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Links 01/02/2023: Security Problems, Unrest, and More



  • GNU/Linux

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • Tux Digital49: From the Ashes

        This week, Linux Out Loud chats about open-source projects rising from the ashes. Welcome to episode 49 of Linux Out Loud. We fired up our mics, connected those headphones as we searched the community for themes to expound upon. We kept the banter friendly, the conversation somewhat on topic, and had fun doing it.

      • mintCast Podcast404.5 – 2022 Distro Rundown

        This week in our Innards, We do a rundown of our favorite distros of 2022
        In "Check This Out" we talk about a graphical tool Londoner shared that makes light work of scheduling a shutdown or reboot. Moss shares his experience with the Flatpak of a favorite game of his; and we share an article postulating the death of Unix.

        Download
    • Graphics Stack

      • Mike Blumenkrantz: Fastlink

        I previously wrote a post talking about some optimization work that’s been done with RADV to improve fast-link performance. As promised, that wasn’t the end of the story. Today’s post will be a bit different, however, as I’ll be assuming all the graphics experts in the audience are already well-versed in all the topics I’m covering.

    • Applications

      • Make Tech EasierBest Linux Software for Kids: Apps, Distros, and Games

        Linux is a very powerful operating system, which is why it powers most of the servers on the Internet. While this OS may not have a reputation for popular games such as FIFA or PES, it offers the best educational software and games for kids. These are eight of the best Linux educational software to keep your kids ahead of the game.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Ubuntu HandbookHow to Enable Minimize button in Elementary OS 7 App Windows

        Elementary OS 7 is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. It was released on Tuesday with many improvements on its core applications as well as desktop experience.

      • Linux CapableHow to Install WP-CLI on Linux for WordPress

        Managing a WordPress website can be a time-consuming and complex task. From updating plugins and themes to creating backups and managing databases, many tasks must be performed regularly to keep your website running smoothly. This is where WP-CLI comes in.

      • TecAdminRunning a Crontab as www-data User in Linux

        In a Linux system, the cron daemon is used to execute scheduled commands or scripts. By default, cron jobs run as the root user. However, sometimes it is necessary to run cron jobs as a non-root user, such as the www-data user.

      • TecAdminA Quick Reference Guide to Uptime Command in Linux

        The uptime command in Linux is a simple utility that displays the system uptime or the amount of time that the system has been running since its last reboot.

      • FOSSLinuxInstall Duplicity on Ubuntu: A Quick and Easy Guide

        Backing up data is one of the most critical duties for a system admin. As such, one must be well-versed in software that can ease data backing up. Not only must an admin be aware of data backing, but also, as an individual, you must be able to back up your data without struggle. One of the most renowned backup tools that will help you do this is Duplicity.

      • FOSSLinuxHow to renew Let’s Encrypt certificate on Ubuntu

        Access to a reliable and secure online environment is no longer a luxury. Nothing seems impossible now that the internet connects all corners of the globe. The internet and its numerous protocols have spurred the creation of e-learning, video conferencing, gaming, and other platforms that link people from all over the world. Regardless of how much we laud the internet, its legitimacy is meaningless without security.

      • TecAdminHow To Install Wine from Source Code on Debian-based System

        As an avid user of Windows programs, you might have found that at times you need to use a particular program on your Ubuntu system.

      • Trend OceansSilencing the Noise: A Guide to Redirecting Output to /dev/null in Linux

        If the unnecessary output of your script bothers you, dump it to /dev/null. While developing a script to automate a task, you might find that the output is printed even though it actually doesn’t require it at all, and because of this, your terminal becomes crowded with unneeded text.

      • ID RootHow To Install Discourse on Rocky Linux 9

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Discourse on Rocky Linux 9.

      • ID RootHow To Install Zeek Network Security Monitor on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Zeek Network Security Monitor on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Zeek, formerly known as Bro, is a free and open-source software network security monitor.

      • UbuntubuzzDownload elementary OS 7, Verify Its Checksum, and Install It on Computer
      • UbuntubuzzHow To Make Course Marketing Flyer with LibreOffice Writer

        This tutorial will help you create course marketing using LibreOffice Writer. This can also be used for other marketing purposes such as culinary and medical. We have already prepared the pictures and text and you can download them then try the exercises at home step by step to achieve the final product. We make this as avid users of Ubuntu and fans of Canonical. Happy writing!

      • [Fixed] bash: add-apt-repository: command not found

        If you get the message “bash: add-apt-repository: command not found” while trying to use the add-apt-repository command in Ubuntu, it means that the software-properties-common package that has€ this command is not installed on your system.

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to fix this error by installing the software-properties-common package.

      • TecMintHow to Install and Set Up Headless Linux Server

        A vast majority of Linux users are familiar with a Linux desktop PC which provides a graphical environment with which you can interact with the system. However, unlike a Linux desktop, a headless server is an operating system that runs without a GUI (Graphical User Environment).

        It is installed on hardware that is not connected to any peripheral device such as a monitor, keyboard, or mouse during its operation (although these are required during the initial setup).

      • [Fixed] Http Error Uploading Image to WordPress

        “HTTP Error when uploading image to WordPress” is a common issue faced by many WordPress users. This error message appears when you try to upload an image to your WordPress site and can be frustrating as it prevents you from adding images to your posts or pages. The good news is that there are several methods you can use to resolve this issue.

        In this article, we will discuss some of the most common reasons for the “HTTP Error” message and provide step-by-step instructions on how to fix it. By the end of this tutorial, you should have a clear understanding of how to resolve this error and successfully upload images to your WordPress site.

      • useradd Vs. adduser

        Linux is a popular open-source operating system that runs on a variety of hardware platforms, including desktops, servers, and smartphones. One of the key features of Linux is the command-line interface (CLI), which allows users to perform a wide range of tasks using text-based commands.

        In this article, we’ll discuss the two commonly used commands for managing users in Linux, useradd and adduser. While they perform similar functions, they have some important differences that are important to understand.

        useradd is a standard Linux command that is used to create new user accounts. It is available in all popular distributions of Linux, including Red Hat, Fedora, and Debian. The syntax for the useradd command is straightforward and easy to use. For example, to create a new user account with the username “sandy”, you would use the following command:

        This will create a new user account with the default settings, including the default home directory, shell, and group. To customize the user account, you can use additional options with the useradd command. For example, to specify a different home directory, you can use the -d option:useradd -d /home/sandy sandy

    • Games

      • GamingOnLinuxBig new Stable Update for Steam Deck and Desktop Steam

        Valve has today released a major update for the Steam client on Steam Deck and for Desktop users too. There's absolutely masses new including small new features, along with plenty of bug fixes to make the experience smoother overall, as usual a whole bunch of it is shared between Desktop and Steam Deck.

      • GamingOnLinuxThese were the most popular Steam Deck games for January 2023

        Valve has done their monthly thing, giving out a list of what was the most played games on Steam Deck through January 2023. Yes it's already February, no I can't believe it either.

      • GamingOnLinuxUbisoft just broke their games on Linux desktop and Steam Deck

        Update 21:17: Looks like Proton developers have updated the "bleeding-edge" Beta for Proton Experimental, that works around the issue. Note: using it can cause other issues, the Beta doesn't have a lot of testing, you've been warned.

      • GamingOnLinuxProton Hotfix improves Dead Space, Proton Experimental tweak for Tiny Tina's Wonderland

        In addition to the below, Valve did another Proton Experimental update after some recent Ubisoft Connect breakage I highlighted that includes:

      • GamingOnLinuxThe Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past gets a reverse-engineered clone

        The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, the 1991 classic from Nintendo has been reverse-engineered to bring it natively to more platforms. Nintendo are no doubt warming up their lawyers. Available on GitHub under the MIT license, it notes the game is fully playable from start to finish and it does need the original ROM for the resources, so it doesn't include the copyrighted assets.

      • 9to5LinuxLatest Steam Client Update Enables New Big Picture Mode by Default, Adds Linux Fixes

        The biggest change in the new Steam Client update is the enablement of the new Big Picture mode, the one that resembles Steam Deck‘s UI, by default. So, after this update, say goodbye to the old Big Picture mode and welcome the new and fancy one on your Steam for Linux client.

        Those who don’t like the new Big Picture mode will still be able to access the old one by using the -oldbigpicture command-line option. However, Valve noted the fact that the old Big Picture mode will be removed for good in a future update.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GamingOnLinuxBudgie 10.7 sounds like a great desktop to use on Linux

        Budgie 10.7 is out now, refreshing many parts of this Linux desktop environment to improve the UI across many parts. Originally created for the Solus Linux distribution, nowadays it lives as an independent project and continues to impress.

      • 9to5LinuxXfce’s Apps Update for January 2023: New Releases of Thunar, Xfce Panel, and Whisker Menu

        The January 2023 issue of my exclusive “Xfce’s Apps Update” monthly roundup is here to inform fans of the lightweight Xfce desktop environment about the latest releases of their favorite Xfce apps, plugins, tools, and more.

        January 2023 was quite busy for the Xfce developers as they kicked off the development cycle of the next major release of the desktop environment, Xfce 4.20, which will finally bring Wayland support. As expected, the Xfce 4.20 development cycle takes place under the Xfce 4.19 umbrella, and several components are already available for early adopters.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • OpenSource.comA guide to fuzzy queries with Apache ShardingSphere

      Apache ShardingSphere is an open source distributed database and an ecosystem users and developers need for their databases to provide a customized and cloud-native experience. Its latest release contains many new features, including data encryption integrated with existing SQL workflows. Most importantly, it allows fuzzy queries of the encrypted data.

    • OpenSource.comWhat's your community thinking pattern?

      This article is the second and final part of a discussion of the research by Dave Logan, Bob King, and Halee Fischer-Wright.€  If you haven't read the first part yet, you can do so here. These researchers defined five cultural thinking patterns in communities. In part one, I explained the first three of five thinking patterns. These communities are 20-150 people. I also suggested the responsibilities of an introducer-in-chief. This environmental thinking also refers to how the group behaves and how members talk to each other. To the researchers, each pattern has a identifying perspective:

      In this article, I continue with their impressions of community thinking pattern #4 and conclude with thinking pattern #5 (the most optimistic).

    • PurismThe Danger of Focusing on Specs

      Many years ago I was a sysadmin for a medium-sized tech company, and a fringe benefit of that role was getting first choice at stacks of “obsolete” computers that were about to be thrown away. They say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and that is even truer when the first man ran Windows, but you run Linux. It has long been known among the Linux community that a Windows computer that was “too slow to use” and about to be thrown away, could be transformed into a brand new computer simply by installing Linux on it. While my Windows-using colleagues were replacing computers every two or three years as they grew slower and slower with age, I found my Linux-using friends and myself were often using the same hardware (even second-hand hardware) for at least twice as long. Even when I replaced hardware with something new, I found that the old hardware still performed, for the most part, as well as it did when I started using it. The hardware specs didn’t matter nearly as much as the software that ran on it.

      Even today, many people still fall into the trap of relying solely on specs to gauge whether hardware is “fast” or “slow” and forgetting the giant role software has to play in performance. Both hardware and software companies incentivize this mentality, as it means more frequent sales for hardware vendors, and customers who are more likely to blame their “old” hardware than bloated software for poor performance. In this article I will discuss some of the consequences that come when you only assess hardware by specs.

    • Call for Community-Led Tracks at FOSSY

      We're looking for organizers who can give us a really good idea of what we can expect from their track. The description should give a detailed explanation of the topic, ideally along with some of the issues you expect to cover. Example talks you expect, what kind of audience are you aiming for, and how this topic fits into the larger FOSS ecosystem are good things to mention.

    • Events

      • PostgreSQLPGConf.BE 2023: Call for Papers & Sponsors

        Announcing the Belgian PostgreSQL Conference

        PGConf.be 2023is the third Belgian PostgreSQL conference in Haasrode, Leuven.

        The conference will take place onMay 12th, 2023. Registration for the conference will be opened later.

        TheCall for Papersis open until March 30th. Submit your talks by mail with the subject 'I love Elephants'.

        The Call for Sponsors is open onpgconf.be

        See you in Leuven in May!

      • PostgreSQLPostgreSQL Conference Germany 2023

        PGConf.de 2023 is the next iteration of the German PostgreSQL Conference. It takes place in the "Haus der Technik" in Essen.

        https://2023.pgconf.de/

        The conference will take place on June 27th, 2023.

        Registration for the conference will be possible well in advance. Talks will be in German or English language. Tickets must be purchased online. For sponsors, we have put together a package that includes among other things, a number of free tickets.

        The Call for Papers is open now:www.postgresql.eu/events/pgconfde2023/callforpapers/

        Note that this event takes place in the same week asSwiss PGDay 2023. As a speaker you should be able to travel from one conference to the other in the day between the two conferences.

        See you in Essen in June 2023!

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Mozilla

        • MozillaMozilla: How to talk to kids about the news

          As the father of a teenager, I find myself worrying – and not just about their grades and how quickly they’re growing up. Dating? Driver’s permit? I’m not ready for this! I also worry about how my child, through the internet, is experiencing the world at a much quicker pace than I did.

    • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

    • Programming/Development

      • Godot EngineDev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 17

        We're now just days away from the Release Candidate, working at full capacity on finalizing as many of the remaining high priority issues as we can. This beta adds audio blending in AnimationTree, fixes GDScript typed arrays, and refactors high quality texture import to enable ASTC support.

      • Daniel LemireSerializing IPs quickly in C++

        On the Internet, we often use 32-bit addresses which we serialize as strings such as 192.128.0.1. The string corresponds to the Integer address 0xc0800001 (3229614081 in decimal). How might you serialize, go from the integer to the string, efficiently in C++?

    • Standards/Consortia

  • Leftovers

    • MIT Technology ReviewWho gets to be a tech entrepreneur in China?

      We live in an age where the concept of being an entrepreneur is increasingly broad. It’s often hard to slot occupations—hosting a podcast, driving for Uber, even having an OnlyFans account—into the traditional definitions of employment vs. entrepreneurship. Of course, this is not a strictly Western phenomenon; it’s happening all over the world.

  • Defence/Aggression

  • Environment

  • Finance

    • Danish government accused of breaking promises on tax cuts

      Critics of the Danish government say it is failing to meet promises on tax cuts made in the coalition policy agreement because of a plan to apply a special tax to energy firms and use it to assist individuals struggling with high living costs.

    • JURISTFrance protest draws millions opposing increased pension age

      Protests broke out across France Tuesday in the latest backlash against France’s reform plan to raise the country’s retirement age from 62 to 64. According to the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), a federation of trade unions in France, approximately 2.8 million people demonstrated across the country.

    • France24'We need money now': UK teachers, civil servants join biggest strike in decade

      Up to half a million British teachers, civil servants, and train drivers walked out over pay in the largest coordinated strike action for a decade on Wednesday, with unions threatening more disruption as the government digs its heels in over pay demands.

    • France24Pension reform poses biggest challenge to Macron’s legacy as a reformer

      A feeling of déjà-vu pervaded the French capital on Monday as hundreds of thousands of protesters unfurled their posters nationwide and strikes paralysed public transport in opposition to the government’s announced pension reform. The proposed changes are a cornerstone of Macron's reform agenda but are also a high-stakes test of his reputation as a reformer.

  • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • Censorship/Free Speech

    • MIT Technology ReviewHow the Supreme Court ruling on Section 230 could end Reddit as we know it

      When the Supreme Court hears a landmark case on Section 230 later in February, all eyes will be on the biggest players in tech—Meta, Google, Twitter, YouTube.

    • EngadgetTwitter opens public appeals for suspended accounts
      “Account suspension will be reserved for severe or ongoing, repeat violations of our policies.”

      Twitter added that appeals would be “evaluated under our new criteria for reinstatement." But it didn't elaborate on what that criteria would be, or how long the process might take. The company says it expects to receive a “high volume” of requests and that reinstated requests are expected to “follow our

    • Off GuardianIncentivizing Censorship: A Snitch in Every Skull

      Helen Buyniski An informational iron curtain is coming down across the West, and its architects are determined to make examples out of those who refuse to pick a side.

    • AccessNowAfter years in the dark, Tigray is slowly coming back online

      For many, the years-long shutdown in Tigray continues, and those regaining access are largely struggling with slow speeds and limited 2G services.

  • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • Civil Rights/Policing

  • Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • Monopolies

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

    • Gemini

      • Gemini and Google

        My guess is that out of these three scenarios, Google would be least like to implement the first, precisely because it's the most difficult to monetize. I see them playing out the second scenario to test their ability to scrape Geminispace, and were they to implement Gemini search as a full feature, they would probably opt for the third scenario, at least to start with.

        The second scenario is most likely to me if Google were ever to implement Gemini support in Chrome. While implementing such a feature would surely increase engagement with Gemini by several orders of magnitude, it would not be a healthy phenomenon for Geminispace as it current exists. More people--especially more people who treat the Internet flippantly--means more scammers and spammers, less meaningful and productive discourse, more bot abuse, greater potential for organized harassment or DDOS attacks, and massive strain on an infrastructure largely built on small, independent capsules.

      • year-review

        Created the Spookbench site and this Gopherhole, also managed to NOT abandon them after a month. I find writing to be very soothing, should do it even more often in 2023.

      • A Tour of Gemspace

        HTTP and HTML have been powering the internet for the last 50 years. If you have used a web browser you have used them, knowningly or not. HTTP is the protocol which transfers data between your browser and the web server, and HTML is the file format used to render web pages. Together, along with JS and CSS, they form the foundation of the modern internet.

      • Added a Ton of Phlogs

        Sorry for the spam on the Comitium feed, I added a ton of Phlogs because I want to read more Gopher content.

      • What I am doing in the 2023?

        In January I had my first Gopher anniversary, so I'm here for one year!

    • Technical

      • Internet/Gemini

        • SSL certs

          It looks like the SSL cert for midnight.pub is expired. Hopefully ~m15o is aware of it.

      • Programming

        • How to Learn Rust

          I have been a Go developer since even before Go 1.0 was released. I was immediately taken by the simple but useful type system, strong standard library, concurrency primitives, and minimal feature-set of the language. It reminded me greatly of Erlang in those respects, with the added bonus of compiling to a binary on virtually any platform.


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



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