Although many organizations rely on the software, managing open source licenses and compliance can be a difficult and time-consuming task.

Supply chain management tools specialist Sonatype is launching an Advanced Legal Pack using machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate open source license compliance.

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In recent years the use of microservices has helped to streamline development processes. But there's still an issue with managing communication between services.

Service mesh is a technology that adds uniform networking capabilities right across the program stack but is decoupled from the application code itself.

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Woo-hoo! Today is officially the day many of us have been waiting for. Yes, Fedora Linux 34 is finally available for download. For many Linux users, Fedora is considered the best overall operating system to be based on that open source kernel. The distro focuses on truly free and open source software -- a pure Linux experience. It is also fairly bleeding edge, but at the same time, it remains stable for everyday use.

What makes Fedora 34 so exciting? Well, this version of the Linux-based operating system uses GNOME 40 as its default desktop environment, and version 40 is the most electrifying version of GNOME in years. GNOME 40 is notable for a horizontal workspace switcher and having the Dash (favorites launcher) moved to the bottom of the screen. Despite being released last week, Ubuntu 21.04 fails to comes with this version of GNOME.

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Non-profit organization the Linux Foundation today announces Linux Foundation Research, a new division that will broaden the understanding of open source projects, ecosystem dynamics, and impact.

Through a series of research projects and related content, Linux Foundation Research will make use of the Foundation's vast repository of data, tools, and communities and apply quantitative and qualitative techniques to create an unprecedented knowledge network to benefit the global open source community, academia, and industry.

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Microsoft has launched a preview version of its own distribution of Java, making it available for Windows, macOS and Linux. The company has named the release Microsoft Build of OpenJDK, and describes it as its "new way to collaborate and contribute to the Java ecosystem".

The company has made available Microsoft Build of OpenJDK binaries for Java 11, which are based on OpenJDK source code. Microsoft says it is looking to broaden and deepen its support for Java, "one of the most important programming languages used today".

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Although open source has gained in popularity in recent years, in some circles it's still viewed as being inaccessible to all but tech experts.

But that's starting to change, the PostgreSQL database has earned a strong reputation among businesses for reliability, feature robustness, and performance and has contributed to the growth in open source.

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Today is April 1, also known as "April Fool's Day," which is a holiday for pranks and jokes. On this day, it can be hard to know what news stories are real and which are fake. Some find April Fool's Day to be fun, while others see it as annoying.

Well, folks, I am happy to say that today, Ubuntu Linux 21.04 achieves final Beta status. And no, that isn't a joke -- it is the real deal! Code-named "Hirsute Hippo," the Beta can be had with your choice of several desktop environments, such as GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Xfce.

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A new content collaboration platform for 64-bit ARM processors will deliver the first viable self-hosted web office solution for the popular Raspberry Pi 4.

The result of a joint effort between Canonical, Collabora and Nextcloud this will allow Raspberry Pi users to turn their Pi 4 into a self-hosted content collaboration and document editing solution in just a few minutes.

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The Linux Foundation, the non-profit organization enabling innovation through open source, has announced a new service to improve the security of the software supply chain by enabling the easy adoption of cryptographic software signing.

Called 'sigstore' it will allow software developers to securely sign software artifacts such as release files, container images and binaries. Signing materials will then be stored in a tamper-proof public log. Founding members of the project include Red Hat, Google and Purdue University.

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Microsoft greatly simplified the user login and authentication process with the introduction of Windows Hello. The biometric security system for Windows 10 means laboriously typing out passwords has been replaced with facial or fingerprint recognition.

Taking this idea to the next level is a great open source Rust-based utility called WSL Hello sudo. This is a pluggable authentication module (PAM) that makes it possible to use Windows Hello authentication in Windows Subsystem for Linux.

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Microsoft has announced Power Fx, a new open source programming language. The Windows-maker describes it as "a low-code general purpose programming language based on spreadsheet-like formulas".

The language can be used across Microsoft’s Power Platform, and the fact that it is based on Microsoft Excel means that it should be immediately accessible to large numbers of people, even if they would not necessarily consider themselves programmers.

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I've never seen a kangaroo in person, but I know they exist because I have seen them on the internet. The same goes for Mageia users. Never in my travels have I encountered someone that regularly uses that Linux-based operating system. True, meeting any fellow desktop Linux user in public is rare in and of itself, but when I have, they typically use something more common, such as Ubuntu or Fedora. I have only witnessed Mageia users on the internet.

So, yeah, Mageia is hardly the most popular Linux distribution, but it is fairly well-known -- by people in the Linux community, at least. For fans of that operating system, I have what should be very exciting news; following a fairly lengthy development period, and several pre-release versions, the stable Mageia 8 is finally ready for download!

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A new survey by O'Reilly Media and IBM reveals that developers are better off building open source cloud skills rather than focusing on skills related to a specific vendor's cloud.

The survey of almost 3,500 developers and technology managers finds that open source software is rated equal to or better than proprietary software by 94 percent of respondents. In addition when choosing cloud providers 70 percent of respondents prefer one based on open source.

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A new survey of over 9,500 developers, of whom 4,400 actively participate in open source, finds that 54 percent of respondents feel that individuals should be paid for their open source work.

In fact the study from developer cloud company DigitalOcean finds that only 14 percent of respondents are currently paid for their open source contributions.

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So far, 2021 is a definite improvement over 2020, but it's not all great. Due to the ever-mutating COVID-19 virus, many of us remain isolated in our homes. Thankfully, we computer nerds have been training most of our lives for this -- we have experienced plenty of extended time away from other humans, instead tinkering with our computers.

One thing I have enjoyed doing to pass the time during the pandemic is installing Linux distributions. Distro-hopping isn't just fun, but educational too. Today, Solus 4.2 becomes available for download, and it is an operating system you should check out. It is offered with your choice of four great desktop environments -- Budgie, GNOME, KDE Plasma, and MATE.

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