MEET THE TEAM

Website trackers put Linux usage at over 4% for the first time. Where do you see Linux use increasing and how do you think things will go in the future?

Linux is everywhere

Everyone gets excited when the Linux market share

Linux is popular!

Linux has long been a favoured OS for servers and embedded devices but is now increasingly popular for desktop machines, too.

KDE Plasma 6 released

The long anticipated upgrade to the Plasma desktop has been released with huge improvements.

Nvidia moves to block ZLUDA

Ban on using CUDA translation layers in installed files.

VECTOR VEXATIONS

Dave Stokes is a technology evangelist at Percona.

WINE FOR WAYLAND

Alexandros Frantzis is a senior software engineer at

FreeBSD moves to kill 32-bit

FreeBSD is deprecating 32-bit platforms; 32-bit binary support in 64-bit kernels will remain, however.

PostmarketOS moves to Systemd

Phone OS has tentative support for Systemd.

Framework 16 laptop ships

Repairable, upgradable model costs under $500.

Distro watch

What’s behind the free software sofa?

FIXING OFFICE 365

Italo Vignoli is a founder of LibreOffice and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Jon Masters is a kernel hacker who’s been

Kernel Watch

Jon Masters keeps up with all 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 answers@linuxformat.com

Mailserver

WRITE TO US Do you have a burning

Helpdex

shane_collinge@yahoo.com

OBS Studio

Mayank Sharma was bitten by a radioactive download

Moosync

Version: 10.3.2 Web: https://moosync.app Click on the

PhotoCollage

PhotoCollage defaults to a 800x600 canvas, but you

Collector

Version: 1.0.1 Web: https://mijorus.it/projects/collector/ You can open

Patool

Version: 2.2.0 Web: https://wummel . github.io/patool/ You

Warpinator

Version: 1.8.3 Web: https://github . com/linuxmint/ Warpinator lets

Croc

Version: 9.6.12 Web: https://schollz . com/tinker/croc6/ It might

Freedoom

Version: 0.13.0 Web: https://freedoom.github.io You can use

LibreMines

Version: 2.0.0 Web: https://github . com/Bollos00/LibreMines LibreMines has

QOwnNotes

Version: 24.2.5 Web: www.qownnotes.org While QOwnNotes supports

S-tui

Version: 1.1.6 Web: https://amanusk . github.io/s-tui/ Unlike

20 YEARS OF UBUNTU

We dive into the brand-new Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and look back at where it all began and how we got here!

LINUX FORMAT

The #1 open source mag

AMD Ryzen 5 8600G

The CPU of choice for Chris Szewczyk and his tight budgets.

Deepin 23

Nate Drake is in too deep with Deepin – is this Chinese-made distribution a crouching tiger or a hidden dragon?

KaOS 2024.01

Nate Drake seeks to find some order in KaOS – a distro incorporating the KDE Plasma 6 desktop environment.

Bluestar Linux 6.7.6

Nate Drake finds blue is the colour, after firing up this intuitive and visually stunning Arch-based distro.

Drauger OS 7.6

Nate Drake puts this distribution through its paces – is Drauger a gaming dragon or just a plain drag?

Time trackers

This month, Michael Reed is keeping a strict eye on himself and trying to improve his work efficiency by investigating time-tracking applications.

Linux native application

Other options are nice, but we expect a well-integrated Linux app.

Installation complications

The first hurdle is always obtaining and installing the software.

User interface design and use

The ease of daily use. If the application

Extra features

Beyond the basic options, what else can the software do?

Automatic tracking

Insights from hands-free analysis of your activity can often be fascinating.

Cloud options and alternative platforms

Working away from the main computer.

Reports and summaries

For some, this is one of the most important parts of the system.

Time trackers

We’re choosing TimeCamp, a freemium solution that isn’t

LINUX INVADES WINDOWS

Join Nate Drake as he explores Linux’s infiltration of Windows. Have the barriers between operating systems truly been broken?

Learning to love Linux

The early days of Microsoft put it at loggerheads with the growing open source movement, but things are different now.

Linux inside Windows

Run Linux apps on Microsoft’s OS in Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.

VS Studio for Linux

WSL2 integration offers the best of cross-platform development.

Run the Microsoft distro

Rumours are rife but how far will Redmond go to embrace Linux…

Turning the Pi Pico into a custom GPU

Renowned fanatical Pi modder Clem Mayer goes all out and creates a Pi-powered graphics card.

Kaki Pi

From Japan!

Double the fun

NVMe on Pi 5

RASPBERRY Pi TURNS TWELVE!

Les Pounder works with groups such as the

ParrotOS

Les Pounder has watched Hackers at least 12 times and knows what all the books are. Now he just needs a cool haircut and RISC-based laptop.

Bambu Lab X1-Carbon

There’s a reason this Bambu is shooting up all over and Andrew Sink is happy to help it out.

Create notifications from smart sensors

Les Pounder loves building gadgets with the low-cost Raspberry Pi Pico W – and some of them, like this one, even work.

The Grapes of Tux

Sommelier Jonni Bidwell shows you how to get your pesky Windows applications running on Linux, as he uncorks the latest Wine release.

Audit your system for vulnerabilities

Invulnerable Shashank Sharma has the perfect tool to keep systems safe.

Build a streaming ebook library

Bionic bookworm Nick Peers looks at a free tool that enables you to collate, read and share your digital publications over the internet.

After the kernel, it’s startup time, init!

Mats Tage Axelsson explains how Linux takes you from the kernel to a running system, both today and back in the mists of time.

Ultra-smooth home game streaming

Promising the Sun and the Moon, Michael Reed’s heavenly bodies promise perfect gaming streaming on most PC hardware.

Reviving the MK14 retro home computer

Mike Bedford uses emulation to learn about Sinclair’s first sub-£100 computer, which predated the better known ZX80 by three years.

Clever CAD coding for clients and cigars

Hungarian boy genius Tam Hanna tidies up his underground bunker’s cigar corner with a bit of creative 3D printing.

How to fix glitching Steam Deck games

Despite amazing work, there’s plenty of incompatible Steam Deck games, thankfully fixes are at hand, but nothing so far for Neil Mohr.

Tips for managing Docker containers

Generous-minded Stuart Burns has years of Docker experience under his belt and is keen to share his knowledge with other sysadmins.

Collaborate with OnlyOffice DocSpace

Nowadays, online document collaboration is a must. OnlyOffice DocSpace allows organising this effectively. Kseniya Fedoruk shows how to set it up.

Make AI work for you

Want to get more from the best-known AI service on the planet? Barry Collins and Neil Mohr explain how to make AI work for you.

Solve word puzzles with clever code

Living conundrum Matt Holder discovers how to use Python to improve his puzzle-solving skills when watching Countdown.

Pixel-perfect Asteroid collision detection in C

Did those pixels touch or just pass by? David Bolton demonstrates a method of checking collisions with lots of objects on screen.