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LWN.net

  • Introducing GNOME OS Preview
    The GNOME Project has provided GNOME OS for some time; until now, theproject only provided a "Nightly" edition that was built from the latest commitsand was aimed solely at GNOME developers. Adrian Vovk has now announcedthe release of GNOME OS Preview, which is intended for a non-developer audience:

    GNOME OS Preview is the current GNOME OS Nightly, but without the "nightly"aspect. Instead, it's built from the latest stable GNOME release (GNOME 51.1, atthe time of writing). GNOME OS Preview lives in the same branches on GitLab asthe stable org.gnome.Platform Flatpak runtimes.

    GNOME OS Preview is only a few weeks old, so it has only seen limitedreal-life testing so far. We therefore expect people will uncover some issuesinitially. That said, Preview is significantly more stable than Nightly, whichdozens of people have been daily driving without major issues for over ayear. Thus, we're feeling confident that Preview is going to be reliable enoughfor daily use by non-developer enthusiasts.

    While Preview is meant for non-developers, it is not considered complete orstable for the broader public. There are a number of features, listed in Vovk'spost, that need to be implemented before the project is ready to declareGNOME OS "ready for prime time". Adventurous users, who might notmind having to reinstall the OS once a stable version is declared, candownload and start using GNOME OS Preview today.



  • [$] Safe self-referential data structures in kernel Rust
    Self-referential structures that can be used without unsafe codehave posed a problem for Rust for years.There are many cases where a self-referential data structure is the elegantalgorithmic choice, but implementing it in accordance with Rust's lifetime rulesis all but impossible. At Kangrejos 2026, Gary Guo presented a clever solutionto the problem in the context of the kernel'spin_init crate, which helps with the creation of immovable data structures,typically for interoperability with C. Guo's changes could help remove most ofthe unsafe code related to lifetimes in theNova driver and, eventually, other Rust components.


  • [$] Recent and future changes to the Linux NFS server
    The NFS network filesystem protocol has a long history on Unix-likeoperating systems (and beyond). NFS is still evolving, though, andimplementations need to keep up. At the 2026 Linux Plumbers Conference, NFS developerJeff Layton gave an overview of recent enhancements to the Linuximplementation, along with some hints for what will be coming in the nearfuture.


  • Results from the 2026 TAB election
    The resultsfrom the 2026 election for members of the Linux Foundation TechnicalAdvisory Board (TAB) have been announced. Kees Cook, Dave Hansen, MiguelOjeda, and Shuah Khan have all been re-elected, and Laurent Pinchart willbe joining the board.


  • Security updates for Friday
    Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (ghostscript, grafana, hplip, libsoup3, lrzsz, rpcbind, and wireshark), Debian (chromium, cifs-utils, expat, gst-plugins-bad1.0, gst-plugins-good1.0, jpeg-xl, mutt, and spip), Mageia (gpsd, libx11, and roundcubemail), Oracle (389-ds-base, compat-libtiff3, environment-modules, ghostscript, grafana, gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free, gstreamer1-plugins-base, gstreamer1-plugins-good, hplip, idm:DL1, kernel, kernel-uek, libsoup, libsoup3, lrzsz, rpcbind, and wireshark), Red Hat (gd), SUSE (alloy, amazon-ecs-init, bind, busybox, chromium, distribution, govulncheck-vulndb, iperf, jackson-annotations, jackson-core, jackson-databind, kernel, libXtst, mutt, openssh, php8, python313-python-multipart, python313-python-rapidjson, python313-python3-saml, python313-pywbem, python313-redis, python313-reportlab, python313-requests, python313-rope, python313-rpyc, python313-rsa, qemu, swtpm, the Java stack, and wpa_supplicant), and Ubuntu (golang-1.23, linux-azure, and rabbitmq-server).


  • [$] Vendor hooks in the Android kernel
    Since Android's inception, the kernels it has used have divergedsignificantly from the mainline. While many of those differences have beenresolved over time, and the move to the generickernel image has helped to bring Android closer, current devices stillcarry a lot of out-of-tree changes. The preferred form for such changes isby way of vendorhooks. At the 2026 LinuxPlumbers Conference, Todd Kjos ran a fast-paced session in the Androidtrack to discuss vendor hooks and how they are used.


  • KDE releases documentary
    As part of KDE's 30thanniversary celebration, the project has released The KDE Documentary— A Story of Free Software Underdogs (YouTube video):

    The story starts in 1996, when Matthias Ettrich, a student at the Universityof Tübingen, posted to a Usenet group asking for programmers to help build adesktop for Linux. What followed became KDE, one of the largest free softwarecommunities in the world. KDE made Linux usable as a desktop for people whoweren't system administrators, giving it a complete, consistent graphicalenvironment at a time when there was none.

    The film covers the highs and lows of three decades of KDE: the Qt licensingfight and the rivalry with GNOME; the success of KHTML, the browser engine thatbecame the basis of Apple's WebKit and Google's Chrome; and the contentiousrelease of KDE 4 and the rebuild that followed.


  • Ubuntu 26.10 released
    Canonical has announcedthe release of Ubuntu 26.10 ("Stonking Stingray"):

    Ubuntu 26.10 advances enterprise security features, completes the rollout ofthe Rust-based uutils coreutils, and strengthens integrations for userauthentication using Microsoft Entra ID.

    [...] Ubuntu 26.10 also ships with GNOME 51, bringing a smoother, moreresponsive desktop, better display handling, improved accessibility, andrefinements across core applications. In addition, the Ubuntu App Center nowprovides a more consistent experience for managing snaps and debs.

    See the release notesfor a list of new features as well as incompatiblechanges between 26.10 and prior Ubuntu releases.


  • Security updates for Thursday
    Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (environment-modules, flatpak-builder, kernel, kernel-rt, librabbitmq, libreoffice, libsoup, mod_auth_openidc:2.3, nodejs:22, nodejs:24, OpenEXR, opentelemetry-collector, pki-core:10.6, postgresql:12, python-tornado, python36:3.6, ruby:3.3, tftp, and xorg-x11-server), Debian (buildstream, firefox-esr, mariadb, and sogo), Fedora (exim, freerdp, python3-docs, and python3.14), Mageia (drakx-installer-images, kernel, kmod-nvidia-current-wopengpu, kmod-virtualbox), Oracle (curl, emacs, environment-modules, flatpak, flatpak-builder, gd, hplip, kbd, kernel, librabbitmq, libreoffice, libxml2, microcode_ctl, mod_auth_openidc:2.3, nodejs:22, OpenEXR, pcre2, perl-DBI, python-tornado, rsyslog, tftp, thunderbird, and xorg-x11-server), Red Hat (compat-libtiff3, firefox, ghostscript, idm:DL1, ipa, kernel, kernel-rt, libtiff, lrzsz, and mariadb-connector-c), Slackware (libarchive), SUSE (amazon-cloudwatch-agent, bind, container-suseconnect, containerd, glibc, google-osconfig-agent, helm, kernel, python312, python313-oletools, python313-openpyxl, python313-orjson, python313-paramiko, python313-pipreqs, python313-py, python313-pycryptodome, python313-pycryptodomex, python313-pydrive2, python313-python-engineio, webkit2gtk3, and xorg-x11-server), and Ubuntu (apache2, bind9, bluez, curl, openssh, python-urllib3, and u-boot).


  • Seven stable kernels for Thursday with fix for critical vulnerability
    Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.2.11, 6.18.57,6.12.113, 6.6.159, 6.1.190,5.15.223, and 5.10.272 stable kernels. This series includes,among other things, a fix for acritical vulnerability (CVE-2026-99999). Theflaw in skb_checksum_help()would allow an IPv4 packet with bad checksum metadata to "corrupt the networkheader and cause a bunch of mischief" in the words of patch author MichaelS. Tsirkin. As usual, all users are advised to upgrade.



  • [$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for October 15, 2026
    Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
    Front: 2026 Maintainers Summit; Rust goals; GCC and LLMs; GCC CFI; systemd; C types in Rust; LTTng; Swap showdown; KDE Linux. Briefs: 64-day certificates; Nix and Lix security; Asterinas 0.19.0; LineageOS 24; KDE 6.8; Python 3.15; Quotes; ... Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.


  • [$] Collaborating with out-of-tree tracers
    LTTng creator Mathieu Desnoyers seems abit trapped in something of a catch-22.At the 2026 Linux Plumbers Conference(LPC), he led a discussion on the problem he is having in trying tocollaborate with other tracing projects (e.g. ftrace, perf) in the kernel. Thefeedback he has gotten, both over the years and more recently, does notshow a path that would allow him to contribute the 21-year-oldGPLv2-licensed LTTng tracing framework, or, incrementally, features fromit, to the mainline kernel.


  • Linus Torvalds's first LLM-assisted patch series
    At the recently concluded MaintainersSummit, Linus Torvalds said that he had been using a large languagemodel to work on a patch series addressing a longstanding problem; he hasnow postedthat series for review.
    The fairly short series of ten patches basically enhances folio lookup by noticing when folios are hot, and setting a "delay releasing this folio until after a RCU period", and then using that RCU delay it does not just the folio lookup itself under RCU (which we've done forever), but also the actual folio data accesses themselves under RCU. No refcount taking needed for the fastpath where we can just read the data from the folio entirely in an RCU-protected region when the user copy doesn't cause page faults.
    The end result is an order-of-magnitude speedup for a read()-heavybenchmark. Review has already identified a racecondition in the code, though, so further work will be needed.


  • KDE Plasma 6.8 released
    Version 6.8 ofthe KDE Plasma desktop has beenreleased. The The KDE project has timed the release to coincide with the 30thanniversary of Matthias Ettrich's email announcing theproject:
    Unix popularity grows thanks to the free variants, mostly Linux. But still aconsistent, nice looking free desktop-environment is missing. There are severalnice either free or low-priced applications available, so that Linux/X11 wouldalmost fit everybody needs if we could offer a real GUI.
    Notable changes include accessibility improvements, inclusionof the Kup backuptool as part of Plasma, as well as the ability to include system audio andmicrophone input in Spectaclescreen recordings. Plasma 6.8 also drops support for Plasma X11 sessions, as was announcedin November 2025. X11 applications are still supported via XWayland, and KDEapplications will continue to support X11 "for the foreseeablefuture".

    See the KDE wiki for alist of major user-facing changes, and the changelogfor all changes since Plasma 6.7.5.



  • [$] GCC development with large-language models
    After much deliberation, the GCC project recently came up with a policy on the use of largelanguage models for development of the compiler suite. It is somewhatrestrictive, but still leaves room for LLMs in the development process. Atthe 2026 GNU Tools Cauldron,Jeff Law and Kyrill Tkachov discussed how these tools have been useful forthem.



LXer Linux News

  • Barebones Mini PC from Shuttle Houses Intel N150 and Supports Three Storage Drives
    The XPC nano NC50N by Shuttle is an upcoming barebone mini PC based on Intel’s N150 processor. The system supports up to 16GB of DDR5 memory, dual M.2 NVMe SSDs, and 2.5GbE networking, targeting digital signage, point-of-sale terminals, office environments, and multimedia applications. The NC50N uses Intel’s Twin Lake N150 processor, manufactured using the Intel […]



  • ESP32 Bit Pirate 1.8 Adds Experimental SDR and Browser-Based Firmware Analysis
    ESP32 Bit Pirate has reached version 1.8, adding experimental software-defined radio (SDR) functionality using the ESP32-S3’s internal Wi-Fi radio. The update also introduces browser-based firmware extraction tools, improved protocol debugging, expanded board compatibility, and updated Zigbee capabilities for ESP32-C5 and ESP32-C6 devices. Previously covered on LinuxGizmos, ESP32 Bit Pirate 1.7 added LoRa support, Meshtastic analysis, […]








  • 3mdeb Releases Updated Dasharo/Coreboot Firmware For ASRock Rack SPC741D8-2L2T
    3mdeb firmware engineers have been quite busy this year working on porting Coreboot and openSIL to an AMD Ryzen AM5 MSI motherboard and similarly getting openSIL and Coreboot up and running on a Gigabyte server motherboard for AMD EPYC 9005 CPUs. They haven't forgotten about their past projects though and today released an updated version of their Dasharo downstream firmware for the ASRock Rack SPC741D8-2L2T motherboard supporting 4th and 5th Gen Xeon Scalable processors...





  • Debian forky OverlayFS BTRFS/XFS setup
    One more option provided is recovery main instance via booting into Overlay instance using Grub Submenu. By explicitly mounting the top-level Btrfs volume (subvolid=5) into a temporary directory like /mnt, you step outside the overlay's jurisdiction. This allows the kernel to recognize the true Btrfs layout and perform instant atomic subvolume swaps.



  • LPDDR5 5467 vs. 6400 vs. 7467 MT/s Memory Performance Benchmarks For Laptops
    With the recently reviewed Star Labs StarFighter Ultra Linux laptop its BIOS allows for configurable memory speeds unlike many other laptop vendor BIOS implementations these days. Star Labs also made the default design decision to run the LPDDR5-7467 rated memory at LPDDR5-6400 speeds in the name of a balanced user experience for power/performance. So I was curious to run some benchmarks quantifying that power and performance impact of LPDDR5-6400 vs. LPDDR5-7467 plus tossed in LPDDR5-5467 testing as well as the third choice offered with this StarFighter Ultra laptop.





  • Raspberry Pi 5 cluster runs Qwen3-30B-A3B at 15 tokens/s on CPU
    Hellomatik has published a study and a modified distributed-llama implementation for running the Qwen3-30B-A3B language model across four Raspberry Pi 5 boards. Using only the boards’ Arm Cortex-A76 CPUs, the cluster reached a reported decode throughput of 15.143 tokens per second, without GPU or NPU acceleration or CPU overclocking. The setup uses four Raspberry Pi […]


Linux Insider"LinuxInsider"












Slashdot

  • Meta May Use Sweeping New Commercial TOS to Avoid Millions In AI Licensing Fees
    Meta is facing criticism over updated commercial terms taking effect October 30 that could give the company broad permission to scrape content from websites linked to business accounts and use it to train AI. Legal experts warn the changes could undermine lucrative AI licensing deals for news publishers, with no direct opt-out for businesses that accept the terms. Ars Technica reports: As Nieman Lab reported Thursday, this will affect all business accounts but is particularly shocking for news publishers who could perhaps charge Meta millions in licensing fees to continually access their articles for AI training. Currently news organizations are fighting a battle with OpenAI over whether such training without licensing is fair use, and Meta's terms seemingly risk granting it sweeping permissions, no matter which way the court leans. "While journalism isn't the only industry that will be affected by this update, virtually every news organization has at least one Meta business account, including Nieman Lab," the lab said. [...] Notably, there is no mention of AI, but it's inferred from a single use of the word "train" and references to automated scraping and crawling. Meta's spokesperson told Nieman Lab that Meta has no plans to use the terms as a legal basis to ignore robots.txt instructions that block scraping on news sites. The company still allows news organizations to opt out of scraping and provides instructions on how to block crawling. A spokesperson told Ars that "there is no change to how Meta uses web crawlers; any suggestion to the contrary is false." However, should courts affirm that AI training non-news articles is fair use, news organizations question if Meta's stance might change, and the terms could be used to freely grab access to content by legally overriding robots.txt instructions.


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • An OpenAI Research Agent 'Stole' Test Ethereum to Finish a Coding Task
    An OpenAI research model reportedly accessed an Ethereum testnet wallet without permission in order to complete a coding task during internal training. "This case shows that a model can substitute its own judgment about likely harm for the account holder's permission, then act on that judgment without authorization," OpenAI wrote. Engadget reports: The incident, which occurred on June 26, happened while a GPT-5.6 Sol model was in internal training. The task involved updating a crypto trading prototype and deploying contracts (publishing special code) on an Ethereum test network called Sepolia. Payment of a network fee is required for such contracts, but OpenAI "supplied no funded wallet and gave no permission to spend funds from an account the model found independently," OpenAI said in the report. The lack of funds at first stymied the agent, but it was not to be discouraged. The model reasoned that it could use public developer recovery phrases (similar to those you might use to recover a password) to access keys from unauthorized accounts. It tracked down 362 addresses open to that avenue of attack and found one that held enough Sepolia ETH to finish its deployment (to be clear, Sepolia ETH has no value outside of testing). Like many criminals, the agent reasoned that someone must have left this access open for automated draining of the ETH "faucets." It also figured that the crypto was effectively "abandoned" and "valueless," according to OpenAI's misalignment records. The piece de resistance was that the agent "did not disclose that it had selected a funded account through a public recover phrase or spent that account's balance," OpenAI said. To prevent similar events in the future, the company is now monitoring all traffic and paging security if live internet access is detected.


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • CoreWeave's Debt Stress Tests Private Credit's AI Financing Boom
    An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Private credit's expanding role in financing AI infrastructure faced one of its clearest market tests this week as CoreWeave's bonds fell to distressed levels, raising questions about how lenders are pricing a boom built on chips, data centers and customer contracts. CoreWeave has about $50 billion of debt, according to LSEG data, making it one of the largest borrowers linking private credit to the AI buildout. The cost of insuring its debt against default climbed to about 1,200 basis points this week, while yields on some of its bonds rose to roughly 15% to 16%, signaling sharply increased investor concern over its credit risk. "There is still a price. Investors are still comfortable financing it, but they're demanding more compensation for it," said James Martin, senior US credit strategist at SMBC, referring to projects further from completion. Carlyle estimates that private credit could finance roughly $1 trillion of the AI infrastructure buildout but warns that aggressive lending could create concentration risks similar to those seen in software lending. "The clearest lesson is not to avoid AI compute exposure, but to set concentration limits before the buildout accelerates further, not after," Carlyle said.


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • ChatGPT Can Peek At Your Chrome Tabs Now
    OpenAI has updated its ChatGPT Chrome extension to let users access information from their open browser tabs. A demo video shows the new functionality in action. The Verge reports: It's also updated ChatGPT in the sidebar, with the full power of ChatGPT and your entire conversation history in Chat or Work to use without leaving the page you're viewing. It also enables ChatGPT Work to "control" your Chrome tabs for tasks like "sending messages, filling out forms, or downloading files," similar to Google's Gemini-powered "auto browse" feature, as well as organize or group open tabs.


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • iPhone Duo Sells Out Immediately, Now Backordered Until Next Year
    Apple's first foldable iPhone, the $1,999 iPhone Duo, sold out within minutes of preorders opening, with every configuration slipping to late January 2027. "All color and storage combinations show an estimated ship date of January 25," reports 9to5Mac. "Some users are even seeing January 29 for their estimated shipping date." From the report: This is a combination of strong demand and severely constrained supply for iPhone Duo. It's impossible to know the exact balance between the two, though. Going into the launch, there were multiple reports suggesting iPhone Duo would be in short supply as Apple was still ramping up production. A report from Nikkei Asia last month said Apple was making just a few hundred iPhone Duo units per day, significantly behind the ramp of a normal iPhone launch.


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • KDE Plasma 6.8 Released, Marks 30 Years of the KDE Project
    An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phoronix: The feature-packed and polished Plasma 6.8 KDE desktop is now available. Making this release all the more special is that it coincides with the 30th anniversary of the KDE project. KDE Plasma 6.8 ships many exciting improvements including vRAM usage optimizations, dwell clicker support on Wayland, Wayland commit-timing protocol support for KWin, improvements for the Union theme engine, better remote desktop support, multi-GPU handling improvements, the new kscreenctl tool, server-side drop shadow support, multi-monitor improvements, and a lot of other polishing throughout. Especially from the Wayland angle there has been a lot of polishing and fine tuning for Plasma 6.8. Accompanying the release is a new film, The KDE Documentary, which "tells the story of the pioneering open source community that gave computer users a free and open alternative to proprietary desktops like Windows." The documentary is available to stream for free on YouTube.


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • Hackers Hijack D-Link, Ubiquiti Devices To Resell Your Stolen Bandwidth
    An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: A proxyjacking campaign has impacted devices in 34 countries, monetizing victims' internet connections through a commercial residential proxy network. The operator installed Pawns.app, a legitimate bandwidth-sharing application that lets users earn money by sharing their internet connections, on devices without the owners' consent. Pawns.app account holders are rewarded for allowing traffic from other users to flow through their network, provided it runs on trusted, non-blocking IP addresses. By installing the app on multiple systems, the attacker likely accumulated larger payouts. Threat intelligence company GreyNoise discovered the campaign while investigating suspicious activity at an unnamed organization, and identified at least 143 compromised devices worldwide. According to researchers, the attacker exploited known vulnerabilities in D-Link ShareCenter NAS (CVE-2024-3272 and CVE-2024-3273), Ubiquiti UniFi Video NVR (CVE-2021-44228), and SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer (CVE-2025-31324) to install the Pawns.app software. Hikvision and Dahua DVR/NVR devices were also targeted, though the specific vulnerabilities exploited were not identified. In some cases, the report says the attackers configured SSH key authentication to maintain backup access to the compromised systems.


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • World's Timekeepers Vote to Eliminate the Leap Second
    Timekeepers have officially voted to eliminate the leap second, allowing Coordinated Universal Time to drift as much as one hour from Earth's rotation before a correction is needed. The change ends decades of occasionally adding or subtracting seconds and replaces it with a hypothetical "leap hour" that likely wouldn't be necessary for hundreds or even thousands of years. Smithsonian Magazine reports: "It's kind of a philosophical discussion, because if a leap hour happens, it won't be for a very, very long time," Christian Bizouard, director of the IERS Earth Orientation Center in France, tells the Guardian's Ian Sample. "What we are doing is pushing back the decision." The move caps off 30 years of debate, as the leap second has been highly controversial in the world of timekeeping. Leap seconds aren't nearly as smooth of a fix as leap years are, and they can cause computer and website issues. Reddit famously crashed when a leap second was added on June 30, 2012. It's "always been a problem," Judah Levine, a former researcher at the NIST's Time and Frequency Division, tells Scientific American's Emma Gometz. Instead of adding the entire second all at once, companies such as Google and Meta add the extra time in smaller segments in a tactic called "smearing," according to the Conversation. It's not a simple task, however, and companies that employ smearing have long lobbied to get rid of the leap second. What's more, with Earth's recent spin acceleration, timekeepers around the world were facing the possibility of the world's first negative leap second, in which a second would be subtracted from UTC. This sparked fears, akin to those surrounding Y2K, that our modern technologies wouldn't be able to handle such a change. "It's never happened before, and therefore the software for that has never been tested," Darryl Veitch, a researcher who leads the Timing Lab at the University of Technology Sydney, tells the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Ellen Phiddian. But others argued that it wouldn't be much of a problem. The vote means that in the future, UTC will be allowed to diverge from astronomical time more than ever before.


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • Tesla Reveals SpaceX-Powered 'Flying' Roadster
    Tesla has unveiled a dramatically redesigned Roadster concept capable of performing midair flips, controlled landings, and a claimed 0-60 mph sprint in just 0.81 seconds. CarScoops reports: Tonight, Tesla debuted the new Roadster by driving it up a vertical ramp that then went horizontal. Then, it repeated the feat but drove off of the ramp and used thrusters to flip itself over and make a controlled landing on the ground. After that, it did a barrel roll over the rest of the Tesla lineup and again landed without issue on the ground. Then, it did 0-60 mph in 0.81 seconds according to Tesla. All of that sounds amazing, and indeed, watching it happen was pretty spectacular, but boy do we have a lot to unpack. It's been nearly a decade since Tesla first showed us the Roadster. The company unveiled what it's simply calling the Roadster. Not Roadster 2.0, not CyberRoadster, just Roadster, as if it's a direct successor to the original Tesla. In terms of design, it's quite a bit different from the car we saw in 2017. Rather than be a somewhat curvaceous sports car, it's considerably more angular. If a Cybertruck and a Lamborghini Reventon had a runt of a baby, this would be that car. Still, at this stage, we're still just touching on what we saw and what it looks like. Let's get into the details. Developed in collaboration with SpaceX, the Roadster uses 10 cold-gas thrusters powered by two 600-liter compressed-air tanks to accelerate and maneuver in mid-air. Underbody suction fans reportedly generate up to 2Gs of downforce even while stationary, while an active rear spoiler adjusts aerodynamics in real time. Other features include steer-by-wire, brake-by-wire, and throttle-by-wire technology. Tesla plans three variants: Performance, which requires a $50,000 deposit; Thrust, a $250,000 model capable of sub-one-second acceleration; and Rocket, an invite-only, single-seat version capable of flying. Production isn't expected until 2028, and Tesla has yet to disclose key specifications, including range, horsepower, battery capacity, and motor configuration. A recording of the event can be viewed on X.


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • Police Seize Robot that Sexually Assaulted Teen Girl
    Slashdot reader alternative_right shares a story that has drawn international attention for being potentially the first documented instance of a robot being used directly in a sexual assault. According to the Associated Press, German police have opened a sexual harassment investigation after a robot allegedly touched a 16-year-old girl's buttocks and made thrusting motions while two young men reportedly filmed and streamed the incident. Investigators seized the robot and the suspects' phones and are trying to determine whether the movements were preprogrammed or controlled in real time. From the report: Cologne police spokesman Christoph Bermel said the two male teenagers have not been charged but are considered suspects, and investigators were examining whether the robot's movements were preprogrammed or controlled in real time. Police were unfamiliar with this type of incident, he said. "We have not been aware of this phenomenon so far," Bermel told The Associated Press, saying it was "new territory for us." [...] The robot, said to be 120 centimeters (about 3 ft 11 inches) tall, was dressed in a white tank top, black sweatpants and wearing a gold chain and sunglasses. It also had what appears to be a fake mustache. Videos circulated on the internet show two young men escorting the robot toward a group of women, bumping into one and hugging others, on a lively nighttime street.


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • Ubuntu 26.10 Released
    prisoninmate shares a report from 9to5Linux: Ubuntu 26.10 (Stonking Stingray) has been released today, and it is now available for download for those eager to update their Ubuntu systems to a newer release. Powered by the upcoming Linux 7.3 kernel series, Ubuntu 26.10 ships with the latest GNOME 51 desktop environment, TPM-backed full disk encryption (FDE) support on computers without a hardware root of trust, updated Settings to show whether a computer is certified for Ubuntu, and 100% Rust coreutils. There are several App Center enhancements in Ubuntu 26.10, such as a unified app-details view for Snap and Debian packages, a dedicated Drivers page where you can review the available graphics drivers, including NVIDIA driver branches, and support for installing codecs for one-time playback when a media file uses a codec that's not installed.' Other additions include an optional, locally processed AI-powered speech-to-text tool called Myna, system-wide controls for disabling Ubuntu Insights data collection, and better integration with Microsoft Entra ID. Also worth mentioning are the security and software updates that will be available for nine months, through July 2027.


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • IMF Warns of the Real AI Threat: Debt
    "Along with the dangers of continuing cyberattacks, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports that the threat of an AI market crash is putting the global markets at risk," writes Slashdot reader databasecowgirl, citing the IMF's latest semiannual Global Financial Stability Report. Here's a summary: Three salient risks could trigger a sharp tightening of financial conditions and market turmoil. Weaker or less durable investment and profitability in artificial intelligence could lead to a correction in AI-related asset prices, amplified by rising leverage and concentrated exposures. Resurgent inflation or fiscal concerns could drive a sharp rise in sovereign bond yields, with potentially broad repercussions across financial markets. Meanwhile, increasingly sophisticated cyber threats pose growing risks as finance becomes more digital and interconnected. Underlying financial vulnerabilities could amplify these risks and turn market stress into systemic events. Although the global banking system remains broadly resilient, pockets of weaker banks persist. Liquidity mismatches among insurers and pension funds have increased, while rising leverage and contingent liquidity risks in private credit could amplify stress. While hedge funds support market functioning in calm times, their use of leverage and exposure to crowded trades could exacerbate market stress too and create spillovers to prime brokers. Some emerging markets have seen policy buffers erode, and frontier economies have increasingly relied on less transparent forms of financing. Finally, although markets for tokenized assets remain small and could offer efficiency gains in several areas, they can create new channels for the buildup of leverage and mismatches in liquidity and maturity, in addition to elevating risks related to technology and infrastructure. These vulnerabilities underscore the need for policies that strengthen resilience, enhance transparency, contain excessive leverage, and improve preparedness for future shocks. The full report can be found here (PDF).


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • Flock CEO Defends Surveillance Tech Amid National Backlash
    An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Flock's founder and CEO Garrett Langley doesn't think the risks of introducing surveillance technology at scale outweigh the rewards. "If we want to live in a society where, if you commit a crime, you have a higher probability of being held accountable, we shouldn't pause progress," Langley said, speaking onstage during a panel at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco on Wednesday. During the interview, the controversial founder of the surveillance maker of license plate cameras and other recording devices deflected hard questions about the criticism Flock now faces -- which has since led to canceled contracts and even layoffs. Instead, Langley tended to respond to questions with anecdotes from conversations with police chiefs and city leaders across the United States, and tales of the supposed numerous crimes Flock has solved, rather than offer tangible solutions to people's concerns. In doing so, Langley positioned Flock as an advance in technology that was somewhat inevitable. He stressed that if people wanted to live in a better society -- that is, one with reduced crime -- they would have to offer up their privacy in return. [...] "Technology, at its core, in its definition, is just doing things better. It's not doing things perfect," he said. "Driverless cars, I think, is a fair analogy. Driverless cars, I think, are definitively safer than human drivers. And when there's one accident, I don't think the answer is to shut down driverless cars. The answer is to say, 'Hey, let's talk about how we prevent more accidents in the future.'" [...] From Langley's answers, it's clear that the ethics around how Flock should be used is a decision he would much rather leave up to others. "We don't want to tell city leaders how to do their job," he noted. "We will provide recommendations, we'll provide defaults, but we're going to minimize the number of mandated features, functions, and policies," he said. Langley went on to argue that society too often judges technology "not on how it compares to the past, but how it compares to perfect." He acknowledged that "Flock is far from perfect" but maintained that its technology helps police departments compensate for staffing shortages and improve public safety. When pressed about potential abuse and privacy concerns, Langley offered few specifics, instead arguing that safeguards could be implemented without disrupting police operations. He insisted the benefits of what Flock offers outweigh the controversy. "There's millions and millions of people who have a better life today because [of] Flock," he said, adding that "it's worth it because one day they might be a victim."


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • First-Ever Public Confirmation of 'Zero-Click' Spyware Delivered Via Targeted Ads
    Citizen Lab says it has documented the first publicly confirmed case of zero-click mercenary spyware being delivered through targeted online ads, a technique it calls "AdFection." "There has been a lot of buzz that online ads can be used to identify and automatically hack targets with pinpoint precision, but now for the first time, we have concrete technical evidence showing this process in action," said Bill Marczak, a researcher at Citizen Lab. The Guardian reports: Citizen Lab, a digital investigations research unit at the University of Toronto, said it believed dozens of devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera had been compromised by spyware delivered through ads run by Discover-Tech, which describes itself as a specialised digital advertising agency. According to Citizen Lab, Discover-Tech operates a software platform called Controlium that allows its clients to "mass-profile and deanonymize" internet users then covertly hack targets with third-party spyware. Unlike infections that rely on people interacting with links or files, the spyware requires no interaction from the victim to be installed, making it a new delivery technique, Citizen Lab says. The infections happen without a user's knowledge, and in a matter of seconds, according to Citizen Lab. "[The online advertising] ecosystem is being weaponized at a massive scale to profile millions of users, then silently infect targets with zero-click mercenary spyware," the report says. According to the report, Controlium is able to harvest a user's identity and IP address when the user is shown a seemingly benign custom-created ad -- for example, for a digital game or a telecoms service. If the user has been selected as a target for hacking, a mercenary spyware firm can then send a malicious code containing spyware to their device, the researchers say. They say that millions of users worldwide have been served ads by Discover-Tech since 2024, including in Yemen, Brazil, Mexico and Czechia. [...] The full extent of the targeting allegedly enabled by Discover-Tech is unknown. Citizen Lab's findings join mounting evidence that the opaque arrangements underpinning the world of online advertising can be leveraged for surveillance.


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.


  • Meta and Apple Bring Muse Spark Open AI Model to Mac Studio
    Meta has released Muse Spark Open, an 816-billion-parameter open-weight model optimized to run locally across two 512GB M5 Ultra Mac Studios using Apple's MLX framework. Meta says it's the "most capable U.S. open-weight model to date." MacRumors reports: Muse Spark Open has 816 billion total parameters with 42 billion active parameters and a 1 million-token context window. It is meant for coding and agentic work, and Meta says it excels at extended tasks, multi-step reasoning, and software engineering. The new Muse model was tuned to run on Mac Studio, and Meta says the Mac Studio paired with Muse Spark Open is the "best way to run a powerful model on your own desktop." From Meta: "Apple's unified memory architecture lets the M5 Ultra's integrated GPU use up to 512 GB per Mac Studio, so two machines can hold an entire model. And the chip's 1.2 TB/s of memory bandwidth is fast enough to read the small slice each token needs. The result is two Mac Studios behave like one supercomputer with a terabyte of unified memory." Apple hasn't released the 512GB Mac Studio as of yet, but it's supposed to be coming later this month. It won't be cheap, because the 256GB Mac Studio is already priced over $10,000.


    Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Linux.com







  • From DHCP to SZTP – The Trust Revolution
    By Juha Holkkola, FusionLayer Group The Dawn of Effortless Connectivity In the transformative years of the late 1990s, a quiet revolution took place, fundamentally altering how we connect to networks. The introduction of DHCP answered a crucial question, Where are you on the network?!, by automating IP address assignment. This innovation eradicated the manual configuration [0]

    The post From DHCP to SZTP – The Trust Revolution appeared first on Linux.com.





Phoronix


  • GNOME OS Preview Announced In Road Toward A Stable Release
    The GNOME OS Linux distribution to date has just been in GNOME OS Nightly form for tracking the latest nightly packages of GNOME in their current development form. GNOME OS Preview was announced today as their trek toward a stable GNOME OS in using the latest GNOME stable releases rather than nightly form...




  • Intel Xeon 6980P Granite Rapids Performance On Linux Over The Past Year
    It9s been nearly one year since receiving the Gigabyte R284-A92-AAL1 2U Granite Rapids server platform for continuing my testing of the flagship Xeon 6980P processors. Curious how the Xeon 6980P 2P performance has evolved on Linux since then, I ran some benchmarks on the newly-released Ubuntu Server 26.10 against the tests carried out last year on Ubuntu 25.10 with the same hardware.



  • Fedora 46 Looking At Moving To RPM v6 Package Format
    The RPM v4 packaging format has been used by Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora and its derivatives for more than two decades. With next year's Fedora 46 release, Fedora Linux may finally transition to the modern RPM v6 packaging format...




  • Linux 7.3 Squeezes Even More Performance Out Of The AMD Threadripper PRO 9995WX
    With the Linux 7.3 kernel due out for release on Sunday, I've continued running more benchmarks recently of this forthcoming kernel version and it looks great. In my Linux 7.3 testing of the Git state it's been looking great in testing on a variety of hardware shown across multiple systems. Recently I decided to try out this new kernel code on the 96-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9995WX workstation...


  • Intel LLM-Scaler-vLLM PV 1.5 Brings Big Improvements
    Intel software engineers today released the latest version of LLM-Scaler-vLLM PV 1.5, their containerized Docker stack providing a convenient AI/LLM experience atop Intel Arc Graphics hardware and born out of their Project Battlematrix initiative...






  • LPDDR5 5467 vs. 6400 vs. 7467 MT/s Memory Performance Benchmarks For Laptops
    With the recently reviewed Star Labs StarFighter Ultra Linux laptop its BIOS allows for configurable memory speeds unlike many other laptop vendor BIOS implementations these days. Star Labs also made the default design decision to run the LPDDR5-7467 rated memory at LPDDR5-6400 speeds in the name of a balanced user experience for power/performance. So I was curious to run some benchmarks quantifying that power and performance impact of LPDDR5-6400 vs. LPDDR5-7467 plus tossed in LPDDR5-5467 testing as well as the third choice offered with this StarFighter Ultra laptop.



  • 3mdeb Releases Updated Dasharo/Coreboot Firmware For ASRock Rack SPC741D8-2L2T
    3mdeb firmware engineers have been quite busy this year working on porting Coreboot and openSIL to an AMD Ryzen AM5 MSI motherboard and similarly getting openSIL and Coreboot up and running on a Gigabyte server motherboard for AMD EPYC 9005 CPUs. They haven't forgotten about their past projects though and today released an updated version of their Dasharo downstream firmware for the ASRock Rack SPC741D8-2L2T motherboard supporting 4th and 5th Gen Xeon Scalable processors...




  • Huawei Proposes Enabling CPU Boost By Default For ACPI CPPC Linux Driver
    For those using the generic ACPI Collaborative Processor Performance Control (CPPC) CPUFreq driver such as on a number of ARM64 Linux server platforms, if the CPUs support a "boost" mode it's disabled by default. But a patch from Huawei is now looking to enable CPU boost mode by default on Linux...


  • GNOME Mutter Improves Damage Tracking For Secondary GPU Copy Buffers
    As an early improvement to Mutter to look forward to with GNOME 52 (Update: It will first appear in GNOME 51.2), the compositor is now tracking damage for secondary GPU copy buffers. This should improve the experience for those with multi-GPU setups such as some hybrid laptops...


  • Microsoft Releases Microsoft Defender For The Linux Desktop
    Microsoft's newest software release for Linux is... Microsoft Defender for the Linux desktop. Microsoft Defender has been ported to Linux to "secure Linux desktops" with Microsoft acknowledging that "more developers begin to use Linux desktops" and thus bringing their security application and threat-protection product to Linux desktops to complement their prior ill-used Linux server support...


  • Framework Computers Triples Their Financial Support To CachyOS
    In addition to providing Framework systems to the CachyOS Linux distribution for optimizing the support, Framework Computers has also been providing monthly donations to the project. CachyOS confirmed today that Framework Computers has now tripled their monthly donations to this independent Linux distribution built atop Arch Linux...




  • Ubuntu 26.10 amd64v3 Packages Provide Some Additional Uplift On AMD EPYC
    In addition to Ubuntu 26.10 itself delivering some nice performance gains on Ubuntu 26.10 for AMD EPYC servers and other hardware, the optional and currently-unofficial amd64v3 package archive also provides additional performance uplift. Here is a look quantifying the performance impact of amd64v3 packages on AMD EPYC 9005 series servers.



  • Linux Finally Making It Easier To Answer The Question: "Is This RISC-V System RVA23?"
    The RISC-V RVA23 profile is a big deal for reducing fragmentation in the RISC-V ecosystem and standardizing more of the ISA to make it easier to distribute modern RISC-V binaries and the like. Modern versions of Ubuntu mandate RVA23 even though compliant hardware is still quite limited. Somewhat surprisingly, only coming about now is an easy ability for Linux users to find the answer to "is my RISC-V system RVA23 compliant?" Pending Linux kernel patches are finally offering a one-shot way of telling you...




  • Rustls 0.23.46 Released With Four Security Fixes
    Rustls as the modern TLS library written in the Rust programming language with an emphasis on memory safety is out today with its v0.23.46 release in order to ship four new security fixes...



Engadget"Engadget - Technology News & Expert Reviews"





















OSnews

  • Palm OS developer archive: Palm OS development resources, SDKs, documentation, and utilities
    This repository contains approximately 1 GB of historical Palm OS development material, collected over many years of working with the platform. The archive includes a mixture of publicly distributed development resources, personal development material, technical references, and historical artifacts. ↫ Aaron Ardiri An incredible resource for anyone wishing to dive into Palm OS programming and development in this day and age.


  • VSI launches how-to portal for OpenVMS
    OpenVMS isnt exactly the easiest platform to get into, with even the first major hurdle  licensing!  being a bit of a complex issue. To address this and other issues people new to OpenVMS might run into, VSI, the company currently developing OpenVMS, launched its new VSI How-to Portal. For now, it covers things like licensing, installing and updating OpenVMS for x86, TCP/IP configuration, and setting up SSH. The company plans to expand the portal with more articles based on customer and user feedback, so hopefully more information will appear soon. Most of us are probably not particularly not particularly experienced with OpenVMS, so having a portal like this can really help get you started.


  • Microsoft claims Windows 11 is now up to 20% more responsive!
    Microsofts been claiming for a while now that theyre working on improving performance and responsiveness in Windows, with a particular focus on making more efficient use of memory. This is probably the only positive thing to come out of the RAM crisis Microsoft helped create and is currently still fueling. The companys now claiming that Windows 11 is up to 20% more responsive! thanks to these efforts. The result is a Windows experience that’s up to 20% more responsive, with improvements you can feel as soon as you boot into your PC and extending to Start, File Explorer, Search, Snipping Tool, Microsoft 365, Edge and more. A big part of that work is making smarter use of memory and system resources. We’ve improved memory management and efficiency across Windows to help keep more of your PC’s resources focused on what you’re actively doing. That work can make an especially meaningful difference on PCs with 8GB of memory. Windows can now keep up to 2GB more of your active data in memory instead of moving it to slower storage, helping your PC stay responsive as you open more apps or browser tabs. Windows is also making additional memory-saving improvements that reduce background memory use. For example, on PCs with 8GB of memory or less, Widgets load only when you open them, making more than 200 MB of memory available for your apps and other work. It’s one example of the broader work underway to reduce the Windows memory footprint and deliver a fast, responsive experience across the PCs people use every day, an area we’ve made an explicit focus for Windows. ↫ Navjot Virk on the Windows Blogs If, for a moment, we take these claims at face value, theyre simply good news for every Windows 11 user, and legitimately the only good thing to come out of the RAM crisis. These kind of claims are always hard to measure, especially considering just how varied the Windows software and hardware ecosystem is, but Im sure people good at benchmarking are going to try and find some more definitive answers here. In the same blog post, Microsoft also highlights several other recent improvements its made to Windows 11, like the new search experience we talked about recently, a brand new Photos application, some new whiteboard-like application, and several more things. Considering how complex Windows versioning scheme and various branches have become, I have no idea when these features and improvements actually make their way to your machine. On a slightly related note, Microsoft also unveiled that its bringing Microsoft Defender to Linux, with a particular focus on desktop Linux. Even Microsoft has to face the reality of the rising popularity of Linux on the desktop.


  • Costa: a modern, maintained graphical shell for DOS
    Graphical user interfaces for DOS were a dime-a-dozen back in the 90s, but of course faded into irrelevance as time went on. But what if you still run DOS today, and want a maintained graphical shell instead of the rather limited DOS command line? Costa is a small and lightweight application which runs on top of MS-DOS or compatible operating systems. It replaces the DOS-prompt with a clean, user-friendly interface  a so-called GUI (Graphical User Interface). Costa comes packed with a bunch of useful accessories and can be used with or without a mouse. Developed by Jacob Palm, a Danish IT-professional and hobby developer, the first release of Costa came way back in 2004. Over the years  and through several releases  Costa has gradually evolved into what it is today, with new releases still coming out regularly as of 2025. ↫ Costa website Costa comes bundled with a number of useful utilities, a few games, and useful features like a desktop with custom icons, virtual desktop support, a file selector, and much more. The latest release, version 1.8.0, was released in late 2024, and should run on just about any IBM PC-compatible, but a 386 is recommended. Its been tested with a variety of DOS flavours, including FreeDOS ad DOSBox, so it should run pretty much anywhere.


  • Ubuntu 26.10 released
    Ubuntu 26.10 has landed. Ubuntu 26.10 brings significant progress for security, and strengthens the platform with the full adoption of Rust-based coreutils, post-quantum-ready package signing, and expanded TPM-backed full-disk encryption support. Enterprise authentication gains deeper integration with Microsoft Entra ID, including password and multi-factor authentication. Linux kernel 7.3 extends support for the latest hardware, alongside new RISC-V desktop images and optimized amd64v3 installation images. ↫ Ubuntu 26.10 release announcement Of course, it comes with the latest version of GNOME, and the whole family of Ubuntu variants focusing on other desktops have also been updated. While I doubt many people here run Ubuntu, its still quite popular, and serves as the base for countless other distributions.


  • KDE Plasma 6.8 released
    KDE turns 30 today, and theyre celebrating it with a brand new KDE Plasma release: version 6.8 is here. On the accessibility front, 6.8 brings a new dwell clicker function (meaning a click will register if the pointer is held still for a short while) and support for the Bikram Sambat calendar and the Amharic language. I always love it when I see support for new languages and scripts, especially when, as is the case here, its a language spoken as a first language by 25 million people. The Plasma remote desktop has also been improved with bi-directional copy/paste, performance and quality improvements, and more, and you can now record microphone and audio while screen recording with Spectacle. In System Monitor, you can now assign processes and tasks to specific processors/cores, which is a great feature for people running intensive tasks but who would still like to, you know, do other things while those tasks are running. KDE 6.8 drops support for X11, focusing entirely on Wayland. Of course, X11 applications will remain usable thanks to Xwayland, and KDEs applications will continue to support X11 in case youre using them outside of KDE. This release also further expands the Union theming system, now adding support for styling Qt Widgets. Union is still in beta, so youll have to enable it to test it. Theres a ton more, too, but these are some of the highlights. KDE Plasma 6.8 will find its way to your distribution of choice soon enough.


  • Haikus latest activity report contains a ton of smaller fixes and improvements
    You know the drill by now  a new month, a new Haiku activity report. This past month doesnt seem to have any big ticket items, but instead contains a long list of smaller but still welcome fixes. Various filesystem drivers saw some work, a few bugs in virtio drivers were fixed, and NVMM execution is now easily interruptible by signals which should improve performance in various emulators like QEMU. Be sure to comb through the complete list to see if theres anything in there that impacts you.


  • ESA targets Anbernic emulation handhelds as “superfake” piracy enablers
    The ESA  not, not the cool one  a lobby group made up of various videogame and entertainment companies, has asked the US Trade Representative (USTR) to add Anbernic to its list of companies that are supposedly notorious for engaging in and facilitating piracy. If youre unaware, Anbernic is one of the bigger names in Android and Linux-based handheld gaming devices targeted at the retrocomputing market. While many online sellers do include an SD card full of ROMs alongside emulation hardware of all types, Anbernic itself does not appear to do the same when selling directly from its website. Regardless, the ESA argues that these ROM-laden Anbernic devices selling through “normal retail channels” help to “normalize hardware-based piracy by delivering illicit catalogues through a polished consumer product.” This, the ESA says, meets the threshold for a “superfake,” an ill-defined designation that applies to “high-quality counterfeit trademark goods … on a commercial scale.” ↫ Kyle Orland at Ars Technica Theres a lot of murkiness surrounding whether or not Anbernic sells their devices with preloaded ROMs or not. The number of reports from people who say they did get a ton of ROMs on their Anbernic devices, bought from Anbernics own store, is large enough that its clearly something they do. However, theres an equal number of people who say their Anbernic devices were completely free of ROMs, and Im one of them  Ive bought like three or so devices from their store over the years, and they never came with any ROMs. My most recent purchase was an RG 35XXPro Linux-based model, and there were no ROMs on it (I replaced the stock operating system with Knulli, which has been a great experience). If Anbernic does indeed ship at least some of their devices with ROMs preinstalled, then its their own damn fault if that lands them in legal trouble. Its not like downloading ROMs is particularly difficult (just do an internet search for your preferred system and something like ROM pack! and youll get the consoles complete library in a single download), so they really have no need to do so. Theres one extra layer here though. Third-party resellers like Amazon offer loads of Anbernic devices preloaded with SD cards full of ROMs, all from third parties not affiliated with Anbernic. And wouldnt you know it  Amazon is a member of the ESA lobby group. In other words, the problem also lies with lax retailers not properly vetting what theyre offering, but instead of going after places like Amazon, theyre going after Anbernic instead. Amazon is a haven for illegal and counterfeit products, but theyre so wealthy and powerful they just get away with it.


  • Hardening changes for ReFS volumes on removable media!
    Are you aware of ReFS, Microsofts next-generation file system for Windows? Im sure the average OSNews reader is, but I really wonder how many people are using it out in the wider world, even though Microsoft keeps improving it. Since earlier this year, Windows Server and Windows 11 can boot from ReFS volumes, and its used by Windows Dev Drive feature as well. What Microsoft doesnt seem to want, though, is people using ReFS on removable drives. Starting with Windows updates released on and after October 13, 2026, Microsoft is making hardening changes to the Resilient File System (ReFS). This article describes Windows hardening changes for ReFS volumes that are mounted from removable media. ReFS on removable media, such as a USB disk, is not a supported configuration. The changes add auditing and enforcement controls that help administrators identify these volumes and prevent them from being mounted. ↫ Microsoft Knowledge Base article Im oddly fascinated by this. Apparently, there are enough people out there trying to use ReFS on removable media to warrant the above auditing and enforcement controls, which is fascinating in an of itself. On top of that, using ReFS on removable media is apparently also dangerous enough  which raises the question of why, exactly, its so dangerous in the first place. Microsoft doesnt really explain itself here, other than saying its not a supported configuration!. I wonder if and when Microsoft will move from NTFS to ReFS as the default file system for new Windows installations. Its been around for quite a while now, and theres no denying that competing operating systems, especially in the server space, have file systems that are far superior to NTFS (like Btrfs, ZFS, and others), and Im assuming Microsoft would love to catch up. Its been a long time since Microsoft changed Windows default file system, however, and with the massive number of people using Windows, its not something to take lightly. Then again, Apple migrated hundreds of millions of iPhones, iPads, and Macs to a brand new file system without anybody noticing a thing, and as far as I can recall, without any problems.


  • Lotus Improv on the NeXT
    Both NeXT and Improv brought innovative solutions to their respective computing questions of the day. NeXT made UNIX palatable to those scared of the terminal, debuted Display Postscript on a mega-pixel display, and made development for the system a snap. Improv rethought multi-dimensional data modeling, offered English-like formulas, and made it easy to rearrange data views on a whim. The bones of both remain to this day. NeXTs operating system, NeXTSTEP / OPENSTEP, morphed into macOS, and by extension iOS. Lotus abandoned Improv fairly quickly, but a quick survey of todays spreadsheets shows a universal embrace of pivot tables. ↫ Christopher Drum I had never heard of Lotus Improv, so I learned a lot reading this outstanding article by Drum.


  • The holy quinity of UNIX workstations
    Many of us are interested in retrocomputing. Theres such a rich history of eras and machines to choose from, and countless niches and nuances to get lost in. Some people make it easy for themselves and are into old computers that are readily available at low prices, like the Commodore 64 or mid-90s Macs, while others make it a bit harder on themselves by focusing on, say, computers from the former Soviet Union or NEC machines from Japan, which are harder to find and probably require a bigger purse, too. And then theres people like me. Im making things incredibly hard on myself, because I am obsessed with a very specific set of computers  just five machines, to be exact. Surely,! I hear you think, collecting a mere five specific machines cant be that hard, no? Thats how many spare Pismos I have in a box in case my primary one needs spare parts!! Sadly for me, the five computers I want to own more than any other are not particularly easy to find, and even when you do find one of them, pricing can easily reach the level of a decent used car. Regular OSNews readers will know: I am infatuated with UNIX workstations, or more specifically, UNIX workstations of the early 2000, and even more specifically, the final five models built by the last commercial UNIX vendors. So far, Ive managed to get my hands on a mere two of them, but before my time on this earth come to an end, I intend to complete my Holy Quinity of UNIX Workstations. Lets go down the list, roughly ordered by attainability. HP c8000: PA-RISC/HP-UX The HP c8000 is the absolute pinnacle of HPs long-running line of workstations based on the PA-RISC architecture. The first PA-RISC workstation was launched in 1986, and HP would continue to improve the architecture and release new workstations all the way up until 2004, when the c8000 would be their last model. For the c8000, HP actually went all-out: it came with two dual-core PA-RISC processors running between 900MHz and 1.1GHz (depending on configuration), a maximum of 24GB of RAM, and a variety of graphics cards to choose from. It was a veritable swan song for the architecture. HPs commercial UNIX operating system, HP-UX, is even older than PA-RISC, with the first version being released in 1982, and its final version, HP-UX 11i v3 (or 11.31) released in 2007. This final version of HP-UX was updated and supported all the way up until 31 December 2025, but things are actually a bit more complicated than that. The last workstation release of HP-UX for PA-RISC was 11i v1 (released in 2000), while the last workstation release for Itanium workstations was 11i v2 (released in 2005). Do note that HP would provide updates, fixes, and patches to these versions long after the mentioned release dates. Speaking of Itanium, HPs final Itanium workstation was the zx6000, released in 2002, which can pack up to two single-core 1.5Ghz Itanium 2 processors. Theres a very real case to be made that the zx6000 should also be part of this list, since its both a little faster than the c8000 (in its dual 1.5GHz configuration) and runs a newer version of HP-UX. However, since Itanium workstations never really had much of an impact in the market (even HP only ever released two models), and since it lacks the decades of pedigree that comes with PA-RISC, I consider them a mere curiosity. A very cool curiosity that Id love to own, but a curiosity nonetheless. Anyway, this is one of the two machines I already own. I have a new-in-box (when I bought it a few years ago) HP c8000 with two dual-core 1.0Ghz PA-RISC processors, 8 GB of RAM, and an ATI FireGL X3 AGP graphics card with 256 MB, the fastest the c8000 will take. Its also got two SCSCI 74 GB hard drives in a striped RAID for better performance, and I added an LTO 4 tape drive so I could create bootable backups that will restore the machine if anything ever goes wrong. Its running HP-UX 11i v1, with as many of the updates, patches, and fixes I could find  which is one of the major roadblocks for anyone trying to get into HP-UX. Installation media are relatively easy to come by if you know where to look (assuming you know which specific version you need), but any updates, patches, and fixes from roughly later than 2005 are almost impossible to find. Some can be discovered through My HPE Software Center, if you have the patience of an angel and the perseverance of a honey badger (its a really terrible website), but most things are all locked away behind expensive support contracts or just gone entirely. Ive contacted HPE several times in several different ways about the preservation of HP-UX, but they never replied  clearly, they just dont care about the preservation of their legendary UNIX platform or the enthusiast community buying PA-RISC hardware on eBay for personal use and experimentation. Sad, but par for the course. The c8000 is quite easy to find on eBay, but do be aware that the cheap! offerings of around €800 are the versions with just one processor. To get the version with two processors, expect to shell out twice as much. Spare parts and upgrades are readily available, too. Sun Ultra 45: SPARC/Solaris The Sun Ultra 45 needs no introduction here on OSNews, as I published an in-depth article about this machine and all the cool things you can do with it late last year. My Ultra 45 was an incredibly generous gift by Adriaan de Groot, who owned this machine as part of his work on porting KDE to Solaris way back in the day. I then ordered various upgrades to the machine to max it out with two UltraSPARC IIIi processors running at 1.6GHz, 8 GB of RAM, and the Sun XVR-2500 with 256MB, the fastest


  • Will Linux phones become a viable alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly?
    Amos B. Batto has published an incredibly detailed look at the state of Linux on smartphones. Its an excellent read you really shouldnt skip. Five years ago, Linux phones looked like they were poised to become a viable alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly that has an iron grip on the mobile phone industry. Sadly, after a brief flash of activity and community engagement with the release of the Purism Librem 5 and the PINE64 PinePhone in 2020, the Linux phone market has generally stagnated. This stagnation occurred partly because of the problems at Purism and PINE64, but also because the available Linux SoC’s weren’t up to the task of running a modern smartphone, and the hardware industry wasn’t providing any good alternatives with good free/open source drivers. In addition, Plasma Mobile and Phosh were still inchoate mobile interfaces at the time, and there wasn’t a good distro option to run these interfaces on Android kernels with a normal integrated mobile SoC. The poor performance of the PinePhone and Librem 5 and the problems with the PinePhone Pro and the Librem 5 refunds sapped people’s enthusiasm and willingness to take a chance on the next Linux phone. Fortunately, all of these conditions are changing, and I believe that there is now the possibility that Linux could finally become a viable alternative to Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS in the mobile space, just like desktop Linux has become a viable alternative to Windows and Mac OSX on the PC over the last three decades. This isn’t to say that mobile Linux will fundamentally challenge the business of Google or Apple, but the conditions are ripe for a small market to arise for Linux phones, similar to the way that people can currently buy Linux PCs from a number of small companies, such as TUXEDO, System76, Purism, Slimbook, ThinkPenguin, Ubuntushop.biz, Entroware, Star Labs, Juno, Laptop with Linux, Linux Certified, ArkPC, etc. ↫ Amos B. Batto Im not quite as optimistic as Batto, and thats almost exclusively down to how running Android applications through compatibility layers will remain an absolute necessity for anyone trying to use one of these Linux smartphones today. As long as crucial applications and services required to function in a modern society, like banking, messaging, government services, and so on, require the use of an Android application when using a Linux smartphone, I just dont think any significant number of people will be switching over. Whats needed is something that will force these crucial services to become available on platforms other than Android and iOS, since I dont think any of them will do so of their own volition. The only way I can see this happening is if the European Union, spurred on by our desire to reduce our dependence on adversarial US companies, mandates that several services marked as crucial must make themselves available on platforms other than Android and iOS. I doubt that will happen, but I honestly dont see Linux smartphones becoming anything more than a mere curiosity you fiddle with at home, while carrying an Android phone or iPhone as your actual phone.


  • LineageOS 24, based on Android 17, released
    LineageOS has released its first version based on Android 17  earlier than expected. We’ve been hard at work rebasing all of our changes and features since Android 17’s release in June. Android 17’s first release mainly contained iterative improvements and some UI/UX refinements, but due to our previous efforts adapting to Google’s heavy refactoring over the last several versions, we were able to rebase onto Android 17’s code-base faster than anticipated. Yes you read that right: We’re early this year! ↫ LineageOS changelog written by Nolen Johnson This release also includes the latest Android security patches (October 2026), as well as a brand new browser-based USB flash tool to make installation easier. Many of the applications included with LineageOS have also been updated and improved, like its music player, image editor, web browser, and so on. The project also did a full accessibility audit of its installation process and application suite, which has already resulted in severalk accessibility improvements. LineageOS serves as the base for countless custom Android ROMs, so its great to see the project do this well.


  • Keyboard differences between Windows and Macs
    Over the years, I learned about many gotchas and strange differences between keyboard handling on Mac and Windows – pertinent especially to web apps, which use the same codebase to cater to both. I thought it might be helpful to someone if I compile them all in one place. ↫ Marcin Wichary I knew most of these, but its still nice to have such a reference at hand when needed.


  • Inside the Windows I/O Manager: deep dive into how read I/O requests are initialized
    In this article. I am going to explain the different steps the I/O manager follows when initializing an I/O operation starting from determining the right target, choosing the right path and finally sending the request to be processed by the right drivers. To make it easier I choose to focus on read requests only since the major steps are common by all types of requests. ↫ Win-Ware A very in-depth look at Windows I/O Manager.


  • A minimal kernel in Swift, running in QEMU
    At OSNews, we love us a hobby operating system project. I started a small experiment: writing a very basic kernel in Swift, and running on QEMU. The goal is obviously not to replace Linux or any other popular kernel, but just to have fun and understand what is required to make a program run without an operating system underneath it. Actually I made a similar experiment years before with arOS 10 years ago. For the moment, the kernel does only one thing: it prints a message through QEMU and then waits forever, which is enough for a first deep dive. ↫ Carette Antonin This is effectively a hello world! kernel, as it doesnt actually do much else at this point. Still, theres a ton of details in the article for the aspiring kernel developers among you.



Linux Journal News

  • EU OS: A Bold Step Toward Digital Sovereignty for Europe
    Image
    A new initiative, called "EU OS," has been launched to develop a Linux-based operating system tailored specifically for the public sector organizations of the European Union (EU). This community-driven project aims to address the EU's unique needs and challenges, focusing on fostering digital sovereignty, reducing dependency on external vendors, and building a secure, self-sufficient digital ecosystem.
    What Is EU OS?
    EU OS is not an entirely novel operating system. Instead, it builds upon a Linux foundation derived from Fedora, with the KDE Plasma desktop environment. It draws inspiration from previous efforts such as France's GendBuntu and Munich's LiMux, which aimed to provide Linux-based systems for public sector use. The goal remains the same: to create a standardized Linux distribution that can be adapted to different regional, national, and sector-specific needs within the EU.

    Rather than reinventing the wheel, EU OS focuses on standardization, offering a solid Linux foundation that can be customized according to the unique requirements of various organizations. This approach makes EU OS a practical choice for the public sector, ensuring broad compatibility and ease of implementation across diverse environments.
    The Vision Behind EU OS
    The guiding principle of EU OS is the concept of "public money – public code," ensuring that taxpayer money is used transparently and effectively. By adopting an open-source model, EU OS eliminates licensing fees, which not only lowers costs but also reduces the dependency on a select group of software vendors. This provides the EU’s public sector organizations with greater flexibility and control over their IT infrastructure, free from the constraints of vendor lock-in.

    Additionally, EU OS offers flexibility in terms of software migration and hardware upgrades. Organizations can adapt to new technologies and manage their IT evolution at a manageable cost, both in terms of finances and time.

    However, there are some concerns about the choice of Fedora as the base for EU OS. While Fedora is a solid and reliable distribution, it is backed by the United States-based Red Hat. Some argue that using European-backed projects such as openSUSE or KDE's upcoming distribution might have aligned better with the EU's goal of strengthening digital sovereignty.
    Conclusion
    EU OS marks a significant step towards Europe's digital independence by providing a robust, standardized Linux distribution for the public sector. By reducing reliance on proprietary software and vendors, it paves the way for a more flexible, cost-effective, and secure digital ecosystem. While the choice of Fedora as the base for the project has raised some questions, the overall vision of EU OS offers a promising future for Europe's public sector in the digital age.

    Source: It's FOSS
    European Union


  • Linus Torvalds Acknowledges Missed Release of Linux 6.14 Due to Oversight

    Linus Torvalds Acknowledges Missed Release of Linux 6.14 Due to Oversight

    Linux kernel lead developer Linus Torvalds has admitted to forgetting to release version 6.14, attributing the oversight to his own lapse in memory. Torvalds is known for releasing new Linux kernel candidates and final versions on Sunday afternoons, typically accompanied by a post detailing the release. If he is unavailable due to travel or other commitments, he usually informs the community ahead of time, so users don’t worry if there’s a delay.

    In his post on March 16, Torvalds gave no indication that the release might be delayed, instead stating, “I expect to release the final 6.14 next weekend unless something very surprising happens.” However, Sunday, March 23rd passed without any announcement.

    On March 24th, Torvalds wrote in a follow-up message, “I’d love to have some good excuse for why I didn’t do the 6.14 release yesterday on my regular Sunday afternoon schedule,” adding, “But no. It’s just pure incompetence.” He further explained that while he had been clearing up unrelated tasks, he simply forgot to finalize the release. “D'oh,” he joked.

    Despite this minor delay, Torvalds’ track record of successfully managing the Linux kernel’s development process over the years remains strong. A single day’s delay is not critical, especially since most Linux users don't urgently need the very latest version.

    The new 6.14 release introduces several important features, including enhanced support for writing drivers in Rust—an ongoing topic of discussion among developers—support for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile chip, a fix for the GhostWrite vulnerability in certain RISC-V processors from Alibaba’s T-Head Semiconductor, and a completed NTSYNC driver update that improves the WINE emulator’s ability to run Windows applications, particularly games, on Linux.

    Although the 6.14 release went smoothly aside from the delay, Torvalds expressed that version 6.15 may present more challenges due to the volume of pending pull requests. “Judging by my pending pile of pull requests, 6.15 will be much busier,” he noted.

    You can download the latest kernel here.
    Linus Torvalds kernel


  • AerynOS 2025.03 Alpha Released with GNOME 48, Mesa 25, and Linux Kernel 6.13.8
    Image
    AerynOS 2025.03 has officially been released, introducing a variety of exciting features for Linux users. The release includes the highly anticipated GNOME 48 desktop environment, which comes with significant improvements like HDR support, dynamic triple buffering, and a Wayland color management protocol. Other updates include a battery charge limiting feature and a Wellbeing option aimed at improving user experience.

    This release, while still in alpha, incorporates Linux kernel 6.13.8 and the updated Mesa 25.0.2 graphics stack, alongside tools like LLVM 19.1.7 and Vulkan SDK 1.4.309.0. Additionally, the Moss package manager now integrates os-info to generate more detailed OS metadata via a JSON file.

    Future plans for AerynOS include automated package updates, easier rollback management, improved disk handling with Rust, and fractional scaling enabled by default. The installer has also been revamped to support full disk wipes and dynamic partitioning.

    Although still considered an alpha release, AerynOS 2025.03 can be downloaded and tested right now from its official website.

    Source: 9to5Linux
    AerynOS


  • Xojo 2025r1: Big Updates for Developers with Linux ARM Support, Web Drag and Drop, and Direct App Store Publishing
    Image
    Xojo has just rolled out its latest release, Xojo 2025 Release 1, and it’s packed with features that developers have been eagerly waiting for. This major update introduces support for running Xojo on Linux ARM, including Raspberry Pi, brings drag-and-drop functionality to the Web framework, and simplifies app deployment with the ability to directly submit apps to the macOS and iOS App Stores.

    Here’s a quick overview of what’s new in Xojo 2025r1:
    1. Linux ARM IDE Support
    Xojo 2025r1 now allows developers to run the Xojo IDE on Linux ARM devices, including popular platforms like Raspberry Pi. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for developers who want to create apps for ARM-based devices without the usual complexity. Whether you’re building for a Raspberry Pi or other ARM devices, this update makes it easier than ever to get started.
    2. Web Drag and Drop
    One of the standout features in this release is the addition of drag-and-drop support for web applications. Now, developers can easily drag and drop visual controls in their web projects, making it simpler to create interactive, user-friendly web applications. Plus, the WebListBox has been enhanced with support for editable cells, checkboxes, and row reordering via dragging. No JavaScript required!
    3. Direct App Store Publishing
    Xojo has also streamlined the process of publishing apps. With this update, developers can now directly submit macOS and iOS apps to App Store Connect right from the Xojo IDE. This eliminates the need for multiple steps and makes it much easier to get apps into the App Store, saving valuable time during the development process.
    4. New Desktop and Mobile Features
    This release isn’t just about web and Linux updates. Xojo 2025r1 brings some great improvements for desktop and mobile apps as well. On the desktop side, all projects now include a default window menu for macOS apps. On the mobile side, Xojo has introduced new features for Android and iOS, including support for ColorGroup and Dark Mode on Android, and a new MobileColorPicker for iOS to simplify color selection.
    5. Performance and IDE Enhancements
    Xojo’s IDE has also been improved in several key areas. There’s now an option to hide toolbar captions, and the toolbar has been made smaller on Windows. The IDE on Windows and Linux now features modern Bootstrap icons, and the Documentation window toolbar is more compact. In the code editor, developers can now quickly navigate to variable declarations with a simple Cmd/Ctrl + Double-click. Plus, performance for complex container layouts in the Layout Editor has been enhanced.
    What Does This Mean for Developers?
    Xojo 2025r1 brings significant improvements across all the platforms that Xojo supports, from desktop and mobile to web and Linux. The added Linux ARM support opens up new opportunities for Raspberry Pi and ARM-based device development, while the drag-and-drop functionality for web projects will make it easier to create modern, interactive web apps. The ability to publish directly to the App Store is a game-changer for macOS and iOS developers, reducing the friction of app distribution.
    How to Get Started
    Xojo is free for learning and development, as well as for building apps for Linux and Raspberry Pi. If you’re ready to dive into cross-platform development, paid licenses start at $99 for a single-platform desktop license, and $399 for cross-platform desktop, mobile, or web development. For professional developers who need additional resources and support, Xojo Pro and Pro Plus licenses start at $799. You can also find special pricing for educators and students.

    Download Xojo 2025r1 today at xojo.com.
    Final Thoughts
    With each new release, Xojo continues to make cross-platform development more accessible and efficient. The 2025r1 release is no exception, delivering key updates that simplify the development process and open up new possibilities for developers working on a variety of platforms. Whether you’re a Raspberry Pi enthusiast or a mobile app developer, Xojo 2025r1 has something for you.
    Xojo ARM


  • New 'Mirrored' Network Mode Introduced in Windows Subsystem for Linux

    Microsoft's Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) continues to evolve with the release of WSL 2 version 0.0.2. This update introduces a set of opt-in preview features designed to enhance performance and compatibility.

    Key additions include "Automatic memory reclaim" which dynamically optimizes WSL's memory footprint, and "Sparse VHD" to shrink the size of the virtual hard disk file. These improvements aim to streamline resource usage.

    Additionally, a new "mirrored networking mode" brings expanded networking capabilities like IPv6 and multicast support. Microsoft claims this will improve VPN and LAN connectivity from both the Windows host and Linux guest. 

    Complementing this is a new "DNS Tunneling" feature that changes how DNS queries are resolved to avoid compatibility issues with certain network setups. According to Microsoft, this should reduce problems connecting to the internet or local network resources within WSL.

    Advanced firewall configuration options are also now available through Hyper-V integration. The new "autoProxy" feature ensures WSL seamlessly utilizes the Windows system proxy configuration.

    Microsoft states these features are currently rolling out to Windows Insiders running Windows 11 22H2 Build 22621.2359 or later. They remain opt-in previews to allow testing before final integration into WSL.

    By expanding WSL 2 with compelling new capabilities in areas like resource efficiency, networking, and security, Microsoft aims to make Linux on Windows more performant and compatible. This evolutionary approach based on user feedback highlights Microsoft's commitment to WSL as a key part of the Windows ecosystem.
    Windows


  • Linux Threat Report: Earth Lusca Deploys Novel SprySOCKS Backdoor in Attacks on Government Entities

    The threat actor Earth Lusca, linked to Chinese state-sponsored hacking groups, has been observed utilizing a new Linux backdoor dubbed SprySOCKS to target government organizations globally. 

    As initially reported in January 2022 by Trend Micro, Earth Lusca has been active since at least 2021 conducting cyber espionage campaigns against public and private sector targets in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. Their tactics include spear-phishing and watering hole attacks to gain initial access. Some of Earth Lusca's activities overlap with another Chinese threat cluster known as RedHotel.

    In new research, Trend Micro reveals Earth Lusca remains highly active, even expanding operations in the first half of 2023. Primary victims are government departments focused on foreign affairs, technology, and telecommunications. Attacks concentrate in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and the Balkans regions. 

    After breaching internet-facing systems by exploiting flaws in Fortinet, GitLab, Microsoft Exchange, Telerik UI, and Zimbra software, Earth Lusca uses web shells and Cobalt Strike to move laterally. Their goal is exfiltrating documents and credentials, while also installing additional backdoors like ShadowPad and Winnti for long-term spying.

    The Command and Control server delivering Cobalt Strike was also found hosting SprySOCKS - an advanced backdoor not previously publicly reported. With roots in the Windows malware Trochilus, SprySOCKS contains reconnaissance, remote shell, proxy, and file operation capabilities. It communicates over TCP mimicking patterns used by a Windows trojan called RedLeaves, itself built on Trochilus.

    At least two SprySOCKS versions have been identified, indicating ongoing development. This novel Linux backdoor deployed by Earth Lusca highlights the increasing sophistication of Chinese state-sponsored threats. Robust patching, access controls, monitoring for unusual activities, and other proactive defenses remain essential to counter this advanced malware.

    The Trend Micro researchers emphasize that organizations must minimize attack surfaces, regularly update systems, and ensure robust security hygiene to interrupt the tactics, techniques, and procedures of relentless threat groups like Earth Lusca.
    Security


  • Linux Kernel Faces Reduction in Long-Term Support Due to Maintenance Challenges

    The Linux kernel is undergoing major changes that will shape its future development and adoption, according to Jonathan Corbet, Linux kernel developer and executive editor of Linux Weekly News. Speaking at the Open Source Summit Europe, Corbet provided an update on the latest Linux kernel developments and a glimpse of what's to come.

    A major change on the horizon is a reduction in long-term support (LTS) for kernel versions from six years to just two years. Corbet explained that maintaining old kernel branches indefinitely is unsustainable and most users have migrated to newer versions, so there's little point in continuing six years of support. While some may grumble about shortened support lifecycles, the reality is that constantly backporting fixes to ancient kernels strains maintainers.

    This maintainer burnout poses a serious threat, as Corbet highlighted. Maintaining Linux is largely a volunteer effort, with only about 200 of the 2,000+ developers paid for their contributions. The endless demands on maintainers' time from fuzz testing, fixing minor bugs, and reviewing contributions takes a toll. Prominent maintainers have warned they need help to avoid collapse. Companies relying on Linux must realize giving back financially is in their interest to sustain this vital ecosystem. 

    The Linux kernel is also wading into waters new with the introduction of Rust code. While Rust solves many problems, it also introduces new complexities around language integration, evolving standards, and maintainer expertise. Corbet believes Rust will pass the point of no return when core features depend on it, which may occur soon with additions like Apple M1 GPU drivers. Despite skepticism in some corners, Rust's benefits likely outweigh any transition costs.

    On the distro front, Red Hat's decision to restrict RHEL cloning sparked community backlash. While business considerations were at play, Corbet noted technical factors too. Using older kernels with backported fixes, as RHEL does, risks creating divergent, vendor-specific branches. The Android model of tracking mainline kernel dev more closely has shown security benefits. Ultimately, Linux works best when aligned with the broader community.

    In closing, Corbet recalled the saying "Linux is free like a puppy is free." Using open source seems easy at first, but sustaining it long-term requires significant care and feeding. As Linux is incorporated into more critical systems, that maintenance becomes ever more crucial. The kernel changes ahead are aimed at keeping Linux healthy and vibrant for the next generation of users, businesses, and developers.
    kernel


  • Linux Celebrates 32 Years with the Release of 6.6-rc2 Version

    Today marks the 32nd anniversary of Linus Torvalds introducing the inaugural Linux 0.01 kernel version, and celebrating this milestone, Torvalds has launched the Linux 6.6-rc2. Among the noteworthy updates are the inclusion of a feature catering to the ASUS ROG Flow X16 tablet's mode handling and the renaming of the new GenPD subsystem to pmdomain.

    The Linux 6.6 edition is progressing well, brimming with exciting new features that promise to enhance user experience. Early benchmarks are indicating promising results, especially on high-core-count servers, pointing to a potentially robust and efficient update in the Linux series.

    Here is what Linus Torvalds had to say in today's announcement:
    Another week, another -rc.I think the most notable thing about 6.6-rc2 is simply that it'sexactly 32 years to the day since the 0.01 release. And that's a roundnumber if you are a computer person.Because other than the random date, I don't see anything that reallystands out here. We've got random fixes all over, and none of it looksparticularly strange. The genpd -> pmdomain rename shows up in thediffstat, but there's no actual code changes involved (make sure touse "git diff -M" to see them as zero-line renames).And other than that, things look very normal. Sure, the architecturefixes happen to be mostly parisc this week, which isn't exactly theusual pattern, but it's also not exactly a huge amount of changes.Most of the (small) changes here are in drivers, with some tracingfixes and just random things. The shortlog below is short enough toscroll through and get a taste of what's been going on. Linus Torvalds


  • Introducing Bavarder: A User-Friendly Linux Desktop App for Quick ChatGPT Interaction

    Want to interact with ChatGPT from your Linux desktop without using a web browser?

    Bavarder, a new app, allows you to do just that.

    Developed with Python and GTK4/libadwaita, Bavarder offers a simple concept: pose a question to ChatGPT, receive a response, and promptly copy the answer (or your inquiry) to the clipboard for pasting elsewhere.

    With an incredibly user-friendly interface, you won't require AI expertise (or a novice blogger) to comprehend it. Type your question in the top box, click the blue send button, and wait for a generated response to appear at the bottom. You can edit or modify your message and repeat the process as needed.

    During our evaluation, Bavarder employed BAI Chat, a GPT-3.5/ChatGPT API-based chatbot that's free and doesn't require signups or API keys. Future app versions will incorporate support for alternative backends, such as ChatGPT 4 and Hugging Chat, and allow users to input an API key to utilize ChatGPT3.

    At present, there's no option to regenerate a response (though you can resend the same question for a potentially different answer). Due to the lack of a "conversation" view, tracking a dialogue or following up on answers can be challenging — but Bavarder excels for rapid-fire questions.

    As with any AI, standard disclaimers apply. Responses might seem plausible but could contain inaccurate or false information. Additionally, it's relatively easy to lead these models into irrational loops, like convincing them that 2 + 2 equals 106 — so stay alert!

    Overall, Bavarder is an attractive app with a well-defined purpose. If you enjoy ChatGPT and similar technologies, it's worth exploring.
    ChatGPT AI


  • LibreOffice 7.5.3 Released: Third Maintenance Update Brings 119 Bug Fixes to Popular Open-Source Office Suite

    Today, The Document Foundation unveiled the release and widespread availability of LibreOffice 7.5.3, which serves as the third maintenance update to the current LibreOffice 7.5 open-source and complimentary office suite series.

    Approximately five weeks after the launch of LibreOffice 7.5.2, LibreOffice 7.5.3 arrives with a new set of bug fixes for those who have successfully updated their GNU/Linux system to the LibreOffice 7.5 series.

    LibreOffice 7.5.3 addresses a total of 119 bugs identified by users or uncovered by LibreOffice developers. For a more comprehensive understanding of these bug fixes, consult the RC1 and RC2 changelogs.

    You can download LibreOffice 7.5.3 directly from the LibreOffice website or from SourceForge as binary installers for DEB or RPM-based GNU/Linux distributions. A source tarball is also accessible for individuals who prefer to compile the software from sources or for system integrators.

    All users operating the LibreOffice 7.5 office suite series should promptly update their installations to the new point release, which will soon appear in the stable software repositories of your GNU/Linux distributions.

    In early February 2023, LibreOffice 7.5 debuted as a substantial upgrade to the widely-used open-source office suite, introducing numerous features and improvements. These enhancements encompass major upgrades to dark mode support, new application and MIME-type icons, a refined Single Toolbar UI, enhanced PDF Export, and more.

    Seven maintenance updates will support LibreOffice 7.5 until November 30th, 2023. The next point release, LibreOffice 7.5.4, is scheduled for early June and will include additional bug fixes.

    The Document Foundation once again emphasizes that the LibreOffice office suite's "Community" edition is maintained by volunteers and members of the Open Source community. For enterprise implementations, they suggest using the LibreOffice Enterprise family of applications from ecosystem partners.
    LibreOffice


Linux Magazine News (path: lmi_news)

  • Is Linus Torvalds Vibe Coding?
    The creator of Linux has added AI into his process for Linux kernel development, and it's more than just for debugging.












  • Advanced Video Coding Still Under Patent
    Brazilian patent BRPI0109962B1 has expired, which means that DivX and Xvid are no longer problematic for Linux, but it doesn’t mean that video is all of a sudden fully unleashed.









  • CachyOS Gets an Update
    CachyOS August 2026 release is now available with the latest version of KDE, some new features, and plenty of improvements.


Page last modified on November 17, 2022, at 06:39 PM