Tech & Gaming
Linux Format
July 2020Linux Format is your complete guide to the world of Linux. Whether you've just discovered Linux, or you're a full-time guru, Linux Format has everything you need to make the most of your OS. The editorial formula is a mix of features, reviews and practical tutorials that tackle topics as far ranging as installing software to socket programming and network management. Thought-provoking features and interviews also provide a focus on key technologies, trends and issues in the fast-paced world of Free and Open Source software.
in this issue
who we are
Mats Tage Axelsson I want to get my hands on the new NixOS release (20.03). The package configuration system is a completely new way of thinking about packages. You can operate many versions of any application in parallel without dependency issues. Advanced rollback capabilities are also built-in, making it straightforward to test beta software. Jonni Bidwell Maybe it’s optimistic, but I’d like to see elementary OS 6.0. The current version is so smooth, even on my aging company-issued laptop. After my Pop!_OS and Regolith reviews, my hot take is that tiling window managers will be all the rage in 2020. Nick Peers Having installed elementary OS on my ageing MacBook to give it a fresh lease of life, I’m very much looking forward to seeing the best bits of Ubuntu 20.04 make an appearance in…
ubuntwoooo 20.04!
The next LTS release of Ubuntu has dropped and it’s frankly fantastic. We’re getting you up and running with it as quickly as possible in our main feature this month for those readers who are new to Linux or Ubuntu, and we’ll cover off the important new features you’ll be itching to try out. After nearly 16 years of continuous development this release isn’t here to innovate as much to refine Ubuntu. The Gnome desktop – love it or hate it – feels super-slick and has received some much-needed optimisations over the past year. The theme has been polished to a sheen and icons refreshed. There will, of course, be the usual cascade of spin-off updates, ranging from the usual array of xyz-buntus but also downstream distros. The new Pop!_OS is…
europe turning to open source software
Open source software powers much of the internet, along with the underlying software used by businesses big and small. So why isn’t open source software powering our governments? That’s a position The Netherlands government has just committed to, calling it Open Source by Default1 . This is in response to various hurdles that had to be overcome for legal release and for the use of open source by The Netherlands government, which have been raised since 2017. A key issue is that the government publishing Free Software could be considered unfair competition under current market regulations. The EU restricts government-subsidised industries or products, which this could fall foul of. Doing so would only be legal if the government abides by a strict set of regulations. The Dutch minister for internal affairs, Raymond…
fedora is coming to lenovo
As part of a programme called the Lenovo Linux Community Series – Fedora Edition, Lenovo is going to start offering Fedora pre-installed on a small range of its new laptops when selected for customisation. The specific models are the ThinkPad P1 Gen2, the ThinkPad P53 and the ThinkPad X1 Gen8 range of laptops, with more models being given the Fedora option if there’s sufficient demand from customers. Lenovo has been working with Red Hat – the business behind Fedora – to ensure that Fedora 32 Workstation is ready to run on Lenovo hardware. Mark Pearson, senior Linux developer from Lenovo, said, “Lenovo is excited to become a part of the Fedora community. We want to ensure an optimal Linux experience on our products. We’re committed to working with and learning from…
linux gaming gets steamy!
Since the release of the Steam-Wine hybrid gaming system Proton, the number of games available to Linux has rocketed to over 11,000. However, even tested games that are reported to be Platinum quality has now passed 6,000 in those two years. Originally the Platinum rank applied to around 40 per cent of Linux titles, but as Proton has improved over the years this has increased now to around 50 per cent of all Linux games. More details can be found at https://boilingsteam.com/proton-brought-about-6000-games-tolinux-so-far.…
microsoft office running on linux
In a good thing/bad thing move Hayden Barnes, a developer advocate for Ubuntu, took to Twitter to show off Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel running on Linux. As he explained, this is less running natively and more a sub-system of Windows running in a container on top of Linux. A Linux Subsystem for Windows, if you want to use the Microsoft parlance. The whole lot communicates with Linux through SSH and it turns out that it would require its own Windows licence, so we can shut all of this down right now. We can see demand from Canonical enterprise users for this, though. You can see Hayden’s original tweet here: https://bit.ly/lxf264microsoft .…
