Linux After Dark

How we learn, remember, and document new Linux and FOSS technologies.       Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes       See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed .

We all customise our phones and computers to one extent or another, but does it make sense to inflict our defaults on other people’s machines when we set them up? Or should we set them up with normal defaults on mainstream distros like Ubuntu?       Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   1Password Extended Access Management: Secu...

Having been given an Asus Eee PC netbook back, Joe wonders what to do with this ancient 32-bit machine. Plus the oldest machines we currently have in production. Batocera       Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes         See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed .

We are joined by Florian Beijers who is a full time screen reader user to talk about how the accessibility experience differs on various operating systems and Linux desktop environments, and what open source software devs could be doing better.   Florian’s links: Mastodon YouTube channel Twitch IC_Null Twitch LinkedIn       Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS fee...

Gary is organising OggCamp this year, so we wonder what makes the perfect Linux and open source event. Plus why we don’t use multiple partitions for home and swap etc. Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes         See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed .

How we make our Web experiences better with various plugins, websites and services. Plus the ethics of blocking ads, bypassing paywalls, and supporting creators.   uBlock Origin archive.is Better Twitter Shut Up DF YouTube Youtube-shorts block Consent-O-Matic Privacy Guides Pi-hole Quad9 SponsorBlock         Kolide Kolide ensures that if a device isn’t secure it can’t acce...

Is Linux hard to use? It turns out the answer is both “yes, absolutely” and “not at all!”         Kolide Kolide ensures that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta. Visit kolide.com/linuxafterdark to learn more. Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes See our contact page fo...

Dalton asks us when consumer computers peaked which stirs up a debate about various generations of XPS and ThinkPad laptops, trackpads vs trackpoints, P-cores and E-cores, and more. Plus follow-up on the devices and software we trust.       Kolide Kolide ensures that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta. Visit kolide.com/linuxafterdark to l...

We are joined by Jorge Castro for an update on the world of what used to be called immutable Linux. Jorge doesn’t really like that word. He prefers “composable” Linux. Whatever you want to call it, we’re talking about an image-based approach to desktop Linux – built with cloud native technologies – that allows you to build and deploy anything from the ultimate d...

Ubuntu is nearly 20 years old so we wanted to see how the first versions compare with the upcoming LTS. Unfortunately installing Warty turned out to much harder than we thought it would be. Dalton talks us through his adventure with a turn of the century Mac, Gary had a much easier time with an x86 PC, Joe’s laptop wasn’t quite old enough, and Chris found some surprising aspects of vir...

We wonder what old concepts in the Linux and open source world are due for a comeback.       Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed .

Gary’s recent (mostly) good experience with an Arm Chromebook makes us wonder about the current state of proper Linux on Arm laptops. Plus follow up on why the Wyse 5070 has some limitations, but is still a great little x86 box. Chris mentioned a FOSDEM talk         Kolide Kolide ensures that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta....

Gary’s recent trip to FOSDEM made him wonder if the type of Linux user who goes to FOSS events has changed. Has the demographic shifted more towards “normal” people who use Linux as a tool rather than something to tinker with? Plus more on planned obsolescence, and a quick prediction about the Apple Vision Pro.       Kolide Kolide ensures that if a device isn’t sec...

We come up with our FOSS extremes. The funniest, the coolest, the cleverest, the most useful, the dullest, the most exciting, the most dangerous and problematic, the [something]est open source software. Projects we mentioned: alsamixer Glow Apache nginx HAProxy Redis VLC Kodi Nextcloud Coreutils Audacity Asahi Immich antennapod UniversalBlue       Kolide Kolide ensures that if a dev...

How do we decide which devices and which software we trust?         Kolide Kolide ensures that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta. Visit kolide.com/linuxafterdark to learn more.       Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes See our contact page for ways to get i...

We look back at what we wanted to happen in the Linux and FOSS world in 2023, and talk about what we want to happen in 2024.       Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes         See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed .

The child’s toy that Chris hacked makes us remember the various other proprietary hardware and software that we’ve taken control of using free and open source software. Plus our mixed feelings about doing an accessibility challenge. Lunii       See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed .

When the Raspberry Pi 5 was announced, we all said that most people would probably be better off repurposing an x86 thin client so we bought some dirt cheap new in box Dell Wyse 5070 machines to see if we were right. Spoiler: we were. Dalton’s post about trying to break Synology RAID Parky Towers   Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   &n...

Our memories of early positive experiences show us how communities have changed over the years, and the best ways to keep the experience positive these days. Late Night Linux Family communities Practical ZFS   Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes         See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed .

Half of us constantly change our hardware and software setups, and the other half like to keep things as constant as possible. Are we changing things to avoid personal technical debt, or are we just bored? Plus more on locking down phones.   Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes         See our contact page for ways to get in touch...

It’s the spinning rust challenge! We try installing and running our operating systems on mechanical hard drives and learn that Linux is much less painful than Windows on a spinning disk.   Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes       See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed .  

The vast majority of desktop computer users in the world use a Windows-like interface, so why do all the major distros ship GNOME which is totally different? It can’t just be because of accessibility and inertia, can it? Plus more on government attacks on end to end encryption.     HelloFresh With HelloFresh, you get farm-fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delive...

Something has gone wrong with the timeline and all software is free and open source. What does that world look like? Plus more on biometrics and desktop scaling.   Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes     See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed .  

What hardware we recommend for desktop Linux users in 2023. Is it really as simple as buying a 5 year old ThinkPad?       HelloFresh With HelloFresh, you get farm-fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep.  Get 50% off plus 15% off the next 2 months at hellofresh.com/ 50 linuxafterdark using the promo code 50 linuxafterdark    ...

Governments around the world are trying to undermine end-to-end encryption. Are they going to get away with forcing in backdoors, and what does it mean for open source? Plus what we stubbornly refuse to use our computers and phones for. Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes.     Factor Factor’s fresh, never frozen, meals are ready in just 2 minut...