12.03.13
Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Security, Windows at 9:31 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Reporting on scare-mongering from Symantec mostly off target
A PHP worm is widely described in the press as a Linux problem, even though PHP runs on many platforms and flaws in PHP are not uncommon. The FUD comes from an insecurity firm, Symantec, which has history of hostility against GNU/Linux. This FUD has occupied the press in recent days. Here is an example from IDG. Somehow a PHP issue gets described as a “Linux worm” (usually in headlines, too) for many other writers to repeat without researching any further. If there is any issue associated with embedded devices (which cannot be patched easily, if at all), then don’t blame Linux; embedded systems just happen to be an area reined by Linux and GNU. Windows would not have coped any better.
As Mr. Schneier helps remind us these days [1], proprietary software is a helluva lot worse than GNU/Linux, even if there were some security issues in particular combinations like Linux+PHP. Well, proprietary software is often designed with back doors, as Stuxnet helps remind us (Microsoft works closely with the NSA).
So, before bashing Linux over software that also runs on Windows (PHP) be sure to check which platform has vulnerabilities by design. The most disturbing fact is, nowadays it is common to call out “Linux” when there is some Linux-associated weakness but never call out Windows when only Windows is at fault (as in Stuxnet and NSA back doors).
PHP is rarely used on Windows because performance- and cost-wise Windows is a pile garbage; especially developers should realise this (some develop on Windows/Mac OS X but only ever deploy on GNU/Linux). Why pick on the operating system when the flaw is to some degree platform-agnostic? Maybe it was Symantec’s malicious intention again. Symantec makes money from offering remedies to users of a back-doored operating system (like selling insurance for a soon-to-be-broken product). So ignore Symantec’s sensationalism and those whom it bamboozled into parroting. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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11.22.13
Posted in Microsoft, Vista 8, Windows at 6:13 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Apparatus of espionage and vandalism
TPM module inside a computer
Summary: The NSA may not have managed to persuade Torvalds to put back doors in Linux, but Microsoft is just too eager to put more and more remote controls (UEFI, TPM, zero-day vulnerabilities, etc.) as new releases of Windows arrive
A REASONABLY SHORT WHILE back Kaspersky spoke about issues like the Stuxnet-ready Windows causing disasters in nuclear Russian facilities, not just nuclear Iranian facilities. The Russian press denied it, but based on translations we got shown by readers, this denial was rather weak. Concurrently there was FUD in some media channels trying to blame GNU/Linux for Stuxnet-type issues. Here is an update on this whole misinformation campaign: “Using the International Space Station as an example of an isolated critical infrastructure, Kaspersky pointed out that despite being in space, it is still vulnerable to attack. In fact, on a number of occasions over the years the orbiting outpost’s computers have become infected by malware.
““Scientists, from time to time, are coming to space with USBs which are infected. I’m not kidding,” he said. “I was talking to Russian space guys and they said ‘yes, from time to time there are virus epidemics in the space station.’””
All the above issues are the fault of the NSA-made Microsoft Windows (Microsoft and the NSA work on Windows together) and it should not be shocking that Vista 8 makes things even worse. As Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols put it the other day, “Windows 8 and TMP [are] said to combine to permit NSA spying on our computers” (as expected, but TMP is a typo).
Techrighs wrote a lot about Trusted Platform Module (TPM) in the past. The notion and implementation is being steered and promoted by large companies with software patents and connections to government spies, so we can pretty much guess who it serves. As Vaughan-Nichols puts it: “The Microsoft fan club is up in arms. Those reports about Windows 8 allowing the government to spy on us? Nonsense, they fuss. It’s simply not true that Windows 8 combines with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to create a built-in back door for surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA).
“No, no, they whine, the German newspaper Die Zeit had it all wrong when it claimed that the combination of TPM 2.0 and Windows 8.x (German-language article) gives Microsoft complete control over which programs can and can’t run, plus access to Windows BitLocker encryption, and the ability to remotely administer devices beyond a user’s control.”
It is clear, however, what Windows is really for, at least from the NSA’s perspective. It’s a Trojan horse. We should treat it as such. █
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11.12.13
Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 7:10 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Tsar Bomba mushroom cloud
Summary: New example of the high cost of Windows and a new example of FUD in the press, attributing an attack on SCADA to “Linux”
BY NOW, owing to leaks, people know where Stuxnet came from. Israel and the United States developed it and then used it to derail facilities in Iran. It is cyberwar, and it was started quite proactively. A lot of businesses around the world suffered from Stuxnet too, demonstrating quite clearly that the NSA’s criminal behaviour has a high price; others pay the toll, not just US taxpayers. Given the special relationship between Microsoft and the NSA, Stuxnet’s reliance on Windows is not surprising; it’s well known by now.
Putting aside the old news about Stuxnet, Kaspersky claims that Stuxnet infected a Russian nuclear plant. This is extremely dangerous because the US and Russia/USSR have been very close to nuclear war on numerous occasions in the past 30 years. A lot of people don’t know this because such material takes decades before it’s declassified.
“A lot of people don’t know this because such material takes decades before it’s declassified.”With clever phishing scams, not even strong passwords that computer scientists tend to choose can provide protection and it is no secret that Free software is penetrable due to incompetence during setup [1] or even delay in patching/maintenance (new examples in [2-8]). Underlying languages/frameworks can sometimes be the culprits [9,10], but that doesn’t mean that in practice it is easy to crack a GNU/Linux system. Evidence suggests that it is hard.
Having had Windows malware issues in space (USB sticks inside Windows), the International Space Station (ISS) recently moved to Debian GNU/Linux [1. 2]. But this weird article tells a dubious story. It says that ISS got a malware infection from Russian astronauts and then adds this sentence: “The reason is that the space station uses computer-controlled SCADA systems in order to manage various physical components of the satellite. As these systems are based on Linux, they are open to infection.”
“The problem is prevalent in proprietary software not just of Microsoft and the solution may be to simply ban the use of proprietary software.”Really?
Stuxnet malware has been targeting SCADA systems and they run Windows. We’ve sent almost a dozen E-mails back and forth to verify the facts and we are pretty sure the above is a lie. Sosumi says “the rhetoric is made as if linux is the problem [...] the whole thing is fishy [...] it’s like I said, the article is done as if linux was the problem” (it’s not).
iophk wrote: “I would think that the PR people for all the major distros would be all over that article correcting it and demanding a retraction.” He later said: “If you have any contact at Red Hat and Canonical, they might want to find some way of correcting this article [...] It makes it look like the previous Windows infections were Linux.”
Nice FUD they got there.
“Hackers”, in the mean time, are being demonised by Microsoft, which simply misuses the term [11]. The US government cannot seem to understand that relying on Windows in critical systems is a bad idea [12,13] because even fonts open a back door [14,15]. The problem is prevalent in proprietary software not just of Microsoft [16] and the solution may be to simply ban the use of proprietary software [17]. It is improperly reviewed. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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Black Hat research takes a deep look at SSL security and finds it lacking due to a number of common configuration issues.
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In a classic watering hole attack, hackers compromised a well-known, respected high-traffic Website and planted malware in a bid to infect unsuspecting visitors. On Oct. 24, Google began to flag PHP.net as being a site hosting malware, i.e., potentially a watering hole.
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Federal prosecutors have accused a UK man of hacking thousands of computer systems, many of them belonging to the US government, and stealing massive quantities of data that resulted in millions of dollars in damages to victims.
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It’s such a simple concept. Data should not be executed. Images are data. But, no, M$ does not get that and randomly executes code contained in some TIFF images. Out of the bowels of M$’s complexity comes yet another invitation to millions of bad guys to post TIFFs all over the web damaging the systems of millions of users.
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Adobe has revealed the massive hack it suffered a month ago was far bigger than initially reported, with attackers obtaining data on more than 38 million customer accounts.
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The primary difficulty of cyber security isn’t technology — it’s policy.
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Windows at 6:16 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Michael Larabel, photo from Red Users
Summary: Signs of progress for GNU/Linux as a desktop platform owing to simultaneous improvements in the area of graphics drivers and game developers’ support
NAYSAYERS who insist that GNU/Linux cannot keep up with performance of games on Windows should eat their humble pie. Not only is Windows crippling the efforts and strengths of graphics cards (not supporting hardware features which Linux already supports); Windows also can’t demonstrate any performance advantages, based on new benchmarks that involve several different graphics cards [1]. This is noteworthy and now that Valve supports GNU/Linux there are a lot more games available on this free/libre platform, too. Looking at some recent news, there is just so much to say about gaming, even if most of them are proprietary.
GNU/Linux is on the rise, based on the Steam Hardware & Software Survey [2,3]. It has been only a year since it all started [4]. While it is true that ID Software goes the other way [5], Indie Game Bundle [6] and other efforts like Steam continue to deliver the goods. There are plenty of new games [7-12], including a lot which target Valve (GNU/Linux is one of several [13-18]). It’s a significant difference compared to where we were only a few years ago. SteamOS is still generating headlines [19,20] (it is GNU/Linux-based) because of NVIDIA, which also embraces Android games [21], drops 32-bit Linux support for CUDA [22]. NVIDIA’s work is constantly being tested by Michael Larabel’s benchmarks [23,24] who keeps a close eye on new releases [25], including those from AMD [26,27] and Intel [28,29]. He really helps them to compete against each other, trying to get positive publicity by treating Linux nicely. Benchmarks from his site [30] help compare performance of these “big three” and there is also good news from Wine [31] and X.Org Server [32]. It sure seems like now that games get tied to hardware (with GNU/Linux preinstalled), the race towards optimal Linux support bears a huge financial reward. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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Given the recent release of Microsoft Windows 8.1, at Phoronix we took 13 different AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards and compared the performance between Ubuntu Linux and Windows 8.1 with the same hardware and set of OpenGL games/benchmarks. For AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards with their official drivers, the performance is largely similar between the competing desktop operating systems but there are some performance exceptions.
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According to the just-released Steam Hardware Survey from Valve, there has been a considerable increase in number of Linux-compatible games on Steam for Linux. This is indeed great for Linux users as hardware/software survey statistics for previous months were consistently down from when Steam debuted on Linux last year.
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With Valve’s content distribution/social/DRM platform, Steam, having supported all three major desktop platforms for nearly a year now, I’ve been intending to write something about the Steam Hardware & Software Survey for some time. In the coming months, the impact of Valve’s recent SteamOS and Steam Machines announcements is likely to begin shifting some attitudes, perceptions and ultimately (dramatically or subtly) changing the landscape that the survey results depict.
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So today marks a whole year of having the Steam client on Linux, how will you celebrate or do you still refuse to use it?
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Voxatron – A world made of tiny colourful cubes sets the stage for a cast of cute characters on their quests to find courage, adventure, friendship, and sometimes just a way to get home.
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Like Portal, SCALE is a fascinating first-person puzzler that replaces a traditional gun with an inventive new gameplay mechanic. In CubeHeart’s game, you have the ability to resize objects in the world: making bigger or smaller as you see fit. It’s easy to imagine the puzzling opportunities enabled by the scaling mechanic.
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Indie heist game Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine is going multiplatform. The developers announced on the game’s Facebook page that it is hitting Linux. Along with the game’s debut on Linux, it is also getting a bunch of new content as part of the package.
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Cellar Door Games continued its Rogue Legacy by bringing it to Mac and Linux this week, where it’s available now via Steam. The “rogue-lite” that stars successions of heroes, each one differently debilitated, is also on the way to PS3, PS4, and Vita next year.
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The original Trine (2009) first became notable to me after I had discovered that its developer Frozenbyte had given full permission to redistribute screenshots of the game under a Creative Commons license as long as an attribution back to them was preserved. This is a sadly underused marketing technique which also provides the added benefit of allowing a company’s game titles to have beautifully well illustrated articles on Wikipedia. By this point some of Frozenbyte’s earlier titles in the Shadowgrounds series (2005-2007) had already arrived on Linux in the form of somewhat underwhelming third-party ports, but with the knowledge I had gained from their policy regarding screenshots, I had discovered that the game’s original developers were well capable of trying new and better methods of interacting with their community. As such, I accordingly became quite confident that this situation would at some point improve upon itself.
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In June, we have already reported about the Software company Leadwerks porting its game development toolkits Leadwerks 3 to Linux. This should not only help to promote Linux as a gaming platform but also as a platform for the game development. After reaching its goal on Kickstarter.com, Leadwerks has started the beta testing Leadwerks 3.1 on Linux.
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You’ve crawled miles through the grass with a broken leg just to take that shot on your enemy, now it’s time to relive the entire Arma experience like never before – via a tactics game. As of today, you can get Arma Tactics through Steam for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android platforms. This tactic game will give you the full turn-based, close combat, strategy game experience.
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Take a good hard look at Valve’s Steam Machine, because it’s the last time you’ll see it. Er, something like that. Only 300 of the metal beast above will ship to beta testers, and then Valve says it’s cutting off its own supply of Steam Machines. “We’re really building this as a test platform, and there are many machines that are gonna be made by third-parties. They’re the ones that will be available commercially in 2014,” Valve designer Greg Coomer told Engadget.
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This week the folks at NVIDIA have suggested that their developer program GameWorks will not be limited to the likes of Linux and Android – not by any stretch of the imagination. NVIDIA made clear that not only would they be extending GameWorks support – developer tools for games, that is – for Ubuntu environments, but for SteamOS as well. In other words – those gaming developers hoping to optimize their games for Steam Machines with NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphics cards will be able to do so.
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Monday’s update brings Android 4.3 Jelly Bean to the game device, and a new “console mode” turns Shield into a portable living-room game console.
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If you are reliant upon NVIDIA’s CUDA computing parallel computing platform, hopefully you’re running 64-bit Linux. NVIDIA announced their plans on Friday to deprecate the 32-bit Linux x86 CUDA Toolkit and the 32-bit Linux CUDA driver.
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For some weekend Linux benchmarking we tossed six NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards against four AMD Radeon graphics cards to get some idea for how the new OpenCL Linux benchmarks are running via the Phoronix Test Suite.
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For those curious how Valve’s popular Team Fortress 2 game is performing atop the Source Engine with Ubuntu 13.10 and the latest NVIDIA Linux drivers, here’s updated benchmarks as we compare nine graphics cards spanning several GeForce generations.
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The NVIDIA 331.20 Linux graphics driver has been released today. The NVIDIA 331.20 Linux driver has a workaround to support the Linux 3.11 and 3.12 kernels along with introducing NvFBCOpenGL. The new NvFBCOpenGL is for NVIDIA OpenGL frame-buffer capturing that’s high-performance and low-latency.
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The Linux 3.13 kernel that is just entering mainline development stages already has Radeon DPM and HDMI audio by default. However, now there’s another Radeon DRM-Next pull and it provides support for the brand new AMD R9 290 “Hawaii” GPUs!
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Intel has already queued up a fair amount of changes for their DRM graphics driver in the yet-to-be-started Linux 3.13 kernel, but there’s even more work ahead. A new set of patches were pushed into the Intel DRM driver’s kernel testing branch with a lot of “cool stuff” according to its developers.
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The Core i7 4960X Extreme Edition processor is Intel’s new $1000+ CPU built atop their “Ivy Bridge” architecture and features six physical cores plus Hyper Threading. The i7-4960X is running at 3.6GHz with a 4.0GHz Turbo Frequency and is all around a super-fast processor. Under Linux, the performance is fantastic and it runs great on modern Linux distributions.
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If you’re in the market for a low-end graphics processor that’s compatible with Linux and the available open-source Mesa/Gallium3D graphics drivers, here’s a roundup of benchmark results for seven different AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA graphics processors.
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Wine 1.7.6 is now available as the latest bi-weekly release of the Wine software for running Windows applications and games on Linux.
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X.Org Server 1.15 hasn’t been too exciting with not many prominent changes, but just ahead of the closure of the merge window, but the GLX rewrite has landed. The GLX rewrite will simplify the X.Org Server’s use of OpenGL and drops a whole lot of code in the process.
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11.11.13
Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 6:16 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Why the imminent end of Windows XP is likely to lead to a lot of GNU/Linux adoptions, especially where it’s required by state law or other rules/regulations
A writer at CNET, which is part of CBS, recently started an Internet-wide discussion when he wrote about “[h]ow to decide if Linux is right for you” [1]. This discussion reached as far as its competitor, IDG, where a distro reviewer and relatively new pundit addressed the subject, rephrasing it as a question [2]. Security experts in Holland are certain that GNU/Linux is suitable and worth considering for replacing Windows XP [3,4], which reaches its End of Life (EOL) in a matter of months. Evidence suggests, based on this new article [5] from ZDNet (also part of CBS), that old computers with Windows XP can be refurbished “on a budget” with fairly full-featured distributions like openSuSE and Fedora 19. Interesting times are ahead because as a matter of compliance with the law (for governments) or guidelines (in businesses) many people will soon have to throw away their computers (incapable of running Vista and successors) or simply upgrade to a modern distribution of GNU/Linux. Microsoft extended the life of Windows XP many times (for long periods of time) because it knows this. It also lowered (significantly) the cost of Windows XP when it needed to dump it onto the market to push back GNU/Linux, especially in sub-notebooks (better known as netbooks). █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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This open-source operating system offers a Windows-like experience without all the hassles. Plus, it’s free. Should it be your next OS?
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Many folks using other operating systems sometimes wonder if Linux is right for them.
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I wish my government pointed the way. I would suggest they recommend Debian GNU/Linux. I find it more reliable than Ubuntu GNU/Linux and less expensive than Red Hat GNU/Linux.
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The Dutch government’s cyber security centre says that Linux is suitable for business users, as well as for personal use. It points to the Ubuntu or Red Hat open source distributions as a viable alternative for those that are currently using a decade-old proprietary operating system.
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Buying refurbished systems can save a lot of money and produce impressive results: here’s what I found when testing out openSuSE and Fedora 19 on a a refurbished Lenovo.
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11.07.13
Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Vista 8, Windows at 5:37 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
GNU and Linux (which already dominates by its inclusion in the core of Android) are rising
Summary: GNU/Linux may become dominant on the desktop as early as next year, some pundits argue, citing the problems with Vista 8 and the end of Windows XP
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, a longtime critic of Microsoft, calls the bugfix release of Vista 8 “more Windows fail,” noting of course what we’ve stressed since last year. Microsoft made too radical a change to Windows, so due to retraining costs it might be worth for businesses to just make the migration to GNU/Linux, not ‘upgrade’ to Vista 8.x. To quote Vaughan-Nichols:
My assessment: Windows 8.1 doesn’t suck as much as Windows 8. If you felt, when using Windows 8, as if you were banging your head against a brick wall, Windows 8.1 might feel as if you’re banging it against a wooden wall. Much better, right? Of course, someday you might ask yourself why you need to bang your head against a wall at all.
Let’s start with Start. Yes, we’ve all heard that Microsoft is bringing the Start button back, responding to all those users shrieking about its disappearance. So that’s better, right? Not so much. All that the new Start button does is bring up the touchy-feely Metro — uh, I mean, Modern — no, wait, make that “Windows 8 Store apps” interface. Is it any wonder that Lenovo bundles the Pokki Start button and menu replacement software with its Windows 8.x machines?
About that interface name: Windows 8 Store apps. Really? Could it be any lamer? Tell me, is there any way Ballmer can be shoved out the door faster?
In the new article “Three signs you’re drinking the Microsoft Kool-Aid” some good points are being made, noting that a lot of people choose to use Windows (or tolerate it being preinstalled) for the wrong reasons. The problem, however, is that the article started with or focuses on the wrong battle — a battle of brands of proprietary software. It says “Mac users have long been criticized for drinking the proverbial Apple Kool-Aid, but as iOS and OS X market share continues climbing, and Microsoft continues hemorrhaging, now might be the time to ask whether you’re drinking the Microsoft Kool-Aid. Here are three sure signs you need to step back, take a deep breath, and re-examine marketplace realities.”
A much better article [1] notes that the “year of the Linux desktop” may be imminent because of the changes Microsoft makes to Windows. A couple of IDG articles [2,3] note that the end of support for XP can make a big difference and that “[f]or the Mac, like the PC, it’s all downhill from here” (“PC” as in Windows). █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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The “year of the Linux desktop” has been prophesied by Linux supporters almost every year for the last decade. This was once a lofty goal in the Microsoft-dominated enterprise, but times are changing. Linux has grown into a formidable competitor in the smartphone and cloud computing markets, which has caught Microsoft off guard. More importantly, Google, IBM, Red Hat, Facebook, and Netflix have made huge investments into Linux innovations.
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Should Linux Replace Windows XP?
Windows XP is headed for the scrap heap, should Linux be used to replace it on older computers? TechRepublic takes a look at this question, and comes away with a negative point of view.
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10.26.13
Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 8:31 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: How Torvalds and Stallman view the emergence of Steam on GNU/Linux and what it means to Apple and Microsoft
MICROSOFT, which suffered major losses even in the nineties (when it was said to be ultra-wealthy), is on its way out as a monopoly in operating systems. Microsoft is not just hugely corrupt; it is an odd entity because of its financial state. It receives large subsidies from governments (in the form of contracts) and very recent NSA leaks about PRISM show a simultaneous NSA Skype takeover, coinciding with Microsoft’s purchase of the European company. A lot of businesses are created in and/or operating in losses, sometimes with government subsidies (if they have friends in government or some strong lobbying). Last year Microsoft publicly admitted losses (the key word here is “publicly”). Based on Microsoft’s own words (to investors) in a new filing [via]; “D&C Licensing revenue decreased $335 million or 7%, due mainly to lower revenue from licenses of Windows OEM and Consumer Office, offset in part by increased Windows Phone revenue. Windows OEM revenue declined $237 million or 7%, reflecting a 22% decrease in OEM non-Pro revenue, offset in part by a 6% increase in OEM Pro revenue. Consumer Office revenue declined $217 million or 23%. These decreases resulted primarily from the impact on revenue of a decline in consumer demand.” They speak about revenue — not income — and moreover they omit the divisions/products that are losing billions of dollars each. Nobody except Microsoft really knows what kind of accounting goes o deepn inside. Even the impact of patent shakedown against Android is unknown; it is hard to confirm that Microsoft even makes money this way. Given how previous Microsoft CFOs were paid millions of dollars to just keep quiet (after former Microsoft accountants had blown the whistle on financial fraud) we might as well assume that Microsoft always does far worse than it publicly admits.
Linux Torvalds believes that Valve’s new GNU/Linux-based operating system will help the platform as a whole on the desktop [1,2]. Richard Stallman too, back when he wrote about this subject, is careful not to judge Valve too crudely. Not even a free-of-charge Mac OSuX is a threat to GNU/Linux in Torvalds’ mind, based on these new reports, so the only barrier/milestone to GNU/Linux as a dominant force on the desktop right now is some additional momentum. Nvidia, for example, thought it could just give Linux the middle finger because not many people used it on the desktop; big mistake! Nvidia was widely shamed when Torvalds gave it the middle finger (it received plenty of coverage and a photo of it in included in one of the articles above) and now that we know how Nvidia intentionally crippled its drivers for Linux we should give it a good boycott. There are plenty of new games announced every week [3-13] and Nvidia’s intentionally-broken drivers (which are also blobs with potential back doors) will only be a barrier. Some try to explain why Nvidia did this [14] while the company releases a new driver [15] and in other Linux graphics news [16], both Wayland [17] and X.Org [18] are very much alive, showing that more than just one display server (there are several now) is needed when Linux goes mainstream, especially in mobile (servers rarely need a graphical front end). The biggest losers here are Microsoft and Apple and judging by current trends (both companies lose share in their key areas) we are heading towards a world of Linux (and often GNU too) everywhere! █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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Linus Torvalds has given his approval to Valve’s Linux-based platform, SteamOS, and said it could boost Linux on desktops.
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This is a familiar refrain that has received new life in recent months thanks to Valve and its efforts to turn Linux into a gaming platform with the Steam client for Linux (shown above) and the Linux-based SteamOS.
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Greetings everyone, for a timely installment of the Indie Game Bundle update. This week, sites are really getting into the Halloween mood. There are 12 bundles to choose from this week, and three get into the spirit of the season by filling themselves with horror games. Of those three, the just released Groupee’s Bundle of the Damned 2 is probably the best bet, because then you get an array of unsettling games, along with a graphic novel and some otherworldly music. Really though, it’s up to you. It’s a good week in the world of indie game bundles, and you’ll find something to amuse yourselves and add to your backlog.
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Battle Worlds: Kronos, the hexy turn-based strategy game funded through a successful Kickstarter, will begin November 4 taking deployment orders to PC, Mac and Linux (Steam and GOG). Updating release windows developer KING Art provided to us at Gamescom, the mobile and tablet versions are now planned for early 2014. The studio previously told us mid-2014.
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Danish developer, BetaDwarf Entertainment have officially released Forced on Steam for PC, Mac and Linux. In celebrating the launch this week, the action RPG will be available for a special 20% discount.
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The developers at Subterranean Games are “on track for our spooky surprise” by the end of October, as well as extend the deadline on their War for the Overworld-themed pumpkin competition to November 3rd.
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And Yet it Moves and Chasing Aurora developer Broken Rules has launched an Indiegogo campaign for its upcoming exploratory action adventure Secrets of Rætikon.
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Valve’s long game could lead consoles to a more ‘enlightened path’
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NVIDIA this morning unveiled their first Linux graphics driver beta as part of the 331.xx series. The NVIDIA 331.13 Beta that was released this morning for Linux systems is quite exciting in that it brings a whole lot of fixes, improvements, and new features. Perhaps most exciting is that there’s finally (but limited) EGL support right now — a precursor for handling Wayland and Mir.
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The X.org Developer’s Conference was held in Portland this September, providing a venue to discuss a range of topics relating to OpenGL, drivers, the X server, Wayland and Mir. Core X.org development has been in a bit of a lull, evidenced by the fact that there wasn’t enough change to warrant a near-term 1.15 release of the server, but this is more than made up by increased progress made in Mesa at implementing OpenGL specifications.
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While there’s been a lot of Wayland announcements recently, there hasn’t been much news on the Wayland-powered Qt5-based Hawaii desktop that’s part of the Maui project. Though they have hit a roadblock in their “Green Island” Wayland compositor, the desktop shell continues to move forward with new features and functionality.
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At the XDC2013 X.Org conference it was decided to postpone the X.Org Server 1.15 release until year’s end to let more features land. Keith Packard has now gone ahead and merged some of the new code and issued a new development release.
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10.18.13
Posted in GNU/Linux, Windows at 2:54 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The world’s largest force of offshore violence and naval aggression is embracing GNU/Linux
LINUX is “evolving everywhere,” as one reporter from IDG put it some days ago [1]. A colleague said that “your next network operating system is Linux” [2] as if Linux is not yet a common platform in networking (it is). When it comes to mission-critical systems, it is usually the platform of choice and GNU is often part of the system (not always).
Microsoft can go on raving about Windows for submarines and all that marketing nonsense (the US Army favours Linux in equipment like drones, having abandoned Windows) and new reports [3,4] suggest that the US Navy’s new $3.5 billion ship will be Linux-powered. Does this represent a strategic shift in the Navy? It’s the US Navy which is also behind submarines, so is Windows on its way out? NSA back doors can’t be good for anyone’s security. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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Mark Shuttleworth’s recent closure of Ubuntu Linux bug No. 1 (“Microsoft has a majority market share”) placed a meaningful, if somewhat controversial, exclamation point on how far Linux has come since Linus Torvalds rolled out the first version of the OS in 1991 as a pet project.
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Networking is the last bastion of proprietary systems, but Cumulus Networks sees a near future where Linux powers network hardware by default
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The USS Zumwalt will be a floating data center—armed with missiles and robot guns.
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