Inhoudsopgave van Summer 2023 - Linux Format

NOBARA 38 The Nobara Project has been in development since 2022. Its creators describe it as “a modified version of Fedora Linux with user-friendly fixes added”. While they’re keen to assure users that Nobara isn’t an official spin of Fedora, it does come with a number of extra packages and fixes to make the OS work better out of the box, such as Wine dependencies, OBS Studio, third-party codec packages for GStreamer, and Nvidia drivers. You can learn more about Nobara at https://nobaraproject.org. NUTYX 23.06.01 NuTyX is a French Linux distribution that has been around since 2011. It’s created using LFS (Linux from Scratch) and has its very own package manager called Cards. The good news is that you can install NuTyX from almost any other Linux distro using a…

IN BRIEF The beta’s new UI offers a more intuitive way to navigate mail and organises your folders better. We only hope the final version includes full OpenPGP support and Firefox Sync. SPECS CPU: Pentium 4 (SSE2 ) Mem: 2GB HDD: 250MB Builds: x86_64, ARM64 The Mozilla Foundation has been teasing the issue of a new version for months and has now released a beta of the much anticipated Thunderbird 115,code-named Supernova. If you want to test-pilot it, make sure you acknowledge all the usual warnings about beta programs before proceeding to the website. On first run, we used the wizard to create a new email address with privacy-conscious email provider Mailfence. We then signed up for several tech-themed newsletters. The emails from these arrived in our webmail almost immediately…

IN BRIEF Spending just short of £50 on a Raspberry Pi HAT, you’ll want the experience to be as frictionless as possible. The I/O Learning HAT is for all 40-pin Raspberry Pis. Home automation enthusiasts will benefit the most from this board. The hardware is solid and the documentation is almost perfect, but missing key areas. Learning the Raspberry Pi GPIO is something all makers do. We usually sit down with Python and create a few projects, but for some people, this isn’t ideal. The Sequent Microsystems I/O Learning HAT is designed to work with Node-RED, a flow-based programming language (like Scratch on steroids) that is commonly used in home and industrial automation. Software support for the board is via a command-line tool or Node-RED, with a series of nodes…

Version: 23.02.05 Web: https://github.com/zaps166/ QMPlay2 VLC is the go-to option for playing media on Linux, but it isn’t the only game in town. QMPlay2 is another good option that’s just as dexterous as VLC. One of VLC’s strongest suits is its support for virtually every audio and video format, which enables it to play anything you throw at it. And thanks to its FFmpeg back-end, QMPlay2 is just as good in this department. QMPlay2 is offered as an AppImage for Linux. Just grab the latest version from the project’s website and make it an executable with the chmod +x command. Now double-click the file to launch the player. QMPlay2 has an interesting interface compared to its popular counterparts. It is made up of different segments. On the top-left you have…

Version: 2.9.0 Web: https://github. com/jtesta/ssh-audit Talking of SSH, the venerable tool that’s used by virtually all Linux users is a victim of its own success. These days, many distros set it up during installation to enable users to log into their machines remotely. This also makes it one of the most commonly attacked services on Linux. Like all network services, SSH also needs to be configured properly to ensure it can’t be compromised by bad actors on the internet. No matter if you are a trained network admin or an average desktop user, the SSH-audit tool can help you secure your SSH instance, by thoroughly vetting your SSH connection. You can install the tool using Python’s Pip package installer with pip3 install ssh-audit . Or, if your distro is equipped…

Version: 2.0.0 Web: https://empty-clip.gitlab.io Here’s another shooting game with a different perspective. Empty Clip is a top-down shooting RPG that involves fighting hordes of spiders, bats, zombies, aliens and more. The game is available on FlatHub – install it with flatpak install flathub io.gitlab.jazztickets.emptyclip . Once done, fire it up from the Applications menu or with flatpak run io.gitlab.jazztickets.emptyclip . After launching Empty Clip, click Play to bring up the character selection screen. Select an empty slot, then name your character and select a colour for their trousers. By default, all characters have multiple lives, but if you toggle the Hardcore box while creating the character, it only has one life. Once your character is created, double-click it or click Play to begin the game. Your goal is to kill…

Version: 10.8.10 Web: https://jellyfin.org Linux has some of the best media players out there, although not all of them are open L source or available for free. Jellyfin, which began as a fork of Emby, is a welcome change, offering virtually everything you’d expect from a media server, including some functionalities that come with a price tag attached in other popular options. Jellyfin offers both DEB and RPM precompiled binaries. Just grab the appropriate binary from the Download section on the project’s website and install it using the distro’s package management tools. Once installed, Jellyfin sets itself up a service and starts running in the background. You can configure it from your web browser by heading to http://127.0.0.1:8096. Before you can use the server, however, you have to set it…

Apple has now revealed its brand new Game Porting Toolkit at WWDC. The toolkit itself is designed to allow Windows developers a way to check if their game will run well in Mac OS. Many conferencegoers were surprised to find that the toolkit is based on CrossOver’s code.  CrossOver itself is based on Wine, the popular open source Windows compatibility layer. Responding on its blog, developer Codeweavers confirmed that it didn’t engineer this with Apple but would be delighted to work with any game developers who try out the Game Porting Toolkit.…

SPECS Model: WD201KFGX Capacity: 2TB-22TB Interface: SATA 6Gb/s Form: 3.5-inch Tech: CMR (ePMR), OptiNAND RPM: 7,200 Rate: 272MB/s Cache: 512MB Power: 6.9W average Noise: 32dBA average Limit: 300TB/year MTBF: 1.0 million hours Warranty: Five-year The 20TB Red Pro comes from Western Digital’s NAS line of hard drives, utilising its unique OptiNAND technology. This marries mechanical and flash storage technologies to achieve higher capacity with a form of conventional magnetic recording (CMR) that’s much faster than competing shingled magnetic recording (SMR) drives. Western Digital (WD) uses nine platters at 2.2TB each for the 20TB model, with extra capacity made possible by storing the necessary metadata on the onboard flash. WD’s vision is to use energy-assisted perpendicular recording (ePMR) to keep the benefits of CMR technology while offering unique advantages with OptiNAND.…

IN BRIEF Forget everything you know about Debian. This distro is elegant, supports secure boot and works with proprietary firmware out of the box. Take a live image for a test spin today. SPECS CPU: 1GHz Mem: 256MB HDD: 10GB Builds: i386, x86_64, ARM64, ARMhf, mipsel, mips64el RISCV64, s390x, PPC64el After one year, nine months and 28 days of development, the Debian Project is proud to present its new Stable version 12 (code name Bookworm). Anyone with a passing familiarity with Linux will know Debian is one of the oldest maintained operating systems, dating back to 1993. It’s also used as the basis for a number of Linux distros, including Ubuntu. The delay in development of Bookworm is typical of Debian, as the OS moved from the Testing to the…

SPECS Volume: 220x220x 250mm Support: PLA/ PETG/TPU/ABS (up to 300 degrees) Extruder: Direct drive Nozzle: 0.4mm (MK8) Platform: PEI spring steel flex plate Levelling: Automatic Runout sensor: No Comms: USB drive Control: LCD screen with knob Size: 497x388 x611mm, 9kg When Sovol launched its SV06, it was hailed as a Prusa slayer – a clone that replicated the renowned bed-slinger at a fraction of the cost. However, with the release of the more advanced Prusa MK4, where does the SV06 stand now? It remains a decent, affordable entry-level printer. It combines elements of Prusa’s open source i3 printer with Creality technology. This borrowing and building upon each other’s open source hardware is a common practice among 3D printing companies, as long as proper attribution and file sharing are observed.…

Linux administrators are in demand. Those who are certified get more offers at higher rates of pay. To offer a personal experience of this, several years ago this writer applied for a job with a large well-known company and sailed through the interview. It came down to him and one other candidate, who had a similar level of experience. The writer had only the RHCSA (Red Hat Certified Sys Admin) certificate, while the other candidate had RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer) certification and got the job. In a post-interview conversation, it became clear that the interviewer saw the RHCE certification as a big differentiator and a proven case of how certificates can and do make a difference. Depending on how you approach Linux accreditation, it can be costly. Some certifications…

Version: 2.3.5 Web: https://mixxx.org Mixxx is one of the unsung crown jewels of open source software that isn’t well known outside of its niche. Over two decades old, Mixxx began to simplify the life of DJs by helping them cobble together and play their playlists. Over the years, however, the app has grown to not just cater to DJs, but also to RJs and podcasters, and can even be used during live performances. Older versions of Mixxx are available in the repos of several distros, but if you plan to use the app for live performances, the developers suggest using the latest stable release. For Ubuntu users, the developers dole out releases through a PPA: $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mixxx/mixxx $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install mixxx Fedora users…

Version: 0.4.4 Web: https://dynobo. github.io/normcap/ NormCap is an OCR-powered screen-capture tool that can capture text instead of images from the selected area. The app is quite handy for extracting text from screenshots, or names and addresses, and even email IDs from images. Available as an AppImage and Flatpak, you can grab the AppImage from its website and give it executable permission with the chmod +x command. Or you can install the app from FlatHub with flatpak install flathub com.github.dynobo.normcap . Use flatpak run com.github.dynobo.normcap to run it. First, make sure you have the image open, then start NormCap, which draws a pink border around the screen. Use the mouse to select the region in the image that has the text you want to copy. If your desktop environment has a…

Version: 1.7.0 Web: http://openfodder.com Ifyou are a fan of playing retro games on modern hardware, this one’s for you. Cannon Fodder was one of the most popular games on Amiga, and it now has an open source crossplatform version called Open Fodder, which works on modern computers without emulation. The game is available on FlatHub, so you can install it with flatpak install flathub org.openfodder. OpenFodder . After it’s installed, run it from the Applications menu or with flatpak run org. openfodder.OpenFodder . Open Fodder collates various game demos from back in the day, from several Amiga magazine coverdisk demos, including The One and Not Very Festive Fodder, as well as one PC demo from Future Publishing’s PC Format magazine. To play the full game, you need assets from the…

Red Hat stands out in the Linux world. Its development of RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) is based on open source software but customers have to pay subscriptions for use of programs, updates, security patches and technical support. This is great news for those who are able and willing to pay. Redistributing modified open source software for a fee doesn’t violate the GPL (GNU General Public Licence), provided the developer provides a copy of the source code to anyone to whom they distribute binaries. This technicality seems to be what Red Hat relied on in its announcement on 21st June that it’s “furthering the evolution of CentOS Stream”. A community-driven OS, CentOS aspired to binary compatibility with RHEL without requiring users to pay. This may have been why Red Hat…

From 12th to 14th June, thousands of communities on Reddit went dark in protest over the site’s new policies regarding third-party apps. The protests centred around changes to API pricing policies, which could potentially kill off third-party apps used to access content from the site. Christian Selig, developer of Apollo for Reddit (one of the biggest third-party Reddit apps), estimated his fees could reach $20 million under the model. In the wake of this, there have been many active online discussions about alternatives to Reddit, particularly those following a federated model. In simplest terms, federated networks operate as a collection of independently run but interconnected servers. This would make it far more difficult to enforce unpopular policies like Reddit’s, as there’s no single platform to control. Lemmy, which was first…

It took Michelangelo four years to paint the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel but even he might agree his efforts are dwarfed by those of developer Mutlu, who has spent nearly a decade developing Kera Desktop. Coded in vanilla JavaScript, the desktop is currently only capable of running web apps, though Mutlu hopes to incorporate Linux apps soon. He also offers Kera OS, which is a spin of Fedora with the Kera Desktop environment. Read more at https://desktop.kerahq.com.…

IN BRIEF The OpenSUSE Project is making big changes, so this will be the penultimate release. Still, it’s hitting with a strong finish, including an intuitive installer and a cornucopia of desktop environments. SPECS CPU: 1.6GHz Mem: 1.5GB (2GB recommended) HDD: 16GB Builds: x86_64, ARM, S390, RISC-V, Power The OpenSUSE project is a community programme T sponsored by SUSE Linux and other companies. Its fruits are the free and open source RPMbased OpenSUSE Linux distro. OpenSUSE itself is based on the most recent version of SUSE Linux Enterprise (in this case v15, Service Pack 5). This is available both as a tested rolling release (code name Tumbleweed) and a stable annual release (code name Leap). This review focuses on the latest Leap of OpenSUSE, which will be the penultimate fixed…

SPECS OS: Steam OS, Steam Deck CPU: 2GHz Mem: 4GB GPU: 2GB VRAM HDD: 1GB We’ve spent decades inheriting dozens of middleof-nowhere farms with overgrown fields and abandoned sheds in desperate need of rehabilitation. On acres of forgotten land, we’ve methodically tilled, planted and harvested until we’ve grown popular with the locals. Our reputation as an expert farmer earns us a modest living, and we’re often up ploughing before sunrise, sometimes working until a neighbour finds us face-down in a pile of turnips. Just kidding. We can hardly keep a cactus alive – though if we’re allowed to count time spent in Harvest Moon, the résumé still stands. Some of our earliest “just five more minutes” pleas were so we could stay glued to Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, eager…

There’s nothing quite like old-school computing. Thanks to maker and developer Gary Explains, you can relive the classic coding experience of the ’80s and ’90s with this Pi Pico BASIC interpreter. Called PiccoloBASIC, it enables you to program simple projects using BASIC. According to Gary, the project offers a few simple functions, including commands such as let, if, print, for, goto and gosub. It can also interact with GPIO pins fundamentally – no pun intended. While limited, users can still perform familiar beginner projects such as blinking an LED and Hello World. It’s worth noting that the project wasn’t developed from scratch but was inspired by another BASIC interpreter called uBASIC. This was created by Adam Dunkels, and if you want to delve deeper into how it works, see https://github.com/adamdunkels/ubasic.…

Credit: www.gigadevice.com Buckle in kids, this isn’t a project for the fainthearted or novice electronic tinkerer. Before B we can deal with the RISC-V hardware, we need to deal with our software development environment. Visit www.nucleisys.com/download.php and right-click Nuclei Studio IDE > Linux x86-64 to start the download – the servers are not particularly fast, so the process will take a bit of time. After that, untar the archive and start it in a terminal, as follows: $ cd ~/Downloads/NucleiStudio $ ./install.sh $ ./NucleiStudio Nuclei Studio asks for a workspace folder – the default can be accepted. Once started, click File > New > New Nuclei RISC-V C/C++ Project to make the IDE pop up an alert about missing packages. In addition to that, the Nuclei package management window also…

Version: 2.53.3 Web: https://github. com/bcpierce00/unison/ System administrators swear by Rsync, a CLI utility that works wonderfully well to replicate files, locally or over the network. What it lacks, though, is bi-directional syncing, making sure the contents of the source and the destination are in sync, no matter where you make the change. And this is what you can achieve with the aptly named Unison. Unison ensures that two separate collections of files and directories, stored in different locations on the same computers or across a network, can be modified separately and then synced by propagating the changes in each location to the other. Unison is available in the repos of most distros. Ubuntu users can grab it with sudo apt install unison . Fedora users first have to enable the…

Version: 1.4.3 Web: https://github. com/bk138/gromit-mpx Alaser pointer pen is a very handy gadget for making presentations but it isn’t much use if you’re sharing your screen during an online meeting. In such a scenario, you can use Gromit-MPX (GRaphics Over Miscellaneous Things), an on-screen annotation tool that works with any Linux desktop as well as Wayland. Gromit-MPX is available on FlatHub and can be installed with flatpak install flathub net. christianbeier.Gromit-MPX . You can operate the tool using its tray icon, if your desktop environment has one. But a more efficient way to invoke it without interrupting your workflow during a presentation is to toggle it with the F9 hot key. After you’ve toggled, it you can use the pointer to draw on the screen to direct the attention of…

Version: 1.10.0 Web: https://localsend.org Mac and iOS users can seamlessly transfer files between them using AirDrop, which facilitates the move over both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. LocalSend is an open source AirDrop alternative. You can use it to securely share files and messages with nearby devices over the local network, without going over the internet. LocalSend is available for Linux, Android, Mac OS, iOS and Windows. Users of Debian-based distros can grab the DEB package, while others can either use the AppImage or the Flatpak. You can install LocalSend on an Android device from either the Google Play Store or F-Droid, or download the APK file and add it manually. LocalSend’s interface is very simple and easy to understand. By default, the app assigns unique nicknames to each device, to ensure…