Posts by thelinuxexperiment@tilvids.com
(DIR) Post #A0UaPb4RW3xONlQrlA by thelinuxexperiment@tilvids.com
2020-10-13T06:14:50.579Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
DOwnload Safing's Portmaster here: https://safing.io/portmaster/Every company is talking about building their ecosystem. Apple, Samsung, Google, Microsoft, even Amazon, they all want to have the full experience, with hardware, software, services, all designed to lock the users in and keep them coming for more products, more data, all at the price of convenience. I don't like these walled gardens, but I still think we need a full open source ecosystem where the desktop works well with mobile, smartwatches, iot devices, and services. Let's see how that could work.Join the channel to get access to a monthly patroncast and vote on the next topics I'll cover:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5UAwBUum7CPN5buc-_N1Fw/joinSupport the channel on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperimentFollow me on Twitter : http://twitter.com/thelinuxEXPMy Gaming on Linux Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaw_Lz7oifDb-PZCAcZ07kwFollow me on LBRY: https://lbry.tv/@TheLinuxExperiment:eThe Linux Experiment merch: get your goodies there! https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/the-linux-experimentAs of today, there is no syncing between your Linux desktop, and a potential Linux phone. No interaction between your pinetime and your desktop or phone either. We have no "open source service suite" that a user can just start using on every device. And that's what I mean by ecosystem: a one stop shop, with a single account, that lets you access cloud storage, photo syncing, browser bookmarks and passwords, an email account and calendar, an office suite, text message syncing, basically an open source icloud or Microsoft account.Ok, now, I think ecosystems are terrible. That's pretty paradoxical, I know, but that's because current ecosystems, that encompass hardware, software and services, are all proprietary, and designed as walled gardens, to lock you in and prevent you from switching.Once you've bought a Mac, an iPhone, an Apple Watch, and iPad, and AirPods, the cost of switching to anything else becomes way too high. You've bought your apps, you're using Apple services, your hardware works beautifully together. If you just replace one piece of all of that, it all breaks down and the simplicity and ease of use is gone.Because, yes, these ecosystems bring a lot to the table: everything tends to sync together super easily, you get your files, photos, settings, applications on every device, seamlessly. Stuff just connects together in the most simple way. That's appealing. But the cost is your freedom to decide that a superior product might be worth your money. Instead, you'll buy the product from the company you're beholden to, because anything else will just not work as well. It's a trap, but I think an open source ecosystem would solve that issue.## An open source Linux ecosystem would solve thatOpen source, is, by definition, open. This means that building a walled garden with purely open source software is impossible, anyone could decide to fork and make sure that their device worked with the existing ecosystem.In terms of hardware, we already have plenty of options: the Pine64 has the mobile devices, with the PineTAb, PinePhone, and PineTime. Any laptop or desktop can basically run Linux, so hardware doesn't matter that much for us. It's already pretty open, and we can switch to another manufacturer without any lock in.In terms of software, the very philosophy of free software would allow anyone to plug in, or extract their own data from the ecosystem, to reuse it somewhere else. There would be no lockdown, no walled garden, only the simplicity, and seamless connectivity would remain.## How would that workWe already have a lot of the building blocks available to us. Nextcloud, for example, is a fantastic starting point. It does cloud storage, photo syncing, it offers a calendar and email application, it integrates with an open source office suite easily, and can be extended with apps. That would do for a backend and web interface.What's missing is an open source email service, not too tricky to deploy, some bookmark and password storage, which Firefox already does with Lockwise and the Firefox account, so there's another building block.The other missing piece is how to integrate that with our various distros, and that's the trickier part. For that idea to be successful, every desktop environment would have to work to make sure that just entering your credentials would allow you to use your cloud storage as a network drive, syncing your pictures and videos inside the right folder, automatically configure your email account and calendat with their default applications, open access to the integrated office suite, and sync the bookmarks and passwords with whatever browser they ship by default.I can imagine a provider in the Online Accounts, like in GNOME or elementary OS, that just lets you set all of that up by just entering an email, and a password, obviously with 2 step verification.
(DIR) Post #A15Xm5def69hDTVdnE by thelinuxexperiment@tilvids.com
2020-11-08T04:50:05.244Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Visit http://linode.com/linuxexperiment for a 100$ credit on your new Linode account!I think it's time to talk about the Linux noobs. Specifically, how much we need them to keep being relevant, and improve. Let's start !Join this channel to get access to a monthly patroncast and vote on the next topics I'll cover:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5UAwBUum7CPN5buc-_N1Fw/joinSupport the channel on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperimentFollow me on Twitter : http://twitter.com/thelinuxEXPMy Gaming on Linux Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaw_Lz7oifDb-PZCAcZ07kwFollow me on LBRY: https://lbry.tv/@TheLinuxExperiment:eThe Linux Experiment merch: get your goodies there! https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/the-linux-experimentFirst thing is, everyone that starts using Linux is a noob at some point. The term can be used to imply lack of skill, but basically it means a beginner, a newcomer. So, basically, we need noobs because we need new people to start using Linux.Why? Because it is important, I think, to promote free software and Linux. It is crucial that people realize that proprietary operating systems are actually hurting their computing experience, and turning them into juicy bits of data to be collected, and sold to advertisers. So the end goal should be to try and get more people to use Linux and open source software, and that means more noobs.## We need new points of viewIt's easy to lose track of what's easy, what's simple, and what's acceptable in a computing experience. I, for one, am not a great judge of what is easy and simple in Linux, because I've been using it on and off since 2006, and full time since 2018. I know the command line, I can script, I know where to find answers, how the system works an generally how components interact with each other. I'm no expert, but I know enough that I can quickly fix a problem.A noob doesn't, and that's a good thing. the newcomer can give a new outlook on our operating system of choice, or on the software we use everyday. We got used to their quirks, to some amount of issues and the strategies to avoid them. These guys are not, and as such can offer a very valuable critic or opinion on what works for them and what doesn't, and what is an acceptable compromise, and what isn't.We need these new points of view to improve. Long time users have gotten used to the quirks and don't notice them anymore, and we need the noobs to remind us of them.## We need to create better documentation and helpMost open source projects already have a pretty good documentation base, but sometimes, it takes the user's technical knowledge for granted. For example, when we post "just type sudo apt install steam" as an answer to someone who wants to install Steam on a debian based distro, we assume multiple things:- First, that he knows where to type this. A newcome doesn't necessarily know about the terminal, how to open it, or what that command will do exactly.- Second, that he won't get scared by this. Honestly, the terminal can be a huge turn off for a newcomer. It can be scary to type command lines that you don't understand in a small black window, and hope that it does what you wanted it to do.This is just not a good experience for someone. Sure, I resort to giving help using the terminal as well. It's more convenient. It's a lot easier to just give a few commands than to create a whole screencast on one distro. The user might use another desktop environment, another theme, and what we show him might not make sense, and might even generate more questions.This is why we need better documentation, and better online help for beginners, and the only way we're going to do that is if these noobs come up to us and ask us questions that we can answer in a more understandable way.And explaining these things to beginners might also make us realize what we thought was very easy, isn't.## Noobs are the future expertsA noob won't stay one for long. Once they start getting to grips with their system, they'll experiment, try other things, and quickly become more of an expert, or at least an experienced user. The noobs are what is going to keep free software and Linux relevant. If we deter them from joining our community, then we basically stagnate until one by one, all projects die by lack of work, help, or usage. We need to bring in fresh blood, constantly, to get new users, new developers, new testers. That's how the open source community works, it's constantly evolving, it's not a fixed element in time. It depends on people, more so than proprietary software created by a company, and as such, it needs new blood, it needs noobs.## We need to treat our noobs rightYep. I know, they can be annoying. Asking questions that have already been answered multiple times, not knowing stuff we consider basic, and judging Linux or open source software by comparing it to their experience with proprietary software.
(DIR) Post #A1Y4QPJMkW7JdLRZq4 by thelinuxexperiment@tilvids.com
2020-11-25T06:43:01.970Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
You guys might have read or heard about conjectures regarding Microsoft and Linux. Specifically, that Microsoft might, in the future, replace the windows kernel with something based on Linux. While I personally don't think this is going to happen, like, not at all, let's see why people might think that it's in the cards.Join this channel to get access to a monthly patroncast and vote on the next topics I'll cover:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5UAwBUum7CPN5buc-_N1Fw/joinSupport the channel on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperimentFollow me on Twitter : http://twitter.com/thelinuxEXPMy Gaming on Linux Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaw_Lz7oifDb-PZCAcZ07kwFollow me on LBRY: https://lbry.tv/@TheLinuxExperiment:eThe Linux Experiment merch: get your goodies there! https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/the-linux-experimentSo first, Eric Raymond, one of the founders of the open source movement, wrote a blog post explaining that MS will definitely move to Linux as the base for Windows. I'll leave a link to this article in the description, but his arguments boil down to this:http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8764- PC sales are down and will keep decreasing as more people use tablets and phones. This means that Windows is less and less profitable, and will in time turn into a drag on their business.- Windows subsystem for Linux allows to run unmodified Linux binaries on Windows without emulation.- Proton and Wine allow people to run Windows software at near performance parity, and if it can run games, it can run anything.- Microsoft is porting some of their software to Linux, and it can only make sense if they're trying to test their internal emulation layer.Now, let's see why I think none of these arguments make sense:- Financially, Windows isn't a burden to MS. It's free for the user, but not for the manufacturer. Hardware manufacturers that ship windows pay a fee to Microsoft, which is very lucrative. While it's not what they're focusing on right now, it's also a good source of income, and I don't see them just replacing the kernel because Windows doesn't make as much money as other things. The moment where PCs aren't needed in the workspace is far, far away. Manufacturers will keep selling workstations and laptops to companies for the foreseeable future, and this generates money for Microsoft. A lot of money, probably enough, without any other client, to keep developing their own kernel.- WSL: WSL is the exact opposite of porting windows to use the Linux kernel. It's allowing Windows to use Linux software WITHOUT running the Linux kernel. I personally think this is the route Windows is going to take to cater to developers and sysadmins that prefer working on Linux.- Wine and Proton: running games is easier than running desktop programs. Games all use one of 3 APIS: DIrectX12, Vulkan, or OpenGL. Vulkan and OpenGL are native to Linux, so getting games that use these is pretty easy, once you get the main windows executable started. Direct X doesn't exist on Linux, but DXVK, a translation layer, allows to transform the calls into Vulkan calls, and this has opened up a huge amount of games to Linux. Desktop programs, on the other hand, are way harder to run. They use their own toolkits, their own frameworks, and they don't look the same at all. Some will make use of a specific graphics API, some will use their own custom solution. Supporting all of these is very complex.- Porting software: what Microsoft ported is all stuff based on electron, or Chromium. Edge is based on Chromium, which already runs on Linux. Porting it is a low hanging fruit, not a hard development effort. Teams is a webapp, running with electron. It doesn't take any effort to give that to Linux users. What we haven't seen yet, is Office 365, which is the big moneymaker for Microsoft.- Emulation: Windows is already trying to emulate x86 on ARM, with much less success than Apple: their Surface Pro X is crippled by this, x86 software doesn't run that well, and most review point out it's bad in terms of performance. Sure, emulating Linux on the same architecture might not incur the same performance penalty, but if windows is going to use an emulation layer, wouldn't they contribute to Wine, since it's already super advanced ? They don't seem to be.- Compatibility: if you switch to a Linux kernel, sure, you could get windows apps running. But not the drivers. Manufacturers have, for decades, created drivers and software suites that only work with Windows and its kernel. This can't really be emulated. They have to be ported. Moving to a Linux kernel would virtually mean that everything that isn't plug and play would have to have their drivers re-developed from the ground up. Once again, I don't see Microsoft doing that and alienating their whole hardware ecosystem.
(DIR) Post #A3aBDKB8qL06DD0sEK by thelinuxexperiment@tilvids.com
2021-01-24T04:13:27.996Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
Visit http://linode.com/linuxexperiment for a 100$ credit on your new Linode account!Recently, I’ve created a video about how I think Linux lacks a strong software ecosystem. There were positive reactions, as well as negative ones, but in the end, I stand by it, and as such, I’ve created my own, Linux-based ecosystem. Let’s see what I’ve used.Join this channel to get access to a monthly patroncast and vote on the next topics I’ll cover:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5UAwBUum7CPN5buc-_N1Fw/joinSupport the channel on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperimentFollow me on Twitter : http://twitter.com/thelinuxEXPMy Gaming on Linux Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaw_Lz7oifDb-PZCAcZ07kwFollow me on LBRY: https://lbry.tv/@TheLinuxExperiment:eThe Linux Experiment merch: get your goodies there! https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/the-linux-experimentNextcloudThe main building block to get me started was Nextcloud. It’s an amazing hub for almost everything you might need: Notes, Tasks, Contacts, Files and Calendar, and it can be extended with other applications to really use it as your digital centerpiece.I installed Nextcloud on a Linode server, using the base Nanode at 5€ per month, and installed Nextcloud in one command line, through SNAP. I know, I know, but it was just super convenient. I went with version 18, since it come with OnlyOffice pre-configured, I’ll talk about that a little bit later.Where Nextcloud shines, is in its integration with almost anything you might want to use. It uses open protocols like Webdav or caldav, and this means a lot of applications can sync to Nextcloud. As a matter of fact, if you’re using GNOME, you can just login with your Nextcloud account and server, directly from the “Online Accounts” settings panel, and everything will be automatically synced to the default GNOME applications, which is pretty nice.ComputersSyncing with a computer is pretty easy: either you use GNOME, and you just log into your account, and get auto sync right off the bat, or you sync individually to the apps you want to use.File syncing can be done through the Nextcloud application, available through an appimage, or through Flatpak. I set it up in a bit of a weird way, since I don’t want all my stuff located inside a single Nextcloud folder, so I’ve set up what they call folder sync connections, which basically map the content of a local folder on your hard drive, to a folder on Nextcloud. This means that my documents, for example, are not inside the Nextcloud folder, but inside the Documents folder in my /home/ directory.I also sync my Notes to the Nextcloud/Notes folder. Little side “note” here as well, these notes are stored as individual files, so you can edit them manually without going into Nextcloud, so you can use any application of your choice.Mobile devicesI have defaulted to /e/. This is a completely degoogled version of Android, which I’ve talked about in a previous video.This has access to all android apps, minus the paid ones, and all apps on F Droid as well, so it’s usable in a day to day scenario. It kinda looks like iOS by default, but you can install any launcher you want in there. It also uses MicroG to give you access to most Google apps if you really can’t live without them.This system provides default applications that are not linked to Google services, but integrate perfectly with Nextcloud: tasks, calendars, contacts, notes… You name it. This is what I’m using as a daily driver, on a Galaxy S9+.You can achieve the same result on any Android phone using an app called DAVx5. It’s paid for in the Google Play store, and free on F Droid. It just lets you enter your Nextcloud server and credentials, and lets you select what you want to sync to your device.Now, in that scenario, you’ll get calendars and contacts, but Notes and tasks probably won’t sync to your manufacturer’s application, so you might have to download a specific Android app to handle these instead.You can also get the Nextcloud app, that lets you auto upload your pictures and syncs your photo albums as well, into separate folders.Computer - phone integrationNow, what we’re lacking is a phone to computer integration. Fortunately, there is KDE Connect, a fantastic tool that also works on other desktop environments, and even has a GNOME extension called GS Connect. It lets you receive notifications from your phone on your computer, send text messages from your desktop or laptop, send files back and forth just like AirPlay on APple devices, or use your phone as a remote control for audio on your desktop, or a plain old touchpad.
(DIR) Post #A4Eg87Pn6V47IXYyVE by thelinuxexperiment@tilvids.com
2021-02-10T14:16:05.072Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
The first 1000 people to use the link will get a free trial of Skillshare Premium Membership: https://skl.sh/thelinuxexperiment02211A lot of work has been put recently into making the various Linux desktop environments more able on mobile form factors. Let’s see how these efforts are panning out, starting with PHOSH, the GNOME mobile shell, and its applications.Become a channel member to get access to a weekly patroncast and vote on the next topics I’ll cover:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5UAwBUum7CPN5buc-_N1Fw/joinSupport the channel on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelinuxexperimentFollow me on Twitter : http://twitter.com/thelinuxEXPMy Gaming on Linux Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaw_Lz7oifDb-PZCAcZ07kwFollow me on LBRY: https://lbry.tv/@TheLinuxExperiment:eJoin us on Discord: https://discord.gg/nN8wwZPpwrThe Linux Experiment merch: get your goodies there! https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/the-linux-experimentWhat is PhoshPhosh is GNOME shell, re-jigged for mobile. It’s developed mainly by Purism, for their Librem5. It’s open source, used by a lot of distros that you can flash to and SD card and use on the pinephone for example.I’m trying this out on the baseline Pinephone model, with Manjaro Phosh, but you could also try phosh on Fedora, Debian, Manjaro, postmarket OS…Obviously it’s manjaro, so expect more apps than the default, and a specific icon theme, which I changed so it would look more “vanilla”.It’s only one of the available mobile interfaces for Linux mobile devices, you could also get Plasma mobile, Ubuntu touch, and a lot of other.I’ll only talk about Phosh, not the battery life, the use of hardware, etc… as it is dependent on what you’ll run it on: pinephone, Librem 5, or maybe something else in the future.The shellPhosh takes the concept of GNOME shell, and moves it to a mobile form factor. Basically, you’ve got this arrow at the bottom of the screen, which brings up the activities view, combined with the app grid.You’ll see all your running apps, and the ones you can launch as well, on the same screen. It’s a simple enough interface, although it might not scale all that well when people have the option to install tons of applications. There is a search feature, obviously, which only searches through applications, you won’t get the full system search you can enjoy in desktop GNOME here.Up top, you get your standard indicators, with the cellular icon, which is not enabled here as I haven’t moved my SIM to the pinephone, the wifi, bluetooth, time, and battery.Clicking in that black area up top displays the settings shade, with quick settings, much like on Android. You can’t customize these, but you’ll get the essentials: rotation, do not disturb, flashlight, and docking mode, as well as volume and brightness sliders. If you have notifications, they’ll be displayed underneath these sliders.To dismiss this shade, just tap on the top of the screen again.In the activities view, you get a horizontally scrolling list of your recent apps, and a favorites bar. These favorites can be customized with a long press on the app’s icon, which also display the various options for this application, just like right clicking an icon in GNOME’s dock.Underneath that, you get your app list, sorted alphabetically.Now, it ships with a bunch of default applications, which manjaro supersedes with more stuff, just like on the desktop version of the distro. You have the basics: a text messenging application, a phone dialer, a contacts app, a calculator, a calendar, a clocks application, everything you’d expect to get on a phone.These apps are all responsive, which means that they are, in fact, the desktop GNOME apps, that just know how to behave when opened on a phone screen.All the features are still there, but things are moved to a hamberger menu, or to tabs, displayed on the bottom instead of being on the top of the app, as they are positioned on the desktop.Some apps have not received that mobile treatment, though. The calendar, for example, is the full desktop app, whish is displayed with very small text, and touch targets, and is barely usable.The file manager manjaro ships is called portfolio, so it’s not the GNOME FIles app, Nautilus. I tried older versions of Phosh where Nautilus was included but it wasn’t adapted for mobile at the time.If you need more applications than what your distribution ships, you have GNOME Software, which works fine, even though you can feel there are still some hiccups.This means that you’ll get to install any desktop app on your phone as well, like GIMP, Inkscape, or Libre Office.Why would you want to do that on a phone? Well, because this shell turns into a full desktop shell once you plug the phone to a display. You then get the full GNOME experience, with the desktop shell, and all the apps you’ve installed spring to their full size.This video is sponsored by Skillshare