LINUX FORMAT

The #1 open source mag Future Publishing Limited,

MEET THE TEAM

This issue, we are lighting up our lives with Home Assistant-powered smart lights, so what’s the smartest thing you have installed lately?

Not so smart homes

Every tech startup and their dog seems to

Canonical is having a great time with Ubuntu

The company has recently filed its financial statements. It saw $251 million in revenue for the last year, and has 1,034 employees.

GIMP 3.0 is coming

The much-anticipated GIMP 3.0 will soon be upon us, with the latest developer preview build announced.

The 0.0.0.0 Day vulnerability

The exploit allows execution of arbitrary code.

LATEST UPDATES!

Italo Vignoli is one of the founders

TURNING THE TDE

Dave Stokes is a technology evangelist at

Nvidia fixes Wayland

The latest driver supports KDE and direct scanout on multiple monitors.

Linux outperforms Windows (again)

Clear Linux outperforms Windows on AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hardware.

Distro watch

What’s behind the free software sofa?

TAMING PANTHOR

Eric Smith is a senior software developer

BOOT CAMP

Jon Masters is a kernel hacker who’s

Kernel Watch

Jon Masters summarises the latest happenings in the Linux kernel, so that you don’t have to.

Answers

Got a burning question about open source or the kernel? Whatever your level, email it to answers@linuxformat.com

Mailserver

WRITE TO US Do you have a burning

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Super safes I buy your magazine every month,

HotPicks

VirtualBox Signal GpgFrontend Alpaca Keypunch Falkon Super Productivity A-Mazing Urho Warzone 2100 Etcher Video Downloader

Signal

Version: 7.16.0 Web: https://signal.org In addition to

GpgFrontend

Version: 2.1.3 Web: https://gpgfrontend.bktus.com GpgFrontend makes GnuPG

Alpaca

Version: 1.0.2 Web: https://jeffser.com/alpaca The models that

Keypunch

Version: 3.0 Web: https://github.com/bragefuglseth/keypunch Keypunch has a

Falkon

Version: 24.05.2 Web: www.falkon.org Like the desktop

Super Productivity

Version: 9.0.6 Web: https://super-productivity.com You can make

A-Mazing Urho

Version: 20240714 Web: https://luckeyproductions.itch.io/amazingurho The A-Mazing Urho

Warzone 2100

Version: 4.5.1 Web: https://wz2100.net Warzone 2100 maybe

Etcher

Version: 1.19.21 Web: https://etcher.balena.io While Etcher is

Video Downloader

The app doesn’t offer many controls while downloading

GnuCash

The words “free accounting” are music to Rob Clymo’s freelance ears.

Vanilla OS 2 Orchid

Is Vanilla OS a darling bud of May or just an awkward orchid? Nate Drake is on the case.

Emmabuntüs DE 5 1.02

Nate Drake searches frantically for his umlaut key in evaluating this ethical, lightweight and accessible French distro.

Sleeper OS Bee v2

Nate Drake fires up his laptop to discover whether Sleeper OS is the perfect dream or every Linux user’s nightmare.

Super Grub2 2.06s4

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Super Grub! Nate Drake shares how it worms its way into unbootable systems.

Schim

Management is thrilled that Jody Macgregor likes working in the shadows.

Beginners’ distributions

Not everyone is a Linux veteran like Michael Reed, so he’s assessing five distributions that could be a good choice for Linux newbs.

Getting it installed

The installation process, from a beginner’s perspective.

First-run experience

People new to Linux might need extra hand-holding at the start.

Getting around the desktop

Where you’ll spend most of your time.

Visual customisation

Even beginners have ideas about how things should look and work.

Available documentation

One of the most important considerations for a Linux beginner.

Application installation

Installing apps is the next step once the basic customisations are done.

Default applications

We like a distro that can handle the basic tasks without extra work.

Beginners’ distributions

M int inherits many of the advantages of Ubuntu

BRIGHTER SMARTER HOMES!

Matt Holder uses Home Assistant and Zigbee devices to make automations and dashboards showing the state of our homes.

Making you smarter

Before kick-starting your new obsession, it is worth explaining a little bit about Home Assistant’s concepts…

Create dashboards

To control your smart home, you need dashboard controls that link to your smart home devices.

Pair your Zigbee gear

Using low-cost widely available smart lighting is easier than you might think, thanks to open protocols and open standards.

Automatic pilot

Automations are key to creating a smarter home and ensuring it works from dusk to dawn.

Shoot for the Moon with Moonhack 2024

Join in with the Australia-based hackfest that’s open to everyone around the world!

The Pi 5 GPU

Hacked, of course!

Pi 5 2GB

New low cost.

GETTING INTO INTEL

Les Pounder works with groups such as

Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra

It turns out that Denise Bertacchi will go crazy for anything that tilts!

Pi Pico 2

With £5 burning a hole in his pocket, Les Pounder splashes out on the new embedded Pi.

Hack Wi-Fi on to your new Pi Pico 2

The new Pico 2 doesn’t come with Wi-Fi, but when has that ever stopped Les Pounder? Never, that’s when.

Cut a slice of Pi Pico on BreadboardOS

BREADBOARDOS

Speed up downloads

Optimum use of internet bandwidth is Shashank Sharma’s life’s purpose. Thankfully, there are tools designed to help do just that.

Fix and tweak your network settings

LINUX BASICS

Advanced PDF editing and tricks in OnlyOffice

PDF is an extremely popular format, touching our workflow every day. Kseniya Fedoruk shares tips to get the most out of dealing with them.

Emulate the classic Psion PDA range

Les Pounder travels back to the 1990s, when Filofax became digital, and your phone was dumb and the size of a brick.

Reviving the WW2 Enigma machine

The Enigma machine was hugely sophisticated for its day. Today, all that clever mechanics can be replicated in software, as Mike Bedford reveals.

How to handle Nvidia graphics card drivers

NVIDIA

Upgrade it: Nvidia GeForce graphic cards

GPU

GeForce RTX 4070 Super

SPECS GPU: AD104 Compute: 56 Shaders: 7,168

GeForce RTX 4070

SPECS GPU: AD104 Compute: 46 Shaders: 5,888

GeForce RTX 4090

You’ll be the fastest kid on the block

GeForce RTX 4060

Your wallet is going to love you, but

GeForce RTX 4080 Super

This has 80% of the speed of a

GeForce RTX 4060 Ti

Triple 1080p frame rates and playable 4K make

Fixing system services on Linux servers

Stuart Burns laments the fact that fixing broken services is much easier on Linux than in the UK at large.

Inside the AI PC

Is the AI PC anything more than marketing speak? Barry Collins and Tim Danton find out…

Adding colour to the LXF Shell project

Removing his head from the retro demoscene clouds, Ferenc Deák is back down to earth and adding colour to our ongoing LXF Shell project.

Create a VS Code 6502 extension

David Bolton shows how to set up Node, NPM and Yeoman for creating extensions for Visual Studio Code.