Intel done goofed, Chrome OS 64 adds parallel tasks, MVP travels to Vulkan and System76 accepts Bitcoin? All this plus your emails!
Special thanks:
Luke W (new patreon)
Subscribe:
Listen:
Download:
Subscribe Google Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | TuneIn | RSS | More
Colour key – Venn Pedro
News
Why does this exist?
https://www.linuxinsider.com/story/85018.html?rss=1
- Just run Wordperfect like a normal person.
- “SoftMaker Office could be a first-class professional-strength replacement for Microsoft Office on the Linux desktop.”
- That is a completely pointless sentence and it means nothing.
- $70 for the base license, that’s a bit steep.
- Fully compatible or 100% guaranteed compatible?
- Alright, I downloaded the free beta and it wants a registration key.
- Yeah, I think I will stick with the literal dozens of free non DRM encumbered alternatives.
ChromeOS multitasks
https://chromeunboxed.com/news/android-parallel-tasks-incoming-chrome-os-64/
- Multiple Android apps running in parallel is a big plus for Chrome OS.
- As if I didn’t want a Chromebook bad enough already!
- Awww, it’s like ChromeOS is trying to become a real boy.
- You will finally be able to take advantage of your Chromebooks hardware.
- Unless you got one of those $200 short-bus ones for XMAS.
- Yeah, whoever bought you that doesn’t love you.
APK from CLI
https://github.com/matlink/gplaycli
- This is real handy if you have your own F-droid server.
- The main goal was to be able to run this script with a cronjob, in order to automatically update an F-Droid server instance.
Now with Vulkan support
https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/releases/tag/v0.28.0
- Don’t know why you would need a Vulkan output but i’m glad we got it.
- From my testing MPV seems to be the only player able to play 720p videos on my T42 at the actual video framerate.
- Bringing Vulkan support seems geared to make it more appealing to people on high end hardware as well as the low end.
*sigh*
http://www.openshotvideo.com/2018/01/happy-new-year-2018.html
- I honestly cannot recommend OpenShot 2.X series to anyone at this point.
- It’s still a hot crashy mess and that makes me sad.
- Linux needs a simple, easy to use My First Video Editor and OpenShot 1.X really fit that bill.
- 2.X wants to be somewhere between Windows movie maker and KDENlive.
- A niche that simply does not exists.
- Plans for 2018 include Stability, UI Improvements, additional effects, and 32-bit Windows Builds.
No root for you
https://iwf1.com/kde-dropping-run-as-root-feature-stumbles-backlash-from-the-community
- Remember when VLC did this?
- Outside of ARRRCH users, who does this really effect?
- Like most people I found myself installing gedit and geany to do my root text editing.
Https is now a thing
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/12/tipping-scales-https
- Easy to forget that at the beginning of 2017 you didn’t expect EVERY webzone to support https.
- Now, as 2017 comes to a close, an average of 66% of page loads on Firefox are encrypted, and Chrome shows even higher numbers.
- Let’s Encrypt’s total issuance volume has exceeded 177 million certificates.
- With both Chrome and Firefox putting exclamation marks and red strikes above the left corner of the URL bar if your site doesn’t do https, a lot of people decided to take LetsEncrypt up on their free certificates.
OggaBooga!
http://pythonsweetness.tumblr.com/post/169166980422/the-mysterious-case-of-the-linux-page-table/amp?
- This is some FSM damn interesting stuff.
- Potential Intel Hardware bug could result in 30-35% performance hit when fixed.
- “AMD processors are not subject to the types of attacks that the kernel page table isolation feature protects against”
- Intel tried to cripple all X86 processors but the dude from AMD told him their products weren’t vulnerable.
- ^ From a PMTS Software Engineer at AMD.
- Kernel 4.14.11 is out with patches for Intel cpu mem leak.
- Seems the problem lies in Intel’s implementation of branch prediction.
- These haven’t been a good few months for Intel.
- First AMD releases a competitive CPU, then Coffee Lake rumors of it being just a more expensive Kaby Lake, the management engine issue, now loss of performance to fix a security bug.
- And it’s not just Linux, this seemingly affects every operating system which uses any type of memory predictions between processes and the kernel.
This is just neat
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/12/source-code-for-apples-historic-lisa-os-to-be-made-available-in-2018/
- I look forward to running it in a browser exactly once, saying “neat” and never touching it again.
- You mean the one Steve Jobs lifted wholesale from Xerox?
- In all fairness Xerox was just sitting on it with no plans for development.
Slice of Pi
Boxes of Pi
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3244253/computers/best-raspberry-pi-kits.html
- I might pick up a few of those Pi for dummies for my local nonprofit.
- PiTop looks neat… but that price don’t.
- The retro gaming kit seems to have far too agreeable a price for this sorta thing.
Edge Pi
http://linuxgizmos.com/raspberry-pi-sized-sbc-runs-linux-on-single-core-cortex-a53-soc/
- 2x GbE ports and 2x USB 3.0 ports because REASONS!
- Single core 64-bit Cortex-A @ 1W.
Feedback
Grandpa Linux
https://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?oX9ey2i