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Links 25/12/2022: Kodi 19.5 and Linux 6.2 RC1



  • GNU/Linux

    • Web Pro NewsStack Overflow: Linux Surpasses macOS Among Developers

      Linux has reached a major milestone, surpassing macOS among developers for both personal and professional use.

      Linux has long been the third most popular operating system (OS), after Windows and macOS. Stack Overflow has released its 2022 Developer Survey, and it’s good news for Linux fans.

      According to the Developer Survey, Linux use has passed macOS by a significant margin. Linux is used by 40.23% of developers as their primary OS for personal use, while 39.89% use it as their primary OS for professional use. In contrast, macOS is used as a primary OS for personal use 31.07% of developers and for professional use by 32.97%.

    • SlashdotStack Overflow Survey Finds More Developers Now Use Linux Than MacOS - Slashdot

      Justin Garrison works at Amazon Web Services on the Kubernetes team (and was senior systems engineer on several animated films).

    • Linux Made SimpleLinux Weekly Roundup #215

      We had a full week in the world of Linux releases with Manjaro Linux 22.0, Clear Linux 37860, Bluestar Linux 6.1.1, ArcoLinux 23.01.03, Q4OS 4.11, Linux Mint 21.1, EndeavourOS 22.12, and BunsenLabs Beryllium.

    • Kubernetes

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux mailing listsLinux 6.2-rc1
        So it's Christmas Day here, but it's also Sunday afternoon two weeks
        after the 6.2 merge window opened. So holidays or not, the kernel
        development show must go on.
        
        

        Thanks to a lot of people sending their pull requests early, I got much of the merge window work done before the holidays started in earnest, and mostly before my pre-xmas travel. So despite flight delays, missed connections, and the resulting airport hotel excursions, the merge window mostly went smoothly, and there was no reason to delay rc1.

        That said, realistically I expect most people to be on vacation for at least another week, so I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with a delayed final release due to the season. But it's too early to worry about that yet, we'll just have to see how it goes.

        Also, 6.2 looks like it's a bigger release (certainly bigger than 6.1 was). The summary below is, as usual, just my merge log: we've got about 13.5k commits from ~1800 people in total in this merge window, which is actually not that far off the total size of the whole 6.1 release. But let's hope that despite the size, and despite the likely slow start of the post-merge-window calming down period, we'll have a smooth release.

        And in the meantime, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all (replace as appropriate with whatever holiday, if any, you are celebrating).

        Linus
    • Graphics Stack

      • WCCF TechAMD Focuses On Various Driver Improvements For RDNA 3 GPUs Running In Linux

        AMD left Linux users without great graphics support when they released the new Radeon RX 7900 GPUs based on the RDNA 3 architecture. The graphics kernel was old and did not prepare users with newer firmware during launch. Now, engineers are beginning to change their focus towards the RDNA 3 support with a newly published firmware update, allowing users to rely on the frame buffer from the firmware when the AMDGPU driver crashes.

    • Applications

      • Make Use OfWhat Are the Best Disc Burning Apps for Linux

        CDs and DVDs might seem to be a relic of the past with most people choosing to stream music and video from remote servers to their entertainment devices, and storing large collections of files on USB flash drives of up to a terabyte.

        But even though few laptops come with an optical drive these days, it's occasionally useful to burn a CD or DVD for use in your car, or for entertainment in an area where network connectivity is spotty. Here are the best tools for CD burning on Linux.

      • Ubuntu HandbookKodi 19.5 Released! How to Install in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 | 22.10 | UbuntuHandbook

        Happy Christmas and happy new year to my dear readers! Kodi, the popular home media center software, release 19.5 version to celebrate the holidays.

        It’s the last point release for the 19.x release, while Kodi 20 now is in RC2 stage. And, this release mainly include bug-fixes and improvements backport from dev release.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • VideoHow to install MEGASync on KDE Neon - Invidious
      • Linux Made SimpleHow to install MetaTrader 5 with the Traders Global Group Incorporated Broker on a Chromebook

        Today we are looking at how to install MetaTrader 5 with the Traders Global Group Incorporated Broker on a Chromebook.

      • AddictiveTipsHow to convert images on a Chromebook

        Do you have some image files you need to convert to your Chromebook? Can’t find any Chrome OS apps that do the job? Good news! Since Chrome OS supports Linux, it is possible to install the Converter tool. An easy-to-use tool for converting image formats. Here’s how to get it working on your system.

      • LinuxOpSysHow to Make Ubuntu Terminal Look like Kali Linux

        Here learn how to make your Ubuntu terminal look like Kali Linux. For this install zsh shell, zshell plugins and some additional tools.

      • Why won't crusty old host recognize my shiny new terminal emulator?

        Spiffy new terminal emulators seem to come with their own terminfo definitions. Venerable hosts that I ssh into tend not to know about those. kitty comes with a thing to transfer that definition, but it breaks if the remote host is running tcsh (don't ask). Similary the one liner for alacritty on the arch wiki seems to assume the remote shell is bash. Forthwith, a dumb shell script that works to send the terminfo of the current terminal emulator to the remote host.

      • Make Use OfHow to Find Your MAC Address on Linux

        If you are administering a Linux system, there will likely be times when you need to know your system's MAC address. You may need this information for several reasons. Perhaps you want DHCP to assign you a fixed IP address. For this, you will need the MAC address so that you can add the IP and MAC address mapping to your DHCP server configurations.

        You may also need this information for MAC address filtering to allow or block certain devices on your network. Or maybe you want to set up Wake-on-LAN. Whatever the reason is, here are a few different ways to find the MAC address on your Linux system.

      • How to Install Microsoft Teams on Ubuntu [Ed: This is proprietary Microsoft spyware; better never to install such a thing]
      • Make Use OfReducing Docker Image Sizes With Alpine Linux Images

        The size of a Docker image affects its runtime and the performance of your application. Small containers run faster, are easier to manage, and take up less disk space.

        There are several ways to reduce the size of Docker images. In particular, you can use Alpine Linux images which are much smaller than the rest.

      • UNIX CopInstall Samba Server with Selinux and Firewalld Enabled

        Hello, friends. In this post, you will learn how to Install Samba Server with Selinux and Firewalld Enabled. For this post, we will use Rocky Linux 9, but actually the algorithm followed should work for other distributions, of course making the necessary modifications.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Programming/Development

      • Perl / Raku

        • Russ AllberyEagle's Path: podlators 5.01 (2022-12-25)

          podlators is the Perl distribution providing Pod::Man and Pod::Text, along with related modules and supporting scripts.

          The primary change in this release is the addition of configurable guesswork for Pod::Text, paralleling Pod::Man. I had forgotten that Pod::Text also had complex heuristics for whether to quote C<> text that have the same Perl-specific properties as Pod::Man. This is now configurable via a guesswork option, the same as in Pod::Man, although the only type of guesswork supported is quoting. I also updated the default regexes, which include some fixes from Pod::Man.

        • Russ AllberyEagle's Path: rra-c-util 10.3 (2022-12-25)

          This is a minor feature and bug fix release of my collection of utilities and tests intended for copying into other packages I maintain.

          The new feature is an additional Perl test using Test::Kwalitee to check a few more things about the Perl packaging, and a MANIFEST.SKIP file that is suitable for copying as-is into most Perl packages.

        • RakulangRaku Advent Calendar: The 2022 Raku Advent Posts
      • Python

        • TecAdminHow to Call a function in Python - TecAdmin

          In Python, a function is a block of code that performs a specific task and can be called from other parts of your program. Functions are an essential part of Python programming, and they allow you to write reusable, modular code that is easier to maintain and debug.

          In this tutorial, we will learn how to call a function in Python. We will discuss the different ways you can pass arguments to a function, and we will also look at some common mistakes to avoid when calling functions in Python.

        • TecAdminCurrent Date and Time in Python: In-Depth Tutorial - TecAdmin

          Getting the current date and time is a common task in Python programming. There are several ways to do this, depending on your needs and the libraries you have available. In this article, we will explore some of the most common methods for getting the current date and time in Python, including using the built-in datetime module, the time module, and the dateutil module. We will also discuss how to format the date and time values as strings, and how to convert between timezones. Whether you are working with timestamps, scheduling tasks, or just want to display the current date and time in your Python program, this article will provide you with the tools you need.

      • Rust

        • Amos WengerDay 15 (Advent of Code 2022)

          The day 15 puzzle falls into the "math puzzle" territory more than "let's learn something new about Rust", but since several folks asked if I was going to continue... let's continue.

  • Leftovers

    • Matt RickardChristmas 2022

      Over the next few days, I'll be reflecting on the predictions I had for 2022 and the process I used to get there (the process is more important to me than the outcome). I'll reflect on some of the things that I did, and some of the things I wished I had done. And finally, I'll try to put out some thoughts on what I think 2023 might hold, for both me and the the broader market. And it wouldn't be an end-of-the-year reflection without thinking about some of my posts that resonated the most (and the ones that resonated the least) and why.

    • Security

      • Help Net SecurityOpen-source tool for security engineers helps automate access reviews - Help Net Security

        ConductorOne open-sourced their identity connectors in a project called Baton, available on GitHub. Each connector gives developers the ability to extract, normalize, and interact with workforce identity data such as user accounts, permissions, roles, groups, resources, and more, so they can audit infrastructure access, start to automate user access reviews, and enforce the principle of least privilege.

      • Linux Kernel Security Bug Allows Remote Code Execution for Authenticated Remote Users - Slashdot [Ed: The severity of 10 is no longer 10 for the "Linux" flaw; it was SMB related and was downgraded later, days after all the drama]

        This new program, which was introduced to the kernel in 2021, was developed by Samsung. Its point was to deliver speedy SMB3 file-serving performance....

        Any distro using the Linux kernel 5.15 or above is potentially vulnerable. This includes Ubuntu 22.04, and its descendants; Deepin Linux 20.3; and Slackware 15.

      • Security AffairsCritical Linux Kernel flaw affects SMB servers with ksmbd enabled [Ed: No, the severity is not 10!]

        Experts warn of a critical Linux Kernel vulnerability (CVSS score of 10) impacting SMB servers that can lead to remote code execution.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Technical

      • the concept of fragments log, taken from Brandur

        This post might be cross-linked from the gemlog, but it's not gemlog. Wait nevermind

        It will be the other way now.

      • cleaning

        I’ll be doing some general cleaning by the end of this week and that includes this gemlog. changing the header/footer and maybe adding something other than email for getting in touch.

      • Evolving harn: C + Forth polyglot system

        I presented my project as an interactive linker for a harnessed C compiler. And it true: I've implemented the infrastructure for extracting compiled C functions and data out of ELF object files, and interning them into the system, including being able to replace old versions with new ones. I set up a basic way to track ingested code as symbols, which are kept in packages, kind of like Lisp. The whole thing lives as an image which can be saved and restored. Oh, and I made provisions for keeping the sources of everything ingested.

      • Xmas

        • Merry Christmas

          No matter what holiday(s) you celebrate this season, I hope it brings you an opportunity to be with people you care about and share in your joys and gratitude.

        • it's 25th, how has December been

          One has been in my family and the other I bought because the former had keyboard keys not working. The keyboard issues are something that historically one could sometimes fix by twisting the whole case of the laptop. Dad suggests it may be fixable by remounting the keyboard. That other one I bought had the keyboard work well but the Touch Stick in it has issues about going all the way upper-right or all the way lower-left, unless pressed hard in the opposite direction. I had to install the pointing device driver and in it I can disable Touch Stick separately from Touch Pad. I expected the former one to have a broken HDD and the other one to lack a HDD. But they turned out to both have HDDs. The former one had Ubuntu 6.XX with the familiar login prompt sound and the other one had an empty installation of Windows 98 that I subsequently reinstalled, also having a sticker for Windows.. 95, which seems a bit odd.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



Recent Techrights' Posts

IBM May Well Be Laying Off Over 13,500 and Up to 27,000 Staff This Week When It Says "Single-Digit Percentage of Our Global Workforce"
It's not yet possible to know how many people IBM gets rid of
Early Unverified Figures About Scale of Latest IBM Layoffs
the real scale of the RAs will remain elusive
How Techrights Search Works
Hopefully bots won't use it
Techrights Became a Lot More Productive as a Result of Attacks on It
By default, it's safe to assume anything on the Web is garbage, especially in social control media
Unverified Rumours: IBM Cuts Will Continue Another ~10 Days, Managers Will Invite Those Impacted for 1-on-1 Meetings
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analytics.usa.gov: Vista 11 Scarcely Used, GNU/Linux Increasingly Dominant (Microsoft Loses "Goodwill", Depletes Cash Equivalents, and Debt Soars)
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Not Only Mass Layoffs at IBM But Complete Shutdowns "Amid A.I. Boom"
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Gemini Links 05/11/2025: Affirmation, GnuPG, and While Loops
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Techrights Search Will Come Early
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Fake Retirements Help IBM Keep the Layoff Figures Down
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Richard Stallman's 2005 Article on Why Patents on Software Should be Denied
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Slopwatch: The WebProNews Slopfarm and the Serial Slopper
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Corporate Media That Fails to Report Cocaine at EPO is Totally Failing to Report Mass Layoffs at IBM
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At IBM, Layoffs Start at 1AM (at Night)
not a single English-speaking site covers the news about the layoffs
Links 04/11/2025: Google Cloud Account Engages in Censorship of the Innocent, arXiv Spammed by LLM Slop
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EPO Cocaine Chronicles: Our Aim Will be to Ensure This Becomes a Mainstream Media Topic, Not a Suppressed Scandal (Which the German State Deems Embarrassing and Detrimental to Its Pan-European Patent Franchise)
At the EPO, and perhaps in German media as well, people "fall upwards" (they get rewarded for bad things)
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Consider adopting SSGs if you still use a CMS such as WordPress
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Borussia Dortmund does not exist!
What Julian Darley Wrote About the Stallman Talk Regarding "AI" in Oxford (2025)
From LinkedIn (Microsoft)
GNU/Linux is American, Not Finnish
It started in Boston, not in Helsinki
'Hacker' 'News' Makes Dumb Assertions Against Smart People
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As a graffiti around the corner from our home says, "be a better person"
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Media Coverage Regarding IBM is Vapourware and LLM Slop
With slop images, too
statCounter Says GNU/Linux Rose to 4% in the Russian Federation
Adoption of Vista 11 has been embarrassingly weak
Corruption is Not a Joke
we'll try to limit our use of humour to avoid misunderstandings or misinterpretations
The Slopfarm WebProNews is Overwhelming "linux" Results in Google News
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The Fall of IBM: What Happened?
Just like the EPO continues riding some old reputation acquired in the 1970s IBM relies on old myths like, "nobody gets fired for buying IBM."
IBM's CEO Already Has the Excuse for the Latest Wave of Mass Layoffs
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Speaking truth to power is never easy
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Over at Tux Machines...
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The Rumour Was True, Mass Layoffs at IBM Today
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Two Years of Uptime
Reboots are seldom involuntary
Richard Stallman is Giving Another Talk in Less Than a Fortnight
in two weeks' time (13 days from now)
Windows Falls Below 20% in the UK
Many people choose to leave Windows altogether
Microsoft's Search Business Falls to Lowest Point in 2 Years, Based on statCounter
what can Microsoft sell other than shares in Microsoft?
Evidence Regarding Layoffs at Red Hat
Seems like IBM layoffs
Microsoft: Our "Goodwill" Value Grew More Than Tenfold Since 2011
Hallmark of pseudo-economics
GNU/Linux as a Boarding Pass
being mostly analogue is still feasible
Links 03/11/2025: Lack of Trust in LLMs and Windows TCO at Jaguar
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Gemini Links 03/11/2025: Books in October and Change
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Mozilla Firefox Won't Survive and Many Sites Don't Work With It (Compatibility Abandoned)
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Debian is Non-Free
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Slopwatch: Brian Fagioli and LinuxSecurity
This is a real problem and most certainly a big problem because when people try to find real information about security and GNU/Linux they instead read "word salads" made by bots
Four Reasons to Party With Us in Four Days, Celebrating the Four Freedoms
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Links 03/11/2025: The "Smartphone Panopticon" and Belarus' Hybrid Attacks on EU Intensify
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 02, 2025
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