When working in an office, you naturally need a sharing operating system for each and every computer to allow for the quickest installation of files. While many people are currently trending towards Windows, which has marketed itself as the premier suite for offices as opposed to Apple, which is more for creatives, your best bet is actually investing in Linux products instead. This guide will explain exactly why, with five key reasons as to how Linux is much better for office use. Read on now in order to learn all about it.
Best Security Around
If you are looking for security, especially after hearing about the awful hacks of Microsoft that occurred this year, then it might make sense for you to shift your operating system to Linux instead. This is because it is a highly configurable system, meaning that you can switch your security parameters around in order to work for your business. Additionally, it is simply not being targeted by hackers as much, meaning that once you install it, you can sleep better at night.
Open Source
Linux, unlike its counterparts, runs on open source software, which makes the operating system the number one choice for programmers as this means that they can change the way that Linux operates according to their own personal preferences. This means that when you have Linux in your office, you don't have to worry about whether or not a certain process can succeed, as there will be a way to change it in the backend, something not possible with closed-source software.
Looking for your next Ubuntu powered ultrabook? We might have what you're looking for with the new Entroware Apollo.
Not a name we hear too often from but Entroware are a dedicated Linux hardware vendor based in the UK, who also ship to the Republic of Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. So if other hardware vendors have proven too expensive on shipping - here's another choice. Entroware claims it's "built from top to bottom using the best components available, for a richer, faster Ubuntu experience. Now shipping with NVMe PCIe SSD storage as standard".
If you're considering adding Linux to your data center, or your company is looking at promoting you to become their first (or next) Linux admin, you probably understand there are lots of commands to learn. In fact, during your early days of Linux admin, it'll seem like all you do is learn new commands.
But you don't have to approach the task without having first learned a few commands that will carry you through the beginning steps and into your intermediate period of Linux admin. So why not concentrate on a particular area that you will be dealing with pretty consistently—the network? Chances are good your Linux systems will be used for one or more network services, so you'll need to have at least a basic understanding of the more useful network tools.
The Linux 5.13 development kernel is introducing a new "misc" cgroup controller. The misc cgroup controller is to be used for resources that are controlled by simply counting / limiting the number of resource instances in a scalar manner.
This cgroup controller can be used for purposes like tracking/limiting the number of enclaves on the system based upon hardware constraints, The initial user of this misc cgroup controller is for address space IDs used for virtual machine memory encryption.
One of the new security features in Linux 5.13 is the ability to randomize kernel stack offsets at each system call. This optional feature is now mainlined.
Randomizing the kernel stack offset per-system-call is intended to make it more challenging for rogue actors to carry out stack-based attacks on the Linux kernel. This has been in the works for over two years and was inspired by PaX's "RANDKSTACK" feature but the actual implementation has taken a different approach. Simply put though this randomizing of the kernel stack at each system call is to fend off exploits relying on kernel stack determinism.
The printk() function dates all the way back to the original Linux kernel release and even with Linux turning thirty years old this week, work on printk is not over.
Back during Linux 5.10 last year a long overdue revamp of printk() began to land and now with Linux 5.13 more of that work is crossing the finish line. In 5.10 the ring-buffer became fully lock-less but still relying on a log buffer lock.
Disclosed by Cisco Talos researchers on Tuesday, the bug is described as an information disclosure vulnerability "that could allow an attacker to view Kernel stack memory."
The kernel is a key component of the open source Linux operating system. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2020-28588, was found in the proc/pid/syscall functionality of 32-bit ARM devices running the OS.
Thirty years ago, Linus Torvalds was a 21 year old student at the University of Helsinki when he first released the Linux Kernel. His announcement started, “I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional…)”. Three decades later, the top 500 supercomputers are all running Linux, as are over 70% of all smartphones. Linux is clearly both big and professional.
For three decades, Linus Torvalds has led Linux Kernel development, inspiring countless other developers and open source projects. In 2005, Linus also created Git to help manage the kernel development process, and it has since become the most popular version control system, trusted by countless open source and proprietary projects.
I'm announcing the release of the 5.11.17 kernel.
All users of the 5.11 kernel series must upgrade.
The updated 5.11.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-5.11.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-s...
thanks,
greg k-h
Zellij is a new terminal workspace and multiplexer (like tmux and screen) written in Rust, available for macOS and Linux. Among its most important features are a layout system, and plugins written in any language that compiles to WebAssembly.
While the tool is ready for everyday use, it's still important to mention that right now it has the beta status, so you might encounter an occasional crash. It also misses quite a few features for now (read on for details).
Unlike other terminal multiplexers, like tmux or screen, Zellij comes with a user-friendly UI out of the box, showing a status bar at the bottom of the screen with the available keyboard shortcuts and tips for using this tool. The status bar (as well as the tab bar) is implemented as a plugin, and it can easily be disabled when you get accustomed to its keyboard shortcuts.
Finit is a simple alternative to SysV init and systemd. Version 4.0 was finally released and comes with significant changes.
Finit (Fast Init) is a small SysV init and systemd replacement with process supervision similar to that of daemontools and runit. Its focus is on small and embedded GNU/Linux systems, although it is fully functional on standard server and desktop installations.
Finit is fast because it starts services in parallel. It then supervises and automatically restarts them if they fail. This can be extended upon with custom callbacks for all services, hooks into the boot process, or plugins to extend the functionality and adapt Finit to your needs.
But Finit is not only fast, it’s arguably one of the easiest to get started with. A complete system can be booted with one simple configuration file.
In this video, I am going to show how to install Lubuntu 21.04.
Pleroma is an open-source federated social networking platform, compatible with Mastodon and other ActivityPub platforms. It is a part of the Fediverse, a federated network of instances that can communicate using a common protocol. One single account on one instance can talk to the entire Fediverse network.
This guide will show you how to create your own Pleroma instance by installing it on an Ubuntu 20.04 based server.
Cert-Manager is a controller used for certificate management. A Cert-Manager can help to issue certificates from different issuers like Let’s Encrypt, HashiCorp Vault, Venafi, a simple signing key pair, or self-signed. Cert-Manager validates certificates, ensures they are up to date, and renews before expiry. Cert-Manager is made up of several components as mentioned below.
This is something that has been bugging me for years but I never bothered to look into it until now. When I set up a printer using CUPS Administration and then print a test page, for some printers the bottom of the test page image is cut off, as shown in the scanned image below. Also, the left side of the test page image is too close to the left side of the sheet of paper. This happens when I use the Gutenprint printer drivers, although I do not know if that is a coincidence. The CUPS printer test page (A4 paper) shown below is from a Canon PIXMA MP510 printer using the Gutenprint v5.3.3 driver for that model.
When we install any CentOS version, we do have the option to install GUI along with the operating system as well. But many times, we might not install the GUI as we do not have a need for the GUI & installing those packages for GUI will only result in an increase in CentOS installation size.
But what do we do if need to GUI for CentOS afterward? Do we need to reinstall CentOS ? or can we just install some packages for GUI?
The answer to that is, Yes we can install GNOME (GUI) on CentOS. In this tutorial, we will learn how to install Gnome of CentOS 7 installations. Gnome provides a nice GUI for us to manage our servers graphically.
A replica set is a group of MongoDB database nodes used for defining database clusters with master-slave replication and automated failover. A replica set contains a single primary node, multiple secondary nodes, and an arbiter node. The primary node receives all write operations while other nodes apply operations from the primary so that all nodes have the same data set.
If your primary node breaks due to hardware failure or system-related issues, the replica set members autonomously select a new primary node, and your application functioning without manual intervention.
In this post, we will explain how to set up a MongoDB replica set with three nodes. We will also show you how to create an environment, configure authentication between multiple database nodes and finally configure the replication between all nodes.
At one point, we had already talked about checking to see if strings inside of a file were unique and if we could sort them, but we haven’t yet performed a similar operation on files. However, before diving in, let’s make some assumptions about what constitutes a duplicate file for the purpose of this recipe: a duplicate file is one that may have a different name, but the same contents as another.
As the name suggests, the WordPress Design Library is a library of WordPress design assets, enabling anyone to quickly create design prototypes for WordPress UI in Figma.
These tools are useful for designers when creating new UI and for anyone looking to contribute ideas, enhancements, or even solutions to bug reports. Sometimes pictures really do speak a thousand words.
In this post, we’ll talk about some key features of Figma before diving into a practical example that demonstrates some of the WordPress Design Library utilities.
In this tutorial we will learn how to get EC2 Instance Metadata from an AWS EC2 instance. We will get the metadata using ec2-metadata and ec2 metadata. This is not typo. The tools name is really similar but one of them using dash on its name.
In this tutorial we’ll learn how to enable IUS repository on CentOS 7. IUS stands for Inline with Upstream Stable.
IUS will update RPM packages once new versions released by upstream developers. IUS will also not replace stock RPM packages or pacakges that shipped with distribution. The goal of IUS project is to provide high quality RPM packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and CentOS.
When you develop complex Bash scripts and start putting various scripts into a folder, where one script interacts with another by, for example, starting it, it quickly becomes necessary to ensure we know the path the script was started from, so we can start the other scripts with a fully qualified pathname. This is important because the first script may have been started from outside the script’s directory. We could have also done so by using a relative path, so even - somehow - reading the command that started the current script will not work.
Linus Torvalds announced the Linux Kernel 5.12 after few weeks in development and available for general usage with new features, improvements, and better hardware support.
As per Linus Torvalds for Kernel 5.12
Thanks to everybody who made last week very calm indeed, which just makes me feel much happier about the final 5.12 release.
This tutorial will be helpful for beginners to install kernel 5.12 in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.10, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, and LinuxMint 20.1
Now that Fedora 34 is released with all of it’s new goodies we will show you how to upgrade your system. This guide will show you how to upgrade your Fedora 33 (or earlier) system to the latest and greatest. We will be upgrading Fedora using the DNF package manager. Let’s get started.
Netdata is a free web-based real-time monitoring solution available to install on Linux servers to monitor their performance and resource consumption locally or remotely. It is very easy to set up, the latest version can be installed with just a command on all popular Linux systems including Ubuntu 20.04/18.04, CentOS 7/8, RHEL, OpenSUSE, Debian, Linux Mint and more…
In this article we are going to create a new cron job in TrueNAS using the web interface.
What is a “Cron Job”? It’s a time-based job scheduler in Unix-like computer operating systems. Users who set up and maintain software environments use cron to schedule jobs (commands or shell scripts) to run periodically at fixed times, dates, or intervals.
So to create our first job we need to open the web panel go to your TruNAS IP address for example 192.168.0.7 and you will see the login dashboard (after you login...
Tomcat is a free, open-source and lightweight application server used to deploy Java-based applications. It can be used as a standalone server or combined with other servers like Apache and Nginx. It provides the extended functionality to interact with Java Servlets and also implements several technical specifications of the Java platform. Currently, Tomcat is one of the most widely used application servers for Java.
Tomcat is a free, open-source and lightweight application server used to deploy Java-based applications. It can be used as a standalone server or combined with other servers like Apache and Nginx. It provides the extended functionality to interact with Java Servlets and also implements several technical specifications of the Java platform. Currently, Tomcat is one of the most widely used application servers for Java.
In this tutorial, we will show you how to install NetBeans on Manjaro 21. For those of you who didn’t know, NetBeans is a popular, open-source IDE written in Java. This is a cross-platform software and can run on any OS. NetBeans has become a part of the Apache project and gained much popularity. NetBeans also allows third-party developers to enhance its functionality such as supports other languages like PHP, C/C++, and HTML5.
This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of the NetBeans on a Manjaro 21 (Ornara).
If you no longer need a user account, it is good idea to delete that account.
If you ever heard that explanation, it is only partially correct, and they are present on a most modern OS. There are two kinds of symbolic links when thinking in terms of files: hard and soft:
Suppose you have already installed the Ubuntu desktop or server. In that case, it means you have already created a default user on your system, even on the cloud also Ubuntu is installed with preconfigured default user account. You can do all administrative tasks using this user, but sometimes you need to create another user for your team member or something else. Here, In this ttorial, I’ll show you how to create a new user on Ubuntu Desktop or Server system.
Group is a way to organize and administer user accounts in Linux. Groups are used to collectively assign rights and permissions to multiple user accounts.
We need an overview of the directory or system’s file structure to view all files in a single place to examine those files.
Here, we will write a bash script to travel directory recursively and check all files and directories to print them in a tree structure on screen.
We will use a recursive function and print tree to write a bash script to Crawling filesystem directories and printing a tree structure of files.
When we have many files available for viewing, sometimes we need to find a file among many without using the GUI searching tools or provide a better set of granular filters to reduce returned results.
We have created users and groups. In this recipe, you will work with default file permissions for users and groups, as well as see how to modify those permissions.
This article will describe the 10 Linux commands I use in daily life. They are nothing special nor complicated. I have learned that the most simple things in life bring you the best joy so lets start with the least used of the ten commands.
The next set of games coming to Stadia Pro has been announced with Trine 4, Hotline Miami 2 and Floor Kids plus April 30 is your last chance to grab some of them.
Stadia's team has confirmed that SteamWorld Heist, El Hijo, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, and Enter the Gungeon will be leaving Stadia Pro so April 30 is the last you have to claim them. After that you keep them as long as your Stadia Pro sub keeps up, everyone else will need to buy them in the Stadia store.
Ready for another great pixel-art comedy point and click adventure? Lucy Dreaming, inspired by LucasArts classics is super promising and it's now up on Kickstarter.
You follow Lucy who has been having a recurring nightmare, as you try to unlock the secrets of controlling your dreams as you travel between worlds. With a heavy 90s gaming influence it, Tall Story Games are channelling their love for British comedy classics like Blackadder and Monty Python.
[...]
The demo is something of a prequel to the full game, so it won't have any spoilers.
Love your exploration and survival games? Little Martian is back with another huge demo upgrade not long after the release of a Linux build.
A game of exploration, resource gathering, crafting, base building and survival all blended together. You start off crash-landed on a previously explored planet, with a ship and robot pal both in ruins. Your ultimate goal is to acquire the resources need to repair your ship and escape. One of the challenges on the planet is the lack of oxygen, so you need to constantly refresh your supply.
The new Chrome based Brave browser automatically blocks ads and trackers, making it faster and safer than your current browser.
The Google Chrome browser takes a sandboxing-based approach to Web security. Each open website runs as its own process, which helps prevent malicious code on one page from affecting others (or the computer operating system at large).
The openSUSE Project and its community, contributors and release engineers have entered the Release Candidate phase for the upcoming openSUSE Leap 15.3 version today after a snapshot was released, which transitions the release to a new phase.
The RC signals the package freeze for software that will make it into the distribution, which is used on server, workstation, desktop and for virtualization and container use.
openSUSE Leap offers a clear advantage for servers by providing at least 18 months of updates for each release. There is a projection as of April 2021 that Leap 15 will extend to Leap 15.5. Leap Major Release (15.x) extends maintenance and support until a successor. At present, a successor has not been declared; Leap 15’s lifecycle fully aligns with SUSE Linux Enterprise and uses the source code and Leap is built with the exact same binary packages..
Desktop environments for the release include KDE’s Long-Term-Support version of Plasma 5.18, GNOME 3.34 and Xfce 4.16. Packages for artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are available for data scientists who use the release. A list of some of the packages in openSUSE Leap 15.3 can be found on the Wiki.
The release candidate phase has begun for openSUSE's upcoming Leap 15.3 Linux distribution release.
OpenSUSE Leap 15.3 RC is available beginning today and marks the package freeze for this next community Linux distribution update that now is effectively identical to SUSE Enterprise Linux. openSUSE Leap is built from the same sources and same binary packages as SUSE Linux Enterprise.
Being first doesn't guarantee success in the technology industry. Remember the Netscape browser? Still, it can have its advantages, such as a different or unique approach to things.
Such is the case with Slackware Linux. Slackware was the first formalized Linux distro, released in 1993, just two years after Linus Torvalds posted the Linux kernel. It was overtaken and overshadowed by Red Hat, SuSe, and Ubuntu, but it never went away. Now it's coming out of the shadows with an upgrade.
Slackware creator Patrick Volkerding recently posted a beta version of Slackware 15, the first update to the distro since version 14.2 in 2016. If you think that's ancient, you should see their website.
[...]
Slackware 15 supports 32-bit and 64-bit x86 plus ARM architectures. It supports GNOME, KDE, and Xfce as desktop options and has Linux Kernel 5.10.x stable (LTS) and is available with Kernel 5.11 option as testing package.
Based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the new project launches in collaboration with exida, which will be in charge of delivering safety certifications.
The operating system will receive continuous updates throughout its lifecycle, and Red Hat promises an upgraded platform ready for modern vehicles and covering all electronic systems within cars.
Businesses across industries are embracing a hybrid cloud approach more than ever as they seek to digitally transform in the post-pandemic world. In fact, 64% of companies surveyed in an IBM Institute for Business Value study say they shifted to more cloud-based business activities during the pandemic. For developers who are charged with rapidly innovating and building applications that enable digital transformation, open source container platforms can help reduce vendor lock-in and make it easier for teams to move applications from one environment to another.
But the reality for developers is that the most common architectures used today are riddled with complexities. This requires them to learn how to configure and manage new concepts, taking time that could otherwise be spent on coding applications.
The fully open-source Fedora operating system’s new version is now out, Red Hat reported. As a part of Red Hat’s community-driven open-source collaboration Fedora Project, the latest version offers a foundation for new use cases, further augments overall user experience and provides additional support for automated system recovery.
Fedora 34 features the brand new i3 Spin created by the Fedora i3 S.I.G. This new spin features the popular i3wm tiling window manager. This will appeal to both novices and advanced users who prefer not to use a mouse, touchpad, or other pointing device to interact with their environment. The Fedora i3 spin offers a complete experience with a minimalistic user interface and a lightweight environment. It is intended for the power user, as well as others.
[...]
The Fedora i3 S.I.G work is based on the design goals for the project. These goals determine what we decide to include and how we tune or customize the contents of the Fedora i3 Spin.
The following is a list of the packages included. Others may be added from the Fedora Linux repository as required. Keep in mind that this is a minimalist spin.
The first day of the Red Hat Summit Virtual Experience is all wrapped up, and we couldn't be happier with the turnout or the sessions. From the general session to Summit news to fun and games, it was a packed day.
Actually, it was several packed days if you count the schedules for all regions. We like to think we have exciting news this year, but asking attendees to get up before dawn or stay up after midnight is a little much. To help everyone stay well-rested we hosted schedules for North America & LATAM, EMEA and APAC to try to provide workable schedules for Summit attendees all over the globe.
Following the Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) release, there will be Ubuntu 21.10, which has been dubbed by Canonical as the “Impish Indri”. They also published the release schedule, suggesting that the development on Ubuntu 21.10 will kick off on Thursday, April 29th, 2021, with the toolchain upload.
Of course, the development will be based on the current release, in this case Ubuntu 21.04, and the release schedule also suggests that the Beta version will arrive for public testing on September 23rd, while the final release is slated for October 14th, 2021.
Following last week's release of Ubuntu 21.04 "Hirsute Hippo", the Ubuntu 21.10 "Impish Indri" cycle has now begun.
Ubuntu 21.10 is codenamed the Impish Indri. An Indri is a type of lemur and also known as the babakoto.
Forlinx’s sandwich-style OKMX8MM-C SBC and OKMX8MQ-C SBC run Linux on the i.MX8M Mini and i.MX8M Quad, respectively. Common features include GbE, mini-PCIe, MIPI-DSI/CSI, and extensive audio I/O.
Baoding City, China based Forlinx manufactures a variety of Arm/Linux compute modules, which it often supports with carrier boards to create sandwich-style SBCs. The company does not announce its products, but the OKMX8MM-C SBC and OKMX8MQ-C SBC are showcased on the home page and appear to be relatively new
We previously covered Myelectronics’ 19-inch rackmount taking up to 12 Raspberry Pi boards. The solution is nice to keep a bunch of Raspberry Pi 4 in a small space and expose the HDMI ports as full HDMI ports. But what happens if you need to replace a Raspberry Pi board, or simply change the MicroSD card?
Yes, you’d typically need to turn off all boards, remove the rack mount, replace the board/install the MicroSD card, and reconnect everything. That’s probably why the company has now launched two new 19-inch 2U and 3U rack mounts respectively supporting up to 16 front-removable Raspberry Pi (model B) single board computers.
I wrote previously about my DeskPi Pro + 8GB Pi 4 setup. My main complaint at the time was the fact one of the forward facing USB ports broke off early on in my testing. For day to day use that hasn’t been a problem, but it did mar the whole experience. Last week I received an unexpected email telling me “The new updated PCB Board for your DeskPi order was shipped.”. Apparently this was due to problems with identifying SSDs and WiFi/HDMI issues. I wasn’t quite sure how much of the internals they’d be replacing, so I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be most of them; including the PCB with the broken USB port on my device.
I already talked about the /e/ Android ROM, a while ago, and while I really love this ultimate de-googled version of Android, there were also a few concerns about security, look and feel, how degoogled it all really is, and where the data is going. The /e/ project has also been updated quite a lot since my last video, so I think it's time to take another look at /e/.
/e/ Android operating system is a privacy oriented, Google-free mobile operating system, fork of Lineage OS and was founded in mid-2018 by Gaël Duval, creator of Mandrake Linux (now Mandriva Linux).
Despite making Android an open source project in 2007, Google replaced some OS elements with proprietary software when Android gained popularity. /e/ Foundation has replaced the proprietary apps and services with MicroG, an open source alternative framework which minimizes tracking and device activity.
It’s FOSS received Fairphone 3 with /e/ OS preinstalled, an ethically created smartphone from the /e/ Foundation. I used the device for a month before returning it to them and I am going to share my experience with this privacy device. I forgot to take screenshots so I’ll be sharing the generic images from the official website.
Well, it finally happened. After months of warning messages, the latest update to Pale Moon browser is incompatible with NoScript. So I think I need to switch browsers.
NoScript is (was) a very powerful browser extension that blocks Javascript by default, advises what sites (including third-party sites) are attempting to run Javascript on your computer, and lets you selectively permit them. All with an easy user interface. I default to blocking Javascript, and permitting it only for sites that I trust (a whitelist). This is, first, a privacy and security measure. Second, there are many websites that have toxic or incompetent Javascript, which may not be hostile but can paralyze my computer. And third, this lets me bypass some access restrictions.
de Blanc's statement is an amazing revelation. She comments on the interaction of her bipolar and open source. In open source today, it is hard to separate the technology from the egos.
Back in his youth, one of Britain's royal princes would threaten to have fellow schoolchildren locked in the tower of London. Molly de Blanc's open letter to the FSF appears to have similar grandiose delusions when she writes We are calling for the removal of the entire Board of the Free Software Foundation... It is time for RMS to step back from the free software, tech ethics, digital rights, and tech communities, for he cannot provide the leadership we need.. She is talking about locking RMS in the tower. Molly is not a developer, she never wrote one line of code. She was employed to work for the developers and now she is giving us orders. Imagine the same thing in an airline: the wife of the pilot shouting orders at the cabin crew. Molly de Blanc was girlfriend of the Debian Project Leader, Chris Lamb. Thanks to her illness, she is now acting like she is the Queen of England.
As the medical experts tell us, this is all part of Molly's condition so we are going to give her the benefit of the doubt. We forgive her. We ask everybody to forgive her and focus on those around her.
[...]
McGovern is not alone, the list published elsewhere shows thousands of employees of Google, IBM, Red Hat, Microsoft and even MIT came along for the ride too. Elana Hashman, the second highest in that ranking of cyberbullies, is a Red Hat / IBM employee.
In other news, GStreamer is now almost buzzword-compliant! The next blog post on our list: blockchains and smart contracts in GStreamer.
Late last year, we at Centricular announced a new implementation of WebRTC in GStreamer. Today we're happy to announce that after community review, that work has been merged into GStreamer itself! The plugin is called webrtcbin, and the library is, naturally, called gstwebrtc.
The implementation has all the basic features, is transparently compatible with other WebRTC stacks (particularly in browsers), and has been well-tested with both Firefox and Chrome.
Some of the more advanced features such as FEC are already a work in progress, and others will be too—if you want them to be! Hop onto IRC on #gstreamer @ Freenode.net or join the mailing list.
Socorro became part of the Data Org part of Mozilla back in August 2020. I had intended to give this presentation in October 2020 after I had given one on Tecken, but then the team I was on got re-orged and I never got around to redoing the presentation for a different group.
In March there were 288 alerts generated, resulting in 28 regression bugs being filed on average 4 days after the regressing change landed.
Welcome to the March 2021 edition of the performance sheriffing newsletter. Here you’ll find the usual summary of our sheriffing efficiency metrics, followed by some analysis on the data footprint of our performance metrics. If you’re interested (and if you have access) you can view the full dashboard.
Today, Mozilla joins Fastly, Intel, and Microsoft in announcing the incorporation and expansion of the Bytecode Alliance, a cross-industry partnership to advance a vision for fast, secure, and simplified software development based on WebAssembly.
Building software today means grappling with a set of vexing trade-offs. If you want to build something big, it’s not realistic to build each component from scratch. But relying on a complex supply chain of components from other parties allows a defect anywhere in that chain to compromise the security and stability of the entire program. Tools like containers can provide some degree of isolation, but they add substantial overhead and are impractical to use at per-supplier granularity. And all of these dynamics entrench the advantages of big companies with the resources to carefully manage and audit their supply chains.
Mozilla helped create WebAssembly to allow the Web to grow beyond JavaScript and run more kinds of software at faster speeds. But as it matured, it became clear that WebAssembly’s technical properties — particularly memory isolation — also had the potential to transform software development beyond the browser by resolving the tension described above. Several other organizations shared this view, and we came together to launch the Bytecode Alliance as an informal industry partnership in late 2019. As part of this launch, we articulated our shared vision and called for others to join us in bringing it to life.
As the Free Software Foundation (FSF) board sets about the work of strengthening the Foundation's governance structure, here are answers to some frequently asked questions about this initiative. This document will be updated as needed, as this project moves forward in the weeks ahead.
The DICT network protocol (dict://) was conceived in the 1990s when the Internet was relatively new and the "world wide web" was in it's infancy. The idea was simple: Let's create a protocol that allows clients to ask servers for a word and get a pure text response explaining what that word is all about.
Sergey Poznyakoff begun creating the GNU Dico for the DICT protocol in September, 1998. The first public release was made available on November 3rd, 2001.
The world decided that the more advanced and feature-rich Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http://) was a better idea and it become the dominant standard for dictionaries as well as everything else.
There are those who refuse to accept the all-compassing Hypertext Transfer Protocol paradigm. Some have invented their own alternative called Gemini, a purely text-based protocol with TLS support and a really simple markup language. Others, like Sergey Poznyakoff, keep on maintaining server software for the good old DICT protocol.
Sergey Poznyakoff has just announced a new releases of the GNU Dico dictionary server and the GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English (GCIDE). The GCIDE dictionary is based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary with additions from WordNet. It is maintained by the GNU Project (mostly Sergey Poznyakoff) who adds corrections and add-ons to it. GCIDE 0.53 is, in the release-notes, described as one that...
"Strong enforceable standards that require employers to develop workplace Covid-19 safety plans," said AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, "are necessary for reducing infections and deaths, and beating this virus."
"The Trump administration gave Big Pharma billions but refused to disclose full terms of these deals."
"We want clean air, water, and soil. It is incumbent on any responsible corporation to listen to our community and cease all business relationships with Formosa Plastics Group."
Along with that success, however, 2020 brought a global economic fall of 3.4%, the deepest plunge after World War II. Latin America and the Caribbean suffered the harshest punishment, with negative growth reading 7.4%, leading to a 12% increase in poverty.
Still, as the vaccination process started up at the end of 2020, the new year brought hope for eradicating the pandemic. But that hope quickly gave way to the harsh reality of inequality and the resulting lack of access to the vaccine. Only five countries have had success with their vaccination programs: the United Arab Emirates (with 88% of the population vaccinated), Israel (61%), the United Kingdom (46.5%), Chile (36.7%) and the United States (32.1%).
Amazon is open sourcing the software behind its AWS DeepRacer miniature car. At its core, reports Ron Miller at TechCrunch, “the DeepRacer car is a mini computer running Ubuntu Linux and Robot Operating System (ROS), both open source components.”
The researchers at the University of Minnesota have posted a description of the work they did [PDF] as part of their "hypocrite commits" project. It includes a list of the buggy commits they posted and how they were handled.
The University of Minnesota’s Computer Science and Engineering Department security researchers are facing intense scrutiny from the Linux community for intentionally trying to insert bugs into Linux patches. The buggy patches were a part of the research paper On the Feasibility of Stealthily Introducing Vulnerabilities in Open Source Software via Hypocrite Commits.
The paper stated: “As proof of concept, we take the Linux kernel as target OSS and safely demonstrate that it is practical for a malicious committer to introduce use-after-free bugs. Furthermore, we systematically measure and characterize the capabilities and opportunities of a malicious committee. At last, to improve the security of OSS, we propose mitigations against hypocrite commits, such as updating the code of conduct for OSS and developing tools for patch testing and verification.”
However, the experiment did not go over as planned and was not well received from the community. Linux kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman tweeted that: “Linux kernel developers do not like being experimented on, we have enough real work to do.”
Open Source + Embedded Linux Conference 2021 has been moved from Dublin, Ireland to Seattle, Washington, USA, due to the current state of COVID-19 vaccination rates in Europe and upon review of past attendee survey results regarding where and when they would feel comfortable traveling this year.
After 4 years of giving digital security trainings to activists and teaching a course called "Communications Security and Social Movements", I've compiled all my materials into an open, digital book - Defend Dissent: Digital Suppression and Cryptographic Defense of Social Movements hosted by Oregon State University where I am an Associate Professor. The book is intended for an introductory, non-major college audience, and I hope it will find use outside the university setting.
When the world became paralyzed during the COVID-19 pandemic more than a year ago, the tech world jumped up to help. Google and Apple each developed contact tracing apps meant to alert you to possible COVID-19 contact, promising privacy.
In 1962, US commanders ordered a Marine named Don Heathcote to spray chemicals in the Okinawan jungle near his base as part of a series of biological warfare tests secretly carried out by the Pentagon during the Cold War.
It is not in dispute that the CIA is in possession of Julian Assange’s legal and medical files seized from the Ecuadorean Embassy, including correspondence and drafting by his lawyers on his defence against extradition to the USA on Espionage charges. The defence submitted evidence of this in court. After Julian was arrested in the Ecuadorean Embassy and removed, all of his personal possessions were illegally seized by the Ecuadorean authorities, including his files and his IT equipment. These were then shipped back to Ecuador by diplomatic bag. There, they were handed over to the CIA.
"The world is not only watching, it's judging."
The prominent watchdog group's new analysis finds the oppression of Palestinians has reached a "threshold."
The U.S. role in the defeat of leftist Andrés Arauz in Ecuador’s presidential contest on April 11 was not overt because it did not need to be, according to a high-ranking Latin American diplomat. We met with the diplomat and others on an official election observation delegation with CODEPINK. Names of some sources remain anonymous due to a hostile political environment towards progressives.
The psychological and educational toll of living as a refugee child is a blight on young lives. With education services often overstretched even in refugee camps where agencies have easy access, teaching the young is vital activist work for many asylum seekers who despite their own tough circumstances, seek to better those of others, particularly the young.
Ali is a well-educated Afghani who has negotiated a perilous path to Europe alongside his wife. In this first interview, he spoke to Ahmad Soheil Ahmadi about the terrible conditions of his journey.
The reverse can also be true, however.€ € The military and intelligence communities are fully capable of pressuring presidential administrations with the use of worst-case or slanted intelligence.€ € The Biden administration is currently facing such pressure from director of national intelligence Avril Haines and CIA director William Burns as well as from senior general officers.€ € The critics of U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in the mainstream media, particularly in the€ Washington Post, as well as in the Congress, such as€ € Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), have made good use of these high-level comments to oppose the withdrawal.
The head of the U.S. Central Command, General Kenneth Mckenzie Jr., said last week that it would be “extremely difficult” for the United States to watch and counter terrorist threats in Afghanistan—such as al Qaeda—when U.S. forces leave the country.€ € In their international threat assessments to the Congress, Haines and Burns similarly warned that the capabilities against terrorism in Southwest Asia will be weakened by the U.S. withdrawal.€ € Other military and intelligence officials have warned that the U.S. departure could undermine peace talks with the Taliban and increase the odds of intensified civil conflict.€ € These warnings ignore the fact that the United States has had one foot out the door ever since the peace talks began, that the prospect of successful talks with the Taliban was negligible, and that Afghanistan has been in a state of civil conflict since the coup against the king nearly fifty years ago.
There are abundant historical examples to prove that dehumanizing the enemy is an effective weapon in creating antagonism between countries as a prelude to war. Although the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide are extreme cases of enemy dehumanization, a similar process is happening now in the case of Iran.
Just as the U.S. has demonized Iranian leaders, they also have described their enemies in painfully demeaning ways. Given Iran’s geopolitical importance, what is at stake now is the need to avoid a confrontation that can easily lead to a wider conflict in the region with unpredictable consequences for world peace.
You can be angry about things said about you in court filings. But you really can't sue about them. Reporting based on court documents is almost (!) always protected by the First Amendment. After all, those making the statements in court are swearing what they're saying is true. Those reporting on sworn statements have no reason to believe otherwise, even if it's eventually revealed the assertions were false.
America needs to get back to work, and we can do that while confronting the intersecting crises of the coronavirus pandemic, racial injustice, economic inequality, and climate change.
"Today, BlackRock and Vanguard faced a major test on climate, and they failed."
A defeat is a defeat, but the failure of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union to win a certification election at Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala., warehouse last month seems far more a confirmation of that giant corporation’s overweening power than a referendum on the willingness of its employees to organize for collective action.
Last week, Europeans showed the red card to the moguls—and their financiers—who tried to form a Super League of the continent's top 15 football clubs. Now that Europeans discovered their moral Rubicon, the time may have come for a broader rethink of who owns what.
"The IRS should have more resources to do its job and make the wealthy pay their fair share."
Economists have estimated that hiking the wage floor to $15 for federal contract workers would result in direct raises for at least 240,000 low-wage employees.
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the Federal Reserve has gotten plenty of kudos for moves that have helped stabilize the economy, kept house prices from tanking and supported the stock market. But those successes have obscured another effect: the inadvertent impact the Fed’s ultra-low interest rates and bond-buying sprees are having on economic inequality.
Longstanding inequality in the U.S. has been exacerbated by the Fed’s role in touching off a multi-trillion-dollar boom in stock markets — and stock ownership is heavily skewed toward the wealthiest Americans.
It is hard to see how our current injustices can be repaired without working through and then "democratizing" these liberal democratic institutions.
The chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said Turner is running on "the exact progressive platform that we believe is necessary."
While running for Congress in 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was fond of saying “Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office.” It was the sounding note of her two-minute, campaign-defining ad, produced for $10,000 by democratic socialists in Detroit. By “a woman like me,” Ocasio-Cortez meant something specific: a woman born to the working class, in a place (the Bronx) where “your ZIP code determined your destiny,” a woman who had waited tables and tended bar, endured the gendered indignities of low-wage service work, and whose family was plunged into precarity by her father’s death. The work of governing the nation supposedly called for other credentials—often wealth, connections, and Ivy League degrees. As Brecht once wrote, “Those who lead the country into the abyss / Call ruling too difficult / For ordinary men.”
Support independent cartooning: join€ Sparky’s List—and don’t forget to visit TT’s€ Emporium of Fun, featuring the new book and plush Sparky!
The Biden administration’s announcement this month that it would allow mifepristone to be sent by mail revolutionized access to abortion—in about half the country. Elsewhere, state laws requiring patients to meet with a provider in person preempt the new policy, underscoring just how much a person’s options depend on where they live.
"In Fulton County, our largest county and one that is predominantly African American, the number of drop boxes will be reduced from 38 to eight."
According to the latest surveys of adults in 14 other nations, favorable views of the U.S. have increased by an average of nine points since Biden's inauguration.
Progressives blasted the West Virginia Democrat's proposal that passing the For the People Act would lead to "anarchy" like the January 6 attack.
As we noted recently, the wireless industry has been developing a new "trust score" to determine who is or isn't worthy of being able to send text message spam. The system is being contemplated after the 2020 election saw no shortage of text messaging spam that wireless subscribers found it difficult -- if not impossible -- to properly opt out of. The problem: a growing roster of groups are worried about the transparency of the process, noting that the Milan-based company (Kaleyra) running this new "Campaign Registry" hasn't been forthcoming or consistent when it comes to details of the system, launching in June.
Senator Bill Hagerty was just elected out of Tennessee to take over Lamar Alexander's old seat, and he's kicking off his tenure with a bang... of not just unconstitutional madness, but anti-Constitutional madness. And this from a guy who presents himself as a Constitutional originalist. But, of course, when it comes to nurturing culture wars, today's GOP apparently believes that they can throw the Constitution out the window... as long as they (1) claim they're owning the libs, and (2) pretend that they're tearing up the Constitution to save the Constitution.
You may have heard recently that James O'Keefe, the guy behind "Project Veritas" -- a propaganda outlet whose brand of highly edited, surreptitiously recorded videos are often followed by actual media having to come in and debunk the misleading bits -- had his Twitter account shut down recently. He immediately threatened to sue Twitter, and last week he actually did so.
The longtime war correspondent, who died earlier this month, embodied the honesty and deep humanity that makes for the very best journalists.
No More Police Killings of Children!
Carlson's enormous paycheck comes out of the pockets of millions of people who never watch his show or anything else on Fox.
"He must make a choice: repeat the mistakes of the Obama administration or do everything in his power to end the cruelty of detentions, expulsions, and deportations."
"They waited 120 hours to get 20 seconds," said Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II. "That is ridiculous."€
Global climate targets can only be reached with a major acceleration in clean-energy innovation, as many of the technologies required to bring down CO2 emissions are currently only at the prototype or demonstration phase. This is the conclusion of a joint report released Tuesday from the European Patent Office (EPO) and the International Energy Agency (IEA).
"Around half the emissions reductions to get to net zero by 2050 may need to come from technologies that are not yet on the market," said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol in a press release.
It is a busy time at the moment for IP offices and other institutions, as they consider and consult on the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) on IP. In March 2021, the UK published the results of its call for views, and from this, it has developed a list of priorities that it will take forward.
"This resolution demonstrates our movement's rejection of the status quo of profit-driven vaccine apartheid and vaccine nationalism, and our fight for vaccine internationalism."
