Linux Blimp

Now on Kickstarter: Libre Computer’s smaller “La Frite” version of its Le Potato SBC offers a quad -A53, HD-only Amlogic S805X, a Raspberry Pi A+ footprint and GPIO connector, and mainline Linux support.

Libre Computer has gone to Kickstarter to successfully launch a smaller, less powerful follow-up to its Le Potato SBC. The 64 x 55mm La Frite is said to be loosely based on the 65 x 56mm Raspberry Pi Model A+. Unlike the very RPi 3 like Le Potato, which is now available publicly under the name Libre Computer Board (AML-S905X-CC), La Frite (AKA AML-S805X-AC) has a different layout and more real-world ports than the A+, although it offers a similar 40-pin expansion header.

La Frite
(click images to enlarge)

The eventually open-spec La Frite, which has already surpassed its $10K Kickstarter goal, starts at just $10 or $15 for models with 512MB or 1GB DDR4, respectively. Fully decked out models with 8GB eMMC, HDMI cable, and a 2.5A power supply with LED and power button go for $30 or $35. Shipments are due in November.

Le Potato

La Frite has a lower-powered, 1.2GHz S805X version of the quad-core, Cortex-A53 Amlogic S900 compared to the 1.5GHz S905X model found on Le Potato. The SoC has the same Mali-450 GPU but is limited to 1080p video encode and decode rather than 4K on Le Potato.

Coastline ports include a low-profile 10/100 “Fast” Ethernet port plus 2x USB 2.0 ports and a micro-USB OTG with power input. The KS page lists an HDMI 1.4 port while the product page says HDMI 2.0. There’s also an IR receiver, but if you want WiFi, you’ll need to use one of the USB ports.

La Frite low-rise Ethernet port (left) and rear view showing USB ports
(click images to enlarge)

The Kickstarter page focuses mostly on software, touting Libre Computer’s extensive and meticulous mainline Linux support. The company has led the effort to support the Amlogic S900 SoC family in mainline.

The mainline approach enables La Frite and Le Potato to support most Linux distributions without having to “backport kernel modules, security patches, stability fixes, and needless-proprietary re-inventions,” says the company. La Frite supports Ubuntu, Debian, LibreELEC, Lakka, RetroPie, Android Oreo, “and many more Linux-based distributions.”

The company collaborates with BayLibre, which recently demonstrated a hardware accelerated codec running on Chromium through the V4L2 Linux subsystem on Amlogic’s S900. As a result: “Soon, Le Potato and La Frite will be able to play H.265, H.264, and VP9 content on upstream Linux with Chromium, an industry first.”

As noted by LinuxGizmos reader “Mats,” who alerted us to La Frite, the SBC is also designed to support Arm’s upcoming EBBR (Embedded Base Boot Requirements) boot specifications for the ARM64 kernel, which specify a subset of UEFI that can be implemented with upstream U-Boot. La Frite includes 128Mb of SPI NOR flash to enable the eventual booting of Linux with EBBR. This should enable “customized booting of upstream Linux from a variety of sources including USB flash drives, USB hard drives, and PXE.” The SBC also provides a U-Boot button.

Specifications listed for La Frite include:

• Processor — Amlogic S805X (4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.2GHz); 650MHz Mali-450 GPU (pentacore 2G + 3P) with OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 and OpenVG 1.1; Amlogic Video Engine 10 with VP9, H.265, and H.265 1080p60 decode and H.264 1080P30 encode
• Memory/storage:
  • 512MB or 1GB DDR4 RAM
  • 128Mb SPI NOR
  • eMMC 5x interface with optional 8GB
• Networking — 10/100 Ethernet port (low profile)
• Other I/O:
  • HDMI port with HD output and optional cable
  • 2x USB 2.0 host ports
  • Micro-USB OTG port with power input
  • 40-pin low speed header (PWM, I2C, SPI, GPIO)
• Other features — IR receiver; U-Boot button
• Power — 5V via micro-USB; optional 2.5A power supply with LED and power button
• Operating system — Mainline Linux with support for Ubuntu, Debian, LibreELEC, Lakka, RetroPie, Android Oreo, and more

Renegade Elite

In July, Libre Computer went to Indiegogo to pitch the Renegade Elite in partnership with Firefly. This $99 and up follow up to the Rockchip RK3328 powered Renegade features the higher-end Rockchip RK3399 SoC. The board fell short of its $50K target and has missed its September ship date, but the flexibly funded product will indeed ship to backers soon, says Libre Computer. The company also offers an Allwinner based Tritium Raspberry Pi pseudo-clone.

Further information

La Frite (AKA AML-S805X-AC) is available on Kickstarter through Nov. 25 starting at $10 or $15 for models with 512MB or 1GB DDR4, respectively, with shipments due the same month. More information may be found on Libre Computer’s La Frite Kickstarter page and La Frite product page.

Source

Independent software vendors, along with Internet of Things and cloud vendors, are involved in a market transformation that is making them look more alike. The similarities are evident in the way they approach software security initiatives, according to a report from
Synopsys.

Synopsys on Tuesday released its ninth annual Building Security in Maturity Model, or BSIMM9. The BSIMM project provides a de facto standard for assessing and then improving software security initiatives, the company said.

Based on 10 years of conducting the software study, it is clear that testing security correctly means being involved in the software development process, even as the process evolves, said Gary McGraw, vice president of security technology at Synopsys.

Using the BSIMM model, along with research from this year’s 120 participating firms, Synopsys evaluated each industry, determined its maturity, and identified which activities were present in highly successful software security initiatives, he told LinuxInsider.

“We have been tracking each of these vendors separately over the years,” McGraw said. “We are seeing that this whole cloud thing has moved beyond the hype cycle and is becoming real. As a result, the three categories of vendors are all beginning to look the same. They are all taking a similar approach to software security.”

Report Parameters

The BSIMM is a multiyear study of real-world software security initiatives based on data gathered by more than 90 individuals in 120 firms. The report is a measuring stick for software security, according to Synopsys.

Its primary intent is to provide a basis for companies to compare and contrast their own initiatives with the model’s data about what other organizations are doing. Companies participating in the study then can identify their own goals and objectives. The companies can refer to the BSIMM to determine which additional activities make sense for them.

Synopsys captured the data for the BSIMM. Oracle provided resources for data analysis.

Synopsys’ new BSIMM9 report reflects the increasingly critical role that security plays in software development.

It is no exaggeration to say that from a security perspective, businesses have targets painted on their backs due to the value that their data assets represent to cybercriminals, noted Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

“Software can provide critical lines of defense to hinder or prevent incursions, but to be effective, security needs to be implemented across the development cycle,” he told LinuxInsider. “The BSIMM9 report nails some high points by emphasizing the growing importance of cloud computing for businesses.”

Report Results

Rather than provide a how-to guide, this report reflects the current state of software security. Organizations can leverage it across various industries — including financial services, healthcare, retail, cloud and IoT — to directly compare and contrast their security approach to some of the best firms in the world.

The report explores how e-commerce has impacted software security initiatives at retail firms.

“The efforts by financial firms to proactively start Software Security Initiatives reflects how security concerns affect and are responded to differently by various industries and organizations,” said King. “Overall, the new report emphasizes the continuing relevance, importance and value of the Synopsys project.”

One key finding in the new report is the growing role played by cloud computing and its effects on security. For example, it shows more emphasis on things like containerization and orchestration, and ways of developing software that are designed for the cloud, according to McGraw.

Following are key findings from this year’s report:

• Cloud transformation has been impacting business approaches to software security; and
• Financial services firms have reacted to regulatory changes and started their SSIs much earlier than insurance and healthcare firms.

Retail, a new category for the report, experienced incredibly fast adoption and maturity in the space once retail companies started considering software security. In part, that is because they have been making use of BSIMM to accelerate faster.

In one sense, the report enables predicting the future, allowing users to become more like the firms that are the best in the world, according to McGraw.

“The bottom line is that we see the BSIMM is indicating a market transformation that is actually taking place. We are getting past the baloney into the brass tacks,” he said.

Structural Design

Researchers established a BSIMM framework based on three levels of activities with 115 activities divided into 12 different practices.

Level one activities are pretty easy and a lot of firms undertake them, noted McGraw. Level two is harder and requires having done some level one activities first.

“It is not necessary, but that is what we usually see,” he said. “Level three is rocket science. Only a few firms do level three stuff.”

The researchers already had some idea of what is easy and what is hard in dealing with software security initiatives. They also know the most popular activities in each of the 12 practices.

“So we can say if you are approaching code review and you are not doing this activity, you should know that pretty much everybody else is,” said McGraw. “You should then ask yourself, ‘Why?'”

That does not mean you have to do XYZ, he added. It just means maybe you should consider why you are not doing that.

Understanding the Process

The BSIMM9 report also gives a detailed explanation of the key roles in a software security initiative, the activities that now comprise the model, and a summary of the raw data collected. It is essential to recognize the target audience for the report.

The audience is anyone responsible for creating and executing a software security initiative. Successful SSIs typically are run by a senior executive who reports to the highest levels in an organization.

They lead an internal group the researchers call the “software security group,” or SSG, charged with directly executing or facilitating the activities described in the BSIMM. The BSIMM is written with the SSG and its leadership in mind.

“We are seeing for the first time a convergence of verticals — ISVs, IoT vendors and the cloud — that used to look different in the way they approached software security,” said McGraw. “They were all doing software security stuff, but they were not doing it exactly the same way.”

Fresh Look, New Perspectives

Each year researchers talk to the same firms as well as new participants. All of the data is refreshed each year. That provides a perspective of at least 12 months — but probably, on average, a much shorter time span. There is not that much of a lag indicator involved because of the scientific methods the researchers use, according to McGraw.

The BSIMM review provides a much more objective view of what is going on in the target groups than you would get by looking at a few case studies, he noted. That was one of the study’s goals when he initiated it years ago.

“The BSIMM is the result of wanting to have real objective data without overemphasizing technology or people of particular vendors or whoever paid us money,” McGraw said.

Funding Path Essential

Under the BSIMM’s charter, it is designed not to be a profit-making, but to help Synopsys break even. Firms pay for their participation in the study and sponsored events, said McGraw. Non-participants can view the report for free, but paying to participate gets the companies their own results.

This gives the paid participants a very intense look at their own software security and how it compares to others with their own data published for them, McGraw explained. The published report does not provide the data of individual firms, only collective data.

The most important outcome for participating is feedback from the community that developed among the participants, according to McGraw. Synopsys holds two annual conferences, one in the U.S. and one in the EU.

Bottom Line

Ten years ago security researchers did not know what everybody was doing regarding software security. Now firms can use the BSIMM data to guide their own firm’s approach to it, according to McGraw.

“We learned that all firms did software security slightly differently. There is no one correct way because the cultures of all the firms and their dev teams differed,” he said.

With a unified view of all the approaches used, researchers can describe in general how to approach software security and track particular activities, McGraw said.

“We didn’t come up with a particular set of prescriptive guidance. Instead, we came up with a descriptive set of facts that you can use to make great fast progress with software security,” he noted.

The Takeaway

BSIMM researchers recognize that the report data on software security never will eliminate data breaches and other software security concerns. Unfortunately, there is no first-order way to measure security, noted McGraw.

“You cannot throw software in a box that lights up red or green. We retreated to developing a look at what successful firms are doing as a way to guide other firms to be more like them,” he said, “but there is no way to measure that directly.”

Synopsys’ theory is that if you want to get out front, you first have to build better software, said McGraw. “Better security comes about with the way you build software.”

Jack M. Germain has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open source technologies. He has written numerous reviews of Linux distros and other open source software.
Email Jack.

Source

zita-resampler 1.6.0-1 -> 2 update requires manual intervention

2018-02-22 – Antonio Rojas

The zita-resampler 1.6.0-1 package was missing a library symlink that has been readded in 1.6.0-2. If you installed 1.6.0-1, ldconfig would have created this symlink at install time, and it will conflict with the one included in 1.6.0-2. In that case, remove /usr/lib/libzita-resampler.so.1 manually before updating.

Copyright © 2002-2018 Judd Vinet and Aaron Griffin.

The Arch Linux name and logo are recognized
trademarks. Some rights reserved.

The registered trademark Linux® is used pursuant to a sublicense from LMI,
the exclusive licensee of Linus Torvalds, owner of the mark on a world-wide basis.

Source

It’s now about as official as it’s going to get. If you’re running Linux in your data center (or more specifically what the Open Invention Network (OIN) calls the “Linux System,” which includes Linux and other open source systems and middleware-level packages), you no longer have to worry about getting sued by Microsoft for any of its patents that system might infringe.

OIN is a defensive patent pool with over 2,000 members that seeks to protect Linux from patent infringement actions, both with patents held by member organizations cross-licensed to other members and with a non-aggression agreement between members to do away with the Sue Me Sue You Blues. Members also get free licenses to OIN’s portfolio of about 1,300 patents for use even outside the Linux system.

“No one’s made a longer journey from being a self-proclaimed antagonist to Linux and open source to now being a company that recognizes its reliance on others and the need for access to code and interoperability,” Keith Bergelt, OIN’s CEO, told Data Center Knowledge in an interview.

Not surprisingly, some folks in the open source community are finding this development a bit hard to swallow. After all, not so long ago Redmond was threatening to sue enterprise Linux users over 228 patents the company’s former CEO Steve Ballmer claimed Linux infringed.

“We know Microsoft’s decision to join OIN may be viewed as surprising to some; it is no secret that there has been friction in the past between Microsoft and the open source community over the issue of patents,” Erich Andersen, a Microsoft corporate VP and deputy general council, wrote in his blog post about joining OIN. “For others who have followed our evolution, we hope this announcement will be viewed as the next logical step for a company that is listening to customers and developers and is firmly committed to Linux and other open source programs.”

All that’s true, including the part implying that Microsoft has changed its ways.

Since the day when then newly minted CEO, Sattya Nadella, famously uttered the phrase “Microsoft loves Linux,” Redmond has been on a tear seeking to prove that its affection for Linux and open source is real. In 2016 it began writing annual checks of $500,000 to the Linux Foundation for a top-tier platinum membership. It has taken additional memberships in about every foundation project with which it shares common interests. Along the way, it’s become a top code contributor to the operating system.

On the patent front, a number of years back it entered into a patent non-aggression agreement with Red Hat, in which it and the world’s top Linux company agreed not to sue each other’s customers over patent issues. Earlier this month, it joined the NOT Network, which protects members against patent trolls by making sure any patents it sells exempt member organizations from needing a license to use the patent.

And now, Microsoft has joined the flagship organization for protecting Linux from patent aggressors.

“They’re participating in the cross-licensing, and they’re pledging at the same time not to file litigation,” Bergelt explained. “In the event they did that, they would lose the perceptual high ground that, through their behaviors, they deserve. They would also lose access to the cross-license patents and access to the 1,300 patents and applications to which we provide a free license for zero dollars.”

A shrinking but vocal minority of open sourcers still aren’t buying the narrative of Microsoft’s recently ignited love affair with Linux. They claim that this, along with the rest of Redmond’s pro-Linux moves, are all part of the company’s “embrace, extend, and extinguish” philosophy made famous during the 2001 antitrust trial that centered on the Netscape browser. They post vague theories about Microsoft weaseling into Linux to eventually pull some kind of gotcha that will either result in Redmond enriching itself by billions of dollars off the back of Linux, or else will end Linux as we know it.

If it turns out that Microsoft does have nefarious intentions, at least on the patent front, Bergelt would like you to know that OIN has Linux’s back.

“We have checks and balances within our structure that insures that if Microsoft’s behaviors are not authentic we’ll deprive them of the ability to utilize our patents and others that are part of the cross-license,” he said.

“I’m very hopeful their behaviors are truly authentic and that we will never have to view them as antagonistic towards open source again. You can only prove your authenticity over time, and I think they’ve got a good opportunity to build on the things we’ve seen them do over the last two, three, maybe four years to show they’ve adopted the values and the code of conduct that’s required.”

By joining OIN, Microsoft takes all of its 90,000 patents off the table as far as the Linux system is concerned, 60,000 of which have already been determined to be a potential threat to Linux.

Bergelt said that in his opinion, a much bigger threat to the Linux system comes from patent-laden companies that haven’t joined OIN.

“The only reason you don’t sign the OIN license is because you want to reserve the right to sue on core Linux,” he said.

Taking Microsoft on as a member creates something of a public relations problem for OIN, which is not without detractors in the open source community. The opposition primarily centers on the widespread belief in open source circles that software shouldn’t be patentable, mostly because software is already covered under copyright law. In a recent article on Microsoft’s joining OIN, Roy Schestowitz, publisher of the software patent-focused Techrights website, called OIN “an IBM-centric group that favors software patents” and has said the organization’s model works against patent reform because it supports the legitimacy of patents.

“We don’t feel that we’re legitimizing them,” Bergelt said. “We’re recognizing that they exist. It’s a matter of pragmatism to say that whether we believe they should exist or shouldn’t exist doesn’t matter — they do exist. My view is we’re recognizing reality and dealing with it in a determined way, and I disagree with those who believe it’s a validation.”

Like other OIN members, Microsoft does not give up its right to enforce its patents against companies that develop, sell, or use open source solutions designed to run on top of the Linux system.

Source

The new version of glibc removes support for NIS and NIS+. The default
/etc/nsswitch.conf file provided by filesystem package already
reflects this change. Please make sure to merge pacnew file if it exists
prior to upgrade.

NIS functionality can still be enabled by installing libnss_nis
package. There is no replacement for NIS+ in the official repositories.

pam 1.3.0-2 no longer ships pam_unix2 module and pam_unix_*.so
compatibility symlinks. Before upgrading, review PAM configuration files
in the /etc/pam.d directory and replace removed modules with
pam_unix.so. Users of pam_unix2 should also reset their passwords
after such change. Defaults provided by pambase package do not need
any modifications.

Source

My brief, incomplete LM19 Odyssey
Installation phase
==================
Linux Mint 19 64bit Mate v2 LIVE-CD crashed – several attempts needed
(1) frozen windows
(2) bluetooth not working
BIG PROBLEM — PASSWORD stays w ENGLISH … nuisance when using ie yzäöü etc

After Installation
==================
decrypt password reverts back to default= English, hence dont use pw keys that change under different idioms
like zy.- etc

Several freezes after update
Solution: Keep on working, behaviour disappeared

BIG problem
NO shutdown, no reboot — only hard reset
Solution: Add to grub “acpi=force” ==> GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash acpi=force”

BIG problem
several USB SSD which were formated under Win10 1803+ not mountable – NO popup notification …
Under older Mint “Inconsistany complaints of NTFS”
Solution: ???

BIG problem
Font size of many apps dont get adjusted to customized settings- – instead stay small ie
Solution: ???

Contrast
Default font contrast not very eye friendly (lacks contrast)
Solution: ???

Keyboard
Keyboardlayout default cant be permantently changed (always reverts to English)
Solution: ???

Calibre
no icon on taskbar (Problem since 17.x) – lol
Workaround: AllTray

Application interface
When selecting several apps for install at same time/in row, not all get installed then
Solution: ???

Virtualbox
Minimzed window doesnt restore fully – 2 attempts needed
Solution: ???

NO automount of 2nd Disk
Solution: Add line to fstab “/dev/sdbx /media/username/disklabel ntfs defaults 0 0”
ie /dev/sdb3 /media/linuxmint/VM ntfs defaults 0 0
or better use the UUID instead of /dev/sdaX (the UUID can be easily found under “Disks” App)

FOlder colors
Missing several color options, ie yellow, teal, light green
Video folder doesnt change color when applied

Redshift
Doesnt work properly (cant togle between on/off
Solution: Start gtk-redshift ONLY
no redshift adjustment?
Solution: LinuxMint forum? or command line ie mint@mint:~$redshift -O 6000K

AND PLEASE finally stop using YAHOO as your default search engine —- grrrr

Source

Many thanks to all the people who donate to us. Numbers were lower than normal last month but we’re still getting a tremendous amount of support. We’re at an average of $10,000 per month. Although that average decreased slightly over the last three years it is very high, it covers all our expenses, when we need something money is never an issue (whether it’s to scale slowly, invest in security, hosting, CI services or to tackle an emergency) and it allows us to send money upstream when needed and to donate funds internally within our moderation and development teams. We’re able to facilitate development and boost our productivity by making tools available and delegate aspects which would otherwise get in the way. It’s a real help for us, I know I say it every month but I don’t think we’ll ever be thankful enough. If you’re helping us, thank you.

Now, without further ado, let’s talk about development. With Mint 19 and LMDE 3 officially released our hands are now free to develop and improve our software on top of the new bases (respectively Ubuntu 18.04 and Debian Stretch).

Nemo

Nemo 4.0 is lightning fast.

Michael Webster reviewed the Cinnamon file manager and optimized it in many ways. Here are some of his notes when working on it. Throughout the commits below, he asks a new instance of nemo to list the content of /usr/bin after dropping all caches:

Nemo startup time: 3.488751 seconds
Folder load time: 2.644505 seconds
Idle…Folder load time: 2.874406 seconds

Generate tooltips for icon items on-demand, instead of when the view loads:
Nemo startup time: 2.510636 seconds
Folder load time: 1.596948 seconds
Idle…Folder load time: 1.654450 seconds

Optimize icon lookups by GIcon:
Nemo startup time: 2.011817 seconds
Folder load time: 1.158854 seconds
Idle…Folder load time: 1.226699 seconds

Decrease minimum update interval:
Nemo startup time: 1.797009 seconds
Folder load time: 0.937992 seconds
Idle…Folder load time: 0.973764 seconds

The result is very impressive. Nemo feels extremely light and browsing directories is a breeze. It’s never been that fast before and it’s immediately noticeable.

Michael also improved icon sizes and spacing to make Nemo look better.

Nemo is now able to show file creation times (note that this requires ext4, a kernel 4.15 or above and it doesn’t work within an encrypted home directory).

Nemo-python and all Nemo python extensions were ported to Python 3.

XappStackSideBar

Joseph Mccullar, who was involved in the UI revamp of the Welcome Screen in Linux Mint 19, and lead the UI revamp of the Software Sources for the upcoming Linux Mint 19.1, created a new widget in libxapp called XappStackSideBar.

This streamlines icon sidebars and makes it really easy to use them within applications. We’re able to design these sidebars from a click of the mouse in Glade, connect them to a GTK stack and design their pages really easily.

The existing XappPreferencesWindow now also makes use of it.

Here’s how it looks for instance in Nemo 4.0:

Cinnamon

The star of the month within the Cinnamon team is Jason Hicks. Last month we talked about VSYNC, input lag and performance improvements within the muffin window manager. This is now a reality and it’s all been merged in preparation for muffin 4.0.

Input lag was reduced on NVIDIA cards and the window manager feels more responsive when moving windows. You now also have the possibility to turn off VSYNC in the System Settings. This basically delegates VSYNC to your GPU driver (which needs to handle it otherwise you get screen tearing) and if that driver performs well, it can eliminate input lag and boost performance.

Jason also ported a huge amount of upstream changes from the GNOME project:

• Similar to Mutter, Muffin now uses its own embedded version of COGL and Clutter, which received most of the patches applied to the one in GNOME.
• Many Mutter performance improvements were applied to Muffin.
• CJS received many commits from GNOME’s GJS, including improvements to its garbage collection.

With so many fixes and improvements applied and performance which depends greatly on the GPU being used, results may vary and we might experience some regressions during the BETA phase. Our own experience is quite positive. Cinnamon 4.0 rarely ventures past 250MB RAM on NVIDIA, it feels more responsive than 3.8 and it looks like some of the long standing rendering issues might be a thing of the past.

Software Sources

When software crashes tools such as mintreport produce a stack trace our developers can look at to understand the cause of the crash. This is the first step towards fixing such a bug. For the stack trace to be meaningful, users need to have debug symbols installed.

In an effort to reduce bandwidth for their mirrors, Debian decided to move debug symbols outside of the main repositories. This decision affected not only Debian and LMDE but also Ubuntu and Linux Mint and made it much more difficult for users to install these symbols.

To simplify this process we added support for debug symbols into the Software Sources tool. You’ll be able to add debug symbol repositories with a click of the mouse.

A new button was also added within the “Maintenance” tab to remove duplicate entries in your repositories.

こんにちは！

There are a few areas where, although a solution is easy to implement, we, the developers, don’t know what needs to be done, what users need and how to provide it. We rely on feedback when it’s about something we don’t really understand or something we can’t really reproduce. We can buy exotic hardware specifically to fix niche issues (Optimus laptops, ATI cards, Wacom tablets etc..), but when the varying factor isn’t the hardware, but us personally, it can get a little difficult. Some of these areas include RTL support, accessibility and input methods.

Well, we still can’t speak Arabic or Hebrew but two of us in the team now know the basics of Japanese. It didn’t take much to see what was missing but when you know what you need it’s much easier to make it happen.

So, the first improvement is that the Language Settings and the Input Methods are now two separate applications.

The user interface for the Input Methods tool was revamped. It uses an icon sidebar and now shows a dedicated page for each supported language.

With the gained space we’re able to show clearer instructions and to accompany the user through not only installing support packages but also selecting the right input method framework and the right input method within it.

Cinnamon 4.0 also received better Fcitx support. Its keyboard applet will hide when Fcitx is running, similar to what it currently does with DBus.

Text Editor

Small things matter. The text editor now indicates in the status bar whether it’s in spaces or tabs mode.

Sponsorships:

Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by:

Donations in August:

A total of $7,067 were raised thanks to the generous contributions of 384 donors:

$109 (3rd donation), Claudia K.
$109, J S.
$109, Konrad S.
$109, Peter I.
$100 (11th donation), Samson S. aka “Samtastic”
$100 (10th donation), Philip W.
$100 (6th donation), Trevor H.
$100 (2nd donation), Matthew C.
$100, Mountain Computers, Inc
$100, Walter D.
$100, Ali H.
$100, Henry G.
$100, מיקי גוטמן
$100, Michael M.
$60 (2nd donation), Быков А.
$54 (5th donation), Derek L.
$54 (3rd donation), Florian P.
$54 (2nd donation), Tobias S.
$54 (2nd donation), Christian G.
$54 (2nd donation), Stefan H.
$54, Hubertus S.
$54, Angelo S.
$54, Ted L.
$54, Johan P.
$50 (27th donation), Anthony C. aka “ciak”
$50 (8th donation), Jason H aka “jaszhix”
$50 (6th donation), Anonymous User
$50 (2nd donation), Peter U.
$50, John L.
$50, Steve L.
$50, Bogdan P.
$50, Timothy M.
$50, Peter J.
$50, Karl B.
$50, Terry C.
$50, Yuval G.
$40 (2nd donation), Saransh C.
$40 (2nd donation), Bruce I.
$40 (2nd donation), Joe K.
$40, Vincent T.
$35 (3rd donation), Paul C.
$33 (102th donation), Olli K.
$33 (2nd donation), Hendrik G.
$33, Nadia F.
$33, Ballivet D.
$33, Karine S.
$33, Kai-michael K.
$33, Seamus Y.
$33, Gwenole L. C.
$33, Alpo P.
$33, Maciej F.
$33, Thomas S.
$33, Rainer H.
$33, 許 博堯
$31.06 (5th donation), M. J. Stewart aka “Mason”
$30 (5th donation), Mark E.
$30 (2nd donation), Devon B.
$29.99 (2nd donation), John S.
$27 (5th donation), Jan B.
$27 (5th donation), Michael S.
$27 (2nd donation), John J.
$27 (2nd donation), Xtant Logic Ltd aka “Xtant Audio”
$27, Dirk J. L.
$27, Bernhard M.
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Last updated October 11, 2018 By Ankush Das 11 Comments

We are well aware that Microsoft is interested to help the open-source community now more than ever. It has open sourced several of its projects such as .Net Core, VS Code, PowerShell, MS-DOS and a number of AI frameworks and libraries.

But, its latest decision is a big deal for the users, developers and the companies associated with Linux.

Microsoft’s Corporate VP – Erich Andersen – announced in a blog post that they would be bringing their portfolio of over 60,000 issued patents to Open Invention Network (OIN).

Open Invention Network (OIN) is a community backed by a lot of big companies like IBM, Google, Sony, etc. to protect Linux and associated open-source projects from patent lawsuits.

In the blog post, Erich mentioned how OIN is helping protect Linux:

“Since its founding in 2005, OIN has been at the forefront of helping companies manage patent risks. In the years before the founding of OIN, many open source licenses explicitly covered only copyright interests and were silent about patents. OIN was designed to address this concern by creating a voluntary system of patent cross-licenses between member companies covering Linux System technologies. OIN has also been active in acquiring patents at times to help defend the community and to provide education and advice about the intersection of open source and intellectual property. Today, through the stewardship of its CEO Keith Bergelt and its Board of Directors, the organization provides a license platform for roughly 2,650 companies globally. The licensees range from individual developers and startups to some of the biggest technology companies and patent holders on the planet.“

Now, with Microsoft taking such a big step, Erich also mentioned how it would impact the open-source community:

“Now, as we join OIN, we believe Microsoft will be able to do more than ever to help protect Linux and other important open source workloads from patent assertions. We bring a valuable and deep portfolio of over 60,000 issued patents to OIN. We also hope that our decision to join will attract many other companies to OIN, making the license network even stronger for the benefit of the open source community.”

Satya Nadella quoted this after buying GitHub for $7.5 billion

It would be interesting to see how it unfolds because when it comes to money, Microsoft is no one’s friend. Microsoft earns a huge chunk of revenue from patents. It has patents with Android as well that enables it to earn $5-$15 from every Android device sold. I don’t think those 60,000 patents were bringing any revenue to Microsoft. But that just my presumption.

Input from Abhishek: Microsoft has its own selfish interest in this case. This time around it is more about protecting Microsoft and its cloud business on Azure that depends heavily on Linux. Remember Oracle vs Google legal battle over the use of Java in the Android operating system? If Linux ever gets into patent battle and loses it, all the companies using Linux might have to pay billions. Microsoft surely doesn’t want to be in such a situation and hence it (along with many other big corporations) wants to protect Linux in order to save its own back.

What do you think about the entire episode? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

About Ankush Das

A passionate technophile who also happens to be a Computer Science graduate. He has had bylines at a variety of publications that include Ubergizmo & Tech Cocktail. You will usually see cats dancing to the beautiful tunes sung by him.

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X.Org Server (xorg-server) is an open source and freely distributed implementation of the X Window System (X.Org), provided by the X.Org Foundation, specially designed for the GNU/Linux operating system.

Features at a glance

Key features include input hotplug, KDrive, DTrace and EXA. It’s designed to run on many UNIX-like operating systems, including most Linux distributions and BSD variants it. It is also the default X server for the Solaris operating system.

Forked from XFree86

X.Org Server is part of the X.Org software, the popular and powerful X Window System used in many POSIX operating systems, including almost all GNU/Linux distributions, as well as some BSD and Solaris flavors. The software was originally forked from the XFree86 project.

An important component of every Linux distro

This is a very important and essential component of all Linux kernel-based operating systems that run a graphical desktop environment or a window manager. Without X.Org and X.Org Server, you will only be able to use a distro from the command-line.

It’s installed by default

Of course, this means that it is installed by default in all these GNU/Linux distributions, without exception. If you remove this package from your installation, you won’t be able to access the graphical environment anymore.

X.Org, X.Org Server and X.Org Foundation

Many people get confused about these two essential components of a Linux distribution that uses a graphical session, but one should know that X.Org (X Window System) is the display server and X.Org Server is the X Window System implementation that contains several other projects, such as XCB and Xlib.

Furthermore, X.Org Foundation is the organization that governs these two projects. The X.Org (X Window System) packages are freely available for download on Softpedia.

X11 server Window system X window system Xorg X.Org Server Xorg-server

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