An increasing number of videogames are sold as goods, but designed to be completely unplayable for everyone as soon as support ends. The legality of this practice is untested worldwide, and many governments do not have clear laws regarding these actions. It is our goal to have authorities examine this behavior and hopefully end it, as it is an assault on both consumer rights and preservation of media. We are pursuing this in two ways:

TL;DR this is an EU petition aimed at making sure that companies are obligated to distribute binaries of the server code of their multiplayer and live service games. Currently, video game companies of online/live service games use a form of SaaSS (Service as a Software Substitute) model where the "game" someone has purchased is simply a license to run the game in only the way the company sees fit (their servers, their platform, their rules). If a company were to go under or simply not run the servers required for the full game to function, then the user is out of luck as they've effectively had the game taken away from them.

This is just another example of why ALL leftists must strive to fight for free software. If we don't consider software which respects your freedom an important endeavor to uphold, then we make ourselves vulnerable for further and further exploitation. If you're reading this, this includes you as well.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3207959

We first need to obtain a blocklist of all possible Israeli ip addresses. This can be obtained from two sources.

1. https://www.ip2location.com/free/visitor-blocker
2. https://www.iblocklist.com/

Due to the nature of how IP addresses are distributed, these blocklists have to be updated, but that isn't a huge concern for us right now.

When you downloaded the file for Israel from either site, it should look something like this:

Israel:2.16.36.0-2.16.36.255
Israel:2.22.233.0-2.22.233.255
Israel:2.52.0.0-2.55.255.255
Israel:2.57.228.0-2.57.231.255
Israel:2.58.33.0-2.58.33.255
Israel:3.2.42.0-3.2.42.63
Israel:3.5.56.0-3.5.59.255
Israel:5.22.128.0-5.22.135.255
Israel:5.28.128.0-5.28.191.255
Israel:5.29.0.0-5.29.255.255
Israel:5.100.248.0-5.100.255.255

If you wish to add more nations to the list such as TERF island or the 4th Reich, then you can append the files on top of each other into one file.

Once you have the file, rename it with the .p2p extension so that qbittorrent will use it. Then, in your qbittorrent client, go to Preferences -> Connection. At the very bottom you should see a section labeled IP Filtering. In the Filter Path checkbox, select your .p2p file. You may also check the box to block trackers as well.

In other bittorrent software (hopefully you're using one that's libre) there should be a similar option for ip filtering.

There you go! You have effectively banned Israel from being your peer while you're doing p2p transfers. This won't stop Zionists from peering with you using a VPN or other undetected server, but this has done wonders for my mood.

Always remember to port forward and seed when torrenting (A non-Zionist VPN like AirVPN or ProtonVPN can allow you to do that). Only a Zionist does a download and run.

Resources

1. https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/discussions/17457

We first need to obtain a blocklist of all possible Israeli ip addresses. This can be obtained from two sources.

1. https://www.ip2location.com/free/visitor-blocker (choose peer guardian format)
2. https://www.iblocklist.com/

Due to the nature of how IP addresses are distributed, these blocklists have to be updated, but that isn't a huge concern for us right now.

When you downloaded the file for Israel from either site, it should look something like this:

Israel:2.16.36.0-2.16.36.255
Israel:2.22.233.0-2.22.233.255
Israel:2.52.0.0-2.55.255.255
Israel:2.57.228.0-2.57.231.255
Israel:2.58.33.0-2.58.33.255
Israel:3.2.42.0-3.2.42.63
Israel:3.5.56.0-3.5.59.255
Israel:5.22.128.0-5.22.135.255
Israel:5.28.128.0-5.28.191.255
Israel:5.29.0.0-5.29.255.255
Israel:5.100.248.0-5.100.255.255

If you wish to add more nations to the list such as TERF island or the 4th Reich, then you can append the files on top of each other into one file.

Once you have the file, rename it with the .p2p extension so that qbittorrent will use it. Then, in your qbittorrent client, go to Preferences -> Connection. At the very bottom you should see a section labeled IP Filtering. In the Filter Path checkbox, select your .p2p file. You may also check the box to block trackers as well.

In other bittorrent software (hopefully you're using one that's libre) there should be a similar option for ip filtering.

There you go! You have effectively banned Israel from being your peer while you're doing p2p transfers. This won't stop Zionists from peering with you using a VPN or other undetected server, but this has done wonders for my mood.

Always remember to port forward and seed when torrenting (A non-Zionist VPN like AirVPN or ProtonVPN can allow you to do that). Only a Zionist does a download and run.

Resources

1. https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/discussions/17457

From the discussion post:

I was talking on my part, don't know about others. I'm a constant seeder (7+ years) and monitor peers from time to time or when downloading something. During these years I've never seen a single Israeli seed on a rare torrent, or high download traffic from them. I'm being completely honest, the only time I see them is when they are downloading something from me.

Desktop state is neatly organized using freedesktop standards. Since components are so modular, it's trivial to replace or modify any of them using any client program you wish.

This is peak "Year of the Linux Desktop" behavior

COSMIC by System76 and POP!_OS 24.04 just reached its alpha stage. You can try it out by downloading the POP!_OS 24.04 ISO from the posted link.

Previous COSMIC posts here:

• https://hexbear.net/post/3111581
• https://hexbear.net/post/2506169
• https://hexbear.net/post/2499316

Tldr: Bangladesh 🇧🇩 not doing so hot right now. Thoughts as a diaspora imperial core desi who lives a very comfortable life.

I feel really immature right about now. For a good while I just kept denying the color revolution hints to the point where even my very lib Dad was able to point them out. Feel like such a complete jackass, it just feels so fucking different when you're in the moment and it's your country down the line. That doesn't mean I don't have the same solidarity for all global south nations but this one just felt so personal. What's happening in Bangladesh right now seems like nothing compared to the horrific struggle that West Asia has endured, but I guess I'm joining the club.

But yeah, they literally took over my country and there's nothing I, a diaspora bengali, can do about it. Sometimes it feels like I have survivors guilt, that I got out of the country and immigrated to the imperial core (well my parents did) where I could live a far more comfortable life while a lot of my peers even here in the US are living much harder lives.

This is also compounded by the fact that I live in a white picket fence neighborhood where every neighborhood family are Trumpers or respectful Kamala-ists who are just "simple folk" out raising their family. My dad recently hanged up an American flag and a Bangladeshi flag on our lawn and now I'm just sick even thinking about it. I might just tell my dad to take it american flag down if not both (he keeps telling me there's some homeowner association "law" that you have to have the USian flag alongside other flags). The only thing that really cheers me up besides treats is Yahya Sinwar and the axis of resistance taking Israel down screw by screw.

Fuck the USA. I will never forget this moment in my entire fucking life. I just feel very off right now and this was my vent post. Part of me wishes that this wasn't a takeover, but that part of me is slowly going away every passing second.

Abridged Version

Wayland is a set of protocols that govern how a compositor draws stuff on the screen, and how apps interact with the compositor’s drawing-stuff-on-the-screen infrastructure. It’s similar to the HTTP and SMTP protocols that govern how web browsers and email clients send and receive web pages and data.

Why does Wayland exist?

In a nutshell, because X11–the thing it’s replacing–is dead

The fundamental X11 development model was to have a heavyweight window server–called Xorg–which would handle everything, and everyone would use it. Well, in theory there could be others, and at various points in time there were, but in practice writing a new one that isn’t a fork of an old one is nearly impossible. Everyone strongly preferred to standardize on a single X server and migrated in unison from one to another when a better fork became available, because it was convenient. And it was convenient because because it centralized limited development resources, and when a feature was added to the X server, everyone gained access to it automatically.

In essence, Xorg became too large, too complicated, and too fragile to touch without risking breaking the entire Linux ecosystem. It’s stable today because it’s been essentially frozen for years. But that stability has come hand-in-hand with stagnation. As we all know in the tech world, projects that can’t adapt die. Projects that depend on them then die as well.

The fact that Wayland’s minimal core protocol made it unable to fully replace the thing it aimed to replace was a bad architectural design decision on the part of its authors that crippled the prospect of its rapid adoption when it was released in 2008. We didn’t see the same problem with other newer projects like Systemd and PipeWire which were adopted much faster.

A lot of app developers became accustomed to tuning out Wayland news while it was still a toy, and didn’t do the porting work. Well, it’s not a toy anymore, and now many are now feeling blindsided by the sudden urgency to port their apps to use Wayland. That’s understandable. But this time it’s for real, and the time to port is now. For any protocols that still aren’t good enough and need revision, app developers’ input is needed to revise them or even propose new ones. This process takes a long time, so better to start sooner rather than later. But it’s not just gonna go away.

Putting it all together

Wayland is a replacement for X11, which is dead. Despite a rocky development process, it’s ready enough for Plasma and KDE apps that Fedora KDE is pushing it pretty hard. Many 3rd-party apps are already Wayland-native, but many are not, and they need to put in the work to port to Wayland. If anything they need is still missing, they need to step up to be part of the process of adding it. This process is happening, and isn’t going to stop happening. We need to work together to make it happen faster and more smoothly.

I don't know? Is it? (yes)

6 quick steps to enter a live Linux Mint environment (a try before you buy option)

1. Grab the Linux Mint 22 "Wilma" ISO
2. Grab a USB flash drive that is at least 4GB large or more
3. Download a bootable usb flasher MacOS, Windows (balenaEtcher) | Windows (Rufus)
4. Flash that Mint ISO onto the stick
5. Power off your machine, when you turn it back on, enter the system's boot menu by hitting a special key (you might have to set the boot order in your BIOS) (this is a guide on accessing your firmware) this is likely the hardest step.
6. Boot into Linux Mint by clicking on the first entry on the Mint boot menu, wait for it to fully load.

Success, you're now in a Linux Mint live environment, you don't have to install it and it has done nothing with your existing operating system. You can play around in this environment for as long as you want. When you're ready to make the switch, back up your important data on your existing OS first and then go through the Linux Mint install.

More info here on installing by a fellow hexbear

Some previews:

"Frost Giant"

"Early sunset"

"COSMIC DOOM"

"COSMIC 95"

First alpha release is on August 8th along with the alpha of POP!_OS 24.04.

New Linux Mint dropped, it's time to dump your toxic relationship with Windows in search of greener pastures.

@AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net Made a guide on installing Linux Mint, the steps are virtually identical to this new release.

One change is that in order to see all flatpak apps on Flathub you have to toggle seeing unverified flatpaks. If there's any miss from this release it would be this, but it can always be reverted in the future or Flathub themselves can make this a non-issue with more manual verification.

Steps to upgrade from Mint 21.3 are coming in the following days.

"With Freedom Came Elegance" - Linux Mint motto.

Seriously stop polluting my $HOME!

.pki .mozilla .java .gnupg .emacs.d .cargo .thunderbird .steam

dotfiles and their consequences were a disaster for the penguin race.

This is a very petty issue but I'm still PISSED.

Linux Mint 22 BETA is out based on the most recent Ubuntu LTS 24.04.

Important Changes:

• Linux Mint currently ships with the Linux 6.8 kernel. More importantly, Mint will now follow Ubuntu's Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernel series so Mint can work on the latest machines. This also removes the confusion of the "Edge ISO" as this affects all Mint 22 users.
• Linux Mint uses Pipewire as its audio stack.
• The Linux Mint team along with other communities in the "we forked off of GNOME when it became GNOME 3" have started the Xapp project which plans to continue GTK desktop app development sans libadwaita and GNOME specific technologies.
• Mint now uses Matrix for community coordination and includes the Element webapp client preinstalled.
• Cinnamon 6.2 and various UX improvements.

Windows 10 goes End of Life in October 2025.