Linux, Open Source, and Privacy News - 16th to 30th November
685Here is a news recap for Linux, open source, and privacy, for the second half of November. Interesting topics here, with multiple privacy breaches, new releases for Zorin OS 15, some gaming releases and news, and a new version of the Linux kernel!
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Hackers already have accessed thousands of Disney Plus accounts, and are selling them online.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/thousands-of-hacked-disney-accounts-are-already-for-sale-on-hacking-forums/
Another privacy leak, if you’ve played Magic The Gathering recently, the video game, not the card game, your credentials might have been accessed.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/16/magic-the-gathering-wizards-data-exposure/
More than 3800 people have donated to help GNOME fight a patent troll.
https://secure.givelively.org/donate/gnome-foundation-inc/gnome-patent-troll-defense-fund
https://blogs.gnome.org/engagement/2019/11/16/gnome-patent-troll-defense-fund-reaches-nearly-4000-donors/
Deezer, the french spotify competitor, released an open source tool that can split a digital song into a separate vocal track, drum track, bass track, and another containing the rest of the song.
https://deezer.io/releasing-spleeter-deezer-r-d-source-separation-engine-2b88985e797e
The GNOME Shell and Mutter team have lauched a blog to be more transparent on their development process.
https://blogs.gnome.org/shell-dev/2019/11/12/genesis/
DXVK 1.4.5 was released, bringing a bunch of performance imporvements and bug fixes, notably for Dirt Rally, Earth Defense Force, Final Fantasy XV, Metal Gear Solid V and Metro 2033.
https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases/tag/v1.4.5
SCRCPY, or Screen Copy, I guess, is a handy little tool that allows you to display your android phone’s screen directly on your computer, as long as the two are connected through USB, or TCP/IP.
https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy
It seems Google wants to bring Android closer to the mainline Linux kernel, probably to limit the number of patches and changes they need to make to actually build a new version of Android.
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/11/google-wants-to-bring-android-closer-to-the-mainline-linux-kernel
Zorin OS 15 Lite has been released, bringing a lightweight, heavily customized XFCE. It targets Windows 7 users averse to Windows 8 or 10, and brings a really good looking theme to a desktop environment that usually looks pretty drab.
https://zoringroup.com/blog/2019/11/20/zorin-os-15-lite-is-here-breathe-new-life-into-your-old-computers/
System 76, a computer manufacturer selling Linux powered machines, will start working on designing and building their own laptops.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/11/20/system76-will-start-designing-and-building-its-own-linux-laptops-beginning-january-2020/#537fad553e16
GLIMPSE, the rebranded version of GIMP to avoid the insensitive connotation of the word, has seen its first release.
https://glimpse-editor.org/
OnePlus notified their clients, and potential customers that some of their personal information might have been exposed.
https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/security-notification.1144088/
THe Linux Kernel version 5.4 has been released, with a bunch of new hardware support and new features. It sports a new separation from the the Root user and the kernel, but this must be configured manually.
https://kernelnewbies.org/
It seems that the latest version of Zorin OS 15 sends anonymous identifiers for devices to their servers, so they can track the number of active users.
https://itsfoss.com/zorin-os-privacy-concerns/
Jason Evangelho reported for Forbes a nice interview with the folks behind Deepin. They broached the topics of the Huawei partnership, and the future of Deepin. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/11/26/the-deepin-linux-interview-huawei-those-spyware-accusations-and-tantalizing-teases-for-2020/#1486d32b5df5
Mozilla has lost revenue from 2018 to 2019, at a staggering rate of -20%.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/foundation/annualreport/2018/
After many worries and delays, the Librem 5 is now shipping to backers.
https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-birch-shipping-announcement/
Proton 4.11-9 was released, and is already available in Steam’s preferences.
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Changelog
Epic games awarded Lutris with their 25000 dollars mega grant.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/lutris-is-epic-31951429
Wine 4.21 was released, bringing HTTP proxy configuration,, more DLL converted to the linux exectuable format, and some DirectX9 fixes.
https://www.winehq.org/announce/4.21