Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 6/9/2021: Finnix 123, antiX-21 Beta 2



  • GNU/Linux

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • Late Night Linux – Episode 141

        Félim is trolled about the cloud, our first impressions of elementary OS, your feedback, and more.

      • RIP Sudo, Open Doas Is My New Best Friend - Invidious

        Like everyone else on Linux I've been using sudo but when I tried out doas on my gentoo install I really liked it so I thought why not try it out over on my main Arch install and I've really been liking it.

      • Is The Raspberry Pi A Desktop Replacement? - Invidious

        Recently, I went a little over three months without having a home computer. For the first two months, I just did without having a computer. The third month though, I tried to use a Raspberry Pi 4 as a desktop replacement. How was the experience? It was a mixture of good and bad.

      • Going Linux #412 €· Listener Feedback

        Bill’s laptop is in computer hospital. Our listeners have suggestions, answers, and feedback on Office file formats, running Wine and Crossover, using AppImages, gaming on Linux and more.

    • Kernel Space

      • Reminder: linux.conf.au 2022 Call for Sessions open + Extended [LWN.net]

        The linux.conf.au organizers have put out a second, extended call for proposals for the 2022 event, which will be held online starting January 14.

      • Linux 5.15 Further Tunes Its RISC-V Support - Phoronix

        The RISC-V architecture updates have landed in the Linux 5.15 kernel with more software features now being supported.

        RISC-V with Linux 5.15 supports new features like the Undefined Behavior Sanitizer (UBSan) now working on the architecture for detecting undefined behavior within the kernel. There is also now support for PC-relative instructions in KProbes, support for the hlt/nohlt kernel command-line options, and a lot of clean-ups.

      • Graphics Stack

        • NVIDIA 470 Driver Now Works With Wayland Composer Sway - itsfoss.net

          The implementation of Wayland by NVIDIA has been one of the greatest technological battles ever seen in Linux. The graphics processing giant did not give its arm to twist by maintaining its bet on EGLStreams as a buffer for Wayland, while the rest, including Intel and AMD, bet on the GBM standard.

          After many years of tug of war , Intel’s future return to the dedicated graphics market, the precipitous demise of Xorg, and above all the failure of EGLStreams itself forced NVIDIA to rectify to adopt GBM , further seeing the high odds that Wayland will be set by default in the next Ubuntu LTS.

    • Applications

      • HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP) Drivers Now Support Linux Mint 20.2 and RHEL 8.4

        HPLIP 3.21.8 is here almost two months after version 3.21.6, which only added support for the Fedora 34, Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo), openSUSE Leap 15.3, and Debian GNU/Linux 10.9 “Buster” operating systems, and version 3.21.4, which added support for the HP Envy 6400 printer series, to add support for the Linux Mint 20.2 “Uma”, Manjaro Linux 21.0.7, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 distributions.

        On top of that, the HPLIP 3.21.8 release adds support for several new printers, including the HP Smart Tank 500 series, HP Smart Tank 530 series, HP Smart Tank Plus 570 series, HP Smart Tank 7600, HP Smart Tank 750, HP Smart Tank 790, HP Smart Tank Plus 710-720, HP Smart Tank Plus 7000, HP Smart Tank Plus 660-670, HP Smart Tank Plus 6000, as well as the HP DeskJet Ink Advantage Ultra 4800 All-in-One Printer series.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Install Firefox Browser 92 In Ubuntu / LinuxMint / RockyLinux | Tips On UNIX

        This tutorial will be helpful for beginners to download and install Mozilla Firefox browser 92 in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Linux Mint 20.1, and RockyLinux.

        Mozilla Firefox is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla foundation and generally utilized by thousands and thousands of individuals in their daily actions.

      • Install HPLIP 3.21.8 In Ubuntu 20.04 / LinuxMint / RHEL | Tips On UNIX

        This tutorial will be helpful for beginners to install HPLIP 3.21.8 in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, RHEL 8.4, LinuxMint 20.2, and Manjaro 21.0.7.

        HPLIP – HP Linux Image and Printing, developed by HP for Printing, scanning, and faxing with HP inkjet and laser-based printers in Linux platforms.

        The latest version of HPLIP 3.21.8 contains new printer support and added support to the new Distro’s and the hplip installer is available for download from SourceForge.

      • Install Postgresql 13 on AWS Ec2 Amazon linux 2 - Linux Shout

        Developers of PostgreSQL call this platform “The world’s most advanced open-source database”. PostgreSQL is available for Linux including for other common operating systems such as macOS, Windows, and BSD. PostgreSQL implements the 2008 SQL standard very comprehensively. In addition to common data types, the database can also natively handle XML and version 9.2 with data in JSON format. Here we learn the steps to install PostgreSQL on Amazon Linux 2 running on AWS ec2 instance.

      • Blue/Green Deployment with Istio: Match Host Header and sourceLabels for Pod to Pod Communication | Lisenet.com :: Linux | Security | Networking

        We are using our Kubernetes homelab in this article. We will continue with the pii-demo application for blue/green that we had deployed some time ago with Istio mTLS.

        Basic familiarity with Istio is required.

        Blue/green deployment is an application release model that transfers user traffic from a previous version of a microservice to a new release, both of which are running in production, without downtime.

      • How to Install GitHub CLI on Linux [Ed: Do not download or use this. This is an "embrace, extend, extinguish"-type attack on Git, on Git projects, and pm Git users; Microsoft is already in the second "E" here]
    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • Wrap-up: All about my Outreachy journey

          Hello everyone! It’s officially the end of my Outreachy internship. I can’t believe this is the last blog post I am writing on it. It seems like yesterday, when I received the selection mail and was about to begin my journey as an Outreachy intern with the GNOME organisation.

          [...]

          At the beginning of the internship, I was not familiar with writing blogs, which scared me. I thought that the internship will be very hectic with all these, and I will not manage the time properly. But the opportunity to document my internship in the form of blogs and everyone’s appreciation has motivated me to carry on with the writing and having people read them.

    • Distributions

      • New Releases

        • antiX-21-beta2 iso files available. (Debian 11 based)

          We have 2 versions for experienced users to try. These iso files default to using SysVinit.

          antiX-21-b2-x64-full and antiX-21-b2-386-full are beta quality releases for experienced testers of antiX to test and provide feedback before final release. Do not use this as your main OS, though it *might* be possible to upgrade to final (no promises).

          * customized antiX 4.9.0-279 and 5.10.57 kernels on the 64 bit live iso. Please try both in your tests. * customized antiX 4.9.0-279-486-non-pae kernel on the 32 bit live iso. (pae versions available in the repos) * grub/UEFI live boot changes. Select live boot options (persistence, etc…) from the boot menu and sub menus rather than using the previous console menus. Please check localisation. * New installer partition selection area, including some lvm support if lvm volume exists. * no virtualbox-guest packages so best to test on real hardware – live, frugal or installed. * added mesa vulkan drivers * improved localisation of apps and live system

        • Finnix 123 released

          Today marks the release of Finnix 123, the LiveCD for system administrators. Expanding on Finnix 122 from six months ago, this release includes a number of fixes, new packages and new features.

        • Finnix 123 release notes
        • Finnix 123 Linux Distro for System Administrators Is Out Based on Debian Bullseye

          Finnix 123 is here almost seven months after Finnix 122 and brings a major change, namely the fact that the sysadmin-oriented distro is now based on the latest Debian GNU/Linux 11 “Bullseye” operating system series rather than tracking the Debian Testing repositories.

          While the distribution is still powered by the Linux 5.10 LTS kernel series, the Finnix 123 release adds several goodies for system administrators, such as the sshd and passwd kernel command-line options (e.g. sshd passwd=foo or sshd passwd=root:foo or passwd=finnix:bar), as well as a basic “command-not-found” handler that provides users with explicit instructions on how to install certain packages.

      • Screenshots/Screencasts

      • Debian Family

        • Web Hooks for the Janitor

          There are about 30,000 packages in sid, and it usually takes a couple of weeks for the janitor to cycle through all of them.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Study about the impact of open source software and hardware on technological independence, competitiveness and innovation in the EU economy

        Open Source is increasingly used in digital technologies. This required an in-depth analysis of its current role, position and potential for the European economy. Open Source Software (OSS) has become mainstream across all sectors of the software industry over the past decade. Conversely, the level of maturity of Open Source Hardware (OSH) currently appears far lower. However, the business ecosystem for OSH is developing fast. If OSH is to follow the same development as OSS, it could constitute a cornerstone of the future Internet of Things (IoT), the future of computing and the digital transformation of the European industry at the end of the digital decade.

        The objective of the study was to investigate and quantify the economic impact of OSS and OSH on the European economy. The study also identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of open source in relevant ICT policies, such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), digitising European industry, the connected car, high performance computing, big data, distributed ledger technologies, and more.

        Economic evidence of the footprint of open source in the EU has been collected. A list of policy options to maximize the benefit of open source supporting a competitive EU software and hardware industry, which in turn supports the twin environmental and digital transformation of the EU economy is also proposed.

      • SaaS/Back End/Databases

        • PostgreSQL: PostgreSQL Weekly News - September 5, 2021

          pg_dbms_job 1.1.0, an extension to create, manage and use Oracle-style DBMS_JOB scheduled jobs, released.

          dbForge Data Compare for PostgreSQL v3.4 released

          pgmoneta 0.5.0, a backup and restore system for PostgreSQL, released

          pgspider_ext, an extension to create a cluster engine for distributed data based on PostgreSQL foreign data wrappers, released.

          psycopg2 3.0.0 beta 1, a Python connector for PostgreSQL, released.

          postgresql-wheel, a Python package containing an entire compiled PostgreSQL server in a single pip installable file, released

        • dbForge Data Compare for PostgreSQL Enhanced with New Connectivity Opportunities

          Devart, one of the leading developers of database management software, ALM solutions, and data providers for the most popular database servers, announced an update of dbForge Data Compare for PostgreSQL, a GUI tool for data comparison and synchronization.

        • pgBadger v11.6 released

          pgBadger is a PostgreSQL performance analyzer, built for speed with fully detailed reports based on your PostgreSQL log files.

      • Programming/Development

        • Intel Compute-Runtime Prepares oneAPI Level Zero 1.2 Support

          Intel Compute Runtime 21.35.20826 is available today with initial support for oneAPI Level Zero v1.2.

          Today's Intel Compute-Runtime update is their latest for this open-source stack supporting OpenCL 3.0 and Level Zero support going back to Broadwell~Skylake processors with integrated graphics. Notable in this update is adding release support for Level Zero v1.2 (though the documentation still notes Level Zero 1.1 pre-release support).

        • Notcurses 2.4 Released - Now Works On Windows & macOS For Terminal "Bling" - Phoronix

          Notcurses as an open-source library designed for complex and "blingful" text user interfaces and character graphics, now works not only on Linux but also Windows and macOS. Notcurses makes it easy for CLI-based programs to support a wide range of colors, multimedia, Unicode, and other features not normally associated with command-line applications.

        • Perl/Raku

          • My Favorite Warnings: once

            The Perl compiler wants to help us write clean code. One of the ways that it does this is to issue warnings when a global variable appears ony once: Name "main::Foo" used only once: possible typo at ...

            The thing is, sometimes this is not an error. For example, we may want to refer to a global variable in another package, one that was not imported into our namespace.

  • Leftovers

    • Defence/Aggression

      • Hunted by the men they jailed, Afghanistan's women judges seek escape

        THE HAGUE, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Safe in Europe after escaping from Kabul, an Afghan woman judge describes how she was hunted by men she had once jailed, now freed by the Taliban fighters who took over the country.

        "Four or five Taliban members came and asked people in my house: 'Where is this woman judge?' These were people who I had put in jail," she told Reuters in an interview from an undisclosed location, asking not to be identified.

        Afghanistan has around 250 women judges. A few were able to flee in recent weeks, but most were left behind and are still trying to get out, said international colleagues and activists who have formed networks working around the clock to help them escape.

      • As China woos the Taliban, Uyghurs in Afghanistan fear for their lives
    • Monopolies

      • Patents

        • Forward Pharma Announces the Decision of the Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office in the EP2801355 Appeal Hearing [Ed: This board is rigged and Forward Pharma wrongly assumes that European Patents are still legitimate as before]

          Forward Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:FWP) (“we,” “Forward” or the “Company”), today announced that the Technical Board of Appeal (the “TBA”) of the European Patent Office (the “EPO”) has dismissed Forward’s appeal of the previous decision of the EPO Opposition Division to revoke the EP2801355 patent (the “’355 patent”) following the oral hearing.

          The TBA made its decision after considering Forward’s appeal against the decision of the Opposition Division and third-party submissions from several opponents. The TBA will issue detailed reasons for the decision in written form in due course, and following receipt and review of these, Forward will announce future plans for the Company. Such plan may involve a petition for review at the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO in an effort to overturn the unfavorable outcome, but the likelihood of a petition for review being successful is low. The denial of a petition for review would end the Opposition Proceeding in favor of the opponents. For all practical purposes, such denial or the absence of a petition for review would represent an unsuccessful outcome of the Opposition Proceeding, resulting in no royalties being due to the Company from Biogen based on Biogen’s future net sales outside the United States, as defined in the Settlement and License Agreement by and among Forward, subsidiaries of Biogen Inc. and certain other parties thereto.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Maintenance Reminder
We'll carry on publishing
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part VIII - Mobbing and Silencing of Dissenting Staff
that's the very cornerstone of functional democracies with real opposition parties
Reader Shares Recent Memes on Slop and 'Coding' by LLMs
"just some funny memes I thought were relevant to current coverage."
Invitation to General Assembly After 1,200 EPO Workers Participated in the Demonstration 3 Days Ago
"the strike of 19 March was also very well followed."
SLAPP Censorship - Part 17 Out of 200: A Long Track Record of Online Abuse, Then Choosing a Low-Cost Law Firm to Muzzle People Who Have Illuminated This Abuse for Over a Decade
Censorship by targeting ISPs and webhosts isn't unprecedented
 
SLAPP Censorship - Part 18 Out of 200: Third Parties Funding Attacks on the Messengers, Lawsuits Against GAFAM-Critical Voices That Uphold Real National Security
Women are like kryptonite to them
Never Trust People Who Write Their Own Wikipedia Pages (Vanity Pages About Themselves) or Ask Friends to Do So. Also: Jono Bacon is Married to Microsoft.
We'd hardly be the first to point out Wikipedia isn't what it seems
No Tolerance for Attacks on Family Members
Being a Free software activist ought not lead to "collateral damage" like attacks on family members, including doxing
Sirius Open Source is Just a Zombie Firm With Shell Entities
Many companies fake their health and their size
Communities Can Only Survive When Trust Prevails
PCLinuxOS is still a vibrant and authentic community
Techrights Was Always a Community Site
The harder we're attacked, the more people participate in the site
Behind the PR Smokescreen and Microsoft-Sponsored Chaff, Microsoft Layoffs in "AI" Alleged This Month
In an age when ~1,000 simultaneous layoffs aren't enough to receive any media coverage, what can we expect remaining publishers to tell us about Microsoft layoffs in 2026?
Bluewashing at Confluent: Some Workers to Leave Within 3 Months (IBM Mass Layoffs)
Is the "era of AI" an era when none of the media will mention over 800 layoffs? [...] There's a lesson here about the state of the contemporary media, not just IBM and bluewashing
Microsoft OpenAI, Drowning in Debt and Forced to Make Significant Cuts (as Reports Reveal This Month), Does Hiring Disguised as "Takeovers" to Fake Value or Alleged Potential
Remember what happened to Skype last year
Slop Does Not Replace Art, It Contaminates Everything With Reckless Nonsense
many Computer Scientists do not want programs to get contaminated by slop
Coders Don't Just Reject 'Vibe Coding' Because They're "Luddites", They Just Know the True Cost of Slop
if some programmer says slop sucks, don't rush to assume selfishness or defence of one's occupation
When Nobody Else Covers the News
There's an obvious "media blackout" regarding the mass layoffs
Links 21/03/2026: David Botstein Dies, Slop as Censorship Apparatus
Links for the day
Links 21/03/2026: Metastablecoin Fragmentation and Crescent Moon
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/03/2026: Historic Ada Docs; The Lurking LLM on the SmolNet
Links for the day
HSBC the Latest Failed Bank Using Slop as Excuse for Its Financial Failure
"HSBC is planning on cutting as many as 20,000 jobs in the near future as the company allies with AI revolution."
A/Prof Susan G Kleinmann, Enkelena Haxhija & Debian-private risk to MIT
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 20, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, March 20, 2026
Plagiarism in "Linux" Clothing (LLM Slop in linuxiac.com, LinuxTeck.com, and linuxsecurity.com)
The net effect of those slopfarms is very negative
Links 20/03/2026: Facebook Weaponised Politically, Openwashing by LF and NVIDIA, Encyclopedia Britannica Sues Microsoft Proxy for Plagiarism
Links for the day
The EPO's Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Explains to the Administrative Council (AC) How Bad Things Have Become at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, Biggest Patent Office, and Corruption/Cocaine Hub (Jobs Sold to Friends)
We'll say a bit more tomorrow
IBM's Red Hat Diversity: Only 3 Women (Out of 11 Leaders)
For comparison's sake, the FSF is about 50% female
Symptom of Publishers Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop. Symptom of Software Companies Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop ('Vibe').
It'll always fail. It's hype. It's a bubble.
Under IBM, Red Hat Replaces Code With LLM Slop, Fedora is Slopware
Not even hiding it, those things are in plain sight
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Depictions of Culture and The Social Smolnet
Links for the day
SimilarWeb Was Never a Reliable Yardstick for Traffic
5RB may need some "house-cleaning"
Strangulation, suffocation, Jonathan Carter & Debian toxic culture confirmed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Reports or Hearsay Suggest Ogilvy Broke Up With IBM and Insiders Report Mass Layoffs in "Infrastructure" (Might Impact Red Hat Entrants)
hearsay in Social Control Media
Scheduled Server Maintenance Tomorrow Night
Starting 9PM
None of the Above (NotA) & Debian snubbing Sruthi Chandran
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/03/2026: Cryptography Pioneers Win Turing Award and BMG Sues Anthropic for Copyright Infringement
Links for the day
Even Uganda Understands That Journalists Never Belong in Prison
"Ugandan authorities must respect the spirit of this ruling and abandon any measures that seek to jail Ugandans for the free flow of ideas."
Inaction Helps Your Enemies
Without freedom, there's nothing else left
Windows Down From 99% to ~50% in Republic of Seychelles (République des Seychelles)
Windows fell by a lot
"systemd is essentially a corporate IBM/Redhat project and corporations of course will comply"
Microsoft and IBM care about users' freedom like Cheeto Lump cares about the US Constitution
Confluent Insiders: IBM Laid Over Over 800 at Confluent, Not Just 800
For the record, the layoffs at Confluent won't be over. After the bluewashing there will be "IBM RAs" impacting Confluent folks, aside from PIPs
The Layoffs at IBM Carry on (Shades of Enron)
Is IBM another Enron?
"IBM boss Arvind Krishna... financial package valued at $38 million in calendar 2025 - equivalent to the average collective pay of 765 Big Blue workers."
continues to ruin the company to enrich himself while pretending he has a strategy
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Digital Identity Bifurcation and a "Return to Gemini"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 19, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, March 19, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 16 Out of 200: Detailing the Actors and Explaining Techrights' Own Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Network
For those who have not followed our story
Microsoft "hiding behind bigger news of war, Epstein, other companies' layoffs"
They know what's coming, they just don't know when
Joerg Jaspert (Debian Account Manager/DAM) personally approved Raphael Hertzog's wife Sophie Brun
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Letter 'A' prohibited by Code of Conduct extremism
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Spoiler: Diversity & Debian means different things to different people
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Admits Failures and Criticism of Inaction on SLAPPs
many if not all solicitors and solicitor firms in the UK are in effect unregulated
Archiving or Preserving Pages About IBM Layoffs
Layoffs at IBM and the media does not talk about these
ABC, the American National Broadcaster, "Now Publishes Slop"
If the "big media" absorbs slop, it'll no longer be trusted and therefore not read/watched by the public
Links 19/03/2026: Culling Deepfakes of Artists’ Music and "Age Verification Isn’t the Answer"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/03/2026: "Aktion GPT-4" and "Kill All Descendants"
Links for the day
"AI" 15 Times in Short 'Article' From The Register MS. And The Register MS Got Paid to Publish It.
gets paid to do this
People Who Decided to Boycott Novell Over Its Microsoft Alliance Should Also Boycott Canonical
As an associate put it, "selling out further, due to Microsoft moles inside Canonical"
Links 19/03/2026: "AI Glasses" as Euphemism for Mass Surveillance and ABC (US) Has Begun Publishing Slop as 'News'
Links for the day
The European Patent Office, Europe's Second-Largest Institution, is on Strike Today
Lots more to come
What People Impacted by the Bluewashing Layoffs at IBM Confluent Say (While the Media Says Nothing at All, in Effect Burying the News)
Worse yet, the mainstream media spreads lies about it right now
IBM Has Turned Red Hat and Fedora Into Slop
This is IBM policy
IBM is Being Robbed, Companies and Jobs Are Destroyed
Companies taken over by IBM will be exploited and destroyed to keep a bubble inflated for a little while longer
In Confluent Layoffs, IBM Vapourises a Quarter of Its Workforce (IBM Buys Something That It Destroys Already)
In the past, such things were typically referred to as "media blackout"; now it's just "the norm".
IBM Effect at Confluent: Mass Layoffs and IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines (BCGs) Said to be Violated
For Confluent employees who survived the layoffs there will be "culture chock"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 18, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Links 19/03/2026: LLM Fatigue (It Doesn't Work as Advertised), "Small Web Feeds"
Links for the day