News Briefs

• Akraino Edge Stack Release 1.0 is now available. Light Reading reports that "Akraino's premiere release unlocks the power of intelligent edge with deployable, self-certified blueprints for a diverse set of edge use cases." In addition, "Akraino R1 delivers the first iteration towards new levels of flexibility to scale edge cloud services quickly, maximize efficiency, and deliver high availability for deployed services. It delivers a deployable and fully functional edge stack for edge use cases ranging from Industrial IoT, Telco 5G Core & vRAN, uCPE, SDWAN, edge media processing, and carrier edge media processing. As the premiere release, it opens doors to further enhancements and development to support edge infrastructure." For more information, go to https://www.lfedge.org.
• MariaDB announced the release of MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.4, "code-named 'Restful Nights' for the peace of mind it brings enterprise customers". The press release notes that this version "is a new, hardened and secured Server (different from MariaDB Community Server aka MariaDB Server) and has never been available before. MariaDB Enterprise Server 10.4 includes features not available in the community version that are focused on solving enterprise customer needs, providing them with greater reliability, stability and long-term support in production environments."
• KDE launched the latest version of its desktop environment, Plasma 5.16. This release features many changes, such as a completely rewritten notification system including a Do Not Disturb Mode, themes have been greatly improved, widgets have been modernized, and now when any app accesses your microphone, an icon appears in the system tray to warn you. In addition, "Plasma 5.16 is also spectacular to look at, with our new wallpaper called Ice Cold. Designed by Santiago Cézar, it is the winner of a contest with more than 150 entries." See the Release Announcement and Complete Changelog for all the details.
• Slimbook, the Spanish Linux computer company, just unveiled a brand-new all-in-one Linux PC called the "Apollo". It has a 23.6-inch IPS LED display with a 1920x1080 resolution, and a choice between an Intel i5-8500 and i7-8700 processors. It comes with up to 32GB of RAM and integrated Intel UHD 630 4K graphics. Pricing starts at $799.
• Security researchers over at Netflix uncovered some troubling security vulnerabilities inside the Linux (and FreeBSD) TCP subsystem, the worst of which is being called SACK. It can permit remote attackers to induce a kernel panic from within your Linux operating system. Patches are available for affected Linux distributions. See Beta News for details.
• Konstantin Ryabitsev announced the launch of people.kernel.org to replace Google+ for kernel developers. people.kernel.org is "an ActivityPub-enabled federated platform powered by WriteFreely and hosted by very nice and accommodating folks at write.as." Initially the service is being rolled out to those listed in the kernel's MAINTAINERS file. See the about page for more information.
• GitLab 12.0 was released. From the announcement: "GitLab 12.0 marks a key step in our journey to create an inclusive approach to DevSecOps, empowering "everyone to contribute". For the past year, we've been on an amazing journey, collaborating and creating a solution that brings teams together. There have been thousands of community contributions making GitLab more lovable. We believe everyone can contribute, and we've enabled cross-team collaboration, faster delivery of great code, and bringing together Dev, Ops, and Security."
• Nextcloud announced a new collaborative rich text editor called Nextcloud Text. Nextcloud Text is described as not "a replacement to a full office suite, but rather a distraction-free, focused way of writing rich-text documents alone or together with others." See the Nextcloud blog post for more details.
• The Linux Mint folks announced that they're working with Compulab again on the next MintBox mini, the most powerful MintBox ever. MintBox 3 will be based on Airtop 3. The release date has yet to be announced. The unfinalized specs are listed as: "1. Basic configuration: $1543 with a Core i5 (6 cores), 16 GB RAM, 256 GB EVO 970, Wi-Fi and FM-AT3 FACE Module. 2. High end: $2698 with Core i9, GTX 1660 Ti, 32 GB RAM, 1TB EVO 970, WiFi and FM-AT3 FACE Module."
• Tutanota launched a fully encrypted free calendar. Matthias Pfau, co-founder and developer of Tutanota, says this of the new calendar: "With our encryption expertise, we have not only made sure that all data people enter is encrypted, we are also encrypting the notifications for upcoming events. In contrast to other calendar services (e.g. Google), we do not know when, where, and with whom people have an appointment. Basically, we as the provider remain completely blind to people's daily habits." See the Tutanota Blog for more information.
• Valve launched Steam Labs, which gives users a peek at new experiments in development. According to TechCrunch, "Valve is quick to point out that all of these experiments are just that—there's no promising that any of the stuff that hits the Labs will make it all the way to the official client. They also say that even 'Steam Labs is itself an experiment', which will probably change and evolve a bunch over time." The first three experiments on Steam Labs are Micro Trailers, Interactive Recommender and Automatic Show.
• The Bank of England announced that Alan Turing will be on the new £50 note in the UK. Gizmodo quotes Bank of England Governor Mark Carney: "Why Turing? Turing was an outstanding mathematician whose works had an enormous impact on how we live today. As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, Alan Turing's contributions were far-ranging and path-breaking. His genius lay in a unique ability to link the philosophical and the abstract with the practical and the concrete. And all around us his legacy continues to build. Turing is a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand."