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- GIMP 0.54.1 in a Flatpak
The GIMP project reports thatGNOME contributor "balooii" has worked to package GIMP0.54.1—released in 1996—as a Flatpak that will build andrun on modern 64-bit Linux systems. This is a Motif-basedversion, and the same version that was usedby Larry Ewing to create Tux.
While not likely to be useful for serious graphics work today, itshould be interesting for users who would like to see what a30-year-old version of GIMP was capable of.
- [$] Free-threaded Python: past, present, and future
Probably the biggest change for Python over the last five years or so isthe advent of the "free-threaded" version of the language, which removes theglobal interpreter lock (GIL) and allows multiple threads to run inparallel in the interpreter. At PyConUS 2026, held in Long Beach, California in mid-May, longtime CPythoncore developer (and current steering council member) Thomas Wouters gave atalk about the feature. He looked at the motivation behind the GIL-removalefforts, some history,the current status of the free-threaded interpreter, and provided aprediction on where it all leads.
- First preview release of Xfce's Wayland compositor
Brian Tarricone has announcedthe first preview release of xfwl4, a Wayland compositor for the Xfce desktop environment.
After close to six months of work, I feel like it's ready to getsome wider use, even though of course there will be bugs and missingfeatures. Think of this as an alpha release. [...]
The end goal of xfwl4 is to behave as closely as possible to anXfce desktop running on an X server. Ideally a user could switchbetween the two without even knowing there's a difference. In reality,of course, it won't be quite that seamless, and there's still morework to be done to get as close as possible to that ideal. This is afirst solid cut at it, at the very least.
- [$] Reports from OSPM 2026, day one
The Power Managementand Scheduling in the Linux Kernel Summit, which still goes by thehistorical acronym OSPM, was held in Cambridge, UK, in mid-April. As hasbecome traditional, the presenters at that event have since writtensummaries of their sessions, and this work has kindly been made availableto LWN for publication. The first day's sessions covered a wide range oftopics, including idle-state selection, user-space schedulers withsched_ext, lock-holder preemption, and much more.
- Security updates for Monday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (389-ds:1.4, kernel, and kernel-rt), Debian (gst-libav1.0, gst-plugins-good1.0, imagemagick, kernel, libconfig-inifiles-perl, libgd-perl, libhttp-daemon-perl, mediawiki, pillow, and squid), Fedora (389-ds-base, alertmanager, ansible-core, buildah, chromium, erlang-cowboy, erlang-cowlib, erlang-gun, freerdp, kubernetes1.33, kubernetes1.34, kubernetes1.35, mingw-SDL2_image, ongres-scram, ongres-stringprep, openssl, perl-Config-IniFiles, perl-Crypt-PBKDF2, podman, postgresql-jdbc, python3.13, strongswan, webkitgtk, xdg-desktop-portal, and yt-dlp), Red Hat (osbuild-composer), SUSE (alloy, amazon-ssm-agent, ansible-core, apache-sshd, jpgpj, azure-storage-azcopy, chromedriver, containerized-data-importer, firefox, glibc, graphite2, inspektor-gadget, kubevirt, lemon, openvswitch, python-starlette, python311, python311-joserfc, python313, and tinyproxy), and Ubuntu (netatalk).
- Systemd v261 released
Systemd v261 has been released with a long list of changes, including a newcloud "Instance Metadata Service" (IMDS) subsystem, "boot secret"functionality for use on systems that lack a physical TPM, as well assupport for the kernel's Live Update Orchestration (LUO) / KexecHandover (KHO) systems when they are present and enabled. See therelease notes for the full list of changes.
- [$] AURpocalypse now: a look at the recent AUR attacks
The Arch User Repository (AUR) hasbeen subjected to a sustained attack recently. The attacker, or attackers, havespun up a series of new accounts then used them to adopt orphanedpackages and push malicious updates that would install malware on users' systems.It is unclear how many users were compromised in the attack, but the maintainerswere playing Whac-A-Mole for several days to respond to each newly compromisedpackage. The project has turnedoff the AUR's new-user registration, for now, but it is unclear what its long-term response will be or if the AUR can be secured without major changes toits existing collaboration model.
- Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (dracut), Debian (chromium, firefox-esr, and thunderbird), Fedora (chromium, firefox, nss, ocserv, ongres-scram, ongres-stringprep, perl-Archive-Tar, perl-GD, perl-HTTP-Daemon, perl-Net-Statsd, restic, singularity-ce, util-linux, and vorbis-tools), Mageia (gstreamer1.0-*, libupnp, luajit, opensc, and ruby-rack), SUSE (curl, dnsmasq, ffmpeg-4, frr, google-osconfig-agent, java-1_8_0-ibm, kernel, krb5, kubernetes-old, ldns, liburiparser1, openvswitch, rootlesskit, strongswan, traefik, and trivy), and Ubuntu (ldns, libheif, libnet-cidr-lite-perl, lxd, tomcat11, and vim).
- Eight new stable kernels for Friday
Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.1.1, 7.0.13, 6.18.36, 6.12.94, 6.6.143, 6.1.176, 5.15.210, and 5.10.259 stable kernels. As usual, eachcontains important fixes. Users are advised to upgrade.
- GIMP v0.54 From 1996 With Motif Toolkit Now Flatpak'ed For Modern Linux Desktops
The open-source world waited long enough for the GIMP 3.0 release that finally came last year with its GTK3 port and more, but for those with time on their hands this weekend and want to relive GIMP's past from long ago, GIMP 0.54 has been adapted for Flatpak to work on modern Linux desktops. What makes this version of GIMP from 1996 notable is that it was the last to use the Motif toolkit...
- Google's Gemini Partially Figures Out A Lengthy Linux Boot Time On Modern ASUS Laptop
Google Antigravity with the Gemini 3.5 Flash model helped a Linux user sort out a situation where his laptop was taking around 36 seconds to boot the kernel, which shouldn't be the case for the high-end laptop with AMD Ryzen 9 processor and 32GB of RAM. It ended up being yet another case of device firmware issues, but now a Linux kernel patch is pending for working around the issue on the ASUS ROG Strix G16 G614 laptop while discussions are ongoing in getting the vendor to provide a proper firmware fix...
- Benchmarking Bcachefs 1.38.6: The First Release No Longer "Experimental"
Released last week was Bcachefs 1.38.6 with a host of performance improvements to this out-of-tree, copy-on-write file-system. Given all the performance improvements and this being the first release since Kent Overstreet dropped the "experimental" flag on the file-system, I decided to fire up some benchmarks looking at how the Bcachefs file-system performance has changed with this new version.
- RealSense D585 Pro targets robotics with wide-field sensing and edge processing
The RealSense D585 Pro is a stereo depth camera for robotics and industrial vision applications that uses the company’s Gen 5 vision processor. The camera combines wide-field depth sensing, on-camera processing, IP65 protection, and support for software-defined perception features through the RealSense SDK. The camera uses a custom RealSense V5 SoC with a depth engine, […]
- NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Arrives In Florida
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has arrived at Kennedy Space Center ahead of a Falcon Heavy launch targeted for no earlier than August 30. The observatory will survey the sky about 1,000 times faster than Hubble with a field of view at least 100 times wider, helping scientists study dark matter, dark energy, and exoplanets. Spaceflight Now reports: NASA's next great observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, arrived at the Kennedy Space Center aboard the agency's massive Pegasus barge late Sunday morning. The spacecraft was nestled inside its protective case, which NASA nicknamed the "Chariot" in keeping with the "Roman" theme. That said, telescope is named not for the ancient empire, but instead for NASA's first Chief of Astronomy, Nancy Grace Roman. "She was a key person in our exploration of space. She understood that in order to better understand the universe, you have to go in space," said Lucas Paganini, the program executive for Roman. "That's why she's called the 'Mother of Hubble' because she made Hubble possible." [...] Roman is designed to operate near a fixed point in space called Lagrange Point 2, about 1.5 million km away from the Earth on the side opposite the Sun. It's designed to operate there for a minimum of five years, but Paganini said with the propellant onboard, it will likely last for 10 years or more. The telescope is+ equipped with a 300 megapixel camera called the Wide Field Instrument, which features 18 detectors. It was developed by BAE Systems (formerly Ball Aerospace). "It's going to allow us to observe at least 100 times wider field of view than what we can do with Hubble. Same resolution, but a wider area, 1000 times faster," Paganini said. "So what takes Roman a year to observe, it would take Hubble thousands of years. So it's definitely much more efficient." The observatory also features a chronograph instrument, developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which will allow Roman to observe the faint light of exoplanets near their stars. Paganini said Roman will also help scientists better understand dark matter and dark energy, the combination of which he calls the "dark universe." "100 years ago, we discovered that the universe was expanding. 25 years ago, we discovered that it was expanding at an accelerated pace and that's what led to a Nobel Prize," Paganini said. "What we don't quite know yet is if that acceleration is changing in ways. We don't know if it's actually dark energy, what is producing it, or is it simply that we don't understand gravity at all. "So eventually, we'll see if the laws of physics that we use these days are the right ones for what we are observing. But at the end is, we're trying to understand a very human question, which is where do we come from and where are wea heading in this universe that is our neighborhood?"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- GM Installs Robots At Flagship EV Factory After Laying Off 1,300 Workers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Dozens of new robot arms have been installed at General Motors' flagship electric vehicle factory in Detroit -- even as 1,300 workers remain out of work following what was supposed to be a temporary layoff. The latest automation push has spurred union pushback over a potentially existential issue for automakers and their workers. General Motors installed approximately 50 robot arms at GM's Factory Zero plant in Detroit, Michigan, according to reporting by Crain's Detroit Business. Made by the Japanese robotics company FANUC, the robots are designed to help attach various components to vehicles during the assembly line process. But leaders at United Auto Workers (UAW), the primary US union for autoworkers, reacted with anger to the new robotic presence, given how GM has not yet called back any of the workers affected by supposedly temporary layoffs in March. More than 1,000 union members are still "laid off indefinitely," James Cotton, president of UAW Local 22, told The Detroit News. He said that the company could bring some of those members back to work instead of installing the 50 robots. The temporary layoffs were preceded by permanent layoffs involving another 1,200 workers at GM's Factory Zero in October 2025. Many automakers, including Stellantis NV and Ford Motor Company, have deployed assembly-line robots, such as Fanuc robot arms, as they push to automate more of their US operations. Hyundai Motor Company plans to deploy Atlas humanoid robots made by Boston Dynamics -- which Hyundai acquired in 2020 -- to start working in the automaker's flagship EV facility in Georgia by 2028. "Technological development has the capability of making work safer for the working class and enabling workers to have a shorter work week without losing pay," said Andrew Bergman, a Local 22 member and union organizer who was among those laid off by GM. "But in the bosses' and billionaires' hands it's used to pad profits and lay off workers."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Microsoft Accidentally Breaks Replying To an Email On Outlook
Microsoft has accidentally introduced a bug in Outlook for Mac that omits the original message from email replies, making it difficult for recipients to follow conversation history. Until Microsoft releases a fix, its suggested workaround is to roll back from version 16.110 and disable automatic updates, which is "great for users in full control of their devices -- not so good for anyone with a managed device," notes The Register. "Administrators with fleets of Macs running Outlook should brace for helpdesk tickets." From the report: In some instances, having a user copy and paste the salient bits of the email they are responding to might not be such a bad thing. We've all had emails that required epic amounts of scrolling to find what started the conversation, so forcing users to think about what they actually need to include is no bad thing. However, disrupting user workflows without warning -- well, that is undoubtedly a bad thing. This is, after all, one of the most basic things an email client needs to do, so shipping a product with a bug that breaks this functionality says more about Microsoft's approach to quality than anything else.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Following User Outcry, AMD Reinstates Memory Encryption In Consumer CPUs
Last week, AMD was found to have stripped memory encryption from its consumer CPUs without any warning or notice. Now, following a wave of backlash on social media, the chipmaker has now reinstated the protection, though it still hasn't explained why the safeguard was disabled in the first place. Ars Technica reports: Following the revelation, social media was deluged by comments from AMD consumers decrying the move. They noted that AMD's quiet removal of TSME after supporting it for so long seemed underhanded. The move came solely as a result of firmware changes made in a recent update. With no physical changes required to silicon, continued support was largely, if not purely, a matter of will rather than a necessity required by changes to hardware. The critics called on AMD to reverse the move. Over the weekend, AMD said it planned to do just that in a firmware update scheduled for release next month. More often than not, the chipmaker refers to TSME as Memory Guard. "Regarding certain non-PRO Ryzen 9000-series desktop processors, a BIOS option to enable Memory Guard was previously available but was removed in a recent update," AMD said in an email. "Based on valuable community feedback, we will reinstate this option in an upcoming BIOS release in July." The company has yet to explain why it removed the protection. Critics speculate that AMD dropped it in an attempt to steer customers toward more costly CPUs. It's possible, though, that there were less nefarious reasons, such as the difficulty of continued support as chip designs changed. Another possibility is that AMD made the move for performance reasons. Encrypting and decrypting data in memory creates latency. Slowdowns are the enemy of gamers, one of the more popular customer segments using the 9000-line of Ryzen processors. Since many gamers already voluntarily disabled TSME and had little need for it in the first place, AMD may not have considered the change of much consequence.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Valve Will Finally Let You Build Your Own Steam Machine With SteamOS For Desktop
With the price of the new Steam Machine starting at $1,049, you might want to consider making your own Steam Machine instead. An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Valve says that "starting with the SteamOS 3.8 release, you can put together your own Steam Machine using whatever PC parts you want." SteamOS 3.8.10 launched last week with a slew of updates, including "improved compatibility with recent Intel and AMD platforms." Alongside that improved compatibility, Valve is giving gamers the green light to install SteamOS on their own desktops. In an interview with The Verge, Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais said Valve has been "rolling out improvements to [SteamOS] so it's more compatible with desktop hardware," including eventual support for Nvidia graphics. Griffais says Valve has "a growing team" working on Nvidia driver support for SteamOS, adding, "We're collaborating with Nvidia very closely." While he mentioned that Nvidia support might not come this year, Griffais emphasized that "it's certainly something that we're working on in the background." It's technically been possible to run SteamOS on your own hardware for a while now, but compatibility has been mostly limited to AMD systems. So far installing it has also required using a Steam Deck recovery image, a process that, speaking from experience, is much less straightforward than the installation process for most other Linux distributions. Trying to run SteamOS on Intel or Nvidia hardware has not been easy so far. According to Griffais, Valve is working to change that, which could mean that down the line, you'll be able to run SteamOS on just about any gaming PC hardware you want, including Nvidia. For the more immediate future, Griffais says SteamOS in its current state should offer a "good experience" on console-like PC setups: "If you have something that is similar to the use case of a Steam Machine, where you have a PC that's gonna be plugged into a TV, and has a single hard drive that you're not going to try and dual boot [] you can put SteamOS on there, and you'll have an experience that is very similar to a Steam Deck docked or a Steam Machine, with some caveats, of course," like a lack of HDMI-CEC support. But "the core bits of the experience are there. The SteamOS graphics driver, the shader precompilation [...] you can get at all of that with the SteamOS." Griffais says SteamOS does not yet offer an easy way to dual-boot alongside Windows or another operating system, but envisions "a time where it's a better experience to install on your desktop and have it coexist with a different operating system."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Google Invests $75 Million In A24 To Develop AI-Powered Filmmaking Tools
Google is investing roughly $75 million in A24 as part of a research partnership with DeepMind to develop AI-powered filmmaking tools and workflows. "The deal represents the latest marriage between a Hollywood studio and AI in an era where companies have oscillated between partnerships and lawsuits," reports Variety. From the report: A24 partner Scott Belsky, who leads the studio's technology division A24 Labs, told the Journal the studio's Google partnership differed from other deals because AI developers mistakenly advertised their products as a means to make films cheaper and faster. His division is developing applications for AI-generated storyboards, another reimagination of the production process that has seen filmmakers like Martin Scorsese rubber-stamp. "We think there are better uses that preserve creative control and support risk-taking," said Belsky, arguing the new tools "won't look anything like the prompted generation type of AI that people feel uncomfortable with."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Some Electricians Think Building Data Centers Is For Sellouts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: As Big Tech dumps billions of dollars into America's data center buildout, a slew of opportunities have opened up to the electricians wiring these massive facilities. In some cases, the scale of the projects and the demanding construction timelines are fueling talent wars for the industry's best and brightest. The US-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) has argued that its workers are "powering the AI Revolution," and a set of "Data Center Principles" published in March argues that union labor is "essential to the future of AI." Tech companies are trying to meet the moment: Meta recently announced a skilled trade academy program, and Google committed $50 million to help train people in skilled trades. But amid growing national opposition to data centers, debates over the ethics of the massive buildout have started to pop up in some online pockets of the community. Threads about how AI will affect the economy now pepper r/electricians, a subreddit with around half a million monthly visitors. Some users wonder whether the work will eventually prompt widespread job losses. Others aren't sure if their labor makes them complicit in the damage done to local communities or whether it's unethical to take on data center work. For some, the answer is a firm no. Ultimately, they argue, work is work. An anonymous Midwest electrician who spoke to Wired acknowledged concerns about scams, corporate greed, and AI's impact on workers, but said he views data centers as an important source of career advancement. "This is most likely going to be a major part of our future. And if you can't beat them, join them," he said. An electrician named Ryan, meanwhile, is strongly opposed to working on data centers because he distrusts the corporations and political environment driving AI development. Still, if the facilities are going to be built, he would prefer union workers construct them. "If they're going to get built, I'd rather they go union," he said. Jesse, an IBEW electrician, sympathizes with communities negatively affected by data centers but does not believe the electricians building them should be blamed. In his view, opposition should instead be directed toward policymakers and the project approval process. "I think it's ridiculous if, to build a data center or any kind of a business, you're going to significantly impact the lives of that community in a negative way," he told Wired. An electrician named Dante echoed some of those sentiments, arguing that data center work is no more ethically compromised than many other commercial construction projects. "We're almost always working for the worst possible people in the end, but we all need a paycheck," he said. He added that such projects are "essentially the same kind of work," typically performed for wealthy corporations seeking to become even richer.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Valve Prices the Steam Machine At $1,049
Valve's new Steam Machine will launch June 29 starting at $1,049 and go up from there depending on the configuration. Although it costs considerably more than the PS5 ($599.99) and Xbox Series X ($649.99), "the value proposition for the Steam Machine is that it can play your library of Steam games you may have accumulated over years (or even decades), rather than just PlayStation games, and it's also a full Linux PC that you can customize to your heart's content," reports The Verge. "Valve also says that it's selling the Steam Machine for the cost of its components alone instead of subsidizing the price." From the report: You can now register your interest to buy a Steam Machine as part of a reservation system. To offer a fair playing field for people who want to buy one, Valve will randomize everyone in the queue on Thursday at 1PM ET. After that, anyone who registers their interest will be added to the end of the waitlist. The first emails giving people the opportunity to buy will go out on June 29th. Valve will sell four configurations of the Steam Machine:- A 512GB model for $1,049- A 512GB model with a bundled Steam Controller for $1,128- A 2TB model for $1,349- A 2TB model with a bundled Steam Controller for $1,428
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- AI Law Firm Wins UK Court Case For First Time
Garfield AI, the UK's first regulator-approved AI law firm, has won its first court case after helping a freelancer recover 7,000 pounds in unpaid fees. "I was owed money for work I had done, but it felt like the process of recovering it could be too stressful, expensive and time-consuming," said Tamires Camal Taquidir, a freelancer who had provided HR-related services to a hospitality business. "Garfield made it possible for me to pursue the claim and keep going. When the counterclaim was brought, it was intended to intimidate me, but I knew I had accessible, cost-effective and competent support. I'm delighted by the result." Computer Weekly reports: After attempting to resolve a dispute over paid fees without court action, Camal Taquidir [...] used Garfield AI to help her pursue the case in court. She was able to generate pre-action correspondence, and then prepare and issue court proceedings. The AI legal assistant conducted all of the legal work preceding the court trial. The defendant instructed solicitors and brought a counterclaim, which the claimant disputed with the support of Garfield AI. The claimant continued to trial, including dealing with document production, the preparation witness statements and trial bundles. Garfield then instructed a junior, shortly before the trial began. She won the claim over unpaid fees following a three-hour trial at Wandsworth County Court. The claimant paid around 400 pounds in Garfield AI fees to recover the 7,000 pounds owed, while the defendant instructed both a solicitor and a barrister. [...] Following a three-hour trial at Wandsworth County Court on 14 May 2026, in which both sides were represented by barristers, the court found in favor of the claimant, awarding 7,000 pounds and dismissing the counterclaim.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- 2,000 Retired Google Pixel Phones Get a Second Life As a Private Cloud
UC San Diego researchers are working with Google to build a private cloud from 2,000 retired Pixel Fold motherboards, demonstrating how discarded smartphones could provide useful, low-cost computing capacity. "The full smartphone cluster is expected to launch this fall," reports The Register. "Depending on how well the initial phase goes, we're told the cluster could grow even larger." From the report Once the phone's motherboards have been extracted from their shells, the researchers say that the chips hiding within remain more than potent enough to be useful for a variety of tasks. In many cases, the single-threaded performance of these chips is as good as, if not better than, what you'd find from a many-cored datacenter chip. The Pixel Fold smartphones, which will form the basis of the cluster, are powered by a Google Tensor G2 processor with two 2.85 GHz Cortex-X1, two 2.35 GHz Cortex-A78 and four 1.80 GHz Cortex-A55 Arm cores, a Mali-G710 MP7 GPU, and 12 GB of system memory. Early benchmarking using the SPEC suite suggests that 25-50 phones should deliver performance similar to that of a conventional server. The major challenge, instead, is distributing workloads across multiple devices, each of which has a handful of cores of one or more varieties, and most have 8-12 GB of memory. UCSD researchers are approaching this challenge from a couple of different angles. The first is by targeting applications that can easily fit within a single device. The second is using Kubernetes to orchestrate container deployments across clusters of 25-50 phones. For this to work, the devices first need to be flashed with a Linux operating system suitable for the job. While Android makes for a great handheld experience, it is not intended for server duty. In the blog post, researchers note that Android includes functionality intended to stop rogue applications from chewing up excessive amounts of memory and draining your battery. In server context, these safety mechanisms are no longer necessary. [Ryan Kastner, an associate professor of computer science at UCSD] told us this was by no means an easy task, but the team has made steady progress toward getting Linux running smoothly on these devices, including support for the phone's onboard GPUs. Access to some functionality, like the chip's integrated tensor processing unit, remains elusive. Clustering these devices will require networking the phones together. Normally these devices would connect over cellular or Wi-Fi, but at this scale, this not only isn't practical, but also has implications for security, he explained. Instead, the team will employ PCBs that both supply power and break out wired Ethernet networking. The researchers suggest that many EdTech, grading, and research workloads commonly run by universities in the cloud are small enough to run on the cluster without issue. "The vast majority of these applications are within the capabilities of a single smartphone to host, with the standard grading backend running on small cloud instances," a blog post detailing the planned deployment reads. "Early experiments show that even a moderately-sized cluster of 20 phones is capable of supporting peak submission rates for a 75+ student class."
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]
- Xfces new Wayland compositor sees first alpha release
The developer working on Xfwl4, the Wayland compositor for Xfce, has published the new compositors very first alpha release. Considering its only been six months or so of work, its impressive to see the effort reach this state already. The end goal of xfwl4 is to behave as closely as possible to an Xfce desktop running on an X server. Ideally a user could switch between the two without even knowing there’s a difference. In reality, of course, it won’t be quite that seamless, and there’s still more work to be done to get as close as possible to that ideal. This is a first solid cut at it, at the very least. ↫ Brian Tarricone Being the very first alpha release, it wont surprise you theres a few things missing or broken at this point. Still, if youre brave, you can download and build the release and try it out.
- Valve opens Steam Machine waitlist
Valve officially made the Steam Machine available (sort of but not really) today, and if you were hoping for the president of the Yacht Collectors Club to have found a loophole through the RAM and storage crisis, Ill be the bearer of bad news: the base Steam Machine model with 512GB of storage and no controller costs $1049 or €1039. Its clear that this price is significantly higher than Valve had originally anticipated, as the company dedicates the first part of its press announcement to this sticker shock. Steam Machine,`like our other hardware products, is made up of many components that we source from manufacturers around the world. The price at which we sell our hardware is a direct result of the cost of these components. We felt like we had a good understanding of how those costs might change over time when we first started sourcing them for Steam Machine back in 2023. That understanding was born from the many years of data we all have about the evolution of PC hardware prices – primarily, that it tends to get cheaper over time as new technology arrives. Over the past year or so, that has changed quickly and significantly, most visibly for RAM and storage components. There are a variety of reasons, all of which are affecting hardware products everywhere. The overall effect is that our original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable. So the prices were sharing today reflect the state of the world for manufacturing; or, more accurately, it reflects the price of the components as weve secured them over the past 6 months. Price wasnt the only thing impacted by all of this: availability was as well. There were periods where we found we couldnt source some of our components at all, at any price. More than anything else, this has impacted the number of units weve been able to produce for launch. ↫ Valve press announcement As Valve mentions, availability is also going to be an issue, and thus theyve had to settle on a complex reservation and lottery system. Between now and 25 June, you can sign up for a model, after which the entire pool of reservations will be randomised to determine a waitlist order. As machines become available, they will simply go down the list from first to last as determined by that randomisation. In other words, you cant just go out and buy one right away. At this price and for the hardware the Steam Machine contains an AMD Zen 4 CPU with 6c/12t up to 4.8 Ghz, a custom RDNA3 GPU, and 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 8GB of DDR6 video RAM youre probably better off sticking with what you already have. Until the AI! bubble pops and prices come down again, that is. Thanks, AI! techbros. Everybody despises you.
- A tale of two path separators
In macOS, you can apparently create files and directories in the Finder with names that include slashes. If you then go into the terminal and take a look with ls, youll see that the slashes are actually colons. I don’t understand all the nuances, but I know this is a side-effect of the fact that macOS has not one but`two`path separators: the slash (/) and the colon (:). The two separators are used in different contexts, and the system will translate between them as needed. These two separators reflect the two parent systems of modern macOS:`classic Mac OS`and the`Unix-like NeXTSTEP. When they were joined together, Apple’s engineers had to build a file system that was compatible with both the classic Mac’s file system (the Mac OS Extended File System, aka HFS+), and with NeXTSTEP’s file system (the Unix file system, aka UFS). Among other differences, these systems had different path separators: HFS+ used a colon, while UFS used a slash. ↫ Alex Chan (article from 2021) I had no idea macOS worked this way, but it makes sense considering the platforms dual history. Whats interesting is that when Apple moved to APFS almost a decade ago, this duality in path separators remained, most likely for backwards compatibility reasons. In a sense, this is somewhat similar to Windows supporting both backward and forward slashes, with the former being a leftover from DOS, and the latter an addition (to Windows) from the UNIX world. None of that beats Windows when using the Japanese or Korean locale, though. Because Japanese and Korean Windows use different codepages than Windows in the Americas and Western Europe, these versions of Windows render the backslash as the yen sign (¥) and and won (₩) sign respectively. As such, something like the Program Files directory actually renders like C:¥Program Files¥ and C:₩Program Files₩. Similar issues occurred in other Windows locales as well, but the impact of this in Japan and South Korea were so widespread that people just expect it to be that way, even if its easily fixed today. I cant find if Windows 11 still uses ¥/₩ in Japan/South Korea, since the last references of it I can quickly uncover all point to Windows 10.
- Apple internals: Swift in the kernel
Apples Swift has become the de-facto language for Apples own developers for a while now, and it seems that with the new operating system releases from the company unveiled during WWDC, Switch is now also being used in the kernel. Naturally I dropped what I was doing and went grepping through the iOS 27 kernelcache. Alas, nothing came of it. All is not lost though: I found the Embedded Swift runtime in macOS 27, sitting in`com.apple.kec.pthread`of all places. Then I went poking around the root filesystem and it turns out Apple gave the whole effort a name: KernelKit. Lets dissect it. ↫ Josh Maine Its still quite limited at this time, which makes sense you dont want to be too crazy with the core of the operating system that runs on god knows how many PCs, smartphones, and other devices. Its also entirely contained within a few kexts as embedded runtimes, and the XNU kernel itself remains entirely C and C++.
- I stored a website in a favicon!
Every website has a favicon. Its that little icon in your browser tab. Usually you upload it once and then never think about it again. But. A favicon is just an image. An image is just pixels. And pixels are just bytes. So of course I wondered if I could store something inside one. ↫ Tim Wehrle I love it when people do something useless just for fun.
- What was nice about the UI of Windows 2000
I mean, this is preaching to the choir, but lets go anyway. I liked the UIs of the entire era from 3.0 to 2000, really. Im mostly using Windows 2000 as an example here because it runs so well in QEMU/KVM and that allows me to easily take screenshots. Some of the following will sound absolutely trivial, but I think its worth pointing out. ↫ movq.de blog Just a series of observations about how much better graphical user interfaces were back in the 90s and early 2000s. Weve lost so many affordances based on both common sense and scientific study, and what we ended up with is a confusing, inconsistent mess. It doesnt really matter where you look user interface design has deteriorated since the early 2000s, a decline that only accelerated thanks to the arrival of the iPhone, where consistency is a dirty word, and the web, where the advertising people took prominence over the design people. I just want my buttons to look like buttons man.
- To study how chips really work, MIT researchers built their own operating system
A fascinating novel approach by researchers at MIT, called Fractal, to study in-depth how processors actually work. A team at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) decided to build something different. Fractal, an operating system kernel written from the ground up, treats the hardware itself as the object of study. Its first major use, a deep look at branch predictors — a CPU’s way of guessing what code to run next, before it knows for certain, so it doesn’t have to waste time waiting to find out — inside Apple’s M1 processor, has already turned up findings that prior work missed, including the first evidence that a class of speculative attack known as “Phantom” affects Apple Silicon. “We’re using hardware in ways it wasn’t designed for,” says Joseph Ravichandran, the MIT PhD student in electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) who led the project. “It’s not even obvious that this is a possible thing you could do with the hardware. But we found a way to pull all these different primitives off. It’s like a microscope. If you’ve got a hand magnifying glass, you can see a little bit. But if you had an electron microscope, now we’re really talking. That’s what Fractal is. The electron microscope of operating systems.” ↫ Rachel Gordon at MIT News While Fractal is small, its creators also added POSIX system calls, a C library, vim, GCC, a shell, and more. This way, it feels more familiar, and makes it easier for researchers to get started with the tool. Fractal is open source and hosted on GitHub, it has its own website, and theres a detailed research paper with more in-depth information.
- AmigaOS 2: the greatest upgrade
Five years after releasing the Amiga 1000, Commodore was about to launch the Amiga 3000, their first real high-end Amiga. With a 68030 processor, on-board SCSI and a slightly updated graphics chipset, all in a sleek desktop case, the Amiga was truly ready for the era of professional 32-bit computing. But Moores law wasnt the only thing thad had been pressuring Commodore since the release of the Amiga 1000: The desktop metaphor had matured even further, and the competition had been hard at work. IBM had launched OS/2, Windows 3.0 had turned Microsofts offering from a proof of concept into something actually usable, and new players had entered the scene among them NeXTStep, with its polished 3D look. It was time to bring AmigaOS, too, into the 1990s. ↫ Carl Svensson Its interesting theres a lot of focus on the first version of the Amiga operating system and the third one, but you dont hear a lot about AmigaOS 2.x. It turns out this is rather odd, because as Svensson details, this version came with an absolute ton of changes and improvements, from an entirely new widget toolkit to a brand new file system, and so much more. The new widget toolkit and accompanying style guide also ensured that the operating system looked, felt, and behaved consistently. Remember when we cared about that? Theres so much more cool features, though, like command history, line editing, universal clipboard support and more just for the CLI, as well as something called Commodities. These were tiny little programs managed from a central location, which didnt even need a GUI to work. Commodities included by default were things like ClickToFront, a focus-follows-mouse option, and more. Oh and of course, BASIC was replaced by ARexx. The list just keeps going, and you should really read Svenssons article.
- Oracle Solaris 11.4 SRU93 released
Oracle is sticking to its promise of more regular Solaris updates with the release of Oracle Solaris 11.4 SRU93. This release, like other SRU releases, is for paying Solaris customers, as the CBE releases for enthusiasts are on a different cadence. With Solaris focus being on enterprise server environments, it should come as no surprise that most of the changes and improvements are focused on things like enterprise networking and security, such as changes to how policy settings for the Kernel Crypto Framework (KCF) are stored, moving from using RPC over sockets instead of STREAMS, and more. Of course, theres also the long list of updated open source packages. SRU 93.221.2 updates a broad set of platform, runtime, developer, networking, desktop, and open source components. Notable updates include Apache Tomcat to 9.0.116, bash to 5.3 patch 9, BIND to 9.20.18 and 9.20.21, Django 4.2 to 4.2.30, Django 5.2 to 5.2.13, Firefox to 140.8.0esr, Golang to 1.25.8, Node.js 20 to 20.20.2, Node.js 22 to 22.22.2, Node.js 24 to 24.14.1, NSS to 3.119.1, Perl to 5.42, Python 3.11 to 3.11.15, Python 3.13 to 3.13.12, RabbitMQ to 4.2.4, Thunderbird to 140.8.0esr, vim to 9.2.0340, and zlib to 1.3.2. Additional updates include development tools, Python modules, X11 utilities, printing components, libraries, cryptographic packages, networking tools, and desktop-related packages. ↫ Colin Kavanagh at the Oracle Solaris Blog Existing Oracle Solaris customers can update to the new release through pkg update.
- Android 17 released for Pixel devices with very few interesting improvements
Yesterday, Google released Android 17 to Pixel devices, so late last night I updated my Pixel 10 Pro with the intent to write a news item about the release today. The reality is that that I totally forgot I even upgraded last night, because Android 17 is about the biggest nothingburger Ive ever seen. Virtually all of the new features listed in the upgrade blurb on my phone were AI! nonsense I dont encounter, so over the course of the day, I didnt really notice anything new about my phones operating system. The only interesting feature that I think will be particularly useful on tablets and perhaps foldable devices is something called App Bubbles!. Basically, you can turn any application into an overlay that can be minimised into a bubble, which then lives anywhere on your screen. Tap it, and you can maximise the overlay again. This little multitasking bubble can contain multiple applications, effectively making it a dock or taskbar. Neat, but I didnt see much use for it on my phone. The remainder of the new non- AI! features are hard to spot, at best. I guess the ability to turn one half of a foldable display into a gamepad is neat if you can deal with gaming on glass buttons (I cannot), and the changes to location access (you can now grant it for just one time) and contacts access (its more fine-grained and temporary now instead of granting access to everything forever) are welcome, but thats about it for user-facing features. Under the hood, the one thing that stands out is that Google is enforcing stricter memory limits for applications, based on how much RAM a device has. The idea is that this should prevent memory leaks from getting out of control and leading to crashes, which is nice, especially for devices with less RAM. Android 17 is available for Pixel devices now, and will probably find its way to non-Pixel devices over the coming months or years. With how little meat there is on Android 17s bones, this might be the first release where Androids update woes dont really matter.
- The Growth of Vulnerability Management: The Rise of Agentic AI Pentesting
by Malana VanTyler
Cybersecurity shifts fast. Manual penetration tests remain valuable, especially for nuanced attack paths and business-logic issues, but they are expensive, point-in-time, and difficult to run continuously. By the time a report is delivered, the environment may have already changed. Automated scanners improved coverage and frequency, but most still rely on known signatures, templated checks, and shallow validation. They can find obvious issues, but they rarely match the adaptive reasoning, chaining, and persistence of a skilled attacker.Platforms like XBOW help security teams move toward continuous validation by running AI-driven tests that mimic large-scale human attackers. This shift moves the focus from periodic assessment and reactive patching toward ongoing exposure management and earlier prevention.
From Automation to Agency
To appreciate the value of these modern platforms, it’s important to separate traditional automation from what is called “agentic” AI. Earlier AI pentesting tools mostly worked like advanced “if-then” systems, running preset scripts and looking for known patterns. While useful to automate some tasks pentesters perform, these tools lack the ability to pivot.
If a standard tool hits a non-standard login portal, it generally stops. An agent platform, however, can identify and adapt to the obstacle, reason through potential bypasses, and attempt alternative tactics.
This core differentiator is the “agent,” a specialized model capable of goal-oriented planning. These platforms employ real-time attack path analysis tools. They identify a low-severity vulnerability and assess whether it could be exploited to gain access
to a high-value asset. This approach imitates how an advanced attacker moves laterally within a system. The result is a clearer and more realistic view of the organization’s real risk compared to just listing bugs in a spreadsheet without context.
Comparing Methodologies: Strategy and Execution
When comparing platforms in this area, the industry is shifting focus from just ticking off features to demonstrating how effectively those features can be used. Modern platforms, including XBOW, focus on high-fidelity testing that avoids disrupting production environments while still proving that a vulnerability is reachable.
Three main architectural approaches have emerged as standouts:
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- Linux Kernel 7.1 Officially Released with New NTFS Driver, Intel FRED, and Major Code Cleanup
by George Whittaker
The Linux kernel development team has officially released Linux Kernel 7.1, marking the first major update in the 7.x series. Announced by Linus Torvalds on June 14, 2026, the release introduces a mix of new features, hardware improvements, filesystem enhancements, and large-scale code cleanup efforts that continue modernizing the Linux platform.
While Linux 7.1 is not a long-term support (LTS) release, it delivers several significant changes that will eventually make their way into many Linux distributions over the coming months.
A Brand-New NTFS Driver Arrives
One of the most significant additions in Linux 7.1 is a completely rewritten in-kernel NTFS filesystem driver.
The new implementation has reportedly been under development for several years and replaces older code with a modern design built around Linux’s current storage infrastructure. The driver utilizes technologies such as iomap and folios, which improve efficiency and simplify future maintenance.
Benefits include:
Improved NTFS write performance Better handling of large files More modern filesystem architecture Easier future development and maintenance
For users who regularly exchange data between Linux and Windows systems, this is one of the most important improvements in the release.
Intel FRED Enabled by Default
Linux 7.1 also enables Intel Flexible Return and Event Delivery (FRED) by default on supported hardware.
FRED is a newer CPU mechanism designed to improve how processors handle interrupts and exceptions. By replacing older methods with a more streamlined approach, FRED aims to improve performance and reduce complexity in low-level CPU operations.
The feature primarily benefits newer Intel platforms, including upcoming processor generations.
Graphics Drivers Continue to Improve
Graphics support remains a major focus of kernel development, and Linux 7.1 delivers additional improvements for both Intel and AMD hardware.
Highlights include:
Performance enhancements for Intel Arc GPUs Continued work on Intel Battlemage graphics Updates for AMD Radeon hardware Expanded GPU reliability monitoring infrastructure through DRM-RAS support
These updates help improve gaming, desktop performance, and workstation workloads across modern Linux systems.
Steam Deck OLED Audio Fixes Land Upstream
Linux gamers receive a welcome improvement in this release as audio support fixes for the Steam Deck OLED have finally been merged into the mainline kernel.
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- 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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