Table of Contents

1. Welcome From The Chief Editor

2. Game Zone: Slain - Back From Hell

3. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Skinny Beef Enchilada Pie

4. Repo Review: Stretchly Break Time Reminder

5. The Social Dilemma

6. ms_meme's Nook: What's Happening?

7. Short Topix: Could Microsoft Be Looking To Linux For The Next Version Of Windows?

8. GIMP Tutorial: Create A Mandala Using Your Name

9. The Document Foundation Calls On Apache OpenOffice To Work Together

10. PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight - Snubbi

11. PCLinuxOS Bonus Recipe Corner: Lasagna Roll-Ups

12. ms_meme's Nook: All My Exes Live In Linux

13. PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

14. Screenshot Showcase

Welcome From The Chief Editor

Never. Ever. Underestimate. Someone's. Abilities.

That was the lesson that my wife and I received early in October. The person delivering that message? My seven year old son, Ryan.

On an otherwise calm October 11, that "calm" was shattered when Ryan's grandmother -- my 78 year old mother -- fell at her home next door while cooking dinner, hit her head on the kitchen cabinets, and was unconscious. My 15 year old niece ran over to our house, crying and telling my wife that Grandma had fallen, and there was blood everywhere, and she wasn't waking up.

Now, my wife and I have the same occupation. We're both respiratory therapists, just at different hospitals. We are quite accustomed to dealing with emergency situations. As for me ... I was at work at a small hospital 40 miles away. My wife was at home, with the kids (Ryan and Lexi), cleaning the house.

Quickly, my wife asked if anyone had called 911, as she quickly put on some different clothes other than the ragged ones she was wearing to clean the house. Hearing this, and unbeknownst to anyone else, Ryan picked up the phone and called 911 himself, for his grandmother.

Now is where it gets even more interesting. Ryan has been a member of Cub Scouts for a little over a year now. He has the "rank" of a Bobcat Cub Scout. At his den meeting, they had JUST learned what to do in an emergency situation -- less than two weeks prior! His quick thinking and quick actions helped get emergency personnel to his grandmother's assistance quickly.

To understand why this is even more amazing, you have to know some things about Ryan. See, Ryan has been diagnosed with high functioning, low level autism. His mom and I are still not entirely convinced of this "diagnosis"; we were pressured into getting him tested, as so many parents are these days. The "definition" for autism was expanded several years ago, and then a few years later, all the experts went, "Oh! Look at all the new autism cases!" DUH! You just expanded the definition for autism so that it encompasses nearly everyone! We resisted the testing because we didn't want someone to just slap a label on Ryan. But, pressured as we were, we relented and got him tested. Our initial fears were confirmed: they just wanted to place a label on him. We received no further help, whatsoever. It was as if once the label was applied, we were set adrift in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean in a rowboat, not a parcel of land anywhere in sight, with no oars, sails, or provisions. No help in dealing with this new "diagnosis" has ever materialized, despite repeatedly asking for help.

Ryan also has a trio of communication problems. He sees a speech and language pathologist every week, both at the school he attends, and with an exceptional outside professional speech and language pathologist that we found. This is his second one; the one we saw previously that was connected to a large, esteemed children's hospital in Kansas City was awful, and did absolutely NOTHING to help him. After 24 visits (which is ALL they would allow), the only thing we have to show for it is a $6,000 bill that we've agreed to pay on at $50 per month. To illustrate, in less than six visits with his current speech and language pathologist, we (his mom and I) saw HUGE improvements in his speech and language skills.

His outside speech and language pathologist has diagnosed him with childhood apraxia of speech, expressive language disorder, and auditory processing disorder. She has even mentioned that he seems to have all the signs of something that is called Einstein Syndrome. With the exception of not being left handed (he's right handed), he has ALL the signs and symptoms. Every. Single. One. As his speech and language pathologist has stated, Ryan is a very complicated case.

Despite being "late" with virtually every childhood development "landmark," his mom and I KNOW how bright Ryan is. When he was 14 months old, and right after he started walking independently, he saw the can of Pringles on the kitchen table that he wanted. Except, they were behind a heavy spice rack. He knew he couldn't pick up the spice rack, so he proceeded to take every jar out of the spice rack, and gently set them on the floor. Once he had all the spices off of the spice rack, he could then remove the rack as an obstacle by gently setting it on the floor, gaining access to the Pringles behind it. He then gently set the Pringles can on the floor, and replaced first the spice rack, and then all of the spices, one by one. I don't think I would have believed it had I not sat back and witnessed it myself, with my own eyes.

Today, Ryan has discovered the joys of drawing. After avoiding anything to do with a pencil, pen or other drawing instrument for so long, he now draws his favorite Transformers, dogs, houses, movie characters, etc. His speech has progressed so, so far. His speech and language pathologist is very proud of the progress he has made. His mom and I are extremely proud of the progress he has made. Even his first grade teacher has commented in a recent parent-teacher progress report (via a Zoom call, due to the pandemic) just how much progress he has made since she first met him in July, during summer school.

As for my mom, she is doing well. Due to the hypertensive crisis she was experiencing, she spent one night in the intensive care unit of our local hospital for close monitoring. She ended up with a small subdural hematoma, and they wanted to make sure the hypertensive crisis didn't make it worse (it didn't). She got to come back home the next day, when her CT scan showed that the subdural hematoma had actually shrunk in size overnight.

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. Around here, our hero is a little seven year old boy. He won't overwhelm you with long speeches and elegant prose, but he's a hero, nonetheless.

Never. Ever. Underestimate. Someone's. Abilities.

********************

This month's cover image celebrates the Fall season, in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway. The image is from Pixabay, and was done by user jplenio.

********************

Until next month, I bid you peace, happiness, good health, serenity, and prosperity.

Game Zone: Slain - Back From Hell

by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

Imagine if you had a time machine, and could go back to the time when there were good platform video games? The golden era of platform games were the mid 80's until 95~96. After that, platform games were left out, being supplanted by fighting games, 3D racing games and FPS's.

But, a good platform game reminds us, the affective memory, of the platform classics of years past: Sonic, Mario, Castlevania, Donkey Kong and others, which were so good, and are missed these days.

Go Back To Hell With Slain: Back From Hell

In this game you are Bathorin, a warrior who has died. Exactly, the game begins with a wraith, in the hero's mausoleum, awakening the hero from his eternal sleep to fight a terrible evil that has befallen over the land.

Rise From Your Grave!

The hero, however, does not want to come back to life, and complains with the wraith, in a very funny comic antic.

Only, he rises from the grave, and goes through the devastated world to eradicate the forces of evil.

Nostalgia And Heavy Metal Are The Ingredients

The Game has a dark Gothic look, with great graphics. Created by Andrew Gilmour, it has several talented veterans in its production, such as Barry Leitch on the additional soundtrack and Curt Victor Bryant (ex Celtic Frost) as the main composer.

The game does not take itself very seriously, from its beginning. including even the jokes with Heavy Metal. Bathorin considers himself a "metal god," and has all the traits of rockers from the 70s: long hair, a giant sword and very heavy metal guitars. After a while, you get the feeling of being in a Slayer music video.

Tom Araya ? Nope, Bathorin...

The game was released on March 24, 2016, and was bombarded by criticism that it was not a finished product, with several glitches and gameplay problems. In August, the Back From Hell version was released, fixing the launch issues.

In its reissue (Back from Hell), it received better criticism from professional critics.

The game was released for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox and PC.

Castlevania Was The Inspiration

The game was heavily inspired by the Castlevania series, with many mechanics reminiscent of the old games.

However, when playing for a long time, you feel that something is missing. And, this thing could be a better polish on the mechanics of the game.

The elements that refer to Castlevania are all there: the Medusa heads, the flying enemies, the zombies that rise from the earth ... all elements check.

Dracula ? No, not in this game

The game was created on the Unity-2D engine, the Unity section dedicated to two-dimensional games. But, because it uses an engine rich in OpenGL effects, its visuals are fantastic. The game is set in an eternal night full of light effects. There are explosions, shadows, reflections that make all the difference, and create a medieval atmosphere of torture and beautiful oppression.

The player has a normal attack mode, accomplished with his sword, and a projectile attack mode, which consumes mana. The projectile attack mode gives the advantage of distance.

The use of the sword is not only offensive. It is possible to block attacks from opponents with it, and to deflect projectiles that enemies shoot at you. But, you need to get the right timing (which requires training) to deflect enemy shots.

In the game, the hero must free six kingdoms, destroying the evil boss of each one, in order to free the world from darkness.

Many, many platforms

The Honest Criticism

Well, the game is beautiful. Thanks to the Unity engine, it has an incredible particle system, and it is really impressive. The music is also great, and the animations are also very well done, with lots of frames, leaving the characters with fluid movements.

It is not a game that requires a lot of hardware. I tested it myself on my notebook with Intel video, and it worked wonderfully.

It has support for joysticks, which greatly improves its gameplay, since a game like this asks for a quick response that a keyboard would never be able to deliver.

The game features a wide variety of boss fights, mini-boss fights, sub-mini-boss fights and macro-sub-mini-boss fights, which will guarantee at least six hours of play (but will be more).

Submini-boss

Now, I have to talk about the problems I found in the game. Mainly from its mechanics.

Not Everything Is Thorny Rosy In Slain ...

The game mechanics resemble the first Castlevania, but much more difficult. And, despite all its positive aspects, it seems that the game's creators put an insane difficulty just to artificially lengthen its duration.

Other than that, the mechanics are bad. The character does an automatic animation when performing a sequence of three sword attacks. Now, if you need to jump, it won't happen, because the character will be locked in the animation sequence. And, as the game is very dynamic, it will kill Bathorin many times. But, as he already died, it doesn't stop the game from continuing. The character just respawns at the nearest check-point. Yes, the game has this flaw. There is no way to save anywhere you want, but only at check-points, which can be very frustrating, depending on the stage you are in.

Other than that, when striking with the sword, the character advances one step for each sequence of three sword hits. In abyss edges, or with nearby traps (and the game has many), this can kill the character easily.

Verdict

Pros:
Music

Visuals

Animations

Controls are good, but game mechanics hamper them.

Cons:
Insane difficulty

Stupid mechanics

Combat doesn't have much variety

High frustration rate (due to the items above)

My score is 6.0 - Good, but not great, and there are many reasons to disappoint the player.

But, the game is on Halloween promotion at GOG, and for the promotional price, it can be an option to play for the upcoming holidays.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

Skinny Beef Enchilada Pie

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb extra-lean (at least 93%) ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)

1 can (10 oz) red enchilada sauce

1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed, drained

1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles, drained

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

5 flour tortillas for burritos (from 11 oz package)

1 cup shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend (4 oz)

Fat-free sour cream, if desired

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 350F (176C). In a 12-inch nonstick skillet, cook beef and onion over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thoroughly cooked; drain. Reserve 1/4 cup enchilada sauce; set aside. Add remaining enchilada sauce, corn and chiles to beef mixture. Stir in cumin and chili powder. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer uncovered 5 minutes.

Spray 9-inch round (2-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. Place 1 tortilla in a casserole; top with about 3/4 cup of the beef mixture and 3 tablespoons of the cheese. Repeat layers 3 times. Top with remaining tortilla, the reserved enchilada sauce and the remaining cheese.

Bake, uncovered, 30 to 40 minutes or until hot and cheese is melted. Cool 5 minutes. Serve with sour cream.

TIPS:

Ground turkey can be used instead of the ground beef, if you prefer.

Any variety of reduced-fat cheese can be substituted for the Mexican blend.

NUTRITION FACTS:

Calories: 215           Carbs: 17g           Sodium: 317mg           Fiber: 2.5g

Repo Review: Stretchly Break Time Reminder

by CgBoy

Stretchly is a helpful program that reminds you to periodically take short breaks when you are working on the computer. According to the application, "Taking regular breaks when using a computer is scientifically proven to be important for your physical and mental well-being.", and Stretchly is specifically designed to help you take these breaks. By default, it will remind you to take a short 20 second break every 10 minutes, and a longer 5 minute break every 30 minutes.

When you start Stretchly, it will run in the system tray. Clicking on the icon will open up a menu from which you can quickly check how long it will be until the next break starts, and also easily skip to the next long or mini breaks, or pause all breaks for a certain amount of time.

Also accessible from the Stretchly menu are the preferences. Here, you have a few options for the break reminders, such as whether or not to display exercise tips during breaks, or to show break reminders on all monitors. On the Schedule tab, you can change the length of mini breaks and long breaks, and set how often they'll occur. You also have the option to enable Strict Mode, which will prevent you from being able to skip any breaks, thereby forcing you to momentarily pause from your work.

You'll get a notification right before the next break is due to start. During a break, a large reminder screen will pop up with a message giving you some quick exercise and relaxation tips, along with a progress bar to indicate how long until the break is over. You also have the ability to skip any break if you wish to do so, or postpone it for another few minutes.

Summary

I think Stretchly can definitely help you stay more relaxed while working (Unless you end up finding the break reminders annoying, of course), and it performed well in my testing of it. My only real issue with Stretchly is that when installed it will take up about 180MB of hardrive space, which somehow seems far bigger than what a simple reminder application should be. Either way, though, I would still recommend giving Stretchly a try.

The Social Dilemma

by Agent Smith (Alessandro Ebersol)

The documentary "The Social Dilemma", which premiered on Netflix in September, 2009, interviews technology experts from Silicon Valley to show how social networks are reprogramming civilization. Former employees of companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest tell how the executives of these companies not only know this, but also manipulate the algorithms to induce behavior in people.

Social Dilemma? What Do I Care?

I have already written about how Google constantly monitors its users, uses so-called surveillance capitalism to earn a lot, and profiles everyone, saves information about them in databases, often in other countries, which the laws of the user's native country, are not valid.

But it's not only that. Being connected, nowadays, in some cases even becomes a matter of survival, since there are people who use Whatsapp as a work tool. And, as for Whatsapp, how many times did two people talk, about, for example, dog food, and then, when opening Facebook, to have dog food advertisements appearing on the side bars? Magic? Does Facebook read my thoughts? However, it's nothing like that. 24/7 surveillance, even when not apparently connected, it is always listening. And, thanks to the entire telecommunications, cell phone and internet infrastructure, it is not just a passive action to monitor the user. No. The whole apparatus of social/communication networks and applications is actively used to influence its audience.

If They Were Just Targeted Advertisements, It Wouldn't Be So Bad.

No, of course not. Open your email and find hundreds of advertisements for Viagra, increase your penis size, find singles in your area, etc. It gets very annoying sometimes. But, one can survive that. With some care and spam filters, Ad blockers, and other tools, one can avoid these advertisements and interact on the internet.

But, no. It is worse, and it gets much worse. But, how?

Well, I'll look at how social networks profile their users and use targeted messages. The figure below illustrates the architecture of the user profile. There are several ways in which a user can be profiled, which depends on the application as well. The general user profiling process is as follows: Raw data from online social networks is collected and analyzed in relation to various aspects such as: activities, images, text data and geographic location.

In this phase, the data relating to the number of activities performed, the images posted or profile photos, data presented by user and the user's geographic location are extracted separately. With respect to the images, the details of the image and its features are extracted using appropriate algorithms. The respective data is analyzed and the related/unrelated data is classified using classification mechanisms. Then, based on the classified data, users are grouped into distinct groups with group name and functionality.

After obtaining the details of the user and their related groups, the number, type and pattern of activities for each user is extracted. Based on the largest number of activities and the influence exerted on others by a user, the user's behavior is obtained. Thus, when analyzing this pattern of behavior on online social networks, the user's profile is defined.

Notice here a very important detail: users, when they are profiled, are classified in groups, called clusters, by specific affinities, which are identified when these users are profiled. And, it is a very important detail. I would say of vital importance, for the companies that control these networks, and, unfortunately for its users, it is one of the worst aspects of social networks.

The Internet Has Become A Giant Echo Chamber ...

Thanks to profiling and classification, social networks have become giant echo chambers, real bubbles that keep people away instead of bringing them closer, and create an illusion about the perceived reality that is very powerful and real. I already had the opportunity, using YouTube, to access a channel of extremist ideas, in political terms, with a YouTuber who had a strong speech against his opponents, and often insulted people who did not share his opinion. I will not mention the channel or YouTuber, since he does not deserve advertising or any other means to spread his extremist views. And, I accessed his channel a long time ago when it was a small channel, and when videos from his channel appeared on my timeline again, I chose to ignore them. It was content that is not important to me.

Okay, his videos never appeared on my timeline again. Some time passed, about two years, more or less, and I was curious: Did that guy's channel close? No more videos of him ever appeared on my timeline, and I thought he had shut down his channel and given up. I looked for the channel, searching in YouTube, and there was his channel, firm and strong, with over 100 thousand subscribers. And I was speechless: Yeah, being rude and spreading hate speech is worth it. Gee, I'm doing it wrong, with my innocent Linux videos. I should speak ill of others and gain followers.

However, this classification that applications make of the public transformed the internet into echo chambers, which separated people by their tendencies, their profiles. The danger of that? It was simple: minorities think they are majorities, think that everyone thinks the same way (because the algorithm hides different ideas) and creates a distorted view of reality. Thus, groups of people on social networks cannot be analyzed as majorities, or minorities. In fact, it's not even possible to know its size, since the algorithms make it difficult for people with different characteristics to interact, creating bubbles and filling these bubbles with certain groups, each classified in a different way, which is not transparent to its users.

The Implications Of Living In An Echo Chamber

The implications of being "trapped" inside an echo chamber, on social media, are quite frightening. Otherwise let's see...

• New ideas are not reached. There is no diversity in the messages that reach users, only more of the same.

• As a consequence, because the user is bombarded by only one type of information, political polarization will increase, and often, also the intolerance with opposing opinions, both online and in real life.

• Another result of this is that each group finds itself the majority, since it is never confronted by contrary ideas.

• Within these bubbles, people tend to accept information that corroborates what they believe, even if that information may be false.

• The yearning for likes and attention generates the gradual disappearance of rational thinking in favor of group thinking. In other words, the herd effect is accentuated, and its influence can literally generate armies of zombies that do the same thing, because the others also do the same.

• And, it was discovered that likes on Facebook generate injections of dopamine, that create instant self-satisfaction, which studies have shown, generate addiction like injections of heroin.

• Obviously, after a user becomes addicted to likes, he will be more active on the social network, to get more likes, as a good addict.

And, real dangerous consequences also come from echo chambers:

• Anti-vaccine groups gain followers, usually attracted by conspiracy narratives.

• People believing that the earth is flat have also increased, due to conspiracy theories spread across social networks.

• And, last but not least, according to Ahmed Bensaada's book, The Arab Spring: Made in the USA, All the instigators of the Arab Spring uprisings were well-educated young people who mysteriously disappeared after 2011. It is worth remembering that social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc...) played a very important role in influencing thousands of young people (a collective brainwashing) to take to the streets, in the popular uprisings between 2010 and 2012.

The Mechanisms Of Social Control, Used In Social Media, Are Old

Yes, this is very old. And, they can be credited to Edward Bernays. Bernays said: "The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this invisible mechanism of society constitute an invisible government that is the true dominant power of any country. We are governed, our minds are shaped, our tastes are formed, our ideas are suggested, largely by men we have never heard of... in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or in our life. Ethical thinking, we are dominated by a relatively small number of people... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. They are the ones who pull the strings that control the public's mind, take advantage of old social forces and create new ways to connect and guide the world."

Bernays in 1917

Edward Bernays was Sigmund Freud's nephew, and a pioneering mind behind advertising, modern advertising and the public relations field. Bernays' influence was enormous. Leaning heavily on his uncle's ideas, he developed highly successful manipulation techniques that are still used today, not only by companies to sell consumer products, but also by the powers that are, in Bernays' words, "controlling and regimenting the masses".

The great potential of using insights from group psychology to control the masses is partly a function of the fact that an individual can be influenced by a group or crowd, even when physically isolated. As Bernays pointed out in his book, Crystallizing Public Opinion, a crowd "does not merely mean a physical aggregation of a number of people... the crowd is a state of mind" (Crystallizing Public Opinion, Edward Bernays). In group identification, your mind and behavior will be altered by the lasting influence of group psychology, even without any other group member physically present.

When identifying with a group, the individual subordinates self-analysis and a careful search for the truth in favor of maintaining the group's interests and cohesion. And with their critical capacities weakened by the influence of group psychology, they become highly susceptible to psychological operations designed to target repressed or unconscious desires and emotions, and are thus manipulable.

Freud's studies have shown that there is information that is captured emotionally before it is processed rationally. Thus, in the face of information that would cause outrage in the public, this audience would not process this information rationally, but emotionally, and would accept it as a truth, or, something to be vehemently combated. Take, for example, fake news about how pedophilia would be more of a sexual orientation, and therefore should be part of the LGBT community, which has been circulating on social media in 2018.

After circulating for a long time, it was debunked. But, not before going around the internet and leaving mothers, fathers, grandparents outraged with the LGBT community. Think about how many Whatsapp messages this photo montage appeared. And, perhaps worse, how many people still think it is true.

The Algorithm: The Invisible Hand

Social networks are addictive, and encourage constant engagement. However, all the engagement of users with their social media does not happen by chance. It is carefully crafted by the algorithms. The purpose of the algorithms is to make the user stay on the social network for as long as possible, consuming the content they offer. In fact, social networks struggle for the attention of users. And, to get more attention, the algorithm manipulates the user.

Attention economics is an approach to information management that treats human attention as a scarce commodity and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems. According to Thomas Davenport, in his book, The economics of attention (The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business), today, attention is the true currency of business and between individuals.

YouTube, Facebook, fighting for your attention

Many digital platforms compete for attention, and the best way to get people's attention is to study how the mind works. There are several persuasion techniques used in the technology industry to win people's attention, an example of which is YouTube. YouTube wants to maximize the time you spend watching videos, so they introduced "autoplay", so that the next video opens automatically and you spend more time watching, or consider Facebook's default behavior of automatically starting a video in the news feed without you having to click on play. And, because the video interested you, most of the time, almost unconsciously, you forget about work or other tasks and keep watching. But, it doesn't stop there. For the user to remain connected to the social network, the algorithm feeds increasingly interesting content, to keep the user connected. Result: if the user started watching videos of kittens, after 45 minutes, he will be able to watch videos of lions or tigers, to keep him connected. And, this trend is followed in all subjects. If the user became interested in a political page to support candidate A, from a party B, on Facebook, after some time, several pages of candidates from that party will have appeared for this user, or even pages of organizations that support this party, in an increasing way.

The Echo Chamber Isolates

These echo chambers, created by social networks and search portals, isolate users, and often keep them from what they are really looking for. So much so that nowadays, when I need to search, I use at least 5 different search engines, since Google's results are no longer reliable. It does not report all existing results, but filters those that it "thinks" that would interest the user. Besides, this bubble of results can be manipulated by commercial interests of the search companies themselves. Example: Try searching for Linux is better than Windows 10 in the Bing search engine, to see what results it returns. Bing belongs to Microsoft, and despite saying that it "Loves Linux", don't believe everything you see on the Internet...

Spoiler: what Bing responds for linux is better than windows 10

Final Words

Well, if you made it this far, I got your engagement and, I think, your attention. And, no, there is no algorithm involved. Just the desire to spread knowledge about how social networks manipulate their users, how personal data has become a bargaining chip in this new economy of surveillance capitalism, and, how people must know this, so that they are no longer manipulated, either by buying one product, vote for a candidate or condemn or acquit anyone, because of the influence of social networks. As for the film, watch the Social Dilemma, available on Netflix since September, 2009. It's very interesting and scary; a real-life horror movie.

ms_meme's Nook: What's Happening?

MP3                                                                 OGG

Short Topix: Could Microsoft Be Looking To Linux For The Next Version Of Windows?

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Free Intro to Linux Course Surpasses One Million Enrollments

The Linux Foundation: SAN FRANCISCO, September 22, 2020 -- The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced its Introduction to Linux training course on the edX platform, currently in its sixth edition, has surpassed one million enrollments. The course helps students develop a good working knowledge of Linux using both the graphical interface and command line across the major Linux distribution families. No prior knowledge or experience is required, making the course a popular first step for individuals interested in pursuing a career in IT.

Introduction to Linux has helped countless individuals launch their IT careers. Jules Bashizi Irenge for example, completed the course then proceeded to intermediate Essentials of System Administration training and received a Linux Foundation Certified SysAdmin (LFCS) certification, and now is a PhD candidate who has contributed over 200 patches to the Linux kernel. Fabian Pichardo also followed the introductory course with Essentials of System Administration and LFCS, and now is employed full time as a software developer.

"To have introduced over a million individuals to Linux is a tremendous milestone, said Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin. "One of our primary goals is to bring more talent into the open source community, and offering free, high quality training that is accessible to anyone who wants it is essential to achieving that goal. Thank you and congratulations to everyone who has supported these efforts, including our members, instructors, training support team, and the students themselves. We look forward to training the next million!

With Linux powering all of the world's 500 top supercomputers and the vast majority of mobile devices, along with serving as the backbone of the cloud and the internet itself, it is essential to understand Linux to pursue many IT job roles. Upon completion of this course, students possess a good working knowledge of Linux, from both a graphical and command line perspective, allowing them to easily navigate through any of the major Linux distributions. They can then continue their progress as either a user, system administrator or developer using the acquired skill set.

"The Linux Foundation has been an incredible partner of edX for the past six years, bringing dozens of courses in high-tech and in-demand fields to our platform of 34 million learners, said Anant Agarwal, edX Founder and CEO. "Introduction to Linux, their very first offering, has been a true blockbuster -- it's one of our top 10 most popular courses of all time. We're thrilled to congratulate Linux Foundation on reaching 1 million enrollments and look forward to bringing accessible high-tech education to countless more learners, together.

Introduction to Linux remains open for new enrollments. There is no cost to complete the course, and verified certificates of completion are available for $199. The Linux Foundation offers two dozen free training courses on open source projects including Linux, Kubernetes, Hyperledger, and more in partnership with edX.

'Hidden' UEFI Malware Difficult To Detect, Remove

Kapersky cybersecurity researchers have discovered an APT (advanced persistent threat) known as a firmware bootkit, according to an article on TechRadar. It affects a computer's UEFI (Unified Extensive Firmware Interface), and begins running before the computer's operating system or any programs. This means that normal operating system and programming security software cannot detect it, since it's loaded before anything else. It also makes it incredibly difficult to remove.

The Kaspersky researchers found a sample of such malware used in a campaign that deployed variants of a complex, multi-stage modular framework dubbed as MosaicRegressor. Not only does the malware load before the operating system or security software, the UEFI code resides on a flash ROM, separate from the hard drive. This means that even if the end user reinstalls the operating system and all of their software, the bootkit malware will persist.

According to an article on ITP.net:

While it was not possible to detect the exact infection vector that allowed the attackers to overwrite the original UEFI firmware, Kaspersky researchers deduced one option of how it could be done based on what is known about VectorEDK from leaked Hacking Team documents. These suggest, without excluding other options, that infections might have been possible through physical access to the victim's machine, specifically with a bootable USB key, which would contain a special update utility. The patched firmware would then facilitate the installation of a Trojan downloader -- malware that enables any payload suitable for the attacker's needs to be downloaded when the operating system is up and running.

In the majority of cases, however, MosaicRegressor components were delivered to victims using far less sophisticated measures, such as spear phishing delivery of a dropper hidden in an archive together with a decoy file. The multiple modules structure of the framework enabled the attackers to conceal the wider framework from analysis, and deploy components to target machines on demand only. The malware initially installed on the infected device is a Trojan-downloader, a program capable of downloading additional payload and other malware. Depending on the payload downloaded, the malware could download or upload arbitrary files from/to arbitrary URLs and gather information from the targeted machine.

Kapersky researchers have not been able to link the malware to any particular threat actor, but have linked some of the attacks to Russian spearphishing documents, and most of the victims had some connection to North Korea.

Could Microsoft Be Looking To Linux For The Next Version Of Windows?

I know ... it sounds like a horror film, huh? But TechRepublic's Jack Wallen and ZDNet's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols both think it might be a good idea.

I just know you're screaming at the top of your lungs about now.

If you are like many Linux users, most of whom are Microsoft "refugees anyways, there are many, many reasons for your skepticism and fear. For years, Microsoft professed its intense hatred of Linux. They bragged about how they were planning to "eradicate the cancer known as Linux from the computing world.

Then, almost overnight, Microsoft professed its "love for Linux. Microsoft joined the Linux Foundation. Linux users RAGED! The "enemy was making itself comfortable ... in their OWN HOUSE! Most Linux users were afraid that it was the same ol' Microsoft up to its usual games, which involved the "triple E threat: embrace, extend, extinguish. MICROSOFT WAS GOING TO EXTINGUISH LINUX FROM WITHIN!

Actually, there are still many Linux users who haven't strayed far from initial assessment. Even in the PCLinuxOS forum, we hear it fairly regularly. Ignoring for a moment Microsoft's history of hatred towards Linux, can such a move possibly be all bad?

We don't have to look far to see the possible benefits. Back in 1999, macOS was rebased, partly, on Berkley BSD, leading to Apple joining the *nix family. Anyone would be hard pressed to argue with the results of Mac OS X (we're not talking about the costs associated with Apple products/hardware, nor the restrictive closed environment that constrains Mac OS X).

Believe it or not, Windows isn't the flagship Microsoft product any longer. It doesn't even come close to being a leading income producer for Microsoft. Instead, Microsoft finds its biggest profit leaders to be things like its cloud-based Office 365, and other "software-as-a-service (SaaS) products. Its Azure cloudspace is quite lucrative.

Microsoft migrating Windows to Linux does make sense. Instead of having a whole bevy of programmers working on proprietary, closed-source software, most of the heavy lifting would have been done by the FOSS and Linux community. You can be certain that Microsoft will tinker with the final product. They literally can't help themselves in that regard.

The real questions come with that tinkering. Will their tinkering introduce security vulnerabilities? Will a Linux-based Windows cause a dying off of some Linux distros? Will Microsoft's embracing of Linux make Linux distros everywhere targets for malware and virii? This latter point is a HUGE potential problem. There are many unknowns, and how those unknowns are handled could have huge ramifications across the established Linux community.

Jack Wallen does make a good point that could end up being quite advantageous for Linux users. Microsoft would almost be required to pour efforts into helping support Wine, to help insure that legacy programs/software can run atop a Linux-based version of Windows. Without an ability to run favorite legacy software, user adoption of a Windows based on Linux may be slow and arduous. Even today among Windows users, there are "laggers who hang onto older, more vulnerable versions of Windows because of perceived compatibility issues.

Certainly, this will thrust Linux into the computing mainstream at light speed. Linux market share will sky rocket, overnight. There are many arguments on both sides as to whether this is good or not. Some don't want Linux to have such a high profile. Others think that it will hasten Linux development and improve support across all avenues.

Color me skeptical. Very skeptical. You might even call it "guarded optimism. Very, very guarded. As if peeking between a barely perceptible gap between slats of a set of drawn mini-blinds. I can see both sides of the argument. I can see how such a move might have huge benefit to Linux, but ONLY if it is done correctly, in the spirit and methods of the established open source community, and if profit is NOT occupying the driver's seat.

1Password Password Manager Coming To Linux

For much of the past 10 or so years, one of the most popular password managers for Windows, Android and iOS has been 1Password. And, for all of that time, the most requested "feature has been for a Linux version.

Well, it looks like Linux users are getting their wish, and their request granted. 1Password is coming to Linux, most likely as soon as early 2021. From a forum post on AgileBits community forum:

A full-featured Linux desktop app has been our most requested feature by far and responsible for the longest forum post in our history. Today we're thrilled to announce that 1Password is coming to Linux!

Planned for official release later this year, we couldn't wait to share the news with you so today we're unveiling an alpha a development preview so you can join in on the fun.

Not exactly an LTS release

This isn't a long-term support release! You can expect many updates and changes over the next few months as many features are not complete yet. For example, the app is currently read only: there is no item editing, creation of vaults, or item organization.

As such this initial release should be used for testing and validation purposes only and is not suitable for business critical environments. For a stable experience on Linux you'll want to use 1Password X in your browser.

A true Linux app

Our new app is built to meet the security and performance expectations of Linux users. Its backend is written completely in Rust, a secure systems programming language that has made a lot of waves in the Linux community. We're especially proud to be using the incredible ring crypto library to power the end-to-end encryption that keeps your data safe.

In addition to a secure foundation we've tailored the app to integrate with Desktop Linux with features like:

- Simple and secure installs using apt and dnf packager managers

Automatic Dark Mode selection based on your GTK theme Open network locations (FTP, SSH, SMB) Tiling window manager support and descriptive window titles Unlock with your Linux user account, including biometrics System tray icon for staying unlocked while closed X11 clipboard integration and clearing Keyboard shortcuts Data export Unlock multiple accounts with different passwords Create collections to organize data across accounts and vaults

And this is just what's available in the preview. There will be many more exciting features that will take advantage of the power of Linux as we get closer to release.

Free accounts for open source teams

Our new app is built on great open source projects like the Rust programming language for the underlying logic, and React for a responsive component-based UI.

Building an app for Linux wouldn't have been possible without these giant shoulders to stand upon so we want to give back to the free software community. If you work on an open source team that needs a password manager, open a PR against our 1Password for Open Source Projects repo and we'll give you and everybody on your team a free account. You and your team will be able to continue using this account even when the development preview ends.

Thank you so much for your contributions and making the world a better place.

apt-get install 1password

If you're excited to report issues, work with us to resolve them, and update to verify fixes, then you're welcome to join us on this journey. To get started read the guide Get to know 1Password for Linux to find installation and troubleshooting instructions.

We maintain signed apt and rpm package repositories for Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We also have an AppImage for as-of-yet unsupported distributions. Let us know what distribution you use and how well 1Password works there.

We hope you are as excited about a 1Password Linux app as we are. Our development team will be active in this forum so when you find issues please report them here.

Psssst! We Now Know The Name Of Doom Guy!

I'm certain that this has been one of the BIGGEST mysteries in all of gaming for a very long time.

To mark the 26th anniversary of the release of Doom 2 (can you believe that Doom 2 has been around for 26 years?! I know I can hardly believe it!), id Software co-founder John Romero finally answered a question that I'm sure many, many before have asked. He did so on Twitter.

Yep! So there you have it from one of the top guys himself. Doom Guy's name is ... Doom Guy.

Here we are, 26 years later, and it would be foolish to presume that Doom is pulseless. It remains a hugely popular game, and new Doom games are being prepared for the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X gaming systems. On October 20, 2020, a new Doom DLC (downloadable content ... I know ... I had to look that up myself) game, called "The Ancient Gods: Part One, was released. And, users didn't even have to have Doom Eternity to play it!

Now, don't you feel better knowing that Doom Guy's name is Doom Guy?

PCLinuxOS Magazine Short Topix Roundup

COMCAST ENGINEERS have successfully achieved 1.25Gbps throughput over ... are you ready for it ... standard coaxial cable! The significance, if it makes it through to general consumers, is a cheaper way to deliver 1+ Gbps internet to many more people. The savings would be automatic, given that they are using existing infrastructure to deliver the faster internet speeds.

THE GLOBAL PC MARKET SAW ITS GREATEST GROWTH IN 10 YEARS, according to an article on C|Net. After experiencing a weak first quarter, sales of laptops and mobile workstations soared, largely in response to the coronavirus pandemic, as many workers took to working from home.

THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IN JACKSON, MICHIGAN IS USING ITS BUSES AS MOBILE HOTSPOTS to provide internet connectivity to students whose families cannot afford internet access, according to an article on mlive. The coronavirus pandemic forced many schools to shut down face-to-face learning, and switch to virtual learning to replace it. Even though the school district helped ensure that students had access to mobile devices by providing Chromebooks, they found that around 35 percent of students experienced problems with connectivity due to their family's inability to afford internet access. As a result, they equipped their school buses with wifi hotspots, and sent them out into underserved areas of the community from 9:30 a.m. until 12:45 p.m. There, families would gather in the wifi coverage area (a 100 foot to 300 foot radius from the mobile hotspot), to avail themselves of the free internet access.

SEVEN COUNTRIES ARE CALLING ON BIG TECH to provide them with "backdoor access to encryption algorithms and routines (particularly end-to-end encryption), so that they "may keep the public safe from threat actors (real, perceived and imaginary), and to help law enforcement to crack down on those who hide behind internet encryption to commit their crimes, according to an article on ZDNet. Those seven countries are the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Japan. The same (or similar) requests have been made by the group to big tech companies in 2018 and 2019. The problem is that if a backdoor exists for governments and law enforcement to crack encrypted communications and/or data, then how long will it be before non-government types (e.g., hackers) are also able to leverage those same backdoors? How do we trust that governments and law enforcement will always follow the law, and not use the "ability to silence dissenters or those whose opinions might not be "mainstream? You can read the entire joint news release from these seven countries, here. Be careful. This should scare the pants off of you, regardless if you have any concerns for privacy.

GIMP Tutorial: Create A Mandala Using Your Name

by Meemaw

I haven't been to some of my favorite sites for a while, having other events that were keeping me busy - you know, Life. However, I happened to go to one of my favorite GIMP sites the other day - GIMP Learn. I know I can always find something new to learn, and that day was no exception. One of the most talented people on the site, a lady named Pat625, had posted a fine tutorial a while back, and I was just now able to go through it. The actual tutorial is here, and it is wonderful, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Create a new file, 1,000 px X 1,000 px, with a white background. Using the guides you can pull from the left-side and top rulers, place them at 500 px. If you will check the bar at the bottom of your window, you will see "Add Guide" and it will show you when your guide is at 500 px. Your canvas will look like this:

Create a text box and put your name in it using a fancy font. Pat625's suggestion was Rothenburg Decorative or Strassburg Fraktur, and included them in her tutorial package. I used Rothenburg (it has more swirls), but you could use any font you'd like. The swirly ones make great mandalas! Depending on how long your name is, your font size should probably be between 100 and 150. Mine was 150 but could have been a bit more.

When you get it on the canvas, center it in the background, and move it so the top of the text is just touching the horizontal guide.

When you get it where it needs to be, right click the text layer in the layer dialog and choose "Discard Text Information" since we now need this to just be a layer. Right click again and choose "Layer to Image Size".

Now we'll use this layer to make our mandala. Choosing the text layer, duplicate it by clicking on Duplicate Layer in the Layers dialog. With the duplicate chosen, click on the rotate tool (GIMP 2.10.22 groups the tools, so it may be in the transform group depending on your version.) Put your cursor in the middle of your layer and rotate it 180o. It will look like this now:

Now, right click the top layer and choose "Merge Down". NOTE - Keep the text layers separate from the background (don't merge all the way down.) Duplicate the text layer, then rotate the duplicate 90o.

Now, merge that layer down, then duplicate it again. This time, rotate the new duplicated layer 45o. You should end up with something that looks like this:

Now we can give it a little flair. In Pat625's tutorial, she had drawn two circles around her mandala. It looks really neat, so let's do it. Choose your ellipse tool and in the toolbox, tick the boxes for "Expand from center" and "Fixed aspect ratio" so we can make the circle perfectly round. Starting in the center, make the circle large enough for the text to be just inside. We want an actual circle there, so before you do anything else, choose Edit > Stroke Selection. Make sure your foreground color is black, then make your stroke 12 px.

Before you do anything else, click Select > None. That will deselect the ellipse you just used. Repeat your circle again, using the ellipse tool, making this one inside the first. When you do Edit > Stroke the selection this time, make it 4 or 5 px. Merge down until you have the drawing on the top layer, and the background on the bottom layer. Remember to save your work.

It already looks pretty neat! You can stop now, export it in the format of your choice, and let a child or grandchild color it if you wish. However, we can also add some color to it before we're finished.

Right click on the top layer and choose Alpha To Selection. You will see the "walking ants" everywhere you have any black. Make the black layer invisible so you can see the result.

Add a new layer on top of the other two. Now, click on the Gradients tool, choose Radial gradient, and whichever gradient you want. Starting from the center, click and drag your mouse towards the outside. Remember, any time you don't like the result, you can always press CTRL + Z to undo it and try again. I chose the Caribbean Blues gradient, and I think I had to reverse it. In the mandala at the first of the article, I used the Sunrise gradient.

Again, you can stop here and export, but I'll show you a couple more things you can do. One thing you can do is to emphasize the colors of your mandala. If your selection is still active (we did Alpha to Selection earlier), create a new layer under the top layer. Choose Edit > Stroke Selection again. Use around 5 px for your stroke, and make it black. If you want more black, make it 6 or 7 px.

Another one is to bucket fill the background layer with color. That's easy. Just choose the background layer, choose the bucket fill tool and a color you want, and click.

Another thing you can do, if you don't want to fill the background with color, is to add shadows instead. Choose your mandala layer (the color layer) and go to Filters > Light & Shadow > Drop Shadow. Change your shadow, blur radius and opacity to whatever looks good to you.

The first time I did this tutorial, the result was the first image below. The second image below is the second try.

I hope you enjoyed this one. I thought it was fun! Depending on the colors and extra effects, they all look a bit different.

The Document Foundation Calls On Apache OpenOffice To Work Together

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Background & History

Twenty years ago, in 2000, the OpenOffice (OO.org) source code was open sourced by Sun Microsystems. I remember it well. Back then, in my naivete as a Windows user, I was excited about the announcement. It wasn't as a contributor or programmer, but I was excited about the growth potential for an office suite other than Microsoft Office, which has/had always been consistently priced out of my reach or budget.

In those days, OpenOffice was managed and developed by Sun Microsystems. This was after Sun purchased StarOffice from its German owners in 1999. Prior to that, StarOffice originated as StarWriter in 1985.

THEN came along Microsoft's introduction of the OOXML (Office Open XML) document format, which especially created havoc for users of anything other than Microsoft Office. We see them today, represented with the familiar *.docx, *.xlsx and *.pptx file extensions. For quite a while, OO.org users were stymied in their attempts to open, read, or edit OOXML documents. Kludgy extensions and workarounds were presented (from what I remember), but none of them "cured" the problem. Plus, Oracle was incredibly slow to address the issues and concerns over the lack of OO.org users to be able to read these new office document file formats.

I remember having to ask users of MS Office (at that time) to PLEASE send me any Office files in the older *.doc/*.xls/*.ppt formats, just to ensure that I would be able to open, read, and possibly edit those files. For a file format that was presented as a unifying force for office documents, it sure seemed to create a LOT of havoc for users of anything that was not Microsoft created or blessed.

First Sun's, and then Oracle's (after Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems in 2010) slowness to respond to not just those issues, but also its slow development cycle contributed to OO.org becoming forked into The Document Foundation (TDF), who gave birth to LibreOffice (LO). LO was based on the OO.org source code, with many, many enhancements and new features. This all happened in 2010. In the intervening 10 years, LO has seen phenomenal growth, while Oracle sold OO.org to Apache in 2011, and there it has sat, stagnating for most of that time.

LibreOffice Suite

OpenOffice Office Suite

The Document Foundation's Plea

On October 12, 2020, The Document Foundation released an open letter to Apache OpenOffice. Here it is, in its entirity:

Today marks 20 years since the source code to OpenOffice was released. And today we say: LibreOffice is the future of OpenOffice. Let's all get behind it!

It's great to have a rich and diverse set of free and open source software projects. Hundreds of millions of people around the world have benefited from the choice and customisation that they bring. But sometimes, users can lose out when they're not aware of newer alternatives, or when one brand overshadows another.

OpenOffice(.org) -- the "father project" of LibreOffice -- was a great office suite, and changed the world. It has a fascinating history, but since 2014, Apache OpenOffice (its current home) hasn't had a single major release. That's right -- no significant new features or major updates have arrived in over six years. Very few minor releases have been made, and there have been issues with timely security updates too.

In recent years, almost all development activity has taken place in LibreOffice, with 13 major releases and 87 minor releases. In 2019, LibreOffice had over 15,000 code commits, while OpenOffice had only 595. LibreOffice has a flourishing community, yearly conferences, professional support options, development and migration certification, and a robust commercial ecosystem.

In addition, LibreOffice has integrated many features essential for end users in 2020:

- Export in Microsoft Office OOXML formats (.docx, .xlsx etc.)

- ODF, OOXML and PDF signing for improved security

- Major performance improvements in Calc, the spreadsheet

- A fresh new NotebookBar user interface

- ...and a lot more

But still, many users don't know that LibreOffice exists. The OpenOffice brand is still so strong, even though the software hasn't had a significant release for over six years, and is barely being developed or supported.

If Apache OpenOffice still wants to maintain its old 4.1 branch from 2014, sure, that's important for legacy users. But the most responsible thing to do in 2020 is: help new users. Make them aware that there's a much more modern, up-to-date, professionally supported suite, based on OpenOffice, with many extra features that people need.

We appeal to Apache OpenOffice to do the right thing. Our goal should be to get powerful, up-to-date and well-maintained productivity tools into the hands of as many people as possible. Let's work together on that!

Signed,

The Board of Directors at The Document Foundation

Of course, this isn't the first time that TDF has urged Apache OpenOffice to work together. Here is a similar "message" to Apache OO.org to do something similar back in August, 2015. Feel free to read it at your leisure by following the link. The message from TDF is quite consistent, and has been over the years.

Analysis

I've heard some good arguments from both sides of the issue. The user comments on the TDF website with the open letter to Apache are very insightful and telling. TDF makes a strong case -- and always has -- about letting users who go looking at the Apache OpenOffice website know that something more advanced, more developed and more capable exists with LO. They also make a good case that Apache's lack of continued development, while presenting the Apache OpenOffice 4.1 as current, tarnishes the reputation of not only other open source office suites, but also for open source software as a whole.

Meanwhile, others claim that it's good to have choices. But, what choices are there if the code is not maintained, development is slower than snails trying to circumnavigate the Earth, security issues continue to be ignored, and the software resembles abandonware? Even today, virtually all Linux distributions -- PCLinuxOS included -- support and include LO as the default office productivity suite. For a real "slap in the face," even Oracle Linux 6 features LO, instead of OO.org, as its included office productivity suite. And, even setting all of that aside, there are other choices besides Apache OO.org. Ten years later, we have Google Docs, Microsoft Office 365, and Zoho Office Suite, all cloud-based office suite choices that weren't as widely available when TDF forked from the Oracle OO.org project.

I think it should be pretty evident, from the 10 years of relative inaction on OO.org by Apache, that their true focus is on their server software market. It's sad and unfortunate that users are ultimately the ones that are hurt in this split. The comments to the TDF open letter between Mike Saunders (from the LO project) and Peter Kovacs (from the OO.org project) illustrate perfectly the rift that remains between the OO.org and LO developers. You'll have to scroll down to read them, but they are not too far down. The exchange starts with the 14th comment in the comment thread.

Indeed, it would seem that Apache OO.org is making itself more and more irrelevant the longer they go on without any significant updates. Because it came first and has been around longer, many more people know about it than they do LO. Shockingly, despite having over 200 million estimated users, there are still a lot of people who don't even know that LO exists, even if they know that OO.org exists.

The last "update" of Apache OO.org (4.1.7) came over a year ago!? However, it is presented on the Apache OO.org website as though it is a current release. Well, in a way, I guess it IS the most current release, even if it isn't all that current. I'm betting most who download it won't even realize that the "current release" is over a year old. The last "review" of Apache OO.org occurred over THREE years ago. To contrast, LO is currently in it's 7.0 version, most recently updated at the beginning of October, 2020.

The LO development cycle has been robust, swift and dynamic. Security issues are dealt with quickly. Overall, LO is much more responsive to its user base. LO makes the perfect choice for a free, open source office productivity suite. Apache OO.org ... probably not so much, any more. OO.org has its place firmly cemented in the pages of the history books. Its time has come and gone. But, due to mismanagement and mostly inactive development, OO.org has been replaced with the new kid on the block, who is hungry and eager.

It has been nice knowing you OO.org. Your contribution to making office productivity suites available to the masses, for free, will not be forgotten. But, it's time to help ensure that everyone who looks at your software is aware that there is another office productivity suite available that is undergoing much more robust development, with many more features and enhancements, originating from the very same code base. To do otherwise is to be deceiving, the same as lying by omission. You sully the reputation of reputable open source projects across the world by continuing your deceitful ways.

If you, Apache, want to continue to keep and produce OO.org as a separate product, please do. But also let everyone know about the much more capable LO. You should be able to do at least THAT LEVEL of cooperation between two similar and related open source projects, if nothing else.

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight - Snubbi

As told to Mr Cranky Pants-YouCanToo

What is your name/username?

My name is Carl Andersen. On the forum, I go by the name Snubbi.

How old are you?

66 years old.

Are you married, single?

I have been married to my lovely wife, Alice, for 40 years.

How about Kids, Grandkids (names and ages)?

We have a 38-year-old daughter, Linda. But no grandchildren.

Do you have pets, what is your favorite?

We have had cats for 35 years. The one we have now is a 10 year old female cat, and it is our little baby.

Are you retired, still working and if working, what do you do?

I am retired from the Danish railways, where my work consisted of laying new tracks all over Denmark.

Where do you call home? What is it like? IE: weather, scenery

I live in Denmark on Zealand, in the western part, not far from the sea.

We live in an old half-timbered house from 1776. I have spent the last seven years renovating it completely, so we do not have to think about repairs in the future.

The weather in Denmark has changed a lot in the last 20 years, as has the rest of the weather in the rest of the world. We have just had 10 days with 31-32oC (87.8-89.6oF) degree heat. That is a lot in Denmark, when the average daytime temperature is 18.4oC (65oF) in August.

Where did you go to school and what is your education level?

I went to a small school in central Zealand. I have only had seven years of schooling, and started working when I was 14 years old. When I was 18 years old, I entered the military and stayed there for four years. I was also a UN soldier for 6 months in Cyprus. After the military, I worked in many different places until I applied to the Danish railways in 1981.

What kind of things do you like doing? hobbies, travel, fishing, camping?

My great passion is the sea, even though I grew up in central Zealand. As a youngster, I sailed in many different sailboats.

When I met my wife, it was not her cup of tea. So sailing was put on the shelf for 26 years. In 2012, I sailed with an old sailing ship from 1854, where everything went as in 1854, and there was also an engine on board.

It was a nice ship, but I could not handle it with my back, so I had to give up. You can see the ship here: http://www.sluppenruth.dk/.

In 2015, I started teaching students how to learn to sail with a sailboat in Korsør sailing club. I did that for four seasons, but had to stop because I got a balloon dilation in my heart. So now, I only teach theory for sailboats.

I have just started sailing with my daughter in a sailing club in central Zealand on a lake, on a small boat type called LYNAES 14 (https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/lynaes-14?units=imperial). And here I plan to sail until the day I no longer can sail. Hopefully for another 10-12 years yet.

Why and when did you start using Linux?

My interest in Linux started in 1998. There was an article in a Danish newspaper.

It sounded interesting, but I forgot about it until there was a CD with Red Hat 5.2 in a Danish IT magazine in February 1999.

I used Windows 95 at that time. I got a larger hard drive in my old Olivetti computer, and installed it as a dual boot with Windows 95. I was immediately sold.

In March 1999, I deleted Windows, and installed openSUSE 6.0. I have only used Linux since. Why did I switch to Linux? What interested me was that it was free and open, and you could do whatever you wanted with it. I have tried further 14 other distributions down the road.

The fact that PCLinuxOS is a rolling release is a big plus. PCLinuxOS is rock solid stable, with tons of packages available in the repos. If you want a solid, stable, dependable Linux operating system, then you cannot go wrong with this distro. The forums are full of helpful members that will help with all sorts of issues. This is the way Linux should be. It is the distro for me, and here I intend to stay.

What specific equipment do you currently use with PCLinuxOS?

My desktop is an Intel Core i7-9700 4.7GHz 8-Core CPU. My laptop is a Lenovo ThinkPad L540 Processor: 2.6 GHz, Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4300M CPU @ 2.60GHz.

My wife and daughter have a Lenovo ThinkPad T400 IntelCore2Duo processor P8400 (2.26GHz), 3-MBL2 cache. All computers with PCLinuxOS MATE, so we call ourselves the Linux family.

Do you feel that your use of Linux influences the reactions you receive from your computer peers or family? If so, how?

As I said, we all three use Linux. The rest of my family and my wife's family are not interested in Linux. I think they're a little scared to switch to Linux, because they will have to learn something new. I only have one nephew, whom I helped install MATE, and he is happy with it.

What would you like to see happen within PCLinuxOS that would make it a better place. What are your feelings?

I wish there were more people who would use PCLinuxOS. I do my best to spread the word. I have made a website about PCLinuxOS. (http://bluemarlin.dk/) Unfortunately, it's only in Danish, but maybe over time, it could be translated into English. But right now, I have too many projects to handle.

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight is an exclusive, monthly column by YouCanToo, featuring PCLinuxOS forum members. This column will allow "the rest of us" to get to know our forum family members better, and will give those featured an opportunity to share their PCLinuxOS story with the rest of the world.

If you would like to be featured in PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight, please send a private message to youcantoo, parnote or Meemaw in the PCLinuxOS forum expressing your interest.

PCLinuxOS Bonus Recipe Corner

Lasagna Roll-Ups

INGREDIENTS:

6 uncooked plain lasagna noodles (6 ounces)

6 uncooked whole wheat lasagna noodles (6 ounces)

1 pound lean ground beef

1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)

1 jar (14 ounces) tomato pasta sauce (any variety)

1 can (8 ounces) mushroom pieces and stems, undrained

1 container (15 ounces) ricotta cheese

1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed to drain

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (4 ounces)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Additional grated Parmesan cheese, if desired

DIRECTIONS:

1 Heat oven to 350F (176C). Cook and drain noodles as directed on package.

2 Cook beef and onion in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown; drain. Stir in pasta sauce and mushrooms. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Pour into an ungreased rectangular baking dish, 11x7x1 1/2 inches.

3 Mix ricotta cheese, spinach, mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, the salt, pepper and garlic. Spread 3 tablespoons of the cheese mixture over each noodle. Roll up each noodle; cut roll crosswise in half. Place cut sides down in beef mixture.

4 Cover and bake about 30 minutes or until hot. Serve with additional Parmesan cheese.

TIPS:

Improvise! Use plain lasagna noodles for the whole wheat noodles.

Garnish the lasagna rolls with chopped fresh parsley.

Thawed frozen spinach has the miraculous capacity to hold water even when you drain it in a colander. Squeezing the spinach, as you would ring out a washcloth, is the best way to rid it of the excess water that may make recipes too watery. If you don't want to use your bare hands to squeeze it, try using several layers of sturdy, high-quality paper towels.

NUTRITION FACTS:

Calories: 415           Carbs: 55g           Sodium: 1,192mg           Fiber: 5g

ms_meme's Nook: All My Exes Live In Linux

MP3                                                         OGG

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Sudoku

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Scrappler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Crossword

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

WordFind

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Mixed Up meme Scrambler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Screenshot Showcase

Posted by brisvegas, October 1, 2020, running Mate

Posted by cw987, October 24, 2020, running KDE

Posted by luikki, October 1, 2020, running KDE

Posted by luthier, October 14, 2020, running KDE

Posted by Meemaw, October 31, 2020, running Xfce

Posted by mutse, October 5, 2020, running Mate

Posted by parnote, October 2, 2020, running Xfce

Posted by tbschommer, October 10, 2020, running KDE

Posted by tuxlink, October 2, 2020, running KDE

Posted by Yankee, October 6, 2020, running Mate

Table of Contents

Start