Free, Libre, and Open Source Software and Sharing Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 02, 2026

• Instant Messaging Freedom ☛ Pidgin 3.0 Alpha 2 2.96.0 has been released!

  We are ecstatic to announce that we have released the second alpha version of Pidgin 3.0!!! This release has an official version number of 2.96.0. We will continue releasing in this fashion until we are ready for 3.0.0 which will be the release we consider ready for end users. You can read more about our development phases here.

  The release can be found on SourceForge and should show up on Flathub Beta shortly.

• Web Browsers/Web Servers/Feed Readers

  • Mozilla

    • OMG Ubuntu ☛ Firefox is adding Vulkan video decoding for Nvidia GPUs

      Firefox is adding hardware-accelerated Vulkan Video decoding, saving Nvidia users on GNU/Linux the hassle of manually configuring the nvidia-vaapi-driver package. The change will be included in Firefox 153, out July 21, but it will not be enabled by default – not to start with. Instead, users will be able to flip a pair of preferences in about:config to try it out, with the awareness that there may be hiccups and edge cases (especially on devices with hybrid graphics, mentioned further down). Given that Nvidia GPUs are capable (understatement klaxon), I was surprised to hear that this didn’t already work.

• SaaS/Back End/Databases

  • Ruben Schade ☛ Uniform boolean definitions in DB schemas are good!

    I worked briefly in process control when I was younger, and saw Things.™ One of those Things™ was a wall of LEDs to indicate statuses of various valves and sensors across the entire plant. It was old school, but it worked. It also made you feel like you were on a 1960s-era sci-fi set.

    What does this have to do with databases? That’s an extremely excellent, and dare I say handsome, question. While we’re on the topic of things I used to do, I used to work against a large database that had a schema with a specific quirk that used to drive me up the wall.

• Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

  • Chris Maiorana ☛ God mode notes with Denote and Consult Notes

    I’ve touched on the topic of note-taking in Emacs a few times, in posts on “making everything a note” and on the “undergrad” style of note-taking. I’ve often argued that a full dedicated notes package was unnecessary when you could simply create files and link them together.

    But this “consult notes” package made me want to give Denote another try and see how it feels. So far, I like it. I’m going to test drive this config for a few weeks and report back on how it’s going.

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

  • Clayton Errington ☛ Deploying to SSH

    I began testing out how I could use a new static site hosting service and in doing so, I need a way to send files to the remote host over SSH. Once your account and SSH keys have been loaded to the remote server, you can begin connecting and need a way to upload your static site content to be displayed on the web host.

  • Andy Bell ☛ Loading AT protocol posts data

    What I’m doing instead is what I outlined in planning, specifically where I worked out each iteration. Here it is as a reminder: [...]

• Education

  • RIPE ☛ Local Hubs at RIPE 92: Bringing the Community Together, Wherever We Are

    Beyond the plenaries and working group sessions, RIPE Meetings are where the RIPE community gathers to catch up, exchange experiences, talk about challenges, and make new connections. And while not everyone can travel to every RIPE Meeting every time, that doesn't mean people can't come together to take part in these events closer to home.

    Local hubs give the community a way to get together in person while participating remotely in a RIPE Meeting. They combine the content and discussions of the event itself with the networking and community spirit that comes from meeting face-to-face. For RIPE 92 in Edinburgh, three such hubs were organised: in Sofia (Bulgaria), Istanbul (Türkiye) and Jarosław (Poland). Each offered a different perspective on what makes a successful hub.

• Licensing / Legal

  • Terence Eden ☛ Which Copyleft Licence is Suitable for an SVG?

    You could print that out with a kilometre radius and it would still be a perfect circle - unlike a traditional raster image which is just a grid of blocky pixels.

    But suppose you wanted to freely share your SVG with others - and ensure that they also freely share it. What sort of "Copyleft" licence would you give it?

• Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

  • Open Access/Content

    • Internet Archive ☛ Vanishing Culture: A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record (2026) : Luca Messarra : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

      When digital materials are vulnerable to sudden removal—whether by design or by attack—our collective memory is compromised, and the public's ability to access its own history is at risk. Vanishing Culture: A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record aims to raise awareness of these growing issues, featuring essays from: [...]