Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 20/08/2023: Budgie 10.8 Desktop and Linux 6.5 RC7



  • GNU/Linux

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • Going LinuxGoing Linux #444 €· Welcome to Linux! - Desktops

        We review some of the most popular Linux desktop environment options. Included are KDE Plasma, Gnome, Cinnamon, MATE, XFCE, LXDE, Budgie, Pantheon and Deepin.

        Episode Time Stamps
        00:00 Going Linux #444 €· Welcome to Linux! - Desktops
        01:18 Bill broke KDE on his computer
        02:08 Larry fixed a 13 year old laptop with LXLE
        09:29 Definition: Linux desktop environments

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux mailing listsLinux 6.5-rc7
        So it's Sunday afternoon, just not in the usual timezone where I do
        these releases, since I've been traveling.
        
        

        But apart from the timezone difference, everything looks entirely normal. Drivers (GPU, networking and sound dominate - the usual suspects, in other words) and architecture fixes. The latter are mostly arm devicetree fixlets, but also some x86 cleanups and fallout from the embargo last week.

        Not a huge amount of patches, and I really get the feeling that a lot of maintainers are on vacation. But I will be optimistic and also blame it all being quiet on things working fairly well.

        So I think this will be the last rc unless something nasty comes up. Do keep testing,

        Linus
    • Graphics Stack

      • Mike Blumenkrantz: Yep

        Finally a default value for gl_PointSize.

        Long-term fans of the blog will recall that I’ve previously raged against the insane concept that pointsize must be written many times prior. In fact, it remains the second most blogged about topic in SGC history right behind

        Big Triangledescriptor management, the topic that modern graphics-related blogs must cover above all others.

        Finally with maintenance5 we can be freed from these unjust shackles that have bound us for so long. No more* shall complex logic be unnecessarily injected into the compiler stack to add senseless writes to this output.
        * except all that code still has to exist and run to handle drivers that don’t support maintenance5

        Beyond the obvious benefit of having a fixed default pointsize (sanity), let’s check out some other benefits.

        Shader Reduction

        Previously all zink-emitted shaders would have a pointsize write, even those that were never used for drawing points. This resulted in unnecessary shader i/o at the hardware level. Nobody wants unnecessary shader i/o at the hardware level.

        Now, however, it’s possible to use heuristics during linking to delete all unnecessary pointsize writes any time there is no XFB emission.

        How much performance improvement will this yield?

    • Applications

      • Linux Links8 Best Free and Open Source Search Engines for Big Data

        Big Data is an all-inclusive term that refers to data sets so large and complex that they need to be processed by specially designed hardware and software tools.

      • Linux Links7 Best Free and Open Source Linux Speed Reading Tools

        The software featured in this group test is based on spritzing. Read text without moving your eyes, and therefore rapidly increase your reading speed.

      • Sparky GNU/LinuxPenguins’ eggs

        There is a new application available for Sparkers: Penguins’ eggs What is Penguins’ eggs? penguins-eggs is a console tool, under continuous development, that allows you to remaster your system and redistribute it as live images on usb sticks or via PXE. It supports: Debian, Devuan, Ubuntu and major derivatives: Linuxmint, KDE neon, etc.

      • Make Use Of10 Ways to Secure Your Samba Server on Linux

        SMB (Server Message Block) protocol is a cornerstone of file and printer sharing in connected environments. However, the default configuration of Samba can pose significant security risks, leaving your network vulnerable to unauthorized access and cyberattacks.

        If you're hosting a Samba server, you need to be extra cautious with the configurations you have set in place. Here are 10 critical steps to ensure your SMB server remains secure and protected.

        Linux is great for hosting servers. However, whenever you're dealing with servers, you have to tread carefully and be extra aware as Linux servers are always a lucrative target for threat actors.

        It is paramount that you put sincere effort into fortifying your network and hardening your Linux servers. Besides properly configuring Samba, there are a few other measures you should take to ensure your Linux server is safe from the crosshair of adversaries.

    • Instructionals/Technical

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • 9to5LinuxBudgie 10.8 Desktop Released with New Trash Applet, Budgie Menu Improvements

        Budgie 10.8 comes with a new applet called Budgie Trash Applet that was previously available as a third-party applet, but not it comes pre-installed by default with the new Budgie release. Apart from the usual functionality of such an applet, the Budgie Trash Applet also features support for restoring trashed files.

        Another interesting change in Budgie 10.8 is support for the StatusNotifier specification in the System Tray Applet, which enables applications to show their icons and menus in the system tray area in a modern way that is expected from a desktop environment in 2023.

      • Beta News Budgie 10.8 takes Linux desktop experience to new heights
        Exciting news, y’all! Budgie 10.8 has landed, and the Linux desktop environment is packed with features that promise to transform how we interact with our desktops.

        First off, the Budgie Menu has received quite the makeover. If you've ever scratched your head wondering why certain apps are in the 'Other' category, you're not alone. The team listened to feedback, and now, applications have found more fitting categories. Plus, there’s a nifty fix for non-Latin text crashes, thanks to a switch to C for the Application Indexer's fuzzy scoring function. And, let's say goodbye to the Utilities category; its apps have found a new home in System Tools.

      • LinuxiacBudgie Desktop 10.8 Released, Here’s What’s New
        Budgie Desktop is a modern, user-friendly desktop environment for Linux operating systems built on GNOME technologies. It is designed to provide a clean, elegant user interface while lightweight and efficient.

        Initially developed by the Solus Project, the desktop has gained popularity and has been widely adopted by other Linux distributions. Currently, it is developed by the Buddies of Budgie organization.

        Nearly seven months after version 10.7 was released at the beginning of the year, Budgie 10.8 is here, so let’s see what’s changed.

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Are we transparent enough?
          For me this was surprising, so I would like to raise a few questions here that might as well be answered with: "sure, we are", and I just did not see it because I am a bit out of touch with KDE development news (and modern ways of communication in general). Personal and biased opinion follows. But here are the questions first:

          Are we handling such a prominently user-facing (as in in your face) changes transparently enough?

          How do we decide for such (as in groundbreaking) new defaults?

          Have the users (as in many of them) been asked?

          So, now for the personal opinion...

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Top 10 Best Linux Server Distros for Powerful Performance

      Linux servers are renowned for their robustness, enhanced security features, and ability to handle heavy traffic, making them an optimal choice for businesses and organizations. These servers offer dynamic versatility and scalability, allowing diverse customization options and the ability to adapt to varying load conditions.

    • BSD

    • SUSE/OpenSUSE

      • DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer)I Managed to Make Fallout 4 Work in openSUSE Leap.

        So, openSUSE Leap 15.5 being an enterprise-like system with slow moving releases, it’s been something of a chore to set up for a laptop, especially one where I occasionally want to play Windows games.

        Even after installing the vulkan packages and Wine Stable 8.0, and the media codecs from the “Packman” repository with “opi”, when I launched Fallout 4 Game of the Year Edition this time, I ended up with no voices and no soundtracks.

        When I ran it with wine Fallout4.exe, it complained that it could not find a Windows Media Audio codec for gstreamer.

    • Devices/Embedded

      • CNX SoftwareSetting up a private LoRaWAN network with WisGate Connect gateway

        In this guide, we’ll explain how to set up a private LoRaWAN network using the Raspberry Pi CM4-based RAKwireless’ WisGate Connect gateway and Docker or Portainer to install NodeRED, InfluxDB, Grafana, and other packages required to configure our gateway. The WisGate Connect is quite a versatile gateway with Gigabit and 2.5Gbps Ethernet plus several optional wireless connectivity options such as LoRaWAN, 4G LTE, 5G, WiFi 6, Zigbee, WiFi HaLoW, and more that can be added through Mini PCIe or M.2 sockets, expansion through WisBlock IO connectors and a 40-pin Raspberry Pi HAT connector. We’ll start by looking at the gateway features in detail, but if you already know all that, you can jump to the private LoRaWAN network configuration section.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

  • Leftovers

    • Ruben SchadeSpelling misatkes (cough)

      I’m trying to train myself to stop misspelling these words:

      • acknowlege → acknowledge
      • discernable → discernible
      • existance → existence
      • eshew → eschew
      • maintanance → maintenance
      • vaccum → vacuum
      • vechile → vehicle

      My success rate thus far is hovering around… 50%? I’m at the point now where I remember both spellings, but forget which one I’m supposed to be using.

    • UNIX CopWhat is Web Security and Why It Is Important for Your Website? [Ed: Linkspam disguised as article? This is very poorly done SEO stuny.]

      Businesses of all kinds are finding it increasingly challenging to protect their customers’ financial and private details as technology advances.

    • Zach Oglesby: Change

      As the old saying goes, “The only constant in life is change.” My life has been ruled by it, moving around as a kid, life in the military, and the same old stuff we all deal with as we age and grow.

      For the last 15 years, my wife has been the only constant in my life. We met in Delaware while I was stationed there. We fell in love, got married, and I scooped her away from the only home she had ever known to go live in Spain with me.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Windows in Åland Islands: From 100% to Less Than Half
Åland Islands lost the sense of urgency to move to GNU/Linux
Not Just Slow News But Also Late News (Julian Assange Landing in Thailand)
Why did AP take so long (nearly a week) to release these?
[Meme] Smart Alec Poettering
How many Microsofters can the Debian Project withstand?
Getting Rid of Microsoft Does Not Go Far Enough
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