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FOSS News No. 4 - review of free and open source news for February 17-23, 2020



Hello everyone!

I continue to review the news of free and open source software (and a bit of hardware). All the most important thing about penguins and not only in Russia and the world.

In the issue No. 4 of February 17-23, 2020:

  1. RedHat research: Open Source drives proprietary software out of the enterprise segment.
  2. Great review of Clear Linux from Intel.
  3. Big release of MyPaint 2.0.
  4. What's New in KDE Applications in February 2020.
  5. The GARANT system is available for GNU / Linux.
  6. About the complex relationship between Amazon and Open Source.
  7. .
  8. Copyleft .
  9. Open Source 5G.
  10. 17 Arduino DIY .
  11. .
  12. OpenShift PaaS.
  13. , FreeBSD.
  14. Kubernetes .
  15. GPG KDE .
  16. GamePad – FOSS , GNU/Linux.
  17. GNU/Linux Microsoft Edge.
  18. Open Source JavaScript Java .
  19. In the UK, parents were advised to contact the police if their children use VirtualBox, Discord, Kali Linux, and Tor.

RedHat study: Open Source drives proprietary software out of enterprise segment




Open Source software is gradually gaining the corporate segment, this conclusion was published in the report on its research by the RedHat team. The company came to such results after a survey of 950 executives of IT companies around the world. Here are the summary results:

  1. 95% consider Open Source strategically important;
  2. The share of proprietary software in the corporate segment has been declining at a serious pace for several years, from 55% in 2019 to 42% now and, according to forecasts, to 32% by 2021;
  3. 77% think corporate Open Source will continue to grow;
  4. the main advantage of Open Source is called "higher quality", lower costs only in second place;
  5. main areas of application: security, cloud infrastructure management tools, databases, big data and analytics;
  6. obstacles to use: code security, level of support, compatibility, lack of own support competencies.

Details

Study report itself

Big Clear Linux Review from Intel




Ars Technica has published a great review of the GNU / Linux Clear Linux distribution, which even AMD recommends. Briefly:

Pros:

  1. Clear Linux is being developed by Intel, dot;
  2. Clear Linux has a brief and clear goal: to be safe, to be fast, to do things right;
  3. most of the things work with a minimum or without additional settings;
  4. fastest Linux, sorry user Arch and Gentoo.

Minuses:

  1. , - ;
  2. swupd ;
  3. , ;
  4. Clear Linux, , , , .



MyPaint 2.0




According to It's FOSS, the other day there was a big release of MyPaint, one of the best Open Source alternatives to Microsoft Paint. This is a handy little program for quick sketching and sketching. Although there are more sophisticated tools for digital artists such as Krita, MyPaint is still good for simple tasks. It can also be used on Wacom tablets without any problems. The new 2.0 release includes support for Python 3, a new layer mode, new brush options and other changes.

Details

What's New in KDE Applications in February 2020




The KDE community publishes an overview of bug fixes and new features added to their February applications. Important improvements appeared in the following applications:

  1. KDevelop Development Environment
  2. Zanshin Task Management
  3. Latte-dock panel
  4. RKWard Development Environment
  5. Hex editor Okteta
  6. KMyMoney Finance Accounting

Details

GARANT system available for GNU / Linux




The Garant company offers to download the distribution package of its proprietary electronic periodical legal reference for the GNU / Linux OS. It is stated that the system will work without using the (non) Wine emulator. Alt Linux and Astra Linux Common Edition distributions are supported. According to Linux.org.ru, the GARANT system is “ a comprehensive legal information support that includes more than 118 million documents that have undergone full legal processing, as well as dozens of useful services for lawyers, accountants, human resources, managers and other professional users ” .

Source

Details

About the complex relationship between Amazon and Open Source




The cloud giant Amazon has repeatedly been criticized for using Open Source software without giving anything in return. In the question of whether this is true and what are the alternatives, we tried to understand the great material from ZDNet. Many interesting links, many arguments. Intentionally, I’m not trying to somehow summarize, I must read in full.

Details

Instructions for starting an open source project




On Habré the translation of the OpenSource Guide project is published, containing a detailed introduction to how to launch your Open Source project. The instruction includes the following sections:

  1. Open source: what is it and why?
  2. Should I launch my open source project?
  3. Starting your own open source project
  4. Naming and branding your project
  5. Checklist before starting

Details

Original Guide

Free Software Commercialization Commercialization




On Habré the analysis of the question, exciting probably any FOSS developer, is published - how to get money doing your favorite project. The authors draw the following conclusions:

  1. the creation of any restrictions on the distribution of Free Software is always perceived “hostile” by the community, even if these restrictions fully comply with the terms of the license, do not contradict the law and help the development of free projects themselves;
  2. the lack of a normal way to commercialize code under the GPL significantly limits the attraction of investments and their development;
  3. GPL , - , .



Open Source 5G




SDxCentral central publishes an interview with telecom veteran and now director of telecommunications strategy at RedHat Susan James. Susan shares her thoughts on how Open Source is transforming the ecosystem of service providers.

I’ll give an important quote about the main place of Open Source in the modern world:

“ In areas where a lot of work is required, like in AI, Open Source is really important. If someone finds a great way to do something and closes the source, if access is limited, then the reality is that in return, the Open Source community will come together to do the same, even better, but in an open way. The Open Source community will not take much time to seize the innovation initiative from a closed project .

Details

17 cool ideas of Arduino projects for DIY enthusiasts




It's FOSS publishes a list of 17 interesting project ideas that you can build with Arduino and some additional components. The list includes projects of various levels of complexity, from a simple LED controller to a whole robot (by the way, he has a new version on sale with a complete kit for assembly).

Details

Basalt SPO speaks on the necessary measures of state support for domestic software and hardware




According to the ALT Linux VKontakte community, Basalt SPO is participating in a roundtable discussion “On measures to stimulate the development, production and implementation of Russian digital products” in the Federation Council. You can watch the broadcast via the link. Aleksey Smirnov, CEO of the company, talks about the tasks facing developers and the support measures that they need. The topic of the speech is “Necessary measures for state support for the development and wide distribution of domestic software and hardware platforms”.

Source

Round Table Recording

The role of OpenShift in the evolution of organizational models in the transition to PaaS




RedHat on its Habré blog posts notes on how the OpenShift containerization software family changes the organizational structure of an IT organization when moving to Paas. Quote - "the maximum return on investment in PaaS is often possible only if the organizational roles, areas of responsibility (tasks) and relationships are changed." Principles that lead to such changes:

  1. break the work into small stages in order to receive feedback in the early stages, reduce risks and avoid “analytical paralysis”;
  2. automate operations sufficiently so as not to create obstacles or bottlenecks in the process of application deployment;
  3. knowledge sharing is the key to building trust;
  4. regularly pay technical debts, allocating a certain amount of time in each work cycle for systematic improvements.

Details

Discussing the Past, Present, and Future of FreeBSD




Deb Goodkin, executive director of the FreeBSD Foundation, in a big interview with It's FOSS discusses the past, present and future of FreeBSD, an operating system that appeared 25 years ago and had great potential, but did not grow to the GNU / Linux level, although it did take some place in the IT world.

Details

How Kubernetes Has Become a Standard in Computing




Linux.com briefly recalls the development path of Kubernetes, an open source software for automating the deployment, scaling and management of containerized applications, and writes about the role of large corporations in its development.

Details

KDE GPG Utilities Approved in Germany for the Transfer and Processing of Secret Information




According to the KDE VKontakte community, the German Federal Information Security Administration has approved the use of Gpg4KDE and Gpg4win to transmit and process sensitive national information. Gpg4KDE is an encryption mechanism that KMail uses when encrypting and signing emails. Gpg4win is a set of file and email encryption tools for Windows, which includes Kleopatra, a certificate manager from KDE.

Source

GamePad Announces New FOSS Gaming Platform Designed For GNU / Linux




Forbes announces the possibility of the imminent appearance of a game platform specifically for GNU / Linux - GamePad. Launched in April 2019, the FOSS project opened a fundraiser on Kickstarter, with plans of $ 50,000. If everything goes well, the platform will begin work in February 2022, for now there is only a layout. In the final version, developers, judging by Kickstarter, promise:

  1. convenient interface;
  2. a thorough review of published games;
  3. freedom from DRM;
  4. integration with third-party applications;
  5. good conditions for developers.

So far, there is not much information, but it is intriguing, despite criticism from individual representatives of the community.

Details

Page on Kickstarter

Planned GNU / Linux version of Microsoft Edge browser




Microsoft has announced plans to develop the Edge browser, which now includes a version for GNU / Linux. However, the implementation date has not yet been determined. Recall, the year before last, Microsoft began developing a new version of the Edge browser, translated into the Chromium engine. The company joined the community developing Chromium, and began to return to the project the improvements and fixes created for its version.

Details

Security Analysis of Popular Open Source JavaScript and Java Components




The Linux Foundation, together with the Core Infrastructure Initiative and the Harvard Laboratory for Innovation Science, published a report analyzing the most popular FOSS JavaScript and Java components used in production code, and suggests thinking about actions to maintain the long-term safety and health of FOSS code.

Details

Report

In the UK, parents were advised to contact the police if their children use VirtualBox, Discord, Kali Linux and Tor




Posters appeared in schools in the British county of West Midlands, calling on parents and teachers to contact the police if any of the students use the Kali Linux OS, Discord messenger, Tor onion routing tool, VirtualBox virtualization tool and some other software. The posters were allegedly issued by order of the local police. The publication of this information immediately met a sharply negative reaction of many people and immediately hastened to disown the poster from the poster of the NCA (National Anti-Crime Agency of Great Britain), whose logo was placed on the poster. In criticism, the main argument against such a poster was the technical incompetence of the authors and the fact that the above software does not at all clearly indicate that the child is doing something suspicious.After criticism, the local police also blamed third parties.

Details


That's it, until next Sunday!

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