FOSSPicks
FreeTube 0.2.0
YouTube videos have become ubiquitous. Whether it's for surreptitiously linking to the latest meme, or even for video embedded within serious news stories, you can't escape Google's video behemoth. And increasingly, you can't escape the advertising and snooping that goes on while you watch either. Which is why it's surprising there aren't more standalone YouTube viewers. Your favorite ad-blocking plugin will usually do the job for your browser, but often the quickest way to view outside of a browser is by dragging and dropping into something like VLC, and that often breaks Google's caching and playback.
FreeTube is a standalone app that gets around many of VLC's compatibility issues by being built around Electron and Chromium, although you wouldn't know this by launching the application. You see a simple interface that allows you to quickly see what's popular, add your own subscriptions, or search in the time-honored YouTube way. Results appear as a list of thumbnails, and these can be selected and viewed just as they can be in your browser. It does all this thanks to the YouTube HTTP API (and hard-coded API keys), with results via the all-powerful youtube-dl script. However, there's no advertising, and the author promises much greater privacy. More importantly, playback is perfect and offers all the same features as watching in a browser. A separate application like this makes a lot of sense, especially if you use a browser that isn't particularly compatible with YouTube (such as qutebrowser, below). This separation of tasks also has an advantage – web browsers have become a monopoly. With a separate app compatible with native shortcuts and subtitles, as well as an easy "save video" feature, there's almost no reason to browse to YouTube again.
Project Website
https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube
Vim-binding browser
qutebrowser 1.2
With this release, qutebrowser has finally delivered on one of the original promises for the 1.0 milestone: the ability to create settings per-domain. This may seem like an esoteric feature, allowing you to change how qutebrowser behaves depending on which site it's browsing, but it's not when you start to think about how it could be used. You could change the keybindings for a specific site, for example, allowing you to reply to Reddit posts with your own specific command, or bind your favorite editor keys to an online editor. You could even use this option to disable JavaScript for specific sites and save that setting. What's even more powerful is that the commands used to configure a domain take a pattern rather than a specific domain name, which means you can set general rules for a set of similar sites or domains, such as the whole of Facebook or Google. Scripts for the current host can also be toggled, and a simple press of the S key saves settings with subdomains included.
This is still an early implementation of what's hoped to be a more ambitious per-domain setting and plugin system, but it's still a powerful addition for this release. There's also more to this release than per-domain settings. You finally get Vim's visual/caret mode, for instance. You can use this to extend copy regions from the keyboard, such as when searching for a word. Now just press v and use the cursor keys to extend the selection, potentially pressing y to yank that selection to the buffer. Another great addition is the special qute://bindings page, which simply shows all the keybindings configured for your browser, obviating the need to refer continually to the excellent qutebrowser cheat sheet many of us use.
Project Website
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
![Learn More](https://www.linux-magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/misc/learn-more/834592-1-eng-US/Learn-More_medium.png)
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.