The Linux Experiment

Just for fun, I decided to try and imagine what a Linux distro would look like if it got hit by the enshittification stick that seems to affect every digital product of service these days.

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Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 01:25 Big Tech Linux 02:48 Mandatory Account 03:41 Privacy Invasion 04:17 Ads are coming 05:38 Time for AI 06:39 Tiering up 08:54 Final steps 10:41 Parting Thoughts

Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton (Mail, Drive, VPN, Pass...) answered a lot of the questions you, the community, asked, in an interview that covers basically everything!

He discusses security, privacy, the origins of Proton, how they operate, Linux support, future projects, products and features, quantum computing, passkeys, and more!

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#vpn #privacy #proton #onlinesecurity #protonmail

Timecodes:

00:00 Intro 01:16 How did Proton start? 03:24 Why start with email? 06:03 What is Proton's business model? 08:34 Why set up in Switzerland? 11:33 What data do you have on customers? 14:39 How is encryption important? 18:20 Do you always need to use a VPN? 20:47 Why focus on building an ecosystem? 24:55 Is an Office Suite planned? 26:29 What differentiates Proton from competitors? 30:26 Is Proton a viable alternative to big tech services? 33:31 Why expand to more products instead of finishing existing ones? 37:19 Does the general public care about privacy? 38:45 What's next for Proton services? 40:08 What are the plans for native Linux clients? 46:03 Will ProtonVPN offer dedicated IPs to everyone? 47:46 What's the environmental impact of Proton? 49:27 Proton on F-Droid, without Google Play notifications? 52:03 Why are code repos all separated and hard to find? 53:12 Why are addresses ending in ".me" ? 54:57 When will all apps reach feature parity? 56:24 Will SMTP relay be supported? 57:47 Will Proton focus more on businesses in the future? 59:50 Why put all your eggs in one basket with just Proton services? 01:01:00 Will Proton support passkeys? 01:03:21 Does E2E matter is the recipient isn't using it? 01:04:49 Will Proton disable port forwarding in VPN? 01:06:41 Is encryption enough to make email private? 01:09:06 What protects users from a change in Proton's code licensing? 01:11:14 How does Proton protect its infrastructure? 01:13:14 Impacts of Quantum Computing on privacy and security? 01:14:24 What's the future of Proton Bridge? 01:16:25 When will Proton photos be a thing? 01:17:17 Plans for Proton Notes? 01:18:20 Will VPN support the Apple TV? 01:21:12 Support the channel

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#Linux #OpenSource #TechNews #Ubuntu

Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:36 Sponsor: 10% off your first ebsite with Squarespace 01:33 Linus Torvalds talks about the future of Linux 03:58 Ubuntu might drop older CPUs 06:57 LXQt working on Wayland as well 08:33 Cosmic gets more improvements 09:48 GNOME & KDE updates 11:45 Gaming: Linux beats Windows, No Fortnite on Linux 15:17 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 16:24 Support the channel

Linus Torvalds talks about the future of Linux

https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-on-state-of-linux-today-and-how-ai-figures-in-its-future/

Ubuntu might drop older CPUs

https://ubuntu.com/blog/optimising-ubuntu-performance-on-amd64-architecture

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Ubuntu-24.04-LTS-Desktop-Plans

LXQt working on Wayland as well

https://lubuntu.me/noble-alpha-featureset/

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Lubuntu-24.04-LTS-Plans

https://lubuntu.me/noble-alpha-featureset/

Cosmic gets more improvements

https://blog.system76.com/post/the-spirit-of-cosmic-december-updates

GNOME & KDE updates

https://pointieststick.com/2023/12/15/this-week-in-kde-un-flashy-important-stability-work/

https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2023/12/twig-126/

Gaming: Linux beats Windows, No Fortnite on Linux

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/12/fortnite-on-linux-steam-deck-not-until-tens-of-millions-of-users/

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/announcements/detail/3860211327585452520

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Windows-11-scores-dead-last-in-gaming-performance-tests-against-3-Linux-gaming-distros.778624.0.html

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Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:51 Sponsor: ProtonVPN 02:21 Standardization and cohesiveness 05:31 Packaging formats and app distribution 07:17 Display, Wayland, HDR, and scaling 09:27 Drivers, graphics and firmware 11:40 Gaming 13:06 App support 14:31 More challenges? 17:02 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 18:00 Support the channel

#Linux #desktop #operatingsystem #linuxdesktop #linuxdistro

Unified theming between desktops is pretty much abandoned as a thing that should be pursued, but we're also seeing an accent colors standard emerge. And that's complimented by the work being done on portals. With portals for settings, screenshots, remote desktops, printing, sending email, creating shortcuts or transferring files, there's now a solid abstraction layer between your desktop and the apps it runs.

But, for now, we're not there yet. These standards are progressing, but they're not all encompassing, and they're not implemented equally across all desktops. The big ones, like GNOME and KDE, sure, but other smaller options aren't there yet.

Packaging formats, at the end of 2023, are in a bad state. Linux packaging has never been messier. As neither flatpak nor snap are fully ready for 100% of applications, some stuff simply can't be packaged using these, and they still have drawbacks that some users don't want to deal with. Which means a lot of app developers still can't say "hey, this is what we should be using now".

The display situation is much better though. X11 is now clearly abandonware, and work on Wayland has been stellar in 2023. Mostly all desktops now have plans for Wayland, everyone is in agreement.

Added to that, work on supporting HDR has moved by leaps and bounds, and we'll see a fully working implementation in 2024. Fractional scaling is now properly implemented on Wayland as well, meaning we can finally do non blurry scaling, with different scaling per monitor, and different refresh rates per monitor as well.

As per drivers, we've seen some solid progress as well. AMD now has solid drivers on launch day for their GPUs, Intel has finished their Xe driver, Arc GPUs are now well supported, and nvidia drivers have progressed a lot. We're also seeing very strong efforts for open source nvidia drivers.

As per firmware, the linux firmware vendor system, or LVFS has also seen broad adoption, letting you apply firmware updates on the fly and easily. This already supplied 100 million firmware updates, and Google is even pushing manufacturers to support that for their own Linux based Chrome OS.

Gaming has been incredible in 2023. Not only did Linux pass macOS market share for Steam, but we've seen great support for the Steam Deck, which, in turn, means great support for Linux. Sure, it's all driven by Proton and Wine, it's not native Linux ports, but my opinion is that it doesn't matter: if you can click install, and then play, and run the game with the performance you'd expect, things are good.

Non steam gaming has also progressed immensely, with Heroic becoming a really fantastic launcher for Gog and EPic Games, and Lutris still handling most of the rest.

Now for app support, I'd say we haven't seen many improvements in 2023. Sure, our own open source apps have progressed this year, but the usual suspects are still missing, that would let a lot more people move to Linux. Still no Office, Adobe apps, a lot of content creation software, or CAD software are still missing, with no indication that it will change.

The big challenge I can see is AI integration in the desktop. It's a move Microsoft is making with Windows 12, adding AI powered search, and automations throughout the desktop. Whether we should chase that trend on Linux, I'll let you decide, but what's certain is that once users have had a few years to get used to one click buttons that save 30 minutes, it will be hard to go back.

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00:00 Intro 00:59 Sponsor: Proton 02:17 Data grabbing 05:07 Why this data matters 07:41 Laws make it worse 11:11 What you can do 14:04 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 15:07 Support the channel

Playlist on how to De-Google your life: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqmbcbI8U55EfYUVdZfjrfyJyNHD-Bly8

#Privacy #anonymity #private

Virtually everything online now collects data. And this data doesn't just stay at the company that collected it. This data is a giant repository for governments to use and track or monitor their citizens.

See, in a LOT of countries, governments have the right to ask a company to provide all the data they've collected on their users. Companies have no choice but to comply with these, which is also why using end to end, and zero access encrypted services is crucial.

For example, the US can request any company to give them data on a specific user, they've done so more than any other country in 2020. But other countries do the exact same: Germany, Denmark, South korea, France, virtually ever country does this.

If you want even more scary numbers, in 2022, Meta, the parent company for Facebook, Instagram, or Whatsapp, got 827K requests for data. They complied with 76% of these requests.

https://www.globalsecuritymag.com/Meta-received-over-800k-user-data-requests-from-governments-in-2022.html

There are a lot of legal offensives being planned, or already implemented in various countries, so let's look at a few.

In Russia, recent laws from 2017 banned anonymous use of online messaging apps, and prohibits the use of tools that would circumvent government censorship. This means that while VPNs aren't exactly banned, if they let people access banned websites, then they'll also be banned. This has happened to at least 15 VPNs, including NordVPN, ProtonVPN, and OperaVPN.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/01/russia-new-legislation-attacks-internet-anonymity

In Australia, in 2021, a law was proposed to force people to attach their real name to their social media posts, apparently to fight online trolls, bullying and harrassment. Users would have had to provide an ID before opening any social media account, which would obviously open the door to surveillance, monitoring, and censorship.

https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2021/govt-wants-to-end-online-anonymity.html

In France, we have the recent SREN law. This thing would give the telecom watchdog powers to block websites, and require tools for age verification. On top of that, the law will give the government capabilities to demand web browsers and DNS providers block certain websites.

https://adguard.com/en/blog/france-web-browser-dns-blocking-law.html

in the UK, the Online Safety Bill of 2022 allows the regulatory agency Ofcom to force websites to collect people's personal data, and they'll be able to scan, restrict and remove content that is considered harmful. The bill also mandates online communication services to be moderated, which basically means end to end encryption can be enabled there anymore.

https://datainnovation.org/2022/05/the-uks-online-safety-bill-undermines-encryption-and-anonymity/

So, what can you do about this? For protecting your data, there are plenty of things you can do. First, stop using privacy invasive operating systems. If you can't move to something like Linux, try at least to disable all the telemetry you can in Windows or macOS, in Android and iOS. You can try using a degoogled, privacy focused Android ROM on your smartphone.

Leaving Chrome for a more private browser is also pretty much mandatory. Same goes for your online services: stop using Google as a search engine, Gmail, or stuff like Outlook, OneDrive, iCloud, and the like. Using a VPN is also a solid option to at least try and blur the lines.

Try the new version of Thunderbird (it's now my email & calendar client of choice!): https://mzla.link/tb-flatpak

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#Linux #OpenSource #TechNews

00:00 Intro 00:47 Sponsor: Thunderbird 01:40 Microsoft has to open Windows 03:22 FSF calls to the EU for more open source 05:06 AMD is teasing some FOSS work around AI 06:36 Peertube's roadmap looks pretty awesome 08:21 Desktop Environment news 10:47 Kernel 6.7 is full of good stuff 12:39 Gaming: Deck OLED, SteamOS update, Wine on Wayland 15:40 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 16:36 Outro

Microsoft has to open Windows

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/16/23963579/microsoft-windows-11-eu-digital-markets-act-feature-changes

FSF calls to the EU for more open source

https://fsfe.org/activities/upcyclingandroid/openletter.en.html

AMD is teasing some FOSS work around AI

https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-Advancing-AI-Open

Peertube's roadmap looks pretty awesome

https://framablog.org/2023/11/14/lets-regain-ground-on-the-toxic-web-framasofts-2023-report/

Desktop environment news

https://pointieststick.com/2023/11/17/this-week-in-kde-panel-intellihide-and-wayland-presentation-time/

https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2023/11/twig-122/

Kernel 6.7 is full of good stuff

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/11/linux-6-6-kernel-confirms-long-term-support

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.7-rc1

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.7-USB-Thunderbolt

https://www.phoronix.com/review/bcachefs-linux-67

Gaming: Deck OLED, SteamOS update, Wine on Wayland

https://9to5linux.com/steam-deck-oled-is-now-available-to-order-with-hdr-display-and-bigger-battery

https://www.phoronix.com/news/SteamOS-3.5.5

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Wine-Wayland-HiDPI-Merged

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/11/wine-820-brings-directmusic-improvements-and-preparations-for-wine-90/

Quick post to recap the #Fediverse tools I use (in case you’re interested):

- Pixelfed: @TLENick it’s mostly pics of my city and the coast around it, sometimes of my office for the day
- News podcast: @tlenewspodcast using Castopod, weekly Linux and FOSS News podcast
- Videos: @thelinuxexperiment_channel All my YouTube videos, also available on Peertube (generally 1h after their initial publication on YT)

That should be it!

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#Windows #Linux #apps

00:00 Intro 00:42 Sponsor: Take back control of your internet connection 01:39 Managing Devices 04:20 Managing Services 06:15 Firewall Configuration 07:18 Device Security 08:41 Backup and Versioning 09:45 Advanced Configuration 11:15 Command line: not enough 12:53 Sponsor: Get a PC that runs Linux perfectly 13:55 Support the channel

GNOME Dconf video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLsj8plxBn0&t=901s

Device manager lets you see all the components of your PC, and the devices plugged into it. It lets you check for drivers, fix various problems, set some options, and view some logs related to your devices.

On Linux, this thing has no equivalent. We do have a third party app called HardInfo, but it's not an actionable application. In KDE, you have the same thing, with the Info Center.

Device manager is an important tool on Windows, and it would have a LOT of uses on Linux as well. I wish we had something like that.

Linux runs services in the background, for printing, bluetooth, network, virtualization, the graphical server or compositor, and a lot more things, generally managed by systemd on most distros.

And almost no Linux desktop has a complete graphical user interface to manage these services, turn them on or off, enable one at startup or not, or view logs related to this service.

On GNOME, you have an extension called systemd-manager, but no way to configure them, or select options, or enable autostart. On KDE, you have a services page in the settings, but you can basically just start and stop them, no other action is available.

As far as I know, only OpenSUSE has a decent services manager, that is baked into YAST, their configuration tool.

On Windows, the services app might look like it's 20 years old, which it probably is, but it lets you start and stop services, select if you want to start them manually, or at boot, or completely disable them, and it lets you set policies for various services failures, like restarting the computer, restarting the service, or opening another program.

Another thing that is not entirely available in our desktop environments is a graphical tool to configure the firewall, and general system security.

KDE has a config module in their settings, so that's handled. And yet again, OpenSUSE has a firewall config tool in Yast, which works really well.

For GNOME, there are third party tools you can install, depending on the firewall the distro uses, like firewall-config for firewalld, but these are rarely provided by default.

Linux desktops also don't really have an equivalent to the Windows "security center". GNOME has the basics of such an implementation, with their device security page, but it's not actionable.

Anyway, we could add here some information depending on certain libraries, apps, and kernels we use, if vulnerabilities have been detected, we could have access to the firewall settings, apps that have incorrect permission...

And then we have backups. A lot of distros ships with a third party backup tool, like Déja Dup, or Timeshift, but they generally only ship one or the other. We sort of need a complete solution that works ideally for both.

What I'd want is to right click on a file in my file manager, and have a "versions" menu item. What I'd like is a system settings option, native to the desktop environment, that lets me configure a backup, and restore it.

The windows registry is a horrible, horrible thing. It's illegible, it's super messy, modifications can result in a horrendously broken system, and generally it's better left alone. But it does surface a LOT of options for applications and the system. And not all Linux desktops have an equivalent.

GNOME has dconf, which has a lot of various settings you can tweak. KDE doesn't have that. Yast has a bunch of additional configurations available graphically.

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00:00 Intro 00:35 Sponsor: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website with Squarespace 01:34 France arrested people for being private and using Linux 03:53 Windows 11 is losing users 05:44 System76 announces big updates to their FOSS firmware 07:27 Debian 12 is now out 09:04 BlendOS 3 offers a new spin on immutable distros 10:53 Other news: Thunderbird beta, extensions support donations 13:17 Gaming News: Apple uses Wine and VKD3D, Proton updates 15:03 Sponsor: Get a PC that runs Linux perfectly 16:07 Support the channel

#Linux #OpenSource #TechNews

France arrested people for being private and using Linux

https://www.laquadrature.net/2023/06/05/affaire-du-8-decembre-le-chiffrement-des-communications-assimile-a-un-comportement-terroriste/

Windows 11 is losing users

https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-11-lost-users-this-month-should-microsoft-be-worried

System76 announces big updates to their FOSS firmware

https://blog.system76.com/post/major-updates-for-system76-open-firmware-june-2023

Debian 12 is now out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfgPmUsirs

BlendOS 3 offers a new spin on immutable distros

https://blendos.co/blend-os-v3/

Other news: Thunderbird beta, extensions support donations, Ubuntu adds quarter tiling, and staged releases for snaps

https://ubuntu.com//blog/release-management-for-snaps-made-simpler

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/06/ubuntu-23-10-window-tiling-feature

https://linuxiac.com/gnome-extensions-now-supports-donation/

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/115.0beta/releasenotes/#whatsnew

Gaming News: Apple uses Wine and VKD3D, & Proton updates

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/proton-experimental-fixes-up-halo-mcc-ubisoft-connect-creativerse/

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/7/23752164/apple-mac-gaming-game-porting-toolkit-windows-games-macos

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00:00 Intro 00:37 Sponsor: 100$ free credit for your Linux or gaming server 01:37 Tux got fat 02:18 Minix Creator did NOT like Linux 03:07 Linux was first to implement crucial stuff 03:52 Linux wasn't always under the GPL 04:32 Linux is the biggest software project in the world 05:07 Linux was almost called something else 05:51 Why is Tux Tux? 06:36 Linux has terrible codenames 07:16 Torvalds almost lost the trademark 08:00 Linux isn't just a kernel 08:24 Torvalds could have abandoned Linux 09:06 The other project Torvalds created 09:54 Linux runs Hollywood 10:35 Linux runs space 11:17 No science without Linux 12:07 Sponsor: Get a PC that runs Linux perfectly 12:56 Support the channel

Linux is known for being relatively lean and not using too much disk space, but compared to its first version, it's positively bloated. The first Linux release used only 65kilobytes of disk space. Today, a compiled kernel uses 5 to 10 megabytes, which is about 153 times heavier than the original release.

Linux was initially created as a Minix clone. The creator of Minix, Andrew Tanenbaum said, a few years later, that Linux was obsolete, and that GNU Hurd would supplant it soon enough.

https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/opensources/book/appa.html

Linux has also been first to ever support the x86 64 bit architecture, and Linux was also the first to have USB 3.0 drivers added.

The Linux kernel was also initially released under a custom license created by Linus Torvalds, which imposed restrictions on commercial use of his project, and on redistributing it. Fortunately for all of use, this didn't last long, and with version 0.99 in 1992, the kernel moves to the GNU GPL.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070826212454/http://www.tlug.jp/docs/linus.html

The Linux kernel is also the biggest software project in the world, with the biggest number of contributors and companies involved in its development.

The first name Torvalds landed on was Freax, for Free Unix. But as things happened, hosting that Freax kernel was initially done by Ari Lemmke, a member of the staff for Helsinki's university, and this person created a directory called Linux, because that was Torvalds's working name.

In terms of mascot, and the name of that mascot is Tux, not because penguins wear tuxedos naturally, but because it stands for Torvalds Unix. Why a penguin, though? It's because Torvalds was bitten by a penguin.

But the linux kernel also has codenames. For example, version 3.14 was called "shuffling zombie juror", version 4.3 was "blurry fish butt", and version 6.0 is "hurr durr I'm a ninja sloth".

https://handwiki.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_kernel_names

But also, the Linux name was almost lost to a trademark dispute. In 1995, someone named William R. Della Croce Junior, the most evil sounding name I ever heard, filed for a trademark on Linux. He then proceeded to send letters to various Linux distributors asking for 10% royalties, as the ultimate one person patent troll.

Steve Jobs offered Torvalds a job around the year 2000, with a sizeable salary, and a good position in the organization. The pitch was "work on Unix for the biggest user base". The only condition was that he abandoned Linux and stopped working on it altogether.

https://www.theverge.com/2012/3/22/2893581/linus-torvalds-linux-founder-turned-down-steve-jobs-offer

But Torvalds isn't just the creator of the Linux kernel. He also created Git.

Linux is basically running the film industry and Hollywood. The first movie to use Linux was Titanic in 1997, rendered using OpenSUSE, but it didn't stop there. Avatar's effects were rendered on Linux server farms. lord of the Rings? Linux. I Robot? Linux.

Linux also runs the space industry. And also, in the supercomputer world, Linux is the ONLY option. Out of the fastest 500 supercomputers, Linux runs 100% of them, or at least it did in early 2023.

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#Linux #linuxdistro #vanillaos

00:00 Intro 00:28 Sponsor: ME! 00:55 What makes VanillaOS special? 02:59 Install and First Run: user friendly to the max 05:08 What are containers? 06:19 How do you install software? 10:11 How are updates applied?? 11:18 Issues with VanillaOS 12:54 Is it the end of distro hopping? 14:12 Sponsor: Get a PC that runs Linux perfectly 15:07 Support the channel

It's one of the very few Ubuntu based distributions that is immutable, and atomic. Apart from that, VanillaOS uses GNOME, the most Vanilla GNOME they could ship on Ubuntu, and if you're looking for all the apps, you have access to containers that run other distros at native speeds, and give you access to all their packages.

The installer is something I had never seen before, it looks super good, just like a GNOME app, and will take you through the basic steps, and it even has a nice legible GUI to set up your disk layout.

After installing and rebooting, you're right into your user session, and you can pick between dark and light mode, if you want to enable support for Flatpak and AppImages, you also get to pick the apps you want to install: you have 3 sets of apps, the core ones, Office apps, and common utilities.

After that, you get the GNOME 43 desktop, which doesn't have any customization or extension.

Now the main point of VanillaOS is to offer the ability to run multiple distros on just one system, with distro containers, using Distrobox. And to manage that, you have the VanillaOS control center.

You can add an Arch subsystem to get access to the AUR, a Fedora subsystem with DNF as the package manager, you get an OpenSUSE container, plus a VOid Linux one, and one for Alpine. Or you can create your own with any other distro you want.

APX is VanillaOS all in one package manager. It lets you install applications for any source that you have access to, including all your distro containers.

The syntax is pretty easy: you just type apx install, followed by the package manager that will perform the actual install, and the package name.

For example, if I wanted to install davinci Resolve from the AUR, I could type:

apx install --aur davinci-resolve

And APX will automatically start my Arch container, and use the arch package manager to install Davinci Resolve from the AUR.

And on top of that, apps installed this way will still show up in your GNOME overview and app grid, just like if they were installed on the base system itself.

And, if you absolutely need to install something to the base system, you can, there's a preinstalled tool called ABRoot, that lets you execute a command, like running apt, since the system is Ubuntu based.

Now for updates, Vanilla OS is not a rolling release, it has fixed releases that follow the Ubuntu release convention.

Flatpaks you installed through GNOME software or the command line will be updated through the same methods. System updates are handled by VSO, for Vanilla System Operator.

This does mean you'll need more disk space: at least 50 gigs to install the system, and the root partition you don't use. Containers and applications installed in them can be updated by running apx update in a terminal.

But there are issues: as I mentioned, if you need more software from multiple sources, then you need multiple containers. This takes up a lot of space. And if your container dies, so do all your installed applications, and related user data.

The second problem is the disk space usage of the main system: sure having 2 root partitions is great for stability, but it also consumes a LOT of disk space you'll never use.

I also noticed that apps installed from containers sometimes don't show up in the GNOME app grid, and you have to run an APX command to actually add them.

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#Linux #Windows #ux

00:00 Intro 00:35 Sponsor: Monitor and secure your internet connection with Safing 01:35 The Start Menu 05:34 How the start menu affects Linux desktops 06:42 Disjointed User Interface 08:55 Program installs and storage 12:22 System Updates 14:17 Windows design matters to Linux 15:53 Sponsor: get a PC that supports Linux perfectly 16:46 Support the channel

This is going to be controversial, but the Windows menu, or really the whole start menu paradigm is bad. This menu is used to start and open things. It's not a multitasking experience. So having a menu that occupies a small corner of your screen is not great.

The reality of things is that people are now just used to it. In Windows 11, the centered menu is a disaster, and once it's open, it's just a bad launcher. Apps are sorted chronologically, so if you don't know the name of a program, you're out of luck, and you can't create any folder that you could build muscle memory upon. And there's the case of opening multiple apps in a row. With the windows menu, you need to open it as many times as the number of apps you want to launch. Not efficient.

The issue is, this bad menu design affects Linux desktops. Because many distributions or desktops don't want users to run away, they mostly moved to a windows like menu.

We all know about the mismatched UI of Windows.The real problem is that people are now completely used to it. And for Linux, it means that UX, or just UI is not often considered.

Next, let's look at how apps are installed on the system. On Windows, while the store is progressively getting better, the main way to install a program is still to head over to its website, download an executable, and run it, then click next a few times, pick a location, and let the program install itself.

The files are stored in a single folder usually, with all the libraries the program needs, and the program itself in its own directory structure, that varies from program to program.

And this is a bad design. First, for security reasons. Storing executables and libraries and data in a single folder is a surefire way to have badly set permissions on these files.

Second, it makes finding the files you're looking for difficult. You need to learn each program's directory structure, and look online to find where the data is stored.

And this bad design on Windows also influences Linux desktops negatively. Because to this day, I still get people telling me it's easier to install a program on Windows than on Linux. Seriously.

The reality is that a lot of people don't understand how to install programs on Linux. They're so used to downloading them manually that they try to replicate this, and get super confused.

And a lot of newcomers to Linux just don't understand where the files a program uses live, because they're used to having them lumped into a single directory. The better way to look at it is: what type of file am I looking to access? And then this tells you the folder where it's been stored.

It's no secret that system updates are dreaded by a lot of Windows users. Windows updates have always been problematic, super slow to install, they require a reboot in most cases, and they can make your system worse than it was, so it's no wonder that many users are wary of these.

App updates are also handled separately from system updates. And people that moved from Windows to Linux will keep this fear of updates, because it's been drilled into them again and again that updates or even worse, major version upgrades, aren't a good thing. But they ARE.

And that negatively affects Linux desktops, because you'll get plenty of people who don't apply their updates and then ask for help about a bug that's been fixed already, or who stick to insecure software that has patches available. It makes the work of maintainers and developers harder.

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#rss #socialmedia #linux

00:00 Intro 00:40 Sponsor: Learn about kernel livepatching with this free webinar 01:45 Why social media sucks for news 04:04 What is RSS 04:55 Advantages of RSS 06:49 What can you add to your RSS reader 10:13 Choosing an RSS Reader 13:02 Use RSS, not Social media for your News 13:45 Sponsor: get a PC that runs Linux perfectly with Tuxedo 14:29 Support the channel

The big, main reason social media sucks for news is that they were never designed for that. All the big social media platforms have one goal, and one goal only: to keep you there for as long as they can, so they can show ads, and make more money.

On top of that, things you are subscribed to might also never be shown to you.

You can't really go back to older things, search through what you archived, sort it in a specific way, create your own organization system.

RSS works with 2 components: an RSS Feed Reader, and RSS Feeds. Feeds are what you'll subscribe to: they're just a simple file a lot of websites have, that can be read by the Feed Reader, which will aggregate all these feeds in one place. And RSS has TONS of advantages!

First, you'll only ever get what you subscribed to. There is no algorithm, no recommendations, no ads in between posts. And you can add a LOT of sources: websites, video channels, podcasts, social media accounts, and even newsletters.

Second, all feed readers have organization capabilities.

Third, you can sort things. Fourth, you can go back and search through older articles. Fifth, you can navigate super easily from one article to the other. And finally, it's portable: all readers will let you export and import your feed list.

RSS is all about adding sources, or feeds to your reader.

A lot of websites will display a small orange square icon, which is the RSS logo. Clicking the icon will bring you to the feed, or give you a URL you can copy. That's what you want to add to your feed reader.

But some websites don't have an RSS feed, or an icon to access it. No matter, most RSS feed readers will let you add any website URL, and automatically create an RSS feed for you.

If you want to add videos from a youtube channel, let's say a bearded french Linux content creator, most feed readers will also just let you copy paste the channel's URL and add it as a feed. On Peertube, it's even easier, just click the subscribe button, and you get the ability to access the feed.

You can even add social media posts if you really want to. Using rss.app, you can just copy paste a social media profile in there, and it will spit out an RSS feed you can add to your reader. And you can also add podcasts.

If you're really into RSS, you can also add newsletters. Using the website kill-the-newsletter.com, you can generate an email address and a feed.

The first thing you'll need to pick is obviously an RSS Reader.

If you want a single device solution, it's very easy. On Linux, Newsflash is the one I use. A few web browsers will give you access to an RSS Feed reader built-in, like Opera or Vivaldi, and Thunderbird also has the ability to do that.

If you want the simplest multi-device solution, Feedly is a good bet. You can create a free account, add up to 100 different feeds, create a few folders, and if you want to go over that, they have paid plans. They have mobile apps, and a web interface on PC.

There's also Newsblur, which does the same thing, and is open source, but the free version limits you to 64 feeds.

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#worldwideweb #internet

00:00 Intro 00:38 Sponsor: Learn about the CARTA security model for free 01:25 Big Tech Centralization 05:05 Internet Filtering 08:31 Internet Blackouts 09:44 Alternative Internets 11:22 Signs of healing 13:39 Sponsor: Get a device that runs Linux perfectly 14:32 Support the channel

The first big thing that's killing the open internet is centralization by big companies. Big tech companies like Apple, Google, or Microsoft are making all efforts to ensure that their users stick to their online services and products, and this ends up dictating what parts of the internet you end up accessing or not.

Using a specific web browser means you're using a specific engine, which dictates what you can or can't do online. It's also the search engines from these companies that will dictate which websites surface, and which don't. The algorithms from the platforms you use, like youtube for video, Facebook, or Twitter will define what content you see, and what content you don't.

And then you have the lack of interoperability between services. But this stuff, you can still bypass yourself. More concerning is what countries do to limit what you can and can't access.

https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/internet-censorship-map/

Countries implement various filters that are basically censorship. Some of it is acceptable, like blocking illegal material, and some of it is more questionable, like blocking websites that reference various copyrighted materials.

All these filters make the internet less open: you can't freely access what you're looking for if your country decides it's not allowed.

When filters aren't enough, countries now implement full internet blackouts, generally to deal with protests against the government's actions. In 2020, 268 million people had their internet access shut down, that's 49% more than in 2019.

While these blackouts are selective, and can still let governments access the internet themselves while the general public can't, they're devastating for a country's economy and business, and they can't be maintained for very long periods of time.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/10/the-global-economic-damage-of-internet-blackouts/503093/

https://news.yahoo.com/268-million-people-had-internet-122208785.html

https://www.wired.com/story/iran-internet-blackout-economy/

Now, the ultimate candidate against the open web is what China has built. They might be linked to the general internet everybody else enjoys, but it's a one way street: people can access their websites, but Chinese people can't access most of the rest of the internet, being limited to what the Chinese government allows.

China has built their own entire alternative internet, with their own services and their own websites, and it's not for nothing that we're talking about the great firewall of china, because when you're in there, you can't access anything the government has deemed "not ok".

https://priteshpawar.com/chinese-alternatives-to-popular-apps-and-websites/tech-industry-and-case-studies/priteshpawar/ that it would be a grave mistake to let their citizens have access to information sources that

Of course, it's not all doom and gloom. The internet is showing signs of healing, at least on certain fronts.

First, decentralized services are emerging again, slowly offering alternatives to the big closed down networks. Mastodon for example is a success story of a federated, decentralized network offering a viable alternative to Twitter, and that can talk to a variety of other services, like Pixelfed, Wordpress, Peerube, Castopod, and the like.

Various laws are also being passed, forcing big tech companies to relinquish a bit of control, over their platforms or app stores, for example, with Apple being forced in the EU to have iMessage be interoperable, and allowing 3rd party app stores on iOS.

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00:00 Intro 00:48 Sponsor: Secure and Monitor your Internet Connection with Safing 01:52 Make the interface more familiar and reorder it 05:10 Use Microsoft Fonts 06:51 Improve file compatibility 08:48 Import Templates and Styles 09:32 Add Extensions to get more features 11:05 Other Options 12:58 Sponsor: get a laptop or desktop that runs Linux perfectly 14:01 Support the channel

To switch to a more comfortable interface, open any of the applications of the suite. Click on the "View" menu, then "User interface". By default, it's the standard menubar and toolbar combo, but if you click on "tabbed", you'll see that you can now use a ribbon interface, just like what Microsoft Office uses.

Next, we'll look at the icons. From the tabbed interface, click the main menu, in the top right corner, and select "Options". Then click the "View" menu, and in the "Theme" drop down menu, you'll have plenty of options.

You can also reorder any of the icons from any of the tabs of the ribbon. CLick the main menu again, and then "customize". Then click the "Notebookbar" tab. here, yu'll see the "target" dropdown menu that lets you select which tab you want to change.

To install Microsoft fonts, you generally have a package in your distro's repositories, provided you enabled the non free software ones. the package is generally called ttf-mscorefonts or ttf-mscorefonts installer. On Ubuntu or Ubuntu based distros, for example, open a terminal, and run

sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

If you're using an arch based distro, you can find it in your graphical package manager through the AUR. For Fedora, I left a link in the description of the video.

https://www.linuxcapable.com/install-microsoft-fonts-on-fedora-linux/

If you want to use these fonts by default, you can configure that as well. Click the main menu, then Options. Then, go to the name of the app you're using, here it's LibreOffice Writer, and select the "basic fonts" tab.

You'll want to enable all compatibility features. To do that, open the main menu, then Options. In the Load Save tab, click on Microsoft Office, and make sure all the checkboxes are ticked.

Next, in the LibreOffice Writer tab, and the Compatibility tab, tick the "Reorganize form menu to have it MS compatible" checkbox. Also tick the "Word compatible trailing blanks" checkmark.

Next, if you interact with MS Office users a lot, you'll want to send them documents using the Office formats. Click on the "general" tab of the Load / Save panel, and in "Always save as", select Word 2007-365 (docx). Then in the document type dropdown, select spreadsheet, and change the "always save as" field to Excel 2007-365 xlsx, and repeat that step for Presentations and the pptx format.

To import styles and templates, click the "File" tab in Writer, and then "Templates". There, click the "Manage" button, in the top right corner, and click "Import". There, you can select "templates", "presentations", or "styles".

LibreOffice lets you install extensions to add features to the suite. You can head over to extensions.libreoffice.org to view a full list.

To install extensions, download them from the extensions portal, and you'll get a .oxt file. Then, in LibreOffice, click the "Extensions" tab, then the "extensions" menu, and "Extension manager". Click the "Add" button, and go find your oxt file to import it.

After that, these extensions will all display their commands in the "Extensions" tab.

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Feature_Comparison:_LibreOffice_-_Microsoft_Office

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s87xFvfeg7Y&t=3s

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#mastodon #fediverse #socialmedia

00:00 Intro 00:39 Sponsor: Extend the life of your Python applications 01:30 The Fediverse: a network of social networks 04:57 ActivityPub: all your social networks can talk to each other 06:44 How Mastodon works 08:33 How PeerTube works 10:19 How PixelFed works 11:39 Parting thoughts 13:02 Sponsor: buy a device that runs Linux perfectly 14:11 Support the channel

Join Mastodon: https://joinmastodon.org/servers Join Peertube: https://joinpeertube.org/ Join PixelFed: https://pixelfed.org/servers

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List of Fediverse services: https://fediverse.party/en/miscellaneous/

Fediverse is a contraction of Federated Universe. It's basically a very large network of servers that form, well, a social network. But contrary to the ones you might be used to, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others, the Fediverse is composed of different services.

The more well known are Mastodon, a Twitter-like microblogging service, PeerTube, a youtube-like platform, or PixelFed, an Instagram-like social network, but there are a TON of others.

Each service is also decentralized, which means there is not one big server farm where everything is hosted: each service is split into instances, basically independent servers, with different goals.

ActivityPub is an open standard, that lets all services on the Fediverse talk to each other. How does that work? Well, in practice, it means you can use your Mastodon app to follow a Peertube channel, or someone that posts pictures on PixelFed, or see new articles from a Wordpress website.

And this goes a bit further: for example, if I comment on Mastodon on a post from Peertube, that comment will also appear on Peertube underneath the video.

Let's start with Mastodon. Mastodon is basically Twitter, but open source and decentralized. It lets you post messages with up to 500 characters, it supports images, videos, polls, content warnings, animated avatar pictures, emojis, links, mentions, hashtags, anything you're used to on Twitter. Mastodon has 1.5 million active users, which might seem small compared to Twitter, but it's more than enough to have interesting conversations with a lot of cool people.

To join Mastodon, all you need to do is pick a server, also called an instance. You can pick any server you like, and it will let you interact with everyone else on any other server.

And then, you can use Mastodon on the web, by typing the address of your instance in your browser, for example, for me, it's mastodon.social, or you can use a mobile app.

Now let's talk about PeerTube. It's a Youtube alternative, although it's much, much smaller. Peertube is also decentralized, being split into different servers, that are federated together, so you can follow people from different instances and still have a complete subscription feed. It also supports ActivityPub, which means you could subscribe to my peerTube channel from a mastodon account, and have a post in your timeline every time I publish a video.

And as a creator, it also lets you sync your youtube channel to it, so you can auto-publish all your videos to Peertube in a few clicks, which is also a great help.

To watch peertube, just type the address of your instance in your browser's URL, for me it's tilvids.com.

Another cool service on the Fediverse is PixelFed. It's basically Instagram, without all the crap they tacked on lately, like reels, or lives. It's just pictures and videos. It's free software, it also uses the ActivityPub standard, so you can follow PixelFed users on Mastodon, for example, and it's ad-free.

It also lets you add filters, just like Instagram, or crop, resize, adding alt text, and you can use hashtags, locations, or create collections, basically photo albums.