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Posted in News Roundup at 1:03 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Another month down and we can see that the Linux desktop user share is continuing to rise and not just on the recent Steam Survey. While we have Linux hitting close to 2% and above macOS on the Steam Survey for the first time, it’s nice to see it continuing to rise elsewhere too!
Linus Torvalds has released the fourth release candidate for Linux Kernel 6.5, which includes 328 commits. This is the third time in a row that the rc4 release of the Linux kernel has had exactly 328 commits. Torvalds has described this as a “weird numerological coincidence.”
In addition to the 328 commits, Linux Kernel 6.5 RC4 also includes support for Alibaba’s T-Head TH1520 RISC-V SoCs, work to enable CXL pooled memory tech, Wi-Fi 7 enhancements, and more.
Version 254 of systemd marks the 115th release of this ever-growing init system for Linux. Expect to see it in the autumn releases of Ubuntu and Fedora, and in Arch and openSUSE Tumbleweed sooner.
This version brings at least one fairly significant user-facing change that may even be noticed by people who never interact with their init system in any way: faster system reboots.
Port scanning is a popular technique used by attackers to find services that they may be able to compromise. A port scan assists the attacker in finding which ports are available. The scan sends a message to each port, with the response indicating whether the port is used and can therefore be probed further for weaknesses. There are a variety of different forms of scanning which include TCP, SYN, UDP, ACK, Window, and FIN scanning.
However, port scanning has many legitimate uses such as network inventory and the verification of the security of a network. Port scanners therefore represent an important tool for users and system administrators to verify the security policies of their computers and network.
Here’s our verdict on the best graphical port scanners. The software are frontends for Nmap. We only include free and open source software here.
However, port scanning has many legitimate uses such as network inventory and the verification of the security of a network. Port scanners therefore represent an important tool for users and system administrators to verify the security policies of their computers and network.
Linux has a good range of port scanners that help administrators identify and rectify weaknesses in a system. To provide an insight into the software that is available, we have compiled a list of 8 terminal-based port scanners. Here’s our verdict.
In 2020, Apple began the Apple silicon transition, using self-designed, 64-bit ARM-based Apple M1 processors on new Mac computers. Maybe it’s the perfect time to move away from the proprietary world of Apple, and embrace the open source Linux scene.
Archive Utility creates and decompresses .zip files and other compressed files. It provides several options for you to have more control over file compression and expansion on Mac.
Archive Utility is proprietary software and not available for Linux. We recommend the best free and open source alternatives.
Are you a Linux or Mac or Windows 10 user who’s been searching for the ultimate photo editor to uplift your images? Your search ends here! We’ve rounded up our premier selection of photo editors for Linux, along with top choices for Mac photo editor and Windows 10 photo software. It doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned professional photographer or simply enjoy capturing the beauty around you as a pastime, access to robust editing tools is crucial to lift your images a notch higher.
In this article, we’ll delve into some of the supreme options ready for download. So, take a moment, have your favourite drink at hand, and let’s journey into the universe of photo editing!
Don’t they look like redirection indicators (> and >>)?
Before installing Linux on your Chromebook, there are a few important steps you need to take to ensure a smooth and successful installation process.
If you’re an Ubuntu or any other Linux distribution user, you know how important fonts are for enhancing the visual appeal of your system and applications. For example, if you are customizing your GNOME desktop, the fonts play an important role in giving the desired look to your desktop.
Installing new fonts can give your computer a fresh look and feel, making your creative endeavours even more captivating. In this guide, we’ll walk you through installing new fonts on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, ensuring your desktop stands out with personalized typography.
Here’s how.
For those interested in the latest big RPG from Larian Studios, here’s my quick initial report on Baldur’s Gate 3 running on Steam Deck and desktop Linux. Keep in mind this is just some initial testing thoughts – it’s a very big game.
When it comes to controllers for racing games, there is perhaps no better option than a force feedback steering wheel. With a built-in motor to push against the wheel at exactly the right times, they can realistically mimic the behavior of a steering wheel from a real car. The only major downside is cost, with controllers often reaching many hundreds of dollars. [Jason] thought it shouldn’t be that hard to build one from a few spare parts though and went about building this prototype force feedback steering wheel for himself.
ZEPHON is the upcoming strategy game from Proxy Studios who created Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War and Pandora: First Contact. For a limited time you can check out the first demo for ZEPHON. It has full Native Linux support just like their previous games too!
We’re not sure that many of you have recognised the need in your life for an x86 machine code program encoded into a QR code, but following on from someone else work [donno2048] has created a super-tiny Snake clone in assembly which comes in at only 85 bytes long. It fits far better in a QR code than the previous effort, but perhaps more useful is a web page demo which runs an in-browser DOS compatibility library. We followed the compilation instructions and got it running on our Manjaro installation, with the result of a somewhat unplayable but recognisable Snake, we’re guessing because it was written for a slower platform. The web version is more usable, and allows us to investigate its operation more thoroughly.
Oh now this looks like it has some good picks for you. Fanatical have launched their latest build it yourself Platinum Collection bundle full of games. You can pick between 3 games for £9.99, 5 for $14.99 and 7 for £19.99.
Oh how I do love a good RTS. Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition now has a special free starter edition available on Steam. From my own testing, it works great on desktop Linux with Proton too.
Ready for another blast from the past? After the success of the first set, Toaplan Arcade Shoot ‘Em Up Collection Vol.2 has been announced from Bitwave Games and Toaplan.
Barony from developer Turning Wheel LLC recently had quite a lovely big upgrade, and thanks to that it’s also now Steam Deck Verified with the Native Linux version available.
Landnama from developer Sonderland scratches a very weird itch as it mixes exploration, survival and city-building into one and it’s quite a challenge too. Note: the developer sent me a key.
Spice up your next play-through of Doom II with the new Voxel Doom II mod now available, bringing with it fancy new monster models. Voxel Doom II is the follow up to 2022′s award-winning Voxel Doom. This is a new graphics mod that replaces all monsters, weapons, props and items with fully 3d voxel models. It replaces all monsters from both Doom and Doom II.
Apple’s macOS has been the second most popular operating system on the Steam game distribution platform for a long time, but that has now changed. Linux has surpassed macOS for the number two spot, according to Steam’s July user hardware survey.
Steam regularly asks its users to give an anonymized look at their hardware, and the company makes the information it gathers available each month.
Historically, Linux has been regarded primarily as an operating system for servers, developers, and tech enthusiasts, with gaming as an afterthought. Compatibility issues, limited game libraries, and a lack of support from major game developers marred its reputation.
However, in recent years, Linux’s gaming capabilities have radically transformed.
Efforts to create gaming-specific distributions and advancements in compatibility layers like Proton, developed by Valve, have paved the way for more games to run smoothly on Linux systems.
About 6 weeks ago, I posted a tentative roadmap for Plasma 6. I wanted to give everyone an update on how things have gone since then!
So where are we? I previously explained that we were somewhere in between “clean up the code” and “Implement planned features and changes”–stages 3 and 4. I predicted that stage 3 code cleanup would mostly be done by early August.
I’m happy to report that my prediction appears to have been pretty accurate! As of today, almost all of the planned Plasma 6 code porting tasks have been completed. Only one major one remains: porting everything away from DataEngines. But everything else is done, including the following projects…
In a recent update from the KDE development team, significant progress has been made on the anticipated KDE Plasma 6. The development process, led by the diligent KDE developers, has seen remarkable headway over the past few weeks, transitioning from the code cleanup phase to the exciting stages of implementing planned features and enhancements.
With Neon unstable’s Plasma 6 packages bubbling along nicely, it was decided that all new KF6 based apps should be based in the freshly repurposed Experimental archive. Experimental builds on Unstable but nicely segregates the pre-alpha KF6 apps from the more stable Plasma 6 desktop.
A new package, neon-settings-experimental has been made which installs neon-experimental.list to point to the experimental archive and 99-jammy-overrides-experimental which adds a pin to make the experimental archive package always be installed. All packages in experimental are versioned the same as in unstable, which means it’s a competition of who has the highest packaging suffix. However the aforementioned pin ensures that the KF6 based experimental package always wins even if it means a downgrade (in timestamp version numbers). So don’t be scared if apt tells you it will be downgrading packages because really you are upgrading!
In text editor space, simplicity and efficiency are often cherished qualities. Meet Mini Text, the latest addition to the list of lightweight text editors, is designed to cater to your basic text editing needs while boasting an incredibly low memory footprint.
Whether you’re jotting down quick notes, copying and pasting code snippets, or need a distraction-free platform to express your thoughts, Mini Text is your go-to solution.
The MX Linux project has rolled out a new major release, based on Debian 12, and is on its way to becoming our favorite distro.
Around this time last year, MX Linux was new to us, as we said when we looked at version 21.2. Now at version 23, its developers describe it as a middleweight distro. Don’t be misled, though: while it doesn’t go out of its way to be stripped down or minimalist, it’s as rich and feature-complete as any desktop distro out there.
The principal difference between MX and other Debian remixes which seek to improve on the base OS, such as Linux Mint Debian Edition or siduction, is that MX is a member of the shortlist of distros that don’t use the systemd init system.
Red Hat’s community Linux distribution, Fedora, and Asahi Linux, a project that’s been working to develop a reverse engineered port for running Linux on hardware using Apple’s Arm-based silicon, announced on Wednesday that they’ve developed a working relationship, and that going forward Asahi’s flagship distribution will be called Fedora Asahi Remix.
That’s a change from the Asahi Arch Linux ARM Remix, which has been Asahi’s flagship distro for the last year or so.
Get ready to wield your creative brush strokes because the much-anticipated Ubuntu 23.10 “Mantic Minotaur” Wallpaper Competition is officially live! Ubuntu fans, developers, and art lovers are invited to contribute their imaginative masterpieces to become a part of the upcoming Ubuntu 23.10 release, slated for October 12, 2023.
Ping is a simple but useful utility that can help you quickly identify network issues. If you’re suffering from high ping, for example, then it can cause issues when streaming media or gaming.
The ping utility is usually installed with your OS, but there are times when this may not happen, or the utility may get removed. If this is the case on Ubuntu, you’ll see an Ubuntu ping not found error message. You won’t be able to use ping until you fix it.
Thankfully, you should be able to get ping up and running in a matter of moments. Here’s what to do if ping isn’t found on Ubuntu.
Critical fixes will also come every two weeks, mitigating the issues involved with releasing prompt patches on the old three-week cadence
“The new NXP S32G3 is ideal for next-generation architectures, and we are happy to extend its capabilities with our broad line of AUTOSAR-compliant software, as well as our new EB corbos Linux – built on Ubuntu solution,” said Michael Robertson, vice president, head of products and strategy, Elektrobit.
Ubuntu Touch is the privacy and freedom-respecting mobile operating system by UBports. Today we are extremely happy to announce the release of Ubuntu Touch OTA-2 our 2nd stable update to the new 20.04 system! OTA-2 will become available for the following supported Ubuntu Touch devices over the next days…
The open-source Core-V MCU development kit, created by OPENHW, has been launched today on GroupGets. The kit incorporates a 32-bit CV32E40P open-source RISC-V core, the ArticPro eFPGA from QuickLogic, and Espressif’s AWS IoT EspressLink module for Wi-Fi connectivity.
OpenHW specified that the Core-V MCU features the CV32E40P processor (previously known as the RI5CY) which is a 32 RISC-V core with four-stage pipeline that implements the RV32IM[F]C RISC-V instruction extensions. To accelerate AI/ML applications, the Core-V also features the low-cost QuickLogic’s ArticPro eFPGA.
I started using Home Assistant (HA) for graphing the power consumption of my house. Many months before venturing down that road, I bought a Greeneye Monitor (GEM). A current transformer has been installed on each circuit in my breaker box (see the photos near the bottom of this album). I chose HA for that. I first trying installing from FreeBSD packages into a FreeBSD jail, but then reluctantly abandoned that approach in favor of running HA natively in bhyve.
While their software for programming it only officially supports Windows and Android, the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard sure does look awesome. I need this. Supporting connecting up via USB, Wireless 2.4G and Bluetooth it has a range of options for whatever way you wish to use it.
The open-source Core-V MCU development kit, created by OPENHW, has been launched today on GroupGets. The kit incorporates a 32-bit CV32E40P open-source RISC-V core, the ArticPro eFPGA from QuickLogic, and Espressif’s AWS IoT EspressLink module for Wi-Fi connectivity.
Great news for Arduino enthusiasts! The new Nano ESP32, just released on July 17th, is now officially supported by the Arduino Cloud. This powerful combo brings MicroPython and IoT capabilities right to your fingertips, simplifying all your smart device projects.
The Nano ESP32‘s native MicroPython support empowers you to code in Python effortlessly. It opens up a world of possibilities for all skill levels, from simple scripts to complex IoT applications.
Over the past decade or so, smartphones have exploded in popularity and seamlessly integrated themselves into nearly every aspect of most people’s lives. Although that comes with a few downsides as well, with plenty of people feeling that the smart phone makes it a little too easy to waste time and looking to switch to something simpler, like an older-style flip phone. If this style of phone is more your speed, take a look at this DIY cell phone which takes care of everything a phone really needs to do. (Google Translate from French)
Below I’ll talk about the project, I think you can replicate it, but I don’t think you’ll want to.
Keep in mind it’s quite time-consuming. Something can go wrong at every step. You will void the warranty on your Mac mini. So it’s your responsibility.
It was an experiment, a test of skills, a topic for discussion, and just a hardware-hacking project
Due to a series of strange events, I have ended up with not one, but two Amiga 4000s in the last few weeks. They are both in need of very different restorations. I hope that I can get at least one complete machine out of them, and then sell the other one. I don’t have room for two in my collection, and it will help recoup the costs.
Like the Commodore Amiga, the Atari ST was an iconic home computer, offering many people their first glimpse of the 16-bit digital world. After almost 40 years, it’s still an engaging design, although the internal hardware may need a few repairs and upgrades to fit in with the modern standards. In this article, you’ll see how to replace the internal electronics of an Atari-ST with a Raspberry Pi, while retaining the original keyboard. None of the changes performed require modifications to the original case or to the circuitry of the Atari, making the process completely reversible in the future.
Most makers start their initial electronics prototypes on a breadboard, which is great for quickly setting up temporary circuits. But forming the connections requires jumper wires and even a basic project quickly becomes a rats’ nest of wiring that is difficult to manage. Tracking down issues within that tangle of wires is a massive headache, which is why Architeuthis Flux designed this jumperless breadboard to make prototyping a breeze.
To keep things ticking over nicely a scheduled update to the open source email client is rolling out. The update brings a bunch of bug fixes to bear, plus a couple of minor UI tweaks.
Thunderbird 115.1 hides the Quick Filter bar by default. I think this gives the e-mail client (in whatever layout you’re using) a sleeker presentation. Still it’s only hidden by default not removed; the Quick Filter bar is still included and you can show/hide it with a mouse click or a key press.
Gender-based violence (GBV) is a global pandemic that affects one in three women in their lifetime. Kwanele Bringing Women Justice, one of the winning startups at Mozilla’s Responsible AI Challenge, wants to help survivors of abuse in South Africa by giving women and children an easy-to-use tool to report and successfully prosecute crimes involving gender-based violence.
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) work seamlessly on Chrome and are often lightweight clones of their desktop counterparts based on JS frameworks like Electron.
If you’ve used Chrome — some websites prompt you to install their web app. PWAs on Chrome have features such as: service workers for offline capabilities, responsive design, and push notifications. (Firefox is not far behind!) infact, Firefox uses Google’s servers to push notifications to android-users.
There appears to be a shift towards programming languages that improve safety by providing an expressive type system, automatic memory management, and no gaps in the specification that lead to “undefined behaviour”. If your program is consistent with the logic of the programming language specification, then it compiles and executes the behaviour you would understand from the source code and the language documentation. If any of that isn’t true, then your program doesn’t compile: there are no gaps for not-quite-consistent programs to fall through, that get detected later when the program is running.
Python package versions seem simple on the surface because we’re used to seeing the common and well-defined version schemes like SemVer (1.2.3) or CalVer (2023.6.1) and occasionally a pre-release suffix (1.2.3pre1). But Python package versioning can get much more complicated than that! 🤯
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