Month: September 2024

Enlarge / The Kubuntu Focus Ir14 Gen 2. (credit: Kevin Purdy)

There are lots of laptops—maybe all of them—on which you can run a Linux desktop. There are a few vendors that offer laptops with extensive Linux compatibility. And then there are a select few that specialize in Linux laptops, support them, and even customize them.

Kubuntu Focus is one of the select few. It sent me one of its laptops to test the Ir14 Gen 2, which runs, of course, Kubuntu, the KDE desktop variant of Ubuntu. The “Focus” in the company name comes from what it is hoping to provide: a device on which you can just do your work without worrying about what’s happening deeper in your system. Go ahead and sudo apt update, says the Focus team; we’ve got you.

I used the Ir14 Gen 2 for Ars Technica work and my personal needs for at least two weeks. Setting the system up with Focus’ guided wizard, installing apps from its store, and refusing to touch any of the deeper system files, I achieved something pretty remarkable: no unexpected behaviors on a Linux laptop. Had anything gone wrong, I could reasonably lean back on the system’s rollbacks, which I used a couple of times with no problem.

Enlarge (credit: FT)

China’s demand that the public sector step up use of domestic semiconductors can best be seen within Huawei’s Qingyun L540 laptop.

The “safe and reliable” device features a self-designed processor and a Chinese-made operating system, having stripped out foreign-made components and software as much as possible.

The computer, which is being snapped up by governments and state groups across the country, has become the signature model of China’s localization campaign known as Xinchuang, or “IT application innovation.”

Enlarge (credit: FT)

China’s demand that the public sector step up use of domestic semiconductors can best be seen within Huawei’s Qingyun L540 laptop.

The “safe and reliable” device features a self-designed processor and a Chinese-made operating system, having stripped out foreign-made components and software as much as possible.

The computer, which is being snapped up by governments and state groups across the country, has become the signature model of China’s localization campaign known as Xinchuang, or “IT application innovation.”

Enlarge / Blue Origin test fires the second stage of its New Glenn rocket. (credit: Blue Origin)

Twenty days after it rolled out to Blue Origin's launch site in Florida, the second stage of the massive New Glenn rocket underwent a successful hot-fire test on Monday.

The second stage—known as GS2 for Glenn stage 2—ignited for 15 seconds as part of the "risk reduction" hot-fire test, the company said. The two BE-3U engines, fueled by liquid oxygen and hydrogen and each producing 173,000 pounds of thrust, burned with a nearly transparent flame that approached a temperature of 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

This marked the first time that Blue Origin, a space company founded by Jeff Bezos more than two decades ago, has integrated and fired an orbital rocket stage. After the test, Blue Origin said it is still tracking toward a November launch of the New Glenn rocket.