Plus an update from Essential, and NetBSD's first big ask in ten years.

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• KDE Plasma 5.18 Released
• KDE Plasma 5.18 LTS Released, This is What's New
• MATE 1.24 released
• OpenShot 2.5.0 Released — Perhaps one of the most exciting changes in OpenShot 2.5.0 is our experimental support for hardware acceleration.
• OpenShot Video Editor Just Got a Massive Update
• Firefox 73.0 Released — Today’s Firefox release includes two features that help users view and read website content more easily, quickly.
• Firefox ESR 68.5.0 Released
• Tor Browser 9.0.5 Released — This release updates Firefox to 68.5.0esr, NoScript to 11.0.13, and on desktop, Tor to 0.4.2.6. We also added a new default bridge and backported a few improvements from the alpha series.
• Tails 4.3 is out
• An Update from Essential — We have made the difficult decision to cease operations and shutdown Essential.
• Essential, Andy Rubin’s phone company, is shutting down
• Andy Rubin’s smartphone startup, Essential, is dead
• After just one phone, Essential Products ends
• NetBSD fundraiser — We are trying to raise $50,000 in 2020
• NetBSD 9.0 Released

Plus the group trying to force Samsung to update its phone loses, and Essential says they are definitely, totally, not shutting down.

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• Ubuntu-based Atari box doing very well on Indiegogo — Built on an open source Linux OS so you can add your own software and apps to customize your own platform.
• Endless lays off several employees - Michael Hall on Twitter — If anybody needs an energetic and experienced community manager or developer advocate, give me an email or DM, I'm suddenly on the market for a new opportunity
• Endless lays off several employees - Emmanuele — In completely unrelated news: if you're looking to hire a GTK/GNOME developer with strong opinions (and the battle scars to hold them up) on CI/CD, UX design, and dev methodologies, hit me up
• Endless lays off several employees - Nuritzi Sanchez on Twitter — .... I guess it’s my turn to announce that I’m looking for new opportunities as well! I’m a jack of all trades who loves building things from scratch and am passionate about the intersection of tech and social impact. DM me if you have any important world challenges to solve :)
• GNOME too fat for the Pi — If you try running the GNOME Shell today on the Raspberry Pi, it's a frustratingly slow experience. While some work is being done in addressing GNOME's GPU, CPU, and memory consumption, it might not ever be in a state to run smoothly on Raspberry Pi hardware.
• Huawei locks down its bootloaders — In order to deliver the best user experience and prevent users from experiencing possible issues that could arise from ROM flashing, including system failure, stuttering, worsened battery performance, and risk of data being compromised, Huawei will cease providing bootloader unlock codes for devices launched after May 25, 2018.
• Samsung won't be forced to update old phones — A consumer association had argued that Samsung should update its phones for at least four years after they go on sale.
• Essential not shutting down — The email details that Andy Rubin has no plans of shutting down the company. However, he said that the firm will work with banks to get some financial assistance and the company might be sold under the financing deal.

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• Ubuntu Rally in NYC — The Ubuntu Rally, taking place in New York City September 25th-29th, is a forward-thinking five day software hackathon attended by major software vendors, Ubuntu developers working at every level of the stack, and community contributors.
• 17.10 Beta 1 of Ubuntu flavours released — The first beta is available today for the Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" release for the flavors opting in to participate in this development milestone ahead of the official launch in October.
• Reddit closes its source — Open-source makes it hard for us to develop some features "in the clear" (like our recent video launch) without leaking our plans too far in advance. As Reddit is now a larger player on the web, it is hard for us to be strategic in our planning when everyone can see what code we are committing.
• Phoenix OS urged to open source their kernel — So a dedicated fan of the platform, Karol Putra, has created a Change.org petition in hopes that it will change their minds.
• Petition update · Victory! — It's most likely really the Phoenix OS kernel as it carries slight unique modifications in comparison to Android-x86 and it's forks
• Google mandates 4.4+ kernel for Oreo — Starting this year with smartphones which ship with Android Oreo, Google is requiring that all SoCs productized in 2017 must launch with kernel 4.4 or newer.
• Essential underdelivers — Essential – a device, marketing team, and CEO that seem to blur the lines between fact and fiction and possible and impossible
• Then Essential royally screws up — Dozens of customers replied with their personal information, but those emails didn’t just go to Essential. Instead, they went out to everybody who had received the original email.
• Blockchain is big in big business — Hundreds of projects have collectively raised more than a billion dollars through “initial coin offerings” (ICOs). There are now tokens funding every conceivable endeavor
• Linux creeps above 3% browser marketshare — According to Net Applications' Netmarketshare, the Linux market share on the desktop as judged by browser interactions may now be above 3%.