LWDW 304: Linux Font Tips

Linus attempts to install a font, Blender 3.0 removes OpenCL rendering, Vizio responds to copyleft violations, and portable apps with Exodus.

Special thanks to:
KRDucky (new patron)
TheSyldat (game donation)

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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
11:31 Vizio lawsuit update
17:21 Blender 3.0
23:11 Running distros in your terminal with Distrobox
27:26 Portable apps with Exodus
32:10 Linus & Luke install a font
39:41 Firefox 95 pounds sand
50:56 Music games with Pi
53:56 Emails

VIZIO case

https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/nov/30/vizio-update-0/

Shame on you Vizio!
For violating the GPL, using Linux and open source software, and not letting the public see the code.
I won’t be recommending your TVs anymore . . .
Also, this is coming in an age where the right to repair is coming under scrutiny with tech companies, and the software they are using.
The lawsuit is historic in its approach, because it focuses on consumer rights conferred by copyleft licenses and SFC is filing as a third-party beneficiary.
All the SFC requires is that Vizio makes this code available to the public as per its licenses. Vizio won’t hear of it.
Vizio’s filing implies that only copyright holders, and no one else, have a right to ask for source code under the GPL and LGPL.
WAT.
It’s beyond nonsensical to claim that a license which specifically requires you to share the sauce if you’re asked to do so regardless, is not the case.
Part of me just wants VIZIO to release the source and stfu.
But another part of me wants them to fight this and lose to the point where it sets a fresh precedent and reminder for these kinds of companies.

Blender 3.0

https://www.blender.org/download/releases/3-0/

Blender, our favorite open source 3D/2D computer graphics and animation program just had a huge 3.0 release!
Cycles GPU kernels now render 2-8x faster in real-world scenes.
And I noticed immediately that the 3D viewport is much faster and more responsive.
There are shadow improvements on low polygon game models.
And the Shadow Catcher has been completely rewritten, and includes a pass to fully handle colored indirect light and emission.
And a new Asset Browser which includes materials, objects, and world data blocks to keep your projects more organized.
And in the Geometry Nodes modifier there are around 100 new nodes for interaction with curves, text data, instances, and more.
Blender 3.0 removes OpenCL rendering but don’t worry AMD users, it still supports RDNA.
You have RDNA don’t you?
Linux support for HIP is also still in the works.
The 3090 murderates everything in rendering.
https://techgage.com/viewimg/?img=https://techgage.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Blender-3.0.0-Cycles-GPU-Render-Performance-BMW.jpg

Distro Box

https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox

Another great podman wrapper!
Perfect for running containers on your SteamOS3 Steam Deck.
This could be handy for creating guides.
It’s a fancy podman wrapper.
Might be good for wrecking a Linux distro before doing it for real.
The aim here is to simplify what Toolbox already did for podman.
And as they claim, to give you something to break if you’re running Silverblue/Kinoite or any of the immutableFS distros.

Exodus

https://github.com/intoli/exodus

This reminds me of the days when I would use Alien on Debian to convert Red Hat .rpms and Slackware .tgzs to .debs.
Moving Linux apps between systems.
What would be the advantage over say, a Flatpak?
- Not requiring the large runtime containers.
For a one off, I can see this being useful.
Right up until there’s another ABI change in one of the core libraries which aren’t built in this scenario.
At which point, or if you’re looking to deploy a bunch of software onto a server, the Flatpaks will be the better option.

Fire Pooch 95 (RTheren)

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2021/12/firefox-95-released-with-improved-pip-mode

The Mozilla Firefox 95 web browser has been released, with some great improvements, including lower CPU usage and better security..
Firefox 95 introduces a new sandboxing technology called RLBox that prevents untrusted code and other security vulnerabilities from causing “accidental defects as well as supply-chain attacks.”
RLBox helps harden Firefox against potential security vulnerabilities in third-party libraries.
Also, site isolation is enabled to better protect users against side-channel attacks, like the infamous Spectre vulnerability.
And page loading performance has been improved by speculatively compiling JavaScript ahead of time.
I wonder if that reduced CPU utilization makes it so I can use Firefox to watch Crunchyroll without it freezing the whole system for full second.

Music by Committee (RTheren)

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/music-machine-multi-player-game/