Episode: 1902
Title: HPR1902: My Linux Tool Box
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1902/hpr1902.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 10:59:54

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This is HPR episode 1902 entitled My Linux Toolbox and is part of the series What's In My Toolkit.
It is hosted by Finn and is about 24 minutes long, the summer is. Finn talks about his digital box of Linux tools.
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Hello and welcome to Hercovolic Radio. This is my second episode. First one was a little while ago.
I've been meaning to do another one. But here we are. I'm finally here. It's not that hard. I encourage you all to give it a go.
Recently, there's been a series of podcasts. Well, a kind of rough series. Oh, is it a series? I wonder if it's categorized as a series. Let me just check that.
Yes, it appears. There is a series. It's called What's In My Toolkit. A lot of people have done What's In My Bag. Some people have done What's In My Repair Toolbox.
There's a recent one I thought was quite interesting by John Culp about What's He Keeps In His Bicycle Repair Toolbox.
Anyway, so it kind of got me thinking, what kind of things do I keep in a toolbox? What do I keep in my bag?
I thought, well, what I keep in my bag is very interesting. I don't forget a request or might do a show.
But I thought what was interesting is what I keep in my virtual toolbox. In other words, on my PC.
So I thought it might be cool to do an episode on the tools that I have in my virtual toolbox, i.e. my hard drive, my set of digital tools.
So here we are, my Linux toolbox. These are basically the packages I install on every distribution.
Although I generally just use the next mint or arch. Although you could say those two are quite different.
So, yeah, there's quite a different experience setting up one box in the next. But whenever I do a clean install,
whether you're actual, the next mint or whatever else I'm trying out at the time,
I tend to still install either most or all of these packages.
So in no particular order, I'll go through the list.
Number one here, I've got H top. To be honest, I never really understood top.
I mean, I can look at top and get some information from it. There might be a human readable flag for it that will make things easier.
Those numbers up at the top with all their different measurements of memory and so on and so forth.
It can be a little overwhelming if you just want a quick glance to see what's going on with your system.
And I remember discovering H top. Well, to be honest, no, I don't remember discovering H top, but I discovered it a while ago.
And as soon as I saw it, I was like, ah, this is the command line system monitor for me.
Nice graphical style bars to indicate the load on your different CPU cores or the single core if you're just running a single core box.
And then another nice little bar there for your RAM, a lovely list of all the running processes on the system.
And you can easily sort them and you can easily view them in a tree form. It's nicely color coded.
So yeah, H top, love it. Always install H top. That's my go to command line system monitor.
And number two here, Firefox. If it's not pre-installed, obviously with Linux Mint generally Firefox is pre-installed.
In fact, I can't think of a version of Linux Mint I've used that didn't have Firefox pre-installed as the default browser.
But of course, I'm actually next to not there by default as our most packages. So yep, Firefox has to be there. If it's not, I'll just pop it on.
That's my go to browser.
So number three, I put down get it or gee edit. We like to pronounce that.
I just find it's a great text editor, lovely graphical text editor, nice and simple.
But with some great plugins, a nice one for automatic replacing tabs with spaces.
And if you hit the back space, it will delete those set of spaces all at once.
So if you're writing code, it's nice to have things indented and it's nice to use spaces or at least I think it's nice to use spaces instead of the tab characters.
But it's also nice to not have to deal with managing spaces when you're correcting blocks of text.
So if you hit the tab key, you'll get, well in my case, four spaces thrown in instead of a tab symbol.
I like to indent four spaces.
But then if you hit the back space key instead of deleting one space and then you're having to hit the back space key four times to get to the previous indentation.
If you indented too far or say you just want to change how your blocks are arranged.
You just hit the back space key once and it will knock off all four space characters for you.
So that's a nice little plugin and one of the many examples of why I like to use get it or plumer.
If I happen to be using artist Linux, I might go for plumer instead of get it if I'm going for a GTK2 packages rather than GTK3.
That's another story, maybe an opportunity for another episode.
So here at number four, I've got yard, yard, I have no idea how to pronounce that.
Y-A-O-U-R-T. I believe it's yogurt in French.
And of course, that's if I'm using artist Linux.
I'm familiar with the artist user repository and how to manage those packages myself.
But after a while of doing that, I was thought, I'll give this yard thing a try and see how that goes.
And to be honest, it's been completely painless.
It's not an official package manager by any means for archers.
They will warn you on their wiki, but works great for me.
Really convenient.
I love how yards works.
And I've got a side note here for if I'm on an Ubuntu or deviant based distribution, i.e. the next mint.
I'll always make sure I've got synaptic installed.
I think on the more recent versions of Linux Mint, the synaptic package manager, this is the graphical package manager.
Isn't installed by default.
I think I kind of leave it as the mint software center, as the default graphical package manager and don't clutter the system with other options.
I mean, for fair enough, I respect that.
Good design choice, but for me personally, I like to use synaptic.
Or, yeah, if I'm using arch yards.
So fifth one on my list here is GU Charmap.
I've just recently added that to my list.
It's something that I think is included with Linux Mint by default.
But I found myself wanting to look at a graphical display of Unicode characters on arch.
And I was like, hang on, what's that utility I use in the next mint?
So I found the package name GU Charmap.
Or GU Charmap. I really like to pronounce that.
Yeah, it works really nicely.
You can scroll through and find whatever symbol you're looking for.
For me, I think it was some mathematical or logical symbol.
Get the Unicode character, or I believe it shows you other encodings as well.
You can copy and paste them into your source file.
For example, I think it was an HTML document I was working on.
That I wanted some funny characters in.
Anyway, on we go.
Number six, mark down.
Again, a recent addition.
I've started writing lots and lots of notes recently.
And I find that typing up in mark down is great.
I prefer using plain text to word processor, like Libra Office.
Or open office or the like.
I just found working in plain text is so much less complicated.
Formatting is somewhat of an afterthought.
At least you can leave it till later.
I found myself always getting bogged down and formatting as I was going along
using word processors.
I've been thinking about, oh, do I want this to be bold or italic or indented
or bullet points or numbered bullet points and playing around with that stuff as I went.
And I end up not writing down many notes.
So yeah, mark down what's great.
It's really simple. Just plain text with a few sort of additions.
Again, another good opportunity for a podcast there.
So maybe I'll come back later and do an episode of mark down.
Unless I find one in the archive that covers the topic better than I think I could.
Here we are number seven then.
VLC media player.
As Joe wrestlington likes to say on the Linux Linux podcast, it just plays everything.
And it pulls down all the codecs you might need.
And yeah, I've always found it to be the best media player.
I was a big fan of VLC since I was a Windows user back in the day.
But yeah, VLC.
That's what I play all my movies and music with.
I wouldn't think event using anything else, really.
Number eight here. I have Cinnamon.
So obviously, Linux Mint.
You're a download graphical installer and you install something that includes a desktop environment.
Of course, I'll go for the Cinnamon option.
But then Arch Linux on the other hand, you don't get anything really by default.
So it's up to you what you put on it.
And these days I've been going for Cinnamon on Arch as well.
I just think it's a fantastic desktop environment.
Yeah, not much more to be said about it than that without delving into detail that
would maybe be good for a solo episode.
So Cinnamon, my desktop environment of choice.
So number nine here, Libra Office.
Again, as I said, when I mentioned using Markdown for note taking recently.
I'm not a fan of using Libra Office much.
I don't really have used for spreadsheets.
I've used one in the last four or five years.
So really, it's just if I'm ever doing a text document that needs to be printed
and given to someone or generate PDF to be emailed to someone.
So Libra Office is what I'd use for that.
And if I do on a rare occasion, need a word processor or once in a blue moon.
Spread sheet application.
Events, that's my PDF reader of choice.
Or atrial, I think it's the name of it on Marta, the Marta desktop environment.
Well, that's at least atrial as the fork that the Marta team made of events
from the GTK two days when it was part of GNOME 2.
Correct me if I'm wrong here.
So yeah, if I was an arch, I might go for atrial instead of events.
I think that all the new versions of the GNOME apps are making some real changes
to their kind of header section of their windows, the menus, and the windows controls
are all getting integrated into the one bar.
Great for using GNOME.
I've used GNOME a lot.
I think it's fantastic.
I just prefer cinema these days and I find that the Marta forks of the GNOME applications
work much nicer with cinema than the GTK 3 GNOME 3 versions.
The 11 here is empty paint.
It's just a very simple pixel art editor.
I actually love using another paint program on a Marta desktop operating system.
And this is the closest thing I've found on Linux so far.
Yeah, just simple pixel art, nothing complicated, just like messing around sometimes
or just some simple cropping and copying and pasting of pixel-based images.
Talking about pixel-based images, moving on now to vector-based images.
Number 12 here I've listed is Inkscape for proper drawing.
So yeah, if I actually want to create some artwork, I'll do an Inkscape.
I love working vectors.
I love the fine control you can get of a line by just manipulating the points of vector.
Inkscape, my Inkscape to my go-to drawing application.
It's the number 13 I've got here as GIMP.
So yeah, if I need some more heavy duty manipulation of pixel-based artwork,
I don't really do any photo editing, but maybe I want to kind of throw something together,
tweak something, convert something from one format to another, compress an image.
That kind of thing I tend to do on GIMP, although I don't tend to do it often,
but I do like to have it in my Linux toolbox.
Number 14 here I've listed GNOME Terminal or Marta Terminal.
Yeah, as I said before, when I was talking about events and atrial,
I do find that the Marta Forks applications do work a bit more nicely in the cinema environment on Arch.
Yeah, when I use Linux Mint, I have GNOME Terminal and it's the older version of GNOME Terminal
that I believe the Mint guys are maintaining since they forked a bunch of stuff from GNOME.
Very nice, Marta Terminal is very similar, works nicely on Arch with Cinema.
Moving swiftly on then, at number 15 here, I've put Redshift.
Now Redshift is absolutely fantastic. I'm using it right now, as I'm recording this podcast
at around 25 to 10 in the evening.
And so what Redshift does is adjust the color balance and the brightness of your display
based on the timer day or based more specifically on your geolocation,
which it will then infer what time of day it is.
I think the way I have it configured, I just put in my coordinates, my longitude and latitude,
and it therefore knows what the time of day here is or at least where the sun is in relation
to the part of the surface of the Earth that I'm at.
And it knows that the sun is not visible for me, so it shifts the color balance slightly towards the red.
So more like the tones of candle lights or a fire or these kind of more redshifted lights
that is more conductive to sleep.
So it helps you wind down in the evening.
It's not so stimulating, you don't end up staring at the computer until 3 a.m.
Or at least that's what I've found it helps with.
Yeah, so it just helps me get a good night's sleep.
And once it's also configured, ready to go, do my little configuration file.
It just gently lowers the brightness and shifts the color to red
as the evening progresses.
And now at night time now my screen is very dark and slightly red shifted.
But not so dark that it's harder view.
It's about the same brightness as the brightest part in my room.
And not so red as to look like everything is red in fact.
It's about the same white balance as the white wall in my room.
So yeah, absolutely fantastic.
Really fits with the environment.
Lovely way to look at a box of light in the evening.
Number 16 then is just a little applet called alarm clock applet.
I stumbled across this when I was getting into the Pomodoro technique
which is a nice way to manage your time.
Just a very simple alarm clock applet.
You get a little window.
You can set some countdown timers, which is all I use it for.
I think there's also alarms for certain times a day you can set as well.
So yeah, I just use that for managing my time.
Number 17 then is G-Parted.
If I ever have to do anything with the disk partition formatting,
creating a new partition, formatting a new disk, I've added to my system.
It's always in G-Parted.
I love working with G-Parted.
As you may have noticed, some of my tools are command-line-based
but most of these tools are graphical based.
I really do enjoy good graphical tools.
And G-Parted is a fantastic example.
So moving on now to an application that I'm not so proud to admit to using.
But it's always there.
Number 18 here we have Steam.
Steam is the game client from the developer Valve.
Been a fan of their games for many years since before I was a Linux user.
And when they brought Steam to Linux, I thought it was absolutely fantastic.
So I have Steam and a few games on there.
Some lovely Linux ports.
My favourite being Valve's own game, Dota 2, which is absolutely fantastic.
A great online experience and a really fun game to play.
Number 19 here is a tool that I've actually removed.
I've actually removed recently.
But I mention it anyway, in case you are a game player like me,
I pretty much always use play on Linux whenever I want to play some old game
that I've fond memories of.
And I've still got the old PC windows disk knocking around.
I'll fire up play on Linux and install it and have a go.
It's been good for that.
But I'm kind of moving away from those older Windows applications.
So I don't really use that anymore.
Yeah, if old Windows games are your thing, play on Linux makes it seamless and painless to get up and running.
Provided that the game is on their supported games list.
They basically got a yes-no list.
So you're on the list and it works fantastically.
Or it's not on the list and you're out of luck for playing on Linux.
Maybe look at wine and some manual configuration.
So 20 here is a nice little graphical tool again.
This one's called G-Pick.
It's a nice little way to generate colour schemes if you're working on anything that involves colour.
And you want to find some complementary colours or nice contrasting colours.
And one thing I really like about it, which I guess is what the name's all about,
is it's got a built-in colour picker.
So you just get a little colour picker.
Select any pixel on your monitor and it'll tell you the exact colour value.
So if you see a colour, you like someone on a website or in your user interface
and maybe you're configuring something else in your desktop environment
and you want to match the colour or you're creating some graphics or some application design.
You want to match a colour that you see then.
Well yeah, G-Pick is simple.
Just pick a colour of the screen, gives you the colour code
and it can generate some nice colour schemes to give you a set of colours to work with.
Number 21 here then is Thunderbird.
That's my go-to email application.
I use it for all my email accounts.
Yeah, fantastic.
Clearly he's straightforward and easy to use.
Nicely than having to use any of the web interfaces of any of the email accounts I have.
Great to keep my emails consolidated all in one place.
Yeah, Mozilla banking good stuff there again.
Shame it's not been kind of in the forefront of their development in recent years.
But hey, it works fantastically.
So if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Number 22 here then is another proprietary application that I'm not so proud to list.
But I do use it and pretty much all my machines.
So here we are. Skype.
Skype is a communication tool that a bunch of my friends use.
So basically either I have Skype and I talk to my friends or I don't have Skype.
And I don't talk to anyone.
So Skype it is.
Not much more to say about that.
Fairly straightforward to install on Mint and Arch.
I know there's some other distributions that I've tried to install on in the past.
And it's not on the repos.
You have to go to the Skype website.
But there we go, proprietary software.
Number 23 then is a nice application called Transmission.
Again, a GUI tool.
Well, I use the GUI version.
I know there is a command line version of Transmission.
I use the GUI client.
Fantastic for downloading ISOs.
I mean, if you're going to download a ISO, download the torrent.
Helps you.
Helps the community.
You get a nice quick download.
I've never had a real slow issue with any torrents.
Slow to start maybe.
But you get your download quick enough and someone else to get some bites off of you.
So 24 now another download application you get.
Again, a graphical tool.
Theme here.
Yeah, sometimes I find with large files.
Maybe there's a distribution I like to try out and they don't offer a torrent.
Have seen that a few times.
So yeah, for downloading big files,
I have found that the Firefox downloader has been an issue.
It's either been slow or maybe I've been messing around with something else in my system.
And it's crashing.
I've had to restart the download all over again or maybe a combination of those.
Anyway, you get great download management for just straightforward downloading big files.
It allows you to pause and resume them.
Something that the Firefox download manager doesn't offer.
Very useful.
Number 25 then here, getting to some low-level stuff.
Java.
The Java development kit and the Java runtime environment.
So yeah, Java is my first language as a programming language label learnt.
And yeah, I just kind of feel a bit weird if I don't have Java on my system.
But use it very often.
We'll be using it a bit more recently though.
But I always like to make sure it's there just in case I need it.
Coming towards the end of my list here now at number 26,
a Sunder CD Ripper.
A Sunder or a Sunder.
I think a Sunder.
Either way, it's pretty straightforward CD Ripper.
It can rip to a flat, which is the audio codec I like.
Yeah, I've got a little bit of a CD collection here,
and a lot of people have moved towards streaming services these days for their music.
But I like to own a copy of my music, but I like to have it easily accessible.
So yeah, rip that to flat, pop that on my phone,
or just listen to it straight on my desktop.
Number 27 then, Audacity.
Using Audacity right now.
It's the simplest audio recorder I've ever used on a computer.
I've dabbled with Cubase and Logic in the past.
I mean, yeah, great for big projects, but something simple like a podcast,
Audacity is absolutely fantastic.
Number 28's kind of linked to the audio theme here.
A Sunder CD Ripper, rip my CDs with.
But then to get all the metadata, I use Music Brains Picard.
There's a database of some kind that a Sunder CD Ripper can use automatically.
I can't remember the name of it.
Quite a common one, I believe.
Yeah, Music Brains Picard, absolutely fantastic for tagging all my music accurately.
Yeah, and in fact, discovered that Ogcamp, Ogcamp 14,
the first Ogcamp I went to, fantastic environment, some great talks.
Nice talk about Ogcamp, I can't remember the chap who did it,
but he did a good job of promoting it, and it got me on board.
I've contributed some data, and yeah, really great, really great tool.
Really great place to go if you need to get some tags for some old music files you got.
Number 29 here is Virtual Box from the lovely Oracle Corporation.
But let's just talk about Virtual Box.
Virtualization software, great for trying out other Linux distributions.
Yeah, as you can tell, I'm a whole heartily a Linux user,
and yeah, love to distro hop.
Kind of slow down on my distro hopping in recent years,
but love to try out different things of Virtual Box.
Got a, well a BSD running at the moment, free BSD,
and OpenSusur, amongst others, just to try them out.
Yeah, another great graphical tool for that.
Must get into more command line tools, but yeah, like I said earlier,
I do really enjoy a good graphical tool,
and Virtual Box is another fantastic example of a great graphical tool.
So number 30 here, G-U-F-W.
I don't really think there's a sensible way to pronounce that.
The G-G-T-K, I guess that's danceful.
Graphical maybe.
It's another GUI tool.
U-F-W, uncomplicated firewall.
Yeah, one of those things that seems to have dropped off the radar
with recent Linux Mint releases.
So just something I like to add when I install it.
Nice little layer of security there.
Just install it, switch it on, and forget about it.
Works fantastically, never had any issues.
And I still feel firewall.
So rounding off the collection here then is number 31,
the Numix icon theme.
And in fact, the Numix theme in general,
I absolutely love it.
I've been using it for about two, three months now.
I just finally got bored with the default look of Linux Mint,
and the kind of bland, gnome default look of cinnamon on Arch Linux.
Yeah, so I did a bit of hunting around for themes.
I think there was a reviewer on YouTube who mentioned some themes.
Maybe he mentioned the icon theme.
Certainly, yeah, the Numix icon theme,
including the Numix Circle icon theme for all applications.
And there's like a Numix GTK theme,
which works with Linux Mint and Cinnamon on Arch Linux.
There's in fact a slight tweak for the Arch Linux version
that's available when the Arch user repository
that changes the main highlighting color.
The main highlighting color of the Numix theme is a kind of
dark orange reddish color.
But yeah, the Arch version just tweaks it to the Arch Blue,
a kind of nice light, vibrant blue color.
So there we go.
That's my list that I made of the Linux tools,
my Linux toolbox, things that I install on pretty much
any clean and system that I happen to be using when I upgrade
or I break something and have to wipe the whole thing.
Or if I just get bored and want to try something new,
I'll pretty much install all of these applications
over the following couple of weeks.
So I hope you found something interesting there
or discovered a package that you don't use yourself already
and would like to try out.
Thanks for listening.
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