With the RADV Mesa Radeon Vulkan driver continuing to be advanced by Valve and other independent developers while AMD continues with open-source code drops of their official AMDVLK Vulkan driver, it's been a friendly open-source Radeon Vulkan driver performance and feature/extension battle since that official AMD Vulkan driver was opened up at the end of last year. With new AMDVLK/XGL/PAL code drops happening about weekly and RADV continuing to receive new feature/performance work every few days, both drivers continue maturing gracefully as shown by our latest performance benchmarks.

The latest GNOME 3.28 desktop environment release contained a major memory leak in the GNOME Shell user interface component, but it was quickly addressed so that it won't affect users considering the fact that most Linux OSes distribute the latest GNOME desktop packages once the first point release is available, in this case GNOME 3.28.1.

As Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) is shipping with the latest GNOME 3.28 desktop environment by default, it was apparent that it will include all the upstream patches released by the GNOME Project to address any memory leaks. Canonical already successfully tested the new patches, but it needs to get wider testing and feedback as soon as possible before the final release on April 26.

GNOME 3.29.1 is the first development snapshot of the forthcoming GNOME 3.30 desktop environment, which is dubbed "Almeria" after the host city of the GUADEC (GNOME Users And Developers European Conference) 2018 event later this year, and it brings a few updated core components and apps, but without any significant changes.

"There are actually not very many changes to GNOME modules themselves, because not many maintainers provided updated tarballs, but there are new versions for a few applications and libraries," said Michael Catanzaro on behalf of the GNOME Release Team. "Notably, GNOME Shell was not updated in this release, which is a bit sad."

Clearly, Linux is everywhere. In this article, we not even touched on “fun” everyday uses such as smart TVs, Roku sticks, Nest thermostats, Kindle e-readers, and all the rest.

And even though we’ve only listed eight unusual uses, the wide variety of the examples will hopefully give you an appreciation for how widespread the operating system is.

• Point & click horror game 'Without Escape' to have Linux support, launching April 24th

  Feeling brave? Point and click horror game Without Escape might test that a little and it's heading to Linux.

  Without Escape is inspired by first-person adventure games like Myst which used pre-rendered backgrounds and full-motion video, only Without Escape is going down with the horror theme with an "oppressive atmosphere".

• Rise of the Tomb Raider for Linux to release tomorrow, April 19th

  The moment many have been waiting for, Feral Interactive have just announced that Rise of the Tomb Raider for Linux will release tomorrow, April 19th. As a reminder, this title will be using Vulkan.

• Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration Launches on Linux on April 19

  UK-based video games publisher Feral Interactive announced on Wednesday that it plans to launch the Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration action-adventure video game on the Linux platform on April 19, 2018.

  Feral Interactive already released their macOS port of Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration on April 12, 2018, and it promised to launch the Linux port too in the coming weeks. Well, the wait is now almost over and Linux gamers will be able to play the famous video game on their favorite GNU/Linux distributions on April 19.

• Rise of the Tomb Raider Launching Tomorrow For Linux

  Feral Interactive has just announced they will be launching Rise of the Tomb Raider for Linux tomorrow, 19 April.

  Feral has tweeted that this Vulkan-powered Linux game port will be released on Thursday.

  System requirements have yet to be revealed, but of course we'll certainly be interested in seeing what they recommend and will certainly be delivering many Radeon/NVIDIA Linux gaming benchmarks of this game on launch day.

• Monster taming game 'Monster Crown' has smashed multiple stretch goals, Linux demo out for backers

  I'm pretty excited for Monster Crown, the new monster taming game with inspirations taken from Pokemon and other monster capturing related games. The Kickstarter has done very well and there's now a Linux demo for backers.

• Heckpoint is a side-scroller where literally everything can be destroyed, Linux port is planned

  I recently came across the side-scrolling action game Heckpoint [Official Site, Steam] and I fell a little in love, the good news is that it's coming to Linux. What's interesting about it, is that quite literally everything you see can be destroyed. It's like an even more insane version of Broforce and that makes me happy.

• Get your terminal ready to hack the planet in Off Grid with a new trailer, confirmed for same-day Linux release

  I haven't actually been following it closely, something I aim to fix as it seems like a game I would enjoy. The developer has been testing Linux early-on in the development of it too, with them sharing a shot of it running on Linux back in 2016. They've recently put up a new gameplay teaser and they re-confirmed to me that Linux will indeed be a same-day release—heck, their Tweet even has a "#linuxgames" tag in it.

• The Linux version of RUINER is now on GOG, with 50% off

  Those waiting for the awesome new Linux port of RUINER from GOG will be happy, as it just landed with a discount too. If you pick it up now you can get 50% off.

  Just be aware the current Linux build available on GOG is not their usual installer, but instead a rather large (14GB) tar.gz file. I understand that their normal installer package is coming as well.

Some people code HTML/CSS oldskool in software like Atom, Notepadqq, or even nano/vi, but others enjoy using what’s called a WYSIWYG editor, which stands for What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get.

KompoZer, is a free cross-platform WYSIWYG editor worth looking at despite the fact that it has not been updated for a very long time. Note though that KompoZer lacks support for features like HTML5 or CSS3 that were introduced after the last version of the HTML editor was released.

As is the case with a lot, but not all, of software in GNU/Linux systems that people use, KompoZer is technically multi-platform, but I would say that the GNU/Linux and MacOS user share dominate the Windows one, from my experience.

• Retro-inspired racer Horizon Chase Turbo announced with Linux support

  Aquiris Game Studio, developer of FPS Ballistic Overkill has announced their retro-inspired racing game Horizon Chase Turbo [Official Site].

  It's actually a revamp of an older title of their's named Horizon Chase World Tour, only this time it's not locked to mobile platforms and it will be getting a Linux version too! Honestly, it looks like a really fantastic attempt to bring out a classic-style racing game for a new generation of players.

• RUINER officially released for Linux on Steam, coming to GOG soon

  RUINER, the absolutely brutal and damn fun action game is now out of beta and officially available on Steam, with a GOG release to follow. I have it confirmed from my GOG contacts it will land soonish, but if you doubt my own word, the developer said so on the Steam forum as well.

  I already wrote some thoughts up on the game here, so I won't reiterate too much. As it stands, it's an excellent action game full of character customisation with tons of perks you can activate and deactivate any time, brutal take-downs and plenty of blood.

• Red Hat Summit 2018: Learn how other developers are producing cloud-native applications

  Want insights into how other organizations are building cloud-native applications and microservices? At Red Hat Summit 2018, developers from a number of different companies will be sharing their stories in break-out sessions, lightning talks, and birds-of-a-feather discussions. Learn how they solved real business problems using containers, microservices, API management, integration services, and other middleware.

• Analyst’s Trends to observe: Red Hat, Inc. (RHT)

• TeX Live 2018 for Debian

  TeX Live 2018 has hit Debian/unstable today. The packages are based on what will be (most likely, baring any late desasters) on the TeX Live DVD which is going to press this week. This brings the newest and shiniest version of TeX Live to Debian. There have

• alioth deprecation - next steps

  As you should be aware, alioth.debian.org will be decommissioned with the EOL of wheezy, which is at the end of May. The replacement for the main part of alioth, git, is alive and out of beta, you know it as salsa.debian.org. If you did not move your git repository yet, hurry up, time is running out.

• Linux-ready computer monitors condition of industrial equipment

  Adlink’s rugged, Ubuntu-friendly “MCM-100” is a condition monitoring system for industrial machines that offers an Intel Apollo Lake SoC and a 24-bit analog sampling input for up to 128kS/s frequencies.

• Gear Sport update brings new features with Tizen version 3.0.0.2

  Samsung want you to know that they are serious about their wearable devices, and one way of showing the “Love” is continued development and support. Support can come in many forms and one of the best for end-users software updates.

• Solaris 11.4 Beta Updated With Spectre V1 Mitigation, Systemd Bit To Make GNOME Happy

• Chrome 66 rolling out on Mac, Windows, Linux w/ media autoplay restrictions, password export

  Chrome 66 is rolling out today on Mac, Windows, and Linux with a number of user-facing features and policy changes that have been in development for the past several months. This includes new media autoplay behavior, blocking third-party software, and other security changes.

• Docker Enterprise Edition 2.0 Launches With Secured Kubernetes

  After months of development effort, Kubernetes is now fully supported in the stable release of the Docker Enterprise Edition.

  Docker Inc. officially announced Docker EE 2.0 on April 17, adding features that have been in development in the Docker Community Edition (CE) as well as enhanced enterprise grade capabilities. Docker first announced its intention to support Kubernetes in October 2017. With Docker EE 2.0, Docker is providing a secured configuration of Kubernetes for container orchestration.

  "Docker EE 2.0 brings the promise of choice," Docker Chief Operating Officer Scott Johnston told eWEEK. "We have been investing heavily in security in the last few years, and you'll see that in our Kubernetes integration as well."

• The Agony and the Ecstasy of Cloud Billing [Ed: There’s no such thing as "cloud". In this particular context it just means server space rental.]

  Back in the mists of antiquity when I started reading Linux Journal, figuring out what an infrastructure was going to cost was (although still obnoxious in some ways) straightforward. You'd sign leases with colocation providers, buy hardware that you'd depreciate on a schedule and strike a deal in blood with a bandwidth provider, and you were more or less set until something significant happened to your scale.

• Making the Most Out of Microservices with Service Mesh

  In this article, we talk with Andrew Jenkins, Lead Architect at Aspen Mesh, about moving from monolithic apps to microservices and cut through some of the hype around service mesh for managing microservice architectures. For more on service mesh, consider attending KubeCon + CloudNativeCon EU, May 2-4, 2018 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

• Cloud Foundry for Developers: Definitions

  In the first article in our series on the Cloud Foundry for Developers training course, we explained what Cloud Foundry is and how it's used. We continue our journey here with a look at some basic terms. Understanding the terminology is the key to not being in a constant state of bewilderment, so here are the most important terms and concepts to know for Cloud Foundry.

• What’s the Value of CI/CD?

• How to safely remove disk from LVM

• How To Browse Stack Overflow From Terminal

• How to Manage Services with Systemd

• Extending L4Re/Fiasco.OC to the Letux 400 Notebook Computer

• How to Install OroCRM with Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

• U.S. & U.K. Issue Joint Warning About Risks of Russian Cyberattacks

• Demonstrating Tamper Detection with Heads

  We are excited about the future of Heads on Librem laptops and the extra level of protection it can give customers. As a result we’ve both been writing about it a lot publicly and working on it a lot privately. What I’ve realized when I’ve talked to people about Heads and given demos, is that many people have never seen a tamper-evident boot process before. All of the concepts around tamper-evident boot are pretty abstract and it can be difficult to fully grasp how it protects you if you’ve never seen it work.

  We have created a short demo that walks through a normal Heads boot process and demonstrates tamper detection. In the interest of keeping the demo short I only briefly described what was happening. In this post I will elaborate on what you are seeing in the video.

• Stop Using Six Digit Numeric iPhone Passcodes Right Now

• Tuptime - Tool to Display Uptime History of Linux System

  The primary task of the system administrators is monitoring and examine Linux system and how long its been promenade. This article demonstrates use of Tuptime tool that help's System Administrators to analyse how long Linux machine is up and running.

  Tuptime tool counts accidental system restarts and not just only uptime of system. When tuptime is installed on system it registers first boot time after installation. Once the first boot time is registered from there onwards it checks for system tuptime and downtime and represents it in Percentage (%). Tuptime also registers current tuptime of system from last restart. Reports Largest Running system Time, Shortest Running System Time & Average of both.

• dutree – A CLI Tool to Analyze Disk Usage in Coloured Output

  dutree is a free open-source, fast command-line tool for analyzing disk usage, written in Rust programming language. It is developed from durep (disk usage reporter) and tree (list directory content in tree-like format) command line tools. dutree therefore reports disk usage in a tree-like format.

• gotop - A Tool to Monitor System Activity in Linux

  Every Linux administrator has it's own preferences on how to monitor processes in terminal. And you probably know about tools like top and htop. These are tools for process monitoring in terminal without any visualization. And you probably know about gtop and vtop which are also process monitoring terminal tools, but with visualization. In this article, we are going to install and use another terminal based graphical activity monitor called gotop. Unlike the two mentioned above, gotop is written in Go.

• Nginx 1.14 Web Server Released

  Nginx 1.14.0 is now available as the latest open-source stable release of this popular web server alternative to Apache.

• Cooking With Linux (without a net): A CMS Smorgasbord

  Today, I'm going to install four popular content management systems. These will be Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, and Backdrop. If you're trying to decide on what your next CMS platform should be, this would be a great time to tune in. And yes, I'll do it all live, without a net, and with a high probability of falling flat on my face. Join me today, at 12 noon, Easter Time. Be part of the conversation.

• Amarok – A Powerful Cross Platform Music Player

  Amarok is a cross-platform, free, and Open Source music player written in Qt (C++). It was first released on June 23, 2003, and even though it is part of the KDE project, Amarok is released as a software independent of the central KDE Software Compilation release cycle.

  It features a clean, responsive, and customizable User Interface along with Last.fm support, Jamendo service, Dynamic playlists, context view, PopUp dropper, bookmarking, file tracking, multi-language support, and smooth fade-out settings, among many other options.

• CMake 3.11 in FreeBSD

  The latest release of CMake has landed in FreeBSD. Prior to release we had good contact with KitWare via the bug tracker so there were few surprises left in the actual release. There were still a few last-minute fixes left, in KDE applications no less.

• KDE Connect: more album art & bluetooth coming soon

  Secondly, I've been working a bit on KDE Connect's bluetooth support. The code was mostly working already, but the remaining stuff is (of course) the hardest part! Nevertheless, more and more parts start working, so I assume it'll come your way in a couple of months. I'll post an update when it's ready for testing.

• New in Qt 3D 5.11: Generalized Ray Casting

  The 5.11 release of Qt 3D is mostly about speed and stability but it also introduces a number of new features.

  One of them is generalized ray casting which can be used to find objects intersecting a 3d ray.

• Qt 5.11 Bringing Generalized Ray Casting Support For 3D Module

  The Qt 3D ray-casting support is to be used for finding objects intersecting a 3D ray. This generalized ray-casting support is expected to be useful for applications making use of secondary controllers and VR environments among other possible use-cases where you would want to see what objects intersect with an arbitrary ray.

  For Qt developers wanting to learn more about this generalized ray-casting support coming to Qt 3D, the folks at the KDAB consulting firm have put out a lengthy blog post detailing this new feature for the upcoming Qt 5.11 release.

• 3.28 Release Party

  Last Saturday we celebrated the release of GNOME 3.28. It was a bit late, but happened nonetheless!

• GNOME 3.29.1 Released As The First Step Towards GNOME 3.30

  GNOME 3.29.1 was released this afternoon as the first step towards what will eventually become GNOME 3.30 in September.

• TicPods Free aim to be a $129 AirPods alternative for Android

• Amazon made an efficient Android browser called Internet, and it's now available in India

• Thousands of Android app improperly tracking kids' data, new study shows

• ZTE may lose Android licensing from Google, report says

• Google Launches Chrome 66 For Windows, Mac, Linux, Android And iOS

In about two weeks, Canonical will release its next LTS, 18.04 Bionic Beaver. What makes it special is that it's going to be running a Gnome 3 desktop instead of Unity, a sort of full-circle reversal of direction and strategy, and that means ... uncertainty. With Trusty Tahr being the only production Linux system in my setup, I am quite intrigued and concerned, because I need to choose my next LTS carefully.

So far, the prospect isn't encouraging, given the more-than-lukewarm performance by Aardvark. There's a lot of hope in the Plasma spin, given the stellar performance of the Plasma desktop recently, but that's still a big unknown, especially since Kubuntu 17.10 was a regression compared to the most magnificent and awesome Zesty Zapus. Therefore, I decided to check this beta, to see what gives ahead of the official release. Normally, I don't like testing unfinished products, but this be an extraordinary occasion. Let's do it.

It's beautiful, it's lovely, it's amusing, it's Ubuntu MATE 18.04 beta 2. It is an LTS version which will be supported for 3 years. It's more just-work now with a set of different appearances for Windows users ("Redmond"), for Mac OS X users ("Cupertino"), for Unity 7 users ("Mutiny"), and of course for long time Ubuntu MATE users themselves ("Traditional"). It comes with special Welcome program to introduce Ubuntu MATE for any new user, it comes with same experience like previous versions but latest applications (LibreOffice 6.0, Firefox 59, MATE Desktop 1.20) and enhancements, it needs only mid-level specs. with around 640MiB of RAM, and those all made Ubuntu MATE beta 2 really enjoyable. This short review will help you expecting what you will get on Ubuntu MATE final release later on April 26. Enjoy!

Linux is a free and open-source software operating systems built around the Linux kernel. It typically packaged in a form known as a Linux distribution for both desktop and server use. It is a great development environment for programmers and developers. However, without the development tools, that would be impossible. Fortunately, plenty of Linux tools are available. Here are the top 5 most useful Linux tools for programmers.

1 – Linux isn’t Windows. There is no magical company to go to,things will behave differently. If you expect a parity experience, you’re going to be disappointed. Software types, source of software or installing a new driver.

2 – Linux does what it’s told to. Something isn’t working? Odds are, it’s just not working as expected it means you need to adjust a configuration or rethink the tools used to interact with Linux. This includes hardware not appearing to work, audio and video.

3 – Linux applications may work differently than legacy applications. MS Word vs LibreOffice, Photoshop vs GIMP, exe installers vs repositories.

4 – Linux offers choice. Different distros, desktop environments and methods of application installation.

Also: EzeeLinux Show 18.16 | Facebook, Time Out & Finding Configuration Files

The team over at Netrunner have just announced the launch of Netrunner 18.03 Idolon for the Pinebook. This is the direct result of a year of collaboration between the Netrunner, Pine and KDE Communities in a effort to drive down memory consumption, fix glitches in the graphics stack and enabling accelerated video decode, all of which has resulted in a product that showcases the coming together of the amazing software from KDE and some brilliant hardware engineering from the folks over at Pine.

It’s been quite a journey for my colleagues and I at Blue Systems in putting together this product. We have had to delve into areas where we originally did not have the expertise to fix bugs and constantly push the boundaries of our abilities. This was especially challenging in the ARM world since there are parts of the stack that were proprietary, meaning we cannot debug those parts, leading to many frustrating evenings having been spent on trying to reverse engineer buggy behaviour.

• Google Play faces allegations of market abuse in South Korea

  Google Play is under investigation in South Korea for allegedly abusing its position in the market to pressure game developers into publish on its platform only.

  According to The Korea Herald, the South Korean Fair Trade Commission has begun surveying local mobile game companies to review whether the allegations have merit.

  The Korean FTC is also investigating whether game companies faced negative consequences if they did not agree to launch on Google Play only.

• Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium Features World’s Highest ISO Sensitivity Video Recording

• Android 8.1 Oreo Is Finally Rolling Out to OnePlus 5T and OnePlus 5 Owners