The wrap: Ubuntu 16.04 comes to Windows 10, Galaxy S8 announced, Red Hat reports 2017 revenue

Windows 10 users will soon be getting the Creators Update, which brings many new capabilities to users who want to run Linux command line utilities in Windows 10 through its Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Those who are trying WSL for the first time will get Ubuntu 16.04 by default instead of 14.04.

Mary Branscombe writes at The New Stack:

Ubuntu 16.04 will be installed by default if the Creators Update is the first time you’re using WSL on a PC. If you already have 14.04, Windows won’t update your distro. Turner says that’s because of the very strong feedback from the community that they didn’t want the update to be automatic). You can do an in-place upgrade using `sudo apt dist-upgrade`, if you want a clean 16.04 instance, use `lxrun /uninstall /full` to remove your Ubuntu instance and then reinstall it with `lxrun install.`

With this update you can now have more reliable SSH sessions in Ubuntu.

Red Hat made $2.4 billion in FY17

The king of Linux, Red Hat, has reported revenues of $2.4 billion for fiscal year 2017. Subscriptions, a model that Red Hat championed, remained the breadwinner for the company with revenues of $2.1 billion, up 18 percent year-over-year.

Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst said in a press release:

We closed the year with an exceptional performance. The fourth quarter marked our 60th consecutive quarter of revenue growth, and we crossed the $2 billion milestone in subscription revenue and total deferred revenue for the fiscal year.

Samsung announces Galaxy S8

After the massive failure of Samsung Note 7 in 2016, Samsung is back with the Galaxy S8 (ahead of the much-hyped anniversary edition of the iPhone). While the new Galaxy phone showcases better hardware, the real challenge is software. Unfortunately, Samsung continues to offer their own stack of software that competes with much better Google offerings. The battle between the Android/Linux powered Galaxy S8 and the upcoming iPhone will be fought on the turf of software.

Vlad Savov writes for the Verge

More interesting than the Apple rivalry is Samsung’s increasing confrontation with Google. At yesterday’s event, Samsung announced a slate of new features to enhance its ecosystem, each of which had an already existing Google alternative. Samsung Bixby is unmistakably a competitor to Google Assistant, executing voice commands from the user, automating some basic tasks, and generally performing the Alexa / Siri / Cortana role. Samsung Connect Home is a smart router that looks like a Google Wifi and functions rather like Google Home: its purpose is to unify and organize all the various Samsung appliances and other connected gadgets you have dotted around your home. And yes, it will support Bixby commands, too.

I have previously used Samsung devices and have already pre-ordered Samsung Galaxy S8 for review as I can’t miss a Linux powered high-end device. But I really despise Samsung’s own software. I wish the company would stick to stock Google software, which is light years ahead of Samsung’s offerings.

Core OS’s ‘rkt’ accepted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation, a Linux Foundation collaborative project, has accepted Core OS’s ‘rkt’ along with Docker’s ‘containerd’ technology.

Jonathan Boulle, Core OS site lead, explained the move in an official blog:

This means that with these projects now housed in the CNCF, we ensure that the container community will continue to thrive in a neutral home for collaboration. Just as CoreOS worked alongside Docker to develop the Open Container Initiative (OCI), we are excited to work alongside Docker again to push forward the conversation around container execution in cloud native environment.

rkt and containerd are competing technologies; under the same roof, they may complement each other and eventually merge.

That’s your weekly wrap-up, see you next week.