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What is the Linux Installation Project?
Real companies using Linux!
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- Firefox 151.0 released
Version151.0 of the Firefox browser has been released. Significant changesinclude the ability to clear and restart a private-browsing session, betterfingerprinting protection, control over the apparent location when using theFirefox VPN, and more.
- [$] openSUSE "terms of site" raise complaints about age restrictions
Many people in the Linux community began using the operating system—andcontributing to open source—at a tender age, often well beforetheir 16th birthday. Thus, a recent change in openSUSE's terms of site (ToS)that required users of the project's web site to be "at least 16years of age or the age of majority" in their jurisdiction hasraised objections. The terms have since been modified, though usersmust still have parental approval to create accounts if they areyounger than 16.
- [$] In search of faster this_cpu operations
The kernel's this_cpuoperations are meant to speed access to per-CPU variables. They aremore optimal on some CPUs than others, though. During amemory-management-track session at the 2026 Linux Storage,Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit, Yang Shi proposed afundamental, and somewhat controversial, change to how these operationswork in order to provide better performance on a wider range of architectures.
- [$] What's brewing in CXL
ComputeExpress Link (CXL) is a technology intended to enable the provision of"memory nodes" in data centers that provide (possibly shared) memory tonearby CPUs. It has, Dan Williams said at the beginning of hismemory-management-track session on the topic at the 2026 Linux Storage,Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit, "been makingmemory-management problems worse since 2021". He used the session toprovide an overview of the ways in which CXL can be expected to extend thatrecord into the future.
- [$] Improving the per-CPU memory allocator
There are many places in the kernel where performance can be improved byusing per-CPU data. But, as it turns out, the kernel's allocator forper-CPU data has some performance problems of its own. Harry Yoo led asession in the memory-management track of the 2026 Linux Storage,Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit to explore ways toaddress those problems and accelerate the allocation and initialization ofper-CPU data.
- Security updates for Tuesday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (libpng and nginx), Debian (erlang, netatalk, and nginx), Fedora (mod_md and SDL2_image), Mageia (perl-libwww-perl, perl-HTTP-Message, perl-WWW-Mechanize-Cached, perl-File-XDG, perl-Path-Tiny, perl-YAML-Syck, postgresql15, and rclone), SUSE (agama, alloy, cacti, cloud-init, dnsmasq, emacs, firefox, glibc, go1.25, go1.26, google-cloud-sap-agent, google-guest-agent, ibus-rime, librime, imagemagick, kernel, libsndfile, nginx, ongres-scram, ongres-stringprep, plexus-testing,, openexr, openssh, PackageKit, perl-Text-CSV_XS, php-composer2, php8, postgresql16, postgresql18, python-lxml, python-python-multipart, python3, python311-urllib3, rmt-server, rsync, tiff, tree-sitter, util-linux, and xen), and Ubuntu (linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.4, linux-aws-fips, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.4, linux-azure-fips, linux-bluefield, linux-fips, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-5.4, linux-gcp-fips, linux-hwe-5.4, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-5.4, linux-iot, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.4, linux-xilinx-zynqmp, linux, linux-aws, linux-kvm, linux-lts-xenial, linux-nvidia-tegra, linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15, linux-raspi, and linux-xilinx-zynqmp).
- pgBackRest will continue
In April, David Steele, maintainer of the popular pgBackRest backup and restore project forPostgreSQL, announced that he had archivedthe project and it would no longer be maintained due to lack ofsponsorship. On May 18, he announcedthat a number of sponsors have stepped forward to ensure its continueddevelopment:
Over the last few weeks, a coalition of sponsors has come togetherto fund ongoing development. Their support means the project is nolonger reliant on a single sponsor, giving pgBackRest the stability itneeds for the long term.
[...] I'm looking forward to getting back to work. There arefeatures and optimizations in the pipeline that I'm excited to sharein upcoming releases. Thank you to our sponsors for making thispossible, and thank you to the community for your patience and supportduring this transition.
Thanks to Paul Wise for the tip.
- [$] Swap tables, flash-friendly swap, swap_ops, and more
The kernel's swap subsystem is charged with managing anonymous pages insecondary storage when those pages are (hopefully) not being used and thememory they occupy is needed elsewhere. This long-unloved subsystem hasseen a resurgence of developer interest in recent times, so it is notsurprising that it was the topic of three separate sessions in thememory-management track at the2026 Linux Storage,Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit. Two of those sessionswere concerned with improving the performance and maintainability of theswap code, while one (shared with the storage track) was about how swappingcould be friendlier to solid-state storage devices.
- Security updates for Monday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (freerdp, gimp:2.8, jq, kernel, and rsync), Debian (chromium, ffmpeg, firewalld, kernel, nginx, openjpeg2, openssh, php7.4, and redis), Fedora (apptainer, chromium, coturn, dnsmasq, firefox, kernel, libgit2_1.8, libmetal, nginx, nginx-mod-brotli, nginx-mod-fancyindex, nginx-mod-headers-more, nginx-mod-js-challenge, nginx-mod-modsecurity, nginx-mod-naxsi, nginx-mod-vts, open-amp, perl-Net-CIDR-Lite, pgbouncer, pypy, python-jupytext, python-uv-build, rsync, rust-astral-tokio-tar, uriparser, uv, valkey, and yelp), Mageia (dpkg, firefox, thunderbird, golang, haproxy, and samba), Slackware (dnsmasq and kernel), and SUSE (apache-commons-configuration2, apache2, apptainer, chromedriver, cups-filters, curl, dnsmasq, expat, ffmpeg-4, ffmpeg-7, firebird, firewalld, flux2-cli, glibc, go1.25, go1.26, gosec, grub2, ImageMagick, java-11-openj9, java-17-openj9, java-1_8_0-openj9, java-1_8_0-openjdk, java-21-openj9, java-25-openj9, kdenlive, kernel, kernel-devel, keylime-config, krb5, libIex-3_4-33, mozjs115, mozjs78, nginx, openssh, openvswitch, ovmf, PackageKit, perl-Crypt-URandom, perl-CryptX, perl-libwww-perl, perl-Net-CIDR-Lite, perl-Text-CSV_XS, podman, postgresql17, postgresql18, python-pyOpenSSL, python310, rsync, sed, tekton-cli, valkey, xen, and zypper-docker).
- Kernel prepatch 7.1-rc4
The 7.1-rc4 kernel prepatch is out fortesting.
Some of the documentation updates might be worth highlighting: the continued flood of AI reports has basically made the security list almost entirely unmanageable, with enormous duplication due to different people finding the same things with the same tools. People spend all their time just forwarding things to the right people or saying "that was already fixed a week/month ago" and pointing to the public discussion.
Which is all entirely pointless churn, and we're making it clear that AI detected bugs are pretty much by definition not secret, and treating them on some private list is a waste of time for everybody involved - and only makes that duplication worse because the reporters can't even see each other's reports.
(He is referring to thispull request with patches from Willy Tarreau defining what constitutes a securitybug and responsibleways to use AI to find bugs).
- Fedora Retiring Its Deepin Desktop Packages
A year after SUSE decided to remove its Deepin desktop packages over ongoing security concerns, Fedora Linux is now also removing their Deepin packages over similar concerns and lack of activity in maintaining the packages...
- LILYGO adds ESP32-S3 Standard Series to T-SIM lineup
LILYGO has introduced the T-SIM / T-A Standard Series, a refreshed family of ESP32-S3 cellular development boards combining SIMCom and A76xx modem options with new hardware features including Qwiic support, seamless power switching, camera interfaces, optional GNSS functionality, and lower deep-sleep power consumption. The Standard Series is based on the ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 (N16R2) module with 16MB […]
- Plex Triples Lifetime Subscription Cost To $750
BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: Plex is raising the price of a new Lifetime Plex Pass from $249.99 to $749.99 on July 1. That's a $500 increase for media server software. Plex says it needs the money for "long-term development" and future features, but a lot of self-hosting folks are already wondering if this is basically a soft way of killing the Lifetime option without officially removing it. At nearly $750, are people just going to move to Jellyfin instead? As for those future improvements, Plex said the roadmap includes better downloads support, restored music and photo library support in mobile apps, NFO metadata support, IPv6 support, playlist editing on mobile, audio enhancements, and transcoding improvements.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Google Changes Its Search Box for the First Time in 25 Years
Google is giving its iconic search box its first major redesign since 2001. The new design incorporates, you guessed it, artificial intelligence, "getting bigger and more interactive so that people can ask even longer questions and upload photographs and videos into queries," reports the New York Times. "In addition, people can ask follow-up questions with a chatbot on Google's main search page." From the report: The company will also offer digital assistants, known as agents, to automate searches so that someone who may be apartment hunting can be notified of a new listing without opening a real estate site like Zillow. The search features will be powered by a new artificial intelligence model, Gemini 3.5 Flash. Google said the model had improved on creating software code and performing autonomous tasks, worked faster and was less expensive to run than comparable models. [...] Google is also bringing one of A.I.'s biggest breakthroughs -- software coding -- to search. When people research complex topics like astrophysics, Gemini can build interactive graphics and simulations behind the scenes to provide a deeper answer than its previous listing of websites. Google said it was introducing an alternative to the agents powered by Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex. Called Gemini Spark, the service is embedded in Gmail, Docs and other Google products, where it can turn meeting notes spread across emails and chats into a single document. It can also read and draft emails. "The open web is on its way out," says Richard Kramer, a financial analyst with Arete Research. "With A.I., Google is reducing everyone to raw data providers."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- NextEra and Dominion's $67 Billion Mega-Merger Is All About the Data Centers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Inside Climate News: A proposed merger of the largest utility in the country by market value, NextEra Energy, with the sixth-largest, Dominion, would create a megacompany at a time when data centers and rapid increases in electricity demand are reshaping the industry. The proposal, announced Monday morning and contingent on state and federal regulatory approval, would result in a company that leads in nearly every aspect of the US power and utility industry, including overall electricity generation, natural gas generation, and renewables. The $67 billion deal combines NextEra's size and reach with Dominion's positioning as the local utility for the world's largest concentration of data centers in northern Virginia. But the results are likely bad for consumers and the environment, creating a company with enormous financial and political strength that will be difficult to effectively regulate, according to consumer advocates and analysts. For perspective, only Exxon Mobil and Chevron would be larger based on market value among US-based energy companies. "Mergers are not about consumers; they're about shareholders," said Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School. "For the Dominion shareholders, they are selling their shares at a premium. The executives are getting massive payouts for facilitating this, assuming it all goes through, and obviously NextEra believes the transaction is going to add value to the company. Ratepayers are all an afterthought." The deal makes financial sense for both companies, said Andrew Bischof, an equity analyst for Morningstar. "We view the transaction as allowing NextEra to accelerate its data center ambitions, which had trailed those of its regulated peers, by using Dominion's expertise and relationships to expedite NextEra's data center hub plans," he said in a note to clients. NextEra, based in Juno Beach, Florida, includes Florida Power & Light, the largest regulated electricity utility in the state, and NextEra Energy Resources, a wholesale electricity supplier that owns power plants across the nation. Dominion, based in Richmond, Virginia, includes regulated utilities serving much of Virginia, parts of North Carolina and South Carolina, and other assets across the country. The company would be called NextEra Energy, and NextEra CEO John W. Ketchum would serve in the same role after the deal closes. Robert M. Blue, Dominion's CEO, would be the CEO for regulated utilities for the merged company. The parties said they expect regulatory approvals to take 12 to 18 months. NextEra shareholders would own 74.5 percent and Dominion shareholders would own 25.5 percent, respectively, of the combined company in the all-stock transaction. "We are bringing NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy together because scale matters more than ever -- not for the sake of size, but because scale translates into capital and operating efficiencies," Ketchum said in a statement. Although the companies claim the deal would produce savings, including $2.25 billion in Dominion customer bill credits, former regulator Marissa Paslick Gillett said she was "flabbergasted by the tone deafness," arguing that major utility mergers rarely deliver the promised "synergies" and often create "a behemoth" that is harder to regulate. Others warned that a larger NextEra could use its political power "to the disadvantage of ratepayers," while climate advocates said expanding methane gas plants to serve data centers would worsen pollution and leave vulnerable communities "at the short end of the stick."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- OpenAI Co-Founder Andrej Karpathy Joins Anthropic
OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy has joined rival AI lab Anthropic. "The hire is a major coup for Anthropic in the high-stakes competition for elite AI talent -- and another sign the company is emerging as a magnet for some of the industry's most respected technical minds," reports Axios. From the report: Karpathy will start this week on Anthropic's pre-training team, which is responsible for the massive training runs that give Claude its core knowledge and capabilities, according to Anthropic. Karpathy will help launch a new team focused on using Claude itself to accelerate pretraining research -- an increasingly important frontier as AI companies race to automate parts of AI development. "I think the next few years at the frontier of LLMs will be especially formative. I am very excited to join the team here and get back to R&D," Karpathy said in a post on X. Karpathy is a rare AI figure with credibility across research, industry and education. He was a founding member of OpenAI before serving as Tesla's director of AI, where he led the computer vision team behind Autopilot. Karpathy coined the term "vibe coding" and recently described himself as being in a "state of AI psychosis" since December -- embracing "tokenmaxxing" and aggressively stress-testing frontier models.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- StanChart To Cut Over 7,000 Jobs, Boost AI To Replace 'Lower-Value Human Capital'
The London-headquartered lender Standard Chartered announced plans to cut more than 7,000 jobs by 2030, with CEO Bill Winters saying the bank will replace some "lower-value human capital" through automation and AI while offering retraining to affected workers. "It's not cost-cutting. It's replacing in some cases lower-value human capital with the financial capital and the investment capital we're putting in," CEO Bill Winters told reporters. "So, the people that want to reskill, that want to carry on, we're giving every opportunity to reposition," Winters said. Reuters reports: The cuts, alongside higher shareholder return targets announced in a strategy update, come as StanChart is at the tail-end of a decade-long effort to transform itself from a potential takeover target to a steadily profitable lender. Its London-listed shares, which have risen 65% in the last 12 months, fell 0.5% in early trading, as analysts said the new targets were at the conservative end of their expectations. "In a world full of uncertainty, performance may prove more challenging further out," said Ed Firth, analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, citing how the bank has benefited in recent years from high interest rates and huge wealth flows. StanChart's move to streamline operations and rein in costs comes as more global firms slash jobs by deploying AI to improve efficiency. Japanese lender Mizuho in March unveiled up to 5,000 job cuts over a decade. And banks globally are scrambling to integrate frontier AI models and fend off rising cyber threats. The most affected roles will be in the bank's back-office centres, including those in Chennai, Bengaluru, Kuala Lumpur and Warsaw, according to Winters. "Of course we're using AI along the way and AI will be a huge facilitator and enabler of that," he added, referring to its ongoing revamp to automate more of its core banking system. StanChart said it would deliver over 15% return on tangible equity in 2028, more than three percentage points higher than in 2025, and building to about 18% in 2030. Meta also announced plans to reassign 7,000 employees into AI-related initiatives, just ahead of layoffs expected to affect roughly 8,000 workers.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- CISA Admin Leaked AWS GovCloud Keys On Github
An anonymous reader quotes a report from KrebsOnSecurity: Until this past weekend, a contractor for the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) maintained a public GitHub repository that exposed credentials to several highly privileged AWS GovCloud accounts and a large number of internal CISA systems. Security experts said the public archive included files detailing how CISA builds, tests and deploys software internally, and that it represents one of the most egregious government data leaks in recent history. On May 15, KrebsOnSecurity heard from Guillaume Valadon, a researcher with the security firm GitGuardian. Valadon's company constantly scans public code repositories at GitHub and elsewhere for exposed secrets, automatically alerting the offending accounts of any apparent sensitive data exposures. Valadon said he reached out because the owner in this case wasn't responding and the information exposed was highly sensitive. The GitHub repository that Valadon flagged was named "Private-CISA," and it harbored a vast number of internal CISA/DHS credentials and files, including cloud keys, tokens, plaintext passwords, logs and other sensitive CISA assets. Valadon said the exposed CISA credentials represent a textbook example of poor security hygiene, noting that the commit logs in the offending GitHub account show that the CISA administrator disabled the default setting in GitHub that blocks users from publishing SSH keys or other secrets in public code repositories. "Passwords stored in plain text in a csv, backups in git, explicit commands to disable GitHub secrets detection feature," Valadon wrote in an email. "I honestly believed that it was all fake before analyzing the content deeper. This is indeed the worst leak that I've witnessed in my career. It is obviously an individual's mistake, but I believe that it might reveal internal practices." "Currently, there is no indication that any sensitive data was compromised as a result of this incident," a CISA spokesperson wrote. "While we hold our team members to the highest standards of integrity and operational awareness, we are working to ensure additional safeguards are implemented to prevent future occurrences." The GitHub account in question was taken offline shortly after CISA was notified about the exposure. However, according to Caturegli, the exposed AWS keys remained valid for another 48 hours. "What I suspect happened is [the CISA contractor] was using this GitHub to synchronize files between a work laptop and a home computer, because he has regularly committed to this repo since November 2025," Caturegli said. "This would be an embarrassing leak for any company, but it's even more so in this case because it's CISA."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Microsoft Launches Surface Pro 12, Surface Laptop 8 With Intel Chips
Microsoft is launching three new Intel-powered Surface devices for businesses: the Surface Pro 12, Surface Laptop 8, and a smaller 13-inch Surface Laptop model. These new machines come equipped with newer Intel chips, a few business-focused upgrades, and notably higher starting prices. "The high pricing of these three new Surface devices is a sign of things to come for whatever consumer models Microsoft is planning this year," notes The Verge. From the report: This time around Microsoft is refreshing its Surface Pro and Surface Laptop models with Intel's latest Core Ultra Series 3 processors first, ahead of similar models with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X2 processors later this year. The new Surface Pro 12, or as Microsoft calls it the Surface Pro for Business 13-inch (12th Edition), will be available for businesses today, starting at an eye-watering $1,949.99. The base model will include an Intel Core Ultra 5 processor, 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and the regular 13-inch PixelSense LCD display. Businesses will have to pay extra for models with Intel's Core Ultra 7 processor, up to 64GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of storage. The top spec Surface Pro 12 with a Core Ultra 7, 64GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage will be priced at $4,399.99, and there are also OLED screen options and models with 5G connectivity. The Surface Pro 12 5G starts at $2,249.99, with a Core Ultra 5, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. [...] Microsoft is also launching two new versions of the Surface Laptop for businesses today. The Surface Laptop 8, or Surface Laptop for Business 13.8 or 15-inch (8th Edition) as Microsoft calls it, will also be available with a range of Intel's Core Ultra Series 3 chips. It launches alongside a smaller 13-inch model, which is confusingly labeled the Surface Laptop for Business 13-inch (1st Edition). The 13.8-inch model starts at $1,949.99, and includes Intel's Core Ultra 5 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. While Surface devices for businesses have typically had higher pricing than consumer models, the $1,949.99 starting price for a Surface Laptop 8 is almost double the original price of the Surface Laptop 7. RAMageddon really has come for Microsoft's Surface Pro and Surface Laptop devices, after recent price increases meant the existing consumer models are now $500 more expensive than their original starting price. The max configuration for the 13.8-inch Surface Pro 8 will include a Core Ultra 7, 64GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage for $4,299.99. A similar version of the 15-inch model (with an x7 processor) will be priced at $4,499.99.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Microsoft Surprises With Its First Server Linux Distribution: Azure Linux 4.0
Microsoft is turning Azure Linux into a general-purpose, Fedora-based cloud distribution available to all Azure customers, while also productizing Flatcar as Azure Container Linux for immutable container hosts. "When Microsoft joined the Linux Foundation, there was this big conspiracy theory that somehow the Linux Foundation was undermining open source in partnership with Microsoft, and now you announce that you're shipping a Linux distribution," Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation's CEO, said in response to Microsoft's surprise announcement. "That's amazing." ZDNet reports: Until now, [Lachlan Everson, Microsoft's Principal Program Manager on Azure's open-source team] noted, "we had Azure Linux only available to third-party customers through AKS specifically, and that was Azure Linux 3.0." Going forward, this will be ACL. Everson emphasized that Azure Linux 4.0 is the culmination of years of internal usage and the evolution of the earlier Mariner distribution. "So we've been running Azure Linux for many years internally, and we got through to 3.0, and we only allowed it on as a container host on AKS. What we've done is make it a general-purpose, so this is all the learnings that we've had in the heritage of Mariner." Under the hood, Azure Linux 4.0 is based on Fedora Linux and is delivered as an open distribution on GitHub. This code is available now. Yes, Red Hat knows that Microsoft has done this. Everson continued, "So, we made a decision to use Fedora as an upstream, so it's using RPMs in the Fedora ecosystem. Microsoft curates the packages and the supply chain to fit Azure's cloud platform." Microsoft also created "it to be purpose-built for Azure, which integrates vertically into all of our infrastructure to give you the best Azure Linux experience on Azure." While Azure Linux will ship as a VM image, Microsoft is already preparing a developer-friendly path onto Windows desktops: "And as of today, we have it as a VM image for your VM host on Azure. We're going to announce WSL images as well." While developers will be able to run Azure Linux locally through WSL, Microsoft is not positioning it as a traditional desktop Linux. Asked whether he could run it on his laptop, Everson said: "I will be able to run it on my laptop, or what have you. Yes, on Windows 11." However, when pressed about a desktop experience, Everson was clear that there are "no plans" for a graphical environment. "It's optimized for server-side in the cloud," he said, adding that even on a developer machine, users should expect a lean environment. "Minimal packages, yeah. The idea is that we offer you a consistent experience to do your development on your machine, and that you can take your workloads as you develop them on your machine and run them with VS Code. You can run your applications on that, and know that the platform is the same that you're running on the cloud, so that you have that kind of consistency between environments." Flatcar itself remains the upstream project, but Microsoft is packaging it for Azure customers. Everson described Flatcar as "purpose-built, immutable, secure by default, production-ready operating system, and Azure Container Linux is the productization of that, but we're still investing in the upstream Flatcar ecosystem and pulling that downstream into a productized exterior experience just for container workloads, so it's a container hosting in AKS." To underscore the immutable model, he added that "Everything's baked in, so there is no package manager. We bake the bits into the immutable, and they're in the immutable version. So Azure Container Linux is the immutable version. So you shouldn't be changing any system packages or any application packages. Anything that you need to change is customer workloads run in containers."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Before Mass Layoffs, Meta Reassigns 7,000 Workers To Focus On AI
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Meta told employees on Monday that it was reassigning 7,000 workers to focus on new initiatives around artificial intelligence, the latest change in a company transformation spurred by the powerful technology. Employees will be moved to four new organizations focused on building new A.I. tools and apps, Janelle Gale, Meta's head of human resources, said in an internal memo. The organizations will use "A.I. native design structures" and have fewer managers per employee than other parts of the company, she said, adding that company leaders will send details about the new roles on Wednesday. The restructuring "will make us more productive and make the work more rewarding," Ms. Gale wrote. Meta declined to comment further on the changes.The move comes shortly before Meta begins laying off roughly 8,000 employees, or 10 percent of its work force. Ms. Gale also mentioned Wednesday's layoffs in her memo. "We know days like this are extremely hard, and we appreciate you showing up for each other," Ms. Gale said. According to the NYT, employees have been asked to work remotely that day and emails about the layoffs would be sent at 4 a.m. local time. Employees in the United States will receive 16 weeks of severance pay, along with two extra weeks for every year they worked at Meta.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Amazon's Alexa+ Now Produces AI-Generated Podcasts
Amazon is adding AI-generated "podcasts" to Alexa+, letting users request custom audio explainers on any topic featuring two synthetic co-hosts. Variety reports: Seemingly to dispel the notion that these "podcasts" will be AI audio slop, Amazon emphasized that it has deals with major news organizations to ensure "accurate, real-time news and information." Those include the Associated Press, Reuters, the Washington Post, Time magazine, Forbes, Business Insider, Politico and USA Today; publications from Conde Nast, Hearst and Vox Media; and more than 200 local newspapers across the U.S. In an example clip shared by Amazon of the new Alexa Podcasts feature, the two AI-generated hosts discuss "the latest music releases." A male Alexa+ narrator says more than 50% of music listening now comes from unsigned artists. "The monoculture is just gone," a female-voiced Alexa+ narrator chimes in. The male Alexa+ host says there has been "stoner metal," indie pop and experimental hip-hop music "all dropping on the same Friday," and adds, "That's not chaos -- that's the healthiest the music ecosystem has ever been." [...] To use Alexa Podcasts, users can simply tell Alexa what topic they're curious about and "it does the rest in minutes." Alexa+ will provide an overview of what it plans to cover, and let you adjust the length and direction before it generates the podcast. When your episode is ready, you'll get a notification on your Echo Show device and the Alexa app.
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]
- The Virtual OS Museum
This is a virtual museum of operating systems (and standalone applications) running under emulation, implemented as a Linux VM for QEMU, VirtualBox, or UTM. A custom emulator-independent launcher is provided, and all OSes and emulators are pre-installed and pre-configured. The launcher includes a snapshot feature to quickly revert broken installations back to a working state. Hypervisor installers and shortcuts to run the VM on Windows, macOS, and Linux are also included. ↫ Andrew Warkentins Virtual OS Museum These types of preconfigured archives exist in the gaming world, but Ive never seen something like this for operating systems. The amount of love, work, and care that have gone into this effort mustve been immense, as it contains more than 1700 installs, more than 520 platforms, and more than 570 distinct operating systems, all wrapped into a single download, with a nice launcher on top to make using all of this as easy as possible. You can either download the full offline version at 121GB zipped, or a version that downloads each image as you fire them up for the first time at 14GB zipped. The contents span just about everything from early mainframes to desktop operating systems to all kinds of mobile platforms, from the late 1940s to today. I havent yet found the time to download the whole thing, but I am absolutely going to, as there are so many names in here that Ive been wanting to play around with for ages, but just never got the time to set up virtual machines or emulators for. This is going to be an amazing resource for the kinds of people who read OSNews.
- Google kills its search engine
We can inter Google Search to the Google Graveyard. At its Google I/O conference on Tuesday, Google unveiled an AI-powered overhaul of Search centered around a reimagined “intelligent search box” — what the company describes as the biggest change to this entry point to the web since the search box debuted more than 25 years ago. Instead of returning a simple list of links, Google Search will drop users into AI-powered interactive experiences at times. Google is also introducing tools that can dispatch “information agents” to gather information on a user’s behalf, along with tools that let users build personalized mini apps tailored to their needs. ↫ Sarah Perez at TechCrunch The attack on online search has been ongoing for a long time, and it has already resulted in most people with a higher-than-average interest in technology to either no longer use Google, or just to not use online search at all. I used DuckDuckGo for a long time, until I switched to Startpage somewhere last year, and I have never looked back. Startpage (and many others like it) is a very simple, basic search engine: it just gives you a list of links. Thats it. Thats all I ever want from a search engine, as the task of then vetting each link for relevancy, accuracy, trustworthiness, and so on, is up to me, where it very well belongs. I do not want and the world should not want a massive technology corporation like Google, with a deeply vested, existential interest in guiding you towards websites from the companies that pay them for ads, to guide your online browsing experience. Google Search is already riddled with ads, but at least theyre labeled and somewhat obvious. With these new AI! chatbot-style interfaces, not only are its sources nebulous and tucked away, if they even exist at all, but they also just make shit up, fail at the most basic of tasks, and generally just suck at what theyre supposed to be doing. This will make online search with Google worse. Worse yet, this will make it even easier for the billionaire Epstein class to sow dissent among the population, creating rifts and hatred where none should exist, solely to keep the peasants occupied fighting each other so they dont turn their anger towards the real reason their lives suck. Panem et circenses has transformed into divide et impera, and these nebulous chatbots with complex, invisible levers and dials will only make the divide easier.
- Futhark by example
The following is a hands-on introduction to Futhark through a collection of commented programs, listed in roughly increasing order of complexity. You can load the programs into the interpreter to experiment with them. For a conventional introduction to the language, Parallel Programming in Futhark may be a better choice. For more examples, you can check our implemented benchmarks. We also maintain a list of projects using Futhark. Some of the example programs use directives for plotting or rendering graphics. ↫ Futhark homepage As a non-programmer, I just think the name is cool.
- OpenBSD 7.9 released
The worlds best BSD (Im kidding, I love them all equally) has released version 7.9, now available through your update tools and on mirrors the world over. OpenBSD 7.9 brings a ton of changes, fixes, and improvements, such as delayed hibernation support on amd64. This will allow OpenBSD laptops to briefly wake up from sleep, to then immediately drop into hibernation. A small but incredibly welcome change is that sysupgrade will now handle low space on /usr more gracefully, which will make quite a few people who once hit that limit very happy. OpenBSD 7.9 also brings VA-API and open Widevine support to its Chromium (and derivatives) port, and OpenBSD can now run as a guest under Apples hypervisor for M-series Macs. Theres initial low-level support for the FUSE API, the maximum support processor count on amd64 has been raised from 64 to 255, theres improved support for managing complex core configurations in the scheduler, and many more changes. Theres also the usual new versions of LibreSSL and OpenSSH, of course, but thats a given.
- The 21 years and 20000 posts OSNews fundraiser: €1 for every post
Note: this post is sticky. New posts appear below it, so scroll down! To celebrate my 21 years and 20000 posts as OSNews managing editor, its time for a massive fundraiser: €1 for every story Ive posted over the past 21 years, for a long-term total goal of €20000. Because OSNews is ad-free and independent, I rely entirely on your donations and support for my income and OSNews continued survival. Your donations ensures OSNews remains free of ads, corporate influence, and other commercial interests that have ruined so many great websites. Why support OSNews? I want to make sure I can run OSNews for another two decades and another 20000 posts, and I need your help to do so. Since my wife, who has a tough, underpaid job in elderly care, is largely unable to work due to health reasons caused by that very same job, my income has become a lot more crucial for our kids, my wife, and myself. With OSNews readers being more skeptical of subscription-like things like our Patreon than most people, its exactly these one-time donations that make up the bulk of your support. To sweeten the deal, Ive come up with a bunch of silly incentives that will unlock at certain thresholds: I know many of you dont really care about incentives and silly things like these, but I think theyre fun and add some interesting things to donate to. The donations already started coming in, so weve got a small head start. Also, if anyone has any idea on how to add a cool progress bar to OSNews to keep track of the donations and incentives, please let me know. Im sure some of you can whip something up or point me to something. OSNews was founded in 1997, so were almost 30 years old. Lets keep this wonderful little corner of the people-focused web alive for just a euro per post. Everyone here deserves it, because yall are great. e
- Haiku OS runs on M1 Macs now
Big news from the Haiku forums: the Haiku ARM port is running on M1 Macs now. This is bare metal, no VM. m1n1+u-boot deal with the Apple-specific parts of booting, so we can boot UEFI images from USB like any PC. ↫ smrobtzz on the Haiku forums USB is apparently broken, but all 8 cores are functional, and it boots to a desktop. Its still early days, for the ARM port in general and the M1 Mac port specifically, but its a great start.
- You can now run Windows CE 2.11 on the Nintendo 64
Ive seen some wild projects in my day, but this one is definitely up there as one of the more ambitious. Stock Microsoft Windows CE 2.11 running on a real Nintendo 64. A custom HAL drops the unmodified nk.lib kernel onto VR4300, brings up the CE 2.11 GWES desktop and shell, mounts the EverDrive-64 X7s SD card under \SDCard, treats the N64 controller as a mouse, plays sound through the N64 AI hardware via the standard CE wave stack, and runs third-party CE 2.11 EXEs straight off the SD card. This is a hobby reverse-engineering project: there is no official CE 2.11 port to N64 from Microsoft. Everything below the unmodified nk.lib (HAL, OAL, display driver, FSD, kbd/mouse PDD, wave PDD, RDP-accelerated GDI fill, ed64-X7 driver) is part of this repo. ↫ ThroatyMumbo Getting a fully operational desktop on Windows CE 2.11 is a lot harder than it appears at first sight, because this earlier version of Windows CE didnt come with many of the reference implementations of components that later versions would add. OEMs were supposed to develop their own user interfaces for Windows CE 2.11, so the entire desktop you see here on this N64 port window manager, taskbar, file manager, and so on consists of custom code developed by ThroatyMumbo, using the standard Windows CE APIs. Thats not all, though, as the same applies to the various drivers needed to make Windows CE 2.11 talk to the hardware in the Nintendo 64. Windows CE 2.11 contains the interfaces for drivers but OEMs were supposed to write their own device drivers. So ThroatyMumbo did: the display driver, input drivers, sound driver, cartridge driver, and so on, are all written from scratch. Absolutely incredible. Note: it seems AI! has been involved in this project, but its unclear to what extent. I didnt see any telltale signs, but readers have reached out to me about this. The result of all this is that you can now run Windows CE 2.11, including a familiar shell, on your N64, and run any Windows CE applications as well. Absolutely wild.
- How does Flathub even work? The CDN and caching layer
There is one specific way in which the non-corporate open source projects typically document how their infrastructure work: not at all, and Flathub is no different. The full picture likely lives only in my brain, and while it could be sorted out by anyone (especially in this LLM age, yay or nay), why should it only be me thinking at night about all the single points of failure? Like any system that evolved naturally, its all over the place. Its tempting to tell its history chronologically, but even then, its difficult to find a good entry point. Instead, this post focuses on what happens when users call flatpak install; later entries will cover the website and, finally, the build infrastructure. Buckle up! ↫ Bart Piotrowski As time goes by and more and more issues with Flatpak are addressed, I feel my attitude towards the technology change somewhat. Im still very much a traditional package manager type of person, and will opt for my distributions repository if the versions they have are up-to-date, but Im no longer audibly groaning if an application I want is only really available as a Flatpak. For the increasing number of normal, average users switching to Linux, Flatpak is probably the right way to go, especially since it can easily coexist with your traditional package manager. The only part of the linked article that made me raise my eyebrow was the reliance on Fastly, which seems to form an important linchpin of the whole Flathub stack. Fastly is an American company, and while they support Flathub entirely for free, the state of the world does have me wonder if this couldnt evolve into a problem in a myriad of ways, perhaps through questionable people acquiring Fastly or through pressures from the clown car US administration. Im sure its all fine, but its hard not to think of these things in this day and age.
- Microsoft finally brings back moving and resizing the taskbar in Windows 11
Microsoft is finally rolling out one of the most requested set of features to Windows 11: a movable and resizable taskbar. Windows 11 did away with the ability to move the taskbar to any side of the screen, as well as a various other taskbar customization options, that had been there since the very first iteration of the taskbar in Windows 95. Now theyre finally bringing it back. Microsoft is finally rolling out two of the most requested features: the ability to move the taskbar and make it smaller, so you have more screen space. I tested Windows 11’s new movable taskbar integration, and it’s just as good as the original Windows 10 version, which let you move the taskbar to the top or sides. ↫ Mayank Parmar at Windows Latest It works exactly as youd expect it to, with icons, text, menus, and other user interface elements adapting to their new location on the sides or top of the screen. I feel absolutely stupefied that I need to make a news item about this in this, the year of Our Lady 2026, but I know a lot of people stuck on Windows 11 were really missing these basic features. Rejoice.
- 21 years and 20000 posts later
Almost exactly 21 years ago, in June 2005, at a mere 20 years old, I took over the managing editor role at OSNews from Eugenia. I had already published a few articles in the years prior, and had given Eugenia enough confidence to suggest me as her replacement. It was, and is, a great honour. In those 21 years and more than 20000 posts, Ive seen a lot of beautiful things. Linux grew from a curiosity among nerds into a popular desktop operating system, and often a better choice for gaming than Windows. The BSDs flourish steadily, growing into even stronger and capable alternatives to desktop Linux than they already were. On the commercial side of things, new offerings challenged the hegemony of Microsoft and Windows. While Android and Chrome OS are at best merely tolerated, the idea that a newcomer would produce not one, but two operating systems that would successfully take on Microsoft and Apple seemed unimaginable when I started in 2005. While many alternative operating systems of the early 2000s faded away, weve also seen success stories there. Haiku evolved from an unusable, unstable promise on the horizon into a stable, daily-drivable operating system. The unique Genode Framework and Sculpt OS keep exploring and redefining the boundaries of what a general purpose operating system should be. Redox has exploded onto the scene, and keeps making massive strides almost every month. OS/2 is still actively updated, maintained, and sold. The Amiga will outlast us all. Internet culture, too, is changing, and while things definitely look bleak right now, there are sparks of hope and joy. The general attitude towards the big technology companies among the general public has shifted from admiration to mistrust and dislike, corporate social media seems to be crumbling, and the youngest generations absolutely despise the latest hype, AI!. All is certainly not lost, and sometimes I feel shimmers of hope that the pendulum may swing back to a more people-focused web, a web weve been part of since 1997. In those 21 years and more than 20000 posts, Ive also seen a lot of hypes come and go, hypes that if I didnt embrace them, Id surely be left behind. The pivot to video , the cryptocurrency mania, NFTs, virtual reality and the metaverse, AI! all technologies and concepts I recognised for the hypes that they were, and consequently ridiculed and ignored, much to the dismay of many believers. Ive got the angry emails and comments to prove it. This illustrates something about OSNews that I value and hold dear: OSNews doesnt jump on bandwagons, doesnt frantically try to follow the latest trends, doesnt cave under the pressure of big money interests. OSNews is constant, stable, deliberate, patient. Since 1997, weve covered the technology industry with interest, excitement, and wonder tempered by a healthy dose of skepticism. When you follow this industry for almost three decades, you learn to spot the patterns and see the threads before anyone else does. Thats not to say we havent gone through changes. The most significant changes to OSNews happened in recent years, where instead of working on the site on a mostly voluntary basis with a pittance of ad revenue coming my way, Ive turned my work for OSNews into my job. As part of this change, I removed all advertising from our website, morphing OSNews into a fully reader-funded endeavour. No ads, no corporate interests, no media network breathing down my neck. OSNews is a truly independent technology news website, a rarity these days. I dont have to keep corporate overlords or advertisers happy, and youd be surprised to learn just how rare that is on the modern web. The OSNews website itself is fairly unchanging too, having gone through only a handful of redesigns since its founding in 1997. Weve been using our current design, developed by Adam Scheinberg, for as long as I can remember (10-15 years?), and thanks to our independent, ad-free nature, any possible future redesign would only make the site simpler and even faster than it already is. Theres no redesign in the cards at the moment, but rest assured, if it ever comes, well buck the trend of websites getting ever more complex and demanding and make OSNews lighter and even faster. And yes, despite commenters making up far less than one percent of our readership, Ill always opt to keep them. We might be a site of lurkers, but comments are a core part of OSNews. Even the annoying ones. Especially the annoying ones. That being said, theres going to be a small change to our design, rolling out today (it might take a few reloads for it to appear). To mark my 21 years and 20000 posts, OSNews is getting a new-ish logo, which combines the classic, intertwined beveled O-S! from the early 2000s with the modern logo weve been using over the past 15 years or so. The O and S are intertwined once again, highlighting the continuity and stability I want OSNews to bring in this chaotic industry (I can write corporatese if I want to). Fun fact: this new! logo was actually designed like 20 years ago, and weve had it in our back pocket ever since. Why create something new and of the times, when youve got something great sitting right there? Aside from the new logo, Ill be running a big fundraiser to mark this occasion early next week, with some silly incentives at various thresholds. If we reach the ultimate goal a euro for every story Ive posted Ill overcome some very deep-rooted fears and anxieties, and tattoo the OSNews logo on my body, as my very first tattoo. OSNews has been part of my life for more than two decades, and I have every intention to add at least another two having such a core part of my life immortalised on my body only makes sense. Ive written about my anxiety disorder and how it affects me
- 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.
Go to Full Article
- 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:
Go to Full Article
- Linux 7.1-rc2 Released with Driver Fixes, Steam Deck OLED Audio Repair, and Growing AI Patch Trends
by George Whittaker
Linus Torvalds has officially released Linux kernel 7.1-rc2, the second release candidate in the Linux 7.1 development cycle. While Torvalds described the update as a “fairly normal” RC release, the kernel includes a broad collection of driver fixes, subsystem cleanups, and stability improvements that continue shaping the next major Linux kernel release.
Although still an early testing version intended mainly for developers and enthusiasts, Linux 7.1-rc2 already delivers several notable fixes—especially for graphics hardware, networking, and gaming devices like the Steam Deck OLED.
A Strange-Looking Release—But for a Good Reason
One of the first things Torvalds mentioned in the release announcement was the unusually large patch statistics. At first glance, the release appears much larger than expected, but there’s an explanation behind the inflated numbers.
Much of the activity comes from a large cleanup effort in the KVM selftests subsystem, where developers renamed variables and types to better match Linux kernel coding conventions. Because thousands of lines were renamed rather than fundamentally rewritten, the patch count looks dramatic even though the underlying functional changes are relatively modest.
Torvalds specifically advised testers not to overreact to the “big and strange” diff statistics.
Graphics and Driver Fixes Take Center Stage
As is common during early release candidates, a large portion of the work in Linux 7.1-rc2 focuses on hardware drivers. GPU and networking drivers account for a significant share of the meaningful fixes in this release.
Notable improvements include:
Additional fixes for AMD GPU support Intel Xe graphics driver adjustments and tuning Networking stability improvements Filesystem fixes, including NTFS driver updates Memory leak patches and race-condition corrections
These kinds of updates are critical during the RC phase because they help stabilize hardware compatibility before the final release reaches mainstream distributions.
Steam Deck OLED Audio Finally Gets Fixed
One of the more interesting fixes in Linux 7.1-rc2 addresses a long-standing issue affecting the Steam Deck OLED. According to reports, audio support for Valve’s handheld had been broken in the mainline Linux kernel for nearly two years, forcing Valve and some handheld-focused distributions to carry their own downstream patches and workarounds.
With Linux 7.1-rc2, an upstream fix for the audio issue has finally landed, potentially simplifying support for Linux gaming handhelds moving forward.
For Linux gamers and portable gaming enthusiasts, this is one of the more practical improvements included in the release candidate.
Go to Full Article
- LibreOffice 26.4 Beta Experiments with AI Writing Features and Smarter Editing Tools
by George Whittaker
The upcoming LibreOffice 26.4 Beta is introducing early AI-powered writing capabilities, signaling a new direction for the open-source office suite. While LibreOffice has traditionally focused on privacy, local processing, and open standards, the beta release shows that The Document Foundation is now exploring how artificial intelligence can assist users without fully embracing cloud-dependent ecosystems.
The result is a cautious but notable step toward AI-enhanced productivity on Linux and other desktop platforms.
AI Writing Assistance Comes to LibreOffice
One of the biggest additions connected to LibreOffice 26.4 Beta is expanded support for AI-assisted writing tools through integrations such as WritingTool, an open-source LibreOffice extension designed to enhance editing workflows.
These AI features focus on practical writing assistance rather than aggressive automation. Current capabilities include:
Grammar and style suggestions Paragraph rewriting and refinement Text expansion and summarization Translation assistance AI-assisted content generation
Unlike many proprietary AI platforms, these tools can operate using local AI models, allowing users to avoid sending documents to external cloud services.
A Privacy-Focused Approach to AI
LibreOffice’s AI direction differs from the strategies used by many commercial office suites. Instead of tightly integrating mandatory cloud AI services, the project appears focused on:
Optional AI functionality User-controlled integrations Support for local inference servers Compatibility with self-hosted AI solutions
The WritingTool project specifically highlights support for local AI backends and OpenAI-compatible APIs, including self-hosted tools like LocalAI.
This approach aligns closely with the values of many Linux and open-source users who prioritize privacy and transparency.
What AI Tools Can Actually Do
The AI writing features currently being tested are aimed at improving productivity rather than replacing human writing entirely.
Examples include:
Grammar and Style Improvements
AI can analyze text for readability, awkward phrasing, and stylistic consistency.
Paragraph Rewriting
Users can ask the assistant to:
Simplify text Make writing more formal or casual Expand short sections Rephrase unclear sentencesContent Assistance
The tools can also help generate outlines, draft paragraphs, or suggest alternative wording for documents.
Go to Full Article
- Linux Foundation Launches Open Driver Initiative to Strengthen Hardware Support Across Linux
by George Whittaker
The Linux Foundation has announced a new Open Driver Initiative, a collaborative effort aimed at improving the development, maintenance, and long-term sustainability of open-source hardware drivers across the Linux ecosystem.
The initiative reflects growing demand for better hardware compatibility in areas ranging from desktops and gaming systems to cloud infrastructure, automotive platforms, AI hardware, and next-generation networking. As Linux expands into more industries and devices, driver quality and openness have become increasingly important.
Why Open Drivers Matter
Hardware drivers are the bridge between the operating system and physical components such as:
Graphics cards Wi-Fi adapters Storage controllers Network devices Embedded and automotive systems
When drivers are open source, developers can:
Improve compatibility more quickly Audit code for security issues Maintain support for older hardware longer Integrate drivers more cleanly into the Linux kernel
Open drivers also reduce dependence on proprietary vendor software, which can become outdated or unsupported over time.
What the Open Driver Initiative Aims to Do
According to early details surrounding the Linux Foundation’s broader infrastructure efforts, the initiative is designed to encourage:
Shared driver development standards Better collaboration between hardware vendors and kernel maintainers Open governance models for driver ecosystems Improved testing, validation, and long-term maintenance
The effort appears aligned with the Linux Foundation’s long-standing role as a neutral organization coordinating open-source collaboration across industries.
A Push for Industry-Wide Collaboration
The initiative arrives at a time when Linux is increasingly used in:
AI and high-performance computing Automotive and software-defined vehicles Telecommunications and Open RAN infrastructure Embedded devices and edge computing
Several Linux Foundation-hosted projects already emphasize open infrastructure and hardware collaboration, including Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) and networking initiatives focused on open radio access networks.
By launching a dedicated effort around drivers, the Linux Foundation is attempting to reduce fragmentation and improve interoperability across hardware ecosystems.
Why This Matters for Linux Users
For everyday Linux users, better open driver support can lead to:
Go to Full Article
- Canonical Unveils Ubuntu AI Strategy: Local Models, User Control, and Smarter Workflows
by George Whittaker
Canonical has officially revealed its long-anticipated plans to bring artificial intelligence features into Ubuntu, marking a significant shift for one of the world’s most widely used Linux distributions. Rather than rushing into the AI wave, Canonical is taking a measured, privacy-focused approach, one that aims to enhance the operating system without compromising its open-source values.
The rollout is expected to take place gradually throughout 2026, with early features likely appearing in upcoming Ubuntu releases.
A Gradual, Thoughtful AI Rollout
Canonical isn’t positioning Ubuntu as an “AI-first” operating system. Instead, the company is introducing AI in stages, focusing on practical improvements rather than hype-driven features.
The plan follows a two-phase model:
Implicit AI features: Enhancements running quietly in the background Explicit AI features: User-facing tools and workflows powered by AI
This approach allows Ubuntu to evolve naturally, improving existing functionality before introducing more advanced capabilities.
Local AI First, Not the Cloud
One of the most important aspects of Canonical’s strategy is its emphasis on local AI processing, also known as on-device inference.
Instead of sending data to remote servers, Ubuntu will aim to:
Run AI models directly on the user’s hardware Reduce reliance on cloud services Improve privacy and performance
Canonical has made it clear that local inference will be the default, with cloud-based options available only when explicitly chosen by the user.
This aligns closely with the privacy expectations of Linux users, who often prefer greater control over their data.
What AI Features Could Look Like
Canonical has outlined several potential use cases for AI inside Ubuntu. These include:
Accessibility Improvements
AI will enhance tools like:
Speech-to-text Text-to-speech Assistive technologies
These features aim to make Ubuntu more inclusive and easier to use for a wider range of users.
Smarter System Assistance
Future AI features may help users:
Troubleshoot system issues Interpret logs and error messages Automate repetitive tasks
This could significantly lower the learning curve for new Linux users.
Agent-Based Automation
Canonical is also exploring “agentic” AI workflows, where AI can take actions on behalf of the user.
Examples include:
Go to Full Article
- Thunderbird 150 Lands on Linux: Smarter Encryption, Better Tools, and a Polished Experience
by George Whittaker
Mozilla has officially rolled out Thunderbird 150.0, the latest version of its open-source email client, bringing a mix of security-focused enhancements, usability upgrades, and workflow improvements for Linux and other platforms. Released in April 2026, this update continues Thunderbird’s steady evolution as a powerful desktop email solution.
For Linux users, Thunderbird 150 delivers meaningful updates that improve both everyday usability and advanced email handling, especially for encrypted communication.
Stronger Support for Encrypted Email
One of the standout improvements in Thunderbird 150 is how it handles encrypted messages.
Users can now:
Search inside encrypted emails (OpenPGP and S/MIME) Generate “unobtrusive” OpenPGP signatures that appear cleaner to recipients
These changes make encrypted communication far more practical, especially for users who rely on secure email for work or privacy-sensitive tasks.
New Productivity and Workflow Features
Thunderbird 150 introduces several small but impactful workflow improvements:
A new Account Hub opens automatically on first launch, simplifying setup Recent Destinations in settings can now be sorted alphabetically Address book entries can be copied as vCard files A new custom accent color option allows interface personalization
These updates make Thunderbird easier to configure and more flexible to use daily.
Improved Built-In PDF Viewer
Thunderbird’s integrated PDF viewer gets a useful upgrade: users can now reorder pages directly within the viewer.
This is particularly helpful for:
Managing attachments without external tools Editing documents quickly before sending Streamlining email-based workflows
Combined with ongoing security fixes, the PDF viewer becomes both more capable and safer.
Calendar and Interface Enhancements
Several improvements focus on usability and accessibility:
Calendar views now support touchscreen scrolling Fixed issues with calendar layouts and navigation Better screen reader support and accessibility fixes General UI refinements across the application
These changes contribute to a smoother, more consistent user experience across devices.
Bug Fixes and Stability Improvements
Thunderbird 150 also resolves a wide range of issues, including:
Go to Full Article
- Linux Kernel 6.19 Reaches End of Life: Time to Move Forward
by George Whittaker
The Linux kernel continues its fast-paced release cycle, and with that comes an important milestone: Linux kernel 6.19 has officially reached end of life (EOL). For users and distributions still running this branch, it’s now time to upgrade to a newer kernel version.
This isn’t unexpected, Linux 6.19 was never intended to be a long-term release, but it does serve as a reminder of how quickly non-LTS kernel branches move through their lifecycle.
Official End of Support
The final update in the 6.19 series, Linux 6.19.14, has been released and marked as the last maintenance version. Kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman confirmed that no further updates will follow, stating that the branch is now officially end-of-life.
On kernel.org, the 6.19 series is now listed as EOL, meaning it will no longer receive bug fixes or security patches.
Why 6.19 Had a Short Lifespan
Unlike some kernel releases, Linux 6.19 was not a long-term support (LTS) version. Short-lived kernel branches are typically supported for only a few months before being replaced by newer releases.
Linux follows a rapid development model:
New major versions are released frequently Short-term branches receive limited updates Only selected kernels are designated as LTS for extended support
Because of this, 6.19 was always meant to be a stepping stone rather than a long-term foundation.
What Users Should Do Now
With 6.19 no longer maintained, continuing to use it poses risks, especially in environments where security and stability matter.
Recommended upgrade paths include:
Upgrade to Linux 7.0
The most direct path forward is the Linux 7.0 kernel series, which succeeds 6.19 and introduces new hardware support and ongoing fixes.
This is a good option for:
Desktop users Rolling-release distributions Users who want the latest featuresSwitch to an LTS Kernel
For production systems, servers, or long-term stability, moving to an LTS kernel is often the better choice.
Current LTS options include:
Linux 6.18 LTS (supported until 2028) Linux 6.12 LTS (supported until 2028) Linux 6.6 LTS (supported until 2027)
These versions receive ongoing security updates and are better suited for stable environments.
Why EOL Matters
When a kernel reaches end of life:
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- Archinstall 4.2 Shifts to Wayland-First Profiles, Leaving X.Org Behind
by George Whittaker
The Arch Linux installer continues evolving alongside the broader Linux desktop ecosystem. With the release of Archinstall 4.2, a notable change has arrived: Wayland is now the default focus for graphical installation profiles, while traditional X.Org-based profiles have been removed or deprioritized.
This move reflects a wider transition happening across Linux, one that is gradually redefining how graphical environments are built and used.
A Turning Point for Archinstall
Archinstall, the official guided installer for Arch Linux, has steadily improved over time to make installation more accessible while still maintaining Arch’s minimalist philosophy.
With version 4.2, the installer now aligns more closely with modern desktop trends by emphasizing Wayland-based environments during setup, instead of offering traditional X.Org configurations as first-class options.
This doesn’t mean X.Org is completely gone from Arch Linux, but it does signal a clear shift in direction.
Why Wayland Is Taking Over
Wayland has been gaining traction for years as the successor to X.Org, offering a more streamlined and secure approach to rendering graphics on Linux.
Compared to X.Org, Wayland is designed to:
Reduce complexity in the graphics stack Improve security by isolating applications Deliver smoother rendering and better performance Support modern display technologies like high-DPI and variable refresh rates
As the Linux ecosystem evolves, many distributions and desktop environments are prioritizing Wayland as the default display protocol.
What Changed in Archinstall 4.2
With this release, users installing Arch through Archinstall will notice:
Wayland-based desktop environments and compositors are now the primary options X.Org-centric setups are no longer emphasized in guided profiles Installation workflows better reflect modern Linux defaults
This simplifies the installation experience for new users, who no longer need to choose between legacy and modern display systems during setup.
What About X.Org?
While Archinstall is moving forward, X.Org itself is not disappearing overnight.
Many applications and workflows still rely on X11, and compatibility is maintained through XWayland, which allows X11 applications to run within Wayland sessions.
For advanced users, Arch still provides full flexibility:
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- OpenClaw in 2026: What It Is, Who’s Using It, and Whether Your Business Should Adopt It
by George Whittaker
“probably the single most important release of software, probably ever.”
— Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA
Wow! That’s a bold statement from one of the most influential figures in modern computing.
But is it true? Some people think so. Others think it’s hype. Most are somewhere in between, aware of OpenClaw, but not entirely sure what to make of it. Are people actually using it? Yes. Who’s using it? More than you might expect. Is it experimental, or is it already changing how work gets done? That depends on how it’s being applied. Is it more relevant for businesses or consumers right now? That’s one of the most important, and most misunderstood, questions.
This article breaks that down clearly: what OpenClaw is, how it works, who is using it today, and where it actually creates value.
What makes OpenClaw different isn’t just the technology, it’s where it fits. Most of the AI tools people are familiar with still require a human to take the next step. They assist, but they don’t execute. OpenClaw changes that dynamic by connecting decision-making directly to action. Once you understand that shift, the rest of the discussion, who’s using it, how it’s being deployed, and where it creates value, starts to make a lot more sense.
Top 10 Questions About OpenClaw
What is OpenClaw?
OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent framework that enables large language models like Claude, GPT, and Gemini to execute real-world tasks across software systems, including APIs, files, and workflows.
What does OpenClaw actually do?
OpenClaw functions as an execution layer that allows AI systems to take actions, such as sending emails, updating CRM records, or running scripts, instead of only generating responses.
Do you need to be a developer to use OpenClaw?
No, but technical familiarity helps. Non-developers can use prebuilt workflows, while developers can customize and scale implementations more effectively.
Is OpenClaw more suited for business or consumer use?
OpenClaw is currently more suited for business and technical use cases where structured workflows exist. Consumer use is emerging but remains secondary.
How is OpenClaw different from ChatGPT or Claude?
ChatGPT and Claude generate outputs, while OpenClaw enables those outputs to trigger actions across connected systems.
Who created OpenClaw?
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