In 2016, Linux turned 25. When it began, it was a student project. Today, Linux runs everything. From smartphones to supercomputers to web servers to clouds to the car, it's all Linux, all the time. Even the one exception, the end-user, is moving to Linux. Android is now the most popular end-user operating system.
A majority of Mozilla users were served encrypted pageloads for the first time yesterday, meaning their web browsing data was secured from snoopers and hackers while in transit. The HTTPS milestone was tweeted by Josh Aas, head of the Let’s Encrypt initiative which has been working to help smaller websites switch to encrypting their web traffic.
Members of the European Union (EU) on Friday approved the final version of the Privacy Shield, a pact between the EU and the US that sets the terms for trans-Atlantic transfers of personal data. The EU Commission will formally adopt the agreement on Tuesday.
There has been a lot of talk about mobile ad blocking lately, but on the desktop, this is an old phenomenon. Until now, however, desktop ad blocking was all about plugins. But Opera is about to change this and the latest developer release of the company’s desktop browser now includes a built-in ad blocker.
Mozilla has temporarily reinstated support for a vulnerable cryptographic algorithm after some Firefox users were unable to access encrypted HTTPS websites. The browser maker blamed the unintended consequence of deprecating support for SHA-1 certificates on man-in-the-middle devices, such as security scanners and anti-virus products.
After being birthed in September, Mozilla's Suggested Tiles feature that showed users advertised destinations when opening a new tab has not yet seen its first Christmas, but its usage is already winding down.
Mozilla vice president of Content Services Darren Herman said in a blog post that the browser maker would be ending advertising through its Tiles experiment, and would see out its current commitments as the feature is killed off over the next few months.
The Mozilla Foundation looks like it’s about to take another step in its bid to sharpen its focus on its Firefox browser and continue with its fightback to gain more market share against competitors like Google Chrome. According to a company-wide memo penned today by chairperson Mitchell Baker (and confirmed by Mozilla to be from her), Mozilla wants to once and for all hive off support for Thunderbird, the email, chat and news client it first developed in 2004 but effectively stopped directly updating it in 2012.
Back in 2012, Mozilla launched Thimble, an online code editor for teaching the basics of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Over time, though, things got pretty quiet around the project as other browser-based code editors like Brackets and full online IDEs like Nitrous took center stage. Today, however, Mozilla relaunched Thimble with a major redesign and a slew of new features.
Google has shown traffic conditions for a while now, but this update actually brings with it explanations as to why various routes will be faster, alerts for a blockage or traffic jam up ahead, and of course, alternate routes to each destination. If/When a traffic jam pops up while you’re en route, Google Maps will also tell you about how long it expects you to be waiting if you stay on the same path, or give you other options.
More than four years ago, Steve Jobs declared war on Flash and heralded HTML5 as the way to go. You could be forgiven if you thought the HTML5 standard — the follow-up to 1997’s HTML 4 — has long been set in stone, given that developers, browser vendors and the press have been talking about it for years now. In reality, however, HTML5 was still in flux — until today. The W3C today published its Recommendation of HTML5 — the final version of the standard after years of adding features and making changes to it.