GNU/Linux and Free Software Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 02, 2025

GNU/Linux

• LWN ☛ How LWN is faring in 2025

  Just over six months ago, The Economist described the US economy as "the envy of the

  world". That headline would be unlikely to appear now. The economic

  boom referenced in that article feels like a distant memory, markets are

  falling, and uncertainty is at an all-time high. Like everybody else, LWN is affected by the current turbulence in the political and economic spheres; we expect to get through this period, but there will be some challenges.

• Security

  • LWN ☛ Security updates for Wednesday

    Security updates have been issued by Debian (glibc and libraw), Fedora (digikam, icecat, mingw-LibRaw, perl, perl-Devel-Cover, and perl-PAR-Packer), Red Hat (ghostscript, kernel, and kernel-rt), Slackware (mozilla), SUSE (augeas, firefox, and java-11-openjdk), and Ubuntu (binutils, libxml2, and nodejs).

  • OpenSSF (Linux Foundation) ☛ Recognizing Academic Excellence in Open Source and Secure Software Education

    Modern software demands more than technical know-how—it requires a deep understanding of secure, sustainable, and scalable systems. Recognizing this, the 'Linux' Foundation has launched its Academic Computing Accreditation Program, formally recognizing academic programs that align with industry-approved curricula from both the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

• Audiocasts/Shows

  • Hackaday ☛ FLOSS Weekly Episode 831: Let’s Have Lunch

    This week, Jonathan Bennett and Dan Lynch chat with Peter van Dijk about PowerDNS! Is the problem always DNS? How did PowerDNS start? And just how big can PowerDNS scale? Watch to find out!

  • Jupiter Broadcasting ☛ Linux Goat North Van | The Launch 🚀 20

    Brent's crazy border crossing story and behind-the-scenes stories from LFNW. Then we will lay out the master rescue plan. Catch the Launch a day early, and with a special guest!

  • APNIC ☛ [Podcast] The multiple ways of multiple paths

    Geoff Huston discusses how to get more bandwidth by adding together smaller chunks, in links or in the protocol.

• Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Beta News ☛ Ditch Microsoft Windows for ALT Workstation 11: A Russian Linux distro with a modern GNOME desktop [Ed: This 'article' seems like it is mostly slop from the Serial Slopper]

    There’s no shortage of Linux distributions trying to take on Windows nowadays, but ALT Workstation 11 actually makes a strong case for doing just that. Developed in Russia and now based on the stable “Salvia” branch of Platform 11, this fresh release swaps out the MATE desktop in favor of a full GNOME experience.

    If you’ve been frustrated with Windows 11’s confusing UI, forced Microsoft accounts, or bloated system updates, ALT Workstation 11 offers a refreshing change. The operating system doesn’t just give you a usable desktop -- it gives you control. On first boot, a welcome tool called “ALT Tour” lets you pick your interface style, from a clean GNOME layout to a more traditional “Panel Mode” that echoes the look of older desktops. You can also pick your theme, choose accent colors, and tweak window button placement without any hacks or extensions.

  • Debian Family

    • Paul Wise: FLOSS Activities April 2025

      Focus

      This month I didn't have any particular focus. I just worked on issues in my info bubble.

  • Open Hardware/Modding

    • Hackaday ☛ Layout A PCB With Tscircuit

      Most of us learned to design circuits with schematics. But if you get to a certain level of complexity, schematics are a pain. Modern designers — especially for digital circuits — prefer to use some kind of hardware description language.

    • CNX Software ☛ Radxa Orion O6 mini-ITX motherboard gets Arm SystemReady SR v2.5 certification

      Radxa Orion O6 mini-ITX motherboard powered by a CIX P1 12-core Cortex-A720/A520 SoC has just obtained Arm SystemReady SR (ServerReady) v2.5 certification, meaning it’s been shown to run unmodified several OS images such as backdoored Windows and Ubuntu. I’ve already tested a Debian 12 image modified by Radxa on the Orion O6, but one of the goals of the platform was to provide a universal UEFI + ACPI firmware to boot any Arm ISO released by OS vendors, for instance, the Ubuntu Desktop ISO for Arm 64-bit architecture downloaded directly from the Ubuntu website. The Arm SystemReady SR certification is a step in the right direction, as it means the Orion O6 has passed a number of tests showing it can boot several off-the-shelf OS images.

• Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

  • Unicorn Media ☛ UN Drops Surveillance Giant Google for CryptPad, an Encrypted Open-Source Office Suite

    The United Nations became the latest large organization to embrace this collaborative office suite when it used it to replace Surveillance Giant Google Forms. Here's what you need to know about the open-source project.

  • It's FOSS ☛ FOSS Weekly #25.18: Linux Magazine, Modern Terminals, Muse Pi, apt Guide and More

    Before the age of blogs, forums, and YouTube tutorials, Linux users relied on printed magazines to stay informed and inspired. Titles like Linux Journal, Linux Format, and Maximum Linux were lifelines for enthusiasts, packed with tutorials, distro reviews, and CD/DVDs.

  • Programming/Development

    • Rlang ☛ vowels: Phonetics cloze quiz about Cardinal vowels

      Cloze exercise in which two randomly-selected Cardinal vowels have to be described according to the three parameters vowel height, frontness-backness, and lip rounding.

    • Rlang ☛ Fast Grouped Counts and Means in R

      Grouped counts and grouped (weighted)

      means? How to calculate them? And how to do it as fast as possible?

    • Rlang ☛ flags: Fun with Flags

      Single-choice knowledge quiz question in which the correct flag for a country has to be selected from a list of flags.