GNU News (December-January)
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-01-21 10:28:00 UTC
- Modified: 2014-01-21 10:28:00 UTC
Summary: GNU, FSF, and Free software news from the past month or so
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Richard Stallman today met Mr Rahul Gandhi, Vice President of the Indian National Congress and shared his views on digital surveillance system, unique identification project, free software in education and governance in a meeting that went on for one hour. Mr Joseph Mathew, Secretary of SPACE also participated in the meeting. Mr Gandhi showed keen interest in Stallman's views on various issues relating to information technology.
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To commemorate the occasion of GNU completing 30 years and SPACE 10 years, the free software community in Thiruvananthapuram is also organising an exhibition on free software and free knowledge on Education Freedom Day, which falls on January 18 at the Museum. The exhibition will focus on free software and free hardware for education and privacy protection. Various free software projects like Fedora, WoMoz, and HackerSpace will be part of the exhibition.
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GnuCash is more than a simple checkbook register, although it can be used for that purpose. Its real power is in the features supporting small business use and managing multiple accounts. Its basic features are intuitive, but if you don't have a bookkeeping background, be prepared to spend some time with the user guide in order to fully appreciate its advanced capabilities.
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But the researchers, including Adi Shamir, a co-inventor of the widely-used RSA encryption algorithm, have shown how within one hour it was possible to extract a 4096-bit RSA private key used to decrypt email from a laptop running the OpenPGP-based mail encryption tool, GNU Privacy Guard.
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After earlier this month delivering LLVM Clang 3.3/3.4 benchmarks for the new compiler infrastructure out of Apple, today are results that directly compare the new LLVM Clang 3.4 performance against the stable GCC 4.8.2 compiler and GCC 4.9.0 development compiler under various C/C++ benchmarks.
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An Intel engineer has published a patch-set providing a new GCC compiler architecture target for Intel's upcoming Broadwell CPUs.
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Novena Project aims to create an entirely open source laptop, from the iron down to the bits, and a prototype already exists
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The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to Gluglug X60 laptops. The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF's standards in regard to users' freedom, control over the product, and privacy. This is the first laptop to receive RYF certification from the FSF.
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FOSS is the last place to suspect “back doors” or traps.
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Computer scientists have devised an attack that reliably extracts secret cryptographic keys by capturing the high-pitched sounds coming from a computer while it displays an encrypted message.
The technique, outlined in a research paper published Wednesday, has already been shown to successfully recover a 4096-bit RSA key used to decrypt e-mails by GNU Privacy Guard, a popular open source implementation of the OpenPGP standard. Publication of the new attack was coordinated with the release of a GnuPG update rated as "important" that contains countermeasures for preventing the attack. But the scientists warned that a variety of other applications are also susceptible to the same acoustic cryptanalysis attack. In many cases, the sound leaking the keys can be captured by a standard smartphone positioned close to a targeted computer as it decrypts an e-mail known to the attackers.
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The Free Software Foundation today has come out for "the first time we've ever been able to encourage people to buy and use a laptop as-is." The Free Software Foundation now backs one laptop model as respecting the customer's freedoms, but are the hardware specs any good?
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GNU Binutils was updated this morning and some of the major changes for these binary tools updates include supporting several new processors.
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To read more about all of these and see the honorable mentions not listed here, make sure to head back to the full hive five feature.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- More IBM Layoffs in India
- If IBM cannot afford to retain workers in India, then something is truly "out of control" at IBM
- Dr. Richard Stallman Has Done No Harm to the GNU Project or the FSF (He Had Benefited Both, Always, Even After the Attacks on Him Began)
- Some people try to prevent Dr. Stallman from speaking or having a platform where many people can hear him
- Microsoft Isn't Denying the Mass Layoffs
- Still silence from Microsoft
- In Western Africa GNU/Linux Flirts With 5% Market Share
- there's a gradual increase in GNU/Linux usage there
- Gemini Links 09/01/2026: Pro1 X Repair and the Mercury Protocol
- Links for the day
- No, Microsoft Did Not Deny the Q1 Mass Layoffs (Microsoft Can Delay These)
- Maybe they disperse or delay the layoffs (changing plans), but the layoffs are going to happen
- EPO People Power - Part XXIX - Getting DER SPIEGEL, FAZ, Deutschlandfunk and Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) to Cover EPO Scandals
- We kindly ask our readers to contact their local media and urge it to cover the scandals
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- GNU/Linux May be Approaching 10% "Market Share" in Montenegro
- The surge started around 2021
- At IBM, "Employee Reviews" (or Appraisals in the UK) Are a "Trojan Horse" for RAs (Mass Layoffs), a Waste of Time
- comments from IBMer serve to suggest that appraisals can be precursors
- 'Vice Coding' is Not "AI", It's a Sewer, It is Junk
- Linus Torvalds was wrong. 'Vibe coding' isn't good for anything.
- Links 09/01/2026: Technical Blogging Lessons Learned and Google's Gmail Getting a Lot Worse
- Links for the day
- Escaping GAFAM Colonialism Requires Homegrown Free Software
- GNU/Linux now measured at 3% in Zambia
- GNU/Linux at 4% in Saudi Arabia, Says statCounter
- Some years ago Windows fell to a "market share" of just 11% there
- Links 09/01/2026: Cambodia and China Extradition, "NATO’s High-risk Patrols Near Ukraine"
- Links for the day
- Only One Person in Charge of Fedora is Not IBM Staff
- This is not a community project, it's just a way for IBM to onboard unpaid volunteers
- This Is Not a Drill, GNU/Linux is Really Going 'Mainstream' on Laptops (and Desktops)
- It is important to explain to people software freedom
- IBM Albany Layoffs
- not only did many in the site lose their job; there's more to come "and likely another one in February" (weeks from now)
- EPO Workers' Industrial Action to Include Many Strikes, to Last Several Months
- In some ways, The Hague and Bavaria are becoming almost indistinguishable from Moscow
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 08, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, January 08, 2026
- Gemini Links 08/01/2026: "New Year, Old Plans" and Alex's "Butlerian Jihad"
- Links for the day
- LLM Slop About "Linux" Scarce and of Very Low Quality
- At this rate, we reckon there may be one (or zero) per day by year's end
- IBM's "Forever Layoffs" (to Bypass Warnings or Notices as Required by WARN Act)
- There is a bunch of speculations about when the next "major round" of RAs will be
- Attempts to Undermine This Site's Latest Series Using Intimidation, Threats, and Presumptuous Accusations
- threatening language is less effective when everyone is an alibi
- Links 08/01/2026: "Golden Smartphone" Scam and Riseup Account Issues
- Links for the day
- Links 08/01/2026: Possible "Collapse of NATO Over Greenland"; Journalistic Malpractice and "US Voters Hate Slop"
- Links for the day
- EPO People Power - Part XXVIII - A Sensitive Issue for Germany and The Netherlands
- If Germans who read this series can communicate this to public officials or to their media, maybe they can strike a nerve and get the ball rolling
- Age Discrimination at IBM Discussed Amid Mass Layoffs (Especially in the United States)
- Workers are anxious. Are they next to face the axe?
- Gemini Links 08/01/2026: Potentiometer Calculator, Power Outages, Why You Should Abandon Discord for IRC (e.g. Ergo), and Formatting Gopher Posts
- Links for the day
- Links 08/01/2026: More Software Patents Squashed, White House Repeats Misinformation From the Kremlin
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 07, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, January 07, 2026
- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Looking to Add Associate Members
- "Celebrate '26 by helping us reach our New Year's goal before Jan. 16: join as an associate member today. You will help the FSF remain strong and independent to empower technology users everywhere. Join us today and help us reach our goal of 100 new associate members!"
- Only Google is Still Spreading Lots of Slopfarms' Fake News and Plagiarism About Linux
- 2 days' worth of Google News spewing crap out about "Linux"
- Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) Formally Announces Upcoming Richard Stallman Talk
- Room 100, Scheller College of Business
- Links 07/01/2026: Europe's 'Binding Commitments' on Ukraine's Security, "Venezuelan Leaders Project Independence"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 07/01/2026: Smart Toaster and Social Control Media Fatigue
- Links for the day
- Projection Tactics - Part II: Causing "Serious Harm" to Many People (Even Animals)
- Narcissists and sociopaths are like that
- Even Microsofters Now Speak About Microsoft Reportedly Planning to Sack 10% of Its Staff (as Early as This Month, or 2 Weeks From Now) as Real Income Falls
- Microsoft buying from Microsoft isn't real income, it is accounting fraud
- The four freedoms and GNU/Linux naming controversy, by Akira Urushibata
- Social control media owned and run by 'broligarchs' keeps attacking RMS for insisting on names that include GNU
- Crans-Montana, Le Constellation: journalists, victims' families, ProtonMail users at risk, police raids
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- GNU/Linux Reaches All-Time High in Tanzania
- This month (and year) GNU/Linux is measured at an all-time high there, based on the data that statCounter can see
- Open Source Initiative (OSI) Not Doing Its Job, Instead It's Promoting Microsoft Ponzi Schemes
- it participates in Microsoft's Ponzi scheme, which helps Microsoft distract from or excuse the mass layoffs
- Links 07/01/2026: Microsoft ChatGPT Killing People and Microsoft "Github monopoly is destroying the open source ecosystem"
- Links for the day
- The Register MS: Installing Free Software on Your Device is 'Sideloading'
- This is a form of propaganda
- Mass Layoffs in Microsoft's XBox Soon, Just Like We've Said for Months
- IBM and Microsoft are heading in a similar trajectory and are hiding how bad things are using similar tactics
- Mozilla's Assisted Suicide, Assisted by GNOME
- Firefox is meant to get better all the time, but instead it gets worse
- Now It's a Mainstream Media (MSM) Story: Microsoft Layoffs Coming, They'll be Vast (and They Blame "AI", As Usual!)
- the books were cooked (accounting fraud) to hide what really went on
- Frankly Getting Sick of Slop About "AI" (Slop)
- Calling everything out there "AI" serves nobody and nothing but the Ponzi scheme
- Stick to the Science, the Facts, the Observable Reality
- Science is at the heart of this site
- Africa's Search Market Has Been Unfavourable to Microsoft
- In Africa, as we've just noticed, Bing is moving down, even more sharply this year
- Slideshare is Slop
- Be sure fools will rewrite history online
- Gemini Links 07/01/2026: Looking at 2026, Linux Anti-Minimalism, Diode Function Generators, and Inkscape
- Links for the day
- Projection Tactics - Part I: What is "Serious Harm"? Or Whose?
- the most serious harm was done to us
- Links 07/01/2026: More Signs XBox the Console is Dead/Dying, Convicted Felon Repeats Threats of Greenland Annexation
- Links for the day
- EPO People Power - Part XXVII - Science- and Principles-First Journalism About Issues That Matter
- journalism became so shallow that nowadays it can be replaced by bots
- Media Gaslighting Dooms the Media
- this "AI" gaslighting is done because publishers get paid to do so
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 06, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, January 06, 2026
