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Links 22/9/2021: Mesa 21.2.2, GNOME 41 Released



  • GNU/Linux

    • JingPad Review: A Real Linux Tab for True Linux Fans

      JingOS is in alpha stage of development at the moment. Most of the issues I have encountered in this review should be addressed in the future OTA updates, as their roadmap suggests. The final stable version of JingPad should be available by March 2022.

      JingPad as a device comes on the pricey side but it also gives you a high-end gadget. 2K AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB UMCP storage and other stuff you get only in high-end devices. The sound from the speakers is decent.

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • Windowsfx 11, a whole Linux flavored like Windows 11 and without the need for TPM - itsfoss.net

        Windowsfx 11 is the new version of another of the GNU / Linux distributions that try to bring the free system closer to Windows users using the fantastic possibilities of visual and interface customization of Linux.

        Windowsfx already had custom versions of Windows 7 and Windows 10 and before Microsoft publishes the final version of Windows 11 they already have the one dedicated to the new system. And it offers what is expected. Windowsfx 11 Preview for x86 adapts the user interface to what Windows 11 offers, the general visual appearance and icons, a new start menu or the default centered start panel, as well as using Wine 6 to run Windows applications.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux Kernel 5.13 Reaches End of Life, Users Urged to Upgrade to Linux Kernel 5.14

        Released on June 27th, 2021, Linux kernel 5.13 was one of the bigger releases in the Linux 5.x series with over 16,000 commits contributed by more than 2000 developers. It introduced initial FreeSync HDMI support for AMD GPUs, initial support for Apple’s M1 processor, and support for the Landlock security module.

        On September 18th, 2021, renowned Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman published what appeared to be the last maintenance update to the Linux kernel 5.13 series, Linux 5.13.19, saying that the branch is now end-of-life and urging everyone to upgrade to the latest Linux 5.14 kernel series.

      • Aya Makes It Easy To Write Rust-Based eBPF Programs For The Linux Kernel

        Aya was presented during this week's Linux Plumbers Conference for improving the eBPF developer experience by allowing Rust programs to easily run within the kernel.

        Aya is the first Rust-native eBPF library that is similar in nature to libbpf but entirely written in the Rust programming language, popular for its memory safety and concurrency features, among other reasons this programming language is becoming very popular for systems programming.

      • Graphics Stack

        • Mesa 21.2.2
          Hi list,
          
          

          I'd like to announce Mesa 21.2.2, which is now available for consumption.

          This release is a bit late, and very large. We've got a ton of work going into panfrost, getting it closer to being conformant (it is conformant on 21.3!), as well as fixes for ir3, croccus, nir, utils, llvmpipe, gallivm, zink, glsl, v3d, vc4, intel, mesa, aco, iris, radv, and even osmesa.

          We'll hopefully be back on schedule after this.

          Cheers, Dylan
        • Mesa 21.2.2 Released "Late & Very Large" - Phoronix

          Mesa point releases generally come every two weeks but for the past month have fallen off the wagon. Mesa 21.2.1 came in mid-August and on Tuesday was finally succeeded by Mesa 21.2.2 as a "late and very large" update.

          Given the month of fixes that accumulated to this collection of primarily OpenGL and Vulkan open-source drivers, there is a lot in store. Mesa 21.2.2 highlights include:

          - RadeonSI and RADV fixes corruption issues on Navi 1x GPUs by disabling delta color compression stores for displayable DCC.

        • X.Org Server 21.1 RC1 Released With VRR Support For Modesetting Driver, Other Features - Phoronix

          More than three years after X.Org Server 1.20 was released, it's set to finally be succeeded soon by X.Org Server 21.1 under its new versioning scheme. Out today is the X.org Server 21.1 release candidate.

          X.Org Server 21.1 is finally coming to light after being organized by new X.Org Server release manager volunteer Povilas Kanapickas. Even this new 21.1 release planning is running a few weeks late due to lingering changes to be moved. Rather than RC1 at the end of August, it's now coming at the end of September, but in any case it's looking like the official xorg-server 21.1.0 release will be out this year.

        • xorg-server 21.0.99.901

          This is the first release candidate of Xorg 21.1.0 release.

        • AMDGPU Linux Driver To Overhaul Its Approach To Device Enumeration - Phoronix

          AMD's open-source Linux graphics driver engineers are working to overhaul how the initial driver loading with device enumeration happens to ultimately make it more robust. In the process though PCI IDs become less important and in turn less of an avenue for exposing possible indicators of new graphics cards.

          A set of 66 patches were sent out today that alter more than two thousand lines of code. The change is ultimately more about having the device enumeration and discovery of supported IP/hardware blocks rather than being tied explicitly to PCI device IDs. All recent AMD GPUs do contain an "IP discovery table" for noting the different graphics, video encode/decode, and other blocks on the hardware -- the AMDGPU kernel driver would basically use that for determining its code paths and what is supported, etc.

        • Peter Hutterer: An Xorg release without Xwayland

          And it's a release without Xwayland.

          And... wait, what?

          Let's unwind this a bit, and ideally you should come away with a better understanding of Xorg vs Xwayland, and possibly even Wayland itself. Heads up: if you are familiar with X, the below is simplified to the point it hurts. Sorry about that, but as an X developer you're probably good at coping with pain.

          Let's go back to the 1980s, when fashion was weird and there were still reasons to be optimistic about the future. Because this is a thought exercise, we go back with full hindsight 20/20 vision and, ideally, the winning Lotto numbers in case we have some time for some self-indulgence.

    • Benchmarks

      • An Early Look At The AMD P-State CPPC Driver Performance vs. ACPI CPUFreq

        Earlier this month AMD posted their initial public patches for the AMD P-State CPU frequency scaling driver that leverages ACPI CPPC for ultimately aiming to provide better power efficiency and more responsive CPU frequency scaling / performance state decisions on Zen 3 (and Zen 2 eventually) processors. This is part of the effort around AMD and Valve collaborating for better Linux efficiency especially with the AMD-powered Steam Deck.

        This amd_pstate driver remains a work-in-progress and so far was just sent out in initial patch form earlier this month and not yet queued up for mainlining, etc. It will likely take a few rounds of review before being merged especially with not all Zen 2/3 CPUs/APUs are yet supported among other items still settling with this new driver.

    • Applications

      • Which local Backup Tool is the best on Linux?

        There are several backup utilities available for Linux. Some of them are based on bash scripts and others are properly crafted open-source software. The problem comes when nothing is available in a default installation. I am a Debian user and I have some preferences to use certain backup utilities to keep my data safe. In this guide, I will help you to figure out which backup tool is the best for Linux. Let it be whatever distribution, we are looking for software with a graphical user interface.

      • Chat Bubbles on Element and Several Matrix Apps

        This simple comparison wants to help everyone adopt alternative messaging technology, Matrix, with suitable user interface to them. We call Matrix Apps to instant messengers like Element, Fluffy, Nheko, Schildi and Spectral as they are created based upon the said technology. We will start by setting up criteria first that includes chat bubbles, then going through these messengers one by one, and you will see their pictures here along with a little comments from me. I hope you can pick up the messenger with UI you love the most from here.

      • Ktube Media Downloader lets you download YouTube videos easily on Linux

        I always like to tell people about how I have been using Linux as my primary operating system for over ten years. I love Linux, I understand it, it’s free and above all, it fits my workflow in a way Microsoft’s Windows (with all its goodness) probably never will. That also means I love and am a command-line ninja but I also know one thing, a lot of people out there fear and hate the command line.

      • Monero P2Pool V1.0 Is Released

        The latest version of P2Pool, a decentralized Monero mining pool has released. This is the first official release, signaling an invitation for more users to try out the new software.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • How To Install PyCharm on AlmaLinux 8 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install PyCharm on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, PyCharm is an integrated development platform used for programming purposes for Python language. It is an interesting alternative with a wide range of Python functions that support beginners, however, even experienced web developers can use it for efficient troubleshooting to carry out targeted fine-tuning. PyCharm is compatible with macOS, Windows, and Linux systems.

        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 PyCharm IDE on an AlmaLinux 8. You can follow the same instructions for CentOS and Rocky Linux.

      • How To Install Go on Debian 11 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Go on Debian 11. For those of you who didn’t know, Go is an open-source programming language that makes it easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software. It’s statically typed and produces compiled machine code binaries. Go language is a compiled language. This is popular amongst developers as it means you do not need to compile the source code to create an executable file.

        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 Go programming language on a Debian 11 (Bullseye).

      • Install PowerShell on Fedora Linux [Ed: Red Hat shilling Microsoft]

        PowerShell (also written pwsh) is a powerful open source command-line and object-oriented shell developed and maintained by Microsoft. It is syntactically verbose and intuitive for the user. This article is a guide on how to install PowerShell on the host and inside a Podman or Toolbox container.

      • How to Download and Install Apache JMeter on Ubuntu 20.04

        pache JMeter is a desktop application to perform load testing and measuring the performance of a variety of services. It is completely free and open-source. JMeter is an Apache project and written in Java.

        Apache JMeter may be used to test performance on static and dynamic resources. It started as a way to test web servers but developed to a lot more protocols like SOAP, FTP, Mail servers, or Database servers. JMeter can be used to simulate a heavy load on a server, group of servers, network, or object.

        In this tutorial, we learn how to install Apache JMeter on Ubuntu 20.04. You can follow the same steps for other Linux distributions.

      • How to Find Files Modified in Last 24 Hours in Linux

        A Linux operating system administrator or veteran user understands and relates to the implications of unmet file management routines and objectives. File management improves the overall workflow such that each user’s actions are associated with specific file changes or modifications.

      • How to Install Cawbird (Twitter desktop client) on Ubuntu 20.04 Linux

        I think there is no doubt that Twitter is one of the most influential social networks in existence. And now in Ubuntu 20.04, we can have a simple and efficient desktop client. So today you will learn how to install Cawbird on Ubuntu 20.04 a modern, simple but effective desktop Twitter client.

      • How to Install Docker and Docker Compose on Debian 11

        Docker is a free and open-source platform to develop, ship, and run applications in the containerized environment. It allows you to separate your application from your infrastructure. This will make it easier, simpler, and safer to build, deploy and manage containers. Docker is designed to set up a local development environment.

        If you want to create more than one container for your application you should use Docker compose. Docker-compose is a tool used to define and share multi-container applications. With Docker compose, you can use the YAML file to define all services and run them at once using the simple command.

      • How to Install Plex Media Server on Debian 11 Bullseye - LinuxCapable

        Plex Media Server is software to store all your digital media content and access via a client application such as your TV, NVIDIA Shield, Roku, Mobile App, and many more platforms. Plex Media Server organizes your files and content into categories. It’s extremely popular with people storing TV Shows and Movie Libraries, and if your connection is good enough, share it with your friends and family. Over time Plex Media Server has grown much and now supports many platforms.

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

      • How to copy or clone permissions from one file to another on Linux - Unixcop

        Suppose that you have just created a new file and want it to have the same permissions and ownership of an older file.

        Need to copy or clone the older file ownership and permissions to the new file you created?

        In this small guide we will learn how to clone the user, group ownership and permissions on a file from another file on Linux operating system

      • Install drivers for XP-Pen tablet on Linux - LinuxH2O

        In this quick guide, you will see how to setup up and install the XP-Pen tablet and its drivers on Linux operating system. This guide is for all the distributions and it doesn’t matter which one you may be using Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, or any other for that matter.

        XP-Pen company is very popular, they have a global presence and goodwill for their awesome tablets. People from many professions rely on these little technical devices, whether you do the digital drawing, designing, editing or maybe you teach, these tablets are just ideal for your workflow.

        The user experience feels like you are writing on paper with a pen. The tablets come with very good levels of pressure sensitivity. The company provides support for all the operating systems (Even Linux ) and it’s very easy to set up which you will see later in the article. Your tablet also comes with a year of warranty and dedicated customer support for any of your needs.

      • How to Check CPU and HDD Temperature in Ubuntu and Other Linux

        Wondering how you can check the CPU and HDD temperature in Ubuntu and other Linux on your desktop or laptops? Here's a quick guide.

    • Games

      • See the new showcase of AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) on PS3 emulator RPCS3 | GamingOnLinux

        Last month, PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 became the first emulator to implement AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) and there's a new showcase video to show it off.

        [...]

        Nice to see the power of open source at work here. Thanks to many different contributors working on RPCS3 it's really come along nicely. Also thanks to AMD creating FSR and making it open source too.

      • Bud Spencer & Terence Hill - Slaps And Beans 2 will be coming to Linux | GamingOnLinux

        The developers of Bud Spencer & Terence Hill - Slaps And Beans 2 have announced that their beat 'em up sequel will be coming to Linux officially. It's the long-awaited follow-up to the original from 2017 and it's currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter.

        Speaking in an update posted on September 20, the team announced "Following numerous requests and after a technical evaluation, we decided to add the Linux operating system among the platforms included in the base goal.".

      • 2D side-scrolling action rogue-lite Helvetii shows off new trailer with a demo due soon | GamingOnLinux

        Helvetii is an action rogue-lite set in ancient Gaul that was crowdfunded on Kickstarter back in 2019. Team KwaKwa have a new trailer to show the progress and a demo is due soon. The developer emailed to mention the demo will go live next week, ready for Steam Next Fest and it will support Linux out of the box along with being supported for the full release.

      • Pros and Cons of Gamification in the Workplace

        Many companies, open source communities, and even software applications incorporate elements of game playing, such as badges, rewards, and competition, to make tasks more fun and engaging. Such gamification in the workplace first took off more than a decade ago, writes Katy Milkman in a recent Wired article.

      • Dream Cats NFT: don't buy them - David Revoy

        Here is another NFT story (and not a sequel to the last one was in March after someone uploaded my "Yin and Yang of world hunger" on OpenSea...) Today, it is about the official release of the "Dream Cats" catalog on OpenSea by ROPLAK, a derivative of my 2016 Creative Commons Attribution Catavatar generator. It was announced yesterday in this post on Twitter, and the OpenSea catalog page linked counts already over 10K items and already sold 4.2 ETH, so, around 10 000 Euros in two days...

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • GNOME 40 comes to Debian 12 “Bookworm” GNU Linux, Download for Testing

          After the freeze and release phase of Debian 11, the developers are back to work, Gnome 40.4 is already in testing (Debian 12 Bookworm). Download and check out.

        • GNOME 41 released with performance enhanced, new power modes, store improvements | GamingOnLinux

          Another 6 months of development later and GNOME 41 is out with plenty of enhancements for GNOME desktop fans.

          "The most notable changes this in release include an improved Software app, new multitasking settings, and enhanced power management features. With these changes, GNOME is smarter, more flexible, and offers a richer and more engaging experience than ever before." - GNOME Team

          You will find new selectable power modes between Balanced (the default), Performance and Power Save which can be easily changed using the System Status menu. Meanwhile GNOME Software went through a small overhaul and they say almost every part of it has been improved. Performance is another key point and focus, with many efficiency improvements making it in so it will all feel more responsive (on Wayland). There's also improvements for multitouch, GTK 4 has a new OpenGL renderer which "provides faster rendering and reduced power consumption" and the window manager Mutter got cleaned up for "long-term maintainability and efficiency"

        • GNOME 41 released!
          The GNOME Project is proud to announce the release of GNOME 41.
          
          

          Highlights in this release include improvements to the Software app, new multitasking settings and enhanced power management. Beyond that, there is a new Connections application, a refreshed Music application, performance improvements from the compositor to the toolkit, and much more.

          To learn more about the changes in GNOME 41, you can read the release notes:

          https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/41.0/

          GNOME 41 will be available shortly in many distributions. If you want to try it today, you can look for the imminent Fedora 35 beta or the openSUSE nightly live images which both include GNOME 41.

          https://www.gnome.org/getting-gnome/ https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/GNOME:/Medias/images/iso/

          We are also providing our own installer images for debugging and testing features. These images are meant for installation in a vm and require GNOME Boxes with UEFI support. We suggest getting Boxes from flathub.

          https://download.gnome.org/gnomeos/41.0/gnome_os_installer_41.0.iso

          If you are interested in building applications for GNOME 41, look for the GNOME 41 Flatpak SDK, which is available in the www.flathub.org repository.

          This six-month effort wouldn't have been possible without the whole GNOME community, made of contributors and friends from all around the world: developers, designers, documentation writers, usability and accessibility specialists, translators, maintainers, students, system administrators, companies, artists, testers and last, but not least, our users.

          GNOME would not exist without all of you. Thank you to everyone!

          Our next release, GNOME 42, is planned for March 2022. Until then, enjoy GNOME 41.

          The GNOME Release Team
        • GNOME 41 Released With Wayland Improvements, More Performance Tuning

          GNOME 41 is out as the latest half-year update to this open-source desktop environment.

        • GNOME 41 Released. This is What's New.

          GNOME team announced the release of GNOME 41 with some exceptional changes and updates. We wrap up the release in this post.

        • GNOME 41 Desktop Environment Officially Released, This Is What’s New

          Six months in development, GNOME 41 is here as a hefty update and the first major release after GNOME 40 with new features like a new power mode setting in the Power settings panel of the GNOME Control Center called Performance, which will be available on hardware that supports this feature. The Performance mode increases CPU performance to allow your apps and activities to run faster.

          Also new in the GNOME Control Center is a Multitasking settings panel that gives you control over window management and workspace multitasking options like the Activities hot corner, Active Screen Edges, the ability to show workspaces on all displays, choose between dynamic or fixed workspaces, and restrict app switching to the current workspace when using the Super+Tab keyboard shortcut.

        • GNOME 41 Released with New Settings, Power Savings, and More

          As with most GNOME desktop updates, GNOME 41 is packed with an assortment of new features, user interface tweaks, and performance improvements.

          GNOME says that “[…] with these changes, GNOME is smarter, more flexible, and offers a richer and more engaging experience than ever before.”

          Source code for the latest release is available to download from the GNOME website from today.

          However, most Linux users will want to wait for their distro maintainers to package it up and push it out to them.

          On rolling release Linux distros (like Arch) this will be relatively soon. On fixed-release distros (like Ubuntu) it’ll be …sometime in the future.

    • Distributions

      • IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

        • Automating the implementation of system-wide crypto policies with RHEL System Roles

          Having properly configured and consistent cryptography settings across your Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) environment is a key part of system security. RHEL System Roles are a collection of Ansible roles and modules that are included in RHEL to help provide consistent workflows and streamline the execution of manual tasks.

          The crypto_policies RHEL System Role can help you quickly and easily implement system-wide crypto policies across your RHEL environment. The crypto_policies role can also be used to check the current status of system-wide crypto policies in your environment.

          In this post, we show you how you can utilize the crypto-policies RHEL System Role to automate the configuration across your RHEL environment.

        • Red Hat offers various free fundamentals and just-in-time learning opportunities

          It is no secret that organizations value candidates who demonstrate a commitment to staying abreast of new technologies and industry trends. A recent IDC whitepaper sponsored by Red Hat, "The Business Value of Red Hat Training," revealed that trained IT staff see greater productivity, risk mitigation and a reduction in IT infrastructure costs.

          When it comes to team onboarding, job readiness increased by 76% when new team members had already completed Red Hat training prior to joining, and by more than half (55%) in cases where they were trained as part of the onboarding process.

          Clearly, training and certification increases marketability of job candidates in a competitive employment landscape. Unfortunately, barriers persist in accessing quality training, as it can often present as cost-prohibitive for individuals who may not have educational opportunities sponsored by their employer. Red Hat Training and Certification is dedicated to making open source learning accessible to those who are interested in upskilling and improving their technical expertise and professional skills.

        • Try out our new API developer playground: Accelerating technology exploration and app development with Developer Playground on IBM API Hub – IBM Developer

          In February, we introduced the IBM API Hub as a way for developers to access trusted, secure API-enabled services and data. With access to these APIs, developers were able to more quickly build the solutions they needed.

          Since the introduction of the API Hub, we’ve heard from our developer community: Being able to discover and learn about APIs and try out their endpoints is good. Being able to easily play with the APIs within a free playground environment would be even better.

        • No-cost IBM Semeru Runtime Certified Edition 11 now available for all Java developers and deployments

          Following on from our recent introduction of the no-cost IBM Semeru Runtimes to develop and run Java applications, IBM is announcing the availability of IBM Semeru Runtime Certified Edition 11, previously known as IBM SDK, Java Technology Edition, 11.

          IBM Semeru Runtime Certified Edition includes the same OpenJDK class libraries and Eclipse OpenJ9 Java Virtual Machine as the Open Edition, and provides 100-percent compatibility. The Certified Edition has an IBM license, is Java TCK (Technology Compatibility Kit)-certified, and is available at no cost for you to write, build, and deploy Java applications in development or for production environments. It is available on Linux and AIX platforms for long-term support (LTS) Java releases, starting with Java 11.

          With the release of IBM Semeru Runtime Certified Edition, we are providing flexibility to IBM customers and Java users with the choice of licenses to use a Java runtime that is low and efficient in memory consumption, offers great performance, and is optimized for cloud and container-based deployments. If you prefer an IBM-licensed version with TCK certification, you can use the Certified Edition. If you prefer an open source (GPLv2 plus Classpath Exception) licensed version without need for TCK certification, you can use the Open Edition.

        • Thoth prescriptions for resolving Python dependencies

          Python offers a wealth of programming libraries, which often invoke functions from other libraries in complex hierarchies. While these libraries make it possible to develop powerful applications quickly, the ever-changing library versions often introduce conflicts that cause runtime or build-time issues. Thoth, an open source project developed within the Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence (AICoE), is dedicated to alleviating this problem in Python programs. This article looks at Thoth prescriptions, a mechanism that you can use to avoid clashing library versions in your Python applications.

        • IT hiring: 4 ways to keep it human | The Enterprisers Project

          Companies have been using technology to recruit and hire employees for many years, but COVID has made digital recruiting indispensable. It is the only option when in-person interaction is limited, and it enables recruiters to search more broadly and efficiently as remote work becomes more standard.

          Meanwhile, today’s red-hot job market is forcing organizations to be even more proactive and specific in finding the people they need to meet near-term business objectives, address cultural diversity, and prepare for long-term success. Furthermore, we have entered a new phase of digital recruiting by using artificial intelligence to find and assess candidates before a human even enters the process.

          The result is that the hiring process is quickly becoming almost entirely digital. From recruiting to interviewing to onboarding, a company and a prospective or new employee may never see each other in person.

      • Debian Family

        • Testing KDE Plasma 5.23 Beta on Debian

          For KDE’s 25th birthday, Plasma 5.23 will be released on October 12th. A few days ago a beta version was released with many improvements compared to its predecessor. As expected, these affect Wayland, among other things, but also the Breeze theme, the kickoff start menu and the system settings. As a solid basis, Plasma 5.23 relies on Qt 5.15 and KDE Frameworks 5.86 and brings with it the current edition of KDE Gear, the former KDE Applications. The announcement expressly states that this is beta software that should not be used productively.

      • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

        • Ubuntu Touch OTA-19 Release
          Ubuntu Touch is the privacy and freedom-respecting mobile operating system by UBports. Today we are happy to announce the release of Ubuntu Touch OTA-19, our neighteenth stable update to the system! OTA-19 will become available for the following supported Ubuntu Touch devices over the next week...

        • Lilbits: Ubuntu Touch OTA-19, LineageOS for the Pixel 5a, and VLC for Android

          The UBPorts team has released their 19th build of Ubuntu Touch, a mobile port of the popular desktop Linux distribution. Builds are officially available for dozens of phones including older devices from Google, OnePlus, Samsung, and Sony and newer devices from Fairphone, Volla, and others.

        • Ubuntu Touch OTA-19 Brings in Support for New Devices With Multiple Bug Fixes

          Ubuntu Touch is an open-source OS for mobile devices that respects user privacy, unlike Google’s Android for privacy-focused users. The UBports community has released yet another update of Ubuntu Touch that is based on Ubuntu 16.04.

          This release supports many new devices and contains significant updates on certain phones, along with numerous bug fixes.

        • Ubuntu Touch OTA-19 Released - Still Based On Ubuntu 16.04
          UBports on Tuesday released Ubuntu Touch OTA-19 as the latest refinement to this Ubuntu Linux spin for smartphones and tablets.

          Ubuntu Touch OTA-19 continues to remain based on the aging Ubuntu 16.04 LTS codebase. The effort to transition to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS remains ongoing but isn't yet complete given all the fundamental changes involved in jumping forward by four years for its Ubuntu release and all of the underlying package changes.

        • Canonical announces new point releases - Ubuntu 20.04.3 and 18.04.6

          Canonical have released both the third point release of Ubuntu 20.04 Long-Term Support (LTS) as Ubuntu 20.04.3 and an unexpected six point release of Ubuntu 18.04 Long-Term Support (LTS) as Ubuntu 18.04.6 as a result of GRUB2 Secure Boot Bypass 2021.

          I’ve respun the desktop ISOs using my ‘isorespin.sh‘ script and created ISOs suitable for Intel Atom and Intel Apollo Lake devices:

        • Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubunu 16.04 Support Has Been Extended to 10 Years

          Canonical has announced that Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) have had their lifespan extended to 10 years.

          There was good news today for all Ubuntu lovers looking jittery at their aging Ubuntu boxes. Ubuntu 14.04 users will receive operating system updates until April 2024, and Ubuntu 16.04 until April 2026.

          According to Canonical, this lifecycle extension enables organizations to balance their infrastructure upgrade costs, by giving them additional time to implement their upgrade plan.

        • Canonical extends support for Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 to 10 years from launch
          Ubuntu is one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions. Not only do a lot of people who are dipping their toes into Linux for the first time use Ubuntu, but it is also used by smaller businesses for their backend infrastructure. These SMBs usually rely on LTS (Long Term Support) releases of Ubuntu, which are released once every 2 years and are supported for 5 years from their launch. Canonical has now announced that it has extended support for Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 16.04 to a total of 10 years from their launch.

          Canonical has announced a lifecycle extension for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS “Trusty Tahr” and 16.04 LTS “Xenial Xerus”. The original commitment was for 5 years from launch, which marked April 30 2019 and April 29 2021 as the EOL dates for the releases, respectively. Now, 14.04 will be supported until April 2024, while 16.06 will be supported until April 2026. Note that the EOL for Ubuntu 18.04 “Bionic Beaver” and Ubuntu 20.04 “Focal Fossa” remains unchanged at April 2028 and April 2030 respectively.

        • Canonical extends Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS support to 10 years

          Canonical has announced the extension of support for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS versions to 10 years . This means that paying users will benefit from something that was already implemented in subsequent LTS releases of the system: 18.04 and 20.04.

          LTS versions of Ubuntu made available for free offer up to five years of support. Those five years refer mainly to servers, while on desktop the regular support is served for three years and in the remaining two they focus on security updates. However, in exchange for paying Canonical, the lifespan of an installation of an LTS version can be extended after the free support period has expired.

          Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS have been maintained for an additional five years through the paid service Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) or Extended Security Maintenance. What Canonical has done has been to retroactively extend what it has implemented for the 18.04 LTS and 20.04 LTS versions. In other words, Canonical has added 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS to the 10-year release cycles by expanding ESM support .

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • Events

      • Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

        • My favorite LibreOffice productivity tips

          LibreOffice is my productivity application of choice. It's one of the most potent reasons for recommending Linux distributions to educators and students, whether PK-12 or higher education. Now that the school year is upon us, I thought I would recommend some LibreOffice shortcuts and tips that might save you valuable time.

          I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts. Here are the most common shortcuts that apply to all LibreOffice applications.

          There are lots of document formats out there, and LibreOffice supports a good number of them. By default, LibreOffice saves documents to the Open Document Format, an open source standard that stores stylesheets and data in a ZIP container labeled as ODT for text documents, ODS for spreadsheets, and ODP for presentations. It's a flexible format and is maintained by the LibreOffice community as well as the Document Foundation.

      • CMS

        • 17 Best Open-source Headless eCommerce Solutions

          A headless software is a program that can work and performs without a user interface. A headless Linux and a headless Google Chrome can perform seamlessly and smoothly without the need to run its GUI.

          Likewise, a headless web system is a functional web app but without a user interface. Developers often use a headless web app as a base to build mobile, desktop, web, and IoT apps.

      • FSF

        • GNU Projects

          • GIMP 2.10.28 Released with bug fixes and more

            GIMP 2.10.28 is the new stable version of the most popular free software image editor and if you notice something strange in its numbering, you have noticed. About what? Now we explain it to you, but go ahead that this is a most bland update, as welcome as it may be.

            In summary, if the previous stable version of the application was GIMP 2.10.24 and only pairs are considered this way, the normal thing is that this one that concerns us now would be 20.10.26 and not 20.10.28, but… €«A compilation error just after tagging the version ”, they explain in the official announcement , so“ GIMP 2.10.28 is the same without that error ”. And not only that: “We recommend not compiling it as GIMP 2.10.26”, they add.

          • Better Support & Performance For OpenACC Kernels Is Coming To GCC

            While the GNU Compiler Collection has supported OpenACC for a few years now as this parallel programming standard popular with GPUs/accelerators, the current implementation has been found to be inadequate for many real-world HPC workloads leveraging OpenACC. Fortunately, Siemens has been working to improve GCC's OpenACC kernels support.

            GCC's existing OpenACC kernels construct has been found to be "unable to cope with many language constructs found in real HPC codes which generally leads to very bad performance." Fortunately, improvements are on the way and could potentially be mainlined in time for next year's GCC 12 stable release.

      • Programming/Development

        • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

          • Bash While And Until Loop Explained With Examples - OSTechNix

            This is a continuation article in bash loop wherein the previous article we have explained about for loop. In this article, we will take a look at two more bash loops namely, while and until loop.

            The while loop is mostly used when you have to read the contents of the file and further process it. Reading and writing to a file are common operations when you write bash scripts. We will see how to read files using a while loop.

          • Bash Scripting - For Loop Explained With Examples - OSTechNix

            In Bash shell scripting, Loops are useful for automating repetitive tasks. When you have to repeat a task N number of times in your script, loops should be used. There are three types of loops supported in bash.

          • 2 Bash commands to change strings in multiple files at once | Enable Sysadmin

            Think about some situations when you need to change strings in text files in your Linux hosts.

            Depending on the case, you will simply change the file directly in your favorite text editor.

  • Leftovers

    • Best Free Alternatives to Microsoft Bing [Ed: Well, hardly anyone even uses this junk from Microsoft and the first 3 entries violate privacy, including DDG and Startpage. LinuxLinks spreads Microsoft misinformation about "embracing" Open Source by naming proprietary things like GitHub and Visual Studio Code (both proprietary). Very disappointing.]

      Microsoft’s stance for decades was that community creation and sharing of communal code (later to be known as free and open source software) represented a direct attack on their business. Their battle with Linux stretches back many years. Back in 2001, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer famously tarnished Linux “a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches”. Microsoft also initiated its “Get the Facts” marketing campaign from mid-2003, which specifically criticized Linux server usage, total cost of ownership, security, indemnification and reliability. The campaign was widely criticized for spreading misinformation.

    • Education

      • Taliban deny claims girls will be banned from school -- but don't say when they'll be allowed in

        Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN)The Taliban have denied claims that Afghan women would be banned from secondary schools after calling on boys, but not girls, to resume education, claiming they needed to set up a "secure transportation system" for female students before allowing them back into classrooms.

        The Taliban Ministry of Education ordered male students and teachers from the 6th to the 12th grade to report to their schools on Saturday. The announcement, issued on Friday, did not mention female students at all, sowing fears that girls would once again be excluded from secondary education.

    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary

        • Pseudo-Open Source

          • Privatisation/Privateering

            • Linux Foundation

              • Here’s All You Need to Know About Open Source Job Market in 2021

                The open-source job industry is one of the biggest out there. However, the pandemic affected various sectors in a lot of ways.

                The Linux Foundation teamed up with edX to survey several professionals and hiring managers to gain insights on open-source job skill demands, the hottest skills, and the state of the industry.

                Here, let me mention some key highlights of the report.

          • Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub)

            • Patch origin trust vs GitHub’s URL hierarchy

              Attentive readers may have noticed something a bit weird with the GitHub patch links in my last article. I shared links to two patches for Ruby's Rake build system which I also said hadn't yet been accepted into Rake. Yet, the patches looked like they came directly from the Rake project's official code repository at https://github.com/ruby/rake/. So, how did I get a patch URL that’s indistinguishable from commits/patches that are part of a project?

              [...]

              You could trick someone through social engineering to deploy a malicious patch that appears to legitimately have originated from a target project. All it would take to get a legitimate-looking URL is to open and close a pull request in the project. It’s not unheard of that large deployments receive an early heads up about critical security patches. The malicious source code and intent would then be public, but a quick “oops, that was stupid — honest mistake” comment on the pull request could be enough to defuse suspicions.

        • Security

          • Database containing 106m Thailand travelers' details leaked ● The Register

            A database containing personal information on 106 million international travelers to Thailand was exposed to the public internet this year, a Brit biz claimed this week.

            Bob Diachenko, head of cybersecurity research at product-comparison website Comparitech, said the Elasticsearch data store contained visitors' full names, passport numbers, arrival dates, visa types, residency status, and more. It was indexed by search engine Censys on August 20, and spotted by Diachenko two days later. There were no credentials in the database, which is said to have held records dating back a decade.

            “There are many people who would prefer their travel history and residency status not be publicized, so for them there are obvious privacy issues,” wrote Comparitech editor Paul Bischoff on the company’s blog.

          • Break out your emergency change process and patch this ransomware-friendly bug ASAP, says VMware

            VMware has disclosed a critical bug in its flagship vSphere and vCenter products and urged users to drop everything and patch it. The virtualization giant also offered a workaround.

          • Reproducible Builds (diffoscope): diffoscope 185 released

            The diffoscope maintainers are pleased to announce the release of diffoscope version 185. This version includes the following changes:

            [ Mattia Rizzolo ]
            * Fix the autopkgtest in order to fix testing migration: the androguard
              Python module is not in the python3-androguard Debian package
            * Ignore a warning in the tests from the h5py package that doesn't concern
              diffoscope.
            
            

            [ Chris Lamb ] * Bump Standards-Version to 4.6.0.

          • Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • The government of Mexico should halt the Unique Digital Identity Card

              “For years, authorities in Mexico have been building the foundations to control the population,” said Gaspar Pisanu, Latin America Policy Manager at Access Now. “It’s unbelievable that global news is broadcasting the Taliban’s seizure of biometric data in Afghanistan, at the same time local news is reporting on the government’s push for a biometric CUID.”

              Biometric data is neither the only nor the most effective way to legally identify a person. By including the CUID as part of Mexico’s National Population Registry, it opens up space for abuse and misuse, and error, such as intrinsic recognition inaccuracies, technology hoaxes or deceptions, information leaks, and social exclusion. These threats are only heightened by Mexico’s continued embrace of digital authoritarianism that includes ramping up deployment of surveillance tech, creating a massive mobile phone biometric database, and proposing “fake news” laws to enable censorship.

            • Exclusive Data: An Inside Look at the Spy Tech That Followed Kids Home for Remote Learning — and Now Won’t Leave | The 74

              A week after the pandemic forced Minneapolis students to attend classes online, the city school district’s top security chief got an urgent email, its subject line in all caps, alerting him to potential trouble. Just 12 seconds later, he got a second ping. And two minutes after that, a third. In each instance, the emails […]

    • Defence/Aggression

      • MoD apologises after Afghan interpreters' data exposed ● The Register

        The UK's Ministry of Defence has launched an internal investigation after committing the classic CC-instead-of-BCC email error – but with the names and contact details of Afghan interpreters trapped in the Taliban-controlled nation.

        The horrendous data breach took place yesterday, with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace promising an immediate investigation, according to the BBC.

        Included in the breach were profile pictures associated with some email accounts, according to the state-owned broadcaster. The initial email was followed up by a second message urging people who had received the first one to delete it – a way of drawing close attention to an otherwise routine missive.

      • EU joins outcry over execution of nine men by Yemen's Houthis

        The European Union joined a chorus of international criticism on Monday over the execution of nine men by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen following their conviction for involvement in the killing of the group's top civilian leader.

        Saleh al-Samad, who held the post of president in the Houthi-controlled administration which runs most of northern Yemen, was killed in April 2018 by a Saudi-led coalition air strike in the port city of Hodeidah on Yemen's west coast.

        A Houthi court found the nine men, including one who was a minor when he was arrested, guilty of spying and sharing sensitive information with the Saudi-led coalition. They were executed on Saturday by firing squad.

    • Finance

      • SEC takes action in cannabis crowdfunding case ● The Register

        US financial watchdogs have launched legal action against a cannabis-related investment scheme said to be the first case involving crowdfunding regulation.

        The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint against three people – named as Robert Shumake Jr, Willard Jackson, and Nicole Birch – and Texan firm 420 Real Estate in the Eastern District court in Michigan, claiming the trio had been involved in selling nearly $2m in unregistered securities through two crowdfunding schemes.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Governments hold upper hand online

        Governments around the world are finding it easier than ever to make the internet, and the companies that run it, knuckle under.

        Driving the news: Russia Friday forced Apple and Google to remove an app that supporters of dissident leader Alexei Navalny had created to coordinate opposition votes in Russian elections.

      • Apple, Google raise new concerns by yanking Russian app

        Big Tech companies that operate around the globe have long promised to obey local laws and to protect civil rights while doing business. But when Apple and Google capitulated to Russian demands and removed a political-opposition app from their local app stores, it raised worries that two of the world’s most successful companies are more comfortable bowing to undemocratic edicts — and maintaining a steady flow of profits — than upholding the rights of their users.

        The app in question, called Smart Voting, was a tool for organizing opposition to Russia President Vladimir Putin ahead of elections held over the weekend. The ban levied last week by a pair of the world’s richest and most powerful companies galled supporters of free elections and free expression.

    • Civil Rights/Policing

      • Now America's financial watchdog probes 'frat house' Activision Blizzard

        The SEC has launched an investigation into Activision Blizzard, and has subpoenaed several current and former employees, including CEO Bobby Kotick, the California games giant confirmed on Tuesday.

        Activision has been hit with separate lawsuits from its home state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and the federal government’s National Labor Relations Board. That first one, filed in July, accused the company of fostering a "frat boy" culture that led to lower pay for female employees, sex and race discrimination, and sexual harassment.

        Staff publicly spoke out against the Activision on social media and urged executives to enforce new policies, such as being transparent about salaries. They claim in the second lawsuit that they were intimidated by bosses, and attempts at forming a union were thwarted.

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • Monopolies

      • Patents

        • 10x Genomics Signs Global Patent Cross License Agreement with Bio-Rad

          10x Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: TXG) today announced that it has entered into a global settlement and cross-license agreement with Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: BIO and BIOb). The agreement resolves all outstanding litigation and other proceedings between the two companies across all jurisdictions around the world, and dismissing all infringement claims with prejudice.

          The agreement grants each company a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing license to develop products and services related to single cell analysis. The term of the agreement is for the life of the licensed patents. The cross license excludes products related to spatial analysis and In Situ analysis. It also excludes digital PCR products in the case of 10x Genomics. Both companies have agreed that each company’s patents are owned by each respective company.

        • ToolGen Files Reply to CVC Opposition to ToolGen Substantive Motion No. 1 [Ed: Again, patents on life and nature promoted, in effect turning the law into laughing stock]

          On July 15th, Junior Party the University of California/Berkeley, the University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, "CVC") filed its opposition to Senior Party ToolGen's Substantive Motion No. 1 for benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/837,481, filed June 20, 2013 ("P3" or "ToolGen P3"), or alternatively, International Application No. PCT/KR2013/009488, filed Oct. 23, 2013 ("PCT"), in Interference No. 106,127. On August 27th ToolGen filed its Reply.



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