Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 19/08/2023: New Wine, Linux-Hostile 'Linus Tech Tips' Collapsing



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • Gizmo China Star Labs launches StarLite 5 Linux tablet with 12.5″ display, 16GB RAM, Intel N200
        Star Labs, a UK-based hardware company, has introduced the StarLite 5, their latest Linux tablet. This 12.5-inch 2-in-1 device boasts a high-resolution 2880 x 1920 LED-backlit display with 300 nits brightness, 10-point touch support, and 16:10 aspect ratio.

        The tablet is powered by an Intel Alder Lake N200 (1.0GHz quad-core) processor, coupled with 16GB of 4800MHz LPDDR5 RAM and storage options of 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB Gen 3 PCIe SSD.

        One of the standout features of the StarLite 5 is its support for a range of operating systems, making it a versatile choice for users. It’s compatible with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, elementary OS 6.1, Linux Mint 21, Manjaro 21.3.7, MX Linux 21.1, Zorin OS 16.1, and Windows 11 22H1.

    • Applications

      • Linux Links5 Best Free and Open Source Email Encryption Tools

        OpenPGP is the most widely used email encryption standard. Whether you are using an email client or a web-based email solution, you can encrypt your email with OpenPGP.

        There are very few email applications that have PGP encryption enabled by default. Fortunately, there are some good open source encryption applications available for Linux that are simple to use. We make the following recommendations captured in a legendary LinuxLinks chart.

      • Mastering Process Management: 12 Best Task Managers for Linux

        Linux Task Manager is one of the essential tools that help you to find out the details of resource usage (CPU/RAM) by any particular software or even the system itself.

      • Linux JournalThe 8 Best SSH Clients for Linux

        SSH, or Secure Shell, is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. It's a vital part of modern server management, providing secure remote access to systems. SSH clients, applications that leverage SSH protocol, are an essential tool for system administrators, developers, and IT professionals. In the world of Linux, where remote server management is common, choosing the right SSH client can be crucial. This article will explore the 8 best SSH clients available for Linux.

      • 10 Most-Used AUR Helpers For Arch Linux

        Arch Linux stands out as a lightweight, flexible, and independently developed GNU/Linux distribution with a distinct character.

      • Jeff GeerlingMy own magic-wormhole relay, for zippier transfers

        If you've ever had to transfer a file from one computer to another over the Internet, with minimal fuss, there are a few options. You could use scp or rsync if you have SSH access. You could use Firefox Send, or Dropbox, or iCloud Drive, or Google Drive, and upload from one computer, and download on the other.

        But what if you just want to zap a file from point A to point B? Or what if—like me—you want to see how fast you can get an individual file from one place to another over the public Internet?

      • MedevelUpdog: Free Open-source File Transfer Tool

        Updog is a powerful and reliable tool for file transfer over the internet. It has been designed as a secure and trustworthy alternative to Python's SimpleHTTPServer. With Updog, you can effortlessly upload and download files using the widely recognized and secure HTTP/S protocols for data exchange.

      • MedevelMiroTalk SFU: Open-source Self-hosted Real-time Video Conferencing Platform

        MiroTalk SFU is an innovative and highly versatile solution for all your video conferencing needs. With its powerful open-source architecture, you can easily host and manage your own web-based video conferences, without having to worry about the hassle and expense of relying on third-party services.

      • Medevel🎒 Lark × (GPT-4 + DALL€·E + Whisper) = Open Source Self-hosted AI Professional Assistant 🚀

        🎒 Lark × (GPT-4 + DALL€·E + Whisper) = your professional assistant 🚀

      • MedevelOverCASE Is a cross-platform integrated CASE system For Software Developers

        OverCASE is a cross-platform integrated CASE (Computer-Aided Software Engineering) system designed to streamline the software development process.

        [...]

        The project is released under the GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3).

      • MedevelVNote Is a Free Libre Notebook and Knowledge base Manager For Engineers

        VNote is a note-taking application that is available to users for free. It is an open-source platform that is based on Qt, with a focus on Markdown. The platform is designed to provide users with an excellent editing experience while taking notes.

      • MedevelFreeturn Is a Self-hosted Awesome Tool for Freelancers

        Freeturn is an amazing open source portfolio and CRM that offers a variety of features for individual freelance developers. It is built on two powerful frameworks, Django and Wagtail, which work together to provide an intuitive and seamless experience for users. With Freeturn, you can easily showcase your skills, experience

      • MedevelSMD Or Spotify Music Downloader, Free and Open-source App

        SMD or Spotify Music Downloader is an open-source desktop app that enables you to download Spotify music for free. It also offers a Telegram bot client, and a Desktop CLI edition.

        The app is written using Python, so it can run on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

    • Instructionals/Technical

    • WINE or Emulation

      • WINE Project (Official)WineHQ - Wine Announcement - The Wine development release 8.14 is now available.
        The Wine development release 8.14 is now available.
        
        

        What's new in this release: - PCSC framework used on macOS for smart card support. - Dumping of Windows registry files in WineDump. - Fixes for Wow64 window messages. - Various bug fixes.

        The source is available at:

        https://dl.winehq.org/wine/source/8.x/wine-8.14.tar.xz

        Binary packages for various distributions will be available from:

        https://www.winehq.org/download

        You will find documentation on https://www.winehq.org/documentation

        You can also get the current source directly from the git repository. Check https://www.winehq.org/git for details.

        Wine is available thanks to the work of many people. See the file AUTHORS in the distribution for the complete list.
    • Games

      • Tom's HardwareSabrent Releases 7-in-1 Steam Deck Dock With M.2 SSD Slot

        Sabrent has released a new Steam Deck Dock with a compelling M.2 storage expansion option at a similar cost to the boring official dock.

      • Boiling SteamTop 11 New Games You Can Play on Linux with Proton – August 2023 Edition

        We are back with our usual monthly update!

      • Ivan Molodetskikh: Motion Blur for Half-Life Video Recording with Vulkan

        Half-Life is an award-winning first-person shooter from 1998. One of the many things setting it apart is a fluid player movement system. You can gradually build up speed in the air by turning left and right, and if you jump as soon as you hit the ground, you keep all of that speed.

        These techniques, called strafing and bunny-hopping, unlocked a whole new dimension to the game, and spawned a big community of mappers and players. There are hundreds of custom maps with challenging obstacles designed to test one’s movement skills, and thousands of players competing to finish them as fast as possible.

        The main hubs for these maps and records are Xtreme-Jumps1 and Cosy-Climbing. They are centered around Counter-Strike 1.6, which has similar movement mechanics to Half-Life, but paced slower with a jump-speed limit and some tweaks to the acceleration.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Krita: Unleashing the new Bundle Editor

          The Bundle Editor is an extension of the Bundle Creator, designed to enable artists to modify existing bundles. Often, when downloading a bundle, we find ourselves drawn to specific brushes and realize that a portion—ranging from 10% to 50%—will likely go unused. In such instances, the ability to trim down bundle sizes by removing unnecessary brushes offers the potential to significantly save on disk space.

        • Scarlett Gately Moore: KDE: A day in the life of the KDE snapcrafter!

          As mentioned last week, I am still looking for a super awesome team lead for a super amazing project involving KDE and Snaps. Time is running out and well the KDE world will be a better a better place if this project goes through! I would like to clarify, this is a paid position! A current KDE developer would be ideal as it is a small team so your time will be split managing and coding alike. If you or anyone you know might be interested please contact me ASAP!

          On to snappy things I have achieved this week:

          Most 23.04.3 is done, I am just testing them now. New applications: kmymoney ( Thanks Carlos! ), kde-dev-utils, and kxstitch ( Thanks Jeremy! )

          With that said, I have seen on the internets –candidate channel apps being promoted. Please use this channel with utmost care as they are being tested and could quite possibly be very broken!

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • DebugPointGNOME 45 Hits Beta: New Features & Missed Items

          The GNOME fans are excited as GNOME 45 makes its way to the beta phase, bringing an array of enhancements, tweaks, and new features. This release promises a smoother user experience and marks a significant shift in its core components and functionalities.

          As GNOME 45 enters the beta phase, the UI, feature, and API freezes take effect. The beta phase is set to continue until September 2, when the release candidate is expected. Finally, you can expect the official GNOME 45 release on September 20, 2023.

          Let's dive into the highlights of what you can expect from GNOME 45.

        • This Week in GNOMEThis Week in GNOME (Felix Häcker): #109 Managing Repositories

          Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from August 11 to August 18.

        • Arun Raghavan: To Conference Organisers Everywhere…

          (well, not exactly everywhere …)

          This is not an easy post for me to write, being a bit of a criticism / “you can do better” note for organisers of conferences that cater to a global community.

          It’s not easy because most of the conferences I attend are community driven, and I have helped organise community conferences in the past. It is a thankless job, a labour of love, and you mostly do not get to enjoy the fruits of that labour as others do.

          The problem is that these conferences end up inadvertently excluding members who live in, for lack of a better phrase, the Global South.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • HaikuOS[GSoC 2023] VPN Support Project Update #6

      So last time I posted I was able to say that I got the client side for OpenVPN on Haiku working but not the server but I am proud to say that now both the server and client work extremely well now on Haiku :) I was able to get the server from not working to working and was able to get the latency for the entire VPN operation down from 1000ms average to anywhere between 2ms to 9ms (that’s a caveat as that is without blocking which will be discussed later). I had a check in my tun_read() function wrong where I wanted any side that is non-blocking to send a signal to the other side’s condition variable that something is now in their queue but had it backwards with a not statement in there. The simplest mistakes slip the mind huh :p Anyway, the server also follows suit with the faster latency so now that the read and write functions are basically complete, lets get on with what I was dealing with for the past 2ish weeks.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Nirbheek Chauhan: What is WebRTC? Why does it need ‘Signalling’?

        If you’re new to WebRTC, you must’ve heard that it’s a way to do video calls in your browser without needing to install an app. It’s pretty great!

        However, it uses a bunch of really arcane terminology because it builds upon older technologies such as RTP, RTCP, SDP, ICE, STUN, etc. To understand what WebRTC Signalling is, you must first understand these foundational technologies.

        Readers who are well-versed in this subject might find some of the explanations annoyingly simplistic to read. They will also notice that I am omitting a lot of of detail, leading to potentially misleading statements.

        I apologize in advance to these people. I am merely trying to avoid turning this post into a book. If you find a sub-heading too simplistic, please feel free to skip it. :-)

    • Programming/Development

      • Simon SerSimon Ser: Status update, August 2023

        Hi!

        Let me start this status update with an announcement: from 2023-08-28 to 2023-10-01 (!), I will be on leave, so I will have reduced availability. Don’t be surprised if I miss some e-mails, and feel free to ping me again (more generally, please do ping me if I forget about a discussion — that also tends to happen when I’m not on leave). During that time, I will be traveling to Korea and Japan. If you live there and want to say hello, please reach out! :)

        This month, Rose has continued working on wlroots frame scheduling. After a fair amount of discussion, she’s found a pretty nice API design. She still needs to address and cleanup a few things, but that merge request is on a good track! I’ve also merged a new API to embed a compositor inside a Wayland client, and sent patches to remove some cases where we were waiting for a reply from Xwayland in a blocking fashion.

      • Sam Thursfield: Status update, 17/08/2023

        Hello!
        As often, these are some thoughts without any grand announcements to accompany them.

        It’s just passed 5 years since I arrived in Santiago de Compostela, without much of a plan, and here I am. Summer a bit milder than last year which is great as I have got really back into cycling again. Compostela apparently has the highest ratio of tourists to locals at the moment in all Spain – 1.3 visitors for every resident, its very noticeable if you go to the old town. Meanwhile in the UK even Conservative news outlets now recommend leaving. I personally miss UK life but what I really miss is the UK of 2013, before the last decade of Conservative-led self destruction.

  • Leftovers

    • Ruben SchadeE-readers, and feedback from Daniel O’Connell

      On Tuesday I talked about what I’d love to have in my bag, in addition to what I currently cart around to coffee shops and work:

      My daily carry in 2023

      I mentioned I was interesed in e-readers:

      Speaking of books, I’m reconsidering my stance on e-readers. I tried also using my iPad Mini as a daily reader, but its middling battery and weight lead me to reconsider. I’m thinking probably a mid-sized Kobo with enough resolution and storage for manga as well as books. I tend to have a few books going at the same time, so having one reader is brilliant.

    • Ruben SchadeUgly American trucks

      I just saw another one of these appear in Sydney. Or should I say heard, because its engine and tyre noise could be perceived from a block away before I saw it park.

    • The What, How and Why

      I’ve thought a bit about learning a skill. How to progress. What the next steps are. This is probably because I’ve moved away from what I thought I used to be, career wise, to something else, and now I’m trying to determine what I will do when I grow up.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Maintenance Reminder
We'll carry on publishing
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part VIII - Mobbing and Silencing of Dissenting Staff
that's the very cornerstone of functional democracies with real opposition parties
Reader Shares Recent Memes on Slop and 'Coding' by LLMs
"just some funny memes I thought were relevant to current coverage."
Invitation to General Assembly After 1,200 EPO Workers Participated in the Demonstration 3 Days Ago
"the strike of 19 March was also very well followed."
SLAPP Censorship - Part 17 Out of 200: A Long Track Record of Online Abuse, Then Choosing a Low-Cost Law Firm to Muzzle People Who Have Illuminated This Abuse for Over a Decade
Censorship by targeting ISPs and webhosts isn't unprecedented
 
SLAPP Censorship - Part 18 Out of 200: Third Parties Funding Attacks on the Messengers, Lawsuits Against GAFAM-Critical Voices That Uphold Real National Security
Women are like kryptonite to them
Never Trust People Who Write Their Own Wikipedia Pages (Vanity Pages About Themselves) or Ask Friends to Do So. Also: Jono Bacon is Married to Microsoft.
We'd hardly be the first to point out Wikipedia isn't what it seems
No Tolerance for Attacks on Family Members
Being a Free software activist ought not lead to "collateral damage" like attacks on family members, including doxing
Sirius Open Source is Just a Zombie Firm With Shell Entities
Many companies fake their health and their size
Communities Can Only Survive When Trust Prevails
PCLinuxOS is still a vibrant and authentic community
Techrights Was Always a Community Site
The harder we're attacked, the more people participate in the site
Behind the PR Smokescreen and Microsoft-Sponsored Chaff, Microsoft Layoffs in "AI" Alleged This Month
In an age when ~1,000 simultaneous layoffs aren't enough to receive any media coverage, what can we expect remaining publishers to tell us about Microsoft layoffs in 2026?
Bluewashing at Confluent: Some Workers to Leave Within 3 Months (IBM Mass Layoffs)
Is the "era of AI" an era when none of the media will mention over 800 layoffs? [...] There's a lesson here about the state of the contemporary media, not just IBM and bluewashing
Microsoft OpenAI, Drowning in Debt and Forced to Make Significant Cuts (as Reports Reveal This Month), Does Hiring Disguised as "Takeovers" to Fake Value or Alleged Potential
Remember what happened to Skype last year
Slop Does Not Replace Art, It Contaminates Everything With Reckless Nonsense
many Computer Scientists do not want programs to get contaminated by slop
Coders Don't Just Reject 'Vibe Coding' Because They're "Luddites", They Just Know the True Cost of Slop
if some programmer says slop sucks, don't rush to assume selfishness or defence of one's occupation
When Nobody Else Covers the News
There's an obvious "media blackout" regarding the mass layoffs
Links 21/03/2026: David Botstein Dies, Slop as Censorship Apparatus
Links for the day
Links 21/03/2026: Metastablecoin Fragmentation and Crescent Moon
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/03/2026: Historic Ada Docs; The Lurking LLM on the SmolNet
Links for the day
HSBC the Latest Failed Bank Using Slop as Excuse for Its Financial Failure
"HSBC is planning on cutting as many as 20,000 jobs in the near future as the company allies with AI revolution."
A/Prof Susan G Kleinmann, Enkelena Haxhija & Debian-private risk to MIT
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 20, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, March 20, 2026
Plagiarism in "Linux" Clothing (LLM Slop in linuxiac.com, LinuxTeck.com, and linuxsecurity.com)
The net effect of those slopfarms is very negative
Links 20/03/2026: Facebook Weaponised Politically, Openwashing by LF and NVIDIA, Encyclopedia Britannica Sues Microsoft Proxy for Plagiarism
Links for the day
The EPO's Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Explains to the Administrative Council (AC) How Bad Things Have Become at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, Biggest Patent Office, and Corruption/Cocaine Hub (Jobs Sold to Friends)
We'll say a bit more tomorrow
IBM's Red Hat Diversity: Only 3 Women (Out of 11 Leaders)
For comparison's sake, the FSF is about 50% female
Symptom of Publishers Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop. Symptom of Software Companies Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop ('Vibe').
It'll always fail. It's hype. It's a bubble.
Under IBM, Red Hat Replaces Code With LLM Slop, Fedora is Slopware
Not even hiding it, those things are in plain sight
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Depictions of Culture and The Social Smolnet
Links for the day
SimilarWeb Was Never a Reliable Yardstick for Traffic
5RB may need some "house-cleaning"
Strangulation, suffocation, Jonathan Carter & Debian toxic culture confirmed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Reports or Hearsay Suggest Ogilvy Broke Up With IBM and Insiders Report Mass Layoffs in "Infrastructure" (Might Impact Red Hat Entrants)
hearsay in Social Control Media
Scheduled Server Maintenance Tomorrow Night
Starting 9PM
None of the Above (NotA) & Debian snubbing Sruthi Chandran
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/03/2026: Cryptography Pioneers Win Turing Award and BMG Sues Anthropic for Copyright Infringement
Links for the day
Even Uganda Understands That Journalists Never Belong in Prison
"Ugandan authorities must respect the spirit of this ruling and abandon any measures that seek to jail Ugandans for the free flow of ideas."
Inaction Helps Your Enemies
Without freedom, there's nothing else left
Windows Down From 99% to ~50% in Republic of Seychelles (République des Seychelles)
Windows fell by a lot
"systemd is essentially a corporate IBM/Redhat project and corporations of course will comply"
Microsoft and IBM care about users' freedom like Cheeto Lump cares about the US Constitution
Confluent Insiders: IBM Laid Over Over 800 at Confluent, Not Just 800
For the record, the layoffs at Confluent won't be over. After the bluewashing there will be "IBM RAs" impacting Confluent folks, aside from PIPs
The Layoffs at IBM Carry on (Shades of Enron)
Is IBM another Enron?
"IBM boss Arvind Krishna... financial package valued at $38 million in calendar 2025 - equivalent to the average collective pay of 765 Big Blue workers."
continues to ruin the company to enrich himself while pretending he has a strategy
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Digital Identity Bifurcation and a "Return to Gemini"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 19, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, March 19, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 16 Out of 200: Detailing the Actors and Explaining Techrights' Own Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Network
For those who have not followed our story
Microsoft "hiding behind bigger news of war, Epstein, other companies' layoffs"
They know what's coming, they just don't know when
Joerg Jaspert (Debian Account Manager/DAM) personally approved Raphael Hertzog's wife Sophie Brun
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Letter 'A' prohibited by Code of Conduct extremism
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Spoiler: Diversity & Debian means different things to different people
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Admits Failures and Criticism of Inaction on SLAPPs
many if not all solicitors and solicitor firms in the UK are in effect unregulated
Archiving or Preserving Pages About IBM Layoffs
Layoffs at IBM and the media does not talk about these
ABC, the American National Broadcaster, "Now Publishes Slop"
If the "big media" absorbs slop, it'll no longer be trusted and therefore not read/watched by the public
Links 19/03/2026: Culling Deepfakes of Artists’ Music and "Age Verification Isn’t the Answer"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/03/2026: "Aktion GPT-4" and "Kill All Descendants"
Links for the day
"AI" 15 Times in Short 'Article' From The Register MS. And The Register MS Got Paid to Publish It.
gets paid to do this
People Who Decided to Boycott Novell Over Its Microsoft Alliance Should Also Boycott Canonical
As an associate put it, "selling out further, due to Microsoft moles inside Canonical"
Links 19/03/2026: "AI Glasses" as Euphemism for Mass Surveillance and ABC (US) Has Begun Publishing Slop as 'News'
Links for the day
The European Patent Office, Europe's Second-Largest Institution, is on Strike Today
Lots more to come
What People Impacted by the Bluewashing Layoffs at IBM Confluent Say (While the Media Says Nothing at All, in Effect Burying the News)
Worse yet, the mainstream media spreads lies about it right now
IBM Has Turned Red Hat and Fedora Into Slop
This is IBM policy
IBM is Being Robbed, Companies and Jobs Are Destroyed
Companies taken over by IBM will be exploited and destroyed to keep a bubble inflated for a little while longer
In Confluent Layoffs, IBM Vapourises a Quarter of Its Workforce (IBM Buys Something That It Destroys Already)
In the past, such things were typically referred to as "media blackout"; now it's just "the norm".
IBM Effect at Confluent: Mass Layoffs and IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines (BCGs) Said to be Violated
For Confluent employees who survived the layoffs there will be "culture chock"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 18, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Links 19/03/2026: LLM Fatigue (It Doesn't Work as Advertised), "Small Web Feeds"
Links for the day