Nemo file manager is made for Cinnamon by the Linux Mint folks. However, this file browser works well on plain Debian. It is one of two apps from Mint that are really nice and worth installing, the other being pix. The Nemo distribution is available from the Github repository. One functionality it doesn't have is ... Read more
Pix is another Linux Mint application (the second I use, along with Nemo) that is a useful, lightweight, simple image editor, good for cropping, scaling, and converting between filetypes. However, for actual editing, Inkscape is my editor of choice (I find GIMP hard to use). The latest versions of Inkscape may not be available under ... Read more
Inkscape is an amazing vector graphics editor. It is free and open source and works on a variety of platforms, including Linux, Windows and OSX. Inkscape replaces Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator and can read their files, and is a first class citizen among these other editors.
Originally published 2018-09-06, updated 2022-09-05 My beloved KeepassX has not seen a release since 2016, but a newer fork entitled KeePassXC has. The latest version looks very much the same when viewed from LMDE3 with a dark theme. The added functionality is quite nice: A TOTP Seed and Code Generator. For native theme support (under ... Read more
See also the local file sync tool FreeFileSync for handy local drive copying. Google Drive (GDrive) and other cloud storage alternatives such as Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive all have the serious drawback of keeping one's information in a third party cloud repository. Privacy and security are generally compromised this way, even when paying for storage ... Read more
APT -- Advanced Package Tool -- is all that is needed for most application installations when there are repositories which are regularly updated for packages of interest. Note that apt essentially makes irrelevant apt-get so there is no reason for that redundancy any longer. Note: Use aptitude when dealing with packages that have upgrade/downgrade issues, ... Read more
Firefox has dramatically disintegrated under the so-called leadership of Mitchell Baker, enriching herself to the tune of millions while the market share (and revenue) of Firefox plummeted and 250 employees were laid off. This alone is reason enough to avoid such a toxic software environment. There is no need to coddle multi-millionaires in order to ... Read more
How to manage fonts in Debian (installing/removing/refreshing). See also Fonts, Typefaces, Typography Microsoft Core Fonts Installer Check to see if this is installed via apt-cache sudo apt-cache search ttf-mscorefonts-installer Emoji fonts Yeh, I don't like them but people use them so need to see them. sudo apt install fonts-noto-color-emoji Debian and application fonts There is ... Read more
This is a grab bag websites, books, software, and services which have helped in this genealogical endeavor. DNA Analysis FamilyTreeDNA YSeqDNA GEDmatch I started with FTDNA, and it is difficult working with them to do exports, or really anything that is beyond the basic interface. Also, their prices are high. YSeqDNA is cheaper, faster, better, ... Read more
Current issues The latest version of Inkscape has to be downloaded as an AppImage from the website. An earlier version is available via apt. Interoperability with Adobe Illustrator (AI) still has a fundamental issue with AI using 72ppi and Inkscape using 96ppi (CSS standard). Basically any objects in Adobe SVG files will appear to be ... Read more