• Security updates for Wednesday

  Security updates have been issued by Fedora (coturn, dovecot, glibc, and sudo), Mageia (openldap and resource-agents), openSUSE (dnsmasq, python-jupyter_notebook, viewvc, and vlc), Oracle (dnsmasq and xstream), SUSE (perl-Convert-ASN1, postgresql, postgresql13, and xstream), and Ubuntu (nvidia-graphics-drivers-418-server, nvidia-graphics-drivers-450-server, pillow, pyxdg, and thunderbird).

• BeyondTrust Privilege Management for Unix & Linux Grows Q4 Revenue 83% YoY by Securing Cloud Infrastructure [Ed: They always love talking about "Clown Computing" instead of servers (which is what they really allude to)]

• Dangerous new malware targets unpatched Linux machines [Ed: This is not a "Linux" issue and it's nothing to do even with stuff that's installed on top of (GNU/)Linux, unless a negligent system administrator is lousy at patching]

  According to a report from Check Point Research (CPR), the malware variant, named FreakOut, specifically targets Linux devices that run unpatched versions of certain software.

• 'FreakOut' Botnet Targets Unpatched Linux Systems [Ed: Same as above]

• Fileless Malware on Linux: Anatomy of an Attack

  Fileless malware is a growing concern for Linux administrators. Linux is considered a very secure OS by design - and rightfully so. With its robust privilege system and the “many eyes” of the open-source community scrutinizing the increasingly popular OS’s code for security vulnerabilities, Linux users are generally much safer than their Windows-using counterparts. That being said, sound administration and the implementation of security best practices can help prevent fileless malware attacks and other dangerous modern exploits that threaten Linux systems.

• I looked at all the ways Microsoft Teams tracks users and my head is spinning

  Microsoft Teams isn't just there to make employees' lives easier. It's also there to give bosses data about so many things.

• Bug#971515: marked as done (kubernetes: excessive vendoring (private libraries))

  This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
  If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
  Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.
  
  (NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what this
  message is talking about, this may indicate a serious mail system
  misconfiguration somewhere. Please contact owner@bugs.debian.org
  immediately.)
  
  

• The Debian tech committee allows Kubernetes vendoring

  Back in October, LWN looked at a conversation within the Debian project regarding whether it was permissible to ship Kubernetes bundled with some 200 dependencies. The Debian technical committee has finally come to a conclusion on this matter: this bundling is acceptable and the maintainer will not be required to make changes

• Kentaro Hayashi: fabre.debian.net is sponsored by FOSSHOST

  Today, we are pleased to announce that fabre.debian.net has migrated to FOSSHOST

  FOSSHOST provides us a VPS instance which is located at OSU Open Source Lab. It improves a lack of enough server resources then service availability especially.

• Freexian’s report about Debian Long Term Support, December 2020

  A Debian LTS logo Like each month, have a look at the work funded by Freexian’s Debian LTS offering.

  Debian project funding

  In December, we put aside 2100 EUR to fund Debian projects. The first project proposal (a tracker.debian.org improvement for the security team) was received and quickly approved by the paid contributors, then we opened a request for bids and the bid winner was announced today (it was easy, we had only one candidate). Hopefully this first project will be completed until our next report.

  We’re looking forward to receive more projects from various Debian teams! Learn more about the rationale behind this initiative in this article.

I found Leah through a fascinating tweet where she charted out her IRC activity over the past 10 years. Leah’s setup is just as interesting, mostly in that there’s no desktop environment. Leah also helps maintain Void Linux, which is a rolling release built from scratch. It’s a little too hardcore for me, but it seems pretty beloved on Reddit. So this setup is technical and intense, but also a lot of fun.

• Arduino Blog » Homemade machine puts a new spin on winding yarn

  If you’ve ever wanted to wind balls of yarn, then look no further than this automated machine from Mr Innovative. The YouTuber’s DIY device is powered by an Arduino Nano and an A4988 stepper driver, spinning up a round conglomeration of yarn via a NEMA17 motor and a timing belt.

  The ball is wound on an offset spindle, which is mechanically controlled to pitch back and forth and spin itself as the overall assembly rotates, producing an interesting geometric pattern.

• Little Bee is an affordable, open hardware current & magnetic field probe (Crowdfunding)

  Little Bee is an affordable, open-source hardware, and high-performance current probe and magnetic field probe designed to debug and analyze electronic devices at a much lower cost than existing solutions such as Migsic CP2100B or I-prober 520. This type of tool is especially important for power electronics, which has become ever more important with electric vehicles, alternative energy solutions, and high-efficiency power supplies.

• Arduino Blog » James Bruton demonstrates the Coanda effect with an Arduino-controlled rig

  The Coanda effect, as you may or may not know, is what causes flowing air to follow a convex surface. In his latest video, James Bruton shows how the concept can used as a sort of inverted ping pong ball waterfall or staircase.

  His 3D-printed rig pushes balls up from one fan stage to another, employing curved ducts to guide the lightweight orbs on their journey.

  The fan speeds are regulated with an Arduino Uno and motor driver, and the Arduino also dictates how fast a feeder mechanism inputs balls via a second driver module. While the setup doesn’t work every time, it’s still an interesting demonstration of this natural phenomenon, and could likely be perfected with a bit more tinkering.

• Fanless embedded PC supports industrial GRE Tiger Lake CPUs

  Avalue’s fanless, rugged “EMS-TGL” embedded PC runs Linux or Win 10 on embedded versions of Intel’s 11th Gen ULP3 Core CPUs with up to 64GB DDR4-3200, 3x M.2, 1GbE and 2.5GbE ports, and optional “IET” expansion.

  Avalue, which recently launched a pair of NUC-APL mini-PCs based on Intel’s Apollo Lake, announced a larger, but similarly fanless embedded computer with Intel’s 10nm, 11th Gen “Tiger Lake” ULP3 processors. The rugged EMS-TGL runs Linux and Win 10 and supports applications including digital signage, smart retail, and computer vision.

  

• If LG stops making smartphones, who will push the boundaries with weird devices like the LG Wing and LG Rollable? - Liliputing

  Meanwhile, folks who are still interested in weird phones might have to look to smaller companies like F(x)Tec, Planet Computers, Pine64, and Purism, which have developed phones with features like built-in keyboards, support for GNU/Linux distributions and other free and open source operating systems, and physical kill switches for wireless, mic, and camera functions, among other things.

• MicroMod modular ecosystem offers M.2 microcontrollers cards and carrier boards

  MicroMod is a modular interface ecosystem for quick embedded development and prototyping. MicroMod comes with two components, that is a microcontroller “processor board” and a carrier board. PC industry’s M.2 connector is the interface between these two components. The carrier boards are for the usage of various peripherals and the processor board act as the brain of the application system. 

  

• Odroid Go Goes Super - Boiling Steam

  Odroid continues to move beyond the simple realm of Single Board Computers (SBCs) to become and more and more credible player as a portable consoles manufacturer. After introducing the Odroid Go and the Odroid Go Advance (that both cow_killer and I reviewed), they have announced at the end of December 2020 that they were going to release yet another version, the Odroid Go Super.

  

• Use Raspberry PI as FM Radio transmitter - peppe8o

  As usual, I suggest adding from now to your favourite ecommerce shopping chart all needed hardware, so that at the end you will be able to evaluate overall costs and decide if continuing with the project or removing them from shopping chart. So, hardware will be only:

  - Raspberry PI Zero W (including proper power supply or using a smartphone micro usb charger with at least 3A) or newer Raspberry PI Board

• Essential Guide: How to Install Docker on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Beginners Guide)

  Docker is a combo of ‘platform as a service’ products and services which use OS virtualisation to provide software in packages called containers.

  Containers contain everything an app, tool or service needs to run, including all libraries, dependencies, and configuration files. Containers are also isolated from each other (and the underlying host system), but can communicate through pre-defined channels.

• Demux, mux and cut MP4 in ffmpeg

  Sometimes video and audio needs to be separated into individual files (aka demuxed). This can be handy when some audio artifacts need to be removed (e.g. noise or buzz) from the audio track (aka stream). This can be done easily...

• Oracle Linux 8: Containers made easy with short training videos

  Container technology provides a means for developers and system administrators to build and package applications together with libraries, binaries, and configuration files so they can run independently from the host operating system and kernel version. You can run the same container application, unchanged, on laptops, data center virtual machines, and on a cloud environment.

• Fix for 2createpackages in woofQ

  WoofQ is the build system for EasyOS. It has scripts '0setup', '1download', '2createpackages' and '3buildeasydistro', that are run in that order. The script '2createpackages' splits each input package into _EXE, _DEV, _DOC and _NLS components.

  Recently, when compiling LibreOffice in EasyOS on the Pi4, the configure step reported that the system boost libraries cannot be used, as some header files were missing. So, I had to use the internal boost, which does make the final LibreOffice PET bigger than it could have been.

• How to Install and Remove Packages in Arch Linux

  Want to install packages on Arch Linux but do not know how? A lot of people face this problem when they first migrate from Debian-based distributions to Arch. However, you can easily manage packages on your Arch-based system using package managers.

  Pacman is the default package manager that comes pre-installed in every Arch distribution. But still, there's a need for other package managers as Pacman doesn't support packages from the Arch User Repository.

• How to Manage Systemd Services with Systemctl on Linux

  Systemd a standard process for managing start-up services in Linux operating systems. It is used for controlling which programs run when the Linux system boots up. It is a system manager and has become the new standard for Linux operating systems. Systemd allows you to create a custom systemd service to run and manage any process. In this tutorial, we will explain how to manage services with systemd on Linux.

• How to install Synfig Studio on Linux Mint 20.1 - YouTube

  In this video, we are looking at how to install Synfig Studio on Linux Mint 20.1.

• How to install Ubuntu Unity Remix 20.10 - YouTube

  In this video, I am going to show how to install Ubuntu Unity Remix 20.10.

• How to Exclude a Directory While Finding Files in Linux

  In Linux, the find command is used to search for files or folders from the command line. It is a complex command and has a large number of options, arguments, and modes.

  The most common use of the find command is to search for files using either a regular expression or the complete filename(s) to be searched.

• How to Copy Files with Specific File Extension Recursively

  In Linux, the command ‘cp‘, which standards for ‘Copy‘ is used to copy files and folders to another folder. It is available by default in Linux as part of the GNU Coreutils set of tools.

  The most basic use of the cp command is to specify the files to be copied as the arguments and to specify the target folder as the last argument.

• How to Copy Large Number of Files in Linux

  We use the cp command in Linux to copy files and directories from one directory to another. It can be simply used to copy a few files or directories, or it can be used with the '-r' argument (which stands for ‘recursive‘) to copy a directory and the whole directory tree structure underneath it.

• What is /dev/null in Linux

  The ‘/dev‘ directory in Linux and Unix based systems contains files corresponding to devices attached to the system. For example, as seen in the screenshot below, the CD drive is accessed using ‘cdrom‘, DVD drive with ‘dvd‘, hard drives are accessed using ‘sda1‘, ‘sda2‘, etc.

  All these files communicate with the Linux system through the respective files in ‘/dev‘. The input/output processing of the devices takes place through these files. This is due to an important feature of the filesystem in Linux: everything is either a file or a directory.

• What is ‘> /dev/null 2>&1’ in Linux

  /dev/null is a pseudo-device file in Linux, which is used to discard output coming from programs, especially the ones executed on the command line. This file behaves like a sink, i.e. a target file which can be written, however as soon as any stream of data is written to this file, it is immediately deleted.

  This is useful to get rid of the output that is not required by the user. Programs and processes can generate output logs of huge length, and it gets messy at times to analyze the log.

• Learn the main Linux OS components

  Evolved from Unix, Linux provides users with a low-cost, secure way to manage their data center infrastructure. Due to its open source architecture, Linux can be tricky to learn and requires command-line interface knowledge as well as the expectation of inconsistent documentation.

  In short, Linux is an OS. But Linux has some features and licensing options that set it apart from Microsoft and Apple OSes. To understand what Linux can do, it helps to understand the different Linux OS components and associated lingo.

• How to Redirect Output to /dev/null in Linux

  In Linux, programs are very commonly accessed using the command line and the output, as such, is displayed on the terminal screen. The output consists of two parts: STDOUT (Standard Output), which contains information logs and success messages, and STDERR (Standard Error), which contains error messages.

  Many times, the output contains a lot of information that is not relevant, and which unnecessarily utilizes system resources. In the case of complex automation scripts especially, where there are a lot of programs being run one after the other, the displayed log is huge.

• How to Move Large Number of Files in Linux

  To move files from one directory to another, the ‘mv‘ command is used in Linux. This command is available in Linux by default and can be used to move files as well as directories.

• How to Limit the Depth of Recursive File Listing in Linux

  In this article, you will learn how to list file directory structure and limit the depth of recursive file display in Linux.

• How to Find Top Running Processes by Memory Usage

  We will use the top command-line tool, which is a task manager in Unix and Linux systems that shows all the details about running processes with memory usage.

• How to Extract Email Addresses from Text File in Linux

  In this article, you will learn how to extract Email addresses from a text file in Linux, using the handy command-line tool Grep.

Even though Brave browser was caught up in some controversies last year, it looks like they managed to become the first major web browser to add support for InterPlantetary File System (IPFS) protocol with the help of Protocol Labs.

This support was introduced with v1.19.86 release.

In case you didn’t know, IPFS is a peer to peer protocol that lets you store and share files. You can safely assume it as something similar to the BitTorrent protocol with some technical differences.

Just because it is totally a decentralized system to store and share files, it can be quite effective to fight censorship by big tech and the government.

• How to Change Your Linux Password

  You've heard it before: change your password regularly. That can sometimes seem like a pain, but fortunately, changing your Linux password is easy. Today we'll show you how to change the current user's password, other users' passwords, and the superuser password with a few simple commands.

• How To Generate Random Numbers in Unix

  It is very easy to generate random numbers in Unix. Easiest way is to use the variable $RANDOM.

  Every time if you echo $RANDOM, you would get a new number between 0 and 32767.

• How To Find IP Address In Linux - OSTechNix

  This guide will walk you through the steps to check or find IP address in Linux using ip and hostname commands from command line interface.

• How to Update Node.js to the Latest Version - LinuxBuz

  Node.js is an open-source and cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment used to run JavaScript code on the server-side. It is primarily used for non-blocking, event-driven servers, traditional web sites and back-end API services.

  You already know how to install Node.js and NPM using three different ways. If your application is running on the Node.js server then I would recommend updating Node.js version regularly to improve the security. There are several ways you can update your Node.js version in Linux system.

• How to Uninstall Applications from Ubuntu [Beginner's Guide]

  Don’t use a certain application anymore? Remove it.

  In fact, removing programs is one of the easiest ways to free up disk space on Ubuntu and keep your system clean.

  In this beginner’s tutorial, I’ll show you various ways of uninstalling software from Ubuntu.

• How to Install and Configure Apache Web Server on Debian 10

  Apache server is one of the most popular and open source web servers that is developed and maintained by Apache Software Foundation. Apache is by far the most commonly used Web Server application in Linux operating systems, but it can be used on nearly all OS platforms Windows, MAC OS, OS/2, etc. It enables the developers to publish their content over the internet

  In this article, we will explain how to install and configure the Apache webserver on Debian 10 OS.

• How to Install Spotify on Linux Distributions

  Spotify is a free music streaming service that offers additional premium content at a minimal subscription fee. It's a widely successful music service with several million users and millions of songs at your fingertips. With Spotify, you can listen to your favorite artists, the latest hits, exclusives, and new discoveries on the go. Spotify is available on Windows, macOS, Linux (Debian), along with Android, iOS, and Windows Phone smartphones and tablets.

  We will learn in this article how to install Spotify on the latest version of Ubuntu, Mint, and Fedora.

• How to Install SOGo on Ubuntu 20.04 | LinuxHostSupport

  SOGo is a free and open-source collaborative software with a focus on simplicity and scalability. It provides an AJAX-based Web interface and supports multiple native clients through the use of standard protocols such as CalDAV, CardDAV, and GroupDAV, as well as Microsoft ActiveSync. It also offers address book management, calendaring, and Web-mail clients along with resource sharing and permission handling.

  In this tutorial, we will show you how to install SOGo on an Ubuntu 20.04 based virtual private server.

• How to Install LXD / LXC on Ubuntu - buildVirtual

  Learn how to install LXD on a Ubuntu Linux system, including how to install and initialise LXD manually, use --preseed and how to script the lxd install

• How to install iTunes on Linux such as Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - Linux Shout

  iTunes for Linux systems doesn’t sound realistic because officially it is available only for Windows and macOS. However, using Wine on Ubuntu and other Linux, is absolutely possible just like any other native Linux application.

  Those who are using Apple devices can understand the value of the iTunes application on their systems. It let you not only listen to music available on your iPhone, PC, and other devices but also let access various other things such as Radio, iTunes Store, and more. Once logged in with Apple ID, in addition to managing, playing, and downloading music tracks, the iTunes app also enables direct access to the music streaming service of Apple Music.

• How to set up tlog on Linux hosts for terminal logging | Enable Sysadmin

  Enhance your system security with tlog, a terminal logging utility.

• How to update your server from Ubuntu 18.04 to Ubuntu 20.04 | LinuxCloudVPS Blog

  Upgrading your Ubuntu version from one version to the latest version is one of the best features of Ubuntu. It is always recommended to upgrade your current Ubuntu version regularly in order to benefits from the latest security patches. You will get several benefit including, the latest software, new security patches and upgraded technology with a new version.

  As of now, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is the latest Ubuntu version and you will keep getting updates and support till April 2025.

  Before starting any upgrade process, it is a good idea to backup any important files, system settings, and critical content for precaution. Also remember, you cannot downgrade it. You cannot go back to Ubuntu 18.04 without reinstalling it.

• How to use whiptail to create more user-friendly interactive scripts | Enable Sysadmin

  Do you script in bash? If so, you can provide your users with a more robust and simple TUI for entering information into scripts.

• Install Krita 4.4.2 In Ubuntu / Linux Mint | Tips On UNIX

  Krita is a free and open-source painting tool for artists and also known as a Photoshop alternative software, Krita has been in development for 10+ years and recently it came to life and having a good response now.

  This tutorial will be helpful for beginners to install Krita 4.4.2 in Ubuntu 20.10, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04 and Linux Mint 20.1, and older versions.

  The latest version of Krita is 4.4.2 and announced with over 300 changes with new features also.

• Install VLC 3.0.12 In Ubuntu / LinuxMint / OpenSUSE | Tips On UNIX

  This tutorial will be helpful for beginners to install VLC in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, Ubuntu 18.04 and LinuxMint 20.1.

  VLC is a free and open-source cross-platform multimedia player and it is one of the best media player for Linux used by millions of peoples to play multimedia files such as DVD, VCD, MP4, MKV, Mp3, and various formats.

  VLC released the thirteenth version of “Vetinari” branch 3.0.12.

• Xiaomi Android 11 update tracker: Mi & Redmi devices received beta/stable

• TCL will update its 2019 & 2020 Android TVs to Android 11

• rlaxx TV launches on Amazon Fire TV and Android TV

• Verimatrix Releases Advanced Code Protection Service for Android Application Bundles

• Does Your Android Phone Need Antivirus or Malware Protection?

• MediaTek’s new high-end Android 5G chipsets aim to squeeze out Snapdragon

• Best Android app deals of the day: hocus 2, FineScanner AI Pro, Fait, more

Renesas unveiled three low-end “RZ/G2L” members of its RZ/G2 family of Linux-driven IoT SoCs with single or dual -A55 cores plus a Mali-G31, Cortex-M33, and up to dual GbE support. There is also a SMARC module and dev kit.

Renesas’ RZ/G2 line of industrial-focused system-on-chips include the hexa-core RZ/GM and octa-core RZ-G2H, both with mixtures of Cortex-A57 and -A53 cores and 4K support, as well as two dual-core models: a Cortex-A53 based RZ/G2E with HD video and a Cortex-A57-equipped RZ/G2N with 4K. Instead of filling in the middle of the Linux-focused product line with some quad-core models, the Japanese chipmaker has instead come back with three new low-end models, featuring single or dual-core Cortex-A55 cores.

• Links 20/1/2021: LibreOffice 7.1 RC2 and the RHEL Contingency
• InteLeaks – Part XXIII: Intel Paying for Bogus 'Research' 'Insights' Which Merely Seek to Justify Outsourcing to Microsoft and Imposing Microsoft's Proprietary Software on Free Software Developers
• Suppressed Facts of the Free Software Movement and Its Community of Volunteers – Part V: How FSF Secrecy Ended Up Insulting People, Alienating Trans Developers
• InteLeaks – Part XXII: Bubbles and Buzzwords, No Substance at Intel's Internet of Things (IoT) Group (IOTG)
• IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 19, 2021
• Links 20/1/2021: WireGuard for pfSense and New US President
• Links 19/1/2021: Krita 4.4.2 Released and JingOS Hype
• Team UPC Keeps Pretending That UPCA Can Still be Resurrected (Even Without the UK, Which is Strictly a Requirement)
• 'Ethical Source' is Not Ethical and Not a Movement But a Misguided Self-Serving PR Stunt
• InteLeaks – Part XXI: Intel Seeking Advice From a Bunch of Clowns (Harbor 'Research')
• IRC Proceedings: Monday, January 18, 2021
• The US Election Was Not Rigged, But the Nomination Process Was (Undermined to Maintain Control by Oligarchy)
• InteLeaks – Part XX: Redacted (for Names Only) Release of Intel File About Developer eXperience (DX) Meddling in GNU/Linux
• Sites in Bed With the EPO and UPC 'Covering' the 'News' Without Mentioning Any of the Overt Abuses
• Suppressed Facts of the Free Software Movement and Its Community of Volunteers – Part IV: Stories From the Depths of the Free Software Foundation (FSF)

Starting with Firefox 85, which will be released January 25, 2021, Firefox for Android users will be able to install supported Recommended Extensions directly from addons.mozilla.org (AMO). Previously, extensions for mobile devices could only be installed from the Add-ons Manager, which caused some confusion for people accustomed to the desktop installation flow. We hope this update provides a smoother installation experience for mobile users.

As a quick note, we plan to enable the installation buttons on AMO during our regularly scheduled site update on Thursday, January 21. These buttons will only work if you are using a pre-release version of Firefox for Android until version 85 is released on Tuesday, January 25.

This wraps up our initial plans to enable extension support for Firefox for Android. In the upcoming months, we’ll continue to work on optimizing add-on performance on mobile. As a reminder, you can use an override setting to install other extensions listed on AMO on Firefox for Android Nightly.

• Problem with Open-source Downloads

  Open-source downloads not working currently due to disk system failure at our cloud service provider.

• How to Set Up Btrfs RAID – Linux Hint

  Btrfs is a modern Copy-on-Write (CoW) filesystem with built-in RAID support. So, you do not need any third-party tools to create software RAIDs on a Btrfs filesystem.
  The Btrfs filesystem keeps the filesystem metadata and data separately. You can use different RAID levels for the data and metadata at the same time. This is a major advantage of the Btrfs filesystem.

  This article shows you how to set up Btrfs RAIDs in the RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-1C3, RAID-1C4, RAID-10, RAID-5, and RAID-6 configurations.

• How to Co-author Documents in Linux with ONLYOFFICE Docs

  Document collaboration as the practice of multiple people working simultaneously on a single document is really important in today’s technologically advanced age. Using document collaboration tools, users can view, edit, and work simultaneously on a document without sending emailing attachments to each other all day. Document collaboration is sometimes called co-authoring. Real-time document co-authoring is not possible without special software.

• Chrome Releases: Stable Channel Update for Desktop

  The Chrome team is delighted to announce the promotion of Chrome 88 to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux. This will roll out over the coming days/weeks.

  Chrome 88.0.4324.96 contains a number of fixes and improvements -- a list of changes is available in the log. Watch out for upcoming Chrome and Chromium blog posts about new features and big efforts delivered in 88

• Chrome 88 Released With Security Fixes, Adobe Flash Removed - Phoronix

  Google has released Chrome 88 as the latest stable version of their cross-platform web browser.

• mintCast 352.5 – One Night with Ulyssa

  In our Innards section, we talk about the first 24 hours with Linux Mint 20.1

  And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

I'm glad Linux Mint exists. That's a strange statement, coming from someone who has never opted to make it their default desktop distribution. I've never been a fan of Cinnamon or Mate, and I've always thought Xfce was a solid desktop, but just not for me.

Even though I'm not terribly keen on the offered desktops for Linux Mint, I still believe it to be a fantastic distribution. Why is that? One reason is that it's most ardent fans are almost Apple-like in their fanaticism. From my perspective, that's a good thing. Linux has long needed a desktop distribution which elicited that much excitement from the user base. Once upon a time, that title would have been bestowed upon Ubuntu. Alas, a few bad choices along the way and the rabid fanbase isn't quite so rabid.

• YoYo Games developer of GameMaker Studio sold for $10M

  Game Maker and later GameMaker Studio is a very popular game engine with indie developers and YoYo Games just recently sold it off and it appears they did so at a loss.

  Originally created by Mark Overmars, who later teamed up with YoYo Games who have carried it on since 2007. Later in 2015 the YoYo Games studio was acquired by Playtech for around $16.4 million dollars.

  [...]

  For game developers, the game engine you rely on suddenly changing hands with no prior notice and no announcement a week later must be a little frightening. Games often take multiple years to create, so for developers well into the thick of using GameMaker Studio hopefully the result will be a good one. Perhaps though, the time is ripe to check out Godot Engine since it's free and open source.

• Aveliana is a beautiful upcoming infiltration-action game mixing 2D and 2.5D styles | GamingOnLinux

  TheFrenchDev have announced Aveliana, what they're calling an infiltration-action-adventure game that mixes together 2D and 2.5D to create a unique looking style.

  "Embrace Aveliana’s quest to bring back someone she has lost! The game takes place alternatively in an isometric or a 2D point of view and is fast-paced. Guide her through arduous paths watched by monsters, follow the trace of a mysterious fox, and find the powerful artifacts she is looking for at the core of wonderful temples. Will you stealth your way to victory? Seek a forgotten path on the edge of a cliff? Or stand and fight against your enemies? The choice is yours!"

  [...]

  We spoke with the developer behind the project, who clearly stated to us in a message how Linux will be fully supported. In fact, even their early rough work-in-progress demo on Game Jolt has a Linux build available. It's being built with the Unity game engine, which for the most part has good cross-platform support for games like this.

• Play the charming co-op construction game Unrailed! free for a few days plus big sale

  Unrailed! from Daedalic Entertainment and Indoor Astronaut released back in September 2020 and now you have a chance to play for free to end your week. Don't pass up on it either from now until January 25 you can download and play the full game on Steam, and there's a 50% discount if you decide you like it enough to keep it.

  What do you actually do in Unrailed! and is it fun? You and up to three others need to keep a train going for as long as possible, by constantly building a track. It's pure chaos once it gets going and an absolute riot to play with friends. Plenty of communication breakdowns, shouting and laughing all bundled in together. The train will get faster as you go too, plus you can upgrade it with new carriages and all sorts.

• Valve and others fined by the European Commission for 'geo-blocking'

  The European Commission just announced that they've now issued formal fines against Valve, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax for breaching their antitrust rules. An investigation that has been going on for some time now since early 2017, and certainly not the first fine Valve has dealt with for breaking some rules here.

  What's the deal? The EU say that Valve and the others restricted cross-border sales on the basis of their location inside the European Economic Area (‘EEA'). To put it simply: Valve allowed certain developers and publishers to block keys being redeemed in one country, that were purchased in another (where it might have been cheaper). Out of all those named, Valve is the only company that did not cooperate with their investigation and so they got slapped a lot harder.

  [...]

  For a company as big as Valve (and the likes of ZeniMax), they won't be losing any sleep over fines that for them will most likely be a drop in the ocean. Valve especially, as the Steam store pretty much prints money for them.

• Samsung Galaxy M31 receiving Android 11-based One UI 3.0 stable update

• LG V60 ThinQ will soon receive the Android 11 system update

• OnePlus 7 and 7T series get Android 11 with OxygenOS Open Beta 1

• Sony seeding stable Android 11 to Xperia 5 II

• OPPO's ColorOS is now the best Android Skin

• The Best Portable Chargers for iPhone and Android Smartphones

• 16 Best Photoshop alternatives of Android and iOS

• How to download Free Fire OB26 Advance server for Android Devices

After a hiatus of ten months in the blog posts on the Sabayon Linux Website, a couple of posts on 20 November 2020 announced that the distribution was switching its base distribution from Gentoo Linux to Funtoo Linux (‘Sabayon and Funtoo Linux Merge Projects’), and that the distribution was rebranding (‘Sabayon project is rebranding to MocaccinoOS’) and moving to a completely different package manager named ‘Luet’. A new Website and forum for MocaccinoOS were started, and the Sabayon Linux forums and Wiki are no more.

Although my first experience of Linux was Ubuntu in 2006, it was Sabayon Linux in early 2007 that turned me into a full-time Linux enthusiast and got me interested in the Portage package manager and Gentoo Linux, which I have been using as my main OS for many years now. My interest in Sabayon Linux waned when it moved to a binary package manager (‘Entropy’), and later when it switched from OpenRC to systemd.

LibreOffice 7.1 will be released as final at the beginning of February, 2021 ( Check the Release Plan for more information ) being LibreOffice 7.1 RC2 the fourth pre-release since the development of version 7.1 started at the end of May, 2020. Since the previous release, LibreOffice 7.1 RC1, 87 commits have been submitted to the code repository and 64 bugs have been fixed. Check the release notes to find the new features included in LibreOffice 7.1.

Also: LibreOffice 7.1 RC2 Up For Testing This Open-Source Office Suite

We’re delighted to welcome Kyeong Sang Kim to Red Hat as a general manager for Korea. In the new role, he will be responsible for Red Hat’s business operations in the country.

Kyeong Sang is an expert in the field of IT consulting, supporting numerous business innovation projects for more than 25 years. Prior to joining Red Hat, Kyeong Sang served as the CEO of SICC (Ssangyong Information & Communications Corp), where he successfully led the company’s digital transformation to the cloud. He has also held several other leadership roles at global companies, including Accenture.

We caught up with Kyeong Sang to find out more about his interest in open source and Red Hat, and his insights on leadership.

Last month, Red Hat caused a lot of consternation in the enthusiast and small business Linux world when it announced the discontinuation of CentOS Linux.
Long-standing tradition—and ambiguity in Red Hat's posted terms—led users to believe that CentOS 8 would be available until 2029, just like the RHEL 8 it was based on. Red Hat's early termination of CentOS 8 in 2021 cut eight of those 10 years away, leaving thousands of users stranded.

As of February 1, 2021, Red Hat will make RHEL available at no cost for small-production workloads—with "small" defined as 16 systems or fewer. This access to no-cost production RHEL is by way of the newly expanded Red Hat Developer Subscription program, and it comes with no strings—in Red Hat's words, "this isn't a sales program, and no sales representative will follow up."