Pixel 3A becomes the first device to achieve a 100% Ubuntu Touch support score

The Pixel 3A was released in 2019 by Google as a cheaper alternative to the Pixel 4, and is powered by a Snapdragon 670 processor coupled with 4GB RAM, an OLED display, and a 3000mAh battery. Being somewhat popular among the developer community, it was two years ago that this device obtained the first beta porting of Ubuntu Touch. The main reason for the popularity of the Pixel 3 is its compact form factor and excellent camera capabilities, and it was adopted very quickly after its release as a feasible candidate for Ubuntu thanks to its versatility and relatively powerful SoC. What is new is that the Pixel 3A has finally reached a 100% "feature compatibility" score on the Ubuntu Touch page, making it fully able to run the OS stably and integrate it with all major existing peripherals, thus essentially enabling worry-free usage as a daily driver. In fact, not even the historically supported BQ Aquaris M10, Volla Phone and OnePlus One can currently boast the same 100% feature support score, although this is sometimes determined by subtleties in the onboard peripherals e.g. unsupported FM radio, not existing on newer models, or NFC, who arguably uses on a Linux phone nowadays.

Security Leftovers

• Google Releases Security Update for Chrome | CISA

  Google has released Chrome version 103.0.5060.114 for Windows. This version addresses vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit to take control of an affected system.

• Google patches “in-the-wild” Chrome zero-day – update now! – Naked Security

  Google’s latest update to the Chrome browser fixes a varying number of bugs, depending on whether you’re on Android, Windows or Mac, and depending on whether you’re running the “stable channel” or the “extended stable channel“.

• Stable Channel Update for Desktop

  A full list of changes in this build is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how here. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.

• Security updates for Tuesday [LWN.net]

  Security updates have been issued by Debian (blender and thunderbird), SUSE (ImageMagick, qemu, and sysstat), and Ubuntu (php7.0).

• Prepare for a New Cryptographic Standard to Protect Against Future Quantum-Based Threats [Ed: More quantum-hype from NIST/NSA, proponents and spreaders of back doors]

  The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced that a new post-quantum cryptographic standard will replace current public-key cryptography, which is vulnerable to quantum-based attacks. Note: the term “post-quantum cryptography” is often referred to as “quantum-resistant cryptography” and includes, “cryptographic algorithms or methods that are assessed not to be specifically vulnerable to attack by either a CRQC [cryptanalytically relevant quantum computer] or classical computer.” (See the National Security Memorandum on Promoting United States Leadership in Quantum Computing While Mitigating Risks to Vulnerable Cryptographic Systems for more information).

• Understanding and Preventing Dependency Confusion - FOSSA

  Dependency confusion is a software supply chain exploit that takes advantage of a quirk in certain package managers to inject unwanted (and potentially malicious) code. These attacks are based on the fact that many package managers check public code registries for a package before private registries. Accordingly, if a package exists in a private registry, an attacker could register a package of the same name with the public registry. Then, when a new install occurs, the malicious version on the public registry would be pulled in.

Red Hat Leftovers

• Achieving speed and accuracy through event-driven automation

  Companies are on a journey toward using automation more strategically across their organizations, and automating IT functions is a key step toward achieving this goal. One case in point for automation as a strategy is Discover Financial Services, where they have set an "Extreme Automation" strategy that underpins automation in everything they do. Other companies are pursuing similar strategies as well.

• PulseAudio & Systemd Creator, Lennart Poettering, Reportedly Leaves Red Hat - Phoronix

  He's still active in systemd world with new commits made as of today, so it will be interesting to see where he ends up or his next moves with his vast Linux ecosystem expertise and pivotal role in spearheading systemd's direction.

• Red Hat follows open-source game plan to drive the enterprise hybrid future [Ed: Disclosure missing. This publisher gets paid by Red Hat to produce these puff pieces.]

  Red Hat Inc. Chief Executive Officer Paul Cormier recently offered two key points at the start of the company’s Summit in May: Companies will have to adopt a hybrid model whether desired or not, and open-source code is driving the future of IT.

• Write a SystemTap script to trace code execution on Linux | Red Hat Developer

  Learn from our experts about how SystemTap allows you to add instrumentations to Linux systems to better understand kernel and application behavior.

• Debugging, Hedy, and nostalgia: 3 talks at OpenJS World 2022

  Red Hat recently attended OpenJS World 2022, held on June 6-10 in Austin, TX. This OpenJS Foundation event, which after nearly two years was finally held in person again, brought together the JavaScript and Node.js ecosystems. The summit started with two days of excellent keynotes and talks, followed by two days of passionate discussions during the Collaborators Summit.