Supporting DRM in HTML5, for a start.
http://thehackernews.com/2014/...

It's about being open and transparent with your audience - that simple step is a catch-all for all this kind of crap. So in this case, if the gaming websites announced that they wouldn't be posting the review immediately due to a signed deal with Ubisoft, I think most pro-GamerGaters would be happy with that. How many review sites actually did that?

Okay. Many good games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Hotline Miami, Legend of Grimrock, Natural Selection 2, Shadowrun Returns, Space Hulk, Waking Mars, etc. are digital download only these days, even for Windows. Other blockbusters such as Dead Island Riptide, Portal 2, Serious Sam 3: BFE and the like are newer than 2 years on GNU/Linux (and in some cases, PS4 and XBone as well), but have been around on Windows for longer so I suppose I can't list those either.

However there are still plenty of titles to make the list, including (but certainly not limited to):

1. 9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creek (2013)
2. Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (2013)
3. Anna: Extended Edition (2013)
4. Awesomenauts: Special Edition (2012)
5. Cities in Motion 2 Gold (2013)
6. Borderlands 2 (2012)
7. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (2014)
8. Botanicula (2012)
9. Broken Sword 5 - the Serpent's Curse (2013)
10. Brütal Legend (2009 for consoles, but 2013 for Windows, OS X and GNU/Linux)
11. Football Manager 2014
12. Football Manager 2015
13. Goat Simulator (2014)
14. Gone Home (2013)
15. Metro: Last Light (2013)
16. Nightmares from the Deep: The Siren's Call (2013)
17. Oil Rush (2012)
18. Outlast (2014)
19. Painkiller: Hell & Damnation (2013)
20. Tropico 5 Limited Special Edition (2014)
21. Wasteland 2 (2014)
22. XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012)
23. XCOM: Enemy Within (2014)
etc.

Retail copies of all of these titles exist. The problem is that many are Steam titles and do not list GNU/Linux on the box, since that build wasn't released on launch. Even Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel which actually did have a day one GNU/Linux launch (which I purchased retail) did not mention GNU/Linux on the box. In my opinion, the problem certainly isn't the lack of games. It's the lack of advertising which titles are supported. Hopefully SteamOS will help solve that.

When X breaks, you can look at the logs to figure out why it broke. When systemd/journald breaks, how do you look at the logs? It's a problem that journald with binary logging introduces unnecessarily.

$ apt-cache rdepends libgnutls26 | tail -n +3 | wc -l
497

Oh crap...

I'll add to that. Often I'll have an xterm open and maximised. This allows me to enter long commands or view long lines in log files, in addition to seeing lots of command or log history. However, most of the time all that space isn't required. Often the most important terminal screen space is shaped like an L - vertical to the left (so I can see commands and directory history, if a bit truncated), as well as horizontal along the bottom where I enter commands.

Because of this, traditional window managers give me options to make more effective use of my screen than a tiling window-manager would be able to. One approach would be to have the xterm semi-transparent so I can see the window easily behind it. An even better approach is to use sloppy mouse focus to position a smaller window using the free space in the top-right foreground. AFAIK, most tiling window managers don't provide windows the option to overlap in this way, which would mean that I'm often effectively wasting ~1/4 of my total screen.

Lastly, I'll point out that you can assign wmctrl commands to achieve most of the good stuff that a tiling window manager is capable of. eg. to move a focused window to the right side of the screen (assuming a 1920x___ res), assign a shortcutl to:

wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 1,960,-1,960,-1

To move a focused window to the left:

wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 1,0,-1,960,-1

etc. Sure this approach will only allow for a predetermined number of window arrangements, but I'm probably never going to put more than 2 windows on a single screen at the same time anyway. You can also easily do the same kinds of things that tags let you do - and because wmctrl is a command line program, you aren't limited to scripting in Lua. :)

Flash/Silverlight is going to be discontinued. What would companies like Netflix have used instead when that happens? Their only option would have been to write a browser extension for every browser that didn't support DRM, and require the user to install it. This is far worse for Netflix than existing extensions like Flash ever were.

So a DRM-free future was looking bright. That is, until the idiots at Mozilla decided to take the massive step backwards and support EME in their browser - which will make pushing DRM onto users more convenient than ever.

I was actually hopeful that one day my Debian on ARM machine would finally be able to play all video (and there's no ARM Flash builds). Since there's no official Firefox armel builds (see ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/fire...), I'd have to rebuild Firefox myself (unless the EME support makes it into my distro builds) however be surprised if Adobe's CDM would work on a Firefox rebuild for another architecture, or any kind of unofficial Firefox build for that matter.

I'm going to unsubscribe from Mozilla's newsletter and try switching to another free software browser in protest. Maybe Midori or Konqueror won't implement EME.

In TFA, Janet admits to actively using a facebook account during the entire experiment. What the heck did she expect?

And how much is a stroller anyway? Many appear to be under US$100, so that's just 2x $50 cards. Would it really have fit in a locker? How much other stuff from Amazon was she buying? Couldn't an Entropay card have worked? Why Amazon in the first place?

The article concludes with When it comes to our personal data, we need better choices than either “leave if you don’t like it”. It seems like Janet was trying to do more than is usual online, specifically using sites known to track user buying habits, so IMO this is not a real world test.

Australian here. I noticed that some time in the last few years, my phone (N900 at the time which I could once remotely SSH into from home) was now behind NAT and unreachable. It might not be a crisis, but it's still a PITA.

I know what you mean. We started using Salt Stack at my workplace because it was a clear advantage over the previous way we were managing our infrastructure configuration, and perhaps because of that interest and enthusiasm, the process of migrating was much easier - even though the setup can be complex.

In the case of systemd and friends, the question of how this is going to advantage my job/workflow or my workplace specifically, is less clear. I guess this is a good argument for some early initial investigation so we can hopefully find that answer and motivate ourselves.

That's true. Point taken.

Nice! I like your style. :)

But I think you've been quite lucky to not have needed to touch it. I've frequently had to edit /etc/inittab (usually to change getty settings), change runlevel configurations, or package software with init scripts that need tweaking.

From my point of view, I don't care about saving 5 seconds of boot time. I'm more concerned about ease of configuration and maintenance, as well as reliability.

Then you must be administering Windows boxes.

I agree. Install Firefox Mobile with the Phony extension. Then select "Desktop Firefox" for the User Agent. Soooo much better. :)

I used to work with a guy who had to get scanned by an airport residue scanner, on the same day that he had been using competitive firearms all morning in practice. He was happy to openly admit it to them (this was in Australia), but the scanner didn't pick up anything at all.