The H Roundup for the week ending 18 February

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.

Top News

The first "real release" of the Wayland graphics system for Linux was published, the Kotlin Java alternative was made available as open source and Debian was valued at £12.1 million by one of its own developers. The Document Foundation announced the arrival of version 3.5 of the open source LibreOffice suite and Mozilla closed a critical hole in Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey.

• Linux graphics system Wayland sees first "real release"
• Java-alternative Kotlin now available as open source
• Developer values Debian at £12.1 billion
• LibreOffice 3.5 sharpens its grammar checking
• Mozilla closes critical security hole in Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey
• Firefox extension illustrates password reuse
• Horde Groupware contains backdoor
• Chinese hackers had free rein at Nortel
• RSA keys not as random as they should be
• Java SE updates fix critical security holes

Featured Articles

This week, Richard Hillesley took a look at the Wayland project, which aims to eventually replace the X Window system, and Uli Ries discussed the progress Microsoft has made in making its software more secure. In a new edition of the Kernel Log, Thorsten Leemhuis detailed some of the proposed changes coming in an update to the CUPS printing system, along with Linux kernel developments.

• Wayland - Beyond X
• Microsoft's struggle against bugs
• Kernel Log: Apple streamlines CUPS

Open Source Releases

• MySQL client HeidiSQL 7 now also talks Microsoft SQL Server
• Spring Roo 1.2 update improves performance
• Linux graphics system Wayland sees first "real release"
• Version 3.1 of OTRS Help Desk released
• LibreOffice 3.5 sharpens its grammar checking
• Java-alternative Kotlin now available as open source
• Sourcefabric introduces Booktype for writing and publishing books
• MySQL Cluster update brings improved performance
• Scientific Linux 6.2 released
• Piwik 1.7 adds new reports, improves security
• Qt Labs introduces replacement for qmake
• Google previews Dartium - Chromium with Dart virtual machine
• Blender 2.62 gets new UV editing tools

Security Alerts

• Mozilla closes critical security hole in Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey
• Horde Groupware contains backdoor
• Shockwave Player critical holes closed
• Flash Player update plugs exploited hole

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.

(crve)