Episode: 2746
Title: HPR2746: My software part 2
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2746/hpr2746.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 16:17:06

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This is HPR Episode 2746 entitled My Software Part 2.
It is hosted by Tony Hume K810H1212 and in about 5 minutes long and carry my clean flag.
The summary is more about the software I use regularly on Linux.
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Good day again to all in HPRland.
This is Tony Hughes coming you again from Blackpool in the UK.
And this is a second instalment about some of the software I use on Linux Mint 19.1.
I talked in the first show about some of the common software that people might use on Linux
if they were transferring for Windows from Windows.
But this is some of the kind of software that regular users of Linux might be more likely to use.
So without further ado, let's get on with the show.
The first piece of software that I'm going to talk about is a little utility called USB image writer.
Basically it's exactly what it says.
You can use it to write images to SD cards, USB cards etc.
So if you want to create a live USB image of a Linux ISO, this little software utility that comes in Linux Mint 19.1 by default is a really useful piece of kit.
I know other people have got different choices for software that they use for writing images.
But this works for me out the box and it's what I use on a regular basis.
Secondly, this next piece of software I use is VirtualBox.
And this goes on every instalment I do of Linux that I'm going to be using on a regular basis on a production machine.
Whether it's my desktop or laptops that I carry around because it's always handy to have the ability to test operating systems within the operating system that you're working from.
VirtualBox has the capability to virtualize X86 and AMD 64-bit systems.
Unlike some of the other virtual machines, you can't emulate other hardware profiles.
But it's good enough for me because mainly what I'm trying to virtualize is X86 or X AMD 64 systems.
It's great if I want to test the distro or just see one before I make a decision whether I'm going to install it on a piece of hardware.
So yeah, VirtualBox is a must for me.
Next we come to a piece of software that I've only just recently started to use and it's called OBS Open Broadcast Software.
This is a powerful piece of kit but the main reason I installed it originally was to record my screen when I was doing a tutorial actually to show someone else how to use VirtualBox and to install Linux in a virtual machine.
I used Open Broadcast Software OBS to do that and it worked great.
It takes a little bit of configuration but it's a cracking piece of kit and again it's freely available for Linux and doesn't take that much to install.
So give it a try if you've not tried that one before.
Another piece of software that most people who use any kind of computer or probably want is the ability to burn CDs and DVDs.
And for this my go-to choice is a Bracero or XF burn.
Quite often need to burn a CD, a music CD for the car or to burn some software, not some software, some data that I might want to give away such as creative commons, magazines and like.
Quite often download the magpie magazine and the full circle magazine which are all creative commons, magazines and I'll put them on a CD or a DVD, give them to new commons, come into the log and make a space.
So it's always handy to have the ability to use a piece of software for doing that.
And finally for this episode the other piece of software that I couldn't do without is GIMP which stands for GNU Image Millipulation Program.
And basically it's a drop-in replacement for Photoshop.
I don't do an awful lot of powerful photo editing these days.
I did for a while when I was attending a photo club but just recently my photography has not been very active.
But it's always handy to have a quick tool that you can stick an image into and edit it quite quickly and GIMP is great for that.
You can crop, you can change the colour profiles, contrast etc very quickly once you've got used to the piece of the software.
So I wouldn't be without the GIMP, I've been using it for years and it's something that if it isn't installed out the box which it is on Linux Mint but no longer in some of the software, some of the Linux distributions.
It's one of the things that we'll get installed at some stage because I'll know I'll need it.
So that's another few of the programs that I use on a regular basis for this show. I'm going to call it a day for this one.
I'll be back in the future and talk about some of the other utilities that I use on Mint in another show.
So that's Tony Hughes signing off for now. Bye!
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