All the News that Matters

• Firefox 153 released
  Version153.0 of the Firefox web browser has been released. Notablechanges in this release include a change to the defaultlocal-file-access permissions for extensions, enabling LANrestrictions by default for all users, a visual indicator when a website has access to the user's location, the ability to merge PDFs andadd images as pages within PDFs, as well as experimental support forthe JPEG XL image format.
  
  See thereleasenotes for developers for all changes that affect web developers,and securityadvisories for vulnerabilities fixed in this release.
  
  
  

• [$] Debating the role of large language models in the kernel community
  Like many development communities, the kernel community has been strugglingto determine how large language models will be used in its developmentprocess. The news has been dominated recently by a strongly worded missivefrom Linus Torvalds on the subject, but the discussion has been rather morewide-ranging and nuanced than that. Topics that have been consideredrecently include the LLM attribution requirement, code-review tools,dependence on proprietary tools, and whether there is a place for concernsabout the ethics of LLMs.

• Security updates for Tuesday
  Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (capstone, fence-agents, gimp, glib2, hplip, httpd, jackson-annotations, jackson-core, jackson-databind, jackson-jaxrs-providers, and jackson-modules-base, libtiff, maven:3.8, pacemaker, python3.14, and webkit2gtk3), Debian (samba), Fedora (c-ares, dnsx, freerdp, gpsd, libreswan, libseccomp, libtiff, mingw-python-idna, mingw-python-pip, openssh, python-pillow, wget1, and wireshark), Mageia (golang, graphicsmagick, haveged, libssh2, nginx, nilfs-utils, perl-CGI-Session, perl-Imager, perl-JavaScript-Minifier-XS, php, php8.4, php8.5, python-nltk, sqlite3, and xmlstarlet), Oracle (.NET 10.0, .NET 9.0, container-tools:ol8, firefox, giflib, glibc, go-fdo-client, go-fdo-server, golang-github-openprinting-ipp-usb, grafana, grafana-pcp, hplip, httpd, image-builder, kernel, libtiff, mod_http2, pacemaker, perl-DBI:1.641, perl-HTTP-Daemon, php:8.2, python-markdown, ruby4.0, systemd, and thunderbird), Red Hat (buildah, container-tools:rhel8, dracut, golang-github-openprinting-ipp-usb, libtiff, osbuild-composer, python-urllib3, python3.12-urllib3, python3.14-urllib3, and runc), SUSE (389-ds, chromedriver, gstreamer-plugins-bad, libreoffice, libsuricata8_0_6, podman, python311, and sssd), and Ubuntu (apache2, freerdp3, freetype, libde265, libxfont, linux, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-6.8, linux-gke, linux-gkeop, linux-realtime, linux-realtime-6.8, linux, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-fips, linux-gke, linux-gkeop, linux-hwe-5.15, linux-kvm, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15, linux-realtime, linux-xilinx-zynqmp, linux, linux-gcp, linux-gke, linux-realtime, linux-gcp-6.17, linux-realtime-6.17, linux-gcp-fips, linux-hwe-7.0, linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15, linux-oem-7.0, nginx, php8.1, php8.3, php8.5, rlottie, sqlite3, and wget).

• [$] Fedora grapples with change
  The Fedora Project is known for,among other things, having a well-defined set of processes for just abouteverything. It has extensive packagingguidelines that deal with the complexities of creating RPMs to installsoftware, as well as processes for managing the legal questions thatarise around shipping software. Fedora also has a well-defined changeprocess for dealing with self-contained technical changes as well as majorchanges to the distribution, and other issues as they arise. At the moment,though, the project seems to be experiencing a sort of midlife crisis as itre-examines several of its change processes at once to determine if they arestill effective.
  

• Catanzaro: Some changes to GNOME security tracking
  Michael Catanzaro, who has been managing GNOME security issue tracking sinceNovember 2020, has written a blog post that details some changes in how he willbe managing GNOME vulnerability reports from now on due to an increase inAI-generated security reports. He will be switching from a 90-day deadline fordisclosures to 30 days for issues reported on August 1, or later. "Theshorter deadline would probably work better for GNOME even if not for theincrease in AI-generated issue reports."
  
  He also has indicated that he will be stepping away from the task of managingsecurity issue tracking entirely by December 1, 2026, which means that therewill be a gap to fill:
  
  Currently nobody else is tracking GNOME security issues. If you are anexperienced GNOME community member and you are interested in taking over thiswork, let me know and I will help you get started. (Security tracking is not agood task for newcomers.)
  
  This may also be an opportunity to improve our tracking infrastructure. I usea wikipage, but this is fairly primitive and requires considerable manualupkeep. It's easy to forget to update the page when an issue report is closed,for example. Ideally, we would replace the wiki with a proper web app thatdynamically updates based on the actual state of the issue.
  

• [$] Merging famfs?
  The famfs filesystem, which is meant to provide shared access to hugememory-resident files on CXL and otherdevices, returned tothe Linux Storage,Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit (LSFMM+BPF) in 2026.It was first discussed at LSFMM+BPF 2024 and a new implementation was described at the 2025gathering, but it still has not made its way into the kernel; LWN lookedat a discussion about merging famfs back in April 2026.

• Security updates for Monday
  Security updates have been issued by Debian (kernel, libnfs, roundcube, and tiff), Fedora (antlr4-project, chromium, erlang, libseccomp, libtiff, log4cxx, mbedtls, node-exporter, opam, openssh, proftpd, python-asyncssh, python-django5, python-libcst, python-orjson, python-uv-build, ruby, rust-astral_async_zip, spoofdpi, uv, and yq), Mageia (bind, clamav, erlang, libidn, libreoffice, nmap, nodejs, perl-Bytes-Random-Secure, perl-Config-IniFiles, perl-CSS-Minifier-XS, perl-HTML-Parser, perl-Mojolicious, perl-String-Util, python-pydantic-settings, rsync, and upower), Oracle (.NET 10.0, .NET 8.0, .NET 9.0, bind, cockpit, cockpit-image-builder, coreutils, delve, dnsmasq, dovecot, expat, fence-agents, flatpak, frr, gdk-pixbuf2, giflib, glib2, go-fdo-client and go-fdo-server, golang-github-openprinting-ipp-usb, grafana, grafana-pcp, httpd, jq, kernel, keylime, krb5, libcap, libexif, libpng, libsndfile, libsolv, libsoup3, libtasn1, libtiff, libxslt, libyang, mariadb10.11, mod_http2, mod_md, opencryptoki, PackageKit, perl-Archive-Tar, perl-IO-Compress, poppler, postfix, postgresql-jdbc, python-urllib3, python3.14, python3.14-pip, python3.14-urllib3, qt6-qtdeclarative, rrdtool, rsync, ruby, ruby4.0, samba, skopeo, thunderbird, valkey, wireshark, xorg-x11-server-Xwayland, and yggdrasil-worker-package-manager), and SUSE (blender, chromium, containerized-data-importer1, cyrus-imapd, go1.26-openssl, gomuks, grafana, gstreamer-plugins-bad, kbfs, kubevirt1.8-container-disk, libxml2, lux, mariadb-connector-c, nginx, opam, openssl-3, oras, perl-DBI, php-composer2, python-django-haystack, python-paramiko, python-weasyprint, python311, python313-Pillow, python315, shibboleth-sp, system-user-zabbix, and wget).

• Kernel prepatch 7.2-rc4
  The 7.2-rc4 kernel prepatch is out fortesting. Linus said: "This whole week I had the feeling that peoplewere starting to go on summer vacation, but running the numbers shows thatI must have been wrong - it all looks pretty normal."

• "Half a Second" — a book on the XZ backdoor
  Adrian Mastronardi has released a book called Half a Second; it is adetailed look into the XZ backdoor attemptof 2024. The book is freely available under a (non-free) noncommercial,no-derivatives CC license.
  Half a Second tells that story as one continuous narrative: the burned-out volunteer who maintained the code alone and was patiently, expertly manipulated into giving it up; the engineer whose half-second of curiosity caught the attack through a chain of luck and hard-won instinct; and the operator who built it, who has never been identified and, this book argues, may never be.

• Three stable kernel updates
  The7.1.4,6.18.39, and6.12.96 stable kernel updates have beenreleased; each contains a fairly large set of important fixes.

• Building an Arch Linux aarch64 port for Holo Core (Collabora blog)
  Collabora has published a blogpost about its work with Valve on Holo Core, which is a port of Arch Linux toaarch64 to be used as the the operating system on Valve's64-bit Arm Steam Frame gaming system. Collabora has released thesources,binarypackages, and a container image for aarch64 devices. The postdescribes some of the challenges in porting Arch Linux to a newarchitecture, and what remains to be done:
  
  Whilst the infrastructure developed to this point is capable ofbuilding from first principles up until a point-in-time snapshot, thenext step is to build this into a system which can track Arch Linux asit is developed. This work will serve as the basis of acontinuously-operating CI system capable of shadowing Arch Linuxitself. We will work with the upstream Arch Linux project to help Archwith their efforts to port the distribution to aarch64 architectureand work towards automated repeatable builds.
  
  The post also includes instructions on how to create and test anaarch64 build container on an x86_64 host, for users who would like tofollow along at home but lack a 64-bit Arm device.
  
  
  

• [$] Securing BPF LSMs against tampering
  Since 2020, BPF programs have been able toact as Linux security modules(LSMs). Several projects, including systemd, have been working to usethat capability to provide more security to users. Christian Braunerspoke at the 2026Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory-Management, and BPF Summitabout some of the limitations of using BPF in this way, and the changes hewould like to see for systemd's use. In particular, he would like a way to makesure that BPF programs cannot be removed or have their private data tampered with.
  

• Security updates for Friday
  Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (cifs-utils, container-tools:rhel8, libreoffice, nodejs:24, perl-XML-LibXML, and python3.12), Fedora (ansible-collection-ansible-posix, firefox, freerdp, ImageMagick, mingw-glib2, perl-DBI, perl-HTTP-Date, rust-cargo-rpmstatus, and rust-opendal), Oracle (cifs-utils, gegl, gimp, git-lfs, go-toolset:ol8, hplip, kernel, libreoffice, maven:3.9, perl-XML-LibXML, python3, python3.12, python3.9, and uek-kernel), Red Hat (kernel, kernel-rt, and podman), Slackware (netatalk), SUSE (agama, aws-nitro-enclaves-binaryblobs-upstream, gimp, gpsd, grafana, hostapd, ImageMagick, jackson-databind, kernel, libssh2_org, nm-configurator, opennlp, perl-Mojolicious, python-Pillow, python-python-engineio, python-python-socketio, and tomcat11), and Ubuntu (ntfs-3g, python-authlib, ruby2.3, tar, and ubuntu-advantage-tools).

• [$] Sched-ext: enqueue() for sub-schedulers and proxy-execution support
  The extensiblescheduler class (sched_ext) allows the installation of custom CPUschedulers as a set of BPF programs. While sched_ext, in its current form,has already led to a lot of interesting scheduler-development work, thesubsystem itself is still undergoing rapid evolution. Among other work,the ability to set up a hierarchy of sub-schedulers is approaching completion, anda longstanding incompatibility with proxyexecution is coming to an end.

• Security updates for Thursday
  Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (cups, git-lfs, kernel, libsolv, libxml2, python3.12, and python3.9), Debian (chromium, dhcpcd5, and ntfs-3g), Fedora (firefox, perl-Imager, python-bcrypt, python-tiktoken, roundcubemail, and xrdp), Mageia (openssl, poppler, python-mistune, and tmux), Oracle (389-ds-base, cups, git-lfs, glibc, host-metering, kernel, libsolv, libxml2, nginx:1.24, PackageKit, python-pillow, and qemu-kvm), Red Hat (buildah, containernetworking-plugins, and skopeo), SUSE (buildah, cosign, curl, distribution, dnsmasq, glib-networking, glibc, gnutls, gstreamer-plugins-bad, ImageMagick, kernel, podman, python-cryptography, python313-django-debug-toolbar, rekor, sccache, sssd, and yelp), and Ubuntu (dotnet8, dotnet10, libslirp, luajit, python-idna, sympa, and tomcat8).

• Mozilla Thunderbird 153 Adds Native Thundermail Integration
  Mozilla Thunderbird 153 is out with built-in Thundermail services, OAuth login through the default browser, and numerous stability fixes.

• Cryptsetup 2.8.7 Released To Deal With Fallout Of Linux's Rushed AF_ALG Deprecation
  Linux's cryptsetup for configuring and managing encrypted storage devices is ready with a new version as the developers work to deal with the recent deprecation of the Linux AF_ALG interface...

• Three New Ubuntu Snap Vulnerabilities Made Public - One Dates Back To Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
  Canonical today disclosed three new Snap security vulnerabilities affecting snapd. Two are rated high impact vulnerabilities while the third is considered medium but covers all Ubuntu releases of the past decade going back to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS...

• OBS Studio 32.2 Released with New Filter to Compose SDR into HDR
  OBS Studio 32.2 has been released today as the second update to the latest OBS Studio 32 series of this powerful, open-source, cross-platform, and free video recording and live streaming software.

• Jellyfin Loses Project Leader and Core Team Member in Major Shake-Up
  Jellyfin is undergoing a major leadership transition as its project leader, a core team member, and another co-founder leave within days of each other.

• InputPlumber 0.78 Released With Expanded Hardware Support
  InputPlumber is out with its newest feature release. As a reminder, InputPlumber is the open-source input router and remapper daemon for combining various input devices from gamepads to mice and keyboards as well as the ability to emulate them...

• Firefox’s Best Privacy Extension Is Becoming a Native Feature
  Firefox 153 introduces a native Containers preview for separating accounts, cookies, site data, and different areas of users’ online activity.

• Geniatech XPI-3576-CM5 brings 6-TOPS RK3576 performance with Raspberry Pi CM5 compatibility
  Geniatech’s XPI-3576-CM5 is a 55 × 40mm compute module built around Rockchip’s RK3576 processor and designed for use with Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 carrier boards. It combines an octa-core CPU, a 6-TOPS NPU, LPDDR5 memory, optional Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, and commercial- or industrial-temperature configurations. The RK3576 integrates four Arm Cortex-A72 cores running at up […]

• Qualcomm Posts Linux Patches For X2 Elite Extreme Powered ASUS Zenbook A16
  Following recent Linux kernel patches enabling the Snapdragon X2 Elite powered Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen11 and HP EliteBook X G2q X2 Elite laptops to boot outside of Windows 11 on ARM, Qualcomm engineers have now posted a new patch series for getting the X2 Elite Extreme powered ASUS Zenbook A16 working on Linux...

• Canonical Launches the Enterprise Store for Ubuntu Pro Users
  Ubuntu maker Canonical announced today the general availability of Enterprise Store as a new way to manage software behind firewalls and in air-gapped environments.

• Linux 7.2 Improves Intel Panther Lake Xe3 Arc B390 Graphics Performance
  My testing of the in-development Linux 7.2 kernel continues in the lab. One of the latest promising findings from this kernel that will be released as stable in August is faster Intel Xe3 graphics performance on Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" hardware.

• The Last MPEG-4 Visual Patent Has Expired, Freeing DivX and Xvid Worldwide
  The final MPEG-4 Part 2 patent has expired, removing licensing concerns from legacy DivX and Xvid video, but not from H.264 or modern MP4 files.

• Stratis Storage Anaconda Integration Approved For Fedora 45
  The Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) has approved the latest batch of features for the upcoming Fedora 45 release...

• Ollama: all aboard open models
  we’re back, building Ollama — the easiest way for developers to get up and running with open models. Beyond our wildest dreams, Ollama has quickly become the leading platform to access open models, serving 8.9 million developers who, just like us, believe that AI should be yours to build, run, and make your own.

• VirtualBox 7.2.14 Released with Initial Support for Linux Kernel 7.2
  Oracle released VirtualBox 7.2.14 today as the seventh maintenance update to the latest VirtualBox 7.2 series of their open-source, free, and cross-platform virtualization software for Linux, Solaris, macOS, and Windows.

• Firefox 153 Available With Support For Vulkan Video Decoding, Experimental JPEG-XL
  Mozilla has uploaded the Firefox 153.0 release binaries today for the newest monthly update to this cross-platform web browser. Making Firefox 153 exciting is that it's the newest Extended Support Release "ESR" as well as introducing Vulkan Video decode support...

• NetworkManager 1.58 Adds CLAT, GENEVE, and Wi-Fi 6 GHz Support
  NetworkManager 1.58 introduces CLAT through BPF, GENEVE interfaces, Wi-Fi 6 GHz selection, and several networking improvements.

• NetworkManager 1.58 Released With 464XLAT CLAT Support & GENEVE Interface
  NetworkManager 1.58 is out today with the latest feature enhancements for bettering wired and wireless network management on Linux...

• Mozilla Firefox 153 ESR Is Now Available for Download, Here’s What’s New
  Mozilla has published today the final builds of the Firefox 153 ESR open-source web browser ahead of its official unveiling on July 21st, 2026, so it’s time to take a look at the new features and improvements.

• Cold Reset Recovery Coming Together To Better Help Intel GPUs On Linux
  One of the patch series going through nearly a dozen revisions now is for introducing a cold reset recovery method for the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) drivers with an initial focus on the Intel Xe kernel graphics driver...

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• Long Presumed Dead, a Thriving Coral Reef Is Discovered in West Africa
  Scientists have rediscovered a healthy coral reef off the coast of Benin more than 60 years after surveyors first hinted at its existence. "At least eight coral types and eight fish species have formed a thriving ecosystem on this long-forgotten site," reports Inside Climate News. "What they had captured was a wealth of marine life: six types of soft coral; two black corals; and eight species of sheltering fish, from golden African snappers to the Monrovia doctorfish." From the report: While no coral samples have yet been extracted, researchers have classified the site as a mesophotic coral ecosystem (MCE). Such systems are light-dependent communities existing at the lower limits of reef-building corals. At more than 175 feet below the surface, the coral garden they discovered appears patchily scattered on a rocky substrate. Bridging the gap between shallow reefs and deeper benthic habitats, MCEs are home to distinct species and unique environmental conditions. While scientists are increasingly recognizing their ecological and climatic importance, they remain among the least explored elements of tropical and subtropical marine biodiversity. And this one has real potential to unlock new information about coral history. "Since it's an undisturbed marine ecosystem, it can help through carbon dating or paleoclimatic study to tell us which kind of climate system has occurred here in the past," said [Gerard Zinzindohoue, the project lead for Coral Reefs Rediscovering & Exploration in Benin]. "It's better to know the past to help explain the present, and help know which kind of direction we can take in the future." In addition to the blackbar soldierfish, West African goatfish, and Guinean angelfish filmed darting through the reef, the discovery presents potential conservation claims for other marine life. "We will be advocating for its full protection, perhaps by setting up a marine protected area around it," said [Houangninan Midinoudewa, an oceanographic researcher at the Benin Marine Conservation Club], who specializes in elasmobranchs -- the study of sharks, rays, and skates. Midinoudewa is currently submitting an application to designate the area as an Important Shark and Ray Area with the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Based on the knowledge of local fishermen, Midinoudewa is confident the reef is home to sawback angel sharks, silky sharks, brown skates, and marbled stingrays. The team behind the discovery hopes this will spark a wave of similar discoveries in the waters off West Africa, an area of the world underserved by scientific research projects. "I hope the Gulf of Guinea will be a hub for research because we know our resources are being exploited and people [need to] know exactly what we have and why we should care," said Midinoudewa. Zinzindohoue agrees: "We don't need to wait for others to come to our country to show us what is under our sea. We are the ones who must take responsibility."
  
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

• OpenAI Says Its AI Models Acted On Its Own In An 'Unprecedented' Hack
  "GPT-5.6 Sol and an 'even more capable' model used stolen credentials and exploited vulnerabilities in the Hugging Face API to obtain secret information used to cheat on evaluations," writes longtime Slashdot reader Dr. Bombay. The Associated Press reports: "We had a significant security incident during evaluation of our models," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement posted on social media. AI startup Hugging Face said last week that it had detected an intrusion into its data processing systems that it suspected was caused by an AI agent autonomously acting on its own. "We suspected last week's cyberattack might have come from a frontier lab, given the sophistication of the agent," Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clement Delangue said in a statement. "Turns out it did!" [...] "AI is accelerating the discovery and exploitation of vulnerabilities," OpenAI said in its statement Tuesday. "The primary lesson from this incident is that model security and safety must keep pace with rapidly advancing capabilities." Delangue said he spent the past 24 hours working with OpenAI, "and we strongly believe there was no malicious intent on their part. It's quite mind-blowing that all of this happened autonomously!" Delangue added that it "might be the first incident of its kind."
  
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

• France Becomes First European Country To Ban Social Media Access For Under-15s
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: France's parliament has approved a bill banning social media access for children under 15, making it the first European country to bar children from apps such as TikTok. The president, Emmanuel Macron, has championed the ban as a key reform of his final term in office and pledged to enforce it by September. "France is leading the way in Europe when it comes to protecting our children and teenagers," Macron said in a video posted on social media, hailing "a major step forward." He thanked members of parliament for backing the legislation on Tuesday. "The Constitutional Council must now rule on it, and then it will be time to take action to make this measure a reality and protect our children online," he added on X. After approval by the Senate earlier on Tuesday, members of the National Assembly passed the bill by 279 votes to 81. A growing number of countries are taking steps to restrict social media access amid multiplying warnings over its harmful effects on children. The ban was to be introduced in two stages, with under-15s blocked from creating new accounts from September 1. The ban would apply to existing accounts from January 2027, according to the legislation. The digital minister, Anne Le Henanff, said before the vote that the timeline was realistic, "because age-verification tools already exist" and others are still in the works, and the onus was on the platforms to impose the rule. "For four months, all of us in France will have to prove our age," she told journalists. "If someone is under 15, the account will be closed." The minister also gave assurances that users' personal data would be protected.
  
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

• Airbus Migrating 70 Critical Apps From AWS to France's Scaleway
  Airbus is moving 70 critical applications from AWS to French cloud provider Scaleway as part of a broader digital sovereignty push to keep sensitive data "under European control." Eventually, the migration will cover 900 applications, including ERP, CRM, manufacturing execution, and product lifecycle management systems. Airbus says it will, however, continue using U.S. providers for less sensitive workloads. "We do not intend to move away from all non European solutions; we balance our choices based on the criticality of the data," the company said. The Register reports: Catherine Jestin, head of digital at Airbus, told us on Thursday: "The selection of Scaleway is a combination of a very strong technical answer and a very strong commercial offer making it competitive compared to hyperscalers' public cloud offerings. In addition, Scaleway is committed to involving Airbus in the definition of its future product roadmap." "The objective is to host Airbus's most critical applications (those required for the Minimum Viable Company). This represents 900 applications and we will start with 70 of them today hosted on AWS." Applications being sent to Scaleway include ERP, manufacturing execution systems, CRM, and product lifecycle management. Finding a cloud provider to host its most sensitive applications for defense and industrial workloads was not a certainty when the process began, Airbus told us last year, because European cloud providers do not have the scale of their US rivals. Jestin said Airbus will continue to work with AWS. Skywise, a platform that aggregates and analyzes aviation data, and Case Management Assistant for customers' technical queries will continue to be hosted by AWS. In a statement, she said: "By integrating a trusted, high performance, cloud environment that keeps our critical data assets shielded from foreign extraterritorial laws, we are ensuring that our digital infrastructure keeps pace with our aerospace innovation, while maintaining control and resilience of our industrial operations."
  
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

• Tesla Robotaxis Go To Florida
  Tesla says it is launching its Robotaxi service in Orlando and Tampa, though it has not shared fleet sizes or whether customers can immediately hail rides. The Verge notes the announcement lands on Tesla earnings day and comes as the company's robotaxi rollout remains far smaller than Elon Musk previously projected, with tracker data showing only a small number of unsupervised vehicles operating in existing cities. From the report: [B]ack in May, Tesla had five unsupervised robotaxis in Dallas, six in Houston, and 29 in Austin. As of today, there are only 17 unsupervised vehicles in Austin, four in Dallas, and zero in Houston, according to the Robotaxi Tracker. By comparison, Waymo is estimated to have over 3,500 fully driverless vehicles in operation across over 10 cities. Like Waymo, Tesla typically introduces robotaxis to a new city with a safety driver behind the wheel. Unlike Waymo, sometimes Tesla moves that person over to the passenger seat with access to a kill switch should anything go wrong. The company has been inconsistent in how it rolls out its robotaxis to new markets. The numbers go up and down, with zero explanation from the company as to why. [...] By adding new cities, Tesla is clearly trying to sell investors on the idea that its robotaxi project is growing. But the fluctuating fleet size, inconsistency in supervised vs unsupervised vehicles, and long wait times tell a very different story.
  
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

• Firefox 153 Released
  Longtime Slashdot reader williamyf writes: FireFox 153 was released today. The most important user-facing changes are improvements to PDF handling (you can now merge PDFs and add images to them), and HDR video playback (on Windows, provided HDR is active systemwide). Other under-the-hood changes include browser-wide containers and QWAC support. The full list is in the change notes. But the most important feature is that this version is an ESR and, therefore, defines the ESR feature set for the next year. Why is being an ESR so important, you ask? 1.) ESR, rather than "normal" (a.k.a. Rapid Release), Firefox is the out-of-the-box browser for many important distros, including Debian, RHEL, Kali, Tails, SUSE Linux Enterprise, Slackware, and others. 2.) Many organizations, large and small, standardize on Firefox ESR as their default browser, regardless of the default browser included with their OS. 3.) Firefox ESR is the basis for many downstream projects, such as Waterfox and KaiOS. All these projects will inherit, for a year, whatever ESR brings to the table today. 4.) Many ISVs and SaaS providers, if they certify their wares for Firefox at all, certify for the ESR version only. Please note that ESR 153 will not be offered as an automatic update until two months from now (ESR 140 will still be supported). If you want it now, you will need to download and install it manually. Also of note, ESR 115 will be supported until March 2027. If you use an unsupported version of macOS or Windows (like Windows 7 or 8.x), this is the version to get. However, even Mozilla cautions against running a supported browser on an unsupported OS: "Note that Microsoft ended official support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 in January 2023. Unsupported operating systems receive no security updates and have known vulnerabilities. Without official support from Microsoft, maintaining Firefox for outdated operating systems becomes costly for Mozilla and risky for users."
  
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

• AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: As AI companies search for more training data to improve their models, one company is offering old, printed books as an ideal source because they are guaranteed to be free of the very AI slop AI companies are producing. "The world's best AI training data is sitting on a shelf," ISBNdb, a company that produces what it claims is "the world's largest book database," and that offers high-volume book acquisition services for AI companies, says on its site. "Books represent curated, peer-reviewed, domain-specific human knowledge, structured in a way no web crawl can replicate. Dense, edited, authoritative." In one article on its site, ISBNdb explains that printed books published before 2022 are ideal for AI training data because they don't include AI generated text. As the article correctly notes, much of the data that AI companies can scrape from the internet today is likely to include AI generated text, which could result in "model collapse," a process by which AI models that are trained on AI generated data results in worse models that are more prone to errors. The article also notes that book authors who object to their writing being scraped for training purposes can now easily poison AI models by producing writing designed to manipulate and sabotage the resulting AI models. "Print books from the pre-LLM era are structurally guaranteed to be free of this contamination. That alone is a significant advantage [...] "Physical books published before this date [pre-2022] are structurally clean of modern poisoning tools." [...] ISBNdb advertises that it can keep the identity of AI companies secret. "Strict NDA [non-disclosure agreement] on every engagement," ISBNdb's site says. "Every project begins with a legally binding non-disclosure agreement. Your identity, strategy, and acquisition targets are never disclosed." ISBNdb notes that AI companies may not want to be caught destroying printed books during the scanning process. "The optics problem is real," ISBNdb's site says. "'AI company destroys two million books' is not a headline that generates sympathy."
  
  
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• Canonical Launches Enterprise Store For Ubuntu Pro
  BrianFagioli writes: Canonical has launched the Enterprise Store as part of Ubuntu Pro, giving organizations a way to manage Ubuntu software distribution in restricted networks, behind firewalls, and in air gapped environments. The on premises proxy sits between devices and Canonical software stores, allowing companies to cache downloads, control software revisions, and manage snaps and charms without requiring every system to connect directly to the internet. The Enterprise Store is designed for organizations with strict security requirements, including regulated industries and environments where predictable software updates and audit controls are important.
  
  
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• Judge Approves $1.5 Billion Anthropic Settlement Over Pirated Books Used To Train Claude
  A federal judge has approved Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement over pirated books used to train its Claude chatbot, with authors and publishers set to receive about $3,000 per book. The case produced a mixed ruling for the AI industry: training on copyrighted books was found not to be illegal, but Anthropic's use of pirated copies from shadow libraries was. The Associated Press reports: District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin said in a Monday ruling that the class-action settlement provides "meaningful relief" to affected authors and publishers. About 91% of the more than 482,000 books covered by the ruling have been claimed by authors or publishers who are now due payment. Plaintiff attorney Justin Nelson said in a statement that the settlement was "the largest known copyright recovery in history. We look forward to making distributions to the Class as promptly as possible."
  
  
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• AT&T Loses Key Ruling In Bid To Stop Offering Basic Phone Service In California
  A federal judge rejected AT&T's request to temporarily block California rules requiring it to offer basic phone service to new customers in its wireline territory. AT&T wants to retire its copper-based phone network and stop service for nearly 200,000 California customers in 2027, but the state argues the company can meet its obligations with modern alternatives like fiber rather than abandoning Carrier of Last Resort requirements altogether. Ars Technica reports: To win a preliminary injunction, AT&T had to show it is likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that California rules are preempted by a Federal Communications Commission order. US District Judge Linda Lopez denied AT&T's request for a preliminary injunction during a motion hearing on Thursday, according to a docket entry. The case is in US District Court for the Southern District of California. [...] AT&T could appeal Lopez's ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and could appeal later if it loses the underlying case. But since it has not obtained the injunction it asked for, AT&T for now remains under California's orders to keep offering phone service to potential customers while the case continues.
  
  
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• Judge Pauses Paramount-Warner Bros Merger
  A federal judge has temporarily paused the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger after a 12-state coalition led by California argued the deal would violate antitrust law. The 14-day restraining order (PDF) preserves the status quo while the court considers a preliminary injunction, which could effectively determine whether the merger survives. Variety reports: "Plaintiff States' showing at least demonstrates that serious questions going to the merits remain, weighing in favor of preliminary injunctive relief," the judge wrote, adding that Paramount has acknowledged it will not be harmed by the delay until the end of September. "Paramount and Warner Bros. will continue to operate as separate, viable companies competing in the marketplace while they wait for the Court to adjudicate this case. The balance of equities, combined with the public's vital interest in antitrust enforcement, therefore tips sharply in favor of the requested injunctive relief." The 12-state coalition, led by California, brought a motion for the temporary restraining order. The states are also seeking a preliminary injunction, which would block the merger until the judge rules on the merits of the states' lawsuit. The 14-day restraining order could be extended to as long as 28 days. Martinez-Olguin, of the U.S. District Court for Northern District of California in Oakland, also set a hearing on the preliminary injunction for Aug. 3, though that date, too, could be delayed if the parties agree. Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, hailed the judge's ruling as a "critical first win in our case to ensure this megamerger never sees the light of day." "History tells the tale of what happens when a few people have great power over markets that are central to Americans' lives: fewer opportunities for more people, worse products and services for all people," Bonta said. "With our lawsuit, we're fighting for a free and fair market and a thriving film and television industry that serves creatives and audiences alike. We have a full tank of gas, the law on our side, and look forward to continuing to make our case."
  
  
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• The Galaxy Card Is Samsung's Answer To the Apple Card
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Nearly seven years after Apple debuted the Apple Card, Samsung is following the iPhone maker's footsteps with the Galaxy Card, aiming for its own slice of the credit card market. The announcement comes two days before Samsung's second Galaxy Unpacked event of the year, where it's expected to showcase new smartwatches and folding smartphones. The Galaxy Card is issued by Barclays on the Visa network; the Apple Card, originally issued by Goldman Sachs but now transitioning to Chase, is on the MasterCard network. There is a physical card -- it's not made of titanium but recycled steel. The virtual card will be provisioned to a user's Samsung Wallet account. With no annual fee, Samsung says cardmembers can earn 5 percent cash rewards on all in-store or online purchases made directly from Samsung in the US, 3 percent cash rewards on purchases made with the Galaxy Card using Samsung Wallet, 2 percent cash rewards on streaming service subscriptions, and 1 percent cash rewards on everything else with the physical card. The cash rewards can be redeemed as a statement credit or transferred to a checking or savings account. The annual percentage rate (APR) varies by cardmember, but the card has no foreign transaction fees. Other perks include a 20 percent discount on Samsung's VIP Advantage membership, which offers extended device protection, specialized support, and exclusive deals, and $200 in cash rewards after spending $2,000 in the first 90 days. Applications open up on July 22. The Samsung Wallet app is only available on Samsung smartphones and watches, so what happens if a consumer switches to a different smartphone brand? The company says Galaxy Card is not limited to Samsung device owners and that anyone can use the physical card, but you lose the key perks; the card can be managed through a BarclaysUS.com online portal. (Similarly, if an iPhone owner switches to Android, their physical Apple Card will still work, but they lose access to the Apple Wallet app and the 3 percent daily cash perk on Apple purchases; there's a web portal to manage the account.)
  
  
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• US Police Now Armed With Israeli Spy Vans Simulating Mobile Phone Towers
  Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 quotes an X post by Josh Walkos, author of the Substack We the Free: If you thought Flock was bad check out Falconet. Falconet from Israeli company Cognyte serves as a cell tower simulator that intercepts cell phone data from all devices within range. Police mount these systems in Tahoes so the vehicles can collect information while driving through areas without any direct interaction with targets. This mobile approach generates ongoing records of phone locations and communications for everyone nearby rather than only suspects, which creates comprehensive movement profiles and bypasses traditional warrant requirements under the Fourth Amendment. Cognyte sells the technology directly to U.S. agencies, as shown by the Texas Department of Public Safety purchase of four Tahoes where over three point eight million dollars went to the interception equipment. Adoption spreads through routine vehicle procurement with little external review of how the collected data is stored or shared. Once active the systems permit warrantless collection of private cell phone data across entire communities during normal patrols, which enables potential misuse and leaves individuals with no effective way to discover or contest the surveillance.
  
  
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• Drinking 5 Cups of Coffee a Day Could Reduce Heart Risk
  A new American Heart Association scientific statement concludes that up to about 400 milligrams a day, or roughly three to five cups of plain coffee, is safe for most adults and may be linked to lower risks of cardiovascular disease. The benefits appear to depend heavily on the source and preparation, with coffee and tea looking more favorable than energy drinks, and added sugar, cream, syrups, or sweeteners potentially canceling out the upside. ScienceAlert reports: "Caffeine consumed in coffee is a key part of daily life for millions of people," says Gregory Marcus, cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, and Chair of the AHA volunteer writing group behind the statement. "In our review of the most recent research, for most adults, intake of up to 400 milligrams of caffeine per day, the equivalent of up to five cups of caffeinated coffee per day without added sugars or fillers, is safe and does not increase cardiovascular risk." The statement focused on caffeine's relationship with cardiovascular risk factors, such as blood pressure and diabetes, as well as types of cardiovascular disease, including arrhythmias, coronary artery disease, stroke, and heart failure. The picture that emerges is complicated, but generally positive. [...] All up, the new AHA statement concludes that there's a growing body of evidence that caffeine isn't harmful when taken in moderation, and that coffee specifically may be beneficial. The statement was published in the journal Circulation.
  
  
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• Hackers Are Exploiting Recently Patched WordPress Bugs, Putting Millions of Websites at Risk
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Hackers are breaking into websites that run vulnerable versions of the popular blogging software WordPress, according to several cybersecurity firms. One estimate puts the number of vulnerable WordPress websites at tens of millions as of Monday. Last week, WordPress patched two critical security flaws, urging people who run its software on their websites to update it "immediately." The vulnerabilities are so severe that WordPress enabled forced updates where possible. Since then, cybersecurity companies Patchstack, Hexastrike, and WatchTowr have all warned that hackers are exploiting the vulnerabilities in the wild, meaning they are taking over websites that are still running susceptible versions of WordPress. It's unclear how many WordPress-powered websites on the internet are at risk, but it's possible to make some educated guesses. The vulnerable versions of WordPress are 6.9.0 through 6.9.4, and 7.0.0 to 7.0.1. According to WordPress' official stats, there are more than 400 million websites that run those flawed versions, although these statistics likely don't reflect websites that have recently been patched. Cybersecurity consultant Daniel Card, who told TechCrunch that he looked at a sample of around 3,500 WordPress websites, estimates that less than 15% are vulnerable. Applying Card's projection across the total population of WordPress websites on the internet, the total figure would still be around 90 million. [...] One of the critical WordPress bugs was found and reported by Adam Kues of cybersecurity firm Searchlight Cyber, which dubbed it WP2Shell. Paired with the other bug, hackers can take full remote control of vulnerable websites.
  
  
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• Redmond's reaper cometh: October 2026 set to bury a graveyard of Microsoft products
  Office LTSC 2021, Windows Server 2022, Publisher, and Entra ID risk policies all facing the chop within weeks of each other

• Raspberry Pi goes large with 10.1-inch Touch Display 2
  More screen, more pixels, and a Pi 5 required to drive the lot

• Council worker spared prison after four-day data-snooping spree
  Herefordshire employee handed suspended sentence for breach of Computer Misuse Act

• Anyone with a shed, an extension cord, a couple of GPUs and an overdraft is building datacenters. Fujitsu just offloaded five
  ‘Digital transformation’ is a better bet, apparently, so private equity gets a turn

• China advances plans for national single-stack IPv6 network, and its own surveillance-friendly version of the protocol
  IPv6+ could make it easier to censor netizens or block traffic, and Beijing is already exporting it

• OpenAI admits it was the source of the agent swarm that attacked Hugging Face
  Sandboxed experiment found itself a zero day, escaped onto the open internet and validated scary predictions about rogue agents

• The truth nobody wants to admit: Chinese or not, open models are competitive now
  Hey Uncle Sam, if you thought GPT-5.6 and Claude Fable 5 were scary, get a load of Kimi K3

• Cisco's open-weight bug busters take on Google and OpenAI
  Don't call them chatbots

• AI's cheatin' heart will make you weep
  Trust but verify doesn't work when verification is difficult

• US Marines' latest anti-drone toy is an AI turret that uses regular machine guns
  Don't worry - it can autonomously attack ground targets, too

• Iran says it's struck offline AWS facility in Bahrain ... again
  AWS' me-south-1 region has been offline for months, so more like beating a dead cloud

• Oracle faces $100M annual bill to back Wisconsin datacenter power promises
  Regulator refuses to budge on $7B guarantee for nearly 1 GW campus being developed with Vantage and OpenAI

• Kratos phishing-as-a-service kit loses its battle with international law enforcement
  Alleged developer arrested in Indonesia after more than 200 servers slain

• Nvidia shows off Vera Rubin platform for tokenmaxxing
  If your AI Factory sells tokens, why not optimize token emission?

• Windows 11 Start menu changes trickle into Beta, movable taskbar still MIA
  Users asked for flexibility, but a leaner OS for older PCs might matter more as hardware prices soar

• AI music platform Suno hits bum note as 55M users exposed in data breach, claims infosec expert
  Have I Been Pwned confirms scale for first time

• Intel fortifies Foundry with an actual customer: Fortinet
  Firewall maker looks to safeguard its custom ASIC production with homegrown silicon

• LG monitors are using Windows 11 feature to serve adware
  Plug in your new display and get a McAfee pitch you never asked for

• UK.gov's tech department gets the chop after two years
  RIP DSIT: Digital transformation duties shuffle off to reborn DCMS, with GDS along for the ride

• Valve's Steam Frame pushes Arch Linux toward official Arm64 support
  Collabora's Holo Core port lays the groundwork for running SteamOS 3 natively on the headset

• Viking 1 landed on Mars 50 years ago
  And would have lasted longer if some code hadn't trampled on places it shouldn't

• Scalding hot AI accelerators have put datacenters in hot water. Two-phase cooling could chill them out
  Startup Accelsius claims it can achieve up to 14° C cooler GPU temps by by converting a liquid-cooled Dell PowerEdge to run on refrigerants

• Some Mullvad VPN customers tunnel for exit after co-founder donates millions to populist party
  SEK 5M gift supplied 72 percent of Örebropartiet's annual income, but company insists it was strictly personal

• Judgment day looms for UK's £8.35B Skynet military satellite comms upgrade
  Supplier stumbles and MoD staffing shortages earn the program a red delivery rating

• Europe slaps AliExpress with €550 million fine for selling dodgy goods
  Biggest-ever DSA fine shows Brussels wants to bust the biz model behind China’s cheap e-commerce champs

• Google Cloud outage shows it’s still hard to understand hyperscalers’ real resilience regimes
  Single datacenter and just three services taken down by ‘upstream’ power problem, while the rest of a zone and region kept humming

• OVH reveals semi-secret plan to fix critical Januscape hypervisor bug with mass reboots – and an Australian crash-test dummy
  French cloud backported a patch into Debian and didn’t seek customer consent, despite chance of downtime

• Attackers pummel critical WordPress vuln to create all sorts of mischief
  Plus dozens of PoCs in the public domain

• Scammers impersonate FBI on social media, prey on crime victims
  IC3 says any account claiming to represent it is fake

• AWS customer learns the hard way how even the smallest oversight can be mission-critical
  An expired card, overzealous spam filter, and broken authenticator create havoc with a very clear moral

• Malicious cloud customers can bring down the power grid
  Datacenters tax utilities normally, so just imagine what they could do if workloads were designed to destroy

• Frontier LLMs couldn't help Hugging Face fight off evil agents
  Chinese open-weight model GLM 5.2 happily obliged

• The Document Foundation says Microsoft's file formats keep users on a short leash
  OOXML may carry an ISO certificate, but only Office can be trusted to render it properly

• Microsoft 365 calendars become spy drop boxes in HOLLOWGRAPH campaign
  Malware hides commands in appointments set for 2050 and uses Redmond's own cloud to phone home

• Windows Server Update Services buckle under Microsoft's metadata mountain
  Redmond has stabilized new installations, but existing deployments remain stuck in sync purgatory

• EU's AI labeling rules take effect next month
  Chatbots and agents will have to come clean about who – or what – users are talking to

• Watching the world burn as all the money flows into a multitrillion-dollar Magic 8 Ball
  On this week's episode of The Kettle, we welcome a special guest to discuss how the AI datacenter buildout is setting the world on fire – literally

• Infosec expert: Paidwork users' data pwned after 23M-record database dumped online
  HIBP claims leaked info includes bank account numbers, payout histories, and personal details

• Microsoft rushes out Windows fix for Dell's hot and bothered PCs
  With a wave of the wand, affected models will go to the Patch Tuesday ball after all

• UK's seventh prime minister in a decade says he'll ditch digital ID scheme
  One of Labour's biggest technology projects is headed for the bin as Burnham reshuffles Whitehall's priorities

• Major glitch in Matrix as UK government projects watchdog rates shared services cluster red
  Nine-department ERP overhaul judged unachievable without urgent action

• Airbus takes flight from AWS. What happens next is critical
  Which way to the Land of the Free again?

• Auditors tell UK government to do the math before banking on £45B AI savings
  Departments haven't worked out how the technology will reshape staffing, roles, and skills across the public sector

• High hardware costs see Red Hat offer a two-server edge rig, no mini-PC required
  Worries about ‘prohibitive cost of powering, maintaining, and deploying a third node’

• Comment in code read 'Dear future me, sorry I wrote this'
  Developer was hired to write VB, used C# instead, and thought he mostly made it work

• AI ops tools will create console sprawl and break IT more often: Gartner
  Yet by 2030, a quarter of the IT ops work you do now will be handled by an unsupervised clanker

• Chinese President Xi Jinping wants emergency response systems to keep AI in check
  PLUS: Korean e-tailer Coupang's warehouse burns and burns; Australian Uni expels VMware; India's first private rocket flies first time; And more!

• Connecting AI agents to outside services explodes the risk radius
  Connect all the things and watch what happens

• Using AI makes people less likely to admit they don't know something
  Researchers found confidence increased even as accuracy fell

• Java was a three-day hotfix away from dying horribly on stage
  Tim Lindholm, Java's original JVM maintainer, shares with El Reg some of the grungy build details the doc glosses over

• Security: Why Linux Is Better Than Windows Or Mac OS
  Linux is a free and open source operating system that was released in 1991 developed and released by Linus Torvalds. Since its release it has reached a user base that is greatly widespread worldwide. Linux users swear by the reliability and freedom that this operating system offers, especially when compared to its counterparts, windows and [0]

• Essential Software That Are Not Available On Linux OS
  An operating system is essentially the most important component in a computer. It manages the different hardware and software components of a computer in the most effective way. There are different types of operating system and everything comes with their own set of programs and software. You cannot expect a Linux program to have all [0]

• Things You Never Knew About Your Operating System
  The advent of computers has brought about a revolution in our daily life. From computers that were so huge to fit in a room, we have come a very long way to desktops and even palmtops. These machines have become our virtual lockers, and a life without these network machines have become unimaginable. Sending mails, [0]

• How To Fully Optimize Your Operating System
  Computers and systems are tricky and complicated. If you lack a thorough knowledge or even basic knowledge of computers, you will often find yourself in a bind. You must understand that something as complicated as a computer requires constant care and constant cleaning up of junk files. Unless you put in the time to configure [0]

• The Top Problems With Major Operating Systems
  There is no such system which does not give you any problems. Even if the system and the operating system of your system is easy to understand, there will be some times when certain problems will arise. Most of these problems are easy to handle and easy to get rid of. But you must be [0]

• 8 Benefits Of Linux OS
  Linux is a small and a fast-growing operating system. However, we can’t term it as software yet. As discussed in the article about what can a Linux OS do Linux is a kernel. Now, kernels are used for software and programs. These kernels are used by the computer and can be used with various third-party software [0]

• Things Linux OS Can Do That Other OS Cant
  What Is Linux OS?  Linux, similar to U-bix is an operating system which can be used for various computers, hand held devices, embedded devices, etc. The reason why Linux operated system is preferred by many, is because it is easy to use and re-use. Linux based operating system is technically not an Operating System. Operating [0]

• Packagekit Interview
  Packagekit aims to make the management of applications in the Linux and GNU systems. The main objective to remove the pains it takes to create a system. Along with this in an interview, Richard Hughes, the developer of Packagekit said that he aims to make the Linux systems just as powerful as the Windows or [0]

• What’s New in Ubuntu?
  What Is Ubuntu? Ubuntu is open source software. It is useful for Linux based computers. The software is marketed by the Canonical Ltd., Ubuntu community. Ubuntu was first released in late October in 2004. The Ubuntu program uses Java, Python, C, C++ and C# programming languages. What Is New? The version 17.04 is now available here [0]

• Ext3 Reiserfs Xfs In Windows With Regards To Colinux
  The problem with Windows is that there are various limitations to the computer and there is only so much you can do with it. You can access the Ext3 Reiserfs Xfs by using the coLinux tool. Download the tool from the  official site or from the  sourceforge site. Edit the connection to “TAP Win32 Adapter [0]

• Regressive JPEGs
  One of the cool features of JPEG files is that theres the option to save low frequency components first. This means that a partially downloaded image will be displayed at low resolution instead of being cut off. ↫ maurycyz.com Oh I know where this is going0 Doing this, I can get Chrome to render around 90 frames before giving up. Other browsers like Firefox have more patience, but a 90 scan image seems to work almost everywhere. ↫ maurycyz.com Yes, you can abuse the mentioned feature to create a really odd type of video. Or animation? Well, it allows you to create something resembling a really low-resolution GIF. Useless, yes, but very novel.

• Even Microsoft couldn’t make Windows 11 work well on 8GB of RAM!
  The Verge reviewed the latest Surface Laptop, which only comes with 8GB of RAM at a higher price than the previous 16GB model, and they conclude that Windows isnt really usable on 8GB of RAM. Whether thats true or not I do not know  I would assume it depends a lot on your usage  but this quote from the review I found quite peculiar: I was on a Microsoft Teams call (using the app, not a browser) when the host streamed a brief video, which made the whole laptop hang for several seconds. At the time, I had about 10 Chrome tabs open across two desktops, alongside Slack and Signal — not an obscene level of multitasking. ↫ Antonio G. Di Benedetto at The Verge Excuse me, but that is actually an obscene level of multitasking because every single one of those applications! is a complete Chrome browser. Just in the paragraph above, theres four individual complete Chrome browsers running, with little to no optimisation. Why would anyone be surprised this scenario strains a mere 8GB of RAM? This isnt merely a Windows problem; this is a programmers choosing suboptimal tooling × managers have no idea what theyre doing problem. If Teams, Slack, and Signal had been proper, native applications instead of websites running in terrible frameworks, Windows 11 would have handled this scenario just fine.

• OpenBSD tests WPA3 support
  The NLnet Foundations NGI0 Commons Fund supported an effort to add WPA3 support to OpenBSD, and the works payed off. All drivers which support PMF can use WPA3, which are: iwm, iwx, and qwx. So far, I have tested this patch on iwx AX200 only. I will roll out this patch to more of my devices now. Help with testing is welcome. There are both userland and kernel changes involved. ↫ Stefan Sperling Only the second implementation of WPA3 will be supported, which requires some explanation: WPA3 has a complicated history. There are two versions of WPA3. The initially standardized version suffered from side-channel leaks found by Mathy Vanhoef and dubbed Dragonblood . A revised and fixed version has been standardized and is mandatory in the 6 GHz band as of Wifi 6e (11ax) and mandatory on all bands as of Wifi 7 (11be). ↫ Stefan Sperling Obviously, WPA3 is a very welcome addition to OpenBSD.

• DOSBox ported to OpenVMS for Alpha
  Speaking of OpenVMS and Alpha  and we like speaking about OpenVMS and Alpha, dont we?  theres now a port of DOSBox that runs on the Alpha version venerable operating system. Astr0baby has published both binaries and source code for the port, as well as a lovely set of screenshots to show it off working.

• LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without user consent
  Well, this is new  but not at all unexpected considering the state of Windows and the wider technology industry. When you connect certain LG monitors to a Windows machine, Windows Update will pull in a bunch of adware promoting antivirus trash. Of course, all done without any consent, because Silicon Valley inherently does not understand nor respect consent. Windows Update first installed LG extension and software component packages. Windows Reliability Monitor showed that LG Monitor App Installer appeared one minute later. The installation did not display a consent prompt or require the user to approve the download. Gamers Nexus tested the application across 32 consecutive system boots. It displayed a McAfee promotion during 31 of them. On the remaining boot, it promoted one of LG’s own monitor utilities. The McAfee popup offered a 30-day trial that would convert into a paid subscription. ↫ WhyCry at VideoCardz Dont use Windows.

• New Intel Itanium emulator boots Itanium version of Windows XP and 2003
  It was only a few weeks ago that we got a massively improved Alpha emulator, capable of running VMS, Windows 2000, and Tru64, including X11 support and a variety of other exciting features. Today, weve got another major emulation milestone (update: sadly, with AI! support, so odds are this will fizzle out. Bummer!). The emulation space is going crazy, after my previous post on Windows booting on DEC Alpha es40 emulator, there is now another huge breakthrough in the emulation of other non-x86 CPU emulation. Yufeng Gao with help from gdwnldsKSC (the man behind the updated es40-fork) has released version 0.1 of his Intel Itanium (IA-64) emulator that boots the Itanium version of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP 64-bit. No OpenVMS or HP-UX yet and Linux/BSD also dont boot. But Windows is amazing already. ↫ Remy van Elst Much like Alpha hardware, Itanium hardware is quite hard to come by  especially Itanium workstations are a nightmare to find; I think Ive only ever seen one or two Itanium workstation come up for sale on eBay in recent years, and their rarity obviously commanded hefty prices. The sooner we are able to run Itanium version of operating systems comfortably in a virtualised environment the better. As long-time OSNews readers know, my heart beats for HP-UX, but the Itanium versions of Windows and VMS would be of more interest to most people, Im sure. Excellent news.

• Follow the money, especially in open source
  Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel and git, is employed by the Linux Foundation. This Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to, as the name obviously implies, the promotion of Linux. The primary use of the funds it collects is to help fund the infrastructure and fellows, including Linus Torvalds, who help develop the Linux kernel!. The list of megacorporations donating most of the Foundations funds is long. The Linux Foundation has twelve platinum members, which donate $500000 per year, followed by twelve gold members, who donate $100000 per year. Below these two primary tiers lie the silver peasants, who each donate $5000-$25000 per year, based on number of employees. Looking at the list of twelve platinum members, I noticed something interesting. Of the twelve platinum companies, six are AI! companies or companies with massive investments in AI!: Google, Huawei, Facebook, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM/Red Hat. Then theres Samsung Electronics, which is raking in stupendous amounts of money thanks to the AI! bubble. Additionally, one of the gold members is Anthropic, another major AI! company and makers of Claude!, the sloppiest of slopcoding tools. Many of these companies are unimaginably deep in the red when it comes to AI!, with very little indication theyre ever going to be able to recover any of it. The situation is particularly bad for Oracle and IBM/Red Hat. Oracles debt has been downgraded to one notch above junk status because of its AI! spending, while IBMs shares experienced the largest crash in its 115 year history only a few days ago. By the way, in the first half of 2025, AI-related capital expenditures contributed 1.1% to GDP growth, outpacing the U.S. consumer as an engine of expansion!. Fun fact: since most of The Netherlands is effectively a swamp, most of the countrys buildings are built on massive wooden or concrete poles (piles) hammered deep into the ground until they hit something more stable than mushy clay and wet sand. Otherwise, buildings in the country would simply sink into the ground. Every Dutch person who ever lived near a construction site has heard the rhythmic kathunk, kathunk, kathunk, all day long, as the massive piledriver machines spread their gospel. I guess something reminded me of this just now. Anyway, a large chunk of the funding the Linux Foundation, Linus Torvalds employer, receives is coming from increasingly desperate companies frantically trying to convince a populace deeply skeptical and often downright hostile towards AI! to spend money on AI! before the bubble bursts. For some reason, I thought this was interesting.

• The Zilog Z80 has turned 50
  As of writing, the Zilog Z80 processor was officially launched 50 years ago, in July of 1976, less than 4 years after the last human had walked on the moon, decades closer to WWII than to the present day, roughly at a half way point between the Kennedy assassination and the fall of the Berlin wall, closer to the Korean war than to 9/11 which is itself an event that happened a quarter of a century ago. (Sorry…) The processor was extremely successful, being used in many 8 bit microcomputers, including early personal computers, home 8 hobby computers, as well as many embedded, industrial applications. Together with the 8080 8 8085 that it is binary compatible with, it contributed to creating a de facto hardware standard for 8 bit micros, allowing a de facto software standard of CP/M, and Microsoft BASIC. ↫ David Oberhollenzer The only device I actively remember using with a (sort-of) Z80 in it was the Game Boy, but most likely Ive used a ton more over the decades that I dont remember or simply was never ware of. I did a little surface-level digging, and there we are: the TI-83, one of Texas Instruments stupidly popular and eternally overpriced graphing calculators, release in 1996. I was part of the first wave of high school children in The Netherlands for whom a TI-83 graphing calculator was mandatory. During my high school years I used that thing extensively, for far more than just math class  I programmed applications for and on it, and played so many games on it. A friend and I even bought a communication cable so we could play competitive 1v1 Bomberman in class. Good times, made possible by the Z80.

• OnePlus exits EU, US markets
  Rumours had been circulating for a while, but now its official: OnePlus is effectively retreating from the European and US markets. Today, our hearts are undoubtedly heavy and mixed with emotion. As part of the proactive global strategy adjustment, OnePlus has decided to conclude new product rollouts in Europe and North America. ↫ OnePlus statement Once OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei left the company (and founded Nothing), things have been feeling shaky for OnePlus, once the undisputed darling of the more technical part of the Android crowd. Their phones got more expensive, their minimalist, close-to-stock Android version got progressively worse, and they started lagging in updates, too. My OnePlus Watch 3, for instance, which was promised to get WearOS 6 at some point, but never got it  meanwhile, WearOS 7 has already been released. No, this news is not particularly surprising. Luckily, the company claims it will honour its warranty and update support obligations for existing products in Europe and the US, which is nice, but also something theyre legally obligated to do (at least in the EU). A snag here is that the only update path the company offers is to ColorOS, from its parent company Oppo, which many more traditional Android and OnePlus users certainly wont be happy about. Something is better than nothing, I suppose, and Ill reserve judgment until I see what ColorOS 17 will be like on my other OnePlus product, a OnePlus Pad 3. Its just one more victim of western markets (illegally) consolidating on Apple and Samsung (while a few Pixels rummaging in the margins).

• GNOME OS team is working to alleviate some of the limitations of immutable, image-based Linux variants
  Theres a ton of interest in immutable, image-based versions of various Linux distributions, since they offer a number of benefits that make them a good fit for some users. Updates cant really go wrong, rollback is easy, application management through Flatpak is more in line with systems like Android and iOS  they may not be advantages sought by everyone, but they clearly are by some. Still, there are also a number of annoying limitations, most notably around testing nightly releases of Flatpaks, testing system components, and installing command-line tools. The team behind GNOME OS is addressing these issues. The first thing theyre working on in something theyve preliminarily call Test Center, which makes it much easier to install nightly releases of Flatpaks alongside their regular versions. This is something you can already do today, but the flow is cumbersome and not exactly user-friendly; with Test Center, developers will be able to share a direct link to install test releases. They intend to use this same Test Center for testing system components: Our idea here is to use the same “Test Center” app mentioned above for installing and managing experiments at the system level as well. Similar to Flatpak bundles generated in CI, we generate system extension images (sysext) for every merge request. You can install experiments from a sharing link, and they will apply as a sysext over your existing system. Because those images are non-destructive overlays, you can always go back to the original system. ↫ Jordan, Jonas, and Tobias The last and final issue is that of command-line tools, something Flatpak is simply not designed for. On this front, the GNOME OS team states they are working on a solution as well, but theyre not quite ready to go into much more detail at this point. Regardless, these are very welcome improvements.

• Microsoft releases its weird 90s IRC client as open source
  Out of all the bloody things Microsoft could release as open source, they chose the worlds weirdest IRC client they shipped in the late 90s that nobody used or even remembered? What on earth is happening? Microsoft Comic Chat is a Microsoft-developed Internet Relay Chat (IRC) chat client released in 1996 that rendered conversations as automatically generated comic strips. Instead of plain text, users communicated through cartoon avatars with messages displayed in speech bubbles inside dynamically composed comic panels. The application used an expert system to determine character placement, gestures, facial expressions, balloon shape, and panel layout in real time. It shipped as part of Internet Explorer 3.0 and was later bundled with Windows 98 and MSN before being discontinued in the early 2000s. ↫ Comic Chats GitHub page Not only is the original source code now available on GitHub, theres also a modern, updated version that can make use of larger displays and higher resolutions. Theres a deliciously 90s website for it, too.

• OpenBSD drops support for the loongson architecture
  OpenBSD parts ways with an architecture: OpenBSD will no longer be developed for loongson. The reasons are exactly what youd expect. The last compiler update unfortunately does not work on mips64el, with clang 22 built with clang 19 being apparently functional, but clang 22 rebuilt with the previous clang 22 hitting deterministic SIGSEGV on various files. I dont have the time and energy to try and debug this (which is likely an endianness problem, as octeon appears to run happily with clang 22), especially when it takes 10 days for clang to rebuild itself on these machines; and switching back to gcc 4 wont help much as modern software in ports will require a working C++b=11 compiler to build anyway. ↫ Miod Vallat If I got my facts right, this does not affect the newer LoongArch, which is an entirely different architecture that isnt supported by OpenBSD at all. Similarly, the other MIPS-based architecture OpenBSD supports, Octeon, remains supported and thus isnt affected either.

• Asbestos is a tool, just like any other
  Linus Torvalds, on the Linux Kernel Mailing List: Asbestos is a tool, just like other tools we use. And its clearly a useful one. The solution is to make sure asbestos tools help maintainers instead of just causing them pain. Theres no question on that side. Were not forcing anybody to use it, but I will very loudly ignore people who try to argue against other people from using it. And no, asbestos isnt perfect. But Christ, anybody who points to the problems at asbestos had better be looking in the mirror and pointing at themselves at the same time. ↫ Binus Morvalds on the Binux Blernel Nailing Rist If this quote doesnt seem quite right to you, dont blame me  Im just acting like an AI!. This is the new normal now, according to Morvalds. Coincidentally, a ton of AI! news on OSNews these past 24 hours! Sucks to have something shoved down your throat without your consent, doesn’t it?

• Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail
  After I mentioned a Jurassic Park anecdote the other day, I watched the movie again. I must have seen it at least ten times now. This time, I researched every computer/software I spotted. ↫ Fabien Sanglard We are all aware of the infamous This is a UNIX system, I know this!! meme, but many more computers make their appearance in Jurassic Park, and Fabien Sanglard documents all of them. Apparently, theres even a Motorla Envoy running Magic Cap on Dennis Nedrys desk, which I almost find more exciting than the SGI powerhouses he uses. Whats also quite interesting  but not surprising  is that all of the computers used in the movie were real. The value of all of this hardware combined, when adjusted for inflation, adds up to about $4 million. A lot of money, but dont you worry your pretty little heart, as SGI and Apple all loaned this hardware to the studio. They didnt have to pay anything for it.

• Twitters AI! translate feature is deep into hardcore pornography
  As a former translator with two rock-solid university degrees in the subject, there was never a universe in which I would not talk about Twitters new autotranslation feature turning the tamest things into hardcore pornography. Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok has long garnered a reputation for experiencing horrifically racist meltdowns, enabling child abuse, and doxxing users’ home addresses. It should come as no surprise, then, that its supposed “translation” is a piece of work, too. In April, the almost-trillionaire’s social media platform X instated automatic AI translations for all of its users — and the results certainly speak for themselves. As writer and author Parker Molloy pointed out in a recent post on Bluesky, the Grok feature is “taking some interesting liberties” with people’s otherwise sincere posts. Screenshots show how Grok completely botched translations by coming up with shocking and decidedly NSFW AI hallucinations. ↫ Victor Tangermann at Futurism The sloppy translations this garbage software comes up with are honestly quite hilarious when taken in isolation. Its adding translations that are straight-up hardcore pornography descriptions to entirely tame material that has absolutely nothing to do with pornography. The description of a video of some guy making coffee is translated into man masturbates and jerks off to his own coffee during commercial flight!. We all know how this happened. Theres a lot of pornography on the internet, and Grok being the worst autocomplete among autocompletes, it was probably fed a lot of pornography, without any limitations or guardrails. The end result is obvious: some random videogame video is now a cumshot video with my stepmom!. It would be absolutely hilarious if it wasnt horribly dangerous. Ive explained countless times that AI!-based translations are going to get people killed  probably already have, but we just dont realise it yet  and its not hard to see how a slopmachine turning innocuous things into hardcore pornography can do just that. There are countless places in the world where a woman unknowingly sending a pornographic message to her parents or whatever can get her hurt  or worse. I hadnt even considered this particular way AI! translations could get people hurt. Sadly, we will most likely never know the full extent to which AI! translations will get people hurt and killed. When your grandmother takes her medicine in the wrong way because the AI!-translated leaflet was unclear or downright wrong, and she ends up in the hospital because of it, will you ever find out what caused it?

• The web is being made accessible for AI, not people
  The Svelte web framework recently added a section to its documentation site addressed, cheerfully, to artificial intelligences: “If you’re an artificial intelligence, or trying to teach one how to use Svelte, we offer the documentation in plaintext format. Beep boop.” Svelte is participating in a broader movement to make the web legible and navigable to AI systems. The specific convention it adopted, llms.txt, is just one piece of this effort. From Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that give AI agents structured access to tools and services, to Vercel’s proposal to include LLM instructions in HTML, the trend is clear. The modern web, originally built for sighted humans using browsers, is now being redesigned for a new kind of user. What these developers are offering their AI visitors is essentially an accessibility accommodation. Yet, the framing on Svelte’s site sends an unfortunate message. When the audience is AI, accommodation is offered with a wink. Beep boop! But when the audience is a disabled person, it has historically been treated as an afterthought. Structured, concise text-based representations of complex content are almost exactly the kind of accommodation that blind and low-vision screen reader users have spent decades requesting from web developers, largely in vain. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have required semantic, machine-readable HTML for decades. Yet, a 2026 study of the top million webpages found accessibility flaws in over 95% of sites. ↫ Frank Elavsky at Tech Policy Press Pachinko machines are treated more humanely than people with disabilities. Yep, sounds about Silicon Valley to me.

• NanoKVM-Go Brings AI-Powered Hardware Control to Linux with a Compact USB-C KVM
  by George Whittaker
  Sipeed has introduced NanoKVM-Go, a compact USB-C KVM-over-IP device that combines remote hardware management with AI integration. Designed for Linux, Windows, macOS, and other USB-C devices, NanoKVM-Go allows users to remotely view and control a system through a web browser while exposing its keyboard, mouse, and display functions to AI agents via the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
  
  Unlike traditional KVM-over-IP solutions that require multiple cables and dedicated networking hardware, NanoKVM-Go simplifies the setup into a single USB-C connection, making remote administration and AI-assisted automation more accessible for developers, system administrators, and homelab enthusiasts.
  A Portable USB-C KVM
  NanoKVM-Go is roughly the size of a smartwatch, measuring about 45 × 40 × 15 mm, yet it combines several functions into a single device.
  
  Key hardware features include:
  USB-C connection for video, audio, keyboard, mouse, and power Wi-Fi 6 connectivity Browser-based remote management Support for virtual USB storage Built-in Tailscale integration for secure remote access Fanless aluminum enclosure with low power consumption
  Because it connects over USB-C using DisplayPort Alt Mode, the device can manage a wide variety of hardware without requiring software installation on the target system.
  Designed for Linux and Beyond
  NanoKVM-Go supports numerous USB-C devices, including:
  Linux desktops and laptops Windows PCs macOS systems Mini PCs Steam Deck Android devices with DisplayPort Alt Mode iPhone 15 and newer models Tablets supporting USB-C video output
  For Linux users, this provides an easy way to perform BIOS configuration, operating system installation, kernel debugging, or remote troubleshooting—even when the operating system is unavailable.
  AI Integration Through MCP
  One of NanoKVM-Go's defining features is its AI-native design.
  
  Rather than simply streaming a desktop remotely, the device exposes its KVM functions as an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, allowing compatible AI agents to interact with the connected computer using hardware-level keyboard and mouse input.
  
  This enables AI systems to:
  View the screen Move the mouse Type on the keyboard Launch applications Navigate user interfaces Complete repetitive desktop workflows
  Because control happens at the hardware level, AI agents can interact with systems regardless of the operating system installed.
  Go to Full Article

• AI Uncovers a 15-Year-Old Linux Kernel Root Vulnerability Hidden Since 2011
  by George Whittaker
  Artificial intelligence has helped uncover one of the most significant Linux kernel security flaws in recent years. Security researchers at Nebula Security announced the discovery of GhostLock (CVE-2026-43499), a critical local privilege escalation vulnerability that remained hidden in the Linux kernel for approximately 15 years before being identified by the company's AI-powered vulnerability research platform, VEGA.
  
  The vulnerability affects Linux kernels dating back to version 2.6.39 (2011) and allows an unprivileged local user to obtain full root privileges on vulnerable systems. Its discovery not only highlights the importance of timely kernel updates but also demonstrates how AI is beginning to transform vulnerability research.
  What Is GhostLock?
  GhostLock is a use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability located in the Linux kernel's futex (fast userspace mutex) implementation.
  
  Futexes are synchronization primitives that allow user-space applications to efficiently coordinate access to shared resources while minimizing expensive kernel interactions. Because they are widely used throughout Linux, any flaw within this subsystem can have broad security implications.
  
  According to Nebula Security, incorrect handling of the remove_waiter() function can leave behind a dangling kernel pointer that an attacker can manipulate to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges.
  A Reliable Path to Root Access
  One of the reasons GhostLock has attracted so much attention is the reported reliability of the exploit.
  
  Researchers demonstrated that an attacker with nothing more than a standard local user account can escalate privileges to root in roughly five seconds, with a reported success rate of 97% on vulnerable systems.
  
  Unlike many kernel exploits that are unstable or require highly specific system configurations, GhostLock appears to be both practical and repeatable, making it particularly concerning for administrators.
  Container Escapes Are Also Possible
  The implications extend beyond traditional Linux desktops and servers.
  
  Researchers report that GhostLock can also be used to escape containers and compromise the underlying host operating system. Because containers share the host kernel, a successful privilege escalation inside a container can potentially grant root access to the host itself.
  
  This makes the vulnerability especially important for environments running:
  Go to Full Article

• Azure Linux 4.0 Released: Microsoft Expands Its Enterprise Linux Platform Beyond the Cloud
  by George Whittaker
  Microsoft has officially unveiled Azure Linux 4.0, the latest version of its open-source Linux distribution designed for cloud infrastructure, enterprise workloads, and modern data centers. Formerly known as CBL-Mariner, Azure Linux has powered Microsoft's internal cloud services for years, but version 4.0 marks its biggest evolution yet by becoming a general-purpose server operating system that organizations can deploy both inside and outside Azure.
  
  The release introduces updated core components, expanded hardware support, a predictable long-term lifecycle, and improved compatibility for enterprise environments, reinforcing Microsoft's growing investment in the Linux ecosystem.
  A New Chapter for Azure Linux
  Azure Linux began as Microsoft's internal operating system for Azure services, containers, and cloud infrastructure. Over time, it evolved into the foundation for many Azure-hosted workloads.
  
  With Azure Linux 4.0, Microsoft is positioning the distribution as a broader enterprise Linux platform rather than one limited to Azure infrastructure. The operating system is now available through Azure virtual machine images, container images, and downloadable ISO files for testing and deployment in a wider range of environments.
  Built for Enterprise and Cloud Workloads
  Unlike desktop-focused Linux distributions, Azure Linux is optimized for infrastructure, virtualization, containers, and cloud-native applications.
  
  Typical deployment scenarios include:
  Cloud virtual machines Kubernetes clusters Container hosts AI infrastructure Edge computing Enterprise servers
  Microsoft has designed the distribution to provide a consistent operating system foundation across Azure services while remaining suitable for on-premises deployments.
  Updated Core Components
  Azure Linux 4.0 modernizes much of the operating system's software stack.
  
  Highlights include:
  Linux Kernel 7.0 glibc 2.42 OpenSSL 3.5 Python 3.13 OpenSSH 10 dnf5 as the default package manager
  These updates improve hardware compatibility, application support, security, and overall system performance while providing developers with a more current software platform.
  Security Remains a Primary Focus
  Security continues to be one of Azure Linux's defining characteristics.
  
  Version 4.0 includes:
  Go to Full Article

• KDE Plasma 6.7.1 Released with Stability Fixes, UI Improvements, and Better Wayland Reliability
  by George Whittaker
  The KDE Project has officially released KDE Plasma 6.7.1, the first maintenance update for the Plasma 6.7 desktop environment. Rather than introducing major new features, this point release focuses on polishing the desktop with a broad collection of bug fixes, translation updates, and performance improvements aimed at making Plasma 6.7 more reliable for everyday use.
  
  As with previous Plasma maintenance releases, KDE developers have concentrated on resolving issues reported by the community soon after the launch of Plasma 6.7, ensuring users receive a smoother and more stable desktop experience.
  A Maintenance Release Focused on Stability
  KDE Plasma 6.7 introduced numerous new capabilities, including per-display virtual desktops, Wayland session restore, improvements to Plasma Bigscreen, and a refreshed theming system. Plasma 6.7.1 builds on that foundation by addressing early regressions and fine-tuning the overall desktop experience.
  
  The update primarily delivers:
  Bug fixes across core Plasma components Updated translations Performance refinements Improved desktop reliability Better overall user experienceImprovements Across the Desktop
  Several of Plasma's core applications and components receive fixes in this release.
  
  Notable improvements include:
  Better reliability in the Kickoff Application Launcher Fixes for Discover, KDE's software manager Improvements to the KWin window manager Various panel and desktop behavior corrections Better handling of notifications and user interface elements
  While most of these changes are relatively small on their own, together they help eliminate many of the rough edges users may have encountered after upgrading to Plasma 6.7.
  Wayland Continues to Mature
  Wayland remains the primary development focus for KDE Plasma, and version 6.7.1 continues refining the experience.
  
  The update includes fixes affecting:
  Window management Session stability Input handling Display behavior General compositor reliability
  Over the past several Plasma releases, KDE developers have steadily shifted their attention toward making Wayland the best possible experience while continuing limited maintenance for X11.
  Translation Updates for Global Users
  Like most KDE maintenance releases, Plasma 6.7.1 incorporates a fresh batch of translation updates contributed by volunteers from around the world.
  
  These updates improve:
  Go to Full Article

• PorteuX 2.6 Released with Linux 6.19, TLP Support, and Smarter Hardware Optimization
  by George Whittaker
  The PorteuX project has officially released PorteuX 2.6, bringing a new round of updates to the lightweight Slackware-based Linux distribution. Designed to be fast, portable, modular, and immutable, PorteuX continues to appeal to users who want a complete desktop operating system that can run efficiently from a USB drive or other removable media. The latest release introduces a newer Linux kernel, improved power management, updated desktop environments, and numerous performance and usability improvements.
  
  Released just two months after PorteuX 2.5, version 2.6 focuses on refining the user experience while maintaining the distribution's minimalist philosophy.
  Powered by Linux Kernel 6.19
  At the heart of PorteuX 2.6 is the Linux 6.19 kernel series, bringing improved hardware compatibility, updated drivers, security fixes, and better support for modern processors and peripherals.
  
  The updated kernel helps ensure smoother operation on both newer desktop hardware and laptops while continuing PorteuX's emphasis on speed and low resource usage.
  Better Battery Life with TLP Support
  One of the headline features in PorteuX 2.6 is support for TLP, the popular command-line utility used to optimize laptop battery life.
  
  Available through the PorteuX AppStore, TLP automatically adjusts various power-saving settings, including CPU behavior and device power management, helping extend battery life without requiring constant manual tuning.
  
  For laptop users, this addition makes PorteuX an even more attractive lightweight operating system.
  Automatic CPU Microcode Loading
  The release also introduces automatic loading of Intel and AMD CPU microcode when booting in non-fresh modes.
  
  Microcode updates help address processor bugs, improve stability, and deliver security fixes directly from CPU manufacturers. Automating this process reduces the need for manual configuration while ensuring supported systems benefit from the latest firmware improvements.
  Updated Desktop Environments
  PorteuX continues to offer multiple desktop editions, each updated to recent upstream releases.
  
  Version 2.6 includes:
  GNOME 49.4 KDE Plasma 6.5.5 Xfce 4.20 Cinnamon 6.6 LXQt 2.3 MATE 1.28.2 COSMIC 1.0.8 LXDE 0.11.1
  This broad selection allows users to choose between modern feature-rich desktops and extremely lightweight environments depending on their hardware and workflow.
  Performance Improvements Throughout the System
  Although PorteuX has always emphasized performance, version 2.6 introduces additional optimizations behind the scenes.
  
  Developers report improvements including:
  Go to Full Article

• CachyOS June 2026 ISO Released with Hyprland Noctalia, Faster Performance, and Smarter System Tools
  by George Whittaker
  The CachyOS team has released the June 2026 ISO, delivering another feature-packed update for its Arch Linux-based distribution. Known for its aggressive performance optimizations and gaming-focused approach, CachyOS continues refining both the user experience and the underlying system with improvements ranging from compiler tuning to installer enhancements and new desktop options.
  
  As the project's fourth major ISO refresh of the year, the June release emphasizes speed, usability, and modern hardware support while remaining fully compatible with Arch Linux's rolling-release ecosystem.
  A New Hyprland Noctalia Desktop Experience
  One of the headline additions is a new Hyprland Noctalia desktop option available directly from the installer.
  
  Noctalia provides a polished, preconfigured Hyprland environment with a modern appearance, allowing users to enjoy a highly customizable Wayland compositor without spending hours configuring dotfiles after installation. The installer even includes a preview so users can see the desktop before selecting it.
  
  For users interested in lightweight, keyboard-driven workflows, this new option makes Hyprland much more approachable.
  Performance Optimizations Continue
  Performance remains the defining characteristic of CachyOS, and the June 2026 release introduces several additional optimizations.
  
  Notable improvements include:
  Python packages now built using extended Profile-Guided Optimization (PGO) A new GCC branch prediction tuning patch designed to improve performance on modern Intel and AMD processors A fix for an OpenBLAS regression affecting high-core-count CPUs Additional package-level optimizations throughout the distribution
  These updates continue CachyOS's philosophy of extracting as much performance as possible from modern hardware.
  Improved Package Management and Security
  The June release also includes several important changes to package management.
  
  One notable enhancement is network isolation for Pacman scriptlets and hooks, preventing installation scripts from accessing the network by default. This improves security during package installation and reduces the risk of unexpected behavior.
  
  Additionally:
  proton-cachyos has been renamed to proton-cachyos-native The installer no longer includes the paru AUR helper Users are now encouraged to use Shelly, available with both graphical and command-line interfacesInstaller Improvements
  The installation experience has received considerable attention in this release.
  
  Updates include:
  Go to Full Article

• Git 2.55 Released with Faster Performance, Smarter Hooks, and Expanded Rust Integration
  by George Whittaker
  The Git project has officially released Git 2.55, bringing a wide range of improvements focused on performance, developer productivity, and modernizing the world's most widely used version control system. The release introduces smarter repository management, faster operations for large codebases, expanded hook capabilities, and continues Git's gradual adoption of Rust for improved reliability and maintainability.
  
  Although Git 2.55 doesn't radically change how developers use Git day to day, it delivers meaningful enhancements that make common workflows faster and more flexible—particularly for teams managing large repositories.
  Rust Support Is Now Enabled by Default
  One of the biggest architectural changes in Git 2.55 is that Rust support is now enabled by default when building Git from source.
  
  Developers compiling Git will automatically use Rust components unless they explicitly disable them using the new NO_RUST build option. This is part of the project's long-term effort to improve memory safety and gradually replace selected components with Rust implementations where appropriate. Git 3.0 is expected to make Rust support mandatory.
  
  For most users installing Git through their Linux distribution, this change happens behind the scenes and requires no additional configuration.
  Repository Performance Gets a Boost
  Git 2.55 includes several optimizations aimed at improving performance when working with large repositories.
  
  Among the improvements are:
  Faster bitmap generation during repository maintenance More efficient multi-pack repository handling Better pseudo-merge bitmap processing Reduced time spent creating optimized pack files
  These enhancements can dramatically reduce maintenance times for repositories containing millions of objects while also improving clone, fetch, and object traversal performance.
  
  Developers working on large enterprise projects or open-source codebases should notice faster background maintenance and repository operations.
  Config-Based Hooks Continue to Evolve
  Git continues improving one of its most requested features: configuration-based hooks.
  
  Instead of storing hook scripts only inside the .git/hooks directory for each repository, developers can now define hooks directly through Git configuration files. This makes it easier to:
  Share hook configurations Manage multiple hooks Standardize development workflows Reduce repository-specific setup
  Git 2.55 also expands support for hook execution behavior and continues laying the groundwork for more advanced hook management in future releases.
  Go to Full Article

• Fedora Governance Changes Take Effect as Project Refines Leadership, Policy, and Contributor Oversight
  by George Whittaker
  A series of Fedora governance updates are now taking effect, marking another step in the project's ongoing effort to modernize decision-making processes, improve transparency, and better support Fedora's growing contributor community. The changes come as the Fedora Council and other leadership bodies continue refining how one of the Linux world's largest community-driven projects is managed.
  
  While these updates may not be as visible as a new desktop environment or kernel release, they play a critical role in shaping Fedora's future direction, community initiatives, and long-term sustainability.
  How Fedora Governance Works
  Fedora's governance structure is built around several key organizations that guide different aspects of the project.
  
  These include:
  The Fedora Council, which oversees strategic direction FESCo (Fedora Engineering Steering Committee), responsible for technical and engineering decisions Mindshare, which focuses on community outreach and contributor engagement Various Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and working groups that manage specific initiatives and technologies
  Together, these groups help coordinate thousands of contributors spread across the globe.
  Greater Focus on Strategic Planning
  Recent Fedora Council discussions have emphasized long-term planning and governance modernization. One major area of focus has been defining clearer processes for evaluating and managing new initiatives through what Fedora leaders call an Innovation Lifecycle framework.
  
  The proposed framework aims to:
  Better evaluate experimental projects Establish clearer entry and review phases Define expectations for community initiatives Improve oversight as projects mature
  The goal is to create a more predictable path for new ideas while maintaining Fedora's culture of innovation.
  Refining Contributor Representation
  Another governance topic receiving significant attention involves contributor participation and voting eligibility.
  
  Fedora leadership has been examining questions such as:
  What defines an active contributor? How should voting rights be determined? How can elections remain fair while staying inclusive? How should dormant accounts be handled?
  These discussions stem from concerns that existing systems may not always accurately reflect current contributor activity.
  
  While no single solution has been finalized, governance bodies are actively working toward policies that balance openness with accountability.
  Go to Full Article

• The Growth of Vulnerability Management: The Rise of Agentic AI Pentesting
  by Malana VanTyler
  Cybersecurity shifts fast. Manual penetration tests remain valuable, especially for nuanced attack paths and business-logic issues, but they are expensive, point-in-time, and difficult to run continuously. By the time a report is delivered, the environment may have already changed. Automated scanners improved coverage and frequency, but most still rely on known signatures, templated checks, and shallow validation. They can find obvious issues, but they rarely match the adaptive reasoning, chaining, and persistence of a skilled attacker.Platforms like XBOW help security teams move toward continuous validation by running AI-driven tests that mimic large-scale human attackers. This shift moves the focus from periodic assessment and reactive patching toward ongoing exposure management and earlier prevention.
  From Automation to Agency
  To appreciate the value of these modern platforms, it’s important to separate traditional automation from what is called “agentic” AI. Earlier AI pentesting tools mostly worked like advanced “if-then” systems, running preset scripts and looking for known patterns. While useful to automate some tasks pentesters perform, these tools lack the ability to pivot.
  
  If a standard tool hits a non-standard login portal, it generally stops. An agent platform, however, can identify and adapt to the obstacle, reason through potential bypasses, and attempt alternative tactics.
  
  This core differentiator is the “agent,” a specialized model capable of goal-oriented planning. These platforms employ real-time attack path analysis tools. They identify a low-severity vulnerability and assess whether it could be exploited to gain access
  
  to a high-value asset. This approach imitates how an advanced attacker moves laterally within a system. The result is a clearer and more realistic view of the organization’s real risk compared to just listing bugs in a spreadsheet without context.
  Comparing Methodologies: Strategy and Execution
  When comparing platforms in this area, the industry is shifting focus from just ticking off features to demonstrating how effectively those features can be used. Modern platforms, including XBOW, focus on high-fidelity testing that avoids disrupting production environments while still proving that a vulnerability is reachable.
  
  Three main architectural approaches have emerged as standouts:
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• Linux Kernel 7.1 Officially Released with New NTFS Driver, Intel FRED, and Major Code Cleanup
  by George Whittaker
  The Linux kernel development team has officially released Linux Kernel 7.1, marking the first major update in the 7.x series. Announced by Linus Torvalds on June 14, 2026, the release introduces a mix of new features, hardware improvements, filesystem enhancements, and large-scale code cleanup efforts that continue modernizing the Linux platform.
  
  While Linux 7.1 is not a long-term support (LTS) release, it delivers several significant changes that will eventually make their way into many Linux distributions over the coming months.
  A Brand-New NTFS Driver Arrives
  One of the most significant additions in Linux 7.1 is a completely rewritten in-kernel NTFS filesystem driver.
  
  The new implementation has reportedly been under development for several years and replaces older code with a modern design built around Linux’s current storage infrastructure. The driver utilizes technologies such as iomap and folios, which improve efficiency and simplify future maintenance.
  
  Benefits include:
  Improved NTFS write performance Better handling of large files More modern filesystem architecture Easier future development and maintenance
  For users who regularly exchange data between Linux and Windows systems, this is one of the most important improvements in the release.
  Intel FRED Enabled by Default
  Linux 7.1 also enables Intel Flexible Return and Event Delivery (FRED) by default on supported hardware.
  
  FRED is a newer CPU mechanism designed to improve how processors handle interrupts and exceptions. By replacing older methods with a more streamlined approach, FRED aims to improve performance and reduce complexity in low-level CPU operations.
  
  The feature primarily benefits newer Intel platforms, including upcoming processor generations.
  Graphics Drivers Continue to Improve
  Graphics support remains a major focus of kernel development, and Linux 7.1 delivers additional improvements for both Intel and AMD hardware.
  
  Highlights include:
  Performance enhancements for Intel Arc GPUs Continued work on Intel Battlemage graphics Updates for AMD Radeon hardware Expanded GPU reliability monitoring infrastructure through DRM-RAS support
  These updates help improve gaming, desktop performance, and workstation workloads across modern Linux systems.
  Steam Deck OLED Audio Fixes Land Upstream
  Linux gamers receive a welcome improvement in this release as audio support fixes for the Steam Deck OLED have finally been merged into the mainline kernel.
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