• While not widely used on desktops, Linux continues to be an extremely popular operating system for web servers. 
• There is still strong demand on job boards for candidates holding Linux certifications. 
• Some of the best Linux certifications available include CompTIA’s Linux+, Red Hat’s RHCSA and Oracle Linux OCP. 
• This article is for IT professionals interested in Linux who want to learn more about which Linux certifications are best to obtain.

More than 20 years after Linus Torvalds developed Linux, the operating system remains a force in the computing industry. While Linux is not widely used on desktops, it is extraordinarily strong on the web server side, where it enjoys a market share of 48 percent, according to W³  Techs.

Information technology (IT) professionals invest considerable time learning about server computing for everything from installation, configuration, maintenance and virtualization to application support and security. This also means that many IT professionals are working with and around Linux operating systems daily, often alongside Windows and various UNIX OS brands as well.

The results of a job search we conducted on several popular job posting sites show which Linux certifications employers are looking for when hiring new employees. While results vary from day to day (and job board to job board), this table reflects those Linux-related certifications that employers were seeking in the United States.

Job Board Survey Results (in alphabetical order, by certification)

We found that for nearly every certification category listed above, the number of national jobs postings mentioning that certification has increased or held steady since we surveyed the same job sites a year ago. Linux system administrators and engineers can expect average earnings in the low $90s and upward, depending on the job role. Glassdoor reports earnings for Linux system administrators averaging $94,000, Linux system engineers around $132,000 and senior Linux system engineers at an average range of $144,000 to $232,000

The Linux Foundation has announced a new collaboration effort to Excellerate open-source security. The Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) aims to consolidate industry efforts with targeted initiatives and best practices. 

According to the Linux Foundation, OpenSSF is committed to collaboration and working both upstream and with existing communities to advance open source security for all as open-source software has become more pervasive in data centers, consumer devices, and services.

In addition, projects such as The Linux Foundation’s Core Infrastructure Initiative (CII), which was created in response to the 2014 HeartBleed bug, and the Open Source Security Coalition, founded by the GitHub Security Lab, will be brought together under the new OpenSSF.

RELATED CONTENT: It’s critical to keep your open-source components up to date and secure

“We believe open source is a public good and across every industry we have a responsibility to come together to Excellerate and support the security of open source software we all depend on,” said Jim Zemlin, the executive director at The Linux Foundation. “Ensuring open source security is one of the most important things we can do and it requires all of us around the world to assist in the effort. The OpenSSF will provide that forum for a truly collaborative, cross-industry effort.”

Initial members include efforts from the Core Infrastructure Initiative, GitHub’s Open Source Security Coalition and other open source security work from founding governing board members GitHub, Google, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, NCC Group, OWASP Foundation and Red Hat, among others.

OpenSSF intends to host a variety of open source technical initiatives to support security for the world’s most critical open source software, all of which will be done in the open on GitHub, the Linux Foundation stated. 

More details on the initiatives are available here.

Inaugural event aims to unite developers, engineers, architects, and business leaders interested in the latest deployments and use cases for WebAssembly 

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the schedule for WasmCon, a new event for developers, engineers, architects, and business leaders exploring the vast potential of WebAssembly (Wasm). WasmCon takes place September 6-7, 2023 at the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue, Washington. View the full schedule here.

The inaugural WasmCon aims to provide a forum for attendees to learn from and network with industry experts about the latest tools, trends, and emerging technologies in the WebAssembly community. The event will feature keynotes, technical sessions, and hands-on workshops led by industry technologists who will cover a breadth of WebAssembly syllabus such as cloud, emerging technologies, tooling and ecosystems, real-world use cases, and security, among others.

WasmCon Schedule Highlights Include:

• JavaScript Toolchain for WebAssembly Components - Guy Bedford, Principal Software Engineer, Web Assembly, Fastly

• Security and Correctness in Wasmtime - Nick Fitzgerald, TSC Chair, Bytecode Alliance

• Wasm, Kubernetes, Native, or What Else? An Enterprise Architecture Debrief - Sean Isom, Sr. Engineering Manager, ex-Adobe

• From Wazero to Wazhero: An Introduction to Wazero for Gophers and Other Species - Edoardo Vacchi, WebAssembly Core Engineer, Tetrate.io

• WASM in ByteFaaS, Past, Present, and Future - Wilson Wang, Research Engineer, ByteDance

WasmCon will also feature co-located events and workshops including Rust Global, an event hosted by The Rust Foundation to foster learning and discussion among global business leaders and Rust programming language advocates. Taking place on September 6, Rust Global is an opportunity for technology decision makers, business leaders, and Rust advocates to connect with, learn from, and inspire one another. View the full schedule here.

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Rust Global Schedule Highlights Include:

Registration
Early Bird registration for WasmCon is offered for US$399 now through August 7, which represents a savings of US$200. Special registration rates of US$199 are also available for hobbyists, academics, and students.

To register for Rust Global, please register for WasmCon and add on Rust Global for US$15.

Members of The Linux Foundation receive a 20 percent discount off registration and can contact events@linuxfoundation.org to request a member discount code.

Event Sponsors
WasmCon 2023 is made possible thanks to event sponsors including:

• Diamond: Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Cosmonic, Fermyon, and Midokura;

• Platinum: Microsoft Azure;

• Gold: F5; and

• Partner: Bytecode Alliance.

For information on becoming an event sponsor, click here or email sponsorships@linuxfoundation.org.

Press
Members of the press who would like to request a press pass to attend should contact Kristin O'Connell.

Social Media 
Join the conversation on social media by using the hashtag #WasmCon.

ABOUT THE LINUX FOUNDATION
The Linux Foundation is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world's infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, ONAP, PyTorch, RISC-V, SPDX, OpenChain, and more. The Linux Foundation focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at https://www.linuxfoundation.org/.

The Linux Foundation Events are where the world's leading technologists meet, collaborate, learn, and network in order to advance innovations that support the world's largest shared technologies.

Visit our website and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook for all the latest event updates and announcements.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Media Contact
Kristin O'Connell
The Linux Foundation
koconnell@linuxfoundation.org

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SOURCE The Linux Foundation

This is a list of GNU/Linux distributions designed to run on smartphones. While many support phones designed to run a mainline Linux kernel including the PinePhone and Librem 5, there are others that are able to run on phones that originally shipped with Android thanks to tools like Halium that allow them to use Linux kernels provided by makers of those Android phones.

Keep in mind that many of the operating systems listed below operating systems are a work in progress and may not be as stable or speedy as Android, may not support all of a phone’s hardware, and may not be able to run as many mobile-friendly applications. But most have at least a working web browser, which enables you to run web applications. Some allow you to run Android apps in a container thanks to tools like Anbox. And many will let you run desktop Linux applications, even if they don’t scale well to phone-sized screens. If you connect a keyboard, mouse, and display, you can even use your phone as a tiny desktop computer.

Another thing to note is that Linux isn’t the only option if you’re looking for a free and open source, privacy-focused operating system for your phone. Some other options are listed below the Mobile Linux comparison table.

These are some other open source operating systems that aren’t necessarily GNU/Linux distributions. Some are basically forks of Google Android that are based on Android Open Source Project code, but stripped of proprietary Google apps and services in order to focus on free software and/or offer a more privacy-focused experience. Others are

Other open source smartphone operating systems (not necessarily Linux)

• Genode is a free and open source operating system framework that uses its own microkernel designed to run on x86, ARM, or RISC-V hardware. While Genode itself isn’t an OS, it’s the technology behind operating systems like Sculpt OS, and the developers behind Genode have announced plans to port the framework and a version of Sculpt OS to run on the PinePhone in 2021.
• Potabi is an upcoming mobile and desktop operating system that will use a FreeBSD kernel. It’s expected to use the Lomiri user interface on mobile devices, but development is still in the planning stages. Developer Fivnex plans to sell its own hardware with Potabi pre-installed.
• Google-free Android
  • /e/ is a version of Android that’s been stripped of all proprietary Google apps and services. Designed to emphasize user control and privacy, the operating system still looks and works like Android, but it uses non-Google app stores and services to enable most Android apps to run in a way that respects user privacy. /e/ can be installed as a replacement for the software that ships on many Android phones, but you can also buy some phones that come with the operating system pre-installed.
  • Replicant is an open source Android distribution designed to rely as much as possible on free software including the bootloader. While most phones have proprietary modem firmware, Replicant’s developers also recommend using the software on devices that can isolate the modem from the rest of the system. As a result, only a handful of older phones and tablets are officially supported.
  • GrapheneOS is an open source Android fork designed to emphasize privacy and security. Not only does it ship without Google services, but its developers focus on improving the security of the web browser, app permissions, sandboxing, and more. GrapheneOS officially supports Google Pixel 3 and later smartphones and you can find installation instructions at the GrapheneOS website.
  • There are also dozens of other custom ROMs based on Google Android, many of which are open source projects in their own right. LineageOS is probably the most well known, but you can find other popular options at the xda-developers website.

If you’re not Google (or, to a much lesser extent, Apple), map apps are damned hard to make. Last year, several major heavy hitters in tech, including the likes of Meta, Microsoft, TomTom, and Amazon, decided to lay down their arms and meet under a flag of parlay held aloft by the Linux Foundation to make mapping just a little easier, cheaper, and less dominated by two companies. Alone, none could establish a big enough data pool to rival the likes of Google Maps, but with their individual hoards of business location data, satellite mapping tech, and more support from smaller tech firms, they could perhaps gather enough data together to help create a whole new series of up-to-date map apps.

On Wednesday, this pooled initiative, called the Overture Maps Foundation, shared its first alpha release for its mapping data. It contains millions of examples for buildings, roads, and geographic boundaries. It’s only the first large release for the planned massive dataset, but the hope is there will be much more to come as companies sign on.

Marc Prioleau, the executive director of the Overture Maps Foundation, was named as head of the project back in May. He’s been around mapping projects for many years, having worked in the start of the GPS market back in 1995, and later moved on to the likes of Meta and Uber for their location-based services. He said if there’s one thing that strikes at the difficulty of building a high-quality app with exacting road and place information, it’s the ephemeral nature of public infrastructure.

“The hardest thing in mapping is knowing what’s changed in the world,” Prioleau told Gizmodo in a video chat. Essentially, map apps are some of the hardest to design simply because of the massive amount of data required to build the systems. Not only do they need to be accurate, but they need to be constantly updated when businesses close and new ones open.

The first Overture release contains about 59 million points of interest that the group claims has not yet been released as open data before. A POI could be anything—a public landmark, a specific building, or a local business. Otherwise, the data contains about 750 million building footprints alongside road data that’s mostly collated from the crowdsourced OpenStreetMap project.

So how much of the world does this alpha release truly cover? Prioleau said the POI data makes up around 60 to 70% of a worldwide dataset. In his mind, a good number to shoot for is somewhere between 80 and 100 million places. It’s something of a Goldilocks problem. With around 200 million POIs, Prioleau said you’d likely be hoarding a lot of “junk,” but too little means you’re obviously missing out on locations, especially from less represented countries.

As far as the building data, he said that “feels pretty complete” as far as laying out worldwide structures, considering that the U.S. itself contains something around 100 million buildings. A good chunk of that data came from Meta through businesses listing their addresses on Facebook or Instagram. Microsoft also handed over some of its data through its work on Bing Maps, but the two sets combined included duplicates, which cut down on total numbers. The Overture director said the foundation has plans to add more datasets in the future from other sources centered on different continents.

The road data is a different beast entirely. The vast majority of it is based on the OpenStreetMap project, an open source, wiki-style resource compiled by internet users going on nearly 18 years. Prioleau said Overture has modified the project’s info to make it easier to attach new datapoints. The project has also worked to standardize and fact check the data contained on the project’s site. There’s also several benefits to using this Wikipedia-style map compared to how Google might spend billions maintaining its map data every year (or otherwise buying up the competition like it did with Waze). Users on the ground can archive and modify the map to note damage during a natural disaster.

“One of the things [OpenStreetMap] does incredibly well is build richness into the map, because what you map is no longer determined by what your commercial interest is, it’s what the community wants to map.”

Prioleau described himself as “the only full time employee” of the Linux Foundation-based group. Otherwise, the Foundation has depended on around 130 engineers from Meta, Microsoft, and more of the steering companies. As far as maintaining the data, the Overture head said that there’s no contractual agreement for companies to use the open source resources, but they’re still heavily encouraging all those who build upon their foundation to somehow supply back to the data source with any new information they collect.

“The incentive is: if you want to fork [AKA build off] Overture, start building your own dataset and not supply stuff back, then you’re on your own to maintain that dataset going forward.” Prioleau said. “So the incentive to giving back is that your data remains part of this consortium.”

What’s next is to create a “global entity reference system” for attaching data points to a map, which will then facilitate even more layers of information for new apps. Today’s map users aren’t just looking for ways to get from place to place, but from door to door. Delivery drivers need to know where they can pick up and drop off items. People with disabilities want to know where they can find ramp or elevator access.

“Maps are really digitization of things that are observable,” the Overture lead said. “We’re not mapping secret stuff. We’re mapping roads and addresses and places—things that are observable. And as the ways of capturing observable stuff gets better, the ability to build maps gets better.”

© 2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

© 2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.