Articles by Bill Toulas
About Bill Toulas
Over five years of experience writing about Linux and open source software on blogs and news websites. As part of the community, this is my way to give back as well as to promote what I perceive as the most amazing development in the area of software and operation systems.
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How to manage your passwords with Enpass on Linux
Author: Bill Toulas •
Tags: linux, security •
Comments: 2 Enpass is an advanced password manager that works natively on Linux. Although its open source nature is limited in the use of a free software encryption engine called SQLCipher, the tool offers good integration with widely used online services and can serve as a central platform where a lot of different passwords, accounts, and other miscellaneous information can be added. That said, it can be useful to many Linux users out there so here's a quick guide on how to set it up.
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How to extend GIMP with GMIC
Author: Bill Toulas •
Tags: desktop, ubuntu •
Comments: 4 GIMP is the n1 open source image editor and raster graphics manipulator that offers an array of special effects and filters out of the box. Although the software's default capabilities will be more than enough for most people out there, there isn't any reason why you couldn't expand them if you wished for it. While there are many ways to do exactly that, I will focus on how to enrich your GIMP filters and effects sets with the use of G'MIC.
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Design PCB and Generate Schematic Drawings with Fritzing on Linux
Author: Bill Toulas •
Tags: centos, debian, desktop, fedora, linux, suse, ubuntu •
Comments: 1 Fritzing is a new open source PCB designer that supports Linux systems. Its power stems from its user-friendly interface, drag n drop features, pleasing visuals, and comprehensive views. To me, it looks very much like Autodesk's 123D Circuits and also works very similarly to it too, so this is very positive to say the least.
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How to stitch photos into a panorama with Hugin Panorama Creator on Linux
Author: Bill Toulas •
Tags: centos, debian, desktop, fedora, linux, opensuse, ubuntu •
Comments: 0 Almost every modern digital camera offers the ability of “on the fly” panorama creation, but often you will find the result of this automated process not to meet expectations. For this reason, it's best to take the sequence of photos as individual continuous images and then you use some kind of software tool to stitch them together in a proper way.
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How to connect via Bluetooth in GNOME on Linux
Author: Bill Toulas •
Tags: desktop, linux •
Comments: 2 Connecting to a Bluetooth device is essential for file transferring, audio sharing (Bluetooth speakers), and shared network connectivity (smartphones). GNOME settings panel is offering a quick way to do this in simple steps. Here's a guide on how to do it.
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How to prepare for bad weather on Linux
Author: Bill Toulas •
Tags: desktop, linux •
Comments: 0 Severely bad weather is one of the few things that can still awe people while causing large-scale catastrophes. Especially if you live in the US, you most likely have witnessed a dangerously large storm during the tornado season. Preparing for those situations is crucial for the safety and survival of you and your family, and while you can always keep an eye on the news for weather reports, you can also use your Linux system to draw conclusions yourself. There are a couple of free software tools that offer more “specialized” information that goes well beyond air speed and temperature.
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How to get Oracle Virtual Box 5.0 installed on (Ubuntu) Linux
Author: Bill Toulas •
Tags: linux, ubuntu, virtualbox, virtualization •
Comments: 0 Oracle's Virtual Box is one of the easiest to use virtual machines that run under Linux. Although we Linux users have reasons not to use Oracle's products, the particular piece of software is maybe the best choice we can make in that area and at least it's open source. If you want to use other free software alternatives to Oracle's VM, you can check VMware Workstation, QEMU, or GNOME Boxes (currently works only on Fedora).
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How to monitor your system performance on (Ubuntu) Linux
Author: Bill Toulas •
Tags: •
Comments: 3 Monitoring your Linux system is essential in order to be able to improve its performance, locate the source of a problem and take more targeted corrective actions. As is always the case with Linux, there are quite a few tools and many different ways you can utilize to monitor different aspects of your system's performance. On this simple guide, we will take an overall look on how to install and run three monitoring tools on an Ubuntu Linux system.
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How to sync your documents with Google Drive on Ubuntu
Author: Bill Toulas •
Tags: cloud, storage, ubuntu •
Comments: 15 Google Drive is a popular online service that allows for the easy sharing and collaborative editing of documents (word files or spreadsheets). Under the most usual day to day circumstances, the GDrive tool is very useful serving as a cloud space and/or a readily available online collaboration platform. On this guide, we will see how you can install an open source client tool for the service named Grive, and how to set it up according to your needs.
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Hydrogen: A software drum machine for Linux
Author: Bill Toulas •
Tags: desktop, ubuntu •
Comments: 0 Hydrogen is the best open source drum machine that is available free of charge. It is an advanced piece of software that helps artists and producers compose groovy beats to accompany their music. Hydrogen is quite simple to use, features a lot of options and drum sets that can differentiate the sounds to meet the wide scope of requirements that derive from different music genres like rock, metal, pop, electronic and jazz.
