Linux

OC by @kippinitreal@lemmy.world

Copilot on teams Android keeps turning itself on. I looked through docs & found I was doing things correctly. So I opened it up out of frustration.

I know it means nothing, but I had to say (type?) it out loud. I have really come to hate Windows since 11 was forced on us at work.

Ironically, it’ll just ape back what you want to hear by being sympathetic towards my concerns, addressing nothing.

Don’t know who’s more pathetic, the chatbot or me 🥲

The whole (short) essay can be read here:

https://notes.pault.ag/tpl/

There are parts 2-4 posted as well.

The openSUSE Project is part of a growing coalition of open-source advocates urging Microsoft users to install a Linux operating system as Microsoft prepares to end support for Windows 10 this October, and urgency to get that message out is building.

Some in the IT industry are suggesting that as many as 50 percent of the devices remain using Windows 10, which comes at great risk to users and businesses.

Those who remain on Windows 10 and don’t upgrade to an operating system providing security and maintenance updates like a Linux OS or Window 11 will be susceptible to vulnerabilities, malware infections, software incompatibilities, and an increasing amount of system instability and failures over time.

The End of 10 campaign and its initiative aims to promote migration-focused type events to help these users shift from Windows 10 to Linux-based operating systems.

The amount of PCs that will become unprotected on October 14 is unprecedented, and getting people to migrate to Linux operating systems like openSUSE’s is reaching a critical juncture as millions face the looming deadline this Fall.

October 14 is just 12 weeks away and the end-of-support deadline for Windows 10 will expose those who have not migrated to increasing cyber threats.

In additions to the the threats, a big part of the End of 10 movement emphasizes environmental responsibility, digital sustainability and long-term cost savings for those with aging computers that could potentially end up recycled or in landfill.

End of 10 advocates and supporting organizations like NextCloud, REPAIR CAFE, KDE, GNOME, FSFE, EU OS and several other organizations would prefer users find a Linux solution for their older hardware rather than have this event create an environmental disaster. Installing Linux on these old systems can breathe new life into perfectly functional machines that may otherwise be discarded.

Several open-source software projects and organizations and been collaborating for more than a year to create unified resources, tutorials, migration tools and support channels to help lower the barrier to entry for those who seek to install a Linux new operating system.

Members of the openSUSE community and others have been vocal about appealing to Windows 10 users that can’t upgrade their devices to Windows 11.

For those ready to act, the campaign website has resources available and links to community events to help people install Linux.

Anyone who wants to install an openSUSE distribution can follow this A Step-by-Step Guide.

The message to Windows 10 users is clear; don’t replace your computer; reimagine it!

One aspect of Guix I found to be really fascinating: That there is basically no conceptual difference between defining a package as a private build script, and using a package as part of the system.

Let me explain: Say you wrote a little program in Python which uses a C library (or a Rust library with C ABI) which is in the distribution. Then, in Guix you would put that librarie's name and needed version into a manifest.scm file which lists your dependency, and makes it available if you run guix shell in that folder. It does not matter whether you run the full Guix System, or just use Guix as s package manager.

Now, if you want to install your little python program as part of your system, you'll write an install script or package definition, which is nothing else than a litle piece of Scheme code which contains the name of your program, your dependency, and the information needed to call python's build tool.

The thing is that the only thing which is different between your local package and a distributed package in Guix is that distributed packages are package definitions hosted in public git repos, called 'channels'. So, if you put your package's source into a github or codeberg repo, and the package definition into another repo, you now have published a package which is a part of Guix (in your own channel). Anybody who wants to install and run your package just needs your channel's URL and the packages name. It is a fully decentral system.

In short, in Guix you have built-in something like Arch's AUR, just in a much more elegant and clean manner - and in a fully decentralized way.

Linux users may face yet another hurdle related to Secure Boot when the Microsoft-signed key used by many distributions to support the firmware-based security feature expires on September 11, leaving users at the mercy of distribution from OEMs, and systems possibly not receiving a necessary firmware update.

As LWN reported (paywall) that Microsoft will stop using the expiring key to sign the shim in September. "But the replacement key, which has been available since 2023, may not be installed on many systems; worse yet, it may require the hardware vendor to issue an update for the system firmware, which may or may not happen," LWN said. "It seems that the vast majority of systems will not be lost in the shuffle, but it may require extra work from distributors and users."

The report said manufacturers could add support for the new key in a full firmware update or by updating the KEK database. The former assumes that manufacturers would be interested in distributing a firmware update for a wide variety of products so a small percentage of their users could use Secure Boot with a non-Windows OS; the latter is an unproven mechanism that isn't guaranteed to work on all devices. Both seem likely to leave at least some people to figure out a solution on their own.

India has one of the highest rates of (desktop) Linux usages in the world - hovering around 10% according to StatCounter. Why is this? One reason is concerns over software controlled by foreign countries - particularly the US and China. But another is cost.

The first major boost for Linux and other free software in India came in 2006, when VS Achuthanandan - who passed away today - was elected Chief Minister of the state of Kerala. His government came up with a policy to shift all government computers to free software, starting with schools and colleges.

When the financial benefits became apparent, other states and the Union government followed suit.

This is the first release where RISC-V 64-bit is officially supported by Debian Linux albeit with limited board support and the Debian RISC-V build process is handicapped by slow hardware.