Blog posts written by Igor Ljubuncic

Igor Ljubuncic
6 June 2019

Snapcraft confinement & interfaces

Desktop Article

Snaps. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the OSS Snapcraft. Its continuing mission, to provide snap users with simple, clear and effective tips and tricks on how to build and publish their applications. In this tutorial, we are going to talk about confinement and interfaces – how to restrict what your snaps can ...

Igor Ljubuncic
23 May 2019

Snapcraft parts & plugins

Desktop Article

Last week, we published Introduction to snapcraft, a tutorial that provided a detailed overview of the snap build process. We touched on the concepts like snap ecosystem components, snapcraft command line, snapcraft.yaml syntax, and more. We’d like to expand on the first lesson, and today, we are going to talk about parts and plugins, use ...

Igor Ljubuncic
16 May 2019

Introduction to snapcraft

Desktop Article

First steps are always hard, especially in technology. Most of the time, you need a primer, just the right dose of knowledge, to get started with a platform. This tutorial and upcoming sequels are designed to provide developers with simple, clear and effective tips and tricks on how to build and publish their applications as ...

Igor Ljubuncic
2 May 2019

Switch life mode to FUN with some cool Linux games

Desktop Article

If you think of the Internet as a big flat disk balancing precariously on the shoulders of titans, one of those titans happens to be gaming. People use their computing devices for a range of tasks, but playing games, solo or online, with friends or against friends, is a universal activity that crosses countries, cultures, ...

Igor Ljubuncic
11 April 2019

Make compelling videos with free software: Director’s Cut

Desktop Article

Creating videos is easy. Creating great videos, not so much. A good production starts with an idea, but it also requires talent, time and tools. We cannot do much about the first two, but we sure can give you some nice ideas on the tools you want to make snappy videos. Typically, a video production ...

Igor Ljubuncic
28 March 2019

Snap startup time improvements

Desktop Article

Several months ago, we shared an article titled I have a need, a need for snap that detailed the application performance results of snaps compared to their classic repo counterparts. We tested GIMP and VLC on both Ubuntu and Fedora, with some rather interesting findings. The one aspect of the application usage sequence we did ...

Igor Ljubuncic
21 March 2019

Magic Wormhole – Send files with ease

Desktop Article

Sharing is caring. Alexander the Great File transfer is the bread and butter of information exchange in the digital world. Documents, photos, videos, we share them with our colleagues and friends. The only problem is, the Internet is a global village with many languages – and we’re talking about software, not humans. If you want ...

Igor Ljubuncic
14 March 2019

Make your snap development faster

Desktop Article

“All my centurions develop using snaps.” Julius Caesar By and large, software development can be an enjoyable process. Until you hit the first error, that is. At that point, you want to get past the stumbling blocks as quickly as possible and resume building your apps. A robust, flexible development framework can make a big ...

Igor Ljubuncic
7 March 2019

How to create snapshots of your snaps

Desktop Article

Data backups are arguably the most important part of one’s software setup. While many scenarios fall into the realm of if, data loss belongs in the when domain. Over time, every one of us will experience some kind of hardware failure, be it an optical disk, a hard disk or a lost phone. It is ...

Igor Ljubuncic
28 February 2019

How to backup your application settings

Desktop Article

A reliable data backup plan should be an integral part of everyone’s software arsenal. If you accidentally delete your files, or something goes wrong in your setup, you will have your data safely stored in another location. This will allow you to recover quickly and resume working. Likewise, if you suffer a hardware failure or ...

Igor Ljubuncic
7 February 2019

Zero to Hero – Snap me up before you GO!

Desktop Desktop

Two weeks ago, my colleague Alan wrote an article on how one goes about packaging an application as a snap. The focus of that piece was a handful of tips and tricks that should make the transition from raw code to a working snap easier and more fun. Today, I’ll give you a slightly different ...

Igor Ljubuncic
31 January 2019

Where eagles snap – A closer look

Desktop Desktop

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about snap security, taking a journey through the eyes of a developer and handing over to a user who wants to install applications from the Snap Store. We discussed concepts like application confinement, interfaces, store review, and automatic updates. Today, we will look under the hood, and examine ...