This is why Leading Linux Distros going to remove Chromium from their Official Repositories

 Jochen Eisinger from Google team mentioned in a discussion thread that they will be banning sync support system of Chromium. This lead to lot of frustration in the Linux Dev community & rage against googles sudden decision.

This Decision can kill small browser projects & lead the web to single browser monopoly i.e. Google Chrome!

As a result of the googles decision multiple distros are strictly considering removal of Chromium from their official repositories. Leading distros like Arch Linux, Fedora, Debian, Slackware & OpenSUSE have stated that if the sync support goes down from google they will definitely remove chromium from their official repositories.

See what Arch Linux have said:

arch linux will remove chromium repository

What is the exact issue?

Sync Libraries have public keys for third party browsers to sync user data between devices, however after this sync ban third party browsers who rely on chromium will lose this functionality. Many non-technical users use find this sync function to be very easy for them. But if its banned then they will struggle to sync with other extensions and eventually install Google Chrome in near future. And hence chromium & chromium dependent browsers will see a sudden drop of users base.

23 Best Open Source Text Editors (GUI + CLI) in 2021

By Aaron Kili

Text editors can be used for writing code, editing text files such as configuration files, creating user instruction files, and many more. In Linux, text editors are of two kinds that is the graphical user interface (GUI) and command-line text editors (console or terminal).

In this article, I am taking a look at some of the best 21 open-source commonly used text editors in Linux on both servers and desktops.

1. Vi/Vim Editor

Vim is a powerful command-line based text editor that has enhanced the functionalities of the old Unix Vi text editor. It is one the most popular and widely used text editors among System Administrators and programmers that is why many users often refer to it as a programmer’s editor. It enables syntax highlighting when writing code or editing configuration files.

You can install Vim editor in Linux systems using your default package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt install vim     [On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint]
$ sudo dnf install vim     [On RHEL, CentOS and Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S vim       [On Arch Linux and Manjaro]
$ sudo zypper install vim  [On OpenSuse]

If you want to see our complete series on vi(m), please refer to the links below:

Vi/Vim Linux Editor
Vi/Vim Linux Editor

2. Gedit

Gedit is a general-purpose GUI based text editor and is installed by default text editor on Gnome desktop environment. It is simple to use, highly pluggable and a powerful editor with the following features:

  • Support for UTF-8
  • Use of configurable font size and colors
  • Highly customizable syntax highlighting
  • Undo and redo functionalities
  • Reverting of files
  • Remote editing of files
  • Search and replace text
  • Clipboard support functionalities and many more
Gedit Editor
Gedit Editor

You can install Gedit editor in Linux systems using your default package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt install gedit     [On Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint]
$ sudo dnf install gedit     [On RHEL, CentOS and Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S gedit       [On Arch Linux and Manjaro]
$ sudo zypper install gedit  [On OpenSuse]

3. Nano Editor

Nano is an easy to use text editor, especially for both new and advanced Linux users. It enhances usability by providing customizable key binding.

Nano has the following features:

  • Highly customizable key bindings
  • Syntax highlighting
  • Undo and redo options
  • Full line display on the standard output
  • Pager support to read from standard input
Nano Editor
Nano Editor

You can install Nano editor in Linux systems using your default package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt install nano     [On Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint]
$ sudo dnf install nano     [On RHEL, CentOS and Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S nano       [On Arch Linux and Manjaro]
$ sudo zypper install nano  [On OpenSuse]

You can check our complete guide for editing files with Nano editor at:

4. GNU Emacs

Emacs is a highly extensible and customizable text editor that also offers an interpretation of the Lisp programming language at its core. Different extensions can be added to support text editing functionalities.

Emacs has the following features:

  • User documentation and tutorials
  • Syntax highlighting using colors even for plain text.
  • Unicode supports many natural languages.
  • Various extension including mail and news, debugger interface, calendar, and many more
Emacs Editor
Emacs Editor

You can install Emacs editor in Linux systems using your default package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt install emacs     [On Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint]
$ sudo dnf install emacs     [On RHEL, CentOS and Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S emacs       [On Arch Linux and Manjaro]
$ sudo zypper install emacs  [On OpenSuse]

5. Kate/Kwrite

Kate is a feature-rich and highly pluggable text editor that comes with KDesktop Environment (KDE). The Kate project aims at the development of two main products that are: KatePart and Kate.

KatePart is an advanced text editor component included in many KDE applications that may require users to edit text whereas Kate is a multiple document interface (MDI) text, editor.

The following are some of its general features:

  • Extensible through scripting
  • Encoding support such as Unicode mode
  • Text rendering in bi-directional mode
  • Line ending support with auto-detection functionalities

Also remote file editing and many other features including advanced editor features, applications features, programming features, text highlighting features, backup features, and search and replace features.

Kate Editor
Kate Editor

You can install Kate editor in Linux systems using your default package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt install kate     [On Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint]
$ sudo dnf install kate     [On RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S kate       [On Arch Linux and Manjaro]
$ sudo zypper install kate  [On OpenSuse]

6. Sublime Text Editor

Sublime Text is a powerful cross-platform source code editor with a Python programming interface. It supports many programming languages and markup languages, and features can be added by users with plugins, mostly community-built and supported under free-software licenses.

Sublime Text Editor for Linux
Sublime Text Editor for Linux

You can install Sublime Text editor in Linux systems using your default package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt install sublime-text     [On Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint]
$ sudo dnf install sublime-text     [On RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S sublime-text       [On Arch Linux and Manjaro]
$ sudo zypper install sublime-text  [On OpenSuse]

7. Jed Editor

Jed is also another command-line editor with support for GUI like features such as dropdown menus. It is developed purposely for software development and one of its important features is the support of Unicode mode.

Jed Editor
Jed Editor

You can install Jed editor in Linux systems using your default package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt install jed     [On Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint]
$ sudo dnf install jed     [On RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S jed       [On Arch Linux and Manjaro]
$ sudo zypper install jed  [On OpenSuse]

8. gVim Editor

It is a GUI version of the popular Vim editor and it has similar functionalities as the command line Vim.

Gvim Editor
Gvim Editor

You can install gVim editor in Linux systems using your default package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt install vim-gtk3     [On Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint]
$ sudo dnf install gvim         [On RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S gvim           [On Arch Linux and Manjaro]
$ sudo zypper install gvim       [On OpenSuse]

9. Geany Editor

Geany is a tiny and lightweight integrated development environment that offers basic IDE-like features with a focus on software development using the GTK+ toolkit.

It has some basic features as listed below:

  • Syntax highlighting
  • Pluggable interface
  • Supports many file types
  • Enables code folding and code navigation
  • Symbol name and construct auto-completion
  • Supports auto-closing of HTML and XML tags
  • Elementary project management functionality plus many more
Geany Editor
Geany Editor

You can install Geany editor in Linux systems using your default package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt install geany        [On Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint]
$ sudo dnf install geany        [On RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S geany          [On Arch Linux and Manjaro]
$ sudo zypper install geany     [On OpenSuse]

10. Leaf Pad

Leaf Pad is a GTK+ based, lightweight GUI based text editor which is also popular among Linux users today. It is easy to use by new Linux users.

It has the following features:

  • Codeset option
  • Allows auto-detection of codeset
  • Options of undo and redo
  • Display file line numbers
  • Supports Drag and Drop options
  • Printing support
Leafpad Editor
Leafpad Editor

You can install Leaf Pad editor in Linux systems using snap package manager as shown.

$ sudo snap install leafpad

11. Bluefish

Bluefish is an easy-to-install and advanced text editor targeting Linux programmers and web developers. It offers a wide set of features as listed below:

  • Lightweight and fast
  • Integrates external Linux programs such as lint, weblint, make, and many others and filters, piping such as sed, sort, awk, and many more
  • Spelling check feature
  • Supports working on multiple projects
  • Remote file editing
  • Search and replace support
  • Undo and redo option
  • Auto-recovery of modified files
Bluefish Editor
Bluefish Editor

You can install Bluefish editor in Linux systems using your default package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt install bluefish        [On Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint]
$ sudo dnf install bluefish        [On RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S bluefish          [On Arch Linux and Manjaro]
$ sudo zypper install bluefish     [On OpenSuse]

12. Atom

Atom is a free and open-source cross-platform code editor developed by GitHub. It was built to be completely customizable using web technologies such as HTML and JavaScript and it has support for Node.js-based plugins and native Git control.

Atom’s feature highlights include:

  • 100% open source
  • Modern, customizable layout
  • Themes
  • Embedded Git support
  • Real-time collaboration with Telesync
  • Smart auto-complete and IntelliSense
  • Built-in package manager
Atom Text Editor
Atom Text Editor

You can install Atom editor in Linux systems using the following commands.

---------- On Debian, Ubuntu & Mint ---------- 
$ wget -c https://atom.io/download/deb -O atom.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i atom.deb

---------- On RHEL, CentOS & Fedora ----------
$ wget -c https://atom.io/download/rpm -O atom.rpm
$ sudo rpm -i atom.rpm

13. VSCode

VSCode is a robust free and open-source modern text editor built by Microsoft for Linux, Mac, and Windows computers.

It offers tons of powerful features including:

  • Full debugging capability with an interactive console, breakpoints, call stacks, etc.
  • Built-in Git support with Git commands
  • IntelliSense
  • 100% customizability
  • Support for tons of languages straight out of the box
  • Toggable layouts
  • Built-in terminal
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code

You can install VSCode for your Linux distribution by downloading the .deb or .rpm package from the VSCode download page.

14. Light Table

Light Table is a powerful, clutter-free cross-platform text editor built to be customizable enough to be used in any that its user chooses.

Light Table’s features include:

  • Inline evaluation
  • Real-time watches
  • Free and open source
  • Plugin manager
  • Powerful editing
Light Table Code Editor
Light Table Code Editor

You can install Light Table on Ubuntu and its derivatives using the following PPA.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dr-akulavich/lighttable
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install lighttable-installer

15. Medit Text Editor

medit is a lightweight open-source text editor for Mac, Linux, and Windows. It originally started as a simple built-in component of the GGAP editor and is now its own stand-alone text editor.

medit’s features include:

  • Customizable syntax highlighting
  • Support for plugins written in Python, C, or Lua
  • Support for regular expressions
  • Configurable keyboard accelerators
Media Text Editor
Media Text Editor

You can download and install medit from the mooedit.sourceforge.net page.

16. Neovim – Vim-based Text Editor

Neovim is a hyperextensible vim-based text editor with a focus on usability and function extensibility. It was forked from the popular Vim editor in order to aggressively refactor its functionality and usability with modern GUIs, asynchronous job control, etc.

Neovim’s feature highlights include:

  • Free and open-source license
  • Support for XDG base directories
  • Compatibility with most Vim plugins
  • An embedded, configurable terminal emulator
Neovim - Vim-based Text Editor
Neovim – Vim-based Text Editor

You can install Neovim editor in Linux systems using your default package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt install neovim        [On Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint]
$ sudo dnf install neovim        [On RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S neovim          [On Arch Linux and Manjaro]
$ sudo zypper install neovim     [On OpenSuse]

17. Notepad++

Notepad++ is a customizable text editor built with a focus on speed and minimal program size for Windows platforms. It is developed based on Scintilla text editor and can have its functionality extended with tons of plugins.

Its features include:

  • Tabbed editing
  • Code folding
  • Bookmark support
  • Document map
  • Perl Compatible Regular Expression
Notepad++ Source Code Editor
Notepad++ Source Code Editor

You can install Notepad++ editor in Linux systems using snap package manage as shown.

$ sudo snap install notepad-plus-plus

Related Reado: 11 Best Notepad++ Alternatives For Linux

18. Kakoune Code Editor

Kakoune is a free and open-source Vim-based modal text editor with an editing model that implements Vi’s keystrokes as a text editing language.

It has several features among which are:

  • Auto-indentation
  • Case manipulation
  • Piping each selection to an external filter
  • Hooks
  • Syntax highlighting
  • Customization
  • Multiple selections
Kakoune Code Editor
Kakoune Code Editor

You can install the Kakoune editor in Linux systems using your default package manager as shown.

$ sudo apt install kakoune        [On Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint]
$ sudo dnf install kakoune        [On RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S kakoune          [On Arch Linux and Manjaro]
$ sudo zypper install kakoune     [On OpenSuse]

19. Micro – Terminal-based Text Editor

Micro is a command line-based text editor built to be easy and intuitive enough for users to take advantage of the features in other terminal-based text editors without the steep learning curve.

Micro’s feature highlights include:

  • Mouse support
  • Multiple cursors
  • Terminal emulation
  • High customizability
  • Plugin system
  • Static library with no dependencies
Micro Terminal Text Editor
Micro Terminal Text Editor

You can easily install micro in your Linux distribution by running the following installation script.

$ curl https://getmic.ro | bash

20. Brackets Text Editor

Brackets is a modern free and open-source code editor created by Adobe with a focus on web development. It is written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to offer web developers a rich code editing experience with the ability to extend its native features using several free extensions.

Brackets features include:

  • A beautiful User Interface
  • Preprocessor support for SCSS and LESS
  • Inline editors
  • Live preview
  • Multiple tabbed editing
  • PHP support
  • Supports Language Server Protocol
  • Support for plugin extensions
Brackets Text Editor
Brackets Text Editor

You can install Brackets editor in Linux systems using snap package manager as shown.

$ sudo snap install brackets

21. Lite Editor

Lite is a new text editor mostly developed in the Lua language, that aims to offer something practical, pleasing, tiny and fast, created as simply as possible; easy to alter and expand, or to use without doing either.

Lite Text Editor
Lite Text Editor

22. Ash Editor

ash is a plain and clean command line-based text editor, that designed to be easy to use with modern key-bindings and it is efficient enough to manage a large number of files simultaneously and has a broad array of modern features.

Ash - Modern Terminal Text Editor
Ash – Modern Terminal Text Editor

23. CudaText

CudaText is a new clean open-source and cross-platform text editor that comes with tons of features which include:

  • Syntax highlight for a lot of languages.
  • Find/Replace with regular expressions.
  • Command palette, with fuzzy matching.
  • Binary/Hex viewer for files of unlimited size.
  • Support for many encodings.
CudaText - cross-platform text editor
CudaText – cross-platform text editor
Concluding

I believe the list is more than what we have looked at, therefore if you have used other free and open-source text editors, let us know by posting a comment. Thanks for reading and always stay connected to Tecmint.

Source: https://www.tecmint.com/best-open-source-linux-text-editors/

Source: https://www.tecmint.com/best-open-source-linux-text-editors/

How to Install Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu 20.04



Apache Cassandra is a NoSQL database used for storing large amounts of data. It has a distributed architecture and is designed to manage large volumes of data with dynamic replication. It is used by thousands of companies to save and retrieve thousands of terabytes of data. Apache Cassandra is the best choice for you if you are looking for a database management system with scalability and high availability.

In this tutorial, we will go through the installation of Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu 20.04.

Table of Contents

Prerequisites

  • An Ubuntu 20.04 VPS (we’ll be using our SSD 2 VPS plan)
  • Access to the root user account (or access to an admin account with root privileges)

Step 1: Log in to the Server & Update the Server OS Packages

First, log in to your Ubuntu 20.04 server via SSH as the root user:

ssh root@IP_Address -p Port_number

You will need to replace ‘IP_Address’ and ‘Port_number’ with your server’s respective IP address and SSH port number. Additionally, replace ‘root’ with the username of the admin account if necessary.

Before starting, you have to make sure that all Ubuntu OS packages installed on the server are up to date. You can do this by running the following commands:

apt-get update -y
apt-get upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Java

Apache Cassandra requires Java version 8 to be installed in your system. You can install it using the following command:

apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk -y

Once the installation is completed, verify the installed version of Java with the following command:

java -version

You should get the following output:

openjdk version "1.8.0_275"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_275-8u275-b01-0ubuntu1~20.04-b01)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.275-b01, mixed mode)

Step 3: Install Apache Cassandra

By default, the Apache Cassandra is not available in the Ubuntu default repository. So you will need to add the Cassandra repository to your system.

First, install the required dependencies with the following command:

apt-get install apt-transport-https gnupg2 -y

Next, download and add the GPG key with the following command:

wget -q -O - https://www.apache.org/dist/cassandra/KEYS | apt-key add -

Next, add the Cassandra repository to the APT with the following command:

sh -c 'echo "deb http://www.apache.org/dist/cassandra/debian 311x main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cassandra.list'

Next, update the repository cache and install the Apache Cassandra with the following command:

apt-get update -y
apt-get install cassandra -y

Once the Cassandra has been installed, verify the status of the Cassandra with the following command:

systemctl status cassandra

You should get the following output:

● cassandra.service - LSB: distributed storage system for structured data
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/cassandra; generated)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2020-12-21 05:15:39 UTC; 4s ago
       Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
      Tasks: 29 (limit: 2353)
     Memory: 1.1G
     CGroup: /system.slice/cassandra.service
             └─12029 java -Xloggc:/var/log/cassandra/gc.log -ea -XX:+UseThreadPriorities -XX:ThreadPriorityPolicy=42 -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemor>

Dec 21 05:15:39 ubuntu2004 systemd[1]: Starting LSB: distributed storage system for structured data...
Dec 21 05:15:39 ubuntu2004 systemd[1]: Started LSB: distributed storage system for structured data.

You can also verify the Cassandra using the nodetool command-line utility:

nodetool status

You should get the following output:

Datacenter: datacenter1
=======================
Status=Up/Down
|/ State=Normal/Leaving/Joining/Moving
--  Address    Load       Tokens       Owns (effective)  Host ID                               Rack
UN  127.0.0.1  70.71 KiB  256          100.0%            ba73f88d-9d00-49b7-aa50-baedb4ee0558  rack1

Step 4: Configure Apache Cassandra

By default, Apache Cassandra is configured to listen on localhost. You don’t need to configure Cassandra if your client and database is on the same host.

Cassandra also provides a cqlsh command-line tool to interact with Cassandra. You can launch it with the following command:

cqlsh

You should get the following output:

Connected to Test Cluster at 127.0.0.1:9042.
[cqlsh 5.0.1 | Cassandra 3.11.9 | CQL spec 3.4.4 | Native protocol v4]
 Use HELP for help.
 cqlsh> 

Step 5: Change Cassandra Cluster Name

By default, the Cassandra cluster name is set to “Test Cluster”. You can change it using the the cqlsh utility:

cqlsh

Once connected, run the following command to change the cluster name:

cqlsh> UPDATE system.local SET cluster_name = 'MY Cluster' WHERE KEY = 'local';

Next, exit from the cqlsh shell with the following command:

cqlsh> exit

Next, you will also need to define your new cluster name in cassandra.yaml file:

nano /etc/cassandra/cassandra.yaml

Change the following line:

cluster_name: 'MY Cluster'

Save and close the file then clear the system cache with the following command:

nodetool flush system

Next, restart the Cassandra service to apply the changes:

systemctl restart cassandra

Next, verify your new cluster name with the following command:

cqlsh

You should see your new cluster name in the following output:

Connected to MY Cluster at 127.0.0.1:9042.
[cqlsh 5.0.1 | Cassandra 3.11.9 | CQL spec 3.4.4 | Native protocol v4]
 Use HELP for help.
 cqlsh> 

Use HELP for help. cqlsh>

Congratulations! you have successfully installed Apache Cassandra on Ubuntu 20.04 VPS.

installing apache cassandra on ubuntu 20.04

Of course, you don’t have to do any of this if you use one of our Linux VPS Hosting services, in which case you can simply ask our expert Linux admins to setup this for you. They are available 24×7 and will take care of your request immediately.

PS. If you liked this post please share it with your friends on the social networks using the buttons on the left or simply leave a reply below. Thanks.

Nigerian Tech Apps That Helped Me Make Money In 2020



I decided to try out an experiment in January of 2020 and this video is the outcome. I put aside extra money in a couple of Nigerian Fin-tech apps and in this video, I cover 5 apps that I regularly use to save, invest and make money in the Nigerian fin-tech space. From the experiment at the beginning of 2020, I was able to save an extra $10,000. I share all of that and more in this video.


How I made over $10,000 with these Nigerian Tech Apps




Apps Discussed:

1. QUIDAX (Cryptocurrency):

The first app I talked about is called Quidax, It's an app I used to buy & sell crypto. and it's been quite swift as well when it comes to transactions. I've received payments in form of BTC a lot just 'cos it saves time � On Quidax, you can trade (buy/sell) quite a number of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Ethereum, XRP, Dash, and Litecoin.
I also loved the fact that I got an email authentication for every single withdrawal, might take a second but it's basically more secure. They've got an exhaustive FAQ page you can check out if you have any questions (FAQ: https://quidax.com/faq)

2. BARTER (Virtual US Cards):

Barter was one of my favourite apps of the bunch. They give you a virtual US Debit card, complete with a USA Address, tied to your name. I use Barter to pay for online subscription services that don't allow our Nigerian cards. I use it for my Adobe, Apple subscription, and more stuff. Keep in mind that it costs $2 to create a new card and $4 to create a gift card.

3. PIGGYVEST (High-interest Savings):

PiggyVest needs almost no introduction at this point. When I asked about apps that worked for people financially in Nigeria on social media, this was recommended a lot. PiggyVest is an app I "highly" recommend for people who are serious about their finances and saving. The Safelock feature on PiggyVest helps you lock funds for a long period of time allowing you to stay true to a financial goal. You can keep adding to it and it can actually accumulate to a substantial sum. Not only are you saving but, you're also earning a decent amount in interest, depending on how much you save.
It's one of the apps I use on an almost daily basis.

4. BAMBOO (Invest in US. Stocks from Nigeria)

One of the apps I really like using is the Bamboo app. It's a straightforward app, you can simply buy/sell shares of your favourite US company listed on the stock market, right here in Nigeria. The Bamboo app also has a large library and glossary if you want to read up and learn the basics or learn the ropes of buying your first stock, investing and everything in between. Another app you can use to Invest in US stocks (even Nigerian stocks as well) is Trove I love how the app displays categories, everything is easy to reach and they have a vast amount of assets as well (now including Cryptocurrency)

5. RUBIES (100% Digital Bank)

As the description reads, Rubies is a full-on online bank. You can do the everyday transactions you would normally do on your banking app and even more. You can request a card, creating a savings plan and become an independent banker. I like that the transfer fees are just 10 Naira regardless, I also like that your phone number can also be your Rubies account number. All in all, it's a well-rounded app that I use and would recommend.

Which of these apps do you use or have you just discovered? Also, which have you used and would recommend other people try? Comment below

Google DFP becomes Google Ad Manager



Google recently renamed one of its advertisement program from DoubleClick’s publisher platforms to ‘Google Ad Manager’ to better reflect how it's platform has evolved; is said. The goal is to help users earn more money and protect their brand wherever it's audience is watching, playing and engaging.


What to expect:

Going by Google's email to all Publishers, this is what to expect "Over the course of several months, you’ll start to see improvements to the user interface, but the core product and its functionality will remain the same."

New Features Publishers Hope to See

Easy to use user interface: It's no secret that the user interface for DFP users is somewhat confusing even for old users. Let's do hope to see an easier platform for setting up ads and monitoring earnings on the user interface side of things.

Faster Loading: DFP oops; Ad Manager! just like Google Adsense tends to load up very slowly even with a relatively fast internet speed. Since there's a paradigm change, we do hope speed is one of them.

Better Support Team: Google seems to do this on purpose as with Adsense most of the assistance comes from a community of users who seem much knowledgeable on either of the program. Looking forward to see a Google supported IRC channel/ChatSupport/ or faster means of getting response. Afterall, we are partners of same business.

Easier Payment Method: Well, it will be a nice idea to have a much easier payment system straight to every user's bank account without much verification once the payment threshold has been reached.

Why You Should Never Use WordPress to Send Newsletter Emails



WordPress comes with built-in mail feature which uses PHP’s mail function to send out emails. There are several WordPress newsletter plugins which allow you to run a fully functional newsletter using this feature. Recently one of our users asked us: “if it is possible to send out email newsletters using WordPress plugins, then why do we recommend using an email service provider like Constant Contact or Aweber?” In this article, we will explain why you should never use WordPress to send newsletter emails.


Why You Should Take Your Email List Seriously?
Importance of email marketing

Your email list is one of the most reliable communication tool. It helps you bring back users to your website. It helps you increase sales, promote products, and build trust around your brand.

If you are not already doing it, then you should start building your email listright away.

You will notice that almost every serious marketer, blogger, and expert will recommend that you use an email marketing service such as Aweber or Constant Contact rather than using WordPress for email newsletters. Let’s take a look at why.

Reliability
Your email should land into user's inbox

When you send out emails using a newsletter plugin which relies on PHP and WordPress mail functions, there is a great chance that your emails will land in your user’s SPAM folder.

Email providers (gmail, yahoo, etc) have spam tools which would mark your email as SPAM for a number of reasons.

For example, the email server receiving your email will look for an SPF record to determine whether the server sending email is allowed to do so or not. It will look for suspicious behavior, words, and phrases to rule out spam.

The spam catching tools will also check their databases for your IP address. On shared WordPress hosting, your website is sharing the same server IP address with several other websites.

Any sign of abuse by one person on that server can trigger spam catching databases which will make your email delivery doubtful. There are countless other factors that are checked by spam catching algorithms, and it is very challenging to satisfy all those.

On the other hand, professional email service providers work day and night to make sure that their emails are delivered to your user’s inbox. They follow a strict set of rules and apply it to all their outgoing emails to ensure it reaches the destination and not ends up in junk mail.

They have highly trained engineers, developers, and support staff that works round the clock to make this possible. They are also approved and known bulk mail service providers with most major ISPs and email services. When a user’s email server receives email from a white-listed server, they know it is reliable and not spam.

This reliability alone is the single most important factor that should be enough to convince you to use a professional newsletter service.

Email Limits and Delays
Most hosting providers have limits on the number of emails you can send at a time. It is possible that your newsletter plugin or script will try to queue outgoing emails, but there will always be a chance that something might go wrong, and your outgoing email queue may not even process. For large email lists, your web host may even consider this as an abuse of their services.

On the other hand when you are using a professional email marketing service, you don’t need to worry about these limitations. They have servers spread all across the world sending hundreds and thousands of emails every day. They have flexible plans which allow you to easily upgrade as your email list grows.

Ease of Use
Email service providers like Constant Contact and Aweber allow you to easily create and send emails to your subscribers. They have extremely easy to use tools to create and design your emails.

They also have API integration which makes it easy for you to connect your email list with other useful WordPress plugins like OptinMonster, Gravity Forms, etc.

A beautifully inttegrated signup form

By running your own newsletter you miss out on all these tools that make things easier. Instead of focusing on your website, you will be spending time struggling to do things that can be easily done in minutes using a proper email marketing service.

Stats and Analysis
Professional email service providers offer you integrated stats and analytics about your campaigns. You can see the number of emails landed in user’s inbox, how many of them were opened, and the number of clicks you have received. This allows you to improve and adjust your campaigns accordingly.

Stats and analysis reports in Constant Contact

When sending out your own newsletter though a newsletter plugin, you have no way of knowing how many emails reached to user’s inbox, opened, or clicked. You will have to spend a lot of time trying to integrate Google Analytics in your campaigns and landing pages, and still the data you would gather will be limited.

Another reason to use an email service provider is that some of them offer you diagnostic and analysis tools. You can use those tools to see how your campaigns are doing. If your emails are getting marked as spam, then you can figure out what’s triggering the spam check tools to flag your emails.

Compliance Issues
Email marketing is huge and so is spam. To deal with spam, ISPs and email marketing services have introduced and implemented new legislation, requirements, and protocols. When you are using a professional email service to send out your newsletter, you don’t have to worry about all these things. These email service providers work very hard to make sure that your emails reach their destination.

On the other hand, if you are sending out your own newsletter you are less likely to know if there is something new happening in the email spam protection world.

Cost Effectiveness
Some users might think that if they run their own newsletter using a plugin, then they are saving money. First of all, you need to put value on your time. The time you spend configuring your newsletter plugin is much more valuable than the amount you pay for a good email service.

Calculating cost of email service

In fact, you can use one of the best email service, Constant Contact for free for two months. This free trial gives you enough time to setup and start collecting email addresses. By the time your trial ends, your email list will be paying for itself.

Conclusion
Considering all these facts, we strongly recommend our users to use professional email marketing service.

If you must use a WordPress newsletter plugin, then only use MailPoet. Remember, deliverability is still an issue and even MailPoet understand that which is why they allow you to use third-party SMTP services like SendGrid (which cost money).

Which email marketing service do you use? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Also don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Google+.

Source: https://gtbensmagazine.com/2018/08/22/w ... er-emails/

Linux gains ground as Lenovo Certifies Ubuntu & Red Hat WorkStations

 


Lenovo, happens to be the world’s number one PC seller, and has given Linux a big boost by certifying all its workstation computers for Red Hat and Ubuntu, two of the most popular open source software solutions.


This is good news as both distros are of two major Linux varients (Debian for Ubuntu and Rpm based Distros for Red Hat Enterprise Linux).

Now Linux users might enjoy full support from hard ware makers as regards drivers and kernel patches without need for waiting on community solutions.

It also means Linux users can save themselves the stress of having to install Linux themselves after purchasing a cheap or expensive PC then deal with the thought of dual booting with Windows or Mac. Yes! this is your very own Linux PC like System 76 is doing from get-go.

Lenovo and Red Hat together deliver a powerful combination with choice and flexibility using tried and tested open standards. Our combined hardware and software enables easy deployment and management of physical, virtual, and cloud environments while driving down the cost curve.

BRIAN CONNORS, VICE PRESIDENT, NEXT GENERATION INFRASTRUCTURES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, LENOVO

The quote above is from Red Hat’s official website as we look forward to more manufacturers following suite.

It shows how deep the partnership has gone as this is beyond workstations and regular PC devices. Support for data centers, cloud infrastructure and more are well represented.

In an interview with Forbes, Herman noted just how big Lenovo’s embrace of Linux is.

“Going beyond the box, this also includes full web support, dedicated Linux forums, configuration guidance and more,” Herman said.

Source: https://gtbensmagazine.com/2020/09/11/l ... kstations/

This is why Leading Linux Distros going to remove Chromium from their Official Repositories

  Jochen Eisinger from Google team mentioned in a discussion thread that they will be banning sync support system of Chromium. This lead...