ANALYSIS NEWSANALYSIS The Linux Voice view on what’s going on in the world of .

Opinion Birth of a party Calm down Mr Farage: there’s some actual politics happening in Brussells!

Simon Phipps , the party gained seats in various is president of the elections. The movement spread, chaotic Open Source Initiative rabble though it often appeared, until this and a board member of the Open Rights year it became clear it was present Group and of Open throughout . Source for America. Which brings us to here. This weekend, the grassroots movement from all of Europe assembled in for the next stage of organisation. Some present were concerned that the whole new thing was getting too s society changes, so can European- much like the old thing it wanted to replace. level politics. The formation of the But those few bit their lip and savoured the The European was founded in AEuropean Pirate Party this weekend moment as a rabble of smart geeks (many March 2014, and should have a great future. was thus an event of unique interest. an open source committer among them) Responding to the emergence of the became the newest political party in Europe. European Elections and it’s clear that the meshed society, geeks of all flavours needs her elected. realised there was no one speaking up for Bright beginnings And that name. It turns out that people the reality they saw. Not all was shiny. The opening keynotes for with English as a second language have The treatment of was the the event were frankly disappointing for an fewer problems with it, picking up the catalyst. Instead of considering its existence outsider, with little sign of a coherent humour and Disneyesque romance. But the as civil disobedience arising from market intellectual framework being propounded by negative implications, both from the real failure, politicians sided with the legacy the speakers and no speech from Amelia meaning of the word “pirate” and its cynical media intermediaries in treating it as Andersdotter, the clear leader of the party at misuse in connection with unauthorised organised crime akin to drug dealing or this juncture. But there were flashes of usage, tend to make it become a currency counterfeiting. promising insight. Keynote speaker (and slur to many with English as a first language. The result was outrage, at least in the later Plenary chair) Julia Rede said “I want a This doesn’t have to be a problem though. more socially coherent communities of Europe more like the -- connected, It’s a word true to the origins of the Scandinavia and Germany. Political parties collaborative and a community of peers.” movement, and there is a historic precedent formed almost spontaneously in those This is a visionary statement, which could for adopting the slurs of one’s detractors as countries, dedicated to bringing about a just provide a prototype for a policy framework. a name. The Tories did it (the term originally society for the digital age. The smirks of Rede also recognised that a Pirate Party meaning a mugger); before them the Whigs derision of the incumbent politicians in needs to be more than just a movement did it; even Christianity did it. With time, the those countries faded as they discovered comprising Linux sysadmins, as well as name Pirate Party will become a strength this was not just a protest movement but tackling current issues like the Transatlantic rather than a weakness. was electorally viable. In 2009 Christian Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP): This is not a political movement funded Engström was elected representing “The greatest fear of TTIP is that it will raise from the deep pockets of corporations or in the , as was the corporations to the same status as states”. unions. There was no expensive partying, no brilliant . Then in She is a candidate in the upcoming glitz or glamour, no side meetings funded by sponsors, no exhibition to gain fees. But there was broad attendance from across “The Pirate Party needs to be more than just a Europe by party members and supporters of movement comprising Linux sysadmins.” all ages. The Pirate Party is a voice we all need in Europe. Welcome!

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Summarised: the eight biggest news CATCHUP stories from the last month

Windows XP EOL pushing Quake III ported to the QR codes considered for 1 companies to try Linux 2 Raspberry Pi 3 kernel crash messages It’s official: Windows XP Hang on – Quake III came Kernel panic text isn’t useful is dead. The OS had an incredibly out in 1999. So that’s hardly impressive, to many people, but if non-technical long life, but even Microsoft got sick eh? Well, it is when it’s part of a users could send a QR code containing of supporting it. However, with an $10,000 bounty. In February, Broadcom the information to the relevant estimated 70% of businesses still announced a wealth of documentation developers, that could help everyone. running at least one XP machine, what for the graphics chip in the Pi, and can they do? Buy new hardware and provided a driver for a similar chip. upgrade to the UI nightmare that is Then the Raspberry Pi foundation Windows 8? Or switch to Linux? Well, offered $10,000 to the first person to various surveys are suggesting that port the driver to the Pi’s own GPU and between 10 and 30% of businesses show Quake III runnning silky-smooth are now considering moving to Linux. on it. Long-time Pi hacker Simon Hall That’s millions of new users coming… managed it, and bagged the loot.

GOG.com announces plan Major GnuTLS bug leaves Linus Torvalds refuses 4 to support Linux 5 “secure” websites open to 6 to accept any more code Formerly known as Good eavesdropping from prominent hacker Old Games, GOG.com is a rather It’s easy to become complacent as a Linus doesn’t mince his words, spiffing site that sells (mainly older) Linux user, given the overall reliability especially when someone breaks his games without DRM and other such and security of the operating system. beloved kernel. Kay Sievers, one of horrible nonsense. The company has But vulnerabilities do happen, and the developers of systemd, managed announced plans to support Linux in now a Red Hat researcher has found to bring Linus’s blood to a boil over a the near future, focusing on Ubuntu and a problem with GnuTLS, a library that complication with the “debug” flag on Mint, with 100 games in the pipeline. implements TLS and SSL support for the kernel command line. (As if systemd There aren’t many other details right websites. The vulnerability affects weren’t controversial enough…) “I will now, but for some gamers, it will be one certificate verification, potentially not be merging any code from Kay into fewer reason to reboot into Windows. showing unsecure, spied-on the kernel” until fixes are made, said Read the full announcement here: connections as secure. Distros are Linus. Check out the the full email: http://tinyurl.com/kcdozjz scrambling to push out fixed packages. http://tinyurl.com/linusrage

Microsoft Office released $2,400 ‘Introduction to 7 for Linux – well, Android 8 Linux’ course made free But Android is a flavour This is jolly generous of The of Linux, right? It was an unusually Linux Foundation. Its ‘Introduction cold day in Hell when Microsoft to Linux’ course, previously available announced this, but yes, you can now for a wallet-bursting $2,400, will soon get mini versions of Word, Excel and be freely available for everyone. The PowerPoint for your Android device. Foundation plans to release it as part The reviews so far aren’t very positive, of a MOOC (Massively Open Online with users complaining of problems Course), so if you’re fairly new to Linux opening desktop Office files. Which is and still trying to fathom your way especially ironic, as Microsoft always around the operating system, it could championed its supposed cross-app help you enormously. Here’s the full text and platform file compatibility. Anyway, of the announcement: the suite is also available for iOS. http://tinyurl.com/lskhx8u

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