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
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
An Intel engineer has published a patch-set providing a new GCC compiler architecture target for Intel's upcoming Broadwell CPUs.
-
Novena Project aims to create an entirely open source laptop, from the iron down to the bits, and a prototype already exists
-
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.
-
FOSS is the last place to suspect “back doors” or traps.
-
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.
-
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?
-
GNU Binutils was updated this morning and some of the major changes for these binary tools updates include supporting several new processors.
-
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
- IBM CEO Says IBM Won't be Bankrupt by 2028 or 2029 (When He Reaches Retirement Age)
- IBM has no path to survival
- Big Blue's Quiet Axe - Poem Regarding IBM "RAs"
- No idea who posted this, but it is profound
- Growing Proportion of Linux Commits Being Made by LLMs Not a Sign of LLMs Working, It's a Sign of Linux Development Being Shifted From Community to GAFAM and Other Slop Pushers
- antagonist became apologist
- Worse Than "Taking Your Job", the Slop Pyramid Scheme Will "Take Your Pension"
- This will not end well
- Rumours of Further IBM Shutdowns
- IBM is going out of existence
-
- Luxembourg and Software Freedom
- Luxembourg's adoption of GNU/Linux has quite consistently been higher than the European average
- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Web Site is Online, GNU's Site Having Issues (Ongoing Issues)
- We hope they can rectify the issues with the GNU Web site
- Freedom Includes the Liberty to Disagree (and be Listened to, Not Censored)
- Freedom is our collective strength
- Tanzania: GNU/Linux Now Seen on 8% on Desktops/Laptops (User Clients)
- numbers have more than doubled
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 04, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, August 04, 2026
- Gemini Links 05/08/2026: Being Good, Tildeverse and Tilde.pink, Games
- Links for the day
- Links 04/08/2026: GAFAM Expressing Concerns About Dangerous Disinformation by Slop, Bill Epsteingate-Connected Litigation Firm Salivating Over Europe
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 04/08/2026: Root Shell and "Duty of Care"
- Links for the day
- Alternate Data (Not IBM's Headcount) to Show Mass Layoffs' Effect at IBM (Despite Many Acquired Workers Via M&A)
- mass layoffs at Hashicorp and at Confluent this year (media did not cover either).
- Abundance of Fake (Sometimes Paid-for) 'News' About IBM Will Discredit the Media as a Whole
- In 'the news' today
- Microsoft is Trying Vapourware Again (to Keep Developers and Gamers From Fleeing)
- For XBox, the main thing over the horizon is additional layoffs
- statCounter Reckons 12.33% of Web Traffic in Gambia Can be Attributed to GNU/Linux, Even 15% If Adding ChromeOS
- Will this be sustainable?
- Reminder: The Pedophilia Problem Comes From the Accusers
- Attacks on Richard Stallman are a distraction; his accusers are themselves the culprits
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 139 Out of 200: Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Needs More Public Scrutiny (New Management Changed Nothing, It's Costing a Lot of Taxpayers' Money)
- millions or maybe billions of pounds wasted
- Brigading Against Women - Part II - Threatening Women Using the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) and Then False Threats Miscarrying the Name of a Court
- In this series we intend to show the threats, the outcomes of those threats, the response to those threats
- Collapse of MElon Companies a Taste of What's to Come for Slop Bubble and GAFAM (Trillions in Debt, Justified as Slop "Investments")
- One good example of this was SpaceX
- The 'Hyperinflation' in Hardware Dooms Video Hosting (Very Large Files)
- a terabyte of video files would be expensive
- Rumours of Silent Layoffs in Microsoft This Month (August 2026), PIPs and Global Voluntary Separation Agreement (GVSA), aka "Buyouts"
- Will any investigative journalism follow or just shallow puff pieces and LLM trash from slopfarms?
- Links 04/08/2026: "Framework for Musician Burnout" and Alexa+ "is a Buggy Embarrassment"
- Links for the day
- Signs That XBox as a Console is Coming to an End, Windows Gaming Will be Called "XBox"
- "XBox" is the next "Surface"
- Microsoft's Share in Search Falls Sharply in Europe
- The layoffs at Microsoft's Bing will carry on
- Romania: GNU/Linux Reaches 4% (Less Than EU Average)
- We expect this same upward trend to carry on
- Microsoft Sites or Sites Sponsored by Microsoft Angry That GNU/Linux is Gaining
- The Microsofters cannot easily dismiss reports of GNU/Linux growth as "bots" or just allege that statCounter alone is wrong
- Ableism in the Free Software Movement Typically Comes From GAFAM Operatives and Proprietary Software Apologists
- And their hired guns
- Afghanistan: GNU/Linux Steadily Rises to 9%
- Windows is steadily declining
- IBM Innovation: It Has Invented New Methods of Silent Layoffs or Secret RAs
- How IBM disguises mass layoffs now
- Many Anniversaries
- Many anniversaries in quick succession
- LLM Slop Won't Replace People and Jobs (in the Long Run)
- At the end of the day, people who know their job offer more useful information, whereas LLMs waste people's time (typically an 'externality' to the entity deploying chatbots)
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 03, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, August 03, 2026
- Over 3,500 Known Gemini Capsules Accessible and Active According to Lupa
- It finally happened this morning
- Gemini Links 04/08/2026: Library Cards, Dead Ends in Software Development, and DOS on USB Key
- Links for the day
- IBM Has Embraced and Rewarded Liars
- The IBM culture vanished
- statCounter Estimates GNU/Linux at 5.32% in Kuwait, Years Ago It Was Near 0%
- Kuwait rose to fame in the 1990s because of a war
- Swatting People Who Write About Corruption, Misogyny, Criminal Misuse of Funds
- we've given ourselves a decade to cover all those stories
- GNU/Linux Rises Above 6% in Colombia
- In Colombia, which is a large south American country, GNU/Linux has risen steadily in recent years
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 138 Out of 200: Garrett Has Basically "Lost" and It is "Embarrassing" to Them
- they just wound up costing hundreds of thousands of pounds
- Gemini Links 03/08/2026: Great Exodus, xkcd as Text, and Dead Ends
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux Has Surged to 6.3% in Madagascar
- Madagascar's adoption of Free software is a subject we covered a lot in past years
- Microsoft's Slop Bet is Killing the XBox Even Faster
- LLMs destroy almost anything they touch
- The Cyber Show on "Weaponised Antisocial Technology"
- by Andy
- Alexandre Oliva on Slippery Slop (LLMs)
- By Alexandre Oliva
- RMS Won the Argument and Now GNU Wins Over Computer Users
- He can look back at nearly 43 years of GNU and say, "I was right..."
- statCounter Corrects GNU/Linux Estimates, Now Measured at 9% Worldwide
- Windows has sunk like a rock
- GNU/Linux-Centric Blogs Belatedly Pick Up News About GNU/Linux Gains: 4-8% Depending on the Surveyor
- more people will get curious and give it a go
- Links 03/08/2026: Strike By Flight Attendants (WestJet) and Greedflation
- Links for the day
- Links 03/08/2026: EU Curtailed Slop, Frank Zappa Recalled
- Links for the day
- Daniel Pocock on Sky News This Morning
- No harm done
- Morten Linderud Has Helped Microsoft Put Locks (and Kill Switches) on the PCs of Arch Linux Users
- "the first rule of "secure boot" is to disable "secure boot"
- In Poor Peru, GNU/Linux Surges From 1% to 5% in a Few Years
- Windows is dying
- All Social Control Media is a Weapon (Against Its Users, Serving the Real Owners)
- That social control networks are weaponised isn't a new concept
- Fanning the Flames of Journalism
- This week we have several surprises coming
- Forcing the Slop Bubble to Implode Fully to Save the Economy From an Even Greater Collapse and Societal Harm
- Let's blow up the bubble. The sooner, the better
- GNU/Linux at 8% in Croatia
- somewhat of a GNU/Linux adoption hotbed
- It's Easy to Predict Microsoft Layoffs for October 2026 Because of the Financial 'Results' That Month (More Faking, More Secret Debt and Buzzwords to Perfume This Debt as "Investment")
- From what we've read, Microsoft is silently laying off people this month based on LITE, which leads to PIPs
- Not Hard to Guess Who Will Pay for IBM's Collapse (Due to False Statements Made to Shareholders), Red Hat May Disappear
- IBM's leadership is never being punished for its failures
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 02, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, August 02, 2026
- Gemini Links 03/08/2026: Collectibles, Cities of the Red Night, and Lali Lambda
- Links for the day
