In today's open source roundup: Linux 4.2 is out. Plus: Linux Lite 2.6 released. And how to ready yourself for Linux Linux 4.2 released Linus has been busy toiling away on the next version of the Linux kernel, and now version 4.2 has finally been released. Linus made the official announcement on the kernel mailing list: So judging by how little happened this week, it wouldn’t have been a mistake to release 4.2 last week after all, but hey, there’s certainly a few fixes here, and it’s not like delaying 4.2 for a week should have caused any problems either. So here it is, and the merge window for 4.3 is now open. I already have a few pending early pull requests, but as usual I’ll start processing them tomorrow and give the release some time to actually sit. The shortlog from rc8 is tiny, and appended. The patch is pretty tiny too. Linus More at Linux Kernel Mailing List Richard Chrigwin reports on Linux 4.2 for The Register: Now that it’s general availability, the kernel does bring some goodies worth having. The Crypto Forum Research Group’s ChaCha20 stream cipher and the Poly1305 authenticator (a reference implementation is described in RFC 7539) are supported, and there’s a new RSA implementation. To improve random number seeding, Linux 4.2 uses CPU execution jitter to help seed its random number generator, a feature called “jitter entropy RNG” on the basis that sushi should be called “cold dead fish”. The default crypto random number generator API is now DRBG. LinuxPlanet notes that there’s also support for security module stacking. More at The Register The release of Linux 4.2 spawned a thread on the Linux subreddit: Santsi: “X-box controller is fixed. Best release ever.” Oversizedhoodie: “Yay! Jack detection support for I2S audio!” Kamize: ”I love this!! Ubuntu Studio will take a while to catch up to using 4.2 though.” Jimrandom: ”In a brief moment of senility, I read that as “Linux 2.4 is out.” I thought I was back in the dark ages.” Roscocoltrane: ”I have a gaming AMD (HD7970) desktop on fedora 22. Does it make sense to install the new kernel or will I still be limited by xorg and different stuff anyway?” More at Reddit Linux Lite 2.6 released Linux Lite is not a distribution that gets lots of attention in the media, and that’s a shame since it is geared toward welcoming newcomers to Linux. Linux Lite 2.6 is the latest release, and you can download it now. Marius Nestor reports for Softpedia: Being based on the latest Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS (Trusty Tahr) operating system from Canonical, Linux Lite 2.6 brings with it a new Control Center app that offers you a single, powerful utility for configuring your computer. Additionally, it features a new system backup and operating system creation utility called Systemback, a new shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+Del) for summoning the restart/shutdown/logout dialog, updates the Help Manual, and introduces a Welcome screen. Linux Lite 2.6 also features the Disks (GNOME Disk Utility) software for all of your disk partitioning tasks, a new theme for the root terminal, the VLC Media Player browser plugin, new wallpapers, and a new dark theme called Zukitwo Dark Reloaded. More at Softpedia How to ready yourself for Linux Newcomers to Linux can sometimes be overwhelmed by the idea of changing operating systems. But a writer at Datamation has come up with a helpful list of nine tips that will prepare any user to make the jump to Linux. Bruce Byfield reports for Datamation: These days, I rarely give unsolicited technical advice. However, if people ask me how to explore and install Linux, I urge them to be systematic. To the average computer user, installing a Linux operating system is an unfamiliar procedure — to say nothing of an exercise in unprecedented diversity. However, if you prepare and explore systematically, the procedure can be surprisingly straightforward. Specifically, I suggest you follow these nine steps: 1. Begin with Cross-Platform Applications 2 Don’t Believe Everything You Hear 3. Be Systematic About Your Explorations 4. Think in Terms of Software Categories, Not Specific Applications 5. Look for Different Names and Locations for the Same Function 6. Researching Distributions 7. Ignore Configuration At First 8.Decide on Philosophy, Not Technology 9. Understand the Installation Process More at Datamation Did you miss a roundup? Check the Eye On Open home page to get caught up with the latest news about open source and Linux. Software DevelopmentOpen Source