Linux First Post
Here is my first Grumpy Gamer post from my new Linux laptop!
Installation basically went OK. There was some confusion because I don't want to dual boot into Windows, I want Windows gone gone gone from this laptop. I had to disable a thing call RST and turn some stuff off in the BIOS I don't understand, but in the end it's all working with a minimal amount of swearing.
Two issues I see right away is I really miss Little Snitch. It's a great Mac firewall that monitors all out going internet connects by program and allows you to selectively block them for a given duration (with a nice UI including a map showing where in the world it's trying to connect to). If you've never run with something like this, it's damn scary how many programs try and connect to the internet. Not sure if there is anything like it on Linux.
I use One Password a lot. There is a Linux version, but it seems to only be available with their horrible subscription. I'll have to investigate more.
Update 1
I miss dropbox. That might be an issue for working the game as we rely on dropbox a lot. It's not that there aren't other services like it, it more that the entire team uses it and I can't make everyone switch. I might be stuck using the web interface.
Slack won't run. It launches and then quits. I can use the web interface if I have to.
I really miss the cmd key for copy/paste in the terminal. My laptop has one of those silly Windows keys, I want to remap that so it can copy/paste/undo across all apps.
It's going to be at least a week before the machine "feels" right.

And good luck setting up the copy/pasting. I have tried multiple apps for that, but haven't found one that works consistently.
(and please spare me the 'open source' lullaby 😀 unless you will really REALLY modify some source code.
Dropbox should work fine on Ubuntu with their official app.


Using Linux is like being on international waters on your sailboat: it's incovenient at times (maybe even dangerous), but you're the captain and the sense of freedom is unmatched.

Because windows isn't a real operating system.
😞 Secretly I was hoping for an "less convincing" answer... maybe its time to explore Linux and get out of my cosy Mac cave, as I feel more and more "bullied" by my own computer to follow Apples update path or to simply accept changes I really REALLY did not asked for.
You could post shots from your desktop (stages), so that we can feel your pain. :)
And sometimes it's easier to find programs as AppImage (https://appimage.github.io/apps/) or Flatpak when they are not in the OS-repo.
BTW: I use Debian or LMDE. What OS do you use?
If you're looking to try out a different Linux distro in the future, Fedora might be worth a look. It's created by a mixture of Red Hat staff and community volunteers, and it's used by a lot of developers that contribute to the GNOME desktop project. Here are a few features that might interest you:
* Flatpak support built-in
* Toolbox or Podman: Keep containers on your system for different software projects so all the build dependencies don't clutter up your main system
* Regular kernel and graphics driver (Mesa) updates so you don't have to wait for the next OS version to get the latest hardware support and fixes
If you do end up trying Fedora, consider installing Dash To Dock to get a Mac-like dock for launching apps <https://micheleg.github.io/dash-to-dock/>. It should be available from Fedora's built-in Software app.

Oh, great! Thanks!
Oh yes. I have spent so much time doing this. Font. Font size. Font colour. Background colour. Transparency of the terminal window as a whole. How do I feel today? Do I want a green font so bright that it bleeds into the pixels nearby? Hmm... better switch to that CooLRetroTerm, see how that looks. Add some screen artifacts to make it look like a CRT monitor from the eighties. Or maybe that one with the orange text. Add a rolling pulse to the terminal, simulate a slowly failing CRT.
So much time spent making modern hardware look like I'm working on a something I found in a skip outside a bankrupt IT firm in the mid-eighties :/
That hasn't been true since Windows NT was released. If Windows isn't a real operating system, then what is that castrated wannabe-Unix with a Fisher Price look & feel called macOS?
Besides, with WSL, you can use Windows 10 just like you use Ubuntu - fully supported by both Microsoft and Canonical. With WSL 2, shipped with Windows 10 2004, now even Linux-GUI-apps can be run on the Windows desktop.
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2020/05/run-linux-apps-on-windows-10-wsl-2
But let's be frank here for a minute: All three options suck in their own individual ways. With Linux you might be in full control, but for that you pay the price that the industrial world has left you behind and it's hard to find commercial quality software. In Linux, it's not that you -can- do everything yourself, you basically -have to- do everything yourself. In Linux land, people also refuse to pay for software - that's the real reason why they are using Linux in the first place: Everything -must- be free as in beer, not speech. And most of the time, these exact same people who don't want to pay for software license fees use free and open source software to create and sell proprietary services - which unfortunately is the only feasible way to make a living with Linux.
As for things like Little Snitch: Why would you need something like that in an Open Source ecosystem? In any case, it seems this Open Source app could be what you're looking for: https://douaneapp.com/
C/C++ IDEs: I don't code in C, but Code::Blocks looked quite nice. Small footprint, fast, limited support for other programming languages, and the "good old" Borland look & feel.
http://www.codeblocks.org/
If Code::Blocks doesn't feel right, maybe you want to take a look at the C++-modes for the big Java IDEs, NetBeans and eclipse.
Visual Studio Code - or its fork VSCodium - actually is a decent code editor. Telemetry can easily be switched off in the original Microsoft build of it, and the only point of the VSCodium fork is that is has telemetry switched off by default. However, in both versions you still have to check each and every third party plugin - some of them bring their own telemetry "radios" with them. https://code.visualstudio.com/
(In direct comparison, Atom sucks - and since Microsoft bought Github, it's now also a Microsoft product, so religious arguments don't count anymore.)
Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/install-linux
Doesn't Ubuntu even have a built-in dropbox client that you can activate under "Internet accounts"? Truth be told, I trust Microsoft more and rather use OneDrive instead...
Other than that, you might want to look at Nextcloud as an alternative for --all-- these needs. There are also companies out there who host Nextcloud instances and you just rent an account there, if you don't want to host Nextcloud yourself (which you should).
https://nextcloud.com/
Those XPS notebooks are the best on the market - Enjoy the new Linux machine!

2) Something like Little Snitch is necessary in an open source environment because that doesn't mean there are not bad actors. I can't audit all the code I run, so I'm relying on others and trust them to do that. Also, code like Dropbox, Slack or any game from Steam or GOG will also run and they are not fully open source. I want to know what program is connecting to the internet and block it. It's amazing that something like Little Snitch doesn't exist on Linux.
1) https://github.com/gustavo-iniguez-goya/opensnitch
2) https://cryptomator.org/ May be you can convince your Dropbox opposites to give it a try...
IMHO: Dropbox or MS or whoever does not matter: all data (at least important data) in the cloud should be encrypted by ones own. THEN one can use whatever one like!
@Winfried Maus: WSL is mightiness of Linux packed with surveillance of Windows. Best of both worlds! :-P
Welcome to Tortuga - Ye Banished Privateers - Songs and Curses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnVKiWE2ka8
So this https://douaneapp.com/ does not do what Littel Snitch does? From what it says on the project webpage, it sounds like it provides similar funcationality - and it was designed for Linux.
As others have said, there is a Dropbox Linux client, works pretty well in my experience on every distro I've tried.
I'm surprised you're having issues with slack. Don't know how you installed it, but I would stay clear of the ubuntu store. It installs snaps by default - which have their issues. I prefer a plain old debian package. Works fine most of the time.
Regarding the IDE, I'm impressed by the Jetbrains IDE suite. I mostly do Go, C# and some javascript. But there's https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/ for c/c++. Maybe try it out.
Good luck!
Maybe they've improved it, or it's just not an issue for you.
First thought that came to my mind was - don't count the chickens just yet.
Ron, the whole Linux gaming community is hyped and looking up to you, no backtracking now!
Slack should work, if it does not you might want to file a bug report. It depends on the Linux distribution you use and how you get that software (and what from). You can also try alternative clients such as Franz for example.
You should be able to copy/paste in your terminal just as well, it depends on the terminal emulator you use of course. In general CTRL+SHIT+C does copy, and CTRL+SHIFT+V does paste in most terminal emulator anyway.
Try launching it from the terminal and you might get some debug output that allows you to easily google the problem you are hitting.
No no no. Anything is possible on Linux... it's just scary and often convoluted when you're digging into these kinds of things. ;)
The second post in the following thread ended up being how i remapped my Caps Lock to function as Esc while still retaining Caps functionality (even though I never use it), for example: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=248433
There's other ways too, but that ended up being the more interesting choice for me. I imagine what you would want, if using that approach, is "ctrl:swap_lwin_lctl" (Swap Left Win with Left Ctrl).
Keep in mind also that in some contexts keys are called "Super" rather than "Win", and "Meta" instead of "Alt". Plus if you're super into extra hotkey 'layers' you can probably switch one key out to become a "Hyper" key. Check out the Space Cadet keyboard for some really outrageous keyboard history. Outrageous and frankly a bit lewd.
also ufw is installed by default on ubuntu
Install slack from snap store and Dropbox from flathub. This will solve all incompatibility issues.

I wouldnt trust cloud storage at all. If i must put somethin on the cloud it would be encrypted with a 25 char password.
Thank you master.
Dropbox shouldnt be much of an issue. It's well integrated in the Gnome-Desktop, so the tools are available. IIRC you can use Dropbox via webdavs, too?
I'd recommend rclone - not only because it's a fairly simple procedure:
- make a folder
- set up rclone dropbox with `rclone config`
- mount dropbox onto the folder with `rclone mount --daemon` (https://rclone.org/commands/rclone_mount/)
but also because rclone is a great tool to learn in general for moving files between computers/servers/services.
As far as I know, anything selected goes into one of buffers and gets pasted on middle mouse button.
I have no idea how this translates to Linux.

Hopefully, Macs take an unexpected turn for the better in the coming years.
Concerning Little Snitch, here's an active fork of OpenSnitch that you can try out:
https://github.com/gustavo-iniguez-goya/opensnitch
https://www.kevin-custer.com/blog/disabling-snaps-in-ubuntu-20-04/
1. Why have you chosen Ubuntu (by Canonical)? Y would you recommend a really community driven Linux Distribution like Debian (+ Cinnamon and/or Gnome 3). I'm really happy with it and its philosophy, and as I can understand, you would like that more than Ubuntu.
2. About the annoying Ctrl + Shift + C (etc) default configuration (same for pasting) you have to go to Preference => Shortcuts => And once there, reassign the keys to Ctrl + C (etc)
3. Some time ago I installed Slack on Debian with no problem.
There are ways to map the Super Key (or Alt key) globally to copy and paste involving xmodmap or other futzing (which terminal you use might change the copy and paste shortcuts) - i'd recommend searching for "global copy paste shortcut linux" for some good results. "Binding Super+C Super+V to Copy and Paste" seems to be an article describing what you want.
I run an old version of the Windows 1Password via WINE on Linux, but the browser extensions have started falling apart and I'll be transitioning completely to Bitwarden soon. We'll see how that goes!
For a number of years now I've been running Ubuntu/XFCE through Crouton on an old Acer Chromebook, first Trusty and now Xenial, and I've always had Dropbox up and running. I installed from the terminal, and it auto starts with the laptop, little icon up by the clock, synchs in the background, shows as a folder that I can access through window or command line...haven't needed the web interface ever.
I do remember though that installation wasn't an entirely obvious process.
Maybe something's changed, though. I had to go off Dropbox when they limited filesystems supported on Linux to just ext4 and I'm running cryptfs and I moved to Nextcloud. As far as I know, however, they've since reversed that decision.
I'd also recommend creating a bash script for initial system setup that removes / installs packages and does customizations. This way when the OS is re-installed, doing the customizations will take a second instead of hours (dconf and gsettings commands are your friends).
Ubuntu is basically Debian Testing with Ubuntu packages that slow the system down.
I think I've used the slack web interface. I'm not sure how uptodate snap packages are now. Have you tried downloading from their webpage. They probably have a package available.
Your little snitch problem is interesting. An ipfilter rule could be created to scoop all the outgoing connections and only allow them if a script says they can pass. I may have an idle look at the problem later
are you going to program a new game?