AppMan brings sanity to AppImages, GNOME 41 introduces Context Tiles, AJA support is coming to OBS, Argon introduces a triangle PiNAS, and shiny new things for Thunar.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
07:04 AppMan for AppImages
11:11 Gnome 41 Context Tiles
17:41 Shiny new things for XFCE Thunar
23:01 AJA Kona support for OBS
28:16 Streamdeck UI for Streamdeck
35:54 Pi TV Stick
39:54 Argon EON 4-bay PiNAS
Apt for appimages
https://github.com/ivan-hc/AppMan
- Awesome! We have been needing a universal AppImage installer on Linux for a long time, and now we have one!
- It’s called AppMan, and it works like Apt, Pacman or dnf and can be installed by downloading a small script.
- With AppMan you can install AppImages from the terminal, like you do with Snaps and Flatpaks and software from your distros local repositories.
- Appman install ** to install AppImages
- Appman -q ** to search the list of available AppImages with keywords
- I did a search for video editors with the -q option and a lot of AppImaged video editors were listed, including Kdenlive, avidemux, Openshot and Shotcut.
- I then installed the Shotcut video editor via AppMan, and it worked beautifully!
- From here on out AppMan will be in my default installed software list on every distro :-D
- Now create a centralized repo for them, and then I will need someone to release Ubuntu AppImage Edition.
- I need those to complete my XKCD 927 bingo card.
Gnome context
https://blogs.gnome.org/tbernard/2021/09/09/software-41-context-tiles/
- We have been waiting for the Software center refresh on Gnome for a long time.
- And there were speed improvements with the Software installer in Gnome 40, so hopefully now it will be even more performant with its new layout.
- Marking software which uses X as unsafe? Really?
- I’m not sure that’s the best way to promote Wayland.
- But it certainly is in keeping with how GNOME does things.
- Couple of things are being worked on here.
- Communicating app download size in a more nuanced way, especially for Flatpak apps.
- Incentivizing app developers to use portals rather than poking holes in the sandbox.
- Warning people about potential security problems.
- Exposing age ratings more prominently.
- The solution? Context tiles!
- Bad sandboxing, legacy windowing and closed-source marks you as unsafe.
- I’ll be sticking with my vintage X11 for the foreseeable future… and I play a lot of games.
- The hardware support check is nice.
- And it’s sporting a new age rating.
New things in Thunar
https://alexxcons.github.io/2021/09/11/shiny-new-things-in-thunar.html
- We got some awesome new features for the xfce Thunar file manager coming, thanks to the hard work of students in the Google Summer of Code 2021.
- The Thunar 4.17.5 development release is out with these new updates.
- The Bookmarks got moved into a separate ‘Bookmarks Menu’ and a ‘create bookmark’ option was added.
- I am going to love the new bookmarks menu in Thunar!
- I use bookmarks all the time in my file managers, and this will make them easier to manage in Thunar.
- And more intuitive than just creating them in the sidebar.
- Setting the default application is nice.
- XFCE uses the whatever you used last method by default.
- This can get annoying when you need to add ID3 tags to an MP3 on Wed and Sun but the other 5 days of the week not so much.
- Could come in handy for file types that you only open with one thing.
- Still no per folder sorting/view modes, which was supposed to be introduced with 4.16.
- Still no option to change the icon of a specific folder.
AJA Kona in OBS
https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/pull/5271
- That’s 432K lines of code but some of it is the SDK.
- Aww, the presidents of AJA liked mah tweet.
- Now send me some hardware for testing.
- If it gets merged it will put OBS over the 1mil mark.
- Compare this to Blackmagic who was not willing to help OBS at all.
- Kona and Corvid, both names contentious and for completely different reasons.
Streamdeck
https://github.com/unix-streamdeck
- This comes in two parts, Streamdeckd and StreamDeck UI.
- DBus for your Deck.
- People are going to get confused since the current working solution is called, ya guessed it, streamdeck-ui.
- The OG streamdeck-ui had some issues with Wayland due to pynput so I wonder if this sorts things.
- The UI looks roughly the same and hey, 100% GO.
- Unfortunately this still requires xdotool aka xdoot.
- This will cause you to lose focus on the active window.
- Moral of the story?
- If you are using a Deck for OBS stick with Bitfocus Companion.
Slice of Pi
Pi TV Stick
https://hackaday.io/project/180969-raspberry-pi-cm4-tv-stick
- The Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 is the perfect form factor to create a Raspberry Pi HDMI plug for your TV.
- And reducing the external clutter created by using a classic full sized RasPi 4.
- Also, you can use it to illuminate and produce rainbow vomit on your TV monitor by connecting an LED strip to the ambilight connector ;-)
- This seems redundant.
- If you’re going to end up something with about the same dimensions as the regular Pi board, why not use that?
- I guess if you really must get away from the Micro HDMI connectors, this will do it.
Argon PiNAS (Rtheren)
- From the creators of the Argon ONE comes, a triangle.
- A 4-bay NAS enclosure powered by Pi.
- OLED system display & RTC.
- Has Pedro’s favourite accessory.
- Requires a 12 volts 5 Amps Power Supply.
- It’s going to run you around $100 for the basic kit.
- In my experience Argon appears to be more focused on looks vs cooling so keep that in mind.
- That case has a restricted top intake and whar exhaust?
- You can bake a Pi and it will survive but drives, not so much.
- For only $180 you can pledge to receive the Argon EON with a Raspberry Pi 4 (4Gig).
- And with 40 days to go they have already surpassed their original goal of $3,573 to $84,386!
- They’re still using that USB bridge, I see.
- Seems deliberate now.
- For £130, Pi included, that’s not bad!
- Heck, that would replace my MicroATX NAS immediately.
- I’m glad I didn’t catch the early bird special in time.
- I would have dropped the £70 immediately, if I had.
