Initial Support for Rust in the Linux Kernel is Finally Released

Linus Torvalds finally announced that the latest LTS version of the Linux kernel (version 6.1) includes the initial support for the Rust programming language that recently has been hyped (https://lkml.org/lkml/2022/12/11/206). This, of course, comes on the heels of what Torvalds calls the "merge window from hell," thanks to the holidays and his pre-holiday travel.

On this, Torvalds announced he would be very strict with the merge window rules, saying "The rules are that the pull requests sent to me during the merge window should have been ready _before_ the merge window and have seen some time in linux-next. No last-minute batch of experimental new development that hasn't been seen by our test automation."

Of course, the big news for Linux 6.1 is the inclusion of experimental Rust support. It's important to know that this is very much still in the early phase of development, so the implications aren't nearly as game-changing as you might think. This is the very basic implementation of Rust in the kernel, so don't expect to find new and improved Rust-built drivers functioning within the kernel.

Much of the other work found in kernel 6.1 is dominated by drivers for media, Bluetooth, HID, GPU, and, more importantly, networking. Make sure to read the announcement to find out everything that's included with the latest LTS kernel, which should serve as a very important launch point for the addition of Rust drivers for Linux.

Linux Mint 21.1 Enters Beta Status

The developers of Linux Mint have officially announced the upcoming release is in beta (https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4442). What's big about this news is that 21.1 will include the latest release of the Cinnamon desktop.

The new version of Cinnamon has been tidied up to look cleaner and more modern. You'll find more vibrant colors, a new mouse pointer, new system sounds, and some of the desktop icons have been removed and are now pinned to the panel or opened from the main menu.

In order to achieve more vibrant colors, the developers had to use fewer accents across the user interface (UI). This change also required a number of other minor theme tweaks.

The Linux Mint Driver Manager also received a number of improvements for the user interface and includes a more robust driver installation. Even drivers for Broadcom wireless devices are easier than ever.

Other improvements include Flatpak integration into the Update Manager, a refreshed UI for the Software Manager, an easier way to verify ISO images (via a right-click menu in the file manager), and numerous improvements to the Nemo file manager. Linux Mint 21.1 features Linux kernel 5.15, Cinnamon 5.6, and is based on Ubuntu 22.04.

Learn more about the upcoming release (codenamed Vera) in the official release notes (https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_vera_cinnamon_whatsnew.php).

4MLinux 41.0 Now Stable and Ready for Use

4MLinux 41 is now available for general use and includes plenty of updates. There are new applications to be had, including FileZilla, XPaint, and GNU Paint, a command-line tool for managing NVM Express (NVMe) partitions, a small collection of games, LibreOffice 7.4.3, Gnome Office (AbiWord, Gimp, Gnumeric), Dropbox, Firefox, Chromium, Thunderbird, the Audacious music player, VLC, SMPlayer, Wine 7.18, and more.

With the release of 4MLinux 41.0, it is now possible to install on a Btrfs partition, with the help of Syslinux acting as a boot manager.

This lightweight Linux distribution ships with kernel 6.0.6 and Mesa 22.1.4, and uses Joe's Window Manager (JWM) as the desktop interface.

There are three different versions that can be downloaded and used: Full, Core, and Server. The Server edition makes it easy to set up a full LAMP stack with Apache 2.4.54, MariaDB 10.6.11, PHP 5.6.40/7.4.33, Python 2.7.18/3.10.6, Perl 5.36.0, and Ruby 3.1.2.

Download your copy of 4MLinux 41.0 desktop (https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/linux4m/41.0/livecd/4MLinux-41.0-64bit.iso) or Server (https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/linux4m/41.0/livecd/4MServer-41.0-64bit.iso) editions now and read the full list of installed packages here (http://4mlinux.com/addons-41.0.txt).