Gentoo Linux, Firefox 122, Parrot OS, Valve Proton & more Linux news

Sponsored by Kolide: If a device isn't secure, it can't access your apps. It's device trust for Okta. Visit kolide.com/vanityurl to learn more and watch a demo.
On this episode of TWIL (250), Gentoo Linux has some made some major changes to their distro. Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox including DEB packages for those non-snap users out there. Ethical hacking distro Parrot OS has a new version out. Plus we've got news from Valve, Lutris and many more for some gaming news. All of this and more on this episode of This Week in Linux, Your Source for Linux GNews!
SHOW NOTES ►► thisweekinlinux.com/250
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:36 Mozilla Firefox 122.0 Released
05:34 Gentoo Linux Progress from 2023
08:28 Parrot 6.0 Released
10:20 MX Linux 23.2 “Libretto” Released
12:37 Linux Mint 21.3 “EDGE” ISO Released
13:45 Sponsored by Kolide
15:07 openSUSE Slowroll Misunderstandings Clarified
16:30 BunsenLabs Linux Boron Released
18:10 Valve Releases Proton 8.0-5
19:27 Lutris 0.5.15 Released
20:58 Godot Engine offers free Nintendo Switch port
22:50 AYANEO’s New NES-Style Mini PC
25:59 libvirt 10.0 Released
26:55 Huawei claims about HarmonyOS NEXT kernel
29:01 Outro
SHOW NOTES ►► thisweekinlinux.com/250
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How To Use Firefox's Best Feature, Multi-Account Containers: • Firefox Container Tabs...
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Thanks For Watching!
#Linux #TechNews #Podcast

[@12C76DC]

I'm very happy about Gentoo going binary! It was always pain to upgrade with my hardware, this is a great improvement!

[@michael_tunnell]

I agree, it’s a big move and going to help Gentoo users a lot

[@jamesyoung151]

I've used Gentoo since the beginning, I remember taking nearly a day to install the full OS. Now, it's much faster with newer hardware. About the Gentoo Wiki, I remember the when they lost all of the data. That sucked. I contributed a lot of information to that wiki. I don't have the system all my work was on anymore. I'm slowly working on contributing to it again.

[@bottlerat2318]

As a linux distro developer, having firefox debs and rpms are very helpful because some distros have custom firefox packages which have annoying bookmarks and start pages which i wish to remove, it's very annoying to have to re-package it.

[@Jopekos]

Great to see subtitles, more accessibility for new viewers, great work! 👏

[@openbabel]

The EU is considering the new install text on new versions of windows11/12. Not only does it force installation with a advertising identity but it forces users to agree to hand over personal data for resale by windows without fair monetary recompense in the users country of origin monetary cash systems. Lobbyist point out this goes beyond fair use laws in the EU by leaving no way of switching it off by users. Retail consumer laws in many EU countries require retail protections in place under such circumstances by the EU data regulators. Hih on the regulators hit list to require all hardware sold in Europe to run five or more independent operating systems on the desktop without modification by the user.

[@popcorny007]

No worries, I'll keep installing W11 22H2 with OOBE \BYPASSNRO

[@Hadw1n]

Found this channel by accident and it's great.

[@michael_tunnell]

Thank you! Be sure to subscribe 😆👍

[@johnrieley1404]

Your dry humor is nice accenting to your news. Thanks for the info.

[@michael_tunnell]

thank you very much! I appreciate the kind words. Be sure to subscribe :D

[@cloudwolf3972]

Even if Huawei showed benchmarks of their kernel, when a company says they have 20%+ more/better efficiency/performance it is usually marketing lies.

[@phasegen]

MX Linux makes all their support inquiries route through the front page.

[@michael_tunnell]

thanks for commenting but I think the way it works is the list only counts hits to their distrowatch specific page, this one distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mx not the official website of the distro.

[@monabuu]

Hi, I like the added variety with the two camera angles but the image on the front camera seems a lot worse than the other one. Could you maybe consider switching them around, so that you look best when facing us?

[@michael_tunnell]

Thank you for the feedback. I am taking a look as to why that is and I will make some adjustments going forward. Please come back next episode to let me know what you think of the changes we make.

[@helidrones]

I remember which browser I have used before Firefox. It was Firebird which was later renamed into Firefox. Before that? Netscape Navigator, I believe.

[@RobertTreat9]

Re: Firefox. When I play around with Kubuntu, the Snap Firefox has a major problem with the cursor I want as it is not used and the one it uses is super tiny. Then to remove FF-snap, you have a litany of steps and I've had to remove pieces of snap itself to get it out completely. Nothing against snap but when it doesn't respect QT and KDE theming, don't want anything to do with it. I agree though; I think the .deb is because of negative snap feedback and may result in loss of users.

[@michael_tunnell]

I think the cursor thing is an issue but I thought they solved this already because I remember them integrating gtk themes a couple years ago

[@thundreturtle]

After the Unity debacle you'd think people would stay away from sus pricing models ...... :D

[@manw3bttcks]

2:57 In real life, people don't upgrade tar file installed apps as consistently because they have to go to the web site and notice there's a new tar file but with the package manager it shows up automatically as an update.

[@michael_tunnell]

I agree with this, that’s the main downside of tarballs

[@act.13.41]

Apparently the newer info is that Leap is going to become ALS based, thus immutable. They claim it will still "leap." I've been Tumbling for a long time, but I just put Slowroll on a new PC in the kitchen. It doesn't get used everyday, so I didn't want Tumbleweed on it. Slowroll is very impressive. Tumbleweed just got Kernel 6.7.1 and Slowroll recently received 6.6.11 and will probably get 6.7.1 in the next week or so. It has not been released, so I can't yet recommend it for newbies, but when it is released I would suggest it for new users over Tumbleweed. Right now, Slowroll requires an aproximately 1 month old Tumbleweed ISO and once installed, change the Repos before running "sudo zypper dup" for the first time. Once released this won't be required. It might even get the new installer, but don't hold me to that.

[@michael_tunnell]

I covered this news with leap on a previous episode. While this is true, it doesn’t start until at the earliest June 2025

[@act.13.41]

@@michael_tunnell At least they are keeping leap. Although I can't help but wonder if they are biting off more than they can chew with so many distros in their stable. On the other hand, they are a big company and they do have a lot of talent.

[@needsLITHIUM]

I'm typing this from MX Linux KDE right now! I have it installed on my custom built desktop, as well as on my Asus "craptop" I have for the most basic use. My desktop is a Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB of RAM, and Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB. I dual boot Windows 10 (for now) because I also do pro audio recording and production, and some of the better plugins I'd have to use a wine bridge to run them on Linux. They work, but it is a headache to jump through all the hoops. I have a separate desktop PC with an i5 6402p that I am setting up to run Windows on, so I can exclusively run Linux on my main rig and use a program called AudioGridder to remote host my Windows plugins for use on the Linux box.

[@michael_tunnell]

Thanks for sharing! That is a very interesting usecase and solution for your usecase. I am curious if those plugins would work on something more up to date like Fedora. MX Linux is good but they are not the most update when it comes to hardware or audio support (because it is based on Debian). Fedora was the first distro to use Pipewire so they probably are most likely to support what you want . . . although Ubuntu Studio might be a good choice for you too.

[@needsLITHIUM]

@@michael_tunnell A lot of the Linux native software I use is only available as binary through deb packages, and it's annoying to compile everything all the time, otherwise I would have been using Gentoo, though apparently they added binary support, recently. Either the software developer has a deb package on their website, or they have a custom repo (like KX Studio) that only plays nice with Debian and Ubuntu based distros, because everything is deb. Also, the software not working isn't the issue, it's that configuring it can be really time consuming and annoying. Software like YaBridge and Carla, because it's using Windows VST's in a Linux Native host that is giving me issues. Also, AV Linux is based off of older releases of MX Linux, so I figure it works just fine, in general. If I were to switch distros for something RPM based, it would be Ultramarine Linux, which is based off of Fedora, anyway.

[@kringkingen]

Valve

[@Somebody-tl4ns]

You're the best for me about linux news, and I am a professional on linux. Given how honestly you talk about your sponsors, I suggest you reach out to even more of them. Thank you very much 🙂

[@michael_tunnell]

Thank you very much for the kind words and yes, I would like to get more sponsors :D

[@tmendoza6]

Linux News baby

[@EthanLR]

Thanks for the news!

[@Magicmedo]

Keep it up Mike.

[@SimoAtlas]

Love your podcast

[@michael_tunnell]

Thank you very much! I glad you enjoy the show

[@guilherme5094]

👍Michael.

[@thingsiplay]

I love it, when Michael gets triggered (in example with Huawei's claim). xD

[@mrtuk4282]

opinion on snaps, I don't really have any except that I use .deb or flatpak only !

[@zeburgerkang]

finished downloading parrot nioce

[@fabianpijpers]

One of the reasons might be, because they fear that another fork of firefox will be the main package like last time. When there was a lot of hassle over copyright infringement over the mozilla firefox brand. Only this time it might be because of mozilla's censorship issues, that certain current members would like to implement. So on that note librewolf would take over as being the main debian firefox package.

[@michael_tunnell]

This is an interesting perspective though I doubt Mozilla fears a fork because Debian had a fork as default before and they never bothered packaging it themselves during that time so I dont think this is why they did it. I think it was because Canonical was doing the work for them so they had zero incentive to do it themselves and now that Canonical isnt making debs for them, they decided to finally do it. What Mozilla censorship issues?

[@fuseteam]

Now they just need to make rpm packages xd

[@michael_tunnell]

that would be nice lol

[@diogenes_of_sinope]

Like that smash button :)

[@mattnordsell9760]

I think that what the hauwei kernel is probably 3x better than the Linux kernel with is farming information for the ccp lol.

[@novaarcanum0060]

that pun was abysmal. take my sub.

[@michael_tunnell]

I enjoy the fine art of puns and dad jokes :D

[@subzero-ku2wx]

twillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

[@TheCastleKeeper]

Deb uses less resoures on potato hardware like a dell 1545 inspiron from 2008. Thak you mozilla.

[@michael_tunnell]

thanks for commenting, when you say resources are you referring to RAM? The storage is usually the same but yea the RAM is probably better for DEBs

[@PonderLust]

deb is good

[@Z060]

Snaps and flatpacks are way slower then Deb or rpm

[@michael_tunnell]

Thanks for commenting. I think it is a bit more nuanced though because the speed of the format depends on the app being packaged and Snaps have drastically increased in speed. The bigger factor is that DEB and RPM are formats that do not simplify development. RPMs are not going to be installable on a DEB system and vice versa so convincing companies to develop for Linux is much easier these days with Flatpaks and Snaps.

[@walter_lesaulnier]

Slowroll sounds similar to the way Fedora does its thing.

[@michael_tunnell]

Fedora moves a bit slower but it is similar. Fedora is every 6-8 months for full releases but they do updates in between releases unlike distros like Ubuntu. So they are similar in some ways for sure.

[@fuseteam]

Aya-neo Ayaya mama mia

[@def1nt]

I only ever hear about MX Linux on Distrowatch. It's like... what Linux??? Does anyone use it?

[@TheBardicDruid]

I've been using it for about two years now and lost the urge to distro hop.

[@marcosolivsilv]

The deb version of Firefox is a big deal for me because I use Debian and I'm not into snaps or flatpak. So finally I'm free from the Firefox ESR version.

[@michael_tunnell]

This part I agree with that the FF Deb is good for Debian users to have access to an option that is actually up to date. 😎👍

[@BarafuAlbino]

Anyone around here who actually runs MX Linux? Anybody? I've never met one. I've met people running Gentoo, and Regolith, but none with MX on their desktop. I am sure that distrowatch rating is just stuck in itself, it is totally useless.

[@lordofthemound3890]

I’ve always wondered about this too. I’ve never seen anybody use MX Linux. I’ve never heard anybody talk, or seen anybody write, about using MX Linux. I’ve seen plenty of people using Mint, which has always been the #2 on Distrowatch’s hit-list. People mention using it in YT comments, videos, and in various forums. MX? Nada, nothing, none, nobody.

[@salvino6699]

1 week MX user here

[@ChrisakaPES]

I’ve been using it for a few years it’s been pretty good. Chose it as a Linux noob and some of the tools helped me early on having a Debian based distro was my main criteria when I first started. I think back then I also know people,had some feelings about systemd and this used something different. I haven’t really experienced issues outside of my own incompetence which could happen on any distro. I’m a pretty basic end user tho nothing too advanced

[@zeburgerkang]

nice dad joke

[@michael_tunnell]

Thank you, I enjoy the fine art of dad jokes :D

[@DK012013]

It would be a shame for Huawei, if they made their kernel to only make things compatible with THEIR hardware ONLY. I considered buying a smartphone from Huawei to have a product WITHOUT Google services. Why don't they just keep the compatibility with Android, I mean, Android is NOT Google and NOT the USA. Also the same with Linux. They could easily release a custom distro with a custom kernel, but apparentely, they decided to go the Apple route... I understand, that they want independency from US technologies, but do they have to go THAT far?

[@michael_tunnell]

Thanks for the comment. Quick notes: Huawei were kicked out of using Google stuff and that’s probably why they had to make their own. Though Android is Google, it’s controlled by Google.

[@DK012013]

@@michael_tunnell I know and I understand this, but in my opinion, it's not good, if Huawei goes down the Apple route. They should at least keep compatibility with Linux & Android.

[@michael_tunnell]

I agree they should absolutely try to keep compatibility

[@johanb.7869]

Firefox tarball because I don't like snaps and flatpaks. User since version 1. Before that I used the worse browser ever, IE6.

[@michael_tunnell]

What do you not like about flatpaks?

[@johanb.7869]

@@michael_tunnell They don't always use my dark theme and you can't set it as default. At least not why I tried the Firefox flatpak. And updates are slower. But I haven't used flatpaks for a long time, so maybe it's improved?

[@michael_tunnell]

Dark themes is solely due to the app implementation not the format, the format supports that just fine. Updates are only slower if the developer treats them as a second class format, this is not related to the format itself in my opinion

[@johanb.7869]

@@michael_tunnell Firefox I always use the tarball, but for Thunderbird I use the apt install Thunderbird on KDE neon because with the tarball I can't share pdf's or files for income tax.

[@matiasm.3124]

This guy doesn't understand about Firefox and deb package that they provide.. isn't ff deb vs ff snap .. the idea is that you use that deb vs distro deb packages..so the four reasons are totally valid

[@michael_tunnell]

@soymadip I disagree with the claim of being forced to use snaps. Here's why kzbin.info/www/bejne/fojLpKJsfdKXia8si=XlZzI3FccAIUW8-4&t=1940

[@michael_tunnell]

@matiasm.3124 I do understand the topic but maybe I wasn't clear enough in the segment. The reason this is about DEB vs Snap because there currently isnt a way to use a DEB package directly from Ubuntu, it's simply not an option. The DEB version in Debian has always been ESR and therefore always out of date and yet Mozilla waited almost 20 years to make it themselves. So it is not about FF DEB vs Distro DEB because Ubuntu does not offer a DEB and Debian has offered the same slow to update ESR DEB for many many years. In fact, Debian used to fork Firefox and not even offer Firefox due to trademark issues and yet Mozilla never created their own DEBs even then. If this was about FF DEBs vs Distro DEBs then they would have done this years ago. In fact, the reason, in my opinion, they never bothered to make DEBs before is because Ubuntu packaged the browser as DEBs for them and Debian is not a big enough userbase to commit that effort. When Canonical decided to not make the DEB for Ubuntu anymore, then Mozilla finally had incentive to do it.

[@matiasm.3124]

@@michael_tunnell I don't think that firefox release a deb package because ubuntu use snap for installing FF.. it's more like to provide an easy way to install FF in all deb distro and with a performance tuning. For example Ubuntu focal has Firefox 122 via deb but it sucks and has a nasty bug with tabs.

[@michael_tunnell]

I think if snaps are not involved in the decision then Mozilla would have done this years ago. Why are they doing it all of the sudden other than the snap and Ubuntu not doing the work to make the debs for them anymore. It just seems way too much of a coincidence for them to do this now after almost 20 years of not providing debs to all of the sudden start doing it and not be related to snap and lack of deb. For example, Firefox having bugs in older versions of Ubuntu is not a new thing, this has been consistent for many years due to trying to keep something updated while most libraries don’t update, that gets messy. I do agree that distro debs are typically slow to update, the project I have worked on in the past has a similar thing where the distributions would take so long to update that we made our own PPA but that only took us 6 months to realize the problem, not almost 20 years 😎😁

[@MegaManNeo]

Wish I knew that decision of the SUSE team before I upgraded from Leap to Slowroll on my work laptop, honestly. Oh well, setting that one to checking only once a week for updates will still do. Also while I don't think that AyaNeo miniPC to really look like a NES, I love the idea of such powerful SFF machines. Put a SteamOS variant on there and you are off to the races. Probably won't buy one tho, I have no use case for it as the SteamDeck is already hooked up to my TV set and my desk is occupied by my desktop PC and a ThinkPad 🥲

[@ShaunakHub]

I also like you, used IE before I switched to FF. Although I occasionally used Netscape too but found it too 'bulky' for my PC... Three times more 'efficient' in sniffing your private data

[@gljames24]

ai-yah-neo

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

Hi, I'm trying to get GNUsed to all the new features in the GNUews you bring us! 🧐 Everything is moving too fast man!!! What am I to do?

[@ellertone1412]

I've actually been waiting for this the whole week