NVIDIA Open-Sourcing PhysX, miniNodes Launching a Raspberry Pi 3 CoM Carrier Board, Linux Mint 19.1 Beta Now Available, Linux Kernel 4.20-rc5 Released and New F-Bomb Fixing Patch for Kernel
News briefs for December 3, 2018.
NVIDIA is open-sourcing its PhysX physics simulation engine. According to Phoronix, NVIDIA says ""We're doing this because physics simulation—long key to immersive games and entertainment—turns out to be more important than we ever thought. Physics simulation dovetails with AI, robotics and computer vision, self-driving vehicles, and high-performance computing." See also the NVIDIA blog for more details.
miniNodes is launching a new Raspberry Pi 3 CoM carrier board that will allow developers to create mini ARM clusters. ZDNet reports that the board has slots for five RPi 3s in order to "bring extreme edge compute capacity' to cramped spaces, industrial IoT applications, and remote villages". It also can be used " on the desktop for learning about compute clustering, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, or development using Python, Arm, and Linux". The carrier board is available now for pre-order for $259 from miniNodes.
Linux Mint 19.1 beta is now available. This version features a new desktop layout and many other improvements. You can download it from here. Note that this is a beta version for testing and shouldn't be considered stable. (Source: OMG! Ubuntu!.)
Linux kernel 4.20-rc5 is out. Linus wrote "So it all looks a bit odd, although none of it is hugely _alarming_. One of the reasons the arch side is a bit bigger than usual at this stage is that we got the STIPB performance regression sorted out, for example." In addition, he addressed the timing of the final 4.20 release: "So my current suggestion is that we plan on a Christmas release, everybody gets their pull requests for the next merge window done *before* the holidays, and then we see what happens. I think we all want to have a calm holiday season without either the stress of a merge window _or_ the stress of prepping for one." (See the LKML for the full message.)
ZDNet reports that Jarkko Sakkinen, a kernel contributor from Intel, "has released a set of patches that conceal some of the f-bombs that Linux kernel developers have added to kernel code comments over the years." The patch set "addresses 15 components where 'fuck' or 'fucking' appeared in code comments, which have now been swapped out for a 'hugload of hugs'."
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.
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