14 DAY TRIAL // Clear Linux Project's Eva P. Hutanu informs the community about the latest updated components and new features implemented in the Clear Linux operating system during the past few weeks.
Key updated components added to the Clear Linux distribution include the Linux 4.8.1 kernel, systemd 231 init system, Vim 8.0 and Emacs 25.1 text editors, as well as node.js 6.8 server-side JavaScript environment. Many GNOME components are now based on the latest GNOME 3.22 Stack, and the recently released Wayland 1.12 display server is present.
Apache Maven open-source build manager for Java projects is also now available in Clear Linux, and it looks like key Python libraries, such as SciPy, NumPy, and scikit-learn received a bunch of performance improvements for Intel AVX2 (Advanced Vector Extensions 2) processors.
"Python in Clear Linux now has two versions of these shared libraries pre-installed automatically, one without and one with the Intel AVX2 instructions enabled. At runtime, the Python interpreter picks the suitable version for the system's CPU," said Eva P. Hutanu in the announcement.
Clear Linux installer gets more improvements
Apart from the changes and new components mentioned above, it looks like Ister, the Clear Linux installer, also received a bunch of enhancements, such as the ability to find cloud-init configuration data during installation and to use micro config drive (ucf) for configuring the host based on those config files.
This change should allow users to perform automated and custom installations of Clear Linux using the same configuration format used for cloud provisioning for bare metal too. As usual, users are urged to update their Clear Linux systems as soon as possible after reading this article. And, remember, also keep your OS up to date with the latest software components and technologies!