Linux Action News 68

Linux Action News

Some massive free software milestones this week, Intel's Microcode benchmark snafu, and Windows games for Steam on Linux confirmed, so we give it a test.

Plus Venezuela ties its currency to a cryptocoin, and our reaction to Windows 95 getting stuffed inside an Electron app.

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• Flatpak reaches 1.0 — Flatpak 1.0 is the first version in a new stable release series. This new 1.x series is the successor to the 0.10.x series, which was first introduced in October 2017.
• Venezuela ties its currency to a cryptocoin — It is supposed to be a liquid asset reflective of the price of oil, and there is of course a whitepaper that describes the system in broad strokes, though it lacks almost any real technical detail.
• Linux turns 27 — Some FOSS fans consider the first public release of (prototype) code, which dropped on October 5, 1991, as more worthy of being the kernel’s true anniversary date. Others, ourselves included, take today, August 25, as the “birth” date of the project.
• IRC Turns 30
• Debian turns 25
• GNOME turns 21
• Intel Microcode update didn’t allow benchmarks — Since the microcode is running for every instruction, this seems to be a use restriction on the entire processor. Don’t run your benchmarker at all, not even on your own software, if you “provide” or publish the results.
• Until they changed their mind
• Windows games for Steam on Linux confirmed — What many people suspected turned out to be true, DXVK development was actually funded by Valve. They actually employed the DXVK developer since February 2018. On top of that, they also helped to fund: vkd3d (Direct3D 12 implementation based on Vulkan), OpenVR and Steamworks native API bridges, wined3d performance and functionality fixes for Direct3D 9 and Direct3D 11 and more.
• Proton — Proton is a tool for use with the Steam client which allows games which are exclusive to Windows to run on Linux and macOS operating systems. It uses Wine to facilitate this.
• Windows 95 available as an Electron app — This is Windows 95, running in an Electron app. Yes, it's the full thing. I'm sorry.
• Although this isn't exactly a new idea