Dell Precision 7530 and 7730 Mobile Workstations with Ubuntu Preinstalled Now Available, Linux Ultimate Gamers Edition Launched Its 5.8 ISO, Feral's GameMode Coming Soon to Fedora, CentOS 6.10 Released, Security Upgrades for Ubuntu and More

on July 6, 2018

News briefs for July 6, 2018.

The Dell Precision 7530 and 7730 Mobile Workstation Developer Editions are now available via Dell's online store with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled, Softpedia News reports. The Mobile Workstations are powered by the latest Intel Core or Xeon processors, and "feature blazing-fast RAM, professional AMD or Nvidia graphics cards, and are certified for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 operating system". Prices for the "world's most powerful 15" and 17" laptops with Ubuntu pre-installed" begin at $1,091.14 for the 7530 and $1,371.37 for the 7730.

Linux Ultimate Gamers Edition launched its 5.8 ISO, which you can download from SourceForge or Softpedia. Ultimate Gamers is based on Debian and Ubuntu, with the MATE desktop environment. According to the Appuals post, "it comes with out-of-the-box support for nearly any kind of multimedia file that a gamer would ever want to play....It also comes with dozens of applications gamers and A/V fans will need. Most importantly, it comes with Wine pre-loaded, which is extremely important for those who want to run popular online games."

Feral Interactive's GameMode is coming soon to Fedora Linux, Phoronix reports. GameMode is "a new open-source project that provides a Linux system tuning daemon for optimizing the system's configuration for gaming when firing up Linux games while reverting to stock behavior when outside of supported games". Phoronix notes that it has been working its way into various Linux distros' package management systems, and that as of today it "has been submitted as the newest package for Fedora Rawhide as the development version ultimately leading to Fedora 29."

CentOS announced the availability of CentOS Linux 6.10. In this release GCC now supports retpolines for Spectre variant 2 mitigation. See the release notes for all the changes.

Canonical has released new kernel security updates for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver), Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark), Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), as well as Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr). According to Softpedia, the updates fix 22 security vulnerabilities, and users are urged to update their installations as soon as possible. See the Ubuntu wiki's Upgrades page for instructions.

The Linux Foundation recently announced new blockchain training options. Blockchain: Understanding Its Uses and Implications is a free edX course beginning on August 1, 2018, and there's also an option for a professional certificate for $99. According to the post on Linux.com, the new program provides "a way to learn about the impact of blockchain technologies and a means to demonstrate that knowledge. Certification, in particular, can make a difference for anyone looking to work in the blockchain arena".

Jill Franklin is an editorial professional with more than 17 years experience in technical and scientific publishing, both print and digital. As Executive Editor of Linux Journal, she wrangles writers, develops content, manages projects, meets deadlines and makes sentences sparkle. She also was Managing Editor for TUX and Embedded Linux Journal, and the book Linux in the Workplace. Before entering the Linux and open-source realm, she was Managing Editor of several scientific and scholarly journals, including Veterinary Pathology, The Journal of Mammalogy, Toxicologic Pathology and The Journal of Scientific Exploration. In a previous life, she taught English literature and composition, managed a bookstore and tended bar. When she’s not bugging writers about deadlines or editing copy, she throws pots, gardens and reads.