9 of the largest open source stories in 2019
Open source may not have dominated the world in 2019, but it certainly had some important highlights.
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It is the year 2019. Although cries of ‘world domination’ still resound in the sacred halls of Linux land, everyone knows that this great event will have to wait another year, but that does not mean that everyone who has invested in open source to their heads ashamed. Failure was never an option, and it was not a problem – not in the year of subtle acquisition.
If I have to give an open source title to 2019, it is precisely that – subtle takeover. Why? Because subtle things have happened, many of which will get reflections for the coming years.
Let’s look at some of the moments that have defined the year for Linux and open source.
SEE: Top five open source Linux server distributions (TechRepublic Premium)
1. Kubernetes, Kubernetes, Kubernetes
So Kubernetes was not exactly subtle in 2019; in fact, if something was loud and clear, it was Kubernetes. This open source orchestrator has risen to the top of the container heap. Enterprise companies have become dependent on Kubernetes for managing and orchestrating the clusters used for containers, but it was not just Kubernetes that showed such an increase in 2019.
What we saw happening was an increase in the use of other tools to offer Kubernetes an unprecedented level of automation. With the help of tools such as Helm, Flagger and Terraform, Kubenetes can now be almost fully automated. That is huge for container developers and the companies that depend on it.
SEE: What is Kubernetes? (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
2. The fall of Docker
Unlike Kubernetes, Docker did not do so well; however, I have to clarify. I’m talking about Docker’s company, not about container technology. The ecosystem of the docker container is doing reasonably well. Without docker containers, Kubernetes might not be the master of his domain, but without Docker the company, Kubernetes would continue. Docker can’t find the company lately and 2019 offered little to no comfort. Docker was once worth more than $ 1 billion. Now the money is trying to raise to stay afloat. Remember that Docker is the company behind the renewed popularity of containers. It’s a shame it doesn’t seem to keep this ship moving. Fingers crossed that 2020 will bring a much needed lifeline for Docker.
3. System76 and core boat
Your computer’s BIOS is the firmware that performs hardware initialization during the boot process of your computer. Nearly every BIOS on the planet was owned until 2019, but in 2019 System76 changed that with coreboot. Coreboot is an open source BIOS replacement that can be found on two of the System76 laptops: the Galago Pro and Darter Pro.
Coreboot initially started as a Linux BIOS in 1999; it is written by Ronald G. Minnich, Eric Biederman, Li-Ta (Ollie) Lo and Stefan Reinauer. Why is 2019 important for this open source technology? Because it was the first year, a company began to push coreboot openly on purchaseable devices. Although many compliments have to go to those original developers, the ovation belongs to System76 to bring this technology to the masses.
4. The Linux phone
Additional! Additional! Read all about it! The early users of PinePhones have been released. For a small amount of $ 149 you can have a Linux phone in your hand. However, don’t get too excited – these devices are powered by low-to-medium distance hardware and are full of problems. The fact is – despite the huge failure that was the Ubuntu phone – the Linux phone has given a new life.
Although the Librem 5 has also started sending, reports from that device are far from encouraging. For example, you can make calls, but audio and cameras do not work and there is no energy management. In other words, Purism sends a device that cannot actually be called a telephone.
The PinePhone is in a similar boat. Hardware is sent, but not all functions are available. The big difference between the PinePhone and the Ubuntu phone is that Pine64 makes it clear that this first series of phones is primarily intended for developers who want to control the hardware so that they can bring this device to the masses. The problem is that it still has a long way to go before it’s ready for prime time, and given the Linux phone’s track history, it might never happen; However, I would be negligent if I did not say that Pine64 is tackling this correctly. They have driven a hype into the Linux community; they have not fallen victim to the promise of surrender; and they work with a number of distributions to make this possible. I am confident that Pine64 will be the company to actually bring the Linux phone to life. Given the competition that the Linux phone is against, it will be a long, difficult road to success.
Although these Linux phones are sent as (essentially) non-working devices, 2019 has proven that the open source phone is not dead. I hope we will see the first fully functional Linux phone in 2020.
SEE: Your open source gift guide for 2019 (TechRepublic)
5. CentOS 8 and CentOS Stream
From the office of: “Hey, old friend, it’s been a while!” comes the release of CentOS 8. Why is the release of this distribution important? Consider this: CentOS 7 was originally released in 2014 – that is five years ago. A lot has changed since then, and with the eighth release there are many new features for administrators, such as Cockpit installed by default, TCP network stack version 4.16, a switch to the DNF package manager, much improved KVM support and more.
Something exciting happened in the CentOS landscape in 2019: the release of CentOS Stream. This new version of CentOS is a rolling release distribution, which means that your CentOS-based servers are always up-to-date. This is exciting, especially for administrators who prefer that their data center server operating systems live somewhere between upstream and downstream development. CentOS Stream will ultimately reflect the ongoing development to the next small release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
6. Debian 10
Debian, the mother of all distributions, became 10. Debian is the distribution on which many other distributions are based. It has the well-deserved reputation as one of the most solid operating systems in the world due to its slow release cycle. Not as slow as a release like CentOS, Debian 9 was made available in 2017. Although that might look like Debian is in a constant state of arrears, it is no different than ever before. The slow, methodical approach to releases gives it the stability that its derivatives require. Debian just doesn’t break. Ever. And when Debian releases something new, it is something remarkable.
SEE: The open source decade, fed by cloud and GitHub (TechRepublic)
7. Migrate Android to the mainline Linux kernel
Google announced its plans in 2019 to migrate Android to the mainline Linux kernel, and although this is unlikely to happen before the end of the year, it is big news. The upgrade process of the Android kernel requires three phases and is – at best – complicated.
- Google uses the LTS (Long Term Support) version of the kernel and adds its Android-specific bits.
- Google sends the modified kernel to the company (such as Qualcomm) that makes the system on a chip (SoC) that runs the devices.
- As soon as the SoC maker adds his code, the kernel is sent to the device makers (such as Samsung) where they add code so that the devices work.
These steps take time and ultimately you have a kernel that only works on specific devices and is not updated because it would have to go through the same process again. Google wants kernels to be updated, along with other software. This can go a long, long, long way to make the Android upgrade process efficient.
SEE: 10 Android highlights from 2019 (TechRepublic)
8. Linux kernel 5.4
Great things have happened in the Linux kernel this year. With 5.4 rolling out, two Linux fans in particular are doing their best happy dance. These functions are security-oriented kernel lockdown and exFAT support. The kernel lock enhances Linux security by restricting access to specific kernel functions that allow arbitrary code execution through code provided by userland processes; this means that even the root account cannot change the kernel code. With the exFAT support, Linux can transfer files larger than 4 GB. Although it was possible to add exFAT support through the installation of additional libraries – with kernel 5.4, this is now built-in.
SEE: What is fileless malware and how can you protect yourself against it? (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
9. Microsoft Edge browser
Microsoft finally lives up to its promise that it does indeed like Linux. In 2019, the company announced it was releasing its Microsoft Edge browser on Linux. This software is based on another application (Chromium) that is already available for Linux, but this version of the browser is developed for Windows. Does this mean that Linux will stop suffering from the weight of poorly designed websites that require Windows to be displayed or run? You can only hope.
But that’s not all – Microsoft has also announced and released Teams for Linux, which is complete and works exactly like Windows. No matter how difficult it is for the Linux community to swallow this bitter pill, it is a victory to really have Microsoft on our side.
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