OSNews
Flathub safety: a layered approach from source to user
About two weeks ago we talked about why Fedora manages its own Flatpak repository, and why that sometimes leads to problems with upstream projects. Most recently, Fedora's own OBS Flatpak was broken, leading to legal threats from the OBS project, demanding Fedora remove any and all branding from its OBS Flatpak. In response, Fedor
https://www.osnews.com/story/141777/flathub-safety-a-layered-approach-from-source-to-user/
OSNews
Chromium Ozone/Wayland: the last mile stretch
Lets start with some context, the project consists of implementing, shipping and maintaining native Wayland support in the Chromium project. Our team at Igalia has been leading the effort since it was first merged upstream back in 2016. For more historical context, there are a few blog posts and this amazing talk, by my colleagues Antonio Gomes
https://www.osnews.com/story/141771/chromium-ozone-wayland-the-last-mile-stretch/
OSNews
Microsoft is paywalling features in Notepad and Paint
There’s some bad news for Windows users who want to use all of the built-in features of the operating system and its integrated apps. Going forward, Microsoft is restricting features in two iconic apps, which you’ll need to unlock with a paid subscription.
The two apps in question? Notepad and Paint. [...]
Windows Insiders
https://www.osnews.com/story/141773/microsoft-is-paywalling-features-in-notepad-and-paint/
OSNews
1972 UNIX V2 “beta” resurrected from old tapes
There's a number of backups of old DECtapes from Dennis Ritchie, which he gave to Warren Toomey in 1997. The tapes were eventually uploaded, and through analysis performed by Yufeng Gao, a lot of additional details, code, and software were recovered from them. A few days ago, Gao came back with the results from their analys of two more tapes, a
https://www.osnews.com/story/141769/1972-unix-v2-beta-resurrected-from-old-tapes/
OSNews
ArcaOS 5.1.1 released
It's been two years since the release of ArcaOS 5.1, which was a hugely important release because it brought UEFI support to this continuation of IBM's OS/2, ensuring longevity for the project for years to come. Since I don't think much is known about what, exactly, Arca Noae, and eComStation before it, has access to within the licensing agreement with IBM, it's difficult to ascertain just how mu
OSNews
Fedora should not push its users to its own Flatpak repository
Unlike most (all?) other distributions with built-in Flatpak support, Fedora maintains its own repository of Flatpak applications. Everyone else defaults to using Flathub, where developers of applications themselves tend to publish their Flatpaks. Fedora's 'shadow Flathub' sometimes leads to problems, with Fe
https://www.osnews.com/story/141723/fedora-should-not-push-its-users-to-its-own-flatpak-repository/
OSNews
UnixWare in 2025: still actively developed and maintained
It kind of goes by under the radar, but aside from HP-UX, Solaris, and AIX, there's another traditional classic UNIX still in active development today: UnixWare (and its sibling, OpenServer). Owned and developed by Xinuos, UnixWare and other related code and IP was acquired by them when the much-hated SCO crashed and burned a
https://www.osnews.com/story/141690/unixware-in-2025-still-actively-developed-and-maintained/
OSNews
GTK announces X11 deprecation, new Android backend, and much more
Since a number of GTK developer came together at FOSDEM, the project figured now was as good a time as any to give an update on what's coming in GTK. First, GTK is implementing some hard cut-offs for old platforms - Windows 10 and macOS 10.15 are now the oldest supported versions, which will make development qui
https://www.osnews.com/story/141670/gtk-announces-x11-deprecation-new-android-backend-and-much-more/
OSNews
NixBSD: an unofficial NixOS fork with a FreeBSD kernel
NixBSD is an attempt to make a reproducible and declarable BSD, based on NixOS. Although theoretically much of this work could be copied to build other BSDs, all work thus far has been focused on building a FreeBSD distribution.
↫ NixBSD GitHub page
Look, it's my job to make sure I use and am familiar with as many operating
https://www.osnews.com/story/141598/nixbsd-an-unofficial-nixos-fork-with-a-freebsd-kernel/
OSNews
9front “THIS TIME DEFINITELY” released
The operating system I'm not cool enough to run has pushed out a new release: 9front “THIS TIME DEFINITELY” is now available. 9front is a fork of plan9, created after plan9 languished at Bell Labs. This release enables gefs, the new file system, in the installer, "ip/ipconfig now support dhcpv6 dynamic allocations and handles prefix expirations", and it come
https://www.osnews.com/story/141590/9front-this-time-definitely-released/
OSNews
How UNIX spell ran in 64kB RAM
How do you fit a 250kB dictionary in 64kB of RAM and still perform fast lookups? For reference, even with modern compression techniques like gzip -9, you can't compress this file below 85kB.
In the 1970s, Douglas McIlroy faced this exact challenge while implementing the spell checker for Unix at AT&T. The constraints of the PDP-11 computer meant the entire dictionary needed
https://www.osnews.com/story/141586/how-unix-spell-ran-in-64kb-ram/
OSNews
Google begins requiring JavaScript for Google Search
Google says it has begun requiring users to turn on JavaScript, the widely used programming language to make web pages interactive, in order to use Google Search.
In an email to TechCrunch, a company spokesperson claimed that the change is intended to “better protect” Google Search against malicious activity, such as bots and spa
https://www.osnews.com/story/141570/google-begins-requiring-javascript-for-google-search/
OSNews
Google announces it’s going to intentionally violate EU law
Google has told the EU it will not add fact checks to search results and YouTube videos or use them in ranking or removing content, despite the requirements of a new EU law, according to a copy of a letter obtained by Axios.
[...]
In a letter written to Renate Nikolay, the deputy director general under the conte
https://www.osnews.com/story/141558/google-announces-its-going-to-intentionally-violate-eu-law/
OSNews
Let’s talk about bias
When someone says you’re biased against them because you object to their stated goal of removing you from society, they’re not actually asking for fairness — they’re demanding complicity.
It’s the political equivalent of asking why the gazelle seems to have such a negative view of lions.
Think about the underlying logic here: I’m biased because I don’t give equal weight to both sides of
OSNews
Can you complete the Oregon Trail if you wait at a river for 14272 years: a study
Two years ago, Twitch streamer albrot discovered a bug in the code for crossing rivers. One of the options is to "wait to see if conditions improve"; waiting a day will consume food but not recalculate any health conditions, granting your party immortality.
From this conceit
OSNews
Google launches Chromium development fund to ward off antitrust concerns
Don't you just love it when companies get together under the thin guise of open source to promote their own interests?
Today Google is pleased to announce our partnership with The Linux Foundation and the launch of the Supporters of Chromium-based Browsers. The goal of this initiative is t
OSNews
Microsoft’s tone-deaf advice to Windows 10 users: just buy a new PC, you’re all rich, right?
Over 60% of Windows users are still using Windows 10, with only about 35% or so - and falling! - of them opting to use Windows 11. As we've talked about many times before, this is a major issue going into 2025, since Windows 10's support will end in Octob
OSNews
Dell rebrands its entire product line: XPS, Inspiron, Latitude, etc. are going away
Dell has announced it's rebranding literally its entire product line, so mainstays like XPS, Latitude, and Inspiron are going away. They're replacing all of these old brands with Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max, and within each of these, there will be three tiers: Base, Plu
OSNews
Happy new year everyone! Have a good one, with lots of happy computers and good health!
OSNews
A quick look at OS/2’s built-in virtualisation
Most of us are aware that IBM's OS/2 has excellent compatibility with DOS and Windows 3.x programs, to the point where OS/2 just ships with an entire installation of Windows 3.x built-in that you can run multiple instances of. In fact, to this day, ArcaOS, the current incarnation of the maintained and slightly modernised OS/2 codebase, still comes with an entire copy of Windows 3
GNU social JP is a social network, courtesy of GNU social JP管理人. It runs on GNU social, version 2.0.2-dev, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All GNU social JP content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
