As open source software continues to mature and gets adopted by more and more major corporations, it is becoming clear that both the SMB and Enterprise software game has changed and the innovation adoption curve chasm has been crossed.

Last month Microsoft announced that it is joining the Linux Foundation as a high-paying Platinum member and Microsoft was not alone in 2016 many other major corporations such as Wallmart, Samsung, Uber, Spotify, Apollo, Teradata, adopted open source technologies and open standards in a serious way in addition to those who have been dedicated to open source for some time now such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and Red Hat.

Some of you may have noticed that over the last 24 hours, the ClearOS website may have appeared offline. . . 

Please allow me to explain why this was the case, so as not to spark any misconceptions on the status of ClearCenter, ClearFoundation or ClearOS (the software distribution). Things are alive and well, and this outage was the result of human error, toggling DNS settings to backup sites for our users. We underwent some major hardware upgrades, and have been releasing many new exciting products, which can be viewed in our new online store here. This outage was a sad portrayal of where simple failover measures left undone, create a lot of noise - and for that you have my apologies!

Many new processes and measures will be taken to ensure we do not have another episode like this one, and we appreciate your patience during this unexpected downtime.

Kindly,

Devin Johnson

ClearCenter COO

The ClearFoundation & ClearCenter are pleased to announce a great new addition to the ClearOS Marketplace. Introducing: Attack Detector.

The Attack Detector app scans your system for authentication failures across various types of services installed on your system. If the failure threshold is reached, the app will block the attacking system. For example, it is a common tactic for spammers to guess a valid username/password combination for sending unsolicited outbound mail. The Attack Detector detects the failed login attempts and actively blocks the spammer.

Multiple apps in Marketplace will provide rule sets for the Attack Detector app, such as the SSH Server app, FTP Server app and more. This app will function as a standalone app, however it may also be combined with the Intrusion Detection System & Intrusion Prevention System apps to provide maximum protection against attacks. 

For more information click here.

ClearOS 6.7.0 has been released for both Community and Professional Editions.  Now that ClearOS 7 is available, the ClearOS 6 release series has entered maintenance mode.  Security and bug fixes will continue to be released - you can find detailed changelog information in the ClearOS 6.7.0 Release Notes.

Downloads:

• Community Edition - 64-bit - MD5Sum: 862166df15ac38d990386ac49e841d95
• Professional Edition - 64-bit - MD5Sum: 8c1864944d2f31deaf2a967dc2c16bd3  

For those of you who like to run ClearOS in the cloud, we are happy to announce that ClearOS 7 is now available on Linode. You can find more information about the installation procedure in the User Guide.

ClearCenter, recently announced the first official release of ClearOS 7, Business Edition. Good times!

ClearOS 7 still features the ClearOS Marketplace, which intelligently integrates both open and closed source technologies, that allows its users to dynamically expand the functionality of the server to include upwards of one hundred Apps and Services. Here is a quick illustration of some of the new Apps and Services: 

ClearOS 7 Edition brings with it many new features, including the following:

New Improvements

ClearOS 7 comes with all the features of ClearOS 6 Professional as well as the following improvements.

Streamlined Theme System

The ClearOS 7 theme is mobile and tablet friendly with a fresh clean look. Dashboard support has also been added to give administrators a bird's eye view of a system.

Updated Antispam Engine

The updated antispam engine includes improved DNS blocklist technology, new distributed & collaborative filtering, an optimized auto-learning system, and native IPv6 support.

Updated IDS and IPS Engines

The updated IDS/IPS engines include improved detection for mail authentication attacks, an updated base rule set, IPv6 support, security hardening, and new SSL weakness detection.

Event and Alert Notifications

The new event and alert system provides built-in intelligence to notify administrators of system issues: disk space issues, unwanted remote logins, and more.

Internationalization

ClearOS is now available in French, Polish and Russian. New translations and languages will be coming in 2016!.

XFS and BTRFS Filesystem Support

The robust and scalable XFS file system is the new default that provides support for large files (8 exabytes!) and millions of files per folder. Alternatively, BTRFS can be used for those needing snapshot support.

Microsoft® Hyper-V™ Compatibility

ClearOS 7 can now be seamlessly deployed in a Microsoft® Hyper-V™ environment and run well as a Microsoft® Hyper-V™ Server 2012 R2 host as a Generation 2 virtual machine.

Updated Antivirus Engine

he updated antivirus engine includes new PDF processing, updated Microsoft Office document support, a lower memory footprint, and additional decoding support for new file extensions.

Improved Virtualization Support

Disk I/O, network throughput and USB support have been optimized in ClearOS 7 for virtualization technologies such as Microsoft® Hyper-V™, KVM™ and ClearVM™.

See more on what's new here. 

Ready to get building? For most of 2015 key ClearCenter and ClearFoundation team-members have been jointly working hard on the new ClearOS Build System, which is patterned after many elements of the Fedora and Red Hat's Koji build system, with a fun twist. Intelligently allowing both Free and Paid / Open and Closed application developers to confidently work together on one ClearOS Build System. The ClearFoundation will be inviting and allowing external developers to develop on this new ClearOS Build System. Once developers have proven to be trusted, proficient at creating and supporting ClearOS Community Apps, ClearCenter intends to continue to help developers monetize both Free and Paid Apps for ClearOS using both GitHub and BitBucket repositories. 

Below is how the new ClearOS Build System Workflow works:

If you have a desire to learn how to develop, submit or build new ClearOS Marketplace Apps here is a ClearOS Build System - Getting Started Guide on how to get started or feel free to get started by filling-out this ClearOS Community Volunteer Form and reviewing the following helpful links: 

ClearOS Development Environment - Building an RPM - An Overview

ClearOS Development Environment - Building An RPM - The Basics

ClearOS Development Environment - Submitting Paid & Free Apps  

Fun games are a great way to unwind and enjoy some leisure time. From classic board games like Monopoly and Scrabble to popular video games like Fortnite and Minecraft, there's something for everyone. Playing games can also help improve cognitive skills like problem-solving, decision-making, and critical thinking. Whether it's a game night with friends or a solo gaming session, the joy and excitement of playing games never gets old. So why not take a break from your daily routine and indulge in some fun games today? You won't regret it!

You asked for it! ClearOS now has new master download mirrors in six new geographies including: Amsterdam, Frankfurt, New Zealand, London, Singapore and of course Utah. If you are considering setting up a public mirror site for ClearOS please email mirrors@clearcenter.com for guidelines to make sure that your mirror is consistent with the other mirror sites and new master mirrors.

The following updates have been pushed to the ClearOS 7 Beta in the last couple of weeks:

New Apps

 - Disk Usage

 - Developer Tools

 - MariaDB (MySQL Replacement)

 - Print Server

The last two apps were in the repos for quite some time, but had not yet been audited for ClearOS 7. Both are now up-to-date. In addition:

 - The development environment has been updated so that third party developers can build apps in a native ClearOS 7 platform.

 - The Software Updates app now includes a dashboard widget

Build System

A new build system for ClearOS 7 is just about ready for prime time -- check it out!  More on this topic later.

ClearOS 7.1.0 Beta 2 has arrived! This release contains major improvements and insight to the eventual release of ClearOS 7 and replaces ClearOS 7.0.0 Beta 1 as the current running beta.  ClearOS 7.1.0 will feature a Community, Home, and Business versions with all versions installing from the same download image. ClearOS version 7.1 introduces:

 - Samba 4, Directory (Microsoft® Active Directory Replacement)

 - New Google® Apps Connector

 - Updated Microsoft Active Directory Connector

 - Streamlined Theme System

 - Dynamic Dashboard

 - Updated Antispam and Antivirus Engines

 - Updated IDS and IPS Engines

 - Event and Alert Notification Framework

 - Internationalization

 - XFS and BTRFS Filesystem Support

 - Improved VM Support

Download: 64-bit DVD ISO (785 MB) 

• MD5sum: 574d87819c177161e15b59d4a867b2d8
• SHA256sum: 318126bcfd7f7c65200c8df02f82f179d7fb22c2a820819431ed03f0e9a1ef19

ClearCenter today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Witsbits Inc., a venture backed startup based in San Francisco, built on KVM, started in 2011 and funded by Bootstrap Labs, Redhawk Invest and Chalmers Innovation Seed Fund.

The Witsbits patent pending virtual infrastructure makes bare-metal servers 100% cloud managed and virtualization-ready. Customers simply boot their servers after downloading a unique file. That’s it, no configuration or installation process. Servers are then cloud managed, automatically upgraded, and virtualization-ready, saving significant time, headaches and money.

Witsbits currently supports Operating Systems such as CentOS, Debian, pfSense, Ubuntu®, Microsoft® Windows Server®, Fedora®, TurnKey Linux, MineOS, Linux Mint and soon will tightly integrate with both Red Hat® and ClearOS®.

Come and get IT! ClearFoundation today announced the initial release of ClearOS 7 (hill climb racing).

ClearOS 7 will be available as a single ISO/Image, and enable installations targeted for Home and Business environments, along with continuing to offer its free Community edition and will unveil an all new Hosted edition designed for hosting providers. Each edition will continue to offer on-demand Cloud Services and third party app integration.

New ClearOS 7 Features Include:

- Samba 4, Directory (Microsoft® Active Directory Replacement)

- New Google® Apps Connector

- Updated Microsoft Active Directory Connector

- IPv6 Ready

- Streamlined Theme System

- Dynamic Dashboard

- Updated Antispam and Antivirus Engines

- Updated IDS and IPS Engines

- Event and Alert Notification Framework

- Internationalization

ClearFoundation and ClearCenter have moved to the new website ClearOS.com (https://www.clearos.com). We are making this change in order to improve search and exposure of ClearOS to the world. There are several improvements that are being made and some that are still on the table for development. The forums are now live on clearos.com and locked on this site until all the redirects are in place. If you have issues using the new site, feel free to ask on the #clearfoundation room in IRC chat on freenode.net or engage with a chat agent on the site if they are around. Our goal is to complete this step so that we can be properly ready for the types of communication that will be essential for the release of ClearOS 7!

ClearFoundation and ClearCenter will be moving soon to a new website. We are making this change in order to improve search and exposure of ClearOS to the world. There are several improvements that are being made and some that are still on the table for development. The forums will be locked soon. If you have a pressing issue, feel free to ask on the #clearfoundation room in IRC chat on freenode.net. Our goal is to complete this step so that we can be properly ready for the types of communication that will be essential for the release of ClearOS 7!

- This move consolidates the Wiki data and documentation. We will no longer have fragmented documentation between ClearCenter and ClearFoundation. We invite people to contribute to the wiki and to write howtos and knowledgebase articles. For access to this system, contact me! New indexing is also being added to content on the website which will be able to facilitate more dynamic linking between clearinghouses and content.

- User account consolidation. For the first little while, you will need to put your ClearFoundation and ClearCenter credentials into your web session. In the future this and other authentication mechanisms will be consolidated into a unified authentication mechanism...more to come on this subject later.

- Updated look and feel. A redesign should make it easier to navigate and to get around. Other systems, like the bug tracker and translation services will also eventually merge into this design.

- Improved change control and backup. We are setting up the ability to not only structure changes to the underlying code in a more efficient manner, be we are improving the backup capabilities of all of the sites so that they follow a more robust model. This will allow for quicker recoveries in case of data loss.

- Better integration with web objects means that it will be easier to maintain content.

- Better multilanguage support. While some elements are not present at the initial release, the site is more capable with working with modern localization mechanisms which are coming soon.

- Much much more

We welcome all feedback with the new site and hope to hear from you all very soon.

(Updated 1 pm EST) The security update for the GHOST issue (CVE-2015-0235) has been released for the ClearOS 6 Professional Edition and ClearOS Enterprise 5.x.  The update for the Community Edition should be available in the next 12-24 hours.  You can find more information about this update here.

(Update 9 pm EST) The update for the Community Edition is now hitting the mirrors.

ClearOS Community 6.6.0 Beta 2 has been released!  Along with the usual round of bug fixes and enhancements, the 6.6.0 Beta 2 release introduces WPAD, QoS, YouTube School ID support, and an upgrade to the Intrusion Detection engine.  Some of the server-based apps introduced in beta 1 have been added to the ClearOS 7 roadmap.  The PHP/MySQL/Web Server stack is more modern in ClearOS 7 and these server-based apps will run better on the new platform.

- Release Notes
- 32-bit ISO - clearos-community-6.6.0-beta-2-i386.iso  (MD5Sum)
- 64-bit ISO - clearos-community-6.6.0-beta-2-x86_64.iso  (MD5Sum)

In case you are wondering, yes, it was a long stretch between betas.  The source code that we use from upstream is typically updated every 6-ish months.  We prepared beta 1 at the 6-month mark, but the upstream update did not appear until 5 months later.  Upstream introduced a major version during that gap in time, so the delay was certainly understandable :-)

The bash security fix is available for the Professional Edition.  The fix will be available for the Community Edition in the next day or so.

We've been quiet the past couple months on the front page. I just wanted to assure the community that this is not because we are missing in action but rather missing because of action. There is a lot to do with the upcoming release of ClearOS 7 beta and we don't have actual dates yet because a lot of things will converge at the same time. If you are interested in helping with the ClearOS 7 release, please contact us. Even helping to moderate the forums, submitting new howtos and source code for 6 modules, reporting bugs, or the occasional "You're doing a great job!" is quite useful. Thanks for all you do to help the community. We know that ClearOS 7 will be better than ever and hope it is worthy of our friends!