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● 04.28.22

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 28/04/2022: Godot 4.0 Alpha 7 and Mesa 22.1.0 RC3

Posted in News Roundup at 5:22 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ Beelink SER 4 Ryzen 7 Mini PC Ships with Manjaro Linux

• Tiny PC maker Beelink has released the SER 4 mini PC preinstalled with Manjaro Linux, and it features an AMD Ryzen 7 4800U processor.

• Every Linux user has faced the dilemma of exactly what configuration they need for their hardware to work seamlessly with the Linux operating system.

• Of course, you can buy a PC preloaded with Windows, wipe the OS, then install a Linux distro and hope for the best. On the other hand, probably the best way is to purchase one that already has the software installed or that has been tested for Linux compatibility.

• Beelink is a company that focuses primarily on small form-factor computers. And now, they are offering Linux users their latest product, the Beelink SER 4 4800U X Linux Mini PC, powered by AMD Ryzen, tested for full Linux compatibility, and comes preinstalled with Manjaro.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS overview | Streamline your Workflow. – Invidious

• In this video, I am going to show an overview of Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS and some of the applications pre-installed.

=> ↺ Linux Action News 238

• PopOS! 22.04 has a surprise you might not have noticed, we get the details on Ubuntu’s new Real-Time kernel, and the clever idea from the Framework laptop team.

=> ↺ New Website Energy | Office Hours 3

• It’s a summer of projects, we get into our plans to totally rebuild our website, some new Podcasting 2.0 features and, Brent takes his first bite of the Raspberry Pi.

=> ↺ The Obsolescence Episode by TIC TEK TOE

• Evan, meanwhile, tries out his new microphone and complains bitterly about tech hardware obsolescence.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Richard Hughes: fwupd 1.8.0 and 50 million updates

• I’ve just tagged the 1.8.0 release of fwupd, with these release notes — there’s lots of good stuff there as always. More remarkable is that LVFS has now supplied over 50 million updates to Linux machines all around the globe. The true number is going to be unknown, as we allow vendors to distribute updates without any kind of logging, and also allow companies or agencies to mirror the entire LVFS so the archive can be used offline. The true number of updates deployed will be a lot higher than 50 million, which honestly blows my tiny mind. Just 7 years ago Christian asked me to “make firmware updates work on Linux” and now we have a thriving client project that respects both your freedom and your privacy, and a thriving ecosystem of hardware vendors who consider Linux users first class citizens. Of course, there are vendors who are not shipping updates for popular hardware, but they’re now in the minority — and every month we have two or three new vendor account requests. The logistical, security and most importantly commercial implications of not being “on the LVFS” are now too critical even for tier-1 IHVs, ODMs and OEMs to ignore.

• I’m still amazed to see Reddit posts, YouTube videos and random people on Twitter talk about the thing that’s been my baby for the last few years. It’s both frightening as hell (because of the responsibility) and incredibly humbling at the same time. Red Hat can certainly take a lot of credit for the undeniable success of LVFS and fwupd, as they have been the people paying my salary and pushing me forward over the last decade and more. Obviously I’m glad everything is being used by the distros like Ubuntu and Arch, although for me it’s Fedora that’s at least technically the one pushing Linux forward these days. I’ve seen Fedora grow in market share year on year, and I’m proud to be one of the people pushing the exciting Future Features into Fedora.

=> ↺ Bootlin at Embedded Recipes and Kernel Recipes 2022, Paris – Bootlin’s blog

• After 2 editions cancelled due to the pandemic, the famous Embedded Recipes and Kernel Recipes conferences are back: they will take place end of May and beginning of June in Paris!

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ mesa 22.1.0-rc3

Applications

=> ↺ Free enterprise systems management tool Uyuni releases stable version

• The Uyuni project has released a new stable version of its eponymous free enterprise systems-management tool that supports SUSE distros as well as Red Hat (and its many relatives), Ubuntu, and Debian.

• Named after the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, the world’s biggest salt flat, Uyuni is the open-source muscle behind SUSE’s commercial enterprise fleet-management tool, SUSE Manager, and you can have a look at its latest emission, 2022.3, here.

=> ↺ Fwupd 1.8 Linux Firmware Updating Tool Is Out With Support for New Hardware, More

•  Fwupd 1.8 comes with support for new devices, which you can now update their firmware under a GNU/Linux distribution. These include CH341A SPI programmer, Logitech M550, M650, and K650 devices, as well as System76’s Launch Lite configurable keyboard.

• Fwupd 1.8 adds support for more ELAN fingerprint readers, more integrated Wacom panels, more NovaCustom machines, more StaLabs StarLite laptops, More TUXEDO Computers laptops, FlatFrog devices, and Quectel EM05 LTE Cat 4 IoT modules.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Obtain an Ansible Job output from Ansible Tower API

• A couple of years back, I wrote a blogpost on obtaining the previous Job ID in Ansible Tower workflow. Now, let’s go further and create another module to obtain the output of such a job.

• Before moving further, I want to specify that I talk about Ansible Tower since this is the most known name for this software, but I could also be talking about AWX or Ansible Controller since those are the same codebase. AWX is the open-source upstream project. Ansible Tower is the former name of the Red Hat product based on AWX. Ansible Controller is the name of the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2 component based on AWX.

=> ↺ GNOME Dynamic Triple Buffering patch on openSUSE | Timo’s openSUSE Posts

• I’ve always, or at least ever since the development of the iconic Nokia N9 and the projects I was working on at the time, wanted “60 fps” silky smooth behavior from both phones and computers, and learned to be sensitive to that. GNOME has been fighting back a bit on that front for several years though on HiDPI displays, with also regressing at least on openSUSE a bit earlier which I was unable to pinpoint exact reason to. A combination of power management options helped, as have been kernel and GNOME fixes later on, so I have been mostly ok but still not happy.

=> ↺ Get System and Hardware Details with uname and lscpu on Debian – VITUX

• This guide shows you how to retrieve system details of your Debian 11 or Debian 10 system, e.g. kernel name, kernel release, kernel version, hostname, hardware architecture, processor type, hardware platform and operating system information.

• This guide was tested with Debian 10, but the commands shown here also work with other Linux distributions.

=> ↺ List Container in Golang

• A list is an ordered data structure in which items are surrounded in square brackets and separated by commas. In contemporary programming, lists are among the most useful data structures. In this Go article, we’ll look at how it interacts with Lists.

=> ↺ Bash Check If File Not Exists

• Regardless of any operating system you have been using, you must have used its file system at some point. These file systems are the main core of any system and let you save your data in it. There might be situations when you have to search for some particular file or directory from this file system using different search options.

• Just like that, Linux came up with the Bash programming to search for a particular file using the Bash script in the terminal. We will be using the Bash shell scripts to look for the files in Ubuntu 20.04. Let’s get started. We have created a new Bash file with the name “file.sh” using the system’s “touch” query. To create a Bash script, we need to open this newly made file in the Linux “GNU Nano” editor.

=> ↺ 3 Ways to Install Node.js on Ubuntu 22.04

• Node.js is a runtime environment designed for the execution of the Javascript codes outside the browser and it also comes with many modules to build web applications. Node.js can be installed easily on Ubuntu 22.04 for testing or running different Javascript code.

• In this write-up, we are going to explore the installation methods for the Node.js in Ubuntu 22.04 as well as discuss the basic usage of the Node.js on Ubuntu 22.04.

=> ↺ Using LSP in Emacs and Debian – anarcat

• The Language Server Protocol (LSP) is a neat mechanism that provides a common interface to what used to be language-specific lookup mechanisms (like, say, running a Python interpreter in the background to find function definitions).

• There is also ctags shipped with UNIX since forever, but that doesn’t support looking backwards (“who uses this function”), linting, or refactoring. In short, LSP rocks, and how do I use it right now in my editor of choice (Emacs, in my case) and OS (Debian) please?

=> ↺ building Debian packages under qemu with sbuild – anarcat

• I want to use qemu mainly because it provides better isolation than a chroot. I sponsor packages sometimes and while I typically audit the source code before building, it still feels like the extra protection shouldn’t hurt.

• I also like the idea of unifying my existing virtual machine setup with my build setup. My current VM is kind of all over the place: libvirt, vagrant, GNOME Boxes, etc?). I’ve been slowly converging over libvirt however, and most solutions I use right now rely on qemu under the hood, certainly not chroots…

• I could also have decided to go with containers like LXC, LXD, Docker (with conbuilder, whalebuilder, docker-buildpackage), systemd-nspawn (with debspawn), or whatever: I didn’t feel those offer the level of isolation that is provided by qemu.

• The main downside of this approach is that it is (obviously) slower than native builds. But on modern hardware, that cost should be minimal.

=> ↺ Ansible Variables – OSTechNix

• In our last article we discussed what Ansible playbooks are and how to create and run tasks through playbooks. In this article, we will go one step further and learn how to use variables in Ansible playbooks.

=> ↺ How to Enable/Disable Firewall on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• When it comes to firewall protection for your system, the default Ubuntu UFW program is a great option. It is short for “uncomplicated firewall.” It allows users with little knowledge of how Linux IPTABLES can secure your home network or server without the need to learn complicated long-tail commands that are more for the sysadmin side of things.

• The tutorial is aimed more at new Ubuntu desktop users, but servers can also use the same commands on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish. You will learn how to check, enable and disable the UFW firewall and, for desktop users, install the firewall GUI to better control UFW for users that do not want to use the terminal in the future.

=> ↺ How to Install Blender 3D on Ubuntu 22.04?

• Blender is an application used for creating and editing 3D models and it is an open-source application, moreover, it is available for all operating systems including Linux.

• Blender contains all the tools including creating 3D models, sculpting, animating, rigging, and rendering. In this write-up, we will find out the methods by which we can install the Blender 3D on the Ubuntu 22.04 through the command line methods.

=> ↺ How to Install Brave Browser on Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS

• Brave is a free and open-source web browser developed by Brave Software, Inc. based on the Chromium web browser. Brave is a privacy-focused internet browser that sets itself apart from other browsers by automatically blocking online advertisements and website trackers in its default settings.

• Brave claims that its browser puts less strain on your computer’s performance than Google Chrome. Even with multiple tabs open at once, the new Brave Software uses 66% less memory and has 50 million more active users than before – a growth of 2X in 5 years!

=> ↺ How to Install MongoDB on RockyLinux 8

• MongoDB is an open-source document-oriented database program. It is a NoSQL, high-performance, and scalable database system that uses JSON-like documents with schemata. MongoDB stores data in flexible, JSON-like documents with dynamic schemata instead of enforcing a rigid relational structure. It has better horizontal scalability than traditional RDBMS.

• MongoDB is a NoSQL program which means we do not have to configure it for relational databases. It also has automatic sharding and replica set configurations. So, there is no need to have server-side scripting knowledge to use this dataBase system, unlike other systems such as MySQL, Oracle DBMS, etc. We would require only Web development skills to create our web application around MongoDB. In this guide, we will walk you through the steps to install MongoDB on a Rocky Linux 8 system.

=> ↺ How to Install MakeMKV on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• MakeMKV is a free, open-source tool that can convert video clips from DVDs and Blu-rays, usually encrypted. The output will have most information preserved but not changed; it’s perfect for people who want their media without hassle or headache caused by software limitations like those found with other transcoder apps.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install or upgrade to the latest version of MakeMKV on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish using a recommended Launchpad PPA repository by the MakeMKV team to provide the most up-to-date version using the command line terminal.

=> ↺ How to Install Flatpak on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• Flatpak is a tool for deploying and managing software packages on the Linux operating system. It provides an isolated environment where users can run applications without affecting other parts of their computers.

• With Flatpaks, installing an application is like pulling it into your local repository. Links have then generated that point from the right places in Filesystem to where you can find these files–these hard links will be efficient for disk space since they’re simple compared with doing things through traditional methods.

• Most Ubuntu LTS users know that the distribution focuses on stability over newer features, especially once the LTS has aged after its initial release with packages being frozen. For example, you may want to install the latest version of an application such as Discord, VLC, Spotify, or Ubuntu does not have the application together, making often third-party package managers use it as a backup.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Flatpak on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish and enable Flathub to search, install, maintain or remove Flatpak applications as an alternative the standard APT package manager, Launchpad PPA’s and especially Snap packages from Snapcraft.io.

=> ↺ How to Install FileZilla on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• FileZilla is an easy-to-use, free FTP client with cross-platform support. You can download it for Windows or Linux on both server and client sides! It also supports sftp connections, so you can transfer files without having them wrapped up in (.zip) archives too much—this way, there’s less traffic on your network while still getting everything done quickly.

=> ↺ How to Install PHP on Ubuntu 22.04

• PHP, short for PHP hypertext preprocessor, is one of the server-side programming languages. It is widely used in web development for supporting and running PHP applications on a web server. It first appeared in 1995 but is now currently maintained by Zend technologies. Many content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress and Lavaravel are written in PHP.

=> ↺ How to create a animated GIF on Ubuntu | FOSS Linux

• So, you might have probably come across GIFs in your daily social media life, and you are wondering how you can create your animated GIFs. GIFs have revolutionized the internet and the social media world. A GIF is a bitmap image for pictures that support multiple images per file or animations and up to 256 distinct colors per frame in the computing world.

• In a gist, a GIF is just any short video(mostly less than 10s) without audio, usually looping once played. I hope now that demystifies what a GIF is.

• Below is an example of a GIF we created with some of the tools discussed in this post.

=> ↺ How to Use the sar Command on Linux

• The sar command, or System Activity Reporter, is part of the sysstat package. It captures a set of statistical information such as CPU load, memory paging, memory utilization, swap usage, network I/O, and much more. It makes this data accessible to you in real-time snapshots—showing you what’s happening on your computer right now—and in historical reports.

=> ↺ How to Install/Upgrade GIT on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• GIT is a free and open-source version control system that can efficiently manage small projects or huge ones. It enables multiple developers to work together on nonlinear development, as it tracks changes in source code for each branch of our project’s history. Hence, we never lose anything by going back through old stages if something goes wrong!

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install the latest or upgrade GIT on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish using the GIT Maintainers PPA.

=> ↺ How to Install Zoom on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• Zoom is a communications technology platform that provides videotelephony and real-time online chat services through a cloud-based peer-to-peer software platform. The client can be used in a variety of ways to improve communication and collaboration. With its easy-to-use platform, users can connect with colleagues, classmates, and customers in real-time from any device.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn to install the Zoom on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish using either the flatpak package manager or the snapcraft package manager, with some tips for maintaining or removing software in the future.

=> ↺ How Raspberry Pi Detects Malware Using Electromagnetic Waves

• The Raspberry Pi is a multi-purpose single-board computer that was initially released to explain the computer system concepts to the students in the schools and colleges, but later on, it was being used for different daily life applications. The Raspberry Pi is being used in domestic automation as well as industrial automation. The Raspberry is also being used in electronic projects as well as in the world of robotics.

• Recently, the Raspberry Pi surprised everyone when it was being used to detect the malware using the electromagnetic waves, now how it is being used for this purpose will be explored in this write-up.

=> ↺ How to Install Thunderbird Mail on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• Thunderbird Mail is a free, open-source email client that can be used on your desktop computer and mobile devices like iPhone or Android. The mail client software was initially developed by the Mozilla Foundation but is now maintained by the Thunderbird community for the community.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Thunderbird Mail on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish using three installations method of APT, Flatpak, and Snap.

=> ↺ How to Install Synaptic Package Manager on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• The Synaptic Package Manager is a graphical tool that makes installing, updating, and removing packages easy. It’s perfect for those unfamiliar with command-line options because of its user-friendly interface, and you can begin to learn more in-depth about how packages work and system maintenance.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Synaptic Package Manager on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish for users that wish to use a feature packaged package manager GUI solution compared to Ubuntu’s default GUI package management or the command line terminal.

=> ↺ How to Install Slack on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• Slack is an app that lets you communicate with your team in real-time. It’s the perfect solution for development teams and corporations who want to integrate many services, run groups meetings, etc., using Slack’s channels system, which allows users (teams) to create their topics or discuss customer issues cohesively within one channel while also featuring voice & video calls as well file-sharing capabilities or just about anything else!

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Slack on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish using two different methods of installation, Flatpak, and Snap, and how to update, maintain or remove using both package managers.

=> ↺ How to Install Siege Benchmarking Tool on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• Siege is an open-source multi-threaded regression test and benchmark utility focusing primarily on load testing and benchmarking. It can stress test a single URL with a user-defined number of simulated users or read many URLs into memory and stress them simultaneously. The program reports the total number of hits recorded, bytes transferred, response time, concurrency, and return status.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Siege Benchmarking Tool on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish, along with some basic commands on testing the limits of your servers using the command line terminal.

=> ↺ How to Securely Erase Data From Your USB Drive or SD Card in Linux

• USB drives and SD cards have become everyday tech accessories these days. But their widespread use also makes them a security concern. Since these devices often contain personal data, you must wipe them entirely before giving them to someone else. Plus, it’s good to get rid of any data on storage devices before throwing them away.

• Linux offers several tools that make wiping personal data effortless. Below, we look at some of the ways you can securely erase data from your USB drive or SD card in Linux.

=> ↺ SQL Truncate Table Command

• The SQL truncate command removes the data within a database table while preserving the table metadata, including the table schema.

=> ↺ SQL Mod Function

• Using mathematical operations, we can use numerical data to create new datasets and insightful information because it is unavoidable when working with databases.

• This short article will discuss how to use the mod function in Standard SQL.

=> ↺ SQL Length of String

• Strings are a fundamental part of any database administrator or programmer. They allow you to store textual information within a database.

• This article will discuss how you can determine the length of a string type in Standard SQL.

• In Standard SQL, there are three main methods to determine the length of a string.

=> ↺ SQL Day of Week

• Date and time are significant when working with data. They allow us to keep track of the changes made to the database within specific time intervals.

• However, in SQL databases, you need to specify the date in full (i.e., the year, month, and date.) Hence, if you need to access only a specific part of the date, you must perform a particular operation.

• This article will look at how we can extract the day of the week from a date value using both Legacy and Standard SQL.

• Although some database engines still support legacy SQL, we recommend the option for Standard SQL to ensure compatibility with major database engines.

=> ↺ SQL Convert Varchar to Numeric

• Conversion is a prevalent task for programmers and database engineers. This article will explore how to convert a varchar type to a numeric type in Standard SQL.

• It must be taken into consideration that when we say Standard SQL, we mean techniques and methods universally adopted by relational database engines.

=> ↺ Using ripgrep Command in Linux

• ripgrep is an excellent outcome of the RIIR (re-write it in Rust) effort going on in the open source community. It is intended to be a superior replacement for the classic grep command.

=> ↺ Linux Rename File Starting with Dash

• While naming a file, it is a common and recommended practice to not start or end a file name with a hyphen (dash), space, underscore, and period (dot). However, sometimes you can mistakenly start a file name with a dash. Although it’s fine, but this naming can be a little problematic as the options (switches) of almost all Linux commands start with a dash. In this case, if you pass that file name starting with a dash to a Linux command, it will be treated as the command option (switch) and will most likely fail. The most common problem occurs when you try to rename this file to remove the dash. However, this will not be a problem for you anymore as we are going to show you how to rename a file starting with a dash in a Linux OS.

=> ↺ Run Cron Tasks Using Golang

• Crontab, or Cron for short, is a very handy utility that may be found in Unix-like operating systems. It enables you to conduct commands or actions at a given time. Cron is often used for conducting recurring actions like backups, file deletion, log collection, automatic system maintenance, and more.

• A scheduled task, commonly known as a cron job, determines when to execute by using extremely specific time formats. You may, for example, build a basic cronjob that runs when the system reboots.

Games

=> ↺ Godot Engine – Godot Sprint and User Meeting Barcelona June 2022

• After a couple of years of online-only events, we are bringing back some in-person Godot events. More precisely, today we are announcing two events taking place at Barcelona: a Godot Sprint for contributors (June 2nd & 3rd) and a Godot User Meeting (June 4th). Both events will be free of charge.

=> ↺ Godot Engine – Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 alpha 7

• This new 4.0 alpha 7 comes with one week delay on our every-other-week release schedule, since I was taking some time off But that means it got time for even more features and bug fixes to be finalized, reviewed and merged. See past alpha releases for details (alpha 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

• 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.

=> ↺ Bugsnax out on Steam, looking good on Steam Deck but tweak needed on Linux desktop | GamingOnLinux

• Bugsnax, originally a console exclusive for PlayStation and an Epic Exclusive on PC, was just released on Steam. Thankfully it works well on Steam Deck but on Linux desktops you need a small adjustment for the Windows version running through Proton.

=> ↺ Trigon: Space Story is a fresh FTL-like space strategy game out now | GamingOnLinux

• Now this looks pretty darn cool. Did you enjoy FTL: Faster Than Light? Well, Trigon: Space Story looks very much inspired by it but with much more modern graphics. Developed by Sernur.tech and published by Gameforge 4D GmbH, it doesn’t just looked like FTL, they were directly inspired by it to create an FTL 2 that never came. Nice to see a title with full Linux support too, with a Native Linux build available.

• Trigon: Space Story places you in the captain’s seat of a fully customizable starship. Here you manage everything from the weapons systems and engines to the day-to-day tasks of the crew. Each time you play it’s fresh, with a procedurally generated universe that has you travel through 9 different sectors with over 10 individual systems. With dangerous space anomalies, roving gangs of space pirates, and a complex web of intergalactic politics to navigate, you will need to strategize each approach with myriad factors to consider.

=> ↺ Kaiju Wars seems like Into the Breach but it’s much more and it’s out now | GamingOnLinux

• Taken at face value, you could easily think that Kaiju Wars was close to Into the Breach but after playing it, I can safely tell you it’s a whole lot more than that. While they both have you command armies on small maps against incoming enemies, Kaiju Wars has a bunch of extras that really do set the two games nicely apart.

• In Kaiju Wars you’re defending cities against huge creatures, and to do so you need to construct buildings and an army (and repair them when destroyed). The gameplay is a bit more flexible and forgiving that way compared with Into the Breach. Here you don’t kill anything, you only really slow them down for them to come back and stomp all over your cities in later missions.

Distributions

IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

=> ↺ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Beta is out and is ready to take your servers to new heights

•  For many businesses, the production operating system begins and ends with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This is an operating system built for stability, security, reliability and agility. It’s everything many corporations depend on and is constantly raising the bar on every conceivable front.

• The upcoming release of RHEL 9 is no exception. This upcoming iteration also marks a first in the history of Red Hat Enterprise Linux in that it’s the first release to be based on CentOS Stream, which enables developers to contribute to and test code prior to a release.

=> ↺ Is Rocky Linux the new CentOS?

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is the most successful commercial Linux in the world. In their 2012 fiscal year, Red Hat smashed through the $1 billion dollar revenue mark. But insiders whisper that if it hadn’t have been for CentOS, Red Hat would have been a $10 billion dollar company long before they passed the $1 billion dollar milestone.

• Red Hat generates revenue from RHEL by selling subscriptions. A subscription provides access to corporate-grade customer support, cloud-based services, managed solutions, packaged software, and more. Knowing you have the appropriate levels of support available makes the adoption of RHEL by your organization much more attractive. If you’re trusting your critical processes to RHEL, you need to know Red Hat has your back.

• Organizations without the budget for RHEL subscriptions still desired RHEL’s stability and performance. RHEL—just like every other Linux—is based on a number of open source projects such as the Linux kernel. That in turn means the RHEL source code must be made publicly available, at no cost. Anyone can review the code, and anyone can modify it or use it to create a new product. To satisfy those terms, the RHEL source code is available to anyone who wants it.

=> ↺ 3 ways building digital acumen can impact business success

• The value of agility and real-time information grew in ways companies could never have imagined during the pandemic. Suddenly, organizations had to lean in on technology to help colleagues work seamlessly and intuitively – from anywhere in the world, including their own homes and remote workspaces. We were well on our way to delivering a “Digital Dow” by early 2020, but technology implementations alone weren’t sufficient for what we were about to experience.

• Sixty percent of our workforce continued to work on-site, in labs, manufacturing spaces, and other essential roles to keep our plants running and delivering for our customers. And many salaried and other workers transitioned to a new remote work environment in which they were alone yet needed to be connected to colleagues, customers, and partners.

• In short, technology alone wasn’t going to get us where we needed to be; people needed to invest time to learn and use the platforms that we had put in place.

• We are working within our company to aggressively improve adoption and optimize usage of our digital capabilities. (I recently named an enterprise change leader in that role, recognizing that this goes further than implementation and adoption.) People need to understand why we’re changing and where their work fits in.

=> ↺ Fedora Community Blog: Mindshare Committee Quarterly Report – Q1 2022

• The Mindshare Committee publishes a Quarterly Report, with this post being our second edition. It covers activities from the Mindshare Committee and related teams for the months of January, February, and March of 2022. As always, we welcome feedback on how we can improve these reports in the related Mindshare ticket.

=> ↺ Process Formula 1 telemetry with Quarkus and OpenShift Streams for Apache Kafka | Red Hat Developer

• The story we just told plays out on every race weekend in the Formula 1 season.

• We are not lucky enough to be drivers, so let’s see how the engineers on the team can exploit multiple software technologies to process telemetry data in a Java application in real time.

• During the free practices, qualifying, and race, a huge amount of data is collected by the car’s sensors and sent back to the team to be analyzed. The analysis improves the car’s performance, spots anomalies, and provides feedback to the driver to help them shave a few milliseconds off of each lap.

=> ↺ Red Hat’s The State of Enterprise Open Source report : Telecommunications industry highlights

=> ↺ Red Hat does not even use “Open Source” to make this report

• Red Hat’s fourth annual The State of Enterprise Open Source report highlights how organizations have adapted to new open source tools and technologies, whether due to external events, or through proactive choice in selecting methods and implementations which can provide competitive advantage.

=> ↺ Use Red Hat’s single sign-on technology to secure services through Kerberos | Red Hat Developer

• Red Hat’s single sign-on technology is an identity and access management solution based on standard identity protocols (SAML, OpenID Connect) to perform authentication of users and share user information for access control. Red Hat’s SSO sources user information from a federated user database, or user federation, and it provides the option to configure the Kerberos protocol for this purpose.

• In this article, you’ll see how to set up Red Hat’s SSO to authenticate users using the standard Kerberos protocol along with the Simple and Protected GSS_API Negotiation Mechanism (SPNEGO) specification.

• To use Kerberos, Red Hat’s SSO must set up an identity called a service principal. The user gains access to Red Hat’s SSO through Kerberos in a two-step process: first they obtain a Ticket Granting Ticket (TGT) and then they obtain service tickets (ST).

• Objects in the Kerberos key distribution center (KDC) database are known as principals. Each principal is a user, service, or host. For this example, you will add a user principal and an HTTP service principal.

Debian Family

=> ↺ DebConf22 bursary applications and call for papers are closing in less than 72 hours! – Bits from Debian

• If you intend to apply for a DebConf22 bursary and/or submit an event proposal and have not yet done so, please proceed as soon as possible!

• Bursary applications for DebConf22 will be accepted until May 1st at 23:59 UTC. Applications submitted after this deadline will not be considered.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ What’s New in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS “Jammy Jellyfish”?

•  Canonical has finally released the latest LTS version of Ubuntu—22.04 “Jammy Jellyfish.” Here are some of its new features.

• The new long-term support (LTS) release of Ubuntu has arrived—big news in the Ubuntu community. New versions may come every six months, but LTS releases land only once every two years, and they can receive updates from Canonical for up to a decade. That means the features on display below represent what many people will see on their computers for years to come.

• So what separates Ubuntu 22.04 from Ubuntu 20.04? Is it worth an upgrade, and is this the release you might stick with for the long haul? Here are some of the most enticing changes.

Devices/Embedded

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Pixel 6 Pro Gets Face Unlock Settings in Android 13 Beta – Review Geek

=> ↺ Android Not Scanning a QR Code: 7 Ways to Troubleshoot

=> ↺ Google’s ad-tracking overhaul continues with first developer preview of Privacy Sandbox on Android – The Verge

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy M51 starts receiving Android 12 – GSMArena.com news

=> ↺ OxygenOS 12 Open Beta w/ Android 12 out OnePlus Nord 2 – 9to5Google

=> ↺ Android Auto starts showing quick replies to messages for some users | Android Central

=> ↺ How to use wireless Android Auto in your car – 9to5Google

=> ↺ How to Change the Default Phone App on Android

=> ↺ How To Block Ads In Google Chrome On Android

=> ↺ The Best Android POS Systems Of 2022 – Forbes Advisor

=> ↺ Android Not Scanning a QR Code: 7 Ways to Troubleshoot

=> ↺ Google Translate getting a Material You widget on Android – 9to5Google

=> ↺ The Nothing Phone’s version of Android is surprisingly good | TechRadar

=> ↺ OnePlus Nord N20 5G review: Return of the OnePlus X | Android Central

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ MDN Plus now available in more countries – Mozilla Hacks – the Web developer blog

• Almost a month ago, we announced MDN Plus, a new premium service on MDN that allows users to customize their experience on the website.

• We are very glad to announce today that it is now possible for MDN users around the globe to create an MDN Plus free account, no matter where they are.

=> ↺ Common Voice dataset tops 20,000 hours

• The latest Common Voice dataset, released today, has achieved a major milestone: More than 20,000 hours of open-source speech data that anyone, anywhere can use. The dataset has nearly doubled in the past year.

=> ↺ This Week In Rust: This Week in Rust 440

Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

=> ↺ Latin-American LibreOffice Conference 2022 will take place in Brasília

• The 2022 edition of the Latin-American LibreOffice Conference will take place in Brasilia, Brazil between August 25 and 26. The event will be held at the Catholic University of Brasília, in the Taquaritinga – DF.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Uncertain Future For Marginalia Searc

• I found myself without a job on short notice.

• I’m not at all worried about finding another one, I have savings, and I have experience, and I have demonstrable skill. What I am concerned about is finding a source of income that’s compatible with putting some time on my personal projects.

• Last bunch of years, I’ve been working 32 hour weeks, which is a pretty sweet deal especially combined with the zero hour commute you get working from home during the pandemic. Not every employer is fine with that, and while I do have options, I’m in a worse bargaining position than I have been before.

Leftovers

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

=> ↺ Windows 10 still growing, but Win 11 had another bad month, says AdDuplex

• The apparent standstill of Windows 11 adoption is continuing for a second month, according to figures from ad platform AdDuplex.

=> ↺ Say No to Qt Style Sheets

• You have two choices when it comes to giving a custom style to your Qt widgets.

• Qt Style Sheets are very convenient for getting started — just a few CSS-like rules, and they work.

• It is our experience, however, that Qt Style Sheets create too much trouble and a QStyle subclass (*) gives a better solution, in the long run.

=> ↺ Running Doom on Qt for MCUs

• The demo utilizes Painted item to draw Doom to the application. The same method can be used in real world scenarios to draw custom content like video feed from a vehicle rear-view camera.

=> ↺ Digital advertising – Use cases and best practices

• We are happy to announce our new Qt Digital Advertising Solution.

Security

=> ↺ Microsoft Issues Report of Russian Cyberattacks against Ukraine

=> ↺ How Linux Became the New Bullseye for Bad Guys

=> ↺ Microsoft puts back doors in things and has actively exploited zero-day flaws; so it seems to have weaponised the media to libel “Linux” and distract from Microsoft’s culpability

=> ↺ Microsoft warns: These flaws could give attackers root privileges on Linux desktops

=> ↺ Raphaël Hertzog: Freexian’s report about Debian Long Term Support, March 2022

• Every month we review the work funded by Freexian’s Debian LTS offering. Please find the report for March below.

=> ↺ Google Releases Security Updates for Chrome

• Google has released Chrome version 101.0.4951.41 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. This version addresses vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit to take control of an affected system.

=> ↺ Cisco Releases Security Updates for Multiple Products

• Cisco has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in multiple Cisco products. An attacker could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.

=> ↺ Security updates for Thursday

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (chromium, golang-1.7, and golang-1.8), Fedora (bettercap, chisel, containerd, doctl, gobuster, golang-contrib-opencensus-resource, golang-github-appc-docker2aci, golang-github-appc-spec, golang-github-containerd-continuity, golang-github-containerd-stargz-snapshotter, golang-github-coredns-corefile-migration, golang-github-envoyproxy-protoc-gen-validate, golang-github-francoispqt-gojay, golang-github-gogo-googleapis, golang-github-gohugoio-testmodbuilder, golang-github-google-containerregistry, golang-github-google-slothfs, golang-github-googleapis-gnostic, golang-github-googlecloudplatform-cloudsql-proxy, golang-github-grpc-ecosystem-gateway-2, golang-github-haproxytech-client-native, golang-github-haproxytech-dataplaneapi, golang-github-instrumenta-kubeval, golang-github-intel-goresctrl, golang-github-oklog, golang-github-pact-foundation, golang-github-prometheus, golang-github-prometheus-alertmanager, golang-github-prometheus-node-exporter, golang-github-prometheus-tsdb, golang-github-redteampentesting-monsoon, golang-github-spf13-cobra, golang-github-xordataexchange-crypt, golang-gopkg-src-d-git-4, golang-k8s-apiextensions-apiserver, golang-k8s-code-generator, golang-k8s-kube-aggregator, golang-k8s-sample-apiserver, golang-k8s-sample-controller, golang-mongodb-mongo-driver, golang-storj-drpc, golang-x-perf, gopass, grpcurl, onionscan, shellz, shhgit, snowcrash, stb, thunderbird, and xq), Oracle (gzip, kernel, and polkit), Slackware (curl), SUSE (buildah, cifs-utils, firewalld, golang-github-prometheus-prometheus, libaom, and webkit2gtk3), and Ubuntu (nginx and thunderbird).

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Toyota keeps donating to Republicans who supported the coup attempt. – BaronHK’s Rants

• Toyota keeps donating to Republicans who supported The Bullshitter’s coup attempt, despite twice promising to stop doing so.

• I doubt my business means much to a company like that. One reason I don’t buy Toyota vehicles is that they ride really badly. Unlike my Buick or even the Chevy Impala, the Toyota cars tend to make you feel every bump and imperfection in the road, and god help you with the potholes.

• American streets tend to be too poorly maintained to have rubber band tires on your rims, but thanks to “kids” making rubber band tires popular, it’s getting almost impossible to find a car that rides well without laying more money into rims that can accommodate actual tires. The bigger the tire, the more air fits in it, and the more air that fits in between your rim and the road surface, the better the shock absorption.

• I drove my ex’s dad’s Prius and it was the worst ride I’ve ever experienced in a vehicle, and it was only 6 years old. I’ve had lots of cars way older than that which didn’t make everyone in the car hit their head on the ceiling every time you ran over a bump at 30 miles an hour.

• Now, Toyota may make “reliable” cars, I don’t know. I’ve known people with serious issues with their Toyota, and the repair costs are not cheap, especially with those damned battery cars where the battery packs alone cost $5,000 to replace properly, and that’s if nothing else is wrong with it, like the wiring, sensors, that kind of crap. Mechanics rack up a lot of billable hours with electrical issues and you’re still taking a shot in the dark by the time they tell you what it is.

=> ↺ CISA and FBI Update Advisory on Destructive Malware Targeting Organizations in Ukraine

• CISA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have updated joint Cybersecurity Advisory AA22-057A: Destructive Malware Targeting Organizations in Ukraine, originally released February 26, 2022. The advisory has been updated to include additional indicators of compromise for WhisperGate and technical details for HermeticWiper, IsaacWiper, HermeticWizard, and CaddyWiper destructive malware.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ The Middle Way

• I feel we should all embrace the middle. Nothing is absolute. Polarised politics is causing chaos and leading to contemptible muppets having undeserved power. A middle way tempers these extremes and keeps us finding the least worst way. We can all be kinder to ourselves, kinder to those we love, kinder to strangers and kinder to those we do not get along with. Try applying the middle way to your life and see what happens. Just be able to make a decision when someone asks where you want to eat!

=> ↺ Public Knowledge Welcomes New Members to Board of Directors

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Internet Shutdowns Rocket As Governments Crack Down On Dissent

• There was a dramatic rise in the number of internet shutdowns in 2021, for reasons ranging from preventing exam cheating to suppressing dissent.

• According to Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition, authorities deliberately shut down the internet at least 182 times across 34 countries, up from least 159 shutdowns in 29 countries in 2020.

• “Authorities shut down the internet to shut down democracy,” says Felicia Anthonio, #KeepItOn Campaign Manager at Access Now.

=> ↺ Internet shutdowns in 2021 report: digital authoritarianism returning across the globe

=> ↺ Internet shutdowns in 2021 report: MENA in the dark

=> ↺ Internet shutdowns in 2021 report: resistance in the face of blackouts in Africa

=> ↺ Internet Shutdowns Surge From India to Russia After Covid Dip

=> ↺ The return of digital authoritarianism: internet shutdowns in 2021

=> ↺ Internet shutdowns in 2021 report: India is the world’s largest offender

=> ↺ Internet shutdowns in 2021: the return of digital authoritarianism

=> ↺ Over 100 Internet Shutdowns Imposed in India in 2021 – The Most in the World: New Report

• Indian authorities blocked or disrupted Internet access at least 106 times in 2021, making it the world’s biggest offender for the fourth straight year, according to a new report released by digital rights advocacy group Access Now.

• Data compiled for the report also shows that governments across the world imposed Internet shutdowns some 182 times in total in 34 countries, a slight uptick compared to at least 159 shutdowns in 29 countries in 2020.

=> ↺ India continues to hold top position in internet shutdowns: Access Now | Business Standard News

• Read more about India continues to hold top position in internet shutdowns: Access Now on Business Standard. After India, Myanmar imposed the highest total number of shutdowns in 2021, with 15 disruptions, followed by Sudan and Iran with five shutdowns in each country

=> ↺ Empty promises? Declaration for Future of the Internet is nice on paper – Access Now

• Today, a global coalition of over 60 states launched A Declaration for the Future of the Internet. The non-binding statement calls for “a single global Internet – one that is truly open and fosters competition, privacy, and respect for human rights.”

• Access Now agrees with the Declaration’s call for a global Internet that protects human rights and promotes democratic participation through inclusive and universal connectivity, privacy and security protections, and a multistakeholder approach to governance. At the same time, Access Now notes that the Declaration largely avoids addressing mass digital surveillance, which the U.S. government and its Five Eyes partners pioneered, and offers little to combat the rampant profiling and maximal data collection that characterizes the big tech business model and fuels disinformation campaigns.

=> ↺ India country with most internet shutdowns for 4th time, 85 in J&K alone: Report | Latest News India – Hindustan Times

• For the fourth consecutive year, India has emerged as the country with the highest number of internet shutdowns for reasons ranging from curbing protests to preventing online frauds, a report released by tech policy think tank Access Now has found. Of the 106 shutdowns, 85 were found in Jammu and Kashmir alone. “In 2021, authorities deliberately shut down the Internet at least 182 times across 34 countries. India is the world’s largest offender, and blacked out the internet at least 106 times,” the report states. The report, however, noted that the number is lower than what it was in 2020 — 109. Apart from India, the others at the top of the list include Myanmar (at least 15 times), Sudan and Iran (both at least five times each). Internet shutdowns topped in Jammu and Kashmir, where authorities continue to impose intentional disruptions that last for extended periods due to the cross-border terrorism threats.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

=> ↺ Apple’s Big Fat Nothing Burger — The Repair Association

• Apple has finally announced the details of their customer repair program, and predictably does so without doing much of anything other than renting repair jigs (useful) and distributing manuals (which look to be similar to those already built by iFixit.com) I’ll give their marketing team an A+ for retaining their repair monopoly while offering the pretense of cooperation without actually delivering on right to repair.

• These feeble actions are not going to forestall legislation and will probably add incentive to pass statutes requiring full access to repair parts, service documentation, tools, diagnostics and settings controls on fair and reasonable terms.

• Apple has already been blocking the option of self-repair or independent repair using parts pairing (activation) technology. This step already frustrates the use of used Apple parts as well as third party parts. Buyers of used products are already being pushed out of the market as parts from broken devices cannot be harvested and used for donor parts.

Monopolies

=> ↺ Leading Antitrust Enforcers Criticize Antitrust Bills Targeting Large Tech Firms

• At a recent roundtable event, five leading competition economists criticized the design of recent antitrust bills like the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) that would target firms based on size rather than conduct or harm to consumer welfare. The five Berkeley University economists, who led economic analysis at the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama Administrations, have had a broader impact on antitrust policy and enforcement than nearly any other group of economists. According to these experts, the current bills would stifle innovation, impose costly regulation, and create unworkable new antitrust standards with bright line presumptions that risk a return to rulings like Brown Shoe.

• The panel began with an apt encapsulation of the economic consensus regarding the bills: “Asking me what my favorite bill is among all these different proposals is a little bit like asking what is my favorite flavor of COVID-19,” said Richard Gilbert, who served as Chief Economist of the DOJ in the Clinton Administration.

• The economists expressed concern that bright line presumptions in the antitrust bills could be both highly prescriptive and insufficiently thought out in terms of practical implementation. The “highly prescriptive” nature of current antitrust bills is “disturbing” because “bill drafters have no clue what policies would mean in practice,” said Michael Katz, who served as Chief Economist of the FCC in the Clinton Administration and Chief Economist of the DOJ in the Bush Administration. “It just seems crazy to do these things like, for example, saying that a law applies [to a certain company] if your corporate parent has a certain dollar revenue regardless of whether those revenues are in the market that is issuing the case or somewhere else,” Katz noted. Gilbert indicated that he had similar concerns regarding practical implementation, noting that the antitrust bills don’t tell us how we actually implement many of their objectives, and there are very significant obstacles that need a lot of design and thought.

Patents

Software Patents

=> ↺ GNOME patent troll stripped of patent rights

• A recent decision at the US patent office may well give patent trolls cause to steer clear of open source projects – even more than the fierce resistance the community impressively funded and mounted in the GNOME case.

• The patent troll who attacked them also lost the patent it was using for the assault, following the persistent efforts of McCoy Smith, an open source community legal specialist.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Orra White Hitchcock’s Scientific Illustrations for the Classroom (1828–40) – The Public Domain Review

• After meeting and falling in love with Edward Hitchcock, her employer at Massachusetts’ Deerfield Academy, Orra (née White) married him in 1821, beginning a lifetime of professional collaboration while raising a family amid piles of rocks and research tomes. Highly trained, white, and wealthy, she was far from an oddity in nineteenth-century education. Like many other women of her class, Hitchcock received extensive instruction in the arts and sciences, making a name by working alongside, not beneath, a man who had easier access to academic opportunities. Variously lauded as “an anomaly” and “the most remarkable” of their era, her scientific illustrations have rarely been considered on their own terms — admired for the natural historical and religious knowledge they contain — without being made an exemplar of the broader category of “women’s work”.

• Moving to Amherst when Edward was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Natural History, the couple embarked on a decades-long exploration of the Connecticut River Valley’s botany and geology. While Edward lectured to eager young students about the principles of nature, from the depths of oceans to the granite veins of the earth, Orra produced more than sixty hand-colored scientific illustrations on poster-sized linen swaths designed to be hung on classroom walls.

=> ↺ Not so Smart: The SMART Copyright Act’s Dangerous Approach to Online Copyright Protection – Public Knowledge

• Recently, Senators Thom Tillis and Patrick Leahy introduced a bill that would threaten freedom of expression, creativity, and competition called the “Strengthening Measures to Advance Rights Technologies (SMART) Copyright Act of 2022.” The proposed legislation vests the Copyright Office with the authority to mandate the adoption of new “designated technical measures,” or DTMs, for monitoring and enforcing copyright. Simply put, the bill could result in every digital platform or website that allows for user-generated, uploaded content being forced to use content monitoring software—designated by the Copyright Office—on penalty of statutory damages. This bill would reshape the internet as we know it, and threatens its long-standing values of freedom, creativity, and innovation.

• Protecting creative works online is an ongoing challenge—especially for small or independent creators that lack the deep pockets of major media companies—but government-mandated monitoring solutions are dangerous, and are unlikely to be fair and effective solutions.

• On top of these considerable issues, the DTM designation process envisioned by the bill—relying on the Librarian of Congress and the Copyright Office—raises serious procedural concerns. DTMs will rely on cutting-edge technology and have deep impacts on how platforms and websites are able to function. Fully considering these decisions demands a level of technical expertise and stakeholder trust that frankly does not exist at the Copyright Office.

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