open source

A few decades ago, the powers that be at Microsoft characterized Linux and open source in general as a cancer. Today, the company has pretty much embraced and even extended them, acquiring GitHub and allowing Linux to run almost natively inside Windows. The latter, officially named Windows Subsystem for Linux, is perhaps one of the best and most perplexing embodiments of its newfound love for Linux. It has now taken one step further by upgrading WSL2 to allow running graphical Linux apps, no third-party workarounds needed.

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Our homes these days are riddled with cameras, from the ones in our phones and laptops to the more inconspicuous ones in security cameras inside and outside the house. Oftentimes, these cameras are designed to be invisible, utilitarian, and cold, even if they are sometimes used to communicate with a living being on the other end of the Internet line. Just as there have been attempts to make technology and devices feel more humane and human, a new experiment tries to make the humble webcam more relatable by turning it into a creepy eye that actually makes it feel more inhuman in the process.

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Although a proprietary closed-source operating system, Windows also plays host to a suite of popular open source software, many of them providing functionality that's hard to find from proprietary solutions, especially for the price of free. Not all open source programs, however, are always free of shady behavior and, depending on who's in charge, some may start taking questionable actions to keep the lights on. One recent example is the popular FTP program FileZilla that has now resorted to a somewhat deceptive strategy to put adware on Windows computers.

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I have a question about 3D scanning devices: Why aren't they easier to access? Today a project by Thomas Megel made the rest of the handheld smart device universe look silly by comparison. With OpenScan project software, Raspberry Pi, and the Pi camera v2.1, Megel created a budget-friendly 3D-scanning system that's able to capture highly accurate 10-micron 3D scans with relative ease.

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A system for Android devices was created by user W1nst0n to crack down on bloatware with relative ease. This isn't a one-stop-shop for every single Android user - you still need to be able to use ADB. It IS far easier to use than most solutions that've been conjured over the past decade for this one purpose. This solution works without needing root, which means you're not going to need to mess with anything that'll void your smartphone's warranty - and again: easy.

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There was a great deal of celebration at NASA and around the world when the Perseverance rover safely landed on the surface of Mars. That historic moment, however, carries a few firsts for a lot of things, and not just for space science alone. While the rolling rover is already important in itself, its companion helicopter drone is just as significant as it is the first time NASA used the open source Linux operating system on Mars, opening up the possibilities for tech demos like it in the future.

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Tilt Brush is a virtual-reality painting application from Google that has been used by various creators over the years. Some of those creators are part of the Google Artist in Residence Program. Google says it wants to continue supporting artists using Tilt Brush by putting the application into the hands of everyone.

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Threema, an encrypted messaging service that offers a substantial number of features, has announced a big business change that may increase some otherwise skeptical users' trust in the platform. In its announcement, the Threema team said its messaging apps will soon be made fully open source, making it easier to independently review the apps' security and verify their code.

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Although undoubtedly controversial especially after its acquisition by Microsoft, Much of the world's open source (and some not so open) code is most likely stored on GitHub. Given how much of the world runs on open source software, directly or otherwise, GitHub repositories pretty much hold most of our current culture's digital infrastructure and history. That's why GitHub has taken it upon itself to preserve that data by burying a snapshot of its entire archive somewhere in the Arctic circle to be preserved for a thousand years.

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The Raspberry Pi opened up a whole new world of DIY projects but it has ironically been more difficult to actually produce a "normal" RPi-powered computer that doesn't look like a Frankensteined contraption. There are, of course, some kits that let you easily assemble a Raspberry Pi desktop, laptop, or even tablet, but those look more like things you'd rather leave at home than be caught dead using it outside. It's for that exact use case that CutiePi was born and now the ready-to-use RPi Tablet has launched on Kickstarter to bring all that to everyone willing to take the risk.

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The fuss over Linux phones seems to have died down a bit, perhaps due to the coronavirus pandemic making it harder to manufacture and ship these devices. For companies and developers pushing these open source and privacy-focused ecosystems forward, the show must go on. After a brief period of relative (but not total) silence, PINE64, makers of the PinePhone Linux phone, has opened pre-orders for its Linux tablet that's coming with a slight twist.

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The Android tablet market is a huge wasted opportunity. The Apple iPad Pro now has the lion's share of the mobile tablet market (as opposed to Tablet PCs) but many of its celebrated features have long been available on Android tablets before they practically went extinct.

Part of the reason for the less than enthusiastic adoption of Android tablets is the chicken and egg problem of apps, especially when it comes to content creation and creativity. At long last, Android has gotten what may be considered a "pro-level" painting app but does it have what it takes to revive what some consider an already dead device category? We take a quick dip into Krita's first Beta for Android to find out.

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