Open-source News

AMD today is launching the "refined" AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics card line-up with new 2022 models being the RX 6650 XT, RX 6750 XT, and RX 6950 XT graphics cards.

Linux New Media Launches Open Source JobHub  IT World Canada

The new Portenta X8 (with Linux!) and Max Carrier redefine what’s possible  Blogdottv

Zerto Extends Leadership in Ransomware Resilience by Bringing New Recovery Capabilities in a Multi-Cloud World  Yahoo Finance

How to Install Linux on Mac M1  BollyInside

In the absence of the BUS1 in-kernel IPC mechanism that appears stalled that was started after the failed KDBUS effort, Dbus-Broker has been taking off as the high performance, reliability-enhanced Linux message broker in user-space retaining compatibility with the reference D-Bus implementation...

Last month an AMD engineer began posting Linux kernel patches so the kernel prefers the MWAIT instruction over HALT for lowering the CPU idle exit latency. Preferring MWAIT over HALT has been something Intel CPUs on Linux have preferred going back to the Core 2 days and indeed with modern AMD CPUs there is significant advantages to lowering the exit latency in doing so for the idle code. This morning the latest iteration of the work was posted...

Fedora 36 is releasing this morning as what is yet another release in recent times of being a very robust and bleeding-edge yet stable and reliable Linux distribution. I've already been running Fedora Workstation 36 and Fedora Server 36 snapshots on various systems in my benchmarking lab and this release has proven to be quite solid while adding new features and polish on top of the excellent Fedora 35...

Fedora 36 Is A Terrific Release Especially For Linux Enthusiasts, Power Users  Phoronix

Overnight some notable open-source AMD Radeon graphics driver code was merged into what will be the Mesa 22.2 release next quarter...

Ming Lei of Red Hat has published an early implementation of a IO_uring based user-space block driver for Linux...

Experimental "UBD" Driver Posted As IO_uring-Based User-Space Block Driver  Phoronix

Linux Operating System Market Size,Growth 2022 Global Opportunities, Trends, Regional Overview, Leading Company Analysis, And Key Country Forecast to 2023  Digital Journal

Easily Connect your iPhone with Linux as KDE Connect Arrives on the App Store  It's FOSS News

OpenSSF announces 15 new members to further strengthen open source software supply chain security  Intelligent CIO

Can't Run AppImage on Ubuntu 22.04? Here's How to Fix it  It's FOSS

Red Hat rollout parade led by Enterprise Linux 9  SiliconANGLE News

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9: Security baked in  ZDNet

6 easy ways to make your first open source contribution with LibreOffice Klaatu Tue, 05/10/2022 - 03:00 Register or Login to like Register or Login to like

"Getting involved" with open source can seem a little confusing. Where do you go to get started? What if you don't know how to code? Who do you talk to? How does anybody know that you have contributed, and besides that does anybody care?

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There are actually answers to questions like those (your choice, it's OK, nobody, you tell them, yes) but during the month of May 2022, there's one simple answer: LibreOffice. This month is a month of participation at LibreOffice and its governing body, The Document Foundation. They're inviting contributors of all sorts to help in any of six different ways, and only one of those has anything at all to do with code. No matter what your skill, you can probably find a way to help the world's greatest office suite.

6 ways to contribute to LibreOffice

Here's what you can do:

• Handy Helper: Go answer questions from other LibreOffice users on Ask LibreOffice. If you're an avid user of LibreOffice and think you have useful tips and tricks that will help others, this is the role you've been waiting for.
• First Responder: Bug reports are better when they're confirmed by more than just one user. If you're good at installing software (sometimes bug reports are for older versions than what you might be using normally) then go to the LibreOffice Bugzilla and find new bugs that have yet to be confirmed. When you find one, try to replicate what's been reported. Assuming you can do that, add a comment like “CONFIRMED on Linux (Fedora 35) and LibreOffice 7.3.2”.
• Drum Beater: Open source projects rarely have big companies funneling marketing money into promoting them. It would be nice if all the companies claiming to love open source would help out, but not all of them do, so why not lend your voice? Get on social media and tell your friends why you love LibreOffice, or what you’re using it for (and of course add the #libreoffice hashtag.)
• Globetrotter: LibreOffice is already available in many different languages, but not literally all languages. And LibreOffice is actively being developed, so its interface translations need to be kept up-to-date. Get involved here.
• Docs Doctor: LibreOffice has online help as well as user handbooks. If you're great at explaining things to other people, or if you're great at proof-reading other people's documentation, then you should contact the docs team.
• Code Cruncher: You're probably not going to dive into LibreOffice's code base and make major changes right away, but that's not generally what projects need. If you know how to code, then you can join the developer community by following the instructions on this wiki page.

Free stickers

I didn't want to mention this up-front because obviously you should get involved with LibreOffice just because you're excited to get involved with a great open source project. However, you're going to find out eventually so I may as well tell you: By contributing to LibreOffice, you can sign up to get free stickers from The Document Foundation. Surely you've been meaning to decorate your laptop?

Don't get distracted by the promise of loot, though. If you're confused but excited to get involved with open source, this is a great opportunity to do so. And it is representative of how you get involved with open source in general: You look for something that needs to be done, you do it, and then you talk about it with others so you can get ideas for what you can do next. Do that often enough, and you find your way into a community. Eventually, you stop wondering how to get involved with open source, because you're too busy contributing!

May 2022 is LibreOffice month. Here are some easy ways to make your first open source contribution.

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LibreOffice Getting started What to read next 6 ways to contribute to an open source alternative to Slack 5 ways LibreOffice supports accessibility My favorite LibreOffice productivity tips 5 surprising things you can do with LibreOffice from the command line This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License. Register or Login to post a comment.

My open source journey with C from a neurodiverse perspective Rikard Grossma… Tue, 05/10/2022 - 03:00 Register or Login to like Register or Login to like

I was born in 1982, which in human years is only 40 years in the past (at the time of writing). In terms of computer development, it's eons ago. I got my first computer, a Commodore 64, when I was ten years old. Later, I got an Amiga, and by 13 I got an "IBM Compatible" (that's what they were called, then) PC.

In high school, I did a lot basic programming on my graphing calculator. In my second year of high school, I learned basic C programming, and in my third year I started doing more advanced C programming, using libraries, pointers, and graphics.

My journey from programming student to teacher

In my college days, I learned Java and so Java became my primary language. I also made some C# programs for a device known as a personal data assistant (PDA), which were pre-cursors to the modern smart phone. Because Java is object-oriented, multi-platform, and made GUI programming easy, I thought I'd do most of my programming in Java from now on.

In college, I also discovered that I had a talent for teaching, so I helped others with programming, and they helped me with math when I took computer science. I took some courses on C programming, aimed at basic embedded programming and controlling measurement instruments in my later college years.

After turning 30, I've used C as a teaching tool for high school kids learning to program in C. I've also used Fritzing to teach high school kids how to program an Arduino. My interest in C programming was awakened again last year, when I got a job helping college students with learning differences in computing subjects.

How I approach programming in C and other languages

All people learn differently. Being a neurodiverse person with Asperger's and ADHD, my learning process is sometimes quite different from others. Of course, everyone has different learning styles, though people who are neurodiverse might have a greater preference for a certain learning style than someone else.

I tend to think in both pictures and words. Personally I need to decode things step by step, and understand them, step by step. This makes C a suitable language for my learning style. When I learn code, I gradually incorporate the code into my mind by learning to see lines of code, like #include in front of me. From what I've read from descriptions of other neurodiverse people on the internet, some of them seem to have this kind of learning style as well. We “internalize code”.

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Some autistic people are a lot better at memorizing large chunks of code than me, but the process seems to be the same. When understanding concepts such as structs, pointers, pointers to pointers, matrices, and vectors, it's helpful for me to think in pictures, such as the ones you find in programming tutorials and books.

I like to use C to understand how things are done at a lower level, such as file input and output (I/O), networking programming, and so on. This doesn't mean I don't like libraries that handle tasks such as string manipulation or making arrays. I also like the ease of creating arrays and vectors in Java. However, for creating a user interface, though I have looked at such code in C, I prefer to use grapical editors, such as Netbeans and similar.

My ideal C GUI open source tool for creating applications

If I imagine an ideal open source tool for creating a GUI using C, it would be something similar to Netbeans that, for example, making GTK-interfaces by dragging and dropping. It should also be possible to put C on buttons, and so on, to make them perform actions. There may be such a tool. I admittedly haven't looked around that much.

Why I encourage young neurodiverse people to learn C

Gaming is a big industry. Some studies suggest neurodiverse kids may be even more focused on gaming than other kids. I would tell a neurodiverse high school or college kid that If you learn C, you may be able to learn the basics of, for example, writing efficient drivers for a graphics card, or to make efficient file I/O routines to optimize their favorite game. I would also be honest that it takes time and effort to learn, but that it's worth the effort. Once you learn it, you have greater control of things like hardware.

For learning C, I recommend a neurodiverse kid to install a beginner-friendly Linux distro, and then find some tutorials on the net. I also recommend breaking down things step by step, and drawing diagrams of, for example, pointers. I did that to better understand the concept, and it worked for me.

In the end, that's what it's about: Find a learning method that works for you, no matter what teachers and other students may say, and use it to learn the open source skill that interests you. It can be done, and anyone can do it.

I've learned that if you can find the method that works for you, no matter what teachers and other students may say, you can learn any open source skill that interests you.

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