Linux on

SailfishOS vs Ubuntu Touch – October 2025 Notes

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

After revisiting SailfishOS earlier this autumn, I spent a week living with its open-source cousin, Ubuntu Touch. With Google tightening the Android ecosystem, it felt like the right moment to explore what a true Linux mobile OS offers today.

My first attempt was with a OnePlus Nord N100 on MetroPCS. It fought me at every step. Flashing, fastboot flags, and ADB coaxing were all unsuccessful. In the end I ordered a Pixel 3a, one of Ubuntu Touch's officially supported devices.

Steam Deck Review

Wed, 18 May 2022 04:15:57 +0000

I have struggled a little to collect my thoughts around the Steam Deck. The Linux geek in me is astonished that I sat on an aeroplane and played Halo on an Arch powered gaming system. Given that people in my life are not necessarily that same type of geek, I am going to break this review into three sections:

Is this a fun gaming device?
Is it an excellent portable Linux system?
I am not a tinkering gamer; should I buy one?

Open Source On the Go

Tue, 11 May 2021 04:15:57 +0000

Is there a more prominent sign of being a geek than wanting to have your special OSS tooling at hand 24x7? I started writing this post as a review of the PinePhone and ended up taking a trip down memory lane. I guess that is something that happens when you are getting to be an older geek. Below is less review though that is at the end and more thinking through how we got to this place in the history of Linux on mobile devices.

Headless Steam Big Picture Streaming

Fri, 10 Nov 2017 04:15:57 +0000

Introduction

In both of our homes I have a Unix server for a variety of uses, but something that has been on interest for awhile was Steam in Home Streaming. In essence it takes the frame buffer of the video card and remotely displays it on any other machine running Steam.

The benefit, for me at least, is two-fold. It is cheaper and easier to drop a GPU into the server than it is to upgrade the laptop and it allows for me to have a remote OpenCL machine that I use in my security research.