Ubuntu MATE's Software Boutique Package Manager Is Getting Support for Snaps

Ubuntu MATE developer Martin Wimpress announced that, in collaboration with Luke Horwell, he plans to revamp the Software Boutique default graphical package manager of the Ubuntu MATE operating system. It's been a while since Ubuntu MATE's Software Boutique received any major changes, but it finally looks like it will get some much-needed attention as developer Luke Horwell gave users a sneak peek to the upcoming Software Boutique version that'll be shipping with Ubuntu MATE 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) later this year.

OSS Leftovers

• AMD Plays Catch-Up in Deep Learning with New GPUs and Open Source Strategy

  AMD is looking to penetrate the deep learning market with a new line of Radeon GPU cards optimized for processing neural networks, along with a suite of open source software meant to offer an alternative to NVIDIA’s more proprietary CUDA ecosystem.

• Baidu Research Announces Next Generation Open Source Deep Learning Benchmark Tool

  In September of 2016, Baidu released the initial version of DeepBench, which became the first tool to be opened up to the wider deep learning community to evaluate how different processors perform when they are used to train deep neural networks. Since its initial release, several companies have used and contributed to the DeepBench platform, including Intel, Nvidia, and AMD.

• GitHub Declares Every Friday Open Source Day And Wants You to Take Part

  GitHub is home to many open-source development projects, a lot of which are featured on XDA. The service wants more people to contribute to open-source projects with a new initiative called Open Source Friday. In a nutshell, GitHub will be encouraging companies to allow their employees to work on open-source projects at the end of each working week. Even if all of the products you use on a daily basis are based on closed source software, much of the technology world operates using software based on open source software. A lot of servers are based off of various GNU/Linux based operating systems such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Much of the world’s infrastructure depends on open source software.

• Open Source Friday

  GitHub is inviting every one - individuals, teams, departments and companies - to join in Open Source Friday, a structured program for contributing to open source that started inside GitHub and has since expanded.

• Open Tools Help Streamline Kubernetes and Application Development

  Organizations everywhere are implementing container technology, and many of them are also turning to Kubernetes as a solution for orchestrating containers. Kubernetes is attractive for its extensible architecture and healthy open source community, but some still feel that it is too difficult to use. Now, new tools are emerging that help streamline Kubernetes and make building container-based applications easier. Here, we will consider several open source options worth noting.

• Survey finds growing interest in Open Source

  Look for increased interest - and growth - in Open Source software and programming options. That's the word from NodeSource, whose recent survey found that most (91%) of enterprise software developers believe new businesses will come from open source projects.

• Sony Open-Sources Its Deep Learning AI Libraries For Devs

  Sony on Tuesday open-sourced its Neural Network Libraries, a framework meant for developing artificial intelligence (AI) solutions with deep learning capabilities, the Japanse tech giant said in a statement. The company is hoping that its latest move will help grow a development community centered around its software tools and consequently improve the “core libraries” of the framework, thus helping advance this emerging technology. The decision to make its proprietary deep learning libraries available to everyone free of charge mimics those recently made by a number of other tech giants including Google, Amazon, and Facebook, all of whom are currently in the process of trying to incentivize AI developers to use their tools and grow their software ecosystems.

• RESULTS FROM THE SURVEY ABOUT LIBREOFFICE FEATURES

  Unused features blur the focus of LibreOffice, and maintaining legacy capabilities is difficult and error-prone. The engineering steering committee (ESC) collected some ideas of what features could be flagged as deprecated in the next release – 5.4 – with the plan to remove them later. However, without any good information on what is being used in the wild the decision is very hard. So we run a survey in the last week to get insights into what features are being used.

• COMPETITION FOR A LIBREOFFICE MASCOT

• Rehost and Carry On, Redux

  After leaving Sun I was pleased that a group of former employees and partners chose to start a new company. Their idea was to pick up the Sun identity management software Oracle was abandoning and continue to sustain and evolve it. Open source made this possible. We had made Sun’s identity management portfolio open source as part of our strategy to open new markets. Sun’s products were technically excellent and applicable to very large-scale problems, but were not differentiated in the market until we added the extra attraction of software freedom. The early signs were very good, with corporations globally seeking the freedoms other IDM vendors denied them. By the time Oracle acquired Sun, there were many new customers approaching full production with our products. History showed that Oracle could be expected to silently abandon Sun’s IDM portfolio in favour of its existing products and strong-arm customers to migrate. Forgerock’s founders took the gamble that this would happen and disentangled themselves from any non-competes in good time for the acquisition to close. Sun’s practice was open development as well as open source licensing, so Forgerock maintained a mirror of the source trees ready for the inevitable day when they would disappear. Sure enough, Oracle silently stepped back from the products, reassigned or laid off key staff and talked to customers about how the cost of support was rising but offering discounts on Oracle’s products as mitigation. With most of them in the final deployment stages of strategic investments, you can imagine how popular this news was. Oracle become Forgerock’s dream salesman.

• Boundless Reinforces its Commitment to Open Source with Diamond OSGeo Sponsorship

• A C++ developer looks at Go (the programming language), Part 2: Modularity and Object Orientation

Devices: Ubuntu Core, Yocto, Microsoft, and Tizen

• Ubuntu Core opens IoT possibilities for Raspberry Pi (CM3)

  Ubuntu Core running on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3, which is a micro-version of the Raspberry Pi 3 that slots into a standard DDR2 SODIMM connector, means developers have a route to the production and can upgrade functionality through the addition of snaps- the universal Linux application packaging format. Device manufacturers can also develop their own app stores, all while benefiting from the additional security of Ubuntu Core.

• Rugged marine computer runs Linux on Skylake-U

  Avalue’s “EMS-SKLU-Marine” is an IEC EN60945 certified computer with 6th Gen Core CPUs, -20 to 60°C support, plus 2x GbE, 4x USB 3.0, M2, and mini-PCIe. The EMS-SKLU-Marine is designed for maritime applications such as control room or engine room, integrated bridge systems, propulsion control or safety systems, and boat entertainment systems. Avalue touts the 240 x 151 x 75mm box computer for being smaller than typical boat computers while complying with IEC EN60945 ruggedization standards.

• Module runs Yocto Linux on 16-core 2GHz Atom C3000 SoC

  DFI’s rugged, Linux-ready “DV970” COM Express Basic Type 7 module debuts the server-class, 16-core Atom C3000, and supports 4x 10GbE-KR and 16x PCIe 3.0. DFI promotes the DV970 as the first COM Express Basic Type 7 module based on the Intel Atom C3000 “Denverton” SoC, but it’s the first product of any kind that we’ve seen that uses the SoC. Intel quietly announced the server class, 16-core Atom C3000 in late February, with a target of low-end storage servers, NAS appliances, and autonomous vehicles, but it has yet to publicly document the SoC. The C3000 follows other server-oriented Atom spin-offs such as the flawed, up to 8-core Atom C2000 “Rangeley” and earlier Atom D400 and D500 SoCs.

• Why Microsoft's Snapdragon Windows 10 Cellular PC Is Walking Dead

  Intel's veiled threat to file patent infringement suit against any company emulating x86 Win32 software on ARM-based computers has probably slayed Microsoft's Cellular PC dream.

 

• New BMW X3 brings latest digital and driver assistance tech, connects to your Gear S2 / S3

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