Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 12/05/2023: Godot 4.1 Dev 2, Google Promoting Vapourware and Hype



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • It's FOSS7 Deadly Sins of Distrohopping

        Distro hopping is the habit of regularly trying new Linux distributions to explore for fun or to find the perfect distro for you.

        After all, there are hundreds of Linux distributions and new ones are released regularly. Your FOMO (fear of missing out) kicks in and you go on to try the latest buzz of the Linux town.

        No matter why you do it, whether you hate it or like it, people make a few mistakes, which makes the experience of distro hopping hellish.

        What can those be? Let me take you through it...

      • System76May Flowers Spring COSMIC Showers

        COSMIC Panels are desktop features similar to the top bar and dock in Pop!_OS except with much more versatility. The panels contain "applets", or small embedded applications. You can think of "applets" as GNOME extensions to customize an experience, except they're separate individual applications running in their own process. In COSMIC, applets replace GNOME extensions. COSMIC currently includes essential default applets for things like notifications, workspaces, applications, battery, wifi, bluetooth, and media controls. In the future, applets can be added for a clipboard, notes, weather, custom menus or whatever feature you might imagine.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Dan LangilleMonitor your backups

        It’s good to do automated backups. When you do that, add monitoring to make sure the backups are occurring successfully. In my case, I backup using Bacula. Each job creates a new .bsr file. I copy these files to another location each day. Then I monitor the dates on those files and they should all be less then a day or so old.

      • ChrisEvent Sourcing and Microservices – Unix Style

        The title is a bit tongue in cheek. The subtitle would be something like How looking at ideas behind architectural patterns can yield good solutions even when common implementations would be overly complex.

      • HowTo GeekHow to Use GRUB Rescue to Fix Linux

        If your Linux computer can’t boot into its operating system, you’re likely to find yourself staring at a prompt in the GRUB shell. Follow these steps to repair your broken boot processes.

      • LinuxiacHow to Install Docker on Raspberry Pi: A Step-by-Step Guide

        Ready to use Docker on your Raspberry Pi? Check out our easy-to-follow guide for a seamless installation and begin containerizing today.

      • UNIX CopHow To Install Node.js on Fedora 38

        This real-time runtime environment includes everything you need to run a program written in JavaScript.

      • HowTo ForgeHow to Install Icinga 2 Monitoring Software on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        Icinga2 is a free, open-source network monitoring software that can check the availability of resources from the network and notifies users of outages. In the following tutorial, you will learn to install Icinga2 on a Ubuntu 22.04 server and how to connect it to a client node.

      • HowTo ForgeHow to Install Java OpenJDK/OracleJDK on AlmaLinux 9

        Java is a class-based and object-oriented programming language created by Sun Microsystem in 1995. In this guide, I will show you how to Install Java OpenJDK or/and Java Oracle JDK on the AlmaLinux 9 server.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Ionic Framework on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

        The Ionic Framework is an open-source UI toolkit for building performant, high-quality mobile applications using web technologies — HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It primarily focuses on frontend user experience, offering a rich array of pre-designed components, gestures, and tools for developing fast, easy-to-use applications.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install KeePassXC on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

        KeePassXC, short for KeePass Cross-Platform Community Edition, is an open-source password manager that provides a secure and intuitive environment for managing sensitive information. It is a derivative of the renowned KeePass password safe, designed to accommodate cross-platform usability, including on systems such as Ubuntu.

      • Linux CapableThe Practical Uses of Docker Containers

        Docker containers have revolutionized the world of software development.

      • Linux CapableDocker Container List Command: Practical Examples

        In the evolving software development landscape, Docker has emerged as an invaluable tool, enabling developers to streamline application deployment, scaling, and management. Docker commands, in particular, serve as the critical interface, facilitating direct interaction with Docker’s robust capabilities.

      • Linux CapableDocker Run Command: A Comprehensive Guide

        In the world of software development and system administration, Docker has emerged as a groundbreaking technology that simplifies software delivery by packaging applications into standardized units known as containers. This comprehensive guide aims to provide an intricate understanding of the Docker Run command, a crucial command for managing these Docker containers.>

      • 3 Ways to install Insomnia Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04 LTS Linux

        Learn the commands to install Insomnia in Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy or Ubuntu 20.04 Focal using the command terminal for testing HTTP and REST APIs.

      • Ubuntu HandbookFix External Disk ‘Read-only’ Issue in Ubuntu 22.04 dual-boot with Windows

        I have an external disk mounted in my Ubuntu 22.04 with read and write permission. It however ran into issue recently.

    • Games

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Silicon AngleThe future of open source in the age of AI: Analysts break down Open Source Summit insights [Ed: LF panels; proprietary software users and pushers commenting on "Open Source"; LF then pays the publisher for these puff pieces]

      Open-source computing is facing an inflection point when it comes to enterprise use cases. The recent surge in artificial intelligence presents a challenge to open source and could potentially topple generations of open-source work. “No one wants to bet against€ open source,” said industry analyst John Furrier (pictured, left).

    • Medevel12 Open Source free Forum Solutions For Communities and Customer Engagements

      Forums are excellent online discussion platforms where users can share their insights, concepts, and viewpoints on a variety of topics. They are commonly used for community building, customer support, and knowledge sharing.

  • Leftovers

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • Duck Pond + Rhubarb Saga Continues 2023-05-11 (Fairbanks, AK, USA)

        I caught this nice scenery while out for my lunch-break walk, near the Tanana River.

      • The logic of accumulation

        The other day I did a podcast episode on elephants in my games. Or on the ideas I have for elephants even though I don’t use them in my games. I was thinking of war elephants and then I remembered the ivory, and how elephants are being exterminated for their ivory, and I started wondering about my intentions.

      • In the eyes of modernization theorists...

        In the eyes of modernization theorists, the past tends to harden into the form of an 'almost automatic reaction,' a one-off break will not suffice: what is needed is a continual breaking from it. In such acts of break or rupture, cultural goods must be permanently filtered out of the present, discarded, and declared irrelevant. This repeated dropping of ballast takes place through a performative "relegation to the past" of that which, up to that point, had continued to exert a claim on the present and so was still considered relevant. A particularly striking rhetorical strategy used to produce such hiatus-experiences within the continuum of time is the repeated declaration of the "death" of every possible cultural institution or value.

      • Mountains

        So this was supposed to be a monte carlo Sierpinski triangle generator, but I got distracted somewhere along the way, and the code instead generates somewhat randomly placed mountains. The angle is off from what a Sierpinski triangle needs, and there's some caveman overlap prevention. Probably tolerable if you need "some mountains" for an role playing game map, or something like that?

    • Politics

      • The Art that Broke the Mold

        I ended up really liking both seasons of Anita’s feminist video game show that she did with McIntosh. I was watching the episodes as they were released and they helped me get back into gaming with her encouragement to both enjoy and criticize media, which helped me to enjoy the good parts of these these disturbing games.

        I was surprised that I liked them as much since I had thought (I wasn’t a crowdfunding backer); her first show (about tropes generally, not just games) was basic and overly 101 and “doesn’t everyone know this?” (Gamergate showed how very, very wrong I was about that, and now I think that show was good since those “101” basic points was not was universally agreed-upon and known as I believed.)


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

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
"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
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Digital Identity Bifurcation and a "Return to Gemini"
Links for the day
 
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
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
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
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
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
SLAPP Censorship - Part 15 Out of 200: Background and Particulars of Truth Regarding Techrights and Tux Machines
the basic facts (this has aged well, except the times/ages/numbers)
A Slopfarms Survey for Today (linuxteck.com, linuxsecurity.com, linuxjournal.com)
Not only did Google news link to a slopfarm; it linked to three run by the same team!
Links 18/03/2026: "Venture Capitalist Warns That It’s All About to Come Crashing Down" Due to Slop Bubble, "Birdwatching for Fun and no Profit"
Links for the day
IBM Red Hat is Still Promoting Restricted Boot Which Restricts Users' Control Over Their Computers
Red Hat under IBM is a total catastrophe
Arvind Says... Something Something "Hey Hi" (the State of Today's Media)
Look for news about IBM and most likely it'll boil down to some sound bites from an executive and nothing else
New Post Has Just Explained How IBM Gets Robbed by the People Who Fail IBM
Their plan for IBM is a personal plan
Slop-Spewing GAFAM LLM That Knows Nothing and Understands Nothing, It's a Stochastic Parrot That Cannot Even Figure Out Tux Machines is a Community That Started in Tennessee 22 Years Ago
RMS rightly calls those things "bullshit generators"
Cusdeb Makes New Presentation About Where GNU Hurd (Still a Possible Linux Replacement) Stands in 2026
coming from a generally RMS-friendly account
Gemini Links 18/03/2026: Librarians, Phone Anxiety, Growing 'Small' Net, and Slop Versus Software Engineering
Links for the day
Estimates That IBM to Lay Off Close to 10,000 Workers in 2026 (Not Counting People Pushed Out)
There's still chatter about Confluent mass layoffs
Smug Threat by Garrett to Put My Family and I in Prison Doesn't Prove We Did Anything Wrong, It Only Proves He's Truly Desperate to Stop Further Publications That Embarrass Him
his reputation is poor in the United States
systemd Increasingly Microsoft Project, Controlled by Microsoft and Slopware
Cannot allow choice
What IBM Meant to Red Hat: "Proprietary Bundling, Restricted Source Access"
Anyone or anything that joins IBM likely shortens its lifespan
IBM Thrashing Confluent Upon Arrival, Based on Rumours
We deem it a bigger issue that investigative journalism perished, not that one must rely on hearsay online or mere "rumours"
Slop Is Plagiarism, Not (Vibe) Coding, and It's Not Automated, It Doesn't Save Money
Reject misnomers, explain what's actually happening
UPC is Still Illegal and Unconstitutional (Kangaroo Court for Patents, Manned by Corporate Staff), Federal Court of Justice of Germany Receives Belated Complaint About It
What is happening to Europe???
EPO Demonstration Happening Right Now, Later This Week Things Will Only Escalate Further
The SUEPO The Hague Committee wrote to staff this morning
Sophie Brun, Raphael Hertzog & Debian sexual conflicts of interest
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2026: Commodore's Hedley Davis Dies, Apple Not Good Enough, Cheeto "Floats Treason Charges for Iran War Coverage"
Links for the day
A Step Close to Shutting Down the European Patent Office (EPO)
Not going to work all month long
EPO Staff Demonstration Today
The demonstration will be live-streamed for those thousands of colleagues who don't live in Munich
Gemini Links 18/03/2026: Brazilian SYN Attacks and BGP
Links for the day
LibreLocal Also Coming to Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, and Spain
It helps raise awareness of Software Freedom
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 17, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 17, 2026