Issue #227 / Oct 2019

As one who has been watching Linux for a long time, I'm saddened to mark the end of Linux Journal, which was just announced this week. I know what you're thinking – aren't they a competitor? But it isn't like that.

Linux Mint 19.2 “MATE Edition” and Debian 10 “Buster”

This month: Linux Mint 19.2 “Tina” Released; Gnome and KDE Coming Together; Fedora CoreOS Preview Released; SUSE Appoints New CEO; GitHub Blocks Access to Private Repositories in Certain Countries; and A New Ransomware Targeting Linux-Based NAS Devices.

Zack Brown reports on communicating with Linux during bootup, pruning SuperH, and bug hunting for Stea.

Mirko Lindner of the prpl Foundation discusses how vendors and chipset makers are coming together to make IoT more interoperable and secure.

Backups for critical data have to withstand major disasters. Rclone, a descendant of Rsync, enables easy backups to the cloud and supports many services.

Many users still find it difficult to regularly back up their data. Thanks to restic, and its graphical front end, Restatic, a backup is quite easy to manage – even for a beginner.

A recent backup is more reliable than any kind of data rescue. But for many users, a backup won't happen unless the process is easy to manage.

With GPX Viewer you can map GPX tracks and view GPS data in a web browser. It's a simple way to revisit a recent vacation, organize your photos, or map your favorite bike routes.

CLI tools for generating passwords have many options that can help you strike a balance between ease of use and security.