The H Week - Linux 2.6.34 approaches

This week, The H has monitored progress on the next Linux kernel version and looked at how Linus Torvalds manages that development. The H also reported on large scale attacks on WordPress, on MeeGo's selection of the Btrfs file system, on delays in Fedora 13, confirmed Mandriva is up for sale and alerted readers to a Safari zero-day flaw.

Featured

As Linux 2.6.34 approaches full release, The H has completed its customary five part series of the Kernel Log detailing the changes and updates that will go into the new kernel version. In his column, How to become Linus Torvalds, Glyn Moody looked at how Torvalds does what some thought was impossible and manages the cooperative development of the Linux kernel.

• How to Become Linus Torvalds
• Kernel Log: New stable kernels and drivers
• Kernel Log: Coming in 2.6.34 (Part 4) - Architecture and Virtualisation
• Kernel Log: Coming in 2.6.34 (Part 5) - Drivers

Open Source

Former Sun Chief Open Source Officer, Simon Phipps, has joined Norwegian identity start-up ForgeRock. Mozilla's CEO is stepping down from his post. French Linux distributor Mandriva is up for sale. The still experimental Btrfs has been selected as the file system for MeeGo mobile Linux. Release plans for the Wine 1.2 Windows compatibility layer have been clarified. GitHub now supports Subversion for read and write. Fedora 13's release was delayed by a week. Google released a preview of the Native Client SDK and the second alpha version of Haiku, the BeOS-inspired OS, was released.

• Simon Phipps joins open identity startup ForgeRock
• Mandriva for sale?
• Mozilla CEO John Lilly stepping down
• MeeGo project chooses Btrfs as standard file system
• Wine 1.2 release plans announced
• GitHub launches Subversion write support beta
• Fedora: Further release 13 delay & scholarship awarded
• Google previews Native Client SDK
• BeOS successor Haiku now in R1/Alpha 2

Open Source Releases

• Oracle releases VirtualBox 3.2.0 Beta 2
• Python 2.7 beta 2 released
• SpringSource releases Grails 1.3
• SharpDevelop 3.2, now with IronRuby support
• Open source DVR MythTV 0.23 arrives
• JRuby boosted to 1.5.0
• WordPress for Android 1.2 adds video and geotagging support
• Pidgin 2.7.0 addresses emoticon vulnerability

Security

On "Patch Tuesday" Microsoft and Adobe both closed numerous holes in their products. Mozilla expanded their plug-in checker service to support other vendors' browsers. A widespread attack was staged on WordPress blogs. A new kind of attack was developed, capable of bypassing many Windows system's anti-virus protection. A zero day exploit for Safari, literally popped up. This month is the Month of PHP Security. For a short period Facebook mails were found to contain users' IP addresses.

• Mozilla's Plugin Check service updated to support other browsers
• Large-scale attack on WordPress
• New attack bypasses anti-virus software
• Zero-day exploit for Safari
• Month of PHP Security
• Emails from Facebook contained IP addresses

Security Alerts

• Microsoft closes critical holes in Outlook Express and Windows Mail
• Adobe patches 18 holes in Shockwave Player

To see all last week's news see The H's last seven days of news and 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)