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Links 05/04/2023: elementaryOS Updates and MidnightBSD 3.0.1



  • GNU/Linux

    • Linux Format 301

      We’ll keep your PCs old and new running that little bit longer with a combination of Linux Mint 21 and Linux Mint Debian Edition.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • elementaryOS Updates for March, 2023

      March was all about bug fixes. This month don’t expect too many new features, but instead get excited about improved stability and closed issue reports! The team has been hard at work sorting through your feedback and smoothing out all of the wrinkles.

      Sideload

      Since sideloading is an expected and important part of installing apps on elementary OS, we’ve made a couple of changes to help you stay informed and be in control. Instead of describing sideloaded apps as “Untrusted”, we’ve updated interface copy to instead ask for your trust. Additionally, we now show some basic feedback about the kinds of broad system permissions that a sideloaded app may request. This will likely get more fine-grained in the future, but for now we can warn about apps that request advanced permissions and let you know when an app is more tightly sandboxed.

    • EasyOS/OpenEmbedded

    • BSD

      • MidnightBSD 3.0.1

        3.0.1 was tagged in our git repository and we've started building ISOs for it.? It includes several security updates such as OpenSSL 1.1.1t, doas 6.3p9, a fix for a telnetd vulnerability.? It also includes some cleanup work on rc.d scripts, fixes for periodic scripts that were incorrect around ntpd and restoring msearch/mport db backups.? ?We also updated mport to 2.2.9 which fixed the mport mirror list command.

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

      • OpenMandriva NewsOpenMandriva repository mass rebuild

        We are currently running a mass rebuild of all packages making up OpenMandriva, because we have updated our main compiler (this is the tool that translates programmer readable code into machine code) to Clang 16.

        While not strictly necessary, after a big compiler update it is a good idea to rebuild everything: it makes the system more reproducable (if you rebuild a package, you get the same results), it may well speed up things (because the newer compiler generates better machine code), and last but not least it makes sure the updated compiler is working properly.

      • OpenMandriva News2023-03-31 [Older] OpenMandriva at Cloudfest
    • Red Hat

      • Red Hat OfficialRed Hat OpenShift sandboxed containers for debugging with elevated privileges
      • Red Hat OfficialHow API burn rate alerts are calculated in Red Hat OpenShift
      • Red HatKubernetes Patterns: The path to cloud native

        Note:€ The following is an excerpt from€ Kubernetes Patterns, Second Edition€ by Bilgin Ibryam and Roland Hu߀ (O'Reilly Media, March 2023).€ Download the e-book€ to learn how to solve common cloud native challenges with proven design patterns.

        Microservices is among the most popular architectural styles for creating cloud native applications. They tackle software complexity through modularization of business capabilities and trading development complexity for operational complexity. That is why a key prerequisite for becoming successful with microservices is to create applications that can be operated at scale through Kubernetes.

        As part of the microservices movement, there is a tremendous amount of theory, techniques, and supplemental tools for creating microservices from scratch or for splitting monoliths into microservices. Most of these practices are based on Domain-Driven Design by Eric Evans (Addison-Wesley) and the concepts of bounded contexts and aggregates. Bounded contexts deal with large models by dividing them into different components, and aggregates help to further group bounded contexts into modules with defined transaction boundaries. However, in addition to these business domain considerations, for each distributed system—whether it is based on microservices or not—there are also technical concerns around its external structure, and runtime€ coupling. Containers and container orchestrators such as Kubernetes bring in new primitives and abstractions to address the concerns of distributed applications, and here we discuss the various options to consider when putting a distributed system into Kubernetes.

        Throughout this book, we look at container and platform interactions by treating the containers as black boxes. However, we created this section to emphasize the importance of what goes into containers. Containers and cloud native platforms bring tremendous benefits to your distributed applications, but if all you put into containers is rubbish, you will get distributed rubbish at scale. Figure 1-1 shows the mixture of the skills required for creating good cloud native applications and where Kubernetes patterns fit in.

      • Enterprisers ProjectIT leadership: How to prevent overwork and employee burnout
      • Enterprisers ProjectSecurity automation: 3 ways it enhances infrastructure protection
    • Debian Family

      • LWNSurvey results: the usage of money in Debian [Ed: Debian also pays lawyers to confiscate Web sites of volunteers, whom Debian "elite" suddenly doesn't honour (for free speech)]

        The Debian project has reported on a survey of developers on the use of project funds to support development work.

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

      • UbuntuUbuntu Blog: Ubuntu compliance monitoring with Microsoft Intune [Ed: Ubuntu is shilling Microsoft's proprietary spyware; this is consistent with Canonical's position in recent years. Highly disappointing!]

        In recent years, data science, AI and software development have become a key focus area for organisations operating in every sector of the economy.

      • UbuntuUbuntu Blog: Canonical at HPE APAC Outcome-Based Solutions 2023

        Canonical is proud to participate to the HPE APAC, India and Japan Outcome-Based Solutions and Master ASE Summit 2023. This event will gather presales consultants and enterprise architects to explore innovative strategies powered by HPE’s edge-to-cloud workload solutions and products.

        Canonical’s sponsorship of the OBSS event demonstrates its unwavering commitment to promoting open-source technology in the tech industry. The event provides an excellent opportunity for the company to showcase its innovative solutions, connect with like-minded professionals, and explore potential collaborations. Attendees can expect to gain valuable insights into open-source solutions and how they can be leveraged to drive business growth.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • ArduinoPortable bioprinter could help fight cancer

        To test experimental cancer-fighting therapies, researchers need cancerous tumors to treat. While lab animals, like mice, can provide those tumors, they come with many downsides. From ethical concerns to practical reasons, such as tumor isolation and repeatability, "natural" tumors come at a cost. Artificial tumors, made using real cells, can solve these problems.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Standards/Consortia

      • Michael West MediaCrackdown on ‘dark’ internet design on the cards

        Dark web design tricks asking consumers to jump through multiple hoops to unsubscribe – a tactic often used by online streaming services – could soon be captured under tightened consumer laws.

  • Leftovers

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • A Review of the First Half of the Furyk Saga

        I'm not sure how I found the series, but I've been reading the Furyk Saga before bed for the past several months. It's a nordic-themed fantasy novel, and clocks in at 2100 pages for the first three books.

        Overall I've really enjoyed this series thus far. The characters, the storyline, and the action scenes keep you turning the pages to find out more. What I like best is that these books don't beat you over the head with magic right out of the gates, and even in the later two books it's really not that heavy. The storyline can be a bit slow, especially in the first book when you're finding out where the writer is going with the story, but even then I found that I wanted to discover what happened to the individuals and their story arcs through these developmental sections of the books. The readability also contributes to the page turns since there's a lot of action-type language throughout versus lengthy internal character development. And finally, I like that the plot lines are not easily predicted in most cases, which is what I think kept me pushing through the slower parts of the book. I can say that I stayed up late trying to push through the last part of book for at least a few nights this past week - it got really good and action packed.

      • Baseball's Fun!

        We're only a few days into the new season, but I think that the MLB's new rules have made the game infinitely better. The rules that have made the biggest difference for me are the pitch clock and the shift ban.

      • The Shortening of the Way

        Not just baseball is getting shorter, but also cricket, which is trying to do something about the five day matches. A difference here might be "an event" versus "a way of life". But it's not just sportsball! Brogue is considered too long, so now there are even shorter versions of it. However, Brogue is short compared to, say, Angband.



        [...]

        Some of this could be "life happened" so there isn't time to rush away the hours in a dungeon crawl or the eternal cricket match, but the shortening of the way in multiple fields (baseball, cricket, computer games, other?) probably points towards something else going on. Computers? Smartphones? Capitalism? Something in the water? Context switches running too hot? Surely something can be found to blame.
      • Beginning Birding

        I have suddenly become interested in birding ("the observation of birds in their natural habitats as a hobby"). Each day for the last week you could have found me in a local park with a pair of binoculars and a bird guide, trying to tally bird sightings by species.

        Growing up, I was fortunate to live near the Chesapeake Bay, and to regularly see blue crabs (callinectes sapidus) and blue heron (ardea herodias). I was interested in the marsh ecosystem generally, and these creatures specificually, but unlike many of my peers would not admit to an interest in looking at living things. For reasons lost to recall, I believed these were childish and/or effiminate interests.

      • Album #226: The Beach Boys - Surf's Up

        Usually I try to write out my thoughts while listening to the album. Sort of 'raw, live to tape', in the hope that it'll capture something unique or interesting to my particular perspective in this, my public music listening journal. Not today, not with this album - it slid by. Maybe that was the intention - it's cautiously interesting and psychedelic or at least adventurous, but there's never any real commitment to it. Like they know the weight and legacy of the Beach Boys name and have to do something MORE, but where previously they felt like they set a standard, now they're following The Beatles or The Rolling Stones or The Who or whoever is moulding something from the past in to something more interesting. And the spark isn't there any more.


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



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