Blog Section
The release of xine-lib 1.2.13 has been announced, a cross-platform library for playing video and audio files, along with a set of accompanying plugins. The library can be used in several media players, including xine-ui, gxine, and kaffeine. Xine supports multi-threaded operation, accommodates a wide range of popular and lesser-known formats and codecs, and can process both local content and multimedia streams transmitted over the network. Its modular architecture […]
After two and a half years since the release of version 2.5, OpenVPN 2.6.0 is now available, a package for creating virtual private networks that allows for encrypted connections between two client machines or the operation of a centralized VPN server to support multiple clients simultaneously. OpenVPN code is distributed under the GPLv2 license, and pre-built binary packages are available for Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, RHEL, and Windows. […]
The release of the Pale Moon 32 web browser has been published. This version is forked from the Firefox codebase to ensure higher performance, maintain a classic interface, minimize memory usage, and provide additional customization options. Pale Moon builds are available for Windows and Linux (x86_64). The project's code is distributed under the MPLv2 (Mozilla Public License). The project adheres to a classic interface organization, without transitioning to […]
The release of DXVK 2.1, which provides an implementation of DXGI (DirectX Graphics Infrastructure), Direct3D 9, 10, and 11 through call translation to the Vulkan API, is now available. To use DXVK, drivers supporting Vulkan API 1.3 are required, such as Mesa RADV 22.0, NVIDIA 510.47.03, Intel ANV 22.0, and AMDVLK. DXVK can be used to run 3D applications and games in […]
The developers of openSUSE have implemented a simplified installation scheme for the H.264 video codec in the distribution. A few months ago, audio codec packages for AAC (utilizing the FDK AAC library) also became part of the distribution. This codec is recognized as an ISO standard, defined in the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 specifications, and is used in many video services. The distribution of H.264 video compression technology requires royalty payments to the MPEG-LA organization, but […]
Mozilla has updated the Common Voice voice data sets, which include pronunciation samples from over 200,000 individuals. The data is published as public domain (CC0). The provided sets can be used in machine learning systems for building speech recognition and synthesis models. Compared to the previous update, the volume of speech material in the collection increased from 23.8 to 25.8 thousand hours of speech. In […]
The release of the specialized distribution Tails 5.9 (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) has been formed, based on the Debian package base and designed for anonymous online access. Anonymous access in Tails is provided by the Tor system. All connections, except for traffic through the Tor network, are blocked by the packet filter by default. Encryption is used for storing user data in persistence mode between runs. […]
After a year of development and 28 experimental versions, the stable release of the open implementation of Win32 API — Wine 8.0, which includes over 8600 changes, has been presented. A key achievement in the new version is the completion of the work on translating Wine modules to the new format. Wine confirms full functionality for 5266 Windows programs (up from 5156 a year ago and 5049 two years ago), and still […]
After a year of development, GStreamer 1.22 has been released, a cross-platform suite of components for creating a wide range of multimedia applications, from media players and audio/video file converters to VoIP applications and streaming systems. GStreamer code is distributed under the LGPLv2.1 license. Updates for plugins gst-plugins-base, gst-plugins-good, gst-plugins-bad, gst-plugins-ugly, as well as the gst-libav wrapper and the gst-rtsp-server streaming server, are developed separately. At the API level and […]
The release of the web browser Tangram 2.0, built on GNOME technologies and focusing on organizing access to frequently used web applications, has been announced. The browser's code is written in JavaScript and distributed under the GPLv3 license. The WebKitGTK component, also used in the Epiphany (GNOME Web) browser, is the browser engine. Ready packages are formed in flatpak format. The browser interface includes a sidebar, which […]
Simon Peter, the creator of the self-contained AppImage packages, has released version 0.8 of the helloSystem distribution, based on FreeBSD 13 and positioned as a system for regular users, particularly those transitioning from macOS who are dissatisfied with Apple’s policies. The system is devoid of the complexities typical of modern Linux distributions, fully user-controlled, and allows former macOS users to feel at ease. To learn more […]
Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of the C++ language, has expressed objections to the conclusions in an NSA report that recommended organizations move away from programming languages like C and C++, which place memory management on the developer, in favor of languages such as C#, Go, Java, Ruby, Rust, and Swift, which provide automatic memory management or safety checks […]