Issue #250 / Sep 2021

It is always illuminating to witness the mashup that occurs when staid and analytical software development spills out onto the psychedelic landscape of our popular culture. The weirdest news this month was that World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee sold a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) depicting the original web source code at Sotheby's auction house for an unbelievable US$5.4 million.

AlmaLinux Minimal 8.4 and SystemRescueCD 8.03

In the news: Linux Mint 20.2 Now Available; Linux Foundation Forming the Open 3D Foundation; Nitrux 1.5 Ships with Kernel 5.13; Slimbook Executive Laptop Focuses on Display and Power; KDE Plasma 5.22 Released with Better Stability and Usability; and Linux Kernel 5.13 Released

Chronicler Zack Brown reports on: Trusting Trusted Computing; New Userspace Load-Balancing Framework; and Ending Big Endian.

We celebrate 30 years of Linux with a special issue that takes you inside the kernel and shows you how to take your first steps with the kernel community.

We explore some optimizations designed to deliver a smoother experience for desktop users.

A vulnerability in an operating system kernel is a security nightmare. This article analyzes some well known kernel security problems, explains how they are exploited, and gives real-life examples of attacks that used these time-honored techniques.

While not a requirement, compiling the Linux kernel lets you add or remove features depending on your specific needs and possibly make your kernel more efficient.

Kernel coder Greg Kroah-Hartman explains how to take your first steps with the kernel team – and highlights some exciting new developments in Linux.

Arising from the ashes of CentOS, AlmaLinux offers a community-owned and -governed CentOS alternative.