Episode 452 Show Notes

Welcome to mintCast

the Podcast by the Linux Mint Community for All Users of Linux

This is Episode 452!

This is Episode 452.5!

Recorded on Sunday, January 5, 2025.

Ready for 2025 Joe; … … Bill; snowed under, I’m Majid; and looking forward to a new year, I’m Eric

— Play Standard Intro —

  • First up in the news: Not a lot of Linux news….but a lot of Mint News with 22.1 BETA Released
  • In security and privacy:
  • Then in our Wanderings: Joe, Bill, Eric does nothing, Moss takes a break and All roads lead to Ubuntu for Majid
  • In our Innards section: A look back at last years predictions, and making some predictions for 2025
  • And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions
  • Please remember if you want to follow along with our discussions, the full show notes for this episode are linked in the show’s description

— Play News Transition Bumper —

The News

20 minutes

  • Linux Mint 22.1 “Xia” BETA released
    • From the Linux Mint Website
    • The latest version of Linux Mint (22.1 “Xia”) was released as a beta iso on December 12. As of this morning, there are still 28 issues listed on GitHub, so hopefully we’ll get a final iso very soon.
    • Upgrade instructions will be published after the stable release of Linux Mint 22.1. It will be possible to upgrade from this BETA to the stable release. It will also be possible to upgrade from Linux Mint 22.
    • Linux Mint 22.1 features a Linux kernel 6.8 and an Ubuntu 24.04 package base.
    • Linux Mint 22.1 will receive security updates until 2029.
    • Until 2026, future versions of Linux Mint will use the same package base as Linux Mint 22.1, making it trivial for people to upgrade.
    • Linux Mint 22.1 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2029. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop experience more comfortable.
    • Modernization of APT dependencies – One of the major projects in Linux Mint 22.1 was a thorough review and modernization of APT dependencies. The goal was to clean up outdated components, rationalize, and create a streamlined, future-proof set of package management tools and libraries.
    • Linux Mint transitioned to Aptkit and Captain: Aptkit replaces aptdaemon, providing a streamlined library for package management operations with updated functionality. Captain unifies the features of GDebi and apturl into a single, easy-to-use utility.
    • All the tools previously reliant on aptdaemon, synaptic or apturl now use these replacements.
    • This transition has several benefits:
    • Better translations: Everything is now fully translated, eliminating longstanding localization issues.
    • Improved quality: By removing reliance on unmaintained components, Mint ensures fewer bugs and “paper cuts”. Small bugs can be addressed, they’re no longer considered as “upstream / wontfix”.
    • Simplified architecture: Moving to Aptkit allowed the Software Sources to downgrade foreign packages graphically and no longer rely on a VTE. In the Update Manager, it empowered us to boost Wayland compatibility and modernize the multithreading and multiprocessing code, which were getting very old.
    • Easier development: Rather than constantly patching release after release (packagekit’s inability to purge, aptdaemon’s inability to remove essential orphans), we develop the features we need and rely on libraries that fully support what we need.
    • Linux Mint moved to a new sound server called Pipewire.
    • Power Modes
    • The following power modes are available on all computers:
    • Power-saver mode: Limits performance to conserve energy.
    • Balanced mode: Adjusts performance based on your needs.
    • On Certain system Performance mode is available. This mode maximizes performance at the cost of increased power consumption.
    • Night Light
    • Night Light is a feature designed to reduce your exposure to blue light by warming up the color of your monitor.
    • Cinnamon 6.4
    • New default theme
    • Improved Wayland compatibility
    • In Cinnamon 6.4, we’ve replaced the deprecated `policykit-1-gnome`, which had issues under Wayland, with native dialogs for better integration. As a result, all applications and features that require admin privileges are now fully functional in Cinnamon on Wayland. This includes crucial features like:
      • System snapshots
      • Installing or updating software packages
      • System settings
    • Night Light
    • Software Manager has been optimized for better speed, ensuring faster application browsing and installations.
    • The Bulky file manager now includes a useful feature for removing accents from file names, which is especially handy for international users managing large batches of files.
    • Thumbnails are now generated for .ora (OpenRaster) files, making it easier to browse graphic design projects and workflows.
    • Artwork improvements to Mint Y and Wallpapers
    • Until 2026, the development team won’t start working on a new base and will be fully focused on this one.
  • Serpent OS Enters Alpha with GNOME and COSMIC Spins, Powered by Linux 6.12 LTS
    • 9to5Linux
    • Ikey Doherty released today the long-anticipated alpha version of his new independent Linux distro, Serpent OS, which features some of the latest and greatest technologies and applications.
    • Powered by Linux kernel 6.12 LTS, Serpent OS Alpha has two official flavors featuring the latest GNOME 47.2 and COSMIC 1.0 alpha 4 desktop environments. Both editions are supported equally, but the devs recommend using the GNOME edition because the Rust-based COSMIC is not yet mature and it’s subject to frequent potentially breaking changes.
    • Serpent OS Alpha offers top-notch hardware support as it includes patches for ASUS and Surface devices, along with support for the open-source NVIDIA graphics driver in the repositories. Moreover, this release features automated boot management, support for multiple initrd images, and support for early KMS in the initrd for NVIDIA users.
    • The Serpent OS devs also worked on the installer to offer users a seamless installation experience and support for choosing between XFS, EXT4, and F2FS filesystems for the root file system. However, the team doesn’t recommend installing Serpent OS with EXT4 on systems where more than a few hundred transactions will need to be retained, due to EXT4’s limitations with hardlink counts.
    • Under the hood, Serpent OS Alpha brings significant improvements to the tooling for managing packages, building software, and handling boot management. The distro uses moss as the default package management tool, blsforme for boot management, the LLVM/Clang 18.1.8 stack, and more Rust-based utilities.
    • “As part of our efforts to modernize and strengthen the Serpent OS base, we’ve switched some components out for Rust alternatives: uutils-coreutils replaces coreutils, sudo-rs replaces sudo, ntpd-rs replaces timesyncd, and curl is built with rustls support (and hyper but this is being dropped upstream),” said Ikey Doherty.
    • On top of that, the GNOME edition features the Starship shell by default, along with the Zed code editor, Loupe image viewer, Resources system resource manager, and other Rust apps. Serpent OS also lets gamers install the latest Steam Client from the main repos.Keep in mind that this is a pre-release version that should not be used for production work!
  • Jury spares Qualcomm’s AI PC ambitions, but Arm eyes a retrial
    • The Register
    • Qualcomm’s push into the PC arena is safe, at least for the moment, after a jury found its mobile processor designs had not violated Arm Holdings’ licenses as the British chip designer had claimed.
    • The decision came after five days of deliberations, marking the end of a more than two-year legal battle between Arm and one of its largest customers over allegations Qualcomm had breached the terms of its licenses when it acquired Nuvia back in 2021 for $1.4 billion.
    • The jury decided in Qualcomm’s favor with regard to two questions regarding the terms of its licenses with Arm: the case ultimately ended in a mistrial after the jury failed to resolve one of three questions set before them. Those questions boiled down to the following issues:
      • Did Arm prove that Nuvia had breached the terms of its architecture license agreement (ALA) with Arm?
      • Did Arm prove that Qualcomm breached the terms of Nuvia’s ALA?
      • Did Qualcomm prove that its CPUs that include designs acquired in the Nuvia acquisition were licensed under its ALA?
    • The jury found in Qualcomm’s favor on questions two and three, but was unable to reach consensus regarding whether Nuvia had breached its ALA with Arm.
    • “We are pleased with today’s decision. The jury has vindicated Qualcomm’s right to innovate and affirmed that all the Qualcomm products at issue in the case are protected by Qualcomm’s contract with ARM,” Qualcomm said in a statement following the verdict. “We will continue to develop performance-leading, world-class products that benefit consumers worldwide, with our incredible Oryon ARM-compliant custom CPUs.”
    • These products include Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X-Elite and X-Plus processors now found in a variety of AI PCs, as well as its Snapdragon 8 Elite smartphone chips.
    • The designs were central to the case, with Arm arguing that the licenses granted to Nuvia to design an Arm-based server processor, couldn’t be transferred to Qualcomm without its permission.
    • However, the bigger issue related to Qualcomm’s Nuvia-derived Oryon cores came down to how the royalty payments collected by Arm under the deal. Nuvia was apparently subject to a higher royalty rate than Qualcomm’s mobile system on chip (SoC) designs. The issue came when Qualcomm attempted to use Nuvia’s tech at that lower rate.
    • Had the jury leaned in Arm’s favor, the trial could have significantly impacted Qualcomm’s PC push, sending it back to the drawing board on SoC designs or forcing it to renegotiate less favorable royalty rates with Arm. The latter could have resulted in more expensive products, making them less competitive with x86-based AI PCs from Intel and AMD.
    • Introduced in May, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X-Elite and X-Plus, while not its first foray into the PC market, were among its most competitive, at the time boasting performance 2x higher in multithreaded workloads compared to Intel’s 10-core Raptor Lake 1355U and 12-core 1360P processors.
    • However, the exclusive nature of Qualcomm’s X-series chips was rather short lived. Within months of the X-Elite’s launch, both AMD and Intel introduced powerful new SoCs of their own, with NPUs qualifying them for the Copilot+ PC brand.
    • This put Qualcomm in a vulnerable market position, with the future of these chips in the jury’s hands. Arm had already made moves to derail Qualcomm’s Oryon-based chips. In October, Arm reportedly moved to cancel Qualcomm’s architecture licenses in an apparent bid to stall its latest generation of products based on those designs.
    • While it seems Qualcomm’s custom core designs are safe for now, with only two of three questions decided, the story isn’t over yet.
    • “We are disappointed that the jury was unable to reach consensus across the claims. We intend to seek a retrial due to the jury’s deadlock,” the chip designer said in a statement, received by El Reg following the conclusion of the trial. “From the outset, our top priority has been to protect Arm’s IP and the unparalleled ecosystem we have built with our valued partners over more than 30 years. As always, we are committed to fostering innovation in our rapidly evolving market and serving our partners while advancing the future of computing.”
    • The fact is that Qualcomm, one of Arm’s largest customers, is still heavily dependent on the IP house’s technology. As such, finding an equitable resolution is in both party’s long term interests.
    • Perhaps, the most concerning challenge for Arm and why it seems bent on retrying the case is the precedent it sets. If Qualcomm can get away with acquiring chip technologies from Nuvia without renegotiating architecture licenses, what’s to stop someone else from doing the same? And so, while this chapter of the Arm vs. Qualcomm saga may be over, it seems the story is far from over.
  • USB-C gets a bit more universal as the EU’s mandate goes into effect
    • Arstechnica
    • “It’s time for THE charger,” the European Commission posted to X on December 28, 2024. While the sentiment only applies to one continent (and not all of it) and only certain devices, the Common Charger Directive now in effect in the European Union suggests that far fewer gadgets will foist barrels, USB-micro, or proprietary plugs onto their owners.
    • The Common Charger Directive demands that a “USB-C receptacle” be equipped on “radio equipment” that is “equipped with a removable or embedded rechargeable battery” and “can be recharged via wired charging.” If it has a battery and can be powered by up to 240 watts through a USB-C connection, it’s generally subject to the EU’s USB-C requirements. The directive applies to devices “placed on the market”—sent to a distributor or buyer—after December 28, even if they were initially designed and sold before that date.
    • Laptops get until April 2026 to comply, but most other things—phones, tablets, handheld gaming devices, computer accessories, and wireless headphones—will have to be powered by USB-C to be sold inside the EU from now on. Drones, for the time being, are largely unaddressed by the directive, but the EU will likely get around to them.
    • The directive contains several exceptions and some wiggle room. Devices with non-rechargeable batteries, like coin cells or AA/AAA batteries, get a pass, such that many smart home gadgets are off the hook. There is some vague language around devices that recharge inside a case or box, although earbud cases are specifically included in the mandate. Devices that only charge wirelessly are also exempted. And a device can offer another charging option, like Apple’s MagSafe or proprietary plugs, so long as USB-C charging is also available
    • The most significant impact this USB-C requirement has had so far is on Apple, which, while initially resisting, has gradually shifted its products from its proprietary Lightning connector to USB-C. Its latest iMac comes with a Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad that all connect via USB-C. The firm stopped selling the Lightning-charging iPhone 14 and iPhone SE in the EU after December 28.
  • Steam On Linux Ends 2024 With A Nice Boost To Its Marketshare, AMD Linux CPU Use At 74%
    • Valve has just published the Steam Survey results for December 2024 and they reflect a nice upward trend for the Linux gaming statistics and a high point in recent times.
    • In November the Steam Survey reflected a 2.03% marketshare for Linux… Roughly inline with what we have been seeing for Linux right at around the 2% threshold. With the just-published December survey numbers, there is a 0.29% increase to 2.29%! A very healthy 0.29% bump month-over-month and larger than we are used to seeing for the monthly Linux increases… There is some differences with 2.03% seemingly revised down to 2.00% after the fact or how the +0.29% now means 2.29%, but in any case it’s showing a healthy Linux increase for December.When looking at the Linux numbers, SteamOS Holo accounts for around 36% of all Linux gamers… SteamOS Holo being the operating system of the Steam Deck and beginning to appear on other devices as well. SteamOS / Steam Deck continues to be the primary growth driver for gaming on Linux. Driven in large part by the Steam Deck relying on a custom AMD SoC/APU and AMD being popular with Linux gamers/enthusiasts for their open-source driver support, AMD CPU use on Linux commands a 73.6% marketshare. But here’s another strange but as the Steam Survey results show Intel CPU marketshare for Linux gamers at 29.6%… So combined 103.2%, which would indicate something isn’t quite right with these results. With Steam OS on Windows, AMD has a 38% CPU marketshare to Intel at 63%.

      So there are a few oddities with the December 2024 survey results on the Steam Survey with some numbers not adding up quite right, but in any event they seem to be pointing to a higher marketshare for Linux gaming in closing out the year and the continued popularity of SteamOS / Steam Deck with the AMD numbers. Those wanting to see the Steam Survey results can find them on SteamPowered.com.
  • Meet Orbit, Mozilla’s AI Assistant Extension for Firefox
    • From OMGUbuntu
    • Orbit by Mozilla is a new AI-powered assistant for the Firefox web browser that makes summarising web content while you browse as easy as clicking a button.
    • After all, why read an article to understand what it says when you can read an AI summary rephrasing the article instead? 😉
    • Mozilla’s AI assistant Orbit is currently a beta product and available to install from the Firefox add-ons site where the extension, which works on Firefox for Windows, macOS, and Linux
    • Where ChatGPT, Claude et al which require you to visit a web page1 to interact with them, Orbit is accessed directly from the web page or video (select services only) you’re viewing, meaning it works more like Apple Intelligence does in Safari.
    • Once the Orbit extension is installed in Firefox you’ll see a small circular action button floating on all pages you visit/view (don’t worry; the the button can be dragged around, minimised, or hidden entirely if you’d rather).
    • You get shortcuts to summarise the content on the page, open the chatbot to ask questions about the content on the page (and only about the content on the page – it won’t answer non-related queries), or access Orbit’s settings.
    • For now Orbit by Mozilla only returns summaries and provides answers in English (seemingly US locale only too given the amount of z’s where s’ should be 😉
    • Orbit doesn’t require a login or signup, and Mozilla says it doesn’t retain session history (at all, so it’s privacy friendly). Interestingly, it apparently doesn’t use your queries to train or improve the underlying LLM.
    • For those wondering, the Mistral 7B large-language model (LLM) powers Orbit. This is hosted in the cloud by Mozilla, who say no queries are shared with Mistral — nor anyone else, which is cool:
    • “We have built Orbit to remain agnostic about which model we use and we are constantly benchmarking the most recent open-source models available. This allows us to easily swap out models as technology improves,” Mozilla says.
    • “The Mistral 7B LLM used to support Orbit is hosted by Mozilla and the queries are never shared with Mistral or any other services. The tradeoff of not sharing user data with the model is that we cannot influence the model or train it.”
    • In conclusion, Orbit by Mozilla elevates information by providing a seamless and efficient way to revolutionise reading —only kidding, I don’t use AI to write articles.
    • Want to try Orbit? As long as you’re running a modern-ish version of Firefox, including Firefox ESR, you can install the Orbit extension from the same place you get all your other Firefox extensions.

— Play Security Transition Bumper —

Security and Privacy

10 minutes

— Play Wanderings Transition Bumper —


Bi-Weekly Wanderings

30 minutes (~5-8 mins each)

  • Bill
    • Well, we haven’t had a show in a while, and I’ve not done much in terms of tech outside of a bit of experimentation with video encoding. I say “video” encoding, though actually I did some experimenting with video as well as audio codecs. As some may be aware, I host a Jellyfin server here at home in a docker container where I host ethically sourced media content for my family and friends. I’ve recently become interested in figuring out the best audio and video codecs to use when adding content to the server. Jellyfin works by discerning if the client device supports the codecs the content is coded in, if the client does support the container, (eg. MKV, MP4) the video codec, (eg. MP4, H.264, H.265, AV1), as well as the subtitles, the bits are simply streamed “as is” to the client. If any of the codecs and or containers are not supported, Jellyfin must re-format the content in real time during the process, with varying levels of complexity and insensitivity. Jellyfin achieves this by running it’s own instance of FFMPEG. This can be achieved utilizing hardware acceleration techniques such as VAAPI, Intel Quick Sync, and Nvidia NVenc. The varying levels of re-encoding include:
      • FFMPEG Transcode – this is the most resource intensive technique. This is what will occur if the video codec of the content isn’t supported by the client.
      • Direct Stream – This will occur if the video codec is supported but the audio and/or subtitle is not. This is less labor intensive for the server, but still uses some CPU resources during the stream.
      • FFMPEG ReMux – This is what will occur if everything is supported except the container. For example, Firefox will support many video codecs but will not for some reason support the .mkv container. Remuxing is the least labor intensive, and is hardly worth considering. Their website claims even a Raspberry Pi 3 can handle the task.
      • Direct Play – This is when everything (container, video codec, audio codec, and subtitle) are supported by the client, this is the goal when creating content for the server.
      The thing I have to keep in mind is that if I’m willing to share my server with friends, there’s going to be a variety of clients involved. Some people are using Android clients, Android TV clients (there is a difference) Apple stuff as well. Let’s not forget the different browsers. Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Safari have some significant differences, in terms of media support. So the goal is to try to code the content with codecs that are supported everywhere, or at least as many codecs as possible. For better or worse, .mp4 with 8 bit H.264 video, and AC3 (Dolby Digital) seems to be the way to go. This provides the best quality while minimizing the resource insensitivity on the server.
    • I’m eagerly awaiting production release of Mint 22.1. I believe I’m going to do another “nuke and pave” like I did with 22.0. One little irritation I’m having is to do with my second “production” storage disk, which is formatted with Btrfs. I treat Btrfs the same way I do ZFS in that I mount them directly to the root directory and assign ownership of the directory to myself, recursively. I then write the fstab to mount subvolumes in the directory to the various home folder directories. I’ve found some excellent advantages in doing this. In the past I would simply mount my home directory to a second drive making for easy migration between installations. What I’ve found is that this method creates a couple problems. First, your home directory is where all of your user-specific configs for all the various applications, as well as the desktop and shell reside. Often I use a less performant whilebeit larger disk for secondary storage, forcing applications to run slower as a result of the need to source, and cache to a slower disk. The other problem is that over time, cruft will inevitably build up which will break things. I’ve gotten away from the idea that I had to keep the home directory siloed off given how many of the applications that made it hard to do nuke and paves without the concept have created their own back up method, such as Firefox sync. I do, however back up some of the directories that are needed, such as the .ssh directory which contains my ssh keys for accessing the servers. As I said, the problem I’m having is really more of an irritation. Since I’m using Btrfs, I’m having a problem with thumbnails randomly not generating on Nemo. This problem only seems to be with Nemo because I’ve installed Caja, Nautilus, and Thunar which all behave correctly. This does not seem to be a real prolific problem given there’s presumably few people using Btrfs in conjunction with Cinnamon. What little information I’ve found seems to lean toward some problems with mounting Btrfs within an Ext4 root. My next installation will be Btrfs from top to bottom. I’ve resisted the temptation in the past because Distributions that do not officially support Btrfs tend to offer it as an option, but do not properly implement it. I’ve decided I don’t care if I’ve got the proper subvolume scheme. After all, such things don’t exist in Ext4 anyway. Once this is all done, I’ll report the results in a subsequent episode wonderings.
  • Joe
  • – OK well i did a lot in order to help prepare for next shows innards.  I was feeling somewhat motivated especially since we were taking a break.  But i also worked on some other things.
  • – i pulled out my stack of broken laptops and started going through them.  I stripped two of them for parts both toshibas.  they are more than 10 years old but i pulled the hard drives and ram and actually saved the monitors for a later build that i am going to do making portable monitors from them.  I also pulled the speakers and want to do a little project with them and some 3d printing and modeling
  • I was able to get a controller board for one of the monitors and verified that it was working as it should and then 3d printed a casing for that and glued it into position on the back of the monitor housing. I am looking at different ideas for a mount or a stand for this and I have modeled a couple of things but I don’t have anything finished at this time
  • I will order another control board when I can now that I know that they work correctly and the casing is good. I think one of them is going to be mounted to my chair where I have an 11 inch one and I am not sure yet about the other one. I kinda want to use it in place of the small screen that I take to work for DEX but I also think that might be too intrusive. I will decide later.
  • – One of the other ones an hp proliant 17 inch works perfect but has a i5 480m so very very old.  still the screen is gorgeous.  I am thinking of pulling the monitor off and using it as either a set top box or as a pi replacement with a dns sink hole.  Maybe using the docker image and portainer.  Maybe doing both and or seeing what else i can get it to do. Really surprising how good of a condition it is in considering that the processor is from 2011
  • – There is another 17 inch laptop with a 4th gen i5 so still very usable that is over heating.  i have already replaced the thermal paste and cleaned the vents but it turns out that these have a known issues with one of the capacitors going out and causing it to overheat.  You can simply remove the capacitor and it will work fine.  But then what to do with it after?  I am not sure that i need another laptop.  I might could donate it but i am looking to see if i can find any projects for it first
  • – I also 3d printed a bunch of things.  i switched back to pla from petg and had to get a new print bed surface but i got a lot done. I was able to print a bunch of gifts for people including can holders for the members of my team and a display stand for one of JJ’s teachers. Also printed a new bag desk hanger for work since my old one broke after a couple of years of use.
  • – then i went to  el paso with my family to visit the inlaws.  I brought along my portable routers so i could hook up to the internet at the hotel and make it easier for everyone to get online.  Turns out the hotel didnt have ethernet.  and the log in page was insecure.  I ended up having to drop my wireguard to connect and then turn it back on to stay connected and then use tethering.  It amounted to a 6gb down and a 1gb up.  but then again it is hotel wifi.  It might be better to just tether and test out easytether again
  • -sadly easytether is no long maintained so there is no new client application that works on linux without having to jump through a lot of hoops.  But on my trip i brought an old wifi router that i used to use for road tripping and it was old enough that it had the easy-tether extension available to install and a couple of minutes later my phone is providing blazing fast speeds to me and my family in the hotel.
  • – but then the portable router reset itself for some reason and when i went and looked for the extension again in the in built repo it was not there and i had to go find the correct version from the easytether website and then install openssh-client on the router and push the package to it and install it and then things worked as they should again.
  • – While going through this i also looked at pda net and i do not see that they have a linux client.  I did try to use it as a wifi hotspot and that did not work out of the box.  but that is because you have to setup the proxy correctly. But i would also need to check that it is able to be used on a router.
  • – But easytether works for this week.
    • – I also started messing with powertop.  it took a while to get all the calibration done.  you have to let it run for about two hours and then with the autotune function my onegx battery was greatly extended from like 1.5 hours to 6 or seven hours doing simple things.
    • I have also been 3d printing my own 10 inch server rack which is pretty awesome but I think that I will talk about that next show instead of this one. Looks like some of the printing may have caused some issues with my print head though
  • Majid
    • Been a while since the last show, so you expect that theres lot to report. Well not really. Having set up the Steam Deck I havent really got around to playing it much, the controls are good, but I worry I havent got the dexterity yet! Going to start the legendary Witcher next. Wish me luck.
    • Before Joe asks, no I havent got around to emulation yet, but I will.
    • So, as discussed on the last two episodes of Linux OTC, I’m not having fun with Elementary OS. I mean I don’t mind an opinionated desktop, I like GNOME! But theres too much restriction in the way they want you to use their distro. And for all the talk of “beautiful” desktop, its a little too skeomorphic for me. I mean it got to the stage that I was preferring to use my Windows work machine rather then it! I wanted to do a bit of distrohopping, so thought of Fedora, Bluefin, and even Garuda. But in the end, all roads lead to Ubuntu. Im back on 24.10, and it has its issues, but its familiar and comfortable, and I don’t feel like I am arguing or fighting with the device.
    • I have always been the guy in my friend group who does tech support and tech buying advice…and so it continues. Recent wins include a Galaxy S24 FE for a guy who is blown by how good DEX is, and an old colleague who got his first convertible laptop (january sale and good discounts on the 1st gen Core Ultras ie not Lunar Lake). Even recommedend open source software (Scribus) and that worked well too.
    • Did take a few days off over the xmas break. Dont really celebrate it, but will take the opportunity for some family time. Went Go-karting with my boys, took daughter to Mufasa, went car searching with my sister etc.
    • Still continuing with Tidal, not the best app, but I can hear the sound quality difference. Also have rediscovered Corrosion of Conformity!
    • I mentioned I was on the foldable bandwagon, im worried its ruined ”normal2 phones for me. #firstworldproblem
    • Been catching up with some TV over the holidays. Day of the Jackal was excellent. As is The Agency. Black Doves is a bit over-hyped, and Dexter Original Sin is disappointing. Oh and Dune Prophecy was excellent too
  • Eric
    • The last few months have been a bit of a blur for me. I have barely used a computer let alone done anything related to technology. It occurred to me that when I sat down to join the weekly Discord meeting yesterday that I hadn’t turned on my main computer is almost three weeks. I have been using my phone and tablet but anything Linux and tech have fallen by the wayside.
    • Looking forward to 2025, I have some things that I’d like to, or are being forced to change, like finding a better solution for my WiFi, dealing with my Synology NAS being dropped from receiving updates and security patches, installing a dash cam in my car, deciding whether my daughter needs a new phone and if she’s ready for a cellular plan or not, and is it worth getting a better webcam. I’m sure there will be more things that come up but I know I have that much to deal with at least.

— Play Innards Transition Bumper —

Linux Innards

30 minutes (~5-8 minutes each)

  • So what were our predictions last year? (Ep 428)

PREDICTIONS 2024

  • Moss
    • Distrohoppers’ Digest will get free publicity in Full Circle Magazine.
    • No need to predict when Linux Mint will be ready for Wayland either, the road map is there.
    • Bodhi 8 will rebase on newer Enlightenment, finally bringing Wayland to it. That might not be out before the end of the year. And DeBodhi will become nearly as popular as regular Bodhi.
  • Gentoo will finally come out with a version which does its own compiling based on selections made in the installation process, and all Portage files will be made available in binary.
  • Bill
    • Windows 12 will be announced with a pre-installed Linux micro-kernel to better facilitate WSL
    • Google will definately announce a mobile device running on the RiscV architecture.
    • Mozilla will announce the incorporation of some kind of AI functionality with FireFox, and the world will implode as a result. Meaning the outrage massive will be mobilized and pitch forks will be handed out at sundown.
    • Twitter, or “X” as we’re supposed to call it now will go quietly into the good night.
  • Majid
    • More and more vendors are going to jump on the AI bandwagon. Nearly all of these wont get any traction (outside of Google and Microsoft)
    • Canonical will release an Ubuntu version with SNAP only. (probably 24.10) The LTS 24.04 will still retain deb
    • Ubuntu will get an official immutable flavour
    • Pop OS will finally release their new COSMIC desktop made with Rust
    • we will get a 1.0 release of Asahi
    • a very early alpha linux distro for the qualcomm gen 3
    • new ARM Windows laptops which will actually compete with the M series Macs
  • Eric
    • It feels lazy to predict things that are already happening like Wayland adoption, immutable distros, and increased reliance on third-party package systems like Flatpak. I don’t see much else happening in the Desktop Linux space in terms of transformative changes.
    • As others have mentioned, I also think that AI will be continue to be shoved into any conceivable and probably just as many inconveivable applications, although I think the hype cycle will settle down and then we will really see where AI gains traction and makes long-term meaningful impacts. I assume these will be anything to do with creating content, including writing, graphic design, photography, and audio content. You know, anything generative as in generative AI.
  • Joe
    • We will hear lots more about AI and see more computers come to market that are dedicated to AI and “making our life simpler” YES
    • Pi Zero 3 W will be released and it will be lower cost but not low cost enough to make it worth getting the way that the original zero and 2 were NO
    • Wayland will be even more annoying YES but has gotten better
    • Microsoft will soft launch the OS as a service with monthly fees NO

So what about this year?

PREDICTIONS 2025

  • Bill
    • Cannonical will announce AI features for an upcomming release of Ubuntu
    • Apple will announce a new, less expensive AR headset
    • TicTok will not be bought by an American company, but will also not be shut down.
    • Wayland will become standard in Cinnamon, and nobody will notice.
  • Majid
    • SteamOS will become widely available to be installed on other hardware, further driving linux market share.
    • Next Gen Steam Deck will come out, and a Steam desktop/machine will come outt for Xmas time
    • Ubuntu 25.10 will have an official immutable flavour
    • Desktop Linux share will increase due to more adoption in emerging markets.
    • More ARM WIndows Laptops, and some Linux Distros which will come with Snapdragon Elite versions
    • Google will launch Android Laptops possibly under the Pixelbook name
    • Apple Vision Pro will be abandoned, but there will be more Meta Ray-Ban-esque devices and there will be wider adoption.
    • Foldable market will decrease, and so there may be fewer devices, which is a shame as Android on foldables has got good
    • BlueSky will try and be the new twiter, but the same problems that affected twitter will happen there.
    • Google will be forever chaged by the antitrust trial, maybe chrome spun off.
    • AI in general will fail, but some specific aspects will take off. Probably around specific tasks.
  • Eric
    • I think the new administration in the US is going to green light just about every pro big business tech item. For instance, Net neutraility is dead and Google’s antitrust case with be dropped. AI companies will face zero scrutiny for their rampant theft of IP. The list goes on. Suffice to say, any momentum that the FTC was ablel to achieve is forfeit.
    • Contrary to my prediciton for 2024, AI hype will not die but will in fact continue to be shoved into any use case that’s even remotely plausible and even many that are completely implausible and laughable. But hey, there’s gold in them thar AI hills, right? It just speaks to the overall lack of innovation and creativity in the tech industry.
    • VC firms will keep tightening their belts and money will continue to dry up for coompanies that operate at a loss year over year and have no plan to make a profit. The list of failed companies is long and will keep getting longer.
  • Joe
    • The steam deck did a lot to increase the metrics for how many users of linux there are out there. I think that the release of Steam OS will make those number go up even more
    • We will hear less and less about AI and it will fade into the background of our lives. Either that or everybody loses their jobs
    • The economy is going to suck unless of course you are a billionare

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