Year 2025 News

The Featureless Linux Library stable version 0.6.15 and development version 0.7.3 are released.

The stable version 0.6.15 has a small number of security fixes and a few minor bug fixes.

The development version 0.7.3 is the final planned development release for the 0.7.x release series. The API is considered stable and ready to use for a 0.8.x stable release. The month of December 2025 will be used for testing and final preparations for an official 0.8.0 stable release in January 2026.

The controller project has a new feature where a controlfile (or an initfile for the init program) is supported. This makes the behavior more similar to a fakefile or similar configuration patterns.

The firewall program is being relocated into its own project and therefore repository. The 0.7.3 is the last Featureless Linux Library release that will contain it.

Expect to see a great deal of development in the controller, control, firewall, and the kevux-tools projects for the year 2026. There will not be 0.8.0 releases of these projects at the same time as the 0.8.0 Featureless Linux Library release in January 2026. These projects are simply not ready yet for that and a stable Featureless Linux Library release truly needs to be in place before these projects can be properly completed.

The development version 0.9.x versions will likely be focused on networking, better error handling (including error recoverability), some standard formats like HTML and JSON, more configuration via environment variables, and more advanced string matching (including regular expressions).

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I have decided to make a Lap Top computer. I've really enjoyed laptops like the Purism laptops and the System76 laptops. A laptop eventually has some problem, such as a dead battery or a damaged case, and replacements become hard to find. The Raspberry Pi 500 Keyboard along with the Raspberry Pi Monitor together provide a Lap Top alternative to laptops that can better stand the test of time.

The Raspberry Pi 500 Keyboard computer is approximately $100 dollars. The Raspberry Pi Monitor is approximately $100 dollars. With the selection of additional parts, this can make for a relatively inexpensive laptop alternative. Add a decent power source. Add a USB. And tada! I have the basics for a laptop alternative, dubbed a Lap Top (with an emphasis on the space between the two words).

This is all well and good but to make it really useful and usable there needs to be additional tweaks and accessories to get the most portability out of this. The Raspberry Pi 500 Keyboard computer also needs some modifications to make it work correctly.

There are also some problems with this project. The more obvious being the cabling and extra parts. Not having a good complete case or carrying bag is also another concern.

This article presents my particular approach, design, modifications, success, and failures in the creation and usage of my very own RP 500 Lap Top.

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The Featureless Linux Library stable version 0.6.14 and development version 0.7.2 are released.

This is a special 4th of July release to celebrate liberty in open-source. Open-Source Software and the Internet should be free, open, and unregulated to allow for peace and prosperity. And the 4th of July is a good symbol of that.

The stable version 0.6.14 has only a few minor changes.

The scripts are updated to a new practice. The clean up changes are usually not mentioned but this one is notable. The behavior of using echo with a pipe is replaced with using <<<. The grep commands have been made more consistent.

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The Lossy Computer Generator (LCG) is a new term that I have created to classify the specific type of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that has currently become popular.

The word "Lossy" represents how parts of the original data is lost and reproduction of the original data is not likely to be identical.

The words "computer generation" plays on how data, as with Computer Graphics (CG), is generated by the computer.

LCG includes the currently popular forms of AI known as Large Language Models (LLMs), Small Language Models (SLMs), and Neural Networks.

A Neural Network is a form of AI that has been around as far back as the late 1700s. Types of Neural Networks used today are: LLMs and SLMs.

A LLM is what people are now casually calling AI. A very simplified description of how an LLM works is that it copies the data into memory and remaps it into a modified form. Restoring the mapped data requires re-creating the original data at run time, similar to how MP3 works. This process is therefore lossy.

A SLM is a simplified version of an LLM that attempts to use fewer parameters and should require far less power (wattage).

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The Featureless Linux Library stable version 0.6.13 and development version 0.7.1 are released.

The stable version 0.6.13 has primarily seen improvements in the IKI Read program. Several program parameters have had their behavior changed due to consistency problems with other programs.

The --total parameter now prints the total number of IKI Variables. The --whole parameter now prints the total number of lines rather than the total number of IKI Variables. The --whole parameter may now be specified along with the --at parameter. The --total parameter has had several of its restrictions removed. The --substitute parameter short syntax is changed to now be -S to make the program more consistent with other programs where the -s is the short syntax for the --select parameter. The IKI Read program does not have a --select parameter. The order in which --name, --at, and --line parameters has been clarified.

The IKI related and Time related specifications have been updated to address concerns and points of confusion. Additional documentation regarding the backslashes similar to how the FSS backslashes are handled. The Time specification has incorrect examples that are now fixed. The language in the Time specification has been changed to better allow for more flexibility in its application.

I have found some notable bugs where the f_signal_close, uid_t, and gid_t are assigning the wrong number when representing closed or unused. These need to be -1 rather than 0.

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The Featureless Linux Library development version 0.7.0 is released.

This is a development release. The 0.7 development code has gone too long without a formal release tag. This development branch has seen development as far back as August 3, 2022 and much of the 0.6 includes a lot of back ported code from 0.7. This release represents a starting point for many planned changes and updates throughout the year.

This development code has some design changes that makes the project a little more versatile and extensible but at a cost of slightly larger code. Many of the programs now have a more consistent and modular design that allows for housing multiple related projects in the same code base. Several of the projects have been renamed and simplified into shorter names, such as f_string_range_t now being f_range_t. A new program called EKI, also known as Extended IKI, that handles the EKI specifications is now available.

Not everything is implemented or complete, but this is not strictly required for a development release. Most of the library, and the related programs, are tested and confirmed to be working. Projects like Controller and Control are not yet complete.

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