Podcast Season 2 Episode 1
Podcast RSS feeds: Ogg Vorbis, MP3 and Opus.
Title: Ignorance Predators
In this episode: Linux is now more popular than ever on the desktop (and on mobile). And thanks to 14 new Steam Machines announced by Valve at CES, it’s becoming a gaming behemoth. Red Hat is going to work closer with CentOS and the UK government’s ‘porn filter’ is filtering more than porn. Also in the show, we’ve got the longest ever ‘Finds of a Fortnight’, an ace Voice of the Masses and a special guest.
What’s in the show:
- News:
The Linux desktop is now more popular than ever, according NetMarketShare.com. At CES, Valve has announced the imminent arrival of
1314 Steam Machines. Red Hat is going to work closer with former competitor, CentOS. The UK’s porn filter has been activated, and has surprised us all by being perhaps a little overzealous and by being not at all difficult to bypass. Torrent search is to be incorporated into Ubuntu’s Unity. Gnome’s Network Manager, used by many distributions, stores wifi passwords in plantext. But you need root access to read the file. - Finds of the Fortnight (props to Cheerfultux for the name!):
- Ben:
- If you want to look like you’re working, when you’re not, open Hackertyper.com fullscreen.
- Kali Linux, a distribution for penetration testing, is adding a self-destruct feature.
- Android 4.x uses MTP as a transport protocol, but devices can be mounted using MTPFS.
- The LinuxVoice server is on a floodplain.
- Mike:
- SuicideLinux; a package you install that then removes your filesystem if you make a typo.
- Wayland works well in Rebecca Black OS.
- Nick:
- Brackets is an awesome realtime HTML editor, worthy of an extra screen.
- Graham:
- Freezer shelves containing pipes coolant are actually easy to bend. So don’t be scared.
- Get messages you’ve missed from an IRC channel using a bouncer proxy called Bip.
- BBC iPlayer was accessed more by tablets than desktops for the first time this Christmas.
- Andrew:
- We may use the free font, Roboto, by Christian Robertson, for Linux Voice as it’s released under the Apache 2.0 licence.
- Ben:
- Challenge the team to do something:
- Vocalise Your Neurons:
- Voice of the Masses: Is the “year of Linux on the desktop” question still relevant?
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^C ^C ^C
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Many apologies to Malcolm Cameron – his neurons arrived too late for us to use them in this podcast, but we’ll broadcast them next time. And if you want your neurons to be part of our next episode, email mike@linuxvoice.com.
Presenters: Ben Everard, Andrew Gregory, Graham Morrison, Mike Saunders and Nick Veitch.
Download as high-quality Ogg Vorbis (62MB)
Download as low-quality MP3 (76MB)
Download the smaller yet even more awesome Opus file (26MB)
Duration: 1:15:17
Theme Music by Brad Sucks.
Related Posts
About The Author
Graham Morrison
A free software advocate and writer since the late 1990s, Graham is a lapsed KDE contributor and author of the Meeq MIDI step sequencer. @degville on Twitter.
Great to have you all back and in such high spirits. I am looking forward in my first Linux Voice winging its way to California in February.
Nick's not the only one with a CRT – why bother replacing it if it works?!
>why bother replacing it if it works?!
Power consumption.
Hey, you young 'uns dont know you were born. Why I remember times when the computer monitor WAS the TV, and interference from the Speccy was enough to cause screen fuzziness; when a flat screen TV was one that was actually just flat in the front; when a magnet in front of the TV would make weird patterns on the screen; when were a lad….
Nice to see the podcast back, although curious as to why gPodder decided to load the latest episode and reload the last one. And as to the comment about LV mag being "more professional" than the podcast – I wouldn't worry, us LVer's like the podcast just the way it is thanks. And I'm looking forward to my first LV issue with anticipation!
One disagreement with the panel's view on "Linux on the desktop". Unless I'm talking to a geek, I've never been asked about the "freeness" of an OS. Instead the two questions are "Can I do what I need to with this?" and "Is this better (faster, less BSODs) than my current version of Windows". And if the person I'm talking to isn't a gamer, or needs some specific bit of software – e.g. Photoshop – then Linux CAN do that.
Personally, for me the push for Linux on the desktop is overrated. Look at the closures and massive job losses at PC makers and draw the conclusion that the "desktop" of the future is likely to be just a docking station that you can drop a tablet (or even smartphone) into. In which case Linux – as Android – is in a good position. And don't forget Linux-under-the-Desktop if we start buying SteamBox gaming systems in any appreciable numbers!
All the PR about Cameron's porn filter seems to refer to 'the big 4 ISP's' I don't use one of them. Just went to my ISP's website and ran a search on 'Porn Filter'. Got the following response:
NOTHING FOUND Sorry, but nothing matched your search criteria. Please try again with some different keywords.
I tried 'adult content' too, same result. I guess that means they don't have a default filter, whatever the govt says.
Really enjoyed the podcast, the term "Sales Ignorance Predator" is now firmly etched in my memory 😀 Looking forward to issue #1
So guys where are the notes to go with this podcast?
don't reply to this idiot, whoever let me sit at a keyboard??
Don't worry, its just the part between the chair and keyboard that's the problem 😉
Suicide Linux beats the Year of the Linux Deskotp.
Re: plain text WiFi passwords, the idea behind encrypted WiFi is to make your wireless connection *as secure as a cabled connection*. If the password thief has to have access to your hard drive to get to your password, the encryption is still doing that job. After all, it would be easier for the thief to plug his laptop into an RJ45 in the guest bedroom.
Perhaps the challenge should be who can create the most convincing – I am really doing work – script. The winning result should be permanently hosted for download.
Awesome podcast. I do hope Nick becomes a regular!
You guys ever think about adding video to the podcast? Sort of like twit.tv's format? It makes it easier for some (read:me) to pay attention.
If there was video we would have to wear clothes though.
Love the show!
Roboto was introduced as the default font for Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
http://developer.android.com/design/style/typography.html
It's a really good font choice, if you ask me.
Hi – another great podcast. Thanks guys. An idea for a challenge if you have time – install conky and then come up with the best config file you can, making it as involved or simple as you like. The conky config could be as useful or daft as you want. You can then share either a screenshot of the desktop or the config file or both on linuxvoice.com. And if you're flat out busy you can always download a config file from the interwebs 5mins before recording the next podcast, get it running and discuss why you chose it.
Anyway, just a thought. 🙂
The mention of the Bip proxy made me think that maybe rather than IRC you might want to use Lily. Lily is an open source IRC-like communication system based on LambdaMOO, and has as one of it's most useful features, server-side logging. The simple command, for example, "/review detach" will show you everything you've missed in all the discussions you're subscribed to, up to the default buffer size, (Lily has "discussions" rather than "channels").
You *could* download the software from http://sourceforge.net/projects/lilycore/ to set up your own Lily server, but it strikes me as more sensible to get an account on the server hosted where it originated: http://rpi.lily.org:7780/ Click on "Account Request", fill out the form, and, er, wait for the person who processes those requests to do so. (It's not a limitation, it's the personal touch!)
You can telnet into the server at lily.acm.rpi.edu:7777, but telnet/SSH clients tend to be a bit unpredictable in how well that works in practical terms, (I just tried it in TeraTerm, and though it connects fine, I was typing blind once I was in), so it's better to download a dedicated client available from ftp://lily.acm.rpi.edu/pub/lily/ Once you're in for the first time, it's best to start with the command "/help" and take it from there. There are lots of established discussions, (well over five hundred the last I looked–including, surprise surprise, one for Linux), and of course new ones can be created easily.
I hesitate to make this "A Challenge," and am happy to leave it as "something to think about." Toodles.
I think that 2014 is the Year of Running Windows XP in a Virtual Machine within a Linux Distribution.
I also think it is the Year of Trying to Figure out how to Convert a Cheap Android Tablet into a Linux Desktop, though Youtube shows me that this has been the Year in question for 3 years or so.
I am curious to see if this is the Year in which Someone Figured out that Rather than creating a Steambox, One can Just Install Steam in a Fully-Featured Linux Desktop.
Personally, though, I hope this is the Year in which Commentators Cease Being Excited about Closed-end Gaming like Steam and Support Open Source Games.
Great show!
if you guys ever do a live video, please make my day and dress up as kiss with all the face paint.
that would make my day 😀
I just listened the very first Tux Radar episode, and a few things in there gave me an idea for a few questions that might make a nice "Voice of the Masses" maybe?
If a person uses free and open source software, should he/she get involved in the free and open source community and pay back by contributing in some way or another? Is it ok, for somebody to just use the software without giving anything back to the community, or should such a person be considered as a leecher?
Or should it be thought that just using free software makes a person in someway "part" of the community in some way, even though he/she would not give anything back or not even care in any way about the politics and ethics of free software?
And also, is it necessary that a person who uses free software should have to understand and value the importance of free software ethics?
So when we replace XP with Ubuntu (etc.) on grandma's old computer, should we also give her a lecture about the four essential freedoms and about the importance of contributing etc. etc.
The thing is, as fare as I'm aware, that the answer to all your questions are actually pretty simple and would be no on all accounts. You're simply not obliged to do or know anything whatsoever. The only way you theoretically could get into trouble would be by somehow violating a license. But maybe I'm wrong or perhaps it would make a good "Voice of the Masses" either way.
Anyway, just stopped by to say fun podcast oh and title. Thanks.
Yes, of course: There is no legal reason for contributing in any way or giving anything back to the free software community.
I was not trying to ask is it absolutely mandatory to do so, but what I was trying to aim for was more along the lines of:
Is it ok if more and more people just use Linux (or just some application in "Whoknows-what-os", like Firefox etc.), more or less just because it is free of charge?
Such a user does not care at all, what ever the licence is or anything like that: it's all "freeware" to them. Are such users in some indirect way really part of the larger free and open source community even if they do not care about any of the political/ethical aspect of things and do not care about the "community" in any way shape or form?
Also: When introducing new people to Linux, should we tell them about the philosophy behind free software and encourage them to contribute, or should we just say: "Linux is free, you don't have to pay any money. There are also tons of applications for it, and they are also free, you do not need to pay anything." And let them figure out the rest of the stuff on their own.
Is it enough to just get people to use free and open source software, or should we try to get them to understand why they might actually want to use free software, rather than closed source software, other than because it is free as in beer.
When talking about Linux to a person who does not know anything about it, should the emphasis be on the "Free-as-in-beer"-aspect, or on the "Free-as-in speech"-aspect? Or is there some happy medium?
Different distributions seem to develop different communities as they have different goals and different ways to interact with their users. I believe that distributions just as you, as an individual, are not obligated to behave or present themselves in any certain way. So as I see it, you're very much asking about personal preferences, which is of course fine. If it's about politics and philosophical views maybe the disagreement between free software and open source would be more relevant? http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
But I don't claim to have all the answers so perhaps there will be a "masses" like you asked. 🙂
“should we try to get them to understand why they might actually want to use free software”
The problem with that is that there is no single philosophical reason (ie if it is not just the money) why people might favour free software. For example, much of the reasoning RMS gives leaves me cold, and other users I know all have different outlooks on it. Start telling a potential user about concepts like “copyleft” and the ability to fork the kernel, and you will stop most dead in their tracks. Sorry.
Personally, I am not a great fan of the word “freedom” which usually means what the speaker wants it to mean. I use Linux because the whole ecosystem of Windows and much proprietory software stinks, IMHO.
Just an example, I look after a family member’s Windows box, and have turned off automatic updates. But every time it boots it pops up a baloon to complain about that, and says something like “Click here to solve this problem”. But it ISN’T a “problem” : I chose it that way. This is just one of many patronising pop-ups at the time and subsequently, the origin of which I have no clue (malware Trojans?), and which can re-appear as fast as I dismiss them. Is my dislike of this sort of thing anything to do with “freedom” or the source being open? Don’t think so.
Well it seem that the more I try to clarify what was my original question, the further I actually go from it. Maybe there is nothing there, where I am trying to get at? Ok, maybe it's not such a good VOM topic.
But I'll try to clarify it one more time if I am allowed?
In every part of the Linux world you hear somethings along the lines of: "Linux is a community driven thing", "None of this would be possible without all of you…", "Please consider donating some of your time or money to…", "Linux is made possible by effort of thousands of people all around the world" etc. (You can find many examples from this very site.)
So in another words this means that if people would not be giving and sharing there would not be no Linux. Or Linux Voice for that matter. And I think this is certainly very true.
But what if somebody wants to just use Linux and does not care at all about the whole community/sharing/etc. thing in any way? Is this sort of a user still somehow beneficial to the community in some indirect way? And if not, does it harm the community in some way or another if there would be more and more user like that?
You have a point in that if Linux ever became vastly popular on the desktop (even to a fraction of the extent of Windows), with the vast majority of its users not caring about it other than the fact that it is free (as in beer), then it would change fundamentally and for the worse. For one thing, hard commercialisation would highjack it, and the GPL would not save it from that. That has already happened in one area, with Android; but that is an offshoot, of abnormal growth though it is, rather than the main channel of Linux which remains unaffected.
But such popularity will never happen now. Joe Public has had his spin with PCs, has got bored, and is moving on to tablets. That leaves only the enthusiasts and the business world using true PCs, in which the proportion using Linux will be much greater than in the past (as these are enthusiasts) among whome the community sense will remain strong. I am optimistic.
Don't feel guilty about not contributing. Just being in this discussion is contributing, and anyway the more Linux users there are, the more likely hardware makers are to write Linux drivers for their kit. I have not contributed much myself and I cannot imagine writing patches for the kernel; but come to think of it I have answered questions on Linux forums quite a few times, and I have helped play-test a game during its development. I also run a web site about the game and am pleased if people download a copy; I dont expect anything to be contributed in return, and nor does the author, I know.
So far, great podcasts LV team!
Hopefully your revenue will allow a download host upgrade soon, 200 Kbit/sec is painful!