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Links 11/09/2023: Catchup With Important News, Including Privacy Matters



  • GNU/Linux

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • 9to5LinuxLinus Torvalds Announces First Linux Kernel 6.6 Release Candidate

        It’s been two weeks since the release of Linux kernel 6.5, which means that the merge window for Linux kernel 6.6 is now officially closed and the first Release Candidate is now available for download for early adopters, developers, and everyone else who wants to get an early taste of the next major Linux release.

        Linux kernel 6.6 will come with many new features and improved hardware support, as expected from a new kernel series. Some highlights include new Intel IVSC MEI drivers, a new firmware-attributes driver for changing BIOS settings from within Linux on HP devices, charger mode, middle fan and eGPU settings support for ASUS devices, and keyboard backlight control support for more Lenovo IdeaPad devices.

      • LWNLinux 6.6-rc1
        Here we are, two weeks later, and the merge window is closed.
        
        

        All the stats for 6.6 look fairly normal so far - as always, the bulk of the patch is drivers (a bit of everything, but networking and gpu are the two biggest areas), with arch updates coming in as a notable second, and then we have tooling and documentation.

        There's obviously core kernel updates too (filesystem updates, networking, core VM updates etc) but yeah, all the hardware support - whether drivers or CPUs - tends to just dwarf all the core changes in the diffstat.

        And as always, there are way too many individual changes - or even developers - to list for the merge window. We've got 12k+ commits from 1700+ individual developers, And 800+ merges to tie it all together. All that is actually quite normal, this seems to be shaping up to be neither a very small nor a particularly large release.

        So below is just my "merge log" which gives some flavor of what got merged, but does not delve into the details. For those, you'd have to go to the actual git tree.

        Please do give it all a whirl,

        Linus
      • LWNKernel prepatch 6.6-rc1
    • Applications

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Make Use Of8 Essential Docker Commands for Beginners

        Docker containers collect app configurations into units that can run seamlessly across environments.

        Docker provides a variety of commands to run its operations. You can use these commands to easily create, run, stop, remove, and manage Docker containers.

      • XDAHow to install Chrome on Ubuntu

        Google Chrome is one of the most popular web browsers, and you can use it on Ubuntu, too by installing it with a few simple clicks

      • Trend OceansHow to Fix Package is in a Very Bad Inconsistent State Error?

        Stuck in a situation where you are not able to remove packages from your system due to an inconsistent state error, then let me guide you through the steps to resolve this issue.

        While working on the terminal, you may get into several types of errors, like unmet dependencies, when the package is not able to find the dependencies for the required application and fails to install it.

        Like this error, there is one more error: “package is in a very bad inconsistent”.

      • OSTechNixHow to Configure Network Bonding or Teaming on RHEL

        Bonding is a Linux kernel feature that allows multiple network interfaces (such as ens192, ens224) to be aggregated into a single virtual network interface called channel bonding (bond0). It increases the throughput and provide redundancy.

        Network bonding supports 7 modes and you can configure it based on your requirements. Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP – Mode 4 (802.3ad)) mode is widely used because it supports link aggregation and redundancy.

      • ID RootHow to Use ping Command on Linux

        In the intricate web of interconnected devices that form the modern digital landscape, network connectivity is the lifeblood. From sending an email to streaming your favorite shows, virtually everything relies on the uninterrupted flow of data across the vast expanse of the internet.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Reviews

      • Distro WatchReview: SDesk 2023.08.12

        When I'm evaluating projects I tend to keep two questions in mind. One is whether the distribution accomplishes its goal. This is tricky to decide in SDesk's case because the distribution doesn't appear to have a specific goal or niche. The distribution seems to be aiming to be an ultra-modern, desktop-oriented, Arch-based project. However, it doesn't seem to set itself apart from the other approximately twenty Arch-based desktop distributions which do the same thing. Most of them run cutting-edge packages, use the Calamares installer, and a fairly small set of default applications. SDesk mostly does the same thing, but has more rough edges when it comes to the live media and default settings.

        In other words I believe SDesk accomplishes its goal, but has a ways to go before it will feel polished and on par with other distributions in the same category.

        The other main criteria I look at is how well the operating suits my needs. Can I fire it up and just start working? Is it easy to get the software I want? Do I pause and disable annoying notifications and animations? The more the experience becomes seamless for me, making me forget about the operating system while I work, the happier I am. SDesk was the opposite of seamless in my trial.

        Some of the issues, I suspect, were hardware related. The regular crashing in the virtual machine and the lock-ups on my laptop, for example, were probably just unfortunate driver/compatibility issues. Other users likely won't encounter the same problems when it comes to maintaining a stable GNOME session.

        However, there were other problems which kept showing up during my trial. GNOME Classic offered decent performance, but GNOME Shell did not and both were unusually heavy desktop environments. Apart from Ubuntu running GNOME and ZFS, I haven't seen memory stats this high before on a Linux distribution. Having the software centre not work with the underlying, native package manager was annoying and possibly a security concern.

        There were lesser issues, like the installer demanding a complex password when most installers are content to let the user determine their own level of password security. Having the GNOME X11 session on the live media not work was another concern, especially when some users still have trouble running Wayland sessions, depending on their hardware.

        SDesk is young, it hasn't had time to mature yet. Hopefully it does and sorts out some of the issues, adds more documentation, provides checksums for its media, and polishes the live media. For now, I'd say it's not yet ready to compete with other Arch-based desktop distributions, but perhaps a future release will catch up with the rest of the pack.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

    • Programming/Development

      • [Old] Mike Blumenkrantz: Mayor Of Compilertown

        New Topic

        As every one of my big brained readers knows, zink runs on top of vulkan. As you also know, vulkan uses spirv for its shaders. This means, in general, compiler-y stuff in zink tries to stay as close to spirv mechanics as possible.

      • Trail Of Bits[Old] The future of Clang-based tooling

        By Peter Goodman Clang is a marvelous compiler; it’s a compiler’s compiler! But it isn’t a toolsmith’s compiler. As a toolsmith, my ideal compiler would be an open book, allowing me to get to everywhere from anywhere.

      • [Old] James GA Visual Introduction to VisionScript

        I am working on a new programming language called VisionScript. VisionScript gives you the power to build computer vision applications in a few lines of code, or through a drag and drop interface. Count objects in an image in three lines of code. Remove all the faces in an image with four lines of code. Read a QR code in three lines of code. Classify an image in three lines of code. VisionScript is designed to be as concise as possible.

      • RlangFour Filters for Functional (Programming) Friends

        I’m part of a local Functional Programming Meetup group which hosts talks, but also coordinates social meetings where we discuss all sorts of FP-related topics including Haskell and other languages.

      • Nikhil MaratheWorking through Gossip Glomers in Racket

        Gossip Glomers is a series of distributed systems programming challenges from Fly.io. It uses Maelstrom, a platform for describing test workloads that can run your programs as distributed systems nodes. Maelstrom workloads can provide inputs to these nodes (as if they are arriving over a network), inject delays and partitions and then check that your system still satisfies the invariants of each challenge.

      • RlangExploring the Power of the curve() Function in R

        In the vast world of R programming, there are numerous functions that provide powerful capabilities for data visualization and analysis.

      • [Old] TechRepublicTIOBE Index News (August 2023): Programming Language Julia Makes a Strong Showing

        Explore the programming language Julia, which is suited to machine learning applications, and other details of the most popular languages today.

      • [Old] RlangThe intersect() function in R

        Welcome to another exciting blog post where we delve into the world of R programming. Today, we’ll be discussing the intersect() function, a handy tool that helps us find the common elements shared between two or more vectors in R.

      • RlangUnveiling Data Distribution Patterns with stripchart() in R

        Data visualization is a powerful tool that allows us to uncover patterns and insights within datasets. One such tool in the R programming arsenal is the stripchart() function.

      • James GHow minimal is too minimal? Brainstorming syntax for VisionScript

        Yesterday evening I was thinking about syntax for VisionScript, the programming language on which I am working. My goal is to make the syntax as intuitive as possible while retaining a clear structure. As an aside, VisionScript got to the front-page of Hacker News (HN). I was humbled, excited; indeed, elated. Thank you for being so amazing, HN community! If you haven't seen it, check out the demo for the language.

      • Evan Hahn"JavaScript and the farmer emoji": my talk at the Chicago JavaScript Meetup

        It’s about Unicode, JavaScript, and the farmer emoji.

      • TechRepublicWatsonx Code Assistant Adds COBOL-to-Java Translations on IBM Z

        Generative AI comes to mainframe application modernization with a model trained on more than 80 code languages and 1.5 trillion tokens of data.

      • Rlangmaking the next meeting more productive

        One of the students’ requests I almost invariably reject is code debugging (and they are warned about it from the start).

      • Mastering DNSwalk: A Powerful Zone Transfer Tool

        Overview of dnswalk dnswalk is a DNS debugger.

      • [Old] KDABKDAB Training Day before Qt World Summit 2023

        The KDAB Training Day will be back in Berlin on November 27th this year, right before the annual Qt World Summit, which will happen November 28-29th.

      • RlangInsights on R Package Quality and Validation for Clinical Trials

        Moving away from proprietary languages, Roche has made a notable decision to freeze their legacy macros library. With great enthusiasm, they now embrace R as the primary framework for evidence generation in late-stage clinical trials, and they remain open to exploring additional open-source languages in this evolving landscape.

      • RlangExploring Multivariate Data with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) Biplot in R

        When it comes to analyzing multivariate data, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a powerful technique that can help us uncover hidden patterns, reduce dimensionality, and gain valuable insights.

      • [Old] Jon UdellA new series on LLM-assisted coding

        In the 20th episode of my Mastodon series I pivoted to a new topic: LLM-assisted coding. After three posts in the new series, it got picked up by The New Stack.

      • MJ FransenMigrate notes in Emacs from Deft to Denote
        Deft for Emacs

        Deft for Emacs is a mode for quickly browsing, filtering, and editing directories of plain text notes.

        Deft applies auto saving, so changes are committed to disk automagically.

        I have been using Deft for personal notes. All my notes in Deft are in org mode format. Most notes are just plain text, without links or any other fancy stuff.

        I do use two to three levels of headers, and sometimes bullets.

        Deft offers some methods to search in your notes, but I have not used that often. Just browsing the file names in the directory is most of the time enough to find what I am looking for.

        Deft starts with a buffer listing the notes, sorted by last modified date. The most recent modified file is shown on top of the list, the oldest modified file at the bottom. This feature of Deft I like most.

      • Perl / Raku

        • Rakulangrakudoweekly 2023.35 October Conferencing

          It’s official! The Third Online Raku Conference will be held on 28 October 2023. Please register your presentation before 15 October! And/or get your online ticket, not only for immediate interactive access, but also to support this event!

        • Rakulang2023.36 Slimline September

          The Exercism people published a video about programming languages with terse, concise syntax, and the Raku Programming Language is one of them! If you don’t want too look at the whole hour-long video, these are the Raku related bits: Steve’s Corner Steve Roe continued their personal journey along the Raku path with “Drax on Jupyter“.

        • Rakulang2023.34 September Exercism

          Mienaikage would like your support in promoting the Raku Programming Language on exercism.org, as Raku will be one of the featured languages in “Slimline September”. Seems like an excellent opportunity to help get more Rakoons!

        • [Old] Rakulang2023.32 RakuDoc Gamma

          Richard Hainsworth has started the third stage of revising the POD6 standard to the new RakuDoc standard: RakuDoc revision open to comment. This invites anybody, both inside and outside of the Raku Community, to comment on the proposed definition of RakuDoc, either to the blog post, on /r/rakulang or in the associated problem solving issue.

        • [Old] Rakulang2023.30 MoreVids

          Since last week, some Raku Programming Language related videos of lightning talks from TPRC 2023 have become available: All other videos are also available, or course.

        • [Old] Rakulang2023.28 Composition

          Vadim Belman provided an extensive introduction into Type and Object Composition in the Raku Programming Language.

        • Rakulang2023.33 Gremlin Time

          Hillel Wayne published a blog post called “Raku: A Language for Gremlins – By Gremlins, For Gremlins™” in which they describe how they are at a loss of how to describe the Raku Programming Language, but would like it to succeed!

  • Leftovers



Recent Techrights' Posts

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Over at Tux Machines...
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X (not the site) is Free software
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BetaNews is basically a slopfarm
Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 23, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 23, 2025
The "Tarzan Effect" in Compilers and Software
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Gemini Links 23/06/2025: Mass Tourism, Hair Love, and Google Gemini as a Googlebomb
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I am not unfamiliar with these tactics
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The Web is full of garbage; search engines amplify this garbage
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LLMs lack actual grasp or comprehension of what they spew out
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Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC logs for Sunday, June 22, 2025
Pure Dove
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revolutionaries don't succumb to pressure from bullies
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nothing in BetaNews is written by humans anymore