LWDW 117: Don’t Call Me Fam

Chrome OS learns to Linux! Ubuntu MATE drops i386, NVIDIA kills GPP and Microsoft embraces Red Hat?

Special thanks to:
Mike G (UPS from the Wishzone)

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Colour key – Venn Pedro Jill

News:

Linux incoming
https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/08/you-can-now-run-linux-apps-on-chrome-os/

Ah, yes this is Google’s attempt at getting developers onto their platform.
Chromebooks will be cheap alternatives to Apple laptops for developers.
We talked about this two weeks ago, and it’s not just a terminal anymore but will be a full suite of applications that can be enabled.

Article author tried it on a couple of different chromebooks but it didn’t work.
It’s only for the Chromebook Pixel, the stupidly overpriced one from a couple of years ago.
WHAT? They are testing the preview version on their own hardware first?
…monsters.
Doing this makes sense since it’s going to run like galvanized junk on $200 Chromebooks.
Runs in a custom VM.
Full support for graphical apps using WAYLAND!

Red Hat Summit News
https://www.wraltechwire.com/2018/05/08/red-hat-kicks-off-25th-year-summit-with-big-ibm-cloud-deal/

A record breaking 7,000 attendees at this years conference.
IBM is expanding its partnership with Red Hat and moving more of its software portfolio to Red Hat containers and Red Hat’s OpenShift container application platform which uses Kubernetes and Docker.

Open Shaft
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/08/microsoft_azure_redhat_openshift/

Right! Hold up!
You’re Red Hat. Why are you letting Microsoft take point on the cloud stuff?
I get letting the not so smart kid who eats its own boogers just deal with the basic stuff, but you’re Red Hat!
Is just because you’re looking to cozy up to their marketing department?
Manage Openshift with Azure, neat #winning.
It’s a win for RH hybrid cloud tech.
And yes, MS could easily nom RH.
RH Revenue: 2.9 billion
MS Revenue: 89.95 billion

Transporting Photons
https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2018-04-high-speed-networking-open-source-kernel-bypass

A new SMPTE 2110 set of standards is being rolled out to accommodate higher bitrate audio/video IP packets. Between 1 and 8 Gigabits per second for typical uncompressed High Definition and Ultra High Definition formats.

SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) sets the standards and specifications for all motion imaging.

Directing audio/visual packets from source directly to ethernet cards using Netmap, and bypassing the middle-man, the Linux kernel.

Netmap is a framework for high speed packet I/O.
Transporting photons used to be a lot less complex. I remember spending 100s of hours behind half inch and 3 quarter inch videotape editors editing animations and video productions with SMPTE timecode and BNC Noodles.

Those patches are now available for Netmap and support speeds above 80Gbps on a single thread.
GG Beebs doing the early work that will be needed by everyone in the future.
Remember when gigabit networking seemed like moon-tech that you never fully utilize @home?

FFmpeg 4 the “Wu”
https://www.ffmpeg.org/index.html#news

FFmpeg is the backend video/audio encoder/decoder for most multimedia applications in Linux, including mplayer, VLC, OBS, Handbrake etc.

Converting video and audio will be much faster with the new hardware encoding and decoding features of FFmpeg!

Experimental MagicYUV encoder
Intel QSV-accelerated MJPEG encoding
NVIDIA NVDEC-accelerated H.264, HEVC, MJPEG, MPEG-1/2/4, VC1, VP8/9 hwaccel decoding

OpenCL overlay filter
AMD AMF H.264 and HEVC encoders
Still no built in support for nvenc, which makes sense since NVidia is still holding that one hostage.
You do get NVDec, though.
A experimental MagicYUV encoder is quite interesting.
UHD video at a fraction of the size.
*awaits decoder*
OpenCL overlay filters are a welcome addition.

MATE i386
https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/ubuntu-mate-18-10-dropping-i386-images/16715?u=wimpy

Debian is going to be one of the last distros to support i386, albeit with an older Linux kernel.

Linus dropped support for i386 in the kernel in 2012.
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, which concludes April 2021, will be the last Ubuntu release to support i386.

Other distros, like Ubuntu Budgie will also follow suit and drop 32-bit support.
That’s fair. The time saved from no longer having to support the 32bit images, means the ARM images get some love.
And if we’re honest, you’d be better off with a RasPi and a 33WHr battery pack than a 2007-2010 netbook.
In addition a RasPi should be able to handle any specialty apps you are keeping a i386 box around for.
Less than 10% of Ubuntu MATE users are running the i386 (32-bit Intel) images.
The last i386 (32-bit Intel) devices were manufactured 10 years ago.
I like how Wimpey used the second i386 pic from Google image search… yeah, I noticed.

Look at this graph
https://github.com/ocochard/graphpath

This is an awesome script to see an ASCII visual flowchart representation of your network noodles and the routes they take.

My network diagram was rather impressive because of my 16 port ethernet switch splitting off from a 6 port router.

Much nicer than having to create your own ASCII network diagram with the vim DrawIt! plugin.

If you’re doing a lot of network stuff, I can see how the visual representation could help.
Requires exactly zero dependencies.
Granted it’s of questionable use but come on, it’s kinda neat.

Stream tools
https://linuxgamecast.com/2018/05/obs-linux-browser-plugin-discord-chat-overlay/

Was looking for a way to slap Discord into the stream without a window capture.
This looks nice!
Could use the option to get rid of the time labels and choose whether or not to show pictures/gifs (and a way to set the size of those pictures/gifs).
The “neat” feature here is having a working browser source.
It can free up screen real estate and yes, it can be used for overlays as well.
Why yes, I am doing everything in my power to avoid the shame of owning an Ultra-Wide monitor.

The story continues
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/04/nvidia_gpp_axed/

Hmm, remember the 3Dfx monopoly?
I said it on Saturday and I’ll say it again.
By not addressing people’s concerns about each and every individual point and accusation levied against them, NVidia is lending credence to that speculation.
They killed it, good!
The status quo remains unchanged, Radeon graphics are still crap and NVidia is still just as scummy.
For everyone out there cheering “yeah! we did it!” no you didn’t.
“Last month, some of those who had complained claimed in online forums that they had been contacted by regulators”
^ This makes infinitely more sense.
Granted, it’s hearsay but it’s more believable than NVIDIA caving to public pressure and or canceling GPP because it was a distraction.

Slice of Pi

PiDrive (RuleSpider)
https://hackaday.com/2018/05/07/raspberry-pi-becomes-cycle-exact-commodore-drive-emulator/

Needs an ARM64 CPU.
Binaries available on creator website, source to be released soon.
I guess if you still have your old copy protected floppy Commodore games, you need to get on your space hopper and stop smoking indoors.
Because clearly you’re living in the early 90’s.

Portable Pi
https://www.electromaker.io/blog/article/convert-your-raspberry-pi-zero-w-into-a-stick-pc