My Favorite Linux Podcasts

As many of you know I am a truck driver for the day job. All week long I sit in a seat with a steering wheel for my desk and the only entertainment I get is in the audio form. While I could listen to broadcast radio I really cant stand it. It is constantly fading in and out and I am always flipping through the stations because most of the music just basically sucks. I do listen to talk radio quite a bit, but those signals only go so far. And I do admit that when I get to a big city I do turn it on for the traffic and weather reports.

I could get a satellite radio but that costs money that I don’t want to spend. So I have turned to podcasts for most of my entertainment and knowledge building. At one point I was up to over 100 podcasts but I have slimmed it down quite a bit over the last year or so. In case you don’t know, podcasts are video and/or audio files delivered to a podcatcher through an RSS feed. An RSS feed like the one you use to subscribe to this blog.

Here are my favorite podcasts about Linux. These are not in any kind of special order. I like them all equally and whenever a new episode of any of them comes through the feed it gets bumped to the front of the listening queue.

Everyday Linux

Hosts Mark Cockrell, Seth Anderson and Chris Neves

Perhaps the only Linux show on the Internet that isn’t about Linux, Everyday Linux is about life in the context of Linux. News, commentary, humor, and (of course) bacon await you in this rambling wreck of a show… but if you’re not careful, you may accidentally learn something along the way.

I’ll admit it took me awhile to really understand this one. It is the only podcast that really isn’t about Linux and even says so in the description. I started in on it around episode 30 something and went back and listened to the previous episodes to get caught up. The hosts ramble and talk about a lot of news in general tech and other manly interests. I would get so upset and gripe to my friends that a show about Linux didn’t really talk about Linux and wasn’t even produced using Linux. But I trudged on with the listening and the hosts’ personalities grew on me. Then one day it clicked. Most people don’t use Linux everyday. Most people don’t even know that they are using Linux at the time. The show is about these 3 guys that have a podcast and oh, there might be something that has to do with Linux in the show somewhere. It’s not a how to or kernel update show. It’s a show about real life practical uses of Linux for the average computer user.

The show is very family friendly, top shelf audio quality (I beg you to find a better sounding podcast anywhere) and I highly recommend that you add this to your podcatcher!

Linux for the Rest of Us

Hosts Cody Cooper, Steve Mcglaughin aka “Door to Door Geek”

A Linux podcast for anyone even remotely interested in Linux!

This is the podcast that got me to switch to Linux. It was April 2010 and I was fed up with Microsoft and went looking for alternatives. I had heard of Linux but had no experience with it. I ran across this podcast when it was really young. Like around episode 10. I figured I would give it a shot and Door to Door Geek blew me away with the amount of info and knowledge he had given to me. Just a dude on the internet. He basically tutored me on how to install and run Linux. But that is just the way he is. I would have to say that he is the most accessible podcaster on the planet. He will answer every call, every email and will go to great lengths to help anybody. He even puts his personal cell number online! How can that not be accessible to the listeners? Just absolutely astounding and I am proud to have come to know him well enough to call him a friend over the years. He is the one person that made it simple enough for me to understand that Linux is not hard and is not just for geeks. Although I did get into the geekiness after I got over the initial hump and lifted the hood on Linux. It’s actually pretty fun to totally screw up your machine and be able to fix it.

The podcast is family friendly as well, has great audio quality and I highly recommend this podcast to new users. Although be warned they do get into in depth discussions but it is pretty rare.

Going Linux

Hosts Larry Bushey, Bill Smith

Once you become aware that there is a dependable, secure, capable, and modern computer system that rivals all others in popularity and actual use, you will want to try the Linux operating system on your computer. Perhaps you’ve been using any member of the Unix/Linux family – Linux, Android, ChromeOS, BSD or even OSX – for quite a while. You are likely looking for new ways to optimize your technology for the way you work. Going Linux is for computer users who just want to use Linux to get things done.

Going Linux is also one that helped me with switching to Linux. I was a podcaster at the time of my switch and needed to know how to podcast in Linux. Door to Door Geek gave me a link to a talk Larry Bushey did at a Linux fest. It astounded me. It was the exact same tools that I used in Windows and it just drove me even further over the brink. I still don’t understand why everybody doesn’t use Linux instead of Windows? I never will but I digress.

Going Linux is a more technical podcast than the other two. They actually have topics that are discussed in depth. The show is typically split into 2 episodes per topic. The first episode is an “intro” to the subject and then is followed with an “advanced” episode. Larry is also on the longest running show about computers Computer America once a month and that show is recorded and thrown into the feed shortly after the appearance. They also have a listener feedback episode once a month and this is where they read and play the emails/voice mails from the listeners. Typically the ones I like are the “Gone Linux” stories where people tell how they came to Linux.

The show is family friendly, decent audio and is another highly recommended add.

The Linux Action Show and Linux Unplugged

Hosts Chris Fisher, Matt Hartley, Live Mumble Room

The worlds #1 Linux podcast. A weekly show that covers the best in the open source and Linux world. Get a solid dose of Linux, gadgets, howto, reviews, and news every week!

This show is probably the most entertaining of my list. Chris is always on the ball and never seems to run out of caffeine. Matt always seems to find a way to disagree with something and it makes for a top notch, highly professional show. Jupiter Broadcasting comes the closest to knocking the big networks off their game. The video and audio are always excellent and consistent and the content is always engaging.

The Linux Action Show with no prep, no limits, and tons of opinion. An open show powered by community LINUX Unplugged takes the best attributes of open collaboration and focuses them into a weekly lifestyle show about Linux.

The Linux Unplugged Show is somewhat different. It still retains the high quality as the other shows on the network but adds in a live audience that acts as a round table of co-hosts. From a production stand point it has to be a nightmare for Chris but somehow he has it down pat and the mumble room is what makes this show stand out above the others. There is just something about letting your audience actually get on the show and voice their opinions that you don’t see much of, if any, in podcasting. Bravo, Mr Fisher a job very well done!

These two shows, as well as most of the other shows from Jupiter Broadcasting is family friendly, of the highest quality and highly recommended. Also there are video versions of these shows available for you video snobs.

 So sound off! Tell me what podcasts do you listen to? It doesn’t have to be a tech or Linux podcast. I’m just a podcast junkie and am always looking to find new ones to listen to.