Posts by Mockup1974

The price of software freedom is eternal politics

^ least insane bolshevist

Red Hat sweetens the RHEL deal for biz devs – just don't put it in prod

Re: What's the point?

Excellent comment, please copy paste it into the boot note for any RHELated articles you write.

Anubis guards gates against hordes of LLM bot crawlers

It's not a new idea. I have seen this previously on Brave Search (PoW captcha), Kiwifarms (Kiwiflare DDOS protection), Kohlchan (Kohlcash, for posting), and Cock.li (for allowing you to send emails). Generally preferable to Cloudflare or Google Recaptcha, but I wonder if one day we'll have to solve a PoW challenge before accessing any website? I hope not.

Thunderbird ESR is here: Mozilla's email client adds new functions

Re: Once again

It will still run iOS, even if a slightly less horrible version of it. I personally refuse to use an operating system where I can't install software without identifying myself to a Big Tech company.

(iOS only allows you to install apps from the App Store, and to do that you need to create an Apple account, and to do that you need to provide a phone number, and to get a phone number you need to link it to a government ID in most countries of the world [UK, US and Canada being notable exceptions].)

So Dark Reader won't be necessary anymore?

iFixit gives new Fairphone 6 top marks for repairability: 10/10

Does anyone know if the /e/ version (preinstalled) is any different from the normal one if you install /e/ (or LineageOS) yourself? I'm asking because sometimes apps (especially financial apps, but not only) complain that Android is a "custom ROM". Technically, this wouldn't be the case if /e/ is preinstalled, but I'm not sure if they just blacklist anything that's degoogled, preinstalled or not.

Wayback gives X11 desktops a fighting chance in a Wayland world

Re: DEI context

>Can you imagine how nice the world would be if people would collectively get off their high-horses and CODE?

I wish Red Hat would do that instead of politicising everything.

Exif marks the spot as fresh version of PNG image standard arrives

Nobody likes or wants to use WEBP and AVIF and they're not very good at lossy or lossless compression, respectively. JPEG XL seems to be the "ultimate" format which performs best in most scenarios and has all the features anyone might ever need, including lossless compression of existing JPEGs. But Google wants it dead and so we can't have nice things.

So it looks like we'll have PNG and JPEG around for another 50 years.

/e/ OS 3.0: Slightly less clunky, slightly more private

Re: GrapheneOS

>Don't they heavily discourage MicroG?

It is originally because the GrapheneOS dev has some personal issues with the MicroG devs.

Just like the GrapheneOS dev and the F-Droid devs.

Or the GrapheneOS dev and the Aurora Store devs.

Or the GrapheneOS dev and the the Murena devs.

Or the GrapheneOS dev and the Fairphone devs.

Or the GrapheneOS dev and the CalyxOS devs.

Or the GrapheneOS dev and the CopperheadOS devs.

Or the GrapheneOS dev and the Techlore website.

Or the GrapheneOS dev and the Privacyguides website.

Or the GrapheneOS dev and Louis Rossmann.

Or the GrapheneOS dev and ...

(I'm a GrapheneOS user nevertheless)

LibreOffice adds voice to 'ditch Windows for Linux' campaign

I don't get why you need to be on an old, unsupported OS but for some reason need the newest version of an Office suite. Either you want to be up to date or you're happy to continue using old, unsupported software.

As RHEL clones hit version 10, Rocky and Alma chart diverging paths

>come with GNOME 47

Hallelujah, the first of GNOME that has proper thumbnail support in the file picker (after only 27 years of GNOME development)!

Ubuntu 25.10 and Fedora 43 to drop X11 in GNOME editions

Re: Stop with the doom and gloom.

OpenMandriva uses systemd, my guess is PCLinuxOS

Forked-off Xlibre tells Wayland display protocol to DEI in a fire

It's not the first time "Freedesktop" bans people. Happened to the developer of Hyprland before.

I think the Red Hat / Gnome people are destroying Linux from the inside out. Whether on purpose or not is another question.

OpenMamba: Eat your greens, they're good for you

Reminds me a bit of PCLinuxOS. Independent distro, rolling release, (mostly) a one-man project, uses RPM packages, focus on KDE Plasma. The main difference seems to be that PCLinuxOS doesn't use systemd and OpenMamba does. But to be honest, I wouldn't use a rolling release distro that doesn't have an automatic snapshot system with Grub integration like OpenSuse does with Snapper. I want to have that peace of mind.

Thunderbird is go: 139 follows closely on Firefox's heels

Is Thunderbird ever going to align with the rest of the world and put new emails to the top by default?

LastOS slaps neon paint on Linux Mint and dares you to run Photoshop

I mean it would be cool to have a sort of AppImage-like bundle where you have a Windows application like Photoshop or MS Office that "just works". A combination of a certain Windows app version, a certain Wine version, and the right Wine configuration that's been proven to work and won't suddenly break because some random library got an update. And all downloadable in one file that acts like it's a standalone app.

I think there was a project called "Winepak" that attempted this several years ago but then died.

And before that, Google Picasa had an official Linux app that was basically the Windows app bundled with Wine.

Europe plots escape hatch from enshittification of search

Thanks for the tip how to add custom search engines with `browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh`. I tried adding Wayback Machine that way and it works for stuff like "example.com" as a search term but not "https://example.com" which gets translated into `https://web.archive.org/web/20250000000000*/https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com`, so it doesn't know how to parse the ":" and "/" characters in the search term. Does anyone know a good workaround?

openSUSE deep sixes Deepin desktop over security stink

I wonder if YaST will still remain in Tumbleweed? It's great both as an installer and for system administration and Agama + Cockpit are a sad joke compared to it.

Seems that the only real USP of SUSE over Fedora/RHEL is the fact that it uses Snapper for btrfs snapshots by default. An advantage which mostly falls away with immutable distributions anyway. Unfortunately, immutable KDE distro, OpenSUSE Kalpa, is still "alpha" for some reason, so most folks will probably download Fedora Kinoite instead.

Fedora 42 now an official Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 distro

I'd really like to see the opposite - a tightly integrated Windows VM running under Linux. WinApps (https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps) is trying but there's still many FreeRDP-related bugs and the setup is not yet as straightforward as it could be.

Linux kernel to drop 486 and early 586 support

Good news for NetBSD

I'm actually glad it got dropped. As someone with an interest in OS diversity, this strengthens NetBSD's niche proposal of running on old and obscure hardware. Because let's me honest - on a normal piece of x86_64 hardware you would just run FreeBSD or Linux instead.

RIP, Google Privacy Sandbox

What happens to the Topics API?

AmigaOS updated in 2025 for some reason

So there's four AmigaOS-like systems:

- AmigaOS 3.2 (not to be confused with AmigaOS 3.9, which is dead)

- AmigaOS 4

- MorphOS

- AROS

MorphOS is the most usable and has the most modern browser (Wayfarer), AmigaOS 4 has the brand name and heritage, and AROS is the only one that runs on normal x86 PCs and the only one that's free software (both as in free speech and free beer).

What a big mess.

FreeDOS 1.4: Still DOS, still FOSS, more modern than ever

I've never heard of PDOS which is mentioned at the end. Is it based on any other OS or developed from scratch?

Microsoft lists seven habits of highly effective Windows 11 users

Virtual Desktops would be nice but don't even work with Microsoft Office.

Example: open one Excel File 1 in Desktop 1, switch to Desktop 2, use the file explorer to open Excel File 2... guess where it opens?

EU may target US tech giants in tariff response

Wouldn't a tariff on digital services be easy to circumvent?

Just say that it's your EU-based subsidiary company selling these services, so Microsoft Ltd or Microsoft GmbH and so on. And they in turn just pay a license fee to the American main company.

Mozilla is rolling Thundermail, a Gmail, Office 365 rival

What's COMPLETELY missed at the moment is encrypted calendar and tasks. Yes, Proton and Tuta have an encrypted calendar but (a) they don't have tasks (as in CalDAV-style tasks), (b) they are not compatible with generic clients and also not supported by the Protonmail bridge. There's Etesync but it's apparently quite buggy.

RISC OS Open plots great escape from 32-bit purgatory

>Arm Holdings plc

>Total equity US$5.29 billion (2024)

Would be cool if they could find a measly million to through at this moonshot, surely it would at least partially count as a PR investment rather than just an expense?

Credible nerd says stop using atop, doesn't say why, everyone panics

Re: "You might want to stop running atop."

Appeal to Authority Fallacy

From MP3 to Web3 to now 3D, Napster gets a new owner

2030: Napster trademark sold for $1 to the Soulseek Foundation

EU OS drafts a locked-down Linux blueprint for Eurocrats

I think KDE is a great choice, as it's the most powerful desktop, somewhat similar to Windows by default, and headquartered in Germany.

Even though I'm a happy Fedora Kinoite user, I agree with the author that OpenSUSE rather than Fedora should be the basis for a *European* OS. There's also OpenMandriva and Mageia as European, KDE-focused alternatives.

GNOME 48 lands with performance boosts, new fonts, better accessibility

Re: Gnome3.....Gnome4..........Ughhhhhhhhhh!!!!

From Fedora 42 onwards, KDE will have an equal status with GNOME and not just be a "spin" anymore.

>GNOME 48 will be the default desktop environment in both Fedora 42

is therefore also not quite correct

NASA rewrites Moon mission goals in quiet DEI retreat

Against racism and sexism

I'm happy to see that race and sex do not decide who gets to be an astronaut.

Asahi Linux loses another prominent dev as GPU guru calls it quits

Re: Don't buy closed hardware in the first place

>Why a Framework? It's mid spec for premium price

When I was looking for laptops in 2023, the Framework DIY version was MUCH cheaper than a Lenovo or Dell with comparable specs

Ubuntu 25.10 plans to swap GNU coreutils for Rust

The fact that it's MIT licensed is almost as bad as the Snap backend being proprietary.

Copyleft licenses > corporate-friendly cuck licenses.

Free95 claims to be a GPL 3 Windows clone, but it's giving vaporware vibes

I just run my Windows 95 apps in ArcaOS, a real professional still-maintained OS :)

Stuff a Pi-hole in your router because your browser is about to betray you

Okay but is it really worth the effort compared to just using a browser with uBlock Origin support and setting Adguard DNS or Mullvad DNS as the DNS server on other devices (e.g. Smart TV)?

$16B health dept managed finances with single Excel spreadsheet. It hasn’t gone well

Nothing wrong with Excel per se, but they really made some beginner's mistakes like hardcoding data, not building in checks everywhere, and letting more than ~5 people edit the file.

Apple drags UK government to court over 'backdoor' order

Re: Communists...

In real life implementations, there is no meaningful difference between communism and fascism. Which also explains why both the far left and the far right seem to love Russia at the moment.

So … Russia no longer a cyber threat to America?

Re: Don't worry

Trump's #2 is Elon the Nazi but he's also supporting Putin in his special military operation to "denazify" Ukraine from their Jewish Nazi president Zelensky (all while Russians soldiers hoist up Soviet hammer and sickle flags in the conquered territories and fight alongside North Koreans).

2025 is just wild.

Mozilla flamed by Firefox fans after promises to not sell their data go up in smoke

Re: Lots of Astroturf in this thread

sir please install the BRAVE browser and earn the BAT token for free while doing your needful browsing!

Murena kicks Google out of the Pixel Tablet

ummmm sorry dear consumer, have you considered buying Google Drive (TM) cloud storage and a Google Pixel Buds Pro (TM) instead?

OBS-tacle course: Fedora and Flathub's Flatpak fiasco sparks repo rumble

>Fedora sets its own repo to have priority over Flathub, and it's not that easy to change the priorities. Users need to type a long gsettings command in the terminal.

Imagine using GNOME! In KDE Discover, it's done with one click.

The software UK techies need to protect themselves now Apple's ADP won’t

Re: Why not Mega?

Still better than Onedrive or Dropbox

Microsoft's Euro-mandated File Explorer surgery shows 'less is more' is still a thing

Re: Just ditch US products?

I agree with ditching US products but I see no reason to automatically trust EU (or UK) products more. The EU (and UK) have shown again and again that they don't care about fundamentals such as right to privacy and encryption (planned EU 'chat control', UK investigatory powers act) or freedom of speech and absence of censorship (EU digital services act, German NetzDG, UK online safety act).

The problem is: neither the US, nor the EU, nor CANZUK, nor Russia, nor China are "trustworthy". Maybe some smaller states like Switzerland or Iceland or Japan are looking good, but even if you think you found a trustworthy country it's not possible to get all of your hardware, software and digital services from that country.

KDE Plasma 6.3 released – and 6.3.1 is already here

Plasma 6.3 is excellent. There's nothing it can't do and it works well, without being more buggy than its biggest competitor (Windows explorer.exe)

Grok 3 wades into the AI wars with 'beta' rollout

Re: congrats nazis

But Putin said the Ukrainians are Nazis and he's only invading to denazify them. I'm confused now.

LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab

It still has to go a long way to become compatible with MS Office: https://eylenburg.github.io/excel.htm

Unfortunately, if it's not 100% compatible, it's just not viable for any business that exchanges documents/spreadsheets with external parties. Which is most of them.

For basic home use, it's good enough of course.

Why UK Online Safety Act may not be safe for bloggers

Re: The root cause of the issue is that the UK* doesn't have freedom of speech

Privacy laws are nice, but what does that have to do with freedom of speech?

The root cause of the issue is that the UK* doesn't have freedom of speech

Probably best to do all your Internet communication through a VPN server in the US and give them an American phone number if needed - that way authoritarian governments will by default assume you're enjoying your First Amendment rights even if you don't actually have them.

* (nor any other European country)

FuriPhone FLX1: A Debian-powered brick that puts GNOME in your back pocket

I HATE BIG PHONES I HATE BIG PHONES I HATE BIG PHONES I HATE BIG PHONES

>It's 171 mm tall, 82 mm wide, and a hair under 12 mm thick (6.75 x 3.25 x 0.5 inches), and 278 g (about 10 oz).

Ah, another tablet. Great.