thelinuxexperiment
Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton (Mail, Drive, VPN, Pass...) answered a lot of the questions you, the community, asked, in an interview that covers basically everything!
He discusses security, privacy, the origins of Proton, how they operate, Linux support, future projects, products and features, quantum computing, passkeys, and more!
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#vpn #privacy #proton #onlinesecurity #protonmail
Timecodes:
00:00 Intro 01:16 How did Proton start? 03:24 Why start with email? 06:03 What is Proton's business model? 08:34 Why set up in Switzerland? 11:33 What data do you have on customers? 14:39 How is encryption important? 18:20 Do you always need to use a VPN? 20:47 Why focus on building an ecosystem? 24:55 Is an Office Suite planned? 26:29 What differentiates Proton from competitors? 30:26 Is Proton a viable alternative to big tech services? 33:31 Why expand to more products instead of finishing existing ones? 37:19 Does the general public care about privacy? 38:45 What's next for Proton services? 40:08 What are the plans for native Linux clients? 46:03 Will ProtonVPN offer dedicated IPs to everyone? 47:46 What's the environmental impact of Proton? 49:27 Proton on F-Droid, without Google Play notifications? 52:03 Why are code repos all separated and hard to find? 53:12 Why are addresses ending in ".me" ? 54:57 When will all apps reach feature parity? 56:24 Will SMTP relay be supported? 57:47 Will Proton focus more on businesses in the future? 59:50 Why put all your eggs in one basket with just Proton services? 01:01:00 Will Proton support passkeys? 01:03:21 Does E2E matter is the recipient isn't using it? 01:04:49 Will Proton disable port forwarding in VPN? 01:06:41 Is encryption enough to make email private? 01:09:06 What protects users from a change in Proton's code licensing? 01:11:14 How does Proton protect its infrastructure? 01:13:14 Impacts of Quantum Computing on privacy and security? 01:14:24 What's the future of Proton Bridge? 01:16:25 When will Proton photos be a thing? 01:17:17 Plans for Proton Notes? 01:18:20 Will VPN support the Apple TV? 01:21:12 Support the channel
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#Linux #OpenSource #TechNews #Ubuntu
Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:36 Sponsor: 10% off your first ebsite with Squarespace 01:33 Linus Torvalds talks about the future of Linux 03:58 Ubuntu might drop older CPUs 06:57 LXQt working on Wayland as well 08:33 Cosmic gets more improvements 09:48 GNOME & KDE updates 11:45 Gaming: Linux beats Windows, No Fortnite on Linux 15:17 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 16:24 Support the channel
Linus Torvalds talks about the future of Linux
Ubuntu might drop older CPUs
https://ubuntu.com/blog/optimising-ubuntu-performance-on-amd64-architecture
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Ubuntu-24.04-LTS-Desktop-Plans
LXQt working on Wayland as well
https://lubuntu.me/noble-alpha-featureset/
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Lubuntu-24.04-LTS-Plans
https://lubuntu.me/noble-alpha-featureset/
Cosmic gets more improvements
https://blog.system76.com/post/the-spirit-of-cosmic-december-updates
GNOME & KDE updates
https://pointieststick.com/2023/12/15/this-week-in-kde-un-flashy-important-stability-work/
https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2023/12/twig-126/
Gaming: Linux beats Windows, No Fortnite on Linux
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/announcements/detail/3860211327585452520
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Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:51 Sponsor: ProtonVPN 02:21 Standardization and cohesiveness 05:31 Packaging formats and app distribution 07:17 Display, Wayland, HDR, and scaling 09:27 Drivers, graphics and firmware 11:40 Gaming 13:06 App support 14:31 More challenges? 17:02 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 18:00 Support the channel
#Linux #desktop #operatingsystem #linuxdesktop #linuxdistro
Unified theming between desktops is pretty much abandoned as a thing that should be pursued, but we're also seeing an accent colors standard emerge. And that's complimented by the work being done on portals. With portals for settings, screenshots, remote desktops, printing, sending email, creating shortcuts or transferring files, there's now a solid abstraction layer between your desktop and the apps it runs.
But, for now, we're not there yet. These standards are progressing, but they're not all encompassing, and they're not implemented equally across all desktops. The big ones, like GNOME and KDE, sure, but other smaller options aren't there yet.
Packaging formats, at the end of 2023, are in a bad state. Linux packaging has never been messier. As neither flatpak nor snap are fully ready for 100% of applications, some stuff simply can't be packaged using these, and they still have drawbacks that some users don't want to deal with. Which means a lot of app developers still can't say "hey, this is what we should be using now".
The display situation is much better though. X11 is now clearly abandonware, and work on Wayland has been stellar in 2023. Mostly all desktops now have plans for Wayland, everyone is in agreement.
Added to that, work on supporting HDR has moved by leaps and bounds, and we'll see a fully working implementation in 2024. Fractional scaling is now properly implemented on Wayland as well, meaning we can finally do non blurry scaling, with different scaling per monitor, and different refresh rates per monitor as well.
As per drivers, we've seen some solid progress as well. AMD now has solid drivers on launch day for their GPUs, Intel has finished their Xe driver, Arc GPUs are now well supported, and nvidia drivers have progressed a lot. We're also seeing very strong efforts for open source nvidia drivers.
As per firmware, the linux firmware vendor system, or LVFS has also seen broad adoption, letting you apply firmware updates on the fly and easily. This already supplied 100 million firmware updates, and Google is even pushing manufacturers to support that for their own Linux based Chrome OS.
Gaming has been incredible in 2023. Not only did Linux pass macOS market share for Steam, but we've seen great support for the Steam Deck, which, in turn, means great support for Linux. Sure, it's all driven by Proton and Wine, it's not native Linux ports, but my opinion is that it doesn't matter: if you can click install, and then play, and run the game with the performance you'd expect, things are good.
Non steam gaming has also progressed immensely, with Heroic becoming a really fantastic launcher for Gog and EPic Games, and Lutris still handling most of the rest.
Now for app support, I'd say we haven't seen many improvements in 2023. Sure, our own open source apps have progressed this year, but the usual suspects are still missing, that would let a lot more people move to Linux. Still no Office, Adobe apps, a lot of content creation software, or CAD software are still missing, with no indication that it will change.
The big challenge I can see is AI integration in the desktop. It's a move Microsoft is making with Windows 12, adding AI powered search, and automations throughout the desktop. Whether we should chase that trend on Linux, I'll let you decide, but what's certain is that once users have had a few years to get used to one click buttons that save 30 minutes, it will be hard to go back.
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00:00 Intro 00:59 Sponsor: Proton 02:17 Data grabbing 05:07 Why this data matters 07:41 Laws make it worse 11:11 What you can do 14:04 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 15:07 Support the channel
Playlist on how to De-Google your life: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqmbcbI8U55EfYUVdZfjrfyJyNHD-Bly8
#Privacy #anonymity #private
Virtually everything online now collects data. And this data doesn't just stay at the company that collected it. This data is a giant repository for governments to use and track or monitor their citizens.
See, in a LOT of countries, governments have the right to ask a company to provide all the data they've collected on their users. Companies have no choice but to comply with these, which is also why using end to end, and zero access encrypted services is crucial.
For example, the US can request any company to give them data on a specific user, they've done so more than any other country in 2020. But other countries do the exact same: Germany, Denmark, South korea, France, virtually ever country does this.
If you want even more scary numbers, in 2022, Meta, the parent company for Facebook, Instagram, or Whatsapp, got 827K requests for data. They complied with 76% of these requests.
There are a lot of legal offensives being planned, or already implemented in various countries, so let's look at a few.
In Russia, recent laws from 2017 banned anonymous use of online messaging apps, and prohibits the use of tools that would circumvent government censorship. This means that while VPNs aren't exactly banned, if they let people access banned websites, then they'll also be banned. This has happened to at least 15 VPNs, including NordVPN, ProtonVPN, and OperaVPN.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/01/russia-new-legislation-attacks-internet-anonymity
In Australia, in 2021, a law was proposed to force people to attach their real name to their social media posts, apparently to fight online trolls, bullying and harrassment. Users would have had to provide an ID before opening any social media account, which would obviously open the door to surveillance, monitoring, and censorship.
https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2021/govt-wants-to-end-online-anonymity.html
In France, we have the recent SREN law. This thing would give the telecom watchdog powers to block websites, and require tools for age verification. On top of that, the law will give the government capabilities to demand web browsers and DNS providers block certain websites.
https://adguard.com/en/blog/france-web-browser-dns-blocking-law.html
in the UK, the Online Safety Bill of 2022 allows the regulatory agency Ofcom to force websites to collect people's personal data, and they'll be able to scan, restrict and remove content that is considered harmful. The bill also mandates online communication services to be moderated, which basically means end to end encryption can be enabled there anymore.
https://datainnovation.org/2022/05/the-uks-online-safety-bill-undermines-encryption-and-anonymity/
So, what can you do about this? For protecting your data, there are plenty of things you can do. First, stop using privacy invasive operating systems. If you can't move to something like Linux, try at least to disable all the telemetry you can in Windows or macOS, in Android and iOS. You can try using a degoogled, privacy focused Android ROM on your smartphone.
Leaving Chrome for a more private browser is also pretty much mandatory. Same goes for your online services: stop using Google as a search engine, Gmail, or stuff like Outlook, OneDrive, iCloud, and the like. Using a VPN is also a solid option to at least try and blur the lines.
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#Linux #Flatpak #Snap #AppImage
00:00 Intro 00:47 Sponsor: Proton VPN 02:17 Quick summary of formats 05:52 Performance benchmarks 08:52 Sandboxing 11:41 Missing Features 15:24 Parting Thoughts 16:59 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 18:00 Support the channel
So, what we call "packages" are debs, for Debian and Ubuntu based distros, and RPMs for Red Hat and SUSE based distros. These packages can contain libraries, or apps, and all libraries are shared between applications.
We then have Flatpaks, which are distro-agnostic. Flatpaks are sandboxed, and while they share a lot of libraries through runtimes, they can use more space over time.
Snaps are basically the same concept as flatpaks, made by Ubuntu. There are a few technical differences with flatpaks, the big one being that Snaps are suitable for graphical apps, and for command line programs.
AppImages are a more portable format: the whole app is shipped inside a single file, with most, if not all of its libraries. This means you can copy/paste apps from a system to another, and they run on any distro that has access to FUSE2.
Now, let's look at some performance comparison between different packaging formats. I ran all these tests on the same Ubuntu 23.04 VM, with 16 gigs of RAM, 4 cores of my 13th gen i7 13700h.
Judging from the results, we can see that all packaging formats take longer to start than basic deb packages. It's especially visible with heavy apps that need to do some setup when they first open, like LibreOffice or GIMP. But we also notice that on subsequent openings of an app, all packaging formats are pretty close.
I ran the Speedometer test in all 4 versions of Firefox: the snap performs worse for jetstream, but much better for Speedometer, while flatpak performs on par for SPeedometer, but worse for jetstream. Deb packages perform well for jetstream, but worse for speedometer., and the Appimage is generally just a good performer.
A sandboxed application runs in its own environment, with very few ways to access things outside of that sandbox. This is similar to how web browsers run each tab in a separate process.
Regular packages aren't sandboxed by default: basically it means that you should only install these packages from sources you trust: either your distro's repos, or well vetted third party repos.
As per Flatpaks, they're all sandboxed. The sandbox isn't 100% bulletproof, nothing is, but it does limit what the app can access. This is all managed through app permissions, much like what you'd find in Android or iOS apps.
Snaps can be sandboxed, but the sandbox isn't mandatory: developers can decide to not use it, although this triggers a manual review of the snap app when it's uploaded to the Snap Store, to check if it does anything weird. As per AppImages, they don't have a sandbox natively.
Now let's see what's missing in terms of features. Regular packages can access everything, so there are no missing features there.
Flatpaks and snaps have more restrictions. The main missing piece is native messaging support: this is what lets an app communicate with another, and one main use case is for password managers: currently, no web browser packaged as flatpak or snap can interact with a third party password manager reliably.
Support for the system theme is also not perfect for snaps and flatpaks, or for AppImages.
As per various problems with these packaging formats, you also have the size of packages: while Snaps and Flatpaks do share libraries between apps, they don't share as much as regular packages, which means they can take up more space.
Snaps also have the added problem that they mount each app in its own virtual filesystem, that is decompressed on the fly: this can clutter your mount points, which can be annoying if you need to manage these regularly. The Snap Store backend is also proprietary, and it's centralized.
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#Wayland #X11 #linux
00:00 Intro 00:39 Sponsor: 10% off your first website 01:36 X11 vs Wayland 04:47 What's missing from Wayland itself 06:22 Desktop Environment support 09:07 Wayland & GPUs 10:50 Gaming on Wayland 13:01 Apps & Wayland 14:52 Parting Thoughts 16:39 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 17:57 Support the channel
So, up until recently, all Linux desktops used the X Server, also called X.org or X11. It's a venerable piece of software, that predates even the first release of the Linux kernel, by almost a decade, and X11 is virtually unmaintained now.
And so that's why Wayland was started in 2008. In terms of advantages, it eliminates screen tearing, it lets you have multiple monitors with different refresh rates and different scaling factors, and it's more secure.
https://www.secjuice.com/wayland-vs-xorg/
The Wayland protocol still lacks network transparency: Wayland doesn't support running a program on a computer, and displaying it on another. Some stuff also isn't supported yet, on Wayland OR on X11, for example HDR.
Support for fractional scaling has just recently been added, and isn't fully supported by all major Linux desktops and toolkits just yet. Wayland also doesn't support global shortcuts by default, but it's fixed through a desktop portal.
And we need to look at desktop environments and window managers. GNOME is probably the one with the more robust Wayland support available right now: not the most feature complete, but the most robust.
On KDE, Wayland support is a bit less solid, in my experience, Plasma 6 should be THE release with good Wayland support.
As per other desktop environments: Cinnamon is just beginning, MATE hasn't started, but XFCE has published a roadmap of the things that already work, and the things that need to be worked on. Pantheon, the desktop for elementary OS, has an experiment wayland session that is, for now, not really usable, and Deepin doesn't seem to have any plans yet.
You can use Sway, which is basically i3 but made for Wayland, with support for i3 config files, you have hyprland, based on the wlroots implementation, that seems to be the fastest moving tiling window manager for Wayland.
If you use open source drivers, like the mesa drivers for Intel and AMD GPUs, or the Nouveau driver for nvidia, you're all good. These support everything you need, and work well with Wayland, just as well as on X.Org. But then, there are the proprietary nvidia drivers.
And to be fair, they do work with Wayland. it took a long while, but it works, I've been using them on hybrid graphics laptops on GNOME and KDE, and on a desktop running Fedora for a long while, and it works. But it's also not the best experience.
And since we're talking about GPUs, let's talk about gaming. Gaming on Wayland basically relies on X.org, with something called XWayland: it's and X11 server running inside of Wayland.
There is a small performance impact depending on the game. It's not huge, but it's there, so if you're struggling to keep a smooth 60FPS, Xorg will be better. This is notably true with Nvidia drivers, which don't handle XWayland very well.
For now, Wayland enforces Vsync everywhere, unless your monitor has adaptive sync, so stuff like Gsync of freesync. If you don't have that, then Vsync is, for now, mandatory.
And finally, we have application support. All the latest Kirigami apps for KDE, or QT 5 and Qt 6 apps, or Libadwaita apps will handle Wayland well, and all the portals they need to interact well with other apps, screen sharing, and the like. Electron apps using a recent version of electron will also support Wayland, but a lot of electron apps still use an old version that doesn't support it properly.
And older apps using GTK 2, or older versions of Qt also won't support Wayland. Some web browsers also don't run natively with Wayland.
Learn more about the risks of running an End Of Life distro here: https://tuxcare.com/downloadables/the-dangers-of-running-end-of-life-linux/?utm_campaign=The%20Linux%20Experiment&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_term=end-of-life-danger
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#Linux #OpenSource #TechNews
00:00 Intro 00:46 Sponsor: Learn more about the risks of EOL distros 01:58 Ubuntu 23.10 broke graphical deb installs 04:00 New GNOME Director seems controversial 06:11 OpenSUSE working on a replacement to Yast installer 07:57 COSMIC and GNOME updates 09:51 Drivers and performance improvements 12:29 Gaming News: HDR, low latency & Lutris 15:12 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 16:19 Support the channel
Ubuntu 23.10 broke graphical deb installs
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2023/10/install-deb-ubuntu-23-10-no-app-error
New GNOME Director seems controversial
https://linuxiac.com/gnome-projects-unexpected-ceo-choice/
OpenSUSE working on a replacement to Yast installer
https://linuxiac.com/opensuse-agama-installer/
COSMIC and GNOME updates
https://blog.system76.com/post/locked-and-loaded-with-new-cosmic-de-updates
https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2023/10/twig-118/
Drivers and performance improvements
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-DRM-GPUVM-Relicensed
https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVK-Vulkan-XDC-2023
https://www.phoronix.com/news/RADV-Ray-Tracing-2023
Gaming News: HDR, low latency & Nvidia wayland
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/10/nvidia-looking-to-hook-up-reflex-support-in-proton/
Grab a brand new laptop or desktop running Linux: https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en#
Murena 2 campaign (not sponsored, no affiliate commission): https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/murena/murena-2-switch-your-privacy-on
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#privacy #google #android
00:00 Intro 01:08 The Phone: Murena 2 02:36 Specifications 05:17 eOS on the Murena 2 10:46 Price and availability 13:03 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 14:08 Support the channel
This isn't the completely finalized design, so the back of the phone, and the protection that came in the box aren't completely final and might change a little.
The very point of the Murena 2 is to offer a privacy focused phone: it comes with /e/ OS, and it has a privacy switch to disconnect the cameras and microphone, and another switch to completely shut off any connectivity the phone has. The first switch, for the camera and mic is a physical one: it completely shuts off the connection to the camera and the mic.
The connectivity switch is purely software, and will just turn on airplane mode and will mute your phone, so it's more a "big do not disturb" mode than a privacy switch.
It comes with a mediatek CPU, with 4 performance cores at 2.1Ghz and 4 efficiency cores at 2 Ghz, it has 8 gigs of RAM, 128 gigs of storage, plus a micro SD slot. It supports dual SIM, and the OLED screen is 6.43 inches and a resolution of 1080x2400, plus a hole punch cut out for the selfie camera, which is 25 megapixels.
On the back, you get 3 camera lenses, one is the standard lens, at 64 megapixels, one is an ultrawide, at 13 MP and one is a telephoto lens at 5 Megapixels.
It has a 4000 milliamp hour battery, with support for high speed charging at 18W, it supports Wifi ac and bluetooth 4.2, and it's 4G, not 5G.
They also say they have a 6 out of 10 on repairability, and they'll offer spare parts and schematics for easy repair. They'll provide 5 years of support for the software at least.
On the Murena 2, /e/ OS runs OK. It's not perfectly smooth, animations can sometimes jitter a bit, but generally, the experience is what you'd expect from a mid range Android smartphone: it's not high refresh rate, buttery smoothness, but it's definitely not annoying. In some apps, you'll definitely notice stutters, like in the App Lounge when scrolling, but navigating the phone is good enough, and video playback and games run well.
Haptics don't seem to be perfectly configured yet, as typing on the keyboard provides a very tiny sort of clicky rattle instead of a nice vibration, and going back using gestures also doesn't feel super tactile, but that's probably because it's a pre production model.
The 2 privacy switches work perfectly, with the one on the right toggling airplane mode and do not disturb, and the one on the left shutting down the camera and the mic, both have a little LED as well to indicate that these switches are on, although handling of that could be improved, as launching the camera app with the privacy toggle on, will spit out an error, instead of a smoother message indicating your privacy toggle is on.
Testing the phone further, the screen is really nice and bright, with very vivid colors, it feels pretty damn nice to use, but that's probably because it's OLED.
The cameras are pretty basic, the telephoto had a very hard time focusing on anything for me, but the other 2 worked fine, although you won't find the same kind of post processing you'll get on most Android phones, so your pictures might not look as sharp or well balanced as on, say, a Pixel or even a Samsung A series phone. The front facing camera, though, is pretty solid, and produces nice pictures all things considered.
The speakers are decent enough for a phone, they won't blow you away or anything, but they get pretty loud without distorting too much or at all. They are bottom firing, there's no "stereo" speaker using the earpiece of the phone. The microphone isn't great though, your vocal messages and phone calls won't sound extremely crisp.
With the kickstarter, the phone is 399โฌ, without it, it will be 499โฌ.
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#Linux #OpenSource #apps
00:00 Intro 00:42 Sponsor: Try the new Thunderbird interface 01:35 Replace Obsidian 03:49 Replace Notion 06:40 Replace Teams and Slack 07:51 Replace Trello 09:24 Replace Acrobat Pro 10:33 Replace Visual Studio Code 11:47 Other alternatives 13:16 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 14:25 Support the channel
Obsidian offers the ability to link notes together, it uses markdown and plain text to store your notes, it has a plugin ecosystem, and the visual knowledge graph that lets you explore topics and the relationships between your notes. BUT it's proprietary, so we have Logseq. It takes notes as markdown files, it has more than 150 plugins, and a bunch of themes, it has mobile apps, it's private, and it does have the same linking features and knowledge graph.
It even lets you create queries to generate tables with all the information you need, based on the links and data you entered in your notes.Logseq even offers their own syncing solution if you want that. It's available for Linux, as an AppImage, and for macOS, Windows, iOS and Android.
Another really powerful app is Notion. While it's free of charge, it's also proprietary and doesn't have an official Linux version.
The closest thing you can find in the open source world will be AppFlowy, and while it's really close, it's not as feature complete just yet. You can create your own structure, with pages and subpages, and you have a few page types, like calendars, boards, tables, or documents. You also can mix these types on the same page, like having a board with cards, that you can also present in a table, or on a calendar, but you won't get as many templates as what Notion offers.
If you want a more full featured app, there's AnyType instead. It's also open source, and has a Linux client and mobile apps, but the interface is a bit more involved and less clear to start with than AppFLowy.
Now this one, you might not have as much control over, generally, a company or project will impose Slack or Microsoft Teams on you. But if you have all the power, then you might want to take a look at Mattermost.
It's a fully open source Slack / MS Teams alternative, that you can self host. It lets you create channels, and chat, with side threads, file sharing, screen sharing, and audio calls. It can be integrated with a bunch of developer tools to automate things, you can format messages with markdown, or code snippets, and all messages can be archived, with full history search.
If all you need to organize yourself is a board, you might use Trello. This one is pretty easy to replace: you can just use Focalboard. You can either self host it if you want to let multiple people access the same board, or you can just use it as a personal app, with a macOS, Windows and Linux application.
If you need to create and edit PDF documents, you might use Acrobat Pro, from Adobe. You can always open them in GIMP, Inkscape, of LibreOffice Draw, but these tend to either open a single page, or break the document's formatting. Libreoffice draw does a great job IF you have all the fonts used in the PDF installed on your system , but editing text is generally handled in a line per line basis, instead of recognizing things as paragraphs, which can be a pain to deal with.
Visual Studio Code's ... code is licensed under the MIT license, so it IS an open source / free software project, but the binary you can get from Microsoft isn't open source. The alternative, thus, is easy: VSCodium. It's built on the open source parts of VS Code, but removes all the tracking, telemetry and proprietary components. It's compatible with VS Code's plugins and extensions, and has the exact same interface and features, but in a nice open source form.
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#Linux #Ubuntu #linuxdistro
00:00 Intro 00:51 Sponsor: Regain control of your network connection 01:49 Why not just use Ubuntu? 03:54 Debian (instant clickbait) 05:14 Linux Mint 06:19 Rhino Linux 07:37 Pop!_OS 09:18 Tuxedo OS 11:01 Why not these ones? 13:24 The LTS problem 14:23 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux 15:28 Support the channel
Generally, what people dislike about Ubuntu are the inclusion of Snaps, the proprietary backend of the Snap Store, the opt-out telemetry, and some questionable decisions over the years.
But you could always disable all of that? That's just part of the story. If what you dislike is Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, then disabling this doesn't really help.
And we'll begin by immediately lying, as this one isn't Ubuntu based: it's actually the one Ubuntu is based on: Debian. If what you like about Ubuntu, and what you want to keep using, is apt, the package manager, the vast software repos, but you want a vanilla KDE or GNOME experience, and none of the Canonical projects and decisions, Debian might be a really solid bet.
Mint is based on the latest Ubuntu LTS, and removes basically everything that makes Ubuntu, Ubuntu: snaps aren't there, some apps that don't have a debian package anymore in Ubuntu have on in Mint, like Chromium, and they don't use the GNOME desktop: you get Cinnamon, a desktop Mint developed themselves, once based on GNOME 3, but now pretty much its own thing.
One you might want to try is Rhino Linux. It's also a relatively recent distro, and it moves away from the Ubuntu template by being a rolling release: it doesn't give you major upgrades, it's always updated in the background, especially the Linux kernel, and some important apps, like Firefox.
Rhino Linux doesn't use the GNOME desktop by default, it uses its own vision of XFCE, that, let's be honest, feels very much like modern GNOME. You can use apt, but Rhino Linux also comes with a meta package manager, called Rhino-pkg, that lets you install debian packages from the repos, flatpaks, snaps, and it also lets you use pacstall, an equivalent to the Arch User repository for Ubuntu.
Another Ubuntu based distro that has a few cool tricks up its sleeve is PopOS. PopOS has some updates on top of that base, notably for drivers and the Linux kernel, and has some applications that are provided in their own repo, so you're not stuck on very old versions of important apps. They also have some interesting tweaks to the GNOME desktop: they offer a different experience, with a dock by default, an app launcher, and auto tiling features that let you switch from floating windows to a tiling window manager at the press of a button, or with a keyboard shortcut.
If you're more of a KDE user, then there's Tuxedo OS. It's Ubuntu based, with the latest KDE apps and desktop, plucked straight from KDE Neon's repositories: this means you get a semi rolling release model, with access to the repos for Ubuntu's latest LTS version, plus some extra repos on top of that for more recent kernel and drivers, and some applications that need to be more up to date.
And now for a list of the distros I didn't really include, and the reasons why!
The first one is Zorin OS: while it's a good take on Ubuntu, being basically exactly Ubuntu LTS, but with a customized desktop, pre made layouts, and support for virtually every packaging format out of the box, it's also based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, and the Linux kernel 5.15.
The second one is elementary OS. It's based on 22.04 LTS, and does have access to the full Ubuntu repos. While I personally think it's a really great option, the defaults won't fit everyone, including the removal of all debian based packages from their graphical app store.
And then there are all the Ubuntu flavours: they're also now constrained by Canonical's decisions, like preventing them from shipping another packaging format than snap.
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#Flatpak #Linux #software
00:00 Intro 00:33 Sponsor: Regain control of your network connection 01:31 Flatpak explained 03:30 Installing and setting up Flatpak 04:57 Theming Flatpak applications 08:41 Managing Permissions 10:43 Installing from the browser 11:21 Command Line basics 13:54 Sponsor: Get a PC that was made to run Linux 14:52 Support the channel
Flatpak is a method of packaging applications for ALL linux distros with one single package. Flatpaks mostly don't use your shared libraries, they ship their own.
Flatpak also brings better security with a sandbox that doesn't let the app access all your system when it doesn't need to, and a permissions system.
Flatpak also uses repositories, called remotes, the biggest one is of course Flathub.
So, most distros out there should have flatpak preinstalled, but if you run Ubuntu or an official Ubuntu flavor, Debian, or Arch, you might want to install it yourself.
On Ubuntu or Debian: sudo apt install flatpak
For any distro: https://flathub.org/setup
But this only gives you command line access to flatpak. If you're a more graphical sort of person, you might want to add support for your app store:
FOr GNOME software, the package is often called gnome-software-plugin-flatpak, and for Discover on KDE, it's generally plasma-discover-flatpak.
Next, you'll need to add a repo to be able to install flatpaks easily, without downloading a file manually each time. The biggest one everyone should use is FLathub, it has virtually every flatpak ever made.
sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
THEMING:
There are a bunch of themes available on Flathub, that you can find typing
flatpak search theme
If the theme you use is in there, you can just install it from here, then, you select it in GNOME Tweaks, and you run:
flatpak update
If your theme isn't available from Flathub, though, you'll need to tell flatpak it needs to use your specific theme. To do this, you can either run a command, or use a graphical application.
sudo flatpak override --env=GTK_THEME=NAME OF YOUR THEME.
But that's not enough, we also need to give flatpak access to the directory where your themes are located, namely the .themes directory:
sudo flatpak override --filesystem=$HOME/.themes
For GTK4/Libadwaita apps, open your .bash-profile file in your home directory. At the end, add this line:
export GTK_THEME=NAMEOFYOURTHEME
Save the file, and then log out and log back in for all the changes we made to be applied. All your GTK apps should now use the right theme, whether they're using libadwaita, flatpak, or both.
PERMISSIONS
Now let's see how you can change permissions. To manage them, you can use Flatseal on GNOME and KDE, but KDE also has a permissions page in the settings.
Generally, permissions are correctly set, but if you feel an app shouldn't have access to something, you can toggle that thing off, and if you feel an app SHOULD have access to something, you can toggle it ON.
BROWSER INSTALL
Installing flatpaks is just a one click operation from your graphical app store, but if you like to browse for apps in your web browser, you can also start an install straight from there.
There's an extension for Firefox and CHromium based browsers called Flatline.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flatline-flatpak/?ref=itsfoss.com
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/flatline/cpbniogoilfagmcoipghkgnpmdglfmjm
COMMAND LINE BASICS:
install: flatpak install APPNAME
Uninstall: flatpak remove APPNAME
Update: flatpak update
Cleanup: flatpak uninstall --unused
List installed flatpaks: flatpak list
Search for flatpaks: flatpak search
Run an app: flatpak run COMPLETE_APPNAME
Kill an app: flatpak kill COMPLETE_APPNAME
Repair: flatpak repair