Base Installation of Arch Linux + Good to Know

Install

If you want to install Arch, everyone tells you that you should read the installation guide. The second thing you may hear is that you should read the installation guide and that you have to follow it step by step. That also has a short name RTFM – Read The Fucking Manual – and stick to it – no joke.

Make backups before installing Arch Linux. 😉

Base Installation of Arch Linux + Good to Know weiterlesen

Why Arch Linux?

My History

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.

Why Arch Linux? weiterlesen

Speed up Chromium (Linux) with VAAPI on ubuntu – a first look

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).

Speed up Chromium (Linux) with VAAPI on ubuntu – a first look weiterlesen

The Free Software Experience on Android (2)

Part 2: What you’re getting out of it

This is the second part in our Free Software on Android Guide. This time we’re taking a look at the great apps that are available on F-Droid.

NewPipe
Privacy friendly YouTube App

NewPipe is a great app for casual youtube viewing: It does not authenticate you against Google, therefore keeping your watchlist private. It also allows you to play the audio in the background or pop the video out, allowing you to use other apps simultaneously.

Drawback for some is that subscriptions don’t work as expected currently.

Download

F-Droid

The Free Software Experience on Android (2) weiterlesen

The Free Software Experience on Android (1)

Part 1: What you’re getting into

See also: Part 2: Nice Apps from F-Droid

Standard Android is bad: not only is its source not available, it also spies on you—through many apps that are often preinstalled by vendors or provides as well as the operating system itself.

Over the past year I’ve eliminated nearly all non-free (as in Freedom) components on my Nexus 5 and replaced them with Free Software—software that respects your rights and freedoms.

A word of advice: If you plan to free your device as well, there is no need to do it all at once. Start by replacing isolated programs one-by-one and your ride will be much smoother.

This is my blogpost about this topic. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

The Free Software Experience on Android (1) weiterlesen

Stuff for nerds and geeks