Linux Action News

Developers are the new gold rush for OEMs and selling Linux is their way to get you to buy. Purism takes big steps to make their laptops more secure, the Linux kernel is ready for lockdown mode, and the new uses for Sailfish just might surprise you.

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• Sailfish 3 and feature phones — Sailfish OS development never stops, not even for legacy devices. Sailfish 3 will be rolled out in phases during Q3/2018 for all licensees and customers.
• Crostini - Linux App via Containers on ChromeOS — In other words, the Crostini/Terminal feature could be to Chrome OS what the Windows Subsystem for Linux is for Windows 10: a way that developers, power users, and Linux enthusiasts can run native Linux software on a device that’s not running a traditional Linux distribution.
• Sailfish OS v3 will be on "feature phones" — It’s also coming to 4G-enabled feature phones.
• Microsoft and Canonical collaborate on Ubuntu VMs — With only 3 mouse clicks, users will be able to get an Ubuntu VM running that offers clipboard functionality, drive redirection, and much more.
• Purism makes their laptops more secure — As part of our goal to improve security we are excited to announce that we have successfully integrated Heads into our TPM-enabled coreboot-running Librem laptops.
• Kernel secure boot lock down — Among the further restrictions that would be placed on the Linux kernel when running with UEFI Secure Boot enabled is blocking access to kernel module parameters that end up dealing with hardware settings, blocking access to some areas of /dev that could manipulate the kernel or hardware state, etc.
• More Linux On Galaxy hype — Linux is installed as an “app” on Android, and when launched it shares the same Linux kernel powering Android.

Open Source salvation from Android and iOS gets closer this week, an update on Ubuntu's metrics collection, and huge news for Signal and RISC-V Linux fans.

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• LineageOS 15.1 is finally here — We’ve been working hard these months to get this new version available; the changes that were done in upstream (AOSP) are huge: Project Treble changed the way hardware is managed in Android, so all the OEM-abandoned platforms that are supported by Lineage had to be adapted for the new platform.
• XDA article
• Unity 8 running on 18.04
• Ubuntu metrics collection will be opt-in when upgrading to 18.04 — ”Upgrading users would need to purposely “opt-in” to this behaviour, as that wasn’t

A famous Solaris tool comes to Linux, Firefox is baking in ads, and Google wants to take over the web with AMP.

Plus Ubuntu's plans to collect user metrics, the Linux on Galaxy survey, and Plasma desktop on a Nintendo Switch.

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• dtrace relicensed as GPLv2 — This changeset integrates DTrace module sources into the main kernel source tree under the GPLv2 license. Sources have been moved to appropriate locations in the kernel tree.
• Firefox adding sponsored stories to the new tab page — What’s next? We recently started testing personalized recommendations, and we will soon experiment with showing an occasional sponsored story within the Pocket Recommendations section in New Tab Page in Firefox Beta. This will be shown to a small portion of U.S. users as we start to test.
• AMP Stories and AMP for email — Starting with the Gmail Developer Preview of AMP for Email today, the new feature will allow users to perform simple tasks such as booking calendar appointments and checking into flights directly within the layout of the email.
• Related
• Ubuntu plans metrics collection — "We want to be able to focus our engineering efforts on the things that matter most to our users, and in order to do that we need to get some more data about sort of setups our users have and which software they are running on it," explained Will Cooke, the director of Ubuntu Desktop at Canonical.
• Ubuntu adds 'Minimal Install' option 18.04 — The new “minimal install” option appears in section of the installer that asks whether you want to install restricted codecs to enable multimedia playback alongside the main desktop.
• Linux on Galaxy Survey — “In order to determine how to best design the product to meet your needs, we ask for a moment of your time to complete this Linux on Galaxy Survey.”
• Plasma running on a Switch — Code execution is all the rage these days, but can your Switch do *this*?

It's week of major project releases, elementary OS gears up for some contested changes, and Mozilla has a solution for the world's IoT mess.

Plus fail0verflow gets Linux on the Nintendo Switch, and our favorite new features of VLC 3.0.

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• MATE 1.20 — The theme for this release has been stabilising the MATE Desktop by replacing deprecated code and modernising large sections of the code base. We’ve also improved our window manager (Marco) and added support for HiDPI. Along the way we’ve fixed hundreds of bugs. Squished ‘em dead!
• Plasma 5.12 — Speed and memory improvements are the focus of this long-term release. The new Plasma LTS uses less CPU and less memory than previous versions. The process of starting the Plasma desktop is now significantly faster.
• VLC 3.0 — Network browsing for distant filesystems (SMB, FTP, SFTP, NFS...)
• Nextcloud 13 — This release brings improvements to the core File Sync and Share like easier moving of files and a tech preview of our end-to-end encryption for the ultimate protection of your data. It also introduces collaboration and communication capabilities, like auto-complete of comments and integrated real-time chat and video communication.
• Android x86 7.1 — It’s a full port of Android, instead of being more of an application player like other solutions.
• Bliss-x86 Oreo 8.x
• Changes coming to elementary OS AppCenter — One of the primary goals of developing AppCenter Dashboard was to build a sustainable app ecosystem. I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that although the AppCenter ecosystem is growing, nobody can make a living on it yet. That’s what we mean when we say “sustainable”. Writing apps is a real, hard, full-time job. If we want to see more high-quality, Open Source apps then we need to prioritize getting third-party app developers paid.
• Elementary OS Juno will be version 5.0, not 0.5 — Among them a small yet appreciable bump to the version number. Yes elementary OS 0.5 Juno will actually be elementary OS 5.0.
• Announcing “Project Things” — We kicked off “Project Things”, with the goal of building a decentralized ‘Internet of Things’ that is focused on security, privacy, and interoperability.
• Nintendo Switch runs Linux — According to fail0verflow, there’s a flaw in the boot ROM in Nvidia’s Tegra X1 system-on-a-chip. when your console starts, it reads and executes a piece of code stored in a read-only memory (hence the name ROM). This code contains instructions about the booting process.

Red Hat shakes up the container world with its CoreOS purchase. Skype ships as a snap and Chris has a report from Canonical's recent development sprint.

Plus more hardware for Plasma Mobile, Matrix gets a big boost, and the FSF receives a large Bitcoin donation.

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• Red Hat to Acquire CoreOS, Expanding its Kubernetes and Containers Leadership — Red Hat today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire CoreOS, Inc., an innovator and leader in Kubernetes and container-native solutions, for a purchase price of $250 million
• TechSNAP Episode 353: Too Many Containers — We introduce you to Kubernetes, what problems it solves, why everyone is talking about it, and where it came from. Also who shouldn’t be using Kubernetes, and the problems you can run into when scaling it.
• LibreOffice 6.0 Released — The release of LibreOffice 6.0 marks the first major update to the productivity suite since the LibreOffice 5.4 release back in July 2017. It also coincides with the anniversary of the very first release of LibreOffice in January 2011.
• How do I test Plasma Mobile? (part 2) — Currently there are two possible ways of testing Plasma Mobile on an actual mobile device,

Ubuntu is switching back to Xorg, Linus calls out Intel, and are the BSDs dying?

Plus how you can start testing Plasma Mobile, Pursim aims for convergence, and Mycroft is back!

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• Plasma Mobile test ISOs — 44% poll participants wanting to test Plasma Mobile on their device, and/or as a virtual machine, or on real machine.
• Purism aims for convergence — Upon successful completion of our funding campaign, we started to look for a Designer to take care of the user experience for the Librem 5, and a web developer to help us improve the look & feel (and more technical parts) of our website in general. Today, I’m glad to finally welcome them publicly!
• Mycroft Mark 2 — What sets Mark II apart? It’s open source. This means your personal data stays private, you can customize your experience, and Mycroft is a neutral player in the voice game, allowing you to be confident in your personal preference of apps and skills.
• Ubuntu 18.04 to revert to Xorg by default — We have decided that we will ship Xorg by default, and that Wayland will be an optional session available from the login screen.

A major open source milestone, some OnePlus users compromised, Google switches to Debian, and we have Spectre and Meltdown updates.

Plus what happened to NHoS, and more!

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• Wine 3.0 Released — This includes in particular Direct3D 12 and Vulkan support, as well as OpenGL ES support to enable Direct3D on Android.

Barcelona is switching to FOSS the right way, Nextcloud launches peer-to-peer encrypted video calls, big changes are coming to Google's AMP, and why the BSD camp is laughing at Linux this week.

Plus Fedora's new "primary architecture", Ubuntu 17.10 is back, and more.

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• Barcelona to switch to FOSS — According to the news report, the city plans to first replace all its user applications with alternative open source applications. This will go on until the only remaining proprietary software will be Windows where it will finally be replaced with a Linux distribution.
• Nextcloud Talk — We’re very proud to announce today Nextcloud Talk, the first enterprise-ready, self-hosted communication technology giving users the highest degree of control over their data and communication.
• AMP changes aren't good enough for some web devs — The Web is not Google, and should not be just Google.

We start with good news, fun speculation, and an open source success story. Then we get into Meltdown and Spectre.

Plus we follow up on the lawsuit that could split the community, and then we eat some Bitcoin humble pie.

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• UBports release OTA 3 — This update brings some new features and bug fixes atop the Ubuntu Touch 15.04 base. New features include some new packages requested by the community, the default start page and search provider was changed over to DuckDuckGo, and not displaying the keyboard when working with multiple windows. This over-the-air update has also removed the Ubuntu Store from the App Scope.
• Ubuntu Touch working on Android app support — “Project Anbox”. Anbox - a shorted form of ‘Android-in-a-Box” - is a community effort which allows Android apps to execute in a container in a more native way rather than the more common approach of using an Android emulator,
• LEDE and OpenWrt merge — The merged project will use the code base of the former LEDE project.
• Fuchsia available for the Pixelbook — Fuchsia—which only started development in 2016—is Google's third operating system after Chrome OS and Android.
• Meltdown and Spectre — Meltdown and Spectre exploit critical vulnerabilities in modern processors. These hardware vulnerabilities allow programs to steal data which is currently processed on the computer. While programs are typically not permitted to read data from other programs, a malicious program can exploit Meltdown and Spectre to get hold of secrets stored in the memory of other running programs. This might include your passwords stored in a password manager or browser, your personal photos, emails, instant messages and even business-critical documents.
• Law Center and Conservancy updates — Because the SFLC has amended its trademark cancellation petition with a fraud claim, the SFC's motion to toss the complaint must be refiled after the fraud issue been considered.

Our top 4 predictions for Linux in 2018, and then we shift gears and give you the top 6 things we hope just might happen.

Plus we put hard numbers on the highs and lows of Bitcoin during 2018.

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