02 March 2013, 11:56

The H Roundup - ClockworkMod Superuser, Torvalds angry and MWC

Welcome to The H Roundup, your rapid review of the week with the most read news on The H, the security alerts and open source releases, and the essential feature articles – all in one quick-to-scan news item. This week, Koushik Dutta releases a new Android super user tool, Firefox OS, Ubuntu and Sailfish make a splash at MWC, Linus Torvalds gets angry, a look at Ruby 2.0 and web-based open science.

Top News

ClockworkMod developer Koushik Dutta has announced that he has written a new super user utility for Android and that it will be included by default in CyanogenMod. At Mobile World Congress, Firefox OS, Ubuntu for Phones and Tablets, and Jolla's Sailfish OS have been making waves, while Google's developers have detailed how to boot conventional Linux distributions on the Chromebook Pixel.

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel can allow a user to gain root privileges, the ISC has discovered a backdoor being exploited to compromise Linux servers, and Eset has discovered trojans that carry valid digital signatures. Meanwhile, Java users can get no respite as more and more vulnerabilities are being discovered.

Objecting to signing code being introduced into the Linux kernel in connection with Secure Boot, Linus Torvalds had some strong words for a Red Hat developer this week. A new version of Mesa improves the driver for Radeon graphics cards. In Germany, the federal state of Baden-Württemberg has decided to migrate from its own in-house Linux-based servers to a product from Univention.

Featured Articles

Tim Keller and Christian Albrecht look at Ruby 2.0, which was released in time with the language's 20th birthday, and Glyn Moody revisits the subject of open science and what a future in collaboration and research might look like. If you are looking to mingle with like-minded open source enthusiasts and developers, The H's Community Calendar can tell you what is happening where in March.

Open Source Releases

Open source software releases this week included the long-awaited Ruby 2.0, a new version of CoffeeScript, a Django version that supports Python 3, a new release of Erlang, and a new compression library from Google.

A beta version of Firefox introduces private browsing in separate windows on the desktop and individual tabs on Android.

Beta of Firefox 20 introduces parallel Private Browsing

Security Alerts

This week, Adobe shipped a Flash patch that specifically patched a hole in Firefox and, even after Oracle fixed the latest Java flaws, another problem was discovered.

For everything The H has published in the last week, check out the last seven days of news. To keep up with The H, subscribe to the RSS feed, or follow honlinenews on Twitter. You can follow The H's own tweeting on Twitter as honline.

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