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Links 8/6/2014: Valve Funds Mesa Development, SQLite 3.8.5 Released





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux





  • Kernel Space



  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments/WMs



    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt



      • Diving into FOSS
        Before sometime I got in touch with KDE community and was overwhelmed by it. Then I became a member of this community and started exploring about open source environment. The most fascinating thing about KDE community members is how committed they are to open source technology. Through IRC I would be able to contact with genius coders all over the globe. It’s been quite a time that I am using open source software. It is very much important to aware people about open source. We can have access to all robust and efficient soft wares for free. After being a part of KDE it interested me to use open source systems and I am really enjoying this.


      • Plasma Active on Qt5/KF5: Wallpapers and Activities Configuration


      • The future of activity switching
        The new pretty thing that is taking away my time is the activity switcher which got a rather big revamp for the next release of Plasma.


      • Plasma mediacenter 1.3 beta on Arch User Repository
        As you already know, Plasma mediacenter 1.3 beta is released on 3rd June.

        Many distros like Fedora, openSUSE, KUbuntu have already packaged this beta in their repositories

        So to make life of Archers easier, I have uploaded PKGBUILD for Plasma mediacenter 1.3 beta on AUR.


      • GSoC 2014: KDE Games
        I am Anuj Pahuja(alasin), a Computer Science undergraduate from BITS Pilani, India. It is my first GSoC and I can’t thank KDE Community enough for accepting me as a student.




    • GNOME Desktop/GTK



      • Get Your Ubuntu to Look like Mac OS X with a Simple Theme
        Most of the themes that can pull this Mac OS X transformation work on desktop environments like GNOME, MATE, Xfce, and so on, but not all of them work in Unity. The designer of this particular version made it compatible with GTK 3.10 and it works in Ubuntu as well.

        “The goal is to keep it as close as possible to ambiance on the code base with the same look as the original cupertino. If that isn’t possible for an element I will prefer the look of cupertino,” said the designer on gnome-look.org.






  • Distributions



    • New Releases



      • Release Announcement: LinuxBBQ "Cream"


      • GParted Live 0.19.0 Beta 1 Gets New Debian Base Update
        GParted Live 0.19.0 Beta 1, a small bootable GNU/Linux distribution for x86-based computers that can be used for creating, reorganizing, and deleting disk partitions with the help of tools that allow managing filesystems, has been released and is now available for download.


      • Robolinux 7.5.3 OS Wants to Keep You Safe from NSA
        Robolinux 7.5.3 is a fast and easy to use Linux distribution based on Debian, and its developer thinks that it can be the solution for people who look to protect their privacy.

        If you remember from previous releases of Robolinux, the developer of this particular distribution came up with a working idea on how to move people from the Windows platform to Linux without them having to give up their favorite applications.


      • SparkyLinux 3.4 LXDE, e17, and Razor-Qt Distros Are Based on Debian Jessie
        SparkyLinux 3.4, a lightweight, fast, and simple Linux distribution designed for both old and new computers featuring customized LXDE, e17, and Razor-Qt desktops is now available for download.

        The SparkyLinux 3.34 "Annagerman" system is built on Debian GNU/Linux "Jessie" and is not all that different from the previous versions in the series, at least not in this particular aspect.




    • Screenshots



    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family



      • OpenMandriva Lx 2014 review
        OpenMandriva Lx 2014 is the latest edition of OpenMandriva, a desktop Linux distribution derived from Mandriva Linux. It is one of the distributions that rose out of the ashes of Mandriva Linux; the other being Mageia, and, to some extent, ROSA Desktop.




    • Red Hat Family



      • Apple Copies Ubuntu, Pimping Scientific, and 500 Steam Games


      • The ultimate Scientific Linux pimping guide
        Several weeks back, we reviewed Scientific Linux 6.5, a rather spartan incarnation of the legendary RHEL 6, which might be considered too boring and outdated for modern home use. Well, not so. Once long ago, I showed you how to transform CentOS into a home use beast.

        Today, we will do it again, with the most comprehensive guide on Scientific Linux pimping ever made on Planet Earth. Here, you get a bit of everything, and then so. Best of all? This guide is also relevant for CentOS and even Fedora, so make sure you keep it close to your heart. Let's go.


      • Fedora



        • Public Fedora Board Meeting — Monday June 9th 2014
          Matthew Miller just announced that fortnightly public Fedora Board meetings are starting up again. The first meeting will be on Monday the 9th of June at 17:00 UTC time. (Matthew notes in the email to fedora-announce that the command date -d ’2014-06-09 17:00 UTC’ is an easy way to convert this into the timezone on your Fedora machine.)


        • More fedora.next branding ideas
          We previously posted about some of the logo design ideas that Máirín Duffy was working on for the 3 products of fedora.next (Cloud, Server, and Workstation). Since that post, Máirín has also posted a bunch of other iterations, and I also entered the fray with a few ideas of my own. Now, Máirín has done another round of design ideas. Check them out, and join the discussion over on her blog.






    • Debian Family



      • Elive 2.2.6 beta released


      • Derivatives



        • Canonical/Ubuntu



          • Apple introduces Unity Scopes-like search and no one cries foul
            This week, Apple announced the new OS X Yosemite, and Linux users across the Linux-verse stood up and proclaimed "Oooo, I'd like to lay my hands on the lily-livered swab is writ that forgery!" Why so up in arms? Because Apple has done what Apple does -- riff on features from other platforms and claim they've recreated a wheel that will make your life far easier. What did they do this time? Let's chat.

            One of the big features of OS X Yosemite is included in the Spotlight tool. For those who don't know, Spotlight is the OS X search tool that, up until Yosemite, searched the local drive. As of Yosemite, anyone who has touched the Ubuntu Unity Dash will notice something very similar to Scopes.

            [...]

            When Ubuntu released Unity Scopes, a very large and very vocal group from the Linux community cried foul, that Scopes was an invasion of privacy, was insecure, and would probably steal their identity...

            ...maybe not that last bit. But there was plenty of backlash from the community (many of whom didn't even use Ubuntu).

            How will the Apple community react when they start using the Scopes-like feature in Yosemite? They'll love it. They'll realize how convenient it is to be able to, from one location, search their local drive, Wikipedia, Amazon.com, and countless other sources.


          • Ubuntu 14.04 - There has never been a better time to switch to Linux
            You would think that writing about the latest version of Ubuntu 14.04 would be easy but it is hard to write about one of the biggest Linux distributions without repeating everyone else's sentiments or covering the same ground that was covered with Ubuntu 13.10.

            With that in mind please don't be disappointed that much of what I will be writing here has been written before.

            There is nothing revolutionary about Ubuntu 14.04, especially if you have already tried Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10 and Ubuntu 12.04. The improvements to Ubuntu have been slow and steady.


          • Meizu Will Present A Meizu MX3 Phone Running Ubuntu Touch, At The Mobile Asia Expo 2014
            Earlier this year, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2014) in Barcelona, Canonical has announced the first two phone manufacturers that will create Ubuntu Touch-based smartphones: Meizu and Bq.


          • More OpenSSL Vulnerabilities Found, Ubuntu OSes Get Patched


          • Flavours and Variants



            • An Ubuntu MATE Desktop Spin Might Still Materialize
              There's been much talk in the past about creating a spin/derivative of Ubuntu Linux using the MATE Desktop Environment fork of GNOME2. While no spin materialized for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, talk of developing a new spin is again happening.


            • Ubuntu Might Get An Official Ubuntu MATE Flavor Soon


            • Linux Mint 17 Qiana MATE : Video Review and Screenshot Tour
              Linux Mint 17 Qiana is the latest version of linux mint that based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, it was released and announced by Linux Mint Developer a few days ago. Linux Mint 17 is a long-term support release which will be supported until 2019. In addition, The Linux Mint developers plan to use this package base until 2016.

              Linux Mint usually comes with four desktop editions: Cinnamon Desktop Environment, MATE Desktop Environment, KDE and XFCE, although currently, only Cinnamon and MATE editions are available, XFCE and KDE edition should arrive shortly.












  • Devices/Embedded



    • Phones



      • Your Android phone, now with NSA-grade security
        NSA-grade security is now coming to an Android device near you.


      • Tizen-powered Samsung Z smartphone with open source mobile OS
        The Samsung Z looks and feels very much like Samsung's Android smartphones. There's the tiles section at the top of the home screen, with some app icons at the botton, and there's the pull-down notifications and settings tray at the very top. You also get the hardware Back and Menu buttons, in addition to the main Home button. The Settings app looks almost identical to Samsung's Android version.








Free Software/Open Source



  • Open Source Lightweight Directory Access Protocol Solutions
    LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is an application protocol for accessing directory services. It runs on a layer above the TCP/IP stack incorporating simplified encoding methods, and offers a convenient way to connect to, search, and modify Internet directories, specifically X.500-based directory services. It is an open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol. LDAP utilizes a client-server model.


  • Nine Advantages of Open Source Software
    While it initially seemed revolutionary, open source software is actually rooted in traditional IT processes. Technology, after all, has always been about collaboration and continuous improvement. (In the early days of the ARPANET, for example, researchers established a "request for comments" procedure to improve the project.) Of course, there have been trepidations raised about open source. But the always-active open source communities are more than happy to address any concerns. As a result, more than one-half of the software acquired over the next several years will be open source, according to industry research.


  • SaaS/Big Data



  • Databases



    • SQLite 3.8.5 Arrives with New Features
      SQLite 3.8.5, an in-process library that implements a self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine, has been released with an impressive list of changes and improvements.

      Most of the SQLite releases are maintenance ones, but from time to time the developers make some important changes. The current update features a few new options, so an update is recommended.




  • BSD



    • FreeBSD 9.3 Beta 2 Is Now Available
      One week after FreeBSD 9.3 went into beta, the second beta update is now available.

      FreeBSD 9.3 is the next major FreeBSD 9 update due out that brings down some features from FreeBSD 10.0 like the Radeon KMS/DRM driver support, Xen HVM support, Apple MacBook trackpad support, disables hardware random number generators by default, and has a ton of other changes.

      FreeBSD enthusiasts can find out more about the forthcoming 9.3 update via the tentative release notes. FreeBSD 9.3 is expected to be officially released in mid-July.




  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC



    • GNUstep's position on Swift
      I wanted to make this post to make it clear to the community regarding GNUstep's position on the new Swift language. If the language is released as open source then GNUstep will fully support it. If it is, however, not released as open source then we will either take steps to create an implementation ourselves or provide any assistance needed to a group of people other than ourselves who are willing to take that on.


    • We're glad you liked Email Self-Defense. Let's take it even farther.
      Yesterday was a big day for defending our freedom and privacy on the Internet. The FSF and its supporters joined the ranks of thousands for Reset the Net, the biggest-ever day of action against bulk surveillance.


    • Theming and Style in GNUstep
      Not only the pixmaps and colours can be changed, also the style of the interface. This include the menu style (vertical, in-window or Mac OS style), the scrollbar position (right or left), the behaviour of contextual menus, popup list and pulldown list (so these can have similar behaviour of the gtk components). The Silver theme include an style that let users run GNUstep’s apps on, for example, Gnome without problems.


    • GNU remotecontrol: Newsletter – June 2014
      GNU remotecontrol relies on OS file access restrictions, Apache authentication, MySQL authentication, and SSL encryption to secure your data. Talk to us you want to find out how you can further strengthen the security of your system, or you have suggestions for improving the security of our current system architecture.


    • GNU Nettle 3.0 Cryptographics Library Released
      The developers behind the Nettle project are out with a new major update to their dual-licensed GPLv2 and LGPLv3+ cryptographics library.






Leftovers



Recent Techrights' Posts

Intercontinental Brigading - Part VI - Racism Against Blacks
Systems don't always work as intended
Trillions of Dollars in Debt Are Not "Investment", More People Realise This Now
"Investors started offloading shares on Wednesday in response to an X post about the debt load of CoreWeave Inc..."
 
Gemini Links 18/10/2026: Movies, Greenland, and Detectors of Slop Plagiarism
Links for the day
Links 18/10/2026: TikTok Censors Criticism of MElon, "Trump’s Latest Attempt to Be the King", and "Big Tech Oligarchs Have a Terrible Plan for Humanity"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 17, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, October 17, 2026
Gemini Links 17/10/2026: Big Glowing Advertising Screens, Busy October, and Art
Links for the day
The First Casualty: The Reputation of Linux Developers (and of Linux)
The last thing you can take from a person is pride
Links 17/10/2026: Europe Divorcing US President Putin (Kompromat), MElon and Kapo-berg ("Meta") Buying US Elections Again
Links for the day
GAFAM LLMs Seem to be Causing Veteran, Experienced Linux Developers to Quit, Only to be Replaced With GAFAM Bots and Unaudited Slopfest 'Code'
Better than 'pulling a SCO'?
30 Years of KDE and "Project Banana"
KDE recently turned 30 (many blog posts about it this past week)
Inevitable Things
"Bitbucket was Inevitable"
Andy's Passing Thoughts on Media Dying, Not Reporting News (Even Critical News About Itself)
No more news
Stallman Was Right About Torvalds
The crowd/audience Linus Torvalds panders to is paid by GAFAM to go attend and dominate (speak at) LF events. They're people whose employer forces them to use slop, it's inorganic.
Links 17/10/2026: "Why Math Dumped OpenAI", US Third Circuit Has Confirmed LLMs and Other Slop Constitute Plagiarism or Copyright Infringement
Links for the day
GPL Was Right (About Hoarding, Now Automated With Plagiarism Blenders)
Some time next year the UK's High Court might listen to arguments related to this
Microsoft Allegedly Asks Many Workers to Leave at the End of This Year (or Get the Boot), It's Called Voluntary Exit Program a.k.a. Voluntary Early Retirement Program (or VEP) Even for People Far Too Young to Retire
"Everyone at Microsoft knows what those acronyms mean."
The Torvalds-led Slopfest as a Reminder to Pursue Software Freedom, Not Plagiarism Endorsed (for Money) by 'Linux' Foundation
What's happening this month moreover proves that he is not in control of important decisions in his project
Why We Never Got Back to IPFS
Practically speaking, we could get back to IPFS any time
Red Hat Silent Layoffs: October 1 Bluewashing, Then Leaving IBM Altogether
It's said that weeks from now there will be another "round" (of "RAs")
Gemini Links 16/10/2026: Metrovision, Smartwatches, and Rekindled Love for Geminispace
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 16, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, October 16, 2026
Intercontinental Brigading - Part V - Keeping Linux Under Users' Control, Not Microsoft's (NSA) Control, Leads to Weaponisation of Cops (Killing the Messengers)
Transatlantic lawfare
TeamBlind Accused of Censorship, Maybe Surveillance in the Future
It's expensive to protect whistleblowers and to resist censorship of what whistleblowers try to expose
Another Friday 'Litter' of IBM Workers, Discarded and Sometimes Replaced to Cut Costs
The little that IBM earns is spent buying companies to pretend there's "growth" and headcount stability
Gemini Links 16/10/2026: Carrie, Games, and Slop
Links for the day
Links 16/10/2026: Election Interference by Slop; White House Backs Russia, Not Ukraine
Links for the day
The Register MS Has New 'Article' That Has "AI" 20 Times. "SPONSORED POST" As Usual.
At the end, both the media and the pyramid scheme will collapse
UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Says Microsoft is Still Abusive
Today, ahead of the latest fake 'results' [...] Microsoft cheats the system everywhere it can
Links 16/10/2026: "Data Centers Are Driving Conservative Rural Voters to The Democratic Party En Masse" and Slop Bros Bribe Candidates "for Congress"
Links for the day
Deplatforming People You Disagree With Is a Losing Strategy
Trying to deplatform people you don't agree with is oppressive and petty
Microsoft Cannot Pay Salaries
Microsoft is deep in debt
IBM "support that is USA based will migrate over 4 years to Indian based just because it lowers costs substantially."
IBM is not capable of growing, so it tries to find ways to shave off costs
Gemini Links 16/10/2026: Publishing and Licensing, Going to Movies, and Nature/Seasons Change
Links for the day
Microsoft's OSI Calling Slop "Open Source AI" (Microsoft Paid OSI to Do This) Has Helped Associate "Open Source" With Pedophilia
Microsoft deflecting?
Fridges Do Not Need an Internet Connection
Keep it simple, stupid (KISS)
Wikileaks Still Matters
The world needs more sites like these
'Cocaine King' Campinos Should 'Get the Message', Pack Up His Things and Go Already
His staff is constantly on strike and engaged in various industrial actions
We Don't Do Slop
People tend to appreciate genuine work, not fakes
On Lying With Confidence
LLMs are hype
Market Share of Windows in the United Kingdom is Shockingly Low
Microsoft's losses are very profound
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 15, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, October 15, 2026
Microsoft Can Barely Afford to Colonise Africa Any Longer (Too Much Debt)
"Before the announcement, former Microsoft employees publicly described staff being placed on performance improvement plans or offered “voluntary” exits."
Intercontinental Brigading - Part IV - Harassment Registered With the Police Before Projection Attempts Made From America
The thing one gets subjected to for opposing back doors in Linux
Gemini Links 16/10/2026: Dogs, Slop, and Blogging
Links for the day