Linux After Dark
Episodes
Linux After Dark – Episode 121
08 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How we get back to our home LANs when we are away travelling etc. It mostly involves WireGuard and Tailscale. We also get into blocking ads, mostly wi...
Linux After Dark – Episode 120
24 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Chris ended up with a managed M4 Macbook Air at work with no sudo or root. So how does a Linux user get on with his first ever Mac? Turns out pretty w...
Linux After Dark – Episode 119
10 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
May wants to make a space heater out of an old computer, and Joe is thinking about buying a new (used) laptop. The heater will be pretty straightforwa...
Linux After Dark – Episode 118
27 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We decided to give openSUSE a try. We had a great time. Honest. Support us on Patreon and get ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 117
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
May has actually been using her stack of laptops and learning that “legacy” distros make more sense, the Firefox flatpak performs better t...
Linux After Dark – Episode 116
27 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The end of Windows 10 and the terrible state of Windows 11 are driving more and more people to Linux. How do we help people actually manage the switch...
Linux After Dark – Episode 115
13 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
With the price of RAM and storage through the roof, what are we going to do when it comes to supporting people who come to us for IT advice? &n...
Linux After Dark – Episode 114
30 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How do you convince people to step using unethical technology like generative AI? Support us on Patreon and ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 113
16 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We follow up on episode 104 from September last year when we promised to tackle some Linux projects including moving to Immich and Jellyfin, learning ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 112
02 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We look back at what we wanted to happen in the Linux and FOSS world in 2025, and talk about what we want to happen in 2026. &nbs...
Linux After Dark – Episode 111
19 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We tell stories from some of the tech support nightmares we’ve found ourselves in. This is a short episode because Joe is having a break for the...
Linux After Dark – Episode 110
05 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Some of the Linux and open source tech from our past that inspired where we are today. Support us on Patreon and ge...
Linux After Dark – Episode 109
21 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How we’ve all set up our backups including GUI distros vs doing it the hard way, ZFS vs Borg, and why it’s tricky to chose the right offsi...
Linux After Dark – Episode 108
07 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Some of our Linux hot takes including the LTS release model being broken, Linux media being out of touch, social media being the root of most evil, an...
Linux After Dark – Episode 107
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve done various challenges in the past where we’ve bought Linux machines on a seriously low budget, but what if we had an unlimited bud...
Linux After Dark – Episode 106
10 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Florian Beijers joins us again to give us an update on the state of accessibility in Linux and whether things have improved since we last spoke.  ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 105
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We cover some of your emails, questions, and comments. A challenge suggestion of not using a package manager, donating old hardware, why we don’...
Linux After Dark – Episode 104
12 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Summer is officially over. As the nights draw in it’s time to hunker down and work on our technical debt. We all have Linuxy projects that we ar...
Linux After Dark – Episode 103
29 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the £20 Linux machine challenge! This time the rules are stricter: no adding storage and RAM. It turns out that if you try really hard, yo...
Linux After Dark – Episode 102
15 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s our annual episode where we need to talk about Ubuntu. This time most of us are broadly indifferent about the distro itself, so we end up m...
Linux After Dark – Episode 101
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gary has been using a Framework 12 laptop for a few weeks and gives us his impressions of it. Are the upgradability and repairability worth the premiu...
Linux After Dark – Episode 100
18 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s our 100th episode spectacular! We look back at some of the memes and themes of our first hundred episodes including our obsession with old ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 99
04 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s part 2 of the £50 Linux machine challenge! This time: actually using them, what upgrades we did, what we’ll actually use them for, a...
Linux After Dark – Episode 98
20 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the £50 Linux machine challenge! We all had a budget of 50 GBP (~65 USD) to buy the best computer we could find to run Linux.  ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 97
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Some of our hot takes and some from other people. Your OS is a passive gateway to apps and services, OSTree sucks, when you need to reboot Ubuntu is a...
Linux After Dark – Episode 96
23 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We recently talked about the lowest-end hardware we’d be willing to use as a daily desktop machine, but what about headless boxes? It turns out ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 95
09 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What Linux and FOSS technology should Joe learn next? Is it a case of waiting for a problem to present itself before even trying? ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 94
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What do we wish had happened in the Linux and open source world? Successful mobile Linux, convergence, Snaps winning, and Amigas still being around. &...
Linux After Dark – Episode 93
11 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Two years after we talked about the lowest-end hardware we’d be willing to daily drive, the Web has bogged machines down to the point where our ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 92
28 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We look at postmarketOS on various devices old and new, Arm and x86, and are impressed. Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 91
14 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A dreadful backup box mistake was made but then rectified, whether to take on the technical debt of an older Ubuntu LTS, and why there are more import...
Linux After Dark – Episode 90
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the alternative open source OS challenge! May got OpenIndiana, Joe got ReactOS, Gary got GhostBSD, and Chris got Haiku. Haiku Packag...
Linux After Dark – Episode 89
14 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The search for the ideal cheap and small off-site backup machine, and our advice on learning the ins and outs of desktop Linux. &...
Linux After Dark – Episode 88
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When a certain task has both options, what do we only do with the command line and what do we only do with a GUI? Plus May’s Linux win that wasn...
Linux After Dark – Episode 87
17 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We share the stories of our various tech wins and fails over the holiday period including updating Ubuntu, getting mad at Docker, trying to recover Mi...
Linux After Dark – Episode 86
03 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We look back at what we wanted to happen in the Linux and FOSS world in 2024, and talk about what we want to happen in 2025. Supp...
Linux After Dark – Episode 85
20 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Gary observes that non-FOSS people don’t understand or care about licences. Chris admits that he too is somewhat clueless in this area so we try...
Linux After Dark – Episode 84
06 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our FOSS frustrations, and our satisfying open source wins. ncspot py-spy OggCamp Distrobox BoxBuddy audio-visualizer-python &nbs...
Linux After Dark – Episode 83
22 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We all compete to create the worst possible RAID array and network storage device. The mantra here was “what would Jim and Allan from 2.5 Admins...
Linux After Dark – Episode 82
08 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Where do we draw the line when it comes to being made to use software that we don’t want to at work? Plus why only half of us use Linux on the d...
Linux After Dark – Episode 81
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We revisit our home networking setups including using MoCa (network over coax), Chris searching for a unicorn, and relying on an Apple TV for home aut...
Linux After Dark – Episode 80
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Framework sent Joe a 13 DIY edition (for free and to keep) so we do our best to talk about it honestly. It’s a great machine, but you pay a prem...
Linux After Dark – Episode 79
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Social media was a mistake that has caused polarisation through the spread of misinformation by grifters. We try to come up with some ideas for what t...
Linux After Dark – Episode 78
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is a proprietary games company driving all the innovation on the Linux desktop, and is that OK? Support us on Patreon and get an ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 77
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We need to talk about Ubuntu (again). The updates situation is a confusing mess, a lot of enthusiast users have had enough and are starting to move to...
Linux After Dark – Episode 76
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We once recorded an episode about GNOME that was so negative that we decided to delete our recordings and not publish it. Our opinions of GNOME have c...
Linux After Dark – Episode 75
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How we learn, remember, and document new Linux and FOSS technologies. Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with earl...
Linux After Dark – Episode 74
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We all customise our phones and computers to one extent or another, but does it make sense to inflict our defaults on other people’s machines wh...
Linux After Dark – Episode 73
05 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Having been given an Asus Eee PC netbook back, Joe wonders what to do with this ancient 32-bit machine. Plus the oldest machines we currently have in ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 72
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We are joined by Florian Beijers who is a full time screen reader user to talk about how the accessibility experience differs on various operating sys...
Linux After Dark – Episode 71
07 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Gary is organising OggCamp this year, so we wonder what makes the perfect Linux and open source event. Plus why we don’t use multiple partitions...
Linux After Dark – Episode 70
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How we make our Web experiences better with various plugins, websites and services. Plus the ethics of blocking ads, bypassing paywalls, and supportin...
Linux After Dark – Episode 69
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is Linux hard to use? It turns out the answer is both “yes, absolutely” and “not at all!” Kolide K...
Linux After Dark – Episode 68
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dalton asks us when consumer computers peaked which stirs up a debate about various generations of XPS and ThinkPad laptops, trackpads vs trackpoints,...
Linux After Dark – Episode 67
12 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We are joined by Jorge Castro for an update on the world of what used to be called immutable Linux. Jorge doesn’t really like that word. He pref...
Linux After Dark – Episode 66
29 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ubuntu is nearly 20 years old so we wanted to see how the first versions compare with the upcoming LTS. Unfortunately installing Warty turned out to m...
Linux After Dark – Episode 65
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We wonder what old concepts in the Linux and open source world are due for a comeback. Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free R...
Linux After Dark – Episode 64
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Gary’s recent (mostly) good experience with an Arm Chromebook makes us wonder about the current state of proper Linux on Arm laptops. Plus follo...
Linux After Dark – Episode 63
16 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Gary’s recent trip to FOSDEM made him wonder if the type of Linux user who goes to FOSS events has changed. Has the demographic shifted more tow...
Linux After Dark – Episode 62
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We come up with our FOSS extremes. The funniest, the coolest, the cleverest, the most useful, the dullest, the most exciting, the most dangerous and p...
Linux After Dark – Episode 61
19 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do we decide which devices and which software we trust? Kolide Kolide ensures that if a device isn’t secure it c...
Linux After Dark – Episode 60
05 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We look back at what we wanted to happen in the Linux and FOSS world in 2023, and talk about what we want to happen in 2024. Supp...
Linux After Dark – Episode 59
22 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The child’s toy that Chris hacked makes us remember the various other proprietary hardware and software that we’ve taken control of using ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 58
08 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When the Raspberry Pi 5 was announced, we all said that most people would probably be better off repurposing an x86 thin client so we bought some dirt...
Linux After Dark – Episode 57
24 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our memories of early positive experiences show us how communities have changed over the years, and the best ways to keep the experience positive thes...
Linux After Dark – Episode 56
10 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Half of us constantly change our hardware and software setups, and the other half like to keep things as constant as possible. Are we changing things ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 55
27 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the spinning rust challenge! We try installing and running our operating systems on mechanical hard drives and learn that Linux is much les...
Linux After Dark – Episode 54
13 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The vast majority of desktop computer users in the world use a Windows-like interface, so why do all the major distros ship GNOME which is totally dif...
Linux After Dark – Episode 53
29 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Something has gone wrong with the timeline and all software is free and open source. What does that world look like? Plus more on biometrics and deskt...
Linux After Dark – Episode 52
15 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What hardware we recommend for desktop Linux users in 2023. Is it really as simple as buying a 5 year old ThinkPad? HelloFresh Wi...
Linux After Dark – Episode 51
01 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Governments around the world are trying to undermine end-to-end encryption. Are they going to get away with forcing in backdoors, and what does it mea...
Linux After Dark – Episode 50
18 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The bits of Linux and open source software that we regret putting off trying, and what made us wait. From the security and complexity of containers to...
Linux After Dark – Episode 49
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
All four of us have been Ubuntu users for a long time but we’ve been dabbling with different distros to see how they compare. Fedora, Debian, an...
Linux After Dark – Episode 48
21 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What ever happened to convergence? The dream of having one computing device just never came true, and we get to the bottom of it. Plus how to avoid dr...
Linux After Dark – Episode 47
07 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The things we feel like we are missing in Linux, and what we miss from Linux when we use proprietary platforms. We mentioned Dalton’s tool calle...
Linux After Dark – Episode 46
23 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The oldest machines we’d be willing to daily drive including a ThinkPad with Libreboot, the ways that old laptops are sometimes better, and why ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 45
09 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dalton spent 3 hours having fun playing with open source DJ software Mixxx, and wonders if the rest of us have had a similar amount of fun with FOSS. ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 44
26 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We try to imagine what the future holds for our young kids, and realise how much the tech world has changed since we were young. Plus building a dirt ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 43
12 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The times we’ve spent far too long troubleshooting simple problems – from permissions issues to unplugged cables and CDs in the wrong slot...
Linux After Dark – Episode 42
28 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Whether the idea of “lightweight Linux” is outdated, your feedback about taming Windows and workspaces, a quick look at Bodhi, and digital...
Linux After Dark – Episode 41
14 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Windows is much better and so much worse than Joe remembers, and it makes him very grateful for desktop Linux. Plus what preparation (if any) we’ve ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 40
31 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As companies tighten their belts during these uncertain times, could there be a silver lining for open source and self-hosting? Plus our brief thought...
Linux After Dark – Episode 39
17 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A year on from our episode about Ubuntu, we still have concerns about the direction of the project. Or should we just call it a product at this point?...
Linux After Dark – Episode 38
03 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We are joined by Jorge Castro to talk about immutable filesystem Linux distros. Check out his project uBlue and his YouTube Channel. Correctio...
Linux After Dark – Episode 37
17 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What counts as a boutique distro, and do we recommend them? Plus Gary tells us about his experiences at the recent Fosdem conference. &n...
Linux After Dark – Episode 36
03 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the nested virtualisation challenge! How many levels of VMs can we get running at once? Plus we get the inside story from Lenovo about runn...
Linux After Dark – Episode 35
20 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Who has the most compute cores, how many are we actually using, and how many of them are running Linux? We finally find out who has the biggest stack ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 34
06 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We look back at what we wanted to happen in 2022, and look forward to what we want to see in 2023. Episode 8 where we talked about our 2022 hop...
Linux After Dark – Episode 33
23 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s almost impossible to buy a Raspberry Pi for a reasonable price at the moment so we talk about alternatives, why a lot of Pi users would be ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 32
09 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With the holiday season upon us, we talk about all the tech that we have to have with us when we travel. See our contact page for ways t...
Linux After Dark – Episode 31
25 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Linux setups from the past that we miss the most, and why they are all ones that gave us the freedom to tinker and learn. See our co...
Linux After Dark – Episode 30
11 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we stick with Linux and FOSS, even when our faith is tested? See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 29
28 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s our Halloween Spooktacular! What scares us about Linux, what we find spooky, and what seems like witchcraft. See our contact ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 28
14 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Is FOSS the ultimate lifeboat? If things go wrong with a tech stack, can you always just fall back on FOSS? See our contact page for way...
Linux After Dark – Episode 27
30 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our worst Linux cock-ups, and what we learned from them. See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 26
16 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Where do we draw the line when it comes to our ethics and our ability to put food on the table? See our contact page for ways to ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 25
02 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If we could go back in time, what advice would we give our younger, less experienced counterparts about Linux and FOSS? See our c...
Linux After Dark – Episode 24
19 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How efficient are our whole setups – including servers, client machines, and VPSs? Could we be doing more to save energy and money?  ...
Linux After Dark – Episode 23
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In a world of cloud and serverless, is there any point in most people learning the command line? See our contact page for ways to...
Linux After Dark – Episode 22
22 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our smallest and our biggest FOSS wins. Things we mentioned: Homebridge FOG Project boringtun vnStat EasyTAG HAProxy See o...