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
- Google Spreads Misinformation, Google's Slop Makes Stuff Up and Calls That "Intelligence"
- Google very well understands (and even publicly admits so, albeit only for legal reasons) that the slop does not work
- US is Insolvent, GAFAM is Buying Time by Hiding (Not Disclosing) Its True Debt Which Explains Never-ending Layoffs (Unrelated to Slop or "Efficiency Drives")
- Five Tech Giants are Hiding $1.65tn in AI Debt, Using the Trick that Toppled Enron
- PIP Apocalypse (PIPocalypse) at IBM, CEO Promotes Vapouware (Lying to Shareholders)
- Companies get to shrink while lying about it to the public, even to shareholders
- IBM Falls Below $200, Expect $199 or Less Today (Panic Threshold)
- Will this be enough to topple the managers?
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- Links 24/07/2026: Mass Layoffs at Patreon, Netflix Deemed Bad for People's Brains
- Links for the day
- Microsoft Layoffs in India
- it's about cost-cutting
- Deregulation is Blowing Up the Economy, Which Has Become a Multi-Level Scheme or Pyramid Scheme
- Why did only Japanese media call out the BS; is that so hard to figure out and properly report on?
- Daniel Pocock Proves Wikipedia is for Rich People or People Who Work for Very Rich People (the True Owners of Wikipedia)
- It's for billionaires and their faithful boot lickers
- GNOME: Your Personal Opinions Must Overlap GAFAM's (Otherwise Those Opinions Are Impermissible)
- Get well soon, GNOME
- Making Excuses for Stressful, Unrewarding, and Immoral Jobs
- excuses for difficult and/or barely-rewarding jobs. [...] People in tech must not be evaluated (or have their "worth" assessed) based on remuneration
- Almost 5 Years Without Social Control Media ('Mind Prison')
- Life is too short to be stuck inside a skinnerbox
- Linux Must be About People (Humans), Not Bribery From Slop Companies Trillions of Dollars in Debt and in Pursuit of Positive Press
- We've lost Williams
- John Dvorak Understood That "MSM" Was a Vehicle of Censorship
- Independent publishing, which obviates the need to censor (influenced by existing advertisers or lookout for prospective advertisers), is the only credibly thing out there
- To Understand Why Linus Torvalds Became a Boot-Licking Booster of Slop Look at Another Operative of 'Linux' Foundation, the "Mentor" of Clickfraud SPAMnil (According to SPAMnil Himself)
- it seems like SJVN does not give a full disclosure
- Blaming "Computers" Instead of Blaming Microsoft
- Blaming Microsoft is "hate"
- "Online We Are All Refugees" and Slop Pushers Are the Oppressors
- They basically resort to nationalism and racism to distract from their commercial failure and fraud (pyramid scheme)
- GNU/Linux Soaring in Antigua And Barbuda
- GNU/Linux is internationally approaching 8%
- Calling Out the Worst Culprits in "Linux" Slop (Slopfarms That Manipulate Information and Engage in Plagiarism)
- Once they're gone (offline), the slopfarms cannot carry on for much longer
- Defying Discrimination
- Rianne's birthday is exactly a month away
- Dan Williams Represented Real Diversity in Linux
- Williams probably understood based on personal experience what it was like to be marginalised and discriminated against
- The First Point About Software Freedom is, You Must Understand What It Really Means (Not "Open Source")
- Forty Three Years of Commitment to Software Freedom [...] Educating people about what Software Freedom actually means
- Gemini Links 24/07/2026: Recovering From Broken Shoulders, Loss of Passion, and "True Hacker Versus Growth Hacker"
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 23, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, July 23, 2026
- Gemini Links 23/07/2026: Databases, TLGS, and RSS Feeds
- Links for the day
- Links 23/07/2026: Science, Censorship, and Territorial Overreach by China
- Links for the day
- The State of Google Security: Blocking competition
- GMail is the best!
- What Happens When Windows Becomes as 'Niche' as GNU/Linux on Desktops and Laptops
- Android enjoys a near-monopoly and GNU/Linux isn't far behind Windows.
- IBM Cash "Down $6.3 Billion From Year-end 2025." Total Debt/Equity 188.97%. (Debt Can Exceed the Company's Real Value)
- the CEO alone can make well over $0.7 billion in 5 years of salaries and bonuses
- Wave of PIPs Allegedly Coming to Microsoft, Managers Trained to Terminate Employees Without Paying Severance (and Without Calling it Layoffs)
- They count and cut the losses
- This Looks Like the End of XBox, the Console
- Sharma has become the "fall man" of Microsoft
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: A Consummate Master of the "Rigged Game"
- "single-candidate shortlist"
- Attempts to Change Focus and Change the Subject as IBM Shares Dwindle. Buying Revenue to Mask the Rapid Decline One More Time.
- IBM used to be good at engineering, not financial engineering
- Down 848% Year-on-year, Negative Cash Flow, Growing Debt (Richest Man on the Planet or Shrewd Scammer?)
- The latest for Tesla is more of the same
- Gemini Links 23/07/2026: SharePoint Rants and “Junk DNA” in Commented-Out Code
- Links for the day
- Links 23/07/2026: RIP John C. Dvorak, Organisation Weaponised Against J.K. Rowling
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 22, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, July 22, 2026
- Freexian & Debian: antitrust, unfair competition against joint authors and volunteers
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- IBM in the Red After Bad Results (Shares Down in After Hours)
- Will the CEO step down, retire, of what else?
- Gemini Links 22/07/2026: Fault Lines, the Dark Web and Beyond, and Why Substack is Awful
- Links for the day
- Insult and Injury: Getting Banned, Not Just Sacked, by Microsoft
- A former insider spoke about this in public 5 hours ago
- Links 22/07/2026: "Dumb Phones" Not Enough to Tackle Harmful Addition, "MPEG-4 Visual's Road to Being [Software] Patent-Free"
- Links for the day
- IBM's Press Release About Results Mentions "AI" 10 Times, "Quantum" 4 Times
- Blah blah blah AI"
- Top secret: Cults inquiry submission concealed from public
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- An Hour Ahead of Alleged 'Results' (Amid Investigation Into Fraud) IBM Falls Back to New Lows
- Only cents away from a 52-week low
- IBM Headed for Lowest "Value" in 2 Years
- In a nutshell, Krishna "can't keep it up" and IBM is now investigated for fraud
- Investigation Progressing
- There is nothing "funny" about receiving mortal threats for merely reporting information in a civilised country
- Things We Could Do More Than Half a Century Ago But Can No Longer Accomplish
- Newer is not always better
- Anupa Ann Joseph & Debian defamation gang
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- State of the Invidious Project
- Never forget how hostile Google can be towards freedom
- Prioritising the Safety of Women is the Best Approach to Foster Diversity in Technical Communities
- Debian was never "normative", but that does not mean Debian should have such low standards
- IBM Will Report 'Results' Tonight (CET), It's Already Investigated for Securities Fraud
- "Five of the biggest US tech giants are carrying $1.65 trillion in debt that does not show up on their balance sheets"
- Hardware Has Gotten a Lot Worse, Not Just Far More Expensive
- prices go up fast
- Amid Claims of Microsoft Bing Layoffs It Seems Like Bing Cannot Even Hold on to Second Place
- Yandex is sometimes bigger than Bing
- Wikileaks Does Not Publish New Material Anymore, But Wikileaks Still Changes the World
- Wikileaks has a legacy that will soon turn 20
- Links 22/07/2026: Postal IRCs, PlayStation Kills Discs, Union Action Against Microsoft, "Judge Considers Tossing Databricks Patent Suit Under California anti-SLAPP Law"
- Links for the day
- Same 'Journalists' Who Published Fake News for IBM (Pump and Dump) Now Write Puff Pieces About the Stock Falling
- the media is so compromised
- They Called It "Social" and "Media", But It Turned Out to be Slop and Child Porn
- Why do any sane people still use social control media?
- Age of consent: DebConf26 registered sex offender in Argentina?
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: In the Pole Position Despite a Dismal Track Record
- António Campinos is an old hand when it comes to such high-level institutional intrigue
- Site a Bit Slower Due to Visitors' Load
- We'll try to work out better speeds
- Gemini Links 22/07/2026: Emacs, Astrology Clock, Arduino, and Rogallo v1.0.0
- Links for the day
- After Involvement by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) LibreTech and Quibble Gain More Participants
- RMS expressed gratitude for people who worked on Quibble and improved LibreJS after many years of inactivity
- The Lessons From the Assange Saga
- This will not end well
- Linux Foundation an Enemy of the Planet, Proponent of Pollution and Global Heating
- "could the "polluters pay" model be extended to the computing environment and used to take on Microsoft and Microsofters?"
- Apple Will Increase Surveillance of Customers, Record Verbal Communications Under the Guise of "Hey Hi"
- Apple now drinks that same Kool-Aid
- Dave Winer, Blogging Pioneer, Sells Out, Spews Out LLM Slop to Readers
- Another one bites the dust [...] Now it's a slopfarm of sorts
- Not Everything Can be Automated
- not a new thing
- GNU/Linux OS in ComorOS
- Now, as in recent years or the last year, the GNU/Linux "signal" is growing significantly
- Microsoft Redefines "Layoffs" to Give Smaller Tallies
- It's not just calling them "buyouts" or saying people are merely "leaving" or "retiring"
- IBM is Not Done Destroying Red Hat, Wait Till October 1st 2026 (More Layoffs and Bluewashing)
- It's not bluewashing 'til it's 100% done
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 21, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, July 21, 2026
- "LF Sex", Nothing to Do With Linux
- a lot of explaining to do this week