• A Reusable DRM Module To Be Worked On For "Underserved" Graphics Hardware

  While Kevin Brace of the OpenChrome project as the lead and only developer left working on this open-source VIA driver stack has restarted the discussion towards mainlining the OpenChrome DRM/KMS driver, he has decided to take a break from that for a few weeks and to focus on developing a "reusable DRM module" to help other vintage/obscure graphics hardware.

• Mesa 18.0.5 release candidate

  The candidate for the Mesa 18.0.5 is now available. Currently we have:
  - 21 queued
  - 0 nominated (outstanding)
  - and 5 rejected patches

• Mesa 18.0.5 Is The Last Planned Release In The Series

  Mesa 18.0.5 is the last planned point release for the Mesa 18.0 series that debuted at the end of March as the Q1'2018 release for Mesa3D.

  With Mesa 18.1 having been released earlier this month and on schedule, the Mesa 18.0 lifespan is relatively short with Mesa 18.1.1 now due for release in the days ahead. As such, the Mesa 18.0.5 release due out by the end of the week is their last planned maintenance release for this previous quarter's branch.

• HandBrake FFmpeg, no more Nvidia 32 bit drivers

  HandBrake has been updated again to track the master branch, as it now uses FFMpeg 4 and no longer libAV 12. This could probably lead to other improvements, like NVENC/CUDA support, more formats, etc.

  Starting with the Nvidia drivers version 396.24 there will be no more 32 bit support, the driver will be 64 bit only. The 32 bit libraries are still included, so Steam and other applications will keep on being supported.

• Plex Media Player is back!

  Just a small post to notify that Plex Media Player package is back. Now it does not require Conan or Python anymore for building, and you can just build it using standard tools, the dependency issues between the Plex binary packages have been resolved.

• What is zchunk?

  Over the past few months, I’ve been working on zchunk, a compression format that is designed to allow for good compression, but, more importantly, the ability to download only the differences between an old version of the file and a new version.

  The concept is similar to both zsync and casync, but it has some important differences. Let’s first look at how downloading a zchunk file works.

• Qalculate! – The Best Calculator Application in The Entire Universe

  I have been a GNU-Linux user and a Debian user for more than a decade. As I started using the desktop more and more, it seemed to me that apart from few web-based services most of my needs were being met with desktop applications within Debian itself.

  One of such applications was the need for me to calculate between different measurements of units. While there are and were many web-services which can do the same, I wanted something which could do all this and more on my desktop for both privacy reasons as well as not having to hunt for a web service for doing one thing or the other. My search ended when I found Qalculate!.

• Cherrytree – A Feature-Rich Wiki-Style Note-Taking App

  I recently wrote on Thetapad and Zim – both are excellent note-taking applications with their specialty geared towards different users. Today, thanks to suggestions from FossMint readers, I introduce to you Cherrytree.

  Cherrytree is a free and open source note-taking application with wiki-style text formatting, syntax highlighting, and advanced customizability settings.

  Its advanced search function allows you to locate files across the file tree irrespective of their location. It supports keyboard shortcuts, importing and exporting notes, syncing with cloud services like Dropbox, rich text formatting, and password protection to keep your notes secure.

• Alcatel's $100 Android Go phone hits the US next week

• Xiaomi's new Mi 8 Android phone shamelessly copies the iPhone X

• Give Chrome for Android an ultra-modern makeover

• NVIDIA halts SHIELD TV's Oreo update because of "a couple of issues"

• Arm aims to make your Android phone faster with next-gen mobile chips

Dubbed "Diamond" and powered by the Linux 4.15 kernel series from the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) operating system, Linux Lite 4.0 series launches officially today as the first release to drop support for 32-bit installations, bringing numerous updated components, new features and major design changes that include new system theme (Adapta) and icon sets (Papirus).

"Faenza icons were dropped as it had not been maintained in some time (albeit there is a fork) and the same for the Arc theme, development seems to have stalled there," said Jerry Bezencon in the release announcement. "Most of our approach to theming in Series 4.x follows the popular Flat design focus. We also now use the Openzone mouse theme."