Linux, Alternative OS, & Retro Computing News - Sep 24, 2022

Date:
Sat, 24 Sep 2022 13:01:21 GMT

Description:
New Virtual Boy game, Arch drops Python2, TRS-80 Model 100 retrofit, &
Firefox and GNOME get big version numbers

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Linux opinions. Retro hardware refits. New games for long failed consoles. This week had it all!

I present to you now the only important news of the week! New Releases: Firefox v. 105, GNOME v 43

This was a big week for big releases of two of the biggest open source projects. And when I say big releases I mean their version numbers are insanely high .

Firefox version 105 ? One Hundred and Five? Thats pure insanity.

Remember when a new version of a piece of software or operating system would come out, every few years, and add one to their version number? I feel like someone told the folks at Mozilla and GNOME that higher version numbers sound better and they really took that to heart.

At least GNOME version 43 hasnt hit the one hundred mark yet. But, come on. 43?

At this point, just rename your project and start at 1.0. Its just getting goofy.

Whats in these releases you ask? Well. GNOME 43 updated the file browser, and it looks fine. And an updated quick settings which looks pretty ok, too!
Heres some pictures.

Whats new in Firefox version ONE BILLION AND FIVE? Who knows. Despite the list of changes being short it is too dreadfully boring to deal with.

Firefox version ONE GAJILLION AND FIVE is, quite literally, so boring that I cant even.

(Yeah. I wrote that sentence. Firefox broke my brain with an integer overflow.

A new game for the Nintendo Virtual Boy?!

Yes! That Nintendo virtual reality console that got yanked off the market! The one where you slam your face into the goggles than subjected your retinas to flashing red lines.

It is getting a new game! Wild!

Virtual WarZone has a demo ROM available via Patreon. I havent tried it
and am not sure if it requires actual hardware or works in an emulator. But, still, totally groovy that the Virtual Boy is getting a new game 26 years after it was yanked off the market!



Arch drops Python2, continuing to erode Linux backwards compatibility

As of September 23rd, 2022 Arch Linux has removed Python2 from their AUR package repository. It is no longer part of Arch Linux.

If you still have python2 installed on your system consider removing it and any python2 package.

I know the reasons for dropping Python 2 support. Its an abandoned version
of the programming language and interpreter. Hasnt received updates in two years now.

I get it.

But the reality is there are still compatibility issues with Python3 when running Python scripts (and applications) that were originally developed during the Python 2 timeframe. While there are still, obviously, ways to install and use Python2 even on Arch this simply makes maintaining
backwards compatibility increasingly complex and challenging.

Which a regular problem in the Linux world. Try running commercial Linux games from a few years back. Those ported to Linux by Loki Games? Yeah. Most of them dont work anymore. Those may be just games but it is a common problem impacting both close and open source software.

So, I get it. But I dont like it.

Broken TRS-800 Model 100 gets some new guts

Stephen Cass, editor at IEEE Spectrum, had a broken TRS-80 Model 100 slabtop (which is one incredibly cool machine ). He did what so many of us would be likely to do try to gut it and put a new computer inside the case.

His approach was interesting and worth reading about. Especially how he handled the incredibly funky display:

The M100s LCD is really 10 separate displays, each controlled by its own HD44102 driver chip. The driver chips are each responsible for a 50-by-32-pixel region of the screen, except for two chips at the right-hand side that control only 40 by 32 pixels. This provides a total screen resolution of 240 by 64 pixels. Within each region the pixels are divided
into four rows, or banks, each eight pixels high. Each vertical column of eight pixels corresponds to one byte in a drivers local memory.

I love reading about people re-purposing broken Model 100s. Dont get me wrong, I dont endorse gutting working units but if you have a broken one? Shoot. Might as well do something cool with it!

Like this one below that replaced the display (with a high-res, color one)
and the main computer guts with an ARM single board computer.

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Link to news story: https://lunduke.substack.com/p/linux-alternative-os-and-retro-computing-2df


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