LWDW 317: Matrix VOIP & ITX ARM Motherboards

Linux Mint 21 packs spicy Cinnamon goodness, Anbox demos a cloud based smartphone, native Matrix VoIP with Element Call, and a 8-core ARM powered monster in ITX form-factor.

Listen:

Download:

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
08:09 Linux Mint 21
10:59 Cloud-based smartphone
18:14 Matrix VOIP with Element
24:39 Firefox updater for Debian
32:29 ITX form-factor ARM
38:14 Emails

Linux Mint 21

https://9to5linux.com/linux-mint-21-to-adopt-blueman-for-better-bluetooth-support-use-a-more-modern-mutter

There will be some great new features coming to Linux Mint. Starting with the Linux Mint 21 release due out later this year.
It will be based on the much anticipated Ubuntu 22.04 Long Term Support Jammy Jellifish release.
Linux Mint 21 will ship with a newer Linux kernel, Mesa graphics stack, GCC, and GNU C Library.
But will also have a newer version of the in-house developed Cinnamon desktop environment.
Cinnamon 6 will probably be used, and it’s window manager and JavaScript interpreter will be rebased on a more modern version of GNOME’s Mutter window and composite manager.
This should really help speed up the interface.
Once biggie is the adoption of the Blueman GTK+ Bluetooth manager as a drop-in replacement for the Blueberry Bluetooth configuration tool.
RIP BlueZ, hello gnome-bluetooth.
Should be handy for you nutters trying to get BT headsets working.

Anbox Cloud Phone (RTheren)

https://ubuntu.com/blog/vodafone-cloud-smartphone-based-on-anbox-cloud

This is something very interesting, Canonical has announced they are collaborating with Vodafone.
And Vodafone is testing Canonical’s new Anbox Cloud technology.
Anbox Cloud is a software stack that allows for the implementation of running the Android operating system in the cloud by moving all the processing to a virtual machine.
The prototype Cloud Smartphone will be showcased on Vodafone’s stand at MWC 2022 in Barcelona.
And this phone will demonstrate the concept of a smartphone running entirely on the cloud, while leaving basic functionality on the device.
Like the camera, location or available sensors.
Pretty soon all our computers and devices will just be thin clients, even our mobile phones.
Ssh -X on the go.
Do you want 97.32% of your mobiles functionality to be reliant on SOLID network connectivity?
That’s right, a software stack that allows for the implementation of running the Android operating system in the cloud by moving all the processing to a virtual machine.
Now your telco provider can keep everything up to date for you and your workplace can keep thighs locked down and tracked.
But hey, you can play games… remember Stadia?
Telecommunication providers can also create innovative value-added services based on virtualised mobile devices.

Matrix phone

https://element.io/blog/introducing-native-matrix-voip-with-element-call/

I have been looking forward to using Element Call as another open source alternative to Jitsi.
Element has been using Jitsi as their webRTC client.
Introducing Element Call: the world’s first decentralized voice and video conferencing app powered entirely by Matrix!
You can run it against your existing Matrix homeserver.

Updated Firefox

https://github.com/degaart/firefox-user-installer

This is awesome! For years I have been downloading the latest Firefox tar.bz2 from Mozilla’s site for Debian.
Then moving it to opt and creating a symlink.
And you get autoupdates :-D.
By default Debian ships ESR so this is welcome news to anyone living that “I wonder if there was an update” life.
Element Call is built entirely on Matrix: it doesn’t need any additional servers to get going.
Works on mobile & desktop.
Dark theme, screen sharing, and link-based calls.
Not yet optimized – it uses a lot more CPU & bandwidth than it should.
You can’t select your output audio device yet.
Limited to ~8 participants

Slice of Pi

ITX Pi

https://en.t-firefly.com/product/industry/itx3588j

Now you can build an ARM based computer in a standard Mini-ITX case. But at what price?
This is the dream.
A wicked powerful ARM AIO in ITX format.
I fear pi powered computing has warped us because I want this to be somewhere in the $300 range, it won’t be.
8-core, 32GB RAM, 8K enc/dec, PCIe3.0 x4.
POE.
M.2 & SATA.

Feedback

Virt

https://linuxgamecast.com/bradley/?41O21Ed