This article recommends Debian 11 users after-installation tips and tricks including simple guide to get additional useful applications. For new Debian users, this article is for you. Let's check it out.

• What’s New in Ubuntu Linux 21.10 Impish Indri

  This is an intermediate version, I do not recommend its use for beginners for two reasons.

• Ben Hutchings: Debian LTS work, August 2021

  In August I was assigned 13.25 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and carried over 6 hours from earlier months. I worked 1.25 hours and will carry over the remainder.

  I attended an LTS team meeting, and wrote my report for July 2021, but did not work on any updates.

• SFSget improved and folder hierarchy reconsidered

  Just a short note, that I have been working on "sfsget", the SFS downloader and installer. Various refinements, including much more aware of installing to the main desktop instead of as a container.
  This revamp was triggered with Chromium, which is not really suitable for running in a container. It has its own sandbox, which is effectively a container. Easy Containers are "crippled root" and the Chromium sandbox does not work in a container -- it would be a sandbox-within-a-sandbox. So Chromium would have to run with "--no-sandbox" in a container.

For those who are new to Linux, I'd love to be able to recommend Debian 11 to you. However, because the installation isn't nearly as simple as is that of, say, Ubuntu, you'd be best served either having someone with more experience install Debian for you, or wait it out until you have a bit more familiarity with Linux under your belt. Although you won't be asked to manually partition your drive, there are questions about mirrors and domains that could easily trip you up. So if you're new to Linux and you insist on experiencing the remarkable stability that is Debian 11, I'd suggest you do a bit of research into the Debian installer before you do.

However, you shouldn't let that warning put you off. Even those without any Linux experience could muddle their way through installation, I'd hate for someone new to Linux to be turned away because the Debian installation isn't a two- or three-click process. So if you are new to Linux, grab a friend who has installed Linux and let them walk you through the process.

Trust me, Debian 11 is worth the smallest bit of extra effort you might have to go through to complete the installation. It's that good. In fact, it's one of the few instances where I can say a Linux distribution moves forward while standing firmly in place.

Download your copy of Debian 11 now.

• Sven Hoexter: PV - Monitoring Envertech Microinverter via envertecportal.com

  Some time ago I looked briefly at an Envertech data logger for small scale photovoltaic setups. Turned out that PV inverter are kinda unreliable, and you really have to monitor them to notice downtimes and defects. Since my pal shot for a quick win I've cobbled together another Python script to query the portal at www.envertecportal.com, and report back if the generated power is down to 0. The script is currently run on a vserver via cron and reports back via the system MTA. So yeah, you need to have something like that already at hand.

• Some site updates

  We’re in the process of upgrading to Debian 11 (bullseye). If you come across any issues, feel free to raise them on the #debian-social IRC channel on oftc (also accessible via Matrix) and we’ll look into it as soon as we have a chance.

• Matrix Synapse updated and new plumbed IRC rooms

  Matrix synapse was updated to 1.40.0, during the upgrade the server was upgraded to Bullseye.

• Infrastructure in place to run each app as a separate user

  Running an app as a non-root user also means that it can't write just anywhere in the filesystem, can be constrained to only write in its own home folder. And if required, can be prevented from reading critical files.

  Of course Easy already has "crippled root" in containers, so running, say, SeaMonkey, on the main desktop as a non-root user would have to be seen as an alternative security strategy. SeaMonkey will run a little bit faster, and won't have the issues that some people have reported with running SM in a container, such as problem with network connectivity.

  If each app is run as its own user, this means that EasyOS can implement a permissions management GUI like in Android. Like, do you want this app to be able to access the camera, network, audio, folders outside the "home" folder? ...etc.

  So, have started to setup the infrastructure to support this. The idea is that top-level /clients folder will have these non-root users, though I would like to refer to them as "clients".