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Chris Fisher
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Chris Fisher

Things Chris Says on Podcasts

Co-founder of Jupiter Broadcasting, a Linux and open source podcast network launched in 2008, who hosts shows on Linux, software development and self-hosting. He previously hosted the Linux Action Show, which ran from 2006 to 2017. Hosts LINUX Unplugged, Coder Radio with Michael Dominick, Self-Hosted with Alex Kretzschmar, This Week in Bitcoin and The Launch. Has appeared as a guest on Ask Noah Show and Late Night Linux.

“Here's the argument, and I'm starting to buy it: most people that are probably in the tech field can probably type 100, 110 words per minute, and the average voice dictation is about 140 words per minute. So I've been using it, and I've been pretty darn impressed.” — Chris Fisher, LINUX Unplugged “The sessions run server-side. So I can start something on my phone, like, oh crap, I got to fix this up. I can close the browser on my phone, sit down at the desktop, log into Web SSH, and the session's still going. Everything's still running, and I can just resume working. Love that.” — Chris Fisher, LINUX Unplugged “JP Morgan isn't going to switch to a vibe-coded version of Office, right? So their big, huge enterprise customers ain't going anywhere.” — Chris Fisher, LINUX Unplugged “How long have they been adding features that we don't need? I couldn't articulate the difference between Photoshop 7 and the current Photoshop. I know there's generative fill. But for a simpleton like me, Photoshop 7 still gets the job done. So if you could clone that function, you've got it, right? I just think that's asking for trouble if you're proprietary software.” — Chris Fisher, LINUX Unplugged “For me, the browser homepage thing is sort of like the app nag about reviewing the app. I'm never launching the app to review the app. I'm launching the app to get something done. I don't ever launch Firefox to just look at the start page.” — Chris Fisher, LINUX Unplugged “If you're anti-Linux desktop growth, then what are we trying to do here with free software? What was the whole purpose of making something that was making the information free to the world? … Are we just trying to create a clubhouse that's just big enough for us to hang out in, that we can pretend like the rest of the world doesn't exist?” — Chris Fisher, LINUX Unplugged

Where to Find Them

Chris Fisher hosts LINUX Unplugged , hosts Coder Radio , hosts and writes This Week in Bitcoin , hosts Self-Hosted and hosts and writes The Launch 🚀 . They have also been a guest on Ask Noah Show and Late Night Linux .

Recently: “Meet Friday” on The Launch 🚀 (November 2026); “692: Ubuntu’s Core Reset” on LINUX Unplugged (November 2026); “Making Muse Make Sense” on The Launch 🚀 (November 2026); “691: Fedora's Hidden Upgrades” on LINUX Unplugged (November 2026); “129: The Quantum Trap” on This Week in Bitcoin (October 2026); “Flock and Awe” on The Launch 🚀 (October 2026).

What They Said

“Here's the argument, and I'm starting to buy it: most people that are probably in the tech field can probably type 100, 110 words per minute, and the average voice dictation is about 140 words per minute. So I've been using it, and I've been pretty darn impressed.” — Chris Fisher, LINUX Unplugged

In the picks segment, Chris recommended a local push-to-talk dictation tool and explains why he now prefers dictating to typing.

LINUX Unplugged · 2026-11-02 Permalink → Listen →
LINUX Unplugged Around 1:16:38 into the episode
Chris Fisher

…UI that pops up that shows you that it's transcribing with an accurate-ish waveform, which I'll take these days. I'll take it. They have clients available for Mac OS, Windows, and of course, Linux. It's packaged for Debian, Fedora, Nix, and it is in the AUR, and it is also available for ARM64.

Wes Payne

And you kind of buried the lead there, but it's from the folks behind Open Code.

Chris Fisher

Yes, yeah. And you can use it to interact with your Open Code prompts and whatnot as well. So people, you know, here's the argument, and I'm starting to buy it: is most people that are probably in the tech field, you know, they can probably type 100, 110 words per minute. And the average voice dictation is about 140 words per minute. So I've been using it, and I've been pretty darn impressed. It took a bit. I had to build some Rust dependencies, so it means my future updates from time to time are going to take an extra 20 to 30 minutes. But it works, and it works really well and really fast. So I just wanted to give it a mention.

Wes Payne

Stay tuned for a similar tool we're going to talk about in the next episode.

Chris Fisher

Yes, thank you. That's one of the reasons I wanted to mention this is because we're going to take a look at the canonical tool next episode. We'll link to this though in the show notes if you want to check it out. I also played around with Hocum. I think that's how you say it?

Wes Payne

Hocum.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“The sessions run server-side. So I can start something on my phone, like, oh crap, I got to fix this up. I can close the browser on my phone, sit down at the desktop, log into Web SSH, and the session's still going. Everything's still running, and I can just resume working. Love that.” — Chris Fisher, LINUX Unplugged

Chris describes a self-hosted, browser-based SSH workspace he tried that week. He normally avoids web UIs and prefers the terminal; persistence across devices is what won him over.

LINUX Unplugged · 2026-11-02 Permalink → Listen →
LINUX Unplugged Around 14:30 into the episode
Chris Fisher

Brantley, we found Web SSH, and I have accepted it into my life. And these things, I bounce off these web-based UI things pretty easily. I'm not somebody who really goes for this type of stuff. You're a

Brent Gervais

TUI guy. I'm

Chris Fisher

a TUIGOL just SSH, and I'm a TUE guy. However, I have to acknowledge that when I have been on the go or on a different system from time to time, I have needed SSH access, and it has not been the easiest. And Web SSH is sort of like the solve-it-once kind of solution, and it's potentially solved forever now. It's one workspace. You can keep your SSH sessions, SFTP sources, pre-stored commands in this workspace. You self-host the entire stack. It also supports things like passkey, sign-in, username and password, and two factors, so you can make it pretty secure. It works on the phone or on the desktop. And the sessions, they run server-side. So I can start something on my phone. Like, oh, crap, I got to fix this up. I can start it on my phone, close the browser on my phone, sit down at the desktop, log into Web SSH, and the session's still going. Everything's still running, and I can just resume. Working. Love that.

Wes Payne

Yeah, it basically stores all the credentials encrypted on the server thing. And then you do the client-side auth to get access to those. And then everything happens on the server on your behalf.

Chris Fisher

Hence, the support for pass keys are two factors.

Wes Payne

It's quite impressive. Yeah, Bcrypt, they use Flask, so Flask login, WebAuthn and Pass keys, origin checks are there, ReplaySafe, TOTP, single-use recovery codes, OIDC, LDAP supports in there. So they've really good CRSF protection, strict CSP. They do have some vendor depths, so it can be run…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“JP Morgan isn't going to switch to a vibe-coded version of Office, right? So their big, huge enterprise customers ain't going anywhere.” — Chris Fisher, LINUX Unplugged

A new Linux user wrote in that they had used AI to write Rust replacements for the two Windows programs that kept them from switching. Chris notes that AI-built clones of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are under development, then limits what that means for the incumbents.

LINUX Unplugged · 2026-11-02 Permalink → Listen →
LINUX Unplugged Around 46:05 into the episode
Chris Fisher

I can only imagine if I were trying to make the Switch back in the day, I lived in an Office world. That just would have made such a difference. Especially because

Wes Payne

there still are niche features, right? That like the open source stuff does wonderful, but they don't replicate every new feature. So that's not really the point or the design of it.

Chris Fisher

Right. And like JP Morgan isn't going to switch to a vibe-coded version of Office, right? So they're big, huge enterprise customers ain't going anywhere. That's a great story. Thanks, Abe.

Wes Payne

PC Nolrev comes in with 5,000 sets. Linux or something. Been a while and wanted to do a Jar Jar boost. Oh, we

Chris Fisher

could do that. Good

Wes Payne

job, guys. You suppose. Well, thank you. Thank you for the support.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“How long have they been adding features that we don't need? I couldn't articulate the difference between Photoshop 7 and the current Photoshop. I know there's generative fill. But for a simpleton like me, Photoshop 7 still gets the job done. So if you could clone that function, you've got it, right? I just think that's asking for trouble if you're proprietary software.” — Chris Fisher, LINUX Unplugged

A listener said apps they built with an AI coding agent turned out better than the Windows programs they replaced. Chris considers what cheap, custom clones of software mean for big proprietary vendors.

LINUX Unplugged · 2026-11-02 Permalink → Listen →
LINUX Unplugged Around 1:01:58 into the episode
Chris Fisher

I would love to lift some great frigate mod ideas, so please send those in. It's interesting that he's able to make the apps work better for him, too. Not just replace them, but make them work better.

Wes Payne

Yeah, I wonder what size that category is, right? Sort of like you don't need to spend the time to get every feature, all of the stuff that other people need, but you can just have a subset of that that you build.

Chris Fisher

How long have they been adding features that we don't need? Like, I couldn't tell you. I mean, I know there are features, but I couldn't articulate the difference between Photoshop 7 and the current Photoshop. I know there's features. I know they're a generative fill. I think that's the one I could name, maybe, if I thought about it. And maybe I'd like to use that. I don't know. But for a simpleton like me, Photoshop 7 gets the job done still. So if you could clone that function, you've got it, right? I mean, I just think that's just asking for trouble if you're a proprietary software.

Wes Payne

Well, Motang member boosts in. Oftentimes, I hear you guys say along the lines of, oh, this is great. It has a Docker image and can be run in Docker.

Chris Fisher

Yeah, we do say that. You're right.

Wes Payne

Which is great. And I'm sure you have talked about Podman, but I just wanted to get your thoughts on it. Do you prefer Docker over Podman? Thanks.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“For me, the browser homepage thing is sort of like the app nag about reviewing the app. I'm never launching the app to review the app. I'm launching the app to get something done. I don't ever launch Firefox to just look at the start page.” — Chris Fisher, LINUX Unplugged

Comparing home dashboards, a co-host described a start page for his self-hosted services that he never ended up using. Chris explains why a dashboard living in a browser tab doesn't work for him and says he'd want a dedicated display instead.

LINUX Unplugged · 2026-11-02 Permalink → Listen →
LINUX Unplugged Around 35:13 into the episode
Chris Fisher

Who, I mean, is that what dashboard guys are doing? Are they firing up your browser and you're just like looking at your start page for a second?

Wes Payne

Or maybe you have it as permanent infrastructure, separate screen over here. That I could see,

Chris Fisher

but then you're going now. I start going towards Grafana. It's just like, so for me, like the browser homepage thing is sort of like the app nag about reviewing the app. I'm never launching the app to review the app. I'm launching the app to get something done.

Wes Payne

To look at the app. I'm

Chris Fisher

launching my browser to immediately go somewhere. I don't ever launch Firefox to just look at the start page. So I don't get it. But I could see a dedicated thing, but then I don't want it in a browser window.

Wes Payne

This seems nice. HomeR supports custom widgets, so the open router one is Vibecode.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“If you're anti-Linux desktop growth, then what are we trying to do here with free software? What was the whole purpose of making something that was making the information free to the world? … Are we just trying to create a clubhouse that's just big enough for us to hang out in, that we can pretend like the rest of the world doesn't exist?” — Chris Fisher, LINUX Unplugged

KDE tried to open a discussion about a policy for AI-assisted contributions and it turned into a fight about banning them outright, as GNOME has done. Fisher's position through the segment is that maintainers should judge a patch by its quality rather than by how it was written, and that a ban hands the agentic-desktop niche to newer projects — he points to one that he says raised more in three months than KDE, GNOME or Mint ever have.

LINUX Unplugged · 2026-09-28 Permalink → Listen →
LINUX Unplugged Around 21:32 into the episode
Chris Fisher

That you can't have people and

Wes Payne

forestalls the future of trying to do that.

Chris Fisher

And I just, again, I want to underscore, like, if you're anti-Linux desktop growth, then what are we trying to do here with free software? And what was the whole purpose of making something that was making the information free to the world? Like, what are we trying to accomplish here? Are we just trying to create a clubhouse that's just big enough for us to hang out in that we can pretend like the rest of the world doesn't exist? And I think what we have, and I'll end on this, is we have a lot of people out there that have made this their hobby for the last 20 years. And this is what they've got. They don't have something. They don't have another skill set. They don't really have much else. And they've devoted their lives to maintaining some of these projects. It's their hobby. It has become, for some of them, their job. It is also for some of them, it's what ails them because they are so dedicated. And when something comes along, like the change we saw in digital photography of that kind of scale that tells them your hobby is changing and there's new people coming in that don't take your hobby as seriously as you do or…

Wes Payne

and see that they can they can affect change in this software that it's responsive to them that it can meet their needs

Chris Fisher

I mean okay okay all right the reason why 20 million dollars matters is I invite the listener to go out there and add up all the money that Linux Mint has ever raised or that the GNOME desktop has ever raised or that the Plasma and KDE team has ever raised and then ask yourself why they have raised…

Speaker 4

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Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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