Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2025 i Linux Magazine

Dear Reader, Just a couple years ago, it felt like everything was going to the cloud. Not just our computers, but also our people. Branch offices were closing. Long-distance teleconferencing was all the rage. The world was getting centralized. Virtual business culture reached a heyday during the Covid era, but the fact is, things have been growing remote for years. Many of the big Linux conferences that once drew massive crowds don’t even exist anymore. Sales teams that used to fly across the country (or around the world) just for one meeting are now content to walk through their presentations over Zoom. But just when you think you know which way the wind is blowing, a gust from another direction messes up your hair. Now it looks like IBM, which…

ArcoLinux has had a small but dedicated following for roughly eight years, but Erik Dubois, lead developer for the project, announced on the distro’s site (https://www.arcolinux.info/a-farewell-to-the-arcolinux-university/) that the time has come for him to step away. In that post, Dubois stated, “This decision wasn’t made lightly. But as I approach 60, I’ve found myself with less energy, less focus, and making small mistakes that remind me I’m no longer at my peak. I want to leave ArcoLinux while it’s still strong and while I can look back with pride at everything we’ve accomplished together.” Over those eight years, ArcoLinux accomplished several important milestones, such as creating over 5,000 educational videos; the creation of ArcoInstall; the Carli education project; the Arch Linux Calamares Installer (ALCI); the ArcoPlasma, ArcoNet, ArcroPro, and Ariser…

The KDE Plasma team announced the availability of the latest release of their popular desktop environment, Plasma version 6.3.4. This release is mostly about fixing bugs and preventing crashes, but it does include a new addition to the sidebar-style user-interface (UI) elements. The most common issue fixed was the problem of Plasma crashing when a screen is unplugged. The developers also improved several KWin effects (such as Wobbly Windows) and improved the results when the screen recorder, Spectacle, is used on a display with fractional scaling enabled. Also, the user switcher widget has had a bit of a UI refresh so the username text is laid out more logically. There are several other bug fixes that cover everything from the Bluetooth wizard to Plasma Discover (and everything in between). You’ll…

The Linux kernel has a new infrastructure partner in the cybersecurity and cloud computing organization Akamai. The company signed a multi-year agreement with kernel.org to provide infrastructure services going forward. Akamai fully understands the importance of Linux. Given that every Fortune 500 company depends on Linux, it makes sense that a company such as Akamai would have a vested interest in lending a bit of stability to kernel.org. According to Alex Chircop, Chief Architect at Akamai Cloud and member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s Technical Oversight Committee,“Like the rest of the world, Akamai depends on Linux. By supporting kernel.org, we’re giving back to the community, just as we’ve done via our commitments to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).” Chircop continues to say, “The foundation of our cloud platform…

When a Fix May or May Not Be a Fix Sometimes what looks like an improvement turns out to be not only more trouble than it’s worth, but also something that has an easier workaround. And sometimes it turns out that the workaround misses a key detail, and the original improvement may be less trouble than anything else. In Linux kernel development, this situation is not as uncommon as it might seem. The struggle to support all hardware in use in the world, while keeping a clean and maintainable codebase, poses many puzzles with unexpected solutions. Recently, Josh Poimboeuf submitted a patch to the deep, assembly language code that is sometimes used in the Linux kernel when the compilers are unable to convert C language code into something small enough…

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LibreOffice Writer does not have a privacy and security menu, so you might assume that it lacks such tools. The truth is, it has several of them, but they are scattered throughout the menus in a way that is easy to miss. Moreover, many can be implemented in more than one way and include different levels of protection. Most of these tools are for watermarks and passwords, but there are also tools for redaction, digital signatures, macros, and daily use. Watermarks Watermarks are words or images in the background of a page. They are often used on art images to discourage unwanted copying, although they are also used internally in organizations to clearly mark draft documents to avoid confusion and to trace the source of leaked documents. Do-it-yourself watermarks can…

Tax reduction While I was working at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the early 1980s, an interesting business practice came to my attention: the concept of “bundling” an operating system. Before this practice, a person could buy their hardware and software separately. For server systems, this is still the practice. For desktop, laptop, and other smaller systems, it became the practice of manufacturers to install a particular operating system. That operating system was Microsoft. There are practical reasons for bundling. The retail stores didn’t have to install the operating system to show potential customers that the hardware worked, and the machine’s speed and capabilities could be compared to other systems on display. The customer could then take the system home with the operating system installed and working properly. For Microsoft,…

Backdoors for All As I was leafing through the latest “Crypto-Gram” newsletter, I found author Bruce Schneier’s take on the recent showdown between Apple and the UK government. In brief, the UK tried using its draconian laws to have Apple secretly place a backdoor in its iCloud ADP (Advanced Data Protection). Rather than compromise its end-toend encryption, Apple disabled the feature altogether in the country. Security experts point out that backdoors can also be accessed by the bad guys, as evidenced by the recent Salt Typhoon hack of US telecoms systems designed to facilitate court-ordered wire tapping. Apple was also issued a gag order not to reveal the UK government’s demands. It’s only thanks to a whistleblower leaking the story to The Washington Post that we know about it. Other…

#294/May 2025 Secure Browsers The Internet is much nosier than it used to be, and many believe leading browsers like Chrome and Firefox are part of the problem. This month we highlight some secure browser alternatives that will help you surf without leaving a trail. On the DVD: Rocky Linux 9.5 and SystemRescue 11.03 #293/April Trojan Horse We’re all taught to fear Trojan horse programs, but what are they really? This month we steal a look inside to show how attackers use Trojans to stash their nefarious code in ordinary applications. On the DVD: Debian 12.9 Live Gnome and Arch Linux 2025.02.01 #292/March 2025 What Comes After Git? Git is practically part of the woodwork in open source circles, but can we do better? The Pijul developers think we can.…

Linux Magazine is looking for authors to write articles on Linux and the tools of the Linux environment. We like articles on useful solutions that solve practical problems. The topic could be a desktop tool, a commandline utility, a network monitoring application, a homegrown script, or anything else with the potential to save a Linux user trouble and time. Our goal is to tell our readers stories they haven’t already heard, so we’re especially interested in original fixes and hacks, new tools, and useful applications that our readers might not know about. We also love articles on advanced uses for tools our readers do know about – stories that take a traditional application and put it to work in a novel or creative way. We are currently seeking articles on…

Open Source JobHub (OSJH) (https://opensourcejobhub.com/) and Linux Professional Institute (LPI) (https://www.lpi.org/) have jointly released the results of the 2025 Open Source Professionals Job Survey in a free report. This year’s survey, which asked open source pros to rank several factors in terms of importance when seeking a new job role, found that 97 percent of respondents rate professional fulfillment as essential, very important, or somewhat important. Factors such as work-life balance, remote work, open source policy guidelines, and training and certification opportunities were also highly valued. The 2025 Open Source Professionals Job Survey Report summarizes these preferences and compares the results in terms of respondents’ stated job roles and level of experience, providing insight for both job seekers and hiring managers. “This report offers a unique view into what open…

Linux Magazine www.linux-magazine.com ADMIN Online http://www.admin-magazine.com/ What to Know Before Moving into HPC • Jeff Layton After learning Linux, it’s time to learn some HPC-specific concepts and commands. Traffic Analysis with mitmproxy • Holger Reibold The mitmproxy tool puts interactive traffic analysis in your hands. Cross-Network Storage with iSCSI • Daniel LaSalle The iSCSI protocol lets you access block storage across a network connection. We show you how to connect a Debian 12 system with a Synology storage device over iSCSI. Migrating Git Repositories • Thomas Reuß Nothing is forever, not even a Git server. After Microsoft’s purchase of GitHub, I found a new home in Gitea for version control. Automation-as-Code with Ansible • Andreas Stolzenberger The Ansible automation tool makes it easy to implement IT scenarios as code. We…

EndeavorOS is one of those distributions you see and immediately think, “I want that!” This beautiful Arch-based Linux distribution performs like a champ because it’s lightweight and terminal-centric. Although the latest release is considered a maintenance update, it still has plenty to offer. There are the usual bug fixes and refinements, which include the removal of obsolete NVIDIA options from the NVIDIA boot menu, the removal of the xwalyandvideobride package from the installation script, improved offline installation, a refined Calamares installer, and an auto-install option with systemd that creates a 2GB EFI partition (instead of the previous 1GB) to allow more space for multi-kernel and customized installs. The big ticket items for Mercury Neo are Linux kernel 6.13.7, KDE Plasma 6.3.3, NVIDIA driver 570.124.04-4, Mesa graphics stack 25.01-2, Mozilla Firefox…

Defined on its GitHub page as a “terminal for a more modern age,” Tabby is a free and open source terminal application that is highly customizable and packed with useful features. It is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Tabby can be used for local shells, serial connections, SSH, and Telnet. Tabby’s official website [1] demonstrates a strong focus on design and attention to detail. Given Tabby’s extensive feature set, this overview will focus on its key characteristics and main functionalities. I will explore connection profiles, advanced history, smart features, synchronization across multiple devices, and installing additional plugins. The project, including its source code, is hosted on GitHub [2]. Through the repository’s various sections, users can access documentation, seek help on the forum, request new features, or review known issues.…

If you’re a fan of Fedora, today’s your lucky day, because the development team has released version 42 of the well-loved Linux distribution. The latest version not only includes the usual upgrades but also comes with the announcement that the official KDE Plasma spin is now available, as well as a brand new spin with System76’s COSMIC desktop. As far as upgrades are concerned, there’s an improved Anaconda installer that is now Wayland native. You’ll also find DNF5, Linux kernel 6.14, and upgrades for all of the available desktops, such as Gnome 48, KDE Plasma 6.3.4 (with KDE Frame-works 6.12.0), LXQt 2.1.0, and Xfce 4.20. Of course, the biggest news is the update of the KDE Plasma spin to “Edition” status and the availability of the new COSMIC spin. It’s…

The Asahi Linux project was created to bring Linux to Mac hardware running Apple Silicon. So far, it’s been fairly smooth sailing for the project. However, with the M4 chips, things haven’t exactly gone as planned. On Mastodon (https://social.treehouse.systems/@sven/114278224116678776), Sven Peter had this to say: “Looks like M4 support for Asahi Linux is going be rather painful. We’re still focusing on upstreaming M1/M2 support, but other people have been trying to bring up m1n1 on M4, and it looks like a few things changed.” What’s changed? According to Peter, “When configuring a macho boot object we now get dropped into an environment where Apple’s SPTM is running in GL2 and we are supposed to talk to it from EL2 with MMU already enabled to set up pagetables. This neither works…

At the time of writing, the final release of the Linux 6.15 kernel series is scheduled to be officially released around the end of May or the beginning of June. Until then, testers and those who like to live on the very edge can kick the tires of the first release candidate (RC) version. With the merge window closed for 6.15, it’s now a great time to test the latest iteration of the Linux kernel, which includes Rust support for hrtimer (a kernel timer that provides high-precision, low-latency timing and scheduling capabilities in the Linux operating system); a new boot parameter for x86 CPUs, called setcpuid (allows a process to manipulate the CPUID signature, which provides information about the processor’s architecture, features, and other details); improvements for both x86 Intel…

Not long after we reported that the Gnome Dash to Panel extension received a massive update, the extension maintainer, Charles Gagnon, has suddenly quit. In the recent update, Gagnon added a pinned icon to the panel that when clicked would reveal a message about donations. After clicking the icon there was a 20-second timeout before the desktop was returned to the user. That didn't sit well with users who called Gagnon out on GitHub (https://github.com/home-sweet-gnome/dash-to-panel/issues/2259) as an “aggressive donation push,” with one user (jmaargh) stating, “I absolutely defend the right of projects to ask for donations, but I believe this update was too much. In my case it was also counter-productive as I am now somewhat frustrated by the project.” Gagnon had posted on the extensions GitHub page (https://github.com/home-sweet-gnome/dash-to-panel/issues/2274)…

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As a dinosaur from the stone age of data processing, I still prefer to use command-line tools to write code and text. To quickly modify, compile, and test a Go file, Vim is the perfect choice for me; an IDE would just get in the way. But I must admit that I often find myself typing git status to see if all the changes have been checked in. I can even recall situations where I forgot to include a file in the Git tree. This prompted much wailing and gnashing of teeth on the road with my laptop, because the change only existed on my computer at home and had not made its way into the Git repo. That’s why it would be nice to see a Git directory’s status…

Your computer is a storehouse of so much information – passwords, pictures, household checklists, receipts, instructions – it is all in there somewhere. The real problem is how do you find it? Sure, you could search down deep through all your directories to find that missing file with instructions for how to access your router’s admin interface, but isn’t there a better way? This month we’ll take a look at BookStack, a free tool that will help you organize pictures, documents, instructions, links, or any other information you want to keep at your fingertips. Also, we introduce you to Tabby, a powerful cross-platform terminal tool, and we help you get started with Gramps, a versatile genealogy app for Linux. Oh and maddog has some wise words for PC vendors on…

Have you ever been curious about your entire family history? Would you like to pass on this knowledge to your descendants? Are you a student or a passionate reader who could use a clear view of all the members of some dynasty or book series? Last, but not least, do you know how fun it is to build and connect family trees? Unless you answered “no” to all these questions, keep reading. This article highlights some open source tools you can use to create, view, and preserve genealogy trees. GEDCOM Genealogical Data Communication (GEDCOM) [1], the de facto standard format for preserving genealogy data, has a unique genealogy in its own right. The Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) created GEDCOM in 1984,…

Users, developers, and vendors meet at Linux events around the world. We at Linux Magazine are proud to sponsor the Featured Events shown here. For other events near you, check our extensive events calendar online at https://www.linux-magazine.com/events. If you know of another Linux event you would like us to add to our calendar, please send a message with all the details to info@linux-magazine.com. ISC High Performance 2025 Date: June 10-13, 2025 Location: Hamburg, Germany Website: https://isc-hpc.com/ ISC 2025 is the 40th anniversary of the world’s leading forum for advancing the application of high performance computing in academia, government, and the private sector. The goal of this annual event is to foster a global exchange of knowledge, innovation, and collaboration in the field. OpenSouthCode 2025 Date: June 20-21, 2025 Location: Málaga, Spain…

Available Starting June 6 After you’ve locked down your disks and expertly configured auditing, privileges, and policies, a pertinent question lingers: can anyone get it? The best way to find out is to put on your black hat and try to break through your own defenses. Next month we take a close look at penetration testing. Also inside: • Lomiri: Unity desktop reborn • Nushell: A new kind of shell • Interactive fiction with Inform • RSS on FreshRSS • And much more! Please note: Articles could change before the next issue. BE THE FIRST TO SEE WHAT’S NEXT The Linux Magazine Preview is a monthly email newsletter that gives you a sneak peek at the next issue, including links to articles posted online. Sign up at: https://bit.ly/Linux-Update…