LWDW 315: XFCE vs KDE

Ubuntu Touch gets support for WebRTC! Nala makes apt pretty fast, multitrack recording with OBS, and XFCE vs KDE.

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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
08:37 Ubuntu Snap vulnerabilities
11:12 Ubuntu Touch OTA-22
06:07 Nala for apt
20:27 XFCE vs KDE
27:22 Multitrack audio with OBS
33:27 Sarcastic Pi

Snap PSA

https://www.techradar.com/news/multiple-vulnerabilities-put-40-million-ubuntu-users-at-risk

It has been patched but update your Buntu systems.
Allowed attackers to elevate the privileges of a basic account all the way to root access.
The team did not explain if the exploit comes in the form of malware, or if it took a different approach.
My Ubuntu system I test Snaps on has been patched.
On my Ubuntu computer that I am using now as my broadcasting rig, I uninstalled Snaps backend long ago.
And I am not using the Chromium snap.

Touch OTA 22

https://9to5linux.com/ubuntu-touch-ota-22-rolling-out-now-with-initial-fm-radio-support-webgl-support

https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/post/ubuntu-touch-ota-22-release-3835

The UBports Foundation has just released Ubuntu Touch Over The Air 22.
This is the UBports open source Ubuntu Touch mobile operating system for all supported Linux smartphones and tablets.
This release has some important updates to pave the way for new features:
- They have added FM Radio support to allow for real analog radio listening on supported devices.
- The FM Radio app will be in the app store in the next few weeks.
- Ubuntu Touch now has WebGL support, which allows for faster 3D rendering.
- And one of the most important new features that I have been looking forward to:
  - Now there is camera support in the Morph web browser to finally allow users to make video calls!
Ubuntu Touch now works out of the box on the OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T cell phones.
My OnePlus 1 and OnePlus 5 are going to be happy with these updates.
Existing users of Ubuntu Touch on Stable channel (which is selected by default in the UBports Installer) will receive the OTA-22 upgrade by using the Updates screen of System Settings.
About 40 devices have official support for touch.

Nala for apt

https://gitlab.com/volian/nala

Nala is a great frontend to the apt package manager in Debian or Ubuntu.
Nala’s goal is to make the apt commands like installing or upgrading easier to use, and nicer on the eyes.
- Nala does this by not showing redundant messages and formatting the packages better.
- And using color to show specifically what will happen with a package during install, removal, or an upgrade.
But one of my favorite features is that it supports parallel downloads, unlike apt which only supports one download at a time.
The Nala fetch command will choose the fastest 3 mirrors and write them to a file, for faster downloads.
And includes some of the features that I love from Fedora’s dnf package manager, and Arch’s pacman.
Like, at any time you can call nala history to print a summary of every transaction ever made.
Nala is a front-end for libapt-pkg.
Yeah, the only benefit I can see for my use is the Parallel Downloads.
The nala history command could come in handy for the “alright, what changed” breakage moments.
Deb and Arch packages available.
I see that it’s running in Konsole on the gitlab page but I think it would work a wee better in xfce4 term.

XFCE vs KDE

https://www.makeuseof.com/kde-vs-xfce-comparison/

Someone is about to be wrong on the internet.
XFCE and KDE are both great desktop environments.
If you want a bit more eye candy with lots of customizability go with KDE Plasma, and if you want a more minimal and lighter weight approach go with XFCE.
I am on XFCE right now, and have always loved the Rodentia desktop.
Stability, even KDE fan humans know who wins this one.
Memory and Resource Utilization: Team mouse.
Desktop Customizability: I’m going to give this to KDE since there is more stuff to play with.
Performance and Speed Optimization: XFCE, probably. However it’s 2022 and even low end hardware should be able to handle either.
Desktop Navigation: I think both allow you to do whatever you want. Unlike Windows 11.

OBS recording hax

https://linuxgamecast.com/2022/02/obs-linux-basics-multitrack-audio-recording/

Start with a demo.
This can happen while recording podcasts or anything with more than one audio source.
Recording on two tracks allows you to easily fix levels in post.

Slice of Pi

Sarcastic Pi

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/be-more-sarcastic-with-raspberry-pi-pico/