October 2025 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

New Attack On AI Bots: Prompt Injection
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Jul '26

01 Jul '26

A Twitter bot account run by a company that posts remote job listings was programmed to respond to tweets directed to it with general inoffensive comments touting the positive aspects of remote work. However <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/09/twitter-pranksters-d…>, some other Twitter users discovered that if they began their tweet with directives to “ignore previous instructions”, they could get the bot to say just about anything. And much hilarity ensued. Basically, the way the bot program works is it begins with some standard instructions on what to say, provided by the people who set up the account, to which is appended whatever tweet content was sent to the bot by the other user. This is then processed by the AI system to produce a response. This attack has been dubbed “prompt injection”, by analogy with “SQL injection” and other similar attacks on non-AI systems. But whereas those attacks can be blocked using basic, well-known syntactic quoting techniques, there seem to be no easy equivalents for stopping an AI paying attention to instructions it should not be obeying.

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Austria Military Ditches Microsoft for Open-Source Libreoffice – Here’s Why
by Peter Reutemann 26 Feb '26

26 Feb '26

'Austria's military has completed a major IT overhaul, replacing Microsoft Office with the open-source LibreOffice suite across all its desktop systems. The change, finalized this month, affects approximately 16,000 workstations in the Austrian Armed Forces. This move will substantially reduce Austria's software bill. At $33.75 per user per month, a Microsoft 365 E3 subscription for 16,000 workstations costs approximately $6,480,000 per year, compared to LibreOffice's zero cost. But this move isn't about saving money. The real motivation is to gain digital sovereignty and control over critical data. As Michael Hillebrand of Directorate 6 information and communications technology (ICT) and Cyber Defense, explained: "It was very important for us to show that we are doing this primarily to strengthen our digital sovereignty, to maintain our independence in terms of ICT infrastructure and to ensure that data is only processed in-house."' -- source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/this-european-military-just-ditched-microsoft… Cheers, Peter

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Is AI Becoming A Linux-Only Thing?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Nov '25

11 Nov '25

I wondered why it was necessary to give Windows users “an environment that can easily deploy AI apps made specifically for Linux on Windows machines without dealing with a complicated setup process”, according to <https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/asrocks-…>. Are there that many Linux-specific AI apps? It appears there are: Making matters worse, most "cutting-edge" AI applications are typically optimized for Linux, making it even harder for Windows users to get these apps up and running in Windows (if at all). You’d think most AI apps would concentrate on the Windows market, or at least support Windows and Linux equally. But perhaps not: The original version of AI Quickset was only capable of configuring AI applications that were designed with either Windows or Linux in mind. AI Quickset WSL expands upon this and again allows users the freedom to run Linux-based AI apps on Windows, which is a huge deal if you dabble in AI models that are mostly [relegated] to the Linux space.

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LMDE 7 Officially Released with Debian 13 Base
by Peter Reutemann 31 Oct '25

31 Oct '25

'Over two years after the previous 6 “Faye” release, the Linux Mint team has officially unveiled LMDE 7 “Gigi”, a major new LTS release of the Debian-based Mint variant, bringing all the new features, improvements, and polished visuals from the Ubuntu-based 22.2 “Zara” edition, released in early September, over to the LMDE version. The release’s highlight is, of course, that LMDE 7 “Gigi” marks a major turning point: it is now entirely rebased on Debian 13 “Trixie”, which becomes the new upstream base for all packages. Under the hood, it’s powered by the Linux kernel 6.12 LTS, delivering broader hardware support and stability improvements for modern systems. On the desktop side, as I already said, LMDE 7 essentially incorporates all the enhancements introduced in Linux Mint 22.2 “Zara”. Among these is the introduction of Fingwit, a dedicated fingerprint authentication utility that enables biometric login and sudo operations on supported systems.' -- source: https://linuxiac.com/lmde-7-officially-released-with-debian-13-base/ Cheers, Peter

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International Criminal Court To Ditch Microsoft Office For European Open Source Alternative
by Peter Reutemann 31 Oct '25

31 Oct '25

'The International Criminal Court will switch its internal work environment away from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, a European open source alternative, the institution confirmed to Euractiv. The switch comes amid rising concerns about public bodies being reliant on US tech companies to run their services, which have stepped up sharply since the start of US President Donald Trump's second administration. For the ICC, such concerns are not abstract: Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the court and slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan. Earlier this year, the AP also reported that Microsoft had cancelled Khan's email account, a claim the company denies. "We value our relationship with the ICC as a customer and are convinced that nothing impedes our ability to continue providing services to the ICC in the future," a Microsoft spokesperson told Euractiv.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/10/30/1847204 Cheers, Peter

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Say it with me: Windows is the problem with Windows handhelds
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 30 Oct '25

30 Oct '25

Sean Hollister says <https://www.theverge.com/games/807711/xbox-ally-sleep-fail-bazzite-fix-perf…>: It’s been nearly two weeks since Microsoft, a multi-trillion dollar company, shipped a $600 handheld “Xbox” that can’t be relied on to sleep, wake, or hold a charge while asleep in my tests. Neither Microsoft nor Asus would admit there’s a problem with the white Xbox Ally or offer a timeline to fix it after repeated requests by The Verge. But if you want your white Asus handheld to start working reliably, you could do what I did: I installed the latest build of Bazzite, a SteamOS-like, Linux-based operating system that works properly with gamepad controls, and sleeps like a dream. ... Did I mention Bazzite runs most of my Windows games *substantially faster* than Windows? Rub it in even more, why don’t you: It’s not just games that feel faster: Steam is a far more responsive interface without the bloat of Windows lurking under the hood. It feels like an entirely different handheld. With Bazzite, I can use it like I use a Nintendo Switch, simply pressing the power button whenever I want to pause a game, then picking up exactly where I left off hours or days later. Microsoft’s response: Microsoft declined our request for an interview about the future of the Xbox Ally or a timeline on fixes, but VP of Windows product management Anshul Rawat provided this statement to The Verge: ... We’ve identified a small set of issues and initial fixes will be rolling out soon. Optimizing Windows, the most flexible OS in the world, for a range of devices and screen sizes across PCs and the cloud is an ongoing journey. Really?? Windows is “the most flexible OS in the world”, getting its lunch eaten by Linux not just in mobile, but in practically every computing sphere?

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Blender 5.0 Introducing HDR Support On Linux With Vulkan + Wayland
by Peter Reutemann 29 Oct '25

29 Oct '25

'Michael Larabel writes via Phoronix: The upcoming Blender 5.0 3D modeling software application is introducing High Dynamic Range (HDR) display support on Linux when making use of Wayland -- no X11 support for HDR -- and Vulkan graphics accelerator. HDR support for Blender 5.0 on Linux is currently considered experimental. Enabling the HDR support on Linux for the Blender creator software requires having a High Dynamic Range display (of course) and be running on a Wayland desktop, enabling Vulkan API acceleration rather than OpenGL, and enabling the feature currently deemed experimental. ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/06/26/2035245 Cheers, Peter

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toolong
by Peter Reutemann 29 Oct '25

29 Oct '25

Just came across the "toolong" tool: 'A terminal application to view, tail, merge, and search log files (plus JSONL).' -- github: https://github.com/Textualize/toolong -- source: https://mastodon.social/@nixCraft/115455395475544673 Cheers, Peter

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Nearly 90% of Windows Games Now Run on Linux, Latest Data Shows
by Peter Reutemann 29 Oct '25

29 Oct '25

'Nearly nine in ten Windows games can now run on Linux systems, according to data from ProtonDB compiled by Boiling Steam. The gains came through work by developers of WINE and Proton translation layers and through interest in hardware like the Steam Deck. ProtonDB tracks games across five categories. Platinum-rated games run perfectly without adjustment. Gold titles need minor tweaks. Silver games are playable but imperfect. Bronze exists between silver and borked. Borked games refuse to launch. The proportion of new releases earning platinum ratings has grown. The red and dark red zones have thinned. Some popular titles remain incompatible, however. Boiling Steam noted that other developers appear averse to non-Windows gamers.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/10/28/206219 Cheers, Peter

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Games Run Faster On SteamOS Than Windows 11, Ars Testing Finds
by Peter Reutemann 16 Oct '25

16 Oct '25

'A report from Ars Technica: Nearly a decade ago, Ars testing found that Valve's "Steam Machines"-era version of SteamOS performed significantly worse than Windows when SteamOS's Linux game ports were tested on the same hardware as their Windows counterparts. Today, though, Ars testing on the Lenovo Legion Go S finds recent games generally run at higher frame rates on SteamOS 3.7 than on Windows 11. [...] As you can see in the included charts, SteamOS showed noticeable frame rate improvements in four of the five games tested. Only Borderlands 3 showed comparable performance across both operating systems, with Windows eking out ever-so-slightly higher frame rates in that game's benchmarks. For the other four tested games, the stock Lenovo Windows drivers were sometimes significantly worse than those included with SteamOS. When playing Returnal at "High" graphics presets and 1920x1200 resolution, for instance, changing from Lenovo's Windows drivers to SteamOS meant the difference between a hard-to-take 18 FPS average and a downright decent 33 FPS average. Sideloading the updated Asus drivers showed a noticeable improvement in Windows performance across all tested games and even brought Homeworld 3's "Low" graphics benchmark test to practical parity with SteamOS. In all other cases, though, even these updated drivers resulted in benchmark frame rates anywhere from 8 percent to 36 percent lower than those same benchmarks on SteamOS. These results might seem a bit counterintuitive, considering that games running on SteamOS must go through a Proton translation layer for every native Windows instruction in a game's code. But Valve has put in consistent work over the years to make Proton as efficient and cross-compatible as possible; not to mention its continued work on Linux's Mesa graphics drivers seems to be paying dividends for SteamOS graphics performance. Running SteamOS also means eliminating a lot of operating system overhead that the more generalist Windows uses by default. Microsoft seems aware of this issue for gamers and has recently announced that the upcoming "Xbox Experience for Handheld" will "minimize background activity and defer non-essential tasks" to allow for "more [and] higher framerates" in games.' -- source: https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/06/25/2034243 Cheers, Peter

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