Pithos is really lightweight and looks nice on most all desktops. Pithos has its own PPA which makes it easier to install in Ubuntu and other Ubuntu based Linux distributions such as Linux Mint, Elementary OS etc.

You will need a Pandora account first and then add some stations or favorite artists.

https://www.pandora.com

Now to install Pithos and receive any updates use their official PPA. Here are the following commands to install Pithos via these three terminal commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pithos/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pithos

If you just want to try out Pithos or it is not available in your Software Center you can install it via terminal using the command below:

sudo apt-get install pithos

If you arent using Ubuntu and instead using a different distro, the Pithos homepage has install instructions for other Linux distributions:

https://pithos.github.io

Ubuntu 16.04 (and derivatives): Ubuntu includes snapd by default starting with the 16.04 LTS (xenial) release. No installation steps are required and you can use snapd directly.

To watch the World Cup games on Ubuntu 16.04 or newer just install the AceStream Player with this terminal command:

sudo snap install acestreamplayer

To run for the first time, it is recommended to use the terminal:

snap run acestreamplayer

(without sudo)

The first configuration takes some time, but when it is finished the player and the server icon will appear. And also the two shortcuts (server and player) are created.

Now head over to Reddit and check out the available soccer streams and look for the game you want…

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccerstreams/

Look for an AceStream link similar to this one:

acestream://877b368b1696429710420a676d33599bed5f1732

Open the AceStream Player (icon looks like this)…

….and plug your acestream link into the player by going to: “Media > Open Ace Stream Content ID” and then paste your link and then play it. Super easy!

HAVE FUN!

For the older 14.04 LTS (trusty) release or any flavour (e.g. Lubuntu) which doesn’t include snapd by default, you have to install it manually from the archive using these terminal commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install snapd

After Snapd is installed you can then proceed to install AceStream Player.

sudo snap install acestreamplayer

Thats it!

PS… make sure this is legal in your country. Thank You and Have a Nice Day

If you are an old school gamer and like those turn of the century computer games (I mean late 1990’s to early 2000’s) such as the DIABLO series, then I think you are going to LOVE the game Flare RPG. Flare is an open source, 2D single-player Action-RPG that allows you to roam freely through a unique world, full with surprises and adventure. It is an isometric game, inspired by the classics in many ways: a challenging environment to explore, choices with consequences, and a simple but versatile rulesystem enabling endless ways to develop your character.

You can find FLARE available in the Ubuntu Software Center. On Ubuntu 16.04 it will be just the basic Flare RPG 0.19 version. Its playable and fun. Version 0.19 is the alpha demo made by the Flare team. There are a handful of maps with a few small quests. It is bundled with the Flare engine up until version 0.19.

If you like the game so far, you’ll want the new mod version that came out recently named the Empyrean Campaign (Flare 1.06). 4 years in the making, and finally complete last month, Flare RPG the Empyrean Campaign is complete. This game will run on anything, there are builds for any flavor of OS or set up – Windows, Linux, phones. Even runs on a Raspberry Pi.

Its very much a complete game, and will 100% bring back those good Diablo quest feelings. Tons of side quests in the included campaign, or you can power thru 1 role in about 10-20 hours. If you like it harder, you can play with permadeath. Good music, sound, a variety of skills and weapons and magic. Plenty of baddies to kill. Fun to replay with other roles.

The NEW Flare 1.06 game is available to download in the Software Center (Ubuntu 18.04). You can also check out the game here:

Flare: Empyrean Campaign

If you are still running Ubuntu 16.04 (like I am) and want to play the newest version you will want to download the game from the download page here: http://flarerpg.org/index.php/download/

Download the first option under linux. Extract the files to where-ever you want on your computer and you should now have a folder “flare-v1.06”. Go into that folder and right click the flare.sh file, go to properties, permissions and allow it to execute as a program. Clicking the flare.sh file works for me to start the game, but you may need to drag the file into a terminal window and then press enter to start it up in Ubuntu 16.04. If you know of an easier way let us know! The easiest way to play this newest version is to install it through Ubuntu 18.04… so maybe its time to upgrade your Ubuntu!

Its a fun game that will keep you busy for hours. OK 20 hours later….

So how was Flare RPG??? Do you want MORE?? For only $8 you can get a very polished & nice looking fork of Flare RPG named Exiled Kingdoms over on Steam…

https://store.steampowered.com/app/788270/Exiled_Kingdoms/

Word is it is much bigger and lots more to do than the original Flare RPG. Check it out and have fun!

https://www.gog.com/games?system=lin_mint,lin_ubuntu,lin_ubuntu_18&sort=popularity&search=star%20wars&page=1

I know, I know… there are hundreds of awesome games to be played, not just Star Wars. So make sure to filter your search by operating system and pick Ubuntu.

GOG.com is also offering a FREE game (works on Ubuntu linux!) right now named “Xenonauts” which is a cool strategy game where you defend the world from aliens. You only have until June 6th 1pm UTC to grab this for free (regular price is $25 USD). If you make any purchases before June 18th you get points to unlock other games as well.

Listed below is a direct link to ALL of the games GOG offers that work on Ubuntu. 2,499 games (18 pages worth of games!!!) and you can filter the selection even more by the genre, price, etc…

https://www.gog.com/games?system=lin_mint,lin_ubuntu,lin_ubuntu_18&sort=popularity&page=1

Check it out!

https://www.gog.com/game/dungeons_2

Here is a link to all of their games available to linux users…

https://www.gog.com/games?system=lin_mint,lin_ubuntu&sort=popularity&page=1

The Papirus icon theme has several different variants depending if you want a light or dark theme. You can install Papirus from our official PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:papirus/papirus
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install papirus-icon-theme

There are several other distro packages available for installation such as Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Solus and more on the developers website at the bottom. You can contribute to the Papirus theme such as new icons for missing applications, symbolic links to an existing icon, resolving open issues, spelling, grammar, phrasing, etc. as well.

Dont forget that if you love it you can support this open source project by making a voluntary payment on Patreon to the author: https://www.patreon.com/varlesh

There is plenty more to learn about the theme here: https://github.com/PapirusDevelopmentTeam/papirus-icon-theme

Lets just get right to it and install which is very easy with a PPA in the terminal. Cut and paste each line into a terminal and press enter…

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:eviltwin1/feedreader-stable

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install feedreader

The only caveat is this is not a true RSS manager but more of an RSS client. You will need to create an external account on one of the RSS web services (usually free) like InoReader, Feedly, or Tiny Tiny RSS. The beauty of this is that your blog feeds will all by synced up.

FeedReader has some nice features such as sharing an article to your Pocket, Instapaper or Readability accounts, as well as desktop notifications of new articles, keyboard shortcuts, and tagging of articles. As seen in my FeedReader image above, we list our subscribed blogs in one area on the left side, however if you have a lot of blogs you read you can make and group them into categories. Linux blogs, home improvement blogs, science blogs, whatever your desires.

Another bonus is you can even add YouTube pages to your feed! Example of a feed would be to go to their YouTube page and click onto the pages “Videos” feed and thats what you would plug into FeedReader. Heres an example of a YouTube link…

https://www.youtube.com/user/StarTrekContinues/videos

(thats a fan created Star Trek series in the aura of the original Star Trek TV show)

One of the major new features of elementary OS is their new Open Source App Store.

The AppCenter brings handcrafted apps and extensions directly to your desktop. Quickly discover new apps and easily update the ones you already have. No license keys, no subscriptions, no trial periods.

Loki is being built with the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS repository, which means it comes with Gtk 3.18, Vala 0.32, and Linux 4.4 as well as a multitude of other updated libraries. Loki also removes Ubuntu’s Ayatana with a brand new set of wingpanel indicators for a better experience.

From their website…

“elementary OS is Open Source… Our code is available for review, scrutiny, modification, and redistribution by anyone. We dont make advertising deals and we don’t collect sensitive personal data. Our only income is directly from our users. elementary OS is Safe & Secure. We’re built on Linux: the same software powering the U.S Department of Defense, the Bank of China, and more”

If you want an impressive, beautiful and snappy linux desktop based on Ubuntu, give elementary OS a try.

There have been several instances where it would be more comfortable to run an Android app on my computer than to use my smart phone. I have tried running Android in a VirtualBox and it does work, however, Android is its own OS that you still need to boot into. But what if you could run an Android APK directly in Ubuntu? Well…. you can!*

Google released a Chrome app named ARC Welder, which allows you to run Android apps if you’re on the Chrome OS or using the Chrome web browser. Grab the ARC Welder Chrome app here (200MB)…

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/arc-welder/emfinbmielocnlhgmfkkmkngdoccbadn

Just open the link in Google Chrome or search for ARC Welder in the Chrome app store and install it.

Installing Android apps take a little bit of extra steps, but not a big deal. First, find the Android app you want in the Google Play Store…

https://play.google.com/store/apps

Copy the weblink of the app and paste it in the APK-DL website…

http://apk-dl.com/

This will generate an APK download link for the app. Once you have downloaded an APK file, open the ARC Welder app in your Chrome browser (thru the browser apps link). The first time you run ARC Welder it will ask you where to store files for the apps. Create a folder wherever you like before installing an APK. I created a folder in my HOME directory. Once you do that, simply add your APK file now.

You’ll also be asked about the size of your app such as tablet or phone, landscape or portrait. Put them to your liking and then install!

* Here is the caveat. Not ALL Android apps are going to work. Some do, some dont. There’s no guarantee the apps you try will work or that they’ll be usable.

I originally did this so I can run an investment app called “Robinhood” (pictured at the top of this post) to buy and sell stocks without paying any commission fees. The app is nice, but its much easier to use it on a desktop computer. Other apps I have tried that work are basic programs like “Bitcoin Checker” and “Coin Pirates” and “Backgammon Free”. Programs that require heavy graphics like car racing games probably wont work. Hulu DID work for me, Netflix did NOT. Your mileage may very. Have fun and Good Luck!

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openshot openshot-doc

Now that OpenShot is installed, you should be able to launch it from your Applications menu, or from the terminal ($ openshot-qt). Every time OpenShot has an update, you will be prompted to update to the newest version. It’s a great way to test our latest features.

Smoother Animation
Animations are now silky smooth because of improved anti-aliasing support in the libopenshot compositing engine. Zooming, panning, and rotation all benefit from this change.

Audio Quality Improvements
Audio support in this new version is vastly superior to previous versions. Popping, crackling, and other related audio issues have been fixed.

Autosave
A new autosave engine has been built for OpenShot 2.0, and it’s fast, simple to configure, and will automatically save your project at a specific interval (if it needs saving). Check the Preferences to be sure it’s enabled (it will default to enabled for new users).

Automatic Backup and Recovery
Along with our new autosave engine, a new automatic backup and recovery feature has also been integrated into the autosave flow. If your project is not yet saved… have no fear, the autosave engine will make a backup of your unsaved project (as often as autosave is configured for), and if OpenShot crashes, it will recover your most recent backup on launch.

Project File Improvements
Many improvements have been made to project file handling, including relative paths for built-in transitions and improvements to temp files being copied to project folders (i.e. animated titles). Projects should be completely portable now, between different versions of OpenShot and on different Operating Systems. This was a key design goal of OpenShot 2.0, and it works really well now.

Improved Exception Handling
Integration between libopenshot (our video editing library) and openshot-qt (our PyQt5 user interface) has been improved. Exceptions generated by libopenshot are now passed to the user interface, and no longer crash the application. Users are now presented with a friendly error message with some details of what happened. Of course, there is still the occasional “hard crash” which kills everything, but many, many crashes will now be avoided, and users more informed on what has happened.

Preferences Improvements
There are more preferences available now (audio preview settings – sample rate, channel layout, debug mode, etc…), including a new feature to prompt users when the application will “require a restart” for an option to take effect.

Improved Stability on Windows
A couple of pretty nasty bugs were fixed for Windows, although in theory they should have crashed on other platforms as well. But for whatever reason, certain types of crashes relating to threading only seem to happen on Windows, and many of those are now fixed.

New Version Detection
OpenShot will now check the most recent released version on launch (from the openshot.org website) and descretely prompt the user by showing an icon in the top right of the main window. This has been a requested feature for a really long time, and it’s finally here. It will also quietly give up if no Internet connection is available, and it runs in a separate thread, so it doesn’t slow down anything.

Metrics and Anonymous Error Reporting
A new anonymous metric and error reporting module has been added to OpenShot. It can be enabled / disabled in the Preferences, and it will occasionally send out anonymous metrics and error reports, which will help me identify where crashes are happening. It’s very basic data, such as “WEBM encoding error – Windows 8, version 2.0.6, libopenshot-version: 0.1.0”, and all IP addresses are anonymized, but will be critical to help improve OpenShot over time.

Improved Precision when Dragging
Dragging multiple clips around the timeline has been improved. There were many small issues that would sometimes occur, such as extra spacing being added between clips, or transitions being slightly out of place. These issues have been fixed, and moving multiple clips now works very well.

Debug Mode
In the preferences, one of the new options is “Debug Mode”, which outputs a ton of extra info into the logs. This might only work on Linux at the moment, because it requires the capturing of standard output, which is blocked in the Windows and Mac versions (due to cx_Freeze). I hope to enable this feature for all OSes soon, or at least to provide a “Debug” version for Windows and Mac, that would also pop open a terminal/command prompt with the standard output visible.

Updated Translations
Updates to 78 supported languages have been made. A huge thanks to the translators who have been hard at work helping with OpenShot translations. There are over 1000 phrases which require translation, and seeing OpenShot run so seamlessly in different languages is just awesome! I love it!

Lots of Bug fixes

• In addition to all the above improvements and fixes, here are many other smaller bugs and issues that have been addressed in this version.
• Prompt before overwriting a video on export
• Fixed regression while previewing videos (causing playhead to hop around)
• Default export format set to MP4 (regardless of language)
• Fixed regression with Cutting / Split video dialog
• Fixed Undo / Redo bug with new project
• Backspace key now deletes clips (useful with certain keyboards and laptop keyboards)
• Fixed bug on Animated Title dialog not updating progress while rendering
• Added multi-line and unicode support to Animated Titles
• Improved launcher to use distutils entry_points

Get Involved
Please report bugs and suggestions here: https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues. Please contribute language translations here (if you are a non-English speaking user): https://translations.launchpad.net/openshot/2.0/+translations.