Summary
Leap 16
openSUSE Leap 16 is moving to a different build system (ALP) and an immutable model (containerization + separation of system components like the Linux kernel).
Part of a general trend of distribution leaders switching/experimenting with an immutable/containerized model of application distribution. Immutable is a loaded term in this context, it's more like application layering approach rather than the extension of the File System Hierarchy Standard (FHS) found in NixOS and Guix System. Ubuntu Core plans to do a similar thing but with entirely snaps while Fedora has pioneered this model with Silverblue and its derivatives. The Steam Deck's SteamOS and Apple's MacOS also both employ this strategy to system stability with an immutable root and containers for apps.
Fuchsia being dropped from Chrome
Alphabet Inc. has dropped Fuchsia OS as a user-facing project. It was meant to be a third operating system to Alphabet's already created Android and ChromeOS operating systems but now is just a developer tool for Alphabet's spyware Nest products. Big loss for anyone who contributed to Fuchsia hoping it to become something usable and hackable by anyone and not appliances that spy on you.
Steam Snap being dunked on by Valve
Canonical has shipped a broken Steam snap package to Ubuntu operating systems, leading many bug reports to be sent to Valve that Valve will not provide support for. Valve normally distributes Steam as a non-transparent Debian package, leading to many downstream versions on many different distros.
The best solution would be to simply make the Steam API not tied to Valve's proprietary Chromium based Steam client. Freedom conscious users should be able to download and run games free from Valve's paper thin DRM instead of relying on cracked copies. The Open Source community could then come together to create libre Steam launchers that could be bundled properly on Linux based operating systems. Until that happens, one is better off buying non-DRM'd games from GOG or itch io, or simply obtaining a cracked copy.
Funnily enough this fiasco led to an indirect endorsement of the Steam flatpak by Steam developers. So yeah, go use flatpak for your proprietary programs and don't trust out of touch corporate developers.
Flathub Metadata Guidelines
Flathub has revised their guidelines to promote better app metadata and presentation on the Flathub store. This is part of a long-going effort to make Flatpak the de-facto standard of distributing apps on Linux, especially proprietary applications. Better curated apps will go a long way in legitimizing flatpak as an application platform for developers of all stripes.
Content markings for LLM/Neural Net generated content
Goes over a proposal that would put content markings over human and machine learning generated works. It would distinguish whether a work was produced entirely/partially by a person or computer or if determining that is impossible (user-submitted works). It would be a digital watermark of sorts.
Does not go over the current copyright dispute as many countries are aiming to create their own standards and regulations regarding the use of copyrighted works in training data.
Yes, Google Search has been getting worse + EU strikes again
TL;DR, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and machine generated content has made web search more of a consumer product rather than a tool.
This is a long standing issue with search engines, a remedy to this is to just rely on meta search engines like Searx, Whoogle and LibreY, or to use specific websites for search for things.
EU has forced Alphabet Inc. to allow users in the EU countries be able to unlink services from each other so an aggregated profile of a user can't be built. The effects will take place in March 6th 2024.
Wine 9.0!
- Ability to run 32-bit Windows apps on a purely 64 bit POSIX installation.
- Experimental Wayland driver support added, not enabled by default but would allow programs to bypass XWayland. I'm personally still stuck on X11 due to the lack of Wayland support for Wine so this is a great sight to see.
- Wine Hangover which will provide x86_64 support to ARM CPUs via Box86, RISC-V support planned.
Really I don't know why Ubuntu remains so frequently recommended, or any of it's derivatives like Mint. Everything that distinguished Ubuntu in it's early years to make it more desirable for personal computers has long since found it's way back to the mothership. Who is still using this thing?
They just have 15 years of name recognition and everyone who is Linux-curious searches for "beginner Linux for babies (i am afraid of computer)" and sees Ubuntu more than anything else in the search results. The go-to for beginners should be an immutable distro at this point. Give them something they can't fuck up