November 2015 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

SUSE Leap reviewed
by Ian Young 10 Nov '15

10 Nov '15

Thanks for the interesting review. But you didn't say whether NetworkManager was functional. Just joshing :) I'm going to assume it does work because lightning couldn't strike twice right? And you didn't mention Fluxbox. I seem to recall it was once an option. Or am I thinking of FVWM?

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OpenSUSE Leap 42.1 Released
by Peter Reutemann 09 Nov '15

09 Nov '15

"In what they're calling the first "hybrid" distribution release, the openSUSE project have announced the availability of openSUSE Leap 42.1. Built on a core of SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 SP1 packages but including an up-to-date userspace (KDE Plasma 5.4.2, GNOME 3.16, and many other DEs), Leap aims to provide a stable middle ground between enterprise releases which are quickly out of date, and the sometimes unstable community distros. DVD/USB or Network Install ISOs are available for download now. For those who do prefer the bleeding edge, the openSUSE Tumbleweed rolling-release distribution is also available." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/11/05/0246248 Sounds like an interesting concept... Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Creative Commons case study on William Mckee
by William Mckee 06 Nov '15

06 Nov '15

Hello, Creative Commons NZ did a case study on me. It mentions my Linux usage for creating artwork. Here is the article: http://nzcommons.org.nz/artist-william-mckee-discusses-creative-commons-ope… Cheers, William.

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Latest SUSE
by Ian Young 06 Nov '15

06 Nov '15

This sounds good -- but does NetworkManager work? It would be interesting to find out. I had problems with an earlier SUSE version as I mentioned at a LUG meeting. If anyone has an iso I would like a copy. ~ Ian Y

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unbreakable encryption may be illegal
by Ian Young 03 Nov '15

03 Nov '15

Some may not have seen this, presumably by now as seen on TV and across the web. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11970391/Interne…

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The World’s Most Frustrating Linux Install
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Nov '15

03 Nov '15

Following on from their attempt to crowdsource a Pokemon game session, video-streaming site Twitch has now tried the same for an installation of Arch Linux. Guess which was the most popular command people tried to enter? <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/02/crowdsourced_linux_installation_cri…>

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Hacking tool swipes encrypted credentials from password manager
by Peter Reutemann 02 Nov '15

02 Nov '15

"Using a password manager is one of the biggest ways that average computer users can keep their online accounts secure, but their protection is pretty much meaningless when an end user's computer is compromised. Underscoring this often ignored truism is a recently released hacking tool that silently decrypts all user names, passwords, and notes stored by the KeePass password manager and writes them to a file. KeeFarce, as the tool has been dubbed, targets KeePass, but there's little stopping developers from designing similar apps that target virtually every other password manager available today. Hackers and professional penetration testers can run it on computers that they have already taken control of. When it runs on a computer where a logged in user has the KeePass database unlocked, KeeFarce decrypts the entire database and writes it to a file that the hacker can easily access." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/11/hacking-tool-swipes-encrypted-crede… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux 4.3 Released As Stable; Improves On Open-Source Graphics, SMP Performance
by Peter Reutemann 02 Nov '15

02 Nov '15

"The Linux 4.3 kernel was released as stable today. The Linux 4.3 kernel brings Intel Skylake support, reworked NVIDIA open-source graphics support, and many other changes with the code count hitting 20.6 million lines of code." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/11/02/0130233 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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EFF Asks Appeals Court To "Shut Down the Eastern District of Texas"
by Peter Reutemann 02 Nov '15

02 Nov '15

'The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge have asked a federal appeals court to make big changes to the rules governing venue in patent cases. The two public interest groups are seeking to file an amicus brief (PDF) which attacks the Eastern District of Texas as being one of the "most notorious situations of forum shopping in recent history."' -- source: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/11/01/0239203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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GNU Hurd 0.7 and GNU Mach 1.6 Released
by Peter Reutemann 02 Nov '15

02 Nov '15

"Halloween brought us GNU Hurd 0.7, GNU Mach 1.6, and GNU MIG 1.6. The new Hurd comes with filesystem driver improvements, provides a new rpcscan utility, and the Hurd code has been ported to work with newer versions of GCC and GNU C Library. The Mach microkernel has updates for compiler compatibility, improvements to the lock debugging infrastructure, the kernel now lets non-privileged users write to a small amount of memory, timestamps are now kept relative to boot time, and there are various bugfixes. MIG 1.6 is a small update which improves compatibility with newer dialects of C programming language. Specific details on all of the updates can be found in the full release announcement." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/11/01/1333247 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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