News

I previously reported on my RP500 Lap Top some time ago. Not long after that report the RP500+ came out that addressed some of the power problems, the real time clock problem, and even had a PCI Express Generation 2 hardware slot for M.2 cards like the NVMe cards. There is even 16 Gigabytes of RAM.

I thought this was great! Many of the problems or wishes I had were solved. The PCIe slot even increased performance somewhat.

But not everything is good about it. As a forewarning, I am clearly not the target audience. Loud clickly keys and blinding, flashing, lights is not a good thing. The case is also notably larger, making it more difficul to use as a Lap Top.

A custom keyboard configuration and firmware is provided to turn off all of the lights except the power button. That power button is a huge problem and diming the power button isn't even remotely a solution to the problem. The clickity clack of the keyboard cannot be easily fixed because the grey colored Gateron KS-33 blue switches are solder in (yes they are the blue type but are colored grey for some reason).

True to my nature as a hacker, I decided to pick up a Hakko FR-301 de-soldering iron and directly solve the problem myself. I chose the Gateron Red KS-33 low profile mechanical switch. I chose the closest matching Gateron that matches the Raspberry PI 500+ Keyboard for my first attempt. I might venture on to quieter switches in the future.

The end result is a beautiful working far more quiet keyboard without a glaring always on power button (there might still be some very small leakage of light).

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I have spent a great deal of time observing Linux over the years. This is not to say that the Linux Kernel no longer exists. Instead, it is to say that the concept, the movement, the ideology, the drive, and the freedom that all represents the concept that is Linux is what has died.

What is Linux

There is a common misconception on what Linux actually is. Linux, or more specifically, the Linux Kernel is just an Operating System. It is neither a movement, nor is it a Distribution.

A Distribution on the other hand, is a complete system containing the Operating System and the User Space Software as needed and as defined by a given Distributor.

Treating a Distribution as the same as an Operating System is a common mistake due to how other Distributions tightly couple their Operating System to their Distribution. An example of tightly coupling the Operating System with the Distribution is Microsoft Windows.

This language situation has resulted in the term Linux being used to also represent the open-source ideology and movement that is guided by the open-source flag ship known as the Linux Kernel.

It is this ideology and movement, this concept and drive, that is casually referred to as Linux that has truly died.

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The Featureless Linux Library stable version 0.8.0 is released.

I'm starting the year off with the 0.8.0 stable release.
This release marks a major milestone for the FLL project.
Expect to see a lot more development in the programs and software that utilizes this stable release all year long.
This release represents approximately three years of off and on programming while simultaneously using the software in its developmental state.

The official release date is intended to be some time after the UTC (time zone 0) reaches January 1, 2026.
This is being done explicitly because the project and its source code is available to the whole world and I am trying to make all of my times based on UTC.
Following UTC to make released and represent dates and times makes more sense than using some local or regional time zone.

The most significant changes from the previous stable releases, the 0.6.x versions are:

1. Many programs have been merged into a single program using a shared code base.
2. The programs now follow a new signal threading and interrupt process.
3. This interrupt process is extended down to all of the different level project to better allow for the use of call backs and interrupt handling.
4. Several of the different level projects have been flattened down to a lower level.
5. The memory allocation logic has been changed to utilize more general structures, reducing the need for as many delete and destroy functions.
6. The console handling code supports additional features for disabling and enabling as well as the ability to more easily mimic common POSIX style parameters.
7. More functionality is added to better facilitate writing network oriented code.
8. More functionality is added for process and scheduler interaction.
9. A new example project is provided to help make learning how to write programs using this project easier.
10. Unicode 15.0 is now supported.
11. Experimental support for using ZSH for many of the projects scripts.
12. Provide new standard structure for programs data, especially with regard to printing.
13. Many of the programs now follow a new structure design that separates, call backs, caches, and other data via different structures.
14. Many static strings are now more centrally stored and some are in an array to better allow for different written languages to more easily replace strings where possible.
15. The FSS and IKI standards and specifications now support the use of back ticks.
16. The control program has been move out of the FLL project and into its own separate project.
17. The controller program has been move out of the FLL project and into its own separate project.
18. The firewall program has been move out of the FLL project and into its own separate project.
19. This has been tested to compile and run on Android (using something like Termux).
20. This has been tested to compile and run on the Pinephone (using PostmarketOS).
21. The Go programming language is now supported in the build settings files.
22. Introduction of the Open Standard License 1.0 for the standards and the related specifications.
23. Add fll.c.tags file.
24. Explicitly define IFS in scripts to prevent misuse.
25. Add a lot of status codes for various purposes and uses.
26. Implement new debug printing methods in programs that prints the source code file and line number instead of just a function name.
27. Switch to using newer initializer style of { .a = b }.
28. Provide more build settings defaults, such as defaulting build_language to c.
29. A new level 0 project, f_abstruse.
30. A new level 0 project, f_compare.
31. A new level 0 project, f_network.
32. A new level 0 project, f_parse.
33. A new level 0 project, f_process.
34. A new level 0 project, f_random.
35. A new level 0 project, f_rip.
36. A new level 0 project, f_schedule.
37. A new level 0 project, f_time.
38. A new level 1 project, fl_path (relocated from level 2).
39. A new level 1 project, fl_status_string (relocated from level 2).

A complete log of changes can be done by comparing the 0.6.0 tag to the 0.8.0 tag.
For example: git log --graph --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit --abbrev=12 0.6.0...0.8.0.

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The news for the year 2025 remains available.

The news for the year 2024 remains available.

The news for the year 2023 remains available.

The news for the year 2022 remains available.

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