• Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks With Ubuntu Linux On The Dell XPS 13 [Ed: sadly it's behind a malicious spywall]

• What Serverless Architecture Actually Means, and Where Servers Enter the Picture

• What are ‘mature’ stateful applications?

  BlueK8s is a new open source Kubernetes initiative from ‘big data workloads’ company BlueData — the project’s direction leads us to learn a little about which direction containerised cloud-centric applications are growing.

  Kubernetes is a portable and extensible open source platform for managing containerised workloads and services (essentially it is a container ‘orchestration’ system) that facilitates both declarative configuration and automation.

  The first open project in the BlueK8s initiative is Kubernetes Director (aka KubeDirector), for deploying and managing distributed ‘stateful applications’ with Kubernetes.

• Winds – Machine Learning Powered RSS and Podcast App

  There are numerous RSS reader apps available in Linux universe, some of them are best and some of them are your native Linux apps. Not all of them are having ability to support podcast though.

  Winds is very beautiful RSS and podcast app based on stream API and it comes with him nice user interface and loaded with features.

• Reaper audio editing software gets a native Linux installer

  Reaper is a powerful, versatile digital audio workstation for editing music, podcasts, or other audio projects. I’ve used it to edit and mix every single episode of the LPX podcast and Loving Project podcast.

  The software is also cross-platform. There 32-bit and 64-bit builds available for Windows and macOS, and there’s been an experimental Linux version for a few years.

• Common Vision Blox 2018 with Enhanced 3D and Linux Functionality

  CVB Image Manager is the core component of Common Vision Blox and offers unrivalled functionality in image acquisition, image handling, image display and image processing. It is also included with the free CameraSuite SDK licence which is supplied with all GigE Vision or USB3 Vision cameras purchased from Stemmer Imaging.

  CVB 2018 Image Manager features core 3D functionality to handle point clouds and pre-existing calibrations as well as the display of 3D data. A new tool called Match 3D, which operates in both Windows and Linux, has been added. This allows a point cloud to be compared to a template point cloud, returning the 3D transformation between the two. It can be useful for 3D positioning systems and also for calculating the differences for quality control applications. The new features in CVB 2018 Image Manager have also been extended to Linux (on Intel and ARM platforms), making it even more suitable for developing solutions in embedded and OEM applications.

• Oldest swinger in town, Slackware, notches up a quarter of a century

  Slackware, the oldest Linux distribution still being maintained, has turned 25 this week, making many an enthusiast wonder where all those years went.

  Mention Slackware, and the odds are that the FOSS fan before you will go a bit misty-eyed and mumble something about dependency resolution as they recall their first entry into the world of Linux.

  Released by Patrick Volkerding on 17 July 1993, Slackware aimed to be the most “UNIX-like” Linux distribution available and purports to be designed “with the twin goals of ease of use and stability as top priorities”. Enthusiasts downloading the distro for the first time might take issue with the former goal – the lack of a cuddly graphical installer can be jarring.

• SDR meets AI in a mash-up of Jetson TX2, Artix-7, and 2×2 MIMO

  Deepwave Digital has launched an Ubuntu-driven, $5K “AIR-T” Mini-ITX board for AI-infused SDR, equipped with an Nvidia Jetson TX2, a Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA, and an AD9371 2×2 MIMO transceiver.

• 8BitDo’s DIY Kit Can Turn Your Fave Retro Gamepad into a Wireless Steam Controller

  The “8BitDo Mod Kit” is a DIY package that gives you everything you need to convert an existing wired game pad for the NES, SNES, or Sega Mega Drive/Genesis systems into a fully-fledged wireless controller.

  A wireless controller you could then use with Ubuntu.

  No soldering is required. You just unscrew the case of an existing controller and the PCB inside and replace it with the one included in the mod kit. Screw it all back up and, hey presto, wireless gaming on a classic controller.

  Modded controllers are compatible with Steam on Windows and macOS (one assumes Linux too), as well the Nintendo Switch, and the Raspberry Pi — that’s a versatility classic game pads rarely had!

• Are These a Risky Play with big payoff? PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL) and Red Hat, Inc. (RHT)

• How These Stocks Are Currently Valued TechnipFMC plc (FTI), Red Hat, Inc. (RHT)?

• Form 4 RED HAT INC For: Jul 16 Filed by: Kelly Michael A

• Form 4 RED HAT INC For: Jul 16 Filed by: KAISER WILLIAM S

• Linux 4.19 To Feature Support For HDMI CEC With DP/USB-C To HDMI Adapters

  Adding to the big batch of feature additions and improvements queuing in DRM-Next for the upcoming Linux 4.19 kernel merge window is another round of drm-misc-next improvements.

  While the drm-misc-next material consists of the random DRM core and small driver changes not big enough to otherwise warrant their own individual pull requests to DRM-Next, for Linux 4.19 this "misc" material has been fairly exciting. Last week's drm-misc-next pull request introduced the Virtual KMS (VKMS) driver that offers exciting potential. With this week's drm-misc-next pull are further improvements to the VKMS code for frame-buffer and plane helpers, among other additions.

• Nouveau Changes Queue Ahead Of Linux 4.19

  Linux 4.19 is going to be another exciting kernel on the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) front with a lot of good stuff included while hours ago we finally got a look at what's in store for the open-source NVIDIA "Nouveau" driver.

  Nouveau DRM maintainer Ben Skeggs of Red Hat has updated the Nouveau DRM tree of the latest batch of patches ahead of sending in the pull request to DRM-Next. As has been the trend in recent times, the Nouveau DRM work mostly boils down to bug/regression fixes.

• IR decoding with BPF

  In the 4.18 kernel, a new feature was merged to allow infrared (IR) decoding to be done using BPF. Infrared remotes use many different encodings; if a decoder were to be written for each, we would end up with hundreds of decoders in the kernel. So, currently, the kernel only supports the most widely used protocols. Alternatively, the lirc daemon can be run to decode IR. Decoding IR can usually be expressed in a few lines of code, so a more lightweight solution without many kernel-to-userspace context switches would be preferable. This article will explain how IR messages are encoded, the structure of a BPF program, and how a BPF program can maintain state between invocations. It concludes with a look at the steps that are taken to end up with a button event, such as a volume-up key event.

  Infrared remote controls emit IR light using a simple LED. The LED is turned on and off for shorter or longer periods, which is interpreted somewhat akin to morse code. When infrared light has been detected for a period, the result is called a "pulse". The time between pulses when no infrared light is detected is called a "space".

• The block I/O latency controller

  Large data centers routinely use control groups to balance the use of the available computing resources among competing users. Block I/O bandwidth can be one of the most important resources for certain types of workloads, but the kernel's I/O controller is not a complete solution to the problem. The upcoming block I/O latency controller looks set to fill that gap in the near future, at least for some classes of users.

  Modern block devices are fast, especially when solid-state storage devices are in use. But some workloads can be even faster when it comes to the generation of block I/O requests. If a device fails to keep up, the length of the request queue(s) will increase, as will the time it takes for any specific request to complete. The slowdown is unwelcome in almost any setting, but the corresponding increase in latency can be especially problematic for latency-sensitive workloads.

• Google Hints A Future Where Android Might NOT Be Free

• Android has created more choice, not less

• Google Fined Record $5 Billion by EU, Given 90 Days to Stop ‘Illegal Practices’

  EU regulators rejected arguments that Apple Inc. competes with Android, saying Apple’s phone software can’t be licensed by handset makers and that Apple phones are often priced outside many Android users’ purchasing power.

• EU: Google illegally used Android to dominate search, must pay $5B fine

  Thirdly, Google allegedly ran afoul of EU rules by deterring manufacturers from using Android forks. Google "has prevented manufacturers wishing to pre-install Google apps from selling even a single smart mobile device running on alternative versions of Android that were not approved by Google," the commission said.

• EU hits Google with US$5b fine over alleged Android misuse

  The European Union has hit Google with a second fine in as many years, demanding that the search behemoth pay €4.34 billion (US$5.05 billion, A$6.82 billion) for breaching anti-trust rules over its Android mobile operating system.

  Announcing the fine on Wednesday in Brussels, the EU said Google must end such conduct within 90 days or pay a penalty of up to 5% of the average daily turnover of its parent company, Alphabet.

  The company has said it will appeal against the fine.

• iPhone users buy half as many apps as Android users, but spend twice as much

  Apple's app store is still yielding twice the revenue of Google Play, and yet is only recording half the number of downloads.

  The figures for Q1&2 of the year suggest Apple owners spent $22.6bn on apps, whilst Android users only spent $11.8bn.

• The EU fining Google over Android is too little, too late, say experts

  The Play Store is free to use under licence from Google, but comes with a set of conditions smartphone manufacturers must meet. The most important of these, and the one the EC has a problem with, is the requirement to set Google as the default search engine and the pre-installation of certain apps, including Google Chrome, YouTube and the Google search app. Google also dictates that some of the pre-installed apps be placed on the homescreen.

• Don’t Expect Big Changes from Europe’s Record Google Fine

  The decision by the European Commission, the EU’s regulatory arm, found that Google manages Android, which runs roughly 80 percent of the world’s smartphones, in ways that illegally harm competition. The ruling focused on three practices: the bundling of Google's Chrome web browser and its search app as a condition for licensing the Google Play store; payments Google makes to phone manufacturers and telecom companies to exclusively preinstall the Google search app on their devices; and Google's practice of prohibiting device makers from running Google apps on Android “forks,” or alternative versions of the software unapproved by Google. In its ruling, the commission ordered Google to stop all of those practices.

• Four top open source SIEM tools you should know

  With open source SIEM tools, organizations can test out certain capabilities and reduce cost barriers before expanding their product investments. Depending on what functions you're interested in, there is a variety of software to choose from.

  [...]

  Another choice for open source SIEM tools is Apache Metron. ELK Stack is a general purpose log and data parsing tool; Apache Metron focuses squarely on security.

  Apache Metron provides four main capabilities. First, it offers long-term, cost-effective storage of telemetry data through its security data lake feature. Second, it features an extensible framework that collects data from a variety of sources and supports any future endpoints. Third, Metron performs normal SIEM tasks, such as data ingest and threat alerts. The fourth capability is threat intelligence driven by machine learning-based anomaly detection.

• Open Your Own Front Page Using Firefox New Tab

  Did you know Firefox has a unique page full of great links and ideas curated just for you? In one simple click, we’ve made it faster and easier for you to find things that are important to you whenever you open a new tab in Firefox.

• pfSense Gold Free with 2.4.4-RELEASE

  Starting with the upcoming release of pfSense® 2.4.4, all of the services previously offered under “pfSense Gold” will continue, but will be free to all pfSense users. Read on for more detail.

• Google Fined by EU for Antitrust Violations, Qt Creator 4.7.0 Now Available, New ownCloud Version 10.0.9, pfSense Gold to Be Free with the 2.4.4 Release, Kobol Relaunches Helios4

  Netgate announces that pfSense Gold will be free with the 2.4.4 release, including all services previously offered under the pfSense Gold subscription, such as the pfSense Book and monthly online Hangouts (video conferences). In addition, AutoConfigBackup (ACB) also will be free and will conform to GDPR best practices. The 2.4.4 release is planned for September 2018.

• Emacs & TLS

  A recent query about the status of network security (TLS settings in particular) in Emacs led to a long thread in the emacs-devel mailing list. That thread touched on a number of different areas, including using OpenSSL (or other TLS libraries) rather than GnuTLS, what kinds of problems should lead to complaints out of the box, what settings should be the default, and when those settings could change for Emacs so as not to discombobulate users. The latter issue is one that lots of projects struggle with: what kinds of changes are appropriate for a bug-fix release versus a feature release. For Emacs, its lengthy development cycle, coupled with the perceived urgency of security changes, makes that question even more difficult.

• nanotime 0.2.2

  A new maintenance release of the nanotime package for working with nanosecond timestamps just arrived on CRAN.

• Open Source is the foundation of Boundless: Andy Dearing

  Open source it the foundation of Boundless technologies, says Andy Dearing, CEO of Boundless. The organization works heavily with open source solutions built by individual contributors with utmost security.

• Accenture Acquires Kogentix to Help Clients Run Legacy Analytics Applications on Open Source Technologies to Get Ahead of Data Surge [Ed: Accenture only ever attacks FOSS]

• Electra Jailbreak is Now Open Source! [Ed: If you pay Apple a lot of money for a device only to "break" the "jail" in it, then maybe you're buying the wrong product]

• Electra iOS 11.3.1 / 11.4 Jailbreak Source Code Released [Download]

• Top 7 Reasons to Jailbreak iPhone or iPad on iOS 11.3.1

• Spectre V1 defense in GCC

• Signing and distributing Gentoo

  The compromise of the Gentoo's GitHub mirror was certainly embarrassing, but its overall impact on Gentoo users was likely fairly limited. Gentoo and GitHub responded quickly and forcefully to the breach, which greatly limited the damage that could be done; the fact that it was a mirror and not the master copy of Gentoo's repositories made it relatively straightforward to recover from. But the black eye that it gave the project has led some to consider ways to make it even harder for an attacker to add malicious content to Gentoo—even if the distribution's own infrastructure were to be compromised.

  Unlike other distributions, Gentoo is focused on each user building the software packages they want using the Portage software-management tool. This is done by using the emerge tool, which is the usual interface to Portage. Software "packages" are stored as ebuilds, which are sets of files that contain the information and code needed by Portage to build the software. The GitHub compromise altered the ebuilds for three packages to add malicious content so that users who pulled from those repositories would get it.

  Ebuilds are stored in the /usr/portage directory on each system. That local repository is updated using emerge --sync (which uses rsync under the hood), either from Gentoo's infrastructure or one of its mirrors. Alternatively, users can use emerge-webrsync to get snapshots of the Gentoo repository, which are updated daily. Snapshots are individually signed by the Gentoo infrastructure OpenPGP keys, while the /usr/portage tree is signed by way of Manifest files that list the hash of each file in a directory. The top-level Manifest is signed by the infrastructure team, so following and verifying the chain of hashes down to a particular file (while also making sure there are no unlisted files) ensures that the right files are present in the tree.

• Here’s How Hackers Are Using Google’s Servers To Host Malware For Free

• Pirates Punish Denuvo-Protected Games With Poor Ratings

  Denuvo's anti-piracy technology is a thorn in the side of game pirates. While it has been defeated on several occasions recently, the strict anti-piracy measures have not been without consequence. According to new research, Denuvo has frustrated pirates to a point where they sabotage reviews on Metacritic, leading to significantly lower ratings for protected games.

• Zachtronics' next puzzle game 'EXAPUNKS' will have you writing viruses, announced with Linux support

  Get ready to push your brain to the limit again as Zachtronics have announced their next game with EXAPUNKS [Official Site].

  They confirmed to us directly on Twitter, that it should have Linux support at launch. That will make their eighth commercial game to support Linux—fantastic!

• Minecraft 'Update Aquatic' is a huge update which brings the new launcher officially to Linux

  Minecraft's Update Aquatic is a huge update to the sandbox builder that's now out, it also brings the new launcher officially to Linux.

• Looks like the sci-fi mystery game 'The Station' sold well on Linux

  The Station is another game with a Linux version that seems to have sold really well and I'm honestly not surprised by this.

• Chicken Assassin: Reloaded now has official Linux support

  For those of you who love your idle/clicker games, you might want to take a look at Chicken Assassin: Reloaded as it now has official Linux support, it seems quite popular too.

• Stack Gun Heroes gives you a gun that can be modded during combat, superpowers and lots of explosions

  Stack Gun Heroes from developer Unstackd seems like it could be quite a fun shooter, one that gives you a highly customizable gun.

• Felipe Borges: Summing up GUADEC 2018

  This year’s edition was once again a blast. The best opportunity to put faces into the names we interact daily throughout the communication channels of our community, and to meet new folk.

  Once again a volunteer, this year a chaired the sessions in the auditorium during the first day, organized one of the newcomers activities, and the football game. Don’t forget to check out the conference photos.

• GUADEC 2018 (It’s a Gitlab world)

  GUADEC in Almería was a great opportunity to catch up with some technologies in the GNOME world, hang out with lovely folks again, and spend time at the beach.

• Jakub Steiner: Detail Considered Harmful

  As many moons have passed since GNOME 3, it’s fair to stop and reconsider the aesthetic choices we made. We don’t actually present app icons at small resolutions anymore. Pixel perfection sounds like a great slogan, but maybe this is another area that dillutes our focus. Asking app authors to craft pixel precise variants that nobody actually sees? Complex size lookup infrastructure that prominent applications like Blender fail to utilize properly?

  [...]

  The irony of the previous blog post is not lost on me, as I’ve been seduced by the shading and detail of these highres artworks. But every day it’s more obvious that we need to do a dramatic redesign of the app icon style. Perhaps allowing to programatically generate the unstable/nightlies style. Allow a faster turnaround for keeping the style contemporary and in sync what other platforms are doing. Right now, the dated nature of our current guidelines shows.

• How to set up a reverse proxy on Ubuntu Server 18.04

• How To Install Asterisk on Ubuntu 18.04

• Configuring UPS for FreeNAS Unix server

• How to Install and Configure Magento 2 on Ubuntu 18.04

• Update all Docker Images

• How to Fix “passwd: Authentication token manipulation error” in Linux

• Stress Test CPU and Memory (VM) On a Linux / Unix With Stress-ng

• How to Customize Firefox Quantum User Interface in Linux

• Some Thoughts On The EU's Latest $5 Billion Google Antitrust Fine

  Of course, it should be noted that there is some amount of karma here. Back during the Microsoft antitrust fight, Google stepped up in 2006 to complain to the EU Commission about Microsoft's bundling and default practices.

  [...]

  And, amusingly, Microsoft's own response to that criticism was nearly identical to Google's today, saying that "the user is in control" and it's easy to change the defaults. So there's absolutely some hypocrisy in how Google has acted through this whole thing.

• EU fines Google 4.3Bn€ for Android monopoly, and it’s a good thing.

• Google to Appeal $5 Billion Antitrust Fine, Voices Fear for Android Open Source System

• Android Smart Text Selection headed to Chrome OS

Ubuntu 17.10 reached the end of life on 19th July 2018. This means that systems running Ubuntu 17.10 won’t receive security and maintenance updates from Canonical anymore leaving them vulnerable.

As more software businesses are selling open source products, we've seen a corresponding rise in the emphasis of building out developer communities around these products as a key metric for success. Happy users are passionate advocates, and these passionate advocates raise overall awareness of a company's product offerings. Attract the right vocal influencers into your community, and customers become more interested in forming a relationship with your company.

Doing community building the right way, however, is a delicate balance. Undercut the needs of your user community in favor of driving sales, and your company will face a decrease in adoption and unfavorable brand awareness. Meanwhile, too little focus on the bottom line isn't good for the company. So how can this tension be balanced effectively, especially in a world in which developers are the "new kingmakers" and meeting their sensibilities is a cornerstone of driving corporate purchasing decisions?

Over the past year, I've thought a lot about how to do effective community building while building the business bottom line. In this article, I'll outline three big steps to take toward building authentic, productive, sustainable developer communities.

Also: A 4-step plan for creating teams that aren't afraid to fail

It’s rare to hear Chinese philosophy quoted on stage at a software-development conference. But O’Reilly Media founder and CEO Tim O’Reilly invoked the words of Lao Tzu Wednesday morning during the opening keynotes at OSCON 2018 in hopes of convincing those in attendance — many of whom work for the big internet platform companies of our time — that the tech industry needs to return to the spirit of openness and collaboration that drove the early days of the open-source community before it is too late.

“We have an opportunity with these next generation of systems, to rebuild, to rethink the future, to discover what does it mean to get these systems right,” O’Reilly said. If the first era of the internet was dominated by open protocols, and the second era was dominated by the rise of huge platform companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook, the third era we’re about to enter presents a chance to get it right again.

This is how you can convert speech to text in Linux systems using Google Docs. There are not much speech recognition software available in Linux systems including native desktop apps. There are some apps available which uses IBM Watson and other APIs to convert speech to text but they are not user-friendly and requires advanced level of user interactions e.g. little bit of programming or scripting in respective languages.

However not many users know that Google Docs provides an advanced level of Speech Recognition using its own AI technologies which can be accessed via Chrome in Google Docs. Any category of user can use this feature to convert speech to text and this requires no advanced level of computer knowledge. The best thing about this feature of Google Docs is you can use it in any Ubuntu derivatives, any Linux distributions including Windows where Chrome is available.

• Chrome OS isn't ready for tablets yet

• Android Q+ may use the Vulkan Graphics API to render the UI

• Configure Android folders to auto-sync with Google Drive

• EU Fines Google $5.1 Billion in Android Antitrust Case

• What Android users should know about Google's fight with the EU

• Android P Developer Preview 3 (beta 4) released for OnePlus 6

Released nine months ago on October 19, 2017, Ubuntu 17.10 was dubbed "Artful Aardvark" by Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth because it was the first release of the Ubuntu Linux operating system to ship with the GNOME desktop environment instead of Unity on the Desktop edition.

To due to the sudden move from Unity to GNOME, Ubuntu 17.10 brought several substantial changes, such as the switch to the next-generation Wayland display server by default instead of X.Org Server, a decision that was reverted with the release of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver), and the discontinuation of the Ubuntu GNOME flavor.

• EU to hit Google with 4.3 bln euro fine in Android case

• EU's Vestager on Record $5 Billion Google Fine in Android Probe

• EU Fines Google $5.1 Billion in Android Antitrust Case

• EU fines Google a record $5 billion over mobile practices

• Google to Appeal $5 Billion Antitrust Fine, Voices Fear for Android Open Source System

• EU Fines Google a Record $5 Billion Over Mobile System

• iPhone users buy half as many apps as Android users, but spend twice as much

• OnePlus 6 gets updated Android P beta w/ stability fixes, redesigned app switcher

• OnePlus rolls out new Android P developer preview for OnePlus 6

• Chrome OS feature will let users resume Android browsing sessions

• Forcing an Android device to update to a higher version

• YouTube prominently displaying hashtags above video titles on Android & web

• Android Auto comes to South Korea with support for popular local apps

It's long been possible to run Linux on a Chromebook. That's no surprise. After all, Chrome OS is a Linux variant. But, doing it by using either Crouton in a chroot container or Gallium OS, a Xubuntu Chromebook-specific Linux variant, wasn't easy. Then, Google announced it was bringing a completely integrated Linux desktop to the Chromebook.

Today, with a properly-equipped Chromebook and the bravery to run canary code, you can run Debian Linux on your Chromebook. Here's how to do it.

This new Chromebook Linux feature is Crostini, the umbrella technology for getting Linux running with Chrome OS. Crostini gets enough Linux running to run KVM, Linux's built-in virtual machine (VM). On top of this, Crostini starts and runs LXC containers. You won't see it, unless you look closely, but it's in those containers that your Debian Linux instances are running.

Linux file servers play an essential role. The ability to share files is a basic expectation with any modern operating system in the workplace. When using one of the popular Linux distributions, you have a few different file sharing options to choose from. Some of them are simple but not that secure. Others are highly secure, yet require some know-how to set up initially.

Once set up on a dedicated machine, you can utilize these file sharing technologies on a dedicated file server. This article will address these technologies and provide some guidance on choosing one option over another.

• IAM is Pushing SEPs/FRAND Agenda for Patent Trolls and Monopolists That Fund IAM
• “Trade Secrets” Litigation Rising in the Wake of TC Heartland, Alice, Oil States and Other Patent-Minimising Decisions
• The EPO — Like the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and Unitary Patent System — is an Untenable Mess
• Links 18/7/2018: System76′s Manufacturing Facility, Microsoft-Led Lobby for Antitrust Against Android