v14.2 Release Update #4 - 17 more updated appliances and v14.2-update#3 optimized builds

This release update was a bit quicker! :) Barely 2 weeks since the last one, here comes another v14.2 update...!

Today I'm announcing 17 more appliances updated to v14.2, as well as the optimized builds for the 27 ISOs announced in v14.2 - update #3. As per always, the updated appliances can be downloaded and/or launched on AWS from the Hub via their respective appliance pages.

The 17 fresh updates are linked below. I'll also restate the v14.2 update #3 release appliances, as they are now available in all build types. Alternatively all our images are available via our mirror network, many support rsync. Just look for 14.2!

We're so close to being finished with v14.2 I can nearly taste it! If all goes to plan, there should only be one more v14.2 update until we're finished with v14.2! Yay! Then we'll turn our attention to v15.0! So let's jump straight in...

17 (more) Updated Appliances

The latest batch of 17 freshly updated appliances, available in all supported builds (with some specific comments below the list) are:

All of the appliances that include software installed directly from a third party (i.e. upstream; not Debian packages) now include the latest version. All Debian packages are at their latest version. Other changes of significance are:

CouchDB

CouchDB now comes bundled with a sexy new front end UI known as Fauxton.

Etherpad

We discovered some security concerns for Etherpad's "admin" area. In previous releases, we have configured an "admin" password which allows configuration of plugins. However, due to these security concerns, we have gone back to not enabling the admin area. We hope to re-implement that (but more securely) for v15.0.

Please note, the security concerns related to previous config (i.e. v14.0/v14.1) are not likely to cause your appliance to be hacked by a random passer-by. However, it is possible for anyone with admin access to read all other admin users passwords!

Magento

Finally, we've updated our Magento appliance to Magento v2.x (actually v2.1.x). We have also included an inithook so you can provide developer keys, so updates via Composer can be supported.

MediaServer

As per our Fileserver appliance, v14.2 of the MediaServer appliance now includes WebDAV CGI. It provides an improved web interface to access files on the server, using pre-existing Samba users and authentication.

ownCloud

For this release of our ownCloud appliance, we have reverted to installing direct from upstream (i.e. code downloaded direct from ownCloud themselves). The Debian package (which we used for v14.0/v14.1) is getting quite dated and it seemed there wasn't a clear upgrade path from the Debian package to newer versions, so we decided to go back to the upstream install. Thanks to Tomas for doing the work on that.

TKLDev

TBH, I'm quite excited about this release of TKLDev. We've added quite a bit of new stuff for v14.2. Firstly we've fixed the sandbox so that should work as intended! We've also included Buildtasks OOTB. It's the toolbox we use to create all the optimized builds that we support. Whilst in some respects it is clearly designed for internal use by us, we believe that it would provide value for others too (e.g. reprocessing existing ISOs; creating a new optimized build target; tweaking/improving existing optimized builds). Finally, we've also included Chanko, Pool and friends. This allows users to build appliances offline, as well as build Debian packages from source on the fly.

Twiki

This will be the last release of a Twiki appliance. It seems that Twiki development has stalled and the project is essentially dead. It appears that most of the developers have moved to a new fork of the project called FOSSwiki. We hope to add that to the library for the next release.

24 Appliances, now with Optimized Builds

For v14.2 update #3 only new ISOs were announced. I'm happy to inform you that you can now download all of those as optimized builds now too:

More Feedback Please

We haven't got much feedback from our last announcement yet. So please take the updated appliances for a spin and let us know how they go. We're especially interested in bug reports, suggested improvements (big and small) and any other constructive criticism you have for us. Please post in the comments below, or start a new thread in the forums. Bug reports and feature requests can be lodged directly to our issue tracker.

As per always, thanks again for all the community contributions. I'm not sure were we'd be without all the hard work you kind and generous souls provide! Special mention for Tomas Vondra and John Carver (aka @Dude4Linux) for their significant efforts on ownCloud and LXC appliances respectively. :)

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