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Links 10/6/2015: New Krita/Calligra and Clonezilla





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



  • Blockstream to Release First Open Source Code for Sidechains
    Blockstream has announced it will release an open source codebase and testing environment for its signature sidechains project.


  • Huawei Certified to Offer Apache Spark Open Source Big Data Processing Framework
    Huawei, this week announced that it has become the first global ICT vendor to obtain certification by Databricks for distribution of the Apache Spark open source big data processing framework. Databricks, a company founded by the creators of Spark, has developed the “Certified Spark Distribution” program to highlight and recognize third party vendors distributing Spark. Leveraging the high-performance big data computing architecture and the complete ecosystem of Spark, the Huawei-Spark platform is designed to help customers realize the full potential of data assets to drive agile operation and business innovation.


  • Teradata to Advance Big Data Analytics with Support for Presto Open Source SQL Query Engine
    To help users extract insights from data lakes,Teradata has made a multi-year commitment to contribute to Presto’s open source development. Based on a three-part roadmap, Teradata’s says its contributions will be 100% open source under the Apache license and will advance Presto’s code base, scalability, iterative querying, and ability to query multiple data repositories.


  • Why an open web is important for India
    Priyanka Nag is a technical writer for Red Hat and Mozilla Rep from India. Priyanka has been contributing to open source projects for the past four years. She started by editing Wikipedia pages, and then was introduced to Mozilla during an event at her college. She says that Mozilla was love at first sight, and soon after she became a Mozillian, she was hooked on the project. Now Priyanka is also a regular speaker at community events in India. I recently caught up with Priyanka to learn more about her work in the Mozilla Community and her thoughts on the importance of the open web in India.


  • What TODO means for open source community
    Open source software is not just meant for still-struggling start-ups that can't afford to pay the licensing fees for proprietary software, and budget-conscious, modest small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMEs) hoping to cut down on IT costs. This was proven in late September when several major companies – running the gamut from technology, right through to retail and media – came together to form the TODO project.


  • 8 excellent open source data visualization tools
    Data visualization is the mechanism of taking tabular or spatial data and conveying it in a human-friendly and visual way. There are several open source tools that can help you create useful, informative graphs. In this post we will take a look at eight open source, data visualization tools.


  • Wine Will Migrate Away from SourceForge
    If you're reading the news lately, you might know that the SourceForge project hosting website has been accused of hijacking open-source software that have been abandoned by their maintainers or did not have some activity for an extended period of time.


  • The Cloud vs. Open Source
    For years, Linux and free software were perceived as threatened by cloud computing, the online storage of data. However, over the last few years, something ironic happened -- free software became a major player in cloud computing.


  • Events



    • Graphics Microconference Accepted into 2015 Linux Plumbers Conference
      Although the Year of the Linux Desktop has yet to arrive, a surprising number of Linux users nevertheless need graphics support. This is because there have been a number of years of the Linux smartphone, the Linux television, the Linux digital sign/display/billboard, the Linux automobile, and more. This microconference will cover a number of topics including atomic modesetting in KMS, buffer allocation, verified-secure graphics pipelines, fencing and synchronisation, Wayland, and more.




  • Web Browsers



    • Mozilla



      • Mozilla responds to Firefox user backlash over Pocket integration
        Pocket is a service for managing a reading list of online articles (it allows you to save stories, videos, and websites to check out later). Pocket is already offered as a Firefox add-on, and although Mozilla was developing a homegrown Reading List feature for the browser, the company decided to simply integrate Pocket directly into Firefox.






  • SaaS/Big Data



    • Cisco, IBM Bet Big on OpenStack
      Cisco and IBM are doubling down on OpenStack, hoping "the result lets them develop a solution that will scale. Neither company is yet willing to abandon OpenStack, and both feel there's still a solution in it someplace," said tech analyst Rob Enderle. By acquiring Piston Cloud Computing and Blue Box Cloud, they "may correct some of the problems with OpenStack, which should improve penetration."




  • Business



  • Funding



    • Rancher Labs is the Latest to Cash in on Container Technology
      Container technology remains red hot and VC money is flowing toward it. Rancher Labs, a startup developing Docker infrastructure software, has announced $10 million in Series A funding from Mayfield and Nexus Venture Partners. "With the rapid adoption of container technology, the company’s open source software has grown in popularity by allowing organizations to run containers in production, across any cloud," Rancher Labs' leaders have stated.




  • Public Services/Government



    • Dutch government agency switches core services to open source
      Public administrations that switch to open source regain financial scalability, says Jan-Taeke Schuilenga, IT architect at DUO, the Dutch government agency managing the financing of the country’s educational institutions. “We had reached the limit of proprietary licence possibilities. Switching to open source gave us freedom of choice.”




  • Openness/Sharing



  • Standards/Consortia



    • Licensing Standards that Include Code: Heads or Tails?
      Once upon a time, standards were standards and open source software was open source software (OSS), and the only thing people worried about was whether the copyright and patent rules relating to the standards would prevent them from being implemented in OSS. Actually, that was complicated enough, but it seems simple in comparison now that OSS is being included in the standards themselves. Now what?

      If this sounds unusual and exotic, it isn’t. In fact, code has been creeping into standards for years, often without the keepers of the intellectual property rights (IPR) Policies governing the standards even being aware of it.






Leftovers



  • Security



  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife





  • Finance



    • Republicans Trashed Democracy in Michigan. Now They Want To Trash It in Your State, Too.
      One city neglected to inform its residents that its water supply was laced with cancerous chemicals. Another dissolved its public school district and replaced it with a charter school system, only to witness the for-profit management company it hired flee the scene after determining it couldn't turn a profit. Numerous cities and school districts in the state are now run by single, state-appointed technocrats, as permitted under an emergency financial manager law pushed through by Rick Snyder, Michigan's austerity-promoting governor. This legislation not only strips residents of their local voting rights, but gives Snyder's appointee the power to do just about anything, including dissolving the city itself—all (no matter how disastrous) in the name of "fiscal responsibility."


    • 5 Ways Powerful People Trick You Into Hating Protesters
      Let's say that tomorrow you are elected Secret Ruler of the USA, a position that gives you total power over the government, economy, and the culture at large -- everything that hippies refer to as "the system." Now, your first job is to not get beheaded by rioting peasants, which means your first job is really to maintain "stability" (i.e., "keeping things mostly the way they are").

      Immediately you'll find that you're facing a never-ending stream of protests from disgruntled groups who say they're being treated unfairly or otherwise getting left out -- this group over here is upset that somebody got abused by the police; this other bunch is demanding better wages or something. How do you handle it? Sure, you could crush their movements with an iron fist, using violence to kill, intimidate or arrest their most vocal members. But that can backfire, often turning them into martyrs and proving them right in the process -- you've seen Star Wars; somebody always finds the exhaust port.




  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



  • Censorship



  • Privacy



    • Why Did It Take the Pentagon a Month to Figure Out Its Files Were Compromised?
      Edward Snowden’s leaks exposed a federal government unable to protect its most sensitive secrets.


    • Feds Must Encrypt Government Websites by Dec. 2016
      The White House now requires all publicly accessible federal websites and services to use a secure HTTPS connection.

      Government agencies have until Dec. 31, 2016 to comply with the new HTTPS-Only Standard directive.

      Unencrypted HTTP connections "create a vulnerability and expose potentially sensitive information about users," U.S. Chief Information Officer Tony Scott said in this week's announcement. That includes data like browser identity, website content, search terms, and other user-submitted details.


    • Obama lawyers asked secret court to ignore public court's decision on spying
      The Obama administration has asked a secret surveillance court to ignore a federal court that found bulk surveillance illegal and to once again grant the National Security Agency the power to collect the phone records of millions of Americans for six months.

      The legal request, filed nearly four hours after Barack Obama vowed to sign a new law banning precisely the bulk collection he asks the secret court to approve, also suggests that the administration may not necessarily comply with any potential court order demanding that the collection stop.


    • French Surveillance Bill: Public Liberties Abandoned as Senators Cast Disastrous Vote
      The Surveillance Bill was adopted today by the French Senate with 251 votes for, 68 against and 26 abstentions. This bill was fast tracked and discussed under the pressure of a government wielding the argument of an extreme terrorist risk to impose massive spying of the French population with expansive purposes. It will put France under a surveillance all at once diffuse, intrusive, indiscriminate and without effective control. La Quadrature du Net bitterly regrets the blindness of the French Parliamentarians and calls on citizens not to give up on their liberties.




  • Civil Rights



    • Six lies they told me about the anti-Israel boycott
      The bulk of recent incidents concerning the anti-Israel boycott, which are mainly symbolic for now, could have served as a warning sign. But a mixture of nationalistic and false statements is blinding the Israeli public and preventing a real discussion of the issue. Here are a few examples.


    • British tourist Eleanor Hawkins arrested for naked photo on top of Malaysian mountain
      A British woman arrested in Malaysia for posing naked on top of a sacred mountain has been named as Eleanor Hawkins.

      The 24-year-old Southampton University graduate from Derby was detained on Tuesday at Tawau airport, as she was flying out from the island of Borneo to the capital, Kuala Lumpur.


    • Theresa May Condemns Majid Ali and Defies Scotland
      Despite numerous representations and an Early Day Motion signed by the large majority of Scotland’s MPs, Theresa May has ordered that Majid Ali, a Glasgow City College student, be deported back to almost certain torture and probable death in Pakistan in just twenty minutes from now. I attended the demonstration on his behalf yesterday at the Scottish Office.

      Majid is a member of the much persecuted Baloch minority. Two of his immediate family have been “disappeared” by the Pakistani military since his asylum application was submitted. There is no doubt that given the numerous MP’s who have raised his case, and the well-supported early day motion, civil servants will have put the decision to May personally. She was however not even prepared to grant a delay for a look at the evidence. May is very likely not merely pandering to the racist UKIP voting electorate – she is on the far right of politics herself. The callous sacrifice of Majid Ali is proof, if any more were needed, that this Conservative administration is nothing to do with Cameron’s purported “compassionate conservatism.” They are the nasty party indeed.




  • Internet/Net Neutrality



    • EU Commission Tries to Rip Citizens Off Net Neutrality
      The European Commission attacks Net Neutrality again, by introducing a “compromise document” that refuses to enshrine a definition of this crucial principle into the law. A strong coalition including the EU Council, the European Commission and a handful of MEPs is working against the general interest by including loopholes that will be used by the telecom lobby to circumvent the proposed protections against discrimination, thereby undermining fundamental rights and innovation.


    • EU digi-chief to meet ministers and sort out the net neutrality thing
      Gaffe-prone Gunther H-dot, Europe’s digital chief, has waded into the net neutrality debate once again, but has vowed to sort everything out in a meeting with national ministers next Friday.




  • Intellectual Monopolies



    • Copyrights



      • EU vice-president: Copyright legislation is “pushing people to steal”
        Andrus Ansip, the European Commission's Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, has admitted that EU copyright law is "pushing people to steal," because they seek out illegal copies of works that are not available to them legally because of the widespread use of geoblocking in Europe.


      • Elsevier Cracks Down on Pirated Scientific Articles


        Academic publishing company Elsevier has filed a complaint at a New York District Court, hoping to shut down the Library Genesis project and the SciHub.org search engine. The sites, which are particularly popular in developing nations where access to academic works is relatively expensive, are accused of pirating millions of scientific articles.


      • Kim Dotcom’s MegaNet Preps Jan 2016 Crowdfunding Campaign


        Kim Dotcom's dream of a people-powered, censorship-resistant Internet will rely on the goodwill of supporters to get off the ground. In an announcement this morning, the entrepreneur confirmed that his MegaNet project will seek equity via a crowd-funding campaign set to launch on the January 2016 anniversary of the raid on Megaupload.








Recent Techrights' Posts

Before Freenode Collapsed Its Staff (the People Who Now Run Libera.Chat) Were Censoring/Silencing Some Free Software Supporters
We still have this issue in the Free software community
All We Want to See is Any Form of Accountability in Europe's Largest Institutions
Because people at the top of institutions should never be above the law!
Misinformation/Disinformation Disguised as Information About GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL) Usage
GPL-type licences (reciprocal obligations) remain dominant
IBM Mass Layoffs This Week Not Limited to North America, Red Hat Staff Terminated
Do not relocate for a company that sees you as nothing but a number or a "human resource"
 
Slopwatch: Brian Fagioli Targets "Linux" With LLMs, Google News Helps Blame "Linux" for Amazon WorkSpaces Flaws
Tonight's slopfest
Gemini Links 07/11/2025: Switzerland, k3s, and Privacy
Links for the day
Links 07/11/2025: Software Patents Squashed, Stock Markets Wobble Over Slop Uncertainties
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A 19th Anniversary and High-Impact Exclusives
The end of 2025 will be very difficult for EPO management
The Register MS, Payroll First
GNU/Linux is a growing platform
Links 07/11/2025: US Government Shutdown Imperils Critical Functions, Slop in "AI" Clothing Debunked Some More, Bubble's Implosion Ongoing/Imminent According to Experts
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Gemini Links 07/11/2025: No Goodbyes, Homelab, Mouse Keys / Pointer Keys
Links for the day
12 Years for Justice is Far Too Slow (and More People, Especially Women, Are Hurt)
Why do police departments and legal systems fail to protect women?
Freenode and irc.com Are Still Around
It emulates retro terminals
We Don't Compete, We Analyse and Report
Principles are so much better than money and they're something money can never acquire
Red Hat is Also Laying Off Staff in India
Red Hat is a dishonest company
Finding Recent Talks of Richard Stallman
We already have many pages, documents, and media files. Organising them and helping people find them is the next Big Task.
Richard Stallman First Speaker at Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress the Weekend After This Coming Weekend
He'll be speaking over the Net
Diversity at Red Hat
Remember to judge corporations by their actions, not some Web pages with words in them
First the Python Software Foundation (PSF) Attacked Its Most Productive Volunteers. Now It Attacks Its Funding Sources.
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) rejected by PSF
News of Substance About the EPO's Substance Abuse (Cocaine)
EPO Cocaine Chronicles - link to archived BILD article and photos
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 06, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, November 06, 2025
On Midlife Crises
Focus on the sabotage, not politics
Hallmark of Fake News: "Single-digit" (Percentage) and 1% Isn't the Same Thing
apparently "rebalancing" is the new layoffs euphemism
Links 07/11/2025: Patent Trolls Target Germany, Celebrities Visit Ukraine
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Brian Fagioli, and Google News Boosting WebProNews (All Slopfarms)
Those slopfarms just saturate the Web with misinformation and mindless chaff
Techrights and Tux Machines at Over 40
19 years of Techrights and 21+ years of Tux Machines
Coming Soon: More Proof of Cocaine Use at Europe's Second-Largest Institution
Stay tuned
Entering Our 20th Year
...and still looking for answers
Mailing lists vs Discourse forums: open source communities or commodities?
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 06/11/2025: "Component Abuse Challenge", Google Play Store Deemed Too Monopolistic
Links for the day
Microsoft and Microsoft GitHub (and Rust @ Microsoft GitHub) the Future of Ubuntu, They Want the Same for Debian
Ubuntu is not the place to find freedom
Richard Stallman Was Right About LLM-based Chatbots
the passing fad, LLM-based chatbots
IBM Has Not Been Good for IBM's Red Hat (Which Microsoft Also Attempted to Buy)
GAFAM or GIAFAM are not a force for good
Taking Back Control Over Technology We Purchase (Study, Modify, Enhance, and More)
"The war on general-purpose computing continues
Links 06/11/2025: EFF Wants New Executive Director, Microsoft's Azure Falls Over Again
Links for the day
All Set for Tomorrow
Techrights waves
The Corporate Media Carries on With Patently Phony and Misleading Narrative About IBM's Mass Layoffs
Instead of rightly alleging business failure or commercial (leadership's) weakness it is offloading blame to some mindless buzzwords
IBM Isn't Hiring Based on Age Groups. It Still Hires Based on Salary Expectations.
It is not about the skills available, it's about the expected cost of labour
Estimating the Scale of IBM's Mass Layoffs This Week
there is no denying that the IBM layoffs are vast
Telling Our Story as Victims of Online Abuse
This post will not mention any names
Claim That EPO Quotas Brought Corruption and Mischief to Europe's Second-Largest Institution
Nowadays corruption is the norm at the EPO and there is even rampant substance abuse among the people who run the Office
Rust's "Memory Safety" Talking Point Ought to be Discarded in Light of Fil-C
new memory-safe C/C++ compiler
Claim That IBM Has Another 8 Days to Lay Off 'Expensive' Staff
The consensus in comments we see is, IBM is a terrible place to work in, treatment of its workers is appalling, it's utterly foolish to relocate in an effort to retain a job at IBM, and it's foolish to join the company in the first place
Science Demands Facts, Not Dogma
Saying that restricted hardware is not secure hardware should be common sense
Site Anniversary is Tomorrow
The celebrations might delay our EPO series somewhat
Launching Techrights Search
New search interface and locally hosted back end
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 05, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, November 05, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxbsdos.com, Linux Journal, LinuxSecurity, Brian Fagioli, and WebProNews
Either Google doesn't care about the integrity of Google News or it deems slop to be acceptable
Gemini Links 05/11/2025: Affirmation, GnuPG, and While Loops
Links for the day
Links 05/11/2025: Economic Trouble in France and US Bombing All Over the World Without Declaration of War or Congress Approving
Links for the day
IBM May Well Be Laying Off Over 13,500 and Up to 27,000 Staff This Week When It Says "Single-Digit Percentage of Our Global Workforce"
It's not yet possible to know how many people IBM gets rid of
Red Hat Staff Also Impacted by Latest IBM Layoffs With Focus on North America and Software, Infrastructure
After the bluewashing never expect to see news about "Red Hat layoffs", just as "Tivoli layoffs" aren't to be expected
Early Unverified Figures About Scale of Latest IBM Layoffs
the real scale of the RAs will remain elusive
Coming Soon: Part 4 About the EPO's Substance Abuse (Breaking Laws to Fake 'Production' and Profiting From Unlawful Monopolies)
Notice how quiet the EPO's management has been lately
How Techrights Search Works
Hopefully bots won't use it
For the Record: We Never Named Staff of the Law Firm That's Attacking Us, Except the One the Firm is Named After!
Just to affirm and be sure, I've used our new search facility
Techrights Became a Lot More Productive as a Result of Attacks on It
By default, it's safe to assume anything on the Web is garbage, especially in social control media
Unverified Rumours: IBM Cuts Will Continue Another ~10 Days, Managers Will Invite Those Impacted for 1-on-1 Meetings
Right now IBM likes diversity because with adoption of low-paid demographies it gets to pay workers less for the same work
Links 05/11/2025: Medicare Privatisation and "Breaker Box Economy"
Links for the day
Techrights Search Will Come Early
Maybe tomorrow
It Seems Like GNOME/IBM Don't Like Women and When Budget is Limited Only Women Take the Fall
Seems like a very patriarchal, GAFAM-controlled Foundation
"Last Day" as in "IBM Sacked Me" (Cruel Euphemisms)
"The entire design and research technical leadership at IBM was laid off in the past year, including this round"
analytics.usa.gov: Vista 11 Scarcely Used, GNU/Linux Increasingly Dominant (Microsoft Loses "Goodwill", Depletes Cash Equivalents, and Debt Soars)
"Total current assets" fell by more than 2 billion dollars in the past 3 months
Shadow Crew and Ads Disguised as Articles
That The Register MS runs articles that are paid-for fluff isn't unprecedented
Vista 11 "Market Share" Has Fallen This Month, Based on statCounter
The US government's own data shows the same thing this month
This is How Mainstream Media, Boosted or Parroted by Slopfarms, Spins IBM's Commercial Failure and Mass Layoffs as "AI"
Some say "software focus", but most just resort to buzzwords and blame-shifting hype
Resisting Misogynists
Rianne has already added close to 100,000 pages to this site
Starting November on a Strong Note
All in all, this month started well for us as we have good, accurate publications with considerable impact
Fake Retirements Help IBM Keep the Layoff Figures Down
Yesterday we read that it was quite cruel how IBM (or Red Hat) compelled staff to pretend to be happily leaving or "retiring" when the reality was, they had been pushed out with some "package"
Cocaine at the European Patent Office Now a Subject in YouTube, Media Will Revisit the Topic
"The Cocaine Patent Office" is no joking matter
Gemini Links 05/11/2025: "Wuthering Heights" and "Winter is Coming"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 04, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, November 04, 2025
2 Days Until Site Anniversary Party, Search Likely to Launch Same Day
We're now just two days away from the nineteenth anniversary of the site
Not Only Mass Layoffs at IBM But Complete Shutdowns "Amid A.I. Boom"
apparently about 10,000 layoffs, not counting those who got pushed out by PIPs and other means