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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Back in October, we told you that Linux Mint 20.1 would be named "Ulyssa." There was excitement about this version of the operating system, especially since the developers planned to release it around Christmas. Unfortunately, there was controversy and drama surrounding Ulyssa too, as we learned the Linux Mint developers were foolishly wasting resources on an IPTV player named "Hypnotix."

So here we are -- Christmas is fast approaching, and today, the Ubuntu-based Linux Mint 20.1 'Ulyssa' BETA finally becomes available for download. The pre-release operating system can be had with your choice of three excellent desktop environments -- Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce.

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Cybersecurity company Sophos is announcing four new open artificial intelligence developments with the aim of improving defenses and making the use of AI in cybersecurity more transparent.

Although in other industries it's become common to share AI methodologies and findings, cybersecurity has lagged which doesn't help understanding of how AI can protect against cyberthreats.

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Development of Mageia 8 seems to be moving along nicely, which is great news for users of that Linux-based operating system. Back in August, we shared that the first Beta of the distribution was available for testing, and now today, the second Beta arrives. As with the first Beta, the second is available with your choice of three desktop environments --  KDE Plasma, GNOME, and Xfce.

"We are happy to announce the release of Mageia 8 Beta 2. After a long time since the beta 1, we look forward to hearing your feedback and thoughts so that we can continue to get Mageia 8 ready for release. As we said in a previous post, a lot of work had to be done for the base system upgrade, java, kernel, and the graphical stack. These upgrades are now in a state that allows for the Beta 2 ISOs to be built and tested," explains The Mageia Development Team.

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There's a battle playing out in the enterprise open source arena right now, but it's one you probably haven't heard about.

It's a clash between pure open source and commercialized open source (or 'open core') versions. While this may be below the radar for anyone not directly involved it has important long-term implications for the industry.

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Verifying digital identity is fundamental to building trust in online security and conducting commercial and personal transactions safely. But it can also prove a performance headache for businesses.

Non-profit organization, The Linux Foundation, is today announcing the launch of the Janssen Project, a cloud native identity and access management software platform that prioritizes security and performance.

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The latest FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) contributor survey from the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) and the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard shows respondents spend on average, just 2.27 percent of their total time on security and express little desire to increase that time.

The survey of almost 1,200 respondents working on FOSS software shows the majority of respondents (74.87 percent) are already employed full-time and more than half (51.65 percent) are specifically paid to develop FOSS.

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Is LibreOffice better than Microsoft Office? No, and it's not even close. Say what you want about Microsoft, but Office is in a league of its own -- the best productivity software on the market.

Why would anyone not use Microsoft Office? Well, for one, it costs money -- potentially hundreds of dollars. Secondly, it is not available on all operating systems. Linux users, for instance, simply can't use Microsoft Office (except the web version). Not to mention, Microsoft Office is closed-source software, and some folks only want to use open source options.

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A good deal of software development now relies on open source images, but it can be hard for businesses to know if they're introducing security flaws by using them.

Canonical -- the company behind Ubuntu Linux -- is addressing this by publishing the LTS (Long Term Support) Docker Image Portfolio, a curated set of secure container application images, on Docker Hub.

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IBM is using this week's KubeCon to announce an initiative enabling clients to take better advantage of public cloud services in any environment they choose.

From today the company will open source Kubeflow Pipelines on Tekton to provide a standardized solution for creating and deploying machine learning models in production and to make machine learning models portable across hybrid cloud environments.

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