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's Kyndryl Down Almost 20% in 5 Days, IBM Down 35% in About 6 Months, Further 'Staff Reductions' at Red Hat (Problems Paying Salaries!)
- Will this year's festivities be Krishna's last?
- More Mass Layoffs at Microsoft, Only Weeks After the "Buyout" Nonsense (Glorified Severance to Highest-Paid American Staff)
- Next up it is LinkedIn
- IBM Lost Nearly 33% in "Value" in 3 Months (Shares Down $100), But Nobody Held Accountable
- This is a truly dysfunctional company
-
- Links 13/05/2026: Sudan War Enters Fourth Year and Strait of Hormuz Leaves Safe Passage a Gamble
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 13/05/2026: Useless Protests and Foofaraw on Geminispace
- Links for the day
- Mainstream Media: Microsoft Says No Layoffs. Microsoft: OK, There Are Layoffs.
- Where is Waggener Edstrom/Frank Shaw now?
- IBM is in a Freefall, When Will IBM's CEO Fall on His Sword?
- Since he controls the Board, is anyone in a position to fire him?
- At GitLab, "AI" is "All India"
- It says "as much as 30%," but they also hire and it's clear what demography is targeted
- Verified Accounts of Microsoft Offering 'Retirement' (Layoffs) to People in Their 40s, Over Two Decades Earlier Than Retirement Age
- It's not even about performance, it's about age (or "cost" as well as location; they cheapen the labour)
- Links 13/05/2026: Slop Turns Into 2008-Style Subprime Bubble, Mass Layoffs at Starbucks
- Links for the day
- They Don't Like the Layoffs, So They Are Rebranding Them
- Layoffs are layoffs
- IBM Downgraded as the Shares Sink to New Lows
- The current strategy of IBM is financial engineering, wage reductions, and mass layoffs that the corporate media refuses to even write about
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 12, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, May 12, 2026
- Gemini Links 13/05/2026: TUIs and Internet Radio
- Links for the day
- How the European Patent Office Became a Crime and Corruption Hub, One of Europe's Biggest
- incomplete outline
- Techrights at 19.5 (We Started in 2006, Days After the Microsoft/Novell Deal)
- When Novell bought Ximian (run by the "best friend" of Graveley) it brought trouble to all of us, not just to Novell
- In Croatia, Microsoft Windows Share Sank From 98% to All-Time Low of 67% (or 28% If One Counts Android)
- statements made last week (and last month) by Microsoft's CEO confirm that Windows is rapidly losing users
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 75 Out of 200: All True, All Verifiable, Unlike Garrett and Graveley Lying to at Least Three High Court Judges About What They Did
- A lot of what I said a year ago not only turned out to be correct; it was moreover affirmed by Garrett after he had sworn on the Bible and put himself at risk to his liberty
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXI - EPO President Campinos Bribing to Buy His Seat, But Cautions Staff Against Bribery
- This isn't a democratic institution
- Gemini Links 12/05/2026: Spring Cleaning and New GemText Software
- Links for the day
- Links 12/05/2026: Samsung Sued by Dua Lipa (Publicity Rights), ‘Savage Love’ Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
- Links for the day
- IBM Falls to One-year Low
- At one point or threshold does the Board (controlled by the CEO) sack the CEO?
- Gemini Links 12/05/2026: On Astronomy and Stargazing, Coyote Time, and Freenom
- Links for the day
- Links 12/05/2026: Data Centres Destroying Neighbourhoods, "Care Workers Are Saying No to 24-Hour Workdays"
- Links for the day
- Richard Stallman to Give Public Talk in Erlangen, Germany (Next European Tour)
- Seems like a large room
- Google "Hey Hi" (Slop) Having a Stroke, Thinks I am Married to the Grandmother of My Grandfather
- Seriously!
- If IBM Suddenly Vanished in the 1980s, There Would be Chaos. Not Anymore.
- IBM's management has rendered IBM more irrelevant than ever before
- Beehiiv and Substack Are Platform Lock-in (Similar to Vendor Lock-in), Don't Use Beehiiv and Substack (and the Likes of These)
- Proprietary platforms are a problem. Some people "get it" sooner than others.
- Gitlab is in Trouble and Its Shares Have Collapsed
- Down almost 80% since it began [...] The real issue has nothing to do with slop, it is a lack/loss of customers and erosion of the company's theoretical "value"
- Microsoft: Mass Layoffs Are "Offers" (Like "Job Offers"), Culling Experienced and Highly-Paid Staff is "Softer Workforce-reduction Strategy"
- Media sites that play along with those lies don't do journalism, they're in the PR industry
- Under IBM, Mass Layoffs at Red Hat No Better Than Oracle Under Larry Ellison (Treating Workers Like Disposables - Even Enemies - Overnight)
- under IBM the respect for the worker (or peer) does not exist
- The Slop-Amplified Fear of Privilege Escalation (Local, Not Remote) in Linux, the Kernel
- we are meant to assume this is no better and no worse than Microsoft intentionally putting back doors in everything, even encryption
- Jim Zemlin/Linux Foundation Selling Anthropic Slop After Getting Bribed for Slop Marketing ('Linux' Foundation is a Pay-to-Say For-Profit Marketing Company That Buys and Manipulates the Media Based on False Pretences)
- Look what they've done to Steven Vaughan-Nichols (SJVN)
- GitLab the Latest Company to Do Mass Layoffs and Use Slop as the Go-to Excuse (GitLab Users Should Worry Too)
- This round of layoffs (disguised as something else) has nothing to do with slop ("hey hi"). It's about commercial problems.
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XX - EPO Management's Unified (One) Voice or Policy is, Doing Cocaine is OK When You're a Friend and/or Family of President Campinos
- The management needs to resign to save the Office
- Technology Not Meant to Last
- A society apathetic towards declining production (or manufacturing) standards will end up ripped off
- statCounter Cannot 'See' Chinese Operating Systems That Gain Many Millions of Users Per Month
- There is no way for statCounter to recognise or show the market share of HarmonyOS
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 74 Out of 200: The Basis of My Lawsuit Against Alex Graveley, Who Helps Garrett Stack the Docket in Another Continent
- claim against the Serial Strangler from Microsoft
- Update on Slop About "Linux"
- "Linux" is a term many people are interested it, so it's not shocking that slopfarms target it
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 11, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, May 11, 2026
- GAFAM (Microsoft) "Cloud Computing" Means Another Country's Military Accesses All Your Data
- reminder that confidentiality and Clown Computing are complete opposites
- Another Discrimination Lawsuit Against IBM and Workers Say IBM Culls Older Workers (Just Like Microsoft)
- If IBM fails to retain some of the smartest people, then what is the future of IBM?
- Gemini Links 12/05/2026: Android Nostalgia and Switching to Guix
- Links for the day
- Links 11/05/2026: Another Oracle Setback and Mass Layoffs in Iran
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 11/05/2026: Older Can Be Faster and Textmode Workflow
- Links for the day
- Links 11/05/2026: The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Admits It Only Reacts When It's Too Late (Damage Already Done), Ombudsman’s Animal Cruelty HK Report
- Links for the day
- If It Takes You a Second to Serve (or Receive) a Page, That's Definitely Too Slow
- For speeds at milliseconds (e.g. for pages to fully load in a tenth of a second) the pages must be ready to be sent as soon as they're requested
- It's Not About Speed, It is About Patience and Adherence to Truth, Principles, Scientific Integrity
- attacks on us only ever made us stronger - a lesson that our adversaries have learned the hard way
- Cyber Show Does it Like Techrights: Static and Gemini Protocol as 'First-Class Citizen'
- HTML and GemText (over Gemini Protocol) would be rendered in tandem
- Libya's Share on the Web: 5.2% GNU/Linux
- GNU/Linux has hit an all-time high there
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 73 Out of 200: Microsoft's Graveley and Garrett Remain Closely Connected in May 2026 ("Tag-Teaming" Against Bloggers in Another Continent)
- The phrase "judge a person by their friends" seems applicable here
- Codecs and Software Patents - Part VI - The European Patent Office, Nokia, Microsoft, Sisvel, and More
- Whatever Nokia used to be, it's certainly not an ally and a lot of the turmoil at the EPO is the fault of companies like Nokia
- Discussions About When the Axe Falls at IBM/Kyndryl (11,000 Layoffs Estimated)
- "Kyndryl restructuring should reduce overhead functions and reduce the number of managers that lack technical knowledge"
- A World After Microsoft (and GAFAM) and After GitHub Shuts Down
- the only growth area is debt
- Fake News, Propaganda, and Misinformation: Microsoft Investing Money It Does Not Have in "Hey Hi" (for "Entertainment Purposes" Only)
- This will not end well
- Today the Whole European Patent Office (EPO) is on Strike and Next Monday an Even Bigger Strike
- the media refuses to cover these and is thus complicit
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part IXX - EPO Management Speaks of Reputation and Integrity While Putting Cocaine Addicts in Management
- If the EPO values its "reputation", then it needs to start by ousting the management
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 10, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, May 10, 2026
- Links 11/05/2026: Security Breaches, Politics, and Energy Crunch
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 10/05/2026: "Accidental Cameras" and "Addictive" Interfaces in Social Control Media
- Links for the day
