Free, Libre, and Open Source Software Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Mar 29, 2025

• Idiomdrottning ☛ “Donkey”/“Zebra” style bridging

  Here’s the problem: If I use Bridgy Fed to bridgy my ActivityPub account to AT proto, and unbridged people on there were to reply to my posts on there, I wouldn’t be able to interact with those post or even be aware of them. It’s like a whole lead sheet between me and them.

  It’s that same issue that caused Libera Chat to shut down their Matrix bridge: people were kibbitzing on Libera messages (and mocking them) in a way that was invisible to the chatters on the libera side.

• MIT Technology Review ☛ What is Signal? The messaging app, explained.

  With the recent news that the Atlantic’s editor in chief was accidentally added to a group Signal chat for American leaders planning a bombing in Yemen, many people are wondering: What is Signal? Is it secure? If government officials aren’t supposed to use it for military planning, does that mean I shouldn’t use it either?

  The answer is: Yes, you should use Signal, but government officials having top-secret conversations shouldn’t use Signal.

  Read on to find out why.

• John Goerzen ☛ John Goerzen: Why You Should (Still) Use Signal As Much As Possible

  As I write this in March 2025, there is a lot of confusion about Signal messenger due to the recent news of people using Signal in government, and subsequent leaks.

  The short version is: there was no problem with Signal here. People were using it because they understood it to be secure, not the other way around.

  Both the government and the Electronic Frontier Foundation recommend people use Signal. This is an unusual alliance, and in the case of the government, was prompted because it understood other countries had a persistent attack against American telephone companies and SMS traffic.

  So let’s dive in. I’ll cover some basics of what security is, what happened in this situation, and why Signal is a good idea.

  This post isn’t for programmers that work with cryptography every day. Rather, I hope it can make some of these concepts accessible to everyone else.

• Linux Handbook ☛ LHB GNU/Linux Digest #25.05: Terminal Shortcuts, Sed Guide, DaemonSet, Xpipe and More

  Enjoy LHB GNU/Linux Digest on no-deploy Fridays :)

• Events/Education

  • Daniel Stenberg ☛ curl up 2025

    Soon, in the first weekend of May 2025, we are gathering curl enthusiasts in a room in the wonderful city Prague and we talk curl related topics over two full days. We call it curl up 2025.

    curl up is our annual curl event and physical meetup. It is a low key and casual event that usually attract somewhere between twenty and thirty people.

• Web Browsers/Web Servers

  • Silicon Angle ☛ Report warns that browser-native ransomware is a growing threat to enterprise data

    Browser-based ransomware differs from traditional ransomware that relies on downloaded files to infect systems in that the ransomware operates entirely within the browser and requires no download. Instead, the attack targets the victim’s digital identity, taking advantage of the shift toward cloud-based enterprise storage and the fact that browser-based authentication has become the primary gateway to accessing these resources.

  • Mozilla

    • Mozilla ☛ Nolen Royalty, known as eieio, keeps the internet fun with experimental multiplayer games

      Here at Mozilla, we are the first to admit the internet isn’t perfect, but we know the internet is pretty darn magical. The internet opens up doors and opportunities, allows for human connection, and lets everyone find where they belong — their corners of the internet. We all have an internet story worth sharing. In My Corner Of The Internet, we talk with people about the online spaces they can’t get enough of, the sites and forums that shaped them, and how they would design their own corner of the web.

    • Security Week ☛ Firefox Affected by Flaw Similar to Chrome Zero-Day Exploited in Russia

      Firefox developers have determined that their browser is affected by a vulnerability similar to the recent Chrome sandbox escape zero-day.

• Licensing / Legal

  • The Register UK ☛ US Reps file bill to tackle poor software license management

    The Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets (SAMOSA, really?) Act was reintroduced yesterday by House Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA), joined by co-sponsors from both parties. The bill [PDF] would require federal agencies to audit their software stash, dig into how it's licensed, flag any fine print that muzzles deployment or access, and most critically, figure out how to consolidate overlapping licenses. That includes moving toward enterprise deals within each agency to cut waste and curb the usual vendor chaos.