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A Month with Linux

Last month, I tried using Linux for my daily driver and the results were mixed. While using Linux for work is as easy as using macOS, I had some minor hardware support issues, game controller issues, and I hesitated moving my personal computing needs to the platform.

Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone

The Verge posted their excellent 30-minute documentary about the PDA company, Handspring.

The Framework Laptop

After months of debating about pre-ordering the Framework Laptop, I finally placed an order for the base DIY model as my next laptop even though my portable preference has long been Apple laptops running macOS.

There are no real savings when going with the Framework Laptop. The pre-built base model is an i5 with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD at $999. That’s the same amount as new M1 MacBook Air with the same amount of memory and storage space.

And in the rest of laptop market there are some that have more bang for the buck. Best Buy is full of i5 laptops with either a 13″ or 15″ screen and equal or more memory and storage for around $700. Some around that price point even have a touch screen.

However, after thinking about it, I wanted to support the effort of shipping a modular, repairable laptop.

Gaming on Linux

For the next month I’m trying to daily drive a Linux desktop environment, but playing PC games is something that might keep me running Windows on my primary desktop computer after this trial.

However, I’m impressed by the number of well supported AAA titles listed on ProtonDB.com and by how relatively easy it was to run Windows games from a Steam library on Linux using Proton.

And I’m hopeful that the launch of the Steam Deck will push game publishers to put proper effort in to Linux compatibility.

Daily Driving Linux

My enthusiasm for new the DIY Framework Laptop and the Linux-powered Steam Deck coupled with the release of Ubuntu 21.10 has lead me to installing a Linux desktop environment on one of my computers.

While I administer some Linux servers in the cloud, it’s been a long time since I’ve considered Linux as a desktop OS on physical hardware. And the landscape has changed quite a bit since. Secure Boot is a thing, Wayland seems to be the future, but KDE is still best on X.Org, and Ubuntu switched away from Gnome and back again.

I’m starting with Kubuntu 21.10 right now, but I eventually want to give Arch Linux a try, since it seems to be a good foundation for building up your desktop environment piece by piece. Also, it’s the base for the new SteamOS and is growing in popularity as the base for other distros like Manjaro.

I’m going to migrate some of my daily activities to Kubuntu and try using it as my personal daily driver OS for the month of November.

Everyday spies

I came across this USB Phone Charger Camera on Amazon.com and realized just how cheaply and discretely anyone can spy on someone.

There are a lot of other hidden cameras devise like this alarm clock or this smoke detector. And there are dozens more that can be hidden or masquerade as other objects on websites like SpyTechStop.com.

Besides worrying about big companies spying on us through our mobile devices and aggregating our online activities, I’m starting to worrying that everyday people are spying on us in the real world, too.

20 Years of Haiku

Haiku remains one of the few remaining non-Unix open-source operating systems available today. It has gone beyond just maintaining binary compatibility with old BeOS code to becoming a powerful, workable operating system of its own.

Apple online store 2021 redesign

Apple has redesigned their online store and brought back the concept of a store homepage

The Apple online store homepage currently functions like someone just exported a Figma prototype and published it. It might look great when framed perfectly, but fails when a desktop window is resized to be larger or smaller than that perfect demo window size.

Pre-ordering the Steam Deck

I’m super excited about the Steam Deck, Valves new hand-held gaming PC that runs AAA games on Linux.

Pre-ordering were crashing the reservation system, and I had issues for 40 minutes trying to get it to accept my credit card. But eventually got an email confirmation. Though, I missed the 2021 shipping window.

The specs seem pretty good for running current games and previous generation games. but there will eventually be newer games that will push it a bit. Even newer current generation games might.

I wonder publishers end up considering its support like they do for consoles, or if Valve revs the specs in a shorter window than consoles.

But maybe Valve doesn’t even need to worry about the specs for future games. Game streaming could be the future of this form-factor. Xbox Cloud seems like a possibility on the Steam Deck since you can install Windows, and you will probably be able to stream games to it from you local PC like you can from other Steam clients.

Maybe Valve will even launch an Xbox Cloud competitor which could prolong the hardware’s life.

Hot Take on the Windows 11 Preview

Windows 11 has been officially announced, and it didn’t really meet my expectations. Judging from the work that has gone in to UI tooling for developers, I was expecting a cleaned up, slimmed down, refined operating system. Instead Windows 11 doesn’t seem all that different from Windows 10 except the addition of another design system layer and deeper integration with Microsoft cloud services.