LWDW 308: We’re Rooting For Dolphin

Intel talks about ARC at CES, KDE enables root file operations in Dolphin, Portmaster brings super-slick firewall and ad-blocking to the Linux desktop, and rolling your own metaverse with a Raspberry Pi 4.

Special thanks to:
Turnover (inc pledge)
Jpx (new patreon) 
mAxius (new patreon) 
chz bacon (new patreon)
Mir (twitch resub)
Massive Oni (twitch resub)


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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
10:13 Intel ARC at CES
17:08 Root for KDE Dolphin
20:03 Easy to use firewall Portmaster
25:03 Burning Windows
28:06 DOS web browser
32:46 CPU built with synthesizer modules
38:41 Pi powered Metaverse

Intel ARC

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/intel-arc-discrete-gpus-in-over-50-pcs/

  • I enjoyed all the exciting announcements during Intel’s keynote yesterday at CES!
    • Deep Link Hyper Encode, which combines discrete and on board GPUs rendering together for faster rendering in DaVinci Resolve.
    • EVO platform with multi device screen support that is multi OS.
    • Real time animation on a laptop with Ozone Rig Studio.
  • On behalf of everyone, whar desktop GPU!?
  • I noticed that the Intel, AMD and Nvidia keynotes at CES all focused on their tech that is in laptops.
  • And they all capitalized on thin and light laptop workstations, that are more powerful and more power efficient.
  • With the hardware shortage, it must be easier to get hardware for mobile, than a CPU or GPU for desktop.
  • And they are prioritizing OEM sales over consumer.
  • Yeah, bunch of laptops if that’s your thing. 
  • Couple of games will ship with XeSS.
  • Then we have Deep Link Hyper Encode working with Resolve. 
  • This really was not the announcement I was looking for and there were some things planned that the CES presentation left out. 
  • Creators & gamers are in desperate need of new GPUs. 
  • Teenage Venn should be able to buy a used 2060 for $150/200 in 2022. 
  • They sell for 500. 
  • AMD makes a good desktop & gaming card but Blender & Resolve are not welcome there. 
  • We need player 3, Intel. 

Linux on Windows

https://www.windowscentral.com/tired-windows-its-time-give-linux-try

  • Rich Edmonds over at Windows Central wrote a great article titled “Tired of Windows? It’s time to give Linux a try.”
  • This is so refreshing, especially since it is from an article on Windows Central:
    • “After using Windows for more than two decades, I find myself no longer able to put up with it.”
  • Rich talks about how With Linux there is choice.
  • And that “Valve’s Proton is literal software magic.”
  • And “Windows 11 became a living nightmare.”
  • Linus, the squeaky one, needs to read this ;-)
  • Yes Linus S., gaming IS ready on Linux!

Root Dolphin (RTheren)

https://pointieststick.com/2021/12/31/this-week-in-kde-finally-root-file-operations-in-dolphin/

  • This has been one of the most requested features for KDE, root file operations are finally coming to the Dolphin file manager!
  • Almost five years in the making, PolicyKit support in KIO, or the KDE Input/Output library was merged.
  • This allows Dolphin and other KDE apps that use the KIO library to create, move, copy, trash, and delete files in non-user-owned locations.
  • Support will arrive in Frameworks 5.91 in a little over a month.
  • You can test it in KDE Neon Unstable or OpenSUSE Krypton or your favorite distro’s “unstable” KDE packages.
  • Please file bugs on frameworks-kio if things don’t work right!
  • Thanks to RTheren for submitting this news to our show-suggestzens in our Discord!

Easy FW

https://safing.io/portmaster/

  • The business model is Freemium. 
  • All local privacy features are free, and will remain so forever.
  • Funded by their VPN sales. 
  • Comes in the form of a *.deb and the only dep it needed was libnetfilter Q1.  
  • Alright, this is a slick little app for new users. 
  • The interface is slick & simple. Even a Linus could figure it out. 
  • I tested the .deb on Ubuntu Mate 20.04.3 LTS, and it ran beautifully.
  • My system was running Discord and Vivaldi at the time.
  • The per app blocking, settings and rules are sweet!
  • Portmaster is Alpha Software, so treat as such and expect bugs. Early Adopters are welcome.
  • I will be including Portmaster in my essential list of tools to install with every new Linux distro.

Burning Windows

https://github.com/Schneegans/Burn-My-Windows

  • Like most people back in the day I dialed the effects in Compiz up to eleven. 
  • Spun a cube, jiggled a window… then torched it. 
  • Then I cut all that nonsense off. 
  • Thankfully this is a Gnome extension so I’ll never be tempted to relive those days. 
  • I still enjoy my wobbly windows.
  • But now you can relive setting them on fire once again, and I am sure that makes for a happy Venn ;-)
  • I like the Matrix and TV effects.

DOS browser

https://github.com/jhhoward/MicroWeb

  • There is a new web browser for the Disk Operating System called the MicroWeb web browser!
  • But the big news here is that MicroWeb is made specifically to run on older 8088 class machines.
  • To run MicroWeb you need:
    • A 16bit 8088 processor, like in the original IBM PC or XT.
    • A CGA, EGA, VGA or Hercules compatible graphics card
    • A network interface
    • 640k RAM is desirable. EMS/XMS are not required
    • A mouse is optional
  • For now it is text only, there is no HTTPS, CSS or Javascript support.
  • My original IBM PC thanks you!
  • I have run my favorite web browser for DOS, the Arachne web browser, on my XT before, and it is really slow, of course ;-)
  • MicroWeb would be a lot faster.

Musical CPU

https://github.com/katef/eurorack-cpu

  • Making a CPU in Minecraft is sooooo 2016. 
  • Explaining it on Twitter Kate states:
    • “Remember the lines here are polyphonic audio, i’m using them to carry eight bits each. multi-channel attenuverters make for a handy way to set a byte”

Slice of Pi

VR Pi 

https://michael-mcanally.medium.com/setting-up-a-raspberry-pi-as-a-home-metaverse-server-for-your-vr-headset-12632ac1b871

  • This is cool, you can create your own Matrix server on your RasPi.
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