We review Purism’s Librem 15, the high performance 15.6″ laptop built for Linux with physical radio kill switches.

Plus the snap coming to a desktop near you, we report back from SeaGL & discuss some future changes to your humble weekly Linux talk show.

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Show Notes:

Follow Up / Catch Up

Wes and Chris report back from SeaGL 2017

fwupd hits 1.0.0

Since we started the project, we’ve basically re-architected the way the daemon works, re-imagined how the metadata is downloaded and managed, and changed core ways we’ve done the upgrades themselves.

The systemd Corner

For each service unit a restart counter is now kept: it is increased
each time the service is restarted due to Restart=, and may be
queried using “systemctl show -p NRestarts …”.

TL;DR: you may now configure systemd to dynamically allocate a UNIX
user ID for service processes when it starts them and release it when
it stops them. It’s pretty secure, mixes well with transient services,
socket activated services and service templating.

Sending everyone a SIGSTOP before the real signal completely
avoids this. With all processes suspended, all of them will get
your signal before any of them can wake up from other causes. If
they’re going to die from the signal, they’ll die on the spot;
they’re not going to die (because you’re starting with SIGTERM
or SIGHUP and they block or handle it), they’ll only get woken
up at the end, after most of the dust has settled. It’s a great
solution to a subtle issue.

Linux Academy

TorProxy is a tool which uses netfilter hooks in the linux kernel to route all network traffic through the Tor network

The module uses netfilter hooks in the linux kernel to filter/NAT packets and ensure all outbound traffic is headed for the Tor network.

Why did Compiz “””die”””?

I don’t understand. People act like Compiz is archaic, gimmicky, and buggy, but that has not at all been my experience.

It’s at least as stable as gnome-shell, and it’s more configurable than even kwin. A lot of the effects are gaudy, but there are plenty of simple & pleasant animations…and even they’re configurable. The window and desktop management plugins are top-notch, and give me an insanely efficient work environment.

I liked gnome-shell, but I like compiz much, much more. I’m officially jumping ship to XFCE just to get back to compiz, and I don’t understand why more people/distros haven’t.

Ubuntu MATE 17.10 + pre-install snap – Quality – Ubuntu Community Hub

Ubuntu MATE is pioneering pre-installed snap support by being the first distro to ship a snap by default. For the Ubuntu MATE 17.10 release the pulsemixer snap, a console based mixer for PulseAudio27, will be installed by default.

Ubuntu On-Air

Ubuntu 17.10 Community ISO Testing
2017-10-16 15:00 UTC

DigitalOcean

Librem 15 Review

Success — Linux Phone Crowdfunding Campaign Reaches Its Goal

The security-conscious US-based Linux laptop vendor has raised the full $1.5 million target it sought. The money will be used to help fund the development and manufacture of a 5-inch privacy-focused smartphone, dubbed the ‘Librem 5’.

TING

Unplugged Upgrades

Why the changes?
  • LINUX Unplugged is JB’s largest podcast
  • Possibly the largest Linux podcast in the world (accounting for video downloads.)
  • And we don’t want to stand still. I was going to wait until 300, but I can’t hold back!
What are the changes?
  • Full video LUP. Better than LAS video.
  • And we’re doing it by making LUP an audio only show.
  • More edited, closer to LAN’s polish with the chill vibe of LUP. And live.
  • We buy about $1k in camera equipment and supporting hardware. Camera for Chris, Camera for Wes, studio cam, guest cam.
  • We release a full unedited video version, with behind the scenes camera feeds to Patrons.
Benefits
  • The wider audience gets a better sounding, more polished product.
  • Video version with better production than LAS for those who really want it. After hardware investment would just use our existing production pipeline. IE we’re already plumbed for it.

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