Oracle/IBM/Red Hat/Fedora Leftovers

• Fedora program update: 2020-48 – Fedora Community Blog

  Here’s your report of what has happened in Fedora this week. Elections voting is open through 3 December. Fedora 31 has reached end of life. EPEL 6 will reach end-of-life on Monday.

• Oracle Linux 8: Oracle Ksplice made easy with free training

  This week’s training blog presents a set of free, short videos on using Oracle Ksplice on Oracle Linux 8. Oracle Ksplice allows you to install the latest kernel and key user-space security and bug fix updates while the system is running. You don’t need to coordinate with users to schedule system down time. You don’t need to stop running applications and you don’t need to reboot your systems to install kernel and user-space updates.

• More for developers in the new Red Hat OpenShift 4.6 web console - Red Hat Developer

  Red Hat OpenShift 4.6 streamlines developer onboarding in the OpenShift web console, but that’s not all. This article details improvements and new features in the topology view and introduces OpenShift’s new, form-based approach to creating horizontal pod autoscalers and Helm charts. I also touch on application monitoring improvements and the latest updates for Red Hat OpenShift Pipelines, Red Hat OpenShift Serverless, and the Kiali Operator in OpenShift 4.6.

• Log-On Wave for IBM Z Simplifies Administration and Operation of Virtualized Linux Infrastructures on IBM Z and LinuxONE

  Log-On Software (Log-On) an IBM Business Partner and developer of software solutions for IBM Z, has announced Log-On Wave for IBM Z, with general availability planned for January 2021. According to the company, Log-On Wave for IBM Z simplifies the administration and operation of virtual Linux servers running on IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE. The result is that IT organizations and service providers benefit from an intuitive graphical interface and intelligent functionality that improves productivity by simplifying administration, configuration and management and future-proofs operations by shielding complexity and enabling less experienced administrators to easily manage highly virtualized infrastructures.

• Implementing storage: Compliance concerns for stateful financial services applications

  There’s little doubt that industry pressures have driven financial services firms to implement - and to continue to adopt - transformative solutions to maintain competitive advantages that help streamline operations and introduce new products. However, along with having to surmount technical issues, this industry presents special challenges regulatory and compliance concerns, in addition to technology considerations. Regulators play a major role in financial institutions, therefore, by necessity, banks create organizational models and processes to ensure that work is being delivered with the most minimal risk possible - and technology solutions must also adhere to this regulatory overlay.

• Web interfaces for your syslog server - Blog - syslog-ng Community - syslog-ng Community

  This is the 2020 edition of my most read blog entry about syslog-ng web-based graphical user interfaces (web GUIs). Many things have changed in the past few years. In 2011, only a single logging as a service solution was available, while nowadays, I regularly run into others. Also, while some software disappeared, the number of logging-related GUIs is growing. This is why in this post, I will mostly focus on generic log management and open source instead of highly specialized software, like SIEMs.

• Red Hat Quarkus Java stack moves to OpenShift

  Red Hat’s Quarkus framework for building Kubernetes-native Java applications is now included with the company’s OpenShift 4.6 open source container application platform, a step Red Hat describes as important in bringing Java into modern cloud-native application development. Previously supported in Red Hat Runtimes middleware, Quarkus now is natively integrated into OpenShift to provide for easier development, the company said. Developers can use familiar tools and do remote development on clusters via IDEs such as CodeReady Workspaces. Developers also can do serverless workload deployment and application storage management.

Torsten Franz: My first month at the Ubuntu Community Council

In the last few weeks I have been asked by many people what topics we have in the Community Council and what we are doing. After a month in the Council, I want to give a first insight into what happened in the early days and what has been on my mind. Of course, these are all subjective impressions and I am not speaking here from the perspective of the Community Council, but from my own perspective. In the beginning, of course, we had to deal with organisational issues. These include ensuring that everyone is included in the Community Council’s communication channels. There are two main channels that we use. On the one hand, we have a team channel on IRC on Freenode to exchange ideas. The channel has the advantage that you can ask the others small questions and have a relaxed chat. To reach everyone in the Council, we have set up the mailing list: community-council at lists.ubuntu.com No, I haven’t yet managed to read through all the documents and threads that deal with the Community Council or how to make the community more active again. But I have already read a lot in the first month on the Community Hub and on mailing lists to get different impressions. I can only encourage everyone to get involved with constructive ideas and help us to improve the community of Ubuntu. I haven’t worked on an international board since 2017 and had completely forgotten one topic that is more complex than national teams: the different timezones. But after a short time we managed to find a date where we all can basically do it and we had our public meeting of the council. This took place twice and the second time we all managed to attend. The minutes of the meetings are publicly available: 1st Meeting and 2nd Meeting. We have decided that we will hold the meeting twice a month. Also: Design and Web team summary – 24th November 2020 | Ubuntu

GTK: At the Heart of GNOME

GTK is at the heart of the GNOME application and software development kit. GTK is used to create graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for desktop environments, applications, and window managers. Since the GTK 4 development process began in 2016, we have about 250 individual contributors, with more than 100 active this year. Thanks to the funding received by the GNOME Foundation in 2020, the GTK development team was able to run hackfests, including one we were lucky enough to have at FOSDEM. This funding also supported Emmanuele Bassi, Core GTK Developer at the GNOME Foundation, working on GTK full-time. For most of 2020, Emmanuele worked on implementing a new accessibility interface for GTK 4, to ensure that more people can use GNOME applications, including those with disabilities. We are building a diverse and sustainable free software computing ecosystem where everyone can be empowered by technology they trust. Since Emmanuele works directly for the Foundation he’s uniquely able to focus on the needs of the community, project, and users to support these goals. GTK is a project with a long history, and throughout that history, it has gone through multiple iterations. A new major release is on the horizon. After four years of development that included a complete overhaul of the internals of the toolkit, GTK 4 promises to be faster through hardware acceleration; more efficient, in terms of performance and power consumption; and more ergonomic, for both application developers, and end users. Over the past four years, the GTK team has continued work on the existing stable versions of GTK and put out multiple releases. Also: GTK Planning More Improvements In 2021 From Better Accessibility To Animation Framework

Platform exclusivity, DRM, and independent authors: A cautionary tale

Imagine, for the sake of argument, that you wrote a book. You've worked on it for years, and you want to share it with the world. You want to reach as many people as possible, but it would be nice to be compensated for your hard work. How many weekends did you spend at home, polishing your manuscript instead of going out with friends? How many sleepless nights have you spent staring at a blank page, looking for inspiration? While researching the best way to publish, you hear horror stories about authors finding their books sold on counterfeit Web sites or distributed gratis without the author's consent. You read stories about authors feeling violated as their hard work is stolen in such a way. As you read about these activities, you also see mentions of companies that claim that they would protect your work against it. Should you publish your book through them, your book would only be available through their application. People could only access it through their store, and they wouldn't even be able to open the file on a device that isn't vetted by the company. The app is very popular, so most people use it anyway, and authors do not have to worry about a lack of interest. Only dealing with one store would also make things easier on your end. You won't have to manage different things. They'll even format your book for you. Sounds easy enough, so you take the deal. Weeks pass, and you make a few sales. It's by no mean a huge success, but you got a few positive reviews, mostly from family and friends. You keep mentioning your project to everyone you know, and find some limited interest. One day, a friend you hadn't talked to in a while asks about your book. They say that they don't like the app your book requires, and they don't want to buy it through the one store you signed an exclusivity deal with. They explain that Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) restricts their freedom to read the book on their device of choice, and won't even let them make backups of the file. They tell you how they once used a similar app, but were locked out of all the books they purchased after moving away from said application. After hearing your friend's story, you decide to give them a DRM-free copy of your book. After all, you wrote it so people would enjoy it first and foremost, and you want your friend to see the fruit of your labor.