Layoffs at Mozilla, Lenovo showcases Linux, and Firefox uses your GPU for video playback
Here are some Linux, open source, and privacy news for August 2020. This month, we have troubles at Mozilla, Lenovo putting their Linux machines front and center, and Firefox 80 finally bringing hardware acceleration to video on Linux
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The Linux kernel version 5.8 was released, https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2020/08/linux-5-8-kernel-features
KDE Neon rebased on Ubuntu 20.04 to bring a more modern base and better hardware support to the distro. https://blog.neon.kde.org/index.php/2020/08/10/kde-neon-rebased-on-20-04/
There will be a virtual Linux App Summit in November 2020.
https://linuxappsummit.org/whatis
The Linux Foundation started the Open Source Security Foundation, or OSSF.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/uniting-for-better-open-source-security-the-open-source-security-foundation/
Geoffrey Knauth has been nominated as the new president for the Free Software Foundation
https://itsfoss.com/fsf-new-president/
Instead of being sold, the website haveIbeenPwnd will be open sourced. https://www.troyhunt.com/im-open-sourcing-the-have-i-been-pwned-code-base/
Mozilla laid off 250 people in an attempt to focus on more profitable products and restructure the foundation. https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2020/08/11/changing-world-changing-mozilla/
Microsoft launched a website to showcase its open source efforts.
https://opensource.microsoft.com/
Google is proposing a WebBundles standard, which will basically prevent resources from being accessed individually through a URL, and only give access to a full bundle.
https://brave.com/webbundles-harmful-to-content-blocking-security-tools-and-the-open-web/
Pinta’s development has started again, after a 5 year pause.
Pinta Image Editor Sees First Update in 5 Years (Now with Snap)
Firefox 79 also has Enhanced Tracking Protection, and clears redirect cookies every 24h.
LibreOffice 7 was released, with better MS Office compatibility, a new icon theme which is the default on Mac OS, a bunch of new shapes in the gallery, new effects for objects to improve the aesthetics of documents, and a whole new graphics engine for more performance.
1Password has launched its first preview of an official Linux app.
Kdenlive 20.08 was released with Layouts support. https://kdenlive.org/en/2020/08/kdenlive-20-08-is-out/
Ubisoft renewed their funding of Blender, and it seems the company is heavily investing in the project
Firefox 80 was released with optional hardware acceleration for video decoding on Linux.
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2020/08/firefox-80-release-linux-gpu-acceleration
The System76 team is teasing its new keyboard again.
https://blog.system76.com/post/625078388641710080/reimagining-the-keyboard
Nvidia will probably become more interesting for people who want to use Wayland, as they’ve proposed a change in Mesa to help support accelerated XWayland.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2020/08/nvidia-and-accelerated-xwayland-gets-closer-with-code-that-sounds-unpleasant
Tuxedo released the Tuxedo Pulse 14, a smaller version of the Tuxedo Pulse 15 they had already released last month.
https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Linux-Hardware/Linux-Notebooks/10-14-inch/TUXEDO-Pulse-14-Gen1.tuxedo
Lenovo puts its Linux running laptops front and center on its website
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-x1/X1-Carbon-Gen-8-/p/22TP2X1X1C8
The Pine 64 announced the new community edition of the Pinephone, and this time, it’s Manjaro-branded.
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/pinephone-will-ship-with-manjaro-next/18369
Vulkan, the graphics API, is getting extensions specifically meant to allow for translation layers compatibility.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2020/08/vulkan-api-gains-new-extension-to-aid-translation-layers
DXVK 1.7.1 was released, making Geforce Now usable thanks to some missing shader instructions being implemented
https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases/tag/v1.7.1
As announced, GeForce Now now runs on Linux https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2020/08/nvidia-geforce-now-adds-chromebook-support-so-you-can-run-it-on-linux-too
Wine 5.15 released, with the initial implementation of the XACT Engine libraries, and 27 bug fixes,
https://www.winehq.org/announce/5.15
Wine 5.16 was also released this month
https://www.winehq.org/announce/5.16
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