Linux Challenges, System76 HQ, Linux 4.4-rc1
Some of the highlights of today's Linux news includes Brian Fagioli's tour of the headquarters of System76, manufacturer of Linux laptops and Matt Hartley discussing the problems with using Linux. Elsewhere, Kevin Fenzi shared some thoughts on recent Rawhide and Jeff Hoogland released some new applications built using the Moksha desktop toolkit.
Several folks are excited about the release of Linux 4.4-rc1, The Inquirer and Phoronix covered what's news. The Inquirer said half the goodies are for ARM and updates to DRM, noting that Linux 4.3 is just now trickling onto desktops. Phoronix added AMD graphics stack got support for new chips and a Raspberry Pi KMS driver has "finally landed." Nouveau got some performance and stability improvements and some "good stuff" in networking includes a new Realtek rtl8xxxu WiFi driver.
Matt Hartley wrote of the biggest challenges he's identified as a Linux user over the years. One of the most annoying is abandoned software. Sometimes developers move on and leave their code unmaintained. Hartley said it "bugs" him, but it could make a bad impression if a new comer downloads an application for a pressing task to find he is lucky if it installs and even luckier if it works. Hartley thinks making code easier for folks to adopt might help cut down on the abandonware. He also pondered fragmentation a bit and also how it relates to market share reporting. He then says getting the lately software can be a chore, turning off new users, as well as being not able to use the latest hardware.
Relatedly, Jack Wallen posted a piece today suggesting a universal cross-distribution package management system might cure a lot of Linux' ills. "Instead of every distribution attempting to reinvent a wheel that's been worked and reworked over and over, they simply need to come together and create a unified front for all distributions. This would not only help the end users, it could then do a much better job of helping to promote the work of developers." He thinks it could be done cause the "old model no longer works."
Betanews' Brian Fagioli said he felt like Charlie touring Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory recently covering System76's "superfan event." Hopefuls submitted videos, articles, images, etc. showing they are System76 fans and winners were chosen on creativity. Winners were flown out the System76 office in Denver to tour the facility with "same look that children get when entering Disney World for the first time -- wide eyes and big smiles." Fagioli said it's a "geek's heaven." He included video and stills to accompany the detailed report.
Jeff Hoogland posted today of new Elementary application for Bodhi Moksha users to test. There's a media player, PDF reader, archive manager, and an IRC client. If you like them, they'll be included in the AppCenter.
In other news:
* Leaping in a new direction with openSUSE 42.1
* Rawhide: notes from the trail (2015-11-16)
* Kubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf - Pretty useless
* The Best Quotes of Linus Torvalds
* Fedora / Gnome 3.18 – First Steps