● 08.11.22

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 11/08/2022: Point Release of Ubuntu 22.04 and GNUnet 0.17.4

Posted in News Roundup at 2:57 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

• The Dell XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition is an unusual looking thin and light laptop that ships with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed rather than Windows. When the notebook first went on sale in April it shipped with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, but now Dell is shipping the laptop with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS instead.

• We cover events and user groups that are running in Belgium. This article forms part of our Linux Around The World series.

Audiocasts/Shows

• It never fails. Any time that I mention GNU/Linux on any of my videos, some wise guy has to chime in with “Stop calling it GNU/Linux…you can have Linux without GNU.” Why do these people feel the need to state something that is obvious?

• GitHub steps in it this week, Microsoft’s Linux distribution now runs on bare metal, FFmpeg gets IPFS support, and the odd thing going on with the kernel.

Kernel Space

• The 5.19 kernel was released, after a one-week delay to deal with the fallout from the Retbleed mitigations, on July 31. By that time, 16,399 commits (15,134 non-merge and 1,265 merges) had found their way into the mainline repository, making this development cycle the busiest since 5.13 (16,030 non-merge changesets and 1,157 merges). Tradition dictates that now is the time for a look at where the changes in 5.19 came from, and we’ve learned not to go against tradition.

• As a general rule, virtualization mechanisms are designed to provide strong isolation between a host and the guest systems that it runs. The guests are not trusted, and their ability to access or influence anything outside of their virtual machines must be tightly controlled. So a patch series allowing guests to execute arbitrary system calls in the host context might be expected to be the cause of significantly elevated eyebrows across the net. Andrei Vagin has posted such a series with the expected results.

• The use case for Vagin’s work is gVisor, a container-management platform with a focus on security. Like a full virtualization system, gVisor runs containers within a virtual machine (using KVM), but the purpose is not to fully isolate those containers from the system. Instead, KVM is used to provide address-space isolation for processes within containers, but the resulting virtual machines do not run a normal operating-system kernel. Instead, they run a special gVisor kernel that handles system calls made by the contained processes, making security decisions as it goes.

• That kernel works in an interesting way; it maps itself into each virtual machine’s address space to match its layout on the host, then switches between the two as needed. The function to go to the virtual-machine side is called, perhaps inevitably, bluepill(). The execution environment is essentially the same on either side, with the same memory layout, but the guest side is constrained by the boundaries placed on the virtual machine.

Graphics Stack

• As of xorgproto 2022.2, we have a new X11 protocol extension. First, you may rightly say “whaaaat? why add new extensions to the X protocol?” in a rather unnecessarily accusing way, followed up by “that’s like adding lipstick to a dodo!”. And that’s not completely wrong, but nevertheless, we have a new protocol extension to the … [checks calendar] almost 40 year old X protocol. And that extension is, ever creatively, named “XWAYLAND”.

• If you recall, Xwayland is a different X server than Xorg. It doesn’t try to render directly to the hardware, instead it’s a translation layer between the X protocol and the Wayland protocol so that X clients can continue to function on a Wayland compositor. The X application is generally unaware that it isn’t running on Xorg and Xwayland (and the compositor) will do their best to accommodate for all the quirks that the application expects because it only speaks X. In a way, it’s like calling a restaurant and ordering a burger because the person answering speaks American English. Without realising that you just called the local fancy French joint and now the chefs will have to make a burger for you, totally without avec.

Instructionals/Technical

• It’s not too hard to move from Linux Mint 20.3 to the long-term support of Linux Mint 21. But it’s not a walk in the park, either.

• When you try to open an application in Ubuntu, Fedora or other Linux with GNOME, it’s possible to specify in which desktop workspace the app window should start!

• Most operating systems today have multiple desktops to organize unrelated ongoing projects. In Ubuntu Linux, we usually called them “workspaces”. For most common used applications, user may even let them start automatically in specified workspace to improve workflow efficiency.

• I know this will interest a few people. I have been asked whether the ‘apt’ Debian package manager can be installed in EasyOS. Yes, it can, but the native package manager, ‘PKGget’, originally called the ‘PPM’ (Puppy Package Manager), does not “talk” with apt, so they won’t have any idea what the other is up to.

• There have been some pups with both the apt and ppm, and I think that VanillaDpup does have some basic syncronization. Just from memory, last time that I played with it, I think that apt recognized the existing packages in the build, at first bootup, listed in file ‘woof-installed-packages’. But there was no cooperation beyond that.

• Tor browser is a secure browser that routes web traffic through the Tor network. Volunteers run Tor servers. It ensures users’ privacy and anonymity. You are free of network surveillance when you use Tor browser to browse the Internet. The onion icon in Tor symbolizes that, like an onion, Tor has layers to encrypt your internet connection.

• However, there are some disadvantages to using Tor. You might feel browsing to be a bit or considerably slower than your normal experience. Also, Tor users are blocked by some major websites. Even some governments try to block Tor and outlaw it.

• This article covers a few methods on how to install the Tor Web in Ubuntu.

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Dropbox on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Dropbox is application software that is operated by Dropbox inc. It provides cloud storage to store and access the data online by syncing the user device. It provides a free account with 2 GB storage and paid plans for more. A big advantage of using Dropbox is that you can share large files/folders by sharing the dropbox links rather than sending those large files.

• This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Dropbox file hosting service on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

• Identifying large files on your PC can help you quickly reclaim some much needed space. For desktop Linux users, hunting down large unnecessary files might be optional. But when it comes to server space, it costs money and you have to pay for that excess space every month. Here’s how you can locate big files in Linux to quickly get rid of them.

• The latest Debian-based systems have deprecated the use of the apt-key command. This command is used to import the GPG signing keys to systems. This command was working fine till Debian 10 and its derivatives. After the release of Debian 11 (and its derivatives like Ubuntu 22.04), the users start getting a warning message on the screen during the keys import. You will see the warning message “Warning: apt-key is deprecated. Manage keyring files in trusted.gpg.d instead (see apt-key(8))“. As this is a warning message you can still use the apt-key command but the newer version of Debian and Ubuntu will remove the support of this command.

• So, it will be good to upgrade ourselves and start using the signed-by for maintaining the GPG keys and for the repositories. In this article, we will discuss, how securely import the GPG repository signing keys to the Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint and Pop!_OS, etc.

• Whenever a problem occurs with the system, the main solution is to perform a restart or reboot the system. Similarly, if a problem occurs with the network, then its easy treatment is to restart the network. There are many scenarios where you may need to restart the network on Ubuntu like settings of the network were changed or the active network connection not working properly. Restarting the network services is equally important for all Linux systems.

• If you’re a fan of phpMyAdmin, you know how easy that platform makes managing relational databases. But what if you need to manage more than one type of database? Maybe you work with both relational and NoSQL databases. If that’s the case, where do you turn?

• One option is Adminer, which supports MySQL versions 5, 7 and 8, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS SQL, Oracle, Elasticsearch, MongoDB, SimpleDB via plugin, Firebird via plugin and ClickHouse via plugin.

• Apple Music is available on most platforms, including Apple’s, as well as Windows and Android. However, there’s no Apple Music—or even iTunes for that matter—on Linux.

• Ergo, if you’re an Apple Music subscriber and use Linux on the PC side of things, you have to resort to using Apple Music’s web player to listen to music on your computer.

• But as you may know, the experience is nowhere close to perfect. To fix this, some developers came up with Cider, an open-source Apple Music client for Linux. So let’s jump in to explore Cider on Linux.

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Android Studio on Linux Mint 21. For those of you who didn’t know, Android Studio is a free and open source multi-platform supported and java based developer tool that helps the developer create and develop their android based applications. It provides the options, a graphical user interface (GUI), an app project, importing existing projects, changing the configuration, running the app in debug mode, and much more.

• This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of an Android Studio on Linux Mint 21 (Vanessa).

• This guide will talk about one of these emulators, Terminator, and how to install it on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• Ubuntu ships with some graphical utilities to configure network devices, but there are some topics that server administrators especially need to master—and that includes knowing how to configure network devices from the command line.

• To manage your Ubuntu Server network from the command line, it is important to know concepts such as Ethernet interfaces, IP addressing, bridging, and name resolution. Here’s a primer.

• Learn the steps to install KDE Plasma 5 Desktop on Fedora 36 workstation desktops and other previous versions such as 35, 34… to get a beautiful alternative to the system’s default GNOME 42 Desktop.

• Fedora plays a not negligible contribution to the Red Hat value chain. It is not meant to generate revenue but instead gives the right direction to the future versions of RHEL. It is an experimental ground for Red Hat. Fedora is allowed to experiment with new technologies, which is why it offers a wide range of packages directly to install using the default system repo. It is more friendly than Redhat and its based distros such as CentOS, Oracle, Rocky, and Almalinux.

• NetBox is Infrastructure Resource Modeling (IRM) software designed for network automation. Learn how to install NetBox IRM on Debian 11 here.

• Simple Authentication and Security Layer or SASL is a framework for authentication, encryption, and data security used in Internet protocols. John Gardiner Myers wrote the original SASL specification (RFC 2222) in 1997. SASL also provides a data security layer offering data integrity and data confidentiality services.

Games

• We are back with our usual monthly update! Boiling Steam looks at the latest data dumps from ProtonDB to give you a quick list of new games that work (pretty much? see ratings) perfectly with Proton since they were released in June 2022 – all of them work out of the box or well enough with tweaks…

• Jonathan Blandford, who is a longtime GNOME contributor—and a cruciverbalist for longer still—thought it was time for GNOME to have a crossword puzzle application. So he set out to create one, which turned into something of a yak-shaving exercise, but also, ultimately, into Crosswords. Blandford came to GUADEC 2022 to give a talk describing his journey bringing this brain exerciser (and productivity bane) to the GNOME desktop.

• Blandford got his start with GNOME back in 1997; he is the author of the Evince PDF reader and Aisleriot solitaire card game, for example. He has moved into management over the years, so has done less programming for GNOME, but is still involved in the community. For the purposes of the talk, he said, the important thing to know about him is that he is “a passionate cruciverbalist”. He has been doing crossword puzzles since he was a child, with his parents and grandparents; now he does them with his family as well. Beyond that, he had to work the word “cruciverbalist” into his talk because “people who love crosswords love words, and they love words like that”.

• He started working on the Crosswords application in mid-July 2021—almost exactly a year before the talk. It is now around 24,000 lines of code, most of which is in C; “I have some regrets about that” but he was comfortable writing in C. The program has been translated into two languages beyond English—Dutch and Spanish—and the project has three additional contributors at this point.

• There were several motivations that led him to create the application. He has always thought that puzzles would make for an interesting program to write. In addition, anyone searching GNOME Software or Flathub for a crossword puzzle program would not have found one; in fact, Linux, in general, lacks for a good graphical crossword application. Writing a program for these puzzles turned out to be “a whole lot of fun” as well. But he wants its users to also experience fun; he had an overarching rule for the program: “it’s a game, it has to be fun”.

• As gaming on Linux continues to improve, so do the tools we use to play those games. Heroic Games Launcher is a great example of such a tool, as it gives users a native way to access and play Epic Games Store games on their Linux machines.

• One of its older releases, Heroic 2.0.0, brought major UI improvements, and this release further builds on those.

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

• A rural Mexican state was the setting for an initiative to use the GNOME-based Endless OS to improve education in indigenous communities. Over the last several years, the Endless OS Foundation has teamed up with the Fundación Alfredo Harp Helú Oaxaca (FAHHO) to deliver offline-first computers to those communities, but also to assist these communities in preserving their native languages. In a talk at GUADEC 2022, Rob McQueen provided a look at the project and what it has accomplished.

• McQueen was not slated to give the talk—he already gave an earlier presentation at the conference—but Sergio Solis, who is from Guadalajara where the conference was held, was unfortunately unable to attend due to his family coming down with COVID. McQueen apologized for flying into Mexico from England to give a talk about Mexico when he had never been to the country before. But, as the CEO of the Endless OS Foundation, McQueen is obviously knowledgeable about the project and was able to step in and pinch-hit for Solis.

Distributions and Operating Systems

Fedora Family / IBM

• The software-defined industrial control system is a huge opportunity for open source technologies. Moving away from bespoke specialized hardware (like PLC devices) to standard hardware with software only is a trend that crosses industries, extending now into the industrial and manufacturing world. This type of shift for industrial organizations is similar to telcos moving to network function virtualisation (NFV) and open radio access networks (ORAN).

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

• It’s been a fair while since Ubuntu (or rather Canonical, I guess) commissioned an engaging promotional video to help promote their desktop OS. Heck, it didn’t even release all of the ones it had made during its peak years.

• But it’s making up for lost time with an all-new animated introduction that’s shows off the core features of the OS in a zippy style, replete with impactful on-screen text cut to the rhythm of the video’s music (which reminds me of smartphone commercials for some reason).

• Ubuntu 20.04 is nowhere near end of life, but 22.04 is starting to hit its stride.

• As is fairly well understood now, the first release of Ubuntu in each even-numbered year is a Long Term Support (LTS) release. Ubuntu 20.04 “Focal Fossa” gets support and updates until 2025 and won’t reach its official end-of-life until 2030. “Jammy Jellyfish” – the 22.04 release – is the replacement LTS version, receiving mainstream support until April 2027 and arriving at its end of life in April 2032.

• However, users of the previous LTS release don’t start to receive upgrade notifications until the subsequent LTS gets its first point release. For Jammy, if all goes well, that will be next week*: August 11 is the planned release date for Ubuntu 22.04.1. Canonical has published a list of bug-fixes on its Discourse, and you can also track its status on Launchpad.

• Canonical is due to release Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS today, following a delay last week caused by the discovery of a bug. Ubuntu point releases aren’t normally that important, they just roll all the available updates up and include them in a more up-to-date ISO. People on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS already only need to install available updates to get this point release.

• What is different about this first point release is that it finally opens upgrades for people who run Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Canonical releases LTS releases so that people can enjoy a stable version of Ubuntu for their production systems. By leaving the upgrade path closed until the first point release, it gives Canonical time to address any serious issues, so users can continue receiving a stable experience.

• Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS combines all of the bug fixes, app updates, performance tweaks, and security patches rolled out to the “Jammy Jellyfish” since its April debut. The idea is that you can download this version and skip needing to fetch three-months worth of updates after installation.

• Whether you’re a first-time Linux user, experienced developer, academic researcher or enterprise administrator, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS is the best way to upgrade your creativity, productivity and downtime. Check out our new video to learn more!

• The release of Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS represents the consolidation of fixes and improvements identified during the initial launch of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and is the first major milestone in our Long Term Support (LTS) commitment to our users.

•  For those of you not in the know, Canonical opens the upgrade path from the previous Ubuntu LTS release to the new Ubuntu LTS release about six months after the launch of the latter, but not after it publishes the first point release to the new Ubuntu LTS series (in this case Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS). This is done to ensure a safe upgrade process

• Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 22.04.1 LTS has been released. With the codename Jammy Jellyfish, Lubuntu 22.04 is the 22nd release of Lubuntu, the eighth release of Lubuntu with LXQt as the default desktop environment.

• The Ubuntu team has announced Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS, which includes package bug fixes, performance improvements, and security patches.

• Following Canonical’s decision to delay the first point release of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS by about a week due to a bug affecting the ability to install Snap packages, today, the Ubuntu team has announced the Ubuntu 22.04.1.

• This is the first point release for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, which was launched on April 21, 2022, featuring a range of new features and improvements.

• However, for new Ubuntu users, the arrival of a new LTS version may be confusing. The main question they probably have is, “Do I need to reinstall everything?” The short answer is no; it does not!

• Earlier this month, we shared the news that Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (code-named “Jammy Jellyfish”) was being delayed. Sadly, the first point release of the wildly popular operating system was being pushed back an entire week — an absolute eternity in the world of Linux.

• Well, folks, a week has passed, and thankfully, Canonical stayed true to its word (this time) and sorted the show-stopping Ubuntu Linux 22.04.1 issue. Yes, the major bug that caused snaps not to open on computers that used the OEM install option is now resolved. Even better, starting today, Canonical will being prompting Ubuntu 20.04 users to upgrade to Jammy Jellyfish.

• “The release of Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS represents the consolidation of fixes and improvements identified during the initial launch of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and is the first major milestone in our Long Term Support (LTS) commitment to our users. From today, Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS is available to download and install from our download page,” explains Canonical.

• Linux Mint is a free and open-source Linux distribution that is hugely popular for desktop lovers. It seeks to provide a modern, sleek, and friendly desktop experience with full multimedia support and a wide range of free and open source applications for everyday use.

• Linux Mint is based on both Ubuntu and Debian – Linux Mint Debian Edition – is purely based on Debian. It is user-friendly and is generally considered an ideal distribution for newbies starting with Linux.

Open Hardware/Modding

• Purism’s Made in USA phone, Librem 5 USA uses a tighter supply chain. It is powered by PureOS, and designed for longevity. Standard orders ship within 10 days.

• LILYGO TTGO T-Encoder, a round-shaped ESP32 board with a built-in rotary encoder, has gotten a shield with a 2-key keypad based on WCH CH552 8-bit microcontroller.

• Launched several months ago, the TTGO T-Encoder is a USB-powered rotary encoder with ESP32 microcontroller offering WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, and now, you can build a keypad with rotary encoder thanks to T-Encoder shield that features two mechanical switches and keycaps with RGB LED backlight.

• The AquaPing is an open-source hardware, ultra-low power acoustic water leak detector sensor based on Texas Instruments MSP430 microcontroller and a microphone that can detect leaks without having to do any plumbing, instead capturing audio for water leak detection, and it even works for leaks behind walls.

• All signal processing and analysis occur on the MSP430 MCU, so no audio is streamed to the cloud and eavesdropping is impossible, plus the sensor only captures high frequencies out of the range of normal conversations, so eavesdropping is not feasible, plus those higher frequencies are also said to provide highest sensitivity and reliability.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Microsoft recently seemed to propose that Open Source software didn’t belong in the Windows app store. Excuse me?

• After the news broke, Giorgio Sardo, Microsoft’s General Manager of the Microsoft Store, argued on Twitter that it wasn’t Microsoft’s intent. “We absolutely want to support developers distributing successful OSS apps. In fact, there are already fantastic OSS apps in the Store! The goal of this policy is to protect customers from misleading listings.”

GNU Projects

• This is a bugfix release for gnunet 0.17.3 because of a missing file in the tarball required to build the documentation.

Programming/Development

• We’re working towards finalizing the feature set for 4.0 beta, reviewing many PRs which have been opened prior to our roadmap feature freeze announced a couple of weeks ago. While this process is ongoing, we’ll keep releasing alpha builds so here’s 4.0 alpha 14! Same deal as usual, lots of bugs fixed and more refactoring and feature work.

Perl / Raku

• When “use DateTime;” library is included in perl file ,getting the error as

• “CPM0 frl-plugin:perlscript: ERROR: ‘times’ trapped by operation mask at /usr/lib64/perl5/B.pm line 183.”

• Following from my previous post, I am now actively encouraging everyone to switch licenses to MIT/ISC license or Apache 2.0.

• My reasoning is that in the vast majority of cases the author and contributors want the software to be used by as many businesses and hobbyists as possible.

• Previously I described how the burden of understanding and complying with licenses, including open source licenses, can be an unintended barrier to them using the software.

• Perl modules tend to use “Perl 5″ combination as the default license i.e. “Licensed under the same terms as Perl itself”. And the “Perl 5″ license is actually a dual licensing of the problematic Artistic 1.0 license and the dated GPL1.0 license which also has problems. Both are rarely used outside of Perl and in my view present a barrier to adoption.

• Recall I described how permissive (“BSD”) and copyleft (“GPL”) licenses are functionally identical if no binary is distributed (websites) or for scripted languages that remain in source form.

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

• The versatile Bash for loop does much more than loop around a set number of times. We describe its many variants so you can use them successfully in your own Linux scripts.

Rust

• The Rust team is happy to announce a new version of Rust, 1.63.0. Rust is a programming language empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software.

• Version 1.63.0 of the Rust language has been released. Changes include the addition of scoped threads, a new ownership model for raw file descriptors, and the completion of the borrow-checker transition…

Leftovers

• A new, great step forward for street safety is how an italian newspaper just announced that a new speed control system will become mandatory for all new cars in two phases, between today and July 7th, 2024.

Proprietary

• Microsoft has apparently gone back on initial plans to cut off some generations of its Office software.

Linux Foundation

• Today, the ELISA (Enabling Linux in Safety Applications) Project announced that Boeing has joined as a Premier member, marking its commitment to Linux and its effective use in safety critical applications. Hosted by the Linux Foundation, ELISA is an open source initiative that aims to create a shared set of tools and processes to help companies build and certify Linux-based safety-critical applications and systems.

Security

• Security updates have been issued by Gentoo (aiohttp, faac, isync, motion, and nextcloud), Red Hat (.NET 6.0), SUSE (libnbd, oracleasm, python-codecov, rubygem-tzinfo, sssd, and thunderbird), and Ubuntu (http-parser, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.4, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.4, linux-bluefield, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-5.4, linux-gke, linux-gke-5.4, linux-gkeop, linux-gkeop-5.4, linux-hwe-5.4, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-5.4, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.4, linux-raspi, linux-raspi-5.4, linux, linux-hwe-5.15, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.15, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.15, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-5.15, linux-gke, linux-gke-5.15, linux-ibm, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-raspi, linux-intel-iotg, linux-oem-5.14, linux-oem-5.17, and node-moment).

• The Project Zero blog has posted a detailed look at CVE-2021-0920 in the first of a two-part series on how this bug created a vulnerability that was subsequently exploited.

• The relatively new io_uring subsystem has changed the way asynchronous I/O is done on Linux systems and improved performance significantly. It has also, however, begun to run up a record of disagreements with the kernel’s security community. A recent discussion about security hooks for the new uring_cmd mechanism shows how easily requirements can be overlooked in a complex system with no overall supervision.

• Most of the operations that can be performed within io_uring follow the usual I/O patterns — open a file, read data, write data, and so on. These operations are the same regardless of the underlying device or filesystem that is doing the work. There always seems to be a need for something special and device-specific, though, and io_uring is no exception. For the kernel as a whole, device-specific operations are made available via ioctl() calls. That system call, however, has built up a reputation as a dumping ground for poorly thought-out features, and there is little desire to see its usage spread.

• In early 2021, io_uring maintainer Jens Axboe floated an idea for a command passthrough mechanism that would be specific to io_uring. A year and some later, that idea has evolved into uring_cmd, which was pulled into the mainline during the 5.19 merge window. There is a new io_uring operation that, in turn, causes an invocation of the underlying device or filesystem’s uring_cmd() file_operations function. The actual operation to be performed is passed through to that function with no interpretation in the io_uring layer. The first user is the NVMe driver, which provides a direct passthrough operation.

Monopolies

• For iPhone Users, messaging comes down to blue vs. green bubbles, showing them who is also on an iPhone and who is on Android or another alternative. Is it marketing? Of course. Should Apple be forced to dump what it’s built so that it can work better with Androids? Google thinks so, as it suggested in a post on the Android website, “It’s time for Apple to fix texting,” to add RCS to iMessage.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

• A friend who is a serious jock bike rider got the virus recently. On day 5 he felt much better, and after testing negative, could not resist a little bike ride (which would probably kill me, but like I said, he bikes all the time).

Technical

Internet/Gemini

• I was in my late 20′s during that era. I did my degree in 1983-86, and had never heard of things like BBSs or gopher. After that I got a job as an accountant, where there was no internet, nor had anyone really heard of it.

• In 1991-93 I did a Masters course in mathematics. It was a joint course between two universities. One had Unix machines, so we had Maple, Fortran, and all that good stuff. Back in those days we were innocent about security, and you could send a picture to someone else’s machine remotely. I still hadn’t heard of the internet.

• Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter. Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

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