● 02.09.22

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 10/2/2022: Epic Wants Rootkits in Linux and Serial GPL Violator VMware Launches Vicious FUD Attack on Linux

Posted in News Roundup at 8:27 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

=> ↺ Chrome OS 98 Stable Channel arrives: What you need to know

• According to the official Chrome Release blog, the Chrome OS 98 Stable Channel was released on Monday night. All supported Chromebooks, Chromeboxes and Chrome OS tablets should see the update now, or in the coming days.

• As of Tuesday morning, the main Google site did not have any information as to what’s in this update. So here’s a rundown on the new features and functions found so far in the Chrome OS 98 Stable Channel. Many are experimental features.

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ Compulab’s Fitlet3 mini-PC offers Elkhart Lake and triple M.2

• Compulab has launched a highly customizable “Fitlet3” industrial mini-PC that starts at about $260 and runs Linux or Windows on Elkhart Lake. Standard features include 2x GbE, 6x USB, HDMI, mini-DP, FACET expansion, and M.2 M-, B- and E-key slots.

• Compulab has updated its five-year old, Apollo Lake based Fitlet2 mini-PC. The Fitlet3 advances to Intel’s 10nm Elkhart Lake. Aside from the much faster Atom x6000 processor, the Fitlet3 ships with up to 32GB, 3200MT/s DDR4. That is is twice the RAM of the Fitlet2, which is also available as the Linux Mint optimized MintBox Mini 2.

=> ↺ Fitlet3 is a compact, fanless Elkhart Lake mini PC for IoT and industrial applications

• Fitlet3 fanless mini PC based on a choice of three Atom or Celeron Elkhart Lake processors is an upgrade to the Compulab Fitlet2 mini PC introduced in 2017 with Apollo Lake processors.

• Designed to be used as a fanless industrial mini PC or an IoT gateway, Fitlet3 comes with up to 32GB RAM, supports SATA and NVMe storage, offers two 4K video outputs, up to four Gigabit Ethernet ports, optional WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, and/or 4G/5G cellular connectivity, as well as a wide range 7V to 42V power input.

=> ↺ Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, or Linux: Which Operating System Is Best?

• You don’t have a great many choices when it comes to your computer’s operating system, but the choice that you make can have wide-ranging consequences. The five OSes included here are your most viable options. That’s not a huge number, but these operating systems differ distinctly in strengths and weaknesses. Four come from gargantuan commercial tech giants, while one, the Linux-based Ubuntu, is a free, open-source option. Windows and macOS are generally the most powerful in terms of hardware and software selection as well as interface conveniences and utilities, while Chrome OS is more lightweight and runs on inexpensive hardware.

=> ↺ Best desktop Linux for pros 2022: Our top 5 choices | ZDNet

• You knew Fedora, Red Hat’s community Linux distribution, would be first on my list. It’s the mainstream distro that pushes Linux’s limits. It comes powered by the newest Linux kernel and with the latest open-source software.

• In particular, Fedora is the Linux of choice for programmers. No less a figure than Linus Torvalds uses Fedora for his development work. Need I say more?

• Sometimes, however, when you’re running a leading-edge distro, you can cut yourself. There’s a reason why Fedora’s also known as a bleeding-edge Linux.

• On the other hand, Fedora is easy to install and set up. You don’t need to be a Linux expert to get up and running with it.

• For programmers, Fedora also boasts an excellent Developer Portal. It features dedicated guides on developing command line, desktop, mobile, and web apps.

• The Fedora Developer Portal also comes with an excellent guide for developing hardware devices such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Last but not least, it comes with such development tools as the top-notch integrated development environment (IDE) Eclipse for Java, C/C++, and PHP and Vagrant, a tool for creating reproducible, portable container or virtual machine (VM)-based development environments.

• Unless you’re working on the Debian/Ubuntu family programs, Fedora should be your first choice for a development operating system. For developers in that group, I recommend the newest version of Ubuntu.

=> ↺ Best Linux distros for beginners in 2022: You can do this! | ZDNet

• Some people still insist that using Linux is hard. Sure, it was difficult — when I started with the Linux desktop back in the 1990s. But that was a long time ago. Today, the easiest desktop of all, Chrome OS, is simply Linux with the Chrome web browser on top of it. The more full-featured Linux desktop distributions are as easy to use in 2021 as Windows or macOS.

• Yes, you can get a lot more from Linux if you know how to do shell programming and the like. But that’s also true of Windows and PowerShell. With both operating systems, you don’t need to know the deep ins and outs of either one to get your work done.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ From Prototype to Post Deployment: Linux Decision Points

• There were four options given:

• 1. Choose roll-your-own based on Yocto Project Linux, Debian, or something similar: 27 %

• 2. Choose Linux provided through a semiconductor or board vendor: 17 %

• 3. Choose Linux from a commercial open source provider: 10 %

• 4. Continue evaluating whether you want to use Linux: 45 %

• It is interesting that the number of respondents choosing Linux from a commercial OS provider is not higher than 10%. Additionally, given recent trends around the migration to Linux for embedded development, it is surprising that 45% of the audience was still evaluating whether to use Linux at all.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ AMD looking for more Linux help to reach client-stages on the open-source platform

=> ↺ Intel’s Open-Source Linux Driver now offers Vulkan “ANV” ray-tracing support

• With the impending launch of Intel Arc GPUs with new ray-tracing technology approaching soon, the company has introduced further open-source “ANV” Vulkan support for the Linux operating system. In the latest driver update, this new support is filed under “VK_KHR_ray_query.”

Applications

=> ↺ DeskCut Helps You to Create Linux Desktop Shortcuts with Ease

• This article explains briefly how to create useful and standard-compliant desktop entries on Linux by using the DeskCut app.

• Have you ever installed a program in Linux from an outside source and wished that it had a convenient entry in your desktop environment’s menu? While most GUI programs automatically create their desktop shortcut during installation, some applications may require you to set up associated shortcuts manually.

• And this is where DeskCut comes on the scene. But before that, let’s explain what Linux shortcuts actually are.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How To Install Plex Media Server on Fedora 35 – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Plex Media Server on Fedora 35. For those of you who didn’t know, Plex Media Server is a self-hosted media player system for storing your movies, shows, music, and photos. Over time Plex Media Server has grown much and now supports many platforms.

• 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 the step-by-step installation of the Plex Media Server on a Fedora 35.

=> ↺ How to Install Nginx on WHM/cPanel With Engintron – RoseHosting

• In this tutorial, we are going to explain how to Install Nginx with Engintron on a server with WHM/cPanel control panel installed.

• Engintron is a free WHM/cPanel plugin that can be used for installing the Nginx web server as a reverse proxy of the default Apache webserver. The reason for using the Nginx as a reverse proxy of Apache on our WHM/cPanel server is that the Apache will server the dynamic content such as PHP, Perl and etc, and the Nginx will be responsible for serving the static content like CSS, Javascript, and images.

• Installing Nginx with Engintron to your cPanel server can take a few minutes and is a very easy process. Let’s get to work!

=> ↺ How to install InfluxDB 2 on Debian 11 – NextGenTips

• InfluxDB is an open-source time-series database. It is used for storage and retrieval of time series data in fields such as operation monitoring, operations metrics, internet of things sensor data, and real-time analytics. In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to install InfluxDB on Debian 11.

• By default, InfluxDB uses the following network ports for communication.

=> ↺ How to install Google PageSpeed to improve NGINX performance – News Update

• Google PageSpeed is an open-source module, created by Google, to help make web pages load faster. This added speed is achieved by rewriting them for better latency and decreasing bandwidth. Although PageSpeed has been around for some time, it’s not often used. However, by adding it to your NGINX or Apache websites, you’ll find they perform considerably better.

• I’m going to show you how to install both NGINX and PageSpeed, so your users can enjoy a much-improved experience with your web pages. We are going to install everything from scratch, so you’ll want to do this on a non-production machine first. Once you’ve mastered this, move it to production and then migrate your sites to the new web server.

=> ↺ How to easily install minix 3.3.0

• This is an screen by screen guide on how to install minix 3.3.0.

=> ↺ Install and use WPscan (WordPress security scanner) in Linux

• WPScan is a free, for non-commercial use, black box WordPress security scanner written for security professionals and blog maintainers to test the security of their sites.

=> ↺ Install Metasploit Framework on Ubuntu 22.04/Ubuntu 20.04 – kifarunix.com

• In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Metasploit Framework on Ubuntu 22.04/Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Metasploit Framework provides a platform and tools for performing deep system security auditing as well as penetration testing to unearth, exploit and validate every other would-be vulnerability.

=> ↺ How to install Peppermint OS 2022-02-02 – Invidious

=> ↺ How to install OpenVPN Client on Debian 11 Bullseye – Linux Shout

• Learn the steps to install OpenVPN client on Debian 11 Bullseye Linux to connect VPN server for establishing a secure connection. It was programmed by James Yonan and was first released in 2001 under the open-source license.

• OpenVPN is a popular open-source software freely available. It is available in a client-server architecture and can be installed on computers, servers, or network devices such as routers and supports operating systems such as Windows, Linux, macOS, Solaris, OpenBSD, Android, and many more.

• It can be used to implement encrypted private networks between individual clients or entire networks. For the connection to be established, the OpenVPN software must be available and suitably configured on both sides. The software transmits the user data via TCP or UDP packets. The VPN software can also be used across NAT borders (NAT – Network Address Translation). The data exchanged in the VPN is via SSL/ TLSencrypted. The OpenSSL library is used for encryption.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Linux PC Won’t Boot? 5 Common Issues and Fixes

• You’ve switched on your computer, preparing to do some work, edit a document, mix a composition, or just play a game… but something goes wrong.

• Ubuntu won’t boot.

• Sadly, as reliable as Linux is in general, and as popular as Ubuntu is, sometimes it runs into problems, just like Windows 10 or macOS. In most cases, you’ll be able to work around this.

• Whether you’re using Ubuntu desktop or Ubuntu Server, here’s what to do if Ubuntu doesn’t boot.

=> ↺ What Is Log4Shell and How to Protect Your Linux System Against It

• The Log4Shell (CVE-2021-44228) vulnerability is described by many cybersecurity researchers and experts to be the most critical zero-day vulnerability of all time. It affects a widely-used Java utility by the name of Log4j, which has been around since 2001 for logging and communicating events, such as routine system operations and software errors. Here we show you how to protect your Linux system against it.

=> ↺ 100% easy Open-source VPN and Proxy with podman

• OpenConnect VPN is not officially supported by or associated in any way with Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Pulse Secure, Palo Alto Networks, F5, Fortinet, or any of the companies whose protocols we may support in the future. It just happens to interoperate with their equipment. Trademarks belong to their owners in a somewhat tautological and obvious fashion.

• An openconnect VPN server (ocserv), which implements an improved version of the Cisco AnyConnect protocol, was also written.

• OpenConnect VPN server is an SSL VPN server that is secure, small, fast, and configurable. It implements the OpenConnect SSL VPN protocol and has also (currently experimental) compatibility with clients using the AnyConnect SSL VPN protocol. The OpenConnect protocol provides a dual TCP/UDP VPN channel and uses the standard IETF security protocols to secure it. The OpenConnect client is multi-platform and available here. Alternatively, you can try connecting using the official Cisco AnyConnect client (Confirmed working on Android). For the HAproxy tutorial, you can try the link.

=> ↺ Failed to download metadata for repo

=> ↺ Bash Scripting: Check if file exists

=> ↺ Bash Scripting: Check if directory exists

• When writing a Bash script, it is common that you’ll run into the need to check for the existence of a directory. Based on the result, your Bash script can proceed with the appropriate action.

• This functionality can be written into a Bash script or used directly from the command line, without writing a script for it. In this tutorial, you will see how to check if a directory exists in Bash on Linux systems.

=> ↺ MySQL: Allow user access to database

• After installing MySQL on your Linux system and creating a new database, you will need to setup a new user to access that database, granting it permissions to read and/or write data to it.

• It is not recommended to use the root account, but rather create a new account and grant privileges as needed. In this tutorial, you will see how to allow a user to access a MySQL database on Linux.

=> ↺ MySQL: Allow access from specific IP address

• If you need to allow remote access to your MySQL server, a good security practice is to only allow access from one or more specific IP addresses. This way, you are not needlessly exposing an attack vector to the entire internet.

• In this tutorial, we will take you through the step by step instructions to allow remote connections to a MySQL server from a specific IP address on a Linux system. These instructions should work independently of whichever Linux distro you are using.

=> ↺ MySQL: Allow remote connections

• After installing a MySQL server on a Linux system, by default it will only accept incoming connections from itself (i.e. the loopback address 127.0.0.1).

• This default configuration works perfectly fine if you are only trying to read or write information from the database on the same server. So users that host their website and MySQL server on the same box won’t need to do any extra configuration to allow remote connections.

• If you want to allow remote connections to your MySQL server, because you have other computers and/or users that need to access that data, you will need to bind the MySQL service to a public IP address on your server, and perhaps allow incoming MySQL connections through your system firewall.

• In this tutorial, we will take you through the step by step instructions to allow remote connections to a MySQL server on a Linux system. These instructions should work independently of whichever Linux distro you are using.

=> ↺ Building a Docker image in Jenkinsfile and publishing to ECR – Octopus Deploy

• In this post, you learn how to build and push the Octopus Deploy underwater app to Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR) using Jenkins.

Games

=> ↺ Lilbits: Fortnite for Linux isn’t happening, Vivo NEX 5 specs leaked, MAME turns 25 – Liliputing

• While Valve’s game client has been able to run on Linux for years, as of last month just over 1% of Steam users were running Linux (and fewer than 3% were using macOS, with Windows holding a 96% share). It’ll be interesting to see if that starts to change once the Steam Deck hits the streets. And if it does, maybe we’ll see more game makers add support for Linux… but one of the most popular games around isn’t going to add Linux support anytime soon: Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says the company has no plans to port Fortnite to Linux.

• He says it’s because Epic doesn’t “have confidence that we’d be able to combat cheating at scale under a wide array of kernel configurations including custom ones,” but it’s an interesting take since Epic has already ported its anti-cheat software to support Mac and Linux devices including the Steam Deck.

• That means third-party games that use Epic’s Easy Anti-Cheat software should be compatible with the Steam Deck. But Epic’s own Fortnite won’t be one of those games.

• Then again, Fortnite also isn’t available in the Steam Store, so it’s not like it’s a huge surprise that the company doesn’t want to make it too easy for you to play its massively popular game on a device that may lock you into a rival’s ecosystem.

• But the Steam Deck is basically a PC, and while it will ship with Steam OS, it’s also capable of running Windows. And that could provide folks willing to install an alternate operating system a way to play Fortnite or any other games that may not be available or play well under Linux.

=> ↺ Fortnite Is Never Coming To The Steam Deck – Invidious

• With EAC and Battleye now being supported on Linux and by extension the Steam Deck someone asked Tim Sweeney if Fortnite is coming to the Steam Deck and he had a simple answer no, but his reasoning is interesting

=> ↺ Epic Is Worried About Fortnite Cheaters on Linux

• Epic Games makes Fortnite, which is one of the biggest video game phenomenons in recent history. Because the game is so popular, fans wondered whether it would make its way to Valve’s Steam Deck, but it appears Epic is too worried about cheaters on Linux to make it happen.

=> ↺ Tim Sweeney has a point about Fortnite EAC support | GamingOnLinux

• One of the big topics of discourse in the Linux gaming sphere recently has been Tim Sweeney’s statement on porting Fortnite to the Steam Deck, where Sweeney argues that Linux would be too difficult of a target and the market not big enough to warrant the amount of resources it would take to bring all of Fortnite on the platform.

• The central crux of the issue, from Sweeney’s point of view, is that making Easy Anti-Cheat, with all of its capabilities, run on Steam Deck (and thus on Linux) would be extremely difficult. He argues, that for a game of Fortnite’s size this would open the flood-gates to significant influx of cheaters.

• There have been some responses to this from the Linux side, with some accusing Sweeney of exaggerating the difficulty of such a port or that his statements are conflicting, because he simultaneously believes the Linux market is too small to be worthwhile but also would provide a way for too many cheaters. I will address some of these aspects a bit later, but for now let’s focus on the main technical blocker, which is Easy Anti-Cheat.

=> ↺ Proton vs Native: Is There Really A Difference? – Boiling Steam

• The debate over emulation or translation and native games is at least as old as projects like Wine for Linux, and more generally as old as gaming platforms. More recently Proton and DXVK are the stars, but there have been other tools in the past, like VOGL (to translate DirectX 9 to OpenGL, used in CS:Go, for example). Rather than rehash the same debate here, what I would like to do is explore and pose some questions. Not questions like which is “better” (for whatever your definition of “better”), but to think a bit more deeply about another aspect of this debate. To me, much of the endless back and forth comes down to this: is there really a difference between native and tools like Proton?

• Hold your flames and passioned arguments please! I’m not here to make the case for one side or the other or throw my hands up to say “it doesn’t matter,” but to attempt to go beyond our surface arguments and see where that may lead us.

=> ↺ Valheim developers have another fireside chat filled with teasers | GamingOnLinux

• Ready for even more content to come to Valheim? Well, there’s still a bit of a wait and the developers teased biome updates previously but there’s more to see – and hear.

• In a fresh fireside chat, with a much upgraded seating area that’s no longer just a fire in a forest, three members of Iron Gate had a talk about the game now it’s one year on from the Early Access release. The fun thing is that this is clearly an unreleased build, as there’s multiple sneaky new things surrounding them. Their official Twitter account even teased “How many sneak peeks can you spot?”.

=> ↺ Godot Engine – Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 alpha 2

• Two weeks ago we finally released Godot 4.0 alpha 1 ― the first official alpha build of our upcoming major milestone, enabling all interested users to try it out and report bugs, as well as provide feedback on the new features.

• We got lots of bug reports and many have been fixed already in these two weeks! To keep iterating on stabilizing the 4.0 branch, we’re going to release new alpha builds every other week, so that testers can always have a recent version to test the latest changes.

• So here’s Godot 4.0 alpha 2 with a great deal of fixes and new features!

• 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.

• Most importantly: Make backups before opening any existing project in Godot 4.0 alpha builds. There is no easy way back once a project has been (partially) converted.

=> ↺ Wordle Reverse-Engineering And Automated Solving | Hackaday

• We don’t know about you, but we have mixed feelings about online puzzle fads. On one hand, they are great tool to help keep one sharp, but they’re just everywhere. The latest social-media driven fad, Wordle, may be a little bit too prevalent for our liking, with social media timelines stuffed with updates about the thing. [Ed Locard] was getting a bit miffed with friends’ constant posts about ‘Today’s Wordle’, and was hoping they’d get back to posting pictures of their dogs instead, so did what any self-respecting hacker would do, and wrote a python script to automate solving Wordle puzzles, in a likely futile attempt to get them to stop posting.

Desktop Environments/WMs

=> ↺ Give Your Linux Mint and Xubuntu a Visual Uplift Using Twister UI

• Twister UI is the easiest way to give your Linxu Mint and XUbuntu a visual uplift using pre-loaded themes. Here’s how.

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ KDE Community releases Plasma 5.24: It’s eccentric, just like many old-timers

• The new release of KDE’s Plasma desktop brings a GNOME Shell-like instant overview and other improvements.

• KDE is fairly mature now. The FOSS community was founded in 1996, allowing it to call last year’s Plasma release, 5.23, the 25th Anniversary Edition. KDE 1.0 came out in 1998, making it the first FOSS desktop for Linux. It does also support FreeBSD, although not always the latest version.

=> ↺ Plasma Mobile Gear 22.02 is Out

• The Plasma Mobile team is happy to announce the Plasma Mobile updates for January to February 2022.

• Plasma 5.24 was released on February 8th, with many changes to the Plasma Mobile shell.

• The primary shell repository (and corresponding package name for distributions) has been renamed from plasma-phone-components to plasma-mobile. Devin Lin did a lot of work on the shell for this release.

=> ↺ KDE Neon vs Kubuntu vs KDE Plasma

• One of the best aspects of using a Linux system is that there are many popular desktop environments to choose from. If you do not like the style or behavior of yours, it is simple enough to install a different one.

• When it comes to the KDE Plasma desktop environment, there are a few different ways to experience it. KDE Plasma comes not only as a graphical user interface, but also includes a slew of applications (over 200; some installed by default and some not) that integrate into the desktop environment and give the user a more unified experience that flows together.

• If you are ready to try out KDE Plasma, you have a few choices. First of all, you can install it the same way you would any other desktop environment – right from your system’s package manager. But you can also choose from the KDE Neon and Kubuntu Linux distributions.

• So, which one should you choose? We will go over all the details in this article and help you make an informed decision.

=> ↺ More wlroots with KWinFT 5.24 – subdiff.org

• In the last year our development focus for KWinFT was on the integration with the wlroots library. In a single sentence our goal with this is to share underlying architecture, patterns and ideas across the Wayland ecosystem, instead of reimplementing things again and again for each and every big project while leaving smaller ones behind.

• Only a few months ago in October a first iteration of this integration was released with KWinFT 5.23. I talked about it here on this blog and at X.Org Developer Conference (XDC) 2021 in a talk including a primer on wlroots itself.

• If you’re interested in that first part of integration specifically or a wlroots primer in general check out my talk on YouTube.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GNOME 42 Adds ’Dark Wallpaper’ Support

• Simply put: when the new standardised dark mode setting is enabled in GNOME 42 a ‘dark’ version of the default wallpaper is applied. When light mode is enabled, a ‘light’ version of the wallpaper is applied. If this all sounds a bit familiar it’s probably because I mentioned this was on the way last month when I wrote about the streamlining of wallpaper options in GNOME 42.

• Naturally, you are free to override this behaviour and set any image you like as the desktop background, regardless of whatever dark mode preference is active.

=> ↺ Turbocharging GNOME Nightly and GNOME OS infrastructure

• Mistakes were made¹, and after recent maintenance, Jordan asked Infrastructure Team if there is a chance GNOME Nightly (and its younger sibling GNOME OS) could be moved somewhere with faster network and more storage. After short discussion, we decided to move it to AWS (thanks to promotional credits for open source projects). The new server has three times more space, uses SSD instead of HDD, and should offer up to 10 Gbps of network bandwidth.

• It quickly became apparent we underestimated GNOME Nightly popularity by a large margin. On the second day, the new server transmitted almost 500 GB of data. As we wanted to limit potential egress costs, we reached out to CDN77, and they quickly agreed to help us. CDN77 team aren’t stranger to the open source world, helping other projects like KDE, Gentoo and Manjaro.

=> ↺ 7 New Features That Make GNOME 42 an Awesome Release – It’s FOSS News

• GNOME 42 will be an interesting release.

• It includes noticeable visual changes and improvements to the desktop experience. Of course, the changes in GNOME 41 compliments the new release as well.

• GNOME 42 is due on March 23, 2022, but it has almost reached beta (scheduled for February 12, 2022).

Distributions

=> ↺ Theme in EasyOS 3.3

• The snapshot was taken on a 1024×768 monitor, which is the smallest resolution that is practical to use with EasyOS. You can see the icons along the top, anything less than 1024 pixels, say 800 pixels, is going to be a problem.

• In a running Easy, you will see there is a file /root/.packages/default-theme. This is used in woofQ to set the theme, and is included in the release build so that users can see the choices made. Here is the file for Easy 3.3…

=> ↺ Icon-free desktop peach theme

• By using the ‘xdotool’ utility, the “Drives” menu will now automatically popup whenever a drive is plugged in.

• On a screen that is smaller than 1920 pixels wide, the app labels automatically do not display. Here is a snapshot on a 1024×768 screen…

=> ↺ Experimental icon-free desktop

• I have wanted to try this for a long time, a desktop completely free of icons. You could then have, say, a beautiful nature scene filling almost the entire screen, unmarred by icons. Also, you will no longer have to shove windows aside to get at underlying icons. ROX-Filer is not just a file manager, it also manages the desktop icons and wallpaper. However, it is possible for JWM window manager to display all of the icons, in one or more trays, and also be responsible for the wallpaper.

• One big problem is the drive partition icons, that will dynamically change as partitions are mounted and unmounted, and drives plugged in and removed. Implementing dynamic drive icons in a JWM tray is not feasible; however, it can be done as a menu.

BSD

=> ↺ Why you should read Section 8 of the Unix User’s Manual • The Register

• If, like me, you were a computer-science graduate student who cut your teeth on Berkeley Unix – complete with the first open-source implementation of TCP/IP – you know Section 8 as the cryptic System Maintenance Commands section of the Unix User’s Manual.

• It was obvious, to me, that this concluding section warranted a closer look because the introduction warned: “Information in this section is not of great interest to most users.” Judging by my taste in research problems over the years, reading Section 8 turned out to be a pretty good investment.

• But before getting to Section 8, you first learned about the rest of Unix, where you discovered how empowering it is to be able to build new internet applications. Anyone interested in how targeted investments in open-source software, coupled with affordable hardware, can spur innovation should study the role of the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) in the success of the internet.

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

=> ↺ Mozilla Thunderbird update » PCLinuxOS

• Thunderbird, the email client from Mozilla has been updated to 91.6.0 and shipped to the PCLinuxOS Software Repository.

=> ↺ Firefox browser update » PCLinuxOS

• Firefox, the web browser from Mozilla has been updated to 97.0 and sent to the software repository.

=> ↺ Kernel updates available » PCLinuxOS

• Current kernels: kernel-5.4.178-pclos1-1-1pclos2022.x86_64.rpm kernel-5.10.99-pclos1-1-1pclos2022.x86_64.rpm kernel-5.15.22-pclos1-1-1pclos2022.x86_64.rpm kernel-5.16.8-pclos1-1-1pclos2022.x86_64.rpm

IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

=> ↺ 3 ideas for bringing innersource to your company | Opensource.com

• As workforces become more distributed and new tools and processes enable more effective asynchronous communication, innersource is very likely to keep changing the work culture as we know it.

=> ↺ Comparison of Fedora Flatpaks and Flathub remotes – Fedora Magazine

• In the previous article in this series, we looked at how to get started with Fedora Flatpaks and how to use it. This article compares and contrasts between the Fedora Flatpaks remote and the Flathub remote. Flathub is the de-facto standard Flatpak remote, whereas Fedora Flatpaks is the Fedora Project’s Flatpak remote. The things that differ between the remotes include but are not limited to their policies, their ways of distribution, and their implementation.

=> ↺ GitOps using Red Hat OpenShift console 4.9 and 4.10 | Red Hat Developer

• This article introduces new Red Hat OpenShift developer console features supporting GitOps processes for applications running in the cloud. Learn about improvements and updates to the OpenShift GitOps Operator, then watch a video showing how to manage cluster configurations and deliver cloud-native applications using Red Hat OpenShift GitOps in the developer console.

• [...]

• OpenShift GitOps supports GitOps processes for cloud-native applications. It is built on top of Argo CD, a declarative GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes, and includes OpenShift’s GitOps Operator and Pipelines Operator, both available from the OpenShift OperatorHub. Figure 1 shows the development flow and tools OpenShift GitOps provides.

=> ↺ The State of Customer Experience at Red Hat: Where we’ve been and where we are going

• In the final part of our three-part blog series on the state of customer experience at Red Hat, we will cover enhancements that our marketing teams made in 2021 based on customer feedback. In addition, we will recap where we have been and will look ahead at the plans we have as an organization in 2022 to continue to advance and improve the customer experience.

=> ↺ Automating Content Management in Satellite 6.9 with Ansible Automation Platform: Part 2

• If you recall from part one of the Automating Content Management series, we are working to minimize the management effort of maintaining the Red Hat Satellite managed content for a large fleet of servers. We developed a simple plan that aligns with the guide to Building a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Standard Operating Environment (SOE) and allows us to automate our process.

• The simple model is: update the content, publish the content, validate the content, promote the content to the next life cycle environment, rinse and repeat.

=> ↺ Agile adoption: 6 strategic steps for IT leaders | The Enterprisers Project

• At Thales Group, our IT organization has been working on a transformation known as NextGen IT for a couple years. One of the key elements is to change from a waterfall delivery model to an agile one.

• As part of this enterprise initiative, my North America leadership team and I took on the challenge of reworking our entire operation to adopt agile principles for both product and service delivery. We knew what we wanted to achieve: squads, operating using agile methods, driven by user stories, and ultimately delivering incremental value.

• As we embarked on this journey, something dawned on us early on: The only way we could truly be effective in leading the organization through an agile transformation is if we transformed our leadership team first.

• We did this by adopting agile principles and adapting the agile process to our leadership team. Here’s what we learned.

Debian Family

=> ↺ Writing Debian New Contributor Guide – ひとりしずかに。

• Recently, I’ve wrote Debian New Cotributor Guide in Japanese.

• Here is the photo of on-demand printed version.

• This book (JIS-B5 128p) was published for online event – Techbookfest 12th. It covers how to package a new software in Debian.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Ubuntu Blog: Canonical and CoreSpace Announce Partnership To Offer Organizations ‘One-Stop Shopping’ for Private Clouds

• Canonical, the publisher of Ubuntu, and CoreSpace, a leading Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider, announced a partnership today that makes it easier and more economical for organizations to set up, customize, and manage private clouds.

• Hybrid or multi-cloud environments that allow organizations to run workloads where it makes the most sense have become common in the modern enterprise. Because private workloads remain essential for most companies, high-performing private clouds are playing a critical role in their containerisation, cloud, and digital transformation strategies.

• The Canonical-CoreSpace alliance enables organizations to adopt and get the most out of private clouds. It does this through an end-to-end solution that combines Canonical’s leadership in designing, building, operating, and supporting private clouds with CoreSpace’s infrastructure technology and expertise. With the announcement, CoreSpace becomes Canonical’s first cloud delivery partner in the United States.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Vestel puts TikTok on Linux-based TVs | Light Reading

• Vestel, the largest TV manufacturer in Europe, is today announcing the arrival of TikTok on its vast range of Smart TVs. The app collaboration will see Vestel now bring the video sharing phenomenon to more than twenty high-profile and premium TV brands, including its own portfolio of brand licences.

• Especially designed for TV, the TikTok app is already available on all Vestel-designed Android Smart TV ranges for brands in the UK, Germany and France. The roll out of TikTok for Vestel Linux-based Smart TVs started on the 20th, January, with the app set to launch on Vestel 2021 UHD TV ranges in early February, and on Vestel 2020 UHD TVs by the end of March.

• Supporting the display of high definition TikTok content, the Vestel-manufactured Smart TVs bring more detail, vibrancy, and colour to the screen for a larger-than-life home viewing experience.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Intel Makes Massive Investment in RISC-V

• Intel has joined RISC-V International, the global open hardware standards organization, and has announced creation of a billion-dollar fund that aims to speed innovation and development of RISC-V.

• Intel’s Nios® V processors are already based on RISC-V, but according to the announcement, the company’s investment “will strengthen the overall ecosystem and drive commercialization of RISC-V.”

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ 6 secret settings for better browsing in Chrome on Android | Computerworld

=> ↺ OnePlus & Oppo tipped to merge designs in Android 13 – 9to5Google

=> ↺ Google patched a critical Android 12 security flaw today – PhoneArena

=> ↺ Android 12L is coming to Samsung tablets – 9to5Google

=> ↺ OnePlus’s first tablet may come with Android 12L OS – PhoneArena

=> ↺ Android 12L Beta 3 rolling out, including for Pixel 6 and 6 Pro – 9to5Google

=> ↺ Android 12L Beta 3 now available, adds support for Pixel 6 series

=> ↺ Google releases Android 12L Beta 3 with support for the Pixel 6 series | Android Central

=> ↺ Galaxy S22 gets Android 12′s Material You design, so you can change all the colors – CNET

=> ↺ How to install Android 12L Beta on Google Pixel – 9to5Google

=> ↺ Android 12L beta 3 now available on Pixel phones — here’s how to get it

=> ↺ Here’s everything new in Android 12L Beta 3 [Gallery] – 9to5Google

=> ↺ Wallpaper Wednesday: Android wallpapers 2022-02-09 – Android Authority

=> ↺ Google just added the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro to its Android beta program

=> ↺ Samsung phones will get an extra year of Android updates versus Google’s Pixel – The Verge

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: stylus-equipped Android superphone launched | Samsung | The Guardian

=> ↺ Samsung promises “up to” four major Android updates for some devices (and five years of security updates) – Liliputing

=> ↺ The best mobile video editing app is coming to Android, with a little help from Samsung

=> ↺ Samsung leapfrogs Google by announcing 4-year Android OS upgrade commitment

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ syslog-ng-future.blog? Is this a fork or what? – syslog-ng-future.blog

• I mentioned in the previous post that I would like to focus on syslog-ng and put it more into the spotlight. I also mentioned that Balabit, the company I was a founder of and the commercial sponsor behind syslog-ng, was acquired by One Identity ~4 years ago. How does this add up? Who owns the Intellectual Property (IP) for syslog-ng? Who am I or this blog affiliated with?

• I felt this post was important to set things straight and make it easier to understand my motivation. If you are not much into Free Software and Open Source licenses or not interested too much in administrative nuisances of FLOSS projects, feel free to skip this post.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Firefox 97.0 Released! Support New Overlay Scrollbars in Windows 11

• Mozilla Firefox web browser 97.0 was released a day ago with few new features and various bug-fixes.

• The release does not include any exciting new features for Linux, but only adds new minimal overlay scrollbar support for Windows 11. As well, system font loading on macOS has been improved to make opening and switching to new tabs faster in certain situations.

=> ↺ This Week in Glean: Migrating Legacy Telemetry Collections to Glean

• One of the things I’ve spent a fair amount of time helping with on the Glean Team are the migrations from legacy telemetry to Glean being performed by different Mozilla products. This includes everything from internal tools and libraries to the mobile browsers and even desktop Firefox. As it turns out, there were quite a few projects and products that needed to be migrated. While we have started migrating all of our active products, each of them are at different stages and have different timelines for completion. I thought it might be helpful to take a little narrative look through what the migration process looks like, and so here we go!

FSF

GNU Projects

=> ↺ GNU Binutils 2.38 released

• Version 2.38 of the GNU Binutils tool set has been released. Changes include new hardware support (including for the LoongArch architecture), various Unicode-handling improvements, a new –thin option to ar for the creation of thin archives, and more.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ QtQuick3D Realtime Reflections

• Reflections enhance the realism of a rendered 3D scene and without it we can not have objects like mirrors or puddles of water that reflect the surrounding environment. Raster rendering pipelines like QtQuick3D can approximately calculate reflections using different methods to get good results, as opposed to Ray Tracing where reflections can be calculated accurately by following the light rays and checking where they bounce from. In this blog post, we are going to discuss two different techniques to do reflections in QtQuick3D.

=> ↺ Qt for MCUs 2.0.1 Released

• Qt for MCUs 2.0.1 has been released and is available for download. This is the first patch release made on top of the new Qt for MCUs 2.0 series. As a patch release, Qt for MCUs 2.0.1 provides bug fixes and other improvements, and maintains source compatibility with Qt for MCUs 2.0.0. It does not add any new functionality.

=> ↺ Qt for Android Automotive 6.2.3 released

• We are happy to announce the release of Qt for Android Automotive 6.2.3!

• This release comes with several fixes that improve the stability and developer experience of QAA. Big thanks to our technology preview users for reporting the issues!

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi: This new feature could help you get started more easily

• The makers of Raspberry Pi computers have released a new boot loader that lets users install an operating system like the official OS directly on the compute board rather than via a separate computer.

• Until now, Raspberry Pi owners needed the imager on a macOS, Windows or Ubuntu desktop to install the OS on a Pi device. It could also be done via another Pi device by connecting SD card readers on each of them. The new Raspberry Pi bootloader delivers network installation, cutting out the need for a second computer to install the OS.

=> ↺ Getting Started with C++ and InfluxDB

Perl/Raku

=> ↺ gfldex: Fuzzy commands

• Reading can make one learned. Today I had a peak into lizmat´s new module shorten-sub-commands and learned about Parameter.constraint_list. We need this method to introspect a routines literal parameters.

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

=> ↺ how to use vim’s build in history (re run re play commands) by line number

=> ↺ Using the Linux fold command to make text more readable | Network World

• The Linux fold takes lines of text and breaks them into chunks based on the arguments that you provide. With no arguments, fold will break lines at 80 characters.

• The first example below uses a single-line text file that includes indications of character positions. First, we count the number of characters and lines in the file using the wc -l and wc -l command…

Rust

=> ↺ Dare to ask for more #rust2024

• Last year, we shipped Rust 2021 and I have found the changes to be a real improvement in usability. Even though the actual changes themselves were quite modest, the combination of precise capture closure and simpler formatting strings (println!(“{x:?}”) instead of println!(“{:?}”, x)) is making a real difference in my “day to day” life.1 Just like NLL and the new module system from Rust 2018, I’ve quickly adapted to these new conventions. When I go back to older code, with its clunky borrow checker workarounds and format strings, I die a little inside.2

• As we enter 2022, I am finding my thoughts turning more and more to the next Rust edition. What do I want from Rust, and the Rust community, over the next few years? To me, the theme that keeps coming to mind is dare to ask for more. Rust has gotten quite a bit nicer to use over the last few years, but I am not satisfied. I believe that there is room for Rust to be 22x more productive3 and easy to use than it is today, and I think we can do it without meaningfully sacrificing reliability, performance, or versatility.

Java

=> ↺ Java break and continue Statements

• The continue statement is used in the body of a while, do and for loop. The break statement is used in these loops, as well as in the switch statement. Iteration can be considered the execution of a loop’s body, over and over. The break statement stops the iteration. The continue statement skips one execution (rest of the statements below) of the body. This article explains the employment of the continue and break statements in Java. The while-loop compound statement will be used. For the break statement, the switch compound statement will also be used.

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ MIPI CSI-2 v4.0 adds features for always-on, low power machine vision applications – CNX Software

• While MIPI CSI-2 standard was first introduced in 2005 as a high-speed protocol for the transmission of still and video images from image sensors to application processors, the standard has evolved over the years, and the latest MIPI CSI-2 v4.0 introduces features to better support always-on, low power machine vision applications, high-resolution sensors, and high-dynamic-range automotive image sensors.

• The main changes for v4.0 include support for a two-wire interface (MIPI I3C) to lower cost and complexity, multi-pixel compression for the latest generation of advanced image sensors, and RAW28 color depth for better image quality and an improved signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Heart-Shaped Pizza History: Less Pizza for the Same Price

• It doesn’t matter that the heart symbol doesn’t look like an actual human heart, and never has. It nonetheless has become our general symbol for what we think of as love. The symbol is everywhere—on greeting cards, in emoji. But there’s one particular heart-shaped thing that I can’t stop thinking about right now: The heart-shaped pizza. It seems like the most crass of romantic gestures, to put tomato sauce and cheese on bread, but in a way, it’s genius. And seemingly every major chain that’s not Domino’s is offering a heart-shaped pizza. (Hey, if two people are sharing, it makes splitting it kind of easy, I guess.) I can’t stop thinking about the fact that lots of people are expected to buy cheap, rubbery Papa John’s pizza as a way to show off their love. (Papa John’s doesn’t even use heart-shaped pepperonis!) Today’s Tedium, in our first Valentine’s-themed post in our seven-year history, talks about our cultural tendency to make heart-shaped food. Especially pizza.

Hardware

=> ↺ China Loves Battery Swapping EVs, But Will They Ever Make It Here? | Hackaday

• Electric vehicles promise efficiency gains over their gas-fuelled predecessors, but the issue of recharging remains a hurdle for many eager to jump on board with the technology. The problem is only magnified for those that regularly street park their vehicles or live in apartments, without provision to charge a vehicle overnight at home.

• Battery swapping promises to solve that issue, letting drivers of EVs change out their empty battery for a freshly charged one in a matter of minutes. The technology has been widely panned and failed to gain traction in the US.

• However, as it turns out, battery swapping for EVs is actually thing in China, and it’s catching on at a rapid rate.

=> ↺ Build Your Own CRT TV | Hackaday

• There was a time following the Second World War when TV sets for the nascent broadcast medium were still very expensive, but there was an ample supply of war-surplus electronic parts including ex-radar CRTs. Thus it wasn’t uncommon at all for electronics enthusiasts of the day to build their own TV set, and magazines would publish designs to enable them. With a burgeoning consumer electronics industry the price of a new TV quickly dropped to the point of affordability so nobody would consider building one themselves today. Perhaps that should be amended to almost nobody, because [Retro Tech or Die] has assembled a small black-and-white CRT TV from a kit he found on AliExpress.

=> ↺ That Clock On The Wall Is Actually A Network Ping Display | Hackaday

• We’ve all been online from home a bit more than usual lately, in ways that often stretch the limits of what our ISP can muster. You know the signs — audio that drops out, video sessions that make you look like [Max Headroom], and during the off-hours, getting owned in CS:GO by pretty much everyone. All the bandwidth in the world won’t make up for high latency, and knowing where you stand on that score is the point of this ping-tracking clock.

=> ↺ It’s Always Floppy Time! | Hackaday

• On [Jan Derogee]’s desk is something that wouldn’t look out of place for many of us, a pile of computer magazines with a case of 3.5″ floppy disks on top of it. The causal observer would see nothing more than the detritus of a retrocomputer enthusiast’s existence, but stick around. In fact it’s a clock, and one of the most unusual ones we’ve seen in a long time.

=> ↺ A Guide To Milling PCBs At Home | Hackaday

• If you keep up with various retro vacuum tube projects, you probably have run across [UsagiElectric] aka [David]’s various PCBs that he makes on his own Bridgeport EZ-Track 3-axis milling machine — massively oversized for the job, as he puts it. In a recent video, [David] walks us through the steps of making a sample PCB, introducing the various tools and procedures of his workflow. He points out that these are the tools he uses, but the overall process should be similar no matter what tools you use.

=> ↺ Mystery Effect Causing LEDs To Glow During Reflow | Hackaday

• Sometimes you notice something small that nevertheless you can’t explain. [Greg Davill] found himself in just such a situation this week when he noticed some green LEDs glowing dimly when reflowing some boards. Naturally, [Greg] set out to investigate.

• The green LEDs were wired up as power indicators, and [Greg] suspected that the polymer caps on the board might be generating a small current somehow that was causing the LEDs to light up ever so slightly. A simple test hooked a polymer cap directly up to a multimeter. When warmed with a heat gun, the meter showed a small current “in the 5-10 uA range.”

• [...]

• It’s a curious case, and has many speculating as to the causative mechanism on Twitter. Explanations from thermoelectric effects to chemical reactions inside the capacitor. If you’ve got the inside scoop on what’s going on here, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments. Meanwhile, check out some of [Greg]’s best work – a glowing D20 dice featuring a whopping 2400 LEDs.

=> ↺ Working Model Reveals Amazing Engineering Of Webb’s Mirror Actuators | Hackaday

• We end up covering a lot of space topics here on Hackaday, not because we’re huge space nerds — spoiler alert: we are — but because when you’ve got an effectively unlimited budget and a remit to make something that cannot fail, awe-inspiring engineering is often the result. The mirror actuators on the James Webb Space Telescope are a perfect example of this extreme engineering, and to understand how they work a little better, [Zachary Tong] built a working model of these amazing machines.

• The main mirror of the JWST is made of 18 separate hexagonal sections, the position of each which must be finely tuned to make a perfect reflector. Each mirror has seven actuators that move it through seven degrees of freedom — the usual six that a Stewart platform mechanism provides, plus the ability to deform the mirror’s curvature slightly. [Zach]’s model actuator is reverse-engineered from public information (PDF) made available by the mirror contractor, Ball Aerospace. While the OEM part is made from the usual space-rated alloys and materials, the model is 3D printed and powered by a cheap stepper motor.

=> ↺ A Tuning Fork Clock, With Discrete Logic | Hackaday

• [Willem Koopman aka Secretbatcave] was looking at a master clock he has in his collection which was quite a noisy device, but wanted to use the matching solenoid slave clock mechanism he had to hand. Willem is a fan of old-school ‘sector’ clocks, so proceeded to build his ideal time piece — Vibrmatic — exactly the way he wanted. Now, since most time keeping devices utilise a crystal oscillator — which is little more than a lump of vibrating quartz — why not scale it up a bit and use the same principle, except with a metal tuning fork? (some profanity, just to warn you!)

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

=> ↺ Microsoft Teams will soon have LinkedIn and OneDrive integration

=> ↺ 1

=> ↺ 2

=> ↺ Microsoft February 2022 Patch Tuesday: 48 bugs squashed, one zero-day resolved

=> ↺ Microsoft ZDNet

=> ↺ intentionally leaves holes for the NSA

=> ↺ Microsoft 365 will tell your boss almost immediately if you send an inappropriate message | TechRadar

=> ↺ TechRadar

• Microsoft will soon roll out a new system that will help businesses identify inappropriate messages sent by employees over its productivity and collaboration software.

Security

=> ↺ Linux kernel developer Alan Cox on Microsoft security practices. “I pointed out that they ship an OpenSSL from 2017 and they won’t even respond.”. – BaronHK’s Rants

• Linux kernel developer Alan Cox on Microsoft security practices. “I pointed out that they ship an OpenSSL from 2017 and they won’t even respond.”.

• OpenSSL is a deeply troubled project that Big Tech uses extensively. It has a long history of disastrous security flaws, thousands, some of which have THEIR OWN Wikipedia articles, which routinely compromise the security of the connection between your computer and a Web server. So it’s not like shipping a recent version is important or anything.

• Shipping it in the first place is stupid when it has a community fork that removes poorly written and little-used code and audits and fixes the rest. But that’s Microsoft/Big Tech/what most “Linux” distributions have become under their guiding hand.

=> ↺ Breaking 256-bit Elliptic Curve Encryption with a Quantum Computer – Schneier on Security

• In other words: no time soon. Not even remotely soon. IBM’s largest ever superconducting quantum computer is 127 physical qubits.

=> ↺ The impact of hardware specifications on reaching quantum advantage in the fault tolerant regime

=> ↺ 2021 Trends Show Increased Globalized Threat of Ransomware

=> ↺ without mentioning Microsoft or Windows

• CISA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK) have released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) highlighting a global increase in sophisticated, high-impact, ransomware incidents against critical infrastructure organizations in 2021. This CSA provides observed behaviors and trends as well as mitigation recommendations to help network defenders reduce their risk of compromise by ransomware.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation

=> ↺ Deterrence, diplomacy, in hybrid war. UK Foreign Office hacked. Threats to Linux-based multi-cloud environments. Patch Tuesday.

• Russia stages more general purpose forces near Ukraine (notably moving amphibious assault ships from the Mediterranean through the Dardanelles and toward Ukraine’s Black Sea coast) while diplomatic efforts to reduce tension continue. Belarus continues to emerge as an important staging point for Russian conventional forces. No fresh, large-scale cyber activity, however, is being reported. The New York Times reviews the current state of multilateral negotiations and sees, if not stalemate, at least stasis. Its analysis foresees “a drawn-out and dangerous diplomatic slog toward a difficult settlement.”

=> ↺ Threat actors view Linux servers as their ticket to accessing multi-cloud environments

=> ↺ VMware

=> ↺ How cybercriminals are using malware to target Linux-based operating systems

• As the most common cloud operating system, Linux is a core part of digital infrastructure and is quickly becoming an attacker’s ticket into a multi-cloud environment. Current malware countermeasures are mostly focused on addressing Windows-based threats, leaving many public and private cloud deployments vulnerable to attacks that target Linux-based workloads, VMware reveals.

=> ↺ Cybercriminals Are Using Malware To Target Linux-Based Systems

=> ↺ Cybercriminals Target Linux‑based Systems with Ransomware and Cryptojacking Attacks – VMware News

=> ↺ Cybercriminals Target Linux-based Systems With Ransomware and Cryptojacking Attacks

=> ↺ its GPL violations

=> ↺ Linux Malware on the Rise

Environment

Energy

=> ↺ The Environmental Costs of Cryptocurrency

• New Scientist defines Bitcoin as a digital currency that relies on peer-to-peer software and cryptography. A public ledger (or blockchain) records all Bitcoin transactions, and copies of those transactions are held on servers (or nodes) around the world. “Consensus on who owns which coins is reached cryptographically across these nodes rather than relying on a central source of trust like a bank.”

• To acquire Bitcoin, you can buy it, you can sell something and be paid in Bitcoin, or you can mine it. Each cryptocurrency transaction, however, involves an immense amount of processing power, with this article estimating that each Bitcoin transaction consumes more than $100 worth of electricity.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ #SocialMediaComplianceWatch: analysis of Social Media Compliance Reports of November, 2021

• Google (including YouTube), Facebook, Instagram, ShareChat, Snap, Twitter and WhatsApp released their reports in compliance with Rule 4(1)(d) of the IT Rules 2021 for the month of November, 2021. The reports were made available in January 2022 and they exhibit similar shortcomings. This outlines lack of effort on the part of the SSMIs and the government to further transparency and accountability in platform governance. The SSMIs have continued to not report on government requests, used misleading metrics, and not disclosed how they use algorithms for proactive monitoring. You can read our analysis of the previous reports here.

Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ A Paper Archaeology: Piranesi’s Ruinous Fantasias – The Public Domain Review

• From the vast confines of his imaginary prisons to the billowy scenes that comprise his grotteschi, the early works of Giovanni Battista Piranesi wed the exacting details of first-hand observation with the farthest reaches of artistic imagination. Susan Stewart journeys through this 18th-century engraver-architect’s paper worlds.

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