Let’s turn our attention to the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). This is firmware used to start the PC system after it is powered on.
The BIOS in modern PCs initializes and tests the system hardware components (Power-on self-test), and loads a boot loader from a mass storage device which then initializes a kernel. The BIOS stores system hardware settings such as storage device configuration, overclocking settings, advanced power management, and boot device configuration that are needed for system startup in the motherboard CMOS.
In this video, I will give my tier list ranking for Linux distributions that offer the Xfce desktop environment. I will rank 12 such distros that I have tried in the past. Will you agree with my rankings? Probably not...
Computing performance for Linux VMs running the latest kernel update could have seen a decrease of up to 70%, new figures have found.
Recent research by VMWare performance engineering staffer Manikandan Jagatheesan found running virtual machines with the Linux distro on the ESXi hypervisor, using the latest kernel update version 5.19, could see computing power reduce by more than two-thirds when using a single vCPU.
Further ripple effects were also found in networking, with a loss of almost one-third, and storage performance, which saw up to a decrease of around one in ten.
VMware is warning that ESXi VMs running on Linux kernel 5.19 can have up to a 70% performance drop when Retbleed mitigations are enabled compared to the Linux kernel 5.18 release.
More specifically, the VMware performance team noticed regressions on ESXi virtual machines of up to 70% in computing, 30% in networking, and 13% in storage.
Over the last few months, Windows 11 has had a really hard time keeping up with Linux in terms of performance.
There have been several recent cases where Linux has been shown to outperform Windows 11 when under a direct comparison running on the same chip. For example, in July Ubuntu 22.04 LTS was catching up to Windows when running an Intel Alder Lake Core i7-1280P CPU. On the AMD side, it is looking even better with a recent comparison showing Ubuntu is ahead of Windows 11.
Wikiwand is a browser extension that improve your Wikipedia readability experience. It is released as an extension for Google Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi and Brave, and as an Add-on for Mozilla Firefox.
Wikiwand is also available as a mobile application that enable users fast speed, lockup and navigate through Wikipedia pages with improved mobile experience.
Files, like log files, can easily and quickly grow taking up space on your hard drive. Before you realize it, you’re running low on hard drive space. You can easily nullify a file (or remove the content from a file) in Linux to shrink its size if you have limited hard drive space.
For example, the operating system and some programs may use log files to track activity and issues. These files can grow large over time, and you may not need to keep all the previous content.
Instead of opening the file and selecting all the content to delete it, you can use various command-line tools to nullify a file quickly and easily.
SSH stands for Secure Shell and it is used widely as a means of accessing remote servers. The usage of SSH is recommended because it is considered a highly secure way of authenticating users remotely. Normally, we use passwords to authenticate users, however, passwords are prone to different security attacks. Therefore, they are not much recommended. A good alternative to the password-based approach for authenticating users is the use of SSH keys. Since these keys are encrypted, that is why they are considered a more secure means of user authentication. Therefore, in this article, we will be learning how to create or generate SSH keys in Ubuntu and Linux Mint.
If you are Ubuntu 22.04, especially the Server edition of it then make sure your system is up to date timely. It is because to patch any security loophole as soon as developers find it and release some patch for that. Keeping the system up to date not only reduces the chances of attack but also ensures the installed packages have their newer versions. Well, who doesn’t want his system to be in its latest state but manually running a command for it every time could be a difficult task especially, if the server is on some remote location and every time you have long it using SSH. In such as situation, we can use the Debian tool called unattended-upgrades that allows users to easily download security updates and upgrades automatically after a set interval of time without any human interaction.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install KVM on Oracle Linux. KVM, an acronym for Kernel-based Virtual Machine, is an opensource, full virtualization too for Linux systems with Intel-VT or AMD-V based-processors hardware virtualization extensions.
In our last video tip, you learned how to manually sort the order of all your mail and account folders. Let’s keep that theme of customization rolling forward with a quick video guide on customizing the Spaces Toolbar that debuted in Thunderbird 102.
The Spaces Toolbar is on the left hand side of your Thunderbird client and gives you fast, easy access to your most important activities. With a single click you can navigate between Mail, Address Books, Calendars, Tasks, Chat, settings, and your installed add-ons and themes.
If you’re looking to scale Docker app deployments, you’ll want to make sure to cluster a collection of nodes together into a Docker Swarm. I’ve already discussed how to deploy a Docker Swarm (with persistent storage) in “Create a Docker Swarm with Persistent Storage Using GlusterFS.” You don’t necessarily have to deploy the Swarm with persistent storage, but if you want to be able to retain your data (should something happen or you want to migrate the deployment), you’ll want to deploy the Swarm with persistence.
“Text selection and deletion is also a very important aspect of text editing. Therefore, every text editor should provide you with the ways in which you can easily perform these tasks. As far as this article is concerned, then we will talk about the method of selecting and deleting all the text in the Nano editor.”
Text selection and deletion are important aspects of text editing. This article explains the method of selecting and deleting all the text in the Nano editor.
Docker tags provide pertinent details about a particular image release or variation. They serve as aliases for the image’s ID. It’s only a means of referencing your appearance. To publish the picture to the Docker Hub, the Docker tag serves to protect the build edition. We may organize images using a name as well as tag groups on the Docker Hub. A single image may have many Docker tags pointing to it. Thus, we have decided to dedicate this article to image tags in docker.
There are times you may want to set up a system to act as a go between for a network and the Internet.
This ‘go between’ is a system that acts as a router and is designated as a gateway for the systems on a network.
This is the compatibility layer that allows you to run various Windows applications and games on Linux (and forms part of Steam Play Proton). Once a year or so, a new stable release is made but the development versions are usually fine to use.
Wine 7.17 is a quieter release than most with only two new main highlights, plus 18 bug fixes.
A small update regarding the Steam Deck. Valve does not expect you to rely on iFixit anymore to get your hardware problems sorted out with the Steam Deck. They are now opening actual repair centers (apparently in different geographies, while we lack details).
It doesn't matter whether you're new to KDE Plasma or have been using it for years, there are always some hidden features that escape your eyes.
Even though some Linux desktop environments lack user experience and visual aesthetic appeal, it's not the case with KDE Plasma. On distros like Kubuntu and KDE Neon, KDE Plasma offers various options for the users to customize their desktop. You can tailor the look and feel of your computer to suit your tastes.
But what sets Plasma apart from all other desktops is its score of hidden features that add a whole new level of user experience within its environment.
Here are the top nine hidden features of KDE Plasma that you probably don't know about, but should explore.
KDE today announces the release of KDE Frameworks 5.98.0.
KDE Frameworks are 83 addon libraries to Qt which provide a wide variety of commonly needed functionality in mature, peer reviewed and well tested libraries with friendly licensing terms. For an introduction see the KDE Frameworks release announcement.
This release is part of a series of planned monthly releases making improvements available to developers in a quick and predictable manner.
My Google Summer of code is about to close! It’s been very educational time working on my project to implement exporting as svg. Now that it’s just about done its time I put my thoughts on how my GSoC project went.
Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from September 02 to September 09.
Amberol is the ultimate simplified Linux music player tightly integrated with GNOME and does nothing but play your locally stored music files.
For many years, Linux users have had a wide choice of music players to listen to their favorite music. Many of them compete to give users as many options as possible.
Amberol, the next rising star in this niche, is the polar opposite of this. It was built using GTK4 and Rust programming language. Named after Thomas Edison’s Blue Amberol Records, it is the ultimate simple Linux music player, with a great look and a single goal – to play music.
Time files, for better or for the worst. The last time I bored you with ramblings on this blog was more than 2 years ago already, prepping up for Tracker 3.0. Since I’m sure you don’t need a general catch up about these last 2 years, let’s stay on that same subject.
Nowadays, we are very close to GNOME 43, and an accompanying 3.4.0 release of Tracker SPARQL library and data miners, that is 4 minor releases ahead! What happened since then? Most immediately after that previous blog post, the 3.0 release did roll in, the uncertainty behind all major structural changes vanished, and the transition could largely be called a success: The overhauled internals for complete SPARQL support stood ground without large regressions; the promises of portals and data isolation delivered and to this day remains unchallenged (except for spare requests to let more pieces of metadata through); the increased genericity and versatility kept fostering further improvements.
Overall, there’s been no major regrets, and we are now sitting comfortably in 3.x. And that was all good, since we could use all that time not fixing fallout in keeping up with the improvements. Let’s revisit what happened since.
My 12+ weeks in the Google Summer of Code program have finally come to an end. It’s incredible how quickly time passes and how things develop. It has been a great journey and I have learned a great deal about software web development and design from exploring the project.
GSoC is a global, online program focused on encouraging budding developers and designers into the world of open-source. GSoC introduced me to the amazing GNOME community. Looking back, a year ago, I was hesitant and apprehensive about even applying to GSoC. But this program has helped me grow and push through the boundaries of my technical and soft skills.
This project was aimed at porting Pitivi to GTK4, Pitivi used the GTK3+ library and required the change.
Wondering which operating system to install on your Raspberry Pi? Start with these well-known Linux distros.
The Raspberry Pi is a single-board computer that has become very popular among curious enthusiasts, educators, and professionals. This has brought life to a variety of projects inspired by creative imaginations.
You can utilize the power of this tiny computer to give life to your model train scenery, learn to code, explore home automation solutions, launch a web server, monitor your home network, or water your plants automatically.
Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch, Debian, and Pop! OS now offer an ARM-based version for the Raspberry Pi bringing an affordable everyday desktop solution to your home. Let’s review these options so that you can decide which one is right for your Raspberry Pi.
The Fedora development team announced the beta for version 37 of the open-source operating system would be released on time on September 13, 2022.
The next iteration of the Fedora 37 operating system has finally reached beta and is now available to download and install. This was announced on Fedora Hyperkitty along with the announcement that the final freeze for Fedora 37 would hit Tuesday, October 4.
As far as features in Fedora 37, you can look for plenty of changes, such as updates to the LLVM 15 compiler, LXQt 1.1, a preview of the new Anaconda Web-based installer, support for Raspberry Pi 4, Linux kernel 5.19 (the latest mainline kernel), GNOME 43 (which includes a revamped Quick Settings), a new GTK4/libadwaita port of Files (which also includes the new adaptive sidebar, icon emblems, and rubberband selection), WebExtension API support in GNOME Web, high-resolution scroll wheel support, direct scanout support (to aid multi-monitor setups), server-side decorations now include essential color support, as well as a reference KVM VM disk image.
Using pipelines to achieve greater automation, improved consistency and enhanced reliability of a process is a well established practice. We can find pipelines within telecommunication and IT processes including Infrastructure as Code (IaC), development and operations (DevOps), development, security and operations (DevSecOps), network operations (NetOps) and GitOps. Some common characteristics among these processes is expressing the intent, or desired state, in a declarative, versioned and immutable manner.
It is well known that SAP landscapes, apart from being critical to how global companies function, tend towards high levels of complexity. This is not only because of the vast array of different applications that constitute the average SAP installation base (like ERP, BW, GRC, SCM, CRM), but also because these products typically interact with many other third-party applications, forming altogether a large ecosystem.
I have been working on syncing Debian package management with the Puppy-format package management, for the past week. However, I had the nagging feeling that I'm going in the wrong direction...
Have now abandoned apt/dpkg sync'ing with the Puppy-format Package database and PKGget. It just isn't the way I want to go with EasyOS.
Almost two years after the previous Norwegian BokmÃÂ¥l translation of the "The Debian Administrator's Handbook" was published, a new edition is finally being prepared. The english text is updated, and it is time to start working on the translations. Around 37 percent of the strings have been updated, one way or another, and the translations starting from a complete Debian Buster edition now need to bring their translation up from 63% to 100%. The complete book is licensed using a Creative Commons license, and has been published in several languages over the years. The translations are done by volunteers to bring Linux in their native tongue.
Are you looking to host your own ERP cost-effectively, or perhaps evaluating solutions to host other types of applications for your small business? You’ve landed in the right blog post. Recently, we reached out to the LXD community and asked them to share real-life examples of how they use LXD to solve different kinds of problems. In this post, we will share the first of the stories, illustrating how easy it is to use open-source container management tools like LXD to host your own business applications.
It has been a long and difficult journey to build a freedom- and privacy-respecting phone like the Librem 5. While the end of this journey is in sight, we aren’t quite there yet, and I wanted to take some time to do something we should do more often: acknowledge and thank all of you who have joined us in this journey, some since the beginning. I also wanted to give some tangible examples of what your support has allowed us to do. But first, to all of you who have backed the Librem 5 project, however long you have been with us: thank you for joining us.
Making the choice to use free software in the classroom helps us create learning environments that foreground questions of value. This can be illustrated by a passage in Confucius's Analects where the skilled mechanic is illustrated as sharpening their tools before they are able to do their work well. In the 21st century, and in the context of digital learning environments, to sharpen tools would mean to know not just how the tool works but what the tool means with respect to the place of the human in the world. This will be explored by considering the five Ws: what free software education is, who it is for, when and where it takes place, and why our active role as digital makers, not just passive users, is central to the meaning of free software education.
Last month the Sourceware overseers started a discussion with the projects hosted on Sourceware and the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) to become a Conservancy member project (which means Conservancy would become the fiscal sponsor of Sourceware). After many positive responses the SFC’s Evaluations Committee has voted to accept Sourceware.
Check out the great work our volunteers accomplished at today's Free Software Directory (FSD) IRC meeting.
Last July I have been to Berlin for the second Mini GUADEC Berlin.
It was great seeing many other GNOME contributors in person after such long time. The conference took place in an awesome location at the c-base.
During the event I worked on an offline indicator for Fractal and improving the error handling.
I also spent some time on the Flatpak CI, adding information on how to get aarch64 builds. I previously added automatic builds of the CI images for aarch64 of the CI images.
The GNU Hackers’ Meetings or or “GHMs” are a friendly and informal venue to discuss technical topics related to GNU and free software; anybody is welcome to register and attend.
The GNU Hackers’ Meeting 2022 will take place on October 1st and October 2st in ðzmir, Turkey; see the event home page at https://www.gnu.org/ghm/2022/.
We decided to help students who wish to attend by contributing 50€ out of their 60€ attendance fee (required by the hotel for use of the conference room, coffee and snacks) so that students will need to only pay 10€, upon presenting proof of enrolment to us.
Mere weeks after the debut of Open Source Summit Latin America, Dublin continues the collaborative momentum with the 2022 hybrid editions of Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC) and Open Source Summit Europe!
Linux Plumbers
Running from September 12 to 14 at the Clayton Hotel on Burlington Road, LPC is widely recognized as the premier event for developers working at all levels of the Linux kernel's plumbing layer and beyond. Jam-packed with microconferences, a refereed main track, a Kernel Summit track, a Networking & BPF Summit track, multiple BoFs, and more, the 2022 edition, sponsored by Collabora, promises to be a can't-miss event. Make sure to come say hello, especially in Kernel Testing & Dependability MC, co-led by Collabora's Guillaume Tucker.
I once (incorrectly) thought the answer to “why is there a dot at the end?” might be “In a DNS request/response, domain names have a “.” at the end, so we put it in to match what actually gets sent/received by your computer”. But that’s not true at all!
When a computer sends a DNS request or response, the domain names in it don’t have a trailing dot. Actually, the domain names don’t have any dots.
Instead, they’re encoded as a series of length/string pairs. For example, the domain example.com is encoded as these 13 bytes:
7example3com0 So there are no dots at all. Instead, an ASCII domain name (like “example.com”) gets translated into the format used in a DNS request / response by various DNS software.
So let’s talk about one place where domain names are translated into DNS responses: zone files.
In open source's early days, its main intellectual property (IP) enemy was copyright lawsuits from proprietary companies. They wanted to squash open-source projects before they could become deadly rivals. The most famous example of this was with the Microsoft-sponsored SCO vs IBM and related companies' Linux lawsuits. Linux's allies won those lawsuits. And all was peaceful with open-source software. That was then. This is now. Today, patent trolls are increasingly a threat to open-source software developers.
I am pleased to announce that starting today, September 12, Carlos Torres has joined Mozilla as our Chief Legal Officer. In this role Carlos will be responsible for leading our global legal and public policy teams, developing legal, regulatory and policy strategies that support Mozilla’s mission. He will also manage all regulatory issues and serve as a strategic business partner helping us accelerate our growth and evolution. Carlos will also serve as Corporate Secretary. He will report to me and join our steering committee.
Life, death and data. AI’s capacity to support research on human health is real. But so are the harms of biased datasets and misdiagnoses. How can AI developers build healthier systems? We take a look at a new dataset for Black skin health, a Covid chatbot in Rwanda, AI diagnostics in rural India, and more.
This was a boon for X86 servers during the Great Recession, when server virtualization technology was mature enough to be put into production (although not yet perfect), allowing for server consolidation and higher server utilization and even helping some companies skip one or two generations of server upgrades at a time when they could not really spend the money on new iron.
Meta cedes control of the open source project in favor of the newly-formed PyTorch Foundation, without "any of the good things" changing.
The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit, open-source organization, today unveiled that PyTorch is transitioning away from Meta and joining the foundation where it will exist under the newly-formed PyTorch Foundation.
The Linux Foundation will now oversee the PyTorch AI framework from a project governance level.
In a Facebook post, meta (formerly Facebook) founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that the popular and widely used PyTorch framework would be governed by The Linux Foundation. While Linux Foundation will oversee the project, it will still be led by scientists and researchers from Metal.
Today we are more than thrilled to welcome PyTorch to the Linux Foundation. Honestly, it’s hard to capture how big a deal this is for us in a single post but I’ll try.
Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. announced today that it’s handing over control of the popular PyTorch artificial intelligence platform it created to the Linux Foundation’s newly formed PyTorch Foundation.
When I want to get into my phone, I use a passcode or face ID to authenticate. When I want to get into my home, I use a key because no person should be able to access my home without being authorized. So when the NSA released its Kubernetes Hardening Guidelines, it made sense that they consider authentication and authorization to be pivotal to a strong defense.
Can an IoT coffee maker leak company secrets? Where do you put the 'S' in 'IoT'? Join Alison Naylor, Senior Manager for Information Security at Red Hat, in this episode of Security Detail as she discusses the importance of securing IoT devices and how to proceed with caution.
CVE-2022-27593 exists because of an externally controlled reference that resolves to a resource that is outside of the intended control sphere, and affects the widely used Photo Station application.
The vulnerability allows attackers to modify system files and, ultimately, install and deploy ransomware.
This week the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) wrote to the central government, asking it to control internet shutdowns in the country and avert uncertainties that stem from state governments giving these orders.
Hello, everyone! It's really been almost a year since I last wrote in my blog and gemlog. Last time I wrote was in November 2021, and we're not far from November 2022. You probably forgot about me, didn't you? If so, then you never wondered what happened in my life all this time, but I'm telling you anyway.
I'm ender, and about a few weeks ago, I discovered Gemini. This protocol pricked my curiosity and I researched it further, finding my way onto a link aggregator called spacewalk, which lead me here. Hopefully I'll get along with everyone else here.
I'm currently away from home. Vacation time! But I have brought my notebook with me --- which might turn against me ... I can even be online, but so far I have only checked gemini space and little else (wikipedia, online dictionary).
The list of gemini sites extracted from SmolZINE issues 1..33 has 203 entries. No, it is not an index yet (pointing to the particular SmolZINE issue). Nor is it an automatically generated list including the descriptions. Such a commented index list might seem desireable, however, it is going to be a lot of work to generate it and (more importantly) to keep it up to date.
[...]
There are, of course, other lists. The most exhaustive list to my knowledge is the list of Stephane Bortzmeyers Lupa crawler, currently listing a bit more than 2100 entries. I have used this list to navigate unknown-to-me territories.
* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.