Weekly Roundup – 28 January, 2022

GNOME Shell ‘Extensions Manager’ App Gets a Big Ol’ Update
Source: omg!ubuntu!

Remember that new app for installing GNOME extensions I wrote about earlier this month? Well, it just got its first major update.

And it adds a ton of much-requested features.

Nasty Linux kernel bug found and fixed
Source: ZDNet

Linux “security” bugs actually aren’t Linux bugs. For example, security vendor CrowdStrike’s report on the biggest Linux-based malware families was really about system administration security blunders with telnet, SSH, and Docker, not Linux at all. But, that doesn’t mean Linux doesn’t have security holes. For example, a new nasty Linux kernel problem has just popped up.

SUSE announces new distro for those who miss the old CentOS: Liberty Linux
Source: The Register

Official details remain scant, but SUSE Liberty Linux is a new member of the growing tribe of CentOS Linux replacements. The new distro is a SUSE rebuild of CentOS 8, aimed at near-perfect RHEL 8 compatibility.

$55-and-up Orange Pi 4 LTS drops 40-pin GPIO, adds 3G RAM option
Source: LinuxGizmos

Shenzhen Xunlong unveiled a $55 to $70 “Orange Pi 4 LTS” variant of the Orange Pi 4 SBC with the same RK3399 but a new 3G RAM option, 26- vs. 40-pin GPIO, and different WiFi, GbE, and audio chips.

Linus Torvalds Announces First Linux 5.17 Kernel Release Candidate
Source: 9to5Linux

Linus Torvalds just announced today the first Release Candidate of Linux kernel 5.17, which looks to be a normal release with a normal amount of changes and new features. Nothing fancy, and nothing that stands out. There’s a little bit of everything for everyone.

Linux 5.17 Features From New AMD P-State To Xilinx Drivers, Lots Of New Hardware
Source: Phoronix

This morning marked the release of Linux 5.17-rc1 that officially ends the merge window for this next stable kernel series. Linux 5.17 won’t see its stable debut until around the end of March but there is a lot to get excited about for this open-source kernel in 2022.

pgBadger v11.7 released
Source: postgresql.org

pgBadger is a PostgreSQL performance analyzer, built for speed with fully detailed reports based on your PostgreSQL log files.

How Long Do HDDs Last?
Source: StorageNewsletter

How long do disk drives last? We asked that question several years ago, and at the time the answer was: We didn’t know yet. Nevertheless, we did present the data we had up to that point and we made a few of predictions.

Linux Foundation launches Open Source Software Development, Linux, and Git certification
Source: ZDNet

Want a good-paying programming job? By ZipRecruiter’s count, the average annual pay for an open-source developer in the United States is $123,411. That’s not bad.

There’s also a lot of demand for Linux and open-source pros. The Linux Foundation and edX, the leading massive open online course (MOOC) provider, reported in their 2021 Open Source Jobs Report that the pair found more demand for top open-source workers than ever.

WordPress 5.9 Josephine
Source: WordPress.org

Introducing 5.9, Joséphine. Named in honor of acclaimed international jazz singer Joséphine Baker…

Nano-ITX carrier extends RPi CM4 with eight USB ports, M.2, and mini-PCIe
Source: LinuxGizmos

UUGear has launched a full-featured, 120 x 120mm Nano-ITX carrier board for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. The PiGear Nano starts at $201 without the CM4 module or case. The board ships with UWI (UUGear Web Interface) software for mobile access.

Lenovo Unveils TruScale HPC as a Service
Source: insideHPC

Lenovo today unveiled its TruScale High Performance Computing as a Service (HPCaaS), designed to deliver the power of supercomputing through a cloud-like experience.

Rambus Delivers PCIe 6.0 Controller for Next-Generation Data Centers
Source: HPCwire

Rambus Inc., a premier chip and silicon IP provider making data faster and safer, today announced the availability of its PCI Express (PCIe) 6.0 Controller.