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Links 16/05/2022: FreeBSD 13.1 and Inkscape 1.2 Released



  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • ZDNetThese two Linux desktops are the simplest picks for new users

        Let's face it, any time you come across articles that offer advice on choosing the right Linux distribution, they tend to get bogged down in a lot of technical advice that rarely (if ever) applies to those who've never experienced Linux. They'll speak of things like rolling releases, package managers, kernels, open-source licensing, and other features and ideologies that not only have little bearing on those new to Linux and open-source technology but mire the decision in unnecessary complications.

        I want to take a very different approach, one that should make the process quite simple for anyone looking to dive into the world of desktop Linux for the first time. I'm going to shrug off the usual advice and aim straight for the heart of the matter. What exactly is that matter?

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Applications

      • What you’ll find inside Inkscape version 1.2 | Inkscape

        Our annual Spring release has left the building! From offering multiple pages to making tiling super easy and fun, Inkscape 1.2 has something for everyone seeking to Draw Freely.

        What’s not making a comeback are many of the bugs that were fixed thanks to everyone who tested the earlier versions and shared their feedback with the Inkscape teams. This helps us to improve the program between alpha, beta and final releases.

        While we cannot possibly mention everything inside version 1.2 in an article, we suggest a test drive of the actual software. Before you download it – or as it’s downloading – we suggest checking out our Inkscape 1.2 video specially prepared to demonstrate some of the most popular new features and updates.

      • 9to5LinuxInkscape 1.2 Released with Support for Multi-Page Documents, Numerous Enhancements

        Coming almost a year after Inkscape 1.1, the Inkscape 1.2 release is here to introduce a new Page tool that implements support for multiple pages in Inkscape documents. To access the new Page tool, click on the lowest button in the toolbar. The tool also lets you import and export multi-page PDF documents.

        Also new in Inkscape 1.2 is a ‘Tiling’ Live Path Effect (LPE) that allows for interactive tiling, the ability to import SVG images from Open Clipart, Wikimedia Commons, and other online sources, on-canvas alignment snapping, as well as the ability to edit markers and dash patterns.

      • MedevelSurf Ice is an open-source brain surface renderer

        Surf Ice, an open-source software package for visualizing connectome networks, tractography and statistical maps on top of anatomical brain images.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • ByteXDComprehensive Guide to Using FFmpeg to Convert Media Files

        FFmpeg is one of those modern marvels of open source software. It is a suite of libraries and smaller programs to handle video and audio files primarily.

        It works with images and other multimedia files such as video streaming formats. It has lots of uses like video transcoding, video editing, video scaling, video cropping or other video manipulation work.

        At its heart FFmpeg is a command line tool used with the ffmpeg command.

        It has a basic simple video player and ability to probe video media information for analysis.

        FFmpeg is also included in the workflow of other software like the popular video player VLC. Enterprise companies like YouTube use it in their core processing when ingesting video uploads. Overall FFmpeg can play, record, convert, and stream audio and video. It includes libavcodec – the leading audio/video codec library.

        In this tutorial we’ll install FFmpeg and learn how to use some its most popular features through practical examples and detailed explanations.

      • Network WorldExtracting substrings on Linux [Ed: This should say "GNU", not "Linux"]

        There are many ways to extract substrings from lines of text using Linux and doing so can be extremely useful when preparing scripts that may be used to process large amounts of data. This post describes ways you can take advantage of the commands that make extracting substrings easy.

      • HowTo ForgeHow to Install WordPress with Apache and Let's Encrypt SSL on Ubuntu 22.04
      • Linux Made SimpleHow to install Godot Mono 3.4.4 on a Chromebook
      • VideoHow to install Steam Link on Debian 11 - Invidious

        In this video, we are looking at how to install Steam Link on Debian 11.

      • ID RootHow To Install MongoDB on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install MongoDB on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, MongoDB is a document-oriented NoSQL database used for high-volume data storage. Instead of using tables and rows as in the traditional relational databases. MongoDB is available in two editions: Community and Enterprise.

        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 MongoDB NoSQL database server on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

      • ByteXDHow to Install Python Pip on Ubuntu

        Pip is the recommended package installer for python, with which you can install any python library or package that is present in the Python Package Index (and other indexes).

        Pip is a command-line tool that is cross-platform, featuring easy-to-use commands to manage your python packages. Like Python, pip has two versions, Pip 3 for Python 3 and Pip 2 for Python 2.

        This article explains how to install both of them in Ubuntu 20.04 (the guide works for other releases of Ubuntu and most Debian-based distros).

      • Using a Linux phone as a secondary monitor

        As a software developer on the go, one of the very first use cases that I started investigating after installing Linux on my first tablet was that of using a portable device as a secondary display for another Linux machine. Ideally, this would happen wirelessly (or wired, if that involved lower power consumption), with unnoticeable delay, and - why not - even including real-time touchscreen input.

        The journey, however, took longer than planned. Existing solutions, like VNC, tend to be strangely laggy, and others, like Miracast, are so deeply enclosed in proprietary protocols that they do not scale well to a bug-free experience on all devices. The first solution to this problem, at an even less stable stage than currently, was my most shared post ever on Twitter, so I decided to write a post on how this was done.

      • VideoEasily Add Startup Sounds To Your Linux Desktop - Invidious

        One of the most striking features of operating systems of the past were the startup sounds when you logged into your computer. For whatever reason, most Linux desktops don't incorporate a startup sound. But we can easily add one, regardless of distribution or desktop environment or window manager.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • Why Blueman Notifications Stay Forever

      For many years, Puppy Linux had no Bluetooth support. But lately, a user has complained about (the recently added) Blueman: it shows a notification, which don't disappear until you restart X. For some reason, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are super unreliable in this apartment (and I can't wait until we finally move to our new apartment in the summer), so I constantly have to close these distracting and useless notifications about connections and disconnections. I didn't have to do anything to reproduce the problem.

    • BSD

      • FreeBSDFreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE Announcement

        The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE. This is the second release of the stable/13 branch.

      • FreeBSDFreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE Release Notes

        The release notes for FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE contain a summary of the changes made to the FreeBSD base system on the 13-STABLE development line. This document lists applicable security advisories that were issued since the last release, as well as significant changes to the FreeBSD kernel and userland. Some brief remarks on upgrading are also presented.

      • FreeBSDFreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE Errata

        This document lists errata items for FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE, containing significant information discovered after the release or too late in the release cycle to be otherwise included in the release documentation. This information includes security advisories, as well as news relating to the software or documentation that could affect its operation or usability. An up-to-date version of this document should always be consulted before installing this version of FreeBSD.

      • FreeBSDRelease Information

        FreeBSD releases are classified into Production Releases and Legacy Releases. Production releases are best suited to users looking for the latest new features. Legacy releases are for users wishing to stay with a more conservative upgrade strategy.

    • Fedora Family / IBM

      • Ben Williams: F36-20220516 updated Live isos released

        The Fedora Respins SIG is pleased to announce the latest release of Updated F36-20220516-Live ISOs, carrying the 5.17.6-300 kernel.

        This set of updated isos will save considerable amounts of updates after install. ((for new installs.)(New installs of Workstation have about 1GB of updates savings )).

      • ZDNetRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6: Better security, more options

        Do you want a solid Linux distribution that also delivers the latest languages and solid security? Yes? Then consider getting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6.

        Red Hat announced this new release at the Red Hat Summit. It has numerous new features, but the ones that caught my eye were the security improvements.

      • Silicon AngleOS consistency solves Linux talent issues, says RHEL executive

        The new Red Hat Enterprise Linux, released during the recent Red Hat Summit, caters to rapidly escalating hardware development occurring throughout tech, along with a growing Linux admin skills shortage.

        RHEL 9 performs the combo double act, in part, by more efficiently optimizing the operating system, according to Gunnar Hellekson (pictured), general manager of the Enterprise Linux Business Unit at Red Hat Inc. Upgrading to the new OS means enterprises can get by with fewer admins. A skills shortage is caused, in part, by a lack of U.S. visas.

    • Debian Family

      • LinuxiacKali Linux 2022.2 Comes with the Latest GNOME and KDE Desktop Environments

        This year’s second Kali Linux update, 2022.2, brings the latest GNOME 42 and KDE Plasma 5.24 desktop environments and many other improvements.

        Kali Linux is a popular operating system designed for security professionals and Linux enthusiasts. It is a Debian-based distribution developed, funded, and maintained by Offensive Security.

        Following the February release of version 2022.1, the new Kali Linux 2022.2 update significantly improves the user experience for all fans of this security-oriented Linux distribution.

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • GNU Projects

      • Hackers getting married

        We had several of our old-time friends from the GNU Project, and some guests with young children still unused to such an international context who soon enough learned to enjoy the sound of different languages and the happy chaos of people meeting for the first time, some more traditional if not formal, others fun and weird.

  • Leftovers

    • Consequentialist Passengers

      I enjoyed the 2016 space movie Passengers. It was hated online because the character Jim Preston does something very cruel and selfish but the movie tries to redeem him and his choice, and presents him as a sympathetic viewpoint character. And I agree with the criticism.

      I like space movies so I saw it anyway. The way I managed to get over it, and to get to enjoy the movie, was by just not consider the character very redeemed. Movies can have villains. He is just a villain whom I could fear and root against and I could get over (or not fall for) the movie’s editing decisions and soundtrack cues and the decisions of other characters. I was going against the obvious intent of the movie, I was “changing it” in my li’l viewer head, but the only “edit“ I needed to do was to let myself feel the way I felt about Jim (creeped out) instead of trying to contort my brain and heart into going where the movie wanted me to go.

    • Security

      • USCERTCISA Adds Two Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog [Ed: VMware in trouble again]

        CISA has added two new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. These types of vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risk to the federal enterprise. Note: to view the newly added vulnerabilities in the catalog, click on the arrow on the of the "Date Added to Catalog" column, which will sort by descending dates.

    • Internet/Gemini

      • Dig Deeper Should Be Taken With A Grain Of Salt

        Sure, Tutanota doesn't offer POP/IMAP/SMTP, but at least when using it I can be sure that my emails are making it to their destinations and that I'm receiving everything that's been sent to me. In contrast, I've encountered one reliability issue after another with cock.li over a period of a couple of years.

      • Hello Web!

        Maybe it's because I'm trying to put off other things I should be doing, but I set up a website where I'll be mirroring some of my logs from my gemini capsule to.

      • Desktop Backdrops

        I was hoping to have had time to edit and upload the next couple of hiking videos -- the Lake District is nothing if not picturesque -- but life's got in the way. What I have started doing, though, is taking some panoramas to use as desktop backdrops. A few of these have come out really well, so I thought I'd share.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Google News Poisons Its Own Index With More Slopfarms (Including "filmogaz")
Naming and shaming lazy slobs who rip off other people using LLMs can work, eventually
Naming Culprits in Switzerland
Switzerland is highly secretive about white-collar crime
Sanitised Plagiarism as "AI" (How Oligarchy Plots to Use Slop to Hide or Distract From Its Abuses, or Cause People Not to Trust Anything They See/Read Online)
This isn't innovation but repression
Recent Layoffs at Red Hat (2026 the Year of Ultimate Bluewashing)
I found it amusing that Red Hat's CEO has just chosen to wear all blue, as if to make a point
Team Campinos Talks About SAP Days Before EPO Industrial Actions and a Day Before the "Alicante Mafia" Series (About Team Campinos Doing Cocaine)
EPO staff that isn't morally feeble will insist on objecting to illegal instructions
Stack(ed) Rankings and Ongoing Layoffs at Red Hat and IBM (Failure to Keep Staff Acquired by IBM)
IBM is mismanaged and its sole aim is to game the stock market (by faking a lot of things)
 
At Microsoft, "Firing People is a "Cheat Code" to Pump the Stock Short-term But They Are Literally Destroying the Company's Soul Long-term."
They frame layoffs as a "success story"
Gemini Links 16/01/2026: "Porting My Main Website Over to Gemini" and Seeed Studio DevBoard
Links for the day
IBM Stacked and Ranked Badly, Maladministration Dooms the Company
Now they stack people up for PIPs and layoffs ("RAs")
Links 16/01/2026: UK Royal Family's "Legal Team Accused of Dishonesty, Fraud and Misconduct", OSI Still Controlled by Microsoft (the OSI's Spokesperson is on Microsoft's Payroll, Not Interim Executive Director, Deborah Bryant)
Links for the day
Writing About Corruption
Fraud is everywhere
The B in IBM is Brown-nosing and Buzzwords (or Both)
International Buzzwords Machines
IBM's 'Scientific-Sounding' Tech-Porn Won't Help IBM Survive (or Be Bailed Out)
Who's next in the pipeline?
IBM Was Never the Good Guy
its original products were used for large-scale surveillance, not scientific endeavours
The Bluewashing is Making Red Hat Extinct (They All Become "IBM", Little by Little)
IBM does not care what's legal
Slopfarms Push Fake News About Microsoft Shutdown, 30,000+ Microsoft Layoffs Last Year Spun as Only "15,000"
The Web is seriously ill
Countries Take Action Against Social Control Media and 'Smart' 'Phones', Not Slop (Plagiarised Information Synthesis Systems or P.I.S.S.)
None of this is unprecedented except the scale and speed of sharing
Sites That Expose Corruption Under Attack, Journalism Not Tolerated Anymore (the Super-Rich Abuse Their Wealth and Political Power)
Sometimes, albeit not always, the harder people try to hide something, the more effective and important it is for the general public
Links 16/01/2026: Social Control Media Curbs in Australia Underway, MElon Still Profiting by Sexualising Kids 'as a Service'
Links for the day
More People Nowadays Say "GNU/Linux"
We still see many distros and even journalists that say "GNU/Linux"
LLM Slop on the Web is Waning, But Linuxiac Has Become a Slopfarm
I gave Linuxiac a chance to deny this or explain this; Linuxiac did not
More Signs of Financial Troubles at Microsoft, Europe Puts Microsoft Under Investigation
The end of the library is part of the cuts
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part I - An Introduction to the Mafia Governing the EPO
Are some people 'evacuating' themselves to save face?
Pedophilia-Enabling Microsoft Co-founder Cuts Staff
Compensating by sleeping with young girls does not make one younger
Microsoft Shuts Down Campus Library, Resorts to Storytelling About "AI" to Spin the Seriousness of It
Microsoft is in pain
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Back to Advertising the Talks of Richard Stallman
A pleasant surprise
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 15, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, January 15, 2026
Gemini Links 16/01/2026: House Flood and Pragmatic Retrocomputing Dogfooding
Links for the day
Links 15/01/2026: Starlink Weaponised for Regime Change (by Man Who Boasted About Annexing South American Countries for Tesla's Mining), Corruption in Switzerland Uncovered by JuristGate
Links for the day
Linuxiac May Have Reverted Back to LLM Slop (Updated Same Day)
Is he back off the wagon?
GAFAM and IBM Layoffs Outline
a lot of the layoffs happen in secrecy and involve convincing people to resign, retire, relocate etc.
Links 15/01/2026: Internet Blackouts, Jackboots Society in US
Links for the day
Coming Soon: Impact With EPO Cocainegate
Will Campinos survive 2026?
The Last 'Dilberts' or Some of the Last Salvaged (Comic Strips Which Disappeared Shortly After They Had Been Published)
Around the time the creator of Dilbert went silent he published some strips mocking TikTok and usage of it
The Creator of Git Probably Doesn't Know How to Install and Deploy Git
Nobody disputes this: Mr. Torvalds created Git
Slop is a Liability
Slopfarms too will become extinct because people aren't interested in them
GAFAM is a National and International Threat to Everybody
GAFAM is just a tentacle in service of imperialism
EPO People Power - Part XXXVI - In Conclusion and Taking Things Up Another Notch
They often say that the law won't deter or stop criminals because it's hard to enforce laws against people who reject the law
Running Techrights is Fun, Rewarding, and Gratifying
In Geminispace we are already quite dominant
Red Hat is Connected to the Military, Its Chief Comes From Military Family (From Both Sides)
The founder of Red Hat's parent company literally saluted Hitler himself (yes, a Nazi salute)
Don't Cry for Gaslighting Media in a Country Which Loathes the Press
my wife and I received threats for merely writing about Americans
Red Hat (IBM) is Driving Away Remaining Fedora Users
I've not used Fedora since Moonshine
Robert X. Cringely Has Already Explained IBM's Bullying Culture (Towards Its Own Staff)
IBM is a fairly nasty company
Proton Mail compromise, Hannah Natanson (Washington Post) police raid & Debian
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 14, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Gemini Links 15/01/2026: "Ode to elinks", envs.net Pubnix and Downtime at geminiprotocol.net
Links for the day
Still Condoning Child Labour and Exploiting Unpaid Children Developers as PR Props (to Raise Monopoly Money)
These people lack morals. So they project.
"Security, AI or Quantum" on "the IBM Titanic"
Who's RMS?
Hours Ago The Register MS Published Microsoft Windows SPAM "Sponsored by Intel." The Fake 'Article' Says "AI" 34 Times.
The Register MS isn't a serious online newspaper
EPO People Power - Part XXXV - Where Else Will Corruption and Substance Abuse be Tolerated?
We need to raise standards
Status and Capital
People who do a lot are too busy to boast about it and wear fancy garments
IBM Paying the Price for Treating Workers Badly and Discarding Real Talent (Because It's "Expensive")
IBM is dead man walking
Turbulence Ahead
I last rebooted my laptop in 2023
Google News Rewards Plagiarism With LLMs (About Linux, Too)
Google is in the slop business now
Links 14/01/2026: Failing Economy and Conquest Abroad as a Distraction From Domestic Woes
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/01/2026: The Ephemerality of Our Digital Lives and "Summer of Upgrades"
Links for the day
Projection Tactics - Part III: Silencing Inconvenient Voices Online
If X gets banned in the UK, it'll be hard to see what the spouse says in public
Outsourcing on Microsoft's Agenda, Offshoring Also
"In some cases, India hiring is poised to replace certain roles previously based in the U.S."
Links 13/01/2026: 'Dilbert' creator Scott Adams Passes Away With Cancer, Ban on X/Twitter Considered for CSAM Profiteering
Links for the day
The Goal is Software Freedom for All
Anything to do with "Linux Foundation" is timewasting
Reminder That Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Is Not Free, And It's Because of IBM
software freedom just 'gets in the way'
Under IBM, in Order to Game the Stock Market, Red Hat Resorted to Boosting the Biggest Ponzi Scheme in Human History
This is what IBM turned Red Hat into
Revision handed Microsoft the keys to the distortion of the past/history
This isn't the first time The Register MS rewrites computing history in Microsoft's favour, as we pointed out several times in past years
What Will Happen to GAFAM After the US Defaults Rather Than Bails Out the Market?
Or tries to topple every government that doesn't play by its rules?
EPO People Power - Part XXXIV - Bad Optics for the European Union (for Failing to Act and Tolerating Cocaine Use in Europe's Second-Largest Institution)
There are principles in laws which tie awareness with complicity
EPO's Central Staff Committee is Now Redacting (Self-Censoring) Due to Threats From the EPO "Mafia"
"On the agenda: salary adjustment procedure for 2025 (as of January 2026)"
"AI" (Slop) 'Demand' Isn't Growing, It's Fake, It's a Pyramid Scheme
They try to resort to 'creative' accounting (fraudulent schemes like circular financing)
Difficult Times at IBM and Microsoft Ahead of Mass Layoffs (Probably Before This Month's Results Unless Postponed to 'Prove' Rumours 'Wrong')
IBM and Microsoft used to be tech giants. Nowadays they mostly pretend by pumping up their stock and buying back their own shares.
Canonical: Make Ubuntu Bloated (Debian With Snaps), Then Sell the 'Debloated' Version for a Fee
If people want a light distro, then they ought not pay Canonical but instead choose a light (by design) GNU/Linux distro
People Don't Want "Just Enough", They'll Look for Quality
That's why slopfarms will go away or become inactive
Gemini Links 14/01/2026: 3D and Tiny Traffic Lights Pack
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 13, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Slop Waning Whilst Originals Perish
Slop is way past its "prime"
XBox's 'Major Nelson' Loses His Job Again, This Time in a Microsoft Mono Pusher
Microsoft hasn't much of a future in gaming. XBox's business is in rapid decline and people who push Mono to game developers are the same