All the News that Matters

• [$] Guidelines for panics in kernel code
  Alexandre Courbot spends most of his time working on the kernel doing codereviews. Recently, he's been wondering about what the standards should be forwhen Rust code is allowed to panic, and how it should do error handling moregenerally. Unlike many of the other talks at Kangrejos 2026, his talk was notpresenting some existing work, but rather hoping to solicit opinions on thetopic from the assembled Rust for Linux developers. He brought along a collection of trickycases that he had run into recently to prompt discussion.
  

• Security updates for Tuesday
  Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (bind, bind9.18, brotli, buildah, container-tools:4.0, container-tools:rhel8, firefox, flatpak, freeipmi, gcc, golang, grafana, httpd, kernel, kernel-rt, libreswan, libX11, lrzsz, nodejs:14, nodejs:18, oci-seccomp-bpf-hook, podman, python-urllib3, python3.9, python38:3.8 and python38-devel:3.8, skopeo, thunderbird, xorg-x11-server, and xz), Debian (inkscape, swupdate, thunderbird, and valkey), Fedora (brotli, dolphin, helix, kernel, libical, mingw-python3, nsd, perl-Alien-Brotli, perl-Plack, perl-Plack-Middleware-ReverseProxy, rust-dua-cli, rust-gengo-bin, rust-gitui, stgit, unshield, and webkitgtk), Mageia (evolution, freetype2, ghostscript, kronosnet, libde265, libical, libjxl, packages, perl-DBI, perl-ExtUtils-Typemaps-Default, perl-Imager, vim, and webkit2), Oracle (bind, bind9.18, brotli, buildah, ca-certificates, firefox, flatpak, freeipmi, grafana, httpd, kernel, libreswan, libX11, lrzsz, nodejs22, nodejs24, nodejs:22, oci-seccomp-bpf-hook, perl-DBI:1.641, perl:5.32, postfix, postgresql16-pgvector, postgresql18-pgvector, python3.9, skopeo, unbound, xorg-x11-server, and xz), Red Hat (grafana, grafana-pcp, python3.12-urllib3, and python3.14-urllib3), SUSE (ca-certificates-mozilla, chromium, gn, cifs-utils, containerd, cpupower, cyrus-sasl, gcc13, gcc7, go1.26, go1.27, google-osconfig-agent, kernel, kubernetes-old, libsoup, libX11, libXi, openssh, podman, python-nltk, python-PyJWT, python-social-auth-core, rekor, runc, suseconnect-ng, and unbound), and Ubuntu (brotli and nginx).

• [$] Python's experimental JIT to be removed
  Python's experimentaljust-in-time (JIT) compiler, which was added to CPython in 2024 for the 3.13 release,is on its way out. In June, the Python steering council announcedthat it was pausing work on the JIT in CPython's main branch until there was anaccepted Python EnhancementProposal (PEP) that addressed concerns about maintenance, compatibility, andset clear success metrics as well as a timeline for completion. After creatingPEP 836 ("JIT Go Brrr: ThePath to a Supported JIT Compiler for CPython")to try to meet the council's request, and after months of discussion, theJIT maintainers have withdrawn the PEP. For now, it appears that development onthe once-promising project has come to an end.
  

• Two stable kernels for Monday
  Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.2.13 and 6.18.59 stable kernels. Each contains a number offixes throughout the tree. Users are advised to upgrade.
  
  
  

• Systemd adds support for components written in Rust
  Christian Brauner has announced that hehas merged supportfor writing leaf components of systemd in Rust. Rust will be used only for newleaf components, existing code is not being ported to Rust and nothing thatother components depend on is written in Rust.
  
  Brauner said that theproject would like to move forward with Rust support in core systemd, "butthere are several blockers in Rust's support for dynamic libraries whichprevents us from doing that without massively bloating every binary webuild". Assuming all goes well, it seems likely this work will appear in thesystemd v263 release expected in December.
  
  

• Security updates for Monday
  Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (ca-certificates, cockpit-machines, container-tools:4.0, expat, flute, libbase, libfonts, libformula, liblayout, libloader, libreoffice, librepository, libserializer, pentaho-libxml, pentaho-reporting-flow-engine, and sac, golang-github-openprinting-ipp-usb, grafana-pcp, hplip, kernel, nodejs:14, nodejs:18, openssl, php:7.2, php:7.3, php:8.0, php:8.1, podman, postgresql16-pgvector, postgresql18-pgvector, and python39:3.9 and python39-devel:3.9), Debian (brotli, caddy, imagemagick, libdatetime-timezone-perl, libheif, openjdk-17, openssl, thunderbird, tzdata, varnish, and xdg-dbus-proxy), Fedora (btrfs-backup-ng, chromium, dotnet10.0, dotnet8.0, dotnet9.0, firefox, gegl04, GitPython, ImageMagick, jfrog-cli, libindi, mingw-libpng, mingw-LibRaw, mingw-python-lxml, mupdf, nix, openssh, perl-Badger, perl-CLI-Simple, perl-Cpanel-JSON-XS, perl-CSS-Inliner, perl-Encoding-FixLatin, perl-HTML-Query, perl-Markdown-Render, perl-Text-CSV_XS, perl-Text-Markdown-Discount, pgbouncer, php-pecl-mongodb2, podofo, rt, and thunderbird), Mageia (bind, bluez, iperf, kernel-linus, and nss, rootcerts), Oracle (ca-certificates, cockpit-machines, expat, go-toolset:ol8, golang-github-openprinting-ipp-usb, grafana, grafana-pcp, httpd, iperf3, openssh, and podman), Red Hat (freeipmi), and SUSE (alloy, amazon-ecs-init, aspell, aws-iam-authenticator, ca-certificates-mozilla, cifs-utils, container-suseconnect, cosign, cpupower, docker, elemental3, emacs, expat, fetchmail, ffmpeg-7, firefox-esr, ghostscript, gimp, glibc, go1.26, go1.27, google-osconfig-agent, guava, haproxy, helm, iscsiuio, jfrog-cli, kernel, kernel-devel, krb5, kubernetes, libmodplug, libsbc1, libvpx-devel, libxls-devel, mozilla-nss, mozillafirefox, openssh8.4, openssl-3, php8, python, python-base, python-doc, python-weasyprint, python311, python312, python313, python313-CairoSVG, python313-Django, python313-multidict, python313-sglang, python313-urllib3_1, python313-vllm, python314, python315, rabbitmq-server, rclone, rpcbind, squid, trivy, wpa_supplicant, xorg-x11-server, and xwayland).

• [$] The first part of the 7.4 merge window
  Since the merge window for 7.4 opened, there have been 6,753 non-mergechangesets pulled into the mainline repository. Many more are expected,especially given the possibility that this merge window will be extended tothree weeks. Still, even this initial set brought in a number of new features,in addition to the continued general cleanups and security fixes that the kernelhas seen recently.
  

• [$] Seeking smaller kernel stacks
  Memory has always been a scarce resource in computing systems, but theproblem seems to have worsened recently. In particular, the worldwideshortage of memory chips has led to a renewed focus by systems developerson reducing memory usage. During the memory-management microconference atthe 2026 Linux Plumbers Conference, WillDeacon discussed one specific consumer of memory that is beingre-examined: kernel stacks.

• Security updates for Friday
  Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (buildah, expat, grafana, grafana-pcp, httpd, iperf3, openssh, php, php8.4, php:7.4, php:8.2, and php:8.3), Debian (aide, chromium, clamav, erlang, linux-6.12, roundcube, unbound, and webkit2gtk), Fedora (bind9-next, ca-certificates, clevis-pin-trustee, golang-x-mobile, knot-resolver, maradns, ntpsec, php, socat, and vlc), Mageia (golang, jq, msgpack, open-isns, perl-Mozilla-CA, roundcubemail, and sudo), Oracle (.NET 10.0, .NET 8.0, .NET 9.0, cockpit-files, cockpit-machines, fetchmail, glycin-loaders, golang, jackson-core, librsvg2, mariadb11.8, openexr, openssh, php, php8.4, php:7.4, php:8.2, php:8.3, postgresql:16, qt5-qtbase, rust-sequoia-sq, and xorg-x11-server-Xwayland), Red Hat (ca-certificates and opentelemetry-collector), SUSE (aliyun-cli, amazon-ecs-init, bcel, coreutils, cups-filters, cyrus-sasl, distribution, expat, firefox, go1.26, go1.26-openssl, go1.27, guava, mutt, nvidia-open-driver-G07-signed, p11-kit, php74, php8, podman, python-soupsieve, python313-datamodel-code-generator, python313-Django5, thunderbird, and webkit2gtk3), and Ubuntu (openvpn, python-tornado, and zlib).

• [$] The end of __get_user() and __put_user()
  Linus Torvalds rarely writes significant amounts of kernel code these days, sothe mergingof a 48-part patch series from him is an unusual event. This series,destined for the 7.4 kernel release, performs some long-delayed kernelcleanup by removing a couple of the primitives used to access user-space memoryfrom the kernel. What was once a best practice has long been superseded,but it can take time for such changes to work their way through a body ofcode this large.

• KeePassXC 2.8.0 released
  Version2.8.0 of the KeePassXC password-management application has beenreleased.
  The new release brings a lot of long-awaited new features, many bugfixes, andseveral security updates. Among the major features are the migration from Qt5 toQt6, Auto-Type on Wayland (Linux), configurable keyboard shortcuts, remotedatabase synchronization with external tools, quick unlock with password onmacOS, and quick unlock via Polkit on Linux. Version 2.8.0 is also the firstversion for which we ship native ARM64 builds for Windows and an experimentalAArch64 (i.e., ARM64) AppImage for Linux.
  See the changelogfor a full list of new features, major changes, and bug fixes.
  

• [$] Rust features in the future
  There are several Rust features that kernel developers have been hoping tostabilize, but Josh Triplett wanted to describe all of the otherfeatures that the Rust project is currently working on. He spoke about the topicat Kangrejos 2026, leaving the assembled kernel developers with several ideasabout how to use these upcoming Rust features in the kernel.The features included refinements to the type system, small syntax improvements, and asmarter borrow checker.
  

• Security updates for Thursday
  Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (.NET 10.0, .NET 8.0, .NET 9.0, cockpit-files, cockpit-machines, fetchmail, glycin-loaders, go-toolset:rhel8, golang, hostapd, jackson-core, kernel, kernel-rt, librsvg2, lrzsz, mariadb11.8, openexr, openssh, openssl, perl-DBI:1.641, python-urllib3, python3.12-urllib3, qt5-qtbase, rust-sequoia-sq, and xorg-x11-server-Xwayland), Arch Linux (php and php-legacy), Debian (bind9, firefox-esr, nginx, php8.2, and php8.4), Fedora (ca-certificates, dolphin, gnome-shell-extension-gsconnect, libdigidocpp, linux-firmware, nicotine+, perl-ExtUtils-Typemaps-Default, php, python-cairosvg, qdigidoc, rust-rustls-webpki, rust-webpki-root-certs, and rust-webpki-roots), Gentoo (PHP), Mageia (php8.5, php8.4), Oracle (perl-URI), Red Hat (go-toolset:rhel8, golang, grafana-pcp, kernel, kernel-rt, nodejs-nodemon, nodejs22, nodejs24, nodejs:22, nodejs:24, rhc, and sudo), Slackware (php), SUSE (aliyun-cli, bouncycastle, buildah, ca-certificates-mozilla, chromedriver, cifs-utils, cyrus-sasl, docker, firefox, gimp, git-bug, GraphicsMagick, libheif, libpng16, libraw, libsoup-2_4-1, mutt, onefetch, openexr, openssh, openssl-certs, php7, php8, poppler, python-hpack, python310, python313-Django4, qemu, rootlesskit, tiff, xwayland, and yt-dlp), and Ubuntu (c-ares, ghostscript, libsoup3, libxs-parse-keyword-perl, nss, php5, php7.0, php7.2, php7.4, php8.1, php8.3, php8.5, poppler, pyjwt, u-boot, and unbound).

• [$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for October 22, 2026
  Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
  Front: Android vendor hooks; Reproducible builds and kernel integrity; Rust data structures; NFS server changes; Setting no_new_privs for PID 1; Rust XArray; Rust cross-crate declarations; 7.3 statistics; Nix flakes. Briefs: eMudhra CA compromise; PHP RCEs; Node.js and musl vulnerabilities; GNOME OS; OpenBSD 8.0; Ubuntu 26.10; TAB results; Quotes; ... Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.

• Today's PHP Security Release, and How We're Strengthening PHP Security (PHP Foundation)
  The PHP Foundation has put out ablog entry explaining how the vulnerabilities disclosed today cameabout and why they took so long to fix.
  To fix the OOM problem, the PHP security team developed several competing approaches, but each came with its own trade-offs: backward compatibility breaks, new denial-of-service potential, or requiring changes to many third-party extensions which seemed impossible to coordinate. The PHP security team, operating on consensus, struggled to choose between these and feared the repercussions of shipping the wrong choice. Combined with the lack of a known path to remote code execution and the small team of core developers with the necessary deep knowledge of the engine occupied with many responsibilities, this decision process caused work on a fix to stall and restart repeatedly over months. We won't pretend otherwise: the delay was a structural failure, caused by both the security team's decision process and its lack of resources.

• What is a Kernel? | Center of Operating System?
  The kernel is the core of the system that bridges the hardware and software layers and smoothly creates interaction between them to transport data.

• KWin-Type Introduced To Address KDE Wayland Usability Gap For Auto-Typing Text
  Open-source developer Jason Donenfeld known for his work on WireGuard announced today the release of kwin-type. KWin-type is a new Wayland-compatible program for auto-typing text from the standard input under the KWin Wayland compositor0

• Noctalia 5.4 Wayland Shell Adds New Themes, Screenshot Features
  Noctalia 5.4 expands desktop theming, adds JPEG XL screenshot support, introduces new visual effects, and improves widgets and plugins.

• Intel IPU8 Support Upstreamed In Linux 7.4 For Nova Lake Laptops
  The media subsystem changes have been merged for the Linux 7.4 kernel. Most notable is Intel IPU8 support being introduced for the next-gen image processing unit in high-end Nova Lake laptops..

• openSUSE Releases Agama 25 Installer with Web-Based Terminal, Exit Option
  Today, the openSUSE project released version 25 of its Agama web-based installer for Tumbleweed, Slowroll, and MicroOS distributions with a web-based terminal, an option to exit the installer, and enhanced port selection.

• BSD Users Can Now Enjoy Omarchy Flavor
  Daemonarchy keeps Omarchys installer and look, with FreeBSD handling the system underneath.

• Navigating Open Source Software Development in the Generative AI Era: Balancing Velocity and Community Health
  Over the past three decades, open source communities have absorbed one massive technological shift after another: the emergence of the web, the mobile revolution, and the rise of cloud native infrastructure. Through each transition, our ecosystem adapted, strengthened its collaborative norms, and grew more resilient. Yet generative AI introduces a fundamentally distinct dynamic, directly0

• KMSCON 10.1 Released With Support For Per-Monitor Configurations
  KMSCON as the user-space terminal emulator targeting Linux DRM/KMS interfaces as an alternative to the in-kernel VT now is able to individually configure monitors in multi-monitor setups. Plus a variety of other improvements with today's KMSCON 10.1 release0

• Survey Says! AI Images and Video Lead Creative Searches
  If Image Generation and AI Art were a Family Feud guess, it would be the top answer for AI creative searches nationwide.

• Linux 7.4 Preps CXL For Very Neat Dynamic Capacity Devices "DCD"
  The Compute Express Link (CXL) subsystem changes were merged today for the Linux 7.4 kernel. The fun work this cycle is preparing to support Dynamic Capacity Devices0

• Stalwart 1.0 Open-Source Mail Server Reaches Its First Stable Release
  After five years of development, Stalwart reaches version 1.0 with performance optimizations, database stability, and email collaboration capabilities.

• Mozilla Firefox 160 Enters Public Beta Testing, Heres What to Expect
  Today, Mozilla promoted the next major release of its open-source web browser, Firefox 160, to the beta channel for public testing, so its time to take a look at the new features and improvements.

• FOSS Office DevRoom Call for Papers
  We are inviting proposals for talks about FOSS Office Software and Suites . Office productivity software is one of the oldest and most interesting FOSS categories packed with developer interest. It is also an area where lots of new solutions are arriving with new desktop, web-based and mobile editors, as well

• Systemd Creators Startup Opens Signups for Private Preview of its Linux System
  Amutable Foundations is a read-only, image-based system where every machine produces signed reports of its own state.

• A New Framework for Open Source AI
  Open or closed AI isnt a fringe question anymore; its a live policy debate, with real consequences for who gets to build, audit, and compete in the AI ecosystem. But as that debate plays out in Washington, Brussels, and beyond, the harder questions are still very much up for discussion. What does meaningful openness actually [0]

• openSUSE Board Election 2026 Begins
  The openSUSE Election Committee has announced the start of the 2026 openSUSE Board Election. Three Board seats are up for election, and all eligible openSUSE members are encouraged to take part. The openSUSE Board asked for the election to be completed by Dec. 1, 2026, as outlined in Board ticket0

• Best XFCE Linux Distros in 2026: 8 Fast and Lightweight Picks Ranked
  Slow, bloated desktop? Compare the best XFCE Linux distros in 2026, with pros, cons, and a quick table to find the fast, light system that fits you.

• PHP2Shell scare sees SuperTuxKart pull its online server
  SuperTuxKart has taken several online services offline, having pulled the server that powers them rather than risk it being exploited by PHP2shell. The open-source karting game is not alone in pitting to patch, with Wikimedia, DeviantArt, government websites and many more taking various systems offline to harden against it. While offline, gamers cant reset their online account passwords, check0

• Snapdragon X1 Elite / Acer Swift 14 AI Performance On The Ubuntu 26.10 X1E Concept
  For those curious about the Snapdragon X1 Elite performance on the recently released Ubuntu 26.10 Concept X1E ISO, here are some benchmarks showing the performance relative to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS X1E state on the same hardware.

• Systemd adds support for components written in Rust
  Christian Brauner has announced that he has merged support for writing leaf components of systemd in Rust. Rust will be used only for new leaf components, existing code is not being ported to Rust and nothing that other components depend on is written in Rust. Brauner said that the project would like to move forward with Rust support in core systemd, "but there are several blockers in Rust's0

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• Apple Updates MacBook Pro With M6 Chips
  Ahead of the touchscreen MacBook Pro expected to debut tomorrow, Apple has refreshed its standard 14-inch MacBook Pro with the new M6 processor, promising up to 20% faster multithreaded performance, improved power efficiency, and more powerful on-device AI capabilities. The Verge reports: Announced this morning through a press release, the new 14-inch MacBook Pro features three Thunder 4 USB-C ports that all support charging and DisplayPort connectivity, a MagSafe 3 charging port, full-size HDMI, and an SDXC memory card slot accommodating photographers. Pricing for the new M6 version of the 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 with 16GB of memory, the same as last year's M5 model. Preorders start on October 28th and shipping is expected to begin on November 6th. The new M6 processor is Apple's first 2nm chip with a bump to a 12-core CPU, up from 10 cores in the M5, and the company says it offers up to 1.2x faster multithreaded performance when compared to its predecessor. The M6 also features a Dual 16-core Neural Engine to handle heavy on-device AI tasks, plus an upgraded 12-core GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core. In addition to performance improvements, Apple says its M6 processor is more power efficient.
  
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

• In China, the AI Bubble Has Already Burst
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: While global tech stocks teeter, in China they have already crashed as lofty valuations collapse under worries about AI demand and curbs on Chinese exports. The meltdown, tanking the mainland STAR50 index of AI and semiconductor leaders by 40% in less than four months and vaporizing some $480 billion in market value, is an ill omen for wobbly world markets and a dampener on China's efforts at encouraging its savers into stocks to fund the AI boom. It has also slammed the brakes on a rally running two years, since economic stimulus promises sent shares soaring, and has stalled Beijing's push to break with a long boom-bust pattern and drive a "slow bull" market that delivers reliable performance. China's broad blue-chip index has dropped about 20% from highs made in June. "The stock market later evolved into a speculative crazy bull," said Beijing-based fund manager Dong Baozhen. "And now we see the bubble bursting." There was no clear trigger for the selloff in China, though traders pointed to high valuations, tax bills, and the threat of foreign bans on Chinese data center equipment. According to Goldman Sachs, AI stocks account for 42% of China's market capitalization and 57% of trading turnover, leaving investors widely exposed to the downturn. "What's happening is now going to put a stop for many of the companies trying to get themselves listed," said Hong Hao, managing partner and chief investment officer at Lotus Asset Management in Hong Kong. "Overemphasising the 'technology content' -- that is, the weighting of tech companies by market value in major indexes -- leads to a deviation, even a distortion, in capital behavior," said Leo Wang, partner at Beijing-based Qianchuang Capital. "This created a severe bubble in certain sectors and a serious drain on others." "Just like all other Chinese manufacturers, (chipmakers and AI suppliers) will eventually end up in a price war," said fund manager Wang Zhuo, partner at Shanghai Zhuozhu Investment Management. "There's no exception," he said. "All bubbles inevitably burst."
  
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

• Denmark Gives Up On Replacing Microsoft Office With Collabora
  Denmark's Ministry of Digitization reportedly abandoned a pilot to replace Microsoft Office with the open-source Collabora suite less than six months after it began. Tom's Hardware reports: According to Danish publication Computerworld, the pilot project was launched in 2025 and involved 38 employees, all of whom would start using the British open-source Collabora office suite instead of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. The experiment was initiated by the then Digitization Minister Caroline Stage, who wanted to reduce the country's dependence on American technology. Denmark isn't alone in moving away from U.S. software, with France and the Netherlands both taking steps to replace Microsoft Windows. However, it seemed that the experiment fizzled out less than six months after it started. It had reportedly ended by the time the Danish government called for an early election in February 2026, with some employees complaining about issues with style, paragraph formatting, blank pages, and challenges with tracking changes. But even though it's been months since the experiment reportedly ended, Prof. Mikkel Flyberbom of the Copenhagen Business School complains that the project hasn't been properly evaluated. "It's a good idea to test alternatives in a pilot project," the professor said in an email. "However, I wish that the ministry would take the opportunity to learn from the pilot project and share those experiences with other parts of the public sector."
  
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

• Industry Executives Knew For Decades That Microplastics Were Infiltrating the Human Body
  Susanne Rust of the Los Angeles Times reports (paywalled) that industry executives knew for decades that microplastics were infiltrating the human body. Slashdot reader joshuark shares an excerpt from the report: Scientists today say we're just beginning to understand the harm that the tiny bits of plastic we drink, eat and breathe are doing to the human body. Internal memos among company scientists and executives obtained by The Times reveal that for at least half a century, the plastics industry has been aware of and concerned about the potential for microplastic contamination in the human body. But recently discovered chemical company documents dating back several decades show that industry scientists have long been aware of -- and concerned about -- the way microplastic particles migrate beyond the gut in animals and humans, depositing in important organs. And the potential for that knowledge to affect the plastic food packaging industry. Their concern goes back to 1974 and a scientific meeting at a New York City hotel, where a German gastroenterologist presented a scientific paper that showed for the first time that ingested particles like microplastics could infiltrate the rest of the body. His presentation was largely overlooked by the government scientists in attendance but became a point of worried discussion among company scientists. Tracey Woodruff, professor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University, who reviewed the documents, said they indicate scientists and executives at major chemical companies have known and remained silent even as microplastics accumulated in tissues. She likened it to other industries that knew about pollutants -- greenhouse gases, asbestos and tobacco -- but did not take action to make them safer. A spokesperson with the chemical industry's largest trade group took issue with that characterization. "Scientific debate over what the evidence shows is not silence. It is how sound science and effective policy advance," said Craig Davis, senior director of plastics chemistry at the American Chemistry Council. "Our industry is committed to advancing microplastics science by supporting independent research and policies that would do so."
  
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

• US Designates Helium As a Critical Material
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: The U.S. designated helium as a critical material on Friday because it's indispensable for making semiconductors that are essential to energy generation, and the global supply is at risk of disruption, according to the Energy Department. The designation by the Energy Department means that more federal financing will be available for helium producers and that the government will monitor it more closely. Helium is primarily produced as a byproduct of natural gas processing. The United States is the world's largest producer of natural gas and of helium. Qatar and Russia are the other top helium producers. [...] Helium makes balloons rise, but that's not why the DOE is interested in it. Helium plays an important role in wind, solar and nuclear energy production, space exploration, medical imaging and research. Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson said helium's unique properties make it irreplaceable, such as the fact that it's non-combustible and has the lowest boiling point of any gas. The nation needs an ample supply for semiconductors, quantum and super computing, and superconducting magnets, added Robertson, who oversees the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation. [...] Despite environmental concerns with recovering helium from natural gas, there are also opportunities, said Greeshma Gadikota, director of the Lenfast Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia University. "If we burn the natural gas, there are a lot of CO2 emissions associated with that," Gadikota said. "But if you just extract the helium and use it, the uses of it don't contribute necessarily to greenhouse gas emissions. "So from a climate standpoint, if we are going to continue down the line of extracting natural gas and recovering helium," she added, "I would prefer to see natural gas being used in a form where we directly produce hydrogen and we produce solid carbon." Hydrogen is a clean burning fuel, and solid carbon can provide permanent carbon sequestration and can be used widely in industrial applications, including rubber and pigments.
  
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

• PHP2Shell Security Flaws Now Successfully Exploited
  The critical PHP2Shell vulnerabilities (CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619) have now been successfully exploited in the wild, just days after patches were released and initial exploitation attempts failed. BleepingComputer reports: The malicious activity was caught by Adel Karimi, detection and response lead at Perplexity, whose honeypots recorded evidence of confirmed remote code execution against an Apache mod_php installation running PHP 8.4.26. "This is now confirmed RCE with usable memory disclosure, not just a crash followed by a suspicious process. The response delivered an 800 KiB decoded cookie dump, and a function address derived from that dump using the public exploit's offsets appears in the subsequent execution payload," Karimi shared. "The evidence demonstrates this chain on the intentionally favorable single-worker mod_php profile; it is not a measurement of exploit reliability on other worker counts, PHP builds, or applications," he added. Karimi's findings were also confirmed by Expel threat researcher Marcus Hutchins, who has been tracking a stream of alleged successful PHP2Shell exploitation reports. "This is by far the highest quality confirmation of in-the-wild php2shell exploitation I've seen so far. Deep technical breakdown of a successful exploitation attempt against an Apache mod_php installation running PHP 8.4.26," Hutchins said.
  
  
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  

• Skydance Offers Buyouts, Gives 5-Day RTO Order
  Skydance, as it begins integrating Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, is offering voluntary buyouts to some employees and imposing a five-day-a-week office requirement. Layoffs are also expected as the company targets more than $6 billion in annualized cost savings within three years. Variety reports: The new program was outlined by chairman and CEO David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz in a memo to staffers Monday. "As we bring our teams together, we recognize that not everyone will see their future here, and we respect that. To give eligible employees the option to move on in a way that works for them, we are introducing a Voluntary Buyout (VBO) Program," the execs wrote. "Those who qualify will receive an individual communication with their personalized details and terms, and a window to decide whether to accept this one-time offer." They added, "Please know we don't take any of this lightly. We are clear about what we're building: a company that tells the stories people around the world love, embraces new ways to connect with audiences, and leads the next era of media and entertainment. We have the talent, the creative firepower and the ambition to do it, and we will get there together." [...] In the Oct. 26 memo, Ellison and Kreiz also said the new Skydance is moving to a mandatory five-days-per-week in-office policy across the company. "We believe in-person collaboration is vital to our culture and to the success of our business. Especially in a creative company like ours, the best ideas come from people in the same room, sharing perspectives, challenging one another and solving problems," the execs said. "We truly believe this is in the best interest of our company and our people. We've seen the benefits firsthand at Paramount, and we want every part of Skydance to share in them."
  
  
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• Firefox Tries to Bring Back the Internet's 'Good Old Days'
  Mozilla launched a new ad campaign for Firefox that leverages early internet nostalgia in a bid to win back users who switched browsers. "Today's internet tracks you, interrupts you, and asks for permissions it already took. But it wasn't always that way, and it's not how it's supposed to work," writes Mozilla CEO Anthony Enzor-DeMeo in a post on LinkedIn. "It's how a few companies decided it should work, because it pays." "We're making a different bet at Firefox. Remember us? Well, we're still here, and we don't think the internet should be like this..." The ad features viral internet stars from yesteryear, including Tay Zonday of "Chocolate Rain" fame, Gary Brolsma of "Numa Numa", Noah Ritter, better known as the "Apparently Kid", and Laina Morris, the face of the "Overly Attached Girlfriend" meme, among others.
  
  
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• Instagram Chases YouTube With a Push For Longer, Widescreen Videos
  Instagram is testing a new longform, horizontal video format called "Features" as it pushes further into YouTube territory and expands its presence on TVs. The Verge reports: Instagram boss Adam Mosseri has been against doing longform video on the platform "for a long time," he says in a six-and-a-half-minute video (here's the widescreen version) with VP of product Tessa Lyons, saying that "one of my concerns has been, how do we make sure that we keep Instagram not just about entertainment, but about connecting with friends." If you watch a longform video, "it's a lot of Reels, photos, and carousels that you might not have sent to a friend," meaning less likes and shares. Now, though, the team is working on making shortform and longform video "symbiotic," according to Mosseri, like podcasts or comedy specials that can be both long videos and broken up into shorter ones. The announcement of this widescreen video push also follows the launch of Instagram's TV app late last year. That app launched first as a Reels-focused experience and as a pilot for Amazon Fire TV devices in the US, but it's since expanded to Google TVs, Samsung TVs and Apple TV, and Instagram launched new features like the ability to watch Stories earlier this year.
  
  
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• Walter Koenig, Chekov On Original 'Star Trek,' Dies At 90
  Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from CBS News: Walter Koenig, the actor who played Pavel Chekov in the original "Star Trek" series and several movies, has died, his rep confirmed to CBS News. He was 90. Koenig died Sunday night at his home in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, talent rep Zachery McGinnis said in a statement. He died surrounded by his daughter and niece, McGinnis said. In 'Star Trek,' Ensign Chekov was the sole member of the spaceship Enterprise bridge staff from what was the Communist bloc. His friendly, supportive presence showed how the rival nations (in the far-off future in which the show was set) were capable of working together. Speaking heavily Russian-accented English, Chekov embodied stereotypical Russian personality traits, including fierce pride, love of poetry and blind loyalty. "Through countless convention appearances and interactions with fans, he shared his kindness, wit, and appreciation with everyone fortunate enough to meet him. He understood what Star Trek meant to people and embraced the community that grew around it," McGinnis said. "Thank you, Walter, for the memories, the inspiration, and for boldly going where few have gone before." Watch some of the Chekov's best moments on YouTube.
  
  
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• Highway Thieves Are Spoofing GPS To Steal Millions In Data Center-Bound Cargo
  Highway thieves have stolen more than $100 million in data center equipment since June, employing increasingly sophisticated tactics such as forging driver IDs and spoofing GPS tracking systems. NBC News (paywalled) reports that thieves have "made away with more than $100 million in data center freight." Ars Technica reports: Here's how they said thieves get away with it: First, thieves hack freight brokers' accounts on shipment-listing websites and post fake shipments to lure real bids, then send a malicious link to any trucking companies that respond. Once victims click, thieves install software to take control of their accounts and start bidding on real shipments. Sometimes, a real delivery driver is hired to collect the cargo, unaware of the scam, and other times fake driver's licenses are used to get accomplices hired. Either way, the goods are eventually transferred to a driver working with the thieves to resell the gear, and, in one of the largest thefts, tracking coordinates were spoofed to prevent digital monitoring. Equipment commonly targeted includes "servers, fiber-optic cables, computer memory chips, copper wires, and bitcoin mining machines," NBC News reported. Some trailers hit seem to be carrying only data center equipment, like two stolen freights found in Illinois. The Cook County Sheriff's Office estimated those contained $300,000 worth of copper wire spools and about $1 million in "custom-made data center modular power solutions equipment," NBC News reported. Other trucks impacted were carrying additional freight, like a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case where "data center cooling equipment" bound for Deepcool AI was recovered among nicotine pouches, televisions, shoes, printers, speakers, and skin care cosmetics. Experts worry that means Americans may be broadly harmed by the thefts, not just the AI industry. While some stolen goods have been recovered, in two of the largest thefts that NBC News found, none of the equipment was found, and off-duty cops hired to escort the shipments were targeted in hit-and-runs. [...] Broadly, cargo thieves are infiltrating email accounts to find lucrative shipments, misdirecting shipments, disrupting GPS tracking, and using AI to create fake driver's licenses to get accomplices hired as delivery drivers. LASD's Sgt. David Pantoja told NBC News "that's how most of it is being done," which is a big shift from the past when highway thefts were largely opportunistic.
  
  
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• Apple Updates the iPad Mini With a Larger OLED Display
  Apple has unveiled a redesigned iPad Mini with a larger 8.5-inch OLED display, an A20 Pro chip, twice the peak brightness and slimmer bezels while maintaining roughly the same footprint. It starts at $699 ($200 more than its predecessor) and will be available November 6. The Verge reports: Despite having a slightly bigger display than the 8.3-inch screen on its predecessor, Apple says the device maintains the same small footprint thanks to bezels that are 24 percent slimmer. The iPad Mini is 5.4mm thick as well, making it thinner and lighter than the previous generation, according to Apple. It also comes with an IP67 rating for protection against water and dust. Aside from an OLED display, the new iPad Mini features an upgraded A20 Pro chip. This enables support for some of Apple's new Siri AI features, including the ability to tweak the expressiveness and pace of the assistant's voice. Apple says the upgraded iPad Mini also comes with two times the peak brightness than the previous generation. iPad Mini's 12MP front-facing camera is now on the long edge of the device, making it easier for video calls in landscape orientation.
  
  
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• Microsoft Offers Mass Buyouts For Roughly a Quarter of Its Workforce
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Seattle Times: Microsoft is offering buyouts to about 60,000 employees, or roughly a quarter of its workforce, as the company tries to control its head count while avoiding layoffs. The Redmond-based tech giant announced Monday morning that eligible employees at the vice president level and below in the U.S., Canada, India and the United Kingdom would receive a "voluntary exit offer" of a standard severance package, based on their location. In a memo to employees, Microsoft Chief People Officer Amy Coleman said the move was building off the voluntary retirement program earlier this year, which was available to more than 8,700 U.S.-based employees, roughly one-third of whom took the offer. Since May 2025, Microsoft has been trying to reduce its corporate workforce, first through waves of mass layoffs and now through more creative buyout programs. The company laid off about 15,000 employees last year over the course of several months, affecting about 3,200 Washington-based workers. The report notes that the layoffs have continued this year, though on a smaller scale and largely concentrated in the company's gaming division.
  
  
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• Anthropic Files For IPO
  Anthropic has filed to go public on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT, setting the stage for a potentially record-setting IPO that could value the Claude developer at more than $2 trillion. Alongside the extraordinary cost of its AI expansion, Anthropic warned that it "may not generate sufficient revenue to achieve or sustain profitability in the future." "While we have experienced significant revenue growth in recent periods, our business is highly capital intensive," the company said. "Our revenue growth may not be sustainable, and our rate of growth may decrease." NBC News reports: The filing did not include a potential share price, the number of shares to be offered or a valuation for the whole company, all of which will be determined after Anthropic holds a "road show" with investors, prospective investors and its bankers. [...] The company plans to spend at least $110 billion with Amazon for cloud services through April 2036 and another $120 billion with SpaceX through 2029. Anthropic also said it planned to spend $115 billion with Google and $45 billion with Microsoft, both through 2033, for computing infrastructure. The filing said that the company recorded revenue growth of "1,368% year over year for the three months ended June 30, 2026." The cost of renting servers and chips grew by 300% over the same period. Anthropic's net loss for the first six months of 2026 was $80.7 billion. For the entirety of 2025, the company reported a $42 billion net loss. Anthropic added that it expects its current cash and sales to be sufficient for the next 12 months but warned that future revenue growth depends on a number of important factors, including the cost of infrastructure. As a result, it said, "we may be required to seek additional financing sooner than we currently anticipate." The company said it has raised about $141 billion of capital through the end of June and is sitting on $112.4 billion of cash.
  
  
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• Reddit's Largest Open Source Community Dumbfounded By AI Ban: 'I Guess Linux Is No Longer Allowed?'
  Kotaku reports:r/opensource, Reddit's primary "subreddit for everything open source related," has banned all AI-assisted and AI-related projects.... As reported by The Verge, the subreddit's October 24 post, titled "Your tokens aren't valuable: No more AI," features four new main rules: all projects must now be at least "1 year old," have "multiple contributors," be posted by someone who must "speak English," and cannot be "made by" or "intended for" AI... [T]he ban on AI is simple; as the subreddit's moderators explain, "AI, as it exists today, is incongruent to this Open Source community." Unsurprisingly, this is the part that's upset the majority of the users in the thread.... [T]he moderator who posted the new guidelines stated in a separate comment that the overwhelmingly negative response is due to "some guy on twitter claiming to be alternative news" who posted an "opinionated editorial pointing hundreds of people to the thread." Given the timing of when the thread was posted, alongside the fact that the X post in question mentions "the Linux kernel," they are presumably referring to this post by The Lunduke Journal. The moderator may be correct, as almost all of the top comments on the post are from users who have never posted in r/opensource before. The use of AI "doesn't change whether something is open source or not," complained one commenter, who added "I guess Linux is no longer allowed here? Linus uses AI for kernel development now." The moderator has since updated their post to acknowledge that Redditors have now already created a rival community called r/OpenSourceAIAllowed — plus three more alternatives: r/TrueOpenSource r/OpenSourceWare r/ActuallyOpenSource UPDATE (10/26): Monday saw a new comment from the moderator stressing that "Adjustments will be made." "Linux is not, nor could conceivably ever be banned. Interpreting any set of rules as such is simply bad faith. Someone's pet project pumped out in two claude code session limits will not be welcome. The line is somewhere between those, and it will likely move over time from continuous feedback. "We will cater to humans, and as many and as inclusively as possible. No rule will ever target or favor any ethnicity or social strata."
  
  
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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]

• Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11
  Whats the oldest Windows GUI application you can still run on Windows 11 today, without any modifications? For now, the best answer Boris Popik can come up with is an innocuous application from build 347 of Windows NT 3.1, an early prerelease: CDPLAYER.EXE. You cant go any older than that, because earlier prerelease builds had not yet finalised its PE format and calling convention. Neat find. Popik also mentions a few other contenders, but I wont spoil those here.

• Another month of Redox improvements
  Another month has crumbled to dust under the oppressive boots of time, so its time for another month of Redox improvements. This past month, Redox build system gained support for Clang, SDL2 saw performance improvements, and WebKitGTK3s HTML layout rendering was fixed. Users of Intel Tiger Lake processors can now enjoy external display hot-plugging, and overall system performance has been improved in a variety of ways. And as always, theres the long lists of kernel, relibc, and driver improvements and fixes as well. Redox keeps making big strides every month, and its definitely one of the few alternative operating systems that actually feels like it might, one day, be an actual contender for general purpose use.

• Microsoft.UI.Reactor: a C#-first way to build WinUI apps
  Thew day ends in a Y, so Microsoft is launching a new way to build Windows applications. Get excited, Windows application developers! If you caught our session at Microsoft Build 2026 or you’ve been watching the repo, you’ve seen this one taking shape in public for a while now, and a lot has changed since Build. Here’s the longer tour: Microsoft.UI.Reactor, an experimental C# framework that brings the MVU (Model-View-Update) pattern to WinUI desktop apps. No XAML files, no code-behind, no ViewModels. Two things before the fun part. Reactor is experimental: no support policy, no API guarantees, published this early on purpose because we’d rather hear we got the design wrong now than once people have shipped on it. And it is not a replacement for XAML or MVVM, which we’ll come back to. ↫ Alexandre Zollinger Chohfi at Microsofts Dev Blogs At multiple points in the linked blog post, Microsoft underlines that no, Reactor is not going to replace XAML. Im sure Windows developers who learned Win32, Silverlight, WinRT XAML, WPF, UWP, WinUI 2 and 3, and all the others, over the past two decades will feel deeply comforted by Microsofts insistence that Reactor will not replace XAML. Microsoft repeats: this wont replace XAML. They swear.

• MacOS Extensions pack for the Apple Network Server v1.0
  Weve been following along with Carmen Kaisers Apple Network Server exploits, and by now things are really starting to come together for owners of this machine. When we last left off, the ROM to allow Mac OS to run on the machine which normally runs IBMs AIX, but there were still a number of bugs, limitations, and issues to be worked out. A lot of progress on that front has been made. The good news is, many of the issues with the preproduction ROM in Mac OS can be fixed or worked around in software. So Ive fixed or worked around many of them in software: the MACE Ethernet is fixed, the on-board video is now supported, and the ANS can restart properly back into Mac OS. Plus, because its the preproduction ROM, you can still boot AIX, thus preserving the entire historical reason for Shiners existence. Heres the first cut of that software and how it was developed. ↫ Cameron Kaiser Theres still two issues Kaiser wishes to address  the internal SCSI bays dont work, and the ROM doesnt properly register parity RAM  but the progress here is amazing.

• CoW, which (sort-of) brings FVWM to Wayland, reaches version 0.4
  Thomas Adam, one of the core developers of FVWM, has been working on CoW for a while now. CoW can best be described as FVWM for Wayland!, which uniquely uses the River compositor. River, in turn, is unique in that it does not combine the compositor and window manager into a single program, allowing for a more traditional X11-like approach. Adam released version 0.4 today, which comes with a load of fixes, changes, and minor improvements, as well as one bigger-ticket item: container windows. This PR introduces the concept of a top-level container window. This means a window can be subdivided into columns and rows (called panes) and can be resized independently of one another. The idea for this has been unashamedly stolen from shod. ↫ Thomas Adam Ive been keeping an eye on CoW ever since I learned about it when it was first released, and at some point soon I want to build a desktop around it for myself.

• The many many missed opportunities of Sonic 06
  Speaking of games, if youve ever heard anything about or even played Sonic 06, you know this wasnt the most polished entry in the hedgehogs franchise. In fact, its probably one of the worst, and considering the average quality of Sonic games, thats quite an achievement. The team thats working on decompiling the game to make it run on the PC obviously had to dive deep into the games inner workings, and the process learned a lot about why, exactly, the game is so notoriously bad. It really makes you wonder what exactly went wrong? If you look at what limited footage we have of beta content, we can see many effects that aren’t present in the final game. Kingdom Valley had full bump maps, Castle Town had more complex geometry and plants, and New City’s collision implies a very different building layout at some point in development. It turns out, much of the cut content is actually still in the game, but is simply not enabled for performance reasons in vanilla. Even with the cut-back visuals, the game struggles to reach target FPS on real hardware. It’s not surprising that given the crunch Sonic Team were under to get the game out the door, these features were among the first to go. ↫ Isaac Marovitz The article details what, exactly, was turned off for the final release, and its quite an interesting read. Of course, the team intends to try and address many of these issues, and they think they can push the game and its engine to much greater heights.

• How to run a city builder on 16 MHz
  When thinking about impressive technical achievements in retro games, most people will first point to graphical milestones set by action games like Doom or Quake. Rightfully so, but at least I am personally far more impressed by the early examples of the city builder genre. Simulating whole economies on a large scale with a fraction of today’s power seems impossible if modern builder games even struggle on modern machines. Of course this didn’t stop developers in the past to develop and run city builder games on significantly weaker hardware. The original SimCity for example lists Intel’s 386SX as the CPU in it’s system requirements. A CPU which at the time of it’s launch ran at magnificent 16 MHz. ↫ Lars Thießen Whats even more impressive are some of the other systems the origin al SimCity was ported to, which had even more limited hardware than a 386SX. The Super Nintendo got a SimCity port, which even included fun extras like a Mario statue and Bowser taking up the mantle of the Godzilla disaster, and additional systems the PC version didnt have. Hell, they even worked on a port to the NES, but it was cancelled and thought lost, until a relatively complete and working copy was discovered in 2017. Even this NES version contained features not available in the PC version. Hardware limitations really did breed a lot of innovation back in those days, and sometimes I wonder if programmers and developers could benefit from tasking themselves with working within such limitations today, if only to become a bit more prudent with resources.

• I cant believe PowerShell is actually good!
  Earlier this year, I needed to learn PowerShell scripting for one Windows-related project, and I have tried it out a few more times on Mac. It has quickly become one of my favorite tools for automation and scripting—taking on jobs that I would have otherwise tried to do with Node.js, Shortcuts, macOS Automator, or heaven forbid, Bash scripts. I get it now. PowerShell is great, even if you dont use it as your shell, and even if youre on Mac or Linux. ↫ Corbin Davenport I dont use the shell often enough on any of my main machines to have much of an idea about the strenghths and weaknesses of PowerShell compared to more traditional shells, but this is definitely not the first time Ive heard a lot of praise for it from people otherwise knee-deep in the UNIX and traditional shell world. There really must be something to this, and since PowerShell is also available on Linux and macOS, its pretty straightforward to give it a go without having to deal with Windows.

• Garmin revamps and opens up Connect developer API program
  Earlier this year, Garmin closed its Connect API developer program because it was being flooded with AI!-generated applications to the point it couldnt handle them anymore. What made it worse was that half of the applications were never actually used, not even once. It also didnt help that Garmin treated every single application to the program the same way, whether it was from a hobbyist just wanting access to their own data, to a massive corporation developing a popular service used by god knows how many people. Today, the company has relaunched the program, and its been considerably overhauled. While hobbyist use of the API is going to be free  which is way better than it was before  once you hit a thousand users, youre going to have to start paying. Still, Garmin’s shift here towards charging for API access will set a dangerous precedent for the industry. Especially for a company that bills itself as a (or the?) premium sports hardware provider. On the flip side, there’s simply no ignoring the flood of mostly AI apps that take up resources at Garmin and elsewhere to support. Heck, my inbox is flooded with these apps daily requesting reviews. It sounds like when Garmin shut off access to the API last spring, they were seeing inbound API requests at a daily scale that they’d previously only seen over a period of weeks. Simply put, there’s no good answer. ↫ Ray Maker at DC Rainmaker The excesses of the easy availability of AI! code generation impacts the entire industry. At least one good thing has come out of this: hobbyists can now access the Connect API developer program much easier than before.

• Examining the macOS gcc binary
  If you’ve ever written C (or c++) on a mac, you’ll know that the so-called gcc is just clang in disguise. Most people (fairly) assume that this is just an alias, but this is not true! It’s a binary! Now, what is this binary? I naively assumed that it would just be shelling out to clang but it turns out the answer is more interesting than that. ↫ juliethefoxcoon Its all smoke and mirrors.

• Unikernels in OCaml
  Unlike traditional OSs that separate user applications from the kernel, a unikernel bundles everything into a single, isolated image that runs directly on a hypervisor (like KVM, BHyve, or OpenVMM). Because it removes unnecessary drivers and background services, a unikernel is extremely small, fast to boot, and efficient with resources. Here, we will learn how to develop and deploy unikernels built using the OCaml language and the Solo5 unikernel. These are the two fundamental components that will then enable us to develop our own applications in the form of unikernels, which we can subsequently deploy using Albatross. ↫ Unikernels in OCaml Some light reading for the weekend.

• How to install an app on your Commodore 64
  Graybeards like me remember trying to painstakingly type source code from a magazine. This is a very accurate account of what a young computer user in 1986 needed to do to get a new game for the Commodore 64, complete with an immersive emulation. It’s time to install an app! But here in 1986, we still call them “programs,” not apps. So, you’ll want to set aside some time to get started installing a program.

• Apple stops pretending macOS is UNIX
  Early 2025, I wrote about how I think macOS UNIX certification was basically a lie. It required so many convoluted and cumbersome changes to macOS that literally nobody applies to their system that it the certification had kind of become a farce. At the end of the article I wondered for how much longer Apple would be playing this little charade to hammer macOS through a meaningless UNIX-shaped hole, and it turns out the answer was about 18 months!. When you go to the Open Groups website and the list of certified UNIX operating systems, macOS is no longer listed. For the past few weeks, it was still listed if you drilled down specifically to the UNIX 03 certification, but that, too, has now been removed. Assuming macOS 27 doesnt return in the near future with a brand new certification, we can safely say that Apple got tired of paying a few employees to get its desktop operating system certified. With one more operating system gone from the list, theres now only one UNIX operating systems left: AIX. While the registry also lists HP-UX, z/OS, and UnixWare/OpenServer, those either only conform to really old UNIX certifications (from the 90s), or simply arent developed anymore (HP sunset HP-UX at the end of last year). Only one operating system version conforms to the latest version of the certification, UNIX 07, and thats AIX 7.2 TL5 and later!, which possibly includes AIX 7.3, the most recent version of AIX. Not that any of this really matters.

• OpenBSD 8.0 released
  Hot on the heels of Wine being ported to OpenBSD, we now have the release of OpenBSD 8.0. It adds hibernate support for arm64, switches the sparc64 toolchain to LLVM, and updates the DRM graphics drivers to Linux 6.18.53, which also adds support for Intel Arc A-Series (DG2/Alchemist) graphics cards. Theres a whole bunch of improvements, fixes, and changes for RISC-V and ARM in general, of course, as well as to the various Wi-Fi drivers. On top of that, it also comes with new versions of OpenSSH and LibreSSL, as well as a massive list of other improvements and fixes. If youve never installed OpenBSD before, be sure to read this detailed guide to know what to do once everythings installed, while listening to the official release song, of course.

• Apple adds mystery folder to your PATH and everyone is apparently just okay with that
  Apparently, macOS 27 comes with a small mystery people are trying to figure out. Recently, while troubleshooting a PATH issue, I noticed an entry for /pkg/env/global/bin. At first, I worried that something had gone horribly wrong. Turns out, this is part of macOS 27.0… though no one is sure what it’s for yet. In a post about how macOS’s boot volume structure has been updated, Howard Oakley explains that the pkg directory was added to the Data volume in macOS 26.4, but not added to the root of the Signed System Volume until 27.0. He also notes that this is sort of a big deal. The weird thing is, as far as I can tell, no one seems to know what this new directory is for! It’s odd that Apple would update their filesystem structure, add it to everyone’s PATH, and there not be some explicable reason. ↫ Gavin Anderegg I guess well find out eventually, but this does highlight something that I find extremely unsettling about this. With proprietary software like macOS, you literally are at the mercy of whatever Apple decides to do to your! operating system. You install an update, and aside from all the documented changes, theres going to be changes you simply have no idea what theyre for, or why theyre there. Dont get me wrong, theres obviously not something nefarious going on in this particular case, but it still feels wild to me that people just willingly accept this. In the open source world, stuff like this simply does not happen. Youre not going to install a bunch of Fedora updates one day and find a mysterious, undocumented folder in your PATH. Such a change will be documented, but even in the unlikely event its not, you can just go through the commit history and find out exactly why the new folder is there, and what its intended purpose is or is going to be. Considering the state of the world and the people corporations like Apple really answer to, I would not be comfortable with letting them dictate even something as simple as my PATH.

• Wine ported to OpenBSD, runs modern Windows games
  In what is quite a major achievement, Wine has been ported and made to work on OpenBSD. We have since tested several dozens of 64-bit Windows software, mostly successfully. See screenshots, livestream recordings for example. Even the Remaster of The Witcher 3 which released just last month runs, and runs well (requires adding in vkd3d-proton; see README; livestream which looks less fluent than it is due to the on-system recording with ffmpeg). ↫ Thomas Frohwein The biggest limitation seems to be the lack of support for WoW64, so 32bit Windows software wont work. Still, this is a massive milestone for OpenBSD, and makes especially gaming a somewhat viable option on OpenBSD.

• 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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• Building a Reliable Event-Driven Payment Service With XRP Ledger
  by Emma Clapp
  Receiving a transaction notification is only the first step. Production software still has to decide whether that event is safe to turn into application state.
  
  A WebSocket callback can arrive in milliseconds. What happens afterward is harder. The Go to Full Article

• 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

• Archinstall 4.5 Released with AArch64 Support, Real-Time Kernels, and Major Installer Fixes
  by George Whittaker
  The Arch Linux project has released Archinstall 4.5, the latest version of its guided text-based installer, bringing expanded AArch64 support, new real-time Linux kernel options, additional translations, security improvements, and numerous fixes for installation workflows.
  
  Archinstall 4.5 was released on September 29, 2026, roughly three months after Archinstall 4.4. The new version arrives just ahead of Arch Linux's October installation media refresh and has already been packaged as archinstall 4.5-1 for Arch Linux repositories.
  
  While Archinstall remains optional, it provides users with a guided way to configure an Arch Linux installation without manually performing every step described in the Arch installation guide. Version 4.5 concentrates primarily on hardware support, installer reliability, security, and expanding the range of systems that can use the guided installation process.
  AArch64 Support Gets a Major Upgrade
  One of the biggest changes in Archinstall 4.5 is improved support for AArch64, the 64-bit ARM architecture.
  
  The installer can now handle GRUB and Limine EFI installations on AArch64 systems. It also gains support for the proper AArch64 root partition type GUID.
  
  Previously, parts of Archinstall's bootloader configuration were more heavily oriented toward x86_64 installations. The latest changes make its guided installation workflow more useful on ARM64 hardware.
  
  AArch64 has become increasingly important throughout the Linux ecosystem. The architecture can now be found in cloud servers, development boards, laptops, workstations, and specialized computing platforms.
  
  Supporting both GRUB and Limine EFI installations gives Archinstall more flexibility when preparing these systems.
  GRUB Can Now Be Installed on AArch64
  GRUB remains one of the most widely used Linux bootloaders, and Archinstall 4.5 extends its installation logic to AArch64 EFI systems.
  
  This allows ARM64 installations to use a bootloader workflow much closer to what Archinstall already provides on conventional x86_64 UEFI computers.
  
  The change doesn't mean every ARM device will automatically become compatible with Arch Linux. ARM hardware can still have highly platform-specific firmware and boot requirements.
  
  It does, however, remove an important Archinstall limitation for AArch64 machines that provide conventional UEFI environments.
  Limine EFI Support Expands to ARM64
  The same architectural expansion applies to Limine.
  
  Limine is a modern multiprotocol bootloader supported as one of Archinstall's bootloader choices. Archinstall 4.5 extends its EFI installation support to AArch64 as well.
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• systemd 262 Released with Static PID 1, Intel TDX, TPM Improvements, and New Container Features
  by George Whittaker
  The systemd project has officially released systemd 262, delivering another substantial update to the system and service manager used by most major Linux distributions. The final release was tagged on September 22, 2026, following three release candidates earlier in the month.
  
  Systemd 262 introduces improvements across service management, containers, virtualization, encrypted storage, TPM security, networking, journal recovery, system updates, and unattended installations. Among the most interesting additions are the ability to build systemd as a single statically linked PID 1 binary, Intel TDX support in systemd-vmspawn, Live Update Orchestrator integration, improved TPM-backed encryption, and new fallback unit files embedded directly into the systemd manager.
  
  The release also contains a rather unusual development safeguard: an AI/LLM canary intended to help identify code contributions generated by AI that haven't been properly reviewed by a human before submission.
  systemd 262 Is Officially Available
  The final systemd 262 source was tagged by systemd developer Luca Boccassi on September 22.
  
  The upstream tag identifies commit 8cc40e0c5e9234bf45084751ac53b1fbfe70b492 as systemd v262, following release candidates published throughout September.
  
  The release has already begun reaching Linux distribution development repositories.
  
  Debian accepted systemd 262-1 into Debian Unstable on September 22, while Fedora has prepared systemd 262 packages for Fedora 45.
  
  As usual, the speed at which systemd 262 reaches ordinary users will depend on each distribution's update policy.
  systemd Can Now Become a Single Static PID 1 Binary
  One of the most interesting changes in systemd 262 is support for building systemd as a single statically linked PID 1 and executor binary.
  
  The feature is primarily intended for extremely small container environments.
  
  Normally, systemd depends on a collection of dynamically linked libraries and supporting components. That architecture makes sense for a complete Linux distribution, but containers sometimes need a much smaller runtime environment.
  
  The new static configuration makes it possible to create a more self-contained systemd executable suitable for minimal container images.
  
  These builds avoid dynamically loading optional libraries and use simplified mechanisms for resolving users and groups rather than relying on the complete Name Service Switch infrastructure.
  
  This doesn't mean normal Linux distributions will suddenly replace their standard systemd packages with a giant static executable. The capability is specifically useful for specialized container and minimal-system deployments.
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• Ubuntu Container Escape Vulnerability Gets Public Exploit Before Kernel Patch Arrives
  by George Whittaker
  Ubuntu administrators running containerized workloads have a new Linux kernel security problem to watch closely. Public exploit code is now available for CVE-2026-80521, a Linux kernel use-after-free vulnerability that can allow an unprivileged process inside a container to escape and obtain root privileges on the underlying host.
  
  Security firm DepthFirst published its research and exploit on September 22, 2026, demonstrating the attack against Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. The underlying Linux kernel vulnerability had already been fixed upstream on August 6, but as of September 23, Ubuntu's security tracker still lists the main kernel package in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS as "Vulnerable, work in progress," while Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is also listed as vulnerable.
  
  The situation is particularly important for Docker, Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and other environments that run potentially untrusted workloads because the vulnerable kernel functionality can be reached through ordinary operations available inside standard containers.
  
  There is currently no confirmed evidence that CVE-2026-80521 is being actively exploited in real-world attacks, and the vulnerability isn't listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The availability of working public exploit code nevertheless makes the patch gap considerably more important.
  CVE-2026-80521 Is a Linux Kernel Vulnerability
  Although Ubuntu is receiving much of the attention because the newly published exploit specifically targets it, CVE-2026-80521 is fundamentally a Linux kernel vulnerability.
  
  The problem exists in the kernel's AF_UNIX socket subsystem, specifically within its garbage collection mechanism.
  
  AF_UNIX sockets, commonly called Unix-domain sockets, provide local inter-process communication between applications running on the same system.
  
  Unlike conventional network sockets, they don't need to communicate across a network. They are widely used by Linux applications and services for fast communication between local processes.
  
  They also support passing file descriptors between processes through SCM_RIGHTS messages, and it is the kernel's management of these references that creates the conditions for CVE-2026-80521.
  A Race Condition Leads to Use-After-Free
  At the technical level, CVE-2026-80521 involves a race condition inside the AF_UNIX garbage collector.
  
  The kernel needs to track references between Unix sockets when file descriptors are passed between processes. Circular references can develop, where one socket effectively references another while that socket references something else in the same group.
  
  Linux represents these relationships internally and periodically determines which references can safely be removed.
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