Kernel 5.3-rc1 Released; VLC Security Flaw Discovered; Melissa Di Donato Appointed CEO of SUSE; Dropbox Brings Back Support for ZFS, XFS, Btrfs and eCryptFS; and YugaByte Is Now 100% Open Source
News briefs for July 22, 2019.
Linux kernel 5.3-rc1 has been released. Linus Torvalds writes, "This is a pretty big release, judging by the commit count. Not the biggest ever (that honor still goes to 4.9-rc1, which was exceptionally big), and we've had a couple of comparable ones (4.12, 4.15 and 4.19 were also big merge windows), but it's definitely up there." He also notes that "...there's a lot to like in 5.3."
German cybersecurity watchdog CERT-Bund recently discovered a security flaw in the VLC media player 3.0.7.1. Softpedia News reports that "a successful exploit of the vulnerability allows for unauthorized disclosure of information, unauthorized modification of files, and disruption of service." See CVE-2019-13615 for specifics. A patch is in the works.
Melissa Di Donato has been appointed CEO of SUSE. From the press release: "Accomplished technology executive and former SAP leader, Melissa Di Donato, has been named chief executive officer of SUSE in a move that will herald the next phase of growth and momentum for the world's largest independent open source software company....Di Donato is highly regarded for her forward-thinking leadership style and is a passionate advocate for workplace diversity. This includes her role as Technology Group chair of the 30% Club—an organization with the goal of achieving 30 percent female directors on S&P 100 boards by 2020. She also holds prominent positions in other organizations, including Notion Capital, and is a trustee for charity Founders4Schools."
Dropbox brings back support for ZFS, XFS, Btrfs and eCryptFS. According to Linux Uprising, "it appears that this change has made it into the stable Dropbox client for Linux. This isn't directly mentioned on the Dropbox website, but after a fresh Dropbox installation that I performed on Ubuntu, the reported version is 77.4.131, which is a higher version number than the Dropbox beta version for which it was reported that it now supports ZFS and XFS on 64-bit Linux systems, and eCryptFS and Btrfs on all Linux systems. I also gave it a try on a Btrfs filesystem and folder syncing ran without running into any issues."
YugaByte is now 100% open source. dbta.com reports that "YugaByte, a provider of open source distributed SQL databases, announced that YugaByte DB is now 100% open source under the Apache 2.0 license, bringing previously commercial features into the open source core."
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.
Recent Articles
