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- Asahi Linux 7.3 progress report
The Asahi Linux developers have put out a new reporton their progress toward a Linux distribution for Apple devices.
Some time ago, we were made aware of multiple attempts to exploit our permissive licensing to hijack our work, with a direct view to replacing the project and aggressively monetising Linux on Apple Silicon. In some extreme cases, in-development feature code was being lifted straight out of our personal forks and published without attribution or lazily rewritten with LLM assistance to obfuscate its origin. The MIT licence explicitly allows this, and has no carveouts to protect against bad faith actors.
As such, we made the difficult decision to begin the process of transitioning all of our repositories to the GNU General Public License version 2 or later. Going forward all Asahi Linux code will be licenced under strong copyleft licences only. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
- Amutable Foundations: A Technical Overview
Lennart Poettering, Michael Vogt, and Joaquim Rocha have put together adetailed overview of what the Amutable Operating System (AOS) andassociated infrastructure will look like.
The image-based OS approach enables us to enforce some very strict but powerful security properties, which elevate the security posture of the system substantially above traditional Linux systems. Specifically, let's highlight seven major essential security properties of AOS here: No Shell + No SSH + No Language Interpreters. By default AOS does not install a UNIX shell, nor makes remote access via SSH available on the nodes. Moreover, we do not install any of the usual language interpreters (Python, Perl, …) by default. For most nodes a shell or interpreted language support is not required and it removes a whole class of attacks. Signed Images Only. On AOS only images that come with Verity data signed by a signing key listed in the Verity keyring may be activated. [...]
- [$] Locking down hibernation for the winter
When a computer hibernates, the kernel writes the contents of memory to disk andthen shuts the system down. Resuming from hibernation involves reading that databack into memory, and then having the kernel pick up where it left off.Unfortunately, the kernel does not haveany way to know that the data it is reading back has not been tampered with,which is why lockdown, an optional kernelfeature that attempts to prevent modifications to the running kernel, disables hibernation.Matthew Garrett, who has been working on lockdown for many years, has shareda patch set that aims to fix this problem. His solution must also protectagainst downgrade attacks (where an attacker reboots the computer with an olderkernel version to bypass new protections), which complicates the implementation.
- Seven stable kernels with fixes for three Xen vulnerabilities
Hot on the heels of the previoustwo stable kernels, Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.3.3, 6.18.62,6.12.116, 6.6.162, 6.1.192,5.15.225, and 5.10.274 stable kernels. Each one only containsfixes for three use-after-free vulnerabilities announced today by the Xensecurity team.
Two of the vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) for theentire Xen host machine with possible information leakage (CVE-2026-100080,CVE-2026-100082),and one may allow privilege escalation as well as a DoS of the host machine (CVE-2026-100081). Usersshould, of course, upgrade if they are using Xen.
- Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (cockpit-files, container-tools:rhel8, delve, gcc-toolset-12-binutils, gimp:2.8, glibc, go-toolset:rhel8, kernel, libfastjson, mariadb:10.3, mod_auth_openidc:2.3, mysql:8.0, php:8.0, pki-core:10.6 and pki-deps:10.6, squid:4, tang, tesseract, thunderbird, and virt:rhel and virt-devel:rhel), Debian (chromium, ntfs-3g, puppet-agent, and trapperkeeper-authorization-clojure), Fedora (freerdp, goose, gpsd, hatch, perl-HTTP-Headers-ActionPack, perl-MIME-tools, perl-Plack, perl-Starman, proftpd, python-mistune, ruby-build, rust-crypto-bigint, rust-ctutils, rust-elliptic-curve, rust-num-bigint, rust-num-bigint0.4, rust-num-modular, rust-num-modular0.6, rust-num-prime, rust-zmij, rust-zstd, rust-zstd-safe, rust-zstd-safe7, rust-zstd-sys, rust-zstd0.13, scribus, sofia-sip, tailscale, tor, and wordpress), Oracle (cockpit-files, delve, firefox, gimp:2.8, kernel, and osbuild-composer), Red Hat (delve, git-lfs, go-toolset:rhel8, grafana, ignition, opentelemetry-collector, osbuild-composer, python-pillow, and yggdrasil), Slackware (openssh), SUSE (bind, brotli, cpupower, expat, fuse-overlayfs, go1.26, google-guest-agent, helm, ibus-typing-booster, kernel, kyverno, libmodplug-devel, librsvg, libX11, nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed, owntone, parted, perl-Cpanel-JSON-XS, perl-Text-CSV_XS, php8, python-Brotli, regclient, roundcubemail, rsyslog, and tomcat), and Ubuntu (ca-certificates, frr, haproxy, linux-nvidia-7.0, linux-nvidia-bos, linux-nvidia-tegra, and nginx).
- [$] User namespaces + file capabilities = trouble
User namespaces are a key part of thekernel's toolkit for assembling containers; processes within a usernamespace can appear to have full root access to the system while gainingno extra privileges in the wider system. At least, that is the intent. Inpractice, keeping privilege contained within a user namespace has oftenturned out to be difficult. As an example, consider thissmall patch series from Josef Bacik, which is intended to address somesituations where a process within a user namespace can elevate theprivileges of processes outside of it.
- Security updates for Thursday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (dpdk, httpd:2.4, kernel, kernel-rt, mysql:8.0, php:7.4, php:8.0, qt5, ruby:2.7, ruby:3.0, tesseract, webkit2gtk3, and xorg-x11-server-Xwayland), Debian (imagemagick, puppet-agent, symfony, trapperkeeper-authorization-clojure, and xen), Fedora (3proxy, bind, bind-dyndb-ldap, curl, dhcpcd, erlang-jose, forgejo, freetype, laszip, libical, libmongocrypt, markdownlint-cli2, mongo-c-driver, openbao, pipx, python-boto3, python-botocore, python-crate-ingredients, python-lxml-html-clean, python3.11, python3.13, python3.14, python3.15, roundcubemail, rply, ruby-build, rust-app-store-connect, rust-qemu-rdp, rust-redlib, scribus, and valkey), Mageia (minetest, python-pypdf, stunnel, znc, and zvbi), Oracle (.NET 10.0, bind, brotli, cockpit, dpdk, fence-agents, freerdp, gimp, glibc, grafana, gvfs, host-metering, kernel, python-dns, qemu-kvm, raptor2, tesseract, webkit2gtk3, and xorg-x11-server-Xwayland), Red Hat (grafana and pcs), Slackware (rsync), SUSE (amazon-cloudwatch-agent, apache2, aws-efs-utils, brotli, cephfs, coredns, cramfs-tools, firefox-esr, fuse-overlayfs, ghostscript, GraphicsMagick, libpolkit-agent-1-0-128, libsoup, nvidia-open-driver-G07-signed, perl-Dancer2, python-PyJWT, python313-joserfc, rsyslog, switcheroo, trivy, valkey, vexctl, and xdg-desktop-portal), and Ubuntu (apt, libphp-adodb, net-snmp, pillow, squid, and twisted).
- Critical security vulnerability affects OpenSSH on Alpine Linux systems
Version 10.6p2 ofOpenSSH has been released with a workaround for a critical vulnerability thataffects Linux systems that use musl libcwith PAM disabled, such as AlpineLinux. OpenSSH developer Damien Miller said:
If you operate a Linux system that uses musl libc without PAM (Alpine Linuxis one example) then stop reading and set PasswordAuthentication=no or disableSSH for these systems IMMEDIATELY.
This vulnerability does not exist on non-Linux systems, Linux/glibc systemsand Linux systems that use PAM for password authentication.
We consider the root cause of this bug to be outside OpenSSH itself, butwe're in a good position to deliver a mitigation quickly.
The Alpine Linux project has announced thatit will be backporting the OpenSSH fix "all the way back to Alpine 3.16",which was released in May2022.
- [$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for November 5, 2026
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
Front: Kernel cells; Debian LLM reviews; glibc system-call wrappers; Binder in Rust; Kernel CVE flood; Fedora KDE and X11 removal; 7.4 merge window part two; Portable Python. Briefs: MTCP RCE; Bash security; XCPE botnet; Bazzite 45; Fedora 45; openSUSE Leap 16.1; Tor Browser 16.0; Quotes; ... Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
- [$] Plasma X11 session removal surprises some Fedora users
The KDE Project announced, in 2025, that Plasma 6.7 wouldbe the last version of the desktop environment that would support X11sessions. Those who keep up with KDE's announcements no doubt expected it whenPlasma 6.8dropped X11 support as promised. What seems to have come as a surprise, atleast to a number of Fedora KDE PlasmaDesktop users, is that the Fedora 44 release—which shipped inApril with Plasma 6.6—receivedan update to Plasma 6.8 that swept away the X11 session without much warning.Despite the surprise, it is gone for good: the Fedora Engineering SteeringCommittee (FESCo) has votedagainst a request to revert the update for Fedora 44 and the just-releasedFedora 45.
- Bazzite 45 released
Version45 of Bazzite, the image-based gaming distribution based onFedora Linux, has been released. Notable changes in this release include arebase to Fedora 45, updated Open Gaming Collective (OGC)kernels, support for Logitech TrueWheel devices, and more.
LWN covered Bazzite inDecember 2025.
- [$] Portable Python scripts with dependencies
A basic Python script is portable: it can be copied between machines with little concern about compatibility.A script that depends on third-party packages requires quite a bit morecare and consideration, however.In 2023, PEP723 ("Inline script metadata") introduced a standard for declaring a Python script'sdependencies inside the script itself.Several third-party tools can now automatically install and manage those dependencies, but there is still little official support for this standard within Python itself.
- Security updates for Wednesday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (cockpit, dpdk, fence-agents, firefox, freerdp, gimp, opentelemetry-collector, python-dns, qemu-kvm, and raptor2), Debian (apt and squid), Fedora (ags, apptainer, chromium, fractal, mingw-harfbuzz, mingw-qt5-qtwebkit, mingw-qt6-qt5compat, python-mistune, python3-docs, python3.14, python3.9, rubygem-gist, rust-app-store-connect, rust-qemu-rdp, rust-redlib, and selenium-manager), Mageia (java-latest-openjdk, java-17-openjdk, java-21-openjdk, timezone), Oracle (.NET 10.0, .NET 8.0, .NET 9.0, bind, bind9.16, cockpit, firefox, freerdp, gcc, ghostscript, glibc, grafana, java-17-openjdk, java-21-openjdk, kernel, kernel-uek, libXi, pipewire, pki-deps:10.6, podman, python-jwt, python-pillow, python-pyasn1, qt5-qtbase, thunderbird, tomcat, util-linux, and wireshark), Red Hat (dnsmasq, fence-agents, freerdp, pki-core:10.6, and thunderbird), SUSE (amazon-ssm-agent, aom-tools, apache2, brotli, cadvisor, chromium, cups, curl, distribution-registry, eog, gh, go-containerregistry, google-guest-agent, gvfs, haproxy, hauler, helm3, kernel, libBasicUsageEnvironment2, libcdio, libinstpatch-1_0-2, libosmocore, libreoffice, libX11, nodejs22, nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed, openssh, parted, perl-DBI, perl-mime-tools, python-pypdf, rootlesskit, rqlite, rsyslog, sssd, tomcat10, warewulf4, and xen), and Ubuntu (apt-cacher, bind9, bitlbee, cakephp, deluge, dmitry, e17, feh, gnome-shell, golang-github-gin-contrib-cors, gvfs, haproxy, jabberd2, libmspack, libnet-easytcp-perl, libphp-swiftmailer, libsoup2.4, libsoup3, libuser, pcre2, rear, ruby-rack, ruby-sprockets, rxvt-unicode, shapelib, sogo, vips, and yaws).
- Linux 7.5 To Provide More AMD Ryzen AI NPU AIE4 Enablement
Even before the Linux v7.4 merge window was over, there were already two pull requests of drm-misc-next material targeting for what will be Linux 7.5. This week already saw the third drm-misc-next pull request of more feature patches targeting this next kernel version0
- Open hardware board gives Echo Dot a second life with Home Assistant
Crowd Supply has launched a campaign for LocalDot, an open-hardware board developed by AAElectronics that converts third-generation Amazon Echo Dots into Home Assistant voice devices. The 83 37mm PCB uses an ESP32-S3 and ESP32-P4 for connectivity and audio processing while retaining the original microphones, speaker, buttons, and LEDs. The ESP32-S3 handles Wi-Fi connectivity and0
- HyprBSD Provides Wayland-Based Desktop Built Atop FreeBSD, Complete With Steam Gaming
While FreeBSD has been working to improve its desktop and laptop experience, that work isn't yet shipping in released form for the OS installer and other ongoing efforts. Now there's a new desktop FreeBSD distribution on the scene with HyprBSD providing a Wayland-based desktop experience and with the Linux binary compatibility layer even an easy route to gaming with Steam0
- Amutable Foundations: A Technical Overview
Lennart Poettering, Michael Vogt, and Joaquim Rocha have put together a detailed overview of what the Amutable Operating System (AOS) and associated infrastructure will look like. The image-based OS approach enables us to enforce some very strict but powerful security properties, which elevate the security posture of the system substantially above traditional Linux systems. Specifically, let's0
- Home Assistant-compatible board pairs ESP32-S3 and ESP32-P4
Crowd Supply has launched a campaign for LocalDot, an open-hardware board developed by AAElectronics that converts third-generation Amazon Echo Dots into Home Assistant voice devices. The 83 37mm PCB uses an ESP32-S3 and ESP32-P4 for connectivity and audio processing while retaining the original microphones, speaker, buttons, and LEDs. The ESP32-S3 handles Wi-Fi connectivity and0
- ESP32-P4 development boards combine RISC-V with Wi-Fi 6 or PoE
SparkFun today launched two ESP32-P4-based IoT RedBoards, offering either dual-band Wi-Fi 6 through an ESP32-C5 companion or wired Ethernet with Power over Ethernet. Both boards feature dual-core RISC-V processing, 32MB PSRAM, 16MB flash, MIPI camera and display connectors, and Arduino-style expansion headers for embedded and HMI applications. The boards use the ESP32-P4NRW32X, which integrates0
- Ubuntu Summit 26.10: Less than a week away!
Ubuntu Summit 26.10: Less than a week away! Here in London, the long summer has stepped aside for cooler nights and damp, misty mornings. The trees are turning amber and the sunlight is low on the horizon, which can only mean one thing: the next Ubuntu Summit is just around the corner. In fact, its0
- Online setup openSUSE Leap 16.1 on bare metal and tuning correct resolution for HDMI Monitor
What is Agama's SSH Injection Advantage: By injecting public key into Agama during the network deployment phase, the very first boot of the newly installed operating system will have the OpenSSH daemon (sshd) active and your authorized keys populated.This gives you a guaranteed SSH hook into the target host. You don't have to look at the unreadable HDMI screen to execute the configuration script below you can run it smoothly from a remote machine, cleanly stripping away the problematic SDDM prompt and tailoring the Wayland desktop profile securely.
- A RISC-V Based TEE With AMD Zen 6 CPUs
An interesting technical detail I noticed today from the latest AMD Linux activity is that Zen 6 processors apparently are featuring a RISC-V based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) where in the past it was an ARM-based core0
- The missing piece: bringing up to 15 years of support to Zephyr for microcontroller-based ECUs
We recently announced the launch of Zephyr 26.04 LTS, bringing up to 15 years of security maintenance per LTS and enterprise lifecycle management to microcontroller-grade devices. While central high-performance computer ECUs capture most of the industry spotlight in software-defined vehicle (SDV) architectures, the operational reality of modern vehicles is far more distributed. Under the chassis0
- Do Data Centers Have a Smaller Effect on Electricity Prices Than We Think?
"According to a new study by researchers at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, data centers are probably having only a small effect on residential electricity prices," reports the Washington Post. "The researchers calculated that these operations were responsible for just 4% of the utility rate increases over the last five years..."There are certainly some areas — like in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio and other states covered by grid operator PJM — where data centers have skyrocketed demand, pushing some costs onto residential customers. But multiple studies by different researchers and organizations have failed to find a strong connection between data centers and the overall trajectory of U.S. electricity prices in recent years. Another analysis earlier this year by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that, between 2010 and 2024, data centers increased average electricity prices for residential customers by just 2.1%. Last year, research from the Brattle Group and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that data centers were actually decreasing costs in certain regions. And another study by the Electric Power Research Institute found that a doubling of data center capacity between 2019 and 2024 resulted in a 4 percent drop in home electricity prices... The new Harvard and Penn study found a slightly higher impact on industrial electricity prices — the price paid by manufacturers and large facilities. For those customers, data centers were responsible for 15% of the price increase between 2020 and 2025. But for ordinary Americans... the changes simply were not substantial [according to Wharton School professor Serguei Netessine, one of the study's authors]. "So far we have no evidence that data centers increase prices all that much," Netessine said. Instead, he said, prices are rising due to more quotidian factors: rising gas prices, an aging electricity grid, and wildfires and hurricanes requiring improvements to the grid and recovery after disaster... If the number of data centers continue to boom, experts say, residential prices could be affected more down the line. Data center electricity demand is expected to increase steeply over the next few years, requiring new power generation — wind, solar or natural gas — to be put onto the grid. And residents have issues with data centers that go beyond the price of electricity. The new developments have been singled out for loud noise, polluting power generation, and for disturbing residential neighborhoods and natural landscapes. According to the Pew Research Center, more than half of Americans say that data centers are mostly bad for the environment. Others feel that the AI race — which could ultimately leave many Americans out of work — is being forced upon them. "I think generally what we're seeing is a broader range of reasons the public has opposed data centers," [said Ryan Hledik, principal at the Brattle Group]. "Concern about AI leading to loss of jobs — all of that is getting packaged together."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Norwegians Release FOSS GNOME Software for Music Recording, Internet Radio, and Cameras
ole (Slashdot reader #19,909) writes in about his free, Norwegian open-source music recording studio for GNOME called GarageJam, which he says allows musicians to compose, record, and share original music seamlessly on the Internet.The latest release, GarageJam 8.0.1, is available in C and Python. It records audio immediately to Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) files in the current working directory and lets you edit metadata in .gjxml XML files from a GTK/GNOME wizard — all built on the Gingerblue Recording Studio API. Ole shares links to its IETF GarageJam XML draft and GitHub repositories, and there's also GarageJam Studio, "a commercial music and audio recording app for the World Wide Web written by Aamot Innovation from Norway.". ole is also spreading the word about GNOME Media, which "puts internet radio and your photographs on one OpenStreetMap... built from GNOME Radio 85.0.1."Click a station on the map to listen. Cities with several stations show a count and a menu.Open a folder of pictures or import from a camera. Photos with a GPS position in their EXIF data appear on the map. Double-click a thumbnail to open it. The search box filters the station list and the map together. ole also announces: GPhoto 3.0.1. ("After 25 years, libgphoto2 2.5.34 now supports more than 2,500 camera models, and GPhoto 3.0.1 is built on it.") Skolelinux 13.6.0. Built on Debian 13 âoetrixieâ, Skolelinux is "a complete, ready-to-use Free Software operating system for schools, classrooms and home computers... an office suite, web browser, educational programs and network services for an entire school, all set up out of the box."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Python's CVEs Triple. Anthropic Funds a New Security Developer
In the last year CVEs have increased 3x for Python and its package manager Pip, according to Python's security developer in residence Seth Larson. "And the amount of malware published and removed from the Python Package Index (PyPI) is up 60%." Securing Python's ecosystem is getting more complex, he writes, especially given "the evolving role of AI in both security risks and security response." Their response includes bringing on a new Security Developer "to address the increasingly demanding scale of security response for the Python ecosystem."Providing prompt security response services and innovating to prevent future threats... is more difficult now than ever before... [Security developer Brett Smith] will help us keep pace with critical ongoing work such as vulnerability remediation, providing vulnerability data as a CVE Numbering Authority, and removing malware from PyPI. He'll also give the team bandwidth for new projects such as scaling PyPI's autonomous quarantine program to reduce manual effort on malware remediation and streamlining processes for the PSRT to handle the new vulnerability report volume. The role was made possible by an "ecosystem security" grant from Anthropic. And having the new security developer "will both build capacity for security work the PSF already does and enable new, proactive work," concludes Python's security developer in residence. (He discussed Python's security challenges in a June presentation with Python security engineer Mike Fiedler> .) In June, Curl's Daniel Strenberg reported Curl's CVEs have also tripled.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Aaron Swartz Would've Been 40 Today. His 'Legacy Lives On' Says FSF
"Aaron Swartz would have turned forty this year," writes FSF deputy director Sean O'Brien. "November 8 is Aaron Swartz Day, when we remember a pioneer of free software and information sharing whose contributions helped shape the modern internet." The Internet Archive will host a hackathon Sunday in San Francisco celebrating Aaron's Swartz's life "and the projects he worked on, many of which are still going strong today," including SecureDrop, OpenLibrary, and Creative Commons. "We are also spreading the word about projects he inspired," including OnionPress and the EFF's Atlas of Surveillancedocumenting police tech use through open source research, now a collaborative effort with volunteers, the University of Nevada, Reno, and the Reynolds School of Journalism. The event is also supported by Free Law Project, and organizers are asking attendees to "bring a color print out of your favorite photos of Aaron for a huge collaborative collage." From the Internet Archive's blog:Aaron was also a co-founder of Creative Commons, where he worked with Lisa Rein developing the RSS-enhanced HTML code that sits behind Creative Commons licenses, much of which is still in use today. The "Quantifying the Commons" project was designed to help measure open-licensed and public-domain works worldwide, and is one of the projects participants can work on. Aaron loved Tor and created tools such as "Tor2web" (with Virgil Griffith) to help more people publish Tor-accessible websites. Onion Press is a Tor-based publishing system designed for decentralized, censorship-resistant publishing, and participants can work on the code base... We also encourage you to have a hackathon in your own town using our materials — or materials of your own. Please let us know if you plan to do this (although it's not required!). If you do let us know, we can include you on our website and help you spread the word about your event. So far, there is an event in Portland sponsored by Portland Civic Lab where they will be screening The Internet's Own Boy and celebrating Aaron's life. "EFF was proud to call Aaron a friend and ally," the digital rights organization posted this week. And the FSF's deputy director writes "It is particularly striking that some of the world's largest companies now rely on technology Swartz helped to develop."One of Swartz's most important technical contributions was his collaboration with John Gruber on Markdown, the simple text formatting system introduced in 2004. Markdown allows users to create structured documents using ordinary text, without requiring proprietary software. More than twenty years later, Markdown has become one of the most popular formats for documentation and publishing, and is widely used in community websites such as forums and wikis. This is not a minor contribution. Companies developing LLMs use Markdown extensively in their products and development tools. OpenAI, for example, recommends Markdown for organizing instructions and communicating structure to its ChatGPT models... Swartz also developed web.py, a public domain framework for building Python applications, and contributed to RSS 1.0, a public internet standard for distributing news and other information between websites. Swartz developed web.py while rewriting the software running Reddit after Reddit acquired Swartz's company Infogami. Reddit recently licensed its content to AI companies, and the FSF's deputy director notes "the enormous scale of the alleged 'piracy' by giant technology corporations" while Aaron himself had "faced criminal prosecution for downloading academic research that he wanted to distribute with no monetary gain."In 2011, federal prosecutors charged Swartz with computer fraud and related offenses after he downloaded millions of academic articles from the JSTOR collection through MIT's university network... Although he was not charged with copyright infringement, he faced aggressive federal prosecution and the possibility of decades in prison before he tragically died by suicide in January 2013, at just twenty-six years old... Swartz helped build tools that made the internet more useful and accessible, and his contributions continue to shape a world he never lived to see. On Aaron Swartz Day, we should remember his achievements and the access-to-knowledge principles that guided them. The companies benefiting from his legacy should respect those same principles by giving users true freedom and control, rather than imposing more restrictions on us all.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- NASA Announces It's Looking for New Astronauts
Saturday NASA officials announced it's accepting applications for a new astronaut class, reports the Associated Press:With only 32 active astronauts, the space agency needs more recruits as it looks to expand humanity's presence beyond low-Earth orbit as quickly as possible... "We have far more work than we have astronauts," Artemis III commander Randy Bresnik told The Associated Press on Saturday. Aspiring astronauts have between now and Dec. 3 to submit their applications... [They'll begin their training by early 2028]. By then "we're going to have people on the moon — so don't delay," Bresnik urged potential candidates. Bresnik and his three crewmates will blast into orbit next summer to practice docking their capsule with a pair of lunar landers, one built by Elon Musk's SpaceX and the other by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. Their mission will stick close to Earth — no lunar flyby — and serve as a dress rehearsal for the following year's Artemis IV mission that will attempt to land two astronauts near the lunar south pole. The moon base will materialize as more rovers, robots, structures and power grids are launched. The article notes NASA's last call for new astronauts was two years ago, and "More than 8,000 applied, with 10 making the final cut in September 2025."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Scifi Magazine 'Starlog' Relaunches, and Back Issues Return to Internet Archive
Slashdot reader sandbagger brings news about the classic science ficdtion magazine Starlog. It's 33-year run from 1976 to 2009 is now available on the Internet Archive. And 17 years after publishing its final issue, Starlog is relaunching, publishing one issue a year starting November 13, according to The Hollywood Reporter:The magazine launched in 1976 and gained a fanbase for being one of the few places to get reliable news and interviews about geek culture. It launched with a cover focusing on Star Trek, one of its key areas of expertise, but the magazine's editors and writers also pioneered coverage of Star Wars. (The new issue chronicles some of the rumors it put out a year before the movie opened). In all, Starlog published 374 issues and more than 25,000 pages... In addition to the film and TV-focused features Starlog was known for, the new Starlog will also delve into futurism, as the cover from Gabriel Yeganyan highlights. The opening story of issue No. 1 looks at the viability of humans farming crops on planets outside of Earth, for example... The revival was announced earlier this year, and includes a podcast hosted by Jordan Hoffman, a veteran journalist who has contributed to The Hollywood Reporter.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- AlpineBSD Announced - an AI-free FOSS OS
Lproven (Slashdot reader #6,030) shares his article about a new OS in the BSD family "combining NetBSD's kernel and libc with a port of the Alpine Linux userland" — and promising it won't use AI-generated code: AlpineBSD is so new that it barely exists yet. There are no installation media available, though it's possible to manually bootstrap an installation. What AlpineBSD does already have is an AI policy, and the plan is to avoid "the output of generative AI models (e.g. LLMs)" as far as possible: "Any software whose code, documentation, binaries, or other assets include, in any part, the output of a generative AI tool such as an LLM, is considered 'tainted' for our purposes...." Back in 2024, the NetBSD project made its position on AI plain. Its commit guidelines say that "code generated by a Large Language Model [...] is presumed to be tainted code...." AlpineBSD's ports repository and source code are hosted on Sourcehut, under the account of sircmpwn, better known as Drew DeVault... We will follow AlpineBSD with interest. There's strong appeal in the plan of combining perhaps the best-known, longest-established AI-free Unix-like kernel with the user-facing parts of pretty much the smallest and cleanest Linux distro there is. The AI advocates often warn LLM skeptics that they risk being left behind. Well, here's an OS for those who don't want to surf the AI wave. The article does acknowledge difficulty installing software using the pkgin package manager (an optional extra), explaining that since 1993 the NetBSD community has had "its own ideas about what is normal... Some folks on the mailing list told us that they never use binary packages anyway — they compile what they need from source code."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Microsoft Removes PC-to-PC Migration from Windows 11, Points Users to OneDrive-Based Backup
Windows 11 offered a PC-to-PC Migration feature that "moved files and settings directly between two PCs over Wi-Fi or Ethernet," reports Ghacks. But according to an updated Microsoft support page, the tool is no longer available. "Microsoft's support documentation now redirects users to Windows Backup, a tool that relies on OneDrive cloud storage instead of a direct connection between two computers..."Windows Backup works differently. It requires a personal Microsoft account and backs up supported folders (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos and Music) to OneDrive. Free OneDrive accounts include only 5GB of storage, and Microsoft's own promotional screenshot for Windows Backup shows 4.5GB of that allowance already in use. Years of photos, documents and downloads can exceed the free tier quickly. Windows Backup does carry some extras. It can remember installed apps, Wi-Fi networks, passwords and some settings to speed up setup on a new device. Apps still have to be reinstalled, and supported files are restored from the cloud. Thanks to Slashdot reader joshuark for sharing the article.
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- Data Centers are Being Powered By Giant Gas Plants, Possibly Increasing Carbon Pollution for Decades
Rather than racing toward their net-zero targets, Amazon and other AI/cloud computing companies "are driving emissions sharply higher," reports the Washington Post:To support their data centers, tech firms are driving construction of a new generation of supersized, gas-fired power plants that could lock in hundreds of millions of tons of climate pollution for decades to come, according to corporate disclosures and an analysis conducted for The Post by a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Industry estimates show these projects have put the tech sector on course to grow from a modest driver of industrial carbon pollution into one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. Some anticipate that its share of global carbon emissions will increase as much as fivefold from 2020 to 2030. That would leave the tech industry churning out more than half the climate pollution created by global aviation or shipping — sectors long associated with driving warming... Already, Amazon's carbon footprint reached 80.85 million metric tons last year — 58% larger than when [Amazon CEO Jeff] Bezos pledged to shrink it. The company has veered far from the path laid out in the Paris agreement, which would have emissions falling steeply by now and dropping to 43% below 2019 levels by 2030. The tech companies say in corporate disclosures and public statements that they remain committed to their net zero targets, and they suggest the emissions surge is temporary — to be mitigated down the road, when new energy technologies enable the data centers to run cleaner and more efficiently. They also stress that they continue to invest in clean energy and rank as some of the world's biggest consumers of it. With some complicated accounting maneuvers and carbon credit purchases, their solar, wind and geothermal installations partly cancel out their gas emissions, according to corporate disclosures. A June report from international insurance/asset management Allianz found the world's data center emissions are on track to double to 643 million tons of CO2 annually between 2020 and 2030, the article points out. And they cite American data centers contributing to the problem:Just two gas projects Amazon signed on to for data centers planned in Texas and Pennsylvania "would produce more carbon pollution than the dirtiest facility in the country," an Alabama coal plant powering 1 million homes.Meta is building a nearly six-square-mile campus in Louisiana "that will consume as much electricity as three cities the size of New Orleans.""A sprawling Microsoft project in West Texas involving a giant gas plant built by Chevron and a Google project in Wyoming that would consume five times as much electricity as every household in that state would vastly expand the emissions associated with those companies.""A data center campus in Pike County, Ohio, that will support OpenAI's artificial intelligence operations will consume significantly more gas power, and, therefore, emit more carbon pollution, than the Microsoft and Google projects combined."
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- Is Mandating AI Use in the Workplace Backfiring?
Some workplaces are holding mandatory AI training sessions, while others "are requiring employees to use a specific number of tokens," reports the Washington Post, "or log a certain amount of time on AI platforms." The article's headline? "Why mandating AI use in the workplace can backfire."[A] lot of employers are going about it the wrong way, said Arvind Karunakaran, an assistant professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University. "You can consume a lot of tokens without creating a lot of value," Karunakaran said.... The adoption of AI is happening faster than the adoption of the internet did, according to a new report from Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. And many users report that AI tools have really helped — whether saving time and costs or increasing innovation. The same report, though, found that one-third of organizations surveyed expected AI-related staff reductions in the coming year. Especially in that context, simply mandating usage won't spark excitement about the technology, Karunakaran said, and neither will insisting that employees use AI to cut turnaround times and ramp up productivity. "People start asking questions like 'What am I as an employee getting out of it?'" he said. The report he co-authored found that in the short-term, mandating AI tools may ramp up productivity. But in the long-to-medium term, employees tend to feel devalued and disengaged. From there, people find ways to mindlessly check the box. When employers present these tools and their use as an opportunity for employees to expand their skills and grow their careers, people are much likelier to use them, Karunakaran said. He suggests that rather than requiring employees use a specific number of tokens, companies should encourage workers to experiment and share their own use cases and success stories. Most workplaces are still shutting employees out of the conversation. More than half of employees said they have less of a say than they'd want on adopting new tech at work, according to a report from Gallup and Jobs for the Future, a work and education nonprofit. Any Slashdot readers want to share your own stories on how AI was introduced at your workplace?
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- Scientists Find Rare Meteorite From Mars With Signs of Ancient Water
"I didn't think a rock like this existed on Earth," a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Texas told the Washington Post. It looks like a polished rock, dark brown with a clay-colored stripe — but it's actually one of the oldest Mars meteorites ever found, blasted by an impact from the surface of Mars billions of years ago:Technically speaking it's a collection of eight rock fragments, the largest of which is about the size of a fist. Nearly two pounds of the meteorite was discovered in the Sahara in Mali in 2022, and most is now held by a museum in Maine. Within two years, an initial examination determined the meteorite hailed from Mars; scientists are now finally digging deeper, with stunning results. It offers records of "interactions of water and rock and maybe even an imprint of the Martian atmosphere as it was losing water," says Lee Saper, co-author of a new paper recently published in Science. "It was only after we started looking closely that we realized this meteorite is really unique," said Yang Liu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the lead author of a new paper published in Science. "One of the paper's reviewers called it a Rosetta Stone for Mars." Its mix of minerals "tells a story about how the planet's crust formed from cooling magma before it was eventually altered by subsurface water," NASA's JPL says in an announcement.The Washington Post reports:The story begins 4.1 billion years ago, when crystals of a mineral called zircon probably solidified out of molten magma on Mars. "That was a game changer," [said Yang Liu, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California], since scientists can date zircon very precisely, and it has been rare in other Mars meteorites. The date immediately put the Teghaza meteorite on special footing, alongside only two other Mars rocks known to have formed by 4 billion years ago... Perhaps most intriguingly, the researchers also saw signs that the rock had been exposed to water during its evolution, a find detailed in work published this summer in Science Advances.
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- A Third Major US Offshore Wind Farm Is Now Fully Operational
Despite the Trump administration's efforts to halt development on a $6.2 billion wind farm, it's now "completely up and running," reports the nonprofit energy news site Canary Media, delivering enough electricity to power the equivalent over 350,000 homes:On Thursday, the Danish energy giant Ørsted said its 704-megawatt wind farm near Connecticut and Rhode Island began "generating up to its full capacity" in October. Revolution Wind began producing smaller amounts of power in the spring, and the company installed the last of 65 turbines in September. The project is the third U.S. utility-scale offshore wind farm to reach full commercial operations, after South Fork Wind near New York and Vineyard Wind near Massachusetts. Before the start of Trump's second term, BloombergNEF projected America would build 39 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035 the article points out, but "Now, it expects just 5.9 GW to come online — an amount that reflects the handful of projects that were already completed or under construction at the start of last year."Despite the diminished pipeline, the carbon-free energy source is still expected to help keep household utility bills in check across the U.S. Northeast, experts say. Revolution Wind and the country's other completed projects have already played a key role in reducing grid stress during extreme weather events this year... Ørsted hit its power milestone despite being forced to halt construction twice last year. In August 2025, the Interior Department issued a stop-work order for Revolution Wind, due to unspecified national security threats. That order was tossed out by a federal judge one month later. But in late December, the administration issued new stop-work orders to all five offshore wind projects then under construction. Judges struck those orders down one by one — but not before developers had lost huge sums of money and nearly missed key project deadlines... Meanwhile, Ørsted said it's making progress on another offshore wind development, Sunrise Wind. The developer on Thursday said it has finished installing all of the wind-turbine foundations for the 924-MW project off the coast of Long Island, New York. That installation is expected to be fully operational in the second half of next year.
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- AlmaLinux Shows Advantages of ABI Compatibility After RHEL Restricted Source Code Access
"AlmaLinux OS charted a new path in 2023 when Red Hat restricted source code access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux," remembers Linux Magazine."Rather than pursue 1:1 compatibility with RHEL like other Enterprise Linux alternatives, the AlmaLinux OS Foundation chose application binary interface (ABI) compatibility, which guarantees that applications and kernel modules that work on RHEL will work on AlmaLinux OS."No longer constrained by the 1:1 promise, AlmaLinux can offer new features, or add back deprecated ones, while still remaining a stable, drop-in replacement for RHEL... The release of AlmaLinux OS 10.2 in May 2026 reveals just how far AlmaLinux has come.... When RHEL 10 increased the x86-64-v2 architecture baseline to x86-64-v3, many older server platforms (and some new ones) were left in the lurch. These older servers couldn't support the modern CPU feature sets in x86-64-v3, including AVX2 CPU instructions. AlmaLinux recognized that many community members employed older hardware that relied on x86-64-v2. While x86-64-v3 is enabled by default in AlmaLinux OS 10 and AlmaLinux OS Kitten 10, an additional x86-64-v2 build is also available. The x86-64-v2 build works best for environments that rely on standard OS packages or that can rebuild any additional packages required by x86-64-v2. For users with older hardware, the additional x86-64-v2 build allows continued use of current hardware, saving money and keeping servers from the landfill. AlmaLinux OS 10 is actively supported through 2030 with security support through 2035, significantly extending the life of older hardware.... Many legacy applications and containerized workloads still run on i686, a 32-bit computer processor architecture belonging to the Intel x86 family, including software that only ships as i686, CI pipelines that require a specific 32-bit glibc, and seemingly normal looking containers that require a 32-bit environment. RHEL 10 completely removed 32-bit application support and multilib libraries after deprecating support in earlier releases... AlmaLinux OS 10.2 has added package repos and official container images for 32-bit x86 (but not a 32-bit kernel or installer)... NVIDIA GPUs, ubiquitous in modern computing, have been a pain point for Linux users. Getting the closed-source NVIDIA drivers has required extra steps and manual installation. When NVIDIA released an open source version of their graphics driver, AlmaLinux integrated the drivers, along with the associated CUDA components, into the AlmaLinux repository starting with AlmaLinux OS 9 and 10. AlmaLinux also signs the open source drivers, allowing secure boot with the NVIDIA drivers they ship. Unlike RHEL users, AlmaLinux users now have native support, allowing them to skip manual installation. AlmaLinux users can now enjoy a fully integrated NVIDIA experience. In addition, "Thanks to ABI compatibility, AlmaLinux can sometimes deliver patches more quickly than RHEL," the article points out. And it lists other points where AlmaLinux OS 10.2 diverges from RHEL 10:Re-enabling frame pointers disabled by default in RHEL and CentOS Stream to provide system-wide, real-time tracing and profiling to diagnose and optimize code. Enabling both kernel and userspace components that allow installation of AlmaLinux on a Btrfs filesystem Adding SPICE support dropped in RHEL 9, allowing users to interact with a virtual machine's desktop remotely instead of just from the host server. Restoring support for older storage and network drivers disabled upstream, including Adaptec, Dell PERC, HP, Mellanox, QLogic, Emulex, LSI, and Broadcom.
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- China's Top Spy Agency Recruited Woman Who Targeted Jensen Huang
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: A Chinese businesswoman who had a close relationship with the chief executive of one of the most important artificial intelligence companies in the United States was a spy for China's Ministry of State Security, Beijing's top intelligence agency, according to people briefed on U.S. surveillance. The businesswoman, Alice Huang, was recruited by the ministry to collect intelligence on Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, as part of a drive to learn more about American A.I. chips and potentially influence the company to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China, the people said. [...] The New York Times reported last week that Mr. Huang was a target of a Chinese intelligence operation, and that U.S. intelligence agencies were conducting electronic surveillance of Ms. Huang, a Chinese citizen, for at least a year. The Times reported that Mr. Trump had been briefed last year about Mr. Huang's relationship with her, but chose not to do anything about it. Ms. Huang speaks English well and has relationships with executives at the highest levels of the A.I. chip industry, including Mr. Huang and the leaders of Gigabyte, one of the top assemblers of Nvidia supercomputers, said people who have met her. She has attended industry conferences and private executive dinners. It is unclear when Ms. Huang first met Nvidia's leader. In 2024, around the time the two of them were photographed together at a bar in Taipei, her company, Megaspeed, began a multibillion-dollar purchase of advanced A.I. microchips. To many in the industry, the well-funded push by Megaspeed into A.I. appeared to come out of nowhere. Ms. Huang was connected to a network of companies and investors clustered around Shanghai and Zhejiang province that had used their ties to local officials in Shanghai to push aggressively from mobile video games into data centers, which provide the computing power behind artificial intelligence. Megaspeed has been building data centers in Southeast Asia and then renting their computing power to Alibaba, the giant Chinese internet firm, giving China a backdoor way of getting access to advanced Nvidia chips. Nvidia is restricted by the United States from selling those chips directly to China. Beyond its local connections, the network also has a financial link to the Chinese military establishment, through an investment in a cybersecurity subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group, one of the country's largest makers of military technology. Following the report, top Republican lawmakers have asked Jensen Huang to appear before Congress to answer questions. "Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the People's Republic of China's access to sensitive US technology and information," representatives John Moolenaar, Brian Mast, and Rick Crawford said. "The issue of PRC infiltration and access to cutting-edge US technology is core to the investigative work of our three committees this Congress. It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk," the lawmakers added.
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- Cryosphere Faces Permanent Damage When World Overshoots 1.5C, Scientists Warn
A UN-backed report warns that even temporarily overshooting the Paris agreement's 1.5C warming target could cause permanent and widespread losses of glaciers, snow and polar ice sheets. With Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets already melting about six times faster than in the 1990s, the report argues that global temperatures should ultimately be brought back below 1C. The Guardian reports: The report, which comes as world leaders and diplomats converge on Turkey for the 31st annual Cop climate conference, documented rapid and accelerating melting of the cryosphere and polar oceans, with damages that range from the loss of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, driving sea level rises that threaten hundreds of millions of people, to thawing permafrost, which releases more planet-heating gas. Glaciers, which are still responding to historical warming, would only preserve about 70% of their current volume over a timescale of centuries if long-term heating were brought back down to 0.8C, the report found. Meanwhile, the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, which are melting about six times faster today than in the 1990s, would continue to lose ice even in scenarios where overshoot is brief and temperature rise returns to 1.5C, the report found. The scientists said a safe, long-term temperature limit for polar ice sheets lies much closer to 1.0C of global heating, and possibly even lower. "Snow and ice respond rapidly to every fraction of a degree of warming," said [James Kirkham, a glaciologist at ICCI and the lead author of the report. "But most of these systems will take centuries or millennia to recover after overshoot, especially if tipping points are crossed that cause changes to become essentially irreversible." Last month, a UNEP report found the world must cut emissions by 18% by 2030 and by 45% by 2035 to have a good chance of keeping temperatures from rising 1.7C above preindustrial levels. It found there were "no good outcomes" of remaining above 1.5C. The cryosphere report found that current policies, which will result in 2.8C of global heating, would reduce the mass of glacier ice to below 10% in the Rockies, Alps, Iceland and Scandinavia. If warming was limited to 1.5C, about 20-35% of the mass would remain. In the Hindu Kush Himalayas, where glaciers are a source of water for nearly a quarter of humanity, current policies will leave just 41% of the ice mass. If warming was limited to 1.5C, 83% would remain.
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- 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]
- MorphOS 3.21 released with new office suite
About five months after the previous release, the MorphOS team has released MorphOS 3.21. It brings the usual list of big fixes and smaller improvements, but theres a few big ticket items in here as well. MorphOS 3.21 introduces BasicWorks, an office suite made up of CellBasics and PageBasics. It offers document and spreadsheet authoring and loads and saves Microsoft Office and OpenOffice documents. Also new are NVMEMount, an auto-mounter for booting from and mounting NVMe partitions, and the Marbles and Cyber 3D blankers. Graphics performance has been improved, with a faster Radeon driver on cards with little video memory thanks to GART backed bitmap transfers, quicker TinyGL texture copies, hardware accelerated antialiased text in TTEngine and much faster color SVG glyph rendering in Cairo. The Bcm43xx wireless driver has been substantially reworked, with automatic transmit rate selection, updated firmware and numerous connection fixes. PowerBook and iMac hotkeys are now fully configurable. ↫ MorphOS 3.21 release announcement The BasicWorks office suite has been in the works for a while now, and more information on it can be found in a thread on the MorphZone forums and on the website for the spreadsheet component of the suite, CellBasics. The formula loaders and xlsx loaders are ports of open source projects, but the rest of the application is new code based on ObjectiveC++ and Cairo/Harfbuzz. It uses its own file format, but can import csv and xslsx files, so Im assuming the same more or else applies to the word processor (but with docx, of course). Alongside MorphOS 3.21 also comes a new release for Wayfarer, the web browser the Amiga-inspired operating system uses. Wayfarer 12.0 moves to WebKitGTK 2.52.5 (which was released in July of 2026, so its quite up to date), and now uses the Skia graphics library. R300-R500 Radeons will render websites with Skia-GL for some massive performance improvements, helped further along by a slew of additional performance optimisations. Adblocking has been improved as well, YouTube should work a lot better now, and much more. The full release notes for MorphOS 3.21 give you all the details.
- The port that does not exist
Ask any program to listen on port 0 and it will hand you a socket on port 471930or 580370or whatever the kernel felt like that day. Port 0 is not a port you can have. It is the number you pass when you want the operating system to pick one for you. But a TCP header is just bytes. The destination port field is 16 bits wide, and 0x0000 fits in 16 bits as well as anything else does. Nothing on the wire stops a packet from being addressed to port 0. Your tools will refuse it, your browser will block it, and your scanners default port list skips it, because everyone agrees it isnt a real port. Which makes it a pretty good place to hide things, whether anyone meant to or not. So we did some TCP cowboy shit 8 port scanned the entire fucking internet for open ports on port 0, which uncovered some interesting unexpected findings. ↫ acidvegas An awesome and entertaining read. Dont skip this one.
- Windows 11 27H2 might be a more substantial upgrade
A little tidbit of news regarding the nest major update to Windows, known as Windows 11 27H2. Apparently, its going to come with some more serious changes to the codebase, therefore necessitating a full operating system swap instead of a mere enablement package, much like Windows 11 24H2 was. For those who need a refresher, Microsoft has long been rumored to be running on a three-year release cadence and for a while, it was even thought that the company would launch Windows 12 in 2H 2024. That evidently didnt happen, as instead we got Windows 11 24H2, but it was a major upgrade, a full OS swap compared to Windows 11 23H2 and 22H2. Essentially, it looks like every three releases, Microsoft is performing a full swap with major changes in the underlying codebase, and it seems to line up with Windows 11 27H2 as well. At the moment its not known if system requirements will change or not. ↫ Sayan Sen at Neowin.net Microsoft is currently testing adding support for Intels Advanced Performance Extensions, which should yield improved 64bit performance and reduced power consumption. It makes sense to assume this support will be coming with Windows 11 27H2, which should hopefully lead to tangible performance improvements across the board. Also, theres going to be a new default wallpaper. Be still my beating heart.
- The Ubuntu 26.04 Rust sudo is not compatible with standard sudo
Ubuntu has been at the forefront of replacing the traditional versions of basic tools like sudo with replacements written in Rust, but aside from worries about replacing battle-tested code with brand new, relatively untested code, theres new things to worry about it. As it turns out, sudo-rs, the Rust replacement for sudo, is intentionally incompatible with the classic version in dangerous ways, as Chris Siebenmann discovered to his dismay. Basically, the classic sudo supports the use of wildcards defined using square brackets, so that if you allow a user to run, say, /usr/sbin/exim -bp, without a password, they can run exim -bpa, exim -bpc, exim -bpr, or exim -bpu without having to supply a password. This allows for very specific, fine-grained access control, which is quite a nice capability to have if youre managing many systems and users. Sadly, sudo-rs intentionally does not support this, opting to only allow you to use the generic * wildcard. Worse yet, it doesnt really make this clear, either. ↫ Chris Siebenmann I do not really have words for this. The Rust sudo has apparently opted to keep the single most dangerous wildcard while disallowing all of the wildcards that allow one to be narrow and specific about what youre allowing, and it buries this at the end of a section that devotes a bunch of words to describing functionality it doesnt have and doesnt support, with absolutely nothing else in that section to say this (either up front or in the descriptions of how all the wildcards would work if sudo-rs supported them, which it doesnt). If youre going to replace such vital, core tools like sudo that god knows how many people rely on every single day, you better be damn sure youre feature-complete and can act as a drop-in replacement. If someone switches from sudo to doas, nobody expects the experience to be identical. However, if youre consistently being told that sudo-rs is a drop-in replacement and you shouldnt expect any disruptions, you better be able to make true on that promise. Ubuntu isnt some also-ran small hobby distribution, and its developers should act like it. What a clown show.
- LXQt 2.5.0 released
The second desktop environment release Ive got for you today is LXQt 2.5.0. This new version excises its last LXDE dependency, and QTerminal and QTermWidget received considerable improvements, like new background image modes, a visual bell, support for OSC-8 hyperlinks, and more. Theres a ton of smaller changes and improvements as well, but do note that due to a bug, 2.5.0 broke LXQts Monitor Settings on X11. The project intends to fix this as quickly as possible and push a point release to address this issue.
- Cinnamon 6.8 desktop environment released with hibernation support
Its desktop environment Thursday, as Ive got two new releases for you today. First, Cinnamon, the desktop environment primarily associated with Linux Mint, has hit version 6.8. This version will officially ship with Linux Mint 27, scheduled for around Christmas of this year. Highlights of Cinnamon 6.8 include hibernation support via a Suspend action in the main menu, modern one-to-one trackpad gestures for both Wayland and Xorg sessions, support for the oo7 Secret Service provider, support for multiple instances in the Sound applet, and a more unified Network applet that merges the WireGuard and VPN sections. ↫ Marcus Nestor at 9To5Linux While Cinnamon is first and foremost a Linux Mint project, its available on countless other distributions as well, including dedicated variants for popular distributions like Fedora and Ubuntu. Its Wayland support is finally materialising too, which is long overdue.
- NetBSD 11.1 released
The first point release for NetBSD 11 has been released. As the version number suggests, theres no major changes here. This release includes security updates for mozilla-rootcerts, brotli, xorg-server, hdaudio(4), compat_linux(8), unbound(8), and ipfilter. Among the non-security related changes are improved USB device stability on Raspberry Pi, fixed hot-plugging bugs in various USB Wi-Fi drivers, support for battery monitoring on the Microsoft Surface Go 3, fixed thread-local storage on ARMv5, fixes for running the MIPS Malta and PA-RISC ports under QEMU, support for the Zhaoxin KX-7000 CPU, and support for sensors, i2c, real-time clocks, and fan control on Sun Ultra 25/45 and Sun Fire V215/V245 machines. ↫ Nia Alarie on the NetBSD blog The full release notes provide more details.
- Why don’t we run the taskbar and Task Manager at high priority, so they can remain responsive?!
Another interesting post from Raymond Chen, this time about the difficulty of dealing with a system thats become CPU-starved. The question is simple: why not just run Task Manager and important parts of the UI like the taskbar at a higher priority? The catch with running anything at high priority is that unless you have been very careful to avoid it, you will eventually run into a shared resource that you will have to wait for, and you are now stuck. Your priority checkout pass gets you to the front of the line, but if the person at the register has a large shopping cart full of groceries, you just have to wait until they are done before you get your chance. Even if the code that protects the shared resource is careful to avoid priority inversion by transferring the priority of the waiter to the thread that owns the resource, you are still stuck waiting, and that owning thread might be doing something that takes a long time, like, say, accessing a file over the network. ↫ Raymond Chen If a system has reached a state where even accessing or using something like a task manager becomes a problem, I personally just bonk my computer over the head with a forced shutdown using the power button. Honestly though, I cant remember the last time Ive had to do this, as my Linux machines all seem to handle problematic applications just fine. That being said, Im sure people managing tons of servers and/or workstations and developers debugging their own running code run into catastrophic problems like this far more often, making forced shutdowns not as practical. Have a terminal window open with top and easy access to the kill command, or make sure you can just ssh into it remotely if the UI has gone completely nuts.
- Jailbreaking my cars navigation system just so I can change the time!
What if you want to change the time in your cars infotainment system, but its so locked down that you cant even open the time settings menu without a very specific, DRMd SD card? Well, you try to jailbreak it, of course, but the amount of effort required can kind of spiral out of control. And then, all the way at the end, its just an offset. The first thing I did was use this to create a full backup of the internal eMMC using dd. With a more complete dump of the system, I pretty quickly figured out that the date 8 time settings that Im interested in are in /mnt/flash/settings.dat, which is a custom binary format. After some more reverse engineering, it turned out the unit doesnt really have a concept of timezones at all. It gets the time from GPS and stores the local offset as a number of minutes. Mine was set to 180. I changed it to 120. That is how I was finally able to fix my cars timezone. ↫ Rasmus Moorats This harrowing story involved an older car a 2014 Renault Latitude but with the number of screens and the amount of user-facing software only increasing every year, requiring jailbreaks to get your car to do what you want it to do are only going to become more common. I wouldnt be surprised if whole generations of cars are going to become much harder to sell in the near future, cratering the used market, because people are not willing to put up with software problems nobody wants to or can fix. He just wanted to change the goddamn time.
- Enlightenment 0.28.0 released
Enlightenment, the long-running desktop environment and associated libraries and frameworks, just released version 0.28.0. It brings initial support for NetBSD, support for Network Manager and a whole slew of related changes and fixes to make that possible, as well as native PipeWire support. Theres also a brand new clipboard manager, which brings with it modernisations and bug fixes for related UI elements. This release also reworks a ton code related to battery management, AC polling, and more, adding features like setting battery thresholds, ACPI power profile support, and so on. Of course, theres also the long list of smaller fixes and changes. You can download the release and build it yourself, or wait for your distribution of BSD variant to package it.
- GEFS on OpenBSD continues to improve
A little while ago, we talked about 9fronts Good Enough File System being ported to OpenBSD. A lot of progress has been made on this front lately. Aside from fixing bugs and porting over fixes from the 9front side, theres also been a ton more substantial changes. Some userspace tools have been done (you can now mkfs on openbsd!), but snapshot control hasnt. Im thinking we have a userspace gefs program that lets you handle this, trying to keep the interface similar to the 9front ctl file. ↫ Ori Bernstein Theres still some major hurdles to overcome, some of which have already been addressed on the 9front side, but the progress is clear. Considering OpenBSD desperately needs a more modern file system, this is great news. A fun sidenote is that Im actually posting this news item from OpenBSD.
- Sam Altman wants to take your RAM
From a global allocation perspective, actually, its quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the worlds limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer and being used 5% of the time,! Altman said. You want maximum utilization in the cloud if youre trying to deal with this very supply-constrained environment. And somehow many peoples intuition is the opposite of that.! ↫ Andrew E. Freedman at Toms Hardware Im installing a 32bit operating system without support for physical address extension on my laptop with 64GB of RAM, just because I can.
- Sculpt OS 26.10 releases
Sculpt OS 26.10 brings quite a few new features, like scalable cursors, support for UK keyboards, better webcam support, and more, but the real meat of this release is much tastier. First, Sculpt 26.10 is the first version based on Genodes custom microkernel instead of relying on a 3rd-party kernel. This kernel designed from the ground up for the needs of Genode and Sculpt OS in particular is not only more micro! than any other of the microkernels supported by Genode, it also solves long-standing deficiencies concerning CPU scheduling and kernel-memory management. Sculpt OS finally stands on Genodes own footing! Finally, Sculpt OS 26.10 pays tribute to this years overall theme of building bridges! by featuring our software development kit (Goa SDK) running directly on Sculpt OS without virtualization. This entails a wealth of tooling including GCC, Binutils, Git, Sequoia, Expect, Curl, man, Make, and CMake having landed on Genode. Although still young and not time-tested yet, it shows whats possible today and allows us developers to gradually shift more and more development routine into this self-hosted environment, stressing the general-purpose qualities of Genode and motivating further optimizations. ↫ Sculpt OS release 26.10 announcement This new release also completes the transition from XML to Genodes own HID language for configuration, moves from VirtualBox 6 to 7, and upgrades a whole slew of its Linux-based drivers
- How long do you need to hold down the power button to turn off a PC?
Raymond Chen published another story from the Windows development trenches, this time about what happens when you hold down the power button. If you hold a PC’s power button for 12 seconds, it will turn off at the hardware level without notifying the operating system. This is a safety feature so that you can turn of the computer even if the operating system’s “Shut down” command isn’t working. After eight seconds of the power button being held down, the Windows kernel realizes that the user is trying to do a force-power-off of the system, and it quickly takes a kernel dump that can be uploaded to the Windows Error Reporting service the next time you turn the system on. ↫ Raymond Chen Im a bit confused by these numbers, because I have never seen a PC take this long to power off when holding down the power button; usually it takes only a few seconds to do so, meaning Windows would never generate said kernel dump. I tried reading through the various ATX specification documents to find more information on this, but then I remembered Im not an electrical engineer so I have no idea what Im looking at. The baseline is that ATX always provides standby power to the motherboard, and pressing the power button shorts the power button pin to ground, telling the PSU to power on fully. Pressing the power button if the computer is running tells the operating system to initiate a shutdown (although you can change this behaviour), but if you hold the button down for a certain number of seconds, it forces a power-off. So far, so good; basic information. It seems that the length of time you need to hold down the power button to force a power-off is dependent on the motherboard in question, handled by a microcontroller or some other IC. Virtually every source I can find says this timing is set to about 4-5 seconds, which is quite a bit shorter than the number of seconds given by Chen. Perhaps motherboard manufacturers consider the 12 seconds to be too long, and just do their own thing, regardless what the ATX specification suggests? What further complicates matters is that Chen details how the kernel dumps created after pressing the power button for 8 seconds do, in fact, get sent to Microsoft once the computer turns on again. In fact, he is one of the people who gets to see these dumps and respond to them, so obviously they are indeed rolling in. Does this mean theres a huge number of computers out there that require you to hold down the power button for 12 seconds to force a shutdown that nobodys ever seen? These emergency kernel dumps are internally classified as “long power button hold” (LPBH) failures. One of the pieces of information recorded in these emergency kernel dumps is whether the screen consists entirely of black pixels. Those failures are sub-classified as “black screen LPBH”, and they go to a special virtual team for analysis. (I happen to be a member of this black screen LPBH team.) ↫ Raymond Chen Whats going on here? Obviously, Im not going to doubt Chen, so there must be something here I dont quite understand or that Im missing. The ATX specification might suggest 12 seconds, but could Windows perhaps adapt its kernel dump behaviour dumping much sooner than 8 seconds based on the motherboard its running on, maybe through information provided by the chipset drivers? I would love it if someone more knowledgeable than me can help us unravel this small mystery.
- How curl was accidentally Turing-complete for nine months
From curl 8.12 through 8.16, config files could slice variable values and include other config files without an explicit depth cap. Together, these features let curl simulate any two-counter Minsky program. Under the usual idealization of unbounded strings and resources, this construction was Turing-complete. Curl 8.17.0 added a five-level include cap that breaks this reduction. ↫ Nicolas Seriot Neat.
- AlpineBSD combines NetBSD with Alpines apk package manager
AlpineBSD is an operating system based on the NetBSD kernel with a userspace inspired by Alpine Linux and the objective of making it possible to use as little AI-generated software as possible. There is no LLM output included in the base system or main package repository (AlpineBSD AI policy). ↫ AlpineBSDs website AlpineBSD uses the NetBSD kernel, libc, and essential tools, and combines them with Alpines apk-tools package manager, busybox, and generlaly preferring GNU tools over their BSD equivalents. It uses the s6 init system, but the project intends to add OpenRC as an alternative. The project is in its very early stages, so dont expect things like an installer; youre on your own, basically.
- openSUSE Leap 16.1 Unifies Traditional and Immutable Linux With Transactional Updates
by George Whittaker
The openSUSE Project has officially released openSUSE Leap 16.1, introducing a major change to how the distribution can be installed, maintained, and deployed. Released on November 3, 2026, the update brings an integrated Immutable Mode that allows users to install a transactionally updated operating system with a read-only root filesystem, while continuing to offer the traditional Linux installation model.
The new approach also marks the beginning of the end for openSUSE Leap Micro as a separate distribution. Its functionality is now incorporated into Leap 16.1, giving administrators a unified platform for desktops, conventional servers, container hosts, virtual machines, and edge computing environments. Users can select the installation model that best fits their workloads without switching to an entirely different openSUSE product.
Beyond the new installation architecture, Leap 16.1 updates KDE Plasma to version 6.6, retains GNOME 48 with additional maintenance fixes, introduces LXQt 2.4, and continues using the Linux 6.12 long-term support kernel series. The release also expands container tooling, improves system monitoring, updates security components, and introduces changes designed to make enterprise-oriented Linux deployments more predictable.
Immutable Mode Becomes the Defining Feature of Leap 16.1
The most important addition to openSUSE Leap 16.1 is its new Immutable Mode, which allows the operating system to use a read-only root filesystem and transactional updates. Instead of modifying the active operating system directly whenever packages are installed or updated, the immutable configuration prepares changes in a separate filesystem snapshot.
This approach differs from a conventional Linux installation, where package managers typically modify files in the active root filesystem. On a traditional system, an update can replace libraries, executables, and configuration components while applications continue running. Although Linux package managers handle these operations carefully, interrupted updates or incompatible package combinations can sometimes leave a system in an inconsistent state.
Immutable Mode reduces this risk by preparing operating-system changes separately from the currently running environment. Updates become active after a reboot, allowing the system to start using a consistent set of packages and configuration changes. If an update introduces problems, administrators can return to an earlier snapshot rather than manually reversing individual package modifications.
The underlying technology is not entirely new to openSUSE. Similar functionality has been available through Leap Micro, which was designed for lightweight, transactionally updated server and infrastructure deployments. What changes in Leap 16.1 is that this operating model becomes an installation choice within the main Leap distribution.
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- KDE Plasma 6.8.2 Released With More KWin and Wayland Fixes
by George Whittaker
The KDE Project has released KDE Plasma 6.8.2, delivering another round of stability improvements for its Wayland-based Linux desktop environment. Released on October 27, 2026, the update arrives one week after Plasma 6.8.1 and two weeks after the anniversary release of Plasma 6.8, which marked 30 years since the KDE project's founding.
This second maintenance release concentrates on correcting regressions discovered after the initial rollout. The largest collection of changes targets KWin, KDE's window manager and Wayland compositor, with fixes involving multi-GPU synchronization, display handling, pointer constraints, color pipelines, and window stacking. Additional improvements address disappearing desktop icons, application launcher behavior, remote desktop sessions, screen recording, accessibility, and system monitoring.
Although Plasma 6.8.2 does not introduce major new desktop features, its corrections are particularly important because Plasma 6.8 completed KDE's transition away from native X11 desktop sessions. With Wayland now serving as Plasma's display foundation, improvements to KWin and its supporting components directly affect the reliability of the entire desktop environment.
KDE Continues Stabilizing Its Anniversary Release
KDE Plasma 6.8 arrived on October 14, 2026, coinciding with the project's 30th anniversary. The release introduced significant desktop changes, including the retirement of native X11 sessions, additional HDR improvements, expanded remote desktop capabilities, NVIDIA graphics optimizations, and further development of KDE's Union theming engine.
The transition represented an important architectural milestone, but major desktop releases frequently expose problems that were not encountered during development or beta testing. Linux desktops must operate across numerous combinations of graphics hardware, display configurations, drivers, input devices, and applications. Even extensive testing cannot always reproduce every environment used by the wider community.
KDE acknowledged this challenge during the development cycle following Plasma 6.8, noting that users had discovered regressions that were not reported during the beta period. Contributors responded with a substantial collection of fixes, many of which have now reached the stable 6.8 branch through its first two maintenance releases.
Plasma 6.8.2 continues that stabilization effort. Rather than changing the desktop's overall direction, it improves the reliability of existing functionality and addresses issues that could affect everyday workflows. The release includes corrections across KWin, Plasma Desktop, Plasma Workspace, Discover, KRDP, KPipeWire, and several other components.
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- RefreshOS 3.1 Strengthens Its Debian Foundation With Independent Package Management
by George Whittaker
The RefreshOS project has released RefreshOS 3.1, bringing an updated Debian foundation, a dedicated software repository, improved 32-bit application compatibility, and several refinements to its KDE Plasma desktop experience. Released on October 27, 2026, the update advances the distribution's 3.x "Colorful Cosmos" series while introducing infrastructure that could significantly improve how RefreshOS delivers its own packages and configuration changes.
The new release moves from Debian 13.4 to Debian 13.7 "Trixie", incorporates Linux kernel 6.12.113, and continues using KDE Plasma 6.3.6. However, the most important development is the introduction of an official RefreshOS APT repository with separate Stable, Testing, and Experimental channels. This gives the project a more structured way to distribute customized software while continuing to benefit from Debian's established package ecosystem.
RefreshOS 3.1 also enables i386 architecture support, making it easier to install compatible 32-bit software and dependencies required by applications such as Steam. Additional changes address desktop localization, KDE integration, installer configuration, package permissions, and installation image cleanup. Together, these improvements represent an effort to make RefreshOS easier to maintain while preserving its focus on a ready-to-use Linux desktop.
RefreshOS Builds on Debian's Stable Release Model
RefreshOS is a Debian-based Linux distribution developed by eXybit Technologies, designed to provide a polished desktop environment without requiring users to configure every component manually. The project combines Debian's stable package foundation with KDE Plasma, preinstalled applications, hardware support, multimedia capabilities, and custom desktop styling.
Unlike distributions that emphasize constant adoption of the newest software versions, RefreshOS prioritizes a relatively predictable desktop experience. Its Debian foundation provides access to established security maintenance, package management, and compatibility practices, while RefreshOS adds its own configuration choices to simplify everyday use.
Version 3.1 continues that philosophy by incorporating Debian 13.7, the seventh point release of Debian 13 "Trixie." Debian published this update on September 12, 2026, primarily to consolidate security corrections and fixes for significant software problems. These point releases do not represent entirely new Debian generations. Instead, they refresh installation media and package selections so newly installed systems begin with a more current collection of fixes.
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- Tails 7.15.1 Blocks Compromised HTTPS Certificates in Urgent Privacy Security Fix
by George Whittaker
The Tails project has released Tails 7.15.1, an emergency security update addressing a compromised certificate authority that could allow attackers to impersonate legitimate HTTPS websites. Released on October 23, 2026, the update focuses on protecting users against a potentially serious man-in-the-middle attack involving certificates associated with eMudhra, an authority whose intermediate certificates were compromised.
The emergency release updates Tor Browser to version 15.0.26, addressing CVE-2026-113470, and modifies the distribution's trusted certificate authorities to block all eMudhra certificates. These changes are particularly important for Tails because the operating system routes internet traffic through the Tor network, where malicious exit nodes or other network intermediaries could potentially exploit compromised certificates to impersonate secure websites.
Unlike a conventional maintenance update, Tails 7.15.1 does not introduce major desktop features, new applications, or significant interface changes. Its purpose is to close a security gap that could undermine the authenticity of HTTPS connections. The developers recommend upgrading promptly, especially for users who rely on Tails for sensitive communications, anonymous research, journalism, or other privacy-critical activities.
Why Tails 7.15.1 Was Released as an Emergency Update
Tails, short for The Amnesic Incognito Live System, is a Debian-based Linux distribution designed to help users preserve their privacy and reduce traces of their computing activity. It typically runs from a USB stick and routes internet connections through Tor, making it useful for people who need stronger privacy protections than those provided by a conventional desktop operating system.
The distribution also emphasizes minimizing persistent data. By default, Tails operates as a live environment and does not retain ordinary session activity after shutdown. Users who need to preserve selected files and settings can configure encrypted Persistent Storage on their USB device, allowing them to maintain important information across sessions without changing the operating system's general amnesic behavior.
Because Tails is built around privacy and secure communication, problems involving HTTPS certificate validation deserve particular attention. Tor helps obscure the relationship between a user's network location and the websites they visit, but it does not automatically guarantee that every website encountered through an exit node is authentic. HTTPS provides an additional layer of protection by authenticating websites and encrypting communications between the browser and the destination server.
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- Omarchy 4.0.5 Released With Better NVIDIA Laptop Support
by George Whittaker
The Omarchy project has released Omarchy 4.0.5, introducing a substantial collection of hardware compatibility improvements, desktop performance optimizations, security fixes, and package updates for the Arch Linux-based operating system. Released on October 18, 2026, the update focuses on refining the existing desktop experience while preparing the distribution for its next major feature release.
Among the most important changes are improved NVIDIA hybrid graphics support for laptops, an updated Linux 7.2.8 kernel featuring the BORE scheduler, and compatibility improvements for Qt 6.12. The release also resolves boot-related black screens, fixes audio problems affecting certain Dell and USB speaker configurations, corrects Steam graphics driver selection, and improves the reliability of several desktop utilities.
Although version 4.0.5 is primarily a maintenance release, its improvements extend across many of the components that determine how smoothly a Linux desktop operates. From faster application launches and more responsive desktop panels to stronger security defaults and more reliable hardware detection, the update demonstrates Omarchy's continued emphasis on delivering a preconfigured Linux environment that requires relatively little manual setup.
Omarchy Continues Refining Its Arch Linux Desktop Experience
Omarchy is an opinionated Arch Linux-based distribution designed to provide a ready-to-use development and desktop environment built around the Hyprland Wayland compositor. Rather than presenting users with a minimal installation that requires extensive customization, Omarchy combines a carefully selected collection of applications, themes, keyboard shortcuts, and system configurations into a cohesive desktop experience.
The distribution has attracted attention among developers and experienced Linux users who appreciate keyboard-driven workflows, tiling window management, and the flexibility of Arch Linux without necessarily wanting to configure every component manually. Its desktop environment emphasizes efficient navigation, integrated development tools, and a consistent visual design, while retaining access to Arch's extensive software repositories.
Version 4.0.5 continues that approach by concentrating on problems that can interrupt everyday workflows. The release improves hardware compatibility, corrects regressions introduced by newer software packages, and reduces unnecessary delays in common desktop operations. Rather than introducing a dramatic redesign, the developers have focused on making the existing environment more predictable and responsive.
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- KDE Plasma 6.8 Marks 30 Years With a Major Shift to Wayland and a More Powerful Linux Desktop
by George Whittaker
The KDE Project has officially released KDE Plasma 6.8, introducing a substantial collection of desktop improvements while celebrating three decades of open-source software development. Released on October 14, 2026, exactly 30 years after Matthias Ettrich announced the original KDE project, this anniversary edition brings significant changes to display management, accessibility, graphics performance, remote desktop functionality, system monitoring, and application theming.
Perhaps the most consequential development is KDE's decision to retire native X11 desktop sessions in Plasma 6.8, completing its transition toward Wayland as the primary display architecture. The release also introduces NVIDIA triple buffering by default, improved HDR support, a more capable remote desktop server, CPU affinity controls in System Monitor, and expanded capabilities for the experimental Union theming engine. These improvements reflect KDE's effort to modernize the Linux desktop while maintaining the customization and flexibility that have defined Plasma for years.
Plasma 6.8 is therefore more than a commemorative release. It represents an important architectural transition for one of Linux's most widely used desktop environments, with changes that affect both everyday users and developers building applications for the next generation of Linux desktops.
KDE Celebrates Three Decades of Open-Source Desktop Development
KDE's history began on October 14, 1996, when Matthias Ettrich proposed creating a consistent graphical desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems. At the time, Linux was becoming increasingly capable as a free operating system, but its graphical experience remained fragmented. Users could choose from several window managers and applications, yet there was no universally integrated desktop environment comparable to the commercial graphical systems available elsewhere.
The original KDE initiative sought to address that limitation by building a cohesive desktop around the Qt application framework. Over the following decades, the project evolved through several major generations, introducing increasingly sophisticated desktop technologies while expanding into applications, development frameworks, mobile interfaces, and other open-source projects.
Plasma 6.8 arrives as KDE marks its 30th anniversary, but its development priorities are focused primarily on the future. Rather than introducing a purely cosmetic anniversary edition, KDE has concentrated on modernizing underlying desktop infrastructure while improving accessibility, usability, and performance. The result is a release that combines immediately visible enhancements with architectural changes intended to support future development.
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- Linux Moves Closer to Retiring the x32 ABI After Years of Limited Adoption
by George Whittaker
Linux kernel developers are renewing efforts to retire the x32 application binary interface (ABI), a little-used compatibility feature that attempted to combine the advantages of 64-bit processors with the smaller memory footprint of 32-bit applications. A revised patch series submitted on October 8, 2026, proposes the first steps toward disabling the interface, potentially ending support for an architecture experiment introduced more than 14 years ago.
The latest proposal comes from Sebastian Andrzej Siewior, a Linux kernel developer at Linutronix who has been working on the removal effort throughout 2026. Rather than immediately deleting every component associated with x32, the proposed approach would first prevent the feature from being enabled through normal kernel configuration. This would give remaining users and distribution maintainers an opportunity to respond before the underlying implementation is removed.
The effort reflects a broader challenge in Linux development: maintaining compatibility with older or rarely used technologies while keeping the kernel manageable, secure, and efficient. Although x32 offered theoretical performance and memory advantages, it never achieved widespread adoption. With conventional x86_64 software dominating modern Linux systems, developers are increasingly questioning whether the additional maintenance burden remains justified.
Understanding the Linux x32 ABI
The x32 ABI was introduced with Linux kernel 3.4 in 2012 as an alternative to conventional 32-bit and 64-bit application environments. Its goal was to provide applications with access to the architectural improvements of x86_64 processors while retaining smaller data types and pointers associated with 32-bit software.
Traditional 32-bit x86 applications use the i386 ABI, which operates with a more limited register set and 32-bit execution conventions. Standard x86_64 applications, meanwhile, benefit from additional general-purpose registers, wider registers, and modern calling conventions, but they normally use 64-bit pointers. Those larger pointers can increase memory consumption in applications that maintain large numbers of pointer-heavy data structures.
The x32 ABI attempted to offer a compromise. Applications would execute using the x86_64 instruction set and its larger register file while retaining 32-bit integers, long values, and pointers. This programming model is commonly described as ILP32, meaning that integers, long integers, and pointers are all 32 bits wide.
The distinction can be illustrated by comparing the expected sizes of common C data types:
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- Google's Kage Project Rethinks Linux Kernel Security With Isolated Device Drivers
by George Whittaker
Google is exploring a new approach to Linux kernel security that could significantly change how device drivers interact with the operating system. The experimental project, known as Kage, uses compiler-based sandboxing to isolate drivers inside the kernel, potentially limiting the damage caused by memory corruption, programming errors, and exploitable vulnerabilities without requiring drivers to run as separate user-space processes.
The research was presented at the Linux Plumbers Conference 2026, held October 5–7, with Stanford University and Google researcher Zachary Yedidia discussing how LLVM's Lightweight Fault Isolation (LFI) technology can create restricted execution environments for native kernel code. Unlike conventional isolation techniques, which often depend on separate processes or virtual machines, Kage attempts to preserve the performance advantages of kernel-space execution while reducing the amount of memory individual drivers can access.
Early prototypes have already demonstrated the concept using NVMe storage, networking, and Wi-Fi drivers. However, Kage remains an experimental research project rather than a feature available in mainstream Linux distributions. Its developers are still investigating performance, hardware access, and compatibility with more complicated drivers, including graphics hardware.
Why Device Drivers Remain a Major Linux Security Challenge
Linux device drivers are responsible for connecting the operating system to hardware components, including graphics cards, network adapters, storage controllers, USB devices, and wireless chipsets. Most traditional Linux drivers execute in kernel space, giving them privileged access to system resources and the ability to interact directly with hardware. This architecture is one reason Linux can deliver high performance across such a broad range of devices, but it also creates a significant security challenge.
When an ordinary application encounters a memory error, the operating system can often terminate that process without affecting the rest of the system. Kernel drivers operate under different conditions. Because they typically share the kernel's address space and privileges, an invalid memory access or exploitable vulnerability can affect unrelated kernel components, potentially resulting in a system crash, privilege escalation, or complete compromise of the operating system.
The challenge becomes more complicated when considering the enormous number of drivers supported by Linux. Some are maintained by large organizations with extensive testing infrastructure, while others receive contributions from smaller development teams or individual maintainers. Even carefully reviewed drivers can contain bugs, particularly when they interact with complicated hardware, asynchronous operations, and memory-management mechanisms.
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- Speech Synthesis on Linux: Adding a Voice to Scripts and Systems
by George Whittaker
Linux users have long had a pragmatic relationship with text-to-speech. The classic open-source engines have been available for years, wired into accessibility tools and the occasional script, dependable but unmistakably robotic. They do the job where the job is simply to convert text to some kind of speech, but the mechanical output has kept them out of anything where the voice actually matters. The arrival of high-quality speech synthesis delivered over an API changes what is possible, letting Linux users add genuinely natural voices to scripts, services, and applications without hosting a heavyweight model themselves.
The Familiar Trade-Off
Anyone who has used the traditional Linux speech engines knows the trade-off. They are free, local, and scriptable, which fits the Linux ethos perfectly, but the voices are clearly synthetic. For accessibility and for utilitarian tasks where intelligibility is all that counts, that has been acceptable. For anything user-facing where the quality of the voice shapes the experience, it has not.
The alternative of running a modern, high-quality speech model locally is possible but comes with real costs: significant computational requirements, model management, and the ongoing maintenance of a demanding piece of infrastructure. For many use cases, particularly on servers, embedded systems, or ordinary workstations, that overhead is disproportionate to the need. This is the gap that an API-based approach fills, offering the quality of a large modern model without the burden of hosting one.
The API Approach on Linux
Delivering speech synthesis over an API fits naturally into how Linux users already build things. Rather than installing and maintaining a model, you make a request to a service and receive audio back, which you can then play, save, or pipe into whatever comes next. A Go to Full Article
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