Linux Magazine September 2022

Dear Reader, A few months ago, I wrote about the need for the open source community to provide a means for the continuity of solo or small-scale open source projects when the maintainer reaches a burnout point or gets busy with something else. Does the project have to die just because the person who started it walks away? Another angle on this problem is the question of scientific software written by research professionals. Some of the most sophisticated software in the world is created by doctoral candidates and other academic scientists. This software isn’t written just to be software – it is written to test a new idea or answer a question related to a research project. Some of these programs represent years of work, but what happens when the…

openSUSE Leap 15.4 64-bit Leap 15.4 is the latest stable release of openSUSE, the popular and well-established community-based distribution. Leap 15.5 is not scheduled to replace it until June 2023. Because the 15.4 release is built upon a mature platform, most of its features are updates, and often behind the scenes. Several changes are enhancements and improvements to sudo and visudo, and backports and bug fixes to systemd. In addition, the release has major updates to AppArmor, as well as to productivity tools such as Firefox and LibreOffice. Perhaps the most noticeable change is the introduction of DNF, the package manager which has largely replaced Yum in other RPM distros such as Fedora. While Yum remains in openSUSE, the 15.4 release can be configured to use DNF. In addition, the…

Rocky Linux 9 is now available and is a landmark release for several reasons. First off, there has been a surge in Rocky Linux deployments, putting it ahead of CentOS Stream and AlmaLinux. But more than that, Rocky Linux includes several security enhancements and networking features to help make it a best-in-class open source operating system for businesses of all sizes. In the new release, you’ll find SHA-1 message digest for cryptographic purposes has been deprecated (as the cryptographic hash functions are no longer considered secure). In addition, you’ll find OpenSSL 3.0.1 (which includes provider concept, a new versioning scheme, an improved HTTP/HTTPS client, support for new protocols/formats/algorithms, and more), OpenSSH version 8.7p1 (which includes the replacement of the SCP/RCP protocol with the more predictable SFTP protocol), SELinux performance improvements,…

Slimbook, well known for producing KDE Plasma-powered laptops, has given their Executive series a bit of a refresh by making them available with the Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake CPU. This new iteration adds considerably more power (14 Cores, 20 threads, 24MB cache, and up to 4.80GHz clock speeds), improved battery life, and better graphics (via an integrated Iris Xe 4K chipset). Consumers will find two different models available with this configuration: A 14-inch 3K display, running at a 90Hz refresh rate (at 2880x1800 resolution) and a 16-inch model that sports NVIDIA RTX 3050Ti graphics with 4GB GDDR6 RAM (also at a 90Hz refresh rate). The 14-inch model does get a beefier battery (99WHr), whereas the 16-inch model’s battery is a smaller 82WHr. Both laptops include USB-C Thunderbolt 4, USB…

Fedora Linux has been available for desktops, servers, and even IoT devices. However, if you wanted to install the OS on the Raspberry Pi 4 device, you were out of luck – until now. With the upcoming release of Fedora 37, support for the devices might well finally become a reality. Although not official, it has become a proposed change and will be implemented if it receives approval from the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee. The reason the Raspberry Pi 4 has yet to be supported by Fedora Linux has been the lack of accelerated graphics. However, with upstream work on the kernel and Mesa (specifically the V3D GPU for both OpenGL ES and Vulkan), it’s now just a matter of enabling support. The one caveat is that support for WiFi…

KaOS was first created in 2013 as a Linux distribution that focuses on the KDE Desktop Environment. The original goal was to create a highly polished KDE experience, which the developers achieved quite well. And with the latest release, that experience is made even better with the addition of KDE Plasma 5.25 and a number of other additions and enhancements. As to what else has been added to KaOS, you’ll see KDE Frameworks 5.95, KDE Gear 22.04.2, Calamares 3.3, LibreOffice as the default office suite (a change from Calligra), Linux kernel 5.17 (which adds improved support for GPUs), and a new package selection addition to the onboarding Welcome screen. Of course, at the heart of KaOS 2022.06 is KDE Plasma 5.25, which adds a host of improvements, including improved gesture…