Veronica Explains

Let's talk about 45Drives, why I like their open source Cockpit modules, as well as their tutorials and documentation about open source projects.

I think it's rare to have a corporation care this much about open source. From my outsider view as someone who has never been sent anything from 45Drives, I think it's refreshing. And I want to talk about it!

This video was not sponsored, 45Drives has not only (to date) not sent me any hardware, but we've had no business dealings at all: no money changing hands, no free trips to see their factory, nothing like that. Again, this is as of filming: can't predict the future! 😃

Patrons and Ko-Fi members make Veronica Explains possible:

Links referenced in the video:

Chapters:

#homelab #linux #server

VimWiki is my preferred notetaking solution because it's intentionally minimal.

When I want to take notes, I want to take notes, not see a mind map or extra visualizations or photos to distract me. I'm old school! (Or just old.)

In today's video, I'll show you how to install VimWiki for yourself, as well as configure it to use Markdown (my preferred text formatting), and update the file path for VimWiki files so that it's easy to sync with third party solutions like Nextcloud Notes.

Significant links mentioned in the video:

This video has no sponsors except for my channel's Patrons and Ko-Fi members.

Chapters:

#linux #vim #homelab

Debian Testing is a great way to try out Debian and provide feedback to the project. But it's not a rolling release Linux distro. Although some successfully use it like one.

In today's video, I'll show you how to try out Debian Testing for yourself, but then I'll tell you why you might want to think twice before making it your everyday distro.

Significant links mentioned in the video:

This video has no sponsors except for my channel's Patrons and Ko-Fi members.

And I self-host a merch store where you can buy my nerdy t-shirts.

Chapters:

Does anyone read descriptions anymore? If you read the description, comment with "That's a bossy video". Shoot, is that engagement farming? Oh well.

What? Oh, right, I'm supposed to be describing this video.

It's about Clonezilla! I love using Clonezilla for backing up my disk drives to images. It's also helped me out to be able to convert a physical machine to a VM easily. It's such a simple tool and I'm really thankful to the folks who made it.

You can check out the tool at https://clonezilla.org.

Also, I wrote a companion blog post for this video: https://vkc.sh/clonezilla-101

And if you like the shirt I'm wearing, I sell it over on my merch store: https://vkc.sh/product-tag/test-your-backups/

Lastly, I couldn't do this without the supporters I have on Patreon and Ko-Fi, who foot the bill for all of this nonsense. If you want to join our Discord-slash-Matrix, tiers start at $2/mo USD. Thank you!

https://patreon.com/VeronicaExplains

Chapters:

Yes, there's other tools that can make terminal output prettier on Linux. We all know that. But the "column" command is likely already there, on your system, waiting for you to use it.

With "column" you can get nice looking terminal output & JSON from terminal commands, without a lot of additional cruft!

I mentioned a few print materials in this episode, here's some links:

And here's the "support the channel" links (my video isn't sponsored):

Chapters:

It's time for "Ask Veronica", and in this inaugural episode of the series, I'm going to answer your questions about desktop environments!

If you want to help support my work, and join the coolest Discord on the planet (which also happens to be bridged to Matrix for those of you who don't like Discord), please join me on Patreon or Ko-Fi!

https://patreon.com/VeronicaExplains

And here's that link to Fedora saying KDE Plasma is going to get top tier along with GNOME: https://pagure.io/Fedora-Council/tickets/issue/504

Oh! Go follow @VeronicaExplainsNothing

Chapters:

#linux #gnome #kdeplasma

Shortwave is a Rust-based streaming radio (IP radio/internet radio) application written by Felix Häcker, and it's my favorite way to manage my streaming radio stations on Linux. It's a GNOME Circle application but I use it on KDE Plasma and Sway, and it works fine over there (for me anyway). Maybe you'll like it!

Links relevant in the video:

Support my unsponsored channel:

Chapters:

It's time. We have to unleash the music in my Commodore 64.

In today's unscripted unboxing episode of Veronica Explains, we explore the Incredible Musical Keyboard from Sight and Sound Music Software, Inc. It's an approximately 40 year old peripheral for the Commodore 64 which allows me to make music on the SID chip!

We'll take a look at the keyboard overlay itself, as well as the software that came with it, and some more modern software that can work alongside it.

Now for the link section. If you're still reading, say "I love hyperlinks" in the comments. At the time I'm publishing, Archive.org is down- I hope to put links to this stuff on that website as soon as I can confirm them.

My band (The Stop Bits):

Now, for the other creators from our rich and vibrant vintage computing community, whose videos I briefly mentioned or showed:

Let's see... stuff I mentioned in the video (this is where archive.org links will go if we can manifest them back into existence):

Finally, here are the chapters:

In this unscripted episode of Veronica Explains, I hang out with my good friends Taylor and Amy from @TaylorAmyShow and we rant/rave about documentation, and compare the (often sorry) state of today's Linux/FOSS docs against the (often fantastic) documentation we had when vintage computers were just called computers.

Videos and channels mentioned in the episode:

Lastly, if you want to help me make more videos, please consider joining my Ko-Fi or Patreon. Members over there get weekly update posts from me and help me decide what topics to cover. This channel's not sponsored by anyone but you, so thank you for your consideration!

Chapters

Linux boot media need not be tricky! In today's episode, I'll talk about four ways to flash an ISO from Windows (and other systems too).

I know a lot of you are switching to Linux because of Microsoft's recent... ideas? I'll call them "ideas".

So, here we'll talk about the following ways to flash ISOs:

And I referenced the following four reasonably-beginner-friendly distros (in no particular order):

And here's the ISO standard in case you're curious: https://ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-119/

Lastly, want to support my channel and help me get these videos out faster? Here's three ways!

Chapters:

#Linux #homelab #computer