Índex per June 2020 a Linux Magazine

Dear Reader, Some dramatic stuff is going down right now for a few of the powerful organizations that run the Internet. The .org top-level domain, as you probably know, is home to many charities and nonprofit organizations. Traditionally, the price of a.org domain has been kept low to make it affordable for small-time community organizations and charities. But sometime last year, the Internet Society (ISOC) announced a plan to remove the price caps. They put the question up for public comment and received more than 3,000 comments opposing this idea and 6 in favor of it. In spite of the resounding level of disapproval, they went ahead with the plan. A new contract that removed the price caps was announced in July 2019. Before going on I should expand a…

Kernel Gatherings Canceled Due to COVID-19 There are normally many Linux and open source conferences throughout the year. These have started to see some disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In mid-March, Josef Bacik announced that one of the storage, memory, and networking summits would not be happening in April as planned. He said: “We currently do not have concrete plans about how we will reschedule; the Linux Foundation is working very hard at getting us alternative dates as we speak. Once the new plans are concretely made, we will notify everyone again with the new plans. “The tentative plan is to keep the attendees as they are if we reschedule within 2020. This includes anybody that declined for travel-related concerns. We will re-send all invitations again to the original…

Science projects with the Python MetPy library Are you stumped by your kids’ homework? Sometimes answering their science questions can be quite challenging. Luckily, some great resources and software packages can help parents out of a homework jam. A good example is the MetPy Python library [1], which has some awesome thermodynamic and weather functions. In this article, I introduce the MetPy library and show how it can be used to solve questions like: Can you make snow when it’s above freezing? How much thinner is the air with altitude? How do you calculate wind chill? Getting Started To install the MetPy Python library, enter: One of nice things about MetPy is that it manages scientific units, so a variable is defined with both its value and units. In the…

Jon “maddog” Hall is an author, educator, computer scientist, and free software pioneer who has been a passionate advocate for Linux since 1994 when he first met Linus Torvalds and facilitated the port of Linux to a 64-bit system. He serves as president of Linux International®. United We Stand I write this on March 25, 2020, and reflect on what a month can mean. A month ago, the people around me knew about the impact of the coronavirus on China, but were in denial about its effects on the United States. I was scheduled to attend three conferences in Brazil, one of which was very large and would attract thousands of people for a week. On February 27, I wrote a detailed email to the organizers of the largest conference…

Sparkling gems and new releases from the world of Free and Open Source Software Radio scanning SDRangel Software-defined radio (SDR) is a subject that may sound too nerdy even for the average Linux user, perhaps the equivalent of Citizens Band (CB) radio in the 1970s and 1980s. But like CB radio, the useful and technically geeky aspects of this technology can also make it very appealing. For one thing, SDR needs very little hardware to get started. A simple, low-cost, DVB USB receiver is all you need initially, and many of us have spare devices simply because digital radio and television has moved from broadcast to streaming. SDR replaces the plethora of hardware needed to investigate the radio signals in the ether with clever algorithms and processing, allowing you to…

#234/May 2020 Edge Computing The Edge is a popular buzz word in high-tech news, but what does it mean really? We introduce you to an exciting new technology that could be changing the way we think about the cloud. On the DVD: Manjaro 19.02 Gnome Edition and SystemRescueCd 6.1 #233/April 2020 Stream to Your TV The line between computers and television blurred long ago, but the new tools and new ideas keep coming. This month we highlight some innovative apps for multimedia in Linux, including Gnome Cast for TV, and the easy-to-use Serviio media server. On the DVD: The Complete Raspberry Pi Geek Archive #232/March 2020 Stop Ads Browser-based ad-blockers are useful for controlling many types of pop-ups and banners, but they are less effective with ads built into applications.…

We are always looking for good articles on Linux and the tools of the Linux environment. Although we will consider any topic, the following themes are of special interest: • System administration• Useful tips and tools• Security, both news and techniques• Product reviews, especially from real-world experience• Community news and projects If you have an idea, send a proposal with an outline, an estimate of the length, a description of your background, and contact information to edit@linux-magazine.com. The technical level of the article should be consistent with what you normally read in Linux Magazine. Remember that Linux Magazine is read in many countries, and your article may be translated into one of our sister publications. Therefore, it is best to avoid using slang and idioms that might not be understood…

Knoppix 8.6.1 Knoppix is the quintessential Live Linux. Place this disc in your DVD drive, and boot to a full graphical interface with a vast collection of user applications and admin tools. Seasoned sysadmins use Knoppix to troubleshoot downed Linux and Windows systems. The latest version is based on Debian 10 “Buster” and comes with support for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. OpenMandriva Lx Plasma 4.1 OpenMandriva is a free community Linux that lives on as a descendant of the once-popular Mandriva commercial edition. The version included on this disc comes with KDE Plasma 5.17.5, Linux kernel 5.5.0, and the Calamares 3.2.17 distro-independent installer. Defective discs will be replaced. Please send an email to subs@linux-magazine.com. Although this Linux Magazine disc has been tested and is to the best of our…

There’s nothing like someone’s passing to get one to reflect on the fickle nature of life. The Xen Project’s [1] very lively chairperson, Lars Kurth, sadly passed away not long after our interview at the Open Source Summit in November 2019. Lars had been with the project for almost a decade and was instrumental in several pivotal moments in Xen’s history, including its move to the Linux Foundation. He conceptualized and executed several key decisions and supervised the significant architectural changes that helped the project go beyond the realm of server virtualization and cloud computing. In his last interview, Lars talked about the project’s various threads of development and how Xen is all set to disrupt the auto industry. Linux Magazine: What’s happening with the Xen Project? Lars Kurth: The…

All-in-one performance analysis with standard Linux tools When the performance analysis book by Brendan Gregg [1], which I had long been waiting for, appeared recently, I devoured it greedily. I even had access to a prerelease so that in January I was able to give the readers of Linux Magazine some tips on the kernel probes for throughput measurement by means of the Berkeley Packet Filters [2]. Performance guru Gregg also explains at the beginning of the book how he often uses classic command-line tools to find out what is causing a struggling server to suffer. 10 Commands He starts off with a list of 10 commandline utilities (Listing 1) [3], which every Unix system understands, checks everyday things – such as how long the system has been running without…

BerryLan simplifies headless Raspberry Pi install The Raspbian operating system can get the Raspberry Pi up and running – with or without a desktop environment. Starting with the standard installation, the system can be adapted to your own needs with very little effort. However, this requires a connected keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Even SSH access is a little more complicated because Raspbian has not started the SSH server automatically for some time now [1]. Building a headless Raspberry Pi (i.e., a computer without peripherals or even a network cable) requires more effort and a certain amount of know-how. Before the Raspbian system starts for the first time, the/etc/wpa_supplicant configuration file has to be edited and the network access credentials entered. The BerryLan project seeks to handle this work for you…

Users, developers, and vendors meet at Linux events around the world. We at Linux Magazine are proud to sponsor the Featured Events shown here. For other events near you, check our extensive events calendar online at http://linux-magazine.com/events. If you know of another Linux event you would like us to add to our calendar, please send a message with all the details to events@linux-magazine.com. NOTICE Be sure to check the event website before booking any travel, as many events are being canceled or converted to virtual events due to the effects of COVID-19. SUSECON Digital 2020 Date: May 20, 2020 Location: From the Web or Your Mobile Device Website: https://www.susecon.com/ Lead your company into a digital transformation by learning how to apply reliable, secure, open source solutions from technical experts, ecosystem partners,…

Radio used to be one of the most universally recognized electronic hardware products, but now even the iconic radio has gone virtual. Next month, we explore the new world of software-defined radio – open source style. Preview Newsletter The Linux Magazine Preview is a monthly email newsletter that gives you a sneak peek at the next issue, including links to articles posted online. Sign up at: https://bit.ly/Linux-Update…

Nextcloud Partners with IONOS In times of crisis, open source projects step up big. That’s exactly what Nextcloud has done. In the current climate, companies have had to quickly migrate to cloud solutions, only to find themselves bumping up against serious privacy and security issues. Because of the 2018 CLOUD act, authorities could obtain data without prior judicial review for this request. With so many companies and employees having to migrate from their inhouse cloud platforms and turn to various third-party cloud services, Nextcloud and IONOS have come together to ensure sovereignty over customer data. Because both companies are housed in Germany, anyone using the Nextcloud platform on IONOS is guaranteed maximum protection against the US CLOUD Act. Achim Weiß, CEO of IONOS, had this to say about the partnership:…