GNOME Web is getting extensions! Dropping X11 for GTK5, Raspberry Pi introduces a $6 Pico, and is it time to give up on Github?
Listen:
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
03:52 Giving up on GitHub
10:32 GNOME browser extensions
14:32 GTK5 dropping X11
17:32 X11 desktops in Wayland
26:47 $6 Pico Pi
29:27 RISC V from Pine
Give up Github
https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2022/jun/30/give-up-github-launch/
- GitHub is the best social network I know of.
- That said, I have my concerns with copilot.
- The copilot saga hasn’t even played out yet.
- How many of you remember Sourceforge and how that imploded?
- But this, this is an opinion piece.
- And, it’s a mess.
- Anyone using github
- GitLab has a licensed FOSS version and a proprietary version.
- The gitlab.com website uses the proprietary version.
- Convince me this article is not a temper tantrum about copilot indeed.
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31935766
- The Software Freedom Conservancy, with this article, will create waves of awareness in the FOSS community about GitHub dwindling away the rights of open source projects.
- Microsoft is doing what Microsoft does best.
- Remember the mass migration of open source projects from GitHub to GitLab when Microsoft took over?
- The SF Conservancy launched a website, GiveUpGitHub.org, where they provide tips, ideas, methods, tools and support to those that wish to leave GitHub.
Gnome web extensions
https://news.itsfoss.com/gnome-web-extensions-dev/
- based on the GTK port of Apple’s WebKit rendering engine, called WebKitGTK.
- GNOME Web, also known as Epiphany, is one of my favorite web browsers, and one that many Linux users overlook.
- GNOME Web is finally adding support for WebExtensions, which is something I have been waiting for for quite some time.
- Now you will be able to use your favorite add-ons and extensions with this nimble and powerful, yet minimal web browser!
- And it will help it to compete with the likes of Mozilla Firefox and Google’s Chrome web browsers for Linux users.
- GNOME WebExtensions is part of the GNOME 43 feature set, and is modeled after Firefox’s ManifestV2 API, which includes compatibility with Chrome extensions where possible.
- For now, this is experimental support for the Epiphany 43.alpha version.
- Epiphany originally had, and still has, the minimal feel of a browser for reading the web and documentation.
- At its surface it looks like that, but when you dig into it, it is fully featured, and even has Firefox Sync.
No X for GTK5
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/issues/5004
- GTK is a long way out.
- GTK3 was released in 2011.
- GTK4 was released in 2020.
- If XFCE is on GTK4 by 2031 I will be a little surprised.
- I think we need Wayland compatibility working 100% for this to even be a suggestion.
Wayland compatibility
https://twitter.com/kernellogger/status/1542857186585501697
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/-/merge_requests/901
- So running complete desktop environments within Xwayland is now possible thanks to some patches merged to the master.
- This will allow Linux distros to drop the Xorg server, but still ship X11-only desktops, like Xfce and Mate.
- Oooh, I was so excited when I first read this Tweet, and was hoping it would happen real soon!
- Now I can run all my favorite X window managers in Wayland, including Window Maker, Enlightenment, Fluxbox, Afterstep, IceWM, and Xfce!
- To achieve this, there were several new merge requests to Xwayland including:
- A new command line option -fullscreen to run Xwayland rootful fullscreen. Coupled with -geometry and -host-grab, this allows to run a full X11 desktop in Xwayland on a dedicated monitor with XRandr modes emulated (including resolutions higher than the actual output resolution)
- A lot of this has to do with improving Xwayland’s ability to run in a rootful mode
- faking device/cursor grab for fullscreen applications like desktops
- Desktop integration for setting arbitrary resolutions
- The ability to specify fixed geometry instead of having a surface equal to the area of all monitors
- Host grab support (shift-alt to release)
- The ability for the compositor to kill the main wayland window in rootful mode
- This will be good for distros that want to ship Wayland without waiting and you know, that’s a good thing.
- Wayland support for Enlightenment is underway.
- MATE has Wayland support as of 1.26.
- Looking at the XFCE Wayland roadmap, they are still in the “brainstorming” phase of development.
Slice of Pi
$6 Pi
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-pico-w-your-6-iot-platform/
- The original $4 Pico launched In a world of hardware shortages in January 2021 with almost 2 million boards sold, and now we have Pico x 3!
- Pico H $5
- Pico WH $7
- Pico WH will follow in August.
- Two 133MHz Arm Cortex-M0+ cores, 264kB of on-chip SRAM.
RISC V
https://liliputing.com/2022/06/pine64-is-working-on-a-risc-v-single-board-computer.html
- Speedy Pine!
- Pine64 has announced it is working on a RISC-V single-board computer.
- We don’t have detailed specs yet about the hardware, but we do know:
- The RISC-V board will be available with 4GB or 8GB of RAM, features support for USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and a PCIe slot!
- Pine64 has released RISC-V hardware before, including the Pinecil smart soldering iron which has a RISC-V chip and the Pinecone IoT dev board.