I have two topics I want to talk about. But I feel lazy. So I am combining the two topics together and calling it a “Newsletter”.
One message is less than two.
Ironically, the net result is — most likely — that this decision has caused me to do more work. A little, anyway.
Life is weird that way.
The XCE Desktop Environment plans to spend most of their donated funds to throw out their well tested X11 backend, in favor of a non-existent Wayland compositor written in Rust. Leftists cheer.
More from The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.com/
The core developer of one of the most critical components of Bazzite has been banned for secret "Code of Conduct violations" following a mob campaign accusing him of "transphobic slurs".
More from The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.com/
It only took a third of century, but the Linux Kernel finally has a continuity plan for if / when Linus Torvalds goes away.
More from The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.com/
Ads are filling the entirety of the Web -- websites, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. -- at an increasing rate. Prices for those ad placements are plummeting. Consumers are desperate to use ad-blockers to make the web palatable. Google (and others) are desperate to break and block ad-blockers. All of which results in... more ads and lower pay for creators.
It's a fascinatingly annoying cycle. And there's only one viable way out of it.
Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links? Check here:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm
Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal
Those in power with openSUSE make it clear they will not allow me anywhere near anything related to the openSUSE project. Ever. For any reason.
Well, that settles that, then! Guess I won't be contributing to openSUSE! 🤣
Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links?
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm
Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal
How’s My New (Used) Linux Box Doing?
In a word: terrific.
I picked up a 2-year-old, Mac-mini-sized PC with a Ryzen 7 (8 cores / 16 threads), 64 GB RAM, and a 2 TB NVMe drive—about the same price as a Mac mini. I’ve since moved all of my hosted VPS activities onto this local Linux box.
I continue to be very pleased with Linux Mint. For remote desktop, I’m using NoMachine NX, which is significantly better than VNC. I’m usually running Linux on much older hardware, so it’s genuinely enjoyable to have a machine that feels this responsive under Linux.
The primary workload is Docker containers, and unlike Windows, Docker is Linux-native—so all 64 GB of RAM is available. On Windows, you have to pre-allocate memory specifically for Docker, which always felt a bit clunky.
This machine was running Windows 11 originally, but it had started rebooting every night—not tied to Windows Update, just… something else. It reached the point where I was preparing to send it back for repair ...
ISO a physical or digital media price aggregator.
Looking for basically PCPartPicker for movies and music. Several of these sites exist for streaming services (find out which streaming platforms currently have Friends). But, I want this for physical or digital ownership. I want to be able to search for "The Mentalist" or "Thomas Bergersen" and be shown a list of prices on sites (Amazon, moviesunlimited, 7digital, etc)
Anyone have this out there?
Quick heads up, that the $89 Lifetime Subscription to The Lunduke Journal discount ends… at the end of this week!
Discounting Lifetime Subscriptions by over 70% was an absolute blast. So many of you took advantage of the offer that we’re now up to four Lifetime Subscriber walls at the end of every video. Crazy!
But something that awesome can’t last forever. Which means that, in just a few days, Lifetime Subscriptions will return to their regular price of $300.
With no plans to do another wild discount like that any time soon.
So.
If you haven’t already, snag an $89 (via Bitcoin) or $99 (via Substack or Locals) Lifetime Subscription.
Then let me know if you’d like to be added to the Lifetime Wall of Shame Awesomeness.
My guess is, a the current rate, that 4th Lifetime Wall will be full by Friday.
Bonkers.
And, once again, thank you to each and every subscriber. The Lunduke Journal would not be possible without you.
-Lunduke
Whew! It’s been another wild week for Tech News!
Here’s a crazy stat for ya:
We are currently 16 days into 2026, and The Lunduke Journal has already recorded 19 shows (17 of which have been published on every platform, and 2 others to be published this weekend everywhere… but are already available via the MP4 download page). And that’s with taking New Year’s Day off (and getting the flu this week).
It’s a heck of a lot of Tech News, to be sure.
If you only have time to watch a few of shows, I recommend these 3 as being the most interesting (or important… or just… strange) from the last week:
In other words: A pretty gosh-darned crazy week for Linux.
(Those links are to Lunduke.Substack.com, but you can watch all of those shows on any other platform. As always.)
A few other notes on this, most excellent, Friday!
The Lunduke Journal started publishing to TikTok this week. Why? Who knows! Because we can!
If you are a subscriber you can get access to the MP4 download pages (as well as the official forum) by following instructions on the Perks Page.
So, you know, you want one of those.
And, with that, I leave you with a screenshot of the MP4 listing of the shows so far in 2026. Bonkers.
-Lunduke
Holy moly.
This afternoon I sat down to update the 3rd Lunduke Journal Lifetime Subscriber wall — adding in all of you who sent in requests over the last week or so.
And, boy howdy, were there a lot of you! So many, in fact, that the 3rd Lifetime Wall only has room for around 6 or 7 more names (depending on the name lengths)! That’s crazy!
If you want to make it onto “The Lunduke Journal Lifetime Subscriber” Wall number 3… send me an email (bryan at lunduke.com) with the way you would like your name to be displayed.
Or, if you’re not already a Lifetime Subscriber, remedy that for $89. (Which, you know, is a pretty gosh darned good value.) … Then send me that email requesting to be added to the wall.
Once Wall 3 is full, we’ll start in on Wall number 4 (that’s nuts). At the current rate, I expect Wall 4 to debut this week.
And, as always, thank you for your support. Whatever kind of subscription you have, it is deeply appreciated. Monthly, Yearly, or Lifetime. All are amazing. You make The Lunduke Journal possible.
You rule.
-Lunduke
