Back in my 2019 article “The Desktop Security Nightmare”, I noted that on most of our desktops, we don’t have good control of what data a program can access and when. I noted that we have things like AppArmor, which is something, but not the entire picture. SELinux is so extremely complicated that even Ted T’so had a comment about never getting some of his life back. I don’t like complexity, especially when it comes to security.| www.complete.org
Back in 1995 or so, pretty much everyone with a PC did all their work as root. We ran graphics editors, word processors, everything as root. Well, not literally an account named “root”, but the most common DOS, Windows, and Mac operating systems of the day had no effective reduced privilege account.| The Changelog
Debian GNU/Linux is one of the oldest Linux distributions around. Some things that make it somewhat unique: Debian supports many architectures. Of course, the big names such as x86 and ARM (32- and 64-bit for both), but also lesser-known ones. Debian is completely self-organizing by volunteer developers. There is no corporate ownership. The organization that holds its assets, Software in the Public Interest, is also volunteer-controlled. Debian has a strong social contract which emphasizes th...| www.complete.org
“Free (as in freedom) Software” is all about giving you back control of your digital life. Both Debian and the Free Software Foundation have definitions of what it means to be free; in general, it means that you must be able to: Inspect how the software works and modify it (source code access) Give away copies of the software, whether modified or not Base other software upon it, or integrate it into other projects (sometimes with the requirement that these other projects also be Free).| www.complete.org
Amateur radio is a radio service in which people are allowed and encouraged to build their own radios, antennas, and so forth. It can be used to communicate all around the globe without any intervening infrastructure such as satellites or cables. Information for other hams If you’re a ham looking me up, this is relevant information: My callsign is KR0L and my name is John Goerzen I was initially licensed as KD0MJT, which was used from July to October 2010 Some information about me, includin...| www.complete.org
A mobile phone operating system based on the Linux kernel. You can do some interesting stuff on it with Termux. Links to this note NNCP on Android To use NNCP on Android, we need a way to build and run it. The easiest option for that is Termux. Building an Asynchronous, Internet-Optional Instant Messaging System I loaded up this title with buzzwords. The basic idea is that IM systems shouldn’t have to only use the Internet.| www.complete.org
Here is a collection of tips for using Amateur Radio on Linux. Pages Here Linux Packet Radio Voice on the SignaLink USB with Linux Includes a section on automatic CQ calling for contests, which is for a SignaLink USB, but could be easily adapted for other devices Mailing Lists (Hams appear to call these “reflectors”) linux-hams, the primary general mailing list for Linux ham discussion. Readers are generally fairly knowledgeable about Linux technically.| www.complete.org