mintCast

This week the hosts discussing recent developments in the Linux Mint community, with a primary focus on the concept and execution of “vibe coding.”

Key Highlights

This episode of mintCast (Episode 493) features the team—Joe, Bill, Charles, and Jim—discussing various Linux-related news and personal tech projects.

Key Highlights from the Discussion:

First up in the news: Mint has a birthday. AI writes a third of all the websites. Desktop market share is all over the place. Someone is trying to switch the rest of us to AI

No security and privacy this episode, but we do have our “Wanderings.”

The News:

Mint Has a Birthday!

One-Third of Web Pages are Now Written With A.I., Says Pew Research

Linux did not in fact hit 10% market share, according to PCWorld

RAISE US!

Chec...

First up in the News: Mint Monthly News, July 2026

This is a rare Innards episode, where Joe will dig deep into Proxmox.

Link To Full Show Notes

THE nEWS:

Mint Monthly News, July 2026

Contact Info:

Joe – jeboylan on Matrix, jb@mintcast.org, & The Linux Link Podcast, The Linux Lug Cast, Buy him coffee on Ko-fi as Joeeb.

Bill – Bill_H on Matrix, bill@mintcast.org, wchouser3 on fosstodon.org.

Majid – AtypicalDoctor on Matrix, drmajid@mintcast.org, & The Atypical Doctor Podcast.

Jim – GNU2Linu...

First up in the News: Mint Monthly News, July 2026

This is a rare Innards episode, where Joe will dig deep into Proxmox.

Link To Full Show Notes

THE nEWS:

Mint Monthly News, July 2026

Contact Info:

Joe – jeboylan on Matrix, jb@mintcast.org, & The Linux Link Podcast, The Linux Lug Cast, Buy him coffee on Ko-fi as Joeeb.

Bill – Bill_H on Matrix, bill@mintcast.org, wchouser3 on fosstodon.org.

Majid – AtypicalDoctor on Matrix, drmajid@mintcast.org, & The Atypical Doctor Podcast.

Jim – GNU2Linu...

First up in the news: Mint monthly news, The AUR gets hit… again, And a new AI generated Desktop.

In Security and Privacy, “The death of privacy online”, and Automatic firmware updates becomes mandatory.

We then get into our “Wanderings”, there’s some feedback, and more!

The News:

Mint Monthly News – June 2026

Arch Linux’s AUR under attack for the second time in less than two months

Starling is a new Linux desktop built using AI in six months

Security and Privacy:

· First up in the news: PlayStation and Microsoft goes fully digital, Amazon blames piracy, Brave goes “containerized”, and Immich has “Big Upgrades.”

· Then in our Wanderings: Joe does more with the mini rack and plans ahead, Jim drops Fire TV like a hot potato,

· In Check this Out: Myna lets you talk instead of type in Ubuntu

The News:

What PlayStation going fully digital tells us about the PS6

Microsoft’s Next-Gen Xbox Could Be Digital-Only With New Disc-to-Digital Support

Amazon Blames Piracy Apps W...

In our Wanderings: Joe Takes a trip, Bill’s got nothing and Jim likes Indiana

And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

Contact Info:

First up the news

We have a great little tool in the “Check This Section”

The News:

Linux is Getting a Free Pass on Age Verification in California and Colorado

DuckDuckGo Installs Up 30% After Google Announced AI Search

New social features further Plex’s evolution from media server business

Euro-Office: General availability set for June 9

Acer Launching Streaming-Only Handheld Gaming PC Running Debian

Microsoft cut its engineers off from AI because the bill got too big — why AI might no...

First up in the news: Mint Monthly News – May

Then in our Wanderings: Bill pays the bills, Joe solders the irons and Jim fins the jelly

The News:

Mint Monthly News

Contact Info:

First up in the news: Mint Monthly News – April,

In security and privacy: Proton Mail now supports post-quantum encryption,

The News:

Mint Monthly News – April 2026

NHS to close-source hundreds of GitHub repos over AI, security concerns

After Days of DDoS, Now Ubuntu’s Twitter Account Seems to be Compromised

Linux Kernel 7.0 is Out With Improvements Across the Board for Intel, AMD, and Storage

Linux is Getting a New Default Folder in Your Home Directory

Chrome Silently Installs a 4GB A.I...

First up in the news: Updated Mint ISOs Then in our Wanderings: Majid explore Tailscale, Joe does it all again. Jim, Charlie, and Charles got some stuff too. And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

First up in the news: Mint 23 is named, Ubuntu 26.04 coming up and its already causing controversy, Firefox gets more features, big tech making some changes, and the governments of the world are meddling, in good and bad ways… and we welcome another host! In security and privacy: Flatpak getting more secure allegedly

First up in the news: The fight against enshittification starts In security and privacy: Shock-horror, Chinese government spies Then in our Wanderings: Joe rambles, Bill drives himself crazy, Majid actually has fun! Charles, and Jim explores notes apps.

First up in the news: Mint Monthly News, March 2026; Major Redesign for Firefox: Chrome getting an upgrade; Debian 13.4; SUSE for sale - again; ASUS says MacBook Neo is “shock”; HBO, Paramount Merge; Xfwl4 coming to XFCE, and more. In security and privacy: Age Verification coming to your Linux PC?; Anthropic turns Claud loose on Firefox code.

First up in the news: California is doing its thing again Then in our Wanderings: Bill does it while sick, Joe does a lot, Jim plays with ghost And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

First up in the news: Mint Monthly News – January 2026, In security and privacy: Theres an SSH Stalker And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

First up in security and privacy: Euro firms ditch American Clouds and systemd stuff Then in our Wanderings: Joe, Majid does yoga with his distros, Charles is our security guru, Jim explores the new Mint release And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

First up in the news: Mint 22.3 “Zena” released. Then lots of drivers news, new distros, AI and Apple getting sued (again) And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

First up in the news: A retraction Review of our predictions for last year, and what we predict for 2026 Then our much anticipated Wanderings

In this episode of mintCast, we kick things off with Mint Monthly News for December, covering what’s new and noteworthy in the Linux Mint world. In Security and Privacy, Charles breaks down two fresh vulnerabilities, React2Shell and Tarmageddon-Flaw, explaining what they are, why they matter, and how they could impact Linux users. Then, in the Innards segment, Dale joins us for a deep dive into Syncthing. We explore what it is, how it works, and why it’s such a powerful, privacy-friendly tool for keeping your files in sync across devices—without relying on the cloud.

First up in the news: Mint Monthly News – November, and a variety of other items In security and privacy: Cloudfare goes down and Charles finds out that Shai-Hulud returns from Arrakis And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

First up in the news: Theres and initiative in protecting OTA TV from DRM Then in our Wanderings: Joe does a lot, Bill plays magical video cards, Majid is trying to resist Black Friday, Charles goes to a Linux conference, and Jim eschews the mouse. And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

First up in the news: Mint Monthly News – October 2025 Then, new distro news and updates, and more streaming stuff In security and privacy: don’t trust every PPA!

First up in the news: LMDE 7 “Gigi” released Then in our Wanderings: Bill suffers an outage, Joe’s Jellyfin is “ok”, Majid is back to “full time”, and Jim has a lot of extensions And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

First up in the news: LMDE 7 ‘Gigi” release imminent, Mint Monthly News, Ubuntu 25.10 is out and breaking stuff, Firefox shaking is loved by TIME, Windows 10 is officially dead and lots more! In security and privacy: Charles has some interesting news on AI and new laws in Spain And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

First up in the news: LMDE 7 ‘Gigi” BETA released In security and privacy: Mississippi enforces Age Assurance Law, NPM suffers a security breach. Then in our Wanderings, Joe works with Proxmox, and Openmediavault, Jim Troubleshoots hard disks, Majid goes back to work, and Bill works on his "Immich." And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

A Saturday Livestream about everything and nothing

First up in the news: Linux Mint 22.2 “Zara” released, Mint Monthly News – August In security and privacy: Plex is a problem again And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

A Saturday Livestream about everything and nothing.

First up in the Mint news: Another birthday for Mint!, Mint 22.2 final ISOs now being tested In security and privacy: Arch is Ddossed and malware abounds Then in our Wanderings: Joe does a lot, Majid achieves very little, Charles, Bill falls off the ARC and Jim is a photographic genius And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

A Saturday Livestream about everything and nothing.

First up in The News: Linux Mint 22.2 “Zara” BETA Release, The Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) project is seeking increased sponsorship, and CachyOS Topped DistroWatch’s Rankings In our Innards section: Joe goes hard on some 3D printing In Check This Out, Charles gives us an overview of Pass Key And finally, in Vibrations from the Ether, feedback and a couple of suggestions

First up in the news: Mint 22.2 betas now in testing, Arch AUR Under Fire Once More as Malware Resurfaces, Debian 13 Trixie Release Date is Officially Confirmed, and Hyprland Hyprperks have been launched. In Security and Privacy, Introducing Proton Authenticator – secure 2FA, your way and Microsoft Recall issues In Check This Out, Ignition allows you to manage startup apps and scripts And finally, Vibrations From the Ether

First up in the news: Mint Monthly News – July 2025 In our Innards section: Let’s talk BASH! And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

First up in the news: Linux hits 5%, Nintendo does what we feared, The orange baby eats a TACO, Steam prefers Proton to Native, Fedora might have killed Bazzite and a new Firefox release We also welcome Charles as a new co-host! In security and privacy: more password leakage by big tech And finally, the Feedback and a couple of suggestions

First up in the news: Mint Monthly News – May 2025, controversy around the Nintendo Switch 2, Fedora 43 Workstation (GNOME) to remove X11 session, end of Linux Format, and we have a new format and new co-host! In our Innards section: Dale discusses mobile internet devices and networks In Check This Out, we cover Packet, a new file transfer utility that integrates with Android’s Quick Share In Check This Out, we cover Packet, a new file transfer utility that integrates with Android’s Quick Share And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

First up in the news: Mint Monthly News, BackBlaze backups may be in trouble, you can run Arch inside Windows, Linux kernel drops 486 and early 586 support, and a new RaspberryPiOS release, and the end of Windows 10 support brings new opportunities In security and privacy: openSUSE removes Deepin Desktop over security issues, Proton threatens to quit Switzerland over new surveillance law Then in our Wanderings: Bill goes mobile, Moss plays with a Pangolin, Eric finally fixes his WiFi. In our Innards section: we talk about Virtual Machines In Bodhi Corner, just a bit about theming

First up in the news: Ubuntu 25.04 released, Ardour advances, Commodore OS 3.0 released, and OpenMandriva brings us TWO new releases In security and privacy: US warns of new Zambian cybersecurity law, and Hackers can now imitate official Google mail Then in our Wanderings: Joe gets recontained, Moss waits, Majid goes to Cambridge In our Innards section: Open discussion! In Bodhi Corner, we discuss the magic of modules

First up in the news: Mint Monthly News, Linux 6.16 To Add Asahi UAPI Header For Apple Silicon, Switzerland battles privacy intrusions, Firefox adds HEVC playback in Linux, Debian releases APT 3.0, Apple may add Mx GCC core support, Git turns 20, ProtonMail adds advanced features, ArcoLinux ends it all Then in our Wanderings: Bill is having trouble on the road and won’t be here, Joe returns to us, Moss juggles tablets, Majid learns things, and Eric is AWOL In our Innards section: we talk travel computing In Bodhi Corner, Robert Wiley releases a script which can be used to install Moksha on...