In 2018, we reintroducted scripting to Krita. Unlike our previous attempts to provide scripting, this time it took off! People are making all kinds of useful and fun extensions for Krita. Like a new color picker and mixer, a plugin to modify the way Krita’s subwindows are handled, new toolboxes, integration with other applications like Autodesk Shotgun,

But what was missing was a good overview of the various areas that could be scripted. Tutorials and example code on how to use the scripting API in bite-size chunks. The regular API documentation is generated automatically from the APIDOX comments. It is a good reference but can be difficult to understand since it is generated from the C++ code that provides the scripting bindings.

Scott Petrovic, Krita’s UX designer and website maintainer, created a fresh new tutorial website: Scripting with Krita:

And there are not just the lessons teaching you about creating scripts, running them, using the Krita scripting API and how to develop plugins, there are also really useful overviews of the actions your script can trigger and the icons you can use!

The post Announcing Krita’s Scripting School! appeared first on Krita.

Riot is/was a decentralized instant messaging app based on the open source Matrix protocol.

In late June, Riot (the instant messaging client) announced that they would be changing their name. Yesterday, they revealed that their new name is Element. Let’s see more details on why Riot changed its name and what else is being changed.

Why change the name from Riot to Element?

Before we get to the most recent announcement, let us take a look at why they changed their name in the first place.

According to a blog post dated June 23rd, the group had three reasons for the name change.

First, they stated that “a certain large games company” had repeatedly blocked them from trademarking the Riot and Riot.im product names. (If I had to guess, they are probably referring to this “games company”.)

Second, they originally chose the name Riot to “evoke something disruptive and vibrant”. They are worried that people are instead thinking that the app is “focused on violence”. I imagine that current world events have not helped that situation.

Thirdly, they want to clear up any confusion created by the many brand names involved with Riot. For example, Riot is created by a company named New Vector, while the Riot is hosted on Modular which is also a product of New Vector. They want to simplify their naming system to avoid confusing potential customers. When people look for a messaging solution, they want them to only have to look for one name: Element.

Element is everywhere

As of July 15th, the name of the app and the name of the company has been changed to Element. Their Matrix hosting service will now be called Element Matrix Services. Their announcement sums it up nicely:

“For those discovering us for the first time: Element is the flagship secure collaboration app for the decentralised Matrix communication network. Element lets you own your own end-to-end encrypted chat server, while still connecting to everyone else in the wider Matrix network.

They chose the name Element because it “reflects the emphasis on simplicity and clarity that we aimed for when designing RiotX; a name that highlights our single-minded mission to make Element the most elegant and usable mainstream comms app imaginable”. They also said they wanted a name “evokes the idea of data ownership and self-sovereignty”. They also thought it was a cool name.

More than just a name change

The recent announcement also makes it clear that this move is more than just a simple name change. Element has also released its “next generation Matrix client for Android”. The client was formerly known as RiotX and is now renamed Element. (What else?) It is a complete rewrite of the former client and now supports VoIP calls and widgets. Element will also be available on iOS with support for iOS 13 with “entirely new push notification support”.

The Element Web client has also received some love with a UI update and a new easier to read font. They have also “rewritten the Room List control – adding in room previews(!!), alphabetic ordering, resizable lists, improved notification UI and more”. They have also started working to improve end-to-end encryption.

Final thought

The people over at Element are taking a big step by making a major name change like this. They may lose some customers in the short term. (This could mainly be due to not being aware of the name change for whatever reason or not liking change.) However in the long run the brand simplification will help them stand out from the crowd.

The only negative note I’ll mention is that this is the third name change they have made in the app’s history. It was originally named Vector when it was released in 2016. The name was changed to Riot later that year. Hopefully, Element is here to stay.

If you found this article interesting, please take a minute to share it on social media, Hacker News, or Reddit.

Getting work done is super important. If you have a planned list of things to do, it makes your work easier. So, it’s no surprise why we’re talking about to-do list apps on Linux here.

Sure, you can easily utilize some of the best note taking apps on Linux for this purpose but using a dedicated to-do app helps you stay focused on work.

You might be aware of some online services for that— but how about some cool Linux apps that you can use to create a to-do list? In this article, I’m going to highlight the best to-do list apps available for Linux.

Best To-Do List Applications For Desktop Linux Users

I have tested these apps on Pop!_OS. I have also tried to mention the installation steps for the mentioned apps but you should check your distribution’s package manager for details.

Note: The list is in no particular order of ranking

1. Planner

Planner is probably the best to-do list app I’ve across for Linux distributions.

The best thing is — it is a free and open-source project. It provides a beautiful user interface that aims to give you a meaningful user experience. In other words, it’s simple and yet attractive.

Not to forget, you get a gorgeous dark mode. As you can see in the screenshot above, you can also choose to add emojis to add some fun to your serious work tasks.

Overall, it looks clean while offering features like the ability to add repeating tasks, creating separate folder/projects, sync with todoist etc.

How to install it?

If you’re using elementary OS, you can find it listed in the app center. In either case, they also offer a Flatpak package on Flathub.

Unless you have Flatpak integration in your software center, you should follow our guide to use Flatpak on Linux to get it installed.

In case you want to explore the source code, take a look at its GitHub page.

2. Go For It!

Yet another impressive open-source to-do app for Linux which is based on todotxt. Even though it isn’t available for Ubuntu 20.04 (or later) at the time of writing this, you can still use it on machines with Ubuntu 19.10 or older.

In addition to the ability to adding tasks, you can also specify the duration/interval of your break. So, with this to-do app, you will not just end up completing the tasks but also being productive without stressing out.

The user interface is plain and simple with no fancy features. We also have a separate article on Go For It — if you’d like to know more about it.

You can also use it on your Android phone using the Simpletask Dropbox app.

How to install it?

You can type the commands below to install it on any Ubuntu-based distro (prior to Ubuntu 20.04):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:go-for-it-team/go-for-it-stable 
sudo apt update
sudo apt install go-for-it

In case you want to install it on any other Linux distro, you can try the Flatpak package on Flathub.

If you don’t know about Flatpak — take a look at our complete guide on using Flatpak. To explore more about it, you can also head to their GitHub page.

3. GNOME To Do

If you’re using Ubuntu or other Linux distribution with GNOME desktop envioenment, you should already have it installed. Just search for “To Do” and you should find it.

It’s a simple to-do app which presents the list in the form of cards and you can have separate set of tasks every card. You can add a schedule to the tasks as well. It supports extensions with which you can enable the support for todo.txt files and also integration with todoist.

4. Taskwarrior [Terminal-based]

A command-line based open-source to-do list program “Taskwarrior” is an impressive tool if you don’t need a Graphical User Interface (GUI). It also provides cross-platform support (Windows and macOS).

It’s quite easy to add and list tasks along with a due date as shown in the screenshot above.

To make the most out of it, I would suggest you to follow the official documentation to know how to use it and the options/features that it offers.

How to install it?

You can find it in your respective package managers on any Linux distribution. To get it intalled in Ubuntu, you will have to type the following in the terminal:

sudo apt install taskwarrior

For Manjaro Linux, you can simply get it installed through pamac that you usually need to install software in Manjaro Linux.

In case of any other Linux distributions, you should head to its official download page and follow the instructions.

5. Task Coach

Task Coach is yet another open-source to-do list app that offers quite a lot of essential features. You can add sub-tasks, description to your task, add dates, notes, and a lot more things. It also supports tree view for the task lists you add and manage.

It’s a good thing to see that it offers cross-platform support (Windows, macOS, and Android).

Overall, it’s easy to use with tons of options and works well.

How to install it?

It offers both .deb and .rpm packages for Ubuntu and Fedora. In addition to that, you can also install it using PPA.

You can find all the necessary files and instructions from its official download page.

You may notice an installation error for its dependencies on Ubuntu 20.04. But, I believe it should work fine on the previous Ubuntu releases.

In my case, it worked out fine for me when using the AUR package through Pamac on Manjaro Linux.

6. Todour

A very simple open-source to-do list app that lets you utilize todo.txt file as well. You may not get a lot of options to choose from — but you get a couple of useful settings to tweak.

It may not be the most actively developed to-do list app — but it does the work expected.

How to install Todour?

If you’re using Manjaro Linux, you can utilize pamac to install Todour from AUR.

Unfortunately, it does not provide any .deb or .rpm package for Ubuntu/Fedora. So, you’ll have to build it from source or just explore more about it on its GitHub page.

Wrapping Up

As an interesting mention, I’d like you to take a look at TodoList, which is an applet for KDE-powered distributions. Among mainstream to-do list applications, Remember The Milk is the rare one that provides a Linux client. It is not open source, though.

I hope this list of to-do specific apps help you get things done on Linux.

Did I miss any of your favorite to-do list apps on Linux? Feel free to let me know what you think!

Most of you must be already aware of Pine64’s flagship products PinePhone and Pinebook (or Pinebook Pro).

PineTab was planned to be made available back in 2019— however, PinePhone and Pinebook production was prioritized over it. Also, due to the factory lines closing for COVID-19 pandemic, the plan for PineTab was further postponed.

Finally, you will be happy to know that you can now pre-order the PineTab Linux tablet for just $100.

Even though PineTab is meant for early adopters, I’ll give you a brief description of its specifications and what you can expect it to do.

PineTab specification

PineTab is a Linux tablet for $100 with which you can also attach a keyboard and some other modules to make the most out of it.

So, for just $100, it isn’t aiming to be “just another tablet” but something more functional for the users who prefer to have a useful tablet.

Before we talk more about it, let’s run down through the specifications:

• Display: 10-inch 720p IPS Screen
• Quad-core A64 SoC
• 2 GB LPDDR3 RAM
• 2 MP front-facing camera and 5 MP rear camera
• 64 GB eMMC flash storage
• SD Card support
• USB 2.0, USB-OTG, Digital video output, Micro USB
• 6000mAh Battery

You can also add a magnetic backlit keyboard with PineTab for an additional $20.

You can see it in action here:

For the first batch of PineTab, they are shipping the tablet with UBports Ubuntu Touch. In their recent blog post, Pine64 also clarified why they chose UBports Ubuntu Touch:

The reason for this choice being that Ubuntu Touch works well for a traditional tablet use-case and, at the same time, converts into a more traditional desktop experience when the magnetic keyboard is attached.

They’ve also mentioned that the PineTab’s software will be convergent with both PinePhone and PineBook.

PineTab Expansion Options

To expand the functionality of PineTab, there’s an adapter board available on which you will be able to attach the expansions you want.

The adapter board will already be present inside, you just need to remove the back cover, work on a single screw to swap/add expansions.

The following expansions will be available to start with:

• M.2 SATA SSD add-on
• M.2 LTE (and GPS) add-on
• LoRa module add-on
• RTL-SDR module add-on

It is worth noting that you only use any one of the expansions at a time no matter how many expansions you have attached to the board.

Some extensions like LTE or LoRa module will probably make PineTab a great point-of-sales terminal as well.

As of now, there’s no information on what it would cost per add-on for the expansion board — but hopefully we’ll get to know more about the details right before the pre-order starts.

How to get PineTab Linux tablet

PineTab is now available for pre-order. If you are planning to get one, you should hurry up. From my experience with Pine devices, the pre-order might close in a couple of days. You can order it from their website:

What are your thoughts on PineTab? Are you going to order one when it goes live? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Need a new place to meet up with friends? Veloren is a free and open source open-world RPG that just recently had a massive new release with a focus on firming up the content.

Written in the increasingly popular Rust language, it's inspired by the likes of Cube World and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild while being incredibly accessible since it's FOSS. The 0.6.0 release, as the version number would suggest means it's still not finished and in many ways has to do quite a lot before it's truly ready for the masses but it gives a good and impressive idea of where it's going.

Included in this release are things like: a music system, an improved mini-map you can zoom and rotate, adjustable fonts and keybinds, gamma settings, more sound effects, a new attack animation, a weapon control system, if you're playing in single-player it can actually pause now where needed, there's a free look option, a silhouette for players when they are occluded (hidden behind something), some gamepad support and lots of other technical changes and additions.

Since this is a release focused on actual content, there's plenty of that too. Lots of new armour types to find, inventory stacking support, new abilities like dashing, basic world and civilization simulation, fields with crops, overhauled town, NPCs that spawn in towns, there's now simple dungeons, bridges and paths, dungeon bosses and rare boss loot and the list of new content to explore goes on.

See the release trailer below:

Watch video on YouTube.com

Veloren is turning into possibly one of the most promising in-development open source games around. I'm genuinely excited to see what the future has for it.

You can learn more and download here. They have a shiny launcher nowadays that can keep it up to date too, which is very handy.

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