09.12.22

GNU/Linux

• Audiocasts/Shows

  • Video ☛ Linux Was Once A Terrible Operating System – Invidious

    Let’s look back at amusing story from Linux history, while Linux isn’t perfect today this operating system used to be a usability nightmare for the average person.

  • Video ☛ Installing Linux on a USB? Consider This. – Invidious

    Today we will talk about a warning when you are installing Linux on a flash drive. They do have limited re-write cycles, so be prepared to make regular backups.

  • Video ☛ How To Access The Dark Web (Using Tor) – Invidious

    In this video I show you how to access the darkweb and find things on Tor

• Kernel Space

  • WCCF Tech ☛ AMD Utilizes User-Space Hinting To Achieve Faster EPYC CPU Performance in Linux

    Before the Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC) session, to be held next week in Dublin, Ireland, AMD will be conducting a seminar on improving the scheduler for split last-level cache, or LLC, architectures. K. Prateek Nayak, an engineer of the Linux server team for AMD, published a patch series focusing on counting user-space hinting at task placement. This new development displays AMD’s intent to improve the Linux kernel’s scheduler for split-LLC CPU plans to aid their EPYC server processors.

• Applications

  • Make Use Of ☛ 3 Ways to Screenshot Right-Click Context Menus on Linux

    There are many easy-to-use screenshot utilities for Linux, but most of them fail to capture context menus and tooltips if not configured properly.

    If you take a lot of screenshots on your computer, there are several tools that can help you do it effectively. However, most of these screenshot tools don’t allow you to screenshot right-click menus in Linux.

    As such, if you need to take screenshots of right-click/context menus on your computer—perhaps to help someone troubleshoot an issue with their system—you have to look toward other methods.

    If you use Ubuntu, there are a few different ways to do this on your computer. Follow along as we check out these methods to screenshot right-click menus in Linux.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Linux Made Simple ☛ How to install Sonic Battle Rematch on a Chromebook

    Today we are looking at how to install Sonic Battle Rematch on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

  • Video ☛ How to install Visual Studio Code on Pop!_OS 22.04 – Invidious [Ed: Or don't. It's proprietary software that Microsoft uses for spying.]

  • Linux Hint ☛ How to List Installed Packages in Ubuntu 22.04

    A “package” is a compressed file archive containing all the files that come with a particular application. Several examples of packages are .tgz, .deb, and .rpm.
    Today, we will explore how to display the list of all the packages installed on our system. To do that, we have presented three different methods. We have used Ubuntu 22.04 to demonstrate the procedure. We will run easy-to-follow Linux commands on Ubuntu’s command line (Terminal) to list the packages.

    Without any further ado, let’s get started!

  • Linux Hint ☛ How to Open a File With Nano Editor in Linux?

    GNU nano is a text editor for Unix-like computing systems or operating environments using a command line interface.

  • Linux Hint ☛ MySQL JSON Data Type

    You may have often heard about the type of clothes or food a person may like. Just like that, the value in a variable can be of a different type. These types define the class of a variable and to which category it belongs and which operations can be used on them. For a programmer or developer, it’s very common to use many data types every day while coding. Within databases like MySQL database, MySQL works so well with many data types as its open source platform. Our topic is to cover the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) datatype in databases without adding complex examples and unnecessary details. Therefore, you have to log in from your Linux system and open its terminal application further.

• Desktop Environments/WMs

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • DebugPoint ☛ KDE Plasma 5.26: Top New Features and Release Details

      KDE Plasma 5.26 is about improving the desktop experience, a huge set of bug fixes and some very nice, much-needed changes.

      The majority of the changes in this release revolve around desktop customizations. However, a vast amount of under-the-hood bug fixes and cleanup is a welcome change for the stability of the desktop. This release is based on Qt 5.15.2 and KDE Framework 5.98.

      The most iconic changes are animated wallpaper, resizable kick-off menu, tray widgets and Discover updates related to Flatpak.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• ZDNet ☛ Looking to switch to Linux from Windows? The Feren OS Transfer Tool makes it easy | ZDNET

  Feren OS is a version of the Linux operating system that leans heavily into the KDE Plasma desktop with plenty of tweaks, such as substituting the Nemo file manager in place of Dolphin, to make it as elegant as it is user-friendly.

  I’ve already reviewed Feren OS, but there’s a tool within the desktop distribution that focuses specifically on Windows users to help them make the migration. That is what I want to highlight here.

  [...]

  Anyone looking to adopt Linux as their daily operating system would be remiss if they didn’t at least give Feren OS a try.

• Canonical/Ubuntu Family

  • The Fridge: Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 752

  • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 752

    Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 752 for the week of September 4 – 10, 2022.

  • Service – Debuginfod – Guide – Ubuntu Community Hub

    This section describes what debuginfod is and how users can benefit from Ubuntu’s debuginfod service.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Android Headlines ☛ Google Bumps Up Minimum Hardware Requirements For Android 13

  • 8 Best Hidden Android 13 Features You Must Try

  • TomTom Go looks to replace Google Maps on Android Auto with a useful upgrade | T3

  • HowTo Geek ☛ The Best Android Smartwatch of 2022

  • Giz China ☛ Top 5 iPhone 14 “innovations” that Apple copied from Android

  • Android Central ☛ Android Privacy Sandbox Developer Preview 5 is now available | Android Central

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Programming/Development

  • Rust

    • I Programmer ☛ Use Rust To Reduce The Size Of Your SQLite Database

      Meet sqlite-zstd, a Rust library that compresses your database many fold, leading to great savings in size while conserving its search capabilities intact.

Leftovers

• Proprietary

  • IT Wire ☛ iTWire – VMware pays fine to settle SEC charge of misleading investors

    Multi-cloud services provider VMware has paid a fine of US$8 million (A$11.6 million) following a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over a charge of misleading investors about its order backlog management practices.

    In a statement issued on Monday, the SEC said these practices meant the company could “push revenue into future quarters by delaying product deliveries to customers, concealing the company’s slowing performance relative to its projections”.

    It found that these practices had begun in fiscal 2019. “VMware began delaying the delivery of licence keys on some sales orders until just after quarter-end so that it could recognise revenue from the corresponding licence sales in the following quarter,” the SEC said.

  • John Gruber ☛ Diffusion Bee 1.0: Easy to Install Stable Diffusion for Apple Silicon Macs [Ed: Apple easy to use? No!]

    It’s been a bit tricky to get running on Apple Silicon Macs, because (among other factors) the Python situation is complex.

  • IT Wire ☛ iTWire – Apple fixes 10 bugs including two zero-days under exploit

    Apple has released fixes for 10 bugs in macOS Big Sur, including two zero-days that are being exploited in the wild.

    Both the zero-days, CVE-2022-32894 and CVE-2022-32917, were attributed to an anonymous researcher and affect the kernel of the operating system.

    Apple offered no details about these issues, merely saying, “An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.”

• Linux Foundation

  • The Register UK ☛ PyTorch gets lit under The Linux Foundation • The Register

    Meta is shifting the management of PyTorch, a deep learning framework developed by Meta subsidiary Facebook, to the newly formed PyTorch Foundation, which in turn will be under the oversight of The Linux Foundation.

  • Datanami ☛ LinkedIn Donates Feature Store to Linux Foundation [Ed: ‘Linux’ Foundation openwashing for Microsoft]

    LinkedIn today announced that its open source feature store, dubbed Feathr, is joining LF AI & Data, the Linux Foundation’s umbrella foundation for big data and AI projects.

• Security

  • Istio / Announcing Istio 1.13.8

    This release contains bug fixes to improve robustness. This release note describes what’s different between Istio 1.13.7 and Istio 1.13.8.

  • Istio / Announcing Istio 1.14.4

    This release contains bug fixes to improve robustness. This release note describes what’s different between Istio 1.14.3 and Istio 1.14.4.

  • TechRadar ☛ This fearsome new Linux malware will send a shudder down the spines of IT professionals [Ed: They don't bother explaining how it gets into the system in the first place; this is a huge oversight, yet a pretext for many anti-Linux headlines this past week]

    the malware and named it Shikitega. It comes with a super tiny dropper (376 bytes), using a polymorphic encoder that gradually drops the payload. That means that the malware will download and execute one module at a time, making sure it stays hidden and persistent.

  • IT World CA ☛ Cyber Security Today, Sept. 12, 2022 – A vulnerability found in the BackupBuddy WordPress plugin, a new Linux malware discovered, and more [Ed: If they don't explain how such malware gets installed, why blame Linux? Maybe reckless admins install the malware. Maybe they choose an awful password.]

    Linux administrators: New malware targeting devices of all kinds running Linux has been discovered.

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • When The Just Go to Prison – The Chris Hedges Report

    When those who expose the crimes of the state are criminalized and sent to prison, tyranny is inevitable.

• Environment

  • [Older] Teachers’ Forum Condemns NCERT’s Decision to Remove Chapters on Climate Change | NewsClick

    After widespread outrage, a teacher’s forum has also stepped in to criticise NCERT for removing crucial chapters concerning climate and weather change from students’ syllabus and has urged a rethink on the issue and reintroduction of the chapters.

    In a statement released recently, Teachers Against Climate Crisis (TACC) highlighted said chapters on the greenhouse effect, weather, climate and popular environment movements from syllabi for classes 6th to 12th were crucial and should not have been removed.

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • AccessNow ☛ Global Leaders of Digital Human Rights: Marianne Díaz Hernández recognized as international changemaker – Access Now

    Access Now is proud of Marianne Díaz Hernández, #WhyID Campaigner at Access Now, and her global recognition as one of Ouano Foundation’s 2022 Global Leaders of Digital Human Rights.

    “At Access Now, we’re well aware of the significance of Marianne Díaz Hernández’s work in fighting for the rights of people and communities impacted by technology and digital agendas, and we are overjoyed to see her tireless efforts acknowledged on a global scale,” said Carolyn Tackett, Campaigns and Rapid Response Director at Access Now. “We look forward to learning more from this gathering of global leaders, including Marianne, Access Now board members Arzu Geybulla and Nanjala Nyabola, and many others who have been at the heart of our movement for a more rights-respecting digital future.”

Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal

  • Like Riding a Bike

    I started playing squash again after a five-year break. It wasn’t a voluntary break by any means, just weird life stuff I suppose. Regardless, I got a membership with the local community centre and booked my first court in ages.

    Going into it I knew my stamina was going to be really bad. I’m relatively active, but squash always kicks my ass when I’m returning to it after a while. It probably has to do with the short, intense bursts of movement that get me. However, knowing it had been years since I last picked up a racket, I was really worried my skills would be almost gone.

• Technical

  • Internet/Gemini

    • My Favourites page from Kristall

      I just published a page on this capsule to list my favourites from Kristall (Gemini Browser). There are some interesting stuff there that you could use as a starting point on your Gemini voyage.

  • Programming

    • Real life examples of bad upstream packaging

      The debate between upstream and downstream packaging rages on, especially as of late. I thought I’d express some frustration at some third party repositories I’ve tried to install lately and what went wrong.

      [...]

      Fedora has strict packaging guidelines on what’s allowed in the base repositories. Usually this may be due to patenting issues, but security and quality is another issue. Fedora makes no guarantees about the security or quality of third party repositories. Examples are COPR and RPMFusion. COPR is a build service similar to openSUSE’s Open Build System while RPMFusion works closely with Fedora to provide packages that cannot land in Fedora itself.

      However, increasingly as of late, developers have opted to take over packaging of their own software themselves. Many people argue that this is a good thing as it cuts out the middleman. After all, developers would know their own software best, updates can be delivered faster and it’s better for security right? However, there are some downsides to this approach that I will detail below.