News Briefs

• There's a new project called iSH that lets you run a Linux shell on an iOS device. Bleeping Computer reports that the project is available as a TestFlight beta for iOS devices, and it is based on Alpine Linux. It allows you to "transfer files, write shell scripts, or simply to use Vi to develop code or edit files". You first need to install the TestFlight app, and then you can start testing the app by visiting this page: https://testflight.apple.com/join/97i7KM8O.
• Debian is phasing out vendor-specific patches. Phoronix reports that "effective immediately these vendor-specific patches to source packages will be treated as a bug and will be unpermitted following the Debian 10 'Buster' release". See the mailing-list announcement for more information.
• Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ is now available: "you can now get the 1.4GHz clock speed, 5GHz wireless networking and improved thermals of Raspberry Pi 3B+ in a smaller form factor, and at the smaller price of $25." You can order one here.
• The LF Deep Learning Foundation (a project of The Linux Foundation) announced the first software release of the Acumos AI Project, Athena. From the press release: "Acumos AI is a platform and open source framework that makes it easy to build, share and deploy AI applications. Acumos AI standardizes the infrastructure stack and components required to run an out-of-the-box general AI environment. This frees data scientists and model trainers to focus on their core competencies and accelerate innovation." See the full release notes here.
• Simon Long has released a new Raspbian update. This update includes a "fully hardware-accelerated version of VLC", version 3 of the Thonny Python development environment, improved desktop configuration and more. You can download the update from here.
• Uber has joined The Linux Foundation. The press release quotes Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin: "Uber has been active in open source for years, creating popular projects like Jaeger and Horovod that help businesses build technology at scale. We are very excited to welcome Uber to the Linux Foundation community. Their expertise will be instrumental for our projects as we continue to advance open solutions for cloud native technologies, deep learning, data visualization and other technologies that are critical to businesses today."
• Feral Interactive announced that Shadow of the Tomb Raider is coming to Linux in 2019. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the conclusion of Laura Croft's origin story; the previous two installments are available for Linux now from Feral Interactive. You can view the Shadow of the Tomb Raider trailer here.
• UserLAnd is now available on F-Droid. With UserLAnd, you can run full Linux distributions or specific apps on top of Android, and you can install and uninstall it like a regular app—you don't need root. This version requires Android 5.0 or newer, and UserLAnd recommends that you install the F-Droid client to build it rather than download the APK.
• A new cybersecurity company called Darktrace has developed a tool in collaboration with the University of Cambridge that uses machine learning to detect internal security breaches. According to FossBytes, Darktrace created an algorithm that "recognizes new instances of unusual behavior". This technique is "based on unsupervised learning, which doesn't require humans to specify what to look for. The system works like the human body's immune system."
France is dumping Google. Wired reports that to "avoid becoming a digital colony of the US or China", the French National Assembly and the French Army Ministry "declared that their digital devices would stop using Google as their default search engines. Instead, they will use Qwant, a French and German search engine that prides itself for not tracking its users."
• Chrome and Firefox developers plan to end support for FTP. BleepingComputer reports that "an upcoming change in how files stored on FTP servers are rendered in the browser may be the first step in its ultimate removal", and also that "Google developers have advocated for the removal of FTP support in Chrome for over 4 years" due to its low usage and the additional attack surface it creates that Chrome is unable to secure properly, compared to offering the same files over an HTTPS connection.
• The CubeSat satellites that confirmed the successful landing of the Mars Insight lander on Mars contained Gumxtix's Linux-driven Overo IronStorm-Y module and Caspa VL camera. According to Linux Gizmos, "the Mars Cube One (MarCO) satellites are the first CubeSats to have traveled beyond low Earth orbit. They also likely represent the farthest distance a Linux computer has traveled into space."
• Microsoft is building its own Chromium browser to replace Edge on Windows 10. The Verge reports that "Microsoft will announce its plans for a Chromium browser as soon as this week, in an effort to improve web compatibility for Windows." The Verge article also notes that "There were signs Microsoft was about to adopt Chromium onto Windows, as the company's engineers have been working with Google to support a version of Chrome on an ARM-powered Windows operating system."
• Australia plans to give law enforcement and intelligence agencies the ability to access encrypted messages on platforms like WhatsApp, putting public safety concerns ahead of personal privacy. Bloomberg reports that "Amid protests from companies such as Facebook Inc. and Google, the government and main opposition struck a deal on Tuesday [December 4, 2018] that should see the legislation passed by parliament this week. Under the proposed powers, technology companies could be forced to help decrypt communications on popular messaging apps, or even build new functionality to help police access data."