FOSS News Big Show 6

NUTS
Linux Mint Beta
Freedom Consultation
Red Hat Goes Scrooge

OBS Studio Update
4 Best Google Docs Alternatives
Degoogled
KDE 5.27.6

Xonotic Update
SDL 2.28 Released
Freedom Overhaul
DREAMM, Now with Linux Support

Big Show, FOSS News, Distro News, Tech Freedom, FOSS Fun

Distro News

DN 1 – NUTS (Nitrux OS Update Tool System)
· Awwww nuts
· What’s it do?
· Where do I get it?
https://9to5linux.com/nitrux-devs-make-it-easier-to-upgrade-your-immutable-nitrux-os-installations

DN 2 – Linux Mint Beta Released
· Interface updates in keeping with new version of Cinnamon Desktop
· a much-improved login manager
o better keyboard navigation
o support for Wayland sessions
o support for LXQt/Pademelon badges
o a configurable layout for the Onboard on-screen keyboard
o a scrollable session list
o support for multiple keyboard layouts
o better touchpad support with automatic detection and enablement of tap-to-click
· Other Misc things
o Full support for HEIF and AVIF images
o update the in-house built Xreader document viewer app to properly support Adobe Illustrator documents
o Update to Pix image viewer app with a rebase on the gThumb 3.12.2 image viewer.
o Software Manager app
§ UI refresh
§ better scoring/sorting algorithms
§ tuned package list.
o Warpinator app received support for the Landlock and Bubblewrap technologies to implement folder isolation
https://9to5linux.com/linux-mint-21-2-beta-is-now-available-for-download-with-cinnamon-5-8
Freedom Consultation
Feeling lost? This free chat will help. I promise that by the end of the tailored presentation, you’ll have at least some idea what to do next and how to get it done.

https://techfreedom.pro/freedom-consultation

DN 3 – Red Hat Scrooges Other Distros?
· Maybe
· Red Hat forcing other developers to create free accounts to access RHEL code base
· Beware click bait
· Is it a big deal now? No
· Could it be turned into a big deal? Yes
· Time will tell
https://news.itsfoss.com/red-hat-restricts-source-code/

FOSS News

FN 1 – OBS Studio 29.1.3 Released
· Many bugs squashed
o Source Record plugin by fixing a crash that occurred when properties are deleted in the callback
o improves the AMF (Advanced Media Framework) encoder’s reconfiguration and dynamic bitrate as they didn’t work in previous releases (AMF is the AMD encoder)
o AMF preset fallback to take into account the GPU reported throughput
o Also fixed window and game capture issues
o Also fixed audio settings issues
o Also fixed service selection issues
o crash with Freetype 2 text sources when non-ASCII text is used, and fixes other crashes in obs-websockets and Lua scripts.
o Properties dialogs now closeable by hitting the cancel button
o Fixed keyboard shortcuts weren’t displayed for some context menu items
o the View menu’s “Source Toolbar” checkable menu item wouldn’t update when the “Show Source Toolbar” and “Hide Source Toolbar” hotkeys were used.
o Fixed a bug where switching between “Fade” and “Fade to Black” for a quick transition would fail to work correctly
o fixed an issue where unnecessary undo/redo entries were being created for text sources
o fixed a bug where the placeholder text for “Group” would not be correctly localized when adding a new group.
https://9to5linux.com/obs-studio-29-1-3-improves-the-source-record-plugin-amf-encoder-and-more

FN 2 – Tired of Volunteering Data to Big Tech?
Top 4 Google Docs Alts
OnlyOffice
· Best all-arounder
· Can connect to properly configured nextcloud instance
· Does most office type things (Docs, spreadsheets, and presentations)
· FOSS
· Fully compatible with MS Office
· https://onlyoffice.com

CryptPad
· Web based
· Fully end to end encrypted
· self-hostable (my video: https://rumble.com/v29wpc2-free-your-pc-friday-special-interwebz-news-and-how-tos.html)
· No desktop apps
· https://cryptpad.fr

EtherPad
· Only handles documents (no spreadsheets or presentations)
· Not encrypted
· Web based
· Can do own instance (https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite#installation) or jump on a public instance (https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite/wiki/Sites-That-Run-Etherpad)

CurveNote
· STEM focused collaboration toolkit
· Markdown
· LaTeX
· Its own CMS for a website
· Create your own scientific journal publication
· https://curvenote.com/pricing

https://www.tecmint.com/google-docs-alternatives/

Degoogled
Want to learn how to cut the umbilical to Mountain View, CA? Take a look at the blogs linked here. If you just want a Freed Phone, you can order one there as well.
https://techfreedom.pro/degoogled

FN 3 – KDE 5.27.6 Released
· Big things
· Wayland Session
· X11 Session
· Flatpak
· Discover
· And More
· https://kde.org/announcements/changelogs/plasma/5/5.27.5-5.27.6/
https://9to5linux.com/kde-plasma-5-27-6-is-out-to-improve-plasma-wayland-session-support-for-flatpak-apps

FOSS Fun

FF 1 – Xonotic 0.8.6 Released
· Arena based first person shooter (think Quake 3)
· FOSS, fork of Nexuiz
· New things
o 2 maps
o AI improvements
o Performance improvements
o VFX improvements
o 3 new game modes
§ Mayhem
§ Survival
§ Team Keepaway
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/classic-open-source-fps-xonotic-086-released-with-new-game-modes/

FF 2 – SDL 2.28 Released
· What’s SDL?
· Key for Linux gaming
· Low level access to most hardware (audio, GPU, mouse, keyboard, joystick)
· Used by many game developers and studios (Valve, Unity engine, etc)
· Focus toward SDL 3
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/sdl-2280-released-and-goes-into-maintenance-mode-now-focusing-on-sdl-3/

Freedom Overhaul
This is the full package. A whole-life exit from Big Tech. Migration from Windows or MacOS to Linux. Migration from iOS or stock Android to Graphene OS. Migration from Big Tech email and collaboration tools to ones which will honor your right to privacy.
https://techfreedom.pro/product/freedom-overhaul/

FF 3 – Ever heard of DREAMM?
· What is it?
· Why should you care?
· Lucas Arts
· Nostalgia
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/classic-lucasarts-games-emulator-dreamm-adds-early-linux-support/