Libre OS USB : Your Portable System [TechPhylum Exclusive Review]

Hi guys, welcome to the 17th segment of "Introduction with Linux Distro". 
Well, Libre OS USB is a new entry in Linux World, Patrick Fox, the man behind this amazing distro united with TechPhylum team to test this amazing OS
Have you ever thought of carrying your system, carrying the whole world which is right on your PC or carrying all the important data you need anytime along with you? Well, if yes then this segment is simply meant for you. Today, our guest is Libre OS USB. This distribution will fulfill your portable OS dreams. Let's get to know more about this distro.

• About Libre OS USB - Libre OS is yet to get released Globally for Public. But as Libre USB OS developer found us perfect for testing it, we got our early hands on this OS. We did our best in hunting down some of the minor to major issues what a normal user will face in daily usage. We got our hands on the Libre OS 4.0 and now with full bug and performance fixes, here is our review of Libre OS 5.0. For now, this OS is arranging Crowd Funding to keep the development up and generate a good community around it.  

• Introduction & Background - Libre OS USB is originated in France. Libre OS USB was born in 2012 when Mr. Patrick Fox, the developer behind this distro first made a Xubuntu-based live OS key for a local computer vendor. Soon it received praise and Mr. Fox decided to make the Libre OS series. This OS is meant to boot on any machine and it supports both legacy and UEFI bootloaders. While the OS is new to rest of the world, there are some interesting features about this distro.
• Whole OS in one USB - Unlike another distro which takes space on your hard drive, Libre OS USB completely takes its space in the USB. A standard 16 GB USB is enough to carry this OS and all your important files around. It works as a live OS. All you need to do is make a USB key of Libre OS USB and just plug it in any PC and tweak your bootloader, you will get access to this wonderful OS. This can be anything, your portable office, a portable studio, a data rescue OS, an everyday OS, etc.
  

  

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• Making USB key and Booting - Like many other distro, it is very simple to make USB key of Libre OS USB. Once you get an image file of this distro, you can simply us dd method to make USB key from any Linux distro. Alternatively, if you are using windows then you can use Rufus and select dd image option while making a USB key. Once you are done making a USB key, just plug it in any pc and boot from USB. you will be greeted with a beautiful boot screen of Libre OS USB. 
• Look and Feel - Libre OS USB is currently using latest MATE desktop environment for their testing versions. This makes the OS quite lightweight and can be used on older hardware. The icons and themes are beautiful. 
  

There is also an option for tweaking themes and downloading more from online sources which make it quite customizable. You can simply choose just light or dark flavor, otherwise you can also customize it further to suit your style.

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Well, there is also a beautiful boot screen animation and a good looking lock screen. So when it comes to looks, Libre OS USB is absolutely not a bad choice.

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• Base and Performance - Libre OS USB uses Ubuntu as it's base. Being based on Ubuntu give an advantage of utilizing Ubuntu repositories from software and updates. The current testing version of Libre OS USB is based on Ubuntu 17.04 with all the latest updates available till date. When it comes to performance, Libre OS USB won't disappoint you at all. If you used a USB 3.0, then it will run very smoothly without any lags or freezes. The transitions work smooth and it is very stable as per our use till now. 
  
• Encryption - This feature is very interesting in this OS. unlike any other live medium, Libre OS USB offers an encrypted storage withing your USB key. So basically whatever work you have done in this distro is saved in that encrypted storage. Many live mediums don't offer this feature which is a plus point for this OS.
• Software and Applications - By default Libre OS USB is bundled with loads of applications and software which are useful in day to day life. It have LibreOffice for office works, it have studio apps like audacity and more, it has many games for entertainment. 
  

Furthermore, if you want particular software you can simply use software center or Synaptic package manager to install it manually. You will surely get what you are looking for without many hassles. 

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• Uses - Libre OS USB can be used anywhere. You can use it as your portable office. You can use it as a portable studio. If you travel a lot and want to keep less baggage with you then Libre OS USB can be very helpful in carrying the system along as it can be accessed from any PC. We used this for rescuing some important data from our secondary machine. You can just use it as your private space because once you removed the USB key from PC, no one can see what you done. You can even use it as an everyday OS.

• The man behind Libre OS USB - Patrick Fox is a programmer and Linux enthusiast who developed Libre OS back in 2012 and sold many copies in France, as soon as his customers started to appreciate the usability and handiness, he started to develop it more and more. And now here in 2017, he has come to a more stable and a complete ruckus to fight against all the top leading Distros. He is the One Man Army for his appreciable work.We are quite impressed with the OS and more impressed by the thing that without any community lying underneath for the testing and bug-hunting. 

• Philosophy and Goals - The developer behind Libre OS simply wants this OS to be released on a larger scale and on an international level. He wants to unite Linux enthusiasts and make a community around Libre OS USB. This OS is made to simplify people's needs and provide them a strong medium which they can access anywhere. While doing all this it also keeps your data encrypted and secure with stable and smooth performance.
• Support and Contribute - If you want to contribute to this project feel free to make desired donations at Kickstarter.com. Furthermore, you can visit the official website of Libre OS USB for more information.Kindly Share the post and Kickstarter link as much as possible.We really need some good Distro like this in Linux World.

Libre OS USB is not yet released to the public as it needs crowd-funding to be released on a larger scale and keep it maintained. Once released Libre OS USB will be completely free for everyone and will release a new version on every Long Term Support version of Ubuntu. Furthermore, intermediate versions on every Ubuntu release will also be made available to the public. 

[My Views] Ubuntu 17.04 and future versions

Hi, guys it's been quite a long time since I last talked (rant) about random things while just having a relaxing day. Well, I will be ranting (i mean talking) today about some interesting stuff going on in Ubuntu world. So let's just sit back, relax, get comfy and talk about recent changes and future changes in Ubuntu.

After the release of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, lots of people were frustrated because AMD dropped their driver support for legacy hardware. That mean that legacy GPU won't be running on fglrx frivers anymore. One of our PC is also running with Radeon GPU and we were also frustrated with this move from AMD. We did run Ubuntu on that machine on minimal UI and without driver support. To save the day, there were some open-source alternatives, but those weren't giving enough performance. This was just the same in 16.10. Only newer hardware got supported from AMD with their AMDGPU-PRO drivers. What about the older and legacy hardware??? We lost hope on our AMD machine, but then 17.04 got released. This new version brought new light or AMD GPU users, as also brought support for legacy hardware with its AMD-Radeon drivers. Now Ubuntu works excellent on our AMD machine.

Though it is now running smoothly, but we are still not a big fan of Mir and Unity. Most of the time our team is divided in two when it comes to desktop environments and Ubuntu. One part of the team goes in favor of Unity, while the other on goes for KDE or GNOME. To be honest I loved to GNOME as a desktop environment. It was my first time using a Linux distro and I installed Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 LTS which had GNOME as it's default desktop. I really enjoyed Ubuntu a lot at that time but I was all gone in Ubuntu Natty 11.04. Though initially I wanted to try out Unity a lot but faced disappointments when it came down to performance. From that time I slowly began to lose my interest in Ubuntu and got more attracted to Fedora, SUSE, and Arch. I loved OpenSUSE more than any other distro and I still use it as my primary distro. But now, there was an announcement from Ubuntu team that Unity will be dropped and GNOME will use as it's default desktop again in future versions. This is what made me excited enough to try out Ubuntu once again. It was the decision that I personally liked and appreciated. So now Ubuntu team and Ubuntu GNOME team will just merge and make one single product that will be beautiful and fun like old days which made Ubuntu so good and made a vast community. Well after dropping Mir and Unity, let's see how Ubuntu change the tides with GNOME and Wayland.

Well, there is a lot more I have to say but that will just make this post longer and it will be too stupid to read it all. I will make sure to rant again about more different things in future and present my views in front of you guys. If you agree with me on above thing or disagree with me or just want to say something to enlighten our knowledge, please feel free to use the comment section and let everyone know what you think and feel.

Discord - voice and text chat for gamers

Hi guys, it is been a long pause on our website due to our exams and stuff but we are now back with more interesting stuff for you guys. Today we are going to meet Discord. If you are into online gaming and MOBA type games then you must have used or heard about Discord. It is one of the most versatile app out there for voice and text based chat. There are other apps like Skype or Teamspeak but Discord is unique in it's own way. Let's get to know more about this app.

• Cross-platform - One of the most important thing about discord is that this app is cross-platform. You can use it in Windows, Linux, Mac, iPhone, Android and even a web version if you dont like to download and install the app. In Linux we used it on Ubuntu and Arch without any problems.

  

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• Stable - This app is seriously stable. It is even more stable then OS sometimes (LOL). It worked smoothly on mobile, on both Ubuntu and Arch. We also used it on windows and it didn't disappoint us there too. Discord consumes very low amount of ram and CPU usage.
• Features - Discord probably have more features compared to skype or teamspeak. Most of all it is completely free of cost. It gives IP & DDoS protection. It also gives browser support, mobile support, in-game overlay, multiple channels, bots for customization and entertainment, friend lists, direct messaging, low latency, etc. 

  

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  android app for discord

• Connectivity, fun & bots - Once you get used to discord and made friend over it, you will start to enjoy it even more. There are lots of customizations to channels, one can make separate channels for different games or can merge them all at one place and categorize them. Another fun part of discord is the bots. There are lots of different bots for discord. They can simply manage and moderate your channels, play music while you are having a voice chat or not, can play various games, can predict future (no, but yes :P ) and do many more stuff. bots work same across all the platform and same commands can be used to manipulate them. You can simply have a concert in discord with hundreds of people listening to it. 

So give this app a try, we are damn sure this won't disappoint you at all. For downloads and more information just head over to http://discord.gg
 

[Quick Tip] How to reduce brightness during night time in android

HI guys, many times we want to use our phone in night time and it is just too bright for our eyes. Most of phones supports brightness reduction up to certain level but it is still high for our eyes. There is a solution for this problem, you can simply reduce brightness even below phone's minimum range. To do this you will need an app called Screen Filter. To use Screen Filter app you need to have a rooted phone with Xposed installed in it, otherwise it won't work.

Once you downloaded and installed Screen Filter app from Xposed, activate it within Xposed and reboot your phone. After this you are ready to use screen filter app. This app has some basic settings to adjust from. Even though it looks so simple but it makes huge difference. Adjust your settings according to your taste. It also features a color filter to reduce blue light during night time. Once you are done setting up brightness level and color filter just tap on ON/OFF button to start it.

 It also features a notification panel bar for you to quickly access it without going to app every time. As you can see in below screenshots, the difference between phone's default brightness and screen filter.

Screen Filter helps to reduce the strain on eyes during night time. So whenever you need your phone in night, you can be assured that your eyes are not that much strained. So guys, try out this app as it is helpful to us. We will be back with more quick tips and other stuffs. Stay tuned and have fun.

[Quick Tips] IFTTT : An interesting way to Manage multiple things at once

Hello fellas, ever thought of changing both Facebook and Twitter display pictures simultaneously. Or thought about automatically link your blog post to your Facebook account. Or automatically tweet about your Instagram pics whenever you upload one on Instagram. If you did thought about all these then we have an great app to make your life easier. IFTTT is an android / iOS app and web service which connects your social accounts and do wonders. It works on the philosophy "If you do this then you can do that".

 IFTTT simply connects multiple service and link their activities together. For example, on local level you can set timer to silent your phone at night and vice-versa in day time. Or you can tell IFTTT to turn of your wifi when you leave home, again vice-versa. On social level you can update your Twitter display picture as you change it in Facebook. You can backup your SMS automatically on your email address as soon as they arrive. There are simply endless possibilities in IFTTT. You can make various combo of different services and save hassel and time of  updating various services individually.
In IFTTT you can fine many prebuilt combos made by community, as well as you can make your own combo. IFTTT supports a huge load of services on local and virtual level. You can simply get notified about whether or rain every morning, or automatically can silent your phone as you enter workplace. It is almost everything you need in one single package.
So guys, try out this cool app and manage your daily things in less time. You can get this app on play store and apple app store as well as, you can access web service too.