UEFI has a pretty bad reputation among many in the Linux community. UEFI unnecessarily complicated Linux installation and distro-hopping in Windows pre-installed machines, for example. Linux Boot project by Linux Foundation aims to replace some firmware functionality like the UEFI DXE phase with Linux components.

What is UEFI?
UEFI is a standard or a specification that replaced legacy BIOS firmware, which was the industry standard for decades. Essentially, UEFI defines the software components between operating system and platform firmware.


UEFI boot has three phases: SEC, PEI and DXE. Driver eXecution Environment or DXE Phase in short: this is where UEFI system loads drivers for configured devices. LinuxBoot will replaces specific firmware functionality like the UEFI DXE phase with a Linux kernel and runtime.

LinuxBoot and the Future of System Startup
"Firmware has always had a simple purpose: to boot the OS. Achieving that has become much more difficult due to increasing complexity of both hardware and deployment. Firmware often must set up many components in the system, interface with more varieties of boot media, including high-speed storage and networking interfaces, and support advanced protocols and security features."  writes Linux Foundation.

LinuxBoot will replace this slow and often error-prone code with a Linux Kernel. This alone should significantly improve system startup performance.

On top of that, LinuxBoot intends to achieve increased boot reliability and boot-time performance by removing unnecessary code and by using reliable Linux drivers instead of lightly tested firmware drivers. LinuxBoot claims that these improvements could potentially help make the system startup process as much as 20 times faster.

In fact, this "Linux to boot Linux" technique has been fairly common place in supercomputers, consumer electronics, and military applications, for decades. LinuxBoot looks to take this proven technique and improve on it so that it can be deployed and used more widely by individual users and companies.

Current Status
LinuxBoot is not as obscure or far-fetched as, say, lowRISC (open-source, Linux capable, SoC) or even OpenPilot. At FOSDEM 2019 summit, Facebook engineers revealed that their company is actively integrating and finetuning LinuxBoot to their needs for freeing hardware down to the lowest levels.


Facebook and Google are deeply involved in LinuxBoot project. Being large data companies, where even small improvements in system startup speed and reliability can bring major advantages, their involvement is not a surprise. To put this in perspective, a large data center run by Google or Facebook can have tens of thousands of servers. Other companies involved include Horizon Computing, Two Sigma and 9elements Cyber Security.

Unless you live under a rock, you must've been inundated with nonstop news about Google's high-octane launch ceremony yesterday where they unveiled the much hyped game streaming platform called Stadia.

Stadia, or Project Stream as it was earlier called, is a cloud gaming service where the games themselves are hosted on Google's servers, while the visual feedback from the game is streamed to the player's device through Google Chrome. If this technology catches on, and if it works just as good as showed in the demos, Stadia could be what the future of gaming might look like.

Stadia, Powered by Linux

It is a fairly common knowledge that Google data centers use Linux rather extensively. So it is not really surprising that Google would use Linux to power its cloud based Stadia gaming service. 

Stadia's architecture is built on Google data center network which has extensive presence across the planet. With Google Stadia, Google is offering a virtual platform where processing resources can be scaled up to match your gaming needs without the end user ever spending a dime more on hardware.


And since Google data centers mostly runs on Linux, the games on Stadia will run on Linux too, through the Vulkan API. This is great news for gaming on Linux. Even if Stadia doesn't directly result in more games on Linux, it could potentially make gaming a platform agnostic cloud based service, like Netflix.

With Stadia, "the data center is your platform," claims Majd Bakar, head of engineering at Stadia. Stadia is not constrained by limitations of traditional console systems, he adds. Stadia is a "truly flexible, scalable, and modern platform" that takes into account the future requirements of the gaming ecosystem. When launched later this year, Stadia will be able to stream at 4K HDR and 60fps with surround sound.

Watch the full presentation here. Tell us what you think about Stadia in the comments.

The hype around "convergence" just won't die it seems. We have heard it from Ubuntu a lot, KDE, even from Google and Apple in fact. But the dream of true convergence, a uniform OS experience across platforms, never really materialised. Even behemoths like Apple and Googled failed to pull it off with their Android/iOS duopoly. Purism's Debian based PureOS wants to change all that for good.

Purism, PureOS, and the future of Convergence

Purism, a computer technology company based out of California, shot to fame for its Librem series of privacy and security focused laptops and smartphones. Purism raised over half a million dollars through a Crowd Supply crowdfunding campaign for its laptop hardware back in 2015. And unlike many crowdfunding megahits which later turned out to be duds, Purism delivered on its promises big time.


Later in 2017, Purism surprised everyone again with their successful crowdfunding campaign for its Linux based opensource smartphone, dubbed Librem 5. The campaign raised over $2.6 million and surpassed its 1.5 million crowdfunding goal in just in two weeks. Purism's Librem 5 smartphones will start shipping late 2019.

Librem, which loosely refers to free and opensource software, was the brand name chosen by Purism for its laptops/smartphones. One of the biggest USPs of Purism devices is the hardware kill switches that it comes loaded with, which physically disconnects phone's camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, and mobile broadband modem.

Meet PureOS, Purism's Debian Based Linux OS

PureOS is a free and opensource, Debian based Linux distribution which runs on all Librem hardware including its smartphones. PureOS is endorsed by Free Software Foundation. 

The term convergence in computer speak, refers to applications that can work seamlessly across platforms, and bring a consistent look and feel and similar functionality on your smartphone and your computer. 

"Purism is beating the duopoly to that dream, with PureOS: we are now announcing that Purism’s PureOS is convergent, and has laid the foundation for all future applications to run on both the Librem 5 phone and Librem laptops, from the same PureOS release", announced Jeremiah Foster, the PureOS director at Purism (by duopoly, he was referring to Android/iOS platforms that dominate smartphone OS ecosystem).

Ideally, convergence should be able to help app developers and users all at the same time. App developers should be able to write their app once, testing it once and running it everywhere. And users should be able to seamlessly use, connect and sync apps across devices and platforms.

Easier said than done though. As Jeremiah Foster himself explains:

"it turns out that this is really hard to do unless you have complete control of software source code and access to hardware itself. Even then, there is a catch; you need to compile software for both the phone’s CPU and the laptop CPU which are usually different architectures. This is a complex process that often reveals assumptions made in software development but it shows that to build a truly convergent device you need to design for convergence from the beginning."

How PureOS is achieving convergence?

PureOS have had a distinct advantage when it comes to convergence. Purism is a hardware maker that also designs its platforms and software. From its inception, Purism has been working on a "universal operating system" that can run on different CPU architectures.

"By basing PureOS on a solid, foundational operating system – one that has been solving this performance and run-everywhere problem for years – means there is a large set of packaged software that 'just works' on many different types of CPUs."

The second big factor is "adaptive design", software apps that can adapt for desktop or mobile easily, just like a modern website with responsive deisgn.


"Purism is hard at work on creating adaptive GNOME apps – and the community is joining this effort as well – apps that look great, and work great, both on a phone and on a laptop".

Purism has also developed an adaptive presentation library for GTK+ and GNOME, called libhandy, which the third party app developers can use to contribute to Purism's convergence ecosystem. Still under active development, libhandy is already packaged into PureOS and Debian.

Not many might remember HP's capable webOS. The open source webOS operating system was HP's answer to Android and iOS platforms. It was slick and very user-friendly from the start, some even considered it a better alternative to Android for Tablets at the time. But like many other smaller players, HP's webOS just couldn't find enough takers, and the project was abruptly ended and sold off of to LG.

The Open Source LG webOS

Under the 2013 agreement with HP Inc., LG Electronics had unlimited access to all webOS related documentation and source code. When LG took the project underground, webOS was still an open-source project.

After many years of development, webOS is now LG's platform of choice for its Smart TV division. It is generally considered as one of the better sorted Smart TV user interfaces. LG is now ready to take the platform beyond Smart TVs. LG has developed an open source version of its platform, called webOS Open Source Edition, now available to the public at webosose.org.

Dr. I.P. Park, CTO at LG Electronics had this to say, "webOS has come a long way since then and is now a mature and stable platform ready to move beyond TVs to join the very exclusive group of operating systems that have been successfully commercialization at such a mass level. As we move from an app-based environment to a web-based one, we believe the true potential of webOS has yet to be seen."

By open sourcing webOS, it looks like LG is gunning for Samsung's Tizen OS, which is also open source and built on top of Linux. In our opinion, device manufacturers preferring open platforms (like Automotive Grade Linux), over Android or iOS is a welcome development for the long-term health of the industry in general.

From the most consumer focused distros like Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint or elementary OS to the more obscure, minimal and enterprise focused ones such as Slackware, Arch, openSUSE or RHEL, I thought I've seen them all.

Linux eco-system is extremely diverse. There's one for everyone, for every use-case imaginable. And then there are those which are straight up nonsensical. Let's discuss the weird and wacky world of niche Linux distros that represents the true diversity of open platforms.


Puppy Linux: An operating system which is about 1/10th the size of an average DVD quality movie, that's Puppy Linux for you. The OS is just 100 MB in size! And it can run from RAM making it unusually fast even in older PCs.

You can even remove the boot medium after the operating system has started! Can it get any better than that? System requirements are bare minimum, most hardware are automatically detected, and it comes loaded with software catering to your basic needs. Experience Puppy Linux.

Suicide Linux: Did the name scare you? Well it should. 

Any time - any time - you type anything remotely incorrect into your command-line, the interpreter creatively resolves it into rm -rf / and wipes your hard drive. Simple as that. I'm pretty sure no one here is stupid enough to risk their production machines with Suicide Linux. But here's the official warning anyway: DO NOT try this on production machines! The whole thing is available in a neat DEB package if you're interested.

PapyrOS: "Strange" in a good way. 

PapyrOS is trying to adapt the material design language of Android into their brand new Linux distribution. Though the project is in early stages, it already looks very promising. The project page says the OS is 80% complete and one can expect the first Alpha release anytime soon. We did a small write up on PapyrOS when it was announced and by the looks of it, PapyrOS might even become a trend-setter of sorts. Follow the project on Google+ and contribute via BountySource if you're interested. 2019 Update: Project seems to have lost steam.

Qubes OS: Qubes is an open-source operating system designed to provide strong security using a Security by Compartmentalization approach. 

The assumption is that there can be no perfect, bug-free desktop environment. And by implementing a 'Security by Isolation' approach, Qubes Linux intends to remedy that. Qubes is based on Xen, the X Window System, and Linux, and can run most Linux applications and supports most Linux drivers. Qubes was selected as a finalist of Access Innovation Prize 2014 for Endpoint Security Solution.

Ubuntu Satanic Edition: Ubuntu SE is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu.

"It brings together the best of free software and free metal music" in one comprehensive package consisting of themes, wallpapers, and even some heavy-metal music sourced from talented new artists. Project doesn't look actively developed anymore. Ubuntu SE (Slightly NSFW).

Tiny Core Linux: Puppy Linux not small enough? Look no further.

Tiny Core Linux is a 12 MB graphical Linux desktop! Yep, you read it right. One major caveat: It is not a complete desktop nor is all hardware completely supported. It represents only the core needed to boot into a very minimal X desktop typically with wired internet access. There is even a version without the GUI called Micro Core Linux which is just 9MB in size. Tiny Core Linux folks.

NixOS: A very experienced-user focused Linux distribution with a unique approach to package management. 

In other distributions, actions such as upgrades can be dangerous. Upgrading a package can cause other packages to break, upgrading an entire system is much less reliable than reinstalling from scratch. And top of all that you can't safely test what the results of a configuration change will be, there's no "Undo" so to speak.


In NixOS, the entire operating system is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. This means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow this pattern. Nix stores all packages in isolation from each other. More about NixOS.

GoboLinux: This one has a unique file system hierarachy.

What makes GoboLinux so different from the rest is its unique re-arrangement of traditional Linux filesystem. It has its own subdirectory tree, where all of its files and programs are stored. GoboLinux does not have a package database because the filesystem is its database.

In some ways, this sort of arrangement is similar to that seen in OS X. Get GoboLinux.

Hannah Montana Linux: lol WUT?

Exactly. This is a Linux distro based on Kubuntu with a Hannah Montana themed boot screen, KDM, icon set, ksplash, plasma, color scheme, and wallpapers (I'm so sorry). Link. Project not active anymore.

RLSD Linux: An extremely minimalistic, small, lightweight and security-hardened, text-based operating system built on Linux. "It's a unique distribution that provides a selection of console applications and home-grown security features which might appeal to hackers," developers claim. RLSD Linux.

Did we miss anything even stranger? Let us know in the comments.

Not many must have heard about the existence of something called Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), a project hosted by Linux foundation to build a Linux based platform and framework for automotive applications. The project got kick-started back in 2012 and the founding members included marque automotive players such as Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, and Toyota, along with tech giants such as Fujitsu, HARMAN, NVIDIA, Renesas, Samsung and Texas Instruments (TI). Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) platform will debut in 2018 Toyota Camry.

Toyota's AGL Adoption in 2018 Toyota Camry

Automotive Grade Linux or AGL is a Linux based open source car infotainment platform that has been in the works for the last several years. As a Linux Foundation backed project, AGL now boasts broad based support from auto majors across the world. Along with the founding members like JLR and Toyota, car manufacturing giants like Daimler AG, Ford, Honda, Mitsubishi Motors, Subaru etc. are also paying members of the AGL project today.

The 2018 Toyota Camry will be the first car to utilize AGL. According to Dan Cauchy of AGL, "Toyota is an early adopter of Linux and open-source and has been an active member and contributor to AGL for several years. They have been a driving force behind the development of the AGL infotainment platform, and we are excited to see the traction that it’s gaining across the industry."

Auto makers have generally been clumsy when it comes to integrating and updating the latest/fastest tech to their in-house infotainment systems. And more and more players are going the easier route by simple giving customers the choice of Android Auto or Apple CarPlay or both. AGL can prove be a good compromise package by which the auto makers doesn't have to cede completely to Silicon Valley giants.

"The flexibility of the AGL platform allows us to quickly roll-out Toyota’s infotainment system across our vehicle line-up, providing customers with greater connectivity and new functionalities at a pace that is more consistent with consumer technology," said Keiji Yamamoto, Executive Vice President, Connected Company of Toyota Motor Corporation, in a press release. "Adopting an open source development approach has enabled us to focus resources on developing innovative new features and bringing them to market faster."

On a related note, here are two other obscure open source projects you've probably never heard about: 1. lowRISC: Open source, Linux capable SoC, 2. Udacity: An open source self-driving car project.

Long years ago, we've talked about a Skype alternative called Tox which was still in its early developmental stages. Tox was supposed to become the anti-thesis of Skype by being a fully open-source video and voice chat client that placed user privacy and security at its center. Well, guess what, there are now fully active and well-maintained chat clients that are built on top of Tox protocol. qTox is one of them.

qTox: Free and Open Source Skype Replacement for Linux

Tox is a peer-to-peer instant-messaging and video-calling protocol that offers end-to-end encryption. There are two popular clients built on top of Tox, namely uTox and qTox. Here we will discuss about qTox, the more feature-rich and configurable of the two.

The work flow of qTox video chat client is pretty straight forward. You just need to share you unique Tox ID (the one you get after you sign up) with the person you want to chat. Friend requests pop-up in your screen once it is sent and you can either accept or reject it. qTox is fully featured with support for video/voice chat (picture-in-picture mode for video calls), sending/receiving files, screen-sharing etc. By default, video chat is disabled for security reasons and you need to enable it first in qTox-Settings when you want to video chat.

Installing qTox in Ubuntu 16.10:
Just copy-paste the following commands into Terminal one by one (keyboard shortcut: CTRL+ALT+T).

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/antonbatenev:/tox/xUbuntu_16.10/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/qtox.list"
wget -nv http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:antonbatenev:tox/xUbuntu_16.10/Release.key -O Release.key
sudo apt-key add - < Release.key
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install qtox

The first line adds the repository while the second and third line download the key for authentication. Then you update the repositories and install the app, which is 'qtox' here.

Installing qTox in Ubuntu 16.04:
Installing qTox in Ubuntu 16.04.2 "Xenial Xerus", being the latest LTS release. Same as before, copy-paste the following lines to your Terminal.

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/antonbatenev:/tox/xUbuntu_16.04/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/qtox.list"
wget -nv http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:antonbatenev:tox/xUbuntu_16.04/Release.key -O Release.key
sudo apt-key add - < Release.key
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install qtox

Done! After installing you can quick-launch the app from Ubuntu launcher, just search for 'qTox'. I have installed the app in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 16.10 and Windows 10. The video and voice chat worked across platforms. Tried screen-sharing too with Windows 10, but the experience could have been a lot smoother. But as I understand, qTox is still in active development. So you can expect improvements to happen over time.

qTox is cross-platform and is available on a wide range of OSes. For downloading qTox for your favourite Linux OS (Arch, CentOS, Fedora, openSUSE supported), follow this link. For Windows and OSX installers, see here. qTox is still very much on the bleeding-edge side of things and we strongly recommend adequate testing before using it on production machines. Thank you for reading. Related: Meet the new Skype for Linux Beta.

After long years of inactivity, a new Skype for Linux was released about an year ago. Though the version of Skype released for Linux was in its early alpha and had many critical features missing, it was reassuring to know that Microsoft has not abandoned Skype for Linux platform entirely after acquiring it. Microsoft recently released the beta version of Skype for Linux platform giving a major fillip to many missing features.

New Skype for Linux Beta: What works, what doesn't?

So, the new Skype for Linux beta is here. It is not a finished product yet and has its limitations. But unlike the earlier alpha release, the Skype beta comes loaded with all the basic functionalities one expects from a video/voice chat software. It supports one to one video calls from Linux to other platforms and vice versa. Skype credits is also enabled by which you can make calls to mobiles and landlines.  

Screen sharing though is still tricky. Apparently, as a Linux user, you can view shared screens from other Skype desktop clients (Windows and Mac), but you cannot share your screen with other platforms, which is a major letdown for business users. Deeper integration with Ubuntu's Unity launcher is another plus. For example, Skype beta now shows the number of unread conversations on the Unity launcher. 

• Download Skype beta for Linux (DEB and RPM available)
• Double click to install in Ubuntu. Successfully tested on Ubuntu 16.10 "Yakkety Yak".

The launch of Steam platform for Linux in 2012 was a watershed moment for Linux desktop market. For gamers struggling with their dual boot setups, this was as good as it gets, or so we thought. Not even the biggest optimists amongst us expected such a huge turn around with Valve releasing games at an unprecedented rate (more than 100 games per month) on its Steam for Linux platform since its first release. But Valve is not ready to slowdown with its Linux ambitions as yet. Valve has just opened its SteamVR platform for Linux! Developers will now be able to create Linux content for HTC Vive VR headset and other VR hardware.

SteamVR Support for Linux Launched

Valve has just launched its SteamVR for Linux platform and developers can now start creating content for the same. The program is still in beta, meaning developers must use NVIDIA developer beta driver built on "Vulcan", dubbed as the "next generation OpenGL initiative". As a developer, you are also limited to access only "direct" mode which means you cannot display images on the headset and the display at the same time. There is also limited support for AMD based cards but Intel graphics card isn't supported.

We're now live with a developer build of SteamVR for Linux! https://t.co/UbsEC01eDh

— Pierre-Loup Griffais (@Plagman2) February 21, 2017

The importance of Linux platform in Valve's scheme of things was pretty evident when Gabe Newell himself clarified that Valve builds and runs all of its source code, animation and assets on Linux. With the latest addition of SteamVR support, Valve is doubling down on its commitment towards its Linux based SteamOS platform. 

It's now official. Linux ports of two blockbuster titles, Hitman and Civilization VI, will arrive on Feb 16th and Feb 9th respectively via Steam for Linux. The Civilization VI is also coming with a special limited time launch price of $47.99 for the base game. 

Sid Meier's Civilization VI is a turn based strategy game developed by Firaxis Games originally released for Microsoft Windows platform late last year. It went on to become the fastest selling game in the Civilization series, more than a million copies were sold in the first few weeks of its release. There were rumors about potential Linux ports from day one. All speculations were laid to rest with the official announcement from Aspyr Media about the imminent arrival of Sid Meier’s Civilization VI for Linux. [Steam]

Minimum System Requirements:
Operating System: Ubuntu 16.04 / SteamOS
CPU Processor: Intel Core i3 530 or AMD A8-3870
CPU Speed: 2.93 GHz
Memory: 6 GB
Hard Disk Space: 15 GB
Video Card (NVIDIA): GeForce 650
Video Card (ATI): Not Supported
Video Card (Intel): Not Supported
Video Memory (VRam): 1 GB

Hitman is a third-person stealth video game in which the player takes-up the role of a genetically enhanced assassin, travelling to international locations and eliminating contracted targets. Linux port of Hitman: The Complete First Season will arrive on Feb 16th, again via Steam platform. Hitman: The Complete First Season was released on 31 January 2017 for other platforms. [Get it on Steam]

lowRISC is a daring attempt at creating a completely open-source, Linux capable, and multi-core system on a chip (SoC) to promote open hardware systems. The project was co-founded by Rob Mullins, Alex Bradbury (both of whom were actively involved with Raspberry Pi project) and Gavin Ferris of Dreamworks.

lowRISC: Open hardware for the masses!
According to lowRISC co-founder Alex Bradbury, the project is a "not-for-profit effort to produce a completely open source, Linux capable, multi-core SoC."

He believes that the "benefits of open source we enjoy in the software world can be applied to the hardware world which will have a huge positive effect on the hardware industry, academia, and wider society," much like the Raspberry Pi project he was earlier involved in.


lowRISC's open-source SoC designs will be based on the 64-bit RISC-V open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) which allows anyone to freely use, design, manufacture and sell RISC-V chips and software.

Alex Bradbury of lowRISC is of the opinion that "lowRISC SoC can act something like the 'Linux of the hardware world' - that others can take it as a base for their own SoC designs (startups, academics, larger companies)". But he is pessimistic about hitting the ultra low-cost price-points of Raspberry Pi, given the expected lower volumes.

He goes on to add that "..open source silicon design has much more to offer than just lowering unit costs and increasing profit margins for the existing dominant players. This is why we are established as an independent not-for-profit - we want open source hardware to benefit everyone, and its design to be a truly collaborative process. We have a long way to go, but that's the direction we want to help move things in."

lowRISC is a not-for-profit organisation working closely with the University of Cambridge and the open-source community. You can follow the project here. For more free and opensource (FOSS) related news and articles, go through our open-source feed.

Recommended read: 3 relatively unknown open-source web-browsers for Linux

Taskwarrior is a simple, straight-forward command-line based TODO app for Ubuntu/Linux. This open-source app has to be one of the easiest of all CLI based apps I've ever used. Taskwarrior helps you better organize yourself, and without installing bulky new apps which sometimes defeats the whole purpose of TODO apps.

Taskwarrior: A Simple CLI based TODO App That gets the Job Done!

Taskwarrior is an open-source and cross-platform, command-line based TODO app, which lets you manage your to-do lists right from the Terminal. The app lets you add tasks, shows you the list, and removes tasks from that list with much ease. And what's more, it's available within your default repositories, no need to fiddle with PPAs. In Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and similar, do the following in Terminal to install Taskwarrior. 

sudo apt-get install task

A simple use case can be as follows:

$ task add Read a book
Created task 1.
$ task add priority:H Pay the bills
Created task 2.

This is the same example I used in the screenshot above. Yes, you can set priority levels (H, L or M) as shown. And then you can use 'task' or 'task next' commands to see your newly-created todo list. For example:

$ task next

ID Age P Description                      Urg
-- --- - -------------------------------- ----
 2 10s H Pay the bills                     6
 1 20s   Read a book                       0

And once its completed, you can use 'task 1 done' or 'task 2 done' commands to clear the lists. A more comprehensive list of commands, use-cases can be found here. Also, Taskwarrior is cross-platform, which means you'll find a version that fits your needs no matter what. There's even an Android version if you want one. Enjoy!

SUSE technologies are helping Daimler AG, the German automotive behemoth, to migrate a large proportion of its mission-critical servers from proprietary UNIX operating systems to 'the open and flexible Linux platform'.

Daimler AG: Automotive Giant Latest to Adopt Linux

Daimler AG joins a long list of companies and even cities that have joined the open source bandwagon. SUSE technologies, being one of the earliest providers of Enterprise Linux solutions, helped Daimler AG to migrate a large proportion of its mission-critical servers from proprietary systems to Linux platform, specifically to SUSE Linux. This is a major win for the proponents of enterprise level solutions based on Linux and open-source.

Historically, Daimler AG used a number of proprietary UNIX distributions for the task. But managing multiple environments increased costs and required the company to maintain different skill sets to accomplish very similar tasks on different platforms. This is where SUSE technologies pitched in with their Linux Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

"A key target for the new project was to migrate away from UNIX on proprietary hardware towards Linux on commodity x86 servers. The objective was to standardize on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as a single distribution of Linux wherever practical. The openness and ease of customization of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, as well as its closeness to UNIX, made it the ideal starting point for this virtual platform concept."

Initially, the company deployed SUSE Manager with 28 distributed SUSE Manager proxy servers for comprehensive Linux lifecycle management. As part of the migration process, SUSE Manager builds a tailored image with the requested packages and features. These operating system images may include SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscriptions with 24x7 Priority Support, a disaster-recovery tool, the SUSE Manager client and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications with the SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE Manager eventually helped Daimler AG to successfully migrate a large proportion of its mission-critical workloads from proprietary UNIX platforms to Linux. The company has cut the number of UNIX instances by 40 percent, as it moves crucial applications to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

"The success of the transition to the SUSE platform is reflected in the growth of the company’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server landscape. In the last few years, the number of Linux instances has increased by a factor of four. This considerable expansion demonstrates both the successful ongoing project to migrate UNIX applications to Linux and the organic growth in the company’s web applications where SUSE Linux Enterprise Server has become the preferred platform."

[You can download the full PDF report here]

After long years of neglect, Skype has reaffirmed its commitment towards Linux platform by announcing a brand new Skype client for Linux, and even goes on to release an Alpha version of the same which you can download and install right now. They come in DEB and RPM packages which must cover a vast variety of Linux platforms.

Finally! A New Skype client for Linux

A brand new Skype for Linux client was officially announced few hours ago. The new version of Skype for Linux is a brand new client using WebRTC, although, the just released Alpha version is not a fully functioning Skype client yet. In our experience, the new client definitely features a faster and more responsive Skype UI. Missing features will be added in the newer releases. Further information on Skype for Linux Alpha can be found here.

And there's more! Anyone using a Chromebook or Chrome on Linux can now visit web.skype.com and make one-to-one and group voice calls on top of the messaging features they get today. This again is an alpha version of Skype based on WebRTC and inherits the same features of the Alpha version of the Skype for Linux client. Video calling and calls to landlines and mobiles are coming soon to Chrome browsers in Linux and Chromebooks. This looks like a a sea change in Skype's attitude towards Linux platform. A welcome change I must say. Following download options are available right now. Do share your thoughts.

• Skype for Linux Alpha DEB (for Ubuntu, Mint, Debian etc. ) 
• Skype for Linux Alpha RPM (for Fedora, openSUSE etc. )

As far as an average Linux user is concerned, the launch of Steam for Linux was perhaps the most critical event happened in the last decade. Speculations started as early as in 2010 when it came to know that Valve is actively looking for people who can port Windows games to Linux. After many ups and downs, Steam for Linux was finally confirmed in 2012 and they even went on to launch a limited access beta in November that year itself. But not even the most optimist among us expected such a tremendous turn around for Linux gaming.

1,500 Linux Titles: Steam on Linux Breaks New Ground

Most hardcore Linux users had a Windows partition just to meet their gaming needs. But things were starting to change. The floodgates were opened when the Steam client for Linux came out of beta in 2013. Barrage of major gaming titles started pouring in so much that Steam client is a must have app now if you are a Linux user (available in Ubuntu Software Center). Left 4 Dead 2, Half Life 1 & 2, Counter Strike, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2, XCOM, Witcher 2, Football Manager 2014, Shank 2, Dota 2, Don't Starve, the list goes on.  

Not only that. Valve also builds and runs all of its source code, animation and assets on Linux - a typical setup for companies in the gaming industry, says Gabe Newell, co-founder and managing director of Valve inc., while speaking at LinuxCon 2013. "Valve became convinced that Linux is the future of gaming," he added.

According to a report by Phoronix, Valve has been adding as much as 100 Linux titles per month throughout the last several months. The total number of games for Linux platform swelled to a whopping 1,500 now from 1000 in February 2015. A significant number even when compared to other supported platforms. To put this in context, number of supported titles for Windows is 6,464 and OSX is 2,323 respectively. New games continue to be ported to Linux and offered via Steam almost daily.

But there is still room for improvement, the report adds. Even though there has been a number of exciting titles like DiRT Showdown, Company of Heroes 2, Metro 2033 etc., many of the games ported over to Linux have been small, indie-type games. According to Valve, the five most popular Linux games right now include Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, ARK: Survival Evolved, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2. 

[Image source: Linux Gamecast, Full report: Phoronix]

Our list of 5 best video editors garnered much support from you readers, so much so that it is still trending as one of the most read article we've ever published. Now, we've a powerful new candidate which would easily make it into that list. Shotcut is a relatively new, free and open source, cross-platform video editor for Linux.

Shotcut Video Editor for Linux with 4K Support
From its humble beginnings several years ago, Shotcut is one of those apps that just kept on getting better with each new release, the latest version being 15.07 (denoting the month and year of the release). The biggest addition to Shotcut video editor for this new version is full 4K UHD support.

As the developer notes, "Shotcut has been able to do 4K for a while now if you made a custom video mode or correctly use automatic mode. However, there were a few things we wanted to do before making it official. First, you really need to be using a 64-bit build, and we delivered that for Windows in the previous release. For this release, we added 4K video modes to the Settings menu and extended our support for Blackmagic Design 4K SDI & HDMI devices".

Shotcut 15.07 also comes with 5 new audio and video filters. These new 'old film' video effects can be considered as toy filters. "The film grain effect does not try to emulate any real film stock, and the Technocolor filter does not try to faithfully reproduce the 20th century Technicolor processes. It merely intends to approximate the look.", writes Dan Dennedy in his blog post. The article goes on to further discuss about the other prominent changes & improvements to Shotcut in this new release. Full feature list can be found here.

Also, Shotcut video editor is multi-platform. Different packages for Linux, Windows and OS X are available. For Linux, officially supported distros include Mint 12+, Ubuntu 12.04+, Debian 7+, Fedora 15+, openSUSE 12+, Arch and Manjaro Linux. Downloads here. [thanks to my good friend and reader aashiks for tipping us]

The most popular platform among C/C++ developers is Linux, according to a survey by Jetbrains, a company that makes a wide range of tools for developers. Linux commands a whopping 44 percent market share while Microsoft's Windows and Apple's iOS platforms control 39 and 17 percent market shares respectively.

Linux Preferred Platform Among C and C++ Developers, Says Survey

It is rather surprising to know that the platform least used by regular users is the most preferred platform among developers. May be these are the first signs of a major shift in OS usage patterns among the masses. The developers are slowly warming up to the advantages of Linux as a development platform. Some of the things that makes Linux generally superior to its compatriots is discussed here: Why is Linux faster than Windows?

Coming back to the survey, there are about 4.4 million C++ devs and 1.9 million C devs in the world. While C++ is among the top 5 preferred programming languages among developers, C is on par with Ruby grabbing the 8th most popular spot. C++ is relatively more popular than other languages and technologies in countries such as Russia, Germany, Finland, France, Hungary, Singapore, Finland, Israel and Czech Republic. 

Also according to the survey, C++ is most used in industries such as Finance and Banking. More interesting statistics and detailed infographic can be found here.

I know what you might be thinking. Yes, Android is Linux. But for the lack of a better word, we will define the conventional Linux desktops like Ubuntu as Linux here. Native Android apps doesn't run on Linux desktops. And Android platform is buzzling with great apps and games. If Android is indeed based on Linux, why can't Linux desktops run at least some of those apps natively? Enter Project Shashlik.

KDE's Shashlik Project Intends to Bring Android Apps to Linux
Technically speaking, Linux forms just the Kernel, the heart of the operating system. When the Linux kernel combine with the GNU libraries and services, it becomes the complete operating system (GNU/Linux naming controversy arises from this reality). And that's how Android project is different.

Although Android uses Linux as its kernel, it comprises of an entirely different set of libraries and what-not to complete their made-for-mobile-devices operating system. This also means that, there is no way to run Android apps within conventional Linux OSes like Ubuntu or Fedora without using virtual machines and such.

KDE's Shashlik Project intends to change all that. Shashlik is a new application launcher that allows you to run Android apps on a GNU/Linux operating system. Basically, it is a 'collection of Android systems and frameworks as minimal as possible, built to run on a standard, modern Linux systems, using as much of the standard system as possible, and created to be Free/Libre from its inception. Shashlik is built to integrate into your existing system, whether it be a desktop, laptop, tablet.' This is good news especially for developers.

Shashlik Project is still in its infancy and the source is already available on GitHub. In reality though, smartphone apps may not be an ideal fit for regular desktops. But think about this. Ubuntu Touch OS for smartphones is already pretty robust and Shashlik will be able to bring the depth of Google's apps-store to it in theory. That could be a game changing development if it indeed works as good as everyone is hoping for. The Project was introduced to the public by its lead developer Dan Leinir Turthra Jensen during the annual KDE summit on 26th of July 2015.

No surprises there. Why would any supercomputer vendor ever use anything other than an open code is beyond me. The latest Top500 list of Supercomputers is out and Linux absolutely dominates the scene while Ubuntu is the flavour that powers the world's fastest Supercomputer.

Linux Powers World's Fastest Supercomputers
Linux's absolute domination of the world's most sophisticated supercomputers doesn't come as a surprise. In fact, the enterprise sector had long embraced the Linux eco-system with open arms. So much so that, the world's fastest Supercomputer runs a Chinese derivative of Ubuntu called Ubuntu Kylin, as revealed by Mark Shuttleworth himself during his keynote speech at OpenStack Summit. Ubuntu Kylin is now an official Ubuntu flavour.


Top500 Supercomputers list reveals quite a number of interesting statistics. Out of 500 top Supercomputers, 486 of them runs on Linux, 12 on Unix, 1 mixed and 1 of them on Windows. Among the hardware vendors, HP tops the list with 35.6% market-share while IBM and Cray Inc. takes 2nd and 3rd spot with 18.2% and 14.2% market-share respectively. Curious to know who runs that lone Windows based Supercomputer? The lone remaining Windows machine is Shanghai Supercomputer Center's Magic Box built by Dawning in 2008. It's #436 on the list.

Tianhe-2 (MilkyWay-2) remains the world's fastest supercomputer as before (in 2013, 2014 and 2015). Situated in National Super Computer Center in Guangzhou, China, Tianhe-2 is a 33.86-petaflops supercomputer built at an estimated cost of US$390 million. Second in the list is Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Titan supercomputer situated in United States. See the full list by Top500.

Time and again, Ubuntu keeps popping up whenever there's some Google product launch. Remember Google's Project Tango or that bit of news about the use of a 'lightly custmozied Ubuntu' in Google's Driverless Car project? Given its widespread use inside Google, it's no surprise than Google is an Ubuntu Advantage Customer.