We The Free News

Welcome to a special presentation about News regarding Linux Desktop Environments. We will be covering news from 5 different DE’s today, so i should probably make sure that you guys know what a desktop environment is, huh? Ok, that is the heart of what you see on screen, unless you are a command line snob. Typically a desktop environment will include all of the crucial bits to make your computer draw something you might actually want to see on the screen. This includes a window manager (kwin, Muffin, and others), which tells GUI elements where to draw themselves, set rules for the dimensions of windows and their elements, a display server (x11, Wayland, or Sway, for the most part), and other things to help the screen to look more appealing for users like you or me. Ok, enough intro. Plasma Mobile 23.01 More News on Cosmic from System 76 GNOME 43.3 Budgie 10.7 Xfce 4.20 (hmmm, cannabis) Ok, so Plasma Mobile 23.01 is out, and brings a slew of improvements to the mobile space for Linux Mobile. If only the glaring issues with Linux Mobile itself were being worked on as diligently and visibly as Plasma mobile is, with one release every month. Enough belly aching on that now, though. Let’s see what they have been working on: · Improvements to o Gesture navigation o Lock screen o Shell rotation · Apps updated o Clock o PlasmaTube (youtube client) o Alligator RSS client o QMLKonsole terminal emulator o Koko image viewer o Kasts o Spacebar messaging app o AudioTube o KWeather o Tokodon o Kalk So, quite a bit, when you consider that they just released the previous version a month ago. Just like desktop KDE, Plasma Mobile gets lots of love all of the time from its development team. https://9to5linux.com/kde-outs-plasma-mobile-23-01-to-improve-gesture-navigation-lockscreen-and-apps Cosmic DE from System 76 is coming along quite nicely. I was never really a fan of it in the past, as I thought it looked too childish and a bit garish, but my interest was kindled when I heard that they had had a falling out with the GNOME team last year. I know, I know, drama, drama, drama... But this was not just a pissing match between the GNOME upstream team and the Cosmic downstream crew at System 76, it led to the beginning of the development of something new because the GNOME developers chose to be stuck up about their “glorious”NOME vision, and that didn’t mesh with what the team from System 76 asked of them. Now, we have an Iced, Rust-based Cosmic that should be ready for public release by the time the next version of Pop!OS rolls out in May or June. In fact, they are currently working on an implementation of xwayland, which allows standard x11 apps to run on Wayland. Aside from that, they confirmed improved software rendering, animation support, as well as dynamic rendering for multi-gpu systems. Ok, let me slow down for a second. For the majority of the time that Linux has had a GUI of any kind, the x11 display server has been the king of the hill, sure there have been other challengers, but none have stood the test of time. Wayland has done just that. It has been around for about 10 years now, and simultaneously offers both a lighter, faster option, but also a more secure one. So the Linux community is working feverishly to switch over to it across many distros and desktop environments. That is why it is of interest that so many are making the switch, and that COSMIC is one of them. What else is new or in the pipeline, here? · tabs and segmented buttons for the desktop · Settings app improvements o Received a continuous scrollable list of search results, as well as various improvements to the Power & Battery, Displays, Sound, Region & Language, Wallpapers, and About sections. · Alpha version coming soon-ish, but no confirmed date as yet. https://9to5linux.com/system76-shares-more-details-on-its-rust-based-cosmic-desktop GNOME 43.3 is out now. There are some solid quality of life improvements, here. Let’s take a look at some of them. · GNOME Maps bug fixes · GNOME Software Manager · Text Editor updated · New version of libadwaita (theming stuff) o Bug fixes including a memory leak · Eye of GNOME photo viewer updated · Nautilus updated https://9to5linux.com/gnome-43-3-brings-minor-fixes-to-gnome-maps-and-gnome-software Budgie 10.7 is out now, about 6 months after the last release. I can’t speak to Budgie very much, as I think I have used it all of 2-3 hours in the last 10 years, and that was only because I was part of a small dev team that was trying to put together a new distro last year, and we lighted on Budgie for a bit in the process. I was less than impressed, to be honest. Part of that is that I know it is simply another GNOME fork like Mate, Cinnamon, old COSMIC, and Xfce. I know it has its ardent fans, but I am not one of them at this point. So what’s new in this release? · Budgie Menu improvements o Dual GPU switching ability from the context menu o Personal User Menu § Grants the ability to directly open to a predefined directory in the File Manager § Also has options to open Settings, Control Center, and the new Power Dialog · Power Dialog o Makes it easier to Hibernate, Suspend, Reboot, and Shut Down § Hibernation is dynamically enabled based on the hardware and the distro being used. · Budgie Screenshot is now baked into the DE itself, rather than being a standalone app · Application Indexer · Budgie Run Dialog And more... https://9to5linux.com/budgie-10-7-desktop-environment-adds-dual-gpu-support-new-power-dialog Looking forward to Xfce 4.20 They just released 4.18, but they are already working on the next version, so let’s see what’s in store, shall we? · Wayland support o Umm, took long enough, guys... o Very much a work in progress, but moving away from x11 is a big deal § They have partially ported the libxfce4windowing library over to Wayland, and along with it comes the xfce4-panel and the xfce desktop manager Keep in mind that while development is very active, it is not on anything like the cadence of a GNOME or KDE, as it is intended to be stable and “just work”, not be bleeding edge, by any measure. https://9to5linux.com/xfce-4-20-desktop-environment-will-finally-bring-wayland-support

FFW 29.1- Unvanquished 0.54 Released If you want to combine RTS and FPS gaming, this may be a way to do that. Unvanquished is a fork of Tremulous, which combined elements of squad-based shooters with limited base-building from the RTS genre. Tremulous started as a mod of Quake 2, then was released as a mod for Quake 3. Man, this intrigues me. I gotta say... It is still relatively early in beta, so there are lots of bugs, but this looks promising. I’m not gonna say that I’ll try it out for sure on a Friday, but who knows... https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/free-strategy-shooter-game-unvanquished-v054-is-out-now/ #FFW #Linux #foss #gaming #linuxgaming #TechFreedom FFW 29.2: New Classic Zelda Clone Out If retro gaming gets your motor running, and you like to play with fire by poking the no-fun-patrol that is Nintendo, check this thing out. We are talking about a reverse-engineered clone of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991). It doesn’t use any of Nintendo’s copyrighted properties, so you do need the original ROM in order to play... There are some goodies that have been added to this clone... · Support for pixel shaders. · Support for enhanced aspect ratios of 16:9 or 16:10. · Higher quality world map. · Support for MSU audio tracks. · Secondary item slot on button X (Hold X in inventory to select). · Switching current item with L/R keys. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/02/zelda-a-link-to-the-past-reverse-engineered-clone/ #FFW #Linux #gamingonlinux #nintendo #zelda #linuxgaming #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom FFW 29.3: Ubisoft Flips Us the Bird So, while I reported last week about the improvement with EA and Steam, we have a major regression with anything that requires Ubisoft Connect in order to play. In other words, until further notice, major titles like: The Division 2, Watch Dogs Legion, Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Ghost Recon Breakpoint, no longer even load in on Linux or the Steam Deck. Thanks, Ubisoft. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/more-ea-games-steam-deck-playable/ #FFW #Linux #steam #proton #playable #fun #linuxgaming #TechFreedom Updates: Ubisoft fixed both The Division 2 and there s a fix for Ghost Recon: Breakpoint as well. Ubisoft released a patch for The Division 2, so all you have to do is download that and you should be good to go. Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is a bit more involved, but here are the steps to get it working... · The fix o Steam Deck § Open the Properties of the game in Steam, go to Local Files and Browse. § Head into the BattlEye folder. § Edit the BELauncher.ini file in a text editor § On the line that says 64BitExe=GRB.exe change it to 64BitExe=GRB_vulkan.exe § Make sure you select Vulkan when going to launch the game o On desktop Linux though, there's another problem. It will keep forcing a small 720p window. The only workaround I've found for that, is to manually edit the settings file found somewhere like this: § /steamapps/compatdata/2231380/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/My Games/Ghost Recon Breakpoint/GRB.ini § The location above depends on where you have it installed. § Inside there, change "WindowMode" to 0. At least there you can maximise it. All other modes end up forcing 720p, which is even a bug on Windows in their Vulkan renderer with many posts on it. You can't set the resolution there, as the game overrides it but setting WindowMode to 0 lets you maximise, and the game sets the resolution to match the window. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/ubisoft-fixed-the-division-2-on-steam-deck-and-linux-desktop/ https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/fix-ghost-recon-breakpoint-on-steam-deck/ #FFW #Linuxgaming #Ubisoft #fixes #patches #hacks #TechFreedom What to use instead of Big Tech online: https://rumble.com/v1020p7-viable-google-alternatives.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #techtips #TechFreedom #justsayno #nomorespying #advice

TTT 44.1 – How to ‘head’ in Linux I could be sophomoric about this one, but I don’t think I will... What’s the ‘head’ command, anyway? I’m no hacker, in fact, I’m scared of the empty screen that is the terminal. Why do I need to know this? Ok, head is like a mini version of ‘cat’ which will list the contents of a specified file in the terminal. Where ‘cat’ will give you the whole contents, ‘head’ only shows you the first up to 10 lines of the contents for the file in question. Why would you want to know or use this, if you never open the terminal? Well, you don’t. However, if you’re ever in a situation where you need to scan just the first or last £ 10 lines, skip them, or even look at the the first or last £ 10 characters, then you will find the ‘head’ command very useful. · Here’s the syntax: o Head -<options> <file1> <file2> (as many files as you want to look at at once) § If you want to just look at the first £ 10 lines of any given file, you need no options. Simply type head <file> § If you want to look at the first 8 characters of a file · head -c 8 file-1.txt § If you want to skip the last £ 10 lines of a file · head -n -10 file-1.txt o Note the negative number above § If you want to skip the first £ 10 lines of a file · head -n 10 file-1.txt o Note it is a positive number in the last example. https://www.tecmint.com/head-command-examples/ Of course there is more, but these are the basics of the ‘head’ command in Linux, if you want to know more, look at the article in the description, or the man page for ‘head’ online. #TTT #howto #terminal #head #FOSS #Linux #TechFreedom TTT 44.2 – Flatpak vs Snap... What’s the 411? Both of these frameworks are meant to make it easier to distribute packages across the Linux landscape. Let’s take a little trip down memory lane to check out the origins of each, then use cases, then startup times, performance, availability and popularity, FOSS vs proprietary, centralization, updates, sandboxing, and the maintainers’ perspective. Let’s get cracking, shall we? · Origins o Snap § Began as an IoT and server-focused packaging protocol to make updating easier for these sorts of devices, but grew to include desktop. § It has always been operated by Canonical, who also develops Ubuntu. The journey toward Snaps started way back in Ubuntu 13.04, when UB Touch was first released with a target at phones, tablets, and TV’s, and they were called Clicks back then, as an alternative to using PPAs for everything. In the next version of Ubuntu, they were renamed to Snaps. o Flatpak § Started by a Red Hat developer in 2014, but was originally known as xdg-app. It was renamed to Flatpak in 2016. · His work in the area started way back in 2007, with Glick, which was very hacky and wacky. He kept at it, and eventually Flatpak was born. · Use Cases o Snap § Anything from server and IoT to desktop o Flatpak § Only for desktop, no CLI or server functionality exists · Startup Times o Snap § Can be very slow, for a myriad of reasons (AppArmor and other settings baked in, which make it heavier) o Flatpak § Almost as fast as a native package, because even though it is sandboxed by default, its container tends to be easier to unpack vs a snap · Performance o No clear winner here, if raw performance is your metric, test your favorite apps in each packaging system and decide for yourself. · Availability and Popularity o Snap § Somewhat limited to Ubuntu and its derivatives, though not all of them even use it, as we’ll talk about in the next section o Flatpak § EVERYWHERE. It is EVERYWHERE. Lol... More distributions have it baked in than Snap ever had. That is not to say that every user of a distro with Flatpak support built in uses it or likes it, but it is more widely available than Snap is. · How FOSS is it? o Snap § The core is FOSS, but controlled by Canonical in a very authoritarian way through their proprietary backend. This is something that turns many off, myself being one of them. o Flatpak § Wholly FOSS, so if that matters to you and your preferred or needed app has a flatpak, use it. · Centralization o Snap § Only the Ubuntu-controlled Snap Store can ever exist (proprietary back-end, after all) o Flatpak § Gloriously decentralized, though most users seem to use the Flathub store. You can add extra repos to add software that is not present in the main Flathub (pronounced flat-hub, not fla-th-ub) setup, so it is very flexible. · Updates o Snap § Baked-in automatic updates to make sure that you get the newest, shiniest available packages for your apps. o Flatpak § Not automatic by default, though it will notify you if you need to update. · Sandboxing Approaches o Snap § Uses AppArmor, and needs admin privileges in order to install on your system o Flatpak § Fully sandboxed, as in it merely sits on top of your system without needing any dependencies aside from what is downloaded in its package, due to this, you can install flatpaks without admin privileges. · Maintainers’ Perspectives o Snap § May be better, but can be more of a pain. What makes it better? It is easier to build Snaps than Flatpaks, however it can be more of a pain in that you need to understand more about the security side of things to effectively set up your Snap right. o Flatpak § As long as one uses Flathub for distribution, there is a simpler way for you to get feedback vs Snaps. https://itsfoss.com/flatpak-vs-snap/ #TTT #flatpak #snap #Linux #TechFreedom Free Your Internet http://techfreedom.pro/internet-freedom/ One-stop shop for getting you and your business transitioned off of Big Tech online platforms and tools, so that you have control of your data once again. I will also help you to find better alternatives. #TTT #techtips #TechFreedom #internetfreedom #nogoogle #nometa #noyahoo #nomicrosoft TTT 44.3 – Only Office 7.3 If you want to get away from MS Office, you have two good, FOSS options, the rest of the field is questionable at best (here’s looking at you, WPS Office). OnlyOffice is less configurable than LibreOffice, and looks more modern by default, but can be irritating to work with, at least in my opinion. That is not to say that I don’t use it. I do. In fact, I write most of my papers and the talking points for my shows with it. So what is new with this version? · Enhanced Forms. o You can now create and assign roles to specific fields in forms o New default fields settings are available (time & date, credit card #, etc) · Better SmartArt Graphics Integration. o insert various elements, such as Matrix, Hierarchy, Process, etc. · Improved Document Protection. o Better password controls for text documents, so only assigned people can tweak the whole file, rather than filling in a form or something like that. · Support for Unicode and LaTeX equations. o You can use either now, big deal if you are a bigger nerd than I am. · Various Improvements to Spreadsheets. o Watch Window – makes it easier to make sure that your various formulae are correct without having to scroll through the whole worksheet all of the time... Cool feature. o 13 new formulas are now available for use. That includes TEXTBEFORE, VSTACK, WRAPROWS, CHOOSEROWS, and more. o If you have the paid version, you can copy-paste links between your spreadsheets · New Features in Presentations. o Paste Special hotkeys now work faster for inserting slides in the presentation editor with three options to choose from; use the destination theme, keep source formatting, or picture only. · And others... Lots to see here, guys and gals. As I said, if you want to get away from MS Office and take control of your data that way, OpenOffice and LibreOffice are probably your best bets. Take a look, even if you are still on Windows or MacOS. https://news.itsfoss.com/onlyoffice-7-3-release/ #TTT #foss #productivity #Linux #office #compatibility #TechFreedom 10 Things My Wife Thinks You Should Know about Tech Freedom. https://rumble.com/v19elx6-10-things-about-tech-freedom.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #TechFreedom #wifeysauce #getfree #explainer

DM 44.1 – What’s BlendOS? Well well well, why be forced to make a Sophie’s choice? Why not just blend the Big 3 Linux families in one distro? That is what the maintainer of the Unity desktop seeks to do with BlendOS. It is an optionally immutable Arch-based distribution which offers the ability to easily install apps from DNF (Fedora) and APT (Ubuntu) by providing distrobox-ed versions of both of those package managers. I think this sounds like an awesome idea, though personally, I wish that it wasn’t defaulted to GNOME for the desktop. That’s just me, though. You start with pacman, and then have the option to add those other, containerized package managers later on. For my effort, I think I’d rather see options to install different desktop environments and choose whether you’ll use the distrobox options to provide Debian and Fedora package support for you out of the box. It does come with flatpak support out of the box, though, so that is a significant benefit. I may take a look at it, though I don’t know when. https://9to5linux.com/first-look-at-blendos-a-blend-of-arch-linux-fedora-linux-and-ubuntu #distromonday #blendos #Arch #Ubuntu #fedora #distrohoppersdelight #Linux #TechFreedom DM 44.2 – Elementary OS 7 “Horus” Elementary OS is an Ubuntu derivative, and this version is based on last year’s 22.04 LTS. It has its own desktop environment called Pantheon, which feels a bit like MacOS, though it is not a perfect match. Pantheon is based in the Gnome-iverse, so GNOME plugins and extensions will probably work at least somewhat in it, and that enables them to pull things like Gnome web more easily, which features heavily in this version of the OS. So, what’s new in v 7? Xubuntu Jammy Jellyfish as the base Improved App Center Linux 6.0.12 Better Installer New & Improved Mail, Tasks, Music, Files, and System Settings apps General improvements for Pantheon to make it faster and more stable https://9to5linux.com/elementary-os-7-horus-launches-based-on-ubuntu-22-04-lts-heres-whats-new #distromonday #elementaryOS #FOSS #pantheon #linux #ubuntu #TechFreedom Freedom Consultation Ever wondered how to get free from Big Tech? This Free consultation will leave you with at least pointers to the tools and services you’ll need to do just that. This is a FREE 90 minute call with me, where I will demo some varieties of Linux for you, some replacement apps, talk about degoogled phones, and give you links to how to start the process of taking control of your digital life online as well. https://techfreedom.pro/freedom-consultation #distromonday #TechFreedom #consultation #free DM 44.3 – Escuelas Linux 8.0: 25th Anniversary Edition What is Escuelas Linux? It is a Bodhi/ Ubuntu Linux distro. Bodhi is all about being as stripped down as possible while still providing a good GUI-based experience, so it is very lightweight. Ok, so that is the base... What makes it different? Well, Escuelas is focused on being an excellent foundation for use in educational environments. So, what do they pack in? All sorts of educational and productivity software, from LibreOffice & OnlyOffice to GCompris and Wxmaxima 22.11.1, and even both kdenlive and openshot for video editing. It also includes a couple of account tools which sound like they would be great in general in any enterprise level environment: Restoreuser and reinstate user. The first one restores all apps to a default state, where the second allows an administrator to wipe individual accounts of user info, but leave the account in place. So, what else should we know? There is a host of other educational software included, from exelearning, which is a tool that allows anyone to create beautiful interactive lessons and the like, to the KDE Education Suite, to GIMP and Krita, as well as the Escuelas Linux Developer Pack. This sounds like a really cool option if you are home schooling or have decision making power in a small private school. You have a choice between the Ubuntu base and a Debian base, though the Debian base sounds like it is not intended for use with Escuelas 8.0. Take a look at it for educational purposes, unless you have a setup that is at least as good. https://9to5linux.com/escuelas-linux-8-0-educational-distro-celebrates-25-years-of-promoting-foss #distromonday #escuelaslinux #edulinux #bodhilinux #ubuntu #debian #homeschool #foss #TechFreedom Tech Freedom Intro: What to expect from my channels and website. https://rumble.com/v157uqb-tech-freedom-intro-what-is-this.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #intro #TechFreedom #telegram #truthsocial #publicsq #gab

WE 22-1: Big Tech Go Down the Hole? Meta spiked in value after a word from Zuck, Amazon hit some numbers, but barely registered a blip in terms of shareholder profits, Alphabet is down, AMD is up, and Apple’s sales had their largest slump in 6 years. Ok, let’s start from the top, shall we? Meta: Had a massive cliff jumping moment last Fall. I covered that when it happened, just after the bloodbath that was the Q3 earnings call, or lack thereof. If you held onto your Meta stock, you’re a happy camper right now, as it spiked by 23% after Zuck shared his vision for a more austere and efficient version of itself. Apparently that is all the analysts and late traders needed to hear to drive the valuation up by over 20% in after hours trading on Wednesday. It wasn’t based on the strength of their sales numbers, as those only grew 4% year on year, but on the commitment to cut costs and make wiser personnel and project based decisions, rather than simply throwing money around. They are also cutting allot of middle management, to limit the bloat and make the decision-making process more streamlined. That sounds like a solid call from the Meta C-suite level. I can’t bash them for making good business decisions, however I will echo previous statements I’ve made in regard to the core of what made Meta such a force of nature to begin with, its utter, core disregard for user privacy. That is why the ads were so profitable for larger companies, especially. The old Facebook pixel was ridiculously overpowered because it was so easy to tie a new website to Facebook for analytics and spy on all of your visitors to target ads that much more readily and effectively, not to mention that the whole thing started as a CIA /5 eyes project to spy on one another’s citizens more easily. It was and remains a giant, intentional honeypot for your personal data. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/metas-year-of-efficiency-everything-wall-street-needed-to-hear.html Alphabet: Down overall, both top and bottom lines. They did not hit any of their targets this quarter, well, darn. YouTube revenues are down... Hmmm... Could platforms like Rumble, GabTV, Bitchute, and Lbry be cutting into their bottom line? Or could it be that their efforts to make YouTube profitable are just failing because it was never sustainable, particularly not at FHD and beyond resolutions with high bitrate video and audio? Or is it that more and more people are wising up and using ad blockers in their browsers or using alternative frontends that perhaps block ads for you, or DNS filtering to block ads? What Front ends are there that either don’t ship your data off to Google (aka the USIC) or force ads down your throat? LibreTube fulfills both aims (and is available on both Android and Desktop), NewPipe which simply obscures you from Google. NewPipe feeds you content without forcing you to sign in, while also allowing you to import and export subscribed lists, likes, etc, as those are stored locally rather than in [their] cloud. Ok, let me slow down for a minute, DNS is the Domain Name Service, which turns IP addresses into URLs and back, so that when you type in a URL, the browser knows which site you are trying to contact. YouTube depends on Ad revenue in order to be viable for more than just gathering data on your preferences and interests. Either way, YouTube underperformed in the last quarter, and contributed to a $500 million earnings shortfall for the quarter. Yes, they missed the expectation by half of a billion dollars. YouTube missed its own expectation by $290 Million, Google Cloud missed its target by $110 Million, and the share value missed its target by $.13 per share. For those of us who preach the good word about forsaking Google, perhaps we are starting to make a dent. One can hope, right? https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/02/alphabet-googl-earnings-q4-2022.html Amazon: Made allot of money. Their per share profits were only $.03 though. The last quarter they surpassed expected revenues by $3.78 Billion. AWS did not hit its expectations, falling short by $470 Million, but still producing $21.4 Billion in revenues. Their ad business also grew a good bit, and surpassed expectations by $180 Million. Yes, they made $149.2 Billion in revenue last quarter, but that 4% growth was just not enough, and their net income was ONLY $2.7 Billion after all other costs, that is even with the layoffs that they have been engaging in. These numbers make my head spin, but we have to keep plugging away and eventually this, too, will pass. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/02/amazon-amzn-earnings-q4-2022.html https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/you-shopped-amazon-for-the-holidays-but-its-profits-still-plunged/ Apple: Suffered its biggest year on year decline since 2016. That reflects a 5% drop in overall sales, partially due to the fact that they are positioned as luxury products coupled with the supply-end issues they have had in China for the last few months. The fact that Apple has not seen fit to move their manufacturing to a more democratic country which might treat its citizens like more than cogs in a machine is seeming to bite them where it hurts, the pocketbook. I have mixed feelings about this... On one hand, I want to see Apple either reform itself in terms of truly being about security and privacy, or go down in smoke. On the other, I truly pity the little better than slaves they have assembling their phones, especially, in China. Either way, they actually lost ground overall, even if you take into account the surge for iPad and services. Let me run down the numbers for you: • EPS: $1.88 vs. $1.94 estimated, down 10.9% year-over-year (share prices) • Revenue: $117.15 billion vs. $121.10 billion estimated, down 5.49% year-over-year • iPhone revenue: $65.78 billion vs. $68.29 billion estimated, down 8.17% year-over-year • Mac revenue: $7.74 billion vs. $9.63 billion estimated, down 28.66% year-over-year • iPad revenue: $9.40 billion vs. $7.76 billion estimated, up 29.66% year-over-year • Other Products revenue: $13.48 billion vs. $15.23 billion estimated, down 8.3% year-over-year • Services revenue: $20.77 billion vs. $20.67 billion estimated, up 6.4% year-over-year • Gross margin: 42.96% vs. 42.95% estimated So, as you can see, it was not a good Q4 for Apple overall, even if there were bright spots in certain sectors of their business. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/02/apple-aapl-earnings-q1-2023.html AMD: AMD, on the other hand, reported a strong Q4, even if their outlook for Q1 is a little less rosy. Upon that report, their stock shot up by 12%, and nudged much of the rest of the industry up with them, from Qualcomm (4%) to NVIDIA (8%) to Broadcom (3%), and even Intel (~3%) rose just a bit, in spite of issues with the market right now. What are some of those issues? Oversupply of chips which drives prices down, overall slowing market with all of the bullshit that Jerry Powell is pulling over at the Fed, and the rest of the big picture stuff. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/chip-stocks-up-on-amd-earnings-feds-signal-inflation-is-easing.html WE 22-2: Might Trump Get Back onto Other Platforms? With the pressure of Twitter and Meta letting him back onto their platforms, will other pointless social media platforms let him back on as well? Who knows... Which others may be in view, here? • Snapchat • Shopify • Stripe Payments • Discord • Reddit The article below states that the author could not reach most of these companies for comment, but that typically once one major company makes a move, the rest generally fall in line. Snapchat has stated that they do not plan to revisit their decision to axe his account. This article is largely a fluff piece, but has a few decent nuggets about policy in it. One example of something of interest in that category was the discussion of Meta’s “guardrails” for Trump and other, moving forward. As I have said before, if the social media giants were genuinely transparent and clear with their TOS and rules in general, rather than having so many moving targets in terms of what is “ok” and what isn’t, and will get you shadow banned, suspended, limited, or deleted. Of course, I am more about freedom of speech, but these platforms are private businesses and can make their own rules. All I want is clarity and fairness from them, but until that happens, or they implode due to enough of us waking up and leaving them that they are no longer profitable at all. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26/tech/meta-trump-mainstream-social-media WE 22-3: What is Google Gonna Do About ChatGPT? An answer is coming from the giant “in the next couple of weeks”, as ChatGPT has really done damage to their core search (ad) business in the last couple of months, making it so that even with the layoffs I’ve been reporting on for what feels like the last month, their profits have only grown by 1% year-on-year. Tough times for the giant of Mountain View. To give you an idea, Google Search revenues dropped by $700 million vs Q4 2021. YouTube ad revenues dropped by $600 million, and ad revenue from other websites dropped by $900 million. Wow. That is eye-watering, isn’t it? https://www.cnet.com/tech/expect-googles-answer-to-chatgpt-ai-chatbot-in-a-few-weeks-ceo-says/ WE 22.4: Big Tech in Trouble? TikTok A democrat senator is calling for Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores. His reasoning is solid, as far as I’m concerned. He knows that ByteDance is beholden to the CCP to pass on the ridiculous amounts of personal data to them as a part of existing as a Chinese company. If you care about your privacy at all, and you use TikTok as an app on your devices, please, for the love of all that is Holy, stop, now! Uninstall that spyware from your device and break your addiction. You can do more with your life than be sucked down the endless hole that is TikTok, while feeding all of that information into CCP algorithms. I applaud this Senator for speaking up, and even appreciate the fact that he did not threaten government action against Apple or Google if they do not comply. That may come later, if they do not choose to do the right thing here, though. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/senator-calls-on-apple-google-to-remove-tiktok-from-app-stores/ As a followup to the conversation we had a couple of weeks ago about the UK’s efforts to censor the internet, this article exposes just how many kids in the UK have been exposed to porn at far too young an age (under 10). This isn’t even about soft core in something like Penthouse, this is nasty, hardcore smut with all sorts of violence and other kinds of stuff that should never be put out there, as it greatly reduces all human beings involved in creating, distributing, and consuming it. The author of this article is concerned, rightly, about the fact that many kids who were surveyed think that violence is normative in sex because of porn they have watched as pre-pubescent kids. This turns my stomach, because I first stumbled on porn when I was too young as well. I mistyped the url of a Tolkien fan forum that I was active in at the time, and lo and behold, I was on a porn site, at my grandma’s house. That was the beginning of a so far life-long struggle. But back to the article in question, the solution that the author poses for the UK is to further empower the watchdog, Ofcom, to really prevent kids who are too young from being exposed to unhealthy and fake explicit materials. My heart is broken over this. God, we need your help. Help us to end this scourge. It has destroyed too many lives, both performers, artists, directors, and consumers of this material. We need you to help us to break the cycle. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64451984

DXVK 2.1 Memesplanation Proton News Freed Computer More EA Games Now Work FFW 28.1- DXVK 2.1 Out Now, What’s New? DXVK is the DirectX to Vulkan translation layer for DX 9-11 games. It is what makes it tenable to play these titles in Linux, in terms of graphics and audio. Pretty key to keep improving this, so it is good that they are. So, what is new? · HDR support (limited by lack of support in most Linux desktop environments and missing NVIDIA api calls) · Improved shader compilation · A GLFW backend for native Linux builds of DXVK as an alternative to the SDL2 backend · Two new options (d3d9.forceSampleRateShading and d3d11.forceSampleRateShading) for enabling sample rate shading for all shaders on older games that support MSAA. · Game-specific improvements o Red Dead Redemption 2 o Ashes of the Singularity o Battlefield: Bad Company 2 o Cardfight!! Vanguard o Gujian 3 o Resident Evil 4 HD o Saints Row: The Third o Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice o Sonic Frontiers o Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance hhttps://9to5linux.com/dxvk-2-1-released-with-hdr-support-shader-compilation-improvements #FFW #Linux #foss #drivers #nvidia #TechFreedom FFW 28.2: Proton News The Latest Proton Experimental and GE-Proton releases are out. If you need a boost in these specific areas, with these games, check them out, if not, maybe skip it to avoid aggravation. These are not final versions, but are stepping stones, and while they may solve some problems, they may cause others, as with these versions of Proton, you are more or less the guinea pig. Let’s see what’s new in each, shall we? Proton Experimental: · Improve multi-touch support. · Fix native scrollbar being always visible in Final Fantasy XIV Online launcher GE-Proton: · DXVK hotfix to deal with bad cache files being written (your mileage may vary on this) https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/proton-experimental-and-ge-proton-7-47-updates-available-now/ https://steamdeckhq.com/news/proton-ge-7-47-a-quick-dxvk-hotfix/ #FFW #Linux #gamingonlinux #proton #steam #linuxgaming #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom FFW 28.3: Moar EA Games Now Work in Linux So, while recently Jedi: Fallen Order, Sims 4, Titanfall 2, and Battlefield 1 were added to the Proton playable list, here are a host more (at least until EA borks them again): · A Way Out · Battlefield 4 & 5 · It Takes Two · Madden NFL 21 - 23 · Mass Effect: Andromeda Deluxe Edition · Mass Effect Legendary Edition · Mirror's Edge Catalyst · Need for Speed Heat · Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered · Need for Speed Most Wanted · Need for Speed Rivals · Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2: Deluxe Edition · Unravel Two If you’re a gamer, this should be music to your ears... Maybe you won’t need to dualboot anymore, or perhaps that VM won’t be needed anymore. What’s your story? https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/more-ea-games-steam-deck-playable/ #FFW #Linux #steam #proton #playable #fun #linuxgaming #TechFreedom What to use instead of Big Tech online: https://rumble.com/v1020p7-viable-google-alternatives.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #techtips #TechFreedom #justsayno #nomorespying #advice

KDE 5.27 Beta Memesplanation GCompris 3.0 Free Your Internet WINE 8 TTT 43.1 – KDE 5.27 Beta Released What’s new, here? A whole lot... this is pretty lit, y’all. · Plasma Welcome App for quick configurations · New flatpak permissions tab in the Settings App · Tiling Support (just hit meta+T) · Hebrew Calendar Support · Different multi-monitor support · Display Settings Widget in System Tray for easy access https://9to5linux.com/kde-plasma-5-27-beta-is-out-with-plasma-welcome-flatpak-permissions-settings-and-tiling-support #TTT #KDE #FOSS #Linux #TechFreedom TTT 43.2 – GCompris 3.0 What is GCompris? It is a FOSS, cross-platform educational app to help constructively entertain and educate young minds, with a number of games and activities to teach logic, math, science facts, typing, writing, electronics, and other things. What is new in this release? · 8 new activities: o Mouse click training o Create the fractions o Find the fractions o Discover International Morse Code o Comparing Numbers o Find 10’s Complement o Swap 10’s Complement o Use 10’s Complement · CLI Options o gcompris -lor--list-activities to list all activities o Gcompris --launch activityName to directly open any given activity · Various bug fixes and tweaks This is a fairly good sized update, about a year in the making, take a look at the article for more info, and give it a try as soon as it is made available for your distro. https://9to5linux.com/gcompris-3-0-educational-software-released-with-8-new-activities-more #TTT #gcompris #updates #foss #homeschool #TechFreedom Free Your Internet http://techfreedom.pro/internet-freedom/ One-stop shop for getting you and your business transitioned off of Big Tech online platforms and tools, so that you have control of your data once again. I will also help you to find better alternatives. #TTT #techtips #TechFreedom #internetfreedom #nogoogle #nometa #noyahoo #nomicrosoft TTT 43.3 – WINE 8 Released Lots to talk about in this update, as it is a MAJOR one. It isn’t just for gamers, but they are the ones who pretty much drive development for WINE, so most of these changes benefit them more than people looking for a productivity boost in Linux through running Windoesnt proprietary software. Let’s see what’s new, shall we? · Now completely redone in PE (portable executable) rather than ELF, to make it easier to implement copy protection, support for 32-bit apps on 64-bit systems, Windoesnt debuggers, x86 apps on ARM systems, and more · Also tweaks to make the translation from PE to Unix commands more performant, so this is a biggie · WoW64 thunks which will make is more seamless to launch 32 bit apps without the 32 bit WINE loader. (this is huge, if you like to play older/retro games, or need to use older software for some reason) · Adapter video memory budget change notifications, support for the Vulkan renderer to set up multiple viewports and scissor rectangles, as well as to limit the maximum Direct3D feature level based on available Vulkan features, and adds support for more graphics cards. · Improved shader support for DX 9 & 10 and D3D 9 & 10 to improve performance · Improved MPEG-1 filtering for audio and improved detection for driving wheels and other peripherals · Sony DualShock & DualSense controllers are now supported · And More... This is huge, guys. Should make gaming on Linux that much more enjoyable. https://9to5linux.com/wine-8-0-compatibility-layer-is-out-now-for-running-windows-apps-on-linux #TTT #foss #wine #Linux #gaming #productivity #compatibility #TechFreedom 10 Things My Wife Thinks You Should Know about Tech Freedom. https://rumble.com/v19elx6-10-things-about-tech-freedom.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #TechFreedom #wifeysauce #getfree #explainer

Tails 5.9 Memesplanation Freespire 9.0 Freedom Consultation helloSystem0.8.0 DM 43.1 – What’s new in Tails 5.9? Alright, apparently there were some major problems in Tails 5.8... This release fixes many issues and squashes many bugs, as you would hope would happen in active development. Most of the issues occurred because with 5.8, the team moved to Wayland from x11, but stayed on the 5.10LTS kernel, breaking many Intel iGPU based systems. How did they fix it? They switched to the EOL 6.0.12 kernel. What else got fixed or changed? QT based AppImage binaries work better now Persistent Storage is better KeepassXC can now use the clipboard Tor Browser updated Debian Bullseye repos https://9to5linux.com/anonymous-os-tails-5-9-ships-with-linux-kernel-6-0-to-improve-gpu-support #distromonday #tails59 #incognito #amnesiac #debian #tor #updates #Linux #TechFreedom DM 43.2 – Freespire 9 What’s Freespire? It is a completely FOSS Xubuntu derivative. What does that mean? Why should you think about using it? Ok, where Xubuntu uses all of the Ubuntu repos, Freespire strips out everything that is non-free, or proprietary from its software base. That means that it is Xubuntu minus Snap, and minus all of Canonical’s other shenanigans. Think of it as a slightly more up to date way to use Debian and be an open source purist, at least in terms of the OS itself. This intrigues me, except that I don’t like xfce much, and that is what Xubuntu is: Ubuntu + xfce. So what is new here? Xubuntu Jammy Jellyfish as the base Xfce 4.18 Linux 5.15 LTS Mozilla Firefox web browser Mozilla Thunderbird email client HexChat IRC client GIMP image editor Transmission BitTorrent client Parole media player Rhythmbox music player ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors office suite balenaEtcher OS https://9to5linux.com/freespire-9-0-released-with-xfce-4-18-based-on-xubuntu-22-04-lts #distromonday #freespire #FOSS #xubuntu #linux #goodstuff #TechFreedom Freedom Consultation Ever wondered how to get free from Big Tech? This Free consultation will leave you with at least pointers to the tools and services you’ll need to do just that. This is a FREE 90 minute call with me, where I will demo some varieties of Linux for you, some replacement apps, talk about degoogled phones, and give you links to how to start the process of taking control of your digital life online as well. https://techfreedom.pro/freedom-consultation #distromonday #TechFreedom #consultation #free DM 43.3 – helloSystem – A BSD MacOS-Alike Oh, a non-Linux option? Why yes, there are other FOSS operating systems out there. BSD is another descendant of Unix, much like Linux and MacOS. In fact, MacOS is closer to BSD than it is to Linux, though all are far more similar to one another than any of them are to Windonts. What makes BSD different from Linux? It is more niche than Linux, so if you are looking for the most “out there” OS to play with, a variant based on BSD will get you closer than 95% of Linux distros will. I should be a little more careful with my language here... Linux is really just a kernel, or the core of the OS, where BSD is a whole OS, like MacOS or Windoesnt. Kernel, drivers, and core packages (like a desktop environment), where Linux needs to have a distribution built around it in order to be functional at all. BSD is about as secure, but has weaknesses in networking performance, isn’t as supported or as nimble as Linux development, and it uses a different licensing system, which allows developers to make their software proprietary after benefiting from open source development. Ok, enough nuts and bolts behind helloSystem. What of the story? Well, helloSystem is a very actively developed BSD variant which aims to look and work very much like MacOS, but be open source. What’s new in this release? Based on FreeBSD 13.1 Ability to more easily use a Debian 11 runtime to run Linux software Improved AppImage support Improved Filer (the file manager) Improvements to the menu system, including an option to “force quit” an app from the context menu https://www.debugpoint.com/hellosystem-0-8-0/ One thing to keep in mind is that this OS is under HEAVY development and may not be ready for broad adoption as yet. I would suggest waiting until it is firmly in the 1.0 release before installing it on bare metal, unless you are ready for some frustrations. #distromonday #helloSystem #freebsd #macalike #foss #TechFreedom Tech Freedom Intro: What to expect from my channels and website. https://rumble.com/v157uqb-tech-freedom-intro-what-is-this.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #intro #TechFreedom #telegram #truthsocial #publicsq #gab

WE 21-1: Google Legal Jeopardy Google lost a case in India which is forcing it to back off of Android in that country, where 97% of mobile devices are Android based. What did the case force Google to do? · Allow users to pick their default search engine in Android · Loosen its grip on the necks of OEMs o Developers and OEMs can now license individual apps rather than the whole suite of GAPPs This is huge, if India can make them do this, then perhaps the hegemony of woketardedness can be broken after all. Hallelujah! Let’s roll, Boys! Make these clowns pay for the slimy shit they pull on us through their licensing agreements. According to Google, the Indian regulator that slapped them with this suit simply copy – pasted from the EU’s order last year. So what? If it works, and is legal, slap them as many times as possible, break their monopoly and the practices which created it, then burn them with FIRE. Make suchan example of them that no other US IC front company ever tries this bullshit again. Sure, in business, you want to get to the heights which Google has achieved and to have the power & resources to smash or acquire any other start-ups that could threaten you, but there has to be a certain level of ethics involved, right? At least for me, there does. That is something that won’t change, no matter how much I grow in the future. I’m never going to pull a Google and change my motto. My reason for being in this business is to raise awareness and to help as many people get away from the evil service-cum-spyware companies which sell you as the product, then embrace/extinguish any company which could provide a viable competitor. I am far too FOSS-minded to ever pull those sorts of shenanigans. As for the US, Google is dealing with a similar antitrust suit from the USDOJ. Some think that the DOJ will have a hard row to hoe here to prove that Google’s practices around its ad business are actually harmful to competitors and consumers, but I doubt it. I’m waiting in glee to see Google get slapped again, as doing so is actually backhanding the deep state, as I believe that Google is not only in bed with the Feds (along with Meta and Twitter), but is actually an arm of the CIA. Just my hunch, though. Sources: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-64396086 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-64159817 https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2023/01/24/google-justice-department-sues-advertising/11112899002/ WE 21-2: Guess Who’s Back, Back Again? Trump’s Back, Tell Your Simpering Woketard Acquaintances Welp, it happened. Meta has reinstated Trump’s accounts across their platforms. So much drama. So much fury and empty bluster. So many REEEEEEEEE’s. Mmmmm, salty Woketard tears. Ok, enough bravado. What is actually happening here? Why would he want to return there, if he has Truth Social, and has chosen to stay from tweeting as well? Ok, so he might want to take advantage of this for the sake of the fact that he is running for the White House again, and will probably need the boost of its 3 Billion active users in order to get his message out more readily. Given, many things have changed since 2020, but completely ignoring a platform like that during what is sure to be a hotly contested (fraudulent) (s)election again, might be a big mistake. Breathe, you woke nincompoops, breathe. You likely have another 5 months until you have to shelter in place in your safe spaces to stay clear of the Bad, Orange Man who so hurts your feelings so inconsiderately (because the media and the establishment have told you to be offended by that with which you disagree, also known as what [they] tell you to be offended by). It is unlikely, as I said last week, that he will start posting on either Meta platforms or on Twitter until his exclusivity agreement with Truth Social is up in June. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64408306 WE 21-3: Big Tech Workers Woes I do not glory in the misfortune of other human beings (individuals). However, I find it hilarious that these formerly untouchable tech mega corps are being knocked down a few pegs by the economics of the current time, which they helped to create, mind you. How did they create it? By blasting the COnvid propaganda fed them by the Deep State, of course, then partnering with them to shut down common sense ideas and solutions, so that the only option was LockDown, masks, and the clotshot, rather than ivermectin, HCQ, reasonable restrictions, and something closer to life as usual. Instead, they chose to shut all that down, whether through “fact checking” or “misinformation” labels, or shadow banning, or outright disabling accounts. I think that on some level, all of us have been affected by these gestapo tactics. Whether monetarily (employment, sales through the floor) or being less able to access accurate information to make better choices for yourself and your loved ones, we’ve all been radically injured by their lack of moral fiber. These employees were mostly drones who made no real policy decisions, other than pressing buttons their tender hearts and company policies dictate they must, at least from what I can tell. The companies are receiving their just desserts, as I see it. The people who are losing and have lost their jobs in this techbath are on the short end of the stick, but what goes around, comes around. Hopefully this lesson in the real world will serve them well, and they aren’t completely braindead after their indoctrinations in school, then at work. https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/14/23458204/meta-twitter-amazon-apple-layoffs-hiring-freezes-latest-tech-industry WE 21.4: Big Tech in Trouble? Color me shocked. Twitter is getting sued in Germany for failing to swiftly remove wrongthink from its platform. The content in question is illegal there (that is a whole other ball of wax that I do not have the time or desire to melt right now), on top of it breaking Twitter’s own TOS, apparently, so the European Union of Jewish Students has brought suit over their perceived emotional damage suffered due to these tweets not being removed in a timely manner. What were these offensive tweets about? Holocaust denial and antisemitic attacks. There were a total of 6 tweets at fault. Judging by the laws being put in place by both Germany and the UK around these issues, I think Musk and Twitter are very likely to get smacked by a heavy fine, if not worse, as these are blatant violations of their law, as well as Twitter’s own stated guidelines and TOS. Not much more to say on that. I think it is time to game just a little bit, now. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64404590

All-New Pangolin Laptop GE-Proton Freed Computer Steam Data Leak FFW 27.1- System76 Teases New Pangolin Laptop Been a while since I talked about System76, but it is high time for them to release a new AMD rig. Here are the basic specs: · AMD Ryzen 7 6800U processor · AMD Radeon 680M graphics · A 144Hz 15.6-inch FHD display · Up to 32 GB DDR5 6400 MHz RAM · Up to 16TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD storage · 70 WH battery to give up to 10 hours of battery life · Starting at $1300 for the basic spec They state that we can expect the first ones to be available in February, so if you are in the market for a high performance, Linux-dedicated laptop, this could be a good fit for you. https://9to5linux.com/system76-to-unveil-amd-powered-pangolin-linux-laptop-with-144hz-display #FFW #Linux #foss #system76 #pangolin #AMD #TechFreedom FFW 27.2: Latest Proton-GE Release Out Now Proton is Steam’s answer to the Linux compatibility problem for games in its library. They work furiously on it now, since the Steam Deck is runs SteamOS, which is based on Arch Linux. Proton-GE is the community fork of Proton, largely spearheaded by a gentleman who works for Fedora, who goes by GloriousEggroll online. The latest version is Proton-GE 7-44, and here’s what’s new: · wine: updated to latest bleeding edge (includes alt+tab fix) · wine-staging: rebased for latest proton-wine bleeding edge · dxvk: updated to latest git (includes HDR patches) · vkd3d-proton: updated to latest git (includes HDR patches) · proton: import upstream changes (includes prefix sync revert/fix) · protonfixes: add workaround for pentiment launch failure (thanks tgurr) · protonfixes: add multiplayer fix for stronghold hd/stronghold crusader hd/ stronghold crusader extreme hd (thanks jopejoe1) · protonfixes: add framerate fix for Battle Fantia Revised Edition (thanks ranplayer) · protonfixes: add launcher workaround for Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (thanks ranplayer) The article (link below) mentions that Proton-GE can often add more issues vs mainline Proton, as it is not tested as thoroughly as the mainline version is, but if you regularly play one of the above-mentioned games, then you will benefit from this one. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/ge-proton-7-44-is-out-with-multiple-game-specific-fixes/ https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/ge-proton-removes-the-dxvk-async-patch-in-version-7-45/ #FFW #Linux #gamingonlinux #steam #proton #protonge #linuxgaming #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom FFW 27.3: Bad Day for Steam... LeakerWanderer apparently had an NDA with Steam back in the day, but has decided to leak a whole bunch of assets from the following games: · Portal · Counter Strike: Source · Day of Defeat: Source · Half Life 2: Episodes 1 & 2 · Half-Life 2 multiplayer · Team Fortress 2 Valve got hit with a similar leak for a Left 4 Dead prototype a couple of months back. Come on, guys, I know we’d rather have everything be FOSS, but we need to respect the intellectual property of others by honoring NDAs that we sign. Be people of our word, not randomly leak stuff that doesn’t belong to us merely because we had a passing fancy that we were Robin Hood or some such mythical hero. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/valve-suffers-a-huge-leak-from-various-games-like-portal-half-life-2-and-team-fortress-2/ #FFW #steam #valve #leaks #linuxgaming #TechFreedom What to use instead of Big Tech online: https://rumble.com/v1020p7-viable-google-alternatives.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #techtips #TechFreedom #justsayno #nomorespying #advice

KDE Frameworks 5.102 KODI 20 Released Free Your Internet chatGPT & GNOME TTT 42.1 – KDE Frameworks 5.102 What’s new, here? A whole lot... this is pretty lit, y’all. · Now can send files larger than 2 GB via KDE Connect · ability to use a modifier key, such as the Meta key, as the key input chooser for assigning keyboard shortcuts to actions · Can now open a file pasted using its full file path into the directory chooser field of an Open dialog · makes the “Always use Touch Mode” setting persistent during reboots · adds the ability to close side drawers in Kirigami-based apps by using the Esc key or by clicking in an empty dimmed area of the view · Copy/Paste issues in Plasma Wayland now less problematic · Now forces widgets to disappear when removing that widget and then rebooting your system or restarting the Plasma session while the “Undo removing this widget?” notification is still visible · More than 130 other tweaks and fixes https://9to5linux.com/kde-frameworks-5-102-enables-file-transfers-over-2gb-in-kde-connect #TTT #KDE #FOSS #Linux #toolkits #TechFreedom TTT 42.2 – Kodi 20 Released What is Kodi? It is a FOSS media center/home theater front end which will both manage your media library, as well as stream content from your own network or device as well as from various internet sources. What is new in this release? · AV1 decode support through VA-API · Pipewire media server · Initial support for NTS-4 network storage · Initial support for WS-Discovery (samba shares) for Linux, Android, and Apple · AV1 hw decode for Android · independent volume settings for GUI sounds · new Colour Picker window dialog · new media flags for HDR videos · the ability to add video HDR type information to a video list item · And lots more... This is a huge update, about 2 years in the making, take a look at the article for more info, and give it a try as soon as it is made available for your distro. https://9to5linux.com/kodi-20-nexus-released-with-av1-hardware-decoding-on-linux-pipewire-support #TTT #kodi #updates #foss #selfhosted #TechFreedom Free Your Internet http://techfreedom.pro/internet-freedom/ One-stop shop for getting you and your business transitioned off of Big Tech online platforms and tools, so that you have control of your data once again. I will also help you to find better alternatives. #TTT #techtips #TechFreedom #internetfreedom #nogoogle #nometa #noyahoo #nomicrosoft TTT 42.3 – chatGPT for GNOME? Wanna get closer to the singularity? Embed chatGPT into your desktop? This article tries to be positive about chatGPT, but I can’t follow suite here. I don’t see much benefit from this tool at this point, true, it cannot access current information, but even with that, it is just creepy to me. The extension is very much a work in progress at this point, full of bugs, but it is out in the wild, and the developer has hinted that they are working on a similar thing for KDE as well. You decide if this is a good idea. https://news.itsfoss.com/chatgpt-gnome-extension-development/ #TTT #foss #tools #Linux #chatgpt #TechFreedom 10 Things My Wife Thinks You Should Know about Tech Freedom. https://rumble.com/v19elx6-10-things-about-tech-freedom.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #TechFreedom #wifeysauce #getfree #explainer

MX Linux 21.3 How to Stay on Top of Kernel Updates Freedom Consultation Ubuntu Kernel Updates PSA: Linux 6.0 Kernel EOL #distromonday #TechFreedom #technews #Linuxnews #Linux #kernel #mxlinux DM 42-1: What’s New in MX Linux 21.3? Remember MX Linux? That’s ok if you don’t, here’s a reminder: MX Linux is a debian distro that is focused on being a stable and lightweight base for your Linux experience. So, what’s new? · Linux 6.0 for new installs, but for now, it might be better to stick with the 5.10 series, as 6.0 is EOL · Xfce 4.18 · Latest Patches and Updates from Debian 11.6 · A new deb-installer to replace GDebi · Menulibre menu editor Sounds like a solid effort from the MXLinux team, but as I said, be careful with any distro that is just now updating to the 6.0 kernel (given, that is for the bleeding edge hardware support, for those users who want to run as lightly as possible, even with brand new hardware. https://9to5linux.com/mx-linux-21-3-released-with-xfce-4-18-and-linux-kernel-6-0 #distromonday #TechFreedom #Linux #Debian #MXLinux DM 42.2: How to Keep on Top of Kernel Updates Well, as I reported last week, the 4.19 LTS is now end of life, with it goes the stable kernel 6.0.19, replaced by 5.15.85 LTS and 6.1.5 stable kernels. What does this mean? Long-Term Service, or LTS kernels are older kernels which are designed to be be ultra stable. These have been tested and tried and will be supported for at least 5 years after their initial series release, so the 5.15 LTS kernel will continue to be patched and updated for another 4 years or so. These kernels are not the flashiest releases, but they make the whole Linux world run on the server and enterprise level. If you are doing IT for a company, large or small, you don’t want to be working with the latest and greatest, as there will be bugs that need squishing and fixes that need to be made before these new pieces of tech are stable and really production ready. You don’t want to be wrestling with teething issues along with new adopting enthusiasts if your company needs to be able to just get stuff done. Stable kernels are similar, but closer to bleeding edge, for those new adopting, adventuresome types who just like to live dangerously, but not at the absolute bleeding edge of release clients and the like. These stable kernels are perfect for regular use, as they have been tested and tried, but they only get supported for a month or so, then upgraded to the next round. For LTS kernels, rock stability is the name of the game. They will be patched for vulnerabilities and other issues, but other than that, they are as-is. For stable kernels, you get much more current hardware support, as well as other performance tweaks which will make your experience better vs LTS, but not as much stability, as the kernel is only meant to be “stable” for a month or two at a time. In Arch, you get the latest kernels as options before anyone else does, and that can be part of why it has the reputation of being so finicky. It is easy to update to new kernels in Arch, as they roll with the rest of the updates offered, as soon as it is out of testing. In Debian based distros, you’ll have to wait longer for your developers to filter it through from upstream, unless you want to compile the kernel for yourself. We’ll talk a bit more about this in the next story, after the discussion about the Freedom Consultation, which is coming next. https://www.makeuseof.com/linux-kernel-releases-crucial-updates/ #distromonday #TechFreedom #Linux #kernels #techtips Freedom Consultation What is it? It is a free video call where I will give you the basics in terms of tools to set you free. I will also demonstrate a handful of different Linux distributions, some free and open source software (FOSS) that may be a good fit to replace your current proprietary tools, such as MS Office, Adobe Suite, more privacy-conscious browsers, and whatever else you need to help you feel better about the switch. I believe that anyone can set themselves free, and should want to, particularly when we consider just how much data and control these Big Tech and Big Gov types have over us through their closed ecosystems. Do you want to be free? Are you tired of having everything you do tracked and traced? Are you creeped out by AI and algorithms? Get free after a Freedom Consultation. https://techfreedom.pro/freedom-consultaion #distromonday #TechFreedom #freedomconsultation #free #degoogle #Linux DM 42.3: New Ubuntu Kernel Updates As promised, more conversation about the kernel... What is in this update anyway? Why should you apply these patches as soon as possible? Well, let me tell you why: · For all affected versions (14.04 and 16.04 ESM, and 18.04-22.04 LTS, as well as 22.10) o Two Bluetooth security vulnerabilities, one which dealt with multiple use-after-free vulnerabilities which could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code on your device, and the other, which was an integer overflow vulnerability. More or less, the attacker would have to be in physical proximity to launch an attack like this to either be able to run arbitrary (that you did not intend) code or even cause your system to crash. o Also patched was a vulnerability which could allow an attacker in a VM to cause a network crash for the host machine. · Misc fixes o 22.10 + 5.19 and 22.04 & 20.04 LTS running 5.15 LTS § Vulnerability patched which could lead to a local attacker being able to cause a crash or execute arbitrary code, through a stack buffer overflow. o 18.04 & 20.04 running the 5.4 LTS kernel, as well as the 14.04 and 16.04 ESM § Patched vulnerability which could allow a remote attacker to use a buffer overflow to execute arbitrary code or cause a system crash How do you apply these fixes? Either run the software updater utility or type sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade and reboot. https://9to5linux.com/new-ubuntu-kernel-security-updates-fix-5-vulnerabilities-patch-now #distromonday #TechFreedom #Ubuntu #Linux #kernel #patches #updates Distro Monday PSA: Linux 6.0 kernel now end-of-life after a typical 3 month run. Update to the 6.1 LTS series as soon as you can to make sure that you continue getting updates and whatnot.

WE 20-1: chatGPT in Education, What are Teachers Doing? On one hand, there is the impulse to ban it, as the district in NYC has done. I’m not certain that this makes sense in the long run, as how do you ensure that such a ban is actually enforceable? Sure, you can set up DNS filtering on all district-connected devices, but how do you prevent the kids from signing in at home or using their phones via mobile data, whether at school or elsewhere? Tools are not in place to prove whether someone used one of these AI tools to generate assignment-fulfilling answers. Tools are being developed, but simply are unavailable at this point. I think the wiser method is one that was mentioned in the other CNN article I found on the issue: one group of teachers has decided to tweak things so that they can see the process more in-depth, another is shifting back to using in-class essays more, rather than take-home ones where the students could use a tool like ChatGPT to write it for them. Some professors are not clear that it could actually be damaging to students for them to use it. Others are checking ChatGPT before they assign things to make sure what ChatGPT “knows”, even requiring certain classes of sources that ChatGPT would not have access to. Mitigation tools are already in the works, and many are using them already. One is called ZeroGPT, and is being developed by a Princeton student, and Turnitin is also on board with that. If you have been a student in the last 15 years, you’ve probably had to submit at least one paper to Turnitin in that time, as it is a very popular anti-plagiarism tool. ChatGPT is also being embraced by some, as a way to help students to improve their own writing, as a foundation piece, or a comparison source for them. This intrigues me. Am I on board with the concept in its entirety? No. I don’t really like the proliferation of AI, as it seems to be in lockstep with transhumanist ideals, which I categorically oppose. However, you are free to form whatever opinion you like, just make sure that it is an educated one. Sources: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/19/tech/chatgpt-teachers-adjusting https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/05/tech/chatgpt-nyc-school-ban/index.html WE 20-2: BTC Bull Run? XRP News... Looks like BTC is recovering from its tumble in the aftermath of the FTX collapse, but why? It doesn’t seem like the broader financial situation should support such a surge in the last couple of weeks. We’re looking at a 28% surge in value in the last 2.5 weeks. Is this the beginning of a bull run? Some would enthusiastically say yes, buy now, buy at the dip, and ride the rocket ship up to the moon, baby! I have never trusted it, as BTC has proven to be inherently volatile, and it is far too easily abused by bad actors, whether state based or not. It has often been linked to things like human trafficking and other illicit activities which ultimately harm people. This article talks about some of the factors which could be playing into the current rally, one of which being whispers of a looser US monetary policy with lower interest rates, and the other is that whales seem to be making some large purchases. What’s a whale? A large investor, the term relates to the analogy of the market being like a body of water and the players being marine animals, whether little “fish” or big “whales”. When whales make moves, whether in the Fintech space (crypto, ETFs, tokens, etc) or in the traditional space (Wall St), the smarter fish take notice and make corresponding moves. Back to the manifold issues with BTC, though, chief of which is that it is inefficient, based on a kind of artificial scarcity (the limit to the number of possible Bitcoins in circulation, and the fact that it has intentionally been made more difficult to do the processing to “mine” BTC over the last few years, as we get closer to that limit), and only holds value as long as someone is willing to speculate on it. I don’t like it, but you make up your own mind. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/16/why-is-bitcoin-btc-rallying-in-january.html Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, which created both the XRP coin and its corresponding institutional counterpart, Ripple, claims that he expects wither a ruling or a settlement in the SEC case against his company by as soon as June. A ruling, either that the SEC is right about Ripple and XRP (that it is indeed a security and needs to go through the processes and rigamarole of registering as such), and by direct inference, the rest of the industry is populated with unregistered and unregulated securities, or that XRP and Ripple are not securities and that the SEC brought the case needlessly, or some manner of settlement between Ripple and the SEC, admitting that their crypto efforts are indeed not securities, but that there needs to be some sort of slap on the wrist for them. He called the SEC “embarrassing” in how they have comported themselves in the course of this lawsuit. I have to admit that my wife and I have held some XRP in a particular exchange, and it got stuck, frozen, in that exchange as soon as this case started, so we wait with baited breath to be able to do anything at all with it. I want to believe that it Ripple will get its favorable ruling, and that Gensler will be humbled by it, but I have my doubts. At least Ripple/XRP has utility, unlike BTC. Don’t try to talk to me about BTC as “digital gold” or some such shill-y claim, Ripple/XRP is a viable replacement for the SWIFT system that has allowed faster, more secure cross-border payments for years now. Call me a shill if you want, but at least it DOES something. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/18/ripple-ceo-optimistic-crypto-firm-will-get-sec-xrp-lawsuit-ruling-soon.html WE 20-3: Trump Back on Twitter and Meta Products? Trump’s campaign has petitioned for his accounts to be reinstated, stating that “We believe that the ban on President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse”. So the campaign is applying pressure, though not looking to sue the social media giant at this point. Trump was reinstated by Musk at Twitter back in Novermber, but has yet to make his much-anticipated return to the platform. This article, from the lamestream media, repeats that they do not believe that he will or even can return to Twitter, due to his commitments with Truth Social. I sensed a sigh of relief at that thought. Then they parrot the J6 talking points about how Trump “refused” to defuse the situation, and instead “poured gas on the fire” by critiquing Pence’s lack of actions to overturn the election. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/18/donald-trump-prepares-for-his-return-to-facebook-and-twitter.html Trump has told Fox News Digital that he believes that Facebook needs him, more than he needs them, but yet, as we covered in the last story, his campaign has formally petitioned Meta for his reinstatement. This article also discusses how he will very shortly have his first official campaign stop in Columbus, SC. South Carolina is an early primary state and also the home of Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, who appear to be potential challengers to his bid for nomination from the GOP. The GOPe (aka RINOs, aka uniparty members) try to blame him for a shaky result from the midterms, but they also moved against him, not with him in many ways, by not backing many of his candidates because they were running their own people. The whole political system is broken in this country. The false dichotomy between the parties, leading to the illusion of choice at the voting booth, is actually a thing. Not only that, but then there are the well-documented issues with the voting apparatus itself (Dominion, ES&S, etc) which lead to errant, if not outright fraudulent results on voting day. However, I digress. I could talk about this stuff all night, if I wanted to. I see Meta as a dead, decaying platform, as I said last week https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2023/01/18/facebook-instagram-trump-campaign-petition/11075645002/ WE 20.4: Big Tech in Trouble? In the UK, parliament are one step closer to amending their Online Safety Bill. What’s the big deal there? If it goes through as is, it would render the capacity to try and jail the leadership of offending social media companies for not: · removing all illegal content · removing content that's banned by its own terms and conditions · empowering users with tools to protect themselves against types of content they don't want to see At the moment, they have agreed that a UK media watchdog called Ofcom will be in charge of these sorts of proceedings, as well as the current structure of fines, which start at 18 million pounds, and go up to a max of 10% of their yearly revenue (whichever is more, for simply failing to remove illegal content) , and they will also have the ability to completely block sites from the country. As usual with these sorts of legislative efforts, it feels good on the surface, but after that first glance, you realize that it is an ugly transvestite that you at first thought a beautiful, or at least hot, woman. This is a backdoor to greater control over speech. This is censorship in the UK, which already has some very tight regulations on freedom of expression. This also would undermine E2E encryption in the UK, and serve as a template for our own questionable government. That is chilling. Democracies and republics, in order to be healthy at all, need both a well informed populace, and one that is free to speak their minds about matters of public import, including (genuinely) peacefully protesting things, and posting contrary opinions on social media. https://www.cnet.com/news/politics/big-tech-behind-bars-the-uks-online-safety-bill-explained/ Meanwhile, here in the States, as Big Tech continues down the path toward austerity, the US federal government is trying to actively court these laid off tech workers to come work directly for Big Brother by boosting pay rates for those positions across the federal gov’t space. Well, I could go off on this... I really could. I’m not certain that it would be beneficial, but you know, at least that way they cut out the middle man. There are 2,500 related positions that the feds have been unable to fill for the last couple of years, but how many of those people who have been cut loose by big Tech companies would be able to fill those positions? That really doesn’t seem like enough of a drop in the bucket to make a difference with the nearly 200k people who have been laid off in the last 3 months or so from the tech industry, many who were working for giants such as Amazon, Meta, Twitter, Microsoft, Snapchat, and others. Well, good for those who net those jobs, I suppose. https://www.cnet.com/tech/for-new-tech-jobs-forget-amazon-and-microsoft-try-the-us-government-instead/

Gaming on NVK Now a Thing Memesplanation The Fertile Crescent Game Freed Computer FreeCol 1.0 #FFW #nvk #Linux #fertilecrescent #linuxgaming #freecol #TechFreedom FFW 26.1- You Can Game on NVK Now I talked about NVK a couple of weeks ago, but this is the FOSS NVIDIA Vulkan driver. Ok, it doesn’t perform well, yet, but work is proceeding at a fever pitch. Hopefully it will be very performant soon. I am excited about this, you guys, when this is ready, it will mean we won’t be dependent on the NVIDIA proprietary drivers to get decent performance in Linux. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/the-open-source-nvidia-vulkan-driver-nvk-begins-to-run-games/ #FFW #Linux #foss #drivers #nvidia #TechFreedom This is the heart of devotion. Meditation on the Lord even as we breathe. There is a method called a breath prayer. One such prayer goes with the cadence of your breath, and as you breathe in, you say “Abba” then as you exhale say “I belong to you”. So, as you breathe, your mind and heart are centered on God, and you will begin to feel greater peace than you did at first. I used to have a motto: midius de, or “center down”. This was a was to remind myself that I needed to re-focus on the Lord. #FFW #memesplanation #patristicquotes #ignatius #christian #easiersaidthandone #TechFreedom FFW 26.2: TFC: The Fertile Crescent This is an RTS game on Steam. It seems interesting to me because it uses a pixel art style that is just a bit different from the usual photo-realistic fare, and because it has a Linux native client. It is not free, however, but is being very actively developed. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/pixel-art-rts-game-tfc-the-fertile-crescent-adds-neutral-settlements-and-unit-stances/ #FFW #Linux #gamingonlinux #thefertilecrescent #linuxgaming #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom FFW 25.3: If You Like Civilization 6, You May Enjoy FreeCol I’ve played a little bit, it is a turn-based colonization simulator, where you can play as any of the major European powers from the early Modern era, and each one has its own specific kinds of units and whatnot. If that kind of game is your jam, FreeCol just may be worth your time. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/20-years-later-the-open-source-colonization-game-freecol-hits-10/ #FFW #Linux #fossgames #free #turnbased #simulation #fun #linuxgaming #TechFreedom What to use instead of Big Tech online: https://rumble.com/v1020p7-viable-google-alternatives.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #techtips #TechFreedom #justsayno #nomorespying #advice

TTT 41.1 – Ventoy News Wait, what’s Ventoy again? Ventoy is a cross-platform multiboot USB system so that you can put multiple OSes on a single flash drive, and it is easy to update and organize them as well. What’s new with this update? Support for both the Lenovo and Dell Recovery media types. This is huge for repair outfits everywhere, so you default tech support people for your respective spheres of influence, you now have this tool in your kit, just download the files for each, then use ventoy to burn them to a disk in a bootable manner, then unplug it, take it to a sick system, and restore it to health. https://9to5linux.com/ventoy-1-0-87-brings-support-for-lenovo-product-recovery-and-dell-per-isos #TTT #ventoy #FOSS #pcrepair #toolkits #Linux #windows #macOS #TechFreedom Pray without ceasing. Cry out. Lament. Praise. Never let the lines of communication between You and heaven go silent. Pound on the doors Of heaven. Do not get tired of asking, seeking, and knocking. For when you ask, you receive (perhaps not immediately), when you seek, you will find; when you knock, doors will open. Keep asking, seeking, and knocking. St Anthony has an interesting take here, that the constant pleas will force the Father’s benevolence to come to your Rescue. Perhaps he was thinking of the parable of the unjust judge, rather than the passage I sited just now... #TTT #desertfathers #quotes #patristics #keeponkeepingon #neverstop #memesplanation #TechFreedom TTT 41.2 – 3 Key Tricks for Docker What is Docker? Docker is a containerization platform. What is a container? Virtualized resources within a computer that are partitioned off from the rest of the system, usually dedicated to running a single application. Think of it as a specialized virtual machine. What is a virtual machine? Think of it this way: it is a computer within your computer. Your regular OS hosts another OS, which has a certain amount of resources which you dedicated to it so that it can run and do whatever you need it to do. It is kind of like having computing nesting dolls. You have your main operating system running directly on your computer, then setting up other fully functioning systems within that first OS install. Not the best description, but I hope it helped. What are we talking about again? Oh yes, 3 tips for implementing Docker more easily... 1. The System Subcommand a. docker system df i. Automatically detects and prints (on the screen, in terminal) the statistics of all installed docker containers. 1. This is useful if you find yourself perpetually running low on storage, this will help you to understand why. b. docker system prune i. In one fell swoop, this command does what 4 other, separate commands do to free up space for you. 1. It will remove (but not delete by default) unused network connections, dangling images, unused containers, and volumes, which will free up space for you. a. If you want to delete the items in question, type docker system prune --volumes –f c. docker system events or docker events i. Lets you see at a glance what is going on in and among your Docker containers. 2. The Context Subcommand a. docker context create remote --description "Remote docker server" --docker "host=ssh://user@<address of your server>" i. This establishes a contextual connection between your local system and the server where your docker container exists, making it simpler to connect remotely in the future. ii. In order to enter that context and work on that container, type docker context use [CONTEXT_NAME] iii. In order to return to your default context, type docker context default, and you will be back to work on your local docker installs 3. The Pause/ Unpause Command a. If you have a container which you start as docker-compose, and some service in it tries to start before its dependencies load in, you can easily fix that by using these commands: i. docker pause [CONTAINER_NAME|ID] ii. docker unpause [CONTAINER_NAME|ID] https://linuxhandbook.com/useful-unknown-docker-commands/ #TTT #docker #howto #foss #selfhosted #TechFreedom Free Your Internet http://techfreedom.pro/internet-freedom/ One-stop shop for getting you and your business transitioned off of Big Tech online platforms and tools, so that you have control of your data once again. I will also help you to find better alternatives. #TTT #techtips #TechFreedom #internetfreedom #nogoogle #nometa #noyahoo #nomicrosoft TTT 41.3 – How to Use ArchiveBox What is ArchiveBox? Think of it as a self-hosted version of the Wayback Machine. Yes, a version of the internet archive that you can control, so that you can save webpages and sites as desired. You can install it through docker-compose, docker, an auto setup script, or through your package manager. Once you install it, you can use ArchiveBox this way: archivebox add https://example.com/some/page or echo https://example.com/some/page | archivebox add https://ostechnix.com/self-host-internet-archive-with-archivebox/ #TTT #foss #tools #Linux #coolstuff #TechFreedom 10 Things My Wife Thinks You Should Know about Tech Freedom. https://rumble.com/v19elx6-10-things-about-tech-freedom.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #TechFreedom #wifeysauce #getfree #explainer

EndlessOS 5.0 Beta Released Memesplanation Open Mandriva Roma Released Freedom Consultation Nobara Linux 37 Released PSA: Linux 4.9 LTS Is Now End Of Life #distromonday #Linux #endlessOS #linux49 #openmandriva #nobara #TechFreedom DM 41.1 – EndlessOS 5.0 Beta Released, So What? What is EndlessOS? It’s a distro I’ve talked about before. The project is led by Cassidy James Blaede, who was the co-founder of ElementaryOS, and has been a developer for System76 as well. Quite the pedigree, I think. But about Endless: it is another debian based distro, which focuses on an older version of GNOME for the base of its UI, and has an emphasis on helping families and educators to teach kids better. They heavily feature Flatpak, similar to Nitrux, which I covered last week. But what is new here? Tweaked GNOME 41 Wayland Support Pipewire Support Flatpaks for many core GNOME apps Better switchable graphics support https://9to5linux.com/endless-os-5-0-beta-is-here-with-a-new-desktop-interface-and-wayland-support #distromonday #endlessOS #indie #GNOME #beta #updates #Linux #TechFreedom St. Clement has a valid point, methinks. If God were like a candy machine, where You put in a certain thing, make your Selection, then get what you want right Away, then there would be no relationship, No reason to pursue God or godliness, no Reason to change your heart or to grow, other Than to get whatever you want from the cosmic Candy machine. #distromonday #stclement #piety #profit #wisdom #memesplanation #TechFreedom DM 41.2 – Rollin’, Rollin’ Rollin’ OpenMandriva’s Rollin’... OpenMandriva? What’s that? It is a very pedigreed distro, descended from the now legendary 90s distro, Mandrake Linux. Now, however, it is completely independent, not based on Debian, Arch, SUSE, Fedora, or Gentoo. Historically, since it was forked from Mandriva Linux in 2012, as that project got deep sixed, it has been a typical, fixed-release distro, but now they have a parallel, rolling release, like Arch. This is cool to me because I think that the rolling release distros make allot of sense in many cases, and that way you get updates as soon as they are available, rather than waiting 3-12 months (depending on the distro’s development cadence) for a massive update/ upgrade. This way, it tends to be smaller and more incremental. Ideally, developers would run a series of automated tests on new versions of programs so that stability is not compromised so significantly as it sometimes is in say, vanilla Arch. So what is new here? Linux 6.1 GNOME 43.2 systemD 252 Pipewire KDE 5.26.5 And a whole lot more... https://linuxiac.com/openmandriva-lx-23-01-rome/ #distromonday #openmandriva #rollingrelease #linux #indie #goodstuff #TechFreedom Freedom Consultation Ever wondered how to get free from Big Tech? This Free consultation will leave you with at least pointers to the tools and services you’ll need to do just that. This is a FREE 90 minute call with me, where I will demo some varieties of Linux for you, some replacement apps, talk about degoogled phones, and give you links to how to start the process of taking control of your digital life online as well. https://techfreedom.pro/freedom-consultation #distromonday #TechFreedom #consultation #free DM 41.3 – Nobara Linux 37 What is Nobara Linux? It is a heavily modified version of Fedora, one might call it a fork, after a kind. Think of Nobara as Fedora for gamers, streamers, and creators who don’t want to be bothered with opening the terminal. The way they describe the project, it sounds kind of like the Garuda of the Fedora family. I did talk about it about 6 months ago, and even had a friend do a kind of live review during the show, for Nobara 36, or something like that. If you fit their target demograhic, take a look at their site and check it out. Here’s the link to that show: https://rumble.com/v1ees4f-tech-tips-tuesday-18-nobara-linux-36-and-more.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y https://nobaraproject.org #distromonday #nobaralinux #fedora #gaming #streaming #Linux #TechFreedom DM 41 PSA: The Linux 4.9 LTS is now End of Life You heard right, it’s the end of the road for this venerable kernel, after receiving security patches and minor updates for 6 years. Have you noticed just how rapid the development cadence is for the Linux kernel lately? Seems like a new point series every month or two, so the fact that they supported 4.9 for 6 years goes beyond the call of duty, so to speak. The standard practice for LTS kernels is to support them for 5 years. This one got extra. Thanks, kernel dev team, for a solid LTS kernel in the form of the 4.9 series. https://9to5linux.com/linux-kernel-4-9-reaches-end-of-life-after-6-years-of-support #TechFreedom #PSA #Linux #kernel #EOL #DistroMonday Tech Freedom Intro: What to expect from my channels and website. https://rumble.com/v157uqb-tech-freedom-intro-what-is-this.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #intro #TechFreedom #telegram #truthsocial #publicsq #gab

Weekend Edition 19 – Crypto, AI, the FAA, and More Crypto News, AI News, Latest On FAA Problems, and a Social Media Roundup. WE 19-1: FTX, SBF, and Crypto Fallout Well, SBF can’t keep his trap shut. In a substack post, on Thursday, he is still claiming that he is innocent of all wrongdoing. However, his other former coworkers each pled guilty to related charges for FTX and Alameda Research. How do you see that? What do you guys think? Seems like they are taking the fall for young Sammy, here. We will see what happens when he actually goes to trial in October. He stirred the pot by redirecting (or attempting to redirect) our attention over to the alleged actions taken by the head of Binance over the last 6 months before he (SBF) stepped down from FTX and Alameda. These allegations amount to committing corporate espionage to bring FTX and Alameda down. We will see if any of that is proven out. Another interesting tidbit in the saga happened on Wednesday when the FTX lawyers claimed that they “found” 5 of the missing 8 billion dollars, so no big deal, right, guys? Hmm, that seems awfully convenient. The CEO in charge of the bankruptcy proceedings seems even more shocked as time goes on, at just how disorganized and out of control FTX and its related companies were. The lawyers claim that the rest of the missing money isn’t really missing, but tied up in crypto that would tank the market even more if they sold them. The charitable side of me finds these excuses plausibe, but the cynic, which is far louder right now, can’t take anything these clowns say at face value... I am torn... Sources: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/12/sam-bankman-fried-denies-stealing-user-crypto-funds-in-new-substack-post.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/11/ftx-has-recovered-5-billion-worth-of-liquid-assets-lawyers-say-bankman-fried-crypto.html WE 19-2: AI News – ChatGPT and VALL-E ChatGPT is EVERYWHERE, right now. What is it? It is an AI chatbot which can do a good number of things, even write scripts for things (probably not programming scripts, but human language stuff). It has no current access to the internet, so it can’t do research on current things, but was trained back in late 2021, so it can have a very intelligent conversation with you about old news. Ok, so what’s the big deal with that? It has quickly become quite ubiquitous around the internet, and you almost can’t tell if you’re talking to a human being or one of these chatbots anymore. Does that kinda freak you out? It should. As cool as it is on a purely technical level, this makes me very nervous in practice. Don’t get me wrong, I am intrigued by it, but I don’t think that I would ever seek out a conversation with one of these, personally. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/chatgpt-is-going-to-be-everywhere-in-2023/ What about VALL-E? Well, I believe I have talked about DALL-E in the past, which is one of the best-known AI art generators, which have their own raft of moral and ethical issues, over how we deal with the concept of intellectual property and copyrights. VOLL-E is an AI voice generator. That should immediately raise GIANT red flags all over the place, if you’re paying attention. An accurate voice generator which you cannot tell was not a real person’s voice... This is not simply doctoring or tweaking audio clips to make someone say something they didn’t say, that has been a reality with recorded voice for at least a couple of decades, and is bad enough. This is worse. This can take a 3 second voiceprint recording and generate your voice to read written text to you, with accurate inflection and emotion, based on context. A bad actor could take a very short snippet of your voice, feed it into VALL-E, then make you read anything, and most people wouldn’t be able to tell it wasn’t you. This is why allowing Google, Apple, Microsoft, or Amazon to have your voice, through voice-controlled “smart” devices (Google Assistant/Home, Siri/ Apple Home, Cortana, Alexa, etc) is such a horrible idea. These corporations already have a very cozy relationship with Big Brother as it is, if they are truly separate at all, but all it takes is a data leak or a successful hack attack to “liberate” that data from their respective clouds, and there you are, not only what you actually said in the recordings they take from listening ALL the time (allegedly so that they don’t miss an activation beat, and “oh, we don’t record everything you say and do in your home”.... Bullshit.) but what malicious actors could make you say, think of the voice prompts with your credit cards or other sensitive accounts that are similar, and how easy it would be to plug that AI text-to-speech engine into a VOIP call to gain easy access to your accounts. This is bad news, y’all. Bad news indeed. I don’t want to leave this on a downer note, but as cool as the concept is in theory, it is (from where I sit) far too easy to abuse this technology. https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/01/10/after-chatgpt-and-dalle-meet-vall-e-the-text-to-speech-ai-that-mimics-anyones-voice WE 19-3: What Happened with the Flights on Wednesday? The flight tracking system which the FAA uses is sorely out of date. One such system, which completely went down is called NOTAM (Notice To Air Missions). This system sends important safety-related messages to pilots who are about to take off. It crashed for hours on Wednesday, grounding flights for 3-4 hours, leading to thousands of cancellations, and delaying over 7,000 flights... Wow. That is quite something. Was it just aging, inadequately maintained infrastructure, or was it a cyber attack? As of the writing of this article, that was unclear, but seemed to indicate that it was the former, not the latter. Not as exciting, but still a crucial point. Do we have the skilled manpower to maintain and upgrade these aging systems? I don’t know, but there was a video I saw of a guy who claimed he was fired after pointing out issues in the codebase for SouthWest Aitlines (he was paid as an auditor for them, by the way, so his job was to comb through code for issues, then report them). He seemed to think that a) we don’t have the skills and b) corporations want rubber stampers, not honest workers in those sorts of key positions. That speaks volumes to me. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/11/tech/faa-computer-system-notam Buttigeig has launched an investigation into all of the airline issues of late, so that’s comforting... I suppose... At least that diversity hire who is far more concerned with labelling NYC bridges and roadways as “racist” than actually doing his job to run the Dept of Transportation is actually doing his job for once. Let’s see what he finds... Oh my, he found ancient systems which cannot stand up under the strain of modern air travel, color me shocked. Wasn’t this part of what Trump was after YEARS ago, with his version of the Infrastructure bill? Seems like it to me, but the funding for the FAA likely wasn’t secured very well, thanks to excess pork that was carved into the bill that actually passed. True, those sorts of bills are not “sexy”, but they are crucial, and if funding had been secured, then perhaps the 20-30 year old bones of the systems at the FAA could’ve been overhauled and we might have avoided some of these issues. Who knows. I sure do feel better knowing that Biden’s diversity hires have it all well in hand... https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/12/tech/faa-notam-system-outage WE 19.4: Social Media Briefs – a cluster of stories about Twitter, Meta, and TikTok. Elon and Twitter: Well, some very high profile J6-related accounts have been restored recently, including DJT, Ali Alexander, CodemonkeyZ, and LT Gen Michael Flynn (Ret). Those are some big names. Good for Elon that he restored DJT’s account which DJT has said that he won’t use again anyway, owing to his connection with Truth Social. Seems a token gesture to me. As you all know by now, I do not trust this South African “wunderkind”, I see his connections with very dark things, such as the destruction of the planet and lives through the rare earth mining that is necessary for the batteries which power his cars (which only last about 5 years, then you may as well buy a new car, so much for them being so “green”), to the whole SpaceX thing, to the transhumanist stuff that he is working on in the form of Neuralink. Too many strikes against him for me to trust him at all. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/10/tech/twitter-restores-election-deniers Meta: Meta has had an internal debate raging over the reinstatement of DJT. According to this article, they are preparing to announce their decision soon. This has been made into a huge, hairy issue because of their longtime umbilical relationship with the American Intelligence Community... After all, if you recall, Facebook started as a CIA program called LifeLog. The IC (intelligence community) seemed to have a vested interest in destroying Trump, as well as stifling wrongthink. When they came after the little people, no one cared much about censorship or freedom of speech, but when they shut down the account of a sitting president, that sends a very chilling message, doesn’t it? On the other hand, Meta is a private company which has its own rules and governance, which we all agreed to when we signed the EULA and TOS. Given, they have arbitrarily altered the agreement several times over the last handful of years, allowing them to nuke accounts at will, largely. I don’t need to rag on this, but I also, in part, at least, fail to see the big deal at this point. Facebook is largely dead or dying, now, and Trump’s presence alone will not change that. If their rules were set, public knowledge, and administered fairly. They have not been. Part of that is that they have been able to hide behind Section 230, but yeah... Enough on Meta. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/11/tech/facebook-decision-reinstate-trump TikTok: Wait, mental health suffers when people spend too much time on social media? Say it ain’t so! Depression and anxiety spike, particularly in teens, whose brains are developing at a very rapid pace? Who knew? Alright, alright, enough sarcasm for now. TikTok is being investigated for just these issues, that they advertise their platform as “safe” for teens, but then serve suicide-related content within moments of a new account being created. Not only that, but the way that their algorithm is set up, it keeps you locked in, scrolling from one video to the next as it learns based on your reactions to content which kinds you like, then feeds you those sorts of videos. It is like youtube had a lovechild with pinterest. Content for centuries, tailored to your interests. It just never stops, and you lose hours, then days, then months in that vortex of content. You lose sight of yourself, your life, your family and friends, just like any other kind of addict. Children should not be allowed on these platforms. It is too easy, as a parent to just go, “Oh well, my kids are fine, they aren’t in my hair or destroying anything...” That is the worst attitude to take. There is too much garbage out there. If you care about what your kids consume, stay engaged and enforce the boundaries that you set. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/11/tech/tiktok-teen-mental-health Https://TechFreedom.pro/freedom-consultation/

Linux Leapfrogs MacOS as second most-used OS for developers Memesplanation Top 10 Gaming Distros for 2023 Freed Computer Zero-K : A Not-so-new FOSS RTS #FFW #developers #Linux #linuxfordevelopers #linuxgaming #zero-k #TechFreedom FFW 25.1- Linux Now More Popular for Dev Work Than MacOS According to the 2022 Stack Overflow Developers’ Survey, Linux has surpassed the popularity of MacOS as a development platform, the numbers were close to last year, but Linux pulled ahead. In 2021, the numbers were as follows: 25.32% to 32.97% Linux to MacOS (overall). This year, Linux has soared to 40.23% overall, and MacOS has gone down just a touch overall, to 31.07%. What does not make sense to me in the data here, is that the percentages of responses do not add up to 100% for either professional or personal use. The numbers for personal use add up to 148.1% of respondents, and the numbers for professional use add up to 137.05%. Am I misreading the graphs here? Someone help me out... Here’s the link to this last May’s data: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022/#section-most-popular-technologies-operating-system https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/01/linux-use-overtakes-macos-on-the-stack-overflow-survey/ #FFW #Linux #LinuxFTW #byebyemacos #nonsensenumbers #TechFreedom Ignatius of Antioch brings down the house with this one. Simple. Punchy. To the point. Are we really Christians, or is it just convenient to be called “Christian” in our context? Would you refuse to spit on a picture of Jesus? Would you curse Him if someone twisted your arm? This is hard. It is easy to armchair quarterback here, and believe that each of us who profess the Name of Jesus would actually stand up for Him should worse come to worse, but would we actually stand up or would we cower, afraid of being called a name, or some such thing? I feel like that is the majority of the American church right now, because most of us do not really know the Lord. Once we know Him, once we have experienced His love for us, it becomes much harder to deny Him when put to it. However, Peter denied Him 3 times the night before Calvary, after he had literally been with Jesus almost every second for the previous 3 years. #FFW #memesplanation #patristicquotes #ignatius #christian #easiersaidthandone #TechFreedom FFW 25.2: Top 10 Gaming Distros for 2023 Ok, it used to be that gaming was a niche thing in Linux, that you really had to tweak any distro in order for it to run games that you really want to play in ways that you would actually enjoy playing. That really is not the case any more. You can game on just about any mainstream distro with very little trouble these days. Nevertheless, let’s see which ones ItsFOSS pulls out of the interwebs: 1. POP!OS a. A solid, if predictable first pick, this Ubuntu distro should scream “gamer” to you when you look at the desktop environment’s color scheme, if nothing else. It is a solid distro, even if it is still based on GNOME and Ubuntu, for now. 2. Vanilla Ubuntu a. Oy vey! Ok, ok, let’s consider what their criteria were for this listicle: i. The distribution should be easy to use. 1. Is Ubuntu easy to use? Jury is out, with it’s tweaked GNOME interface, then there’s making sure you have drivers and that everything is up to date, if they are commenting on stability, I think there is a case for that, here, but what do you give up by using Cannonical’s offering? ii. The software tools that you need to get started should be readily available and easy to install (check out our Linux gaming guide to explore more about it). 1. Tools are readily available, sure, just because it is the 8 ton gorilla in the room, due to Cannonical’s deals with the Big Tech devils in the world. iii. The distribution should be resource-friendly 1. It has been a while since the last time I used Ubuntu, probably close to 8 or 9 years now, but back then, it ran fairly light, so I’ll put in with this, I suppose. 3. Kubuntu a. Same issues as Ubuntu, except that it is KDE instead of GNOME, which makes me happier, and usually works better in the user-friendliness arena vs GNOME. 4. Linux Mint a. I spent years on Mint before I started making content at all, so this distro has a warm spot in my heart. I like that it is immediately easy to use, in terms of UI, and that the Mint team has neutered most of the invasive stuff that Cannonical puts in Ubuntu. Gaming on Mint can be a struggle, as it isn’t a rolling release distro, so you tend to be about 6 months behind (by default) on drivers, so if you’re rocking a bleeding edge rig, this and the other Debian based distros (Ubuntu, Pop!_Os, etc) may not be a great fit for you. 5. Manjaro Linux a. This is where I have lived for most of the last 4 years. I game whenever I can, and have rarely had a real problem. Given, I am not a complete novice in Linux, but I am also not a developer of any stripe. The article hems & haws about instability, and how it may not be the best for new users, but it isn’t like we’re talking about Vanilla Arch, here, or something. Manjaro has its issues, certainly, but it almost as stable, in my experience, as Mint was, but it gets new drivers and kernels more frequently than MInt does, so it will work with your bleeding edge system better. Not perfectly, as often it takes a little while for firmware and drivers to get out of testing and into the Kernel anyway. The tools they are looking for are right at hand, with Steam, Proton, WINE, and Lutris, just to name a few. 6. Garuda Linux a. This is another Arch-based distro, but it is tailored for gaming and content creation, so every tool known to man is just about automatically installed when you put it on your system. If you have plenty of horsepower, RAM, and storage, this won’t be a problem, even if it does make the default install rather large. It is easy to use, and hey, if you enjoy neon colors and the whole “gamer” aesthetic, you’ll probably love the default UI. 7. DraugerOS a. Ubuntu-based only-gamers-need-apply kind of distro. Does not come with office tools or a/v software, but it is solid for what it is designed to do, and that is game. My brother actually knows the lead developer on this project, and did a livestream with him about 6 months ago, now. Cool guy. 8. batocera.Linux a. Retro gaming haven. Turn your Linux machine into a retro console emulation center. Not good for anything else, though. One cool thing here, though, is that it is portable, meant to run off of a USB stick. 9. LakkaOS a. Another retro gaming emulator OS, based on RetroArch, and compiled with the most recent, best optimizations so your games run as well as they possibly can. 10. SteamOS a. Only an honorable mention because Steam has yet to fully release it to the general public (other than on the Steam Deck). This is Arch based, and should be very familiar if you play games on Steam at all. Some of these belong here, others, I feel, don’t. The Ubuntus were obligatory, to a certain extent, even if they were repetitive. I have very strong feelings about that side of the Linux family tree... The sellouts and whores to Big Tech, when disgust with Big Tech was the reason most of us came to Linux to begin with. For me, Manjaro and Garuda are my tops for all purpose, yet very easily used for gaming, distros. I rest my case for now. https://itsfoss.com/linux-gaming-distributions/ #FFW #Linux #gamingonlinux #distrojoy #gamingdistros #linuxgaming #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom FFW 25.3: Ever Heard of Zero-K? Neither Had I... Interesting piece of older RTS, plus some physics... Set in the far future, you are a commander bot in charge of building a settlement to create more fighting bots, collect resources, and accomplish various objectives. It seemed to play decently on my Surface, but I would expect nothing less from a game released in 2011. I may explore it more in this week’s weekend edition, rather than play Dune. Idk. We’ll see. I am intrigued. You can either download it directly from them, or through Steam, for free. This is a 100% free game. Check it out, I hear that it has a bit of a multiplayer scene, so if you are feeling like either a 1-on-1, a team match, or a free for all, and you love RTS games, this may be worth some time. http://zero-k.info #FFW #Linux #fossgames #free #rtsgaming #fun #linuxgaming #TechFreedom What to use instead of Big Tech online: https://rumble.com/v1020p7-viable-google-alternatives.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #techtips #TechFreedom #justsayno #nomorespying #advice

Nitrux OS Update Released Memesplanation New Fedora Spins Freedom Consultation Arch 2023.1.1 Out With Linux 6.1 #distromonday #Linux #NitruxOS #linux61 #archlinux #Fedora #TechFreedom DM 40.1 – NitruxOS 2.6 Update Released, So What? What is NitruxOS? It’s a distro I’ve talked about a couple of times in the past. It has a systemD-less Debian base. And they use their own, heavily modded version of KDE that they call NX Desktop. When I tried it 6 months ago, it was a hot mess, with it seemingly half broken. I don’t know how much more usable it is now. But here is what else is new here: Linux 6.1 Wayland Support Pipewire Support No more apt, packagekit, or dpkg for package management Only AppImage or Flatpak (purely containerized, down to telling users to run Distrobox to install normal packages) Samba support Root is now immutable And a bunch more under the hood... https://9to5linux.com/nitrux-2-6-is-out-powered-by-linux-6-1-adds-pipewire-and-wayland-by-default #distromonday #nitruxOS #indie #KDE #updates #Linux #TechFreedom Christ is all in all. Amen. This prayer invites Jesus to be our light, our shield, our covering, to be under, above, beside us, in front of us, behind us, in us, and outside us. Do you need wisdom? Try Jesus. Guidance? Try Jesus. All around protection? Call on Jesus. Let Him be all that and more for you today. He is our Lord, but a the servant Lord that He is, He also helps us, guides us, and protects us from the enemy’s efforts. That is not to say that Jesus will negate the consequences of our choices, but those things which come at us which we did not bring on ourselves, he will at least dull for us. #distromonday #stpatrick #christ #light #wisdom #allinall #memesplanation #TechFreedom DM 40.2 – New Spins Coming with Fedora 38 What options are they adding to the mix, this time? Why, Budgie and Sway, of course. Budgie has a small, but dedicated community around it, particularly in the Solus community. I am not surprised that this was added, what I am surprised at is how long it took for the Fedora community to do this. Sway is a tiling window manager based on the Wayland protocols. I have tried to use it, but couldn’t get used to the very keyboard-centric way of doing things, but if you are a developer, or got used to shortcuts to do everything when you first learned to use the computer, then this may be right up your alley. Good stuff, even with as little as I really like Fedora personally, the community is very active and it is a very vibrant distro as a result. https://9to5linux.com/its-official-fedora-linux-38-will-offer-fedora-budgie-and-sway-spins #distromonday #fedora #fedora38 #newspins #budgie #sway #goodstuff #TechFreedom Freedom Consultation Ever wondered how to get free from Big Tech? This Free consultation will leave you with at least pointers to the tools and services you’ll need to do just that. This is a FREE 90 minute call with me, where I will demo some varieties of Linux for you, some replacement apps, talk about degoogled phones, and give you links to how to start the process of taking control of your digital life online as well. https://techfreedom.pro/freedom-consultation #distromonday #TechFreedom #consultation #free DM 40.3 – Archlinux 2023.01.01 ISO Out Now What’s new in this ISO? Well, Linux 6.1, of course. Not much else, and those who already run Arch on their systems already have Linux 6.1. Just the first ISO release for Arch in the new year. Cheers. https://9to5linux.com/arch-linuxs-first-iso-release-in-2023-is-powered-by-linux-kernel-6-1 #distromonday #archlinux #linux61 #Linux #TechFreedom Tech Freedom Intro: What to expect from my channels and website. https://rumble.com/v157uqb-tech-freedom-intro-what-is-this.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #intro #TechFreedom #telegram #truthsocial #publicsq #gab

Twitter Files, SBF, Biden Gaffes, SouthWest Falls From Sky, Moar Big Tech Money Troubles, AI & x-86, Self-Driving News, Android Learns from iOS. WE 18-1: The Twitter Files, a Snarky Recap Ok, the Twitter Files have been a revelation, for normies, at any rate... The Gatekeepers have tried to make them sound unimportant and unconsequential, but if that is the case, why minimize and deflect from the fact that 3-Letter Agencies basically gave Twitter marching orders in terms of accounts to ban or at least stifle through the algorithm. They also don’t want you to see that Fauci and co also manipulated us through the magic of Twitter, if we paid any attention to that annoying blue bird in the first place (I never did). I guess that could be part of why I saw some things years before those who are more connected to that font of nonsense that has been radically over-emphasized since it was founded. Hopefully all of this will help wake a few people up. I won’t post links on this, as it is simply a quick recap. I would barely bat an eye if some 10 year old shoots the dirty blue bird with a BB gun, and it dies. Good riddance, that kind of micro-blogging has only encouraged the degradation of society as a whole, in my opinion. Come at me if you think it has been any kind of net positive for the world. The comments section awaits you. WE 18-2: SBF’s Escapades Where the Bahamian authorities absolutely refused his request for bail, as soon as he was extradited to the US, the same system where Epstein *didn’t* kill(ed) himself, the judge, whose palms must be about as greasy as an oil rig worker, instantly granted his bail request. How’d he come up with $100 million, when he claimed to be down to his last $100k in the bank. This feels like a set up for the very kind of slap on the wrist that I figured would happen a month ago. Many people were completely defrauded by his choices to allow Alameda Research to raid FTX’s user’s accounts at will. What the hell is that? I guess this is where we see how far his campaign contributions take him. I was glad to see that he was arrested so quickly initially, but now he is a free man, rather than sitting in a jail cell, where he belongs. Big shade, y’all, big shade. So, who is gonna be left holding the bag on this one? Even Madoff was thrown deep in jail, even though he was an old man. What’s going to happen with this young, Jewish man who destroyed so many lives by allegedly stealing so much money from them? Time will tell. WE 18-3: Biden Gaffes (Ok, this happens whenever Brandon opens his pitiful mouth) His latest gaffe had him admitting what anyone with a braincell and a half has known for the last 20 months, that we are in a recession. About time that his mouth got around to cutting past the gaslighting that the rest of his admin seems to be doing around that issue. I wish I could say that I don’t sense an even more significant crash coming soon. I don’t want to alarm anyone, but with the juggernauts of Big Tech executing mass layoffs to cut costs and “tighten their belts” to “get through” the next season, how can we expect anything else? Well, how about we work together to create a parallel economy that has nothing to do with the Fed? There are many who have been working at this for years now, but I am concerned that those efforts are not enough to cushion enough people to make it worthwhile, yet. Let’s do this thing, all. Choose to trade locally whenever possible, I know that is far harder for urbanites, but it can be done. I sense that that is the solution, though. Just a wild thought, since part of why you follow me is that you likely sense something similar, and a need to be more independent of the larger systems which are so easily manipulated by those who have been in power. Sound tinfoil hat enough for you? Yes, I am aware that this could be considered a “conspiracy theory” or at least just adjacent to one. I don’t want to get off into those weeds though, so here is where I talk just a touch about the SouthWest issues. WE 18.4: SWA (South West Airlines) Falls Out of the Sky Oops, we pushed all of our employees to get the jab in order to keep their jobs, and now in the weather and at the height of the holiday travel season, most of our fleet is grounded. Buttigieg absolutely failed to handle this catastrophe appropriately (big surprise that the guy who nearly ran South Bend into the ground, and only has the job he does because he is gay would drop the ball when he is most needed and go fly on a military jet rather than on an airline). Can Brandon’s so-called administration get any more pathetic? First there was the bevy of diversity appointments (mostly sexual deviants, queer BDSM freaks, kleptomaniacs, furries, and so-called trans or gender-fluid people). I can’t even. I don’t understand this bizarro world, you guys. Brandon and all of these circus people need to get tossed out on their rear ends, like 2 years ago. But I digress... SouthWest really dropped the ball here, and had no real solutions for their problems which affected so many crews and flights. It seems that they have been shamed into refunding those ticketholders. That doesn’t undo the missed family time, missed business opportunities, and all the rest, though. WE 18.5: Big Tech Continues Layoffs Amazon, Meta, Google, and the rest continue laying people off as they forecast very rough times coming. I alluded to this earlier. Part of me is gleeful, but they aren’t falling to bits because of patriots taking their business elsewhere. They are “cost-cutting” so that their businesses can survive, just as average families have had to do since Brandon allegedly became president ( I can’t believe I put those words so close together... Somebody slap me and wake me up from this nightmare). Between gas prices that are a direct reflection of policies which made Big Oil stop prospecting and drilling for more Texas tea in the US, as the WH has loudly proclaimed that they want to see America be oil-free by 2035 or some nonsense like that. These companies are just allowing older refineries and similar infrastructure to shut down because it is not worth the time or money which they’ll never recoup to get those things running to effectively handle the crude we already produce. Then there is the rest of the inflation that they only force higher by making the money printers go brrrr and the imaginary balances rise with the Fed. Even Samsung is feeling the pinch, as we just did CES in Vegas this last week. I have very little interest in gadgets at this point, otherwise I probably would have done some sort of rundown piece. I’m not into being Eeyore, so I’m gonna change the topic now... How about AI? Amazon, et al: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/17/tech/amazon-ceo-layoffs-andy-jassy Samsung: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/05/tech/samsung-profit-sinks-intl-hnk WE 18.6: AI on x86 Chips, and Self-driving Nonsense... AMD, Microsoft, AI, Tesla, and self-driving strollers... Ok, one thing at a time... AMD has included AI engines in their latest round of CPUs, a first in the x86 architecture. All well and good, except that Microsoft is jumping on the bandwagon saying that Windows will be redesigned by AI, ok, I can’t breathe. Laughing too hard at this... Gasp, gasp, snort... Ok, AMD, what are you claiming that these things can do? Well, extend battery life, allegedly allowing for up to 30 hours of video playback on a single charge on your laptop. Yes, you heard that right... That is what Dr. Su is claiming. She also claims that these are 20% faster than the ones in the Apple M2 silicon. What else could that mean? Well, the head of AI at Microsoft was on stage with her, and hinting at great things they could do for video calls (blurring backgrounds, detecting eye contact, and even auto framing people while using less battery. I trust MS about as far as I can throw them, so the concept of their involvement in the AI space (I know they are already neck-deep in it, don’t get me wrong) gives me the willies. https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/4/23539873/microsoft-panos-panay-ai-windows-amd-ces-2023 As for Tesla, apparently the Model Y has scored very highly on its self-driving tests in Europe, though those features are much less flashy there, with a limit of 1/10th the distance for self-parking and retrieval, among other things. Tesla is still struggling like the likely CIA construct it probably is (oops, there comes my tinfoil hat again) in terms of market cap woes, after Musk liquidated billions of $$ worth of his personal stock to seal the deal to buy the dirty blue bird. https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/07/business/tesla-euro-ncap-autopilot As for the self-driving stroller... Wait, what? Who the hell would trust their child to an AI-controlled stroller? What’s next? I mean, on one hand, the examples that the comapny behind this hair brained concept mentions are somewhat compelling, but at the same time, who has $3300 to spend on a stroller? I know how expensive the luxury ones are, but come on. A stroller that can allegedly roll with you as you carry the baby, or rock the baby to sleep as you do your run at the park , or keep the stroller from running away from you if you drop something like your keys while walking down a hill. Who programmed the AI? Who trained it? How “self-driving” is it, really? https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/04/tech/self-driving-stroller-ces WE 18.7: Android Learns New Trick from iOS Media Notifications, so that your Android ecosystem devices feel more convergent, like Apple’s seamless experience. What does this do? Allow you to move songs playing between devices, and other services in the same vein, such as Phone Hub, Nearby Share, and Fast Pair. Media Notifications will allow you to listen to the same song (it will prompt you as you get close to a compatible device) on another of your devices. It uses all of the network capabilities of the devices in question to ping and look for those devices, kind of like how Apple “helps” you find a lost AirTag. This feels like a bad idea for privacy, because that will allow any user to be pinpointed even more accurately than with simple BT, WiFi, and mobile data connectivity on an older device. I see this as an evolution of track & trace. We saw what that did during convid. Do you want to help them track you that easily? I don’t. Let’s find a way to make this private and open source, rather than constantly talking to Mountain View. The problem is even if you have the more private version, as soon as you ping a device that hasn’t been freed, you may as well not have bothered to free yourself... The other device will tattle on you. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/android-is-catching-up-to-apple-in-an-important-way-at-ces/ Https://TechFreedom.pro/freedom-consultation/

Latest Plasma Release Memesplanation Home Assistant Coming Soon Free Your Internet 10 FOSS Tools to Check Out This Year #TTT #KDE #homeassistant #voicesoon #fosstools #listicle #Linux #TechFreedom TTT 40.1 – Last KDE 5.26 Update, More Bugs Squashed 55 changes made, some high profile bugs squashed Kwin crash when attaching laptop to dock (fixed) ARM device secondary monitor fails (fixed) Can now select text in GTK apps with middle-click paste disabled KDE Plasma now no longer displays critical notifications in the Overview, Present Windows, and Desktop Grid effects Improved Blend Changes Effect In Workspaces, Panels now have floating margins to prevent weird overflows Plasma NetworkManager (plasma-nm) applet now connects to WPA3-personal networks Plasma Mobile improves the App Drawer Plus 47 other changes to make KDE better and stronger, all in all good stuff. Thank you for your hard work, KDE team. https://9to5linux.com/kde-plasma-5-26-5-released-with-more-plasma-wayland-session-fixes #TTT #KDE #FOSS #ui #ux #Linux #goodstuff #TechFreedom Here is a quote about theosis from one of the Cappadocian Fathers, Gregory of Nazianzen, who was brother (literally) to St Basil the Great, and friends with Gregory of Nyssa. But enough on that... Union with God is the only place we can find mercy. Let that sink in. Because God is Good, the only font of genuine mercy (all other mercies are tributary and lesser than His), and endless loving bounty, the only place we can find the fullness of these things is in Him. Sure, there are facsimiles here, but no human can be perfectly merciful toward oneself or any other, without first receiving it from God. What is this theosis I speak of? Theosis is full union with God, where we have become so like Him that He cannot help but take us into Himself fully, that is what heaven is about, not standing around with harps and singing hallelujah for eternity (boring!), but becoming one with God. We can experience this in part here in this life, but it takes dedication and a will to empty oneself. I will find other quotes about this in the future, as I think this is something woefully lacking in the Western Church. #TTT #cappadocianfathers #quotes #patristics #theosis #kenosis #memesplanation #TechFreedom TTT 40.2 – What’s New with Home Assistant? What is Home Assistant? An open-source smart home platform that focuses on providing local control and privacy to its users. It can run off a Raspberry Pi or even a local server. What does that mean? This is one alternative to the Big tech dominated options that are currently out there, as most of them are tied into Google, Apple, or Amazon, even if they are not directly made by them, such as the Phillips systems. For instance, did you know that your Amazon Echo or your Google Home system is always listening to you? Even when perhaps you are making love to your significant other? It knows if you are straight, and can hear the differences between when you use protection and when you don’t, and will feed you ads for baby-related items when it senses that you aren’t practicing “safe” sex. Tell me that isn’t creepy, all... Tell me that isn’t invasive and wrong. This system, when it is ready, and the voice functionality is being hammered out this year, will provide an completely in-house voice control for your smart appliances, stereos, window coverings, lights, etc, then eventually provide search capabilities as well, just like the Big Tech creepers do. Only, privately, without phoning home with your preferences to serve you targeted ads or worse. Pretty cool stuff, if you ask me. Anyone who wants to “smartify” their home needs to look into this if they value their privacy at all. https://news.itsfoss.com/open-source-assistant/ #TTT #smarthome #homeassistant #foss #selfhosted #private #coolstuff #TechFreedom Free Your Internet http://techfreedom.pro/internet-freedom/ One-stop shop for getting you and your business transitioned off of Big Tech online platforms and tools, so that you have control of your data once again. I will also help you to find better alternatives. #TTT #techtips #TechFreedom #internetfreedom #nogoogle #nometa #noyahoo #nomicrosoft TTT 40.3 – 10 FOSS Tools You Need to Check Out 1) SimpleLogin – protects your inbox from spam by providing a way to spoof a different email address for each service you sign up for, unless you actually want a flood of notifications or something like that. This is included with the paid tiers of ProtonMail now. 2) OnionShare – Private file sharing via the TOR network. You download the app, then send a file to someone using the TOR browser... They don’t know where it came from unless you notify them that it is coming. 3) Tabby – Cross-platform terminal emulator, I covered this a few months ago, in fact, here’s a link to the TTT episode: https://rumble.com/v1v9z7y-tech-tips-tuesday-34-kde-updates-a-new-cross-platform-terminal-editor-and-d.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y. It is pretty cool, but can be a bit of a resource hog if you have an older or lower specced machine. 4) ShareX – a Windows only sharing tool that can basically do it all, from screenshots to screencasts to sharing files or URLs. Sounds like something we could really use here in Linux, tbh. 5) Easy Effects – PulseEffects, only for PipeWire. I’ve tinkered with it, but find that for my situation, if I want to add effects to what I’m doing, I’d rather use something else. Check it out if you want to add some particular effect to everythign you listen to, or to your mic, to try to clean it up for video calls. 6) Cryptomator – an encryption tool to use on any file you plan to upload to the cloud, that way, at least in theory, even if you are using Google, they can’t scrape your files for data. Sounds like a useful tool. 7) Bitwarden – Self-hostable password manager that is cross-platform, and has a pretty cool premium option that is affordable. 8) Thunderbird – If you like to keep your emails stored locally, such as using Outlook or something along those lines, keep your eye on Thunderbird, because it is about to be visually overhauled so that it won’t be so ugly and outdated anymore. The functionality is all there, just give it a try, and tweak as necessary. 9) NetNewsWire – an Apple ecosystem exclusive RSS reader app. I do not espouse Apple, other than to say that it does indeed “just work”, until it doesn’t. If you’ve been around for a while, you have heard me wax eloquent on my feelings about Apple, if not, look back at this post: https://t.me/tech_freedom/86 Yes, I’ve been on about it since the beginning... 10) Standard Notes – an E2EE note-taking app that is cross-platform, both through traditional apps and a web app, so you could simply do things that way and be even more private, in theory, than using a native app. The one thing that I wish were available with this ecosystem is the ability to self-host it. That would be the ultimate in privacy, but with all that they offer, I get it. https://news.itsfoss.com/open-source-apps-try-2023/ #TTT #foss #tools #Linux #coolstuff #TechFreedom 10 Things My Wife Thinks You Should Know about Tech Freedom. https://rumble.com/v19elx6-10-things-about-tech-freedom.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #TechFreedom #wifeysauce #getfree #explainer

Intel Working on New Xe Drivers for Linux Memesplanation Steam Deck Can Now Play >7000 Games Freed Computer XBox Games Studio Touts Steam Deck Compatibility Work #FFW #intel #steam #steamdeck #xbox #Xegraphics #updates #TechFreedom FFW 24.1- New Xe GFX Driver In the Works Intel, via a comment on Mastodon by Jason Ekstrand, whose name should sound familiar from the last time I talked about brand new graphics drivers for Linux, as he is the head of the team that manages most of the Mesa stack at Collabora. So, what is so exciting here? It is technically ready, though unoptimized as of 12/23. This is all new codebase, not dependent on the older iGPU driver code from 9th Gen and earlier. Be patient for a little while longer, you people with 10th Gen or newer Intel processors with the Xe graphics. You will have a better driver soon. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/12/intel-working-on-new-xe-graphics-driver-for-linux/ #FFW #intel #iris #xegfx #newdrivers #TechFreedom St Ambrose spitting some truth here about the conscience. Have you recently done something you knew was wrong, or failed to do something that you knew you needed to get done? How did that feel? Were you ashamed? Have you tried to punish yourself in any way? Our conscience condemns us when we sin, either by commission (that which we do, but ought not), and omission (that which we ought do, but do not), this is natural. We run for cover, or we stand and beat ourselves up for whatever it was, unless we have deadened ourselves through callous, repeated sin patterns so we no longer hear our consciences. Tell me I’m not the only one who either hides or self-abuses in some way when I know that I screwed up. So what do we do about it? We seek forgiveness from God, the injured party, and from ourselves. We repent, then allow that sin to be as though it never happened. That is not to say that consequences cease to exist, but forgiveness is the path to freedom for you and for the other person, particularly. #FFW #memesplanation #patristicquotes #stambrose #conscience #forgiveness #TechFreedom FFW 24.2: Steam Deck Can Now Play >7k Games Quite the milestone for the up & comer in the handheld gaming market. In many games that it can play, it smokes other devices in its category, partially because it is not hampered by dealing with Windows. Linux is lighter, and that is what SteamOS is based on. That is why we often find ourselves talking about Proton developments and the Steam Deck, here on FOSS Fun Wednesdays. So, what are the numbers as of the writing (12/28)? • Verified - 2,709 • Playable - 4,409 That means that within a year since launch, the Steam Deck went from able to play perhaps 1,000 games to over 7,100 titles that are at least playable. That is a feat, y’all. Hats off to Steam and the Proton team for burning the midnight oil to make not only Steam Deck, but Linux gaming far better than it would have been otherwise. Thank you, all involved. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/12/steam-deck-hits-over-7000-games-playable/ #FFW #steam #steamdeck #gamesfordays #linuxgaming #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom FFW 24.3: XBox Games Studio Touts Steam Deck Compatibility for Some Major Games To be clear, they are not saying that they did anything to make this a reality, but it is a nice feather in the developers’ hats to see and hear a major studio talking about their work in bringing the studio’s games to a new ecosystem. Here’s what they noted, and the discounts available in the Steam Store during the Holiday Sale: Deck Verified • DOOM Eternal - 75% off • DEATHLOOP - 67% off • Dust: An Elysian Tail - 67% off • New Super Lucky's Tale - 67% off • Ms. Splosion Man - 50% off • Pentiment - 25% off Deck Playable • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition - 75% off • Fallout 4 - 75% off • Tell Me Why - 75% off • Forza Horizon 4 - 67% off • State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition - 50% off • Halo Infinite - 50% off • ReCore: Definitive Edition - 50% off • LocoCycle - 50% off • Quake Champions - free to play • Fable - The Lost Chapters - no discount Quite a few notable AAA titles in this list, though I cannot say that I’ve played any of them... Gaming has largely fallen by the wayside for me for the last 4-5 years, though there have been seasons in that time when I’ve been able to play more, this just isn’t one of them. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/12/xbox-game-studios-talk-more-of-their-titles-on-steam-deck/ #FFW #Linux #xboxstudios #proton #linuxgaming #TechFreedom

Top 5 Linux Phones Memesplanation Unity 7.7 Coming Soon Free Your Internet PeaZip File Archiver Updated #TTT #linuxmobile #unityDE #Linux #peazip #TechFreedom TTT 39.1 – Top 5 Linux Phones Ok, not much has changed in this lineup vs the last time I talked about Linux Mobile. Development continues, but needs an infusion of cash to revitalize the teams who work on it. Our top 5 are the Librem 5 (I still struggle to believe that this one is real and not vaporware of some sort), the PinePhone & PinePhone Pro, the F(x)tec Pro 1X, the Volla Phone, and the Fairphone 4. These are all decidedly mid-range devices, if not on the low end when compared to their Android brethren. By the way, Android is Linux, just with a whole lot of JavaScript juju on top of it to make it look pretty, and a host of closed source firmware blobs. I will be the first one to jump for joy when Linux Mobile matures as a platform and can genuinely offer real competition to Android and iOS, but that day is not today. This article basically lists the specs for the mentioned devices to hype them a bit. It caught my eye because it has been about a month since I talked about Linux Mobile, and wanted to kind of start the new year with a conversation about it. https://www.debugpoint.com/best-linux-phones/ #TTT #linuxmobile #linuxphones #librem5 #pinephone #fxtec #vollaphone #fairphone #Linux #goodstuff #TechFreedom Back to the early Church Fathers... This quote from Polycarp seems poignant to me, now. As believers, we need to be this strong in our convictions, that even if (and I do see the potential for this sort of scenario happening here in America, if things do not change quickly in terms of the direction this nation is taking) this happens to us, we will stand strong in our belief in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. The enemy is turning up the heat, or trying to, on anyone who stands up against the corruption in our society, from the alphabet soup of sexual perversion, to divorce, to abuse, to human trafficking, and all of the other things that the Church has been mute about in large part for the last 50 years. This is whether it is due to the 501C.3 and Johnson Amendment or due to complicity in these heinous crimes which are being revealed to us right now. #TTT #christian #quotes #memesplanation #patristics #polycarp #TechFreedom TTT 39.2 – Unity 7.7 Coming with Ubuntu 23.04 You all heard my feelings about Unity, at least the old school one, yesterday when I laid into Ubuntu Unity. I have not taken the time to look at it since then, so I’m kinda down on this development. On the other hand, I don’t want to crap too much on the very excited, young developer who picked up the otherwise dead project. I am torn. Just because I did not like it when I tried it about 10 years ago, doesn’t mean that it has no place in the ecosystem, now. After all, Linux is about choice, even if your idea of aesthetics or utility doesn’t jive with mine. You be you, and I’ll be me. What’s new in the new version? • A return to Lomiri styling for the dash and panel • UWidgets ◦ Possibility for desktop widgets written in python ◦ Better app integration ◦ Panel flexibility, so you can move the location of the application launcher button to open the dash, among other things Interesting stuff, not sure that I’ll ever use it in general, but I’m glad to see more choices being brought back into possibility. https://9to5linux.com/unity-7-7-desktop-environment-promises-redesigned-dash-and-panel-widgets #TTT #unityDE #choices #coolstuff #Linux #TechFreedom Free Your Internet https://techfreedom.pro/internet-freedom/ One-stop shop for getting you and your business transitioned off of Big Tech online platforms and tools, so that you have control of your data once again. I will also help you to find better alternatives. #TTT #techtips #TechFreedom #internetfreedom #nogoogle #nometa #noyahoo #nomicrosoft TTT 39.3 – PeaZip 9.0 What is PeaZip, anyway? It is a cross-platform, FOSS archiving tool. It has support for pretty much all of the archiving formats, from 7zip, zip, tar, rar, to zpaq, there are also these new changes: • Improved User Interface. • Enhanced Support for Various Formats. • Performance Improvements. • New options for 7z/p7zip backend. • Improvements to Plugins. This sounds like an intriguing alternative to ark in KDE, and you can use it on any desktop you want, no matter the OS. https://news.itsfoss.com/peazip-9-0-release/ #TTT #foss #crossplatform #Linux #peazip #updates #TechFreedom

Distro Monday 39: Happy New Year, 2023! Announcement Manjaro 22.0 Memesplanation Tails 5.8 Freedom Consultation 11 New Distros to Look Forward to This Year #distromonday #Linux #manjaro #linux61 #tails #newdistros #TechFreedom Tech Freedom Announcement: After painstaking work over the last couple of weeks, I am pleased to announce that techfreedom.pro has a brand new look. The links I will be sharing from now on will be to landing pages that I designed, rather than to the products themselves. Please, take a look at the site, tell me what you think, either through the contact form or in the comments below. I appreciate your input. Thanks, All. https://techfreedom.pro #TechFreedom #newsite #newyear #newdesign #news #distromonday DM 39.1 – What’s New In Manjaro 22? Manjaro is a mainstay of this channel, I have used it for 3 years, with a few breaks to distro hop just a bit. I currently use the KDE flavor as the base for all of the computers in my home, including the machine that I record and stream from. All that said, if you are unfamiliar, it is an Arch based distro which adds some extra package testing to the Arch downstream before things hit their users. It comes in a number of flavors, with different desktop environments and Window Managers to provide different strokes for the different folks out there. It does have the downside of kind of being the Ubuntu of the Arch side of the Linux family tree, in that it does have a foundation/business behind it, rather than being purely community based, which can make them seem less than responsive to user needs and desires. What’s new here? Linux 6.1 All the latest from KDE Plasma XFCE 4.18 GNOME 43.2 Updated GNOME Layouts Switcher And a bunch more under the hood... https://9to5linux.com/manjaro-linux-22-0-sikaris-is-the-first-distro-release-powered-by-linux-kernel-6-1-and-xfce-4-18 #distromonday #Manjaro #arch #KDE #GNOME #xfce #updates #Linux #TechFreedom Happy New Year, everyone! May 2023 be one of the best in your life. Seek the Lord earnestly and you will find Him. Believe that He has the best for you this year, start to break old, bad habits that in the small picture landed you where you were the night before last. Most of all, know that you are not alone in the need to change. Don’t call it a “resolution”, call it a dedication to change your life. Repent of the crappy thinking and bad habits that led you to the point of self-disgust at the end of last year, take proactive steps to improve your situation, whatever that looks like, whether reducing alcohol intake, moving more, eating more healthily, or working on healthier relationships this year, just do it and be intentional. Those little steps, taken daily, and those choices to seek the Lord in those moments when you would have turned to something less worthy, will lead to you being in a better place by the end of this year. If all of us commit to healthier actions and attitudes, it will have a bang-on effect and begin to change the world. #distromonday #newyears #blessings #pray #goodchoices #memesplanation #TechFreedom DM 39.2 – Tails 5.8 Out Now! Just in case you’re new here, Tails stands for The Amnesiac Incognito Live System, and is a Linux distro meant for dissident journalists, spies, spooks, and anyone else who really prizes their privacy above general functionality for their computer. What’s new, here? • Wayland is now the default display server ◦ Re-enabling the Unsafe Browser and improving its functionality ▪ Adding sound support, uploads & downloads, more alternative input options for non-Latin languages, a screen reader, and a virtual keyboard • New Persistent Storage App ◦ New look ◦ New capabilities • QR code scanning to enter new TOR bridges ◦ New ability to see the percentage of various TOR connections All in all, good stuff here, guys and gals. This is distro that is meant to be portable and run off of any USB stick you want. All while giving you the added privacy of connecting to the internet through TOR at all times. https://9to5linux.com/privacy-focused-tails-5-8-enables-wayland-by-default-adds-new-persistent-storage #distromonday #tailslinux #privacy #tor #portable #goodstuff #TechFreedom Freedom Consultation Ever wondered how to get free from Big Tech? This Free consultation will leave you with at least pointers to the tools and services you’ll need to do just that. This is a FREE 90 minute call with me, where I will demo some varieties of Linux for you, some replacement apps, talk about degoogled phones, and give you links to how to start the process of taking control of your digital life online as well. https://techfreedom.pro/freedom-consultation #distromonday #TechFreedom #consultation #free DM 39.3 – New Distros for 2023 that May Be Worth Looking At There are 11 in this listicle, so lets see what I think about the author’s picks, here. Many have had stable releases in the last year or so, but some have not, and are waiting on further development work to happen. 1) VanillaOS a. This is another Ubuntu derivative, but ships with a plain old GNOME desktop. Big whoop, right? Well, this offers on-demand immutability, which means that it is like a part time Ubuntu version of Fedora Silverblue, which is fully immutable after installation. Silverblue allows programs to be installed, but there are no intermittent OS security or package updates, just static images of the OS. This makes it very very stable and safe to use, but if you need fresh packages and updates, this may not be a good fit for you. 2) XeroLinux a. I actually did a demo of this last year, not long after it came out. It is a very unique Arch distro that includes a very clean desktop that may appeal to some of you. It is immediately downstream from Arch and does not provide any extra testing for users before the packages get passed through, unlike Manjaro. 3) Crystal Linux a. I tried to demo a beta of this one last year, it was rough at the time, and seemed to be missing most of the more ballyhooed new, distinguishing features. That was merely a beta, so if you are into GNOME, Crystal may be a good Arch distro for you to peruse at some point this year, after its full release, whenever that happens. 4) Tuxedo OS a. Kubuntu plus some extra tools from Tuxedo, who builds dedicated Linux hardware. Think of it as their answer to POP! OS. It used to only be available for their machines, but they chose to release it publicly last year. If KDE + Ubuntu is your jam, take a look. 5) Euro Linux a. RHEL + visual goodies, geared for educational purposes with its very long term support schedule, as well as its very windows-esque interface, which will welcome Windows refugees. 6) Zinc a. Xubuntu LTS plus AppImage support, deb-get package manager, default BTRFS formatting, and more. Might be good for you lightweight mavens out there. 7) Cachy OS a. Arch + under-the-hood improvements on a kernel level to create a stable, fast, secure, and user-friendly Arch distro. They offer all of the major desktop environments, and use a modified version of Calamares for an installer. 8) risiOS a. This is downstream from Fedora, and I took a look at it just after its full release last year. If you like Fedora, you will probably like risiOS, as it adds some special sauce to the Fedora hamburger. 9) Exodia OS a. Another Arch based distro. However, it is geared to be something like Kali, only based on Arch rather than Debian. The thing to keep in mind with this one is that it only ships with a highly customized BSPWM, which is a tiling window manager. Other than that, the functionality should be roughly on par with Kali. 10) Kumander Linux a. The name is a tribute to the developer’s first computer, a Commodore Vic20. It is a highly tweaked xfce, meant to look like windows 7, which sits on top of Debian 11. There is no full release for this one out yet, but you can take a look at the early-release candidate between now and whenever that does come out. 11) Ubuntu Unity a. Unity is back as an official Ubuntu flavor, after a 5 year hiatus, if you tried out Linux, and specifically Ubuntu between 2010 and 2017, this will be a blast from the past for you. Personally, I hated it then, but I should probably try to install it in an Arch VM at some point to see if I can tolerate it any better now. I think the thing that I hated the most about it, other than the very odd paradigm for the UI, was the default color scheme. Maybe it can be tweaked now, idk. Check it out if you want to feed Canonical’s beast. https://news.itsfoss.com/new-distros-2023/ #distromonday #distrohoppers #newdistros #Linux #TechFreedom

FFW 23.1- Bad Guy Epic... Sad Day Epic is killing off old school online multiplayer as well as store availability for a number of their classic games, including everything prior to Unreal Tournament 3. Why would they do this? They’re consolidating and moving whatever they can onto their new AIO Epic Online Services setup. I get why they are doing this, but it still sucks for anyone who enjoys these old games on their computer and don’t own a physical copy, and/or someone you can play with via a LAN game. The other thing here is that these changes go into effect on January 24, 2023. The community may try to step in and provide solutions for this, but no guarantees there. Here’s hoping, right? https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/12/epic-games-are-killing-off-a-bunch-of-classics-like-unreal-tournament/ #FFW #Epic #unreal #unrealtournament #nomore #rip #TechFreedom These are the words assigned to each of the 4 weeks of Advent. First we walk through the hope of Messiah (primarily through the prophesies in the Old Testament, largely Davidic [in the Psalms] and in Isaiah), then we look at the peace promised, then the joy of promises fulfilled, then the Love that is Jesus. We hope for the fulfillment of all of God’s promises, not just the birth of Jesus. This allows us to have peace, even in the midst of a hectic and confusing life. It also teaches us that we can have joy, no matter what we walk through in this life, as Anna and Simeon did as they waited for the consolation of Israel. We also learn that we can experience God’s love for us, even in the midst of hard times (like right now). Then, we have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, to round it all out with joy and a solid resolution to the waiting for Jesus’ birth. Amen. #FFW #memesplanation #adventquotes #Bible #hope #peace #joy #love #faith #TechFreedom FFW 23.2: WINE on Wayland Is Getting Better What’s new here? · Updating drivers and APIs · Prep work for WoW64 support · Better Cross-process rendering to improve Chromium applications · Improved support for dmabuf-feedback support which allows the compositor to directly access presentation information (resolution, windowed vs fullscreen, etc) to make those sorts of changes more seamless in WINE apps What does this mean for performance? Let’s take a look at the video on the page with the story for a demo. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/12/wine-on-wayland-sounds-like-its-coming-along-nicely/ #FFW #WINE #wayland #nomorex11 #linuxgaming #TechFreedom Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/product/tech-freedom-freed-computer/ #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom FFW 23.3: More Hotfixes for the Heroic Launcher New Features · [macOS] Added support for game shortcuts (GamePage > 3 dots > Add Shortcut). They will be saved on the Home applications folder by default. · [Linux/macOS] Added support for DXVK Limit FPS option. · [macOS] A DMG for ARM64 for M1/M2 is now available to download on Github. (if a message of app being damaged shows up, run this command on the terminal: sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine | mdfind kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier = "*heroic" Fixes · Fix some sideloaded and GOG games not launching from SteamDeck because of a --skip-version-check flag being passed. · Fix tray icon not properly updating the list of recent games · Fix stuck GOG save games input · [Linux/macOS] Fixed DXVK Installation · [macOS] Fix Crossover not being found. · [Linux] Fix Wine status not updating on Wine Manager after install/uninstall · [macOS] Fixed Winetricks download URL and environmental variables. · Some UI fixes That is quite a number of new features and fixes. Good stuff for Mac users, and better quality of life for Linux and Steam Deck users, particularly around DXVK and WINE status updates. This should make Heroic that much more enjoyable to use, not that I do, but hey, good stuff, nonetheless. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/12/heroic-games-launcher-gets-another-hotfix-to-clean-up-more-issues-with-v252/ #FFW #Linux #heroic #hotfixes #linuxgaming #TechFreedom What to use instead of Big Tech online: https://rumble.com/v1020p7-viable-google-alternatives.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #techtips #TechFreedom #justsayno #nomorespying #advice What to use instead of Google: https://tv.gab.com/channel/tech_freedom/view/viable-google-alternatives-624e367022a4c5f6eeaf2414 #techtips #TechFreedom #justsayno #nomorespying #advice #parallelEconomy #parallelSociety #shopongab #growwithgab #smallbusiness #gabsmallbusiness