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Links 10/6/2015: New Krita/Calligra and Clonezilla





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



  • Blockstream to Release First Open Source Code for Sidechains
    Blockstream has announced it will release an open source codebase and testing environment for its signature sidechains project.


  • Huawei Certified to Offer Apache Spark Open Source Big Data Processing Framework
    Huawei, this week announced that it has become the first global ICT vendor to obtain certification by Databricks for distribution of the Apache Spark open source big data processing framework. Databricks, a company founded by the creators of Spark, has developed the “Certified Spark Distribution” program to highlight and recognize third party vendors distributing Spark. Leveraging the high-performance big data computing architecture and the complete ecosystem of Spark, the Huawei-Spark platform is designed to help customers realize the full potential of data assets to drive agile operation and business innovation.


  • Teradata to Advance Big Data Analytics with Support for Presto Open Source SQL Query Engine
    To help users extract insights from data lakes,Teradata has made a multi-year commitment to contribute to Presto’s open source development. Based on a three-part roadmap, Teradata’s says its contributions will be 100% open source under the Apache license and will advance Presto’s code base, scalability, iterative querying, and ability to query multiple data repositories.


  • Why an open web is important for India
    Priyanka Nag is a technical writer for Red Hat and Mozilla Rep from India. Priyanka has been contributing to open source projects for the past four years. She started by editing Wikipedia pages, and then was introduced to Mozilla during an event at her college. She says that Mozilla was love at first sight, and soon after she became a Mozillian, she was hooked on the project. Now Priyanka is also a regular speaker at community events in India. I recently caught up with Priyanka to learn more about her work in the Mozilla Community and her thoughts on the importance of the open web in India.


  • What TODO means for open source community
    Open source software is not just meant for still-struggling start-ups that can't afford to pay the licensing fees for proprietary software, and budget-conscious, modest small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMEs) hoping to cut down on IT costs. This was proven in late September when several major companies – running the gamut from technology, right through to retail and media – came together to form the TODO project.


  • 8 excellent open source data visualization tools
    Data visualization is the mechanism of taking tabular or spatial data and conveying it in a human-friendly and visual way. There are several open source tools that can help you create useful, informative graphs. In this post we will take a look at eight open source, data visualization tools.


  • Wine Will Migrate Away from SourceForge
    If you're reading the news lately, you might know that the SourceForge project hosting website has been accused of hijacking open-source software that have been abandoned by their maintainers or did not have some activity for an extended period of time.


  • The Cloud vs. Open Source
    For years, Linux and free software were perceived as threatened by cloud computing, the online storage of data. However, over the last few years, something ironic happened -- free software became a major player in cloud computing.


  • Events



    • Graphics Microconference Accepted into 2015 Linux Plumbers Conference
      Although the Year of the Linux Desktop has yet to arrive, a surprising number of Linux users nevertheless need graphics support. This is because there have been a number of years of the Linux smartphone, the Linux television, the Linux digital sign/display/billboard, the Linux automobile, and more. This microconference will cover a number of topics including atomic modesetting in KMS, buffer allocation, verified-secure graphics pipelines, fencing and synchronisation, Wayland, and more.




  • Web Browsers



    • Mozilla



      • Mozilla responds to Firefox user backlash over Pocket integration
        Pocket is a service for managing a reading list of online articles (it allows you to save stories, videos, and websites to check out later). Pocket is already offered as a Firefox add-on, and although Mozilla was developing a homegrown Reading List feature for the browser, the company decided to simply integrate Pocket directly into Firefox.






  • SaaS/Big Data



    • Cisco, IBM Bet Big on OpenStack
      Cisco and IBM are doubling down on OpenStack, hoping "the result lets them develop a solution that will scale. Neither company is yet willing to abandon OpenStack, and both feel there's still a solution in it someplace," said tech analyst Rob Enderle. By acquiring Piston Cloud Computing and Blue Box Cloud, they "may correct some of the problems with OpenStack, which should improve penetration."




  • Business



  • Funding



    • Rancher Labs is the Latest to Cash in on Container Technology
      Container technology remains red hot and VC money is flowing toward it. Rancher Labs, a startup developing Docker infrastructure software, has announced $10 million in Series A funding from Mayfield and Nexus Venture Partners. "With the rapid adoption of container technology, the company’s open source software has grown in popularity by allowing organizations to run containers in production, across any cloud," Rancher Labs' leaders have stated.




  • Public Services/Government



    • Dutch government agency switches core services to open source
      Public administrations that switch to open source regain financial scalability, says Jan-Taeke Schuilenga, IT architect at DUO, the Dutch government agency managing the financing of the country’s educational institutions. “We had reached the limit of proprietary licence possibilities. Switching to open source gave us freedom of choice.”




  • Openness/Sharing



  • Standards/Consortia



    • Licensing Standards that Include Code: Heads or Tails?
      Once upon a time, standards were standards and open source software was open source software (OSS), and the only thing people worried about was whether the copyright and patent rules relating to the standards would prevent them from being implemented in OSS. Actually, that was complicated enough, but it seems simple in comparison now that OSS is being included in the standards themselves. Now what?

      If this sounds unusual and exotic, it isn’t. In fact, code has been creeping into standards for years, often without the keepers of the intellectual property rights (IPR) Policies governing the standards even being aware of it.






Leftovers



  • Security



  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife





  • Finance



    • Republicans Trashed Democracy in Michigan. Now They Want To Trash It in Your State, Too.
      One city neglected to inform its residents that its water supply was laced with cancerous chemicals. Another dissolved its public school district and replaced it with a charter school system, only to witness the for-profit management company it hired flee the scene after determining it couldn't turn a profit. Numerous cities and school districts in the state are now run by single, state-appointed technocrats, as permitted under an emergency financial manager law pushed through by Rick Snyder, Michigan's austerity-promoting governor. This legislation not only strips residents of their local voting rights, but gives Snyder's appointee the power to do just about anything, including dissolving the city itself—all (no matter how disastrous) in the name of "fiscal responsibility."


    • 5 Ways Powerful People Trick You Into Hating Protesters
      Let's say that tomorrow you are elected Secret Ruler of the USA, a position that gives you total power over the government, economy, and the culture at large -- everything that hippies refer to as "the system." Now, your first job is to not get beheaded by rioting peasants, which means your first job is really to maintain "stability" (i.e., "keeping things mostly the way they are").

      Immediately you'll find that you're facing a never-ending stream of protests from disgruntled groups who say they're being treated unfairly or otherwise getting left out -- this group over here is upset that somebody got abused by the police; this other bunch is demanding better wages or something. How do you handle it? Sure, you could crush their movements with an iron fist, using violence to kill, intimidate or arrest their most vocal members. But that can backfire, often turning them into martyrs and proving them right in the process -- you've seen Star Wars; somebody always finds the exhaust port.




  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



  • Censorship



  • Privacy



    • Why Did It Take the Pentagon a Month to Figure Out Its Files Were Compromised?
      Edward Snowden’s leaks exposed a federal government unable to protect its most sensitive secrets.


    • Feds Must Encrypt Government Websites by Dec. 2016
      The White House now requires all publicly accessible federal websites and services to use a secure HTTPS connection.

      Government agencies have until Dec. 31, 2016 to comply with the new HTTPS-Only Standard directive.

      Unencrypted HTTP connections "create a vulnerability and expose potentially sensitive information about users," U.S. Chief Information Officer Tony Scott said in this week's announcement. That includes data like browser identity, website content, search terms, and other user-submitted details.


    • Obama lawyers asked secret court to ignore public court's decision on spying
      The Obama administration has asked a secret surveillance court to ignore a federal court that found bulk surveillance illegal and to once again grant the National Security Agency the power to collect the phone records of millions of Americans for six months.

      The legal request, filed nearly four hours after Barack Obama vowed to sign a new law banning precisely the bulk collection he asks the secret court to approve, also suggests that the administration may not necessarily comply with any potential court order demanding that the collection stop.


    • French Surveillance Bill: Public Liberties Abandoned as Senators Cast Disastrous Vote
      The Surveillance Bill was adopted today by the French Senate with 251 votes for, 68 against and 26 abstentions. This bill was fast tracked and discussed under the pressure of a government wielding the argument of an extreme terrorist risk to impose massive spying of the French population with expansive purposes. It will put France under a surveillance all at once diffuse, intrusive, indiscriminate and without effective control. La Quadrature du Net bitterly regrets the blindness of the French Parliamentarians and calls on citizens not to give up on their liberties.




  • Civil Rights



    • Six lies they told me about the anti-Israel boycott
      The bulk of recent incidents concerning the anti-Israel boycott, which are mainly symbolic for now, could have served as a warning sign. But a mixture of nationalistic and false statements is blinding the Israeli public and preventing a real discussion of the issue. Here are a few examples.


    • British tourist Eleanor Hawkins arrested for naked photo on top of Malaysian mountain
      A British woman arrested in Malaysia for posing naked on top of a sacred mountain has been named as Eleanor Hawkins.

      The 24-year-old Southampton University graduate from Derby was detained on Tuesday at Tawau airport, as she was flying out from the island of Borneo to the capital, Kuala Lumpur.


    • Theresa May Condemns Majid Ali and Defies Scotland
      Despite numerous representations and an Early Day Motion signed by the large majority of Scotland’s MPs, Theresa May has ordered that Majid Ali, a Glasgow City College student, be deported back to almost certain torture and probable death in Pakistan in just twenty minutes from now. I attended the demonstration on his behalf yesterday at the Scottish Office.

      Majid is a member of the much persecuted Baloch minority. Two of his immediate family have been “disappeared” by the Pakistani military since his asylum application was submitted. There is no doubt that given the numerous MP’s who have raised his case, and the well-supported early day motion, civil servants will have put the decision to May personally. She was however not even prepared to grant a delay for a look at the evidence. May is very likely not merely pandering to the racist UKIP voting electorate – she is on the far right of politics herself. The callous sacrifice of Majid Ali is proof, if any more were needed, that this Conservative administration is nothing to do with Cameron’s purported “compassionate conservatism.” They are the nasty party indeed.




  • Internet/Net Neutrality



    • EU Commission Tries to Rip Citizens Off Net Neutrality
      The European Commission attacks Net Neutrality again, by introducing a “compromise document” that refuses to enshrine a definition of this crucial principle into the law. A strong coalition including the EU Council, the European Commission and a handful of MEPs is working against the general interest by including loopholes that will be used by the telecom lobby to circumvent the proposed protections against discrimination, thereby undermining fundamental rights and innovation.


    • EU digi-chief to meet ministers and sort out the net neutrality thing
      Gaffe-prone Gunther H-dot, Europe’s digital chief, has waded into the net neutrality debate once again, but has vowed to sort everything out in a meeting with national ministers next Friday.




  • Intellectual Monopolies



    • Copyrights



      • EU vice-president: Copyright legislation is “pushing people to steal”
        Andrus Ansip, the European Commission's Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, has admitted that EU copyright law is "pushing people to steal," because they seek out illegal copies of works that are not available to them legally because of the widespread use of geoblocking in Europe.


      • Elsevier Cracks Down on Pirated Scientific Articles


        Academic publishing company Elsevier has filed a complaint at a New York District Court, hoping to shut down the Library Genesis project and the SciHub.org search engine. The sites, which are particularly popular in developing nations where access to academic works is relatively expensive, are accused of pirating millions of scientific articles.


      • Kim Dotcom’s MegaNet Preps Jan 2016 Crowdfunding Campaign


        Kim Dotcom's dream of a people-powered, censorship-resistant Internet will rely on the goodwill of supporters to get off the ground. In an announcement this morning, the entrepreneur confirmed that his MegaNet project will seek equity via a crowd-funding campaign set to launch on the January 2016 anniversary of the raid on Megaupload.








Recent Techrights' Posts

Rumours of Further IBM Shutdowns
IBM is going out of existence
Many Anniversaries
Many anniversaries in quick succession
 
statCounter Reckons 12.33% of Web Traffic in Gambia Can be Attributed to GNU/Linux, Even 15% If Adding ChromeOS
Will this be sustainable?
Reminder: The Pedophilia Problem Comes From the Accusers
Attacks on Richard Stallman are a distraction; his accusers are themselves the culprits
SLAPP Censorship - Part 139 Out of 200: Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Needs More Public Scrutiny (New Management Changed Nothing, It's Costing a Lot of Taxpayers' Money)
millions or maybe billions of pounds wasted
Brigading Against Women - Part II - Threatening Women Using the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) and Then False Threats Miscarrying the Name of a Court
In this series we intend to show the threats, the outcomes of those threats, the response to those threats
Collapse of MElon Companies a Taste of What's to Come for Slop Bubble and GAFAM (Trillions in Debt, Justified as Slop "Investments")
One good example of this was SpaceX
The 'Hyperinflation' in Hardware Dooms Video Hosting (Very Large Files)
a terabyte of video files would be expensive
Rumours of Silent Layoffs in Microsoft This Month (August 2026), PIPs and Global Voluntary Separation Agreement (GVSA), aka "Buyouts"
Will any investigative journalism follow or just shallow puff pieces and LLM trash from slopfarms?
Links 04/08/2026: "Framework for Musician Burnout" and Alexa+ "is a Buggy Embarrassment"
Links for the day
Signs That XBox as a Console is Coming to an End, Windows Gaming Will be Called "XBox"
"XBox" is the next "Surface"
Microsoft's Share in Search Falls Sharply in Europe
The layoffs at Microsoft's Bing will carry on
Romania: GNU/Linux Reaches 4% (Less Than EU Average)
We expect this same upward trend to carry on
Microsoft Sites or Sites Sponsored by Microsoft Angry That GNU/Linux is Gaining
The Microsofters cannot easily dismiss reports of GNU/Linux growth as "bots" or just allege that statCounter alone is wrong
Ableism in the Free Software Movement Typically Comes From GAFAM Operatives and Proprietary Software Apologists
And their hired guns
Afghanistan: GNU/Linux Steadily Rises to 9%
Windows is steadily declining
IBM Innovation: It Has Invented New Methods of Silent Layoffs or Secret RAs
How IBM disguises mass layoffs now
LLM Slop Won't Replace People and Jobs (in the Long Run)
At the end of the day, people who know their job offer more useful information, whereas LLMs waste people's time (typically an 'externality' to the entity deploying chatbots)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 03, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, August 03, 2026
Over 3,500 Known Gemini Capsules Accessible and Active According to Lupa
It finally happened this morning
Gemini Links 04/08/2026: Library Cards, Dead Ends in Software Development, and DOS on USB Key
Links for the day
IBM Has Embraced and Rewarded Liars
The IBM culture vanished
statCounter Estimates GNU/Linux at 5.32% in Kuwait, Years Ago It Was Near 0%
Kuwait rose to fame in the 1990s because of a war
Swatting People Who Write About Corruption, Misogyny, Criminal Misuse of Funds
we've given ourselves a decade to cover all those stories
GNU/Linux Rises Above 6% in Colombia
In Colombia, which is a large south American country, GNU/Linux has risen steadily in recent years
SLAPP Censorship - Part 138 Out of 200: Garrett Has Basically "Lost" and It is "Embarrassing" to Them
they just wound up costing hundreds of thousands of pounds
Gemini Links 03/08/2026: Great Exodus, xkcd as Text, and Dead Ends
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Has Surged to 6.3% in Madagascar
Madagascar's adoption of Free software is a subject we covered a lot in past years
Microsoft's Slop Bet is Killing the XBox Even Faster
LLMs destroy almost anything they touch
The Cyber Show on "Weaponised Antisocial Technology"
by Andy
Alexandre Oliva on Slippery Slop (LLMs)
By Alexandre Oliva
RMS Won the Argument and Now GNU Wins Over Computer Users
He can look back at nearly 43 years of GNU and say, "I was right..."
statCounter Corrects GNU/Linux Estimates, Now Measured at 9% Worldwide
Windows has sunk like a rock
GNU/Linux-Centric Blogs Belatedly Pick Up News About GNU/Linux Gains: 4-8% Depending on the Surveyor
more people will get curious and give it a go
Links 03/08/2026: Strike By Flight Attendants (WestJet) and Greedflation
Links for the day
Links 03/08/2026: EU Curtailed Slop, Frank Zappa Recalled
Links for the day
Daniel Pocock on Sky News This Morning
No harm done
Morten Linderud Has Helped Microsoft Put Locks (and Kill Switches) on the PCs of Arch Linux Users
"the first rule of "secure boot" is to disable "secure boot"
In Poor Peru, GNU/Linux Surges From 1% to 5% in a Few Years
Windows is dying
All Social Control Media is a Weapon (Against Its Users, Serving the Real Owners)
That social control networks are weaponised isn't a new concept
Fanning the Flames of Journalism
This week we have several surprises coming
Forcing the Slop Bubble to Implode Fully to Save the Economy From an Even Greater Collapse and Societal Harm
Let's blow up the bubble. The sooner, the better
GNU/Linux at 8% in Croatia
somewhat of a GNU/Linux adoption hotbed
It's Easy to Predict Microsoft Layoffs for October 2026 Because of the Financial 'Results' That Month (More Faking, More Secret Debt and Buzzwords to Perfume This Debt as "Investment")
From what we've read, Microsoft is silently laying off people this month based on LITE, which leads to PIPs
Not Hard to Guess Who Will Pay for IBM's Collapse (Due to False Statements Made to Shareholders), Red Hat May Disappear
IBM's leadership is never being punished for its failures
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 02, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, August 02, 2026
Gemini Links 03/08/2026: Collectibles, Cities of the Red Night, and Lali Lambda
Links for the day
IBM's August 2026 Promotions (Annual Ritual) Can Turn Into a "Bloodbath" (RAs, Layoffs)
IBM Common Stock is set to open in the red (minus) on Monday
Microsoft Culture Explained by People Who Work at Microsoft
"Be ready for politicking and working over time and weekends."
Codes of Conduct Attract Hoarders and Sociopaths, They Are Intolerant Towards Good People
Codes of Conduct (CoCs) are also promoted using violence
XBox is in Trouble, Sunday News Shows How Serious a Problem It Now Faces
it seems impossible to resuscitate at this point
statCounter Observes GNU/Linux at 10% in Libya
this month statCounter finally sees GNU/Linux approaching "double-figures" there
Thailand: GNU/Linux Approaching 15%, Windows in a Freefall
It makes perfect sense for Thailand to adopt GNU/Linux for technical reasons, not just political reasons
GNU/Linux in Bulgaria Back Up
part of a trend in Europe
Cuba Sees Leap in GNU/Linux Usage, as Reported by statCounter
For the ordinary Cuban it makes sense to reduce a dependence on GAFAM
Gemini Links 02/08/2026: Drift, Crawlers in Gopher Space, Purpose, and Python
Links for the day
Links 02/08/2026: Some Large Slop Investors "Crumbling", Russia Intensifies Bombing of Kiev
Links for the day
IBMers Discuss Who Killed IBM (It Impacts Red Hat)
Fedora is fast becoming like another CentOS
GNU/Linux Rises to 6% in Mexico
Did the soccer (football) matches have some impact or just the "unknowns" being deciphered (or omitted) by statCounter?
GNU/Linux Leaps to 8% in Asia
In Asia, is it a bit higher because of GAFAM distrust? Maybe some other factor/s?
Clownflare Web Usage Survey: About 10% in North America Use GNU/Linux, Worldwide 6.7%
surveyors that showed GNU/Linux growth
SLAPP Censorship - Part 137 Out of 200: Discovering That Spending a Million British Pounds (1,348,250.01 United States Dollars) on Lawyers Cannot Take Down One's Critics
just outright bullying and criminality
Steam Survey, analytics.usa.gov, and statCounter All Point to GNU/Linux Gains (Again)
This must be very annoying to Microsoft
GNU/Linux Exceeds 6% in Spain
In recent years the "market share" steadily grew from 3% to over 6%
Brazil: GNU/Linux Record High, 5%
On average, GNU/Linux has evidence of growth in many countries this summer
Amid 2026 Bing Layoffs Microsoft Share in Search Collapses
How much longer before Microsoft throws in the towel or rebrands again?
United Kingdom: GNU/Linux up to 7%, ChromeOS Another 5% (Total 12%)
further significant gains for GNU/Linux this month
Links 02/08/2026: Cheeto "Blurted Out Vile Plot to Censor ABC"; New York Times Fights 'Intimidation'
Links for the day
Why Techrights Will Still be Active a Decade From Now
Techrights will carry on for many years to come
We Are Witnessing the End of IBM
IBM cannot find growth by moving downwards, by lowering standards
The Slop Presumption Rule
Tainting oneself can take one day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 01, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, August 01, 2026
Gemini Links 02/08/2026: Older Books, Esperanto Music History, and Slop Making Things Worse
Links for the day