Jay On Linux

You would think that the WordPress group would listen to their users, but they are not. Ignore the community at your peril WordPress.

If you don’t know, you are reading this blog using the WordPress open-source software. I have been using it for years.

Matt Mullenweg introduced the Gutenberg editor to us in June 2017. It changes how we compose our blog. I hate it. But since 2018 they have made it the default editor, making the “Classic Editor” a plugin.

There are “5+ Million Active Installations” of the “Classic Editor.” This means that many if not most of the WordPress community, don’t like the Gutenberg Editor.

But do you think that Matt Mullenweg and the team are rethinking their choice? No way, they are doubling down on their “block” headedness (pun intended).

In the newest update, they have now taken away “Classic Widgets” in WordPress and replaced it with a “Block-Based Widgets Editor.” And again, I hate it.

In order to get back your “Classic Widgets,” you have to install a plugin created “By WordPress Contributors.” This is the official plugin. It already has “50,000+ Active Installations.”

ClassicPress

Now here is the kicker. Both the Classic Editor plugin and the Classic Widgets plugin “will be supported and maintained until at least 2022.” After that, who knows? It will either be up to the community to support the plugins, or it will be time to move to a new blogging platform.

Is there another blogging platform with all of the features of the old WordPress? Yes, there is one that was just launched. It is called ClassicPress. Their website says, “Love the simplicity of the WordPress classic editor? So do we. With the familiarity that the classic editor and ClassicPress provide, you can easily create a solution that meets your needs.”

I am not ready to make the leap, but I am thinking about it and watching the ongoing development of ClassicPress. Maybe they can scar WordPress into doing the right thing.

The best weather app and clock/calendar widget is “Today Weather” by todayweather.co and is in the android store.

In the last couple of years, I have brought only one app., and it is this app. The free version contains ads, but the app is worth paying for to remove the ads.

If you tap on the time, it opens your clock app. If you tap on the date it opens up your calendar. And if you tap on the weather it opens the Today Weather app.

This weather app is beautiful, functional, and even gives me the current radar. Plus much more.

First, you see a picture representing the current weather. Under that are the temperature, the date, the city, and the current conditions. Below that is this day’s forecast. Tab the forecast and it opens a detailed forecast for the next week.

Going back to the main screen, under today’s forecast you have cool icons giving you the current weather condition. Under that is a graphic of the next 6 days. under that a chart of the chance of precipitation.

Understand you have air quality, pollen count, sunrise and sunset, moon phases, wind, and finally radar.

At the very bottom, you can change the weather provider from the National Weather services to a different service like Accuweather or Open Weather Map.

A desklet is a small applet that can be placed on top of the user’s desktop. Usually, they are clocks, calendars, and weather applets.

Here is how to install a calendar desklet that I like and recommend. Note, all clicks are left-clicked unless indicated otherwise.

Right-click on desktop, it will open a menu. Click on “add Desklet.”

It opens the Desklet menu. When it open it defaults to the “Manage” tab, switch to the “Download” tab.

In the search bar, search for “calendar.” Click the down arrow on “Calender desklet by kanchudeep”. That will download it.

But this does not add it to your desktop. To do that you have to go back to the “Manage” tab. Click once on the “Calendar desklet” so it is highlighted. Then click the plus button “+” on the bottom to add it to the desktop.

It is not added to your desktop. You can click and hold to move it to where you want it.

You will also want to customize it to your liking. You can right-click on your desklet to open a menu that will give you the option to configure or remove it, as well as an about file.

Personally, I leave most of the defaults alone. However, my preference is to not show time, since it is military time. I also make it completely transparent.

NOTE: If you get a crash installing a desklet, it will switch the whole Desktop into fallback mode and ask if you want to restart Cinnamon, just select “Yes”.

Did you receive this error, “E:dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run ‘sudo –configure -a’ to correct the problem. E:_cache->open()failed,please report”?

The “dpkg” is the Debian Package manager. The automatic process has an issue and you must open up the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+t) and type in:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

Hit enter, enter your password, hit enter again, and it will run through the process to correct this.

You shouldn’t be getting this error. I am running an updated Kernal and a newer system, so that is probably why I had this issue.

It is true that many Microsoft programs that run on Windows will not run on Linux. Some you can get running with W.I.N.E.

The good news is the Linux has many alternatives, most of which are equal to or better than their Windows equivalent. Here are eight that I recommend.

1. Alternate to Microsoft Office Suite
   LibreOffice at http://www.libreoffice.org
2. Alternate to Notepad / Wordpad (Text Editor)
   Gedit at https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gedit
3. Alternate to Photoshop (Graphics Editor)
   Gimp at http://www.gimp.org
4. Alternate to Movie Maker (Video Editor)
   Kdenlive at http://www.kdenlive.org
5. Alternate to Windows Media Player (Video Viewer)
   VLC Player at http://www.videolan.org/vlc
6. Alternate to Microsoft Outlook
   Thunderbird + Lightning at https://www.thunderbird.net
7. Alternate to Intuit’s Quicken
   GnuCash at https://www.gnucash.org/
8. Alternate to Apple’s iTunes
   Clementine at https://www.clementine-player.org/

Why am I so passionate about Linux and open source? I will tell you why.

It is because freedom is important.

Freedom to choose what to do with your computer. Freedom to use it the way that you want to use it. Freedom to improve upon a program that you use. Freedom to customize that program to better suit your needs.

The freedom to be free from surveillance and an invasion of your privacy. In other words, freedom of choice is why I believe in Linux and open-source software.

The freedom to use the software you need, regardless of your level of income. Lennox and open source software is free, in both respects. It is free as in free beer, and it is free as in freedom of speech.

If we are ever going to have a world in which there is equality see, there needs to be access to the means of production. And in the information age, the computer is the means of production in many cases.

ProtonVPN is TechRadar’s “#1 free VPN – Unlimited data allowance without paying penny.”

The ProtonVPN Linux app is easy to use and packed with advanced security features.

Distros that are currently supported are Debian 10, Ubuntu 20+, Mint 20+
MX Linux 19+, Fedora 31+, Archlinux / Manjaro.

How to install a VPN on Linux Mint

The ProtonVPN Linux app officially supports Mint 20. If you are currently using the community-developed version of our Linux app, you should uninstall it before installing their official app.

1. Download their repo setup package

Download the ProtonVPN DEB package at:
https://protonvpn.com/support/official-linux-vpn-mint/

2. Install the ProtonVPN repository

Double-click the downloaded DEB package to install the repo using your default package manager.

3. Update the apt-get package list

Open Terminal and enter the command:

sudo apt-get update

4. Install the ProtonVPN Linux app

sudo apt-get install protonvpn

The ProtonVPN Linux app is now installed and can be run from your application launcher menu.

How to Use ProtonVPN

Here I will pass you off to the article by ProtonVPN: “How to use ProtonVPN on Linux.”

This is the only free VPN I currently recommend and use.

My website is unique in a number of ways. There are others who do the same, but it is not the majority.

First, there are no HTTP cookies used by this site. This means that no one is tracking you as you read my blog. Links on this site may take you to others sites that will track you.

Doing this is very inconvenient for content creators. I can’t use Google Analytics or WordPress’s JetPack to get stats. I have to rely on my Webhosting stats alone. I also can’t offer their subscribe to blog by mail feature, which I used in the past.

Second, I also don’t have any affiliate links on the site. I used to have one to Green Geeks, but I removed the link but left the image, letting people know I run an eco-friendly website.

Third, I don’t have any annoying pop-ups. The only advertising is a link to my books on Amazon, and that is just for people who are interested.

This means that this blog makes me no money, but costs me to produce. I pay the Webhosting and domain name fees out of my own pocket. Why? It is a labor of love for you, my few readers.

What can you do? Subscribe and tells others about my site. That’s all I ask.

I have a windows program that I bought many years ago, and I want to run it on Linux. How you might wonder? Install Wine. It is a Windows API implementation. That means it runs some windows programs on Linux.

But a strange thing happened when I put my CD in the computer, it didn’t recognize the drive.

Here is the fix.

Go to the terminal and enter the following:

sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Enter your password, press enter, and wait till it asks if you want to install it. Type y and hit enter.

Now what is really going to stump you is when it gets to the question if you accept the EULA for the TrueType core fonts. You are supposed to choose <ok> but you probably won’t know how to.

Use the Tab key to navigate. Select OK and hit enter.

Then it will ask you “Do you accept the EULA license terms?” Select it by using the Tab key and then press enter.

Let it finish the install, and you are done.

First, I should probably explain what Peppermint Linux is. It is one of the last Linux distros that support 32-bit computers. And it runs great on older computers.

So in my test drive of the distro, the only issue came when I went to install updates after the install. I got this message:

“E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run ‘dpkg –configure -a’ to correct the problem.”

The solution is to open the Terminal and run the command it tells you to

sudo dpkg --configure -a

and it should be able to correct itself.

If it doesn’t, try running sudo apt-get install -f (to fix broken packages).

Then try running sudo dpkg –configure -a again.

When it prompts you, choose the default (N)

This is the only issue I have run into so far.