App Center for Ubuntu 24.04 is made with Flutter
Flutter based Ubuntu 24.04 App Centre
Great to see the fruit of Ubuntu's decision to embrace Flutter. App Center made it into Ubuntu 23.10 but cements itself in 24.04 which is destined to be an LTS release.
TL:DR â It is a massive endorsement for Flutter for Linux for Ubuntu to be using it for a flagship Ubuntu Desktop app like App Center.
How to run multiple operating systems as virtual machines on Ubuntu Linux 24.04 with VMware Workstation Player.
Easier than a full blown data centre style virtualisation solution for a local lab environment
If you don't need a full scale data centre style virtualisation solution then Workstation Player uses VMware vSphere Hypervisor technology to provide simple and secure local virtualisation on modest hardware. It is far easier for a small local testing or technology exploration lab than ESXi or OpenStack.
Why VMware Workstation?
VMware Workstation supports hundreds of 32-bit and 64-bit guest operating systems. Best of all, VMware Workstation Player is free for personal, non-commercial use (business and nonprofit use is considered commercial use). VMware say "If you would like to learn about virtual machines or use them at home, you are welcome to use VMware Workstation Player for free".
TL:DR â This was actually moderately difficult to do, because it involved signing a module and installing it for secure boot. Also because my Lunix Distribution - Ubuntu 24.04 is unreleased at this point and not supported by VMware Workstation Player for Linux, and my processor architecture, 'skylake' is not supported by the latest version of VMware Workstation Player so I had to fall back to a previous version, and compile the VMware modules into my Ubuntu 24.04 kernel. I got it working. YMMV.
How to set up secure virtual hosts using Let's Encrypt with Apache2 on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Apache Virtual hosts using Let's Encrypt on Ubuntu 24.04
It is no longer hard to serve multiple differently named websites from the same server with SSL. Let's Encrypt supports Apache and Ubuntu and is easy to configure.
The Apache HTTP Server has always had a virtual hosts feature to serve multiple differently named websites from the same server. Setting it up with SSL is historically more complex than it perhaps ought to be given that the project it named after HTTP it was centred around http and https was originally an additional, often expensive and complex configuration step.
This seems outmoded to me. Even for test sites, traffic encrypted to the web browser with https is mandatory for any serious web presence. http is an insecure protocol that should really be a secondary consideration. Anyway, it is what it is.
With virtual hosts, each individual site appears to the end-user to have a different identity even though it is served from the same server. Hosting providers use this technology to provide resilience, security, scale, analytics and for many other reasons but it is also useful for developers who want to have a replica small scale development or staging environment perhaps for multiple websites. A development environment is my reason for building out Apache 2 virtual hosts with separate Let's Encrypt certificates on my Ubuntu Linux machine.
To make it work, you need to think about setting out the directory structure on your Linux machine, the Virtual Hosts configuration files for Apache2, and a properly resolving DNS record to the Linux machine hosting your virtual host site. Setting it up is easy enough but takes a little bit of concentration on the details of all these moving parts. Adding SSL to these virtual hosts is far less tricky than it once was because 'Let's Encrypt' does most of the heavy lifting now.
TL:DR â I now have two dev sites on my local Ubuntu Desktop. Both have valid Let's Encrypt SSL certificates and are working well locally and via the Internet. It took about 45 minutes to set up.
Read more: How to set up secure virtual hosts using Let's Encrypt with Apache2 on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Installing Joomla 5 on Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 LTS
Joomla 5.0.3, on Ubuntu 24.04, with PHP 8.3
Two years after installing Ubuntu 22.04 a third party software update completely broke my Joomla site development computer. Yeah I should have known better! So, nows the time to rebuild. I've chosen to use Ubuntu 24.04 desktop, which is about to be released, and is in the very final stages of work, and pretty much finished, so that I can find our whats new, and if anything I care about is broken and hopefully then remain as updated as I dare for the forseeable future.
What will be installed
- Apache 2, MySQL, and PHP
- Joomla 5.x in multiple virtual sites
- ddclient for auto updating DNS host IP addresses, because this is a laptop
- certbot for Let's Encrypt SSL certificates
TL:DR â This is always an interesting exercise because it makes you think about all the first principles for running a content management system like Joomla. Where and how your databases will be set up, how exactly are you going to set up the web server, will your network support Let's Encrypt certificate renewal. It can be challenging to hold it all in your head, so I tend to write everything down these days and take screenshots. It becomes self documenting. I hope it is helpful to someone.
Yes, you can install Windows 11 on an unsupported processor chip
This PC doesnt currently meet Windows 11 system requirements
So, I bought this total bargain Lenovo ThinkCentre 710q chiefly because it consumes low power, has all Lenovo's attention to detail for maintenance and spare part replacement, has a nice tiny form factor, and a reasonably modern architecture. The Think Centre supports secure boot, and has a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0. This one came with a DVD rw drive but has a modest 8GB of memory and a 500GB drive. The 6th Generation IntelŽ Core⢠i5-6400T 'Skylake' processor and the Intel HD 530 graphics are end of life. Nevertheless it is a relatively good specification. Sadly however, according to Microsoft's tools, the Lenovo ThinkCentre M710q appears to be unable to meet the minimum system requirements for Windows 11. Thats a shame, but all is not lost! Lets see what can be done to improve the usefulness of this machine.
TL:DR â Lenovo have always made high quality rugged expandable hardware, especially in the Think design range they acquired from IBM, who after all, invented the PC in the first place. These ThinkCentre 710q tiny workstations are low power workhorses so they don't cost a fortune to run and are cheaply and plentifully available now in the used marketplaces. They can be expanded to excellent maximum specification and in some cases beyond to deliver their full potential at low cost and are ideal for home/lab/small office use. Plenty of parts are available, mostly very easily user replacable with ease. It is as easy as can be to bypass the arbitrary restriction and allow the upgrade to Windows 11, or indeed to install Linux or whatever other OS you please.
Read more: Yes, you can install Windows 11 on an unsupported processor chip
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