fat binaries!

Fat binaries is an incredibly simple, powerful (and old) way to develop and deploy binaries. Recent languages such as Golang and Rust support it as a way to containerize their noscripts instead of using Docker. By "fat binaries", I refer to a binary that has been statically linked to all its dependencies. It doesn't seem great at first glance, I know.

There are a few reasons for this choice:

* *Simplicity of deployment*: the same way a Docker container runs your application with all its dependencies in an isolated environment, a fat binary doesn't have any external dependencies (except libstdc++ and libc)
* *Safety*: when you test a binary, you are certain that you are testing the exact same code as the one that will run in production. This might seem paranoid, but [you could imagine why](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Capital_Group#2012_stock_trading_disruption).
* *Performance*: static linking will always be faster: at the very least you will skip a jump through the PLT, at most you can benefit from in-lining

The main downside with fat binaries is that the binary itself is bigger - still much smaller than a Docker image... - this is not a problem for us at all, as we deploy them on our servers. Our main automated trading system is thus a binary around 150MB, 14MB stripped. Again, if the size would ever be an issue we could strip them, but so far it isn’t, so we don't.

​

**Tech fetishes are real**

Some engineers out there, get so hung-up on the technology, they forget to consider the context. For us, that is working backwards. We don’t contain our options by starting with a set container tech ;-). We consider the problem first and build from there.

This way of thinking is real, it’s called having a tech fetish, and we see it surprisingly often. Especially during interviews. And as you can probably guess, it's not our cup of tea.

​

David Gross,

Engineer at [Optiver](https://www.optiver.com/eu/en?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=blog-post&utm_campaign=optiver-eu-tech-blog-david)

https://redd.it/cdw9om
@r_linux

Proxmox VE 6.0 release with Ceph Nautilus and Corosync 3
https://www.proxmox.com/en/news/press-releases?view=article&id=133:proxmox-ve-6-0&catid=11:news

https://redd.it/cdvp0b
@r_linux

Office 365 declared illegal in German schools due to privacy risks.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/germany-threatens-to-break-up-with-microsoft-office-again/

https://redd.it/cdxb6w
@r_linux

ZFS on Linux still has annoying issues with ARC size
https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/linux/ZFSOnLinuxARCShrinkage

https://redd.it/cdwl7m
@r_linux

Proxmox VE 6.0 released
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/proxmox-ve-6-0-released.56001/

https://redd.it/cdy6my
@r_linux

Reproducing the Linux builds of Firefox 68
https://glandium.org/blog/?p=3923

https://redd.it/cdz56w
@r_linux

Using LightDM with an External Monitor on a Laptop or the Multi-monitor Setups
https://chaoticlab.io/posts/lightdm-extmonitor/

https://redd.it/cdxjks
@r_linux

How Suse is taking open source deeper into the enterprise
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252466754/How-Suse-is-taking-open-source-deeper-into-the-enterprise

https://redd.it/cdzwpa
@r_linux

Btrfs gets cleaned up & code refactoring for Linux 5.3
http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1907.1/05873.html

https://redd.it/ce292e
@r_linux

Tor Mode Add-on proposal for Firefox
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/meetings/2019Stockholm/Notes/FirefoxTorUpliftAndTorModeAddOn

https://redd.it/ce2z91
@r_linux

Snȯwflake: an addon by the Tor Project that lets you help censored users access the Tor network by just installing it!
https://snowflake.torproject.org/

https://redd.it/ce4d10
@r_linux

Flatpak devs close issue about supporting CLI apps
https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/1188

https://redd.it/ce5bis
@r_linux

Weekly Questions and Hardware Thread - July 17, 2019

Welcome to r/linux! If you're new to Linux or trying to get started this thread is for you. Get help here or as always, check out r/linuxquestions or r/linux4noobs

This megathread is for all your question needs. As we don't allow questions on r/linux outside of this megathread, please consider using r/linuxquestions or r/linux4noobs for the best solution to your problem.

Ask your hardware requests here too or try r/linuxhardware!

https://redd.it/ce7uqg
@r_linux

Linux Mint 19.2 "BETA" released
https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_tina_cinnamon.php

https://redd.it/ce7g9o
@r_linux

Discussion: the future of the operating system

It is well known that the architecture that GNU/Linux is built on is robust but old and especially POSIX feels outdated. also, some new operating systems (fuchsia, redox, haiku) are slowly emerging. there are few old but interesting OSes as well ( eg: Plan9, hurd ).

Now, what new inventions / breakthroughs / gradual upgrades do you expect in OS space? ( server / desktop / embedded etc.. ).. What features / techniques from existing research is interesting in this regard? I would like to hear a bit more about OS research....

https://redd.it/ce8j2d
@r_linux

The PGP Problem
https://latacora.micro.blog/2019/07/16/the-pgp-problem.html

https://redd.it/ce9drh
@r_linux

Tutanota now has an encrypted calendar, also available in the F-Droid app.
https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/free-encrypted-calendar

https://redd.it/cea74m
@r_linux

The Best Linux Distros 2019
https://writeabout.tech/programming/the-best-linux-distros-2018

https://redd.it/ceako0
@r_linux

SSH Tunneling Explained
https://3keys.dev/2019/07/17/ssh-tunnel/

https://redd.it/cead92
@r_linux

Found these great options/Debiandog
https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/7z7wnj/smallest_debian_distro/

https://redd.it/cec1nq
@r_linux

Checking Out Machine Check Exception (MCE) Errors in Linux
https://www.cnx-software.com/2019/07/17/machine-check-exception-mce-errors-linux/

https://redd.it/cebw7b
@r_linux