Just for fun, I decided to try and imagine what a Linux distro would look like if it got hit by the enshittification stick that seems to affect every digital product of service these days.

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Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 01:25 Big Tech Linux 02:48 Mandatory Account 03:41 Privacy Invasion 04:17 Ads are coming 05:38 Time for AI 06:39 Tiering up 08:54 Final steps 10:41 Parting Thoughts

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Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:42 Sponsor: Extend the life of CentOS 7 02:11 OpenSUSE Leap 16 will be immutable 04:34 Google pretty much gives up on Fuchsia 06:04 Steam Snap creates problems for Valve 07:23 Flathub wants better quality app listings 08:40 A proposal to make Ai content more identifiable 10:20 Online search is getting worse 12:19 Google will let the EU unlink data from their services 13:18 Gaming: Wine 9.0, the Hangover project 15:27 Sponsor: Tuxedo 16:35 Support the channel

#Linux #OpenSource #linuxdistro #Technews #linuxnews

OpenSUSE Leap 16 will be very different

https://linuxiac.com/opensuse-leap-15-6-to-be-the-last-in-its-current-form/

https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2024/01/17/opensuse_confirms_leap_16/

Google pretty much gives up on Fuchsia

https://9to5google.com/2024/01/15/google-is-no-longer-bringing-the-full-chrome-browser-to-fuchsia/

Steam Snap creates problems for Valve

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/01/valve-dont-recommend-ubuntu-steam-snap

Flathub wants better quality apps

https://linuxiac.com/flathub-strategic-shift-to-highlight-high-quality-apps/

A proposal to make Ai content more identifiable

https://mindmatters.ai/2024/01/framework-for-ai-legislation/

Online search is getting worse

https://mashable.com/article/google-search-low-quality-research

Google will let the EU unlink data from their services

https://www.techradar.com/computing/cyber-security/if-youre-in-the-eu-you-can-now-decide-how-much-data-to-share-with-google

Gaming: Wine 9.0, the Hangover project

https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/releases/wine-9.0

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Hangover-9.0-Released

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Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:33 Sponsor: SquareX 01:58 Ranking Criteria 02:44 Ubuntu 03:45 Linux Mint 04:31 Zorin OS 05:23 elementaryOS 05:58 Fedora 06:46 Debian Stable 07:45 OpenSUSE Tumbleweed 08:14 OpenSUSE Leap 08:50 Arch Linux 09:44 Manjaro 10:31 Tuxedo OS 11:40 Pop!_OS 12:32 Solus 13:19 Gentoo 13:51 KDE Neon 14:12 Asahi Linux / Fedora Asahi 14:46 NixOS 15:36 HoloISO 16:09 Nobara 16:39 Vanilla OS 17:06 ChromeOS Flex 17:41 Deepin 18:29 Sponsor: Tuxedo

#Linux #linuxdesktop #linuxdistro #distribution #tierlist

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#Linux #linux2024 #linuxdesktop #linuxdistro #opensource

Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:41 Sponsor: Squarespace 01:42 Goodbye X11 04:00 Open Source Nvidia for everyone 05:52 10% market share with ChromeOS added 07:33 Gaming: more Linux gaming devices 10:11 Packaging formats: still messy 11:37 Immutable distros: not mainstream 12:51 App support: no changes 13:57 Parting thoughts 15:27 Sponsor: Tuxedo Computers 16:25 Support the channel

First, X.org will be even more abandoned. I'm not saying every distro will drop it entirely, but I'm expecting way more distributions and desktops to announce in 2024, that X.org won't be a supported platform anymore in 2025, or at the very least won't be the default session.

I would be surprised if, in 2024, Ubuntu didn't announce something similar for the following year.

The second thing I think we'll see is a fully open source stack for nvidia being available for Linux users. With the Linux kernel 6.7 bringing support for the GSP firmware, letting Nvidia GPUs be reclocked by the open source Nouveau drivers, and NVK now part of Mesa, and providing decent performance already, I'd say 2024 will be the year where Nvidia users can finally enjoy a good experience on Linux without anything extra to install.

In terms of market share, we've seen some healthy growth in 2023, ending the year on a potentially anomalous 3.8%, the highest the Linux desktop has ever been. In 2024, I'd expect this trend to continue: people don't seem to enjoy WIndows 11 that much, and they already didn't enjoy Windows 10 all that much either, and with Microsoft cramming more and more ads in their OS, and potentially moving to a subscription based model for Windows 12, I'd expect more people to give Linux a go, and mathematically, some of them will stick with it.

All in all, I don't think we'll jump to something like 8 or 10%, but I'd be surprised if the Linux desktop didn't reach 5 or 6% on its own, and about 10% combined with Chrome OS.

I would also expect 2024 to see a standalone release of SteamOS for any computer, and I'd say our market share will probably rise to about 3, maybe 3 and a half percent, but it won't be a major change, and the situation in terms of how many games we can play will be relatively stable, with major names still missing.

Now let's talk about the things I feel will stay exactly the same in 2024: starting with packaging formats. What we might see is more distros deciding to provide specific apps using the official snap or flatpak, like RHEL is doing with LibreOffice, because for some apps, it simply makes no sense to repackage them all the time, but that won't change the status quo.

Same thing for what we generally call Immutable distributions. I don't think they'll gain that much popularity in 2024, because they're often linked to using either flatpak or snap, or Nix packages, can't forget about Nix or I'll get comments again, and since we're not making these formats the only choice any time soon, I don't think this group of Linux distros will conquer the general Linux desktop audience either.

As per app support, that's another area where I feel we're not going to see much progress. And I'm talking big name apps, like Office, the Adobe Suite, Autocad, and the like. Even if my predictions for Linux market share come true, the potential revenue from supporting Linux is still low and will still be low, compared to the effort of porting the app, finding a packaging format that allows you to do everything you want, and then supporting that version.

Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton (Mail, Drive, VPN, Pass...) answered a lot of the questions you, the community, asked, in an interview that covers basically everything!

He discusses security, privacy, the origins of Proton, how they operate, Linux support, future projects, products and features, quantum computing, passkeys, and more!

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#vpn #privacy #proton #onlinesecurity #protonmail

Timecodes:

00:00 Intro 01:16 How did Proton start? 03:24 Why start with email? 06:03 What is Proton's business model? 08:34 Why set up in Switzerland? 11:33 What data do you have on customers? 14:39 How is encryption important? 18:20 Do you always need to use a VPN? 20:47 Why focus on building an ecosystem? 24:55 Is an Office Suite planned? 26:29 What differentiates Proton from competitors? 30:26 Is Proton a viable alternative to big tech services? 33:31 Why expand to more products instead of finishing existing ones? 37:19 Does the general public care about privacy? 38:45 What's next for Proton services? 40:08 What are the plans for native Linux clients? 46:03 Will ProtonVPN offer dedicated IPs to everyone? 47:46 What's the environmental impact of Proton? 49:27 Proton on F-Droid, without Google Play notifications? 52:03 Why are code repos all separated and hard to find? 53:12 Why are addresses ending in ".me" ? 54:57 When will all apps reach feature parity? 56:24 Will SMTP relay be supported? 57:47 Will Proton focus more on businesses in the future? 59:50 Why put all your eggs in one basket with just Proton services? 01:01:00 Will Proton support passkeys? 01:03:21 Does E2E matter is the recipient isn't using it? 01:04:49 Will Proton disable port forwarding in VPN? 01:06:41 Is encryption enough to make email private? 01:09:06 What protects users from a change in Proton's code licensing? 01:11:14 How does Proton protect its infrastructure? 01:13:14 Impacts of Quantum Computing on privacy and security? 01:14:24 What's the future of Proton Bridge? 01:16:25 When will Proton photos be a thing? 01:17:17 Plans for Proton Notes? 01:18:20 Will VPN support the Apple TV? 01:21:12 Support the channel

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#Linux #OpenSource #TechNews #Ubuntu

Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:36 Sponsor: 10% off your first ebsite with Squarespace 01:33 Linus Torvalds talks about the future of Linux 03:58 Ubuntu might drop older CPUs 06:57 LXQt working on Wayland as well 08:33 Cosmic gets more improvements 09:48 GNOME & KDE updates 11:45 Gaming: Linux beats Windows, No Fortnite on Linux 15:17 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 16:24 Support the channel

Linus Torvalds talks about the future of Linux

https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-on-state-of-linux-today-and-how-ai-figures-in-its-future/

Ubuntu might drop older CPUs

https://ubuntu.com/blog/optimising-ubuntu-performance-on-amd64-architecture

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Ubuntu-24.04-LTS-Desktop-Plans

LXQt working on Wayland as well

https://lubuntu.me/noble-alpha-featureset/

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Lubuntu-24.04-LTS-Plans

https://lubuntu.me/noble-alpha-featureset/

Cosmic gets more improvements

https://blog.system76.com/post/the-spirit-of-cosmic-december-updates

GNOME & KDE updates

https://pointieststick.com/2023/12/15/this-week-in-kde-un-flashy-important-stability-work/

https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2023/12/twig-126/

Gaming: Linux beats Windows, No Fortnite on Linux

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/12/fortnite-on-linux-steam-deck-not-until-tens-of-millions-of-users/

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/announcements/detail/3860211327585452520

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Windows-11-scores-dead-last-in-gaming-performance-tests-against-3-Linux-gaming-distros.778624.0.html

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Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:51 Sponsor: ProtonVPN 02:21 Standardization and cohesiveness 05:31 Packaging formats and app distribution 07:17 Display, Wayland, HDR, and scaling 09:27 Drivers, graphics and firmware 11:40 Gaming 13:06 App support 14:31 More challenges? 17:02 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 18:00 Support the channel

#Linux #desktop #operatingsystem #linuxdesktop #linuxdistro

Unified theming between desktops is pretty much abandoned as a thing that should be pursued, but we're also seeing an accent colors standard emerge. And that's complimented by the work being done on portals. With portals for settings, screenshots, remote desktops, printing, sending email, creating shortcuts or transferring files, there's now a solid abstraction layer between your desktop and the apps it runs.

But, for now, we're not there yet. These standards are progressing, but they're not all encompassing, and they're not implemented equally across all desktops. The big ones, like GNOME and KDE, sure, but other smaller options aren't there yet.

Packaging formats, at the end of 2023, are in a bad state. Linux packaging has never been messier. As neither flatpak nor snap are fully ready for 100% of applications, some stuff simply can't be packaged using these, and they still have drawbacks that some users don't want to deal with. Which means a lot of app developers still can't say "hey, this is what we should be using now".

The display situation is much better though. X11 is now clearly abandonware, and work on Wayland has been stellar in 2023. Mostly all desktops now have plans for Wayland, everyone is in agreement.

Added to that, work on supporting HDR has moved by leaps and bounds, and we'll see a fully working implementation in 2024. Fractional scaling is now properly implemented on Wayland as well, meaning we can finally do non blurry scaling, with different scaling per monitor, and different refresh rates per monitor as well.

As per drivers, we've seen some solid progress as well. AMD now has solid drivers on launch day for their GPUs, Intel has finished their Xe driver, Arc GPUs are now well supported, and nvidia drivers have progressed a lot. We're also seeing very strong efforts for open source nvidia drivers.

As per firmware, the linux firmware vendor system, or LVFS has also seen broad adoption, letting you apply firmware updates on the fly and easily. This already supplied 100 million firmware updates, and Google is even pushing manufacturers to support that for their own Linux based Chrome OS.

Gaming has been incredible in 2023. Not only did Linux pass macOS market share for Steam, but we've seen great support for the Steam Deck, which, in turn, means great support for Linux. Sure, it's all driven by Proton and Wine, it's not native Linux ports, but my opinion is that it doesn't matter: if you can click install, and then play, and run the game with the performance you'd expect, things are good.

Non steam gaming has also progressed immensely, with Heroic becoming a really fantastic launcher for Gog and EPic Games, and Lutris still handling most of the rest.

Now for app support, I'd say we haven't seen many improvements in 2023. Sure, our own open source apps have progressed this year, but the usual suspects are still missing, that would let a lot more people move to Linux. Still no Office, Adobe apps, a lot of content creation software, or CAD software are still missing, with no indication that it will change.

The big challenge I can see is AI integration in the desktop. It's a move Microsoft is making with Windows 12, adding AI powered search, and automations throughout the desktop. Whether we should chase that trend on Linux, I'll let you decide, but what's certain is that once users have had a few years to get used to one click buttons that save 30 minutes, it will be hard to go back.

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Timecodes: 00:00 Intro Sponsor: Start securing your CentOS 7 fleet now 02:06 Slimbook Hero 03:32 Design & Build Quality 04:45 Specs and options 07:02 Performance & Gaming 09:25 Display 10:06 Keyboard & Mouse 11:20 Software Experience 12:36 Linux gaming laptop? 14:10 Support the channel

#Laptop #Gaming #Linux

It's a 15 inch device, with a 1440p display that refreshes at 165 hertz, with an aluminium chassis, a 13th gen Intel i7 CPU, an RTX 4060 GPU, as much RAM as you could cram into a laptop, and very solid I/O.

So, this thing is chunky: it's not meant to be an ultrabook, it weighs 2.1 kilos, or 4.6 pounds, and it's pretty damn sturdy. Not much give or flex to this chassis, thanks to the aluminium.

The hinge is really solid as well, with minimal wobble when typing. It's a 16:9 form factor. Of course you can open the laptop, and access the 2 M.2 slots for SSDs, the 2 DDR5 RAM slots, and the battery, which is 62 Wh. You can also buy spare parts from Slimbook, including the bezel cover, touchpad, lid, battery, keyboard palm rest, display, and more.

Now, in terms of specs, this laptop is well equipped, with a core i7 13620H, and an Nvidia RTX 4060, with 8 gigs of VRAM.

You can spec the rest up to your liking, with up to 64 gigs of DDR 5 RAM, at 5200 Mhz, and up to 4TB of PCIE4 storage.

You can also choose to dispose with the gamer branding and use a more unified black keyboard instead of having the white accents on the WASD keys, and you can pick any keyboard language you want.

As per I/O, on the left, you get a kensington lock, a USB 2.0 port, probably for a mouse, a mic jack, and a headphone jack. On the back, you have a mindisplay port, USB C 3.2 gen 2 with dusplayport support, HDMI 2.1, a gigabit ethernet port and the barrel charger, since charging this thing over USB would be a challenge. And on the right, there's an SD card reader, and 2 type A USB 3.2 ports.

On top of all that, you get Bluetooth 5.2, Wifi 6, a basic webcam and onboard mic that won't blow your socks off, dual speakers that are pretty decent, and a backlit keyboard with RGB, because, gamer.

In terms of benchmarks, the CPU get a score of 2733 in single core and 11625 in multi core on Geekbench 6.

https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/3787232

Battery life is decent, with about 7h of generic office work with wifi on, 50% brightness, and using the silent mode.

In Horizon Zero Dawn, at the native 1440p resolution, without any upscaling, and at the ultra preset, the Slimbook Hero managed a super smooth 60 FPS.

For Shadow of the Tomb Raider, also at 1440p without upscaling, and the ultra preset, I got 99 FPS on average, sometimes going down to about 80, or up to 120.

The display is really solid, it covers 100% of SRGB, it has a refresh rate up to 165hz, and it's 1440p.

The keyboard is solid enough. The keys are very stable, and they have good travel. They're quite clicky, and the sound is pleasant, and they bounce back super fast, it's very nice to type on.

The touchpad is ok. It's smooth enough, and precise, although it's very off center, which I find annoying in day to day use.

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00:00 Intro 00:59 Sponsor: Proton 02:17 Data grabbing 05:07 Why this data matters 07:41 Laws make it worse 11:11 What you can do 14:04 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 15:07 Support the channel

Playlist on how to De-Google your life: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqmbcbI8U55EfYUVdZfjrfyJyNHD-Bly8

#Privacy #anonymity #private

Virtually everything online now collects data. And this data doesn't just stay at the company that collected it. This data is a giant repository for governments to use and track or monitor their citizens.

See, in a LOT of countries, governments have the right to ask a company to provide all the data they've collected on their users. Companies have no choice but to comply with these, which is also why using end to end, and zero access encrypted services is crucial.

For example, the US can request any company to give them data on a specific user, they've done so more than any other country in 2020. But other countries do the exact same: Germany, Denmark, South korea, France, virtually ever country does this.

If you want even more scary numbers, in 2022, Meta, the parent company for Facebook, Instagram, or Whatsapp, got 827K requests for data. They complied with 76% of these requests.

https://www.globalsecuritymag.com/Meta-received-over-800k-user-data-requests-from-governments-in-2022.html

There are a lot of legal offensives being planned, or already implemented in various countries, so let's look at a few.

In Russia, recent laws from 2017 banned anonymous use of online messaging apps, and prohibits the use of tools that would circumvent government censorship. This means that while VPNs aren't exactly banned, if they let people access banned websites, then they'll also be banned. This has happened to at least 15 VPNs, including NordVPN, ProtonVPN, and OperaVPN.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/01/russia-new-legislation-attacks-internet-anonymity

In Australia, in 2021, a law was proposed to force people to attach their real name to their social media posts, apparently to fight online trolls, bullying and harrassment. Users would have had to provide an ID before opening any social media account, which would obviously open the door to surveillance, monitoring, and censorship.

https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2021/govt-wants-to-end-online-anonymity.html

In France, we have the recent SREN law. This thing would give the telecom watchdog powers to block websites, and require tools for age verification. On top of that, the law will give the government capabilities to demand web browsers and DNS providers block certain websites.

https://adguard.com/en/blog/france-web-browser-dns-blocking-law.html

in the UK, the Online Safety Bill of 2022 allows the regulatory agency Ofcom to force websites to collect people's personal data, and they'll be able to scan, restrict and remove content that is considered harmful. The bill also mandates online communication services to be moderated, which basically means end to end encryption can be enabled there anymore.

https://datainnovation.org/2022/05/the-uks-online-safety-bill-undermines-encryption-and-anonymity/

So, what can you do about this? For protecting your data, there are plenty of things you can do. First, stop using privacy invasive operating systems. If you can't move to something like Linux, try at least to disable all the telemetry you can in Windows or macOS, in Android and iOS. You can try using a degoogled, privacy focused Android ROM on your smartphone.

Leaving Chrome for a more private browser is also pretty much mandatory. Same goes for your online services: stop using Google as a search engine, Gmail, or stuff like Outlook, OneDrive, iCloud, and the like. Using a VPN is also a solid option to at least try and blur the lines.

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#Wayland #X11 #linux

00:00 Intro 00:39 Sponsor: 10% off your first website 01:36 X11 vs Wayland 04:47 What's missing from Wayland itself 06:22 Desktop Environment support 09:07 Wayland & GPUs 10:50 Gaming on Wayland 13:01 Apps & Wayland 14:52 Parting Thoughts 16:39 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 17:57 Support the channel

So, up until recently, all Linux desktops used the X Server, also called X.org or X11. It's a venerable piece of software, that predates even the first release of the Linux kernel, by almost a decade, and X11 is virtually unmaintained now.

And so that's why Wayland was started in 2008. In terms of advantages, it eliminates screen tearing, it lets you have multiple monitors with different refresh rates and different scaling factors, and it's more secure.

https://www.secjuice.com/wayland-vs-xorg/

The Wayland protocol still lacks network transparency: Wayland doesn't support running a program on a computer, and displaying it on another. Some stuff also isn't supported yet, on Wayland OR on X11, for example HDR.

Support for fractional scaling has just recently been added, and isn't fully supported by all major Linux desktops and toolkits just yet. Wayland also doesn't support global shortcuts by default, but it's fixed through a desktop portal.

And we need to look at desktop environments and window managers. GNOME is probably the one with the more robust Wayland support available right now: not the most feature complete, but the most robust.

On KDE, Wayland support is a bit less solid, in my experience, Plasma 6 should be THE release with good Wayland support.

As per other desktop environments: Cinnamon is just beginning, MATE hasn't started, but XFCE has published a roadmap of the things that already work, and the things that need to be worked on. Pantheon, the desktop for elementary OS, has an experiment wayland session that is, for now, not really usable, and Deepin doesn't seem to have any plans yet.

You can use Sway, which is basically i3 but made for Wayland, with support for i3 config files, you have hyprland, based on the wlroots implementation, that seems to be the fastest moving tiling window manager for Wayland.

If you use open source drivers, like the mesa drivers for Intel and AMD GPUs, or the Nouveau driver for nvidia, you're all good. These support everything you need, and work well with Wayland, just as well as on X.Org. But then, there are the proprietary nvidia drivers.

And to be fair, they do work with Wayland. it took a long while, but it works, I've been using them on hybrid graphics laptops on GNOME and KDE, and on a desktop running Fedora for a long while, and it works. But it's also not the best experience.

And since we're talking about GPUs, let's talk about gaming. Gaming on Wayland basically relies on X.org, with something called XWayland: it's and X11 server running inside of Wayland.

There is a small performance impact depending on the game. It's not huge, but it's there, so if you're struggling to keep a smooth 60FPS, Xorg will be better. This is notably true with Nvidia drivers, which don't handle XWayland very well.

For now, Wayland enforces Vsync everywhere, unless your monitor has adaptive sync, so stuff like Gsync of freesync. If you don't have that, then Vsync is, for now, mandatory.

And finally, we have application support. All the latest Kirigami apps for KDE, or QT 5 and Qt 6 apps, or Libadwaita apps will handle Wayland well, and all the portals they need to interact well with other apps, screen sharing, and the like. Electron apps using a recent version of electron will also support Wayland, but a lot of electron apps still use an old version that doesn't support it properly.

And older apps using GTK 2, or older versions of Qt also won't support Wayland. Some web browsers also don't run natively with Wayland.

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00:00 Intro 00:37 Sponsor: Collabora Online 02:02 KDE tips and tricks 02:09 Fix bad icons in taskbar 03:37 Open anything with the Super key 04:28 Configure windows for specific apps 05:27 Resize windows easily 06:36 Zoom in and out 06:55 Clipboard management 07:14 Hidden app launcher 07:55 Drag and drop to sticky note 08:11 Favourite KDE Note taking app 09:43 Plasma Widgets 11:33 KDE Connect 12:52 Stamp PDFs 13:35 Drag and drop in Dolphin 14:14 Save Searches 14:37 Customize System Monitor 14:55 Parting Thoughts 15:45 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 16:52 Support the channel

Commands I showed in the video:

Set krunner to open with the Super key: kwriteconfig5 --file kwinrc --group ModifierOnlyShortcuts --key Meta "org.kde.krunner,/App,,toggleDisplay"

Apply the changes (needs dbus, ovbiously): qdbus org.kde.KWin /KWin reconfigure

List all the things you can trigger with a shortcut: qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /component/kwin org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component.shortcutNames

Set the thing you want to open with the Super key:

kwriteconfig5 --file ~/.config/kwinrc --group ModifierOnlyShortcuts --key Meta "org.kde.kglobalaccel,/component/kwin,org.kde.kglobalaccel.Component,invokeShortcut,NAME_OF_THE_THING_YOU_WANT_TO_OPEN"

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#Linux #OpenSource #TechNews

00:00 Intro 00:46 Sponsor: Learn more about the risks of EOL distros 01:58 Ubuntu 23.10 broke graphical deb installs 04:00 New GNOME Director seems controversial 06:11 OpenSUSE working on a replacement to Yast installer 07:57 COSMIC and GNOME updates 09:51 Drivers and performance improvements 12:29 Gaming News: HDR, low latency & Lutris 15:12 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 16:19 Support the channel

Ubuntu 23.10 broke graphical deb installs

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/install-deb-ubuntu-23-10-no-app-error

New GNOME Director seems controversial

https://linuxiac.com/gnome-projects-unexpected-ceo-choice/

OpenSUSE working on a replacement to Yast installer

https://linuxiac.com/opensuse-agama-installer/

https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/factory@lists.opensuse.org/thread/PH7R3Q36KUBBBV4COQ5ZLDCTJNODHC6N/

COSMIC and GNOME updates

https://blog.system76.com/post/locked-and-loaded-with-new-cosmic-de-updates

https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2023/10/twig-118/

Drivers and performance improvements

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-DRM-GPUVM-Relicensed

https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVK-Vulkan-XDC-2023

https://www.phoronix.com/news/RADV-Ray-Tracing-2023

Gaming News: HDR, low latency & Nvidia wayland

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/10/nvidia-looking-to-hook-up-reflex-support-in-proton/

https://www.phoronix.com/news/XDC-2023-AMD-Colors-HDR

https://github.com/lutris/lutris/releases/tag/v0.5.14

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#privacy #google #android

00:00 Intro 01:08 The Phone: Murena 2 02:36 Specifications 05:17 eOS on the Murena 2 10:46 Price and availability 13:03 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 14:08 Support the channel

This isn't the completely finalized design, so the back of the phone, and the protection that came in the box aren't completely final and might change a little.

The very point of the Murena 2 is to offer a privacy focused phone: it comes with /e/ OS, and it has a privacy switch to disconnect the cameras and microphone, and another switch to completely shut off any connectivity the phone has. The first switch, for the camera and mic is a physical one: it completely shuts off the connection to the camera and the mic.

The connectivity switch is purely software, and will just turn on airplane mode and will mute your phone, so it's more a "big do not disturb" mode than a privacy switch.

It comes with a mediatek CPU, with 4 performance cores at 2.1Ghz and 4 efficiency cores at 2 Ghz, it has 8 gigs of RAM, 128 gigs of storage, plus a micro SD slot. It supports dual SIM, and the OLED screen is 6.43 inches and a resolution of 1080x2400, plus a hole punch cut out for the selfie camera, which is 25 megapixels.

On the back, you get 3 camera lenses, one is the standard lens, at 64 megapixels, one is an ultrawide, at 13 MP and one is a telephoto lens at 5 Megapixels.

It has a 4000 milliamp hour battery, with support for high speed charging at 18W, it supports Wifi ac and bluetooth 4.2, and it's 4G, not 5G.

They also say they have a 6 out of 10 on repairability, and they'll offer spare parts and schematics for easy repair. They'll provide 5 years of support for the software at least.

On the Murena 2, /e/ OS runs OK. It's not perfectly smooth, animations can sometimes jitter a bit, but generally, the experience is what you'd expect from a mid range Android smartphone: it's not high refresh rate, buttery smoothness, but it's definitely not annoying. In some apps, you'll definitely notice stutters, like in the App Lounge when scrolling, but navigating the phone is good enough, and video playback and games run well.

Haptics don't seem to be perfectly configured yet, as typing on the keyboard provides a very tiny sort of clicky rattle instead of a nice vibration, and going back using gestures also doesn't feel super tactile, but that's probably because it's a pre production model.

The 2 privacy switches work perfectly, with the one on the right toggling airplane mode and do not disturb, and the one on the left shutting down the camera and the mic, both have a little LED as well to indicate that these switches are on, although handling of that could be improved, as launching the camera app with the privacy toggle on, will spit out an error, instead of a smoother message indicating your privacy toggle is on.

Testing the phone further, the screen is really nice and bright, with very vivid colors, it feels pretty damn nice to use, but that's probably because it's OLED.

The cameras are pretty basic, the telephoto had a very hard time focusing on anything for me, but the other 2 worked fine, although you won't find the same kind of post processing you'll get on most Android phones, so your pictures might not look as sharp or well balanced as on, say, a Pixel or even a Samsung A series phone. The front facing camera, though, is pretty solid, and produces nice pictures all things considered.

The speakers are decent enough for a phone, they won't blow you away or anything, but they get pretty loud without distorting too much or at all. They are bottom firing, there's no "stereo" speaker using the earpiece of the phone. The microphone isn't great though, your vocal messages and phone calls won't sound extremely crisp.

With the kickstarter, the phone is 399€, without it, it will be 499€.

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#Linux #OpenSource #TechNews

00:00 Intro 00:39 Sponsor: Thunderbird 01:32 elementary OS 7.1 released 05:14 Malware lands in the snap store 06:33 France wants to ban VPNs 09:01 GNOME weekly app updates 10:26 Plasma 6 updates 12:08 Gaming News: Proton and Linux marketshare 14:02 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 15:07 Support the channel

elementary OS 7.1 released

https://blog.elementary.io/os-7-1-available-now/

Malware lands in the snap store

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Snap-Store-Malicious-Apps

France wants to ban VPNs

https://www.techradar.com/pro/vpn/france-vpns-might-be-banned-amid-sren-bills-new-unreasonable-amendments

https://adguard-vpn.com/en/blog/vpn-ban-france-new-law.html

GNOME weekly app updates

https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2023/10/twig-116/

Plasma 6 updates

https://pointieststick.com/2023/10/06/this-week-in-kde-re-organized-system-settings/

Gaming News: Proton and Linux marketshare

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/releases/tag/proton-8.0-4

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Steam-Survey-September-2023

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#Linux #security #cybersecurity

00:00 Intro 00:56 Sponsor: Proton Mail 02:32 Software and updates 04:04 Services and SSH 06:38 User management 10:10 Physical Security 11:35 SELinux, AppArmor, and firewall 14:04 Parting Thoughts 15:15 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 16:30 Support the channel

Password complexity tips: https://www.networkworld.com/article/2726217/how-to-enforce-password-complexity-on-linux.html

Tips to secure SSH: https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-unix-bsd-openssh-server-best-practices.html

The more software you use, the larger the attack surface for your Linux install is. It's always good to take a look at all the installed applications, and libraries, and remove what you don't use anymore. You can also remove packages that aren't linked to anything else and aren't used by anything.

On Debian or Ubuntu, for example, you can find these by running sudo apt autoremove

And on a desktop, you probably already apply updates, or your distro has auto updates enabled. But on a server, it's easy to let things slide, and forget to log in regularly and make sure things are up to date. I'm guilty of that myself.

And just like with packages, libraries, and apps, you should also make sure you only run the services you actually use. You can list all services running with:

systemctl list-unit-files

To stop a service you don't need, you can run

systemctl stop SERVICE

To stop the service from starting with the system, you can run

systemctl disable SERVICE

If you're on a server, the general rule of thumb is also NOT to run a graphical desktop on it. It will often be much more secure to use SSH to log in to the server remotely.

But you might also need to secure SSH first. If you have multiple users, make sure only the ones who need it have SSH access. To do that, you can edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file, and type AllowUsers then the names of the users that will actually have access to SSH.

Now, something that might be useful in general, for a server or a desktop, is making sure all the users are correctly handled. The first thing will be to disable root login.

If you decide to disable the root account, make sure at least one user has admin privileges though, or you'll have a system without any way to access any task with sudo. Once you're certain everything is ok, you can use the following method:

Edit /etc/passwd, and change the first line, by replacing /bin/bash, or whatever other shell root currently logs into, by /sbin/nologin (or /usr/sbin/nologin depending on the distro)

If you prefer, you can simply disable root login through SSH, so the account is still there if you want it locally, but remote attackers won't be able to login as root. To do so, you can edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config, and uncomment the PermitRootLogin line, and then set its value to no. Restart SSH with sytemctl restart sshd, and you're done.

To remove the ability to use USB, Thunderbolt or Firewire, you can add the following lines to their respective files (create them if need be). To revert this, just remove the lines that have been added in the various files by the commands.

Add: install usb-storage /bin/true to /etc/modprobe.d/disable-usb-storage.conf Add blacklist firewire-core to /etc/modprobe.d/firewire.conf Add blacklist thunderbolt to /etc/modprobe.d/thunderbolt.conf

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#homelab #nas #linux

00:00 Intro 00:28 Sponsor: Join a free webinar on data center automation 01:20 My NAS 02:34 Virtual machines 04:02 Plex 05:11 VPN 06:34 Cloud Photo Storage 07:56 Drive & backups 09:10 Shared Storage 10:12 What I want to setup 12:41 Settings 14:02 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 15:01 Support the channel

The first thing I recently started doing on the NAS is virtual machines. I installed Virtual Machine manager, and it's pretty easy to use, you just create a VM, you select how many CPU cores and how much RAM you want, you create a virtual disk, and you select an ISO from the NAS storage, and you're good to go.

Another thing I run is Plex. It's a media server. I store movies and TV Shows in there, and I play these from my TV, with the Plex app. Plex was available as a one click install from the package center of Synology DiskStation manager.

I also use my NAS to run my own VPN. Of course, you do lose the access to a foreign IP, and some privacy, since, well the VPN gets your home Ip address, so the same that your computer might have had.

I use the VPN server app from the NAS's package manager, and I used OpenVPN. Setting things up was super easy, I just had to export the config file, and import it in GNOME's settings, after modifying the file to add the domain name that my NAS uses as the IP, and I also had to open the relevant port in my router's config, of course.

Another thing I use my NAS for is to stop paying for cloud photo and video storage. I use SYnology Photos here. It's a nice little app that you can run on your NAS and on your mobile devices. What it does is basically the same thing as Apple Photos, or GOogle Drive: you open the app, it backs everything up to your NAS, and you can access them from any web browser, manage albums

Now, for the most original use of a NAS: file storage and backups. To do that, I use the SYnology Drive client, which is available on Linux.

I use this app to create a backup of my /home directory, to my NAS storage. I also created a sync task to sync the photos that came from my phone, to my NAS, to my computer.

I also use my NAS as a file exchange thingy. When I record something on a test laptop for a video, I store all the recordings on the NAS, and I download them back from the computer I'll do the editing on.

All the storage is also accessible through Samba, so I can connect to it easily from my local network.

Now there are a few things I would like to try and setup here as well. The first one is Nextcloud. I'm planning to use the Container Manager app to use Docker and install Nextcloud with that, on the NAS.

Another thing I'd like to do is automating a download of the latest videos from my youtube subscription feed, and to create an RSS feed for that so I can use any podcast client or app to watch just these videos.

Another thing I'd like to try is to setup Kasm Workspaces: it's a self hostable solution to run desktops, operating systems, or apps remotely, and stream them to a web browser.

I'm pretty sure I can install that using Docker on the NAS, and replace the Virtual Machines manager that Synology offers with something open source. It probably won't change my workflow all that much, but open source solutions are just more my jam, and it's a fun project to try and tackle.

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#Linux #mac #macos14

00:00 Intro 00:28 Sponsor: Take control of your internet connection 01:25 Desktop Widgets 04:19 Accessibility and Typing 05:42 Gaming 08:34 Animated wallpapers & screensavers 09:24 Hardware support 11:16 Browser profiles and presenter mode 12:32 We can still learn a few things 13:09 Sponsor: Get a PC that was made to run Linux

With Sonoma, Apple grafted their iOS widget system to macOS. Of course, widgets are something we’ve enjoyed for a long while on KDE, starting with Plasma 4. But Apple’s implementation IS better in some regards.

Widgets can auto align if you want them to: dragging a widget close to another one you’ve already placed displays a white outline that will make the new widget snap in place, so everything looks tidy.

Something that is very, very difficult to do in KDE. Most widgets don’t have a similar aspect ratio, or size, and resizing them tends to be a finicky operation. On top of that, Apple offers multiple preset sizes for their widgets, and these can be changed on the fly. But these widgets are also a lot less functional than the ones we have on KDE.

They’re not really interactive: you can just click on them to open the related app. That’s it. No note taking straight in the notes widget, no clicking on a specific day in the weather widget. And there’s also no “user contributed widget directory”.

One new feature in MacOS Sonoma is a better autocorrect and predictive text system. Autocorrect can be a bit annoying on a computer, but the predictive text can be a game-changer, especially for those with disabilities.

On Linux, we have something called iBus typing booster, which does pretty much the same thing, but it is hidden in the input sources settings, and not an easy one click toggle. The way it works is also pretty distracting, as it displays a complete pop-up with word suggestions that flickers in and out of existence with each character you type.

MacOS Sonoma brings 2 main improvements for gaming: the first one is game mode, which does exactly the same thing as its Linux equivalent: it gives CPU priority to the game that's currently running, and also reduces latency for bluetooth controllers and bluetooth headphones, something that we DO NOT have on Linux, and that's been an issue for a lot of people.

The second thing is their game porting toolkit, which lets developers test their games on Apple Silicon macs. And this toolkit basically converts DirectX12 games into Metal Games thanks to a translation layer. It shares a lot of DNA with Proton, since it's based on Wine, and the same kind of translation DXVK does. Performance is no good yet, though.

Sonoma lets you set some animated screensavers, that represent a bunch of landscapes, cityscapes, even underwater scenes and Earth views. When you unlock your mac, this animation will seamlessly transition into your wallpaper.

On Linux, we do have animated wallpapers. Screensavers aren’t really a thing on Linux anymore, you can add them back.

Now in terms of OS compatibility, there's an important “feature” in MacOS Sonoma that we need to spotlight. Unlike Linux's broad compatibility, which supports a diverse range of devices of all ages, MacOS Sonoma adopts a more restrictive approach, narrowing down its compatibility to Macs manufactured from 2018 onwards.

Now, Safari can boast,of profiles to separate for example your work and personal browsing. They also now support web apps that can be pinned to your dock.. A bunch of web browsers on Linux can do that already.

FaceTime now lets you overlay yourself on top of the slides or screen that you’re sharing with others. This already exists as “presenter mode” on Microsoft Teams, which is available on Linux as well. And of course, as long as Facetime doesn’t have an app for Windows, no one will use it in a professional context, so what’s the point?

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#Linux #OpenSource #technews

00:00 Intro 00:38 Sponsor: 100$ free credit for your Linux or Gaming server 01:37 SUSE will create their own fork of RHEL 04:06 Thunderbird 115 is now live, and it's awesome 05:45 Linux passes 3% market share on the desktop 07:21 Desktop environment updates 09:13 China has its own from scratch Linux distro 10:51 Google sued for scraping user data and violating copyright 12:51 Gaming News: FidelityFX, Meta's graphics library 15:11 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 16:13 Support the channel

SUSE makes their own 1:1 RHEL compatible distro

https://almalinux.org/blog/future-of-almalinux/

https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/blog/keep-linux-open-and-free-2023-07-10/

https://www.suse.com/news/SUSE-Preserves-Choice-in-Enterprise-Linux/

https://www.suse.com/c/at-suse-we-make-choice-happen/

Thunderbird 115 is now live, and it's awesome

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/115.0/whatsnew/

Linux passes 3% market share on the desktop

https://linuxiac.com/linux-hits-3-percent-market-share/

Desktop environment updates

https://blog.system76.com/post/cosmic-skies-of-a-colorado-july-2023

https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2023/07/twig-104/

China has its own from scratch Linux distro

https://www.reuters.com/technology/china-releases-its-first-open-source-computer-operating-system-2023-07-06/

https://news.itsfoss.com/openkylin-linux-os/

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-07-05/OpenKylin-becomes-China-s-1st-open-source-desktop-operating-system-1lcms33vj7G/index.html

Google sued for scraping user data and violating copyright

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/11/tech/google-ai-lawsuit/index.html

Gaming News: FidelityFX, Meta's graphics library, Yuzu

https://www.winehq.org/announce/8.12

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/07/amd-opens-up-the-fidelityfx-sdk-and-its-now-on-github/

https://www.khronos.org/blog/meta-uses-khronos-open-standards-in-new-intermediate-graphics-library

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#framework #laptop #linux

00:00 Intro 00:37 Sponsor: 10% off your first website with Squarespace 01:35 Who are they? 03:45 Customization Options 05:10 Comparison with Framework 07:07 Design & Build Quality 08:53 Specifications 10:35 Performance & Battery life 11:51 Display, inputs, speakers, mic & webcam 13:41 Should you buy one? 14:58 Support the channel

NovaCustom Website: https://configurelaptop.eu/

NovaCustom is from the Netherlands, and they're specialized in laptops, you won't find desktop PCs in here. They put the focus on customization of your laptop to your exact specifications, they ship Linux out of the box, and they use coreboot.

They offer 3 years of warranty, and they guarantee spare parts availability for your device up to 7 years after your purchase.

They have 14 inches, 15 inches and 17 inches, the cheapest they have is 749€, and the most expensive goes up to 3900 euros but that's with all the options ticked

Of course, you can change the specs, but you can also add you own logo, you can change the boot logo, you can engrave the palm rest, you can pick between Windows and Linux, or you can ask them to create a dual boot.

You can choose yo use your own keyboard layout, in ANSI or ISO, change the look of the super key, change keyboard illumination, ask to completely remove the mic and webcam...

Framework goes further, since you can even replace the entire motherboard and keep the whole chassis, keyboard, panel, webcam and ports. They don't have as many models and sizes though, and until the 16 inch model releases, you're not getting any dedicated GPU options, and you're limited to 13 inches.

Novacustom is more about customization, repairability, and allowing users access to their own hardware, where Framework is more about keeping the exact same device, and making it modular, and allowing complete upgrades.

In terms of price range, Framework will be a little bit more expensive than NovaCustom for the same configurations, but they do have better panels, and newer CPU options, plus Ryzen options that Novacustom don't currently offer.

My review unit is the NS51 series, their mid range laptop. In terms of build quality, it feels very rigid, the hinge is super solid. The whole thing is pretty heavy, 1.7 kilos, and it's quite sturdy.

The only real issue I can see is the position of the power button, next to a USB port

All the spare parts are accessible for up to 7 years after your purchase, and they give you a complete service manual.

My review unit came with a core i7 1260P. In terms of I/O, on the right, you get gigabit ethernet, the ill placed power button, one USB 2 port, a micro SD card reader, and on the right, you have your barrel charger, an HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port, and 1 thunderbolt 4 and 1 type C 3.1 Gen 2 port. You can charge the laptop using USB C.

This laptop came with coreboot, with Dasharo firmware.

In terms of performance, the CPU gets a more than honorable 2498 in single core, and 7450 in multi core. As per battery life, this chip is relatively power efficient, it lasts for about 7 hours at mid brightness, wifi on, watching youtube videos in a loop.

Now let's look at the various things this laptop comes with. The display is 15.6 inches, 1080p, 16:9, 300 nits of brightness. It covers 98% of SRGB.

As per input, the keyboard feels pretty good to type on. They keys have good travel, they bounce back well, it doesn't feel mushy for a membrane keyboard, and it sounds pretty good. It's a good keyboard.

The touchpad is decent, it doesn't feel like glass, but it's smooth enough, large enough, and it feels precise. It did wobble a little bit and you can feel that when just using tap to click.

Now, the webcam is the usual potato quality fare, it's 720p.

The microphone is the same, it will be suitable for short video conferences, but it makes you sound distant.

And finally, the speakers, they're your average fare.

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#internet #ads #marketingdigital

00:00 Intro 00:44 Sponsor: Learn how to deal with ransomware attacks 01:32 The ad-based internet 04:08 Twitter: anything but the kitchen sink 05:46 Reddit: shooting themselves in the foot 07:14 Youtube: nickel and diming 08:58 Alternative platforms won't save us 11:43 Three possible outcomes 14:41 The Ad Based internet is on its way out 15:13 Sponsor: Get a PC that was made to run Linux 16:02 Support the channel

Google has shown that with enough scale, just running ads on a website is enough to keep the content free of charge. But of course, as with everything where money is involved, it went way too far. This limited the ad revenue, and so websites decided to add more ads.

To compound that, ads started paying less and less, so websites started chasing profits by making the internet worse for everyone.

Twitter's revenue is 89% ads. It has existed for more than 10 years, and has never made any money. So even at that scale, ads are just not working to sustain a company.

All the changes Musk is making to Twitter, like firing most of the workforce, charging for the API, limiting the number of tweets, Twitter Blue, it's all to try and turn a profit. So, the experience of Twitter is now ten times worse, because ads don't work.

Now let's look at Reddit. Reddit is about as popular as Twitter. And Reddit isn't profitable either. They're kept afloat by raising money from investors. And so Reddit charges for their API now. Reddit made their site worse for everyone: the regular users, and also everyone browsing the internet and landing on reddit to see a "this subreddit is private" message, making any web search ultra inefficient.

And we can also look at Youtube. Youtube is HUGE. And it's hard to know if youtube is profitable or not. The consensus seems to be that it is, but the actions of youtube seem to indicate that maybe it's not THAT profitable. For example, youtube seems to be planning some moves against adblockers. Youtube is also taking steps against third party frontends, like Invidious. They wouldn't do stuff like that if profit growth was awesome.

I love alternative platforms, but they'll probably never replace the giant ones: they don't offer a business model for people to create content on them.

As a user, you probably don't care about that. And the person running the instance of said platform maybe is ready to fund it out of pocket, but the people creating the content on these platforms? They're not making money from them.

And so as ad-based internet models start dying off, I have a feeling we're going to be faced with 3 options

First, the big platforms survive as-is with the ads, you can still have ads on your own website, but the platforms will start keeping more and more of the ad revenue.

This is where we're heading now. People are tired of ads and their privacy invasion, and the over abundance of them, but platforms seem to think this is the way to go.

Second option, the big platforms and websites evolve to another model, like paywalling everything behind a paid subscriptions like Youtube Premium.

It would basically kill off an entire portion of the internet, but it probably wouldn't be the worst portion to lose.

Third option, the big platforms and the internet as a whole can't find a new model to replace ad based ones, and big platforms and big websites die off. Content creation becomes a hobby mostly.

This is probably the best outcome for the internet as a whole, as it would probably kill off most clickbait, disinformation, AI generated crap. We would have far less things to read and watch, but a lot of if would be higher quality.