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- Debian libinput Important Code Execution Vulnerability DLA-4626-1
Two vulnerabilities were found in libinput, an input device management and event handling library. CVE-2022-1215 libinput did not properly handled evdev devices, which may potentially be exploited by malicious local users in specific setup to execute arbitrary
- Homebrew 6.0.0 released
Version6.0.0 of the Homebrewpackage-management system has been released. Notable changes in thisrelease include the introduction of tap trust to improvesupply-chain security, improvements in sandboxing on Linux, a numberof performance tweaks, and many other changes.
See the changelogfor a full list. LWN covered Homebrew inNovember 2025.
- [$] Automatic mTHP creation in 7.2
The Linux kernel has long tried to use huge pages as a way to improveperformance, sometimes with more success than others. The size of hugepages has traditionally been imposed by the hardware, which typically onlyoffers a couple of relatively large options. In more recent times, though,the use of multi-size transparent huge pages (mTHPs), with more flexiblesizing implemented in software, has been growing. If all goes well, the7.2 development cycle will include the addition of a new feature,contributed by Nico Pache, to make the use of mTHPs even more transparent.
- Security updates for Thursday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (.NET 10.0, .NET 8.0, .NET 9.0, podman, poppler, and postgresql-jdbc), Debian (chromium, jackson-core, libdbi-perl, and libinput), Fedora (httpd, rust, and xmlstarlet), Mageia (openssh, postfix, and roundcubemail), Oracle (frr, kernel, libyang, n, postgresql-jdbc, and unbound), Red Hat (.NET 10.0, .NET 8.0, .NET 9.0, redis, and redis:7), SUSE (agama-web-ui, cockpit, cosign, glibc, google-cloud-sap-agent, google-osconfig-agent, kanidm, kernel, kubernetes, kubernetes1.23, kubernetes1.24, kubernetes1.25, kubernetes1.27, kubernetes1.28, libpodofo-devel, libyang, NetworkManager-libreswan, openCryptoki, python311-pypdf, rclone, steampipe, wicked, and xen), and Ubuntu (exim4, libcrypt-saltedhash-perl, libhttp-daemon-perl, samba, and uriparser).
- [$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for June 11, 2026
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
Front: Suspicious AI activity in Fedora; fork() + exec(); splice() + vmsplice(); BPF loop verification; fanotify; trusted publishing. Briefs: CA age bill; Bundler cooldowns; insecure code completion; Asahi and macOS 27 beta; Buildroot 2026.05; Ubuntu MATE; rsync 3.4.4; Quotes; ... Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
- Larson: Are insecure code completions a vulnerability?
Seth Larson, the Python Software Foundation's securitydeveloper-in-residence, has writtenabout the difficulty in classifying insecure code completion inthe PyCharm IDE usingits FullLine code completion plugin. Larson discovered that the plugin,which uses a local "deep learning module" to offer code completions,suggests code that would lead to severe vulnerabilities. He was unsurewhether it warranted a CVE or not, however:
I reported this behavior to JetBrains for "Full Line Code Completion" v253.29346.142and clearly their support staff weren't certain whether this defectwas a security vulnerability or not either. When I asked topublish a blog post about this behavior after they confirmedthis report wasn't a "direct security vulnerability" (whichI agree with) but then was asked not to publicize my report and referred toPyCharm's Coordinated Disclosure Policyso... which is it? Security vulnerability or not?
I ended up waiting the 90 days anyway and I didn't hear back withany substantive update from the development team. I double-checkedagain today using "Full Line Code Completion" v261.24374.152 and thebehavior is identical, suggesting the same insecure code for bothcontexts.
This isn't meant to be a specific dig at PyCharm or JetBrains, Ihave no-doubt that examples like this exist in every code generationmodel available.
- [$] AI agent runs amok in Fedora and elsewhere
Agentic AI systems can be used to do a variety of thingsautonomously on behalf of a human user: open or manage bugs, generatecode, submit pull-requests, and (apparently) even complain aboutrejection. In May, a Fedora developer discovered that an allegedlyrogue agent had been pestering the project in a number of ways:reassigning bugs, fabricating unhelpful replies to bugs, and evenpersuading maintainers to merge questionable code into the Anacondainstaller. It also submitted a number of pull requests (PRs),some accepted, to several upstream projects. The Fedora accountassociated with the agent has had its group privileges revoked and themesses have been mopped up, but the motive behind the agent's actions is stilla mystery.
- Buildroot 2026.05 released
Version2026.05 of the Buildroot toolhas been released. Buildroot simplifies and automates the process ofbuilding embedded Linux systems using cross-compilation. Notablechanges in this release include support for Arm Neoverse cores,addition of XFS rootfs generation, as well as many package updates andbug fixes. See the CHANGESfile for the full list.
- Security updates for Wednesday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (poppler), Debian (dnsmasq, mistral, okular, openssl, poppler, and strongswan), Fedora (exim, firefox, pcs, putty, and xorg-x11-server), Mageia (freeciv, golang-x-net, jq, libssh, libxmp, libxpm, minetest, ruby-net-ssh, tor, and wireshark), SUSE (389-ds, ack, agama-web-ui, amazon-ssm-agent, avahi, dpkg, elemental-register, elemental-system-agent, elemental-toolkit, ggml-devel-9500, go1.25, go1.26, kernel, kubernetes1.23, kubernetes1.24, kubernetes1.26, libsoup, mariadb, netty, netty-tcnative, NetworkManager, nginx, perl-CryptX, perl-XML-LibXML, podofo, polkit, python-Django, python-requests, samba, strongswan, vim, and xen), and Ubuntu (cyborg, gdk-pixbuf, golang-golang-x-net-dev, nginx, node-lodash, openssl, openssl, openssl1.0, qemu, tomcat9, tomcat10, and vim).
- Future of Ubuntu MATE
Thomas Ward has publishedan update about the future of the Ubuntu MATE project, which did not have a26.04 release with the other Ubuntu flavors inApril:
There is a new team working on Ubuntu MATE who have stepped up tohelp take over flavor management. They haven't formally introducedthemselves yet, but I can safely say that other developers HAVEstepped up for the future of the MATE flavor, despite its prior teamlead having stepped down.
[...] Ultimately, this means that they are working to cover themissed items and gaps, and may quite possibly have a 26.10 release inOctober of 2026, which I believe they most likely are targeting.
This also means that bugs in the MATE environment and in packagesthey normally would have shipped had they have a 26.04 release arestill going to get attention and fixes. So, effectively, nothing haschanged. The only difference is that there was no 26.04 installerimage released.
For those looking to install a MATE desktop on a "clean" install ofUbuntu 26.04, Ward suggests installing Ubuntu Server and theninstalling the ubuntu-mate-desktop package.
- [$] Eliminating long-lived credentials with trusted publishing
Trustedpublishing is an authentication mechanism that relies onshort-lived credentials to reduce the risk of supply-chain attacks. Atthe 2026 OpenSource Summit North America, Mike Fiedler walked the audiencethrough why trusted publishing exists, how it works, and made the casefor its adoption. It is not a silver bullet against all attacks, butit does offer protection against theft of long-lived credentials usedto publish to package registries.
- Git 2.55-rc0 Released With Rust Enabled By Default
Git 2.55-rc0 is out today as the first tagged test version of the forthcoming Git 2.55 distributed version control system. Most notable with Git 2.55 is that Rust support is being enabled by default...
- youyeetoo updates R1 SBC and lists K1 N100-based x86 computer
youyeetoo has updated its R1 single-board computer to version 3.0 and has also listed the K1, a palm-sized x86 edge computer based on Intel’s Alder Lake-N N100 processor. The two systems are aimed at compact AIoT, embedded, industrial, and edge computing applications, but use different processor platforms and expansion layouts. The youyeetoo R1 v3.0 remains […]
- Linux's KVM Preps For APX Support In VMs
Among the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) work being queued ahead of the upcoming Linux 7.2 merge window are preparations for supporting Advanced Performance Extensions within KVM virtual machines...
- China Lures Foreign Patients With Cutting-Edge, Cheap Medical Care
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: While traditional hotspots in the region such as Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia focus on services such as cosmetic surgery, IVF or physicals, China is trying to differentiate itself by providing some of the world's most advanced procedures. "There are two reasons why a patient travels for medical treatments: availability of advanced treatments and price," said Victor Cao, operations director of Joyful Medical, an agency in Shanghai that connects international patients to advanced cancer therapies in China. "Chinese people used to travel overseas for treatments that were not available at home, but now tables have turned." As expanding visa-free policies eased travel in the past year or so, videos are proliferating on social media of foreigners recounting their positive experiences of treatment in China, usually for consumer procedures like acupuncture and tooth scaling. But one treatment that's more quietly gaining traction is CAR-T, among the most promising breakthroughs in oncology but unavailable in most countries, or extremely costly. The process sees doctors collect T cells from the patient's blood then modify them in a lab to produce a special receptor, CAR, that can bind to a specific protein on cancer cells. These engineered cells are then multiplied into large numbers and infused back into the patient. The CAR-T cells seek out cancer cells carrying the target antigen and kill them. In the US, one single infusion can cost between $300,000 to $475,000, according to the American Cancer Society. In China, the equivalent costs about $150,000 to $180,000, and it could get even cheaper -- its drug regulator recently accepted a marketing application for a therapy aimed to be priced below 300,000 yuan ($44,000). China's medical tourism market remains in its infancy. Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone in Hainan, which was designated as the country's only special medical zone in 2013, treated just a few thousand foreign medical tourists last year, compared to hundreds of thousands of domestic patients who visited. There, patients can access advanced drugs, devices, and therapies approved in other countries but not elsewhere in mainland China. But China is pushing to upgrade its economy and reshape its global image from just a manufacturing hub into a provider of high-value services, and demand for medical tourism is surging. Globally, the market is estimated at around $34 billion and expected to reach $126 billion by 2035, according to San Francisco-based Grand View Research. Meanwhile, China's sector is projected to grow from $1.3 billion in 2025 to $3.4 billion by 2035, according to New York-based firm Market Research Future. "The patients chose China for something they can't get at home," said Shi Haoying, the group's founder and chief executive officer. "I think the growing attention to medical tourism to China is the inevitable result of long-term accumulation and development in many areas, such as growing medical technologies, quality of service and cost-effectiveness." Jeroen Groenewegen-Lau, an analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, added: "Many new treatments, including in very advanced areas, are made in China but too advanced for the state of its healthcare system and the ability of its patients to pay for these things. It's in China's interest to integrate into the international system."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Study Links Smartphones With Declining Fertility Rates
Two recent studies argue that smartphones may have contributed to falling birthrates by reducing in-person social interaction, sexual frequency, and other conditions tied to unintended pregnancies. "One of the studies published in May is called 'The Collapse of Teen Fertility in the Digital Era' and the other, published just Monday, is titled 'Is the iPhone Birth Control? Causal Evidence from AT&T's 2007-2011 Carrier Monopoly,'" reports KTLA. "Both were chronicled in a New York Times piece by political writer Sabrina Tavernise on Monday." Slashdot reader sabbede submitted the story. From the report: The one from May, authored by two University of Cincinnati professors, posits that teen fertility "collapsed globally" starting around 2007 -- the same year the first iPhone was released. "Smart phones changed how teens spend time with each other ... this change in turn drove the collapse in teen fertility," the study's abstract reads. "Once enough teens are on the phone, being on the phone is where the peer network is; in-person time falls sharply, and with it the unstructured contact in which most unintended teen conceptions occur." The study claimed that countries "across the income and policy spectrum" were affected by the teen fertility drop, and that researchers used data from multiple countries, including the U.S., England and Wales, to rule out "country-specific contraceptive access and welfare reform stories." "This model predicts that the shift towards the phone-mediated equilibrium affects multiple aspects of teen behavior," the abstract continues, concluding that "the same instrument that produces a collapse in teen fertility produces a surge in teen suicides." The study published on Monday looks more closely at the United States, explaining that nationwide general fertility rates have fallen 22% since 2007. "[This is] a sustained decline not readily explained by economic conditions, contraceptive use, housing or childcare costs, or other commonly cited factors," the National Bureau of Economic Researchers study states. "We assess the potential role of a different shock: the diffusion of the smartphone." As mentioned before, the first iPhone was rolled out in 2007, and this study makes use of that timeframe as "a natural experiment" by using data from 2007 through 2011, when iPhones were only sold on AT&T. "From June 2007 through February 2011, the device was sold only on AT&T, allowing us to identify its effect from variation in AT&T's mobile broadband coverage," the study says. "Entropy-balanced Poisson and synthetic difference-in-differences event studies imply that access to the iPhone reduced births by 4.5-8.0% at ages 15-19 and 3.2-6.6% at ages 20-24, with statistically significant but smaller declines among older cohorts. Placebo analyses applied to Verizon and Sprint's pre-2011 coverage footprint are null. Taken together, these cohort effects imply that the diffusion of the iPhone deepened the decline in births among women under 30 while suppressing the rise in births among older women." "Overall, the diffusion of the iPhone explains 33-52% of the decline in the general fertility rate among women aged 15-44," researchers continued. "National-survey evidence on time use and sexual behavior is consistent with the iPhone reducing in-person interactions, increasing pornography use and reducing sexual frequency."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Poland To Jail Online Streamers of Violent Crime For Up To 5 Years
Polish lawmakers have voted to criminalize "trash streaming," with up to five years in prison for online broadcasts of serious crimes such as rape or murder, animal cruelty, humiliating violence, gambling promotion, or even simulated depictions of those acts. Reuters reports: The move is part of a broader push by Poland to tighten regulation of online content. Recent measures include banning the use of mobile phones by children under 16 in schools and introducing stricter age verification rules to access pornography. Under the new provisions, broadcasting crimes punishable by more than five years in prison, including murder or rape, will itself be classed as a separate offence punishable by up to five years behind bars. The law also covers content showing cruelty to animals, violence aimed at humiliating others, and the promotion of gambling. The same penalties will apply to individuals who simulate or falsely portray the commission of such crimes while streaming, lawmakers said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Coinbase Launches Tool To Let AI Agents Manage Trading and Payments
Coinbase has launched Coinbase for Agents, a tool that lets AI agents like ChatGPT or Claude execute crypto trades and manage payments on a user's behalf. "For example, customers can prompt their agent to rebalance portfolios, identify trading opportunities, execute strategies and manage positions over time," reports CNBC. "It will eventually expand these capabilities to stocks and predictions." From the report: [U]sing Coinbase's machine-to-machine payments protocol, called x402, agents can pay directly for digital services like paywalled research, data APIs and on-demand compute without a human in the loop -- and execute trades based on those insights. The company sees this stage of agentic payments, which lets customers bypass the need to manage traditional logins or subscriptions, as a precursor to agentic shopping, where agents browse, find the best deals, select and make purchases on users' behalf. [...] The whole idea is to give agents access to money and, through that financial independence, improve their set of capabilities to pretty much anything on the internet," Lincoln Murr, Coinbase's AI product lead, told CNBC. "In the 2010s, every internet company dealt with the transition from desktop and web into a mobile environment. And now in the late 2020s, we're seeing the exact same thing happen where agents are going to be the new primary economic actors on the internet." The x402 protocol was created in May 2025 and has seen more than 100 million transactions since its debut, Murr said. There are about 157,000 agents acting as buyers using the protocol in the past 30 days, according to x402scan.com. "We saw immediate demand and interest in the ability for agents to pay for things autonomously and that was a huge waking up moment for us [on] the ability of agents to become these new primary financial actors across the internet," he said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Euro-Office 1.0 Arrives To Open-Source Infighting: 'Compatibility Is Not Sovereignty'
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: If digital sovereignty is important to you, and it certainly is in the European Union (EU), then you'll be pleased to know that EuroOffice, a new open-source browser-based office suite alternative to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, has officially reached its first stable release. A coalition of EU-based companies, including Nextcloud, Ionos, and other Euro-Stack participants, is positioning Euro-Office as a cornerstone of European digital sovereignty. However, The Document Foundation (TDF), LibreOffice's steward, accuses the project of reinforcing Microsoft's document lock-in, which TDF argues isn't friendly to open standards. Setting aside the open-source politics for the moment, here's what Euro-Office brings you. The release went live on June 9. It is, however, not a stand-alone office suite. As the software's backers explain in a FAQ, "Euro-Office is more of an integration component. It merely handles document editing itself. Storage, as well as navigation, permissions, and sharing logic, have to be offered by a platform it is integrated in, like Proton Docs, Nextcloud Hub, or OpenProject." So, while you can install Euro-Office on your own Linux server, you'll need to integrate it yourself. If you're not a Linux expert, however, don't give up hope. Some companies have already released packaged, ready-to-install Euro-Office stacks, including Nextcloud Hub 26 Spring, Ionos' Nextcloud Workspace, and Office.eu. These initial deployments are web-based rather than standalone desktop suites. The goal, organizers say, is to give European organizations a way to host their office suite on EU infrastructure under EU law, while maintaining an experience familiar to Microsoft Office users. Specifically, Euro-Office is meant to be "a solution for editing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, developed as a true sovereign community collaboration of over a dozen different organizations." TDF's main objection is that Euro-Office's decision to default to Microsoft's OOXML format undercuts its claims of European digital sovereignty, since OOXML remains closely tied to Microsoft Office behavior and control. "Compatibility is not sovereignty," TDF warned, saying a European-branded suite that saves files in OOXML by default "is de facto an ally of Microsoft in its content lock-in strategy."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- ACLU Sues After Facial Recognition Falsely Identifies Florida Man As a Child Abductor
fjo3 shares a report from Reason: Police arrested a man in Florida for attempted child abduction in a town he had never visited, and the only evidence linking him to the crime was an AI facial recognition hit. Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), he is now suing the officers and agencies who put him through it. [...] According to a police report, facial recognition software concluded with 93 percent confidence that the suspect was Robert Dillon. [...] The ACLU is now suing the city of Jacksonville Beach, as well as the individual police officers and officials involved in the case. According to the lawsuit (PDF), the responding officer viewed security camera footage of the suspect but didn't take a copy; instead, he took pictures of the screen with his cell phone. "In the photos, the suspect image is low resolution, and the suspect's face is partially shadowed and off-axis," the lawsuit claims. When an investigator queried the facial recognition system, it was with the officer's grainy secondhand cell phone photos. [...] But as the ACLU notes, facial recognition's accuracy "depends significantly on the quality of the probe image. Lower-quality images contain less interpretable facial data, degrading the system's ability to produce a reliable template." At the very least, it requires a much better source image. Besides, no such investigative tool should form the sole basis for an arrest warrant. "If you came to me with a facial recognition hit and that was your probable cause, I would probably kick you out of my office because that's not how it works," Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters told local news. (Waters is among those being sued in the ACLU lawsuit, because it was an investigator from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office who ran the grainy photo through facial recognition and advised O'Connell it was a "93% match" to Dillon.)
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- OpenAI Mulls Slashing Prices As It Competes With Anthropic For Users
OpenAI is reportedly considering sharp price cuts for paid access to its AI models as competition with Anthropic intensifies and both companies race for users ahead of potential IPOs. "The company is weighing significant cuts to what it charges for tokens, the unit of measurement artificial-intelligence firms use to bill for their products," the Wall Street Journal said, adding that it was "in anticipation of similar cuts the company expects at Anthropic." CNBC reports: The ChatGPT producer, which did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment, currently charges consumers in tiered subscriptions of $8, $20 and $100 and above each month for access to its flagship GPT-5.5 models. Anthropic conversely charges users $17 each month with an annual subscription to Claude Pro, and $100 and above monthly for a subscription to Claude Max. OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO on Monday, just a week after Anthropic made its own filing.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Opendoor Ends India Operations, Fueling a Bigger Conversation About AI and Outsourcing
Opendoor is shutting down its India operations less than two years after opening offices there. Slashdot reader alternative_right shares a post from Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian: "I shared this note earlier today with the entire team at Opendoor. Today we began to say goodbye to our colleagues in India as we wind down our India operations. Our customers are in America, and that's where our operational work belongs." TechCrunch reports: In announcing the decision on Wednesday, CEO Kaz Nejatian cited a push to bring operational work back to the U.S., where Opendoor's customers are, and a shift toward smaller AI-native teams. The company did not respond to requests for comment on how many employees were affected or how much of the decision was driven by AI efficiency. But the announcement quickly gained traction across Silicon Valley, where founders, investors, and outsourcing experts see it as an early example of how AI is reshaping the economics that made India a global hub for back-office operations. [...] Some investors viewed the decision as a sign of what AI could mean for India's vast outsourcing workforce. "As manual work gets replaced by AI, a lot of jobs will be lost in India," wrote Sheel Mohnot, co-founder of Better Tomorrow Ventures. Others viewed Opendoor as evidence of a larger shift in how companies are organized. Keshav Lohia, a venture capitalist at Emergent Ventures, described the decision as a "watershed moment" for AI-driven operations, arguing that advances in AI are beginning to challenge the cost-arbitrage model that made India a popular offshoring destination. Phil Fersht, chief executive of HFS Research, an advisory firm that tracks the global outsourcing and business services industry, told TechCrunch that the development should not be viewed simply as jobs moving from India to the U.S. The more important shift, he said, is that AI is reducing the amount of operational labor companies require in the first place, allowing firms to run leaner organizations regardless of location. "This is not an isolated restructuring," Fersht said. "It is part of a much broader pattern we are starting to see as companies redesign operations around AI, automation, and much leaner workflows." Fersht argued that the winners would be companies that combine AI, software and human expertise to deliver outcomes without continually adding headcount, a model he described as "Services-as-Software." While Opendoor may be one of the first high-profile examples, he said it is unlikely to be the last. Some investors are already extrapolating beyond individual companies. Varun Rekhi, a venture capitalist at Speedinvest, argued that if AI reduces demand for labor-intensive services, it could eventually pressure one of India's most important export industries, which is built around supplying talent and expertise to global corporations.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Xbox CEO Says Current Margins 'Cannot Continue'
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and Chief Content Officer Matt Booty told staff that Xbox's current economics "cannot continue," citing more than $20 billion in spending over five years, declining revenue outside Activision Blizzard King, console supply constraints tied to RAMaggedon, and an overextended studio portfolio. The memo stops short of announcing layoffs, but a Bloomberg report says substantial Xbox cuts are expected after Microsoft's fiscal year ends on June 30. Engadget reports: The takeaways are pretty grim. For starters, the simple math of Xbox's revenue isn't adding up to success. "Excluding Activision Blizzard King, over the past five years, we have spent over $20 billion on ongoing investments in our content, platform, and hardware subsidy, but our annual revenue has declined nearly half a billion during that time," the execs state. "Going forward, this cannot continue." They also acknowledge the impact of RAMaggedon: "We are currently unable to make as many consoles as players want to buy, and we need a new business model and partnerships for hardware as we remain committed to Helix." (Helix, in this case, is Project Helix, the codename for Xbox's new console.) Then there's the kicker, a renewed admission that Xbox still can't support the many studios it acquired in the late 2010s in an effort to grow its first-party game ambitions. "We have found ourselves over extended as we executed on changing strategies in a landscape of more readily available content," the pair said, noting elsewhere that with so many good games, not to mention the plethora of other forms of entertainment available, "Going forward, our competition is attention."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- OpenAI Says China Launched Influence Campaign To Shape US Attitudes On AI Datacenters
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Politico: China was likely behind an online influence operation to sway U.S. perceptions of artificial intelligence technology and reshape the debate in Washington around the infrastructure needed to support it, according to research from OpenAI published Wednesday. OpenAI said it caught the influence campaign because China-backed operatives were using ChatGPT to create content for the social media campaign. [...] OpenAI's researchers identified two clusters of ChatGPT users "likely originating from China" who used the AI chatbot to generate social media content "in support of apparent covert influence operations" promoting certain narratives about AI. This includes claims that data center build-outs are raising electricity costs for the average American family and that President Donald Trump has weaponized tariffs to keep the U.S. ahead in the global tech race. These accounts have since been banned, the report said. One cluster of users asked ChatGPT to generate images and comments pushing these narratives. These comments were then posted on social media by "batches of accounts" posing as Americans, [said Ben Nimmo, principal investigator of intelligence and investigations at OpenAI]. Another cluster identified by researchers used AI to generate social media content criticizing the Trump administration's tariffs as an attempt to "dominate technological competition." Prompts used for this campaign were submitted in Simplified Chinese and asked that AI-generated content not include Chinese President Xi Jinping and focus solely on Trump -- a possible tell that China was behind the operation, according to the report. Nimmo said that the influence campaign amplified existing public backlash in the U.S. against the creation of new AI data centers, which has resulted in dozens of proposed moratoriums at the local, state and national level. "Neither campaign appears to have gained much authentic engagement," Nimmo said. "They're important for what they reveal about the intentions of influence operators from China, and the narratives they're testing and seeking to amplify, but not for the impact."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- 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]
- Web browsers on video game consoles
Video game consoles have a long history with web browsers. From the advent of the World Wide Web, consoles have been trying to get online. Browsers on video game consoles were initially very much an attempt to provide a cheap gateway to the web for a casual audience lacking technical expertise, though as time progressed they’ve become a greater and more integrated part of systems. This article takes a look at browsers on video game consoles in detail, though only covers official web browsers. Many consoles have browsers installable via custom firmware and homebrew, but they’re beyond the scope of this post, as are non-web systems such as Satellaview and online services that didn’t provide a browser, such as XBAND, Sega Meganet, and Sega Channel. ↫ Declan Chidlow The article starts off with the Philips CD-I, which has always been a fascinating product for technology fans in The Netherlands because thats where Philips is from. Memory that far back is untrustworthy, but I can definitely remember being inundated with commercials, advertising, magazine articles, and newspaper reports about the CD-I, all throughout its rather troubled life. Yet, I dont remember anything about it being capable of browsing a rudimentary web. Of course, were talking 1995 here, a time when I didnt even have internet at home yet, although I did use the web at a friends place at that time. We didnt get internet at home until I think 1997 or 1998, followed by the move to broadband cable internet just a year later, since our small rural town happened to be one of the first places to get broadband. Good times. Did anyone ever actually use browsers on consoles, though? I mean, using them always felt incredibly clunky, and by the time they were capable enough to really do anything we all had laptops and later smartphones anyway. I certainly dont remember anyone using them for anything but a gimmick, but perhaps my sample size was far too small and not diverse enough.
- MacOS 27 drops Intel support, will be last release with Rosetta 2
With the announcement of an upcoming new macOS release also come the usual changes in which Macs will still be supported. MacOS 27 Golden Gate is an important release in this regard, as it will be the first release of Apples desktop operating system that will be entirely ARM-only, dropping support for all Intel Macs. Its important to note that Apple will provide three more years of security updates for the final Intel release of macOS, so Intel users wont be dropped like a brick immediately. Still, the Intel Mac Pro was still being sold all the way up until mid-2023, and Id be royally pissed off if my expensive 2023 Intel Mac went out of support a mere six years after purchase. They werent cheap machines, and while you can argue everybody knew the writing was on the wall for the Intel Mac Pro in 2023, it still feels way too short of a supported lifespan for such an expensive, high-end piece of equipment. It didnt sell many units, Im sure, but still. In addition, MacOS 27 will be the last release to include the Rosetta 2 translation layer that allows Intel binaries to run on ARM macOS. I have no idea how many important applications are still Intel-only, but I have a feeling that number is going to be relatively small, and will become even smaller as the first macOS release without Rosetta 2 support nears release. On top op of that, Im sure enterprising users will find a way to transplant Rosetta 2 onto unsupported macOS releases, and if all else fails, theres always virtual machines.
- Once again, Apple blatantly lies about the EUs DMA
Apple recently announced its next crack at integrating AI! into its operating systems, this time opting to simply whitelabel Googles Gemini AI! tools instead of developing its own LLM technology. Called Siri AI!, Apple also stated its not coming to the EU, and the company stated thats because the EUs basic consumer protection legislation would give other AI! tools unprecedented access! to user data on users devices. The company made a big stink about this in the press. As anyone with basic pattern recognition skills already knew, this was a blatant, baldfaced lie. What really happened is that Apple asked the EU for an 18-month long exemption from the EUs consumer protection and privacy legislation during which it would not have to comply with any legal privacy and interoperability requirements just so it could roll out Siri AI! before anyone else could offer a competing product for Apple users. Obviously, the EU wasnt going to grant such an exemption. The decision not to roll out Siri AI in the EU is Apples and Apples only,! spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters in Brussels, saying there was nothing in the Digital Markets Act to stop the company from introducing new products in the EU. Apple was simply unable to develop interoperability solutions that meet essential EU privacy and security standards,! Regnier said. Instead of trying to find a suitable compliance solution, Apple simply made a request to the European Commission to be exempted from their interoperability obligations under the DMA and this for at least 18 months. Thats not an option,! Regnier said. ↫ Inti Landauro and Foo Yun Chee at Reuters So whats really going on here is that Apple wants to offer a set of whitelabeled Google Gemini tools on iOS and macOS in the EU, but because Apple is classified as a gatekeeper, it is legally obligated to offer interoperability options for competing AI! tools. These options in turn need to adhere to the EUs strict privacy regulations, so that competing AI! tools can offer the same level of privacy that Apples own whitelabeled Google Gemini tools claim to offer. Apple didnt want to offer these privacy-respecting interoperability options as required by law, so instead of following the law in the countries it wants to operate in, Apple asked to be placed above the law for at least 18 months, basically giving Siri AI! a massive head-start over possible competitors so that it could entrench itself in the userbase. The EU saw right through Apples nonsense, and now called them out on their bullshit. Perhaps Apple has gotten so used to openly bribing Trump that they forgot other parts of the world dont work that way. Whenever Apple and its PR attack dogs say anything about the EU, you can be assured they are lying. They have proven time and time again to basically never speak a single word of truth when it comes to its dealings in the EU. Its almost pathological at this point, and what makes it doubly interesting is that Apple will not launch Siri AI! in China either, for the very same regulatory reasons yet all China got was a single footnote in a press release. I wonder why.
- Google Chrome is killing all uBlock Origin bypasses, Microsoft Edge, Opera to follow
For a while now the transition away from Manifest V2 (MV2) to MV3 has been on-going and it looks like it is entering its final phase of deprecation, at least, in the case of Google Chrome. A recent discussion thread in the w3c WebExtensions Community Group GitHub repo has highlighted how the latest and upcoming versions of the most popular browser are expected to be its final releases with support for MV2 extensions. ↫ Sayan Sen at Neowin You shouldnt be using Chrome anyway.
- A raycasting first-person shooter written in COBOL
On a related note, what about a raycasting first-person shooter written in0 COBOL? Can you think of a better programming language than COBOL to implement an FPS from scratch? I know I cant, so buckle up and enjoy what can only be described as an out-of-body experience for COBOL enthusiasts as I set out to make a Wolfenstein3D-like raycasting based FPS game (and potentially go a bit further than that, hopefully its not a DOOMed attempt). ↫ icitry on YouTube I dont link to YouTube videos very often, but theres always the exception that proves the rule. The COBOL codes available on GitHub. What a mad man.
- Catlantean 3D: making graphics like its 1993
My goal was to build a complete, shippable first-person shooter using techniques that were common in the early 90s, while allowing myself the luxury of using a modern compiler and a platform abstraction layer. ↫ Marko Stanic It looks amazing already, and it isnt even done. Stanic goes into great detail explaining how he created the various assets for the game, and its a joy to read through his creative process and problem-solving routines. The games called Catlantean 3D, and is expected to ship somewhere early 2027.
- Microsoft makes Windows printing easier with Windows Ready Print
Microsoft has detailed that Windows 11 is going to switch away from dedicated printer drivers to its Windows Ready Print system. This should make it a lot easier and less cumbersome to get printers running on Windows 11. At the core of Windows Ready Print is a transition away from legacy, third party drive-based workflows toward modern, standards-based printing with IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) using the Windows inbox IPP printer driver.` Starting in July 2026, new printer installations will default to Windows Ready Print where supported, enabling a simpler and more reliable setup experience. This change reduces the need for traditional driver management and lays the foundation for a more scalable and predictable print experience. ↫ elliesekine at the Windows Tech Community Printers still play a huge role in our lives whether we like it or not and their terrible user experience is basically a meme a this point. Making at least one aspect of printing easier, less cumbersome, and more streamlined is incredibly welcome, and Im glad Microsoft is taking the Windows printing ecosystem along for the ride on this one. My own personal experience with printing on Linux and now on Windows 11 (as promised, Ive been using nothing but Windows 11 since 26 May!) has been mostly effortless already. Our cheap networked printer/scanner/combo thing from HP just works! on both Linux and Windows 11, since Windows downloads HPs drivers and application automatically when detecting the printer on the network. Still, not having to use HPs driver would be a nice bonus. Coincidentally, I also managed to get the printer component of our HP combo thing working on0 HP-UX 11i v1. Despite being more than two decades newer, our HP printer works perfectly with a printer definition file included in HP-UX, giving me full printing from CDE and the rest of HP-UX. Its entirely useless and cost me an evening of my life, but seeing the test page and other documents from HP-UX come out of our printer, over the network, put a big smile on my face.
- German court rules Google is liable for whatever Googles AI! generates
Its just a ruling from a lower court, but it sets the stage for how European courts are going to deal with the question of who is liable for whatever slop AI! generates. The Regional Court of Munich hit Google with a temporary injunction barring the company from spreading false claims about two Munich-based publishers through its AI-generated search overviews (case no. 26 O 869/26). The court classified Google as a direct infringer because the AI overview! is its own content, not just a list of search results. Googles AI overviews had falsely tied two publishing companies to scams, subscription traps, and shady business practices for certain search queries. According to the court, the AI mixed up information about other, genuinely sketchy companies with the plaintiffs and drew connections that didnt appear in any of the linked sources. The publishers sent Google a cease-and-desist letter, but Google didnt respond appropriately. ↫ Matthias Bastian at The Decoder Google tried to argue it doesnt carry any responsibility or liability for whatever slop its AI! generate, but the German court does not agree. According to the court, AI! overviews are not the same as regular search results, because they rewrite findings and just make shit up, thereby making claims that are nowhere to be found in any search results (or in reality in general). Furthermore, the court states that Google develops the AI!, it runs it, it offers it to users, and Google alone controls its output, and as such, Google is liable for whatever their AI! produces. Google also tried to argue that users know not to trust anything an AI! produces, which is hilarious considering how hard Google is pushing these tools, but the courts state that the ability of users to do further research does not absolve Google of liability. In addition, the court made it very clear that free speech protections absolutely do not apply, because the AI! expressions are coming from an algorithm, not a person, and are above all an expression of Googles business activities!. In other words, if an AI! tool generates false accusations and misleading statements, the creator of said AI! is liable. With this ruling in hand, countless other people have a stronger case to make whenever Google or any other company tries to absolve itself from liability from slop just because a pachinko machine generated it. Excellent news, and the only fair outcome.
- Eagle Computer: the rise and fall of an early PC clone
When it comes to 80s computer brands, few flew as high as Eagle Computer flew in 1983. The aptly named company was selling 12,000 computers a month and had been doubling sales every quarter under the leadership of a talented CEO. Then Eagle lost its CEO, Dennis Barnhart, in a crashed Ferrari on the day of its IPO, June 8, 1983. In this blog post, we’ll explore the reasons Eagle Computer fell, because there was more to it than just the tragic story involving its CEO. ↫ Dave Farquhar Just one of the many early PC companies that died off, even if Eagle died off before many of the other big players. It mustve been such a vibrant and fascinating time to be into PCs and computers in general at that time, with so many companies and players to choose from. Shame about the 308 GTS.
- Introducing brand new OSNews merch with the new logo!
A new logo means new merch! Im launching brand new merch today, all featuring the brand new OSNews logo. Weve got the classic T-shirt with the new OSNews logo, in sandy white and terrain grey. Theyre made from sustainably-grown and processed cotton, come in a variety of sizes, and ship worldwide. The crowdpleaser is also making its triumphant return: the OSNews coffee mug, now also with the new logo and a green-on-white two-tone design. It holds coffee and tea, of course, but feel free to use it for whatever you want. Grow a plant in it! A newcomer is the OSNews Mousepad a basic, no-nonsense, no-frills mousepad that does exactly what its supposed to do, in a classic square(ish) formfactor. It makes for a great companion to any (retro) setup, but feels particularly at home with BeOS and OS/2. One merch item remains from our previous collection: the ever-popular Gemini shirt and longsleeve, with a retro ASCII-art OSNews logo in bright green on deep black. Its like staring at a real classic CRT. On your chest. Dont sit too close. As always, every price is set so that for every item sold, roughly €8 goes to OSNews. I will add the proceeds to our fundraiser tracker, so this is yet another way to support us, together with Ko-Fi donations, SEPA direct bank transfers, and Patreon.
- Canonical Launches ARM Laptop Certification Program to Boost Ubuntu’s Next Generation of Mobile Computing
by George Whittaker
Canonical is expanding its hardware certification efforts with a new focus on ARM-powered laptops, a move that reflects the growing momentum behind ARM architecture in the personal computing market. As ARM processors become increasingly common in laptops thanks to their impressive balance of performance, battery life, and efficiency, Canonical aims to ensure that Ubuntu users receive a seamless experience on this emerging class of hardware.
The initiative represents another step in Ubuntu’s long-standing effort to provide reliable Linux support across a wide range of devices while strengthening relationships with hardware manufacturers.
Why ARM Laptops Matter More Than Ever
For years, x86 processors from Intel and AMD dominated the laptop market. However, the landscape has changed significantly as ARM-based systems have become more powerful and capable.
Modern ARM laptops offer several advantages:
Longer battery life Lower power consumption Reduced heat output Always-on connectivity capabilities Competitive performance for everyday workloads
As manufacturers increasingly invest in ARM hardware, Linux distributions face growing pressure to ensure compatibility matches what users expect from traditional x86 systems. Canonical has already spent years supporting ARM across cloud, server, IoT, and embedded environments, making laptops a natural next step.
What the Certification Program Does
The new certification effort builds upon Canonical’s existing Ubuntu Certified Hardware program, which validates systems through extensive testing covering both hardware and operating system functionality. Certified devices undergo comprehensive verification to ensure Ubuntu operates correctly across critical components and daily workflows.
Testing typically includes:
Wireless networking Audio functionality Graphics performance Bluetooth support USB device compatibility Power management Suspend and resume behavior Firmware integration Security features such as TPM support
The goal is to eliminate the uncertainty that Linux users sometimes face when purchasing new hardware.
Creating a Better Ubuntu Experience on ARM
Historically, Linux support on ARM laptops has varied significantly between devices. Some systems work exceptionally well, while others require manual configuration, custom kernels, or vendor-specific patches.
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- Btrfs Snapshot Deletion Gets Faster as Developers Tackle One of the Filesystem’s Biggest Pain Points
by George Whittaker
The Btrfs filesystem continues to receive significant performance tuning, and one of the latest areas of focus is snapshot deletion performance. While Btrfs snapshots have long been praised for their speed, flexibility, and efficient use of storage, deleting large numbers of snapshots has historically been one of the filesystem’s most resource-intensive operations.
Recent kernel development efforts are helping address that problem by improving metadata handling, reducing lock contention, and streamlining internal cleanup processes. The result is faster snapshot removal and less disruption on systems that rely heavily on snapshots for backups, rollbacks, and system recovery.
Why Snapshot Deletion Has Been Challenging
Btrfs is a copy-on-write (CoW) filesystem that stores data and metadata in a highly interconnected structure. This design enables many advanced features, including:
Instant snapshots Subvolumes Checksumming Compression Efficient data sharing between snapshots
However, the same architecture that makes snapshots so efficient to create can make them more complex to remove. When a snapshot is deleted, Btrfs must determine which blocks are still referenced by other snapshots and which can be safely reclaimed. On systems with many snapshots, this process can generate significant metadata activity.
Recent Performance Improvements
Developers have been working to reduce overhead associated with Btrfs metadata operations, which directly impacts snapshot cleanup performance.
Recent kernel updates include:
Reduced lock contention during extent tree operations More efficient extent buffer traversal Improved handling of internal filesystem structures Reduced contention during metadata searches General transaction and cleanup optimizations
These changes help the filesystem spend less time waiting on internal locks and more time performing actual cleanup work.
Less Impact During Cleanup Operations
One common complaint among Btrfs users has been elevated I/O activity during large snapshot deletion jobs.
On systems that maintain dozens, or even hundreds, of snapshots, cleanup operations could temporarily increase:
Disk activity CPU usage I/O wait times Metadata processing workloads
Recent improvements are designed to make these operations less disruptive by reducing bottlenecks inside the filesystem's metadata management code.
For users running backup servers, NAS appliances, or snapshot-heavy desktop systems, these optimizations can improve overall responsiveness while cleanup tasks run in the background.
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- How Digital Software Is Powering Innovation in Modern Product Design
by Will Jones
By enabling digitized production design, this digital software is freeing up businesses and individuals across numerous industries to work smarter, not harder.
To design a new product or tool is often a lengthy, labor-intensive process. Even the most successful and streamlined physical design process is intensive and iterative by nature; it is the process of taking something that begins as little more than an idea and turning it into reality. Inherently, that is going to take a great deal of translation, as well as trial and error. When working with real-world, physical elements, this also makes for a costly endeavor, as each new trial effort may prove essential to the long-term success of the design, but still has adverse financial effects. Dassault Systèmes offers CAD software to help businesses stay on top of advancements in their industries.
Before digital design software became widely adopted, engineers and designers often relied heavily on hand-drawn technical sketches and manual drafting methods during product development. Revising a design could require redrawing entire sections of a project, making the process both time-consuming and resource-intensive. Modern digital design systems have significantly changed these workflows by allowing teams to make rapid adjustments, automate calculations, and store detailed design information within a single platform. This shift has contributed to the broader adoption of digital tools across industries seeking more streamlined development processes.
Fortunately, though, in this new world of ever-advancing technological tools, the design process doesn’t have to be fraught with issues and obstacles anymore, thanks to systems such as CAD software. This new software is now enabling businesses to design smarter, faster, and more accurately by digitizing product development processes and improving collaboration across engineering and manufacturing teams.
Digital Design as the Foundation of Innovation
Digital software allows engineers to create precise digital models that can then serve as the foundation for product development. Compare this to the physical alternative, which has long been a well-thought-out sketch of the product in question. Even the most comprehensive of sketches is only going to be dealing with two dimensions, and is likely to leave room for confusion or error based on the interpretation of the subjective rendering.
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- GNOME Files Supercharges Search with Faster Results, Smarter Filters, and Better File Discovery
by George Whittaker
The GNOME project continues refining one of its most frequently used applications: GNOME Files (formerly known as Nautilus). Recent development efforts have focused heavily on improving the file manager’s search capabilities, making it easier to locate documents, media files, and folders across increasingly large storage volumes.
For many Linux users, file search has become one of the most important daily workflows. As personal data collections grow and SSDs make local storage faster than ever, GNOME developers are investing in tools that help users find information more quickly and efficiently. GNOME Files already relies on indexing technologies such as Tracker (now GNOME LocalSearch) to deliver fast results, and recent improvements are building on that foundation.
A Redesigned Search Experience
One of the most noticeable improvements is a redesigned search interface that makes searching feel more integrated into the overall file management experience.
Recent GNOME development previews introduced:
A cleaner search popover Inline result previews Improved keyboard navigation Faster access to search filters Better visibility of search options within the file manager interface
These refinements reduce the number of clicks required to narrow down results and help users locate files without leaving their current workflow.
Smarter Filtering Options
Search filters have become increasingly important as users store larger collections of documents, images, videos, and audio files.
GNOME Files has been expanding its filtering capabilities, allowing users to narrow searches more effectively based on:
File type Media category Search location Recent activity Indexed metadata
Earlier updates expanded support for additional audio and video file formats, making it easier to locate multimedia content directly from the search interface. This is particularly useful for users managing large media libraries.
Improved Search Performance
Fast search results are just as important as accurate ones.
GNOME Files continues leveraging the GNOME indexing framework to provide near-instant search results while minimizing system overhead. The file manager works closely with the LocalSearch indexing service to locate files quickly without repeatedly scanning entire drives.
This approach provides several benefits:
Faster file discovery Reduced CPU usage during searches Better scalability on large storage volumes More responsive user experience
For desktop users who frequently work with thousands of files, these performance gains can significantly improve productivity.
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- NixOS 26.05 ‘Yarara’ Released with Systemd Initrd by Default and Major Infrastructure Updates
by George Whittaker
The NixOS project has officially released NixOS 26.05, codenamed “Yarara,” continuing the distribution’s unique approach to Linux system management through declarative configuration, atomic upgrades, and reproducible deployments. The release introduces several important platform-level changes, modernized infrastructure components, and continued refinement of the Nix ecosystem.
As one of the most distinctive Linux distributions available today, NixOS continues attracting developers, DevOps engineers, and advanced Linux users who value predictable system behavior and highly reproducible environments.
What Makes NixOS Different?
Unlike traditional Linux distributions that install packages directly into shared system locations, NixOS is built around the Nix package manager, which stores software in isolated, versioned paths and generates complete system configurations declaratively.
This architecture provides several advantages:
Atomic system upgrades Reliable rollback capabilities Reproducible environments Easier infrastructure automation Reduced dependency conflicts
These features have helped NixOS gain popularity among developers managing complex systems and cloud infrastructure.
Systemd-Based Initrd Becomes the Default
One of the most significant changes in NixOS 26.05 is the move to a systemd-based Stage 1 initrd by default. The older scripted implementation is now deprecated and scheduled for removal in NixOS 26.11.
The initrd (initial RAM disk) is responsible for preparing the system during early boot before the main operating system loads.
According to the release notes:
Systemd now handles Stage 1 initialization by default The previous scripted implementation remains temporarily available Users can still revert using boot.initrd.systemd.enable = false Long-term migration toward the systemd-based approach is encouraged
This change is expected to improve consistency and simplify maintenance across modern NixOS deployments.
Continuing the Twice-Yearly Release Cycle
NixOS continues its established release cadence of publishing stable versions twice per year—typically around May and November. The 26.05 “Yarara” release follows the previous 25.11 “Xantusia” release and continues the project's steady development rhythm.
The 26.05 development cycle involved extensive staging, package testing, and release management work coordinated through the NixOS community.
Large-Scale Package and Infrastructure Updates
Like previous NixOS releases, 26.05 includes a massive collection of package updates across the software ecosystem.
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- GNOME 51 Development Officially Begins as ‘A Coruña’ Cycle Gets Underway
by George Whittaker
The GNOME Project has officially opened the development cycle for GNOME 51, the next major release of one of Linux’s most widely used desktop environments. Following the recent launch of GNOME 50 “Tokyo,” developers are already shifting focus toward the next chapter of the desktop’s evolution, which will carry the codename “A Coruña.”
While it’s still very early in the process, the release schedule is now taking shape, giving Linux users and developers an early look at what to expect over the coming months.
GNOME 51 “A Coruña” Is Now in Development
The new release is named A Coruña, after the Spanish city that will host GUADEC 2026, the annual GNOME Users and Developers European Conference. The event serves as one of the most important gatherings for GNOME contributors, where future desktop plans, technologies, and development priorities are discussed.
As soon as GNOME 50 was finalized, development work for GNOME 51 officially began, continuing GNOME’s well-established six-month release cadence.
Release Schedule Already Published
The GNOME team has outlined the preliminary roadmap for the GNOME 51 cycle.
Current milestone dates include:
GNOME 51 Alpha: June 27, 2026 GNOME 51 Beta: August 1, 2026 GNOME 51 Release Candidate (RC): August 29, 2026 GNOME 51 Final Release: September 16, 2026
These milestones provide time for:
Feature integration Public testing Bug fixing Performance optimization Final stabilization before release
As always, dates may shift slightly depending on development progress.
Still Too Early for Major Feature Announcements
Because the development cycle has only just started, GNOME developers have not yet revealed a finalized feature list. Most major design discussions and merge requests are still in their early stages.
However, several areas are already attracting attention.
Wayland Improvements Are Likely a Major Focus
One of the biggest transitions in recent GNOME history happened with GNOME 50, which completed the project’s move away from X11 by removing remaining X.Org support from the desktop environment.
Because GNOME is now fully committed to Wayland, many observers expect GNOME 51 to focus heavily on:
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- Alpine Linux Experiments with Systemd Compatibility While Keeping Its Lightweight Identity
by George Whittaker
Alpine Linux, one of the most recognizable non-systemd Linux distributions, is reportedly experimenting with an optional systemd compatibility layer, a move that has sparked intense discussion across the Linux community.
For years, Alpine has stood apart from mainstream Linux distributions by avoiding both glibc and systemd, instead relying on:
musl libc BusyBox OpenRC as its init system
Now, growing software compatibility pressures, especially around desktop applications, containers, and enterprise tooling, appear to be pushing Alpine developers to explore new approaches.
Why Alpine Linux Avoided Systemd for So Long
Alpine Linux built its reputation around simplicity, security, and minimalism. Unlike many mainstream distributions, Alpine intentionally avoided systemd in favor of the lighter and more modular OpenRC init system.
This design philosophy made Alpine extremely popular for:
Containers and Docker images Embedded systems Lightweight virtual machines Security-focused deployments
Its tiny footprint and reduced dependency chain became major advantages in cloud and container environments.
The Compatibility Problem Is Growing
Despite Alpine’s popularity, avoiding systemd has increasingly created compatibility challenges.
Many modern Linux applications now assume the presence of:
libsystemd systemd APIs glibc-specific behaviors
This has become particularly problematic for:
Desktop software Proprietary enterprise applications Monitoring agents Certain gaming and multimedia tools AI and container orchestration software
Historically, Alpine users often relied on:
Compatibility layers like gcompat Flatpak containers Docker workarounds Manually patched packages
The growing complexity of those workarounds appears to be one reason compatibility discussions are intensifying.
What the Experimental Compatibility Layer Actually Means
Importantly, Alpine Linux is not replacing OpenRC with systemd.
Instead, the project appears to be exploring:
Optional compatibility packages libsystemd support Improved API compatibility for software expecting systemd components
Experimental efforts already exist in the broader ecosystem. For example, unofficial projects have packaged portions of systemd, particularly libsystemd, for Alpine systems specifically to satisfy software dependencies without running full systemd services.
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- Debian Experiments with AI-Assisted Bug Triage as Open-Source Projects Face Growing Report Overload
by George Whittaker
The Debian project has begun exploring AI-assisted bug triage workflows, joining a broader movement across the open-source world to manage the rapidly increasing volume of software bug reports and vulnerability submissions.
While Debian developers are approaching the idea cautiously, the effort reflects a growing reality for large open-source projects: modern software ecosystems are producing more bugs, duplicate reports, and security findings than human maintainers can efficiently process alone.
The discussion arrives during a period of intense debate within Linux and open-source communities about how artificial intelligence should be integrated into software development and maintenance.
Why Debian Is Looking at AI-Assisted Triage
Debian is one of the largest and most complex Linux distributions in existence, maintaining tens of thousands of software packages across multiple architectures and release branches. Managing bug reports at that scale has always been challenging.
Now, AI-assisted vulnerability scanning and automated testing tools are dramatically increasing report volumes across open-source projects. Maintainers are increasingly facing:
Duplicate vulnerability reports Low-quality automated submissions Massive triage backlogs Security mailing list overload Increasing maintainer burnout
AI-assisted bug triage systems are being explored as a way to help organize, prioritize, and categorize incoming reports before human maintainers review them.
What AI-Assisted Bug Triage Actually Means
Importantly, Debian is not handing software maintenance over to AI systems.
Instead, AI-assisted triage generally focuses on repetitive administrative tasks such as:
Detecting duplicate bug reports Categorizing issues by severity Routing bugs to appropriate maintainers Summarizing lengthy reports Identifying missing reproduction details Prioritizing security-related submissions
The goal is to reduce the amount of manual sorting work maintainers must perform before actual debugging begins.
The Open-Source Community Is Divided
Debian’s experiments come during an ongoing debate about AI’s role in open-source development.
Some maintainers view AI-assisted tooling as necessary because software complexity has outpaced human review capacity. Others worry about:
Low-quality AI-generated reports Maintainer overload False positives Loss of contributor accountability “Drive-by” AI contributions with little human understanding
The Debian community itself has spent months discussing how AI-assisted contributions should be handled, but no final project-wide policy has yet been adopted.
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- BudsLink Brings Advanced Earbud Controls to Linux Desktops
by George Whittaker
Linux users have long faced a frustrating limitation with wireless earbuds: basic Bluetooth audio usually works, but advanced features often remain locked behind proprietary mobile apps. A new open-source project called BudsLink is trying to change that.
Designed specifically for Linux desktops, BudsLink adds support for battery monitoring, Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) controls, ambient sound modes, gesture customization, and other premium earbud features that are typically unavailable outside Android or iOS ecosystems.
For Linux users who rely on devices like AirPods, Sony earbuds, Samsung Galaxy Buds, or Nothing earbuds, this is a significant quality-of-life improvement.
What Is BudsLink?
BudsLink is an independent open-source application that communicates directly with supported Bluetooth earbuds using Linux Bluetooth protocols such as L2CAP and RFCOMM sockets. Instead of treating earbuds as simple audio devices, the application exposes many of the advanced controls usually hidden behind vendor apps.
The project currently supports multiple device families, including:
Apple AirPods and Beats Sony audio wearables Samsung Galaxy Buds Nothing and CMF earbuds
The application is available through Flatpak and can run across multiple Linux distributions.
Features Linux Users Normally Don’t Get
Traditionally, Linux Bluetooth support has focused mainly on audio playback and microphone functionality. BudsLink goes much further by exposing premium earbud features directly within Linux.
Current capabilities include:
Monitoring earbud battery levels Viewing charging case battery status Switching between ANC and ambient sound modes Conversation awareness support on compatible devices Automatic volume reduction during conversations In-ear detection for automatic pause/resume Gesture and stem control configuration Customizable icons and appearance settings
For many Linux users, these are features they’ve never had access to outside mobile apps.
Closing a Long-Standing Linux Gap
Bluetooth earbuds have become increasingly dependent on proprietary ecosystems. Features like adaptive audio, transparency modes, or touch controls often require vendor-specific mobile applications that are unavailable on Linux.
That has created a frustrating situation where:
The earbuds technically work on Linux But users lose many of the features they paid for
BudsLink aims to bridge that gap by reverse-engineering communication protocols and exposing those controls natively on Linux desktops.
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- Ubuntu 26.10 Development Officially Begins as ‘Stonking Stingray’ Takes Shape
by George Whittaker
Canonical has officially kicked off development planning for Ubuntu 26.10, the next interim release of the popular Linux distribution. Codenamed “Stonking Stingray,” the release is scheduled to arrive on October 15, 2026, continuing Ubuntu’s predictable six-month development cycle.
Although Ubuntu 26.10 is still in the early planning stages, the release roadmap already offers hints about what users can expect from the next generation of Ubuntu.
A New Interim Release After Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
Ubuntu 26.10 follows the recently released Ubuntu 26.04 LTS “Resolute Raccoon”, which introduced major platform changes including Linux 7.0, GNOME 50, Wayland-only sessions, and expanded TPM-backed security features.
Unlike the LTS release, Ubuntu 26.10 will be a short-term support release, receiving updates for nine months instead of the five years offered by LTS editions.
These interim releases are typically used to introduce newer technologies and prepare the groundwork for future long-term Ubuntu versions.
The “Stonking Stingray” Codename
Canonical confirmed that Ubuntu 26.10 will carry the codename “Stonking Stingray.”
As with previous Ubuntu releases, the codename follows the project’s long-running naming convention using:
An adjective An animal beginning with the same letter
The playful naming tradition remains one of Ubuntu’s most recognizable characteristics.
Development Schedule Already Published
Canonical has already published the preliminary roadmap for Ubuntu 26.10 development. Major milestones currently include:
Feature Freeze: August 20, 2026 Beta Release: September 24, 2026 Kernel Freeze: October 1, 2026 Final Release: October 15, 2026
The toolchain upload process reportedly began in late April, officially opening the development cycle.
Expected Technologies in Ubuntu 26.10
While Canonical has not yet finalized the complete feature set, several components are widely expected based on current development schedules.
GNOME 51
Ubuntu 26.10 is likely to ship with GNOME 51, which is expected to be released roughly one month before Ubuntu 26.10 itself.
This would continue Ubuntu’s strategy of tracking recent GNOME desktop releases in interim versions.
Linux Kernel 7.2 or 7.3
Reports suggest Ubuntu 26.10 may include either:
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