Security Vulnerability Found in APT, Wine 4.0 Release, GPU Acceleration for Linux Apps on Chrome OS, Kickstarter Campaign for Polished Game Creation Tutorials for the Godot Free Game Engine, TUXEDO Computers Launch Two New High-Performance Laptops
News briefs for January 23, 2019.
All Debian and Ubuntu users (as well as users of their derivatives, such as Linux Mint, Ubuntu MATE, Kubuntu, Lubuntu and Xubuntu) should update APT immediately. Softpedia News reports that Max Justicz discovered a vulnerability in the APT package that could "allow a remote attacker to trick APT into installing malicious packages that pose as valid ones, but which could be used for code execution with administrative (root) privileges after installation to gain control of the vulnerable machine." See CVE-2019-3462 for the details.
Wine 4.0 was released, representing a year of development and more than 6,000 changes. The main highlights include Vulkan support, Direct3D 12 support, game controller support and High-DPI support on Android. You can get the source here, or go here for binaries. See the release notes for more information.
GPU acceleration for Linux apps on Chrome OS is happening. According to IoT Gadgets, "Chromebooks with 'Eve' and 'Nami' baseboard should now, or very soon, be able to try GPU hardware acceleration." The article notes that "GPU acceleration for Linux apps should hit the Chrome OS Dev Channel soon. While it's not expected to run the most intense of games smoothly, some simpler games, and apps like photo/video editor should work better once given the full access to GPU."
Nathan Lovato from the Krita team is launching a Kickstarter "to create your own games with Godot, the free game engine". The campaign is to create "polished game creation tutorials" for the free 2D and 3D Godot game engine. With your pledge, they will create "free and accessible video series for the official Godot manual" and "a premium course to learn more advanced techniques that you will get as a Kickstarter reward". In addition, they plan to "produce a minimum of 60 high-quality video tutorials, on top of the Free game demos."
TUXEDO Computers announced the new XUX508 and XUX708 (XUX stands for Xtreme User Xperience) high-performance laptops. These gaming laptops have "a desktop processor that can be configured up to Intel's i7-9700K and i9-9900K. In addition, a GeForce GTX graphics card can be used as a 1060, 1070, or 1080 model from NVIDIA. They also feature a sophisticated cooling system with two extra-large fans and two additional synchronized heatpipes". Other specs include 15.6 and 17.3 inch displays (matt/anti-reflective), space for up to 64GB of RAM, two large 2.5" hard drives and two M.2 NVMe SSDs, Soundsystem of Onkyo 2.0 and SOUND BLASTER X-FI MB5 and USB 3.1 Typ-C incl. Thunderbolt 3. Plus, "all components are easy to maintain, clean or replace after removing the underside of the housing". Note: "TUXEDO Computers does not offer its customers standard Linux PCs, but systems specially designed for the customer. These are individually built computers/PCs and notebooks that are fully compatible with Linux and Windows."
Jill Franklin is an editorial professional with more than 17 years experience in technical and scientific publishing, both print and digital. As Executive Editor of Linux Journal, she wrangles writers, develops content, manages projects, meets deadlines and makes sentences sparkle. She also was Managing Editor for TUX and Embedded Linux Journal, and the book Linux in the Workplace. Before entering the Linux and open-source realm, she was Managing Editor of several scientific and scholarly journals, including Veterinary Pathology, The Journal of Mammalogy, Toxicologic Pathology and The Journal of Scientific Exploration. In a previous life, she taught English literature and composition, managed a bookstore and tended bar. When she’s not bugging writers about deadlines or editing copy, she throws pots, gardens and reads. You can contact Jill via e-mail, ljeditor@linuxjournal.com.
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