We'll share the history, the context, and where things stand now around the controversial research that led to the ban.

Plus Ubuntu 21.04 is out, and we try WSL's new GUI Linux app support.

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• Intentionally buggy commits for fame—and papers [LWN.net] — A buggy patch posted to the linux-kernel mailing list in early April was apparently the last straw for Greg Kroah-Hartman as it led to the planned reversion of a whole slew of commits with one thing in common: their origin at the University of Minnesota (UMN).
• An open letter to the Linux community [LWN.net] — We sincerely apologize for any harm our research group did to the Linux kernel community. Our goal was to identify issues with the patching process and ways to address them, and we are very sorry that the method used in the “hypocrite commits” paper was inappropriate.
• Re: [PATCH] SUNRPC: Add a check for gss_release_msg - Greg KH
• University duo thought it would be cool to sneak bad code into Linux as an experiment. Of course, it absolutely backfired • The Register
• Greg Kroah-Hartman bans University of Minnesota from Linux development for deliberately buggy patches | ZDNet
• Revertion of all of the umn.edu commits - Kees Cook
• Linus Torvalds Responds to Linux Banning University of Minnesota | Tom’s Hardware
• Statement from CS&E on Linux Kernel research - April 21, 2021 | Department of Computer Science and Engineering | College of Science and Engineering
• Security Research Ethics Review. What’s the subject, Kenneth? | by Dave Dittrich | Apr, 2021 | Medium
• Paper: Stealthily introducing vulnerabilities in open source software via hypocrite commits
• Ubuntu 21.04 Official Flavors Released, Here’s What’s New - 9to5Linux — Ubuntu 21.04 has been released and is available to download from the Ubuntu website.
• Ubuntu 21.04 is here | Ubuntu — Ubuntu 21.04 comes with native Microsoft Active Directory integration, Wayland graphics by default, and a Flutter application development SDK.
• LINUX Unplugged 402: Our Worst Idea Yet
• (Re)introducing the Community Team
• Fedora 34 To Release Next Week As A Very Exciting Update - Phoronix — After it was pushed back last week due to blocker bugs, on Friday it was determined that Fedora 34 is now in proper shape to officially ship next week.
• Red Hat Summit 2021 | About — Virtual again: April 27-28, 2021
• Microsoft enables Linux GUI apps on Windows 10 for developers - The Verge — Microsoft is starting to allow Windows 10 testers to access Linux GUI apps.
• Microsoft Posts WSLg Preview - GUI App Support With Windows Subsystem For Linux - Phoronix
• GitHub - microsoft/wslg: Enabling the Windows Subsystem for Linux to include support for Wayland and X server related scenarios
• GitHub - microsoft/CBL-Mariner: Linux OS for Azure 1P services and edge appliances
• Introducing Linux GUI apps running on Windows using the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)
• Watch Mars Ingenuity's First Flight! (VIDEO AND IMAGES) — Mars​ Perseverance​ has been a historic mission, now its chopper, Ingenuity is flying on Mars. Watch a recap right here and see the very first video and images of it up in the air.
• Open source goes to Mars 🚀 - The GitHub Blog — Today, we want to make the invisible visible. So, we have worked with JPL to place a new Mars 2020 Helicopter Mission badge on the GitHub profile of every developer who contributed to the specific versions of any open source projects and libraries used by Ingenuity.
• Open Source on Mars: Community powers NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter · The ReadME Project · GitHub — Today, nearly 12,000 developers will see a new badge on their GitHub profile celebrating their contributions to the specific versions of projects and libraries used by NASA to fly the Ingenuity Helicopter on Mars.
• Work Progresses Toward Ingenuity’s First Flight on Mars - NASA Mars
• We’re Getting Ready for Ingenuity’s Second Flight - NASA Mars
• We Are Prepping for Ingenuity’s Third Flight Test - NASA Mars
• Mars helicopter shares first aerial color photo and preps for Sunday flight - CNN
• NASA’s Mars helicopter completes second, higher flight – Spaceflight Now
• Ingenuity: Nasa's Mars helicopter makes it three from three — On Sunday, the little chopper rose to a height of 5m before speeding off laterally for 50m - half the length of a football field.

Plus some hard data on why it's time to drop 32-bit Linux, and Lubuntu's got a new direction.

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• Slackware dev has financial problems
• Follow Up post by Patrick
• Patrick Volkerding’s PayPal
• YouTube slower on Firefox
• YouTube Classic – Add-ons for Firefox
• Firefox to lose some features
• Another German region dumps FOSS
• Another reason to dump 32-bit Linux
• Lubuntu’s new direction
• Fedora Needs Some Help If Continuing To Support The LXQt Desktop

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• Ubuntu MATE 18.10 - dropping i386 images — Less than 10% of Ubuntu MATE users are running the i386 (32-bit Intel) images.
• 18.10 and beyond - 64bit images only | Ubuntu Budgie — from the various reports and statistics we have observed from 16.04 budgie-remix all the way to you enthusiastic 18.04 trail-blazers, almost all of you are now using the 64bit ISO.
• Lubuntu finally ready to move to LXQt — Lubuntu 18.10 will be the first release to ship with LXQt as default desktop environment instead of LXDE, according to Simon Quigley.
• Korora takes a “break” — Korora for the forseeable future is not going to be able to march in cadence with the Fedora releases. In addition to that, for the immediate future there will be no updates to the Korora distribution.
• Void Linux struggling as leader goes missing — There still are multiple members to the Void Core Team and others working on this independent Linux distribution, but their project leader has "disappeared". There's been no contact since January but no "meaningful contact" in over one year.
• Fedora 28 released — The headline feature for Fedora 28 Server is the inclusion of the new Modular repository. This lets you select between different versions of software like NodeJS or Django

And an LXQt confession.

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• Ubuntu 17.10 Begins Transition To GNOME Shell Desktop By Default — Those downloading the very latest Ubuntu desktop ISO of 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" for testing will find that it now boots to the GNOME Shell desktop and also provides an option for running GNOME on Wayland.
• Ubuntu Switching to GDM — We’ve made the decision to switch to using GNOME Display Manager (GDM) instead of LightDM.
• Ubuntu Works with GNOME to Improve HiDPI Support — Canonical is playing host to a ‘fractional scaling hackfest‘ in its’ Taipei offices this week. Both GNOME developers and Ubuntu developers are in attendance, ready to wrestle with
• Lubuntu 17.10 Will Likely Launch with LXQt & LXDE Spins — Lubuntu maintainer and LXQt developer Simon Quigley is reporting on some of the upcoming highlights of the Lubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) operating system, due for release later this year on October 19, 2017.
• Canonical Kernel Livepatch Service now available for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS! — Users of Ubuntu are welcome to enable the Canonical Kernel Livepatch Service on 3 systems running 64-bit Intel/AMD Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or now Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
• GPG fundraiser — To continue supporting and improving GnuPG, we, the main GnuPG developers, are soliciting donations from the general public. Our primary goal is to raise 15 000 euros per month to fully fund 3 developers; our stretch goal is twice that, 30 000 euros per month.
• Docker Aims to Improve Linux Kernel Security With LinuxKit — Within the LinuxKit effort there are a series of incubated projects that are focused on improving the security of Linux