May 2025 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

OpenSnitch: The Must-Have Application Firewall for Linux
by Peter Reutemann 29 May '25

29 May '25

'When it comes to protecting your Linux system from unwanted network connections, having a good firewall is essential. While most Linux users rely on traditional firewalls like iptables, firewalls, or ufw, these usually work at the network level and don’t give detailed control over which applications can connect to the internet. This is where OpenSnitch comes in, a GNU/Linux application firewall designed to give you control over your outgoing connections on a per-application basis. In this article, we will explore what OpenSnitch is, how it helps secure your Linux machine, and guide you through simple installation and usage steps.' -- source: https://www.tecmint.com/opensnitch-linux-application-firewall/ Cheers, Peter

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Thousands of Asus routers are being hit with stealthy, persistent backdoors
by Peter Reutemann 29 May '25

29 May '25

'Thousands of home and small office routers manufactured by Asus are being infected with a stealthy backdoor that can survive reboots and firmware updates in an attack by a nation-state or another well-resourced threat actor, researchers said. The unknown attackers gain access to the devices by exploiting now-patched vulnerabilities, some of which have never been tracked through the internationally recognized CVE system. After gaining unauthorized administrative control of the devices, the threat actor installs a public encryption key for access to the device through SSH. From then on, anyone with the private key can automatically log in to the device with administrative system rights.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/05/thousands-of-asus-routers-are-bein… Cheers, Peter

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SUSE Is Giving YaST the Dodo Bird Treatment
by Peter Reutemann 26 May '25

26 May '25

'An important piece of Linux history is set to go the way of the passenger pigeon or dodo bird later this year, when SUSE and openSUSE put YaST out to pasture. Widely regarded as a package manager, it’s actually more of a Swiss Army knife configuration tool that can be used to install software, configure hardware, set up networks and servers, and more. Exactly what it can do might be determined by the year in which you’re using it, as its feature set and role within the SUSE ecosystem have changed over the years. Although not very well known outside SUSE circles these days, from its first appearance in 1995 until SUSE was purchased by Novell in 2004, YaST was one of the reasons why SUSE was considered one of the crown jewels of Linux.' -- source: https://fossforce.com/2025/05/suse-is-giving-yast-the-dodo-bird-treatment/ When I was using SuSE back in the day, YaST was really great for newbies to do admin stuff Later on, I switched to webmin (https://github.com/webmin/webmin) as it was not restricted to a particular distro. Cheers, Peter

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“Microsoft has simply given us no other option,” Signal says as it blocks Windows Recall
by Peter Reutemann 22 May '25

22 May '25

'Signal Messenger is warning the users of its Windows Desktop version that the privacy of their messages is under threat by Recall, the AI tool rolling out in Windows 11 that will screenshot, index, and store almost everything a user does every three seconds. Effective immediately, Signal for Windows will by default block the ability of Windows to screenshot the app. Signal users who want to disable the block—for instance to preserve a conversation for their records or make use of accessibility features for sight-impaired users—will have to change settings inside their desktop version to enable screenshots. [...] With no API for blocking Recall in the Windows Desktop version, Signal is instead invoking an API Microsoft provides for protecting copyrighted material. App developers can turn on the DRM setting to prevent Windows from taking screenshots of copyrighted content displayed in the app. Signal is now repurposing the API to add an extra layer of privacy.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/05/signal-resorts-to-weird-trick-to-b… Who would have thought that DRM can be useful... :-) Cheers, Peter

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Hackers Now Testing ‘ClickFix’ Attacks on Linux Systems
by Peter Reutemann 22 May '25

22 May '25

'Security researchers have recently uncovered a new type of cyberattack targeting Linux systems — a technique dubbed “ClickFix.” Originally known for its impact on Windows environments, ClickFix is now being adapted and tested by threat actors against Linux platforms, signaling an expansion in both scope and sophistication. ClickFix is a novel post-exploitation tactic that allows attackers to interact with graphical desktop environments through simulated clicks and UI manipulations. By abusing legitimate tools like xdotool, attackers can automate interactions with graphical interfaces — such as clicking confirmation dialogs, accepting permissions, or launching malicious scripts — even on hardened systems. This type of attack can bypass traditional security mechanisms by operating at the user interface level, making it especially dangerous in environments where users assume GUI-based interactions are secure.' -- source: https://cyptd.com/hackers-now-testing-clickfix-attacks-on-linux-systems/ Cheers, Peter

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Mobile Browsers That Stick Their Noses Into Your Business
by Peter Reutemann 22 May '25

22 May '25

'Some figures hit my desk this morning about mobile browsers and the data they collect that I found interesting enough to want to pass on. Some of this won’t surprise anybody, such as the fact that Chrome is the most data-hungry mobile browser app. What might come as a surprise to many, is that Chrome is the only browser that collects financial information, such as payment methods, card numbers, and bank account details. It also collects contacts from a phone’s address book. The figures came from Surfshark, the cybersecurity folks with an eponymous VPN, which took a look at the 10 browsers it identified as the most popular. Topping the list was Chrome, which presents a somewhat mind-boggling list of privacy intrusions that includes everything from contacts and financial information to data on location, browsing and search history, content — such as photos, videos, audio recordings, uploaded files, and other stuff — usage data, identifiers — device ID, user ID, or IP address — as well as even more data that’s not identified by the study.' -- source: https://fossforce.com/2025/05/mobile-browsers-that-stick-their-noses-into-y… One thing that I wasn't aware of under Android, you will have a unique Ad ID: Settings > Privacy > Ads > Opt out of ad personalization Cheers, Peter

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KDE Is Getting a Native Virtual Machine Manager Called 'Karton'
by Peter Reutemann 21 May '25

21 May '25

'A new virtual machine manager called Karton is being developed specifically for the KDE Plasma desktop, aiming to offer a seamless, Qt-native alternative to GNOME-centric tools like GNOME Boxes. Spearheaded by University of Waterloo student Derek Lin as part of Google Summer of Code 2025, Karton uses libvirt and Qt Quick to build a user-friendly, fully integrated VM experience, with features like a custom SPICE viewer, snapshot support, and a mobile-friendly UI expected by September 2025. Neowin reports: To feel right at home in KDE, Karton is being built with Qt Quick and Kirigami. It uses the libvirt API to handle virtual machines and could eventually work across different platforms. Right now, development is focused on getting the core parts in place. Lin is working on a new domain installer that ditches direct virt-install calls in favor of libosinfo, which helps detect OS images and generate the right libvirt XML for setting up virtual machines more precisely. He's still refining device configuration and working on broader hypervisor support. Another key part of the work is building a custom SPICE viewer using Qt Quick from scratch: If you're curious, here's the list of specific deliverables Lin included in his GSoC proposal, though he notes the proposal itself is a bit outdated [...]. For those interested in the timeline, Lin's GSoC proposal says the official GSoC coding starts June 2, 2025. The goal is to have a working app ready by the midterm evaluation around July 14, 2025, with the final submission due September 1, 2025. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/20/2223215 Cheers, Peter

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Microsoft Open Sources Windows Subsystem for Linux
by Peter Reutemann 20 May '25

20 May '25

'Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is now open source, Microsoft said Monday. The tool, which allows developers to run Linux distributions directly in Windows, is available for download, modification, and contribution. "We want Windows to be a great dev box," said Pavan Davuluri, corporate VP at Microsoft. "Having great WSL performance and capabilities" allows developers "to live in the Windows-native experience and take advantage of all they need in Linux." First launched in 2016 with an emulated Linux kernel, WSL switched to using the actual Linux kernel in 2019 with WSL 2, improving compatibility. The system has since gained support for GPUs, graphical applications, and systemd. Microsoft significantly refactored core Windows components to make WSL a standalone system before open sourcing it.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/05/19/1654225 Cheers, Peter

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Final Bookworm-Based Raspberry Pi OS Released Ahead of Debian Trixie
by Peter Reutemann 20 May '25

20 May '25

'The Raspberry Pi Foundation has just released a new version of Raspberry Pi OS, their recommended, freely distributed operating system for all Raspberry Pi devices. Still based on Debian 12 ”Bookworm,” this build is likely the last one in this series before Debian 13 “Trixie” arrives later this summer.' -- source: https://linuxiac.com/final-bookworm-based-raspberry-pi-os-released-ahead-of… Cheers, Peter

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Raspberry Pi Connect Goes Stable
by Peter Reutemann 19 May '25

19 May '25

'After just twelve months of public testing, Raspberry Pi Connect—the company’s browser-based remote-access service—officially graduated from beta with the release of version 2.5. According to Raspberry Pi engineer Chris Lowder, the platform’s install base has already topped 100,000 registered boards. Earlier iterations of the software relied on frequent polling: each Pi woke up at regular intervals to ask Raspberry Pi’s servers whether anyone wanted to connect. That design was easy on the cloud side—traffic remained predictable—but it quietly chewed through users’ data plans and power budgets. Version 2.5 replaces that pattern with a single, persistent HTTP connection. Now, when a user presses “Connect” in the web dashboard, the server broadcasts a wake-up event to the board, initiating the handshake on demand instead of on a schedule. Beyond wake-ups, every Connect client has been sending status heartbeats to keep the dashboard in sync. The new release debounces that chatter, dropping superfluous packets and compressing each remaining heartbeat by roughly 50 percent.' -- source: https://linuxiac.com/raspberry-pi-connect-goes-stable/ Anyone got any experience with this that they'd like to share? Cheers, Peter

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Spies hack high-value mail servers using an exploit from yesteryear
by Peter Reutemann 16 May '25

16 May '25

'Threat actors, likely supported by the Russian government, hacked multiple high-value mail servers around the world by exploiting XSS vulnerabilities, a class of bug that was among the most commonly exploited in decades past. XSS is short for cross-site scripting. Vulnerabilities result from programming errors found in webserver software that, when exploited, allow attackers to execute malicious code in the browsers of people visiting an affected website. XSS first got attention in 2005, with the creation of the Samy Worm, which knocked MySpace out of commission when it added more than one million MySpace friends to a user named Samy. XSS exploits abounded for the next decade and have gradually fizzled more recently, although this class of attacks continues now. On Thursday, security firm ESET reported that Sednit, a Kremlin-backed hacking group also tracked as APT28, Fancy Bear, Forest Blizzard, and Sofacy—gained access to high-value email accounts by exploiting XSS vulnerabilities in mail server software from four different makers. Those packages are: Roundcube, MDaemon, Horde, and Zimbra.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/05/spies-hack-high-value-mail-servers… Cheers, Peter

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Google Restores File Permissions For Nexcloud
by Peter Reutemann 16 May '25

16 May '25

'Nextcloud has been in an ongoing battle with Google over the tech giant revoking the All Files permission from the Nextcloud Android App, which prevents users from managing their files on their server. After a blog post and several tech sites reported on the issue, "Google reached out to us [Nexcloud] and offered to restore the permission, which will give users back the functionality that was lost." Nextcloud is working on an app update and hopes to have it pushed out within a week.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/208221 Cheers, Peter

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You Can Now Upgrade Ubuntu 24.10 to Ubuntu 25.04, Here’s How
by Peter Reutemann 15 May '25

15 May '25

'After almost a month of waiting, Ubuntu 24.10 (Oracular Oriole) users can finally upgrade their installations to the latest Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) release. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial with screenshots on how to perform the upgrade! Ubuntu 24.10 was released on October 10th, 2024, and will be supported for a couple more months, until July 2025. Since this isn’t an LTS (Long Term Support) release, users might want to consider upgrading to Ubuntu 25.04 as soon as possible. Compared to Ubuntu 24.10, the Ubuntu 25.04 release ships with a newer kernel for better hardware support, namely Linux 6.14, the Mesa 25 graphics stack series for a better gaming experience, the latest GNOME 48 desktop environment, as well as some of the most recent GNU/Linux technologies.' -- source: https://9to5linux.com/you-can-now-upgrade-ubuntu-24-10-to-ubuntu-25-04-here… Cheers, Peter

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Introducing oniux: Kernel-level Tor isolation for any Linux app
by Peter Reutemann 15 May '25

15 May '25

'When launching privacy-critical apps and services, developers want to make sure that every packet really only goes through Tor. One mistyped proxy setting–or a single system-call outside the SOCKS wrapper–and your data is suddenly on the line. That's why today, we are excited to introduce oniux: a small command-line utility providing Tor network isolation for third-party applications using Linux namespaces. Built on Arti, and onionmasq, oniux drop-ships any Linux program into its own network namespace to route it through Tor and strips away the potential for data leaks. If your work, activism, or research demands rock-solid traffic isolation, oniux delivers it.' -- source: https://blog.torproject.org/introducing-oniux-tor-isolation-using-linux-nam… Cheers, Peter

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European Vulnerability Database (EUVD)
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '25

14 May '25

Talking about vulnerabilities... 'The European Vulnerability Database (EUVD) is now fully operational, offering a streamlined platform to monitor critical and actively exploited security flaws amid the US struggles with budget cuts, delayed disclosures, and confusion around the future of its own tracking systems https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/' -- source: https://mastodon.social/@nixCraft/114501509209870711 Cheers, Peter

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Multiple Security Issues in Screen (mostly affecting release 5.0.0 and setuid-root installations)
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '25

14 May '25

'In July 2024, the upstream Screen maintainer asked us [2] if we could have a look at the current Screen code base. We treated this request with lower priority, since we already had a cursory look at Screen a few years earlier, without finding any problems. When we actually found time to look into it again, we were surprised to find a local root exploit in the Screen 5.0.0 major version update affecting distributions that ship it as setuid-root (Arch Linux and NetBSD). We also found a number of additional, less severe issues that partly also affect older Screen versions still found in the majority of distributions.' -- source: https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/05/12/1 Cheers, Peter

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FreeBSD Wants to Know a Few Things
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '25

14 May '25

'The FreeBSD Core Team and the FreeBSD Foundation have a few questions it would like to ask its users. What this means is that it’s survey time at FreeBSD… again. In other words, 2024’s user survey turns out not to have been the one-off we thought it was, and the FreeBSD Community Survey is looking like it’s going to become an annual event. This year’s survey was announced on Friday will run through May 7. Taking it won’t take much time — 15 minutes the organization says on its website — and the information gleaned from the results will be key for keeping the project on track. The foundation says that last year’s survey was used to help it determine the project’s priorities — which can change from year to year — as well as a guide for its development efforts and community engagement strategies for the upcoming year and beyond. The surveys are helpful for identifying user needs, assessing satisfaction levels, and highlighting areas requiring improvement, such as hardware support, documentation, and contribution processes.' -- source: https://fossforce.com/2025/04/freebsd-wants-to-know-a-few-things/ Link to survey in the referenced article. Anybody on the mailing list using a BSD variant currently? Cheers, Peter

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Redis returns to open source with AGPLv3 license but not everyone is happy
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '25

14 May '25

'Over the last few years, companies like Redis, Elastic, MongoDB, and HashiCorp have abandoned their open-source license roots and switched to proprietary models. However, there is one significant problem with this attempt to squeeze more money from their formerly open-source programs: it doesn't work. Redis, the widely used in-memory key-value database, appears to have figured this out. Last year, Redis dumped its three-clause Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) license and replaced it with the read-only Redis Source Available License (RSALv2) and Server Side Public License (SSPLv1). Now, Redis has officially returned to an open-source license, announcing that Redis 8 will be available under the open-source GNU Affero General Public License version 3 (AGPLv3). Last year's change was intended to prevent large cloud providers from offering Redis as a managed service without contributing to the project, a challenge many open-source companies face in the cloud era. However, the move ticked off developers. The result was a fork, Valkey, backed by the Linux Foundation and major cloud vendors. Valkey has proven to be very popular. Indeed, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Ericsson, and Oracle have all adopted Valkey. [...] The new AGPLv3 option, effective with the recently released Redis 8, represents a significant shift. AGPLv3 is an Open Source Initiative (OSI)-approved, copyleft license that requires any modifications or derivative works to be released under the same terms, and crucially, mandates that source code be made available to users who interact with the software over a network. This network clause is meant to close the so-called "Software as a Service (SaaS) loophole," ensuring that cloud providers who offer Redis as a service must either open-source their changes or negotiate a commercial license with Redis Inc.' -- source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/redis-returns-to-open-source-with-agplv3-lice… Cheers, Peter

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Nextcloud Cries Foul Over Google Play Store App Rejection
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '25

14 May '25

'Nextcloud has accused Google of sabotaging its Android Files app by revoking the "All files access" permission, which the company says cripples functionality for its 824,000 users and forces reliance on limited alternatives like SAF and MediaStore. The Register reports: Nextcloud's Android Files app is a file synchronization tool that, according to the company, has long had permission to read and write all file types. "Nextcloud has had this feature since its inception in 2016," it said, "and we never heard about any security concerns from Google about it." That changed in 2024, when someone or something at Google's Play Store decided to revoke the permission, effectively crippling the application. Nextcloud was instructed to use "a more privacy-aware replacement." According to Nextcloud, "SAF cannot be used, as it is for sharing/exposing our files to other apps ... MediaStore API cannot be used as it does not allow access to other files, but only media files." Attempts to raise the issue with Google resulted in little more than copy-and-pasted sections of the developer guide. "Despite multiple appeals from our side and sharing additional background, Google is not considering reinstating upload for all files," Nextcloud said. The issue seems to stem from the Play Store. While a fully functional version is available on F-Droid, the Play Store edition is subject to Google's imposed limitations. Regarding the All files access permission, Google's developer documentation states: "If you target Android 11 and declare All files access, it can affect your ability to publish and update your app on Google Play." Nextcloud is clearly aggrieved by the change, as are its users. "This might look like a small technical detail but it is clearly part of a pattern of actions to fight the competition," it said. "What we are experiencing is a piece of the script from the big tech playbook." [...] Are there nefarious actors at play here, an automated process that auto-rejects apps with elevated access requirements, or is it just simple incompetence? "Either way," Nextcloud said, "it results in companies like ours just giving up, reducing functionality just to avoid getting kicked out of their app store." "The issue is that small companies -- like ours -- have pretty much no recourse," it added. Nextcloud went on to criticize oversight processes as slow-moving, with fines that sound hefty but amount to little more than a slap on the wrist. "Big Tech is scared that small players like Nextcloud will disrupt them, like they once disrupted other companies. So they try to shut the door."' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/13/2045258 Cheers, Peter

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openSUSE Removes Deepin Desktop Over Security Policy Violations
by Peter Reutemann 09 May '25

09 May '25

'In recent development, the openSUSE project has decided to remove the Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE), well-known for its polished visuals and user-friendly experience, from its repositories, citing substantial packaging policy violations. According to disclosures from the openSUSE security team, a troubling workaround was discovered in the DDE packaging. Specifically, the Deepin community packager introduced a “license agreement” dialog within the deepin-feature-enable package, effectively circumventing standard security review processes required by openSUSE. Ordinarily, components such as D-Bus system service configurations and Polkit policies must undergo stringent review by the SUSE security team before being whitelisted for inclusion in openSUSE distributions. In this case, however, the discovered “license agreement” allowed users to bypass these security checks, installing components flagged by the security team as potentially unsafe simply by accepting the license.' -- source: https://linuxiac.com/opensuse-removes-deepin-desktop-over-security-policy-v… Cheers, Peter

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Linux Drops Support For 486 and Early Pentium Processors
by Peter Reutemann 09 May '25

09 May '25

'ZDNet reports: RIP, 486 processor. You've had a long run since Intel released you back in 1989. While Microsoft stopped supporting you with the release of Windows XP in 2001, Linux kept you alive and well for another 20+ years. But all good things must come to an end, and with the forthcoming release of the Linux 6.15 kernel, the 486 and the first Pentium processors will be sunsetted. Why? Linus Torvalds wrote recently on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), "I really get the feeling that it's time to leave i486 support behind. There's zero real reason for anybody to waste one second of development effort on this kind of issue." Senior Linux kernel developer Ingo Molnar put Torvalds' remark into context, writing, "In the x86 architecture, we have various complicated hardware emulation facilities on x86-32 to support ancient 32-bit CPUs that very very few people are using with modern kernels. This compatibility glue is sometimes even causing problems that people spend time to resolve, which time could be spent on other things." "This will be the first time Linux has dropped support for a major chip family since 2012, when Linux stopped supporting the 386 family," notes ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols. "Moving forward, the minimum supported x86 CPU will now be the original Pentium (P5) or newer, requiring the presence of the Time Stamp Counter (TSC) and the CMPXCHG8B (CX8) instruction. These features are absent in the older 486 and early 586 processors, such as the IDT WinChip and AMD Elan families." That said, you can continue running Linux on Pentium CPUs, but you'll have to "run museum kernels," as Torvalds pointed out in 2022 when he first floated the idea of ending support for 486.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/05/08/1927245 Cheers, Peter

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Android Maintainer of Linux Distro AnduinOS Revealed to Be Microsoft Employee
by Peter Reutemann 09 May '25

09 May '25

'After gaining attention from Neowin and DistroWatch last week, the sole maintainer behind AnduinOS 1.3 -- a Linux distribution styled to resemble Windows 11 -- decided to reveal himself. He turns out to be Anduin Xue, a Microsoft software engineer, who has been working on the project as a personal, non-commercial endeavor built on Ubuntu. Neowin reports: As a Software Engineer 2 at Microsoft (he doesn't work on Windows), Anduin Xue says he's financially stable and sees no need to commercialize AnduinOS. Explaining the financial aspects of the project, he said: "Many have asked why I don't accept donations, how I profit, and if I plan to commercialize AnduinOS. Truthfully, I haven't thoroughly considered these issues. It's not my main job, and I don't plan to rely on it for a living. Each month, I dedicate only a few hours to maintaining it. Perhaps in the future, I might consider providing enterprise solutions based on AnduinOS, but I won't compromise its original simplicity. It has always been about providing myself with a comfortably themed Ubuntu." In our coverage of the AnduinOS 1.3 release last week, one commenter pointed out that the distro is from China. For some, this will raise issues, but Anduin Xue addressed this in his blog post, too, saying that the source code is available to the public. For this reason, he told lacing the operating system with backdoors for the Chinese government would be "irrational and easily exposed." For those worried that the distribution may be abandoned, Anduin Xue said that he intends to continue supporting it and may even maintain it full-time if sponsorship or corporate cooperation emerges.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/05/08/1912204 Cheers, Peter

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New GNOME Executive Director Named
by Peter Reutemann 08 May '25

08 May '25

'Phoronix's Michael Larabel reports: Last July it was announced Holly Million was stepping down as the GNOME Foundation's Exeuctive Director after less than a year at the helm. Richard Littauer took over as interim Executive Director while this week a new GNOME Foundation Executive Director was hired. GNOME's new Executive Director is Steven Deobald. Steven Deobald is a Canadian free software advocate and has been a GNOME user since 2002. As the GNOME Foundation Executive Director, Steven wants to focus on transparency and to better ensure financial stability of the GNOME Foundation. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/07/200259 Cheers, Peter

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Memory-Safe Sudo To Become the Default In Ubuntu
by Peter Reutemann 07 May '25

07 May '25

'Blog post from the Trifecta Tech Foundation, a nonprofit organization that creates secure, open source building blocks for infrastructure software. The foundation is also the developer behind Sudo-rs. From the report: Ubuntu 25.10 is set to adopt sudo-rs by default. Sudo-rs is a memory-safe reimplementation of the widely-used sudo utility, written in the Rust programming language. This move is part of a broader effort by Canonical to improve the resilience and maintainability of core system components. [...] The decision to adopt sudo-rs is in line with Canonical's commitment to Carefully But Purposefully increase the resilience of critical system software, by adopting Rust. Rust is a programming language with strong memory safety guarantees that eliminates many of the vulnerabilities that have historically plagued traditional C-based software. Sudo-rs is part of the Trifecta Tech Foundation's Privilege Boundary initiative, which aims to handle privilege escalation with memory-safe alternatives. ' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/05/06/213254 Cheers, Peter

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Open Document Format Turns 20
by Peter Reutemann 07 May '25

07 May '25

' The Open Document Format reached its 20th anniversary on May 1, marking two decades since OASIS approved the XML-based standard originally developed by Sun Microsystems from StarOffice code. Even as the format has seen adoption by several governments including the UK, India, and Brazil, plus organizations like NATO, Microsoft Office's proprietary formats remain the de facto standard. Microsoft countered ODF by developing Office Open XML, eventually getting it standardized through Ecma International. "ODF is much more than a technical specification: it is a symbol of freedom of choice, support for interoperability and protection of users from the commercial strategies of Big Tech," said Eliane Domingos, Chair of the Document Foundation, which oversees LibreOffice -- a fork created after Oracle acquired Sun.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/05/06/0050212 Cheers, Peter

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