• Linux Foundation Brings Power of Open Source to Energy Sector

  The Linux Foundation launched on July 12 its latest effort—LF Energy, an open-source coalition for the energy and power management sector.

  The LF Energy coalition is being backed by French transmission system operation RTE, Vanderbilt University and the European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E). With LF Energy, the Linux Foundation is aiming to replicate the success it has seen in other sectors, including networking, automotive, financial services and cloud computing.

• Marek Squeezes More Performance Out Of RadeonSI In CPU-Bound Scenarios

  AMD's leading open-source RadeonSI Gallium3D developer, Marek Olšák, sent out a new patch series this week aiming to benefit this Radeon OpenGL driver's performance in CPU-bound scenarios.

  The patch series is a set of command submission optimizations aimed to help trivial CPU-bound benchmarks to varying extents. In the very trivial glxgears, the patch series is able to improve the maximum frame-rates by around 10%.

• Intel Sends In A Final Batch Of DRM Feature Updates Targeting Linux 4.19

  After several big feature pull requests of new "i915" Intel DRM driver features landing in DRM-Next for Linux 4.19, the Intel open-source developers have sent in what they believe to be their last batch of feature changes for queuing this next kernel cycle.

• Open source governance accelerates innovation [Ed: Evolution of the tactics by which anti-FOSS proprietary software firms, Sonatype in this case, try to sell their 'wares']

• GitHub Enterprise 2.14 brings unified search of cloud and local

• GitHub Enterprise 2.14 is ‘open goodness’ behind an enterprise firewall

• DragonFly BSD Lead Developer Preaches The Blessing Of SSDs

  DragonFlyBSD lead developer Matthew Dillon has provided an update on the open-source operating system project's infrastructure and acknowledging the SSD upgrades that are noticeably beneficial over HDDs.

  DragonFlyBSD has recently been replacing various HDDs with SSDs in their build machines and other systems having an important presence in their infrastructure. Following these storage upgrades, things have been running great and ultimately should deliver a snappier experience for users and developers.

• Binutils 2.31 Offers Faster DLL Linking For Cygwin/Mingw, Freescale S12Z Support

  A new release of the Binutils collection of important tools is now available with a number of new features and improvements.

  Binutils 2.31 contains work like direct linking with DLLs for Cygwin/Mingw targets now being faster, AArch64 disassembler improvements, MIPS GINV and CRC extension support, Freescale S12Z architecture support, the x86 assembler now supports new command line options to enable alternative shorter instruction encodings, and the Gold linker now supports Intel Indirect Branch Tracking and Shadow Stack instructions.

• GCC 8/9 Land Fix For "-march=native" Tuning On Modern Intel CPUs

  The other day we reported on a GCC 8 regression where Skylake and newer CPUs with "-march=native" haven't been performance as optimally as they should be. Fortunately, that patch was quickly landed into the GCC SVN/Git code for GCC 9 as well as back-ported to GCC 8.

  In the GCC 8.1 release and mainline code since April, as the previous article outlined, when using "-march=native" as part of the compiler flags with GCC the full capabilities of the CPU haven't been leveraged. This affects Intel Skylake CPUs and newer generations, including yet to be released hardware like Cannonlake and Icelake.

• ARM Kills Its RISC-V FUD Website After Staff Revolt

  ARM is under fire for the way it attempted to kneecap a fledgling open-source hardware project, and has retreated from its own line of attack after several days. ARM had launched a website, riscv-basics.com, which purported to offer “real” information on the rival ISA. As one might expect, the “information” on display was a bit less neutral than a visitor might hope for. Taking this kind of shot against an open-source hardware project also struck many in the OSS community as being in exceptionally poor taste, given how critical open source software has been to ARM’s overall success and visibility.

  First, a bit of background: RISC-V is an open-source ISA based on RISC principles and is intended to eventually provide flexible CPU cores for a wide variety of use-cases. By using the BSD license, the RISC-V teams hope to allow for a greater range of projects that support both open and proprietary CPU designs. RISC-V CPUs are already available today in a range of roles and capabilities. Despite some modest initial success, RISC-V, today, isn’t even a rounding error in CPU marketshare measurements. It’s certainly no threat to ARM, which enjoys the mother of all vendor lock-ins measured in per-device terms.

• Python boss Guido van Rossum steps down after 30 years

   

  He lays out a list of things that the users will need to consider going forwards like who has banning rights and who inducts noobs to the core developer team, but its laid out in a context of ‘do what you want but keep me out of it'.
   

  "I'll still be here, but I'm trying to let you all figure something out for yourselves. I'm tired, and need a very long break."

If you plan on buying a Nintendo Switch gaming console to run Linux on it using the "unpatchable" exploit publicly disclosed a few months ago, think again because Nintendo reportedly fixed the security hole.

Not long ago, a team of hackers calling themselves ReSwitched publicly disclosed a security vulnerability in the Nvidia Tegra X1 chip, which they called Fusée Gelée and could allow anyone to hack a Nintendo Switch gaming console to install a Linux-based operating system and run homebrew code and apps using a simple trick.

Winds is billed as a beautiful, modern, open-source RSS Reader and Podcast app. It’s certainly garnishing attention among open source enthusiasts. It’s picked up over 5,000 stars on GitHub, so I’ve been putting this JavaScript software through its paces.

Winds is cross-platform software. There are desktop apps available for Linux, macOS and Windows. There’s also a web version. The software is released under an open source license (BSD-3-Clause). It’s developed by GetStream.io (Stream), a Venture Capital backed company based in the US and the Netherlands.

Also: Alacritty – A Fastest Terminal Emulator for Linux

• Harish Fulara: [GSoC 2018] Welcome Window Integration in Pitivi – Part 4

  The next and the last task under “Welcome Window Integration in Pitivi” as per my GSoC project is to integrate project thumbnails in recent projects list. I am currently working on this task and hope to finish it by next week.

• Application screenshots with Gitlab CI

  The fresh new tooling used for development in the GNOME project (gitlab, meson, docker, flatpak) has a lots of potential

• Matthias Clasen: The Flatpak BoF at Guadec

  Here is a quick summary of the Flatpak BoF that happened last week at Guadec.

• Flatpak 1.0 Is En Route For Linux App Sandboxing & Easy Program Distribution

  At the recent GUADEC 2018 conference in Spain, GNOME developers plotted the imminent Flatpak 1.0 release as well as what's coming after the big 1.0 milestone.

• More Mutter Performance Tuning Work Landing For GNOME 3.30

  GNOME 3.30 is looking like Mutter will be quite fit with the ability to remove its dependence on X11 code and various performance tuning optimizations. On top of already landed performance work in recent months, more optimizations have just landed and it looks like more could still be on the way.

  Most recently, as of this morning, this two month old GitLab request was merged about re-using paint volumes. From the last commit it explains, "Cuts down approximately all paint volume calculations when there's windows that redraw frequently, but don't move."

• Release of KDE Frameworks 5.48.0

  July 14, 2018. KDE today announces the release of KDE Frameworks 5.48.0.

  KDE Frameworks are 70 addon libraries to Qt which provide a wide variety of commonly needed functionality in mature, peer reviewed and well tested libraries with friendly licensing terms. For an introduction see the Frameworks 5.0 release announcement.

• KDE Frameworks 5.48 Brings KWayland Fixes & Many Other Improvements

  KDE Frameworks 5.48 is now the latest monthly update to this collection of add-on libraries complementing Qt5.

• Security updates for Friday

• Why you should bundle the root CAs in your image

• Mystery malware targets 13 iPhones in India

  Commercial threat intelligence group, Cisco Talos, comprising malware researchers and analysts, has revealed that in a 'highly targeted campaign,' 13 iPhones in India were attacked by using a malicious application leading to data being intercepted and information stolen. It is suspected that the 13 devices could be of VVIPs, who are yet to be identified.

• Unknown malware targets iPhones of 13 VVIPs in India

  Industry-leading threat intelligence group, Cisco Talos has discovered that a malware was used in a precise, targeted manner to infect 13 iPhones in India and steal data for three years.

• Don’t Fall For the New CryptoBlackmail Scam: Here’s How to Protect Yourself

• 3 Reasons Why Antivirus Is Essential For Active Web User

Here's a second short preview (after the March 2018 one) to the next 5.0 version of elementary OS from the development release. We're getting closer to final now as the Beta 1 has been released and the Beta 2 has been started but it's still not recommended to install or use the Betas. This means do not upgrade to Beta 1 or Beta 2 yet, nor install the Beta, but wait until the final version officially released. To sum it up, in 5.0, the user interface is getting more cool with tons of improvement; and the AppCenter is really amazing with payment system for both developers who deserve funds and users who want to contribute. I also mention how active the development progress is below and how we can help. This preview is very brief and cannot represent the final as the final could have more and more amazing additions. Anyway, wait for the final and enjoy reading!

• Alphabet Scoop 017: Loon & Wing graduate, Android P DP4, Big Android notification overhaul?

• Moto E5 Play Android Go edition announced for Europe and Latin America

• Google might face a $2.82 billion fine for pushing its services on Android

• Android Circuit: Radical Galaxy S10 Camera Leaks, Massive Nokia 5.1 Revealed, Note 9 Release Date

• Moto E5 Play Android Go Edition announced - bigger display, less RAM, more affordable

• Android WARNING: These fake Google Play Store apps could STEAL your passwords

• Twitter will move position of navigation bar on Android phones

• Think Android phones are all the same? Here at 8 that do things differently

• How to Make Spam Calls Automatically Go to Voicemail on Android

• EU prepares to hit Google with record fine in Android monopoly case

• Chrome OS may let you resize picture-in-picture windows for Android apps

• Google Phone App for Android Gets Built-In Caller ID and Spam Protection

It has been a while since last publishing some Linux GPU driver benchmarks focused explicitly on the OpenGL vs. Vulkan performance, but that changed today with a fresh look at the performance between these two Khronos graphics APIs when tested with AMD and NVIDIA hardware on the latest RadeonSI/RADV and NVIDIA Linux graphics drivers.

Coming four months after the previous point release, Debian GNU/Linux 9.5 "Stretch" includes a total of 100 security update and 91 miscellaneous bugfixes for various core components and applications. However, this remains a point release and doesn't represent a new version of the Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" operating system series, which continues to be updated every day.

"This point release mainly adds corrections for security issues, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories have already been published separately and are referenced where available. Please note that the point release does not constitute a new version of Debian 9 but only updates some of the packages included," reads today's announcement.

Also: Debian 9.5 Released With Security Fixes, Updated Intel Microcode For Spectre V2

Updated Debian 9: 9.5 released

• Prepare a glass for some more Wine as DXVK 0.62 is out with possible performance improvements

• DXVK 0.62 Released With Performance Improvements & Fixes For D3D11 Over Vulkan

  Pairing nicely with Wine 3.12 or Wine-Staging 3.12 is now DXVK 0.62, the library for accelerating the Direct3D 11 API using Vulkan to allow for faster D3D11 Windows games running under Wine.

• What are you playing this weekend and what do you think about it?

  It's the weekend and the sun is out, so naturally many of us will be staring at a bright screen playing the latest and greatest Linux games.

  I tend to go through phases of being attached to specific games for a few weeks before utterly burning myself out on them, currently Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has managed to hook me back in. It's not exactly the newest game, but it still has such fluid and fun gameplay that there's still really nothing else like it in the shooter scene.

• 'Hacknet' Is Free on Steam Right Now

Autonomous cars are coming. But how are we going to deal with keeping both the software and hardware up-to-date? Odds are, a three-year computer and software a few months old are going to be too old to drive autonomously, at least while the technology is in its infancy. And how do we train the guys in your local garage to maintain an AI?

The automobile industry thinks they have a solution: lease rather than sell autonomous cars, lock the hood shut, and maintain them exclusively through their dealers.

That works great for the 1%. But what about the rest of us? The folks who drive a dented, 10-year-old car? We should have the option to drive autonomous cars, and to participate in the same world as the more wealthy folks.

I stated earlier that 18.04 looks pretty much the same compared to when I first installed it. This is not a bad thing. Lubuntu is not designed to be flashy or to have the latest cutting-edge features. It is designed to use few resources and run well on a wide variety of computers. It does that very well. You could set anyone who ever used Windows in front of a Lubuntu box and they would be good to go. I would certainly recommend it for beginners and older computers

One thing that was confusing when I was researching this article was the existence of more than one site for Lubuntu. When I searched for Lubuntu, one of the first search result entries was for lubuntu.net. I thought it was the project’s official website. Then, I was surfing through Lubuntu’s Wikipedia entry. It listed lubuntu.me as the official site. Both look very official. It’s only after you dig that you discover that lubuntu.net was created by “Free and Open Source contributors from Asia, Linux Fans and the Lubuntu Meilix community”. It’s essentially a fan site. They had better let people know that they are not the official site before they get in trouble with someone.

Have you ever used Lubuntu? What is your favorite Ubuntu flavor? Please let us know in the comments below.

If you found this article interesting, please take a minute to share it on social media.

Ubuntu’s lightweight edition Lubuntu 18.04 still revives older computers through LXDE but it has different plans for future. Read the Lubuntu 18.04 review to find out more about it.

I’m a gamer. I’ve been playing PC games since DOS, and have no plan to ever stop, thankfully there are an increasing number of wicked games available on GNU/Linux systems, like Rocket League for example.

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, and have no idea what Rocket League is, it’s basically Soccer/Football (other game modes have other sports, etc, but the primary focus is as mentioned) in super high powered, jet propulsed cars; it’s awesome. However, Rocket League is not very easily played via keyboard, and having some kind of controller is essential.

I use an Xbox 360 Wireless Controller as my primary controller when playing games that support one on Linux.

• Conan Accelerates Your C/C++ Applications in OpenShift

  C/C++ applications and build system scripts are monolith in nature. Achieving binary compatibility is becoming extremely difficult as applications include source information from a variety of local and third party sources, targeting a variety of platforms. Even classically monolithic applications may include a complex dependency graph, including transitive dependencies statically or dynamically linked. Another factor that adds to the complexity is that the deployment framework for different technology types is moving towards using Docker containers and the adoption of Kubernetes or Kubernetes variants.

• Oppenheimer & Company Cut Red Hat (RHT) Position By $898,321; Last Week Intermediate Capital Group plc (LON:ICP) Coverage

• Bluestein R H & Company Upped Red Hat (RHT) Holding; Silvercrest Asset Management Group (SAMG)’s Sentiment Is 1.29

• Recommendation Trends of the Stocks: Red Hat, Inc. (RHT), Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PEG)

• Red Hat, Inc. (RHT)- Stocks under Performance Radar

• Don’t Miss to Watch Stock: Red Hat, Inc. (RHT)

• Ben Williams: F28-20180712 Updated isos released

  The Fedora Respins SIG is pleased to announce the latest release of Updated F28-20180712 Live ISOs, carrying the 4.17.4-20000 kernel.

  This set of updated isos will save about 900+ MB of updates after install. (for new installs.)

If the 20th century was defined by an explosive growth in technology, then the 21st century is beginning to be defined by personal security, or more pointedly, a lack thereof. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), once mainly a site-to-site connection tool for IT professionals, have evolved to become personal services that let individual users connect to the internet by using encrypted traffic that prevents third parties from snooping on their web activities.

This VPN evolution occurred because it has become increasingly easy for hackers to exploit constantly changing operating systems (OSes), applications, and networks. This means sophisticated tactics, such as man-in-the-middle attacks, aren't just being aimed at businesses anymore. It's happening to everyday folks who are frequenting their favorite coffee shop. This means these folks need to upgrade their security arsenal.

• Best open source business intelligence and analytics tools

  So what are some open source alternatives to these proprietary tools? And aside from cost what benefits can they bring? Here's our pick of the market.

• SD Times Open-Source Project of the Week: GraphQL Engine from Hasura

  With its open source release this week, GraphQL-as-a-Service company Hasura’s GraphQL Engine is looking to lift the burden on front-end and enterprise application developers who want to begin incorporating GraphQL’s data querying and manipulation capabilities in their preexisting Postgres-based applications without having to dig through the back-end of GraphQL’s code to implement it.

  ”GraphQL and the tooling around it dramatically increases the feature velocity for developer teams by reducing the communication required between them while developing new features,” the company wrote in this week’s announcement. “As a result, GraphQL servers are like self-documenting APIs that enable full API discoverability for the developers. This enables the front-end developers to make API requests, in order to introduce new features or change existing ones, in GraphQL without having to wait for back-end developer teams to deliver APIs and document the changes.”

• FOSS Project Spotlight: Pydio Cells, an Enterprise-Focused File-Sharing Solution

  Pydio Cells is a brand-new product focused on the needs of enterprises and large organizations, brought to you from the people who launched the concept of the open-source file sharing and synchronization solution in 2008. The concept behind Pydio Cells is challenging: to be to file sharing what Slack has been to chats—that is, a revolution in terms of the number of features, power and ease of use.

  In order to reach this objective, Pydio's development team has switched from the old-school development stack (Apache and PHP) to Google's Go language to overcome the bottleneck represented by legacy technologies. Today, Pydio Cells offers a faster, more scalable microservice architecture that is in tune with dynamic modern enterprise environments.

  In fact, Pydio's new "Cells" concept delivers file sharing as a modern collaborative app. Users are free to create flexible group spaces for sharing based on their own ways of working with dedicated in-app messaging for improved collaboration.

  In addition, the enterprise data management functionality gives both companies and administrators reassurance, with controls and reporting that directly answer corporate requirements around the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other tightening data protection regulations.

• Becoming a senior developer: 9 experiences you'll encounter

  Being a developer—a good one—isn't just about writing code. To be successful, you do a lot of planning, you deal with catastrophes, and you prevent catastrophes. Not to mention you spend plenty of time working with other humans about what your code should do.

• Revealing unknown DWG classes

  I implemented three major buzzwords today in some trivial ways.

      massive parallel processing
      asynchronous processing
      machine-learning: a self-improving program

  The problem is mostly trivial, and the solutions also. I need to
  reverse-engineer a binary closed file-format, but got some hints from
  a related ASCII file-format, DWG vs DXF.

• Python and Its Community Enter a New Phase

  Python is an amazing programming language, there's no doubt about it. >From humble beginnings in 1991, it's now just about everywhere. Whether you're doing web development, system administration, test automation, devops or data science, odds are good that Python is playing a role in your work.

  Even if you're not using Python directly, odds are good that it is being used behind the scenes. Using OpenStack? Python plays an integral role in its development and configuration. Using Dropbox on your computer? Then you've got a copy of Python running on your computer. Using Linux? When I purchased Red Hat Linux back in 1995, the configuration was a breeze—thanks to visual tools developed in Python.

  And, of course, there are numerous schools and educational programs that are now teaching Python. MIT's intro computer science course switched several years ago from Scheme to Python, and thousands of universities all over the world made a similar switch in its wake. My 15-year-old daughter participates in a program for technology and entrepreneurship—and she's learning Python.

  There currently is an almost insatiable demand for Python developers. Indeed, Stack Overflow reported last year that Python is not only the most popular language on its site, but it's also the fastest-growing language. I can attest to this popularity in my own job as a freelance Python trainer. Some of the largest computer companies in the world are now using Python on a regular basis, and their use of the language is growing, not shrinking.