Linux After Dark

In this engaging discussion, the hosts catch up on their Linux projects from the past year, detailing Joe's move to Docker Compose for image deployment. Gary shares insights on enhancing security with Tailscale, while Chris reflects on his Python learning journey. May celebrates successfully migrating data to ZFS and stepping away from Synology. A lively debate ensues over the merits of Jellyfin vs. Plex, focusing on performance and self-hosting benefits. Finally, May unveils her progress in automating a Hugo site.

The conversation dives into future visions for the Linux and FOSS world, balancing ambition with practicality. There's a heated debate on the performance rivalry between x86 and ARM, especially in high-end laptops. The hosts discuss the implications of disk encryption and hopeful advances in user-friendly security options. They also tackle the challenges of composable Debian developments and the prospects of Valve's hardware enhancing Linux gaming. Lastly, there's a push for open-source integrity and the need to escape algorithmic social media.

In this installment, the hosts dive into their most memorable tech support nightmares. Joe shares a harrowing night spent restoring a deleted partition from DVDs. There’s a hilarious tale of a solicitor jamming a CD inside a PC case, and Chris recounts breaking a laptop's Wi-Fi antenna during refurbishing. May admits to damaging a client's board, while Joe talks about a crafty Wi-Fi hack with a half-width PCMCIA card. A perfect mix of tech blunders and laughter glues this engaging discussion together.

The hosts dive into nostalgic Linux and open-source tech, reminiscing about the days of the Eee PC and experimenting with various distros. May shares insights on using FOG for deploying Windows images, highlighting its advanced features. There’s a heartfelt discussion on reviving old hardware and sentimental keepsakes from past projects. Chris talks about his experiences with a headless Ubuntu server and learning system administration, while tales of router hacking reveal the joys of networking tinkering. The episode is a vibrant mix of memories and tech ingenuity.

How we’ve all set up our backups including GUI distros vs doing it the hard way, ZFS vs Borg, and why it’s tricky to chose the right offsite location.           Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes         See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed.

Some of our Linux hot takes including the LTS release model being broken, Linux media being out of touch, social media being the root of most evil, and people being too angry and defensive about the software they use.             Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes         See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed.

We’ve done various challenges in the past where we’ve bought Linux machines on a seriously low budget, but what if we had an unlimited budget? What would we buy in this hypothetical situation? It turns out we all struggled to come up with anything and are pretty satisfied with the machines we already have.   Note that this episode was recorded before we found out that Framework supports problematic projects.       Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes         See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed.    

Florian Beijers joins us again to give us an update on the state of accessibility in Linux and whether things have improved since we last spoke.   Florian’s YouTube Channel Techy Twitch streams Accessible gaming Twitch streams fireborn’s blog posts about accessibility in Linux           Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes         See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed.

We cover some of your emails, questions, and comments. A challenge suggestion of not using a package manager, donating old hardware, why we don’t use custom ROMs on our phones, whether low end laptops with soldered eMMC storage are worth buying (they aren’t), and tips for using Home Assistant with Apple gear and Jellyfin on Android.   The terrible laptop we mentioned             Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes         See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed.

Summer is officially over. As the nights draw in it’s time to hunker down and work on our technical debt. We all have Linuxy projects that we are planning, so we commit to doing them by Christmas – when we will record a follow-up episode. Docker Compose, Immich, Jellyfin, learning Python, moving away from Synology, Home Assistant, and more.             Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes         See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed.