LWDW 292: Blood for the blood god, AppMan for the AppImages

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)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/argonforty/argon-eon-4-bay-network-storage-powered-by-raspberry-pi-4

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.