Still counting on passwords to protect your workstation? When set up properly, alternatives to passwords provide a streamlined user experience while significantly improving security. These alternative authentication methods can also easily be combined to create a custom and adaptive authentication profile.

Canonical is proud to announce the availability of OpenStack Charms 20.08. This new release introduces a range of exciting features and several improvements which enhance Charmed OpenStack.

The Kubernetes 1.19 release candidate is now available for download and experimentation ahead of general availability later this month. You can try it now with MicroK8s. To get the latest Kubernetes on your machine, install MicroK8s and get a lightweight, zero-ops K8s cluster in no time: Or install from https://snapcraft.io/microk8s and select 1.19/candidate You can install MicroK8s on Ubuntu and all major Linux distributions or on Windows and macOS using native installers.

We know a lot of you are on vacation so we’ll keep this month’s State of Robotics edition short and sweet. Looking for an easy way to get familiar with ROS 2? We recently published a few helpers on how to simulate robots with turtlesim to help our readers get a rolling start on ROS2. For something that carries a little more punch, follow our tutorial on simulating a TurtleBot3.

Learning how to monitor etcd is of vital importance when running Kubernetes in production. Monitoring etcd will let you validate that the service performs as expected, while detecting and troubleshooting issues that could take your entire infrastructure down. Keep reading to learn how you can collect the most important metrics from etcd and use them to monitor this service. etcd is a foundational component of the Kubernetes control plane.

Alongside five popular software projects, we recently launched a new initiative called Ubuntu Appliances. A portfolio of software that allows users to turn a Raspberry Pi or an Intel NUC into a secure, self-hosted device. The initial launch included the Nextcloud Ubuntu Appliance. An application that enables you to host your own cloud, on your own hardware. In this blog, we discuss the benefits of the Nextcloud Appliance, and the addition of Collabora Online for use on the Intel NUC.

Advantech, a leading global provider of intelligent IoT systems and embedded platforms, is pleased to announce EPC-C301, a compact fanless box PC powered by 8th Gen. Intel® Core™ processor. This system features diverse domain-focused I/O and can operate in broad temperature ranges. EPC-C301 integrates Intel® and Canonical technologies, provides Ubuntu and OpenVINO toolkits, and is aimed at accelerating the advancement of AIoT.

Canonical is proud to announce the general availability of OSM release EIGHT images in it’s Charmed OSM distribution. As of Release SEVEN, OSM is able to orchestrate containerised network functions (CNFs) leveraging Kubernetes as the underlying infrastructure for next-generation 5G services. Release EIGHT follows the same direction and brings new features that allow for the orchestration of a broader range of network functions and production environments.