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● 12.05.22

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 05/12/2022: Gnoppix Linux 22.12 and Armbian 22.11

Posted in News Roundup at 5:18 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ Best Linux Desktop Environment: 16 Reviewed and Compared

• The world of Linux Desktop Environments is vast and ever-evolving. With so many options available, it can be difficult to decide which one is right for you. Whether you need a lightweight and efficient environment for business purposes, want the best gaming experience possible, or require an environment with high levels of privacy and security, there’s a Linux Desktop Environment out there for everyone.

• Another thing to note is that installing a distro comes with a desktop environment already set up. However, so many popular desktop environments are available that it might be difficult for someone new to choose which one fits their needs best. With that in mind, I created this comprehensive guide on the best Linux desktop environments. Regardless of your level of expertise, this tutorial will help you find the perfect one for your needs.

=> ↺ 6 Reasons Why 2022 Wasn’t the Best Year for Chromebooks

• Chromebooks hit an all-time popularity high in 2020 as billions of people were forced to stay home, and discovered they needed a cheap way of entertaining themselves, working, and engaging with the education system. But 2021 saw sales drop off sharply to 37.3 million units, and it’s estimated that a mere 30 million Chromebooks will have shipped by the end of 2022.

• With 2023 appearing over the horizon, the future looks bleak for Chromebooks. Why is it so?

=> ↺ Can the HP Envy x360 (2022) run Linux?

• The easiest and safest way to run Linux on the HP Envy x360 (2022) is through virtualization tools. If you’re on Windows 11 Pro, you can use Hyper-V on Windows to install Linux on a virtual machine. Just search for it in the Start Menu and follow the steps on your screen. If you’re on Windows 11 Home, you can also install Linux on a virtual machine through an app like Oracle Virtualbox.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Rocky Linux 9.1 overview | Enterprise Linux, the community way. – Invidious

• In this video, I am going to show an overview of Rocky Linux 9.1 and some of the applications pre-installed.

=> ↺ Bypass Paywalls – Invidious

=> ↺ Valve’s ENORMOUS Steam Deck giveaway! (Plus other Steam Deck news) – Invidious

• The Steam Deck has had yet another huge week. The gaming industry is about to celebrate video games at the Game Awards and Valve’s decided to give a way one Deck every minute!

=> ↺ 487: The Debian Debate

• After nearly half a year of woe, Brent is ready to give Linux the go. Join us as we compare and contrast two Linux distros and end up with one going on Brent’s machine.

=> ↺ GNU World Order 489

• Are cloud services and open source even compatible?

Kernel Space

=> ↺ How Realtime Is Your Kernel? Scope A GPIO To Find Out | Hackaday

• When debugging something as involved as kernel scheduler timings, you would typically use one of the software-based debugging mechanisms available. However, in cases when software is close to bare metal, you don’t always need to do that. Instead, you can output a signal to a GPIO, and then use a logic analyzer or a scope to measure signal change timing – which is what [Albert David] did when evaluating Linux kernel’s PREEMPT_RT realtime operation patches.

• [...]

• What could you use this for? A lot of hobbyists use realtime kernels on Linux when building CNC machine controllers and robots, where things like motor control put tight constraints on how quickly a decision in your software is translated into real-world consequences, and if this sounds up your valley, check out this Linux real-time task tutorial from [Andreas]. If things get way too intense for a multi-tasking system like Linux, you might want to use a RTOS to begin with, and we have a guide on that for you, too.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ NVIDIA Ships Vulkan Extensions to Support Accelerated RTX™ IO on Windows and Linux

• NVIDIA RTX™ IO is a suite of technologies that enables rapid GPU-based asset decompression and loading. NVIDIA’s GDeflate GPU decompression format delivers IO-saturating performance on modern NVMe devices. GDeflate is used in Microsoft’s DirectStorage API, and now NVIDIA is contributing the technology for consideration by the Vulkan working group at Khronos. Two new NVIDIA Vulkan extensions to accelerate RTX IO are were released in the Vulkan 1.3.233 update and are supported in the latest NVIDIA drivers on both Linux and Windows. VK_NV_memory_decompression handles decompressing assets on GPU, and VK_NV_copy_memory_indirect handles copying decompressed data to Vulkan buffers/images.

=> ↺ MoltenVK Added to Two Switch Emulators

• Two switch emulators have recently added MoltenVK to their back-end for portability and benchmarking…

Benchmarks

=> ↺ NVIDIA GeForce GPUs Continue To Dominate Linux Gaming Benchmarks, AMD Radeon & Intel Arc Left Catching The Dust

Applications

=> ↺ Cockpit 281 — Cockpit Project

• Override your system’s style with Cockpit’s new style switcher. It’s great for the times when you might want a dark Cockpit but your system is in light mode. Or vice versa.

• Additionally, some browsers have issues picking up on the correct system dark mode setting, so this lets you manually set the mode you prefer.

• You can find the style switcher in the session menu.

=> ↺ Termdbs: Manage your Databases and CSVs from the Terminal

• Termdbs is a free open-source lightweight terminal app that allows you to view and edit local database (SQLite) and large CSV files.

• It offers a straightforward terminal interface that you can easily use with many useful shortcuts, or by using your mouse and mouse scroll.

• With Termdbs, you can navigate database tables, simple browse any number of columns or rows, query your database with a query manager, and many other features.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to Set Up Wireguard VPN Server on Ubuntu 22.04

• WireGuard is an open-source general-purpose VPN that was initially released for the Linux kernel. Now it is used across multiple platforms i.e. Windows, macOS, Android, etc. The WireGuard VPN supports both IPv4 and IPv6 connections.

• WireGuard uses public and private keys to establish encrypted tunnels between peers to ensure security. It is much faster compared to other VPN protocols such as OpenVPN and IPSec.

• In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to set up WireGuard on a Ubuntu 22.04 Server. First, let’s take a look at the prerequisites needed for this tutorial and make sure you have everything ready before proceeding further.

=> ↺ How to Update phpMyAdmin to the Latest Version

• Sometimes the repository response time becomes slow and does not deliver the updates. Or you might be facing compatibility issues with your current version of phpMyAdmin.

• Whatever the reason, this tutorial is going to show how you can update your phpMyAdmin to the latest version manually.

=> ↺ How to Create Large Files in Linux

• Creating files in Linux is something we do all the time. Mostly you create an empty text file with the touch command and then add content to it.

• But what about creating new files of a certain size?

• When you are troubleshooting something or want to test in some particular scenario, you may require large files bigger than a certain size. Let’s say 500 MB or 2 GB.

• Now, you cannot create an empty file and then start writing garbage text in it. You can never be able to create a file of 1 GB in size this way.

• Thankfully, you don’t have to manually create large text files. There are various commands that allow you to create large files of predefined size. They won’t have desired tex. Just some random garbage but you’ll get the file of your desired size.

• Let me show how to do that.

=> ↺ Writing Single-Line, Inline, and Multi-line Comments in Linux Shell Script

• Like other programming languages, bash provides you with the option to ignore a single line, inline, or a block of lines from execution.

• The comments always received the least attention due to their simplicity but played a very important role while being used in a program or script.

• You can use them to describe the block of lines in your script that can help you understand what you did in the past; others can also benefit from this. Or, you can use the comments to skip the block of lines while debugging your script.

• In this article, you will learn three ways to comment lines in your shell script.

=> ↺ What is Exit Status Code ($?) of Last Command in Linux

• The “$?” is a built-in variable that your shell uses to store the exit status code of the last executed command in integer format and remains unchanged unless the next command is executed.

• Using this exit status code, you can debug the problem that occurred while executing the command, which can be extremely beneficial in shell script error handling.

=> ↺ How To Install phpMyAdmin on Rocky Linux 9 – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install phpMyAdmin on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, phpMyAdmin is a free and open-source tool that enables you to manage MySQL and MariaDB databases from the web browser. It provides a robust and user-friendly interface for managing databases, tables, database users, basic crud operations (create, read, update, delete), and so much more.

• 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 phpMyAdmin on Rocky Linux. 9.

=> ↺ How to Create Ubuntu, Linux OS Bootable USB in Windows

• A short tutorial for beginners on creating a bootable USB stick in Windows with Ubuntu/Linux ISO images.

• A bootable Ubuntu USB is handy for multiple reasons. Suppose you are a Windows user and thinking of migrating to Linux. In that case, you can experience Ubuntu desktop/Linux desktops without hampering your PC configuration or installation using a Live USB stick. Also, using this, you can boot from the USB stick directly from an Internet Cafe or any borrowed computer. Not only that, if you have a broken system, you can always use the USB stick to boot from and repair the broken system/recover data. Here are the steps to follow to create a bootable Ubuntu USB from Microsoft Windows.

=> ↺ Learn how Unix influenced Linux, understand Ansible lists and dictionaries, and more tips for sysadmin | Enable Sysadmin

• Check out Enable Sysadmin’s top 10 articles from November 2022.

=> ↺ Beginners Guide for Set Command in Linux

• The set command is a built-in Linux command that can display or modify the value of shell attributes and positional parameters inside the current shell environment.

• This modification can help to debug your script by finding undefined variables, errors, job control, printing commands as they are executed, and automatically exporting variables and functions in sub-shell.

=> ↺ Beginners Guide for Unset Command in Linux

• The set command is a built-in Linux command that can display or modify the value of shell attributes and positional parameters inside the current shell environment.

=> ↺ How to trace application errors using SystemTap | Red Hat Developer

• Low-level library functions and kernel system calls on Linux report errors by returning a POSIX error code such as ENOENT or EINVAL. With SystemTap, an open source tracing toolkit maintained by Red Hat, it is possible to look inside the Linux kernel to debug the problem. This article demonstrates how to investigate the cause of an error code using SystemTap with the whythefail.stp script.

• [...]

• This article demonstrated how source code inspection and SystemTap tracing could narrow down the causes of a confusing error code. With the help of whythefail.stp, we utilized the general information provided by an EINVAL error code and traced the Linux kernel’s implementation of the system call to understand which argument was invalid and why. We also illustrated how debugging tools could double as program understanding tools for programmers whose code interacts with an unfamiliar project. When we used whythefail.stp, our goal was not to diagnose a problem within the kernel itself but to understand the kernel’s internals and behavior in more detail than the documentation conveys.

=> ↺ How to install and configure Redpanda on Debian 11

• Redpanda is a Kafka®-compatible streaming data platform that boasts of being 10x faster and 6x more cost efficient. It is also JVM-free, ZooKeeper®-free, Jepsen-tested and source available. It is distributed as a single binary with everything thus allowing you to deploy in minutes. It works natively with Kafka tools.

=> ↺ How to Add a User in Linux [With Examples]

• This guide shows how to add a user in Linux using the useradd and adduser commands or utilizing the GUI tools that the desktop provides.

=> ↺ How To Install Docker Compose on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Docker Compose on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Docker Compose is a utility that permits you to run multi-container application setups based on YAML definitions. It creates fully customized environments with multiple containers that have the capability to share data volumes and networks using service definitions. Once you have a Compose file, you can create and start your application with a single command.

• 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 Docker Compose on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

=> ↺ Fix TypeCatcher (Google Fonts Installer) does not launch in Ubuntu 22.04 | UbuntuHandbook

• This simple tutorial shows how to fix the launching issue for TypeCatcher in Ubuntu 22.04 or other Linux with Python 3.9 & higher.

• TypeCatcher is a simple GTK application to download and install Google webfonts for off-line use. The app is available to install in Ubuntu Software for all current Ubuntu releases. However, it does not launch in Ubuntu since 21.10.

=> ↺ Setup SFTP Server With SFTPGo In Linux – OSTechNix

• This detailed guide explains what is SFTPGo, how to install SFTPGo in various Linux distributions, and finally how to setup a SFTP server with SFTPGo in Linux.

=> ↺ 6 ways to get information about your CPU on Linux

• Getting insight into what CPU you’re running is a useful trick to know.

=> ↺ How to perform unattended Linux installations with Kickstart

• Kickstart is an automatic installation method natively available on those distributions which uses the Anaconda installer: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (and its clones) and Fedora. It can also be used to install Ubuntu, actually, but in that context it acts as a layer of compatibility to the debian-native preseeding method. With Kickstart we can perform unattended, customizable and reproducible installations.

• In this tutorial we learn the basics of Kickstart, and we see how to perform an unattended installation of a Fedora Workstation system.

Desktop Environments/WMs

=> ↺ My Window Manager Environment Desktop | A Transformed Life

• This is going to be another one of those Linux posts that I put up here for my own reminders. I don’t know if anyone else will ever read or appreciate these, but I’ve found them helpful. To wit:

• The Desktop Environment vs. Window Manager debate. Lots of people who use Linux spend time deciding on which Desktop Environment they want to use. Windows users don’t really have that option: Microsoft chooses your Desktop Environment, and that’s the end of it. That’s why Windows 98 looked so different from Windows XP, which looked different from Windows 7, which looked different from Windows 8, to Windows 10 and 11. (I bought a new computer last month, and I was shocked at how much Windows 11 looked like… a Linux desktop called Gnome. I hated it, but I’m not a Gnome fan.)

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Guest Post: OpenUK Awards 2022 Sustainability – KDE Eco

• This is a guest post by Jonathan Esk-Riddell for the KDE Eco blog about the OpenUK Awards.

• OpenUK is an advocacy organisation for open tech (software, hardware and data) in the UK. We run various activities and I have had the priviledge of hosting the award ceremony for the last few years.

• Last year at COP26 in Glasgow I announced KDE Eco, the KDE project to measure and certify apps as energy efficient. For those reading this who aren’t familiar, KDE is an open source community making apps for Linux and other platforms. KDE Eco has two parts, FOSS Energy Efficiency Project, developing tools to improve energy efficiency in free and open source software development. And Blauer Engel For FOSS, working with German Environment Agency to create eco-certification with the Blauer Engel label for desktop software.

Distributions and Operating Systems

=> ↺ Community maintained images for toolbox (and distrobox) – Siosm’s blog

• In this post I will discuss how we made community maintained container images for common Linux distributions available for use with toolbox (and distrobox) and why we can not call them “official”.

• What is toolbox (or toolbx)?

• But first, let’s start with a bit of context. On image based Linux distributions (such as Fedora Silverblue, Fedora Kinoite, Fedora CoreOS, etc.), it is not practical to install random packages the way you may be used to do on classic package based Linux distributions. You are expected to run applications in containers, either via Flatpak for graphical applications, or via podman for command line ones.

• While you can directly manage your own custom container images and environment configurations, it is not useful to have everyone rediscover what to do thus a new tool has been created to make that easier: toolbox (or toolbx) (containers/toolbox on GitHub).

• Toolbox lets you easily create a mutable and persistent environments inside containers that are well integrated with your host system.

=> ↺ EasyOS advancing to Kirkstone-series

• That’s the current intention anyway. The Dunfell-series started in early 2020, and I am running into problems with libraries etc. being too old.

Reviews

=> ↺ Review: CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS

• Last week I took to the DistroWatch waiting list in search of new distributions to try. One which caught my eye was CachyOS. The distribution’s website describes the project as follows:

• “CachyOS is a Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. The default Linux kernel is linux-cacule which is the Arch Linux stock kernel plus the CacULE CPU Scheduler.

• The project currently supplies three editions: KDE (2.2GB), GNOME (2.2GB), and a self-described command line edition which is 952MB. The command line (CLI) edition doesn’t appear to be updated as often or as recently as the desktop editions. The CLI edition is eight months old at the time of writing while the two desktop editions are just over a month old.

• The distribution’s website mentions some key features, including the Cachy-Browser which is a web browser forked from LibreWolf. The website also mentions a tool called Firejail Toggle which will enable sandboxing for recognized applications. The CachyOS website also mentions one-click support for installing the operating system on ZFS, an advanced filesystem. Alternatives, XFS, ext4, Btrfs, and F2FS are reportedly supported at install time.

• I decided to download the KDE edition of CachyOS. Booting from the provided media brings up a menu offering to start the live distribution normally or with NVIDIA drivers enabled. The system loads and presents us with the KDE Plasma desktop with a strong blue-on-blue theme. A panel is placed along the bottom of the screen with the desktop’s application menu and system tray. A dock-like set of launchers appears in the middle of the panel.

• Once the live desktop loads, a welcome screen appears. This screen is divided into three columns. In the first column we find buttons which provide us with documentation, release information, and a link to the project’s wiki. The second column includes a link to the forum and a button called “Software” which connects us with the distribution’s repository of custom package builds. The third column links us to source code and tips for getting involved with developing the distribution. At the bottom of the welcome window is a button which launches the Calamares system installer.

• The welcome screen also features a drop-down menu where we can select our preferred language. Strangely, selecting different languages doesn’t do anything. The welcome window and the Plasma desktop remain displaying English, regardless of which language I picked.

New Releases

=> ↺ 4MLinux 41.0 is Now Stable and Ready for Use

• The developers behind 4MLinux have changed the status of 41.0 to STABLE, which means it’s ready for prime time.

• 4MLinux 41 is now available for general use and includes plenty of updates. There are new applications to be had, including FileZilla, XPaint, and GNU Paint, a command-line tool for managing NVM-Express partitions, a small collection of games, LibreOffice 7.4.3, GNOME Office (AbiWord, GIMP, Gnumeric), Dropbox, Firefox, Chromium, Thunderbird, the Audacious music player, VLC, SMPlayer, Wine 7.18, and more.

• With the release of 4MLinux 41.0, it is now possible to install on a BTRFS partition, with the help of Syslinux acting as a boot manager.

• This lightweight Linux distribution ships with kernel 6.0.6 and Mesa 22.1.4, and uses JWM (Joe’s Window Manager) as the desktop interface.

=> ↺ Gnoppix 22.12 Release

• Today I’m happy to announce Gnoppix 22.12 Release.

• The update includes bug fixes, security updates, Kernel 6.x , starting with Gnome 43.2 and lot of performance improvements, lot of new security tools!

=> ↺ Gnoppix Linux 22.12 is out with GNOME 43, Kernel 6.0, + More

• The successor of the legacy live-cd Knoppix project, Gnoppix Linux is designed specifically for use in penetration testing and reverse engineering. It is optimized for web application security and for protecting digital rights. In addition to its focus on security, Gnoppix can also be used as a regular desktop operating system. It is a rolling release that receives frequent updates and new features.

• At its core, it is based on Kali Linux and Debian-rolling for some parts. And brings a GNOME desktop in contrast with Xfce for Kali Linux.

=> ↺ Armbian 22.11 – Armbian

• • added Bananapi M5, Odroid M1 and Rockpi 4C plus

• • enabled community images with weekly release cycle

• • added ultra minimal images optimized for software deployment

• • added RiscV64 UEFI build support

• • improved support for Rockpi S

• kernel upgrade is frozen by default to improve stability

SUSE/OpenSUSE

=> ↺ The openSUSE forums move from vBulletin to Discourse – openSUSE News

• Maybe you have read this announcement in openSUSE forums and asked yourself what this will mean for the way you use the forums. Even more when you may not understand, or only vaguely understand, what the words vBulletin and Discourse mean.

• You will understand that the website forums.opensuse.org runs software that handles not only the interface with you, but also stores and manages the threads with the posts, and the user administration of the forum members. The software package used is named vBulletin. It is a commercial package and as such brings considerable costs.

• Because all software that stays alive will move to new versions, this is also the case with vBulletin. That will mean that all of the adaptions that were made in the openSUSE instance had to be converted to the new version. At such a moment, it is time to look if a different solution might be better. We will not burden you with all the details, but the result is that vBulletin will be replaced by a different and open-source (which fits into the openSUSE product approach: Discourse.

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ Fedora Community Blog: CPE Weekly Update – Week 48 2022

• This is a weekly report from the CPE (Community Platform Engineering) Team. If you have any questions or feedback, please respond to this report or contact us on #redhat-cpe channel on libera.chat.

• We provide you both infographics and text version of the weekly report. If you just want to quickly look at what we did, just look at the infographic. If you are interested in more in depth details look below the infographic.

=> ↺ How data analysts can help CIOs bridge the tech talent shortfall | The Enterprisers Project

• Digital transformation has increased interest in AI, ML, and DevOps talent to revolutionize the customer experience through automation and personalization.

• While these positions are essential, it may not make sense for every company to prioritize them, especially those that don’t already have a cohesive data strategy. While digital progress and tech investments will continue, leaders must first prioritize how their company manages its data.

=> ↺ 7 AI predictions for 2023 from IT leaders

• December is here, so you know what that means: holiday parties, new year’s resolutions, and a slew of technology predictions. We decided to focus on a trend that matters most urgently to IT leaders—concrete artificial intelligence (AI) insights for your team and business.

• The potential impacts of AI are wide-ranging—as are the related forecasts, on everything from sentient to generative and responsible AI, to collaboration and automation. What will matter to IT leaders in 2023? We talked to AI and IT career experts to ask their opinions.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Linux Mint 21.1 enters beta, should arrive by Christmas • The Register

• The first beta version of Mint 21.1 is now available for download, and the flagship Cinnamon desktop edition contains the biggest change, with a new version of the desktop.

=> ↺ High-performance computing (HPC) technologies: what does the future hold? [part 6] | Ubuntu

• It’s always difficult to predict the future, but we expect to see plenty around easing the deployment of applications and clusters for HPC. Composability is positioned to grow with the advent of new server components. Schedulers continue to advance. Quantum computing is getting closer each year, with new updates expected in the years to come. Alternative architectures are growing in use and becoming more mature. Ubuntu is positioned to work well everywhere, so it will be a great asset for organisations looking to use HPC. Let’s explore technological innovations surrounding:

=> ↺ Join Canonical and the financial services open-source community at OSSF NY | Ubuntu

• OSFF is a global conference hosted by the Linux Foundation FINOS that brings together experts across financial services, technology, and open source to engage in stimulating and thought-provoking conversations about leveraging secure open source to solve financial services industry challenges.

• This event showcases recent developments and the direction of open source in financial services. It provides practical knowledge and guidance on best practices, open-source tools and technologies in the industry.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Rugged Edge Mini-PC equipped with i.MX 8M Plus and dual 2.5GbE LAN ports

• The datasheet also mentions that the ISR215 is based on the IBR215-Q316I SBC which also provides access to two HD MIPI-CSI interfaces supporting up to 12MP cameras.

• iBASE also specified that “Standard BSP support for Yocto and Android and design-in services are provided to help customers rapidly develop and deploy their innovations.”

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ 10 Sensors You Can Use With an Arduino Board – Make Tech Easier

• A big part of what makes the Arduino great for projects is the myriad of sensors that can be used with the Arduino. This article discusses some useful sensors that allow you to build cool projects and prototypes on your Arduino board.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ When will Twitter Blue subscription for Android – Web be available?

=> ↺ How to create a custom ringtone for Android?

=> ↺ Galaxy A51 is getting Android 13 and One UI 5.0 update in Europe – SamMobile

=> ↺ Android accessibility options for blind and hard of hearing users

=> ↺ Urgent warning as 300,000 Android owners infected by dangerous app – and it’s bad news if you have Facebook | The US Sun

=> ↺ Delete These Malware Apps From Your Android ASAP

=> ↺ Cybersecurity tips for Android users

=> ↺ The Android December security patch is here

=> ↺ ADT-3 streamer for Android TV development discontinued

=> ↺ AUN PH30S cheaper 720p projector with built-in Android available globally – NotebookCheck.net News

=> ↺ Google releases major Android upgrade but only if you own these phones | Express.co.uk

=> ↺ You told us: You think Android and iOS could do with competition

• Do we still need a third major smartphone platform to take on Apple and Google’s operating systems, though? That’s what we asked last week, and here’s how you answered this poll.

=> ↺ 7 Best Animoji and Memoji for Android | Make Fun Emojis

• Let’s dig into the field of best animoji memoji apps for Android before downloading one on your daily device. You will find many different apps in the app marketplaces; most offer tons of fun content. Of course, there is some offering utter junk. In this time of social media animoji, memoji apps are certainly a must-have for online savvy people. Animoji memoji are much more expressive and fun to use compared to regular 2D stock emojis.

• Basically, Animoji is a very popular app available only on iOS devices. It’s not available on Andoird, and that cannot be a reason you will be deprived of making fun emojis and memojis of your friends. We are going to learn about seven animoji alternative apps here that will help you make fun emojis within a few minutes.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ Twitter turns its back on open-source development | ZDNET

• When Elon Musk took over Twitter, he started by firing half of the social network’s staff. That’s a recipe for failure right there. Leaving aside Musk’s management and policy failures, social networks need experienced developers to keep moving forward.

=> ↺ ODD Platform: Open-source data discovery and observability

• Provectus released v0.8 of its Open Data Discovery Platform (ODDP), an open-source platform that helps data-driven enterprises democratize their data.

Web Browsers/Web Servers

Chromium

=> ↺ Chrome Releases: Dev Channel Update for Desktop

• A partial list of changes is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.

=> ↺ Chrome Releases: Dev Channel Update for ChromeOS / ChromeOS Flex

• The Dev channel is being updated to OS version: 15263.0.0, Browser version: 110.0.5447.0 for most ChromeOS devices.

Mozilla

=> ↺ Thunderbird For Android Preview: Modern Message Redesign

• The road to bringing you a great Thunderbird email experience on Android devices begins with K-9 Mail, which joined our family earlier this year. And we’ve been busy improving K-9 Mail as we prepare its transition to Thunderbird for Android in Summer 2023. (Check out our roadmap for updates!)

• Last week we showed you the new Swipe actions in K-9 Mail 6.400. Today, it’s something even more exciting: a completely redesigned message view!

=> ↺ How we’re making Firefox accessible and delightful for everyone

• I joined Mozilla in 2017 as an accessibility engineer and soon became the tech lead for accessibility. But for years prior, I was already deeply involved with the company. I co-created NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) in 2006, a screen reader for blind and vision impaired people like me. We wanted to make Firefox and NVDA work as well as they could together to provide everyone the best possible access to the web.

• With NVDA, I helped change the world for a lot of people through a free and open-source screen reader. Now at Mozilla, I get to do the work from the browser side of things – making sure Firefox continues to work efficiently alongside assistive technology as the internet evolves constantly and rapidly.

• This International Day of Persons with Disabilities, I want to take a moment to share how we’re working to make Firefox not just accessible. We want to make sure the browser is also delightful, efficient and easy to use for everyone, including the more than 1 billion people around the world who live with disabilities.

Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

=> ↺ What is Miklos hacking – Improved watermark in the PDF export

• The PDF export now supports various additional properties for the optional PDF watermark.

• First, thanks Docmosis for funding this work by Collabora.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ PoCL – Portable Computing Language | Portable Computing Language (pocl) v3.1 released

• • Support for Clang/LLVM 15.0 - Much improved SPIR-V support for CPU and CUDA drivers - Major rework of the custom device driver. The driver was formerly named Accel, now AlmaIF. - Various improvements to the work-in-progress Vulkan driver - Basic implementation of cl_khr_command_buffer

Perl / Raku

=> ↺ 2022.49 ReleaseMas Again – Rakudo Weekly News

• This week saw a new Rakudo compiler release (2022.12 by Justin DeVuyst) with a nice bunch of new features and bug fixes, a new Cro release (mostly to fix a testing issue that would inhibit installation by default) and a new release of the Podlite editor (0.4.0, with markdown block support, /r/rakulang comments). Nice prezzies!

Leftovers

Security

=> ↺ CAPTCHA

• As an actual human and not a bot, I had no idea how to answer. Is this a joke? (Seems not.) Is it a Magritte-like existential question? (It’s not a bicycle. It’s a drawing of a bicycle. Actually, it’s a photograph of a drawing of a bicycle. No, it’s really a computer image of a photograph of a drawing of a bicycle.) Am I overthinking this? (Definitely.) I stared at the screen, paralyzed, for way too long.

=> ↺ Hackers hijack Linux devices using PRoot isolated filesystems

• PRoot is an open-source utility that combines the ‘chroot’, ‘mount –bind’, and ‘binfmt_misc’ commands, allowing users to set up an isolated root filesystem within Linux.

=> ↺ Here’s Why You Should Get Started With Open Source Log Analytics & Monitoring Today!

• One of the biggest benefits of using open source monitoring tools is that they are usually free. This can save organizations a considerable amount of money, especially if they already use other open-source software applications.

• Additionally, many open source applications come with a wide range of features and plugins that can be used to customize the application further to meet an organization’s specific needs.

• Another big benefit of using open source monitoring solutions is that they tend to be more flexible than commercial options. This can give organizations more control over the monitoring tool, giving them a better understanding of how it works and how you can use it to your advantage.

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

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (awstats, chromium, clamav, g810-led, giflib, http-parser, jhead, libpgjava, node-cached-path-relative, node-fetch, and vlc), Fedora (fastnetmon, kernel, librime, qpress, rr, thunderbird, and wireshark), Red Hat (kernel, kernel-rt, and kpatch-patch), Slackware (mozilla), SUSE (cherrytree and chromium), and Ubuntu (libbpf, libxml2, linux-gcp-5.15, linux-gke, linux-gke-5.15, and linux-gke).

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ Digital Transparency: A Right to Information Report for November 2022

• For the month of November 2022, IFF has filed 5 Right to Information (“RTI”) applications. In significant responses, we obtained submissions made in the public consultations on the consultation paper on Need for a new legal framework governing Telecommunication in India and on the India Digital Ecosystem Architecture 2.0 from the Department of Telecommunications and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, respectively.

=> ↺ Government to reply to petition on search of mobile devices:

• In October 2022, the Foundation for Media Professionals (‘FMP’) approached the Supreme Court seeking regulation of the police’s power to search or seize electronic devices. In the petition, they highlighted that existing laws do not regulate how authorities search or seize electronic devices. The lack of regulation enables them to engage in dubious practices, such as mandating individuals, with or without reasonable suspicion, to grant access to their mobile devices. The Supreme Court has directed the Central Government to reply to the Petition within 8 weeks. FMP was represented by Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal. IFF provided legal support.

• [...]

• On October 18th, 2022, a bench led by Justice K.M. Joseph issued notice in the petition and tagged it with an ongoing case titled Ram Ramaswamy & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors.. In that case, the Union Government has already filed a reply. Today, a bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice A.S. Oka heard FMP’s petition as well as the ongoing case. After hearing submissions from Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, appearing for FMP, the Court observed that the scope FMP’s petition was more extensive than the ongoing case, since it raised issues relating to enforcement and investigation agencies beyond the police and sought comprehensive directions. The Supreme Court directed the Union Government to separately reply to FMP’s petition. The Court also de-tagged FMP’s petition from the ongoing case and listed it for a hearing in February 2022.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Public Knowledge Joins 26 Groups Urging Congress To Drop JCPA from Must-Pass Defense Legislation – Public Knowledge

• Today, Public Knowledge joined 26 public interest, consumer advocacy, and civil society groups as well as trade associations, media companies, and others in a letter urging Congressional leadership to exclude the “Journalism Competition and Preservation Act” (JCPA) from any pending legislation, including the “National Defense Authorization Act” (NDAA) – a “must-pass” bill funding military activities. The groups argue that the JCPA “contains far too many contradictions, complexities, and problems” for Congress to include it in any omnibus or must-pass legislation.

• Public Knowledge contends that the “Journalism Competition and Preservation Act” fails to support local news, serving only to worsen some of the biggest problems in journalism. Bundling the bill into must-pass defense legislation is a desperate move that only demonstrates how flawed this so-called journalism bill really is.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ hello from a desk somewhere in St Louis!

• I’m here in Oakville, a place I despise, and I am chomping at the bit to move (soon). Lovely.

• Now, I write things with nothing much to write, but I come up with stuff, anyway.

• I like Smol.pub, the updates here. I also LOVE Midnight.pub, the updates/community there. Blog Bless them all!

• And yea, I’m still mostly without much to say in this moment. Been watching SBF interviews this evening. Speaks quite similar to Jeffrey Skilling of ENRON during the scant media interactions he had near/after the ENRON meltdown in…2000?

=> ↺ 🔤SpellBinding: ATHIRSG Wordo: DYADS

=> ↺ Star Log 2022-12-04 Evening (Fairbanks, AK, US)

• Yesterday evening the sky was mostly clear, but the temperature was still reasonably warm at +9 °F (-13 °C). This would have made for a comfortable stargazing evening, but I had a conflict with a family event. I got home too late to go out to the boat launch (it was a work night) but I decided to go out into the yard for a few minutes to do some moon-gazing. I had a good time observing the moon for about 30 minutes with the 60mm refractor, mainly using the Plossl 12.5mm eyepiece.

Technical

=> ↺ Drowning in AI Generated Garbage : the silent war we are fighting

• All over the web, we are witnessing very spectacular results from statistic algorithms that have been in the work for the last forty years. We gave those algorithms an incredibly catchy name: “Artificial Intelligence”. We now have very popular and direct applications for them: give the algorithm a simple text prompt (don’t get me started on the importance of text) and it generates a beautiful original picture or a very serious-sounding text. It could also generate sounds or videos (we call them “deep fakes”). After all, it generates only a stream of bits, a bunch of 1 and 0 open to interpretation.

=> ↺ Finally shifting to my own compan

• I work for hire as a software engineer using my own company for quite sometime, but now I have finally shifted my focus to what I really want to do: game programming.

=> ↺ Announcement: todo.txt over Gemini

• For many years I’ve used the wonderful “Tasks” app by Alex Baker^, forked from Astrid Tasks back in 2013. Recently I began switching to the plaintext todo.txt format^^, and I wanted a simple online interface with which I could interact with my list. Since I primarily use Gemini these days, I decided to build a Gemini interface myself.

• Last night I quietly added a link to my todo.txt service to the “Live” section of my capsule. Visitors can create a todo.txt file of their own, download it, and manage it from the page.

=> ↺ Still toying

• I’ve been toying with additional smol web and fediverse tools these last weeks. But not one day has passed that I have not thought “I should post a small text on my gemlog”. Here it is.

• Mastodon: I had a couple accounts on big instances since 2017. They’re both dead, their domains bouncing to a gossip news site and a porn site full of placeholders. I’ve since made a new one on a mid-size instance, but still not feeling it. I’ve been entrenched on my usage of twitter for a lot of years: Tweetdeck on the desktop, Talon on the phone, and not touching the official app or web. It’s too comfortable now, and I don’t see any ads whatsoever. There’s a lot of list, filters, and stuff I should build on mastodon to reach a similar level of useful/uselessness.

Programming

=> ↺ comeback

• With the end of August, i plan a comeback to Geminispace.

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

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