Miscellaneous apps
I selected this name because I have exhausted ideas and so I will just start writing whatever comes to mind.
Today I had been fiddling with my laptop which has 3 Linux distros installed apart from Winows 7 (because I don't like Win 10) in the 1st partition. The distros are Mint Cinnamon 20.1, Mint Mate 20.1 and Linux Lite. I regularly use Cinnamon, and the others are to play with. I use Windows only very occasionally. Once you start using Linux, you won't go back to Windows. Linux is superb in all aspects, and simple too, with easy, fast, regular updates. I have never regretted coming off from Windows. Moreover, Windows has virus threats and the base installation OS itself is very heavy. From my point of view, Windows has only drawbacks - Win 10 is the worst. With Linux, you just install and start working - smart, fast and easy to work and learn.
To back up the system, the best way is to use Timeshift in Mint. You can back up your saved files and folders using its own Back up programme.
I searched and found out a couple of useful apps for clipping copied items - called Copy Q or Clipman both will work in Linux Mint Cinnamon. In Windows we have Clip Magic - useful if one uses a lot of copy-paste. Another useful app in Linux is Warpinator, for file sharing. TeamViewer also works on Linux. We can share files through networked devices and also through browsers using sites like like 'yousendit' or 'WeTransfer'.
Cloud storage is common nowadays. MS OneDrive is the first one I used, I use it even now with a Microsoft account. Then comes Google Drive. This is my favourite, where I keep all my write ups and also of course many whatsapp photos - previously I did upload mobile photos automatically, now doing so only manually.
Other online cloud storage sites I use are Dropbox and Box - for both these, registration is necessary, but free up to allotted space. The former can only be linked with up to 5 devices. Box has no such limit, and is free too. From cloud drives one can share files to any email ID. All cloud drives can store any digital file, videos too. We can stream music also from the cloud. We can convert Gdocs to .pdf too. Just go to Gdrive, select any doc and print and it will be auto saved as .pdf, it's that easy. And such pdf files can be shared through Whatsapp - this is what I do with my Gdocs.
Google photos is an incredible feature rich product. You enter into it by signing in and can see for yourself the plethora of actions you can perform. One can search by date, use face recognition, or share with friends using email addresses. One can add notes and group photos, or make folders. Mobile photos, eg. from Whatsapp, can be uploaded to GPhotos either manually or auto upload by configuring in GPhotos. Videos also can be uploaded. By default, no video is uploaded to GPhotos, unless by configuring GPhotos, for either auto upload or manual, because videos take up more space. Sharing is commonly done for folders, favourites or selected photos to people with gmail address only.
Another feature rich product is Google Keep. I write most my texts there for saving and making available anytime, anywhere. Advantage is that you can open it in any device with internet and a gmail address because one has to sign in. It auto saves anything we write, and the write ups can be saved as GDocs which in turn can be converted to .pdf. The GDocs can be shared, or converted to .pdf to save and then send via Whatsapp. This is what I do. Keep can save photos too. It has reminders too. Accidentally deleting can be reversed by clicking Ctrl+Z immediately, before saving.
Archiving is also done on Linux - which means compressing to get more space. Archived files can be unzipped and extracting using any Zipping agent like 7zip in Windows or any de-archiver in Linux. Editing is easy here, and also pinning any box as the first one to see on opening Keep. Keep one copy of Keep - you won't regret it.
Linux has a useful feature called Workspaces - many desktops to work at any time. There is the option to have many. I choose 2. We can see the different workspaces using the keys Ctrl+Alt+up - that shows your workplaces. Use workspaces judiciously to save memory and speed up the desktop.
Many books are available as EBooks in different formats - epub, mobi etc and one can use 'Calibre' to read them or convert from one format to other. Other light eBook readers are also available, eg LRF Viewer.
Dual-booting is possible when you have Windows already installed. One can install any Linux over Windows automatically. The file systems are different for Linux and Windows. For the latter, it is NTFS and for the former it is EXT4 file system or many others, which each distro decides automatically. From Windows one cannot read the Linux file system files unless you use special apps. From Linux, you can read Windows files. Anyway - while installing Linux, the installer will ask you whether to have dual-booting, if you say yes, everything will be automated - Linux will make space for itself. Just a few inputs like username and password for logging in, your country and language - otherwise Linux installation is very easy - completely automated. Your Windows will be safely there in the 1st boot sector. While booting, there will be a boot option called GRUB which will ask you which OS to boot.
Many things in Linux can be learnt once you start using it. While installing Linux you will notice differences between Windows and Linux. Windows is so complicated - you need permission first as payment to Microsoft, and many questions to answer, just for the shell of Windows. You have to install software separately - one has to buy some, but some are free. With Linux, the distro comes bundled with all required software - even Office suites.
Ubuntu was the first Linux I tried, but it had lots of drawbacks at that time. The present Ubuntu has come a long way now. It is quite polished, and not so slow as before. But still, it has lots of unnecessary apps and the appearance has a long way to go to improve. Then I experimented with lots of distros and finally came the present Mint of which Cinnamon is the best. Now Mint stays as my default OS.
I used to need Mr Rahul (my computer expert) very often, for some problem or other - mostly Windows related and hardware problems. Nowadays I don't have to call him at all - all thanks to Linux.
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