LinusTorvalds
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Linux exploit gives any user full access in five seconds
If you need another reason to be paranoid about network security, a serious exploit that attacks a nine-year-old Linux kernel flaw is now in the wild. The researcher who found it, Phil Oester, told V3 that the attack is "trivial to execute, never fails and has probably been around for years." Because of its complexity, he was only able to detect it because he had been "capturing all inbound HTTP traffic and was able to extract the exploit and test it out in a sandbox," Oester said.
Linus Torvalds: 'free' OS X Mavericks is no threat to Linux
After yesterday's surprise announcement of the free upgrade to OS X Mavericks, some Twitter wags and industry pundits assumed that the free OS would be a danger to the continued existence of Linux. Speaking at LinuxCon Europe today in Edinburgh, Scotland, Linux creator Linus Torvalds was quick to point out that there's no threat to the open-source operating system. As Torvalds noted, while Mavericks is free, it's far from open source. While OS X Mavericks is pretty well tied to Apple hardware for the best possible compatibility (although one can create a hackintosh quite easily), Linux has been ported to just about every possible combination of hardware by an active and dedicated developer community. Whether running on server hardware or a single-board Raspberry Pi, Linux is a scalable and robust operating system. Several commenters on the original PCWorld post brought up the fact that OS X really isn't free, being included only in the cost of the somewhat expensive hardware that it runs on. In addition, OS X Mavericks won't run on older Mac hardware, while a Linux distribution can be found to run on just about any PC hardware in existence. Torvalds said it most succintly when he exclaimed that, "The fact that Apple gives the OS away is highly irrelevant. I don't think that it impacts Linux at all."
Linux kernel 3.10 arrives with ARM big.LITTLE support
Thanks to Linus Torvalds' figurative stroke of the pen, the Linux kernel 3.10 is now final -- paving the way for its inclusion in a bevy of Linux distributions, and even offshoots such as Android and Chrome OS. The fresh kernel brings a good number of changes, such as timerless multitasking, a new caching implementation and support for the ARM big.LITTLE architecture. In simplistic terms, the new multitasking method should help improve performance and latency by firing the system timer only once per second -- rather than 1,000 times -- when tasks are running. Meanwhile, users with both traditional hard drives and SSDs will find performance benefits from bcache, which brings writeback caching and a filesystem agnostic approach to leveraging the SSD for caching operations. Also of significance, Linux kernel 3.10 enhances ARM support by including the big.LITTLE architecture, which combines multiple cores of different types -- commonly the Cortex-A7 and Cortex-A15 -- that focus on either power savings or performance. The full list of improvements is rather lengthy, but if you feel like nerding out with the changelog, just grab a caffeinated beverage and get to it.
Twitter set to become the newest addition to the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation's been racking up big-name brands since its early days, and one of the latest is mostly everyone's favorite rapid-blogging service, otherwise more commonly known as Twitter. Following in the steps of chip-maker NVIDIA and that Platinum-leveled Samsung, the Blue Bird recently announced it'll be joining the open-source association come next week, with the official revelation set to take place in a few days at the LinuxCon North American gathering in California. Twitter's Manager of Open Source, Chris Aniszczyk, says that by doing so "we can support an organization that is important to us and collaborate with a community that is advancing Linux as fast as we are improving Twitter." Needless to say, this is a win-win situation for all parties involved.
NVIDIA responds to Linus Torvalds' critique: 'supporting Linux is important'
Linux creator Linus Torvalds didn't mince any words with his criticism of NVIDIA earlier this week -- calling it, among other things, the "single worst company we've ever dealt with." That unsurprisingly didn't go unnoticed by NVIDIA, which has today issued a statement that attempts clarify its position on the open source OS. It leads off by flatly stating that "supporting Linux is important to NVIDIA," before addressing some of the criticisms that have been leveled at it from Torvalds' and others. That includes its lack of Linux support for its Optimus laptop graphics, to which NVIDIA points to its support of the Bumblebee open source project, and its decision to not provide detailed documentation on all of its GPU internals -- on that, it says that it's "made a decision to support Linux on our GPUs by leveraging NVIDIA common code, rather than the Linux common infrastructure." The company goes on to note that it supports a variety of GPUs on Linux and is an active participant in the ARM Linux kernel, but acknowledges that its position "may not please everyone." We're going to go out on a limb and guess that includes Torvalds. Hit the source link below for the full statement.
Linus Torvalds: 'NVIDIA is the worst we've ever dealt with' (video)
Fresh from receiving technology prize plaudits, Linux creator Torvalds is still telling it how it is. In a recent Q&A session at Aalto University in Finland, he said that NVIDIA was "single worst company we've ever dealt with," responding to an audience member's question on her Optimus-powered laptop and its lack of Linux support. While she was finally able to get it working on her machine through some GitHub help, Torvalds was unequivocal about his thoughts on NVIDIA. Throwing in a middle-finger gesture to the camera, he was particularly irritated with the fact that the chipmaker's own Tegra range were faring so well on the wave of Android devices currently hitting stores, as Google's mobile OS itself came from a strong Linux background. Aside from hardware manufacturer gripes, Torvalds goes on to discuss his work with open source development in greater detail -- the full talk is right after the break. You can jump through to the 49th minute mark to hear the Linux founder's complaints, but be warned, family readership -- he drops the f-bomb.
Linus Torvalds shares Millennium Technology Prize with pioneering stem cell scientist
It's not often we see Linux creator Linus Torvalds in a tux (as opposed to with a Tux), but he had a good reason to ditch the casual look this week. He was just named as the co-recipient of the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize (often referred to as the "tech Nobel"), an award that he shares with pioneering stem cell scientist Dr. Shinya Yamanaka -- the two will also each get an equal cut of €1.2 million prize fund. Torvalds was of course recognized for the creation of Linux itself, with Dr. Ainomaija Haarla of Technology Academy Finland (the prize's organizers) noting that Torvalds' work "has kept the web open for the pursuit of knowledge and for the benefit of humanity -- not simply for financial interests." What's more, Torvalds also sat down for a fairly in-depth interview with the BBC for the occasion, in which he talks about Linux at length and offers a few thoughts on Google, Microsoft and Raspberry Pi -- you can find it at the link below. [Image credit: Millennium Technology Prize]
Linux kernel 3.3 released with merged Android code and more
The latest refresh of the Linux kernel, 3.3, is now available, and the second release of 2012 brings with it the long-awaited merging of code from Google's little side project. While that is particularly interesting to developers looking to boot Android or run apps on the stock Linux kernel (FYI: optimized power management and other infrastructure that didn't make it this time will arrive in the next release, 3.4) and represents a resolution to the issues that kept the two apart for so long it's not the only new feature included. There are improvements to file systems like Btrfs, memory management, networking, security and much, much more. Hit the source link below for the full changelog or grab the code and from the usual locations and get your compile on directly.
NVIDIA joins Linux Foundation, doesn't mention driver development
It's a big day for open source fans now that NVIDIA, the last member of the "big three" chip makers with AMD and Intel, has signed on with the Linux foundation. The company has previously kept the system at arms length, with users relying on reverse-engineering to get things working nicely with Linus' baby. It's joining Fluenco, Lineo and Mocana, three companies who also became signatories to the foundation at the same time. Whilst there's no commitment to provide drivers for its chipsets, at least there's a glimmer of hope that the company will contribute -- especially given the growing popularity of its mobile platforms.
Linus Torvalds releases Linux kernel version 3 to celebrate 20 years of penguin-powered computing
It's been nearly twenty years since Linus Torvalds let loose Linux on an unsuspecting world, and yesterday he finally updated the open source OS kernel to version 3.0. This third iteration, currently named 3.0.0-rc1, comes 15 years after 2.0 first hit the web and brings driver support for Microsoft Kinect -- a move that should have visions of sugar plum fairies (or maybe just Android avatars) dancing in hackers' heads. Also included is code optimized for AMD's Fusion and Intel's Ivy and Sandy Bridge silicon, and some updated graphics drivers, too. Despite these tasty new treats, Torvalds is quick to point out that this new release is an evolutionary change and unleashing the big three-oh was all about moving into a third decade of distribution, not about overhauling the OS. There's still work to be done, as it is a release candidate in need of refinement, but curious coders can grab the latest Linux at the Kernel.org source link below.
Linus Torvalds is now a happy Nexus One owner, pinch to zoom put him over the edge
Linux originator Linus Torvalds isn't really big on these "phone" things, but he's finally caved to his Nexus One lust. In a recent blog post he explains how the G1 never did it for him, despite his love of the "concept" of having a Linux-based phone. He finds phones in general irritating, and cellphones "an opportunity to be irritated wherever you are," but the Nexus One's offer of car-friendly GPS navigation got him thinking he'd have a good excuse to bring it with him places, and the recent announcement of pinch-to-zoom capabilities somehow put him over the edge. He still says the phone part is "kind of secondary," but we sure he'll eventually be won over to the dark side and be just as annoying as the rest of us phone talkers at restaurants.
Linus Torvalds gives Windows 7 a big thumbs up
You know Microsoft, when you setup a big Windows 7 booth across the street from the Japan Linux Symposium you're just asking for trouble. [Thanks, Mitch W.]
Linus Torvalds calls Apple's file system "utter crap"
Linus Torvalds may have dabbled in Apple territory in the past, but he's definitely not mincing any words about competing operating systems now. In a recent interview, Linus says that OS X is a "much better system" than Windows Vista overall, but that "in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for." Apparently these problems are rooted firmly in OS X's file system (HFS and HFS+), which he describes as "complete and utter crap," and even "scary." Of course, Torvalds also took the opportunity to tout the many virtues of Linux, which he says is an "obvious choice for anything from full-blown PCs to phones or video players." Damn straight it is.[Photo courtesy of AP, thanks Ash]
Linus Torvalds to Microsoft: put up or shut up
Aw snap. Just when you thought the Microsoft / open-source relationship was getting bad, it's now getting even worse, as yet another turn has been taken in the on-again, off-again love affair between the two. Soon after Microsoft's General Counsel claimed that free and open-source software (FOSS) -- a bundle of which related to Linux -- violated precisely 235 of its patents, Linus Torvalds decided to fire back on behalf of the little guy. In an interview with InformationWeek, Mr. Torvalds retorted by suggesting that it is actually "a lot more likely that Microsoft violates patents than Linux does," and even noted that if "the source code for Windows could be subjected to the same critical review that Linux has been, Microsoft would find itself in violation of patents held by other companies." Of course, he backed his statements by stating that the "fundamental stuff was done about half a century ago and has long, long since lost any patent protection," and closed things up by insinuating that Redmond should put its cards on the table so that Linux users prove 'em wrong, or better yet, "code around whatever silly things they claim." As if you couldn't tell, them's fightin' words, folks.[Via IDM, image courtesy of TACTechnology]
