Why I Switched From Ubuntu to Manjaro Linux

For more than a decade, Ubuntu was my Linux distribution of choice. But, for the first time in a long while, I distro-hopped. I now run Manjaro and couldn’t be happier. It’s just that good!

Ubuntu Is Still Great, Too!

I still rate Ubuntu very highly, and I have great respect for Canonical. Over in the corporate world, no one comes close to the success Red Hat has had with promoting Linux as a serious enterprise infrastructure tool. You could make the same argument for Canonical, and its success with making Linux accessible for newcomers to the Linux desktop.

A lot of people who use Linux for the first time stick a toe in the water with Ubuntu. Once they’ve found their feet and get a bit of experience, some people move on to other distributions. I’ve heard the same story many times, both in-person and online. People tell me they’re on a particular distribution—Fedora, Debian, you name it, I’ve heard it—but they started on Ubuntu. If their current distribution had been their first foray into Linux, they doubt they would have stuck with it. That’s a massively important role for Ubuntu to play.

No business or company is perfect. Canonical has made some ill-considered moves through the years, such as foisting the Unity desktop—designed to maximize screen space on netbooks—onto all other computers. But, tellingly and reassuringly, it has listened to its user base and reversed some of those decisions. The Amazon search results by default, which were removed, are a good example. On the whole, I still consider Canonical to be a force for good in the Linux-sphere. My decision to move had nothing to do with the organization behind Ubuntu.

So, why did I move to Manjaro, and is it right for you?

Manjaro Blows Past Ubuntu in Speed

For research and other purposes, I keep a lot of VirtualBox images of different Linux distributions. It was hard not to notice that Manjaro in a virtual machine was almost as fast as Ubuntu running on my hardware.

That was a compelling factor because I often need to compile big codebases. The faster my computer can get through that task, the faster I can move on to the next.

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Geek Trivia: Which Of These Elements Was Discovered In Space Before It Was Found On Earth?

Which Of These Elements Was Discovered In Space Before It Was Found On Earth?

Plutonium Helium Beryllium Iridium Think you know the answer?

Chrome Now Hides WWW and HTTPS:// in Addresses. Do You Care?

Google Chrome 76, released a few days ago, has a surprising change: It hides the www. and https:// for website addresses in the omnibox, or address bar. This comes after an outcry when Google tried this back in Chrome 69.

As spotted by Bleeping Computer, the latest stable version of Chrome now hides these parts of URLs. So, if you go to “https://ift.tt/2YvuPD9;, Chrome’s address bar will just say “howtogeek.com”.

If you still want to see the full URL, you can. Simply double-click in Chrome’s omnibar (address box) to reveal it. If you have Google’s Suspicious Site Reporter extension installed, Chrome will always show the full address. There’s also a Chrome flag you can disable—just head to chrome://flags/#omnibox-ui-hide-steady-state-url-scheme-and-subdomains

Chrome now hides WWW. and HTTPS:// in its address bar. Do you care? https://t.co/JkRZzJYNYp

— How-To Geek (@howtogeek) August 1, 2019

Google thinks these details aren’t important. You can still tell if you’re using an encrypted https:// address by looking for the lock next to the website’s name—or, more accurately, the absence of the “Not Secure” indicator you see on unencrypted http:// addresses. Google already hid the “http://” from unencrypted websites.

And, while addresses like “www.howtogeek.com” and “howtogeek.com” can technically point to different web pages, they almost never do.

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Some Windows 10 Users Are Trapped in S Mode

Daily News Roundup: 32 Million Patient Records Breached in Just Six Months

Protenus, a healthcare analytics firm, says hackers and other bad actors breached 32 million patient records in the first six months of 2019. That’s double the total breaches for all of 2018.

2019 is shaping up to be a bad year for personal information. With 32 million patient records stolen in just six months and no signs of slowing down, it seems like everybody is receiving notice to lock down their credit. And that’s to say nothing of breaches in other institutions.

According to Protenus, hackers were responsible for 60 percent of the breaches in those six months and hospital insiders were responsible for a total of three million patient records stolen.

In the single most significant breach, hackers targetted a medical collections agency and stole the patient records for 20 million people. That stolen data ended up for sale on the dark web.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to prevent someone from stealing your data from a hospital or doctor’s office. Ultimately, it’s up to the institutions to implement better security.  The best thing you can do currently is to freeze your credit. You may want to consider the freeze even if you’re the last person on Earth who hasn’t had their data stolen. [Engadget]

RELATED: Credit Freezes Will Be Free Soon, Helping You Stop Identity Thieves

In Other News:

• Lyft pulled 1,000 electric bikes from service after two fires: Two Lyft e-bikes caught fire while in its docks in San Francisco. Given the nightmare scenario of riding a bike that catches on fire, Lyft has wisely chosen to take its e-bikes out of service while it investigates what happened. [Gizmodo]
• Google is actively testing a new Play Pass subscription service: Subscriptions for app stores are on the way. Apple is working on an Arcade subscription service and Google is testing the waters with a Play Pass subscription. According to screenshots, $5 a month gives you access to hundreds of apps and games. [Android Police]
• Alexa may answer more complicated questions in the future: Amazon is working on making Alexa more intelligent. That includes complicated questions such as, “Which Nolan films won an Oscar but missed a Golden Globe?” The process is complicated because Alexa needs to figure out you mean Christopher Nolan, find his awards for Oscars and Golden Globes, and then compare and contrast that information. But Amazon says it has the process figured out. Neat! [TechCrunch]
• Apple is joining the Data Transfer Project: Last year, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter launched the Data Transfer Project. The goal is to make it easy for you to transfer data from one service to another. Eventually, that would entail direct transfers with no download on your part. Apple joining adds another strong voice to the plan to give you greater control of your data. [The Verge]
• NanoLeaf’s smart lights will double as smart buttons for Homekit: If you have (or are interested in) NanoLeaf’s beautiful modular smart light squares, the devices are picking up a new feature—touch controls. You’ll soon be able to touch the lights to control your smart home, at least if you have Homekit powered home. Hopefully, they expand to other ecosystems in the future. [MacRumors]

The Solar Light Sail 2, currently cruising above the Earth, is raising its orbit. That may not seem impressive at first, but the spacecraft is using light for propulsion. The craft has a boxing ring sized sail designed to catch light particles. While light particles don’t have mass, they do have carry momentum. In this case, enough to give the spacecraft a push.

The Solar Light Sail 2 is in an elliptical orbit, so eventually, it will come crashing down to Earth. Raising it’s orbit right now will only speed up that process. But the project proves that solar sails are viable means of propulsion for satellites too small to depend on traditional fuel engines. [Space.com]

How to Enter Zero Before a Number in Excel

When entering numbers into Excel, zeros at the beginning of the number are removed. This can be an issue when entering phone numbers and IDs. In this article, we will cover ways to solve this problem and keep the leading zeros.

Keep the Leading Zero as you Type

If you wanted to ensure that the leading zero is kept when typing, enter a single quote before you type the number.

This instructs Excel to store the value as text and not as a number.

When you press “Enter” to confirm, a green triangle is shown in the top left corner of the cell. Excel is checking that you intended to do that or if you want to convert it to a number.

Click the diamond icon to display a list of actions. Select “Ignore Error’ to proceed and store the number as text.

The green triangle should then disappear.

Apply Formatting to Keep the Zero

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