Installing Visual Studio Code on Linux

 As part of the LinuxMint journey described here, as part of setting up the development environment I chose to get Visual Studio Code on the system.

There are two ways to install the same. One way is to grab the *.deb (Debian) package from Microsoft Visual Studio code website.

Alternatively you can use the following from the command prompt

wget -qO- https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor > packages.microsoft.gpg

sudo install -o root -g root -m 644 packages.microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/packages.microsoft.gpg] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list'

  rm -f packages.microsoft.gpg

  sudo apt install apt-transport-https

   sudo apt update

  sudo apt install code # or code-insiders

Installing Opera with Linux

 As part of starting the LinuxMint journey, the first software I got it on the computer was Opera. However installing Opera is not straight-forward because the package is not configured out of the box from the Linux distribution. There are two ways to install the same.

1) Download the *.deb (Debian) package from Opera and install the same.

Alternatively follow these instructions on command prompt for the same.

    sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ stable non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera.list'

    sudo sh -c 'wget -O - http://deb.opera.com/archive.key | apt-key add -'

    sudo apt-get update

    sudo apt-get install opera-stable

A Gentle Journey with Linux Mint

 Had a few assignments to complete through Linux platform and hence chose LinuxMint this time. The code name for 20.x version is #Uma (a sweet Indian name)

If I recall my first date with Linux Mint it was exactly 10 years ago (2011) but due to a lot of personal turbulence the exploration got totally and abruptly stopped and forgotten. And interestingly and with divine bless there is a reunion now.

Overcoming Windows Block limitation of Downloaded Files

The biggest trouble at times with Microsoft Windows is that after downloading a file it blocks you from opening the same citing unavailability of its listing in Microsoft Store Screenshot below

 

 

Fortunately there is an easy way to address this situation. Locate the file where you have downloaded the same and navigate to properties. There will be a new checkbox called Unblock. Just select the same and click Apply/OK.

 

This tip is to overcome the limitation imposed by Microsoft Windows. However to make sure your computer is not inadvertently exposed to security risks, make sure there is a full fledged antivirus running in realtime to monitor all file activities.

 

 

Soft way to peek into the other branch in GIT

 At times we may need to have a softer way to peek into the other branch of GIT particularly when trying to resolve Merge Conflicts with Azure DevOps because the latter does not have a friendly GUI for the same in its web-based Pull Request.

The following quick GIT commandline would help in here handy:

git pull --no-rebase origin   <desired branch name to pull from>