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● 01.24.22

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 25/1/2022: GPL Settlement With Patrick McHardy, Godot 4.0 Alpha 1, and DXVK 1.9.4 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 8:00 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ MINISFORUM DeskMini UM700: Mini-PC re-launches with Manjaro Linux, starting at US$499 – NotebookCheck.net News

• MINISFORUM has re-released the EliteMini UM700 as the DeskMini UM700, a mini-PC that it launched in November 2020. Initially, the mini-PC arrived for US$539 running Windows 10 Pro, an AMD Ryzen 7 3750H APU, along with up to 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. Now, MINISFORUM sells the DeskMini UM700 with Manjaro Linux and for cheaper than its Windows sibling.

• Currently, the Linux version of the DeskMini UM700 costs US$499, US$70 less than the cheapest Windows model that MINISFORUM sells. However, it is worth noting that the Linux model starts with 8 GB of RAM, not 16 GB like the Windows version. MINISFORUM sells a comparable 16 GB of RAM SKU too though, US$40 cheaper than the Windows version. Additionally, MINISFORUM offers the DeskMini UM700 with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage for US$569.

=> ↺ Lenovo Will Not Enable Microsoft’s Pluton Processor by Default

=> ↺ Microsoft’s attacks on Linux

• Lenovo recently announced that it would be the first hardware maker to ship PCs with Microsoft’s Pluton security chipset. But now it says that it will not enable this functionality by default.

Server

=> ↺ 5 distributions of Linux to consider for your server in 2022

• Linux servers are everywhere. There’s a good chance a number of your favorite websites are running on infrastructure that’s powered by Linux, not to mention streaming services, social media platforms, gaming networks, the list goes on. The only thing more staggering than the number of Linux servers there are in the wild, is how many distributions you have to choose from. The distros that are available for download are countless, and the purpose of each ranges from general purpose operating systems, to task-oriented tools such as Clonezilla. If you’re just getting started with deploying Linux in your data center, choosing the right distribution can be confusing. If you utilize a cloud provider for your Linux infrastructure, the number of choices is at least somewhat curated, but you still have a choice to make. Which distribution is right for your environment? In this article, we’ll discuss some important concepts to keep in mind – and we’ll go over the finer points of some of the more popular options. There’s no shortage of opinions online regarding desktop distros, but in this article – we’re going to focus on server deployments.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Late Night Linux – Episode 161

• Why some people use Mint instead of Ubuntu, and your feedback. Plus all sorts of discoveries including programming lights, Ceefax, and a FOSS alternative to Sonos.

=> ↺ GNU World Order 444

• The kde software series continues with the Akregator RSS feed reader.

=> ↺ Five Screenshot Applications For Linux – Invidious

• Which screenshot tool do I use? Well, today I will discuss several screenshot programs that I have used on Linux. While they all have some similar functionality, there are small differences that may make one of these apps the right tool for you. ERRATA: When I show the region select with Flameshot, I was using the appimage version of Flameshot. he appimage was messed up, which is why I switched to the standard package, but I forgot to re-record the clip with the region select. Oops. So all of the circles surrounding the rectangle selection should have displayed icons. Those icons let you do things to edit the image.

=> ↺ Flatseal: Control Flatpak Permissions With Ease – Invidious

• It’s not often you have to change flatpak permissions but when you do doing so can be a little bit annoying so how about with simplify it with a GUI, and that’s exactly what Flatseal does.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Netfilter project: Settlement with Patrick McHardy

• The netfilter project, which works on packet-filtering for the Linux kernel, has announced that it has reached a settlement (English translation) with Patrick McHardy that is “legally binding and it governs any legal enforcement activities” on netfilter programs and libraries as well as the kernel itself. McHardy has been employing questionable practices in doing GPL enforcement in Germany over the last six years or more. The practice has been called “copyright trolling” by some and is part of what led to the creation of The Principles of Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement.

=> ↺ Linux 5.17 Is Bringing Big Improvements For AMD Hardware – Phoronix

• Thanks to hiring more Linux developers and preparing to ramp up for next-generation hardware support, the in-development Linux 5.17 kernel is going to be another exciting step forward for AMD Linux customers.

=> ↺ UDP/IPv6 Optimization Patches Pending For ~5% Improvement In CPU Bound Test – Phoronix

• Among the many new features in Linux 5.17 are several notable network optimizations. Optimizing network performance is a never-ending game and already for a future kernel are a new set of UDP/IPv6 optimizations being worked on.

• Developer Pavel Begunkov recently posted a set of Linux kernel networking patches focused on UDP/IPv6 optimizations but some of the patches also benefit TCP. In CPU-bound testing at least, these patches have shown to provide measurable benefit.

=> ↺ New ASUS Sensor Driver For Linux Aims For Greater Flexibility & Faster Sensor Reading – Phoronix

• It’s just with the in-development Linux 5.17 kernel that the “asus_wmi_ec_sensors” is making its debut for greatly expanded sensor support for modern ASUS desktop motherboards. However, there is already a new driver that has been in development that ultimately aims to be superior to this still-new driver.

• The “asus_wmi_ec_sensors” driver relies upon the WMI interface (Windows Management Instrumentation) for sensor reading on a wide-range of modern ASUS motherboards. As with most desktop sensor drivers, this code was developed by the community.

Applications

=> ↺ SimpleX Is a Chat Network That Preserves Metadata Privacy

• SimpleX is an open-source decentralized client-server network that uses disposable nodes to asynchronously pass the messages, providing receiver and sender anonymity.

• Messaging apps make it easy to communicate and connect with people around the world. However, with new ways to communicate and connect via technology, there are also new ways for your privacy and security to be breached.

• SimpleX is one of the most private and secure chat and applications platform that you can find out there. The main difference of SimpleX Chat is that it does not use any form of identity at all for message routing, requiring to establish initial connection either out of band or via some touch points that do not participate in the message routing, so the only way to build connections of SimpleX network is by observing IP packet times.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Observing the difference between kernel configs after make config was executed to see if anything was changed from last kernel config (Gentoo)

=> ↺ Confused of Debian versions? Read this. | FOSS Linux

• Debian is one of the most versatile Linux distributions as the functionality and services are unmatched. It is one of the most stable distros of Linux, supported by a large community, open-source and 100% free, supports several computer architectures, and is ideal for Desktops and Servers.

• If you have been confused about various releases of Debian versions over the years and want to clarify how and when different versions were released, then you have come to the right place. This article will explain the release pattern and the order of release of the major Debian versions.

=> ↺ How to install and configure MongoDB on Ubuntu | FOSS Linux

• MongoDB is a well-known open-source NoSQL document-oriented database written in C++. It is a schema-less DB making it easier to add new fields. In MongoDB, files can vary from doc to doc since the stored data is flexible and is presented in JSON-like docs. Besides, MongoDB does not need a predefined schema, and their data structures can be altered over time. Data recovery in Mongo DB is instant and reliable since it is a distributed system.

• This article guide is tailored to illustrate step-by-step how to install MongoDB on Ubuntu. as you might already know, Ubuntu is one of the widely known robust Linux-based OS. It is open-source. Hence, you can try it out without fear of incurring additional costs. Before diving into the installation process, please ensure you have all the prerequisites mentioned herein:

=> ↺ How to Fix Error 404 Not Found on WordPress | RoseHosting

• When visiting a website, we might ever see an Error 404 Page Not Found message in the web browser. The issue is usually on the webserver, on the server level, or on the application level. Like any other HTTP status code, for example, error 502 on WordPress, an Error 404 page not found message is fairly easy to fix.

=> ↺ How a Hypercore P2P innovation could bring more privacy to IPFS

• The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), like many other peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks, has a privacy problem. IPFS clients constantly broadcast what they want to download and what is available for upload. Anyone that can observe your network traffic, like an internet service provider (ISP) or other snoops, can see what you’re sharing.

• IPFS clients exchange data over encrypted connections. That’s currently a meaningless privacy precaution when it’s so trivial to determine what’s being transferred. This is a fundamental problem with how IPFS is implemented.

=> ↺ Here’s how to update a tar file from the Linux file manager – TechRepublic

=> ↺ How to Install Apache Solr on Rocky Linux

• Apache Solr or Solr is a free and open-source search platform based on the Apache Lucene library. Solr is stands for Searching On Lucene with Replication, it is an enterprise-grade search platform written in Java.

• Solr is a highly scalable and reliable search platform with fault-tolerant and distributed indexing. Also, it comes with replication and automated failover and recovery.

• In most cases, Solr is used to build enterprise-grade applications that deliver high performance. Solr is used by some internet large sites like Adobe, Bloomberg, AT&T, Magento, Netflix, Instagram, etc.

• In this guide, you will learn how to install Apache Solr on the Rocky Linux system, enable Solr basic authentication, set up max open files limit and max processes limit for Solr deployment, and how to create the first Solr core from the command line.

=> ↺ How to Install Adminer on CentOS – Linux Stans

• In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to install Adminer on CentOS. This tutorial will work for any CentOS version, including CentOS 7 and CentOS 8, as well as Rocky Linux and Alma Linux.

• Adminer is a database management editor in a single PHP file. A great alternative to phpMyAdmin. You can use Adminer with MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS SQL, Oracle, Elasticsearch, MongoDB, and others.

=> ↺ How to Create Fillable PDF Forms on Linux with ONLYOFFICE

• PDF (Portable Document Format) was invented many years ago by Adobe. It is currently the most popular format for sharing information due to its ease of use, security, reliability, and compatibility with all devices we use on a daily basis.

• This format ensures that a file does not alter its original structure under no circumstances when we open it on, for example, computers, tablets, smartphones, etc. Moreover, PDF makes it possible to add fields that other users can fill out with the required information.

=> ↺ How to Install PHP on CentOS – Linux Stans

• In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to install PHP on CentOS. Beginner-friendly, step-by-step instructions on how to install different versions of PHP on different versions of CentOS.

=> ↺ How to Install OpenStackClient in Rocky Linux | AlmaLinux 8 – Linux Shout

• OpenStack Client (aka OSC) is an open-source tool developed by the OpenStack community to provide a set of command-line tools. That will help the users to manage various elements of OpenStack such as Computing, Identity, Image, Object Storage, and Block Storage APIs together in a single shell with a uniform command structure.

• This program is written in python, hence we need it and its package manager PIP already installed on our system. Hence, let’s quickly see the commands required to install OpenStackClient on Rocky Linux or Almalinux 8.

=> ↺ How to Install MongoDB in CentOS 8 – Unix / Linux the admins Tutorials

• MongoDB is a source-available cross-platform document-oriented database program. Classified as a NoSQL database program, MongoDB uses JSON-like documents with optional schemas. MongoDB is developed by MongoDB Inc. and licensed under the Server Side Public License (SSPL).

• MongoDB is a popular document-based and general-purpose NoSQL database engine that stores data in JSON format.

• In this tutorial, you will learn how to install MongoDB on CentOS 8.

=> ↺ How to Take a Scrolling Screenshot on Any Android Device

• You probably take screenshots all the time, but what if you need to send a screenshot of an entire web page that is beyond your mobile’s screen size? Instead of bombarding your friends with multiple screenshots, you can take and send a scrolling screenshot on Android, which is one long screenshot that covers an area that you have to scroll through to see in full. Doing this is not as hard as you think, especially now that you can do it natively on Android 12. Follow this guide to learn how to take a scrolling screenshot on any Android device.

=> ↺ How to Set Up External Drives in the Chromebook Linux Environment

• You may access external drives from the Files app on your Chromebook, but if you want to access them in the Linux environment, also known as Crostini, you may look in a directory like /media, and they aren’t there. What gives?

• It’s easy to set up any external optical, USB, or SD media for command-line access on your Chromebook. Here’s how to do it.

=> ↺ How to Install an Optimized WordPress Stack with SlickStack

• In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to install a fast, secure, and optimized WordPress stack on an Ubuntu server with SlickStack. The tool is easy to use and beginner-friendly.

• SlickStack is a great alternative to Centmin Mod and EasyEngine.

=> ↺ How to Install Portainer CE in standalone Docker on Linux

• Portainer Community Edition is a lightweight service delivery platform for containerized applications that can be used to manage Docker, Swarm, Kubernetes and ACI environments. It is designed to be as simple to deploy as it is to use. The application allows you to manage all your orchestrator resources (containers, images, volumes, networks and more) through a ‘smart’ GUI and/or an extensive API.

• Portainer consists of a single container that can run on any cluster. It can be deployed as a Linux container or a Windows native container. It works seamlessly in the cloud, on prem and at the edge to give you a consolidated view of all your containers.

• Portainer consists of two elements: the Portainer Server and the Portainer Agent. Both run as lightweight containers on your existing containerized infrastructure. The Portainer Agent should be deployed to each node in your cluster and configured to report back to the Portainer Server container.

=> ↺ How to set up a Private Ethereum Blockchain (Proof of Authority) with Go Ethereum – Part 1 | HackerNoon

• This article will go through the steps necessary to set up a Private Ethereum Blockchain using Go Ethereum (Geth) – the official Go implementation of the Ethereum protocol. This is useful when developers do not want to rely on the public testnets such as Rinkeby, Ropsten, Goerli.

• The private blockchain will be deployed on the cloud Ubuntu server (AWS). We will also integrate with Metamask by creating a custom RPC URL, and look at some important web3 JSON RPCs. The Metamask integration and RPCs will be covered in Part 2 of this article.

=> ↺ How to install mlocate on CentOS8

• locate command is one of the best tools for quickly finding files by filename. The locate command reads one or more databases prepared by updatedb and writes file names matching at least one of the patterns to standard output, one per line.Pre-Flight Check

=> ↺ How to install Olive video editor on Zorin OS 16 – Invidious

=> ↺ How to install Albion Online on a Chromebook in 2022

• Today we are looking at how to install Albion Online 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.

• This tutorial will only work on Chromebooks with an Intel or AMD CPU (with Linux Apps Support) and not those with an ARM64 architecture CPU.

=> ↺ 1 Nagios xi server container Fast and Easy

• Provides monitoring of all mission-critical infrastructure components, including applications, services, operating systems, network protocols, systems metrics, and network infrastructure. In addition, hundreds of third-party addons provide for monitoring of virtually all in-house applications, services, and procedures. Provides a central view of your entire IT operations network and business processes.

• Nagios Xi has powerful dashboards that provide at-a-glance access to robust monitoring information and third-party data. Statements provide users with quick access to the information they find most useful. Automated, integrated trending, and capacity planning graphs allow organizations to plan for infrastructure upgrades before outdated systems catch them by surprise.

• Alerts are sent to IT staff, business stakeholders, and end-users via email or mobile text messages, providing them with outage details to start resolving issues immediately.

=> ↺ Quick Install Your Webserver With OpenLiteSpeed

• Welcome Back! Today we will see how to configure your webserver with OpenLiteSpeed. Without putting any extra costs on hardware or infrastructure, OLS servers can perform in a real-time production environment. The server is 100% open-source and compatible with WordPress.

• Both enterprise and community server editions of the webserver are developed by the same team and come with similar features. We can describe the server as a “Secure, Scalable, Optimized and reliable server with good speed”.

=> ↺ Hosting my static sites with nginx

• Originally I thought that running my own servers would require a lot of maintenance and be a huge pain, but I was chatting with Wesley about what kind of maintainance their servers require, and they convinced me that it might not be that bad.

• So I decided to try out moving all my static sites to a $5/month server to see what it was like.

• Everything in here is pretty standard but I wanted to write down what I did anyway because there are a surprising number of decisions and I like to see what choices other people make.

=> ↺ How To Install Wireshark on Debian 11 – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Wireshark on Debian 11. For those of you who didn’t know, Wireshark is a free and open source software (FOSS) allows users to easily capture and analyze packets. In real scenarios Wireshark was useful to detect anomalies in network traffic. Wireshark can be also used to sniff traffic. Wireshark is a cross-platform software that is available for various Linux/UNIX distributions, Mac-OS, Solaris, BSD & Windows, etc.

• This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of the Wireshark network protocol analyzer on a Debian 11 (Bullseye).

=> ↺ How to Install Python 3.10 (or 3.11) on CentOS – Linux Stans

• In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to install Python (the latest version) on CentOS with step-by-step instructions. This tutorial includes instructions for Python 3.10 and Python 3.11 on CentOS 7 and CentOS 8.

=> ↺ How to Route Traffic to Docker Containers With Traefik Reverse Proxy – CloudSavvy IT

• Traefik is a leading reverse proxy and load balancer for cloud-native operations and containerized workloads. It functions as an edge router that publishes your services to the internet.

• Traefik routes requests to your containers by matching request attributes such as the domain, URL, and port. The proxy incorporates automatic service discovery so you can add new containers in real-time, without restarting the Traefik service.

• In this guide, we’ll put together a simple Traefik v2 deployment that will publish multiple Docker containers. This lets you use one Docker installation to provide several services over the same port, such as a web application, API, and administration panel.

=> ↺ How to convert Centos 8 Linux to Alma Linux 8

• CentOS Linux 8 was discontinued at the end of 2021. Check out more information about that in this in this article CentOS Linux 8 will end in 2021 and shifts focus to CentOS Stream.

• The team at CentOS decided to shift focus to CentOS stream, an upstream version of RHEL. CentOS stream places itself between Fedora Linux and RHEL. It is not 100% RHEL clone but ahead of RHEL development. Other distros that are 100% compatible with RHEL 8 have come up including Rocky Linux and Alma Linux.

• In this guide, we will learn how to convert an existing CentOS 8 distribution into Alma Linux without reinstalling a new operating system. The Alma Linux team provides an automated script for this purpose. An in-place upgrade does not require formatting of hard disk and due to that fact all settings, programs, and files on your current CentOS 8 system will be preserved.

=> ↺ LFCS – Creating LDAP on Ubuntu | Linux.org

• I hope you have looked over the previous article to set up OpenLDAP on CentOS 7 system found here. This will build on that article somewhat.

• We are going to install and configure OpenLDAP on Ubuntu and create an initial database. I did not do some things done here in the previous article, so you may learn something useful here for CentOS or Ubuntu.

=> ↺ Easy pairing and shell session sharing with tmate – Invidious

• tmate allows you to share your shell sessions with friends! It gives you a local tmux session that someone can connect to from anywhere, which makes pairing and troubleshooting easy.

=> ↺ How to install PrestaShop on Ubuntu/Debian

• PrestaShop is an e-commerce solution which allows you to create a beautiful online shop easily. It provides an efficient solution and let users create an e-commerce platform to sell their inventory or products. It provides many solution like inventory management, shipping tracking, support for multiple payment gateways, ,auto invoicing etc.

=> ↺ Why choose Rocket.Chat for your open source chat tool | Opensource.com

• Created in 2015, Rocket.Chat is a fully open source and customizable communications platform designed for communities and organizations with high standards for data protection. Rocket.Chat enables communication through federation, and over 12 million people are using it for team chat, customer service, secure file sharing, and much more. Rocket.Chat is in many ways the world’s most comprehensive open source communications platform.

=> ↺ How to install Minikube on Rocky Linux – NextGenTips

• In his tutorial, we are going to learn how to install Minikube on Rocky Linux. I am going to use Docker as a containerization platform. You can either VirtualBox, Podman, KVM, etc.

• Minikube is a tool that makes it easy to run Kubernetes locally. Minikube runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster inside a VM on your local machine. Kubernetes quickly set up a local Kubernetes cluster on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

• It is always advisable before diving into Kubernetes, you will need a minimal Kubernetes setup. Such a setup should spin up fast and integrate well with other tools.

=> ↺ How To Install Cloudron With Ubuntu 20.04 Server

• Welcome again! Today we will see how to install Cloudron with Ubuntu 20.04 Server (Headless). This turn-key solution lets you run apps such as WordPress, Rocket.Chat, GitLab, OpenVPN, and many more. App deployment services provided by this server include provisioning databases, automated DNS setup, certificate management, centralized user management, and periodic backups. The out of the box hosting server is an ideal solution for modern days application deployment and management. Applications like WordPress, rocket chat, and the next cloud can be installed quickly. Here, in our example, we will be using Ubuntu headless server for better performance. Let’s go through the features first.

=> ↺ How to install ExpressJS on Debian 11?

• In this post, you will learn how to install ExpressJS on Debian 11.

• Hello, developer friends and all. If you are just starting in front end development it is convenient some tutorials that may seem easy but at the beginning to a novice is complicated.

=> ↺ How to Install Python on Ubuntu – Linux Stans

• In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to install the latest version of Python on Ubuntu. Step-by-step, beginner-friendly instructions.

=> ↺ 3 Best SSH GUI Client Tools for Linux distros – Linux Shout

• If you are using a Linux Desktop such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, CentOS, RedHat… and want to access SSH using a GUI client then here are some best ones to try.

• The Secure Shell (SSH) is a protocol that allows programs (clients) to access a remote computer and execute commands or actions on it. This is very common in PCs and servers running Linux or any other Unix-like operating system and is the preferred choice for many administrators for remotely configuring and maintaining a computer. Due to its high functionality and efficiency, SSH has established itself as one of the most popular tools for accessing a computer over the network. In addition, the majority of Internet Service Providers (ISP) offer their customers web hosting with SSH to provide an easy and flexible way to access their files. Well, operating ssh is pretty easy, however, the remote server or pc must have an active SSH server such as OpenSSH, then only we can access them remotely using any SSH client.

Wine or Emulation

=> ↺ DXVK 1.9.4 Enables Performance Optimizations and DLSS Support for God of War

• Coming less than two weeks after DXVK 1.9.3, the DXVK 1.9.4 release is here to enable performance optimizations and DLSS support for the God of War video game, which needs the Proton Experimental branch of Valve’s compatibility tool for Steam Play based on Wine.

• To improve both accuracy and GPU-bound performance, DXVK 1.9.4 also enables strict D3D9 float emulation by default on future versions of of the Radeon Vulkan (RADV) graphics driver. Moreover, this release improves memory allocation behavior to further reduce memory usage in games that create multiple processes or D3D devices.

=> ↺ DXVK 1.9.4 Released With Better Support For God Of War – Phoronix

• DXVK 1.9.4 is now available for this Direct3D 9/10/11 over Vulkan API implementation used by Valve’s Steam Play (Proton) and other software.

Games

=> ↺ GOG have a big New Year Sale now live with tons of good deals | GamingOnLinux

• Looking for something to keep you warm during these cold weeks? GOG.com might have the answer with their New Year Sale.

• It starts off with a Flash Deal on the epic Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition that has 85% off and there will be new Flash Deals every couple days. No giveaways this time though it seems.

=> ↺ Linux game development on Ubuntu: Godot and Unity | Ubuntu

• A new year, a new instalment of our gaming on Ubuntu blog series! This month we’re covering Linux game development tools on Ubuntu Desktop, something that may be particularly useful for anyone taking part in the upcoming Global Game Jam.

=> ↺ Godot Engine – Major milestone ready for testing: Godot 4.0 alpha 1 is out!

• The new year is often the time for new beginnings, and 2022 is on schedule to mark a new chapter in Godot’s history. Slowly but surely we are getting to the release of the new major version of the engine — Godot 4.0. But to get there, we first need to test the new version rigorously, and like many times before we are looking to our amazing community to help with the efforts.

• This marks the start of the alpha development phase, and we invite everyone to start experimenting with upcoming preview versions of the engine. Be aware that during the alpha stage the engine is still not feature-complete or stable. There will likely be breaking changes between this release and the first beta release. Only the beta will mark the so-called “feature freeze”.

• As such, we do not recommend porting existing projects to this and other upcoming alpha releases unless you are prepared to do it again to fix future incompatibilities. However, if you can port some existing projects and demos to the new version, that may provide a lot of useful information about critical issues still left to fix. There will be frequent alpha releases and the engine will gradually become more stable along the way, as our contributors fix the issues reported by alpha testers.

=> ↺ Godot Engine 4.0 Alpha 1 is out with Vulkan support, rendering overhaul | GamingOnLinux

• Free and open source game dev tech Godot Engine is jumping up a few levels today with the absolutely massive release of Godot Engine 4.0 Alpha 1. This is going to change the game in huge ways.

• This version has been in development for multiple years, with an aim to bring Godot closer to the graphical power and standards being set by the bigger lot (Unity / Unreal etc). All work being done has been in addition to the usual updates to the 3.x branch that is still ongoing too. Godot 4 though brings with it massive changes to the very core of Godot.

=> ↺ Godot 4.0 Alpha 1 Released With Vulkan Renderer & Other Shiny Features – Phoronix

• The first alpha release of the huge Godot 4.0 is now available! Godot 4.0 has been shaping up to be a massive update for this open-source game engine.

• In development for over two years, Godot 4.0 brings Vulkan API support, many improvements to its graphical rendering system, OpenGL improvements, new physics capabilities, GDScript scripting enhancements, better audio support, many multi-player improvements, and a hell of a lot more.

=> ↺ Lutris game manager adds support for Origin integration | GamingOnLinux

• The free and open source game manager Lutris continues expanding the stores it supports installing games from, with Origin now being added into the mix. Currently Lutris supports installing games (both native Linux builds and Windows games with Wine) for Humble Bundle, GOG, Steam, Epic Games and Emulators so adding Origin sounds like a good idea.

=> ↺ Valve sponsors more work to improve Linux graphics drivers | GamingOnLinux

• More improvements will be coming to Linux graphics drivers, as Valve have sponsored work towards continuous integration (CI) testing. Focused on AMD GPUs of course, since that is what the Steam Deck will be using so it’s good news for both the Linux desktop and Valve’s upcoming handheld.

=> ↺ LTT says Linux isn’t good for online gaming… but what IS it good for? – Invidious

• I’m still not over the LTT Daily Driver Challenge. There’s a lot we can still learn from that series. So here we are. Talking about it. I would love to know what you guys think Linux is good for! Lemme know in the comments.

=> ↺ Them’s Fightin’ Herds developer Mane6 acquired by Maximum Games | GamingOnLinux

• The team at Mane6 will now be part of Maximum Games, as the official announcement from the Them’s Fightin’ Herds developer has confirmed. Maximum Games own Modus, a “full-service publishing label focused on bringing AAA publishing services to the best independent developers around the world”.

• Sounds like it will be good news for players though, as it will give Mane6 more resources to grow their team and improve the game as a whole. There’s some big plans to expand the game too including new characters, a finished story mode by the end of 2022, translations into other languages, level 3 super moves and plenty more.

=> ↺ RetroArch 1.10.0 out with Vulkan fixes, Wayland improvements, GameMode support | GamingOnLinux

• The RetroArch frontend application for emulators, game engines and media players has a new release up and there’s plenty of great sounding improvements for Linux users. This should make it play even better with the Steam Deck!

• Netplay was a particular focus for RetroArch 1.10.0. Their relay system to help players connect together is now online, along with some improvements like adding custom relay server support. uPnP support also had a “complete overhaul”.

=> ↺ The 2012 strategy game Oil Rush from Unigine is now free | GamingOnLinux

• Released all the way back in 2012, Oil Rush from Unigine is a naval strategy game and they’ve now decided to set it free by removing the price. Back at release, it was probably one of the most graphically demanding games available for Linux at the time, feels like it’s part of our history at this point.

• Why is it free now? Tomorrow, January 25, it’s the tenth anniversary of the release. Writing about it the developers said: “It’s been 10 years since the release of UNIGINE’s first game. We want to pay tribute to the thing that showed the world not only what our product is capable of, but also became an evidence of our team’s abilities. Oil Rush made us acknowledge our potential, opened a lot of doors for us and showed us opportunities that we’ve been taking ever since.

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GNOME Shell ‘Extensions Manager’ App Gets a Big Ol’ Update – OMG! Ubuntu!

• Remember that new app for installing GNOME extensions I wrote about earlier this month? Well, it just got its first major update.

• And it adds a ton of much-requested features.

• For those unfamiliar with it, Extension Manager is a desktop app that lets you search, browse, manage, and install GNOME extensions without having to use a web browser. The app is built in GTK4 and libadwaita and is available to install from Flathub.

Distributions

New Releases

=> ↺ Windows box won’t boot? SystemRescue 9 may help • The Register

• The latest version of an old friend of the jobbing support bod has delivered a new kernel to help with fixing Microsoft’s finest.

• It used to be called the System Rescue CD, but who uses CDs any more? Enter SystemRescue, an ISO image that you can burn, or just drop onto your Ventoy USB key, and which may help you to fix a borked Windows box. Or a borked Linux box, come to that.

• SystemRescue 9 includes Linux kernel 5.15 and a minimal Xfce 4.16 desktop (which isn’t loaded by default). There is a modest selection of GUI tools: Firefox, VNC and RDP clients and servers, and various connectivity tools – SSH, FTP, IRC. There’s also some security-related stuff such as Yubikey setup, KeePass, token management, and so on. The main course is a bunch of the usual Linux tools for partitioning, formatting, copying, and imaging disks. You can check SMART status, mount LVM volumes, rsync files, and other handy stuff.

• Usefully, there’s also a full local copy of the website and all documentation, including a console-mode web browser to read it with.

SUSE/OpenSUSE

=> ↺ They see us Cinnamon Rolling, they’re rating: GeckoLinux incorporates kernel 5.16 with familiar installation experience

• Most distros haven’t got to 5.15 yet, but openSUSE’s downstream project GeckoLinux boasts 5.16 of the Linux kernel and the latest Cinnamon desktop environment.

• Some of the big-name distros have lots of downstream projects. Debian has been around for decades so has umpteen, including Ubuntu, which has dozens of its own, including Linux Mint, which is arguably more popular a desktop than its parent. Some have only a few, such as Fedora. As far as we know, openSUSE has just the one – GeckoLinux.

• The SUSE-sponsored community distro has two main editions, the stable Leap, which has a slow-moving release cycle synched with the commercial SUSE Linux Enterprise; and Tumbleweed, its rolling-release distro, which gets substantial updates pretty much every day. GeckoLinux does its own editions of both: its remix of Leap is called “GeckoLinux Static”, and its remix of Tumbleweed is called “GeckoLinux Rolling”.

• In some ways, GeckoLinux is to openSUSE as Mint is to Ubuntu. They take the upstream distro and change a few things around to give what they feel is a better desktop experience. So, while openSUSE has a unified installation disk image, which lets you pick which desktop you want, GeckoLinux uses a more Ubuntu-like model. Each disk image is a Live image, so you boot right into the desktop, give it a try, and only then install if you like what you see. That means that GeckoLinux offers multiple different disk images, one per desktop. It uses the Calamares cross-distro installation program.

=> ↺ Brazilian telecoms giant accelerates innovation with SUSE | SUSE Communities

• “SUSE Rancher makes it easier for our IT staff to manage and scale a large container environment. As a result, we can spend less time on repetitive manual tasks and more time on value-added development.” Marcos Borges, Telco/DC Application Manager, Algar Telecom.

Arch Family

=> ↺ Am getting the hang of it….

• With a bit of spare time on my hands between decorating and cooking, been slowly setting up dk tiling window manager. Did try lemonbar as a panel but I soon lost interest and went back to tint2, more the fact I am used to it more. One thing I have added is super + a which fires up rofi showing open windows, not only that it tells you which workspace window is on. Was trying out floating windows and just moved them to workspace 10 to test them out only they would not return to full screen. Found it very odd so tried them on 9 and they worked fine. So thought I would take a look at dkrc file and sure enough there is a line that sets windows, gaps and borders on workspace 10.

IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

=> ↺ How the debuginfod project evolved in 2021

• Debuginfod is a web service for distributing debugging resources over HTTP. The project began in 2019 and has seen a lot of growth in 2021.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Ubuntu Budgie Sets its Sights on Gamers

• Ubuntu Budgie is already a well-designed Linux desktop distribution. With a pleasant UI that makes interacting with Linux incredibly simple. But with the upcoming release of 22.04, the developers are adding a new layer of goodness to the platform.

• First and foremost, the new release will include tools to vastly improve the gaming experience. Gamers will find things like MangoHUD (a Vulkan and OpenGL overlay for monitoring FPS, temperatures, CPU/GPU load, and more), CoreCtrl (allows you to control computer hardware with application profiles), Polychromatic and OpenRGB (RGP lighting management).

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Radxa E25 and E23 boards deliver RK3568 or RK3566 with up to dual 2.5GbE

• Radxa has revealed a “Radxa E25” board with 2x 2.5GbE and M.2 M-key that runs Linux on a new RK3568 powered Radxa CM3 Plus module. The company has also posted more specs for its “Radxa E23” board based on an RK3566-driven Radxa CM3 module.

• In November, Radxa unveiled a Rockchip RK3566 based Radxa CM3 compute module that works with Raspberry Pi CM4 carrier boards. It also teased a few details about a Radxa E23 carrier board for the module. Since our last report, Radxa has posted more detailed preliminary specs for the Radxa E23 (see farther below).

• Today’s report, however, leads with a new Radxa E25 carrier board with an RK3568-based Radxa CM3 Plus module. Radxa Radxa sent a sample to CNXSoft, which posted photos and preliminary specs.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Redmi Note 10, Redmi Note 10 Pro, Mi 11 Lite 4G receive early Android 12-based MIUI 13 updates – NotebookCheck.net News

=> ↺ Xiaomi Android 12 update tracker: Eligible devices, release date, & more

=> ↺ OnePlus OxygenOS 12 (Android 12) update tracker: Eligible devices, release date

=> ↺ Xiaomi 12 global variant may run Android 12 out of the box at launch – Technology News

=> ↺ OnePlus 9, OnePlus 9 Pro Getting Major Android 12-Based OxygenOS 12 C.44 Update: New Features, Changelog | Technology News

=> ↺ Global Redmi Note 10, Note 10 Pro and Mi 11 Lite get MIUI 13 with Android 12 – GSMArena.com news

=> ↺ How to Customize Your Android 12 Phone

=> ↺ Surface Duo users rejoice – the Android 11 update is finally rolling out! – TalkAndroid.com

=> ↺ Here’s how to scan documents on Android – SlashGear

=> ↺ How to share a Wi-Fi network password on Android

=> ↺ How to speed up phone! Just close Android apps this way

=> ↺ Three simple ways to compress video file size on Android smartphones – Times of India

=> ↺ Android Devices In 2022: Which Are The Best New Releases Planned For This Year?

=> ↺ Google is asking for your help to fix Android Auto | T3

=> ↺ Vivo Y21A Android smartphone unveiled – Geeky Gadgets

=> ↺ (Updated) The Most Exciting Games You can Pre-Register for on Android Right Now – Droid Gamers

=> ↺ Google sued by DC and three states for ‘deceptive’ Android location tracking – The Verge

=> ↺ The 7 Best Free Android Apps to Fake Your GPS Location

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ The Apache Weekly News Round-up: week ending 21 January 2022

• We’re wrapping up another great week with the following activities from the Apache community…

Programming/Development

=> ↺ DIY “Solid State Drive” Puts Four Bytes In Your Pocket | Hackaday

• In a relatively short amount of time, the average capacity of USB flash drives has skyrocketed. It wasn’t so long ago that two and four gigabyte drives were considered to be on the high end, but today you can grab a 512 GB drive for less than $50 USD. In fact they’ve gotten so large that it can feel wasteful using them for some tasks, and we occasionally find ourselves wishing we could find some modern USB drives that didn’t rival the storage capacity of our whole computer.

• That said, this USB-C tetrabyte drive created by [Glen Akins] might be slightly too small for our tastes. No, that’s not a typo. As in the Greek tetra, this drive can hold a massive four bytes at a time. Even better, you don’t need a computer to write to it: the 32 DIP switches let you key in the content on the fly, bit-by-bit.

=> ↺ TSDgeos’ blog: Okular: Signing of unsigned signature fields has landed

• Up to today, Okular would kind of error out when opening a PDF file that contains a signature field that was unsigned (think like the old space in paper forms saying “sign here”)

=> ↺ LLVM Clang Now Defaulting To The DWARFv5 Debug Format – Phoronix

• Following GCC, the LLVM Clang C/C++ compiler front-end is now defaulting to using the DWARFv5 debugging data format.

• DWARFv5 was published in 2017 and offers faster symbol searching, better debugging for optimized code, improved data compression, improve descriptions for some elements of the code, new language codes, and other improvements over the decade old DWARFv4. The DWARFv5 specification and more details can be found at dwarfstd.org.

Perl/Raku

=> ↺ gfldex: Iterative golfing

=> ↺ Rakudo Weekly News: 2022.04 Unsigned Merge

• This week’s good news is that the about 2 months of work of Stefan Seifert to properly support native unsigned integers, was merged. This work, and Daniel Green‘s work on using the mimalloc memory allocation library, however caused some unexpected ecosystem fallout. Instead of reverting all of this work (which would have been a big task in itself), it was decided to move forward by skipping the 2022.01 Rakudo Compiler release: the next release will be 2022.02. Which has an odd symmetry to it!

Python

=> ↺ Matthieu Caneill: Debsources, python3, and funky file names

• Rumors are running that python2 is not a thing anymore.

• Well, I’m certainly late to the party, but I’m happy to report that sources.debian.org is now running python3.

• [...]

• While transitioning to python3 and juggling left and right with str, bytes and unicode for internal objects, files, database entries and HTTP content, I stumbled upon a bug that has been there since day 1.

• Quick recap if you’re unfamiliar with this tool: Debsources displays the content of the source packages in the Debian archive. In other words, it’s a bit like GitHub, but for the Debian source code.

• And some pieces of software out there, that ended up in Debian packages, happen to contain files whose names can’t be decoded to UTF-8. Interestingly enough, there’s no such thing as a standard for file names: with a few exceptions that vary by operating system, any sequence of bytes can be a legit file name. And some sequences of bytes are not valid UTF-8.

• Of course those files are rare, and using ASCII characters to name a file is a much more common practice than using bytes in a non-UTF-8 character encoding. But when you deal with almost 100 billion files on which you have no control (those files come from free software projects, and make their way into Debian without any renaming), it happens.

• Now back to the bug: when trying to display such a file through the web interface, it would crash because it can’t convert the file name to UTF-8, which is needed for the HTML representation of the page.

Leftovers

Hardware

=> ↺ How To Optimize Your Workspace: Analyze How You Work | Hackaday

• [Jay Carlson] has shared some fantastic guidance on how to optimize one’s home workspace, and you just might want to emulate some of his layout, especially if you routinely juggle multiple projects. He makes the important point that different people have different needs, so one size does not fit all. Optimizing one’s workspace must first take into account what kind(s) of work one does, and many of his tips and tricks are pretty broadly applicable.

=> ↺ Silicone Devices: DIY Stretchable Circuits | Hackaday

• Flexible circuits built on polyimide film are now commonplace, you can prototype with them at multiple factories, at a cost that is almost acceptable to your average hacker. Polyimide film is pretty tough for something so thin, but eventually it will tear, and with larger components, bend radii are quite restricted. But what about stretchable circuits, as in circuits you can flex, twist and stretch? Let us introduce silicone devices. A research group from Hasselt University, Belgium, have been prototyping making truly flexible, silicone-based circuit substrates, managing to integrate a wide range of SMT component types with a dual layer interconnect, with vias and external contacts.

• It should be possible to reproduce the process using nothing more special than your average Makerspace CO2 laser cutter, and a couple of special tools that can be easily made — a guide for that is promised — it is purely a matter of gathering a few special materials, and using off-cuts you have lying around for the rest. The interconnect uses Galinstan, which is a low melting point alloy of gallium, indium, and tin. Unfortunately, this material is fairly expensive and cannot be shipped by air due to the gallium content, without specialised handling, at considerable expense. But that aside, other than some acrylic sheets, some vinyl, copper foil and a few sprays, nothing is beyond reach.

=> ↺ Domesticating Old Server Hardware In The Age Of Shortages | Hackaday

• Our own [Dave Rowntree] started running into bottlenecks when doing paid work involving simulations of undisclosed kind, and resolved to get a separate computer for that. Looking for budget-friendly high-performance computers is a disappointing task nowadays, thus, it was time for a ten-year-old HP Proliant 380-g6 to come out of Dave’s storage rack. This Proliant server is a piece of impressive hardware designed to run 24/7, with a dual CPU option, eighteen RAM slots, and hardware RAID for HDDs; old enough that replacement and upgrade parts are cheap, but new enough that it’s a suitable workhorse for [Dave]’s needs!

=> ↺ Portable Pizza Oven Has Temperature Level Over 900 | Hackaday

• While it’s possible to make pizza from scratch at home right down to the dough itself, it’ll be a struggle to replicate the taste and exquisite mouthfeel without a pizza oven. Pizzas cook best at temperatures well over the 260°C/500°F limit on most household ovens while pizza ovens can typically get much hotter than that. Most of us won’t have the resources to put a commercial grade wood-fired brick oven in our homes, but the next best thing is this portable pizza oven from [Andrew W].

=> ↺ Can Robots Give Good Hugs?

• We could all use a hug once in a while. Most people would probably say the shared warmth is nice, and the squishiness of another living, breathing meatbag is pretty comforting. Hugs even have health benefits.

• But maybe you’re new in town and don’t know anyone yet, or you’ve outlived all your friends and family. Or maybe you just don’t look like the kind of person who goes for hugs, and therefore you don’t get enough embraces. Nearly everyone needs and want hugs, whether they’re great, good, or just average.

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

=> ↺ Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Atlassian Bitbucket

• Atlassian Corporation Plc is a software company founded in 2002 that develops products for software developers, project managers and other software development teams. It employs over 7,000 people and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

• Atlassian produces a range of proprietary software including software for collaboration, development, and issue tracking software for teams. Atlassian dominates several markets where it still has intense competition.

• Broadly speaking, they offer software in three large buckets: These are software development tools; help desk software, or IT service management; and workflow management software. When you think of Atlassian, think project management and collaboration tools.

• Many of their programs use a number of open source components. And their GitHub repositories hold lots of open source code. But their main range of software is proprietary. This series looks at free and open source alternatives to Atlassian’s products.

=> ↺ Obsidian is a Notion Alternative for Hardcore Markdown Users for Creating Knowledge Graph of Notes

• Initially, I thought that Obsidian was an open source software. It was only when I was looking for their source code repository (after I finished writing this article) that I realized it is free-to-use application but not FOSS (free and open source software). Which is a shame because it’s a damn good application and hence I continued to feature it here.

Pseudo-Open Source

Privatisation/Privateering

Linux Foundation

=> ↺ Linux Foundation launches Open Source Software Development, Linux, and Git certification

=> ↺ ZDNet

• Want a good-paying programming job? By ZipRecruiter’s count, the average annual pay for an open-source developer in the United States is $123,411. That’s not bad.

• There’s also a lot of demand for Linux and open-source pros. The Linux Foundation and edX, the leading massive open online course (MOOC) provider, reported in their 2021 Open Source Jobs Report that the pair found more demand for top open-source workers than ever.

Security

=> ↺ Security updates for Monday [LWN.net]

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (chromium, golang-1.7, golang-1.8, pillow, qtsvg-opensource-src, util-linux, and wordpress), Fedora (expat, harfbuzz, kernel, qt5-qtsvg, vim, webkit2gtk3, and zabbix), Mageia (glibc, kernel, and kernel-linus), openSUSE (bind, chromium, and zxing-cpp), Oracle (kernel), Red Hat (java-11-openjdk and kpatch-patch), Scientific Linux (java-11-openjdk), SUSE (bind, clamav, zsh, and zxing-cpp), and Ubuntu (aide, dbus, and thunderbird).

=> ↺ LogJ4 Security Inquiry – Response Required

• On Friday January 21, 2022 I received this email. I tweeted about it and it took off like crazy.

• The email comes from a fortune-500 multi-billion dollar company that apparently might be using a product that contains my code, or maybe they have customers who do. Who knows?

• My guess is that they do this for some compliance reasons and they “forgot” that their open source components are not automatically provided by “partners” they can just demand this information from.

• I answered the email very briefly and said I will be happy to answer with details as soon as we have a support contract signed.

• I think maybe this serves as a good example of the open source pyramid and users in the upper layers not at all thinking of how the lower layers are maintained. Building a house without a care about the ground the house stands on.

• I believe this email is genuine and my reply was directed to a big-company .com email address domain that did not bounce. In my tweet and here in my blog post I redact the name of the company. I most probably have the right to tell you who they are, but I still prefer to not. (Especially if I manage to land a profitable business contract with them.) I suspect we can find this level of entitlement in many companies.

=> ↺ Trend Micro : Analysis and Impact of LockBit Ransomware’s First Linux and VMware ESXi Variant

=> ↺ there attempts are to shift attention and manipulate perceptions

• The release of this variant is in line with how modern ransomware groups have been shifting their efforts to target and encrypt Linux hosts such as ESXi servers. An ESXi server typically hosts multiple VMs, which in turn hold important data or services for an organization. The successful encryption by ransomware of ESXi servers could therefore have a large impact on targeted companies. This trend was spearheaded by ransomware families like REvil and DarkSide.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation

=> ↺ Linux-Targeted Malware Increased by 35%

=> ↺ megaphone of Microsoft proxy

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ As Myanmar junta extends control over telcos, surveillance and privacy risks increase – Access Now

• Norway’s Telenor is obligated to mitigate the human rights risks of its sale to local operators before the telco imminently changes hands and passes on the private information of millions of people in Myanmar to a military-linked operator, Shwe Byain Phyu Group.

• “It is clear the military wants control over Telenor’s Myanmar private customer data through proxy ownership,” said Dhevy Sivaprakasam, Asia Pacific Policy Counsel at Access Now. “This decision to sell to an operator who may well sit in the military’s back pocket — made without transparency or accountability — is its latest effort to extend surveillance through domination of the telecom sector. Telenor and all other operators must push back to protect people’s rights to privacy, free expression, and security.”

• On January 21, Reuters reported that the Myanmar military had privately approved the partnership of M1 Group and Shwe Byain Phyu Group, with the latter as majority shareholder in the entity that will be taking over Telenor Myanmar’s operations. This decision was not made public, but is a clear indicator that the Myanmar military is continuing to tighten control of the country’s telecommunications. The risk of surveillance and the abuse of people’s privacy are extreme, and all actors in the telecom sector in Myanmar must urgently act to enforce data protection and privacy safeguards.

=> ↺ What your doormat, body odor, or wandering gaze can tell us that we don’t already know.

• Regardless of the accuracy of its assessment, FaceCode represents the frontier of biometric applications for the recognition of body features for personal identification. Rather than seeking just to recognize a person’s face, the creators of FaceCode go beyond the superficial markers to develop an AI application that—so they claim—can uncover something of a person’s genetic makeup and map the facial physiognomy of their expressions to their DNA.

Environment

Energy

=> ↺ Floating Solar Farms Are Taking The World’s Reservoirs By Storm | Hackaday

• Photovoltaic solar panels are wonderful things, capable of capturing mere light and turning it into useful electricity. They’re often installed on residential and commercial rooftops for offsetting energy use at the source.

• However, for grid-scale generation, they’re usually deployed in huge farms on tracts of land in areas that receive plenty of direct sunlight. These requirements can often put solar farms in conflict with farm-farms — the sunlight that is good for solar panels is also good for growing plants, specifically those we grow for food.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Burkina Faso must immediately end its internet shutdown

• The government of Burkina Fast must stop any and all attempts to control expression, communication, and access to information through arbitrary internet shutdowns.

• Yesterday, January 23, authorities made the decision to shut down the internet for the third time within months, targeting mobile internet in the country. The shutdown was implemented amid reports that the country’s president is allegedly being detained by mutinying soldiers, with gunfire allegedly heard last night around the presidential palace and at barracks in the capital, Ouagadougou. The government has denied the arrest of the president and ruled out any coup attempt according to media reports.

• Mobile internet was again disrupted in Burkina Faso on January 10 at approximately 15:30 local time without any explanation from the government or internet service providers operating in the country. Although access was restored the following day, reports indicated that Facebook remained blocked. Last week, the government confirmed that they shut down Facebook for “national security” reasons.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

=> ↺ Digital Right to Repair Coalition Letter of Support: SMART

• On behalf of the Digital Right to Repair Coalition (“The Repair Association”), an organization representing over 400 member companies across a variety of industries, I’m writing to ask for your support of consumer choice and right to repair by advancing H.R.3664 – Save Money on Auto Repair Transportation (SMART) Act. The Repair Association is centered around a simple principle: consumers should have the right to repair the products they own. We believe that competition is an essential component of any market, including automotive repairs, and is better for consumers. We are dedicated to fighting against anti-competitive practices that stifle innovation, restrict small businesses, and disadvantage consumers, regardless of industry.

• Right to repair is a growing, consumers-first movement that is expanding as more people recognize that the law should put consumers first. The growing momentum around repair restrictions for electronics and consumer appliances has spurred companies like Microsoft and Apple to commit to taking action to expand their repair offerings. There’s much more work to be done. According to a new national survey from the CAR Coalition, an overwhelming majority (78%) of vehicle-owning voters support the federal right to repair legislation that protects against design patent abuse in the automotive industry, such as the SMART Act, and makes vehicle data more readily available. The Repair Association believes the SMART Act is an essential step forward in answering consumers’ call for stronger right to repair protections in the automotive repair industry and would serve as an example to other industries.

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