Only a couple of weeks late this time…

• A longstanding bug was found in GnuTLS
• Mozilla introduced a “new” JPEG library
• Libreoffice now has “fresh” and “stable” releases
• Python-3.4 was released
• Android games can soon connect with iOS games
• The Full Disclosure list was shut down, and resurrected…
• BBQLinux – yet another Arch derivative
• How to add multiple versions of a function optimized for different architectures in GCC
• Google Drive space became rather cheap
• Facebook released wrap – a fast C and C++ preprocessor
• Google is replacing GTK+ in their browser with a new toolkit
• Musl libc 1.0 was released
• The quest to compile the Linux kernel with LLVM is ongoing
• The Linux Foundataion’s Introduction to Linux course is going to be free this “summer”
• Apple open sourced their AArch64 backend for LLVM, so there is now two…
• A new debugger allowing you to to replay your code multiple times
• Why you should not rerelease software without changing the version number (it is really annoying…)
• Take a browse of old MS-DOS and Work source code
• Vote for NASA’s new spacesuit look

Well… I intended to be more organized and get these posted on time each month. Maybe next year.

January:

• Red Hat and CentOS joined forces, while paid SUSE staff will work less on openSUSE
• kGraft for rebootless kernel updates
• The yearly summary of who is writing Linux
• Take a look at what nftables will do for you
• People were once opposed to udev
• Better stack protection is on its way in gcc-4.9
• Stallman’s opinions on LLVM are not very surprising
• Look at all the ABIs that are supported by glibc
• Valve gives away its games to Debian developers
• Some more information on kdbus
• Fedora 21 has a longer development cycle than usual
• A lot of security bugs were found in Xorg, including one from 1991!
• Looking to cairo for a standard c++ 2d API, why it is bad, and why we should ignore that last link!
• How to add new C++ warnings with the gcc-python-plugin
• Some discussion of the portability of init systems
• The Debian init system vote started, came to no conclusion, then was summarized.
• Finally, we need to write the Linux kernel in PERL

February:

• glibc-2.19 was released and here is some of the improvements for developers
• And apparently glibc is good code!
• Debian had more votes about the init system, eventually deciding on systemd as the default
• No decision was made on how strongly packages can depend on an init system
• This will also result in Ubuntu switching to systemd too
• gcc-4.9 has moved to release branch mode, looking towards and April release
• An analysis of compiler hardening in Debian
• Building the assembler as a shared library
• Why inline PGP signatures are bad
• Sometimes making a nice icon set is not enough…
• Ubuntu is making their own file manager for Unity
• MINIX can now run on ARM
• Why you should not to travel back in time to kill Hitler

Joint post as I never got around to doing November’s one… That just means lots of links for you all this time!

November:

• Non-phoronix benchmarking of various compilers
• XCFE is being trialled as the default desktop on Debian
• A discussion about replacing Java from the default languages in GCC (that I can not remember going anywhere…)
• It looks like LLVM will use some C++11 features in future development
• A bunch of people from Linux Format started a new project – Linux Voice
• SELinux is all about cats and dogs
• Interesting post that details how Gentoo is organized.
• The Go language has been around for four years
• A essay on how Debian could improve packaging – I think it applies to many distros
• Summary of upcoming features of GCC-4.9
• Lint Mint was accused of being insecure, although countered (saying it is only is by default…)
• I had never heard of KaOS – its PKGBUILDs make it look an Arch derivative
• A project to automatically modernize your C++ code
• openSUSE 13.1 was released
• Mir is not reaching Ubuntu Desktop in the next release either
• This is why updates to Android can take a while to reach your Nexus
• Emacs is not yet a WYSIWYG word processor…
• An idea for a Fedora Server project
• Fedora will be adding “-Werror=format-security” to their default CFLAGS

December:

• Binutils 2.24 was released
• There is continuing talk about how trustworthy various manufacturers random numbers are
• RHEL 7 Beta was released, apparently without i686 support
• Ubuntu is forking more software – this time gnome-control-center
• Steam machines were shipped and SteamOS 1.0 was released
• A mammoth effort in reducing complier warnings in xorg-server
• Can C++ error messages get even longer?
• Fedora 20 and Debian 7.3 were released
• And awesome way to obtain RSA keys from computer sounds
• kdbus has passed another milestone
• The Hawaii 0.2.0 desktop environment based on Qt and Wayland was released
• The Linux kernel sources will no longer be supplied bzipped
• The debate on init scripts for Debian is ongoing

And some fun stuff:

• Creating the Simpsons in CSS
• Solo from Sultans of Swink on the ukulele
• The trailer for Kung Fury is so good that the first stage of their Kickstarter is funded!
• And finally, a skill everyone should have… How to break an apple in half with your bare hands!

A bit late this month… Tough!

• The SUSE team developed an AArch64 port for QEMU
• Using XMir by default was abandoned at the last minute for Ubunutu 13.10, and here is some discussion the issues it has
• The X.Org foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) again
• Work has started on an embedded JIT for GCC , and some python bindings appeared.
• Firefox is getting its own flash player
• Google is offering rewards for security issue in a range of core free software.
• The 3.0 linux kernel has had 100 patches released!
• Debian Jessie has its freeze announced – for a years time…
• Fedora is doing its usual slip in its release timeframe
• Android 4.4 (Kit Kat) is out – somebody get the update to my Nexus 7…
• Debian is choosing its next init system, which of course resulted in some back and forth
• The beginnings of a rust frontend for gcc
• Lots of compiler features coming for gcc and llvm
• Surely automatic wordpress updates can only end in disaster!
• Fedora are moving towards Python 3 as the default – sort of… (/usr/bin/python will stay python2)
• Binutils and gdb moved to git
• How to debug stack protector failures
• Video of the kernel developer panel at LinuxCon + CloudOpen Europe 2013

And some space stuff I liked this month:

• This rocket is awesome!
• An awesome picture of Saturn

Lets list some links!

• Linux From Scratch 7.4 is released
• Fedora was announced ten years ago
• Looking at binary differences between ScientificLinux and CentOS
• The is a project trying to get fully reproducible builds in Fedora
• FreeBSD moved away from GCC
• The HURD saw some updates to celebrate 30 years of GNU
• GNOME-3.10 was released…
• And GNOME Shell should do Wayland type stuff
• An update about Wayland on Fedora
• OpenZFS was announced
• Binutils-2.24 has branched
• SteamOS was announced
• I found this discussion of using pip vs apt for managing python libraries interesting
• Speaking of package managers, here is a new one (with poor mans PKGBUILDs)
• Quickoffice is free for all!
• Will openSUSE use BTRFS by default?
• The GTK Broadway backend looks interesting
• An interview with Manjaro people
• libc++ has full C++11Y (draft) support
• Bug trackers are where you file bug reports
• Make YouTube buffer your videos when paused
• Linus got grumpy again…
• This patch caused some controversy

And some fun…

• Get ~1000 people to play Super Mario Bros and watch the differences
• I would enjoy some taps running beer…

Better do this months post on time!

• Things I said were published in Linux Format magazine. (It cost $25 to buy in my local newsagent – better get an online copy!)
• Android 4.3 can be run on x86
• Linux kernel 3.10 is going to be longterm…
• So we will keep the unreviewed code in linux-3.11
• Elementary OS “Luna” was released after a long road
• Wayland is progressing nicely to replace X
• Groklaw has closed its doors
• Some interesting facts about Debian for its 20th birthday
• And looks at some of the DebConf13 talks
• An article about supporting both python 2 and 3 in one codebase
• The Xorg foundation needs to keep up with its books…
• GNOME switched to using DuckDuckGo as their default search
• Some redeeming for the New Zealand government. After passing the GSCB spying law, they ban software patents.

And for your amusement…

• A brilliant demonstration of how to break wood

Oops… never posted this at the end of July. And there was so many links. You will get over it!

Distro and software news:

• Fedora 19 is out and it appears they have the release process more under control these days.
• Android 4.3 is out, and it saved my Nexus 7… maybe.
• “Yet, it means Archlinux developers are in trouble.”
• Videos from the GNU Tools Cauldron are available
• These kinds of posts make the LKML worth reading!
• Firefox seems to be moving to the front in terms of everything again.
• Qt 5.1 was released with technology preview for Andriod and iOS platforms
• Some details on what will happen with the KDE5 transition
• Even though I read all the emails on this, the LWN article really helped me understand this lock elision thing in glibc
• More responses to Debian’s systemd survey.
• A new secure messaging client is on its way.
• Emacs got its own package manager
• LXDE-Qt and Razor are joining forces
• Mir seems to be progressing nicely
• There is now an unpacked Debian sources mirror
• Talk about compilers in OpenBSD and the need for an LTS compiler.
• And a story of a Fedorians trip into Archland. A bit of distro hopping is good for everyone.

And some other stuff…:

• xkcd’s Time finished – here it is in youtube format
• Also, if you do not read xkcd’s What If, I recommend you do. This one was good.
• Making NES games run natively with LLVM
• This is what Sonic the Hedgehog would look like in first person
• And it seems like I offend everyone! (Requires being logged in)

Not a lot of links this month – people must be getting progressively more boring! Or it could be I went on holiday for a week with NO INTERNET. Now you have recovered from that horror, time for some links:

• Ubuntu is making progress with Mir
• But Mir will not be used by either Kubuntu or Lubuntu
• Speaking of X replacements, some more info about Wayland
• The LAS did a one week Arch Challenge, as did someone else.
• Reports vary about what the default browser will be in the next Ubuntu. Possibly Chromium?
• Some cgroups changes will be happening in systemd
• And some more answers to systemd concerns
• LLVM 3.3 has full C++11 support, in contrast to gcc-4.8.1 that sort of did…
• Some interesting decisions in the RHEL7 roadmap
• A useful table detailing toolchain component compatibility for building cross compilers
• And should I be concerned my Nexus 7 will slow down?

Guess what? May has finished… Well, it surprised me at least!

Linux distribution and software related links:

• All binaries in Arch will move to /usr/bin in the next couple of days.
• CinnArch turned into Antergos
• But why do that when there is Debian?
• And this tells you why you should not develop software for a single distribution.
• Surprise! Do not believe what you see on Phoronix.
• Hi LWN. When you say I posted in April, you should note it was last year…
• People still ranting against systemd. I hear there are alternatives
• The 3.10 Linux kernel will tick less
• Wayland has progressed enough to be on a live CD
• GCC-4.8.1 has implemented all the major features of C++11 – which reminds me that I still have posts waiting in my C++11 series…
• Some changes in the world of package management for Fedora
• On the topic of package management, read about subslots in Gentoo
• Interesting security issues in both the Linux kernel and Xorg this month.

And some other stuff…

• identi.ca is moving to pumpio. I’ll probably remove my account there soon anyway…
• Here is a time-lapse of this xkcd epic.

What’s that? It is now May and it has been for a few days… Better do this post then!

News from the world of distributions:

• This relatively unknown distro got a release…. (Raring Ringtail)
• Although there might be a lack of co-operation between them and Debian
• Fedora 19 was slightly delayed.
• openSUSE is doing lots of ARM stuff.
• Debian Wheezy should be released soon…
• Sabayon is rolling out systemd.
• What is the best distro? If you can access Linux Format, you will see… (Arch was runner up in the power-distro section.
• And here is how to choose a distro that suites you… I got Arch even without demanding pacman, but Qubes OS and Slakel were close runners up. Never heard of them!
• DragonFly BSD 3.4 was released using GCC-4.7.
• An interesting addition of the /extra hierarchy by Chakra.

Software releases and news of interest:

• A remote desktop backend was merged into Wayland
• Speaking of Wayland, it got updated.
• Google forks Webkit in a Blink (was my pun better than the articles?)
• R-3.0.0 was released. Grab it from the Arch [testing] repo.
• Chakra released Alpha 2 of the Akabei package manager
• A project to set-up a lightweight KDE desktop.
• GDB 7.6 added AArch64 support.
• The Open Build Service 2.4 was released with supports PKGBUILDs… although I’m sure I posted it did before in one of these.
• A talk about Glibc development.
• Another attempt as SELinux on Arch
• Clang is C++11 complete when 3.3 gets released.

And some fun stuff to finish:

• The value of case badges. My laptop has an Apple logo, so that must really boost speed given the price it adds.
• A simple game of 22 vs 11.
• The revenge of the game developer.