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Tuta - formerly Tutanota - introduces it's calendar application
Last week, Tuta, formerly Tutanota, introduced the Tuta Calendar app for Android and iOS. This was previously integrated into the email client and can still be used there.
However, the developers are in favour of using the separate calendar app for several reasons. These include a widget, which is currently under development and provides an overview of the day without having to open an app first. In addition, the birthdays of contacts stored in encrypted form in the Tuta address book will soon be displayed in the new calendar app.
Another reason is the cross-platform synchronisation on both Android and iOS. In addition, although it is a separate app, Tuta Calendar is integrated into the Tuta email client: Calendar invitations that arrive in the Tuta mailbox are automatically displayed in Tuta Calendar. Calendar invitations can also be sent from the calendar app via the Tuta Mail account.
The data in the calendar app is secured with the same post-quantum encryption as the Tuta email service. Push notifications follow the zero-knowledge principle and do not reveal any information. Tuta Calendar is already available on Google Play.
11-Oct 2024
Debian updates the solver in the package manager APT
A solver is an algorithm for determining and resolving dependencies and conflicts when updating the package inventory under Debian. The package management system Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) was introduced 26 years ago and the currently implemented solver is just as old.
In view of the changed requirements since then, it is time to develop a new solver. Given the complexity of the task, it is not surprising that developer Andreas Klode has been working on this task in his spare time since 2010.Solver3 is currently in the alpha phase and was introduced experimentally in APT 2.9.3. To test the new solver, the solver 3.0 option is also specified for actions with APT. Klode has described the functionality of Solver3 in his blog. He gave a presentation on the topic at the recent Debian developer conference DebConf 24.
Anyone who has maintained a Debian installation for many years and therefore probably has an extensive package inventory will know that APT takes a long time to update the sources during an apt update.This is because APT spends 45% of its time checking the entire dependency tree during updates and upgrades. This means that all dependencies in the archive are run through and checked to see whether they are all satisfied or not.This is a huge waste of time, which worked 26 years ago because there were not many packages and even fewer dependencies in the archive. But nowadays things are far too complicated to take all the dependencies in the archive into account.
Solver3 runs through the necessary checks much faster and can therefore save up to 40 % of the time.The new solver has a number of other time-saving functions.Firstly, manually installed packages are not removed. An explanation is offered as to why a package is updated or removed, tracing the path the solver took to resolve the package dependencies. The problem of why most package managers are so slow was addressed by former Debian developer Michael Stapelberg back in 2019.
Aptitude as an alternative to APT has the command aptitude why, which explains why a package is installed and what it depends on.APT will also have this function, but it does not yet work in the v2.9.7 version currently available in Unstable. Over the years, Klode tried out various approaches based on different mathematic principles before arriving at the current Solver3.
Solver3 will still require a lot of work, as Klose emphasised.Packages for several architectures should only be limited to the architectures used. Manually created packages should only be removed if explicitly requested, and a replacement package should be determined if necessary.Obsolete packages should also only be considered as a last resort. Solver3 should be ready for productive use in February 2025 for Debian 13 Trixie and become standard with its presumed release in summer 2025 with APT 3.0.
31-Jul 2024
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