Lubuntu 15.04 Alpha 2 (Vivid Vervet) is now out and ready for testing. This LXDE-based distro doesn't have too many changes worth mentioning, with the exception of the base.

Leaks posted this evening on Weibo claim to show some of the features of the upcoming Meizu m1 mini including the choice of Ubuntu OS.

Weibo posts picked up this evening by Meizu News, hold some interesting surprises for Meizu fans. The images which appear to be from leaked marketing material, list a few of the specifications of the mini Meizu along with price and a choice of operating system.

Kubuntu 15.04 Alpha 2 (Vivid Vervet), a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu and the KDE desktop environment, is now available for download and testing. The developers have made quite a few substantial improvements, including to the Plasma desktop.

The second Alpha version for the 15.04 branch of Ubuntu GNOME has been released and is now ready for testing. It's not a major evolution from the previous Alpha, but some of the important packages have been upgraded.

The PC-BSD crew that base their desktop-focused BSD operating system off of FreeBSD put out their 10.1.1. release candidate this week.

This quarterly update to PC-BSD (v10.1.1) is set to bring a new system updater that supports automatic background updating, improvements to the boot environments / GRUB support, GPT partition installation improvements, all PC-BSD desktop utillities have been converted to Qt5, OVA files for virtual machines, and various other improvements over the original PC-BSD 10.1 release.

Monday I speculated that Bodhi Linux founder Jeff Hoogland's change of heart was possibly due to reminiscing with Christine Hall in her interview. Well, today Hall spoke with Hoogland again to find out. In other news, Phil Johnson has 11 technologies that annoy Linus Torvalds and Softpedia.com is reporting on Torvalds' decision to leave code in the kernel for one lone machine. Jack Wallen said ordinary users are the ideal candidates for Linux and Konrad Zapałowicz is back with three ways beginners can help out with the kernel.

The way IBM and the big Linux distros – Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) Red Hat, and SUSE – are tackling the portability problem has to do with the way server platforms treat data stored in memory. Most Linux software is written for the x86 architecture, which uses the “little endian” approach to storing bytes in memory. The alternative is “big endian,” which has traditionally been used by mainframes and IBM’s Power architecture. (Detailed explanation of the difference here)

Read at LinuxAndUbuntu

3-D printers are becoming popular tools, dropping in price and becoming available to almost everyone. They can be used to build parts that you can use around the house, but more and more, they also are being used to create instruments for scientific work. Although a growing library of objects are available in several on-line databases, there is nearly an infinite number of possible things you might want to build. This means you likely will want to design and build your own creations.

Today’s Chrome Beta channel release includes new Javascript ES6 features and improved workflows for debugging Service Workers and Web Animations. Unless otherwise noted, changes described below apply to Chrome for Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS.

I want to make a rather bold statement here (though that isn't unusual). This morning, I was reading some of my usual tech news sites, which included reports of malware, Windows woes, and the usual litany of issues plaguing various platforms.

And then it dawned on me ... just who the ideal candidate for Linux should be. It's not the developer (though they probably get more benefit out of the platform than any user type), it's not the gamer, it's not the geek, and it's not the administrator. The ideal candidate is the average user.

There is no shortage of security-focused Linux distributions on the market, and among them is Pentoo Linux. While some security-focused Linux distributions concentrate on privacy, like Tails, others like Kali Linux and Pentoo focus on security research, providing tools that enable research and penetration testing. Pentoo Linux differentiates itself from other security Linux distributions in a number of ways. The primary difference is the fact that Pentoo is based on Gentoo Linux, which is a source-based Linux distribution that uses the Portage package-management system. Gentoo has capabilities known as "Hardened Gentoo," which Pentoo also inherits, providing users with additional security configuration and control for the Linux distribution itself. Pentoo 2015 RC 3.7 was released Jan. 5, providing updated tools and features. Among the new features is the integrated ability to verify that the distribution files have not been corrupted. Pentoo provides many applications for security analysis, including wireless, database, exploit, cracking and forensic tools. In this slide show, eWEEK looks at key features and tools in the Pentoo 2015 RC3.7 release.

Hi all,

GNOME 3.15.4 is out. This is a development snapshot, so use it
with caution.

Among the new things in this snapshot, you can find
clutter using the GDK backend, libinput used in multiple modules
(we require libinput 0.8), gnome-shell using vp9 for screencasts,
mutter using GTK+ themes, input configuration under Wayland,
scrolling changes in GTK+, improved search in gnome-software,
a new game (gnome-taquin), and many more.

Intel announced a portable access point and content server for schools that runs Ubuntu on an Atom E3815, and serves up to 50 students using WiFi or GbE.

For years, Intel has offered low-cost computers for schools in emerging nations, primarily via its Linux-ready Classmate netbooks, and more recently, its Android-powered Intel Education Tablets. Now it’s getting into the content server side of the equation with its Ubuntu Linux-based Education Content Access Point. The batery-powered device can serve content to up to 50 students using any web browser device via WiFi, Ethernet, or optional cellular connections.

quick terminology dive: a spacial haptic device is a physical manipulator that enables exploration of a virtual space through force feedback. A user grips the “manipulandum” (the handle) and moves it within the work area defined by the physical design of the device. Spacial Haptic Devices have been around for years and serve as excellent tools for telling their users (surgeons) what something (tumor) “feels like.”

In our case, this haptic device is a two-link, two-joint system grounded on a base station and providing force feedback with servo motors and tensioned wire ropes. The manipulator itself supports 3-degree-of-freedom movement of the end-effector (translations, but no rotations) which is tracked with encoders placed on all joints. To enable feedback, joints are engaged with cable-drive transmissions.

Purism, the company behind the Librem 15, promises that it will ship an Intel CPU fused to run unsigned BIOS code. The hope is that this will allow a future where free software can replace the proprietary, digitally signed, BIOS binaries.

The company claims that Librem will be better than its competitors because the "the hardware used in the Librem 15 laptop was specifically selected so that no binary blobs are needed in the Linux kernel that ships with the laptop. All other Linux pre-installed devices include binary blobs in the Linux kernel."