MEET THE TEAM

This issue, we’re getting AIs to badly develop ap plications for us. Hurrah! So, what are you going to do with all the spare time your personal AI is going to free up?

Not so smart

A rtificial intelligence is like any other tool

Newsdesk

THIS ISSUE: EU threat to open source Plasma features face chop Gnome opens window plans Debian embraces RISC-V

JUST BUGGIN’

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

Hot Picks

Immich

ATTACK OF THE A.I. Pi BOTS

Fun artificial intelligence projects you can build and run at home on the cheapest of hobbyist hardware!

BarraCuda 8TB HDD

Cheap and cheerful – that’s not how Shane Downing parties.

GeForce RTX 4060

A good graphics card with the wrong name, ponders Chris Szewczyk.

Murena Fairphone 4

Fairest of them all, Jonni Bidwell is excited by an ethical phone with a privacy-respecting operating system.

Peppermint OS

After years of sampling Linux Mint, Nate Drake opts for something spicier in the hybrid Peppermint OS, which integrates cloud-based apps.

Fatdog64 Linux 814

Nate Drake decides to look in on Fatdog, a Puppy-based OS that’s grown into a very credible canine in its own right.

Media-creation distros

Michael Reed examines five distributions, aimed at creative types, that come packed with applications, utilities and plugins.

Customisations & extra features

How much does each distro add?

Base distro and package repros

We need a strong foundation with access to the latest software.

Using the user interface

Creative flow is paramount.

System efficiency

It’s a shame if the distro starts gobbling up resources before you’ve even started.

Audio, music and plugins

Showcasing what Linux can do in this realm and saving installation effort.

Video and graphics apps

Ready-to-go drawing and painting applications are always welcome.

Documentation and support

Information on how to get things running and overcome difficulties.

The verdict

Media-creation distributions

A.I. CODING

Matt Holder spends some time discovering how AI, ML and LLM can be used to help us with our programming – and, yes, he explains what the acronyms mean as well…

Pi Foundation open sources its Code Editor

Accelerating feature development and generally doing the right thing all round, hurrah!

RP2040 ETH Mini Dev

Les Pounder loves all his Pi collection, but sometimes there’s some he simply can’t love as much…

Sonic Mini 8K S

Always on the lookout for upgrades, Denise Bertacchi doubly likes it when there’s a bargain, too.

Build a flashy dice roller with NeoPixels

Les Pounder is learning to multitask but we think he misunderstood the instructions.

Smart management for smart kiosks

Tam Hanna takes a look at how Ubuntu Frame harnesses Wayland’s strengths to make smart display management more comfortable.

Best kept secrets

A man who keeps his cards close to his chest, we struggled to persuade Shashank Sharma to reveal how he protects his passwords.

Upgrade your Steam Deck SSD

Neil Mohr asked hardcore PC gamers Tony Polanco and Katie Wickens to upgrade a Linux device – what could possibly go wrong?

Access services with Nginx reverse proxy

Nick Peers discovers how to open your network services to the internet with this user-friendly implementation of Nginx.

Add Raspberry Pi GPIO to your PC

PCs don’t offer a GPIO header like the Raspberry Pi, but Mike Bedford reveals that a low-cost add-on is all you need to join in the fun.

Render real-world 3D maps in Blender

Credit: www.blender.org

A ROCKY ROAD AHEAD?

Stuart Burns is a Linux administrator for a

Docker is dead, long live Docker

Docker has been the king of containers but could Podman put an end to Docker’s reign?

LXD gobbled up by Canonical

LXD ownership is transferred to Canonical in the hope of making great strides.

Who installed that?

Yum is more than just a way to install applications – it can do all sorts of interesting stuff.

HostPapa

Ruby P Jane tries this paternal web host provider that offers a range of services for both personal and business use.

Cloudways

A competent host offering scalable cloud-based solutions that has Ruby P Jane loving what she sees.

AWS vs Azure

What’s the difference? Not all cloud providers are the same. Steve Cassidy compares the two biggest platforms

Text adventure combat mechanics

Often found making love and not war, this month Nate Drake takes our interactive text adventure down a dark, violent path.

Code your own Breakout retro game

Matt Holder discovers that writing a ’70s-style classic game isn’t as simple as he first thought.

Creating Flutter apps

David Bolton shows how to set up a Flutter development environment on Linux and then how to build a simple calculator in Flutter.