Rest in peace, Fedora Linux 27
Fedora may be the best overall desktop Linux operating system, but it trails Ubuntu in one major area – support. You see, Canonical's distribution has “Long Term Support” versions, some of which now have an insane 10 years of support. Fedora, by comparison, only offers support for one month following two subsequent major releases. This can vary based on delays, but it will probably average a bit more than a year.
For instance, Fedora 27 was released November 14, 2017, and Fedora 29 was released on October 30, 2018. This means as of today, November 30, Fedora 27 has reached end of life mere weeks after its one-year anniversary.
If you are running version 27 of Fedora, don't worry – your computer won’t stop functioning. However, without bug fixes and security patches, it would be foolish not to upgrade to the latest and greatest. While you technically can upgrade to the still-supported Fedora 28, you might as well go the full distance and install version 29 instead. It's the best Fedora yet, and you will be glad you did.
Source: https://betanews.com/2018/11/30/fedora-linux-27-eol/
BlackArch Linux Updated Is Over 10GB, but Full of New Tools
The growingly popular Arch-Linux based BlackArch Linux has just been updated to version 2018.12.01 (yes, they are numbering releases based on the date), and it brings a whole slew of new tools – 150, to be exact. Users will find that this brings BlackArch Linux’s total amount of tools to around 2000. BlackArch Linux is a pen-testing focused OS, much similar to Kali Nethunter. That is why it’s called BlackArch (for BlackHats, right?).
In this latest release, the Linux kernel has been upgraded to kernel version 4.19.4, as well as updates to all of the window manager menus and system packages.
Furthermore, a ‘bactl’ package was added, which is a script that allows the user to configure their BlackArch environment. The wicd service has been enabled by default, while dwm and wmii window managers were removed.
You can view the full changelog for this BlackArch Linux update over on the distro’s blog, as well as see the entire list of tools (its super long) included in the OS on the tools page.
At over 10GB in size, the OS is still small enough to be placed on a USB media or VirtualBox. However, the OS also offers a smaller “netinst” image, for network installations.
Source: https://appuals.com/blackarch-linux-updated-is-over-10gb-but-full-of-new-tools/
Void Linux: Built From Scratch for Full Independence
Void Linux is a bit out of the ordinary. It offers an unusually interesting alternative to many of the traditional Linux distros affiliated with a larger Linux family such as Debian or Ubuntu or Arch.
Void Linux is an independently developed, rolling-release, general-purpose operating system. That means that its software is either homegrown or plain-vanilla compiled.
Some of Void Linux's under-the-hood specifics include its own package management system, dubbed “XBPS,” for X-binary Package System, an initialization system called “runit,” and integration of LibreSSL instead of OpenSSL for Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol.
In fact, Void Linux was among the first distributions to switch to LibreSSL by default, replacing OpenSSL when developers forked from OpenSSL in 2014. Their goal was to modernize the code base, improve security, and apply best practice development processes.
The latest release, version 20181111, comes with an interesting selection of desktop environments: Base system, Enlightenment, Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce, LXDE and LXQt.
However, Void Linux is not a computing platform for everyone. It is not a typical distro. It works out-of-the-box with barebones basic system tools and a few software packages, such as Web browser, file manager and text editor.
Anything else you must add from a limited Void Linux repository. More software is available from binary packages that you must compile before use.
Source: https://www.linuxinsider.com/story/Void-Linux-Built-From-Scratch-for-Full-Independence-85703.html
Nutty: GUI Network Monitoring And Information Tool For Ubuntu, Linux Mint And elementary OS
Nutty is a graphical network information and monitoring tool. The application can display network card information, network and data usage, test upload and download speed, provide information on active ports, and more.
While Nutty is made for elementary OS, it also works on Ubuntu or Linux Mint (packages also exist for openSUSE and Arch Linux). The information it displays comes from various tools / packages like net-tools, nmap, traceroute, vnstat, nethogs, wireless-tools, iproute2, and pciutils.
The application has some hard-coded commands for Ubuntu-based Linux distributions and as a result, some of its features may not work on other Linux distributions. However, there's work to externalize all commands from the code in order to make it easier to work with other Linux distributions.
Source: https://www.linuxuprising.com/2018/12/nutty-gui-network-monitoring-and.html
Linus floats Linux kernel that 'fixes' Intel CPUs' Spectre slowdown
Linus Torvalds has stuck to his “no swearing” resolution with his regular Sunday night Linux kernel release candidate announcement.
Probably the most important aspect of the weekend's release candidate is that it, in a way, improves the performance of STIBP, which is a mitigation that stops malware exploiting a Spectre security vulnerability variant in Intel processors.
In November, it emerged that STIBP (Single Thread Indirect Branch Predictors), which counters Spectre Variant 2 attacks, caused nightmare slowdowns in some cases. The mitigation didn't play well with simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) aka Intel's Hyper Threading, and software would take up to a 50 per cent performance hit when the security measure was enabled.
Linux 4.20-rc5, emitted on Sunday, addresses this performance issue by making the security defense optional: processes can decide to use it via a system call, and all SECCOMP processes get it. Thus, if an application needs the side-channel mitigation and doesn't suffer a slowdown hit, it can enable STIBP.
In other words, apps can decide to take their chances and not apply the STIBP defenses for Spectre. There is, to our knowledge, no known malware in the wild actively leveraging the Spectre CPU holes to potentially steal secrets and other information from running processes.
Source: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/12/04/linux_kernel_spectre_mitigation/
DragonFly BSD 5.4 released
Just under eight months after 5.2, version 5.4 has now been released by DragonFly BSD. In version 5.4 of the free, originally from FreeBSD 4 derived operating system numerous improvements and extensions were made. One of them is the improved support for asymmetric NUMA systems. This concerns systems where the processors can not access all of the memory directly, which is apparently implemented in the AMD Threadripper 2990WX. In DragonFly BSD 5.4, the scheduler has been adapted to preferentially place processes on CPUs that have direct access to memory, and memory management normalizes the memory queues for CPU nodes without directly attached memory.
The speed of the kernel has been optimized by trying to reduce lock conflicts and make better use of the cache. The Hammer2 file system has been debugged and is recommended as the root file system, except in cluster mode, which is not yet supported. DragonFly BSD now also has virtio drivers to run in virtual machines with significantly better performance.
Source: https://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/26565/dragonfly-bsd-54-freigegeben.html
AI-Based Algorithm Developed by Researchers Could Make Text Captchas Obsolete
British and Chinese researchers from UK's Lancaster University and China's Northwest University and Peking University have developed a new artificial intelligence-based attack against text captchas which could make them obsolete.
According to the research team behind the “Yet Another Text Captcha Solver: A Generative Adversarial Network Based Approach” paper, their new captcha solver does not need high volumes of real captchas as a training ground since it is not based on a machine-learning approach.
Moreover, the use of artificial intelligence makes the new captcha solver a lot less time consuming and labor intensive which makes it a viable solution even for consumer-grade computing systems.
The solver algorithm uses a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) technique which generates vast numbers of training captchas almost identical to the authentic ones with the help of a generator program.
In turn, the generated captchas will be used to train the solver algorithm, later tested and refined against real captchas from popular websites such as Microsoft, Wikipedia, eBay, and Google to obtain notably higher accuracy when compared to other captcha attack systems.
Mageia 7 Beta 1 Linux distribution now available for download
It's been almost a year and a half since the last major release of Mageia – version 6. With that said, Mageia 6.1 was released in October of this year, however. This can feel like an eternity for Linux users, when some distributions see major updates once or twice a year. Of course, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, dear Mageia users. After all, as the saying goes, “if it ain't broke, don't fix it.” Mageia 6.1 is great.
If you are chomping at the bit for a new major Mageia release, I have good news for you – the first beta of Mageia 7 is finally here.
“There is still a lot of work to come before Mageia 7 is ready, a big Qt and Plasma update, fixes for MATE and more checks on 32-bit hardware as well as the artwork for Mageia 7. We are all looking forward to implementing these changes and getting all of the rough edges polished out with all of the help from the community. This release will see the return of the Classical Installer as well as the Live Images, with the standard lineup of architectures and Desktop Environments – 32 and 64-bit Classical Installers; 64-bit Plasma, GNOME and Xfce Live DVD’s and a 32 bit Xfce Live DVD,” says Donald Stewart, Mageia.
Source: https://betanews.com/2018/12/08/mageia-7-beta-linux-download/
Free Software Foundation Received 1 Million USD from Handshake
The Free Software Foundation just received a series of earmarked charitable donations from Handshake. The donations amount to a total of $1 million USD. The FSF has already received a $1 million Bitcoin donation from the Pineapple Fund earlier this year. With all this funding, the FSF will be in a good position to develop necessary upgrades for the GNU Project, among other things.
The Free Software Foundation is of course a 501©(3) non-profit organization, founded by Richard Stallman of GNU Project fame. Richard Stallman founded the FSF in 1985, in order to support free software development. He had already founded the Free / Open Source Software Movement in 1983. Therefore, the FSF is basically the official funding source of the FOSSM.
The executive director of the Free Software Foundation, John Sullivan, had the following to say after FSF received the donations from Handshake:
“Building on the $1 million Bitcoin gift from the Pineapple Fund earlier this year, and our record high number of individual associate members, it is clear that software freedom is more important than ever to the world. We are now at a pivotal moment in our history, on the cusp of making free software the ‘kitchen table issue’ it must be. Thanks to Handshake and our members, the Free Software Foundation looks forward to scaling to the next level of free software activism, development, and community.”
Source:
https://appuals.com/free-software-foundation-received-1-million-usd-from-handshake/
Canonical makes Kubernetes moves
When last I spoke to Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical's founder, in Berlin, he told me that “enterprise Kubernetes runs on Ubuntu.“ Kubernetes, the most popular cloud container orchestration program, “makes life easier for people who want portability across public clouds. With multiple Kubernetes clusters you have one common way to run workloads on Linux over both private and public clouds.”
Of course, these days, it's hard to find an enterprise technology company that isn't pushing its Kubernetes credentials. Besides IBM/Red Hat, the acquisition made because of Kubernetes, Cisco, HPE, Microsoft, and Oracle, to name a few, are all adding Kubernetes to their software portfolios. Canonical, however, has been deploying Kubernetes almost since Google first rolled Kubernetes out the door in 2014.
For enterprise users, Canonical announced commercial support, Ubuntu Advantage, for Kubernetes clusters deployed using kubeadm. Kubeadm can be used to deploy production Kubernetes with DevOps provisioning systems such as Ansible or Terraform.
Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/canonical-makes-kubernetes-moves/
Pantheon Desktop Makes Linux Elementary
Elementary OS is an easy-to-use operating system that offers a fresh approach to running Linux.
Developers of U.S.-based Elementary OS recently released the community's annual major update, Juno 5. What makes this distro so nontraditional is its own desktop interface, called “Pantheon.”
The Pantheon desktop's design is very deliberate and extremely functional. It combines some similarities of the GNOME 3 Shell with the visual finesse of the OS X dock.
What you see and use on the screen gives Elementary OS a distinct look and feel. Even the software center app, which in typical Ubuntu-based distros has the same appearance as the Ubuntu package manager, is part of the community's well-maintained software distribution system.
AppCenter is a built-in app store for downloading both free and paid apps that are specifically designed for Elementary OS. In fact, the developers seem to stretch the concept of offering “free” open source applications.
For instance, a website statement maintains that “every single app in AppCenter is open source because we firmly believe in the world-changing power of freely-licensed code and open source software.” The developers also have apps offered with a price.
What's the catch? Ultimately, there is no catch. You can pay what you want – if you want to pay anything at all.
Source: https://www.technewsworld.com/story/Pantheon-Desktop-Makes-Linux-Elementary-85733.html
Mozilla Firefox 64 Is Now Available for All Supported Ubuntu Linux Releases
Mozilla Firefox 64.0 continues the “Quantum” series with new features and improvements, including better recommendations for US users by showing suggestions about new and relevant Firefox features, services, and extensions based on their browsing habits and enhanced tab management by allowing you to more easily and quickly close, move, pin, or bookmark tabs.
This release also makes it easier to manage performance via a new “Task Manager” accessible from the about:performance page, allowing users to view which tabs consume more CPU time so you can close them to conserve power, adds link time optimization (Clang LTO) for Linux and Mac users, as well as a new toolbar context menu option to remove add-ons.
Other noteworthy changes included in the Firefox 64.0 release are a redesigned about:crashes page to make it more clear when browser crashes are submitted to Mozilla and that locally removed crashes aren't removed from crash-stats.mozilla.com, makes live bookmarks and RSS feed preview available only via add-ons, and deprecates support for TLS certificates issued by Symantec.
FreeBSD 12.0 released
After releasing the first beta version of FreeBSD 12.0, several more beta versions and release candidates were created in quick succession. As always, developers have the rule that FreeBSD will not be released while there are problems. Now that they are fixed, FreeBSD 12.0 has been released. FreeBSD 12.0 will be released two years and two months after the last big new version 11.0. This has since been updated twice, so that the differences from FreeBSD 12.0 to FreeBSD 11.2 are sometimes small.
FreeBSD 12.0 updates among others OpenSSH to version 7.8p2 and Clang to 6.0.1. Numerous other programs received extensions or updates. The standard library got getrandom and getentropy functions compatible with Linux and other BSD systems.
The kernel now uses the VIMAGE option by default. The ext4 file system is now fully supported. Some drivers have also been updated or added, some obsolete ones have been removed. The DRM drivers for modern chips have been removed from the kernel, they are now installable through the ports collection. The kernel has the older and simpler drivers.
There were also many updates in the Ports collection. Among other things, KDE Plasma is now available in version 5.12.5. The release notes give more details.
FreeBSD 12.0 supports many architectures. Installation images are not available for everyone, but at least for x86 (32 and 64 bit), PowerPC (32 and 64 bit), Sparc 64 bit, ARM 64 bit, ARMv6 and ARMv7 (32 bit) with variants for Banana Pi, Beaglebone, Cubieboard, Cubieboard 2, Cubox Hummingboard, Generic Systems, Raspberry Pi B, Raspberry Pi 2 and 3, Panda Board and Wallboard. For aarch64, amd64, and i386, the project also offers preinstalled virtual machine images in the QCOW2, VHD, VMDK, and Raw formats. Images for the EC2 cloud from Amazon and the Google Compute Engine are also available.
Source: https://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/26595/freebsd-120-freigegeben.html
Opera brings a flurry of crypto features to its Android mobile browser
Crypto markets may be down, down, down, but that isn’t stopping Opera’s crypto features — first released in beta in July — from rolling out to all users of its core mobile browser today as the company bids to capture the “decentralized internet” flag early on.
Opera — the world’s fifth most-used browser, according to Statcounter — released the new Opera Browser for Android that includes a built-in crypto wallet for receiving and sending Bitcoin and other tokens, while it also allows for crypto-based commerce where supported. So on e-commerce sites that accept payment via Coinbase Commerce, or other payment providers, Opera users can buy using a password or even their fingerprint.
Those are the headline features that’ll get the most use in the here and now, but Opera is also talking up its support for “Web 3.0” — the so-called decentralized internet of the future based on blockchain technology.
For that, Opera has integrated the Ethereum web3 API, which will allow users of the browser to access decentralized apps (Dapps) based on Ethereum.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/13/phantomware-of-the-opera/?guccounter=1
Chrome OS 71 rolling out w/ ‘Better Together’ Android integration, Linux updates, more
Following a Google Material Theme update in September and a complete launcher redesign aimed at tablets and other touchscreen devices, Chrome OS 71 is rolling out. A big focus of this update is improving the experience of owning a Chromebook and an Android device.
This integration between Chrome OS devices and Android phones is aptly named “Better Together.” Upon updating to Chrome OS 71, a notification notes how “Your devices work even better together.” Tapping the alert or heading to the new “Connected devices” section in Settings opens a prompt noting what this entails. Setup involves confirming the Google Account used on both the laptop and phone.
Available functionality varies by both phone and Chromebook. On a Pixel phone, Better Together brings together the existing Instant Tethering feature to share internet from Android to a Chrome OS device. There is also Smart Unlock that allows a nearby phone to open a paired Chromebook.
All devices should benefit from the Messages for web integration that uses the same web app with QR code pairing procedure. A Chrome support document notes that Android 5.1 Lollipop is required on your phone for Better Together integrations to work.
For the most part, Better Together helps bring together existing features that were previously in different menus. Google does note that more integrations are coming over time.
Source: https://9to5google.com/2018/12/14/google-chrome-os-71-stable/
Tails 3.11 fixes security holes and offers small improvements
With the Tails distribution, users can surf the Internet securely and anonymously via the Tor network without cumbersome configuration. Above all, the new version 3.11 updates the supplied software.
So now runs in the background of the Linux kernel 4.18.20. The Tor Browser logs in version 8.0.4 and Thunderbird is included in version 60.3.0.
In addition to these updates, the developers have also changed two minor details: If Tails has downloaded an update, users must confirm the import of the same via a new dialog. In addition, if one operates Tails in a virtual machine, the system immediately warns the user that the host system may not be trusted.
All new features list the official release notes. Due to the bugs fixed, users should switch to Tails 3.11 as soon as possible.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux comes to Windows 10 in the form of WLinux Enterprise
Earlier in the year open-source software startup Whitewater Foundry brought WLinux to the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Not content with creating the first native Linux distribution for WSL, the company has now gone a step further, targeting enterprise users with WLinux Enterprise.
Whitewater Foundry says that WLinux Enterprise is the first product to support the industry-standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Windows Subsystem for Linux.
The company says that WLinux Enterprise allows for the integration of the most stable, secure, and reliable Linux distribution with Windows 10. It adds that the software has been designed for custom deployments in consultation with Whitewater Foundry experts.
With WLinux Enterprise, the company is targeting numerous sectors such as fintech and others that must adhere to strict security and regulatory requirements.
WLinux Enterprise is available in the Microsoft Store priced $99.99 – but at the moment you can buy it for just $4.99. It can also be purchased through other channels.
Source: https://betanews.com/2018/12/17/wlinux-enterprise-red-hat-enterprise-linux-windows-10/
Ubuntu Linux Devs Working To Further Reduce GNOME Shell CPU Usage
The development work of Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo is going on in full progress. In a related development, according to a recent report from Phoronix, the Ubuntu developers are working to reduce the CPU usage of the open source operating system.
Specifically, Canonical’s Daniel Van Vugt has shared his updates on different bug fixes that aim to reduce the GNOME Shell’s CPU usage by a third for maximized windows.
The biggest fix comes in the form of eliminating tons of CPU usage when a window redraws while touching the dock. The public Trello board of Ubuntu 19.04 development cycle also shows that there is a long list of latency bugs affecting the Shell when the frame rate is smooth.
Moreover, Gnome Shell shutters and jadders a lot more than other shells. The developers have already fixed tons of small bugs and they’re working to bring more changes to the operating system.
Source: https://fossbytes.com/ubuntu-reduce-gnome-shell-dock-cpu-usage/
Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS comes to Dell Precision 5530 and 3530 mobile workstations
While many people and companies are jumping on the Linux bandwagon these days, it is important to remember that Dell has long been a proponent of the open source kernel. It has offered Ubuntu on some of its computers – a gutsy move being such a major Microsoft partner. It may not seem major these days, but when one of the largest makers of Windows computers embraced Linux, it was monumental.
Dell remains a major Windows computer manufacturer, but its commitment to Ubuntu and open source ideology remains. The company has slowly been updating the pre-loaded version of Ubuntu from 16.04 to 18.04, with the XPS 13 (9370) getting the newest LTS variant in July. Now, two more Dell laptops are moving up to 18.04 – Precision 5530 and 3530 mobile workstations
George further says, “2018 has been a particularly busy one for Project Sputnik. The year had barely begun when the 7th generation XPS 13 developer edition debuted. In Spring the 16.04-based Precision xx30 mobile line began rolling out and in mid-summer the XPS 13 was upgraded from 16.04 to 18.04. With today's news we’re closing out the year with an upgrade of the Precision mobile line.”
VirtualBox 6.0 Released With Support For Linux 4.20 & Improved HiDPI
Oracle has released the much awaited VirtualBox 6.0, a popular virtualization software used for running different operating systems in a virtual machine. With its release, Oracle has brought some of the major changes in the user interface and has added a swathe of new features to the application.
Amongst the most notable changes in VirtualBox 6.0 is support for exporting a virtual machine to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, a revamped user interface with improved HiDPI and scaling support for high-end displays, 3D graphics support for Windows guests and VMSVGA 3D graphics emulation on Linux and Solaris guests.
Virtual 6.0 also brings support for surround speaker setups used in Windows 10 Build 1809, support for Hyper-V on Windows host for boosted performance and a new file manager for controlling guest file system and copying files between host and guest.
Additionally, Oracle has greatly improved the user interface that will speed up the process of setting up virtual machines. VirtualBox 6.0 will also support Linux 4.20 kernel which will be released soon. The changelog also says that the latest version of VirtualBox comes with added vboximg-mount on Apple hosts that will enable users to access the contents of guest disks on the host.
Source: https://fossbytes.com/virtualbox-6-0-released-with-support-for-linux-4-20-improved-hidpi/
Ubuntu-based Linux Mint 19.1 'Tessa' finally available with Cinnamon, MATE, or Xfce
The mainstreaming of Linux is accelerating every day. Many servers use Linux distributions, while Android remains the undisputed king of mobile. True, adoption of operating systems based on the open source kernel are still virtually nonexistent on the desktop, but as Windows 10 gets worse and worse, more and more home users may turn to Ubuntu, Google Chrome OS, and others. Just yesterday, Dell updated two of its mobile workstations to the latest Ubuntu LTS version.
If you are tired of the Windows 10 nonsense, and want to try an alternative operating system, Linux Mint is a great starting point. Make no mistake, however, even though it is a good option for beginners, many experts use it too. Today, the newest version becomes available for download – Linux Mint 19.1 “Tessa.” This follows a fairly short beta period.
Users can choose between three desktop environments – Xfce, MATE and Cinnamon versions are available immediately. KDE is no longer an option, as the Mint devs wisely dropped that DE over a year ago.
Source: https://betanews.com/2018/12/19/ubuntu-linux-mint-191-tessa/
FreeBSD wants to switch to Linux port code for ZFS
Shortly after Oracle took over Sun, community Forks formed, which continue to lead the open SOURCE projects of Sun under own guidance usually to today - so also for the file system ZFS developed originally for Solaris. Despite several attempts at coordinated collaboration, porting and ZFS implementations used for different operating systems are still different. However, the FreeBSD project now plans to change its source code for ZFS to the Linux port of the file system (ZoL). This will probably be the main source for the further development of ZFS.
So far, FreeBSD has used the implementation provided by the Opensolaris extension Illumos as the output for its ZFS code. One of the responsible developers, Matthew Macy, now reports on a mailing list from FreeBSD, that the so far remaining remaining commercial supporters of the ZFS code in Illumos, however, wants to switch to the ZoL implementation in the future.
In Illumos, the development of new functions will be very small or will not happen at all. ZoL, on the other hand, will continue to be active in the future and has already received important features or bug fixes in the past that did not end up in the code of Illumos and therefore not in FreeBSD.