Free, Libre, and Open Source Software Leftovers
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University of Toronto ☛ 'Unmaintained' (open source) code represents a huge amount of value
To put it one way, I disagree strongly with the view that 'unmaintained' code is not valuable or important. In the open source world, I routinely use a significant number of programs and a large amount of code that no longer sees meaningful changes and development. This code may be maintained in the sense that there is someone who will fix security issues and important bugs, and maybe make a few changes here and there, but it is not 'maintained' in the sense that I think Ballman means, where it undergoes enough development that changing away from newly deprecated functionality (in C or any other language) would be lost in the noise.
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SANS ☛ Wireshark updates
The Wireshark Foundation has released 3 new versions of its popular network protocol analyzer. They are versions 4.2.1 (which fixes 5 CVEs and a number of other bugs), 4.0.12 (2 CVEs + additional bugs), and 3.6.20 (2 CVEs + additional bugs). Version 4.2.0 was just released in November 2023, so if you haven't tried it out yet, here is your chance to upgrade.
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Jim Nielsen ☛ Cold-blooded Software
Similarly, warm-blooded software is not wholly dependent on what the platform supplies. It can make its own way — in the case of the web, that means languages, build tools, and whatever else you can dream of that is above and beyond what the platform offers natively. But there’s a cost in energy, and if you can’t continually pay that cost — well, you die.
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SaaS/Back End/Databases
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The Register UK ☛ Open source PostgreSQL named DBMS of the year by DB-Engines
DB-Engines said PostgreSQL was the system with the greatest increase in its ranking score during 2023. It is the fourth time in a decade that the system, jointly proposed by MIT professor Michael Stonebraker in 1986, has scored the accolade on the ranking platform. The Register spoke to the database system pioneer late last year.
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Education
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FSF ☛ LibrePlanet 2024: May 4 and 5, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, MA
Yes, May is indeed an unusual month for LibrePlanet, as the conference typically happens in March. However, we believe the date change will serve us well. There are already many free software events going on in March 2024, which is also around spring break; and that often stands in the way of our wish to bring more students to our events. Besides, Boston has always been a challenging city to find a location within a reasonable budget.
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