Equus Compute Solutions has announced the release of their new WHITEBOX OPEN server platform that is intended to be cost-optimized and an open hardware platform.

With not being able to deliver a 100% fully free software / libre system, the Librem 5 smartphone will rely upon a secondary processor for dealing with the necessary binary blobs for hardware initialization to keep them out of touch from the U-Boot boot-loader and Linux kernel.

Initial RISC-V architecture support was added to the Linux 4.15 kernel and in succeeding kernel releases have been mostly modest updates. With Linux 4.18 the RISC-V changes are on the small side still, but with a few notable additions for this open-source, royalty-free processor ISA.

While it's now becoming possible to run real Linux apps on Chrome OS, for those that have been dreaming of a real and pleasant GNU/Linux desktop experience on an ARM-powered laptop without much hackery, that soon may finally be a reality.

Purism has published their latest progress report on the Librem 5 privacy-minded Linux-powered smartphone that they still hope to begin shipping next January.

The VFIO framework that allows exposing direct device access to user-space in a secure, IOMMU-protected fashion is gaining some new sample drivers in Linux 4.18.

The MIPS architecture updates have been submitted for the Linux 4.18 kernel merge window.

The ARM SoC/platform changes have been submitted and already pulled into the merge window for the Linux 4.18 kernel.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has officially launched their "Summit" supercomputer today that also comes in as the world's fastest.

The ARM64 (64-bit ARM / AArch64) architecture updates have been submitted today for the Linux 4.18 kernel.

Last month we reported on Raptor Computing Systems announcing the Talos 2 Lite as their most affordable POWER9-based, open-source down to the firmware system and at least for now also happens to be the cheapest POWER9 configuration we have seen from any vendor.

Adding to the growing list of kernel changes for Linux 4.18 are a great deal of sound driver/subsystem updates.

While 64-bit ARM (AArch64) has been mitigated for months with the mainline Linux kernel against Spectre Variant One and Two, with the upcoming Linux 4.18 kernel is finally Spectre V1/V2 treatment for 32-bit ARM.

Linux hardware manufacturer Purism is reaffirming their commitment this morning to shipping the Librem 5 smart-phone in January.

Another one of the hardware support additions for the now in-development Linux 4.18 kernel is finally the mainlining of the Chromebook Tablet Switch Driver.

As reported a few months ago, the new Chinese x86 CPU venture formed between the government of Shanghai and VIA has been working on Linux support for these new x86 CPUs and that onboarding has continued with Linux 4.18.

It's been a while since last having any Linux driver progress to report on for the DisplayLink hardware that is found in many of the USB-powered displays. Fortunately, Red Hat developer Mikulas Patocka has posted a set of improvements to the DisplayLink kernel drivers of the UDL-KMS DRM driver and the UDLFB frame-buffer driver.

ARM has announced their next-generation wares.

While Kevin Brace of the OpenChrome project as the lead and only developer left working on this open-source VIA driver stack has restarted the discussion towards mainlining the OpenChrome DRM/KMS driver, he has decided to take a break from that for a few weeks and to focus on developing a "reusable DRM module" to help other vintage/obscure graphics hardware.

ARM has updated their set of Linux kernel patches providing mitigation for last week's disclosure of Spectre Variant Four.

LG Electronics is rolling out a 3840 x 1600, 38-inch "UltraWide Thin Client Monitor" that is basically an all-in-one system and features support for Windows 10 and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

If the latest Dell XPS 13 developer edition laptop pre-loaded with Ubuntu Linux doesn't match your needs, Dell has now rolled out several Precision laptop developer editions that also come loaded with Ubuntu LTS.

Purism has published their nearly final specifications on their limited-run Librem 5 Dev Kit. The cutoff for ordering a developer kit is next week as they are placing their hardware order and planning on only this single, limited run of the developer kit prior to the phones becoming available next year.

With the recently minted Linux 4.17 kernel there was initial USB Audio Class 3.0 support for this audio-over-USB specification while with Linux 4.18 that UA3 support will be further enhanced.

The Linux 4.18 kernel will feature the initial Steam Controller kernel driver that works without having to use the Steam client or using third-party user-space applications like the SC-Controller application.

If Purism didn't have their hands full enough already working to further free Linux laptops and their very ambitious project to get their own Linux smartphone software/hardware shipping next year, they have now expanded their portfolio with the Purekey.

For those that have been interested in the Talos II POWER-based system that is fully open-source down to the firmware but have been put off by its cost, Raptor Computer Systems today announced the Talos II Lite that is a slightly cut-down version of the Talos II Workstation.

Over the past week, benchmarks of this first RISC-V development board have begun appearing on OpenBenchmarking.org by the Phoronix Test Suite. Here are some of those initial benchmark numbers.

This week the latest open-source drama was a differing of opinions between Richard Hughes of Red Hat who maintains Fwupd and LVFS for Linux firmware updating from the desktop and that of Linux PC vendor System76.

Purism has been working on reverse-engineering the Intel Firmware Support Package (FSP) module but it looks like that work may have taken a turn.