Linux Action News 200

Microsoft's next kernel patch fixes a long-standing Linux issue, we'll share the details. Plus ChromeOS's next power user feature you haven't heard of, and Valve's broader plans that came into focus this week.

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• Microsoft Effort For A Global Counter On Block/Disk Changes — This global counter for block device changes is sought after to better correlate events for devices that may end up re-using the same device, commonly for cases like /dev/sda or /dev/loop0 when a device is detached and then later reattached but not necessarily the same device.
• linux-block - Linux 5.x block layer tree(s)
• The New NTFS Driver Looks Like It Will Finally Be Ready With Linux 5.15 — Following those v27 patches, on Friday there was Paragon developer Konstantin Komarov who responded to Torvalds and reaffirmed the company's support for maintaining this driver.
• Microsoft: Component Shortages Not Going Away Any Time Soon — Supply-chain pressures also will continue to impact Microsoft's Xbox gaming consoles and PCs made by its partners, company officials conceded. Hood told analysts to expect Windows OEM revenues in Q1 FY22 to decline mid to high single digits and Surface revenue to decline by low teens.
• Mozilla VPN unveils major security boost — Split tunneling is now available in Mozilla VPN on iOS and Android.
• Steam Beta Brings New Downloads Page, Linux Container Updates — This Steam beta update is a bit meatier than normal with a new downloads page implementation, several Linux-specific updates.
• Steam Community :: Group :: Steam Client Beta
• Chrome OS persistent desk bar receives a vital pre-release fix — Last month, the Chrome OS development team decided that virtual desks weren’t being used enough by well, practically anyone, so they created what’s called Bento – or the ‘Persistent Desk Bar’.
• Alyssa Rosenzweig gets Debian running on the M1 — Debian GNU/Linux running bare metal on the Apple M1 with a mainline kernel.
• HackerSploit Docker Security Essentials eBook — This guide focuses on securing the Docker platform on Linux.
• Google to Officially Announce Subsea Cable to Connect Europe and Asia — The laying of the cable is part of the arms race between the tech giants, with Google competing against Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft in the cloud and data center sectors. Owning a cable, as opposed to renting one, secures a company’s control of the traffic on the cable and ensures the company can serve its clients first before sharing traffic with its competitors.
• How Hyperscale Cloud Platforms Reshaped the Submarine Cable Industry — For a lot more on how hyperscalers are changing the game in the world of submarine cables, listen to our interview with TeleGeography’s Alan Mauldin in full on The Data Center Podcast.