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- Asahi Linux 7.3 progress report
The Asahi Linux developers have put out a new reporton their progress toward a Linux distribution for Apple devices. Some time ago, we were made aware of multiple attempts to exploit our permissive licensing to hijack our work, with a direct view to replacing the project and aggressively monetising Linux on Apple Silicon. In some extreme cases, in-development feature code was being lifted straight out of our personal forks and published without attribution or lazily rewritten with LLM assistance to obfuscate its origin. The MIT licence explicitly allows this, and has no carveouts to protect against bad faith actors. As such, we made the difficult decision to begin the process of transitioning all of our repositories to the GNU General Public License version 2 or later. Going forward all Asahi Linux code will be licenced under strong copyleft licences only. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
- Amutable Foundations: A Technical Overview
Lennart Poettering, Michael Vogt, and Joaquim Rocha have put together adetailed overview of what the Amutable Operating System (AOS) andassociated infrastructure will look like. The image-based OS approach enables us to enforce some very strict but powerful security properties, which elevate the security posture of the system substantially above traditional Linux systems. Specifically, let's highlight seven major essential security properties of AOS here: No Shell + No SSH + No Language Interpreters. By default AOS does not install a UNIX shell, nor makes remote access via SSH available on the nodes. Moreover, we do not install any of the usual language interpreters (Python, Perl, …) by default. For most nodes a shell or interpreted language support is not required and it removes a whole class of attacks. Signed Images Only. On AOS only images that come with Verity data signed by a signing key listed in the Verity keyring may be activated. [...]
- [$] Locking down hibernation for the winter
When a computer hibernates, the kernel writes the contents of memory to disk andthen shuts the system down. Resuming from hibernation involves reading that databack into memory, and then having the kernel pick up where it left off.Unfortunately, the kernel does not haveany way to know that the data it is reading back has not been tampered with,which is why lockdown, an optional kernelfeature that attempts to prevent modifications to the running kernel, disables hibernation.Matthew Garrett, who has been working on lockdown for many years, has shareda patch set that aims to fix this problem. His solution must also protectagainst downgrade attacks (where an attacker reboots the computer with an olderkernel version to bypass new protections), which complicates the implementation.
- Seven stable kernels with fixes for three Xen vulnerabilities
Hot on the heels of the previoustwo stable kernels, Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.3.3, 6.18.62,6.12.116, 6.6.162, 6.1.192,5.15.225, and 5.10.274 stable kernels. Each one only containsfixes for three use-after-free vulnerabilities announced today by the Xensecurity team.
Two of the vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) for theentire Xen host machine with possible information leakage (CVE-2026-100080,CVE-2026-100082),and one may allow privilege escalation as well as a DoS of the host machine (CVE-2026-100081). Usersshould, of course, upgrade if they are using Xen.
- Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (cockpit-files, container-tools:rhel8, delve, gcc-toolset-12-binutils, gimp:2.8, glibc, go-toolset:rhel8, kernel, libfastjson, mariadb:10.3, mod_auth_openidc:2.3, mysql:8.0, php:8.0, pki-core:10.6 and pki-deps:10.6, squid:4, tang, tesseract, thunderbird, and virt:rhel and virt-devel:rhel), Debian (chromium, ntfs-3g, puppet-agent, and trapperkeeper-authorization-clojure), Fedora (freerdp, goose, gpsd, hatch, perl-HTTP-Headers-ActionPack, perl-MIME-tools, perl-Plack, perl-Starman, proftpd, python-mistune, ruby-build, rust-crypto-bigint, rust-ctutils, rust-elliptic-curve, rust-num-bigint, rust-num-bigint0.4, rust-num-modular, rust-num-modular0.6, rust-num-prime, rust-zmij, rust-zstd, rust-zstd-safe, rust-zstd-safe7, rust-zstd-sys, rust-zstd0.13, scribus, sofia-sip, tailscale, tor, and wordpress), Oracle (cockpit-files, delve, firefox, gimp:2.8, kernel, and osbuild-composer), Red Hat (delve, git-lfs, go-toolset:rhel8, grafana, ignition, opentelemetry-collector, osbuild-composer, python-pillow, and yggdrasil), Slackware (openssh), SUSE (bind, brotli, cpupower, expat, fuse-overlayfs, go1.26, google-guest-agent, helm, ibus-typing-booster, kernel, kyverno, libmodplug-devel, librsvg, libX11, nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed, owntone, parted, perl-Cpanel-JSON-XS, perl-Text-CSV_XS, php8, python-Brotli, regclient, roundcubemail, rsyslog, and tomcat), and Ubuntu (ca-certificates, frr, haproxy, linux-nvidia-7.0, linux-nvidia-bos, linux-nvidia-tegra, and nginx).
- [$] User namespaces + file capabilities = trouble
User namespaces are a key part of thekernel's toolkit for assembling containers; processes within a usernamespace can appear to have full root access to the system while gainingno extra privileges in the wider system. At least, that is the intent. Inpractice, keeping privilege contained within a user namespace has oftenturned out to be difficult. As an example, consider thissmall patch series from Josef Bacik, which is intended to address somesituations where a process within a user namespace can elevate theprivileges of processes outside of it.
- Security updates for Thursday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (dpdk, httpd:2.4, kernel, kernel-rt, mysql:8.0, php:7.4, php:8.0, qt5, ruby:2.7, ruby:3.0, tesseract, webkit2gtk3, and xorg-x11-server-Xwayland), Debian (imagemagick, puppet-agent, symfony, trapperkeeper-authorization-clojure, and xen), Fedora (3proxy, bind, bind-dyndb-ldap, curl, dhcpcd, erlang-jose, forgejo, freetype, laszip, libical, libmongocrypt, markdownlint-cli2, mongo-c-driver, openbao, pipx, python-boto3, python-botocore, python-crate-ingredients, python-lxml-html-clean, python3.11, python3.13, python3.14, python3.15, roundcubemail, rply, ruby-build, rust-app-store-connect, rust-qemu-rdp, rust-redlib, scribus, and valkey), Mageia (minetest, python-pypdf, stunnel, znc, and zvbi), Oracle (.NET 10.0, bind, brotli, cockpit, dpdk, fence-agents, freerdp, gimp, glibc, grafana, gvfs, host-metering, kernel, python-dns, qemu-kvm, raptor2, tesseract, webkit2gtk3, and xorg-x11-server-Xwayland), Red Hat (grafana and pcs), Slackware (rsync), SUSE (amazon-cloudwatch-agent, apache2, aws-efs-utils, brotli, cephfs, coredns, cramfs-tools, firefox-esr, fuse-overlayfs, ghostscript, GraphicsMagick, libpolkit-agent-1-0-128, libsoup, nvidia-open-driver-G07-signed, perl-Dancer2, python-PyJWT, python313-joserfc, rsyslog, switcheroo, trivy, valkey, vexctl, and xdg-desktop-portal), and Ubuntu (apt, libphp-adodb, net-snmp, pillow, squid, and twisted).
- Critical security vulnerability affects OpenSSH on Alpine Linux systems
Version 10.6p2 ofOpenSSH has been released with a workaround for a critical vulnerability thataffects Linux systems that use musl libcwith PAM disabled, such as AlpineLinux. OpenSSH developer Damien Miller said:
If you operate a Linux system that uses musl libc without PAM (Alpine Linuxis one example) then stop reading and set PasswordAuthentication=no or disableSSH for these systems IMMEDIATELY.
This vulnerability does not exist on non-Linux systems, Linux/glibc systemsand Linux systems that use PAM for password authentication.
We consider the root cause of this bug to be outside OpenSSH itself, butwe're in a good position to deliver a mitigation quickly.
The Alpine Linux project has announced thatit will be backporting the OpenSSH fix "all the way back to Alpine 3.16",which was released in May2022.

- Home Assistant-compatible board pairs ESP32-S3 and ESP32-P4
Crowd Supply has launched a campaign for LocalDot, an open-hardware board developed by AAElectronics that converts third-generation Amazon Echo Dots into Home Assistant voice devices. The 83 37mm PCB uses an ESP32-S3 and ESP32-P4 for connectivity and audio processing while retaining the original microphones, speaker, buttons, and LEDs. The ESP32-S3 handles Wi-Fi connectivity and0
- ESP32-P4 development boards combine RISC-V with Wi-Fi 6 or PoE
SparkFun today launched two ESP32-P4-based IoT RedBoards, offering either dual-band Wi-Fi 6 through an ESP32-C5 companion or wired Ethernet with Power over Ethernet. Both boards feature dual-core RISC-V processing, 32MB PSRAM, 16MB flash, MIPI camera and display connectors, and Arduino-style expansion headers for embedded and HMI applications. The boards use the ESP32-P4NRW32X, which integrates0
- Ubuntu Summit 26.10: Less than a week away!
Ubuntu Summit 26.10: Less than a week away! Here in London, the long summer has stepped aside for cooler nights and damp, misty mornings. The trees are turning amber and the sunlight is low on the horizon, which can only mean one thing: the next Ubuntu Summit is just around the corner. In fact, its0
- Online setup openSUSE Leap 16.1 on bare metal and tuning correct resolution for HDMI Monitor
What is Agama's SSH Injection Advantage: By injecting public key into Agama during the network deployment phase, the very first boot of the newly installed operating system will have the OpenSSH daemon (sshd) active and your authorized keys populated.This gives you a guaranteed SSH hook into the target host. You don't have to look at the unreadable HDMI screen to execute the configuration script below you can run it smoothly from a remote machine, cleanly stripping away the problematic SDDM prompt and tailoring the Wayland desktop profile securely.
- A RISC-V Based TEE With AMD Zen 6 CPUs
An interesting technical detail I noticed today from the latest AMD Linux activity is that Zen 6 processors apparently are featuring a RISC-V based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) where in the past it was an ARM-based core0
- The missing piece: bringing up to 15 years of support to Zephyr for microcontroller-based ECUs
We recently announced the launch of Zephyr 26.04 LTS, bringing up to 15 years of security maintenance per LTS and enterprise lifecycle management to microcontroller-grade devices. While central high-performance computer ECUs capture most of the industry spotlight in software-defined vehicle (SDV) architectures, the operational reality of modern vehicles is far more distributed. Under the chassis0

- Data Centers are Being Powered By Giant Gas Plants, Possibly Increasing Carbon Pollution for Decades
Rather than racing toward their net-zero targets, Amazon and other AI/cloud computing companies "are driving emissions sharply higher," reports the Washington Post:To support their data centers, tech firms are driving construction of a new generation of supersized, gas-fired power plants that could lock in hundreds of millions of tons of climate pollution for decades to come, according to corporate disclosures and an analysis conducted for The Post by a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Industry estimates show these projects have put the tech sector on course to grow from a modest driver of industrial carbon pollution into one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. Some anticipate that its share of global carbon emissions will increase as much as fivefold from 2020 to 2030. That would leave the tech industry churning out more than half the climate pollution created by global aviation or shipping — sectors long associated with driving warming... Already, Amazon's carbon footprint reached 80.85 million metric tons last year — 58% larger than when [Amazon CEO Jeff] Bezos pledged to shrink it. The company has veered far from the path laid out in the Paris agreement, which would have emissions falling steeply by now and dropping to 43% below 2019 levels by 2030. The tech companies say in corporate disclosures and public statements that they remain committed to their net zero targets, and they suggest the emissions surge is temporary — to be mitigated down the road, when new energy technologies enable the data centers to run cleaner and more efficiently. They also stress that they continue to invest in clean energy and rank as some of the world's biggest consumers of it. With some complicated accounting maneuvers and carbon credit purchases, their solar, wind and geothermal installations partly cancel out their gas emissions, according to corporate disclosures. A June report from international insurance/asset management Allianz found the world's data center emissions are on track to double to 643 million tons of CO2 annually between 2020 and 2030, the article points out. And they cite American data centers contributing to the problem:Just two gas projects Amazon signed on to for data centers planned in Texas and Pennsylvania "would produce more carbon pollution than the dirtiest facility in the country," an Alabama coal plant powering 1 million homes.Meta is building a nearly six-square-mile campus in Louisiana "that will consume as much electricity as three cities the size of New Orleans.""A sprawling Microsoft project in West Texas involving a giant gas plant built by Chevron and a Google project in Wyoming that would consume five times as much electricity as every household in that state would vastly expand the emissions associated with those companies.""A data center campus in Pike County, Ohio, that will support OpenAI's artificial intelligence operations will consume significantly more gas power, and, therefore, emit more carbon pollution, than the Microsoft and Google projects combined."
 
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Is Mandating AI Use in the Workplace Backfiring?
Some workplaces are holding mandatory AI training sessions, while others "are requiring employees to use a specific number of tokens," reports the Washington Post, "or log a certain amount of time on AI platforms." The article's headline? "Why mandating AI use in the workplace can backfire."[A] lot of employers are going about it the wrong way, said Arvind Karunakaran, an assistant professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University. "You can consume a lot of tokens without creating a lot of value," Karunakaran said.... The adoption of AI is happening faster than the adoption of the internet did, according to a new report from Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. And many users report that AI tools have really helped — whether saving time and costs or increasing innovation. The same report, though, found that one-third of organizations surveyed expected AI-related staff reductions in the coming year. Especially in that context, simply mandating usage won't spark excitement about the technology, Karunakaran said, and neither will insisting that employees use AI to cut turnaround times and ramp up productivity. "People start asking questions like 'What am I as an employee getting out of it?'" he said. The report he co-authored found that in the short-term, mandating AI tools may ramp up productivity. But in the long-to-medium term, employees tend to feel devalued and disengaged. From there, people find ways to mindlessly check the box. When employers present these tools and their use as an opportunity for employees to expand their skills and grow their careers, people are much likelier to use them, Karunakaran said. He suggests that rather than requiring employees use a specific number of tokens, companies should encourage workers to experiment and share their own use cases and success stories. Most workplaces are still shutting employees out of the conversation. More than half of employees said they have less of a say than they'd want on adopting new tech at work, according to a report from Gallup and Jobs for the Future, a work and education nonprofit. Any Slashdot readers want to share your own stories on how AI was introduced at your workplace?
 
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Scientists Find Rare Meteorite From Mars With Signs of Ancient Water
"I didn't think a rock like this existed on Earth," a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Texas told the Washington Post. It looks like a polished rock, dark brown with a clay-colored stripe — but it's actually one of the oldest Mars meteorites ever found, blasted by an impact from the surface of Mars billions of years ago:Technically speaking it's a collection of eight rock fragments, the largest of which is about the size of a fist. Nearly two pounds of the meteorite was discovered in the Sahara in Mali in 2022, and most is now held by a museum in Maine. Within two years, an initial examination determined the meteorite hailed from Mars; scientists are now finally digging deeper, with stunning results. It offers records of "interactions of water and rock and maybe even an imprint of the Martian atmosphere as it was losing water," says Lee Saper, co-author of a new paper recently published in Science. "It was only after we started looking closely that we realized this meteorite is really unique," said Yang Liu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the lead author of a new paper published in Science. "One of the paper's reviewers called it a Rosetta Stone for Mars." Its mix of minerals "tells a story about how the planet's crust formed from cooling magma before it was eventually altered by subsurface water," NASA's JPL says in an announcement.The Washington Post reports:The story begins 4.1 billion years ago, when crystals of a mineral called zircon probably solidified out of molten magma on Mars. "That was a game changer," [said Yang Liu, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California], since scientists can date zircon very precisely, and it has been rare in other Mars meteorites. The date immediately put the Teghaza meteorite on special footing, alongside only two other Mars rocks known to have formed by 4 billion years ago... Perhaps most intriguingly, the researchers also saw signs that the rock had been exposed to water during its evolution, a find detailed in work published this summer in Science Advances.
 
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- A Third Major US Offshore Wind Farm Is Now Fully Operational
Despite the Trump administration's efforts to halt development on a $6.2 billion wind farm, it's now "completely up and running," reports the nonprofit energy news site Canary Media, delivering enough electricity to power the equivalent over 350,000 homes:On Thursday, the Danish energy giant Ørsted said its 704-megawatt wind farm near Connecticut and Rhode Island began "generating up to its full capacity" in October. Revolution Wind began producing smaller amounts of power in the spring, and the company installed the last of 65 turbines in September. The project is the third U.S. utility-scale offshore wind farm to reach full commercial operations, after South Fork Wind near New York and Vineyard Wind near Massachusetts. Before the start of Trump's second term, BloombergNEF projected America would build 39 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035 the article points out, but "Now, it expects just 5.9 GW to come online — an amount that reflects the handful of projects that were already completed or under construction at the start of last year."Despite the diminished pipeline, the carbon-free energy source is still expected to help keep household utility bills in check across the U.S. Northeast, experts say. Revolution Wind and the country's other completed projects have already played a key role in reducing grid stress during extreme weather events this year... Ørsted hit its power milestone despite being forced to halt construction twice last year. In August 2025, the Interior Department issued a stop-work order for Revolution Wind, due to unspecified national security threats. That order was tossed out by a federal judge one month later. But in late December, the administration issued new stop-work orders to all five offshore wind projects then under construction. Judges struck those orders down one by one — but not before developers had lost huge sums of money and nearly missed key project deadlines... Meanwhile, Ørsted said it's making progress on another offshore wind development, Sunrise Wind. The developer on Thursday said it has finished installing all of the wind-turbine foundations for the 924-MW project off the coast of Long Island, New York. That installation is expected to be fully operational in the second half of next year.
 
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- AlmaLinux Shows Advantages of ABI Compatibility After RHEL Restricted Source Code Access
"AlmaLinux OS charted a new path in 2023 when Red Hat restricted source code access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux," remembers Linux Magazine."Rather than pursue 1:1 compatibility with RHEL like other Enterprise Linux alternatives, the AlmaLinux OS Foundation chose application binary interface (ABI) compatibility, which guarantees that applications and kernel modules that work on RHEL will work on AlmaLinux OS."No longer constrained by the 1:1 promise, AlmaLinux can offer new features, or add back deprecated ones, while still remaining a stable, drop-in replacement for RHEL... The release of AlmaLinux OS 10.2 in May 2026 reveals just how far AlmaLinux has come.... When RHEL 10 increased the x86-64-v2 architecture baseline to x86-64-v3, many older server platforms (and some new ones) were left in the lurch. These older servers couldn't support the modern CPU feature sets in x86-64-v3, including AVX2 CPU instructions. AlmaLinux recognized that many community members employed older hardware that relied on x86-64-v2. While x86-64-v3 is enabled by default in AlmaLinux OS 10 and AlmaLinux OS Kitten 10, an additional x86-64-v2 build is also available. The x86-64-v2 build works best for environments that rely on standard OS packages or that can rebuild any additional packages required by x86-64-v2. For users with older hardware, the additional x86-64-v2 build allows continued use of current hardware, saving money and keeping servers from the landfill. AlmaLinux OS 10 is actively supported through 2030 with security support through 2035, significantly extending the life of older hardware.... Many legacy applications and containerized workloads still run on i686, a 32-bit computer processor architecture belonging to the Intel x86 family, including software that only ships as i686, CI pipelines that require a specific 32-bit glibc, and seemingly normal looking containers that require a 32-bit environment. RHEL 10 completely removed 32-bit application support and multilib libraries after deprecating support in earlier releases... AlmaLinux OS 10.2 has added package repos and official container images for 32-bit x86 (but not a 32-bit kernel or installer)... NVIDIA GPUs, ubiquitous in modern computing, have been a pain point for Linux users. Getting the closed-source NVIDIA drivers has required extra steps and manual installation. When NVIDIA released an open source version of their graphics driver, AlmaLinux integrated the drivers, along with the associated CUDA components, into the AlmaLinux repository starting with AlmaLinux OS 9 and 10. AlmaLinux also signs the open source drivers, allowing secure boot with the NVIDIA drivers they ship. Unlike RHEL users, AlmaLinux users now have native support, allowing them to skip manual installation. AlmaLinux users can now enjoy a fully integrated NVIDIA experience. In addition, "Thanks to ABI compatibility, AlmaLinux can sometimes deliver patches more quickly than RHEL," the article points out. And it lists other points where AlmaLinux OS 10.2 diverges from RHEL 10:Re-enabling frame pointers disabled by default in RHEL and CentOS Stream to provide system-wide, real-time tracing and profiling to diagnose and optimize code. Enabling both kernel and userspace components that allow installation of AlmaLinux on a Btrfs filesystem Adding SPICE support dropped in RHEL 9, allowing users to interact with a virtual machine's desktop remotely instead of just from the host server. Restoring support for older storage and network drivers disabled upstream, including Adaptec, Dell PERC, HP, Mellanox, QLogic, Emulex, LSI, and Broadcom.
 
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- China's Top Spy Agency Recruited Woman Who Targeted Jensen Huang
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: A Chinese businesswoman who had a close relationship with the chief executive of one of the most important artificial intelligence companies in the United States was a spy for China's Ministry of State Security, Beijing's top intelligence agency, according to people briefed on U.S. surveillance. The businesswoman, Alice Huang, was recruited by the ministry to collect intelligence on Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, as part of a drive to learn more about American A.I. chips and potentially influence the company to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China, the people said. [...] The New York Times reported last week that Mr. Huang was a target of a Chinese intelligence operation, and that U.S. intelligence agencies were conducting electronic surveillance of Ms. Huang, a Chinese citizen, for at least a year. The Times reported that Mr. Trump had been briefed last year about Mr. Huang's relationship with her, but chose not to do anything about it. Ms. Huang speaks English well and has relationships with executives at the highest levels of the A.I. chip industry, including Mr. Huang and the leaders of Gigabyte, one of the top assemblers of Nvidia supercomputers, said people who have met her. She has attended industry conferences and private executive dinners. It is unclear when Ms. Huang first met Nvidia's leader. In 2024, around the time the two of them were photographed together at a bar in Taipei, her company, Megaspeed, began a multibillion-dollar purchase of advanced A.I. microchips. To many in the industry, the well-funded push by Megaspeed into A.I. appeared to come out of nowhere. Ms. Huang was connected to a network of companies and investors clustered around Shanghai and Zhejiang province that had used their ties to local officials in Shanghai to push aggressively from mobile video games into data centers, which provide the computing power behind artificial intelligence. Megaspeed has been building data centers in Southeast Asia and then renting their computing power to Alibaba, the giant Chinese internet firm, giving China a backdoor way of getting access to advanced Nvidia chips. Nvidia is restricted by the United States from selling those chips directly to China. Beyond its local connections, the network also has a financial link to the Chinese military establishment, through an investment in a cybersecurity subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group, one of the country's largest makers of military technology. Following the report, top Republican lawmakers have asked Jensen Huang to appear before Congress to answer questions. "Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the People's Republic of China's access to sensitive US technology and information," representatives John Moolenaar, Brian Mast, and Rick Crawford said. "The issue of PRC infiltration and access to cutting-edge US technology is core to the investigative work of our three committees this Congress. It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk," the lawmakers added.
 
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Cryosphere Faces Permanent Damage When World Overshoots 1.5C, Scientists Warn
A UN-backed report warns that even temporarily overshooting the Paris agreement's 1.5C warming target could cause permanent and widespread losses of glaciers, snow and polar ice sheets. With Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets already melting about six times faster than in the 1990s, the report argues that global temperatures should ultimately be brought back below 1C. The Guardian reports: The report, which comes as world leaders and diplomats converge on Turkey for the 31st annual Cop climate conference, documented rapid and accelerating melting of the cryosphere and polar oceans, with damages that range from the loss of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, driving sea level rises that threaten hundreds of millions of people, to thawing permafrost, which releases more planet-heating gas. Glaciers, which are still responding to historical warming, would only preserve about 70% of their current volume over a timescale of centuries if long-term heating were brought back down to 0.8C, the report found. Meanwhile, the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, which are melting about six times faster today than in the 1990s, would continue to lose ice even in scenarios where overshoot is brief and temperature rise returns to 1.5C, the report found. The scientists said a safe, long-term temperature limit for polar ice sheets lies much closer to 1.0C of global heating, and possibly even lower. "Snow and ice respond rapidly to every fraction of a degree of warming," said [James Kirkham, a glaciologist at ICCI and the lead author of the report. "But most of these systems will take centuries or millennia to recover after overshoot, especially if tipping points are crossed that cause changes to become essentially irreversible." Last month, a UNEP report found the world must cut emissions by 18% by 2030 and by 45% by 2035 to have a good chance of keeping temperatures from rising 1.7C above preindustrial levels. It found there were "no good outcomes" of remaining above 1.5C. The cryosphere report found that current policies, which will result in 2.8C of global heating, would reduce the mass of glacier ice to below 10% in the Rockies, Alps, Iceland and Scandinavia. If warming was limited to 1.5C, about 20-35% of the mass would remain. In the Hindu Kush Himalayas, where glaciers are a source of water for nearly a quarter of humanity, current policies will leave just 41% of the ice mass. If warming was limited to 1.5C, 83% would remain.
 
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- Vibrating Mattress Helps Clear Alzheimer's Protein From the Brain
A vibrating mattress combined with two pills that release nitric oxide enhanced the brain's ability to clear an Alzheimer's-related protein. According to New Scientist, the experiment "caused the brain's blood vessels to swell and constrict more strongly, which enhanced the glymphatic system's clearance of [the protein]." From the report: [Kesa Kiviniemi at the University of Oulu in Finland] and his colleagues recruited 29 adults who hadn't been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or any other cognitive issues. The participants took a pill that dissolves when under the tongue, releasing nitric oxide. They then lay on a mattress that caused their bodies to gently vibrate for 40 minutes, taking another pill halfway through. Blood samples revealed that their levels of a type of protein called beta-amyloid 42 increased by 35 per cent, on average, after the intervention. This protein, which usually helps neurons signal and connect to each other, misfolds and form clumps in Alzheimer's disease. "The treatment seemed to enhance the glymphatic system's ability to clear beta-amyloid from the brain to the blood," says Kiviniemi. "A 35 per cent increase in circulating beta-amyloid 42 is a substantial and very interesting acute effect," says Tuomas Lilius at the University of Helsinki, who wasn't involved in the work. "It is certainly possible it could become biologically, and eventually clinically, relevant." Side effects were mild and minimal, with six of the participants experiencing issues such as nausea and headache. However, this could partly be due to the expectation of an effect from the nitric oxide pills. The researchers hope to overcome this in future work by including placebo pills. Brain scans suggest the treatment enhanced the flow of fluid along glymphatic channels, probably by widening the brain's blood vessels and making them pump more strongly, says Kiviniemi. But other mechanisms could also be at play, says Brown. For instance, this intervention may slow the breakdown of beta-amyloid 42 by the liver, leading to higher amounts in the bloodstream, he says. Future studies could get around this by injecting markers into cerebrospinal fluid, which moves through the glymphatic system, to more directly measure its flow, says Brown. Additional experiments by Kiviniemi and his colleagues tested either only the mattress vibrations or only the nitric oxide pills on the same participants, at least a week before or after they underwent the combined approach. Based on brain scans, these solo interventions seemed to have less than half the effect on the glymphatic system than when they were combined. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.
 
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- Mexico's Senate Approves ISP Rules To Disconnect Persistent Online Pirates
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: On Tuesday, Mexico's Senate approved (PDF) a reform of the Federal Copyright Law that ties ISP liability to having a policy to terminate repeat infringers. [This policy has to be published permanently on their website and in their terms of service, and it must include a basic way to notify users. In other words, what can be terminated is the Internet connection itself, not just an account. According to Mexican business outlet EL CEO, this means that access providers such as Telmex and Izzi will need such a policy.] The Senate approved the amendments with roughly two-thirds of the vote, as the opposition voted against. The Chamber of Deputies already approved the same text in October, so the decree now goes to President Claudia Sheinbaum. Her government proposed the changes in May to bring the law in line with the USMCA trade agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada. [...] Providers that don't comply risk facing liability. Under the new rules, any ISP that fails to meet its safe harbor conditions becomes liable for its users' infringements if it knowingly contributes to, induces, or causes the infringement. The same goes for an ISP that can control the infringing user and profits directly from the infringement. In both cases, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) can fine the provider up to roughly 4.7 million pesos (~$250,000), depending on the infringement. The law doesn't explicitly define the term repeat infringer, nor does it say how many piracy accusations it takes before a subscriber can be cut off. According to Aurora Lopez-Portillo, director of legal services at IP firm ClarkeModet, each provider has to decide its own threshold. She told EL CEO that ISPs should also check whether the accusations actually hold up, while giving users a chance to respond, even though the law doesn't require that. During Tuesday's Senate debate, some lawmakers in the opposition raised similar concerns. Senator Gabriel Elizondo warned that families can share a single connection, so the pirating activities of one person could leave an entire household offline. Previously, opposition lawmakers proposed requiring a court order before Internet service could be suspended, but that proposal was not adopted. [...] There, failing to meet the safe harbor conditions, including the repeat infringer policy, is the first requirement for liability. If an ISP also contributes to infringement with knowledge of it, or can control the infringer and directly profits from it, it can be held responsible. The new repeat infringer rules will take effect 180 days after their publication in Mexico's official gazette, which hasn't happened yet as far as we can see. How Mexican ISPs will define a repeat infringer, and how many accusations it takes, has yet to be seen.
 
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- EU Says TikTok's 'Rabbit Hole' Effect Must Stop
The European Commission has preliminarily found that TikTok violates the Digital Services Act because its For You recommendation algorithm can create a "rabbit hole effect," repeatedly exposing users to potentially harmful content involving topics such as sadness, isolation and body image. TikTok must change the feed's design or potentially face fines of up to 6% of its global annual revenue. The Verge reports: The findings come months after the EU Commission declared that TikTok's design is too "addictive." While TikTok has implemented controls to mitigate the algorithm's "rabbit hole effect," the Commission says its preliminary findings suggest that they're not effective. TikTok must now change the design of its For You feed, or else face fines of up to 6 percent of its global annual turnover. The platform is also facing pressure in the US, with lawmakers and a wave of lawsuits raising concerns about child safety. "Every time a user scrolls or likes a video on TikTok, the algorithm serves more of the same leading users down rabbit holes they cannot easily escape from," Henna Virkkunen, the EU Commission's executive vice president of tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, says in the press release. "Today's preliminary findings show again that TikTok needs to step up its efforts to protect users' well-being, including those of minors."
 
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- 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.

- HyprBSD Provides Wayland-Based Desktop Built Atop FreeBSD, Complete With Steam Gaming
While FreeBSD has been working to improve its desktop and laptop experience, that work isn't yet shipping in released form for the OS installer and other ongoing efforts. Now there's a new desktop FreeBSD distribution on the scene with HyprBSD providing a Wayland-based desktop experience and with the Linux binary compatibility layer even an easy route to gaming with Steam...
- Microsoft9s Azure Linux 3.0.2022 Ships With More Than 470 Security Fixes
Microsoft released Azure Linux 3.0.2022 on Friday night as the newest version of their in-house Linux distribution. Given the rampant AI/LLM-fueled bug reporting and security research, Azure Linux 3.0.2022 ends up incorporating more than 470 security fixes for different CVEs across the many open-source projects making up Azure Linux...
- ReactOS Lands Initial USB3 Driver Support
After years of work, ReactOS as the "open-source Windows" operating system striving for Windows program and driver compatibility now has an initial USB 3.0 driver stack in place...

- MorphOS 3.21 released with new office suite
About five months after the previous release, the MorphOS team has released MorphOS 3.21. It brings the usual list of big fixes and smaller improvements, but theres a few big ticket items in here as well. MorphOS 3.21 introduces BasicWorks, an office suite made up of CellBasics and PageBasics. It offers document and spreadsheet authoring and loads and saves Microsoft Office and OpenOffice documents. Also new are NVMEMount, an auto-mounter for booting from and mounting NVMe partitions, and the Marbles and Cyber 3D blankers. Graphics performance has been improved, with a faster Radeon driver on cards with little video memory thanks to GART backed bitmap transfers, quicker TinyGL texture copies, hardware accelerated antialiased text in TTEngine and much faster color SVG glyph rendering in Cairo. The Bcm43xx wireless driver has been substantially reworked, with automatic transmit rate selection, updated firmware and numerous connection fixes. PowerBook and iMac hotkeys are now fully configurable. ↫ MorphOS 3.21 release announcement The BasicWorks office suite has been in the works for a while now, and more information on it can be found in a thread on the MorphZone forums and on the website for the spreadsheet component of the suite, CellBasics. The formula loaders and xlsx loaders are ports of open source projects, but the rest of the application is new code based on ObjectiveC++ and Cairo/Harfbuzz. It uses its own file format, but can import csv and xslsx files, so Im assuming the same more or else applies to the word processor (but with docx, of course). Alongside MorphOS 3.21 also comes a new release for Wayfarer, the web browser the Amiga-inspired operating system uses. Wayfarer 12.0 moves to WebKitGTK 2.52.5 (which was released in July of 2026, so its quite up to date), and now uses the Skia graphics library. R300-R500 Radeons will render websites with Skia-GL for some massive performance improvements, helped further along by a slew of additional performance optimisations. Adblocking has been improved as well, YouTube should work a lot better now, and much more. The full release notes for MorphOS 3.21 give you all the details.
- The port that does not exist
Ask any program to listen on port 0 and it will hand you a socket on port 471930or 580370or whatever the kernel felt like that day. Port 0 is not a port you can have. It is the number you pass when you want the operating system to pick one for you. But a TCP header is just bytes. The destination port field is 16 bits wide, and 0x0000 fits in 16 bits as well as anything else does. Nothing on the wire stops a packet from being addressed to port 0. Your tools will refuse it, your browser will block it, and your scanners default port list skips it, because everyone agrees it isnt a real port. Which makes it a pretty good place to hide things, whether anyone meant to or not. So we did some TCP cowboy shit 8 port scanned the entire fucking internet for open ports on port 0, which uncovered some interesting unexpected findings. ↫ acidvegas An awesome and entertaining read. Dont skip this one.
- Windows 11 27H2 might be a more substantial upgrade
A little tidbit of news regarding the nest major update to Windows, known as Windows 11 27H2. Apparently, its going to come with some more serious changes to the codebase, therefore necessitating a full operating system swap instead of a mere enablement package, much like Windows 11 24H2 was. For those who need a refresher, Microsoft has long been rumored to be running on a three-year release cadence and for a while, it was even thought that the company would launch Windows 12 in 2H 2024. That evidently didnt happen, as instead we got Windows 11 24H2, but it was a major upgrade, a full OS swap compared to Windows 11 23H2 and 22H2. Essentially, it looks like every three releases, Microsoft is performing a full swap with major changes in the underlying codebase, and it seems to line up with Windows 11 27H2 as well. At the moment its not known if system requirements will change or not. ↫ Sayan Sen at Neowin.net Microsoft is currently testing adding support for Intels Advanced Performance Extensions, which should yield improved 64bit performance and reduced power consumption. It makes sense to assume this support will be coming with Windows 11 27H2, which should hopefully lead to tangible performance improvements across the board. Also, theres going to be a new default wallpaper. Be still my beating heart.
- The Ubuntu 26.04 Rust sudo is not compatible with standard sudo
Ubuntu has been at the forefront of replacing the traditional versions of basic tools like sudo with replacements written in Rust, but aside from worries about replacing battle-tested code with brand new, relatively untested code, theres new things to worry about it. As it turns out, sudo-rs, the Rust replacement for sudo, is intentionally incompatible with the classic version in dangerous ways, as Chris Siebenmann discovered to his dismay. Basically, the classic sudo supports the use of wildcards defined using square brackets, so that if you allow a user to run, say, /usr/sbin/exim -bp, without a password, they can run exim -bpa, exim -bpc, exim -bpr, or exim -bpu without having to supply a password. This allows for very specific, fine-grained access control, which is quite a nice capability to have if youre managing many systems and users. Sadly, sudo-rs intentionally does not support this, opting to only allow you to use the generic * wildcard. Worse yet, it doesnt really make this clear, either. ↫ Chris Siebenmann I do not really have words for this. The Rust sudo has apparently opted to keep the single most dangerous wildcard while disallowing all of the wildcards that allow one to be narrow and specific about what youre allowing, and it buries this at the end of a section that devotes a bunch of words to describing functionality it doesnt have and doesnt support, with absolutely nothing else in that section to say this (either up front or in the descriptions of how all the wildcards would work if sudo-rs supported them, which it doesnt). If youre going to replace such vital, core tools like sudo that god knows how many people rely on every single day, you better be damn sure youre feature-complete and can act as a drop-in replacement. If someone switches from sudo to doas, nobody expects the experience to be identical. However, if youre consistently being told that sudo-rs is a drop-in replacement and you shouldnt expect any disruptions, you better be able to make true on that promise. Ubuntu isnt some also-ran small hobby distribution, and its developers should act like it. What a clown show.
- LXQt 2.5.0 released
The second desktop environment release Ive got for you today is LXQt 2.5.0. This new version excises its last LXDE dependency, and QTerminal and QTermWidget received considerable improvements, like new background image modes, a visual bell, support for OSC-8 hyperlinks, and more. Theres a ton of smaller changes and improvements as well, but do note that due to a bug, 2.5.0 broke LXQts Monitor Settings on X11. The project intends to fix this as quickly as possible and push a point release to address this issue.
- Cinnamon 6.8 desktop environment released with hibernation support
Its desktop environment Thursday, as Ive got two new releases for you today. First, Cinnamon, the desktop environment primarily associated with Linux Mint, has hit version 6.8. This version will officially ship with Linux Mint 27, scheduled for around Christmas of this year. Highlights of Cinnamon 6.8 include hibernation support via a Suspend action in the main menu, modern one-to-one trackpad gestures for both Wayland and Xorg sessions, support for the oo7 Secret Service provider, support for multiple instances in the Sound applet, and a more unified Network applet that merges the WireGuard and VPN sections. ↫ Marcus Nestor at 9To5Linux While Cinnamon is first and foremost a Linux Mint project, its available on countless other distributions as well, including dedicated variants for popular distributions like Fedora and Ubuntu. Its Wayland support is finally materialising too, which is long overdue.
- NetBSD 11.1 released
The first point release for NetBSD 11 has been released. As the version number suggests, theres no major changes here. This release includes security updates for mozilla-rootcerts, brotli, xorg-server, hdaudio(4), compat_linux(8), unbound(8), and ipfilter. Among the non-security related changes are improved USB device stability on Raspberry Pi, fixed hot-plugging bugs in various USB Wi-Fi drivers, support for battery monitoring on the Microsoft Surface Go 3, fixed thread-local storage on ARMv5, fixes for running the MIPS Malta and PA-RISC ports under QEMU, support for the Zhaoxin KX-7000 CPU, and support for sensors, i2c, real-time clocks, and fan control on Sun Ultra 25/45 and Sun Fire V215/V245 machines. ↫ Nia Alarie on the NetBSD blog The full release notes provide more details.
- Why don’t we run the taskbar and Task Manager at high priority, so they can remain responsive?!
Another interesting post from Raymond Chen, this time about the difficulty of dealing with a system thats become CPU-starved. The question is simple: why not just run Task Manager and important parts of the UI like the taskbar at a higher priority? The catch with running anything at high priority is that unless you have been very careful to avoid it, you will eventually run into a shared resource that you will have to wait for, and you are now stuck. Your priority checkout pass gets you to the front of the line, but if the person at the register has a large shopping cart full of groceries, you just have to wait until they are done before you get your chance. Even if the code that protects the shared resource is careful to avoid priority inversion by transferring the priority of the waiter to the thread that owns the resource, you are still stuck waiting, and that owning thread might be doing something that takes a long time, like, say, accessing a file over the network. ↫ Raymond Chen If a system has reached a state where even accessing or using something like a task manager becomes a problem, I personally just bonk my computer over the head with a forced shutdown using the power button. Honestly though, I cant remember the last time Ive had to do this, as my Linux machines all seem to handle problematic applications just fine. That being said, Im sure people managing tons of servers and/or workstations and developers debugging their own running code run into catastrophic problems like this far more often, making forced shutdowns not as practical. Have a terminal window open with top and easy access to the kill command, or make sure you can just ssh into it remotely if the UI has gone completely nuts.
- Jailbreaking my cars navigation system just so I can change the time!
What if you want to change the time in your cars infotainment system, but its so locked down that you cant even open the time settings menu without a very specific, DRMd SD card? Well, you try to jailbreak it, of course, but the amount of effort required can kind of spiral out of control. And then, all the way at the end, its just an offset. The first thing I did was use this to create a full backup of the internal eMMC using dd. With a more complete dump of the system, I pretty quickly figured out that the date 8 time settings that Im interested in are in /mnt/flash/settings.dat, which is a custom binary format. After some more reverse engineering, it turned out the unit doesnt really have a concept of timezones at all. It gets the time from GPS and stores the local offset as a number of minutes. Mine was set to 180. I changed it to 120. That is how I was finally able to fix my cars timezone. ↫ Rasmus Moorats This harrowing story involved an older car a 2014 Renault Latitude but with the number of screens and the amount of user-facing software only increasing every year, requiring jailbreaks to get your car to do what you want it to do are only going to become more common. I wouldnt be surprised if whole generations of cars are going to become much harder to sell in the near future, cratering the used market, because people are not willing to put up with software problems nobody wants to or can fix. He just wanted to change the goddamn time.
- Enlightenment 0.28.0 released
Enlightenment, the long-running desktop environment and associated libraries and frameworks, just released version 0.28.0. It brings initial support for NetBSD, support for Network Manager and a whole slew of related changes and fixes to make that possible, as well as native PipeWire support. Theres also a brand new clipboard manager, which brings with it modernisations and bug fixes for related UI elements. This release also reworks a ton code related to battery management, AC polling, and more, adding features like setting battery thresholds, ACPI power profile support, and so on. Of course, theres also the long list of smaller fixes and changes. You can download the release and build it yourself, or wait for your distribution of BSD variant to package it.

- 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
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