Also included: New releases for Skolelinux and Network Security Toolkit, KDE releases Plasma 5.7 and our writer eats crow.
FOSS Week in Review
A few weeks back I told you I was writing a distro review “for another website.” I did, and it’s done. And since I promised that I’d link you to it when it went up, I’ll reluctantly tell you that it’s a review of Fedora 24 on Distrowatch. Why am I reluctant? Because I made a big gaping error in the review, that’s why (yup, I’m fallible, just like everyone else). Until tonight or tomorrow when I’ll have time to post a mi culpa to the comments on Distrowatch, I’ll leave it to you to figure out where I erred, which I figure many of you will do quite handily, astute bunch that you are.
The review on Distrowatch was part of a one time trade that had Distrowatch’s Jesse Smith writing a review of Tiny Core Linux for FOSS Force. We got the better end of that stick, because so far no errors have revealed themselves in Smith’s review. I was hoping to write another review for Distrowatch in the future, but if that’s to be possible I’ll probably have to eat more than a single slice of humble pie.
Enough of that. Time to move on to the real FOSS News — and being that this was Independence Day in the good ol’ USA, there wasn’t a whole lot of it.
The story that raised the most questions actually happened last week, but only came to our notice this week when it caught the attention of Michael Larabel at Phoronix. Dirk Hohndel has left Intel. After fifteen years serving as the chip maker’s chief Linux and open-source technologist, he’s moved out of his office to set up shop as vice president and chief open-source officer at VMware.
Why does this raise questions? Mainly because VMware doesn’t have a reputation for having much to do with open source, although it was an early player spurring the development of OpenStack Neutron (then called Quantum), a cloud networking controller and a networking-as-a-service project for OpenStack. Since Dell still appears to be in the process of purchasing VMware, this might be in preparation for some plans Dell has afoot.
Hohndel’s hiring would certainly seem to indicate that something is in the works. Not only is he considered very good at what he does, he’s a huge open source advocate who often speaks at open source conferences — so he brings some FOSS community cred to the table. Stay tuned. I have a feeling that at VMware it’s going to be “something open source this way comes.”
You heard it here first: A secret source with the code name “little old lady from Pasadena” has told FOSS Force that the Call for Papers for SCALE 15X is open and will run through midnight PST on November 15. SCALE, of course, is the huge (and yearly becoming huger) community driven Linux expo that’s now held in Pasadena, California. If you want to be a speaker, there’s a webpage for that on the expo’s website. SCALE 15X is scheduled to take place March 2-5, 2017.
Another day, another distro: Network Security Toolkit (or NST) 24 was released on Monday. This live distro, based on Fedora, is “designed to provide easy access to best-of-breed Open Source Network Security Applications.…” On Saturday, Debian Edu 8+edu0 “Jessie” Skolelinux was released. This distro aims to provide “an out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school network.” I’ll leave it to you to figure out the root distro.
Quick take: If you’re ready for a new desktop, on Tuesday KDE announced the release of Plasma 5.7. This release includes improved workflows, the return of the agenda view in the calendar, improvements to the Volume Control applet and more.
Parting shot: After watching Roblimo’s interview with Jeremy Garcia, founder and head honcho at LinuxQuestions.org, I’ve decided he should become a nominee for “FOSS Role Model of the Year” or some such. Watch the interview and tell me if you agree.
That’s it. Another week, another Week in Review. Until we meet again, may the FOSS be with you…
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
