It’s hard to imagine something as fundamental to computing as the sudo command becoming abandonware, yet here we are: its solitary maintainer is asking for help to keep the project alive.

It’s a common trope in the open-source computing community that a small number of solitary maintainers do a disproportionate amount of work keeping critical software going, often with little recognition or support. Ubuntu Unity and the NGINX Ingress Controller are just two examples we’ve covered in recent months, and now we can add another, far more critical one to the mix.

Sudo, for those not familiar with Unix systems, is a command-line utility that allows authorized users to run specific commands as another user, typically the superuser, under tightly controlled policy rules. It is a foundational component of Unix and Linux systems: without tools like sudo, administrators would be forced to rely more heavily on direct root logins or broader privilege escalation mechanisms, increasing both operational risk and attack surface.

“For the past 30+ years I’ve been the maintainer of sudo,” developer Todd C. Miller notes on his personal webpage. “I’m currently in search of a sponsor to fund continued sudo maintenance and development. If you or your organization is interested in sponsoring sudo, please let me know.”

Miller has been maintaining sudo since 1993. According to sudo’s website, Miller’s former employer, Quest Software, served as sudo’s sponsor beginning in 2010, but its sponsorship of sudo ended in February 2024, which coincides with Miller’s departure from Quest subsidiary One Identity.

Archived copies of Miller’s website suggest he’s been looking for a sudo patron since then.

That said, sudo updates haven’t dried up since then, with plenty of updates released since February 2024 according to sudo’s changelog, so Miller is clearly still working on it – and it definitely still needs updates.

[…]

Source: Sudo’s maintainer needs resources to keep utility updated • The Register

Both GNOME and Firefox are considering disabling middle-click paste by default, arguing it’s a confusing, accident-prone X11 relic that dumps clipboard contents without warning. Phoronix reports: A merge request for GNOME’s gsettings-desktop-schemas was opened this weekend to disable the primary-paste functionality by default that allows using the middle mouse button for pasting. Jordan Petridis argued in that GNOME pull request that middle-click paste is an “X11’ism” and that the setting could remain for those wanting to opt-in to enabling the functionality […].

The gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-enable-primary-paste true command would be a way of restoring the primary paste (middle click paste) for those desiring the functionality. The decision over the default has been tasked to GNOME’s design team for consideration.

Separately, Mozilla is also considering disabling middle mouse button paste by default too. […] Another option being considered is having the option to enable/disable it at either the GTK toolkit level or Wayland compositor level.

Looking at the comments, this is a hugely controversial move being pushed by the authors without any recognition that many people actually love having 2 clipboards. It may have been around for a long time, but this is a well used feature. The keyboard has been around for a long time, but no reason to say: hey, it’s old. Let’s sets a chorded keyboard as the default.

We’ve been here before. Back in 2009, the idea was simple: upload without too much hassle. Somewhere along the way, file-sharing got complicated. Features piled up. Ads crept in. Settings multiplied. Privacy gone. We think it’s time to get back to the basics.

Spearheaded by Nalden, one of the original founders of WeTransfer, we’ve built Boomerang for people who believe sharing files should just be easy. We won’t use your data to train any AI models. We simply want to help you to share your files fast.

Built for Speed

Boomerang runs on Cloudflare’s global edge network, one of the fastest infrastructures on the planet. Your files upload and download from the server closest to you, whether you’re in Tokyo, Berlin, or São Paulo. We use modern web technologies including Hono, TypeScript, and Drizzle ORM because we believe the best tools make the best products.

A Canvas, Not a Control Panel

Boomerang has features; stuff you can customize, files you can manage, passwords, collaboration. But we approach design like a wireframe that actually works. A clean canvas where you paint only what you need.

[…]

File sharing hasn’t changed much, but web technology has transformed completely. We’re building Boomerang with the latest infrastructure: edge computing, distributed storage, global CDN delivery, because your files deserve better than legacy tech.

Easy-duz-it.

If you have any ideas, feedback or feature requests, simply reach out via email and we will get back to you. No bots, no AI. Just imperfectly human. hi@bmrng.me.

Source: Boomerang

[…]

Among other methods, like plugging a laptop directly into the TV, many people still enjoying casting their content from small screens to big screens. For years, this has been a reliable way to switch from watching Netflix on your smartphone or tablet to watching on your TV—you just tap the cast button, select your TV, and in a few moments, your content is beamed to the proper place. Your device becomes its own remote, with search built right-in, and it avoids the need to sign into Netflix on TVs outside your home, such as when staying in hotels.

At least it did, but Netflix no longer wants to let you do it.

Netflix no longer supports casting on most devices

While you can still cast to your TV from other streaming platforms, there’s bad news for Netflix fans: The company has abruptly dropped casting support for most devices. Android Authority was the first to report on the change, though you might have stumbled upon the development yourself when looking for the cast button in the Netflix app. In fact, Netflix has prepared for your confusion, as you can see from this Netflix Help Center page titled “Can’t find ‘Cast’ button in Netflix app.” This page might offer a glimmer of hope at first, as you think “Oh good, Netflix has a solution if the Cast button is missing.” Unfortunately, the response isn’t going to make you happy: “Netflix no longer supports casting shows from a mobile device to most TVs and TV-streaming devices. You’ll need to use the remote that came with your TV or TV-streaming device to navigate Netflix.”

The exception here is for “older” Chromecast devices or TVs that work with Google Cast—but only if you pay for an ad-free Netflix plan. If you took Netflix up on its lower-cost subscription offer, those ads not only cost you extra watch time, but also your ability to cast—assuming you even have the older hardware to cast to.

[…]

Source: Netflix Is Killing Casting From Your Phone | Lifehacker

Microsoft is shoveling yet more features into the venerable Windows Notepad. This time it’s support for tables, with some AI enhancements lathered on top.

Notepad might predate Windows, but Microsoft is still keen to add features to it. After adding support for Markdown in June, replete with simple text formatting options, Microsoft has now added table support.

The new functionality is rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev channels, and “you can now easily insert tables in your document to help structure your notes,” according to Microsoft.

We’re not sure who was clamoring for this feature, which, to be frank, would be better suited to a rich text editor. Microsoft already had one of those – WordPad – but removed it from Windows in 2024.

[…]

Source: Microsoft adds tables support to Windows Notepad • The Register

There are many applications out there that use more than one window, with every modern-day platform and GUI toolkit offering the means for said application to position each of its windows exactly where it wants, and to restore these exactly in the configuration and location where the user saved it for that particular session. All toolkits but one, that is, for the Wayland project keeps shooting down proposals. Most recently merge request #264 for the ext-zones protocol by [Matthias Klumpp] as it descended into a 600+ comments spree.

This follows on an attempt two years prior with MR#247, which was rejected despite laying out sound reasons why the session protocol of Wayland does not cover many situations. In the breakdown video of the new ext-zones protocol discussion by [Brodie Robertson] the sheer absurdity of this whole situation becomes apparent, especially since KDE and others are already working around the Wayland project with their own extensions such as via KWin, which is being used commercially in e.g. the automotive world.

In a January 2024 blog post [Matthias] lays out many of his reasonings and views regarding the topic, with a focus on Linux desktop application usage from a scientific application perspective. When porting a Windows-, X11- or MacOS application to Wayland runs into compatibility issues that may necessitate a complete rewrite or dropping of features, the developer is more likely to stick to X11, to not port to Linux at all, or to use what eventually will amount to Wayland forks that patch around these missing API features.

Meanwhile X11 is definitely getting very long in the tooth, yet without it being a clean drop-in replacement it leaves many developers and end-users less than impressed. Perhaps the Wayland project should focus more on the needs of developers and end-users, and less about what it deems to be the One True Way?

 

Source: Wayland’s Never-Ending Opposition To Multi-Window Positioning | Hackaday

Unfortunately, Windows is not immune to this either!

Windows Recovery Environment (RE), as the name suggests, is a built-in set of tools inside Windows that allow you to troubleshoot your computer, including booting into the BIOS, or starting the computer in safe mode. It’s a crucial piece of software that has now, unfortunately, been rendered useless (for many) as part of the latest Windows update. A new bug discovered in Windows 11’s October build, KB5066835, makes it so that your USB keyboard and mouse stop working entirely, so you cannot interact with the recovery UI at all.

This problem has already been recognized and highlighted by Microsoft, who clarified that a fix is on its way to address this issue. Any plugged-in peripherals will continue to work just fine inside the actual operating system, but as soon as you go into Windows RE, your USB keyboard and mouse will become unresponsive. It’s important to note that if your PC fails to start-up for any reason, it defaults to the recovery environment to, you know, recover and diagnose any issues that might’ve been preventing it from booting normally.

Note that those hanging onto old PS/2-connector equipped keyboards and mice seem to be unaffected by this latest Windows software gaffe.

Source: Windows 11’s October update just broke the Windows Recovery Environment — USB keyboards and mice unusable in Windows RE after latest bug hits | Tom’s Hardware

A great update, as it comes bundled with Microsoft update breaks localhost in Windows 11, destroys loads of integrations eg Lian Li Fan software for free as well!

[…] The Regulation on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data — also known as the Data Act — entered into force on 11 January 2024 and into application on 12 September 2025. The Act is a key pillar of the European data strategy and it will make a significant contribution to the Digital Decade‘s objective of advancing digital transformation. The Data Act explained provides more in depth explanations.

The Data Act is designed to empower users — both consumers and businesses — by giving them greater control over the data generated by their connected devices, such as cars, smart TVs, and industrial machinery.

[…]

he new rules aim to facilitate the seamless transfer of valuable data between data holders and data users while upholding its confidentiality. This will encourage more actors, regardless of their size, to participate in the data economy. The Commission will also develop model contract clauses in order to help market participants draft and negotiate fair data-sharing contracts.

[…]

Public sector access and use of data

Rules enabling public sector bodies to access and use data held by the private sector for specific public interest purposes. For instance, public sector bodies will be able to request data necessary to help them respond quickly and securely to a public emergency, with minimal burden on businesses.

[…]

New rules setting the framework for customers to effectively switch between different providers of data-processing services to unlock the EU cloud market. This will also contribute to an overall framework for efficient data interoperability.

[…]

Users of connected products may choose to share this data with third parties. This will enable aftermarket (e.g. repair) service providers to enhance and innovate their services, fostering fair competition with similar services provided by manufacturers.

[…]

Source: Data Act | Shaping Europe’s digital future

Freelance developers and entire companies are making a business out of fixing shoddy vibe coded software.

I first noticed this trend in the form of a meme that was circulating on LinkedIn, sharing a screenshot of several profiles who advertised themselves as “vibe coding cleanup specialists.”

[…]

“I’ve been offering vibe coding fixer services for about two years now, starting in late 2023. Currently, I work with around 15-20 clients regularly, with additional one-off projects throughout the year,” Hamid Siddiqi, who offers to “review, fix your vibe code” on Fiverr, told me in an email. “I started fixing vibe-coded projects because I noticed a growing number of developers and small teams struggling to refine AI-generated code that was functional but lacked the polish or ‘vibe’ needed to align with their vision. I saw an opportunity to bridge that gap, combining my coding expertise with an eye for aesthetic and user experience.”

Siddiqi said common issues he fixes in vibe coded projects include inconsistent UI/UX design in AI-generated frontends, poorly optimized code that impacts performance, misaligned branding elements, and features that function but feel clunky or unintuitive. He said he also often refines color schemes, animations, and layouts to better match the creator’s intended aesthetic.

Siddiqi is one of dozens of people on Fiverr who is now offering services specifically catering to people with shoddy vibe coded projects. Established software development companies like Ulam Labs, now say “we clean up after vibe coding. Literally.”

“Built something fast? Now it’s time to make it solid,” Ulam Labs says on its site. “We know how it goes.
You had to move quickly, get that MVP [minimally viable product] out, and validate the idea. But now the tech debt is holding you back: no tests, shaky architecture, CI/CD [Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment] is a dream, and every change feels like defusing a bomb. That’s where we come in.”

Swatantra Sohni, who started VibeCodeFixers.com, a site for people with vibe coded projects who need help from experienced developers to fix or finish their projects, says that almost 300 experienced developers have posted their profiles to the site. He said so far VibeCodeFixers.com has only connected between 30-40 vibe code projects with fixers, but that he hasn’t done anything to promote the service and at the moment is focused on adding as many software developers to the platform as possible.

Sohni said that he’s been vibe coding himself since before Andrej Karpathy coined the term in February. He bought a bunch of vibe coding related domains, and realized a service like VibeCodeFixers.com was necessary based on how often he had to seek help from experts on his own vibe coding projects. In March, the site got a lot of attention on X and has been slowly adding people to the platform since.

Sohni also wrote a “Vibecoding Community Research Report” based on interviews with non-technical people who are vibe coding their projects that he shared with me. The report identified a lot of the same issues as Siddiqi, mainly that existing features tend to break when new ones are added.

“Most of these vibe coders, either they are product managers or they are sales guys, or they are small business owners, and they think that they can build something,” Sohni told me. “So for them it’s more for prototyping. Vibe coding is, at the moment, kind of like infancy. It’s very handy to convey the prototype they want, but I don’t think they are really intended to make it like a production grade app.”

Another big issue Sohni identified is “credit burn,” meaning the money vibe coders waste on AI usage fees in the final 10-20 percent stage of developing the app, when adding new features breaks existing features. In theory, it might be cheaper and more efficient for vibe coders to start over at that point, but Sohni said people get attached to their first project.

“What happens is that the first time they build the app, it’s like they think that they can build the app with one prompt, and then the app breaks, and they burn the credit. I think they are very emotionally connected to the app, because this act of vibe coding involves you, your creativity.”

In theory it might be cheaper and more efficient for vibe coders to start over if the LLM starts hallucinating and creating problems, but Sohni that’s when people come to VibeCodeFixers.com. They want someone to fix the bugs in their app, not create a new one.

Sohni told me he thinks vibe coding is not going anywhere, but neither are human developers.

“I feel like the role [of human developers] would be slightly limited, but we will still need humans to keep this AI on the leash,” he said.

Source: The Software Engineers Paid to Fix Vibe Coded Messes

The article writer is highly sceptical about vibe coding, but it’s not going anywhere and it empowers the actual commissioners of the software to build proof of concepts using elements they like, so they are not at the mercy of a software development company who may or may not see and understand the vision as they see it.

[…]If you frequently test features with Google Labs, you might remember trying this one out: Preferred Sources, as the name implies, lets you tell Google which websites you prefer to read news from. The goal, then, is to see pages from those sites in future Google searches about news stories, assuming those sites publish content related to your search.

Here’s how it works: When you search for something covered in the news, Google will display a “Top stories” section at the top of the search results page. While you can simply browse the stories that Google curates for you, you can also now click a new button to the right of the “Top stories” title. From here, you can search for any website, and click a checkbox next to its name to save it to your list of preferred sources.

[…]

Now, you can refresh your search results, which, with any luck, will populate with more of the sources you added to this list. Not only will they appear more frequently in the “Top stories” section going forward, Google may offer you a new “From your sources” section as well, which should only contain the websites you’ve added to your list.

[…]

Source: You Can Now Tell Google Which Websites You Prefer in Search Results

I am still using qwant.com

The République’s third-largest city and second-largest economic hub on Tuesday cited a desire to reduce dependence on American software, extend the lifespan of its hardware and therefore reduce its environmental impact, and strengthen the technological sovereignty of its public service.

Achieving those goals will see Lyon’s government, which serves over a million people, replace Office with OnlyOffice, a package developed by Latvia-based Ascensio Systems and made available under version 3 of the GNU Affero General Public License.

The municipality also plans to adopt a collaboration suite called “Territoire Numerique Ouvert” – Open Digital Territory – for videoconferencing and office automation tasks.

France’s L’Agence nationale de la cohésion des territoires – an agency that promotes industry development in the country’s regions – awarded a €2 million ($2.3 million) grant to help develop the suite and get it running in local datacenters. Nine French communities already use the suite, which has several thousand individual users.

[…]

Lyon’s government employs almost 10,000 people, so losing it as a customer will briefly sting some regional Microsoft salespeople and partners but won’t make a noticeable dent in the software giant’s balance sheet.

However the city’s decision comes just weeks after Denmark’s’ Ministry for Digitalization decided to drop Microsoft and amid a European Union push to develop sovereign digital capabilities that has seen the likes of Microsoft and AWS try to reassure European customers that their cloudy continental outposts can’t be caught up in US claims to possess extraterritorial jurisdiction over data stored in facilities owned by American companies.

So maybe Lyon ditching Microsoft represents one more snowball in a growing avalanche. ®

Source: French city of Lyon ditching Microsoft for FOSS • The Register

The collective The New Digital announces the public beta of Sendox: an open source file sharing platform that puts privacy and digital sovereignty at its core. Sendox has been developed as a transparent and independent alternative to services like WeTransfer.

“We believe that digital freedom and autonomy are not luxuries, but fundamental rights,” said Frank Zijlstra, the initiator of The New Digital. “Sendox is a first, tangible building block in an open and sovereign digital ecosystem.”

Sendox is the first project from The New Digital, a collaboration of Dutch digital agencies, developers, and designers committed to an independent digital ecosystem. The collective aims to develop tools, infrastructure, and standards that are free from Big Tech influence, open, verifiable, collaboratively built, and that respect the digital autonomy of citizens and organisations.

Sendox is currently available as an open beta. This means the platform is still very much in development, and users are explicitly invited to test the system. Errors, bugs, or shortcomings can easily be reported, so the platform can be further optimized with the help of the community. Every user helps make Sendox more robust, user-friendly, and secure.

The public beta comes in the wake of the uproar over WeTransfer’s terms of service. Essentially, it means that people who send files via WeTransfer relinquish their rights. This allows the company to use the data – including the files sent – for purposes such as training artificial intelligence (AI).

After angry reactions from privacy organizations and users, this last point was scrapped, but according to experts, that does not change the situation. Some believe this could be the final blow for the digital transfer service that enjoyed trust for many years.

Source: WeTransfer faces open source competition after controversy over terms of service – TechCentral.ie

In a move that could quietly wreak havoc across the Windows ecosystem, Microsoft is purging outdated drivers from Windows Update. The company claims it is doing this for security and reliability, but the result might be broken hardware for users who rely on legacy devices. If you’re using older peripherals or custom-built PCs, you could soon find yourself hunting for drivers that have vanished into the digital abyss.

This initiative, buried in a low-profile blog post, is part of Microsoft’s new cleanup program. The first wave targets legacy drivers that already have newer replacements available. But the real kicker is that Microsoft isn’t warning individual users about which drivers are going away. If your device needs one of those expired drivers, Windows Update simply won’t offer it anymore. It just disappears.

Microsoft refers to this as “expiring” a driver, which means removing its audience assignments so Windows Update no longer distributes it. Once that happens, only the hardware partner who published it can bring it back. But there’s a catch. Microsoft may demand a business justification before allowing a republish. And if the partner doesn’t respond within six months, the driver is deleted permanently.

[…]

Microsoft’s cleanup may sound responsible on the surface, but for anyone still clinging to older hardware or niche accessories, it might feel more like abandonment. Once a driver disappears, finding it again could become a scavenger hunt. And if your hardware vendor is long gone, good luck.

Source: Microsoft Is Deleting Old Drivers From Windows Update And It Might Break Your PC – NERDS.xyz

[…] Andy Schertzinger, Director of Engineering at Nextcloud, told The Register: “Google has decided to restore the permissions to our Android app so we can bring back the full file syncing functionality.”

Nextcloud expects to release an update to the app shortly, and Schertzinger paid tribute to the broader community for its support.

Nextcloud’s problem was a decision made in late 2024 to revoke its app’s “All files access” permission on Android devices. Because the permission gives apps broad access to files on a device, Google is understandably cautious about granting it, preferring developers to use more privacy-friendly access tools, such as the Storage Access Framework (SAF).

However, for a file synchronization app like Nextcloud’s, the “All files access” permission was required. And it had been granted for years until, quite suddenly, it wasn’t anymore. The result was a crippled app in the Play Store, and Google appeared to ignore repeated requests for an explanation.

Nextcloud went public with its woes earlier this week and in an unexpected turn of events, Google offered to restore the permission it had previously revoked.

In a world where words like “anti-competitive” are frequently thrown around with regard to the tech giants, Google’s action demonstrates that there are still humans in the organization capable of changing course when required. We asked the ad slinger what happened – was the original revocation the result of an automated process gone awry or an overzealous reviewer? We have yet to receive a response. […]

Source: Google backs down after locking out Nextcloud Files app • The Register

Did you know there’s an initiative to drive Open Source adoption both within the United Nations — and globally? Launched in March, it’s the work of the Digital Technology Network (under the UN’s chief executive board) which “works to advance open source technologies throughout UN agencies,” promoting “collaboration and scalable solutions to support the UN’s digital transformation.” Fun fact: The first group to endorse the initiative’s principles was the Open Source Initiative…

“The Open Source Initiative applauds the United Nations for recognizing the growing importance of Open Source in solving global challenges and building sustainable solutions, and we are honored to be the first to endorse the UN Open Source Principles,” said Stefano Maffulli, executive director of OSI.
But that’s just the beginining, writes It’s FOSS News: As part of the UN Open Source Principles initiative, the UN has invited other organizations to support and officially endorse these principles. To collect responses, they are using CryptPad instead of Google Forms… If you don’t know about CryptPad, it is a privacy-focused, open source online collaboration office suite that encrypts all of its content, doesn’t log IP addresses, and supports a wide range of collaborative documents and tools for people to use.

While this happened back in late March, we thought it would be a good idea to let people know that a well-known global governing body like the UN was slowly moving towards integrating open source tech into their organization… I sincerely hope the UN continues its push away from proprietary Big Tech solutions in favor of more open, privacy-respecting alternatives, integrating more of their workflow with such tools.
16 groups have already endorsed the UN Open Source Principles (including the GNOME Foundation, the Linux Foundation, and the Eclipse Foundation).

Here’s the eight UN Open Source Principles:

1. Open by default: Making Open Source the standard approach for projects
2. Contribute back: Encouraging active participation in the Open Source ecosystem
3. Secure by design: Making security a priority in all software projects
4. Foster inclusive participation and community building: Enabling and facilitating diverse and inclusive contributions
5. Design for reusability: Designing projects to be interoperable across various platforms and ecosystems
6. Provide documentation: Providing thorough documentation for end-users, integrators and developers
7. RISE (recognize, incentivize, support and empower): Empowering individuals and communities to actively participate
8. Sustain and scale: Supporting the development of solutions that meet the evolving needs of the UN system and beyond.

Source: The UN Ditches Google for Form Submissions, Opts for Open Source ‘CryptPad’ Instead

News of the offering emerged in a throwaway line in the Release Notes for version 8.0 Update 3e of the Broadcom business unit’s ESXi hypervisor.

Just below the “What’s New” section of that document is the statement: “Broadcom makes available the VMware vSphere Hypervisor version 8, an entry-level hypervisor. You can download it free of charge from the Broadcom Support portal.”

We’ve asked VMware for details about the new release and its capabilities, but no further information was available at the time of writing.

VMware offered a free version of ESXi for years, and it was beloved by home lab operators and vAdmins who needed something to tinker with. But in February 2024, VMware discontinued it on grounds that it was dropping perpetual licenses and moving to subscriptions.

If you want to try the hypervisor, you’ll need to be registered with Broadcom’s customer support portal to download it. Sadly, our virtualization desk’s home lab is not currently operational, so while we’ve downloaded the ISO file, we haven’t been able to get it running. Suffice it to say, it doesn’t want to run nested inside a desktop hypervisor.

Broadcom hasn’t explained why it has reversed its decision, but it’s not hard to guess.

VMware shops and partners of all sizes might need test or training environments, but as Broadcom only sells subscriptions (and greatly favors three-year terms) there’s no cheap way to access Virtzilla’s code. A modest freebie makes it more likely the vCurious will do some tinkering that turns into a sale. Free editions are also a way of building a talent pool.

VMware’s rivals know this. Nutanix has had a free Community Edition for years and Platform9 announced a free edition of its own a couple of weeks back. Other VMware competitors are open source, so their code is always free.

While VMware has made its Workstation desktop hypervisor free, it lacked a no-cost server virtualization option. Now it’s back in the game.

[…]

Source: VMware revives its free ESXi hypervisor • The Register