Linux Used More than Windows on Azure, Debian Asks for Help Testing Buster, Red Hat Announces Packit-as-a-Service, KaOS 2019.07 Released and Kernel 5.2-rc7 Is Out

News briefs for July 1, 2019.

Linux is now used more than Windows on Azure. According to ZDNet, Microsoft Linux kernel developer Sasha Levin revealed that "the Linux usage on our cloud has surpassed Windows" when requesting that Microsoft be allowed to join a Linux security developer list. The ZDNet piece concludes with "There are now at least eight Linux distros available on Azure. And that's not counting Microsoft's own Azure Sphere. This is a software and hardware stack designed to secure edge devices, which includes what Microsoft president Brad Smith declared 'a custom Linux kernel'. It's now a Linux world—even at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington."

Debian 10.0 "Buster" release images are available for testing. Phoronix reports that with the 10.0 release coming next weekend, the "near-final images" are uploaded and folks are encouraged to test them: "There is a call for 'smoke testing' of these Debian 10.0 images for AMD64 (x86_64), i386, MIPS, MIPSEL, MIPS64EL, PPC64EL, and s390x. The Debian Developers are aiming to ensure there are no release critical bugs. In particular they are looking for more testing of their live images on bare metal PCs in both BIOS (CSM) and UEFI boot modes." Read the "call for help" here.

Red Hat this morning announced the availability of Packit-as-a-Service, a GitHub app that uses the Packit project: "Using the Packit service in your upstream projects helps you continuously ensure that your projects work in Fedora OS. Just add one config file to your repository, along with the RPM spec file and you're almost there. We have started publishing docs for the service over here."

KaOS 2019.07 was released today. This rolling distro includes the latest packages for the Plasma Desktop (Frameworks 5.59.0, Plasma 5.16.2 and KDE Applications 19.04.2), all built on Qt 5.13.0. See the Download Page for installation instructions.

Linux 5.2-rc7 is out. Linus Torvalds writes (from "in the middle of nowhere on a boat"), "It's been _fairly_ calm. Would I have hoped for even calmer with my crappy internet? Sure. But hey, it's a lot smaller than rc6 was and I'm not really complaining. All small and fairly uninteresting. Arch updates, networking, core kernel, filesystems, misc drivers. Nothing stands out - just read the appended shortlog. It's small enough to be easy to just scroll through."

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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