CuteFishOS appears to be under active development once again after a mysterious pause that left its fans worried.
CuteFishOS is a Linux distro that looks similar to macOS and quickly gained a following. Development appeared to stop, with no explanation given. According to The New Stack, ten fans of the distro even went so far as to fork it in an effort to keep it alive and moving forward.
It appears the effort was in vain, with the project’s GitHub page announcing that CuteFishOS is back.
“Your Favorite CutefishOS are back now! New website in the works (coming soon)…”
There’s still no explanation of what transpired, or why the development appeared to stall. In the meantime, the fork briefly undertaken by the fans has been put on hold since the official distro appears to be moving forward again.
The KDE Community has released the latest version of the popular desktop, KDE Plasma 5.24, bringing a number of improvements.
KDE Plasma is one of the most popular Linux desktops, and is known for the plethora of options, features, and customizations it offers. It takes a decidedly different design philosophy than its top competitor, Gnome, which focuses more on a simple, streamlined interface.
The latest version of Plasma makes a number of improvements to the interface and workflow, including borrowing some features from Gnome, such as the new Overview. The feature is still in beta, but already looks relatively polished.
The new release also has fingerprint reader support, an improved Breeze theme for better consistency with apps, easier customization, clearer labeling for critical notifications, simpler system settings, and more.
While none of the features are groundbreaking, when taken together, they make up a solid upgrade that should improve the day-to-day KDE experience. This is also an LTS (long-term support) upgrade, meaning it will be supported for the rest of the 5.x lifecycle.
Valve has delayed the release of its much-anticipated Steam Deck by two months as a result of global supply chain issues.
Steam Deck is Valve’s Nintendo Switch-like gaming console, powered by Linux. Early access reviews have praised the device’s design and performance.
Valve had initially targeted December as the release window, in time to benefit from the holiday shopping season. Issues with acquiring semiconductors and other components have torpedoed those plans, however, with the company now targeting February 2022.
The launch of Steam Deck will be delayed by two months. We’re sorry about this—we did our best to work around the global supply chain issues, but due to material shortages, components aren’t reaching our manufacturing facilities in time for us to meet our initial launch dates.
Based on our updated build estimates, Steam Deck will start shipping to customers February 2022. This will be the new start date of the reservation queue—all reservation holders keep their place in line but dates will shift back accordingly. Reservation date estimates will be updated shortly after this announcement.
Linux creator Linus Torvalds has released the latest release candidate of the operating system kernel, version 5.15-rc5.
The stable release of Linux 5.15 is expected in next few weeks. According to Torvalds post, things are coming along nicely.
So things continue to look quite normal, and it looks like the rough patch (hah!) we had early in the release is all behind us.
Overall, it appears the latest release candidate has relatively minor changes.
The commit stats look normal for an rc5, and the diffstat is fairly regular too. We had more arch updates than perhaps is common, with almost as many lines of diffs in architecture code as there is in drivers. Admittedly some of that “architecture” code ends up being devicetree updates, so some of it could be attributed to driver code, but that’s not how our source tree is laid out..
Outside of arch code (x86, powerpc, arm, arm64) and drivers (mainly gpu, networking and usb), we have a smattering of other changes: 9p and ksmbd, core networking, and some perf tooling updates. And misc smaller random stuff.
Manjaro Linux Cinnamon has chosen Vivaldi as its default browser, ousting Firefox.
Vivaldi is a popular web browser based on the Chromium rendering engine, the same engine that powers Google’s Chrome. The company was co-founded by the co-founder and former CEO of Opera software, Jon von Tetzchner, and its browser is designed to appeal to power users, as well as Opera users.
Manjaro is one of the more popular Linux distros, and is based on the Arch distro. One of Manjaro’s strengths is its focus on ease-of-use, making it a good choice for those just breaking into the Linux world. Manjaro Cinnamon is a version of the distro that ships with the Cinnamon desktop environment as the default, instead of Gnome, KDE or Xfce.
According to Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner, Manjaro’s co-CEO made the decision to include Vivaldi as the default.
To give Vivaldi more of the attention it deserves, I decided to include it as the default browser in our popular Cinnamon Community Edition. With its remarkable browsing speed, exceptional customizability and especially the way it values user privacy, Vivaldi for me is a perfect match for Manjaro Linux.
The announcement is good news for Vivaldi, and another setback for Firefox.
Linux is officially 30 years old today, the single greatest open source success story that forever changed the world.
Linus Torvalds sent a message to the comp.os.minix newsgroup on August 25, 1991, announcing he was creating a Unix-type operating system (OS) and asking for feedback and input on possible features. Three decades later, it’s hard to believe how far the OS has come.
Because Torvalds based Linux on Unix, the new OS inherited many of Unix’s advantages. Unix had long been used to power mainframes, and had a reputation for stability. It was not uncommon for Unix computers to go months, or even years, without rebooting. The OS also had far better security built into it than many of the systems that would follow, such as Windows. Torvalds included many of those features in Linux, ensuring it could, and would, be used for the same type of mission-critical services and applications that were once the sole domain of Unix.
Linux may not be a popular option on the desktop, with less than 5% market share, but the OS has had a profound impact on virtually every other aspect of the computing market. The majority of web servers run Linux, as do virtually all the world’s supercomputers. On the other end of the computing spectrum is the smartphone, with Android running on a modified Linux kernel, meaning billions of devices are Linux-powered. As a result, while Linux may never have reached its goal of truly challenging Windows and macOS, in many ways it has far surpassed them both.
Even on the desktop, where its success has been far more limited, Linux has made great strides in the past 30 years. Rather than one single version, Linux is available in countless different distributions (distros), each maintained by individuals, groups, organizations or, in some cases, companies. Each distro offers unique advantages and focus, with some offering more fine-tuned control, others offering greater ease-of-use and still others offering top-notch security.
In the early days, the Linux desktop scene was dominated by Red Hat, Mandrake, Caldera, SUSE, Debian and Slackware. Now there is no shortage of available options, including ones that mimic the Windows and macOS platforms people may be migrating from.
Even on the smartphone, Linux is beginning to make progress beyond Android. Several years ago, Ubuntu, one of the most popular distros, made headlines when it announced it was working on a version for smartphones, Ubuntu Touch. The goal was to create true convergence devices: devices that had the form factor and convenience of a smartphone, but could be plugged into a dock and serve as a full-fledged computer. The devices would run the same OS, software and services, allowing a person to use a single device for all their needs.
While Ubuntu eventually abandoned its plans, Ubuntu Touch was picked up by the community. Ubuntu Touch has continued to improve, and now supports an array of phones and devices. Other distros have also come out with smartphone and tablet support and some devices, such as the PinePhone and Librem 5, have been designed specifically to run Linux. It remains to be seen if these endeavors will make a dent in Apple and Google’s duopoly, but with the current anti-Big Tech sentiment, there’s never been a better time for an alternative to have a fighting chance.
When Linus Torvalds sent that fateful message 30 years ago, he likely never could have imagined how important his creation would become, how much the world would depend on it, or the potential that still lies ahead.
Google has released its third major operating system, Fuchsia OS, although most people probably missed it.
Google has been working on Fuchsia OS for several years. The OS is an all-new undertaking, built from the ground up, without being based on Linux, UNIX or any other OS. The company has been unusually secretive about the project, leading many to conclude it could bring together the company’s OS strategy, eventually replacing both Android and Chrome.
One of the factors in Fuchsia’s favor is Flutter, the programming language used for it. Because Flutter creates cross-platform apps, apps that are created now will be able to automatically run on any Fuchsia-powered devices once they debut.
It appears Google has finally released Fuchsia, although to an existing device, rather than an all-new device, or as part of a wider release. According to 9to5Google, Fuchsia has been rolled out to the first-generation Nest Hub, replacing the Linux-based OS the devices were previously running.
Google confirmed to 9to5Google there will not be any fundamental change in the device’s behavior. Nonetheless, Fuchsia running on a real-world device will give the company valuable input on how well the OS is functioning, and what improvements need to be made before a wider deployment.
Is your unoptimized website bleeding money due to a slow average page load time? This guide will show you how to optimize your .htaccess (apache) file to implement speed improvements.
Just a one second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions, and 40% of users abandon shopping carts that takes more than 3 seconds to load, according to KissMetrics. With more users making purchase decisions on mobile devices each year, page load optimization won’t patiently wait on your back burner any longer without affecting your bottom line.
Fortunately, there are several effective tactics to speed up your website without even touching your main website code. Even if you have little experience with .htaccess or server modification, this detailed guide will give you the tools and knowledge to take a bite out of your page load.
What is .htaccess?
Glad you asked. An .htaccess file allows you to modify Apache web server configuration settings without modifying the main configuration file – in other words, you can customize the way the server behaves while keeping the core settings intact, much like using a child theme in WordPress. Most webhosts allow clients to use .htaccess files, but if you’re not sure, check with your host.
How Do You Use .htaccess? Simply open any text editor and create a new file called .htaccess. Could it really be that simple? Well, yes and no. Most likely, your computer will perceive the .htaccess file as an operating-system file and hide it from view. To see the file, you’ll need to follow a guide like this one from SitePoint to show hidden files. Once you have that taken care of, you’re ready to move on!
Some considerations before you start: When editing .htaccess files, minor mistakes in syntax can break your site. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to back up any existing .htaccess files (if applicable) before you begin editing. If necessary, you can comment out an existing line by using the # symbol at the beginning.
Some of the common ways an .htaccess file can get broken:
Bad syntax – in other words, improperly formatting the code.
If you make .htaccess edits through cPanel, they can conflict with changes you made by hand.
With the proper precautions and a reliable source to copy and paste code from, there’s no reason not to take advantage of .htaccess to improve your site.
7 Tricks for Improving Site Speed with .htaccess
On to the good part: how can we harness the power of .htaccess to improve page load time? Try one (or all!) of these 7 tried-and-true customizations:
Turn on content caching Google recommends caching all static (permanent) resources – including Javascript, CSS, media files, images, and more. Caching saves these resources to the user’s local memory so files don’t need to be downloaded for repeat visits. This modification alone can significantly reduce page load time – not to mention bandwidth usage.
While some servers will cache a few static resources by default, it’s best to explicitly tell your server to cache all of them. More importantly, the default expiration period for cached entities is one hour, while Google recommends a minimum of one month, and even up to one year (but no more than that).
To ensure the server is caching all static resources and for the maximum time recommended by Google, we’ll be using mod_expires. Open .htaccess and paste the following inside:
# Set up caching on static resources for 1 year based on Google recommendations <IfModule mod_expires.c> ExpiresActive On <FilesMatch "\.(flv|ico|pdf|avi|mov|ppt|doc|mp3|wmv|wav|js|css|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|swf)$"> ExpiresDefault A29030400 </FilesMatch> </IfModule>
You see whether it’s working by viewing the headers for a file on your server. Using Chrome, open the developer tool and go to the Network tab. Reload your page and click on a css file. Make sure you see the expires date in the response headers:
Compress output with gzip This .htaccess modification compresses the size of the resources as they’re being downloaded to the user’s browser, thereby increasing page load. By default, it won’t compress anything below 500 bytes — which is a good thing, because compression below that size can ironically increase load time.
To utilize this mod, copy and paste the code below into your .htaccess file:
Turn off directory indexing This mod hits two birds with one stone, improving speed and privacy.
By default, any visitor can actually look inside any directory that doesn’t have an index file (index.html, index.php, etc.) in it. That means configuration files and other sensitive data could potentially be up for grabs to malicious users.
Unless you want to add a blank index.html file to every folder on your website (and trust future developers to do the same), take the easy road and modify your .htaccess file instead. In the process, you’ll be saving a bit of server resources – especially if you have very large directories. To turn off directory indexing, open your .htaccess file and add:
#Disable Directory Indexes Options -Indexes
Prevent hotlinking Have you ever had the option to display an image from another website via URL? That’s called hotlinking, and it actually eats up bandwidth on the host’s server. Thankfully, it’s possible to prevent other domains from hotlinking to your website. To ensure nobody is using your precious bandwidth, add this script to your .htaccess file:
#Prevent Hot Linking RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$ RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www\.)?yourdomain.com [NC] RewriteRule \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif)$ - [NC,F,L]
Force files to download instead of open in browser If your site serves a lot of media files, speed is a top priority. If it’s practical for your users to download files to their hard drives once rather than stream repeatedly from your website, this mod will save your bandwidth:
#Force certain types of files to download instead of load in browser #Only include filetypes that you want to download automatically AddType application/octet-stream .csv AddType application/octet-stream .xls AddType application/octet-stream .doc AddType application/octet-stream .avi AddType application/octet-stream .mpg AddType application/octet-stream .mov AddType application/octet-stream .pdf
Deny bad bots Your public website is constantly being crawled and scraped by bots. Some of these bots are essential – they index your site so it will show in search results. However, there are plenty of bots that aren’t so friendly. Spam bots and scrapers might be bogging down your server, using up bandwidth and resources.. We can block bots based on the user-agent they provide.
The script below denies some bad bots, but isn’t exhaustive. Look to AskApache for resources to help identify more bad bots to block, and use our script as a template if you prefer to add more:
You can test to see that it’s working by changing your user-agent in Google Chrome. In the developer tools, go to Settings->Overrides->Useragent. Setting your Useragent to one of the blocked bots, then visit your site. You should get a 403 denied error.
Deny malicious IPs Nothing slows down a site quite like a server attack. If you know the IP address of a user who is trying to break into or abuse your website, you can deny a specific IP, IP blocks, or domains with .htaccess:
#Deny Malicious IPs order allow,deny
#deny single IP deny from 1.1.1.1
#deny IP block deny from 1.1.1.
allow from all
Putting It All Together
Eager to use every tool possible to speed up your site in .htaccess? We put everything together for you here:
#Block Bad Bots – This is a small list. You can add bots to it. RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^WebBandit [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^2icommerce [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Accoona [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^ActiveTouristBot [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^addressendeutshland RewriteRule ^.* – [F,L] </IfModule>
# Set up caching on static resources for 1 year based on Google recommendations <IfModule mod_expires.c> ExpiresActive On <FilesMatch “\.(flv|ico|pdf|avi|mov|ppt|doc|mp3|wmv|wav|js|css|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|swf)$”> ExpiresDefault A29030400 </FilesMatch> </IfModule>
