LINUX Unplugged

Latest Episodes:

656: Why KDE Linux Surprised Us Mar 01, 2026

Show notes

We take KDE Linux for a spin and push it a little too far. Plus, a friend of the show stops by with a fresh tool: Nebula Commander.

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Jupiter Party Annual Membership: Put your support on automatic with our annual plan, and get one month of membership for free!
Managed Nebula: Meet Managed Nebula from Defined Networking. A decentralized VPN built on the open-source Nebula platform that we love.

Support LINUX Unplugged

Links:

💥 Gets Sats Quick and Easy with Strike
📻 LINUX Unplugged on Fountain.FM
SCaLE 23x | Registration — Get 40% off registration with promo code "UNPLG"
PlanetNix 2026 — Where Nix Builders Come Together
Pasadena Linux Party, Fri, Mar 6, 2026, 6:00 PM
KDE Linux - KDE Community Wiki
Beta (Enthusiast & Stable editions) · KDE Linux · GitLab
Install Software Not Available in Discover - KDE Community
KDE Linux / Kapsule · GitLab
suikan4github/Using-tailscale-client-on-an-Immutable-OS
xuars/kdelinux-tailscale
Nix - KDE Community
Fitting Everything Together — TLDR: Hermetic /usr/ is awesome; let's popularize image-based OSes with modernized security properties built around immutability, SecureBoot, TPM2, adaptability, auto-updating, factory reset, uniformity – built from traditional distribution packages, but deployed via images.
Nebula Commander
DEMO Nebula Commander
Nebula Commander GitHub — Nebula Commander is a self-hosted control plane for nebula overlay networks.
Star Trek Comm Badge for Home Assistant Voice Control
Pick: hcloud-upload-image — Quickly upload any raw disk images into your Hetzner Cloud projects!
Pick: Launcher Studio — Launcher Studio is a GTK4 desktop application for creating and managing .desktop files on Linux.
Launcher Studio on Flathub
Pick: tinyproxy — A light-weight HTTP/HTTPS proxy daemon for POSIX operating systems
Pick: socks-to-http-proxy — An executable to convert SOCKS5 proxy into HTTP proxy

655: Speeding Up Mistakes Feb 22, 2026

Show notes

Planet Nix and SCaLE are just days away, and we're getting a head start with two guests, the tech, and the trends shaping open source. Our trip starts here!

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Support LINUX Unplugged

Links:

💥 Gets Sats Quick and Easy with Strike
📻 LINUX Unplugged on Fountain.FM
SCaLE 23x | Registration — Get 40% off registration with promo code "UNPLG"
PlanetNix 2026 — Where Nix Builders Come Together
Pasadena Linux Party Meetup
stahnma (Michael Stahnke)
Flox, Nix, and Reproducible Software Systems with Michael Stahnke - Software Engineering Daily
Pro OpenSSH (Expert's Voice in Open Source): Stahnke, Michael
Nix and AI, are we there yet? | SCALE
stahnma/mandatoryFun
Post by @kelseyhightower.com — Bluesky — I don't care about LLMs or AI. I care about people. AI is just a tool to me. Tools enable people to help or harm at a scale beyond their natural abilities. I care about how people treat each other using these tools.
distrostru's gatus config
Status Page On Demand | Gatus
MimiClaw — MimiClaw turns a tiny ESP32-S3 board into a personal AI assistant.
hrwtech/openclaw-esp32: OpenClaw on your Arduino ESP32 devices
Pick: WebsocketCAM — Access Android camera via WebSocket client API and run AI / computer vision tasks with ease on live camera stream
Pick: ChrisLAS/openclaw-mcp-bridge — OpenClaw plugin that bridges any MCP HTTP server as native tools. The missing piece between OpenClaw + Ollama and the MCP ecosystem.
Pick: ChrisLAS/freshrss-mcp — A simple MCP server to stand in front of your FreshRSS Server
Pick: wechsel — A Cli Utility to replace home folders with symlinks to project folders
wechsel-extension: A Gnome Extension for Project Switching

654: Creating Discord in the Matrix Feb 15, 2026

Show notes

We were minutes away from shutting down our Matrix server when the Discord news hit. Now we're not just keeping it, we're doubling down. Can open source seize this moment?

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Support LINUX Unplugged

Links:

💥 Gets Sats Quick and Easy with Strike
📻 LINUX Unplugged on Fountain.FM
SCaLE 23x | Registration — Get 40% off registration with promo code "UNPLG"
PlanetNix 2026 — Where Nix Builders Come Together
Pasadena Linux Party Meetup
Discord to roll out age verification next month
Hack of age verification firm may have exposed 70,000 Discord users’ ID photos
Discord's Age Verification Has A Weird Link To Palantir's Peter Thiel
NULLFS and OPEN_TREE_NAMESPACE Features Merged For Linux 7.0
OPEN_TREE_NAMESPACE To Provide A Security and Performance Win For Dealing With Containers
All about initramfs
pivot_root implementation and constraints
TrueNAS Scale
ZimaOS — A Simplified, Focused and Open NAS OS Supports all X86-64 hardware.
Github: ZimaOS
Clan — opinionated NixOS peer-to-peer computer management framework
What is Clan? - Documentation
clan-lol/clan-core: Build your own clan
ConnecTen internet
Case Study: Fortress Outdoor Router
Pick: booklog — B{ook}log is a self-hosted, multi-user book tracking platform for avid readers. Each user maintains a personal library and wishlist, with per-user readings, stats, and timeline.
Pick: whosthere — Local Area Network discovery tool with an interactive Terminal User Interface (TUI) written in Go. Discover, explore, and understand your LAN in an intuitive way. Knock Knock.. who's there? 🚪
Pick: Weylus — Use your tablet as graphic tablet/touch screen on your computer.

653: The Kernel Always Wins Feb 08, 2026

Show notes

The news this week highlights shifts in Linux from multiple angles. What's evolving, why it matters, and that moment where the future actually works.

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Support LINUX Unplugged

Links:

💥 Gets Sats Quick and Easy with Strike
📻 LINUX Unplugged on Fountain.FM
SCaLE 23x | Registration — Get 40% off registration with promo code "UNPLG"
PlanetNix 2026 — Where Nix Builders Come Together
Pasadena Linux Party Meetup
Valve explains why it hasn’t announced release dates for its new hardware, now plans for “first half of the year” — Valve now says all three products will ship “in the first half of the year.”
Latest VirtualBox Code Begins Supporting KVM Backend — Support for KVM or other native OS hypervisors in conjunction with VirtualBox has long been sought and it's finally becoming a reality.
bcachefs-tools v1.36.1 — Interactive TUI for monitoring various filesystem internals, slowpaths and device performance, with duration and frequency tracking for various events. Helpful for diagnosing performance issues.
bcachefs v1.36.1 is out - next release will be erasure coding : r/bcachefs
bcachefs PSA: if you're on 1.33-1.35, upgrade asap — Several people have been hit by this, so - please upgrade asap.
Mattermost — Mattermost is an open source platform for secure collaboration across the entire software development lifecycle.
Debian's CI Data No Longer Publicly Browseable Due To LLM Scrapers / Bot Traffic
Venice AI - Private AI for Unlimited Creative Freedom
ThinkBox V2 - A Custom 4-Bay SATA/SAS HDD NAS for Your Lenovo M720Q
Code for Climate 2026 — The Mad Botter Earth Day Open Source Challenge — We're doing our Earth Day open-source competition again The Mad Botter INC. Once again featuring System76 hardware and this time with dual tracks for college and non-college students.
Michael Dominick on X - Earth Day Open Source Challenge
Red5d/podcast_mcp — MCP server for accessing Podcasting 2.0 RSS feed episode data. "I've really only tested it with JB feeds!"
Pick: Plexus — Remove the fear of Android app compatibility on de-Googled devices.
Plexus-app: GitHub
Pick: ReinschriftTodo — Reinschrift combines a native GNOME interface with the simplicity of plain text. Your tasks remain a normal Markdown file – easy to back up, versionable via Git, and editable on any device with your favorite editor.
Reinschrift on Flathub

652: Have Your Bot Call My Bot Feb 01, 2026

Show notes

We stress tested open source AI agents this week. What actually held up, and where it falls apart. Plus Brent's $20 Wi-Fi upgrade.

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Support LINUX Unplugged

Links:

💥 Gets Sats Quick and Easy with Strike
📻 LINUX Unplugged on Fountain.FM
PlanetNix 2026 — Where Nix Builders Come Together
Agenda - PlanetNix 2026
SCaLE 23x | Registration — Get 40% off registration with promo code "UNPLG"
Pasadena Linux Party Meetup
LINUX Unplugged 650: This Old Network — We rebuild a small office network around Linux, with an Unplugged twist and real-world constraints. Things don't go quite as expected...
OpenWrt Wiki - Ad blocking
AdBlock-fast — AdBlock-Fast is a high-performance ad-blocking service for OpenWrt that integrates with Dnsmasq, SmartDNS, and Unbound.
OpenWrt Wiki - Supported Hardware Table
Abe's volition — This is a public, sanitized version of my Abiverse repository for people to use and run their own Abes
OpenClaw — Clears your inbox, sends emails, manages your calendar, checks you in for flights. All from WhatsApp, Telegram, or any chat app you already use.
Introducing OpenClaw
openclaw on GitHub 🦞
openclaw security Issues
Practical changes could reduce AI energy demand by up to 90% – University College London
moltbook — the front page of the agent internet
SeloraBox - NixOS Edition — SeloraBox is a self-configuring home automation appliance based on NixOS, featuring automated installation, device claiming via QR code, and self-updating configuration management.
nixtcloud: Nextcloud with NixOS in the backend and P2P connectivity enabled — Nixtcloud turns a Raspberry Pi or NanoPi NEO3 into a privacy-first, zero-config personal cloud — powered by NixOS, Nextcloud, and peer-to-peer remote access via Holesail. Built for the self-hosting crowd who want full control without constant babysitting.
Holesail.io - Open Source P2P Reverse Proxy
Pick: ml-sharp-pinokio — One-click 3D Gaussian Splatting generation from a single image.
Pick: Gradia — Gradia helps you get your screenshots ready for sharing, whether quickly with friends or colleagues, or professionally with the entire world.

651: Uptime Funk Jan 25, 2026

Show notes

When your self-hosted services become infrastructure, breakage matters. We tackle monitoring that actually helps, alerts you won't ignore, and DNS for local, and multi-mesh network setups.

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Support LINUX Unplugged

Links:

💥 Gets Sats Quick and Easy with Strike
📻 LINUX Unplugged on Fountain.FM
Using Experimental Lighthouse DNS with Nebula | Nebula Docs
PlanetNix 2026 — Where Nix Builders Come Together
SCaLE 23x | Registration — Get 40% off registration with promo code "UNPLG"
Pasadena Linux Party Meetup
NACME: ACME for Nebula PKI — ACME for Nebula PKI
uptime-kuma — A fancy self-hosted monitoring tool
telegraf-bcachefs-input
bcachefs collector by ananthb
ntfy.sh — Send push notifications to your phone via PUT/POST
meshSidecar — Mesh network sidecars for NixOS Services
Become a Core Contributor Member
Jupiter.Party Network Membership
NixOS Clinic Config
NixRTR/nixos-router — NixOS Router Configuration
Next Steps for Funding Contributors - Actual Budget
WiFiman - WiFi Analyser
RichARCH Install Guide
RichARCH Hyprvibe Screenshot
Pick: Switchyard — Modern rules-based URL launcher ready to replace your default browser.
switchyard on GitHub
Switchyard on Flathub

650: This Old Network Jan 18, 2026

Show notes

We rebuild a small office network around Linux, with an Unplugged twist and real-world constraints. Things don't go quite as expected...

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Support LINUX Unplugged

Links:

💥 Gets Sats Quick and Easy with Strike
📻 LINUX Unplugged on Fountain.FM
PlanetNix 2026 — Where Nix Builders Come Together
SCaLE 23x | Registration — Get 40% off registration with promo code "UNPLG"
GEEKOM IT13 Mini PC 2026
OpenWrt One
Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus-E
Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 — An updated Zigbee and Thread chip gives it the highest performance available, while providing a rock-solid, stable network.
SYMFONISK Sonos WiFi bookshelf speaker — The speaker is a collaboration between IKEA and Sonos, so it easily integrates with other products from Sonos.
IKEA SYMFONISK - Home Assistant — Support for devices by IKEA SYMFONISK in Home Assistant is provided by the Sonos integration.
OpenCode — The open-source AI coding agent.
OpenCode on GitHub
mike@computerupcycleproject.org
Actual — A local-first personal finance app.
Pocket ID — A simple and easy-to-use OIDC provider that allows users to authenticate with their passkeys to your services.
Pick: Pocket TTS — A high quality TTS that gives your CPU a voice.
Pocket TTS on GitHub
Pick: WebView Kiosk — Turn your Android device into a locked-down web page in fullscreen mode.
webview-kiosk on GitHub

649: Burned by AI Jan 11, 2026

Show notes

The storage apocalypse has arrived. An old friend drops by to talk survival strategies as prices explode, and we pitch our own unapologetically 90s approach to stretching storage.

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Support LINUX Unplugged

Links:

💥 Gets Sats Quick and Easy with Strike
📻 LINUX Unplugged on Fountain.FM
PlanetNix 2026 — Where Nix Builders Come Together
Planet Nix 2026: Call for Proposals
SCaLE 23x | Registration
LinuxFest Northwest 2026: Call for Speakers
Michael Tunnell - YouTube
TuxDigital
LINUX Unplugged 596: Perilously Pontificated Predictions
Phison CEO: SSD "Pricing Apocalypse" to Continue Through 2027
HDD Prices Spike as AI Infrastructure and China’s PC Push Collide
2025 Cloud Pricing Trends: Big Three Shake Up Storage Costs
Storage Apocalypse: Why SSDs and HDDs Are Becoming Impossibly Expensive
Jensen Huang Flagged Data Storage as the Next AI Bottleneck
Manufacturer Recertified Drives - ServerPartDeals.com
Hard Disk Prices (US)
Storage Price Tracker
RackRat - eBay Rackmount Server Deal Finder
r/HomelabSales$£€ - Reddit
Smart Buy 10 Pack Bd-r Dl 50gb 6X Blu-ray Double Layer Recordable Disc
BlueVault — A top-quality TUI app to manage Blu-ray cold storage archives on Linux.
Pick: Kopia — Cross-platform backup tool for Windows, macOS & Linux with fast, incremental backups, client-side end-to-end encryption, compression and data deduplication. CLI and GUI included.
Kopia Repository Server
Pick: PowerISO — Create, Burn, Mount, Edit, Compress, Encrypt, Split, Extract ISO file, ISO/BIN converter, Virtual Drive
PowerISO on Flathub
Pick: CDEmu — CDemu is a software suite designed to emulate an optical drive and disc on the Linux operating system.
Tellico — Collection management software, free and simple.

648: I See Live People Jan 04, 2026

Show notes

We unleash a networking monitoring tool to spot new devices, track changes in real time, and fire alerts straight into Home Assistant, MQTT, and your phone.

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