This page permanently redirects to gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2022/03/30/gnu-poke-2-2/.

● 03.30.22

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 29/03/2022: GNU Poke 2.2 and Official Video Release for LibrePlanet 2022

Posted in News Roundup at 2:37 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

=> ↺ it is correct to refer to GNU/Linux as GNU/Linux – Ariadne’s Space

• You’ve probably seen the “I’d like to interject for a moment” quotation that is frequently attributed to Richard Stallman about how Linux should be referred to as GNU/Linux. While I disagree with that particular assertion, I do believe it is important to refer to GNU/Linux distributions as such, because GNU/Linux is a distinct operating system in the family of operating systems which use the Linux kernel, and it is technically correct to recognize this, especially as different Linux-based operating systems have different behavior, and different advantages and disadvantages.

• For example, besides GNU/Linux, there are the Alpine and OpenWrt ecosystems, and last but not least, Android. All of these operating systems exist outside the GNU/Linux space and have significant differences, both between GNU/Linux and also each other.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ LHS Episode #460: Winds of Change

• Hello and welcome to the 460th episode of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this short-topics episode the hosts discuss the RaDAR Challenge, the ARRL.org website redesign, secure deleting of files in Linux, new distros from Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora, contributing to open source and much more. Thank you for listening and have a great week.

=> ↺ Linux Essentials – The grep Command – Invidious

• The grep command – one of the most popular Linux commands, and definitely deserving of a feature video in the Linux Essentials series. In this video, Jay goes over the basics of the grep command, along with some useful examples.

=> ↺ Terminal is NEEDED to use Linux – Invidious

• There is a HUGE myth going around that you don’t need to use terminal. While on the surface this is true, as soon as you start using your Linux install, you will realize that you absolutely can NOT live without terminal for daily usage.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Inodes in Linux – Explained

• A Linux computer contains several files, which include data files, directories, system files, library files, and other different types of files. These files are stored and organized in directories and subdirectories. The file systems do not rely on the actual data of a file but on the file and directory data structures. Linux maintains file system entries of these files and directories, and these entries are described by inode.

=> ↺ How to play Deux Ex on Linux

• Deus Ex is a 2000 action RPG developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive. It is set in a cyberpunk dystopian world and centers around a grand conspiracy. Here’s how you can play Deus Ex on Linux.

• Note: as Deus Ex is an older video game, you may want to mess around with rendering options and video settings after getting it running. For best results, select the OpenGL mode or the D3D9 mode.

=> ↺ How to play Tannenberg on Linux

• Tannenberg is a military FPS video game set during World War I. It was developed and published by M2H and Blackmill Games. Here’s how you can play Tannenberg on Linux.

=> ↺ How to turn sound devices on and off in Linux

• Linux has gotten a lot easier to use, and Linux desktops are way better than they once were. Still, despite all the progress Linux has made, new users still have issues doing basic things like turning their sound devices on and off.

• If you’re new to Linux and unsure how to turn your audio devices on and off, we’ve got you covered! So follow along and learn how to turn on and off your sound devices.

=> ↺ How to move and rename your files on Linux

• If you’re new to Linux, you may be wondering how to move and rename files on Linux. Sadly, Linux distributions, even ones aimed at new users, do not go over how to do either of these things. In this guide, we’ll go over moving and renaming your files on Linux.

=> ↺ Install DokuWiki on Rocky Linux – kifarunix.com

• In this demo, we are going to learn how to install DokuWiki on Rocky Linux server. DokuWiki is an opensource software written in PHP that allows users to create and edit pages using a web browser. It works on plain texts and requires no database. Read about the features provided by the DokuWiki on DokuWiki features page.

=> ↺ Install Redmine on Ubuntu 22.04 – kifarunix.com

• In this guide, you will learn how to install Redmine on Ubuntu 22.04. Redmine is cross-platform and cross-database, flexible project management tool written on Ruby on Rails Framework.

=> ↺ Install NVIDIA Drivers On Debian 11 [Updated] | Itsubuntu.com

• How To Install NVIDIA Drivers On Debian 11.

• If you are using an Nvidia graphics card in your Debian-based Linux operating system then you definitely need to install Nvidia drivers in your Linux. You can easily install NVIDIA GPU drivers with a few commands in your Linux.

=> ↺ Install DokuWiki on ubuntu 22.04 – kifarunix.com

• In this demo, we are going to learn how to install DokuWiki on ubuntu 22.04. DokuWiki is an opensource software written in PHP that allows users to create and edit pages using a web browser. It works on plain texts and requires no database.

=> ↺ How to install Dotnet in AlmaLinux 8 – Linux Shout

• .NET is a free, cross-platform, open-source developer platform from Microsoft that can be used to create and run programs for Windows. The software is pronounced “dot-net framework”. Programmers can use .NET to develop and test their own software for Windows computers. Several programming languages ​​such as C# or C++ are supported so that as many programmers as possible can use the program to build for web, mobile, desktop, games, and IoT.

• If you install a program that was created with .NET, you also need the .NET Framework. This ensures that all functions of the software work correctly on your computer.

• Well, installation of Dotnet is pretty easy on Windows, however, being open-source and cross-platform it can also be installed on Linux for the development of .Net-based applications.

=> ↺ How to install MCreator on a Chromebook in 2022

• Today we are looking at how to install MCreator 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.

• If you have any questions, please contact us via a YouTube comment and we would be happy to assist you!

=> ↺ How to install Rocky Linux 8

• Rocky Linux is an open-source enterprise OS designed to be “100% bug-for-bug” compatible with RHEL. It is helpful on both servers and workstations. It was created to replace CentOS, as RedHat has discontinued it.

• Rocky Linux 8 works well on both servers and workstations. So if you’re itching to try out the latest release, follow this guide, and we’ll show you how to install Rocky Linux 8 on your system.

=> ↺ How to Run a Synology Email Server

• Synology Mail Server is a free email server for Synology NAS. You can use it to turn your NAS into an email server and use the Mail Station web client to access it from any web browser.

• In this article, I am going to show you how to install and configure the Synology Mail Server. I will also show you how to install and use the Mail Station web client to send and read emails from the browser. So, let’s get started.

=> ↺ How to Install and Configure Pop!_OS on a PC

• If you’re looking for a fast, lightweight Linux distribution that is both powerful and easy to use, Pop!_OS just might be the end of your search. Developed and distributed by System76, this Ubuntu-based distro has everything a power user would want but is so intuitive and easy to use that even the newest of new Linux users will be able to operate and navigate the system effortlessly.

• Follow along and we’ll show you how to install this unique Linux distribution on your system.

=> ↺ How to Configure Access Points in S3

• Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is a cloud-based storage service that provides a large number of other industry-standard benefits like scalability, durability, data replication, privacy and much more. Due to these advantages, S3 is largely used as backend storage for many applications and websites.

=> ↺ How to Configure Default Encryption on S3 Bucket

• S3 buckets are used to store data in the form of objects in AWS. This is a cloud storage service with theoretically unlimited storage capacity and fully managed by AWS itself, so we may call it a serverless offering. So to ensure the privacy and security of the user’s data, AWS provides the facility to encrypt the data using different methods. Even if someone gets successful in breaking the high-security system of the amazon cloud, he still cannot get the actual data. By default, encryption is not enabled for S3 buckets, but a user can easily enable them and also choose the encryption method himself. AWS ensures that encryption has minimal effect on the latency of S3 buckets.

• In encryption, the data is translated to some other unreadable form using mathematical techniques and algorithms. The encryption methodology is stored in the files known as keys which can be either managed by the system itself, or the user can manually manage them by himself. AWS provides us with four different methods of encryption for our S3 buckets.

=> ↺ How to Find Files in Debian – VITUX

• Finding data in a system with thousands of files becomes very difficult for administrators, especially for system users who are not familiar with the command line. While searching via the graphical user interface is possible, it has certain limitations in terms of speed and functionality. The command line provides flexibility to quickly search files using various search criteria. In Linux, there are several commands you can use to find files and folders on your system.

=> ↺ How To Install TagSpaces on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install TagSpaces on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, TagSpaces is a privacy-aware, cross-platform file browser with note-taking capabilities. It helps you organize your files and folders with tags and colors. TagSpaces support cross-platform application available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android.

• 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 TagSpaces File Manager on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

=> ↺ How To Install Vuze on Ubuntu

• Vuze is a BitTorrent client used to transfer files via the BitTorrent protocol. Vuze written in Java, and uses the Azureus Engine. In addition to downloading data linked to .torrent files, Azureus allows users to view, publish and share original DVD and HD quality video content. Content presented through channels and categories containing TV shows, music videos, movies, video games, series and others. Additionally, if users prefer to publish their original content, they may earn money from it.

• It’s a cross-platform application available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android.

=> ↺ How To Install nomacs Image Viewer In Ubuntu

• nomacs is a free, open source image viewer, which supports multiple platforms. You can use it for viewing all common image formats including RAW and psd images.

• nomacs features semi-transparent widgets that display additional information such as thumbnails, metadata or histogram. It is able to browse images in zip or MS Office files which can be extracted to a directory. Metadata stored with the image can be displayed and you can add notes to images. A thumbnail preview of the current folder is included as well as a file explorer panel which allows switching between folders.

=> ↺ How to Configure AWS CLI Credentials on Windows, Linux and Mac

• When we create an AWS account, we get a nice and simple graphical user interface (GUI) to manage all settings and resources in our AWS account. The console has links to all AWS resources and services, and you can visit by simply clicking on that service. To further facilitate and ease the operational management of your AWS account, AWS provides you with another way to manage everything in your account: AWS command-line interface (CLI). You are free to configure CLI on your personal system whether you are using Windows, Linux or Mac systems, and we are going to see all of this in this article. AWS command-line interface also provides the ability to manage complex APIs, and here you are also able to run different scripts to automate your AWS services.

=> ↺ Getting Started with Docker Semi-Self-Hosting on Linode | Linux Journal

• With the evolution of technology, we find ourselves needing to be even more vigilant with our online security every day. Our browsing and shopping behaviors are also being continuously tracked online via tracking cookies being dropped on our browsers that we allow by clicking the “I Accept” button next to deliberately long agreements on websites before we can get the full benefit of said site.

• Additionally, hackers are always looking for a target and it’s common for even big companies to have their servers compromised in any number of ways and have sensitive data leaked, often to the highest bidder.

• These are just some of the reasons that I started looking into self-hosting as much of my own data as I could.

• Because not everyone has the option to self-host on their own, private hardware, whether it’s for lack of hardware, or because their ISP makes it difficult or impossible to do so, I want to show you what I believe to be the next best step, and that’s a semi-self-hosted solution on Linode.

=> ↺ How Do I Increase the Volume (Disk Space) on Synology?

• The disk space of the volumes of your Synology NAS may run out at any time. Luckily, you can increase the size of the volumes of your Synology NAS anytime.

• If you have some free space available on a storage pool of your Synology NAS, you can increase the size of any of the volumes you have created on that storage pool.

• If you don’t have any free space available on your desired storage pool, you can always add more drives to the storage pool and increase the size of the storage pool.

• In this article, I will show you how to increase the size of the volumes of your Synology NAS. So, let’s get started.

=> ↺ How Do I Write An Excerpt in WordPress?

• This tutorial explains how to write an excerpt in WordPress.

• An excerpt is a short extract of your content, allowing users to know its subject. Normally excerpts include a Read More or Continue reading button.

• After reading this tutorial, you will be able to add excerpts to your content easily by following a few steps. The explained methods describe how to implement the More block and write an excerpt within the post settings. You don’t need to install plugins to apply the instructions below.

• All steps described in this WordPress article include screenshots, making it easy for all WordPress users to follow them.

=> ↺ How To Install KPhotoAlbum on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install KPhotoAlbum on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, KPhotoAlbum is an image viewer and organizer for Unix-like systems. This application makes it easy for users to annotate images and videos taken with a digital camera. Another unique feature of KPhotoAlbum is how it categorizes photos and time-based browsing. Instead of showing you thumbnails directly, it gives you options to see photos from a category.

• 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 KPhotoAlbum image organization on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

=> ↺ How To Install SciTE on Ubuntu

• SciTE or SCIntilla based Text Editor is a cross-platform text editor written by Neil Hodgson using the Scintilla editing component. It is licensed under a minimal version of the Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer.

• Also It has a smaller memory footprint and works flawlessly on Ubuntu. The user interface developed using GTK on Linux systems.

• In addition to, SciTE supports syntax highlighting of many languages. The full list of recognized languages canbe found in the official documentation. Features include replace in selection, regular expression replace with subgroups, find in files, code folding, API files, copy formatted, abbreviations, multiple selection, and support for variable width fonts. The editing layout consists of multiple tabs containing source, and additionally an output pane that displays output from scripts that have been run.

=> ↺ The difference between throttle() and rate-limit() in syslog-ng

• There are multiple ways in syslog-ng to limit message rate. The throttle() option of syslog-ng destinations tries to make sure that all messages are delivered without exceeding a specified message rate. The rate-limit() filter introduced in syslog-ng 3.36 drops surplus log messages, making sure that a processing pipeline or destination is not overloaded with log messages.

=> ↺ Easy Way To Install And Use ExifTool on Ubuntu

• ExifTool is a free program for reading, modifying, and manipulating images and audio or video file formats on your computer. It has been developed by millions of users from all around the world with the aim to make their lives easier by providing support across different platforms such Windows, macOS, and Unix systems like Linux, etc.

• The software also offers robust features that allow you not only to view but also edit metadata, including date taken/original resolution info about videography footage; examine photo album shots one after another quickly without having to scroll through each individual slide – pick what moment interests you!

=> ↺ How To Use the fd Command on Linux System

• In Linux, there is a dedicated “find command” for finding values and strings on the command, directory, or inside a script. But the dedicated find command might not be useful all the time. In most cases, the Linux and Unix-like OS users find the fd command most efficient and useful for finding values. Originally, the fd was a separate program for Linux that could look for files on the entire filesystem.

• In the search result, the fd command provides you a PID, file location directory, file type, file size, and many more. If you’ve been looking for a better way to find files on Linux, you can try the fd command for better and smoother search results.

=> ↺ How to Install Oracle Java JDK 18 in Ubuntu 20.04 | Ubuntu 22.04 | UbuntuHandbook

• Oracle announced Java 18 a few days ago. Here’s how to install the programming language in Ubuntu Linux.

=> ↺ Create Proxmox Virtual Machines From Proxmox Web UI – OSTechNix

• We already have seen how to create Proxmox containers from Proxmox VE web user interface. In this tutorial, we will give you a brief introduction to Virtual machines and why VMs are better than Containers and how to create Proxmox virtual machines from Proxmox VE Web UI.

=> ↺ How to Search for Packages in Ubuntu

• Have you ever struggled while searching packages via the command line on Ubuntu? Have you ever searched for packages that require an instant upgrade? Ever wonder if the package you want to download is available to install, and is the latest version available in the software repository?

• Searching for installed or uninstalled packages inside the local repositories via the terminal can be a daunting task for beginner Ubuntu users. This article answers all and many of the similar questions. Besides, we will also cover alternative ways to search for packages on Ubuntu and help you find a suitable method.

=> ↺ Bash 04 – Input from User | Linux.org

• A very important aspect of scripts is getting input from the user. If you think of most commands used in your system from a command-line, they mostly use input parameters. Parameters are used to specify what the command is to do.

=> ↺ Fix Horizontal Lines on YouTube in Chrome Linux – Fasterland

• For some reasons, Chrome and Chromium browsers are occasionally affected by an annoying graphical glitch which occurs mostly when watching YouTube videos.

• More precisely, Chrome/Chromium shows, on the lower part of YouTube videos, various green and blue horizontal lines mixing up with the progress bar.

• After several Google searches, I figured out that this particular problem shows up mostly when using old computers with Intel graphics drivers.

Distributions

=> ↺ gpptp internationalized, now version 2.1

• Yes, it was ‘robwoj44′ who internationalized gpptp, but that was version 0.2. Much later, ‘jafadmin’ created version 2.0, without the internationalization. I have been using 2.0 in EasyOS.

SUSE/OpenSUSE

=> ↺ openSUSE Finalizes New Code of Conduct

• The openSUSE Community is proud to announce its new Code of Conduct as approved by the openSUSE Board.

• The openSUSE Code of Conduct was written during several community meetings as a collaborative project and reports were sent to the project mailinglists. The input from the openSUSE community members was sent to the openSUSE Board and discussed at length during two public openSUSE Board meetings.

IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

=> ↺ Fedora Community Blog: Help Us Test Fedora Linux 36 Beta

• The final F36 day and night beta wallpapers are here! Take a look below and let us know what your thoughts are!

=> ↺ Fedora Linux 36 Beta now available for download with GNOME 42

• Today is the day many Linux users have been eagerly awaiting — Fedora 36 has officially reached Beta status. Yes, folks, you can download the pre-release operating system immediately! For many Linux users, Fedora is considered the most important distribution based on that open source kernel. Why? Because the distro focuses on truly free and open source software — a pure Linux experience. Hell, the father of Linux, Linus Torvalds, famously uses Fedora.

• What makes Fedora 36 Beta so exciting? Well, this pre-release version of the upcoming operating system uses the brand-new GNOME 42 as its default desktop environment. If you instead choose the LXQt spin of Fedora, you will be delighted to know it now uses version 1.0 which was released late last year. Plus, users with an NVIDIA GPU are in for a treat when using the proprietary graphics driver — GDM will use Wayland by default.

=> ↺ Red Hat Announces Fedora 36 Beta, Inviting Users to Test the Upcoming Release

• Fedora is a sister project to the company’s Red Hat Enterprise Linux that functions as a testbed for later versions of RHEL. It’s aimed at developers and Linux hobbyists, in contrast to RHEL’s focus on the enterprise.

• Due to Fedora’s focus on newer software, the project moves quickly. The last release, Fedora 35, was released in November 2021. Fedora aims for a roughly six-month release schedule. This means that users should expect the full release around April 2022 if all goes well.

• The open nature of Linux development and the fast release schedule of major components like the Linux kernel means that the Linux community tends to value access to newer software. As evidenced by the growth of rolling-release distros like Arch Linux (what is Arch Linux?).

• Curious users eager to try the beta can download the desktop version, dubbed Fedora Workstation, directly from the Fedora website.

• Fedora provides a tool for Windows and Mac users called Fedora Media Writer to create bootable media on a USB stick, but users can also download the ISO image themselves and create their own media. The Fedora 36 images for x86 and ARM are clearly marked with the “Beta!” icon.

=> ↺ Fedora 36 beta released [LWN.net]

• The Fedora 36 beta release has been announced.

=> ↺ MontaVista MVShield Provides Targeted Support Services for CentOS and Rocky Linux for Network Service Providers

=> ↺ Automate RHEL web console deployments with the Cockpit and certificate RHEL System Roles

• Automation can help increase efficiency, save time, and improve consistency, which is why Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) includes features that help automate many tasks. The RHEL System Roles is a collection of Ansible content that helps provide consistent workflows and streamline the execution of many manual tasks.

• RHEL includes a web-based graphical interface for managing and monitoring systems, named the web console (which is based on the upstream Cockpit project). The web console can be used to complete a wide variety of tasks, such as managing storage, users, and the firewall, monitoring performance metrics, reviewing log files, installing system updates, and many other tasks. For more information on the web console, see the Managing systems using the RHEL 8 web console documentation.

• With RHEL 9.0 and 8.6 Red Hat is introducing a new cockpit RHEL System Role for automating the management and implementation of the web console. This role can automate tasks such as installing Cockpit related packages, configuring settings within cockpit.conf, starting/enabling the cockpit.socket systemd unit, and optionally configuring a TLS certificate for the web console to use.

Devices/Embedded

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Arduino goes pro with Linux and a big chip on its latest board – Stacey on IoT | Internet of Things news and analysis

• This week, Arduino launched the Pro Portenta X8, the most massively powered Arduino board yet, with a quad-core Arm Cortex A53 processor along with a variety of MCUs and the ability to run Linux. This is a big step for Arduino, which bills itself as an open-source hardware and software company that makes systems on modules and has traditionally been popular in the maker and hobbyist space, as a way to bring small bits of computing power together to power lights, servos, and sensors.

• In 2020, the group launched its Portenta H7 board with an eye toward enticing hardware developers to build production-ready devices using the Arduino hardware and software. With the launch, it was following a similar map laid out by the folks behind Raspberry Pi, which has gone from being a cheap computer for makers to a fully powered computer that can fit in many jobs, including medical devices and production hardware. Notably, the Pi moved downmarket last year with the Pi Pico, which put it in direct competition with Arduino’s systems that rely on MCUs.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Here’s what Android 13′s hidden screen saver complications look like in action

=> ↺ Android 13 wish list: Things we really want to see [Video] – 9to5Google

=> ↺ Realme GT Neo 2 gets Android-12 based Realme UI 3.0 update – Times of India

=> ↺ Google Pixel 6 can use more USB devices on Android 12L QPR3

=> ↺ Polestar 2 gets Android Automotive 11 update – 9to5Google

=> ↺ Hardkernel launches ODROID-M1 Rockchip RK3568B2 SBC – CNX Software

=> ↺ YouTube TV is testing surround sound on Android TV, Google TV, and Roku – The Verge

=> ↺ CNN+ is not yet available on Android TV and Google TV – 9to5Google

=> ↺ youtube music: YouTube Music gets this useful feature for Android devices with a new update – Times of India

=> ↺ IPL 2022: Twitter testing new cricket tab for Android users – Times of India

=> ↺ The best survival games for Android in 2022

=> ↺ Top 6 Ways to Fix Google App Battery Drain on Android – Guiding Tech

=> ↺ 8 Best Ways to Fix Fingerprint Scanner Not Working on Android Phones – Guiding Tech

=> ↺ The 9 Best Self Improvement Android Apps to Unlock Your Full Potential

=> ↺ How To Update Google Chrome On Android & Get All The Latest Features

=> ↺ How to scan a QR code with an Android phone

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ It is important for free software to use free software infrastructure

• Free and open source software (FOSS) projects need infrastructure. Somewhere to host the code, to facilitate things like code review, end-user support, bug tracking, marketing, and so on. A common example of this is the “forge” platform: infrastructure which pitches itself as a one-stop shop for many of the needs of FOSS projects in one place, such as code hosting and review, bug tracking, discussions, and so on. Many projects will also reach for additional platforms to provide other kinds of infrastructure: chat rooms, forums, social media, and more.

• Many of these needs have non-free, proprietary solutions available. GitHub is a popular proprietary code forge, and GitLab, the biggest competitor to GitHub, is partially non-free. Some projects use Discord or Slack for chat rooms, Reddit as a forum, or Twitter and Facebook for marketing, outreach, and support; all of these are non-free. In my opinion, relying on these platforms to provide infrastructure for your FOSS project is a mistake.

• When your FOSS project chooses to use a non-free platform, you give it an official vote of confidence on behalf of your project. In other words, you lend some of your project’s credibility and legitimacy to the platforms you choose. These platforms are defined by network effects, and your choice is an investment in that network. I would question this investment in and of itself, the wisdom of offering these platforms your confidence and legitimacy, but there’s a more concerning consequence of this choice as well: an investment in a non-free platform is also a divestment from the free alternatives.

• Again, network effects are the main driver of success in these platforms. Large commercial platforms have a lot of advantages in this respect: large marketing budgets, lots of capital from investors, and the incumbency advantage. The larger the incumbent platform, the more difficult the task of competing with it becomes. Contrast this with free software platforms, which generally don’t have the benefit of large amounts of investment or big marketing budgets. Moreover, businesses are significantly more likely to play dirty to secure their foothold than free software projects are. If your own FOSS projects compete with proprietary commercial options, you should be very familiar with these challenges.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ dyn*: can we make dyn sized?

• Last Friday, tmandry, cramertj, and I had an exciting conversation. We were talking about the design for combining async functions in traits with dyn Trait that tmandry and I had presented to the lang team on Friday. cramertj had an insightful twist to offer on that design, and I want to talk about it here. Keep in mind that this is a piece of “hot off the presses”, in-progress design and hence may easily go nowhere – but at the same time, I’m pretty excited about it. If it works out, it could go a long way towards making dyn Trait user-friendly and accessible in Rust, which I think would be a big deal.

FSF

=> ↺ Take the next step in “living liberation”: watch the LibrePlanet 2022 videos today!

• This year, we set out to make another one-of-a-kind experience out of the third weekend in March. LibrePlanet 2022: “Living Liberation” was a resounding success. Participants socialized using our online conference space, LibreAdventure, and created beautiful things in Minetest. Stalwart and Supporter level attendees joined the LibrePlanet after-party with staff and board members, which was a blast. Both Saturday and Sunday featured a wide range of speakers covering how nearly every topic you can think of relates to one common concept: free software.

GNU Projects

=> ↺ poke – News: GNU poke 2.2 released [Savannah]

• I am happy to announce a new release of GNU poke, version 2.2. This is a bugfix release in the 2.x series.

• See the file NEWS in the distribution tarball for a list of issues fixed in this release.

=> ↺ poke – News: [VIDEO] Introduction to GNU poke at LP2022 [Savannah]

• The good Libreplanet people have just published the recordings of the presentations made at the Libreplanet 2022 conference earlier in March. (kudos to them.)

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Thinking inside the box

• A minor maintenance release for the RcppBDT package is now on CRAN.

• The RcppBDT package is an early adopter of Rcpp and was one of the first packages utilizing Boost and its Date_Time library. The now more widely-used package anytime is a direct descentant of RcppBDT. Thanks again for the heads-up!

• This release mostly deals with a one-definition rule violation detected by link-time optimisation (which can be enable when configuring R itself at build time with –enable-lto). I confused myself into thinking Rcpp Modules may be at fault, but Iñaki was a little more awake than myself and noticed that I only needed to carry the (common) header RcppBDT.h to the file toPOSIXct.cpp added last summer.

Python

=> ↺ Different Ways to Check Python Version

• Python is one of the most popular programming languages. In technical terms, it’s an interpreted, object-oriented, high-level programming language with dynamic semantics. It’s a relatively simple language. The unique syntax of Python focuses on readability. Python is open-source and available on all the major platforms.

• As of now, Python 2 and Python 3 are the major releases that are still relevant. While Python 2 was marked obsolete, it’s still required for some codes to run. For the most part, however, having Python 3 is recommended. In this guide, we’ll check out various ways to check the version of Python installed in your system.

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

=> ↺ Bash While True Loop

• Linux is quite a diverse operating system when it comes to programming. It’s because it came up with its own “Bash” programming that many of the other operating systems do not support. Its Bash programming supports almost all the features another standard programming provides. The use of “loops,” i.e., while and for, is one of these aspects. We can continue executing these loops without stopping them. Therefore, we have decided to demonstrate the concept of the “while true” loop for our Bash users who are unfamiliar with this concept.

• So, let’s start by logging in from the Ubuntu 20.04 system. To start implementing the examples, we must ensure that the terminal shell has been opened using the “Ctrl+Alt+T”.

=> ↺ Bash While Loop on One Line

• Like many other programming languages, Bash programming also supports the use of “loops” in its code. There are a lot of loops supported by Bash coding, i.e., for loop and while loop. You may have used both the “for” and “while” loop in your programs while coding. But have you ever tried to use the loop on a single line with all its working? If not! Then, this article is meant for you and all the Linux users who want to try the “while” loop in a single line of Bash code.

• Today, we will be discussing some of the simple and easy-to-understand examples in our article. Let’s start with the Ubuntu 20.04 Linux terminal shell application launch using the “Ctrl+Alt+T” shortcut.

Java

=> ↺ arraycopy Method of System Class in Java

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ Mike Blumenkrantz: Release The Kraken

• This extension revolutionizes how PSOs can be managed by the application, and it’s the first step towards solving the dreaded stuttering that zink suffers from when attempting to play any sort of game. There’s definitely going to be more posts from me on this in the future.

=> ↺ Vulkan Beta Driver Release Updates

• March 29th, 2022 – Windows 473.33, Linux 470.62.26

Leftovers

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

=> ↺ Apple reportedly slashing iPhone production on weak demand

Pseudo-Open Source

Privatisation/Privateering

Linux Foundation

=> ↺ Linux Foundation Announces Top Global Executive Speakers for Open Networking & Edge Executive Forum, April 12-14, and New CTO Appointment

Security

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

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (libdatetime-timezone-perl, pjproject, and tzdata), Mageia (chromium-browser-stable, docker, graphicsmagick, and libtiff), Oracle (expat), Red Hat (expat, httpd:2.4, openssl, and screen), Scientific Linux (expat and openssl), and Ubuntu (libtasn1-6, linux-oem-5.14, openjdk-lts, and paramiko).

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Dems propose privacy-respecting digital dollar

• House Democrats on Monday plan to introduce a law bill that calls for the development of an electronic version of the US dollar that has the same legal status and privacy expectations as physical currency.

• The bill, titled Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware (ECASH) Act, would direct the US Treasury Department to establish a program to coordinate the development and implementation of e-cash and the technology necessary to support it, such as cryptographic hardware.

=> ↺ Google resumes shoveling stuff into its ‘Privacy Sandbox’ • The Register

• Google is preparing another round of tests for the latest iteration of its purportedly private-preserving ad technology, after last year’s Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) experiment revealed the need for further refinement.

Misinformation/Disinformation

=> ↺ Ukraine security agency shuts down 5 Russian bot farms • The Register

• Ukraine’s security agency has shut down five bot farms since the start of Russia’s invasion of the country almost five weeks ago, slowing down a Russian operation designed to spread disinformation in the war-torn country and to sow panic among its frightened residents.

• In a statement this week, Ukraine’s Security Service (SSU) said the bot farms were located in Kharkiv – a city near the northern border of Russia that has been the site of some of the fiercest fighting – Cherkasy along the Dnieper River that cuts through the country, and the Ternopil and Zakarpattia regions in the western part of Ukraine.

• During searches of the locations, the SSU officers found more than 100 GSM gateway appliances, almost 10,000 SIM cards from a variety of mobile carriers used to disguise the identity of the users and laptops and other computer equipment “with evidence of illegal actions,” including controlling the bots, they said.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Don’t help Putin and Lukashenko silence anti-war voices – Access Now

• Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko have tried and failed to prevent their citizens from accessing the outside world through social media platforms like Facebook and Telegram for years. Today, as Putin leverages his influence over Lukashenko in support of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, some Western companies and media organizations are unwittingly helping to silence those speaking out in opposition. Here are four ways to protect anti-war voices in Russia and Belarus.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ A Call to Packagers

• As I use Offpunk everyday, I feel like the experience is more and more polished. I’m proud to say that the HTML rendering is, to my eyes, the best I’ve seen in a terminal. I’m currently experimenting with building a mail client to use the same rendering and it’s impressive how HTML mails are really readable compared to neomutt+w3c.

• I read lot of people having similar needs and not trying or liking Offpunk. I’ve asked a few users and it seems one the main problem is installing Offpunk and making dependencies work with different Python versions, different libraries, etc. If you are trouble getting started with Offunk, drop me a mail, I’d like to hear from you.

Monopolies

=> ↺ DoJ to Congress: Thumbs up for big tech antitrust bill

• A letter from the Department of Justice to Congress makes it clear where the Biden administration stands on antitrust legislation targeting big tech: They’re all for it.

• The letter was penned by Peter Hyun, the DoJ’s acting assistant attorney general for legislative affairs. As part of his role, Hyun’s office regularly issues letters to Congress giving opinions on legislation.

• The legislation in question this time is the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, currently working its way through the House and Senate. The latter legislative body has been the only one to move AICOA forward when the Senate Judiciary Panel approved it in January with a bipartisan vote.

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

=> Techrights

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.