Windows 10 Killing PCs, FSF Wants to Kill ME
Today in Linux news PCLinuxOS is said to be moving to Plasma 5.6.4 and Linux 4.5.6. Katherine Noyes posted a slideshow of Mint 18 features and Dominique Leuenberger share the latest in Tumbleweed developments. Eric Hameleers is celebrating 10 years of SlackBuilds.org and The Inquirer reported today that PC sales are falling fast - and it's all Windows 10's fault. Swapnil Bhartiya interviewed Jonathan Riddell and the Free Software Foundation posted that "we should get rid of ME."
PCLinuxOS 64 2016.06 KDE will bring KDE Plasma 5.6.4 when released according to Marius Nestor. An updated preview was recently released to testers including Linux 4.5.6, LibreOffice 5, Plasma 5.6.4, Krita 3, and new boot/shutdown artwork. Users were told they were not going to be forced to upgrade, so KDE 4 will continue to be supported for a while. The PCLinuxOS 64 2016.06 KDE final is expected sometime this month.
Eric "AlienBob" Hameleers today posted that SlackBuilds.org is 10 years old. SlackBuilds.org is the home to extra developer and community application build scripts for Slackware. These include popular apps and proprietary hardware drivers not included in official Slack. AlienBob shared his memories of helping start the service and how much it's grown since. The first version supported (11.0) had 429 scripts, today 14.1 has 5745. Everyone is scrambling to update and test for upcoming 14.2. Willy Sudiarto Raharjo shared his memories today on SBo as well including his contributions beginning 2010. Happy Birthday SBo!
The Inquirer today reported that "PC sales are falling faster than expected and it's all Windows 10's fault." IDC forecasts a decline of 7.3% in 2016, two points higher than earlier estimates and 2015 was down 8 to 10% from the previous year. But it's not the horror that Windows 10 upgrade wrought, but rather many didn't feel the need to upgrade their machines since Windows 10 was offered as a free upgrade to Windows 7 & 8. Mobile uptake is also a factor. IDC expects sales to increase and stabilize in the latter half the year mainly due to commercial adoption of Windows 10. In related news, Dedoimedo has a guide for avoiding the upgrade.
In other news:
* Intel & ME, and why we should get rid of ME
* Interview with Jonathan Riddell on neon User Edition 5.6
* Tumbleweed – Review of the Weeks 2016/23