Tech News Digest - 2025-04-03

📢 Closed-captioned for the ESP-impaired

[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for April 3, 2025

Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Thu, 03 Apr 2025 00:21:53 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a 2-sentence summary:

The latest LWN.net Weekly Edition covers various topics in the open-source world, including the release of Calibre 8.0, Fedora reproducibility efforts, and advancements in OpenWrt and the Rust programming language. The edition also features brief summaries of recent developments, such as updates to Ubuntu, Firefox, and Rockbox, as well as announcements about newsletters, conferences, security patches, and more.
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:

• Front: Calibre 8.0; Fedora reproducibility; OpenWrt One; 6.15 Merge Window; LSFMM+BPF coverage including BPF in GCC, Rust merging process, and more.
• Briefs: Ubuntu namespaces; New FPL; PorteuX 2.0; Firefox 137.0; GCC Rust; Rockbox 4.0; Rust specification; Thundermail; Dave Täht RIP; Quotes; ...
• Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.

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[$] Catching up with calibre

Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Wed, 02 Apr 2025 17:00:38 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a summary of the text in 2 sentences:

Calibre is an open-source software that goes beyond just managing eBooks, offering a range of features such as creating eBooks, converting formats, and serving eBook libraries over the web. The latest release, calibre 8.0, adds new features like a better text-to-speech engine, audio overlay creation for authoring eBooks, and profile support in the eBook viewer.

Saying that calibre is ebook-management software undersells the application by a fair margin. Calibre is an open-source Swiss Army knife for ebooks that can be used for everything from creating ebooks, converting ebooks from obscure formats to modern formats like EPUB, to serving up an ebook library over the web. The most recent major release, calibre 8.0, brings a better text-to-speech engine, a tool for creating audio overlays when authoring ebooks, support for profiles in the ebook viewer, and more.

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## [$] An update on GCC BPF support Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Wed, 02 Apr 2025 15:47:39 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a summary of the text in 2 sentences: José Marchesi and David Faust presented an update on their work to support compiling to BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter) in GCC, with most self-tests now passing using Faust's patches. However, their progress uncovered issues with how Clang supports BPF, which required a detailed discussion to find a path forward for both projects.

José Marchesi and David Faust kicked off the BPF track at the 2025 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory-Management, and BPF Summit with an extra-long session on what they have been doing to support compiling to BPF in GCC. Overall, the project is slowly working toward full support for BPF, with most of the self-tests now passing using Faust's in-progress patches. However, the progress toward that goal has turned up a number of problems with how Clang supports BPF that needed to be discussed at length to find a path forward for both projects.

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## Thunderbird plans "Thundermail" email and other services Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Wed, 02 Apr 2025 15:39:07 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a 2-sentence summary: Ryan Sipes, managing director of product for Thunderbird's parent organization MZLA Technologies Corporation, has announced plans to expand Thunderbird's offerings with web services aimed at enhancing the email client experience. The planned services include hosted email, appointment scheduling, an AI assistant based on a partnership with Flower AI, and a revival of Firefox Send, all designed to create a 100% open source alternative ecosystem to compete with Gmail and Office365.

Ryan Sipes has announced efforts to expand Thunderbird's offerings with web services to "enhance the experience of using Thunderbird".

The Why for offering these services is simple. Thunderbird loses users each day to rich ecosystems that are both clients and services, such as Gmail and Office365. These ecosystems have both hard vendor lock-ins (through interoperability issues with 3rd-pary clients) and soft lock-ins (through convenience and integration between their clients and services). It is our goal to eventually have a similar offering so that a 100% open source, freedom-respecting alternative ecosystem is available for those who want it.

The planned services include hosted email, appointment scheduling, a revival of Firefox Send, and (of course) an AI assistant based on a partnership with Flower AI. The AI features will "always be optional for use by people who want them". Sipes is managing director of product for Thunderbird's parent organization, MZLA Technologies Corporation. LWN covered his GUADEC 2024 keynote last July.

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## Introducing Fedora Project Leader Jef Spaleta Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Wed, 02 Apr 2025 14:40:41 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a 2-sentence summary: Matthew Miller has announced his successor as Fedora Project Leader (FPL), Jef Spaleta, who was previously involved in the early Fedora community and served on the Fedora Board from 2007-2008. Spaleta will join Red Hat full-time in May and take over FPL duties at the Flock conference in June, with Miller formally handing off his responsibilities.

Outgoing Fedora Project Leader (FPL) Matthew Miller has announced his successor, Jef Spaleta.

Some of you may remember Jef's passionate voice in the early Fedora community. He got involved all the way back in the days of fedora.us, before Red Hat got involved. Jef served on the Fedora Board from July 2007 through the end of 2008. This was the critical time after Fedora Extras and Fedora Core merged into one Fedora Linux where, with the launch of the "Features" process, Fedora became a truly community-led project.

Spaleta will be joining Red Hat full time in May and Miller will be formally handing off FPL duties at the Flock conference in June.

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