Issue #288 / Nov 2024

The free software community loves it when FOSS projects find a place in the IT cosmos. When people who have never used Linux start talking about tools like LibreOffice and MariaDB, we get a warm feeling of accomplishment. However, many open source projects are maintained by for-profit entities, and once in a while, they fall off the open source wagon.

Rocky Linux 9.4 and MX Linux MX-23.3

In the news: New KDE Slimbook Plasma Available for Preorder; Rhino Linux Announces Latest "Quick Update"; Plasma Desktop Will Soon Ask for Donations: Linux Market Share Hits New High; LibreOffice 24.8 Delivers New Features; Deepin 23 Offers Wayland Support and New AI Tool; and Linux Foundation Adopts OMI to Foster Ethical LLMs.

Chronicler Zack Brown reports on: Supporting Older Tools; and Kernel Bug or Compiler Bug?

The open source Domoticz home automation platform offers a lightweight, efficient, and highly customizable solution for managing smart devices in the home.

OpenHAB is an open source facility-automation platform that lets you network your smart devices independently of vendor or protocol.

Home automation systems typically come with a web-based dashboard to control devices in your house. Home Assistant recently introduced a privacy-protecting voice system that operates locally.

This article shows how to connect a Rotex heat pump with a Raspberry Pi and integrate it into a smart home solution. Building in some legacy roller blinds helps with solar gain, but it requires some extra steps.

Developed with the goal of bridging the digital divide in India, BOSS Linux offers an easy-to-use distribution for all users.

The new automatic installation method rolled out with Ubuntu 22.04 borrows some tools from the cloud configuration toolbox. We'll show you how to get started.