Sharing and Free, Libre, and Open Source Software Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 20, 2025

• Darren Goossens ☛ edlin for Linux update, with man page

  I got the new improved man page from here and copied it so some folder in my man path (I used the system man path, because the binary was installed systemwide). Here is the man file, printed to the screen using zcat.

• Latvia ☛ Latvia wins praise for use of open-source software

  In its report “Open Source Software Country Intelligence Report for Latvia 2025”, the European Commission has highly commended Latvia’s progress in the use of open-source software within public administration, reports Labs of Latvia.

• Events

  • LWN ☛ GStreamer Conference 2025 video recordings now available

    Recordings from the GStreamer Conference 2025, held in London in late October, are now available on the GStreamer Conferences Archive site. Includes the GStreamer State of the Union talk by Tim-Philipp Müller, State of MPEG 2 Transport Stream (MPEG-TS) by Edward Hervey, and many others.

  • FSF ☛ FSF Blogs: The FSF40 hackathon is this weekend. Here's what you need to know

• Web Browsers/Web Servers

  • The New Leaf Journal ☛ Norton Browser Search Referral

    I conclude by noting that my opinions about Norton Browser and Norton Safe Search have nothing to do with Norton’s core antivirus products. I do not have experience with the commercial antivirus options for Windows and MacOS, so I would leave comparing them for others (while noting that I would just use Microsoft Defender, which comes with Windows, were I forced to use Windows instead of Linux).

  • Mozilla

    • OMG Ubuntu ☛ TABS API is Mozilla’s Latest Bet on the Agentic Web [Ed: Mozilla is acting like a circus]

      Mozilla's new TABS API helps developers build Hey Hi (AI) agents to automate web tasks, as the company continues to bet on Hey Hi (AI) as its future.

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

  • Dan Cătălin Burzo ☛ Using esbuild in Eleventy

    Another Eleventy recipe, this time for bundling JavaScript, CSS, and other asset types with esbuild. You can adapt it to how you prefer your markup, or to other bundlers such as Vite. I’ve also used this approach to produce hashed front-end assets for WordPress and Kirby.

  • Kev Quirk ☛ Why Do You Need Big Tech for Your SSG?

    Why not just build the site on your local machine? You’re not beholden to anyone, and you can host your site anywhere you like.

• FSF / Software Freedom

  • The Walrus ☛ Sovereignty Isn’t Just about Military Strength

    We are not a major power. We have to carefully pick and choose where we can gain advantage, where to intervene to protect our vital interests, and how best to use our limited resources. Having diplomatic missions in over 180 countries is not a sign of strength; it shows only that our efforts are highly dispersed.

• Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

  • Open Access/Content

    • Techdirt ☛ Fans Of Open Access, Unite: You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chained Libraries

      One version of open access, known as the “diamond” variant, still offers hope that the goals of free access to knowledge for everyone could still be achieved. But even this minimalist approach to academic publishing requires funding, which raises questions about its long-term sustainability. Economic issues also lie at the heart of wider discussions about what could replace copyright, which was born in the analogue world, and whose dysfunctional nature in the digital environment is evident every day.

      Walled Culture the book concludes with a look at perhaps the most promising alternative model, whereby “true fans” support directly the creators whose work they value. This approach can also be applied to open access. In this case, the “true fans” of the research work published in papers and books are the academic libraries, acting on behalf of the people who use them. There are various ways for them to support the journals their academics want to access, but one of the most promising is “subscribe to open” (S2O), which helps publishers convert traditional journals into open access. The idea was formalized by Raym Crow, Richard Gallagher, Kamran Naim in 2019. Here’s their explanation of how it works: [...]