AI is headed to Firefox, HexChat reaches EOL, FreeBSD announces end of support for 32-bit platforms, and malware in a Snap!
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
05:11 Firefox AI
08:41 RIP HexChat
11:33 FreeBSD sunsets 32-bit support
15:01 Malware in a Snap
Mozilla updates (RTheren)
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/02/mozilla-announces-layoffs-firefox-ai-plans
- Mozilla, makers of our favorite open source web browser, Firefox, has just announced layoffs.
- They are scaling back development on many projects, and 5% of its workforce are losing their jobs, which is 60 employees.
- Some of the projects being cut back are: Mozilla VPN, Rely, and other privacy products, including its latest project, the Online Footprint Scrubber, which was a paid for feature.
- These layoffs are happening on the heels of Mozilla announcing its return to focusing development on the Firefox web browser.
- And that is good news, and as a result of this return to focusing on what Mozilla does best, the Firefox web browser, there is a new release, Firefox 123.0.
- And one of my favorite new features, and I quote from the Mozilla Firefox Release Notes blog:
- “Having any issues with a website on Firefox, yet the site seems to be working as expected on another browser? You can now let us know via the Web Compatibility Reporting Tool! By filing a web compatibility issue, you’re directly helping us detect, target, and fix the most impacted sites to make your browsing experience on Firefox smoother.”
- Now that is the attention to the Firefox web browsing experience I like to hear!
- Killing off their 3D virtual world and dialing back VPN service make plenty of sense.
- If they had more than two people maintaining the Mastodon instance, well, I have questions.
- Their new strat is to shove AI into Firefox because that’s the latest buzzword.
- Your remaining 3.3% market share consists of privacy focused individuals.
- You’re about to drive them away.
- The teams behind Pocket will be working on that, good luck.
- Mozilla layed off 250 employees (Servo Devs and Security Response Teams) in 2020 before doing whatever they have been doing the past three years.
- But fear not ladies and gents because FireFox is not going anywhere for a long long time.
- Google will continue providing 80% of Mozilla’s revenue to keep around some “competition”.
The Last Hex
https://hexchat.github.io/news/2.16.2.html
- On 6 July 2012 Patrick released the first version of his IRC client, HexChat.
- In 2024 TingPing (current maintainer) is dropping the final release, 2.16.2.
- Couple of small bug fixes, nothing major.
- “This will be the last release I make of HexChat. The project has largely been unmaintained for years now and nobody else stepped up to do that work.”
- He started working on HexChat as a teenager but has decided to move on.
- All of the data will be moved to GitHub so it can live on until the end of Microsoft.
- The last update was in 2021 when Ping was letting everyone know it was mostly unmaintained.
- I was so sad to hear this, especially since HexChat was the original client I used to chat on LinuxGameCast many years ago!
- And it is always good to hear that forks of the project are welcome.
- In fact, HexChat itself is a fork of XChat!
FreeBSD ends 32-bit
https://debugpointnews.com/freebsd-32-bit-support-ending/
- This is an announcement I was surprised about, but I understand while they are doing it.
- The open source and Unix-like FreeBSD operating system will stop support for 32-bit platforms in future major releases.
- Armv6, i386, and powerpc platforms will not be included in the FreeBSD 15.0 release.
- And FreeBSD 16.0 will not include armv7.
- But, good news, 32-bit binaries on 64-bit kernels will still be maintained through the stable 16 branch to enable an easier transition to the 64-bit versions.
- Just like what is happening with Linux, FreeBSD is realizing there are not as many 32-bit systems still in use, and focusing development to support them takes up a lot of resources and hinders new features.
- Going forward, 32-bit support may be extended if needed for certain platforms.
- My greatest concern about this change is all the old Internet of Things devices, like modems and routers, that won’t be getting updates anymore.
- But, that is also a good thing because it forces companies to upgrade their hardware to 64-bit!
Crypto Snaps
https://popey.com/blog/2024/02/exodus-bitcoin-wallet-490k-swindle/
- Oh, those wacky Snap hackers are back again.
- If you don’t know already, the Snap store is littered with crypto wallets.
- A handful of them are scams.
- A fake wallet yoinked about $490K worth of coin from someone recently.
- This is not a repeat from 2018, or 2023. When the other fake apps did similar things.
- Pope has a one shot command to remove all of the known hacked Snaps.
- Pope proposes that Canonical try at bold and innovative approach to preventing this from happening in the future.
- Mandate and verify published applications are officially published by the upstream developers.
- If that sounds familiar it’s because that’s what everyone has been saying since this first happened.
- It’s a solid point because let’s be real, this is the Snap store, not Steam.
- You’re talking about a 1 (two at most) person job here.
- Until then I suggest a simpler solution that you can drop i your terminal.
- sudo apt purge snap*
