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Links 2/10/2015: Qubes 3.0, Linux.Wifatch





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



  • Desktop



    • Why your Linux PC isn't vulnerable to the devastating XOR DDoS malware
      Linux isn’t perfectly secure, but there’s no big Linux exploit story here. The real problem is how many poorly configured Linux systems exist in the real world. Linux isn’t a magic bullet that will make a system secure—it has to be locked down properly, too.


    • Google Chromebooks: The most popular classroom computing device
      In Apple's place, Google with its Chromebooks have stepped in. Chromebooks are cheaper, easier to manage, and easy to share between students. The low upfront price is a big factor, but there's far more.

      For example, Google offers programs just for schools, Google Apps for Education Suite; class-specific ChromeOS and Android apps, and Google Play for Education. Chromebooks that come with Google Play for Education range at prices from $199 to $227.


    • Kali Linux: Why Aren’t We Arguing More about Mr Robot?
      In episode 0 of Mr Robot, we’re introduced to our hiro protagonist [Elliot], played by [Rami Malek], a tech at the security firm AllSafe. We are also introduced to the show’s Macbeth, [Tyrell Wellick], played by Martin Wallström]. When these characters are introduced to each other, [Tyrell] notices [Elliot] is using the Gnome desktop on his work computer while [Tyrell] says he’s, “actually on KDE myself. I know [Gnome] is supposed to be better, but you know what they say, old habits, they die hard.”




  • Server



    • Google and NASA are getting a new quantum computer
      The famous Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab is getting some powerful new hardware. A joint project between Google, NASA, and the Universities Space Research Association, the Quantum AI Lab today announced a multiyear agreement to install a D-Wave 2X, a state-of-the-art quantum processor released earlier this year. With over 1,000 qubits, the machine is the most powerful computer of its kind, and will be put to work tackling difficult optimization problems for both Google and NASA.




  • Kernel Space



  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments/WMs



    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt



      • Kubuntu: Plasma 5.4.2 Ready testing! Come join the fun.
        Today we have the latest Plasma 5.4.2 ready for Wily (backports will not be made until this one has been tested and released)


      • The Future of Kontact
        Supplemental to what we reported previously about the work in Randa [1, 2] there was a session on the future of Kontact, KDE’s personal information manager (PIM). Over the years this tool has evolved into a monster making both development as well as usage sometimes tricky. It’s time to cut hydra’s arms.






  • Distributions



  • Devices/Embedded



    • Compact, low power IoT gateway runs Linux on i.MX6
      VIA’s 30mm tall “Artigo A820” IoT gateway runs Linux on an i.MX6 DualLite, and offers optional WiFi and 3G in addition to Fast and GbE Ethernet ports.

      Like last year’s Artigo A900 mini-PC, the Artigo A820 runs Linux on a dual-core, 1GHz Cortex-A9 SoC. This time, however, VIA Technologies has turned to Freescale’s i.MX6 DualLite SoC instead of its own Via Elite E1000.


    • Phones



      • Fairphone launches v2 of it conflict-free, upgradeable smartphone


        There's a company offering a repairable and upgradable smartphone out there and Jack Wallen believe it is just what the world needs. Read on to see if you agree.


      • Android

        • Facebook gives Android a kick in the byte code
          To improve the mobile performance of its social network, Facebook is enhancing Java bytecode on the Android platform with its Redex project, providing a pipeline for optimizing Android DEX (Dalvik Executable) files.


        • 13 of the best Android apps from September
          Coming off the back of the summer holidays always make September a busy month and this year it was no different.

          From useful spam fighting options arriving for Gmail to movie tracking and the launch of a huge repository of online tutorials across a range of subjects.

          We’ve sorted the wheat from the chaff and what follows is the best new and updated apps from September.

          All you need to do is clear a few minutes in your schedule and click your way through the list.


        • Google reveals new Chromecast and Chromecast Audio devices
          Google's Chromecast streaming media player has proven to be a popular item on Amazon, getting four star ratings and lots of positive comments from Amazon customers. Now Google has announced a brand new Chromecast, and also the new Chromecast Audio device.


        • Hands on: Google Pixel C convertible tablet
          It’s difficult to tell if the new Google Pixel C is a great idea, or an awful one. It feels like a greatest hits list of Windows 8 convertible failures. It’s a clamshell, and the tablet is connected to the keyboard via magnets. But to open it or close it, you have to pull it apart and reconnect it. You can also flip the tablet upright and stick the keyboard to the back of it, though it makes the tablet thicker and heavier than you may like. The entire converting process is messy. Google tries to cover it all up with a beautiful aluminum design and smooth hinges that adjust angle easily. But will it be fun to use every day? I’m not so sure.


        • Google announces the LG Nexus 5X and Huawei Nexus 6P; pre-orders start today
          Google has officially taken the wraps off its new flagship smartphone lineup. In keeping with the current smartphone release trends, Google is announcing two devices today: the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P. The 5X is made by LG, and the 6P is made by Huawei. The Nexus 5X starts at $379, and the 6P starts at $499, and both phones will ship later this month. Pricing for other territories is starting to dribble in—the Nexus 5X and 6P will begin at €£339 and €£449 respectively in the UK—but we'll update the article with more complete information as it's made available.


        • Google announces the new Chromecast and Chromecast Audio
          The new Chromecast has a disk-like design, a departure from the original's dongle construction. Its improved internals should also make streaming easier and faster. Now featuring three antennas, it supports 5GHz 802.11ac Wi-Fi for faster connectivity and heavier formats like 1080p. While the new Chromecast handles video and game streaming, the Chromecast Audio device will handle streaming music or podcasts. The new Chromecast plugs into a device with HDMI; Audio uses both optical and headphone jacks to plug into speakers.


        • Huawei’s first Android Wear watch is a beautiful yet basic timepiece
          Huawei isn't exactly the first company that comes to mind when you think of stylish connected devices. The Chinese manufacturer has delved into wearables with its TalkBand series, but those were slow to come to the US and their fitness tracker-meets-Bluetooth-headset capabilities were peculiar. Now Huawei wants to test the waters of Google's wearable OS with its new smartwatch, simply dubbed the Huawei Watch, and it's a solid first attempt at Android Wear.










Free Software/Open Source



  • Apache Foundation retains informal vibe to manage $1m of open-source projects
    The Apache open-source community gathered at its annual conference in Europe this week to collaborate on new projects to drive the future of the web and cloud ecosystems, with a handful of new projects under incubation.


  • Seize the opportunity to explain open source
    Kids have an insatiable appetite for knowledge. I would estimate that all of us with children have had them go through a phase of asking "Why?" constantly. In truth, it often comes at the most inconvenient moment for a parent; like when the world is literally going to explode unless your child puts down the green marker pen, and instead of doing it, they just look up at you and ask "Why?" I was no different. I went through the "Why?" phase. My daughter has been through it and my nephew is going through it right now.


  • AWS launches a managed Elasticsearch service
  • Amazon launches managed Elasticsearch service
  • AWS debuts Elasticsearch Search, its distributed search and analytics engine
  • Amazon flings open source Elasticsearch at Big Data's cloud
  • New Amazon Elasticsearch service eases setup, with exceptions


  • Amazon Adds Open Source Elasticsearch Platform to AWS Cloud
    Elasticsearch is a Java-based open source framework for searching textual documents on a massive scale. It is designed to be highly scalable and compatible with cluster-based distributed-computing infrastructure.


  • IBM and EMC team up: There’s no “I” in open source
    Sometimes when you are distracting the signal from the noise, you get an exclusive. Today theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, got the full story on the EMC and IBM partnership to work in an open-source environment to make Hadoop more accessible to the enterprise.


  • Web Browsers



    • Mozilla



      • Firefox Is Much Better than Any Other Browser and Here's Why
        We often read about comparative tests between browsers and we see that Google Chrome or Opera are extremely fast, or that some other browser gets really good scores in rendering, and so on. The truth is that none of that really matters when you are using browsers in the real world, and in the real world Firefox shines and it's head and shoulders above everything else.






  • SaaS/Big Data



    • The return of TryStack, life as a PTL, and more OpenStack news
      Interested in keeping track of what's happening in the open source cloud?


    • A Brief Comparison of Mesos and Kubernetes
      The recent announcement of Mesos on Windows means developers and organizations that work between Linux and Windows platforms may use their own tools without requiring heavy resource management. Those working with the Google Cloud Engine may prefer working with Kubernetes, while people accustomed to Microsoft Azure may enjoy the Mesosphere workflow pipeline. Each has their own strengths and shortcomings, though the gap between stack management services lessens as more technology is brought to other platforms.


    • MapR Technologies Unveils In-Hadoop Document Database
      MapR integrates Web-scale enterprise storage and real-time database management and adds native JSON support to MapR-DB, its NoSQL database.




  • Databases



    • Pivotal Aims at Oracle Database Business with Open Source Tech
      Software company Pivotal is taking on Oracle’s traditional database business with its latest effort to advance open source. The company is contributing both HAWQ advanced SQL on Hortonworks’ Hadoop analytics and MADlib machine learning technologies to The Apache Software Foundation (ASF).




  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice



  • CMS



    • If Drupal were a band it would be Rush
      Getting my clients' developers and sysadmins to stick to all of the documented processes I've set up for them.

      I have years of experience implementing Drupal-based solutions, so I have a rather solid understanding of what works and what doesn't. But some folks without any experience with Drupal try to shoehorn it into incompatible environments. I do my best to explain all of this and why to ensure that, when I'm gone, folks can take all of my wiki documentation and run with it (use it and update it as necessary).




  • Business





    • Semi-Open Source





  • BSD



  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC



    • What do you have to say? Share it at LibrePlanet 2016
      LibrePlanet 2016 is coming! Next year's conference will be held **March 19-20, 2016 in the Boston area**. The call for proposals is open now, until November 16th. General registration and exhibitor registration will open later in October.


    • Chicago GNU/Linux talk on Guix retrospective
      Friends... friends! I gave a talk on Guix last night in Chicago, and it went amazingly well. That feels like an undersell actually; it went remarkably well. There were 25 people, and apparently there was quite the waitlist, but I was really happy with the set of people who were in the room. I haven't talked about Guix in front of an audience before and I was afraid it would be a dud, but it's hard to explain the reaction I got. It felt like there was a general consensus in the room: Guix is taking the right approach to things.




  • Public Services/Government



    • EC to increase open source for software development
      The European Commission aims to primarily use open source tools for developing software that is distributed publicly, shows an overview on open source adoption that was presented last week by the EC’s Directorate General of Informatics (DIGIT) at a conference in Tampere (Finland). Already much of the EC’s own software is developed using open source. However, over the next 3 years, DIGIT will push to make ‘open source first’ the target for all the new EC software development projects.




  • Openness/Sharing



  • Programming



    • Most Popular Programming Languages In The IT industry
      Programmers are always in high demand these days for jobs, especially if they have fluency in coding language. Learning programming in various languages for engineers is a no-brainer, but some basic understanding of the languages can be invaluable to anyone, even if you’re not looking forward to becoming a master coder.


    • PHPUnit 5.0


    • PHP version 5.5.30 and 5.6.14
      RPM of PHP version 5.6.14 are available in remi repository for Fedora ≥ 21 and remi-php56 repository for Fedora ≤ 20 and Enterprise Linux (RHEL, CentOS).






Leftovers



Recent Techrights' Posts

At The Register MS, Fake 'Articles' Sponsored by WIntel (Windows+Intel)
We've meanwhile noticed that there's new sponsored spam in at The Register MS and it might be slop
In Addition to National Delegates, Contact the French or Portuguese Governments (Politicians) Regarding António Campinos
Someone needs to step into the EPO and open up all the closets
EPO People Power - Part IV - Sexism, Chauvinism, and Lines of Cocaine at Europe's Second-Largest Institution
Recently, one reader told us about Berenguer, who made the "mistake" of using cocaine in the open market
The Web Has Become Extremely Rude
If you cannot behave, go offline
Like Clickfraud Spamnil (Swapnil Bhartiya) But for Hate Mongering: What Twitter Has Become
If you still waste time in Social Control Media, consider changing course
EPO People Power - Part II - Talking About Corruption
European media must "grow a pair" and start writing about EPO corruption
Circular Funding
Passing around capital that does not exist (for PR's sake, but there are ramifications)
 
Gemini Links 11/12/2025: Repairs, Wisdom of the Crowds, and AC Explorations
Links for the day
Those of Us Who Grew Up Playing Doom Must Remember What Microsoft Did to Its Creator
Doomed by Microsoft
We Need Your EPO Insider Stories
To date, the EPO and any other company/institution hasn't managed to remove even a single public page that we published
Yes, IBM is Also Laying Off Indians (Even in India)
that goes against the popular/hot narrative of "jobs moving to India"
Microsoft-Sponsored Wikipedia Spam About "AI", Added by Microsoft Operatives
When it comes to Wikipedia, follow the money (sponsors)
Keep on Pushing, EPO Management is in a State of Panic This Week
Contact your representatives today
If You Want Freedom, Follow Richard M. Stallman (RMS)
To be clear, I like Linux, I like its founder
EPO People Power - Part III - Challenging Corruption
The media - as in the national press - isn't interested in writing about it
The Flawed Notion of Criticising for Criticism's Sake
People who are highly critical of things are not "toxic"
A Lot More Than Techrights
you probably also want to follow the RSS feed of the sister site
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 10, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Slopfarms Parrot Any Number That GAFAM Throws at Them, Even Totally Fictional Figures That Merit Fact-Checking
fake from Microsoft
Microsoft Lunduke Tailors His 'Content' for 4Chan
The latest from Lunduke "Journal"
Richard Stallman Was Also Right About Microsoft GitHub (It's Becoming a Botfarm)
trashing the platform
Democracy and Buzzwords
and hype
Five Years in Gemini Protocol
One might say we escaped to Geminispace 2 years before the deluge of slop on the Web
Keeping Up the Pressure on EPO Management
We want to thank our European readers who contacted their representatives
For New PCs and for Old (or Retro) PCs the Increased Cost of System Memory Benefits GNU/Linux and BSDs
GNU/Linux does not have this problem or barely has this problem
Gemini Links 10/12/2025: "Thousand Mile Journey" and The Art Of Chilling
Links for the day
Moving Away From Content Management Systems (CMSs) and Flocking to Static Site Generators (SSGs)
The SSG 'hype' is not based on marketing but a simple reality
IBM is Laying Off Workers in India (While Spending a Fortune Buying a Company for Buzzwords, a Box-Ticking Exercise)
So what is the overall strategy?
Just a Little Slop About "Linux"
Slop about Linux isn't that common anymore
Links 10/12/2025: McDonald’s Latest Slop Gaffe (After Dumping IBM's Slop) and "Scam Altman’s Panic Sweats"
Links for the day
Links 10/12/2025: Ransomware (Windows TCO) Has Crippled Economies, Slop (Fake) "Videos Have Flooded Social (Control) Media"
Links for the day
Y Combinator (YC) Funds Scams, Run by Scammers
Including Scam Altman
EPO People Power - Part I - Identifying Corruption
The EPO, at this stage, is a boat full of holes
IBM Has Become a "Plantation"
IBM is basically being destroyed for some cash at this point
It's Not Too Late to Send an E-mail to Your European Representative Regarding European Patent Office Abuses
If you live in Europe and have not done so already, please contact your national delegates, whose job is (at least on paper) to represent you
Almost a Thousand EPO Workers Have Voted for Industrial Action
Mandate given to SUEPO for action plan to stop the salary erosion of EPO staff
Why So Many Software Projects Are Quitting Microsoft and GitHub
Be more like LibreWolf. Move away from Microsoft and GitHub.
Many of the Attacks on Us Apparently Boil Down to Jealousy
Envy is a negative trait that leads people to self harm
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 09, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, December 09, 2025
Valuing One's Work by the Effort or Budget Taken to Undermine It
As long as what we publish is factual, nothing prevents its publication
IBM Says It Buys Another Company for "AI", So Why Does IBM Fire Its Own "AI" Experts?
As people rightly point out, this has nothing to do with "AI"
The Boundaries of Criticism
The harder the EPO will push back, the better the job we must have done
New EPO Series: Mafia Culture, Mobbing, Nepotism, and Illegal Drugs
The series shall start later today
Richard Stallman Was Right About "AI"
"Considering Stallman worked in the MIT AI lab in the era of symbolic AI, and has written GCC (an optimizing compiler is a kind of symbolic reasoner imo), I think he has a deeper understanding of the question than most famous people in tech."
With 3 Weeks Left (Sans Extensions) the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Already Raised About Half of the Money Set as Fund-Raising Goal
“Idiots can be defeated but they never admit it.” — Richard Stallman
Gemini Links 10/12/2025: Cranberry Juice and Gramophones
Links for the day
IBM: We Lay Off Tens of Thousands of People the Very Same Week We Spend 11 Billion Dollars (Debt) on "AI" Fantasies, Hiring About 8,000 People at Cost of 1.3+ Million Dollars Per Employee
Seems like IBM is run by fools
Google Still Promotes Plagiarism From WebProNews and Prolific Slopfarms
Google News seems lost and hopeless sometimes
Links 09/12/2025: Tariffs Causing Great Harm and "How to Leave the U.S.A."
Links for the day
Links 09/12/2025: "After the Bubble" (of Slop), "The Internet Forgets"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/12/2025: Lunar Observations and Programming
Links for the day
Linux Foundation Has Found a New Business: Pyramid Schemes
Linus Torvalds should have known better
They Won't Tell You This ("Revolution Won't Be Televised"), But the Slop Bubble Already Burst
We already wrote about it twice this morning
UbuntuPIT Started Experimenting With LLM Slop and a Month Ago It 'Died'
This is the typical trajectory of slopfarms
LibreWolf Will Turn Six in March, It Already (Probably) Has Millions of Users
It's not possible to know the number of users LibreWolf has
The Year of the New Dark Age
Something isn't right
Slopwatch May be Doomed
Slop isn't changing the world, certainly not in a good way anyway
BetaNews Still a Dodgy Site, It Seems to be Partly Run by Chatbots
The company that took over apparently tries to "monetise" the domain with slop
Tomorrow the EPO Administrative Council is Meeting to Discuss the EPO, Contact Your National Representative Today
Final versions of the EPO Administrative Council photo gallery
IBM's Total Debt is About to Hit Almost 80 Billion Dollars, the Company Can Only Raise $14.8 Billion Within 3 Months
Route towards insolvency, not just irrelevancy
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, December 08, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, December 08, 2025