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YouTube Music Desktop App - Cross-platform (Windows 10, Mac, Linux)
Since now YouTube Music is more or less inevitable for those liking the Google ecosystem (and I start to enjoy it and grieving from GPM since it has tuned to my musical tastes) it is worth for those who haven't heard about it, to look at "YouTube Music Desktop App" by Adler Luiz ( u/adlerluiz) It makes the YTM experience on Windows 10 very pleasant with the mini player and possibility to thumbs up/down with shortcut key and to skip disliked song, among other nice additional features. Edit: there's one drawback, it's huge on Windows 10, 318MB as of today. His GPM app was 600MB+ too. Disclaimer: I am not affiliated at all with this app or owner. I just like it.
Hello. I'm gonna be upfront and say that I'm not well informed about privacy on the internet. I know for sure that big techs like Google and Amazon loves to store private data, but besides that, I don't know where I could start to improve my privacy. I can tell a few things that I've done the past few years, but I'm pretty sure y'all know that's not enough to be 100% private nowadays Desktop:
delete all social media accounts (twitter, insta, fb, etc.) except YouTube bc I use a lot to listen music, and Gmail ofc.
change the Gmail account settings to stop yt browsing history, targeted ads, etc.
uninstall Chrome and stop using Google search -> install Brave and use DDG
block scripts, block cookies, clear browser history when closing Brave.
look for decentralized, block chain, free source social media alternatives like Mastodon, LBRY and many others to manage future content.
Phone:
Uninstall all social media apps
Clear browser history, etc.
I don't know what more I could do. I'm not used to terms like FOSS, RSS, and many other things I see in this community. I'm trying to learn to use Arch Linux through VM, but there's so much and I have no knowledge of programming, everything seems like gibberish. I'm too used to Windows and Linux feels like a beast. It feels it's gonna take decades to learn, specially bc I spend a lot of time focused on work. Sometimes I feel like letting it control my life bc I can't be bothered with privacy, but I'm also a bit paranoid knowing that the Google boys knows where I live and what I bought this month. What should I do?
EDIT:
I gotta thank you all for the support! I already started changing a few things like email address, browser and setting up Linux to practice in a VM (until I feel comfortable enough to switch from W10). The email address is gonna take a while bc I have two Gmail accounts and each has different subscriptions, so it's a bit confusing bc of forgotten passwords n shit. Idk if I'll keep updating it here about my progress, but still, thank you all magnificent mfs for the tips!
Alternatives to Google's products/services (what I chose)
https://about.google/intl/ALL_us/products/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products So about 4 months ago I grew tired of Google's bullshit and decided I was going to start the process of de-Googling. Here are the alternatives I chose to the Google products/services I previously used: Chrome -> Firefox (And Tor for more private things) I chose Firefox because it was the one I was most familiar with, and Mozilla is pretty good about privacy. Plus now that I've been using it for a few months, I've realized it has way more features than Chrome. You should not use Edge because it's based on Chromium, and you should not use Safari because it's from Apple, aka a terrible money hungry scummy corporation Google -> DuckDuckGo I chose DuckDuckGo because it's a search engine that doesn't track you. Everybody knows that Google tracks the hell out of every bit of information they can get their hands on and they make it obvious. Google Meet, Google Chat, Google Messages, & Google Hangouts -> Discord, Skype, Microsoft Teams, or TeamSpeak I mainly use Discord, Microsoft Teams, or TeamSpeak are good alternatives. Skype is kinda trash because Microsoft ruined it, but it's still another alternative. Chromebook -> Literally any other Windows or Linux laptop If you have a Chromebook you should 100% sell it for a Windows or Linux laptop. Chromebooks are overpriced for low specs, and ChromeOS is garbage. Some good laptop manufacturers are: Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Acer. (Not Apple. Mac computers are garbage. Everything about Apple is garbage. You can read all about it here) Gmail -> Outlook I chose outlook because I didn't like any other alternatives and I've seen people use it. I've had it for about a week at this point and it seems pretty good so far. I like that it has the desktop app, it's easier to use as a desktop app than in a browser in my opinion. You should not use Yandex because Yandex is a Russian company and I don't trust any Russian company with my privacy. Chromecast/YouTube TV -> Roku or a home PC (You should not use Firestick TV or Apple TV. Amazon is also a terrible money hungry corporation and Jeff Bezos is a scumbag.) I've been using Roku for about a decade and they make great products. But I'm more of a PC over console guy, since PCs can do everything a console can do and more (as long as it's powerful enough, but if it's just a home server for media it doesn't need to be that powerful) it cuts down on the amount of power & HDMI ports you use. Plus a keyboard and mouse are easier to use in my opinion, but if you don't want to use a keyboard and mouse you can use any bluetooth controller. Google Drive ->mega.nzor Mediafire (Or a home server for local storage) I use both and they're good. Drive only gives you 15 GB for free while mega.nz gives you 50 GB for free. Mediafire gives you a similar amount to Google Drive but it's just another alternative. I use both and they're decent. Plus it's not easy to just make another Google account while you can easily make more mega.nz and Mediafire accounts. I'm not aware of any more alternatives. And if you set up a home server, you have your own local storage that's easily accessible on your network. It's guaranteed to last you years with no extra fees or problems. Google Pixel -> LG, HTC, Motorola, or an old Samsung Samsung has been turning in to a shitty company recently, copying all of the terrible traits of iPhones. Samsung is removing traditional smartphone things like the headphone jack, microSD card slot, the cameras look ridiculous, and the entire thing is made of glass. They even stopped including chargers with their phones even though they literally JUST made fun of Apple for doing the same thing. I also wouldn't buy a Xiaomi or Huawei because they're Chinese companies and I don't trust any Chinese company with my privacy either. LG, HTC, Motorola, or an old Samsung (maybe older than 2018/2017) are all good phone manufacturers. Google Assistant/Google Home -> Cortana There's Amazon Echo and Apple's Siri thing, but I've made it obvious in this post that I don't like Apple or Amazon. Cortana is the next best alternative. I think they even have a smart home device. Not sure. Stadia -> PC, PS, XB, Nintendo I've literally never seen anybody use Stadia and didn't even know what it was until a couple months ago but if you use it you should join the PC master race Google Voice -> TextNow I didn't have phone service some years ago and I used TextNow to get a phone number. It was pretty good most of the time. YouTube Music -> Pandora, Spotify, Google Play Music I Google Play Music is a Google service, but I don't really care for Pandora or Spotify, YouTube Music is absolute fucking garbage and it's total BS that they shut down Google Play Music. Luckily, it's just an offline player and you can still use it. If you block the app from having internet access, you should be fine. Google Earth -> NASA World Wind I don't use Google Earth for anything but I looked up an alternative and I found "NASA World Wind" and it looks like a decent piece of software. Google Photos -> Plex You can use Plex on a home server. You can use a home server as an alternative to a lot of these apps because they're based on cloud storage, but a home server is less expensive in the long run. Google Maps, Google Classroom Google Play, & Google Translate - I haven't found a good alternative to these yet. I know Microsoft has their own translator but I haven't used it. As of right now I'd recommend using a throwaway account with Tor and a VPN so they can't track you if you use these services. YouTube - There's not really any alternative to YouTube either and that's a shame because YouTube has developed into a terrible platform in the last couple of years, we all know this. We really need a big competitor to YouTube. Although I recommend using YouTube Vanced to improve YouTube a lot, the stock YouTube app is absolute garbage. Android - There's not really any alternative to Android (at least that I know of) so I'm forced to keep using it. iOS is fucking shit though, I would 100% rather be tracked by Google than use Apple's garbage (again, you can read about it above) Google's Office (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Drawings) -> Microsoft Office Microsoft Office is a pretty good Office package for desktop. I don't know about mobile though, my Android came with something called "Hancom Office S Viewer" and I've heard that OfficeSuite is a pretty good office program for mobile. That's about all I could think of, please share your thoughts and feedback in the comments.
Remove Ads from your Life with AdGuard Home and Alternative Social Media Apps
Note: I know this is a bit basic, but I know it is what I would have wanted 3 months ago. Lately, I've been getting into automation and accessibility with my phone. While I am definitely not the first one to use this, I think that I am evidence that someone with no coding knowledge can improve their life significantly when it comes to their phone and computer. The thing that I think has affected me the most is AdBlock. Now, most of you are (hopefully) using an extension in your desktop browser, like uBlock Origin or AdGuard, but what you might not know is that you can actually block ads across your entire network using a service called AdGuard Home. (There are also alternatives, such as pi-hole, but let's focus on AdGuard) All you need is a RaspberryPi, (almost any version works, works, and you can find a RasberryPi Zero for as little as $5), and about 10-30 minutes, depending on your proficiency with Linux. I'm not going to write a tutorial here, but you can find one here, or google "AdGuard raspberry pi." What this does is that it blocks ads on your entire network, so whether you are on your phone or in an app, the ads will (probably) be disabled. The drawbacks of this are that not all ads are blocked (youtube is finicky,) and it requires a little common sense when it comes to computers. Luckily, there's another way... Bringing us to Alternative Social Media Apps. There are currently many different apps for different social media platforms, almost all of which feature ad-blocking. Here are the ones that I'm currently using: Note: You will need to uninstall APKs for some of these apps to work. If you don't know how to do that, check this article out. Youtube: Vanced Blocks ads, skip sponsors using SponsorBlock, download videos, and get AMOLED dark mode, all for free. They also have a youtube music app, also with no ads, and also for free. Note on vanced: Since it is so popular, many fake websites claim to have downloads. ONLY DOWNLOAD VANCED FROM https://vancedapp.com/ Facebook: Swipe for Facebook A clean looking Facebook interface, with every feature of the main Facebook app, plus messenger, dark mode, and Ad Blocking (for an additional one-time fee), it is my personal Facebook app, and definitely worth the $5 or so to block sponsored posts. Twitter: Owly for Twitter While I personally use Flamingo (an app that is now removed from the app store due to Twitter's token limit), I have tried Owly and can say that it is definitely one of the best Twitter apps. They have a great looking UI, Ad blocking, Filters, video downloading, and tons more. They do have a $3 fee to access most of the features, but again, it's definitely worth it, plus you can always get a refund if you don't like it. Reddit: Relay for Reddit Reddit is a big one, and while Apollo is still my all-time favorite Reddit app, it's only available on IOS, so I use Relay. It has Ad Blocking, a WAY better interface and UI than the official Reddit app, and AMOLED Dark Mode. You can also scrub through videos, and it's just a generally better app than the normal one. If you like it, you can support the developer with the pro version (although there are no large differences between the pro and free versions.) Instagram: Insta aero A good looking Instagram app with Ad Blocking, photo scaling, and AMOLED dark mode. Plus much more. Please only download from https://aeroinsta.com/ In general, using AdGuard and Alternative Apps are a great way to save money and not have to deal with CONSTANT ADS all around us. I hope this helps some people! Happy browsing :) TLDR: Use AdGuard Home, or Install Alternative Social Media Apps, to remove Ads from your life.
Using Plex as my main music player. I have a few small issues.
As the title indicates I'm using Plex (and PlexAmp) as my main music player. I absolutely love it, but there are a few problems that I've encountered. I don't know if all of these problems are solvable (yet), but I want to put it out there and see if there are any solutions. All of my local metadata is immaculate; I'm very picky about it. In my library settings I've selected to "Prefer local metadata", and genres to be "Embedded Tags". Side note (unrelated to the rest of the content): PlexAmp is excellent. I love using it on my Linux desktop and on Android. The android app is much more straightforward and easy to use than any other music app, not that I've used any besides YouTube Music and the late GPM.
Artists have different genres than the albums they play on. For example Nevermind by Nirvana is listed with Rock, Alternative, and Grunge genre tags. However, if I filter "Rock artists by Name" they will not be listed (they're actually not listed by any of the 3 aforementioned genres). Nevermind will show up in "Rock albums by album artist".
Most Various Artists albums are listed under "All the Right Friends". I thought that was a cheeky way of saying Various Artists until I noticed that "Various Artists" also existed. The really weird thing is that "Various Artists" only seems to refer to Kendrick Lamar, and clicking on it will show his bio and albums. Using the "match" or "fix match" doesn't do anything. I see the little circle spinning but nothing changes. It's frustrating especially knowing that the local metadata is correct. Also, the artist for specific tracks is missing and still listed under "All the Right Friends".
There are artists that don't get any playtime while others get a lot. I'll put my entire music library on random play (by song) and I'll hear several of one artist, but never another, even if the latter artist has more tracks. I've tried with "Popular Tracks" turned on and off, though I don't know why that would necessarily make a difference as I have some very popular bands that I don't hear from.
Perhaps this is a PlexAmp issue, but if I have a radio station running for long enough it will eventually start playing full albums instead of tracks. Usually when this happens it will only play the albums of a single artist too. (I'm in and out of the room not touching the computer it's playing from).
Chrome OS Stable channel got promoted to Chrome OS 85. This is what changed!
https://preview.redd.it/w6v33efodnk51.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=64a402d6eafbe49d4660ca46a5599bfd6e3473e7 _All right crew! The Chrome OS Stable Channel got promoted to milestone today - from 84.0.4147.136 to 85.0.4183.84. As with every new milestone update, this brings massive new changes to the table, offering several new features, bug fixes, and security enhancements to better improve your Chrome OS user experience. Due to the sheer size, I may be missing a few things here and there. Here is what changed! Like my content and want to buy me a coffee?You can support me on ko-fi using this linkor by using the link in my Reddit profile. If you want to be kept up to date with everything new to Chrome OS, feel free to give me a follow. Thanks in advance for your support!! :) Accessibility
Color cursors: New accessibility feature flag to change cursor colors in Chrome OS. This feature has 5 colors for now: Red, Orange, Green, Blue, and Purple. Custom cursor colors are important for visibility to some users with vision impairment (e.g. color blindness).
This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#enable-experimental-accessibility-cursor-colors
This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#enable-ambient-mode
Slideshow: new subpage that allows users to customize which album or category they want the Ambient slideshow to pick from. For example, you can customize the Ambient lock screen to show a particular family album on Google Photos, or a specific category of backgrounds curated by Google.
Behavior: Ambient lock screen will keep the screen on only when the charger is plugged in.
Behavior: Pressing any key on the keyboard will take you from the Ambient slideshow to the password page.
Behavior: Ambient lock screen will exit and switch to the password view when creating large mouse movements. Small mouse movements won’t do anything.
Android subsystem
Default apps: Replaced the Google Play Music Android app with YouTube Music Android app. This is done in preparation to fully migrate Google Play Music subscribers to YouTube Music. Note that upgrading to this version of Chrome OS may not uninstall Google Play Music.
Mic gain: the brand new mic gain feature is enabled by default, which allows you to quickly adjust your microphone sensitivity through the Shelf so your voice isn’t too loud or soft in a call.
Login Screen: The login screen will now display system notifications (update notifications, low battery, etc.)
Window Management: Fixed windows not restoring to their original windowed size when flinging the window up to maximize, dragging the window down and flinging up again to maximize, and clicking the unmaximize icon in the window controls.
Window management: New animation when dragging a maximized window down from the top to unmaximize it.
Shelf: The app scaling feature flag is enabled by default. This shrinks the app icons size when the user exceeds the available space to add an additional app icon in tablet mode. Personally, I wish this app icon resizing also occurs in clamshell mode, but this is a good step in the right direction.
Login screen: the lock screen media controls will hide when closing your Chromebook’s lid or if your device sleeps.
Launcher search: Google Play store search in the launcher is enabled by default, which allows you to quickly find an app on the Google Play store through launcher search.
Status Area: Resized tooltip text size in the shelf quick settings bubble to avoid truncation for long labels. This also includes adding a length limit to tooltips used in the status tray.
Multi display: Fixed app scaling not applying to hidden or extended shelf (shelf that displays on a secondary display) after screen rotates.
Shelf: Fixed a bug that caused app icons size to increase on the shelf or launcher when dragging it with the context menu open.
App drawer: fixed a sync bug where dragging and dropping an app from one launcher page to another on one device will incorrectly create a new launcher page with another device.
Overview mode: right click to access the context menu will be suppressed when right clicking the Virtual desk name.
Login screen: New policy to allow SAML users to be set through the online flow on the lock screen in order to verify and sync their password.
Multi display: Opening apps from the Shelf or launcher context menu will properly open new windows in the same display as they were launched from. Previously, windows were always opened in the display of the last active window.
Launcher: Users can close the launcher search bar by swiping left while in tablet mode.
Launcher: The launcher won’t show a drag handle on top if the Shelf is set to show on the side instead of the bottom.
Shelf: the context menu app icon sizes (right-click the apps on the shelf) will have consistent sizes.
Window management: Fixed a small bug where the multi-window resizer widget (the resize vertical rectangle when hovering cursor in between two snapped windows) would persist during the Overview mode transition.
Login screen: changed the Wi-Fi icon from black to white to improve legibility.
Login screen: Relanded change to show enterprise disclosure as a bottom status indicator in the login/lock screen.
Shelf: Fixed a bug where the material design ripple effect when long pressing or clicking app icons on the Shelf would randomly get misaligned.
Login screen: The login screen clock will change clock type (12hr, 24hr) depending on the settings specified on the user profile. If the primary account is using a 12 hour clock and they add a secondary account that uses a 24 hour clock, clicking on the secondary account in the login screen will switch the clock type from 12 hours to 24 hours.
Notifications: Critical system warning notifications will no longer get filtered by Do not disturb.
Virtual desks: New experimental feature flag that limits items on the shelf to the ones associated with windows on the active desk.
Boost your virtual desk productivity now by enabling chrome://flags/#ash-limit-shelf-items-to-active-desk
Virtual Desks: Virtual desk area now uses the same color as the Shelf to be more consistent with the color scheme. Previously, the virtual desk area used a persistent dark gray color.
Google Assistant Media Session integration is turned on by default. This means when you ask the Google Assistant to pause music, it’ll pause the music instead of “this feature is unsupported”.
Camera app
Video: you can pause and resume video recording, and take a still snapshot while recording.
File: Videos are automatically saved in MP4 format, which makes it easy to share them with friends and edit videos in other apps.
Shutter: Added a sound effect to the pause and resume button when recording a video. The sound effect is identical to Google’s camera app on a Pixel device when pressing the pause and resume button.
Chrome
Memory: Improved resource consumption when a window is covered by other windows.
Javascript throttling: New feature flag that throttles javascript timers to 1 wake up per minute in the background. Local experiments conducted by Google conclude that throttling javascript timers to 1 wake up per minute can extend battery life from 4 hours and 42 minutes, to 5 hours and 18 minutes, when YouTube is playing in the foreground and 36 tabs are opened in the background.
This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#intensive-wake-up-throttling
Performance: increased the browser tab loading performance up to 10% thanks to profile guided optimizations, which allows the most critical part of the code to work faster.
Tab Groups: The tab groups feature flag is enabled by default. You will now be able to organize your tabs into groups and collapse them.
Privacy Redesign: the privacy redesign feature flag is enabled by default, which makes managing cookies, passwords, and privacy settings more intuitive. This includes using secure DNS to improve your security and privacy while browsing the web.
Safety Check: Chrome should now have a built-in safety check feature, which checks for compromised passwords and dangerous websites to keep you safe.
Tab Hover Previews: the tab hover previews flag is enabled by default. You’ll now be able to hover your cursor over tabs to quickly see a small thumbnail preview of that page.
Incognito: Incognito mode will automatically block third-party cookies so websites cannot use cookies to track you on the web. This feature adds a nifty toggle to turn this feature on or off.
PDF viewer: you will now be able to fill out and save PDFs in Chrome
Memory: Dynamic tcmalloc is enabled by default, which adjusts tcmalloc's thread cache sizes in response to memory pressure. Experimentally this improved the number of loadable tabs on low end Chromebooks by 10% while also reducing tab switch times by nearly 5%.
Fixed a bug that caused the incorrect tab URL to be seen on the New Tab Page’s hover card after cancelling “Turn on Sync” overlay.
Permissions: Chrome will now show the quiet notification permission UI for sites known to trick users into accepting the notification permission.
Permissions: new permission “chip” feature flag featuring a slick design when a website asks the user for permissions.
This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#permission-chip
Chrome OS Print preview: tweaked the dropdown design. There is a new printer icon next to the printer name with a colored status bubble to indicate the printer status. Also, various fixes to the drop down came with this build of Chrome OS, including fixing labels from overflowing the input field and properly displaying the status underneath the dropdown.
Chrome OS Print preview: the print preview will show the printer status of USB printers by informing users that the USB printer is currently connected or disconnected to the device.
WebUI Tab strips: new drag animation when dragging tab groups.
WebUI New Tab page: interactive doodles will now display on themed new tab page.
Fixed not being able to drag and drop files when opening the media controls in the Chrome toolbar.
GPU: New Chrome flag that uses Skia Deferred Display Lists when performing rasterizations in the GPU process. With the flag enabled, the raster decoder will record raster work into a deferred display list first, and then play it back into a SkSurface. For now, recording and playing back are on the GPU main thread. In future, the recording could be moved to raster worker threads. This feature further reduces the CPU load and moves some of the work to the GPU, saving battery and improving performance.
This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#enable-oop-rasterization-ddl
Client storage: New flag that records the first-party contexts in which client-side storage was accessed.
This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#client-storage-access-context-auditing
Clear browsing: New feature flag that puts a new installed apps warning dialog to the clear browsing data flow to prevent users from accidentally deleting installed apps’ data.
This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#installed-apps-in-cbd
Audio: Initial support of 5.1 and 7.1-channel surround sound audio of Chrome on Chrome OS. This is big news for Stadia gamers since this brings surround sound to the gaming experience. I don't have a surround sound audio system to test this, but if you do, let me know in the comments if it works!
Notifications: Chrome will silently notify users on the right side of the URL bar when websites attempt to abuse notification content
Password check: fixed password check banner illustration from exceeding the width of the settings columns when window shrinks to a small size.
Gamepad: Added gamepad mappings for ELECOM controllers (JC-U4013SBK and JC-U4113SBK) when they’re in Direct Input (“D”) mode.
DevTools: Chrome DevTools now supports editing programmatically constructed stylesheet objects.
Print preview: Fixed unable to tab to select sections in print preview after clicking the zoom out icon.
Storage: New feature flag that tells Chrome to inform applications about your device’s low disk space. This allows them to adjust their caching strategy and ensure a smooth and uninterrupted experience for their users.
This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#enable-storage-pressure-event.
PDF viewer: increased the page selector minimum width and padding.
Chrome OS Settings
Settings search: The brand new Chrome OS settings search feature is enabled by default. Unlike the old search that used exact string matching, this search uses fuzzy search algorithms to suggest sections of Chrome OS settings, making it easier to search for settings
Wi-Fi sync: Wi-Fi sync feature flag is enabled by default. This will allow Chrome OS to sync Wi-fi network configurations with Chrome sync. This is useful for users who connected to several different networks before and can’t remember what the passwords are. When you enter a Wi-Fi password on your personal profile on one Chromebook, that info is securely saved with your account even when you log in to another Chromebook.
Display settings: fixed a bug where the resolution drop-down could get disabled when changing an external monitor’s display resolution.
Display modes: The list all display modes feature flag is enabled by default. This means that separate refresh rate and resolution dropdowns will be shown in Chrome OS Display settings when an external display is connected.
Network: Fixed small oversight with the Add Wi-fi and VPN dialogs that caused the two dialogs to have no shadow or border.
Smart Inputs: New “Manage personal information” link under “Smart inputs” that links users to Chrome setting’s “Address and more”.
Smart Inputs: New toggle in Smart inputs under the Language and inputs category that disables emoji suggestions.
Icons: Updated Wi-Fi and Mobile data network icons to Google Material outline theme.
Fixed a visual bug with the Chrome OS settings search bar where clicking the search bar would cause it to grow larger than the inactive search bar. Also fixes the strange search bar corners.
Network: The “Metered network” feature is disabled by default, which brought a metered network toggle to Wi-Fi and Cellular connection into Chrome OS settings.
To get this toggle back, enable chrome://flags/#show-metered-toggle
Family Link
Permissions: When a child account tries to modify the timezone preference, a parent must provide an access code to apply the changes.
Permissions: When a managed user attempts to launch a restricted app from the launcher, they will have a new dialog that asks for parent permission if the parent has the “permissions for sites, apps and extensions” toggle enabled; otherwise the user will have an error dialog. Previously, clicking an app that is disabled pending approval does nothing.
Clock: The clock format will change on the child’s lock screen depending on what they switch on in the “Use 24-hour clock” preference.
Files app
Sort: The sort column icon was flipped so the arrow points up when sorting in ascending order.
File type: The files app will now be able to identify AMR files as sound files instead of text files.
Format dialog: Slightly tweaked the format dialog by removing the close button and changing the spacing between the bottom form field and the bottom buttons.
Archive: Slightly tweaked the dialog style for password-protected zips by changing the padding and fonts sizes in the dialog.
Behavior: The files app will now refresh when there are changes in Linux files or other FUSE systems.
Fixed .opus sound files not showing audio icon in the files app.
Context menu: New dropdown menus to "Open with" and "More Actions" when right-clicking a file type in the files app, which allows you to quickly change default apps for that file type. IMO: this is a big improvement compared to using the files app’s toolbar.
Context menu: You will now be able to “Go to file location” when a single file is selected in Recents, Audio, Images, or Videos. This is a small change with a HUGE productivity benefit.
Fixed a bug where saving an HTML file as “single file” incorrectly creates “.html” instead of “mhtml”.
The “Save as” dialog will automatically attach file extensions.
Context menu: Fixed a bug where the sub menus that hang off the right-click context menu can get clipped when the files app window is shrunk horizontally to its minimum width. This bug fix will allow sub menus to slightly overlap.
Save as: Fixed a regression where the “Save as” dialog prompt does not respond to the up/down key arrow after invoking Shift + Tab.
Sharing: Fixed a visual bug where a double horizontal line would appear above “this folder is shared with Linux” after sharing a folder to Linux (Beta).
Input
Virtual keyboard: the brand new bordered virtual keyboard design is enabled by default, which adds a fresh new coat of Google Material theme to the virtual keyboard. This design will not work for languages other than English.
Port forwarding: the port forwarding feature flag is enabled by default. This allows you to make Linux ports available to other devices on your network. It will forward ports on the interface of the highest priority network instead of always forwarding ports on wlan0.
USB: The Crostini USB allow unsupported feature flag is enabled by default. This should allow developers to mount their USB serial devices to their Chromebook without having to change a flag. Your mileage may vary as some serial devices will not work (FTDI, CH341, etc).
Disk resizing: The crostini disk resizer will suggest a recommended disk size for users who want to increase or decrease disk size.
Mic sharing: Enabling the crostini mic sharing toggle will prompt you to restart the Linux container.
USB: When a newly plugged in device reports multiple interfaces and at least one of them is “notifiable”, Chrome OS will notify the user. Previously, all interfaces needed to be “notifiable”.
Fixed Chrome OS not upgrading the Linux (Beta) container when there are dpkg locks.
Fixed crostini apps incorrectly using the cube icon instead of the penguin icon as fallback.
USB: Chrome OS will suppress notifications for devices with forbidden interfaces (e.g. docking stations that have HID and vendor-specific interface, external monitors connected through USB).
Media App SWA
This experimental feature is still in development. To try it out, you'll need to enable a Chrome flag. Copy-paste the following URL and change the dropdown from "Default" to "Enable": chrome://flags/#media-app
Files: You can now launch multiple files simultaneously with the media app by selecting them with your Chromebook’s files app. Previously, selecting two files in the files app and selecting “Open with Gallery” by right-click would only open one file. This update now allows you to launch multiple files with “Open with Gallery”.
Files: When launching a file in a directory, the Media app SWA will asynchronously load every other related file in that directory to speed up file loading.
OOBE (first-boot setup)
Account: Prevent ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID error from showing up when setting up the Chromebook on a slow network.
Account: Administrators will now be able to disable Chromebooks that have been pre-provisioned but not yet enrolled. This means that managed Chromebooks will immediately become disabled, even when going through the OOBE first-boot setup.
Notifications: System notifications (Wi-Fi, battery, etc) will not be suppressed during the first-boot process.
Print jobs app
Print jobs app: the brand new print jobs app is enabled by default. This allows users to manage and view their print history on Chrome OS. The print job app will display ongoing print jobs and will dynamically update depending on the status of the job.
When a print job notification shows up in Chrome OS, tapping on the notification will open the print jobs management app
New policy to prevent managed users from deleting their print history. When the restriction is in place, the delete history button will be disabled.
PWAs
Sync: Web app icons for Chrome OS will update when manifest data is updated.
Autostart: New feature flag that allows users to auto-start PWAs when the user signs into Chrome OS. When prompted to install a PWA, Chrome will offer a new checkbox asking the user if they want to run the PWA after signing into Chrome OS. To try this out, enable chrome://flags/#enable-desktop-pwas-run-on-os-login
Quick Answers
Quick Answers will accept keyboard accessibility inputs.
Fixed a bug where the Quick answers feature would not get focused after pressing the Up or Down arrow on the keyboard.
Wallpaper picker app
Localized wallpaper picker app name
Wallpaper picker app will be searchable from the launcher.
The nitty-gritty stuff
This advanced section is a long list of things changed that impacts web developers and enterprise users. There are a lot more nitty-gritty stuff in the full changelog linked below, but this list coversthe most important Blink and Chrome changesintroduced in this release cycle. Blink
New Bluetooth.getDevices() method that allows sites to easily reconnect to permitted Web Bluetooth devices. Previously, Chrome’s implementation of Web Bluetooth did not have a way for websites to get a list of permitted devices. See this developer document for more details.
New writeValueWithResponse()and writeValueWithoutResponse() to web bluetooth. This helps improve read and write performance on some devices.
Interested web developers should test this out by enabling chrome://flags/#enable-experimental-web-platform-features
Fixed display:inline for not using a “true” CSS inline box when it’s not displaying an image fallback.
Fixed Chrome not honoring CSS dimensions if the doesn’t have a src but has a title attribute.
Web Serial API: addressed a WebIDL issue that causes SerialPort.setSignals()to fail if empty signals dictionary.
Pointer lock: fixed a pointer lock bug where activating pointer lock in mousemove listener won’t allow cancelling with ‘escape’ or ‘Alt + Tab’ keys.
Chrome now supports the counter-set CSS property, which sets a CSS counter to a given value.
Implemented the media element show poster flag, which makes the behavior of poster rendering consistent with other browsers. This removes the old element DisplayMode.
WebRTC: Added adaptivePTime to RTCRtpEncodingParameters, which adds an origin trial for real-time communication applications (Google Meet as an example) to optimize their bandwidth usage so that they can alleviate network congestion.
Storage privacy: fixed a regression caused by Quota where clearing all browser data takes a long time to delete.
Layout: Removed anonymous block wrapper when in line continuation is removed, which helps multicol keep track of what is regular column content and what are spanners.
Flexbox: Fixed a bug where Chrome would not consistently position HTML content inside a flex cell, which prevented developers from creating offset to cells.
Paint: Fixed a bug where the Select Element text gets cut off until the viewport gets resized
Forms: fixed a bug where OPTION should be selected when multiple selected OPTIONs are added by jQuery append().
Layout: Limit PositionForPointInInlineBox() to process inline boxes only.
Renderer: improved performance of client-side phishing detection’s visual feature extraction, which reduces renderer hangs.
Service Worker: fixed Chrome locking up with large amounts of service workers
New String.prototype.replaceAll function that helps developers to global-replace strings without having to escape RegExp syntax characters. See this developer document for more details.
New Promise.any() and AggregateError functions. Promise.any() accepts promises and returns a promise that is fulfilled by the first given promise to be fulfilled, or rejected with an AggregateError holding the rejection reasons if all of the given promises are rejected. AggregateError is a support class that aggregates one or more errors into a single object. See a snippet of what it is here.
New Logical assignment operators ||=, &&=, and ??= to Javascript. This is an incremental improvement for shipping terser, clearer Javascript.
Corrected silence detecting condition in Web Audio. The silence detection should be activated when there are no automatic pull nodes, or the local destination node has an active input connection.
Fixed a bug that caused fonts in fixed-position to appear blurry due to a directly composited layer (triggered by backface-visibility:hidden) with a fractional transform.
Fixed gradient list marker image growing massively when zooming.
Fixed positioned SVG backgrounds unstable with zoom or transitions due to sub-pixel snapping.
New BluetoothDevice.watchAdvertisements() method to enable web apps to receive events when the system receives an advertisement packet from a watched device. This API will allow web apps to detect whether a device is unresponsive because it has gone out of range by listening for advertisement packets from the device.
Fixed rendering drop shadow blur when fillStyle is CanvasPattern with transparency.
Fixed requestPointerLock breaking event.preventDefault for wheel events
Add willReadFrequently attribute to CanvasRenderingContext2DSettings. This helps improve performance for read access. Developers can test this now by enabling chrome://flags/#new-canvas-2d-api
Fixed wrong intrinsic size when orthogonal items are baseline aligned and column's max-sizing function determines the size of the CSSgrid.
Fixed range inputs now look rather broken if they had certain styles e.g. padding applied to them.
Fixed option text not selected to a select box if option has child elements.
Fixed Alt text on broken images overriding CSS dimensions.
Fixed SVG CSS not repositioning with percent translate when parent resizes.
Fixed aspect-ratio not handling min/max content contributions correctly.
Scroll Unification: implemented page-based scrolling in the compositor. Page based scrolling is used in three situations: PageUp/PageDown keys, Main thread scrollbar scrolling, and wheel when a scroll-by-page setting is enabled.
Bluetooth: added getDevices() web feature.
Fixed text not automatically scrolling into view until the page’s scroll offset resets to the top with certain links.
SVG: fixed animation of stop-color with currentcolor on not working.
Viz: fixed page freezing when moving mouse or scrolling page with iframe inside another iframe with href target = blank (needed for asynchronous hit-test event).
Fixed SVG CSS not repositioning with percent translate when parent resize
Chrome
Devtool Fixed not being able to create a new style rule for ::marker.
Devtool: new option to make a11y info optional in inspector overlay
Extensions: new enterprise.networkingAttribute API that reads the device’s local IP and MAC address if it is connected to a network. This API is only available to force-installed extensions.
Preconnect: Addressed a security flaw by removing loading predictor preconnect for pretenders, which had the potential to leak user information during an isolated prerender.
Enterprise
Legacy Browser Support is now built into Chrome. The developers plan on removing the Legacy Browser extension on the Chrome web store when Chrome 86 rolls out.
Insecure pages will no longer be able to make requests to IPs belonging to more private address spaces. Example: https://example.com won’t be able to make requests targeting 192.168.0.1. A policy will be provided to disable this mechanism.
Cross-origin fetches are being blocked from content scripts in Chrome extensions.
Removed ability to define wildcards for PluginsAllowedForUrl policy in Chrome 85. This is another step to prepare for the Flash deprecation at the end of this year.
Grant permissions to the Imprivata login screen to use chrome.platformKeys and chrome.enterprise.platformkeys (_permission_features.json).
The Emoji suggesting feature is disabled by default for enterprise customers. This setting is under a new emoji suggestion policy.
Disabled EnumerateDevicesHideDeviceIDs on Chrome OS which caused issues in some enterprise Chrome OS setups in the past.
Platform changes
This part covers the most significant platform changes I found in this build, from platform version13099.110.0to13310.59.0. Platform updates typically include low level changes like kernel, driver updates, and other device-specific fixes. Linux 4.4
Updated kernel to Linux 4.4.228.
Bluetooth: stopped Bluetooth from scanning if paused.
Linux 4.14
Updated kernel to Linux 4.14.185.
Linux 4.19
Update kernel to Linux 4.19.129
Bluetooth: bluetooth will terminate the link if the user decides to cancel the ongoing pairing process. This should prevent bluetooth devices (e.g. bluetooth keyboard) from retrying to pair again.
Broadcom Wireless: Fixed connection problems with WPA3 Wi-Fi.
Kukui: fixed back-light turning on before video when the Lenovo Duet and Lenovo 10e Chromebook Tablet boots up.
Linux 5.4
Updated kernel to Linux 5.4.48.
Bluetooth: bluetooth will terminate the link if the user decides to cancel the ongoing pairing process. This should prevent bluetooth devices (e.g. bluetooth keyboard) from retrying to pair again.
Broadcom Wireless: Fixed connection problems with WPA3 Wi-Fi.
Libapps
Terminal: the nassh powerline fonts will be loaded on startup.
Enterprise platform: fixed an issue where the Smart Card Connecter app was unable to interface with a Dell Smart Card Reader keyboard.
Smart unlock: fixed a bug where power cycling the Chromebook, logging in, and locking the screen causes Smart Lock feature to disappear.
Overlays
Kukui: initial on-device Assistant support to Lenovo 10e Chromebook Tablet and the Lenovo Chromebook Duet/Lenovo IdeaPad Duet devices. This brings on-device Google Assistant to your Chromebook, which should significantly speed up Assistant responses to commands like “tell me a joke” or “open Google Play Music”. However, I do not have any of these devices to confirm if this feature works.
To test, you’ll need to enable chrome://flags/#enable-on-device-assistant
Atlas: added 24 FPS video range for video conferencing applications on the Pixelbook Go. Since 24FPS is common for video conferencing, your Pixelbook Go will use 24 FPS instead of 30 FPS when conferencing, which improves battery life and performance.
Grunt: updated the HP Chromebook 14, HP Chromebook 11, Acer Chromebook 315, Acer Chromebook Spin 311, and Lenovo 14e touchpad firmware
Attestation: changed the flow in SignEnterpriseChallenge to include customer_id instead of domain name for enrolled Chromebooks.
Hey, so I realize I might be posting in the wrong but I'm nearing completion of an Ansible playbook I use to provision all the computers in my network. I'm going to be releasing it as open source but I haven't gotten around to creating the README.mds and scrubbing my git history of passwords. I'm trying to just include the best software that I should be using on all my computers so I can elevate my efficiency on the command-line and also use the best desktop apps. Here's my main.yml which runs through all the tools that I have deemed awesome so far: --- - hosts: pfsense roles: - roles/misc/pfsense - hosts: seconion roles: - roles/misc/seconion - hosts: all:!pfsense:!seconion gather_facts: false roles: - roles/system/connect - hosts: mac roles: - roles/tools/mas - hosts: all:!pfsense:!seconion roles: - roles/system/dns - roles/system/hosts # Developer note: aptcacherng host node requires Tor - roles/services/tor - roles/services/aptcacherng - roles/system/ssh - roles/system/common - roles/system/security - roles/system/firewall # Developer note: dotfiles role needs starship installed before it runs - roles/tools/starship - roles/system/dotfiles - roles/system/vpn - roles/languages/go - roles/languages/java - roles/languages/nodejs - roles/languages/php - roles/languages/ruby - roles/tools/nvm - roles/tools/pip - roles/tools/vault - roles/services/antivirus - roles/services/cloudflare - roles/services/cockpit - roles/services/cups - role: roles/services/dnsmasq when: install_dnsmasq | default(false) - roles/services/duplicacy - roles/services/elasticagent - roles/services/filebrowser - roles/services/netdata - roles/services/nginx - role: roles/services/portout when: install_portout | default(false) - roles/services/rclone - roles/services/restic - roles/services/samba - roles/services/wazuh - roles/virtualization/docker - roles/virtualization/kvm - roles/virtualization/gitdocker - hosts: desktop roles: - roles/virtualization/dockerslim # Docker Slim: Toolset for generating compact, secure Docker images - roles/virtualization/kubernetes # Kubernetes: Tools useful for managing Kubernetes clusters - roles/virtualization/parallels # Parallels: Desktop virtualization software for Mac OS X - roles/virtualization/vagrant # Vagrant: A tool useful for building and managing virtual environments - roles/virtualization/virtualbox # VirtualBox: Cross-platform, open-source desktop virtualization software - roles/virtualization/vmware # VMWare: A virtualization platform - roles/applications/androidstudio # Android Studio: An IDE used to build Android apps - roles/applications/autokey # AutoKey: Application that allows you to create key bindings for programmable commands - roles/applications/bravebrowser # Brave Browser: A browser with default settings that help with privacy - roles/applications/chrome # Chrome: Google's web browser - roles/applications/firefox # Firefox: An open-source web browser - roles/applications/flameshot # Flameshot: A screenshot utility for Linux - roles/applications/gimp # Gimp: An image editor similar to Photoshop - roles/applications/hyper # Hyper: Extensible terminal built on web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS - roles/applications/inkscape # Inkscape: Vector graphics software - roles/applications/intellij # IntelliJ Community Edition: An IDE for Java - roles/applications/lollypop # Lollypop: A slick music player available on Linux - roles/applications/mailspring # Mailspring: An e-mail client available on Windows, macOS, and Linux - roles/applications/microsoftedge # Microsoft Edge: Microsoft's latest Chromium-based browser - roles/applications/nordvpn # NordVPN: VPN software for Mac OS X and Windows - installer skips on Linux - roles/applications/office # LibreOffice/Microsoft Office: Installs Microsoft Office and LibreOffice if Microsoft Office is not available - roles/applications/plex # Plex: A home media server that includes the capability of streaming movies/shows remotely - roles/applications/postman # Postman: A collaboration platform for API development - roles/applications/qbittorrent # qBittorrent: A torrent downloader - roles/applications/raspberryimager # Raspberry Imager: Utility that flashes MicroSD cards for use with Raspberry Pis - roles/applications/remotedesktop # Remote Desktop: Installs the best remote desktop software based on the operating system - roles/applications/shotcut # Shotcut: Cross-platform, open-source video editor - roles/applications/shotwell # Shotwell: A photo management tool - roles/applications/skype # Skype: VOIP/chat application - roles/applications/slack # Slack: Team collaboration software - roles/applications/teamviewer # TeamViewer: Software that provides remote access to others - roles/applications/visualstudio # Visual Studio: Installs Visual Studio Community Edition on Windows - roles/applications/vlc # VLC: Cross-platform multimedia player - roles/applications/vscode # Visual Studio Code: A code editor redefined and optimized for building and debugging modern web apps - roles/applications/wireshark # Wireshark: Most widely-used network protocol analyzer (packet sniffer) - roles/applications/xcode # Xcode: Installs Xcode on Mac OS X - roles/tools/autojump # Autojump: Allows user to intelligently change directories to frequently visited directories - roles/tools/bandwhich # Bandwhich: CLI utility for displaying network utilization by process - roles/tools/beets # Beets: CLI tool used for managing large music libraries - roles/tools/composer # Composer: A PHP dependency management tool - roles/tools/ffsend # Firefox Send: Allows you to easily and securely share files and directories through the command line - roles/tools/fzf # fzf: A command-line fuzzy finder - roles/tools/gitextras # Git Extras: Popular collection of tools that are added to git - roles/tools/gitlfs # Git LFS: Adds support for Git LFS (Large File System) - roles/tools/gitsecret # Git Secret: A bash tool that allows you to store encrypted private data inside a git repository - roles/tools/homebrew # Homebrew: A package manager for Mac OS X and Linux - roles/tools/httpie # HTTPie: Command line HTTP client - roles/tools/jq # JQ: Lightweight and flexible JSON parser - roles/tools/juju # Juju: Open source service modelling tool - roles/tools/packer # Packer: Tool for creating identical images for multiple platforms from a single configuration - roles/tools/peco # Peco: Command line interactive filtering tool - roles/tools/powershell # PowerShell: Cross-platform task automation and configuration management framework - roles/tools/translate # Translate Shell: Generate translations from the command line - roles/tools/yarn # Yarn: Fast, reliable, and secure dependency management tool for Node.js - roles/tools/youtubedl # youtube-dl: CLI that can download videos from YouTube and other sites - roles/system/extensions # Extensions: Provides the capability of installing GNOME extensions using a configuration - roles/system/desktop # Desktop: Applies miscellaneous tweaks to desktop computers - hosts: all:!pfsense:!seconion roles: - role: roles/misc/easyengine when: install_easyengine | default(false) - role: roles/misc/hosthomepage when: install_host_homepage | default(false) - role: roles/misc/ipa when: install_ipa | default(false) - role: roles/misc/maas when: install_maas | default(false) #- role: roles/misc/pihole # Currently relies on external role to set up encrypted DNS # when: install_pihole | default(false) - roles/system/finish My question is... what am I missing? Do you know of any cool CLI/developepower user tools that I should include? This list doesn't include any web apps.. that's seperately managed. Anyways, I figured I would post this here so I can get downvoted and told where to post it :) Thank you. Love you. Nice day. Toodaloo.
My Thoughts on Stadia vs. Other Cloud Gaming Platforms
I'm a web-app aficionado. I started off as a Linux fanboy working on various desktop projects (mostly in pygtk) during my college days. But, I became more and more enamored with web-apps over time as I began to see the web as the platform that was the great equalizer across consumer OSes and devices. Even if the services themselves are closed, they are typically built on open-technologies and competition is just a URL away. I slowly migrated over to Chrome-OS, and, now that it allows you to run a Linux container side-by-side, I'm pretty much all in. I basically spend all my time either in the browser or the terminal. I've been really impressed by the evolution of web-apps in general (and PWA ability in particular) to include offline support (e.g. Gmail, GDrive etc.), high quality media (Netflix, Vudu, Disney+, YouTube Music etc.) without plugins, advanced editing (Pixlr, WeVideo etc.), communications (Slack, Zoom, Meet etc.). Gaming is, I think, really the last stone to fall. I admittedly wasn't in on the OnLive wave, but I've been using GeForce Now (GFN) for years - starting with the original version on the NVIDIA Shield (a great device BTW). I want to compare GeForce Now, ShadowPC and Stadia, to explain why, despite my generally positive impression of GFN and Shadow as solid technology demos, Stadia is in a league of its own and really represents the future. GFN game streaming has always worked well for me. Games have always felt about as responsive as local games and the quality you get from GFX/RFX cards is great. But, the overall experience has been "clunky" at best. Let me explain... Imagine if Netflix, instead of being a proper cloud service, took you to a remote Windows desktop, opened iTunes and had you buy a movie, download it and then play it via the iTunes QuickTime player. That is basically what GeForce Now is for cloud gaming (instead of cloud video). Starting a game can be a many step process, multiplayer is kind of a mess, and I've had situations where every time I load a game I'm taken to Steam where the game downloads an update from Steam servers to the GFN server (in fairness at really high rates) and installs it before it will let me start playing. This model wasn't how GFN started, they used to be more like Stadia, where they partnered to get games on GFN directly. But they pivoted - probably because they wanted to leverage the Steam user base. They've definitely quickly increased their game and player count by doing this, but I think they've also boxed themselves in for the long run. It should be obvious to everyone reading that the model for Netfilx video streaming I described above isn't ideal (and certainly isn't how cloud video streaming turned out). The model described has a clunky user experience, tenuous partnerships and fragile technology dependencies. I'm still happy to use GFN, but for me it is has become a placeholder - a bit of a last resort you might say. If the game I want to play isn't on Stadia, I'll give GFN a try. This is becoming less and less the case as time goes on and Stadia's library sky-rockets. What about ShadowPC? Well, I think ShadowPC represents even more of a temporary work-around than GeForce Now. ShadowPC is basically just a full remote Windows PC desktop. Take my Netflix/iTunes example above and add the requirement to manually manage the storage space on your device and do all your updates manually etc. This is exactly what some people want, and there is something appealing about the sheer brute force nature of this approach to cloud gaming. But, it's also ... "clunky" (there's that word a gain). Just as the above Netflix model would be absurd, it should be obvious that the best implementation the world can create for Cloud Gaming isn't just providing remote-desktop access to non-cloud apps. As a GFN user, when Stadia hit the scenes, I was immediately stoked. Stadia provides a proper cloud gaming service. It provides a much more pleasant, full experience. Yes, the library started small (like the original incarnation of GFN), but it's growing. Stadia is in a position where the future is limitless. GeForce Now and ShadowPC are clever hacks (and I mean that in the best possible way) that just can't represent where we converge to in the future. I think they'll help people put their toe into cloud gaming, but a service like Stadia is where they'll land for the long run.
Products that I did NOT add to database today - sorted by popularity (29.12.2020)
https://facebook.com/4304350722914826 Products that I did NOT add to database today (the list has been sorted by wishlist count (favourites)). Check image compilation: https://i.imgur.com/vSqC0pm.jpg . If you want to add an item to Couponsfromchina database, then click on "Add Product" button on https://couponsfromchina.com/ -1- ✔️ [CN] 120CM Men Nylon Double Ring Alloy Buckle Belt 🛒 https://bit.ly/2Jz9TWo 🔹 Price: $9.99 🔓 Coupon: BG561694 -2- ✔️ [ES,CZ] SIMTOO MOMENT HOSHI 007PRO Airselfie Drone 5G WiFi FPV 4K Gimbal Camera Optical Flow GPS Folding RC Quadcopter Two Batteries(60% OFF Coupon: BG007PRORC) 🔗 https://bit.ly/38EXkmo
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Coupon: BGFHR299
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🔹 Price: $-2 ✌️ Coupon: BGCNCUKHGA -64- ✔️ [CN] 2 in 1 Pet Grooming Hair Dryer Blower with Slicker Slicker Brush Adjustable Temperature Low Noise for Cat Dog Pet Grooming Tool 🔗 https://bit.ly/2Ju5eoD 🚨 Price: $23.99 Coupon: BGXIN671 -65- ✔️ [CN] Bakeey 10inch LED Ring Light bluetooth Control Selfie Stick Photography Tripod Stand USB Plug Dimmable Ring Lamp for YouTube Tiktok Live Stream Makeup ✳️ https://bit.ly/2JxjHjE 💲 Price: $39.99 ✂️ Coupon: BGSK834 -66- ✔️ [CN] Loskii 4.0 bluetooth Soundbar Colorful RGB Speaker Stereo Cool Luminous Speaker USB Charging ✳️ https://bit.ly/37WWMYa 📉 Price: $-2 🔑 Coupon: BGCNLSCGH -67- ✔️ [CN] Wireless bluetooth Alarm Clock Phone Charger FM Radio Table Digital Thermometer With Alarm Clock Display Desktop Clock for Home Decor 🌐 https://bit.ly/3hswrVl 🚨 Price: $22.99 👌 Coupon: BGXIN881 -68- ✔️ [CN] BESDER 2MP 1080P 48V POE Mini PTZ IP Camera Outdoor SD Card AI Human Detection Dome Camera IP Audio IR White LED CCTV Security Camera 🌐 https://bit.ly/3hyqVQT 💣 Price: $39.99 🔑 Coupon: BGXIN451 -69- ✔️ [CN] bluetooth Fingertip Pulse Oximetro SpO2 PR PI Oximeter De Dedo Android IOS APP Blood Oxygen Saturation Heart Rate Detection Oximeter 👌 https://bit.ly/3mTCOSp 💰 Price: $8.99 ❤️ Coupon: BGXIN621 -70- ✔️ [CN] JOYROOM 600A 15000mAh Car Jump Starter Emergency Battery Booster LED Flashlight With SOS Dual USB QC3.0 Quick Charge Digital Display Smart Clip 📌 https://bit.ly/37VZopb 💥 Price: $-2
Coupon: BGHXM010
-71- ✔️ [CN] Men Genuine Leather And Canvas Cycling Outdoor Sport Leg Bag Waist Bag Crossbody Bag ✌️ https://bit.ly/2JtrVcp 👌 Price: $29.99 Coupon: BGJ863 -72- ✔️ [CN] Yuroad BM2023 10W Car Wireless Charger Phone Holder with Automatic Memory Function Fast Charging Phone Stand
Chrome OS Beta channel got promoted to Chrome OS 85. Here is what changed!
_All right crew! The Chrome OS Beta Channel got promoted to milestone 85 a little over a week ago - from 84.0.4147.94 to 85.0.4183.39. As with every new milestone update, this brings massive new changes to the table, offering several new features, bug fixes, and security enhancements to better improve your Chrome OS user experience. Due to the sheer size, I may be missing a few things here and there. Here is what changed! Like my content and want to buy me a coffee?You can support me on ko-fi using this linkor by using the link in my Reddit profile. If you want to be kept up to date with everything new to Chrome OS, feel free to give me a follow. Thanks in advance for your support!! :)
Featured changes
This section showcases changes I believe to be the most significant to this build of Chrome OS.They make a massive impact to the user experience and may be something to look forward to when upgrading your system to this build. These changes will also be listed in the "Notable changes" section of the post.
New accessibility feature to change cursor colors in Chrome OS. This feature has 5 colors for now: Red, Orange, Green, Blue, and Purple. Custom cursor colors are important for visibility to some users with vision impairment (e.g. color blindness). To change the cursor colors, you’ll need to enable chrome://flags/#enable-experimental-accessibility-cursor-colors. See my reddit post to see what it looks like!
The print management feature flag is enabled by default, which allows users to manage and view their print history on Chrome OS. The print managing app will display ongoing print jobs and will dynamically update depending on the status of the job. When a print job notification shows up in Chrome OS, tapping on the notification will open the print jobs management app. Click here to see what it looks like!
The Crostini USB allow unsupported feature flag is enabled by default, which allows developers to mount their USB serial devices to their Chromebook without having to change a flag in their Linux container. Your mileage may vary as some serial devices will not work (FTDI, CH341, etc).
The Port forwarding feature flag is enabled by default, which allows users to set up multiple network ports to their Linux containers. This feature should be incredibly useful for developers who want to access network traffic through a port number of their choice and make it accessible for others on the local network or the internet.
The Chrome OS Shelf will now shrink down application icons when there is no more room left on the shelf while in tablet mode. Personally, I wish this app icon resizing also occurs in clamshell mode, but this is a good step in the right direction. For those out of the loop, this used to be a hidden feature flag. Click here to see what this does.
New experimental feature flag that limits items on the shelf to the ones associated with windows on the active desk. Boost your virtual desk productivity now by enabling chrome://flags/#ash-limit-shelf-items-to-active-desk. See my reddit post about it here!
The brand new Chrome OS settings search feature is enabled by default. Unlike the old search that used exact string matching, this search uses fuzzy search algorithms to suggest sections of Chrome OS settings that are likely to be relevant to the search. See screen recording.
You will now be able to “Go to file location” when a single file is selected in Recents, Audio, Images, or Videos. This is a small change with a HUGE productivity benefit. See my reddit post about it here!
Notable changes in this build
The following is everything I found with this version of Chrome OS. There may be more things I might've missed - please let me know in the comments if you find a significant change not listed here. Bullet points inboldare changes I believe are the most significant. Accessibility
New accessibility feature to change cursor colors in Chrome OS. This feature has 5 colors for now: Red, Orange, Green, Blue, and Purple. Custom cursor colors are important for visibility to some users with vision impairment (e.g. color blindness). To change the cursor colors, you’ll need to enable chrome://flags/#enable-experimental-accessibility-cursor-colors. See my reddit post to see what it looks like!
Ambient lockscreen
requires chrome://flags/#enable-ambient-mode to be enabled!
New option to customize the Ambient lockscreen slideshow to play a Google Photos album or Google wallpaper category. For example, I can set the Ambient lockscreen to choose a particular family album on Google Photos, or have it set a specific category of Google backgrounds. See my reddit post for more information.
Ambient lockscreen got a large clock and weather information support. It can also fetch photos from your Google Photos album, although your photos will be stretched. Note that you’ll need to enable to get this experimental feature. Does not work with managed devices! Check out my other reddit post to see a screenshot of it.
Ambient lockscreen will keep the screen on persistently when the charger is plugged in.
Pressing any key on the keyboard will take you from the Ambient slideshow to the password page.
Ambient lock screen will exit and switch to the password view when creating large mouse movements. Small mouse movements won’t do anything.
App list
New subtext when searching for OS settings in the launcher search. When searching using the launcher search, there will be a small description explaining where in Chrome OS settings you’ll be jumping to (e.g. typing “Wi-Fi” brings up “Known Wi-Fi networks” with “Wi-Fi networks” below the text). See screenshot.
App Service
New App Service feature flag that will add support for adaptive icons in Chrome OS App drawer and Shelf. This is a highly requested feature by fans that aims to bring consistent app shapes throughout Chrome OS. Note: this feature is not working yet. When it lands, try this feature out by enabling chrome://flags/#app-service-adaptive-icon.
Ash
The Chrome OS Shelf will now shrink down application icons when there is no more room left on the shelf while in tablet mode. Personally, I wish this app icon resizing also occurs in clamshell mode, but this is a good step in the right direction. For those out of the loop, this used to be a hidden feature flag. Click here to see what this does.
New experimental feature flag that limits items on the shelf to the ones associated with windows on the active desk. Boost your virtual desk productivity now by enabling chrome://flags/#ash-limit-shelf-items-to-active-desk. See my reddit post about it here!
Opening apps from the Shelf or launcher context menu will properly open new windows in the same display as they were launched from. Previously, windows were always opened in the display of the last active window.
You can now search in the Google Play store using the launcher searchbar by default. This means you will be able to search for apps straight from your Chrome OS launcher search without opening the Google play store.
Lockscreen: changed the Wi-Fi icon from black to white to improve legibility.
Virtual desk area now uses the same color as the Shelf to be more consistent with the color scheme. Previously, the virtual desk area used a persistent dark gray color. See screenshot of the colored Virtual desk area.
New animation when dragging a maximized window down from the top to unmaximize it. See screen recording.
The login screen will now display system notifications (update notifications, low battery, etc.)
Fixed windows not restoring to their original windowed size when flinging the window up to maximize, dragging the window down and flinging up again to maximize, and clicking the unmaximize icon in the window controls.
The lock screen media controls will hide when closing your Chromebook’s lid or if your device sleeps.
Minor UI changes to app paging, which you can switch on by enabling chrome://flags/#enable-launcher-app-paging. This includes increasing the vertical spacing and adding a gradient mask. See the new UI changes by clicking here.
Resized tooltip text size in the shelf quick settings bubble to avoid truncation for long labels. This also includes adding a length limit to tooltips used in the status tray.
Launcher: new full set of circular file icons (audio, excel, pdf, etc.) in the suggested files area. The suggested files area are the bubbles below the launcher search bar.
Fixed app scaling not applying to hidden or extended shelf (shelf that displays on a secondary display) after screen rotates.
Fixed a bug that caused app icons size to increase on the shelf or launcher when dragging it with the context menu open.
Fixed an oversight in the login screen where the enterprise management disclosure is shown for child accounts due to confusion in the code between “management” and “enterprise management”.
App drawer: fixed a sync bug where dragging and dropping an app from one launcher page to another on one device will incorrectly create a new launcher page with another device.
Overview mode: right click to access the context menu will be suppressed when right clicking the Virtual desk name.
Fixed a regression that caused app icons to get chopped when pinning an app on an overflow shelf.
New launcher search disclaimer that informs users that Chrome OS "shows suggestions for new content to explore", which includes apps, webpages, and more. Your Chromebook will share statististics to Google to improve quality only if you choose to share usage data. A switch to enable or disable this feature is in Privacy and Security settings in Chrome OS Settings. See screenshot uploaded here.
New policy to allow SAML users to be set through the online flow on the lock screen in order to verify and sync their password.
Users can close the launcher search bar by swiping left while in tablet mode.
The launcher won’t have a drag handle on top if the Shelf is set to show on the side instead of the bottom.
Fixed a crash when the user simultaneously ends tablet mode (e.g. attaching the Pixel Slate keyboard) while dragging a window into Overview.
Slightly adjusted the mic gain slider padding to have enough space for the slider.
Shelf: the context menu app icon sizes (right-click the apps on the shelf) will have consistent sizes.
Fixed a small bug where the multi-window resizer widget (the resize vertical rectangle when hovering cursor in between two snapped windows) would persist during the Overview mode transition.
Relanded change to show enterprise disclosure as a bottom status indicator in the login/lock screen.
Fixed a bug where the material design ripple effect when long pressing or clicking app icons on the Shelf would randomly get misaligned.
The login screen clock will change clock type (12hr, 24hr) depending on the settings specified on the user profile. If the primary account is using a 12 hour clock and they add a secondary account that uses a 24 hour clock, clicking on the secondary account in the login screen will switch the clock type from 12 hours to 24 hours.
The Alt + V shortcut that displays the serial number, asset tag, and version of the Chromebook in the login screen now became a toggle. This means if the user doesn't want to see the system information on the login/lock screen at the top right when using the Dev and Canary channel, they can invoke Alt + V to hide it. Note: does not persist after unlock.
Critical system warning notifications will no longer get filtered by Do not Disturb.
Fixed a bug where pressing and releasing your second finger would cancel the back gesture when dragging from the left to the center of the screen with your first finger.
Assistant
Google Assistant Media Session integration is turned on by default. This means when you ask the Google Assistant to pause music, it’ll pause the music instead of “this feature is unsupported”.
New experimental feature flag that brings on-device Assistant to your Chromebook. This feature hints at local assistant processing, which will be able to quickly process queries that typically wouldn’t use Google search (e.g. asking a joke, flip a coin, etc). Note: this feature is not working yet. To try it out, enable chrome://flags/#enable-on-device-assistant.
The Assistant open app support feature flag is enabled by default. This feature is a mystery - public documentation on this is pretty much zero. There is some speculation on the web that says it’s for Google Assistant “apps” like Headspace or Fitness Buddy, but I’m unable to get either to work. I strongly believe that this is needed to ship first before the on-device Assistant feature lands, which may include the Assistant apps.
Blink
New feature flag that throttles Javascript timers to 1 wake up per minute in the background. Local experiments conducted by Google conclude that throttling javascript timers to 1 wake up per minute can extend battery life from 4 hours and 42 minutes, to 5 hours and 18 minutes, when YouTube is playing in the foreground and 36 tabs are opened in the background. To test this feature out, enable chrome://flags/#intensive-wake-up-throttling
Camera
Added a sound effect to the pause and resume button when recording a video. The sound effect is identical to Google’s camera app on a Pixel device when pressing the pause and resume button.
Chrome
The new permission “chip” feature flag is now working, featuring a slick design when a website asks the user for permissions. To try this feature out, enable chrome://flags/#permission-chip. See screen recording.
Initial support of 5.1 and 7.1-channel surround sound audio of Chrome on Chrome OS. This is big news for Stadia gamers since this brings surround sound to the gaming experience. I don't have a surround sound audio system to test this, but if you do, let me know in the comments if it works!
Improved resource consumption when a window is covered by other windows.
WebUI tab strip’s tab counter has a new progress throbber to better visualize that a new background tab was created. See demo by Google.
Chrome will now show the quiet notification permission UI for sites known to trick users into accepting the notification permission. See screenshot.
Chrome OS Print preview: tweaked the dropdown design. There is a new printer icon next to the printer name with a colored status bubble to indicate the printer status. Also, various fixes to the drop down came with this build of Chrome OS, including fixing labels from overflowing the input field and properly displaying the status underneath the dropdown. Click here to see what the tweaks looks like.
Chrome OS Print preview: the print preview will show the printer status of USB printers by informing users that the USB printer is currently connected or disconnected to the device.
Fixed a bug that caused the incorrect tab URL to be seen on the New Tab Page’s hover card after cancelling “Turn on Sync” overlay.
WebUI New Tab page: interactive doodles will now display on themed new tab page.
Fixed a bug that caused the Chrome URL bar to not be focused when redirecting new tabs using a plugin or extension.
PDF viewer: New flag that honors Javascript content settings in PDFs with Chrome’s PDF viewer. This flag does not work yet. When it’s ready to test, try it out by enabling chrome://flags/#pdf-honor-js-content-settings
PDF viewer: New flag that will revamp the existing PDF viewer in Chrome to display an updated UI with new options and features. This flag does not work yet. When it’s ready to test, try it out by enabling chrome://flags/#pdf-viewer-update
Print preview: Fixed a bug in the print view overlay that caused it to lose focus after clicking the zoom out icon and pressing the Tab key.
Various layout fixes to the WebUI New Tab page’s realbox. To try out the new realbox, you’ll need to enable chrome://flags/#ntp-webui first
Fixed not being able to drag and drop files when opening the media controls in the Chrome toolbar.
Settings: fixed Google illustration in chrome://settings/content/ not scaling when changing width of the window.
New Chrome flag that uses Skia Deferred Display Lists when performing rasterizations in the GPU process. With the flag enabled, the raster decoder will record raster work into a deferred display list first, and then play it back into a SkSurface. For now, recording and playing back are on the GPU main thread. In future, the recording could be moved to raster worker threads. This feature further reduces the CPU load and moves some of the work to the GPU, saving battery and improving performance. To try this feature out, enable chrome://flags/#enable-oop-rasterization-ddl
New feature flag that records the first-party contexts in which client-side storage was accessed. To try this feature, enable chrome://flags/#client-storage-access-context-auditing
New feature flag that puts a new installed apps warning dialog to the clear browsing data flow to prevent users from accidentally deleting installed apps’ data. Test this feature out by enabling chrome://flags/#installed-apps-in-cbd
New feature flag that removes all Chrome extensions from the Cross-Origin Read Blocking and Cross-Origin Resource Sharing allowlist. This is part of an effort to improve extension security and privacy. Content scripts will instead be subject to the same request rules as the page they are running within. To test this feature, enable chrome://flags/#force-empty-CORB-and-CORS-allowlist
Tab Groups: fixed a bug where the user won’t be able to place a tab group with a long group name past the last tab in Chrome’s tab strip
PDF viewer: fixed a bug where encrypted PDFs that require a password to launch will not appear. Before the update, loading progress is stuck at the halfway point.
WebUI Tab strips: new dragging pinned tabs animation
PDF viewer: fixed zoom buttons not showing up when in Right-to-Left mode.
Notifications: Chrome will silently notify users on the right side of the URL bar when websites attempt to abuse notification content
Tab group: fixed a visual bug where dragging a tab group out of the window causes the group header and underline to stretch too far.
Fixed a bug where changing the writing direction from right-to-left does not apply to chrome’s internal pages (example: chrome settings).
Password check: fixed password check banner illustration from exceeding the width of the settings columns when window shrinks to a small size.
Fixed WebUI New Tab page’s remove button flickering when hovering cursor over most visited sites. You’ll need to enable chrome://flags/#ntp-webui to try this feature.
The WebUI New Tab page will share the renderer process between multiple NTPs. This reduces memory overhead of opening a new NTP by nearly 6x and reduces the load time a bit. WebUI NTP must be loaded first before launching another NTP.
Fixed chrome.declarativeNetRequest extensions through the Chrome web store with an “invalid manifest” error.
Chrome DevTools now supports editing programmatically constructed stylesheet objects.
Fixed a bug where context menu persistently shows “view frame source” and “reload frame” despite some pages having no iframe.
Fixed unable to tab to select sections in print preview after clicking the zoom out icon.
New feature flag that tells Chrome to inform applications about your device’s low disk space. This allows them to adjust their caching strategy and ensure a smooth and uninterrupted experience for their users. To try this feature, enable chrome://flags/#enable-storage-pressure-event.
PDF viewer: increased the page selector minimum width and padding.
Tab Groups Collapse: fixed a bug that made it impossible to drag a tab all the way to the right when the tabstrip is filled.
WebUI NTP: fixed a legibility problem with “Most Visited” titles when the theme is set a light color. This update forces the title color to dark. Note: WebUI NTP is not enabled by default - you’ll need to enable chrome://flags/#ntp-webui to switch to it.
Chrome OS Settings
The brand new Chrome OS settings search feature is enabled by default. Unlike the old search that used exact string matching, this search uses fuzzy search algorithms to suggest sections of Chrome OS settings that are likely to be relevant to the search. See screen recording.
Wi-Fi sync feature flag is enabled by default, which allows Chrome OS to sync Wi-Fi network configurations with Chrome sync. This is useful for users who connected to several different networks before and can’t remember what the passwords are.
The “Metered network” feature is disabled by default, which brought a metered network toggle to Wi-fi and Cellular connection into Chrome OS settings. To get this toggle back, enable chrome://flags/#show-metered-toggle
Widened the timezone selector to accommodate some languages.
Various small adjustments and fixes to the new fuzzy search (i.e. “Linux” shows up after “Linux backup and restore”, “Device” did not properly return, etc).
The Live caption feature moved from Chrome settings to Chrome OS settings. It is listed under Accessibility. This feature does not work yet!
Wi-Fi networks will sync after they are configured so long as the password isn’t rejected during a 20 second waiting period. Previously, networks were only synced after they had a successful connection.
The list all display modes feature flag is enabled by default. This means that separate refresh rate and resolution dropdowns will be shown in Chrome OS Display settings when an external display is connected.
Fixed small oversight with the Add Wi-Fi and VPN dialogs that caused the two dialogs to have no shadow or border.
New “Manage personal information” link under “Smart inputs” that links users to Chrome setting’s “Address and more”.
New toggle in Smart inputs under the Language and inputs category that disables emoji suggestions.
Search: changed “setup printer” and “install printer” terms to “Add printer”.
Added “display overscan” to settings search.
Fixed the Chrome OS settings search bar being focused when launching a Chrome OS setting from the launcher search.
Updated Wi-Fi and Mobile data network icons to Google Material outline theme.
Fixed a visual bug with the Chrome OS settings search bar where clicking the search bar would cause it to grow larger than the inactive search bar. Also fixes the strange search bar corners.
Fixed search tags (search suggestions) getting removed and being re-added moments later, causing a laggy search UI and increasing memory usage.
Improved grammar in the “Smart Input” settings subpage.
Fixed a bug where searching for an “advanced” setting (e.g. language) will not expand the “advanced” category on the left side of Chrome OS settings.
Fixed an oversight where users were able to see Google Assistant subpage settings via the Chrome OS search bar even if Google Assistant is disabled.
Default apps
Replaced Google Play Music Android app with YouTube Music Android app.
Demo Mode
The Explore app will show up in the launcher when the Chromebook is set into demo mode.
Family Link
When a child account tries to modify the timezone preference, a parent must provide an access code to apply the changes.
When a managed user attempts to launch a restricted app from the launcher, they will have a new dialog that asks for parent permission if the parent has the “permissions for sites, apps and extensions” toggle enabled; otherwise the user will have an error dialog. Previously, clicking an app that is disabled pending approval does nothing.
The clock format will change on the child’s lock screen depending on what they switch on in the “Use 24-hour clock” preference.
Files app
You will now be able to “Go to file location” when a single file is selected in Recents, Audio, Images, or Videos. This is a small change with a HUGE productivity benefit. See my reddit post about it here!
New drop-down menus to "Open with" and "More Actions" when right-clicking a file type in the files app, which allows you to quickly change default apps for that file type. IMO: this is a big improvement compared to using the files app’s toolbar.
The sort column icon was flipped so the arrow points up when sorting in ascending order.
The files app will now be able to identify AMR files as sound files instead of text files.
Slightly tweaked the format dialog by removing the close button and changing the spacing between the bottom form field and the bottom buttons.
Slightly tweaked the dialog style for password-protected zips by changing the padding and fonts sizes in the dialog.
The files app will now refresh when there are changes in Linux files or other FUSE systems.
The file manager can now properly unarchive zips using FUSE instead of NaCL. Note that archiving selection is not working yet. Try it out by enabling chrome://flags/#files-zip-no-nacl.
New feature flag that will add transfer details like remaining time in the progress center panel. This is not working right now. Test this out by enabling chrome://flags/#files-transfer-details.
Small design tweaks to the “All files” section of the “Save file as” file prompt.
Fixed .opus sound files not showing audio icon in the files app.
Fixed a bug where saving an HTML file as “single file” incorrectly creates “.html” instead of “mhtml”.
The “Save as” dialog will automatically attach file extensions.
Fixed a bug where the sub menus that hang off the right-click context menu can get clipped when the files app window is shrunk horizontally to its minimum width. This bug fix will allow sub menus to slightly overlap.
Fixed a regression where the “Save as” dialog prompt does not respond to the up/down key arrow after invoking Shift + Tab.
Fixed a visual bug where a double horizontal line would appear above “this folder is shared with Linux” after sharing a folder to Linux (Beta).
Gamepad
Added gamepad mappings for ELECOM game controllers (JC-U4013SBK and JC-U4113SBK) when they’re in Direct Input (“D”) mode.
Input
Fixed a bug where left and right modifier key presses are incorrectly marked as repeat when counterpart is held, released when counterpart released. Example: press and hold left shift, press and hold right shift, then let go of the right shift key. Before the patch, the left shift unexpectedly releases.
New OnAssistiveWindowButtonClicked API that notifies extensions a button ID of an assistive window type has been clicked.
Linux (Beta)
The Crostini USB allow unsupported feature flag is enabled by default, which allows developers to mount their USB serial devices to their Chromebook without having to change a flag in their Linux container. Your mileage may vary as some serial devices will not work (FTDI, CH341, etc).
The Port forwarding feature flag is enabled by default, which allows users to set up multiple network ports to their Linux containers. This feature should be incredibly useful for developers who want to access network traffic through a port number of their choice and make it accessible for others on the local network or the internet.
Chrome OS will prompt you to restart the Linux container when you enable the Linux mic sharing toggle
Fixed a bug that causes Linux (Beta) to automatically reinstall when rebooting the device on some devices. This update also fixes Linux (Beta) from installing automatically without user consent.
Port-forwarding: added error UI to the port forwarding subpage. When you input an invalid port number (e.g. a port number value above the range), Chrome OS will prevent you from adding the port. Also, there will be new notifications to inform users if their port failed to start.
The Linux (Beta) disk resizer will suggest a recommended disk size for users who want to increase or decrease disk size.
Chrome OS will prevent users from adding duplicate ports in the port forwarding UI.
Chrome OS will forward ports on the interface of the highest priority network instead of always forwarding ports on wlan0.
Removed terminal splits flag. It was unused from the beginning
Fixed Chrome OS not upgrading the Linux (Beta) container when there are dpkg locks.
Fixed Linux (Beta) apps incorrectly using the cube icon instead of the penguin icon as fallback.
Port forwarding settings won’t show to users if the user policy excludes them.
Media
VA-API low power encoders are disabled by default on Chromebooks with Intel Generation 9 graphics.
Media App SWA
This app is disabled by default. Try this feature by enabling chrome://flags/#media-app
Fixed next image not showing after deleting a photo in the media app.
Fixed a bug that caused the Media App SWA window to flash white momentarily when launching.
You can now launch multiple files simultaneously with the media app by selecting them with your Chromebook’s files app. Previously, selecting two files in the files app and selecting “Open with Gallery” by right-click would only open one file. This update now allows you to launch multiple files with “Open with Gallery”.
When launching a file in a directory, the Media app SWA will asynchronously load every other related file in that directory to speed up file loading.
OOBE (first-boot setup)
Prevent ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID error from showing up when setting up the Chromebook on a slow network.
Administrators will now be able to disable Chromebooks that have been pre-provisioned but not yet enrolled. This means that managed Chromebooks will immediately become disabled, even when going through the OOBE first-boot setup.
System notifications (Wi-Fi, battery, etc) will not be suppressed during the first-boot process.
Ozone
New Chrome flag to enable using the HDR monitor(s) EDID-provided transfer function when present. By default, this flag is disabled because blindly using an HDR transfer makes HDR content look great and SDR content look faded (SDR-HDR mixing). I do not have a HDR monitor or Chromebook display to test if HDR is working on Chrome OS. Test this feature by enabling chrome://flags/#enable-use-hdr-transfer-function
Print Management App
The print management feature flag is enabled by default, which allows users to manage and view their print history on Chrome OS. The print managing app will display ongoing print jobs and will dynamically update depending on the status of the job. When a print job notification shows up in Chrome OS, tapping on the notification will open the print jobs management app. Click here to see what it looks like!
Files sent to the printer will now have a file-type icon next to the job entry name. See screenshot.
New policy to prevent managed users from deleting their print history. When the restriction is in place, the delete history button will be disabled.
Fixed a bug where the print management app would not show the ongoing print job when the user signs in.
Implemented dynamic column sizing so that column will resize based on the app’s window width thresholds. Previously, shrinking the app will cause the column to get cut off.
New trash bin icon in the “Clear all history” button.
Fixed ChromeVox announcing print jobs twice.
Added cancel print job and clear all button for active print jobs
Fixed a crash bug when cancelling a print job.
Restricted the minimum window size to 600x320 to ensure that it displays all informational columns for a print job.
Decreased the size of the enormous “Clear All History” trash bin icon.
PWAs
Web app icons for Chrome OS will update when manifest data is updated.
Trusted web apps will close when an intent to open a PWA through ARC++ is sent.
Fixed a bug where users cannot install web apps after they’ve been removed from policy.
New feature flag that allows users to auto-start PWAs when the user signs into Chrome OS. When prompted to install a PWA, Chrome will offer a new checkbox asking the user if they want to run the PWA after signing into Chrome OS. To try this out, enable chrome://flags/#enable-desktop-pwas-run-on-os-login
Fixed a crash caused by installing a PWA (e.g. Twitter PWA), right-clicking a (twitter) link in incognito mode, and clicking “open with (Twitter) app”.
Quick Answers
Quick Answers will accept keyboard accessibility inputs.
Fixed a bug where the Quick answers feature would not get focused after pressing the Up or Down arrow on the keyboard.
Smart Lock
Fixed an annoying bug that caused Smart lock to break on a Pixelbook after waking it up from sleep.
Sync
Fixed a bug where Wi-Fi configurations would sync even if there is a policy explicitly prohibited them from being synced.
Wallpaper app
Localized wallpaper picker app name
Wallpaper picker app will be searchable from the launcher.
60 % Done - Since Reddit allows only 40 K characters in a single post , some of the content of this post is spilling into comments.
Very opinionated writing environment and landscape (VOWEL)
Command line always excited me but it became more of a passion when I started learning Linux (around four years back). Even in graphical mode, there were many good reasons to get into terminal. Slackware presented a new paradigm, with boot right into the shell and startx if you need GUI. While newer distros do great in bringing Linux to Windows (and Mac) users, Slackware still follows the tradition. It could be bit of a learning but it makes you learn the system. An investment totally worth the pain. That said, my Desktop is beautiful Ubuntu Mate and I am exploring nixOS as a lab project.
Going back 20 years, aside my tech job(s), I was always exploring new tools/ platforms to write (and share) effectively. Blogger was a godsend which morphed into love for Medium and finally to my own blog on github pages. Github Pages, enabled me write natively in vim and publish with a simple git push. That led further discoveries into power (and distraction free) writing in terminal. Almost addictive. An year back I discovered command line interface of Reddit (rtv or ttrv). This made life simpler. I could edit live and publish as soon as I save the post on my terminal. No more git repos. It does have few limitations, such as Reddit doesn't allow to embed pics in the text posts or the post size is limited to 40 K ; but that is a very little price for the comfort it offers. And I am anyway not big on pics (or videos). Over these experiments and part time hobbyist indulgences, I discovered few tools and tricks. This post is to summarise them all - as a personal reference and in case someone wanna share the love of labor. Needless to say, these are just a tip of what command line offers to both developers and technical writers. And may be , with little effort (and training), these tools could be accessible to any one who wants to go beyond traditional word processors.
Why Command Line
Less is More
True to the word - command line offers lot more than the graphical user interface. Lets say you have a file with two hundred contacts and you want to pull out the email addresses from number of other fields and put it into a new file. You will probably need to leave your MS Word , pull the csv file in a spreadsheet, copy the email column into another spreadsheet and save back as a comma delimited csv. Fair enough. It will work if all the email addresses were in one field and even then it is a lot of work. All this can be done with just one command on command line. grep -o '[[:alnum:]+\.\_\-]*@[[:alnum:]+\.\_\-]*' EMAIL_SAMPLES.TXT | sort | uniq -i reference - https://rietta.com/blog/grep-extract-e-mail-addresses-from-a-text-file/
Information is cheap
Continuing with the example above, one can argue as to who understands this command. Frankly speaking , I don't and neither do I need to. All you need to do is search google (prefer duck duck) once and then this command is in the memory of your terminal. You can store your command history as much as you want and. I have my bash history set to ten thousand. When Steve Jobs ( and or Bill Gates) forced the world into GUIs , the information was hard to come by. The manuals were bad if they were at all there. There was no internet.
More is less
Again with the same example , think for a minute how would you provision such a command in a Graphical User Interface - you can't. With every new , so called "user friendly" layer , the designer of the UI sacrifices a multitude of options. GUI is less CLI . Touch interface is less than GUI. Audio interface is even lesser. You get the point - more comfort means less flexibility.
Time has come
There was a time when when there used to one desktop in a home ; that too was a luxury. So desktop had to be a general purpose machine. It was as much a coding device for dad as much a game buddy for the kid. Those days are gone. We have echoShow now for content consumption , smart phones to get bank and pay the bills. So what is the point of desktop ? Fair point - Desktop is NOT for everyone. But if you really want to get some serious work done, command line is your friend - be it a long document , spread sheet , long emails , social media - everything is available on command line.
CLI has matured
No doubt GUI has gotten stable from the days of Windows 95 but it has become more restrictive further dumbing the users down. Apple is sure leading the cause. CLI on the other hand gotten richer. Gone are the days of remembering commands by heart. There are tools like apropos , whatis and tldr to help you find the commands on the fly. Manual pages are easy to find and search. Plus commands have inbuilt help (with -h flag). And then there is google :-) . In fact , finding help with commands is lot easier than trying to figure out the GUI options. Plus there are all sorts of applications on command line and there is kind of tacit revolution on to further improve CLI.
CLI is beautiful
Gone are the days when CLI was just a black black and white low resolution tty. Now we have terminal multiplexers that allow you to open as many windows as you want , split the windows , have all sorts of status bars and there are themes to enhance not only terminal but also shell experience. The ncurses UIs written in Python and GO are comparable to GUI applications and since they are born out of CLI phiolosophy , they let you configure every aspect of the application through configuration files. Above all, There is no way to become a developer (or a technical writer) without some degree of exposure to CLI. Might as well tame the beast early on :-)
Goals of VOWEL
Fast, even on old hardware.
Distraction free.
Test the on nixOS and compare if they work as good (or better) as on Ubuntu.
Prefer "Free" software but don't be a fanatic.
Build a configuration.nix that delivers quick installation and base level configuration of these applications.
Use tools that comply with with vi navigation by design or at least have the option for vi -esq key bindings.
Landscape Vs Environment
Configuration of applications and tools to suit a specific role (or taste) is what turns a landscape of applications into an environment that you love. Landscpae is more a cookie cutter approach, an overtly standardized system for all users - typically the approach of Macs and Windows with very little configurability. These systems offer a greater degree of comfort in the beginning but they start staling away as you want your system organized the way you want. Linux (along with open source) culture, offers endless configurability - in choice of hardware, distros, applications. Configurability does come with a serious challenge when you want to migrate to another hardware. Thus the need to manage your configuration - dot file management. There are number of tools to manage your tools and simplest being keep your dot files in a safe place. Mega storage is a good place to begin with a nice command line interface. Github or gitlab offer even easier ways. With nixOS, nixDarwin and nix package manager, we can further automate the applications installation.
Core System
nixOS
Slackware and Debian are great systems but it takes a lot to set them up and make them personal. Yes, you can carry your dotfiles but over time dot files change and it takes effort to keep even your own machines in sync. Giving your configuration to someone else is a whole different story. And if that someone is new to Linux, it is quite impossible to teach them all the hoops. This is one reason that command line system is hard for the new entrants. At least I felt that and it took me almost four years to get to a point where I feel a minimal install is a viable option. The sad side is, more and more people thus get caught into graphical interfaces and are stuck there for ever while command line interface is more responsive and intuitive - probably easier to grasp. And it has more tools than ever before. And its robust. I am experimenting with nixOS. At least the promise of full configurability in bunch of text files that can be git over remotely is enticing. Still, in learning phase but the goal is to have all these packages configured to my needs in a single (or few) text files. I must add, I have learnt more about the system configuration in one month with nixOS than I did in last four years with many distros. I guess the simple reason is you are editing / building a configuration file rather than simply installing the packages as you do in other distros. The act of editing the configuration.nix makes you interested in looking at multitude of other system options. For example do you want X or Wayland ? or none of them ? Sure you can do that in other distros but here in nixOS, all this is part of one text file. And it works quite well. My 'work in progress' configuration.nix is in appendix A. You can get nix manual with command nixos-help. It has all the details of installation , configuration and package management commands. A lengthy read but you can search through it with w3m standard search. On the web .. https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#sec-installation
Read and Learn
One of the problem of command line (and *nix systems in general) is, you need to learn a lot and hence endless reading. One of the way (that works for me) is NOT to try to know it all. The help is always available. All you need to know where to look for.
core utilities
Like all distros , core command line utilities are same and work off the shelf in minimal install. You can always type info coreutils to get a complete manual on the terminal. Typing info coreutils ls will directly take you to the command information.
man pages
Of course you can look up the man page for more details. By no stretch of imagination you need to know or memorise all these commands. Just ten commands get you going and they all work well in nixOS - https://opensource.com/article/18/4/10-commands-new-linux-users On NixOS , if you start from a minimal install, you will need to install the mandb and enable the documentation services for the man. I will comment it out in my configuration.nix in the appendix below.
tldr
tldr is a great tool if you want to save yourself from reading PhD level material on a utility command. tldr find has just eight lines.
whatis
whatis a command that does exactly what the name suggest ... in just one line. If you ask $ whatis cp - it will tell you cp is a command to copy stuff from one place to another. Very useful to take a quick look before you dive deep into the man page
apropos
apropos is like a grep search for the man pages. It looks through all the man pages and give yo back the instances of the search keyword. Almost instantaneous. Tools aside , the best learning is through using the command line applications and than reconfiguring them. Reading alone doesn't cut it and neither does using the vanilla apps. Most of the CLI apps are on github these days or have community sub-reddits or IRC channels. If you are stuck, you can always create issues on Github or ask on Reddit. I prefer Reddit cuz, the IRC channels are mostly developer focused. Not to mention countless other forums such as Stackoverflow.com or linuxquestions.org
Terminal and Shell
Shell is command line interface to communicate with kernel. Most of the Linux distros default to bash - Bourne Again Shell. Mac root defaults to bash while with Catalina, the users' default shell is zsh. https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/understanding-bash-elements-programming is a good read on bash exploring the history of shells
fish - a very friendly shell.
bash is a great shell for developers. As writers we can use little help to get us started. That's where fish comes in. A word of caution though - if you are doing nixos-rebuild switch , do it in bash. Sam e in case you are making something off github clones. I had many instances where things didn't work out with fish but worked fine with bash. Probably cuz most the applications have inbuilt bash script that may not translate too well into fish but I am not sure. Need to research this more .. Fish has a great help file for the new beginners of Linux. As intended audience are the new users of Linux, it truly is a friendly file. Such resources are rare in Linux world. Before you understand how to set up the variables in fish world, highly recommend exporting EDITOR and BROWSER variables to vim and w3m. If you know bash and are missing the 'ctrl-r' inverse search, just type the search word on prompt and press the up arrow. If you set up vi style keybindings in .config/fish/ fish will show you you a nice indicator on the prompt to let you know if you are in 'normal' mode or in 'insert'.
fbterm
The console without graphical system is boring. Yes , I don't want gui cuz not only it takes ton of resources , it also opens the doors to distraction. fbterm fits in nicely. It makes the console look and feel interesting. Many configuration options but nothing that makes it less friendly. The key thing is it allows you to open as many as ten windows from a single log in. You can cut paste across windows. And its super fast. Needs bit of a hack to make it work without sudo privileges Read https://gist.github.com/zellio/5809852#start-of-content Install should create a configuration file in the home folder - .fbtermrc , you may wanna increase the font size and source it again. fbterm is available on nixOS but I still need to figure out the setcap command to give it little root . Why fbterm ? The biggest advantage is fbterm uses fontconfig, to automatically determine fonts for you (if you don't specify one in the .fbtermrc). If you don't want to spend rest of your life figuring the kbd tool for Linux console, my recommendation is to just use fbterm. You can increase the size of the font in .fbtermrc to desired value, just leave the font name blank. However, if you are a purist and don't want to give little root to fbterm , I recommend reading this before you dive deep in kbd (for the rest of the life ;-) http://blog.startaylor.net/2016/05/30/howto-console/
A word about X - what normal people know as GUI. X is an MIT project, started long before when PCs and Macs. I guess eighties. Its a gorilla in the room. All graphical apps (in unix world) support X and over time, you guessed it, its bloated. There been attempts to revive X. A new-ish project is Wayland and after a lull it's gaining some momentum. Most distros still are X driven just cuz the applications are late to update for wayland. X is bloated to an extent that Apple (back in 2003) , decided to develop its own display software. X works well, its just that it eats away chunk of resources and makes GUI applications lag. If you are really a fan of GUI (though I hate it for many reasons that are long enough for a separate post) , I recommend using Apple products. And you obviously don't need to read further (:- .. That said , there are number of new things that kinda sit somewhere in the middle. These are tiling windows managers such as 'i3 and xmonad' for X and 'sway' for wayland. The good thing with these windows managers (and many others) is you don't need to have a desktop environment. Yes, you wont see the network and notifications icons on the toolbar but those are anyway most useless things. The tiling windows managers are fast and nice. They run fast even on old machines and a typical use case is to have a nice terminal split screen with firefox and cut paste across the pans. I think one should go there only after good comfort on command line. Another good thing is Linux is you can have your system , by default, boot to command line and start x as when you must. Slackware has a simple command startx, on Ubuntu Mate you need to start (and later stop to get back to command line) , service lightdm (lightdm is kinda default display manager for most distros). On nixOS , you can start x with sudo systemctl start display-manager.service . I have addded Xmonad to my NixOS configuration in Appendix A below.
tmux
fbterm is good if you are happy with multiple windows but more often we need to split the pans. Normal use case is to write something while you are also reading off wikipedia. And being able to cut paste from browser to the editor (or even command line). tmux does that without flaw and does ton more. For example you can save the session across multiple logouts , even reboots.You can have multiple sessions - may be one for your research project , other for the blog. You can attach to any session at will. Even merge the sessions if you crazy on productivity but I have never done that. With configuration , you can improve the status bar to make it look like a real computer screen. tmux can be used independent of fbterm or with in it. I prefer later as it gives a mice smoother feeling to screen at a minimal overhead. https://github.com/gpakosz/.tmux is a great configuration. It works well on nixOS.
A word about copying configuration off the internet. The word of wisdom is you should develop your own configuration. Which is the best approach. But when you are in a self starting phaseit is almost impossible to focus on just one application to be able to configure it well. In addition, most popular configurations (as the one above) are very well documented. Its not a bad idea to train yourself with such configurations cuz making fingers unlearn the key strokes is harder. The other thing is when you read such configurations , you learn a lot. And people really invest quality time in upgrading these configurations.
Write and Research
vim
The modal text editor that is around for ever and is available on more platforms than any other word smithing software ever. Learning vim is an investment that no serious writer or coder should ignore. Most people make a mistake of trying to remember everything, I would rather spend time on in-built tutorial and understand how to read the inbuilt help manual. With thousand of available plugins , vim turns into among the most preferred development environment. As a writer, you really don't need much of plugins but if you must .. then, easiest way is to use Amir's awesome configuration. README has everything you will ever need to know https://github.com/amix/vimrc#start-of-content
Vim is not just an editor. Its a system of using the ten fingers and a keyboard. Most of the other command line apps offer vim style key bindings. Which means that once you get comfortable with the editor, you will see vim in your browser. Yes , even graphical browsers such as Chrome, Safari and Firfox can respond to vim strokes through extension Vimium. There is a graphical browser -Luakit that implements all the controls exactly as vim. Reddit terminal viewer ( RTV or TTRV ) totally support and expand on vim navigation philosophy. Even shell programs such as bash can be set to behave like vi - just add 'set -o vi ' in .bashrc and experience the comfort of editing long commands as if you are typing in an editor. Point being , vim is more than an editor. It turns keyboard and console into a magical experience.
Vim is available on Mac (and Windows) in a graphical mode - gVim. Best entry point for GUI users to get into the command line experience. If you are an aspiring developer, you will need to get into terminal anyways. Even if you use VScode or other graphical IDE, sooner or later, you will come to terminal. Might as well make it a good experience. If you are a writer and want to approach your writing as a development artifact, Vim will make your journey comfortable. Trust me on this.
sc - the age old spreadsheet in the terminal reincarnated into sc-im (vim style)
Word editors are great but many times (and for some like me) , the mind works in a spreadsheet. A new framework, a book or even a long post; first kinda structure up in a table and then you use the same to keep a tab on the action items. And for writers on a shoestring budget, we do need to keep a tab on our financials. The command line is not without a spreadsheet and in fact, it is faster than anything you have ever seen on Windows (excel) or Mac (numbers). Granted it doesn't has all the bells but who needs them anyways. Excellent tutorial and manpage but if you need some motivation, don't miss to read this https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10699. nixOS doesn't seems to have pre-built sc but they have much improved fork sc-im (naming in tradition with vim). I barely scratched the surface on sc-im and it seems to have lot more features v/s sc. For Ubuntu sc-im and xlsx converter are available at https://github.com/andmarti1424/sc-im/wiki/Ubuntu-with-XLSX-import-&-export.
markdown
markdown is not an application but its a must learn for a writer. Simply put, its a set of notations that will tun your plain text in to beautiful html when viewed by readers. For example, I am writing this post in markdown. https://www.redeemingproductivity.com/markdown/ vim too understands markdown Syntax. It can paint your headings different colors to make it easy to edit even when you are typing. The basic syntax of markdown (eg # for a heading) is same across all the publishing environments but each one has subtle enhancements and thus you get github flavored markdown or gitlab flavored. Even Reddit has a its own flavor to markdown. Once you get used to basic notations such as headings , bold, italics , embedding links , embedding images etc ; you will be surprised with the ease and simplicity.
w3m
Writing and research go hand in hand. The problem with graphical environment is distraction. Once I open up firefox, I invariably end up on youtube. Not bad if the purpose to to waste time and load your brain with a truckload or crap, however, if you need to spend quality time in research and writing, first thing you need is to rip your machine off all the click baits. That is where w3m fits in. Yes there are number of good text browsers - Links, Lynx and elinks to mention few. I prefer w3m for its built in vim style navigation. It takes little more effort to get started vs links but totally worth the learning effort. You can press 'o' to open the options pan that is a bit nicer way to configure the browser than writing the configuration file. I guess options ultimately auto generate a config but I am not sure. The only thing I changed is the color of hyperlinks. The default dark blue make them hard to read on my black background. Simon Formanek suggested an elegant way to search with in the w3m. Here is his solution .. you can map a macro hotkey to do a 'smart search' for different search engines. once you hit the hotkey it will open a new tab then take you directly to the text field to type in your keyword $vim ~/.w3m/keymap #assuming your editor is vim keymap sd COMMAND "TAB_GOTO https://duckduckgo.com/lite/; NEXT_LINK keymap sg COMMAND "TAB_GOTO https://google.com; GOTO_LINE 6; NEXT_L keymap se COMMAND "TAB_GOTO https://stackexchange.com; GOTO_LINE 7; keymap sw COMMAND "TAB_GOTO https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Pa usage example: hit sg type in hello world then hit enter, then hit tab to go the the next link [Google Search], hit enter to search Btw there is ddgr (or googler) that can search without firing up the browser but somehow they stopped working on my machine. They offer few nicer options for advanced search and can automatically start the browser for the result you need to go deeper. The downside of these tools is once you open the browser, you wont probably go back to shell to search something new. Another thing you might wanna add to your keymap is ability to yank the urls to tmux or xsel clipboard. # EXTERN_LINK = under cursor # EXTERN = current page # yank url to clipboard keymap yy EXTERN_LINK 'tmux set-buffer' keymap YY EXTERN 'tmux set-buffer' keymap yx EXTERN_LINK 'printf %s | xsel -b' keymap YX EXTERN 'printf %s | xsel -b' For more read at https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/12497/yanking-urls-in-w3m
w3m is available on nixOS. In fact on machine nix manual (nixos-help) runs like w3m - an added advantage.
dict is a client for dict protocol while dictd acts as a server and client. With dictd, you can install local dictionaries while dict needs you to define the server in ~/.dictrc with server address. A single line will suffice the purpose
server dict.org
Publishing Platforms
At some point you want to publish your hard work. And if you are like me , you might prefer writing in public and let it shape up with time.
ttrv
ttrv is a fork of rtv - the famous terminal client for Reddit. And its the best thing for writers who want a quick and easy submit on the web without having to worry about version management or setting up their own blog. In addition , Reddit offers all the things such as search optimizations , comments , communities that you will any way run after as a writer. If you want to write for yourself , you can post on your on profile page. The best thing about Reddit is the anonymity .. Anonymity brings freedom. I don't have to write with fear of judgement. I can understand that people can be nast(ier) if they are masked but that behaviour is over-feared cause I have seen people getting nasty on whatsapp groups where most often we know each other well. Not to say that Reddit is free from all social sins. There are many. But I feel promoting privacy right at the ID is not a bad option. Plus, it's community basis, allows more diversity. A large community doesn't care for your age , location , sex, education, social standing or political affiliations. In a way it's a network mixer while most other social networks build on your real world relationships. More importantly, ttrv is a good tool. I can write from the terminal in Vim. And capture quick thoughts or 'edits on the go' on my phone . And if I find something could be useful to others , I can post it to relevant communities. It can do pretty much everything that you will expect from a web client or phone app. You can even configure it to see the pics and vids but that is the last thing I will do. There is not much to configure in ttrv except for exporting environment variables . I recommend adding these two lines to .bashrc export TTRV_BROWSER=w3m export TTRV_EDITOR=vim
nixOS has a preconfigured package for rtv. I had few markdown problems with rtv on Ubuntu. The editor treated heading lines starting with # or ## as comments and thus ignored them. ttrv worked well. Also rtv was not showing my inbox. On nixOS , while there is no preconfigured package for ttrv (as of this writing) , the rtv works just fine.
gh
You may rightly think that it is a developers platform (powered by git) but there is a lot a writer can do with github. It offers github pages - a jekyll based static page web server. So you can convert a repo into a full blown static site. Blogs , campaigns , faqs , small businesses - there are many possible use cases. Github offers a token authenticated basic command line interface to browse, clone and many other features for the repositories. https://github.com/cli/cli on nixOS $nix-env -iA nixos.github-cli My primary use-case though is to create issues. Since my vim and tmux configuration is actively maintained on github , all I need to do in case of a problem is cd to the git repo on my system and gh issue create Coming back to conventional wisdom of developing your own configuration. The problem is you will not be able to get this kind of organized (and free) support from the best experts. In addition, by actively using and contributing issues, you are helping the open source community build and support best configuration and tools. Yes, you can always go to web interface and crete issue but that is added friction given you are running a minimal system plus you won't be able to cut paste the error messages. If you have ample storage, its not a bad idea to clone the repos of your most used applications even if you installed them from apt or nix. Simply cuz you can create issues and read through existing issues with gh ... best way to contribute to these free applications while you are getting best of breed support. win win.
Music
You can easily find people who don't like books or don't want to read in general but tell me if you know a person who doesn't have a some taste of music. Music is what make you run , write and celebrate and also take your failures in stride. And what is "writing " if it didn't have a shade of loss ..
cmus to play music
Very simple and intuitive vi style navigation. You can add all your music to library. Start with the man cmus-tutorial and then you can dive deep into the man page if you need. I never needed to go there cuz it just works. Plays mp3 format without any additional settings. Available and works great on nixOS.
You may wonder why audio recording needed for a writer. That's true but again my fancies. I love to read my written words aloud. This is my way of editing a long post and many times listening it back helps me with the flow.. and also some new ideas. Talking of ideas - many times you are not in a mood to crank the keyboard. Writers do get mood swings and its a solitary affair. Listening to your own voice, sometimes, can make you a good company :-) SoX is claims to be swiss army knife of sound editing. In addition to rec and play, it allows you to do a host of operations on the recordings. Trimming, format change, effects . Pretty much like what Audacity does on the GUI.
SoX works great on NixOS. It is plug and play with usb microphones. You might wanna install lame for mp3 support.
youtube-dl to rip songs of youtube and sound cloud.
They were taken down by some stupid digital media copy rights law suite recently bu they are fighting back and god willing it will stay. I have used ytdl for couple of years and it works like a charm. You can even search the youtube from command line with gvsearch or ytsearch but my test after this latest case failed. Youtube is coming back with weird message. Need to log an issue with developers. ytdl is also available on nixOS
Utilities
aerc
Lets face it, email has become pretty useless but that is because stupid people have lined up to give their data to whatsapp. At the same time, email clients have failed. I had hopes from gmail but google turned out to be a big disappointment. Wish they had invested the big dollars on reinventing the mail than copying Reddit in Google Plus (failed as expected). Goes without saying that big corps have no interest in email cuz they want you locked into their prop platforms. Email , by design is a liberated tool. You don't need to use one client (or one server). I tried to push email (vs whatsapp / messenger) in my circles but after a while you give up. And expecting someone to use Mutt (or even Alpine) is as much as asking a pound of flesh. But .. when all hopes die a new ray of light shows up. And thatsaerc. Everything is NOT rosy. I wasted a full day trying to get it running on Ubuntu Desktop. First their is no binary in the apt system. Second you need to get a app specific password from Mr Google to get gmail working. Even after that, it just didn't work on Ubuntu. Against all hopes, I thought of giving a shot on my lab nixOS system (still under testing)..wow .. they had a ready, fully configured package and it works great with gmail. So nix is already +1 in my list of packages. nix-env -iA nixos.aerc It took a while to install on my age old Dell but it did. And withe app specific password that I created for Ubuntu (and never worked) , nix dumped 2000 imap messages into my inbox in a fraction of second. And with vim style navigation , aerc is just a wonder boy .. the way email should be. A big shout out to the team working for Andrew. And this is the first real life GO app that seems to have taken advantage of what language has on the table. If you are struggling to get gmail going with aerc , this gist may be helpful... https://oren.github.io/articles/text-based-gmail/ note - You can skip the repo clone and make on NixOS as they have a ready package. Good luck on other distros !
fim to see images.
fim claims to be the swiss army knife of seeing images on the terminal (and elsewhere). Named on vim tradition (vi improved), fim stand for fbi improved. fbi is the daddy program to see images on unix frame buffer. And yes , you guessed it , fim follows the vim navigation philosophy which make text and images experience seamless. fim is available on both apt and nix package manager. For nix
`$ nix-env -iA nixos.fim`
The quality of pics display on framebuffer is as good as any GUIbased on on the resolution of your terminal. And fim is exceedingly fast cuz there is no overhead of gui. Even on old systems, looking at images feels right at home. https://www.nongnu.org/fbi-improved/#tutorial_vim You can look at man fim and man fimrc but I find above link most helpful and complete.
mplayer - a video player for the console and rest that plays literally any format
Yes, mplayer can play old vcds and dvds but it supports everything that I ever came across. One of the best man page describing all the keyboard strokes and commands. Though you will rarely need commands. It just works. To have it point to to linux frambuffer (no x11) , add the lines to configuration as shown in this wonderful article http://blog.startaylor.net/2016/05/30/howto-console/
vifm - file explorer
Once you are used to the shell, you will rarely go to a file explorer. But if you must , command line has many nice and fast file / folder browsers. I lime vifm for its speed and native vi style key bindings. Just like vim , it allows you multiple pans split vertical or horizontal so that you can view number of folders at the same time. If you are comfortable with vim you will never need to open the man page. By default the dot files are hidden , za toggles between all and 'not hidden' files
a word about all above helpful articles and all the developers of these wonderful apps and their configurations - it inspires me. Technology and internet is built on these giant shoulders (and thousands other unsungs). As writers, we can't escape of it into our pen and paper. I find the popular debate about the future of print media funny cuz if, we can't peel even first layer of technology, we sure don't know adaptation. And its proven fact, that if you can't adapt , you must perish. That brings me to opening of this post. Future of writing is bleak ..unless, writer delves deep into the new medium. We need to be at the front of technology standards, shoulder to shoulder with developers. We can begin with getting rid of mouse and easy interfaces.
Free cross platform Desktop Player for YouTube Music Play YouTube music on the Linux desktop. To play music on the Linux desktop with Headset, start by launching the app from your program menu. Alternatively, start the Headset app by pressing Alt + F2, and then writing in the command below. headset %U. Once the Headset app is open, follow the step-by-step instructions below to learn how to play ... Details for YouTube Music Desktop License CC0-1.0 Last updated 7 September 2020 Share this snap. Generate an embeddable card to be shared on external websites. YouTube Music Desktop App bietet einen aufgeräumten Player. (Quelle: adlerluiz) Diese greift mit einer eigenen Benutzeroberfläche auf YouTube Music und den Premium-Dienst der Plattform zu. Usage. youtube-music-desktop is available as an AppImage which means "one app = one file", which you can download and run on your Linux system while you don't need a package manager and nothing gets changed in your system. Awesome! AppImages are single-file applications that run on most Linux distributions. Download an application, make it executable, and run! Companion App. Click on the Install Companion App button. A new tab will open on your browser with the option to download the companion app for Debian / Ubuntu and Other Linux distributions. In my case, I a running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS; therefore, I will proceed to download the .Deb file. Headset is a desktop app that turns YouTube into a world class music streaming service. Create collections, tune-in to a music subreddit or quickly play that song you’ve had stuck in your head all day! Like many of the apps developed these days, it has a straight-to-the-point UI which makes it nice to behold, and simple to use. But then, as you might already know, this is the correct icon for YouTube Music. thisischrys commented on 2020-01-01 19:24 I've started using this and youtube-desktop because I like having seperate icons in my launcher for some stuff. Kaku. Pros: Also supports streaming services other than YouTube Cons: Linux app looks and behaves like a macOS app, no native theming. Kaku is a free and open source music and video player that supports different online platforms like YouTube, SoundCloud, Vimeo etc. Built in Electron, it is available for Windows, Linux and macOS. Some of the Kaku features include DJ mode, local watch history ... Make sure snap support is enabled in your Desktop store. Install using the command line. sudo snap install utube. ... Utube provide a unique interface which allow you manage your favourite videos and Music from YouTube. Main features are - ... Complete Youtube App for Linux on your Linux distribution.
Step by step tutorial on adding YouTube as an icon on your desktop in windows 10/windows 7 You now can have Music - Audio Visualizer as your Desktop as well with many other awesome features, there will be a link below for everything you need!https:... Please like, subscribe and comment! Thanks for watching, don't forget like and subscribe at https://goo.gl/LoatZE A new music service with official albums, singles, videos, remixes, live performances and more for Android, iOS and desktop. It's all here. This video goes over installing Linux for the first time. I will break it down into 3 parts:1. Choosing which version of Linux 2. Installation ProcessLinks:d... Bekijk je favoriete video's, luister naar de muziek die je leuk vindt, upload originele content en deel alles met vrienden, familie en anderen op YouTube. LMMS is a free Digital Audio Workstation, similar to FL Studio.You can download it on Windows, Linux, and Mac, here:https://lmms.io/download/Learn more at tj... Visit the YouTube Music Channel to find today’s top talent, featured artists, and playlists. Subscribe to see the latest in the music world. This channel was generated automatically by YouTube's ...
