Ubuntu 12.04 LTS proved to be the most secure product in a client operating system investigation by British security body Communications Electronics Security Group (CESG), which is part of GCHQ and provides assistance to government departments on their own communications security, according to a report today in Germany’s Linux-Magazin.

The test field consisted of 11 desktop and mobile operating systems, including Windows 7 and 8, Windows RT, Android 4.2, Apple’s iOS 6 and Mac OS X 10.8, as well as Google Chrome OS 26. CESG investigated the security of the systems in various categories, e.g. VPN, hard drive encryption, secure boot, sandboxing, implementation of security policy and update policy.

No system was able to meet all demands for use by the British authorities, but Ubuntu 12.04 LTS was shown to be the most secure system of those tested. Windows Phone 8 has the most critical vulnerabilities.

Ubuntu supplier Canonical has summarised the results as it sees them in a PDF. The company is hoping to do even better with the forthcoming Ubuntu 14.0 LTS version of its operating system, particularly by supporting secure boot.

More detailed information about the test is available on the CESG website, including CESG’s Ubuntu-specific report.

First published by Bristol Wireless.

Just before the end of last month Wildfire Games announced the release of 0 A.D. Alpha 15 “Osiris”. 0 A.D. is a real time strategy game and the new release comes with additional functions. It’s available free of charge for Linux, Mac and Windows and is licensed under Version 2 of the GPL. The Alpha 15 release, which is playable, provides a multi-player lobby, in which players can meet and play each other, whilst a new playable civilisation can be added with the Ptolemaic Egyptians. However, only some of the latter’s buildings units and play functions can be tested; the civilisation itself shall only be made available in the next alpha version.

A new play mode has been added to the game with so-called “Skirmish Maps”. Units now also gain a bonus if they come within reach of a certain building or special unit. Up top now temples regenerate the health of nearby units and most heroes also have such an “aura”. This function will be further refined and extended in future versions of the game.

The user interface has also been improved so that players can now order their troops to defend other units or buildings. An audible signal or a chat message notifies when a player is being attacked, whilst flashing pixels on a miniature map show where the attack is taking place. Fighting units can be returned to the civilian work they were previously carrying out with a new “Back to work” button.

In addition, there are new graphic elements, pieces of music and bug fixes, etc. in 0 A.D. Alpha 15 “Osiris”. The game is available for download from the project website.

Finally, the project is seeking volunteer contributors in programming, art, sound, documentation and more. For details, log onto #0ad-dev on QuakeNet on IRC and meet the developers or register on the project’s forums and start participating!

Previously published on the Bristol Wireless website.

Just before Christmas the release of version 0.18 of the Enlightenment desktop environment for Linux was announced, according to Heise. Modules for controlling Bluetooth and music software are amongst the new features for the Enlightenment 0.18.0 (E18). It has been released as planned just one year after version 0.17.0 (E17), whose development took 12 years.

In the new version the compositor which combines the application windows and desktop components into an overall picture is no longer optional, but firmly integrated into the desktop’s main components. Support for running Wayland, the potential successor X11 is also new, as is better interaction with systemd, the system management daemon designed exclusively for the Linux kernel API. The developers have also fixed several crashes and made considerable improvements to the file manager, according to the release notes.

The developers are currently working on Enlightenment 0.19.0 (E19), which will be able to work as a Wayland Compositor. Details of these plans may be found on the E19 Release Manager blog, as well as in the video below.

Tails is a live Linux operating system (based on Debian. Ed.), that can be booted on almost any computer from a DVD, USB stick or SD card. Tails aims at preserving its users’ privacy and anonymity, as well as helping them to:

• use the Internet anonymously and circumvent censorship; all connections to the internet are forced to go through the Tor network;
• leave no trace on the computer being used without your requesting it;
• use state-of-the-art cryptographic tools to encrypt your files, emails and instant messaging.

A crowdfunding campaign to support encryption tools for journalists has been launched by The Freedom of the Press Foundation; this campaign will last for two months and is collecting funds for Tails, Tor, the encrypted mobile communication tools RedPhone and TextSecure, plus the LEAP encrypted email platform.

The Linux Foundation has released a video for the end of the year. It features quotations from developers and other members of the open source community year about how open source and collaboration are making amazing things happen. When collated, their words send a strong message: Linux and open source developers are changing the world one line of code at a time.