In the world of tech giants, custom tools and platforms are often developed in-house to meet unique needs at scale. One such example is gLinux, Google's internal Linux distribution, tailored specifically for the company's engineering workflows and infrastructure. While it's not available to the public, gLinux plays a critical role in powering the work of thousands of Googlers worldwide.

Let's dive deep into the origin, evolution, advantages, and usage of gLinux to understand why Google made the switch and how it leverages the power of open-source Linux in its operations.

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Origin and History

Before gLinux, Google engineers used a Linux distribution called Goobuntu-a customized version of Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support). Goobuntu was maintained internally and closely followed Ubuntu's upstream releases, offering the stability and security required for large-scale engineering work. However, it had some limitations, particularly in terms of release cycles and package control.

In 2018, Google publicly revealed that it had begun transitioning from Goobuntu to a new internal distribution: gLinux. This new system was based on Debian Testing, chosen for its balance between cutting-edge features and system stability.

Timeline of Events:

• Pre-2010s: Google internally adopts Ubuntu LTS and customizes it into Goobuntu.
• 2012-2017: Goobuntu evolves with each new LTS release, but internal friction with Ubuntu's release cadence begins to show.
• 2018: Google announces its shift to gLinux, built on Debian Testing.
• Post-2018: gLinux becomes the standard desktop OS for Google engineers, with updates and packages managed through a custom internal build system.

This move also reflected Google's broader support for the Debian community and allowed greater control over updates, security, and tooling.

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Why the Switch? Goobuntu vs. gLinux

Here are some of the core reasons why Google replaced Goobuntu with gLinux:

1. More Predictable Upgrade Path

Ubuntu's release cycle meant that Google had to perform large-scale migrations every two years. Debian Testing, in contrast, allows for rolling updates, which are easier to manage incrementally.

2. Greater Flexibility and Control

Debian gives Google more control over its packages and dependencies. With gLinux, Google can apply custom patches, test packages internally, and push updates as needed-without waiting for upstream Ubuntu changes.

3. Security and Compliance

With a custom Debian base, gLinux could be tailored to meet strict internal security standards. This includes features like secure boot, sandboxed applications, and custom kernel modules.

4. Alignment with Upstream Open Source

Google has a long-standing relationship with open-source communities. Debian's transparent development and packaging philosophy made it a better match for Google's collaborative approach.

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How gLinux Works Internally

While the exact details of gLinux's architecture and infrastructure are proprietary, some high-level features are known:

• Based on Debian Testing: It pulls from the Debian Testing branch, allowing for a balance of new features and reasonable stability.
• Custom Internal Tooling: Google uses its own build systems to manage, test, and deploy gLinux packages.
• Tight Integration with Google's Workspace: Everything from developer tools to secure network access is configured and maintained through gLinux-specific policies.
• Support for Internal Software Development: gLinux is optimized for Google's software stack, including tools for coding, code reviews, builds, and containerization.

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Advantages of gLinux

Here are some of the key benefits of gLinux as seen internally at Google:

Enhanced Security

gLinux is hardened to comply with Google's internal security policies. This includes kernel-level protections, patch management, encryption, and advanced access controls.

Faster and Flexible Updates

By using Debian Testing and an internal update mechanism, gLinux allows Google to push out security patches and software upgrades quickly without being tied to third-party timelines.

Optimized Developer Experience

gLinux comes preloaded with Google's development environment tools, code review systems, and internal APIs-ready to go out of the box.

Modular and Customizable

Google engineers can request and deploy specific packages, and gLinux supports modular installations for different roles-whether it's frontend development, backend infrastructure, or machine learning research.

Open Source Friendly

Because Debian is a fully community-driven project, Google benefits from a robust and widely supported ecosystem-while also contributing fixes and enhancements back to Debian in some cases.

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Usage and Deployment

gLinux is used across Google by thousands of employees, particularly software engineers and infrastructure developers. It powers:

• Workstations and laptops for developers.
• Build environments for large-scale codebases.
• Testing and automation frameworks for QA and CI/CD.
• Internal security scanning and policy enforcement systems.

It's important to note that gLinux is not meant for production servers-Google uses other systems like gVisor, Borg, and containerized environments for running its services at scale.

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Is gLinux Available to the Public?

No, gLinux is strictly an internal operating system. Unlike Ubuntu or Debian, you can't download gLinux or install it on your own machine. It's built to interface with Google's internal tools and infrastructure, making it unsuitable for general use outside the company.

That said, Google's choice to base it on Debian means that some of their contributions may benefit the wider Debian community over time.

---

Conclusion

While gLinux remains hidden behind Google's walls, it represents a powerful example of how large organizations can adapt open-source software to meet enterprise-scale demands. By choosing Debian over Ubuntu, Google prioritized long-term flexibility, internal control, and deeper open-source alignment.

For Linux enthusiasts and enterprise IT architects, gLinux is a testament to the power of customizing open-source platforms for specific organizational needs. It might not be available to the public-but its influence on how Linux can scale in enterprise environments is undeniable.

The post Exploring gLinux: Google's In-House Debian-Based Operating System appeared first on Hamradio.my - Amateur Radio, Tech Insights and Product Reviews by 9M2PJU.

31 May 2025 7:01am GMT

As a system administrator, mastering the command line is critical. Whether you're maintaining servers, managing users, monitoring performance, or securing your system, knowing the right tools can make your job faster, easier, and more efficient.

Here's a comprehensive list of the most important Linux commands every sysadmin should know - organized by category, explained in plain language, and ready to turn you into a command-line ninja .

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System Monitoring & Performance

Keeping your system healthy starts with knowing what's going on behind the scenes.

• top / htop
  View real-time system processes, CPU, and memory usage.
  htop is an enhanced version of top with a cleaner UI.
• uptime
  Shows how long the system has been running and the average load.
• vmstat
  Displays information about memory, processes, I/O, and CPU.
• iostat
  Useful for monitoring disk I/O stats and CPU load.
• free -h
  Human-readable memory usage summary (RAM + swap).
• sar
  Historical system activity reports - useful for spotting trends.
• ps aux
  List all running processes with their CPU and memory usage.
• lsof
  List open files. Great for checking what's locking a file or port.
• strace
  Debugging tool to trace system calls and signals.

---

Filesystem & Disk Usage

Disk space issues are common - be ready to investigate and clean up.

• df -h
  Shows disk usage for all mounted filesystems in human-readable form.
• du -sh *
  Quickly estimate the size of directories/files in the current folder.
• lsblk
  Displays block devices and their mount points.
• mount / umount
  Mount or unmount filesystems.
• fdisk -l / parted -l
  Inspect disk partitions.
• blkid
  Shows UUIDs and labels of block devices - handy for /etc/fstab.
• find / -name filename
  Searches the entire system for a file.
• file
  Determines a file's type - especially useful for unknown extensions.
• stat
  Displays detailed file metadata including timestamps and permissions.

---

User & Permission Management

Managing users and access rights is at the heart of system security.

• adduser / useradd
  Create new users (note: adduser is more user-friendly).
• passwd
  Set or change a user's password.
• usermod
  Modify a user's attributes, like group or shell.
• deluser / userdel
  Remove users from the system.
• groupadd, groupdel, gpasswd
  Manage user groups.
• chmod
  Change file permissions (e.g. chmod 755).
• chown / chgrp
  Change file owner or group.
• id
  Show a user's UID, GID, and group memberships.
• who, w, last
  Show active users and login history.
• sudo
  Run commands with elevated (root) privileges.

---

Networking

Networking is critical on any server. These tools help diagnose and configure network connections.

• ip a / ip link
  Show all network interfaces and IP addresses.
• ip r
  View the routing table.
• ss -tuln / netstat -tuln
  Show open ports and listening services.
• ping / traceroute
  Test network connectivity and route paths.
• dig / nslookup
  Perform DNS lookups to debug name resolution.
• curl / wget
  Download files or make web/API requests from the command line.
• nmap
  Network scanner for discovering hosts and open ports.
• tcpdump
  Capture and inspect network packets.
• hostname
  View or set the system's hostname.

---

Security & Access Control

Security is non-negotiable. These commands help you lock things down.

• ufw / iptables
  Configure and manage firewall rules.
• fail2ban-client
  Control Fail2Ban - protects against brute-force attacks.
• auditctl, ausearch
  View or search audit logs to monitor system access.
• getenforce, setenforce
  Manage SELinux modes.
• ssh / sshd
  Secure shell access and SSH server management.
• scp, rsync
  Securely copy files between systems.

---

Package Management

Installing and managing software is essential. Use the right tool based on your distro:

Debian/Ubuntu

• apt, dpkg, apt-cache

RedHat/CentOS

• yum, dnf, rpm

Arch Linux

• pacman

Universal

• snap, flatpak

Examples:

apt update && apt upgrade
dnf install nginx
pacman -S htop

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System Maintenance & Logs

Keep your system running smoothly by managing services and watching logs.

• journalctl
  View systemd logs.
• dmesg
  Kernel ring buffer - shows hardware and boot messages.
• systemctl
  Manage services on systemd systems (start, stop, enable, etc.).
• service
  Older init-based service management.
• crontab -e
  Edit scheduled tasks (cron jobs).
• at
  Run one-off tasks at a specific time.
• logrotate
  Manages log file rotation to prevent disk overuse.
• shutdown, reboot
  Schedule or perform system reboots/shutdowns.

---

Backup & Automation

Protect data and automate your tasks for efficiency.

• rsync -avh
  Sync directories or backup data.
• tar -czf archive.tar.gz folder/
  Create compressed archive.
• scp user@host:file .
  Secure file copy over SSH.
• cron, anacron
  Automate repetitive tasks.
• bash / sh
  Write scripts to automate system administration tasks.

---

Bonus Tools & Utilities

• tmux / screen
  Terminal multiplexers - resume sessions, split terminals.
• ncdu
  Disk usage visualizer. Much better than du for quick inspection.
• glances
  Real-time monitoring of CPU, RAM, disk, and more.
• nc (netcat)
  Versatile networking tool - useful for debugging or testing.
• alias
  Create custom shortcuts for your most used commands.

---

Final Thoughts

These Linux commands are not just helpful - they're the foundation of any good system administrator's toolbox. Mastering them will give you confidence to manage, troubleshoot, and optimize Linux systems whether you're working with a single server or an entire fleet of machines.

The post Essential Linux Commands Every System Administrator Should Know appeared first on Hamradio.my - Amateur Radio, Tech Insights and Product Reviews by 9M2PJU.

31 May 2025 6:48am GMT

The final issue of Linux Format, the UK's best selling monthly Linux magazine, has gone on sale. The first issue launched in May 2000.

You're reading After 25 Years, Linux Format Magazine is No More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

30 May 2025 3:28pm GMT

Qualys discovered two vulnerabilities in various Linux distributions which allow a local attacker with permission to create user namespaces to leak core dumps for processes of suid executables. These affect both apport, the Ubuntu core dump handler (CVE-2025-5054), and systemd-coredump, the core dump handler in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora and other Linux distributions (CVE-2025-4598). CVE-2025-4598 does not affect Ubuntu releases.

The vulnerabilities have a CVSS score of 4.7 (MEDIUM), requiring local access and high attack complexity. The impact is restricted to the confidentiality of the memory space of invoked suid executables. The exploit demonstrated by Qualys can leak hashed user passwords and, as such, has limited real-world impact.

Canonical's security team has released updates for the apport package for all affected Ubuntu releases. This package is installed by default in all Ubuntu Server images and Ubuntu Desktop installations. The update remediates CVE-2025-5054. Information on the affected versions can be found in the CVE page linked above. If you have any of these installed, our recommendation is to update as soon as possible.

How the exploit works

Qualys discovered that, when analyzing application crashes, apport attempts to detect if the crashing process was running inside a container before performing consistency checks on it. This means that if a local attacker manages to induce a crash in a privileged process and quickly replaces it with another one with the same process ID that resides inside a mount and pid namespace, apport will attempt to forward the core dump (which might contain sensitive information belonging to the original, privileged process) into the namespace.

In order to successfully carry out the exploit, an attacker must have permissions to create user, mount and pid namespaces with full capabilities.

Affected releases

Release	Package Name	Fixed Version
Xenial (16.04)	apport	2.20.1-0ubuntu2.30+esm5
Bionic (18.04)	apport	2.20.9-0ubuntu7.29+esm1
Focal (20.04)	apport	2.20.11-0ubuntu27.28
Jammy (22.04)	apport	2.20.11-0ubuntu82.7
Noble (24.04)	apport	2.28.1-0ubuntu3.6
Oracular (24.10)	apport	2.30.0-0ubuntu4.3
Plucky (25.04)	apport	2.32.0-0ubuntu5.1

How to check if you are impacted

On your system, run the following command and compare the listed version to the table above.

apt list --installed | grep "^apport"

How to address

We recommend you upgrade all packages:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

If this is not possible, the affected component can be targeted:

# on focal and newer:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install --only-upgrade apport python3-apport

# on xenial and bionic:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install --only-upgrade apport python3-apport python-apport

The unattended-upgrades feature is enabled by default for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS onwards. This service:

• Applies new security updates every 24 hours automatically.
• If you have this enabled, the patches above will be automatically applied within 24 hours of being available.

Mitigation

The strongest protection is to apply the security updates. The following mitigations have also been explored. If security updates cannot be applied, you should only apply the following steps as a last resort and revert the configuration once updates are applied.

The ability to obtain core dumps of suid executable processes can be completely disabled by setting the fs.suid_dumpable sysctl to 0. While this completely neutralizes the vulnerability, it also restricts the ability to investigate crashes for all processes which change privileges upon execution..

echo "fs.suid_dumpable = 0" | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/10-cve-2025-5054.conf

sudo sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/10-cve-2025-5054.conf

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Qualys for their excellent reporting and for inviting the Ubuntu Security Team to coordinate this issue.

References

https://www.qualys.com/apport-systemd-info-disclosure-vulnerabilities-discovered-by-qualys-tru

https://www.qualys.com/2025/05/29/apport-coredump/apport-coredump.txt

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-7545-1

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-5054

30 May 2025 12:42pm GMT

Qualys discovered two vulnerabilities in various Linux distributions which allow a local attacker with permission to create user namespaces to leak core dumps for processes of suid executables. These affect both apport, the Ubuntu core dump handler (CVE-2025-5054), and systemd-coredump, the core dump handler in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora and other Linux distributions (CVE-2025-4598). […]

30 May 2025 12:42pm GMT

This is a follow-up to the Extended Support warning sent one month ago to confirm that as of May 29, 2025, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS standard support has ended. No more package updates are planned to be accepted to the primary archive of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Remember that if you can't upgrade to 22.04 LTS or later immediately, Canonical provides Extended Security Maintenance for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS to users with Ubuntu Pro. You can find more info about Ubuntu Pro here:

https://ubuntu.com/blog/ubuntu-20-04-lts-end-of-life-standard-support-is-coming-to-an-end-heres-how-to-prepare
https://ubuntu.com/esm

The original Extended Support warning follows, with upgrade instructions:

Ubuntu released its 20.04 (Focal Fossa) release 5 years ago, on March 23, 2020. As with the earlier LTS releases, Ubuntu committed to ongoing security and critical fixes for a period of 5 years. The standard support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS will transition to Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) on May 29, 2025.

Users are encouraged to evaluate and upgrade to our latest 24.04 LTS release via 22.04 LTS. The supported upgrade path from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is via Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Instructions and caveats for the upgrades may be found at:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/JammyUpgrades for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NobleUpgrades for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and 24.04 LTS continue to be actively supported with security updates and bug fixes. All announcements of official security updates for Ubuntu releases are sent to the ubuntu-security-announce mailing list, information about which may be found here:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-security-announce

Canonical provides Extended Security Maintenance for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS to customers through Ubuntu Pro. Further information can be found here:

https://ubuntu.com/blog/focal-fossa-end-of-standard-support
https://www.ubuntu.com/esm

Since its launch in October 2004, Ubuntu has become one of the most highly regarded Linux distributions with millions of users in homes, schools, businesses and governments around the world. Ubuntu is Open Source software, costs nothing to download, and users are free to customize or alter their software in order to meet their needs.

Originally posted to the ubuntu-announce mailing list on Thu May 29 16:37:01 UTC 2025 by Ural Tunaboyu, on behalf of the Ubuntu Release Team.

30 May 2025 6:54am GMT

Ubuntu Studio 22.04 LTS has reached the end of its three years of supported life provided by the Ubuntu Studio team. All users are urged to upgrade to 24.04 LTS at this time.

This means that the KDE Plasma, audio, video, graphics, photography, and publishing components of your system will no longer receive updates, plus we at Ubuntu Studio won't support it after 29-May-2025, though your base packages from Ubuntu will continue to receive security updates from Ubuntu until 2027 since Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, Ubuntu Cloud and Ubuntu Core continue to receive updates.

See the Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS Release Notes for upgrade instructions.

No single release of any operating system can be supported indefinitely, and Ubuntu Studio has no exception to this rule.

Long-Term Support releases are identified by an even numbered year-of-release and a month-of-release of April (04). Hence, the most recent Long-Term Support release is 24.04 (YY.MM = 2024.April), and the next Long-Term Support release will be 26.04 (2026.April). LTS releases for official Ubuntu flavors (not Desktop or Server which are supported for five years) are three years, meaning LTS users are expected to upgrade after every LTS release with a one-year buffer.

29 May 2025 4:50pm GMT

Ubuntu's announced new monthly snapshot releases. The development builds use new automated release processes, but won't replace stable releases.

You're reading New Ubuntu 'Monthly Snapshot' Available to Download, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

29 May 2025 3:40pm GMT

A fix to Ubuntu's Software Updater tool is rolling out, resolving an issue where the 'install' button would disappear (and not return) until closed.

You're reading Ubuntu Fixes Vanishing Install Button in Software Updater, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

29 May 2025 1:22am GMT

O episódio de hoje fará correr muita tinta…electrónica. Como escapar aos monopólios de «e-readers» de marcas abelhudas? Podemos fazer um em casa com fita-cola, cartão, cuspo e Alpine Linux? Estas e outras questões mais profundas sobre um mundo que morre e outro que está em dores de parto colam-se a todas as outras coisas a acontecerem na agenda: Firefox 139, terminais retro engraçados, Teletexto num Terminal(!), Home Assistant Community Day, Wikicon Portugal, Ubucon Europe, Ubuntu Summit, Festa do Software Livre, ECTL Porto…é um nunca acabar. E decidimos fazer uma autópsia ao Pocket, mais uma vítima da Mozilla. Querem pacotes? Perguntem ao Dan!

Já sabem: oiçam, subscrevam e partilhem!

• Cool Retro Term: https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term
• Navegador para terminal «Links»: http://links.twibright.com/user_en.html#ch-introduction_into_links_web_browser
• Alpine Linux: https://www.alpinelinux.org/
• Para onde foram os «e-readers» baratos? https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/
• Tabela de privacidade de «e-readers» da EFF (2012): https://www.eff.org/pages/reader-privacy-chart-2012).
• Um Leitor de Livros Electrónicos Faça-Você-Mesmo: https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/building-an-open-hardware-ebook-reader/
• Um casamento feliz entre um Raspberry Pi Zero e Tinta Electrónica: https://www.hackster.io/lukehaas/e-ink-display-for-daily-news-weather-and-more-3dd7b1
• Como requisitar e-livros na Biblioled sem tralha da Adobe: https://ajuda.biblioled.gov.pt/pt/doc/ST2445/1/abrir-um-emprestimo-com-o-seu-pc
• Biblioled: https://www.biblioled.gov.pt/
• Thorium Reader: https://thorium.edrlab.org/en/
• KoReader: https://koreader.rocks/
• Calibre: https://calibre-ebook.com/
• Reflexões sobre um mundo novo que quer emergir e pulsões regressivas: https://ageoftransformation.org/the-us-is-collapsing-like-the-ussr-so-what-comes-next/
• Um Minitel num comboio?… https://corneill.es/@Ortie/114557692921180947
• Wallabag: https://wallabag.org/
  • https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag
  • https://www.wallabag.it/en
• Adeus, Pocket: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/future-of-pocket
  • https://www.phoronix.com/news/Mozilla-Pocket-Ending
  • https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/05/mozilla-kills-pocket-so-it-can-focus-on-firefox
• Firefox 139: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/building-whats-next/
• Jovem! Desenha uma mascote e ganha prémios! Inscreve-te! Participa! https://digitalfreedoms.org/en/sfd/blog/sfd-mascot-huion-challenge-2025
• Teletexto num Terminal para Pessoas Saudosistas: https://github.com/marado/teletexto/blob/main/teletexto.sh
• Qual pacote? Pergunta ao Dan: https://snapcraft.io/askdan
• LCD Porto - Laboratório de Criação Digital: https://lcdporto.org
• ECTL Porto, 29 e 31 de Maio: https://ectl.pt/pt/schedule/2025/
• WikiCon Portugal 2025, Seia, 30/05-01/06: https://pt.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiCon_Portugal_2025/Programa
• Ubucon Europe 2025, Málaga, 20-21 de Junho (Open South Code): https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubucon-europe-opensouthcode-2025/57060
• Festa do Software Livre 2025, Porto, 3 a 5 de Outubro: https://festa2025.softwarelivre.eu/pt/
• Ubuntu Summit 2025, Londres, 23-24 de Outubro: https://ubuntu.com/blog/ubuntu-summit-25-10-is-coming-to-your-circle-of-friends-from-london
• LoCo PT: https://loco.ubuntu.com/teams/ubuntu-pt/
• Mastodon: https://masto.pt/@pup
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/PodcastUbuntuPortugal

Atribuição e licenças

Este episódio foi produzido por Diogo Constantino, Miguel e Tiago Carrondo e editado pelo Senhor Podcast. O website é produzido por Tiago Carrondo e o código aberto está licenciado nos termos da Licença MIT. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). A música do genérico é: "Won't see it comin' (Feat Aequality & N'sorte d'autruche)", por Alpha Hydrae e está licenciada nos termos da CC0 1.0 Universal License. Os efeitos sonoros deste episódio possuem as seguintes licenças: Helicóptero; TV2 loop.wav by Figowitz - https://freesound.org/s/69609/ - License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0; Toque de telefone: 01592 dialing phone number.wav by Robinhood76 - https://freesound.org/s/94933/ - License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0. A flauta mal tocada dos separadores é inteiramente culpa do Miguel e aquele efeito manhoso de um helicóptero Bell Huey UH-1 com rotor de duas pás também. Este episódio e a imagem utilizada estão licenciados nos termos da licença: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), cujo texto integral pode ser lido aqui. Estamos abertos a licenciar para permitir outros tipos de utilização, contactem-nos para validação e autorização. A arte de episódio foi criada por encomenda pela Shizamura - artista, ilustradora e autora de BD. Podem ficar a conhecer melhor a Shizamura na Ciberlândia e no seu sítio web.

29 May 2025 12:00am GMT

If you've been in a debate online long enough, you'll eventually get to the point where someone will tell you to "go touch grass." What does that mean, and does it actually help?

Touching grass really just means spending time outside of your normal zone. This could mean going to a park and bringing a book, going fishing, or even some activities like bowling.

There are some who argue, "well, my job requires me to work 80+ hours a week. I'm constantly stressed out, and I really don't feel like I have the time to work out." There are also some who argue, "due to a physical limitation, I'm unable to enjoy exercise." Even more so, there are those that argue, "physical health shouldn't be your only goal in life, you should really dig deep into yourself as a person on an emotional level, or even better, spiritually."

I have answers for all three of you. I'll start by sharing a quick story.

I don't recall exactly what year it was, but I was still in elementary school. As part of the Running Club I participated in, our end goal was to run the Bellin Run. I recall doing the 5K, not the 10K.

In Running Club, I was probably the slowest person there. I would often fall behind, and over time, I actually did develop shin splints. I was determined, but I was also a bit too overweight.

The day came, and I ran the 5K in its entirety. My pace ended up being just short of 15 minutes a mile. The average marathon runner would consider that to be fairly slow, especially for someone at that age. That being said, because of a variety of factors, it was probably the most difficult task I've ever done physically.

I'm inspired to start running again. I've already started going for walks, and while the Bellin Run is a bit too soon for me this year, I'd definitely like to run it next year. I've developed the habit of going for a walk over the past week, and I'm going to continue that habit.

"But Simon, didn't you just link to David Goggins in a previous blog post? He pushes himself past his limits repeatedly. That doesn't seem very healthy."

If you think that, you don't understand why I mentioned him yet. Plain and simple.

Firstly, the evidence for physical exercise is very clear. Here are a handful of articles if you'd like to dig deeper:
Exercise: 7 benefits of regular physical activity by Mayo Clinic
Physical activity by WHO
Benefits of Physical Activity by CDC
Getting more exercise than guidelines suggest may further lower death risk by American Heart Association
Martinez-Gomez D, Luo M, Huang Y, et al. Physical Activity and All-Cause Mortality by Age in 4 Multinational Megacohorts. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(11):e2446802. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.46802
The Top 10 Benefits of Regular Exercise by Healthline

I would highly encourage you to read all of the available information and come to your own scientific conclusions. I genuinely want to hear dissents to this, if they exist.

Here are my conclusions…

I exercise not because I feel like I need to as an obligation, I exercise because I want to. Additionally, as a Lutheran Christian, I find that caring for my body in a healthy way is one of many ways to honor God (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). I also find that it has value for a lot of elements in life, but it doesn't replace the underlying spiritual motivators (1 Timothy 4:8). It compliments my spirituality, it doesn't take from it. Also remember that I'm not one that believes in imposing my own views on others by force. This is simply a point of inspiration, not some claim that I have it all figured out. (And yes, I've also read Colossians 2:20-23.)

The benefits of physical exercise are fairly simple. It leads to a longer life, it reduces the risk of heart disease substantially, it cuts the risk of depression, it burns calories…

And it even builds muscle.

That's what I'm going for here. My goal isn't to go hard and give myself shin splints again. My goal is to start training those muscles, so in a year from now, I can run the race.

"So, Simon. Has this actually given you some kind of substantive benefit?" Yes, yes it has. I found a healthy outlet for my stress, and that outlet is touching grass.

If I were to give advice on how to develop a sustainable workout plan, I'd first ask you to figure out your baseline. Figure out where exactly you're at. Talk to your doctor if you have one (to the non-Americans, yes, unfortunately some people are without healthcare), and figure out what's right for you.

Once you've done that, set simple goals and start small. I haven't finished my book review of Atomic Habits yet, but that's coming soon. I'd highly recommend that book to anyone attempting to develop sustainable habits of their own, when it comes to exercise or otherwise. (Don't worry, I'll come back and edit this paragraph once I've published my review.)

For starting small, it can be fairly simple. Don't overwhelm yourself, or burn yourself out. Just be patient; as with anything, it takes time. If you find you've set a specific goal to be too much, don't get discouraged, just keep going. The persistence factor is what you need to succeed.

That's where Goggins and Jocko come in. They're not religions or cults to follow. They publish resources for people who, already with the right mindset, just need a little extra motivation or convincing. In fact, before I lift max weights, I've always needed something to bring my adrenaline level up.

It doesn't have to be long, either. Even if you just took a 10 minute walk every day and gradually built up from there, that's still progress. Don't let anyone tell you it isn't, or that you're not trying hard enough. As long as you've done your research fully, only you know your own limits. (Just be rational.)

A variety of people also fear that they'll injure themselves. My best technique for learning how to lift a particular weight safely is to watch videos about it. Understand what muscle groups exactly I should be feeling, and how to get the form right. Use a tall mirror, so you can watch and correct your own form. Don't put significant weight on the bar, just bench the bar until you have the form down.

And if you still can't get it after that point, or if you feel overwhelmed with the idea of trying to take this on by yourself, ask for help. Develop a club of like-minded people, and really commit to making it a habit. Meet in person, instead of resorting to online-only clubs.

Not only is it good for you, it will make you happier and calmer. Just don't push your limits past the point of safety. Safety first.

For now, I'm going to keep walking. And, I'm just going to keep writing. Be well. Talk soon.

28 May 2025 9:31pm GMT

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS users can make use of the Intel Graphics Preview to unlock support for newer Intel GPU features, like faster ray tracing and ML.

You're reading Newer Intel GPU Support Now Available on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

28 May 2025 8:04pm GMT

SuperTuxKart developers announce the first release candidate of SuperTuxKart 1.5, the next major version of the popular, open-source racing game.

You're reading SuperTuxKart 1.5 Release Candidate Now Available, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

28 May 2025 5:20pm GMT

If you have ever wondered what goes on when your friends say that they're going on a "Business trip" abroad, then allow me to spill the beans 🫘. Let's recap what you may have missed from Canonical's Frankfurt Engineering Sprint this May, shall we?

My name is Nkeiruka, and I work as a Software Engineer for Canonical on the LXD-UI team. From the 11th to the 18th of May 2025, you would have found myself, my team, and about 90% of the Canonical engineers, in Frankfurt, Germany as we prepared a roadmap for the next 6 months of releases and features across our products.

Preceded by the Induction sprint introducing our New Hires, the Engineering Sprint bought Canonicool people from all over the globe to talk to one another (but this time, physically in person), learn new skills (we had a number of engineering workshops going on at any given time), and stay up to date with industry trends through morning - and evening - lightning talks.

From Mob UserTesting to Deep Dives of Design systems; in this sprint it seemed like each team had something personal to offer. I personally enjoyed the O11y workshops that I listened in on to help me have a better understanding of maintaining accessibility in my code on the fly rather than in hindsight. Others attended talks spearheading the future of React (and its working group), as well as sessions aimed at learning more about tools such as Dotrun.

The lightning talks, presented by wide-eyed and ambitious engineers across the team, captured our attention in the mornings and evenings and were designed to titillate and intrigue. Sessions featured a number of different topics from mental health & "gamboling" (yes, you read that right), to overviews on modern software development tools such as Kubernetes, MAAS, Mir and Robotics (Thanks, Robotics team, we know you exist now!). I even tried my hand at a Lightning talk myself, and appeared promptly at 8:40am to deliver my presentation providing an introduction to Masterclasses; our in-house video-learning and development repository for all things wacky and wonderful.

My favourite session of the week however, was delivered by a rather entertaining and enthused Mitchell Augustin - a more awesome colleague from the Devices Engineering team - who presented "A Fin-Tech Revolution", documenting his foray into creating a rather unconventional new infrastructure. Complete with fishy puns, Mitchell demonstrated the end of traditional computing as we know it by pulling together a set of novelty fish to form the crux of a revolutionary new computing platform. I wonder what they would feed from, a data lake? (That was definitely me stealing his joke. You just needed to be there…).

I said it once and I'll say it again - what a great use of free will.

After the evening lightning talks, you had a few options in front of you. Go to bed to make sure that you woke up on time to get breakfast, find dinner at a restaurant that charmed you enough to make an expense report, or head into the city center with some colleagues and friends and see where the Frankfurt train system would take you.

For me, my team and I went Axe throwing at Woodcutter Frankfurt, where I was almost immediately pulled into private training due to my lack of coordination. Below, you can find a picture of my one and only bullseye for the day, I promise it isn't AI-generated.

When I wasn't experiencing the food options at the hotel, I was tasting Argentinian steaks at Abacco's Steakhouse, or trying new cuisines - such as Eritrean dishes at Im Herzen Afrikaas.

So what's next? Well, after the sprint, I tacked on some personal travel to my trip overseas and headed to Berlin for some much needed rest, a Secret food tour, and some exploration of the history that Berlin - and Germany as a whole - had to offer through museums such as Berlin Story Bunker. Naturally, I also spent a few days practising my inevitable digital nomad journey by working from my AirBnb. Having lost (and found!) my purse at the beginning of the sprint, I was extra careful to keep track of my belongings when I used the Priority Pass airport lounge on my home-bound stretch. By 10pm on Wednesday, I was back in bed and ready for my next adventure.

I have heard on the grapevine that whilst the next Commercial Sprint is in Germany again, the next Engineering Sprint will take place in Sweden, in October. I am already mentally preparing for the weather. I hope you enjoyed this recap of what it can be like to be a remote worker or Software Engineer in Tech.

If you would like to learn more about Tech, Lifestyle, or Travel, follow me on LinkedIn, where I post technical blogs and thought pieces!

See you there!

- Nkeiruka

28 May 2025 9:30am GMT

If you have ever wondered what goes on when your friends say that they're going on a "Business trip" abroad, then allow me to spill the beans 🫘. Let's recap what you may have missed from Canonical's Frankfurt Engineering Sprint this May, shall we? My name is Nkeiruka, and I work as a Software Engineer […]

28 May 2025 9:30am GMT

Ubuntu Summit 2025 will be hosted in London, UK as Canonical makes big changes to the nature of the event, focusing more on remote participation.

You're reading Canonical Announce Big Changes to Ubuntu Summit, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

27 May 2025 5:10pm GMT

London calling… We have an exciting announcement about the Ubuntu Summit. We've been chatting with our community and contributors to see how we can bring our event, and the impact of open source, to even more people. This year, the Ubuntu Summit is reborn - read on to find out what changes we're making. Twice […]

27 May 2025 1:58pm GMT

Firefox 139 adds custom New Tab wallpapers, improved HTTP/3 performance, and AI-powered link previews, but nothing flashy - for the first time in a while.

You're reading Firefox 139 Brings Custom New Tab Wallpapers, Better Upload Speeds, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

27 May 2025 12:48am GMT

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 893 for the week of May 18 - 24, 2025. The full version of this issue is available here.

In this issue we cover:

• Sunsetting Launchpad's mailing lists
• Installing chrony by default, to enable Network Time Security (NTS)
• Call for nominations: Developer Membership Board restaffing
• Welcome New Members and Developers
• Ubuntu Stats
• Hot in Support
• Rocks Public Journal 2025-05-19
• LXD: Weekly news #395
• Other Meeting Reports
• Upcoming Meetings and Events
• Ubuntu Nepal + GNOME Nepal, UbuCon Asia 2025 going super strong!
• Korean LoCo Tea Party (May 17)
• LoCo Events
• Announcing 6.17 Kernel for Ubuntu 25.10 Questing Quokka
• Plasma 6.4 Beta1 available for testing
• KDE Application Snaps 25.04.1 with Major Bug Fix!
• Ubuntu Cloud News
• Canonical News
• In the Blogosphere
• Featured Audio and Video
• Updates and Security for Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04, 24.10, and 25.04
• And much more!

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

• Krytarik Raido
• Bashing-om
• Chris Guiver
• Wild Man
• Din Mušić - LXD
• Cristovao Cordeiro (cjdc) - Rocks
• And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

.

26 May 2025 10:14pm GMT

Flexbar, a crowdfunded Touch Bar clone, has begun shipping to backers. Better yet: the team has added Linux support too, which is great to see.

You're reading Flexbar (USB Apple Touch Bar Clone) Now Supports Linux, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

26 May 2025 7:23pm GMT

In many parts of life, mise en place is a helpful concept that allows you to properly structure your own foundations, and ensure that you are prepared for a wide variety of situations. This specifically comes down to mental resilience, and building good habits instead of bad ones.

"But Simon! That's a really fancy French word. Could you break it down a little bit?"

Sure can! I'll give you a practical example of how I taught myself cooking. To the professional cooks out there, I'm sorry in advance, you're probably going to strongly dislike my technique. This being said, please do share any tips if something I'm writing here is obviously wrong.

On Saturday, I cooked a meal. I first started by laying the foundations, and setting the expectations for what I wanted the meal to look like. In fact, I used all five senses. I put intense focus into dialing in the recipe.

I would give you the recipe, but it's muscle memory now; it's not written down. That being said, I at least know how to structure it.

I wanted thick cut fries with a medium spice (Cayenne pepper-based) cheese dip. And, scrambled eggs that tasted like an omelette. I wanted comfort food, in the style of brunch, made entirely at home.

The taste profile was perfect. I was so proud of what I'd created. When tasting the cheese, it had this amazing flavor that lasted 5-10 seconds.

But, well, I was the only one that ate it.

Why?

I was making it for me. It essentially came down to, the others didn't ask, and I didn't tell them. There wasn't communication. Only silence. Nobody walked up to me and really took the time to understand the story I was going for, and therefore, I didn't get the chance to respond.

All they saw is that I was having fun. And yeah, I did have lot of fun; to me, it was a great meal. But if I'm missing something, and the taste profile isn't for everyone, I want to know about it. I genuinely want to know, so I can cook a better meal.

I was given that feedback in real life once I asked, or at the very least, made it known that I'm open to constructive criticism. It can be difficult and emotionally draining, but it's just part of life, in my experience.

If you have that solid foundation, if you have that mise en place, that means you're checking these things before you even start.

Before I even start, do I have the spices ready for the food? Do I know what kind of flavor profile I'm going for, and the kind of flavor profile others would enjoy too? Have I watched a few videos, or read a few blog posts, about formally-trained professionals doing what I'm attempting to do?

That's really the foundation. I'm a huge fan of the Socratic Method, and that's really how I learn best. I enjoy prompting myself with a question (or letting a question reveal itself) and allowing it to guide my research, being the point at which I'm grounded on.

Okay, so we went over the cooking example. What's up with the lawnmowers?

Well, I showed you my lawnmower once, I'll do it again! :)

I'm going to spend some time this week re-reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. I've read it before, I'm just a bit rusty on the techniques. Expect a book review.

I'm also going to spend some time this week going over some product stories, and how the average person can decipher some of the latest trends.

Well, thanks for letting me mow my lawn!

I've also started going for walks again, and it's really helped. I took this photo over the weekend, and I think it's a great caption photo to start the week off. Do what you'd like with the photo, just credit me, please:

Be well. I'm going for another walk. I'll look at the view count and comments at the end of the week. For now, I'm just going to keep writing.

26 May 2025 6:42pm GMT

The rapid growth in OpenStack installation and orchestration tools that we have seen in recent years has effectively established OpenStack as the world's leading open source cloud platform. Projects like Sunbeam or Kolla Ansible, for example, are effectively transforming OpenStack into yet another user application. By using containers and the microservices architecture, OpenStack now runs […]

26 May 2025 7:00am GMT

Linux 6.15 kernel released with new NVIDIA Rust driver, major exFAT performance gains, controversial fwctl subsystem, and more hardware support.

You're reading Linux 6.15 Kernel Released, This is What's New, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

26 May 2025 12:16am GMT

No need to hunt through GNOME Settings to adjust Night Light temperature intensity as this nifty extension adds an intensity slider control in the Quick Settings menu.

You're reading This Extension Adds Night Light Intensity Slider to Quick Settings, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

24 May 2025 6:14pm GMT

As you may recall from previous posts and elsewhere I have been busy writing a new solver for APT. Today I want to share some of the latest changes in how to approach solving.

The idea for the solver was that manually installed packages are always protected from removals - in terms of SAT solving, they are facts. Automatically installed packages become optional unit clauses. Optional clauses are solved after manual ones, they don't partake in normal unit propagation.

This worked fine, say you had

A                                   # install request for A
B                                   # manually installed, keep it
A depends on: conflicts-B | C

Installing A on a system with B installed installed C, as it was not allowed to install the conflicts-B package since B is installed.

However, I also introduced a mode to allow removing manually installed packages, and that's where it broke down, now instead of B being a fact, our clauses looked like:

A                               # install request for A
A depends on: conflicts-B | C
Optional: B                     # try to keep B installed

As a result, we installed conflicts-B and removed B; the steps the solver takes are:

1. A is a fact, mark it
2. A depends on: conflicts-B | C is the strongest clause, try to install conflicts-B
3. We unit propagate that conflicts-B conflicts with B, so we mark not B
4. Optional: B is reached, but not satisfiable, ignore it because it's optional.

This isn't correct: Just because we allow removing manually installed packages doesn't mean that we should remove manually installed packages if we don't need to.

Fixing this turns out to be surprisingly easy. In addition to adding our optional (soft) clauses, let's first assume all of them!

But to explain how this works, we first need to explain some terminology:

1. The solver operates on a stack of decisions
2. "enqueue" means a fact is being added at the current decision level, and enqueued for propagation
3. "assume" bumps the decision level, and then enqueues the assumed variable
4. "propagate" looks at all the facts and sees if any clause becomes unit, and then enqueues it
5. "unit" is when a clause has a single literal left to assign

To illustrate this in pseudo Python code:

1. We introduce all our facts, and if they conflict, we are unsat:

   for fact in facts:
       enqueue(fact)
   if not propagate():
       return False
   

2. For each optional literal, we register a soft clause and assume it. If the assumption fails, we ignore it. If it succeeds, but propagation fails, we undo the assumption.

   for optionalLiteral in optionalLiterals:
       registerClause(SoftClause([optionalLiteral]))
       if assume(optionalLiteral) and not propagate():
           undo()
   

3. Finally we enter the main solver loop:

   while True:
       if not propagate():
           if not backtrack():
               return False
       elif <all clauses are satisfied>:
           return True
       elif it := find("best unassigned literal satisfying a hard clause"):
           assume(it)
       elif it := find("best literal satisfying a soft clause"):
           assume(it)
   

The key point to note is that the main loop will undo the assumptions in order; so if you assume A,B,C and B is not possible, we will have also undone C. But since C is also enqueued as a soft clause, we will then later find it again:

1. Assume A: State=[Assume(A)], Clauses=[SoftClause([A])]
2. Assume B: State=[Assume(A),Assume(B)], Clauses=[SoftClause([A]),SoftClause([B])]
3. Assume C: State=[Assume(A),Assume(B),Assume(C)], Clauses=[SoftClause([A]),SoftClause([B]),SoftClause([C])]
4. Solve finds a conflict, backtracks, and sets not C: State=[Assume(A),Assume(B),not(C)]
5. Solve finds a conflict, backtracks, and sets not B: State=[Assume(A),not(B)] - C is no longer assumed either
6. Solve, assume C as it satisfies SoftClause([C]) as next best literal: State=[Assume(A),not(B),Assume(C)]
7. All clauses are satisfied, solution is A, not B, and C.

This is not (correct) MaxSAT, because we actually do not guarantee that we satisfy as many soft clauses as possible. Consider you have the following clauses:

Optional: A
Optional: B
Optional: C
B Conflicts with A
C Conflicts with A

There are two possible results here:

1. {A} - If we assume A first, we are unable to satisfy B or C.
2. {B,C} - If we assume either B or C first, A is unsat.

The question to ponder though is whether we actually need a global maximum or whether a local maximum is satisfactory in practice for a dependency solver If you look at it, a naive MaxSAT solver needs to run the SAT solver 2**n times for n soft clauses, whereas our heuristic only needs n runs.

For dependency solving, it seems we do not seem have a strong need for a global maximum: There are various other preferences between our literals, say priorities; and empirically, from evaluating hundreds of regressions without the initial assumptions, I can say that the assumptions do fix those cases and the result is correct.

Further improvements exist, though, and we can look into them if they are needed, such as:

• Use a better heuristic:

  If we assume 1 clause and solve, and we cause 2 or more clauses to become unsatisfiable, then that clause is a local minimum and can be skipped. This is a more common heuristical MaxSAT solver. This gives us a better local maximum, but not a global one.

  This is more or less what the Smart package manager did, except that in Smart, all packages were optional, and the entire solution was scored. It calculated a basic solution without optimization and then toggled each variable and saw if the score improved.

• Implement an actual search for a global maximum:

  This involves reading the literature. There are various versions of this, for example:

  1. Find unsatisfiable cores and use those to guide relaxation of clauses.

  2. A bounds-based search, where we translate sum(satisifed clauses) > k into SAT, and then search in one of the following ways:

     1. from 0 upward
     2. from n downward
     3. perform a binary search on [0, k] satisfied clauses.

     Actually we do not even need to calculate sum constraints into CNF, because we can just add a specialized new type of constraint to our code.

24 May 2025 10:14am GMT

Pocket, the popular "read it later" service Mozilla bought in 2017, is shutting down on July 8. Users have until October to export data. Why? Well…

You're reading Mozilla is Shutting Down Pocket to Focus on Firefox, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

22 May 2025 7:54pm GMT

What are Launchpad's mailing lists?

Launchpad's mailing lists are team-based mailing lists, which means that each team can have one of them. E-mails from Launchpad's mailing lists contain `lists.launchpad.net ` in their address.

For more information on the topic please see https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp.

What are they not?

Please note that both lists.canonical.com and lists.ubuntu.com are not managed by Launchpad, but by Canonical Information Systems.

Timeline

Launchpad will no longer offer mailing lists as of the end of October 2025, which aligns with the end of the 25.10 cycle.

Migration paths

Depending on your use case, there are different alternatives available.

For a couple of years now, discourse has become a viable alternative for most scenarios. Launchpad also offers the Answers feature for discussions. If it is not so much about communication, but more about receiving information, e.g. for updates on a bug report, you should be aware that you can also subscribe teams to bugs.

Call for action

We are aware that your use case may be very different from the above listed ones. If you are using Launchpad's mailing lists today and you do not see a clear way forward, please reach out to us to discuss your use case and how we can help you.

Please contact us on Matrix (#launchpad:ubuntu.com) or drop as a message via feedback@launchpad.net.

Please note that this is still work in progress, and we will provide more information over the upcoming weeks and months.

22 May 2025 5:42pm GMT

Canonical's kernel team has confirmed that Ubuntu 25.10 will run on the Linux 6.17 kernel - expected, following the distro maker's kernel cadence change.

You're reading Ubuntu 25.10 Will Ship with the Linux 6.17 Kernel, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

22 May 2025 4:16pm GMT

GNOME is looking to jettison X11 session support - as soon as this year, which may impact Ubuntu's plans for its next long-term support release.

You're reading GNOME Dropping X11 Support May Complicate Next Ubuntu LTS, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

22 May 2025 2:14pm GMT

22 May 2025 12:49pm GMT

In today's hectic app development cycles, speed is key. But as teams scale and spread worldwide, and app complexity increases, traditional testing workflows become bottlenecks that can compromise security, increase operational costs, and delay product delivery. Simply sharing APKs or configuring physical test devices isn't enough anymore - it's time to rethink how we test […]

22 May 2025 7:00am GMT

No regresso desta semana semeamos teorias da conspiração sobre bibliotecários malvados com azia, atiramos uma orquestra ao chão, partimos telefones a alta altitude com mapas «off-line» e o Diogo volta a matar impiedosamente o pobre gorila Harambe, enquanto discutimos a validade (ou não) de termos assistentes de inferência estatística turbinada a meterem o bedelho no nosso uso diário do computador…mas fechados numa caixinha e amordaçados, para não darem com a língua nos dentes.

Já sabem: oiçam, subscrevam e partilhem!

• Biblioled: https://www.biblioled.gov.pt/
• Thorium Reader: https://thorium.edrlab.org/en/
• KoReader: https://koreader.rocks/
• Meh: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.demarque.biblioled
• O defunto Mycroft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycroft_(software)
• Mais despesa: https://shop.fairphone.com/shop/fairphone-4-display-23?color=28
• Mapas «off-line» para Unav: https://forums.ubports.com/topic/2653/how-to-offline-unav-maps
• Michal Kohútek enfrenta uma turba com archotes e forquilhas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyyn_WJhpow
• Wikicon Portugal 2025, Seia: https://wikimedia.pt/eventos/wikicon-portugal-2025/
• Jnation: https://jnation.pt/
• Home Assistant Community Day:
  • Aveiro https://lu.ma/p9eo4v3t
  • Porto https://lu.ma/uozbfr6n
  • Lisboa https://lu.ma/bxbs0kdp
• Harambe, nunca te esqueceremos: https://thoughtcatalog.com/jacob-geers/2016/08/the-50-greatest-harambe-memes-of-all-time/
• LoCo PT: https://loco.ubuntu.com/teams/ubuntu-pt/
• Mastodon: https://masto.pt/@pup
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/PodcastUbuntuPortugal

Atribuição e licenças

Este episódio foi produzido por Diogo Constantino, Miguel e Tiago Carrondo e editado pelo Senhor Podcast. O website é produzido por Tiago Carrondo e o código aberto está licenciado nos termos da Licença MIT. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). A música do genérico é: "Won't see it comin' (Feat Aequality & N'sorte d'autruche)", por Alpha Hydrae e está licenciada nos termos da CC0 1.0 Universal License. Este episódio e a imagem utilizada estão licenciados nos termos da licença: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), cujo texto integral pode ser lido aqui. Estamos abertos a licenciar para permitir outros tipos de utilização, contactem-nos para validação e autorização. A arte de episódio foi criada por encomenda pela Shizamura - artista, ilustradora e autora de BD. Podem ficar a conhecer melhor a Shizamura na Ciberlândia e no seu sítio web.

22 May 2025 12:00am GMT

High Tide, an unofficial TIDAL client for Linux, now offers background playback, audio normalisation, synced lyrics and various visual improvements.

You're reading High Tide (TIDAL Client for Linux) Gains New Features, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

21 May 2025 4:19pm GMT

With the latest LXD release, Ubuntu Pro now supports auto-attachment for LXD guest instances, offering organizations a seamless way to extend Ubuntu Pro benefits across their infrastructure.

21 May 2025 12:30pm GMT

Fender Studio is a new free cross-platform DAW for Linux, backed by the iconic instrument maker. Learn what it can do and where to download.

You're reading Fender's New Music Creation Software Supports Linux, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

20 May 2025 10:16pm GMT

Geopatriation refers to the relocation of workloads and applications from global cloud hyperscalers to regional or national alternatives due to geopolitical uncertainty.

20 May 2025 8:11am GMT

Well here's a turn up: Microsoft just released the source code for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), making the nifty tech open-source nearly a decade after development began. The tech giant announced the news at this year's BUILD event, where it made some other open-source related announcements, including its own CLI text editor called Edit. Source code for WSL was quickly made available on the Microsoft GitHub. For those not familiar with it, WSL is a specialised virtualisation setup that lets Windows users run Linux distributions (like Ubuntu) inside of Windows, with tight system, software and hardware integration. Microsoft says […]

You're reading Microsoft Open-Sources Windows Subsystem for Linux, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

19 May 2025 7:49pm GMT

Organizations facing uncertainty in the virtualization market have multiple open source options to choose from, including OpenStack for large private clouds and MicroCloud for smaller setups.

19 May 2025 9:11am GMT

Are you using Kubuntu 25.04 Plucky Puffin, our current stable release? Or are you already running our development builds of the upcoming 25.10 (Questing Quokka)?

We currently have Plasma 6.3.90 (Plasma 6.4 Beta1) available in our Beta PPA for Kubuntu 25.04 and for the 25.10 development series.

However this is a Beta release, and we should re-iterate the disclaimer:



DISCLAIMER: This release contains untested and unstable software. It is highly recommended you do not use this version in a production environment and do not use it as your daily work environment. You risk crashes and loss of data.



6.4 Beta1 packages and required dependencies are available in our Beta PPA. The PPA should work whether you are currently using our backports PPA or not. If you are prepared to test via the PPA, then add the beta PPA and then upgrade:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/beta && sudo apt full-upgrade -y

Then reboot.

In case of issues, testers should be prepared to use ppa-purge to remove the PPA and revert/downgrade packages.

Kubuntu is part of the KDE community, so this testing will benefit both Kubuntu as well as upstream KDE Plasma software, which is used by many other distributions too.

• If you believe you might have found a packaging bug, you can use launchpad.net to post testing feedback to the Kubuntu team as a bug, or give feedback on Matrix [1], or mailing lists [2].
• If you believe you have found a bug in the underlying software, then bugs.kde.org is the best place to file your bug report.

Please review the planned feature list, release announcement and changelog.

[Test Case]
* General tests:
- Does plasma desktop start as normal with no apparent regressions over 6.3?
- General workflow - testers should carry out their normal tasks, using the plasma features they normally do, and test common subsystems such as audio, settings changes, compositing, desktop affects, suspend etc.
* Specific tests:
- Identify items with front/user facing changes capable of specific testing.
- Test the 'fixed' functionality or 'new' feature.

Testing may involve some technical set up to do, so while you do not need to be a highly advanced K/Ubuntu user, some proficiently in apt-based package management is advisable.

Testing is very important to the quality of the software Ubuntu and Kubuntu developers package and release.

We need your help to get this important beta release in shape for Kubuntu and the KDE community as a whole.

Thanks!

Please stop by the Kubuntu-devel Matrix channel on if you need clarification of any of the steps to follow.

[1] - https://matrix.to/#/#kubuntu-devel:ubuntu.com
[2] - https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/kubuntu-devel

18 May 2025 9:26am GMT

Yesterday, exactly twenty years ago my mobile rang while I was walking the dog.

I had just returned from Sydney about a week ago (still battling with the last remains of my Jet-lag (I had never left Europe before!)) where I had attended the UbuntuDownUnder summit and had a 30min interview on the last day (that was literally rather like having a coffee with friends after lunch) with Mark Shuttleworth and Matt Zimmerman (back then Canonicals CTO) on a nice hotel terrace directly under a tree with a colony of flying foxes sleeping above our heads.

There was Jane Silber (CEO) on the phone, telling me: "I'm so happy to tell you you are hired! In your new role we want you to create an educational flavor of Ubuntu, there will be a debian-edu/skolelinux gathering in Bergen in Norway from the 10th to 12th of June, are you okay flying there with Mark?"

I rushed back home and told my girlfriend: "I'm hired, and I'll fly Canonical One on my first business trip next month!" (Canonical One was the name of Marks plane). I learned the next weeks that Canonical had indeed booked a generic scheduled flight for me and we'd only meet at the venue

The flight was a disaster, after we were boarding that small 20-seater 2 prop plane that was supposed to get us from Cologne to Amsterdam and the pilot started the engine my window all of a sudden was soaked in oil. We had to stay in the plane out on the filed while the mechanics were fixing the engine for like 2-3h so indeed I missed the connection in Amsterdam and had to stay for the night instead of arriving in Bergen the evening before the event started.

When I arrived at the venue everyone was already busy hacking on stuff and I jumped right in alongside, finally meeting some users of LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) which I was upstream for at that time and working with them on the problems they faced in debian with it, tinkering with moodle as a teaching support system and looking at other edu software, meanwhile Mark was sitting on a bar-stool in a corner with his laptop hacking on launchpad code.

When we went to our hotel in the evening it turned out they did not have our booking at all and were completely overbooked due to a jewelry exhibition they had in the house for that week. I talked like 15min to the lady behind the counter, showed her my booking confirmation PDF on the laptop, begged and flirted a lot and eventually she told us "We do have an exhibition room that we keep as spare, it only has one bed but you can have it and we will add a folding bed". The room was actually a normal hotel room but completely set up with wallpaper tables all around the walls.

Mark insisted to take the folding bed and I can tell you, he does not snore … (well, he didn't back then)

This was only the first of a plethora of adventures that followed in the upcoming 20 years, that phone call clearly changed my life and the company gave me the opportunity to work with the brightest, sharpest and most intelligent people on the planet in and outside of Canonical.

It surely changed a lot over these years (when I started we were building the distro with 18 people in the distro team and did that for quite a few years before it actually got split into server, foundations, kernel and desktop teams) but it never lost its special spirit of having these exceptional people with such a high focus on bringing opensource to everyone and making it accessible to everyone.
Indeed, with growth comes the requirement to make more money to pay the people, the responsibility to give your employees a certain amount of security and persistence grows, but Canonical and especially Mark have always managed to keep the balance to not lose that focus and do the right thing in the end.

Ten years ago I said "onward to the next ten!!", I won't really say "onward to the nest 20!" today, not because I ever plan to resign but simply because I doubt I still want to work full time when I'm 75

Thank you Mark for dragging me into this adventure and thank you for still having me! I still love the ride!!

16 May 2025 2:34pm GMT

In this guide, we will take you through setting up a RAG pipeline. We will utilize open source tools such as Charmed OpenSearch for efficient search retrieval and KServe for machine learning inference, specifically in Azure and Ubuntu environments while leveraging silicons.

15 May 2025 2:31pm GMT

A broadband remote access server (BRAS) is an access gateway oriented to broadband network applications. It bridges broadband access and backbone networks, providing basic access methods and management functions for broadband access networks. Traditionally, BRAS has suffered from challenges, including low resource utilization, complex management and maintenance, and slow service provisioning. Virtual broadband remote access […]

15 May 2025 1:45pm GMT

Canonical has committed to donating US$120,000 to open source developers over the next 12 months (using thanks.dev).

13 May 2025 11:52am GMT

Canonical, the publisher of Ubuntu, and ESWIN Computing have partnered to enable DeepSeek LLM 7B on the EIC77 series, showcasing ESWIN Computing's powerful NPU, GPU and DSP running on Ubuntu. This development is part of a community development effort between Canonical and ESWIN Computing to bring the latest and greatest RISC-V technology to Ubuntu. See […]

12 May 2025 8:15am GMT