Tabla de contenidos para March 2025 en Linux Format

Research has shown that organisations worldwide contribute an estimated $7.7 billion (about £6.3 billion) annually to open source projects. This is one of the key findings of the 2024 Open Source Software Funding Report. The report itself is based on the Open Source Software Funding Survey, conducted by GitHub, the Linux Foundation and Harvard University researchers each year. The survey gathered information from 501 respondents across 159 organisations. These represent a total of $1.7 billion in open source software contributions, from which the figure of $7.7 billion was extrapolated. The report details the methodology used, which notes that 86% of contribution value is employee labour, while only 14% is down to direct financial support. The report also states that the median organisation invests $520,600 (£426,000) per year into open source.…

Riding the retro Noting the continued interest in old machines (see LXF323, Mailserver, Fortran II), I have the following contribution from 1970. The photo (below) shows the inside of our data acquisition system caravan parked in the middle of Thetford Forest in Norfolk. This system collected data from around 120 individual sensors on three 30m-high towers in the forest and were interrogated at 15-second intervals by the instrument panels at the top of the left and middle racks. The HP 2116B (called a mini-computer at the time) is in the right-hand rack. This contained 16K of 16-bit individually wired ferritecore memory locations. It was built to US military specifications that claimed it could be dropped from several feet on to concrete without damage – occasional removal of it from the…

We take a deep dive into the new Intel Xe 2 architecture on page 78, but we’re having a look at the first running silicon here. On paper, the B580 looks decidedly less powerful than the older A750, never mind the full-fat A770 16GB card. The B580 ‘only’ has 20 Xe-cores, compared to 28 on the A750 and 32 on the A770. The re-architecturing of the Xe cores from SIMD32 to SIMD16 means that the B580 should behave roughly on the level of a 34-Xe-core Alchemist chip. Except we need to factor in higher clock speeds as well, so this works out at around 28% more performance in the real world, give or take. This high-level overview of rasterisation performance should serve as the TLDR for gaming in general, and…

This distro is a fork of ROSA, itself a fork of Mandriva Linux, which was discontinued in 2011. Former developers then teamed up with the community to create OpenMandriva Lx. While it traditionally issues fixed releases, as of 2023 the project has implemented a rolling release branch, code-named ROME. Spins are available of the latest version running Gnome, LXQt Qt6, Plasma 5 and COSMIC 1.0 alpha. There’s also a version running Plasma 6 with Wayland, but we chose the 3.2GB ISO of the X11 version, as the notes state it would run better in our VirtualBox VM. On first boot into the live environment, the OM Welcome screen lets you quickly launch the bundled Calamares installer. Offline installation is supported, as is full disk encryption. Once we’d partitioned the hard…

SimpleScreenRecorder OBS Studio FFmpeg Kazam2 VokoscreenNG Sometimes, taking a mere screenshot of what you’re doing S isn’t enough, and you need to take it to the next level by making a recording of your screen in video form. That’s what a screen recorder does. The resulting videos can be made into tutorials showing other people how to do things, or they can be used to show off your gaming prowess and stunts. Thankfully, Linux has a number of excellent screen recording applications. Where they tend to differ is in the style of the user interface and level of configurability they offer. As well as being able to record the screen into a video file, most of the apps are also capable of live streaming – that is, to make a…

As well as the proprietary offerings by router manufacturers, there are plenty of open source options that may be able to replace your existing and likely forgotten about – in terms of software updates – firmware. When considering the options, make sure you spend enough time looking at the relevant websites for information about your specific device. A lot of devices can be upgraded by using the existing firmware update functionality. Some devices, such as this author’s old router, would require soldering and connecting to a UART (serial) device. This was a step too far and the option was quickly turned down. Back in the early 2000s, Linksys had a popular router, the WRT54G, whose firmware was released under an open source licence. This code was forked and several community…

Redneck elves, good-guy orcs that love listening to metal, a chainsmoking werewolf and unstoppable FBI agent Frankenstein. That’s the cast of characters for Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International book series. But if you prefer the trolls, dwarves, hobbits, orcs and elves as imagined and popularised by JRR Tolkien in his writings, you’ll find plenty of them in Angband, a text-based role-playing game. First released before there was an open source movement to speak of, Angband has since migrated to the GPLv2 licence and continues to be developed by a very enthusiastic community. The gameplay involves working your way through the 100 levels of the fortress Angband to defeat Morgoth. These names should be familiar to those who are well acquainted with Tolkein’s tales, beyond the LoTR. You’ll find Angband in…

The exponential increase in performance since the early days of computing is surely staggering. Indeed, our occasional articles on the history of computing have illustrated how speed, memory capacities and storage capacities have increased by leaps and bounds. Perhaps somewhat less obvious is that this trend has gone hand in hand with obsolescence. So, hardware that was once an integral part of the computing scene is no longer with us. Punch cards, by which we mean small sheets of cardboard into which holes could be punched, might not sound like the sort of thing that has any place in the world of electronic computing. Indeed, it’s interesting to speculate on whether they ever would have had if it weren’t for one important fact: the punch card wasn’t devised for use…

Netgear rarely troubles itself with the more affordable end of the market. That’s why we were pleased to see that the Nighthawk RS300 costs a relatively modest £240, making it the most affordable Wi-Fi 7 router that we’ve seen. There are faster Wi-Fi 7 routers, such as Netgear’s own RS700, but the 9.3Gb/s performance is plenty fast enough for most homes. The sting in the tail, as always with Netgear, is its persistent attempts to sell additional subscriptions, such as its Armor security services and Smart Parental Controls – especially when there are rival routers that provide solid parental controls at no extra cost. The Nighthawk app enables you to simply scan a QR code to connect to the RS300. You do need to create a name and password in…

The tri-band Netgear Nighthawk RAXE300 delivers impressive speed, making it a fantastic Wi-Fi 6e router to handle large numbers of devices all at the same time. It uses three frequency bands – 2.4GHz, 5.0GHz, and 6.0GHz – to provide total speeds of up to 7.8Gb/s, which is fast enough for gaming, 4K or 8K video, or prancing around with a VR headset. On test, it delivered impressive performance and a good range, providing fast Wi-Fi even in the back office of our building, which is normally something of a Wi-Fi dead zone. Getting started is very straightforward, as the Nighthawk app enables you to simply scan a QR code on the base of the router to connect to its new Wi-Fi network. You can stick with the default network name…

The Netgear Orbi Quad-Band WiFi 6E may only be suitable for very large homes with 6e supporting devices. It’s very expensive, which means you need to fully utilise all that speed and Wi-Fi prowess. However, it’s worth the money if it’s what your space needs, providing incredible performance, giving us maximum Wi-Fi speeds throughout our space. If you want Netgear’s Smart Parental Controls and Armour security services, to name a few special features, you have to pay additional subscription fees, making the already eye-watering price even more so. The use of Wi-Fi 6e means that this mesh system can now offer quad-band Wi-Fi, using the 2.4GHz band, two 5.0GHz bands and the new 6.0GHz band. Netgear’s approach with the Orbi systems is to provide one primary router – which must…

Intel has launched the Arc B580 and B570 Battlemage GPUs. These are the first two of what we expect will be a full range of discrete GPUs for the Battlemage family, designed for both desktop and mobile markets. The Arc B580 with 12GB of VRAM debuts at £260 (see review, page 19), while the B570 comes equipped with 10GB of VRAM and retails for around £240. We’ve known the Battlemage name officially for a long time, and know the next two GPU families Intel plans to release in the coming years: Celestial and Druid. But this is the first time Intel has officially spilled the beans on specs, pricing, features and more. Intel made two important comparisons with the Arc B580 announcement. First is how it stacks up against the…

Version: 0.8.1 Web: www.fooyin.org There are plenty of music players available on Linux, but Fooyin’s USP is its ability to enable you to fully customise its interface as per your needs. The app is officially distributed on Flathub and can be installed with flatpak install flathub org. fooyin.fooyin. On first launch, the app brings up a Quick Setup window. Here you are asked to select a layout from one of the six available options. To experience them all, you can select them and the app’s interface changes live in the background. The Empty layout is a blank slate, which is useful if you’d like to create your own layout from scratch. As with any media player, the first order of business is to point the app to your music collection.…

Version: 1.7.2 Web: https://openboard.ch/index.en.html OpenBoard is a digital whiteboard app that you can use for presentations or for online classes. The app has all kinds of tools and functionalities to help annotate digital content. Officially, the app is only available as a DEB binary, but it also lists community-built packages for Ubuntu, Arch and OpenSUSE. Your best bet, though, is to grab it as a Flatpak with flatpak install flathub ch.openboard.OpenBoard On launch, the app displays a series of hints and tips in order to help you familiarise yourself with the app. You can scroll through these or skip them to start using the app. On the top there’s the Stylus palette, which gives you access to everything you need to annotate the whiteboard, such as the pen, marker and eraser.…

Version: 5.10.0 Web: www.luanti.org Formerly known as Minetest, Luanti is actually a game engine that can help create games based on voxel gameplay. It isn’t a game in itself, but you can use the platform to download and play games built with it. Luanti has several precompiled binaries, but recommends using the distro-agnostic Flatpak that can be installed with flatpak install flathub net. minetest.Minetest. On launch, click the Install A Game button to browse through the dozens of Luanti-based games. If you want to try your hand at creating your own world, the Minetest Game is pitched as a good starting point. There’s also the Minecraft-inspired VoxeLibre. To install a game, click on it and then use the Install button to download it. Repeat the process to install as many…

Julian Andres Klode of Canonical has made a proposal to extend the existing policy not to provide stable release updates (SRUs) over the weekend. Speaking on an Ubuntu mailing list, he justified his proposal: “Cautious users configure their systems to not install phased updates, so they will only see new updates once they reach 100% and that happening on weekends is not particularly helpful.” He then detailed exactly how this would work through configuring the phased update to start between Friday 00:00 UTC and Monday 12:00 UTC. This way, it would never increment to 100. Naturally, the end result of this would be that the phased update percentage wouldn’t update over the weekend. In theory, this would enable community SRU contributors to release packages to the updates channel during this…

On the main site, Manjaro developer Philip Müller states that this OS “targets beginners and advanced users at the same time”. This reflects the fact that it is based on Arch Linux, which requires advanced time and knowledge to configure and set up. Manjaro, on the other hand, simplifies setup greatly. There are three official flavours, running the latest KDE Plasma, Xfce and Gnome desktops respectively. Community editions are also available with Cinnamon, i3 Window Manager and Sway WM. After downloading the robust 4.1GB ISO running Gnome, we fired up the OS in a VM to be presented with the choice of booting with either open source or proprietary drivers. After choosing the former, the desktop loaded and automatically launched Manjaro’s Hello, which groups useful features together. This included the…

If you’re feeling nostalgic for the days before Gnome and Xfce, this distro may be for you. According to the site (a subdomain of SourceForge), Window Maker Live is based on Debian – in version 12.8’s case, v12 Bookworm – but it uses the Window Maker window manager in place of a traditional desktop. Upon downloading and booting the 3GB ISO into a virtual machine, we were offered a choice of booting into the live environment or installing the OS. Upon choosing the former, we noted a brief welcome screen discussing the latest features of WM Live. Unfortunately, this convenience didn’t extend to the setup process, because upon choosing the launch icon, we were told that we needed to restart the system, then choose the install mode. If you do…

We’ve all wanted to access resources when outside of our home. There’s a number of ways of doing this, with different levels of security and complexity. But do you really need to do it? If the answer is no, or it’s only for very rare occasions, it’s probably best not to do it. If access is needed for things such as home automation, a good way of looking at it is to use a VPN or service offered by your provider. Your ISP will give your subscription an external IP address and your router gives each device that connects to it an internal IP address. Your router is the security boundary between the big scary outside world and your home network. Any configuration changes to your router should be considered…

Everyone needs a secure password manager, but just how private is yours? While cloud-based password managers like Bitwarden and LastPass are attractive, simple to use and convenient, there’s one major flaw: all your passwords are stored online in the cloud. Your entire password database could be one hack or phished master password away from being handed over to hackers. One solution is to add two-factor authentication to your account, but even this can be broken. Another is to take your password database offline, so it’s not on a public server that’s an appealing – and visible – target for hackers. If you’re a Bitwarden aficionado, check out the Quick Tip (opposite) for a self-hosted version, but what about the rest of us? For those without access to their own server,…

UK readers turn to p16 2 GREAT WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE Print + NEW digital access or digital-only! USA From $125.99 For 13 issues REST OF THE WORLD From $125.99 For 13 issues EUROPE From €110.99 For 13 issues IT’S EASY TO SUBSCRIBE! Visit www.magazinesdirect.com/linux-format Call +44 0330 333 1113 Lines open Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm GMT Or 1-844-779-2822 Lines open Monday-Friday 8.30am-5pm EST *We don’t actually deliver to the Moon. Yet. USA? EU? THE MOON* ?…

Eighteen months ago, we took a look at the then brand-spanking-new Wi-Fi 7 technology. Here we are in 2025, and it’s only now becoming available, with Wi-Fi 6(e) still very much available alongside, with mesh systems thrown in just for added confusion. With Wi-Fi 7 systems costing as much as a £1,000, knowing what you need from a wireless system has become crucial. We’re going to go over the key differences between the standards and then look at how you can get a little more performance out of whatever router you’re running. First things first, what’s Wi-Fi 7? Well, after we’d had 802.11n, ac and then ax, the IEEE group decided that switching to straight numbers would make things simpler for the public. So, 802.11n is Wi-Fi 4, 802.11ax is…

Google is a veteran in the mesh router world, with the original Google Wifi product being superseded by the upgraded Nest Wifi, which has since given way to the Nest Wifi Pro. So, what’s the difference with this latest iteration? Google’s Nest Wifi Pro ramps up connectivity from Wi-Fi 5, supported by the old Nest Wifi, to bring in support for Wi-Fi 6e, a very fast wireless standard (albeit not quite cutting-edge). It also offers tri-band rather than dual-band Wi-Fi, adding a 6GHz band into the mix. In short, you’re getting better Wi-Fi performance and improved, more reliable wireless coverage with this new Pro take on Google’s mesh router formula. Matter support is also brought in, for those with smart home gadgets. The other main change here is that all…

The Devolo Magic 2 WiFi 6 Mesh combines powerline wired connectivity with a mesh system so that no thick brick walls and amount of space can limit your network access. It’s not particularly fast – only supporting dual-band Wi-Fi 6 with a top speed of 1,800Mb/s – however, it should be more than adequate for most home broadband needs, especially if your focus is on reliability rather than sheer speed. During our testing, it breezed along at 110Mb/s when using the Ookla Speed Test app, and a rock-steady 12.5MB/s for Steam downloads. The three adaptors in the Devolo Magic 2 WiFi 6 Mesh’s home kit are fairly chunky, more than twice the size of a normal three-pin plug, but since they’re designed to be plugged into sockets, they should stay…

HandBrake Universal Media Server Fooyin Cryptomator Syncthing OpenBoard TurboVNC Extreme Tux Racer Luanti KStars ReMove to Waste Version: 1.9.0 Web: https://handbrake.fr Unlike audio files, transferring high-definition video files to other devices, especially portable ones, takes some doing. HandBrake is one of the best video transcoders that can convert all kinds of videos into a variety of formats, and optimise them for both offline and online viewing. The app can convert nearly any video format and supports a wide range of video codecs. One of its best features is the built-in profiles for popular devices that make the conversion process rather straightforward. The app is officially distributed as a Flatpak and can be installed with flatpak install flathub fr.handbrake. ghb. Compared to some of its peers, HandBrake has a very loud…

Version: 3.1.3 Web: www.turbovnc.org When you think of remote access, the first thing that usually comes to mind is SSH. System admins have been using it since time immemorial for all sorts of CLI tasks. However, there are times when you need to remotely access the complete desktop session. That’s where remote desktop software, such as TurboVNC, comes in handy. Using this cross-platform application, you can remotely access and operate a computer from all sorts of devices. The project has binaries for both RPM and DEBbased distros. On Fedora and derivatives, you can install it with dnf install turbovnc*.rpm, while on Ubuntu, dpkg-i turbovnc*.deb gets the job done. TurboVNC ships with a server and a client. You run the server on the computer you wish to access. Although TurboVNC can…

Version: 3.7.3 Web: https://apps.kde.org/kstars If you are curious and fascinated by space, you can use the KStars digital planetarium to stargaze. The app has details of our cosmic neighbourhood including all eight planets, the sun and moon. You can also use it to track about 100 million stars, and thousands of deep-sky objects, comets, asteroids, supernovae and satellites. Although it is part of the KDE desktop environment, the app is officially distributed as a Flatpak and can be installed atop any desktop with flatpak install flathub org.kde.kstars. The first time you launch the app, it pops up a brief startup wizard that prompts you to select the city closest to your home. This helps the app get its bearings and accurately replicate your night sky. You can also optionally download…

Version: 0.9.3 Web: https://github.com/theimpossibleastronaut/rmw If you’ve ever zapped the wrong files with the rm command, you’ll appreciate ReMove to Waste (rmw). Unlike the unforgiving rm, which instantly deletes the files into oblivion, rmw moves them into the trash, from where they can be restored. Most distros don’t carry rmw in their repos, but you can grab the latest release from the HomeBrew repos. Refer to LXF303 to set up HomeBrew, then use brew install rmw to install the latest version of rmw. The first time you invoke rmw, it creates a default configuration file under ~/.config/rmwrc and a default waste folder in ~/.local/share/Waste. You can then use rmw to delete any file, just as you would with rm. Instead of permanently erasing the file, however, rmw moves the deleted file…

THIS ISSUE: Valve’s OS gathers steam FOSS finances Ubuntu’s weekend breaks RISC-V Roma III is readied Early this year, LXF reported on Valve updating its branding guidelines, including a ‘Powered by SteamOS’ logo. This led to speculation that soon non-Valve devices would come on the market that would ship with the Linux-based operating system. This rumour has been confirmed by Lenovo’s announcement at CES 2025 regarding its new Legion Go S. It will be the first third-party handheld officially licensed to come with SteamOS pre-installed. Valve has confirmed that the implementation of the OS on the Legion Go will be exactly the same as for its own Steam Deck. Lenovo’s handheld gaming device is currently slated for release in May 2025. There will be two variants, one of which will…

Hong-Kong based DeepComputing unveiled the world’s first RISC-V-based laptop, the Roma, in 2023. The release was followed in 2024 with the DC-Roma II, which came with the RISC-V version of Ubuntu. But benchmarks showed that its eight-core RISC-V CPU’s performance lagged behind x86 and ARM chips. DeepComputing hopes to change this in 2025 with the DC-Roma III. Founder Yuning Liang hopes it will perform similarly to the ARM Cortex-A76, found in devices such as the Raspberry Pi 5. Time will tell if this leads to more widespread RISC-V adoption.…

As a big thank you for subscribing to Linux Format Print Edition, we’ve always offered digital access to past issues. It seems The Management thought it was a good idea and has rolled out a new system using Pocketmags ! This means there are now two ways of accessing LXF back issues for subscribers. The new Pocketmags service goes back to March 2014, including over 140 full issues, while our older PDF archive goes back to LXF66 (a crazy 8-bit busting 256-plus issues), though issues before LXF120 have had covers and ads stripped. We’ve outlined how to access both below. Enjoy! *Terms and conditions apply – see page 17 for full details. GET YOUR ACCESS NOW & SUBSCRIBE on page 16 FANCY NEW POCKETMAGS 1 Activate your access Head to www.magazinesdirect.com/digital-instructions/…

This rolling Linux distro is based on Arch Linux. Like Manjaro, the project website states that it’s a more userfriendly version of its parent OS. The latest stable release runs the Xfce 4.18 desktop, though we noted other downloads running MATE. We can’t be sure, though, as Archman is developed in Turkey, so the main site is in that language. Nevertheless, we were able to download the 2.6GB ISO without issue and boot into the live environment. This launched the Calamares installer, which guided us through the setup process. System encryption is supported. After choosing the hard disk, installation completed in just over 3.5 minutes, putting it on a par with similar Xfce-based distros like Xubuntu. However, unlike most distros running Xfce, Archman is highly polished. The login screen is…

Caves of Qud is a traditional roguelike RPG in form, a top-down, turn-based game that relies on text and simpleyet-evocative graphics to convey its world. It doesn’t stick hard and fast to permanent death, though, instead letting you choose whether you want save points and even tweak how much fighting you have to do. Nor does Qud stick hard and fast to the traditional roguelike rules of having an opaque, frustrating user interface and arcane, keyboard-driven control scheme – it even plays very well on a mobile PC like the Steam Deck. You make your character from a variety of archetypes that describe normal humans or the far more numerous mutant inhabitants of Qud. You then build in a relatively free-form way, choosing new skills, upgrading your abilities, and gathering…

Our home connections have an IP (Internet Protocol) address assigned by our ISPs. Static IP addresses make our lives easier, in terms of not needing dynamic DNS, or having to remember when IPs change and so on, but combining this with opening ports on our routers is a recipe for disaster, as it gives hackers an easier ‘in’ to our homes. This needs to be carefully balanced so that we can access what we need against leaving gaping security holes. The DNS protocol is used to map human readable/memorable names against hard-to-remember IP addresses. Unfortunately, lots of companies use tracking cookies and other ad-based technologies to learn about our lives and track our browsing habits across the internet. By blocking access to the most commonly used ad-related domains, we can…

There’s a couple of open source solutions available that can be used to block ads and other categories of sites or services that we may not want to visit from our homes. An example of this is Pi-hole, which is easy to install and configure. However, this section of the article will focus on NextDNS. NextDNS is a DNS over HTTPS (DoH) service, which can be used to filter out DNS for a huge range of things. We can block ads, trackers and newly registered domains, which are often used to host dodgy content, and we can also block online gaming, social media and lots of other categories. While NextDNS is a commercial offering, it does have a free tier available, which would cover most single-device users, and its paid-for…

Resin 3D printing simply isn’t enjoyable, then we got the Formlabs Form 4 in for testing, and finally understood the problem. Consumer-level resin 3D printers are not only messy but also require too much guesswork. Formlabs eliminates the guessing game by creating a tightly controlled and thoroughly tested if expensive ecosystem. Formlabs makes its machines foolproof by limiting users to components its engineers have designed and tested, ensuring everything works together. Resin cartridges and vats are tagged with RFID stickers, so the software can track your materials. It uses this information to determine slicer settings, let you know when to load more resin, and keep an inventory log. Not surprisingly, this tightly locked ecosystem is also one of its biggest flaws. You can unlock the printer to work with third-party…

As luck would have it, when the author of this tutorial was asked if he was working on any projects that would appeal to both regular readers and hobbyists, he was looking at how to control a model train using a smartphone. The goal of this article is to provide sufficient details for a you to create a network access point (AP) using a Raspberry Pi single-board computer, then install the open source Java Model Railroad Interface (JMRI) software that enables an app on the phone to access the locomotive encoder via the AP. The first task is to get an operating system installed on the SD for installation in the Raspberry Pi. Many of the online builds for such a project use the 32-bit Raspbian OS. This build will…

Asus has some amazing Wi-Fi 6 routers, and the manufacturer covers just about every need and budget. With the Asus ZenWiFi AX (XT8), it delivers Wi-Fi 6 in the form of a mesh router. While it is among the more expensive options out there and limits you to two mesh routers, the Asus ZenWifi AX offers blazing fast speeds. During our tests, it pushed our 500Mb/s internet connection all the way, even squeezing it up to 570Mb/s at one point, and maintained that speed even in less accessible parts of our space. Asus sets aside one of the 5.0GHz bands to be used as a backhaul that provides a high-speed link between the two mesh routers, while still leaving the remaining 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands to transmit data to your…

The Linksys Hydra Pro 6 is an affordable Wi-Fi 6 router that is ideal for regular users who aren’t necessarily tech-savvy. It isn’t the most robust option on the market, but it provides strong Wi-Fi performance and good coverage to satisfy the average household. During testing, it enabled us to achieve the maximum 100Mb/s available from our broadband service, and up to 12.5MB/s downloads from Steam. The Linksys app is a little basic, though. It takes a few minutes to set the router up, as you first have to download the Linksys app, create an account, and then enter a password in order to connect your iOS or Android mobile device to the router’s default setup network. You can pause internet access for any device, or create a schedule to…

A top-of-the-range Wi-Fi 6e mesh system for larger homes and offices, the Asus ZenWiFi Pro ET12 may be a massive overkill for the majority of router users. However, it’s exactly what a handful of users need if they’re covering a large space and need top-of-the-line performance. A single ET12 router can cover homes of up to 3,000 square feet, while the two-piece system covers 6,000 square feet. As well as supporting tri-band Wi-Fi 6e, it also provides a top speed of 11Gb/s. On test, the second ET12 allowed us to maintain maximum speeds and eliminate the Wi-Fi dead spots in our space. Not everyone will need that sort of speed or wide coverage for their home broadband. However, if you’ve got your eye on a new smartphone or laptop that…

Version: 14.8.0 Web: www.universalmediaserver.com Universal Media Server (UMS) can broadcast all types of media to other computers, U smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles and TVs. UMS streams media via the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocol to any DLNA-compliant device. Grab the UMS tarball from its website and extract it with tar zxvf UMS-*. Then change into the extracted directory and fire up the server with. /UMS.sh. On first launch, UMS takes you through a basic configuration wizard, but you can skip this and use the default settings. The wizard asks for the location of your media folder, and helps you set up an admin user. To add more media folders, go to hamburger menu > Shared Content. This lists all the shared folders. Click Add New Shared Content to add more…

Version: 1.21.1 Web: https://syncthing.net If you hop between multiple computers, manually ferrying files between them can be quite a challenge. Syncthing can help you automate the process by securely duplicating your files on another computer on the network or across the internet. Just grab the Syncthing tarball from its website and extract it with tar zxvf syncthing-*. Then change into the extracted folder and launch it with. /syncthing. It fires up a browser and takes you to its administration interface. By default, this interface is only accessible from the same computer, that is localhost:8384. To access it from any computer, head to Actions > Settings > GUI and change the GUI Listen address to 0.0.0.0:8384. You can also set a GUI username and password to lock access to the administration…

Version: 0.8.4 Web: https://extremetuxracer.sourceforge.io/ The original Tux Racer was quite the rage back in the day. The gameplay involved controlling Linux’s beloved mascot Tux as it slid down mountains, chomping on herrings strewn along the way. Despite this simple premise, the game garnered fans of all ages thanks to its graphics and replayability. The game inspired several forks, including Extreme Tux Racer, which is still under active development. You can grab the game from Flathub with flatpak install flathub net.sourceforge.ExtremeTuxRacer. Unlike the original, you can now play as one of five characters, including Tux. The game includes two predefined players but you can also create your own. From the main menu, select Enter An Event. The game has two events, Canadian Cup and Swiss Cup, both made of multiple levels.…