Slightly OT- Attention! Anime fans who use Linux

[Bobbie Sellers]

Hi, Readers and Typers

Besides watching anime and reading manga
I am under-active in the Linux community finding
information and news in one instance and sharing
it with other via a column in the Status Register
of the Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group.

Just to explain why I found this bit following.

Moebuntu
Moebuntu is an upgrade for existing Ubuntu installations designed especially for fans of Manga and Anime, and it shows how the OS can be tweaked or fine-tuned to the extreme. There’s an automated setup tool which will apply the colourful desktop and icon themes – prepare yourself for some alarming hues of pink if you do so. There's also a suitably rosy dash icon as well as an array of wallpapers and Manga-style fonts.
As gaudy as this may appear, the advantage of Moebuntu is that it has kept pace with the times. The latest release supports Ubuntu 17.04 so unlike some of the other distros we've highlighted, you can enjoy a taste of the weird and wonderful while having an up-to-date OS.
You can install the Moebuntu desktop theme, icon packs, wallpaper and so on by following the steps on the Moebuntu website

This if from this site which will have a link I believe
to the Moebuntu site.
<http://www.techradar.com/news/13-weird-and-wonderful-niche-linux-distros-of-2017>

bliss

[Gerardo Campos]

Post by Bobbie Sellers
Hi, Readers and Typers
Besides watching anime and reading manga
I am under-active in the Linux community finding
information and news in one instance and sharing
it with other via a column in the Status Register
of the Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group.
Just to explain why I found this bit following.

Moebuntu
Moebuntu is an upgrade for existing Ubuntu installations designed
especially for fans of Manga and Anime, and it shows how the OS can be
tweaked or fine-tuned to the extreme. There’s an automated setup tool
which will apply the colourful desktop and icon themes – prepare
yourself for some alarming hues of pink if you do so. There's also a
suitably rosy dash icon as well as an array of wallpapers and
Manga-style fonts.
As gaudy as this may appear, the advantage of Moebuntu is that it has
kept pace with the times. The latest release supports Ubuntu 17.04 so
unlike some of the other distros we've highlighted, you can enjoy a
taste of the weird and wonderful while having an up-to-date OS.
You can install the Moebuntu desktop theme, icon packs, wallpaper
and so on by following the steps on the Moebuntu website

This if from this site which will have a link I believe
to the Moebuntu site.
<http://www.techradar.com/news/13-weird-and-wonderful-niche-linux-distros-of-2017>
bliss

Two years ago, Mangaka Linux was released, not sure if it still
maintained, but in addition to colors, wallpapers it included open
source software to animate, draw and other must-have tools (according to
the authors) for anime/manga fans.

[Bobbie Sellers]

Post by Bobbie Sellers
Hi, Readers and Typers
     Besides watching anime and reading manga
I am under-active in the Linux community finding
information and news in one instance and sharing
it with other via a column in the Status Register
of the Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group.
Just to explain why I found this bit following.

Moebuntu
Moebuntu is an upgrade for existing Ubuntu installations designed
especially for fans of Manga and Anime, and it shows how the OS can
be tweaked or fine-tuned to the extreme. There’s an automated setup
tool which will apply the colourful desktop and icon themes – prepare
yourself for some alarming hues of pink if you do so. There's also a
suitably rosy dash icon as well as an array of wallpapers and
Manga-style fonts.
As gaudy as this may appear, the advantage of Moebuntu is that it has
kept pace with the times. The latest release supports Ubuntu 17.04 so
unlike some of the other distros we've highlighted, you can enjoy a
taste of the weird and wonderful while having an up-to-date OS.
    You can install the Moebuntu desktop theme, icon packs, wallpaper
and so on by following the steps on the Moebuntu website

This if from this site which will have a link I believe
to the Moebuntu site.
<http://www.techradar.com/news/13-weird-and-wonderful-niche-linux-distros-of-2017>
     bliss

Two years ago,  Mangaka Linux was released, not sure if it still
maintained, but in addition to colors, wallpapers it included open
source software to animate, draw and other must-have tools (according to
the authors) for anime/manga fans.

There were three releases of this pretty close together.
Releases, download links and checksums:
• 2015-09-21: Distribution Release: Linux Mangaka Mou
• 2015-08-16: Distribution Release: Linux Mangaka Koe
• 2015-06-21: Distribution Release: Linux Mangaka Nyu
• 2015-05-28: Development Release: Linux Mangaka Nyu Alpha
• 2009-12-02: Distribution Release: Linux Mangaka Chu
• More Mangaka releases...

Just search on the Linux Mangaka title and you should find a
download site for that shortly. I would go with Distrowatch
to download though for regular downloads they hand it off to
the originating site or Sourceforge where lots of fine
utility software is made available.

Personally I use a general purpose Linux, PCLinuxOS64 and
before PCLinux I used Mandriva from 2006-2012. The 2011 release
was not working on my hardware so I found a usable fork from
Mandriva predecessor, Mandrake, for a while I had to leave the
PCLinux to use Mageia, another fork from Mandriva.
But I also use KDE's Plasma which is a Desktop Environment
that lets you use a wide variety of tools adaptable to the watching
of anime and reading of manga. VLC for anime and Gwenview for manga.
Any good drawing program(Krita) will let you create manga or even
comix or comics if you have the talent and drive.

Anyone having trouble finding download site for any Linux
distribution is free to ask me about that topic. If you are
naive to Linux then the best bet is to join a Linux Users Group.
Linux can be run on nearly any computer without even installing
the system to disk if you know a few simple facts.

bliss

[E. Liddell]

Post by Bobbie Sellers
Personally I use a general purpose Linux, PCLinuxOS64 and
before PCLinux I used Mandriva from 2006-2012. The 2011 release was not
working on my hardware so I found a usable fork from Mandriva
predecessor, Mandrake, for a while I had to leave the PCLinux to use
Mageia, another fork from Mandriva.

I think anyone using Linux as a serious desktop OS and not a
play-toy uses a general purpose distribution. I use Gentoo
myself; since it's a rolling-update distro, I haven't had to
reinstall my system in twelve years and it's still up-to-date
(except where I don't want it to be).

Post by Bobbie Sellers
But I also use KDE's Plasma which is a Desktop Environment
that lets you use a wide variety of tools adaptable to the watching of
anime and reading of manga. VLC for anime and Gwenview for manga.
Any good drawing program(Krita) will let you create manga or even comix
or comics if you have the talent and drive.

Basically, you can use any Linux program under any viable Linux
desktop environment (although if it's a program specifically
packaged with a different DE, you'll need its libraries too).
There are a lot of desktop options. VLC and Gwenview aren't
associated with any particular DE as far as I can recall.

E. Liddell

[Bobbie Sellers]

snip

Post by E. Liddell

Post by Bobbie Sellers
But I also use KDE's Plasma which is a Desktop Environment
that lets you use a wide variety of tools adaptable to the watching of
anime and reading of manga. VLC for anime and Gwenview for manga.
Any good drawing program(Krita) will let you create manga or even comix
or comics if you have the talent and drive.

Basically, you can use any Linux program under any viable Linux
desktop environment (although if it's a program specifically
packaged with a different DE, you'll need its libraries too).
There are a lot of desktop options. VLC and Gwenview aren't
associated with any particular DE as far as I can recall.
E. Liddell

I mention VLC and Gwenview because many Linux distributions
come without those handy tools. Some even fail to have them in
their repositories but you can go out to the originating sites
and get the packages in appropriate formats for nearly every
distribution. Even in Android you can get a version of VLC.
My tablet though was too slow to decode even the lowest resolution
.mkv file in a pleasing manner.

bliss

[E. Liddell]

Post by Bobbie Sellers
snip

Post by Bobbie Sellers
But I also use KDE's Plasma which is a Desktop Environment
that lets you use a wide variety of tools adaptable to the watching of
anime and reading of manga. VLC for anime and Gwenview for manga.
Any good drawing program(Krita) will let you create manga or even
comix or comics if you have the talent and drive.

Basically, you can use any Linux program under any viable Linux desktop
environment (although if it's a program specifically packaged with a
different DE, you'll need its libraries too). There are a lot of
desktop options. VLC and Gwenview aren't associated with any
particular DE as far as I can recall.

I mention VLC and Gwenview because many Linux distributions
come without those handy tools. Some even fail to have them in their
repositories but you can go out to the originating sites and get the
packages in appropriate formats for nearly every distribution.

There are hundreds of Linux distributions, spread over five
package format "families" (plus a few singletons that create
their own package formats). It's a rare piece of software
that covers even the five "root" distributions directly--
most of them just provide source and let the distros sort it
out.

(And yes, I'm just nitpicking, like a typical grumpy
techno-nerd. ;P )

Post by Bobbie Sellers
Even in
Android you can get a version of VLC.

It exists for Windows too, or used to.

Post by Bobbie Sellers
My tablet though was too slow to decode even the lowest resolution .mkv
file in a pleasing manner.

Really? Must be a really low-end processor. I've got a
~10-year-old laptop that handles 720p well enough most of
the time. That's in mplayer, though, which has less overhead.

E. Liddell

[Bobbie Sellers]

Post by E. Liddell

Post by Bobbie Sellers
My tablet though was too slow to decode even the lowest resolution .mkv
file in a pleasing manner.

Really? Must be a really low-end processor. I've got a
~10-year-old laptop that handles 720p well enough most of
the time. That's in mplayer, though, which has less overhead.
E. Liddell

I think Android is the problem but the tablet is one
built to the obstructive law that forbade OS replacement in
tablets but not cell phones. Otherwise Debian or Ubuntu
would be on it.
It is a Asus Transformer Pad 700 and I could have
bought a lot of anime and or manga for what I paid for it a
few years ago. But there is no way to test what sort of
performance you will see until you try our a specific
tool/OS/hardware in a field where there is lot of hiding
of various factors. The next time I spend that money
for an even better notebook faster cpus and with more
memory especially dedicated graphics memory.
Some of the current tablets are much better in
cpu speed, operating bandwidth specification and in
price and they might do the trick. Some phone/tablets
can handle games and anime I know but maybe it is a
less encoded sort of format that the system can
un-spool faster.
Meantime I have been spending more time making
sure bootable disks and flash drives boot on the machine
I haul along to the LUG meetings than get to spend
watching Anime.

bliss

[Nick Roberts]

Post by Bobbie Sellers

Post by E. Liddell

Post by Bobbie Sellers
My tablet though was too slow to decode even the lowest resolution .mkv
file in a pleasing manner.

Really? Must be a really low-end processor. I've got a
~10-year-old laptop that handles 720p well enough most of
the time. That's in mplayer, though, which has less overhead.
E. Liddell

I think Android is the problem but the tablet is one
built to the obstructive law that forbade OS replacement in
tablets but not cell phones. Otherwise Debian or Ubuntu
would be on it.
It is a Asus Transformer Pad 700 and I could have
bought a lot of anime and or manga for what I paid for it a
few years ago. But there is no way to test what sort of
performance you will see until you try our a specific
tool/OS/hardware in a field where there is lot of hiding
of various factors. The next time I spend that money
for an even better notebook faster cpus and with more
memory especially dedicated graphics memory.
Some of the current tablets are much better in
cpu speed, operating bandwidth specification and in
price and they might do the trick. Some phone/tablets
can handle games and anime I know but maybe it is a
less encoded sort of format that the system can
un-spool faster.

I have 2 Android pads - A Nexus 7 and a Pixel C. I use VLC on both and
neither has any difficulty with mkv files.

That said - it depends very much on how many "a few" years is. Not so
very long ago, a multi-core ARM chip was a rarity, and a single-core
ARM would need a lot of help from the graphics chip to do the decoding
on a complex video format in a timely manner.

[Bobbie Sellers]

Post by Nick Roberts

Post by Bobbie Sellers

Post by E. Liddell

Post by Bobbie Sellers
My tablet though was too slow to decode even the lowest resolution .mkv
file in a pleasing manner.

Really? Must be a really low-end processor. I've got a
~10-year-old laptop that handles 720p well enough most of
the time. That's in mplayer, though, which has less overhead.
E. Liddell

I think Android is the problem but the tablet is one
built to the obstructive law that forbade OS replacement in
tablets but not cell phones. Otherwise Debian or Ubuntu
would be on it.
It is a Asus Transformer Pad 700 and I could have
bought a lot of anime and or manga for what I paid for it a
few years ago. But there is no way to test what sort of
performance you will see until you try our a specific
tool/OS/hardware in a field where there is lot of hiding
of various factors. The next time I spend that money
for an even better notebook faster cpus and with more
memory especially dedicated graphics memory.
Some of the current tablets are much better in
cpu speed, operating bandwidth specification and in
price and they might do the trick. Some phone/tablets
can handle games and anime I know but maybe it is a
less encoded sort of format that the system can
un-spool faster.

I have 2 Android pads - A Nexus 7 and a Pixel C. I use VLC on both and
neither has any difficulty with mkv files.
That said - it depends very much on how many "a few" years is. Not so
very long ago, a multi-core ARM chip was a rarity, and a single-core
ARM would need a lot of help from the graphics chip to do the decoding
on a complex video format in a timely manner.

I am thinking 2013 near the end of the model year and I think the main
problem is the 32 bit bus. Right now I am too poor to get
another tablet but cruise Craigs List looking for not too old machines
that I might get to replace the HP Pavilion as I don't trust it very
much longer. I think it is quad core at 1.6 GHz. I was going to
install Linux on it but I have since learned it is impossible
without some major changes to older firmware and the like.
That said with 1900 x 1200 resolution it is nearly ideal
for looking at online manga or even manga copied to the additional
memory chip. Other than that I would need more $$ to enjoy the
plethora of stuff that is not simply free to access.

bliss

[Bobbie Sellers]

Hi Readers and Typers,

Bad News. October 16, 2017

Note that this is an attack against WiFI. So here connected to DSL
by Ethernet cable I am not much worried. When we use WiFi at various
locations we are in danger of the KRACK attack but we know these are
largely insecure but this will work on phones to decrypt data sent
over WiFi and acquire it.

The KRACK attack works on all modern protected WiFi networks against
both WPA1 and WPA2, and against cipher suites including WPA-TKIP,
AES-CCMP, and GCMP). The list of products affected by some variant of
attack includes Android, Linux, Apple, Windows, OpenBSD, MediaTek,
Linksys, and more.

While almost every supported device and OS is at the risk of being
attacked, it appears some operating systems could have far worse
consequences, namely, Android and Linux. The wpa_supplicant is the WiFi
client commonly used on Linux and Android (6.0 and above).

<https://fossbytes.com/krack-attack-android-and-linux-devices-are-easiest-to-hack/>

Further information at the URL below:

<https://www.krackattacks.com/>

bliss