Firefox begins collecting search data, kernel 6.9 nukes ext2, Linux on the Snapdragon X Elite, and a virtual assistant that doesn’t require an internet connection.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
03:21 Raspberry Pi IPO
04:08 Firefox opt-out data collection
09:38 Kernel 6.9 is nice
13:40 Snapdragon X Elite Linux support
17:38 Pi powered offline voice assistant
Mozilla Tracking
https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/firefox-search-update/
- What’s new in Firefox’s approach to search data?
- Opt out data collection!
- “We’re ramping up our efforts to enhance search experience by developing new features like Firefox Suggest, which provides recommended online content that corresponds to queries.”
- Can corporations stop pretending that data collection is for my benefit? It’s not.
- This is only available in the US, make of that what you will.
- They provide a step-by-step guide for disabling the latest bit of data collection.
- While you are doing that, you may want to disable “sending performance data” AKA telemetry.
- There’s a whole slue of settings that you need to change in about:config.
- Those checkboxes are just the tip.
- Could we get a blog post on how Firefox plans on staying competitive and innovative?
- Let’s see who’s going to type Arkenfox, Librewolf, Waterfox first.
- I was a bit befuddled by this as well, especially since lately Firefox has been more focused on the user browser experience.
- I have always loved how easy it is to change the default search engine right in the URL bar in Firefox, maybe Mozilla could make it easier to opt out of data collection in the same location?
Linux Kernel 6.9
https://news.itsfoss.com/linux-kernel-6-9-release/
- Linus Torvalds has released Linux Kernel 6.9, and it is full of improvements, fixes, and more hardware support!
- Intel based machines will now boot faster with Linux now that Intel Fastboot support is now included for older chipsets in the latest 6.9 kernel.
- This was previously enabled for Intel Skylake processors and newer.
- Also, AMD gets more love with AMD P-State ‘preferred core’ support in the AMD P-State driver for AMD Zen 2 and later chips.
- And, there is better support for ARM processors, including ARM64 Rust code support. Linus Torvalds had this to say:
- “And I now have a more powerful arm64 machine (thanks to Ampere), so
the last week I’ve been doing almost as many arm64 builds as I have
x86-64, and that should obviously continue during the upcoming merge
window too.”
- Also, there is the usual enablement for specific hardware in this Linux kernel:
- Such as, now there is battery charge control for Fujitsu laptops
- A performance boost on the HP Omen 17 laptop
- Fan speed control for Microsoft Surface laptops
- Support for ten MediaTek MT8186-based Chromebooks
- 3rd party support for Xbox controllers, including the Snakebyte GAMEPAD BASE X and GAMEPAD RGB X
- And something Venn and I have talked about before, the EXT2 filesystem is now officially deprecated with this release.
- The next Linux Kernel released will be Linux Kernel 6.10, which will be a Long Term Support release.
Snappy ARM
- The Snapdragon X Elite is the 12-core chonker we’ve been hearing about.
- Looks like by next LTS (for kernel 6.10 and 6.11) we’ll have some good support for these chips.
- Geekbench puts these chips a little behind the iPad in performance.
- Video decoding, camera, power, and open firmware.
- Exp installer is available.
- As I talked about in the latest Linux Kernel release 6.9, Linus has a more powerful ARM64 based machine to build kernels on, and this, I am sure, goes a long way for Qualcomm upping their support of the latest Snapdragon X Elite.
Slice of Pi
Pi-C.A.R.D
https://github.com/nkasmanoff/pi-card
- Just another AI powered voice assistant.
- That runs entirely on your Raspberry Pi.
- No internet connection required.
- In addition, if there is a camera equipped, you can also ask Pi-card to take a photo, describe what it sees, and then ask questions about that.
- Yes, it can talk to you if you plug in a speaker.
- It uses distributed models so latency is a wee high.
- It may occasionally mention Earl Gray tea.
- My wake word would be “Engage!” LOL
- And to exit would be “Arch!” LOL, as a double meaning for Star Trek:TNG to exit the holodeck, and also for Linux, “I use Arch by the way!” LOL
