not all change is progress
December 12, 2016
Direct download links:
MP3 &
Ogg
00:01:06 News
00:40:48 Bash on Ubuntu on Windows
00:51:55 Feedback
01:05:35 Ubuntu Touch
Damn it, Canonical. In our penultimate show, your Luddites genuinely wanted to be able to look forward to a glorious Linux-powered convergent future. But the harsh truth is that even after years of development, Ubuntu Touch remains stubbornly half-baked. Whilst progress on Touch is glacial, the same cannot be said of Bash on Ubuntu on Windows, which continues to power ahead. To be honest, in a few months there may be no need for the infrequently dual-booting developer to even contemplate installing a Linux distro. Which really ought to be focusing a few more minds than it seems to be.
00:01:06 News
Some preliminary Fedora 25 stats — and future release
scheduling
Taking a stand against unofficial Ubuntu images
Canonical snaps gain dependencies
Snapping KDE Applications
Announcing OSS-Fuzz: Continuous Fuzzing for Open Source
Software
Sailfish OS: only mobile OS approved for use by Russian
Government
Steve Kondik blames Kirt McMaster for Cyanogen Inc’s failure,
CyanogenMod to reorganize and regroup
Mycroft will soon
be available as a pre-built Raspberry Pi 3 image
Pebble smartwatch maker calls it quits, proving that being
first doesn’t guarantee success
Moto pushes off smartwatches indefinitely
AsteroidOS – Alpha 1.0 Release
SiFive launches open source RISC-V custom chip
First open source RISC-V chips arrive in Arduino
board
Open-V on
Crowd Supply
00:40:48 Bash on Ubuntu on Windows
It mostly works, albeit with caveats, and it’s being actively developed. Despite not being officially supported, with a Windows X server like Xming or VcXsrv you can run GUI apps. You can even reportedly switch from Ubuntu to another distro base. Give it a burl.
00:51:55 Feedback
On the topic of Android version usage, Mark Smith pointed us towards some data on take-up.
Eduardo Nogueira wondered how we saw the differences between Korora and Chapeau.
Both John Stoume and Tom Hardy got in touch to relate their experiences of the Linux Foundation’s System Administrator Certification program and test. It sounds more challenging than you might expect.
Helam Sirrine was one of several folks who got in touch following Paddy gushing about how an SSD breathed new life into his aging laptop (you can use fio to perform your own before/after testing); and Popey picked up on the question of why certain distros manage to sustain dedicated podcasts, whilst others don’t.
We wrapped up the feedback by announcing that the next show would be our last. A huge and heartfelt thank you to everybody who has helped us out financially, or contributed to the show with ideas, comments or feedback.
Please don’t feel shy about cancelling any recurring payment to us, but be assured we’ll cut off any remaining at the end of the month. We’ll also be pulling our Flattr account early in the New Year, with our merchandise shop vanishing at the end of January.
Do keep subscribed to the RSS feed, as Joe and Jesse have something planned that you might be interested to hear about.
It’s been a blast, and a real pleasure engaging with other knowledgeable and like-minded Linux enthusiasts. Until next time, which will be the last time…
01:05:35 Ubuntu Touch
When we last visited the convergent world of Ubuntu Touch back on show #72 in February, we noted some incremental improvements but nothing to really write home about. Ten months on, and with OTA14 freshly released, is Canonical’s hope for the mobile and desktop future starting to show some signs of maturity?
“In our penultimate show,” For this year, I hope!
This is total bullshit. I think it’s a great show and I find it really useful and informative, totally gutted it’s ending. I hope that things can continue under a new name with someone to replace Paddy!
Thanks for the excellent show guys. It’s a sad day but I hope to hear something new from you guys ASAP.
Truly 2016 proves we are living in the darkest time-line.
I subscribe to Linux Voice magazine, a few weeks later, they go under. I subscribe to Linux Luddites, a few weeks later, you announce the end. I’m beginning to think I’m bad luck.
Now I am really feeling old. I have been listening to your show since the begging I think, As each part of my weekly routine disappears, I get more grumbley (sp?)
Thank you all for your hard work on Linux Luddites. My suggestion for a title for the Joe and Jesse show is: “The Long and the Short of It” I hope that you can squeeze Paddy in as a guest once in a while. Cheers from this side of the pond.
Oh god, first Linux Voice, now you guys – as if 2016 didn’t suck enough already… I’ll be sad to see you go, had only been following you for about 6 months, and totally didn’t see this coming.
Real sad to hear its ending – one of my favorite
podcasts.
A lot them get too caught up in hype – or just gloss over
issues.
Appreciate the effort you put in to cover a wide variety
of topics – in depth.
The interviews too, verity of guests and topics.
Great to hear Joe & Jesse are planning something new & all the best to Paddy (you’ll be missed!).
— will leave comment on more mundane show topics for separate post —
Very sad to hear the show is ending. I second what Campbell wrote. Your podcast has been one of my favorites since it began. You cover some of the major new stories each show, but you also usually flag up things that would otherwise not come across my radar like RISC-V or the odd OS’es like Phoenix OS. I think Paddy played a big part in digging up these less mainstream topics, so his influence will be missed. Also, while I don’t have quite the same mentality as Paddy, I do have a lot respect for it and would often look forward to hearing what his reaction would be certain topics. I hope to see him popping up in the comments or as a guest in whatever the successor show is. I will miss the political banter as well.
I am excited to see what Joe and Jesse do next. It would be nice to bring in another person with Paddy’s level of experience, but I am sure whatever direction they take will be worth listening to.
Strange that that Mozilla report is titled as 2015 but is coming out now and references things from 2016. Did you see any explanation for that?
Sad to hear about the uncertain future for CyanogenMod (especially on the same show as the one announcing the end of Luddites). I got my first Android device after listening to this show for a while and chose it (a Moto E) based on the fact that it had a CyanogenMod image. I flashed it once and haven’t looked back. I don’t look forward to figuring out how to migrate back to the standard image if I stop getting security updates. Unfortunately, the Moto E is not popular enough to get images for all of the other custom ROM’s the way the Nexus does, so I don’t think I have much choice.
I was sad to hear that LL will soon be no more. First
Linux Outlaws went away and now ye guys. :'(
The only GNU/Linux podcasts I like that are left are
mintCast & Ubuntu Podcast.
It’d be great if the Debian boys made a podcast.
I think you guys were a little down on the non-LTS releases of Ubuntu. I was lucky enough to acquire a modern, high-end gaming laptop in the summer, and despite knowing a thing or two about Linux now, really had no luck getting a workable Linux OS on the thing. However, with the release of Ubuntu Mate 16.10 it’s all changed – and I’m happily booting into Mate [other than for gaming] with all the nice new BIOS settings switched on – and it works just great. Maybe it’s just a later kernel – not sure – but I’m very happy Ubuntu cater for both LTS users and more leading edge users too with their interim releases.
Regarding snappy packages (splitting out large libraries).
The difference between using this and system libraries – is a predictable environment. So you can have a snap that depends on a spesific version of a toolkit, without having to worry about multiple library versions conflicting (as they would if you had to install them all onto the system).
I definitely am interested in what Joe and Jesse are planning. Besides the JB broadcast, linux luddities is / was a must listen to podcast. I am so sad to hear that it is coming to an end. As you suggested I will keep the RSS feed – keeping a look out for Joe and Jesse.
Looking forward to your future project. Your production quality, topics and coverage are best in class.
Nooooooooooo (Breath) ooooooooooo!
Sorry to hear about the wrapping up of the show. I hope to hear Joe and Jesse soon and best of luck to Paddy. I enjoyed hearing his opinions and views on matters.
Joe, Jesse you pair should carry on without Paddy under the Linux Luddites name! Why stop now? What a pain for me having to subscribe to a new RSS… (talk about first world problems).
Also, you’ve already built up a bit of a following here and the people know you as the Luddites. Starting over will suck. You could do a less edited show without “Pausing Paddy”, keep the work down a bit. Just make sure you don’t fill the gap with an American, I like the Britishness of the podcast even if you’re both Londoners ;-)
Now that Laura has retired from the Ubuntu UK podcast, and Wimpress has his new gig trying to make something usable out of the trainwreck that is Unity, I bet the UUK podcast will stop at the end of this season due to “too much work” or some such guff. Get Popey on your show as a regular (try and tolerate his rider requirements xD) and keep it going as LL. Pllleeeeaaassseee!!!
Pi podcast is gone. Luddites is shutting down. Joe is accusing Bad Voltage of PodFade. Ubuntu Podcast is different with Laura moving on (not bad, just different: she was probably the only non-middle-aged-white-male in the Linux pod-o-sphere). All these changes are not progress…
On a lighter note, I look forward to whatever Joe and Jessie come up with. I’ll keep luddites in my RSS feed in case you guys decide to do an annual Linus Torvalds birthday episode or something.
I am a newer listener, only starting this April. Thank you for your work, I’ll probably listen to more back episodes to fill the void until the new project gets going.
Best of luck to Paddy on whatever mischief he gets into.
PS – OOPS Forgot about Cheryl from Linux in the Ham Shack as another non-male linux podcaster.
A couple more: Mary on Sunday Morning Linux Review, Noah on Linux Action Show.
Jesse and I aren’t middle-aged!
Rather devastated by the news that Linux Luddites will have only one more episode.
Paddy will by sorely missed, without a doubt, but I do strongly encourage Joe & Jesse to carry on under the same banner. You’ve built up a following, you’ve got the merchandise, the Digital Ocean referral code (which I’ve used), etc. It’s a “brand” worth keeping.
Certainly looking forward to what the remaining crew will bring us in the future. Never would have believed Joe & Paddy could find a new Luddite that would fit in as well as Jesse has (seventy three episodes ago?!?). Maybe you can have some guest Luddites rotate through and maybe, just maybe, lightning can strike twice and a replacement will appear that will fill the gap left by Paddy.
Anyway, thank you all for the terrific content and second-to-none production over the years. LL episodes were eagerly anticipated get-togethers with old friends; the change to bi-weekly wasn’t great but just meant even greater satisfaction once an episode arrived.
Thank you again and please reconsider keeping the Linux Luddite name. Look at it as a tribute to Paddy.
Really sad that LinuxLuddites is going to end. I think that unless you can find someone who is just a Luddite as Paddy is the idea of a name change is the right thing to do.
But now let me complain about your look at “Ubuntu
Touch”, which I have been using for a year now on a Nexus
4. First on and off, now as a secondary phone to an
iPhone (on the rc.proposed channel). Surely, progress is
slow, and without the switch to a newer base than 15.04
and the adoption of Snap packages, Covergence will not
really shine. But things have been getting better. I
still remember that, back when I started, I felt
performance was downright horrible and essential features
were lacking, even though the Bq Aquaris E4.5 had been on
sale since mid february of 2015. Now, there even is a way
to use Whatsapp with Loqui.im (on the OpenStore, didn’t
try it).
And with Libertine, you can run XApps. I bet, Paddy could
use KeePassX. Sure, that would require some amount of
tinkering, but it’s not impossible anymore, especially on
a tablet.
So: It’s not as bleak as it seems.
One of the absolutely best things about the FOSS community is how decent and accepting people are. But it’s also a horrible weakness.
Ubuntu Touch was launched and pre-installed devices sold to regular consumers quite a while back. To consumers. Not to community members, not to those happy to tinker. To regular consumers. And so it has to be judged in those terms. If Microsoft or Apple or any other serious player had released a consumer OS in the state that Touch was at the time (or even as it is now), they’d have been laughed out of the market by the press. And rightly so.
I really want to see Touch succeed, but it has an awfully long way to go. We might argue about whether the interface paradigm and reliance on web apps is sane or not, but it’s currently not impressing even within the parameters it has set itself. And that is immensely sad.
It’s also equally heartwarming and frustrating that there are good people like yourself who are willing to cut FOSS companies like Canonical slack on projects like this. We ought to be able to — we need to be able to — champion the FOSS approach on the basis that it actually produces better products than proprietary companies. Until we can, it’ll always be seen as the cheapskate option, the long-distant second best option. And not holding those who produce it to the same standards we’d expect of closed source software will allow the half-arsed and slipshod to continue to proliferate.
Regular consumers would expect better of Touch than it offers today. And meeting the expectations of regular folks is the absolute bare minimum standard FOSS needs to achieve to make an impact in the consumer, rather than the back-office/server, space.
Please don’t stop being nice. But also never forget that the ethical aspect of FOSS is only important to us, not to Joe Public. And if you’re consciously aiming a product at them, as Canonical has, it had better be at least comparable to the commercial offerings already out there. Every time a FOSS company pushes substandard wares into the consumer space, it simply diminishes the public perception of the entire FOSS ecosystem. And that outcome upsets me immensely, hence this somewhat ranty response.
Gutted :(
Don’t be sad that it’s over. Be happy that it happened.
The screen coming on is limited to the Nexus 7 and is a
real pain it does not happen with the phone.
Jessie
To download a podcast in Podbird swipe the podcast entry
from the LHS and you will see the download button.
Paddy
Agree with most of what you say in your rant but to
compete you need resources and cash and although much as
Mr Shuttleworth is not short of a bob or two, it takes a
Google size company to compete with the big players.
Paddy, Joe, Jessie
I know how much work you all put into this and I am not
surprised that you have decided to call it a day.
Thank You
Henry
Cancel that RHS. Sorry Jessie I could never tell my port from starboard or if you ask some people my arse from my elbow.
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.
