Firefox 73 + Firefox 74 Beta Benchmarks On Ubuntu Linux

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February 13, 2020

Given this week’s release of Firefox 73 stable that also puts Firefox 74 into beta state, here are fresh Firefox browser benchmarks of Firefox 72/73/74 on Ubuntu Linux with and without WebRender as well as how it compares to the current state of Google Chrome. These benchmarks today are looking at the performance of Firefox 73 and looking ahead at how the performance is shaping up for Firefox 74 with the initial beta release. Secondary runs were also performed when force-enabling WebRender.

[Source: Phoronix]

7 Open Source Projects We Love

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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February 13, 2020

This Valentine’s Day, we are sharing a different kind of love, one only developers can truly appreciate: love of open source projects. If you’re a developer, open source probably plays a major role in your work. Perhaps you love it just as much as we do, and for that reason, we’ve created this post to share the seven open source projects we admire the most.

1. Apache Cassandra

Apache Cassandra is a distributed and decentralized database designed to manage massive amounts of structured and unstructured data across the world. It was developed at Facebook for inbox search and open sourced in July 2008. One of Cassandra’s most essential features is its elastic and linear scalability, which enables a consistently fast response time. Data is automatically replicated to multiple nodes for fault tolerance and easy distribution.

[Source: Security Boulevard]

OpenShot Video Editor Gets a Major Update With Version 2.5 Release

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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February 12, 2020

OpenShot is one of the best open-source video editors out there. With all the features that it offered – it was already a good video editor on Linux. Now, with a major update to it (v.2.5.0), OpenShot has added a lot of new improvements and features. And, trust me, it’s not just any regular release – it is a huge release packed with features that you probably wanted for a very long time.

The hardware acceleration support is still an experimental addition – however, it is a useful feature to have. Instead of relying on your CPU to do all the hard work, you can utilize your GPU to encode/decode video data when working with MP4/H.264 video files.

[Source: It’s FOSS]

What to know about open source security

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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February 12, 2020

Like any area of tech, open source needs its own security measures to thrive without a hitch. A major benefit that organisations gain from using open source tech is that it’s freely available and not distributed from a particular proprietor.

The ‘open source’ aspect refers to the code, and can be found within databases, applications and operating systems, among other software. This code can be changed to suit the needs of the business. However, being available from the public domain, this realm will have its own potential vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit.

Open source applications, for all their arrays of use cases, can be compromised if those responsible for their security aren’t on top of any possible vulnerabilities.

[Source: Information Age]

Linux Kernel Continues Prepping For RISC-V’s Updated Supervisor Binary Interface

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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February 12, 2020

RISC-V’s Supervisor Binary Interface “SBI” is the interface between the platform-specific firmware and the running operating system or hypervisor for interacting with the supervisor execution environment in the higher privileged mode. The Linux kernel has been working to support a newer version of the SBI that is more extensible moving forward.

The RISC-V Supervisor Binary Interface v0.2 now has extendability in mind with the ability to add extensions in the future while maintaining backwards compatibility. Linux kernel patches continue to be worked on in supporting this updated SBI interface for the Linux kernel.

[Source: Phoronix]

Kubernetes administration policy made easy with brewOPA

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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February 12, 2020

Cloud-native computing — with such technologies as Kubernetes, service-mesh, and continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) — is revolutionizing IT. But managing can still be a major pain in the server. That’s where Open Policy Agent (OPA), an open-source Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project, comes in. But it has its own steep learning curve. Cyral with brewOPA wants to ease their climb and make managing policies across cloud-native platforms much easier.

OPA’s very popular because it allows policy evaluation to be decoupled from an application’s core business logic. This means your policy engine internals are abstracted out, so you can easily reuse them across multiple components.

[Source: ZDNet]

How to Install Firefox Preview with uBlock Origin on Android

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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February 11, 2020

Mozilla is working on a new Firefox version for Android, and the company recently released an update that allows users to enable extensions in the Nightly build of the browser. The first extension that can be activated in Firefox Preview on Android is also one of the most popular: uBlock Origin is available right now for anyone installing the early version of the Firefox.

Mozilla announced extension support for Firefox Preview back in October 2019, promising that selected add-ons from the Recommended Extensions program would be added to the new browser in early 2020.

[Source: Softpedia]

Try These 2 Things Before Choosing Your Desktop Linux OS

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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February 11, 2020

When macOS users decide “OK I’m done with the Apple ecosystem” and switch over to Windows, they have basically one choice for their operating system: Windows 10. When the reverse happens, people diving into Macs also have a single choice. When you take the plunge into desktop Linux, your “distribution” options expand exponentially. It can be overwhelming. Choice is the most beautiful — but sometimes paralyzing — thing about the wonderful world of Linux. If you’re curious about making that jump, wait until you’ve checked out these two fantastic resources.

[Source: Forbes]

Facebook Releases Open-Source Library For 3D Deep Learning: PyTorch3D

By

Swapnil Bhartiya

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February 11, 2020

In a significant boost to 3D deep learning research, Facebook AI has released PyTorch3D, a highly modular and optimised library with unique capabilities to make 3D deep learning easier with PyTorch.

PyTorch3d provides efficient, reusable components for 3D Computer Vision research with PyTorch. Differentiable rendering has revolutionised many computer vision problems that involve photorealistic images, such as computational material design, scattering-aware reconstruction of geometry, and the materials from photographs.

[Source: Analytics India Magazine]

Navigating man pages in Linux

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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February 11, 2020

Man pages provide essential information on Linux commands and many users refer to them often, but there’s a lot more to the man pages than many of us realize.

You can always type a command like “man who” and get a nice description of how the man command works, but exploring commands that you might not know could be even more illuminating. For example, you can use the man command to help identify commands to handle some unusually challenging task or to show options that can help you use a command you already know in new and better ways.

[Source: Network World]