Mozilla: Privacy Suggestion, Rust Release, Addons, All Hands and VR

• Browser privacy improvements and anti-fraud

  The good news is that interesting competition among web browsers is back, not just because of ongoing performance improvements in Firefox, but also because of Apple Safari's good work on protecting users from some kinds of cross-site tracking by default. Now the challenge for other browsers is to learn from the Safari work and build on it, to even more accurately implement the user's preferences on sharing their personal information. According to research by Tini Sevak at YouGov, 36% of users are "more likely to engage with adverts that are tailored to them", while 55% are "creeped out" by personalized ads. The browser has to get its data sharing settings right for the individual user, while minimizing the manual settings and decision fatigue that the user has to go through.

• Announcing Rust 1.27.2

  The Rust team is happy to announce a new version of Rust, 1.27.2. Rust is a systems programming language focused on safety, speed, and concurrency.

• [Mozilla Addons Blog:] Thank you, contributors!

  As a large, complex, and heavily visited site, it can be challenge for our small team to make sure that extension users and developers have a good experience on addons.mozilla.org (AMO). Fortunately, we are not alone. Thanks to volunteer contributors who share their time, energy, and talent, we’re able to extend our ability to extend the web by fixing reported bugs, implementing routine updates, landing new features, and moderating content listed on AMO.

• Reps Council at SF All Hands 2018

  The All Hands is a special time of the year where Mozilla employees along with core volunteers gather for a week of many meetings and brainstorming. The All Hands Wiki page has more information about the general setting. During the All Hands, the Reps Council participated in the Open Innovation meetings as well as had meetings about improve 2018 planning.

• This Week in Mixed Reality: Issue 13

  This week we focused on fixing bugs and delivering a seamless experience across our three areas: browsers, social, and the content ecosystem.

Microsoft Uses Canonical/Snap as a 'Ramp' Against Bash/UNIX/Linux

• PowerShell launches as a snap

  PowerShell Core from Microsoft is now available for Linux as a Snap. Built on the .NET Framework, PowerShell is an open source task-based command-line shell and scripting language with the goal of being the ubiquitous language for managing hybrid cloud assets. It is designed specifically for system administrators and power-users to rapidly automate the administration of multiple operating systems and the processes related to the applications that run on those operating systems.

• PowerShell Core now available as a Snap package

  The goal of PowerShell Core is to be the ubiquitous language for managing your assets in the hybrid cloud. That’s why we’ve worked to make it available on many operating systems, architectures, and flavors of Linux, macOS, and Windows as possible.

• Microsoft's PowerShell Available on Ubuntu as a Snap, Here's How to Install It

  Canonical and Microsoft announced today that PowerShell automation and configuration management system is now available as a Snap package for Ubuntu Linux and other Snap-enabled GNU/Linux distributions. Consisting of a cross-platform command-line shell and related scripting language, as well as a framework for dealing with cmdlets, Microsoft's PowerShell works on Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms to allow power-users and system administrators to have better and automated control over the administration of several operating systems.

• Microsoft's PowerShell Now Available On Ubuntu In Snap Form

  Canonical and Microsoft have just announced that PowerShell Core is now available for Ubuntu users in Snap format. Back in the summer of 2016, Microsoft open-sourced PowerShell with plans to support Linux. PowerShell has been available on Linux for a while now without too much adoption while now it's available in Snap form for making it easy to deploy on Ubuntu and other Snap-supported platforms.

Games Leftovers

• The insanely funny 'Guts and Glory' has officially released

  Guts and Glory is a racing game that's a little on the crazy side, one of the funniest games I've played all year and the final release is now out.

• Enter the Gungeon's massive 'Advanced Gungeons & Draguns' update is out

  Bullet hell dungeon crawler Enter the Gungeon [Official Site] has levelled up with a huge new free content expansion with the Advanced Gungeons & Draguns update. Note: My copy was a personal purchase.

• Play Addictive Puzzle Game 2048 in Linux [GUI and Terminal]

  Popular mobile puzzle game 2048 can also be played on Ubuntu and Linux distributions. Heck! You can even play 2048 in Linux terminal. Don’t blame me if your productivity goes down because of this addictive game. Back in 2014, 2048 was one of the most popular games on iOS and Android. This highly addictive game got so popular that it got a browser version, desktop version as well as a terminal version on Linux.

• Beam Team Games have now actually announced Stranded Deep for Linux, currently experimental

  As a further update on Stranded Deep for Linux, the developer has now officially announced it although support is currently limited.

• Hollow Knight: Gods & Glory free content update will arrive on August 23rd

  The final chapter in the story of Hollow Knight is almost here, with Hollow Knight: Gods & Glory due for release on August 23rd.

• Thrones of Britannia: Allegiance update announced in a beta, no update for Linux yet

  Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia now has a beta update out that adds in a new Allegiance feature based on Religion from ATTILA and the Culture mechanic of ROME II.

• A new Steam Client Beta is out adding support for PS3 Controllers and many more

  Valve are continuing to push ahead with improvements to their Steam Input system, with it now supporting PS3 Controllers and many more.

• DASH: Danger Action Speed Heroes moves towards alpha build with a new trailer

  DASH: Danger Action Speed Heroes [Official Site] is a DIY 2D platformer that's currently in development by Baby Duka, creator of Urban Pirate. I've followed the development closely interacting with Baby Duka in the regular Twitch dev stream and Linux support has been promised since the beginning.

• A Story of a Band management sim comes to Linux

  Fancy managing a band? A Story of a Band will see you do that, just try not to wreck too many hotel rooms. It was actually a mobile game first, but it was quite highly rated. Released for Windows on Steam last month, the Linux version was officially added today. Although, they need to fix their Steam setup, as normal Steam purchases won't actually give you the Linux content, so I've let them know how to fix this. Until then, you might want to hold off. Many developers trip up on this, as it seems Steam's back-end for managing multiple operating systems isn't too simple.

• BulletRage, a completely over the top twin-stick shooter will release with Linux support later this year

  Certainty looks like it could be a lot of fun. I'm a big fan of twin-stick shooters, even though there's rather a lot of them out there already they mostly manage to be unique in their own way. BulletRage claims to have an "adaptive gameplay system to push you forward", so I will be interested to see exactly what that does as you progress.

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