LINUX RANT

The Linux kernel recently had a 5.0 release. This is the newest kernel signed off by Torvalds and friends. Linux 5.0 includes a plethora of changes and security fixes as is the case with any major release for the kernel. 4.20 was released around the holidays. That was a good release and I’ve been using it without issue for a while now, but Linux 5.0 has some things that might interest you. According to OMGUBUNTU, Linux Mint is getting a logo revamp as well. This is actually not something new to me, but before I assumed they were mere rumors. The new Linux Kernel’s changes are mostly hardware stack related with Raspberry Pi and Intel getting some support among other systems. This according to OMGUBUNTU. The newest kernel is already available on kernel.org, but you’ll have to compile it yourself. It is recommended to stick with the latest kernel with your distribution to retain support. Kernels are those pieces of the overall operating system that don’t really need to be updated just for the sake of updating them. Kernels that work should be left alone in most cases, but sometimes Linux won’t quite run right with the latest kernel in your system and running a slightly newer one might give you an advantage if your system falls under the hardware stack of the newer kernel. People compiling newer kernels should be aware. I have never compiled my own kernel myself, I never found the idea so alluring as it is a tedious list of commands to traverse through, would probably take me all night and I’m rather clumsy a lot.

In Ubuntu Security Notices, there was a recent OpenSSH issue found by Harry Stintonen. The details were listed under the vulnerability designation CVE-2019-6111. Turns out that the problem was recently fixed with incomplete code. So now a new patch has been issued, users should update immediately to get this patch to their system. OpenSSH is software that help secure and authenticate network communications over SSH or secure shell. OpenSSH was formerly developed with focus for OpenBSD, but is available for other platforms in Linux.

It’s also important to note that Linux has an impending problem with year 2038. This issue is with time. The time protocols and should be fixed by the time it actually happens. Y2K was expected to be a problematic downtime which would thrust humanity into a chaotic dark age of sorts for a while, but it never happened. With any luck the kernel at the time will have all the support that is needed to thwart this apocalypse as it is now being addressed heavily in the kernel 5.0 and has been for some time.

Nvidia legacy support is still not equated by open-sourced nouveau drivers so it is a good idea to leave older computers on older operating systems now, most likely, some geforce cards won’t even boot into newer Linux versions properly. It’s a pain but lord Nvidia knows best. Intel and AMD still support Linux, if you’re buying a new pc, those are places to look. Take heart, because you can still reuse those old pcs to run simple tasks and also to run media servers. The old devices can also run Puppy Linux for everyday browsing. Puppy is a well known distribution that is independent. It currently has no official updates since Xenial, but it works phenomenally and all data that you obtain while on a live session will be deleted on next boot unless you specify otherwise. This isn’t ideal always, but it does work.

UPDATE: Puppy Linux has released a new Bionic version which has an improved upgrade feature and may help with installing third party drivers as well.