Articles about Open Source

Open-source video editor OpenShot 2.5.0 has been released, dubbed "our largest release yet" by project creator Jonathan Thomas. Headline new features, which should significantly improve the application’s performance when fully implemented, include experimental support for hardware acceleration alongside a major overhaul of the keyframe system.

Future development should also be simpler now all features and support have been aligned across all platforms: Windows, Linux and macOS.

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Images for use in development projects need to be correctly labeled to be of use. But adding labels is a task that can involve many hours of work by human analysts painstakingly applying manual labels to images, time that could be better spent on other, more creative, tasks.

In order to streamline the labelling process IBM has created a new automated labeling tool for the open source Cloud Annotations project that uses AI to 'auto-label' images and thus speed up the process.

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The Document Foundation has unveiled LibreOffice 6.4 64-bit and LibreOffice 6.4 32-bit, its popular open-source office suite for Windows, Mac and Linux.

LibreOffice 6.4 is a major point release -- the last in the 6.x product line -- and comes with the promise of improved performance along with several new universal features and the usual mix of minor changes and improvements to individual applications within the suite.

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There are too many Linux distributions these days, but as long as many of them are of high quality, I suppose that isn't such a bad problem to have. Many people in the Linux community know of the common ones, such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, and Manjaro, but there are some lesser-known distros that are actually worth consideration, like Deepin and Solus.

Speaking of the latter, there is a new version of that operating system available for download. While technically just a point release, Solus 4.1 Fortitude is chock full of updates, fixes, and more. You get Linux kernel 5.4.12 and Mesa 19.3.2. The operating sytem comes with many quality apps pre-installed too, such as Firefox 72.0.2, LibreOffice 6.3.4.2, and Thunderbird 68.4.1 -- three essential productivity tools. Once again, there are four desktop environments to choose -- Budgie, GNOME, KDE Plasma, and MATE. All four are great, but Budgie is considered the default for this operating system.

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Windows 7 is dead to Microsoft -- unless, of course, you're willing to pay. It's now ten days since the operating system reached end of life, but many people, for various reasons, are choosing to stick with it rather than upgrading to Windows 10.

This means missing out on security updates, but the Free Software Foundation (FSF) thinks it has a solution. It suggests that Microsoft 'upcycles' Windows 7 and makes the operating system open source so that the community can "study and improve" it.

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There are many excellent open source software projects these days, such as the Linux kernel, GIMP, and LibreOffice to name a few. But what about games? Yes, there are open source games, one of which is SuperTuxKart. If you aren't familiar, STK is essentially an open source Mario Kart game clone. While it is very popular with Linux users, it is also available for Windows and macOS.

Today, SuperTuxKart reaches version 1.1. While it features bug fixes and other improvements, the real star of the update is the addition of a new arena called "Pumpkin Park."

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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! Crazy, right? I mean, of all of the great software available for Linux, GIMP is 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.

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The Linux Mint developers vowed to release a new version of their operating system before Christmas, and today, they fulfill that promise. Yes, Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia is finally here, a full week before the big Christmas holiday -- a very welcome early gift.

Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia can be had with your choice of three excellent desktop environments -- Cinnamon (4.4), MATE (1.22), and Xfce (4.14). I highly recommend users with modern computers try Cinnamon first -- it is the prettiest of the trio, while the other two DEs are designed for more meager PCs. With that said, even those with high-end machines sometimes opt for Xfce and Mate because they simply prefer them.

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Open source software’s hold on the IT sector has deepened in the last five years. An estimated 96 percent of applications use open source components, and big players like Microsoft, IBM and even the U.S. government now embrace open source projects for their software needs. But while open source has transformed organizations’ ability to use proven and maintained code in the development of new software, it’s not untouchable in terms of security. Using code that’s readable by anyone brings risks -- and issues have occurred in the past.

It’s true that open source makes security efforts more transparent since it’s happening out in the open. If there are flaws in the code, they’re often resolved quickly by committed members of the open source community. Additionally, many open source projects have security scans built into their build processes, so contributions that introduce vulnerabilities directly or through dependencies are few and far between. But leaving the code in the open also allows bad actors to write attacks specific to unpatched vulnerabilities or to unrealized vulnerabilities in libraries that products actively depend on. As a result, teams using open source need to take steps to remain secure.

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elementary OS has long been viewed by many as the future of Linux on the PC thanks to its beautiful desktop environment and overall polished experience. Development of the Ubuntu-based operating system has been frustratingly slow, however. This shouldn't be surprising, really, as the team of developers is rather small, and its resources are likely much less than those of larger distributions such as the IBM-backed Fedora or Canonical's Ubuntu. And that is what makes elementary OS so remarkable -- its developers can make magic on a smaller budget.

Today, the latest version of the operating system is released. Code-named "Hera," elementary OS 5.1 is now available for download. Support for Flatpak is now baked in — this is significant, as the developers explain it is “the first non-deb packaging format we've supported out of the box.” The Linux kernel now sits at a very modern 5.0. One of the most important aspects of elementary OS, the AppCenter, is now an insane 10 times faster than its predecessor. Wow.

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Penetration testing is an essential tool for organizations to make sure their systems are safe and secure. It probes systems by attacking them in the way that a hacker would.

But for many, the concept of pentesting is something of a dark art, and the tools used to carry it out shaded in obscurity. One of the most popular tools among testers is Kali Linux but you could be forgiven for never having heard of it.

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Four of the biggest names in technology -- Mozilla, Intel, Red Hat and Fastly -- have come together to create the Bytecode Alliance. The joining of forces sees the birth of an, "open source community dedicated to creating new software foundations, building on standards such as WebAssembly and WebAssembly System Interface (WASI)".

One of the aims is to take WebAssembly outside of browsers, taking whatever steps are necessary to ensure a secure ecosystem. More companies are expected to join the four founding member in the coming years.

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As users and enterprises demand more added capacity, particularly for their data-driven workloads, they are increasingly moving towards all cloud or hybrid cloud environments.

This needs cloud data orchestration to accelerate and synchronize data across different environments, and as a result users are turning to cloud data analytic services like Amazon's EMR and Google Cloud's Dataproc that reduce hardware spend, eliminate the need to overbuy capacity, and provide business agility.

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Is Fedora popular? Well, is any desktop Linux distribution truly popular in the grand scheme of things? I mean, look, Windows holds an insurmountable lead in the desktop operating system space -- it cannot be denied. Amongst Linux distributions, however, yes, Fedora is very popular comparatively. Why do people choose it over other distros, such as Ubuntu, MX Linux, or Manjaro? It's simple -- Fedora is a no-nonsense operating system with a genuine focus on free and open source software. Not to mention, it is fairly bleeding edge while remaining stable.

So, yeah, Fedora is wonderful. Today, however, the Linux distribution gets even better. You see, following the beta period, Fedora 31 is now available for download. Is it an exciting release? No, not really. Sure, enthusiasts will find themselves thrilled withe inclusion of the GNOME 3.34 desktop environment (with Qt Wayland by default), Linux 5.3 kernel, and Mesa 9.2, but otherwise, it is fairly boring. You know what? That's not a bad thing. In 2019, Fedora is simply a mature and stable operating system that only needs to follow an evolutionary path at this time -- not revolutionary. It stands alone as the world's best desktop Linux distribution.

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The Internet Archive is a massive and incredibly useful resource that offers access to millions of books, games, software, audio and video files, and cached versions of websites via the recently updated Wayback Machine.

To use it, you need an internet connection, but that’s changing thanks to the creation of the new Offline Archive project.

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