Just as announced and expected, Linus yesterday released kernel 6.0 – see LWN or kernel.org for more.
Debian is still on a long term supported version 5.10, with latest updates to that tree from September 28th as you can see on kernel.org. If you need Debian stable with newer kernels (for new machines for instance), there’s always backports which has more current ones. That’s a supported way of keeping the stable branch a bit more current, and unlike the testing branch it includes security updates.
The Debian developers have voted upon adding non-free firmware to the Debian Installer, which will make it easier for the average user to use just the standard image to install it onto newer (or more exotic) hardware, as former DPL Steve McIntyre reports. To do so, the social contract has to be changed accordingly.
And in the upcoming release (codename “Bookworm”, no planned release date yet), Debian will switch to Pipewire as their default audio architecture, something that other distributions like Suse or Fedora have done already. I have tested Pipewire on Arch where it works just fine, there are still some quirks for pro audio, but average consumers shouldn’t have any problem with it (rather the opposite).
I’m helping out Richard with the Wikiloops project a bit, and sometimes like in every other bug report system, you need screenshots. No problem, in Linux (I use the Gnome desktop, mostly), it’s just a keystroke or two away. But how to annotate?
Yep – John Goerzen’s story made me smile, as it has a lot of parallels to my own one. Ok for me it was a 300 baud acoustic coupler, a C64, and the first network to speak about was probably Datex-P, but still… these were the not so good old times if you think about it, and “Gen-Z” as they are called have so much power in their hands now (but also so many possible distractions). A very interesting read, but who knows – maybe only for me?
And yes, sure I remember DEC computers, or Novell’s Netware – a company like Microsoft didn’t even know how to spell TCP/IP at that time 😉
If you’d like to see your tax money used for good, you can support the FSFE (Free Software Foundation Europe) with a pic, using their sharepic generator, like this:
Public Money? Public Code! campaign from the FSFE
If you don’t want to show your own pic, ask a friend if s/he will support it:
I <3 free software campaign from the FSFE
See their page. And thanks in case you’re supporting this as well.
Found via “Bits from Debian“, thanks to Laura for the reminder, thanks to Juliette for the awesome artwork! And thanks to the whole team for the whole thing.
The Debian developer team have been uploading videos from their latest conference, and so far I’ve seen two of them which I found very interesting, these were
See the whole list of talks in case you are interested, which I’ve found via Planet Debian and Bits from Debian. Always interesting to see some faces I know, even if I haven’t seen them in years (hello Steve!) 🙂 And thanks to all of you Debianistas for all of the great work you’re doing!
My friend and fellow musician OliVBee from Wikiloops made an exceptional album in 2017, that was before I even had joined the ‘loops. He called that album after one of the songs’ titles, Deep Dark Blue, and I had written about and reviewed it some 3 years ago already. It’s one of the best albums I’ve ever heard *anywhere*, and this one is available only at the ‘loops:
Deep Dark Blue by OliVBee
You can listen to it on Wikiloops in its entirety. If you’re a member in Wikiloops you can also download it including a cover, so you could burn this onto a CD if you like. You can do the same as a non-member of the ‘loops if you get what we call a download ticket, starting at 2,40€ like here (you’ll get this when pressing the download button on the album’s page):
Wikiloops download passes
I *am* a (paying) member, and I’ve still also paid for some of these albums, because they’re worth it, and because that way, we support ourselves with keeping that platform alive and running. This is especially important since these days of Corona, and because not everyone can go out and meet other musicians (and not from around the globe as here). So if you can, go and pay for an album or two of your choice, that would help us all – thanks.
Being at it, I’ve cleaned up the home screen of my phone yesterday, and this is how it looks now:
My phone’s home screen
And I don’t know if you can see it in that image, but I’ve replaced the standard Chrome browser button with one of Firefox, which leads directly to the Wikiloops start page:
Wikiloops in Firefox
Even if not that many people see my phone’s home screen, I’m still putting an ad for Wikiloops proudly in the middle of its screen. This is to say thanks to my friends and to Richard, the founder of the ‘loops.
And before I forget it: thanks also to Anne, and to all of the other wonderful musicians on Oliv’s great album! Last not least, this album is also a master class for us bass players… *and* with top pro drummers to boot! 🙂 Did I mention that I love that fretless guitar which Oliv is playing?
As always, thanks for reading (and probably for listening or even supporting us).
