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#Linux #OpenSource #TechNews

00:00 Intro 00:38 Sponsor: Regain control of your internet connection 01:35 Ubuntu's new app store favors snaps over debs 03:36 GNOME 45 alpha is out 05:09 Fedora plans to add telemetry 06:59 Canonical takes control of the Linux Container Daemon 08:13 Ubuntu will let you pick the apps you want at install 09:39 Solus 4.4 and Budgie 11 news 11:24 Gaming News: Steam Deck wins Linux gaming, Steam beta 12:44 Sponsor: Get a PC that was made to run Linux 13:43 Support the channel

Ubuntu's new app store favors snaps over debs

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/07/ubuntu-23-10-new-app-store-deb-support

GNOME 45 alpha is out

https://9to5linux.com/gnome-45-alpha-is-now-available-for-public-testing-heres-whats-new

Fedora plans to add telemetry

https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/thread/55H3DT5CCL73HLMQJ6DK63KCAHZWO7SX/

https://linuxiac.com/fedora-40-plans-to-use-telemetry/

https://blogs.gnome.org/wjjt/2023/07/05/endless-oss-privacy-preserving-metrics-system/

Canonical takes control of the Linux Container Daemon

https://linuxcontainers.org/lxd/

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/07/canonical-takes-full-control-of-lxd

https://linuxiac.com/lxd-containers-project-goes-under-canonical-wing/

Ubuntu will let you pick the apps you want at install

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/07/ubuntu-new-unified-install-plans-sound-meh

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/rethinking-ubuntu-desktop-a-more-thoughtful-default-installation/36736

Solus 4.4 and Budgie 11 News

https://linuxiac.com/solus-os-4-4-released/

https://blog.buddiesofbudgie.org/wayland/

Gaming News: Steam Deck wins Linux gaming, Steam beta

https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/4397053/view/3666541770799548342

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/07/nearly-40-of-linux-gamers-on-steam-are-on-steam-deck/

https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-CPU-Linux-Gaming-67p

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#Linux #linuxdistro #operatingsystem

00:00 Intro 00:35 Sponsor: Stream any OS, desktop or app to any PC 01:29 The Classic Linux Distro Model 02:57 Why it's broken 04:25 Distros are moving away 05:52 The new model isn't perfect, but still better 08:31 All other OSes do this 09:22 Why distros package apps in the first place 10:14 Universal Packages 11:40 You don't have a choice 13:32 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 14:27 Support the channel

This video was inspired by the following blog post, which echoed my sentiment and ideas exactly: https://www.ypsidanger.com/the-distribution-model-is-changing/

The distro packages the software for their users. Not the developers of the software, the distro itself. So the distro has a decent amount of control over what they offer, but the users of the distro don't, and the developers of the apps also don't. And this model doesn't really work.

On the surface, for users, it does work. You get a lot of applications from a central repo, and the system is generally pretty stable, depending on the distro you pick. But in the background, you have the thousands of orphaned packages that are still in the repos but aren't maintained. The old apps that can't be packaged at all anymore. The maintainers spending a lot of time repackaging and recompiling software that has already been packaged.

One might not like Ubuntu's snap packages, or Flatpak, or AppImages, but it's undeniable that most distros are moving towards them.

When Ubuntu moves Firefox and Chromium from a deb package to a snap, it's a GOOD THING. For Ubuntu. Because instead of having to package each new version of Firefox or CHromium for all currently supported versions of Ubuntu, they only have to package them once.

Same thing when Red Hat drops the LibreOffice RPM in favor of the Flatpak. Not having to package that behemoth of an app will free up time for Red Hat developers to work on HDR, improving Wayland, and supporting color management.

And moving the packaging of an app from the distro to the app developer means less time spent debugging stuff, and more time spend on improving the app.

So why did Linux distros start packaging software instead of app developers?

It was because there were so many different systems using the same packaging formats, deb or RPM or whatever else, but different libraries, kernels, drivers, and everything else, that app developers simply did not have a way to distribute their own software to every distro.

But nowadays, we DO have formats that let you distribute applications everywhere with one single package.

They lack some features, especially due to the sandboxing they tend to use, that limits how they can interact with other apps. Thing is, these formats are still under heavy development.

But the real question is: do you prefer staying on the current model where we stagnate, duplicate work, and where developers and users have no control over which version of the software is used, or would you rather face a few teething issues, but let developers improve their apps, and the whole of the Linux software ecosystem?

I know what I choose, and it's not these old packages. And presumably, if you stick to mainstream distros, like Fedora, Ubuntu, or their main derivatives, chances are you're not going to have a choice either. Because whether you like it or not, we're moving to Flatpak or Snap on most distros.

It's more efficient, and their current problems can and will be fixed. The duplication of work that legacy packaging creates is unfixable, it's a structural problem.

And of course, if you hate these universal packaging formats, I'm sure you'll still be able to find a lot of distros that will not move to them even in the future. You'll just be running the non official version of an app, just like what you're doing right now when using a distro's package.

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00:00 Intro 00:35 Sponsor: 100$ free credit for your Linux and Gaming server 01:34 Kernel 6.4 brings big AMD improvements 03:36 FOSS NVK driver makes good progress 05:07 GNOME fixes Wayland gaming 07:05 KDE Weekly Updates 08:24 SFC thinks Red Hat skirts the line with the GPL 10:16 New Installer might debut in Fedora 39 11:37 Gaming News: AMD driver improvements, Valve hiring, and more 13:46 Sponsor: Get a PC that was made to run Linux 14:47 Support the channel

Linux Kernel 6.4 brings big AMD improvements

https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-P-State-Guided-Auto

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/06/linux-kernel-6-4-features

https://news.itsfoss.com/linux-kernel-6-4/

FOSS NVK driver makes good progress

https://9to5linux.com/open-source-nvidia-vulkan-driver-nvk-now-supports-older-gpus-new-extensions

https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/news-and-events/nvk-update-enabling-new-extensions-conformance-status-more.html

GNOME fixes Wayland gaming

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Mutter-Wayland-Gaming-No-Block https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/3080

https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2023/06/twig-102/

KDE weekly updates

https://pointieststick.com/2023/06/30/this-week-in-kde-plasma-6-development-continues/

The Software Freedom Conservancy thinks Red Hat skirts the line with the GPL

https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2023/jun/23/rhel-gpl-analysis/

New Installer might debut in Fedora 39

https://9to5linux.com/fedora-linux-39-workstation-to-ship-with-a-more-modern-installer

Gaming News: AMD driver improvements, Valve hiring, and more

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/amd-radv-gets-feature-to-help-emulation-and-translation-layers/

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/valve-pulls-in-another-graphics-driver-developer-for-linux-gaming/

https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/merge_requests/2944

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#linuxmint #linuxdistro #linux

00:00 Intro 00:30 Sponsor: Stream any OS, desktop, or app to your browser 01:24 Touchpad Gestures 03:43 Look & Feel 06:26 Desktop & Apps 10:12 Internals 11:00 XFCE and MATE variants 13:35 Parting Thoughts 15:13 Sponsor: Get a PC that runs Linux perfectly 16:30 Support the channel

If you got used to the super smooth 1:1 gestures for GNOME or Plasma on Wayland, or even elementary OS on X11, you'll be disappointed here. Mint still uses X11, and their gestures act like keyboard shortcuts. You perform the gesture on the touchpad, and once your fingers have moved enough, the animation happens all at once.

Gestures are disabled by default, you'll be able to enable them in the new Settings panel. They are very configurable though, contrary to GNOME or KDE.

Mint 21.2 also changes a few things in terms of how the distro looks, or can look. First, instead of the endless list of selectable themes, in their dark or light variant, and all their color variants, you now get Styles.

The Style defines the theme you're using, for example MintY, Adwaita, or the older Mint X. For each style, you can pick mixed mode, where apps can be light or dark at the same time, dark mode, where every app that supports the dark mode preference will use it, and light mode.

And on top of that, you have a choice of accent colors, if the theme supports it, for example, there are no accent colors for Adwaita, or the High COntrast theme.

Folder icons are now longer the same color as what WIndows uses, they'll now use your accent color instead, which is much better in my opinion.

On the desktop side of things, the login screen received a lot of improvements, with support for multiple keyboard layouts that you can switch between, and support for tap to click as well.

The onscreen keyboard is usable there, and you can also configure the layout for it, and you can now more easily navigate this login screen using the keyboard and the arrow keys.

Once you're logged in, you can now resize the main menu, by dragging its corner or its edge, and you can now disable notifications for connected devices that have a low battery level.

As per the apps, the file manager, Nemo, now generates thumbnails using multi threading, which means it should be way faster.

The software manager got a small UI refresh, with the search field inline in a headerbar, with the hamburger menu moving there as well. The app pages also got a small redesign, with buttons in the header to install, and to show the installation source.

Pix, the image viewer, got a lot of changes, mostly due to its rebase on a new version of GTHumb.

Finally, Warpinator, the PC to PC file transfer program, was reviewed by the openSUSE team, and some security issues were discovered and fixed.

All Linux Mint editions are still based on Ubuntu 22.04, and they're all LTS, supported until 2027. The next base change will be when Ubuntu 24.04 releases, which means that in the meantime, you get the Linux kernel 5.15, and older Mesa and Nvidia drivers.

Now, for the XFCE variant, you get the same improvements to the login screen, the apps and the software manager, plus the new colored folder icons, tooltips and notifications, and the symbolic icon changes. You're not getting the Styles manager and selector though, and you're not getting the touchpad gestures either.

Still, you do get XFCE 4.18, which is a solid update over 4.16 that Mint used in the previous release.

As per MATE, it gets the same stuff as XFCE, so no gestures or style manager, and it's still on MATE 1.26, same as the previous Linux Mint release.

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#privacy #linux #webbrowser

00:00 Intro 00:37 Sponsor: Proton Mail, the private and encrypted email service 01:51 What's Browser Privacy 03:03 Google Chrome 05:14 Mozilla Firefox & LibreWolf 07:11 Brave 09:14 Tor Browser 10:51 Microsoft Edge 11:57 Opera 12:56 Vivaldi 14:07 What should you use? 15:05 Sponsor: Get a PC that was made to run Linux 16:02 Support the channel

So, Chrome is THE most used browser in the world, on mobile, and on desktop. Out of the box, it doesn't have an ad blocker, or a tracker blocker enabled. To use that browser to the fullest, you'll also need to use a Google Account, and thus everything you do in your browser will be collected unless you specifically disable it.

You can disable a lot of things in your Google account and the web browser settings, but you'll need to download extensions to block the most invasive trackers and limit fingerprinting. Chrome is also not open source.

On Privacy tests.org, we can also see that Chrome has weak fingerprinting resistance.

Firefox has a good reputation for privacy, but it's not the best choice either. By default, it collects telemetry data, including how many tabs you have open, how many windows, how many webpages you visit, the number and type of extensions, duration of your browsing sessions, and some technical data on your OS, the version of the browser, the language, and your IP address in their server logs. Firefox can also use this data to recommend extensions to you.

In terms of protections, Firefox doesn't block tracking scripts or pixels but it does block social media trackers, cross site cookies, cryptominers, plus all tracking when you're in incognito mode. Firefox is open source, so you can be reasonably sure that it doesn't collect more than what it tells you.

If you like Firefox but you don't want the telemetry, and you want improved fingerprinting protection, then there's Librewolf.

Brave offers a lot of what you'd be able to do in another browser with extensions, but it does so out of the box. They call them "shields", and they block ads, trackers, fingerprinters, and cross site cookies by default. They also auto redirect GOogle's AMP pages to the "real" website, and they redirect tracking URLs so you're not even visiting the tracking domain at all.

The ultimate private browser is probably Tor Browser, but it won't be for everyone. Tor Browser blocks everything that the website might want to learn about you, so there's no tracking at all, and no fingerprinting, but ads aren't blocked.

Edge is based on CHromium, the base for CHrome, but they remove everything Google related from it, to mostly replace it with Microsoft related things, like a Microsoft account.

Edge, by default, has an opt-out for telemetry. It will block trackers from third party sites, and some ad trackers as well. It also collects "required" diagnostic data that can't opt out of, and this data is used to personalize ads from microsoft. If you use a microsoft account, you'll also give MS a bunch of data in the process, including device information, usage data, browsing activity, bookmarks and more.

Opera is yet another chromium based browser, which gets the worst results on privacytests.org. It has a unique fingerprint, and doesn't block tracking scripts, or pixels, it doesn't resist fingerprinting, it doesn't remove tracking parameters, and it also doesn't block the major tracking cookies.

It doesn't send "do not track" signals by default either. Their privacy policy also states that they might share personal data with third parties, which can be worrying, as Opera has been bought by a chinese consortium in 2016.

Vivaldi is also a chromium based browser. At first start, it will ask you what you want to block.

Vivaldi doesn't collect any data, browsing history or anything else, even if you use a Vivaldi account, because everything is encrypted in there.

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00:00 Intro 00:39 Sponsor: 100$ free credit for your Linux or Gaming server 01:38 Nextcloud Hub 5 adds some big improvements 03:55 System76 unveils how tiling works in the new Cosmic desktop 05:27 GNOME mobile has a roadmap 07:07 GNOME weekly updates 09:25 KDE weekly updates 10:50 Gaming News: Steam redesign, AMD ray tracing 13:17 Sponsor: Buy a PC that was made to run Linux 14:17 Support the channel

#Linux #OpenSource #TechNews

Nextcloud Hub 5 adds some big improvements

https://nextcloud.com/blog/introducing-hub-5-first-to-deliver-self-hosted-ai-powered-digital-workspace/

System76 unveils how tiling works in the new Cosmic desktop

https://blog.system76.com/post/cosmic-de-tiling-redesign-and-libcosmic-rebasing

GNOME mobile has a roadmap

https://blogs.gnome.org/tbernard/2023/06/16/berlin-mobile-hackfest/

GNOME weekly updates

https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2023/06/twig-100/

KDE weekly updates

https://pointieststick.com/2023/06/16/this-week-in-kde-nicer-digital-signing-in-okular/

https://pointieststick.com/2023/06/09/this-week-in-kde-major-plumbing-work-in-plasma-6/

Gaming News: Steam redesign, AMD ray tracing

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/3687931965598906184

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/steam-ui-scaling-should-work-even-better-in-the-latest-beta/

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/removing-non-steam-apps-now-cleans-up-on-steam-deck-and-linux-desktop/

https://pixelcluster.github.io/RADV-Raytracing-ON/

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#nixos #linux #linuxdistro

00:00 Intro 00:36 Sponsor: Kasm, the best remote desktop tool 01:22 What is NixOS? 04:20 Using the configuration file 08:58 Nix Package Manager 11:03 Updating and unstable channel 12:48 Nix is way more than that 14:53 Sponsor: get a PC made to run Linux 15:58 Support the channel

NixOS is a Linux distribution that is completely and entirely reproducible. Everything you use is defined in a configuration file that is used to build your system. All the services, packages, options, partition layout, hardware, everything, is in this config file.

If you're a developer, your eyes might be sparkling right now: that's right, one config file to exactly replicate your entire development environment.

You also can never get into dependency hell. Packages all declare exactly which versions of each library they need, and these versions are all installed side by side and kept, not erased by newer versions.

To create your configuration, there's a main configuration file in /etc/nixos, called configuration.nix.

This file uses its own specific syntax, that is entirely functional: it describes everything the system uses and with which options, from the hardware, the bootloader, the services, the packages, the apps, the users, everything.

This file is then used to build your operating system. Nix will read everything in there, and install, configure, and enable or disable everything, based on what the file contains. So, if you build a nixOS system with the same config file as someone else, you'll get exactly the same system.

Once you rebuild your system, there are now multiple entries in the boot loader: one for the new build, and one for the old one: you can always roll back to the previous configuration.

Of course, all of this requires root access to edit the main config of the system. But if you don't have root access, or if you don't want to add programs to your main reproducible config, but just test them out for now, you can also install packages as a regular user, using the nix package manager. Or you can add flatpak to your config file, or run appimages. But installing programs will be mainly done using the Nix package manager.

The Nix package manager works on any Linux distro, but also on macOS, WSL, and more. It's preverytty easy to use. If I want to install, for example, OBS, I'll just type

nix-env -iA nixos.obs-studio

The -i is the argument to install, and the capital A is to tell the package manager to install using the specific name of the package, instead of looking through the whole repo, which is way slower.

If I want to remove the package, I can use nix-env -e obs-studio, and it will be removed. Note that installing packages with nix-env doesn't add them to the config file.

NixOS works with channels. By default, you'll use the Stable channel, with tested packages that get security updates only, and major feature updates when there's a new release of NixOS, every 6 months.

To update, you can just run the command

sudo nix-channel --update

This will pull all the latest package versions from the channel your system uses.

Then you run the "nix-rebuild switch --upgrade" command, and your system will grab every new version of every package, and rebuild the system based on your configuration file.

Important to note, the new version of a package is installed alongside the old one. The new versions are the ones that will be used, thanks to a simple symbolic link system that always points to the newest version of a package, but you can rollback to an older one.

To get newer packages, at the risk of having a less stable system, you can switch to the unstable channel.

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#Windows #Linux #apps

00:00 Intro 00:42 Sponsor: Take back control of your internet connection 01:39 Managing Devices 04:20 Managing Services 06:15 Firewall Configuration 07:18 Device Security 08:41 Backup and Versioning 09:45 Advanced Configuration 11:15 Command line: not enough 12:53 Sponsor: Get a PC that runs Linux perfectly 13:55 Support the channel

GNOME Dconf video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLsj8plxBn0&t=901s

Device manager lets you see all the components of your PC, and the devices plugged into it. It lets you check for drivers, fix various problems, set some options, and view some logs related to your devices.

On Linux, this thing has no equivalent. We do have a third party app called HardInfo, but it's not an actionable application. In KDE, you have the same thing, with the Info Center.

Device manager is an important tool on Windows, and it would have a LOT of uses on Linux as well. I wish we had something like that.

Linux runs services in the background, for printing, bluetooth, network, virtualization, the graphical server or compositor, and a lot more things, generally managed by systemd on most distros.

And almost no Linux desktop has a complete graphical user interface to manage these services, turn them on or off, enable one at startup or not, or view logs related to this service.

On GNOME, you have an extension called systemd-manager, but no way to configure them, or select options, or enable autostart. On KDE, you have a services page in the settings, but you can basically just start and stop them, no other action is available.

As far as I know, only OpenSUSE has a decent services manager, that is baked into YAST, their configuration tool.

On Windows, the services app might look like it's 20 years old, which it probably is, but it lets you start and stop services, select if you want to start them manually, or at boot, or completely disable them, and it lets you set policies for various services failures, like restarting the computer, restarting the service, or opening another program.

Another thing that is not entirely available in our desktop environments is a graphical tool to configure the firewall, and general system security.

KDE has a config module in their settings, so that's handled. And yet again, OpenSUSE has a firewall config tool in Yast, which works really well.

For GNOME, there are third party tools you can install, depending on the firewall the distro uses, like firewall-config for firewalld, but these are rarely provided by default.

Linux desktops also don't really have an equivalent to the Windows "security center". GNOME has the basics of such an implementation, with their device security page, but it's not actionable.

Anyway, we could add here some information depending on certain libraries, apps, and kernels we use, if vulnerabilities have been detected, we could have access to the firewall settings, apps that have incorrect permission...

And then we have backups. A lot of distros ships with a third party backup tool, like Déja Dup, or Timeshift, but they generally only ship one or the other. We sort of need a complete solution that works ideally for both.

What I'd want is to right click on a file in my file manager, and have a "versions" menu item. What I'd like is a system settings option, native to the desktop environment, that lets me configure a backup, and restore it.

The windows registry is a horrible, horrible thing. It's illegible, it's super messy, modifications can result in a horrendously broken system, and generally it's better left alone. But it does surface a LOT of options for applications and the system. And not all Linux desktops have an equivalent.

GNOME has dconf, which has a lot of various settings you can tweak. KDE doesn't have that. Yast has a bunch of additional configurations available graphically.

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00:00 Intro 00:35 Sponsor: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website with Squarespace 01:34 France arrested people for being private and using Linux 03:53 Windows 11 is losing users 05:44 System76 announces big updates to their FOSS firmware 07:27 Debian 12 is now out 09:04 BlendOS 3 offers a new spin on immutable distros 10:53 Other news: Thunderbird beta, extensions support donations 13:17 Gaming News: Apple uses Wine and VKD3D, Proton updates 15:03 Sponsor: Get a PC that runs Linux perfectly 16:07 Support the channel

#Linux #OpenSource #TechNews

France arrested people for being private and using Linux

https://www.laquadrature.net/2023/06/05/affaire-du-8-decembre-le-chiffrement-des-communications-assimile-a-un-comportement-terroriste/

Windows 11 is losing users

https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-11-lost-users-this-month-should-microsoft-be-worried

System76 announces big updates to their FOSS firmware

https://blog.system76.com/post/major-updates-for-system76-open-firmware-june-2023

Debian 12 is now out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfgPmUsirs

BlendOS 3 offers a new spin on immutable distros

https://blendos.co/blend-os-v3/

Other news: Thunderbird beta, extensions support donations, Ubuntu adds quarter tiling, and staged releases for snaps

https://ubuntu.com//blog/release-management-for-snaps-made-simpler

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/06/ubuntu-23-10-window-tiling-feature

https://linuxiac.com/gnome-extensions-now-supports-donation/

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

Gaming News: Apple uses Wine and VKD3D, & Proton updates

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/proton-experimental-fixes-up-halo-mcc-ubisoft-connect-creativerse/

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/7/23752164/apple-mac-gaming-game-porting-toolkit-windows-games-macos

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#Debian #Linux #bookworm

00:00 Intro 00:38 Sponsor: Check out TuxCare's newsletter for news about Linux security 01:24 Debian 12 Stable 02:17 Not completely FOSS anymore 04:24 Desktops: not that outdated 09:16 Apps and packages 11:14 Who it's NOT for 13:02 Debian 12 is a great desktop 14:33 Sponsor: Get a PC that runs Linux perfectly 15:25 Support the channel

KDE Plasma 5.27 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onPUaAKoGIM GNOME 43 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wefK40cjz9s GNOME 44 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HZIHvACggs

So, to begin with, Debian 12 moves away from its pure "FOSS" roots. Debian 12 now enables the non-free firmware repo by default IF Debian detects you'll need it on your computer. Just know it's possible to disable this during the boot process.

Debian 12 actually splits non free software into 2 different repos: non-free, which is for packages and apps that don't conform to Debian's guidelines on free and open source software, and non free firmware, which is the same thing, but specifically for drivers and firmware.

Debian isn't generally known for shipping the very latest and greatest desktop environments, but Debian 12 isn't far off. For Plasma users, you get the very latest, KDE 5.27, with all its bug fixes and updates, which means you're not missing out on anything.

If you were using Debian 11, you were using KDE 5.20, so you're jumping a full 7 versions ahead, which means your experience will be drastically better, whatever your use case.

If you're a GNOME user, you'll get GNOME 43, which isn't the latest, but GNOME 44 wasn't a huge update by any means. If you were using Debian 11, you were on GNOME 3.38, which means you'll get a whole 4 new versions worth of features, support, performance improvements.

Of course, Debian 12 also updates virtually every single package and app they ship. You get the LTS kernel version 6.1, and you get the Mesa drivers 22.3, and the nvidia drivers 525.

All in all, 67% of packages were updated from Debian 11, and the repos now include 11000 new packages as well, for a total of more than 64 000.

Of course, Debian 12 isn't a desktop for everyone. If your use case is "I like using the very latest thing", then obviously, it's not for you. If you want the most beginner friendly distro, while Debian isn't a bad choice; it's also not the easiest. If you want to game on Linux, Debian will also not be your first choice.

In the past, I would never have recommended Debian Stable as a desktop for most users. It was too old, too outdated, the older applications in its repos were just not a great experience, and Flatpak wasn't super well supported. Older desktop environments were also lackluster, as each new release brought some crucial improvements that you really couldn't do without.

With the maturity of formats like Flatpak, snaps or AppImages, you don't have to care about what versions of apps are in your repos. If you need something newer, you can get it, without adding a third party repo that might mess up your system's dependencies and shared libraries.

And desktop environments on Linux are now very mature, which means using a 6 month to 2 year old desktop isn't a dealbreaker anymore.

And of course, Debian stable won't be for everyone. Tinkerers, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and people who like to game won't find what they want in Debian 12. But for anyone who just wants a computer that works reliably, day after day, without failed updates or stuff that randomly breaks, Debian 12 is an obvious choice. In terms of combining stability, software availability, and now, hardware support, nothing comes close.

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00:00 Intro 00:37 Sponsor: 100$ free credit for your Linux or gaming server 01:37 Tux got fat 02:18 Minix Creator did NOT like Linux 03:07 Linux was first to implement crucial stuff 03:52 Linux wasn't always under the GPL 04:32 Linux is the biggest software project in the world 05:07 Linux was almost called something else 05:51 Why is Tux Tux? 06:36 Linux has terrible codenames 07:16 Torvalds almost lost the trademark 08:00 Linux isn't just a kernel 08:24 Torvalds could have abandoned Linux 09:06 The other project Torvalds created 09:54 Linux runs Hollywood 10:35 Linux runs space 11:17 No science without Linux 12:07 Sponsor: Get a PC that runs Linux perfectly 12:56 Support the channel

Linux is known for being relatively lean and not using too much disk space, but compared to its first version, it's positively bloated. The first Linux release used only 65kilobytes of disk space. Today, a compiled kernel uses 5 to 10 megabytes, which is about 153 times heavier than the original release.

Linux was initially created as a Minix clone. The creator of Minix, Andrew Tanenbaum said, a few years later, that Linux was obsolete, and that GNU Hurd would supplant it soon enough.

https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/opensources/book/appa.html

Linux has also been first to ever support the x86 64 bit architecture, and Linux was also the first to have USB 3.0 drivers added.

The Linux kernel was also initially released under a custom license created by Linus Torvalds, which imposed restrictions on commercial use of his project, and on redistributing it. Fortunately for all of use, this didn't last long, and with version 0.99 in 1992, the kernel moves to the GNU GPL.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070826212454/http://www.tlug.jp/docs/linus.html

The Linux kernel is also the biggest software project in the world, with the biggest number of contributors and companies involved in its development.

The first name Torvalds landed on was Freax, for Free Unix. But as things happened, hosting that Freax kernel was initially done by Ari Lemmke, a member of the staff for Helsinki's university, and this person created a directory called Linux, because that was Torvalds's working name.

In terms of mascot, and the name of that mascot is Tux, not because penguins wear tuxedos naturally, but because it stands for Torvalds Unix. Why a penguin, though? It's because Torvalds was bitten by a penguin.

But the linux kernel also has codenames. For example, version 3.14 was called "shuffling zombie juror", version 4.3 was "blurry fish butt", and version 6.0 is "hurr durr I'm a ninja sloth".

https://handwiki.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_kernel_names

But also, the Linux name was almost lost to a trademark dispute. In 1995, someone named William R. Della Croce Junior, the most evil sounding name I ever heard, filed for a trademark on Linux. He then proceeded to send letters to various Linux distributors asking for 10% royalties, as the ultimate one person patent troll.

Steve Jobs offered Torvalds a job around the year 2000, with a sizeable salary, and a good position in the organization. The pitch was "work on Unix for the biggest user base". The only condition was that he abandoned Linux and stopped working on it altogether.

https://www.theverge.com/2012/3/22/2893581/linus-torvalds-linux-founder-turned-down-steve-jobs-offer

But Torvalds isn't just the creator of the Linux kernel. He also created Git.

Linux is basically running the film industry and Hollywood. The first movie to use Linux was Titanic in 1997, rendered using OpenSUSE, but it didn't stop there. Avatar's effects were rendered on Linux server farms. lord of the Rings? Linux. I Robot? Linux.

Linux also runs the space industry. And also, in the supercomputer world, Linux is the ONLY option. Out of the fastest 500 supercomputers, Linux runs 100% of them, or at least it did in early 2023.

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#linux #technews #opensource

00:00 Intro 00:31 Sponsor: Nick from The Linux Experiment 01:11 Ubuntu plans an immutable desktop distro 02:50 Red Hat drops LibreOffice RPMs for Flatpak 04:36 GNOME will get a flatpak syncing tool and a revamped System panel 06:08 GNOME could get a full light theme 07:20 GNOME fractional scaling support 08:25 Linux Mint 21.2 will bring touchpad gestures 09:36 Portals will now work better with all DEs or tiling WMs 11:04 Gaming News: Nvidia Wayland support, Wine... 12:38 Sponsor: get a PC that runs Linux perfectly 13:30 Support the channel

Ubuntu plans an immutable desktop distro

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/05/cups-snap-ubuntu-23-10#comment-6196766355

Red Hat drops LibreOffice RPMs for Flatpak

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Red-Hat-Less-LibreOffice

https://www.ypsidanger.com/the-distribution-model-is-changing/

GNOME will get a flatpak syncing tool and a revamped System panel

https://blog.timfb.dev/posts/2023/05/31/biweekly-gsoc-update-reaching-flatsyncs-mvp.html

https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/Design/settings-mockups/-/blob/master/system/system-panel.png

https://medium.com/@gautamy672/gsoc-2023-week-1-report-create-a-new-system-panel-in-gnome-settings-cf6401463c13

GNOME could get a full light theme, and official fractional scaling support

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/merge_requests/2324

GNOME fractional scaling support

https://www.omglinux.com/gnome-fractional-scaling-settings-design/

Linux Mint 21.2 will bring touchpad gestures

https://9to5linux.com/linux-mint-21-2-with-cinnamon-5-8-is-getting-support-for-gestures

Portals will now work better with all DEs or tiling WMs

https://www.bassi.io/articles/2023/05/29/configuring-portals/

Gaming News: Nvidia Wayland support, Wine...

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/05/nvidia-535-43-02-beta-for-linux-wayland-vulkan/

https://www.winehq.org/announce/8.9