Free, Libre, and Open Source Software Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jun 11, 2025

• Web Browsers/Web Servers

  • The Register UK ☛ Mozilla frets about Google's push to build AI into Chrome

    Google has proposed a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow web developers to write web applications or browser extensions that call a local version of Google's Gemini Nano model, which users can download and run in the browser on supported desktop and laptop machines.

  • Mozilla

    • Dave Townsend: What would you say you do here?

      I’m currently joining a couple of new projects and the inevitable first step is introductions over Zoom and the usual questions: who are you, where are you based, and what is your role on this project. I’m a Principal Engineer here at Mozilla, which might make you think that my role is going to be a lot of development. But this isn’t the case and I thought others might be interested in what it actually means. Somehow along the way it ended up turning into a post about how I see the different career levels for engineers at Mozilla, but hey maybe that is useful for others too?

• SaaS/Back End/Databases

  • PostgreSQL ☛ pg_dumpbinary v2.20 released

  • PostgreSQL ☛ powa-archivist 5.0.3 is out!

• Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

  • Document Foundation ☛ LibreOffice for End User Privacy – TDF’s Annual Report 2024

    LibreOffice stands out as a privacy-respecting open source office suite. Unlike proprietary alternatives, the software is designed with privacy, user control and transparency in mind. (This is part of The Document Foundation’s Annual Report for 2024 – we’ll post the full version here soon.)

• Content Management Systems (CMS) / Static Site Generators (SSG)

  • Anže Pečar ☛ Autogenerating og:images with Jekyll

    This blog has been a static site powered by Jekyll for over 13 years, and I’ve been happy with the setup. After all this time, I still enjoy using my code editor to write new posts and git commit and git push to publish them.

• FSF

  • FSF ☛ FSF Blogs: IRS tax filing software released to the people as free software

    The majority of Direct File's source code is now public, in part thanks to free software advocates.

  • FSF ☛ FSF Events: Community meetup: Software Freedom Day

    A group of us from the US will be getting together and discussing how to get local groups started in our local areas.

• Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

  • Open Data

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ 1.5TB of James Webb Space Telescope data dumped on the internet — new searchable database is the largest window into our universe to date

      NASA-backed astronomy project has just released the 'largest look ever into the deep universe.'

• Programming/Development

  • Silicon Angle ☛ GitLab’s revenue outlook comes up short and its stock gets hammered

    Shares of the DevOps pioneer GitLab Inc. were battered and bruised in late trading today after it increased its full-year profit outlook but narrowly missed expectations on sales guidance. That came after it logged a narrower loss in the first quarter and grew its revenue.

  • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

    • ZDNet ☛ How to create a Linux bash script - and what you can do with it

      I've been using Linux for a very long time, during which I've done just about everything you can imagine with the open-source operating system. From my early days, one thing I needed to learn was how to create a bash script. When I first started using Linux, I had a 33.6k modem that refused to stay online. To get around that problem, I created a bash script that would monitor my connectivity; if the script discovered I was offline, it would reconnect me.