For four years now, I used Manjaro as my main GNU/Linux distribution for my daily use. That includes developing with Java/C++/Python and data analysis stuff with R/Python.
Now for me, it was time to switch from Manjaro to another distribution. Sidenote: Manjaro uses Arch Linux as base distribution but provides a considerable amount of additional services out
of the box. Manjaro was running fine for four years now with only one incident, with the integrated WWAN modem.
Since I started to use Manjaro, I fell in love with the “rolling release” feature with an up-to-date kernel and all the up-to-date packages. I decided that it is time to switch to plain Arch Linux for me now.
Canonical wants to push Snap Software packages (https://snapcraft.io/) since some time … while updating my Ubuntu (Kubuntu) 19.04 to 19.10 a strange pop-up appeared…
Chromium Browser does not have hardware accelerated video decoding enabled by default (also Google Chrome). Fedora recently published Chromium with GPU decoding enabled (https://fedoramagazine.org/chromium-on-fedora-finally-gets-vaapi-support/), now there is also a Chromium Snap-Package with Video Acceleration API support for giving it a try on *buntu.
Why ? Smoother video playback and less CPU resources used 🙂 (and maybe some feedback to the developers if problems occur).
Although *buntu is in love with snaps (snapcraft) to deliver and update apps on any Linux distribution, it was time to have a look on the new QGIS 3.4 Flatpak package. And using Manjaro with a dated QGIS-version (and non-GRASS) in its repo, Flatpak is the quick solution.
Password managers like Keepass(I pefer KeepassXC)/Lastpass offer a nice choice to manage all your “accounts” with different user/password strings and with very complex (and long) passwords. If someone gets access on your keepass-database and the password for it – bad luck. Authentication-Hardware like YubiKeys provide more security on your keepass-database and work like a charme on Linux.
Wer sich wundert warum im Umfeld von Behörden & Verwaltungen soviel proprietäre Software in Verwendung ist, für all diese gibt es seit Montag (19.02.2018) eine sehr gut recherchierte Dokumentation des ARD & c’t dazu.
Abseits der Argumente des “Vendor-Locks”, Sicherheitsbedenken (Einsatz von US closed source Software im Militär- und Polizeibereich) etc., sollte man nicht die Möglichkeit des Aufbaus einer europäischen Softwareindustrie vernachlässigen und damit von zukunftssicheren Arbeitsplätzen – anstatt das Steuergeld quasi übern großen Teich zu überweisen, eben in den Aufbau einer europ. Softwareindustrie investieren – auf Basis offener Software und offener Standards. Liebe Politik und öffentliche Verwaltung: Statt auf Lobbying reinzufallen, besser Zukunftschancen sehen ! 🙂
DNS is one of the old timers that keep the internet working. Back when it has been designed privacy wasn’t that much of an issue. Nowadays DNS can leak critical information about the activity of a user. Even tools that should protect the privacy of the user (e.g. VPNs, TOR, … ) can leak DNS queries if not configured correctly. Currently the IEFT works on draft for DNS over Datagram TLS, but if you want to take back your privacy right now, DNSCrypt is at your service.
Some days ago I thought about using a Linux-Distribution from an USB-Stick, not a Live-System – instead installing a Distro on a Stick. USB 3.0 performs quite decent and USB-Sticks >= 32GB are quite cheap. But does installing a Linux-Distro from the Install-Live-Stick to an empty Stick really work (and boot) ?
It’s has been a long time since I had time for some useful and useless stuff. So we (isticktoit) found some useless stuff on Heise open: A Linux Retro-Gaming distribution and thought about bringing some old stuff up to ‘waste’ some hours.
4:3 on a FullHD TV and pixels
In this case I tried the new release of the Lakka distribution, which is mostly for Retro/Emulator-Gaming. It contains a lot of emulators from Atari up to PlayStation and Nintendo.
