Linux Weekly Daily Wednesday – VMwarez

Vivaldi 1.3 is here! Moto Z gets a HAT, VMware challenges the GPL, and Microsoft misplaces its keys.

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Notes:
Colour key – Venn Pedro Mathieu

If you live under a rock.
It’s cross platform and DRM free, just like the 16 other Indie Bundles that were released before!

Millions of windows rt tablet owners just cried out in joy
Wonder how this will affect the XBone.
You can already run the Linux on Surface Pro 3.
This is one of the best thing that has happened this year. I hope that next time Microsoft tries to enforce a similar “security” / locking measure, hardware vendors will think twice before implementing it.
It’s good revisit issues we covered before with good news. Especially when said good news make Microsoft look bad.
“The leak serves as a reminder of the potential dangers in security when tech firms are pressured by governments and law enforcement agencies into producing special keys”
- ^ THIS!

VMware apparently cribbed this guys SCSI subsystem for their own esxi kernel
The main issue is that the dev can’t point to specific lines of GPL code
I’m unclear on Germany s rules for evidence discovery. Should be pretty cut and dry to get the code.
Its problematic to say the least.
“it’s clear that VMware brought considerable resources to make every possible argument for dismissal”
- Youdontsay.jpg
I kinda wish they could find something better than BusyBox.
I’m disappointed that there isn’t a statement from VMWare themselves.
I’m not too worried, here. The German legal system doesn’t rely as much on precedents as the US legal system does.

This is kind of a big issue. Mostly because there’s not much you can do on your end except run https everywhere (which you should’ve already been doing).
It also affects just about every single Android 4.4+ device out there.
The vulnerability has been patched already and the patch should be backported to every major linux distro soon
- Until then, why not 4.7?
It seems to be a serious vulnerability but until there is an actual attack using it, I’d say: chill out
I like how this only affected the Linux since it was ahead of Win/MAC.

Finally tried it out, it’s a neat browser
I don’t get the whole “targeted at power user” thing. Yes, you can customize the UI, is that what being a power user is now?
Are the shortcuts Ctrl+PgDown and PgUp not enough “power user”? I had to map them manually.
I liked the fact that you can move the window controls to the left, that has always annoyed me in Chrome.
I need to use it for a longer period of time. If it’s good enough, I’ll keep it.
No Chrome / Firefox Sync so there is little chance I’ll ever use it has my main browser
Default search is Bing… minus 5 Charis!
Works with the chrome store.
O_0 the world without scriptblock

Do you see what happens employers?
Stick everyone on BSD for “productivity” and you get this.
But they won’t have Lutris (because of all the Linux specific stuff that’s in there)
Get ready to download those Haiku .iso’s people. It’s only functional way to remain productive.

Disclaimer: I’ve met the guy who wrote this (who is also a core maintainer of Coreboot) and the creator of Replicant, several times.
Mesa in replicant? yes!
- CPU bound mesa though. Them darn GPUs requiring blob drivers dun took our cycles
So Replicant is a version of Android minus the useful bits?
More accurately, it’s a kneecapped version of CyanogenMod.
But hey, we all need open source running on closed hardware because raisins.

Neat but DOA.
Protip: If anyone at the company meeting suggests “addons” for your mobile product throw them out the window.
If you absolutely must have a modular type device, chances are you’re going to be changing it often.
Pulling a backplate off a phone whenever you decide to change something is just going to cause you to lose or break it.
I like the uniformity the different backplates with the different functionality give the phone, but the kind of people you’re targeting with the ability to mod a device don’t really care for looks and care more about ease of access/replacement of a given module.
Someone missed the mark!
I find the idea neat, it certainly enables a lot more of possibilities from those devices we know as phones and are incredibly locked down.
I don’t expect people to change these modules every day. You know what else is modular? PCI slots. And I haven’t messed with those since I received my PC.

Just want to give a shoutout to this great artist who is made of bits of pure awesomeness
People, quit giving furries acid.

Outside: butter + dried dill + dried basil
Inside: Cheddar + tomatoes + fresh basil
- That is quite possibly the most French thing I have ever read.
  - I would have said Italian
    - That is quite possibly the second most French thing I have ever read.

Feedback

A lot of what Martin is saying here is corroborated by Purism’s own blog plus, to a much sugar coated degree, the Linux Action Show 405 and Linux Unplugged 132 and also a few Phoronix posts which Larabel didn’t write.
Still, a few of the most egregious claims can only be taken as word of mouth.
I have no reason to doubt Martin but the skeptic in me is still firing on all engines.