Free, Libre, and Open Source Software Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 14, 2025

• Thunderbird ☛ Thunderbird Monthly Developer Digest - April 2025 - The Thunderbird Blog

  We have now officially entered the release cycle which will become our annual “ESR” at the end of June. The code we’re writing, the features we’re adding, the bugs we’re fixing at the moment should all make their way into the next major update, to be enjoyed by millions of users. This most stable release is used by enterprises, governments and institutions who have specific requirements around consistency, long-term support, and minimized change over time.

  If waiting a whole year doesn’t sound appealing to you, our Monthly release may be better suited. It offers access to the latest features, improvements, and fixes as soon as they’re ready. Watch out for an in-app invitation to upgrade or install over ESR to retain your profile settings.

• Mailing list ARChives ☛ 'OpenSMTPD 7.7.0p0 released'

  This release builds with LibreSSL, or OpenSSL >= 1.1.

  It's preferable to depend on LibreSSL as OpenSMTPD is written and tested with that dependency. OpenSSL library is considered as a best effort target TLS library and provided as a commodity, LibreSSL has become our target TLS library.

• Undeadly ☛ OpenSMTPD 7.7.0p0 released

  Omar Polo (op@) has announced the release of version 7.7.0p0 of OpenSMTPD: [...]

• Libre Arts ☛ libreArts Weekly recap — 11 May 2025

  Week highlights: new version of Shotcut, CMYK PDF exporting has landed in Inkscape, GSoC2025 has announced students/projects, LGM2025 program is up.

• LWN ☛ Nextcloud claims Surveillance Giant Google is being anticompetitive

  Nextcloud provides an open-source collaboration platform called Nextcloud Hub, which includes file-sharing and syncing features. The company has written a blog post explaining that Surveillance Giant Google has revoked a critical permission from the Nextcloud Files app for Android that allows it to sync files to Nextcloud Hub.

• Next Cloud ☛ Unhappy with the recently lost file upload feature in the Nextcloud app for Android? So are we. Let us explain. - Nextcloud

  Discover why Nextcloud file uploads for Android app are not working properly, and how Google’s app store rules are hurting Nextcloud users.

• Events

  • APNIC ☛ Event Wrap: TWNOG 6

    APNIC hosted a booth and conducted training at TWNOG 6.0, held in Taipei from 15 to 18 April 2025.

• Web Browsers/Web Servers

  • Manuel Moreale ☛ Web Accessibility. Help needed.

    That said, one specific area I want to get better at is accessibility. I never took courses or studied accessibility specifically; I only learned a bunch of stuff over time, but I feel like I need to get better at it.

• FSF

  • FSF ☛ FSF Events: Free Software Directory meeting on IRC: Friday, May 16, starting at 12:00 EDT (16:00 UTC)

    Join the FSF and friends on Friday, May 16 from 12:00 to 15:00 EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory.

• Licensing / Legal

  • Linux Foundation ☛ Automating Compliance Management with UTMStack’s Open Source SIEM & XDR

    Compliance management doesn’t have to be complicated or resource-draining. UTMStack’s open source SIEM and XDR solution simplifies and automates compliance with major standards such as CMMC, HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOC2, GDPR, and GLBA. By continuously monitoring logs, dynamically assessing compliance controls, and providing a user-friendly, no-code automation builder, UTMStack dramatically reduces complexity and enhances efficiency.

• Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

  • Open Data

    • Tedium ☛ How MapQuest Took The Wrong Path Forward

      Today in Tedium: Let’s talk about maps. When I was seven years old, giant road atlases were my idea of a good time. They were filled with maps of places I’ve never been and perhaps would never see in person. One of my favorite ways to use them was to follow a road in one city and see how far I could follow it as I scrolled through the pages of the book. (As an adult, I would recreate this activity with Wikipedia.) But in the 1990s, the nature of mapping forever changed because of a technology that quickly became one of the internet’s first major success stories. It’s still around today—but within a decade of its launch, Google had completely eaten its lunch. Lost in this tale: the technology itself was an impressive defensive measure that came from an industry at risk of disruption. Alas, the disruption came for them anyway. Today’s Tedium considers the fate of MapQuest, the RC Cola of mapping apps. — Ernie @ Tedium