Libb

I encourage anyone with a brain to try for themselves instead of letting others make decisions for them.

May I ask how do one try the trustworthiness of a VPN?

I mean, if the question is to decide if it works or not, well, chances are it does work but that’s not saying much. As much as I appreciate your suggestion to make up our own mind, well, in such a situation we can hardly decide by ourselves and we need independent audits. So, my question would be: are there any for that VPN you mentioned (I don’t know anything about it myself, never heard about it, never used it, which means I have nothing against or for it).

All good suggestions, but this part is iffy. I’ve had course instructors provide boilerplate for students so that they don’t need to worry about formatting. There are also WYSIWYG LaTeX editors like LyX. Finally, language support for LaTeX has expanded considerably over the years.

Don’t get me wrong, I framed my remark in regards to the context given by the OP: their students already have complained about too much configuration (clicking buttons/menus). So, in that context, I think telling them to use LaTeX even if using the Lyx or any other GUI (Lyx, which I would favor, is not bug free and has its own quirks, we should not forget that) or any simplified subset of LaTeX, well, that won’t be fun for those student and I’m willing to bet most of them will even hate the experience. Something I would not wish to happen.

And then, always in that context, I suggested that maybe learning to properly use Styles and templates in LO Writer could be simpler since they already are using it… just not in the most optimal way, as it is so often the case since almost everybody think they already know how to use a word processor and there is nothing they need to learn. Not and instant and no-sweat solution but still should a less demanding one than starting to use LaTeX from scratch. At least, I think so.

Hope you will enjoy it ;)

So things like running headers, simple reference lists formatted correctly with hanging indents. Running page counts.

Styles (Paragraph, characters and pages styles) should be able to deal with most of that.

The ability to insert figures easily without altering layout dramatically.

In a program like a word processor, any added image will more or less dramatically screw up the existing layout. There is no workaround that as things on the page need to move around to make room for the new one, or to fill the space left by the one that you just removed.

Also it’s important to keep in mind that apps like Word, Writer, Google Docs or Apple Pages do rely on the availability of the fonts used in the original document to correctly display the document on the viewer’s computer. So, if you open a document on a second computer n which there is not the same fonts, another font will be used which may not share the exact same properties as the original one and may screw up the layout more or less completely. Or you need to create a PDF file that anyone on any computer will be able to opne and display exactly as it was created but not to edit or certainly not as easily and in a much more limited manner that just opening the wordprocessor file itself. Here again, there is no perfect solution.

The good news is that LibreOffice comes with its own preinstalled fonts and they are the same on Linux, Mac and Windows so it would be safer to stick whit those fonts and not use anything fancy. It can also easily create PDF.

But, imho, the real good advice would be encourage your students (and maybe their teachers too) to not worry about page layout while they’re writing the paper. And to only work on the layout after they have finished writing it. Just don’t care about margin or look, colors, anything. It’s wasted time and energy while one is writing.

They should only use a few Styles to format Headings and paragraphs of text, things like that’s it. Doing that, it will be much simpler when they start working on the layout to format everything at once exactly like they want or need it. And it should be much faster too because they will only have to do it once, and won’t have to constantly be adjusting things here and there every time they add or remove a picture, or change some text.

That being said, Styles in LO Writer are not a magic wand that will do stuff automatically. They help a lot but one still need to learn to use them properly—never, ever use direct or manual formatting, never use the Enter key to add space between two lines or to create a page break, and so on. So, I insiste, but I don’t think there is a solution that will simply work out iof the box… beside hiring someone to do the layout for them (what many publishers do, btw: they have their own in-house design team or a freelance guy/team they hire to do exactly that).

More info on Styles and templates in Writer:

• This is a really excellent (and free) book: https://designingwithlibreoffice.com/
• The official doc for Styles and templates: https://books.libreoffice.org/en/GS73/GS7303-StylesAndTemplates.html
• The official doc as a PDF file: https://nextcloud.documentfoundation.org/s/trBdof3TTTPZ6sn

Im embarassed to say

There is no need to be ;)

I am unfamiliar with styles and will be looking into learning more about them. I’ve gotten sadly complacent with the familiarity of working in the school reccomended google apps for so long. Never too late to learn though!

Indeed. I learned to mend clothes aged 40, I learned to solder electronics aged 45 and to write Linux scripts aged 50+.

Thanks for your thoughts

You’re welcome.

The school doesn’t pay for a Microsoft license, and some students have expressed feeling unsafe and uncomfortable supporting google.

I can relate to their feeling. The same with with MS Word.

have suggested Libreoffice as its what I use but some of the students are really struggling with formatting their papers to academic standards in this software. Admittedly, I agree, Libre takes 7-14 steps to do some things google can do in two clicks. I would like to look into alternatives.

I see mention of LaTeX, imho forget about it. It’s great but if your students already are complaining about clicking a few buttons and menus in LO Writer, I doubt they will enjoy configuring LaTeX at all as it’s really complex to setup and it’s also very, very technical. (It is also very much English focused by default, which means there will be a few more tweaks required to make it support other languages and where that turns out to be real fun is that said tweaks may vary depending the libraries you’re relying on since you install various ones and, of course, the doc will not always be reflecting that exactly.)

Most of the writing applications I’m seeing both free and paid tend to be for creative writers or note taking and I am not seeing tools to make running titles or easily format your sources.

Have you considered using templates (and Styles) with LibreOffice Writer?

You could have all your formatting be exactly like you need it to be and you (or anyone else) would only need to prepare it once and make it available to all your students. So, the template being 7 or 14 steps would not mean much since they would not need to do it at all and the one person doing it would doi it only once.

What they would need to (learn to) do is to use Styles, in Writer. Like they are supposed to (learn to) use them in Word, and like in a very limited way they can do in Google Docs too. Imho between the three word processors, Writer is the best at managing Styles but it wills till require some basic learning like showing them what styles are and why they’re so useful, where they are and how to apply them in Writer.

Without using Styles in a word processor, you will need to rely on LaTeX or some lighter markup language (like Markdown combined with say Pandoc, which are way simpler than LaTeX but also much more limited in terms of page layout and notes management).

Also, there is no ready-made tool available that you ‘simply use’. They all need to be tweaked in some way to meet expectations and the simplest way I can think of is by using Styles. What are Styles you may ask? Think one type of content (title, simple paragraph, notes, illustrations, …) being associated to a set of formatting rules that are automatically applied to it whenever it is used).

It could help to share some real example of the type of setings you’re looking for (what do you want to do?) so others may be able to tell you if and with what app it’s doable ;)

In summary, Libre Office:

• Is Libre software.

• It use an open format, ODT, that is documented.

• Can be used to write in many languages.

• Works great with Styles, allowing documents to be (easily) precisely (or loosely) formatted.

• Doesn’t push AI crap, or any other type of connected crap.

• Doesn’t spy on anyone (you can even deactivate the little banner that pops up once in a while asking for a donation)

• Can do Styles and use templates to create very neatly formatted documents.

• Is preinstalled with most Linux distributions out of the box, and is easy to install on Mac and on Windows.

• is NOT as precises as LaTeX, but is also much simpler to learn and use.

• is NOT available for mobile, but I have yet to see anyone writing a full book or even an article on a phone screen ;)

• is NOT as simple as using Markdown and Pandoc but offers all formating control 99% of users wil ever need AND offers a much easier way to work collaboratively between non-geek users.

• Reading, writing.
• Go out for my (long) daily walks.
• Spend time with my spouse
• Not thinking once about the coming week, fully being in the moment ;)

I don’t care much about ‘open source’ by itself. That’s just a way to share code and workload between devs. I’m not a dev, I’m barely much of a geek (but I did wrote a few Bash scripts, does that qualify? ;)

I care a lot more about the software being Free/Libre.

I moved to Linux because of the GNU and because of its focus on, well, user freedoms. Also, because I care about privacy and worry to see how quickly it’s being eaten away.

So, I always favor a Libre software over a proprietary one, even if it lacks certain features. But I’m not against using something proprietary when I have to.

As of now my nephew never touched a phone. This isn’t anything bad but compared to his class mates I think this is weird.

He just turned six. What do you need a phone for at six? Call your kindergarten sweetheart?

Imagine when he is in school and his friends tell him to scroll and he has no idea how to even scroll? Isn’t that weird?

No. I would consider weird to think kids need to be using a phone as soon as they get out of their diapers in order to be considered ‘normal’ ;)

As a side-note, maybe you could offer that kid books, instead. He will learn a lot more reading them. A lot. And have a lot of fun too.

Plus, there is no in-app purchase in books, no tracking, no spying, no ads. And they won’t require updates either ;)

How many fiction books do you all read? E-book or paperback. But not interesting in audiobooks. I’m curious about physically-read books.

To answer your question, I read fiction (be it novel, short stories, poetry, plays) less than I read essays, history, science(s), philosophy, sociology, spirituality books, and stuff like that. But I will always be reading some fiction, at any time. I love fiction, I just have to prioritize other kind of books if I want to read them ;)

The number of books depends the type of book I’m reading and their author, and in what language. I’m French, but I read a lot more in English and can also manage my way through not too complex Spanish books and this year I hope I’ll be able to really start reading in German but obviously I will not read as fluently in any of those languages than I read in French, not even in English. And that’s true not just for fiction.

I mean, I’m reading Jean-Jacques Rousseau at this moment and I obviously do not read him as quickly as I will read a novel but I also read Rousseau much quicker than I have read, say, Kant (Kant’s style is not as easy going as Rousseau’s, and his thought process is not as straightforward either, even though they ideally both require a lot of thinking in order to get anything worth out of reading them).

Even only considering fiction, my speed does vary a lot depending the author and their style, the length of the book and the type of book as I have personal preferences that will help me read a lot more than with anything written by an author or even in a genre I may not appreciate as much. I’m also much more likely to quickly finish a volume of short stories or a short novel than say Anna Karenina (which is probably my all-time favorite novel, btw) because I can read it even when I have much shorter time available to read.

Right now, I’m reading Proust In Search of Lost Time (I read it in French) and I know I will probably spend the whole year reading it. So, that’s one book a year? Not really, since I will read other fictions (and already have read others) during that time but still, it’s a whole year spent on a novel, or not?

Also, should I count the books I start and don’t finish for whatever reason, or not?

And then, even more so with fiction than with essays, I always have multiple books started at once. I don’t care much about finishing one book before starting another as I’ve pretty good memory and can instantly get back into the story where I left of and get back in the mood/atmosphere when I’m switching book), like when I’m watching a movie or a series. Even years after, I just have this odd memory.

So, it’s kind of a difficult question to answer but I would say: a lot ;)

Hi & welcome from a fellow Mint user.
It’s a stable distribution that comes with a lot of things preinstalled (so less extra stuff to install, but also a lot of stuff you might not need)

• +1 for Encryption, both Luks for the system disk and whatever other internal drive and for USB stick or external storage. If someone was to steal my computer I would pissed off but OK, I can deal with it knowing they can’t access my files. Use a good password (mine is 20-ish characters long all random and, yeah, I’ve memorized them but I have a decent working memory ;)
• • for (automated) backups.
• +1 for automated updates
• +1 for not installing from any source. It’s tempting but it should be the exception (for me, it means yt-dlp and Mullvad for the most, of there is also my RSS app of choice newsboat since it’s not officially available anymore :/)
• I don’t use antivirus on Linux (nor on my Mac). But I seldom download anything and don’t open attachments I’m not expecting to receive ;)
• I would not play with services as a beginner as you risk deactivating something you need.
• The firewall as gui that’s installed by default (on my Mint, at least ;): its Gufw on the command line and it’s called Firewall Configuration in the main Mint menu. Open it, type your password, activate the ‘Status’ toggle. Done. Then you can start adding rules as you need them.

I would add to that:

• Don’t rush to tweak everything at the same time. Try one at a time, it’s easier to revert back.
• Backup your home folder regularly. Not only does it contain all your precious files but it also contains most of your settings and tweaks. So, if you ever need to reinstall you will get back all those settings/tweaks when copying back your home to the fresh install.

On that topic,I’m not much of a geek (a 50-something dude and a 35+ years Apple customer) but I did learn to use git to keep a backup of my config folder. So, when I screw up something (so far, Mint has not once screwed up anything by itself, the few issues I had to deal with were all me-related) , I know I can revert back to the previous version of whatever settings I’ve just damaged without difficulty. Learning the basic of Git is not hard, it’s just…odd, and it works great. If it was compatible with LibreOffice files I would love to use if for that too…

/Not_a_Rant

Are you sure about that?

I don’t mind people sharing their feelings about their switch, joy as well as frustration. And if I did, I would not read them… exactly like I don’t read political topics ;)

Not much into cocks, but I can hardly resist saying I like looking at your cock(s) ;)

Seriously, nice drawings.

It can vary a lot depending the publisher, and some will not care at all while others will use, say, tracking features or work collaboratively (they can even be using OneDrive for that, which includes MS Office in its price), or they will require the author to use a specific Word template that they have devised for Word (with the person in charge of the final layout in whatever layout application, in order to streamline or the process and save time on that part of the job), when they aren’t that kind of publishers that simply do the final layout directly in Word before sending the final PDF to the printer. Also, as an author, if a publisher has asked you to use MS Word and some specific stylesheet and realize they tried to to be smarter than them… good luck with that, unless they’re already one of their best-selling author.

And that’s just what comes to my mind and that I have been witnessing first hand ;)

So I’m wondering if an upgrade is safe because

Imho that’s the wrong question. Without backup nothing is safe whether you pate the OS or not. Anything can happen (the disk can die, the computer can be stolen,…) and, yes, most upgrades should go without any issue but then one won’t go well and then what? You need to do backups, we should all ;)

I’m currently using Proton and still have to move to another service

I’ve moved to Filen (German end-to-end encrypted cloud you can rent (or buy) for a year or… a month (maybe worth the cost at least for a month when you will upgrade) and it works real nice for me on Mint 22.1

Depending the storage you need, you can get from 10 to 50Go for free: 10 base *+10 if you use crate your account using this affiliate link (no string attached, it’s real free storage) and up to 30Go more if you also share your own affiliate link. If you’re wondering, I use their 2To lifetime plan.

2/ Related to the first question: I’m using a old laptop (asus zenbook from 2015 or 2016, can’t remember), so would I be find with an old hardware such as mine?

It’s not that old, you should not worry much ;)

Depends what you need. Many publishers require certain features from MS Word that are not available or are not as ‘compatible’ in LO Writer (not that its LO’s fault ;), but for most use case I would agree. Things are a bit more complicated in the case of Excel as far as I can understand what I read (edit: I don’t use much spreadsheets myself).

I’ve quit using MS Word a few years ago, fully switching to LO Writer. There are a few issues here and there but nothing that’s a deal breaker (and Word had its own issues too), and I must quite like many things in Writer—beside the app not spying on me, I mean ;)

Any ideas for an icon and banner gracefully received.

• Something related to land/landscape and growing culture or stuff? Something peaceful at humane scale.
• Something related to simple/basic HTML and CSS code, like they used to be back then?
• A journal/diary page maybe? But some may suggest I’m not that objective here :p
• I try to avoid vindictive content myself but you may also consider showing the demise of that shi… corporate Web, say in the guise of some ruined ugly building/factory, and the grow of a more organic and once again fully personal Web (a tree or whatever)?

I’m no graphic designer but I made the banner/icon for our small journaling community ([email protected]). If you like it and if you think I can help you in any way contact me I would be happy to help. BTW, I also promoted your new community to our members as I think they might really be interested in what you want to do ;)

Nice! Happily joined ;)

Sorry I didn’t used PKMS as keyword :/

Don’t be, it’s not that obvious.

To answer your question… Yeah I suppose analog note-taking is probably the best, You can write without any limitation in every direction !

Will see how the conversation goes in the pkms group, but that’s the road I went and I have zero (like in not a single one) regrets.

There isn’t any community about note taking where I could post my question and no this is not a “What’s the best note taking app” question…

Here, maybe? [email protected]

A community dedicated to personal knowledge management systems.

Does anyone here has some experience and is taking notes that way? I’m really curious on your experience and maybe your thoughts if it’s feasible ? Practical ?

If you ever decide to post over there, in order to no pollute this Linux community I would happily share my own choices but they may not be the most digital solution, as I fully switched back to analog note-taking, using a Zettelkasten system (a fancy name for index cards stored in shoe boxes).

Never had the opportunity to buy a Varsity, so I never tried one even though my all time favorite fountain pen is one from Pilot (not in the same price range, though ;)