Can I Play Games on Linux?

Everyone Says Linux Can't Play Games

A common myth is that Linux and Mac cannot play games. This myth prevents some people from even trying out Ubuntu because they are avid gamers. There is some truth to this but it is not as bad as it sounds. Certain games are not playable on anything but Windows, even when using Wine. Even though there are a few that do not work, many games are able to played either natively or under Wine with a little tweaking nowadays. Along with those already released, more and more games are being released for linux distributions, especially on Steam.

Where Can I Download Games That Will Work On Ubuntu?

My favorite place to get games for my Ubuntu computer is Steam. Steam is an application that millions of people use to download, play, and manage their games. It pretty much gives your computer all the gaming features of an Xbox or Playstation. Steam will display whether or not your operating system can run a specific game in the description of the game before you download it. Even if the game cannot be run on Ubuntu, that does not mean you can't buy it and then run it on a Windows computer with the same steam account. 

In my experience, all the games that are compatible with Linux on Steam that I have played work flawlessly and I cannot tell a difference between gaming on Ubuntu, Windows, or OS X. The cool thing about steam is you can have a Ubuntu computer and a Windows computer with the same games on it and play as the same user with the same data on both computers without manually transferring any data.

If you do not know how to download Steam, you can simply enter this command into the Terminal,

sudo apt-get install steam

This installs Steam. You must agree to the license agreement when it shows up, then to run it you can either type steam into the same Terminal, or just go click Steam in the Unity Dash.

*When using Ubuntu 15.04, in my experience, Steam does not launch. I will update this article when I find a fix

Blog Status Update

What Has Been Going On?

I have been very busy with school and life and have not been able to give this blog anywhere near the attention I should have. Even so, there has still been new people visiting this website after all this time. This tells me I need to focus all of my attention on this blog from now on. Aiding people on the journey to Ubuntu and linux in general makes me feel much better inside than slaving away at school assignments.

What I am Going to Do

I have set a bare minimum of 5 posts a week. I am going to strive to write as many quality posts as possible. After I get everything running nicely and there are more views then I will invest in a domain name so this site can be accessed easier. I also want to help people with specific problems, so if you or someone you know are struggling with something then don't hesitate to message me or let me know in the comments and I will write a post for you.

After I get the site running smoothly and have a domain name in everything I will either design a new theme or buy one, but that is a long way off. Any suggestions are highly appreciated.

What I Want to Say to You

Thank you to those that are interested in my blog, you are the ones that I am writing for and to see people reading my articles, and hopefully learning from them, is absolutely amazing. I am going to continue writing posts geared towards Ubuntu basics, but I will also begin to include advanced topics. Again, suggestions are key so I know exactly what you all want to see.

Thanks Again,

   -Liam

Protecting Yourself With Tor

Aren't I Already Protected?

Im not talking about viruses in this post. Not even Ubuntu is safe from government surveillance. You are never truly anonymous on the internet without using Tor. Everywhere you go and everything you do is recorded. If you want to hide your internet usage from your ISPs, your government, pretty much anyone you can use Tor to do just that.

What Is This "Tor" And How Does It Work?

Tor is a program that redirects your network traffic. To put it simply, it sends what you search for to several anonymous computers around the world before it reaches your destination. So if someone were to try and backtrace network traffic to see who did what, they would get the IP of a Tor Node(routing computer). This prevents you from getting in trouble for speaking out if you live under an oppressive government and keeps your traffic private so your ISP does not know what you are doing. You can set up your Ubuntu install to route all of your traffic through Tor but in this post I am going to detail how to install the Tor Browser Bundle, which is a customized version of Firefox geared toward privacy.

Does It Do Anything Else?

Yes! With the Tor browser Bundle you can access hidden sites that are not available off the Tor Network. They have the .onion extension and usually have a domain name that appears to be gibberish. These sites contain anything the host wishes to share.

It also can circumvent country censorship. For example if nationwide YouTube is blocked, you would be able to view YouTube. Same with school censorship, so if your school Wi-Fi blocks a website you use it will work no problem with Tor.

How Do I Get It?

To get the Tor Browser Bundle open up Terminal and type,

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:webupd8team/tor-browser

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install tor-browser

The browser will be installed, just go to the Dash and type in Tor Browser and click the onion icon. Now just click connect and it will set itself up. When the browser pops up you are ready to go. I live in the Southeast United States and when I looked up my IP it says I was in Germany, this is how I verify that Tor is working.

Remaining Anonymous on Tor

Tor shuffles your network traffic but it doesn't control what you do on the network. Here are a few key things to avoid while using Tor if you need to stay anonymous. It is not that it is not safe to do these things on Tor, it is just that they will give away your real identity.

• Logging in to things with your real name on the account
• Social media!!!
• Banking
• Buying goods
• Signing up for things
• Blogging with non anonymous account

What Is A Repository?

What Is It?

A repository is a collection of packages that you can access and install to your Ubuntu system via the Ubuntu Software Center, Synaptic, or the Terminal. Think of it as an app store like on your mobile device, but everything in the main Ubuntu repository is free. But there are some paid apps in the Ubuntu Software Center. I recommend all applications that you get come from the repositories or launchpad PPAs because they are the easiest to install and maintain.

How Does It Affect Me?

Every time you use the Ubuntu Software Center or apt-get you are using a repository. All Linux distos use a repo of some sort. Without them you would have to go to individual webpages to find your software like Windows. Whenever you add sources you are adding links to repositories. Whenever you type apt-get update you are updating your sources.

Installing Java

How Do I Do It?

The Java implementation I use is OpenJDK because its fast and it is in the repositories. I actually find that Java applications perform better on Ubuntu than Mac or Windows on the same computer, especially Minecraft. To install the OpenJDK JRE just open up terminal and type,

sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre

That is it. Now just make sure that your .jre files are executable and click to run. If you have the .jre extension set up for another program or your applications are not working, right lick the file and select open with OpenJDK 7 JRE.

Making A File Executeable

What Does That Even Mean?

Linux has script files as well as executable program files that are meant to be marked as executable but sometimes are not. What that means is instead of clicking and having the application start, you click and have a text editor open or something similar. This is easily fixed and you can go about it one of two ways.

How Do I Do It?

In order to make a file executable, you can either open up the Terminal and type,

chown +x filenamehere

Or you can open up a file manager, navigate to that file, then right click it and select Properties. Click the Permissions tab and check Allow executing file as program. This does the same thing as the above command but you do not have to use the Terminal.

Installing gParted

How Do I Do It?

If your reading this you know that gParted is the best GUI disk management tool for any Linux distribution. I use it to configure all my disks, whether I'm installing Linux, Windows, or Hackintosh. To get gParted on your Ubuntu install open up the Terminal and type,

sudo apt-get install gparted

You can either launch it from the Dash or type gparted into the Terminal. I am going to make a usage article soon.

Building A Computer

Why Do It Myself?

When you build your own computer you save a ton of money. A $800 computer could be $2000 with manufacturer markup, especially with gaming computers. By building your own computers you can learn more about computers in general and gain future knowledge that can be used to help others and yourself. On top of all that, building your own computer is not a very complicated task, you screw components in place and connect them and then your done.

What Parts Would I Need?

To build a basic computer that performs decently you would need, not including accessories like a monitor and keyboard and mouse,

1. Case
2. Case Screws
3. Power Supply
4. Motherboard
5. Processor
6. Heat sink
7. Thermal Paste
8. RAM
9. HDD or SSD
10. Required Cabling
11. DVD-Drive(If not USB)

If you wanted a high performance gaming computer you would also need a Video Card because they perform better than integrated graphics by far. For general use and even light gaming you should be fine with integrated graphics though.

What Do You Recommend?

Specifications of computers vary widely, if you were going to build a gaming computer I would recommend,

• Core i7 4770k +
• 8GB RAM +
• 500GB HDD +
• 1000W PSU +
• AMD HD 7950 +

For a modest computer for home use as well as some work and play I would recommend,

• Core i5 4670
• 4-8GB RAM
• 500GB HDD +
• 500W PSU +
• Integrated or AMD HD 7770

If you have a budget in mind I would suggest,

• AMD A10-6800K
• 4GB RAM
• 250GB HDD +
• 500W PSU +

All of these configurations will deliver a very responsive computer in both Linux and Windows and will last years. These are very upgradeable configurations and with a good Video Card any of these can be gaming machines. All you need to choose is a comparable motherboard and case to get these up and running. There are YouTube videos on how to assemble your own computer from parts.

Ubuntu v. Windows File Stucture

What Does That Even Mean?

The file structure of an operating system is how everything is arranged and organized. For example in Windows users are located at C:\Users\usernamehere where in Ubuntu users are located at /home/usernamehere or ~/. Here are a few key differences,

How Are They Different?

C:\ > /

C:\System32 and C:\Windows > /sys /etc /boot /var /etc /usr

C:\Users > /home

C:\Program Files > /bin /sbin

*Keep in mind these are not literal transitions as the operating systems are completely different.

How Are They The Same?

Really the only thing that is the same is the home folder. Your home folder in Linux and Mac and your User folder in Windows are all laid out the same way, especially so for Linux and Mac. That is where the similarities end because of how different Windows is from the rest of the operating systems.

That Doesn't Explain It To Me!

If you want in-depth knowledge on the directories, simply open up your Terminal and type

man hier

This pulls up the man pages discussing the file system hierarchy. This should tell you all you need to know about the Linux filesystem and how it is arranged.

*I credit runeh from reddit for showing this to me on my thread here,

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/2hkxc0/what_is_one_thing_that_no_one_explains_clearly/

Ubuntu Security

Do You Need An AV On Ubuntu?

In Ubuntu you do not need to worry about many of the threats you would have to worry about on Windows, but there are a few exploits geared towards users of Ubuntu. In order to be the safest you can I recommend you install ClamAV, and open source anti-virus for Ubuntu that detects malware on all platforms so you can scan Windows devices or removable storage meant for a Windows computer.

How Do I Install It?

To install ClamAV, and its GUI ClamTK, open up Terminal and type,

sudo apt-get install clamav clamtk

This installs the actual anti-virus program and its GUI. Now you have a working anti-virus that is completely free and won't keep bugging you about your service being expired :).

Using ClamAV

To use ClamAV, click the Ubuntu icon and type ClamTK into the search bar and click the icon. It will pull up the GUI for ClamAV. To scan a directory just drag and drop the file/folder into the little white box on the bottom of the window. If you want to browse for the file/folder press Control+R and a window will pop up.

When you scanned the directory and viruses will show up in the list and you can either Quarantine(move somewhere safe) or Delete them. I recommend you delete it unless you have an important file that was infected. If there was no malware detected then you will just get a little notification at the bottom of the window showing files scanned. Keep in mind a true Ubuntu virus is VERY rare so the majority of malware you will find will not even affect your system at all.

What About A Firewall?

Ubuntu comes pre-configured with a firewall called Uncomplicated Firewall that gets the job done. If you are curious about using another firewall I will be making a post detailing command-line firewalls like iptables and a post on GUI configuration of Ubuntu's UFW that is bundled with it.

How To Make Better Use Of Your Screen

What Do You Mean?

In Ubuntu you can change the DPI of your screen, making everything smaller and therefore cramming more information onto one screen, this can really help when trying to get work done on small displays or even make big displays bigger. 

*Note that with certain monitors/laptop screens you will notice a loss in image quality

How Do I Do It?

Open System Settings and click the Displays icon. 

Change the Scale For Menus and Titles Bars from 1 to 0.875 then click Apply. I do not recommend that you go lower than that or it may distort your screen. If you go higher than 1 you will lose space on your screen but everything will be easier to read then normal.

Now you have more working room on your display. If you ever wish to return to stock DPI then change the slider back to 1 and click Apply.

Torrenting In Ubuntu

What Is The Torrent Application?

The torrent application shipped with Ubuntu is Transmission. It works well with all your .torrent files as well as magnet links and is very customizable. I prefer it over the Windows application uTorrent by far. There is no need to download anything extra to get up and torrenting on Ubuntu. The default directory Transmission saves too is the Downloads folder in your home folder, but you can change this if you wish.

How Do I Start It?

To launch Transmission just click the Ubuntu icon in the top left corner, type Transmission and click the icon. You can pin it to your launcher if you like, I have it pinned because I use it everyday.

Updating Your Ubuntu Install

How Do I Do It?

In Ubuntu you will automatically be notified of updates with a popup of the Software Updater. If that doesn't happen for some reason or you are just curious you can pull up the Software Updater using search and it will automatically scan for updates. To install simply click Install Now.

*Like it warns me in the screenshot, make sure you have your laptop plugged in when updating to prevent accidental corruption of your operating system. If you have a desktop don't worry.

Linux Media Players

What Do You Mean?

Ubuntu has a huge variety of music players aside from the bundled Rhythmbox. Some other popular ones are Banshee, Clementine, Exaile, Nuvola, and VLC. All of these music players are feature filled and fast, leaving nothing to desire. To me, the choice really comes down to which interface you like although some have features that set them apart from the rest.

Rhythmbox

This is the media player that is bundled with Ubuntu, it has a huge number of features and extensions and an easy to use interface. For someone coming to Linux, this is very similar to iTunes and Windows Media Player, with a few slight interface differences and a bunch of extra features. I was a long time user of this Media Player before I found Banshee and wouldn't hesitate to use it again.

Rhythmbox is installed with Ubuntu, to find it simply click the Ubuntu icon in the top left corner and type Rhythmbox. Click the icon and it will pull right up.

Banshee

Banshee is my favorite offline media player, although I also use Nuvola for my cloud music. I prefer this simplistic, speedy interface to any of the other options, but that doesn't mean you will. Banshee also has a vast array of plugins to enhance your experience, and unlike Rhythmbox can play video. I used this program to manage my 15,000 song music library and have never had a problem. You'll see why I also use Nuvola further down in the post.

To install Banshee open Terminal and type,

sudo apt-get install banshee

Clementine

Clementine is a fast, simple media player. Its layout is clean and easy to navigate. Clementine supports cloud music from many services as well as offline music. You can have a playlist containing music from multiple cloud providers and offline files all in one, which I find really cool. This would be my one and only Media Player if it supported Google Play Music cloud streaming.

To install Clementine open Terminal and type,

sudo apt-get install clementine

Exaile

Exaile is very similar to Clementine, but missing cloud integration. None the less it is a great application with a simple interface. For those that want their music library with no nonsense this is the application to get.

To install Exaile open Terminal and type,

sudo apt-get install exaile

Nuvola

Nuvola is my internet media player of choice. It can use a variety of internet services and basically makes music websites look and act like an offline application. This is very useful to me as I use Pandora and Google Play Music quite often. I could not recommend this application enough to any user that uses online music services.

Installing Nuvola is a bit more complicated then the rest, but nothing that is too hard as long as you follow directions. To install Nuvola open Terminal and type,

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nuvola-player-builders/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nuvolaplayer

VLC

Last but not least is VLC, the king of music players. It will open almost any music or video format you throw at it. I use VLC for all my videos and movies for that reason. You can also use it as a viable tool to manage your music library. This is the end all be all of players, if your current player doesn't support your media, you can bet VLC will.

To install VLC open Terminal and type,

sudo apt-get install vlc

Monitoring Your Resources

What Do You Mean?

There comes a time in every computer users life where their computer is running slow and they don't know why, they want to know if they need to upgrade their hardware, or they're curious about their resource usage. System Monitor is the Ubuntu application to see how much of their computer hardware is being used at any given time.

How Do I Get To It?

To get to the System Monitor, all you have to do is click the Ubuntu symbol in the top left, type System Monitor, and click the application icon. This will pull up the System Monitor.

What Is What?

Resources

The main tab in this application is the resources tab, it shows your CPU usage, RAM usage, and network usage. The higher the peaks in the graphs, the more resources are being used. The more resources used, the slower the computer performs(generally). In order to cut down on resource usage, simply close unused applications. The operating system itself uses a chunk of RAM and CPU swell, so don't worry if you can't get the graph to the bottom.

Processes

Another important tab is the Processes tab, this shows the current processes that are running both in the foreground and background. You can use this screen to end processes similar to the Windows Task Manager. It also displays the specific amount of CPU and RAM a specific application is using.

File Systems

The File Systems tab displays information related to storage, here you can see all your drives and at a glance see how much storage you are using and how much is left. This is very useful for knowing if you need to upgrade your drives or not.

Installing GIMP

What Is It?

GIMP is basically an open source equivalent to Photoshop, and is just as good, if not better. It used to be included with Ubuntu releases but has been left out recently to conserve space. I recommend it to anyone that just wants to mess around with photos, draw on their computer, or is serious about photography. Pretty much everyone has a use for GIMP.

How Do I Get It?

In order to get GIMP all you have to do is open your Terminal and type,

sudo apt-get install gimp

After it is installed you can launch it and mess around. There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube if you are unfamiliar with photo editors.

Single-Window Mode

Are you used to using Photoshop? You can make GIMP look similar to Photoshop with the Single-Window Mode option. To toggle this option go to your menu bar, select Window, and click on Single-Window Mode. Thats it, if you ever wish to return to stock form then follow these directions in reverse.

Restricted Extras aka Stuff You Want

What Do You Mean I Want Them?

Restricted Extras are applications and plugins that are not open-source, but still commonly used. Restricted Extras includes things like Flash and MP3 plugins. I HIGHLY recommend that you download them if you did not install them when you first installed Ubuntu.

How Do I Get Them?

Simple, just open up your Terminal and type,

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Once the install is complete just restart and all your media will play and videos will work just like Windows.

A Rundown Of Play On Linux

What is it?

Basically Play on Linux is a front-end for Wine making it easier to use and configure while still retaining all its features. I personally use Play on Linux for all my Linux gaming needs and it preforms as advertised. The only limitations are the games and applications that run on it, certain applications won't run on Wine at all and therefore will not run on Play on Linux, but these programs are few and far between.

Should I Install It?

If you use any amount of Windows applications or games and would like an easier way to install them to your Ubuntu install then go ahead and download it. There are no drawbacks to downloading this application and I have nothing but positives to say about it.

How Do I Get it?

To get Play on Linux on your Ubuntu install, simply navigate to the Play on Linux Download Page and download the Ubuntu .deb file. Make sure you click Save File if using Firefox. If you are using Chrome it will automatically save it to your downloads. Now just click the file, it will take a few seconds to load into the Ubuntu Software Center. From there just click install and input your password.

What Now?

Play around with it. You can install most games and applications easily now. I will be making more articles in the future that are more in-depth, detailing how to find out if a certain program is compatible and showing how to install games.

Changing Your System Language In Ubuntu

What Changes?

Whatever your reason for doing it, you can change the language of your entire system in a few minutes. This will change every applications text to the language of your choice, as well as the folders in your home directory. The only thing that doesn't change is the terminal commands. For example, apt-get install is still apt-get install even if your language is French.

How Do I Do It?

Start by opening up System Settings and clicking on Language Support. This will bring up the main settings for everything related to languages in Ubuntu.

You will be asked to install language support. Click install and wait a minute or two for language support to download and install the needed components.

The Language Support settings will now pop up, this is the language control center. Up top is a list of system languages sorted by priority. Whatever language at the top is what the system displays everything in. Click Install / Remove Languages... to install your language of choice.

Here is where you select your languages, select all the languages you want to install with the checkboxes then click Apply Changes. These languages will be put into the list in the main window.

Now simply drag the language that you would like to use as your main language to the top of the list. In this example I used German (Deutsch). Now click Apply System-Wide, close the window and log out and back in. You will see all of the text in Ubuntu in your language.

*If you ever wish to revert to English, simply drag English to the top of the list and log out and back in.

Should I Dual Boot or Use VirtualBox?

Whats the Difference?

Dual booting is running Ubuntu alongside Windows on your hard drive. You select which operating system to use upon startup and have to restart your computer in order to switch. By using VirtualBox, you can boot windows and then run Ubuntu like it is a program. You can swap operating systems with the click of the mouse and use both at the same time even.

Why Should I Even Dual Boot Then?

Even though VirtualBox sounds like a much better option on paper, one very important thing makes me recommend dual booting over VirtualBox every time, performance. By dual booting, all your resources are available to Ubuntu and the operating system is not affected by running on top of Windows. The performance difference is night and day. This one reason makes up for the inconvenience of having to restart to swap operating systems. Things like games and GPU intensive applications will not even run and CPU intensive applications such as audio DAWs or video editors will have a noticeable performance hit under VirtualBox.

Are There Any Reasons To Use VirtualBox?

There are two reasons to run Ubuntu under VirtualBox, safety and multitasking. VirtualBox does not affect your actual computer hardware, so improperly partitioning your drive or wrecking your Ubuntu install doesn't matter because you can start a new one and still have your Windows install. If you were to dual boot and you clicked the wrong option in the partitioner, you could erase Windows or worse yet, erase Windows and not even be able to install Ubuntu. Another reason to use VirtualBox is if you only need a few Ubuntu applications or you need to use Ubuntu and Windows at the same time. You could then use both operating systems at the same time and share files using Guest Additions.

5 Reasons Ubuntu is Better Than Windows

5 Reasons Ubuntu is Better Than Windows

1. Speed

Ubuntu is faster than Windows on the same hardware. Especially with a lightweight desktop environment. This is because it uses less resources and is more efficient at performing tasks.

2. Looks and Functionality

This one is personal preference, but Ubuntu looks so much better than Windows and is so much more functional. There is so many things you can do to enhance your Ubuntu experience that you just can't do on Windows. Not to mention out of the box Ubuntu offers a more complete operating system with free programs that do not have equivalents included with Windows.

3. Security

Ubuntu is MUCH more secure than Windows. This is because Windows makes up around 58% of web traffic and there is so many more exploits developed for it. Not to mention the operating system has more flaws than Linux. This is not to say that Ubuntu is impervious to malicious attacks, it is just a lot safer to use than Windows and even OS X.

4. Open Source

Most software in Ubuntu is Open Source, which basically means that the community can edit and fix source code, allowing a lot more to get done and keeping all the applications free to use. The Linux operating system itself is open source, so any person could work on it as long as they released their work back into the community. 

5. Customization

When it comes to customization, Ubuntu is king. The sheer number of themes and desktop environments as well as system tweaks trumps all other operating systems. Ubuntu allows unparalleled customization.