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● 08.05.21


● Links 5/8/2021: Kubernetes 1.22, Alpine 3.14.1, Cutelee 6


Posted in News Roundup at 4:12 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux


Web and Servers


↺ Best Commenting Systems for Websites That You Can Self-Host


Isso is a free and open source commenting server similar to Disqus. Users can write comments in Markdown. There is also the option to edit or delete own comments within 15 minutes.


It uses Python and SQLite in the backend and you can deploy it on any website using a single 40kb JavaScript.


Isso also allows you to import comments from Disqus and WordPress. That’s an additional benefit.


↺ Kubernetes 1.22: Reaching New Peaks


We’re pleased to announce the release of Kubernetes 1.22, the second release of 2021!


This release consists of 53 enhancements: 13 enhancements have graduated to stable, 24 enhancements are moving to beta, and 16 enhancements are entering alpha. Also, three features have been deprecated.


In April of this year, the Kubernetes release cadence was officially changed from four to three releases yearly. This is the first longer-cycle release related to that change. As the Kubernetes project matures, the number of enhancements per cycle grows. This means more work, from version to version, for the contributor community and Release Engineering team, and it can put pressure on the end-user community to stay up-to-date with releases containing increasingly more features.


Changing the release cadence from four to three releases yearly balances many aspects of the project, both in how contributions and releases are managed, and also in the community’s ability to plan for upgrades and stay up to date.


You can read more in the official blog post Kubernetes Release Cadence Change: Here’s What You Need To Know.


↺ Why Service Mesh Architectures Are Kubernetes’ New Traffic Cop | IT Pro


From Linkerd to Istio, service mesh architectures are increasingly being harnessed by enterprises to make managing container clusters easier.


Audiocasts/Shows


↺ The JingPad A1 – Hands-on Preview!


JingLing sent a development version of their new JingPad A1 tablet to the LearnLinuxTV studio, and in this video I’ll give you my thoughts. Since this is a preview unit and not the final version, I will not give you my final opinion in this video. Instead, I’ll go over my first impressions of this new Linux tablet.


↺ Lilbits: 3dfx is back (but not really) and more JingPad A1 Linux tablet performance notes


…and the JingPad A1 tablet, which is up for pre-order through a crowdfunding campaign, ships with an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, but it will also run Android apps. A few new hands-on photos and videos have emerged, with one showing the current state of Android app support and another providing some clues to overall performance.


↺ BSDNow 414: Running online conferences


OpenZFS 2.1 is out, FreeBSD TCP Performance System Controls, IPFS OpenBSD, tips for running an online conference, fanless OpenBSD laptop, and more.


↺ Ubuntu Podcast S14E22 – Common Terms Season


This week we’ve been migrating to Vault Warden and erasing data. We discuss the web browsers we use and bring you a command line love.


It’s Season 14 Episode 22 of the Ubuntu Podcast! Alan Pope, Mark Johnson and Martin Wimpress are connected and speaking to your brain.


Kernel Space


↺ FUTEX2 Patches Sent Out In Simpler Form For Helping Windows Games On Linux – Phoronix


The ongoing FUTEX2 work for making the futex handling more like Windows to in turn help Windows games on Linux via Wine (with a focus on Steam Play’s Proton) has taken a new turn.


While the FUTEX2 patch series has gone through multiple rounds of review for adding new functionality that can’t be accomplished as well by the existing FUTEX, the patch series has been trimmed down to the core functionality that originally motivated this work: the ability to wait for multiple locks at once, similar to Windows’ WaitForMultipleObjects. This ability to cleanly wait on multiple locks simultaneously can lead to lower CPU utilization for Windows games running via Proton/Wine and help the overall performance for some games. On the kernel side this can be accomplished with the futex_waitv() system call (futex vectorized wait).


↺ Samsung Revs Its In-Kernel SMB3 Server Focused On Fast Performance, New Features – Phoronix


While Samba is well known for SMB/CIFS server support on Linux and other platforms for supporting Microsoft’s SMB networking protocol for file and print services, Samba is implemented in user-space while Samsung has been pursuing an SMB server implemented in kernel-space for better performance and wiring up new features that can be more easily accomplished within the kernel.


Samsung has been developing “KSMBD” (formerly also known as CIFSD) as an in-kernel SMB3 file sharing server. Their focus is on delivering better performance and more quickly implementing new features some of which can’t be easily achieved in user-space with Samba. Samsung is interested in RDMA support and other features that can be implemented with ease in the kernel and for their server having a much smaller footprint and focus than Samba.


↺ A look forward to Linux Plumbers 2021


The annual Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC) is a gathering of a relatively small subset of the developers working on the low-level (plumbing) details of Linux systems. It covers topics from below the kernel through the user-space components that underlie the interfaces and applications that most Linux users interact with. This year’s event will be held virtually September 20‑24; it is shaping up to be another great edition of one of the premier open-registration Linux technical conferences on the calendar.


LPC is known for its “microconferences” that typically feature face-to-face discussions, planning, and development work in a wide variety of topic areas. As with most of the rest of the conferences over the last year or so, it was turned into a virtual event last year; that continues this year. With any luck, the COVID-19 pandemic will subside enough to resume more in-person events—cautiously—in 2022.


In the meantime, the BigBlueButton-based videoconferencing system that was used in 2020 will return, but there are plans to use Matrix for the text chat piece. A request for quotes (RFQ) for some of the work to make that happen was posted in March; the LPC committee was looking to fund projects to improve BigBlueButton and to integrate Matrix with it. Unfortunately, all of the companies that might have been able to do so were already fully occupied by their existing customers, who had increased needs for videoconferencing due to the pandemic, LPC committee member Guy Lunardi said in an email exchange. So committee members will be working on parts of those plans as time allows, he said.


↺ Hastening process cleanup with process_mrelease()


One of the fundamental invariants of computing is that, regardless of how much memory is installed in a system, it is never enough. This is especially true of systems with tight performance constraints, where every page of memory is allocated and in use, making it difficult to find more when it is badly needed. One way to make more memory available is to kill one or more processes, freeing their resources for other users. But that often does not work as quickly or reliably as users would like. In an attempt to improve the situation, Suren Baghdasaryan has proposed the addition of a system call named process_mrelease().


Systems running mixed workloads, where some tasks are more important than others, are not uncommon. If the system is being run near its maximum capacity, the relatively unimportant tasks may end up using memory that is needed by the more important work, at which point it might be better if the unimportant processes went away. Such systems often run process managers that will kill off the low-priority processes in these situations; perhaps the most widespread example of this pattern is Android, which will kill background apps if the available memory is insufficient for whatever is running in the foreground. Cloud-computing systems will also kill low-priority, best-effort workloads if their memory is needed by more important work.


Killing a process should, in principle, make its memory immediately available for other users. In the real world, though, things are not so simple. The killed process is, itself, responsible for cleaning up and freeing its resources, a task that is carried out in kernel context. If, however, the killed process finds itself blocked in an uninterruptible sleep, that cleanup work could be delayed indefinitely. There are other factors that can slow down the freeing of memory, including how busy the relevant CPU is and whether that CPU is running in a slow, low-power state.


When this happens, the system has paid the cost of killing the process (which was presumably doing something useful) without receiving the benefits from that action. Unfortunately, those benefits tend to be needed urgently; the system would not be killing processes otherwise. Delays in process cleanup can have immediate and visible effects on the higher-priority workloads; these can include jerky response on a handset or a delay in the delivery of a cat video to an impatient viewer.


↺ Using DAMON for proactive reclaim


The DAMON patch set was first covered here in early 2020; this work, now in its 34th revision, enables the efficient collection of information about memory-usage patterns on Linux systems. That data can then be used to influence the kernel’s memory-management subsystem; one possible way to do that is to more aggressively reclaim memory that is not being used. To that end, DAMON author SeongJae Park is proposing a DAMON-based mechanism to perform user-controllable proactive reclaim.


The core idea of DAMON is to use a sampling technique to determine which memory is in active use and which is sitting idle. A process’s virtual address space is broken down into regions which vary in size depending on activity; the busiest regions are then subdivided over time for more fine-grained monitoring. Within each region, a randomly selected page is watched for activity, with the results being considered representative of the whole region. On demand, DAMON will produce a report in the form of a histogram informing the reader of how busy each memory region is.


↺ The core of the -stable debate


Disagreements over which patches should find their way into stable updates are not new — or uncommon. So when the topic came up again recently, there was little reason to expect anything but more of the same. And, for the most part, that is what ensued but, in this exchange, we were also able to see the core issue that drives these discussions. There are, in the end, two fundamentally different views of what the stable tree should be. The 5.13.2 stable update was not a small one; it contained an even 800 patches. That is 5% of the total size of the mainline 5.13 development cycle, which was not small either. With the other stable kernels going out for consideration on the same day, there were over 2,000 stable-bound patches in need of review; that is a somewhat tall order for even a large community to handle in the two days that are allowed. Even so, Hugh Dickins was able to raise an objection over the inclusion of several memory-management patches that had not been specifically marked for inclusion in the stable releases. Those patches, he thought, were not suitable for a stable kernel and should not have been selected.


Stable-kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman responded that the size of the update was due to maintainers holding onto fixes until the merge window opens. Once the -rc1 release comes out, those fixes all land in the stable updates, which are, as a result, huge.


Graphics Stack


↺ Open source Linux GPU drivers Mesa 21.2 released


Here we go, we have another big upgrade for open source graphics drivers with Mesa 21.2 officially out now.


Announced by the developer Dylan Baker, they noted in the announcement “This has been a pretty smooth release cycle so far, and we’ve had very few release-blocking issues, as such We’ve actually released on time with no additional RCs! As usual, this is a .0 release, and those of you seeking stability over features likely want to wait 2 weeks for 21.2.1.”.


Applications


↺ 11 of the best diagramming tools for Linux


Diagrams and flowcharts help designers or teams communicate relationships, present abstract ideas in brainstorming sessions, visualize concepts, or formalize a new project. The open-source community provides various diagramming tools to help you create basic workflow diagrams, complex network diagrams, organization charts, ERD diagrams, UML diagrams, and much more.


↺ 22 Best Free Internet Radio Software


Internet radio (also known as web radio, net radio, streaming radio, and online radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet.


Why do we like internet radio? There’s no sign-up or subscription charges. There’s a huge range of stations available from around the world. If you like classical music, pop music, folk music, news, talk radio, and much more, internet radio has something for everyone wherever you live (providing you have a net connection). Internet radio offers every format that is available on traditional broadcast radio stations.


There’s a wide range of free and open source software that lets you listen to internet radio. With so many different possibilities available it’s easy to get lost trying to find the right one for you.


Here’s our verdict on internet radio software. Features that are highly desirable include, but are not limited to, access to the community radio browser API or similar, recording streams, the ability to import/export a list of radio stations, good search functionality, station logos, reordering stations, as well as an attractive and easy-to-use interface. Other factors that help to determine our rating include things like the program’s stability, speed, memory usage, and more.


↺ power-profiles-daemon: Follow-up


The project was born out of the need to make a firmware feature available to end-users for a number of lines of Lenovo laptops for them to be fully usable on Fedora. For that, I worked with Mark Pearson from Lenovo, who wrote the initial kernel support for the feature and served as our link to the Lenovo firmware team, and Hans de Goede, who worked on making the kernel interfaces more generic.


More generic, but in a good way


With the initial kernel support written for (select) Lenovo laptops, Hans implemented a more generic interface called platform_profile. This interface is now the one that power-profiles-daemon will integrate with, and means that it also supports a number of Microsoft Surface, HP, Lenovo’s own Ideapad laptops, and maybe Razer laptops soon.


The next item to make more generic is Lenovo’s “lap detection” which still relies on a custom driver interface. This should be soon transformed into a generic proximity sensor, which will mean I get to work some more on iio-sensor-proxy.


Working those interactions


power-profiles-dameon landed in a number of distributions, sometimes enabled by default, sometimes not enabled by default (sigh, the less said about that the better), which fortunately meant that we had some early feedback available.


The goal was always to have the user in control, but we still needed to think carefully about how the UI would look and how users would interact with it when a profile was temporarily unavailable, or the system started a “power saver” mode because battery was running out.


Instructionals/Technical


↺ Steghide tutorial for beginners – Linux Hint


Steganography is preferable to cryptography since the latter allows an opponent to discover what was hidden in a text or file. In Steganography, the third party is completely unaware that a seemingly innocuous image or audio clip contains a hidden message or file. Steghide is a steganography tool that uses a passcode to hide private files within the image or audio file. BMP and JPEG picture types are supported, as well as AU and WAV audio formats. The file is encrypted by default using the Rijndael algorithm, with a key size of 128 bits. Many people have personal secrets that they want to keep secreted from others. Steghide is the greatest tool for people who want to keep their data private. Everyone can use this tool for free. Steghide offers a wide range of applications, and its unique features, such as file encryption, make it one of the best steganography tools available.


We will study Steghide in this article. There is a range of steganography programs accessible, but the element that sets it apart is that it encrypts data using various techniques.


On the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS system, we used the tools and methods mentioned in this article. We will need to use the Terminal application to download the steganographic utilities. You can access the terminal via the system applications area or the Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut.


↺ Configure your OpenVPN server on Linux | Opensource.com


OpenVPN creates an encrypted tunnel between two points, preventing a third party from accessing your network traffic. By setting up your virtual private network (VPN) server, you become your own VPN provider. Many popular VPN services already use OpenVPN, so why tie your connection to a specific provider when you can have complete control?


The first article in this series set up a server for your VPN, and the second article demonstrated how to install and configure the OpenVPN server software. This third article shows how to start OpenVPN with authentication in place.


↺ Rename a file in the Linux terminal | Opensource.com


To rename a file on a computer with a graphical interface, you open a window, find the file you want to rename, click on its name (or right-click and select the option to rename), and then enter a new name.


To rename a file in the terminal, you actually move the file with mv, but you move the file from itself to itself with a new name.


↺ Getting Started With Docker Containers: Beginners Guide – Front Page Linux


Container technology is not exactly new, but it is a big topic in IT. Many enterprise Linux distributions do their best to let you know that they also have all the tools for you to be successful with container technology. If you want official description and documentation, please see the Reference Articles at the end of this tutorial. I will use my own words to give you a brief description of Docker containers. Also, I will be focusing on the basics of Docker and Docker-Compose here, not going into the more enterprise tools such as Kubernetes.


This Tutorial is for all Linux users that have some basic understanding of terminal usage, virtualization, and would like to dip their toes in container technology. No Docker mastery required, we are going to start from the very basics here.


↺ How To Fix Rust “linker ‘cc’ not found” Error On Linux – Unixcop


Today I was testing a Rust programming language on my CentOS VM. so I tried to install it and use it with correctly installation in the installation guide article.


↺ How To Install Hyper Terminal on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS – idroot


In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Hyper Terminal on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Hyper Terminal is an open-source command-line interface written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which makes it more versatile and easier to use. In addition, Hyper Terminal also provides you with a variety of different customization options, which is why it is favored by most users.


This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Hyper Terminal on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.


↺ How To Install Jitsi Meet on Debian 10 – idroot


In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Jitsi Meet on Debian 10. For those of you who didn’t know, Jitsi Meet is a free and open-source video-conferencing application that can be used as a standalone application or embed in your web application. It is based on WebRTC and provides multi-person video conference rooms without installing additional software or browser extensions.


This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of the Jitsi Meet open-source video conferencing on a Debian 10 (Buster).


↺ How To Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8) – OSTechNix


This step by step guide explains how to download latest Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8) for FREE using Red Hat Developer account, and then how to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 with screenshots.


[...]


It used the Linux source code and created one of the first commercial Linux distribution named Red Hat Linux (RHL) in 1994. In March 2003, Red Hat Linux is renamed into Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The latest stable RHEL version is 8.4 at the time of writing this guide.


↺ How to Install Lumina Desktop on Ubuntu 20.04 – VITUX


The Lumina Desktop Environment is a simple and compact interface that works with any Linux-based operating system. Lumina is built on the usage of plugins that also allow every user to personalize their interface. A system-wide standard style is also supplied, that the system administrator can alter. This enables each system to be tailored to enhance the performance of each unique user. Lumina’s functionalities are quite comparable to those found in commonly used windows computers. Certain modifications are also accessible, such as the ability to change the color theme and select an icon style out of accessible templates. Lumina provides an excellent desktop atmosphere for Linux users. You would go over the specifics with you if you are interested in acquiring it.


↺ How to Install WebVirtCloud KVM Management on Ubuntu 20.04


WebVirtCloud is a web-based management tool for KVM virtualization. It allows administrators and users to create, manage and delete Virtual Machines running on KVM hypervisor from a web interface. It is built on Django and supports user-based authorization and authentication. With WebVirtCloud, you can manage multiple QEMU/KVM Hypervisors, Manage Hypervisor networks and Manage datastore pools from a single installation.


In this tutorial, I will show you how to install the WebVirtCloud KVM Management tool on Ubuntu 20.04.


↺ How to install KDE NEON 20210729


In this video, I am going to show how to install KDE NEON 20210729


↺ How to use man command in Linux, important options for beginners 2021


man command in linux is short form of manual of any tool, utility, and commands. man command is used to giving information and instruction of particular command. Instruction would be what are the possible way and option to use that command.


You will find very useful and essential command, which helps you explore other command as well as troubleshoot.


You get a detailed view of the command which includes NAME, SYNOPSIS, DESCRIPTION, OPTIONS, EXIT STATUS, RETURN VALUES, ERRORS, FILES, VERSIONS, EXAMPLES, AUTHORS and SEE ALSO by using man command.


↺ How to Install and Use Tor Browser in Linux


If you are a Linux user, especially one on a Debian-based or Ubuntu-based operating system environment, then the legend of the Tor browser has certainly crossed your mind from time to time.


Maybe you have thought of it and its power of anonymity but never got to implement it. Reason? You never fully conceptualized how to install and use this powerful Tor browser application correctly.


↺ How to Install PHP on Rocky Linux 8


PHP is a server-side scripting language. PHP is used to develop static or dynamic websites or web applications. Many popular CMS such as WordPress, Magento, and Joomla is written in PHP. Frameworks such as Laravel, Symfony, and CodeIgniter is also using PHP.


↺ How to Configure Apache Virtual Hosts on Rocky Linux


This is an optional step intended only for those who wish to host multiple sites on the same server. So far, our LAMP setup can only host one site. If you wish to host multiple sites, then you need to set up or configure virtual host files. Apache virtual host files encapsulate the configurations of multiple websites.


For this section, we will create an Apache virtual host file to demonstrate how you can go about setting your virtual hosts in Rocky Linux.


↺ How to Add User to Sudoers in Debian-Based Linux


During your continued usage of an Ubuntu or Debian-based operating system environment, you probably encountered terminal-bound errors like “permission denied” or something like “user is not in the sudoers file”.


Such circumstances can be frustrating to a system user who is yet to fully grasp the rules that define the metrics of the Linux operating system. To kick off this article, we first need to understand the definition of Sudo and Sudoer from a Linux operating system perspective.


↺ How To Install Mono Tool on Linux Distributions (Ubuntu, Arch & Red Hat)


Mono is a free, open-source, and platform-independent implementation of Microsoft’s Dot Net framework. The Mono project was built to compile and test applications of C, C++, and other object-oriented languages. In most cases, developers use the dot net parts through the Mono tool for building cross-platform programs.


The Mono tool is available for Linux systems. Using the dot net core on Linux is quite heavy, while the Mono is simple, easy to understand GUI, and lightweight. It supports most of Dot net native libraries and functions.


Of course, the place of Microsoft’s dot net core and Mono software is not the same for all sectors; they both have different roles to play in development. In some cases, Mono is overwhelmed over the dot net core. However, if you’ve been using the Dot net core and the framework, using Mono would be an easy task for you.


↺ Vim command not found after Linux install, how to resolve – Linux Hint


As people migrate from completely GUI-based operating systems to Linux or Unix-like systems, they often have difficulty dealing with the command line. Using the Terminal is a foreign idea to them, and it’s very easy to run into common errors, much like the one that is our subject today. So, if you happen to be one of the people having trouble using Vim, this article is for you.


↺ What does dot backslash mean in Linux? – Linux Hint


As Linux users, we all have to turn to the Terminal at one point or another to carry out some system tasks, whether they may have to do with installing new programs or removing old ones. For those that are fond of using the command-line, slash operators will be very familiar. But those who are not have come to the right place as we will be discussing this feature in great detail in this article.


↺ Where does apt-get install packages to? – Linux Hint


Whether you are a Linux veteran or just starting with Linux, you must have used apt-get or seen it being used somewhere. It is the primary way to install packages and dependencies on Ubuntu. In simpler terms, apt-get is the go-to of every Linux user when looking to set up software on their computer. This gives rise to a new question – where does apt-get install these packages to? Where do the files go, and how can one access them? In this guide, we will find out the answers to these questions.


↺ What is the difference between useradd and adduser? – Linux Hint


Linux comes embedded with many Terminal commands, each having its own purpose. Some of them perform the same function but go about different ways when executing them. Such is the case with adduser and useradd. Both are used for creating a new user but follow different ways to execute it. This article is meant to educate the reader on the key differences between the two commands, with examples on how and when to use them.


↺ Squid proxy configuration on Linux – Linux Hint


This tutorial explains how to configure Squid proxy in Linux.


After reading this tutorial, you will know how to configure Squid port and hostname, block access to specific websites, and allow internet access to specific devices.


↺ Show Image in Terminal Ubuntu


Most Linux users are big fans of the Terminal and therefore use it to perform everyday tasks on their operating system. However, the Terminal isn’t able to show graphical images like applications with full GUI interfaces. This brings us to the purpose of this guide – we will demonstrate how you can show images in the Terminal on Ubuntu.


Getting started


We will show you several different methods you can use to display images in the Terminal. Mostly our focus will be on installing and using third-party utilities, except for one method where you can use a built-in command to achieve the same task. Let’s break down our discussion in the form of a list for the sake of accessibility.


↺ Set SELinux enforcing mode with Ansible | Enable Sysadmin


It’s recommended to ensure that Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is running in enforcing mode on all your systems. However, some people in your organization may set it to permissive mode (or worse, disabled) rather than troubleshooting and fixing issues. You must reset it back to enforcing mode and make sure that all hosts are similarly configured. Ansible is your solution.


Games


↺ AMD and Valve Are Working to Improve the ACPI CPUFreq Driver for Better Gaming Performance on Linux


AMD and Valve are working together to improve the ACPI CPUFreq driver, which should improve gaming performance on Linux and AMD hardware.


↺ Relax and rebuild a campsite in the chilled-out Haven Park out now | GamingOnLinux


Haven Park is a short and casual experience for people who love to do a little exploring, while also doing a little building and repair work too. It joins a list of games like A Short Hike that combine simple themes with top-down adventuring and it’s a thoroughly sweet experience.


Following in your family’s footsteps, your Grandma mentions the park is in need of fixing up and they were your age when taking over and so now it seems it’s down to you. So off you go as a little bird. running around making “pew pew” noises while hunting for items to rebuild everything.


[...]


Haven Park is exactly what you expect from it and that’s great. Super charming, colourful visuals and a lovely family-friendly theme make it worth a play if you love these casual experiences. It being not particularly long is good as it doesn’t overstay its welcome.


↺ Space station building sim Starmancer has entered Early Access | GamingOnLinux


After a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2018, Starmancer from Ominux Games and Chucklefish is now actually out and available for all to buy in Early Access. I’ve been waiting some time on this, as a backer of the crowdfunding campaign it’s been wonderful to see it grow into something sci-fi sim fans will appreciate. Nice to have yet another game to tick off our crowdfunding list.


“After a catastrophe on Earth, humanity launches the Starmancer Initiative in a desperate attempt to seek refuge among the stars. Millions of refugees upload their consciousness into your memory banks–entrusting their minds and the future of the human race to an Artificial Intelligence, a Starmancer. To you.


↺ Cosmic horror, fleshy monsters and the post-apocalypse meet in Death Trash out now | GamingOnLinux


After many years in development Crafting Legends have now released Death Trash into Early Access, and it’s one of the most promising games we’ve seen all year.


Fusing together elements of cosmic horror with the post-apocalypse, this RPG will take you through an interesting and thoroughly horrifying world full of mutants, punks with shotguns, massive otherworldly fleshy creatures and plenty of puke. With it now in Early Access it opens up about a third of the game, with approximately 5+ hours of content to play through, with their plan in place to expand it to around 20 hours once it’s finished.


↺ Total War: WARHAMMER II The Silence & The Fury out now for Linux


↺ Feral Interactive confirms Total War: WARHAMMER III for Linux is in progress


After recently mentioning that A Total War Saga: TROY for Linux was no longer happening, the other side of the coin here is that Total War: WARHAMMER III is still coming to Linux officially from Feral Interactive.


Only just today Feral hooked up the recent Total War: WARHAMMER II – The Silence & The Fury DLC for the Linux version along with the last huge upgrade, and we noted how we weren’t entirely sure now if Total War: WARHAMMER III was still happening. Feral spotted this and reached out to confirm with no ambiguity that the port of Total War: WARHAMMER III to Linux “is in progress and we will share more info at a later time”.


↺ Steam Deck Popularity Leads to Spike in Linux Use


Given that the upcoming hand-held PC by Valve has its operating system based on Linux, it’s not too surprising that the Steam Deck crew are keen to make use of the open-source system, even if it’s not the powerhouse that Windows is. Recently, both Valve and Nvidia teamed up to bring DLSS to Linux systems. Now, it seems as though the OS has another reason to celebrate, possibly thanks to the developer and publisher’s upcoming hand-held device.


In a recent report, it’s been announced that interest in Linux has risen, showing that more people are now starting to use the operating system, according to a survey on Steam hardware. While there doesn’t seem to be any way to know for sure, it’s entirely possible that this increase has occurred thanks to the announcement of the Steam Deck. The report goes on to estimate that if the number of Steam users a month has averaged around 120 million since the start of the year, then just over 1.2 million of them were active Linux users. This puts the open-source software into the 1% market share.


↺ Total War: WARHAMMER II – The Silence & The Fury DLC Is Out Now for Linux


Officially released on July 1st, 2021, the Total War: WARHAMMER II The Silence & The Fury DLC is the final Legendary Lords Pack for the Total War: WARHAMMER II turn-based strategy and real-time tactics video game developed by Creative Assembly and published by SEGA for Linux, macOS, and Windows platforms.


Of course, the Linux and macOS versions were ported by renewed Feral Interactive, which today they bring The Silence & The Fury DLC for Linux gamers. The DLC adds two unique Legendary Lords who lead their own factions, namely Oxyotl, He Who Hunts Unseen, for the Lizardmen, and Taurox the Brass Bull for the Beastmen.


Desktop Environments/WMs


K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt


↺ Cutelee 6 released


Cutelee is templating engine forked from Grantlee. This major release was created to support both Qt5 and Qt6, it was not an easy port due Qt6 changes to QVariant, we got some patches for this port, and I finished the remaining issues.


It differs from Grantlee in which it already has support for more Django template tags, a few performance optimizations, and most importantly to me is the ability to extend without the hassled of creating a plugin and have it installed in some magical place. You can just register it with the engine and be done with it.


Distributions


↺ 2021 hardcore list of linux distributions without elogind and other systemd parts


This list is going to be short and there may be a sublist of distros with a medium strict standard. We shall explain what the object is, below the short list (which we hope the community will assist in making longer as we have not been able to currently review the work of every distro and fork.


New Releases


↺ Alpine 3.14.1 released


The Alpine Linux project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of version 3.14.1 of its Alpine Linux operating system.


This release includes a fix for apk-tools CVE-2021-36159.


The full lists of changes can be found in the git log.


Arch Family


↺ Best Arch Linux Based Distributions in 2021


Arch Linux has a reputation for being a do-it-yourself Linux distribution. The notable features of Arch Linux are rolling upgrades, Pacman, AUR, and its speed. It’s meant for x86-64 processors.


Usually, it requires the installation of applications and configuration of the system from the ground up, which calls for high expertise and experience.


Thankfully, the open-source community has provided some cutting-edge, and user-friendly Arch-based distributions that are tailored for a wider user base including desktop users, developers, gamers, and even beginners transitioning to Linux from Windows or Mac. These distros provide essential applications, out of the box, to help you hit the ground running.


In this guide, we list the 6 best Arch Linux based distributions in 2021.


IBM/Red Hat/Fedora


↺ Your one-on-one meeting doesn’t have to be this way


Whenever I’m speaking with colleagues and clients near the end of a quarter, I often hear from managers rushing to squeeze their one-on-one meetings with employees into tight deadlines. Every time I ask an employee if they’ve enjoyed their one-on-one with a manager, the answer is unanimously “no.” And every time I ask a manager if they’ve enjoyed their one-on-one with an employee, the answer is unanimously “no, but I have to do it.”


↺ Fedora Community Blog: Would you use this as your homepage?


The Design team have been working to revamp start.fedoraproject.org which is the default homepage in a fresh Fedora Linux installation. We are super excited to show you the progress we have made so far.


↺ Troubleshooting application performance with Red Hat OpenShift metrics, Part 5: Test results


This is the final article in a series demonstrating the process of performance testing Service Binding Operator for acceptance into the Developer Sandbox for Red Hat OpenShift. In Part 4, I explained how I gathered performance metrics for the Developer Sandbox team. I also discussed the additional metrics we used to measure the developer experience using Service Binding Operator.


The payoff comes in this final article, where I present the test rounds I undertook as the application developed and how I interpreted the results.


↺ IT leadership: 4 team-building tips for the next normal


These days, enterprise executives are pondering many questions around hybrid and remote work models: When should they bring their teams back to the office – if at all? How will they onboard new hires in a remote or hybrid environment? The list goes on.


At the same time, employees are still experiencing the ripple effects of disruptions brought on by COVID-19. Digital burnout, feeling disconnected and overworked, and general exhaustion are among employee complaints in the 2021 Work Trend Index by Microsoft. Additionally, the report anticipates a mass exodus of team members in search of roles that better align with their priorities, predicting that 41 percent of the workforce is likely to consider leaving their current employer by the end of the year.


↺ Hybrid work model: 5 advantages


As the pandemic starts to subside in some parts of the world, many employees expect to see more flexible work options. However, 68 percent of organizations have no plan or detailed vision in place for hybrid work, according to a study by McKinsey.


Here are five advantages of the hybrid work model to keep in mind as you plan your return-to-office policies.


↺ The state of enterprise open source in the financial services industry


We conducted interviews with 1,250 IT leaders worldwide, who weren’t necessarily Red Hat customers, to get an unbiased picture of how, where, and why they use enterprise open source. The results were shared in the third installment of Red Hat’s “The State of Enterprise Open Source” report earlier this year.


The survey included respondents from 13 different countries, who indicated enterprise open source has become a default choice of IT departments around the world. Industries that have historically been more associated with proprietary technology are also embracing open source technology. Take financial services, for example. Let’s dive into key findings from IT leaders hailing from banks, insurance providers, and other financial services.


Canonical/Ubuntu Family


↺ Ubuntu 21.10 Finally Removed “Standard” Theme-box, Only Light & Dark Mode Now


Ubuntu 21.10 daily build got an update for its gnome-control-center package(System Settings) recently. The ‘Standard’ mode is finally removed from the Appearance settings.


The Yaru theme developer team submitted the request to remove the ‘Standard’ theme when in June, since both GTK3 and GTK4 do NOT support having different background / text colors for headerbar than in the rest of the window.


The development build of Ubuntu 21.10 finally apply the change in the recent update. The ‘Window colors’ options under Appearance settings are now only fully dark and fully light. There’s no longer dark header bar with light window color called ‘Standard’.


↺ Linux Mint 20.2 “Uma” Has Been Released: See What’s New


​​​​​​Linux Mint is one of the most popular distros for home users. It’s a community-developed effort that provides a modern yet highly customizable OS for users looking for a hassle-free Linux experience. The developers recently released the latest stable version, 20.2, codenamed Uma.


This new LTS release will be supported until 2025 and brings many refinements to the distro. Check out what new features you will get in Linux Mint 20.2 below.


↺ Unlock the Chromecast with Google TV bootloader to run LineageOS or Ubuntu (older models only)


The $50 Chromecast with Google TV is a dongle that hangs from the HDMI port of a TV, allowing you to stream video, listen to music, or play games using Google’s software.


Want to use it for something more? A team of developers have just released a method for unlocking the bootloader. That makes it possible to replace Google’s software with alternate operating systems such as the open source, Android-based LineageOS or even a GNU/Linux distribution like Ubuntu. But before you get too excited, you should know that the bootloader can only be unlocked on some Chromecast units.


Devices/Embedded


↺ Linux-driven encoder board supports 4K H.265/HEVC


Z3’s “Z3-Q603-RPS” encoder board runs Linux on Qualcomm’s quad-core QCS603 and encodes up to 4K H.265/HEVC and H.264 video with micro-HDMI in/out, Composite-in, GbE, COM, and KEL ports for Sony 4K and LVDS HD cameras.


The last time we checked in on Z3 Technology was back in 2013 when the Lincoln, Nebraska based company launched a Z3-DM8168-APP-3x video transcoding subsystem built around a TI DaVinci SoC. The company offers a variety of camera solutions, video encoding boards, and “Zeus” video encoding systems that run Linux on low-end Arm SoCs. Z3 broke with its tradition of not disclosing the various Cortex-A8 or -A9 based processors in its products when it launched the Z3-Q603-RPS, which features Qualcomm’s AI-enabled, quad-core QCS603 camera SoC.


Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications


↺ Asus ZenFone 7 Pro, ZenFone 7 Get ZenUI Update With Android 12-Inspired One-Handed Mode | Technology News


↺ Nokia 5.3 finally gets Android 11 update | TechRadar


↺ Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G Starts Receiving Android 11-Based Realme UI 2.0 Update in India | Technology News


↺ Redmi Note 9 gets MIUI 12.5 update in India alongside Android 11


↺ How to schedule an email in Gmail via desktop browser and android app – Information News


↺ How to check Android battery health | Tom’s Guide


↺ Hold up, HTC could have a new Android tablet in the works – Phandroid


↺ Blaupunkt 50-inch CyberSound Ultra-HD Android TV With Dolby Digital Plus Launched in India: Price, Specifications | Technology News


↺ Lume Pad brings back glasses-free 3D — this time on an Android tablet – CNET


↺ Leia launches its 3D Lume Pad Android tablet | VentureBeat


↺ Specifications of Realme Flash, ‘world’s first Android phone with magnetic wireless charging support’ surface online – Times of India


↺ Enable these security settings on your Android smartphone to stay safe


↺ Google Photos on Android is finally getting a ‘Memories’ widget | Android Central


↺ Rec Room officially launches on Android on August 5 | Android Central


↺ When does Marvel Future Revolution release on Android? | Android Central


↺ Losca: MotionPhoto / MicroVideo File Formats on Pixel Phones


Google Pixel phones support what they call ”Motion Photo” which is essentially a photo with a short video clip attached to it. They are quite nice since they bring the moment alive, especially as the capturing of the video starts a small moment before the shutter button is pressed. For most viewing programs they simply show as static JPEG photos, but there is more to the files.


I’d really love proper Shotwell support for these file formats, so I posted a longish explanation with many of the details in this blog post to a ticket there too. Examples of the newer format are linked there too.


Info posted to Shotwell ticket


↺ 7 inch tablet with 4G LTE


Strangely, such a tablet is very hard to find these days, a 7 inch tablet with 4G LTE bands that suit Australia. I own a 7 inch tablet with 3G support, brand name OrientPhone, think was purchased in 2014, from China. Wonderful phone, drew admirers whenever I used it in public, due to its large proportions compared with normal phones. problem was, the 3G bands no longer work, and besides, the phone died a few years ago — just stopped working. Ever since then, I have sometimes browsed online looking for a replacement. However, the 7 inch tablet market has also died. Yes, there are modern phones up to about 7 inches, but they are skinny things, with screen ratio not suited to playing 720p or 1080p videos — such videos do not fill the screen.


Free, Libre, and Open Source Software


↺ Coreboot 6 Open-Source Firmware Is Now Available for Star Labs’ Linux Laptops


The Coreboot 6 open-source firmware is now available for the Star LabTop Mk III, Star LabTop Mk IV, and StarBook Mk V notebooks, along with an updated Coreboot Configurator utility, bringing lots of new features and improvements.


Highlights include a new Boot Graphics Resource Table (BGRT) logo, updated Firmware Support Package (FSP), updated microcode, new Video BIOS Tables (VBT) that prioritize performance over power consumption, as well as the use the libgfxinit graphics initialization (aka modesetting) library for embedded environments for the Star LabTop Mk III and Star LabTop Mk IV laptops.


Web Browsers


Chromium


↺ Hurrah, Chrome for Linux Now Supports CSD Properly


The latest development builds of Google Chrome fix several of the browser’s extant CSD issues on Linux desktops.


Those of you mouthing “What CSD related issues?!” at your screens (and thus me) probably run Google Chrome maximised on the desktop.


However, those of us who run the browser windowed have to endure (hyperbole) Chrome’s cranky client-side decoration support which draws a thick border around the entire window. This is highly noticeable in GTK themes with dark header bars, like Ubuntu’s Yaru.


Compare the current stable version of Google Chrome for Linux (v92 at the time of writing) against the current unstable build (v94) by dragging the divider in the image below (if you read from an RSS reader or a scraper site you won’t be able to do this because hey: the internet doesn’t work like that, honey).


Mozilla


↺ Data@Mozilla: This Week in Glean: Building a Mobile Acquisition Dashboard in Looker


As part of the DUET (Data User Engagement Team) working group, some of my day-to-day work involves building dashboards for visualizing user engagement aspects of the Firefox product. At Mozilla, we recently decided to use Looker to create dashboards and interactive views on our datasets. It’s a new system to learn but provides a flexible model for exploring data. In this post, I’ll walk through the development of several mobile acquisition funnels built in Looker. The most familiar form of engagement modeling is probably through funnel analysis — measuring engagement by capturing a cohort of users as they flow through various acquisition channels into the product. Typically, you’d visualize the flow as a Sankey or funnel plot, counting retained users at every step. The chart can help build intuition about bottlenecks or the performance of campaigns.


Mozilla owns a few mobile products; there is Firefox for Android, Firefox for iOS, and then Firefox Focus on both operating systems (also known as Klar in certain regions). We use Glean to instrument these products. The foremost benefit of Glean is that it encapsulates many best practices from years of instrumenting browsers; as such, all of the tables that capture anonymized behavior activity are consistent across the products. One valuable idea from this setup is that writing a query for a single product should allow it to extend to others without too much extra work. In addition, we pull in data from both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store to analyze the acquisition numbers. Looker allows us to take advantage of similar schemas with the ability to templatize queries.


↺ Mozilla Addons Blog: Thank you, Recommended Extensions Community Board!


Given the broad visibility of Recommended extensions across addons.mozilla.org (AMO), the Firefox Add-ons Manager, and other places we promote extensions, we believe our curatorial process should include a wide range of perspectives from our global community of contributors. That’s why we have the Recommended Extensions Advisory Board—an ongoing project that involves a rotating group of contributors to help identify and evaluate new extension candidates for the program.


Our most recent community board just completed their six-month project and I’d like to take a moment to thank Sylvain Giroux, Jyotsna Gupta, Chandan Baba, Juraj Mäsiar, and Pranjal Vyas for sharing their time, passion, and knowledge of extensions. Their insights helped usher a wave of new extensions into the Recommended program, including really compelling content like I Don’t Care About Cookies (A+ cookie manager), Tab Stash (highly original take on tab management), Custom Scrollbars (neon colored scrollbar? Yes please!), PocketTube (great way to organize a bunch of YouTube subscriptions), and many more.


↺ Jeff Klukas: Deduplication: Where Apache Beam Fits In


This session will start with a brief overview of the problem of duplicate records and the different options available for handling them. We’ll then explore two concrete approaches to deduplication within a Beam streaming pipeline implemented in Mozilla’s open source codebase for ingesting telemetry data from Firefox clients.


↺ Firefox Add-on Reviews: Read EPUB e-books right in your browser


For many online readers you simply can’t beat the convenience and clarity of reading e-books in EPUB form (i.e. “electronic publication”). EPUB literature adjusts nicely to any screen size or device, but if you want to read EPUBs in your browser, you’ll need an extension to open their distinct files. Here are a few extensions to help turn your browser into an awesome digital bookshelf.


↺ Mozilla Performance Blog: Performance in progress


In the last six months the Firefox performance team has implemented changes to improve startup, responsiveness, security (Fission), and web standards.


↺ An update from Firefox


Selena Deckelmann, SVP of Firefox shares an update of how Firefox is re-imagining what more the browser can do to help you navigate today’s Internet and get to the good stuff. We started with a redesign, but that was only the start. Firefox is out to unlock the power of the open and independent web for everyone.


SaaS/Back End/Databases


↺ Apache Cassandra 4.0 Features Increased Speed And Scalability


Nearly six years on from the release of Apache Cassandra 3.0, the community behind the popular open-source distributed database has announced the release of v4.0 of Apache Cassandra. Patrick McFadin, VP of Developer Relations at DataStax, and Ben Bromhead, CTO of Instaclustr, join TFiR Newsroom to talk more about the release.


The first issue to be addressed is the importance Cassandra holds in the modern world. McFadin starts off by talking about what workloads Cassandra is focused on, i.e. websites and mobile applications. McFadin says, “When you use a mobile app on your phone, you’re probably using Cassandra.”


FSFE


↺ Dutch authority enforces Router Freedom


The Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has published new rules that will move Router Freedom forward in the Netherlands. Within 6 months Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have to comply and offer the option for consumers and companies to connect a modem or router of their own choice. The FSFE acknowledges this decision as a major win for consumer rights.


Router Freedom is the right that consumers of any ISP have to choose and use a private modem and router instead of equipment that the ISP provides. In its publication (.pdf) the Dutch Authority cites the BEREC Guidelines on the Implementation of the Open Internet Regulation as the reason for stating the new rules. These guidelines came about with the persistent effort of the FSFE to draw attention to the importance of and right to Router Freedom. As another motivation the ACM explicitly mentions the “significant” group of users wanting to take control of their personal data and network devices.


The new regulation clarifies which part of the infrastructure falls under the governance of the ISP and for which part the user is free to choose their own solution. Router Freedom also implies a user is still free to choose a modem or router offered by the ISP. It is an important step forward that this practice will be the norm from 27 February 2022 and will be enforced by the Dutch regulator. Although the legal aspects have been defined now in the Netherlands, in practice Router Freedom was already tolerated in the country. Most ISPs indicated that they allow consumers to connect their own preferred devices. One even gives consumers a discount if they use their own router or modem.


FSF


↺ The threat of software patents persists


At the Free Software Foundation (FSF) we have reported extensively on many issues concerning user freedom. In this article, we will reintroduce a problem that has plagued the free software community for many years: the problem of software patents. In the past, we had several successful campaigns against them, and people have mistakenly assumed that the threat has gone away. It has not. Patents have steadily been dominating the software sector, and the situation is bound to get worse.


Before we delve into the complexities of this issue, it’s important to know the basics: a patent is a legal tool that gives its owner the right to prevent others from using an invention in any way for a limited period of years. A software patent is a patent that applies to software.


What follows will answer a number of questions: what software patents are; what their history is; what their legal status is today; what problem is posed by their enforcement; how our past successful campaigns were not enough to eliminate them; and finally, how you can help us fight against them, today. Unfortunately, for a proper explanation we ought to get a bit technical, but please bear with us.


GNU Projects


↺ GCC 12′s Static Analyzer Gaining Initial Assembly Support


Merged into the GNU Compiler Collection development code on Wednesday was an initial implementation of Assembly support for its analyzer.


With the GCC 12 compiler release due out early next year there will now be at least initial support for Assembly within this growing static analyzer functionality. Like with much of GCC’s static analyzer support, this initial ASM support was worked on by Red Hat’s David Malcolm.


↺ mailutils Version 3.13


Version 3.13 of GNU mailutils is [https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mailutils/mailutils-3.13.tar.gz available for download.


New in this version:


Improved mailbox locking. Changes in the ‘locking’ configuration statement. Important changes in mail utility.


↺ July GNU Spotlight with Mike Gerwitz: Fifteen new GNU releases!


15 new GNU releases in the last month (as of July 26, 2021): automake-1.16.4 binutils-2.37 chess-6.2.9 gnupg-2.2.29 gprolog-1.5.0 inetutils-2.1 less-590 libidn-1.38 linux-libre-5.13 mtools-4.0.34 mygnuhealth-1.0.3 octave-6.3.0 parallel-20210722 pies-1.6 texinfo-6.8


Programming/Development


↺ Use of at() Function in C++ Vector – Linux Hint


The vector is used in C++ to create the dynamic array and the size of the vector can be changed by adding or removing the elements. The at() function of the vector is used to access the element of the particular position that exists in the vector. It throws an exception if the position value is invalid. The uses of the at() function in the C++ vector have shown in this tutorial.


↺ 2-Dimensional Vector in C++ – Linux Hint


The vector is used to create a dynamic array and the size of the vector can be increased and decreased by adding and removing elements from the vector. When a vector is declared inside another vector then the vector is called a 2-Dimensional vector that works like a 2-Dimensional array. The 2-Dimensional vector contains multiple numbers of rows where each row is another vector. The uses of a 2-Dimensional vector in C++ have shown in this tutorial.


↺ Use of C++ unique_ptr – Linux Hint


The smart pointers are used to allocate the resource dynamically. Many types of smart pointers are used in C++ for various purposes, such as auto_ptr, unique_ptr, and shared_ptr. The auto_ptr pointer is deprecated in the new version of C++. The unique_ptr is used in replacement of the auto_ptr. The object of this pointer can take ownership of the pointer. The object of this pointer owns the pointer uniquely, and no other pointer can point to the object. The unique_ptr deletes the objects automatically. This pointer manages those objects if the objects are destroyed, or the value of the object is changed or the reset() function is called. The features of the unique_ptr and the uses of this pointer are discussed in this tutorial.


↺ Using & Operator in C – Linux Hint


Operators are the fundamental concepts of every computer language, and they are used to provide the groundwork for new programmers. Operators are basic symbols that assist us in performing scientific and analytical processes. In C and C++, operators are instruments or characters used to execute mathematical, analytical, probabilistic, and bitwise arithmetic computations. Bitwise operators, often recognized as bit-level coding, have been utilized to manipulate data only at the consolidated level. Bitwise performs operations on one or even more data bits or decimal digits only at bit level. These are used to speed up the calculating procedure in arithmetic operations. Bitwise functions cannot be used directly to the primitive data types like float, double, etc. Constantly keep in mind, bitwise operators have been most commonly employed with numerical data types due to their comparability. The bitwise logical operators act a bit at a time on the information, beginning with the lowest relevant ones (LSB), which would be the right side bit, and finding their way to some of the most likely values (MSB), which would be the leftmost piece.


↺ C++ shared_ptr – Linux Hint


The shared_ptr is one type of smart pointers of C++ that contains the shared ownership of the object created by the pointer. It shares the ownership of the object when storing the pointer into another object, and the shared reference counter counts the number of owners. The shared_ptr increases the reference counter by one after copying the object and decreases the reference counter by one after destroying the object. The memory owned by the object is reallocated if the object owned by the last shared_ptr is destroyed, or the reset() function is called to assign another pointer for the object. When the shared_ptr does not own any object, then it is called an empty shared pointer. Different uses of the shared_ptr have been shown in this tutorial.


↺ Sorting C++ Vectors


The C++ vector is like an array with member functions (methods). The vector’s length can be increased or be decreased in the program execution. The vector has many member functions. Among all these member functions, non-sorts the vector. However, C++ has a library called the algorithm library. This library has a lot of general-purpose algorithmic functions. One of these is the sort() function. This function can be used to sort C++ containers such as the vector. All values of a vector are values of the same type.


A programmer can write his own sort() function. However, the sort() function from the algorithm library is likely to perform better than what the ordinary programmer writes.


↺ The RedMonk Programming Language Rankings: June 2021


The data source used for the GitHub portion of the analysis is the GitHub Archive.


↺ Godot Engine – Multiplayer in Godot 4.0: On servers, RSETs and state updates


It’s time for the first update on Godot 4.0 multiplayer and networking changes.


In this post, I’ll focus on the new “headless” display, and the removal of multiplayer RSETs (read below before despairing!), along with keeping you hyped with some of the new features planned or in the work.


↺ Board for 60 ESP-01 modules that update firmware from Github, mine “Duino Coins”


That is why he designed a board to make it neater, and easier to manage. Each ESP-01 module can update firmware from the Internet, more especially from Github, as each time a new firmware version is uploaded to Github, the wireless module will automatically download and upgrade to the latest firmware.


Python


↺ Python gets a “Developer-in-Residence”


Backlogs in bug triage, code review, and other elements of the development process are nothing new for free-software projects; there is clearly a lot more interest in creating new features (and the bugs that go with them, of course) than in taking on the less-satisfying bits. For a large project like CPython, though, the backlog can seriously impede progress—potentially chasing off contributors whose work falls through the cracks. In order to address that, the Python Software Foundation (PSF) has raised some funds to hire Łukasz Langa as the CPython “Developer-in-Residence”. Langa will be working to help clear the backlog, while also looking into other areas of interest to the PSF and the Python steering council.


Langa is a longtime CPython core developer and the release manager for Python 3.8 and 3.9; he is also the creator of the Black code formatter for Python. But, beyond all of that, he has been advocating for more full-time Python developers for a while now, so this is something of a dream come true for him personally.


↺ GL announces T1 E1 Analyzer Client/Server Scripting for


GL Communications Inc., a global leader in telecom test and measurement solutions, addressed the press regarding their T1 E1 Analyzer which supports Python Client/Server scripting for both Windows and Linux operating systems.


↺ Python Wrapper for C++ solving the recent YandexQ problem


Rust


↺ This Week In Rust: This Week in Rust 402


Leftovers


Health/Nutrition


↺ Cameron Kaiser: And now for something completely different: Australia needs to cut the crap with expats


I am an Australian-American dual citizen (via my mother, who is Australian, but is resident in the United States), and my wife of five years is Australian. She is legimately a resident of Australia because she was completing her master’s degree there and had to teach in the Australian system to get an unrestricted credential. All this happened when the borders closed. Anyone normally resident in Australia must obtain an exemption to leave the country and cite good cause, except to a handful of countries like New Zealand (who only makes the perfectly reasonable requirement that its residents have a spot in quarantine for when they return).


It was already difficult to exit Australia before, which is why, for the six weeks that I’ve gotten to see my wife since January 2020, it was me traveling to Australia. Here again many thanks to Air New Zealand, who were very understanding on rescheduling (twice) and even let us keep our Star Alliance Gold status even though we weren’t flying much, I did my two weeks of quarantine, got my two negative tests, and was released into the hinterlands of regional New South Wales to visit that side of the family. Upon return to Sydney Airport, it was a simple matter to leave the country, since it was already obvious in the immigration records that I don’t normally reside in it.


[...]


I realize as (technically) an expat there isn’t much of a constituency to join, but even given we’re in the middle of a pandemic this crap has to stop. Restricting entries is heavyhanded, but understandable. Reminding those exiting that they’re responsible for hotel or camp quarantine upon return is onerous (and should be reexamined at minimum for those who have indeed gotten the jab), but defensible. Preventing Australian citizens from leaving altogether, especially those with family, is unconscionable and the arbitrary nature of the exemption process is a foul joke.


Integrity/Availability


Proprietary


↺ Strong Issues with MacOS BigSur on MacBook Pro M1


After switching from my Intel-based MacBook Pro from 2019 with I9 to the MacBook Pro M1, the fun didn’t last very long. Since then, I spend a lot of time maintaining and analyzing Mac problems and don’t get to work.


Security


↺ Security updates for Thursday


Security updates have been issued by Debian (jetty9 and openexr), openSUSE (mariadb and virtualbox), Red Hat (go-toolset-1.15 and go-toolset-1.15-golang), SUSE (djvulibre and mariadb), and Ubuntu (opencryptoki).


↺ Linux Security Improvements Needed


Linux security expert Kees Cook says more investment is needed in “bug fixers, reviewers, testers, infrastructure builders, toolchain devs, and security devs.” He notes, for example, that “the stable kernel releases (“bug fixes only”) each contain close to 100 new fixes per week.”


↺ Google slams Linux kernel, says it needs major security investment | TechRadar


Google has highlighted what it says are shortcomings in the Linux kernel from a security perspective, and the issues these create for downstream vendors who roll the kernel into products.


In a blog post, Kees Cook from Google’s Open Source Security Team compares the Linux kernel to the US automotive industry of the 1960s in order to drive home the point that while the kernel runs flawlessly, when it fails, it falls apart miserably.


“The huge community surrounding Linux allows it to do amazing things and run smoothly. What’s still missing, though, is sufficient focus to make sure that Linux fails well too,” wrote Cook.


↺ NSA, CISA release Kubernetes hardening guidance following Colonial Pipeline, other attacks | CSO Online


Earlier this week, the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint document entitled Kubernetes Hardening Guidance. Kubernetes is an open-source orchestration system that relies on containers to automate the deployment, scaling and management of applications, usually in a cloud environment. According to the most recent State of Kubernetes Security report by RedHat, more than half the security professionals surveyed said they delayed deploying Kubernetes applications into production due to security.


↺ NSA, CISA Report Outlines Risks, Mitigations for Kubernetes


Two of the largest government security agencies are laying out the key cyberthreats to Kubernetes, the popular platform for orchestrating and managing containers, and ways to harden the open-source tool against attacks.


In a 52-page report released this week, the National Security Agency (NSA) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) noted the advantages to enterprises using Kubernetes to automate the deployment, scaling and managing of containers and running it in the cloud, citing both the flexibility and security benefits when compared to other monolithic software platforms.


“However, securely managing everything from microservices to the underlying infrastructure introduces other complexities,” the report’s authors wrote. “Kubernetes clusters can be complex to secure and are often abused in compromises that exploit their misconfigurations.”


↺ Qualys, Red Hat To Drive Greater Security For Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS, Red Hat OpenShift


Qualys has joined hands with Red Hat to drive greater security for both the container and host operating system for Red Hat OpenShift. The Cloud Agent for Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS on OpenShift combined with the Qualys solution for Container Security provides continuous discovery of packages and vulnerabilities for the complete Red Hat OpenShift stack.


↺ Researchers Find Significant Vulnerabilities…


Attacks require executing code on a system but foil Apple’s approach to protecting private data and systems files.


Monopolies


Patents


↺ Austria continues to play steady role in European patent litigation


↺ JUVE


Despite the turbulence of the past year, Austria’s patent courts have steadily ticked over. Not only did the courts clarify the possibilities of gathering evidence in preliminary injunction proceedings, but an initial court decision reflects the new rules of the EU Trade Secrets Directive. Now, in the new JUVE Patent Austria ranking, we showcase the rising stars of the Austrian patent market.


Aside from the landmark ruling on preliminary injunctions, Austrian courts only decided on a few Europe-wide pharma and biosimilar disputes. Nevertheless, Austrian law firms were repeatedly involved in individual questions in such proceedings. One example is the pemetrexed case, which involves questions of patent infringement by equivalents.


Also currently pending is the Illumina vs. MGI case concerning DNA sequencing technology. The French courts have also handed down initial rulings in the dispute, as has the UK when the High Court grappled with issues of sufficiency in its first judgment.


[...]


Sandoz produces biosimilars at its Tyrolean plant, including the antibody rituximab. The company has central European approval for the product.


In addition to the application for a search of premises, the case also sought the release of certain documents to disclose the manufacturing process. Now, the threshold for such disclosures in preliminary injunction proceedings is clearer.


Software Patents


↺ WSOU ’770 patent challenged


On July 2, 2021, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 7,333,770, formerly owned by Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation) but now owned by WSOU Investments, LLC. The ‘770 patent is generally related to broadcasting data in a telecommunications system and is being asserted against TP-Link Technology Co.


↺ EPO challenge filed against another ETRI patent


On July 27, 2021, Unified Patents filed an opposition in the EPO against EP 3448036. The EP ‘036 patent is owned by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI). The patent is part of a large family with related patents designated as essential to the H.265 and AV1 standards by HEVC Advance and SISVEL, respectively. It is also related to U.S. Patent 9,781,448 against which Unified has filed an IPR in April 2021.


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