Mobile mania

Get Linux on your laptop! There’s no doubt

GitHub fights back against RIAA

SOFTWARE FREEDOM

Android 7.1 internet woes

From 2021, Android 7.1 and earlier could lose access to 30 per cent of all websites due to Let’s Encrypt certificate changes

CRYSTAL DB BALLS

Matt Yonkovit is Percona’s chief experience officer and

Linux on new ARMbased M1 MacBooks?

Apple M1 ARM-based SoC could boot custom kernels

ALWAYS BE PREPARED

Keith Edmunds is MD of Tiger Computing Ltd,

Firefox 83 is now 20 per cent faster!

SpiderMonkey’s Warp update brings huge performance benefits

RetroFreedom webshop launched

Now available: Linux laptops with Libreboot installed

Python creator now part of Microsoft

Guido van Rossum joins Microsoft’s Developer Division

MOBILE MONADO

Jakob Bornecrantz is a senior software engineer working

Distro watch

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

IT’S NOT UNUSUAL

Jon Masters has been involved with Linux for

Kernel Watch

Jon Masters summarises the latest happenings in the Linux kernel, so you don’t have 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 at Linux Format, Future Publishing, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA or lxf.letters@futurenet.com

BACK ISSUES

HotPicks

THE BEST NEW OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE ON THE PLANET

Filmulator

IMAGE EDITOR

Far2l

FILE MANAGER

Dooble

WEB BROWSER

MiniPaint

IMAGE EDITOR

Straw viewer

YOUTUBE VIEWER

Triangle

IMAGE RENDERER

Pick2Hand

2D PLATFORMER

Zabuyaki

COMBAT GAME

Flying Carpet

FILE TRANSFER TOOL

Bluedo

BLUETOOTH TOOL

AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

The Zen 3 architecture packing Ryzen 9 5900X moves AMD out of Intel’s shadow to take centre stage. Jarred Wilton and Alan Dexter are impressed

Trisquel 9.0 Etiona

Jonni Bidwell is on a brave quest to banish binary blobs from his legendary Eee PC. Will this distro prove helpful, or become more of a hindrance?

Ubuntu 20.10

The Groovy Gorilla is out. Jonni Bidwell wonders if he might finally meet his spirit animal, or if he’ll be maimed

Brave 1.17.3

Firefox loyalist Jonni Bidwell has a dalliance with an altogether different kind of web browser. Will he be able to look at himself in the mirror afterwards…?

What the Golf?

Management loves a good round of golf, so this daemon spawn from Christopher Livingston has enraged them!

Presentation software

WE COMPARE Presentation TONS OF software STUFF SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO!

Output quality

Considering the end results

Ease of installation

Getting it up and running

Main features

Investigating the core functionality

Documentation and support

What assistance is on offer?

File formats

Investigating compatibility issues

Collaboration

Enabling team working

Ease of use

Spotlight on the learning curve

The Verdict

Presentation software

LINUX ON THE GO

Jonni Bidwell’s desktop PC exploded, but fret not – he’s found that Linux works great on laptops. And phones. And Chromebooks

Myths and facts

Your laptop can almost certainly run Linux and there’s only a few pitfalls to watch out for. Let us explain…

Installing Pop!_OS

Learn the rudiments of Pop!_OS risk free, and when you’re sufficiently amazed install it on your system

Tweaking Pop!_OS

Linux, and Pop!_OS in particular, can do a lot for your lapto p’s performance and security with just a little persuasion…

Linux on phones

Prepare for a quick survey of the diverse Linux options for mobile and a deep dive into Ubports’ fantastic Ubuntu Touch

Google ChromeOS

With a limited lifespan you’ll eventually want to replace the Google-maintained OS for something with more Tux to it

Stereo Pi v2

Seeing a good idea

MAKING THE CASE FOR Pi WAR

Mike Horne is a web developer with over

Wio a display

USB-powered micro screen

The Pi 400 design process aka lefty bias

Insights into the design and creation of the latest Raspberry Pi device reveal something surprising…

PiKISS

Les Pounder wants to tweak his Raspberry Pi to perfection and with PiKISS he just might manage it. Could this be a “chef’s kiss” moment?

How to build Internet of Thing devices

NODE-RED

Use a Raspberry Pi as your daily driver

RASPBERRY PI

TIMELINE

Day 0 “Sensing that preparation would be key

PACKAGE DELIVERY

Add your own Linux software to the ecosystem. Michael Reed looks at what it takes to become a package maintainer

Partitioning disks from the command line

FDISK

Improve your video conferencing sessions

Nick Peers reveals how to set up and use Jami – the open-source, peer-topeer and privacy-focused chat tool – for all your messaging needs

Top 10 Ubuntu tips

UBUNTU

Run the classic Amstrad CPC 464

Les Pounder goes back to the 80s, when Alan Sugar hired more people than he fired and computers came built inside the keyboards. Madness!

Securely joint-edit your docs in real-time

So, you want to work and collaborate on your documents securely, but are concerned about your confidential data? Kseniya Fedoruk has the solution

Plot geolocation data with ELK

Simon Quain reveals how to display local restaurants and their food hygiene ratings on a map with Elasticsearch, Logstash and Kibana, aka ELK

Improve your browsing with Firefox

Nick Peers uncovers 10 clever ways to improve the performance and behaviour of your favourite open source web browser

Emulation-free Amiga

Fed up with modern indulgence and bulky nonsense, John Knight tries PC computing the Amiga way, with the AROS operating system

Build an overhead Python racing game

Calvin Robinson creates a racing video game in Python with PyGame – there’s nothing like a mad dash to the finish line to get the heart pounding!

Programming a Turing Machine

It was the computer that started it all, albeit in theory. Mike Bedford shows you how to program a Turing Machine and put it through its paces

On the disc

CREATIVE DISTRO MIN SPECS: 2GB RAM (4GB RECOMMENDED),

START HERE

USING THE LXFDVD Using Linux for the first

Fedora Workstation 33

VERSATILE DISTRO MIN SPECS: 2GB RAM, 20GB DISK

AND MORE!

THE LXF LIBRARY Advanced Bash Scripting Guide Go