Linux and Open Source News You Might Have Missed - 15th Dec. 2019 to 15th January 2020
720Some interesting Linux and Open Source news for the end of December 2019 up until January 2020. A new release of Linux Mint, some big data leaks, and the usual DXVK and Proton updates are accompanied by a new theme for Ubuntu, and a bunch of new hardware running Linux.
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DXVK 1.5 was released, with the headline feature being that it now includes D9VK, the directX9 translation layer.
https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases/tag/v1.5
Google has decided to stop giving an Android license to all phones sold in Turkey.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/google-turkey-android-anti-competitive/
Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia has been released
https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_tricia_cinnamon_whatsnew.php
In another development on the Librem 5 saga, the phone will get a 50$ price hike on the first of January 2020, and go up to 799$ once the "evergreen" batch ships.
https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-price-increase/
Krita has received an Epic MegaGrant of 25 thousand dollars.
https://krita.org/en/item/krita-receives-epic-megagrant/
Kdenlive 19.12 has been officially released, with a bunch of improvements to the general performance, and to rendering times.
https://kdenlive.org/en/2019/12/kdenlive-19-12-0-is-out/
Proton 4.11-11 was released, shipping with DXVK 1.5, the version that now incorporates D9VK directly.
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Changelog
At least 3000 ring users data has apparently leaked on the internet, including usernames, passwords, and camera names.
https://www.androidcentral.com/database-ring-customer-user-data-just-leaked-online
More data leaks, but a bit bigger this time: 267 million facebook user accounts have been left unprotected, and have been posted for download on a hacker forum.
https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/267-million-phone-numbers-exposed-online/
Kubuntu announced the Focus, a high power laptop shipping with Kubuntu by default.
https://kubuntu.org/news/kubuntu-focus/
The Linux kernel version 5.3 has reached end of life, so if you were using that kernel, it's highly recommended you switch to the newer version, namely 5.4.
https://news.softpedia.com/news/linux-kernel-5-3-reached-end-of-life-users-urged-to-move-to-linux-kernel-5-4-528715.shtml
Proton has launched its own Calendar to complete its already excellent ProtonMail service.
https://protonmail.com/blog/protoncalendar-beta-announcement/
It seems that the Linux kernel can't stop growing: it has reached almost 28 million lines of code, and more than 21 000 people have contributed to it during the life of the project.
https://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Git-Stats-EOY2019
Dell has announced an update to their Dell XPS 13 developer edition, which ships with Ubuntu 18.04, and the main point here is the addition of a fingerprint reader to it.
https://bartongeorge.io/2020/01/01/introducing-the-2020-xps-13-developer-edition-this-one-goes-to-32/
Linux players enjoying Battlefield V will now have to stop, since the anti-cheat software used by EA is recognizing DXVK, the compatibility layer used to run the game on Linux, as a cheating tool, and banning accounts left and right.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/looks-like-ea-might-be-banning-linux-gamers-using-wine-to-play-battlefield-v.15706
Apparently, Steam for Linux had been started, all this time ago, by ex Microsoft employees.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/steam-for-linux-was-started-by-ex-microsoft-developers.15715
Firefox 72 was released, bringing enhanced tracking protection, blocking fingerprinting scripts by default.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/72.0/releasenotes/
DXVK had another update, bringing it to version 1.5.1, with performance enhancements and fixes for DirectX9 games
https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases/tag/v1.5.1
53 organisations wrote an open letter to the CEO of Google to ask Google to take action against bloatware on Android.
https://privacyinternational.org/advocacy/3320/open-letter-google
Fedora 32 will enable FSTRIM by default.
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-32-Will-FSTRIM
Google has awarded a gift of 1 million dollars to the University of Vermont, to help them on their research on open source.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=google+gives+1+million+to+UVM+to+adavance&t=canonical&ia=web
Ubuntu 20.04 will probably ship with a few changes to its default Yaru theme.
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2020/01/major-ubuntu-yaru-theme-changes
Speaking of themes, GNOME will tweak the shell theme in 3.36. https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2020/01/gnome-3-36-new-theme
Proton 4.11-12 was released, and it's a minor version.
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Changelog