Issue #213 / Aug 2018

Highlights:

This month's issue looks at Linux applications for viewing and customizing maps. You’ll learn how to access and edit geospacial data with QGIS and QMapShack.

Also inside:

• Free Microblogging Software – You don't have sign away your privacy just to tell your friends about your life.
• Caddy – A useful little web server with an easy path to HTTPS.

Turn to our MakerSpace section for nine cool Raspberry Pi projects, and visit LinuxVoice for music streaming and recipe collections.

SERVICE: Welcome

Technical Naiveté

I have used this space in the past to highlight a certain tendency in our culture to overstate the power, stability, and safety of our emerging technologies. For lack of a better term, I'll refer to this trait as technical naiveté.

SERVICE: This Month's DVD

Fedora 28 Workstation and Manjaro XFCE 17.1.10

NEWS: News

Updates on technologies, trends, and tools

SUSE forks Red Hat's Spacewalk project, openSUSE Leap 15 announced, SoftMaker FreeOffice 2018 for Linux, a new CentOS, sonic and ultrasonic signals can crash your hard drive, and Microsoft acquires GitHub.

NEWS: Kernel News

Zack discusses removing dead ports, new minimum GCC version jumping from 3.2 to 4.8, Intel considering hardware changes to mitigate security flaws, enhancing asymmetric process migration, and protecting user's system control. 

NEWS: Gnome Foundation reaches out to the world

Interview – Meet Gnome's Nuritzi Sanchez

Gnome Foundation president Nuritzi Sanchez is on a quest for a new generation of users.

: QGIS

Create, display, and evaluate geodata with QGIS

Create and display geospatial data with the versatile and popular QGIS.

: QMapShack

QMapShack visualizes maps and tracks

QMapShack displays a wide variety of maps, making it easy to plan and manage your journeys.

REVIEWS: Kubuntu 18.04

Exploring Kubuntu 18.04 LTS and the Plasma desktop

Kubuntu 18.04, which is built on Ubuntu Bionic Beaver, is the first long-term support release that includes the Plasma 5 desktop. This article looks at the latest Kubuntu and highlights some cool configuration tricks.

REVIEWS: Free Microblogging Software

Social networks in the enterprise

If you want to use social media and microblogging platforms, you do not need to leave your data sovereignty to external corporations. This month, we look at free decentralized software alternatives to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media and examine whether they are suitable for use in the enterprise and other organizations.

IN-DEPTH: Supporting Role

Ogg Vorbis utilities

With the addition of its supporting utilities, Ogg Vorbis competes with other free audio formats.

IN-DEPTH: Programming Snapshot – Python Scripts

A Python script calculates the solution to the Chinese Rings puzzle

Mike Schilli takes on the almost 2,000-year-old Chinese Rings puzzle. Instead of just jingling rings, he tries to find a solution with logical operators.

IN-DEPTH: Caddy

HTTPS out of the box with the Caddy secure web server

Caddy lets even the most inexperienced user set up a secure web server.

IN-DEPTH: Breathe deeply

Particulate matter measurement with the Raspberry Pi

Whether you can breathe easily or not depends on what is in the air. Is there too much particulate matter that could be harmful to your health? A particulate matter measurement provides clarity – and the Raspberry Pi can help.

: ODROID-C2 vs. RPi3

An alternative to the Raspberry Pi 3

The inexpensive ODROID-C2 module runs two to three times faster than a Raspberry Pi 3.

: Handpicked Raspberry Pi Projects

Nine handpicked projects for the Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi success story has inspired thousands of projects. In this article, we present a selection of Raspberry Pi gems for hobbyists, researchers, and industrial use.

NEWS: RISC-V

A chip to enable open hardware

The new RISC-V chip promises to be a game changer in the open hardware field.

LINUX VOICE: Introduction

Introduction

The amazing thing about Linux is that it can always take you one step more. You can already play music and edit videos using the powerful tools included free of charge on any standard Linux system, so you don't need a Linux magazine to tell you how to play an MP3 file. But we'd rather help you with the next step.

LINUX VOICE: maddog's Doghouse

The fight for FOSSH continues

While Free and Open Source Software and Hardware is becoming more commonplace, the battle against closed source isn't over.

LINUX VOICE: openSUSE Conference 2018

The openSUSE community assembles in Prague.

LINUX VOICE: MPD and Cantata

Online Jukebox

The MPD server helps you manage your music collection flexibly and remotely and integrates external content.

LINUX VOICE: Gnome Recipes

À la Carte

Cutting recipes out of magazines and attaching them to the fridge is a thing of the past. Today, Gnome Recipes is your friendly kitchen helper.

LINUX VOICE: FOSSPicks

Graham looks at Gimp 2.10, Font Finder, Mixxx 2.1, SoundStage VR, VVave, and more!

LINUX VOICE: Tutorials – odfgrep

Needle in a Haystack

What grep cannot accomplish with LibreOffice and OpenOffice documents, a small odfgrep script can.

LINUX VOICE: Tutorials – Kdenlive and ImageMagick

Odd Couple

By using two very different tools, Kdenlive and ImageMagick, you can make animation less tediousness and create some pretty cool video effects and transitions.