Exciting tips

Microsoft PowerPoint is essential in an office or school setting if you’re required to make presentations. But what if you use Linux and don’t have access to PowerPoint? What do you use? Well, let’s find out with the 5 best Microsoft PowerPoint alternatives for Linux users!

1. Libre Office Impress

Libre Office Impress is a complete MS Powerpoint replacement that makes it easy to create presentations and slideshows on Linux, thanks to its similar user interface, and support for various file formats, including Microsoft’s own Ppt format.

With Impress, you’ll get access to lots of useful features that many come to expect in a presentation tool, such as clip art (both 2D and 3D,) special effect tools and slide transitions.

Notable Features

• Impress gives users access to a wide variety of 2D and 3D clipart for use in presentations.
• Impress has a similar user interface to PowerPoint, so it’s not too hard to learn.
• Impress supports importing and saving in the PowerPoint file format, which is handy.

Download – Libre Office Impress

Libre Office Impress comes as a default program on a majority of Linux operating systems. That said if your Linux PC doesn’t have a copy of Libre Office Impress already set up, head over to libreoffice.org.

On the Libre Office official website, find the “Download” button and click it to reveal the many download options available for Libre Office, including Flatpak, Snap, AppImage, and others.

2. SoftMaker Presentations

SoftMaker Presentations is a freemium cross-platform PowerPoint alternative that comes as part of the SoftMaker FreeOffice office suite. With the app, users can easily make PowerPoint-like slideshows quickly, thanks to the wide variety of default design templates.

Software Presentations isn’t open source, so the software’s free version comes with limited features. Despite this, it manages to offer up some seriously useful things, such as being able to create PDFs from slides, support for PowerPoint file formats, and much more!

Notable Features

• Users can create PDF files from individual presentation slides.
• Various pre-made presentation templates available.
• “Master-page” feature lets users change all slides at once, rather than one at a time.

Download – SoftMaker Presentations

To use Presentations, you’ll need to install the entire SoftMaker office suite, by heading over to softmaker.com. When you’ve made it to the website, click the menu at the top left and choose the “Download” button to move to the downloads page.

On the downloads page, scroll down, look for “Linux” and select it to start the download process. Or, if you need help learning how to get the app downloaded and working, check out our guide on the subject.

3. Calligra Stage

Calligra Stage is the presentation component to the Calligra Office suite. It’s an open source Linux presentation application and comes packed with dozens of plugins and features that are sure to make creating slideshows for projects or the workplace a simple process.

Stage supports a straightforward user interface that allows the creation of slideshows on Linux to be easy, and not tedious. Additionally, it has some great features such as an overview mode for presenters during presentations, support for PowerPoint presentation files, neat transition effects, and a “notes” mode which make it one of the best alternatives to PowerPoint out there for Linux users.

Notable Features

• Works with the OpenDocument file format, and can even work with other open source office applications such as Open Office, Libre Office, and others.
• “Overview” feature lets presenter get an overview of the entire slideshow.
• “Notes” feature allows the presenter to take notes on individual slides.

Download – Calligra Stage

Calligra Stage comes with the Calligra Office suite. If you’re interested in downloading the app on Linux, head over to calligra.org and select the “Get Calligra” button to learn how to get a copy of the app.

Need help getting the Calligra application working on Linux? Check out our guide on how to install Calligra. In the guide, we go over the many different ways to install the Calligra Office suite, which includes Stage.

4. Google Slides

Google Slides is the presentation component for their online office suite available with Google Drive. With Sides, users can create slideshows, use effects, and import existing Microsoft PowerPoint slideshows, as well as the ability to export slideshows in various file formats.

Slides aren’t a Linux application like the other programs on the list. Still, it’s a great option, especially if you don’t plan to make presentations often on Linux. So, if you need a good MS PowerPoint alternative but don’t feel like installing anything on your Linux PC, Google Slides is an option to consider for sure.

Notable Features

• Instant cloud saving and backups via Google Drive.
• Companion Android/iOS app means users can modify and perform slideshows made on PC on the go as well.
• Slides can be downloaded/uploaded in PowerPoint format.

Download – Google Slides

Google Slides isn’t a downloadable app (unless you’re on mobile or Chrome OS). The primary way of using the app on the PC is on the web. So, if you want to access it to create slideshows, head over to Google Drive, or by navigating to slides.google.com.

5. Marp

Marp is an interesting presentation application for the web that lets users create slideshows with the Markdown markup language, rather than a traditional UI like in MS PowerPoint, as well as others on this list.

It’s clear that most users looking for an alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint probably aren’t looking for a text-based slideshow tool. Still, despite being text-based, it manages to offer up some useful slideshow tools, such as exporting presentations, a live preview mode you can check as you go, and more.

Notable Features

• Supports exporting slides as a PDF.
• Live preview lets users check work as they go.
• Also has a Linux app under development that users can use.

Download – Marp

The Marp application isn’t available on Linux per se. Instead, it’s possible to instantly gain access to the tool to create slideshows by heading over to web.marp.app.

Aside from the Marp web app, the developers are working on a desktop version for Linux and other platforms. To get early access to the program (via the source code) click here.

Conclusion

In this list, we went over some of the best Microsoft PowerPoint alternatives for Linux users. What is your favorite MS PowerPoint alternative to use on your Linux PC? Let us know in the comment section below!

Windows 10 has various protective features that prevent users from running apps that may be harmful. When you run an EXE to install an app, you run into the Windows SmartScreen asking if you’re sure you want to run the app and allow it to make changes to your system. This is a normal level of protection and you really shouldn’t disable it however, if you see the Open File – Security Warning prompt for all files that you open, then your security settings have been set above the normal level.

If you’re getting the Open File – Security Warning for seemingly harmless files like images, there’s a simple way to fix it.

Open File – Security Warning

Open the Run box with the Win+R keyboard shortcut. Type the following in the run box.

inetcpl.cpl

This will open the Internet Properties window. Go to the Security tab and click the Custom level button at the bottom. This will open the second window on the right. This settings window has a long list of settings that change how security is managed on your system. Look for the ‘Launching applications and unsafe files (not secure)’ option. Select the ‘Enable’ option, and click Apply, then OK.

After that, you should be able to open normal files like PNGs, JPGs, PDFs, etc without encountering this prompt. When you run EXE files though, you will still get the same prompt.

This change doesn’t leave your system unsecured. It does lower the level of protection however it doesn’t make it completely vulnerable. With the ‘Prompt’ option, every single file that you download from the internet and open will show you the Open File – Security Warning prompt. When you download a file from the internet, regardless if you use Chrome or Edge, your file is first scanned. Chrome has its own virus scanner and once the file has been saved to your disk, Windows 10 scans it for viruses or anything malicious.

If you’re tempted to select the  Disable option, you should think twice about it. Setting it to Disable will lower your security settings considerably. You will still have other security measures in place but this is not an option you should select without seriously considering the consequences of it.

If you normally never see this prompt when opening files, and suddenly began to get it for all sorts of files, it likely means that your security settings were changed. This might have been done by a recent update or if you changed the default app for a certain file type.

File Sharing is getting better on Linux. Gone are the days that you need set up a local FTP server or configure an SSH to send files to from one PC to another. Now, you can use apps like Teleport to quickly send a file over the network.

Teleport isn’t the first file-sharing application we’ve covered for Linux on AddictiveTips. Still, it’s worth checking out, especially if you’re not a fan of Transporter, Nitroshare, or others. Here’s how to get it going.

Install Teleport

Before learning how to send files with the Teleport application, you’ll need to install it to your Linux PC. As of now, the application can be built on Ubuntu, Debian, and Arch Linux. Additionally, the developers have a Snap package and Flatpak package available for users to install.

To start the installation of Teleport on Linux, press Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard to open up a terminal window. From there, follow the command-line instructions below that correspond with the Linux OS you currently use.

Ubuntu/Debian

Building Teleport on Ubuntu (or Debian) requires quite a few dependencies. To get these dependencies up and running on your system, use the apt command below.

Note: Debian users may need to change apt to apt-get.

sudo apt install pkg-config libsoup2.4-dev libavahi-client3 libavahi-client-dev libgtk-3-dev meson

After installing the dependencies, use the git clone command to download the source code to Ubuntu/Debian.

git clone https://github.com/frac-tion/teleport.git

Move your terminal session into the “teleport” directory using the CD command. Then, run the “configure” command.

cd teleport

./configure

Compile the code with make and install Teleport with the make install command.

make -j$(nproc)

sudo make install

Arch Linux

The developer of Teleport lists how to compile the app on GitHub manually. To start the compilation process, installing dependencies is needed. Using the Pacman command, install them.

sudo pacman -S git base-devel libsoup avahi gtk3 meson

With the dependencies taken care of, use git clone to download the Teleport code.

git clone https://github.com/frac-tion/teleport.git

Enter the code directory with CD and use the configure command.

cd teleport
./configure

Assuming the configuration script runs successfully, use make and make install to install the program on your system.

make -j$(nproc) sudo make install

Snap

Teleport is in the Snap store. To install it, ensure your Linux PC has the Snap runtime enabled. After enabling the runtime, go to your terminal window and use the following snap install command to set up Teleport.

sudo snap install --edge teleport

Flatpak

Are you a fan of Flatpak and want to get your hands on the Teleport app? If so, make sure that your Linux PC is running the latest Flatpak runtime. After that, enter the two commands below into the terminal window to install the newest version of Teleport

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo flatpak install flathub com.frac_tion.teleport

Send files with Teleport

Now that the Teleport application is set up on your Linux PC, please go through the installation process again on the PC you plan to share files with. Keep in mind that it does not matter what version of the app you install on it, as all versions work the same.

Once you’ve got the app set up on both computers, launch the app and keep them open on both machines. Then, go back to the PC sending the file and look at the Teleport app. It should automatically detect the other PC in the UI.

Step 1: Open up the file manager on the Linux PC you plan to send files from. Keep in mind that files and folders sent through Teleport must be local files, so if you plan to use a network drive, copy everything to your Linux PC.

Step 2: Allow Teleport to scan for the computer on the receiving end. If the Teleport application is successful at scanning the network for the other Linux PC, it will appear in the devices list down below.

Step 3: On the remote PC, click the menu button at the top right part of the app and set the default download location for transfers. For best results, set the transfer directory to “Downloads.”

Step 4: Return to the file manager of the PC sending the file/folder through Teleport, and drag the things you’d like to send from the file manager to the remote PC on the list. Alternatively, click the “Send file” button.

Step 5: Let the transfer run its course. When the transfer is done, it’ll be in the “Downloads” directory on the remote PC.

Repeat this process as many times as necessary to send files over the network via Teleport!

A major feature update for Windows 10 means users will have to guess why certain settings are missing, and where they’ve gone. On Windows 10 1903, the context menu that appears when you right-click the speaker icon is missing the Sounds option. It allowed users to access the Control Panel sound settings but it is now gone. The sound settings that you can access from the system tray take you to the Settings app where you have basic settings.

It’s the same story; Microsoft is moving settings from the Control Panel to the Settings app and it starts by changing or removing the easiest way to access them. The Control Panel sound settings are still there but you can’t access them from the system tray anymore. Here’s what you can do instead.

Control Panel sound settings

There are four ways to do this.

The Settings app

You can still open the Sound tab in the Settings app from the System Tray. The Sound tab has an option called Sound Control Panel. Click it, and it will open the Control panel sound settings.

Control Panel

The control panel is still there. If you open the app and go to Hardware and Sounds, and click Sounds, you will see the old Sound window complete with the Recording, Playback, Sounds, and Communications tab.

File Explorer

You can jump straight to the Hardware and Sound category from the File Explorer by pasting the following in the location bar in File Explorer.

Control Panel\Hardware and Sound

You will still have to click Sound to open the window.

Desktop Shortcut

Of course the easiest method that involves the fewest clicks is to just create a shortcut to the Sound settings. To do this, open Control Panel, and go to Hardware and sound. Right-click Sound and select Create Shortcut. This will create a shortcut on the desktop. You can use this shortcut to open the Sound window. You won’t go through the Control Panel with the shortcut however, it has shortcomings.

This shortcut can’t be pinned to the Start Menu which, if it’s your preferred way of opening apps and files, will be a problem. You can only run it from the desktop and there isn’t much you can change about it that you can for a normal shortcut.

While the Sound options in the Settings app cover the basic settings you need to change, if you want to change how communication devices work, redirect sound, or change system sounds, you need to access this window.

The Steam client is hardly the most aesthetically pleasing app in any sense of the word. It’s slow to start and navigation isn’t the greatest. You can’t really speed it up but you can take some of the ugliness out of it if you install a Steam skin. Here’s how.

Find Steam Skins

Skins for Steam are like themes for Windows 10 or skins for Minecraft. There’s no one place where you can find them all. There are lots of different places where you can find Steam skins. A good, well-built Steam skin has quite a few files and folders in it so it will download as a zip file. It is up to you to find something that looks nice. For this article, we’re going with the popular Metro for Steam skin.

Install a Steam skin

Download the skin you want to install and extract it. Once extracted, it’s a good idea to look at the name of folder that the skin extracted to. This name will dictate the name the skin will appear with in Steam’s settings. If it’s not user-friendly, change it to whatever you like.

Once extracted, you need to paste the folder inside the Skins folder in Steam. A lot of people install Steam to their Windows drive which is usually the C drive while others choose to install it to one of the other drives on their system. Locate the Steam folder on your PC and open it. Inside, you’ll find a folder called ‘Skins’. Open it.

If you’ve never installed a Steam skin, this folder will be empty save for a text file. Paste the extracted skin folder here. Paste the entire folder into the Skins folder instead of copying the files from it.

Open Steam and go to the Steam menu. Select Settings. On the Settings window, select the Interface tab and open the dropdown under ‘Select the skin you wish Steam to use’. Select the skin you just added to the Skins folder and restart Steam when you’re prompted to.

When Steam relaunches, it will be with the new skin.

I mentioned earlier that a good Steam skin will have quite a few files and folders. If you install a skin and there are some parts of the Steam client that are still using the old UI, or something doesn’t look right, it is possible that the developer of the skin hasn’t modified that particular part of the Steam UI. You can try using a different skin, or see if you can make do with the one you have if it isn’t missing anything too critical.

Linux Mint is a powerful operating system, with impressive features, and an excellent reputation. It does its best to support new users, and provide them with the tools they need to make Linux easy. However, despite their best efforts, sometimes features aren’t added as fast, or packages provided as quickly, since it is a community project, and not backed by huge companies like Ubuntu or Fedora.

One of the downsides to it being a community project is that sometimes they have to make tough choices on what the operating system should include, and what it shouldn’t (like not shipping Snap support by default, for example). A great example of this is the latest Wine. Sure, since it’s based on Ubuntu, users can get access to the stable release that Ubuntu provides, but not the most recent. So, if you need the latest Wine on Linux Mint, you’ll have to install it yourself. Here’s how to do it.

Wine Stable

The Wine Stable release carried in the Ubuntu software sources is what Linux Mint 19 carries in its software sources. So, if you like to have a stable setup of Wine, but find that the Mint version is lacking, you’ll be able to set up the Wine software repository.

To start up the installation process, launch a terminal window using the Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T keyboard combination. Then, when the terminal window is open, follow the step-by-step instructions to get the latest Wine Stable on Linux Mint 19.

Step 1: Mint needs an external software repository enabled to install Wine Stable. To do this, use the apt-add-repository command and add Wine’s “Bionic” software repository for Mint 19.

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ bionic main'

Step 2: Adding the software repository is the first step. Now, we must add the Wine key, as Mint will refuse to interact with insecure software sources. To add the software key, use wget and apt-key.

wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key
sudo apt-key add winehq.key

Step 3: Linux Mint 19 must be updated and upgraded so that the operating system has the latest software patches. Also, updating will set up the new Wine software repository necessary for Wine Stable. To run an update and upgrade, do the upgrade and update commands in a terminal.

sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 4: Install the latest release of Wine Stable on your Linux Mint 19 OS with the apt install command.

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable

Step 5: Start up the Wine Configuration window to create your Wine prefix on Linux Mint.

wine-cfg

When the prefix is done being set up, Wine Stable is ready to use!

Wine Staging

Wine Stable is excellent for those looking to run basic Windows apps, but if you’re a Linux Mint gamer, it’s imperative that you install Wine Staging, as it comes with regular Vulkan and DXVK patches, and other gaming fixes.

To install the latest Wine Staging on Linux Mint 19, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Staging on Mint 19 requires the external Wine HQ software repository. To set it up, use the add-apt-repository command.

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ bionic main'

Step 2: With the software repository set up on Linux Mint, the key is needed. Using the wget and apt-key command, download and enable the signed key so that Linux Mint can interact with the repo.

wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key
sudo apt-key add winehq.key

Step 3:  After enabling the signed key for the Wine repo, run the update and upgrade commands so that Mint 19 will have the latest software patches, and so that the Wine repository is up to date.

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 4: Install the latest Wine Staging packages on your Linux Mint 19 PC with apt install.

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-staging

Step 5: Open up the Wine configuration window to create your new Wine Staging prefix.

wine-cfg

Allow the Wine configuration window to create your new Staging prefix. When it’s done, Staging is ready to go on Linux Mint 19!

Wine Development

Are you interested in contributing to the Wine project? Just want access to the version that the developers have access to on Linux Mint 19? If so, follow the step-by-step instructions below to get it working.

Step 1: Like all other versions of Wine for Linux Mint 19, subscribing to a third-party software repository is necessary. To add it, open up a terminal window using Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, run the following apt-add-repository command.

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ bionic main'

Step 2: After adding the third-party software source to Linux Mint 19, download the Wine key. Without this key, Wine development will not install, so don’t skip this step!

wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key sudo apt-key add winehq.key

Step 3: The key is added to Linux Mint 19. Now, run the update and upgrade commands to set up the software repo added earlier, and to install any pending software patches for your system.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 4: Following the update process, you’ll be able to install the Wine Development packages using the apt install command below.

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-devel

Step 5: With the Wine Development packages installed, run the Wine configuration tool to create your new prefix.

When the new prefix is fully set up, Wine Development is ready to use on Mint 19!

We did a brief post on how you can set the default search engine in Chrome. It’s a fairly simple process but if you’re interested in using a search engine that isn’t one of the four Chrome supports by default i.e. Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask Jeeves, you will need to find the search query URL for the search engine you want to use.

This isn’t too hard to find; a simple Google search will turn up results but in many cases, you will get varying URLs and you will have to try them all to figure out which one actually works. To simplify things, you can use a little trick to get the correct search query URL for search engines and literally any website.

Search query URL

In order to find the search query URL for a search engine or for a website you visit and search often, you need to use Firefox.

Open Firefox and navigate to the website or the search engine that you want to use. For example, let’s say you want to use Bing.

On the Bing home page, right-click inside the search bar and from the context menu select, the ‘Add a Keyword for this Search’ option.

You will see the following window. In this window, enter a shortcut for calling the search engine. It doesn’t matter what you use just so long as you remember what you’re using. Click Save and then close the tab.

Open a new tab and in the URL bar, enter the keyword that you set for the search engine. When you see it in the suggested results, click it. Ignore the page that you get and simply copy the URL in the URL bar. This is the search query URL that you need in order to add Bing as a search engine in a browser.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=%s&qs=ds&form=QBLH

You can repeat this process for any website so long as the website has a search feature on it. If a website doesn’t have a search feature, this trick won’t work. That’s not to say that you cannot add the website as a search engine, just that it will take more work figuring out which URL to use.

The URL should work in any and all browsers though the method for setting the default search engine varies from browser to browser. If your browser of choice lets you pick search engines from a list, you can pick your preferred search engine from the list if it’s there. If it isn’t, check how you can add a custom search engine to the list and use this same method for the search URL.

Notes is a simple, open-source note-taking application for Linux. The app is open-source and focuses on giving users a place to jot down quick thoughts, ideas, etc. The app is text only, and users can not upload multi-media files like they can on other note-taking applications such as Google Keep, Evernote, QOwnNotes, and others. Still, it’s worth checking out for those that need a basic note-taking app on the Linux desktop. Here’s how to install Notes on Linux.

Ubuntu instructions

The Notes app for Ubuntu Linux has support for a lot of recent releases of the operating system, starting at Ubuntu 14.04, going all the way to Ubuntu 17.04. Not having recent updates presents a problem, as the newest releases of Ubuntu are at 18.04 and 19.04 respectively. Thankfully, the 17.04 release of Notes works just fine on modern Ubuntu systems.

To start the installation on Ubuntu, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, once the command-line is open, use the wget downloading tool to grab the 17.04 release of Notes for your Ubuntu PC.

wget https://github.com/nuttyartist/notes/releases/download/v1.0.0/notes_1.0.0_amd64-zesty.deb

With the download complete, use the dpkg command to install the program.

sudo dpkg -i notes_1.0.0_amd64-zesty.deb

Once the dpkg command finishes, some dependency issues will appear. To fix them, follow our guide on how to correct dependency issues on Ubuntu Linux.

Debian instructions

The developer of Notes doesn’t explicitly support Debian, and there isn’t a standalone Debian button on the download page. That said, Ubuntu and Debian are very similar, so the packages should work just fine.

To start the installation of Notes on Debian, open up a terminal window by pressing the keyboard combination Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T. From there, use the wget downloading tool to grab the Notes DEB package.

Note: those on Debian 9, download the Ubuntu 16.04 package linked here, rather than the download command below.

wget https://github.com/nuttyartist/notes/releases/download/v1.0.0/notes_1.0.0_amd64-zesty.deb

Now that the DEB package is done downloading, use the following dpkg command to set up the Notes app on your Debian PC.

sudo dpkg -i notes_1.0.0_amd64-zesty.deb

When the package installation is complete, Debian will run into some dependency errors. These problems can be quickly corrected by following the information in our guide on how to fix dependency issues on Debian Linux.

Arch Linux instructions

As with most third-party applications available on Arch Linux, Notes is distributed on Arch via the AUR. To get Notes working on your Arch PC, start by launching a terminal window. Then, use the Pacman package manager to install Git and Base-devel.

sudo pacman -S git base-devel

After installing the Git and Base-devel are installed on Arch Linux, it’s time to use the AUR to get the latest snapshot of Notes. Using the git clone command below, start the downloading process.

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/notes.git

The snapshot is downloaded to your Arch Linux PC. Next, it’s time to install the Qt5-base package, as it’s a critical build-time dependency. Without it, the Notes app will fail to build correctly. Using the following Pacman command, set up Qt5-base.

sudo pacman -S qt5-base

Following the installation of Qt5-base, move the terminal session into the “notes” directory using the CD command.

cd notes

Inside of the “notes” folder, run the makepkg command to start the building process for Notes. Keep in mind that this is an AUR package and issues can come up. Be sure to check the comments of the Notes AUR page for guidance if you run into trouble.

makepkg -sri

Fedora/OpenSUSE

As of right now, there’s no official RPM package for Fedora Linux or OpenSUSE. So, if you’re using either of these operating systems, you’ll need to follow the AppImage or Snap package instructions.

Snap instructions

The Notes app is in the Snap Store, which means that even if your operating system isn’t listed on the Notes download page, it’s possible to run the app, so long as the Snapd runtime is supported on your Linux OS.

To start the installation for the Snap release of Notes, enable the Snapd runtime by following our guide here. Once Snapd is up and running, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T. Then, enter the command below to install the app.

sudo snap install notes

AppImage instructions

There’s an AppImage release of Notes, which means that no matter what distribution you use, the app will run on it. The AppImage format is perfect for those running a Linux distribution that doesn’t have support from the developer and doesn’t have official Snap support.

To get Notes for AppImage, run the commands below.

mkdir -p ~/AppImages cd ~/AppImages
wget https://github.com/nuttyartist/notes/releases/download/v1.0.0/notes_1.0.0_amd64.AppImage

sudo chmod +x notes_1.0.0_amd64.AppImage

Finally, run the AppImage version of Notes by running the following command.

./notes_1.0.0_amd64.AppImage

Twitter isn’t a photo sharing platform. It has been slow to develop its photo sharing feature and like many social media apps, it compresses images. Images are converted to JPEG which is a lossy format. It’s not the format you want to use for HD images. If you do need to upload a good quality image on Twitter, there’s a little trick you can use to disable image compression on Twitter.

Twitter will apply compression to an image unless it has transparency. This is a problem if your image doesn’t need to be transparent but if it has just one transparent pixel, it’s enough to disable image compression on Twitter.

Image compression on Twitter

There are two ways to disable image compression on Twitter. You can use an image editor to add a one pixel line to the top of your image. Do not fill it with anything i.e., no color, nothing. Make sure you save it with the PNG file format.

If this is tedious for you, or you don’t have an image editor that can do the job (both GIMP and Paint.Net work though), you can use a web app called Twitter image-compression preventer.

Visit the web app and drag & drop the image you want to share on Twitter on to the app. It will add the empty pixel and save the image. If you want, you can enable the ‘Display the fixed image instead of saving it’ option and the edited image will be displayed in your browser.

The image is saved with the PNG format and it won’t be compressed. You can expect the quality of the image to be preserved after the app converts it.

The reason PNG and the transparent pixel forces Twitter to not use JPEG is that JPEG as an image format doesn’t support transparency. If it detects that users want to share an image with transparency in it, no matter how small the transparent portion is, it will have to use a format that can accurately display it.

If you’re on your phone, and a vast majority of Twitter users do tweet from their phones, you can use this app from your phone as well. To upload an image, tap and hold on the Upload area until a menu appears asking you to select an image from your camera roll. Select it and select an image from your camera roll to upload. It’s not built for smartphones though so it’s going to take a few attempts to get the image.

Google doodles mark important historic dates, people in history, and current events. Some doodles are static while others are quick little animations. In some cases, e.g., during the Soccer or Cricket World Cup, or the Olympics, theses doodles are small games that you can play. If you don’t like the doodles, or you end up playing them instead of working, you can choose to hide Google Doodles on the Chrome New Tab Page.

Hide Google Doodles

It’s fairly easy to hide Google doodles from the Chrome New Tab Page. You can do it by disabling a flag. Open a new tab and enter the following in the URL bar;

chrome://flags

On the Chrome flags page, search for ‘doodles’ in the search bar. You will find a flag called “Enable doodles on the local NTP” and it will be set to Default. Open the dropdown next to this flag and select the ‘Disabled’ option.

Relaunch Chrome and open a new tab page. The Google Doodle with be gone and instead be replaced with the usual Google logo.

Google doodles are normally just images, static or animated. In some cases though, they can include a by-line. Disabling the flag will disable/hide the Google doodle but the by-line will still be present at the very bottom of the New Tab Page. There doesn’t seem to be a way to disable it but it is far less distracting than the doodle itself. For one, you can’t play it and end up wasting time, and it’s at the very bottom of the page and much easier to ignore.

There are some extensions in the Chrome Web Store that claim to be able to hide the Google doodle from the New Tab Page but they didn’t seem to work. Given a choice between an extension and disabling a flag, it’s better to go with the flag option. Extensions, while great, tend to slow Chrome down and also cause it to use more RAM.

This is a Chrome specific setting. If you visit the Google home page, or go to a Google search results page, the doodle will still appear on both pages. If you’re too tempted by it, it’s best to just type searches in the URL bar in Chrome, or use the search field on the New Tab page. There is unfortunately no escaping the doodle on the search results page but it’s smaller and off to the side so it’s far less visible.