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LinuxReviews News Archive

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The Linux Kernel can Kill Your PC-Speaker
This isn't exactly news, it's been that way since at least 2007. Interestingly, the question "Is it possible to write a kernel module which, when loaded, will blow the PC speaker?" has been asked regularly on June 12th for more than a decade.
Xfce Screensaver 0.1.5 Now Available
The Xfce team is moving forward to a stable release of version 4.14 either late July or early August. A new version of the Xfce Screensaver as well as a new version of the Exo development library are the latest building-blocks to fall into place.
Snek version 1.0 Announced for Python-Like programming on Tiny Embedded Systems
Good news if you want to program on a really tiny SoC and MicroPython is way to big: There is an even smaller alternative for systems with just one or two kB of memory and little to no processing power. And it's now mature enough to be called version 1.0.
GIMP 2.10.12 now available
The latest version of GNU Image Manipulation Program (aka Green Is My Pepper) is mostly a bug-fix release which fixes some "annoying" bugs. There's also some improvements. Most notable is the ability to export TIFF files with layers.
VLC 3.0.7 released with a long list of Security Issues Fixed
It appears there were buffer overflow issues in just about every module in the VLC media player ranging from decoders to demuxers. These bugs were largely found thank to the European Commission's bug bounty program. There is not much else of interest to Linux users, the vast majority of improvements in this release are specific to the Android, macOS and Windows versions.
Mesa 19.1.0 is now available
The long-delayed major update to the Linux graphics stack has parallel shader compiling for all drivers and many new GL extensions for AMD and Intel GPUs. There is also a whole lot of new Vulkan features added, many of which are specific to AMD GPUs. The two blocker-bugs which cased this release to be delayed are finally resolved.
New Kernels: 4.4.181, 4.9.181, 4.14.125, 4.19.50, 5.1.9 - just two days after the last kernels releases. And as always, You Must Upgrade NOW
It's not unreasonable to wonder if Greg Kroah-Hartman simply put "All users of the $stablebranch kernel series must upgrade" in a template at some point and simply forgot to remove it. This is the fourth release in a row carrying this scary demand.
Linux Kernel 5.0.15 broke Support for all Older Bluetooth Devices and there's no fix in sight
If you are using older or cheaper newer Bluetooth devices and you are wondering why they no longer work: it is because of a change in the kernel's way of aligning encryption keys which prevents devices using earlier versions of the Bluetooth standard from connecting.
Xfce4 Panel Stopwatch Plugin v0.3.1 released
The Xfce team is proud to announce a new version of the gtk3 port of the "stopwatch" panel plugin. This marks yet another milestone on Xfce's march towards a stable 4.14 release which is still on schedule to be released mid-August 2019.
New Kernels: 4.14.124, 4.19.49, 5.1.8 and 5.2-RC4. And as always, You Must Upgrade NOW
Stable branch kernels 4.14.124, 4.19.49 and 5.1.8 as well as a release candidate 5.2-rc4 for the upcoming 5.2 was released today. The kernels come with the "All users must upgrade" notice which has been attached to all the latest kernel releases. And there is, as always no indication or even a hint as to why we "must" upgrade NOW.
Ice Window Manager 1.5.5 released
Another minor point release in the 1.5.x branch of the IceWM window-manager is released. A few updated translation files is the only change since version 1.5.4 so there's not very much to get excited about if you are using the development-branch.
Kdenlive video editor version 19.04.2 released
A total of 77 bugs are fixed in the second minor release in the 19.04 series of the powerful and feature-rich KDE video editor Kdenlive. Compositing issues, misbehaving markers and grouping inconsistencies are among the more noticeable bugs fixed. There are also some improvements specific to the Wintoddler version.
Mesa 19.1.0 RC 5 and stable branch 19.0.6 available, 19.1.0 final is delayed
The who blocker bugs which has been in Mesa 19.1.0 release candidates since RC2 remain open. The latest stable branch release 19.0.6 was meant to be the last of the 19.0.x series but 19.1.0 is delayed due to the release-blocking bugs so there will be one last stable 19.0.7-release before the final version of 19.1.0 becomes available.
South Korean Government and Army will be switching to Linux
Both the South Korean government and it's army will be switching to a Linux distribution called Harmoni which is adopted to Korean conditions. Harmoni is essentially on Linux Mint with some custom PPA repositories on top. Most South Korean people do not use Linux but those in the government, military and educational institutions will soon enjoy the benefits of free software.
KDE will soon get a light-weight WYSIWIG markdown viewer
KDE's Google Summer of Code student Geon Son is working on a lightweight markdown WYSIWIG kpart built using pure C++, Boost and Qt. There's existing solutions based on webview but these have poor support for printing and other use-cases that go beyond simple web display.
Most popular LinuxReviews articles in May 2019
Looking at out statistics for the month of May reveals that much of our readership isn't what we expected it to be. Perhaps it's a failure on our part, or there's simply not that many people interested in GNU/Linux compared to one other subject we occasionally mention in our news coverage.
Krita 4.2.1 released
The first minor bug-fix release for the best digital painting program comes just one week after the big 4.2-release. That version brought some real performance-improvements and many new features. This minor point release is just a bug-fix release. Most importantly, the undo-list is no longer allowed to grow indefinitely - something which cased Krita to become slow after longer painting-sessions.
Firefox to offer "Tracking Protection" by default
The Mozilla Corporation urges you to hand them all your personal data for your "convenience" because handing all your password over to them is such "convenient". Having actual privacy-tools would be preferable to remote-control capabilities, telemetry and other spyware present in modern Firefox versions.
New Kernels, 5.1.7, 5.0.21 and 4.19.48 are released
This is the last release in the 5.0.x series. It's over, Linux 5.0 is done. The new kernels have the same "you must upgrade" notice as the previous kernels. Seeing that message attached to each new kernel-release is becoming a trend.
Sunmi's fabulous song "Gashina" has reached 100 million views on YouTube
Sunmi's had a string of great songs topping the charts the last few years including "24 Hours", "Heroine", "Siren" and "Gashina". Most of them have been seen by about 50 million views. It turns out "Gashina" is the most popular of her hits and it has now passed the 100 million view milestone.
Mageia 7 RC released
The Mageia Community have released what they hope will be the last release candidate before the final version of Mageia 7. It's got updated packages of everything from the kernel to mesa to Xfce. We tried it out and while it's nice it needs more polish.
The Tor network is either under attack by or very popular in Iran
The traffic-analysis resistant anonymizing Tor network's "user-base" Iran exploded the last two weeks bringing the amount of supposed users up from barely measurable to about 800.000 "people". There's roughly 83 million people in that country which would mean that one in a hundred people in Iran decided to use Tor all their web browsing the last two weeks.
Linux Kernel 5.2-rc3 released
Linus Torvalds has released a third release-candidate for the upcoming v5.2 of the Linux kernel. Very little has changed since RC2 and all the bigger patches applied have been license comment cleanups.
Gbrainy v2.4.1 released
Jordi Mas is proud to announce a new version of the brain teaser game Gbrainy. There's not much new in this version, a mono dependency as well as some unused code has been removed and there's a small change to a metadata file.
Xfce is now the most popular desktop (among new Manjaro Linux users)
The Arch Linux based distribution Manjaro has released download numbers for it's various editions in May and Xfce was the most popular Linux desktop choice - by a rather slim margin.
Linux market share on Steam grew by a whopping 0.02% in May
The numbers are out and the percentage of Steam gamers running Linux grew by just 0.02% in May, bringing the total number of Linux users to 0.84%. 0.27% were using Ubuntu, 0.08% weren't specifying their distribution and 0.07% were using Manjaro Linux.
IEEE freezes out Huawi and affiliated individuals Ending it's function as a Global Standards Body
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) defined the POSIX standard named by Honorary doctorate Richard Stallman. This makes this global coordinating standards-body's decisions important to free software users. The IEEE is based in the US and as a US corporation it is subject to US laws. Sections deployed as a strategy in the US trade-war against China have now made the IEEE cut Huawei and affiliates off from participation in the IEEE.
New Kernels released and You Must Upgrade NOW
Greg Kroah-Hartman and the kernel team released new versions of all the stable kernel branches, specifically 5.1.6, 5.0.20, 5.14.123, 4.19.47 and 4.9.180, on May 31th 2019. The Greg attached statements like "All users of the 5.1 kernel series must upgrade" to ALL these releases.
KStars v3.2.3 is released with configurable The Sky Map Cursor
KDE's Kstars team have released another minor update to the Kstars 3.2.x series. This version fixes some minor bugs and a race condition and adds the ability to use change the default X cursor in the Sky Map view to either an arrow or a circle.
The Web is back to One Standard.. sort of
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) wrote the original HTML and DOM standards and has been setting web standards ever since. A group unhappy with the W3C branced of to become the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) in 2004. The two groups have kind-of been fighting for web standard dominance ever since. They've finally come to terms with each other.