Legendary programmer Jamie Zawinski has worked on everything from the earliest releases of the Netscape Navigator browser to XEmacs, Mozilla, and, of course, the XScreenSaver project. Now Slashdot reader e432776 writes: JWZ continues to track issues with screensavers on Linux (since 2004!), and discusses a new bug in cinnamon-screensaver. Long-standing topics like X11, developer interaction, and code licensing all feature. Solutions…
Tag: GPL
Slashdot Asks: How Do You Feel About Btrfs?
emil (Slashdot reader #695) shares an article from Linux Journal re-visiting the saga of the btrfs file system (initially designed at Oracle in 2007): The btrfs filesystem has taunted the Linux community for years, offering a stunning array of features and capability, but never earning universal acclaim. Btrfs is perhaps more deserving of patience, as its promised capabilities dwarf all peers,…
Linus Torvalds: Avoid Oracle’s ZFS Kernel Code Until ‘Litigious’ Larry Signs Off
“Linux kernel head Linus Torvalds has warned engineers against adding a module for the ZFS filesystem that was designed by Sun Microsystems — and now owned by Oracle — due to licensing issues,” reports ZDNet: As reported by Phoronix, Torvalds has warned kernel developers against using ZFS on Linux, an implementation of OpenZFS, and refuses to merge any ZFS code until…
FSF-Approved Hyperbola GNU/Linux Forking OpenBSD, Citing ‘User Freedom’ Concerns
Long-time Slashdot reader twocows writes: Hyperbola GNU/Linux, a FSF-approved distribution of GNU/Linux, has declared their intent to fork OpenBSD and become HyperbolaBSD…” The news came earlier this week in a roadmap announcement promising “a completely new OS derived from several BSD implementations” (though Hyperbola was originally based on Arch snapshots and Debian development). “This was not an easy decision to make,…
Richard Stallman Defies Push By 27 GNU Project Developers To End His Leadership
“27 GNU project maintainers and developers have signed on to a joint statement asking for Richard Stallman to be removed from his leadership role at GNU,” writes Slashdot reader twocows. The statement argues that “Stallman’s behavior over the years has undermined a core value of the GNU project: The empowerment of all computer users. GNU is not fulfilling its mission when…
Celebrating the 28th Anniversary of the Linux Kernel
Exactly 28 years ago today, a 21-year-old student named Linus Torvalds made a fateful announcement on the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix. i-Programmer commemorates today’s anniversary with some interesting trivia: Back in 1991 the fledgling operating system didn’t have a name, according to Joey Sneddon’s 27 Interesting Facts about Linux: Linux very nearly wasn’t called Linux! Linus wanted to call his “hobby” project…
Scientists find new periodic water cycle on Mars
A new study shows that Mars has a unique water vapor cycle that occurs only once about every 2 years. The cycle might help explain how Mars lost most of its water. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/scientists-find-new-periodic-water-cycle-on-mars…