Desktop Linux for Everyone
What does this mean for Red Hat’s contributions to the CentOS project?
In short, nothing.
I was curious about what the IBM purchase of Red Hat meant for CentOS. Of course, I’m glad things don’t seem to be changing too much, but nothing stays the same forever. But for now, I’m happy. Until I’m unhappy…
IBM, Red Hat, and CentOS | Blog.CentOS.org
Plus, [email is] built on open, federated protocols, meaning that anyone can set up a server and store their data wherever they like. This is a technical way of saying I can email your Yahoo email address from my Gmail, and vice versa, unlike other closed messaging systems, where I cannot send you a WhatsApp message from my Messenger, for example.
Think about that — I can email anyone in the world with an email address, literally anyone, as long as they have an email address. That freedom is often overlooked.
Email is imperfect, to say the least, but it’s also amazing. We have all of these different services that can talk to each other. You can change your service without changing your email address (as long as you own your domain). It’s all just so cool and distributed.
It’s definitely worth noting that Dvir Ben-Aroya, the author of this piece, runs a company that looks like it’s working on a Slack alternative, so factor that into your enjoyment. My takeaway was that email is still impressively portable.
An open letter to Stewart Butterfield: Why Slack will never replace email | The Startup
American society has been fed quite a bill of goods: that surrendering privacy with a return of convenience is a fair deal.
Semi-related is the idea that there’s no cost attached to cost-free services. But of course, it’s impossible to quantify the cost since we have no idea what companies do with our data. Are they using it to increase prices on certain goods they know we need? Are they preventing us from learning about less expensive options? If so, there is a cost attached to the loss of privacy.
This is the most chilling quote in the article: “As one millennial friend put it, “Take my data; give me free [stuff].'”
I hate to blame this on the millennials, because they’re not the only one sacrificing privacy for convenience. Just look at the demographics of Facebook.
Until we understand what happens with our data on closed platforms, we’re selling our own data without any idea of its true value, which feels positively un-American.
When I first saw this Tweet, I assumed the issue would be resolved:
And it has:
In response to the concerns raised by ourselves and the wider community, the Ubuntu project recently discussed a more conservative approach wherein a selection of 32-bit libraries would still be available on the host system, through at least 20.04 LTS.
I don’t understand the technical issues here, but coordinating projects is hard and sometimes you need a dramatic announcement, like Pierre-Loup’s, to get everyone to see the challenge and get on the same page. So I’m happy things worked out.
Update on Steam, Ubuntu, and 32-bit support | Steam for Linux General Discussions
I like knowing how things are made. That’s the great lesson of software, to me: With open code and version control, the foundational document and the human process are one. We’re usually told to turn away from the sausage-making. With laws, TV shows, chicken nuggets or corporate mergers, it’s better not to know. Not in software, in which nothing is ever finished. Watching the commits, you can see the story taking shape. Or possibly shape the story yourself.
A very sweet, very accessible take on the beauty of free and open source software. Paul Ford gets into the technical strength, but also the political. It’s wonderful essay.
Letter of Recommendation: Bug Fixes | The New York Times
A deep dive into a nice-looking Linux set-up.
My beautiful Linux development environment | DEV Community
Mozilla is trying to encourage people to sign up for a Firefox account, which will be the conduit through which the company can offer paid, premium services like secure data storage and a virtual private network (VPN), which can protect you from hackers when you’re on a network that isn’t secure.
The Google issues are complex, but a huge part of what makes Google problematic is that a lot of people have so many eggs in the Google basket. Their email. Their passwords. Their files. Google can do what it wants, because people can’t easily exit their ecosystem.
So while I trust Mozilla and appreciate what they’re trying to do, I don’t think the answer is changing baskets. I think the answer is better egg distribution.
Even more evidence that Firefox wants to be the anti-Chrome | Fast Company
Another story of switching to Linux. I love that Richard went from OS X to i3. That’s a bold move!
Hello Again, Linux | Linux Journal
I agree with James Sanders that Cinnamon, the Linux Mint desktop environment, should be more distro-neutral (although, as the article points out, Fedora has a spin), but I see no reason for less choice in distributions. I like and use Mint and Ubuntu. I like that they’re not quite the same. And I really like how Mint does MATE!
Every distribution has a different approach and those subtleties make a big difference to users. More options rarely hurt anything with free and open source projects.
Scientific Linux and Antergos are shutting down: It’s time for Linux Mint to go | TechRepublic
Overall, I’m glad the upgrade went smoothly, and while I grumble about Fedora upgrades, they usually work, even though they take a long time.
I haven’t used Fedora in quite some time, but I’m always impressed with how well the upgrades work for people. I tend to repave Ubuntu when it reaches end of support, but maybe that’s old fashioned. Or maybe Fedora has more of the upgrade mentality baked into it.
A quick recap of the Fedora 30 upgrade | Steven Rosenberg
