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Links 4/10/2015: Linux 4.2.3 , 4.1.10; MPlayer 1.2 released





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



  • Desktop



    • Curious about Linux? Try Linux Desktop on the Cloud
      Linux maintains a very small market share as a desktop operating system. Current surveys estimate its share to be a mere 2%; contrast that with the various strains (no pun intended) of Windows which total nearly 90% of the desktop market. For Linux to challenge Microsoft's monopoly on the desktop, there needs to be a simple way of learning about this different operating system. And it would be naive to believe a typical Windows user is going to buy a second machine, tinker with partitioning a hard disk to set up a multi-boot system, or just jump ship to Linux without an easy way back.




  • Server



    • A gentle introduction to microservices
      What are microservices? Have you heard the phrase "microservices" used in a discussion of modern application development and wondered what it's all about?




  • Kernel Space



    • The Art of Communicating with LKML
      For most users of distros, the distro bug system is the first line of interaction when something kernel related breaks on their system. This makes sense: the kernel most users are using is packaged by a distro so the maintainers should be the first ones to take a look at the problem. Inevitably though, something will arise such that the solution cannot come from the distro maintainers and must come from the greater kernel community. Sometimes the distro maintainers can do the follow up but there may be a request for the bug reporter or reproducer to contact the kernel mailing list directly. Now everything depends on how successful the person is in communicating with LKML.


    • Linux 4.2.3


    • Linux 4.1.10


    • There's A Lot Of Exciting AMDGPU DRM Code Brewing For Eventual Catalyst Support
      One of the big items still in the works as part of AMD's unified Linux driver strategy is that the Catalyst proprietary driver will be isolated to user-space and make use of the AMDGPU kernel DRM driver. Being publicly now in development in a few code branches are changes to the AMD DRM code for beginning to suit more of it to Catalyst's driver design.


    • Linux Kernel 4.2.3 Is Out with Open vSwitch and IPv6 Fixes, Updated Networking Drivers
      After only 4 days from the release of the second maintenance version of the Linux 4.2 kernel series, Greg Kroah-Hartman comes today, October 3, with news about the release of Linux kernel 4.2.3.


    • Linux Foundation Says Open Source Code Worth $5 Billion


    • Graphics Stack





  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments/WMs



    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt



      • KDE Ships Plasma 5.4.2, bugfix Release for October
        Tuesday, 06 October 2015. Today KDE releases a bugfix update to Plasma 5, versioned 5.4.2. Plasma 5.4 was released in August with many feature refinements and new modules to complete the desktop experience.


      • KDE Plasma 5.4.2, bugfix Release for October, is already landing in Kubuntu Wily


      • Kubuntu 15.10 Will Have KDE Plasma 5.4.2
        Kubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" is being released later this month and it will feature the very latest KDE Plasma 5.4 point release.

        Plasma 5.4.2 isn't being released until next week but the Kubuntu crew is pushing it early into 15.10 Wily now to ensure it arrives with the 15.10 debut.


      • Randa Meetings update
        I am really not a person who blogs much and its bit late, please bare with me in case if anyone does not like the way article is written or how it is formatted. I really feel good being KDE user since 2005. Officially I started coding / contributing to minor stuff in KDE in 2010. Switzerland is an awesome place and I really liked Randa. Speaking of Switzerland, for me those trains are art of engineering. I would like to thank KDE e.v. and other sponsors for making this event happen.




    • GNOME Desktop/GTK



      • GNOME's 2014 Annual Report Published
        For those wondering about the state of GNOME, their annual report is now available.

        The GNOME Foundation 2014 annual report covers their financial situation, their trademark battle with GroupOn, their temporary financial shortfall due to the OPW project, the hack/developer events engaged in, and much more.






  • Distributions



  • Devices/Embedded



    • Nest Labs advances its Weave home automation ecosystem
      Google’s Nest Labs subsidiary announced more details about the Weave peer-to-peer networking protocol for home automation devices. Nest, which sells the popular Nest Learning Thermostat and other Linux-based home automation products, says it has added Weave to its Works with Nest connected ecosystem program. It also announced the vendors that will support Weave when it is released in 2016, starting with Yale and its “Linus” smart lock (see farther below).


    • Headless box-PC has six GbE ports, runs Linux on G-Series
      Acrosser’s “AND-G420N1” compact headless networking appliance runs Linux on a quad-core 2GHz AMD G-Series SoC, and offers SATA-II storage and six GbE ports.

      Acrosser refers to the AND-G420N1 as a desktop networking microbox, as well as a “cost-effective niche solution.” The networking appliance runs Ubuntu or Fedora Linux on an AMD G-Series GX-420MC SoC


    • OpenDerby Update
      Last year I built a new derby track for my son’s royal rangers group. I used a RaspberryPi with Pidora on it to run the timing system.


    • Phones



      • Five things that doomed the big and brilliant BlackBerry 10
        And being late matters. In a globalised technology industry, hundreds of smaller industries, and their own supply chains, all line themselves up alongside the winners. Being late and going it alone is suicidal. Ask Nokia: it envisaged a 'computer first, phone second world' as far back as 2002, when it started Linux development, and devoted billions to being sure it would be competitive when this world came about. But consumers and industry had already anointed a second platform.


      • Tizen



        • [Wallpapers] Tizen Themed Samsung Gear S2 Backgrounds – Vol 1
          Following the release of the Samsung Gear S2 in the US, Korea, Singapore and Germany makets, Tizen Experts present you with custom Gear S2 wallpapers / backgrounds. To celebrate the Smartwatches history, these first batch of wallpapers will have a Tizen theme to them, after all the Gear S2 runs the Tizen Operating System. You can download them directly from our site either using your computer or your mobile device, and then easily transfer them to your Gear S2 Smartwatch.




      • Android

        • Blackphone: privacy-obsessed smartphone aims to broaden its appeal
          Can you hear me now? Not if you’re eavesdropping on a Blackphone. Privacy company Silent Circle has released a second version of its signature handheld, a smartphone designed to quell the data scraping and web tracking that’s become such an integral part of the digital economy in the last few years (and whose results might well end up with the NSA, if the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act passes).


        • Blackphone 2: NSA-thwarting Android smartphone goes on sale
          The handset runs a new version of the firm's Android-based SilentOS, and comes with features including Silent Circle's Silent Phone app, which offers encrypted voice calls, messaging and file transfers.


        • Android fans have yet another reason to cheer Motorola
          Android fans have a lot of good reasons to root for Motorola these days and the company gave them a brand-new one on Friday. Motorola not only announced which of its phones would be getting upgraded to Android but it also announced that it would actually be deleting two pieces of its own software from those devices to make the upgrade process go even faster.


        • Data indicates that Android picked up global market share from iOS last month
          Tracking mobile web traffic, NetMarketShare computes the market share for mobile operating systems. Based on the data from last month, Android was able to widen its gap over iOS globally. Considering that the Apple iPhone 6s and Apple iPhone 6s Plus weren't launched until September 25th, the recently released phones accounted for a miniscule part of the data. The new models won't have a major effect on the results until the figures for this month are released.


        • Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 review: One of the best Android tablets available out there
          Reasonably priced in comparison to its rivals, the Tab S2 with its powerful display and fast processor could be the best Android tablet available in the market today.


        • Nvidia Shield Android TV review
          Overall, Nvidia, Apple and Amazon have a clear strategy here. They want to revolutionise the way we interact with television, and they want to provide 'capable enough' games machines that appeal to the mainstream too. Nvidia is going one step further - it's looking to attract core gamers on top of that with its Shield platform and GeForce functionality. But without all of the required media options properly in place and completely integrated into the highly promising interface, what we're left with is an enthusiasts' machine where only the core can really put the excellent hardware through its paces.










Free Software/Open Source



  • Three students jump into open source with OpenMRS and Sahana Eden
    We are three students in the Bachelor of Computer Science second degree program at the University of British Columbia (UBC). As we each have cooperative education experience, our technical ability and contributions have increasingly become a point of focus as we approach graduation. Our past couple of years at UBC have allowed us to produce some great technical content, but we all found ourselves with one component noticeably absent from our resumes: an open source contribution. While the reasons for this are varied, they all stem from the fact that making a contribution involves a set of skills that goes far beyond anything taught in the classroom or even learned during an internship. It requires a person to be outgoing with complete strangers, to be proactive in seeking out problems to solve, and to have effective written communication.


  • Your field's talent is expecting openness
    Open source social and cultural history is the antithesis of traditional organizational management structures, and, unfortunately, it's younger. Emotion is influenced by surroundings and norms, and what we learned about hierarchy when we were growing up influences how we participate in business today.


  • Events



  • SaaS/Big Data



  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice



  • BSD



    • Call for Testing: tame userland diff
      The full diff follows in the original mail, but it's probably simpler to just use a snapshot. For those of you who've been looking forward to seeing how it handles, now's the time to find out.




  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC



    • Pipe dream – Debian GNU/Hurd 8 Review
      GNU Hurd – microkernel and part of GNU Project. Hurd means “Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons”, Hird – “Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth. Total recursion! Development started in 1990 (before Linux kernel) as part of plans to create fully free and open source operation system. Unlike the Linux kernel Hurd have a lot of system daemons (you can see it on video) run by GNU Mach microkernel and some specific system protocols. Popularity of Linux lowered Hurd’s priority, but project progress all this 25+ years.


    • Software that liberates people: feels about FSF@30 and OSFeels@1
      tl;dr: I want to liberate people; software is a (critical) tool to that end. There is a conference this weekend that understands that, but I worry it isn’t FSF’s.




  • Openness/Sharing



  • Programming



    • Teach, Don’t Tell
      This post is about writing technical documentation. More specifically: it’s about writing documentation for programming languages and libraries.

      [...]

      Let’s get started. The first thing to nail down is why we’re documenting a programming language or library in the first place.


    • Remote-First vs. Remote-Friendly
      A lot of companies are using tools like Slack, Hangouts, and GitLab...






Leftovers



Recent Techrights' Posts

Extortion is a Crime, Even If You're Based in Another Continent and Work for Microsoft
reported to British authorities
 
Links 06/06/2025: Microsoft XBox Bracing For More Mass Layoffs, Climate Disaster, Fake 'Money' Tokens From US President
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Gemini Links 06/06/2025: Vanishing Cultures and MElon Implosion
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We're in 6/6 Now, Almost Halfway in 2025
2025 was probably the best year for us
South Americans Are Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
We're hardly even "Cherry-Picking" or conveniently singling out one South American nation
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part III: Data Protection Failures, Just Like at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Just less than a decade ago we showed that the EPO had illegally shared staff data with third parties
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 05, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 05, 2025
Pushing Microsoft's Proprietary Trash/Trap as "Open" and "Linux" (Windows is 'Linux' Now?)
Maybe it's time to just stop saying "FOSS". The people who use that term are promoting Microsoft.
Slopwatch: Comparing Linux to Vermin, Attacking BSD With LLM Slop, and Helping Microsoft Demonise Linux/OpenBSD/SSH Over Weak User Passwords
Microsoft must be laughing its arse off, seeing how a bunch of Serial Sloppers (no skills, no comprehension, no integrity, no creativity) and slopfarms use Microsoft LLM to flood the Web with anti-Linux FUD
Links 05/06/2025: US Poised for Another $2.4 Trillion to Debt, Cops Want GAFAM Kill Switches
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Scandinavia Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
The Danes have had enough of Microsoft
GNU/Linux Measured at 6% in Bangladesh, According to statCounter
Windows isn't growing, it's going away
Nat Friedman Had Left Microsoft GitHub Exactly One Week Before Matthew Garrett Sent His First SLAPP (Which Was an Empty Threat, He Was Abusing the Legal System of Another Continent to Terrorise Critics Who Had Just Unearthed Major Microsoft Scandals)
And it was likely talked about by his lawyers around the exact same time Nat Friedman was packing up
Gemini Links 05/06/2025: Loop Earplugs Review and ANS Forth
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Armenian Adoption of GNU/Linux
Russian influence in Armenian must be worrying to Microsoft
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part II: Turning a Once-Respected Patent Office Into a Circus and Laughing Stock
It's not legal, but administrators who don't care about the law and don't fear the law would just go ahead and turn things to junk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 04, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 04, 2025
Slopwatch: Mindless Slop Pieces, Fake Images and Text, Linux FUD on the Cheap
spewed out by Microsoft-controlled LLMs
Links 04/06/2025: Workers' Strikes, Sudan Exodus
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Links 04/06/2025: Linux Foundation PR Spam and Lee Jae-myung Wins Election
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Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Future Leaders of the World and Platforming Jordan Peterson
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Links 04/06/2025: WSL Backfiring on Microsoft and "Disney, Microsoft Announce Massive Layoffs"
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Our Case is a Very Easy Win, the SLAPPs From Microsofters Were a Grave Error, and Censoring Information Won't Work (It'll Only Ever Backfire)
Censoring is what people do when they lose the argument
Say the Truth, the Rest Will Follow
There's no guarantee that writing the truth will result in an audience (or readership), but over time - in the long run - people generally gravitate towards what they know or feel to be crude truth, not just what's comforting (albeit false or self-deluding, usually groupthink dictated from above)
How to Expose High-Level Corruption Without Getting in (Too Much) Trouble
Democracy depends on free press and freedom of the press depends on being able to safely publish (and keep available) material that bad people don't want to be known to anybody
In-Depth EPO Coverage at Techrights Turns Eleven
11 years is a very long time
Windows Measured Below 10% in Afghanistan, GNU/Linux Gaining a Lot
about 80% are Android (Linux) users, compared to only about 10% for Windows
Poland's Political Predicament and Social Control Media
Democracy and fake "tech" don't mix well; the latter tends to interfere with the former and that's why we get more "Putins" out there
EPO: Taking Away From the Staff to Give More to the Rich
The Central Staff Committee (CSC) wrote to EPO staff earlier this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 03, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 03, 2025
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part I: It's a Lot Like the EPO
we can commence a series soon
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Inescapable Questions and Quitting All "Oligarch Tech"
Links for the day