Solus 1.2 “Shannon” Released With New Features — One Of The Fastest Booting Linux Distros

Solus OS is often pegged as one of the fastest booting Linux distributions. It’s an operating system that’s designed for modern desktop PC experience.

The latest release of the operating system i.e. Solus 1.2 “Shannon”, has now arrived and it’s immediately available for download.

Solus 1.2 is built upon the groundwork laid by previous releases with improvements being made to Budgie and other software optimizations. Solus 1.2 also focuses on bringing a better gaming experience.

This release is the part of Solus 1.x series of the operating system that offers something different from other Linux distributions. Apart from its speed and lightweight nature, its desktop environment Budgie makes Solus different.

It’s created from the scratch by Solus Project with simplicity and elegance in mind. Budgie Desktop in Solus 1.2 is polished and refined with new features. By tightly integrating the GNOME stack, Solus provides a pleasant desktop experience.

New changes and features in Solus 1.2

Solus 1.2 brings the out-of-the-box support for 32-bit applications. This also means that one can now install apps like Steam, Skype, Teamviewer, and Wine on Solus operating system.

To make gaming a smoother experience, Solus Project has brought a new tool called Linux Steam Integration. It’s an open source project that everybody can access on its GitHub page. 

The Software Center in Solus 1.2 has been revamped, making it easier for the users to explore and install new programs. Now one will be able to install a particular set of third party software, like Chrome, right from the software center.  

By making improvements to Solus OS installer, the process of getting your system ready has been made hassle free. Now, the process of choosing a language and keyboard has been made more fluid. The installer offers certain strategies–Dual-boot, Full-disk, Manual, Replace OS–for configuring a system.

Other general improvements to the OS cover as much as 150 bug fixes pertaining to Budgie, software availability, and other areas.

The major open source software that ship out-of-the-box with Solus 1.2 include:

• Firefox 47
• Nautilus 3.18.5
• Rhythmbox 3.3.1
• Thunderbird 45.1.0
• VLC 2.2.4

If you are running Solus 1.1, upgrading to the latest Shannon release is just a few clicks away using the default package manager. If you are new to the world of Solus, you can go ahead and grab the download via their website.

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KickassTorrents Becomes One Of The World’s Most Popular Websites

The world of torrent websites is full of constant ups and downs, thanks to the copyright advocates and court rulings. The websites that rule the pirate world a decade ago have been knocked off the charts by newer players.

A decade ago, back in 2007, torrent search engine Mininova and IsoHunt were ruling the charts and The Pirate Bay was at the third place. The next year, The Pirate Bay earned the #1 crown and continued to rule the charts till 2011 with an Alexa rank of 76.

In this period, KickassTorrents, a newer torrent index was gaining popularity and strengthening its #4 position.

In the later years, due to multiple domain switches and court orders, The Pirate Bay lost its top spot and KickassTorrents became the world’s most popular torrent website.

Right from then, KickassTorrents has continued to gain spots on Alexa ranking charts.

Continuing its exponential rise, KickassTorrents entered the Alexa top 70 — a feat that was achieved by Mininova in 2007.

Apart from the legal troubles of The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents also gained from its own impressive uptime, a large library of torrents, and an effective sorting feature.

KickassTorrents is also very easy to navigate with lesser sketchy re-directs as compared to other torrent websites.

KickassTorrents is also empowered by its community who is willing to contribute and help each other — a habit that is fuelled by special ‘unlocked’ achievements.

In other KickassTorrents news, the website recently entered the dark web and got an official .onion TOR domain name. This has given the website owners and users a safe backup option.

So, what do you think? Why KickassTorrents continues to kick ass and rule the world of piracy? Share your views in the comments below.

Hottest Technologies In The Developer Community Right Now

The latest Global Development Survey from the Evan Data Corporation is now out. After surveying 1,441 developers from all across the world, this report outlines various trends of the current technology world.

The report shows that today’s developer community is interested in areas like robotics, cloud, and IoT.

Here are the key takeaways from this report:

1. Priorities of Big Data Analytics Developers:

The report tells that Big Data analytics developers are using their skills to develop applications for Internet of things (15.1%), technical services (10%), telecommunications (10%), manufacturing (non-computer related) (9.6%), and finance/insurance (9.4%).

2.Priorities of Data Mining App Developers:

The data mining app developers are focusing on developing applications for Robotics (56.4%), Arts, Entertainment and Recreation (56.3%), and Automotive (52.9%).

Their other areas of interest are telecommunications (48.3%), Internet of Things (47.1%) and manufacturing (46.7%).

3. Importance of IoT:

Overall, 45% developers say that Internet of Things is a big part of their future plans while 7% say that it’s somewhat important to their strategy. The report shows that 29.5% of all developers are making IoT apps today.

4. Adoption of Cloud:

The increasing popularity of cloud technologies is reflected in this survey. Today, more than ever, 27.4% of all app developers are inclined to develop an app on the cloud.

Out of those, 66.9% are hoping to make a new cloud-based app in next one year. Out of all developers, 81.3% developers are making stuff on the cloud.

Developers are climbing up the ladder that takes them to the cloud due to its various advantages like better security, better user experience, more reliability, cheaper options, and better data center speed.

5. Importance of AI:

41% developers call artificial intelligence a very important part of their future plans. This has become popular due to the new AI firms providing a subscription model, making things easier for independent developers and startups.

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China Makes World’s Fastest Supercomputer With 10 Million Cores And 93 Petaflops Speed

The top 500 ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers was introduced 23 years ago. For the first time in history, China has toppled the US to become the country with the most entries on the list. Now, China has 167 machines on the list, compared to the U.S.’s 165.

The new Chinese supercomputer has beaten another Chinese machine that ruled this list for the past three years. Called TaihuLight, this supercomputer is about three times more powerful than the previous record-holder. Compared to the fastest U.S. supercomputer Cray XK7, that ranks 3rd, TaihuLight is five times faster.

The latest supercomputer rankings were released today at International Supercomputer Conference in Frankfurt.

Another important thing about TaihuLight is the use of homegrown Chinese chips. After the U.S. banned the export of Intel chips last year, China decided to use its superconductor technology.

The Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer was developed at the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology (NRCPC). TaihuLight features the Made In China SW26010 processors that are said to be similar to the Digital Alpha chip.

TaihuLight has more than 40,000 chips with 10.65 million processor cores stacked in 40 cabinets. Compared to this, the fastest supercomputer of the U.S. has just 560,000 cores.

This beast showed a capacity of 93 petaflops per second on benchmark tests, which is about three times faster than past record-holder Tianhe-2.

If you think that the U.S. is simply sitting and watching these developments, read the next sentence. The American government has already granted a $200 million contract to Intel and NVIDIA to build a 150 petaflop machine.