OSNews

Exploring the future of computing. The official Mastodon account of OSNews.com.

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Last Notes

2024-09-19 10:47:31

European Commission to order Apple to take interoperability measures after company refuses to comply with DMA
The European Commission has taken the next step in forcing Apple to comply with the Digital Markets Act. The EC has started two so-called specification proceedings, in which they can more or less order Apple exactly what
https://www.osnews.com/story/140771/european-commission-to-order-apple-to-take-interoperability-measures-after-company-refuses-to-comply-with-dma/
#Apple

2024-09-16 10:54:04

Chrome on the Mac uses less battery than Safari
It's one of the most pervasive common wisdoms shared all over the web, no matter where you go - it's one of those things everybody seems to universally agree on: Chrome will absolutely devastate your battery life on the Mac, and you should really be using Safari, because Apple's special integration magic pixie dust sprinkles ensures Safari sip
https://www.osnews.com/story/140751/chrome-on-the-mac-uses-less-battery-than-safari/
#macOS

2024-09-11 13:38:17

Chrome-based browsers highlight the risks of using third-party Firefox-based browsers
And the hits just keep on coming. After buying an ad tech company and working with Facebook to weaken Firefox' privacy features, Mozilla is now integrating AI chatbots straight into Firefox with the recent release of Firefox 130. People are understandably big ma
https://www.osnews.com/story/140733/chrome-based-browsers-highlight-the-risks-of-using-third-party-firefox-based-browsers/
#MozillaGecko

2024-09-04 14:28:34

Apple Helped Nix Part of a Child Safety Bill. More Fights Are Expected.
Kim Carver, a legislator in the US state of Louisiana, added a provision to a child safety bill forcing Apple and Google to enforce age restrictions on downloads in their application stores. In other words, it would force Apple to make sure minors could not download gambling and casino application
https://www.osnews.com/story/140664/apple-helped-nix-part-of-a-child-safety-bill-more-fights-are-expected/
#Legal

2024-08-29 23:13:03

Can you convert a video to pure CSS?
He regularly shares cool examples of fancy css animations. At the time of writing his focus has been on css scroll animations. I guess there are some new properties that allow playing a css animation based on the scroll position. Apple has been using this on their marketing pages or so jhehy says. The property seems pretty powerful.
But how powerful?
This g
https://www.osnews.com/story/140633/can-you-convert-a-video-to-pure-css/
#Internet

2024-08-15 20:22:55

Cartridge software for the Psion Series 3
Similar to less popular handheld of the era, the Gameboy, the Psion used a proprietary cartridge format for distributing commercial software. Psion sold blank cartridges, flashing hardware and duplicators to software houses, as well as releasing a number of titles under their own license. There’s a wide range of commercial software available for the Seri
https://www.osnews.com/story/140509/cartridge-software-for-the-psion-series-3/
#Mobile

2024-07-25 20:06:37

Intel: Raptor Lake faults excessive voltage from microcode, fix coming in August
In what started last year as a handful of reports about instability with Intel's Raptor Lake desktop chips has, over the last several months, grown into a much larger saga. Facing their biggest client chip instability impediment in decades, Intel has been under increasing pressure
https://www.osnews.com/story/140327/intel-raptor-lake-faults-excessive-voltage-from-microcode-fix-coming-in-august/
#Intel

2024-07-09 22:26:22

Google extends Linux kernel support to keep Android devices secure for longer
Android, like many other operating systems, uses the open-source Linux kernel. There are several different types of Linux kernel releases, but the type that’s most important to Android is the long-term support (LTS) one, as they’re updated regularly with important bug fixes and secu
https://www.osnews.com/story/140185/google-extends-linux-kernel-support-to-keep-android-devices-secure-for-longer/
#Android

2024-07-09 21:56:41

Mozilla opts to extended Windows 7/8/8.1 support
Among them, Byron Jourdan, Senior Director, Product Management of Mozilla, under the Reddit username ComprehensiveDoor643 revealed that Mozilla plans to support Firefox on Windows 7 for longer. When asked separately about whether it also included Windows 8 and 8.1 too, Jourdan added that it was certainly the plan, though for how long
https://www.osnews.com/story/140183/mozilla-opts-to-extended-windows-7-8-8-1-support/
#MozillaGecko

2024-07-09 21:44:02

No more boot loader: lease use the kernel instead
Most people are familiar with GRUB, a powerful, flexible, fully-featured bootloader that is used on multiple architectures (x86_64, aarch64, ppc64le OpenFirmware). Although GRUB is quite versatile and capable, its features create complexity that is difficult to maintain, and that both duplicate and lag behind the Linux kernel while also cre
https://www.osnews.com/story/140181/no-more-boot-loader-lease-use-the-kernel-instead/
#Linux

2024-07-08 13:51:23

Design and build the next version of OSNews
Despite being live since 1997, OSNews has had fairly few redesigns in the grand scheme of things. If my memory serves me correctly, we've had a grand total of 6 designs, and we're currently on version 6, introduced about 5 years ago because of unpleasant reasons. It's now 2024, and for a variety of reasons, we're looking to work towards version 7 of
https://www.osnews.com/story/140175/design-and-build-the-next-version-of-osnews/
#OSNews

2024-07-08 12:17:52

Getting the most out of TWM, X11’s default window manager
Graham's TWM page has been around for like two decades or so and still isn't even remotely as old as TWM itself, and in 2021 they published an updated version with even more information, tips, and tricks for TWM. The Tab Window Manager finds its origins in the lat 1980s, and has been the default window manager for the X W
https://www.osnews.com/story/140172/getting-the-most-out-of-twm-x11s-default-window-manager/
#Wayland

2024-07-08 11:53:37

A brief summary of click-to-raise and drag-and-drop interaction on X11 and Wayland
The goal is to be able to drag an icon from a background window without immediately raising that window and obscuring the drop target window when using the click-to-focus mode. This is a barebones description of what needs to happen. It assumes familiarity with code, prot
https://www.osnews.com/story/140170/a-brief-summary-of-click-to-raise-and-drag-and-drop-interaction-on-x11-and-wayland/
#Wayland

2024-07-05 21:02:59

Psion OPL: when we owned our devices
We talked about Psion last week, and we're talking about Psion again this week. This time, Kian Ryan highlights a very important capability of Psion's devices, a capability that's entirely absent from today's mobile devices: a built-in IDE and dedicated programming language so you can write code and build applications, including ones with a graphical user interface
https://www.osnews.com/story/140155/psion-opl-when-we-owned-our-devices/
#Mobile

2024-07-04 19:50:52

Cloudflare lets customers block AI bots, scrapers and crawlers with a single click
It seems the dislike for machine learning runs deep. In a blog post, Cloudflare has announced that blocking machine learning scrapers is so popular, they decided to just add a feature to the Cloudflare dashboard that will block all machine learning scrapers with a single c
https://www.osnews.com/story/140146/cloudflare-lets-customers-block-ai-bots-scrapers-and-crawlers-with-a-single-click/
#Internet

2024-06-29 00:08:59

If your immutable Linux desktop uses Flatpak, I’m going to have a bad time
The openSUSE project recently announced the second release candidate (RC2) of its Aeon Desktop, formerly known as MicroOS Desktop GNOME. Aside from the new coat of naming paint, Aeon breaks ground in a few other ways by dabbling with technologies not found in other openSUSE releases. The go
https://www.osnews.com/story/140090/if-your-immutable-linux-desktop-uses-flatpak-im-going-to-have-a-bad-time/
#Linux

2024-06-25 15:45:25

Looking ahead to 30 years of FreeDOS
In a few days, 29 June, FreeDOS will turn 30. This happens to make it one of the oldest, continuously active open source projects in the world, originally created because Jim Hall had heard Microsoft was going to kill DOS when the upcoming Windows 95 was going to be released. After seeing the excitement around Linux, he decided it an open source DOS would be a
https://www.osnews.com/story/140067/looking-ahead-to-30-years-of-freedos/
#LegacyOSes

2024-06-25 15:23:57

Microsoft charged with EU antitrust violations for bundling Teams
The European Commission has informed Microsoft of its preliminary view that Microsoft has breached EU antitrust rules by tying its communication and collaboration product Teams to its popular productivity applications included in its suites for businesses Office 365 and Microsoft 365.
↫ Tom Warren at The
https://www.osnews.com/story/140063/microsoft-charged-with-eu-antitrust-violations-for-bundling-teams/
#Microsoft

2024-06-21 18:33:38

Apple’s won’t release its new AI features in the EU because they don’t comply with EU privacy and competition laws
Apple has announced it's not shipping three of its tentpole new features, announced during WWDC, in the European Union: Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring, and SharePlay Screen Sharing.
Ever since the in
https://www.osnews.com/story/140034/apples-wont-release-its-new-ai-features-in-the-eu-because-they-dont-comply-with-eu-privacy-and-competition-laws/
#Apple

2024-06-20 21:53:23

Is 2024 the year of Windows on the desktop?
It should be no secret to anyone reading OSNews that I'm not exactly a fan of Windows. While I grew up using MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, and Windows 9x, the move to Windows XP was a sour one for me, and ever since I've vastly preferred first BeOS, and then Linux. When, thanks to the tireless efforts of the Wine community and Valve gaming on Linux became a b
https://www.osnews.com/story/139987/is-2024-the-year-of-windows-on-the-desktop/
#Windows

2024-06-19 23:18:34

The ExectOS operating system
ExectOS is a preemptive, reentrant multitasking operating system that implements the XT architecture which derives from NT architecture. It is modular, and consists of two main layers: microkernel and user modes. Its’ kernel mode has full access to the hardware and system resources and runs code in a protected memory area. It consists of executive services, which is itself made u
https://www.osnews.com/story/140011/the-exectos-operating-system/
#OSNews

2024-06-19 22:13:28

The X Windowing System turns 40 today
Today just so happens to be the 40th birthday of X, the venerable windowing system that's on its way out, at least in the Linux world. From the original announcement by Robert W. Scheifler:
I've spent the last couple weeks writing a window system for the VS100. I stole a fair amount of code from W, surrounded it with an asynchronous rather than a synchronou
https://www.osnews.com/story/140008/the-x-windowing-system-turns-40-today/
#Wayland

2024-06-18 22:13:21

DeepComputing announces third-party RISC-V mainboard for the Framework 13 laptop
Framework, the company making modular, upgradeable, and repairable laptops, and DeepComputing, the same company that's making the DC ROMA II RISC-V laptop we talked about last week, have announced something incredibly cool: a brand new RISC-V mainboard that fits right into ex
https://www.osnews.com/story/140001/deepcomputing-announces-third-party-risc-v-mainboard-for-the-framework-13-laptop/
#Hardware

2024-06-18 21:53:06

Update on Newton, the Wayland-native accessibility project
There's incredibly good news for people who use accessibility tools on Linux, but who were facing serious, gamebreaking problems when trying to use Wayland. Matt Campbell, of the GNOME accessibility team, has been hard at work on an entirely new accessibility architecture for modern free desktops, and he's got some impre
https://www.osnews.com/story/139996/update-on-newton-the-wayland-native-accessibility-project/
#Wayland

2024-06-18 20:53:33

KDE Plasma 6.1 released
After the very successful release of KDE Plasma 6.0, which moved the entire desktop environment and most of its applications over to Qt 6, fixed a whole slow of bugs, and streamlined the entire KDE desktop and its applications, it's now time for KDE Plasma 6.1, where we're going to see a much stronger focus on new features. While it's merely a point release, it's still a big one.
The tentp
https://www.osnews.com/story/139993/kde-plasma-6-1-released/
#KDE

2024-06-18 19:02:58

The history of DR-DOS
I've always found the world of DOS versions and variants to be confusing, since most of it took place when I was very young (I'm from 1984) so I wasn't paying much attention to computing quite yet, other than playing DOS games. One of the variants of DOS I never quite understood where it was from until much, much later, was DR-DOS. This this day, I pronounce this as "Doctor DOS".
If you
https://www.osnews.com/story/139991/the-history-of-dr-dos/
#LegacyOSes

2024-06-18 18:48:41

Adobe’s hidden cancellation fee is unlawful, FTC suit says
To lock subscribers into recurring monthly payments, Adobe would typically pre-select by default its most popular "annual paid monthly" plan, the FTC alleged. That subscription option locked users into an annual plan despite paying month to month. If they canceled after a two-week period, they'd owe Adobe an early termina
https://www.osnews.com/story/139989/adobes-hidden-cancellation-fee-is-unlawful-ftc-suit-says/
#Legal

2024-06-17 21:59:37

Cinnamon 6.2 released
Cinnamon, the popular GTK desktop environment developed by the Linux Mint project, pushed out Cinnamon 6.2 today, which will serve as the default desktop for Linux Mint 22. It's a relatively minor release, but it does contain a major new feature which is actually quite welcome: a new GTK frontend for GNOME Online Accounts, part of the XApp project. This makes it possible to use th
https://www.osnews.com/story/139983/cinnamon-6-2-released/
#DesktopEnvironments

2024-06-17 21:59:10

IceWM 3.6.0 released
Less than a month after 3.5.0, IceWM is already shipping version 3.6.0. Once again not a major, earth-shattering release, it does contain at least one really cool feature that I think it pretty nifty: if you double-click on a window border, it will maximise just that side of the window. Pretty neat.
For the rest, it's small changes and bug fixes for this venerable window manager.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139979/icewm-3-6-0-released/
#Wayland

2024-06-17 21:58:40

Meta halts plans to train machine learning on Facebook, Instagram posts in EU
It seems that if you want to steer clear from having Facebook use your Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. data for machine learning training, you might want to consider moving to the European Union.
Meta has apparently paused plans to process mounds of user data to bring new AI ex
https://www.osnews.com/story/139981/meta-halts-plans-to-train-machine-learning-on-facebook-instagram-posts-in-eu/
#Legal

2024-06-17 21:58:10

Vinix now runs Solitaire
Way, way back in the cold and bleak days of 2021, I mentioned Vinix on OSNews, an operating system written in the V programming language. A few days ago, over on Mastodon, the official account for the V programming language sent out a screenshot showing Solitaite running on Vinix, showing off what the experimental operating system can do.
The project doesn't seem to really publish any
https://www.osnews.com/story/139985/vinix-now-runs-solitaire/
#OSNews

2024-06-17 20:08:19

Microsoft starts beating the Windows 11 PR drum in face of reluctant Windows 10 users
I have a feeling Microsoft is really starting to feel some pressure about its plans to abandon Windows 10 next year. Data shows that 70% of Windows users are still using Windows 10, and this percentage has proven to be remarkably resilient, making it very likely that
https://www.osnews.com/story/139964/microsoft-starts-beating-the-windows-11-pr-drum-in-face-of-reluctant-windows-10-users/
#Windows

2024-06-17 18:50:42

Mobile Comms via Satellite for Backcountry and Maritime Safety
Stranded on a desert island; lost in the forest; stuck in the snow; injured and unable to get back to civilization. Human beings have used their ingenuity for millennia to try to signal for rescue. there's been a progression of technological innovations: smoke signals, mirrors, a loud whistle, a portable radio, a
https://www.osnews.com/story/139973/mobile-comms-via-satellite-for-backcountry-and-maritime-safety/
#Mobile

2024-06-16 14:21:20

StreamOS source code republished 15 years later
Way, way, way back in 2009, we reported on a small hobby operating system called StreamOS - version 0.21-RC1 had just been released that day. StreamOS was a 32-bit operating system written in Object Pascal using the Free Pascal Compiler, running on top of FreeDOS. It turns out that its creator, Oleksandr Natalenko (yes, the same person), reco
https://www.osnews.com/story/139970/streamos-source-code-republished-15-years-later/
#OSNews

2024-06-16 14:05:40

Doom for SNES full source code released by former Sculptured Software employees
The complete source code for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) version of Doom has been released on archive.org. Although some of the code was partially released a few years ago, this is the first time the full source code has been made publicly available.
↫ Shaun Jam
https://www.osnews.com/story/139968/doom-for-snes-full-source-code-released-by-former-sculptured-software-employees/
#Games

2024-06-16 14:02:02

A brief history of Mac enclaves and exclaves
Howard Oakley has written an interesting history of secure enclaves on the Mac, and when he touches upon "exclaves", a new concept that doesn't have a proper term yet, he mentions something interesting.
While an enclave is a territory entirely surrounded by the territory of another state, an exclave is an isolated fragment of a state that exist
https://www.osnews.com/story/139966/a-brief-history-of-mac-enclaves-and-exclaves/
#macOS

2024-06-14 23:08:04

Can you blow a PC speaker with a Linux kernel module?
Sometimes you come across a story that's equally weird and delightful, and this is definitely one of them. Oleksandr Natalenko posted a link on Mastodon to a curious email sent to the Linux Kernel Mailing List, which apparently gets sent to the LKML every single year. The message is very straightforward.
Is it possible to write a
https://www.osnews.com/story/139958/can-you-blow-a-pc-speaker-with-a-linux-kernel-module/
#Linux

2024-06-14 22:13:02

Apple set to be first big yech group to face charges under EU digital law
Brussels is set to charge Apple over allegedly stifling competition on its mobile app store, the first time EU regulators have used new digital rules to target a Big Tech group.
The European Commission has determined that the iPhone maker is not complying with obligations to allow app deve
https://www.osnews.com/story/139956/apple-set-to-be-first-big-yech-group-to-face-charges-under-eu-digital-law/
#Legal

2024-06-14 21:21:41

Microsoft chose profit over security and left US government vulnerable to Russian hack, whistleblower says
Former employee says software giant dismissed his warnings about a critical flaw because it feared losing government business. Russian hackers later used the weakness to breach the National Nuclear Security Administration, a
https://www.osnews.com/story/139954/microsoft-chose-profit-over-security-and-left-us-government-vulnerable-to-russian-hack-whistleblower-says/
#Microsoft

2024-06-14 21:18:34

Driving forward in Android drivers
Google's own Project Zero security research effort, which often finds and publishes vulnerabilities in both other companies' and its own products, set its sights on Android once more, this time focusing on third-party kernel drivers.
Android's open-source ecosystem has led to an incredible diversity of manufacturers and vendors developing software that ru
https://www.osnews.com/story/139952/driving-forward-in-android-drivers/
#PrivacySecurity

2024-06-14 17:07:11

Microsoft delays Recall feature
After initially announcing it was going to change its Recall feature and then pulling the preview Windows release containing the feature, Microsoft has now given in almost entirely and is delaying Recall altogether. Instead of shipping it on every new Copilot+ PC, they're going to release it as an optional feature for Windows Insiders.
Today, we are communicating an ad
https://www.osnews.com/story/139950/microsoft-delays-recall-feature/
#Windows

2024-06-13 22:45:19

Canonical and DeepComputing announce new RISC-V laptop shipping with Ubuntu
Speaking of PCs that don't use x86 chips, Canonical and DeepComputing today announced a new RISC-V laptop running Ubuntu, available for pre-order in a few days. It's the successor to the DC-ROMA, which shipped last year.
Adding to a long list of firsts, the new DC-ROMA laptop II i
https://www.osnews.com/story/139948/canonical-and-deepcomputing-announce-new-risc-v-laptop-shipping-with-ubuntu/
#InTheNews

2024-06-13 22:30:12

The Qualcomm Snapdragon X architecture deep dive: getting to know Oryon and Adreno X1
In the last 8 months Qualcomm has made a lot of interesting claims for their high-performance Windows-on-Arm SoC – many of which will be put to the test in the coming weeks. But beyond all the performance claims and bluster amidst what is shaping up to be a highly co
https://www.osnews.com/story/139946/the-qualcomm-snapdragon-x-architecture-deep-dive-getting-to-know-oryon-and-adreno-x1/
#Hardware

2024-06-13 17:00:22

Exclusive: Mozilla reverses course, re-lists extensions it removed in Russia
Two days ago, I broke the news that Mozilla removed several Firefox extensions from the add-on store in Russia, after pressure from Russian censors. Mozilla provided me with an official statement, which seemed to highlight that the decision was not final, and it seems I was right -
https://www.osnews.com/story/139943/exclusive-mozilla-reverses-course-re-lists-extensions-it-removed-in-russia/
#MozillaGecko

2024-06-12 23:23:56

Chrome OS switching to the Android Linux kernel and related Android subsystems
Surprisingly quietly, in the middle of Apple's WWDC, Google's ChromeOS team has made a rather massive announcement that seems to be staying a bit under the radar. Google is announcing today that it is replacing many of ChromeOS' current relatively standard Linux-based subsystems wi
https://www.osnews.com/story/139941/chrome-os-switching-to-the-android-linux-kernel-and-related-android-subsystems/
#Google

2024-06-12 22:56:44

Arm, Qualcomm legal battle seen disrupting AI-powered PC wave
The new Windows on ARM Copilot+ PC thing, running on Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and Pro chips, isn't even out the door yet, and we're already dealing with legal proceedings.
But the main conversation among conference attendees was over how a contract dispute between Arm Holdings and Qualcomm, which work togeth
https://www.osnews.com/story/139939/arm-qualcomm-legal-battle-seen-disrupting-ai-powered-pc-wave/
#Legal

2024-06-12 21:50:19

Linus Torvalds: extensible scheduler “sched_ext” in Linux 6.11
The extensible scheduler "sched_ext" code has proven quite versatile for opening up better Linux gaming performance, more quickly prototyping new scheduler changes, Ubuntu/Canonical has been evaluating it for pursuing a more micro-kernel like design, and many other interesting approaches with it. Yet it's remaine
https://www.osnews.com/story/139937/linus-torvalds-extensible-scheduler-sched_ext-in-linux-6-11/
#Linux

2024-06-12 21:12:39

OpenBSD extreme privacy setup
This is an attempt to turn OpenBSD into a Whonix or Tails alternative, although if you really need that level of privacy, use a system from this list and not the present guide. It is easy to spot OpenBSD using network fingerprinting, this can not be defeated, you can not hide the fact you use OpenBSD to network operators.
I did this guide as a challenge for fun, but I also
https://www.osnews.com/story/139935/openbsd-extreme-privacy-setup/
#OpenBSD

2024-06-12 21:09:41

Microsoft pulls release preview build of Windows 11 24H2 after Recall controversy
Microsoft recently announced some big changes to the Recall feature in Windows, and now it's pulled the Release Preview version which contained Recall entirely.
It's likely not a coincidence that Microsoft also quietly pulled the build of the Windows 11 24H2 update that
https://www.osnews.com/story/139933/microsoft-pulls-release-preview-build-of-windows-11-24h2-after-recall-controversy/
#Windows

2024-06-11 19:58:10

Under pressure from Russian censors, Mozilla removes anti-censorship extensions
A few days ago, I was pointed to a post on the Mozilla forums, in which developers of Firefox extensions designed to circumvent Russian censorship were surprised to find that their extensions were suddenly no longer available within Russia. The extension developers and other
https://www.osnews.com/story/139928/under-pressure-from-russian-censors-mozilla-removes-anti-censorship-extensions/
#MozillaGecko

2024-06-11 19:22:05

Apple WWDC 2024: the 13 biggest announcements
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote has come to a close — and the company had a whole lot to share. We got our first look at the AI features coming to Apple’s devices and some major updates across the company’s operating systems.
If you missed out on watching the keynote live, we’ve gathered all the biggest announcements that you can
https://www.osnews.com/story/139926/apple-wwdc-2024-the-13-biggest-announcements/
#Apple

2024-06-10 23:06:47

Tuxedo showcases prototype Linux laptop with Snapdragon X Elite
I've long been waiting for a powerful ARM laptop that can run Linux comfortably, and it seems that with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite SoC, that's finally going to happen. We talked earlier about how for once, Qualcomm is taking Linux support for their new laptop-focused processors very seriously, and that
https://www.osnews.com/story/139924/tuxedo-showcases-prototype-linux-laptop-with-snapdragon-x-elite/
#Hardware

2024-06-10 20:25:25

NetBSD 10 with disk encryption on UEFI, and NetBSD 10 on the Pinebook Pro
NetBSD 10 was released recently, so a lot of people are experimenting with it and writing down their thoughts. I've got two of those for you today, to help you in case you, too, want to install NetBSD 10 and play around with, or just use, it.
First, what if you want to install NetBSD 10 on
https://www.osnews.com/story/139922/netbsd-10-with-disk-encryption-on-uefi-and-netbsd-10-on-the-pinebook-pro/
#NetBSD

2024-06-10 14:36:15

Void Linux on ZFS
Last night, I ran through the ZFSBootMenu documentation guide for Void and followed it both on a VM and then on an external SATA HDD plugged through a USB case, taking some notes and getting a general idea of the process.
The Void installer does not support ZFS out of the box, so the Void Handbook itself recommends the ZFSBootMenu documentation before its own (a manual chroot installation) when it c
https://www.osnews.com/story/139920/void-linux-on-zfs/
#Linux

2024-06-10 14:07:23

Reverse-engineering MenuetOS 64: primary boot loader
Now that we have the MenuetOS 64 disk image file (M6414490.IMG), it is time to analyze! We will analyze the image file both statically and dynamically. Static analysis is reading and analyzing code without running it, whereas dynamic analysis is running the code and watching how it changes registers and memory during execution. Each
https://www.osnews.com/story/139918/reverse-engineering-menuetos-64-primary-boot-loader/
#OSNews

2024-06-09 22:44:35

What is PID 0?
The very short version: Unix PIDs do start at 0! PID 0 just isn’t shown to userspace through traditional APIs. PID 0 starts the kernel, then retires to a quiet life of helping a bit with process scheduling and power management. Also the entire web is mostly wrong about PID 0, because of one sentence on Wikipedia from 16 years ago.
There’s a slightly longer short version right at the end, or you can stick wi
https://www.osnews.com/story/139915/what-is-pid-0/
#Unix

2024-06-09 22:28:29

Adobe terms clarified: will never own your work, or use it for AI training
Adobe Creative Cloud users opened their apps yesterday to find that they were forced to agree to new terms, which included some frightening-sounding language. It seemed to suggest Adobe was claiming rights over their work.
Worse, there was no way to continue using the apps, to request supp
https://www.osnews.com/story/139913/adobe-terms-clarified-will-never-own-your-work-or-use-it-for-ai-training/
#Legal

2024-06-08 15:46:33

US agencies to probe AI dominance of Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI
The US Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission reportedly plan investigations into whether Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI are snuffing out competition in artificial intelligence technology.
The agencies struck a deal on how to divide up the investigations, The New York Times reported yesterday. Und
https://www.osnews.com/story/139909/us-agencies-to-probe-ai-dominance-of-nvidia-microsoft-and-openai/
#Legal

2024-06-07 19:19:59

Microsoft implements drastic changes to Recall after criticism
It turns out that the storm of criticism Microsoft's recently unveiled Recall feature has actually pushed Microsoft to change its mind and make some very significant changes to the feature. Today, after over a week of sustained criticism and worries, Redmond announced it's going to implement Recall very differen
https://www.osnews.com/story/139907/microsoft-implements-drastic-changes-to-recall-after-criticism/
#Windows

2024-06-07 15:06:03

Quick out-of-the-box BSD support for the Topton GM1
I bought a Topton GM1 Industrial Mini PC for my HomeLab. It is aimed at running Slackware Linux but I wanted to have a quick look at how well BSD OSes support it out-of-the-box.
↫ Joel Carnat
That's really all there's to this story. I just really, really love tiny industrial and office computers and thin clients, and every time
https://www.osnews.com/story/139905/quick-out-of-the-box-bsd-support-for-the-topton-gm1/
#BSDDarwin

2024-06-07 15:05:48

Microsoft blocks Windows 11 workaround that enabled local accounts
Before PC users can enjoy everything Windows 11 has on tap, they must first enter an e-mail address that’s linked to a Microsoft account. If you don’t have one, you’ll be asked to create one before you can start setting it up.
A frequently used trick to circumvent this block is a small but ingenious s
https://www.osnews.com/story/139903/microsoft-blocks-windows-11-workaround-that-enabled-local-accounts/
#Windows

2024-06-06 14:42:38

OSNews needs your help to stay alive
As some of you will know, I recently started working on OSNews as my full-time job, and that means I sometimes need to be annoying and remind you all that I need your help in keeping the website going. Ad income has been going down the drain for years and years now, so your support is crucial in keeping OSNews online. We've been providing you with the latest techn
https://www.osnews.com/story/139901/osnews-needs-your-help-to-stay-alive/
#OSNews

2024-06-06 13:52:03

A BSD person tries Alpine Linux
I’ve barely scratched the surface, but there’s enough here for me to seriously consider a switch to it as my primary Linux distro for testing and servers. I love that htop(1) and lsof(1) only shows a small list of recognisable processes, that it uses OpenRC, that package management seems straight forward, and that it’s so simple to configure. I’ve wondered what a modern, f
https://www.osnews.com/story/139899/a-bsd-person-tries-alpine-linux-2/
#Linux

2024-06-06 13:46:19

They’re puting “AI” in your BIOS
You know what could really use a dose of "AI"? Your BIOS.
aiBIOS leverages an LLM to integrate AI capabilities into Insyde Software’s flagship firmware solution, InsydeH2O® UEFI BIOS. It provides the ability to interpret the PC user’s request, analyze their specific hardware, and parse through the LLM’s extensive knowledge base of BIOS and computer terminology to
https://www.osnews.com/story/139896/theyre-puting-ai-in-your-bios/
#Hardware

2024-06-06 13:35:51

An overview of the Starlark language
Starlark is a small programming language, designed as a simple dialect of Python and intended primarily for embedded use in applications. Some people might say it’s a bit like Lua with Python syntax, but I think there are many interesting bits to discuss. The language is now open-source and used in many other applications and companies. As I led the de
https://www.osnews.com/story/139894/an-overview-of-the-starlark-language/
#GeneralDevelopment

2024-06-06 13:13:47

Windows Recall demands an extraordinary level of trust that Microsoft hasn’t earned
The short version is this: In its current form, Recall takes screenshots and uses OCR to grab the information on your screen; it then writes the contents of windows plus records of different user interactions in a locally stored SQLite database to track your activity. D
https://www.osnews.com/story/139892/windows-recall-demands-an-extraordinary-level-of-trust-that-microsoft-hasnt-earned/
#Windows

2024-06-05 23:03:03

EU data protection board says ChatGPT still not meeting data accuracy standards
OpenAI's efforts to produce less factually false output from its ChatGPT chatbot are not enough to ensure full compliance with European Union data rules, a task force at the EU's privacy watchdog said.
"Although the measures taken in order to comply with the transparency princi
https://www.osnews.com/story/139886/eu-data-protection-board-says-chatgpt-still-not-meeting-data-accuracy-standards/
#Legal

2024-06-05 21:39:15

GNU Nano gains optional modern keybindings
GNU Nano, by far my favourite text editor when using the command line, released version 8.0 recently - and by recently I mean a month ago - and in it, there's a pretty interesting additional feature that should make using Nano a little bit more straightforward for those not used to its key combinations.
Command-line option --modernbindings (-/)
https://www.osnews.com/story/139884/gnu-nano-gains-optional-modern-keybindings/
#InTheNews

2024-06-05 14:52:53

AMD drops Windows 10 support for new chipsets and processors, while Microsoft expands testing efforts for new Windows 10 features
Remember when I said the honeymoon with AMD's consumer-friendly chipset and socket support policy would eventually end? Well, while this is not exactly that, it will make a lot of
https://www.osnews.com/story/139879/amd-drops-windows-10-support-for-new-chipsets-and-processors-while-microsoft-expands-testing-efforts-for-new-windows-10-features/
#Windows

2024-06-04 15:20:57

FreeBSD 14.1 released
A new point release in the FreeBSD 14 series - the first one, in fact, not counting 14.0. FreeBSD 14.1 adds SIMD implementations of string and memory operations on amd64 in the C library to improve performance, improvements to the sound system, such as device hotplug support, and the latest versions of OpenZFS, clang/llvm, and OpenSSH. FreeBSD 14.0 users can just upgrade to FreeBSD 14.1, or y
https://www.osnews.com/story/139876/freebsd-14-1-released/
#FreeBSD

2024-06-04 14:03:24

Intel unveils Lunar Lake architecture, moves RAM on-die
Hot on the heels of AMD, here's Intel's next-generation processor, this time for the laptop market.
Overall, Lunar Lake represents their second generation of disaggregated SoC architecture for the mobile market, replacing the Meteor Lake architecture in the lower-end space. At this time, Intel has disclosed that it uses a 4P
https://www.osnews.com/story/139874/intel-unveils-lunar-lake-architecture-moves-ram-on-die/
#Intel

2024-06-04 13:50:10

A brief look at the 3DS cartridge protocol
About a week ago, there has been a little addition to the 3dbrew wiki page about 3DS cartridges (carts) that outlines the technical details of how the 3DS cartridge controller and a 3DS cartridge talk to each other. I would like to take this opportunity to also include the 3DS itself in the conversation to illuminate which part of which device performs
https://www.osnews.com/story/139872/a-brief-look-at-the-3ds-cartridge-protocol/
#Games

2024-06-03 21:51:22

Andreas Kling steps down from SerenityOS to focus entirely on the Ladybird browser
We've got some possibly sad, possibly great news. Today, Andreas Kling, the amazing developer who started SerenityOS as a way to regain a sense or normalcy after completing his drug rehab program, has announced he's stepping down as the 'big dictator for life' of the Sere
https://www.osnews.com/story/139870/andreas-kling-steps-down-from-serenityos-to-focus-entirely-on-the-ladybird-browser/
#Internet

2024-06-03 20:31:59

Redox replaces core applications with COSMIC applications
Another month, another Redox progress report. The Rust-based operating system, headed by system76 engineer Jeremy Soller, has made a big move by replacing Redox' Orbital file manager, text editor and terminal by their COSMIC counterparts, COSMIC Files, COSMIC Editor and COSMIC Terminal, in the default Redox installation.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139868/redox-replaces-core-applications-with-cosmic-applications/
#RedoxOS

2024-06-03 20:25:27

Libadwaita: splitting GTK and design language
There's no denying that not everyone is happy with the state of the GTK world, and I, too, have argued that GNOME's massive presence and seeming unwillingness to cooperate with or even consider the existence of other GTK-based desktop environments is doing real, measurable harm to the likes of Xfce, Cinnamon, and others. A major root cause is a feeli
https://www.osnews.com/story/139865/libadwaita-splitting-gtk-and-design-language/
#GTK

2024-06-03 14:32:21

AMD unveils Ryzen 9000 CPUs for desktop, Zen 5 takes center stage at Computex 2024
In regards to performance, AMD is touting an average (geomean) IPC increase in desktop workloads for Zen 5 of 16%. And with the new desktop Ryzen chips' turbo clockspeeds remaining largely identical to their Ryzen 7000 predecessors, this should translate into similar performanc
https://www.osnews.com/story/139863/amd-unveils-ryzen-9000-cpus-for-desktop-zen-5-takes-center-stage-at-computex-2024/
#AMD

2024-06-03 14:05:58

Tock: a secure embedded operating system for microcontrollers
Tock is an embedded operating system designed for running multiple concurrent, mutually distrustful applications on Cortex-M and RISC-V based embedded platforms. Tock's design centers around protection, both from potentially malicious applications and from device drivers. Tock uses two mechanisms to protect differen
https://www.osnews.com/story/139861/tock-a-secure-embedded-operating-system-for-microcontrollers/
#OSNews

2024-06-02 14:35:33

This message does not exist
The act of discarding a message that does not exist must therefore do one of two things. It may cause the message contents to also cease to exist. Alternately, it might not affect the existence but only the accessibility of message contents. Perhaps they continue to exist, but discarding the message (which already did not exist) causes the copy operation to cease being invokable
https://www.osnews.com/story/139859/this-message-does-not-exist/
#Internet

2024-05-31 23:07:02

Chrome begins limiting ad blockers
If, for some reason, you're still using Chrome or one of the browsers that put a little hat on Chrome and call it a different browser, the time you're going to want to consider switching to the only real alternative - Firefox - is getting closer and closer. Yesterday, Google has announced that the end of Manifest V2 is now truly here.
Starting on June 3 on the Chr
https://www.osnews.com/story/139856/chrome-begins-limiting-ad-blockers/
#Google

2024-05-31 21:50:54

Wayland adds OpenBSD support
Wayland 1.23.0 has been released. This new release includes the usual bugfixes and protocol clarifications, a number of new features few of us will really understand because we lack the expertise, and most importantly of all: OpenBSD support.
That's it. That's the news.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139854/wayland-adds-openbsd-support/
#Wayland

2024-05-31 21:44:52

Canonical releases Real-time Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Real-time Ubuntu 24.04 LTS integrates the PREEMPT_RT patch on AMD64 and ARM64. As the de-facto Linux real-time implementation, PREEMPT_RT increases predictability by modifying the existing kernel code. With time-bound responses for mission-critical latency requirements, Real-time Ubuntu 24.04 LTS provides deterministic processing to the most dema
https://www.osnews.com/story/139852/canonical-releases-real-time-ubuntu-24-04-lts/
#Ubuntu

2024-05-31 14:27:44

Servo sees another month full of improvements
Servo, the Rust-based browser engine originally started by Mozilla but since spun off into an entity under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation, has published another monthly update. As almost every month, there's been a lot of progress on rendering tech I don't quite understand, and further improved support for various standards. Another major
https://www.osnews.com/story/139850/servo-sees-another-month-full-of-improvements/
#Internet

2024-05-31 13:59:49

25 years of Krita
Twenty-five years. A quarter century. That's how long we've been working on Krita. Well, what would become Krita. It started out as KImageShop, but that name was nuked by a now long-dead German lawyer. Then it was renamed to Krayon, and that name was also nuked. Then it was renamed to Krita, and that name stuck.
I only became part of Krita in 2003, when Krita was still part of KDE's suite of prod
https://www.osnews.com/story/139842/25-years-of-krita/
#Graphics

2024-05-30 23:11:09

First, and possibly only, look at Dell’s weird version of FreeBSD: ThinOS
About a week ago I reported on a case study from Dell and FreeBSD, about Dell's ThinOS thin client operating system, which basically consists of a proprietary Dell GUI running on top of, at the moment, FreeBSD 12 (they're moving to FreeBSD 14 for the next ThinOS release). Well, this got me in
https://www.osnews.com/story/139840/first-and-possibly-only-look-at-dells-weird-version-of-freebsd-thinos/
#FreeBSD

2024-05-30 12:23:12

Help identify these osbscure operating systems and vendors
Over on the GNU config-patches mailing list, Zack Weinberg is looking for help identifying a number of ancient operating systems and vendors.
These are probably all either vendor or OS names from the late 1980s or early 1990s. Can anyone help me fill out the following list of things that ought to appear in testsuite/
https://www.osnews.com/story/139830/help-identify-these-osbscure-operating-systems-and-vendors/
#OSNews

2024-05-29 22:38:34

Google is killing off the messaging service inside Google Maps
Google is killing off a messaging service! This one is the odd "Google Business Messaging" service—basically an instant messaging client that is built into Google Maps. If you looked up a participating business in Google Maps or Google Search on a phone, the main row of buttons in the place card would read som
https://www.osnews.com/story/139828/google-is-killing-off-the-messaging-service-inside-google-maps/
#InTheNews

2024-05-29 21:41:24

Vox Media and The Atlantic sign content deals with OpenAI
Speaking of The Verge, its parent company Vox Media, along with The Atlantic, have signed a deal with OpenAI.
Two more media companies have signed licensing agreements with OpenAI, allowing their content to be used to train its AI models and be shared inside of ChatGPT. The Atlantic and Vox Media — The Verge’s paren
https://www.osnews.com/story/139825/vox-media-and-the-atlantic-sign-content-deals-with-openai/
#InTheNews

2024-05-29 19:19:32

Microsoft’s ‘Auto Super Resolution’ DLSS competitor isn’t exclusive to Qualcomm
When you launch a game on a Snapdragon on a Windows laptop, you might get an AI frame rate boost from Microsoft’s mysterious Auto Super Resolution (Auto SR) feature. But while Microsoft hasn’t fully explained how the feature works, The Verge can now confirm it’s not Qualco
https://www.osnews.com/story/139821/microsofts-auto-super-resolution-dlss-competitor-isnt-exclusive-to-qualcomm/
#InTheNews

2024-05-29 07:34:17

Turbo9: a pipelined 6809 microprocessor IP
The Turbo9 is a pipelined microprocessor IP written in Verilog that executes a superset of the Motorola 6809 instruction set. It is a new modern microarchitecture with 16-bit internal datapaths that balances high performance vs small area / low power. The Turbo9R with a 16-bit memory interface achieves 0.69 DMIPS/MHz which is 3.8 times faster than Mot
https://www.osnews.com/story/139818/turbo9-a-pipelined-6809-microprocessor-ip/
#Hardware

2024-05-28 19:24:59

Jef Raskin’s Canon Cat
Few things in technology excites me more than an amazing computer I have never heard of before - especially one with pedigree.
Many people take a casual glance at this machine and say, "Isn't that an overgrown word processor?" And one could certainly think so, in part because of its keyboard-centric operation, but mostly from the utterly uncomprehending way Canon advertised it in 1987
https://www.osnews.com/story/139811/jef-raskins-canon-cat/
#Hardware

2024-05-28 18:58:50

Microsoft published minimum system requirements, CPU support for Windows 11 LTSC 2024
Aside from that, the company also announced Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024 this week. The company has also published the minimum system requirements as well as supported processor families. They have been categorized as Preferred and Optional. Interestingly, SSD
https://www.osnews.com/story/139813/microsoft-published-minimum-system-requirements-cpu-support-for-windows-11-ltsc-2024/
#Windows

2024-05-28 13:39:35

Evolution of the ELF object file format
The ELF object file format is adopted by many UNIX-like operating systems. While I've previously delved into the control structures of ELF and its predecessors, tracing the historical evolution of ELF and its relationship with the System V ABI can be interesting in itself.
↫ MaskRay
The article wasn't lying. I had no reason to know this - and I'm pretty sur
https://www.osnews.com/story/139809/evolution-of-the-elf-object-file-format/
#Unix

2024-05-28 11:20:14

Introduction: DBus and systemd
systemd uses DBus as the mechanism to interact with it. This article introduces just enough DBus concepts and the usage of busctl to communicate with systemd. These concepts should be useful when using DBus libraries.
↫ Beartama
Exactly what it says on the tin.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139807/introduction-dbus-and-systemd/
#Linux

2024-05-27 13:00:29

MSI shows off motherboard with CAMM2 memory
Earlier this month, we talked about the arrival of the new CAMM2 memory module standard, specifically designed to make replaceable memory modules as fast and capable as soldered memory. There's technically no reason for CAMM2 to not also be beneficial to desktop use, and it turns out MSI is experimenting with this.
MSI on Thursday published the
https://www.osnews.com/story/139804/msi-shows-off-motherboard-with-camm2-memory/
#Hardware

2024-05-27 08:55:27

IceWM 3.5.0 released
IceWM, the venerable window manager we've all used at some point in our lives, has released a new version, 3.5.0. It's a relatively minor release, so you've got things like a new install option which will install an extra theme, a fix for porting to NetBSD 10, translation updates, and more such small improvements. The AddressBar, a command line in the taskbar that can be summoned with ctrl+alt+
https://www.osnews.com/story/139801/icewm-3-5-0-released/
#Wayland

2024-05-25 22:48:49

Google just updated its algorithm, and the Internet will never be the same
But Google results are a zero-sum game. If the search engine sends traffic to one site, it has to take it from another, and the effects on the losers in this Reddit equation are just as dramatic. "Google's just committing war on publisher websites," Ray says. "It's almost as if Google desig
https://www.osnews.com/story/139795/google-just-updated-its-algorithm-and-the-internet-will-never-be-the-same/
#Google

2024-05-25 19:46:52

After you die, your Steam games will be stuck in legal limbo
It turns out that digital rights management and its consequences extend even beyond your passing when it comes to Steam. Valve has made it clear that no, you cannot will your Steam account or games to someone else when you die.
The issue of digital game inheritability gained renewed attention this week as a ResetEr
https://www.osnews.com/story/139793/after-you-die-your-steam-games-will-be-stuck-in-legal-limbo/
#Games

2024-05-25 19:36:34

Microsoft open-sources GW-BASIC
These sources, as clearly stated in the repo’s readme, are the 8088 assembly language sources from 10th Feb 1983, and are being open-sourced for historical reference and educational purposes. This means we will not be accepting PRs that modify the source in any way.
↫ Rich Turner
I'm loving all these open source releases from Microsoft, but honestly, I'd wish the pace
https://www.osnews.com/story/139791/microsoft-open-sources-gw-basic/
#Microsoft

2024-05-24 23:38:21

iFixit ends its collaboration with Samsung
iFixit is ending its collaboration with Samsung, as iFixit claims the Korean giant is not actually interested in offering repair options at all.
As we tried to build this ecosystem we consistently faced obstacles that made us doubt Samsung’s commitment to making repair more accessible. We couldn’t get parts to local repair shops at prices and qu
https://www.osnews.com/story/139788/ifixit-ends-its-collaboration-with-samsung/
#InTheNews

2024-05-24 20:54:10

Writing a Unix clone in about a month
I needed a bit of a break from “real work” recently, so I started a new programming project that was low-stakes and purely recreational. On April 21st, I set out to see how much of a Unix-like operating system for x86_64 targets that I could put together in about a month. The result is Bunnix. Not including days I didn’t work on Bunnix for one reason or another, I
https://www.osnews.com/story/139786/writing-a-unix-clone-in-about-a-month/
#Unix