Time for another installment. There's a rundown of some favorite Linux listening and a neat distro I took a look at, Elementary OS.

Podcasts

I like to use my daily commute time to listen to podcasts. Here's a quick rundown of the Linux and Security ones I quite enjoy:

Podcast	Subject Matter
Linux Unplugged	Weekly Linux Talk Show with no script, no limits, surprise guests and tons of opinion.
TechSnap	Weekly Systems, Network, and Administration Podcast.
Linux Action News	Weekly opinions on the free and open source world. These three are by Jupiter Broadcasting, sponsored by the Linux Academy.
Iron Sysadmin	Fortnightly chit-chat about security, technology, and system administration topics.
Defensive Security	@Lerg and @Maliciouslink review current security news.
Paul's Security Weekly	One of the longest-running Infosec shows.
Packet Pushers Weekly	One of many shows on the network - "Where Too Much Technology Would Be Barely Enough".
IPv6 Buzz	Down the 128-bit address space wormhole.

See if you like any of them.

Elementary OS

A recent interview with the developers of Elementary OS on the Linux Unplugged show prompted me to give it a try. I have to say I'm blown away by the level of spit and polish these guys are bringing to the Linux desktop. If you appreciate the refinement that has gone into the MacOS user experience, this distro might just be for you.

Head on over to their web site, download the ISO, and dump it onto a thumb drive using dd, Fedora Media Writer, or Rufus. It contains a live boot environment which you can test drive, and there's an installer on it also.

After a few seconds you are auto-logged in to the desktop:

If you have Linux partions on your disk(s), the live environment will mount them automatically.

One of the other interesting aspects of Elementary OS is their application store AppCenter. Apart from being a central location to explore to find applications, it also enables users to pay an amount of their own choosing for the apps they enjoy using. I find this a great, low-friction way to toss developers a few dimes in appreciation of their work. Because, free software doesn't have to mean "gratis".