Linux on Alemasone

Red Star OS: Inside North Korea's Operating System

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 10:34:55 +0000

Red Star OS is North Korea’s operating system, a Linux distribution developed for internal use. Among security researchers, it is famous not for its appearance, which mimics macOS, but for a silent mechanism: it watermarks every file that passes through the computer with an identifier linked to the machine, allowing the tracking of how documents move from one person to another.

Studying it is interesting for a specific reason: it explicitly shows how an operating system can be built around control rather than around its users. Many of the techniques it uses exist elsewhere, albeit in a more discreet form.

How to Install Wine on Ubuntu to Run Windows Apps

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 22:27:10 +0000

Wine lets you run Windows programs on Ubuntu without installing Windows. Before we start, however, keep in mind that for games, there are tools built on top of Wine that handle everything automatically, and many office programs now have web or Linux versions. On its own, Wine remains the right choice for Windows programs that don’t have alternatives—usually management software and niche tools.

The name is a play on words: Wine Is Not an Emulator. It isn’t a virtual machine: Wine translates Windows requests from a program into equivalent Linux requests on the fly. You don’t need a Windows license and programs run at full speed, but it only works well if Wine knows all the functions that specific program uses. The latest stable version is 11, released in January 2026.

Remote Desktop from Windows to Ubuntu: Updated Guide

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 08:18:55 +0000

On recent versions of Ubuntu, you no longer need to install xRDP: the RDP server is already included and can be activated via Settings → System → Remote Desktop. From Windows, you connect using Remote Desktop Connection, which you already have. xRDP remains useful on older versions, on headless servers, and with desktop environments other than GNOME.

You will notice the difference: the integrated server works with Wayland, requires no extra packages, and doesn’t suffer from the session issues that caused the infamous black screen with xRDP. Ubuntu 22.04 already allows you to share your screen via RDP; starting with Ubuntu 24.04, you can also use remote access with a dedicated session of your own.