LWDW 258: Debian Squirrel

Ubuntu successfully boots on the Mac mini! Debian begins to cool off, JingOS aims to be the first iPadOS-style Linux Distro, and researching anime from the command line.

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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
04:39 AlmaLinux
08:04 Debian Bullseye freeze
15:29 Pinephone Mobian
20:19 JingOS
26:53 BeagleV
31:33 Linux running on the Apple M1
35:23 CLI anime search
40:33 Plugs & shameless self-promotion
44:33 YARH.IO Micro 2
47:53 Raspberry Pi OS Epson update


The other Cent Replacement

  • Call the first release Mater, I dare you. 
  • Allegorical Latin phrases make the best distro names. 
  • Formerly known as Project Lenix.
  • $1M in annual sponsorship from CloudLinux Inc.
  • Rapid switch from CentOS to AlmaLinux.
  • No downtime, migrate even large server fleets in an instant.
  • The more classic CentOS like distros the better.
  • And this one has a proven track record with the developers from CloudLinux OS.
  • This is starting to look a lot like what happened when CrunchBang died.
  • Except Cent was much more high-profile so of course every project looking to “replace” it is going to get a lot of attention.
  • Today IBM launched No-cost RHEL that can be used in production for up to 16 systems.

 

Bullseye Freeze 

    • It’s almost safe to preorder Debian Bullseye. 
    • Oh noes!  Deprecating i386 in the next Debian 12 release won’t be good for my old 386s.
    • Or lots of embedded systems used in industry.
    • Ubuntu dropped i386 32 bit support, but couldn’t drop 32 bit completely.
    • Debian is supposed to be the swiss army knife that supports all the computing architectures.  Please don’t change that now!!!

 

  • “we believed we would not be able to provide security support for the architecture as a whole at par with other architectures.”

 

    • Yeah, go ahead and kill i386 support. 
    • If companies need support they can pay for it. 
  • 32-bit support will live on like it does in Ubuntu. 
  • If you’re running Buster, changing your repos over to Bullseye is dead simple. 
  • Tracking it now on Jackbox & Threadbooper. 
  • Why the Debian Project decided on 250Hz for their Realtime-Kernel is one of life’s great mysteries.
  • One of the devs does bring up a very good point.
  • There are more active installs running 32bit kernels than all the other non-x86-based architectures combined.

 

Pine Mobian

  • Awesome!  Mobian Community Edition (CE) PinePhones are now available for pre-order in the Pine Store!
  • Pine64 is aiming for a mid February 2021 dispatch.
  • Mobian is a Debian based Linux distribution tailored to run on smartphones, and has been one of the distros I have been wanting to test on Pine devices.
  • And just like previous Community Editions:
    • $149 for 2GB RAM; 16GB eMMC
    • $199 for 3GB RAM; 32GB eMMC plus a bundled USB-C dock
  • I like the removable battery and low price, and SD card. 
  • Not a fan of the plastic case and mono speaker. 
  • Will be interesting to see how Debian runs on the criter. 
  • I’mma wait for the version with enough RAM to not swap itself into the dirt the moment you try to actually use it for anything.

JinOG

  • A lot of work has gone into the polished look and design of the distro, including the icons and animations.
  • JingOS will be released for smartphones at the end of the year.
  • My guess is that we might see a Community Edition of JingOS for the Pinephone.
  • Tablets are the future. 
  • Is the world ready for an iPadOS-like Linux OS?
  • On Linux this lives or dies by the onscreen keyboard. 
  • Not touching it unless I see the source. 
  • Even with the source available, people were calling Deepin OS spyware because of a non SSL’ed URL to a data collection service.
  • I do wonder how this will fly.

 

Affordable RISC-V

  • Now that’s a price point:  $140 for 8 GB RAM and lower cost units with less RAM expected in future releases.
  • That’s closer to something people can buy to try out RISC-V without risking bankruptcy.

 

Ubuntu on the M1

  • Define completely.
  • Are we talking about video acceleration? 
  • Chris Wade, CTO of Corellium Linux M1 development, said on Twitter that Linux is now usable on the Mac mini M1.
  • Booting from a USB and the Raspberry Pi Ubuntu desktop.
  • Software rending for GPU acceleration for now.
  • Hector Martin’s Asahi Linux for the M1 we talked about last week isn’t the only Linux being developed for the M1, and the more the better!

 

./weeb

  • This week’s neat but of questionable use application is. 
  • The JIF on the page shows a C prompt and that, that’s a new one. 
  • Nature has never produced a creature more terrified of the command line than a Windows user.

Slice of Pi

Handy Pi

  • Fenix ARB-L18-3500U 3500mAh Li-ion USB Rechargeable Battery.
  • Slick little case. 
  • Screen resolution is a bit on the retro side. 
  • Pi 3B+?
  • This is the Raspberry Pi equivalent to the Pocket C.H.I.P., except that you build it yourself and it is much more powerful.
  • With a Pi 4 and a touch screen that would actually be a lot more useful.

 

RasPi OS Update

  • RIP Flash support. 
  • Pulseaudio now works in stereo. 
  • Support for Epson printers. 
  • Several misc fixes. 
  • There is a new release of Raspberry Pi OS, and it’s the first release in 2021.
  • And there is a great update to the Raspberry Pi OS accessibility features.
  • In the previous release there was only support for the Orca screen reader in Firefox, which had to be downloaded separately.
  • Now there is screen reader support in the default Chromium web browser, which has been updated.
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