Your choice of Linux distribution on a budget PC can mean the difference of ~14% performance overall. Here are benchmarks of Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, EndeavourOS, Manjaro Linux, openSUSE Tumbleweed, Fedora Workstation, and Clear Linux on a $50 processor as we roll into 2020 with the newest Linux distribution releases.
[Source: Phoronix]
Linux apps on Chromebooks have become a bit more commonplace than they were just a year ago. Many devices now support this new feature and the overall abilities of the Linux container in Chrome OS continue to grow. As the big pieces have been in place for some time, it is easy at this point to miss the less glaring omissions that are still yet to be fixed, and that is exactly what has happened with microphone support with the latest build of Chrome OS 79.
[Source: Chrome Unboxed]
Klinker Apps released ‘Pulse’ in 2016 as a new SMS client with support for sending messages from multiple devices. Once set up on your phone, you can send messages from a web app, wearables, and other platforms. Now the app is completely open-source, with Klinker Apps hoping more developers will contribute.
[Source: Android Police]
Most consumers can, with a little effort, name two desktop and laptop operating systems: Microsoft Windows and Apple’s macOS. Few have ever considered any of the open-source alternatives found under the umbrella of GNU/Linux, though some may have done so without even knowing it—Google’s Chrome OS uses the Linux kernel. To be honest, aside from the Chromebook platform, GNU/Linux systems are typically not best for people who rely on big-name software or don’t like dabbling with a customizable, hands-on interface.
However, if you’re looking for a change of pace, don’t want to pay for your software, and don’t mind rolling up your sleeves, switching to GNU/Linux may not only be worthwhile, but make you a convert for life. This guide for nontechnical users will show you how.
[Source: PCMag.com]
As of this morning in the Linux kernel Git source tree, the kernel weighs in at 27.8 million lines! The stats as we start 2020 put the Linux kernel source tree at 27,852,148 lines (including docs, Kconfig files, user-space utilities in-tree, etc), 887,925 commits, and around 21,074 different authors. The 27.8 million lines are divided among 66,492 files.
During 2019, the Linux kernel saw 74,754 commits, which is actually the lowest point since 2013. The 74k commits is compares to 80k commits seen in both 2017 and 2018, 77k commits in 2016, and 75k commits in both 2014 and 2015.
[Source: Phoronix]
In addition to Clear Linux seeing more performance optimizations in 2019 (more so than Fedora and Ubuntu during the year), it also benefited from a new desktop installer, new help forums, and more of Intel’s partners talking about their current or planned usage of Clear Linux.
Below is a look back at the popular Clear Linux news on Phoronix during 2019. While a lot of it was about their performance optimizations with continuing to deliver the best Linux x86_64 performance we have seen out of any distribution, but they’ve also been expanding their features into areas like better usability, their various reference stacks, and more.
[Source: Phoronix]
VMware has wrapped up 2019 with the addition of Pivotal to its ever growing family. One of the largest contributors to Kubernetes, and an emerging open source company, VMware has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Pivotal for $2.7 billion.
“It’s my pleasure to announce Ray O’Farrell as the leader of VMware’s new Modern Applications Platform business unit—uniting the Pivotal and VMware Cloud Native Applications teams,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO, VMware. “And as Pivotal is now part of VMware, I want to thank the Pivotal leadership team for building a great company. Together, we’re poised to be the leading enabler of Kubernetes with a deep understanding of both operators and developers.”
With this acquisition, VMware gets ownership of one of the most dominant open source based product – Pivotal Cloud Foundry.
It also establishes VMware as a leading open source player. The company is already the 3rd largest contributor to Kubernetes, and with Pivotal it becomes the largest contributor to Cloud Foundry.
Along with Heptio and Bitnami, Pivotal will benefit from VMware’s growing cloud ambitions which were put on the fast track with the announcement of Tanzu portfolio earlier this years.
Edward Hieatt, Senior Vice President, Customer Success, Pivotal. “The combination of Pivotal and VMware offers the most comprehensive application platform in the industry and is a win for our customers, a win for Pivotal, and a win for VMware. We’re excited to team up with VMware to help more enterprises become like modern software companies by adopting DevOps and Lean techniques developed by internet giants and the startup community.”
Open source played a significant role in software development over the past decade from containers to microservices, blockchain and serverless. Chris Ferris, chief technology officer of Open Technology at IBM, discusses some of the open source trends from the past decade and what to expect in 2020 and beyond.
The concepts of containers and microservices were merely concepts before 2010, Ferris said. Then Docker launched in 2013, planting the early seeds of the container industry. At the same time, microservices — and the technologies to make them possible — were borne in open source through the Netflix OSS project.
[Source: TechRepublic]
Linux Mint is a great operating system, but with the most recent version (19.3 “Tricia”), there was some shocking news — GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) was being removed! Of all of the great software available for Linux, isn’t GIMP one of the best? It is an essential image editing tool that rivals Adobe Photoshop.
So, why did Linux Mint remove it as a pre-installed program? The developers thought the software was too advanced for newer Linux users. While I think that is a bit of nonsense, I can understand why the Mint developers would want to cater to beginners. Thankfully, it is totally easy to install GIMP on a new Linux Mint 19.3 installation.
[Source: BetaNews]
Let’s take a look at 2019’s biggest Linux and open stories…
1. IBM buys Red Hat for $34-Billion
Exhibit number one is IBM acquiring Red Hat in the biggest software company acquisition ever. True, IBM was one of Linux’s earliest supporters and, as I predicted, rather than IBM consuming Red Hat, Red Hat has remained an independent barony in Big Blue’s corporate kingdom. But, the bottom line remains: The world’s leading Linux company now belongs to the company number 34 on the Fortune 500.
Read on for more…
[Source: ZDNet]
