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/

  • We could play the web based game of this in the Aftershowzen Saturday ;-)
  • That’s £180 per launchpad.

Feedback

Drama

https://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?UEH73o9

Govt

https://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?1mlDFHY

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