In today's open source roundup: The Ubuntu Phone and its chances for success. Plus: Mozilla Thunderbird 31.5.0 released, and Lenovo sued because of Superfish adware The Ubuntu Phone The Ubuntu Phone sold well after its initial release. But will it succeed over the long haul against rivals like Android and the iPhone? Datamation looks at what the Ubuntu Phone has to offer and considers its chances for success. Matt Hartlet reports for Datamation: In a crowded mobile market, any new entries to the smart phone operating system space must find their niche fairly quickly. We’ve seen how failing to address this can lead to mediocre results with Windows Phones. To make this a success, Ubuntu must make sure of the following: 1. Any phone selected for Ubuntu needs to have outstanding battery life. Because it’s a later entry to the market, the expectations will be high. 2. Find a way to break through the app marketplace ecosystem lock-in. This might be impossible, but if there is a way to transfer ownership from, say, a paid Android app to the Ubuntu version, it would instantly make a difference in terms of Ubuntu adoption. 3. Profile/apps installed backup to a cloud service. This is a must if they want success here in the states. Switching from an old Ubuntu Phone to a replacement needs to be seamless – apps, data, the works. More at Datamation Jack Wallen at TechRepublic had a more pessimistic view of the Ubuntu Phone’s chances: Ubuntu is wasting their brilliant platform on hardware that will cause it to be very quickly forgotten. What should have been a major, game-changing release has become nothing but a faint blip on the mobility radar. If Canonical is serious about pushing a platform that most all mobile users would be happy to use, they need to find a serious hardware vendor (something like what would have been Ubuntu Edge) and release a device that will catch the attention of the users. Few users are willing to give a mobile device — one that should be viewed as flagship — a second glance when the hardware is shamelessly mid-range (at best). What this equates to is a phone with a very long boot time and dreadful lag when switching apps and scopes. How could Canonical have agreed on this particular device as the first Ubuntu Phone to be available for the public? It makes zero sense. With an operating system that shoots for the moon and hardware that hardly makes it down the block, this combination has failure written all over it. More at TechRepublic Mozilla Thunderbird 31.5.0 released Mozilla has released the latest version of its email, news and chat application. Marius Nestor reports for Softpedia: Mozilla Thunderbird 31.5.0 is here to fix only three issues that were discovered and reported by users from the previous version of the software, 31.4.0. More precisely, two critical bugs have been squashed, and one high issue has been resolved in the new Thunderbird release. According to the release notes, a use-after-free vulnerability has been discovered by security researcher Paul Bandha. The issue appeared only when certain web content was run with IndexedDB to create an index, leading to a potentially exploitable crash. More at Softpedia Here’s a list of Thunderbird 31.5.0 security fixes from the Mozilla site: Reading of local files through manipulation of form autocomplete Out-of-bounds read and write while rendering SVG content Use-after-free in IndexedDB Invoking Mozilla updater will load locally stored DLL files Miscellaneous memory safety hazards (rv:36.0 / rv:31.5) More at Mozilla Lenovo sued because of Superfish adware Lenovo has been in the news a lot lately because of the recent revelation that it had included the Superfish adware on some of its computers. PC Magazine notes that a lawsuit has been filed against Lenovo because of the Superfish adware. Chloe Albanesius reports for PC Magazine: Not surprisingly, the controversy over Lenovo installing Superfish adware into its consumer PCs has resulted in a lawsuit. According to the suit, filed in California district court, San Diego-based Jessica Bennett purchased a Lenovo Yoga 2 laptop in late 2014, and quickly noticed unwanted pop-ups. The suit is seeking class-action status for affected Lenovo laptop owners. Though Lenovo said it only installed Superfish on PCs sold between September and December 2014, the suit wants to include anyone who bought a Lenovo PC dating back to Jan. 1, 2012. According to the suit, Lenovo’s move violates the California Invasion of Privacy Act, Federal Wiretap Act, as well as California trespass and unfair competition statutes. More at PC Magazine Rexly Peñaflorida at Tom’s Hardware reported that there’s a second lawsuit underway against Lenovo as well: Another law firm also opened up a class action lawsuit against Lenovo and is encouraging customers to reach out if they want to participate. Both cases are still in their early stages, so the process could take some time before Lenovo gets its day in court. But with Lenovo potentially fighting a legal battle on two fronts, the company seems to be taking a turn for the worse, with the trust of customers slowly fading away. More at Tom’s Hardware 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