Canonical Releases Minimal Ubuntu, Mozilla Launches Two Mobile Test Pilot Experiments, Google Announces Jib for Java Developers, New Ubuntu Bug Discovered and Wine 3.12 Now Available

News briefs for July 10, 2018.

Canonical released its new Minimal Ubuntu yesterday. According to the Ubuntu blog, Minimal Ubuntu is "optimized for automated use at scale, with a tiny package set and minimal security cross-section. Speed, performance and stability are primary concerns for cloud developers and ops." The images are 50% smaller than the standard Ubuntu server images and they boot up to 40% faster. Minimal Ubuntu also is fully compatible with standard Ubuntu operations. You can download it here.

Mozilla launches two new Mobile Test Pilot Experiments: Firefox Lockbox for iOS and Notes by Firefox for Android. Firefox Lockbox allows iOS users to access Firefox-saved passwords saved in the browser to log in to any online account or app. With Notes by Firefox, users can "sync notes from any Firefox browser on any Android smartphone or tablet", and the notes are end-to-end encrypted as well. These projects are experimental, and Mozilla welcomes feedback here.

An Ubuntu bug that allows anyone with physical access to the computer to bypass the lockscreen by removing the hard drive has just been made public. According to the Neowin post, the bug was tested on Ubuntu 16.04.4, and it's not certain whether it affects other Ubuntu versions or distributions.

Google announced the release of Jib yesterday, an open-source Java tool that allows developers to build containers. Jib is "a fast and simple container image builder that handles all the steps of packaging your application into a container image", and you don't need to write a Dockerfile or have docker installed to use it.

Wine 3.12 is now available. This release contains many bug fixes, and other new features include Unicode data upgraded to Unicode 11.0.0, proxy configuration dialog in internet control panel, more glyphs in the Wingdings font and more.

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.

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