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Links 09/07/2022: KDE Frameworks 5.96.0 and Debian GNU/Linux 11.4



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • GhacksLinux is performing better than Windows 11 according to this benchmark test - gHacks Tech News

        When it comes to benchmarks, most computer users are probably interested in performance comparisons of hardware and software running on the same operating system. Is this or that graphics card better for a gaming PC? Which Android device offers the better performance?

      • NeowinLatest testing finds Windows 11 losing performance lead over Ubuntu and Linux

        It's been nine months since Windows 11 was publicly released back in October. As such, and as we are closer to the general availability (GA) of succeeding version 22H2, it is natural to wonder how the performance of Windows 11 has evolved during this time. Recently, Puget Systems tested the OS against Windows 10 and found that Windows 11 had improved significantly since last time. And earlier today, fellow outlet Phoronix pit Windows 11 against Ubuntu and Clear Linux to see how the Microsoft OS fares.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • H2S MediaHow to reset Gnome in Linux such as Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy - Linux Shout

        Learn the command to reset the changes made to GNOME Desktop on Linux systems such as Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy JellyFish.

        Linux comes with extreme possibilities to customize the Desktop GUI interface such as Gnome. However, if you are a beginner and made some changes that don’t offer the desired effect and have unpleasant residuals then there is a way to reset it. A command to get back the default settings of Gnome UI or factory settings

      • ID RootHow To Install Nmap on Fedora 36 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Nmap on Fedora 36. For those of you who didn’t know, Nmap a.k.a Network Mapper is a command-line network scanning utility for Linux and other operating systems. It is also used for network inventory services, managing service upgrades, and monitoring hosts’ downtime. While Nmap is a potent tool, it is essential to note that it can be misused. In the hands of a skilled attacker, Nmap can be used to launch attacks against systems or to gather sensitive information about a network.

        This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Nmap network scanning tool on a Fedora 36.

      • HowTo GeekWhat Is GNOME in Linux?

        If you’ve recently stepped into the Linux world, you may have heard the term GNOME thrown around a lot. But what exactly is it? In this article, we’ll take a look at this popular desktop environment and what it offers.

      • H2S MediaHow to upgrade LMDE 4 Debbie to LMDE 5 Elsie - Linux Shout

        Learn the simple steps to upgrade Linux Mint Debian Edition – LMDE 4 to LDME 5 using the GUI interface of the OS even beginners can do it.

        To provide an alternative to Ubuntu but based on Debian, Linux Mint offers their Debian Edtion known as LMDE. The key idea behind providing a Debian edition of Mint developers is to offer the same user experience even if someday Ubuntu will not be there anymore for Desktops. This also reduces the dependencies of the Linux Mint team on Ubuntu.

        Well, for those who are currently using the LDME 4 version and want to upgrade their system to its latest version but without reinstalling the OS, this tutorial is for them.

      • H2S MediaInstall Metasploit Framework on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy - Linux Shout

        Metasploit is an open-source project that provides, among other things, the Metasploit framework. It includes a collection of exploits that can be used to test the security of computer systems. Many times apart from the developers or testers it also is used by hackers.

        If we talk through the lawful angle, the framework provided by the Metasploit Open Source project is mainly used to test computer systems for security gaps. It offers a bundle of exploit tools to carry out a wide variety of security and penetration tests that can be carried out on distributed target systems. Even software developers can use it to test their software to find out potential loopholes.

        Metasploit Framework developers used Ruby language to create it, and it is available to install on various operating systems. It includes all major Linux and Unix versions, macOS and Windows. Generally, the users need to install it manually, however, penetration Linux distributions such as Kali out of the box offers Metasploit.

      • The New StackInstall Ansible on Ubuntu Server to Automate Linux Server Deployments – The New Stack

        How many Linux machines are you managing on your network or your cloud-hosted platform? These days, that number is probably growing fairly quickly, especially given how much businesses not only depend on Linux for regular services, but containerized and cloud-native deployments.

        So, yeah, those Linux machines are probably growing exponentially by the week or month. That means you have more and more machines to manage, which can be rather time-consuming. Given how busy your day already is, you don’t need to have to log into every single machine and run commands manually.

        With that in mind, what do you do? One solution is to turn to a centralized configuration management tool, such as Red Hat‘s Ansible. One of the best things about Ansible, is that is makes use of SSH and YAML files to handle the heavy lifting of remote work. That means you don’t have to bother with installing agents on the servers you need to manage because it’s all handled via the controller.

        I’m going to walk you through the installation and configuration of Ansible on Ubuntu Server and then show you how to use the platform to run your first Ansible playbook.

      • Real Linux UserHow to verify your Zorin OS ISO image file - Real Linux User

        Security and being conscious about your actions and decisions that could hamper or strengthen your Linux environment to be secure, is becoming more and more important. When you download a Linux ISO image file to create a bootable live environment to test a Linux distribution and eventually to install it on your production machine, it is important to be sure about its authenticity and integrity. In this article, as part of my Zorin OS tutorial series, I want to explain how to verify your Zorin OS ISO image file to start your secure Linux journey.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install Blender on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS - LinuxCapable

        Blender is the free and open-source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline — modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, and video editing. Blender is a public project made by hundreds of people worldwide by studios and individual artists, professionals and hobbyists, scientists, students, VFX experts, animators, game artists, modders, and more. As an open-source project with a community that spans the globe, Blender is truly unique.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Blender on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish using three different methods using the command line terminal along.

    • Games

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • 9to5LinuxKDE Frameworks 5.96 Adds Battery Levels for Wireless Touchpads, over 100 Changes

           KDE Frameworks 5.96 doesn’t look as big as the previous release, but it adds some interesting changes that I believe you’ll find useful if you use the KDE Plasma desktop environment. For example, it updates the “Battery and Brightness” widget to also display battery levels for connected wireless touchpads.

        • KDE Frameworks 5.96.0
          KDE today announces the release of KDE Frameworks 5.96.0.

          KDE Frameworks are 83 addon libraries to Qt which provide a wide variety of commonly needed functionality in mature, peer reviewed and well tested libraries with friendly licensing terms. For an introduction see the KDE Frameworks release announcement.

          This release is part of a series of planned monthly releases making improvements available to developers in a quick and predictable manner.

        • My week in KDE: Licenses

          This week I mainly worked on Licentia, a development companion app to help you choose a license for your project.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • The Register UKLeaving VMware? Consider these 5 FOSS hypervisors ● The Register

      The platform has evolved steadily since its introduction in 2008 to include support for a bevy of enterprise features, including high-availability clusters and live VM migration between hosts. Proxmox also supports storage systems like local volume management, ZFS, and Ceph.

      Proxmox will also run on just about any system with at least 1GB of RAM. However, users coming from VMware's ESXi may run into platform limitations on hosts equipped with more than 12TB of memory or more than 768 CPU threads. If you fall into this category, drop me a line – I have questions. And while there isn't a hard cap on the number of hosts per cluster, many recommend against clusters larger than 32.

      Proxmox VE is available at no cost under a standard GNU license, regardless of whether it's deployed for personal or enterprise use. For organizations that want or require a support package, Proxmox Server Solutions – the company behind the the FOSS hypervisor – offers paid licenses on a per-socket basis that unlock access to the enterprise software updates and premium support.

    • Drew DeVaultThe Fediverse can be pretty toxic

      Mastodon, inspired by GNU social, together with Pleroma, form the most popular components of what we know as the “Fediverse” today. All of them are, in essence, federated, free software Twitter clones, interoperable with each other via the ActivityPub protocol.

      In many respects, the Fediverse is a liberating force for good. Its federated design distributes governance and costs across many independent entities, something I view as a very strong design choice. Its moderation tools also do a pretty good job of keeping neo-nazis out of your feeds and providing a comfortable space to express yourself in, especially if your form of expression is maligned by society. Large groups of Fediverse members have found in it a home for self-expression which is denied to them elsewhere on the basis of their sexuality, gender expression, politics, or other characteristics. It’s also essentially entirely free from commercial propaganda.

      But it’s still just a Twitter clone, and many of the social and psychological ills which come with that are present in the Fediverse. It’s a feed of other people’s random thoughts, often unfiltered, presented to you without value judgement — even when a value judgement may be wise. Features like boosting and liking posts, chasing after follower counts and mini-influencers, these rig up dopamine reinforcement like any other social network does. The increased character limit does not really help; most posts are pretty short and no one wants to read an essay aggressively word-wrapped in a narrow column.

      [...]

      Social networks are not good for you. The Fediverse brought out the worst in me, and it can bring out the worst in you, too. The behaviors it encourages are plainly defined as harassment, a behavior which is not unique to any ideological condition.

    • MedevelJoplin is An Amazing Open-source Note-Taking app and Evernote Alternative

      All code in this repository is licensed under the MIT License unless a directory contains a LICENSE or LICENSE.md file, in which case that file applies to the code in that sub-directory.

    • MedevelClash is an Open-source Server Tunnel

      Clash is a free open-source terminal-based Tunnel system that supports HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS servers, written in the Go programming language.

      [...]

      Clash is released under the GPL-3.0 License

    • Computer WeeklyDatabricks hoists mainsail on flagship open source projects

      Data and AI company Databricks has announced several contributions to popular data and AI open source projects including Delta Lake, MLflow and Apache Spark.

    • Programming/Development

      • Dirk EddelbuettelDirk Eddelbuettel: Rcpp 1.0.9 on CRAN: Regular Updates

        The Rcpp team is please to announce the newest release 1.0.9 of Rcpp which hit CRAN late yesterday, and has been uploaded to Debian as well. Windows and macOS builds should appear at CRAN in the next few days, as will builds in different Linux distribution and of course at r2u. The release was prepared om July 2, but it took a few days to clear a handful of spurious errors as false positives with CRAN — this can when the set of reverse dependencies is so large, and the CRAN team remains busy. This release continues with the six-months cycle started with release 1.0.5 in July 2020. (This time, CRAN had asked for an interim release to silence a C++ warning; we then needed a quick follow-up to tweak tests.) As a reminder, interim ‘dev’ or ‘rc’ releases should generally be available in the Rcpp drat repo. These rolling release tend to work just as well, and are also fully tested against all reverse-dependencies.

        Rcpp has become the most popular way of enhancing R with C or C++ code. Right now, around 2559 packages on CRAN depend on Rcpp for making analytical code go faster and further, along with 252 in BioConductor. On CRAN, 13.9% of all packages depend (directly) on CRAN, and 58.5% of all compiled packages do. From the cloud mirror of CRAN (which is but a subset of all CRAN downloads), Rcpp has been downloaded 61.5 million times.

      • Julia EvansMonitoring tiny web services

        Hello! I’ve started to run a few more servers recently (nginx playground, mess with dns, dns lookup), so I’ve been thinking about monitoring.

        It wasn’t initially totally obvious to me how to monitor these websites, so I wanted to quickly write up what how I did it.

        I’m not going to talk about how to monitor Big Serious Mission Critical websites at all, only tiny unimportant websites.

      • VideoControlling my Computer with DOOM... INSIDE the game. - Invidious
      • VideoELECTRON: why people HATE it, why devs USE it - Invidious
      • Guile Steel: a proposal for a systems lisp

        Before we get into this kind of stream-of-consciousness outline, I'd like to note that very topically to this, over at the Spritely Institute (where I'm CTO, did I mention on here yet that I'm the CTO of a nonprofit to improve networked communication on the internet on this blog? because I don't think I did) we published a Scheme Primer, and the feedback to it has been just lovely. This post isn't a Spritely Institute thing (at least, not yet, though if its ideas manifested it could be possible we might use some of the tech), but since it's about Scheme, I thought I'd mention that.

        [...]

        In the recent FOSS & Crafts episode What is Lisp? we talk a bit about how the assumptions that dynamically typed languages are "slow" is really due to lack of hardware support, and that lisp machines actually had hardware support directly (tagged memory architecture and hardware garbage collection) and even wrote low-level parts of their systems like the "graphics drivers" directly in lisp, and it was plenty fast, and that it would even be possible to have co-processors on which dynamic code (not just lisp) ran at "native speed" (this is what the MacIvory did), but this is all somewhat of an aside because that's not the world we live in. So as much as I, Christine, would love to hae tagged architecture (co-)processors, they probably won't happen, except there's some RISC-V tagged architecture things but I don't think they've gotten very far and they seem mostly motivated by a security model that doesn't make any sense to me. But I'd love to be wrong on this! I would like tagged RISC-V to succeed! But still, there's the problem of memory management, and I don't think anyone's been working on a hardware garbage collector or if that would really be a better thing anyway.

  • Leftovers

    • Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub)

      • FudzillaMicrosoft's xCloud looks terrible on Linux

        Linux fans are a little upset that Microsoft's xCloud game streaming looks noticeable worse when running on Linux than Windows.

        The Linux User-Agent has fuzzy edges and washed out colours. The dip in quality seems to go away if you enable "Clarity Boost", an Edge-exclusive feature that provides the optimal look and feel while playing Xbox games from the cloud.

        That's great for Linux users who switched over to Microsoft Edge when it launched on Linux last November, but Linux users are more likely to use Firefox, Chrome, or other browsers which have a really bad streaming quality.

        Of course, the thought is that Vole is doing this all deliberately and is reserving the best xCloud streaming performance for Windows machines in an attempt to attract more users to its own operating system. But that conspiracy goes tits up because using a Macintosh User-Agent string provides streaming performance similar to that on Windows.

    • Security

      • Linux systems under attack from novel OrBit malware [Ed: So don't get malware on your system in the first place]

        Systems compromised with the OrBit malware have their LD_PRELOAD environment variable modified to facilitate shared library hijacking, the Intezer report showed.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

    • Politics

      • Cost, value, and price

        Market capitalism has one job: to distribute resources and tasks. To do that, it sets prices. It is completely clueless when it comes to values (how much good something can do) and costs (how much pain something caused to create). It instead uses “prices” to approximate both of those things, and uses markets to set prices.

    • Technical

      • Obsolescence

        A friend noted that it seems like the obsolescence of some things (like how tablets and phones that stop getting security updates after only a few years) are correlated to their negative environmental impact.

        Take for example a knife. If you take care of it, it can last for years. I have used the same kitchen knife daily since 1996 and I got it used then so I have no idea how old it is. It was my grandmothers. I take care of it and keep it sharp.

        [...]

        It’s expensive to design a tablet while making one is, uh, it would also pretty expensive if it weren’t for the huge discounts created by [unaccounted-for externalities] and [race-to-the-bottom exploitation], but because of those things, it’s pretty cheap.

        Whenever we have a “expensive to make, cheap to copy” situation, market pressures are gonna work against it. One of the ways the owner class mitigates those market pressures is through pushing for artificial scarcity, through things like “patents” and “copyright”, but also through obsolescence.

      • clusters



        working on building some clusters. hardware, xcp, talos, maybe play with openstack

        ordered the required networking equipment, still need storage and a bit more compute.

        will need to acquire some public ips and configure the routers then we can start publishing to the net from the cluster.

      • Partitioning and BTRFS



        Today I took the time to re-install Linux on my laptop and try new things with partitions and the filesystem of my choice, BTRFS.

      • Internet/Gemini

        • spartan protocol



          I wanted to play around with the Spartan protocol. To that end, I bodged together a simple server written in Go.

          It weighs in at 114 lines. It isn't complete, or pretty. The code is in the link below.

          No doubt that there are security improvements to be made. Just tweaks the constants at the top of the file to suit your tastes. I use the FreeBSD packet filter (pf) to forward from port 300 to 3000.

        • Talking point: blogging discover

          I took a look at the Antenna blog aggregator antenna with a view to see wherabouts people created their blogs. My blog index is stored in /blog.gmi, for example. Another site was in /posts.gmi. Some have an index page within some directory, some forego the index page, and so on. There seemed to be as many specific solutions as there were sites. This sucks from an automated discovery viewpoint. The purpose of this post is to stimulate discussion on how we can facilitate discovery.

        • Automatic discovery of blogs

          I personally use posts.gmi as of now, in the past I've used gemlog.gmi. You can't really decide on an agreement here, as people call their blogs in many different ways: gemlogs, glogs, etc. and name the file in that respective way too.

        • Building a better HTML-to-gemtext converter



          And sure enough, you can code a basic converter in an hour or so. However HTML-to-gemtext converters that process HTML tags like this, in order, from top to bottom, produce some pretty poor results. The reasons really don't have anything to do with the minimal capabilities of gemtext, and much more to do with modern HTML. Let's see what the major problems are and some ideas I have to make a better converter.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Nobody is "Replaced by AI", It's Just a Smokescreen for Jobs Being Eliminated by Lack of Money (Too Much Debt) and Offshoring
It's also why many make the jokes about the "I" in "AI" being "India" or "Indians"
The US Government is Now in the Business (Literally!) of Saving Microsoft and Intel
This means that President TACO/Cheeto now has greater financial incentive to also prop up Microsoft and Windows
 
The UEFI Restricted Boot 'Time Bomb' is About to Go Off in a Few Weeks
Garrett was the first person to face sanctions (like muting) in our IRC channels because of his abuse; worse yet, he hijacked other people's names and then locked them out of their own accounts
Should Currys PCWorld Start Voiding Warranties of Users of Vista 11?
If a person's laptop has a mechanical issue, should this person replace GNU/Linux with Vista 11 for the repair shop? Only to damage the SSD?
Newer is Not Always Better, and It's Possible That 'Peak' is the Past
People creating their own platforms means progress, whereas centralisation (like moving from blogs to social control media) is the opposite of progress
LLM Hype is Sowing Destruction: It Contributes to DDoS Attacks and Makes the Web Less Accessible (JavaScript "R U Human?" Tests)
If it was googlebot, it would be possible to argue that you'd at least then get referral traffic from Google Search. With LLMs, all you get is plagiarised.
Links 24/08/2025: New York Times Talks About Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
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Gemini Links 24/08/2025: Upgrading Debian and Mobile-indifferent Design
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Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 23, 2025
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they've just updated their site and Stallman is listed first
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This demonstrates that we need a reform in the UK
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, WebProNews, LinuxSecurity, and the Serial Slopper
The bubble needs to burst, but even then the Web will be left with residues of these slopfarms
Links 23/08/2025: Science, War, and Important Win for the British Media Against SLAPPers Who Abuse Women
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/08/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and Back to Oldschool
Links for the day
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Links 23/08/2025: onmicrosoft.com as Spam Cannon, The Cheeto-Intel Deal Is Official
Links for the day
Wired Complained About LLM Slop Only Days Before It Got Caught Doing That Itself
Never throw stones in a glass house
IBM "Value" Down 14.16% in a Month, Red Hat Layoffs Allegedly Discussed 12 Days Ago
"IBM is a dinosaur. Dinosaurs get extinct when the don't keep up."
We're Seeing More Countries Where Windows Isn't Even in Second Place Anymore (Third or Worse)
In a way, Microsoft can barely even hold onto second place anymore
Microsoft Workers on Canonical's Payroll
If you want something that's sort of like Ubuntu but is not controlled by Canonical, then look into Linux Mint, Debian, or LMDE
GNU/Linux Climbs to 4% in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone isn't a very rich country (to say the least), but it's better off than some of its neighbours
The SLAPPS Run Out of Oxygen Because They're Abuse of Process
At the end of the day we plan to publish over 1,000 articles explaining what happened
The Register MS Gets Paid by the Employer of the Previous Editor in Chief to Promote the "AI" Ponzi Scheme, Which Does Considerable Damage to the Web and to Online Journalists
The Register MS can 'badmouth' slop all it wants; it gets paid to inflate this bubble. It's actively participating in it.
Soon It'll be Autumn, Time to Repair Things
Where they don't charge an arm and a leg
Doing Our Best to Cover Software Patents When the Mainstream Media Does Not
Even the FSF has its limits
Gemini Links 23/08/2025: August Questions and Network Solutions
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 22, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 22, 2025
Microsoft Has Issues in Guyana
It's not just Guyana
About 25% of the "Linux" News/Results in Google News Today Are LLM Slop, Almost 20% From the Same Rogue Operators of Slopfarms
Google, which tries to market itself as an LLM giant, apparently fails to understand what's wrong with it
Harassing People on Holiday
There are "no-go areas"; but that assumes all laws firms have ethical standards
The Great, Undeniable Value of Paper Trail, Not Purely Digital Systems
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The Company Behind Ars Technica, Reddit and Wired Caught Publishing LLM Slop (It Also Admits It Now)
Condé Nast busted
Links 22/08/2025: Lagrange 1.18.8, Wired Magazine and Business Insider Caught Resorting to LLM Slop
Links for the day
This Saturday It's Gonna be 3.5 Years* Since Russia Invaded Ukraine. No Microsoft Protests Against Microsoft Having Provided Russia With Services.
Companies do not have consistent policies and enforcement of "corporate values" is somewhat of an egg salad
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Charlatans and frauds engage in a war against artistic industries, mislabeling plagiarism as "AI"
Links 22/08/2025: Cisco Layoffs, LA Times Says "AI Hype is Fading Fast"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/08/2025: K for Kentucky and Caddy Versus LLM Slopbots
Links for the day
The "End Software Patents" Initiative of the FSF Explains "WHY [to] ABOLISH SOFTWARE PATENTS"
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Freenode Sniffing
The grown-ups left the building
The Only Thing Worse Than Misinformation is Misinformation Sold to Everyone as "Intelligence"
Misplaced trust is worse than none at all
The Register MS Now Openly Admits LLM Hype Does Damage, But It's Also Being Paid to Participate in the LLM Hype (With Paid 'Articles' and 'Webcasts' for Paying Advertisers)
The Register MS gets paid to do this
End of the Smartphone Era? No.
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Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 21, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 21, 2025
Enshittification of Airports, Airlines, and Airplanes
If people are willing to tolerate standard declines and enshittification (nowadays sold as "pivot to AI" or "replaced by AI" or "AI layoffs") they will pay for it some other way
Latest Is Not Greatest: The Case of "Foldable" Tech
don't be shamed into abandoning old things just because the "fashion industry" of Apple and Samsung tells you to
Airlines and Their Tricks That Only Work in the 'Digital Age'
People sceptical of the direction technology has taken are not "Luddites"
Open Source Initiative (OSI), Which Became a Propaganda Front of Microsoft and "Hey Hi" (Hype, Misnomer), Wants You to Forget These Scandals
A lot of these issues won't be set aside until there's a resolution