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FOSS News No. 11 - a review of free and open source software for April 6-12, 2020



Hello everyone!

We continue to review the news of free and open source software and hardware (and a bit of coronavirus). All the most important thing about penguins and not only in Russia and the world. We continue to cover the role of Open Source developers in the fight against COVID-19, GNOME launches a project competition, there have been shifts in the leadership of Red Hat and Mozilla, several important releases, Qt Company has disappointed again and other news.

The full list of topics of the issue No. 11 for April 6-12, 2020:

  1. Open Source AI to help identify coronavirus
  2. FOSS
  3. Zoom
  4. FOSS
  5. Open Source ?
  6. 6 Open Source ,
  7. 6 Open Source RPA
  8. CEO Red Hat
  9. Mozilla Corporation
  10. GNU/Linux
  11. Qt Company Qt
  12. Firefox 75
  13. Chrome 81
  14. - Telegram 2.0
  15. TeX- TeX Live 2020
  16. FreeRDP 2.0, RDP
  17. Simply Linux 9
  18. LXC LXD 4.0
  19. 0.5.0 Kaidan
  20. Sbercloud Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  21. Bitwarden – FOSS
  22. LBRY – YouTube
  23. Google
  24. Linux IT
  25. FlowPrint,
  26. -
  27. openSUSE Leap SUSE Linux Enterprise
  28. Samsung exFAT
  29. Linux Foundation SeL4 Foundation
  30. exec Linux
  31. Sandboxie
  32. Windows 10 Linux File Explorer
  33. Microsoft Linux
  34. Debian Discourse
  35. dig Linux
  36. Docker Compose
  37. Mastodon

Open Source





COVID-Net, developed by the Canadian AI startup DarwinAI, is a deep convolutional neural network designed to screen patients with suspected coronavirus infection by detecting control signs of the disease on a chest x-ray, ZDNet reports. While coronavirus infection testing is traditionally done with a swab from the inside of the cheek or nose, hospitals often lack test kits and testers, and chest x-ray is quick and usually the necessary equipment is available in hospitals. The bottleneck between obtaining an X-ray image and its interpretation, as a rule, is the search for a radiologist to compile a report from the scan data - instead, if the AI ​​reads it, this may meanthat the scan results will be received much faster. According to Sheldon Fernandez, CEO of DarwinAI, after COVID-Net sources were open, “the answer was simply overwhelming . " “ Our mailboxes were littered with letters from people who recommend improvements and talk about how we use what we do, ” he added.

Details

FOSS Promotion Project Competition





The GNOME Foundation and Endless have announced the opening of a competition project to promote the FOSS community, with a total prize pool of $ 65,000. The objective of the competition is the active involvement of young developers in order to ensure a reliable future open source software. The organizers do not limit the imagination of the participants and are ready to accept projects of various orientations: videos, educational materials, games ... The concept of the project must be submitted before July 1. The competition will be held in three stages. Each of the twenty works that have passed the first stage will receive a reward of $ 1,000. Feel free to attend!

Details ( [1] , [2] )

Alternatives to Zoom's proprietary video communications system





The massive transition of people to remote work has led to a jump in the popularity of relevant tools, for example, the proprietary Zoom video communication system. But not everyone likes it, someone because of problems with privacy and security, someone for other reasons. In any case, it’s useful to know about the alternatives. And OpenNET gives examples of such alternatives - Jitsi Meet, OpenVidu and BigBlueButton. And Mashable publishes a brief instruction on how to use one of them, Jitsi, where he talks about how to start a call, invite other participants and gives other tips.

Details ( [1] , [2] )

Analysis of the main FOSS licenses





If you are confused about the multitude of FOSS licenses, the open source security and compliance management platform provider WhiteSource has released a complete guide to understanding and exploring open source licenses, writes SDTimes. The following licenses are parsed:

  1. MIT
  2. Apache 2.0
  3. GPLv3
  4. GPLv2
  5. BSD 3
  6. LGPLv2.1
  7. BSD 2
  8. Microsoft public
  9. Eclipse 1.0
  10. BSD


Source

Guide

Will Open Source Solutions Conquer the UAV Market?





Such a question raises Forbes. In the high-tech field, Open Source is one of the most important organizational models in the last 30 years. Perhaps the most successful of these solutions was the Linux kernel. But as for drones, today we are still in the world of proprietary systems where companies such as Waymo and Tesla TSLA are investing in their own capabilities. In general, we are at an early stage in the development of autonomous technologies, but if a truly independent open source organization (such as Autoware) could gain momentum so that fully functional solutions could be created with minimal resources, the overall market dynamics could change quickly.

Details

6 Open Source AI frameworks worth knowing about





Artificial intelligence is gradually becoming more common as companies accumulate large amounts of data and are looking for the right technologies for their analysis and use. That's why Gartner predicted that by 2021, 80% of new technologies would be based on AI. Based on this, CMS Wire decided to ask AI industry experts why marketing leaders should consider AI, and compiled a list of some of the best open source AI platforms. The issue of how AI is changing the business is briefly addressed and small reviews of the following platforms are given:

  1. Tensorflow
  2. Amazon SageMaker Neo
  3. Scikit-learn
  4. Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit
  5. Theano
  6. Keras

Details

6 Open Source Tools for RPA





Gartner previously called RPA (Robotic Process Automation) the fastest growing segment of enterprise software in 2018 with a global revenue growth of 63%, EnterprisersProject writes. As with many new software implementations, when using RPA technology, there is a “build or buy” option. As for the build, you can write your own bots from scratch, provided that you have the right people and budget. In terms of purchasing, there is a growing market for suppliers of commercial software products offering RPAs in different variants, as well as partially matching technologies. But there’s something in common with the “build versus purchase” issue: several open-source RPA projects are currently underway,which gives IT managers and professionals the opportunity to research RPAs without having to start from scratch on their own or make a deal with a commercial supplier before it really works out to build a strategy. The publication provides a list of such Open Source solutions:

  1. Tagui
  2. RPA for Python
  3. Robocorp
  4. Robot framework
  5. Automagica
  6. Taskt

Details

Paul Cormier becomes CEO of Red Hat





Red Hat has appointed Paul Cormier as president and CEO of the company. Cormier succeeds Jim Whitehurst, who will now serve as president of IBM. Joining Red Hat in 2001, Cormier is credited with an innovative subscription model that has become the foundation of enterprise technology by porting Red Hat Linux from a free bootable operating system to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. He played an important role in the structural combination of Red Hat with IBM, focusing on scaling and accelerating Red Hat, while maintaining its independence and neutrality.

Details

Mitchell Baker Takes Over Mozilla Corporation





Mitchell Baker, chairman of the board of directors of Mozilla Corporation and leader of the Mozilla Foundation, has been approved by the board of directors for the position of CEO (CEO) of Mozilla Corporation. Mitchell has been on the team since the days of Netscape Communications, including heading the Netscape division coordinating the Mozilla open source project, and after leaving Netscape she continued working as a volunteer and founded the Mozilla Foundation.

Details

Detected ten-year activity of a group of cybercriminals hacking vulnerable GNU / Linux systems





Researchers at Blackberry talk in detail about the recently launched attacker campaign, which has successfully worked against unpatched GNU / Linux servers for almost a decade, ZDNet reports. Red Hat Enterprise, CentOS and Ubuntu Linux systems were scanned to not only receive confidential data once, but also to create a permanent backdoor to the systems of the victim companies. According to experts from BlackBerry, this campaign has existed since 2012 and was related to the interests of the Chinese government, which used cyber espionage against a wide range of industries to steal intellectual property and collect data.

Details

Qt Company is considering moving to publishing free Qt releases a year after paid releases





The developers of the KDE project are concerned about the shift in the development of the Qt framework towards a limited commercial product developed without interaction with the community, OpenNET reports. In addition to the earlier decision to supply the LTS version of Qt only under a commercial license, Qt Company is considering the possibility of switching to the Qt distribution model, in which all releases during the first 12 months will be distributed only to users of commercial licenses. Qt Company notified KDE eV, which oversees the development of KDE, of this intention.

Details ( [1] , [2] )

Firefox 75 Release




The release of the Firefox 75 web browser, as well as the mobile version of Firefox 68.7 for the Android platform, has been released, according to OpenNET. In addition, a branch update has been generated with a long support period of 68.7.0. Some innovations:

  1. improved search through the address bar;
  2. display of the https: // protocol and the sub-domain “www.” has been stopped in the drop-down block of links displayed during typing in the address bar;
  3. Add support for Flatpak package manager
  4. implemented the ability to not upload images that are outside the visible region;
  5. JavaScript debugger adds support for binding breakpoints to WebSocket event handlers;
  6. added support for parsing async / await;
  7. Better browser performance for Windows users.

Details

Chrome 81 release




Google introduced the release of the Chrome 81 web browser. At the same time, a stable release of the free Chromium project, which acts as the basis for Chrome, is available, according to OpenNET. Thus, the publication recalls that the Chrome browser is distinguished by the use of Google logos, the presence of a notification system in the event of a crash, the ability to load the Flash module on demand, modules for playing protected video content (DRM), a system for automatically installing updates and transmitting when searching for RLZ parameters. Initially, Chrome 81 was planned to be released on March 17, but due to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic and the transfer of developers to work at home, the release was delayed. The next release of Chrome 82 will be skipped, the release of Chrome 83 is scheduled for May 19. Some innovations:

  1. FTP support is disabled;
  2. for all users, the function of grouping tabs is enabled, which allows you to combine several similar in purpose tabs into visually separated groups;
  3. Changes to the Google Terms of Service have been made, in which a separate section for Google Chrome and Chrome OS has appeared;
  4. it is stabilized and the Badging program interface is now distributed outside Origin Trials, which allows web applications to create indicators displayed on a panel or home screen;
  5. improvements in tools for web developers;
  6. Disabling TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 support has been delayed until the release of Chrome 84.

The Chrome OS update also came out, it is equipped with simple navigation gestures and a new Quick Shelf dock, CNet reports.

Details ( [1] , [2] )

Telegram 2.0 desktop client release





A new release of Telegram Desktop 2.0 for Linux, Windows, and macOS is available. Telegram client software code is written using the Qt library and is distributed under the GPLv3 license, according to OpenNET. The new version has the ability to group chats into folders for easier navigation in the presence of a large number of chats. Added the ability to create your own folders with flexible settings and assign an arbitrary number of chats to each folder. Switching between folders is done using the new sidebar.

Source

TeX Distribution TeX Live 2020 Release





The release of the TeX Live 2020 distribution, created in 1996 on the basis of the teTeX project, has been prepared, according to OpenNET. TeX Live is the easiest way to deploy infrastructure for preparing scientific documentation, regardless of the operating system used.

Details and list of innovations

Release of FreeRDP 2.0, a free implementation of the RDP protocol





After seven years of development, the FreeRDP 2.0 project was released, offering a free implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), developed on the basis of Microsoft specifications, according to OpenNET. The project provides a library for integrating RDP support into third-party applications and a client that can be used to remotely connect to the Windows desktop. Project code is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license.

Details and list of innovations

Simply Linux 9 distribution release





The company Basalt SPO announced the release of Simply Linux 9, built on the basis of the ninth platform ALT, according to OpenNET. The product is distributed under a licensing agreement that does not transfer the right to distribute the distribution, but allows individuals and legal entities to use the system without restrictions. The distribution kit is supplied in assemblies for the architectures x86_64, i586, aarch64, mipsel, e2kv4, e2k, riscv64 and can run on systems with 512 MB of RAM. Simply Linux is an easy-to-use system with a classic desktop based on Xfce 4.14, which provides full Russification of the interface and most applications. The release also contains updated versions of applications. The distribution is intended for home systems and corporate workstations.

Details

LXC and LXD 4.0 Container Management Toolkit Release





According to OpenNET, Canonical has released a toolkit for organizing the operation of isolated LXC 4.0 containers, the LXD 4.0 container manager and the LXCFS 4.0 virtual FS for simulation in / proc, / sys containers and the virtualized cgroupfs representation for distributions without supporting namespaces for cgroup. Branch 4.0 is assigned to releases with long-term support, updates for which are being formed over 5 years.

Details about LXC and the list of improvements.

In addition, an article describing the basic features of LXD was published on Habré .

0.5.0 release of the Kaidan messenger





If you have few existing messengers and are tempted to try something new, pay attention to Kaidan, they just recently released a new release. According to the developers, the new version has been developed for more than six months and includes all new settings that are aimed at improving the usability for new XMPP users and increasing security while reducing additional user efforts. In addition, recording and sending audio and video, as well as searching for contacts and messages are now available. And the release includes many small features and fixes.

Details

Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS Available on Sbercloud





Cloud provider Sbercloud and Red Hat, an open source solution provider, have signed a partnership agreement, CNews reports. Sbercloud became the first Russian cloud provider to provide access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) from a cloud with vendor support. Eugene Kolbin, CEO of Sbercloud, said: " Expanding the range of cloud services offered is one of the key areas of our company’s development, and partnership with a vendor such as Red Hat is an important step on this path ." Timur Kulchitsky, Red Hat Regional Manager for Russia and the CIS, said: “We are pleased to start cooperation with Sbercloud, a leading player in the cloud market in Russia. Within the framework of the partnership, the service audience gets access to the fully functional RHEL enterprise-class operating system, where any type of load can be launched . ”

Details

Bitwarden - FOSS Password Manager





It's FOSS talks about another solution for secure password storage. The article provides the capabilities of this cross-platform manager, a guide to configure and install, and the personal opinion of the author who used this program for several months.

Details

Overview of Other Password Managers for GUN / Linux

LBRY is a decentralized blockchain-based alternative to YouTube





LBRY is the new blockchain-based open source digital content sharing platform, It's FOSS reports. It is gaining popularity as a decentralized alternative to YouTube, but LBRY is more than just a video sharing service. In essence, LBRY is a new protocol, which is a peer-to-peer, decentralized file sharing and payment network protected by blockchain technology. Anyone can create applications based on the LBRY protocol that interact with digital content on the LBRY network. But these are technical things for developers. As a user, you can use the LBRY platform to watch videos, listen to music and read e-books.

Details

Google has published data and machine learning model for the separation of sounds





Google has published a database of reference mixed sounds, equipped with annotations, which can be used in machine learning systems used to separate arbitrary mixed sounds into separate components, OpenNET reports. The presented project FUSS (Free Universal Sound Separation) is aimed at solving the problem of separation of any number of arbitrary sounds, the nature of which is not known in advance. The database has about 20 thousand mixes.

Details

Why Linux Containers Are IT Director's Best Friends





Today, CIOs have many problems (to say the least), but one of the biggest is the constant development and delivery of new applications. There are many tools that can help CIOs provide this support, but one of the most important is Linux containers, writes CIODive. According to a study by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, container use in production increased by 15% between 2018 and 2019, with 84% of respondents participating in the CNCF survey using containers in production. The publication summarizes the utility aspects of containers.

Details

FlowPrint, a toolkit for identifying applications based on encrypted traffic, is available





The code of the FlowPrint toolkit has been published, which allows determining network mobile applications by analyzing encrypted traffic generated during the application’s operation, OpenNET reports. It is possible to identify both typical programs for which statistics are accumulated, and the identification of the activity of new applications. The code is written in Python and distributed under the MIT license. The program implements a statistical method that defines the characteristics of data exchange that are characteristic for different applications (delays between packets, features of data flows, packet size changes, features of a TLS session, etc.). For Android and iOS mobile applications, the recognition accuracy of the application is 89.2%. In the first five minutes of the analysis of data exchange, 72.3% of applications can be determined. The accuracy of identifying new applications that have not been seen before,is 93.5%.

Source

On the increasingly evolving position of open source in the Asia-Pacific region





From the simple use of open source software to the provision of native code to the community. Computer Weekly writes about how businesses in the Asia-Pacific region are becoming active participants in the open source ecosystem and publish an interview with Sam Hunt, vice president of GitHub in the Asia-Pacific region.

Details

Initiative to bring openSUSE Leap and SUSE Linux Enterprise closer together





Gerald Pfeiffer, technical director of SUSE and chairman of the openSUSE oversight committee, suggested that the community consider an initiative to bring together the development and assembly processes of openSUSE Leap and SUSE Linux Enterprise distributions, OpenNET writes. Currently, openSUSE Leap releases are based on the core set of SUSE Linux Enterprise distribution packages, but packages for openSUSE are compiled separately from source packages. The essence of the proposal is to unify the work of building both distributions and using ready-made binary packages from SUSE Linux Enterprise in openSUSE Leap.

Details

Samsung releases a set of utilities for working with exFAT





With support for the exFAT file system included with the Linux 5.7 kernel, Samsung engineers responsible for this proprietary open source kernel driver have released their first official release of exfat-utils. Exfat-utils 1.0 release. is their first official release of these user space utilities for exFAT on Linux. The exFAT-utils package allows you to create an exFAT file system with mkfs.exfat, as well as adjust the cluster size and set the volume label. There is also fsck.exfat for checking the integrity of the exFAT file system on Linux. These utilities, combined with Linux 5.7+, should provide good read / write support for this Microsoft file system for flash memory devices such as USB sticks and SDXC cards.

Source

Linux Foundation will support SeL4 Foundation





The Linux Foundation will provide support for the seL4 Foundation, a nonprofit organization created by Data61 (a specialized digital technology unit of Australia's national science agency, CSIRO), writes Tfir. The seL4 microkernel is designed to provide the security, reliability and reliability of real critical computer systems. “The Linux Foundation will support the seL4 Foundation and the community by providing expertise and services to increase the engagement of the community and its members, helping bring the OS ecosystem to the next level ,” said Michael Dolan, vice president of strategic programs for the Linux Foundation.

Details

Linux exec system call should become less prone to deadlocks in future kernels





Continuous work on exec code on Linux should make it less prone to deadlocks in future kernel versions. The current exec functionality in the kernel is “extremely prone to deadlocks,” but Eric Biederman and others have worked to clear this code and bring it into better condition to avoid potential deadlocks. The edit for the Linux 5.7 kernel was the first part of the exec refinement, which makes it easier to identify more complex cases, and it is hoped that for Linux 5.8, the code for solving exec deadlocks may be ready. Linus Torvalds accepted edits for 5.7, but didn’t respond very flattering about them.

Details

Sandboxie has been freed and released to the community





Sophos has announced the opening of the Sandboxie program, designed to enable sandboxed execution of Windows-based applications. Sandboxie allows you to run an application that is not trustworthy in a sandbox environment isolated from the rest of the system, limited to a virtual disk that does not allow access to data from other applications. The development of the project was handed over to the community, which will coordinate the further development of Sandboxie and the maintenance of infrastructure (instead of minimizing the project, Sophos decided to transfer the development to the community, they plan to close the forum and the old project site this fall). The code is open under the GPLv3 license.

Source

Windows 10 plans to enable Linux file integration in File Explorer





Soon, you will be able to access Linux files directly in Windows Explorer. Earlier, Microsoft announced plans to release the full Linux kernel in Windows 10, and now the company plans to fully integrate access to Linux files in the built-in explorer. The new Linux icon will be available in the left navigation bar in Explorer, providing access to the root file system for all distributions installed in Windows 10, reports The Verge. I don’t know how anyone, but it worries me more than makes me happy. GNU / Linux used to be isolated and you could easily run Windows on the same computer without fear for your files in another OS due to the exposure of Windows to viruses, but now you have to worry.

Details

Microsoft proposed Linux kernel module to verify system integrity





Developers from Microsoft introduced the IPE (Integrity Policy Enforcement) mechanism, implemented as an LSM module (Linux Security Module) for the Linux kernel. The module allows you to define a general integrity policy for the entire system, indicating which operations are valid and in what way the authenticity of the components should be verified. Using IPE, you can specify which executable files are allowed to run and ensure that these files are identical to the version provided by a trusted source. The code is open under the MIT license.

Details

Debian Tests Discourse as Potential Substitute for Mailing Lists





Neil McGovern, who led the Debian project in 2015 and now heads the GNOME Foundation, announced the start of testing a new discussion infrastructure for discourse.debian.net, which could replace some mailing lists in the future. The new discussion system is based on the Discourse platform used in projects such as GNOME, Mozilla, Ubuntu, and Fedora. It is noted that Discourse will allow you to get rid of the restrictions inherent in the mailing lists, as well as make participation and access to discussions more convenient and familiar for beginners.

Details

How to use the dig command on Linux





The Linux dig command allows you to query DNS servers and perform a DNS lookup. You can also find the domain to which the IP address leads. The instructions for using dig are published by How to Geek.

Details

Docker Compose is preparing to develop an appropriate standard





Docker Compose, a Docker-developed system for defining multi-container applications, plans to evolve as an open standard. The Compose Specification, as it was named, should enable Compose applications to work with other multi-container systems such as Kubernetes and Amazon Elastic CS. A draft open standard is now available, and the company is looking for those who want to participate in its support and the creation of related tools.

Details

Nicolas Maduro started an account at Mastodon





The other day, it turned out that the President of the Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, opened an account with Mastodon. Mastodon is a federated social network that is part of Fediverse, a decentralized counterpart to Twitch. Maduro feels quite free, and actively participates in the community, adding a few posts a day.

Account



That's it, until next Sunday!

Thanks to Linux.com for their work, a selection of English sources for my review is taken from there. I also express many thanks to OpenNET , a lot of news material was taken from their site.

In addition, this is the first issue after my appeal to readers for help in compiling reviews. Umpiro responded and helped , for which I also thank him. If anyone else is interested in preparing reviews and has the time and opportunity to help, I will be glad to write to the contacts listed in my profile or in private messages.

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