Netrunner Linux

It is Plasma Desktop 5 and I ditched it for BlueStarOS with the most beautiful Desktop. It supports AbiWord and it has ton of applications.

Netrunner Linux

Netruuner Linux is a distribution that comes from Germany.

It is a good distribution for Linux newcomer. 

I have tested it many a times.

It is only 2.7GB image.

It is based on KDE but not the typical KDE.

The password for live session is live.

In a Live session, One sees all the application categorized on the the right side.

Applications are arranged in a alphabetical order.

One can install what is not there using Synaptic Package Manager. in a Live seeion.

I liked it because it supported  Synaptic Package Manager.

One can install Gnome on top of the KDE but it makes the system unstable.

I am a Gnome user that is why I do not fancy it but nevertheless it is a good distribution.

How does one have a good password?

 How does one have a good password?
 
How one can remember a password with 14 to 16 characters (what banks employ now for an account, with the help of computers)?

To begin with one has to train the brain to remember.
 

I have a suggestion elsewhere (under web etiquette) that  I do not want to repeat here.

Beginning

Step 1
One has to remember in blocks of three or four.
To train your mind try to remember your VISA card number.
Front four are almost specific and easy.
The last four should be your next attempt.
Do this every time when you go to the bank or to the till.
Do not worry if you forget.
When you can remember the first and the last lot of four numbers, try the other two lot not in specific way.
Suddenly part of the brain not utilized before get a rush of blood and new neuron networks.
Person with any age with firm resolve can do that.
This subconscious repetitive acts can be easily extended to one's password.

I DO NOT use a VISA card now.

I used to remember all the telephone numbers of my friends by heart in good old days and friends are the ones, one frequently ring and (telephone charges were relatively expensive, then) the brain stores them for good.
 
I stop doing that when cell phones came into existence.
 
One has to have one’s own trick for remembering blocks of three or four.

Try to associate them with pictures, names, pets etc.
 
Your pet fish or dog or cat would have a secret code attached.
Every time you feed them repeat the code (in mind) mentally in no time it get fixed as a long term permanent memory.

Step 2
Come with a phrase to include all the 10 to 16 characters in one’s password.
This is the hard part but it can be done.

Step 3
Use elements that one never forgets (unless one has Dementia).
Birthday is an easy one to remember.
 
Use only two numbers from it, not all.

Step 4
Unfortunately this cannot be used if one is English but I will give some hint for them too.
For Sinhala U Mata Banna, or Muta Mata Gahanna Hithenawa or Even Puke Ariya are good enough relatively used rephrases one can remember in trans-literate content, which the English Search engine might have trouble in figuring out.
From that phrase  one can choose four characters (even more if the phrase is carefully constructed) easily.
For English user, one good example is to go to alchemy and remember few Elements from the Tables.
Elements like Argon, Neon, Nitrogen,Bromine could be used at lib.
Or even one can use pentagon, hexagon, octagon or any other scientific or mathematical elements.
 
Again one only remembers four characters.

Step 5
If one has ever used a password before which one has remembered with repeated usage, use the same in the middle or rearrange it and put it in the middle.
 
Which will easily give you at least six characters.

You already got 12 characters now.
 
Step 5
Use two capital letters easy to access from the keyboard as the leader or the end of the password or leader and end, depending one is right or left handed.

Step 6
If the web site requires you to use an alphanumeric pick an alpha numeral to satisfy them.
You got 16 in all and 14 probably is adequate.

Step 7
Do not tell your method to anybody.
Do not share your password even with your spouse.
One day you me be divorced!
That is real and if you have time read my book on “Myths, Miracles and Marriage”.
Usually perfectly normal people become paranoid after getting married.
That is my medical experience.
It is often the people who are near and dear (sometimes, so called friends) who steal your password, not a rouge who breaks in for quick takeaway and getaway.

Keep the record of the method in a secret hiding place that you only have access.
In case one day you forget.

The best place to HIDE  is your brain.
Not even a brain surgeon would not have any access.
 

Resetting the password
When you change the password, drop two and take two from your birthday.
Pick four alternative block of four from your catch phrase.
Jumble your original password or add a new one.
Follow the rest as required and one may be able to go on till eighty to ninety since you practiced your own method and is almost specific to YOUR BRAIN which a hacker may not be able to penetrate or crack.

Unless you are one of twins there are no two people alike.
Even in them their are subtle differences not due to genetics but the brain behaves differently, even in twins.

Foot Note
But beware your doctor with a short memory or who is cash strapped who might steal your birth day or the catch phrase that you utter to him every time you visit.
Remember doctors forget their passwords more often than their patients.
They will never tell you.
That is why they record every word you utter and then get the vital diagnosis
wrong.
In this computer age doctors have become robots (unlike good old days) and not real humans.
If they ask you do you forget your passwords
Straight away say NO.
The stupid guy will ask you to state the password and put it in his computer memory which is not protected from hackers.Even the nurse can steal it, if she/he is inclined.
I trust my doctor does not apply to passwords when you do visit him/her, next time, round.

That includes me too.

I might do that, catch your password, certainly not to steal but because my brain is getting absent minded, I might put that in my computer, easily accessed even by a little kid.

Do not worry, I do not practice now by choice not by design anyway.
You are safe with me, my dear.

Installing Debian Gnome and Applications

I have used Linux for over 30 years and my comments here should be viewed from the angle of a adult teacher now fully retired and enjoying the twilight years, writing books, on many topics other than Linux.

I use only Linux utilities for writing my books and is an advocate of Free Software (wrong to use Open Software).

I was a busy medical teacher, and I moved to Linux accidentally. 

To begin with I was a self learner and could take a Big Medical Book and read only what is useful for me.

I followed the same ploy, when I read Linux books including Linux Bible.

I never intend to teach any guy or girl Linux but if asked offer only guide lines.

Yes at the beginning, from Partitioning to using the Terminal, I used to have a Linux book by the side of me. 

I graduated to Linux Bible and until I retired I subscribed to Linux Magazine. 

It comes from Germany and is very expensive.

Then over the last 20 years, I stopped using terminal and started using Graphic Installer. I even used the Text installer to learn every step involved in installation.

Hardware assembly from my first PC to the current NUC was easy but never fiddled with the CPU.

This piece is for a different reason.

I get annoyed by the proliferation of YouTube Gurus.

My advice for a newbie is, do not listen to these guys who have learned Linux recently using the terminal and try to become teachers to gullible newbies.

They do not have hands on experience and many are doing things on Virtual Machines.

Virtual Machines are good when one is addressing a big audience but their impact is minimal on hands on experience.

I say; one has to burn or dirty your hands when one begins to learn a new thing. 

Beginning stage does not come easy.

Debian 13 uses about 13.5GB for it's /root files and my recommendation for /root is minimum of 20GB.

If one is adding lot of other applications have at least 10GB for /var partition.

I installed Debian 13 without touching the terminal.

Debian does not support Cosmic, Pantheon, and Tuxedo desktops.

Apart from Gnome and Plasma desktops Debian supports  Cinnamon (used by Mint), Budgie, Mate, Lxqt and a few Window Mangers. 

It does not support Unity and Ubuntu. By the way Ubuntu is based on Debian to begin with and it parted with Debian with Wayland Saga.

If you want to try new desktop types, the best option is Reborn OS which is fantastic but make sure YOU have at least 50GB space in your hard disk reserved since all these new desktops are not only bulky but very slow to mount or boot.

I just installed blender after 20 year gap and I did not use the terminal.

If you are learning Linux for the first time try to use graphic utilities for both distribution install and for applications.

Of course, one gets unnecessary applications. I delete these applications, I do not need especially the kids games, after installing the system.

Again I use graphic utilities to remove them never the terminal.

Linux has a way of removing orphan packages and updating the system almost on daily basis. I do not bother scheduling them which I used to do on daily basis on very small hard disks.

Chron Jobs and Daemon for processes are done automatically and that is the very reason I use Linux. I do not bother on background activities and simply work on my favorite applications.

I use AbiWord, the tiniest Word Processor for my books which has strict page format which I love.

Today of course I added Only Office, OpenOffice and LibreOffice to the Reborn OS for testing.

LibreOffice is in its 25the edition in Reborn OS. It may be true of LibreOffice of Debian 13.

Bottom Line is:

Do not become frustrated in front of a black terminal.

However, Htop terminal has a colour theme, now.

Do the easy graphic way.

Then buy the Linux Bible.

Then try the Terminal.

Of course if one is managing a Server, Terminal is the vital source.

I have over 20 books on Linux from Redhat to Suse to (no books on Debian) and very early versions of Linux books.

I left all of them in CEYLON.

Now I am in Australia.

My Son (Thank YOU) In Law of course bought me a Linux Bible.

He uses Apple for his work.

Reborn OS-Thank YOU

Finally I got Blender installed in Reborn OS.

 After some lapse I installed Reborn OS on my NUC.

This time no problem with GRUB file and it did recognize all the other distributions, already installed.

I had to reinstall Reborn OS three times since it filled up the /var partition of 8.6GB when I installed additional applications which included 10 different browsers in addition to Firefox, my favorite. 

I reduced the size of  /home partition and added 2GB for /var. 

That would fix my problems.

It finished installation, in double quick time.

It has STACER my favor utility which Debian 13 does not support.

But the Debian has System Monitor which is pretty good but Stacer with more graphic features I am hooked to.

I installed Gnome desktop but added the bonus of Plasma desktop.

One has to select one desktop at install time.

Reborn OS supports almost all the browsers.

Apart from Firefox my favorite, I have;

1. Librewolf

2. Falkon

3. Opera

4. Vivaldi

5. Konqueror

6. Brave

7. Dillo

8. Gnome browser or Epiphany

9. Anglerfish 

10. Google Chrome browser which I never use

11. Tor Browser 

I have no paranoia and I do not use it.

12. Safari of Apple 

13. Internet Explorer of Microsoft and Edge

That was (IE)  the first browser I ditched to go fully for Mozilla browser in it's early stages of development. Firefox was the standard for Linux Distributions and me being a Linux Guy stuck to Firefox for life. With Linux one need not fiddle with the Firefox configuration. In any case it is the strip down version of Firefox with no unnecessary cookies. 

That is the beauty of Linux and that is why it is fast. 

I used to use the history file when I was bit paranoid, having ditched Microsoft for it's snoopy behavior.

That was the first irritation of Microsoft which I detected very early in my web life.

Facebook of course I ditched in six months.

Now a few words about Linux Catchy OS. 

It is a strip down version of Arch with only the essentials tools available and it is absolutely fast.

It has developed its own browser. 

One has to have a good understanding of Linux to use it as a daily driver.

I prefer Reborn OS which is more desktop oriented distribution. 

One has to choose one desktop at installation. 

I use Gnome and add Plasma desktop, later. 

It supports Cosmic, MATE and many more desktops one can add later.

Reborn OS

Reborn OS is pretty Good.

I tried Cosmic desktop on Reborn OS and it works fine.

I have used only 35GB of my NUC for all it's partitions and my advice for a newbie is to use at least 50GB.

It has many good features. 

I am currently Installing Reborn Os on top of CarchyOS which is also based on ARCH but minimal. 

This is the penultimate stage of testing ARCH based distributions which were all based on KDE (Endeavour OS, BlueStar Linux OS which I have already installed in my System) but with Reborn OS I can choose Gnome desktop when installin.

I hate KDE except Plasma, because I am a Debian Guy using Gnome. 

I decided, I would promote only Gnome Desktop, in future due to many reasons. 

On second thought, I am promoting both KDE Plasma and Gnome.

Then, only one can see the difference.

Gnome of Debian is my workhorse.

Its installation is fast. 

Graphical instructions are intuitive and I had the choice of selecting Abiword, OpenOffice, LibreOffice and there was another word processor which I do not know anything about. 

Well, I went for my favourite AbiWord. 

One can install it either offline or online. Online takes a little longer and one can chose one out of about 10 desktops at install. 

I prefer online install. 

By the way, little while ago I installed Gnome minus LibreOffice.  

Firefox and LibreOffice have to support many languages by default.

It saved 2GB and the Grand Total was just over 7GB for the basic install. 

It had all the utilities I needed in a basic install and it went up to 8GB on full install and I have 11GB left, in my root partition of 19GB, for any additional packages I might Install.

RebornOS is a desktop oriented Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. 

Although the RebornOS live image provides Xfce desktop, the installation process offers a choice to install one of the many popular desktop environments and window managers. 

Other interesting features of the distribution includes the support for Flatpak packages, optional installation of Anbox for running Android applications

It has the capability to rollback the system to a previous date, and graphical system configuration and maintenance tools.

OS Type Linux

Based on ARCH

Origin USA

Architecture x86-64

Desktop XFCE

Category Desktop and Live Medium

Status Active

Blender Utility

Blender

Blender is huge application.

It is 1.8GB at Flatpak.

I tried to install it in Reborn OS but failed.

But with Debian 13 it's capacity is about 350MB. What it means Debian 13 has all the libraries to run.

I added few more libraries using Synaptic Package Manager. 

I use Blender 20 years ago when it was small.

This is another reason one should switch from Debian 12 to 13.

Blender doc is 233MB large.