Posts by Mockup1974

Big moves in Linux filesystems as new bcachefs lands and KDE adds support for Apple's APFS

Re: btrfs vs bcachefs

>1. It cannot reliably report free space

What about `btrfs filesystem usage` or `btrfs fi df`

>2. Any attempt to write to a full Btrfs volume _will_ corrupt the volume.

Grok told me that "Modern Btrfs is designed to fail safely, not silently corrupt data. You may get write failures or read-only remounts, but not guaranteed corruption." Not sure if that's true.

>3. There is no working `fsck`. The repair tools do not work.

That seems to be true

On the other hand, you get snapshots, checksums for data integrity, compression, subvolumes and so on. So there's good reasons to want to use it instead of ext4.

LibreOffice Online dragged out of the attic, dusted off for another go

In my opinion, the Collabora Office UI is much nicer than both the default UI and the ribbon UI in LibreOffice. If you're used to Microsoft Office or OnlyOffice, you'll feel right at home.

LLMs killed the privacy star, we can't rewind, we've gone too far

Re: And we can't even trust lawmakers to be any use

>The EU is quite clear. Privacy is not for sale.

Huh? The EU wants you to connect all your accounts to the upcoming EU Digital ID wallet for age verification. The app only works on smartphones with an Apple or Google account. Herr Merz demands that all social media postings need to require a real name. Fittingly, Monsieur Macron calls free speech "bullshit". Chat Control is being brought up in the EU Commission again. It's clear that all the important EU politicians want to get rid of online privacy.

Debian 14 will drop Gtk2 – unless Ardour rides to the rescue

Just ask Claude or Grok to translate it from GTK2 to GTK3, simple as. Or?

KDE Plasma 6.6 beta ships a login manager that won't log in without systemd

As a big KDE fan, I have to concur. Xfce (without Wayland and Systemd) would be a better match as a "default" desktop option for FreeBSD. KDE should really clarify whether they commit to supporting FreeBSD in the future.

Just the Browser claims to tame the bloat without forking

>so the author is a total shitstain that shouldn't be allowed out in civilised company

Look, I also hate Javascript, but you're being way too harsh.

Wine 11 runs Windows apps in Linux and macOS better than ever

I bought this version of Crossover to run Office 2016 but it's not very reliable. It sometimes gives me a "DDE Error" and then refuses to save. Also dialogue windows are often not focused so you need to manually click on it.

Firefox 147 brings GPU boost, tidier tabs, and video that follows you around

Also, Firefox for Android now has Fission (site isolation) enabled by default.

Cloudflare CEO threatens to make the Winter Olympics a political football after Italy slugs it with a fine

As usual, some unelected agencies in Europe wants to censor the Internet. While I really don't like Cloudflare (they make it very painful to use a VPN, for example), they are completely in the right here. And their CEO's hotheadedness just makes it so the message is heard.

At the current trajectory, the EU and UK will be just as bad as Russia in 10 years.

The last supported version of HP-UX is no more

Re: Not end of support..

Are you sure? My understanding was that for 2026-28, “Mature Support” means: no new patches, no new security fixes, no new enhancements, only best‑effort technical support for the existing product.

Vultures rake our claws over COSMIC as Pop OS 24.04 LTS with 'Epoch 1' emerges

Re: "Pop!_OS still does not play nicely with dual boot"

>Why the absolute f*ck does this init system now have a boot loader?

Let me interject for a moment. What you are referring to as as init system, is in fact, a whole operating system called Linux/systemd or as I've recently taken to calling it, Linux on systemd. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning systemd system made useful by the systemd system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Through a peculiar turn of events, systemd is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the systemd operating system, developed by IBM. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the systemd operating system: the whole system is basically systemd with Linux added, or Linux/systemd. Most of the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of Linux/systemd.

There are also other operating systems using the Linux kernel, such as Linux/Android, Linux/Slackware, or Linux/Gentoo, but the Linux kernel is mostly used as part of the systemd operating system.

New Jolla phone and Sailfish 5 offer a break from iOS-Android monotony

It's nice to see GOOD hardware for something not running Android or iOS. Much better than the PinePhone or Librem 5, for example.

But the problems I see are:

1. SailfishOS is not open source. In terms of FSF approval, something like GrapheneOS or LineageOS would be preferable, despite being fully dependent on Google.

2. SailfishOS is not Linux-compatible. Yes, it uses many more GNU/Linux components than Android (which only uses the kernel essentially), but it still can't run desktop Linux apps, nor apps for other mobile Linux distributions, nor can they run SailfishOS apps. Apparently Linux CLI apps work on SailfishOS but it would be great if you could run e.g. Flatpak apps so that there is a synergy with the desktop.

3. The phone doesn't seem to be actually Linux-compatible, as SailfishOS requires Android drivers to work. That also means you can't switch out SailfishOS for another mobile Linux distro like Ubuntu Touch or PostmarketOS or Mobian.

The only actual appeal is that it's not an OS from Google or Apple. As a former BB10 user, that's still quite nice. But it's neither practical enough to use as a daily driver (due to the lack of native apps) nor is it free enough to attract Linux and FOSS enthusiasts.

Legacy Update expands archive of vanished Microsoft downloads

Ribbons are better. There I said it.

Tuxedo Computers slams lid on Arm Linux laptop after 18 months of pain

ARM is a dead-end. Long live x86.

Latest Servo release hints at a real Rust alternative to Chromium

There's also Goanna, the fork of Gecko that's used in Pale Moon, and Flow, a proprietary browser engine that seems relatively capable.

I'm also still missing Presto (Opera 12) which was underpinning the greatest browser ever, as well as EdgeHTML (Edge pre-Chromium) which was decent enough and its end was a big loss for the diversity of browser engines. With Opera and Edge having switched to a Chromium base, web developers are just focusing on Chromium and its Google alone who decides what happens to the web (e.g. attempted Web Environment Integrity, dropped Manifest v2 adblockers, refused to implement JPEG XL).

Canonical pushes Ubuntu LTS support even further - if you pay

RHEL seems have 13 years of updates: https://endoflife.date/rhel

(rather than 12 as mentioned in the article)

SLE 15 has 19 years of support according to this other article: https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/26/sle_opensuse_15_6/

(so more than the 13 mentioned here)

Game on! Penguin levels up as Linux finally cracks 3% on Steam

Re: Oh how I wish...

But how come Wine is not compatible with Office 2019, 2021 or 2024? Wouldn't they be easier targets than the always changing 365?

Re: Oh how I wish...

Have a look at "Linoffice" (https://github.com/eylenburg/linoffice) this made Microsoft Office work for me without any tinkering. It runs a Windows VM though so you need a decent system with enough RAM.

Debian demands Rust or rust in peace for legacy ports

Can they other ports just keep using the latest non-Rust version of `apt` even on future releases?

Google's dev registration plan 'will end the F-Droid project'

Re: Killing AOSP

https://github.com/melontini/bootloader-unlock-wall-of-shame/

That's my understanding as well. They "just" need to change the app IDs to something unique (so it doesn't clash with the original app ID on Github/Play Store) and then publish the apps with themselves (F-Droid) as the verified developer. I don't see why it's not possible.

Bcachefs goes DKMS after Torvalds' kernel banishment

bcachefs, openzfs, .... i've never had any issue with btrfs and dont see a reason to change my file system

Campaigners urge EU to mandate 15 years of OS updates

Compromise: either 15 years of OS updates *or* an unlocked bootloader and drivers/firmware provided so the hardware can be spoken to by a third-party OS. Just like you can install Linux on a Windows PC, the same needs to be possible with Apple Silicone Macs and smartphones. If you STILL want to lock down your hardware and make it impossible to install another OS, then you need to provide 15 years of support from the day you stop selling the device.

Simple as.

KDE Linux and FreeBSD hit alpha and – surprise – fan fave Pop_OS nearly at beta

As a Fedora Kinoite user, it's good to see that KDE Linux will also come with Snap support. At the moment there's not too many apps that are available as Snap but not Flatpak, but if you do have to install a Snap, you just CAN'T on Kinoite.

I wonder if they will eventually discontinue KDE Neon once KDE Linux is fully released?

NetBSD 11 prepares for launch with 57 supported platforms

>NetBSD's slogan is "Of course it runs NetBSD," but in recent years, Linux has rivaled that. That is already starting to go away, meaning that the balance will start swinging back in NetBSD's favor.

All we need now is IA64 support to really mog Linux.

Project Banana ripens into a pre-alpha for KDE Linux, and you can test it

So what if you DO need to access the system and it's beyond the scope of what Flatpak or Appimage or Distrobox can do? For example if you want to install some custom VPN app or the aforementioned Nvidia proprietary driver? I think Snap support could potentially fill the gaps but it doesnt look like they're actually working on it.

Google's Android boss suggests ChromeOS could be on borrowed time

Android-x86 seems dead.

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?