GNOME Circle Initiative for GNOME Platform Developers: 11/30/2020 The GNOME Project introduced the GNOME Circle Initiative to make it easier for third-party projects to enter the GNOME ecosystem. Until now, joining the GNOME project required a transition to the GNOME infrastructure and adherence to the project's rules of development, which was a barrier to the entry into the GNOME community of developers developing personal projects. With the help of GNOME Circle, it is planned to reduce the barrier to entry into the project and organize interaction with developers developing programs based on the GNOME platform. In order to become a member of the GNOME Circle, it is enough to develop a quality application or library that uses the GNOME platform or GTK library, and the code is distributed under an open source license approved by OSI . Developers who join the initiative are not required to follow the GNOME development schedule and develop on the GNOME infrastructure. For applications, it is desirable, but not required, to package in the Flatpak format, follow the GNOME interface design guidelines, and provide components for integration with the GNOME desktop (icon, desktop file, and screenshot for the application manager). For libraries, it is desirable to maintain glib, follow GNOME coding guidelines, and provide documentation. GNOME Circle does not accept projects that require a Code Transfer Agreement (CLA). GNOME Circle members, in addition to promoting their development more broadly, will have access to grants from the GNOME Foundation for conference travel and marketing. Participants will also be given access to GNOME services such as @ gnome.org email, blog hosting, video conferencing platform, Gitlab repository, and a Nextcloud based repository account. https://www.gnome.org/news/2020/11/gnome-circle/

End of support for CentOS 6, RHEL 6 and Scientific Linux 6: 11/30/2020 November 30 was the last day of support for the CentOS 6, RHEL 6 and Scientific Linux 6 branches, which have expired and will no longer be maintained. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 branch was conceived in November 2010 and has been supported for 10 years. All Scientific Linux 6 related packages have been moved to the archive, which will break the Scientific Linux 6 yum repos using the official servers. Users are encouraged to upgrade their systems to branches 7 or 8. For RHEL users, an additional paid Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) subscription is offered, updates with critical fixes will be released for RHEL 6 branch until June 30, 2024. Oracle Linux 6 support will end in March 2021. https://www.mail-archive.com/scientific-linux-announce@listserv.fnal.gov/msg00057.html

OpenZFS 2.0 release, ZFS implementation for Linux and FreeBSD 12/01/2020 After a year and a half of development , the OpenZFS 2.0 project has been released , developing the implementation of the ZFS file system for Linux and FreeBSD. The project became known as “ZFS on Linux” and was previously limited to developing a module for the Linux kernel. After the transfer of support for FreeBSD, it was recognized as the main implementation of OpenZFS and was removed from the mention of Linux in the name. All ZFS development activity for Linux and BSD systems is now concentrated in one project and is being developed in a common repository. OpenZFS is already used in the FreeBSD upstream (HEAD) and is included with Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Sabayon Linux and ALT Linux distributions. Packages with the new version will soon be prepared for major Linux distributions, including Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL / CentOS. FreeBSD keeps the code in sync with the current OpenZFS codebase. OpenZFS has been tested with Linux kernels 3.10 through 5.9 (last release supported kernels from 2.6.32) and FreeBSD 12.2, stable / 12 and 13.0 (HEAD) branches. https://zfsonlinux.org/

Lighttpd 1.4.56 http server release with HTTP / 2 support 12/01/2020 The lighttpd 1.4.56 lightweight http server has been released . The new version contains 600 changes. The most significant innovation is the implementation of support for the HTTP / 2 protocol , which is still disabled by default and requires the installation of the “server.h2proto” and “server.h2c” options in server.feature-flags. https://www.lighttpd.net/2020/11/29/1.4.56/

NethServer 7.9 server distribution is available 02.12.2020 NethServer 7.9 is out, which offers a modular solution for rapid deployment of servers in small offices or medium-sized enterprises. The distribution is based on the CentOS 7.9 package base and provides a web interface for managing the available server components. The size of the installation image is 1.2 GB. An online demo is provided to get acquainted with the capabilities of the interface . The project developments are distributed under free licenses. https://community.nethserver.org/t/nethserver-7-9-released-roasted-chestnut-edition/17002

Budgie Desktop 10.5.2 release: 03.12.2020 The developers of Solus have unveiled Budgie 10.5.2 desktop. The Budgie desktop is based on GNOME technologies, but uses its own implementations of the GNOME Shell, panel, applets, and notification system. The project code is distributed under the GPLv2 license. In addition to the Solus distribution, the Budgie desktop also comes in the form of an official Ubuntu edition . To manage windows, Budgie uses the Budgie Window Manager (BWM), an advanced modification of the basic Mutter plugin. All panel elements are applets, which allows you to flexibly customize the composition, change the placement and replace the implementation of the main panel elements to your taste. Among the available applets are the classic application menu, task switching system, area with a list of open windows, viewing virtual desktops, power management indicator, volume control applet, system status indicator and clock. https://getsol.us/2020/12/02/budgie-10-5-2-released/

SQLite 3.34.0 Release: 03.12.2020 The release of SQLite 3.34.0 , a lightweight DBMS designed as a plug-in library, has been published. SQLite code is distributed as a public domain, i.e. can be used without restrictions and free of charge for any purpose. SQLite developers are financially supported by a specially created consortium that includes companies such as Adobe, Oracle, Mozilla, Bentley and Bloomberg. https://www.sqlite.org/changes.html

Manjaro Linux 20.2 Distribution Released: 03.12.2020 Manjaro Linux 20.2 , built on the base of Arch Linux and aimed at novice users, is out . The distribution kit is notable for the presence of a simplified and user-friendly installation process, support for automatic hardware detection and installation of the drivers necessary for its operation. Manjaro comes in live builds with KDE (2.9 GB), GNOME (2.6 GB) and Xfce (2.6 GB) graphical environments. Builds with Budgie, Cinnamon, Deepin, LXDE, LXQt, MATE and i3 are additionally developed with community participation . https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-20-2-nibia-got-released/41034

Beaker 1.0 Browser with P2P Platform for Decentralized Sites Introduced: 04.12.2020 After two years of development , the first major release of the experimental Beaker 1.0 web browser, notable for its built-in support for Hypercore P2P communications, is out. With the help of this protocol, a decentralized content delivery network is made, the nodes of which are browser users. Such a network makes it possible to host web applications that do not require servers. The project code is written in JavaScript using the Chromium engine and Electron platform, and is distributed under the MIT license. It is available for Linux, macOS and Windows. https://beakerbrowser.com/2020/12/02/beaker-1-0.html

December update of the Raspberry Pi OS: 12/04/2020 The Raspberry Pi project developers have published the December update for the Raspberry Pi OS (Raspbian) distribution based on the Debian 10 “Buster” package base. Three images are available for download - a reduced ( 438 MB ) for server systems, with a desktop ( 1.1 GB ) and a complete one with an additional set of applications (2.9 GB). The distribution comes with a custom PIXEL environment (a fork of LXDE). About 35 thousand packages are available for installation from the repositories . https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/new-raspberry-pi-os-release-december-2020/

Release of the NPM package manager 7.1: 12/05/2020 NPM 7.1 , included in the Node.js distribution and used for distributing JavaScript modules, has been published. The NPM repository serves over 1.3 million packages, which are used by about 12 million developers. About 75 billion downloads are recorded per month. To install NPM 7.1 without waiting for a new version of Node.js, you can run the command “npm i -g npm @ 7”. https://blog.npmjs.org/post/636604708661886976/release-v710

T2 SDE 20.10 meta-distribution released: 05.12.2020 10 years after the last stable release , the release of the meta-distribution T2 SDE 20.10 has been published, which provides an environment for creating your own distributions, cross-compiling and keeping package versions up to date. Distributions can be built based on Linux, Minix, Hurd, OpenDarwin, Haiku, and OpenBSD. Popular distributions based on the T2 system include Puppy Linux. The new release adds support for ARM64 and RISCV architectures, and improves cross-compilation tools. Support for legacy systems including Sony PS3, Sgi Octane and Sun UltraSPARC is retained. More than a thousand new packages included. 11,743 packages were updated, including new versions of the Linux kernel, GCC, LLVM, Clang, Rust, X.org, Wayland, Firefox, KDE and GNOME. https://www.mail-archive.com/t2@t2-project.org/msg03851.html

Debian 10.7 Update: 12/05/2020 The seventh corrective update for the Debian 10 distribution is out, which includes the accumulated package updates and fixed bugs in the installer. The release includes 54 updates that address stability issues and 38 updates that address vulnerabilities. Of the changes in Debian 10.7, an upgrade to the latest stable versions of the mariadb, openjdk, eas4tbsync, tbsync, tor and ublock-origin packages were highlighted. They added code to enigmail to simplify migration to Thunderbird's native OpenPGP implementation. https://www.debian.org/News/2020/20201205

First public release of the Radicle decentralized collaborative development platform: 12/07/2020 The first beta release of the P2P platform Radicle and its associated desktop client Radicle Upstream was just introduced. The project aims to create a decentralized service for collaborative development and storage of code, similar to GitHub and GitLab, but not tied to specific servers, not subject to censorship and working using the resources of P2P network participants. The proxy code for the node operation is written in Rust, in the graphical client in TypeScript, Svelte and Electron. The developments of the project are distributed under the GPLv3 license. The images are prepared for Linux (AppImage) and macOS. https://twitter.com/radicle/status/1333403629961797635

Xine 1.2.11 released: 12/07/2020 Xine-lib 1.2.11 , a multi-platform library for playing video and audio files, as well as a set of related plugins, is out. The library can be used in a number of video players , including xine-ui , gxine , kaffeine . Xine supports multithreading, supports a large number of popular and little-known formats and codecs, and can process both local content and multimedia streams transmitted over the network. The modular architecture makes it easy to add functionality through plugins. There are 5 main classes of plugins: input plugins for receiving data (FS, DVD, CD, HTTP, etc.), output plugins (XVideo, OpenGL, SDL, Framebuffer, ASCII, OSS, ALSA, etc.), plugins for unpacking media containers (demuxers), plugins for decoding video and audio data, plugins for applying effects (echo cancellation, equalizer, etc.). https://sourceforge.net/projects/xine/files/xine-lib/1.2.11/README.txt/view

Stable release of the cross-platform browser Vivaldi 3.5 08.12.2020 The release of the proprietary Vivaldi 3.5 browser , developed on the basis of the Chromium engine, has been published . The browser is being developed by the former developers of Opera Presto and aims to create a customizable and functional browser that preserves the privacy of user data. The main features include a tracking and ad blocker, note, history and bookmark managers, private browsing mode, end-to-end encrypted sync, tab grouping mode, sidebar, configurator with a large number of settings, horizontal tab display mode, as well as in test mode built-in email client, rss reader and calendar. The browser interface is written in JavaScript using the React library, Node.js framework, Browserify and various ready-made NPM modules. https://vivaldi.com/blog/

Bash 5.1 shell release 08.12.2020 After two years of development, a new version of the GNU Bash 5.1 shell has been published , which is the default in most Linux distributions. At the same time , a release of the readline 8.1 library was formed , which is used in bash to organize command line editing. https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bash/2020-12/msg00002.html

Red Hat stops development of CentOS 8 in favor of test CentOS Stream 12/08/2020 The Red Hat company announced the termination of development of the CentOS 8 distribution in its classic version, which implies the provision of the most approximate rebuilds of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases. Instead of classic CentOS, users will be prompted to upgrade to the continuously updated edition of CentOS Stream , which can be seen as an intermediate between RHEL and Fedora, at the beta level of RHEL. Formation of updates for classic CentOS 8 will be discontinued on December 31, 2021. Maintaining the CentOS 7 branch will continue unchanged until 2024. Unlike regular CentOS, in CentOS Stream, instead of rebuilding the original packages used in the already formed stable RHEL releases, it offers builds based on the experimental and unstabilized packages generated for the next RHEL interim release. CentOS Stream allows earlier access to the capabilities of future RHEL releases, but at the price of this stability at the beta level. https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/centos-stream-building-innovative-future-enterprise-linux

CRUX 3.6 Linux distribution release 09.12.2020 After a year and a half of development , the release of an independent lightweight Linux distribution CRUX 3.6 has been prepared , developed since 2001 in accordance with the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) concept and aimed at experienced users. The goal of the project is to create a simple and transparent distribution kit for users based on BSD-like init scripts, having the most simplified structure and containing a relatively small number of ready-made binary packages. CRUX maintains a ports system that allows you to easily install and update FreeBSD / Gentoo style applications. The size of the iso image prepared for x86-64 architecture is 819MB. https://lists.crux.nu/pipermail/crux/2020-December/006755.html

QEMU 5.2 Emulator Release 09.12.2020 The release of the QEMU 5.2 project is presented . As an emulator, QEMU allows you to run a program compiled for one hardware platform on a system with a completely different architecture, for example, to run an application for ARM on an x86-compatible PC. In virtualization mode in QEMU, the performance of executing code in an isolated environment is close to the hardware system due to the direct execution of instructions on the CPU and the use of the Xen hypervisor or the KVM module. https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2020-12/msg01961.html

Apache NetBeans 12.2 IDE Release 09.12.2020 Apache Software Foundation Organization introduced an integrated development environment for the Apache the NetBeans 12.2 , which provides support for Java SE programming languages, Java EE, PHP, C / C ++, JavaScript and Groovy. This is the seventh release made by the Apache Foundation since Oracle donated NetBeans code. https://blogs.apache.org/netbeans/entry/announce-apache-netbeans-12-2

CentOS founder started development of new free RHEL build - Rocky Linux 09.12.2020 Gregory Kurtzer , founder of the CentOS project, when discussing Red Hat's transformation of the stable CentOS platform into a test rolling CentOS Stream distribution, announced his intention to create a new rebuild of RHEL and invited other developers to join this initiative. For development of the new distribution, Gregory registered the rockylinux.org domain and created a repository on GitHub. The project is still at the planning stage and the formation of a development team. It is stated that Rocky Linux will continue the tradition of classic CentOS and will be developed by the forces of the community. The project will provide a fully compatible Red Hat Enterprise Linux rebuild that demonstrates the level of stability of RHEL releases and is suitable for use in production projects and enterprises. To finance the project, resources will be attracted from Control Command , which is headed by Gregory. http://gmkurtzer.github.io/

OpenWrt update 18.06.9 and 19.07.5 10.12.2020 Updates for the OpenWrt 19.07.5 and 18.06.9 distribution have been published. They are intended for use in various network devices such as routers and access points. OpenWrt supports many different platforms and architectures and has a build system that allows you to easily and conveniently cross-compile, including various components in the assembly, which makes it easy to create a ready-made firmware or disk image adapted for specific tasks with the desired set of pre-installed packages. Assemblies are generated for 37 target platforms. The OpenWrt 18.06.9 release will be the last in the 18.06 series, users are encouraged to upgrade to the 19.07 branch. https://openwrt.org/releases/19.07/notes-19.07.5

KDE Applications 20.12 Release 12/11/2020 The December Cumulative Update of Applications (20.12) developed by the KDE Project is presented. In total, as part of the December update , releases of 224 programs, libraries and plugins were published . Information about the availability of Live-assemblies with new releases of applications can be found on this page: https://community.kde.org/Plasma/Live_Images

CUPS author has released PAPPL 1.0, a framework for organizing print output 12.12.2020 Michael R Sweet, the original author of the CUPS printing system, who after leaving Apple switched to developing the CUPS fork of the OpenPrinting project, presented the first stable release of PAPPL , a new protocol-based CUPS Printer Applications framework. IPP Everywhere, which is recommended as a replacement for traditional printer drivers. The framework code is written in C and is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license with the exception that allows linking with code under the GPLv2 and LGPLv2 licenses. The framework was originally designed to support the LPrint printing system and Gutenprint drivers , but can be used to implement any printer and driver support for printing on desktop, server, and embedded systems. The PAPPL is expected to help accelerate the advancement of IPP Everywhere technology instead of classic drivers and facilitate support for other IPP-based programs such as AirPrint and Mopria . PAPPL includes a built-in implementation of the IPP Everywhere protocol , which provides the means to access printers locally or over the network and process print requests. IPP Everywhere operates in “driverless” mode and, unlike PPD drivers, does not require static configuration files. Interaction with printers is supported both directly through a local printer connection via USB, and over the network using the AppSocket and JetDirect protocols . Data can be sent to the printer in JPEG, PNG, PWG Raster, Apple Raster and “raw” formats. https://github.com/michaelrsweet/pappl

OBS Studio 26.1 Video Streaming Release 12/14/2020 Published edition package OBS Studio 26.1 for streaming, compositing and video recording. The code is written in C / C ++ and is distributed under the GPLv2 license. Assemblies are generated for Linux, Windows and macOS. The development goal of OBS Studio is to create a free version of the Open Broadcaster Software application, not tied to the Windows platform, supporting OpenGL and extensible via plugins. The difference is also the use of a modular architecture, which means the separation of the interface and the core of the program. Supports transcoding of original streams, video capture during games and streaming to Twitch, Facebook Gaming, YouTube, DailyMotion, Hitbox and other services. To ensure high performance, it is possible to use hardware acceleration mechanisms (for example, NVENC and VAAPI). https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/releases/tag/26.1.0

CloudLinux announced the development of an alternative to CentOS 8 12/15/2020 CloudLinux, which develops a commercial distribution kit of the same name based on the RHEL package base, has announced the Lenix project , within which, with the participation of the community, it is planned to develop a free clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux similar to CentOS. More than a million dollars a year will be allocated for the development of the project . It is noted that CloudLinux has ten years of experience in creating assemblies based on RHEL source packages, a ready-made infrastructure and a large staff of developers and maintainers. The motivation for developing a free RHEL build is associated with promoting a commercial Linux kernel update service without rebooting KernelCare and providing extended support services . For example, CloudLinux provides an extended support service for CentOS 6 that continues to publish updates until 2024, despite the end of the maintenance cycle of the CentOS 6 branch. Like CentOS, Lenix will be free, open source and binary compatible with RHEL 8. The first release is slated for the first quarter of 2021. Updates for Lenix 8 will be released until 2029. For migration from CentOS 8, a toolkit will be prepared that will allow one command to replace repositories and keys from CentOS to Lenix. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201215005483/en/CloudLinux-Commits-More-Than-1-Million-a-Year-to-CentOS-Replacement

Tails 4.14 distribution release 12/15/2020 The release of the specialized distribution kit Tails 4.14 (The Amnesic Incognito Live System), based on the Debian package base and designed to provide anonymous access to the network, has been formed. Anonymous login to Tails is provided by the Tor system. All connections, except for traffic through the Tor network, are blocked by the packet filter by default. Encryption is used to store user data in the save user data mode between runs. A 1 GB iso image has been prepared for downloading . It can work in Live mode. In the new issue Tails updated tor 0.4.4.6, Thunderbird 78.5.1 and Tor Browser 10.0.7 (officially releases Tor Browser 10.0.7 and Firefox 84 will be released in the evening), The Linux kernel has been updated to release 5.9. The Unifont font has been removed from the distribution. https://tails.boum.org/news/version_4.14/index.en.html