WLinux Distro for Windows Subsystem for Linux Now Available, openSUSE Call for Hosts, New Firefox Bug, Firefox Collecting Telemetry Data and Creative Commons Releases Significant CC Search Update
News briefs for September 25, 2018.
Whitewater Foundry recently launched WLinux, a Linux distribution optimized for use on the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Because the distro is created specifically for WSL, it has "sane defaults" and also allows for "faster patching of security and compatibility issues". You can download it from the Microsoft Store, and it's currently on sale for $9.99.
openSUSE announced that it's accepting proposals to host the openSUSE 2020 conference. The "Call for Hosts" is open until April 15, 2019. See the Conference How to Check List and the Conference How to bid wiki pages if you're interested.
Security researcher Sabri Haddouche has discovered a new Firefox bug that causes your browser and sometimes your PC (on Linux, Mac and Windows) to crash. In an interview with ZDNet, Haddouche explained, "What happens is that the script generates a file (a blob) that contains an extremely long filename and prompts the user to download it every one millisecond". See also the bug report for more information.
In other Firefox news, the browser evidently is collecting telemetry data via hidden add-ons, ITWire reports. The ITWire post also quotes Mozilla's Marshall Eriwn, director of Trust and Security: "...we will measure Telemetry Coverage, which is the percentage of all Firefox users who report telemetry. The Telemetry Coverage measurement will sample a portion of all Firefox clients and report whether telemetry is enabled. This measurement will not include a client identifier and will not be associated with our standard telemetry."
Creative Commons released a significant update to its beta of the CC Search project yesterday. This iteration "integrates access to more than 10 million images across 13 content providers". It also features AI image tags generated from Clarifai, the "best in class image classification software that provides tagging support and visual recognition". In addition, CC Search has a new design making it easy for users to "search by category, see popular images, and search more accurately across a wide range of content". And finally, users can share content and create public lists of images without needing an account.
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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