June 2020 - Free-software-melb - lists.softwarefreedom.com.au

Mastodon
by Ben Sturmfels 13 Mar '22

13 Mar '22

Hi Folks, I'm getting into this Mastodon thing, but it'd be much more interesting if I could follow a few more people I know. Anyone care to reply with their Mastodon address? I'm @bensturmfels@mastodon.social. Cheers! Ben

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Update on browser standards
by Michael Verrenkamp 07 Sep '20

07 Sep '20

https://freesoftware.org.au/blog/update-on-browser-standards/ Update on browser standards An update on Googles browser standards About a year ago we warned about the issues of the Chromium/Blink web rendering engine and how Google is essentially dictating the direction of web technology to their advantage. https://freesoftware.org.au/blog/on-microsoft-edge-and-the-chromium-engine/ It now appears via multiple sources that this is becoming that case at least for their direct web services. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-now-bans-some-linux-web… The short take on the story is that a lot of free software browsers, some of which happen to have provided the technology base of Chrome, are now being denied access under the guise of 'security'. While these browsers combined usage makes up less than 0.1% of Internet traffic, that Google has gone out of the way to deny the users access is a dangerous precident. To make matters worse, if you make these browsers report to Google that they are 'Google Chrome' - Googles own proprietary browser, then these sites work as intended making the whole idea look more preposterous. While this warning has not been seen universally by users and it appears to be in the trail stage, this is a very worrying for the free and open internet and the software that we use on it. Essentially the software maker, being Google, is able to dictate what people can use online using their software platform and online websites. Google has now made a few actions that are determined to control how the internet is used for their own gain. Chrome is designed to dictate the technology base that people have to use, by having technology that can only be rendered properly by their browser, this sets the standards by which most web developers will aim to hit. This is to the detriment of anyone using non-google technology. It may be small user base browsers today, in future it might be things like Firefox and eventually all non-Chrome browsers - even ones that use the same 'open-source' code base. This is the situation we found the internet in at the end of the last decade with Microsoft's Internet Explorer dominating how internet technology would be shaped. It took the efforts of Mozilla and the Firefox project to finally break free from this situation. Google is also directly dictating to web content providers to use their systems such as AMP technology so that run websites on their servers, making them load faster than they typically would and this is enhanced when using their browsers so that any competition looks bad by comparison. Google uses many other techniques but these main ones are used to direct you into Googles profit machine at the expense of your choice of software and thus your privacy. Over the last few years it has become apparent that more web browser technology is being dictated down from Google and less about letting technology find its own place via dis-census. That is, it is being designed rather than evolving. Technology is being used to squeeze out competition and free software based browsers are clearly being targeted. Google has misused API's to make performance run slowly on other browsers, dictated how DRM should be implemented online so that others cannot support the same standards and in general just made a technology target that favors it over other agreed standards. The best solution to a problem is to prevent the problem in the first place. That means having to avoid using these controlling technologies and to support those that have your back covered. By supporting free software and open standards that is what you are doing. Every time you use a Free-software browser and a website doesn't work properly, let the sites admin know about it. If they don't want to fix it - don't use it. You are better off not being forced into a compromised position. In the coming decade this will only get worse. With the increasing profit needs of Google, increasing operations costs, decline in return on computer hardware improvements, ever increasing demand so of users and the apathy of those same users that makes them accept these changes with little questioning, we are slowly walking down a road that is very difficult to recover from. It took almost a decade to turn it around last time with Firefox and that was through the arrogance of Microsoft not keeping their eye on the ball and assuming that they could never fall. This time it may not be possible as it is a very deliberate and targeted attack on users choices. If we don't try to fight this then we have lost already. If we wait until it is unbearable, it will be near impossible to overcome in any meaningful way. Michael Verrenkamp -- Committee Member Free Software Australia/Melbourne Advocating for freedom in computer software. www.freesoftware.org.au

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Meetup update
by PuZZleDucK 16 Jun '20

16 Jun '20

Hi all, Just a quick update with the link to this weeks meetup and a short video about the BBB interface, see you all there: Update: Thursday 18th June, 6:30-8:00pm BBB Room: https://freesoftwareau.bigbluemeeting.com/pau-9ti-iea Short video intro to BBB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYYnryIM0Uw ~~ Ben

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FSM Jun 18 - Running a small business on Free Software — The Sandstorm Platform
by PuZZleDucK 13 Jun '20

13 Jun '20

As Australia starts to ease restrictions and some businesses are opening up again while many continue to operate online we thought it might be a good time to look at what Free and Open Source Software is available for running a small business or personal productivity. Luckily for us there is the all-in-one solution that is Sandstorm. Sandstorm describes itself as a self-hostable web productivity suite.It is an easy to install and maintain server-side platform that provides seamless access to dozens of productivity and office applications. Sandstorm provides a secure platform and takes care of authentication, authorization, installation and space management so you can start being productive from the moment you get it set up. It does require you to have existing hosting or to run it locally using something like Docker, but it allows for simple authentication and installation of many applications once it's setup. There is also a rich ecosystem of applications supported which we'll talk about including EtherPad for collaborative editing, Draw.io for graphics, HackerSlides for presentations, Wekan for project tracking, FileDrop for secure file sharing and Collections for tying it all together... and that's just scratching the surface of applications and alternatives available! We’ll be meeting virtually via Big Blue Button (an open source video conferencing system we'll probably cover in the near future) at 6:30pm on Thursday the 18th of June. We'll update you with the URL as soon as we can. Details: Thursday 18th June, 6:30-8:00pm BBB Room: To Be Announced Meeting Tips: Mute your mic when joining or not talking and headsets are recommended to reduce feedback.

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Re: [free-software-melb] Setting up services for community organisation: Discourse, Jitsi Meet, Nextcloud, …
by Bernie Schelberg 03 Jun '20

03 Jun '20

Hi Ben, Docker is available on Debian: https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=docker.io Deploying via docker can be quick and easy and one way to get newer versions of software that aren't available in the package system. However care should be taken to ensure that data is kept on a persistent volume or host file system mount, so that it's retained through version upgrades (with a Docker approach, these are typically done by starting a whole new Docker container from a newer image). Regards, Bernie ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2020 17:21:51 +1000 From: Ben Finney <ben+freesoftware(a)benfinney.id.au> To: Melbourne Free Software Interest Group <free-software-melb(a)lists.softwarefreedom.com.au> Subject: [free-software-melb] Setting up services for community organisation: Discourse, Jitsi Meet, Nextcloud, … Message-ID: <20200602072151.GC9657(a)benfinney.id.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Howdy all, What is the recommended way to deploy a set of services to some simple hosting, like a Debian host, for community organisation? I want to help a few community organisations. An example: there is a board game with a big following and we're trying to make a community-operated set of services for people to discuss and share and plan events and teleconference, etc. There are guides online for deploying Discourse and Jitsi Meet and Nextcloud. but these seem to assume that Docker is available, and/or that we are comfortable running unverified install scripts from the same software developers, as root. Is there a way to get Docker working using only Debian packages? It seems the “docker machine” needs to be got directly from Docker, and isn't available for install from the Debian repository. Is there a way to deploy these services (let's start with Discourse) directly from Debian packages? It seems a lot of them are not yet fully packaged in Debian. What can a sensible, security-conscious, but time-starved, Debian host administrator do to get these services up quickly for a little community organisation? -- \ “A lie can be told in a few words. Debunking that lie can take | `\ pages. That is why my book… is five hundred pages long.” —Chris | _o__) Rodda, 2011-05-05 | Ben Finney <ben(a)benfinney.id.au>

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Setting up services for community organisation: Discourse, Jitsi Meet, Nextcloud, …
by Ben Finney 02 Jun '20

02 Jun '20

Howdy all, What is the recommended way to deploy a set of services to some simple hosting, like a Debian host, for community organisation? I want to help a few community organisations. An example: there is a board game with a big following and we're trying to make a community-operated set of services for people to discuss and share and plan events and teleconference, etc. There are guides online for deploying Discourse and Jitsi Meet and Nextcloud. but these seem to assume that Docker is available, and/or that we are comfortable running unverified install scripts from the same software developers, as root. Is there a way to get Docker working using only Debian packages? It seems the “docker machine” needs to be got directly from Docker, and isn't available for install from the Debian repository. Is there a way to deploy these services (let's start with Discourse) directly from Debian packages? It seems a lot of them are not yet fully packaged in Debian. What can a sensible, security-conscious, but time-starved, Debian host administrator do to get these services up quickly for a little community organisation? -- \ “A lie can be told in a few words. Debunking that lie can take | `\ pages. That is why my book… is five hundred pages long.” —Chris | _o__) Rodda, 2011-05-05 | Ben Finney <ben(a)benfinney.id.au>

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