Hello, and welcome to Linux This Month. In this episode, we'll talk about the 2022 White House
Open Security Summit. The Mars 15 Linux-powered laptop for gamers,
Linux kernel 5.17, a new Raspberry Pi release, and Nitrux 2.0. So let's jump right into our top
stories. If you don’t want to miss out on more Linux news, subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Public and private sector stakeholders attended an Open Source Security Summit at the White House
on January 13th to discuss initiatives to secure open-source software and how new collaboration
may drive improvements. Open-source software is not only used by the national security community,
but also the foundation of many of the products and services that most Americans use every day.
A statement released by Red Hat stated "A key theme of the meeting was the recognition that
open-source software has accelerated the pace of technological innovation, provides
tremendous societal and economic benefits, and can contribute greatly to enhancing trust
and cybersecurity." This discussion focused on three key areas of software security:
Preventing security defects and vulnerabilities in code
and open-source packages; improving the process or finding defects and fixing them;
and shortening the response time for distributing and implementing fixes. The goal is to advance
open-source security while collaborating with, and supporting, the open-source community.
Some of the ideas discussed include integrating security features into development tools,
securing infrastructure, and improving digital identities and code signing. President Biden
has prioritized software security. And so the President's Executive Order and the software
Bills of Materials were also discussed. This means that only companies that meet specific
federal security guide and developmental lifecycle practices will be able to sell their software
to government agencies. This is a huge shift for the open-source community, which has historically
designed and maintained software by the community in open collaboration. It can be a pro and a con
for developers and consumers as it's the first time that we're using the financial influence
of the Federal Government to drive changes in the open-source software supply chain.
But it also guarantees that we know what's in the software that we purchase and use. Also,
it could affect the Linux open-source community in unknown ways and prevent some code improvements
from being rolled into the upstream kernel if they don't meet the new security requirements. All
those interested are encouraged to use your voice and weigh-in on these decisions. These discussions
will continue over the coming weeks and are open to all interested public and private stakeholders.
Last month, Juno Computers, a Linux-based hardware vendor,
released the Mars 15 gaming laptop. If you haven't heard of Juno Computers,
they're a Linux-based company founded in 2017. Their focus is creating an alternative computing
solution to Windows and Apple while integrating Linux and non-Linux users on a more user-friendly
system. The Mars 15 is the latest in gaming laptops, and it ships with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS,
which is supported until April of 2025. It includes AMD Ryzen CPUs and NVIDIA RTX GPUs, and
up to 64GB 3,200Mhz of RAM with up to 4TB of SSD storage. It can be configured with the AMD Ryzen
7 5800X CPU with 8 cores and 16 threads, or the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with 12 cores and 24 threads.
It also includes the NVIDIA GeForce TRX 3060 graphics card with 6GB GDDR6 VRAM, or the NVIDIA
GeForce RTX 3070 with 8GB of VRAM. Other features include a backlit keyboard, a 6-in-1 card reader,
a 720p HD webcam, and a full HD 15.6 matte display with a 240Hz refresh rate. And this is an awesome
feature for you Linux gamers. Juno Computers is also committed to maintaining popular ports
so that you still see all of your favorites on the laptop itself without needing an adaptor.
This is an amazing laptop that is fast and full of top-notch hardware and features that gamers love,
especially with the improved graphics and CPU. This laptop can be ordered from Juno
Computers online store and starts at $2,150 for the basic configuration.
You can find more information and the full list of specifications at Junocomputers.com.
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The Linux 5.7 kernel release will include a new feature - firmware updates without downtime.
The Intel driver patch, pfr_update was designed for patching critical bugs and security issues.
Previously firmware was updated by downloading the software
and flashing the BIOS or UEFI on the motherboard during reboot. But a new API specification,
Platform Firmware Runtime Update and Telemetry, or PFRUT, now enables firmware updates without
a reboot. An admin's biggest dream is to apply system updates to servers without
any downtime. And this new feature brings at least part of that dream into reality.
Nitrux 2.0 was released in January and was released with Linux kernel 5.16.
Nitrux is a Debian-based distribution built around the KDE Plasma desktop environment and
is on a monthly release cycle. Version 2.0 ships with kernel 5.16.
That includes better hardware support and additional firmware for AMD GPUs.
It also includes the latest Mesa 21.3.5 graphic stack,
which doesn't include any new features, but does include numerous bug fixes.
Visual changes were made to the KDE Plasma-based NX Desktop graphical environment that makes this
desktop look more modern and user friendly. The top panel now includes window controls,
global menu, and the system tray. You can check out these changes and more at nxos.org.
The latest Raspberry Pi OS was released on January 28. This new release adds more
options to its configuration tool, as well as many bug fixes. Improvements were made to the
raspi-config command-line tool, which allows you to configure settings. More options were added to
the tool to allow users to switch to composite video, switch to legacy camera mode, including
legacy camera applications and libraries, and also set the resolution for headless connections.
The rc_gui GTK graphical user interface, no longer ships with a camera interface switch.
Instead it now displays a combo box to allow users to set the resolution for VNC connections. LXPanel
now reads current mouse acceleration directly from xinput, uses device IDs instead of names,
and comes with improved open box configuration file for better window management. I love that
this update helps with device changes during reboots and overall a more user-friendly design.
That's it for this month's Linux This Month. If you like the show, be sure to give this episode a
big thumbs up. Have a question? Add it into the comments. May your source remain open and your
code compile. See you next time, subscribe to stay up to date, and keep being awesome Cloud Gurus.