All the News that Matters

• Cro provides commentary on LWN's Zig asynchronicity article
  Loris Cro has publisheda detailed YouTube video talking about the terminology used to discuss asynchronicity, concurrency, and parallelism in our recent article about Zig's new Io interface. Our article is not completely clear because it uses the term "asynchronous I/O" to refer to what should really be called "non-blocking I/O", and sometimes confuses asynchronicity for concurrency, among other errors of terminology, he says. Readers interested in precise details about Zig's approach and some of the motivation behind the design may find Cro's video interesting.
  

• [$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for December 4, 2025
  Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
  Front: Rust in Debian; Python comprehensions; asynchronous Zig; BPF and io_uring; C safety; 6.18 statistics; just. Briefs: Landlock; Let's Encrypt lifetimes; Last 5.4 kernel; TAB election; AlmaLinux 10.1; FreeBSD 15.0; NixOS 25.11; Django 6.0; Home Assistant 2025.12; PHP 8.5.0; Racket 9.0; Quotes; ... Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.

• Home Assistant 2025.12 released
  Version2025.12 of the Home Assistant home-automation system has been released.
  This month, we're unveiling Home Assistant Labs, a brand-new space where you can preview features before they go mainstream. And what better way to kick it off than with Winter mode? ❄️ Enable it and watch snowflakes drift across your dashboard. It's completely unnecessary, utterly delightful, and exactly the kind of thing we love to build. ❄️
  But that's just the beginning. We've been working on making automations more intuitive over the past releases, and this release finally delivers purpose-specific triggers and conditions. Instead of thinking in (numeric) states, you can now simply say "When a light turns on" or "If the climate is heating". It's automation building the way our mind works, as it should be.

• Django 6.0 released
  The Django Python webframework project has announcedthe release of Django 6.0 including many new features, as can be seen inthe releasenotes. Some highlights include template partials for modularizingtemplates, a flexible task framework for running background tasks, amodernized email API, and a ContentSecurity Policy (CSP) feature that provides the ability to "easily configure and enforce browser-level security policies to protect against content injection".

• [$] Just: a command runner
  Over time, many Linux users wind up with a collection of aliases,shell scripts, and makefiles to run simple commands (or a series ofcommands) that are often used, but challenging to remember andannoying to type out at length. The just command runner is aRust-based utility that just does one thing and does it well: it readsrecipes from a text file (aptly called a "justfile"), and runs thecommands from an invoked recipe. Rather than accumulating a libraryof one-off shell scripts over time, just provides a cross-platform toolwith a framework and well-documented syntax for collecting anddocumenting tasks that makes it useful for solo users andcollaborative projects.
  

• Security updates for Wednesday
  Security updates have been issued by Debian (containerd, mako, and xen), Fedora (forgejo, nextcloud, openbao, rclone, restic, and tigervnc), Oracle (firefox, kernel, libtiff, libxml2, and postgresql), SUSE (libecpg6, lightdm-kde-greeter, python-cbor2, python-mistralclient-doc, python315, and python39), and Ubuntu (kdeconnect, linux, linux-aws, linux-realtime, python-django, and unbound).

• A final stable kernel update for 5.4
  Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 5.4.302 stable kernel:
  This is the LAST 5.4.y release. It is now end-of-life and should notbe used by anyone, anymore. As of this point in time, there are 1539documented unfixed CVEs for this kernel branch, and that number willonly increase over time as more CVEs get assigned for kernel bugs.
  For the curious, Kroah-Hartman has also provideda list of the unfixed CVEs for 5.4.302.
  

• Let's Encrypt to reduce certificate lifetimes
  Let's Encrypt has announcedthat it will be reducing the validity period of its certificates from90 days to 45 days by 2028:
  
  Most users of Let's Encrypt who automatically issue certificateswill not have to make any changes. However, you should verify thatyour automation is compatible with certificates that have shortervalidity periods.
  
  To ensure your ACME client renews on time, we recommend using ACMERenewal Information (ARI). ARI is a feature we've introduced to helpclients know when they need to renew their certificates. Consult yourACME client's documentation on how to enable ARI, as it differs fromclient to client. If you are a client developer, check out thisintegration guide.
  
  If your client doesn't support ARI yet, ensure it runs on aschedule that is compatible with 45-day certificates. For example,renewing at a hardcoded interval of 60 days will no longer besufficient. Acceptable behavior includes renewing certificates atapproximately two thirds of the way through the current certificate'slifetime.
  
  Manually renewing certificates is not recommended, as it will needto be done more frequently with shorter certificate lifetimes.
  
  
  

• FreeBSD 15.0 released
  FreeBSD15.0 has been released. Notable changes in this release include a newmethod for installingthe base system using the pkg package manager, an updateto OpenZFS 2.4.0-rc4,native support for the inotify(2)interface, and the addition of Open Container Initiative (OCI) imagesto FreeBSD's release artifacts. See the releasenotes for a full list of changes, hardwarenotes for supported hardware, and check the erratabefore installing or upgrading.
  
  
  

• [$] Zig's new plan for asynchronous programs
  The designers of theZig programming language have been working to find asuitable design for asynchronous code for some time.Zig is a carefully minimalist language, and itsinitial design forasynchronous I/O did not fit well with its otherfeatures. Now, the project hasannounced (in a Zig SHOWTIME video) a new approach to asynchronous I/O thatpromises to solve thefunction coloring problem, and allows writing code that will executecorrectly using either synchronous or asynchronous I/O.
  

• Security updates for Tuesday
  Security updates have been issued by Fedora (gnutls, libpng, mingw-python3, python-spotipy, source-to-image, unbound, and webkitgtk), Mageia (libpng), SUSE (bash-git-prompt, gitea-tea, java-17-openjdk, java-21-openjdk, kernel, openssh, python, and shadowsocks-v2ray-plugin, v2ray-core), and Ubuntu (binutils, openjdk-17-crac, openjdk-21-crac, and openjdk-25-crac).

• [$] Checked-size array parameters in C
  There are many possible programmer mistakes that are not caught by theminimal checks specified by the C language; among those is passing an arrayof the wrong size to a function. A recent attempt to add some safetyaround array parameters within the crypto layer involved the use of someclever tricks, but it turns out that clever tricks are unnecessary in thiscase. There is an obscure C feature that can cause this checking tohappen, and it is already in use in a few places within the kernel.

• [$] Some 6.18 development statistics
  Linus Torvalds releasedthe 6.18 kernel as expected on November 30, closing the last fulldevelopment cycle of 2025. It was another busy cycle, featuring a recordnumber of developers. The time has come for a look at where the code camefrom for this kernel release, but also for the year-long long-term-supportcycle which has also reached its conclusion with this release.

• Security updates for Monday
  Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (bind9.18, cups, gimp, ipa, kernel, libssh, mingw-expat, openssl, pcs, sssd, tigervnc, and valkey), Debian (gnome-shell-extension-gsconnect, mistral-dashboard, pagure, python-mistralclient, pytorch, qtbase-opensource-src, sogo, tryton-server, and unbound), Fedora (cef, drupal7, glib2, linux-firmware, migrate, pack, pgadmin4, rnp, and unbound), Slackware (libxslt), SUSE (cpp-httplib, curl, glib2, grub2, kernel, libcoap-devel, libcryptopp, libwireshark19, postgresql15, and postgresql17), and Ubuntu (edk2).

• Three stable kernels for Monday
  Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 6.17.10, 6.12.60, and 6.6.118 stable kernels. As usual, eachcontains a number of important fixes throughout the tree. Users areadvised to upgrade.
  
  
  

Linux Insider"LinuxInsider"

• Inside the Wind River–ServiceNow Deal Bringing AI On-Prem
  Wind River’s latest partnership with ServiceNow brings AI workloads back under enterprise control by enabling on-prem deployment of the ServiceNow AI Platform. The post Inside the Wind River–ServiceNow Deal Bringing AI On-Prem appeared first on LinuxInsider.

• Red Hat’s Evolution: How a Subsidiary Became an AI Powerhouse
  Red Hat has become a foundational player in enterprise AI by combining open-source infrastructure with hybrid cloud flexibility, maintaining independence while leveraging IBM’s global scale. The post Red Hat’s Evolution: How a Subsidiary Became an AI Powerhouse appeared first on LinuxInsider.

• Open-Source Security Tool AdaptixC2 Fueling Ransomware Attacks
  Ransomware gangs are exploiting AdaptixC2, an open-source command-and-control framework originally built for red team testing, to support stealthy post-exploitation operations. The post Open-Source Security Tool AdaptixC2 Fueling Ransomware Attacks appeared first on LinuxInsider.

• Open-Source Model Near Breaking Point Despite Trillions in Value
  A coalition of open-source stewards warns that the software industry’s reliance on goodwill to maintain critical infrastructure is unsustainable, despite open source fueling trillions in global economic value. The post Open-Source Model Near Breaking Point Despite Trillions in Value appeared first on LinuxInsider.

• The Linux Foundation Expands Agentic AI Push With Third Major Project
  The Linux Foundation has launched its third major agentic AI initiative in three months, designed to secure communication, enhance interoperability, and drive open-source innovation in multi-agent environments. The post The Linux Foundation Expands Agentic AI Push With Third Major Project appeared first on LinuxInsider.

• TuxCare’s In-Memory CVE Scanner Enhances Linux Security With Radar
  TuxCare Radar is an in-memory CVE scanner that reduces false positives, speeds compliance, and delivers real-time Linux vulnerability detection. The post TuxCare’s In-Memory CVE Scanner Enhances Linux Security With Radar appeared first on LinuxInsider.

• Linux Patch Blind Spot Exposes Critical Cybersecurity Risks
  Linux patch delays leave enterprises exposed to long-standing vulnerabilities. Experts warn automation and consistent management are essential to closing this critical security gap. The post Linux Patch Blind Spot Exposes Critical Cybersecurity Risks appeared first on LinuxInsider.

• The Year of the Linux Desktop? This Time, the Data Says Yes
  Linux is making real gains on the desktop. New data shows its market share passing 5% in the U.S., signaling a long-awaited breakthrough. The post The Year of the Linux Desktop? This Time, the Data Says Yes appeared first on LinuxInsider.

• From Kernel to Cloud: Open Source Takes On Security Trade-Offs
  Open-source systems are adopting live patching and isolation technologies to support always-on security and meet enterprise compliance demands in the cloud. The post From Kernel to Cloud: Open Source Takes On Security Trade-Offs appeared first on LinuxInsider.

• Kubernetes Cost Optimization May Be Doing More Harm Than Good
  Slashing Kubernetes costs sounds smart — until it backfires. Here’s how to reduce spend safely while improving platform stability and speed. The post Kubernetes Cost Optimization May Be Doing More Harm Than Good appeared first on LinuxInsider.

• Rust core library partly polished for industrial safety spec
  Ferrous Systems achieves IEC 61508 (SIL 2) certification for systems that demand reliability
  Memory-safe Rust code can now be more broadly applied in devices that require electronic system safety, at least as measured by International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards.…
  

• India's government targets Uber, Ola with plan to launch zero-commission rideshare platform
  Minister wants to ‘free drivers from dependency on private companies’
  India’s government is set to launch a rideshare platform and app that charges no commission and is intended to make life harder for Uber and its ilk.…
  

• Micron ditches consumer memory brand Crucial to chase AI riches
  First AI came for our jobs. Now, our memory?
  The lure of AI spending was too much for Micron to ignore. On Wednesday, the US chipmaker announced it's abandoning its Crucial memory and storage lineup to bolster its supply of enterprise-focused chips, including those used in AI systems.…
  

• John Henry still leading the race vs. AI in customer service
  Gartner found only 20% of customer service leaders have cut human agents because of AI
  The world’s smallest digital violin is playing for AI chatbots, which are having a hard time elbowing out their human counterparts for jobs in customer service, according to a Gartner study.…
  

• Lawyer's 6-year-old son uses AI to build copyright infringement generator
  Rights holders had better buckle up for years of legal wrangling, IP lawyer tells The Reg
  You don't have to be smarter than a fifth grader (or even a first grader) to commit potential copyright infringement using AI tools. One IP attorney watched over the weekend as his young son built a bedtime story generator that used copyrighted characters without permission. …
  

• 'Exploitation is imminent' as 39 percent of cloud environs have max-severity React hole
  Finish reading this, then patch
  A maximum-severity flaw in the widely used JavaScript library React, and several React-based frameworks including Next.js allows unauthenticated, remote attackers to execute malicious code on vulnerable instances. The flaw is easy to abuse, and mass exploitation is "imminent," according to security researchers.…
  

• MAGA cognoscenti warn feds away from shielding AI infringers
  Letting AI firms train on copyrighted data will end up helping China, conservative groups argue
  A group of conservatives allied with President Donald Trump's MAGA movement, including former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, has asked the Justice Department and the White House to stop protecting Big Tech against copyright claims.…
  

• China's reusable rocket makes it to orbit but fails to stick the landing
  An ‘anomaly’ meant a fireball arrived at the recovery zone instead of a spent first stage
  There's good news and bad news for the Chinese commercial launch industry. The good news is that LandSpace's ZhuQue-3 launched successfully on its maiden flight. The bad news is that a hoped-for recovery of the first stage ended in a fireball.…
  

• Poop-peeping toilet attachment has a different definition of 'end-to-end' encryption
  Talk about enshittification
  No, this isn't a joke: Kohler's poop-scanning toilet attachment, which the company claims is … uh … end-to-end encrypted, appears to be anything butt.…
  

• Space telescopes are being photobombed by satellites, and the problem is slated to get much worse
  LEO communications satellites are proliferating like rabbits
  Nearly all images from some space telescopes in low Earth orbit could be affected by light from man-made satellites as the number of communication spacecraft surges, new research led by NASA has found.…
  

• Microsoft sharpens the blocking axe for Exchange Web Services
  Starting in March, Frontline Worker and Kiosk–only mailboxes lose EWS access
  Microsoft is getting serious about the end of Exchange Web Services (EWS) and has announced that, starting in March 2026, it will begin blocking EWS access to mailboxes without license rights.…
  

• HPE positions Morpheus stack as enterprise alternative to VMware
  IT giant touts unified management, stretched clusters, and AI-ready networking at Discover Barcelona
  HPE is laying out its enterprise stall with enhancements to its GreenLake hybrid cloud portfolio, while converging its Aruba and Juniper networking to offer customers AIOps across both, plus high-speed connectivity for AI processing.…
  

• ISS hits rare full house as all eight docking ports ocupado
  Russian vehicles will depart soon, but Baikonur launchpad damage clouds future arrivals
  NASA confirmed this week that for the first time, all eight of the International Space Station's docking ports are currently occupied – four by Russian vehicles.…
  

• Windows 11 still barely pulling ahead of 10 despite end-of-support push
  Statcounter shows the gap narrowing as users cling to older hardware and familiar workflows
  Windows 11 has not significantly widened its market share lead over Windows 10, despite support for many versions of the latter ending almost two months ago.…
  

• Newly launched civil service pension portal from Capita is crapita, users report
  Awarded a £239M contract, outsourcer apologizes for any inconvenience to 1.5M members
  Updated Pension scheme members are facing a string of errors and malfunctions as they try to log into and retrieve account details from the UK's civil service portal the government is paying Capita £239 million ($318 million) to build and run.…
  

• Pat Gelsinger's EUV lithography gig gets $150M wink from Uncle Sam
  Commerce Department wants equity in xLight as it backs a free-electron laser to challenge ASML
  The US Department of Commerce has signed a preliminary letter of intent to provide up to $150 million to xLight, a Palo Alto-based startup led by former Intel chief Pat Gelsinger, that is working on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography.…
  

• Linux 6.18 arrives as the year's final drop and likely next LTS
  Bye-bye bcachefs, but hello there bhyve
  The last new kernel release of 2025 is here, and it's looking likely this will be the new LTS kernel release.…
  

• Here’s your worst nightmare: E-tailer can only resume partial sales 45 days after ransomware attack
  Japan’s Askul still can’t run all its sites, but at least the fax line held up OK
  Japanese e-tailer Askul has resumed online sales, 45 days after a ransomware attack.…
  

• China using AI as ‘precision instrument’ of censorship and repression, at home and abroad
  Think tank ASPI says Beijing is even using it to steal fish from the ocean
  China has embraced AI to help it censor and surveil its citizens and is exporting its techniques to the world, according to a new report by think tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).…
  

• Indian government reveals GPS spoofing at eight major airports
  Extra infosec investments are taxiing towards the runway
  India’s Civil Aviation Minister has revealed that local authorities have detected GPS spoofing and jamming at eight major airports.…
  

• Amazon is forging a walled garden for enterprise AI
  AWS Chief Matt Garman lays out his vision bringing artificial intelligence to the enterprise
  Re:Invent Amazon wants to make AI meaningful to enterprises, and it’s building yet another walled garden disguised as an easy button to do it.…
  

• AWS offers AI-in-a-box for enterprise datacenters
  If sovereignty or on-prem AI matters, the new AI Factories could be for you
  re:invent Many businesses and government agencies require that all sensitive data stay on-premises for legal or security reasons. If those orgs want to work with AI, they can't rely on regular public clouds, but now they can let AWS build and manage AI hardware and software in their datacenters.…
  

• AWS admits AI coding tools cause problems, reckons its three new agents fix 'em
  Autonomous AI triages DevOps issues and pushes code to repositories, while checking security
  Re:Invent Amazon is all-in on agentic AI when it comes to software development, and it sincerely hopes you are too, based on Tuesday's AWS re:Invent keynote. …
  

• Two Android 0-day bugs disclosed and fixed, plus 105 more to patch
  Christmas comes early for attackers this year
  Two high-severity Android bugs were exploited as zero-days before Google issued a fix, according to its December Android security bulletin. …
  

• NASA nominee 'committed' to uprooting Shuttle Discovery for Houston trophy piece
  Isaacman backs Texas relocation amid warnings that costs could top $150M
  US President Donald Trump's nominee for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, is "committed to move the Space Shuttle Discovery to Houston," according to the office of Senator John Cornyn (R-TX).…
  

• University of Pennsylvania joins list of victims from Clop's Oracle EBS raid
  Ivy League school warns more than 1,400 people after attackers siphon data via zero-day
  The University of Pennsylvania has become the latest victim of Clop's smash-and-grab spree against Oracle's E-Business Suite (EBS) customers, with the Ivy League school now warning more than a thousand individuals that their personal data was siphoned from its systems.…
  

• Microsoft mops up Mesh after another metaverse misfire
  Dreams of a virtual world linger on in Teams
  As of December 1, mixed reality collaboration platform Microsoft Mesh is no more, and Redmond has directed customers to immersive events in Teams.…
  

• HPE backs AMD's Helios AI rack with Juniper's scale-up switch
  Hardware bundle ties next-gen accelerators to an Ethernet fabric arriving in 2026
  HPE is throwing its weight behind AMD's Helios rack-scale architecture and will offer this as part of its AI portfolio next year, including a purpose-built Juniper Networks scale-up switch.…
  

• Apple swaps one ex-Google AI chief for another
  Amar Subramanya spent mere months at Microsoft before replacing John Giannandrea
  Apple's failure to deliver advanced AI capabilities has triggered a changing of the guard. AI chief John Giannandrea is stepping down in favor of a new leader to steady the Siri ship.…
  

• MongoDB talks up its AI chops by talking down PostgreSQL
  CEO touts win from 'super-high growth' customer that couldn't scale on rival system
  At the risk of protesting too much in the shifting database landscape, NoSQL-based MongoDB has attempted to trash the competition by claiming PostgreSQL systems lack scalability to keep up with the demands of AI workloads.…
  

• French AI shop Mistral rolls out full suite of Apache-licensed models
  Lineup spans 3B to 14B parameters, from edge devices to multi-GPU rigs
  Mistral AI has released a suite of open source models under the Mistral 3 banner, aiming to scale from a mobile device or drone up to multi-GPU datacenter beasts.…
  

• Europol nukes Cryptomixer laundering hub, seizing €25M in Bitcoin
  Operation Olympia pulls Swiss servers offline and scoops up 12TB of data in latest crime infrastructure crackdown
  Law enforcement agencies in Germany and Switzerland have shut down cryptocurrency laundering platform Cryptomixer in Europe's latest pushback against cybercrime infrastructure.…
  

• AWS joins Microsoft, Google in the security AI agent race
  Preview tool promises quicker reviews and faster flaw-finding for cloud apps
  Re:Invent AI agents are key to launching applications more quickly – and making them more secure from the start, Amazon says.…
  

• Amazon primed to fuse Nvidia's NVLink into 4th-gen Trainium accelerators
  Meanwhile, Trainium3 makes its debut promising million-chip training clusters
  Re:Invent Amazon says that its next generation of homegrown silicon will deliver 6x higher performance thanks to a little help from its buddy Nvidia.…
  

• Kensington and Chelsea confirms IT outage was a data breach after all
  Borough says attackers copied 'historical' info as three-council cyber woes drag on
  Kensington and Chelsea Council has admitted that data was quietly lifted from its systems during last week's cyber meltdown, confirming that the outage was not just an IT faceplant but a bona fide data breach.…
  

• London grid crunch delays new housing amid datacenter boom
  Assembly report urges clearer planning as soaring AI power demands strain capital's network
  Access to electricity has become a major source of delay for housebuilding in London, and datacenters are inevitably tied up in this, leading to calls for greater oversight of energy and construction planning so that they keep pace with demand.…
  

• FTC schools edtech outfit after intruder walked off with 10M student records
  Regulator says Illuminate ignored years of warnings, stored kids' data in plain text, and kept districts in the dark
  US edtech provider Illuminate Education just got dinged by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly failing to keep an attacker from pilfering data on 10 million students.…
  

• Waymo chalks up another four-legged casualty on San Francisco streets
  Passenger recounts chaotic scene after robotaxi runs over small dog
  Self-driving car company Waymo has confirmed that one of its vehicles ran over a dog in San Francisco on Sunday.…
  

• Apply here to win a Microsoft Ugly Sweater. It's uglier than ever
  2025 Xmas knitware nightmare could be yours if you make us smile: When was peak Microsoft?
  Free Wear It's that time of year again when Microsoft dispatches its latest Ugly Sweater to The Register, and we spoil a lucky reader that makes us smile by sending you the garment in time for Christmas.…
  

• Whatever legitimate places AI has, inside an OS ain't one
  We're getting it baked into Windows whether we like it or not
  Opinion Making software would be the perfect job if it wasn't for those darn users. Windows head honcho Pavan Davuluri would be forgiven for feeling this of late as his happy online paean about Windows becoming an "agentic OS" was met by massive dissent in the comments. "Agentic schmentic, we want reliability, usability, and stability" was the gist.…
  

• UK sinks to fifth in ESA funding league behind Spain
  Brit astro Tim Peake's much-vaunted mission to the ISS a distant memory
  Nearly ten years after Brit astronaut Tim Peake visited the International Space Station (ISS), the UK has slipped behind Spain in European Space Agency funding rankings.…
  

• Two paths to Enlightenment: AV Linux 25 and MX Moksha step forward
  Whether you want a studio rig or a featherweight desktop, MX Linux spins have you covered
  AV Linux and MX Moksha are a pair of distros tweaked for audio and music production, each using a different branch of the Enlightenment family of desktops.…
  

• Defra admits Windows 10 refresh letter to MPs was wrong – machines were already on Windows 11
  Corrected document clears up rollout timeline and confirms switch well ahead of deadline
  The UK's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed its £312 million Windows 10 laptop refresh was, in fact, followed by a Windows 11 upgrade after an earlier letter to Parliament misstated the department's operating system timeline.…
  

• Another open source project dies of neglect, leaving thousands scrambling
  Paying Ingress NGINX maintainers for their work might have avoided this outcome
  Opinion There were lots of announcements about Kubernetes at KubeCon North America in Atlanta. I should know, I was there from beginning to end. But the biggest Kubernetes story of all didn't get much attention. Kubernetes is retiring its popular Ingress NGINX controller. Ingress NGINX goes to that big bit farm in the sky in March 2026. After that, "there will be no further releases, no bugfixes, and no updates to resolve any security vulnerabilities that may be discovered."…
  

• Samsung reveals its first tri-fold phone – and its desktop mode
  Buyers get a one-time discount on screen repairs, which hardly screams ‘we nailed this three-screen thing’
  Samsung has revealed its first tri-fold phone, and it runs the Korean giant’s DeX desktop environment without the need for an external monitor.…
  

• Unofficial IETF draft calls for grant of five nonillion IPv6 addresses to ham radio operators
  Would not massively deplete IPv6, might challenge internet governance
  Early in the history of the internet, the powers that be granted amateur radio operators over 16 million IPv4 addresses. Now a proposal has emerged suggesting the same community be granted a substantial chunk of the IPv6 numberspace.…
  

• India demands smartphone makers install a government app on every handset
  'Sanchar Saathi' shares data to help fight fraud and protect carrier security
  India’s government has issued a directive that requires all smartphone manufacturers to install a government app on every handset in the country and has given them 90 days to get the job done – and to ensure users can’t remove the code.…
  

• Zig quits GitHub, says Microsoft's AI obsession has ruined the service
  Zig prez complains about 'vibe-scheduling' after safe sleep bug goes unaddressed for eons
  The Foundation that promotes the Zig programming language has quit GitHub due to what its leadership perceives as the code sharing site's decline.…
  

• AWS: How do you do, fellow kids? Please watch our keynotes in Fortnite
  Drive around a virtual track in Las Vegas while watching Matt Garman speak on in-game billboards
  RE:INVENT Amazon Web Services has decided to stream all five keynotes from its re:Invent conference in the hit multiplayer game Fortnite, which is more than a little bit bonkers.…
  

• OpenAI money-go-round sees it invest in company that invested in OpenAI
  Thrive will use the AI-maker's tech in its managed services and accounting businesess
  Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. OpenAI says that it has taken an undisclosed ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, the management-focused offshoot of private equity heavyweight Thrive Capital, which itself is a major investor in the ChatGPT maker.…
  

• ReactOS Lands Improvements For Its USB Stack - Fixing Various Blue Screens of Death
  ReactOS as the open-source operating system aiming to be an "open-source Windows" by striving for binary compatibility with Windows programs and device drivers is now slightly better with its USB support...

• Linux 6.19 Goes Ahead And Enables Microsoft C Extensions Support
  Last month I reported on Linux 6.19 looking to enable Microsoft C Extensions support throughout the Linux kernel with setting the -fms-extensions compiler option to allow Microsoft C Extensions when building the kernel. Linus Torvalds today merged that support without objections...

• Sched_EXT With Linux 6.19 Improves Recovering For Misbehaving eBPF Schedulers
  The Linux kernel's innovative sched_ext code for being able to easily write extensible task schedulers using eBPF programs has some nice enhancements merged for Linux 6.19...

• Alpine Linux 3.23 Released With APK Tools v3 For Package Management
  Alpine Linux 3.23 is out today as the newest feature release for this lightweight Linux distribution built around musl libc and BusyBox that has become quite popular for containers and embedded uses...

• Intel9s Open-Source Linux Graphics Driver Delivered Significant Improvements In 2025
  Last week I provided a look at how Intel9s GPU compute performance on Battlemage evolved in 2025. In today9s article is a similar Intel Arc A-Series "Alchemist" and B-Series "Battlemage" look at how the OpenGL and Vulkan graphics performance has evolved over the past year. Simply put, the open-source Intel Linux graphics driver stack has evolved immensely this year... Not just for Vulkan but even the OpenGL support continues moving in the right direction too.

• Fedora 44 Cleared To Replace Kernel Console With User-Space KMSCON
  A proposal was raised a month ago for Fedora Linux 44 to replace the kernel's frame-buffer console "FBCON" with KMSCON in user-space. The Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) has now granted approval for making this change in Fedora 44 as part of a larger foal to eventually deprecate FBCON/FBDEV emulation in the kernel...

• Linux 6.18 Officially Promoted To Being An LTS Kernel
  Not exactly a big surprise but the recently released Linux 6.18 kernel is now officially promoted to being this year's Long Term Support "LTS" kernel...

• Microsoft ACPI Fan Extensions & Configurable Hibernation Threads For Linux 6.19
  The pull requests landing the power management subsystem updates for Linux 6.19 along with the ACPI and thermal control code have landed. There is new hardware support, Microsoft ACPI Fan Extensions support, and other new features for Linux power management in this new kernel...

• LibreOffice 26.2 Alpha 1 Released For Testing
  The first alpha release of the LibreOffice 26.2 open-source and cross platform office suite is now available for testing ahead of its official release in February...

• Sound Open Firmware 2.14 Released With Intel Wildcat Lake & Nova Lake Support
  Sound Open Firmware is one of the projects started originally by Intel but has grown into a multi-vendor initiative for open-source audio digital signal processing (DSP) firmware and development tooling for a variety of platforms under the Linux Foundation umbrella...

• Scoped User Access In Linux 6.19 To Reduce Speculation Barriers & Its Performance Hit
  Merged yesterday to the Linux 6.19 Git codebase was the "core/uaccess" pull that introduces new scoped user-mode access with auto-cleanup functionality. This can reduce the number of speculation barriers encountered when needing to access user-mode memory and thereby avoiding some of the performance penalties incurred by speculation barriers...

• AES-GCM Optimizations Land In Linux 6.19 - Benefiting AMD Zen 3, AVX-512 CPUs Too
  Google engineer Eric Biggers who is known for his many Linux crypto subsystem performance optimizations has seen his latest pull requests land in Linux 6.19. Notable among them are some AES-GCM optimizations benefiting AMD Zen 3 processors and separately AVX-512 processors also benefit too from this latest round of optimization work...

• X.Org Server9s xkbcomp Updated For Four Security Issues Dating Back Years
  Red Hat's Peter Hutterer announced the release today of xkbcomp 1.5, the CLI utility used for compiling X Keyboard Extension (XBD) keyboard descriptions for the X.Org Server. Driving this new xkbcomp release are fixes for four security issues...

• Intel LASS, SGX EUPDATESVN & Microcode Staging Features Land In Linux 6.19
  In addition to new AMD CPU features being merged today for Linux 6.19, there are also some new Intel CPU features that hit Linux Git today that are worth highlighting...

• AMD Zen 6 RAS Preparation, AMD SDCI Features Merged For Linux 6.19
  Linus Torvalds just merged another set of pull requests to Git for the in-development Linux 6.19 kernel. With the latest round of merges, there are two separate AMD changes worth highlighting...

• 3mdeb Ports Their Dasharo Firmware To A Recent ASRock Rack Motherboard
  Open-source firmware consulting firm 3mdeb published a blog post today outlining their work on bringing their Coreboot-downstream Dasharo to the ASRock Rack SPC741D8/2L2T, a recent server motherboard for supporting Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids processors...

• Important Performance Work: Overhaul Of RSEQ & CID Management Merged For Linux 6.19
  An important set of patches were just merged a few minutes ago to Linux Git for the ongoing Linux 6.19 kernel with some important performance implications...

• Linux 6.19 Merges "klp-build" As New Livepatch Module Generation Solution
  Merged as part of the objtool changes for the Linux 6.19 kernel is introducing the "klp-build" script as a new solution to generate livepatch modules using a source .patch file as the input. This klp-build effort was spearheaded by Josh Poimboeuf with ideas learned from the out-of-tree Kpatch project over the past decade...

• TornadoVM 2.0 Released For Java On NVIDIA PTX, OpenCL & SPIR-V Devices
  TornadoVM 2.0 is out today as the newest feature release for this OpenJDK and GraalVM plug-in that allows Java programs to run on heterogeneous hardware. TornadoVM targets continue to be OpenCL, NVIDIA PTX, and SPIR-V compatible devices for a range of accelerator support for use from conventional Java code...

• Linux 6.19 To Allow File-Systems To Increase The Writeback Chunk Size
  Linux has maintained a default 4MB minimum writeback chunk size but with the in-development Linux 6.19 kernel it will allow file-systems to override that minimum value. This in turn can help avoid fragmentation and yield a better experience for zoned rotation media and other uses...

• NVIDIA 590.44.01 Beta Linux Driver Released With Wayland Improvements
  NVIDIA today released the 590.44.01 Linux driver build as the first beta of their R590 series driver branch for Linux customers...

• Canonical Now Offering Ubuntu Pro For WSL
  Evidently Canonical has been pretty pleased with the uptake of Ubuntu on Microsoft's Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) within enterprise/corporate environments as they are now offering Ubuntu Pro for WSL...

• openSUSE Begins Rolling Out Intel NPU Support
  Via the openSUSE Innovator Initiative, packaging of the Intel Neural Processing Unit (NPU) driver for the openSUSE ecosystem has begun. This is helping to jump-start the Intel NPU support within the openSUSE space although user-space applications ready to leverage the Intel NPU still remains very limited...

• Optimized NUMA Distances For Intel GNR & CWF, Other Scheduler Improvements In Linux 6.19
  The big set of kernel scheduler changes were merged on Monday for the in-development Linux 6.19 kernel...

• Kernel Credential Guards Merged For Linux 6.19
  Merged yesterday for the Linux 6.19 kernel were "substantial" improvements to the kernel's credential infrastructure to provide guard-based management that allows for kernel code simplification and avoiding manual reference counting across many subsystems...

• Steam On Linux Use Easily Hits An All-Time High In November
  The Steam Survey results are out for November 2025 and continue to be very positive for the growing adoption of Linux gaming thanks to the success of the Steam Deck, the underlying Steam Play (Proton) software, and now further excitement thanks to the upcoming Steam Machine and Steam Frame...

• FreeBSD 15.0 Now Officially Available With Many Software Updates, Reproducible Builds
  FreeBSD 15.0 is officially released as the newest major update to this leading BSD operating system...

• Btrfs In Linux 6.19 Adds Experimental Features, Continues Preparations For FSCRYPT
  SUSE engineer David Sterba submitted the Btrfs pull request for Linux 6.19 on Friday, ahead of the Linux 6.18 stable kernel release that took place on Sunday. This copy-on-write file-system continues seeing some enticing feature work and other improvements for this next version of the Linux kernel...

• Fedora 44 Granted Approval For A Nicer NTSYNC Experience For Wine & Steam Play
  Fedora stakeholders have been eyeing a nicer experience for NTSYNC usage with Wine and Steam Play by being able to have the NTSYNC kernel module load when it's likely to be used. That approval has now been granted by the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) for the Fedora 44 release...

• AMD GPU Managed Memory Support Merged For The GCC 16 Compiler
  When it comes to AMD Radeon/Instinct GPU compiler support much of the emphasis is on the LLVM/Clang compiler stack with their official AMDGPU LLVM shader compiler back-end as well as having the AOMP downstream compiler fork and the like. But the GNU Compiler Collection "GCC" does continue allow targeting AMD GPU targeting with its "AMDGCN" back-end and using the likes of the OpenMP API. It's not too often seeing new AMD GPU activity there for GCC but merged today is now support for managed memory...

• AI Is Being Used To Help Modernize The Ubuntu Error Tracker
  While some Linux distributions have begun establishing AI policies, we haven't seen any communicated from the Ubuntu camp yet but will apparently be permitted at least for project infrastructure. AI is being used currently in an effort to help modernize the Ubuntu Error Tracker...

• Open-Source Nouveau+NVK vs. NVIDIA 580 Linux Gaming/Graphics & Compute Driver Performance
  This Black Friday is an in-depth look at the current performance of the open-source NVIDIA Linux driver stack with the Nouveau kernel driver (the Nova driver not yet being ready for end-users) paired with the latest Mesa NVK driver for open-source Vulkan API support. With that NVK Vulkan driver is also looking at the OpenGL performance using the Zink OpenGL-on-Vulkan driver used now for OpenGL on modern NVIDIA GPUs rather than maintaining the Nouveau Gallium3D driver. Plus the Rusticl driver for OpenCL compute atop the NVK driver. This fully open-source and latest NVIDIA Linux driver support was compared to NVIDIA9s official 580 series Linux driver. Both RTX 40 Ada and RTX 50 Blackwell graphics cards were tested for this thorough GPU driver comparison.

• On recreating the lost SDK for a 42-year-old operating system: VisiCorp VisiOn
  I would think most of us here at OSNews are aware of VisiOn, the graphical multitasking operating system for the IBM PC which was one of the first operating systems with a graphical user interface, predating Windows, GEM, the Mac, and even the Apple Lisa. While VisiOn was technically an open! platform anybody could develop an application for, the operating systems SDK cost $7000 at the time and required a VAX system. This, combined with VisiOn failing in the market, means nobody knows how to develop an application for it. Until now. Over the past few months, Nina Kalinina painstakingly unraveled VisiOn so that she she could recreate the SDK from scratch. In turn, this allowed developer Atsuko to develop a clean-room application for VisiOn  which is most likely the very first third-party application ever developed and released for VisiOn. Ive been following along with the pains Kalinina had to go through for this endeavour over on Fedi, and it sure was a wild ride few would be willing (and capable) to undertake. It took me a month of working 1-2 hours a day to produce a specification that allowed Atsuko to implement a`clean-room`homebrew application for VisiOn that is capable of bitmap display, menus and mouse handling. If youre wondering what it felt like: this project is the largest Sudoku puzzle! I have ever tried to solve. In this note, I have tried to explain the process of solving this puzzle, as well as noteworthy things about VisiOn and its internals. ↫ Nina Kalinina The article contains both a detailed look at VisiOn, as well as the full process of recreating its SDK and developing an application with it. Near the end of the article, after going over all the work that was required to get here, theres a sobering clarification: This reverse-engineering project ended up being much bigger than I anticipated. We have a working application, yes, but so far Ive documented less than 10% of all the VisiHost and VisiOp calls. We still dont know how to implement keyboard input, or how to work with timers and background processes (if it is possible). ↫ Nina Kalinina Id love for more people to be interested in helping this effort out, as its not just an extremely difficult challenge, but also a massive contribution to software preservation. VisiOn may not be more than a small footnote in computing history, but it still deserves to be remembered and understood, and Kalinina and Atsuko have done an amazing amount of legwork for whomever wants to pick this up, too.

• Google is experimentally replacing news headlines with AI clickbait nonsense
  Did you know that BG3 players exploit children? Are you aware that Qi2 slows older Pixels? If we wrote those misleading headlines, readers would rip us a new one — but Google is experimentally beginning to replace the original headlines on stories it serves with AI nonsense like that. ↫ Sean Hollister at The Verge Im a little teapot, short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout. When I get all steamed up, hear me shout. Tip me over and pour me out!

• Micron is ending its consumer RAM business because of AI!
  You may have noticed that due to AI! companies buying up all literally all the RAM in the world, prices for consumer RAM and SSDs have gone completely batshit insane. Well, its only going to get worse, since Micron has announced its going to exit the market for consumer RAM and is, therefore, retiring its Crucial brand. The reason? You know the reason. “The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage. Micron has made the difficult decision to exit the Crucial consumer business in order to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments,” said Sumit Sadana, EVP and Chief Business Officer at Micron Technology. ↫ Microns press release First it was the crypto pyramid scheme, and now its the AI! pyramid scheme. These MLMs for unimpressive white males who couldnt imagine themselves out of a wet paper bag are ruining not just the environment, software, and soon the worlds economy when the bubble pops, but are now also making it extraordinarily expensive to buy some RAM or a bit of storage. Literally nothing good is coming from these techbro equivalents of Harlequin romance novels, and yet, were forced to pretend theyre the next coming of the railroads every time some guy who was voted most likely to die a middle manager at Albertsons in Casper, Wyoming, farts his idea out on a napkin. I am so tired.

• Redox takes first baby steps towards a modesetting driver for Intel graphics
  An exciting tidbit of news from Redox, the Rust-based operating system. Its founder and lead developer Jeremy Soller has merged the first changes for a modesetting driver for Intel graphics. After a few nights of reading through thousands of pages of PRMs I have finally implemented a modesetting driver for Intel HD graphics on Redox OS. There is much more to do, but there is now a clear path to native hardware accelerated graphics! ↫ Jeremy Soller Of course, all the usual disclaimers apply, but its an important first step, and once again underlines that Redox is turning into a very solid platform that might just be on the cusp of becoming something we can use every day.

• MacOS: losing confidence
  Its always a bit sad and a little awkward when reality starts hitting long-time fans and users of an operating system, isnt it? I feel like Im at least fifteen years ahead of everyone else when it comes to macOS, at least. Over the last few weeks I’ve been`discovering problems`that have been eroding confidence in macOS. From text files that simply won’t show up in Spotlight search, to Clock timers that are blank and don’t function, there’s one common feature: macOS encounters an error or fault, but doesn’t report that to the user, instead just burying it deep in the log. When you can spare the time, the next step is to contact Apple Support, who seem equally puzzled. You’re eventually advised to reinstall macOS or, in the worst case, to wipe a fairly new Apple silicon Mac and restore it in DFU mode, but have no reason to believe that will stop the problem from recurring. You know that Apple Support doesn’t understand what’s going wrong, and despite the involvement of support engineers, they seem as perplexed as you. ↫ Howard Oakley I remember when Mac OS X was so far ahead of the competition it was honestly a little tragic. Around the late PowerPC and very early Intel days, when the iPhone hadnt yet had the impact on the company it has now, the Mac and its operating system were the star of the companys show, and you felt it when you used it. Even though the late PowerPC hardware was being outpaced left, right, and centre by Intel and AMD hardware in virtually every sense, Mac OS X more than made up for it being being a carefully and lovingly crafted operating system designed and developed by people who clearly deeply cared. I used nothing but Macs as a result. These days, everythings reversed. By all accounts, Macs are doing amazing hardware-wise, with efficient, powerful processors and solid design. The operating system, however, has become a complete and utter mess, showing us that no, merely having great hardware does not make up for shit software in the same way the reverse was true two decades ago. Id rather use a slower, hotter laptop with great software than a faster, cooler laptop with terrible software. Im not sure were going to see this trend reversed any time soon. Apple, too, is chasing the dragon, and everything the company does is designed around their cash cow, and I just dont see how thats going to change without a complete overhaul of the companys leadership.

• Why is running Linux on a RiscPC so hard?
  What if you have a Risc PC, but aside from RISC OS, you also want to run Linux? Well, then you have to jump through a lot of hoops, especially in 2025. Well, this was a mess. I dont know why Potato is so crashy when I install it. I dont know why the busybox binary in the Woody initrd is so broken. But Ive got it installed, and now I can do circa-2004 UNIX things with a machine from 1994. ↫ Jonathan Pallant The journey is definitely the most rewarding experience here for us readers, but Im fairly sure Pallant is just happy to have a working Linux installation on his Risc PC and wants to mostly forget about that journey. Still, reading about the Risc PC is very welcome, since its one of those platforms you just dont hear about very often between everyone talking about classic Macs and Commodore 64s all the time.

• A vector graphics workstation from the 70s
  OK I promised computers, so let’s move to the Tek 4051 I got! Released in 1975, this was based on the 4010 series of terminals, but with a Motorola 6800 computer inside. This machine ran, like so many at the time, BASIC, but with extra subroutines for drawing and manipulating vector graphics. 8KB RAM was standard, but up to 32KB RAM could be installed. Extra software was installed via ROM modules in the back, for example to add DSP routines. Data could be saved on tape, and via RS232 and GBIP external devices could be attached! All in all, a pretty capable machine, especially in 1975. BASIC computers where getting common, but graphics was pretty new. According to Tektronix the 4051 was ideal for researches, analysts and physicians, and this could be yours for the low low price of 6 grand, or around $36.000 in 2025. I could not find sales figures, but it seems that this was a decently successful machine. Tektronix also made the 4052, with a faster CPU, and the 4054, a 19″ 4K resolution behemoth! Tektronix continued making workstations until the 90s but like almost all workstations of the era, x86/Linux eventually took over the entire workstation market. ↫ Rik te Winkel at Just another electronics blog Now thats a retro computer you dont see very often.

• FreeBSD 15.0 released with pkgbase
  The FreeBSD team has released FreeBSD 15.0, and with it come several major changes, one of which you will surely want to know more about if youre a FreeBSD user. Since this change will eventually drastically change the way you use FreeBSD, we should get right into it. Up until now, a full, system-wide update for FreeBSD  as in, updating both the base operating system as well as any packages you have installed on top of it  would use two separate tools: freebsd-update and the pkg package manager. You used the former to update the base operating system, which was installed as file sets, and the latter to update everything you had installed on top of it in the form of packages. With FreeBSD 15.0, this is starting to change. Instead of using two separate tools, in 15.0 you can opt to deprecate freebsd-update and file sets, and rely entirely on pkg for updating both the base operating system as well as any packages you have installed, because with this new method, the base system moves from file sets to packages. When installing FreeBSD 15.0, the installer will ask you to choose between the old method, or the new pkg-only method. Packages (pkgbase / New Method): The base system is installed as a set of packages from the FreeBSD-base! repository. Systems installed this way are managed entirely using the pkg(8) tool. This method is used by default for all VM images and images published in public clouds. In FreeBSD 15.0, pkgbase is offered as a technology preview, but it is expected to become the standard method for managing base system installations and upgrades in future releases. ↫ FreeBSD 15.0 release announcement As the release announcement notes, the net method is optional in FreeBSD 15 and will remain optional during the entire 15.x release cycle, but the plan is to deprecate freebsd-update and file sets entirely in FreeBSD 16.0. If you have an existing installation you wish to convert to using pkgbase, theres a tool called pkgbasify to do just that. Its sponsored by the FreeBSD Foundation, so its not some random script. Of course, theres way more in this release than just pkgbase. Of note is that the 32bit platforms i386, armv6, and 32-bit powerpc have been retired, but of course, 32bit code will continue to run on their 64bit counterparts. FreeBSD 15.0 also brings a native inotify implementation, a ton of improvements to the audio components, improved Intel Wi-Fi drivers, and so, so much more.

• Windows drive letters are not limited to A-Z
  On its own, the title of this post is just a true piece of trivia, verifiable with`the built-in`subst`tool`(among other methods). Heres an example creating the drive +:\ as an alias for a directory at C:\foo: The +:\ drive then works as normal (at least in cmd.exe, this will be discussed more later): However, understanding why its true elucidates a lot about how Windows works under the hood, and turns up a few curious behaviors. ↫ Ryan Liptak Fascinating doesnt even begin to describe this article, but at the same time, it also makes me wonder at what point maintaining this drive letter charade becomes too burdensome, clunky, and complex. Internally, Windows NT does not use drive letters at all, but for the sake of backwards compatibility and to give the user what they expect, a whole set of abstractions has been crafted to create the illusion that modern versions of Windows still use the same basic drive letter conventions as DOS did 40 years ago. I wonder if well ever reach a point where Windows no longer uses drive letters, or if its possible today to somehow remove or disable these abstractions entirely, and run Windows NT without drive letters, as Cutler surely intended. Vast swaths of Windows programs would surely curl up in fetal position and die, including many core components of the operating system itself  as this article demonstrates, very few parts of Windows can handle even something as mundane as a drive letter outside of A-Z  but itd make for a great experiment. Someone with just the right set of Windows NT skills mustve tried something like this at some point, either publicly or inside of Microsoft.

• Migrating Dillo away from GitHub
  What do you do if you develop a lightweight browser that doesnt support JavaScript, but you once chose GitHub as the home for your code? Youre now in the unenviable position that your own browser can no longer access your own online source repository because it requires JavaScript, which is both annoying and, well, a little awkward. The solution is, of course, obvious: you move somewhere else. Thats exactly what the Dillo browser did. They set up a small VPS, opted for cgit as the git frontend for its performance and small size, and for the bug tracker, they created a brand new, very simple bug tracker. To avoid this problem, I created my own bug tracker software, buggy, which is a very simple C tool that parses plain Markdown files and creates a single HTML page for each bug. All bugs are stored in a git repository and a git hook regenerates the bug pages and the index on each new commit. As it is simply plain text, I can edit the bugs locally and only push them to the remote when I have Internet back, so it works nice offline. Also, as the output is just an static HTML site, I dont need to worry about having any vulnerabilities in my code, as it will only run at build time. ↫ Rodrigo Arias Mallo Theres more considerations detailed in the article about Dillos migration, and it can serve as inspiration for anyone else running a small open source project who wishes to leave GitHub behind. With GitHubs continuing to add more and more complexity and AI! to separate open source code from its licensing terms, we may see more and more projects giving GitHub the finger.

• Landlock-ing Linux
  Landlock is a Linux API that lets applications explicitly declare which resources they are allowed to access. Its philosophy is similar to OpenBSD’s`unveil()`and (less so)`pledge(): programs can make a contract with the kernel stating, “I only need these files or resources — deny me everything else if I’m compromised.” It provides a simple, developer-friendly way to add defense-in-depth to applications. Compared to traditional Linux security mechanisms, Landlock is vastly easier to understand and integrate. This post is meant to be an accessible introduction, and hopefully persuade you to give Landlock a try. ↫ prizrak.me blog I had no idea this existed, even though it seems to plug a hole in the security and sandboxing landscape on Linux by not requiring any privileges and by being relatively simple and straightforward to use. Theres even an additional supervisor! proposal that would bring Android-like permissions not just to, say, desktop applications (see Flatpak), but to every process trying to access anything for the first time. Im not knowledgeable enough to make any statements about Landlock compared to any other options we have for securing desktop Linux in a user-friendly, non-intrusive manner, but I definitely like its simplicity.

• System 7 natively boots on the Mac Mini G4
  Only a few weeks ago, the CHRP variants of Mac OS 7.6 and 8 were discovered and uploaded to the internet for posterity, but were already seeing the positive results of this event unfold: Mac OS 7.x can now run on the Mac Mini G4  natively. The very short of it is as follows. First, the CHRP release of Mac OS 8 contains a ROM file that allows Mac OS 8 to boot on the G4 Mac Mini. Second, the CHRP release of 7.6 contains a System Enabler that allows 7.6 earlier versions to run by using the aforementioned ROM file. Third, the ROM has been modified to add compatibility with as many Mac models as possible. Theres a lot more to it, of course, but the end result is that quite a few more older, pre-9.x versions of Mac OS can now run on G4 and G3 Macs, which is quite cool. Of course, there are limitations. Note that, although I describe many of these as stable!, I mean you can use much of it normally (sound/video/networking aside) without it crashing or misbehaving, at least not too hard, but that is not to say everything works, because that is just not the case. For example, when present, avoid opening the Apple System Profiler, unless you want a massive crash as it struggles trying to profile and gather all the information about your system. Some other apps or Control Panels might either not work, or work up to a certain point, after which they might freeze, requiring you to Force Quit the Finder to keep on going. And so on. ↫ Jubadub at Mac OS 9 Lives Issues or no, this is amazing news, and great work by all involved.

• Genode OS Framework 25.11 released
  The release 25.11 wraps up our year of rigidity, clarity, performance! with a bouquet of vast under-the-hood improvements. Genodes custom kernel received special tuning of its new CPU scheduler for Sculpt-OS workloads, and became much more scalable with respect to virtual-memory management. Combined, those efforts visibly boost the performance of Sculpt OS on performance-starved hardware like the PinePhone or the i.MX8-based MNT Reform laptop. On account of improving clarity, our new configuration format  now named human-inclined data (HID)  proliferates throughout Genodes tooling. We are also happy to report that almost all Genode components have become interoperable with both XML and HID by now. ↫ Genode OS Framework 25.11 release notes The Genode Framework 25.11 also brings a major change to how important shared components that arent strictly part of the framework are handled, such as ports like libSDL, sqlite, or gnutls. Before, these could only be built with the Genode build system, which was suboptimal because this isnt designed for building individual components. Several changes have been made to now enable the use of multiple build systems and the Goa SDK, which should make it a lot easier to these crucial components to become the responsibility of wider parts of the community. Theres way more, of course, such as the usual driver improvements, including the addition of support for serial-to-USB adapters.

• Dell: about 1 billion PCs will not or cannot be upgraded to Windows 11
  During a Dell earnings call, the company mentioned some staggering numbers regarding the amount of PCs that will not or cannot be upgraded to Windows 11. “We have about 500 million of them capable of running Windows 11 that haven’t been upgraded,” said Dell COO Jeffrey Clarke on a Q3 earnings call earlier this week, referring to the overall PC market, not just Dell’s slice of machines. “And we have another 500 million that are four years old that can’t run Windows 11.” He sees this as an opportunity to guide customers towards the latest Windows 11 machines and AI PCs, but warns that the PC market is going to be relatively flat next year. ↫ Tom Warren at The Verge The monumental scale of the Windows 10 install base that simply wont or cannot upgrade to Windows 11 is massive, and its absolutely bonkers to me that were mostly just letting them get away with leaving at least a billion users out in the cold when it comes to security updates and bug fixes. The US government (in better times) and the EU shouldve 100% forced Microsofts hand, as leaving this many people on outdated, unsupported operating system installations is several disasters waiting to happen. Aside from the dangerous position Microsoft is forcing its Windows 10 users into, theres also the massive environmental and public health impact of huge swaths of machines, especially in enterprise environments, becoming obsolete overnight. Many of these will end up in landfills, often shipped to third-world countries so we in the west dont have to deal with our e-waste and its dangerous consequences directly. I can get fined for littering  rightfully so  but when a company like Microsoft makes sweeping decisions which cause untold amounts of dangerous chemicals to be dumped in countless locations all over the globe, governments shrug it off and move on. At least we will get some cheap eBay hardware out of it, I guess.

• CDE 2.5.3 released
  So my love for the Common Desktop Environment isnt exactly a secret, so lets talk about the projects latest release, CDE 2.5.3, released a few days ago. As the version number suggests, this first new version in two years is a rather minor release, containing only a few bug fixes. For instance, CDEs window manager dtwm picked up support for more mouse buttons, its file manager dtfile now uses sh to find files instead of ksh, and a few more of these rather minor, but welcome, changes and bugfixes. Ever since CDE was released as open source over thirteen years ago, and while considerable work has been done to make it build, install, and run on modern platforms, thats kind of where the steam ran out. CDE isnt being actively developed to build upon its strengths and add new and welcome features and conveniences, but is instead kept in a sort of buildable stasis. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this  it keeps CDE accessible on modern platforms, and thats a huge amount of work that deserves respect and gratitude  but itd be nice if we lived in a world where there was enough interest (and time and money) to have people work on actually improving it. Of course, the reality is that thered be very little interest in such an improved CDE, and thats exactly why it isnt happening. On top op the current work the CDE team is doing, youd need to not only develop new features, but also improve the Motif toolkit to make such new features possible, and make sure such improvements dont break anything else. With such an old codebase, that cant possible be an easy task. Still, I will continue to daydream of a slightly more modernised CDE with some additional niceties weve come to expect over the past 30 years, even if I know full well its futile.

• Moss: a Linux-compatible kernel written in Rust
  Moss is a Unix-like, Linux-compatible kernel written in Rust and Aarch64 assembly. It features a modern, asynchronous core, a modular architecture abstraction layer, and binary compatibility with Linux userspace applications (currently capable of running most BusyBox commands). ↫ Moss GitHub page I mean, hobby operating systems and kernels written in Rust arent exactly the most unique right now, but that doesnt make them any less interesting for the kinds of people that frequent a site called OSNews. Moss has quite a few things going for it, including support for enough Linux system calls to run most BusyBox commands, complex memory and process management, use of Rusts async/await model in the kernel, and much more.

• Zorin OS 18 Hits over a Million Downloads
  If you doubt Linux isn't gaining popularity, you only have to look at Zorin OS's download numbers.
  

• TUXEDO Computers Scraps Snapdragon X1E-Based Laptop
  Due to issues with a Snapdragon CPU, TUXEDO Computers has cancelled its plans to release a laptop based on this elite hardware.
  

• Debian Unleashes Debian Libre Live
  Debian Libre Live keeps your machine free of proprietary software.
  

• Valve Announces Pending Release of Steam Machine
  Shout it to the heavens: Steam Machine, powered by Linux, is set to arrive in 2026.
  

• Happy Birthday, ADMIN Magazine!
  ADMIN is celebrating its 15th anniversary with issue #90.
  

• Another Linux Malware Discovered
  Russian hackers use Hyper-V to hide malware within Linux virtual machines.
  

• TUXEDO Computers Announces a New InfinityBook
  TUXEDO Computers is at it again with a new InfinityBook that will meet your professional and gaming needs.
  

• SUSE Dives into the Agentic AI Pool
  SUSE becomes the first open source company to adopt agentic AI with SUSE Enterprise Linux 16.
  

• Linux Now Runs Most Windows Games
  The latest data shows that nearly 90 percent of Windows games can be played on Linux.
  

• Fedora 43 Has Finally Landed
  The Fedora Linux developers have announced their latest release, Fedora 43.
  

• KDE Unleashes Plasma 6.5
  The Plasma 6.5 desktop environment is now available with new features, improvements, and the usual bug fixes.
  

• Xubuntu Site Possibly Hacked
  It appears that the Xubuntu site was hacked and briefly served up a malicious ZIP file from its download page.
  

• LMDE 7 Now Available
  Linux Mint Debian Edition, version 7, has been officially released and is based on upstream Debian.
  

• Linux Kernel 6.16 Reaches EOL
  Linux kernel 6.16 has reached its end of life, which means you'll need to upgrade to the next stable release, Linux kernel 6.17.
  

• Amazon Ditches Android for a Linux-Based OS
  Amazon has migrated from Android to the Linux-based Vega OS for its Fire TV.
  

• Cairo Dock 3.6 Now Available for More Compositors
  If you're a fan of third-party desktop docks, then the latest release of Cairo Dock with Wayland support is for you.
  

• System76 Unleashes Pop!_OS 24.04 Beta
  System76's first beta of Pop!_OS 24.04 is an impressive feat.
  

• Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
  Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
  

• Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
  If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
  

• Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
  The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.