Linux Action News

Linux Action News

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Linux Action News episodes

  • Linux Action News 73

    Google's Project Zero criticizes Linux distros, Firefox can now tell you when you get pwned, and the growing elephant in the room about Azure.

    Plus a new release of our favorite non-distro, GPL revoking debunking, and Android turns 10.

    Links:

    • Android turns 10 — This was an era in which Android devices were responding to Apple, and not vice versa as we find today.
    • Google's Project Zero criticises Linux distros for tardy kernel patches — Project Zero accuses Linux distributions of leaving users exposed to known kernel vulnerabilities for weeks.
    • CVE-2018-17182 in Ubuntu — As of 2018-09-26, fixes for this issue are applied to all
    kernels uploaded to RELEASE-proposed today. and should be released
    around Monday, Oct 1, 2018.
  • No, GPL can't be revoked — For anybody who has been concerned by the talk from a few outsiders about revoking GPL licensing, this new section in the Software Freedom Conservancy's copyleft guide is worth a read.
    • Thus, anyone downstream of the contributor (which is anyone using the contributor’s code), has an irrevocable license from the contributor. A contributor may claim to revoke their grant, and subsequently sue for copyright infringement, but a court would likely find the revocation was ineffective and the downstream user had a valid license defense to a claim of infringement.
  • KDE neon Rebased on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS — The KDE neon team is proud to announce the rebase of our packages onto Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver". We encourage all users to upgrade now. The installable ISOs and Docker images have also been updated to run on 18.04.
  • At least half of Azure is running Linux — "it's about half now, but it varies on the day because a lot of these workloads are elastic, but sometimes slightly over half of Azure VMs are Linux." Microsoft later clarified, "about half Azure VMs are Linux."
  • Firefox can now tell you when you get pwned — Mozilla is taking this a step further by also letting you sign up for alerts for when your accounts appear in any (known) breaches in the future.
  • Mintcast needs new hosts — Rob and Isaac talk about ending their time doing the podcast and ask who would like to take over.
  • Linux Academy Job Openings
    • 25 min
  • Linux Action News 72

    Linus is taking a break from maintaining the kernel, AMP might be set free, and Firefox goes VR.

    It’s also been a big week for Linux on Windows with Flatpaks and a new distro running on WSL, and a flawless Ubuntu VM experience.

    Special Guest: Wes Payne.

    Links:

    • Firefox VR browser released — Mozilla announced back in April that it was developing Firefox Reality, a next-generation web browser specifically for standalone VR and AR devices, and now it’s actually here. Firefox Reality 1.0 is available today as a set of free downloads for HTC Viveport, Oculus Go, and Daydream headsets.
    • Google loosens grasp on AMP — we want to move to a model that explicitly gives a voice to all constituents of the community, including those who cannot contribute code themselves, such as end-users. The change we are proposing is based on months of research, through which we’ve decided to follow the lead of the Node.js project and move to a consensus-seeking governance model.
    • Mir reaches 1.0.0 — We’re pleased to announce the release of Mir 1.0.0. The main things to note with this release are support for the Wayland xdg-shell (stable) extension and improved facilities for customizing display layouts.
    • Ubuntu 14.04 to receive extended maintenance — With the End of Life of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS in April 2019, and to support the planning efforts of developers worldwide, Canonical is announcing the availability of ESM for Ubuntu 14.04.
    • Running Ubuntu VMs on Windows made easier — Today we’re very pleased to announce that an optimised Ubuntu Desktop image is available from the Hyper-V gallery. This will give an optimum experience when running Ubuntu Desktop as a guest on a Windows 10 Pro desktop host.
    • First purpose-built distro available for WSL — WLinux is at its core a custom Linux distro built from Debian stable specifically for use on WSL.
    • Flatpak running on WSL — Windows Subsystem for Linux fans, rejoice! Flatpak can now ease your dependency blues. Sort of.
    • Linus takes a break and a new CoC for kernel devs
    26 min
  • Linux Action News 71

    Fedora want help testing their innovations, Mozilla continue to focus on mobile, Chrome OS gets a major new feature, and Microsoft almost stepped in it bigtime.

    Plus new releases from nano and Nextcloud, huge news for Jupiter Broadcasting, and more.

    Special Guest: Wes Payne.

    Links:

    • Give Fedora Silverblue a test drive — Fedora Silverblue is a new variant of Fedora Workstation with rpm-ostree at its core to provide fully atomic upgrades. Furthermore, Fedora Silverblue is immutable and upgrades as a whole, providing easy rollbacks from updates if something goes wrong. Fedora Silverblue is great for developers using Fedora with good support for container-focused workflows.
    • nano 3.0 released — GNU nano 3.0 "Water Flowing Underground" speeds up the reading of a file by seventy percent, roughly doubles the speed of handling ASCII text, changes the way words at line boundaries are deleted, makes wipe the next word and the preceding word...
    • Nextcloud 14 released — The upcoming Nextcloud 14 introduces a series of improvements to make Nextcloud even easier to use and also more accessible to people with visual disabilities.
    • Firefox Focus to switch to Gecko — In the next weeks, we’ll release a new version of Focus for Android, and for the first time, Focus will come bundled with Gecko, the browser engine that powers Firefox Quantum.
    • Chrome OS 70 brings native network file share support — Chrome OS will have its NativeSmb flag to set to enabled by default
    • Microsoft planned to try and stop users installing alternative browsers in Win10 but then backtracked
    • Jupiter Broadcasting Joins Linux Academy — As part of Linux Academy, we’re going to do more than create better content. We’re going to contribute back.
    • User Error is back! — User Error is back with a new set of hosts! We answer some #AskError questions and talk about whether the Linux desktop will ever make money.
    Plus we wonder if dockless bike sharing is a good idea and whether travel really is as great as everyone seems to think.
    21 min
  • Linux Action News 70

    Great new releases for GNOME and Tor, delays for the Librem 5, and Linus proves to be extremely important.

    Plus some innovative tech gets an open source implementation, and NSA encryption removed from the kernel within weeks of inclusion.

    Special Guest: Wes Payne.

    Links:

    • GNOME 3.30 Released — The latest version of GNOME 3 has been released today. Version 3.30 contains six months of work by the GNOME community and includes many improvements and new features.
    • Tor browser 8.0 released — Tor Browser 8.0, our first stable release based on Firefox 60 ESR, is now available from the Tor Browser Project page and also from our distribution directory. This release is all about users first.
    • Official Tor browser for Android released — Tor Project, the not-for-profit body behind the anonymizing Tor browser, has launched the first official Tor mobile browser app.
    • Librem 5 delayed — Purism has been working with the silicon vendor directly to evaluate the upcoming CPU for this silicon power management issue that would have a significant negative impact on the Librem 5’s battery life. Ultimately, this issue is going to lead to a three month delay in the production schedule for the final Librem 5 phone.
    • Debian-Based Android WiFi RTT Indoor Location Tracking — CompuLab have introduced WILD, the first WiFi RTT access point to allow for WiFi indoor location detection/tracking with supported Android 9 smartphones.
    • Speck to be removed from the kernel — The speck removal patch has been merged into the development crypto code base by subsystem maintainer Herbert Xu. The patch merged overnight strips the kernel of Speck.
    • Kernel Maintainer’s Summit moved continents to accommodate Linus — The Maintainer's Summit will take place in Edinburgh, on Monday afternoon, October 22nd.
    25 min
  • Linux Action News 69

    This week saw a huge release for UBports, proof that LMDE is still alive, and Mozilla earning a lot of respect.

    Plus mixed news for Google, and a surprising blockchain fact.

    Special Guest: Wes Payne.

    Links:

    • Ubuntu Touch OTA 4 Released — After eight months of work, the UBports Foundation is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu Touch OTA-4.
    This release features Ubuntu 16.04 as its base (previously 15.04), bringing security fixes and greater stability to unseen corners of the operating system.
  • LMDE 3 released — The team is proud to announce the release of LMDE 3 “Cindy” Cinnamon Edition.
  • Mozilla publishes Firefox user data — As an organization, Mozilla has always championed transparency, and today, it’s taking this one step further by pulling back the curtains on its internal data for how many people regularly use Firefox and how they use the browser.
  • Firefox to block tracking — In the near future, Firefox will — by default — protect users by blocking tracking while also offering a clear set of controls to give our users more choice over what information they share with sites.
  • Google hands off Kubernetes to the community with $9M donation — As a testament to Kubernetes’ maturity, we’re excited to take the next step, and are opening the Kubernetes project's cloud resources up to contributors. We’re funding this move with a $9 million grant of GCP credits
  • Blow for Google in Oracle Android case — Google will have to go to the US Supreme Court if it wants to contest the reversal of a verdict — in a long-running case with Oracle — that had found its use of 37 Java APIs in the Android mobile operating system was covered by fair use.
  • Blockchain is a lot older than you might think — the world’s oldest blockchain predates Bitcoin by 13 years and it’s been hiding in plain sight, printed weekly in the classified section of one of the world’s most widely circulated newspapers: The New York Times.
    • 23 min
  • Linux Action News 68

    Some massive free software milestones this week, Intel's Microcode benchmark snafu, and Windows games for Steam on Linux confirmed, so we give it a test.

    Plus Venezuela ties its currency to a cryptocoin, and our reaction to Windows 95 getting stuffed inside an Electron app.

    Sponsored By:

    • Ting: Save $25 off your first device, or $25 in service credit if you bring one!

    Links:

    • Flatpak reaches 1.0 — Flatpak 1.0 is the first version in a new stable release series. This
    new 1.x series is the successor to the 0.10.x series, which was first
    introduced in October 2017.
  • Venezuela ties its currency to a cryptocoin — It is supposed to be a liquid asset reflective of the price of oil, and there is of course a whitepaper that describes the system in broad strokes, though it lacks almost any real technical detail.
  • Linux turns 27 — Some FOSS fans consider the first public release of (prototype) code, which dropped on October 5, 1991, as more worthy of being the kernel’s true anniversary date.
    • Others, ourselves included, take today, August 25, as the “birth” date of the project.
  • IRC Turns 30
  • Debian turns 25
  • GNOME turns 21
  • Intel Microcode update didn’t allow benchmarks — Since the microcode is running for every instruction, this seems to be a use restriction on the entire processor. Don’t run your benchmarker at all, not even on your own software, if you “provide” or publish the results.
  • Until they changed their mind
  • Windows games for Steam on Linux confirmed — What many people suspected turned out to be true, DXVK development was actually funded by Valve. They actually employed the DXVK developer since February 2018. On top of that, they also helped to fund: vkd3d (Direct3D 12 implementation based on Vulkan), OpenVR and Steamworks native API bridges, wined3d performance and functionality fixes for Direct3D 9 and Direct3D 11 and more.
  • Proton — Proton is a tool for use with the Steam client which allows games which are exclusive to Windows to run on Linux and macOS operating systems. It uses Wine to facilitate this.
  • Windows 95 available as an Electron app — This is Windows 95, running in an Electron app. Yes, it's the full thing. I'm sorry.
  • Although this isn't exactly a new idea
    • 26 min
  • Linux Action News 67

    It seems Valve is working to make Windows games work on Linux, and LVFS turns its focus to NVMe drives.

    Plus KDE 3 lives on, Endless ships on Asus, and major distros patch against Foreshadow.

    Sponsored By:

    • Linux Academy: Visit linuxacademy.com/unplugged and sign up for a free 7 day trial!

    Links:

    • Valve working to make Windows games work on Steam OS
    • Endless OS shipping on Asus hardware
    • Trinity Desktop R14.0.5 released
    • Help LVFS gather NVMe data
    • Linux 4.18 Arrives With Some Big Changes
    • 4.18.3 is already out
    • Major distros patched against Foreshadow
    17 min
  • Linux Action News 66

    We cover the noteworthy features of Android Pie, Lenovo joins The Linux Vendor Firmware Service, and Dropbox is ending support for non-Ext4 filesystems.

    Plus big news for Flatpaks, the blockchain goes to work, and Open Source goes all Hollywood.

    Sponsored By:

    • Digital Ocean: Create an account and apply our promo heresthething to get a $10 credit. Or visit: https://do.co/action Promo Code: heresthething

    Links:

    • Android Pie released
    • Please welcome Lenovo to the LVFS
    • LVFS: Device List
    • Flatpaks auto-update in GNOME 3.30
    • The birth of a new runtime
    • 94 Companies Join IBM and Maersk's Blockchain Supply Chain
    • Dropbox Ending Support for non-Ext4 Filesystems
    • Open Source goes all Hollywood
    27 min
  • Linux Action News 65

    GNOME and elementary OS receive a large somewhat mysterious donation. Wireguard is coming to a Kernel near you, and Mozilla wants to talk about the Dweb.

    Plus OpenWrt is alive and well, and Samsung has a new trick.

    Sponsored By:

    • Ting: Save $25 off your first device, or $25 in service credit if you bring one!

    Links:

    • New Samsung Dex tablet
    • OpenWrt 18.06 released
    • Wireguard submitted for inclusion in the kernel
    • Linus is a fan
    • elementary OS receives large donation
    • GNOME Foundation receives $400,000 from Handshake.org
    • Introducing the Dweb
    • Evolving the Firefox Brand
    • Out-of-process extensions coming to Firefox on Linux — out-of-process
    18 min
  • Linux Action News 64

    Slackware's founder runs into challenges, YouTube makes changes that slow down Firefox, while Firefox is cutting back on some features, and another German region dumps FOSS.

    Plus some hard data on why it's time to drop 32-bit Linux, and Lubuntu's got a new direction.

    Sponsored By:

    • Linux Academy: Visit linuxacademy.com/unplugged and sign up for a free 7 day trial!

    Links:

    • Slackware dev has financial problems
    • Follow Up post by Patrick
    • Patrick Volkerding’s PayPal
    • YouTube slower on Firefox
    • YouTube Classic – Add-ons for Firefox
    • Firefox to lose some features
    • Another German region dumps FOSS
    • Another reason to dump 32-bit Linux
    • Lubuntu’s new direction
    • Fedora Needs Some Help If Continuing To Support The LXQt Desktop
    28 min

About Linux Action News

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Weekly Linux news and analysis by Chris and Joe. The show every week we hope you'll go to when you want to hear an informed discussion about what’s happening.