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Wonder Wednesday 1 – KDE Updates and A Docker How-To Ever Wonder What’s Next for KDE? Degoogle Your Mobile Life Ever Wonder What Docker Is or If It Might Help You? #wonderwednesday #newthing #Linux #FOSSNews #KDE #Docker #TechFreedom Wonder Wednesday, New Thing, Linux news, FOSS News, KDE updates, Docker Intro, Tech Freedom WW 1.1 – KDE Plasma 5.27.4 We have another maintenance update for the latest LTS version of KDE. Let’s see what’s new, shall we? · Fixed a KWin crash in dual monitor setups where after disabling and renabling the secondary monitor · Scroll speed setting fixed · Better GTK app handling o Multi-monitor o Switching global themes · Plasma Wayland Session o No more quit with too-long window names o Improvements for NVidia Users § Screen recording and task manager thumbnails now better · Quality of Life Improvements o energy usage graphs in the Info Center app more reliable when using dark themes o multi-monitor support to visually distinguish monitors with the same name and serial number by showing their connector names o Better support for Flatpak apps in the Plasma Discover package manager · Plasma Discover o Faster when there are a ton of updates o No more prompts to update when Discover window is open o Emoji picker app can now be opened with dedicated emoji key on keyboard (what are we coming to, y’all?) o Kicker launcher’s “Sort applications alphabetically” setting now removes manually-placed separator lines between apps. · Many bugs fixed o Certain crashes o Visually corrupted decorations o Better support for GTK headerbar apps when running Breeze GTK theme o No more red/blue cursor color swap in screen casting · And more... https://9to5linux.com/kde-plasma-5-27-4-improves-plasma-wayland-on-nvidia-gpus-fixes-many-bugs #KDE #updates #alwaysgettingbetter #stillamess #stillmyfavorite #FOSSNews #TechFreedom WW 1.2 – KDE Frameworks 5.105 Small update with only 55 changes made, which makes allot of sense since most of their development energy is focused on Plasma 6, which is coming soon as well. The main headline is better support for the Breeze icon theme in Flatpak apps downloaded via flathub. Other than that, it’s just a handful of tweaks to Kirigami apps, New icons for Redshift, and fixed a bug which led to the Filelight icon being shown for GParted and KwikDisk, new icons for showing and hiding the virtual keyboard. We should also see fewer Baloo file indexing service crashes, which is always a good thing. Not much else to say here, they release one of these per month, at least until Plasma 6 is released. As an aside: I used to be a 100% KDE fanboy, used to hate GNOME with a passion because of the stunts that the dev team over at Red Hat pulled every time there was an update (thereby breaking most extensions), but now I’ve been using GNOME 44 on my Surface since it was released, and while this sad little machine still has its issues, GNOME seems better suited for this purpose than KDE ever has been. I eat crow when I need to, and this is one of those situations. That is all. https://9to5linux.com/kde-frameworks-5-105-improves-support-for-flatpak-apps-updates-breeze-icon-theme #KDE #updates #flatpaksupport #icons #fewercrashes #FOSSNews #TechFreedom Want to learn more about how to degoogle your phone and why? https://techfreedom.pro/degoogled/ #TechFreedom #degoogled #degoogleyourlife #defintionsday #Truth WW 1.3 – What is Docker Anyway? Docker is a containerization solution for app development and deployment. Think of it as a Firejailed Flatpak on steroids. With a Docker implementation, any app should run the same on pretty much any system, because all of its core dependencies are included in the container, so it does not need to rely on the underlying system for much at all, other than processing power, storage, and RAM. Containerization also nets the benefits of virtualization without the overhead of running a full guest OS. Will it work for every scenario, not necessarily. On the other hand, if you need more security, a virtual machine will be a better bet, even with the overhead, as those are that much more segmented from the rest of the system in terms of resources. I’m not going to read through the how-to install it, if you want to know, simply read the article, linked below. What are the main pieces of Docker? The Docker Engine, which allows you to run docker containers on your system via a background daemon process. Then there is the Docker Image, multiple of which can be stacked to create your ideal container for your purposes, this is a file which serves as a template to create dockerfiles which are the containers for your apps. Finally, we have the Docker Container itself: this is a Linux instance with all of the dependencies for your app built in, and not much else; it will stay in memory until you delete the dockerfile you created for it; you turn images into containers by adding read/write permissions to the image. How do I use it, though? Here are a few basic commands: · To run a Docker container – docker container run [options] [container name] o Here are some run options: § -i or --interactive – Interact with containers (connect to the container’s standard input). § -t or --tty – Assign a pseudo-terminal. § -d or --detach – Avoid terminal lockup (run in the background). § --rm – Automatically remove stopped containers. § --name Name the container (make it easier to specify containers). § --platform – Explicit image architecture. · To list all Docker containers on your system o docker container ls · To stop a particular container from running - (two step situation): o docker container ls -a (the –a will list every container) § then o docker container stop [docker id] (you don’t need to type in all of the id string just the first few characters, as each container’s opening string for their ID is unique) · To download new Images from Docker Hub o docker pull [image name] · To delete Images – o docker rmi [image name] o docker rmi –f [image] § The –f flag will force the issue, so even if it is being used in a container, it will still get the ax. About Dockerfiles though, there are many possible directives, but here are a few key ones: · FROM – Specify base image · RUN – execute arbitrary command · COPY – Add files from the host machine to the image · CMD – specify a default instruction To show you what we are talking about, say we want to use an Ubuntu 20.04 image for something, first, you pull the image file, then you create a file called Dockerfile, then edit it and add the following lines: FROM ubuntu:20.04 RUN apt-get update RUN apt-get install -y curl Save the file, then run this command: docker image build --tag my-ubuntu:20.04 If we don’t use the --tag flag, we will get a random string of characters as the ID for the container. After that, run this to make sure that the container was successfully created, by running docker images to see the list of images on your system. Now you have some idea what Docker is, what containers are, and how to use and create Docker containers for yourself. https://www.geeksveda.com/docker-tutorial/ #docker #containerization #portable #virtualization #Linux #sysadmin #FOSSNews #TechFreedom Bits & Bobs: How to Degoogle Your OnePlus Devices https://rumble.com/v184y5x-how-to-degoogle-a-oneplus-6-with-lineageos.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #tutorial #degoogle #oneplus #TechFreedom #privacy #degoogleyourlife #FOSSNews #Truth If CLI is a Bit Too Much for You, Here's How the GrapheneOS Web-Installer Works for Pixels https://rumble.com/v178p5r-grapheneos-webinstaller-demo-pixel-3-xl.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #tutorial #example #definitionsday #pixel3xl #grapheneOS #degoogle #privacy #security How to install GrapheneOS on a Pixel phone: https://tv.gab.com/channel/tech_freedom/view/how-to-degoogle-your-pixel-3xl-629bcda174999572f23b5032 #definitionsday #TechFreedom #techtips #howto #tutorial

DM 53.1 – What’s CachyOS? Well, it’s kinda like it says. This new distro is meant to be fast, and secure. I need something that isn’t gonna get in my way, so maybe I’ll give this a try on my Surface, then after that I’ll give you my opinion. I’m currently running EndeavourOS, which I talk about every time they release a new ISO, but even it has some problems on this goofy machine. I just want to find something that will do what I need it to without getting in my way via glitches which result in weird performance issues. I digress, though. Back to Cachy, so what is so special about this Arch distro? For one, it is designed for ease of use, so it is more like a Manjaro or Garuda than Vanilla Arch. Secondly, it is, as I said before, built for speed and increased security. This sounds like an excellent thing to me. What makes it unique, though? · Desktop packages compiled with LTO and x86-64-v3 optimization. o LTO grants the compiler the opportunity to see more than a single .o file at a time. This grants extra freedom for the optimisation that yields: § reduced code size (seen binaries down to 40%, but expect some 5-20% reduction) § increased execution speed (hey, there is less code for the same thing, how much faster depends on how the application, obviously) · Choice of desktop environments with online installation process (including i3, bspwm, and Openbox, and Wayfire window managers) o The standard desktop options apply: GNOME, KDE, LxQt, Xfce, and Cutefish · Offline and Online installation options · GUI and CLI-based installation options · Optimized Linux Kernel with advanced BORE Scheduler for enhanced performance and reliability o There are a handful of other options as well, for the more advanced users. o I’m going to try to ask some questions in their forum before I dive in, as I do need a particular kernel in order for things to work right on this machine, as far as I know. There have been reports of a 10-20% performance uplift for users vs other distros, due to their tweaks, and that sounds very interesting to me. I’m also liking the added security claims. We shall see if it is worth trying on this machine or not. Maybe I should try it on my boys’ old machine, see if it feels more responsive than Manjaro there. That would almost make more sense to do right now. Again, though, not sure when I might get to that. https://news.itsfoss.com/cachyos/ https://cachyos.org/ #distromonday #cachyOS #Linuxnews #FOSSNews #newdistro #TechFreedom DM 53.2 – Dangerous Tools: Black Arch Linux This, like Kali Linux, is termed as an “ethical hacking” distro. What does that mean? It is Arch + over 2,800 tools to help you do penetration testing, security research, and the like. Yes, it is built by “hackers, for hackers”. Being based on Arch, it will naturally be more finicky than Kali, but also far more robust and bleeding edge in terms of packages not directly related to the ethical hacking tools they create and bundle with it. I’m not gonna list all the tools, because we’d be here all day reading it off, but I will encourage you to take a look at the exhaustive list they have (https://blackarch.org/tools.html). The team had been quiet for the last year, which is part of why I haven’t covered it until now. The other part is that my business and channel are oriented toward attracting new users to the space, not circle-jerking with others who know the OS better than I do. This is a niche within a niche, and not even super well-known in the Linux space, as Kali is by nature more stable and accessible. However, I still wanted to say something about this distro, as variety is the spice of life. https://9to5linux.com/ethical-hacking-distro-blackarch-linux-gets-new-iso-release-with-over-2800-tools #distromonday #blackarch #FOSSNews #Linuxnews #Linux #hackers #whitehats #TechFreedom Freedom Consultation Free call. 60-90 minutes. Q&A Leave with Actionable Steps to take, whether you work with me or not. Schedule today. https://techfreedom.pro/freedom-consultation #distromonday #freedom #consultation #Linux #degoogleyourlife #TechFreedom DM 53.3 – News from Linux Lite Linux Lite is a *buntu-based distro with an eye toward being lightweight and fast, perfect for users with older, or less powerful machines, particuarly those who really want to breathe new life into old hardware. It uses Xfce as the desktop, and stays very stable, rather than always updating those packages as soon as they come available (it is still using 4.16 rather than the new 4.18). Why else should you be interested though? It is stable and fast. What’s new? · Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with the 5.15 LTS kernel · Zstd compression o Makes installs faster · Systemd Reporting through the Lite System Report App · Updated Thunar File Manager o Thumbnail support for WebP images · Latest and greatest Papirus icons · Pre-installed Apps all updated o Thunderbird o WokeFox (sorry, Mozilla is super woke, guys) o Etc... All in all a solid update, btw, you can install pretty much any Linux kernel you want, from 3.13 all the way up to 6.2, from their repos. Pretty cool. https://9to5linux.com/linux-lite-6-4-officially-released-based-on-ubuntu-22-04-2-lts #distromonday #Linux #LinuxLite #lightweight #fast #oldhardware #newhardware #FOSSNews #TechFreedom Tech Freedom Intro: What to expect from my channels and website. https://rumble.com/v157uqb-tech-freedom-intro-what-is-this.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #intro #TechFreedom #telegram #truthsocial #publicsq #gab #Truth

Bob Lee Stabbed to Death in SF Credit Suisse Buyout News Amazon Vs Labor and UK May Sue Over Cloud Monopoly AI News Tiktok News Weekend Edition, Cashapp founder stabbed to death in SanFran, Credit Suisse & UBS, Amazon Labor Union Woes, UK signals lawsuit over AWS and Azure in UK stifling competition, pResident Depends holding meetings on AI, chatGPT makes wild accusations, Head of Signal Foundation reaffirms dedication to never adopt AI tech in the Signal system, Other popular Chinese Apps, TikTok opinions WE 31.1 – Bob Lee, Founder of CashApp Stabbed to Death Sad story to start off the day, but I’m committed to doing some sort of human interest piece at the top of the weekend edition from now on. It would appear that Bob Lee, who was a fixture in Silicon Valley for the last 20 years or so, first as an engineer at Square, then when he founded CashApp later, was stabbed to death in the Rincon District of San Francisco. Many will miss him, he sounded like a genuinely great guy. Good bye, Bob. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/05/tech/bob-lee-tech-executive-death/index.html #cashapp #boblee #rip #sadday #square #cashapp WE 31.2 – Shotgun Wedding in Switzerland UBS and Credit Suisse tied the knot, so to speak, in a very rushed ceremony due to the failing health of Credit Suisse over the last handful of months. Swiss authorities pushed them together, and both parties were willing, for the most part, however, others around them are questioning the pairing. some are concerned that it concentrates too much risk in UBS specifically and Switzerland generally. We will see what becomes of this union which apparently will take 3-4 years to completely effect, due to the gargantuan nature of both partners. It looks like there will be significant layoffs as these two big banks become one, after all it doesn’t make sense to have reduplication of efforts when part of the point of mergers like this is to streamline operations. Some shareholders were pretty mad at the meetings which each bank held in the beginning of the week. Markedly moreso on the Credit Suisse side than on the UBS side, but no one was really happy that they didn’t get a vote in the matter. Sure, the UBS shareholders were happy to have one fewer competitors in the world, but having a major deal like that crammed down their throats tempered their enthusiasm a bit. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/05/ubs-holds-first-shareholder-meeting-since-controversial-credit-suisse-takeover.html #UBS #creditsuisse #mergers #banking #highfinance WE 31.3 – Amazon in Trouble More? 31.3a – Ever Hear About the Amazon Labor Union? Well, they won their court case a year ago, but Amazon still refuses to acknowledge that they exist. A guy named Christian Smalls, who was let go from one of the NY Amazon warehouses back in 2020, decided that workers needed to unionize to protect themselves from the increasingly poor working conditions they faced in the warehouses. As you can imagine, it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses for the fledgling union, because even though they won the first battle, which is simply to be able to organize at all, there have been other hurdles. Personality conflicts, differences of opinion, and of course resistance from the behemoth that they are trying to organize in order to have a voice in order to bargain with. Amazon has hardly bothered to notice that this ragtag, grassroots group, headed by an individual whom Amazon lawyers thought was “not smart or articulate” a few years ago. It will be interesting to see what happens with the ALU’s efforts to move any further than they have already, which is quite something. I’m neither a huge fan of mega-corps like Amazon nor of the overtly socialist nature of unions, which is already starting to manifest itself in Mr. Smalls. He travels all over the country, wearing Versace, and hobnobbing with celebrities, then passes down pronouncements as if from on high. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/01/tech/amazon-labor-union-one-year-later/index.html 31.3b – AWS and Azure to Face Anti-trust Litigation in UK OFCOM, the UK communications regulator looks poised to bring a case against both tech monsters’ cloud divisions for being anti-competitive. What are they looking at here, though? In the words of the Ofcom’s director, they have found, “High barriers to switching are already harming competition in what is a fast-growing market. We think more in-depth scrutiny is needed, to make sure it’s working well for people and businesses who rely on these services.” In light of that, they have decided to refer the matter to the Competition and Markets Authority, who is ready to do an investigation of their own, actually seems to be champing at the bit, so to speak. They have already reviewed preliminary findings from Ofcom and is primed to look into the matter. The issues that led to Ofcom referring them to the CMA center around high egress fees, artificial technical barriers to interoperability with other providers, as well as incentive fee structures meant to encourage clients to only use one cloud provider for all their needs. This strikes me as a fairly open & shut case, as far as I’m concerned, but the giants, including Google, which speak for between 65-75% of the cloud market in the UK are all using these tactics (not all that differently from here in the States). Well, we will see what these regulators do and can do to these big dogs. I have my doubts that it will wind up as anything more than a slap on the wrist for these tech giants, but who knows, maybe they’ll be out for a pound and a half of flesh this time instead of 3 ounces. I’ll keep an eye on it, but it sounds like the earliest there is likely to be more movement on this issue will be something like November. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/05/tech/amazon-microsoft-uk-cloud-services/index.html WE 31.4 – AI News 31.4a – Johnathan Turley: Falsely Accused of Harassing a Student by a ChatGPT Hallucination Wow... Dr. Turley is a rare “conservative” within the halls of legal academia, and has never done anything like what chatGPT hallucinated he did to a student, this thing even fabricated a WaPo article about the incident. I have to wonder how much of this happens on a regular basis as people overuse that damned thing for crap it was never intended to do. So a colleague of Dr. Turley’s from UCLA, who was doing some research on harassment accusations against law professors via chatGPT. It manufactured this whole thing, which strikes me as about the same level of nonsense as a hit piece in a tabloid, a blatant example of libel, only there is no one to sue over it. Of course, Dr. Turley has never taken students on trips in 35 years of teaching law, much less has he ever even been accused of anything untoward... Obviously there was never a WaPo article about a non-existent incident. So, if it can make things up whole cloth like that and no one is available to refute the spurious claims, then that gets added to the list of sources for future research. Dr. Turley is trying to say that these tools are untrustworthy in this opinion piece, and I have heard of other similar things happening, so I tend to agree with him on this. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2023/04/03/chatgpt-misinformation-bias-flaws-ai-chatbot/11571830002/ 31.4b – pResident Depends Holds Meetings About AI Wow, his handlers must really be trying to focus everybody on this issue for some reason, just like the Trump indictment earlier this week. This article is kind of unfocused and feels a bit rushed, to me, but that is beside the point, it is a story about Brandon Depends. He can’t even pay a visit to the necessary on his own successfully (see stain on his pants at the Vatican, lol), much less speak coherently about any topic, not even ice cream. “You know, the thing...” this clown is a colossal embarrassment and humiliation for our country. We were at least semi-functional under Trump and his admin. The cracks were certainly beginning to show then, but the level of dysfunction in this country now is almost incomprehensible to me. I digress, though. They are supposed to meet and talk about the “risks and opportunities” of AI, in the face of the runaway success of tools like chatGPT. They are also likely to push congress to pass legislation to allegedly limit the data collection of Big Tech companies in America. As long as that bill isn’t as much of an inversion of the rights of US citizens enshrined in our Constitution, or is not really about something else, like limiting free speech in the name of protecting us from “misinformation” which is anything that an administration chooses to deem as “wrongthink” or inconvenient, such as in the RESTRICT Act. That monstrosity needs to be shouted down harder than Dinesh D’Souza at U Mass Amherst a few years ago. If it were really what it claimed to be instead of a blank check for the Secretary of Commerce to sign whenever they feel like it to shut down inconvenient information being shared on social media, because apparently bans and shadow bans aren’t enough, shoot, even jailing someone over a meme and a joke shared during the 2016 election is apparently not enough for them, they want absolute control of the internet, just like the CCP has with their “Great Firewall”. But again, I digress. I am glad to hear that the privacy of Americans is suddenly on the radar for Resident Depends. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/04/biden-to-discuss-ai-risks-and-opportunities-in-meeting-with-advisors.html 31.4c – A Bright Spot for Signal The president of the Signal Foundation is making lots of noise about how they will never incorporate AI tools into the encrypted messaging app. Does she want a cookie or a ribbon? The app is meant to be a tool for more private communications, not a data farming enterprise like social media is in general. She also made it clear that they hold onto as little user information as possible to still be able to provide the services that they do through the app. This puts me a bit more at ease about using Signal, however, I am very uncomfortable with the people who endorse it, such as people with thoroughly mixed reputations such as Edward Snowden. However, that is not the point right now. The point is that they are standing up to pressure to incorporate some of those God-awful privacy violators called “generative ‘AIs’” into their non-profit based private communication app. Good on them. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/31/signal-president-meredith-whittaker-learned-what-not-to-do-from-google.html WE 31.5 – Tiktok Thoughts 31.5a – Public Sentiment About the Ban As of a week ago, half of the people surveyed by Pew Research were behind the idea of ban, overall, and most (64% of) respondents were aware of the CCP connections for TikTok and ByteDance, most (60% of) GOP-aligned people were in favor of the ban, while only 43% of Dem-aligned respondents were favorable toward the idea. I feel like there is a huge influence operation underway about this issue, precious little real information on either side of the issue, and I am finding myself leaning toward supporting TikTok’s continued operation in the country, but not because I actually like the platform, which I don’t, I think it can be and often is used to manipulate people in certain ways which are counter to their well being. Rather because I get very, very uneasy when the two wings of the political bird of this country come together on anything, as 95% of the time, whatever that issue that got overwhelming bipartisan support winds up stripping us of freedoms and rights which should be guaranteed by the limits placed on the government by the documents upon which this country allegedly rests (the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution). https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/31/tech/tiktok-ban-pew-survey/index.html 31.5b – Is TikTok the ONLY Popular Chinese App in the US and UK? Simple answer: No. What else is there? CapCut (a popular video editor often used to create videos for TikTok), Shein (a fashion app aimed at younger millennials and Gen Z), and Temu (an online shopping app which has quickly overtaken WalMart and Amazon for the younger set). If we are really concerned about China getting our data, then we need to be consistent and ban all of these other big China-related apps – these are just the 3 biggest, other than TikTok, though, out of thousands of others. Ooh, how many mobile games which are little more than shinier, more engaging methods of data harvesting are there that should be banned similarly, if we are to be concerned with TikTok purely due to its alleged CCP ties? Either it all needs to be shut down faster than a nerd asking a prom queen out, or our gov’t needs to shut its increasingly corrupt and inept trap about all of this. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65072407