We are a systemd free linux community

Edited again: 2018-11-15

As the previous site started out (08/2017) of the temporary need for Artix users to meet and exchange experiences, share solutions to problems, now that Artix has its official site, we have decided to move in the direction the site had already taken anyway.  Freedom and equality of access and exchange of information.

Antix is to Debian what Obarun is to Arch, and Devuan is to debian what Artix is to arch.  Such projects/distributions seem to be very promising in concept and execution.  Equally promising, if not more, is Void and Adélie linux taking an independent path.  Unfortunately we can not cover the progress of too many distros and at times we may have to drop a few from the list and concentrate on the few we believe there is future and hope.  We have dropped Devuan over a year ago due to serious doubts with the project’s management, and now we have decided Artix has to go too.

Everybody knows that the employer takes all the moral responsibility …

… the employee is just doing “his job”, and if he doesn’t do it someone else will.  Were you as tired of listening to such excuses when your colleagues were asked whether they were willing to work for the “defense industry” or surveillance agencies?  Everyone has heard this one time or another as an excuse, “I am just doing the job I am paid to do”, but rarely do we hear from those who turned the offer down.  Those who are not rich by any means, and not have high executive positions in larger organizations, and were fully capable to do much more, but not willing to violate their own principles.

WARNING:  This has everything to do with open/free software, linux, init systems, and “choices” people make.

Huawei attempts to submit a backdoor patch to Linux kernel

“The kernel protection tool was supposed to introduce a series of security-hardening options to the Linux kernel. However, on inspection, the patch was found to introduce a backdoor to the Linux kernel project. “

https://androidrookies.com/huawei-dev-team-sends-a-buggy-hksp-patch-with-backdoor-to-linux-foundation/

Luke, don’t follow the Force blindly, you dumb shit! freenode – Irc – trap

32 years of irc, same trap, same practice, higher motives.  Talk on bitnet was safer and email can be safe, but chatrooms and forums is asking for trouble.

Assumptions:  You use linux or other unix, you install binary packages, you have questions that need immediate answers.

Question1:  where do you go?   How do you get there

Answer1:  where the distro you use lists (web site) as places of contact

If it says Irc, freenode (owned by a London Stock Exchange “security technologies” corporation) channel #..name..of…distro…  channel, then ask.

Question 3:  What do you use to get to freenode irc server?

Answer:  I am Luke, the intergalactic dumb shit, I do what they tell me.  I look at the repository, there might be hexchat or polari or irssi or more, it doesn’t matter, I download and install the most “popular” software, run it, enter the server, go to the room, ask my question, get my answer, go about my business.  No biggie!

Last word by fungalnet here on May 9th 2020

Fungalnet, over and out!

May 9th is a big day, for me because my wonderful daughter was born, and also for the entire world, because the Red Army finally made it to the target and ended the miserable war the German nazis had begun.  It is a day of hope and a day of glory.  So never forget May 9th!

I wish that would have been the end of fascism, but fascism will not die alone, you have to squash it!

Mabox – Manjaro + OpenBOX – new distribution

Since dealing with non-systemd distributions, apart from Obarun and Antix, has become a bit disappointing lately, or boring, either or both, to take a change of environment I picked something NEW.  It is called Mabox Linux and it is based on Manjaro, it uses Openbox and LightDM, as gui base, and displays many tricks in converting a minimal window manager (WM) into a full desktop of your own.  Mabox is not just an alternative setup for a standard Manjaro system, it has its own repository, packages, and includes a harmonious wide variety of software and software environments (flatpak, snap,..).  Its website is pretty nice and is available in English and Polish.

firefox-esr and Arch-Linux, masters of disasters – Mozilla Inc.

_package() {
pkgdesc=”$2 language pack for Firefox ESR”
depends=(“firefox-esr>=$pkgver”)
install -Dm644 firefox-esr-i18n-$pkgver-$1.xpi \
“$pkgdir/usr/lib/firefox/browser/extensions/langpack-$1@firefox.mozilla.org.xpi”

The above is a piece off of a late language pack for Firefox-ESR PKGBUILT

For whatever reasons Arch dropped official support for firefox-esr (mozilla’s development seems to have a growing crowd of rejecting their trending prostitution to corporate preferences, more people tend to go back to -esr versions, and Arch caters to all BIG CORPORATE preferences and tastes), but it is not our business what they do with their repositories.

Automatically, it seems, “someone” (DCT MEI and Manuel Kauschinger ), adopted those packages in AUR and as you may know each firefox product comes with a zillion language packs.  Only the binary package in AUR is called firefox-esr-bin, the dependency of each language pack is for firefox-esr, which doesn’t exist in community or aur.  You can force install it (-dd) or you can edit the pkgbuilt and edit the line above “depends=(“firefox-esr-bin”>$pkgver”) and then build it.

Void vs the XBPS owner vs a toilet wiping Blogger

Mark 24th of April 2020 as another sad day for Linux without systemd.  Void is undergoing yet another crisis.  They might as well rename the project Drama Queen OS, or they may all be old 1968 activists drawing attention by theatricals and shocking the community to advertise their existence (there are always users out listening to stories asking “what the hell is Void?”).  The story is definitely worth everyone’s attention, or at least everyone who may be thinking some time in the future to contribute and join an open/free software project.  How should or shouldn’t such projects run.  This is the case study of DramaQueenOS (aka Void Linux).

You may ask, don’t you have anything more positive to write about but after a month sysdfree comes out with another article of negativity?  It is called critical thinking, you should look it up.  Adelie is still not officially stable (1.0rc is out testing), Obarun is expanding its array of system service management tools (soon to be announced I think), antiX is fine-tuning its kick-butt 19 edition (no word of any further development with runit or s6), Void has been dropped from being closely monitored, due to disappointment, over a month ago by the way they remove packages and how they alert users of doing so, and especially by the way they react to inquiring on their how they do it.  There are a couple of articles being worked on, one is a presentation of a new Manjaro based distribution, by the name of Mabox (Manjaro + OpenBox) and how it can be decontaminated by throwing systemd out and installing s6/66 instead, the other is a tiny system called OperWRT intended for embeded wifi router systems, and also FatDog, the fattest Puppy we have ever liked to play with.  But this late Void fiasco calls immediate critical attention.