Debian Handheld Pre-orders, GNOME Scores RH Servers
From (some of) the folks that brought you Pandora comes new Linux gaming handheld Pyra. Pre-orders are now being taken. The Free Software Foundation filed a comment with the U.S. Copyright Office calling for an end to JavaScript requirements on government websites. Red Hat recently donated two servers to the GNOME project and Nick Heath examined a draft of the Munich Open Source report. Douglas DeMaio posted of Tumbleweed updates and vulnerabilities in ImageMagick have webmasters scrambling.
Headlines announcing Pyra pre-orders have crept into newsfeeds this week. Brad Linder from Liliputing.com reported Monday that those wishing to help development can pre-order their device now for down payments starting at 330 EUR (or about 379 USD). Final prices start at 500 EUR (or 575 USD). Shoppers can also purchase a Pyra t-shirt, keychain, or mug as well as make a straight donation. The device itself it being touted as modular and easy to disassemble for hacking. The site says the full schematics are (or will be) available and no data will ever be sent back to them. The best part is this little machine, which includes 3 USB, SATA, HDMI, and headset ports, is running Debian GNU/Linux. Calling it "an optimized Linux," they say it "is blazingly fast." Other specs include a 5" LCD touchscreen, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and 4.1 Bluetooth, 1.5 GHz dual-core ARM CPU, 2 or 4 GB RAM, 32 GB storage with slots for more, full keyboard with game controls, and a 6000mAh replaceable battery. Petter Reinholdtsen reported today that only 22 more orders were needed before production can start.
The GNOME Foundation today announced the receipt of two new servers from benefactor Red Hat. "The donation is part of a wider plan aiming to consolidate the location of the various GNOME servers around the globe into one single datacenter," GNOME said. These servers feature 128GB RAM, 48 cores, and an Enterprise SSD. GNOME thanked Red Hat for their "continued sponsorship of servers, Internet bandwidth and local hardware-related IT support."
The latest vulnerability circulating in the press involves ImageMagick. The vulnerabilities allow remote code execution and uploading "specifically crafted image files with malicious instructions." Other issues allow HTTP GET or FTP requests and file deletions, moving, and reading. Heath reported today that a fix should be forthcoming this weekend and ImageMagick posted a workaround to prevent any intrusions until then.
In other news:
* Tumbleweed updates Kernel, Mesa, gstreamer
* After three years of Linux, Munich reveals draft of crunch report
* FSF: No one should have to use proprietary software to communicate with their government