LWDW 195: MAD-MAX OS

Navi Lite spotted in driver update! Microsoft confirms Edge for Linux, DELL ups their developer edition portfolio, and OTA firmware updates for your Raspberry Pi 4.


Listen:


Download:


Timestamps:
03:35 DELL XPS Expansion
07:10 KDE consistency
10:25 Ubuntu 19.10 media sharing bug
13:25 Why developers choose Ubuntu
17:05 Navi Lite Linux driver
20:50 Websnapper
23:05 Collapse OS
29:10 UN open-source initiative
31:45 Microsoft Edge confirmed for Linux
33:55 Shameless self promotion
37:05 Bitcoin Linux ticker
39:40 Remote Linux Firmware Updates
42:05 Emails


Colour key – Venn Jill Pedro

New XPS

  • Most, but not all, of these models are also available to Canadian and EU customers.  
  • No longer equipped with nose cam. 
  • Shipping with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS preloaded. 
  • 16GB of memoryram is on the low side.
  • That’s only like what, three Electrons apps?
  • It’s amazing to think that Project Sputnik is almost 7 years old!
  • The original XPS 13 system came with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.
  • Why can’t you pick 16GB of RAM with the i5 model?
  • Seems like a pretty arbitrary limitation, unless it was deliberate and designed to take people to the i7 – read more expensive – variant.
  • It’s great that there are more options, but it’s still glaringly obvious Dell are railroading people to spend as much money as possible.

 

UN goes open-source

  • Wow, the United Nations is going open source!!!  This is so wonderful!
  • Three months ago the United Nations created a new advisory board to help them develop their open source strategy and policy.
  • Open source software aligns with the UNs core values to make technology, software, and intellectual property available to everyone, including developing countries.
  • The United Nations Technology Innovation Labs has been formed.
  • I hope this is more than doing the bare minimum of putting a little group together to tick a box.

 

KDE consistency 

  • Part of KDE’s new focus is consistency, like we mentioned a couple of months ago.
  • With this one they’re focusing on the highlight bar, and the sidebars.
  • For the highlight they’ve already decided on what to do
  • For the side navigation bars they’re still taking suggestions.

 

Ubuntu media sharing bug

  • Welcome to the world of JustWorks ™ 
  • For those of you on university campus, get snoopin! 
  • The solution for now is to nuke it from orbit. 
  • The Ubuntu 19.10 DNLA media server we talked about last week wasn’t completely baked yet and has a major bug.
  • It could be automatically sharing the contents of your Pictures, Video and Music folders with other users on the same network, even if media sharing is turned off.
  • The Rygel media server, which is supposed to be disabled by default, autostarts on log in.
  • I just ran sudo apt-get remove rygel on my Ubuntu 19.10 test machine just to make sure the folders aren’t visible by default.
  • Especially since I have been using other window managers with Ubuntu 19.10 other than GNOME shell.
  • Not that Steve_Husband would even notice ;-), and is the only other person in the house on the same network.
  • That’s a bit of a screw up, thankfully most people don’t use the interim releases.

 

Tootin’ one’s own horn

    • Ever since Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth announced last May that there has been an increase in support contracts for Ubuntu desktop for AI development and engineering I have seen an increase in their desktop marketing.
    • This is wonderful for the growth of the Linux desktop and shows that Canonical is putting much more money and emphasis on the desktop.
    • We have talked about this before on LWDW that one of the key factors needed for the growth of the Linux desktop is to put money into its marketing, like that of Google with ChromeOS.
    • Having a whitepaper titled “Six reasons why developers choose Ubuntu Desktop” proves this.
    • He actually listed the snaps as a reason why Ubuntu is so popular… 
    • Snaps are not popular. 
    • The only ones pushing for snaps are Ubuntu/Canonical employees.
    • AppImages would be a lot more popular if developers cared to provide them with their software.

 

Navi Lite drivers spotted

  • Lite or not these are the rumoured high-end AMD cards. 
  • They might ever trace a ray, or two.
  • I think AMD will launch them at Computex 2020 in May, like they did the previous Navi RX 5700s last year.
  • But this time, I bet there will be Linux driver support sooner.
  • Welp, if the rumors are anything to go by, AMD will be releasing a higher end range and a low end end range to make the 5700 series the mid range.
  • I am curious to see if they have something that outperforms the 1650 with no extra PCIe power connectors needed.

 

Web Snapper

  • When you’re living that low-bandwidth lifestyle.
  • Nice, console based ELinks or lynx for modern browsers.
  • I do like that they specifically point out which line to change if you want to enable JS.

 

Collapse OS

  • I like it but…
  • As I once argued with a law professor who made everyone use the law library for research vs doing it online because “you need to know what to do if the internet goes down”  
  • Law and technology have no place when things go full-metal MAD MAX.
  • As much as I have nerd rage for the Z80 chip, I think i386 or newer might be the better option, because they are more plentiful.
  • When the Zombie apocalypse comes, I will be well prepared, because I have every computer, part and chipsets represented in my computer collection, including a “Trashy 80” ;-D 
  • The thing about collapseOS is that it requires a very specific kind of disruption.
  • One which we may very well be headed into.
  • But still highly unlikely to happen in a way that would keep the Z80s as the best viable option.
  • Android would be s good OS for the end times. 

 

Edge confirmed 

  • I was betting on the end of 2019. 
  • 2020 will be the year of the Edge Desktop. 
  • Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge browser is indeed officially coming to Linux very soon, and it was just announced at their Ignite 2019 conference in Orlando
  • Last month we talked about Edge coming to Linux and Microsoft developers asked the community to take a short “Web Development on Linux Survey” that asked everything from what distros you use for web development and testing to what you use web browsers on Linux for.
  • The results of the survey must have been enough that Microsoft felt that developers would like it for testing on Linux. 
  • I don’t think anyone had any doubts that it was coming…
  • And if you did, you haven’t been watching this show.
  • I suppose it takes a while to build your own telemetry BS on top of the blink engine.

Slice of Pi

Bitcoin Linux ticker 

  • It’s a ticker for your life’s biggest disappointment.
  • It’s a variation on things like the bandwidth tracker and the like. 

 

Seamless, Remote Linux Firmware Updates

  • This is amazing, and I saw Pantacor’s demo of this at OSSummit NA in San Diego in August!

Feedback

Flexing

0 Comments

Leave Your Reply