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Links 11/9/2021: KeePass 2.49, Bison 3.8.1, Latte Dock 0.10.2



  • GNU/Linux

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • Start Gaming On Linux With This One Command - Invidious

        Setting up the packages you need to game under Linux can be a little bit overwhelming but luckily there's an easier way, recently I was told about LibreGaming an install script that will bring in all the packages you to start playing.

      • Windows Supports My Hardware, Linux Does NOT! - Invidious

        So many of you guys are switching from Windows to Linux, but many of you have run into a major issue--hardware compatibility. Windows supports all of you devices and peripherals. Linux does not! Why is this the case and what can you do about it?

    • Kernel Space

      • Alder Lake Support Added To Intel's TCC Driver In Linux 5.15 - Phoronix

        While much of Intel's next-gen Alder Lake processor support appears to be in good shape for Linux 5.14, some remaining items are landing for the current Linux 5.15 cycle. The latest Alder Lake support hitting the kernel is for Intel's TCC cooling driver.

        The Intel TCC driver is the new cooling driver merged earlier this year that allows for preemptively downclocking your CPU at a lower thermal threshold. The Intel TCC driver allows manipulating the Thermal Control Circuit offset so it's lower than the default activation temperature. The TCC driver works with Intel CPUs going back to Skylake along with all current Intel client CPUs.

      • The Latest Progress On Rust For The Linux Kernel

        While the Rust programming language support for usage within the kernel isn't landing for the Linux 5.15 merge window ending this weekend, that effort remains ongoing. A status update on the effort was shared this week about Rust usage for the Linux kernel.

        Miguel Ojeda as one of the lead developers involved in the Rust for Linux effort -- and currently working on the effort under contract for Google -- presented at this week's virtual Linaro Connect conference on the effort.

      • Graphics Stack

        • CoreCtrl 1.2 Brings Support For More Sensors, Voltage Offsets - Phoronix

          CoreCtrl 1.2 was released this week as the open-source, independently-developed application for exposing more sensor support on Linux and offering various controls aroudnd over/under-clocking and other tuning. At the moment CoreCtrl is primarily focused on making the most use of AMD Radeon GPUs under Linux with some options not otherwise readily available on the platform.

        • Another Batch Of RadeonSI Optimizations Land In Mesa 21.3 - Phoronix

          Another batch of minor optimizations were merged to Mesa 21.3 for the RadeonSI Gallium3D driver.

          Marek Olsak and other AMD developers have been working on an assortment of RadeonSI optimizations over the past number of weeks to reduce CPU overhead during certain driver operations and other improvements. The work is more than 42 patches in total.

    • Applications

      • OpenShot 2.6.1 Released For This Open-Source Video Editor

        Released in August was the big OpenShot 2.6 video editor update while this weekend has been succeeded by its first point release.

        OpenShot 2.6 brought new computer vision (CV) and AI effects, new audio effects, continues to evolve the user-interface for this non-linear video editor, improved various video editing tools, added FFmpeg 4.x support, improved its Blender integration, and perhaps msot important strived for better performance and stability. There were also many bugs fixed in the process for OpenShot 2.6.

      • KeePass 2.49 Released! How to Install in Ubuntu 20.04 / 18.04

        KeePass Password Safe 2.49 released with user interface improvements and minor new features. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu via PPA.

        According to the release note, the new release added new dedicated context menus for custom string fields and auto-type associations in the entry dialog. Allows to copy names, values, target windows and sequences, copy and paste items, and do select all and move to actions. The button “More” is present to the right of the custom string fields and auto-type associations list to show the context menu.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • How To Install Adobe Acrobat Reader on Ubuntu 20.04

        When we download some file from the internet, mostly there are chances that it is in pdf format so we should have a pdf reader to read that file. The most efficient and commonly used pdf reader is Adobe Acrobat Reader. It is a handy multi-platform PDF software which is used to read, comment, and perform different tasks on PDF files. The premium edition comes with additional capabilities such as editing text, annotating, converting, sharing, and signing PDFs. Here we will discuss the simple procedure for installing Adobe Acrobat Reader on Ubuntu 20.04.

      • How To Install Gradle on Debian 11 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Gradle on Debian 11. For those of you who didn’t know, Gradle is an open-source build tool for the automation of applications. Gradle build scripts are written using a Groovy or Kotlin domain-specific language (DSL) instead of the XML form commonly used by Apache Maven for declaring the project configuration.

        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 Gradle on a Debian 11 (Bullseye).

      • How to Install and use Artha Dictionary in Ubuntu

        In today’s world, everyone significantly relies on search engines to find any information related to any subject. So if someone is looking for the meaning of a particular word, they usually do it online. But sometimes, you can’t always connect to the internet due to its unavailability, and in such a case, the offline dictionary comes handy. Also, turning pages in a hefty book is considerably slower than typing a word on your keyboard. Using a dictionary appropriately, you may discover a word’s definition, spelling, synonyms, antonyms, etc. A dictionary is a guidebook on words that defines the meanings and use of specific terms.

      • How to Install h.264 decoder on Ubuntu

        We want to play a video on Ubuntu. We just went to the folder and double-clicked on the video to play it but wait, what is this? It gives an error that the playback requires an H.264(High Profile) decoder plugin that is not installed.

      • How to List Installed Packages in Ubuntu With APT

        When you want to remove unwanted software from your system, having a list of all installed packages right in front of you can help. On Ubuntu, APT makes it easier for users to get a list of packages currently installed on their system.

        In this guide, you will learn how to list installed packages on Ubuntu using APT, the default package manager on Debian-based distributions.

      • How to Play PC Games on Linux With Lutris

        Gaming on Linux has long been the holy grail of turning open-source operating systems into mainstream competitors to Windows.

        Linux can do everything that Windows can, except host the latest games. In an effort to solve this problem and make gaming on Linux a viable proposition, comes a gaming client, Lutris. But what does Lutris do for running games on Linux, and should you try it out?

      • How to enable process accounting in Ubuntu

        As Linux administrators, one of our everyday jobs is managing and monitoring each user’s activities within an organizational infrastructure. It is also beneficial to gather data from the system and network. For instance, at our company, we have a developers team that is constantly working on servers. As a result, we will need the best utility to keep an eye on them. Isn’t it?

      • How to install and use xpad on Ubuntu

        Ubuntu being the top trending distribution of Linux, provides an extended support to access several applications. Xpad is an Ubuntu application available on Ubuntu Software or you can install it using Command line support too; this application is about the sticky notes; Xpad consists of multiple text boxes and with the help of sticky notes, one can save any kind of information that you want to remember, and you think you may forget it. The Xpad application supports multiple operating systems such as Linux and macOS. In this article, we will demonstrate the installation of Xpad, as well as a detailed usage of Xpad is provided in this guide.

      • How to increase the open file limits on Ubuntu

        On a Linux-based system such as Ubuntu, we occasionally face problems such as “too many open files,” especially when you install and work in platforms like Apache web server and Oracle database. The encountered error signifies that our server has opened the files up to the default maximum number. This issue occurs when the system imposes resource constraints on any user or session. For instance, the maximum size that can be locked into memory, the maximum size of created file, the maximum CPU time that can be utilized, the maximum number of processes that are allowed to execute, and the maximum virtual memory size that can be used; these are all examples of resource limitations in an Ubuntu system.

      • How to install Perl on Ubuntu

        Perl is a programming language which is used for general purpose to create different algorithms. It is also used for different tasks including administration, GUI development, and Web development.

        Perl has some distinguished features such as the Perl database integration interface that supports third party databases including Postgre, MySql and Oracle. Perl works with markup languages like HTML. It can be embedded in other systems as its interpreter allows it. “The duct tape of the internet” is also associated with Perl.

      • How to install Protobuf on Ubuntu

        Protocol Buffer, abbreviated as Protobuf, is an open source library developed by Google that allows to serialize or deserialize structured data. It is used to communicate with one another over a network and to store data when building applications.

        In this article we are going to install Protobuf on Ubuntu (Linux OS) by below mentioned methods, you can follow any of these methods for successful installation of Protobuf.

      • How to install PuTTY on Ubuntu

        PuTTY is a widely used SSH client for windows; however, it supports various network protocols such as Telnet, rlogin. The system administrators use PuTTY as SSH and Telnet client as well. Telnet is a protocol used to establish communication between two or more devices in a network, but it was declared as an insecure protocol, so the ground for another protocol was clear. A new protocol named SSH (Secure Shell) was introduced that allows multiple devices to communicate over a network in a secure manner. PuTTY SSH client provides extensive support for well-known operating systems. In this article, we will guide you to install PuTTY as an SSH client on your Ubuntu, and before this basic working flow of the PuTTY is also described here...

      • How to install and use GDebi on Ubuntu

        GDebi is a package installer to install Debian executable packages on Debian-based distribution of Linux. It is foreseen that while installing the Debian packages on Ubuntu, a dependency error comes; that won’t allow you to install the package; the GDebi package installer will resolve the dependency issue. Ubuntu uses the default software installer to install .deb packages; GDebi can also be used because it is more efficient and quicker as compared to the default Ubuntu installer. Ubuntu is well known for its resource consumption; that’s why it would be a good option to use GDebi as a default installer for .deb packages: inspired by this; we have compiled a detailed guide on installation and use of GDebi package installer...

      • Symbolic Link in Linux

        Linux is one of the most stable operating systems available in the market that helps manage files and directories via command-line interface commands. You can use the Linux command-line interface command for creating, removing, or deleting a symbolic link. It also allows you to create a symbolic link called symlink or soft link and points to another file or directory. We focus on various Linux commands to get along with a symlink.

        Before moving forward, you must know about various types of symbolic links and their importance in Linux. There are two types of symlink available in Linux.

      • How to install and use gThumb on Ubuntu

        The gThumb app is an open-source software image viewer, image organizer, and a well-integrated tool for GNOME desktop environments. Moreover, it is also available for most of the Linux distros; Ubuntu comes with a default image viewer named as the eye of GNOME (eog); this default app of Ubuntu has very basic functionalities; on the other hand; gThumb acts as a multipurpose tool for image handlings in Ubuntu. Therefore, it is among the list of well-known tools of Ubuntu; this article is focused on gThumb; we will guide you about the installation of this tool and the usage of gThumb in detail...

      • 3 Ways to install Telegram app on Fedora Linux - Linux Shout

        Here we are using Fedora 34 Linux to install the Telegram application, however, the steps will be the same for older versions of it as well such as Fedora 33, 32, 31, 30, 29…

        Telegram is a popular chatting application that uses the internet to send messages and share media files. It comes with lots of features and better security options than WhatsApp. Hence if you already have the Telegram app on your smartphone and want to access your chats and media files directly on Desktop; then we can install the Telegram Desktop application on Linux, Windows, and macOS easily.

        We already have done a couple of articles around this subject, hence if you are a Debian based system user such as Ubuntu, then follow this link: How to install Telegram Desktop App on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

        Whereas for Fedora users, the below-given steps will work perfectly fine.

      • 2 Ways to install TeamViewer on Fedora 34 Linux - Linux Shout

        TeamViewer is a freemium remote desktop application that can be used on all popular systems such as Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux. Here we will learn different methods to download and install the TeamViewer application on Fedora 34 Linux systems.

      • The Smartest Ways to Send Email from the Linux Command Line

        Even though half a century has passed since the first email message was sent, we still rely on ancient technology daily. Modern email clients and services are sleek, easy to use, and packed with more advanced features than most users know how to use.

        Sometimes, however, all you need to do is send a simple text-only message, and you may not always be able to launch a GUI application or log in to a webmail interface to get the job done. In such situations, it’s handy to know how to send email from the Linux command line, and this article explains how to do just that.

      • How to Install Fail2ban with Firewalld on AlmaLinux 8 - LinuxCapable

        Fail2ban is an intrusion prevention software framework that protects computer servers from primarily brute-force attacks, banning bad user agents, banning URL scanners, and much more. Fail2ban achieves this by reading access/error logs of your server or web applications. Fail2ban is coded in the python programming language.

        The guide will give a rundown on installing Fail2ban on AlmaLinux 8 and some basic setup and tips.

      • How to Install Python 3.8 on Debian 11 - LinuxCapable

        By default, Debian 11 Bullseye does not come with Python 3.8 in its repositories, unlike some other distributions such as Ubuntu. Python 3.9 is now the latest stable feature release series of Python 3, with Python 3.10 still in beta.

        To run some applications or frameworks on Debian 11, you may need to install Python 3.8 on your system, for example, using the Swift programming framework given it built to utilize Ubuntu’s LTS versions that still run the older versions of Python by default. Python 3.8 is currently being worked on for security releases, but it is advisable to upgrade to newer versions if you are developing applications.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to download the latest version of Python 3.8, compile and make it on your Debian 11 Bullseye operating system.

      • How to Install Linux Malware Detect (Maldet) on Rocky Linux 8 - LinuxCapable

        Linux Malware Detect (LMD), also known as Maldet, is a malware scanner for Linux released under the GNU GPLv2 license. Maldet is quite popular amongst sysadmins and website devs due to its focus on the detection of PHP backdoors, dark mailers, and many other malicious files that can be uploaded on a compromised website using threat data from network edge intrusion detection systems to extract malware that is actively being used in attacks and generates signatures for detection.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install and use Maldet on Rocky Linux 8.

      • How To Install Netdata on AlmaLinux 8 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Netdata on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Netdata is an Open Source real-time server monitoring tool. Netdata allows you to monitor CPU, RAM usage, disk I/O, network traffic, Postfix, among many others. The tool is designed to visualize the now in as much detail as possible, allowing the user to get an overview of what is happening and what has just happened in your system or application.

        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 the step-by-step installation of the Netdata monitoring systems and applications on AlmaLinux 8. You can follow the same instructions for CentOS and Rocky Linux.

      • How to install and use Microsoft Office on Linux | FOSS Linux

        Switching from Microsoft Windows to Linux distros is not an easy task for all users, as it seems. Most users find it difficult to get used to the Linux working environment. In addition, if your work depends on applications such as Microsoft word, excel, publisher, PowerPoint, access, it won’t be easier for you to port to Linux easily.

        Linux ships in with Libre-office pre-installed. The software allows you to do all you can as you always do on Microsoft Office, but frankly speaking, it is not a Microsoft Office. The software only gives the feel and comfort of working on Microsoft-related applications.

      • Install Third Party Software Using Fedy In Fedora - OSTechNix

        The Fedora project will not include any package that doesn't comply with Fedora licensing policies in the official repositories. So, many users rely on third-party repositories like RPM Fusion to install propriety drivers, software and codecs that Fedora doesn't want to ship due to legal and licensing reasons. In this guide, we will see what is Fedy and how to install third-party software and multimedia codecs with Fedy in Fedora Linux operating systems.

      • How to play Battlefield 1 on Linux

        Battlefield 1 is an FPS game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. The game is the fifteenth release in the series. It was released on Steam for Windows in 2016. However, it was never released on Linux. Here’s how to get it working on your system.

      • How To Add Swap Space on Debian 11 – TecAdmin

        Swap memory is a location on hard disk to be used as Memory by the operating system. When the operating systems detects that main memory is low and required more RAM to run applications properly it check for swap space and transfer files there. In general terms, swap is a part of the hard disk used as RAM on the system.

        This tutorial will help you to Add Swap on Debian 11 Bullseye Linux system.

      • How to Change Network MAC Address in Linux

        Every network interface on your Linux operating system distribution is associated with a unique number called MAC (Media Access Control). The wireless and Ethernet network modules are examples of commonly used network interfaces on a Linux operating system. MAC serves a unique role in identifying these network interfaces through system protocols and programs.

        For example, through DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol), a network interface is assigned an IP address by a network router automatically. In this case, the MAC address acts as a reference manual for networking devices like the router so that these devices know the identity of the other network devices they are communicating with or, in this case, assigning IP addresses.

      • How to Install Sysdig on Debian 11 - LinuxCapable

        Sysdig is open source, system-level exploration: capture system state and activity from a running Linux-based system such as Debian, then save, filter, and analyze that is particularly useful for system analysis, inspection, and debugging, amongst other uses. Sysdig is scriptable in Lua and includes a command-line interface and a powerful interactive UI using the command csysdig that runs in your terminal.

        In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Sysdig on Debian 11 Bullseye.

      • Installing DEB in Debian systems using GUI or Terminal - 2 Ways

        Deb packages are used to install various programs on Linux distros based on popular “Debian” that are not available in the official repositories. Here we learn two easy methods to install Deb files…

        Just like we have .exe files on Windows to install different software distributed by Microsoft or third-party developers; in the same way “.Deb” packages are meant to run on Debian and its based systems such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, MX Linux, and others.

        However, installing .exe files is way easier on Windows than on Linux, we just need to double click them. But the same is not true for all Debian systems, nevertheless, the command terminal is always there.

      • How to Install Glances System Monitor on Debian 11 - LinuxCapable

        Glances System Monitor is free, an open-source command-line tool for process monitoring, system resources such as CPU, Disk I/O, File System, Load Average, Memory, Network Interfaces and processes. Glances are built with Python language. Glances support cross-platform monitoring, which can be used in conjunction with a web-based interface.

        One of the excellent features Glances supports is the ability to set thresholds in the program. You can set careful, warning, and critical in the configuration file, which will then relay information in colors that can show alerts to systems resources bottlenecks, system resources issues, and much more. Glances, by default, comes with a pre-set list of colors, but you can modify and add additional configs.

      • How to Download File Using Wget via Proxy in Linux

        Most Linux users prefer to carry out their periodic file download requirements from a command-line interface. It is a convenient approach as they do not have to switch between web browsers’ GUI tabs or go through several redirecting download buttons before initiating the actual download of the files they need. This objective is achieved by using a terminal-based file download program.

        Wget is one such program. To use it, you only need to prefix the URL containing the file you wish to download with the command wget.

      • How to Compare Two Files in Linux Terminal

        The need for file comparison on a Linux operating system is often overlooked but has an important role to play especially for Linux system administrators. Being able to flexibly compare two files on a Linux terminal sheds some light on how unique or different a set of files are perceived to be.

      • Chrome Settings 101: How to Customize Google Chrome - Make Tech Easier

        A browser is our gateway to the World Wide Web. We use it almost daily to access web pages, making it important to personalize the browser to our needs. Google Chrome, one of the most popular browsers, offers a variety of customization settings. Let’s explore how to customize Google Chrome to suit our needs.

      • Execute Commands On Remote Linux Systems Via SSH - OSTechNix

        The other day I was testing how to keep file permissions intact while copying files or directories to multiple locations and systems. When I wanted to check the file permissions on a remote system, I had to log-in to that system over SSH and check the attributes. The process of log-in and log-out from the remote system multiple times was bit annoying to me. I thought it would be better if I can be able to execute commands on remote Linux systems via SSH.

        Luckily, I find a workaround to do it after looking into the man pages of ssh command. If you ever wondered how to run a command or script on a remote system from your local system itself without having to log in to that remote system, here is how to do it.

    • Games

      • Introducing the Boiling Steam Wiki

        Within the past year or two, Boiling Steam has grown. Two editors have now become four, and the number of articles we’re publishing has increased drastically. As a result, we’ve needed to become a little more organized.

        Ever found yourself scrounging through the search bar trying to find that hardware review that’s a few months old, and has since been buried by newer articles? Starting today, we’re hoping to eliminate that by means of our Boiling Steam Wiki. Now you can easily browse our articles in a neatly organized fashion. Articles have been divided by topic, such as game reviews, distro reviews, essays, interviews, among others. Game reviews have further been divided by genre, and you’ll be able to instantly tell whether they were reviewed using Proton or played natively. A table of contents is provided, and you can quickly switch between topics by clicking “Back to Top” at the end of each section to bring you back to said table.

      • Steam Top 50 Games: 72% Work on Linux in Sept. 2021

        This is an update on the Steam Top 50 current situation, since we checked back in March how things were at the top of the charts – it used to be 70% of games working out of the box. Well, we took a look again very recently at the Steam top 50 games on Steam with the highest number of concurrent players over the past 2 weeks – you won’t see a major difference yet, but while the Steam top 50 games have changed a little bit, the overall Linux compatibility has not got worse, and may have slightly improved.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • Shiny new things in Thunar thanks to GSoC 2021

        GSoC 2021 is over now and I am happy to tell you that both students working on thunar did an excellent job. Alot of nice stuff has been added thanks to them !

        In order to allow you to discover all these new features, Thunar 4.17.5 was just released. (Note that this is a development release. It still might have some rough edges)

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • KDE Frameworks 5.86.0
          KDE today announces the release of KDE Frameworks 5.86.0.

          KDE Frameworks are 83 addon libraries to Qt which provide a wide variety of commonly needed functionality in mature, peer reviewed and well tested libraries with friendly licensing terms. For an introduction see the KDE Frameworks release announcement.

          This release is part of a series of planned monthly releases making improvements available to developers in a quick and predictable manner.

        • KDE Sees More Plasma Wayland Fixes As Plasma 5.23 Hits Its Soft Feature Freeze

          It's been a busy start to September for the KDE project and is now under its soft feature freeze for Plasma 5.23.

          This past week saw a lot of fixes and other work to the KDE stack. KDE developer Nate Graham continues doing a wonderful job summing up the KDE development contributions on a weekly basis with some of his highlights for the past week being:

          - Support for deleting branches with Kate's Git integration.

          - Konsole 21.08.2 will fix the issue of Konsole being very slow to close a t ab when something is written at the prompt.

        • Latte Dock v0.10.2 | Bug Fix Release

          Let's welcome Latte Dock v0.10.2 the 2nd Official Bug Fix Release of v0.10.x branch!

        • Tag filtering, better navigation and lots of little UI tweaks — Kalendar devlog 14

          This week, we have done lots of small tweaks to Kalendar and are introducing a big, new, highly requested feature by many of you.

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • GNOME 41 Has Finally Arrived: A Look at What’s Changed
          GNOME 41 has been released with several new functionalities, including improvements in apps, design changes, and whatnot.

          Version 40 was a big release for the GNOME project, revamping the Activities Overview that has defined GNOME for a decade. GNOME 41 builds upon these changes to improve the free desktop for new and experienced users alike. Here are some of the big additions.

    • Distributions

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • [Book] Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8€ Administration €· Pablo Iranzo Gómez's blog



          After some time working on it (about 6 months for the main work and some more time for the reviews) with my colleagues Miguel and Scott, we’ve finally made it thanks to the support from our families and Packt, as well as several members of RH teams that gave the clearance to get it out!

          The book targets users willing to learn skills to administer Red Hat Enterprise Linux or compatible systems. It is a hands-on guide to the administration and can be used as reference thanks to the real-life examples provided along the text.

        • [IBM] Irving Wladawsky-Berger: Why Do We Work So Damn Much?

          A few weeks ago, I listened to a very interesting podcast, Why Do We Work So Damn Much?, where podcast host, NY Times columnist Ezra Klein, interviewed anthropologist James Suzman. Suzman has devoted almost thirty years to studying and writing about the Ju’hoansi and other bushmen from the Kalahari Basin, who are among the world’s few remaining hunter-gatherer societies. He recently published Work: A Deep History from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots, a book about his research.

          Modern humans emerged in Africa between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago. Our homo sapiens ancestors were hunter-gatherers for most of those years, collecting wild plants and hunting wild animals. Starting around 12,000 years ago, the agricultural revolution introduced the domestication of plants and animals, leading many hunter-gatherer groups to establish agricultural communities and villages.

          The vast majority of hunter-gatherers disappeared a long time ago, but a few groups remain in isolated sections of Africa, Australia, the Amazon rainforest and the Arctic. Anthropologists have been studying these remaining hunter-gatherers to learn how they’ve been able to survive so much longer than other human groups, as well as to understand the behaviors and cultures that modern humans may have inherited from our closest ancestors.

        • IBM accused of stealing trade secrets from Chinese joint venture

          The complaint said IBM China -- which Neu Cloud alleged was being directed by IBM Corp -- and its Beijing-based distributor Beijing TeamSun Technology Co., a "leading integrated information technology service provider in China," formed Neu Cloud in 2014 to "further open up the Chinese market" for hardware and software based on IBM's Power Systems servers. Their agreement allegedly made Neu Cloud "completely reliant" on IBM for its supply and gave IBM "substantial control" of its operation.

          Neu Cloud said it submitted bid requests to IBM under their agreement that included confidential customer information, and that IBM agreed to keep it confidential.

          According to the complaint, IBM established a separate joint venture with another Chinese company, INSPUR Co, in 2017 to also develop and market Power Systems products.

      • Debian Family

        • Xarchive now extracts DEBIAN control folder

          Jon (scsijon in the Puppy Forum) is helping me to get Chrome and Chromium working non-root. This has resulted in me making a discovery yesterday, about the Xarchive archiver and extraction GUI tool.

          Jon downloaded a Chrome 64-bit DEB file, and clicked on it, in a running EasyOS 2.9, to install it. The PETget installer, if sees a post-install script, will execute it. Then he got it working as user 'spot'.

          He emailed instructions to me, including to edit script /usr/bin/google-chrome.

          DEB, opened it up using Xarchive to examine its contents, then manually copied the files to install it. It did not have script /usr/bin/google-chrome.

          The penny dropped. Xarchive does not extract the 'DEBIAN' control folder. This has a post-install script that creates /usr/bin/google-chrome.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Facebook Is Censoring People For Mentioning Open-Source Social Network Mastodon

        Last November, I made a brief post to Facebook about Mastodon. Mastodon is an open-source and open social network, which is decentralized and all about user control instead of corporate control. I’ve blogged about Mastodon and the dangers of Facebook before, but rarely mentioned Mastodon on Facebook itself.

        [...]

        Wonder with me for a second what this one-off post I composed myself might have done to trip Facebook’s filter…. and it is probably obvious that what tripped the filter was the mention of an open source competitor, even though Facebook is much more enormous than Mastodon. I have been a member of Facebook for many years, and this is the one and only time anything like that has happened.

        Why they decided today to take down that post – I have no idea.

        In case you wondered about their sincerity towards stamping out misinformation — which, on the rare occasions they do something about, they “deprioritize” rather than remove as they did here — this probably answers your question. Or, are they sincere about thinking they’re such a force for good by “connecting the world’s people?” Well, only so long as the world’s people don’t say nice things about alternatives to Facebook, I guess.

      • Play with model trains in OpenTTD | Opensource.com

        My father has always been fond of model trains, and I remember watching him building a track around the Christmas tree when I was young. When Lego train sets were released, he and I transitioned to them for their convenience and inherent extensibility. We built and operated Lego trains and monorail tracks over the course of many years. I've often imagined a possible future in which I have a garage or a basement dedicated to miniature landscapes and electric whistling trains. Then again, the probability of me diving that severely into yet another hobby is pretty low, so I was very happy to discover that virtual model railways can provide me with much of the same satisfaction. The engine for my virtualized hobby is OpenTTD, an open source simulation game based on an old '90s game called Transport Tycoon Deluxe.

      • OpenBoxes: Open Source Project For Inventory management

        Brief: OpenBoxes is a free and open-source supply Chain Management System for Linux, windows, macOS. Here, we take a look at the features and help you to get started with it.

        OpenBoxes is a management system designed to manage inventory and keep you on track with all the setting on it. It happens to be one of my top recommendations for the list of free and open-source Inventory and Warehouse Management

      • Web Browsers

        • Mozilla

          • Here’s Why Firefox is Seeing a Continuous Decline for Last 12 Years

            There has been a lot of discussion lately about the decline of the Firefox browser and numerous articles about it losing 50 Million users in the last two years.

            But the real decline has been over 12 years with a total loss of half a Billion users and 75% of the market share it once held.

            It all started in 2009 Q3 with the fateful decision to force…

      • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

        • Best MS Office Alternatives For Linux : Free Linux Office Suite

          There is no doubt about the popularity of “Microsoft Office Packages” as MS office suite is one of the reason behind the popularity of Windows operating systems. Office suite is backbone of the modern office around the world and no one can imagine the moment without office suites or packages.

          In this blog post, we are going to list out the some of the popular and best Microsoft office alternative for Linux based operating systems that are completely free to use. You might know the price tag behind the Microsoft Office Suites but here we are going to list out the free office software for Linux based operating systems.

      • FSF

        • GNU Projects

          • Bison 3.8.1 released
            I'm very pleased to announce the release of Bison 3.8(.1), whose main 
            novelty is the D backend for deterministic parsers, contributed by 
            Adela Vais.  It supports all the bells and whistles of Bison's other 
            deterministic parsers, which include: pull/push interfaces, verbose 
            and custom error messages, lookahead correction, LALR(1), IELR(1), 
            canonical LR(1), token constructors, internationalization, locations,
            printers, token and symbol prefixes, and more. 
            There are several other notable changes.  Please see the detailed NEWS 
            below for more details. 
            
      • Programming/Development

        • PostgreSQL JSON Functions

          JSON is an open-style JavaScript Object Notation used only for pairs of key-value data within the PostgreSQL database. JSON consists of many operators and functions to query the JSON information or data. In this article, we will demonstrate the working of JSON functions on some JSON data within the PostgreSQL tool. To work on JSON functions, one must have some JSON data in the database. Make sure you have PostgreSQL pgAmdin 4 installed and configured on your Windows 10 system because we have been implementing this article at Windows 10 on the PostgreSQL pgAdmin 4. Open your PostgreSQL Graphical user interface, e.g., pgAdmin, from the start bar of Windows 10 by searching it thoroughly. After that, it may require your master password and server password to get into it one after another. After adding the password, you have to tap on any database listed within the list of Servers and open the query tool to add some commands.

        • How to encode or decode a string using base64 in JavaScript

          Base64 encoding is an interesting way of representing information which is used to transform binary data into a string consisting of alphabets, digits and some special characters. Base64 is typically used to encode data that may be corrupted during transfer. Before eight bit bytes became a standard many systems such as SMTP (Email) used seven, six and even three bit bytes which led to data being lost during transfer between systems. So a new encoding scheme was developed which represented binary data in the form of text strings which could easily be transferred between systems without any damage to the data.

          Base64 is commonly used to encode the binary data of email attachments such as images and documents. It is also used to encode the images and audio files embedded in a webpage.

        • How to create a countdown timer in JavaScript

          Countdown timers are a kind of a virtual clocks which count the time until a specific date to mark the start or end of a special occasion. They were mostly used on the landing page of new upcoming websites but now they have found their way into e-commerce websites.

          The “time is running out” element on the countdown pages helps create urgency to generate more conversions on E-commerce websites. Timers can also be used on websites or blogs in order to display a countdown for special events i.e. anniversaries, birthdays, meetings etc. Countdown timers can also be used to count down the time till an offer becomes available

        • How to Convert a Number into a String in JavaScript

          Management of Data is a crucial task for any programmer; JavaScript is a very versatile programming language which offers multiple built-in methods to convert data into different data types. The .tostring() is one of these methods. The .tostring() method can be used to convert the data type of a variable from a number to a string. In this how-to guide we will learn to convert a number into a string using the .tostring() method in JavaScript.

  • Leftovers

    • Health/Nutrition

      • The Waiver Of Patent Protection For COVID-19 Vaccines — On Practicability And Purpose Of Such Measure [Ed: What patent profiteers and extremists think of giving up patents in order to save literally millions of lives]

        Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), spoke of a "monumental moment" when referring to the U.S. government's announcement on May 5, 2021, that the U.S. would support the waiver of patent protection for COVID-19 vaccines in World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. On the very next day, the share prices of all manufacturers of approved COVID-19 vaccines slid by several percentage points, and the debate about a so-called patent waiver has dominated political and economic news around the world ever since. This article aims to shed light on the background of the debate.

        [...]

        Exporting vaccine doses already in stock to trouble spots would also have a direct impact. After the EU exported 34 million doses of vaccine months ago, the USA also announced its intention to export 60 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine that it doesn't currently need.

        Finally, an unequal distribution of available vaccine should be addressed by strengthening the global COVAX campaign, as well as the global vaccine initiatives Gavi and CEPI behind it.

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Security

          • Pysa Ransomware Gang Targets Linux [Ed: Does malware become news only the moment you can throw the word "Linux" into a headline, irrespective of what the underlying issue and how a machine is taken over by the first place?]

            The Pysa ransomware gang has created a Linux version of its malware designed to target Linux hosts with the ChaChi backdoor, using its Windows counterpart's characteristics, according to a report by cloud security firm Lacework Labs.

    • Monopolies

      • FOSS Patents: Federal judge awards Epic Games a mere consolation prize against Apple, which regrettably succeeded with its 'web apps are viable' lie

        Yesterday's Epic Games v. Apple ruling by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (judgment, permanent injunction, and detailed Rule 52 order) amerely defers the resolution of the real competition issues facing iOS app distribution. It's one of those situations in which either side "gets something" and could claim victory, as Apple apparently does though the stock market initially disagreed (I, personally don't think the decision should have moved the stock at all). This makes it all the more remarkable that Epic doesn't engage in spin but concedes defeat. It's not that Epic achieved nothing; but for the time being, all it got is a consolation prize, and that's why Fortnite won't return to iOS at this stage.

      • Apple still chooses not to support the industry-standard lossless audio format, even though they support it.

        It’s 2021, FLAC, or “Free Lossless Audio Codec” is over 20 years old, Android supports it, even Microsoft, but Apple implemented it and then deliberately made it so gimpy that you can’t really use it.

        FLAC is a simple and yet amazing audio codec. It’s simple in that it only applies highly tuned lossless compression to audio files, and amazing in that it sounds great everywhere you play it.

        While many inferior and obsolete codecs, such as MP3 and AAC (which Apple promotes) are lossy and were basically just designed to be patent minefields that would keep paying out in royalty checks for years, even if they did things in stupid and counterproductive ways, FLAC managed to avoid the patents and be an archival-quality format. A bit-for-bit replica of the original, when decompressed or played back.

        In a way, you can see another reason why Apple partnered with the “MAFIAA” to foist lossy formats on people.

      • Patents

        • China to EU: we comply with the TRIPS Agreement and if you have any questions about standard-essential patent enforcement, let's have bilateral talks

          On July 6, the European Commission, which represents the EU at the World Trade Organization (WTO) level, filed an elaborate five-page "request for information pursuant to Article 63.3 of the TRIPS Agreement" (TRIPS = Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) as a formal "communication from the European Union to China." Styled as a request for information for transparency's sake, the EU was expressing concerns over China's standard-essential patent (SEP) case law, particularly global FRAND rate-setting decisions and antisuit injunctions.

          The very recent OPPO v. Sharp decision by the Supreme People's Court (SPC) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) already demonstrated that the Chinese judiciary considers it stance on SEPs to be balanced and perfectly compatible with the concept of international comity (which in this context means that courts in one country respect their counterparts in another).

          Even clearer is the message that the Chinese government has for the EU. China does not believe to be under any obligation whatsoever to respond to the EU Commission's request for information. The five-page questionnaire drew a five-paragraph response that fits on a single page.

        • Court reshuffle means three new presiding judges for Paris’ IP chamber [Ed: JUVE is boosting patent trolls such as IPCom because the site is in the litigation 'business' pocket]

          Two experienced IP judges, Carine Gillet and Florence Butin, have moved from the Tribunal judiciaire de Paris to take up new positions in other courts. Florence Butin is moving to the Paris Court of Appeal, while Carine Gillet will take a position at the Court of Appeal in Douai. French patent litigators highly respect both judges for their technical understanding in patent disputes. Gillet and Butin are now leaving the IP world for other areas of law.

          In particular, Carine Gillet established a reputation for her vast experience in technically-complex cases. A number of her decisions have attracted attention in the European patent community, such as the proceedings between Eli Lilly and Fresenius Kabi. Here, the court awarded the patent owner one of the highest damages ever seen in French patent cases.

          Gillet also made French patent history with her declaration of an anti-anti-suit injunction in the dispute between IPCom and Lenovo over the 100a patent. One lawyer said about Gillet, “She is bringing patent litigation in France to another level.”

          Thus, Gillet acquired a depth of patent expertise otherwise unusual in the French judiciary. In France, judges tend to regularly transfer between other courts and specialties.

      • Trademarks

        • Disclaimers and Unitary Marks

          When can the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office require you to make a disclaimer in your application to register a mark, what does it mean, and when can you resist doing so? When filing a trademark application, there are multiple steps. If the examining attorney determines that there is an issue, he or she will send an office action to the applicant. There are many issues that may be raised in an office action that can prevent a trademark from being registered. One of them is a disclaimer requirement.

          A disclaimer is a statement that the applicant does not claim the exclusive right to use a descriptive, generic, geographic, or otherwise unregistrable wording, design or symbol apart from the mark as shown in the application. The reason for the disclaimer is that anyone should be free to use that component in other marks.



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
 
GNOME GUADEC 2022 & Debian Albanian women trafficked to Mexico?
Reprinted with permission from the Free Software Fellowship
Sainsbury's: It Takes Us Up to Two Days to Respond to Customers Upon Escalation (and Sometimes Even More Than Two Days)
It not only does groceries but also many other things, even banking
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
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
[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