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Links 11/6/2021: Nginx Rising and SteamPal Rumours



  • GNU/Linux

    • Linux Release Roundup #21.24: KDE Plasma 5.22, LibreOffice 7.1.4, and More New Releases

      LibreOffice 7.1.4 is a minor release that focuses more on bug fixes and a considerable progress on compatibility with Microsoft Office documents.

    • Server

      • Nginx is Now the World’s #1 Web Server, Overtaking Apache [Ed: This is simply not true as it overlooks the fact that many sites are Apache at the back end but then hide behind something leaner and simpler like nginx]

        W3Techs announced that after many years of steady growth in market share, Nginx is now the most popular web server in the world, edging out Apache HTTP Server.

        Back in 2009, Nginx had a market share of 3.7%, Apache had over 73% and Microsoft-IIS had around 20%, but the web server field today has changed significantly. According to Netcraft’s statistics, now Nginx is leading with just over one third of the market, at 33.8%. Apache is basically head-to-head at the moment, but declining. The gap between Apache and Nginx was still 6.6% one year ago.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • Pinephone Review (and why we NEED this phone!)

        The Pinephone is a Linux phone that is a great idea, but currently flawed and buggy. But despite the quirks and instability, this phone is VERY important. In this review, I'll give you guys my thoughts on the Pinephone - and whether or not you should consider buying it.

      • I'm Replacing Google Photos...

        I'm on a quest to replace Google Photos since their free 'unlimited' storage is no longer available.

    • Kernel Space

      • Linus Torvalds Wants Everyone to Get Vaccinated and Stop Believing in Anti-vax Conspiracies - It's FOSS News

        Linus Torvalds is furious again, and this time, again for a good reason.

        Linux kernel mailing list is the place dedicated for discussions on kernel development. But, amidst the pandemic when vaccinations are in full swing all over the globe, there have been some anti-vax comments going around as well.

        But, Linus Torvalds took a stand against all the weird conspiracy theories and encouraged everyone to get vaccinated as well.

      • Linux Foundation Public Health prepares global COVID-19 passport as Linus Torvalds encourages vaccine uptake

        As the world battles the coronavirus pandemic, governments around the globe are taking different approaches to tackling the problem. While COVID-19 remains a somewhat divisive topic, there's one thing that most people can agree on: vaccinations are going to play a major role in getting things under control.

        This is why the father of Linux, Linus Torvalds, has spoken out telling people to "get vaccinated" and "stop believing the anti-vax lies". For anyone who believes "the crazy conspiracy theories" he has a simple message: "SHUT THE HELL UP". Meanwhile, Linux Foundation Public Health has launched the Global COVID Certificate Network (GCCN), described as "an initiative to enable interoperable and trustworthy verification of COVID certificates between jurisdictions for safe border reopening".

      • Paragon ntfs3 driver compatibility issues

        The 5.10.39 kernel used in EasyOS on the PC, now has the Paragon ntfs3 driver, builtin not as a module.

      • Real-Time Support "PREEMPT_RT" For Linux Held Up Due To Lack Of Funding - Phoronix

        While there was kernel talk of merging the PREEMPT_RT code in 2020 for this real-time functionality for the Linux kernel, among other times in the past that has yet to happen. These "RT" patches have long been maintained out-of-tree but it turns out that while in the past it was seemingly close for merging, that effort has stalled for lack of funding.

        The PREEMPT_RT code is around 200 patches and has seen consistent out-of-tree updates for use on real-time systems. Those unfamiliar with the RT patches can see their rather dated Wiki and other past material.

        What's new today is finally some clarity on the mainlining situation for the RT patches... During an ELISA (Enabling Linux In Safety Applications) presentation last month by well known kernel developer Thomas Gleixner of Linutronix and who has been heavily involved in the RT patches, he provided an overview of PREEMPT_RT.

      • OpenZFS 2.1 Gets More Cleanups, Better Documentation Ahead Of Release - Phoronix

        The seventh release candidate of OpenZFS 2.1 is now available for testing while it looks like soon it will cross the finish line as the latest feature release for this open-source ZFS file-system implementation for Linux and FreeBSD systems.

        Going back to the end of March there has been OpenZFS 2.1 release candidates coming out frequently and with Thursday's 2.1-rc7 release it amounts to seemingly some final code clean-ups and documentation updates. The OpenZFS 2.1-rc7 release brings some man page updates, several FreeBSD specific fixes, fixing some test failures, a write-mostly sums counter implementation as a minor optimization for statistics counters, the systemd zfs-mount-generator has been rewritten in C rather than being a shell script, and other small changes.

      • Graphics Stack

        • Open Source OpenGL ES 3.1 on Mali GPUs with Panfrost

          Panfrost, the open source driver for Arm Mali, now supports OpenGL ES 3.1 on both Midgard (Mali T760 and newer) and Bifrost (Mali G31, G52, G76) GPUs. OpenGL ES 3.1 adds a number of features on top of OpenGL ES 3.0, notably including compute shaders. While Panfrost has had limited support for compute shaders on Midgard for use in TensorFlow Lite, the latest work extends the support to more GPUs and adds complementary features required by the OpenGL ES 3.1 specification, like indirect draws and no-attachment framebuffers.

          The new feature support represents the cumulative effort of multiple Collaborans -- Boris Brezillon, Italo Nicola, and myself -- in tandem with the wider Mesa community. The OpenGL driver has seen over 1000 commits since the beginning of 2021, including several hundred targeting OpenGL ES 3.1 features. Our focus is Mali G52, where we are passing essentially all drawElements Quality Program and Khronos conformance tests and are aiming to become formally conformant. Nevertheless, thanks to a unified driver, many new features on Bifrost trickle down to Midgard allowing the older architecture still in wide use to improve long after the vendor has dropped support. On Mali T860, we are passing about 99.5% of tests required for conformant OpenGL ES 3.1. That number can only grow thanks to Mesa's continuous integration running these tests for every merge request and preventing Panfrost regressions. With a Vulkan driver in the works, Panfrost's API support is looking good.

        • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti / RTX 3080 Ti Compute + Renderer Performance Benchmarks Review - Phoronix

          With last week's launch of the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and this week's launch of the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti there have been plenty of Linux gaming benchmarks on Phoronix. But for those interested in these new RTX 30 Ampere graphics cards for GPU compute or rendering workloads, in this article are many benchmarks on that front compared to various RTX 20 and RTX 30 series graphics cards.

        • AMDVLK 2021.Q2.5 Released As A Minor Radeon Vulkan Driver Update - Phoronix

          Following the last AMDVLK update at the end of May, AMD has released AMDVLK 2021.Q2.4 as their newest open-source AMD Radeon Vulkan driver release.

          This AMDVLK 2021.Q2.5 release is fairly small and just rebuilds against the Vulkan 1.2.179 headers plus has two bug fixes. The fixes involve corruption while running Wayland render tests and a capture issue with the Radeon Graphics Profiler and RenderDoc.

    • Applications

      • PeaZip 8.0 is Here with Support for Even More Archive Types

        PeaZip 8.0 adds support for more archive types, and improves how container file types are managed for browsing and conversion.

        PeaZip is an open source cross platform file and archive manager software for both Linux and Windows computers. It providing encryption and compression functions, which open and extract over 200 archive types. In other words, PeaZip supports almost all file types that are available today. In addition, it uses the advanced encryption system.

        When you create a password-protected archive using PeaZip, it protects all your private files so that nobody can view or extract your files unless they have the password. It uses the standard encryption system that is difficult to break even for a skilled hacker. PeaZip supports reading and writing of many strong encryption standards including the military-grade AES-256 for 7Z and ZIP archive formats, and other ciphers like Blowfish, Twofish, and Serpent for PEA and ARC files. In other words, the encrypted archives that you create using this software is completely private and secure for you.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Colin Watson: SSH quoting

        A while back there was a thread on one of our company mailing lists about SSH quoting, and I posted a long answer to it. Since then a few people have asked me questions that caused me to reach for it, so I thought it might be helpful if I were to anonymize the original question and post my answer here.

        The question was why a sequence of commands involving ssh and fiddly quoting produced the output they did.

      • Mike Gabriel: Linux on Acer Spin 3

        Some days ago Robert reported back about a sleepless night he spent with that machine... He got stuck with a tricky issue regarding the installation of Manjaro GNU/Linux on that machine, that could be -- at the end -- resolved by a not so well documented trick.

      • Josef Strzibny: Moving ActionCable over to Webpacker



        This week, I upgraded a little demo application for my book Deployment from Scratch from Rails 6 to Rails 6.1. Since I showcase WebSockets with ActionCable and Redis, I needed to move the ActionCable CoffeeScript from Sprockets to Webpacker.

      • How to Install and Use Gdu Disk Usage Analyzer on Ubuntu 20.04

        Linux has plenty of tools and commands for checking disk utilization. Some of these tools and commands come pre-installed.

      • How to Upgrade Ubuntu 20.04 to 21.04

        On April 22, 2021, Ubuntu 21.04 (codenamed Hirsute Hippo) was released by Canonical with security and performance improvements along with newer versions of software applications. Ubuntu 21.04 includes an SDK for Flutter application development, Microsoft SQL Server for Ubuntu, and Wayland graphics by default. Microsoft and Canonical will jointly provide support and performance tuning for Microsoft SQL Server on Ubuntu.

        Although this update includes many improvements and updates, the support period is only 9 months, i.e. until January 2022. If you are looking for long-term support, then Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (codenamed Focal Fossa) is recommended, as it has 5 years of long-term support until April 2025.

      • How to eject CD/DVD tray from command line on Linux

        If you are new to the command line of Linux, you may have read/heard that the command line is one of the most powerful features of Linux. Yes, this is true. Almost all the things you can do through the GUI, you can also do through the command line.

        Even more, you can even eject/close your system's CD/DVD drive from the command line. If this has piqued your interest and you want to know more about it, then read on as this article explains how you can do this.

        Please note that all commands and instructions mentioned in this guide have been tested on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

      • How to Install Flask in Ubuntu 21.04 - Unixcop

        Python web frameworks used 2 open-sources , are Django and Flask. Django is a robust Python framework that allows users to rapidly develop and deploy their web applications by providing an MVC framework that aims at simplifying web app development with less code along with reusable components.

        Flask is a microframework that is lean and devoid of extra libraries or tools. It is minimalistic as it ships with only the basic tools to help you get off the ground with developing your applications.

      • Tmux Tutorial

        Tmux is an essential tool and has functions ANY linux user will need!

      • 8 Tips To Speed Up Your Command-Line Navigation

        The Linux command-line should not be tedious. Thankfully, Linux ships with many GNU utilities to make the command-line easy. Let’s look at 8 tips to help you speed up your command-line experience like a pro! Mastering the command line will make you fast, efficient, and love Linux even more.

      • Install Samba on Linux Mint to share files with Windows - Linux Shout

        Samba is a popular, open-source networking software that computers with a Unix or Linux – operating system allow the sharing of network resources from Windows -networks, such as files and printers. However, it is not limited to Windows only, we can install and use on Unix / Linux- based servers pr Desktop to share resources over the network. The common protocols Server Message Block (SMB) and Common Internet File System (CIFS, an open version of SMB) are the basis on which Samba is based. The name ” Samba ” is just a name given to represent “SMB”.

      • How to Encrypt Full System Disk While Installing Ubuntu 20.04, 21.04 | UbuntuHandbook

        This is an easy to follow beginner’s guide shows how to encrypt the full file system while installing Ubuntu.

        As you may know, it’s easy to hack against Ubuntu Linux physically. Though users can add password protect to the Grub boot menu, the file system is still accessible via a live system, e.g., bootable USB installer.

        To prevent your Ubuntu from physical hacking ultimately, adding password protect to the full system disk can be the best choice. And you can do it during installing Ubuntu.

      • How To Install Bolt CMS on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Bolt CMS on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Bolt CMS is a lightweight open source content management tool, written in PHP. It is designed for ease of use and helps you to create powerful and dynamic content websites easily. It is built on Silex microframework and is a great alternative for those looking for a modern PHP system. It is created using modern open-source libraries and is best suited to build sites in HTML5 with modern markup.

        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 through the step-by-step installation of the Bolt Content Management System (CMS) on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

      • Introduction to Ranger file manager

        Ranger is a free and open source file manager written in Python. It is designed to work from the command line and its keybindings are inspired by the Vim text editor. The application has a lot of features and, working together with other utilities, can display previews for a vast range of files. In this tutorial we learn how to use it, and explore some of its functionality.

      • How To Install NextCloud on AlmaLinux 8 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install NextCloud on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Nextcloud is an open-source cloud server application for homes and businesses to host their files to access them from anywhere in the world using the internet. Nextcloud runs on your own server, protecting your data and giving you access from your desktop or mobile devices. You can synchronize everything between your devices and share files with others as well

        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 through the step-by-step installation of the NextCloud private cloud storage software on an AlmaLinux 8.

      • How hypertext can establish application state in REST | Opensource.com

        HATEOAS is a difficult-to-pronounce acronym that stands for "Hypertext As The Engine Of Application State." Invented by Roy Fielding in the year 2000, HATEOAS was proposed as an architectural style for network-based software systems.

        The central concept of this architectural style is hypertext. With hypertext, we have encoded content that may also imply action. Each action, in turn, implies a change of state. HATEOAS represents the mechanism that can be used to control the transition from one application state to another application state. Its name contains the word Engine, based on the assumption that hypertext could drive the transitions from state to state.

      • A Quick Guide to Using Docker Compose

        Docker Compose is a tool that natively integrates with Docker, and makes managing multi-container applications a breeze.

        [...]

        Docker Compose is a Docker-native tool that makes multi-container application management a breeze. Here's a quick start guide to Docker Compose.

      • How to Enable PM2 to Auto Start Node.js App at System Boot

        PM2 is a powerful, widely-used, and feature-rich, production-ready process manager for Node.js. Restarting PM2 with the processes it manages every time your server boots/reboots is critical. One of PM2’s key features is support for a startup script (generated dynamically based on the default init system on your server), that restarts PM2 and your processes at every server restart.

      • How to Install KDE Plasma GUI on Linux Mint 20.1 Desktop - Linux Shout

        Although the default Cinnamon interface of Linux Mint is not only user-friendly but also gives familiarity to Windows users, however, if you want to more fancy look with useful apps then KDE plasma is there to tye. To install the KDE Plasma GUI Desktop interface on Linux Mint we don’t need to reinstall it, just one command and you are good to go.

      • How to Install Latest OpenOffice in Linux Desktop

        Apache OpenOffice is a most popular and open-source application suite for Linux, Windows & Mac, which is used for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, database, formula, and much more. OpenOffice is used by more than 200 million users across the globe companies, homes, and research centers with almost 41 languages. It is available freely for download and works on all common systems.

      • How to Install VMware Tools on AlmaLinux - Linux Nightly

        After you finish installing AlmaLinux in VMware, one of the first things you should do is install VMware Tools on the virtual machine. The VMware Tools software will give you better graphics support in the guest operating system, as well as the ability to drag and drop files between the host and guest system, and configure shared folders.

        In this guide, we will go over the step by step instructions to install VMware Tools on an AlmaLinux virtual machine.

      • How to Install and Use Psensor in Linux

        Psensor is a GTK+ application tool used to monitor the temperature. Its graphical interface displays the temperature of the motherboard, CPU, GPU, Hard Disk Drives. Additionally shows the rotational speed of fans and CPU usage. Psensor plots the data on real-time charts and raises alerts.

        In this tutorial, we learn how to install Psensor in Linux.

      • How to block websites on Linux - LinuxH2O

        There are times when you need to block certain websites’ access from the system. This could be your personal discipline to not waste time on addictive websites or it could be at your workplace where you are asked to do so. Or maybe you do not want someone to access few websites while using the computer. In either of the cases, this article will guide you through the best possible ways to block access to websites on a Linux system.

        To block websites on Linux we can use many ways and tools but the two methods that you are going to learn about in this guide are the easiest.

      • How to install Moodle in FreeBSD - Unixcop

        Moodle is an open source Learning Management System (LMS) that you can use to create online courses. Is used by schools, universities, workplaces and many other sites. In this article I will show you how to install moodle on FreeBSD.

        Pre-requisites

        Moodle can run on any webserver -like Apache, Nginx, IIS- that supports PHP. Moodle also need a database and support this databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL or MariaDB, MS SQL Server or Oracle (but they didn’t recommend to run on oracle as you can read here).

        In this tutorial we will use Apache as webserver and PostgreSQL as database. In case you don’t have yet a running webserver with apache, you can check this tutorial to learn how to install Apache, PHP and MySQL no FreeBSD. To learn PostgreSQL with FreeBSD, you can follow this tutorial.

        I will use PostgreSQL because I have one already running and I get better results in terms of performance. But what works for my doesn’t have to work for every one; so it’s ok if you choose MySQL, it’s practically the same installation.

      • How to install XFCE in FreeBSD 13 - Unixcop

        In this article we will learn about how to install xfce in FreeBSD 13, FreeBSD is a great Operating System as a server, but it is also great when we use it as Desktop personal usage. As a server, usually we use the Operating System in the command line interface (CLI) mode only. As a Desktop personal usage, we need to use it for browsing, typing a report, checking email, hence we need a Graphical User Interface (GUI). The default installation of FreeBSD does not include the GUI or Desktop Environment (DE).

        There are several types of DE like KDE, GNOME and XFCE. In this tutorial, we will learn how to install XFCE on FreeBSD 13.

      • How to use the FreeDOS text editor | Opensource.com

        Editing files is a staple on any operating system. Whether you want to make a note about something, write a letter to a friend, or update a system configuration file—you need an editor. And FreeDOS provides a user-friendly text editor called (perhaps unimaginatively) "FreeDOS Edit."

    • Games

      • We'll finally get to see what Death Trash is like with a demo for the Steam Next Fest | GamingOnLinux

        Six years in the making, with an incredibly detailed visual style that mixes high quality (and often gruesome) painting with pixel-art, Death Trash is getting a demo real soon. Developer Crafting Legends has confirmed it's officially coming to Steam Next Fest, which begins on June 16 and runs through June 22.

        You'll get 1-2 hours to play through of the game start and it will be supported across Linux, macOS and Windows with mouse / keyboard and gamepad supported along with local co-op already hooked up.

        [...]

        Featuring open-world real-time gameplay, Death Trash is a hand-crafted experience that will feature a full story campaign with optional local co-op play.

      • Encased, a sci-fi post-apocalyptic RPG to release this 'Fall' with a Linux version

        Dark Crystal Games have announced that Encased, their sci-fi post-apocalyptic RPG is going to release in full sometime this "Fall" and it will come with the Linux version.

        "A classic isometric RPG set in a dystopian environment allowing you to fight enemies, explore the hostile wasteland, level up your character and join one of the forces in the ruined world that survived through the horrific Incident, isolated from the rest of the world."

        In response to a question about the Linux version becoming available at release, one of their team replied to mention "Yes it will. We have native port in works which sill requires some work but will be ready.".

      • I've Become The Kung-Fu Rabbit

        People keep telling me to look at Lugaru on these streams so here we are, it's about a rabbit that does kung-fu and it might have one of the weirdest and jankiest combat systems I've ever seen but it's so much fun.

      • Loria, a classic inspired RTS is now permanently free | GamingOnLinux

        It's Free Game Friday! You can now grab a copy of Loria completely free to keep, as the team has now moved onto their next game with them helping develop the upcoming RTS Liquidation.

        Loria is something of a homage to the "golden era" of strategy game, with their attempt to put a little bit of a modern spin while keeping it in line with the classic theme. It has RTS elements blended with hero units, item collection and quest-driven missions. Their goal with Lora was to "take the best concepts from the classics and create a modern user-experience, intelligent AI, smooth controls, pleasing aesthetic and to add interesting content".

      • What we want to see from the possible SteamPal handheld from Valve | GamingOnLinux

        Steam Machines and SteamOS were ultimately a failure, for many reasons. The whole thing was confusing for both users and consumers with multiple models, and most of them wanted far too much money. What will be different this time? How can Valve actually make it work?

        This time around at least, it looks like Valve are entering a market that's still relatively in its infancy. However, it's clearly popular with more hardware vendors showing prototypes and the GPD Win series continues showing how a smaller vendor can make it happen. If Valve really do enter, they would be positioned well considering they know how to produce their own hardware after the Steam Controller, Steam Link and now the Valve Index too. Doing it directly with only one model or perhaps two with a higher model would already solve a lot of their original Steam Machine issues. Let's say that's the first thing we want: make it clear. Get the marketing right this time, and actually continue marketing it unlike before.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • CuteFish is a New Linux Desktop Environment (with a Familiar Look)

        There’s a new open source desktop environment angling for your attention called CuteFish.

        Now, let me be clear: this project is very much a work in progress. I’m not going to focus on what it can or can’t do at this point. And thats not because I’m being lazy, but because by the time most people read this blog post bugs will have been fixed, new features finessed, and further improvements made.

        Present functionality aside, CuteFish could be the start of something very good indeed.

        So what it is?

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • Tobias Bernard: Community Power Part 1: Misconceptions

          People new to the GNOME community often have a hard time understanding how we set goals, make decisions, assume responsibility, prioritize tasks, and so on. In short: They wonder where the power is.

          When you don’t know how something works it’s natural to come up with a plausible story based on the available information. For example, some people intuitively assume that since our product is similar in function and appearance to those made by the Apples and Microsofts of the world, we must also be organized in a similar way.

          This leads them to think that GNOME is developed by a centralized company with a hierarchical structure, where developers are assigned tasks by their manager, based on a roadmap set by higher management, with a marketing department coordinating public-facing messaging, and so on. Basically, they think we’re a tech company.

          [...]

          The GNOME Foundation is a US-based non-profit that owns the GNOME trademark, hosts our Gitlab and other infrastructure, organizes conferences, and employs one full-time GTK developer. This means that beyond setting priorities for said GTK developer, it has little to no influence on development.

    • Distributions

      • Screenshots/Screencasts

        • Makulu Shift Teaser II

          We have just posted a new Teaser of MakuluLinux Shift 2021. Take a look for yourself :

      • SUSE/OpenSUSE

        • Plasma, Mesa, curl Update in Tumbleweed

          Three openSUSE Tumbleweed snapshots were released this week with the possibility of another snapshot being released over the weekend if it passes openQA testing.

          The latest snapshot, 20210609, brought an update for KDE users; Plasma 5.22.0 was released just days ago and improves stability and usability across the board, according to the release announcement. Developers put in a lot of work on the aesthetics of the release. The big new feature in the release is called Adaptive Transparency, which provides a pleasant translucent panel and panel widgets that become entirely opaque if there are any maximized windows; this is done to avoid any visual distractions when users need to focus. The new version also opens up on a speed dial page in System Settings that gives users direct access to the most commonly used settings, as well as to the ones accessed the most. Mozilla Thunderbird renewed an expired keyring in the 78.11.0 version and fixed two Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures. Wireshark 3.4.6 fixed a display filter crash and macro filters’ handling of escaped characters. A major version update for the basic directory structure was made with the jump of the filesystem package from version 15.5 to 84.87. GNOME 40 also received some updates in the snapshot with an update of gnome-software to version 40.2; some crash fixes were made and an improvement in reporting errors low disk space for Flatpak were made. Other packages to update in the snapshot were git 2.32.0, powertop 2.14, xfce4-settings and nftables 0.9.9.

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • The benefits of serverless for the banking and financial services industry

          The financial services industry, like many industries, is currently undergoing a radical shift. In addition to the change to all-digital transactions, customers have come to expect comprehensive services that are able to meet their needs when, where and how they want them. In order to keep up with rapidly changing customer demands and remain compliant with industry regulations, financial services organizations must have the right IT infrastructure and processes in place.

          And, as cloud-native—and more specifically, Kubernetes-native—development techniques continue to become the norm, the way developers at financial institutions work must also change, to a cloud-first approach. More and more, implementing a serverless architecture is what makes sense for financial organizations as they continue to transform their focus more on customer demands than IT infrastructure.

        • 3 essential sysadmin soft skills you need to learn right now

          In order to get the job you want, or keep the job you like, much focus is often around what experience, certificates, and accreditations you have picked up as a sysadmin. However, once you have the job you want, it isn't just the hard skills that make you enjoy it. There are also some soft skills that, when applied correctly, can turn your working situation from stressful and uncomfortable to challenging and inspiring. In this article, I focus on the three top soft skills that I believe are most useful for a sysadmin to bring along on the journey towards a great working environment.

        • To nurture open leaders, managers must learn to let go

          In my previous article on talent development in open organizations, I explained how senior and upper-level managers can help young leadership talent develop without taking an entirely "hands off" approach. The truth is that leadership talent rarely develops on its own, and if organizations wishing to become more open want to see open leaders thrive, upper management has a specific job to do. It must create balance—not only between the organization’s conventional management principles and more open ones, but also (as I’ve explained before) between reason and feeling, head and heart. In other words, this involves creating a balance between individual ego and collective needs.

        • Hybrid work culture: 5 tips on how to build a positive one

          As much of the world emerges from COVID lockdown, companies are taking a variety of approaches to reopening their workplaces. There may be a considerable misalignment between the hybrid work model companies are planning and the one employees want.

          [...]

          Blanket policies, prescriptive schedules, and unfair space allocation can quickly kill the productivity benefits of hybrid working. Maximize productivity by ensuring that the best combination of employees is in the office at any one time while encouraging a culture that views remote work as a positive alternative for tasks that can be done efficiently at home.

          Reward employees for efficiency and effectiveness rather than interactivity and give them the autonomy to determine how to achieve this.

        • Kubernetes Operators 101, Part 1: Overview and key features

          Developing container-based applications with Kubernetes is a complex process. Kubernetes Operators offer a default way to extend Kubernetes by automating the deployment and life-cycle management tasks of the containerized applications that you are building.

          This article is an overview of Kubernetes Operators: What they are, what they do, and key features you want to know when working with operators. Topics include the Operator SDK (Software Development Kit), operator capability levels, and the registry for Kubernetes Operators, OperatorHub.io.

          [...]

          In this article, you learned how operators can extend the base Kubernetes functionality using custom controllers and custom resources. You also learned that the Operator SDK offers code scaffolding tools you can use to write your operator more easily, and it offers guidelines for the capability levels of an operator. Lastly, we introduced OperatorHub.io, where you can browse existing operators and submit your own.

          The second half of this article will take a closer look at the Kubernetes architecture for operators.

        • Lennart Poettering: The Wondrous World of Discoverable GPT Disk Images

          By embedding all of this information inside the GPT partition table disk images become self-descriptive: without requiring any other source of information (such as /etc/fstab) if you look at a compliant GPT disk image it is clear how an image is put together and how it should be used and mounted. This self-descriptiveness in particular breaks one philosophical weirdness of traditional Linux installations: the original source of information which file system the root file system is, typically is embedded in the root file system itself, in /etc/fstab. Thus, in a way, in order to know what the root file system is you need to know what the root file system is.

          (Of course, the way this recursion is traditionally broken up is by then copying the root file system information from /etc/fstab into the boot loader configuration, resulting in a situation where the primary source of information for this — i.e. /etc/fstab — is actually mostly irrelevant, and the secondary source — i.e. the copy in the boot loader — becomes the configuration that actually matters.)

          Today, the GPT partition type UUIDs defined by the specification have been adopted quite widely, by distributions and their installers, as well as a variety of partitioning tools and other tools.

          [...]

          Similar to the other tools mentioned above, bootctl (which is a tool to interface with the boot loader, and install/update systemd's own EFI boot loader sd-boot) should learn a --image= switch, to make installation of the boot loader on disk images easy and natural. It would automatically find the ESP and other relevant partitions in the image, and copy the boot loader binaries into them (or update them).

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Intel's Cloud-Hypervisor 16 Adds ARM64 ACPI + UEFI Support, Better Live Migration - Phoronix

        Following the bump in April from Cloud-Hypervisor v0.14.x to v15, Cloud-Hypervisor 16.0 was released on Thursday for this Intel-led open-source hypervisor that is leveraging Rust and focused on cloud and security use-cases.

      • The Apache News Round-up: week ending 11 June 2021

        Happy Friday, everyone. The Apache community has had another great week.

      • Web Browsers

        • Mozilla

          • Firefox 89 - Another redesign, another rollercoaster

            Every few years, like a celebrity well past their prime, Firefox undergoes a facelift. Version 89 brings the latest round of visual changes to the table, bundled under the name of Proton. Well, we had Australis, then Quantum came along, side by side with the massive overhaul of the extensions framework. Now, it's time for another upheaval.

            I did briefly look at the Proton preview functionality in the Nightly Build some time back. I wasn't impressed. But then, most if not all of visual changes that went into Firefox in the past six or seven years have been unnecessary. Australis came with silly-shaped tabs, like Chrome. Quantum finally undid this nonsense, and for a change, it brought back some visual clarity and consistency to Firefox's design, much like Firefox used to be before version 4.X and the whole rapid-release trainwreck. Let's see what Proton does.

          • This Week in Rust 394
          • Support.Mozilla.Org: What’s up with SUMO – June 2021

            Welcome to the month of June 2021. A new mark for Firefox with the release of Firefox 89. Lots of excitement and anticipation for the changes.

            [...]

            June is the month of Major Release 1 (MR1) or commonly known as Proton release. We have prepared a spreadsheet to list down the changes for this release, so you can easily find the workarounds, related bugs, and common responses for each issue. You can join Firefox 89 discussion in this thread and find out about our tagging plan here.

      • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

      • CMS

        • WordPress News – Gutenberg Highlights – WordPress.org

          During WordCamp Europe this past Wednesday Matt and I gathered to discuss the latest developments of Gutenberg and to share a video with some of the current and upcoming highlights. The video is wonderfully narrated by @beafialho and it was a great opportunity to celebrate all the incredible work that contributors are doing around the globe to improve the editing and customization experience of WordPress. For those that weren’t able to attend live it’s now available for watching online.

      • FSFE

        • Netherlands: Participation app remains closed to the public

          The Dutch House of Representatives (Tweede Kammer) debates in public, as it should. But as not everyone has the opportunity to go to Den Hague and sit in the gallery, the Tweede Kamer released an app to follow the debates via livestream. Unfortunately, this app not is released under a Free Software licence. Our Dutch volunteer Jos van den Oever wanted to participate but was not able to run the app on his device and got active.

          In principle, it is a good idea to create and use technical solutions to increase the transparency of parliaments. However, the implementation in the Netherlands with the Debat Direct app is the opposite, as the app is not accessible to everyone. With the Debat Direct app, citizens can follow parliamentary debates easily from everywhere – but not with every device. The app is only available in the Apple, Google, and Microsoft app stores and is not available under a Free Software licence. A similar functionality is offered in an online webapp, Our Dutch volunteer Jos van den Oever wanted to participate and use the app on his Firefox OS phone - a Free Software operating system for mobile phones - unfortunately without success. Therefore Jos tried to get the app's source code in January 2018 in order to make it also accessible on other devices. It turned out to be a long fight.

          [...]

          Jos appealed with the newly discovered source maps, which resulted in a hearing on 17 March 2021. Jos was the plaintiff at the hearing at the highest general administrative court in the Netherlands, the Administrative Jurisdiction Division at the Council of State (CoS). In the hearing, the Parliament argued that the source maps do not contain the source code, even though Jos submitted the source code that he extracted to the hearing. On 31 March 2021, the CoS ruled that Parliament does not have to publish the source code since, in their judgement, the source code is not public. So even though it is factually public, via source maps, it is not legally public according to the CoS judgment. In other words: it is not public because Parliament says it is not public.

      • Programming/Development

        • Nicolai Hähnle: Can memcpy be implemented in LLVM IR?

          This question probably seems absurd. An unoptimized memcpy is a simple loop that copies bytes. How hard can that be? Well...

          There's a fascinating thread on llvm-dev started by George Mitenkov proposing a new family of "byte" types. I found the proposal and discussion difficult to follow. In my humble opinion, this is because the proposal touches some rather subtle and underspecified aspects of LLVM IR semantics, and rather than address those fundamentals systematically, it jumps right into the minutiae of the instruction set. I look forward to seeing how the proposal evolves. In the meantime, this article is a byproduct of me attempting to digest the problem space.

    • Standards/Consortia

      • Best method for dark-mode friendly SVG in HTML

        In this article, you’ll learn about the different methods for embedding Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) images onto webpages. I’ll discuss which methods support the various security and processing modes in SVG, which methods support dark mode using @media queries, and which are the most caching friendly. I’ll also touch on why the most backward-compatible embedding method is the worst for perceived performance and has the most accessibility bugs.

        SVG images have many benefits over other image formats. The file sizes can be tiny, they can be dynamic and interactive, and they can scale and adapt to fit any canvas size or application. However, web browser support for the format is incomplete, which further complicates SVG on the web.

        Let’s start with a quick refresher on the two SVG processing modes relevant to the web. Secure animated processing mode (SAPM) is the most-used and also the least feature-rich. As the name suggests, SAPM is a security-tightened subset of the SVG standard. It supports both native SVG- and CSS keyframe animations. It doesn’t support script execution, responding to interactions like clicks, nor remote loading of assets like fonts or other images. If you need any of these features, you need the dynamic interactive processing mode (DIPM).

  • Leftovers

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Pseudo-Open Source

          • Privatisation/Privateering

            • Linux Foundation

              • Linux Foundation Public Health creates the Global COVID Certificate Network

                Linux Foundation Public Health (LFPH) announced a new collaborative network, the Global COVID Certificate Network, to facilitate the safe and free movement of individuals globally during the COVID pandemic.

                – The new collaboration will establish a global trust registry network that enables interoperable and trustworthy exchanges of COVID certificates among countries for safe reopening and provide related technology and guidance for implementation.

                – The effort is supported by industry leaders such as IBM who have implemented COVID certificate or pass systems for governments and industries.

              • IdRamp Joins Linux Foundation Public Health Cardea Project Steering Committee
              • IdRamp Joins Linux Foundation Public Health Cardea Project Steering Committee

                IdRamp, a leading decentralized identity platform provider for business that need passwordless zero trust security, announced today that it has joined the steering committee for Cardea, a project within Linux Foundation Public Health. Cardea is an open-source ecosystem for verifiable health credentials that can be used by public health authorities, governments, and industries to manage COVID-19 testing, vaccination, and other health data. It provides a tamper-proof way for people to prove they have had a health test or vaccination without having to share personal information.

        • Security

          • Global Efforts Needed to Address Growing Ransomware Attacks [Ed: How can anybody write such an article without mentioning Windows with its back doors and awful code -- so awful that they keep it secret?]

            A global partnership between countries and companies is needed to address the ransomware crisis head on, says Patrick Howell O’Neill.

            The recent onslaught of ransomware attacks in the United States feels new, says Patrick Howell O’Neill at MIT Technology Review, but “hackers holding services hostage and demanding payments has been a huge business for years.”

          • Here's what you can do about ransomware [Ed: How did SJVN fail to name Windows as the common culprit, including in the examples he gives here? With back doors by design and human death toll.]
          • 7-Year-Old Polkit Flaw Lets Unprivileged Linux Users Gain Root Access [Ed: Hyped up by Microsoft; isn't even applicable to most systems]
          • Security updates for Friday

            Security updates have been issued by Debian (libwebp), Fedora (firefox, lasso, mod_auth_openidc, nginx, redis, and squid), Oracle (.NET 5.0, container-tools:2.0, dhcp, gupnp, hivex, kernel, krb5, libwebp, nginx:1.16, postgresql:10, and postgresql:9.6), SUSE (containerd, docker, runc, csync2, and salt), and Ubuntu (libimage-exiftool-perl, libwebp, and rpcbind).



Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day