Linux, Open Source, & anti Microsoft news

Canonical has released a new cut of Ubuntu it recommends for use in the cloud and containers. “Minimal Ubuntu” is based on either Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or 18.04 LTS. A Docker image of the latter weighs in at positively paltry 29MB, making it a highly efficient starting point for developers needing to rapidly shovel out containerised applications.

Microsoft owns the desktop with Windows — it is undeniable. You know what? That’s fine. But the success of Windows is not a failure for Linux. What I mean to say is, the open source kernel is omnipresent, whether you know it or not.

It’s impossible to know exactly how the world would look if Microsoft’s power had not been curtailed, but we do know that today people have a buffet of browsers to choose from when using Windows. The companies that were able to grow in a more competitive tech ecosystem have created jobs and pushed the industry forward. And Microsoft, though not the dominant force it once was, is still the third-most valuable company in the world.

The latest TOP500 Supercomputer list is out. What’s not surprising is that Linux runs on every last one of the world’s fastest supercomputers. What is surprising is that GPUs, not CPUs, now power most of supercomputers’ speed.

Google is joining The Linux Foundation as a Platinum member. Google executive Sarah Novotny will become a Linux Foundation board member.

You may have seen the ads that Facebook has been running on TV in a full-court press to apologize for abusing users privacy. They’re embarrassing. And, it turns out, they may be a sign of things to come. Based on a recently published patent application, Facebook could one day use ads on television to further violate your privacy once you’ve forgotten about all those other times.

A study from the Norwegian Consumer Council dug into the underhanded tactics used by Microsoft, Facebook, and Google to collect user data. The study comes in the wake of the European Union’s newly-enacted GDPR laws designed to protect users from predatory data collection and Facebook’s own controversy involving the sharing of users’ personal data.

Amazon Web Services has added a Linux option to its “WorkSpaces” desktop-as-a-service and pitched the offering as a fine way to develop apps for its own EC2 infrastructure-as-a-service.

If you have a Pentium III, for example, you may no longer be able to install Win7 Monthly Rollups or Security-only patches, in spite of Microsoft’s promise to support you until January 2020. It’s all about SSE2 and some retroactively fudged documentation. Will anybody notice?

First, Microsoft invested. Then, Microsoft acquired. On Wednesday, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Bonsai, an artificial intelligence startup based in Berkeley, California. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. All told, Bonsai had raised a relatively modest $13.6 million since it started up in 2014.