In today's open source roundup: Are Linux users too passionate in their disagreements? Plus: KDE Plasma 5.1 released, and VirtualBox 4.3.18 brings bug fixes The Linux community has never really been a place for…er…quiet wallflowers. Over the years it has become known as a community filled with raucous debates that rage back and forth between passionate Linux users. Datamation thinks that it might be time for the Linux community to move forward with less rancor and bickering. According to Datamation: If we as a collective Linux community did a bit more of the positive and a little less of the berating of one another, our Linux enthusiast community would be a whole lot more welcoming to newcomers. Because if there is one thing I see in my inbox every single day, it’s another blog post from some “figurehead” making a big deal about something most Linux users honestly don’t have a stake in. That last statement might seem a bit extreme, but to be honest, I for one am tired of the ongoing bickering about stuff that the community will decide the fate of anyway. Trust the community’s vision and let’s begin quelling the divisive nature of the desktop Linux community. More at Datamation I think the title of the Datamation article is somewhat unfortunate and lends something of a negative air to the article by using the word “divisive” instead of “diverse.” I’ve always thought that the more voices we had talking about open source and Linux, the better. I can’t imagine what Linux would be like if there wasn’t a vibrant give and take happening in the community about so many different things each day. I remember when I launched my Desktop Linux Reviews blog years ago and someone asked me about another blog being a competitor. Was it something I should worry about? I responded that I thought there was plenty of room for more blogs to review Linux distributions, and that the more voices there were the better it would be for Linux users. One blog might focus on this or that in a review, while another would zero in on something else. And those sometimes conflicting points of view serve Linux users well by giving them a wider range of information about a distro. I would certainly never want anything I said to be the last word about a distribution for the simple reason that no one reviewer is likely to cover everything to the satisfaction of every reader. And I think that approach applies to the Linux community as a whole. I’m glad that Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds do not agree on various issues. It gives me a chance to view things through two different perspectives, and that goes for anything else related to Linux and open source. Creative conflict in different points of view serves us all well indeed. Oh sure, some people get carried away at times and go full-tilt-crazy about a particular Linux issue or problem. But that certainly isn’t the case for everybody and most people are generally able to focus on the technology and issues involved instead of making everything into a personality conflict. So I don’t think it’s a bad thing that the Linux community enjoys duking it out at times about various things. I’d rather have raucous debates by people who are passionate about Linux than a cold, dead community where nobody has the energy to care about much of anything. KDE Plasma 5.1 released The KDE site reports that the latest version of KDE Plasma has been released. KDE According to KDE: Today, KDE releases Plasma 5.1.0, the first release containing new features since the release of Plasma 5.0 this summer. Plasma 5.1 sports a wide variety of improvements, leading to greater stability, better performance and new and improved features. Thanks to the feedback of the community, KDE developers were able to package a large number of fixes and enhancements into this release, among which more complete and higher quality artwork following the new-in-5.0 Breeze style, re-addition of popular features such as the Icon Tasks taskswitcher and improved stability and performance. Those travelling regularly will enjoy better support for time zones in the panel’s clock, while those staying at home a revamped clipboard manager, allowing you to easily get at your past clipboard’s content. The Breeze widget style is now also available for Qt4-based applications, leading to greater consistency across applications. The work to support Wayland as display server for Plasma is still ongoing, with improved, but not complete support in 5.1. Changes throughout many default components improve accessibility for visually impaired users by adding support for screenreaders and improved keyboard navigation. More at KDE The KDE Community Wiki has a complete list of changes in Plasma 5.1. You can also download live development images right now to check out the new features and changes. Also, view the Reddit reaction thread to see what some Linux users think about the changes in KDE Plasma 5.1. VirtualBox 4.3.18 brings many bug fixes Unixmen reports that VirtualBox 4.3.18 is chock full of bug fixes for Linux and other operating systems. Unixmen According to Unixmen: Virtualbox 4.3.18 has been released about three days ago, bringing many different fixes for major operating systems such as Ubuntu Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. The potential misbehavior after restoring the A20 state from a saved state has been fixed, virtualbox does not crash anymore in linux hosts with old versions of the linux kernel, a few remaining warnings in the kernel log if memory allocation fails have been fixed and the GNOME Shell on Fedora 21 is not prevented anymore from starting when handling video driver display properties. Thanks to this maintenance release Ubuntu users have now the possibility to use legacy full-screen mode under Unity without experiencing multi-screen issues. Another important issue related to Unity that has been fixed with the release of 4.3.18 version is the quirk in full-screen mode Unity panels caused by mini-toolbar code changes in last release. More at Unixmen The Unixmen article includes install information if you need it, so be sure to click through and scroll down to read it. The official VirtualBox site also has downloads as well as the changelog for VirtualBox 4.3.18. If you need support be sure to check out the forums, mailing lists, and other resources on the VirtualBox community page. What’s your take on all this? Tell me in the comments below. Open Source