Why aren't more people using Linux on the desktop? Slashdot reader technology_dude shares one solution: Jack Wallen at ZDNet says establishing an "official" version of Linux may (or may not) help Linux on the desktop increase the number of users, mostly as someplace to point new users. It makes sense to me. What does Slashdot think and what would be the challenges, other than acceptance of a particular flavor? Wallen argues this would also create a standard for hardware and software vendors to target, which "could equate to even more software and hardware being made available to Linux." (And an "official" Linux might also be more appealing to business users.) Wallen suggests it be "maintained and controlled by a collective of people from users, developers, and corporations (such as Intel and AMD) with a vested interest in the success of this project... There would also be corporate backing for things like marketing (such as TV commercials)." He also suggests basing it on Debian, and supporting both Snap and Flatpak... In comments on the original submission, long-time Slashdot reader bobbomo points instead to kernel.org, arguing "There already is an official version of Linux called mainline. Everything else is backports." And jd (Slashdot user #1,658) believes that the official Linux is the Linux Standard Base. "All distributions, more-or-less, conform to the LSB, which gives you a pseudo 'official' Linux. About the one variable is the package manager. And there are ways to work around that." Unfortunately, according to Wikipedia... The LSB standard stopped being updated in 2015 and current Linux distributions do not adhere to or offer it; however, the lsb_release command is sometimes still available.[citation needed] On February 7, 2023, a former maintainer of the LSB wrote, "The LSB project is essentially abandoned." That post (on the lsb-discuss mailing list) argues the LSB approach was "partially superseded" by Snaps and Flatpaks (for application portability and stability). And of course, long-time Slashdot user menkhaura shares the obligatory XKCD comic... It's not exactly the same thing, but days after ZDNet's article, CIQ, Oracle, and SUSE announced the Open Enterprise Linux Association, a new collaborative trade association to foster "the development of distributions compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux." So where does that leave us? Share your own thoughts in the comments. And should there be an "official" version of Linux?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Steam Survey results for July 2023 were just published and it points to a large and unexpected jump in the Linux gaming marketshare. Phoronix reports; According to these new numbers from Valve, the Linux customer base is up to 1.96%, or a 0.52% jump over June! That's a huge jump with normally just moving 0.1% or so in either direction most months... It's also near an all-time high on a percentage basis going back to the early days of Steam on Linux when it had around a 2% marketshare but at that time the Steam customer size in absolute numbers was much smaller a decade ago than it is now. So if the percentage numbers are accurate, this is likely the largest in absolute terms that the Linux gaming marketshare has ever been. When looking at the Steam Linux breakdown, the SteamOS Holo that powers the Steam Deck is now accounting for around 42% of all Linux gamers on Steam. Meanwhile, AMD CPU marketshare among Linux gamers has reached 69%. The Steam Survey results for July show Windows 10 64-bit losing 1.56% marketshare and Linux gaining the healthy 0.52% of that. This is also the first time the Linux gaming marketshare outpasses Apple macOS on Steam!

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This week the Slackware Linux project is celebrating its 30th anniversary. It is the oldest Linux distribution that is still in active maintenance and development. The Register reports: Version 1.0 of Slackware was announced on the July 16, 1993, and project lead Patrick Volkerding, who still maintains the distribution today, celebrated with a modest announcement: "Hey folks! It's time to acknowledge another one of those milestones... 30 (!) years since I made the post linked below announcing Slackware's first stable release after months of beta testing. Thanks to all of our dedicated contributors, loyal users, and those who have helped us to keep the lights on here. It's really been a remarkable journey that I couldn't have anticipated starting out back in 1993. Cheers! :-)"

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According to Statcounter, the Linux share on the desktop has passed 3% for the first time. GamingOnLinux reports: While it has been close a couple of times, the trend according to their stats is pretty clear that Linux use has been slowly rising over the last few years. This does not include ChromeOS, even though it's based on Linux, as they track that separately so this is just plain desktop Linux. Across this year their stats show for Linux: January - 2.91% February - 2.94% March - 2.85% April - 2.83% May - 2.7% June - 3.07%

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Last week Linus Torvalds personally cleaned up the x86 memory copy code for Linux 6.4, Phoronix reports — and this week "he's merged more of his own code as he took issue with some of the code merged by Intel engineers as part of their Linear Address Masking enabling." Back during the Linux 6.2 days at the end of last year, Linus rejected the Intel LAM code at the time for various technical issues. Intel then reworked it for Linux 6.4. This time around Linus merged Intel LAM into Linux 6.4 as this new CPU feature for letting user-space store metadata within some bits of pointers without masking it out before use. Intel LAM — like Arm TBI — can be of use to virtual machines, profiling / sanitizers / tagging, and other applications. But this time around there were some less than ideal code that he personally took to sprucing up... Torvalds reworked around one hundred lines of code for cleaning it up. It's fun to read Torvalds' commit messages (included in both Phoronix articles). Torvalds begins by writing that the LAM updates "made me unhappy about how 'access_ok()' was done, and it actually turned out to have a couple of small bugs in it too..."

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Linux Magazine argues that System76's Pop!_OS offers "something rare: a commercial distribution that was integrated into the hardware, with utilities designed specifically for System76 computers and keyboards." The only other example of an integrated commercial distro of which I am aware is Purism, a company in the same niche... With hardware and software coming from the same source — what business calls vertical integration — distributions like System76/Pop!_OS offer Linux users their first experiences with what Windows and macOS users have always enjoyed — to say nothing of the closest they can currently get to open hardware. Could Linux be finally becoming mainstream at last? They interviewed System76 CEO Carl Richell (along with a marketing director and media relations manager), who remembered how System76 was actually founded in Carl's basement around 2005: He wanted to show the world how far Linux and open source software had come by delivering it preinstalled on high-quality computers backed by caring, knowledgeable customer support. Carl felt that making Linux computers that highlight the work of the community would be a great way to introduce the broader public to open source technology and its potential... LM: What other hardware might System76 offer in the future? S76: We are in the research and development process of designing our own in-house laptop. We'll eventually refresh our Meerkat mini desktop with a new Thelio-style aesthetic. That project will start sometime after our first in-house laptops start shipping. [In addition,] Launch keyboards and the System76 Keyboard Configurator work on macOS and Windows! We've also prepared ISO layouts for most Launch models but don't have a time frame for release. LM: What are you willing to say at this point about the company's future directions? S76: We're developing COSMIC DE — a desktop environment written in Rust — as well as a prototype for an open hardware laptop manufactured in-house. Finally, Nebula, a line of computer cases based on Thelio desktops will be arriving in the coming months. My favorite line from the interview? "Seeing a flat sheet of aluminum transformed into a beautiful desktop is strikingly rewarding."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Further adding to the excitement of the upcoming Linux 6.4 merge window is the mainline kernel seeing the Device Tree (DT) additions for Apple's current M2 devices including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini systems. From a report: The upstream kernel still has more work to go around the M1/M2 support compared to the downstream state with Asahi Linux, but at least now with this DT support will provide some basic level of upstream kernel support for the Apple M2. Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin today sent in the Apple SoC DT updates targeting the Linux 6.4 cycle for queuing into the SoC tree ahead of the merge window opening around the end of the month. The main addition with this pull request is adding the Apple M2 Device Tree series.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

headless 曰く、

Linux 6.4 で Elan u132-hcd ドライバーの削除が提案されている (Phoronix の記事、 メーリングリストでの提案)。

u132-hcd は USB 接続 CardBus カードリーダー (アダプター) のドライバーだ。CardBus の 3G 通信カードを USB 接続するためなどに使われていたらしい。提案によると、このドライバーは 2006 年から実質変更されておらず、CardBus を USB に変換するアダプターを現在も使っている人はほぼいないと考えられるという。逆に使っている人がいるなら、緊急で修正すべき点がいくつかあるとのこと。

ハードウェア開発元の Elan Digital Systems は既に存在せず、Internet Archive によると公式サイト www.elandigitalsystems.com は 2016 年 3 月に denmarkhotel24.com へリダイレクトされるようになり、同年 10 月以降は www.copenhagen-hotel.net にリダイレクトされている。そのため、これ以上時間を無駄にすることなく、削除してしまおうというのが提案の趣旨だ。

Linux カーネルでは古く、誰にも使われないまま放置された PCMCIA ドライバの削除が検討されており、Linux 6.4 ではキャラクタデバイスドライバの削除が提案されている。個人的にはこの手の拡張カード型デバイスを少なくとも 15 年以上使用していない気もするが、スラドの皆さんはいかがだろうか。

すべて読む | Linuxセクション | Linux | ハードウェア | スラドに聞け！ |

関連ストーリー：
Intel、カード型のモジュラー式PC「Compute Card」の詳細を発表 2017年06月05日
セキュリティ会社、電子投票機のハッキングは簡単にできると方法を公開 2016年11月10日
PCMCIAカード型PCの製品化を目指したクラウドファンディングプロジェクト 2016年08月01日
Slackware 12.1 リリース 2008年05月10日
時代遅れなポートの思い出 2008年03月30日

Liliputing.com has an update about the System76 Meerkat, which they describe as "a compact desktop computer with support for up to 64GB of RAM, up to two storage devices (for as much as 16TB of total storage), and up to an Intel Core i7 mobile processor. It's basically a rebranded Intel NUC." (Escept that System76 offers a choice of Pop!_OS or Ubuntu Linux pre-installed.) "Previously available with a choice of 10th or 11th-gen Intel Core processor options, the Meerkat now also supports 12th-gen Intel chips." That means there are a total of 9 different processor options available. Prices start at $499 for an entry-level model with a Core i3-10110U processor, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. The prices rises by $50 if you want to go with a Core i3-1135G4 model, while prices start at $599 for a Meerkat mini PC with a 12th-gen Intel Core processor.... But the biggest difference is that Intel's 12th-gen processors introduce a hybrid architecture that pairs Performance and Efficiency cores, leading to much higher core counts for better multi-core performance.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shared this report from Phoronix: A pull request of early AMDGPU kernel graphics driver changes was submitted for DRM-Next on Friday as some of the early feature work accumulating for the Linux 6.4 kernel cycle. Among the AMDGPU kernel driver changes this round are a number of fixes affecting items such as the UMC RAS, DCN 3.2, FreeSync, SR-IOV, various IP blocks, USB4, and more. On the feature side, mentioned subtly in the change-log are a few power-related additions... These additions are largely focused on Van Gogh APUs, which is notably for the Valve Steam Deck and benefiting its graphics moving forward. First up, this kernel pull request introduces a new sysfs interface for adjusting/setting thermal throttling. This is wired up for Van Gogh and allows reading/updating the thermal limit temperature in millidegrees Celsius. This "APU thermal cap" interface is just wired up for Van Gogh and seems to be Steam Deck driven feature work so that SteamOS will be better able to manage the thermal handling of the APU graphics.... These power features will be exposed via sysfs while Steam OS will wrap around them intelligently and possibly some new UI settings knobs for those wanting more control over their Steam Deck's thermal/performance.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

あるAnonymous Coward 曰く、

佐渡さんのTweet
> Linux Standard Baseってもうお亡くなりでいいのかな

に返信で紹介されたのが、

2023-2-7のメール
> LSBプロジェクトは基本的に放棄され、部分的に他のプロジェクトに取って代わられました。
> アプリケーションのポータビリティ／スタビリティを実現するためのアプローチとして、現在
> 流行っているのはSnapsやFlatpaks、そしてある意味Dockerコンテナなどもそうです。

だそうです

RHEL 9 ではもう対応していないようす
RHEL 9 の採用における考慮事項
> A.4. 削除されたパッケージ
にlsb関連の物があげられている

スラドでは2018年、デスクトップLinuxプラットフォームが抱える問題とは？(2018-10-11)という記事に「LSBは死んだとの情報が会場から出ている」とあるが詳細な話はなし。その他に明確に終りましたと言っているような話をみつけられなかったのでタレコんでみる

すべて読む | Linuxセクション | Linux |

関連ストーリー：
2018年、デスクトップLinuxプラットフォームが抱える問題とは？ 2018年10月11日
LSB3.2発表、デスクトップ向け要素を整理 2008年02月20日
中国がUNIX OSに匹敵するサーバOS「銀河麒麟」の開発成功 2006年12月12日
FHS 2.3リリース、LSB 2.0もリリース直前 2004年01月30日

Last week ZDNet reported Linux had added upstream support for the Apple M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra chips and then concluded that "newer Mac owners can look forward to running Linux on their M1-powered machines." Saturday Asahi Linux called ZDNet's story "misleading and borderline false," posting on Twitter that "You will not be able to run Ubuntu nor any other standard distro with 6.2 on any M1 Mac. Please don't get your hopes up." We are continuously upstreaming kernel features, and 6.2 notably adds device trees and basic boot support for M1 Pro/Max/Ultra machines. However, there is still a long road before upstream kernels are usable on laptops. There is no trackpad/keyboard support upstream yet. While you can boot an upstream 6.2 kernel on desktops (M1 Mac Mini, M1 Max/Ultra Mac Studio) and do useful things with it, that is only the case for 16K page size kernel builds. No generic ARM64 distro ships 16K kernels today, to our knowledge. Our goal is to upstream everything, but that doesn't mean distros instantly get Apple Silicon support. As with many other platforms, there is some integration work required. Distros need to package our userspace tooling and, at this time, offer 16K kernels. In the future, once 4K kernel builds are somewhat usable, you can expect zero-integration distros to somewhat work on these machines (i.e. some hardware will work, but not all, or only partially). This should be sufficient to add a third-party repo with the integration packages. But for out-of-the-box hardware support, distros will need to work with us to get everything right. We are already working with some, and we expect to announce official Apple Silicon support for a mainstream distro in the near future. Just not quite yet!

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

取り上げるのが遅くなってしまったが、Linus Torvalds氏は19日に「Linux 6.2」を公開した。Appleのチップ「M1 Pro」「M1 Max」「M1 Ultra」のサポートが追加され、初めてAppleのM1チップに正式対応した。このほか「Intel Arc Graphics」の安定サポートがデフォルトで有効化された、オープンソースグラフィックドライバ「Nouveau」により初のNVIDIA GeForce RTX 30シリーズであるAmpereアーキテクチャのサポートが実施されたなどの変更がある。なおLinus Torvalds氏は、Linux 6.1のようなLTS（長期サポート）リリースにはならないことを示唆している模様（LKML、ZDNET Japan、gihyo.jp）。

すべて読む | Linuxセクション | Linux |

関連ストーリー：
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Phoronix reports: While Ubuntu Linux hasn't provided Flatpak support out-of-the-box due to their preference of using their own Snap app packaging/distribution format, Ubuntu flavors/spins have to this point been able to pre-install Flatpak support if they desired. However, for the 23.04 "Lunar Lobster" cycle and moving forward, Ubuntu flavors will no longer be permitted to install Flatpak packages by default. Flatpak support for Ubuntu and its flavors will remain available in the Ubuntu archive so those wanting to install Flatpak support can easily do so post-install. This change going into effect with the 23.04 cycle is making it so no Ubuntu flavors will have Flatpak support installed by default / out-of-the-box: they are supposed to center around Debian packages and Snaps for their out-of-the-box packaging support to align with Ubuntu. From the blog OMG Ubuntu: Ubuntu developers have agreed to stop shipping Flatpak, preinstalled Flatpak apps, and any plugins needed to install Flatpak apps through a GUI software tool in the default package set across all eight of Ubuntu's official flavors, as of the upcoming Ubuntu 23.04 release. Ubuntu says the decision will 'improve the out-of-the-box Ubuntu experience' for new users by making it clearer about what an "Ubuntu experience" is.... As far as Ubuntu is concerned, only deb and snap software is intrinsic to the 'Ubuntu experience', and that experience now needs to be offered everywhere. Flavor leads (apparently) agree, and have all agreed to mirror regular Ubuntu by not offering Flatpak features in their default install for future releases.... Flatpak will not be uninstalled or removed when user makes the upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04 from a version where Flatpak is already present.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Linux Foundation's European off-shoot has formally launched the OpenWallet Foundation (OWF), a new collaborative effort designed to support interoperability between digital wallets through open source software. From a report: The launch comes some five months after the Linux Foundation first revealed plans to set up the OWF, shortly before it spun out a region-specific entity called the Linux Foundation Europe which is where the OWF will now officially reside. While the likes of PayPal, Google, and Apple are among the most recognized digital wallet providers, allowing consumers to conduct financial transactions in-store or online, digital wallets are increasingly being used to store all manner of virtual goods from student ID to driving licenses. On top of that, burgeoning technologies such as the metaverse and crypto are giving rise to greater use-cases for digital wallets. But one thing all these various environments have in common is that the incumbent digital wallets, for the most part, don't play nicely with each other: an Apple Pay die-hard can't send money to their Google Pay brethren. And that is why the OWF is setting out to create an "open source engine" that can power interoperable digital wallets across myriad use-cases including identity, payments, and storing personal credentials such as employment and education certification.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"It's time for me to build a new Linux PC," writes Slashdot reader eggegick, complaining that while Dell (and Amazon) sell systems with Linux pre-installed, it feels like they're tacking on an unnecessary extra expense. But then who sells a desktop PC where Linux is still easy to install? Windows seems to make it difficult to use your own (Linux OS) boot media: I guess this is a security measure, but I can think of better ways to implement this, for instance ask the user to type in "yes" or "fire the explosive bolts", or some sort of simple override).... As it is, I hit the F12 key during the boot to enter the BIOS, hoping to tell it to enable booting from the CD. Well I have not looked at a BIOS screen in a long time, and there is no "enable boot from CD option" anymore. There are some options for booting from other devices but it is all fubar magic to me. One Dell user discovered it's as simple (or as complicated) as going into Settings / Recovery / Troubleshoot / Advanced options / See More Recovery Settings / Advanced Options / UEFI Firmware Settings / Restart to Change UEFI Firmware Settings. (And then under the Boot menu there's a choice called "Secure Boot" with an option labelled "Disabled," after which under the Boot menu the third choice becomes File Browser Add Boot Option / Select Media Driver...) Is that simple enough — or is it fubar magic? "My question is, who builds a desktop PC these days that is user friendly in this regard (i.e. lets me install the OS I want)," asks the original submission. Share your own experiences and suggestions in the comments. Where can you buy a desktop PC that makes Linux easy to install?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

headless 曰く、

非 GNU な Linux ディストリビューション「Chimera Linux」の開発が進められているそうだ (The Register の記事、 公式サイトの About ページ、 FOSDEM 2023 の紹介記事、 GitHub)。

Chimera Linux のユーザーランドでは GNU Core Utilities に代えて FreeBSD ベースのコアユーティリティが使われており、NetBSD や OpenBSD のソースコードも使われている。システムツールチェーンは GNU ツールチェーンではなく LLVM/Clang を用い、C ライブラリも GNU C ライブラリに代えて musl の標準 C ライブラリを用いる。

これらの GNU コンポーネントを使用しないことは、Chimera が GNU/Linux システムでないことを意味する。システムは (make を除いて) GNU コンポーネントを使用することなくブートストラップ可能であり、GNU コンポーネントを使用することなくブート可能だという。

現在はプリアルファ版が提供されており、今春にもアルファテストを開始する計画とのことだ。

すべて読む | Linuxセクション | Linux |

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「AlmaLinux OS」がWSLで使用可能に。Microsoft Storeからインストールも可 2022年04月09日

System76 is announcing a "fully redesigned" version of its AMD-only Linux-powered "Pangolin" laptop with an upgraded memory, storage, processor, and display. 9to5Linux reports: It features the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U processor with up to 4.7 GHz clock speeds, 8 cores, 16 threads, and AMD Radeon 680M integrated graphics.... a 15.6-inch 144Hz Full HD (1920Ã--1080) display [using 12 integrated Radeon graphics cores] with a matte finish, a sleek magnesium alloy chassis, and promises up to 10 hours of battery life with its 70 Wh Li-Ion battery. It also features a single-color backlit US QWERTY Keyboard and a multitouch clickpad. Under the hood, the Linux-powered laptop boasts 32 GB LPDDR5 6400 MHz of RAM and it can be equipped with up to 16TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD storage. Another cool feature is the hardware camera kill switch for extra privacy.... As with all of System76's Linux-powered laptops, the all-new Pangolin comes pre-installed with System76's in-house built Pop!_OS Linux distribution featuring the GNOME-based COSMIC desktop and full disk-encryption or with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: Someone made a Chromium fork... for your terminal. The terminal-based browser Carbonyl "adheres to, and is compatible with modern standards," writes MUO, "meaning that pages behave as they should, and you can even watch streaming video, within the Linux terminal!" But best of all, "Pages connect and render in an instant—seemingly quicker than a desktop GUI browser, and every page we visited was rendered correctly." From the article: There are a bunch of good reasons to browse the internet from the comfort of your terminal. It could be that eschewing the bloat of X.org and Wayland, a terminal is all you have. Maybe you like SSHing into remote machines and browsing the internet from there. Perhaps you, like us, just really, really like terminals. Whatever the reason, your choices of web browsers have, until recently, been limited, and your experience of the world wide web has been a janky, barely-functional one.... We tested Carbonyl in a range of Linux terminals, including the XFCE terminal. GNOME terminal, kitty, and the glorious Cool Retro Terminal. Carbonyl was smooth, fast, and flawless in all of them. We even connected to our Raspberry Pi via SSH in CRT, and ran Carbonyl remotely, watching Taylor Swift music videos on YouTube. No problem. And yes, you can use it to play DOOM.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.