Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
In the first article in this series, we used Balena Etcher to create a bootable USB drive using the Cinnamon Edition of the Linux Mint 22 (Wilma) distro. After booting Linux using this USB, we connected to our local Wi-Fi network and ran the Firefox web browser to load OPCUG’s website. So, now that we have a working Linux system, albeit running in live-USB mode, it’s time to delve a little deeper into the software that comes bundled with our Linux distro.
Note that, since we are using a live-USB, any changes that we can make to the system will normally be lost when we shut down the Linux session. As a result, we will leave options such as system updates, desktop configuration, setting up Email, and software installation until we have a regular, installed version of Linux available on the computer’s hard drive. Nevertheless, we can still usefully try out many of the features of Linux and, because we are running Linux entirely from the USB, we can do so without affecting the Windows operating system currently installed on the computer’s hard drive.
The main menu for Linux Mint is displayed by clicking on the lm icon on the left end of the panel (the lower-left corner of the display). The result is shown in Figure 1. The available software is organized in broad categories, i.e. Accessories, Graphics, Internet, etc; however, an individual program can be accessed by typing a partial name into the search bar at the top of the menu. For example, typing “Fir” displays Firefox Web Browser and Firewall Configuration, while extending the search string to “Firef” limits the display to just the Firefox Web Browser. A single click of the mouse on this listing then launches the browser.
As might be expected, Firefox can also be invoked from the Internet category in the menu. Selecting this menu option provides access to: Firefox Web Browser, Matrix (IRC-based chat), Thunderbird Mail, Transmission (Bittorrent client), and Web Apps (convert website to desktop). With the Internet sub-menu displayed, once again, a single click on the Firefox menu item launches the browser.
So, we have seen two ways of launching an application, firstly by typing the program’s name into the search box, and secondly (and perhaps easier) using the graphical menu to select a particular menu item. Later in this series, we’ll see how to make launching any program even more convenient by using either a desktop shortcut or a panel icon.
Note also that there are a number of icons in the left sidebar of the menu. These are (top to bottom): Firefox, Software Manager, Settings, Terminal, File Manager (Nemo), Lock Screen, Logout, and Shut Down. We will take a brief look at Nemo, the default file manager, and we will eventually need to access the Shut Down option in order to exit gracefully from our Linux session. The remaining entries will be best considered in detail once we are using an installed version of Linux.
So, for now, let’s click on the yellow-folder icon and bring up the Nemo file manager (Figure 2). The folders displayed in the Home directory will doubtless look familiar – Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc. – as these are mostly the same as those available in Windows. But, take a look in the lower-left sidebar of the window. Here you will see a number of disk locations, including two (64 GB) flash drives, the Windows 10 disk partition and, in my case, the dedicated data partition named DataDisk. Note also the YUMI drive which is a multiboot flash drive that is being used to run the live-USB version of Linux Mint. So, not only do we have access to the native file system for Linux, all the other drives connected to our computer, including those used by Windows, are available.
As noted earlier, the folders in the home directory are currently transient and are available for only the current Linux session. But, it is possible to retrieve and store files on other partitions on the computer’s hard drive. In fact, I am writing this using LibreOffice Writer running in the live-Linux session and editing a docx file opened from a folder in DataDisk.
Now, let’s take a quick tour of the programs in the various menu categories that are available as part of the Linux Mint distro. Unlike most software that is bundled with Windows on a new computer, these applications are not “bloatware”, i.e. limited-time, trial versions of commercial products. Rather, these programs are all fully functional, really useful, and free! However, this is not to say that you are limited to only the programs that are provided. There’s a wealth of applications of all types that can be downloaded, installed, and used on your Linux system.
We have already encountered the menu items available in the Internet category and, indeed, have made use of Firefox, the default web browser. Another stand-out offering found here is Thunderbird, a powerful, yet easy-to-use, Email client. However, since we are using a live-USB, implementing this software is currently impractical so we will leave a detailed discussion of this item until later in the series.
Mention has also already been made of LibreOffice Writer as the default word-processing application. Unsurprisingly, Writer can be accessed from the Office menu category. This sub-menu also provides access to a Calendar app and to Library (actually the thingy app) which can be used to access recently-used and favourite documents. The full LibreOffice suite of applications is available, consisting of the well-known Writer, Calc, and Impress modules (that largely mirror the features of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), and also LibreOffice Draw, a graphic-design program that has no counterpart in Microsoft Office.
It is worth noting that the native file format for LibreOffice is Open Document Format (ODF). This ISO-standard file format includes specifications for text documents (odt), spreadsheets (ods), and presentation files (odp). However, LibreOffice is fully capable of opening, editing, and saving Microsoft Office files (e.g. docx, xlsx and pptx). The use of Writer and Calc, as the main LibreOffice modules, will be largely familiar to users of Word and Excel so these may well be viable replacements when switching to Linux. For me, there is one specific idiosyncrasy in the default setup for LibreOffice Writer but the fix for this is simple and we will review both the issue and the solution later in this series.
Going back to our exploration of the main menu, let’s take a look at the Graphics and Sound & Video categories. Graphics includes options for Document Scanner, Drawing (a simple drawing program), and Pix (a digital image manager). The Sound & Video category includes Celluloid (video player), Hypnotix (TV player), Rhythmbox (audio player), and an option to Install Multimedia Codecs. Hypnotix, offering access to free viewing of television programmes and movies, is an interesting application; however, a short period of testing suggests that the number of English-language channels that can be accessed is somewhat limited. Celluloid and Rhythmbox work well but a more popular option can be installed very easily and we will eventually see how to do this. Finally, for this category, there is little point in installing media codecs in the live-USB version. This task will be undertaken as part of the installation process for Linux and will be a one-time operation.
The Accessories menu has many available utility programmes, including Archive Manager (used, for example, to handle ZIP files), Calculator, Document Viewer (PDF reader), and Text Editor. The utilities included in the Administration and Preferences menus allow for tasks such as managing date and time settings, printer and Bluetooth connections, and are best left until there is a specific need to use an available option.
Finally, the Places category provides access to drives and folders in much the same way as can be achieved using the Nemo file manager, while Recent Files, as the name suggests. provides a list of files that have been accessed most recently.
Booting the computer into Linux using the live-USB checks the compatibility of the machine’s hardware before any decision to install the operating system has to be made. It also provides an opportunity to try the software that is bundled with the distro of choice and this is the option now available to us. Feel free to try composing a document in Writer, reading a PDF file using Document Viewer, playing an MP3 audio file with Rhythmbox, or any of the other available programs. One of the really good features of Linux is the broad range of applications that are packaged in a distro and instantly available for use.
Once we have made sufficient use of this testing phase, it’s time to get a little more serious about Linux and install this operating system so as to create a dual-boot environment. But, let’s leave this to the next installment of Trading up to Linux and, right now, let’s take a break and shut down the live-Linux session.
Click on the lm icon to bring up the main menu and select the red Shut Down icon at the bottom of the left sidebar. The pop-up dialogue box includes options for Suspend (Sleep), Cancel, Restart, and Shut Down. Click on Shut Down and the computer will indeed power off “gracefully” as advertised!