Jammy upgrades

It’s LTS time again! If you’re down with

MEET THE TEAM

With this issue’s focus on the latest LTS release of Ubuntu, will you be upgrading to version 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish? If not, what are you installing instead?

Newsdesk

FOSS community stands up to Russian atrocities

VisionFive V1 RISC-V SBC on sale

After the cancellation of the BeagleV StarFive, a new SBC based on a RISC-V processor is now on sale

Linux comes to the Apple M1

The first Asahi Linux Alpha release is very promising

OPINION

FILESYSTEM MONITORING Gabriel Krisman Bertazix is a senior

Rolling Rhino announced

A new community remix of Ubuntu turns the popular distro into a rolling-release project

Fedora drops 32-bit app support

Others are likely to follow the mainstream distro’s actions

Drawing 1.0.0 released

The open-source MS Paint alternative hits a milestone

Distro watch

What’s down the side of the free software sofa?

KERNEL WATCH

Jon Masters summarises the latest happenings in the Linux kernel, because someone has to…

Answers

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

Mailserver

WRITE TO US Do you have a burning

FireDM

DOWNLOAD MANAGER

Mplayer

Version: 1.5 Web: http://mplayerhq.hu R ecently there’s

Rnote

Version: 0.3.5 Web: https://github.com/flxzt/rnote R unning Linux

Mailspring

Version: 1.10 Web: https://github.com/foundry376/mailspring M ailspring is

AirSane

Version: 0.3.2 Web: https://github.com/simulpiscator/airsane A irSane is

Fbcat

Version: 0.5.2 Web: https://github.com/jwilk/fbcat T he Linux

Topgrade

Version: 8.2.0 Web: https://github.com/r-darwish/topgrade O ne of

Superdux

Version: GIT Web: https://github.com/snowymouse/superdux S uperdux is

Casper-fs

Version: 0.2 Web: https://github.com/CoolerVoid/casper-fs N ormally, you’d

Xplora

Version: GIT Web: https://github.com/hicodersofficial/xplora T his isn’t

REVIEWS

Seagate EXOS 20TB

HostGator

A basic website hosing option for small and medium businesses that Shashank Sharma thinks should be on your short list

Linux Mint DE 5

Whenever there’s a new LMDE release, Mayank Sharma can’t help but think of the old adage: “It’s the thought that counts.”

Fedora 36

Mayank Sharma calls the latest Fedora release just as boring as its predecessors. But is that a bad thing?

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

If there’s one thing Mayank Sharma likes even less than Ubuntu, it’s Ubuntu LTS releases, which are notably stable but not notable generally

A Musical Story

Fun, folk and funk are three things that Management hate with a passion, so Tom Sykes has turned down his speakers

The Last Cube

Management isn’t keen on sentient anything, it’s bad for productivity, so Neil Mohr keeps the thinking to a minimum which isn’t helping here at all…

Roundup

Open source app stores

First-launch experience

Do the stores load quickly, so that you’re not left watching the clock?

App description

How much useful information is in each product card?

Variety of app sources

Do these stores give you enough choice?

System upgrade capability

Can our stores upgrade not just single programs, but the whole OS?

Task queueing

Can you tell your software store to batch-install new programs?

Reliability

How stable are the software stores that you want to rely on?

Extra features

What else can each store do and make you want to use it?

The Verdict

Open source app stores

BULLET-PROOF

UBUNTU 22.O4

Of jams and jellies

It’s Ubuntu LTS time, so let’s see what will be the shape of Ubuntu for the next few years…

Escape Windows

Whether you’re a complete novice or Windows has driven you to seek out other operating systems, Ubuntu can help

Customise Ubuntu

Discover new software. Change settings. Install a new desktop (or three)

Tweaking and rewiring

Some final edits to perfect your installation, plus a little Ubuntu nostalgia

BITTEN BY THE FOSS BUG

Has worked in IT for 15 years, with

Consumers last in the queue for Pi resupplies

After warnings early in 2022, stock remains a challenge for the Raspberry Pi Foundation

Arm powered

Not that sort!

It’s another SBC

New Portenta X8 board

Armbian 22.02 Jammy XFCE

Les Pounder takes a look at a distro that supports 64 different Linux single board computers, and now he has to buy them all

Arducam Auto-focus 16MP Camera module

Quick-off-the-draw Les Pounder can’t shoot shots faster than this camera

Build a Python-based reaction game

Les Pounder goes back to the early days of the Raspberry Pi to look at a board that made a big difference to his career

GET PACKING!

Keen to give back to the FOSS community, but don’t know where to start? Mike McCallister shows you one way to do a good deed

Bringing stories to the command line

Shashank Sharma knows that the Linux CLI, once seen as the domain of the uber geek, also serves as the pathway to the myriad worlds of stories

Quickly track down & delete unwanted files

Nick Peers takes a deep dive into this fast-evolving and brilliant tool for finding and removing redundant files from your PC

Emulate the classic Amstrad PCW

Les Pounder goes back to school, a time when his form room was full of Z80 computers and noisy dot matrix printers

Make your home as smart as possible

Exploring NFC tags, energy monitoring and the Wireguard VPN to add further capabilities to your smart home with Matthew Holder.

Get more from Wine and Windows

Michael Reed teaches you everything you need to know about using Microsoft Windows compatibility system WINE with some handy tips

Take full control over your email

David Rutland does the impossible and sets up a VPS-based email server and a webmail front-end, then writes a tutorial about it – all in one afternoon

Easily create instant virtual machines

Stuart Burns helps you to master Multipass, the virtualisation platform that runs on any desktop platform

ALL HANDS ON DECK

Jonni Bidwell pries Valve’s Steam Deck from PC Gamer’s cold, anthropomorphised hands and gets his game on

Develop Linux filesystem tools in Rust

Mihalis Tsoukalos explains how to manipulate and examine files and directories in Rust so you can write filesystem tools

Update and improve old blackjack code

Updating old projects can be fun and educational. Andrew Smith ensures that your cards are dealt correctly at any resolution