August 2024 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Germany to Fund Open Source Software Maintainers Through New Fellowship Program
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '24

07 Aug '24

'If you’re of the ilk to complain about governments giving money away and what that means for taxpayers, the Germans — or at least their government — are doing this because it will be good for the economy, meaning they think it’ll make folks better able to pay their taxes rather just empty their pockets for the taxman. This is also why they’ve already spending a substantial amount of money to help fund over 40 FOSS projects. “Open source infrastructure is the backbone of our digital world – and the work of the people who maintain it is essential to ensuring the security and availability of this global resource,” Mirko Swillus wrote in a blog that was published on Thursday. “They lead project development, review changes, manage community interactions, and tackle security issues.” Swillus is program manager at Sovereign Tech Fund, and the blog was to announce fund’s new Fellowship for Maintainers program. “With this new fellowship program, we’re directly investing in the people behind the code by paying maintainers of critical open source components for their work,” he wrote.' -- source: https://fossforce.com/2024/08/germany-to-fund-open-source-software-maintain… Cheers, Peter

1 0

How to replace Windows with Linux Mint on your PC
by Peter Reutemann 05 Aug '24

05 Aug '24

'Are you sick of Windows fouling up? Do you want to try something different? Then, it's time to try the best Linux desktop, Linux Mint 22. I've used more operating systems than you can shake a stick at. I cut my teeth on IBM 360/OS in the 1970s. Since then, I've used every Apple and Microsoft operating system you've heard of, and many you've never known, such as A/UX and Microsoft Xenix. I've also used well over 100 different Unix and Linux distributions. So, when I say Linux Mint 22 -- the latest long-term support (LTS) version of Linux Mint -- is not just the best Linux desktop, but the best desktop, it means something. - Materials needed: Windows PC, internet connection, and a DVD-RW or USB stick with 3GB or more storage - Estimated time: 2 hours - Estimated cost: $5' -- source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-replace-windows-with-linux-mint-on-you… With the continuing enshittification [1] of Windows, maybe a good time to get folks moved to a less intrusive operating system... Cheers, Peter [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

1 0

First Look at Serpent OS: Minimal GNOME Desktop and Rust-Based Package Manager
by Peter Reutemann 02 Aug '24

02 Aug '24

'The wait is finally over and Ikey Doherty’s long-anticipated Serpent OS distribution has an ISO image that people can download and test on bare metal hardware or virtual machines to see what the fuss is all about. Four years ago I broke news that Ikey Doherty is making a new distro called Serpent Linux (it was later changed to Serpent OS) aiming to provide the Linux community with a truly modern distribution for people who want to just use Linux. The name of the distribution is inspired by the Serpent game created by Ikey Doherty. At that time, Serpent OS was supposed to ship with the KDE Plasma desktop environment by default, but things have changed and GNOME was chosen as the default for the initial release. The first pre-alpha ISO image includes the older GNOME 45.3 release, but I’m sure the final release will use a more recent version. Serpent OS offers a minimal GNOME desktop experience with only a handful of apps pre-installed, such as the Mozilla Firefox web browser, GNOME Console terminal emulator, GNOME Text Editor text editing app, Zed code editor, GNOME’s Loupe image viewer, and GNOME Extensions. However, Serpent OS supports Flatpak apps if you need to install the apps you need, but Flatpak support is not installed by default in this pre-alpha release.' -- source: https://9to5linux.com/first-look-at-serpent-os-minimal-gnome-desktop-and-ru… Cheers, Peter

1 0