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Links 16/05/2022: FreeBSD 13.1 and Inkscape 1.2 Released



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • ZDNetThese two Linux desktops are the simplest picks for new users

        Let's face it, any time you come across articles that offer advice on choosing the right Linux distribution, they tend to get bogged down in a lot of technical advice that rarely (if ever) applies to those who've never experienced Linux. They'll speak of things like rolling releases, package managers, kernels, open-source licensing, and other features and ideologies that not only have little bearing on those new to Linux and open-source technology but mire the decision in unnecessary complications.

        I want to take a very different approach, one that should make the process quite simple for anyone looking to dive into the world of desktop Linux for the first time. I'm going to shrug off the usual advice and aim straight for the heart of the matter. What exactly is that matter?

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Applications

      • What you’ll find inside Inkscape version 1.2 | Inkscape

        Our annual Spring release has left the building! From offering multiple pages to making tiling super easy and fun, Inkscape 1.2 has something for everyone seeking to Draw Freely.

        What’s not making a comeback are many of the bugs that were fixed thanks to everyone who tested the earlier versions and shared their feedback with the Inkscape teams. This helps us to improve the program between alpha, beta and final releases.

        While we cannot possibly mention everything inside version 1.2 in an article, we suggest a test drive of the actual software. Before you download it – or as it’s downloading – we suggest checking out our Inkscape 1.2 video specially prepared to demonstrate some of the most popular new features and updates.

      • 9to5LinuxInkscape 1.2 Released with Support for Multi-Page Documents, Numerous Enhancements

        Coming almost a year after Inkscape 1.1, the Inkscape 1.2 release is here to introduce a new Page tool that implements support for multiple pages in Inkscape documents. To access the new Page tool, click on the lowest button in the toolbar. The tool also lets you import and export multi-page PDF documents.

        Also new in Inkscape 1.2 is a ‘Tiling’ Live Path Effect (LPE) that allows for interactive tiling, the ability to import SVG images from Open Clipart, Wikimedia Commons, and other online sources, on-canvas alignment snapping, as well as the ability to edit markers and dash patterns.

      • MedevelSurf Ice is an open-source brain surface renderer

        Surf Ice, an open-source software package for visualizing connectome networks, tractography and statistical maps on top of anatomical brain images.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • ByteXDComprehensive Guide to Using FFmpeg to Convert Media Files

        FFmpeg is one of those modern marvels of open source software. It is a suite of libraries and smaller programs to handle video and audio files primarily.

        It works with images and other multimedia files such as video streaming formats. It has lots of uses like video transcoding, video editing, video scaling, video cropping or other video manipulation work.

        At its heart FFmpeg is a command line tool used with the ffmpeg command.

        It has a basic simple video player and ability to probe video media information for analysis.

        FFmpeg is also included in the workflow of other software like the popular video player VLC. Enterprise companies like YouTube use it in their core processing when ingesting video uploads. Overall FFmpeg can play, record, convert, and stream audio and video. It includes libavcodec – the leading audio/video codec library.

        In this tutorial we’ll install FFmpeg and learn how to use some its most popular features through practical examples and detailed explanations.

      • Network WorldExtracting substrings on Linux [Ed: This should say "GNU", not "Linux"]

        There are many ways to extract substrings from lines of text using Linux and doing so can be extremely useful when preparing scripts that may be used to process large amounts of data. This post describes ways you can take advantage of the commands that make extracting substrings easy.

      • HowTo ForgeHow to Install WordPress with Apache and Let's Encrypt SSL on Ubuntu 22.04
      • Linux Made SimpleHow to install Godot Mono 3.4.4 on a Chromebook
      • VideoHow to install Steam Link on Debian 11 - Invidious

        In this video, we are looking at how to install Steam Link on Debian 11.

      • ID RootHow To Install MongoDB on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install MongoDB on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, MongoDB is a document-oriented NoSQL database used for high-volume data storage. Instead of using tables and rows as in the traditional relational databases. MongoDB is available in two editions: Community and Enterprise.

        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 the step-by-step installation of the MongoDB NoSQL database server on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

      • ByteXDHow to Install Python Pip on Ubuntu

        Pip is the recommended package installer for python, with which you can install any python library or package that is present in the Python Package Index (and other indexes).

        Pip is a command-line tool that is cross-platform, featuring easy-to-use commands to manage your python packages. Like Python, pip has two versions, Pip 3 for Python 3 and Pip 2 for Python 2.

        This article explains how to install both of them in Ubuntu 20.04 (the guide works for other releases of Ubuntu and most Debian-based distros).

      • Using a Linux phone as a secondary monitor

        As a software developer on the go, one of the very first use cases that I started investigating after installing Linux on my first tablet was that of using a portable device as a secondary display for another Linux machine. Ideally, this would happen wirelessly (or wired, if that involved lower power consumption), with unnoticeable delay, and - why not - even including real-time touchscreen input.

        The journey, however, took longer than planned. Existing solutions, like VNC, tend to be strangely laggy, and others, like Miracast, are so deeply enclosed in proprietary protocols that they do not scale well to a bug-free experience on all devices. The first solution to this problem, at an even less stable stage than currently, was my most shared post ever on Twitter, so I decided to write a post on how this was done.

      • VideoEasily Add Startup Sounds To Your Linux Desktop - Invidious

        One of the most striking features of operating systems of the past were the startup sounds when you logged into your computer. For whatever reason, most Linux desktops don't incorporate a startup sound. But we can easily add one, regardless of distribution or desktop environment or window manager.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Why Blueman Notifications Stay Forever

      For many years, Puppy Linux had no Bluetooth support. But lately, a user has complained about (the recently added) Blueman: it shows a notification, which don't disappear until you restart X. For some reason, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are super unreliable in this apartment (and I can't wait until we finally move to our new apartment in the summer), so I constantly have to close these distracting and useless notifications about connections and disconnections. I didn't have to do anything to reproduce the problem.

    • BSD

      • FreeBSDFreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE Announcement

        The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE. This is the second release of the stable/13 branch.

      • FreeBSDFreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE Release Notes

        The release notes for FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE contain a summary of the changes made to the FreeBSD base system on the 13-STABLE development line. This document lists applicable security advisories that were issued since the last release, as well as significant changes to the FreeBSD kernel and userland. Some brief remarks on upgrading are also presented.

      • FreeBSDFreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE Errata

        This document lists errata items for FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE, containing significant information discovered after the release or too late in the release cycle to be otherwise included in the release documentation. This information includes security advisories, as well as news relating to the software or documentation that could affect its operation or usability. An up-to-date version of this document should always be consulted before installing this version of FreeBSD.

      • FreeBSDRelease Information

        FreeBSD releases are classified into Production Releases and Legacy Releases. Production releases are best suited to users looking for the latest new features. Legacy releases are for users wishing to stay with a more conservative upgrade strategy.

    • Fedora Family / IBM

      • Ben Williams: F36-20220516 updated Live isos released

        The Fedora Respins SIG is pleased to announce the latest release of Updated F36-20220516-Live ISOs, carrying the 5.17.6-300 kernel.

        This set of updated isos will save considerable amounts of updates after install. ((for new installs.)(New installs of Workstation have about 1GB of updates savings )).

      • ZDNetRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6: Better security, more options

        Do you want a solid Linux distribution that also delivers the latest languages and solid security? Yes? Then consider getting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6.

        Red Hat announced this new release at the Red Hat Summit. It has numerous new features, but the ones that caught my eye were the security improvements.

      • Silicon AngleOS consistency solves Linux talent issues, says RHEL executive

        The new Red Hat Enterprise Linux, released during the recent Red Hat Summit, caters to rapidly escalating hardware development occurring throughout tech, along with a growing Linux admin skills shortage.

        RHEL 9 performs the combo double act, in part, by more efficiently optimizing the operating system, according to Gunnar Hellekson (pictured), general manager of the Enterprise Linux Business Unit at Red Hat Inc. Upgrading to the new OS means enterprises can get by with fewer admins. A skills shortage is caused, in part, by a lack of U.S. visas.

    • Debian Family

      • LinuxiacKali Linux 2022.2 Comes with the Latest GNOME and KDE Desktop Environments

        This year’s second Kali Linux update, 2022.2, brings the latest GNOME 42 and KDE Plasma 5.24 desktop environments and many other improvements.

        Kali Linux is a popular operating system designed for security professionals and Linux enthusiasts. It is a Debian-based distribution developed, funded, and maintained by Offensive Security.

        Following the February release of version 2022.1, the new Kali Linux 2022.2 update significantly improves the user experience for all fans of this security-oriented Linux distribution.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • GNU Projects

      • Hackers getting married

        We had several of our old-time friends from the GNU Project, and some guests with young children still unused to such an international context who soon enough learned to enjoy the sound of different languages and the happy chaos of people meeting for the first time, some more traditional if not formal, others fun and weird.

  • Leftovers

    • Consequentialist Passengers

      I enjoyed the 2016 space movie Passengers. It was hated online because the character Jim Preston does something very cruel and selfish but the movie tries to redeem him and his choice, and presents him as a sympathetic viewpoint character. And I agree with the criticism.

      I like space movies so I saw it anyway. The way I managed to get over it, and to get to enjoy the movie, was by just not consider the character very redeemed. Movies can have villains. He is just a villain whom I could fear and root against and I could get over (or not fall for) the movie’s editing decisions and soundtrack cues and the decisions of other characters. I was going against the obvious intent of the movie, I was “changing it” in my li’l viewer head, but the only “edit“ I needed to do was to let myself feel the way I felt about Jim (creeped out) instead of trying to contort my brain and heart into going where the movie wanted me to go.

    • Security

      • USCERTCISA Adds Two Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog [Ed: VMware in trouble again]

        CISA has added two new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. These types of vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risk to the federal enterprise. Note: to view the newly added vulnerabilities in the catalog, click on the arrow on the of the "Date Added to Catalog" column, which will sort by descending dates.

    • Internet/Gemini

      • Dig Deeper Should Be Taken With A Grain Of Salt

        Sure, Tutanota doesn't offer POP/IMAP/SMTP, but at least when using it I can be sure that my emails are making it to their destinations and that I'm receiving everything that's been sent to me. In contrast, I've encountered one reliability issue after another with cock.li over a period of a couple of years.

      • Hello Web!

        Maybe it's because I'm trying to put off other things I should be doing, but I set up a website where I'll be mirroring some of my logs from my gemini capsule to.

      • Desktop Backdrops

        I was hoping to have had time to edit and upload the next couple of hiking videos -- the Lake District is nothing if not picturesque -- but life's got in the way. What I have started doing, though, is taking some panoramas to use as desktop backdrops. A few of these have come out really well, so I thought I'd share.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Security and blobs, by Alex Oliva (GNU Linux-Libre)
Reprinted with permission from Alex Oliva
Techrights Thanks Every Single EPO Worker Who Went on Strike Today
We have so much in common
EPO Staff Union: The Strike Actions and Other Industrial Actions "Have Already Delivered Measurable Gains."
SUEPO Munich has just issued a statement to staff
Based on Insider Leaks, Asha Sharma's Job is to Kill XBox While Talking About "AI"
They cite SneakerSO
Linux Kernel 7.0 Release Candidate Comes Out, Stallman Turns 73 in Three Weeks
It predates Microsoft and Apple
In Greenland, Firefox's Gecko and KHTML (KDE, But Bastardised by Apple) Bigger Than Chrome
Are those Danes recognising the risk of monoculture?
IBM Layoffs Definitely Still Happening
Contrary to what some apologists try to say
 
Probably IBM's Worst Day in Wall Street in Well Over a Decade
They try to blame some Anthropic slop, but that's just a distraction from IBM having nothing to offer
The Monday After the 9PM-on-Friday Prepared Puff Pieces-Under-Embargo Microsoft Strategy for XBox Collapse
There are more layoffs ahead at Microsoft's XBox
Kyndryl Also in a Freefall Today, James Kavanaugh's Accounting Skills Seem to be Based on Pumping and Dumping
What is the real value of Kyndryl when its debt is about twice its alleged "worth"?
Not Much Left to "Pump" in This Slop Bubble
let's hope that by the end of the year the whole bubble fully implodes
IBM Common Stock Crashes Hard (Almost $100 Below the Levels of February's Beginning)
Another Kyndryl?
Links 23/02/2026: Withdrawal From Slop and Ukraine Invasion Enters Fifth Year
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/02/2026: Moving to Gentoo, Wake-on-LAN Script
Links for the day
Kyndryl Fell by About 50% in One Day, IBM Fell 23% in 20 Days
the IBM Titanic
Trusting the Evil Maids
Don't listen to liars and frauds
Aaron Swartz Has Already Explained What Reddit/Conde Nast Meant to Him and Why We Should All Avoid Reddit If We Value Software Freedom
Aaron Swartz did not start Reddit
Valnet's Good Legacy of GNU/Linux Advocacy in Journalism Form
Let's hope they carry on like this
Coders and Thinkers
I used to be a hyper-productive coder; these days I do more thinking and writing
Slop (So-called 'genAI') is Not a Skill, Slop Gets You Suspended or Even Sacked, It Can Eventually End Your Career
Benj Edwards, a so-called 'Senior' so-called 'AI' so-called 'Reporter'
Quitting Reddit (Social Control Media Controlled by Conde Nast)
There is a new post in Reddit
There is No Such Thing as "AI Skills", "AI Competency", "AI Fluency" Etc.
Slop does not give anybody an advantage
Links 23/02/2026: "What Boston Will Cost Me" and Women as Hostages
Links for the day
IRC Usage Levels Seem to be Rebounding This Year
it looks like the total count (tally) of users increased a lot lately
Microsoft Tricked the Media Into Lying About Microsoft Layoffs in January. Now It Does the Same (in February).
Microsoft has got the media by the wallet (or balls)
Free Software Projects Become Slow Due to Slop
It does not improve efficiency or productivity, it reduces both
EPO Strike Has Begun (or Resumed)
The EPO status quo is untenable
Links 23/02/2026: US Surrenders to Climate Change (to Benefit Oil Companies and Slop), UK Court of Appeal to Hear Mazur
Links for the day
GAFAM Jobs No Longer Lucrative
Those days are long gone
Germans Recognise the Contagion is Digital, Not Racial
How to dismantle or neutralise those weapons? Turn them off
Free Software (or Software Freedom) Ain't No Religion
It's hardly surprising that some of the loudest opponents of Software Freedom and its luminaries also disregard or bend facts
Dr. Andy Farnell Explains Why the Slop Industry is Like Trespassers and Thieves
interesting new article about robots.txt files
The Demise of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and Profession Based Around Bullying With SLAPPs and Empty Threats
For press to survive and thrive in the UK we need the hired gun to be submerged
Gemini Links 23/02/2026: Imperfect Journal, Evil, and "Progress Goes Boing!"
Links for the day
“Power is a Thing of Perception. They Don't Need to be Able to Kill You. They Just Need You to Think They are Able to Kill You” ― Julian Assange
When leadership becomes corrupt enough to lose a sense of authority its days are numbered; it'll be replaced
IBM Has Already Admitted 2026 Mass Layoffs (in 4Q Earnings Call)
We showed this earlier this month, but some people bring that up again
Reasons to Go on Strike in the European Patent Office (EPO)
If you live in Europe and don't work for the EPO, you can still help
First speech of Chanellor Hitler, Andreas Tille & Debian denounce Branden Robinson
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 22, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, February 22, 2026
More and More Projects Quit Microsoft GitHub This Year, XBox Will See the Same
Microsoft GitHub's embrace of slop as "strategic" gives us a clue of what'll happen to XBox very soon
Google "Intelligence": Despite Slam-Dunk or "Smoking Gun" Proof, Drug Abuse in EPO Leadership is "Unverified Allegations"
Google's slop (so-called 'AI') lacks intelligence
8,000 Pages/Articles Per Year
We're eager to maintain a good production/publication pace and illuminate the sinister attempts to interfere with Freedom of the Press in the UK
Don't Use the Future Tense to Discuss the Slop Bubble
Wall Street does not react to reality; it reacts to panic, which is related to expectations
Gemini Links 22/02/2026: Okonomiyaki and Midcrunch Crisis
Links for the day
The Broken Window Industry and Its Ongoing Desires to Make Technology Less Dependable
Reliable computing is becoming harder to find
Freedom Means Accepting He or She Who is Different
In the Debian community we're sadly seeing some authoritarian overreach this month
New XBox CEO Typecast in Social Control Media
Microsoft apologists will fall back on (or shuffle between) the "racist" and "sexist" angle
Sites Without JavaScript Deserve Your Visits
We're not arguing that the Web should be as simple or barebones like Gemini Protocol/GemText
EPO Strikes Are Already Working
Campinos is already going "into hiding"
Microsoft Windows Falls to Another New All-Time Low in Guatemala, It is a Bottomless Pit
Maybe users come to realise that Windows means back doors and those doors are open to a regime that ought not be trusted
"XBox" Will Become Slop After Mass Layoffs
When all else fails, "AI it"
Links 22/02/2026: Hardware Price Hikes Across the Board, "Microsoft Issues Statement on Potential Layoffs"
Links for the day
Microsoft "Layoffs Incoming"
This transition isn't about promoting games; it's about canning the console
Links 22/02/2026: "Bloat of Modern Fitness Apps" and Wikipedia Deprecates Archive.today
Links for the day
Our IRC 5-Year Anniversary (for Self-Hosted) is Fast Approaching
A week from now it's March already
Gemini Links 22/02/2026: Dream Job Gone and Slop in Taskwarrior
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 21, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, February 21, 2026
GNU/Linux Grew a Lot in Nicaragua
We've not noticed until today
Techrights Has Over 1,000 Good Articles 'in the Tank'
Drafts, notes, and lengthy documents
New Article Challenges Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for Choosing the Wrong SLAPP Cases to Investigate
The one point we can agree on is that SRA does not know how to correctly select the worst culprits/offenders
The Brand 'Watsonx' is a Terrible Name for IBM 'Hey Hi' (Chatbots) Because Watson Agreed With Adolf Hitler
Almost a century has passed and IBM still believes that selling "intelligence", chatbots in particular, should be done under the name "Watson"
Why IBM is Still Scary and Dangerous
Keep a distance from "Big Blue" Bully
Measuring the Growth of Our Mission and Community
Something between experiment and prototype
Richard Stallman in the United States - Part III - Georgia Tech Did a Fine Job Upholding Free Speech Principles
The real problem was social control media (toxic)
Debian's Master is Deleting Criticism of SystemD and Other Things (On-Topic and Published by Debian Developers), Resorts to the Excuse Messages Are "Too Long"
Censorship serves nobody except the masters that control this censorship
Digg's Latest Incarnation Already Failed, It's Infested With LLM Slop
Many submissions go to slopfarms and some get summarised by slop
Gemini Links 21/02/2026: Veganism and DeskPi RackMate T0
Links for the day
On The Web, XBox Already a Dying Breed
Down to about 0.05% on large machines, based on statCounter [...] Microsoft will never publicly admit or say how many billions it lost on the XBox
2026 a Year of 'Top-Down' Microsoft Layoffs (Management First)
Stay tuned for what comes next
Your "Likes" Aren't Yours and They're Mostly "Worthless Clicks"
Social hermits are not popular, irrespective of how many "Facebook friends" or "likes" they get
Waggener Edstrom/Frank Shaw Lied, There Are Definitely Microsoft Layoffs
Microsoft never issued a formal statement, it made allusions by proxy
Microsoft-Controlled Media With Embargo and Press Operatives
This won't be the last example of media manipulation for narrative control or face-saving "damage control"
Slop Hype Makes Our Core Technology Less Reliable and Far Less Resilient (We Pay for the Catastrophe That Follows)
Only slop-free projects can be trusted
Going for 1,000 (Days of Uptime)
universal records are vastly better
Firefox is No-Go in China, Not Even 1% "Market Share" Anymore
Given Mozilla's utterly rubbish marketing these days (politics over technical aspects), set aside the cheerleading for slop, there's hardly a chance of Mozilla Firefox reaching or exceeding 10% again
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part III - It's in His Eyes
Workers are free to draw their own conclusions
Links 21/02/2026: Tensions Over Iran and Illegal Cheeto Tariffs, Presidential Approval Sags
Links for the day
Links 21/02/2026: "Moving Away From Cloudflare", Many Layoffs or Shutdowns in Games (Including XBox/Microsoft)
Links for the day
GNU Linux-libre is a Grown-Up Today
"before that, every distro that wanted to respect its users' freedom had to remove itself all of the binary blobs that were distributed as part of the kernel Linux's so-called sources"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 20, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, February 20, 2026
Gemini Links 21/02/2026: "The Evil of Action" and Slop Bots Causing Great Harm Online (Not Just the Web)
Links for the day