GNU/Linux Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Mar 08, 2026

• Applications

  • Treating Your Data Like a VIP

    When it comes to digital security, one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal has nothing to do with software at all. It's a concept called Operational Security, or OPSEC.

    Think about how the Secret Service operates. They don't publish the exact thickness of the armor on the presidential limousine, and they certainly don't post blueprints of their safe houses on social control media. They treat their VIP with absolute, silent protection. Your personal data is your VIP. The best digital fortresses are the ones nobody even knows exist.

    Good OPSEC isn't just about hiding information. It's about designing systems so that a single failure can't bring everything down. Backups are where that philosophy becomes practical.

    Rather than describing a specific personal setup, we'll walk through one potential reference architecture that incorporates some ransomware-resistant principles.

    Imagine a setup where you have a variety of computers throughout your home. You could back up each of those machines individually, with each machine using its own backup drives, but that would be duplicating work. If a machine gets infected with malware while the backup drive is plugged in, your backup is encrypted along with your primary files.

    The smarter approach is to dedicate a single, physical machine on the LAN to act as a centralized backup server.

    Every computer in the house is configured to automatically back up to this central server over the network using the BorgBackup backup utility.

• Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Make Use Of ☛ The man who built an operating system for God and then lost everything

    As TempleOS spread through programming forums, Davis developed a small but intense following. Some people saw the technical achievement and were genuinely impressed. Others treated him like an internet spectacle. And because the internet rarely does nuance well, the tone around him could swing wildly depending on where you looked.

    Meanwhile, his public behavior was becoming increasingly erratic, often reflecting the progression of his schizophrenia. You can watch old clips where he is sharp, funny, clearly and deeply knowledgeable. And then other moments where the illness is painfully visible. That contrast is hard to unsee once you notice it. Tech culture loves the myth of the lone genius. It is much less comfortable when the human cost of that isolation is sitting right there on the screen.

  • Fedora Family / IBM

    • Kevin Fenzi: misc fedora bits first week of march 2026

      Secure boot signing

      I also made some more progress on my secure boot signing setup, but then i hit a blocker. I was able to sign grub and kernel for aarch64, but it doesn't actually boot. (I have my lenovo slim7x and also another aarch64 box that supports secure boot to test with). Hopefully we can get to the bottom of that soon so we can switch things on. I really hope we can have it running before Fedora 44 final freeze.

      This also has been a long road.

    • ! Avi Alkalay ¡: Ideal Laptop

      Do you remember the most important characteristics you should look for in a good laptop? In the following order:

      1⃣ A high-resolution, high-density display: 3K or 4K, far beyond HD or Full HD
      2⃣ A battery that lasts all day
      3⃣ Fast storage (SSD)
      4⃣ Light, thin, and elegant

      It’s not the CPU.
      It’s not AI.
      It’s not having huge storage capacity.
      It’s not a large physical size.
      It’s not having more than 8 GB of memory (memory is not storage).
      It’s not having a stylus, tablet convertible, or having a detachable or articulated keyboard.
      And it’s definitely not having a numeric keypad on the side.

  • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

    • Distro Watch ☛ Mobile OS Release: iodeOS 7.3

      iodéOS is an Android-based operating system (in the LineageOS family) which ships without Google trackers or proprietary software. The project has released version 7.3 which is based on LineageOS 23.2. [...]