Systemd Takes Over su, FCC Bans Open Source Firmware
Paul Carroty posted Friday of the news that Lennart Poettering merged an 'su' command replacement into systemd and Fedora Rawhide - coming to a Linux system near you next. Elsewhere, Hackaday.com's Brian Benchoff said new FCC regulations just killed Open Source firmware replacement and Phoronix.com today reported that LILO is being abandoned. Several polls caught my eye today as did the new Linux workstation security checklist.
Paul Carroty posted of Lennart Poettering merging an 'su' replacement into systemd code. He also quote Poettering saying su is bad because it "is really a broken concept. It will given you kind of a shell, and it's fine to use it for that, but it's not a full login, and shouldn't be mistaken for one." Carroty is reporting that the early implementation available in Rawhide is working and "very useful if you have high load services."
A new Linux workstation security checklist was published recently by Konstantin Ryabitsev of the Linux Foundation. It "is a set of recommendations used by the Linux Foundation for their systems administrators." From choosing the right hardware, pre-boot environment, distro choice considerations, to installation and configuration guidelines as well as software and password recommendations are addressed in the checklist. While the foundation can't guarantee an impregnable fortress, they think the guidelines should help a lot.
The LILO bootloader was the go-to bootloader for years, but GRUB took over in recent years and a rare few distributions use LILO anymore. Phoronix.com noticed today that development for LILO has stopped and is officially ending at the end of the year. Main reason cited on the project homepage was the limitations of LILO to handle advanced configuration with things like BTFS, GPT, and RAID. It was also noted that the project mailing list has been a bit quiet lately as well. So long LILO, thanks for all the boots.
Hackaday.com today posted that the FCC just passed rules that effectively bans Open Source firmware on routers, smartphones, gaming systems, and the like. Brian Benchoff said, "The rules require all relevant devices to implement software security to ensure the radios of devices operating in this band cannot be modified. Because of the economics of cheap routers, nearly every router is designed around a System on Chip – a CPU and radio in a single package. Banning the modification of one inevitably bans the modification of the other, and eliminates the possibility of installing proven Open Source firmware on any device."
Linus Torvalds commented Friday on an older article of mine Friday saying he still uses Fedora for developing the Linux kernel. He said, "I learned Fedora early on and and stuck in my ways, so to speak. Ease of use, ease of use, ease of use. Stability, stability and ease of use."
Some polls of interest today:
* Distrowatch.com's Favorite Filesystem