Peppermint OS Reviewed, GNU Radio in Space, and KNOPPIX 7.4.0

Our top story today in Linux news is Jack M. Germain's review of Peppermint OS. The Free Software Foundation is reporting that GNU Radio controls the ISEE-3 Spacecraft. OpenSource.com is wondering what is programmers' favorite hacking food and Canonical is looking for community wallpaper submissions. KNOPPIX 7.4.0 was released, Linus in back in the news, and Source 2 is coming to Linux. All this and more is in tonight's Linux report.

Peppermint OS is what Jack Germain calls a cross between a traditional desktop and a cloud platform. I dismissed it at the onset thinking it was strictly the latter. He says, "It brings cloud apps to the Linux desktop with the ease and flexibility of a Chromebook. It marries that concept to the traditional idea of having installed software that runs without cloud interaction." With LXDE, Germain feels this mix is the "best of both worlds." After a thorough review Germain concludes, "The Peppermint OS does not get lost in the look-alike collection of Linux distros. Its very successful Web-centric feature has the potential for taking the Linux desktop in a new direction. Peppermint 5 stands out from the crowd."

KNOPPIX 7.4.0 was released yesterday, I saw the announcement on Distrowatch.com. Other outlets covered the release today. Softpedia.com said, "KNOPPIX is an old operating system and it's been around for a long time, 13 years to be more exact. It's still around and the devs continue making improvements." Phoronix.com reported in their post titled KNOPPIX 7.4 Plays With Systemd & Compiz, "KNOPPIX 7.4 was released yesterday with an updated package set and shipping with the LXDE, GNOME 3.13, and KDE 4.13.3 desktops while the lightweight LXDE desktop is the default." KNOPPIX 7.4 also ships with Linux 3.15 and X.Org Server 1.16.0.

The FSF today said, "Equipped with free GNU Radio software, a group of citizen scientists has contacted, controlled, and is attempting to recapture a 1970s-era satellite and bring it back into an orbit close to Earth." According to the report, the project was able to "fire its thrusters" in July and will soon try to actually move it into an Earth orbit. Of course, "The successes of the ISEE-3 Reboot project demonstrate the importance of developing, maintaining, and promoting free software."

Speaking of free software, the open-source community earned an honorable mention in the Pwnie Awards at this year's Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Pwnie for Best Server-Side Bug went to the team who discovered Heartbleed in such products as " Ubuntu Linux and Android 4.1.1," reported www.tomsguide.com. As if that wasn't enough tongue-in-cheek shame, "Runners-up for Most Epic Fail included the open-source community for the Heartbleed bug (as OpenSSL, the software in which Heartbleed is found, is open-source software maintained by volunteers)." LinuxJournal.com has a look-see at the rise of Linux security threats (before pitching their latest Webinar).

In other news:

* Wanna Participate in an Understanding Icons Survey?

* Apparently Valve Have Secretly Launched Source 2

* What snack best fuels open source programmers? (Poll)

* Canonical: Ubuntu 14.10 wallpapers – we needs ‘em!

* Over a Month On - Conclusion to the GNOME Shell Challenge

* Linus Torvalds is pissed at Change.org, starts a petition