Untitled Linux Show 244

Highlights

• Hardware review: Lenovo Legion Tab 3 (8” Android tablet) — form factor, display, ports, performance, and delivery issues.
• Several open‑source project updates and policy debates: LibreOffice Online revival, Mesa draft AI policy, Gnome Git hosting cost workaround, and Android/age‑verification policy concerns.
• Longitudinal laptop benchmarking across ~18 years of Intel laptop CPUs (Core 2 → Panther Lake): performance, power and thermal analysis.
• New releases and hotfixes: Ardour 9.1/9.2, GNU Octave 11, Thunderbird 148, Zero AD 0.28.
• Tools, tips and mini‑guides: Snapper (Btrfs snapshots), Pi Net Scan (Python network scanner), Espanso (text expander), MediaInfo, command‑line tips.

Product features, reviews and practical notes

Lenovo Legion Tab 3 (Legion Tab Gen 3)

• 8” screen, roughly 2560×1920 resolution; dual stereo speakers; compact, pocketable form factor favored by the reviewer.
• 12 GB RAM; dual USB‑C ports (supports pass‑through charging possibilities).
• Limitations: Wi‑Fi only (no LTE), no GPS, no fingerprint reader (face unlock present), serviceable camera.
• Software: Android bloatware removable; Termux installable for Linux‑like workflows; suitable for emulation and media consumption.
• Purchase/delivery: reviewer experienced major shipping problems and long delays with Lenovo/UPS.

Software, projects and policy analysis

LibreOffice vs Collabora

• Collabora advocated using a web UI as a desktop app.
• The Document Foundation reversed a 2022 freeze and reopened LibreOffice Online (web version) as a community project, calling for contributors to modernize the tech, QA, and marketing.

Mesa (graphics stack) — draft AI policy (merge request)

• Proposed approaches include:
  • Ban autonomous AI agents.
  • Ban substantial AI‑generated code.
  • Full AI ban.
  • Mandatory AI transparency.
  • Per‑subproject AI rules.
• Discussion focuses on code quality, reviewer capacity, and ethical/legal concerns.

Gnome repository hosting / cost workaround

• To cut hosting costs, Gnome is mirroring GitLab repositories on GitHub and redirecting certain public git clones to GitHub mirrors.
• This is a pragmatic cost hack but may conflict with projects’ intentions to avoid GitHub.

Android openness & sideloading concerns

• keepandroidopen.org warns of Google policy changes (starting Sept 2026) that may require apps on certified Android devices to be tied to verified developers even when sideloaded.
• Tradeoffs: potential reduction in malware vs loss of sideloading freedom; practical effects include limits on hobby apps and third‑party distribution and implications for Widevine/Play Store access.

California age‑verification law (AB‑1043)

• Effective Jan 1, 2027 (legally challenged): requires OS providers to present age info at account setup and provide an age signal to apps in covered app stores.
• Implications: legal/compliance pressure on OS vendors (possible effects on Linux distros), enforcement and nexus questions, and technical/manifest privacy concerns.

Benchmarking: Intel laptop CPU evolution (Phoronix / Michael Larabel style)

• Testbed: 15 Intel‑based laptops, from Core 2 Duo T9300 up to Core Ultra X7 358H (Panther Lake).
• Results summary:
  • Extreme cases (OpenSSL) showed up to 95× improvement.
  • Geometric average speedup ≈ 21.5× from the oldest to the newest.
  • Performance progression is stair‑stepped: some generations show small gains, others large jumps.
  • Real‑world results are strongly influenced by thermals, power delivery, memory, storage and whole‑system differences — not just CPU microarchitecture.

Releases, hotfixes and notable updates

• Ardour 9.1 & 9.2 (audio DAW)

  • Hotfixes: restored bottom editor pane; added MIDI note chasing and duplication; fixed ruler visibility and some crash cases; zoom-to-session updates.
  • Recommended to read the full changelog for details.

• GNU Octave 11

  • Improved MATLAB compatibility; many functions rewritten/retyped for speed (some up to ~6×) and lower memory usage.
  • Added functions and GUI improvements (scalable SVG icons).

• Thunderbird 148

  • Accessibility improvements; favorites as a destination for move/file actions; NTLM available for EWS accounts.
  • Yahoo/AT&T/AOL moved to OAuth PKCE; fixes for Gmail auto‑config OAuth prompting and message move logging.

• Zero AD 0.28 (open RTS game)

  • Dropped alpha label; new playable faction (Germans); engine and gameplay updates.

Tools, guides and CLI tips

• Snapper (Btrfs snapshots)

  • CLI snapshot manager to configure snapshot locations, manual & automatic snapshots, retention and cleanup.
  • Useful on Btrfs root/subvol setups; GUI alternatives include Btrfs Assistant and Timeshift.

• Pi Net Scan (Python network scanner)

  • Terminal/GUI style network scanner showing IP, hostname, MAC, vendor, OS guess, open ports, SSDP/mDNS info.
  • Ports list is editable in Python; author used AI (ChatGPT/Gemini) during development.

• MediaInfo

  • CLI tool to extract metadata from audio, video and image files (can output HTML).

• Espanso

  • Cross‑platform text expander running as a background service; supports snippets, dynamic replacements (dates, emojis) and running scripts as expansions.

• Other CLI tips: examples using Snapper and MediaInfo; Btrfs best practices.

Notable procedural / UX debate

• sudo (pseudo‑rs, Rust rewrite) password feedback
  • pseudo‑rs in Ubuntu 26.04 dev enabled password feedback by default (shows asterisks for typed characters).
  • Rationale: improves UX for new users.
  • Criticism: asterisks reveal password length and may be undesirable; the behavior can be disabled by setting “!pwfeedback” in sudoers.

Fedora Pocket Blue (mobile Linux effort)

• Goal: Fedora Atomic (immutable OS/ostree) images for phones/tablets using OCI/OSTree/boot tooling.
• Image variants per device: GNOME Desktop, GNOME Mobile, Plasma Desktop, Plasma Mobile, Fosh; Orange Pi 3 LTS has a TTY image.
• Initial supported devices: Xiaomi Pad 5/6, OnePlus 6/6T, Poco F1, Orange Pi 3 LTS — many are older devices with community kernel support.
• Note: modern phone support requires upstream driver/kernel support and vendor cooperation.

Security and ecosystem context

• Sideloading is still easy on many devices today, but policy changes and certification requirements can shift toward more centralized control.
• AI in code submissions raises reviewer workload and licensing/ethical concerns; projects are experimenting with bans, transparency rules, and per‑subproject policies.
• Projects mirror on GitHub to reduce costs, which can conflict with anti‑GitHub positions and concerns about AI data scraping.

Speakers and primary sources referenced

• Hosts / participants: Jonathan Bennett (host), Jeff, Ken, Rob (Robert P. Campbell).
• Articles & authors cited:
  • Michael Larabel / Phoronix (laptop benchmarking)
  • Bobby Barasoff and Marcus Nester (Ardour coverage)
  • Marcus Nester (Thunderbird coverage)
  • Carol Herps (Mesa draft AI policy author/merge request)
  • Document Foundation / Elaine (LibreOffice Online reversal)
  • keepandroidopen.org (Android developer verification campaign)
  • Fedora Pocket Blue project announcement
  • GNU Octave release notes
  • Various community discussions (pseudo‑rs change, Gnome mirroring, Mesa AI MR)