today's leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 10, 2025

GNU/Linux

• Linuxiac ☛ Linuxiac Weekly Wrap-Up: Week 6 (Feb 3 – 9, 2025)

  Catch up on the latest GNU/Linux news: LibreOffice 25.2, OpenWrt 24.10, Debian 13 to feature GNOME 48, Freedesktop, Alpine & Serpent OS are facing challenges, and more.

• Entrapment/Security

  • Hexnode expands OS support to Linux, ChromeOS and Apple visionOS, streamlining enterprise device management

    As digital transformation accelerates, concerns about security risks associated with traditional systems like Linux have prompted businesses to seek more secure operating systems. However, even emerging systems like visionOS, designed with advanced security features, are not immune from increasing cyber threats. As cybercriminals evolve, proactive security measures are crucial for both legacy and modern systems.

• Audiocasts/Shows

  • Tux Digital ☛ This Week in Linux 297: Linux / Rust saga continues, Void Linux, Firefox 135, FOSS funding needs & more GNU/Linux news

    This week in Linux, we have a lot to talk about with the GNU/Linux kernel getting, or maybe not getting, Rusty. There’s a little bit of drama there. Also, the Void GNU/Linux project has a new release of their distribution. EA has provided an update regarding Apex Legends and Linux.

• Kernel Space

  • Dan Horák: kernel 6.14-rc1 available, but panics on PowerNV

    After some struggles to get the kernel building with the latest GCC 15 compiler introduced ~3 weeks ago in Rawhide, we have a -rcX kernel available again in the RawhideNoDebug repo. Unfortunately there is a bug in the cpufreq subsystem causing the 6.14-rc1 kernel to panic on a PowerNV systems like our Power9 Taloses.

• Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Debian Family

    • Philipp Kern: 20 years

      20 years ago, I got my Debian Developer account. I was 18 at the time, it was Shrove Tuesday and - as is customary - I was drunk when I got the email. There was so much that I did not know - which is also why the process took 1.5 years from the time I applied. I mostly only maintained a package or two. I'm still amazed that Christian Perrier and Joerg Jaspert put sufficient trust in me at that time. Nevertheless now feels like a good time for a personal reflection of my involvement in Debian.

• Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

  • Jan Piet Mens ☛ Jan-Piet Mens :: Notes to self on Netbox and Ansible

    I’ve shied away from using Netbox for years now, but this past week I decided I should at least know a bit about it, so I tried to grasp the basics. Thanks for wonderful chaps on the Fediverse who hammered some main points into my brain, I’m actually been able to get some basic features to work.

  • Web Browsers/Web Servers

    • Mozilla

      • Dan Horák: Firefox 128.7.0 ESR built for ppc64le

        The JIT-enabled Firefox 128.7.0 ESR has been built for Fedora/ppc64le in my Talos COPR repository. The corresponding sources are in my fork of the official Fedora Firefox package and the JIT is coming from Cameron's work.Currently only Fedora 40 and 41 builds exist, because the build fails for Fedora 42 (and Rawhide) due to the changes in the buildroot - new GCC 15 and other updates. Hopefully I will be able to provide some updates soon, but I haven't dug into it fully yet.

  • Licensing / Legal

    • The New Stack ☛ The Metamorphosis of Open Source: An Industry in Transition

      Twenty years ago, declaring your project “open source” was a statement of principle, philosophy, and community. Today, it’s more likely to be a business decision, a marketing strategy, or a talent acquisition tool. This shift is not a failure of open source; it’s a sign of its success.

  • Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

    • Open Data

      • [Old] Duke University ☛ Recommended File Formats for Digital Preservation | Duke University Libraries

        We considered many factors to determine best preservation level for a given format include, which included:

        • Whether the format employs lossless/lossy compression
        • Open source rather than proprietary software used for creation or access
        • How widespread the format is
        • Whether a format allows for embedded files (e.g., a spreadsheet in a PowerPoint presentation that depends on Excel to open; a PDF containing a Quicktime movie)

  • Standards/Consortia

    • Stuart Langridge: Use RSS to read newsletters

      Everyone's got a newsletter these days (like everyone's got a podcast). In general, I think this is OK: instead of going through a middleman publisher, have a direct connection from you to the people who want to read what you say, so that that audience can't be taken away from you.