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digKam, KDE's image organiser for amateur and pro photographers, releases version 8.5.0. This version of digiKam improves the Face Management system, adds colored labels to identify important items, increases its list of supported languages to 61, and fixes over 160 bugs.

Help keep projects like digiKam producing new releases with awesome new features by donating to KDE's fundraiser.

Welcome to a new issue of "This Week in KDE Apps"! Every week we cover as much as possible of what's happening in the world of KDE apps.

This week, we released KDE Gear 24.08.3 and we are preparing the 24.12.0 release with the beta planned next week. The final release will happen on December 12th, but, meanwhile, and as part of the 2024 end-of-year fundraiser, you can "Adopt an App" in a symbolic effort to support your favorite KDE app.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22205865

Ahead of tomorrow's availability of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor as the first Zen 5 CPU released with 3D V-Cache, today the review embargo lifts. Here is a look at how this 8-core / 16-thread Zen 5 CPU with 64MB of 3D V-Cache is performing under Ubuntu Linux compared to a variety of other Intel Core and AMD Ryzen desktop processors.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D as previously shared is AMD's first processor leveraging 2nd Gen 3D V-Cache. The 64MB of cache is now underneath the processor cores so that the CCD is positioned closer to the heatsink/cooler to help with more efficient cooling compared to earlier X3D models.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D boosts up to 5.2GHz and feature a 4.7GHz base clock while total it provides 104MB of cache. Like with the prior 8-core Ryzen 7 7800X3D, all eight cores have access to the 64MB 3D V-Cache. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D features a 120 Watt default TDP. AMD's suggested pricing on the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is $479 USD.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D will work with existing AMD AM5 motherboards with a simple BIOS update. For my testing I was able to use the ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-E GAMING WIFI motherboard previously used for all Ryzen 9000 series testing after a simple BIOS update. AMD also sent out an ASRock X870E Taichi motherboard as part of the review kit. For these 9800X3D benchmarks I ended up testing both initially on the ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-E GAMING WIFI motherboard to match the previously tested Ryzen 9000 series processors and then repeated the run with the ASRock X870E Taichi motherboard as well for reference.

Petition Summary: The petitioner calls for the European Union to actively develop and implement a Linux-based operating system, termed ‘EU-Linux’, across public administrations in all EU Member States. This initiative aims to reduce dependency on Microsoft products, ensuring compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and promoting transparency, sustainability, and digital sovereignty within the EU. The petitioner emphasizes the importance of using open-source alternatives to Microsoft 365, such as LibreOffice and Nextcloud, and suggests the adoption of the E/OS mobile operating system for government devices. The petitioner also highlights the potential for job creation in the IT sector through this initiative.

The LXQt team announces the release of LXQt 2.1.0, the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment.

Through its new component lxqt-wayland-session, LXQt 2.1.0 supports 7 Wayland sessions (with Labwc, KWin, Wayfire, Hyprland, Sway, River and Niri), has two Wayland back-ends in lxqt-panel (one for kwin_wayland and the other general), and will add more later. All LXQt components that are not limited to X11 — i.e., most components — work fine on Wayland. The sessions are available in the new section Wayland Settings inside LXQt Session Settings. At least one supported Wayland compositor should be installed in addition to lxqt-wayland-session for it to be used.

There is still hard work to do, but all of the current LXQt Wayland sessions are quite usable; their differences are about what the supported Wayland compositors provide:

• Labwc provides the most stable session, is very lightweight, neat and configurable, and has an extremely helpful and responsive team.
• Perhaps the most complete Wayland session is provided by KWin when extra KDE packages are installed. For now, it is the only Wayland compositor that supports LXQt Panel’s desktop switcher and LXQt Power Manager’s settings for turning off the monitor (see the Wayland Wiki for the latter).
• In additon to Kwin, fancy effects are also provided by Wayfire and Hyprland, the latter being one of the 4 tiling WMs to choose from.

Anyway, the best result is achieved by installing the latest stable version of the chosen Wayland compositor. Wayland users need to get familiar with Wayland counterparts of some X11 tools and the configuration of the compositor. They may use X11 apps through XWayland, but using apps that work directly on Wayland is the best choice. Also, see the Wayland Wiki.

Thanks to Valve's Linux graphics team, VK_EXT_device_generated_commands is now supported by the Radeon "RADV" Vulkan driver with the upcoming Mesa 24.3 release.

Prominent RADV developer Samuel Pitoiset at Valve has landed support for VK_EXT_device_generated_commands, the multi-vendor device generated commands "DGC" implementation. Last month with Vulkan 1.3.296 the VK_EXT_device_generated_commands extension was introduced to succeed NVIDIA's vendor-prefixed DGC extension. The device generated commands extension allows for the GPU device to generate a number of commands for command buffers. VK_EXT_device_generated_commands is a very big and important addition to the Vulkan API: Valve's Mike Blumenkrantz has argued that DGC is the biggest addition to Vulkan since ray-tracing.

Fedora Linux provides a wide variety of users with leading edge open source technology in a community developed and maintained operating system. The Fedora KDE Spin combines the reliable and trusted Fedora Linux base with the KDE Plasma desktop environment and a selection of KDE applications – simple by default, yet powerful when needed.

Back in April 2024, Fedora Linux 40 included the KDE “MegaRelease 6” – the Plasma desktop environment, Frameworks application libraries (with the underlying Qt platform), and Gear application suite were all upgraded to new versions in one fell swoop to deliver improved performance and reliability. Since then, continuous upstream updates by the KDE teams to fix bugs and deploy new features were quickly deployed to Fedora 40 users, including breakthroughs such as Explicit Sync in Wayland (which addressed the most prevalent graphical glitches on Nvidia devices)!

Now, as part of the Fedora Linux 41 release, the KDE Spin again includes the very latest with the recently released KDE Plasma 6.2, up-to-date KDE applications and core system packages, and new ways of using Plasma on different devices.

KDE are kicking off their 2024 end-of-year fundraiser just in time for Halloween!

Even if the spine-tingling horrors of the long dark night of Walpurgis are mostly imaginary, the sinister threats of predatory proprietary software providers remain all too real.

Fear not! We, the KDE community, will help you, your friends, family, company, and community banish all the creepy and insidious proprietary software that haunts your computers, phones, and household appliances.

But we can't do it alone! We need you to help us fight the good fight against the tech-ghouls from beyond. Use the form to donate any amount to our fundraiser (or become a regular donor to our community) and help us keep the dark forces of proprietary software at bay.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21800855

Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas. Both workers were members of a coalition of employees called “No Azure for Apartheid” that has opposed Microsoft’s sale of its cloud-computing technology to the Israeli government.

But they contended that Thursday’s event was similar to other Microsoft-sanctioned employee giving campaigns for people in need. Mohamed, who is from Egypt, said he now needs a new job in the next two months to transfer a work visa and avoid deportation.

Google earlier this year fired more than 50 workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war. The firings stemmed from internal turmoil and sit-in protests at Google offices centered on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.

Welcome to a new issue of "This Week in KDE Apps"! Every week we cover as much as possible of what's happening in the world of KDE apps.

This week's changes and improvements cover a wide range of applications, from audio apps (including the classic Amarok, which is making a comeback) to Kate getting improvements to its integrated Git features.

In between, you have everything from new functionalities for note-taking utilities and media players, to upgrades in financial software and mobile apps.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21439893

Meta has a Palestine problem. If you use Facebook or Instagram, you’ve probably seen the censorship yourself. Dena Takruri uncovers an internal culture of censorship, intimidation and fear within Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook.

She speaks to Meta employees who’ve tried to fix the problem or speak out, and say they were silenced or even fired. She also investigates Meta leaders’ deep ties to Israel, which may explain why it’s suppressing and censoring Palestine content for billions of users around the world.

Meta has a Palestine problem. If you use Facebook or Instagram, you’ve probably seen the censorship yourself. Dena Takruri uncovers an internal culture of censorship, intimidation and fear within Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook.

She speaks to Meta employees who’ve tried to fix the problem or speak out, and say they were silenced or even fired. She also investigates Meta leaders’ deep ties to Israel, which may explain why it’s suppressing and censoring Palestine content for billions of users around the world.