News/7

The Rust Programming Language Is Now One Step Closer To Entering The Mainline Linux Kernel
The Linux kernel community has been discussing the possibility of using the Rust programming language to write new kernel device drivers since last summer. Initial Rust support has now landed in the Linux-Next tree. This does not guarantee that Rust will be supported or even allowed in the mainline kernel, but it does mean that there is now a fair chance that Rust will eventually be required to successfully compile a Linux kernel.
The GNU Project Is Looking For Volunteers To Write Free JavaScript Replacements For Non-Free Web Apps
Most modern websites run lots and lots of non-free JavaScript programs in your web browser when you visit them. The GNU project would very much like to replace these non-free programs with free ones. They are looking for volunteers to help out with this enormous undertaking.
Linux Foundation Should Stop Using Bots for Code of Conduct Enforcement Because Bots Fail the Community
The wrong assumption that bots and algorithms (or “hey hi”) can handle Code of Conduct enforcement is causing backlash/resentment/accusations against the Linux Foundation, both from guys and girls (of different backgrounds).
The Corporate Linux Foundation is Now Using the ‘Code of Conduct’ Aggressively and Excessively to Censor People Using Bots, Not Human Assessment
Instead of protecting people, as the Linux Foundation likes to claim, it is engaging in automated social control, just like in social control networks or social control media (where mentioning the word “Memphis” gets you banned now).
The TorProject Urges All Relay Operators To Upgrade To 0.4.5.7+ Due To Denial-Of-Service Issues
The TorProject released three new versions of the Tor Onion Router this week, 0.3.5.14, 0.4.4.8 and 0.4.5.7. These new versions address two different denial-of-service issues. One of them could be very damaging to directory authority nodes, and only them, and the other could cause problems for both Tor relays and authority nodes. Everyone running a Tor node or relay should upgrade.
The WWWorst App Store
The modern World Wide Web, and specifically all the non-free JavaScript code used to power it, may be the worst kind of "App Store" since end-users have no control over what software is temporarily installed and executed on their computers.
KDE Plasma 5.21.3 Is Released
KDE Plasma 5.21.3 contains a long list of smaller fixes for the KDE Plasma desktop environment version 5.21 released in February. The Plasma update comes a week after the KDE Frameworks libraries version 5.80 was released with a wide range of improvements to the various libraries the KDE Plasma desktop uses to build its various components.
The Linux Kernel Had 3 Potential Root Access Vulnerabilities For 15 Years
Linux kernels prior to 5.11.4, 5.10.21, 5.4.103, 4.19.179, 4.14.224, 4.9.260 and 4.4.260 have three 15 year old vulnerabilities in the iSCSI subsystem that could potentially allow a hostile local user to gain root privileges. Most GNU/Linux distributions compile their kernels with ISCSI_TARGET=y so this could potentially be a problem with all of them, though RedHats distributions are the ones with an easy exploit-avenue.
What The Word Ubuntu Actually Means
Most free software users are familiar with the Ubuntu Linux distribution but few know what the word Ubuntu really means. There is actually a quite interesting back-story to it.
XMRig 6.10 Is Released
XMRig is a cross-platform digital currency miner with support for the RandomX, KawPow, CryptoNight and AstroBWT mining algorithms. The latest version is mostly a pure bug-fix release, the http-parser library being replaced by llhttp is the only barely notable change.
Preventing An OpenPGP Smartcard From Caching The PIN Eternally
GnuPG will happily cache the PIN for hardware tokens like security smartcards forever. GnuPG does have a cache-ttl parameter, but it is not implemented so it does absolutely nothing. Debian developer Louis-Philippe Véronneau has a solution.
Facebook even snoops on you using your camera’s scratches
Facebook can figure out people that you might know by analyzing the pattern of dust and scratches on a camera lens.
The GNU Project Won't Be Participating In This Years GSOC
The GNU Project has been a Google Summer Of Code (GSOC) participant the last 12 years. Google rejected the GNU projects application to be a mentoring organization this year. None of the GNU software projects, with GCC being a possible exception, will be participating in this years GSOC.
UwUfetch 1.0 Is Released
UwUfetch is a simple tool similar to Screenfetch and Neofetch that gathers and displays some basic system information. The initial public version can show you your systems "OWOS", kernel, "CPUWU", "WAM" and, most importantly, "UWUPTIME".
Wine 6.4 Is Released
Wine 6.4 adds support for Korean Unified Hangul Code (UHC) encoding, the Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) protocol, better theming support and a dialog for editing Access Control entries. There's also 38 mostly application-specific bug-fixes.
RNR - A New Terminal File Manager Similar To Ranger And GNU Midnight Commander
RNR File Manager (RNR's Not Ranger) is a new terminal file manager for Linux that combines features of Midnight Commander and Ranger in order to provide the best of both worlds, while also offering a robust file copier.
Find And Remove Duplicate Files, Similar Images And More With Czkawka
Czkawka is a fast (multi-threaded) application to find and remove duplicate files, invalid symlinks, similar images, and more.
Mesa 21 Is Released With Many Improvements For AMD Graphics Users
The latest version of the Mesa graphics stack for Linux adds support for sparse memory, rapid packed math, dynamic fragment shading and resizable bar to the RADV Vulkan driver for AMD, improved OpenGL support to the Panfrost driver for Mali graphics chips on ARM devices, some Intel speedups and a whole lot more.
Btrfs Was Not Meant For RAID5 or 6
The mkfs.btrfs utility in the btrfs-progs package will now warn you if you try to create a RAID5 or RAID6 array using btrfs as of the newly released btrfs-progs 5.11. The manual page has long warned that such btrfs arrays are "considered experimental and shouldn’t be employed for production use".
Microsoft Proposes Unprivileged Chroot On Linux
Microsoft engineer Mickaël Salaün has re-proposed a Linux kernel patch from 2012 that allows processes without the CAP_SYS_CHROOT capability to use the chroot system call. Other kernel developers are not amused.
Things IBM Can Do to Help the GNU/Linux Community Instead of Trying to Monopolize Almost Everything
The IBM stance on GNU/Linux and Free software is complicated to say the least, but there are ways IBM can assure the real community that it is in fact an ally and restore confidence in IBM’s motivations.
The Tor Software Has Two Potential Denial Of Service Vulnerabilities, Fix Is Coming Next Week
Current and previous versions for the Tor Onion Router software have two undisclosed Denial Of Service vulnerabilities with the potential to cause problems for the Tor networks authority servers. The Torproject will release a new version with a fix "early next week". Everyone who is using Tor Browser or running a Tor node should upgrade when it becomes available.
United Nations Whisteblower Says The Tor Anonymity Network Is Great For Human Rights Work
US military subsidiaries such as the NSA, who use Tor for open source intelligence gathering, are not the only ones who need a secure traffic analysis resistant anonymity network like Tor. UN human rights lawyer Emma Reilly says it is "great" when working with human rights defenders.
Signal Appears To Have Abandoned Their AGPL-licensed Server Sourcecode
The source code for the server-side part of the Signal messaging application application has been available at GitHub under the GNU AGPL license since 2013. Signal Messenger LLC updated the Signal-Server repository regularly until they did one last commit bumping the version to 3.21 on April 22nd, 2020. There has been no new activity there since then. They appear to have abandoned it and they are not commenting on why that is.
Ytfzf - Search (With Thumbnails) And Play YouTube Videos From A Terminal
ytfzf is a script to search, download and play YouTube videos by making use of mpv and youtube-dl under the hood. It works on Linux and macOS. The command line script had its first stable (1.0.0) release last week.
ZeMarmot Is Working On Searchable Layer Groups, Stored Layer Selection And Other Cool Features For GIMP
ZeMarmot is a 2D animation film project that uses free software to create animated films and other artwork made free available under the Art Libre and Creative Commons licenses. It is easy to see what software you are using daily is missing. Jehan from ZeMarmot has written code for several cool new features that make his GIMP experience better.
Avidemux 2.7.8 Is Released
The latest version of the Avidemux video editor/converter for Linux, Windows and macOS has tons of new video filters, basic HDR support when working with Matroska and WebM containers, 24-bit uncompressed audio support in several file formats and a lot more.
Thunar 4.16.4 Is Released
The latest version of the Thunar file manager for the Xfce desktop environment has seven bug-fixes and updated translations for four languages.
Xfdashboard 0.9.0 Is Released
xfdashboard is a GNOME and macOS style application switcher and launcher primarily for the Xfce desktop environment. The latest version has nothing revolutionary from a end-users perspective, but there are some bigger changes beneath the hood.
Jack Dorsey Is Auctioning His First Tweet As An NFT On The Ethereum Blockchain
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is auctioning away a non-fungible token (NFT) for his first Tweet. The current bid is $2.500.000, payable in Ethereums ETH currency, for a 1-of-1 "autographed" version minted on the Etherium blockchain.