Linux is 25, Fedora 24 Alpha, Classy Apricity
It's been 25 years since Linus Torvalds began Linux and IEEE Spectrum ran two articles today on him and his kernel. Elsewhere, Fedora 24 Alpha was released as planned and Jack Germain reviewed Apricity OS saying it's class and clean. The Register's Scott Gilbertson reviewed the Ubuntu 16.04 beta and March 30 is Document Freedom Day.
Stephen Cass spoke to Linus Torvalds about starting and running the Linux kernel project and probes his plans for the future. Torvalds said if he'd known what it takes to write and maintain such a collection of code, he'd probably not had the "chutzpah" to try. He said the hardest thing for him was learning to trust others, first, with patches and, then, allowing others to merge them. Torvalds said he was "blown away" by some of the early creative uses for Linux like refrigerators and TiVo, but nothing surprises him anymore. It's challenging keeping up with all the hardware out there, but since he's a big hardware hound it's all still fun. After saying last year that AI wouldn't really amount to much, he's quite interested in its recent development. See the full interview at IEEE Spectrum.
As a accompanying piece, Christopher Tozzi, that The VarGuy guy, also had a piece at IEEE Spectrum looking back at Linux's first 25 years and why it "flourished" when others didn't. For all its history, dates, and facts, it seems the bottom line is Linux won because it beat the others to market. Part of it was price as well according to Tozzi. See that full article as well.
Jack M. Germain recently tested the Apricity OS beta and said it caters to the "cloud generation of computing." It's based on Arch but is much easier to install and use. Germain said, "It has an integrated software feature built around the site-specific browser manager ICE, which provides the ability to put your favorite Web apps on the desktop and access them simply." While describing some of the pros and cons Germain added, "It is a smart-looking, easy-to-use alternative to other distros." He concluded, "Apricity OS has a well-thought-out design. Its execution makes both the GNOME and the Cinnamon editions very functional. The overall performance of the distro is impressive."
Fedora 24 Alpha was released today as decided at last week's Go/No-Go meeting. The Fedora Magazine today announced it to the general public saying, "Together, we can make Fedora rock-solid." Fedora 24 is scheduled for final release June 17, 2016.
In other news: