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Links 22/07/2023: Mesa 23.1.4 and More Red Hat Rumours About Layoffs



  • GNU/Linux

    • HackadayAsk Hackaday: What’s Linux Anyway?
      Any time we mention Linux, it is a fair bet we will get a few comments from people unhappy that we didn’t refer to it as GNU/Linux or with some other appellation. To be fair, they aren’t wrong. Linux is a kernel. Much of what we think of as a Linux desktop OS is really from other sources, including, but not limited to, GNU. We thought about this after reading a report from [The Register] that Linux has nearly half of the desktop OS Linux market. Wait, what?

      If you are like us, you probably think that’s a typo. It isn’t. But the more you think about it, the less sense it makes. You know that half of the world’s desktops don’t run Linux. But maybe they mean Unix? Nope. So how can Linux have almost half of the Linux market? That’s like saying nearly half of Hackaday readers read Hackaday, right?

      Here’s the thing. The data came from statistics aggregator Statcounter. They report that desktop Linux use is about 3% of all desktop operating systems, which sounds about right. But an additional 4% are using ChromeOS, and ChromeOS is using Linux — in fact, based on Gentoo Linux and, before that, Ubuntu.

    • Server

    • Kernel Space

      • IT Pro TodayAn In-Depth Overview of the Linux File System Hierarchy

        The Linux File System Hierarchy Structure is governed by the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, a set of guidelines that determines the structure and contents of directories in Unix-type operating systems, including Linux. These standards are maintained by the Linux Foundation.

        The File System Hierarchy starts at the root directory of the file system, from which all other directories and their contents branch out. The file system logically organizes files and folders, with each directory serving a specific purpose. I will explain the significance of various directories below.

      • Open Source For ULinux Kernel 6.3 Reaches End of Life, Users Urged to Upgrade to Linux 6.4

        The Linux community faces a critical moment as Linux Kernel 6.3 reaches its end of life and a significant vulnerability is discovered. With the prompt action of the Linux kernel team, patches have been developed and backported, ensuring the security of affected systems. It is imperative that users heed the call to upgrade to Linux 6.4 to safeguard their systems from potential attacks.

        The announcement comes amidst the discovery of a critical vulnerability, dubbed StackRot (CVE-2023-3269), that affects Linux kernel versions 6.1 through 6.4. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to escalate privileges on compromised systems.

    • Graphics Stack

      • Free Desktopmesa 23.1.4
        Hello everyone,
        
        

        The bugfix release 23.1.4 is now available.

        If you find any issues, please report them here: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/new

        Sorry about the 2-and-a-bit weeks of delay, there were regressions and I didn't have enough time to investigate them. For the release dates, I'll consider the one 2 weeks ago as skipped, and the next bugfix release is due in just under two weeks, on August 2nd.

        Cheers, Eric
    • Benchmarks

    • Applications

      • Linux Links7 Best Free and Open Source Terminal-Based Weather Tools

        Most people think of weather in terms of temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, brightness, visibility, wind, and atmospheric pressure, as in high and low pressure. In most places, weather changes from minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season.

        This article focuses on terminal-based weather tools for Linux. We only feature free and open source software here. Here’s our verdict captured in a legendary LinuxLinks-style ratings chart.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • TecAdminBash LOCAL and GLOBAL Variables

        In programming languages, variables are named containers that store values. They are the backbone of any program, allowing us to create dynamic scripts. In Bash scripting, we have two main types of variables – Global and Local.

      • TecAdminAn Introduction to Bash Variables

        In our previous article, we discussed the differences between local and global Bash variables (you can read it here). Building upon that understanding, today, we will dive deeper into the world of Bash scripting, focusing on Bash variables.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • Nate GrahamThis week in KDE: Plasma 6 features

          We’re hot on the heels of Akademy 2023, which proved to be a fertile space for collaboration. As a result, in addition to the background work being done to stabilize Plasma 6, a bunch of new features landed too!

          Plasma now plays a sound from the active sound theme (more on that in a bit) when a USB device is plugged in or unplugged. And this is configurable, of course!

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Mozilla

        • Web Pro NewsThunderbird Leaves Linux Users Waiting for Much-Hyped Version 115 [Ed: Mozilla loves "Open Source" so much that it is prioritising proprietary platforms with back doors and default browsers that are not Firefox]

          Interestingly, despite being available for Windows and macOS, the new version of Thunderbird is still MIA for most Linux users. To be clear, I’m not talking about Linux distro repositories not being updated. Rather, I’m talking about the official Flatpak version.

          [...]

          In many cases, an app’s developer does not package their software for each an every Linux distro. Instead, the distro maintainers will often package the various apps and make them available in the repos. As a result, depending on a distro’s philosophy — fast-rolling or slow and stable — new versions of software may appear almost immediately or months later. The latter is especially true for distros that emphasize stability and reliability, such as Debian and Ubuntu. Maintainers of those types of distros tend to only patch in security and bug fixes in between major releases of their distro rather than releasing major feature updates. This can help reduce issues with apps installing newer components that may break dependencies with other apps that still rely on older versions of those components.

          This is the issue that Flatpak is trying to solve. Rather than relying on, and tampering with, core system libraries, these formats bundle their own dependencies in a self-contained package. As a result, one of these apps can be installed on any distro that supports Flatpak, regardless of whether the distro is a fast-moving rolling release or a slower-moving stable one. Since all the dependencies are self-contained within the Flatpak, a user can run the latest, greatest version without fear of it conflicting with anything on their system.

        • The Servo Blog: Servo and the Web Platform Tests

          With over 52000 tests and nearly two million subtests, the Web Platform Tests are one of the most important parts of the web’s interoperability and compatibility story. Servo has long used the WPT to catch regressions and flakiness, but the suite has also played a role in our layout engine migration and guiding our way towards CSS2 conformance.

    • SaaS/Back End/Databases

      • PostgreSQLCredcheck version 2.1 released

        Release v2.1 adds a two new features and fix issues reported by users since last release.

      • PostgreSQLPgBouncer 1.20.0 released

        PgBouncer 1.20.0 has been released. This release deprecates the online restart feature using the -R flag, instead so_reuseport should be used for online restarts. It also introduces better support for tracking PostgreSQL settings using the new track_extra_parameters setting, which can be used to track search_path in combination with Citus 12.0+. It also adds some other features such as connecting using TLS by default, forwarding error codes in the authentication phase and support for the options startup parameter. And finally it also fixes a few minor bugs.

        See https://www.pgbouncer.org/2023/07/pgbouncer-1-20-0 for more information, the detailed changelog, and download links.

      • PostgreSQLMongoDB, MySQL, Hadoop (HDFS) Foreign Data Wrappers updated to support PostgreSQL 16

        EDB is pleased to announce new releases of MongoDB, MySQL, and Hadoop (HDFS) Foreign Data Wrappers to support the upcoming PostgreSQL 16 release. These Foreign Data Wrappers allow Postgres to connect to Hadoop, MongoDB, and MySQL servers enabling you to view, join, and manage remote data all from Postgres.

    • Programming/Development

  • Leftovers

    • Craig MurrayOnly Human

      I apologise for the break in articles. There is only one of me and I have been taking a little time to recharge my batteries and give my wonderful family some of the attention they deserve. I shall be back to the mill in another week.

    • Ruben SchadeWear patterns in coffee shops

      It may shock some of you to know that I spend altogether too much time and money in coffee shops. They’re my favourite places in the world to write, code, and think. The vast majority of the words you’ve read here over the years come from one of these lovely places.

      One of the older establishments I frequent in my local suburb has squishy bench seats along the walls, and faux wooden tables. The leather and laminate surfaces have started to degrade slightly, but on some surfaces more than others.

      If we assume this uneven wear is the result of differences in use, we can draw some interesting data from it.

      The most degraded chair and table combo by far is at the back. It’s next to one of the large windows, is relatively secluded, and only has one other table next to it instead of two or three. It happens to be my favourite spot, and based on this pattern, its everyone else’s as well.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal/Opinions

      • 🔤SpellBinding: GILTOSM Wordo: AURAL
      • Summer reading part 1

        The box fan rumbles. It exhausts hot air out the window over the driveway, draws cooler air from the shady backyard. Low tones of grandpa's voice from first daughter's room, a 35-year-old cassette tape reading her fairy stories and nursery rhymes he once read me: Snow White and Rose Red, Jack and the Beanstalk. The timbre of his voice slowly changes. Tape degrades at naptime and bedtime. One day the stories will be unintelligible.

        Yesterday we biked to the library for toddler time and books, Bugz' house for a book, creek on the way home. Daughter slipped on slick wet slate, fell--- splash!, laughed, slipped carefully to low water- fall wet and muddy. To minnows holding formation in a dapple of sun she said "Hi fishes I love you!" I started Adolph Reed's new book The South.

        Books for summer reading in this diary entry are in three categories: true adventures, 1930s anarchist/ communist fiction, challenges to liberal dogma from the Left.

      • Alex Schroeder’s Diary — Episode 49

        Elves are immortal, metrosexual, aloof know-it-alls. They know every better, they can do everything better, and they're not afraid to tell you.

    • Politics and World Events

      • The discussion that won't die

        First off, I'm going to apologize to Geminispace at large for accidentally setting off this entire firestorm in the first place. I for one much preferred when we were talking mostly about geek culture and gemini itself.

        That said, since my original post about my own feelings regarding the Supreme court there seems to be a neverending discussion on politics, and I'm going to weigh in again with a couple of things that I think need said.


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



Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft's "valuation depends on infrastructure that does not exist."
Indeed
The Typical Trajectory: Datamation Began Experimenting With LLM Slop for Fake Articles. Then Datamation Died. (Last Month)
It's always ending up this way
Avoiding the Spooks (Nobody Watches the Watchers, They're Practically Unaccountable)
If more people adopt encryption, it'll be easier for us to deal with whistleblowers
Protecting Whistleblowers Requires Technical Knowledge/Skills
even the highest media judges aren't aware of how to protect sources
Report/Benchmark Says 'Vibe Coding' Results in Security Holes
There are risks they don't like talking about
Record Traffic in Geminispace or Over Gemini Protocol
it's never too late to join
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part III - Europe's Second-Largest Organisation on Strike, Protests, Other Industrial Actions to Come Impacting Over 95% of the Workforce
The EPO's management is highly evasive, weak, and vulnerable
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part II - Breakout of Discontent This Winter in Europe's Second-Largest Organisation
So far we've caused a lot of panic and stress inside Team Campinos
The "Alicante Mafia" - Part I - An Introduction to the Mafia Governing the EPO
Are some people 'evacuating' themselves to save face?
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"
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
 
Luzern Lion Monument, Albanian Female Whistleblowers: Swiss jurists were cowards
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Splinternet is Already Here, Owing to the Militarisation of Technology (Slop, Social Control Media, Back Doors, and More)
you know what's gonna happen next...
Stack Ranking Against IBM/Red Hat Staff and a Signal of Mass Layoffs (RAs) Justified by Red Hat and IBM as Poor Performance/Misconduct/Other
Working in an atmosphere like this sounds like a nightmare
Gemini Links 17/01/2026: Slow computing and Environment Leak
Links for the day
Links 17/01/2026: US Censorship and Violence Crisis, Growing Anger Levels Against Slop Sold as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Accounts or Devices (e.g. Phones) That Get 'Burnt' Have Many Pitfalls
Embassies and consulates habitually fail at this
At Least 5 Women Quit Brett Wilson LLP in Recent Months. It's the Firm That Attacked My Wife and I on Behalf of Americans (One of Them Strangled Women).
It seems like good news that the women escape this workplace
Slop About Slop and Slop About "Linux"
In short, avoid slopfarms
EPO Abuses Covered in Spanish
Knowing what we know (and heard/saw), the sinister silence of the media is perceived by some to be complicity of the lower order.
Richard Stallman Encourages "ICE Out For Good" Protests, His Opponents Do Not (Passive and Uncaring About Human Rights)
He has done a lot philosophically, politically, and so on
Claim That IBM Marked 15% of its Workforce for Potential Layoffs
No wonder we keep hearing from Red Hat people who say they hate IBM
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 16, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, January 16, 2026
Great Reset at IBM, the Company That Pulps Red Hat
In 2026 many workers are RTO'ed, PIP'ed, and at Red Hat many have effectively 'left the company' and now start afresh as "IBM" staff
J.H.M. Ray Dassen & Debian, Red Hat, GNOME unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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
Naming Culprits in Switzerland
Switzerland is highly secretive about white-collar crime
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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