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Links 25/12/2022: Kodi 19.5 and Linux 6.2 RC1



  • GNU/Linux

    • Web Pro NewsStack Overflow: Linux Surpasses macOS Among Developers

      Linux has reached a major milestone, surpassing macOS among developers for both personal and professional use.

      Linux has long been the third most popular operating system (OS), after Windows and macOS. Stack Overflow has released its 2022 Developer Survey, and it’s good news for Linux fans.

      According to the Developer Survey, Linux use has passed macOS by a significant margin. Linux is used by 40.23% of developers as their primary OS for personal use, while 39.89% use it as their primary OS for professional use. In contrast, macOS is used as a primary OS for personal use 31.07% of developers and for professional use by 32.97%.

    • SlashdotStack Overflow Survey Finds More Developers Now Use Linux Than MacOS - Slashdot

      Justin Garrison works at Amazon Web Services on the Kubernetes team (and was senior systems engineer on several animated films).

    • Linux Made SimpleLinux Weekly Roundup #215

      We had a full week in the world of Linux releases with Manjaro Linux 22.0, Clear Linux 37860, Bluestar Linux 6.1.1, ArcoLinux 23.01.03, Q4OS 4.11, Linux Mint 21.1, EndeavourOS 22.12, and BunsenLabs Beryllium.

    • Kubernetes

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux mailing listsLinux 6.2-rc1
        So it's Christmas Day here, but it's also Sunday afternoon two weeks
        after the 6.2 merge window opened. So holidays or not, the kernel
        development show must go on.
        
        

        Thanks to a lot of people sending their pull requests early, I got much of the merge window work done before the holidays started in earnest, and mostly before my pre-xmas travel. So despite flight delays, missed connections, and the resulting airport hotel excursions, the merge window mostly went smoothly, and there was no reason to delay rc1.

        That said, realistically I expect most people to be on vacation for at least another week, so I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with a delayed final release due to the season. But it's too early to worry about that yet, we'll just have to see how it goes.

        Also, 6.2 looks like it's a bigger release (certainly bigger than 6.1 was). The summary below is, as usual, just my merge log: we've got about 13.5k commits from ~1800 people in total in this merge window, which is actually not that far off the total size of the whole 6.1 release. But let's hope that despite the size, and despite the likely slow start of the post-merge-window calming down period, we'll have a smooth release.

        And in the meantime, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all (replace as appropriate with whatever holiday, if any, you are celebrating).

        Linus
    • Graphics Stack

      • WCCF TechAMD Focuses On Various Driver Improvements For RDNA 3 GPUs Running In Linux

        AMD left Linux users without great graphics support when they released the new Radeon RX 7900 GPUs based on the RDNA 3 architecture. The graphics kernel was old and did not prepare users with newer firmware during launch. Now, engineers are beginning to change their focus towards the RDNA 3 support with a newly published firmware update, allowing users to rely on the frame buffer from the firmware when the AMDGPU driver crashes.

    • Applications

      • Make Use OfWhat Are the Best Disc Burning Apps for Linux

        CDs and DVDs might seem to be a relic of the past with most people choosing to stream music and video from remote servers to their entertainment devices, and storing large collections of files on USB flash drives of up to a terabyte.

        But even though few laptops come with an optical drive these days, it's occasionally useful to burn a CD or DVD for use in your car, or for entertainment in an area where network connectivity is spotty. Here are the best tools for CD burning on Linux.

      • Ubuntu HandbookKodi 19.5 Released! How to Install in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 | 22.10 | UbuntuHandbook

        Happy Christmas and happy new year to my dear readers! Kodi, the popular home media center software, release 19.5 version to celebrate the holidays.

        It’s the last point release for the 19.x release, while Kodi 20 now is in RC2 stage. And, this release mainly include bug-fixes and improvements backport from dev release.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • VideoHow to install MEGASync on KDE Neon - Invidious
      • Linux Made SimpleHow to install MetaTrader 5 with the Traders Global Group Incorporated Broker on a Chromebook

        Today we are looking at how to install MetaTrader 5 with the Traders Global Group Incorporated Broker on a Chromebook.

      • AddictiveTipsHow to convert images on a Chromebook

        Do you have some image files you need to convert to your Chromebook? Can’t find any Chrome OS apps that do the job? Good news! Since Chrome OS supports Linux, it is possible to install the Converter tool. An easy-to-use tool for converting image formats. Here’s how to get it working on your system.

      • LinuxOpSysHow to Make Ubuntu Terminal Look like Kali Linux

        Here learn how to make your Ubuntu terminal look like Kali Linux. For this install zsh shell, zshell plugins and some additional tools.

      • Why won't crusty old host recognize my shiny new terminal emulator?

        Spiffy new terminal emulators seem to come with their own terminfo definitions. Venerable hosts that I ssh into tend not to know about those. kitty comes with a thing to transfer that definition, but it breaks if the remote host is running tcsh (don't ask). Similary the one liner for alacritty on the arch wiki seems to assume the remote shell is bash. Forthwith, a dumb shell script that works to send the terminfo of the current terminal emulator to the remote host.

      • Make Use OfHow to Find Your MAC Address on Linux

        If you are administering a Linux system, there will likely be times when you need to know your system's MAC address. You may need this information for several reasons. Perhaps you want DHCP to assign you a fixed IP address. For this, you will need the MAC address so that you can add the IP and MAC address mapping to your DHCP server configurations.

        You may also need this information for MAC address filtering to allow or block certain devices on your network. Or maybe you want to set up Wake-on-LAN. Whatever the reason is, here are a few different ways to find the MAC address on your Linux system.

      • How to Install Microsoft Teams on Ubuntu [Ed: This is proprietary Microsoft spyware; better never to install such a thing]
      • Make Use OfReducing Docker Image Sizes With Alpine Linux Images

        The size of a Docker image affects its runtime and the performance of your application. Small containers run faster, are easier to manage, and take up less disk space.

        There are several ways to reduce the size of Docker images. In particular, you can use Alpine Linux images which are much smaller than the rest.

      • UNIX CopInstall Samba Server with Selinux and Firewalld Enabled

        Hello, friends. In this post, you will learn how to Install Samba Server with Selinux and Firewalld Enabled. For this post, we will use Rocky Linux 9, but actually the algorithm followed should work for other distributions, of course making the necessary modifications.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Programming/Development

      • Perl / Raku

        • Russ AllberyEagle's Path: podlators 5.01 (2022-12-25)

          podlators is the Perl distribution providing Pod::Man and Pod::Text, along with related modules and supporting scripts.

          The primary change in this release is the addition of configurable guesswork for Pod::Text, paralleling Pod::Man. I had forgotten that Pod::Text also had complex heuristics for whether to quote C<> text that have the same Perl-specific properties as Pod::Man. This is now configurable via a guesswork option, the same as in Pod::Man, although the only type of guesswork supported is quoting. I also updated the default regexes, which include some fixes from Pod::Man.

        • Russ AllberyEagle's Path: rra-c-util 10.3 (2022-12-25)

          This is a minor feature and bug fix release of my collection of utilities and tests intended for copying into other packages I maintain.

          The new feature is an additional Perl test using Test::Kwalitee to check a few more things about the Perl packaging, and a MANIFEST.SKIP file that is suitable for copying as-is into most Perl packages.

        • RakulangRaku Advent Calendar: The 2022 Raku Advent Posts
      • Python

        • TecAdminHow to Call a function in Python - TecAdmin

          In Python, a function is a block of code that performs a specific task and can be called from other parts of your program. Functions are an essential part of Python programming, and they allow you to write reusable, modular code that is easier to maintain and debug.

          In this tutorial, we will learn how to call a function in Python. We will discuss the different ways you can pass arguments to a function, and we will also look at some common mistakes to avoid when calling functions in Python.

        • TecAdminCurrent Date and Time in Python: In-Depth Tutorial - TecAdmin

          Getting the current date and time is a common task in Python programming. There are several ways to do this, depending on your needs and the libraries you have available. In this article, we will explore some of the most common methods for getting the current date and time in Python, including using the built-in datetime module, the time module, and the dateutil module. We will also discuss how to format the date and time values as strings, and how to convert between timezones. Whether you are working with timestamps, scheduling tasks, or just want to display the current date and time in your Python program, this article will provide you with the tools you need.

      • Rust

        • Amos WengerDay 15 (Advent of Code 2022)

          The day 15 puzzle falls into the "math puzzle" territory more than "let's learn something new about Rust", but since several folks asked if I was going to continue... let's continue.

  • Leftovers

    • Matt RickardChristmas 2022

      Over the next few days, I'll be reflecting on the predictions I had for 2022 and the process I used to get there (the process is more important to me than the outcome). I'll reflect on some of the things that I did, and some of the things I wished I had done. And finally, I'll try to put out some thoughts on what I think 2023 might hold, for both me and the the broader market. And it wouldn't be an end-of-the-year reflection without thinking about some of my posts that resonated the most (and the ones that resonated the least) and why.

    • Security

      • Help Net SecurityOpen-source tool for security engineers helps automate access reviews - Help Net Security

        ConductorOne open-sourced their identity connectors in a project called Baton, available on GitHub. Each connector gives developers the ability to extract, normalize, and interact with workforce identity data such as user accounts, permissions, roles, groups, resources, and more, so they can audit infrastructure access, start to automate user access reviews, and enforce the principle of least privilege.

      • Linux Kernel Security Bug Allows Remote Code Execution for Authenticated Remote Users - Slashdot [Ed: The severity of 10 is no longer 10 for the "Linux" flaw; it was SMB related and was downgraded later, days after all the drama]

        This new program, which was introduced to the kernel in 2021, was developed by Samsung. Its point was to deliver speedy SMB3 file-serving performance....

        Any distro using the Linux kernel 5.15 or above is potentially vulnerable. This includes Ubuntu 22.04, and its descendants; Deepin Linux 20.3; and Slackware 15.

      • Security AffairsCritical Linux Kernel flaw affects SMB servers with ksmbd enabled [Ed: No, the severity is not 10!]

        Experts warn of a critical Linux Kernel vulnerability (CVSS score of 10) impacting SMB servers that can lead to remote code execution.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Technical

      • the concept of fragments log, taken from Brandur

        This post might be cross-linked from the gemlog, but it's not gemlog. Wait nevermind

        It will be the other way now.

      • cleaning

        I’ll be doing some general cleaning by the end of this week and that includes this gemlog. changing the header/footer and maybe adding something other than email for getting in touch.

      • Evolving harn: C + Forth polyglot system

        I presented my project as an interactive linker for a harnessed C compiler. And it true: I've implemented the infrastructure for extracting compiled C functions and data out of ELF object files, and interning them into the system, including being able to replace old versions with new ones. I set up a basic way to track ingested code as symbols, which are kept in packages, kind of like Lisp. The whole thing lives as an image which can be saved and restored. Oh, and I made provisions for keeping the sources of everything ingested.

      • Xmas

        • Merry Christmas

          No matter what holiday(s) you celebrate this season, I hope it brings you an opportunity to be with people you care about and share in your joys and gratitude.

        • it's 25th, how has December been

          One has been in my family and the other I bought because the former had keyboard keys not working. The keyboard issues are something that historically one could sometimes fix by twisting the whole case of the laptop. Dad suggests it may be fixable by remounting the keyboard. That other one I bought had the keyboard work well but the Touch Stick in it has issues about going all the way upper-right or all the way lower-left, unless pressed hard in the opposite direction. I had to install the pointing device driver and in it I can disable Touch Stick separately from Touch Pad. I expected the former one to have a broken HDD and the other one to lack a HDD. But they turned out to both have HDDs. The former one had Ubuntu 6.XX with the familiar login prompt sound and the other one had an empty installation of Windows 98 that I subsequently reinstalled, also having a sticker for Windows.. 95, which seems a bit odd.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



Recent Techrights' Posts

IBM, Running Out of Things It Can Sell, is Selling Software Patents
IBM is not just pathetic; it's actively harmful because it lobbies for software patents and spreads software patents around
The 'Church' of Moglen/Stallman
'reunion' with Eben Moglen
Microsoft Has Fallen to #3 in Singapore
There are many technically talented people in Singapore or overseas workers who lodge in Singapore
 
As Expected, Facebook Collapses, Microsoft Hides Massive Debt
GAFAM is a giant mountain of debt
At The Register MS "PARTNER CONTENT" Means Company Writing Fake Articles About Itself and Its Own Products
At The Register MS, content-farming has become a thing
Staff of EPO Cautions Against Unlawful Weaponisation of PIPs Against Industrial Actions That Protest Corruption
PIP-like sanctions against anybody who does not toe the line of Cocaine King?
Gemini Links 29/07/2026: Star Trek, Retirement, and ODEs in GNU Octave
Links for the day
Links 29/07/2026: "BuzzFeed Lays Off 33 Percent of Remaining Staff" (Trying LLM Slop Some More), Scam Altman Mocked by the Media
Links for the day
GNOME Curated and Censored by IBM (Under the Guise of "Code of Conduct")
Felipe Borges (IBM) has just posted a follow-up
Digital Mass Surveillance as a Hallmark of Failed Societies
"small leap forward in tech ethics"
I Found a Typo, Don't Vote!
Social control media isn't good at adding any meaningful signal
Jeremy Sands Explained the Harms of Codes of Conduct
next week the 500th show milestone [is reached]
Tonight's Earnings Report From Microsoft and Facebook ('Meta') Will be Faked Because They Hide Almost a Trillion Dollars in Debt
The US economic system is only as honest as the people who govern it
The Vacuum Syndrome
Parables help
The Only Old People Who Can Survive IBM Are the CEO and His Circle of Enablers
very similar to what's happening at the EPO
Microsoft Layoffs Aren't Done Ahead of the Need to Tell Shareholders About "Efficiency" (Tonight)
Microsoft layoffs won't be "Done" until what's left of Microsoft is "None"
Microsoft Lacks Growth. Ahead of 'Results' The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Finds Merit in Allegations Slop is Microsoft's Excuse for Price Hikes (Piggybacking Vendor Lock-in).
At this stage it's not hard to see why many nations gravitate away from Microsoft
Parliament leaks confidential cult inquiry witness contact list (COFG Victoria)
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Troll-Feeding is Time-Wasting
in social control media
WordPress is Technical Debt
There are a number of technical tasks underway and maybe some testing (this coming weekend or later)
Will Red Hat Still Exist in 2027 or Just Become a "Brand" at IBM?
Whistleblowers told us IBM was laying off about 500 Red Hat engineers earlier this year
Call for IBM Whistleblowers
If you work for IBM and have something material (like balance sheets) to prove financial misconduct, please try to 'touch base' and establish a secure communication channel we can both use
EPO Series on EU and Pan-European Corruption, Vote-Rigging, Extending Beyond the EPO Itself
By Saturday it will be August already, so we'll start preparing for Rianne's birthday
SLAPP Censorship - Part 133 Out of 200: Lies by Omission
As usual, the other side wants people to ignore how much they lost
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Streamlining the Decision-Making Process
Negrão was one of 17 applicants for the position but he somehow managed to end up as the sole candidate on the shortlist prepared by the Management Board in June 2020
Links 29/07/2026: "Hugging Face Has a Deepfake Nudes Problem" and "$1.5B Anthropic Copyright Infringement Ruling" (Plagiarism is Not "Training")
Links for the day
Comments on Today's Judgment
It hopefully helps clarify what actually happened
Thank You, Andy
Burnham and "Tech Rights"
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Inaction and Incompetence - Part II - 77 Messages Sent, Did Not Even Investigate or Examine Any of the Actual Evidence (British Taxpayers' Money Wasted)
SRA has become known (even notorious) for inaction
Inevitable Politics
In technology, provided the work you do has growing impact (we served almost 2 million requests yesterday), things will inevitably become more political - whether you like it or not does not matter
Not Only "Loonies Take on Farage"
pretending that the opposition to the right wing is "Loonies"
Brigading Against Women - Part I - Bypassing the Legal System by Threatening Companies in Another Continent
In the next part we'll begin to connect Lozza's online activities (and court activities) to those of Garrett
IBM is Trying to Turn Debt (Borrowed Money) Into Fake Growth and It'll Worsen Matters
they put in their balance sheets a fake "growth" in something that does not even exist
Microsoft Relies on Misleading Narrative of Studios Going 'Independent'; in Reality There Are Mass Layoffs in Them
This is not a good narrative for Microsoft
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 28, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Gemini Links 29/07/2026: Arosa, Tired Tuesday, and Constellation Browser
Links for the day
In IBM, PIPs and RAs (Layoffs) Have Become Almost the Same Thing, Workers 'Expire' With Age (Seniority, Experience) and Empathy is Punishable by Termination
IBM does seem like a dead company
At Microsoft, PIPs Are Sometimes Known as "LITE" (a Silent Layoffs Legal Hack or a Shrewd Workaround to Skirt WARN Act)
Zero "layoffs" to report
Gemini Links 28/07/2026: “Strategies Against Algorithms” and DIYers
Links for the day
"Social Dialogue" With the Man Who Never Faced Real Competition at the European Patent Office (EPO), He Buys the Voters and Eliminates Rivals
Will the "Pretender" write back?
Digital Restrictions (DRM) and Microsoft: What Kills XBox Will Kill Windows Next
Microsoft wrongly and very arrogantly assumed that users would tolerate everything it throws their way
GNU/Linux in Afghanistan Reaches 7%
For many years it was stuck at less than 1%
Greenwashing Corruption With a "Chief Sustainability Officer", Who Infamously Defended Battisetelli's Crimes at the EPO and Petitioned for Him
She was rewarded for conspiring against EPO staff, as usual
What I Explained to Police About Blackmail and Death Threats via Burner Accounts (a Practice Which Generally Constitutes a Crime)
Today I've communicated several times with police
Links 28/07/2026: "People’s Claude Chats Are Publicly Accessible Online" and SpaceX Stock Crashes Like Its Products
Links for the day
UK tech sector missing from democratic process
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
How Not to Cover Elections (Democracy Relies on Reliable, Complete Information)
Misinformed voters are a recipe for disaster
Microsoft E.E.E. (and "Bait and Switch") Going Exactly According to Plan
That is what they are trying to tell us and the companies that employ us
IBM: An Old Company That Hates Old People
Remember that's coming to Red Hat workers in 2 months
Strict Policy on Violence and Violent Language
This matter is now being escalated to law firms
Avoiding Discrimination Against People With Disabilities
work underway to improve the system which runs the sites
Links 28/07/2026: XBox DRM Doomed Everyone (Cannot Play Anything), Slop (Ponzi Scheme) Being Pinkwashed Now
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/07/2026: Ethics, GIMP Script-Fu, SMTP Versus Gemini, and Proposal for Better TOFU
Links for the day
To a Sociopath, Ethical People Are Bad People. Don't Fall for It.
If you put sociopaths on a pedestal, the pedestal will break
Improving the Static Site Generator
Our system has fixes triaged
Diversity in Debian
bringing up the topic is the real problem, diversity itself is a taboo subject
GNU/Linux in Brazil. The B in BRIC(S).
the "market share" is assessed to be around 5%
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 27, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, July 27, 2026
Hate Consumes the Haters
If you hate someone (or something) and you're willing to do anything for "hate rituals", then at the end the emotion will outweigh reason and it'll backfire, surely
GNU/Linux Rises Some More Internationally, statCounter Now Estimates Its Usage on Desktops/Laptops at 7.7%
significant growth for GNU/Linux in Japan, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia
IBMers on PIPs and the Age (or Cost) Factor
People in their 50s seem to be targeted as they are considered "expensive"
Sad State of Troll-Feeding British Media (Establishment Channels Promoting Total Idiots)
Breeding ignorance means people will assume they have a choice between two pieces of trash: "Nige" or a literal trash can
Links 27/07/2026: Sleepless Japan PM Takaichi Becomes Unpopular and Data Centre Magnate Confiscate Land Without Consent
Links for the day
A Few Hours Ago The Register MS Published an 'Article' With "AI" 32 Times in It, Including First Word in Headline and Summary. It Was Paid SPAM "Sponsored by Hammerspace".
The lost media is engaging in self-harm
Microsoft is Down
This relates in a timely fashion to what we published yesterday
In Techrights, Gemini and HTTP/HTML Are Very Different
Those were never equivalents or mirrors, those are two things that are inherently different and are maintained by different teams
Gemini Links 27/07/2026: Gemified Internet RFCs, “Junk DNA” Is Commented-Out Code, and More
Links for the day
The Techrights Gemini Capsule Was Never a Mirror
Techrights has long taken accessibility quite seriously
Americans Are Not Our Masters
If you are subjected to online abuse, don't give up
Daniel Pocock Campaigns Around "Safety of Children Online" and "Cybersecurity"
There seems to be a growing 'coalition' in the UK based around important issues which impact the entire planet
XBox the Console is Practically Finished (Unofficially), Even the Streaming ("Live") or DRM Service is Dead
XBox has never been closer to profitability
Many CEOs Are Just Glorified Scammers With Suits and Ties
Economies cannot function when few people abuse them for self-enrichment
After statCounter Figures Out Many "Unknowns" Were in Fact GNU/Linux the "Market Share" Estimate in China More Than Doubles
Japan is the same for similar reasons
peppe8o - a Site About Raspberry Pi, Arduino and Electronics - Has Turned Into a Slopfarm
We won't be linking to it anymore
Feeding 'the Children'
Maybe some time soon we'll do a fund-raiser to help feed the birds
Japan: GNU/Linux Crosses the 5% Threshold, Two Years Ago It Was Only 1%
Now it's at over 5%
We Need More Transparency
Our heads of state are very much aware of and concerned about SLAPPs and censorship
"The War on Children" Explained by The Cyber Show
Consumer protection and the war on children
EPO Cocainegate and Current EPO/EU Series to Carry on for Months to Come
Another week has begun
When IBM "Managers Have to Mark 15% of Their Teams as Low Performers" a PIP Means Likely Layoffs (Disguised as a Performance Issue)
"IBM is a Law firm with an I/T department."
Links 27/07/2026: Chatbots Lead to Suicides, Social Control Media Intentionally Designed for Addiction
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 26, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, July 26, 2026