Linux Luddites

not all change is progress


February 16, 2015

Episode #35


Direct download links: MP3 & Ogg

Last fortnight was dominated by two releases: the new Raspberry Pi 2, and the first Ubuntu mobile. With one of our number having got his hands on both of these, we report back on the Cray-like performance of the Pi, and how the Ubuntu phone could finally be a challenger to the legendary Wasp T12. Or not.

In the news, we talked about the sad demise of CrunchBang, the UK’s headlong rush into a surveillance state befitting our humble status as Airstrip One, a mysterious disappearing anti-FSF campaign, and much more. And with a first impressions of the Pi and a deep-dive into Ubuntu Touch topping and tailing your feedback, that’s the show. We hope you enjoy it.

In or around London on February 26th? Like to meet up with Joe and Jesse, Scott from mintCast, Matt from TDTRS and Popey from UUPC? See Joe’s blog for further details.

0:03:13   News

Distro News
CrunchBang: The End
LMDE going rolling

Mobile
Android 5.1 is out, already shipping on new phones
Android Lollipop: meet the UK team behind the world’s biggest mobile operating system
The first Tizen smartphone isn’t an “Android killer” – it’s a bad Android clone

Oddments
FSF adds Guix System Distribution to list of endorsed distributions
Where did occupygpl.org go?
Happy 10th anniversary, Nathan Barley
Xfce 4.12 Release date
LXQt 0.9.0 released
ownCloud 8 released

Security
GCHQ intelligence sharing ‘was unlawful’, tribunal rules
‘Innocent people’ on police photos database
New Linux backdoor carries extensive payload
US Publishers Are Responsible for Most Malicious and Risky Apps, Putting Everyone with a Smartphone at Risk (~250KB PDF)
Executive Director Andrew Lewman Answers Your Questions About Tor and Privacy
‘Google search on steroids’ brings dark Web into the light
Once-starving GnuPG crypto project gets a windfall. Now comes the hard part
Answering the Call for Werner Koch’s Everywhere

0:37:18   First Impressions

We found out whether Joe had any regrets about his impetuous eBay purchase of the new Raspberry Pi 2.

0:50:44   Feedback

A huge thank you to Simon Raffeiner for the PayPal donation, and to Simon Lewis – our newest Monthly Supporter. And thanks to keithzg and an anonymous listener for the Flattrs.

Elisha Montgomery posted on our G+ Community to detail setting up Easy2Boot under Linux – thanks, Elisha.

Less positively, Steven Rosenberg took Joe to task for his description of the Bombono DVD user interface as ‘intuitive’; and David Wolski queried how luddite we Luddites really are.

Sean Andreas and Daniel offered some thoughts about the direction Cyanogen is taking; whilst Jonas Kalderstam reminded us how much of core Android is now reliant upon the (closed-source) Google Play Services. Some comments on the unprofitability of the Android space for hardware manufacturers by SonOfNed presaged us sharing some shocking statistics about the mobile market-space.

The costs of our computing – both environmental, and those incurred to power companies – was a topic raised again by Tony Molloy, SonOfNed and Steven Rosenberg.

Finally, Daniel and Keith Z-G both chipped in with some thoughts following our piece last show about social media. Thanks to you both, and to everyone else who got in touch over the last fortnight.

1:09:57   Ubuntu Phone

Long discussed, Canonical finally unveiled an Ubuntu phone in conjunction with Spanish supplier bq (yes, bq – ignore the paid tech press who don’t bother checking things like capitalisation <sigh>). Joe managed to briefly get his hands on the bq Aquarius E4.5, whilst Paddy and Jesse had to make do with flashing the Ubuntu Touch OS onto their Nexus 7 tablets for a gander.

I think that it’s fair to say we were pleasantly surprised, if not bowled over; which seems to have been the general consensus of the unboxing reviews so far. It’ll certainly be interesting to watch this platform develop, particularly if Canonical can rustle up some decent and full-featured native apps…


18 comments

Comments are now closed.


The content of this website, and that of the podcasts produced by the website owners, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.