News Briefs

• The Mozilla IoT team announces that its Project Things is moving on from its experimental phase and now will be known as Mozilla WebThings. The team's mission is to create a "Web of Things" implementation that helps "drive IoT standards for security, privacy and interoperability". Mozilla WebThings is "an open platform for monitoring and controlling devices over the web" and includes WebThings Gateway ("a software distribution for smart home gateways focused on privacy, security and interoperability") and WebThings Framework ("a collection of reusable software components to help developers build their own web things").
• Congrats to Sam Hartman, new Debian Project Leader! You can read more details about the election here, and read Sam's DPL 2019 Platform here.
• Kdenlive 19.04 has been released. From the release announcement: "more than 60% of the code base was changed with +144,000 lines of code added and +74,000 lines of code removed. This is our biggest release ever bringing new features, improved stability, greater speed and last but not least maintainability (making it easier to fix bugs and add new features)." Go here to download.
• After 12 years in the making, SuperTuxKart 1.0 is here. This release adds support for networking races, so you can now play with others online instead of split-screen. It also has various new game modes, such as "normal race, time trial, soccer mode, battle mode and the new Capture-The-Flag mode". You can download the new release here.
• A new music player and music collection organizer called Strawberry is now available for Sparky Linux users. Strawberry is a fork of Clementine, aimed at music collectors, audio enthusiasts and audiophiles. Jonas Kvinge is the project developer, and it's licensed under the GNU Public License v3.0. The Strawberry GitHub page is here.
• Mozilla has released its 2019 Internet Health Report. This year's report focuses on three main issues: the need for better machine decision making, rethinking digital ads and the rise of smart cities. See the Mozilla blog for a summary.
• Pop!_OS 19.04 is now available from System76. This release is updated to use version 5.0 of the Linux kernel and version 3.32 of GNOME. In addition, this version brings a new Dark Mode, Slim Mode and refreshed icon designs. Go here to download, or see the instructions on the System76 blog to upgrade from 18.04.
• Nextcloud 16 was released. From the press release: "Nextcloud 16 is smarter than ever, with machine learning to detect suspicious logins and offering clever recommendations. Group Folders now sport access control lists so system administrators can easily manage who has access to what in organization-wide shares. We also introduce Projects, a way to easily relate and find related information like files, chats or tasks." You can download it from here.
• Scientific Linux is being discontinued. According to BetaNews, the RHEL-based distro maintained by the scientific community at The Fermi National Laboratory and CERN will no longer be developed, and the organizations will switch to CentOS. James Amundson, Head of Scientific Computing Division, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, says the change is driven by the need to unify their computing platform with collaborating labs and institutions: "Toward that end, we will deploy CentOS 8 in our scientific computing environments rather than develop Scientific Linux 8. We will collaborate with CERN and other labs to help make CentOS an even better platform for high-energy physics computing. Fermilab will continue to support Scientific Linux 6 and 7 through the remainder of their respective lifecycles. Thank you to all who have contributed to Scientific Linux and who continue to do so."
• Fedora 30 was released. TechRepublic reports that this version brings some "quality-of-life improvements", such as the flicker-free boot process. It includes GNOME 3.32 with all new app icons, but it also includes Fedora spins for KDE, XFCE, LXQT, MATE-Compiz, Cinnamon and LXDE. In addition, "New to Fedora 30 include packages for DeepinDE and Pantheon, the desktop environments used in Deepin Linux, called 'the single most beautiful desktop on the market' by TechRepublic's Jack Wallen, as well as elementaryOS, which Wallen lauded as 'spectacularly subtle.' While these are only packages—requiring simple, though manual, installation—packaging these desktops is the first step to building a full independent spin." Go here to download, and see the full changelog here.
• Red Hat Enterprise 8 is now available. From the press release: "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is the operating system redesigned for the hybrid cloud era and built to support the workloads and operations that stretch from enterprise datacenters to multiple public clouds. Red Hat understands that the operating system should do more than simply exist as part of a technology stack; it should be the catalyst for innovation. From Linux containers and hybrid cloud to DevOps and artificial intelligence (AI), Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is built to not just support enterprise IT in the hybrid cloud, but to help these new technology strategies thrive."
• Microsoft announced a new Windows 10 Terminal app for command-line users. From Microsoft's blog post: "Windows Terminal [is] a new application for Windows command-line users [that] will offer a user interface with emoji-rich fonts and graphics-processing-unit-accelerated text rendering. It also will provide multiple tab support as well as theming and customization, allowing users to personalize their Terminal." Windows Terminal will be available for Windows 10 systems sometime in June.
• All Chromebooks that launch this year will support Linux apps. According to Android Police, "Google announced that all Chromebooks launched in 2019 will be Linux-ready right out of the box, which is great for developers, enthusiasts, and newbies alike. These announcements have been quick and brief, but at least this news is straight to the point, though every Chromebook I've tested recently had Linux support....Oh, and they mentioned that Android Studio is also a one-click install, too. That's neat."
• OASIS announced the launch of Open Projects. The press release describes Open Projects as "the first-of-its-kind program that creates a more transparent and collaborative future for open source and standards development. Open Projects gives communities the power to develop what they choose—APIs, code, specifications, reference implementations, guidelines—in one place, under open source licenses, with a path to recognition in global policy and procurement."