Author: Andrew Conway

Dave (aka the lovebug), Al, Kevie and Andrew return for our final show of 2025 in which we recount experiences of trying Free and Open Source Software interspersed with tunes sporting Creative Commons licenses. There may be some giggling and silly antics.

As ever we begin by running our eye over recent releases listed on distrowatch. We then move on to share our experiences of StormOS and how well it fulfills its stated aim: “to help bring new users over to the world of Arch Linux by offering an easy to install, out of the box Arch Linux experience”. Kevie suggested we look at StormOS because Christmas is a stormy time of the year, especially up on the Isle of Lewis. Nature obliged and sent Storm Bram to batter not only Kevie in the Hebrides but also Andrew in Glasgow during the recording. Thankfully Storm Bram did not blow us away… but did StormOS?

Next up we look at a fun take on a very old computer game in the form of Breakout71 which we tried on our phones. Dave “I’m not a gamer” Lee gave it a particularly thorough test.

Finally we do a round-up of upcoming events including the next podcrawl on 20th December 6pm UTC, the HPR beer garden, Living the Tux Life, the HPR New Year extravaganza and OggCamp 2026. If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it, please get in touch.

Tracks played in this episode are:

1. Hollywood Drunks – Let It Snow
2. Canon and Variation – Twin Musicon (https://www.audiolibrary.com.co/twin-musicom/canon-and-variation) 
3. Christmas Canon – dmWiggins (https://www.jamendo.com/track/1476465/christmas-canon)
4. Tatyana Litvin – Auld Lang Syne

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It is time to buy gifts for your TuxJam hosts the geeks in your life and Kevie, Dave, Andrew and Al have recorded their annual special TuxJam episode to provide you with ideas for us them.

Stocking Fillers (below £10)

• Tux Stress Toy – Kevie
• Tapo P110M Smart Plug – Kevie
• Buy a cheap SD/USB stick and fill it with TuxJam – Andrew
• Cobee One More Game/Go To Bed Gift Decision Maker Coin (Silver) – Dave
• Funny Tech Support Checklist Helpdesk Hotline Coffee & Tea Gift Mug – Dave
• Adnams Ghostship Nuts – Al

Low price (£10-£25)

• Linux Command Line Cheat Sheet Desk Mat – Kevie
• Jlab Talk Microphone – Kevie
• Tux(ish) Rechargeable Handwarmers – Andrew
• Cheap Yellow Display – Dave
• Lepro Desk Lamp LED Desk Lamp 9.2W – Dave
• UGREEN M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure – Al

Mid range (£25-£100)

• Cosori Cup Warmer & Mug – Kevie
• The Smart Garden 3 – Kevie
• Sabrent 252W 8 port charging station – Andrew
• WisMesh Tag The Pocket-Sized, Compact Meshtastic Tracker – Dave
• D5 Solar Lora Node built in 3.7v battery for Meshtastic Repeater – Dave
• iDventure ClueBox Pro – Al

High End (over £100)

• Steam Hardware Set (not available until next year) – Kevie
• Digital Canvas – Kevie
• Steam deck OLED – Andrew
• Bluetti AC180 DC and AC Power Station – Andrew
• YETI Roadie 24 2.0 Hard Cooler – Dave
• Escape Room Cottage – Al

WOW, you REALLY love them (£silly money)

• ARCHAX £3 million – Kevie
• Vaonis vespers pro cosmic bundle – Andrew
• SFERRA Giza 45 Sateen Flat Sheet – Dave
• ThinkPad T1g Gen 8 – Al

Festive Creative Commons tracks played on this episode:

• Flashinmusic – We wish you a punk rock Christmas 
• Roy Smiles III – Snow Falling In Aachen
• Alex-Productions – Deck The halls (Jazz Version)
• Jingle Bells – Anup
• Twelth Eve Christmas Cheer Chestnut Vagary – Harper’s Hamper

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The quadrapodcasting bipeds – Al, Andrew (aka mcnalu), Dave (aka thelovebug) and Kevie – are back for another session of Free and Open Source Geekry and goodness sprinkled with tunes that are creatively common.

One we have rounded up some recent releases on the watch of distros we share our experiences of the “Cheap Yellow Display” or CYD. As the it says on the tin, it is cheap and yellow and has a display, but all this is backed up with a capable WROOM ESP32 with the usual WiFi and Bluetooth support on a decent dev board with LEDs and other nicely niche features. We discuss our experiences with it and some uses for it too.

Finally, we run through our feedback received and note some upcoming events that our listeners may be interested in:

Beer lovers amongst you might enjoy Kevie and Dave’s Beer Garden series over on Hacker Public Radio.

Creative commons licensed tunes played in this episode are:

1. The Stereo Inspectors – Hollow Crown 
2. Ismael Concepcion – No Existe la Distancia
3. Eldertide – The Dying Trees of Mona
4. Federico Guglielmetti – Libero di credere
5. Tabby Wolfe – World on Fire

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Following a restful summer (and autumn for Kevie) Dave, Andrew, Al and Kevie reunite once again to look at software that is open and free, and tunes that are commonly creative. They begin with their usual roundup from distrowatch.

Next we look at a lean and mean gnu/linux distro called Catbird which sports the attractively lightweight and rodent-free DWM window manager.

We then chill out by playing the beautiful and endless skiing game called Lato. Note however that the eponymous hero, Lato, who is always late, frequently meets his end and if you’re not careful so will your phone. It is only the side-scrolling that is, in theory, endless.

Finally we discuss feedback with a difference. It was given in-person according to Kevie but the rest of us are unsure as to what that means and are researching the “in-person” app. We mention the recently launched HPR Beer Garden series hosted by Kevie and Dave and also, not one but two upcoming podcrawls.

Creative commons tunes played in this episode are:

1. The Fifth Resonance – The Wandering Sage
2. The Glass Child – Oceans
3. The NumbKnives – You Don’t Understand Me
4. Infraction – Time To Believe

And also a snippet of the soundtrack of Lato:

Traveler (2019) by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

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Kevie, Andrew, Al and Dave come together again for an episode that is literally as easy as 123, as they once again take a look at software that is open and free, and tunes that are creative and common. They begin with their usual roundup from distrowatch but what is unusual is that this involves tension and dispute!

Next, Andrew and Al take a look at RefreshOS which is based on Debian and sports a KDE desktop that is billed as being snap and flatpak free out the box. Following that Kevie and Dave try out Obtanium which, in the authors’ own words, “allows you to install and update apps directly from their releases pages, and receive notifications when new releases are made available”.

We round out the show with feedback but the dissent that marred the start of the show rears its ugly head yet again and there is disagreement and a vote to remove a dear individual from our TuxJam clan.

On Saturday 2 August you are cordially invited to join us and many others for our next Podcrawl, details of which are posted here.

Just prior to our recording we learned that there will be an OggCamp in 2025 (boo!) but there will in 2026 (yay!) on 25-26 April, at the same venue as last time, the Pendulum Hotel, Manchester.

Creative Commons tunes played in this episode:

1. Failed Millenials – Myspace Heartache
2. Gölden Palace – Summer Heat
3. Rusty Tea Makers – Summer
4. Ed Napoli – Coffee

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Dave, Kevie, Andrew and Al join forces to bring you more Free and Open Source Software goodness laced with musical notes from tunes licensed under Creative Commons.

We begin with our usual round up of more unusual distros from distrowatch.com and then move on to review Kumander Linux. Many folk will soon be forced by Microsoft to “upgrade” to Windows 11 but Kumander wants to take you back to the days of Windows 7 by way of themed distro built on Debian and XFCE.

We then recount our experiences in trying out the FUTO keyboard for Android. Amongst other things, it promises a free and open source app that will not unnecessarily go online and start sharing your keystrokes.

We end with our usual round up of feedback received and also our experiences of attending Podcrawl Easter 2025. If you have a comment to make or a suggestion of what we might review in the future, please do contact us.

Creative commons tunes played in this episode includes:

1. Verandas – Liberty
2. Heifervescent – Colder Than The Edge of Space
3. The Out Of Orion Band – Kindred
4. carteBlanche] – p l e a s e h o l d recommendation by @Nomys_Tempar@framapiaf.org

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Al, Andrew, Dave and Kevie come together again to find their way through some FOSS pickings sprinkled with creative common tunes. They start as always with a round-up of recent releases found on distrowatch.com.

Dave and Al have taken a look at cluster of tools named after burrowing animals – Pangolin, Gerbil, Badger and Newt – which provides solutions for tunneling, reverse proxies and authentication. The collective noun for such things is, apparently, a fossorial 🙂

Going from the complex to the simple, at least for the end-user, Kevie and Andrew try out Deku SMS which describes itself as “proof-of-concept for secure SMS messaging, SMS image transmission and SMS-Cloud communications”.

Podcrawl Easter 2025 will be on Saturday 18 April 2025 from 5pm UTC (UK time). All our welcome with details of how to join being available here.

If you have a comment to make or a suggestion of what we might review in the future, please do contact us.

Creative commons tunes played in this episode includes:

1. Thecoffeeinthefridge – London Baby
2. NaTaN CoLD – Unbroken Circle
3. Radioontheshelf – When Yesterday Was Smooth (feat. Mr Yesterday)
4. Richard Shekari – You Are Enough

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Our FOSStering foursome – Kevie, Dave, Andrew and Al – forge forward into 2025 feeling funny. First off, as usual, they review recent OS releases on Distrowatch.

Then the “fun” begins with Kevie and Andrew’s review of FunOS. Is it fun? If so, who will have fun with it? To find out you’ll have to listen.

Next up is fun of a more literal kind with the Miyoo Mini Plus (pronounced Miyoo Mini Plus) which offers up retro gaming in an inexpensive compact handheld device. Al and Dave-the-non-gamer went through the hardship of reviewing it, although the latter has since become Dave-the-Dr-Mario-Maestro. The Reddit post that discusses the Miyoo Mini Plus images can be found here.

We were delighted to have received quite a bit of feedback to review. If you have a comment to make or a suggestion of what we might review in the future, please do contact us.

Podcrawl Late-Winter 2025 (or Late-Summer for antipodeans) will be on Saturday 8 February 2025 from 6pm UTC (UK time). All our welcome with details of how to join being available here.

Creative common and other tunes played with permission in this episode include:

1. Dan Lynch – (demo) – No Way Out
2. Cole Powell – Simple Things (ft. Kyle Graves) (Unfiltered X Version)
3. Boogie Belgique – The Bartender
4. Christian Petermann – Dreamy Road

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Your FOSSy foursome of Al, Dave, Kevie and Andrew are gearing up for Christmas with an extra-special episode recorded over two sessions and then painstakingly edited together by Kevie.

As usual we kick things off with a round-up of recent OS releases on distrowatch. We then take a look at Bashcrawl created by the venerable klaatu, who was kind enough to do a short interview with Andrew about how and why he created it.

Kevie and Dave then take a look at a minimalist browser-based mastodon client that is ripe for self-hosting called Phanpy.

We end with our usual review of feedback received. And by a Christmas miracle (thanks Santa Kevie) this episode was edited together just in time for us to forewarn you of podcrawl on 21 Dec 18:00 UTC.

Create commons tracks played in this episode include:

• Jingle Bells by Anup
• Stellar Art Wars – Acceptance (feat. Snowflake)
• In Isolation – I Believe In Father Christmas (with permission)
• Highland Saga – Auld Lang Syne (with permission from Highland Saga)

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It is time for our annual list of things we really want for Christmas things we want geeks throughout the world to receive for Christmas. Partners, friends and relatives of geeks take note! TuxJam will return to its usual format for a December Christmas show.

Stocking Fillers (below £10)

• Ticket to Ride Ultimate Train set No2 (Multicolor 3D print) – Al
• Tux Pin Badge – Kevie
• Tiny 2350 – Andrew
• Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W – Dave
• Linux computer sticker – Kevie
• Wireless Retro Telephone Handset Receiver – Dave

Low price (£10-£25)

• Ransom Notes – Dave
• Shadows and Gestures by Robert Lloyd Parry – Andrew
• Battery Storage Case with Tester – Al
• NES Cartridge Drinking Flask – Kevie
• Tabletop Fire Bowl – Dave
• Sea harrier over the Falklands by Cmdr “Sharkey” Ward – Andrew

Mid range (£25-£100)

• USS Enterprise Advent Calendar – Dave
• Mini Projector – Kevie
• Electric socks – Andrew
• INIU Power Bank – Al
• Atari 3D Joystick Decanter Set – Dave
• Dune Imperium Uprising Board Game – Kevie

High End (over £100)

• Razer Anzu Smart Lenses – Kevie
• CyberAxon D3: 13-in-1 Multifunctional Stream Control Dock – Al
• Star Wars Death Star Wall Panel Light – Dave
• Dwarf 3 Smart Telescope – Andrew

WOW, you REALLY love them (£silly money)

• SmartSpa – Kevie
• The Self-Contained Hootenanny – Dave
• Lego Millennium Falcon – Andrew
• https://hyperlaps.io/en/ – Video – Al

Festive Creative Commons tracks played on this episode:

1. Flashinmusic – Deck the halls and rock
2. Softwire – Next Christmas
3. piccadillyCircus – Silent Night
4. Vince Costa – Home Before Christmas
5. Mapa – Christmas Choir

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