Software selection for Linux in Q2 2021

With the release of Ubuntu 21.04, official support for fractional scaling was announced. I decided to do a fresh install on my desktop system to check out solely this feature. To speed up the post-install configuration phase and to score an easy blog post, I made a list of the software I use every day.

Enabling Numlock and tap to click on the login screen of Zorin OS (and Ubuntu)

I don't have too many pet peeves, but a disabled Numlock is annoying as hell, especially if you type numbers a lot. It is also infuriating if you physically have to click the trackpad instead of just tapping lightly once you got used to this feature in Windows. When I used a Macbook Pro for a few months this has baffled me but I didn't realize you can enable tap to click in system preferences.

Using Barrier to control multiple computers regardless of operating system

I don't often use multiple monitors at once, but when I do, I'm using multiple computers too. I'm mainly doing this to test websites on multiple operating systems as my desktop machine runs Linux Mint and my work laptop has Windows 10 on it. Of course I could use Virtualbox to run any number of operating systems, but having a separate device makes things a bit more simple for me. What I despise is using the laptop keyboard and the trackpad. Wouldn't it be nice if I could use the desktop keyboard and mouse on the laptop too?