Issue #272 / Jul 2023

Highlights:

As long as governments have kept data, there have been people who have wanted to see it and people who have wanted to control it. A new generation of tools, policies, and advocates seeks to keep the data free, available, and in accessible formats. This month we bring you snapshots from the quest for open data.

SERVICE: Welcome

Who's Driving?

I happen to be writing this column on a day when the US Senate is conducting hearings on artificial intelligence (AI) and, specifically, whether a need exists for greater regulation.

SERVICE: This Month's DVD

Xubuntu 23.04 and Fedora Workstation 38

NEWS: News

In the news: New Release of Br OS Includes ChatGPT Integration, Command-Line Only Peropesis 2.1, TUXEDO Computers Announces InfinityBook Pro 14, Linux Kernel 6.3 Release Includes Interesting Features, Fedora 38 Released with New Features, LXQt 1.3 Released with Bug Fixes, 4MLinux 42.0 Now Ready for Prime Time

: Open Data

Prying the lid off of government data

The open data movement extends the ideals of open source to government data and, ultimately, all the world's knowledge.

: Data Transfer Project

Migrating social media data with the data transfer project

The Data Transfer Project wants to make it easier to move your data between social media sites.

: Open Data with CKAN

Managing open data with CKAN

CKAN, a versatile data management system, lets you build a portal to share your open data.

: Interview – ODI's Lisa Allen

Meet Open Data Institute's Lisa Allen

The Open Data Institute's Lisa Allen explains why open data matters and what it will take for more widespread adoption.

: Coming of Age

One-stop solutions for Linux

Linux users can now experience what Windows and macOS users have enjoyed for decades: hardware, software, and services bundled together. We look at six of these one-stop solutions for Linux.

IN-DEPTH: Custom Bootable ISO Images

Creating custom ISO images

If you are looking to customize your Linux distribution, we show you three graphical front ends for creating bootable ISO images.

IN-DEPTH: Custom Slackware Repository

Build your own Slackware repository

If you deploy software packages to several computers, the standard Slackware tools lack efficiency. We show you how to create a custom repository to automatically install and upgrade software for multiple systems.

IN-DEPTH: Start from Scratch

Compiling coreboot firmware

Coreboot lets you build your own custom firmware while learning more about Linux.

IN-DEPTH: Reverse Engineering Bluetooth

Reverse engineering a BLE clock

What do you do when all your Bluetooth clocks show slightly different times? With some reverse engineering, you can write a Python program to synchronize your clocks.

IN-DEPTH: Magic Cargo

Control your backup NAS from the desktop

To be able to power up and shut down his NAS and check the current status without getting out of his chair, Mike Schilli programs a graphical interface that sends a Magic Packet in this month's column.

: DIY Lenticular Camera

Make a camera for lenticular photography

You can take lenticular images with a homemade camera to re-create the "wiggle" pictures of your childhood.

: Digital IC Simulation on Linux

Circuit simulation with hardware description languages

Designing field-programmable gate arrays is only half the job: The hardest part is the simulation, but Linux is the best place to tackle certain challenges.

LINUX VOICE: Introduction

This month in Linux Voice.

LINUX VOICE: maddog's Doghouse

Considering FOSS Databases

There are many FOSS databases available inexpensively today, and they might serve new projects well.

LINUX VOICE: Espanso

Espanso: Text expander and more

Espanso is a cross-platform text expander that can do far more than simply replace text modules.

LINUX VOICE: CLI File Manager

Efficiently manage files with nnn

If you're a Linux lover, you'll know the command line is the slickest and most efficient way to interact with the system. Free yourself from point-and-click with the nnn command-line file manager.

LINUX VOICE: FOSSPicks

With the demise of Twitter API access to the beautiful open source client, Harpy, Graham has spent the month on fosstodon.org, hoping Harpy's developer brings their skills to the Fediverse.

LINUX VOICE: Light Browsing

Graphical web browsing from the terminal

This Chromium port can run inside any console, with minimal resources, and is a great tool for making old computers really useful – and learning programming along the way.