LinBits 34: Weekly Linux Phone news / media roundup (week 8)
Table of Contents
It's sunday. Now what happened since last sunday?
A new Manjaro release, Plasma Mobile tarballs, Sailfish 4.0 on the PinePhone and more! Commentary in italics.
Software development and releases
- NeoChat 1.1 has been released. No E2EE yet.
- Manjaro Phosh Beta 6 has been released, featuring all the new releases. Read more on their forums.
- Plasma Mobile blog: Plasma Mobile applications tarball releases. Not much to read, but I hope that this will help Plasma Mobile get packaged in more distributions.
Worth noting
- /u/mrtiger69: Spotify on the PinePhone!. I added this to LINMOBapps last week, and now it even scales properly. Spotify Premium only.
- @adampigg: SailfishOS 4.0 now works on the PinePhone with video playback in the default Gecko-based browser.. I am going to look at this in the coming week.
- @drago_senpai: ExpidusOS now has a six months roadmap. Roadmaps are always confidence-inspiring.
- @Fivnex: Potabi is going to be based on FreeBSD, and will be using Lomiri. Keep in mind: There is no FreeBSD working on the PinePhone just yet (although it works on the Pine A64), and I don't recall that Lomiri has ever been run on FreeBSD. Now that's what I call a gigantic endeavour.
- /u/realSpaetz: Librem 5 vs PinePhone eMMC benchmarking. That's why apps launch faster on the Librem 5.
Worth reading
- Purism: Purism and Linux 5.11. An overview of Purism's contributions to the most recent Linux release.
- StealthGun's blog: Gentoo on a PinePhone. Nice guide to getting started with Gentoo on the PinePhone.
- MoukTech: Season Of KDE – Project Update 1. foKus seems to be an interesting app.
- UBports: Call for Testing: Ubuntu Touch OTA-16.
- LinuxSmartphones: Open Source phone news roundup: FreeBSD, Google-free Android, and Ubuntu Touch. Open source, not Linux, because of Potabi — see above.
Worth listening
- PineTalk 003: Quartzy Keyboards. Another Episode of Ezra and me talking about a few things. I already have some ideas for the next episode, but please keep feedback and questions coming!
- Nephitejnf: More Thoughts on the Current State of the Pinephone and Her Linux Distros. Yes, this is a YouTube video, but there's nothing to see, so just listen.
Worth watching
- Сергей Чуплыгин: QtQuickControls-Nemo: Compare Spiner in QML and C++. New Nemo PinePhone image when?
- Peter Hazenberg: PinePhone - WoWLAN - Wake on Wireless LAN. Really cool work!
- Privacy & Tech Tips: Sandbox Apps With Firejail: Protecting Pinephone/Pinetab/Linux Box (Firefox Example). Great to see Firejail in action, I haven't been using it lately.
- TalkNTech: What I think of the Pine64 Pinephone KDE CE. Good thoughts.
- IziacNix: Ubuntu Touch on the Pinephone. Two devices running Ubuntu Touch.
- UBports: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 95. Highlights include: News on Anbox, Xperia X mainline and a lot more. Do watch it!
Mobian unboxings
- TechHut: Unboxing the PinePhone by Pine64! - First look at Mobian (Debian Mobile). Nice video, looking forward to more!
- Kevin Veroneau: Unboxing the PinePhone Mobian community edition, Mobian first boot on the PinePhone.
PineTab corner
- Privacy & Tech Tips: Pinetab/Pinephone Arch (DanctNIX) Full D Encryption Install Script + Bonus (Option) BlackArch Linux. Nice to see that FDE script demoed.
- LinuxLounge: PineTab Unboxing and First Impressions!.
Stuff I did
Content
I published no video and no blog post this week. I did not even manage to do much on social media or improve a previous blog post. I hope to do better next week!
Random
With --ssb being removed in Firefox 86, I updated my launcher file to use --kiosk instead. It works ok once you have one more app open in Phosh.
LINMOBapps
This week I added two apps to LINMOBapps, siglo (a WIP GTK client for connecting to InfiniTime), and Craw Translate, a Kirigami translation frontend. I also updated the rating of Spot, the GTK/Rust Spotify frontend, which now works great on mobile. A little more maintenance happened. Please do contribute!