Free, Libre, and Open Source Software/Collaboration Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 08, 2025

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Linuxiac ☛ OBS Studio 31.1 Released with Windows on Arm Support

  For macOS and Linux users, the new release adds robust support for Multitrack Video output. Additionally, Apple Silicon Mac users and Linux enthusiasts will find improved functionality through enhancements like Spatial AQ options for VideoToolbox encoders on macOS and AV1 B-frame support for AMD’s AMF encoder.

• Jamie Zawinski ☛ XScreenSaver 6.12

  XScreenSaver 6.12 is out now. This is another Unix-only release.

• SaaS/Back End/Databases

  • The New Stack ☛ From Spark SQL to Declarative Pipelines at Databricks

    At the Data + AI Summit in San Francisco last month, Databricks open sourced its Declarative Pipeline service and real-time mode technologies, which enable easier data streaming capabilities with low latency.

  • Geoffrey Copin ☛ Build your own SQLite, Part 6: Overflow pages

    Up to this point, we've been using simple test databases where the data for each row fits within a single page. However, in the wild, it is quite common for a row to be larger than a single page (typically 4096 bytes), especially when using variable-length fields like TEXT or BLOB. How does SQLite handle such cases?

    In this post, we'll explore the overflow mechanism in SQLite and implement it in our own toy database, allowing us to read large texts and blobs.

• Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

  • Open Data

    • Scott Sexton ☛ Overthinking GIS

      GIS is probably one of the best things to happen to cartography in the last couple hundred years. I say that with absolutely no knowledge of the history of map making, but GIS is wildly useful and consistent in how it is presented on publicly-accessible sites. I can go to the USGS National Map Viewer and am presented with more data and information than I could possibly ever find useful.

  • Open Access/Content

    • Coalition for Networked Information ☛ Now Published: Networking Networks — A Festschrift in Honor of Clifford Lynch

      We are pleased to announce the publication of Networking Networks: A Festschrift in Honor of Clifford Lynch, guest edited by CNI Associate Executive Director Emerita Joan K. Lippincott. This special issue, a supplement to portal: Libraries and the Academy 25, no. 3 (July 2025), is now openly available through Project Muse: https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/55108.

      In the summer of 2024, Clifford Lynch announced his retirement as executive director of CNI after 28 years of visionary leadership. To honor and document his legacy, CNI quietly launched this Festschrift project, inviting many of Cliff’s closest colleagues and collaborators to contribute reflections on his profound impact on digital scholarship, libraries, and the information landscape.