades to new versions were quite expensive, and in the end, I opted for freeware solutions. Maybe this one will rekindle my shopping spree mood. Let's see what version 14 can offer us.

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As time goes by, the Gnome 3 desktop is becoming more and more restrictive in what it allows its users to do, fundamentally mistaking visual and functional minimalism, further complicating things by using a pseudo-touch interface that makes little sense on the desktop. Shame, because it doesn't make much to have Gnome look and behave the part. I've written a whole bunch of guides explaining how you can regain some of the functionality (and sanity) back, and it's time for another such article.

First, please read the basics as I've outlined many months ago. Now, we will explore additional themes and options, additional extensions, and some other settings. Not all of this will bear fruit, but it's an exercise that should ultimately give you the right pointers to using Gnome 3 effectively. Let's roll.

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Now, this is an article you probably did not expect. You all know I'm not fond of Gnome 3, because it comes with an inefficient default UI that mandates the use of numerous extensions and tweaks before it can be enjoyed. And as such, it's hardly a bundle of software one gets excited about casually, or willingly.

And yet, I did find it to be reasonable (after tweaks), and even enjoyed it to a moderately high degree in several editions of Fedora, well, for the brief time Fedora 24 and Fedora 25 were around - I am not really happy with the latest version, alas. Recently, having spent some time playing with CentOS, I decided to invest energy in using Gnome to the fullest, and that means exploring the repertoire of its available extensions. Hence this article really. Let's see what I've discovered.

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I decided to bite the bullet and try something rather audacious. Well, not that audacious. I decided to see whether it's possible to actually use a Linux machine for everyday productivity work. To that end, I have purchased a 14-inch Slimbook Pro2, and it's currently making its merry way to my home.

Now, this is not a reactionary decision. It is one based on curiosity. I am not trying to wean myself off the evil corporations or anything of that sort. I am quite happy using Windows and Linux in parallel, but then, I also want to see the Linux desktop succeed, in a real-life, pragmatic sort of way, without compromising or any sweet illusions. So I am now going to take my Linux experience to another level, and that means using a Linux machine for some really really serious stuff. After me.

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Linux gaming news are always a good thing. An exciting and important thing. The more legitimacy, popularity and quality the Linux world gets, the higher the chances of the Linux operating system, desktop in particular, making it big with the crowds. Even for myself, one of the primary reasons for using Windows is the ability to play various games.

Now, there’s a brand new and rather ambitious attempt by Steam to take the Linux gaming scene up a few notches. Several years ago, Steam really made the huge difference by creating an official version of their client software for Linux, and since there’s been a healthy influx of new titles to the Steam platform, all capable of running natively on the penguin-powered systems. This is still a drop in the sea compared to what Windows has to offer, and so there’s a new effort now. Improved Steam Play for Linux that can run Windows games through a compatibility layer.

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Judged by the value of its potential, openSUSE has everything it takes to be the perfect distro. Solid company backing, commercial roots, the awesome YaST, build service, and lots of other cool things that should make it the ideal choice for a Linux desktop. However, since 2012 or so, it's just not delivering.

This used to be my favorite, but something's gone wrong on the way to the forum. Worry not, enter GeckoLinux. It's unto SUSE what Fuduntu was unto Fedora and what Mint is supposed to be unto Ubuntu. This distro started as a one-man show, and today, it offers a very impressive list of editions - static, rolling and next, with some seven different desktop environments. More importantly, it's designed to make SUSE accessible out of the box, fixing all those issues that make openSUSE not quite as good as it should be - enter my Leap 15 review. So let's see if GeckoLinux 150 can deliver. After me.

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My Windows 10 test box has come to life through an upgrade - from Windows 8 to its current form. As such, it was never really installed per se, and the configurations are years old, a mix of Windows 8 and Windows 10 data. This is why, whenever I test a new build of Windows 10, like say Build 1804, I get emails from readers telling me that I should check what happens with a clean, fresh install.

Prompted by the SMBv1 question, I did exactly that. Along the way, I had the opportunity to see how much Windows 10 has changed when it comes to initial configuration, the whole offline/online integration, privacy settings, and other desktop tweaks. Indeed, let me show you what happens if you go for a clean Windows 10 installation, and what kind of work and changes you'll need to exercise to setup and tame this operating system into a quiet, efficient and smart desktop. The one people not too keen on the whole touch frenzy want and expect. Follow me.

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Several months ago, I wrote my Good Traffic Guide, explaining the virtues of correct urban planning, and how to manage your traffic network flow efficiently. The article focused primarily on the roads and the use of roundabouts, as well as proper trains timetable. But it was also idealistic and expensive.

Since, I've spent a lot of time playing new scenarios in Cities Skylines, and consequently, developed an even deeper understanding for the game's mechanics and pathfinding algorithms. I also decided to experiment, with one main goal: reduce expenditure. I wanted to make sure, infinite money or not, that I had cities with a positive monthly budget, and the higher in the green, the better. Hence, this improved Better Traffic Guide.

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I have been hearing about Robolinux for a long time, and getting requests to review it, probably more than most other distros. But then, there isn't that much information about it out there, except an odd article or two, no more. Intrigued, I set about exploring and testing.

Today, I will commit Robolinux 9.3 Raptor MATE edition into a dual-boot setup on my oldie but goldie LG machine, which is approaching its tenth anniversary, but still runs fair and true, thanks to its 4 GB of RAM and an Nvidia graphics card. Should be interesting. Follow me.

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I would like to brag for a moment, if I may. As it happens, bless me mom and dad, they have bestowed upon me the best bullshit detector in the world. It's an uncanny thing. Sometimes I am reading something online, and all of a sudden my eyes start to twitch and water. I begin sweating, and my lips are forming juicy swearwords in five different languages. It's happening. My bullshit detector is firing.

The klaxon usually goes to nine every time I read an article telling us why the old, proven network utilities like netstat and ifconfig need to be deprecated and replaced by some new tools that do exactly the same thing except they happen to have been re-written by some hot object-oriented jockey enamored with Python or GOLANG. This is among the biggest pieces of digital turd ever conceived, and I need an entire article to express myself. Please join me for an expletive-saddled ride.

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Smart machines are not a new thing. The concept has been around, the way we associate it with the term Artificial Intelligence (AI), for at least 50 years. However, it has recently become popular, a buzzword really, with data companies doing "deep learning" to indicate a higher level of machine intelligence as opposed to ordinary database queries.

But in essence, the machine intelligence remains pretty dumb. The aforementioned companies are hiring thousands of real people to monitor video and chat, because algorithms can't do that effectively. Captcha is another example. Translations are woefully bad. All of it actually begs a question, why is AI not really intelligent?

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This is a collection of short dashcam video clips from my roadtrip across Germany and Belgium in a BMW M4 (F82 model). The car comes with a 3.0-liter inline-six twin-turbo petrol engine developing 425 HP and 550 Nm torque, 7-speed DCT, rear-wheel drive, and lots and lots of fun (fuhn, one might say).

The video shows a variety of conditions: pure engine growl, hard acceleration, hard braking, rural roads, narrow village roads, some proper speed on unrestricted autobahn sections (I reached about 230 km/h or so), and other cool moments. There's a lot of nice engine music in the video - as good as the dashcam recorder allows - and also some muted parts, otherwise consisting of boring conversation and maybe an expletive or two.

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Back in the day, and we're talking almost a decade, TeenPup was one of those small big distros that impressed me. Based on the clever Puppy Linux, designed to run from live CD/USB on ancient hardware, this little system proved to be a gem. It was elegant, loaded with goodies, and it came with some smart, original features like the Magic Scripts, which I've mentioned in The Magnificent Seven article on ocsmag.com.

Well, TeenPup came and went, and I thought the project dead. But then, both the developer as well as community fans notified me that TeenPup still lives, albeit under a different name - Legacy OS. With a new version released last year, I set about testing.

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Long long time ago, I started my virtualization journey with VMware Player. Back in the day, it was one of the few GUI-based virtualization solutions for the desktop, allowing you to test and use guest operating systems with relative ease. Since, virtualization has become more common and more accessible if not outright decadent, and you have a lot of programs to choose, should you decide to explore complete software stacks in a contained, isolated environment.

VMware Player is currently at its 14th major increment, and this calls for a review. The program is now called Workstation Player, a not so subtle hint to the fact it's a freeware version and tech demonstrator of the fully fledged work [sic] horse. Again, another great tool, which I paid and used for many years, but the focus here is on the free utility. Let's roll.

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Several weeks ago, a reader asked me to write a new "why I use" article, based on my original 2010 report, and share a story on my current (2018) setup of operating system and application choices. I thought this could be a cool idea, although essentially, it's pure bragging. But still, it might shed some light on how I perceive and utilize software, and some of you may find this useful.

On a personal level, I like reading my own articles sometimes, as it gives me a glimpse into a written evidence of my own past. It gives me a perspective on my own past motivations and reasoning, and that's always a valuable lesson. Of course, the test of time is always a valuable one. So let's. The software what I use, year 2018 edition.

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Happy news. A few weeks ago, my proposal for a new book topic - that of System Administration Ethics - has been accepted by a big-name publisher. With the contract signed and writing underway, I can now talk a little more about this endeavor.

First, a little bit of context. In 2015, my problem solving book came out. I loved it; the sum of my work experience and knowledge, the combination of industry tricks and scientific methodologies, statistical engineering, best practices, and Linux Voodoo magic. 'Twas a heavy, detail-rich tech book, through and through. Now, a colleague of mine - a friend and ex-manager to be exact - had a suggestion. Why don't we write a book that shows not only how to do system administration right, but also why. Because for every action, there's also an ethical reaction.

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When you think about it, few red-haired people share the same fame as the biblical Romeo cum Rambo - the archetypal good-guy Samson, whom I chose as the protagonist for my latest book, I Shall Slay the Dragon! Yes, I know what you're thinking. Of all the fantasy themes I could have picked, why this one?

Now that the book is out there, I thought about spending a moment or three talking about this idea. On one hand, it feels obvious: the quintessential tragic love story, the olden-day West Side Story, the best the mythology can give you - and the dragon, of course. On the other, each one of these motifs on their own has been told and resold numerous times. But I've never seen them blended together. That's how my book was born.

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Over the years, I've written dozens of pimping guides for various Linux distributions: Xubuntu, Fedora, CentOS. The only place on Earth with more pimping is the RDL in Amsterdam. But we're here to talk software. As you may recall, I tested Ubuntu MATE 18.04 a few months back. It was okay. No the best, but like a child with so-called potential, this one has a decent chance of becoming a reasonable choice for your production desktop, if and when the various bugs and issues THAT NEVER SHOULD HAVE MADE INTO AN OFFICIAL LTS RELEASE are finally fixed.

On the visual side of things, while you wait for the code redemption - akin to Kubuntu - well, there's a lot you can do. In this article, I'd like to show you the many ways and tweaks you can use to make Ubuntu MATE looks the part. The reason is, MATE has so many features and options, it's not all straightforward. So let's talk.

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Self-contained app mechanisms are gaining traction in the Linux world. A workaround to multi-distro fragmentation, frameworks like Snap, AppImage and Flatpak seek to offer simple click-to-install, click-to-use software management to common users. Every now and then, I do some extra rigorous testing, to see whether the new approach makes sense, and whether it's masses ready.

To that end, spurred by a recommendation from a reader, I set about testing Flatpak in CentOS 7.4. I've recently updated my CentOS instance on the G50 laptop, and I'm always trying my best to keep this distro relevant, modern and elegant, like adding the latest 4.x family of kernels. We've also seen how to add latest software to the distro, but now let's try taking it to the very edge of bleeding with Flatpak. After me.

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Windows 10 disables SMBv1. Windows 10 does not disable SMBv1. Windows 10 may disable SMBv1. I've been seeing a storm of these claims recently, revolving around Windows 10 Builds 1709 and 1804, which state that Microsoft has removed the SMBv1 protocol from Windows. This means that users trying to connect to other boxes in their network (most likely home environment) will not be able to do so. Maybe.

In my review of Build 1804, I did not encounter such a problem, but then, this was not a fresh install, and I was using a well-configured, existing setup. So I decided to perform a full, fresh, clean install of Windows 10 and see what kind of behavior awaits me. This should also put to rest all the rumors and counter-rumors.

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Shimshon. Dlila. And a dragon.

It's been a thousand years since the last war against the Beast. Now, the serpent is awake again, and the armies of Gog and Magog are on the march. If they are not stopped, the world will be enslaved by the dragon. The end of days is near.

Shimshon, a fearless warrior with an Ammonite father and an Israelite mother, is a man with little care for divine affairs. He only has two passions in life: women and battle. But he suddenly finds himself surrounded by dark omens.

Troubled, Shimshon begins a journey that will test his courage and convictions. His new path leads him to the Israelite Prophet Ieremiah - and a beautiful Pleshet girl named Dlila. Together, they must learn how to defeat the dragon.

Only the price for victory is higher than Shimshon ever imagined...

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The pursuit of happiness continues. Will I find the next Linux distro to bless my production machines? For that matter, will you? Our latest candidates comes with promising credentials. Mint Tara is an LTS edition, should work well till 2023, and it's meant to bring all the friendly goodies to the table, out of the box. Hopefully.

Once upon a time, this was the perfect distro in Dedoimedo's book. But then, recently, it's hit a hard patch, often caused, directly and indirectly by the wild swings in the quality of Ubuntu releases. Mint 19 is indeed based on Beaver, which isn't exactly the most stellar of distros, although its Unity form is quite reasonable. Anyway, let's see what gives here. After me.

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Every now and then, I go blithely about my way, when suddenly, I feel this sharp pain in my lower back, slightly below the tailbone. It's a sharp stabbing sensation. It's the sensation of betrayal. The kind of pain you experience when you love the Plasma desktop, you go about extolling its virtues left and right, and then suddenly you discover that you cannot launch the Plasma file manager - Dolphin - as root. W00t.

About a year ago, this restriction was implemented in Plasma because "root was dangerous" [sic] and for a while, you could not launch Dolphin as root or with sudo. This would-be security measure made my rage enzymes spike through the roof. Since, the KDE team has wisely gone back on this change, and starting with KDE Application 18.08 bundle, you can do this again once more. Job well done. Kudos. But what if you're running an older version of Dolphin? This tutorial offers a non-intrusive, stopgap measure for that.

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Time, now it's time, to test your distro again. Indeed. Fedora. I have recently taken the latest release, Workstation 28 Gnome, for a spin, and I found it rather mediocre. Overall, it was buggy, slow, and the desktop required a lot of changes to make usable, as the default configuration simply wasn't good enough. All that happened with the Gnome environment. So what about KDE?

Today, we take a Plasma spin for a spin - provided you can find it, because it takes a somewhat convoluted path to find the KDE version (a completely different domain). Roughly 1.8GB worth of data later, I booted the USB thumb drive on my dual-boot 2009 LG laptop, which comes with Nvidia graphics. If you recall, one of the new and fancy things in Fedora 28 is the simplified media and proprietary drivers handling process, and I promised I'd check this. But beyond that, I also want to see if Fedora 28 KDE can deliver better results than the standard version. To wit, let's see what gives.

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I had an email from a reader, asking me to look more deeply into the Styles functionality of LibreOffice. This came off the back of my LibreOffice 6.0 review, in which I praised the improvements introduced into the latest version of this free office suite. But the reader felt the covered points were insufficient and inadequate, and that the real deal breaker in LibreOffice functionality is in its styles.

This is a valid request, after all. In a similar manner, I have people emailing and asking me to add or extend my Linux distro testing with additional features and use cases, and I'm always happy to try to make my work as thorough and as accurate as possible. So, styles. Well, challenge accepted.

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Testing software is like educating children. The earlier you do a good job the cheaper it is in the long run. When you code new solutions, ideally, you will have made a perfect job in one go. Alas, for things more complicated than Hello World!, the issue of bugs will inevitably come up. And with object-oriented programming, the complexity of real-case scenario simulations is exponentially higher.

The ultimate goal is to find bugs - as well as logical problems - before you hit the production environment. To wit, a variety of methodologies exist, all designed to help simplify multi-varied testing with minimal interaction. Mock testing is one of the popular and acceptable ways of doing this. Indeed, several days ago, I was asked by the Typemock team to take their Isolator++ tool for a spin. This unit testing solution supports both Windows and Linux, and works with C and C++ code. I will be testing the Linux version here. After me.

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Sounds like a funky recipe, or a beginning of a very weird artistic movie, but it is in fact related to software. Linux Mint, specifically, and its Cinnamon desktop environment. As it turns out, over the years, Linux Mint has striven to give its users a consistent, classic desktop formula, which blends both functionality and intuitive approach, as I've shown many times over the years, including more recently in my Sylvia review. The only problem is, the problem of limited space creeps in on smaller screens.

Having shortcuts tucked in on the left side of the panel is all nice and dandy like when you have many inches of screen equity and high resolutions, but on a typical laptop screen, a dozen app shortcuts will take 50% of the width, and soon you may find the list of your open app windows inaccessible. Various operating systems and desktops solved this by using the icons-only task manager idea. Not so with Cinnamon, though. Enter Icing.

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