PCLinuxOS Magazine's Latest

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 30, 2025

• PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ From The Chief Editor's Desk...

  In late June, 2025, YouCanToo/The CrankyZombie experienced a fire at his place of residence. Inside his residence were the servers that ran all of the “services” that PCLinuxOS users came to rely on. That included the forum, PCLOS-Mail, PCLOS-Talk, PCLOS-Cloud, this magazine’s website, and the PCLinuxOS Knowledgebase Wiki.

  Even though his residence experienced significant smoke and water damage from the fire, YCT/TCZ found that the backups he had made of the magazine, wiki, and cloud site were intact. That meant that it was only a matter of finding a new webhost for these sites. Texstar had already started a new forum. He is still figuring out a format for the main PCLinuxOS page.

  We found a new webhost, and with the help of YCT/TCZ, we managed to move the domain to the new webhost fairly quickly (same address … https://pclosmag.com). YCT/TCZ, TerryN, and I worked tirelessly to find a new webhost for the PCLinuxOS Knowledgebase Wiki (note the new URL).

• PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ PCLinuxOS Screenshot Showcase

• Instructionals/Technical

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ Inkscape Tutorial: The New LPE Tool

    As you know, I look at YouTube to see if anything new has popped up about Inkscape and GIMP. I came across this one from Logos by Nick, and it was something I didn’t know about. It’s the new LPE Tool (LPE standing for Live Path Effects). We’ve done a lot with path effects, but this new tool is a shortcut to some of the experimental tools. If you don’t have the experimental tools enabled, you’ll have to do that.

    Enable the experimental tools by clicking Preferences > Behavior > Live Path Effects (LPE) and check the box that says “Show experimental effects”. Close the Preferences window and restart Inkscape.

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ Install Easy Flatpak Manager On PCLinuxOS

    I know. The holy “mantra” for PCLinuxOS users has been, for as long as I can remember, “don’t install programs from outside the repository.” There are multiple reasons for these age-old words of wisdom.

    First, there’s the whole issue of what is non-affectionately called “dependency hell.” If you don’t have the proper version of a library installed, the program isn’t going to run. Attempting to install a missing library will likely result in another two or three “missing pieces,” and attempting to install those missing pieces may cause you to discover that you are missing even more pieces to the pieces. Before you know it, your system is trashed.

    Second, installing programs from untrusted sources (say you found some source code, and you want to compile it) can make you vulnerable to unscrupulous actors who want to steal your personal, private information … or who wants to inflict harm on the end user.

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ How To Install The Typst.vim Plugin

    This brief tutorial explains how to install a Vim plugin for Typst (typst.vim) which was created by developer kaarmu (Kaj Munhoz Arfvidsson). If you are familiar with Vim, this will give you an alternative to using the VSCodium (or VS Code) editor with your local Typst installation. Although this setup is more like working with a traditional LaTeX editor—in the sense that it does not provide a live preview—it offers a writing environment with fewer distractions. Some users might find that appealing.

    Plugins extend Vim's core functionality. As a user with limited Vim experience, the mechanics of installing a plugin were confusing to me at first. Fortunately, I found two helpful videos by Jay LaCroix and Eric Murphy which cover the basics of configuring Vim and installing plugins. I recommend that you begin by watching these tutorials, as they will make it easier to follow the instructions.

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ Wiki Pick: Cron Jobs

    Cron is a time-based job scheduler in Unix-like computer operating systems. The name cron comes from the word “chronos”, Greek for “time”. Cron enables users to schedule jobs to run periodically at certain times or dates. It is commonly used to automate system maintenance or administration, though its general-purpose nature means that it can be used for other purposes, such as backing up important data.

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ Tip Top Tips: Disable Firefox's Integrated AI Chatbot [Ed: Mozilla is now run by cranks and charlatans serving plutocrats; it's a rogue company heading to the grave]

    Did you know that Firefox now has an integrated AI chatbot? No? Well, me neither. And I’m one of the most devout Firefox users on the planet.

    So, how do you feel about Firefox having an integrated AI chatbot? I don’t know about you, but I think there’s too much “focus” on AI. It’s still in its infancy, it still gets a LOT of things wrong, and if it doesn’t know the answer, it’s prone to making up its own facts and passing them off as reality. Plus, there are next to no “guardrails” in place for the current iteration of AI. With AI growing so quickly in its abilities, I can’t imagine any legislation addressing the concerns of AI run amok. AI is simply growing at a rate too quickly for legislation to install adequate safeguards. It won’t be able to “keep up” with AI’s advances. And no, Mozilla, I don’t want or need an integrated AI chatbot in Firefox.

• Security

  • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ ICYMI: Decade Old Vulnerability Found In Sudo

    A new mobile crypto-stealing malware called SparkKitty was found in apps on Google Play and the Apple App Store, targeting Android and iOS devices, according to an article from Bleeping Computer. The malware is a possible evolution of SparkCat, which Kaspersky discovered in January. SparkCat used optical character recognition (OCR) to steal cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases from images saved on infected devices. When installing crypto wallets, the installation process tells users to write down the wallet's recovery phrase and store it in a secure, offline location. Access to this seed phrase can be used to restore a crypto wallet and its stored assets on another device, making them a valuable target for threat actors. While taking a screenshot of your seed phrase is never a good idea, some people do so for convenience. A report by Kaspersky says that the new SparkKitty malware indiscriminately steals all images from an infected device's photo gallery.