Is KDE 5 Ready, Repo Dark Sides, and Black Lab Linux

Today in Linux news Chris Hoffman looks at the "hidden dark side of Linux software repositories" using Ubuntu and ownCloud as examples. Jack M. Germain test drives Black Lab Linux, an Ubuntu compatible distribution aiming for ease of use. Jos Poortvliet answers "Where is KDE 5 and when can I use it?" Phoronix is reporting on the Fedora project's ambition to include AppData in its software and Charlene Begley has been appointed to Red Hat's Board of Directors.

Chris Hoffman over at PCWorld.com opines today on a "serious weakness with the way Linux software is packaged, distributed, and updated." He says Linux users are comfortable installing and updating their software through their distro's repositories, but ownCloud demonstrates at least one way our software systems fail. ownCloud developers recently asked Ubuntu to pull the version of ownCloud that was in its repos because it was old and a security risk. Ubuntu finally fixed the issue, but Hoffman says any developer who packages and uploads software is ultimately responsible for keeping it updated and secure. He says with all the software in all the distribution repositories is going to have issues. "Packages are often created and maintained by users who may walk away at any time. There's no way around this—and it's a serious problem on Linux."

Jack Germain today said that "Black Lab Linux is GNOME 3's best firend" by taking a lot of the "drudgery out of using GNOME." While not really a major stand-out, Germain says Black Lab's "tweak performance of GNOME 3 is a nice touch." The desktop is clean and tidy and menus are chocked full 'o software. He concludes, "Black Lab Linux is a reasonably good distro for everyday personal use and light business computing."

Phoronix.com is today reporting that discussions are continuing in the Fedora camp about adding AppData data to their software in their repositories. AppData allows extra functionality in software managers such as descriptions, user reviews, and screenshots. Michael "Larabel says Richard Hughes is proposing the universal change for Fedora 22 although many packages already include AppData. "Application packages not shipping AppData would still be installable by DNF/Yum, but not be exposed through this GUI."

In other news:

* Where is KDE 5 and when can I use it?

* Charlene Begley Joins Red Hat’s Board of Directors

* Press Reaction to Ubuntu 14.10 ‘Utopic Unicorn’

* LibreOffice defends handling of spreadsheet bug

* Intro to Systemd Runlevels and Service Management Commands