Free Software/Open Source Software News
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-31 16:09:40 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-31 16:40:21 UTC
Nuxeo
Xen
Army
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has initiated a program to develop approaches for fixing software flaws by using big data analytics principles, GCN reported Monday.
DARPA intends for the Mining and Understanding Software Enclaves program to boost the reliability of building, verifying and maintaining software systems, according to the report.
Security
GlobalSign has offered to give a free wildcard SSL certificate for qualified open source projects, as a way of supporting open source and as a way to encourage adoption of industry best practices.
The project must have an OSI-approved license, be actively maintained, be non-commercial, and pass some simple requirements, all of which are desirable conditions.
Tor
Almost three months after being alerted to its presence, Apple has taken down from the App Store an allegedly fake Tor Browser containing adware and spyware.
It's notable that according to recent statistics available through Tor Metrics Portal there has been a large 1increase in the number of Tor clients used and more than a million users are now connecting to the network. Tor, from the Tor Project, is one of the most powerful and flexible open source solutions for online anonymity, and it's clearly gaining popularity.
Blender
Blender is perhaps open source's biggest poster child for years now. And in every year or two, Blender foundation showcases the product's 3D graphics capabilities by releasing animated movies created exclusively using Blender software. They are called "open movies" and you're free to download and reuse the movies the way you want, standing true to its open source credentials. We have featured each and every Blender "open" movie ever released here and here. Now its time for the fifth one codenamed "Gooseberry", and unlike its predecessors, the project's goal would be to produce a feature length animated film.
Out today is another big update to the open-source Blender 3D animation software.
New features include initial support for volumetrics in Cycles, and faster rendering of hair and textures. The motion tracker now supports weighted tracks and has improved planar tracking. For mesh modeling there are new Laplacian deform and wireframe modifiers, along with more control in the bevel tool. The game engine now supports object levels of detail.
Sony
Sony is making it Authoring Tools Framework product available to programmers for free under the Apache 2.0 open source license.
The Authoring Tools Framework (ATF) will be free to download and use.
Industry commentators have suggested that this may now create an incentive for independent third-party developers to start developing games (or indeed porting existing games) to the PlayStation.
Misc.
The main question behind open source software is: Why would developers want to create software or contribute to another piece of software for free? For a lot of developers the answer is easy. They rely on some piece of open source software for their business so they have an active interest in supporting the community around that software.
If you enjoy making music you might be interested in a new open source midi keyboard kit called the Kyub which offers users a feather touch three-dimensional midi keyboard which is supplied as a kit.
Jacie Buckner and Alexis Wills are teenagers. Both grew up in the same Appalachian region of North Carolina. Jacie describes herself as quiet. Alexis says she is a rebel. They met in middle school, when they ran into each other in the lunchroom. " I looked at Jacie and thought 'oh my goodness, she’s going to hate me!'"Alexis says.
Tajo, a big data open source project predominantly developed by domestic developers, has gotten recognition from developers around the world.
The open source project Tajo, an on-going project led by domestic big data company Gruter, was chosen as a “top level” project on March 23 by the Apache Foundation, the world’s biggest open source organization. Tajo made its introduction in the Apache Foundation in March, last year.
The announcement at the turn of the year that a bunch of seventies and early eighties videogames were being released to play for free in a web browser was met with something of a sneer in some quarters. If you missed it, this is the latest work from the Internet Archive, which kicked off its latest project, The Console Living Room, with games for five different machines. Two of them were Ataris, while titles from the ColecoVision, the Magnavox Odyssey and The Astrocade were also featured. All you now have to do if you want to play one of the available games is to head to Console Living Room, click on your machine of choice, and pick a game – but don’t blame me if you overrun your lunch hour.
Irish 21-year-old who founded CoderDojos after-school clubs tells of huge impact on young worldwide
There’s an ongoing conversation about the shifting role of developers and what that means for IT departments. They’re now shaping product and user experience with such great influence that businesses must understand their importance in order to be as successful as possible.
Which open source software should you consider for your business? Here, Steve Nice from Reconnix reviews three of the leading providers.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Andy Burnham as National Leader Would be Excellent for Techrights
- Burnham has envisioned a British "centre of power" (or gravity) that moves northwards, isn't concentrated in the southeast anymore
- In Defence of Courts' Privacy Policies
- If you want friends, go offline. Meet real people and share real experiences.
- Why I Quit Academic Career (or Academia) Nearly 15 Years Ago
- I am told by people who stayed that it has only gotten worse
- EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part XV - Nazi-Like Thinking at the European Patent Office (EPO) Not a Thing of the Past
- antisemitism inside the EPO
- Daniel Pocock Running for Office Again, Clacton-on-Sea By-election
- By-election - code name "Pocock-on-Sea"
- Links 17/07/2026: Microsoft is Cutting OneDrive Coverage, Larry Ellison Sued by Paramount Investor
- Links for the day
-
- IBM Already Tentatively Down for Next Week (Monday) After Its Worst-Ever Week
- What a week for IBM!
- Daniel Pocock as Independent Candidate, Now in The London Standard
- "Daniel Pocock is an independent candidate."
- Links 17/07/2026: Protests Erupt Throughout Ukraine and Anthropic Caught Secretly Spying on Users
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 17/07/2026: "Silence Doesn't Mean Abandoned", Revisiting PalmOS in 2026
- Links for the day
- Farage Out, Daniel Pocock in?
- Can Pocock beat his previous voting record?
- Layoffs at Microsoft Are Massive, Go Under the Radar for the Most Part
- Microsoft is in a really bad shape
- One Heck of a Week for IBM, the 'Grandpa' of 'High-Tech', International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) Under Investigation by Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC
- If IBM gets busted or might be busted, will the CEO jump, get pushed, or be arrested?
- “Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software”
- As Dr. Richard Stallman once put it
- GNU/Linux Grows at the Expense of Microsoft Windows in Croatia, Now Close to 8%
- Croatia has been mentioned a lot lately in relation to EPO "lobbying" (vote-rigging)
- 27-Year IBM Veteran on IBM: "Worse than the Titanic and Perhaps Just Like Madoff, Enron, etc."
- several comments we saw today envisioned the CEO of IBM in an orange suit (in US prison)
- ServiceNow/ServiceLine and Slop at the EPO is Becoming a Health Risk to Staff
- PD44 has historically been the oppressor at the EPO
- IBM Can Burn Pensioners to Appease Wall Street and Protect the Billionaire CEO With His Humongous Bonuses
- Its stock it set to open 2.82% in the red
- IBM SHAREHOLDER INVESTIGATION: Potential Securities Claims Involving International Business Machines (IBM)
- there's a risk of criminal action against executives
- Tux Machines Moving Onwards and Upwards
- "...tasks expand to fill the time available"
- The Register MS is Publishing Spam for Gartner Group to Spread Hype About "AI", Mentioned 30 Times in the Paid (Fake) Article
- One sure thing is, the so-called 'tech media' is profoundly compromised by American corporations
- "Market Share" of GNU/Linux Nearly Trebled in Cambodia This Month
- GNU/Linux is still measured at 8% by statCounter
- GitHub is Dying (Traffic Down Despite Bots and Slop), Microsoft Will Eventually Cull it - Just Like XBox - to Limit the Losses
- Do not stay on GitHub (Microsoft) under the false assumption that it is "free hosting" or will always be around
- Teaser: Daniel Pocock is About to Go Mainstream Again
- Stay tuned, Pocock has something in store
- Microsoft Has Just Been Sued Over Layoffs
- If the rumours are true, there is yet another wave of layoffs at Microsoft
- Richard Stallman Always Cautioned, Upfront, That His Political Views Were Wholly Separate From His Scientific Work or GNU
- Notice that he already spoke a lot about politics
- Nichirei and Asahi Beer Need to Take Cyberattacks as Hint of Opportunity to Move to Free Software
- Windows TCO
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 16, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, July 16, 2026
- Gemini Links 17/07/2026: Sunlight in the Clouds, Techno-Therapy, and Sloppifying Original Text
- Links for the day
- Links 16/07/2026: Slop Recognised as a Waste of Energy, Hong Kong Cracking Down on Dissent/Opposition Some More
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux Approaching 5% "Market Share" in Oceania, Almost Trebling in 12 Months
- It is difficult to ignore the gains made by GNU/Linux this month
- Microsoft Whistleblowers Explain How Brutal the Latest Cull is (Layoffs in Seconds-Long Calls, Mass Elimination of Whole Studios and High-Level Officials)
- we see anonymous leakers or whistleblowers in the media today
- Gemini Links 16/07/2026: esp32-gemserv, Slop-Contaminated Free Software, and Moving Systems
- Links for the day
- Last Summer Microsoft Mass Layoffs Came in Two Large Waves, Rumours Say Next Week Another Large Wave is Coming
- If many more Microsoft layoffs are formally admitted next week we will not be surprised
- Tomorrow is Another Strike Day at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, the Media is Still Deliberately Ignoring It
- Fridays are now recommended “anchor days" for EPO strikes
- Public Interest News Foundation Shows News Drought or News Deserts in the United Kingdom
- Public Interest News Foundation shows that we should be deeply concerned
- Illusions of Choice
- Choices can be differently bad or equally bad
- Windows Down to 10% in India
- Windows is a "burning platform"
- One Year Has Passed
- Our aim is to repair an injured system wherein "abuse of process" can be turned into a weapon, leveraged even by foreigners who are funded by affluent third parties
- Techrights is Annoying People Who Work for (and Serve) People Who Annoy (and Abuse) Society
- Working against us (instead of with us) has historically been a bad strategy
- No Skinnerboxes, No Slop, No False Idols or Corporate Prophets
- Torvalds does not understand the everyday struggles of tech workers and tech users because he is a millionaire
- IBM's Next Stop: $199 (Market Cap Already Under 2.5 Times IBM's Debt)
- Don't rush to call us "sensationalist" over it
- Links 16/07/2026: Solar Greenwashing by Energy-Wasting GAFAM and Growing Concerns About Harm by Social Control Media
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 16/07/2026: Photography, Agility, and "Today I have Truly Become a Linux User."
- Links for the day
- Rebellion Brewing at Microsoft
- As always, we welcome Microsoft whistleblowers
- Technology Against Human Nature
- Losing a sense of what it means to be alive
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 15, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, July 15, 2026
- IBM Down to $211.20, the Market in General is Up
- No recovery for IBM today
- UEFI 'Secure Boot' Still Not Secure in 2026, New Holes (or Bypasses) Still Being Found
- In 2026 there are still many people who call it "secure" and pretend to themselves that it is about security. It's not. It never was.
- Gemini Links 15/07/2026: Lab 6, Retrospective 2, and "Getting Back Into Gemini"
- Links for the day
- Links 15/07/2026: "Gianni Infantino Under Fire" and "Todd Blanche's Record Raises Alarming Questions About the Future of the US DOJ"
- Links for the day
- Allegedly More IBM RAs (Mass Layoffs) Same Day the Stock Crashed
- No paper trail, so it never happened, right?
- Techrights Was Right: Microsoft's Layoffs Tally Was False, Far More People Are Being Sacked
- "The Xbox Bloodbath Is Actually Way Bigger Than It Seems"
- Get Ready for Increase in PIPs and RAs at IBM, Red Hat, and Other Companies Devoured by IBM
- IBM's "market cap" has just fallen to 199 billion dollars and it has about 70 billion dollars in debt
- IBM Sinking to Lowest Levels Since 2024, But Will Any Executives Be Arrested for Securities Fraud?
- 52-week high of $332.46 and now down to $212.94
- Microsoft Whistleblowers Say "The Entire Thing is Going to Fall Apart" and There Are "No Benefits" to Being Part of Microsoft
- "Multiple sources, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal"
- IBM's Crash Continues Today
- Stocks go up and down, but they don't typically go down by over 25% in a single day
- Like Kyndryl, Multiple Securities Fraud Investigations Into IBM
- Remember what happened to Kyndryl
- How Long Before GNU/Linux is Measured at 20% in Chad?
- The main way to get people to adopt Vista 11 is to sell them a new PCs and in poor countries it happens a lot less
- Making Techrights Faster Down Under (Australia and New Zealand)
- there's more to life than speed
- Strikes at the EPO Approved for the Rest of the Year, "€1,3 Billion Taken From Staff Income"
- Intensity can be revised and increased over time
- Focusing on What We Really Ought to Focus on
- Today we'll focus mostly on EPO affairs
- Violence is Not a Joke
- "Police say Widdecombe killing was targeted but motive remains unclear"
- How to Properly Measure the Performance of a Patent Office
- A "contribution from staff [which] is published by SUEPO Munich."
- Who Next After IBM? (Bubbles Don't Last Forever)
- the demise of companies with "ai" in their name/domain
- EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part XIV - "Not One of Us" (How the Group Dubbed by EPO Insiders "Alicante Mafia" Pushes Out Talent, Replacing It With Friends)
- misuses the EPO's budget like it is a fountain of money for his friends
- LibreTech Collective Abandons Microsoft GitHub and All Other Proprietary Software
- Each time a project eliminates control by a hostile party it stands to gain
- GNU/Linux Estimated at 8% "Market Share" Today (in statCounter)
- Days ago it said 7.1%, then 7.3% or 7.4%
- Links 15/07/2026: US Regime "Cuts Two Utah National Monuments by More Than 90%", "Hormuz is Less Crucial Than It Was"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 15/07/2026: Old Computer Challenge, "Trial by Fire", LLM Slop Destroying Companies
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 14, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, July 14, 2026