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Linux kernel 6.3 release: 24/04/2023
After two months of development, Linus Torvalds released the Linux 6.3 kernel. Among the most notable changes are cleaning outdated ARM platforms and graphic drivers, continued integration of Rust language support, hwnoise utility, support for red-black tree structures in BPF, BIG TCP mode for IPv4, built-in Dhrystone performance test, the ability to ban execution in memfd, support for the creation of HID-drivers, using BPF, Btrfs have been adopted to change the blocks.
The new version accepted 15637 fixes from 2055 developers; patch size - 76 MB (changes affected 14296 files, added 1023183 lines of code, removed 883103 lines). For comparison, the last version offered 16843 fixes from 2178 developers; the size of the patch - 62 MB. About 39% of all changes in the kernel 6.3 are associated with device drivers, and about 15% of the changes have the ratio to updating code specific to hardware architectures, 10% is associated with a network stack, 5% with file systems and 3% with internal subsystems of the core.
https://lkml.org/lkml/2023/4/23/284
Audacity 3.3: 24/04/2023
The release of the free Audacity 3.3 sound editor, which provides audio editing tools (Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MP3 and WAV), for recording and digitizing sound, changing the parameters of the sound file, overlaying tracks and applying effects (e.g. noise suppression, changing tempo and tone), was announced. Audacity 3.3 was the third major release formed after the project's transfer to the hands of Muse Group. The Audacity code is distributed under the GPLv3 license, binary builds are available for Linux, Windows and macOS
https://github.com/audacity/audacity/releases/tag/Audacity-3.3.0
Victory for Barsoom: 25/04/2023
The results of the annual election of the Debian project leader have been announced. The victory was won by Jonathan Carter, who was re-elected for a fourth term. 274 developers took part in the vote, which is 28% of all participants who have the right to vote (last year, the turnout was 34%, in the previous year 44%, the historical maximum in 2000 - 62.25%, at least in 2016 - 27.56%). This year's election was notable for the fact that they were only one candidate, which reduced the vote to the choice between “for” and “against” (259 voted against - 15).
Since 2016, Jonathan Carter has been accompaniing more than 60 packages at Debian, has been involved in improving the quality of Live-images in the debian-live team and is one of the developers of AIMS Desktop, a Debian build used in a number of South African scientific and educational institutions.
https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2023/04/msg00005.html
Opera One, replacing the current browser: 25/04/2023
The testing of the new web-browser Opera One began, which after stabilization will replace the current Opera browser. Opera One continues to use the Chromium engine and features a completely redesigned modular architecture, multithreaded rendering organization, and new tab grouping capabilities. Builds of Opera One are prepared for Linux (deb, rpm, snap), Windows and MacOS.
The transition to a multithreaded drawing engine made it possible to significantly increase the responsiveness of the interface and the efficiency of using visual effects and animation. For the interface, a separate stream is proposed, performing tasks related to drawing and output of animation. A separate drawing stream removes the load from the main flow responsible for the interface, which allows you to achieve a smoother output and avoid hanging due to locks in the main stream.
The side panel has been modernized, through which you can control working spaces with groups of tabs, place buttons for access to multimedia services (Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal) and messengers (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram). In addition, the modular architecture allows you to integrate additional features into the browser, such as interactive assistants based on machine learning services, such as the ChatGPT and ChatSonic, which can also be integrated into the sidebar.
Solus 5 coming full circle: 26/04/2023
As part of the ongoing reorganization of the Solus distribution, in addition to the transition to a more transparent management model, concentrated in the hands of the community, it was announced that the decision to use the SerpentOS project technology, developed by the old team of developers of the Solus distribution, which includes the Ikey Doherty (Solus creator) and Joshua Strobl.
The SerpentOS distribution is not an offshoot from other projects and is based on its own package manager moss, which borrows many modern features developed in package managers such as eopkg/pisi, rpm, swupd and nix/guix, while maintaining a traditional view of package management and using the default assembly in stateless mode. The package manager uses an atomic system update model, in which the state of the root partition is fixed, and after updating the state switches to a new one.
To save disk space when storing several versions of packages, deduplication is used based on hard links and a shared cache. The contents of the installed packages are placed in the /os/store/installation/N directory where the N version number is. The project is also developing a system of containers moss-container, a system of dependence management system moss-deps, boulder assembly system, encapsulation system of avalanche services, vessel repository manager, summit control panel, moss-db database and reproducible bootstrap system.
Solus5 is expected to replace the build system (ypkg3 and solbuild) with boulder and avalanche, the use of a package manager, moss instead of solopkg, the use of summit development platforms and GitHub instead of solhub, the use of vessel for repository control instead of ferryd. The distribution will continue to be a rolling-release.
The developers of SerpentOS have already helped raise the new infrastructure for Solus, promised to update packages. They plan to create a bootable image for developers with an environment based on GNOME. When specific problems with moss-deps are solved, GTK3 will be packaged. In addition to the x86_64 architecture, they plan to start forming builds for AArch64 and RISC-V in the future.
At the moment, the SerpentOS toolkit will be developed independently of the Solus development team. We are not talking about the merger of the projects Solus5 and SerpentOS, most likely, SerpentOS will develop as an independent distribution from Solus.
https://getsol.us/2023/04/18/a-new-voyage/
Update of Budgie 10.7.2: 27/04/2023
The organization Buddies Of Budgie, which oversees the development of the project after its separation from the Solus distribution, published an update to the Budgie 10.7.2 desktop environment. Budgie 10.7.2 is the second minor release in the 10.7 series of our Budgie Desktop environment, primarily focused on bug fixes, additional compatibility with GNOME 44 stack, and various quality-of-life improvements. The project code is distributed under the GPLv2 license. You can use distributions such as Ubuntu Budgie, Fedora Budgie, Solus, GeckoLinux and EndeavourOS to familiarize yourself with Budgie.
https://blog.buddiesofbudgie.org/budgie-10-7-2/
Update of my favourite editor: 28/04/2023
A new version of the cross-platform free code editor CudaText 1.192, written using Free Pascal and Lazarus, has been published. The editor supports Python extensions, and has a number of advantages over Sublime Text. You can even get some features of an integrated development environment implemented in the form of plugins. For programmers, there are more than 300 syntactic lexers. The code is distributed under the MPL 2.0 license. Builds are available for Linux, Windows, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonflyBSD and Solaris platforms.
https://cudatext.github.io/download.html
Update of Debian 11.7: 29/04/2023
The developers published the seventh corrective update of the Debian 11, which includes accumulated package updates and they also fixed the installer. The release includes 92 updates with the elimination of stability problems and 102 updates with the elimination of vulnerabilities.
From the changes, you can note the update to the fresh stable versions of clamav, dpdk, flatpak, flatpak, galera-3, intel-microcode, mariadb-10.5, nvidia-modprobe, postfix, postgresql-13, shim. Deleted packages include, bind-dyndb-dap, python-matrix-nio (has security problems and does not support current versions of servers), matrix weechat-matrix, matrix-mirage and pantalmonai.
Installation builds, as well as live iso-hybrid with Debian 11.7 will be prepared to download and install “from scratch”. Systems with Debian installed will receive updates present in Debian 11.7 through the regular update system. Security fixes included in the new Debian releases are available to users as updates and are released via security.debian.org.
At the same time, the second candidate for the release of the installer of the next major release - Debian 12 (“Bookworm”) was announced. Changes include, the addition of support for the luks2 partition encryption format to GRUB's digitally certified e-fi images, improving the operation of cryptsetup systems with a small amount of RAM, installing a shim-signed package into images for i386 and arm64 architectures, adding support for Lenovo Miix 630, Lenovo Yoga C630, StarFive VisionF, D1 C.FIELIMX6ULL eMMC, Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Plus Rev 1.3.
Debian 12 is scheduled to be released on June 10, 2023. Full freeze before the release is scheduled for May 24. There are currently 258 critical errors holding back the release.
https://www.debian.org/News/2023/20230429
Sculpt OS 23.04: 29/04/2023
A new release of the Sculpt 23.04 project is presented, where the Genode OS Framework develops a general-purpose operating system that can be used by ordinary users to perform everyday tasks. The original code of the project is distributed under the AGPLv3 license. A liveUSB image, measuring 28 MB, is available for download. It will work on systems with Intel processors and graphics subsystem with VT-d and VT-x extensions included, as well as on ARM systems with VMM extensions.
Sculpt OS 23.04 marks the first-time it has PinePhone support in addition to the PC the version. With this release, the system supports live upgrades of the boot image, rendering Sculpt updates and switching between versions a matter some easy steps. The new preset feature brings whole application scenarios to your screen after just one click/tap.
https://genode.org/news/sculpt-os-release-23.04
Fedora Onyx: 30/04/2023
Joshua Strobl, the key developer of the Budgie project, has published a proposal to include Fedora Onyx, an atomically updated version of Fedora Linux with a custom Budgie environment that complements the classic assembly of Fedora Budgie Spin and reminiscent of the Fedora Silverblue, Fedora Sericea and Fedora Kinoite, supplied with GNOME. The Fedora Onyx editorial board has offered to deliver starting with the release of Fedora Linux 39, but the offer has not yet been considered by the FESCo (Fedora Engineering Steering Committee), responsible for the technical part of the development of the Fedora distribution.
Fedora Onyx is based on Fedora Silverblue technology and is also supplied in the form of a monolithic image not divided into individual packages. The base environment is built from the official Fedora RPM packages with rpm-ostree tools and is mounted as read-only. Flatpak is used to install and update additional applications, in a way that applications are separated from the main system and launched in a separate container.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Fedora_Onyx
Release of the Nitrux 2.8: 30/04/2023
The release of the Nitrux 2.8.0 distribution, built on Debian, KDE technologies and the OpenRC initialization system, has been published. The project offers its own NX Desktop desktop, which is an add-on over KDE Plasma. Based on the Maui library for the distribution, a set of typical user applications was developed, which can be used on both desktop and mobile devices. AppImages are being promoted to install additional applications. The full loading image is 3.3 GB. The project is distributed under free licenses.
The NX Desktop desktop offers a different design style, its own implementation of the system tray, notification output center and various plasmoids, such as a network connector and multimedia applet to control the volume and control the playback of multimedia content. Applications are created using the MauiKit framework, with the file manager; Index (you can also use Dolphin), text editor; Note, Station terminal emulator, VVave music player, Clip video player, NX Software Center application center and Pix image viewer.
https://nxos.org/changelog/release-announcement-nitrux-2-8-0/
VMware's Photon OS 5.0: 01/05/2023
Photon OS 5.0 aimed at providing a minimalist host environment to run applications in isolated containers has been published. The project is being developed by VMware and is portrayed as being usable for deploying industrial applications, including additional security enhancements and offering advanced optimisations for VMware vSphere, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Elastic Compute and Google Compute Engine. The original code of the components developed for Photon OS are supplied under the GPLv2 license (except for the libtdnf library, which is opened under the LGPLv2.1 license). Ready-made ISO- and OVA-images are supplied for x86_64, ARM64, Raspberry systems and various cloud platforms under a separate user agreement (EULA).
The system allows you to run most container formats, including Docker, Rocket and Garden formats, and supports container orchestration platforms such as Mesos and Kubernetes. The pmd (Photon Management Daemon) and the pmnf in-house toolkit, compatible with YUM packet manager and offer a package-based distribution lifecycle management model, is used for software management and installation. The system also provides tools for simply transferring application containers from developers“ environments (e.g. VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation) to working cloud environments.
Systemd is used to manage system services. The kernel is assembled with optimisations for the VMware hypervisor and includes the security enhancement settings recommended by the KSPP (Kernel Self-Protection Project) project. When building packages, the compiler options that increase the security are forefront. The distribution is available in three editions: the minimum (538MB, includes only basic system packets and runtime to run containers), build for developers (4.3GB, includes additional packages for developing and testing programs supplied in containers) and assembly for real-time tasks (683MB, contains a core with PREEMPT_RT patches for launching real-time applications).
https://github.com/vmware/photon/releases/tag/5.0-GA
Cisco has released ClamAV 1.1.0: 01/05/2023
After five months of development, Cisco published the release of the free antivirus package ClamAV 1.1.0. The project came into the hands of Cisco in 2013 after the purchase of Sourcefire, who were developing ClamAV and Snort. The project code is distributed under the GPLv2 license. The 1.1.0 branch is classified as regular (not LTS), the updates are published within at least 4 months after the release of the next branch. The ability to load the base signatures for non-LTS branches is also provided for at least another 4 months after the next branch is released.
https://blog.clamav.net/2023/05/clamav-110-released.html
Release of the OpenMoonRay 1.1 by Dreamworks studio: 02/05/2023
Animation studio, Dreamworks has published the first update of the open rendering system OpenMoonRay 1.0, using ray tracing based on numerical integration using the Monte Carlo method (MCRT). The focus of MoonRay is on providing high efficiency and scalability, supports multithreaded rendering, parallelization of operations, the use of vector instructions (SIMD), realistic lighting simulation, ray processing on the GPU or CPU side, realistic simulation of tracing lighting, rendering volume structures (fog, fire, clouds). The code was published under the Apache 2.0 license.
The system is ready to create professional projects, like full-length films, for example. Before the opening of the code, MoonRay was used to render the animated films; “How to tame the dragon 3,” “Family Kruds 2: Novosel,” “Bad Boys,” “Ball.” World Tour, “Boss-milkoxos 2,” “Everest” and ” Puss in Boots 2: Last wish.“ For distributed rendering, Arras own framework is used, which allows you to disperse computing to several servers or cloud environments. The Intel Embree ray tracing library can be used to optimize the calculation of lighting in distributed environments, and Intel ISPC compiler for vectorization of shaders. It is possible to stop rendering at an arbitrary moment and resume operations from the interrupted position.
The package also includes a large library of materials based on physically correct rendering (PBR) tested in work projects, and a USD Hydra Render Delegates layer to integrate with the usual content creation systems that support the USD format. It is possible to use different modes of image generation, from photorealistic to highly stylized. Thanks to distributed rendering, animators can track the result interactively and at the same time visualize several scene options with different lighting conditions, different properties of materials and from different points of view.
https://github.com/dreamworksanimation/openmoonray/discussions/102
X.Org project to stop supporting 20 outdated libraries and utilities: 03/05/2023
The developers of the X.Org project announced the termination of support of some libraries, drivers and utilities X Window System, for whom updates will no longer be released, even if vulnerabilities are detected. The packet repositories have been transferred to the archive status, implying the termination of corrections and error messages. Distributions can continue to supply these packages, but at their own risk. This is to stop support packages losing relevance, are inoperable with new versions of the X-server or tied to outdated APIs. In fact, support for these packages have already been discontinued in previous years, but this was clearly not announced.
https://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-devel/2023-May/059018.html
Release of OBS Studio 29.1: 03/05/2023
OBS Studio 29.1, package for streaming, compositing and video recording, is ready for downloading. The code is written in C/C++ and is distributed under the GPLv2 license. The builds are made for Linux, Windows and macOS.
Support is provided for compositing with the construction of a scene, based on arbitrary video streams, data from web cameras, video capture maps, images, text content of applications or the entire screen. In the process of broadcasting, you can switch between several predefined scenes (for example, to switch performances with an emphasis on the content of the screen and an image from a web camera). The program also provides tools for mixing sound, filtering with VST plugins, leveling volume and noise suppression.
https://obsproject.com/blog/obs-studio-29-release-notes
Project Pulse Browser: 04/05/2023
Pulse Browser, built on the Firefox code base and experimenting with ideas to improve the ease of operation and build a minimalist interface, is ready for testing. Builds are made for Linux, Windows and macOS platforms. The code is distributed under the license of MPL 2.0.
The browser is notable for cleaning the code from components associated with the collection and dispatch of telemetry, and the replacement of some typical features with third-party open analogues. For example, to counter tracking, they added an uBlock Origin ad blocker. The composition also included the addition of the QR Code Generator for the generation of QR codes with a link to the sites and the Tabless addition with an alternative customizable implementation of the page shown when opening a new tab.
Pulse Browser uses the optimization of settings from the Betterfox project, aimed at improving privacy, security and performance. They disabled additional services, for example, Pocket, funds for people with disabilities, Firefox Sync and Firefox View. The interface uses a sidebar for quick access to tools and sections of interest to the user, such as settings, bookmarks and history. Under the address bar, the default panel with the most popular bookmarks is enabled. The panels are made of narrower and occupy less space on the screen.
https://github.com/pulse-browser/browser/releases/tag/1.0.0-a.64
Open 3D Engine 23.05, opened by Amazon: 05/05/2023
The non-profit organization Open 3D Foundation (O3DF) has unveiled the open 3D game engine Open 3D Engine 23.05 (O3DE), suitable for the development of modern AAA-class games and high-precision simulators that can work in real time and provide quality cinematic level. The code is written in C++ and published under the Apache 2.0 license. It supports Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android platforms.
The original code of the O3DE engine were opened in July 2021 by Amazon and are based on the code of the previously developed proprietary Amazon Lumberyard engine, built on CryEngine engine technology licensed from Crytek in 2015. After its opening, the development of the engine was supervised by the non-profit organization; the Open 3D Foundation, created under the auspices of the Linux Foundation. In addition to Amazon, companies such as Epic Games, Adobe, Huawei, Microsoft, Intel and Niantic joined work on the project.
The engine includes an integrated game development environment, a multithreaded Atom Renderer photoreal rendering system with Vulkan, Metal and DirectX 12 support, an extensible 3D model editor, character animation system (Emotion FX), a semifab development system, a real-time physical process simulation engine and mathematical libraries that use SIMD instructions. Visual programming environment (Script Canvas) and Lua and Python languages can be used to define game logic.
The project is originally designed to adapt to your needs and has a modular architecture. In total, more than 30 modules are offered, supplied in the form of separate libraries suitable for replacement, integration into third-party projects and use separately. For example, thanks to modularity, developers can replace the render graphics, sound system, language support, network stack, physical engine and any other components.
https://www.o3de.org/blog/posts/23-05-release/
New DogLinux Release: 06/05/2023
The release of a specialized build of the DogLinux distribution (Debian LiveCD in the Puppy Linux style), built on the Debian 12 “Bookworm” and designed to test and maintain PC's and laptops, has been published. It includes applications such as GPUTest, Unigine Heaven, CPU-X, GSmartControl, GParted, Partimage, Partclone, TestDisk, ddrescue, WHDD, DMDE. The distribution allows you to check the performance of equipment like, the load of the processor and video card, check the SMART HDD and NVMe SSD. The size of the Live image is loaded with USB drives, 1.3 GB (torrent).
https://gumanzoy.blogspot.com/2023/05/eng-liveusb-doglinux-debian-12-bookworm.html
SFTP server release SFTPGo 2.5.0: 06/05/2023
The release of the SFTPGo 2.5.0 server is published, allowing you remote access to files using SFTP, SCP/SSH, Rsync, HTTP and WebDav protocols, as well as to provide access to Git repositories using the SSH protocol. The data can be given from both the local file system and from external storage compatible with Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage and Azure Blob Storage. Data can be stored in encrypted form. To store the user base and metadata, SQL-enabled or key/value-free format is used, such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, Cockroachb or bbolt, but it is also possible to store metadata in RAM that does not require the connection of an external database. The project code is written in Go and distributed under the GPLv3 license.
https://github.com/drakkan/sftpgo/releases/tag/v2.5.0
The seL4 project was awarded the ACM Software System Award: 06/05/2023
The project, that develops the open microkernel seL4, received the ACM Software System Award, annually awarded by the Association of Computing Technology (ACM), the most authoritative international organization in the field of computer systems. The prize was awarded for achievements in the field of mathematical proof of reliability of work, which indicates full compliance with the specifications specified in a formal language and recognizes the readiness to be used in critical applications. The seL4 project showed that it is possible not only to carry out a completely formal verification of reliability and security for projects at the level of industrial operating systems, but also to achieve this without compromising performance and versatility.
The ACM Software System Award is awarded annually for the development of software systems that have a decisive impact on the industry, making new concepts or revealing new areas of commercial use. In the past years, the ACM awards were awarded to the GCC and LLVM projects, and their founders Richard Stallman and Chris Latner. The award also featured projects and technologies such as UNIX, Java, Apache, Mosaic, WWW, Smalltalk, PostScript, TeX, Tcl/Tk, RPC, Make, DNS, AFS, Eiffel, VMware, Wireshark, Jupyter Notebooks, Berkeley DB and Eclipse.
https://www.acm.org/media-center/2023/may/technical-awards-2022
Creator of LLVM develops a new programming language Mojo: 08/05/2023
Chris Lattner, founder and chief architect of LLVM, as well as the creator of the Swift programming language, and Tim Davis, a former head of Google's AI projects, such as Tensorflow and JAX, introduced the new Mojo programming language, combining ease of application for research and rapid production of prototypes with suitability for high-performance end products. The first is achieved through the use of the usual syntax of the Python language, and the second due to the possibility of compiling in machine code, mechanisms of memory safety and hardware acceleration of calculations.
The project focuses on developing for machine learning, but is presented as a general-purpose language that expands the capabilities of Python by system programming and suitable for a wide range of tasks. For example, language is applicable to areas such as high-performance computing, data processing and conversion.
https://www.modular.com/blog/a-unified-extensible-platform-to-superpower-your-ai
Lennart Pottering offered to add a soft reboot mode to systemd: 09/05/2023
Lennart Pottering spoke about the preparation for soft reboot mode (“systemctl soft-reboot”) the addition to the systemd manager, which leads to the restart of only the components of the user's space, without touching the Linux kernel. It is assumed that, compared to a standard reboot, a soft reboot will reduce downtime during the update of environments using ready-made system images.
The new mode will allow you to complete the work of all processes in the user's space, then replace the image of the root FS with a new version and start the process of initialization of the system without rebooting the kernel. In addition, saving the state of the working core when replacing the user environment will allow you to update some services in live mode, letting you transfer file descriptors and listening network sockets, for these services from the old environment to the new one. Thus, it will be possible to significantly reduce the time to replace one version of the system with another and provide seamless transfer of resources to the most important services that will continue to work without stopping.
Acceleration of the restart is achieved by excluding relatively long stages like equipment initialization, loader operation, kernel start, driver initialization, firmware loading and initrd processing. To update the kernel in combination with a soft reboot, they propose to use the livepatch mechanism to make corrections to the Linux kernel without a full reboot and without stopping the applications.
https://mastodon.social/@pid_eins/110272799283345055
Release of Alpine Linux 3.18: 10/05/2023
Alpine Linux 3.18, a minimalist distribution built on the Musl system library and a set of BusyBox utilities, is out. The distribution features increased security requirements and is assembled with SSP (Stack Smashing Protection). OpenRC is used as an initialization system, apk, its own packet manager is used to manage packages. Alpine is used to form official Docker container images and is used in the PostmarketOS project. Loading Iso-image (x86_64, x86, armhf, aarch64, armv7, ppc64le, s390x) are prepared in six versions: standard (189MB), with a core without patches (204 MB), extended (840 MB), for virtual machines (55 MB) and for the Xen hypervisor (221 MB).
https://alpinelinux.org/posts/Alpine-3.18.0-released.html
Free 2D CAD CadZinho 0.3: 10/05/2023
The production of the minimalist computer-aided design system CadZinho 0.3.0, which provides tools for creating simple two-dimensional technical drawings, has been published. The code is written in C with additions to Lua and is licensed under the MIT license. The output is generated using the SDL 2.0 and OpenGL API 3.2. The builds are prepared for Linux, Windows and macOS.
The program supports drawing shapes such as lines, polygonal grids, circles, arcs, ellipses, text, douching, splines, block inserts, attributes, broken lines and size arrangement. It supports files in DXF and SVG format and can be exported in PDF format.
In the new version, the user interface was finalized. They added an engine for localization.
https://github.com/zecruel/CadZinho/releases/tag/0.3.0
Release OpenToonz 1.7: 10/05/2023
After a year of development, the release of the OpenToonz 1.7 project was published, which continues work on the original code of the professional 2D animation package Toonz. Toonz was used in the production of the animated series Futurama and some animated films nominated for the Academy Award. In 2016, the Toonz code was opened under the BSD license and has continued to evolve as a free project since then.
OpenToonz supports the connection of plugins with effects implemented using machine learning technologies. For example, using effects, you can automatically change the image style and simulate distorted falling light, as in cartoons taken using classic technologies used before the appearance of digital animation packages.
https://github.com/opentoonz/opentoonz/releases/tag/v1.7.0
Thunderbird releases 2022 financials: 10/05/2023
The developers of the Thunderbird email client published a financial report for 2022. The project received donations in the amount of 6.4 million dollars (in 2019, $1.5 million was collected, in 2020 - $2.3 million, in 2021 - 2.8 million), which allows them to code better.
The project's expenditures amounted to $3,569 million (in 2020 - $1.5 million, in 2021 - $1.984 million) and almost all (79.8%) were associated with salaries. Currently, 24 hired employees are working on the project (in 2020, 15 were working, in 2021 - 20). 6.9% spent on administration, and 0.3% on marketing. The remaining costs are related to the payment of professional services (e.g., the human resources service), tax management and agreements with Mozilla (for example, payment for access to the build infrastructure).
According to available statistics, about 8-9 million active Thunderbird users per day and 17 million active users per month were recorded. 95% of users use Thunderbird on the Windows platform, 4% - macOS and 1% - Linux.
https://blog.thunderbird.net/2023/05/thunderbird-is-thriving-our-2022-financial-report/
Release of Lighttpd 1.4.70: 11/05/2023
The release of the lightweight http server, lighttpd 1.4.70, trying to combine high performance, security, compliance with standards and flexibility, was announced. Lighttpd is suitable for use on high-load systems and targets low memory and CPU resources. The project code is written in the C language and distributed under the BSD license
https://blog.lighttpd.net/articles/2023/05/10/lighttpd-1.4.70-released/
Release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2: 11/05/2023
Red Hat has released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2. Ready-made installation images are available for registered users of Red Hat Customer Portal (you can also use iso-images CentOS Stream 9 and free RHEL builds for developers) for evaluation. The release is formed for x86_64, s390x (IBM System z), ppc64le and Aarch64 (ARM64). The original code of the red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rpm packages are available in the Git repository of CentOS. At the same time, an update of the last branch of RHEL 8.8, the release of which is planned to be released in the coming days (currently available only in beta version).
The RHEL 9 branch uses a more open development process and uses the CentOS Stream 9 package base. CentOS Stream is positioned as a upstream project for RHEL, which allows third parties to monitor the preparation of packages for RHEL, offer their changes and influence the decisions.
AlmaLinux 9.2: 11/05/2023
Following the official release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2, the release of AlmaLinux 9.2, synchronized with the new release of RHEL and containing all the changes proposed to this release, was announced. Installation images are prepared for x86_64, ARM64, ppc64le and s390x architectures in the form of a bootable (804 MB), minimum (1.7 GB) and full image (8.8 GB). Later, Live-images with GNOME, KDE, MATE and Xfce will be available for downloas, as well as images for Raspberry Pi boards, containers and cloud platforms.
The distribution is fully binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and can be used as a replacement for RHEL 9.2 and CentOS 9 Stream. The changes are reduced to rebranding, removing RHEL-specific packages, such as redhat-*, insights-client, subscription-man-ager-migration*, kpatch*, kmod-redhat-*, rhc, spice* and virtio-win.
https://almalinux.org/blog/almalinux-92-now-available/
Release of Mesa 23.1: 11/05/2023
The release of the free implementation of the OpenGL and Vulkan API - Mesa 23.1.0 has been announced. The first release of the Mesa 23.1.0 branch has an experimental status - after the final stabilization of the code, a stable version 23.1.1 should see the light.
Mesa 23.1 is able to support the Vulkan 1.3 graphics API in the anv drivers for Intel's GPU, radv for the GPU AMD, tu for the GPU Qualcomm and in emulator mode (vn). Support for Vulkan 1.1 is implemented in the software rasterizer lavapipe (lvp), and Vulkan 1.0 in the driver v3dv (GPU Broadcom VideoCore VI from Raspberry Pi 4).
Mesa also provides full support for OpenGL 4.6 for i965, iris (Intel), radeonsi (AMD), lvmpipe drivers. Support for OpenGL 4.5 is available for GPU AMD (r600), NVIDIA (nvc0) and Qualcomm Adreno (freedreno), OpenGL 4.3 for virgl (virgl virtual GPU Virgil3D for QEMU/KVM), and OpenGL 4.2 for driver d3d12 (a plumb for OpenGL on top of DirectX 12).
https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/mesa-dev/2023-May/226007.html
Simply Linux RV: 12/05/2023
The release of the experimental build of the distribution Simply Linux RV (20230422) for the riscv64 architecture, is ready for testing. The distribution is a simple system with a classic Xfce-based desktop. The development distribution company “Basalt SPO” is part of the international community RISC-V and is working to support various RISC-V64 boards.
https://lists.altlinux.org/pipermail/riscv-devel/2023-May/000038.html
Synthstrom Audible will open the firmware code of Deluge: 12/05/2023
Synthstrom Audible has announced the opening of the firmware for Deluge's music equipment, combining in one portable device, a sound synthesizer, sampler, gruv box and sequencer, designed to create electronic music and live performances with elements of improvisation. The code is scheduled to be published on GitHub on June 5 under the GPLv3 license.
After the opening of the code, Synthstrom Audible will provide support for the official code base. They will support it in the current form and publish new releases of the firmware. Separately, they plan to create a repository for the community with firmware for different variants of the synthesizer, where a fork of the official repository will develop, allowing for changes from third-party developers. The use of firmwares is not subject to any additional restrictions, except for the requirement of the GPLv3 license. For example, the code can be used in commercial projects, but the changes made to it will need to be opened under the same license.
Release of GNU Shepherd 0.10: 13/05/2023
The GNU Shepherd 0.10 system manager is available, combining the initialization system and management toolkit. The project is being developed by GNU Guix System distribution developers as an alternative to the SysV-init initialization system that supports dependencies. The control daemon and utility Shepherd are written in Guile (one of the implementations of the Scheme language), which is also used to determine the settings of services. Shepherd is already used in the GNU Guix System distribution and also targets GNU/Hurd use, but it can work in any POSIX-compatible OS for which Guile is available.
Shepherd activates on the launch and stop of services, taking into account the relationship between services, dynamically identifying and running the services on which the selected service depends. Shepherd also supports the identification of conflicts between services and prevents them from being implemented simultaneously. The project can be used both as the main initialization system (init PID 1), and in a separate form to control the background processes of individual users (for example, to run tor, privoxy, mcron, etc.) with the implementation of the user data rights.
https://www.mail-archive.com/info-gnu@gnu.org/msg03181.html
Amazon and Google have opened Snapchange and Buzzer: 15/05/2023
Amazon has opened the source code of Snapchange tools implementing fuzzing testing memory cuts, which allows you verify executable files without modification and without the source code of the application. Snapchange allows you to download a physical memory dump with a derivative executable code and with the help of the KVM hypervisor, cyclic execution of the code present in the dump, going through various combinations of input data, tracking the resulting failures or anomalies and restarting the check after the next iteration, each time resetting the memory cut and CPU registers into the original state. The project code is written in Rust and distributed under the Apache 2.0 license.
At the same time, Google published their Buzzer toolkit, designed for fuzzing testing of the eBPF subsystem, which allows you to run applications inside the Linux kernel in a special virtual machine with JIT. Buzzer generates random eBPF programs, tracks the reaction of the Linux kernel when performing them and detects anomalies that occur when verifying the generated eBPF programs. The project code is written in Go and distributed under the Apache 2.0 license.
A new panel written in Rust for COSMIC: 16/05/2023
System76, who are developing the Linux distribution Pop!_OS, has published a report on the development of a new version of the user environment, COSMIC, rewritten in Rust (not to be confused with the old COSMIC, which was based on GNOME Shell). The environment develops as a universal project, not tied to a specific distribution and conforming to the specifications of Freedesktop. The project is also developing a composite server cosmic-comp based on Wayland.
To build the interface in COSMIC, the Iced library is used, which uses safe types, modular architecture and a reactive programming model, and also offers an architecture familiar to developers who know declarative construction of Elm interfaces. There are several render engines that support Vulkan, Metal, DX12, OpenGL 2.1+ and OpenGL ES 2.0+, as well as a window shell and engine for Web integration. Applications based on Iced for Windows, macOS, Linux can launch in a web browser. The developers offered a ready-made set of widgets, with the ability to create asynchronous handlers and use an adaptive layout of the interface elements depending on the size of the window and the screen. The code is distributed under the MIT license.
https://blog.system76.com/post/may-flowers-spring-cosmic-showers
Release of DietPi 8.17: 16/05/2023
The specialized distribution DietPi 8.17, designed for use on single-board PC's based on ARM and RISC-V architectures, such as Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, NanoPi, BananaPi, BeagleBone Black, Rock64, Rock, Quartz64, Pine64, Asus Tinker, Odroid and VisionFive 2, has a new release. The distribution is built on Debian and is available in builds for more than 50 boards. DietPi can also be used to create compact environments for virtual machines and conventional PCs based on x86_64 architecture. Builds for boards are compact (average 130 MB) and take up less space on the storage, compared to the Raspberry Pi OS and Armbian.
The new version has updated the builds based on the Debian 11 and Debian 12. The structure includes the openHAB smart home management system, the GameStream-client Moonlight and the Restic backup utility. Full support for NanoPi R6C boards, improved support for NanoPi R, ROCK Pi 4, Raspberry Pi and Quartz64 boards.
https://dietpi.com/docs/releases/v8_17/
Release of the Rocky Linux 9.2: 17/05/2023
The release of Rocky Linux 9.2, aimed at creating a free build of RHEL, capable of taking the place of the classic CentOS, is out. The distribution is fully binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and can be used as a replacement for RHEL 9.2 and CentOS 9 Stream. Support for the Rocky Linux 9 will be available until May 31, 2032. Installation of Rocky Linux iso-image is prepared for x86_64, aarch64, and s390x (IBM Z) architectures. The publication of builds for the ppc64le (POWER9) architecture has been postponed due to the detection of a serious problem with Python 3.9. Additionally, they offer live-builds with the following DE's; GNOME, KDE and Xfce, all for the x86_64 architecture.
https://rockylinux.org/news/rocky-linux-9-2-ga-release/
Release of Tor 12.0.6 and Tails 5.13: 17/05/2023
The release of the specialized distribution Tails 5.13 (The Amnesic Incognito Live System), based on Debian and designed for anonymous access to a network, was announced. Anonymous access is provided by the Tor system. All connections, except traffic over the Tor network, are blocked by the default packet filter. Encryption is used to store user data between launches. Go download a prepared iso-image, capable of working in Live mode, measuring 1.2 GB.
https://tails.boum.org/news/version_5.13/index.en.html
Release of Lutris 0.5.13: 17/05/2023
Lutris 0.5.13 gaming platform, which provides tools to simplify the installation, configuration and management of games in Linux, is out. The project code is written in Python and distributed under the GPLv3 license.
The project supports a catalog for quick search and installation of games and applications, allowing you to run games in one click through a single interface, without worrying about installing dependencies and settings. Runtime components for launching games are supplied by the project and are not linked to the distribution used. Runtime is a distribution-based library suite that includes components from SteamOS and Ubuntu, as well as various additional libraries.
You can to install games distributed through GOG, Steam, Epic Games Store, Battle.net, Amazon Games, Origin and Uplay services. At the same time, Lutris itself acts only as an intermediary and does not sell games, so for commercial games, the user must independently purchase the game in the corresponding service (free games can be run with one click from the Lutris graphical interface).
Each game in Lutris is tied to the download script and the handler describing the environment to run the game. Including ready-made profiles with optimal settings for the launch of games under the control of Wine. In addition to Wine, the games can be run using emulators of game consoles, such as RetroArch, Dosbox, FS-UAE, ScummVM, MESS/MAME and Dolphin.
https://github.com/lutris/lutris/releases/tag/v0.5.13
Release of Pale Moon 32.2: 18/05/2023
Pale Moon 32.2, which was forked from the Firefox code base to provide higher efficiency, protect a classical interface, minimize memory consumption and provide additional options, is out now. Pale Moon builds are available for Windows and Linux (x86_64). The project code is licensed under the MPLv2 (Mozilla Public License).
The project adheres to the classical layout of the interface, without the transition to Australis and Photon, and with the provision of wide customization options. Removed components include DRM, Social API, WebRTC, PDF viewer, Crash Reporter, code for collecting statistics, means for parental control and people with disabilities. Compared to Firefox, the browser returned support for extensions using XUL, and the possibility of using both full and lightweight themes.
https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?t=29817&p=239377#p239377
Release of Weston 12.0 composite server: 18/05/2023
After eight months of development, a stable release of the Weston 12.0 composite server, that develops technologies that contribute to the emergence of full support for the Wayland protocol in Enlightenment, GNOME, KDE and other user environments, has been published. Weston's development aims to provide a high-quality codebase and work examples for 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.
Changing the major version of Weston is due to changes in ABI, breaking compatibility
https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/wayland-devel/2023-May/042720.html
Release of SQLite 3.42: 19/05/2023
The release of SQLite 3.42, a lightweight DBMS, designed as a plug-in library, has been published. The SQLite code is distributed as a public domain, i.e. can be used without restrictions and free of charge for any purpose. The financial support for SQLite developers is provided by a specially created consortium, which includes companies such as Adobe, Oracle, Mozilla, Bentley and Bloomberg
https://www.sqlite.org/changes.html
Release of Coreboot 4.20: 19/05/2023
The release of the project CoreBoot 4.20 is available, which develops a free alternative to proprietary firmware and BIOS. The project code is distributed under the GPLv2 license. More than 170 developers took part in the creation of the new version, which prepared 1,625 changes.
https://github.com/coreboot/coreboot/releases/tag/4.20
Release of Nyxt 3.0.0: 20/05/2023
After two years of development, the Nyxt 3.0.0 web browser has been released, providing extensive opportunities to customize and change the behavior of any aspect of how it works. Conceptually, Nyxt resembles Emacs and Vim, and instead of a ready set of settings makes it possible to change the logic, using the Lisp language. The user can override or reconfigure any classes, methods, variables and functions. The project code is written in Lisp and distributed under a BSD license. The interface can be built with GTK or Qt. The finished builds are for Linux (Flatpak, Alpine, Arch, Guix, NixOS, Void), Windows and macOS.
To improve workflow efficiency, the browser is optimized for keyboard control and supports the typical keyboard combinations of Emacs, vi and CUA. The project is not tied to a particular browser engine and uses the minimum API to interact with web-movements. In this API, there are layers for connecting the WebKit and Blink engines (by default WebKitGTK is used), but if desired, the browser can be ported to other engines. It includes a built-in system for blocking advertising.
https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/article/release-3.0.0.org
Release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8: 20/05/2023
Following the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2, an update was made to the last branch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8, which is accompanied in parallel with the RHEL 9.x branch and will be supported until at least 2029. Installation builds are prepared for x86_64, s390x (IBM System), ppc64le and Aarch64 architectures, but are available for download only to registered Red Hat Customer Portal. The original code of the red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 rpm packages are distributed through the Git repository of CentOS.
Preparation of new releases is carried out in accordance with the development cycle, with releases every six months at a predetermined time. Until 2024, the 8.x branch will be at the full support stage, implying the inclusion of functional improvements, after that, it will go to the support stage, where priorities will shift to correct errors and patch security, with minor improvements related to the support of important hardware systems.
https://access.redhat.com/announcements/7014081
Available distribution AlmaLinux 8.8: 20/05/2023
AlmaLinux 8.8, synchronized with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 distribution and containing all the changes proposed in this release, is out. The builds are prepared for x86_64, ARM64, s390x and ppc64le architectures in the form of a bootable (900 MB), minimum (1.9 GB) and full image (12 GB). Later, they plan to form Live builds with GNOME, KDE, Xfce and MATE, as well as images for Raspberry Pi, WSL, containers and cloud platforms.
The distribution is fully binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 and can be used as a transparent replacement for CentOS 8. The changes are reduced to rebranding, removing RHEL-specific packages, such as redhat-*, insights-client and subscription-manager-migration*.
https://almalinux.org/blog/almalinux-88-now-available/
PayPal opened JunoDB code: 21/05/2023
PayPal has opened the source codes of the fault-tolerant JunoDB DBMS, which manipulates the key-to-meaning data. The system was originally designed with an eye on high safety, horizontal scalability, fault tolerance and the ability to handle hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections with predictable delays. In PayPal, almost all services, from user login to processing financial transactions, are tied to JunoDB. The project code is written in Go (Java client library) and is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. Corrections, improvements and changes from the community will be made in further development.
JunoDB's architecture is based on the use of a load balancer that receives requests from client applications and distributes them between proxy servers that simultaneously access the storage server group when executed. Each proxy server installs connections with all storage servers and redirects requests to a group of storage servers based on the section index, which is stored in a distributed configuration storage system etcd.
In PayPal, JunoDB-based serviers serve about 350 billion requests per day.