SUSE releases Rancher Desktop 1.0: 01/28/2022 SUSE has announced the release of Rancher Desktop 1.0.0, an open source application that provides a graphical interface for creating, running, and managing containers based on Kubernetes. The 1.0.0 release is marked as stable and marks the transition to a development process with a predictable release cycle and periodic corrective updates. The program is written in JavaScript using the Electron platform and distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. Rancher Desktop is similar to the proprietary product Docker Desktop and differs mainly in the use of the nerdctl CLI and runtime containerd to create and run containers, but in the future, Rancher Desktop plans to add support for Docker CLI and Moby. Rancher Desktop allows you to test containers and applications designed to run in containers on your workstation through a simple graphical interface before deploying them to production systems. Rancher Desktop allows you to select a specific version of Kubernetes to use, test your containers with different versions of Kubernetes, instantly launch containers without registering with Kubernetes services, build, get and host container images, and deploy your application in a container on the local system (network ports associated with containers are only accessible from localhost). https://www.suse.com/c/rancher_blog/rancher-desktop-1-0-0-has-arrived/

rqlite 7.0, a distributed fault-tolerant DBMS: 28.01.2022 The distributed DBMS rqlite 7.0 is out, which uses SQLite as a storage engine and allows you to organize the operation of a cluster from storages synchronized with each other. Features of rqlite; it is easy to install, deploy and maintain a distributed fault-tolerant storage, somewhat similar to etcd and Consul, but using a relational data model instead of a key/value format. The project code is written in Go and distributed under the MIT license. The Raft consensus algorithm is used to keep all nodes in sync. Rqlite uses the original SQLite library and the go-sqlite3 driver, on top of that runs a layer that processes client requests, performs replication to other nodes and monitors the consensus on the choice of the leader node. Changes to the database can only be made by the node that is selected as the leader, but write connections can be directed to other cluster nodes, which will return the address of the leader to repeat the request (they promise to add automatic forwarding of the call to the leader in the next version). The main emphasis is on fault tolerance, so the DBMS scales only on reads, and writes are the bottleneck. It is possible to run an rqlite cluster from a single node and such a solution can be used to provide SQLite access over HTTP without providing fault tolerance. The SQLite data on each node is not stored in a file, but in memory. At the layer level with the implementation of the Raft protocol, a log is kept of all SQLite commands that lead to a database change. This log is used for replication (replay level replication on other nodes), when starting a new node, or for recovering from a loss of connectivity. To reduce the size of the log, automatic packaging is used, which starts after a specified number of changes and leads to the commit of a snapshot, relative to which a new log is started (the state of the database in memory is identical to the snapshot + the accumulated change log). https://www.philipotoole.com/rqlite-7-0-designing-node-discovery-and-automatic-clustering/

Release of Nitrux 2.0: 30.01.2022 Nitrux 2.0.0, built on Debian, KDE technologies and the OpenRC initialization system, is avalable. The distribution develops its own desktop NX Desktop, which is an add-on for the KDE Plasma user environment, as well as the MauiKit user interface framework, which is a set of typical user applications is developed that can be used on both desktop systems and mobile devices. To install additional applications, AppImage is being promoted. The boot image size is 2.4 GB. NX Desktop offers a different styling, its own implementation of the system tray, notification center and various plasmoids, such as a network connection configurator and a multimedia applet for volume control and media playback control. Among the applications created using the MauiKit framework; the Index file manager, the Note text editor, the Station terminal emulator, the Clip music player, the VVave video player, the NX Software Center application control center and the Pix image viewer. The Maui Shell user environment, currenty a seperate development, which automatically adapts to the screen size and available input methods, and can be used not only on desktop systems, but also on smartphones and tablets. The environment develops the concept of “Convergence”, which implies the ability to work with the same applications both on the touch screens of a smartphone and tablet, and on large screens of laptops and PCs. The Maui Shell can be launched either with its Zpace composite server using Wayland, or by running a separate Cask shell inside an X server-based session. https://nxos.org/changelog/release-announcement-nitrux-2-0-0/

Minetest 5.5.0, an open source clone of MineCraft: 31.01.2022 Minetest 5.5.0, an open cross-platform version of the MineCraft game, which allows groups of players to jointly build various structures from standard blocks that form a semblance of a virtual world (sandbox genre). The game is written in C++ using the irrlicht 3D engine . The Lua language is used to create extensions. The Minetest code is licensed under the LGPL, and the game assets are licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Minetest ready builds are created for various distributions of Linux, Android, FreeBSD, Windows and macOS. https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=27754

Falkon 3.2.0 browser developed by the KDE project: 31.01.2022 After almost three years of development, the Falkon 3.2.0 browser was released, which replaced QupZilla after the project was taken over by the KDE community and development was transferred to the KDE infrastructure. The project code is distributed under the GPLv3 license. New in this release comes an integrated ad blocking subsystem (AdBlock). For blocking, you can use both external blacklists (EasyList by Adblock Plus), and add your own ad blocking rules; now making it useable as a daily driver. https://www.falkon.org/

Release of Tiny Core Linux 13: 31.01.2022 Tiny Core Linux 13.0, a minimalistic Linux distribution, has been released and can run on systems with 48 MB of RAM. The graphical environment of the distribution is based on the TinyX X server, the FLTK toolkit and the FLWM window manager. The distribution is loaded entirely into RAM and runs from memory. The new release updates system components including Linux kernel 5.15.10, glibc 2.34, gcc 11.2.0, binutils 2.37, e2fsprogs 1.46.4, util-linux 2.37.2 and busybox 1.34.1. The bootable iso image is only 16 MB. For 64-bit systems, a CorePure64 build is also available, with a size of 17 MB. Additionally, a CorePlus build (160 MB) is supplied, which includes a number of additional packages, such as a set of window managers (FLWM, JWM, IceWM, Fluxbox, Hackedbox, Openbox), an installer with the ability to install additional extensions, as well as a ready-made set of tools to provide exit to the network, including a manager for setting up Wifi connections. http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,25531.0.html

Trisquel 10.0 Free Linux Distribution Available: 01.02.2022 The completely free Linux distribution Trisquel 10.0, based on the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS package base and focused on use in small businesses, educational institutions and home users, is out. Trisquel is personally endorsed by Richard Stallman, officially recognized as completely free software by the Free Software Foundation, and placed on the foundation's list of recommended distributions. Installation images are available for download, 2.7 GB and 1.2 GB in size (x86_64, armhf). The release of updates for the distribution will be available until April 2025. The distribution is notable for the exclusion from distribution of all non-free components, such as binary drivers, firmware, and graphics, distributed under a non-free license or using registered trademarks. Despite the complete rejection of proprietary components, Trisquel is compatible with Java (OpenJDK), supports most audio and video formats, including working with protected DVDs, while using only completely free implementations of these technologies. Desktops offered are MATE (default), LXDE, and KDE. http://trisquel.info/en/

GNU screen 4.9.0 console window manager released: 01.02.2022 After two years of development, the terminal multiplexer, GNU screen 4.9.0 has been published, which allows using one physical terminal to work with several applications, which are allocated separate virtual terminals that remain active between different user sessions. See our command and conquer. http://savannah.gnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=10107

Weston Composite Server 10.0 Released: 02.02.2022 After a year and a half of development, a stable release of the Weston 10.0 composite server has been published. They develop technologies that contribute to the emergence of full support for the Wayland protocol in Enlightenment, GNOME, KDE and other user environments. Weston's goal is to provide a high quality code base and working examples for using Wayland in desktop environments and embedded solutions such as platforms for car infotainment systems, smartphones, TVs and other consumer devices. The project code is distributed under the MIT license. https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/wayland-devel/2022-February/042103.html

LibreOffice 7.3 office suite released: 02.02.2022 Ready-made installation packages have been prepared for various distributions of Linux, Windows and macOS by the Document Foundation. 147 developers participated in the preparation of the release, of which 98 are volunteers. 69% of the changes were made by employees of the companies in charge of the project, such as Collabora, Red Hat and Allotropia, and 31% of the changes were added by independent enthusiasts. The LibreOffice 7.3 release is labeled “Community”, will be supported by enthusiasts, and is not aimed at enterprises. LibreOffice Community is available without restrictions for free to everyone without exception, including corporate users. For enterprises that need additional services, products of the LibreOffice Enterprise family are being developed separately, for which partner companies will provide full support. There is the ability to receive updates for a long time (LTS) and additional features, such as SLA (Service Level Agreements). https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2022/02/02/libreoffice-73-community/

Slackware 15.0 distribution released: 04.02.2022 More than five years since the last release, Slackware 15.0 is out. The project has been developing since 1993 and is the oldest of the existing distributions. An installation image (3.5 GB) is available for download, prepared for the i586 and x86_64 architectures. To get acquainted with the distribution without installation, a Live image (4.3 GB) is available. A selection of additional packages with programs not included in the standard distribution can be found in the slackbuilds.org repository. Despite its considerable age, the distribution was able to maintain its originality and simplicity. The lack of complexity and the simple initialization system in the style of classic BSD systems make the distribution an interesting solution for learning how Unix-like systems work, experimenting and getting to know Linux. The main reason for the long life of the distribution is the inexhaustible enthusiasm of Patrick Volkerding, who has been the leader and main developer of the project for almost 30 years. In developing the new release, the main focus was on providing new technologies and up-to-date versions of programs without violating the identity and characteristics of the distribution. The main goal was to make the distribution more modern, but at the same time maintain the usual way of working in Slackware. http://www.slackware.com/releasenotes/15.0.php

Igalia introduced Wolvic, a web browser for virtual reality devices: 04.02.2022 Igalia, known for its contributions to open source projects such as GNOME, GTK, WebKitGTK, Epiphany, GStreamer, Wine, Mesa, and freedesktop.org, has unveiled a new open source web browser, Wolvic, designed for use in virtual reality systems. The project will continue the development of the Firefox Reality browser, previously developed by Mozilla, but has not been updated for about a year. The Wolvic code is written in Java and C++, and distributed under the MPLv2 license. Builds available of the first pre-release Wolvic are for the Android platform and support Oculus, Huawei VR Glass, HTC Vive Focus, Pico Interactive and Lynx 3D headsets. Work is underway to port the browser for Qualcomm and Lenovo devices. The browser uses the GeckoView web engine, a variant of Mozilla's Gecko engine packaged as a separate library that can be updated independently. Management is carried out through a fundamentally different three-dimensional user interface, which allows you to navigate through sites within the virtual world or as part of augmented reality systems. In addition to a 3D helmet-driven interface that lets you view traditional 2D pages, web developers can use the WebXR, WebAR, and WebVR APIs to create custom 3D web applications that interact in virtual space. It also supports viewing spatial videos shot in 360-degree mode in a 3D helmet. https://www.igalia.com/2022/02/03/Introducing-Wolvic.html

Cassowary project: 05.02.2022 The Cassowary project is developing a toolkit that allows you to work with Windows programs running in a virtual machine or metal as if they were native separate applications on the Linux desktop. Windows programs are launched through a shortcut in the Linux environment and open in separate windows, similar to standard Linux applications. The opposite is also supported - Linux programs can be called from the Windows environment. The project offers applications for setting up a virtual machine with Windows and organizing access to application windows. To start the virtual machine, virt-manager and KVM are used, and FreeRDP is used to access the program window. A graphical interface is provided for setting up the environment and forwarding the windows of individual applications. The project code is written in Python (GUI based on PyQt5) and distributed under the GPLv2 license. https://github.com/casualsnek/cassowary

Release of OS Qubes 4.1: 05.02.2022 After almost four years of development, Qubes 4.1 was released, which implements the idea of ​​using a hypervisor for strict isolation of applications and OS components (each class of applications and system services run in separate virtual machines). It requires a system with 6 GB of RAM and a 64-bit Intel or AMD CPU with support for VT-x c EPT / AMD-v c RVI and VT-d / AMD IOMMU technologies, an Intel GPU is recommended (NVIDIA and AMD GPUs are not well tested ). The size of the installation image is 6 GB. Applications in Qubes are divided into classes depending on the importance of the data being processed and the tasks being solved. Each class of applications (e.g. work, entertainment, banking) as well as system services (network subsystem, firewall, storage, USB stack, etc.) run in separate virtual machines that run using the Xen hypervisor. At the same time, these applications are available within the same desktop and are highlighted for clarity in different window frame colors. Each environment has read access to the underlying root FS and local storage that does not overlap with the storages of other environments; a special service is used to organize application interaction. https://www.qubes-os.org/news/2022/02/04/qubes-4-1-0/

GNOME Commander 1.14 released: 06.02.2022 GNOME Commander 1.14.0, a dual-pane file manager has been released, optimized for use in the GNOME user environment. GNOME Commander introduces features such as tabs, command line access, bookmarks, changeable color schemes, directory skipping mode when selecting files, access to external data via FTP and SAMBA, expandable context menus, automatic mounting of external drives, access to navigation history, support plug-ins, a built-in text and image viewer, search functions, renaming by mask and directory comparison. The project code is written in C++ and distributed under the GPLv2 license. http://gcmd.github.io/

Kasper, a speculative code execution problem scanner: 05.02.2022 A group of researchers from the Free University of Amsterdam has published a tool called Kasper that is designed to identify code snippets in the Linux kernel that can be used to exploit Specter class vulnerabilities caused by speculative code execution by the processor. The source code of this toolkit is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. In order to carry out attacks such as Specter v1, which make it possible to determine the contents of memory, a certain sequence of commands (gadgets) is required in the privileged code, leading to the speculative execution of instructions. In order to optimize, the processor starts executing these gadgets in a speculative mode, then determines that the branch prediction has not been justified and rolls back the operations to their original state, but the data processed during the speculative execution settles in the cache and microarchitectural buffers and is available for extraction from them using various methods determination of residual data through third-party channels. When testing, the kernel contacts the Kasper runtime libraries and checks that work at the LLVM level. During the check, speculative code execution is emulated using the checkpoint-restore mechanism, which specifically executes an incorrectly predicted code branch, after which it rolls back to its original state before the branch began. Kasper also tries to model various software and hardware vulnerabilities, analyzes the influence of architectural and microarchitectural effects, and performs fuzzing testing of possible attacker actions. For analysis of execution flows, the DataFlowSanitizer port for the Linux kernel is used, and for fuzzing testing, a modified version of the syzkaller package . https://www.vusec.net/projects/kasper/

Absolute Linux 15.0 released: 05.02.2022 After 6 years, (Slackware 14.2 - 15 though Absolute has been rolling) the lightweight Absolute Linux 15.0 distribution based on the Slackware 15 codebase has been released. The distribution's graphical environment is based on the IceWM window manager, the ROX Desktop, and the qtFM and arox (rox-filer) file managers. It uses its own (non-slackware) configurator for configuration. The package includes applications such as Firefox (Chrome and Luakit are optional ), OpenOffice, Kodi, Pidgin, GIMP, WPClipart, Thunderbird, K3B, Frostwire and Deluge. The size of the iso image is 2.38 GB (x86_64). https://www.absolutelinux.org/

Release of OpenMandriva Lx 4.3: 07.02.2022 After a year of development, the release of OpenMandriva Lx 4.3 is availabl for download. The project is being developed by the community after Mandriva SA transferred the management of the project to the non-profit organization “OpenMandriva Association”. Downloadable 2.5 GB (x86_64) Live build “znver1” optimized for AMD Ryzen, ThreadRipper and EPYC processors, as well as images for use on PinebookPro, Raspberry Pi 4B/3B+, Rock Pi 4A/4B ARM devices /4C, Synquacer, Cubox Pulse and various Arch64 based server boards. https://www.openmandriva.org/en/news/article/openmandriva-lx-4-3-released

Postfix 3.7.0 mail server: 07.02.2022 After 10 months of development, a new stable branch of the Postfix mail server - 3.7.0 was released. At the same time, the Postfix 3.3 branch, which was released in early 2018, has been deprecated. Postfix is ​​one of the rare projects that combines high security, reliability and performance at the same time, which was achieved thanks to a well-thought-out architecture and a rather rigid policy for coding and patch auditing. The project code is distributed under EPL 2.0 (Eclipse Public license) and IPL 1.0 (IBM Public License). According to a January automated survey of about 500,000 mail servers, Postfix is ​​used on 34.08% (33.66% a year ago) of mail servers, Exim's share is 58.95% (59.14%), Sendmail - 3.58% (3.6%), MailEnable - 1.99% ( 2.02%), MDaemon - 0.52% (0.60%), Microsoft Exchange - 0.26% (0.32%), OpenSMTPD - 0.06% (0.05%). https://www.postfix.org/

Alpha-Omega initiative for open source projects: 02/07/2022 The OpenSSF Foundation (Open Source Security Foundation) introduced the Alpha-Omega project, aimed at improving the security of open source software. The initial investment for the development of the project in the amount of $5 million and the staff to launch the initiative will be provided by Google and Microsoft. Other organizations are also invited to participate, both through the provision of engineering staff and at the level of funding, which will help expand the number of open projects that will be covered by the initiative. In addition, at the end of last year, $10 million was allocated to the OpenSSF Foundation, whether these funds will be used for the Alpha-Omega initiative is not specified. The Alpha-Omega project consists of two components: • The Alpha part involves conducting a manual security audit of 200 widely used open source projects, the most popular in terms of their use in the form of dependencies or in infrastructure elements. The work will be done in collaboration with maintainers and will include systematic code reviews to identify new vulnerabilities and patch them promptly. • The Omega part is focused on automated testing of the 10,000 most popular open source projects. A separate team of engineers will be created to conduct testing, improve applied methods, analyze test results, communicate information to project developers and coordinate joint work to eliminate critical problems. The main task of this team will be to reject false positives and identify real vulnerabilities in automated reports. https://openssf.org/press-release/2022/02/01/openssf-announces-the-alpha-omega-project-to-improve-software-supply-chain-security-for-10000-oss-projects/

Inkscape 1.1.2 reease and the start of testing of Inkscape 1.2: 06.02.2022 An update of the free vector graphics editor Inkscape 1.1.2 is available. The editor provides flexible drawing tools and provides support for reading and saving images in SVG, OpenDocument Drawing, DXF, WMF, EMF, sk1, PDF, EPS, PostScript, and PNG formats. Ready builds of Inkscape are prepared for Linux (AppImage, Snap , Flatpak ), macOS and Windows. In the new version, the main focus was on improving stability and eliminating errors. https://inkscape.org/news/2022/02/05/inkscape-112/

KDE Plasma 5.24 Desktop Release: 08.02.2022 The KDE Plasma 5.24 custom shell is available, built using KDE Frameworks 5 and Qt 5 library using OpenGL/OpenGL ES for faster rendering. You can evaluate the work of the new version through a Live build from the openSUSE project and a build from the KDE Neon User Edition project. Packages for various distributions can be found on this page: https://community.kde.org/Plasma/Packages https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/5/5.24.0/

Tails 4.27 released: 09.02.2022 Tails 4.27 (The Amnesic Incognito Live System), based on the Debian and designed to provide anonymous access to the internet, has been released. Anonymous exit to Tails is provided by the Tor system. All connections, except traffic through the Tor network, are blocked by default by the packet filter. Encryption is used to store user data in the 'save user data between runs' -mode. A live iso image has been prepared for download, at 1.1 GB in size. The new release updates versions of Tor Browser 11.0.6 , Thunderbird 91.5 email client and Linux kernel 5.10.92. They improved support for graphics cards, wireless chips and other hardware. They aso fixed an issue with connecting to wireless networks through the “Open Wi-Fi Settings” page in the Tor connection wizard. https://tails.boum.org/

Release of GNU Binutils 2.38: 09.02.2022 The release of the GNU Binutils 2.38 system utilities set is presented , which includes such programs as GNU linker, GNU assembler, nm, objdump, strings, strip. In the new version : • They added support for the LoongArch architecture used in Loongson processors to the assembler and linker . • Added “–multibyte-handling=[allow|warn|warn-sym-only]” option to assembler to select how to handle multibyte characters. Specifying warn produces a warning if there are multibyte characters in source texts, and specifying warn-sym-only produces a warning if multibyte characters are used in argument names. • Improved support for AArch64 and ARM architectures in assembler, expanded support for system registers, added support for SME (Scalable Matrix Extension), added support for Cortex-R52 +, Cortex-A510, Cortex-A710, Cortex-X2, Cortex-A710 processors, as well as architecture extensions 'v8.7-a', 'v8.8-a', 'v9-a', 'v9.1-a', 'armv9.2-a' and 'armv9.3-a'. • For x86 architecture, support for Intel AVX512_FP16 instructions has been added to the assembler. • Options added to the linker: “-z pack-relative-relocs/-z nopack-relative-relocs” to control the packing of relative address relocations (relocation) in the DT_RELR section; “-z indirect-extern-access/-z noindirect-extern-access” to control the use of canonical function pointers and the copying of address relocation information; “–max-cache-size=SIZE” to define the maximum cache size. • Added “–output-abiversion” option to elfedit utility to update ABIVERSION field in ELF files. • The “–unicode” option has been added to the readelf, strings, nm, and objdump utilities to control how unicode characters are handled when outputting symbol names or strings. When “–unicode=locale” is specified, unicode strings are processed according to the current locale, “–unicode=hex” are displayed as hexadecimal codes, “–unicode=escape” are displayed as escale sequences, “- -unicode=highlight” are shown as escale sequences highlighted in red. • In the readelf utility, the “-r” option now dumps the relocation data. • Added support for the efi-app-aarch64, efi-rtdrv-aarch64, and efi-bsdrv-aarch64 platforms to objcopy, allowing this utility to be used when developing components for UEFI. • Added “–thin” option to ar utility to create thin archives containing only character and link tables. https://sourceware.org/pipermail/binutils/2022-February/119721.html

MariaDB 10.7 stable release: 10.02.2022 After 6 months of development, the first stable release of the new MariaDB 10.7 (10.7.2) DBMS branch has been published, from which a branch from MySQL is being developed that maintains backward compatibility and is distinguished by the integration of additional storage engines and advanced features. MariaDB development is overseen by the independent MariaDB Foundation, following a fully open and transparent development process independent of individual vendors. MariaDB is shipped in place of MySQL on many Linux distributions (RHEL, SUSE, Fedora, openSUSE, Slackware, OpenMandriva, ROSA, Arch Linux, Debian) and has been adopted by large projects such as Wikipedia, Google Cloud SQL and Nimbuzz. https://mariadb.com/resources/blog/announcing-mariadb-community-server-10-7-2-ga-and-10-8-1-rc/

PostgreSQL update: 11.02.2022 Bug-fix updates have been generated for all supported branches of PostgreSQL: 14.2 , 13.6 , 12.10 , 11.15 and 10.20, fixing 55 bugs identified in the last three months. This includes fixes that, under rare circumstances, cause index corruption when changing HOT (heap-only tuple) chains during a VACUUM operation or when performing a REINDEX CONCURRENTLY operation on indexes to tables that use the TOAST storage engine . They fixed crashes when executing ALTER STATISTICS and when retrieving data with multirange types, also bugs in the query planner that caused incorrect results to be displayed. This includes fixes for memory leaks when updating indexes by expressions and when performing a “REASSIGN OWNED BY” operation on a large number of objects. They also provided construction of extended statistics for sharded tables. https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/postgresql-142-136-1210-1115-and-1020-released-2402/

Remote vulnerability in the Linux kernel via the TIPC protocol: 11.02.2022 CVE-2022-043 has been identified in the Linux kernel module that provides the operation of the TIPC (Transparent Inter-process Communication) network protocol, potentially allowing code to be executed at the kernel level by sending a specially crafted network packet. The issue only affects systems with the tipc.ko kernel module loaded and configured with the TIPC stack, which is typically used in clusters and is not enabled by default on non-specialized Linux distributions. The vulnerability is caused by a stack overflow that occurs when processing packets in the value of the field with the number of domain member nodes that exceeds 64. To store node parameters in the tipc.ko module, a fixed array “u32 members[64]” is used, but in the process of processing the specified in the packet The node number does not check the “member_cnt” value, which allows values ​​greater than 64 to be used for controlled overwriting of data in the memory area next on the stack after the “dom_bef” structure. The TIPC protocol was originally developed by Ericsson, is designed to organize inter-process communication in a cluster and is activated mainly on cluster nodes. TIPC can work both over Ethernet and over UDP (network port 6118). When working over Ethernet, an attack can be made from the local network, and when using UDP, from the global network, if the port is not covered by a firewall. The attack can also be carried out by an unprivileged local user on the host. https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2022/02/10/1

Release of Slint 0.2: 12.02.2022 With the release of version 0.2, the toolkit for creating graphical interfaces SixtyFPS has been renamed to Slint. The reason for the renaming was criticism by users of the name SixtyFPS, which led to confusion and ambiguity when sending queries to search engines, and also did not reflect the purpose of the project. The new name was chosen through a discussion with the community on GitHub, in which users suggested new names. The authors of the library (Olivier Goffart and Simon Hausmann), former KDE developers who later moved to Trolltech to work on Qt, have now founded their own company developing Slint. One of the goals of the project is to provide the ability to work with minimal consumption of CPU and memory resources (several hundred kilobytes of RAM are required for operation). Two backends are available for rendering - gl based on OpenGL ES 2.0 and qt using Qt QStyle. It supports the creation of interfaces in Rust, C++, and JavaScript programs. The authors of the library have developed a special markup language “.slint”, which is compiled into native code for the selected platform. There is an opportunity to test the language in the online editor or read the examples by assembling them yourself. The library code is written in C++ and Rust, and is distributed under the GPLv3 license or a commercial license that allows use in proprietary products without opening the code. https://github.com/slint-ui/slint/releases/tag/v0.2.0

New release of uChmViewer: 12.02.2022 uChmViewer 8.2 is now available, a fork of KchmViewer, a viewer for chm (MS HTML help) and epub files. The release adds support for KDE Framework 5 instead of KDE4 and initial support for Qt6 instead of Qt4. The branch is distinguished by the inclusion of some improvements that did not and most likely will not fall into the main composition of KchmViewer. The code is written in C++ and is licensed under GPLv3. https://github.com/gyunaev/kchmviewer

Dino 0.3 communication client released: 13.02.2022 After over a year of development, the Dino 0.3 communication client has been released, supporting chat participation and messaging using the Jabber/XMPP protocol. The program is compatible with various XMPP clients and servers, focused on ensuring the confidentiality of conversations, and supports end-to-end encryption using the OMEMO XMPP extension based on the Signal protocol or encryption using OpenPGP. The project code is written in the Vala language using the GTK toolkit and distributed under the GPLv3+ license. In the new version, in addition to text messages, support for video calls and video conferences is implemented, allowing you to make video calls involving two or more participants. Video streams are encrypted using end-to-end encryption, and traffic is sent directly between users in P2P mode, but as a fallback option, it is also possible to work through an intermediate server. There is also enhanced group call facilities - the user can initiate a call in a closed group or invite additional participants to an already established call. Group calls can be organized in P2P mode without involving additional servers, except for the XMPP server coordinating the connection to the conference. For conferences with a large number of participants, it's organized through a centralized server to reduce bandwidth requirements. The exchange of keys for encrypting the traffic of participants, which are generated on the client side, is carried out via DTLS, after which the data is transmitted over an encrypted SRTP channel. The validity of the keys is authenticated using the XMPP extension OMEMO. The XMPP protocol and XMPP generic extensions (XEP-0353 , XEP-0167) are used to establish a connection, which allows you to make calls between Dino and any other XMPP clients that support the appropriate specifications, for example, you can set up encrypted video calls with Conversations and Movim applications , as well as unencrypted calls with the Gajim app. If video is not supported, an audio call can be made. https://dino.im/blog/2022/02/dino-0.3-release/

OBS Studio 27.2 Live Streaming Release: 13.02.2022 OBS Studio 27.2 is now available for streaming, compositing and video recording. The code is written in C/C++ and distributed under the GPLv2 license. Builds are generated for Linux, Windows and macOS. The development goal of OBS Studio was to create a portable version of the Open Broadcaster Software (OBS Classic) application that is not tied to the Windows platform, supports OpenGL and is extensible through plugins. The difference is also the use of a modular architecture, which implies the separation of the interface and the core of the program. Supports transcoding of source streams, video capture during games and streaming to Twitch, Facebook Gaming, YouTube, DailyMotion, Hitbox and other services. To ensure high performance, hardware acceleration mechanisms (eg NVENC and VAAPI) can be used. Support is provided for compositing with building a scene based on arbitrary video streams, data from web cameras, video capture cards, images, text, the contents of application windows or the entire screen. During the broadcast, you can switch between several predefined scene options (for example, switch views with an emphasis on the screen content and the image from the webcam). The program also provides tools for audio mixing, filtering with VST plugins, volume leveling, and noise suppression. https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/releases/tag/27.2.0

Release of qxkb5: 14.02.2022 qxkb5, an interface for switching keyboard layouts that allows you to choose different behavior for different windows. The program also allows you to use both built-in graphic and text language labels. The code is written in C++ and distributed under the GPLv3 license. Very handy for those needing to switsh using different apps. https://github.com/AndreyBarmaley/qxkb5

AV Linux MX-21: 02/15/2022 The AV Linux MX-21 distribution is out, containing a selection of applications for creating/processing multimedia content. The distribution is based on MX Linux and additional self-built packages (Polyphone, Shuriken, Simple Screen Recorder, etc.). The distribution can function in Live mode and is available for the x86_64 architecture (3.4 GB). The user environment is based on Xfce4 with the OpenBox window manager instead of xfwm. The package includes Ardour, ArdourVST, Harrison, Mixbus sound editors, Blender 3D design system, Cinelerra, Openshot, LiVES video editors and tools for converting multimedia file formats. The JACK Audio Connection Kit is offered for switching audio devices (using JACK1/Qjackctl, not JACK2/Cadence). The distribution comes with a detailed illustrated manual (PDF, 74 pages) http://www.bandshed.net/2022/02/14/av-linux-mx-21-consciousness-released/

Zabbix 6.0 LTS: 15.02.2022 The release of a free and free monitoring system, fully open source, Zabbix 6.0 LTS has landed. Release 6.0 is categorized as Long Time Support (LTS). For users who use non-LTS versions, we recommend switching to the LTS version of the product. Zabbix is ​​a universal system for monitoring the performance and availability of servers, engineering and network equipment, applications, databases, virtualization systems, containers, IT services, web services, cloud infrastructure. The system implements a full cycle from collecting data, processing and transforming it, analyzing this data to detect problems, and ending with storing this data, visualizing and sending alerts using escalation rules. The system also provides flexible options for extending data collection methods and alerts, as well as automation options through a powerful API. A single web interface implements centralized management of monitoring configurations and role-based distribution of access rights to various user groups. The project code is distributed under the GPLv2 license. https://www.zabbix.com/ru/whats_new_6_0

Kali Linux 2022.1 Released: 15.02.2022 Kali Linux 2022.1 is out, designed to test systems for vulnerabilities, conduct an audit, analyze residual information and identify the consequences of intruder attacks. All code is distributed under the GPL license and are available through the public Git repository. Several variants of iso images have been prepared for download, 471 MB, 2.8 GB, 3.5 GB and 9.4 GB in size. Builds are available for i386, x86_64, ARM architectures (armhf and armel, Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi, ARM Chromebook, Odroid). The Xfce desktop is offered by default, but KDE, GNOME, MATE, LXDE, and Enlightenment e17 are optionally supported. Kali includes one of the most complete collections of tools for computer security professionals, from web application testing and wireless network penetration testing to RFID readers. The kit includes a collection of exploits and more than 300 specialized security tools such as Aircrack, Maltego, SAINT, Kismet, Bluebugger, Btcrack, Btscanner, Nmap, p0f. In addition, the distribution kit includes tools for accelerating password guessing (Multihash CUDA Brute Forcer) and WPA keys (Pyrit) through the use of CUDA and AMD Stream technologies, which allow using GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD video cards to perform computational operations. https://www.kali.org/blog/kali-linux-2022-1-release/

Release of pfSense 2.6.0: 15.02.2022 The latest release of the compact distribution for creating firewalls and network gateways pfSense 2.6.0 has landed. The distribution is based on the FreeBSD code base with the m0n0wall project and active use of pf and ALTQ. An iso image for the amd64 architecture is available for download, 430 MB in size. The distribution is managed via the web interface. Captive Portal, NAT, VPN (IPsec, OpenVPN) and PPPoE can be used to organize the exit of users in a wired and wireless network. Supports a wide range of options for limiting bandwidth, limiting the number of simultaneous connections, filtering traffic and creating fault-tolerant configurations based on CARP. Statistics on connections are displayed in the form of graphs or in tabular form. Authentication is supported by the local user database, as well as via RADIUS and LDAP. https://www.netgate.com/blog/pfsense-plus-software-version-22.01-and-ce-2.6.0-are-now-available

KaOS 2022.02: 17.02.2022 KaOS 2022.02 is introduced, a continuous update distribution aimed at providing a desktop based on recent releases of KDE and applications using Qt. In the distribution-specific design features, one can note the placement of a vertical panel on the right side of the screen. The distribution is developed with Arch Linux in mind, but maintains its own independent repository of more than 1500 packages, and also offers a number of its own graphical utilities. The default file system is XFS. Images are published for x86_64 (3 GB) systems. https://kaosx.us/news/2022/kaos02/

GNOME stops maintaining the Clutter graphics library: 18.02.2022 The GNOME Project has deprecated the Clutter graphics library. Starting with GNOME 42, the Clutter library and its associated components Cogl , Clutter-GTK and Clutter-GStreamer will be removed from the GNOME SDK and their associated code moved to archive repositories . To maintain compatibility with existing extensions, GNOME Shell will retain internal copies of Cogl and Clutter and continue to ship for the foreseeable future. Developers of applications that use GTK3 along with Clutter, Clutter-GTK, or Clutter-GStreamer are encouraged to migrate their programs to GTK4, libadwaita, and GStreamer. If this is not possible, then Cogl, Clutter, Clutter-GTK and Clutter-GStreamer should be separately added as dependencies to Flatpak packages, as they will be excluded from the main GNOME runtime. The Clutter project has been in stagnation for a long time - the last significant 1.26 release was in 2016, and the last corrective update was proposed in early 2020. The functionality and ideas developed in Clutter are now provided by the GTK4 framework , libadwaita , GNOME Shell, and the Mutter composite server. https://github.com/GNOME/clutter

22nd Ubuntu Touch Firmware Update: 18.02.2022 The UBports project has published an OTA-22 (over-the-air) firmware update. The project is also developing an experimental desktop port of Unity 8, which has been renamed Lomiri. Ubuntu Touch OTA-22 update is for BQ E4.5 /E5/M10/U Plus, Cosmo Communicator, F(x)tec Pro1, Fairphone 2/3, Google Pixel 2XL/3a, Huawei Nexus 6P, LG Nexus 4/ 5, Meizu MX4/Pro 5, Nexus 7 2013, OnePlus 2/3/5/6/One, Samsung Galaxy Note 4/S3 Neo+, Sony Xperia X/XZ/Z4, Vollaphone, Xiaomi Mi A2/A3, Xiaomi Poco F1 , Xiaomi Redmi 3s/3x/3sp/4X/7, Xiaomi Redmi Note 7/7 Pro. Separately, without the “OTA-21” tag, updates will be prepared for Pine64 PinePhone and PineTab devices. Compared to the previous version, support for Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1, Xiaomi Poco M2 Pro, Google Pixel 2 and Google Pixel 3a XL smartphones has been added. Ubuntu Touch OTA-22 is still based on Ubuntu 16.04, but lately the development efforts have been focused on preparing for the transition to Ubuntu 20.04. https://ubports.com/

WebOS Open Source Edition 2.15 Platform Released: 18.02.2022 The open platform webOS Open Source Edition 2.15 has been published, which can be used on various portable devices, boards and car infotainment systems. Raspberry Pi 4 boards are considered as the reference hardware platform. The platform is developed in a public repository under the Apache 2.0 license, and the development is overseen by the community, adhering to a collaborative development management model. The webOS platform was originally developed by Palm in 2008. In 2013, the platform was bought out from Hewlett-Packard by LG and is now used on more than 70 million LG TVs and consumer devices. In 2018, the webOS Open Source Edition project was founded, through which LG tried to return to the open development model, attract other participants and expand the range of devices supported in webOS. The webOS system environment is built using the OpenEmbedded toolkit and base packages, as well as a build system and metadata set from the Yocto project. The key components of webOS are the system and application manager (SAM, System and Application Manager), which is responsible for running applications and services, and the Luna Surface Manager (LSM), which forms the user interface. The components are written using the Qt framework and the Chromium browser engine. Rendering is done through a composite manager that uses the Wayland protocol. To develop custom applications, they propose to use web technologies (CSS, HTML5 and JavaScript) and the Enact framework based on React, but it is also possible to create programs in C and C++ with a Qt-based interface. The user interface and embedded graphical applications are mostly implemented as native programs written using QML technology. By default, the Home Launcher is offered, which is optimized for touch screen operation and offers the concept of changing maps (instead of windows). https://www.webosose.org/blog/2022/02/18/webos-ose-2-15-0-release/