Linux 4.15-rc7

Ok, we had an interesting week, and by now everybody knows why we were merging all those odd x86 page table isolation patches without following all of the normal release timing rules. But rc7 itself is actually pretty calm. Yes, there were a few small follow-up patches to the PTI code still, and yes, there's been a fair amount of discussion about the exact details of the Spectre fixes, but at least in general things have been nice and calm. And we're actually back to "normal" in that most of the patches are drivers (mainly GPU, some crypto, some random small things - input layer, platform drivers etc). There are misc small filesystem and arch updates too. The appended shortlog is small enough that it's easy to just scroll down and get a feel for what happened. Also: Linux Kernel 4.15 to Arrive in Two Weeks as Linus Torvalds Releases Seventh RC Linux 4.15-rc7 Kernel Released

Pros and cons of Linux

Obviously, as well as any other software or operating system, Linux has certain benefits and disadvantages. Most of them were already exposed. Linux might be rather disappointing for those who prefer playing games since not all of the are all available for this operating system's users. As well as for gamers, this system will be rather incomprehensible for newcomers due to a console that allows you to perform more complex operations, but demanding much more attention and skills to master it. However, the major advantage for all the users is the security of this system. You may forget about viruses and antiviruses once and for all. Moreover, Linux is far less overloaded comparing with Windows, so it works much faster.

Leftovers: Containers in Research, Opera, KDE Software, Thunderbolt 3, Android and Chrome OS

• Containers in Research

  Last week, I attended the Docker Containers for Reproducible Research Workshop hosted by the Software Sustainability Institute. Many talks were addressing how containers can be used in a high performance computing (HPC) environment. Since running the Docker daemon requires root privileges, most administrators are reluctant to allow users running Docker containers in a HPC environment. This issue as been addressed by Singularity, which is an alternative conterization technology that does not require root privileges. The nice thing is that Singularity allows importing existing Docker images, which allows you creating a Singularity container from anything that is on Docker Hub. Although I only used Docker so far, Singularity sounds like a nice technology I would like to explore in the future.

• Opera 50 Web Browser Features Cryptocurrency Mining Protection

• Latte bug fix release v0.7.3 and some news...

  Latte Dock v0.7.3 has been released containing many important fixes and improvements! Soon at your distro repos or...

• Discussing the future of Cantor

  It is common to use the new year date to start new projects or give new directions for old ones. The last one is the case for Cantor. Since when I got the maintainer status for Cantor, I was working to improve the community around the software. Because the great plugins systems of Qt, it is easy to write new backends for Cantor, and in fact in last years Cantor reached the number of 11 backends.

• Fedora 28 Aiming For Secure Thunderbolt 3 Support

  If Fedora developers are successful, Fedora 28 will feature secure and properly supported Thunderbolt 3 device handling out-of-the-box. Long story short, Fedora 28 will hopefully be featuring Red Hat's Bolt project for dealing with modern Thunderbolt devices. With Thunderbolt allowing for direct access to the PCI Express bus, it opens the system up to DMA attacks and other vulnerabilities. But under Thunderbolt 3 is support for security levels by which devices can be restricted to only DisplayPort acess, user authorization of devices, and secure access. The Linux kernel changes for dealing with Thunderbolt 3 is in place but the user-space portion is not.

• 8 Best Android Launchers To Enhance Looks And Performance Of Your Device in 2018

  Android’s dominance over other mobile operating systems is mainly due to the endless customization opportunities it provides to its user base. Launchers are one of the most customizable parts of Android. Android smartphones are inoperable without a launcher, which comprises of your home screen and the catalog of all the apps available on your device. So every device comes with a default launcher pre-installed.

• This is the new Acer Chromebook 11

  Many people diss Chromebooks because they simply don't understand them. No, Chrome OS -- the operating system that powers these laptops -- is not just a glorified web browser. Actually, the OS is a full Linux distribution that is both extremely secure and easy to use. True, they can be deficient for some tasks, such as video editing and hardcore gaming, but let's be honest -- not everyone has those needs. If everything you do is in a browser -- email, web surfing, social media, YouTube, Netflix, etc. -- there is no reason to run Windows and open yourself up to malware and other bad things. Hell, Chromebooks even have Microsoft Office support these days!

Kernel and Graphics: LightNVM, Year 2038 and More

• LightNVM 2.0 Support Being Prepped For Linux 4.16

  LightNVM is the abstraction layer within the Linux kernel for supporting open-channel NVM Express solid-state drives. LightNVM 2.0 is on the way. LightNVM 2.0 is on the way and is currently available as a public draft specification. This updated specification will be released soon for dealing with these SSDs that leave management up to the operating system rather than the drive itself.

• Input Drivers Are Being Prepped For Year 2038 Safety

  While kernel developers are busy with Spectre and Meltdown bugs right now, 20 years from now is the big "Year 2038" problem. Kernel developers are still working through the massive codebase to allow it to function past this "Unix Millenium Bug." The Year 2038 problem is when on 19 January 2038 that Unix systems storing time as a 32-bit integer will wrap around. Developers for years have been working on Year 2038 fixes but the kernel isn't quite tidied up yet.

• Radeon+Ryzen CPUFreq CPU Scaling Governor Benchmarks On Linux 4.15

  Taking a break from KPTI and Retpoline benchmarks, here are some tests recently conducted with Linux 4.15 when it comes to trying out the different CPUFreq scaling governors with this latest kernel and running various games with a Radeon RX 580 Polaris graphics card.

• VK9, the project to get Direct3D 9 applications to run with Vulkan reached another milestone

  In late December last year, the developer of the VK9 project emailed us about hitting another milestone with their project to get Direct3D 9 applications to run with Vulkan.