Hello, and welcome to Linux This Month.
We have a lot of news to talk about this month. Like Linux Mint's new look,
Linux Lite 5.6, Predator-OS features, Debian 11,
and the release dates for Ubuntu 21.04 and 22.10.
But first let's talk about one of the biggest developments,
the Linux 5.14 kernel. So let's jump right in.
In last month's Linux This Month I mentioned the first release candidate
milestone for the Linux 5.14 kernel indicating the first development
release was available for public testing,
but this wasn't a production ready release.
Now I'm happy to announce that the 5.14 kernel has been publicly
released as GA,
which means that it's generally available to the public and is now production
ready.
Linus Torvalds made this announcement just a few days after the Linux 30th
anniversary.
I'm really excited about this release because it's full of security and
performance improvements that are valuable for both Linux users and cloud users
alike. The Linux kernel is at the head of the Linux operating system,
which runs roughly 90% of the public cloud workload.
Also this release has been through seven release candidates.
So it's a fully tested stable release.
My favorite features to note in this release include mainline support for the
Raspberry Pi 400, which if you're a gamer,
you've probably already seen this computer and keyboard in one that you can
connect to your TV.
I'm very happy to see this device being added to mainline support.
This release also has better hardware support for a multitude of other hardware
types,
including core processing and improvements to Intel and AMD graphics drivers.
And again, who doesn't love more graphics and hardware support.
Core scheduling has been added to help mitigate spectre and meltdown attacks,
as well as other modern CPU vulnerabilities where unprivileged users can
access the kernel's memory. This new feature supports performance and security,
which are both especially important components in cloud computing.
Previous mitigations required disabling CPU hyper-threading,
which caused a performance impact.
Core scheduling enables the separation between trusted and untrusted tasks so
that they don't share a CPU core.
This limits the risk of attack while maintaining cloud level performance.
Lastly,
a new system call called memfd _secret() was added that can
create secret memory spaces for applications that even the kernel can't access.
And I really love this feature because we're finally starting to resolve some of
the CPU vulnerabilities that we've seen in the past,
with unprivileged attackers being able to access privileged memory space.
For a full list of new features and improvements,
check out the release notes at kernel.org,
where you can also compile the kernel by hand on your choice of Linux
distribution.
Debian 11, also known as Bullseye, has been released. As of August 14th,
Debian Bullseye is now generally available. This stable,
long-term support release will be supported until August of 2026.
This release was under development for two years, one month and nine days.
And it contains over 11,294 new packages for a grand total
of 59,551 packages in this release.
Also, over 72% of the packages from the last release have been updated.
Those are a lot of updates, and I won't have time to go over it right now,
but what I can say is that Bullseye is the first Debian release to provide a
kernel that supports the exFAT file system, and nine different architectures,
including Intel, little endian and ARM architecture.
This release also activates its persistent journal by default,
so you'll get that extra logging by default and won't be wasting any time
setting it up.
You can test this version featuring multiple desktop environments without
installing it by accessing it at debian.org/CD/live,
which allows you to run the full read only OS in your computer's
memory. Linux Mint is redesigning the look and feel of their website,
as well as their operating system.
Linux Mint announced that their new website design is 75% completed and will be
deployed this September.
They also said that they're reviewing the look and feel of Linux Mint itself.
Mint-X is reworking in-app notifications as well as improving the Nemo toolbar.
Mint-Y is being streamlined to simplify light and dark themes as well as new
artwork for icons.
The full list of features is available at Linuxmint.com.
Linux Lite 5.6 FINAL was released on August 31st.
This OS is a stable release based on Ubuntu 20.04.3.
And it ships with the Linux 5.4.0-81 kernel.
It uses the XFCE desktop,
which is a somewhat familiar desktop environment for people switching from
Windows, and with major changes coming with Windows 11,
this is a great option for people who would like to try a Linux
distribution instead of upgrading their existing system to support the new
Windows 11 system requirements.
This release includes the introduction of the "Pay What You Can" digital
download model,
but the team emphasizes that Linux Lite will always be free.
The latest release includes an easier installation directly from the Lite
welcome interface, updated icon themes,
seven new wallpapers, Python 3, Firefox 91.0.1,
and LibreOffice 6.4.7.2.
Canonical is now finishing up Ubuntu 21.10,
which is projected to be released on October 14th, 2021.
They've also projected that the next major release Ubuntu 22.04
long-term support, will be released on April 21st, 2022.
So you can upgrade your systems now and also have plenty of time to plan your
next upgrade to a long-term support release. Lastly,
I want to mention the latest release of Predator-OS.
And if you haven't heard of Predator-OS, you should.
This new open source community project established in 2021 for penetration
testing and ethical hacking,
is based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Mini and Linux kernel 5.10
LTS.
It includes a lightweight XFCE4 desktop environment.
This OS is security hardened to provide anonymity,
privacy and security.
It includes over 100 features such as exploitation tools, penetration tests,
security auditing, forensic tools, security risk analysis,
and vulnerability assessments. These features and more are listed at their site,
linked in the show description. That's it for this month's Linux This Month.
And before I forget,
I just want to let you Linux Gurus know about a couple of Linux courses we have
available.
Linux Operating System Fundamentals is free for the month of September,
and I've just published a new course Linux Network Client Management. Linux
Fundamentals is great for those of you who are just getting started with Linux
and Linux Network Client Management is great for experienced Linux users
who would like to learn more about network applications and clients.
So go ahead and check that out after the show and the links as provided in the description
If you liked the show,
be sure to give this episode a big thumbs up.
And subscribe to the channel. 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.