This guide delves into the key factors to consider when choosing a PC webcam, empowering you to capture your moments with clarity and confidence:

1. Resolution and Image Quality:

Webcams boast varying resolutions, ranging from standard definition (SD) to high definition (HD) and even ultra-high definition (UHD). As the resolution climbs, so does the image’s crispness and detail. For professional applications like video conferencing or live streaming, a webcam with Full HD (1920×1080) resolution or higher is recommended.

2. Frame Rate:

Frame rate dictates how smoothly the image appears on your screen. A higher frame rate ensures a smoother, more seamless viewing experience, particularly crucial for video calls and live streams. Most webcams offer 30 frames per second (fps), which suffices for most applications. However, if you seek a more professional-grade experience, consider options with 60 fps or higher.

3. Field of View:

The field of view (FOV) describes the area the webcam can capture. A wider FOV encompasses a larger space around you, while a narrower one focuses on a specific area. Selecting the right FOV hinges on your intended use. For video calls, a wider FOV helps capture more of your surroundings. For live streams, a narrower FOV might be preferable to zoom in on your face or a specific object.

4. Microphone:

Many webcams come equipped with built-in microphones, a valuable asset for video calls and recording audio. If video recording is a primary use case, pay close attention to microphone quality. Some webcams boast high-quality mics with noise cancellation, while others may have lower-quality microphones prone to picking up background noise.

5. Additional Features:

Certain webcams offer bells and whistles like autofocus, low-light correction, and privacy shutters. Autofocus keeps you in focus, while low-light correction enhances image quality in dimly lit environments. Privacy shutters physically cover the lens when not in use, offering an extra layer of security and peace of mind.

6. Price:

Webcam prices range from a budget-friendly $20 to $200 or more. The price hinges on features and quality. Setting a budget before your search helps ensure you find a webcam that aligns with your needs without exceeding your financial constraints.

Beyond the Basics:

While the aforementioned factors are fundamental, several other aspects deserve consideration:

Mounting options: Does the webcam clip onto your monitor, rest on a stand, or offer both options? Consider space constraints and ergonomic preferences.

Software compatibility: Ensure the webcam is compatible with your operating system and frequently used video conferencing or recording software.

Brand reputation: Look for reputable brands known for quality and reliable customer support.

Navigating the Choices:

With a plethora of webcams available, narrowing down your choices can feel overwhelming. Here are some pointers:

Identify your primary use case: Are video calls essential, or are you planning on video recording or live streaming? Understanding your main purpose helps prioritize features.

Set a realistic budget: Determine how much you’re comfortable spending to guide your search within your financial limitations.

Read reviews and compare models: Research online reviews and compare specifications of shortlisted models to make an informed decision.

Popular PC Webcam Brands:

Leading manufacturers renowned for producing high-quality PC webcams include:

Logitech: A trusted name in PC peripherals, Logitech offers a diverse range of reliable and user-friendly webcams known for their performance and durability. Especially the logitech c920 cam and logitech c920 software.

Microsoft: Microsoft’s lineup of webcams boasts seamless compatibility with Windows operating systems, offering intuitive design and robust functionality.

Razer: Catering to gamers and content creators, Razer’s webcams prioritize high resolution, low-light performance, and customizable features for streaming and broadcasting.

Creative: Creative’s webcams are celebrated for their versatility, affordability, and extensive feature sets, appealing to a broad spectrum of users.

Tips for Choosing the Right PC Webcam:

When navigating the myriad of options available, consider the following tips:

Define your usage scenarios: Determine the webcam’s intended purpose, whether for casual video calls, professional presentations, or content creation, to guide your selection process.

Establish a budget: Set a budget that aligns with your financial constraints, balancing features and performance to maximize value.

Research and reviews: Prioritize webcams with positive reviews and ratings, leveraging user feedback to assess performance, reliability, and user satisfaction.

Compatibility considerations: Ensure compatibility with your computer’s operating system and any intended software applications to avoid compatibility issues. You can use the Logisofter website to get Logitech software for example.

Warranty and support: Opt for webcams from reputable manufacturers offering warranty coverage and reliable customer support for peace of mind and assistance as needed.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, PC webcams play a pivotal role in modern communication, empowering users to connect, collaborate, and create across diverse contexts and environments. By understanding the key features, exploring popular brands, and following practical tips for selection, you can identify the ideal PC webcam to elevate your video communication experience. Whether engaging in professional endeavors, educational pursuits, or personal interactions, investing in a high-quality PC webcam ensures seamless, crystal-clear communication and enhances your overall digital experience.

The post Unveiling Your Window to the World: Choosing the Perfect PC Webcam appeared first on B&S_1.

In the intricate fabric of technological progress, prioritizing security remains an indispensable foundation. This discourse delves into the critical realm of fortifying mouse drivers, offering a meticulous exploration of strategies and precautions developers can employ to shield users from potential threats and cyber intrusions. Moreover, we embark on an illuminating journey through the evolving landscape of driver security, assimilating emerging trends and insights for a profound understanding.

II. Signifying the Importance of Driver Security

1. Mouse Drivers and Their Security Implications:

Unraveling the intricate role of mouse drivers within the broader security paradigm. Scrutinizing how vulnerabilities in drivers can be exploited, thereby posing potential risks to the integrity of user systems.

2. Safeguarding User Data:

Delving into the sensitivity of the data processed by mouse drivers. Evaluating the paramount importance of shielding user data and contemplating the potential repercussions of data breaches.

3. The Evolving Security Landscape:

Discussing recent advancements in the cybersecurity landscape and their consequential impact on mouse driver security. Analyzing how emerging threats necessitate perpetual adaptation and enhancement.

III. Identifying Common Threats Against Mouse Drivers

1. Malicious Code Injection:

Investigating the menace posed by injecting malicious code into mouse drivers. Understanding how malevolent entities exploit vulnerabilities to compromise system integrity.

2. Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks:

Exploring the plausible Denial of Service attacks targeting mouse drivers. Analyzing the ramifications on user experience and the stability of system operations.

3. Privilege Escalation:

Comprehending the concept of privilege escalation concerning mouse drivers. Scrutinizing how attackers endeavor to exploit vulnerabilities for unauthorized access.

IV. Strategies for Fortifying Mouse Drivers

1. Code Signing:

Examining the pivotal role of code signing in verifying the authenticity of drivers. Discussing how digital signatures prevent the execution of unauthorized or tampered code.

2. Routine Security Audits:

Emphasizing the necessity of regular security audits for mouse drivers. Articulating how proactive assessments can identify vulnerabilities before potential exploitation.

3. Data Encryption:

Exploring the implementation of data encryption in mouse drivers. Discussing how encrypting sensitive information augments overall security and preserves user privacy.

4. Multi-Layered Security Approaches:

Introducing the concept of multi-layered security approaches for mouse drivers. Discussing how amalgamating various strategies fortifies the overall security posture.

V. Development Best Practices

1. Input Validation:

Stressing the critical importance of input validation in mouse driver development. Articulating how judicious validation prevents input-based attacks, ensuring the integrity of driver functions.

2. Least Privilege Principle:

Introducing the principle of least privilege in driver development. Exploring how restricting access and permissions mitigates potential risks.

3. Secure Coding Guidelines:

Discussing the implementation of secure coding guidelines for mouse driver development. Exploring industry best practices that minimize vulnerabilities.

VI. Collaborative Security Efforts

1. Industry Collaboration:

Discussing the significance of industry collaboration to address security concerns. Exploring how sharing insights and best practices collectively enhances mouse driver security.

2. User Education:

Emphasizing the pivotal role of user education in maintaining driver security. Discussing how informed users contribute to their safety by recognizing and reporting security issues.

VII. Incident Response and Recovery

1. Incident Response Plans:

Highlighting the imperative need for incident response plans specific to mouse driver security. Discussing how organizations can effectively respond to security incidents, minimizing user impact.

2. Recovery Mechanisms:

Exploring recovery mechanisms in mouse drivers. Discussing how swift recovery mitigates the consequences of security incidents, restoring normal functionality.

VIII. Future Trends in Driver Security

1. Machine Learning for Threat Detection:

Exploring the integration of machine learning for driver security. Discussing how AI-driven threat detection identifies and prevents new and evolving threats.

2. Biometric Authentication Integration:

Discussing the potential integration of biometric authentication in mouse drivers. Exploring how biometrics enhances security by adding an extra layer of user verification.

3. Blockchain for Driver Integrity:

Introducing the concept of leveraging blockchain technology to ensure the integrity of mouse drivers. Exploring how blockchain enhances transparency and trust.

Conclusion

In the perpetual motion of technological evolution, securing every facet of computer systems remains paramount. Mouse drivers, often underestimated in terms of security, play an integral role in user interaction and data processing. This comprehensive overview underscores the criticality of securing mouse drivers, advocating for a proactive approach to driver development that prioritizes user safety and system integrity. Stay abreast of emerging threats and ensure a robust defense against potential vulnerabilities in mouse drivers.

The post Elevating Mouse Driver Security: An In-Depth Analysis appeared first on B&S_1.

There’s a wide variety of digital marketing strategies available, but one of the most time-tested and effective among them is email marketing.

The first promotional email was dispatched to several hundred consumers in the late ’70s, resulting in millions in sales for the vendor and birthing a completely new industry — digital marketing. Several decades later, emails continue to be one of the most potent tools for brand visibility and customer acquisition.

To succeed, email marketers must craft a robust marketing strategy. This involves identifying the target audience, setting clear goals, choosing the right campaign type, analyzing outcomes, and other crucial factors.

Equally important is the selection of a suitable email marketing service to deliver promotional messages. If you choose an inadequate software with limited capabilities, even a well-crafted marketing campaign can fail, leading to severe repercussions for your business.

Here are 8 essential features to look for in an email marketing service. 

The Main 8 Features to Consider When Selecting an Email Marketing Service for Your Business Promotion 

#1: Effective Contact List Management 

The ability to manage a contact list is a fundamental feature of any email service. It’s pointless to expend resources reaching out to non-existent email addresses or those that consistently return messages for unknown reasons. These categories are known as hard bounces and soft bounces respectively.

A competent email service provider (ESP) should maintain a clean contact list, promptly deleting detected hard bounces. Soft bounces are given more leeway as the issue could be as simple as a full inbox.

The software should also allow users to customize their lists to automatically reflect recent changes, such as opt-outs.

Example

MailChimp offers an efficient list management system. If a soft bounce reoccurs, another attempt is made three days later. If the issue persists over several campaigns, the contact is classified as a hard bounce and promptly removed from the system.

#2: Accurate List Segmentation 

Like the divide-and-conquer algorithm in programming, segmenting customers into distinct groups and targeting them with specific promotional materials helps email marketers achieve their objectives.

A reliable ESP should allow users to segment customers based on various criteria that can be combined in endless ways. Some distinguishing traits among contacts could include:

• Purchasing habits 
• Gender 
• Devices or browsers used by recipients 
• Click-through rates 
• Location of recipient
• Email client Industry 

Examples 

Several email marketing services, including HubSpot, Campaign Monitor, and MailChimp, offer excellent list segmentation features.

#3: Seamless Integration With Third-Party Software

The power of email marketing services lies in their ability to integrate with other software, particularly e-commerce platforms like Magento or WooCommerce. Any respectable ESP should provide users with the tools to merge its features with those of other software through extensions or APIs.

Examples 

SendGrid offers connections to over 1,500 apps, including Facebook, Google Sheets, and BigCommerce.

HubSpot also provides a comprehensive list of integrations in categories like Advertising (Facebook Ads, Google Ads, RightMessage), Customer Success (Zendesk, LiveChat, Aircall), Sales (Shopify, PandaDoc, Typeform), Lead Generation (Zapier, WordPress, Instapage), and many more.

#4: Optimized A/B Testing 

A/B testing, also known as split testing, is an invaluable marketing approach that helps determine the most effective subject line, content, or design for a specific set of recipients. It involves creating two versions of an email and sending each to a roughly equal subset of your contacts. By analyzing responses, you can identify the more successful version. 

Example

Marketo, an email marketing platform, offers superior A/B testing options. Users can test various subject lines, email sending schedules, and even the “from” line. They can also compare the performance of different message versions.

For instance, with date/time tests, you can segment your contact list so that recipients in different time zones receive your emails at optimal times. This increases the likelihood of them opening and engaging with your message.

#5: Comprehensive Analytics and Reporting

In the realm of email marketing, data reigns supreme. Operating without knowing the effectiveness of your campaign equates to stumbling in the dark. Therefore, a competent ESP should offer comprehensive analytics and reporting tools. This includes a clear, informative dashboard displaying vital metrics such as:

• Devices used by recipients to open emails
• Actions taken on emails (deleting, forwarding, etc.)
• Time spent reading emails
• Parts of emails clicked on
• Gender engagement levels 

With this data, you can refine your email marketing strategy for improved outcomes.

Example 

MailChimp excels in the area of reporting and analytics among ESPs.

#6: Assured Deliverability 

An email marketing strategy, segmentation, and captivating designs created by the best email development company are useless if your emails end up in junk folders.

A proficient ESP should guarantee that users’ messages consistently land in the recipients’ inboxes. One method to achieve this is by offering a dedicated IP address, particularly crucial for businesses sending large volumes of emails (e.g., 100,000 per week or more). 

A dedicated IP address ensures a higher deliverability rate. Also, look for an ESP that offers tools to identify and report potential deliverability issues.

Example

For deliverability, we recommend SendGrid. They have a team of experts dedicated to resolving any deliverability challenges customers may encounter.

#7: Adaptable Autoresponders 

Autoresponders are an excellent tool for nurturing leads, converting them into customers, and ensuring their loyalty. Instead of manually sending a “thank you” message to every newsletter subscriber, for instance, you can set up an autoresponder to do it – a time and money-saving feature.

A competent ESP offers adaptable autoresponders for various stages of the customer journey. Whether a download button is clicked, a new customer signs up on your site, or a purchase is made, an email is sent.

The best part? It all happens automatically without your intervention. You just need to set up the system once considering all possible scenarios.

Example

Campaign Monitor offers excellent autoresponders that handle most of the work for users. As stated on their official website: “Basically, you set the rules around when an autoresponder should be triggered and tell us what emails to send. We’ll do the rest.”

#8: User-Friendly Content Editor 

The design of a promotional email is critical for lead acquisition and customer retention. Nothing tarnishes a brand’s reputation more than a poorly structured or badly designed message. Therefore, a capable ESP should offer an efficient and easy-to-use tool for building emails that include:

• Integration of user’s own HTML or CSS forms into an email
• A variety of ready-made templates
• Image-editing tool
• Responsive design
• Drag-and-drop functionality Users should also be able to save previous designs for future modification and use.

Example

MailChimp offers a functional and intuitive template editor. You can effortlessly drag-and-drop essential elements (images, buttons, etc.) into emails and position them as desired. You can also modify colors, borders, fonts, and perform other key design operations. Just follow the guidelines.

Summary

Choosing the right email service provider (ESP) involves a careful evaluation of key features such as segmentation capabilities, integration, A/B testing options, analytics and reporting, deliverability, autoresponders, and a user-friendly content editor.

These features allow for a tailored and effective email marketing strategy, providing a clear path for user engagement and conversion. Providers like SendGrid, HubSpot, Marketo, MailChimp, and Campaign Monitor offer various combinations of these features, enabling businesses to select the ESP that best aligns with their specific needs and objectives. 

Ultimately, the right ESP can make a tremendous difference in email marketing outcomes.

The post The Key 8 Features of an Email Marketing Service for Elevating Your Business Growth appeared first on B&S_1.

This article provides an analysis of the top email service providers, focusing on aspects like security measures, user-friendliness, available storage capacity, and management tools. By the end of this read, you’ll be well-informed about what makes an email service provider superior and perhaps even consider switching to a new one. Exploring new options can be quite beneficial.

Predictions indicate that by 2024, the global count of email users will likely surpass 4.4 billion (source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/255080/number-of-e-mail-users-worldwide/), a figure not unexpected considering the current state of affairs with the COVID-19 pandemic. Both large corporations and small businesses are increasingly dependent on email communications for various purposes, ranging from customer service to promotional activities.

The email service provider you choose to use is just as crucial as the content of your emails. There isn’t a universal solution that fits all. Small businesses, for instance, have a rather extensive checklist when selecting a provider.

Factors such as security, email storage capacity, and efficient management tools weigh heavily in this decision. Budget is another critical consideration. Thus, finding the ideal email service provider among the multitude available is indeed a challenging task.

In the following section, we will present a compilation of email service providers that we’ve evaluated based on the aforementioned criteria. But before we do that, let’s delve deeper into the qualities every email service provider should aspire to possess.

Key Features of a Superior Email Provider 

Security

The Internet is notorious for its lack of safety. If an email provider lacks robust encryption measures, there’s a high risk of emails being intercepted by cybercriminals. Therefore, secure providers are indispensable for businesses of all sizes.

Most leading email providers boast features that filter suspicious messages into the spam folder. Emails from unknown sources could potentially be harmful, including common threats like phishing attempts.

We advise our clients to use more text and fewer images in their emails. If images are used, they should not be too small; otherwise, the emails could end up in the spam folder.

Hence, email service providers that effectively block questionable messages have a distinct advantage over others. 

User Experience

A user-friendly interface is a hallmark of a commendable email client. Quick and easy navigation through files and folders is particularly vital in a business environment where time equals money.

The most significant traits of an excellent email client user interface encompass:

• Absence of unnecessary features that could distract users.
• Intuitive design that allows even first-time users to understand the system quickly.
• Customizable settings to cater to individual user needs.
• Rapid information retrieval, whether from the entire application or just a specific section like a folder.
• Compatibility with popular third-party tools like interactive calendars.

Email Storage Capacity

The storage capacity provided by email service providers to accommodate emails and attachments is a crucial factor. Depending on the business requirements, users may need to send sizable files that necessitate long-term storage. This not only requires substantial disk space on the mail server but also connectivity to cloud services like Google Drive.

Typically, free plans offer limited space. However, premium plans provide users with ample room to store their communications and files without the necessity of deletion. 

Organization Capabilities

By organization capabilities, we primarily refer to the ease of arranging emails into folders. Most service providers offer a system to consolidate folders and files. For instance, Gmail employs labels for this purpose, though some users may find it slightly inconvenient.

A quality email service should also offer a range of email templates for crafting various types of messages. These could include templates for business communication, email marketing, friendly letters, among others.

Furthermore, an element of automation is desirable. For example, users should be able to schedule certain emails to be sent automatically at specified times.

Let’s now explore some top-notch email service providers that embody these features. 

A Comparative Study of Leading Email Service Providers Based on Various Parameters 

ProtonMail: The Premier Email Service for Privacy

This email service prioritizes privacy and security, even at the expense of other features such as storage capacity and management for free plan users. To create a ProtonMail account, users simply need to provide a username and password, with no personal details required.

A key feature of ProtonMail is its robust encryption mechanism for all emails exchanged between sender and recipient. This ensures your confidential information remains safe from hackers, a critical consideration in the age of industrial espionage. Moreover, your IP address remains concealed, offering another layer of security.

For users who need certain emails temporarily but not indefinitely, ProtonMail allows you to set a future date for automatic deletion. This feature is particularly beneficial for free plan users, who receive only half a GB of storage space.

Despite these advantages, ProtonMail does have a few limitations worth noting. For instance, changing your account password can result in the loss of all previous correspondence.

Nevertheless, ProtonMail is highly recommended for anyone seeking robust data security. For more details, visit their official website:  https://proton.me.

Tutanota: An Independent, Expert-Run Email Service Provider

The unusual name of this email service might raise eyebrows, but it’s indeed a robust tool for those desiring utmost anonymity in their online communication.

Similar to ProtonMail, Tutanota guarantees full encryption of emails in transit from senders to recipients and vice versa. The unique aspect is that Tutanota employs its proprietary blend of Advanced Encryption Standard and the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman algorithm to render emails hack-proof.

Tutanota operates independently, run by a team of dedicated programmers with a primary focus on security. This independence ensures an ad-free experience even on the free plan.

Regarding storage space, Tutanota offers more than ProtonMail: 1Gb for non-premium accounts. Its email client surpasses ProtonMail in user experience and management.

Like all email services, Tutanota has its peculiarities and issues. For example, some users complain about the lengthy account approval time and the inability to import mail from other clients due to encryption constraints.

However, these are minor inconveniences compared to Tutanota’s benefits. Give it a shot! 

Gmail: A Leading Email Service Provider Focusing on User Experience

Gmail needs no introduction. It’s one of the most widely used email services worldwide, primarily due to its exceptional user interface.

Contrast Gmail’s UI with others, and you’ll understand why it’s highly acclaimed. It’s clutter-free, featuring only essential functionalities. The inbox dominates the UI, automatically categorizing incoming mails into Social, Promotions, and Primary tabs.

The sizable storage space — 15 Gb for free plan subscribers — is another plus. Businesses also value Gmail’s robust anti-spam capabilities.

Gmail’s premium product, Google Workspace, significantly augments the free version’s features, including Excel-like spreadsheets and video calling functionality. 

Yahoo Mail: A Storage Space Behemoth

Yahoo Mail also offers an excellent user experience. As one of the industry’s veterans, launched over two and a half decades ago, it recently underwent a significant UI overhaul to match its competitor, Google.

Much like Gmail, Yahoo Mail’s UI primarily focuses on the inbox. It allows easy grouping of common messages like Photos and has a sturdy anti-spam system.

One standout feature is its massive 1 Tb storage space — dwarfing ProtonMail’s 500 Mb offering. Can you name another email service that permits such vast data storage per account?

For convenience, Yahoo Mail integrates with other email services like Gmail, consolidating contacts and messages in one place.

However, Yahoo Mail’s downsides include intrusive ads for free plan users and the inability to attach files directly from the Internet.

Outlook: A Product of Microsoft’s Ingenuity

No review would be complete without mentioning an email service from the tech giant, Microsoft. Outlook stands apart from other providers on our list due to its distinctive look and feel. However, its intuitive and straightforward user interface ensures that anyone familiar with email clients will find this advanced tool easy to navigate.

Outlook excels in terms of organization features. For instance, if you’ve made a restaurant reservation, this event automatically appears in your calendar without any additional steps required.

Moreover, Outlook offers a suite of apps for accessing a variety of popular services such as PayPal for payment processing and Uber for cab services. Free plan subscribers are provided with 15 Gb of storage space.

Another notable feature of Outlook is its flexible attachment options. Users can share documents from OneDrive as links or attach files stored in cloud services like Dropbox.

In conclusion, Outlook rightfully earns its spot among the top email service providers. The fact that Bill Gates is a contender for the title of the World’s Richest Man speaks volumes about the quality of Microsoft’s products.

Summary

Each email service provider we’ve overviewed above brings unique features to the table. ProtonMail and Tutanota stand out for their robust security measures and encrypted communication, albeit with some minor drawbacks.

Gmail and Yahoo Mail, on the other hand, offer exceptional user interfaces and ample storage space, with Gmail also boasting anti-spam capabilities and Yahoo Mail offering unprecedented storage space. Lastly, Outlook stands apart for its superior organization features and flexible attachment options.

Ultimately, the choice of an email service provider depends on your  individual needs and preferences, whether it’s security, user experience, storage space, or organization features.

The post Five Must-Try Email Service Providers for 2023 – A Detailed Look appeared first on B&S_1.

Managing Leads in a Changing Environment

The days of manually tracking on spreadsheets are long gone. Businesses can connect with potential customers in the contemporary digital era using a variety of touchpoints, such as social media, email, web forms, and live chat. Every encounter provides useful insights into the client’s preferences, routines, and interests. For organizations trying to manage and convert leads successfully without losing important data or failing to respond in a timely manner, this data avalanche poses problems.

A coordinated strategy for software’s performance of its function

Leаd management software serves as a hub to organize tasks and data related.

The program automates and streamlines the entire procedure, taking care of everything from gathering initial inquiries to tracking interactions and guiding them through the sales funnel.

Principal advantages of lead management software:

Efficiency and Productivity: The software’s capacity to automate repetitive processes is one of its most important advantages. Your sales team can concentrate on forming relationships and closing agreements since automated collecting, distribution, and follow-up processes free up their time. The software boosts overall efficiency by doing away with manual data entry and administrative tasks.

Advanced Lead Tracking: With the use of lead management software, you can see in real time how is interacting with you, how engaged they are, and how they are behaving. Your staff will be able to better understand the distinctive qualities of each leаd thanks to this essential information, which will enable them to adjust their approach and communication plan to maximize conversion.

Customers now expect specialized experiences in the age of personalized marketing. With the use of lead management software, you may divide into groups according to their preferences, habits, and demographics. This segmentation enables you to create focused and pertinent communication that connects with certain, strengthening the relationship and increasing engagement.

Rapid response times: Timeliness is essential for conversion. When a lead makes a particular activity or exhibits a certain level of interest, software sends out immediate messages. With the help of this functionality, your team can respond quickly, building on a lead’s engagement and raising conversion prospects.

Effective Lead Nurturing: Not every lead is prepared to buy right away. Through drip campaigns and the distribution of customized information, software enables automatic nurturing. The software guarantees that are engaged until they are prepared to move forward by continually delivering value and remaining on the radar.

Making Informed Decisions: Successful business strategies are built on data-driven insights. Leаd generation and conversion efforts can be thoroughly understood thanks to the thorough analytics and reporting that software generates. These insights enable you to make wise choices, hone your strategy, and gradually improve your procedures.

Scalability without interruption: Managing leаds manually is harder as your organization grows. Higher quantities can be accommodated with ease by leаd management software without sacrificing effectiveness or quality. This scalability guarantees that as your firm expands, your procedures will still be reliable and efficient.

The Best Lead Management Software to Choose

A crucial choice that needs careful attention is selecting the best leаd management software. Easy use, compatibility with current systems (such CRM software), customization possibilities, and ongoing customer support are all things to consider.

Lead Management Software Reviews is a thorough resource encompassing a variety of software options to help you make an informed decision. In order to help you select the software that best meets your needs and the objectives of your business, these assessments include information on features, pricing, user experiences, and more.

Due to this,

Using software is now necessary, not an option, for businesses hoping to flourish in the competitive business world of today. Through the use of this tool, leаds may be collected and nurtured along the sales funnel, streamlining processes, boosting output, and resulting in improved results.

Consider lead management software adoption as a strategic investment in the expansion and prosperity of your company when you set out on your adoption path. You’ll be more equipped to make the proper decision and use technology to transform your strategy if you conduct thorough research and rely on reliable sources like leadmanagement.reviews. This will enhance conversions, revenue, and customer happiness.

The post <strong>Why Your Business Needs Lead Management Software</strong> appeared first on B&S_1.

The Python interpreter is preinstalled in most Linux distributions. According to the TIOBE ranking, python is currently the most cited programming language in search queries. It has a low entry threshold, but it has a wide range of uses.

Using python and Linux “in tandem” can make your life a lot easier. I will talk about how to configure python in Linux to suit the needs of your project.

Defining a Virtual Environment

A virtual environment (or virtual environment) is an isolated environment for a project. It is a “sandbox” where an application runs with its own versions of libraries whose updates and changes will not affect other applications using the same libraries. Thus, the use of virtual environments avoids version conflicts.

The virtual environment with all the necessary settings can be “transferred” along with the application. This makes it easier for another developer to work with your project.

Also, libraries which are needed only in one project can be loaded into the virtual environment and thus do not clog up the global environment.
Checking the python version

As mentioned earlier, python is preinstalled in most Linux distributions. I used Ubuntu version 20.04. You can check the current version of python by using the command: python3 -V.

Updating packages

First I will describe how to work with python libraries on Linux.

The Advanced Package Tool (apt) is a package manager which allows to do different manipulations with packages: install, remove, upgrade, search, download without installing them. All dependencies will be resolved automatically.

A package is an archive containing binary and configuration files, information about where to put them in the file system and a list of installation steps. In Linux python libraries are packages.

Linux has a list of repositories from which packages are installed. The list is stored in the text file /etc/apt/sources.list, and in the directory /etc/apt/sources.list.d/. When you run apt update, apt accesses the list of repositories and from each repository in the list retrieves information about the packages in it. All this information is stored in the operating system.

If a new version of a library is released, apt won’t know about it until the information in the repositories is updated. Therefore if you install a package without updating it, the version of the package that is currently installed will be installed.

To update packages, the following two commands must be run.

The first command: sudo apt update.

The second command: sudo apt -y upgrade.

The -y flag in the command denotes automatic confirmation of installation requests.
Installing the venv package

To work with the virtual environment in Linux you need to install the venv package with the command sudo apt install python3-venv.

Creating a virtual environment in Linux

You can create a virtual environment with the command python3 -m venv my_venv.

My_venv is the name of the virtual environment.

The above command creates a directory named “my_venv” (as well as parent directories that don’t already exist) containing the pip package manager, interpreter, scripts and libraries.

You can use the ls -la command to see the files in the current directory.

If you want to create an environment folder in a specific directory, you must specify the path to the folder instead of the environment name. For example, python3 -m venv ~/my_venv.

The pyvenv.cfg file contains a key that will point to the version of Python for which this command is run.

The bin directory contains a copy/symbolic reference of the Python binaries.

The include directory includes the C headers that compile the Python packages.

The share directory includes python wheels. Python wheels is a ready-made package format for Python that helps speed up software development by reducing the number of compilation operations.

The lib directory in the virtual environment has the same structure as the lib directory in the global environment. And it contains a site-packages folder where the libraries are installed.
Activating the virtual environment.

The virtual environment is created. You have to activate it to start using it.

To start using this virtual environment you have to activate it by running the script called activate:

After activation the console line will be prefixed with the name of the environment.

You can check the version of python.

It is also possible to see a list of installed libraries in the environment.

Installing libraries inside the virtual environment

I will try to install the library inside the environment.

After activation, all libraries will be installed in this virtual environment.

To check how the library is installed, you can try importing it.

If there were no errors when importing, it means that the installation of the library was successful.
Sharing a virtual environment

If you want others to be able to run your project code on their computers, they must have the same versions of the libraries as you do.

To do this, I will create a file with all the libraries and their versions.

Run the following command:

The requirements.txt file contains all the libraries (with their versions) that are installed in this environment.

You can install all these libraries by running a single command in the terminal: pip install -r requirements.txt.

After successful installation of libraries, another person can run your project on his computer.
Deactivating virtual environment

The command deactivate can be used to leave a virtual environment.

In this post I have discussed the topic of virtual environments in Linux. This material will allow you to be more aware of the development process and will make it easier to support your projects.

The post Setting up a Virtual Environment in Linux appeared first on B&S_1.

This is what we will talk about.

Let us first explain the generalities. Distributions will be evaluated from a perspective of a web developer, so do not swear in comments and say that none of the distributions do not fit your profile.

We will evaluate by the following criteria:

Ease of use and configuration – no matter how it is, you have gathered to program, and you need to do the work, not to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to install the right tool, configure the system, update it or solve any problems in the system.

Stability – the system should be stable enough, with a minimum of bugs and errors.

Availability of software – all the tools required for programming should be available and easy to install.

Most often, all of the above advantages have popular distributions with a huge community. Software running on them is also the most stable, as most developers choose them for testing, without neglecting smaller, unknown distributions (hello altLinux).

But in fact, you can use any distribution you like because most of them are based on the top three anyway: Debian, Fedora or Arch Linux. And most likely, what works in the main distribution will also work in the distributions based on it. However, I do tend to favor the more popular distributions, those backed by a large community or company, because they should be better tested and more stable, since more people are working on them. Let’s move on to the list.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distributions developed by Canonical. It is suitable for programming both for beginners and professionals. Virtually every software can be installed via the built-in apt package manager or by downloading a DEB package from the developer’s website. Especially the distributions with a long support period are interesting. Here they are called LTS and are supported for at least two years and sometimes longer, so you don’t have to reinstall them every six months.

In addition, Ubuntu has been officially selected for Android development. The Android OpenSource Project build is regularly tested on fresh versions of Ubuntu.

Not to leave out Ubuntu-make, which will install the programming environment for you

Fedora

Another Linux distribution for programming that is quite popular among developers and is being developed with the support of Red Hat. This distribution comes with all the newest technologies, which in the future will get into Red Hat Enterprice Linux. The creator of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds, likes this distribution.

There are many tools for developers in the official repositories. Of course, there is not as much software as for Ubuntu, but there is enough. There is also a flatpak package manager that can be used to install many programs. Each version of Fedora will last for around 13 months.

openSUSE

This distribution is developed by Suse and, like Fedora, uses *.rpm packages for installing software. It is not as popular as Fedora and Ubuntu, but it provides a good environment for developers. The distribution has two editions: Leap and Thumbleweed. The Leap edition has a fixed release schedule and a support period of one to two years. As for Thumbleweed, the latest versions of packages are always available in the repositories.

You can use the YaST app to configure the system. In addition, the distribution is known for its innovative approach. OpenSUSE was one of the first distributions to offer the default Btrfs file system for the root. You can use *.rpm versions of their packages to install various programming tools. In addition, if any packages are missing, you can use the Open Build System service to get them or install the snap and flatpak package managers.

Manjaro

Manjaro is the most popular of the Arch Linux based packages. The advantage of Arch Linux is that you can build a very customizable desktop environment based on it. However, installing and configuring Arch Linux is quite complicated and takes a lot of time. With Manjaro, you can skip the complicated installation and get an already finished working environment.

The distribution has several editions with different desktop environments. You can use KDE or Gnome, depending on your preference. Manjaro uses a rolling release system, but occasionally there are regular releases that just contain a current snapshot of the state of the repositories. You can use the Manjaro package manager or the custom Arch Linux repository, AUR, to get various development tools.

RaspbianOS ( don’t be surprised )

The Raspberry Pi mini computer was designed as a cheap computer that would make programming more accessible to everyone. Raspbian OS is most often used on these devices and this distribution is not badly optimized for programming. It all adds up to a lot of Python programming instructions on the official Raspberry Pi website. The distribution also contains a visual programming tool called Scratch to help beginners take their first steps in programming.

The distribution itself is based on Debian, so it supports the same package installation methods. However, there might be some problems with some popular programming tools because the Raspberry Pi is an ARM computer and some programs might not work on it. Raspbian releases are quite frequent.

Conclusions

In this article we have covered 5 LINUX distributions from a web developer’s point of view. It is worth noting that these are not all of the distributions currently available, personally, after 4 months of dystrohoping, I chose Ubuntu 21.04 with Gnome 40 installed manually.

The post Which Linux Distribution for a Programmer to Choose appeared first on B&S_1.

Quick instructions

If you are already familiar with the sequence of steps:

tar -jxvf gwyddion-2.49.tar.xz
cd gwyddion-2.49
./configure
make
make install

Unpack the source code

Unpack the archive with the source code with the command

tar -Jxvf gwyddion-2.49.tar.xz

replacing 2.49 with the current version number. This will create the directory gwyddion-2.49 (again with the current version number instead of 2.49), use cd to navigate to this directory. All other build activities will take place there.

If your operating system does not have xz, you can load gwyddion-2.49.tar.gz (compressed with gzip) instead of the previous archive and unpack it with

tar -zxvf gwyddion-2.49.tar.gz

However, modern Unix and similar systems support both gzip and xz, and the noticeably smaller gwyddion-2.49.tar.xz will usually be a better option.

Configuring

Run

./configure

to configure the build of Gwyddion.

The shell script configure tries to guess the correct values for the different variables that change from system to system and that are used during the compilation. It uses these variables to create a Makefile in each package directory, a set of header files with an .h extension that contain system-dependent definitions and some other auxiliary files. At the end it creates another shell script config.status, which can then be used to repeat the current configuration, and a file config.log, which contains details about the detection process and is useful to include in compilation error messages. At the end, configure also outputs a summary of the optional options enabled and disabled, including the reasons why the option was disabled.

If configure writes that the required packages are missing, install those packages and restart it. The same is true if configure succeeds but you find that you forgot to install the optional component you wanted to build Gwyddion with. It is possible that the package was not found or was incorrectly defined even if you installed it, namely if it was installed in a non-standard directory. In this case you should set up certain environment variables to allow you to find these packages:

PKG_CONFIG_PATH

Most packages come with so-called pkg-config (.pc) files which describe how programs are to be built and linked to them. Configure uses the information from these files, therefore the PKG_CONFIG_PATH must be set up so that all the non-standard pkg-config files are listed there. To add e.g. the installed GTK+ library to /opt/gnome and the installed FFTW3 library to $HOME/opt/fftw3, run PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/opt/gnome/lib/pkgconfig:$HOME/opt/fftw3/lib/pkgconfig export PKG_CONFIG_PATH

PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH

You might have to adjust these variables to include non-standard directories with executables and libraries of corresponding packages. The variables LD_LIBRARY_PATH and DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH both specify a search path for shared libraries, but the former is used on Linux and BSD-based systems, whereas the latter on OS X.

CPPFLAGS, LDFLAGS

It may be necessary to set these variables to include non-standard directories with header files and package libraries that have no pkg-config files, e.g. for libTIFF in /usr/local you can set CPPFLAGS=I/usr/local/include export CPPFLAGS LDFLAGS=L/usr/local/lib export LDFLAGS

The –prefix option of configure specifies the base directory for the installation. The program components will be installed in its subdirectories bin, lib, share, etc. (which will be created if they do not exist). More detailed control is possible with options specifying individual subdirectories, such as –bindir, –libdir. The default prefix is /usr/local/bin and if you want to install Gwyddion in the user’s home directory you can use e.g. the command

./configure –prefix=$HOME/opt/gwyddion

If you are installing Gwyddion for personal use this is the recommended option, as it does not require superuser privileges.

Configuration process settings

Optional features can be enabled/disabled with options like –with-foo/–without-foo or –enable-foo/–disable-foo. For example, compiling with zlib can be disabled with the command:

./configure –without-zlib

By default, all optional features are enabled if all libraries required to implement them are found. A summary of the enabled and disabled options is printed in the output of configure near its end.

A complete list of options and important configure variables can be obtained with the command:

./configure –help

The list will be long and most of the options control the enabling/disabling of individual options or passing the necessary compilation and linking flags for the various libraries. For example, by setting FFTW3_CFLAGS and FFTW3_LIBS it is possible to specify (or override) how FFTW3 will be compiled and linked. However, this manual configuration is just a fallback to a much more convenient method based on pkg-config in case this does not work for some reason.

Some interesting general options are described in the following paragraphs.

User settings

Gwyddion comes with various desktop environment interaction files that define MIME types, menu items, file bindings, thumbnail generation, etc. If Gwyddion is installed in the system directory, they are usually in the correct locations on the file system. However, if you install it somewhere in your user directory, these files need to be put in a different location. namely, in certain hidden directories beginning with a dot in your home directory.

This can be set using the –enable-home-installation option of the configure command. Note that using this option will cause files to be installed in directories outside the given prefix.

Package creator settings

If Gwyddion is installed in a temporary directory for further package creation, certain post-installation steps must be disabled on the system where the package will be installed and not at the time of package creation.

FreeDesktop file updating can be disabled using –disable-desktop-file-update. The installation of GConf2 schemas can be disabled with –disable-schemas-install. Normally this need not be done explicitly because installs to a temporary directory use the non-empty DESTDIR variable (see installation section). If the DESTDIR variable is not empty, the build system will skip the post-installation steps automatically. However, a common reason to disable these actions is that Gwyddion is installed in a temporary location instead of the final directory (which is usually the case when building packages in Linux). In this case the helper actions are turned off automatically when the DESTDIR variable is not empty (see the installation section) and therefore there is no need to turn them off in configure.

By passing the –enable-library-bloat parameter to the configure script, it forces modules to link to all libraries. This is automatically enabled on MS Windows, where it is a requirement. On Unix-based systems, linking modules with all the libraries already loaded by the main program only slows things down in vain (both at build time and run time). Thus, modules are not linked directly to main libraries like GLib. If your system or build rules require linking modules to all libraries (on AltLinux based systems for example), using this option enables this behavior.

By passing the –disable-module-bundling option to configure, you can prevent all modules of the same type (file, data processing, …) from being bundled into the same shared library, which is usually done to save disk space and speed up booting. Although this does not change the functionality, it does noticeably change the set of files to be installed. If you are relying on gwyfile.so for whatever reason, it is time to stop doing this. However, you can use this option to force a traditional install where each module is in a separate file.

Settings for developers

If you plan to patch or otherwise modify the source code of Gwyddion run configure with –enable-maintainer-mode to include various update and rebuild rules that are not used in normal compilation. Depending on the type of changes, you may need some additional tools, described in Subversion Snapshot, development.

By default, the C API reference guide is not rebuilt. Prepared HTML files are distributed with the archive, documentation is rarely changed and its generation requires quite a long time. In order to enable API documentation generation, the –enable-gtk-doc option must be passed to the configure script. Of course, you will need gtk-doc. Note that configure will warn you if you have enabled maintainer mode but not gtk-doc (which can be useful to avoid having to rebuild documentation pointlessly and overly). If you do not intend to do make dist, this warning is harmless.

Compiling

Run

make

and wait for Gwyddion to compile. If the configure command completes without errors, the compilation should also succeed. To reduce your waiting time, you can enable a parallel compilation by running make with

make -j6

where 6 should be replaced by the real number of processor cores available.

If you need to do something unusual to build a package, try to figure out how to find out when and what to do, and send patches or instructions to the bug reporting email address so you can include them in the next release.
Installing

Gwyddion must be installed before running, it cannot be run uninstalled.

Run

make install

to install Gwyddion into the target directory. If you install Gwyddion in the system directory, you will need to become root in order to run this command. This is the only command you have to run as root when installing. For example, using sudo

sudo make install

To install Gwyddion to a temporary location, for example to build a package, set the make variable DESTDIR to a prefix that will be added to all target directories:

make install DESTDIR=/var/tmp/gwyddion-buildroot

Do not override individual directory variables such as bindir, libdir.

If you are not installing into the system directory, i.e. installing into a subdirectory of your home directory, you may need to configure the following environment variables during the installation

GCONF_SCHEMA_CONFIG_SOURCE – the location of the GConf2 schemas KDE4_MODULE_DIR – location of KDE4 modules

You may also need to set the XDG_DATA_DIRS variable for full integration with the desktop environment.

If you install Gwyddion to /usr/local and get the error message libgwyapp.so.0 cannot be found, your system seems to be missing standard directories for libraries in the dynamic linker setup. This has been seen on Ubuntu. Edit your /etc/ld.so.conf file and add the line

/usr/local/lib

Running

Running Gwyddion normally requires no additional configuration.

But some desktop environments that are implemented incorrectly can render Gwyddion unusable and this functionality should be disabled. Hijacking the program’s main menu in Unity makes most of the Gwyddion menus inaccessible. This can be turned off by resetting the environment variable UBUNTU_MENUPROXY when you start Gwyddion:

UBUNTU_MENUPROXY= gwyddion

Cancel installation

Run

make uninstall

in the directory where Gwyddion was previously built to remove it. If you have already lost the contents of this directory, you can try to unpack, configure and build it exactly the same way as before and then run make uninstall afterwards, though the result depends on your ability to exactly repeat the build process.

RPM packages

With GNU/Linux RPM-based distributions, it is possible to build RPM packages directly from the source archives by invoking

rpmbuild -tb gwyddion-2.49.tar.xz

where 2.49 is the current version, as mentioned before. This method has been tested with Fedora, openSuSE and Mandriva and the RPM spec file contains some specific directives for those systems. Specific support for other RPM-based systems can be added on request.

The post Build in a Linux/Unix environment appeared first on B&S_1.

Vulkan Packages

The most important Linux components for Vulkan development are the Vulkan loader, validation layers and a few command line utilities to check your computer’s compatibility with Vulkan:

• sudo apt install vulkan-tools: command line utilities, most notably vulkaninfo and vkcube. Run them to see if your PC supports Vulkan.
• sudo apt install libvulkan-dev: installs the Vulkan loader. The loader looks for driver methods in rantime (at runtime) in the same way that the GLEW library does for OpenGL.
• sudo apt install vulkan-validationlayers-dev: installs the standard validation layers that are needed when debugging programs with Vulkan. We’ll talk about them in the next chapter.

Also don’t forget to run vkcube, after which the following should appear on your screen:

GLFW

As already mentioned, Vulkan is a platform-independent API with no tools to create a window to display rendering results. To take advantage of Vulkan’s cross-platform nature and avoid the horrors of X11, we will use the GLFW library for window creation. There are other libraries available, such as SDL, but GLFW is better in that it abstracts not only window creation, but also some other platform-dependent functions.

We will install GLFW using the following command:

sudo apt install libglfw3-dev

GLM

Unlike DirectX 12, Vulkan doesn’t have a library for linear algebra operations, so you’ll have to download it separately. GLM is a nice library designed to be used with graphics APIs and is often used with OpenGL.

The GLM library is a header only library. It can be installed from the libglm-dev package:

sudo apt install libglm-dev

Shader compiler

Now that the setup is almost complete, it remains to install a program to compile shaders from GLSL to bytecode.

The two best known shader compilers are glslangValidator from Khronos Group and glslc from Google. In terms of usage glslc is similar to GCC and Clang, so we will opt for it. Download the binary and copy glslc to /usr/local/bin. Note that, depending on your permissions, you may need to use the sudo command. Run glslc to test, and you should get a warning:

glslc: error: no input files

We will look at glslc in detail in the chapter on shader modules.

Setting up a project for a makefile

After installing all the libraries we can set up the makefile project for Vulkan and write some code to make sure everything works.

Create a new folder in a convenient location and name it VulkanTest. Create a file named main.cpp and paste the code below into it. You don’t have to try to understand it now, it’s important to know if the program will build and run. In the next chapter, we will start with the basics.

#define GLFW_INCLUDE_VULKAN

#include . <GLFW/glfw3.h>

#define GLM_FORCE_RADIANS

#define GLM_FORCE_DEPTH_ZERO_TO_ONE

#include <glm/vec4.hpp>

#include <glm/mat4x4.hpp>

#include <lostream>

int main() {
glfwInit();

glfwWindowHint(GLFW_CLIENT_API, GLFW_NO_API);

GLFWwindow* window = glfwCreateWindow(800, 600, “Vulkan window”, nullptr, nullptr);

uint32_t extensionCount = 0;

vkEnumerateInstanceExtensionProperties(nullptr, &extensionCount, nullptr);

std::cout << extensionCount << ” extensions supported\n”;

glm::matrix; glm::vec4 vec; auto test = matrix * vec;

while(!glfwWindowShouldClose(window)) {

glfwPollEvents();

}

glfwDestroyWindow(window);

{ glfwTerminate();

return 0;

}

The next step is to write a makefile to compile and run. Create a new empty file named Makefile. It is assumed that you already have initial experience with makefiles. If not, this tutorial will get you up to speed quickly.

First, you need to define a few variables to simplify the rest of the file. Define a variable, CFLAGS, to hold the base flags of the compiler:

CFLAGS = -std=c++17 -O2

We use modern C++ (-std=c++17). We also set the O2 optimization level. You can remove the -O2 level for faster compilation of programs, but you still need to return it for the release build.

Similarly, define the linker base flags in the LDFLAGS variable:

LDFLAGS = -lglfw -lvulkan -ldl -lpthread -lX11 -lXxf86vm -lXrandr -lXi

The -lglfw flag connects the GLFW library, -lvulkan connects the Vulkan loader, and the other flags are low-level libraries and dependencies of GLFW itself.

Now you should have no problem defining a rule to compile VulkanTest. Don’t forget to use tabs instead of spaces for indents.

VulkanTest: main.cpp
g++ $(CFLAGS) -o VulkanTest main.cpp $(LDFLAGS)

Check that the build works. Save the makefile and run make from the folder with main.cpp and Makefile. This should result in an executable VulkanTest.

Now you need to set up two more rules, test and clean. Test launches the executable and clean deletes it.

PHONY: test clean

test: VulkanTest
./VulkanTest

clean:
rm -f VulkanTest

Running the make test command will make sure that the program runs successfully. When you close the empty window, the program should end with a successful return code (0). You should end up with a makefile similar to the one below:

CFLAGS = -std=c++17 -O2
LDFLAGS = -lglfw -lvulkan -ldl -lpthread -lX11 -lXxf86vm -lXrandr -lXi

VulkanTest: main.cpp
g++ $(CFLAGS) -o VulkanTest main.cpp $(LDFLAGS)

.PHONY: test clean

test: VulkanTest
./VulkanTest

clean:
rm -f VulkanTest

You can use this directory structure as a template for Vulkan projects. To do that, copy it, rename it, for example, to HelloTriangle and remove all code from main.cpp.

So, now you’re ready for the real adventure.

The post Vulkan – Setting up the Environment appeared first on B&S_1.

In the year 2021 Linux looks more attractive than ever. I am going to write a paper about 21 ways to use Linux. In this article I want to talk about why so many programmers choose Linux.

When I started to use Linux I worked in the film industry. I chose Linux because it was a wonderful operating system for multimedia data. We found that the usual commercial video editing applications were not able to handle most of the footage we were pulling out of just about any camera-equipped device. What I did not know at the time was that Linux had a reputation as an operating system designed for servers and programmers. The more I did with Linux, the more I wanted to learn how to manage all of its features. In the end I discovered that a computer shows its full power only when its user can “speak” its language. A few years after switching to Linux I wrote scripts for automatic video editing, for merging audio files, for batch editing of photographs and for any task I could formulate and find a solution to. It did not take me long to understand why programmers love Linux. But it was Linux that taught me to love programming.

It turned out that Linux is a great platform for programmers, both beginners and experienced. This is not to say that Linux is essential for writing programs. Successful developers use many different platforms. But Linux has a lot to offer to developers. Some of these things I want to talk about.

The Logic of Linux

Linux is built around the idea of automation. The main Linux applications are deliberately made so that they can at least be started from a terminal by specifying additional options. Often they can even be used entirely from the terminal. This idea is sometimes wrongly thought of as a kind of primitive computing model, because there is a widespread (and mistaken) opinion that to write programs that run from the terminal is to make an absolute minimum effort to get a working application. This is the unfortunate result of not understanding how program code works, but many of us suffer from this misunderstanding from time to time. We think that more is always better, so an application with 1000 lines of code should be 100 times better than an application with 10 lines of code. Right? But the truth is, all other things being equal, it is better to choose an application which is more flexible, and it does not matter how many lines of code it consists of.

In Linux, solving a task by hand may take, for example, an hour. You can do the same thing in a minute with the right command line tools, and possibly in less time if you use GNU Parallel. In order to get used to this, you have to change your view of how computers work in a certain way, you have to learn to think differently than you did before. For example, if the task is to add covers to 30 PDF files, one might decide that an acceptable sequence of actions would look like this

• Open the PDF file in the editor.
• Open the file with the cover art.
• Attach the PDF file to the cover file.
• Save the resulting document as a new PDF file.
• Repeat these steps to process the rest of the old files (there is no need to process new files derived from the old ones).

This sequence of actions is quite consistent with common sense, and although it contains a lot of unpleasant repetitions, it achieves the goal. In Linux, however, it is possible to organize the work much more intelligently. The process of thinking about it, taking into account the possibilities of Linux, is similar to the process of thinking about the “manual” way of solving a problem. Namely, it starts by searching for the sequence of actions needed to get the result you want. After doing some research, you can learn about the pdftk-java command and then come up with a simple solution:

$ pdftk A=cover.pdf B=document_1.pdf \
cat A B \
output doc+cover_1.pdf

Once you are satisfied with the command’s ability to handle a single document, you will need to spend some time examining the utilities that handle datasets. In the process, you may find the parallel command:

$ find ~/docs/ -name “*.pdf” | \
parallel pdftk A=cover.pdf B={} \
cat A B \
output {.}.cover.pdf

This presents a slightly different approach to thinking about tasks than usual, because the “code” we write doesn’t handle data the way we’re used to. Normally we are constrained by notions of consistent manual data processing. But going beyond the boundaries of the old notions is important in order to write appropriate code later. And a side-effect of this “going out” is getting the ability to write more efficient programs than before.

Possibilities to manage code relationships

It doesn’t matter what platform you’re programming for when you enter code into the editor. It all comes down to the programmer weaving an intricate network of invisible links between many different files. In almost all cases, except for some very exotic ones, the code refers to header files and uses external libraries to become a complete program. This happens on all platforms, but Linux encourages the programmer to figure it all out for himself and not to entrust the care of it all exclusively to a developer’s tools for some platform.

It must be said that there is nothing wrong with trusting the developer’s tools to find libraries and include external files in the programs. On the contrary, it is a useful feature, the presence of which should cause the programmer only a sense of gratitude. But if the programmer understands absolutely nothing about what is going on, it will be much more difficult for him to take control of it all, if the developer’s tools simply do not know how to handle some problems.

This does not only apply to Linux, but also to other platforms. It is possible to write code in Linux that is intended to run on both Linux and other operating systems. Understanding how exactly the code is compiled helps the programmer to achieve his goals.

Admittedly, this kind of thing cannot be learned just by using Linux. One can happily write code in a good IDE and never even think about what version of some library was installed or where exactly some header files are. But Linux does not hide anything from the programmer. It is very easy to go deep into the bowels of the system, find what you need and read the corresponding code.

Making it easy to work with existing code

It is useful to know where the header files and libraries are, but being able to see their code is another example of the added benefit of programming in Linux. In Linux, you can see the code for just about anything you can think of (except for applications that run on Linux but aren’t ops). The usefulness of this feature of Linux cannot be overstated. As one gets better and better at programming in general, or deals with something new to him, he can learn a lot by reading the existing code in his Linux system. Many programmers have learned how to do their business by reading other people’s open-source code.

When working with systems whose code is closed, one can find developer-oriented documentation with code examples. That’s fine, documentation is important, but it doesn’t compare to being able to discover exactly the functionality you plan to implement and being able to find source code that demonstrates how it’s done in the application you use every day.

Direct access to peripherals

After having developed software on Linux for media companies, I sometimes take for granted the possibility to access peripherals. For example, when you connect a camcorder to a Linux computer you can load incoming data from /dev/video0 or from a similar device. Everything you need can be found in /dev, and it is always the shortest path from point A to point B.

This is not the case on other platforms. Connecting to systems outside of the OS is always a maze built from SDKs, closed source libraries, and sometimes privacy agreements. The situation, of course, is not the same everywhere, it depends on what platform the programmer writes the code for, but other systems are hard to argue with the simplicity and predictability of the Linux interface.

Well-designed abstractions

At the same time, Linux also provides a reasonable set of abstraction layers for situations where direct access to something or manually writing some code can result in more work than the programmer is willing to do. Many handy tools can be found in Qt and Java, and there are stacks of assistive technologies such as Pulse Audio, Pipewire and gstreamer. Linux wants its users to be able to do programming and does not hide it.

Bottom line

There are many more reasons why programming in Linux is fun. Some of them are large-scale concepts, some are tiny details that have saved me many hours of hard searching for solutions to certain problems. Linux is a nice place to be, no matter what platform the code you write in Linux will run on. Whether you are a person who has just started to learn how to write software or an experienced coder looking for a new digital home, there is no better place to program than Linux.

The post 5 Reasons Why I Love Linux Programming appeared first on B&S_1.