Linux Action News 21

Atari has a Linux powered console, some brief Ubuntu updates, and the biggest Kernel news in years.

Then we consider the recent smattering of opinion pieces on Microsoft's commitment to Open Source.

• New Atari console runs Linux — The Ataribox is powered by a ‘customised’ AMD processor and uses Radeon graphics. On the software side the machine runs a ‘customised’ version of Linux that has an “easy-to-use user interface”.
• Ubuntu 17.10 final beta — Artful Final Beta includes updated versions of most of our core set of packages, including a current 4.13 kernel
• Ubuntu 17.10 Will Drop The 32-bit Desktop ISO — There will no longer be any "ubuntu-desktop-i386.iso" produced. There is no longer any effective QA or testing being done on the Ubuntu i386 desktop image on actual 32-bit-only hardware.
• Announcing the XFree KWin project — The idea is to be able to start KWin/Wayland without XWayland support.
• 6 year LTS kernel — Linux LTS releases will now be maintained for six years.
• Nextcloud Introducing Native Integrated End-to-end Encryption — Nextcloud End-to-end Encryption keeps the server from ever seeing the data while still facilitating syncing between devices and sharing with other users.
• SQL Server lands on Linux for the first time — Microsoft hit a major milestone today with the official general availability of SQL Server on Linux.
• Microsoft Rolls Out A Preview Of The New Skype For Linux — This long-awaited Skype for Linux update brings screen sharing, group chat, and other features not recently available under the current Skype for Linux client. This new Linux client is part of their effort to "rebuild Skype from the ground up with cloud technology."
• Microsoft becomes a sponsor of the Open Source Initiative — As a premium sponsor, Microsoft joins the likes of Google, IGM, HPE, AdblockPlus, GitHub and Heptio as top sponsors of the project. Other sponsors at lower levels include RedHat, The Linux Foundation, Mozilla and HP.
• When Microsoft met SUSE: This Windows-Linux partnership gets stronger every day — Microsoft SQL Server, which just became available on Linux, is also available on SLES and SLES on Azure on October 2.
• Will Microsoft love Linux to death? Shuttleworth and Stallman. — "It certainly looks that way. But it won't be so easy to extinguish us, because our reasons for using and advancing free software are not limited to practical convenience," he said.