Monday, December 31, 2018

BSD Release: GhostBSD 18.12

GhostBSD is a rolling release desktop operating system which is based on TrueOS, which is in turn based on FreeBSD's development (-CURRENT) branch. The project has published an update to GhostBSD 18.10, GhostBSD 18.12, which includes a number of updates and replaces the graphical software manager. "GhostBSD 18.12....

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Linux Thursday - Dec 27, 2018

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And the best distro of 2018 is ...

It's the final Tuxdown. And we vote! Behold, the article reviewing the best Linux distribution of 2018, with focus on aesthetics, ease of use, stability, and long-term support. Who will take the crown?

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F2FS Filesystem Enhancements (for Pixel Devices), Wine HQ Dev Release, Gzip v1.10, VideoLan v3.0.5, KaOS Linux Distro v2018.12

To start things off, a ton of bug fixes alongside a few enhancements are coming to the F2FS filesystem (for Pixel devices) in the the Linux 4.21 kernel.

Wine HQ just officially announced the development release of version 4.0 RC4 which also boasts numerous bug fixes.

The release of Gzip version 1.10 has been announced on the Savannah community site.

All while VideoLAN published VLC version 3.0.5.

In distribution news, KaOS, the rolling release Linux distribution, just pushed out version 2018.12.



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Distribution Release: Grml 2018.12

Michael Prokop has announced the release of Grml 2018.12, a new version of the project's Debian-based Linux distribution focusing on the needs of system administrators: "So we did it again - we just released Grml 2018.12 'Gnackwatschn'. This Grml release provides fresh software packages from Debian 'Testing' which....

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DeepMasterPrints Developed To Access Smartphones Via Hacking

Researchers at New York University and Michigan State University have invented new artificial fingerprints, which they call DeepMasterPrints for hacking fingerprint sensor-enabled smartphones. According to a report by CNBC, the fake fingerprints, with the help of machine learning double as a ‘Masterkey’ to access one out of three smartphones which come with fingerprint scanners. The […]

The post DeepMasterPrints Developed To Access Smartphones Via Hacking appeared first on Fossbytes.



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Google Is Launching Spam Protection Feature In Text Messages

Messages (previously Android Messages) by Google has been rumored to get the spam protection feature for a long time. Now, a new report suggests that the anticipated feature is now available on the messaging platform. According to a report by Android Police, the new spam protection feature, much like the one found in Truecaller, has […]

The post Google Is Launching Spam Protection Feature In Text Messages appeared first on Fossbytes.



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New Microsoft Patent Hints At Its Own USB Type-C Port

Microsoft is expected to produce its proprietary USB Type-C ports for the Surface laptops as the company has filed for a patent for the same. A new patent application (named ‘Magnetically Activated Latch Mechanism’) by Microsoft, filed at USPTO suggests that it is aiming to produce magnet-based USB Type-C connectors which will be used in […]

The post New Microsoft Patent Hints At Its Own USB Type-C Port appeared first on Fossbytes.



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The State of Desktop Linux 2019

A snapshot of the current state of Desktop Linux at the start of 2019—with comparison charts and a roundtable Q&A with the leaders of three top Linux distributions.

I've never been able to stay in one place for long—at least in terms of which Linux distribution I call home. In my time as a self-identified "Linux Person", I've bounced around between a number of truly excellent ones. In my early days, I picked up boxed copies of S.u.S.E. (back before they made the U uppercase and dropped the dots entirely) and Red Hat Linux (before Fedora was a thing) from store shelves at various software outlets.

Side note: remember when we used to buy Operating Systems—and even most software—in actual boxes, with actual physical media and actual printed manuals? I still have big printed manuals for a few early Linux versions, which, back then, were necessary for getting just about everything working (from X11 to networking and sound). Heck, sometimes simply getting a successful boot required a few trips through those heavy manuals. Ah, those were the days.

Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE—I spent a good amount of time living in the biggest distributions around (and many others). All of them were fantastic. Truly stellar. Yet, each had their own quirks and peculiarities.

As I bounced from distro to distro, I developed a strong attachment to just about all of them, learning, as I went, to appreciate each for what it was. Just the same, when asked which distribution I recommend to others, my brain begins to melt down. Offering any single recommendation feels simply inadequate.

Choosing which one to call home, even if simply on a secondary PC, is a deeply personal choice.

Maybe you have an aging desktop computer with limited RAM and an older, but still absolutely functional, CPU. You're going to need something light on system resources that runs on 32-bit processors.

Or, perhaps you work with a wide variety of hardware architectures and need a single operating system that works well on all of them—and standardizing on a single Linux distribution would make it easier for you to administer and update all of them. But what options even are available?

To help make this process a bit easier, I've put together a handy set of charts and graphs to let you quickly glance and find the one that fits your needs (Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1. Distribution Comparison Chart I

Figure 2. Distribution Comparison Chart II



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New Netflix Subscribers Aren’t Allowed To Pay Via iTunes. Here’s Why

After testing the move in many areas, Netflix has finally kicked the iTunes billing out of the picture. Now onwards, if you are looking to pay for Netflix subscription through your iTunes account, you will be redirected to Netflix’s own mobile website. A Netflix spokesperson told that the company no longer support iTunes mode of […]

The post New Netflix Subscribers Aren’t Allowed To Pay Via iTunes. Here’s Why appeared first on Fossbytes.



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This New Robot Could Help You Mourn Better On Your Loved Ones’ Death

Technology has arguably evolved so well, it seems to have a solution for everything and anything. Imbibing the same in the process of mourning, we have a new tech trying to help us go through the whole trauma. The concept of Digital Shaman Project will help people to pave their way through the mental distress […]

The post This New Robot Could Help You Mourn Better On Your Loved Ones’ Death appeared first on Fossbytes.



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Sunday, December 30, 2018

Nokia 9 PureView Leaked Again, 5 Rear Cameras In Tow

Amongst the many tech companies launching their firsts of 2019, HMD Global-owned Nokia too is expected to introduce a flagship. Allegedly called the Nokia 9 PureView, the device has been making rounds in the rumor mill, and the latest one further hints at the features it could possibly carry. According to a tweet by popular […]

The post Nokia 9 PureView Leaked Again, 5 Rear Cameras In Tow appeared first on Fossbytes.



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Many Popular Apps Still Send Data To Facebook Without Users’ Consent

Since the introduction of European Union GDPR back in May, apps and services have been restricted from sharing user’s data to the third party without their knowledge. At the time of the ruling, Facebook was given a special treatment, considering its involvement in the Cambridge Analytical Scandal where data of millions of users was breached. Now, the […]

The post Many Popular Apps Still Send Data To Facebook Without Users’ Consent appeared first on Fossbytes.



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Lawrence Roberts, One Of Early Internet Pioneers, Dies At 81

Among the early architects of the internet, who helped shape the internet as it is today, Lawrence Roberts is a prominent name. He was the program manager for ARPAnet — a precursor to the internet. Sadly, he died on December 26th at the age of 81. Even though he was a public figure for the internet as […]

The post Lawrence Roberts, One Of Early Internet Pioneers, Dies At 81 appeared first on Fossbytes.



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Distribution Release: OviOS Linux 3.00

OviOS Linux is a storage operating systems based on the Linux kernel, with open-source software needed to create a fully functional, high-performance storage server. A major new update, version 3.00 (code name 'Arcturus'), was released yesterday: "OviOS Linux 3 comes with a few package upgrades, bug fixes and....

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EU to Launch Bug Bounty Program for Open Source Software

The European Union has announced a series of bug bounty programs for free and open source software, including popular applications like VLC Media Player, Filezilla, PuTTY, and 7-zip.

The financial rewards will be offered to security researchers who discover vulnerabilities in the 14 projects that the EU has included in this first stage of the program.

The bounties are offered as part of the Free and Open Source Software Audit project (FOSSA), originally launched in 2015 following the discovery of security flaws in OpenSSL encryption.

Julia Reda, a German member of the European Parliament, says the bug bounty program will include 14 projects that the EU itself relies on.

“The amount of the bounty depends on the severity of the issue uncovered and the relative importance of the software. The software projects chosen were previously identified as candidates in the inv... (read more)

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Samsung Is Working On An Affordable Smart Speaker Powered By Bixby

Samsung announced a Bixby-powered smart speaker in August, but the company is yet to unveil it. A report by SamMobile has suggested that Samsung is working on another smart speaker that would be affordable and will have Bixby as the digital assistant. This second cheaper device will be launched to compete with budget-friendly smart speakers […]

The post Samsung Is Working On An Affordable Smart Speaker Powered By Bixby appeared first on Fossbytes.



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Distribution Release: Q4OS 2.7

Q4OS is a Debian-based desktop distribution featuring the Trinity desktop, a lightweight environment forked from KDE 3. The project's latest stable release is Q4OS 2.7 which improves scaling for high resolution screens. The release announcement states: "A significant update to the Q4OS 2 Scorpion stable LTS is immediately....

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Three-week-old iPhone XS Max Exploded In Man’s Pocket

We have heard cases when Apple iPhone users have gone through the trauma of his or her iPhones catching fire. A similar incident happened with another iPhone user, however, a first for the recent iPhone XS Max. According to a report by iDrop News, recently a man, named Josh Hillard from Ohio reported that his […]

The post Three-week-old iPhone XS Max Exploded In Man’s Pocket appeared first on Fossbytes.



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VLC 3.0.5 Released with Improved YouTube, HDR & BluRay Support

VLC video effectsA new version of the very versatile VLC media player has been released — and the update is already available on Ubuntu! VLC 3.0.5 is a minor update in the 3.x series and the first to be released since the summer. The version uplift brings a bunch of bug fixes and security updates to the […]

This post, VLC 3.0.5 Released with Improved YouTube, HDR & BluRay Support, was written by Joey Sneddon and first appeared on OMG! Ubuntu!.



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5 Things Linux Users Should Look Out For in 2019

linux-predictions-for-2019With a brand new year about to kick off my mind is in a contemplative mode, wondering what the next twelve months might hold for Linux and the wider open source community. So naturally, and without any shred of originality, I’m going to share my Linux predictions for 2019. Now, I am not psychic; whether […]

This post, 5 Things Linux Users Should Look Out For in 2019, was written by Joey Sneddon and first appeared on OMG! Ubuntu!.



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Distribution Release: Slackel 7.1 "Openbox"

Dimitris Tzemos has announced the release of Slackel 7.1 "Openbox", the latest version of this distribution based on Slackware and Salix. The new version is available in 64-bit builds only and features several application updates and a new icon theme. Persistent file encryption is also supported: "Persistent file....

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Microsoft Edge Once Again Surpasses Chrome & Firefox In Battery Efficiency

Every once in a while, Microsoft puts its proprietary browser – Internet Edge to some battery efficiency test and boasts the results on Youtube and its own blog like it did last year. However, this time was different. Although Edge did extremely well when tied against Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, the company was surprisingly quiet about […]

The post Microsoft Edge Once Again Surpasses Chrome & Firefox In Battery Efficiency appeared first on Fossbytes.



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Distribution Release: OLPC OS 13.2.10

James Cameron has announced the release of OLPC OS 13.2.10, an updated build of the project's specialist distribution developed under the initiative of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project to provide children in developing countries with low-cost laptops. This version, still based on Fedora 18, is mostly....

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Development Release: Chakra GNU/Linux 2019.01 RC2

Luca Giambonini has announced the availability of the second release candidate for Chakra GNU/Linux 2019.01, an upcoming major new update of project's desktop distribution featuring the latest KDE Plasma: "Chakra 2019.01 'Hawking' RC2 released. The second release candidate is ready; except for the Calamares bug, the RC2....

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Saturday, December 29, 2018

Distribution Release: RancherOS 1.5.0

Rancher Labs has published the release of RancherOS 1.5.0, an updated build of the company's minimalist Linux distribution designed for running Docker containers. This release brings a large number of new features, as well as bug fixes: "Release 1.5.0. Versions: Linux 4.14.85, Buildroot 2018.02.7, Docker 18.06.1-ce by default,....

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New Leads for Malaria Discovered: Open Source Pharma FTW!

We look into a recent Open Source Discovery in the field of Anti-Malarial Research and its significance in the scientific and medical research community.

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Distribution Release: Nitrux 1.1.2

Nitrux Latinoamericana S.C. has announced the release of Nitrux 1.1.2, an Ubuntu-based desktop Linux distribution featuring the "Nomad" desktop which is developed in-house and which extends KDE's Plasma with a mix of aesthetics and functionality: "We are pleased to announce the launch of Nitrux 1.1.2. This new version....

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Weekend Reading: Multimedia

multimedia

Put the fun back in computing. With this weekend's reading, we encourage you to build yourself an internet radio station, create your own Audible or even live-stream your pets on YouTube. Sky's the limit with Linux. Enjoy!

 

Building Your Own Audible

by Shawn Powers

I have audiobooks from a variety of sources, which I've purchased in a variety of ways. I have some graphic audio books in MP3 format, a bunch of Audible books in their DRM'd format and ripped CDs varying from m4b (Apple format for books) to MP3 and even some OGG. That diversity makes choosing a listening platform difficult. Here I take a quick look at some options for streaming audio books.

 

Linux Gets Loud

by Joshua Curry

Linux is ready for prime time when it comes to music production. New offerings from Linux audio developers are pushing creative and technical boundaries. And, with the maturity of the Linux desktop and growth of standards-based hardware setups, making music with Linux has never been easier.

 

Using gphoto2 to Automate Taking Pictures

by Shawn Powers

With my obsession—er, I mean hobby—regarding BirdCam, I've explored a great number of camera options. Whether that means trying to get Raspberry Pi cameras to focus for a macro shot of a feeder or adjusting depth of field to blur out the neighbor's shed, I've fiddled with just about every webcam setting there is. Unfortunately, when it comes to lens options, nothing beats a DSLR for quality. Thankfully, there's an app for that.

 

Creating an Internet Radio Station with Icecast and Liquidsoap

by Bill Dengler

Ever wanted to stream prerecorded music or a live event, such as a lecture or concert for an internet audience? With Icecast and Liquidsoap, you can set up a full-featured, flexible internet radio station using free software and open standards.

 

Live Stream Your Pets with Linux and YouTube!

by Shawn Powers

Anyone who reads Linux Journal knows about my fascination with birdwatching. I've created my own weatherproof video cameras with a Raspberry Pi. I've posted instructions on how to create your own automatically updating camera image page with JavaScript. Heck, I even learned CSS so I could make a mobile-friendly version of BirdCam that filled the screen in landscape mode.

 

Nativ Vita

by James Gray



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Playing Grand Theft Auto Inside A Neural Network’s Hallucination? It’s Possible!

Ever imagined what a Neural Network's hallucination would look like? The post Playing Grand Theft Auto Inside A Neural Network’s Halluc...