- wlug - University of Waikato Mail Lists

First Version of Sandboxed Tor Browser Available
by Peter Reutemann 12 Dec '16

12 Dec '16

'To protect Tor users from FBI hacking tools that include all sorts of Firefox zero-days, the Tor Project started working on a sandboxed version of the Tor Browser in September. Over the weekend, the Tor Project released the first alpha version of the sandboxed Tor Browser. "Currently, this version is in an early alpha stage, and only available for Linux," reports BleepingComputer. "There are also no binaries available, and users must compile it themselves from the source code, which they can grab from here." The report notes: "Sandboxing is a security mechanism employed to separate running processes. In computer security, sandboxing an application means separating its process from the OS, so vulnerabilities in that app can't be leveraged to extend access to the underlying operating system. This is because the sandboxed application works with its own separate portion of disk and memory that isn't linked with the OS."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/12/12/2042225 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux Mint 18.1 'Serena' BETA Ubuntu-based Operating System Now Available For Download
by Peter Reutemann 05 Dec '16

05 Dec '16

'Feeling fatigued by Windows 10 and its constant updates and privacy concerns? Can't afford one of those beautiful new MacBook Pro laptops? Don't forget, Linux-based desktop operating systems are just a free download away, folks! If you do decide to jump on the open source bandwagon, a good place to start is Linux Mint. Both the Mate and Cinnamon desktop environments should prove familiar to Windows converts, and since it is based on Ubuntu, there is a ton of compatible packages. Today, the first beta of Linux Mint 18.1 'Serena' becomes available for download.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/12/04/236236 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Canonical Sues Cloud Provider Over 'Unofficial' Ubuntu Images
by Peter Reutemann 05 Dec '16

05 Dec '16

'Canonical posted Thursday that they've been in a dispute with "a European cloud provider" over the use of their own homespun version of Ubuntu on their cloud servers. Their implementation disables even the most basic of security features and Canonical is worried something bad could happen and it'd reflect badly back on them... They said they've spent months trying to get the unnamed provider to use the standard Ubuntu as delivered to other commercial operations to no avail. Canonical feels they have no choice but to "take legal steps to remove these images." They're sure Red Hat and Microsoft wouldn't be treated like this. Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, wrote in his blog post that Ubuntu is "the leading cloud OS, running most workloads in public clouds today," whereas these homegrown images "are likely to behave unpredictably on update in weirdly creative and mysterious ways... We hear about these issues all the time, because users assume there is a problem with Ubuntu on that cloud; users expect that 'all things that claim to be Ubuntu are genuine', and they have a right to expect that... "To count some of the ways we have seen home-grown images create operational and security nightmares for users: clouds have baked private keys into their public images, so that any user could SSH into any machine; clouds have made changes that then blocked security updates for over a week... When things like this happen, users are left feeling let down. As the company behind Ubuntu, it falls to Canonical to take action."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/12/04/2235251 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ask Slashdot: What's the Best Linux Laptop?
by Peter Reutemann 04 Dec '16

04 Dec '16

'Long-Time Slashdot reader sconeu is finally replacing his 10-year-old Toshiba Satellite laptop, and needs suggestions on the best current laptops for running Linux. I'm looking to run some flavor of Linux (probably KDE-based UI, but not mandatory) while using a virtual machine to run Windows 7 (for stuff needed for work). For me personally, battery life and weight are more important than raw power. I'm not going to be running games on this. I've been considering an XPS 13 Developer Edition, or something from System76, ZaReason or Emperor Linux. What laptop do you use? Do you have any suggestions? It's your chance to share useful information, recommendations, and your own experiences with various brands of laptop. So leave your best answers in the comments. What's the best Linux laptop? ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/12/03/0727258 Personally, I've been very happy with my Dell Latitude 6430u at work in conjunction with Linux Mint 17. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Devuan's Systemd-Free Linux Hits Beta 2
by Peter Reutemann 04 Dec '16

04 Dec '16

'Long-time Slashdot reader Billly Gates writes, "For all the systemd haters who want a modern distro feel free to rejoice. The Debian fork called Devuan is almost done, completing a daunting task of stripping systemd dependencies from Debian." From The Register: Devuan came about after some users felt [Debian] had become too desktop-friendly. The change the greybeards objected to most was the decision to replace sysvinit init with systemd, a move felt to betray core Unix principles of user choice and keeping bloat to a bare minimum. Supporters of init freedom also dispute assertions that systemd is in all ways superior to sysvinit init, arguing that Debian ignored viable alternatives like sinit, openrc, runit, s6 and shepherd. All are therefore included in Devuan. Devuan.org now features an "init freedom" logo with the tagline, "watching your first step. Their home page now links to the download site for Devuan Jessie 1.0 Beta2, promising an OS that "avoids entanglement".' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/12/04/0142242 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Easing Into That Leap-Second...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 02 Dec '16

02 Dec '16

Google is offering time servers that will help you get over the upcoming leap-second hump. Instead of having a day with 61 seconds in it, their clock will run 0.0014% slower across a twenty-hour interval with the moment of the leap second in the middle. At the end of that interval, your clock will be correctly in sync with UTC again. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/02/google_public_ntp_servers/>

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Firefox: libavcodec may be vulnerable or is not supported, and should be updated to play video
by Peter Reutemann 01 Dec '16

01 Dec '16

Hi everyone Being on Linux Mint 17, I've noticed that Chromium stopped playing certain animated gifs a few weeks (probably after an upgrade of the browser). Switching to Firefox, I had the same problem, but I got at least a message: libavcodec may be vulnerable or is not supported, and should be updated to play video Following the instructions here solved my problem: http://superuser.com/a/1137409 However, Chromium still doesn't work. Maybe it's not linking to the libavcodec libraries, but including them in their build, using the outdated Mint 17 libraries. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Android’s Market Share Grows Because It Can Fit Any Niche, Big Or Small
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Dec '16

01 Dec '16

<http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/12/androids-market-share-grows-because-…> How Android began: Android started out as an advanced platform for digital cameras with network connections. When Android, Inc. founders Andy Rubin and Matias Duarte realized that the camera market was too small to carry a whole new business structure, the company ported its software over to the more promising smartphone sector. Not so convinced about this: These days, you can modify and build almost all of Android from freely available code, but the remaining Google-specific bits are almost compulsory in order to provide a high-quality user experience. considering that there are hundreds of millions of Android users in China who have probably never heard of Google. And for those hankering after more, shall we say, venerable form factors: Pining for a physical keyboard? There are still Android models with that feature. ... Looking for a flip-phone with smartphone features? Lesser-known device makers like Freetel can hook you up. Samsung took that idea one step further with the W2016 flip-phone, which comes with separate screens on the inside and the outside of the fold, along with a physical T9 keypad. etc etc.

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Oracle Abandoning Solaris?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Dec '16

01 Dec '16

Seems like every OS that gets to call itself “Unix” is either dead or dying... <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Oracle-Solaris-Demise-Rumors>

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feature update (formerly known as upgrade)
by Ian Young 01 Dec '16

01 Dec '16

The detailed content is a bit beyond my pay grade but I did like the bit about upgrade being displaced by feature update. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/01/upgrade_shift_f10_pops_win10_system…

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