LWDW 287: TURBOCHARGING Firefox & NVME for Pi

Mozilla is making Firefox FAST! Yoinking Google fonts right from the desktop, NVMe and TPM 2.0 for your Raspberry Pi, open-source Airplay 2 receivers, and the thrilling conclusion to the 3DFX saga.

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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
07:05 3DFX saga conclusion
09:20 Firefox performance
13:00 Open-source MACos clone
16:55 Google font downloader
20:20 Airplay 2 Receiver
25:35 Russian Arm SoC
34:15 RasPi power NVMe blades
37:15 Roasting coffee with Pi
40:50 Emails


3DFX is still dead

https://twitter.com/VennStone/status/1423431103667490816

  • It was just a prank, bro.
  • I love Sandy’s comment on Twitter: “ Wow. They must have seen LWDW.”
  • I’m glad it’s over.
  • Last week I was made to feel inadequate due to my lack of Voodoo, who do what you don’t dare do, people.

 

Speedy Fox

https://blog.mozilla.org/performance/2021/08/05/performance-in-progress/

  • This is good. 
  • Compared to Chromium based browsers Firefox runs, poorly. 
  • That delay in the window showing up is very noticeable when compared to Chrome in older hardware.
  • The “Something is running slow” dialogue has had the fat trimmed and it actually says which of the tabs is hung, instead of the generic message it used to have. 
  • I think all of us at one time have clicked the Firefox icon several times thinking that it wasn’t launching, and then multiple instances pop up.
  • I have noticed a huge speed increase since the launch of Firefox 89.

 

ReMacOS

http://airyx.org/

  • Aims to provide a similar experience and compatibility with macOS® on x86-64 sytems.
  • Good idea in theory. 
  • They have a cocoa sample app running on BSD using KDE with some Elementary fonts. 
  • Babby steps.
  • I had heard of the Airyx project and I am hoping that it does become a reality, because having an open source alternative to a closed source OS is always a good thing.
  • If you would like to get involved check out #airyx on the Libera IRC network.
  • I support the idea of an open source MacOS alternative for people who became captive to Apple’s UI.
  • But yeah, not being able to run that MacOS software is going to be a problem for adoption.

 

Google font yoinker 

https://github.com/GustavoPeredo/font-downloader

  • Browse, preview, and download Google fonts from the desktop. 
  • Ya know, like a browser.
  • Have you ever wanted an easy way to search the whole Google Font catalog and install them easily on Linux, then Font Downloader is the perfect application for you!
  • Font Downloader is very easy to use, has a nice Google font searcher and a typing test for the selected font.
  • Then you can just click install and it will install the font in your default fonts folder, or you can specify a different folder in settings.
  • In settings you can also search for a specific font type, like Serif, San Serif, Handwriting.
  • After installing the Ballet font, I tested it in abiword, and it looks beautiful.
  • I guess the advantage of a focused application is that you get a direct preview of the font without having to google for it first and then clicking a font to see the example image.
  • This lets you look through the fonts and even preview your own text directly from the thing without having to go through the whole process of installing first.

 

Airplay 2 Receiver 

https://github.com/openairplay/goplay2

  • Someone didn’t get the memo. 
  • You’re supposed to write everything in RUST. 
  • A working Airplay 2 Speaker implementation largely inspired by airplay2-receiver.
  • Accuracy is around 1ms for multiroom.
  • Does not support Windows builds.  
  • Works on a Pi. 
  • Their goal is to have an Opinionated implementation, with only some features but working very well.
  • Opinionated =’s sassy
  • As an opinionated jerk on the interwebs, I like me some opinionated software.
  • I guess it’s more the picking and choosing of specific features rather than attempting to blanket support all of them.
  • And being able to focus on those specific ones means they’ll probably end up working better.
  • Bringing some proto-UNIX philosophy back into Apple Technology.
  • In the future the developers want to improve multi-room support with audio sync, support Spotify RTP over UDP and the Apple Lossless Audio Codec.

 

Союз нерушимый

https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/10/baikall_iru_arm_pcs/

  • Desktop ARM and MIPS manufacturer Baikal brings Astra Linux PCs to Russia
  • Russia may have a great deal many problems but I do support the break away from Intel/AMD/Microsoft dominance for desktop PCs. 
  • I really wish more countries and companies would actually try and make this a thing.
  • Lacking that, I’ll keep an eye on what the Pine folks are doing.
  • Just mind the NZ phones.
  • Russia has for years experimented with its own computer hardware and software, so I hope this one sticks!

Slice of Pi

Pi Blades

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2021/uptime-labs-cm4-blade-adds-nvme-tpm-20-raspberry-pi

  • OMG, these are so sweet!  Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 blade servers with a mini rack to boot!
  • The blades use native NVMe storage, without the need of an adapter card.
  • They are not available yet, but a Kickstarter campaign is expected to start soon.
  • And one of the blades has a DeLorean car silk screened on the circuit board, and another one the Vulcan salute, and another one Grogu ;-D

 

Roasty Pi 

https://www.reddit.com/r/RASPBERRY_PI_PROJECTS/comments/p0ckcv/diy_coffee_roaster_with_a_popcorn_machine_and_a/


Feedback

Librem 

https://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?4Ayxnk5

https://imgur.com/a/gV7Q1Y4

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