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Links 4/5/2020: Ubuntu 20.04 as Future Of Computers and Latest Stable Kernels



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • End of the 32-bit world?



        We continue to live through very strange times but Linux Format persists! Everyone at locked-down LXF Towers hopes you’re all well, keeping safe and isolated but happy. Hopefully we’ll be through this soon, until then the next issue of Linux Format is arriving to keep you busily distracted. With the release of Ubuntu 20.04 and its lack of a 32-bit build, we thought we’d look at who’s out there trying to save 32-bit Linux and why it’s so damn hard to do! To kick things off we’re doing a Roundup of the best 32-bit supporting distros. The main feature has Jonni explaining why maintaining a 32-bit distro is so resource consuming, but as Jonni loves his ancient 32-bit EeePC he also wanted to reveal how you can also support older hardware. We’re glad to say Hotpicks is back for the best new open source, we’re also taking an in-depth look at Tor and how it protects your privacy online, there’s the usual array of interesting tutorials to try including Kanban boards, cloud encryption for backups and getting to grips with OpenShot video editing.

      • Compulab’s embedded Tensor-PCs take modularity to the extreme

        CompuLab is launching a line of fanless “Tensor-PC” systems starting with an Intel 9th Gen “I20A” model with a choice of multiple sizes and enclosures plus a variety of optional open source “Tensor Element” modules for storage, power, I/O, and networking.

        Compulab is re-inventing its fanless, embedded PC product line with a highly modular Tensor-PC architecture, starting with an Intel 9th Gen Coffee Lake Refresh based Tensor-PC I20A system due this fall. The x86-based Tensor-PC systems will run Linux and Windows.

      • Linux Laptop Buying Advice: System76 Lemur Pro Vs Tuxedo InfinityBook S 14

        Two spectacular and very similar Linux laptops just launched, courtesy of System76 and TUXEDO Computers. On paper they may seem identical. The System76 Lemur Pro and TUXEDO Computers InfinityBook S 14 are both sourced from the same Clevo chassis. They both feature the same 10th-generation Intel CPUs and keyboard integrated into the body. Same webcams, same speakers, similar Samsung SSDs, same RealTek audio controller, same marathon 73wh battery, and 14-inch 1080p matte displays. However, there are subtle but meaningful differences to consider if you’re stuck on which laptop to choose.

      • Windows 10 Users Are Switching To macOS And Linux

        That void has been filled by Apple’s macOS, which saw a 0.8% boost in market share during the same period. However, what’s surprising is that the desktop market share of Linux distros has increased by 1.5%, which is almost double than that of macOS.

    • Server

      • 6 Kubernetes Prometheus Alternatives

        Monitoring helps you ensure that your Kubernetes applications run smoothly and troubleshoot any problems that may arise. Prometheus is a popular open source monitoring tool that many companies use to monitor their IT infrastructure. However, there are many other monitoring tools available out there. This article reviews six alternatives to Kubernetes Prometheus monitoring.

    • Kernel Space

      • FSCRYPT Inline Encryption Still Being Prepared For The Linux Kernel

        For a number of months now Google engineers have been working on FSCRYPT inline encryption capabilities for EXT4 and F2FS. The work is designed to offer better encryption performance on modern SoCs by having the encryption/decryption happen within the block layer as part of the bio and in turn leveraging the inline encryption hardware on modern Arm SoCs. The work still isn't merged but looks like it could be getting closer.

        This past week marked the twelfth time that the FSCRYPT inline encryption patches were sent out. The latest revision of this work by Googlers Satya Tangirala and Eric Biggers is plugging the inline encryption support into BLK-MQ and other block code, implementing inline encryption within the FSCRYPT encryption framework, and wiring it through for EXT4, F2FS, and UFS file-systems.

      • Freescale Ethernet Driver Unlocks A Big Performance Improvement

        The Freescale "FEC" Ethernet driver used by select i.MX SoCs will be seeing better performance on the next kernel release.

        Queued in net-next for Linux 5.8 is a big optimization for the Freescale FEC networking driver.

      • Linux 5.6.10
        I'm announcing the release of the 5.6.10 kernel.
        
        

        All users of the 5.6 kernel series must upgrade.

        The updated 5.6.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-5.6.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-s...

        thanks,

        greg k-h
      • Linux 5.4.38
      • Linux 4.19.120
      • Linux 4.14.178
      • Linux 4.9.221
      • Linux 4.4.221
    • Benchmarks

      • AMD Radeon Linux Gaming Performance On Mesa 20.1 Looking Good With RADV+ACO

        Since its mainlining in Mesa 20.0, the Valve-backed ACO compiler back-end for the Radeon "RADV" Vulkan driver has been helping to reduce game load times and often increasing overall Linux gaming performance both for native titles as well as those on Steam Play with Proton+DXVK/VKD3D. With Mesa 20.1 releasing in the coming weeks, here are some recent benchmarks showing the RADV+ACO performance on Mesa 20.1-devel compared to RADV using its default AMDGPU LLVM back-end.

    • Instructionals/Technical

    • Games

      • Set in the Killer Queen universe, ABS vs THE BLOOD QUEEN brings the side-scrolling arcade game home

        Crowdfunding now on Kickstarter for release later this year is ABS vs THE BLOOD QUEEN, a return to the Killer Queen universe from BumbleBear Games. You've played arcade-styled games before but this is taken from an actual arcade game.

        Flee from an ever-encroaching wave of sinister undead insects as the notoriously buff Abs, one of the workers from Killer Queen. Learn the ropes as a newcomer or flex those arcade skills as a returning vet, as this new title was built upon the same framework as the popular cabinet. ABS vs THE BLOOD QUEEN is the first single-player game in the Killer Queen franchise "enjoyed by millions", with a Steam release planned for June this year with full Linux support.

      • Jupiter Moons: Mecha gives deck-building roguelikes a metal makeover

        Currently in development with a Prologue coming first, Jupiter Moons: Mecha pulls deck-building roguelikes into the far future with you being a Mech pilot.

        Enjoy complex Mech simulation in a single-player, deckbuilding, roguelike adventure. Change Mech loadout to customize your card deck. Level up your pilot, test countless card combinations, and discover powerful combos.

        [...]

        There's going to be over 30 different weapon types, which will be randomly generated with different attributes. Over 20 support items, over 200 cards to collect, numerous enemy Mech types and various boss fights too. Although the upcoming Prologue will have a reduced set as it's acting more like an introduction demo.

      • Adventure RPG 'Driftmoon' gains an Enchanted Edition update with Linux support

        Driftmoon, an adventure RPG that released back in 2013 is back with an Enchanted Edition update that added Linux as a supported platform. Developer Instant Kingdom mentioned they had started working on the update once it released, sadly they suffered setbacks and so this big enhancement is many years in the making.

      • Upcoming survival horror 'Skin Witch' looks set to land on Linux shortly after release

        Releasing in late May, the survival horror title Skin Witch from Blackwood Specter looks like it will release for Linux. As confirmed on Steam (and here too), the developer mentioned that if it's not there at launch it should be in the first update.

        Unspeakable acts of brutality and witchcraft echo off the walls of an underground mine. You are trapped down here with wretched beasts, servants of the Skin Witch. In the line between man and beast... you’ll find only despair.

      • Rise up and fight in the crowd-based retro brawler Tonight We Riot - confirmed for Linux

        Tonight We Riot, developed by a worker-owned cooperative Pixel Pushers Union 512, is a 'revolutionary' crowd-based retro brawler that looks like good messy fun and it's confirmed for Linux. Writing on Twitter they said, "Linux version in the works, folks! Got it running on a test machine just fine!".

        In a dystopia where wealthy capitalists control elections, media, and the lives of working people, we’re faced with two choices -- accept it or fight for something better. Tonight We Riot doesn’t have just one hero. Instead, you play as a movement of people whose well-being determines the success of your revolution.

      • Seeds of Chaos, an adult (NSFW) dark fantasy tale with RPG & Strategy elements is now on Linux

        Not a genre we cover often here but we always try to highlight a bit of everything. If you enjoy games very much aimed at adults, with plenty of NSFW elements (nudity, sex etc) then Seeds of Chaos might be for you.

      • Endless Sky, a free and open source space trading & combat game expands with a new update

        Endless Sky, a free and open source classic 2D space game continues expanding with the first stable release in quite some time. With the last main update in September last year, this release pulls in plenty of goodies.

        What is it? Endless Sky is a sandbox-style space exploration game similar to Elite, Escape Velocity, or Star Control. You start out as the captain of a tiny space ship and can choose what to do from there. The game includes a major plot line and many minor missions, but you can choose whether you want to play through the plot or strike out on your own as a merchant or bounty hunter or explorer.

      • Linux gaming overlay 'MangoHud' improves OpenGL support, better NVIDIA detection and more

        MangoHud has firmly filled a hole in tools available for Linux gamers, benchmarking and more. A handy HUD that works across OpenGL and Vulkan games and a fresh build went up.

        Allowing you to track FPS, frame timing, HDD read/write, benchmark, RAM and VRAM use, limit the FPS and so on. With the latest 0.3.5 release, what's possible with MangoHud has expanded further. It can now also show 32/64bit, the currently playing Spotify song, you can pick a specific GPU for multi-GPU setups and you can also now display the MangoHud version.

      • May the Fourth be with you - a look over what Star Wars games are playable on Linux

        Today is May 4th, which means it's also Star Wars day so here's a look at what Star Wars games are possible to play on Linux plus a quick run over the sales to pick up some discounted pew-pew fun.

        Like many of you, I enjoy Star Wars and plenty of the games are playable on Linux officially or otherwise. Back in 2015, game porter/publisher Aspyr Media revamped Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords for all platforms and gave it a Linux version too. This re-release came with updated resolution support, Steam Workshop and more and it's good fun. You can pick up Knights of the Old Republic II with Linux support from Humble Store ans Steam with 65% off right now.

        For some of the other classics games, DRM-free game store GOG packaged up a few of them officially with DOSBox for Linux to make it easy to play. These include STAR WARS: Dark Forces (65% off), STAR WARS: TIE Fighter Special Edition (66% off), STAR WARS: X-Wing Special Edition (66% off) and Star Wars: Rebel Assault 1 + 2.

      • You can now use the Discord Overlay on Linux thanks to a new community project

        Once again the developer community is picking up the slack where the official stuff isn't working on Linux. This time it's the turn of the Discord Overlay.

        What is it? The Discord Overlay allows you to show helpful things for viewers when you're making a video or livestreaming. For example, having the name and avatar up of people in a specific voice chat room, to show exactly who is talking and when (amongst other things like text chat too!). It was announced back in 2016 and it's still not available in the Linux client.

        Thankfully now, you can do so on Linux too and quite easily! All thanks the "Discord Overlay for Linux" project. With a simple UI to setup an overlay including picking the server and channel, you can then use the OBS Studio Browser plugin to capture it and you're done.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • Pitivi applies to the Season of Docs

          The Pitivi video editor is based on the GStreamer Editing Services library (GES). Various projects use GES to manage audio or video projects and export the project to a new file to be distributed.

          Pitivi is developed in very close contact with GES. Both Pitivi and GES would benefit a lot from better documentation.

          We’re applying to the Season of Docs program, where Google pays technical writers to contribute to open-source projects. Check out the technical writer guide for details and the program timeline. Read below the project ideas if you are interested in working with us!

    • Distributions

      • Arch Family

        • First Arch Linux ISO Powered by Linux Kernel 5.6 Is Now Available for Download

          Arch Linux’s ISO snapshot for May 2020 is now available for download and it’s the first Arch Linux ISO to be powered by the latest Linux kernel 5.6 series.

          That’s right, the Arch Linux 2020.05.01 ISO release is here, packed with all the latest GNU/Linux technologies released throughout April 2020. This includes the latest Linux 5.6 kernel series.

          What’s special about Linux kernel 5.6 is the fact that among the extended hardware support it brings, it also has built-in support for the WireGuard next-generation VPN (Virtual Private Network) protocol.

          This means that there’s no need to install a separate kernel module if you want to use WireGuard VPN.

          So if you’ve been holding on to install Arch Linux because you wanted an out-of-the-box experience with the Linux 5.6 kernel, you can now download the Arch Linux 2020.05.01 ISO snapshot.

        • ArchLabs 2020.05.04

          The brand new ArchLabs 2020.05.04 release is available for download.

          See the Release Notes for any changes. The new release can be downloaded from the usual spot.

          Dima Belitskiy (Dimaom) has joined the ArchLabs team and has already had a postive impact.

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • Not seeing the wood for the trees

          The way Flathub infrastructure works is not complicated for current trends, but there are enough moving parts to make debugging transient issues tricky.

          [...]

          Flatpak downloads involve a lot of HTTP requests since each file in the application maps to a file in the ostree repository. Server-side Keep-Alive helps, but there is still a performance penalty over downloading a big single file. Flatpak can mitigate it by generating a static delta, either between two revisions or from scratch for new installations.

          It turned out to be a bug causing Flatpak to ignore from scratch deltas altogether. For example, installing LibreOffice involves making 5515 GET requests versus only 128 with static delta support working properly. Who could have known!

          In the beginning of April, multiple issues popped out around the same time. PagerDuty was poking me few times a day about high CPU usage on the server hosting Buildbot. Buildbot home page was not displaying recently finished builds at all. New commits, pull requests and manual build triggers were not causing new builds to start reliably. The number of 503 errors increased so much I saw it myself.

          Since our Buildbot was few releases behind, it looked like a good idea to start from here and hope it will fix all related problems. After the upgrade, I looked into the home page issue. The browser network monitor revealed a request timeout to the backend. The same request executed directly on the server also time outed. Everything worked fine in my local environment though. Few print calls later it became apparent that the frontend has been requesting all 17000 builds that were ever ran, which also explains high CPU usage. Adding limit=50 to the request brought it to 2-4s. Even though it needed less than a second on the server itself, it sounded reasonable enough to consider it fixed.

        • Innovating in the open: How Red Hat UXD is gathering user feedback

          Here on Red Hat’s User Experience Design (UXD) team, we believe in open conversations. As a team of designers working on the developer's perspective of the Red Hat OpenShift 4 web console, we relied on open conversation to gather our users’ information and feedback to help us provide innovative solutions to the OpenShift and developer community.

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • Ubuntu 20.04: Welcome to the future, Linux LTS disciples

          Ubuntu 20.04 ships with 5.4 kernel, which brings support for Intel's Comet Lake chips as well as the beginning of Tiger Lake support. If you keep track of the kernels, you might be disappointed, since the baked-in support for Wireguard in the kernel doesn't come until 5.6. But fear not VPN users: Ubuntu has backported the Wireguard bits so that you can enjoy using Wireguard with your VPN provider today (assuming your VPN supports it).

          More exciting, quite frankly, is the continued work on integrating ZFS into Ubuntu. There's nothing new about the usefulness of ZFS, but usefulness is not necessarily the same as usability. Ubuntu's developers have put a lot of work into making ZFS easier to use, both in terms of making backups via snapshots and the arguably more important part of easily restoring your system using those snapshots.

          New ZFS features in this release include zfs 0.8, which supports hardware accelerated encryption and some performance gains among other things. But the more interesting addition is Ubuntu's Zsys utility, which essentially makes it easier to see what's happening under the hood.

          This is still highly experimental, and it's hidden away during the install process, but if you click the advanced features section of the disk partitioning tool during installation you'll see an option "EXPERIMENTAL: erase disk and use ZFS." It's no longer in scary bold red text the way it was in 19.10, which I take to mean that things are improving. Do note, however, this message still appears in all caps. This option is definitely not what you want to use on a production system looking for LTS-style stability.

        • Ubuntu 20.04 Is The Future Of Computers

          Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa, as this launch, is understood) is a Lengthy Time period Assist (LTS) launch, which implies Ubuntu’s guardian firm, Canonical, will present assist by means of 2025. The LTS releases are what Canonical calls “enterprise-grade,” and these are usually conservative on the subject of adopting new technologies. The interim releases, like last year’s Ubuntu 19.10, are as a substitute the place the corporate tends to experiment. Maybe not surprisingly, Canonical estimates that 95 p.c of all Ubuntu installations are LTS releases. This is to say, and it is a massive replacement that the majority of Ubuntu’s person base will likely be upgrading to ultimately.

          The good news for Ubuntu followers is that 20.04 has been an improbable launch in our testing. This replaces been very strong in day-to-day use, and it nonetheless manages to (optionally!) embrace assist for some cutting-edge new options, just like the beginnings of software to handle ZFS snapshots. There’s additionally a significant kernel bump, and appreciable work has gone into enhancing and sharpening the default Yaru theme.

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Web Browsers

        • Mozilla

          • Firefox 76 Now Available for Download with New Security Feature, PiP Improvements

            The Mozilla Firefox 76 open-source and cross-platform web browser is now available for download, ahead of tomorrow’s official launch.

            Slated for release on May 5th, 2020, the Firefox 76 release is now available for download from Mozilla’s FTP servers for all supported platforms, including Linux, macOS, and Windows.

            This is another monthly update to one of the most used web browsers out there, bringing improvements to the Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode, such as the ability to activate full-screen mode by double-clicking in the player window.

          • Firefox 77 Nightly Adds Initial AV1 Image File Support (AVIF)

            Exciting times in Mozilla land as in addition to the recent Wayland improvements along with Flatpak availability and WebGPU support coming together, the newest Firefox Nightly builds now have AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) support.

            AVIF is the image format based on the AV1 coding scheme and using the HEIF file format (High Efficiency Image File Format). AVIF is capable of both lossy and lossless compression, HDR, animated image sequences, and other features. AVIF 1.0 was finalized last year and since then has received considerable interest from the likes of Netflix for being superior than JPEG.

      • SaaS/Back End/Databases

        • arm64 on apt.postgresql.org

          The apt.postgresql.org repository has been extended to cover the arm64 architecture.

          We had occasionally received user request to add "arm" in the past, but it was never really clear which kind of "arm" made sense to target for PostgreSQL. In terms of Debian architectures, there's (at least) armel, armhf, and arm64. Furthermore, Raspberry Pis are very popular (and indeed what most users seems to were asking about), but the raspbian "armhf" port is incompatible with the Debian "armhf" port.

          Now that most hardware has moved to 64-bit, it was becoming clear that "arm64" was the way to go. Amit Khandekar made it happen that HUAWEI Cloud Services donated a arm64 build host with enough resources to build the arm64 packages at the same speed as the existing amd64, i386, and ppc64el architectures. A few days later, all the build jobs were done, including passing all test-suites. Very few arm-specific issues were encountered which makes me confident that arm64 is a solid architecture to run PostgreSQL on.

      • CMS

        • The Month in WordPress: April 2020

          April continued to be a challenging time for the WordPress community, with many under stay-at-home recommendations. However, it was also an exciting month in which we created new ways to connect with and inspire each other! This month, amazing contributors moved more WordCamps online and shipped new releases for WordPress and Gutenberg. For the latest, read on.

          [...]

          On April 24th, WordPress 5.4.1 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) was released for testing, quickly followed by the official release of WordPress 5.4.1 on April 29th. This security release features 17 bug fixes and seven security fixes, so we recommend updating your sites immediately. To download WordPress 5.4.1, visit your Dashboard, click on Updates, then Update Now, or download the latest version directly from WordPress.org. For more information, visit this post, review the full list of changes on Trac, or check out the version 5.4.1 HelpHub documentation page.

      • Programming/Development

        • GNU C Library Adds Detection Support For Zhaoxin CPUs

          For the x86_64 Zhaoxin CPUs made in China and based on VIA Centaur IP there is now proper support for them within the GNU C Library.

          Going back a few years there has been various Linux kernel patches for Zhaoxin within the kernel. That's obviously the key area for the Linux hardware enablement but now we are seeing Zhaoxin support get squared away in other areas like the GNU toolchain.

        • Python

          • Why You Should Document Your Tests

            Some projects have the policy that all tests must have an explanatory comment – including all of mine. At first, I found that baffling. If that’s you right now, this article is for you.

            I’m sure you’ve been there too: you code along, write an obvious test, that tests an obvious thing, that you give an obvious name. Fast forward a year or two. Nothing about that test is obvious anymore. It might be obvious what property is tested under what circumstances but you have no idea why you test it.

          • Python RegEx

            In this tutorial, you will learn about regular expressions (RegEx), and use Python's re module to work with RegEx (with the help of examples).

          • Maintainable Infrastructure As Code In Pure Python With Pulumi

            After you write your application, you need a way to make it available to your users. These days, that usually means deploying it to a cloud provider, whether that's a virtual server, a serverless platform, or a Kubernetes cluster. To manage the increasingly dynamic and flexible options for running software in production, we have turned to building infrastructure as code. Pulumi is an open source framework that lets you use your favorite language to build scalable and maintainable systems out of cloud infrastructure. In this episode Luke Hoban, CTO of Pulumi, explains how it differs from other frameworks for interacting with infrastructure platforms, the benefits of using a full programming language for treating infrastructure as code, and how you can get started with it today. If you are getting frustrated with switching contexts when working between the application you are building and the systems that it runs on, then listen now and then give Pulumi a try.

          • Exploring an Alternative to Jupyter Notebooks for Python Development

            Jupyter notebooks are an amazing tool for evaluating and exploring data. I have been using them as an integral part of my day to day analysis for several years and reach for them almost any time I need to do data analysis or exploration. Despite how much I like using python in Jupyter notebooks, I do wish for the editor capabilities you can find in VS Code. I also would like my files to work better when versioning them with git.

            Recently, I have started using a solution that supports the interactivity of the Jupyter notebook and the developer friendliness of plain .py text files. Visual Studio Code enables this approach through Jupyter code cells and the Python Interactive Window. Using this combination, you can visualize and explore your data in real time with a plain python file that includes some lightweight markup. The resulting file works seamlessly with all VS Code editing features and supports clean git check ins.

            The rest of this article will discuss how to use this python development workflow within VS Code and some of the primary reasons why you may or may not want to do so.

    • Standards/Consortia

  • Leftovers

    • Science

      • In The Age Of Coronavirus, How Doctors Are Becoming Inventors

        The last time anesthesiologist James Nilson went backpacking, he probably didn’t expect to be using a camping technique later in the operating room.

        “I've been living in the woods, backpacking and hiking my entire life. So, you know, there's a lot of adaptations that you make when you're out in the woods that call upon your ability to just be a little bit creative. And that seems to be holding pretty true in a career as an anesthesiologist as well,” he said.

    • Hardware

      • Hot On The Heels Of Mellanox, Nvidia Snaps Up Cumulus Networks

        Last week, when we talked to Nvidia co-founder and chief executive officer, Jensen Huang, about how the datacenter was becoming the unit of compute and in such a world networking was critical, it was obvious that acquiring Mellanox Technologies for $6.9 billion was just the beginning of the strategy that will no doubt unfold in the coming months and years.

        Huang didn’t wait long to make another move, with Nvidia acquiring open network software provider Cumulus Networks for an undisclosed sum and marrying it with Mellanox in its newly formed networking business unit.

        Sometimes, to understand what a company is doing you have to take a really hard look at the things that key people at that company have seen and done in their careers. This is one of those cases.

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Pseudo-Open Source

        • Security

          • Open-source Android mobile platform Lineage OS hacked

            In another incident of online breach, hackers gained illegal access to the open-source operating system for smartphones Lineage OS. The online intrusion was confirmed by the company. As per the company, the OS was hacked on Saturday last week around 8 pm US Pacific coast. It said that the hack was detected on time and that the attack did no harm to the source code of the operating system. Builds and signing keys too remain intact, it added.

            [...]

            According to the lineage OS developers, the attackers used an unpatched vulnerability to breach its Salt installation. Salt is again an open-sourced framework offered by Saltstack. It is usually deployed to manage and automate servers inside data centres, cloud server setups, or internal networks. Cybersecurity firm F-Secure recently revealed two major vulnerabilities in the Salt framework. These included CVE-2020-11651 which is an authentication bypass and CVE-2020-11652, a directory traversal. Both these vulnerabilities together could allow the hackers to bypass login authentication and run codes to leave the servers of Salt master exposed on the internet, the cybersecurity firm warned.

          • Hackers break into open-source Android mobile platform LineageOS
          • Vulnerabilities in the Open-source and commercial Salt management framework

            On April 30, F-Secure Labs published an advisory for two vulnerabilities (CVE-2020-11651 and CVE-2020-11652), in the open-source and commercial Salt management framework, which is used in data centers and cloud environments as a configuration, monitoring, and update tool.

          • Canonical Outs New Ubuntu Linux Kernel Live Patch to Address 3 Flaws

            Canonical has released a new Linux kernel live patch for some of its supported Ubuntu releases and official derivatives to address three security vulnerabilities discovered in the virtual terminal.

            Available for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver), Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), and Ubuntu 14.04 ESM, the new kernel live patch includes fixes for three security issues discovered in Linux kernel’s virtual terminal (VT) implementation.

          • Are Xiaomi browsers spyware? Yes, they are...

            In case you missed it, there was a Forbes article on Mi Browser Pro and Mint Browser which are preinstalled on Xiaomi phones. The article accuses Xiaomi of exfiltrating a history of all visited websites. Xiaomi on the other hand accuses Forbes of misrepresenting the facts. They claim that the data collection is following best practices, the data itself being aggregated and anonymized, without any connection to user’s identity.

          • Security updates for Monday

            Security updates have been issued by Debian (mailman, openldap, pound, tomcat8, and trafficserver), Fedora (chromium, java-11-openjdk, kernel, openvpn, pxz, and rubygem-json), openSUSE (apache2, bouncycastle, chromium, git, python-typed-ast, resource-agents, ruby2.5, samba, squid, webkit2gtk3, and xen), Slackware (seamonkey), SUSE (LibVNCServer and permissions), and Ubuntu (mysql-5.7, mysql-8.0).

    • Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

      • Assange extradition case delay until Sept

        WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's US extradition case will be moved to another British court after being delayed until September.

        District judge Vanessa Baraitser has ordered the Australian's case, which had been set for May 18, be moved from Woolwich Crown Court to another court and to resume in September.

        "It's going to take some negotiation to find a Crown Court that is open in September, in the current climate, and willing and available to take this hearing," judge Baraitser said on Monday in Westminster Magistrates' Court.

        The new location, which might be outside London, and start date for the remaining three weeks of the hearing will be confirmed on Friday.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

      • Was I wrong about LBRY?

        Was I wrong about LBRY? Well, let's explore some of the advancements that the platform has made over the past 3-4 months since I was critical about it. I also go over why I now have some of my content over there.

    • Monopolies

      • Patents

        • Legal privilege during saisie-contrefaçon in Belgium – a follow-up

          This is a follow-up to Jan-Diederik Lindemans’ post of 18 December 2019 discussing the guidelines on legal privilege during saisie-contrefaçon adopted by the Brussels Bar Association (‘BBA’) on 21 October 2019. In a judgment of 26 March 2020, the Ghent Business Court confirmed the BBA’s position on this issue.

          In the 26 March 2020 judgment, the Ghent Business Court (Belgium) weighs in on the scope of attorneys’ legal privilege, in a dispute opposing a law firm and a court-appointed expert.

          A law firm provided legal advice to a client in the context of an expected IP dispute with a competitor. Upon request from said competitor, the President of the Ghent Business Court appointed an expert to carry out a saisie-contrefaçon (including both descriptive and actual seizure) on the premises of the law firm’s client.

        • The Hague Patents Court conducts first virtual hearing in patent case

          As courts across the world grappled to find ways to continue performing their function in holding hearings and delivering justice, the Courts of England & Wales relatively quickly updated their practice directions and guidance to provide for virtual hearings. In the Netherlands, guest Kat Rien Broekstra (Brinkhof) reports on what the Dutch specialized courts in the Hague are doing:



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Microsoft already has many problems. One day Microsoft won't exist anymore. But that does not guarantee users' freedom.
Alyssa Rosenzweig's LibrePlanet Talk About Freeing the Apple GPU
Alyssa Rosenzweig is the graphics witch behind the reverse-engineered drivers for the Apple GPU. She previously led Panfrost, the free drivers for Arm Mali GPUs powering devices like the Pinebook Pro. She graduated in 2023 with a Computer Science degree from the University of Toronto and now writes free software full-time.
Links 30/06/2024: LLMs Under Fire and Dictatorship of the Old
Links for the day
[Meme] Walking Outside the Guardrails of the Walled Gardens Built by Monopolies
So-called "advertiser-unfriendly" material was never a problem for Wikileaks
 
Press Complicity and Public Apathy All Along Enabled 14 Years of Illegal, Arbitrary Detention and Coercion Into Plea Bargain of Julian Assange on Brink of Death
They basically blackmailed him into letting the US 'win' the argument
At the End Journalism a Crime (If It Involves Accessing or Gaining Access to Documents Marked "Confidential" or "Classified" by Those Looking to Hide Their Misconduct/Crimes)
At least in the US, especially where the imperialism is at stake
Links 30/06/2024: Tensions in Korea and Japan, Criminalisation of Sleeping Outdoors
Links for the day
100% Slop/Spam From linuxsecurity.com
This is the kind of stuff that's killing the Web faster
Gemini Links 30/06/2024: Murdoch and Ideal OS
Links for the day
In the First 6 Months of 2024 Thailand Moved to GNU/Linux, Not to Windows Vista 11
maybe users moved from Vista 10 and 11 to GNU/Linux, seeing where Microsoft was heading with forced hardware "upgrades"
Eko K. A. Owen, New Outreach and Communications Coordinator for the FSF
Nice to see many new additions to the FSF's team
Microsoft Has Slaves and Enablers, Not Partners
Obligatory meme too
Tobias Platen Covered Freedom-To-Play Games in LibrePlanet 2024
Freedom-To-Play games using Taler
[Meme] Opening a 'Webapp' With 'Only' 4 GB of RAM
Until 2020 none of my PCs ever had more than 2 GB of RAM
Destination 'Five Percent'
We reckon GNU/Linux can break the 5% barrier some time by the end of this year, even without counting Chromebooks
A Crisis of Online Journalism
Almost a week ago a journalist was forced to plead guilty for an act of journalism
Germany One of Many Countries Where Microsoft's Bing Lost Market Share After All That LLM Nonsense (Bing Chat and Further Rebrands/Renames)
openai.com traffic plunged 60% last month
Microsoft’s Latest Antitrust Scrutiny
4 new stories
Microsoft Layoffs, Mass Plagiarism, and More
outrage included
GNU/Linux Climbed 0.25% This Month (in statCounter)
Around midday on Tuesday we'll start seeing preliminary data for July
Ilya Gulko Introduces Pollyanna
"Pollyanna is a web framework that makes it easy to create your own libre social space, such as a social network or blog."
'FSFE': Underage Labour, GAFAM Fronting, and Identity Theft to Undermine the FSF's Current Fundraiser
looking to raise funds at the same time as the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 29, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, June 29, 2024
Links 29/06/2024: Astronauts at Risk, Ukraine Updates
Links for the day
Fedora and Red Hat Leftovers
mostly redhat.com
Microsoft is Now Googlebombing or Spamming 'Open Source' and 'Linux' to Promote Proprietary Surveillance, Azure
Notice the title and the image, what's being promoted etc.
Seychelles: GNU/Linux Doing OK
Seychelles cannot be considered poor
This War Crime Footage, Nothing Political Per Se, Is What They Made Julian Assange Plead Guilty To (War Criminals Not Convicted, Only Those Who Expose Them)
Wikileaks' Julian Assange: Exposing the US Military Crimes
Gemini Protocol Isn't Even Remotely "Dead"
"Lupa knows of 505,000 (half a million!) working Gemini URLs at present, up from about 425,000 this time last year"
About 10 New Free Software Foundation (FSF) Members Per Day
The total changed from 46 to 47 while typing the article
20 Years Passed, Let's Go Even Faster Now
We are hoping to bring more original stories
Vista 11 Adoption Unusually Low in Germany and It's Going Down, Not Up
This is not happening only in Germany
Kevin Korte on Computers Being Allowed to Make Decisions Based on Cryptic Algorithms and Proprietary/Secret Data
It uses buzzwords where none are needed
[Meme] Garbage In, Garbage Out (linuxsecurity.com)
It is neither Linux nor security, just chatbot-generated slop
Microsoft-Invaded CISA Spreads Anti-Free Software FUD (as If Proprietary Software Has No Memory Safety Issues), Brittany Day Uses Chatbots to Amplify and Permutate the Microsoft FUD
linuxsecurity.com became an anti-Linux spam site
Microsoft Laying Off Staff in an Act of Retaliation and Union-Busting
retaliatory layoffs at Microsoft
Gemini Links 29/06/2024: Content Drowning in 'Goo' and LLM Slop
Links for the day
Windows Lost Almost 92% Market Share in Egypt
From over 99% to just over 7%
In Ecuador, GNU/Linux Adoption Surged From Under 1% to Over 4% in About 3 Years
Not even counting Chromebooks
LibrePlanet: Cultivating Backups (of Recordings)
an appeal to recover some of these talks
Microsoft/Windows Machines Are Turned Off (or Windows Deleted/Decommissioned) in Web Servers, as the "Market Share" Collapse Continues
Taking full history into account, this is a decrease of over 90% in some cases
Corwin Brust Hosting Freedom: A Behind-the-scenes Tour With the GNU Savannah Hackers
"the "smiling faces" behind it."
Android at 90% or More in Chad
Windows below 2%
David Wilson: Cultivating a Welcoming Free Software Community That Lasts
"a feeling of shared ownership for all users."
Julian Assange Might Continue Wikileaks, But Certainly Not Yet (Recovery Time Needed)
And probably at a symbolic capacity only
Bringing in 12 Santas and Taking 13 Out (Old Interview With Julian Assange)
Julian Assange's life inside the Ecuadorian embassy
Neil Plotnick on GNU/Linux in the High School Classroom
uploaded to the LibrePlanet instance of MediaGoblin
Asia Appears to be Fastest to Adopt GNU/Linux
the home of a considerable majority of the world's population
Alexandre Oliva's LibrePlanet 2024 Talk About "Software Enshittification"
in spite of technical difficulties encountered while recording
What They Used to Do With Mono They Now Do With Systemd (Lower and Deeper Down Than Userspace)
Now we have a project started primarily by Red Hat (and managed by Microsoft GitHub, which is proprietary) being managed by Microsoft and primarily serving Microsoft and IBM
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 28, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, June 28, 2024
Links 28/06/2024: Kangaroo Courts and Patents Spam, EFF Still Fighting for CPC's TikTok (a Digital Weapon)
Links for the day
Links 28/06/2024: Overton window and Polarization
Links for the day
[Meme] In 50 Years...
Microsoft's Vista 11 will take 50 years to be fully adopted
Only About 1 in 8 Russian Windows Users is Using Vista 11
it looks like over the past 12 months Vista 11 hardly grew and it remains very low at around 12% of Windows usage in Russia
Links 28/06/2024: More Attacks on the Press, More Censorship in Russia
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/06/2024: Christmas Prematurely, Self-hosting
Links for the day
IBM: So Long, Suckers. Your Free OS is Now Proprietary. Pay IBM or Else.
almost exactly a year after turning RHEL into proprietary software
Vista 11 is Doomed and Despite Lack of Adoption Microsoft Already Speaks of Vapourware ("12")
"Microsoft has pulled a Windows 11 update after users reported boot loops and startup failures."
ChromeOS Reaches Highest Share in Years at the World's Most Populous Nation, Windows Now at All-Time Low of 13%
We're talking about India today
[Video] "It Is Incredible That Julian Assange Survives"
There was a positive and mutual relationship between Wikileaks and Dr Jill Stein
Never Assume That Because the Law Exists the Powerful Will Follow the Law
Who's going to hold them accountable now?
Nearly a Month Has Passed and Nobody at the Debian Project Even Attempted to Explain What Seems Like Back-dooring of Debian (and Hundreds of Distros That Are Debian-Derived)
I can cynically guess that only matters when a user with a Chinese name does it
[Video] Julian Assange Explains Wikileaks' Logistics
predating indefinite detention
IBM Was Never the "Good Guy", Just a Self-Serving and Opportunistic Money- and Power-Hungry Monopolist, Living Off of Taxpayers' Money (Government Contracts)
The Nazi Party of Germany was its second-biggest client at one point and now it's looking to profit from the work of slaves
"I Hated Working at IBM. They Were the Most Unfriendly People."
Don't forget what Watson the son did to a poor woman on a plane
State of the News (and Depletion of Journalism Online, Not Just Offline)
Newspapers are not coming back and the Web is not coming back either
GNU/Linux Consolidates in North America
Android rising a lot this year, too
[Meme] More Monopolies Granted While Patent Examiners Die (Overworking for Less Compensation)
Work more; Get less
Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO) is Taking the New Pension Scheme (NPS) to an International Tribunal (ILOAT)
SUEPO wants more EPO staff to participate in collective action
Stella Assange and the Legal Team Speak to the Media a Day After WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Arrives in Australia
Published yesterday by a number of mainstream publishers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 27, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, June 27, 2024
RIP Daniel Bristot de Oliveira, Red Hat death
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock