Does Slack MatterMost? | LINUX Unplugged 117
Posted on: November 3, 2015
Posted in: Featured, LINUX Unplugged, Video

New Desktop Environment updates grab our attention & the trend to move open source projects towards Slack has us concerned.
Plus how the VW emissions issue is great for hackers, an OggCamp recap & we light a candle for Fedora 23.
Direct Download:
MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Video | HD Video | Torrent | YouTube
RSS Feeds:
MP3 Feed | OGG Feed | iTunes Feed | Video Feed | Torrent Feed | WebM Torrent Feed
Become a supporter on Patreon:
Show Notes:
Pre-Show:
Alien: Isolation has officially been released for Linux, and continues our trend of great AAA games. I would recommend playing this from behind a pillow, with emergency pants nearby.
Feedback:
This release, we focused on cleanup, polishing and quality-of-life
improvements, with over 400 issues fixed and dozens of new
translations. We have also gained two new frameworks: Solid, which
replaces liblxqt-mount and some custom power management code and
libkscreen, which replaces system xrandr calls and is wayland
forward-compatible.
QOwnNotes was my answer. 🙂
https://www.qownnotes.org
Linux Academy
Cinnamon 2.8 released!
On behalf of the team and all the developers who contributed to this build, I am proud to announce the release of Cinnamon 2.8!
This new version will be featured in Linux Mint 17.3 “Rosa” planned for the end of November and in LMDE 2 “Betsy”.
DigitalOcean
The EPA says Volkswagen cheated on emissions testing again – YouTube
What route does someone who cares about this kinda stuff take. Do we just avoid all this stuff until its sorted out? I mean seriously, why not
The Volkswagen diesel crisis is an ongoing reminder of the dilemma that proprietary auto software and hardware is presenting for automakers and consumers. In September, VW disclosed that alleged “defeat devices” were installed in 2009-15 VW and Audi diesel cars. How was VW able to get away with this for so long? Because the automaker’s onboard software is protected against outside inspection.
But as shocking as Volkswagen’s fraud may be, it only heralds more of its kind. It’s time to address one of the most urgent if overlooked tech transparency issues—secret code in the criminal justice system. Today, closed, proprietary software can put you in prison or even on death row. And in most U.S. jurisdictions you still wouldn’t have the right to inspect it. In short, prosecutors have a Volkswagen problem.
Mr. Moglen, a lawyer, technologist and historian who founded the Software Freedom Law Center, has argued for decades that software ought to be transparent. That would best serve the public interest, he said in his 2010 speech.
“Software is in everything,” he said, citing airplanes, medical devices and cars, much of it proprietary and thus invisible. “We shouldn’t use it for purposes that could conceivably cause harm, like running personal computers, let alone should we use it for things like anti-lock brakes or throttle control in automobiles.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Moglen recalled the elevator in his hotel.
“Intelligent public policy, as we all have learned since the early 20th century, is to require elevators to be inspectable, and to require manufacturers of elevators to build them so they can be inspected,” he said. “If Volkswagen knew that every customer who buys a vehicle would have a right to read the source code of all the software in the vehicle, they would never even consider the cheat, because the certainty of getting caught would terrify them.”
But on Tuesday, the Library of Congress issued exemptions to DMCA that pleased many auto enthusiasts. In a ruling that also freed those who wish to modify tablets and smart TVs, the LOC said, more or less, monkey away.
TING
Fedora 23 released – Fedora Magazine
It’s (approximately) Halloween, so you know what that means — new Fedora! The Fedora 23 release is here, and it’s better than ever before. We’re pleased to bring you the latest incarnations of the three main Fedora editions — Fedora Workstation,Fedora Cloud, andFedora Server, each built with love by the Fedora community to custom-fit your needs in different areas. Fedora 23 is also available in alternate desktop Spins, curated software Labs, and special images for the ARM processor architecture.
If that’s all you need to hear, download from https://getfedora.org/, or if you already use Fedora, follow the simple upgrade steps. Otherwise, read on for details.
Fedora 23 Workstation is now released. It’s a reliable, user-friendly, and powerful operating system aimed at home users, hobbyists, students, and software developers. Fedora 23 Workstation features the latest GNOME 3.18 release courtesy of the GNOME community. This release of GNOME includes updates to the Files browser, and the new Calendar and Todo applications. Fedora 23 Workstation is the first release of Fedora to include LibreOffice 5.