Category Archives: Linux

Orange Pi RV2 Benchmarks: The Most Performant RISC-V Board For Less Than $100 With 8 Cores + 8GB RAM

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Earlier this month Canonical announced Ubuntu Linux support for the Orange Pi RV2 as a low-cost RISC-V developer board. The Orange Pi RV2 with eight RISC-V cores and 8GB of RAM costs just around $64 USD. The price point and specs were interesting that I ordered one and have been running performance benchmarks on it since for seeing how capable this is as finally an interesting, low-cost and readily available RISC-V board.

How To Set Color in Bash Script

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Setting colors in your Bash scripts can significantly enhance the visual output, making it easier for users to follow along. In this article, we will explore how to set different colors in your Bash scripts to highlight information, errors, or simply to beautify the console output.

Linux 6.15 Lands Fix For “3x Performance Regression” Affecting Nginx & Other Software

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The Linux 6.15 kernel has just merged a fix for the big performance regression I spotlighted yesterday on Phoronix with a huge hit to the Nginx HTTPS web server performance that could see a 3x regression from the in-development Linux 6.15 kernel code. It turns out other workloads/applications also were negatively impacted by this regression. While a stumper at first even with the bisected commit, the issue was luckily resolved very quickly.

[$] VFS write barriers

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In the filesystem track at the 2025 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory
Management, and BPF Summit (LSFMM+BPF), Amir Goldstein wanted to resume
discussing
a feature that he had briefly introduced at the end of a 2023 summit session: filesystem “write
barriers”. The idea is to have an operation that would wait for any
in-flight write()
system calls, but not block any new write() calls as bigger
hammers, such as freezing the filesystem,
would do. His prototype implementation is used by a hierarchical
storage management (HSM) system to create a crash-consistent
change log, but there may be other use cases to consider. He wanted
to discuss implementation options and the possibility of providing an
API for user-space applications.

What is Docker Pull Command?

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The Docker pull command is one of the essential commands that allows users to download container images from a registry to their local machine. This command is often the first step in the container deployment workflow, enabling developers to retrieve pre-built images before running containers. As part of the core set of Docker basic commands, understanding how to effectively use the docker pull command is essential for anyone working with containerized applications.

How to Verify Debian and Ubuntu Packages Using MD5 Checksums

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Have you ever wondered why a given binary or package installed on your system does not work according to your expectations, meaning it does not function correctly as it is supposed to, or perhaps it cannot even start at all?

While downloading packages, you may face challenges such as unsteady network connections or unexpected power blackouts. This can result in the installation of a corrupted package.

Considering this an important factor in maintaining uncorrupted packages on your system, it is therefore a vital step to verify the files on the file system against the information stored in the package.

In this article, we will explain how to verify the MD5 checksums of installed packages on Debian-based distributions such as Ubuntu and Mint.

The post How to Verify Debian and Ubuntu Packages Using MD5 Checksums appeared first on Linux Today.

How to Install Apache Kafka on Ubuntu 24.04

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Apache Kafka is an open-source distributed event streaming platform used for building real-time data pipelines and applications. Originally developed by LinkedIn and now part of the Apache Software Foundation, Kafka is designed for high-throughput, low-latency, and fault-tolerant data processing across systems.

In this tutorial, we will show you the complete steps to install Apache Kafka on Ubuntu 24.04 OS.

The post How to Install Apache Kafka on Ubuntu 24.04 appeared first on Linux Today.

How can we empower girls in computing? An important conversation on the Hello World podcast

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A key part of digital literacy is ensuring that all learners, regardless of their background or gender, have equal opportunities to develop computing skills and confidence in using technology.

However, the Department for Education in the UK recently released a report highlighting the growing gender gap in maths and science education. With International Girls in ICT Day just around the corner, it’s a timely reminder of the need to empower more girls and women within the computing sector.

In the latest episode of the Hello World podcast, Rachel Arthur, Chief Learning Officer at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, is joined by Dr. Jessica Hamer from King’s College London and Becky Patel from Tech She Can. Together, they explore the current state of girls’ engagement in computing and what we can do to support change.

This episode is the second in our three-part mini series on digital literacy. Each episode continues the conversations featured in the latest issue of the Hello World magazine, offering expert perspectives and practical examples from educators making a difference.

What is the gender gap, and why is it a problem?

The gender gap in computing refers to the disparity between the proportion of female and male students who choose computing as a subject or career. This is problematic because:

  • It reinforces harmful societal stereotypes that limit opportunities for girls
  • It hinders economic growth and innovation
  • It limits diversity in tech development, potentially leading to biased products, especially in artificial intelligence (AI)

Who are the guests on the podcast, and what will I learn?

To address these issues in detail, Rachel is joined by two guests who have dedicated years to understanding and addressing the gender gap. 

Dr. Jessica Hamer, King’s College London

Dr. Jessica Hamer is a Research Associate at King’s College London. She transitioned to academic research after working for a decade as a science teacher in secondary education. With a focus on projects like the SCARI project, she investigates factors affecting girls’ performance and participation in secondary-level computing. Her work includes a key report published last year on this topic.

In the podcast, Dr. Hamer reveals concerning findings about stereotypes in computing and how early they form. She explains that beliefs portraying girls as less interested in computing emerge as early as ages five or six, which significantly hinders girls’ engagement and involvement in the field.

Further, when students were asked to name famous figures in computing, most cited white, male tech entrepreneurs who are frequently in the news. This revealed a limited view of the kinds of people involved in computing, as well as a narrow conception of tech careers, with roles in areas like climate change and social justice being overlooked. However, Jessica highlights a key insight: “We found that girls were three times more likely to suggest a female famous face”, emphasising the vital importance of female representation and the need for relatable role models.

Becky Patel, Tech She Can

Becky Patel is the Head of Education and Learning at Tech She Can, a UK charity focused on increasing women’s representation in technology. She has a decade of teaching experience in both primary and secondary education and now develops the ‘Tech WE Can’ educational resources, which aim to inspire all children, particularly girls, to pursue careers in technology.

In the podcast, Becky emphasises the importance of early intervention to address gender stereotypes. She advocates for introducing children to a wide range of STEM careers, and to do this not just in computing lessons but across the whole curriculum. 

Another key strategy Becky highlights is showing children that they can explore their hobbies and interests further through technology, even when at first glance it might seem that technology can’t play a role. She explains:

“There are so many tech roles which you can do working behind the scenes, training the athlete, helping them with health and physiotherapy, working on goal-line technology… There’s so many cool things and when you show children this, you see the attention. You see them sit up like, hold on, she’s talking about me and the thing I love. And she’s also talking about computing.” 

Listen or watch now

To hear more about how to empower girls into computing, listen to or watch the full episode. 

We hope this episode inspires you and helps you to engage your students more in computing. In the comments section below, we’d love to hear your thoughts, your feedback, and any of your own tips for empowering girls and young women.

Enjoy the conversation!

More to discover next week

Next week, in the final podcast in our mini series, we’ll be looking at the notion of the ‘digital native’. Are young people truly tech-savvy, or are they simply reliant on digital tools without understanding the underlying mechanics?

James Robinson, Senior Learning Manager at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, will be joined by fellow colleague Sway Gratham and two guest speakers, Anna Lahtinen from Haaga-Helia University and Nicole O’Connor from Digi Know This, as they debate the complexities of digital skills, access, and education. Discover how the label ‘digital native’ can mask crucial issues and learn what real digital literacy looks like today.

Subscribe to Hello World

You can watch, or listen, to each episode of our podcast on YouTube, or listen via your preferred audio streaming service, whether that’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music. 

Don’t miss out on this discussion — subscribe to Hello World today to ensure you never miss a podcast episode or issue of the magazine.

The post How can we empower girls in computing? An important conversation on the Hello World podcast appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Fedora 43 Change Proposal Filed For Removing GNOME X11 Packages: Wayland-Only GNOME

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Following a lot of work in this direction toward the end goal of removing GNOME X11 support, this milestone may finally be acheived for the Fedora 43 cycle due out by the end of the year. A change proposal has been filed for removing the GNOME X11 packages in the repository and in turn making the GNOME desktop Wayland-only on Fedora Linux…

VMware Updates Linux Patches For Running VMware Workstation Atop KVM

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One of the biggest surprises of last year was finding out that VMware has been working on shifting VMware Workstation from proprietary code to building atop the upstream KVM code within the Linux kernel. Following the initial patches from last October, an updated patch series was sent out on the Linux kernel mailing list yesterday for working on this transition…