In this article I explain how to install Flatpaks to my microSD card. This is useful given the small size of the eMMC.
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Benchmarking the ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-255H
In this article I’ll benchmark the machine. The tests are run using the Phoronix Test Suite, unless otherwise stated.
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Benchmarking the Radxa ROCK 5T Single Board Computer
In this article I run a series of benchmarks on the Radxa ROCK 5T single board computer and compare it to its peers.
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ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-255H Running Linux: Introduction to the series
This is a series of articles looking at the ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-255H. In this series, I examine every aspect of this Mini PC in detail.
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5 Useful Free and Open Source Graphical GRUB Config Tools
GRUB is a boot loader software used in Linux systems. We pick 5 useful GUI tools to edit the bootloader configuration.
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Alternatives to popular CLI tools: tree
This article spotlights alternative tools to tree, a utility that lists the contents of directories in a tree-like format.
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4 Best Free and Open Source Travel Planners
This roundup focuses on software which act as a digital travel assistant.
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Alternatives to popular CLI tools: cat
cat derives its name from concatenation and provides other nifty options too. This article spotlights alternative tools to cat.
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10 Best Free and Open Source Linux Graphical IRC Clients
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of real-time Internet text messaging (chat) or synchronous conferencing. We recommend the best free and open source graphical IRC clients.
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14 Best Free and Open Source Linux WebRTC Tools
WebRTC is real-time communication for the web, enabling video, voice, and data transfer between peers using an open standard.
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11 Best Free and Open Source Linux Digital Forensics Tools
Digital forensics is a specialist art. It allows investigations to be undertaken without modifying the media.
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fanxiang S880 2TB NVMe SSD Review
This is a capsule review of the fanxiang S880 2TB NVMe SSD. It’s available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities.
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Firefly AIBOX-3588S Running Linux: Access Remote File Systems Over SSH with SSHFS
SSHFS is a file system in user space (FUSE) that uses the SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to mount a remote file system.
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Radxa ROCK 5T Single Board Computer Running Linux: Introduction
This is a new series looking at the Radxa ROCK 5T single board computer. It’s billed as an elegant computer with 8K + 4K dual display.
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Best Free and Open Source Software: July 2025 Updates
July 2025 updates to the largest compilation of recommended free and open source software available for Linux.
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Firefly AIBOX-3588S Embedded Fanless PC: Power Consumption
For this article in the series, I’m looking at the power consumption of the Firefly AIBOX-358SS fanless PC.
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TEAMGROUP X1 MAX 512GB USB 3.2 Gen 2 Flash Drive Review
The TEAMGROUP X1 MAX flash drive is available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB capacities with 1000 MB/s reads and 900 MB/s write speeds.
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BrosTrend AX3000 WiFi Range Extender & Wi-Fi to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Review
The BrosTrend AX3000 is a 2 in 1 device. First, it’s a dual band Wi-Fi range extender. It also provides a Wi-Fi to Gigabit ethernet adapter.
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Benchmarking the Firefly AIBOX-3588S Embedded Fanless PC
I benchmark the Firefly AIBOX-3588S and compare it to single board computers (both ARM and RISC-V) as well as an Intel N100 Mini PC.
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Orange Pi R2S Single Board Computer Running Linux: Power Consumption
I’ll see how the Orange Pi R2S compares to a few other single board computers and mini PCs which cost considerably more.
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Raspberry Pi 5 Desktop Mini PC: Good value compared to an Intel N100 Mini PC?
A question I get asked a fair bit is whether the Raspberry Pi 5 represents good value to purchase as a desktop PC.
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Firefly AIBOX-3588S Embedded Fanless PC Running Linux – Introduction
This is the first in a series of articles looking at the Firefly AIBOX 3588S embedded fanless ARM-based mini PC.
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Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Autodesk FBX Review
FBX Review is a lightweight, standalone software tool for viewing 3D assets and baked animations quickly and efficiently.
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Orange Pi RV2 Single Board Computer Running Linux: Installing to the eMMC
In this article I document transferring my Ubuntu distribution from the microSD card to the eMMC. It makes the distro much snappier on the RV2.
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Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Autodesk Fusion
Autodesk Fusion is a CAD, CAM, and PCB design software. We recommend the best free and open source alternatives.
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Raspberry Pi 5 Desktop Mini PC: Improve Wi-Fi
Let’s try to improve the Raspberry Pi 5’s Wi-Fi performance (transfer speed and latency) with a USB 3.0 adapter from BrosTrend.
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Orange Pi RV2 Single Board Computer Running Linux: Building a Program
Options for installing software are a bit more limited with the RV2 compared with ARM-based single board computers. Let’s build a piece of open source software.
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Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Autodesk Motion FX
Autodesk Motion FX is software to create real-time video effects using your computer’s camera. It’s also a video editor.
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Kioxia Exceria Plus G2 Portable SSD 2TB Review
For this review, I’ve evaluating the Kioxia Exceria Plus G2 Portable SSD. It’s available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities. I’m reviewing the 2TB version.
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Orange Pi 5 Max Single Board Computer: Power Consumption
In this article in the series, I look at the power consumption of the Orange Pi 5 Max and compare it to some other computers.
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BrosTrend AX1800 USB WiFi 6 Adapter AX4L Linux Compatible
This is a review of the BrosTrend USB WiFi 6 Adapter. It supports Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian, Ubuntu Mate, and other distributions.
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Benchmarking the Orange Pi R2S Single Board Computer
The Orange Pi R2S features a RISC-V processor, four wired network ports (two 2.5G ethernet ports and two 1G ethernet ports).
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Orange Pi RV2 Single Board Computer Running Linux: orangepi-config
My RV2 board is running Ubuntu 24.04. Included is a configuration tool called orangepi-config. Let’s see what it offers.
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TEAMGROUP PD20 Mini External SSD Review
I’m testing the 2TB PD20 Mini External SSD which provides plenty of capacity for backing up a computer or holding a good chunk of data.
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Orange Pi R2S Single Board Computer Running Linux: Introduction
This is a series of articles looking at the Orange Pi R2S, the latest addition to the range of single board computers from Orange Pi.
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Raspberry Pi 5 Desktop Mini PC: 2.5Gbps Networking
In this article I explore a simple upgrade to improve the Raspberry Pi 5’s network speed.
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Orange Pi RV2 Single Board Computer Running Linux: Power Consumption
In this article in the series, I look at the power consumption of the Orange Pi RV2 and compare it to some other computers.
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Benchmarking the Banana Pi BPI-F3 Single Board Computer
In this article I benchmark the Banana Pi BPI-F3 and compare it to other single board computers as well as an N100 Mini PC.
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Benchmarking the Orange Pi 5 Ultra, Orange Pi 5 Max and Orange Pi RV2
I benchmark the Orange Pi 5 Ultra, Orange Pi 5 Max, Orange Pi RV2 against a Raspberry Pi 5 and a DreamQuest N100 Mini PC.
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cmusfm – Last.fm scrobbler for cmus music player
cmusfm allows to configure regular expression patterns for local files and for shoutcast streaming services.
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18 Best Free and Open Source Linux MySQL Tools
This article identifies 18 open source tools which help to reduce the complexity associated with the powerful database software.
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NetPeek – discover devices on your local network
NetPeek is a simple network scanner that helps you discover active devices on your local network. It shows open ports, hostnames, and allows easy rescan with a clean, user-friendly interface. This is free and open source software. Features include: Fast
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Nucleus – browse the chemical elements
Nuclues gives you the ability to view the periodic table of the elements, as well as a variety of properties for each element,
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jdPixelUpscaler upscale images per pixel
jdPixelUpscaler upscales images by simply replacing one pixel with several of the same color.
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Eye Care: Best Free Linux Software to Look after your Eyes
Look after your eyes with this free and open source software.
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Web Scrobbler – scrobble playback history
Web Scrobbler helps online music listeners to scrobble their playback history.
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mpris-scrobbler – minimalistic user daemon
mpris-scrobbler is a minimalistic user daemon which submits the currently playing song to libre.fm and compatible services.
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Pyrefly – Python type checker
Pyrefly aims to increase development velocity with IDE features and by checking your Python code.
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