Bonum Certa Men Certa

Over at Tux Machines...

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 01, 2026

The Whale-Oil Refinery near the Village of Smerenburg (Detail)

The Whale-Oil Refinery near the Village of Smerenburg (Detail)

Updated This Past Day

  1. Shotcut 26.1 Open-Source Video Editor Released with Hardware Video Decoding
    Shotcut 26.1 has been released today as a major update to this open-source, free, and cross-platform video editing software for GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows systems.
  2. Games, GNU/Linux, and Distros
    today's leftovers
  3. Server: Kubernetes, Nokia SR Linux, and More
    GNU/Linux on the server - some picks
  4. KDE and GNOME Development Updates
    mostly KDE
  5. Free, Libre, and Open Source Software Leftovers
    FOSS and standards
  6. Security Leftovers
    Security patches and incidents, some FUD
  7. Open Hardware/Modding: RISC-V, Raspberry Pi, and More
    Hardware leftovers
  8. New Microsoft Proxy (Amutable), Microsoft Problems, Windows Problems
    4 stories
  9. Programming Leftovers
    Development related picks
  10. Linux and Graphics Leftovers
    a handful of news stories
  11. today's howtos
    Instructionals/Technical posts
  12. Applications: Ventoy, VM Managment, and More
    software news/recommendations
  13. Open Hardware: ESP32, FreeBSD, and More
    Hardware leftovers
  14. Games: Bazzite Linux, "Stop Destroying Videogames", and GDC 2026 Report
    GamingOnLinux picks
  15. Linux Lite 7.8 Is Out Based on Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS, Ports Many Apps to GTK4
    Linux Lite 7.8 has been released today as the latest stable update to this Ubuntu-based distribution using the lightweight Xfce desktop environment and based on the latest Ubuntu LTS series.
  16. Microsoft's and Apple's Grip on Iceland After Territorial Claims by the US [original]
    First they say Greenland, what if they say "Iceland" later?
  17. Android Leftovers
    One of NotebookLM's most useful features is now available on Android
  18. I wouldn’t install Linux on these laptops (here’s why)
    I've been running Linux on different machines for years, and I genuinely love it
  19. Your Windows habits are dangerous on Linux—here are 4 things to avoid
    Linux isn't necessarily "harder" than Windows
  20. I Switched From Windows 11 to Linux Mint. Here Are 7 Things It Does Way Better
    Moving from Windows to Linux doesn't require much of a learning curve and brings some real benefits
  21. Linux Mint just made the terminal easier to ignore than ever
    Linux Mint 22.3 Zena is on a mission to make the terminal optional, and honestly, they're nailing it
  22. IPFire 2.29 - Core Update 200 is available for testing
    The IPFire development team is excited to bring you Core Update 200
  23. Free and Open Source Software, howtos and Installations
    This is free and open source software
  24. This Week in Plasma: getting 6.6 ready for release
    This week we reached that part of every Plasma release cycle where the bug fixes and polish for the upcoming release are still coming in hot and heavy
  25. KWallet, SecretService, oo7: the story so far
    Continuing previous efforts to update the “secure passwords” story of the Plasma desktop
  26. France Just Created Its Own Open Source Alternative to Microsoft Teams and Zoom
    Last year, in July, the city of Lyon started the process of ditching Microsoft in favor of ONLYOFFICE and an undisclosed Linux-based operating system
  27. Stable kernels: Linux 6.18.8, Linux 6.12.68, and Linux 6.6.122
    I'm announcing the release of the 6.18.8 kernel
  28. Contribute to Fedora 44 KDE and GNOME Test Days
    Fedora test days are events where anyone can help make certain that changes in Fedora Linux work well in an upcoming release
  29. GNU/Linux Rapidly Becoming 'Standard' Platform or an 'Empire' for Games [original]
    There are some big things happening this month for GNU/Linux
  30. Today in Techrights
    Some of the latest articles
    The corresponding text-only bulletin for Saturday contains all the text.

    Top-read articles (excluding bot/crawler visits):

    Span from 2026-01-25 to 2026-01-31
    1266 /n/2026/01/25/Open_Hardware_Modding_Mecha_Comet_Raspberry_Pi_and_More.shtml
    968 /index.shtml
    947 /n/2026/01/26/Proton_10_0_4_Released_with_Support_for_Drop_Dead_The_Cabin_Qua.shtml
    936 /n/2026/01/27/OpenSSL_3_6_1_Is_Now_Available_with_Important_Security_Patches_.shtml

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

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"
 
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".
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
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 14 Out of 200: Men Who Strangle Women (and Worse) Trying to Force Us to Write Public Apologies to These Men
For those who never before saw a SLAPP, they basically make many demands
Instant Bluewashing at Confluent: Mass Layoffs Alleged at IBM
So the main question is, did IBM just fire 800 people?
"Vibe-forking" and Why It'll Ultimately Fail (Hype on Top of Hype)
Code made with LLMs sucks; converting solid, human-tested code into slop only complicates matters and increases risk
Updates About Richard Stallman's Free Software Foundation
After all those years (a decade) and in spite of phony scandals many people out there still respect him
LLM Slop With "Linux" in the Domain Names
This is becoming a pain and a problem also in the arts and in software engineering
The EFF Has a Bug, Fixing This Bug is Likely Not Possible Anymore
"the EFF's continued existence impairs the arrival of a replacement organization, one which will actually champion digital rights."
Links 17/03/2026: Microsoft Windows Broken by Samsung, Afghanistan-Pakistan War Escalation
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/03/2026: Newcomers and False-Positive 'Slop'
Links for the day
Héctor Orón Martínez & Debian shadow candidate pressure on Sruthi Chandran
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 17/03/2026: American Fentanylware (TikTok) Investors Implicated in Kickbacks, "Big Oil Knew It Was Wrecking Louisiana’s Coast"
Links for the day
For Third Time in a Week The Register MS Runs Google SPAM That Paints Google as an Ally of Women (Which is False, They're Womanisers)
What does that make The Register MS to women?
British Justice Minister Sarah Sackman Blasts Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
The "legal industry" is due for "some reckoning"
GAFAM Deprecating Old Videos ("Content") by Removing the Support for Their Format for No Good Reason
"Security" is not a valid excuse
Credit/Debit Cards Have Long Been Called Plastics, Over Time They're Becoming More Like Pure Plastics
They cost less than a dollar to manufacture
The European Patent Office (EPO) Holds a Public Demonstration Tomorrow and It'll be Live-streamed
The EPO's workforce was meant to be capable of speaking many languages and have extensive experience in the sciences
People Who Attacked Techrights Also Attacked My Mother
Picking on old ladies because you don't like Free software advocates is never OK
Little Community Element Left in CentOS
CentOS, unlike Fedora, was meant to be long supported and solid
Social Control Media is Cancel Culture (Companies Like Facebook Also Punish/Ban Accounts for Mentioning "Linux" and Lobby for Anti-Linux Legislation)
The masters of Social Control Media decide what ideas can and cannot be expressed
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 16, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, March 16, 2026