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Do a presentation at NTLUG.
What is the Linux Installation Project?
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- Debian DSA-6175-1 libyaml-syck-perl Severe Denial of Service and Code Exec
Several vulnerabilities were discovered in libyaml-syck-perl, a Perl module providing a fast, lightweight YAML loader and dumper, which may result in denial of service and potentially arbitrary code execution. For the oldstable distribution (bookworm), this problem has been fixed in version 1.34-2+deb12u2.
- b4 v0.15.0 released
Version 0.15.0 of the b4 patch-management tool is out. Highlights in thisrelease include the b4 review workflow manager for maintainers(covered briefly in this article), b4dig, which can find the original mailing-list submission behind acommit, three-way-merge support in b4 shazam, and more. See the releasenotes for details.
- Agama 19 released
Version19 of the Agama installer for openSUSE and SUSE has beenreleased. This release includes major changes in Agama's architecturaldesign, organization of the web interface, and more.
We always wanted Agama to follow the schema [...] in which the core ofthe installer could be controlled through a consistent and simpleprogramming interface (an API, in developers jargon). In that schema,the web-based user interface, the command-line tools and theunattended installation are built on top of that generic API.
But previous versions of Agama were full of quirks that didn'tallow us to define an API that would match our quality standards as asolid foundation to build a simple but comprehensive installer. Agama19 represents a quite significant architectural overhaul, needed toleave all those quirks behind and to define mechanisms that can be thecornerstone for any future development.
LWN last looked atAgama in September 2025.
- [$] A truce in the Manjaro governance struggle
Members of the Manjaro Linux distribution's community have publisheda "Manjaro 2.0 Manifesto"that contains a list of complaints and a demand to restructure the project to providea clear separation between the community and Manjaro as a company. The manifestoasserts that the project's leadership is not acting in the best interests of thecommunity, which has caused developers to leave and innovation to stagnate. Italso demands a handover of the Manjaro trademark and other assets to ato-be-formed nonprofit association. The responses on the Manjaro forum showed widespread supportfor the manifesto; Philip Müller, project lead and CEO of the Manjarocompany, largely stayed out of the discussion. However, he surfacedon March 19 to say he was "open to serious discussions", but onlyafter a nonprofit had actually been set up.
- Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (capstone, glibc, grub2, kernel, libarchive, libpng, mysql, and python3.11), Debian (evolution-data-server, imagemagick, and snapd), Fedora (bpfman, chromium, cpp-httplib, dotnet10.0, openssh, polkit, and vim), Mageia (graphicsmagick, imagemagick, openssh, and perl-YAML-Syck), Oracle (capstone, grub2, kernel, mysql, and python-pyasn1), Red Hat (container-tools:rhel8, rhc, yggdrasil, and yggdrasil-worker-package-manager), SUSE (cargo1.92, cargo1.93, chromedriver, coturn, curl, freerdp, jq, kernel, libssh, php-composer2, python311-uv, python312, qemu, tomcat, util-linux, vim, and virtiofsd), and Ubuntu (exiv2, freerdp3, glance, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-hwe, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-4.15, linux-hwe, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, and linux-aws-fips, linux-fips, linux-gcp-fips).
- Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps (ArsTechnica)
Ars Technica describesthe ritual that will be required before a future Android device willdeign to install apps from somewhere other than the Play Store. It is notfor the impatient.
Here are the steps:
Enable developer options by tapping the software build number in AboutPhone seven timesIn Settings > System, open Developer Options and scroll down to"Allow Unverified Packages." Flip the toggle and tap to confirm you are not being coercedEnter device unlock codeRestart your deviceWait 24 hoursReturn to the unverified packages menu at the end of the security delayScroll past additional warnings and select either "Allow temporarily"(seven days) or "Allow indefinitely." Check the box confirming you understand the risks.You can now install unverified packages on the device by tapping the"Install anyway" option in the package manager.
- Two new stable kernels
Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 6.19.9 and 6.18.19 stable kernels. As usual, eachhas important fixes throughout the tree; users are advised toupgrade.
- Radicle 1.7.0 released
Version1.7.0 ("Daffodil") of the Radicle peer-to-peer, local-first codecollaboration stack has been released. Some of the changes in thisrelease include improved I/O usage, the ability to block nodes at theconnection level, and clearer errors for rad idupdates. See the release notes for a full list of changes and bugfixes.
- [$] Development tools: Sashiko, b4 review, and API specification
The kernel project has a unique approach to tooling that avoids manycommonly used development systems that do not fit the community's scale andways of working. Another way of looking at the situation is that the kernelproject has often under-invested in tooling, and sometimes seems bent ondoing things the hard way. In recent times, though, the amount of effortthat has gone into development tools for the kernel has increased, withsome interesting results. Recent developments in this area include theSashiko code-review system, a patch-review manager built into b4, and a newattempt at a framework for the specification and verification of kernelAPIs.
- Security updates for Thursday
Security updates have been issued by Debian (freetype), Fedora (aqualung, kiss-fft, libtasn1, mac, and vim), Red Hat (libarchive, osbuild-composer, and rhc), Slackware (expat), SUSE (ca-certificates-mozilla, chromium, cockpit, cockpit-machines, cockpit-podman, curl, docker, docker-compose, docker-stable, gnutls, gstreamer-rtsp-server, gstreamer-plugins-ugly, gstreamer- plugins-rs, gstreamer-plugins-libav, gstreamer-plugins-good, gstreamer-plugins- base, gstreamer-plugins-bad, gstreamer-docs, gstreamer-devtools, gstreamer, gvfs, helm, kernel, krb5-appl, libsoup, libxslt, libxml2, openssh, python-cryptography, python-django, python-pypdf2, python-simpleeval, python311, qemu, ruby4.0-rubygem-sprockets, ruby4.0-rubygem-thor, ruby4.0-rubygem-web-console, ruby4.0-rubygem-websocket-extensions, skaffold, smb4k, tomcat, ucode-intel, util-linux, virtiofsd, and zlib), and Ubuntu (bouncycastle, exiv2, freerdp3, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.4, linux-gcp-5.4, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.4, linux-xilinx-zynqmp, linux-aws-fips, python2.7, roundcube, and valkey).
- [$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for March 19, 2026
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
Front: Privacy battles; page-cache-timing protections; null filesystems; Fedora Sandbox; safer kmalloc(); BPF in io_uring. Briefs: AppArmor vulnerabilities; snapd vulnerability; Sashiko; DPL election; Fedora Asahi 43; GIMP 3.2; Marknote 1.5; Quotes; ... Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
- [$] Cindy Cohn on privacy battles old and new
Cindy Cohn is the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) andshe gave the Saturday morning keynote at SCALE 23x in Pasadenaabout some of the work she and others have done to help protect onlinerights, especially digital privacy. The talk recounted some of the historyof the court cases that the organization has brought over the years to tryto dial back privacy invasions. One underlying theme was therole that attendees can play in protecting our rights, hearkening back toearlier efforts by the technical community.
- Samba 4.24.0 released
Version 4.24.0 of the Samba SMB filesystem implementation has beenreleased. There are a number of significant changes, including auditsupport for authentication information, remote password management, anumber of Kerberos improvements, asynchronous-I/O rate limiting, and more.
- GNOME 50 released
GNOME 50 has beenreleased. Notable changes in this release include enhancements to theOrca screen-reader application, interface and performance improvementsfor GNOME's file manager (Files), a "massive set of stability andperformance updates" for its display-handling technologies, andmuch more. See also the "What's newfor developers" article that covers changes of interest to GNOMEand GNOME application developers.
- Local-privilege escalation in snapd
Qualys has discovereda local-privilege escalation (LPE) vulnerability affecting UbuntuDesktop 24.04 and later:
This flaw (CVE-2026-3888) allows an unprivileged local attacker toescalate privileges to full root access through the interaction of twostandard system components: snap-confine and systemd-tmpfiles.
More details are available in the securityadvisory. Canonical has published updated packages as well as instructionsfor verifying if a system is vulnerable and how to upgrade if so.
- Fedora Asahi Remix 43 released
Fedora Asahi Remix 43 isnow available:
This release incorporates all the exciting improvements brought byFedoraLinux 43. Notably, package management is significantlyupgraded with RPM 6.0 and the newDNF5 backend for PackageKit for Plasma Discover and GNOME Softwareahead of Fedora Linux 44. It also continues to provide extensivedevice support. This includes newly added support for the Mac Pro,microphones in M2 Pro/Max MacBooks, and 120Hz refresh rate forthe built-in displays for MacBook Pro 14/16 models.
- What is Chroot Jail and its Usecase on Linux
The chroot jail is a process of creating a sandbox environment for a user or script with restricted permissions assigned by the jail creator that can come into use for various reasons, followed by
- ELM11-Feather Board with 70 MHz MCU, Lua, and Hardware Overlay Support
Brisbane Silicon has introduced the ELM11-Feather, a Feather-compatible microcontroller board designed to run Lua natively for embedded applications. The board targets developers looking for a scriptable platform with closer integration between software and configurable hardware. The system is built around a microcontroller operating at up to 70 MHz and includes 1 MB of RAM. Programs […]
- Sashiko Now Providing AI Reviews On Rust Code For The Linux Kernel
A few days ago Google engineers went public with Sashiko with their agentic AI code review for the Linux kernel. The Google Gemini Pro powered AI code review service is automatically monitoring the Linux kernel mailing list for new patch submissions and has proven useful already. Interest continues to build by upstream Linux kernel stakeholders around Sashiko and the latest addition is now covering the Rust-For-Linux mailing list submissions...
- Luckfox Lume Board Features Allwinner T153 SoC with Dual Gigabit Ethernet and MIPI Interfaces
Luckfox has introduced the Lume, a compact development board based on the Allwinner T153 industrial processor. The board combines a quad-core Arm Cortex-A7 with a RISC-V E907 core, along with dual Gigabit Ethernet, MIPI display and camera interfaces, and onboard memory and storage. The T153 uses a heterogeneous architecture combining a quad-core Arm Cortex-A7 cluster […]
- Contribute at the Fedora CoreOS 44 Test Week
The Fedora CoreOS and QA teams are gearing up for Fedora 44, and we need your help! We are organizing a Test Week running from March 23 to March 27, 2026. This event is a nice opportunity for the community to test Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) based on Fedora 44 content before it officially reaches the […]
- Some Microsoft Insiders Fight to Drop Windows 11's Microsoft Account Requirements
Yes, Microsoft announced it's fixing common Windows 11 complaints. But what about getting rid of that requirement to have a Microsoft account before installing Windows 11? While Microsoft didn't mention that at all, the senior editor at the blog Windows Central reports there's "a number of people" internally pushing at Microsoft to relax that requirement:Microsoft Vice President and overall developer legend Scott Hanselman has posted on X in response to someone asking him about possibly relaxing the Microsoft account requirements, saying "Ya I hate that. Working on it...." [Hanselman made that remark Friday, to his 328,200 followers.] The blog notes "It would be very easy for Microsoft to remove this requirement from a technical perspective, it's just whether or not the company can agree to make the change that needs to be decided." Elsewhere on X someone told Hanselman they wanted to see Windows "cut out the borderline malware tactics we've seen in recent years to push things like Edge, Bing, ads into the start menu, etc." Hanselman's reply? "Yes a calmer and more chill OS with fewer upsells is a goal." Q: When will we see first changes? for now it's just words... Hanselman: This month and every month this year.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Walmart Announces Digital Price Labels for Every Store in the U.S. By the End of 2026
Walmart is "rolling out digital price tags to replace the old paper ones," reports CNBC, planning to implement them in all U.S. stores by the end of the year:Amanda Bailey, a team leader in electronics who works at a Walmart in West Chester, Ohio, estimates that the digital shelf labels — known as DSLs — have cut the time she used to spend on pricing duties by 75%, time that has freed her up to help customers. She also said the DSLs are a game-changer because Walmart's Spark delivery drivers looking for an item will see a flashing DSL so they can more easily find the product... Sean Turner, chief technology officer of Swiftly, a retail technology and media platform serving the grocery industry, said that while it makes sense that people are raising questions about dynamic pricing, the real issue is store-level efficiency. "Digital shelf labels solve some very real operational headaches. They cut down on manual price changes, reduce checkout discrepancies, and make it easier to keep in-store and digital promotions aligned," Turner said. All of that can mean fewer surprises at the register for shoppers and better-tailored promotions. "For consumers, the biggest benefit is accuracy and consistency," Benedict said. "Shoppers want to know the price they see is the price they pay. Digital labels can also make it easier for stores to mark down perishable items in real time, which can lower food waste and create savings opportunities." A Walmart spokeswoman promised CNBC that "the price you see is the same for everyone in any given store." But the article also notes that several U.S. states "are looking to ban dynamic pricing. Pennsylvania became one of the latest states to introduce a bill outlawing the practice, following New York's Algorithmic Pricing Disclosure Act, which became law in November." And at the federal level, U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján recently introduced the "Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores" act, which would ban digital labels in any grocery store over 10,000 square feet, while Congresswoman Val Hoyle is sponsoring similar legislation in the House. "There needs to be laws and enforcement to protect consumers," Hoyle tells CNBC, "and until then, I'd like to see them banned outright." CNBC adds that "While there is no reported use of digital shelf labeling being tied to surge pricing yet," in Hoyle's view "it's only a matter of time."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Trapped! Inside a Self-Driving Car During an Anti-Robot Attack
A man crossing the street one San Francisco night spotted a self-driving car — and decided to confront its passenger, 37-year-old tech worker Doug Fulop. The New York Times reports the man yelled that "he wanted to kill Fulop and the other two passengers for giving money to a robot."A taxi driver would have simply driven away. But Fulop's vehicle had no driver — it was a self-driving Waymo... Self-driving cars are designed to stop moving if a person is nearby. People can take advantage of that function to harass and threaten their passengers.... It was unsettling to be trapped inside a Waymo during an attack, Fulop said. "If he had kept hammering on one window instead of alternating, I'm sure he would have eventually broken through," he said. The attacker did not appear to be on drugs or otherwise impaired, but seemed to be overtaken by extreme anger at the self-driving car, Fulop said. It did not seem safe to get out and run, he added, since the man was trying to open the locked doors and said he wanted to kill the passengers. They called 911 and Waymo's support line, Fulop said. Waymo told them that it would not manually direct the car away if someone was standing nearby, and that the passengers would be OK with the doors locked. The car's software does not allow riders to jump into the driver's seat and take over during an incident. The attack lasted around six minutes. By then, bystanders had begun cheering on the man, Fulop said. That distracted the man, who moved far enough away from the car that it could finally drive away... Fulop said he had stopped using Waymo for a time after the January attack and would avoid the service at night unless the company changed its policy of not intervening when a hostile person threatened riders. "As passengers, we deserve more safety than that if someone is trying to attack us," he said. "This can't be the policy to be trapped there." The article remembers other incidents — including a 2024 video showing three women screaming as their autonomous taxi is spray-painted by vandals. And technology author/speaker Anders Sorman-Nilsson says in Los Angeles five men on e-bikes surrounded his Waymo and forced it to stop. The author felt safe inside the vehicle, according to the times, which adds "He felt reassured knowing that Waymo's many exterior cameras were recording the men. After around five minutes, he said, they gave up and rode away."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Elon Musk Announces $20B 'Terafab' Chip Plant in Texas To Supply His Companies
"Billionaire Elon Musk has announced plans to build a $20 billion chip plant in Austin, Texas" reports a local news station:Musk announced on Saturday night during a livestream on his social media platform X that the plant, called "Terafab," will be built near Tesla's campus and gigafactory in eastern Travis County. The long-anticipated project is a joint venture between Musk-owned properties Tesla, SpaceX and xAI... The Terafab plant is expected to begin production in 2027. Musk "has said the semiconductor industry is moving too slow to keep up with the supply of chips he expects to need," writes Bloomberg — quoting Musk as saying "We either build the Terafab or we don't have the chips, and we need the chips, so we build the Terafab."Musk detailed some specific plans, including producing chips that can support 100 to 200 gigawatts a year of computing power on Earth, and chips that can support a terawatt in space, but gave no timelines for the facility or its output... The facility is expected to make two types of chips, one of which will be optimized for edge and inference, primarily for his vehicle, robotaxi and Optimus humanoid robots. The other will be a high-power chip, designed for space that could be used by SpaceX and xAI... Musk said he expects xAI to use the vast majority of the chips. During the presentation, Musk also unveiled a speculative rendering of a future "mini" AI data center satellite, one piece of a much larger satellite system that he wants SpaceX to build to do complex computing in space. In January, SpaceX requested a license from the Federal Communications Commission to launch one million data center satellites into orbit around Earth. Musk said that the mini satellite he revealed would have the capacity for 100 kilowatts of power. "We expect future satellites to probably go to the megawatt range," Musk said. Raising money to build and launch AI data centers in space is one of the driving forces behind SpaceX's planned IPO later this year. SpaceX is expected to raise as much as $50 billion in a record-setting IPO this summer which could value it at more than $1.75 trillion, Bloomberg News reported earlier.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Tech Leaders Support California Bill to Stop 'Dominant Platforms' From Blocking Competition
A new bill proposed in California "goes after big tech companies" writes Semafor. Supported by Y Combinator, Cory Doctorow , and the nonprofit advocacy group Fight for the Future, it's called the "BASED" act — an acronym which stands for "Blocking Anticompetitive Self-preferencing by Entrenched Dominant platforms." As announced by San Francisco state representative Scott Wiener, the bill "will restore competition to the digital marketplace by prohibiting any digital platform with a market capitalization greater than $1 trillion and serving 100 million or more monthly users in the U.S., from favoring their own products and services on the platforms they operate." More from Scott Wiener;s announcement:For years, giant digital platforms like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Meta have used their immense power to promote their own products and services while stifling competitors — a practice also known as self-preferencing. The result has been higher prices, diminished service, and fewer options for consumers, and less innovation across the technology ecosystem. Self-preferencing also locks startups and mid-sized companies out of the online marketplace unless they play by rules set by their competitors. As a new generation of AI-powered startups seeks to enter the marketplace, their success — and public access to the innovations they produce — depends on their ability to compete on an even playing field. "Anticompetitive behavior is everywhere on the internet," said Senator Wiener, "from rigged search results, to manipulative nudges boosting the 'house' product, to anti-discount policies that raise prices, to the dreaded green bubble that 'breaks' the group chat. When the world's largest digital platforms rig the game to favor their own products and services, we all lose. By prohibiting these anticompetitive practices, the BASED Act will protect competition online, empower consumers and startups, and promote innovations to improve all our lives." The announcement includes a quote from Teri Olle, VP of the nonprofit Economic Security California Action, saying the act would "safeguard merit-based market competition. This legislation stands for a simple principle: owning the stadium doesn't mean that you get to rig the game."Some conduct prohibited by the proposed bill includes Manipulating the order of search results to favor a provider's products or services, irrespective of a merit-based process, Using non-public data generated by third-party sellers — including sales volumes, pricing, and customer behavior — to develop competing products that are subsequently boosted above the third-party sellers' product...And the announcement also notes that "under the terms of the bill, providers could not prevent consumers from obtaining a portable copy of their own data or restrict voluntary data sharing (by consumers) with third parties." Read on for reactions from DuckDuckGo, Proton, Yelp, Y Combinator, and Cory Doctorow.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Why Apple Temporarily Blocked Popular Vibe Coding Apps
An anonymous reader shared this report from the tech-news blog Neowin:Apple appears to have temporarily prevented apps, including Replit and Vibecode, from pushing new updates. Apple seems bothered by how apps like Replit present vibe-coded apps in a web view within the original app. This process virtually allows the app to become something else. And the new app isn't distributed via the App Store, but it still runs on the user's device... [S]uch apps would also bypass the App Store Review process that ensures that apps are safe to use and meet Apple's design and performance standards... According to the publication (via MacRumors), Apple was close to approving pending updates for such apps if they changed how they work. For instance, Replit would get the green light if its developers configure the app to open vibe-coded apps in an external browser rather than the in-app web view. Vibecode is also close to being approved if it removes features, such as the ability to develop apps specifically for the App Store.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- William Shatner Celebrates 95th Birthday, Smokes Cigar, Revisits 'Rocket Man' and Tests X Money
It was 60 years ago when William Shatner — born in 1931 — portrayed Captain Kirk in the TV series Star Trek. Shatner turns 95 today — and celebrated by posting a picture of himself smoking a cigar. "At 95, I'm still smokin'!" Shatner joked, adding that in life he'd learned two things. "Never waste a good cigar. Never trust anyone who says you should 'act your age.'" For more celebrations, Paramount's free/ad-supported streaming platform Pluto TV announced a "Trek TV takeover birthday celebration" that will run through April 3rd, according to TrekMovie.com, with marathon of Star Trek movies and TV shows — and even that time he was roasted on Comedy Central. ("Freeâ½ My favorite price!" Shatner quipped on X.com.) Shatner still remains a popular celebrity, even travelling to space five years ago on a Blue Origin flight past the Kármán line. Since then he's led a cruise to Antarctica — and even performed an alternate take of Captain Kirk's final scene on the Jimmy Fallon show. And this week Shatner (along with hundreds of thousands attendees) appeared at Orlando's MegaCon — and shared stories about his life with Orlando Weekly:Shatner: Last month, I was on board a cruise ship, and they said the only thing I had to do over the next three days, "before we let you go home," is sing "Rocket Man." So I thought, "I'm not going to sing 'Rocket Man' the same way that what's-his-name did. ... So, I looked at the song very carefully to see if I could find what actors call a throughline. What is the character singing? What is he singing about? And so I look through all of these weird lyrics, and all of a sudden, the word sticks out to me: "alone." So I say to the band members, "OK, let's make this song about being alone in space." And I work on it with the band and the musicians, and again on a Saturday night, I perform the number, and 4,000 people stand up and applaud "Rocket Man." And they won't let me off the stage, again and again. Four times, I get a standing ovation, wild. And that's the progression for me, of science fiction for me, as exemplified by this song. The song went from superficial to something of depth and meaning... It touched people enough for them to stand up and applaud, and I realized that is the story of science fiction... Science fiction with all its great technology has evolved into great storytelling that reaches people in a manner that is very difficult for other types of drama to do. Shatner answered questions from Slashdot readers in 2002 ("My life is my statement...") and again in 2011. ("I used to try to assemble computers way back when and they came out looking like a skateboard...") And judging by his X.com posts, Shatner is now involved in early testing of the site's upcoming digital payment system X Money.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- A CNN Producer Explores the 'Magic AI' Workout Mirror
CNN looks at "the Magic AI fitness mirror," a new product "watching you, and giving you feedback automatically," while sometimes playing footage of a recorded personal trainer. Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland describes CNN's video report:CNN says the device "tracks form, counts reps, and corrects technique in real-time — and it doesn't go easy on you." (Although the company's CEO/cofounder, Varun Bhanot, says "we're not trying to completely replace personal trainers. What we are providing is a more accessible alternative.") CNN call the company "more a computer-vision firm than a fitness company, building the tech for this mirror from the ground up." CEO Bhanot tells CNN he'd hired a personal trainer in his 20s to get fit, but "Going through that journey, I realized how old-fashioned personal training was. Dumbbells were still dumb. There was no data or augmentation for the whole process!" "The AI fitness and wellness market is already huge — and it's growing," CNN adds. "In 2025 the global market was worth $11 billion, according to [market research firm] Insightace Analytic. By 2035, this market is expected to reach just shy of $58 billion. And Magic AI is far from alone. Form, Total, Speediance, and Echelon, to name a few, are all brands vying for a slice of this market. Even the most purely physical of activities — exercising your body — now gets "enhanced" with AI accessories...
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Google Search Is Now Sometimes Using AI To Replace Headlines
"Google is beginning to replace news headlines in its search results with ones that are AI-generated," reports the Verge:After doing something similar in its Google Discover news feed, it's starting to mess with headlines in the traditional "10 blue links," too. We've found multiple examples where Google replaced headlines we wrote with ones we did not, sometimes changing their meaning in the process. For example, Google reduced our headline "I used the 'cheat on everything' AI tool and it didn't help me cheat on anything" to just five words: "'Cheat on everything' AI tool." It almost sounds like we're endorsing a product we do not recommend at all. What we are seeing is a "small" and "narrow" experiment, one that's not yet approved for a fuller launch, Google spokespeople Jennifer Kutz, Mallory De Leon, and Ned Adriance tell The Verge. They would not say how "small" that experiment actually is. Over the past few months, multiple Verge staffers have seen examples of headlines that we never wrote appear in Google Search results — headlines that do not follow our editorial style, and without any indication that Google replaced the words we chose. And Google says it's tweaking how other websites show up in search, too, not just news. The good news, for now, is that these changed headlines seem to be few and far between, and they're not yet the kind of tripe we've seen in Google Discover. (For example, Google Discover told me this week that the PlayStation Portal was getting a 1080p streaming mode, when it actually got a higher bitrate mode instead.) Compared to that and other lying Google Discover headlines like "US reverses foreign drone ban" — on a story reporting the opposite — the nonsense headlines we're seeing in Google Search are downright tame. The article points out that Google "originally told us its AI headlines in Google Discover were an experiment too. A month later, it told us those AI headlines are now a feature..." "Google confirmed that the test uses generative AI, but claimed that 'if we were to actually launch something based on this experiment, it would not be using a generative model and we would not be creating headlines with gen AI'..."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Amazon Plans to Test Four-Legged Robots on Wheels for Deliveries
CNBC reports:Amazon has acquired Rivr, a Swiss robotics company developing machines for "doorstep delivery," the company confirmed Thursday... It announced the deal in a notice sent to third-party delivery contractors... "We believe this technology, when working alongside your [delivery associates], has the potential to further improve safety outcomes and the overall customer experience, particularly in the last steps of the delivery process...." In its notice to delivery service partner owners, Amazon said Rivr's technology, which includes a four-legged robot on wheels, will allow it to research and test how the devices can be integrated into delivery operations, including "helping [delivery associates] carry packages from delivery vehicles to customer doorsteps."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- US Cable TV Industry Faces 'Dramatic Collapse' as Local Operators Shut Down - or Become ISPs
America's cable TV industry "is undergoing its most dramatic collapse in history," reports Cord Cutters News, "with operators large and small waving the white flag on traditional TV service and pointing their customers toward streaming platforms instead." Just in 2025 Comcast lost 1.25 million pay-TV subscribers (ending the year with just 11.3 million), while Charter Spectrum also lost hundreds of thousands of customers each quarter. But "for smaller regional operators, who lack the scale and diversified revenue streams of giants like Comcast, those kinds of losses are simply unsurvivable," they write. And "the companies that once delivered hundreds of channels through coaxial cables are now either shutting down entirely or reinventing themselves as internet providers."Pay-TV subscriptions have plummeted from nearly 90% of U.S. households in the mid-2010s to roughly half by the end of 2025, resulting in billions in lost revenue and forcing many smaller operators to conclude that continuing linear TV services is no longer viable... [This year over U.S. 50 cable TV companies — primarily smaller and midsize providers — are "expected to cease operations entirely or shut down their television services," Cord Cutters News reported earlier.] YouTube TV's pricing is so competitive that the platform is projected to have close to 12.6 million subscribers by the end of 2026, positioning it to become the largest paid TV distributor in the United States. Exclusive content deals, such as YouTube TV's acquisition of NFL Sunday Ticket rights, have further eroded the value proposition of traditional cable at every level of the market... As older cable subscribers age out of the market, there is no new generation of customers waiting to replace them... [Cable TV] operators like WOW! are betting that their physical infrastructure — now increasingly upgraded to fiber — is more valuable as an internet delivery system than as a cable TV platform. [WOW! serves customers across Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Alabama — but is "phasing out its proprietary streaming live TV service and directing all customers toward YouTube TV," the article notes.] Industry observers see this as part of a broader trend: operators shedding unprofitable video segments to focus on broadband, where returns and network investments are prioritized. By the end of 2026, non-pay-TV households are expected to surge to 80.7 million, outnumbering traditional pay-TV subscribers at 54.3 million — a milestone that would have seemed unthinkable just a decade ago. For the cable companies still standing, the math is now inescapable: the era of the cable bundle is ending, and the only real question left is how gracefully each operator manages its exit.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Meteor Rumbles Over Houston, as Six-Pound Fragment Crashes Into a Texas Home
"It is the talk of the town today — the loud boom, the flash of light in the sky experienced by a lot of folks across the Houston area this afternoon," says a local Texas newscaster. "And then there was this — a home in northwest Harris county hit by something that crashed through their roof." Travelling at very high speed, the six-pound meteorite crashed through their roof and through their attic, crashing again through the ceiling of the floor below. It then bounced off the floor, hit the ceiling again — and then fell onto the bed. CBS News reports:NASA said in a social media post that the meteor became visible at 49 miles above Stagecoach, northwest of Houston, at 4:40 p.m. local time. The meteor moved southeast at 35,000 miles per hour, breaking apart 29 miles above Bammel, just west of Cypress Station, NASA said. "The fragmentation of the meteor — which weighed about a ton with a diameter of 3 feet — created a pressure wave that caused booms heard by some in the area," NASA said in the post. Across the Houston area, residents described hearing a low, rumbling sound that many compared to thunder, even though the skies were clear, according to CBS affiliate KHOU. Earlier this week, an asteroid weighing about 7 tons and traveling at 45,000 mph traveled over multiple states. And last June, a bright meteor was seen across the southeastern U.S. and exploded over Georgia, creating similar booms heard by residents in the area.
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- Tesla's Upcoming Electric Big Rig Is Already a Hit with Truckers
"After nearly a decade of delays and industry skepticism, Tesla's electric big rig is finally rolling out of Nevada's Gigafactory for mass production starting summer 2026," writes Gadget Review. And some truckers who tested the vehicles already love them (as reported by the Wall Street Journal):Dakota Shearer and Angel Rodriguez, among other pilot drivers, rave about the centered cab that eliminates blind spots during tight maneuvers. The automatic transmission means no more wrestling with 13-gear diesels, reducing physical stress on long hauls. Most surprisingly, the Semi maintains highway speeds on grades where diesel trucks typically crawl at 30 mph. The 500-mile range enables multiple daily round-trips — think Long Beach to Vegas or Inland Empire runs — without range anxiety... Sure, the Semi costs under $300,000 — roughly double a diesel equivalent — but the math gets interesting quickly. Energy costs drop to $0.17 per mile compared to $0.50-0.70 for diesel fuel. Maintenance requirements shrink dramatically; one fleet reports needing just one mechanic for their electric trucks versus five for 40 diesels... Tesla offers Standard Range (325 miles) and Long Range (500 miles) versions, both handling 82,000-pound gross combined weight at 1.7 kWh per mile efficiency. The tri-motor setup delivers 800 kW — over 1,000 horsepower equivalent — enabling loaded 0-60 mph acceleration in 20 seconds versus 45-60 for diesel. Fast charging hits 60% capacity in 30 minutes [which Tesla says is 4x faster than other battery-electric trucks] using the new MCS 3.2 standard, while 25 kW ePTO power runs refrigerated trailers without diesel auxiliaries. Charging networks remain the biggest hurdle for widespread adoption. Public charging stations lack the Semi's massive power requirements, limiting long-haul routes. Tesla plans dedicated fast-charging corridors starting this summer, but coverage remains spotty. The lack of sleeper cabs also restricts the Semi to regional freight rather than cross-country hauling. Production scales to 5,000-15,000 units by 2026, then 50,000 annually — assuming charging infrastructure keeps pace with demand. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the article.
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- Trivy Supply Chain Attack Spreads, Triggers Self-Spreading CanisterWorm Across 47 npm Packages
"We have removed all malicious artifacts from the affected registries and channels," Trivy maintainer Itay Shakury posted today, noting that all the latest Trivy releases "now point to a safe version." But "On March 19, we observed that a threat actor used a compromised credential..." And today The Hacker News reported the same attackers are now "suspected to be conducting follow-on attacks that have led to the compromise of a large number of npm packages..." (The attackers apparently leveraged a postinstall hook "to execute a loader, which then drops a Python backdoor that's responsible for contacting the ICP canister dead drop to retrieve a URL pointing to the next-stage payload.")The development marks the first publicly documented abuse of an ICP canister for the explicit purpose of fetching the command-and-control (C2) server, Aikido Security researcher Charlie Eriksen said... Persistence is established by means of a systemd user service, which is configured to automatically start the Python backdoor after a 5-second delay if it gets terminated for some reason by using the "Restart=always" directive. The systemd service masquerades as PostgreSQL tooling ("pgmon") in an attempt to fly under the radar... In tandem, the packages come with a "deploy.js" file that the attacker runs manually to spread the malicious payload to every package a stolen npm token provides access to in a programmatic fashion. The worm, assessed to be vibe-coded using an AI tool, makes no attempt to conceal its functionality. "This isn't triggered by npm install," Aikido said. "It's a standalone tool the attacker runs with stolen tokens to maximize blast radius." To make matters worse, a subsequent iteration of CanisterWorm detected in "@teale.io/eslint-config" versions 1.8.11 and 1.8.12 has been found to self-propagate on its own without the need for manual intervention... [Aikido Security researcher Charlie Eriksen said] "Every developer or CI pipeline that installs this package and has an npm token accessible becomes an unwitting propagation vector. Their packages get infected, their downstream users install those, and if any of them have tokens, the cycle repeats." So far affected packages include 28 in the @EmilGroup scope and 16 packages in the @opengov scope, according to the article, blaming the attack on "a cloud-focused cybercriminal operation known as TeamPCP." Ars Technica explains that Trivy had "inadvertently hardcoded authentication secrets in pipelines for developing and deploying software updates," leading to a situation where attacks "compromised virtually all versions" of the widely used Trivy vulnerability scanner:Trivy maintainer Itay Shakury confirmed the compromise on Friday, following rumors and a thread, since deleted by the attackers, discussing the incident. The attack began in the early hours of Thursday. When it was done, the threat actor had used stolen credentials to force-push all but one of the trivy-action tags and seven setup-trivy tags to use malicious dependencies... "If you suspect you were running a compromised version, treat all pipeline secrets as compromised and rotate immediately," Shakury wrote. Security firms Socket and Wiz said that the malware, triggered in 75 compromised trivy-action tags, causes custom malware to thoroughly scour development pipelines, including developer machines, for GitHub tokens, cloud credentials, SSH keys, Kubernetes tokens, and whatever other secrets may live there. Once found, the malware encrypts the data and sends it to an attacker-controlled server. The end result, Socket said, is that any CI/CD pipeline using software that references compromised version tags executes code as soon as the Trivy scan is run... "In our initial analysis the malicious code exfiltrates secrets with a primary and backup mechanism. If it detects it is on a developer machine it additionally writes a base64 encoded python dropper for persistence...." Although the mass compromise began Thursday, it stems from a separate compromise last month of the Aqua Trivy VS Code extension for the Trivy scanner, Shakury said. In the incident, the attackers compromised a credential with write access to the Trivy GitHub account. Shakury said maintainers rotated tokens and other secrets in response, but the process wasn't fully "atomic," meaning it didn't thoroughly remove credential artifacts such as API keys, certificates, and passwords to ensure they couldn't be used maliciously. "This [failure] allowed the threat actor to perform authenticated operations, including force-updating tags, without needing to exploit GitHub itself," Socket researchers wrote. Pushing to a branch or creating a new release would've appeared in the commit history and trigger notifications, Socket pointed out, so "Instead, the attacker force-pushed 75 existing version tags to point to new malicious commits." (Trivy's maintainer says "we've also enabled immutable releases since the last breach.") Ars Technica notes Trivy's vulnerability scanner has 33,200 stars on GitHub, so "the potential fallout could be severe."
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- EFF Tells Publishers: Blocking the Internet Archive Won't Stop AI, But It Will Erase The Historical Record
"Imagine a newspaper publisher announcing it will no longer allow libraries to keep copies of its paper," writes EFF senior policy analyst Joe Mullin. "That's effectively what's begun happening online in the last few months."The Internet Archive — the world's largest digital library — has preserved newspapers since it went online in the mid-1990s... But in recent months The New York Times began blocking the Archive from crawling its website, using technical measures that go beyond the web's traditional robots.txt rules. That risks cutting off a record that historians and journalists have relied on for decades. Other newspapers, including The Guardian, seem to be following suit... The Times says the move is driven by concerns about AI companies scraping news content. Publishers seek control over how their work is used, and several — including the Times — are now suing AI companies over whether training models on copyrighted material violates the law. There's a strong case that such training is fair use. Whatever the outcome of those lawsuits, blocking nonprofit archivists is the wrong response. Organizations like the Internet Archive are not building commercial AI systems. They are preserving a record of our history. Turning off that preservation in an effort to control AI access could essentially torch decades of historical documentation over a fight that libraries like the Archive didn't start, and didn't ask for. If publishers shut the Archive out, they aren't just limiting bots. They're erasing the historical record... Even if courts place limits on AI training, the law protecting search and web archiving is already well established... There are real disputes over AI training that must be resolved in courts. But sacrificing the public record to fight those battles would be a profound, and possibly irreversible, mistake.
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- Russians are posing as Signal support to launch phishing attacks
PLUS: US takes down Iranian propaganda sites; Marketing company asks 'Why Do We Have Your Information?' And more!
Infosec In Brief Russian intelligence-affiliated parties are posing as customer support services on commercial messaging applications such as Signal to compromise accounts and conduct phishing attacks, the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned last Friday.…
- CERN eggheads burn AI into silicon to stem data deluge
The operating system of the universe isn’t going to debug itself
feature CERN is nothing like today's agentic AI jockeys, who mostly rely on pre-set weights and generic TPUs and GPUs to generate their slop. CERN burns custom nanosecond-speed AI into the silicon itself just to eliminate excess data.…
- Turns out your coffee addiction may be doing your brain a favor
Decades of data suggest people who stick to a couple of brews fare better in terms of gray matter
A decades-long study suggests that your daily caffeine fix might be doing more than jolting you through morning meetings – it could also be quietly helping your brain hold it together.…
- Payment biz pulls plug on open source charity after KYC spat
Free Software Foundation Europe says it was asked for supporters' passwords; Nexi insists it only wanted test credentials to check cancellation flows
The Free Software Foundation Europe says its electronic-payments provider Nexi Group unexpectedly "cancelled" its account – cutting the charity off from around 450 donors.…
- Cryptographers engage in war of words over RustSec bug reports and subsequent ban
Rust security maintainers contend Nadim Kobeissi's vulnerability claims are too much
Since February, cryptographer Nadim Kobeissi has been trying to get code fixes applied to Rust cryptography libraries to address what he says are critical bugs. For his efforts, he's been dismissed, ignored, and banned from Rust security channels.…
- WSL graphics driver update brings better GPU support for Linux apps
Meanwhile, WINE and OpenGL tweaks speed Windows apps on 64-bit hosts
Whatever OS you run, you have a better chance to run non-native apps. Running Linux virtualized on Windows is set to speed up slightly, and so is running Windows apps on top of 64-bit Linux and macOS.…
- Jaguar Land Rover's cyber bailout sets worrying precedent, watchdog warns
Lack of clear criteria risks encouraging firms to lean on state support instead of worrying about insurance
The UK's cyber watchdog has warned that the government's £1.5 billion bailout of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) risks setting a troubling precedent for how Britain handles major cyber crises.…
- Starmer's digital ID reboot raises same old questions as its Blair-era ancestor
Audit trails aplenty, but no price tag – and no clue how long your data sticks around
Opinion Last week's UK government consultation on its plans for digital identity had quite a few things missing. It did not include a price estimate - something it said was due to decisions yet to be taken on the scheme's scope - or how long the government would keep "audit trail" records of ID checks.…
- Alibaba has made 470,000 AI chips, admits they’re inferior and may always be
Sees optimizing its entire cloud around homebrew silicon as the way to compete
Chinese web giant Alibaba has revealed its T-Head chipmaking business has shipped 470,000 AI chips, and admitted they are currently inferior to rival products, but believes it can build a mutually optimized stack that makes performance gaps moot.…
- Decoding Nvidia's Groq-powered LPX and the rest of its new rack systems
From LPUs and GPUs to CPUs and switches, everything you need to know about Nvidia's latest kit
GTC DEEP DIVE At Nvidia’s GTC conference this week, CEO Jensen Huang finally addressed a $20 billion question he’s dodged for months: Why spend so much to license AI chip startup Groq’s tech and hire away its engineers rather than build it themselves?…
- 'Death sentence': EU cloud lobby takes Broadcom to Brussels over VMware partner purge
CISPE files antitrust complaint, demands interim measures to stop what it calls chip giant's 'ongoing abuse'
A lobbying trade body for smaller cloud providers is asking the European Commission to impose interim measures blocking Broadcom from terminating the VMware Cloud Service Provider program, calling the decision a death sentence for some tech suppliers and an illegal squeeze on customer choice.…
- Lock down Microsoft Intune, feds warn after Stryker attack
Iran-linked attackers wiped employees' devices using Intune
The US government has urged companies to better secure Microsoft Intune, an endpoint management tool that was abused in last week's cyberattack against med-tech firm Stryker.…
- PwC will say goodbye to staff who aren't convinced about AI
Professional services giant did not read its own report on lackluster benefits
You'll use AI and like it too – if you work for PwC. Paul Griggs, US chief executive of the global professional services giant, has made clear there is no room at the corporation for AI skeptics.…
- Google says it will let UK publishers opt out of AI overviews
One search engine switch to rule them all in Google's response to UK competition watchdog
The UK's competition watchdog has published responses to its consultation over Google's strategic market status (SMS) covering search and search advertising services - and the tech biz is offering some concessions.…
- SAP's grand cloud escape plan €2B short of the runway
Strategy launched after 2020 share price crash is 24% behind target
Five years after launching its rescue plan to lift ERP users to the cloud and switch them to the latest software, SAP is off target by about €2 billion, The Register can reveal.…
- GOV.UK chatbot gets smarter but slower as LLMs improve
Accuracy jumps from 76% to 90% across public pilots, while users wait nearly 11 seconds for answers
More powerful large language models (LLMs) are helping make the UK government's in-development chatbot more accurate but are also slowing it down, according to the Government Digital Service (GDS).…
- Google offers ‘vibe design’ tool that you can shout at to create a UI
Stitch gets voice input and an infinite canvas
The term “vibe coding” has become associated with use of AI coding assistants to create code that expresses a developer’s intent, even if the results are ropey and require plenty of extra work to put into production. Google’s now proudly adapted the term to describe the workings of its Stitch design tool.…
- Your next car might need 300 GB of RAM, and so will autonomous robots
Micron plans to cash in, after already growing revenue $10 billion in a single quarter
Autonomous cars will need 300 gigabytes of DRAM or more, and robots will need similar quantities, leading memory-maker Micron Technology to predict it has a long and happy future ahead of it.…
- Okta made a nightmare micromanager for your AI agents
Where are you? What are you working on? Why are you doing that?
Identity access and management platform Okta announced the general availability of its Okta for AI Agents, which will give customers the ability to do three things: locate agents, see what they’re doing, and shut them down if need be.…
- Security: Why Linux Is Better Than Windows Or Mac OS
Linux is a free and open source operating system that was released in 1991 developed and released by Linus Torvalds. Since its release it has reached a user base that is greatly widespread worldwide. Linux users swear by the reliability and freedom that this operating system offers, especially when compared to its counterparts, windows and [0]
- Essential Software That Are Not Available On Linux OS
An operating system is essentially the most important component in a computer. It manages the different hardware and software components of a computer in the most effective way. There are different types of operating system and everything comes with their own set of programs and software. You cannot expect a Linux program to have all [0]
- Things You Never Knew About Your Operating System
The advent of computers has brought about a revolution in our daily life. From computers that were so huge to fit in a room, we have come a very long way to desktops and even palmtops. These machines have become our virtual lockers, and a life without these network machines have become unimaginable. Sending mails, [0]
- How To Fully Optimize Your Operating System
Computers and systems are tricky and complicated. If you lack a thorough knowledge or even basic knowledge of computers, you will often find yourself in a bind. You must understand that something as complicated as a computer requires constant care and constant cleaning up of junk files. Unless you put in the time to configure [0]
- The Top Problems With Major Operating Systems
There is no such system which does not give you any problems. Even if the system and the operating system of your system is easy to understand, there will be some times when certain problems will arise. Most of these problems are easy to handle and easy to get rid of. But you must be [0]
- 8 Benefits Of Linux OS
Linux is a small and a fast-growing operating system. However, we can’t term it as software yet. As discussed in the article about what can a Linux OS do Linux is a kernel. Now, kernels are used for software and programs. These kernels are used by the computer and can be used with various third-party software [0]
- Things Linux OS Can Do That Other OS Cant
What Is Linux OS? Linux, similar to U-bix is an operating system which can be used for various computers, hand held devices, embedded devices, etc. The reason why Linux operated system is preferred by many, is because it is easy to use and re-use. Linux based operating system is technically not an Operating System. Operating [0]
- Packagekit Interview
Packagekit aims to make the management of applications in the Linux and GNU systems. The main objective to remove the pains it takes to create a system. Along with this in an interview, Richard Hughes, the developer of Packagekit said that he aims to make the Linux systems just as powerful as the Windows or [0]
- What’s New in Ubuntu?
What Is Ubuntu? Ubuntu is open source software. It is useful for Linux based computers. The software is marketed by the Canonical Ltd., Ubuntu community. Ubuntu was first released in late October in 2004. The Ubuntu program uses Java, Python, C, C++ and C# programming languages. What Is New? The version 17.04 is now available here [0]
- Ext3 Reiserfs Xfs In Windows With Regards To Colinux
The problem with Windows is that there are various limitations to the computer and there is only so much you can do with it. You can access the Ext3 Reiserfs Xfs by using the coLinux tool. Download the tool from the official site or from the sourceforge site. Edit the connection to “TAP Win32 Adapter [0]
- Microsoft finally makes a few concrete promises about Windows 11 improvements
Earlier this year, Microsoft openly acknowledged the sorry state of Windows 11, and made vague promises about possible improvements somewhere in the near future, but stayed away from making any concrete promises. Today, the company published a blog post with some more details, including some actual concrete, tangible changes its going to implement over the coming two months. In coming builds, youll be able to move the taskbar to any side of the screen, instead of it being locked to the bottom, thereby reintroducing a feature present since Windows 95. Theyre also scaling back their obsession with ramming AI! in every corner of Windows, and will be removing Copilot integrations from Snipping Tool, Photos, Widgets, and Notepad. Furthermore, and this is a big one among Windows users Im sure, Windows Update will be placed under user control once again, allowing them to ignore updates, postpone them indefinitely, reboot without applying updates, and so on. These are the tangible improvements well be able to point to and say the company kept their word, and they all feel like welcome changes. Theres also a few promises that feel far more vague and less tangible, like the ever-present, long-running promise to improve File Explorer!. I feel like Microsofts been promising to fix their horrible file manager for years now, without much to show for it, so I hope this time will be different. The company also wants to improve Widgets, the Windows Insider Program, and the Feedback Hub application. These all feel less tangible, and will be harder to quantify and benchmark. Beyond these first round of improvements that were supposed to be seeing over the coming two months, Microsoft also promises to implement wider improvements across the board, with the usual suspects like better performance, quicker application launches, improved reliability, lower memory usage, and so on. They also promise to move more core Windows user interface components to WinUI 3, including the Start menu, which is currently written in React. Windows Search is another common pain point among Windows users, and here, Microsoft promises to improve its performance and clearly separate local from online results (but no word on making search exclusively local). Theres some more details in the blog post, but overall, it sounds great. However, words without actions are about as meaningful as a White House statement on the war with Iran, so seeing is believing.
- Google to introduce overly onerous hoops to prevent sideloading!
When Google said they were going to require verification from every single Android developer that would end the ability to install applications from outside of the Play Store (commonly wrongfully referred to as sideloading!), it caused quite a backlash. The company then backtracked a little bit, and said they would come up with an advanced flow! to make sure installing applications from outside of the Play Store remained possible. Well, Google has detailed this advanced flow!, and as everyone expected, its such a massive list of onerous hoops to jump through they might as well just lock Android down to the Play Store and get it over with. First, if a developer is verified, you can download their applications to your device and install them the same way you can do now. Second, developers with limited distribution accounts!, such as students or hobby projects, can share their applications with up to 20 devices without verification. Third, and this is where the fun starts, we have unverified developers basically what all Android developers sharing applications outside of the Play Store are now. Heres the full advanced flow! as described by Google to allow you to install an application from an unverified developer: Setting aside the fact that developer verification is, in and of itself, a massive problem, Im kind of okay with a few scary warnings, a disclaimer, and perhaps a single reboot to enable installing applications outside of the Play Store a few things to make normal people shrug their shoulders and not bother. However, adding enabling developer mode and a goddamn 24-hour waiting period is batshit insanity, and clearly has the intention of discouraging everyone, effectively locking Android to the Play Store. Android is already basically an entirely locked-down, closed-source platform, and once this advanced flow! comes into force, theres virtually no difference between iOS and Android, especially for us Europeans who get similarly onerous anti-user nonsense when trying to install alternative application stores on iOS. I see no reason to buy Android over iOS at this point might as well get the faster phone with better update support.
- You can make Linux syscalls in a Windows application, apparently
What happens if you make a Linux syscall in a Windows application? So yeah, you can make Linux syscalls from Windows programs, as long as theyre running under Wine. Totally useless, but the fact that such a Frankenstein monster of a program could exist is funny to me. ↫ nicebyte at gpfault.net The fact that this works is both surprising and unsurprising at the same time.
- GNOME 50 released
The GNOME team has released GNOME 50, the latest version of what is probably the most popular open source desktop environment. It brings fine-grained parental controls, and the groundwork for web filtering so that in future releases, parents and guardians can set content filters for children. Our own kids are still way too young to have access to computers and the internet, but Im not sure Ill ever resort to these kinds of tools when the time comes. I didnt have any such controls imposed upon me as a child on the early internet, but then, you cant really compare the 90s internet to that of today. The Orca screen reader received a lot of attention in GNOME 50, with a new preference window, both global and per-application settings, and much more. Theres also a brand new reduced motion setting, which will tame the animations in the user interface. Document annotation has been overhauled and modernised, and the file manager has been optimised across the board for better performance and lower memory usage. Remote Desktop also saw a lot of work in GNOME 50. Its now hardware-accelerated using VA-API and Vulkan, and thanks to HiDPI support, the session will properly adapt to the screen being used. Kerberos Authentication support has been added, and you can now use the remote webcam locally. Theres way more here, like improved support for variable-refresh rates and fractional scaling, HDR screen sharing, fixes for weird NVIDIA driver nonsense, and much, much more. As always, GNOME 50 will find its way to your distribution soon enough.
- Introducing Duranium: an immutable variant of postmarketOS
PosrtmarketOS, the Linux distribution for mobile devices, now also has an immutable variant, called Duranium. Duranium is an immutable variant of postmarketOS, built around the idea that your device should just work, and keep working. You shouldnt need to know what a terminal is to keep your device running. Immutable! means the core operating system is read-only and cant be modified while its running. System updates are applied as complete, verified images rather than individual packages. Either the new image works, or the system falls back to the previous one automatically. No partially-applied state. No debugging audio when you need to make a phone call and no fussing with a broken web browser when you just want to doomscroll cat photos. It also means developers can reproduce the exact state of a users device, making it much easier to track down and fix issues. ↫ Clayton Craft on the postmarketOS blog Duranium is built around the various functionalities and tooling provided by systemd, meaning the project didnt have to reinvent the wheel. It works similarly to other immutable distributions, in that images for the base are downloaded and installed as a whole, with the preferred application installation method being Flatpak. Security-wise, Duranium uses dm-verity to protect /usr, cryptographically verifying data as its read. The image simply wont boot if anythings been tampered with. LUKS2 is used to encrypt mutable user and operating system data and configuration on the root file system. Duranium is still under heavy development, but it makes sense to implement something like this now, since in the world of mobile devices, this has become the norm. Im glad postmarketOS is taking these steps, and I sincerely hope Ill eventually be able to use a postmarketOS device with KDEs Plasma mobile shell at some point in the near future in my day-to-day life. This requires both postmarketOS to improve as well as for the regulatory landscape to break the duopoly on banking and government applications held by Android and iOS, and with the state of the US government as it is, this might actually be something Europes interested in achieving.
- Sudo ported to DOS
DOS didnt have sudo yet. This gross oversight has been addressed. SUDO examines the environment for the COMSPEC variable to find the default command interpreter, falling back to C:\COMMAND.COM if not set. The interpreter is then executed in unprotected real mode for full privileges. ↫ SUDO for DOS Codeberg page A vital tool, for sure.
- Meta and TikTok let harmful content rise after evidence outrage drove engagement, say whistleblowers
Once again, social media giants Facebook and TikTok have been caught red-handed. More than a dozen whistleblowers and insiders have laid bare how the companies took risks with safety on issues including violence, sexual blackmail and terrorism as they battled for users attention. An engineer at Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, described how he had been told by senior management to allow more borderline! harmful content which includes misogyny and conspiracy theories in users feeds to compete with TikTok. They sort of told us that its because the stock price is down,! the engineer said. ↫ Marianna Spring and Mike Radford at the BBC Meta, TikTok, and Twitter are criminal enterprises, and their executives should be trembling in court instead of scheming on yachts. Their role in legitimising far-right extremism will eventually catch up to them, and once that happens, no yacht is going to keep them safe.
- How kernel anti-cheats work: a deep dive into modern game protection
Modern kernel anti-cheat systems are, without exaggeration, among the most sophisticated pieces of software running on consumer Windows machines. They operate at the highest privilege level available to software, they intercept kernel callbacks that were designed for legitimate security products, they scan memory structures that most programmers never touch in their entire careers, and they do all of this transparently while a game is running. If you have ever wondered how BattlEye actually catches a cheat, or why Vanguard insists on loading before Windows boots, or what it means for a PCIe DMA device to bypass every single one of these protections, this post is for you. ↫ Adrián Díaza I hate that we need proprietary rootkits just to play competitive multiplayer games we can chalk this up to a few sad people ruining the experience for everyone else, as so often happens. I have a dedicated parts bin Windows box just to play League of Legends (my one vice alright, nobodys perfect) so I dont really care if it has a proprietary rootkit running in the background as theres not a single bit of valuable data on that machine, but for most people, thats not realistic. Virtually every League of Legends player hands over control of their entire computer to a proprietary rootkit developed and deployed by a company from China, whereas players of other popular online multiplayer games must install rootkits from companies from the United States. If anyone inside the governments of these countries ever wants to implement a backdoor in dozens (hundreds?) of millions of Windows machines, this is the way to go. Its an absolutely bizarre situation.
- Tribblix m39 released
Tribblix, the Illumos distribution focused on giving you a classic UNIX-style experience, has released a new version. There are several noticeable version updates in this release. The graphical libraries libtiff and OpenEXR have been updated, retaining the old shared library versions for now. OpenSSL is now from the 3.5 series with the 3.0 api by default. Bind is now from the 9.20 series. OpenSSH is now 10.2, and you may get a Post-Quantum Cryptography warning if connecting to older SSH servers. ↫ Tribblix m39 release notes If youre already running Tribblix, updating is easy, and if you want to try it out, head on over to the downloads page. Rests me to say that Tribblix is a treasure, and it must be protected at all costs. Its rare to see a passion project like this maintain such a steady pace.
- Java 26 released
Java 26 delivers thousands of improvements that boost developer productivity, simplify the language, and help developers integrate AI and cryptography functionality into their applications. To help developers further streamline and enhance their development initiatives, Oracle is also announcing the new Java Verified Portfolio, which provides developers with a curated set of Oracle-supported tools, frameworks, libraries, and services, including commercial support for JavaFX, a Java-based UI framework, and Helidon, a Java framework for microservices. In addition, Oracle intends to align Helidon’s release cadence with Java releases and propose Helidon as an OpenJDK project. ↫ Oracles Java 26 press release Oracles press releases lists the most important JDK Enhancement Proposals in this release, as do the release notes and the project page at OpenJDK. In addition, Java developer Hanno Embregts published a detailed blog post that dives deeper into this new release.
- Han: a compiled programming language with Korean keywords written in Hangul
Since many of the platforms and conventions that came to dominate computing came from the western world, we never give it a second thought that virtually everything related to programming is written in English using the English alphabet. However, theres no real reason behind arriving at this point other than convention and the course of history with the right tooling, you could program a computer in whatever language or alphabet (or other writing system!) you desire. For example, what about programming in Korean, using Hangul? Han is a statically-typed, compiled programming language where every keyword is written in Korean. It compiles to native binaries through LLVM IR and also ships with a tree-walking interpreter for instant execution. The compiler toolchain is written entirely in Rust. ↫ Hans GitHub page Han is written entirely in Korean, and uses the genius and easy-to-learn Hangul script. Hangul was developed by King Sejong the Great in the middle of the 15th century, to replace the Chinese-based characters used to write Korean up until that point. Since it was specifically designed to be easy to learn by scholars and the general public of the time alike to promote literacy, the Hangul alphabet is stupidly easy to learn; I managed to teach myself the Hangul alphabet in an single afternoon a decade or so ago. Obviously, do note that learning Hangul (an alphabet) isnt the same thing as learning Korean (a language). One of my favourite aspects of Hangul is that it combines the letters making up a syllable into single structured syllable blocks, which gives it its unique look and makes it quite easy to grasp youll quickly start recognising common syllables. On top of that, its said that the individual Hangul consonants mimic the shape of speech organs (tongue, throat, etc.), which, once you see it, you cant unsee, further aiding in remembering what letters sound like. If you have an afternoon to kill, its certainly a fun thing to learn. Regardless, its very welcome to see efforts like this, if only to remember that programming being an Anglophone affair is but an accident, not a law of nature.
- Microsoft finally allows you to name your own home folder during Windows setup
Its only a small annoyance in the grand scheme of the utter idiocy that is modern Windows, but apparently its one enough people complained about Microsoft is finally addressing it. In all of its wisdom, Microsoft doesnt allow you to set the name of your users home folder during the installation procedure of Windows 11. The folders name is automatically generated based on your Microsoft accounts username or email address, something Ive personally really disliked since I have been using thomholwerda for as long as I can remember. Last year, they introduced an incredibly obtuse method of setting your own home folder name, but now the company is finally adding it as an optional step during the regular installation process. Expanding on our work which started rolling to Insiders last fall, you can now choose a custom name for your user folder on the Device Name page when going through Windows setup. This most recent update now makes it easier to choose a custom name. The naming option is available during setup only. If you skip this step, Windows will use the default folder name and continue setup as usual. ↫ Windows Insider Program Team This means you now have the option of defining your own home folder name, excluding CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, COM¹, COM², COM³, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, LPT9, LPT¹, LPT², and LPT³. Its a very small change, and certainly not something that will turn Windows ship around, but at least its something thats being done for users who actually care. Its also such a small change, such a small addition, that one wonders why its taken them this long. Im assuming theres already some incredibly complex and hacky way to change your automatically assigned home folder name by diving deep into the registry, converting your root drive back to FAT16, changing some values in a DLL file through a hex editor, and then converting back to NTFS, but this is clearly a much better way of handling it.
- CSMWrap: make UEFI-only systems boot BIOS-based operating systems
What if you have a very modern machine that is entirely UEFI-only, meaning it has no compatibility support module and thus no way of enabling a legacy BIOS mode? Well, install a CSM as an EFI application, of course! CSMWrap is an EFI application designed to be a drop-in solution to enable legacy BIOS booting on modern UEFI-only (class 3) systems. It achieves this by wrapping a Compatibility Support Module (CSM) build of the SeaBIOS project as an out-of-firmware EFI application, effectively creating a compatibility layer for traditional PC BIOS operation. ↫ CSMWraps GitHub page The need for this may not be immediately obvious, but heres the problem: if you want to run an older operating system that absolutely requires a traditional BIOS on a modern machine that only has UEFI without any CSM options (a class 3-machine), you wont be able to boot said operating system. CSMWrap is a possible solution, as it leverages innate EFI capabilities to run a CSM as an EFI application, thereby adding the CSM functionality back in. All you need to do is drop CSMWrap into /efi/boot on the same drive the operating system that needs BIOS to boot is on, and UEFI will list it as a bootable operating system. It does come with some limitations, however. For instance, one logical core of your processor will be taken up by CSMWrap and will be entirely unavailable to the booted BIOS-based operating system. In other words, this means youre going to need a processor with at least more than one logical processor (e.g., even a single-core machine with hyperthreading will work). Its also suggested to add a legacy-capable video card if youre using an operating system that doesnt support VESA BIOS extensions (e.g. anything older than NT). This is an incredibly neat idea, and even comes with advantages over built-in CSMs, since many of those are untested and riddled with issues. CSMWrap uses SeaBIOS, which is properly tested and generally a much better BIOS than whatever native CSMs contain. All in all, a great project.
- Understanding SMF properties in Solaris-based operating systems
SMF is the illumos system for managing traditional Unix services (long-lived background processes, usually). It’s quite rich in order to correctly accommodate a lot of different use cases. But it sometimes exposes that complexity to users even when they’re trying to do something simple. In this post, I’ll walk through an example using a demo service and the svcprop(1) tool to show the details. ↫ Dave Pacheco Soalris system management facility or SMF is effectively Solaris systemd, and this article provides a deeper insight into one of its features: properties. While using SMF and its suite of tools and commands for basic tasks is rather elementary and easy to get into even I can do it once you start to dive deeper into what is can do, things get complex and capable very fast.
- Chrome comes to Linux on ARM64
Google has announced that it will release Chrome for Linux on ARM64 in the second quarter of this year. Launching Chrome for ARM64 Linux devices allows more users to enjoy the seamless integration of Google’s most helpful services into their browser. This move addresses the growing demand for a browsing experience that combines the benefits of the open-source Chromium project with the Google ecosystem of apps and features. This release represents a significant undertaking to ensure that ARM64 Linux users receive the same secure, stable, and rich Chrome experience found on other platforms. ↫ The Chromium Blog While the idea of running Linux on Arm, only to defile it with something as unpleasant as Chrome seem entirely foreign to me, most normal people do actually use Googles browser. Having it available on Linux for Arm makes perfect sense, and might convince a few people to buy an Arm machine for Linux, assuming the platform can get its act together.
- Just try Plan 9 already
I will not pass up an opportunity to make you talk about Plan 9, so lets focus on Acme. Acme is remarkable for what it represents: a class of application that leverages a simple, text-based GUI to create a compelling model of interacting with all of the tools available in the Unix (or Plan 9) environment. Cox calls it an “integrating development environment,” distinguishing it from the more hermetic “integrated development environment” developers will be familiar with. The simplicity of its interface is important. It is what has allowed Acme to age gracefully over the past 30 or so years, without the constant churn of adding support for new languages, compilers, terminals, or color schemes. ↫ Daniel Moch While the article mentions you can use Acme on UNIX, to really appreciate it you have to use it on Plan 9, which today most likely means 9front. Now, I am not the kind of person who can live and breathe inside 9front you need to be of a certain mindset to be able to do so but even then I find that messing around with Plan 9 has given me a different outlook on UNIX. In fact, I think it has helped me understand UNIX and UNIX-like systems better and more thoroughly. If youre not sure if Plan 9 is something that suits you, the only real way to find out is to just use it. Fire up a VM, read the excellent documentation at 9front, and just dive into it. Most of you will just end up confused and disoriented, but a small few of you will magically discover you possess the right mindset. Just do it.
- The Need for Cloud Security in a Modern Business Environment
by George Whittaker
Cloud systems are an emergent standard in business, but migration efforts and other directional shifts have introduced vulnerabilities. Where some attack patterns are mitigated, cloud platforms leave businesses open to new threats and vectors. The dynamic nature of these environments cannot be addressed by traditional security systems, necessitating robust cloud security for contemporary organizations.
Just as businesses have come to acknowledge the value of cloud operations, so too have cyber attackers. Protecting sensitive assets and maintaining regulatory compliance, while simultaneously ensuring business continuity against cloud attacks, requires a modern strategy. When any window could be an opportunity for infiltration, a comprehensive approach serves to limit exploitation.
Unlike traditional on-premise infrastructure, cloud environments dramatically expand an organization’s threat surface. Resources are distributed across regions, heavily dependent on APIs, and frequently created or decommissioned in minutes. This constant change makes it difficult to maintain a fixed security perimeter and increases the likelihood that misconfigurations or exposed services go unnoticed, creating opportunities for exploitation.
The Vulnerabilities of Cloud Security Services
Any misconfiguration, insecure application programming interface (API), or identity management solution may become an invitation for cyberattacks. Amid the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, it is possible for even inexperienced individuals to exploit such weaknesses in cloud systems. Cloud environments are designed for accessibility, a benefit that can be taken advantage of.
“Unlike traditional software, AI systems can be manipulated through language and indirect instructions,” Lee Chong Ming wrote for Business Insider. “[AI expert Sander] Schulhoff said people with experience in both AI security and cybersecurity would know what to do if an AI model is tricked into generating malicious code.”
At the same time that many businesses are migrating to cloud platforms and implementing cloud security features, they are adopting AI technology in order to accelerate workflows and other processes. These systems may have their advantages for certain industries, but their presence can create its own vulnerabilities. Addressing the shortcomings of cloud systems and AI at the same time compounds the security challenges of today.
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- Google Brings Chrome to ARM Linux: A Long-Awaited Step for Modern Linux Devices
by George Whittaker
Google has officially announced that Chrome is coming to ARM64 Linux systems, marking a major milestone for both the Linux and ARM ecosystems. The native browser is expected to launch in Q2 2026, finally closing a long-standing gap for users running Linux on ARM-based hardware.
For years, ARM Linux users have relied on Chromium builds or workarounds to access a Chrome-like experience. That’s about to change.
Why This Announcement Matters
Until now, Google Chrome on Linux was limited to x86_64 systems, leaving ARM-based devices without an official build.
That meant users had to:
Use Chromium instead of Chrome
Run emulated versions of Chrome
Miss out on proprietary features like sync, DRM support, and Google services
With this new release, ARM Linux users will finally get the full Chrome experience, including seamless integration with Google’s ecosystem.
What Users Can Expect
The upcoming ARM64 version of Chrome will bring the same features users expect on other platforms:
Google account sync (bookmarks, history, tabs)
Access to the Chrome Web Store and extensions
Built-in features like translation, autofill, and security protections
Support for DRM services and media playback
This brings ARM Linux closer to feature parity with macOS (ARM support since 2020) and Windows on ARM (since 2024).
The Rise of ARM on Linux
The timing of this move reflects a broader shift in computing. ARM-based hardware is rapidly gaining traction across:
Laptops powered by Snapdragon and future ARM chips
Developer boards like Raspberry Pi
High-performance systems such as NVIDIA’s ARM-based AI desktops
Google itself highlighted growing demand for Chrome on these systems, especially as ARM expands beyond mobile devices into mainstream computing.
Partnerships and Deployment
Google is also working with hardware vendors to streamline adoption. Notably, Chrome will be integrated into NVIDIA’s Linux-on-ARM DGX Spark systems, making installation easier for high-performance AI workstations.
For general users, Chrome will be available for download directly from Google once released.
Why This Took So Long
Interestingly, this move comes years after Chrome was already available on ARM-based platforms like Apple Silicon Macs and Windows devices.
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- CrackArmor Exposed: Critical Flaws in AppArmor Put Millions of Linux Systems at Risk
by George Whittaker
A newly disclosed set of vulnerabilities has sent shockwaves through the Linux security community. Dubbed “CrackArmor,” these flaws affect AppArmor, one of the most widely used security modules in Linux, potentially exposing millions of systems to serious compromise.
Discovered by the Qualys Threat Research Unit, the vulnerabilities highlight a concerning reality: even core security mechanisms can harbor weaknesses that go unnoticed for years.
What Is CrackArmor?
“CrackArmor” refers to a group of nine critical vulnerabilities found in the Linux kernel’s AppArmor module. AppArmor is a mandatory access control (MAC) system designed to restrict what applications can do, helping contain attacks and enforce system policies.
These flaws stem from a class of issues known as “confused deputy” vulnerabilities, where a lower-privileged user can trick trusted processes into performing actions on their behalf.
Why These Vulnerabilities Are Serious
The impact of CrackArmor is significant because it undermines one of Linux’s core security layers. Researchers found that attackers could:
Escalate privileges to root from an unprivileged account
Bypass AppArmor protections entirely
Break container isolation, affecting Kubernetes and cloud workloads
Execute arbitrary code in the kernel
Trigger denial-of-service (DoS) conditions
In some demonstrations, attackers were able to gain full root access in seconds under controlled conditions.
How Widespread Is the Risk?
The scope of the issue is massive. AppArmor is enabled by default in major distributions such as:
Ubuntu
Debian
SUSE
Because of this, researchers estimate that over 12.6 million Linux systems could be affected.
These systems span:
Enterprise servers
Cloud infrastructure
Containers and Kubernetes clusters
IoT and edge devices
This widespread deployment significantly amplifies the potential impact.
A Long-Standing Problem
One of the most concerning aspects of CrackArmor is how long the vulnerabilities have existed. According to researchers, the flaws date back to around 2017 (Linux kernel 4.11) and remained undiscovered in production environments for years.
This long exposure window increases the risk that similar weaknesses may exist elsewhere in critical system components.
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- Intel Expands Linux Graphics Team to Boost Drivers and Gaming Support
by George Whittaker
Intel is once again investing in Linux development. The company has recently posted several job openings aimed at strengthening its Linux graphics driver and GPU software teams, signaling continued interest in improving Intel hardware support on the open-source platform.
For Linux users, especially gamers and developers, this could mean faster improvements to Intel’s graphics stack and stronger support for modern workloads.
New Roles Focused on Linux Graphics
Intel has listed multiple GPU Software Development Engineer positions, many of which specifically focus on Linux graphics technologies. These roles involve working on the full graphics stack, including firmware, kernel drivers, and user-space components used by applications and games.
The responsibilities for these positions include:
Developing and optimizing Intel GPU drivers for Linux
Improving the Linux graphics stack, including kernel DRM drivers and Mesa components
Working with graphics APIs and tools used by modern applications
Ensuring compatibility across desktop, workstation, and data-center hardware
The job listings also emphasize experience with C/C++ development and the Linux kernel graphics ecosystem, highlighting the technical depth required for these roles.
Linux Gaming Is Part of the Plan
One of the more notable details from the job postings is the mention of Linux gaming technologies such as Wine and Proton. These compatibility layers allow Windows games to run on Linux, making them central to platforms like SteamOS and the Steam Deck.
Intel’s focus on these tools suggests the company wants its GPUs to perform well not just in enterprise workloads but also in gaming environments. That aligns with the growing popularity of Linux gaming driven by:
Valve’s Proton compatibility layer
Vulkan-based graphics APIs
The success of devices like the Steam Deck
Beyond Gaming: HPC and Data Center Work
While gaming support is part of the focus, the hiring effort isn’t limited to consumer graphics. Intel is also recruiting engineers for areas such as:
High-performance computing (HPC)
AI and machine-learning workloads
Middleware development for supercomputing systems
Cloud and data-center GPU optimization
These roles indicate Intel’s broader strategy to strengthen Linux across multiple sectors, from desktops and laptops to supercomputers and cloud infrastructure.
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- AerynOS 2026.02 Alpha Released: Advancing a Modern Atomic Linux Vision
by George Whittaker
The developers behind AerynOS have released AerynOS 2026.02 Alpha, the latest development snapshot of the independent Linux distribution previously known as Serpent OS. This new release continues the project’s rapid evolution, bringing updated packages, improved build tools, and new installation options while the system remains in an early testing stage.
Although still labeled as an alpha-quality release, the new ISO gives enthusiasts and developers a chance to explore the direction AerynOS is taking as it builds a modern Linux platform from scratch.
A Modern Atomic Approach
AerynOS aims to rethink how Linux distributions handle updates and package management. The project focuses on atomic-style updates, meaning system changes are applied as a complete transaction rather than individual package installs. This approach helps reduce the risk of partially completed updates leaving a system in a broken state.
Unlike some atomic distributions, however, AerynOS does not rely on an immutable filesystem, allowing users to retain flexibility and customization while still benefiting from safer update behavior.
Updated Desktop Environments
The 2026.02 alpha release ships with several modern desktop environment options:
GNOME 49.4 as the default desktop
COSMIC 1.0.8, System76’s emerging desktop environment
KDE Plasma 6.6.1 available as an alternative session
These updates provide users with multiple modern desktop choices while ensuring compatibility with the latest frameworks and desktop technologies.
New Core Software and Components
AerynOS 2026.02 also brings a large batch of software updates across the system stack. Some of the notable versions included in the release are:
Linux kernel 6.18.15 LTS
Firefox 148
PipeWire 1.6
Wine 11.3
Waybar 0.15
Mesa/Nesa graphics drivers 26.x
Together, these updates ensure that the development snapshot reflects a modern Linux software ecosystem while improving compatibility with newer hardware.
Improved Development Tooling
A significant portion of the February development cycle focused on improving the distribution’s internal tooling:
Moss, the package manager, has been optimized for faster performance.
Boulder, the package build system, now automates more recipe creation and version handling.
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- Armbian 26.02 Arrives with Linux 6.18 LTS and Expanded Board Support
by George Whittaker
The Armbian project has released Armbian 26.02, the latest update to the lightweight Linux distribution designed specifically for ARM and RISC-V single-board computers (SBCs). Known for its stability and hardware optimization, Armbian continues to evolve with improved hardware support, new desktop options, and updated core components in this release.
A Linux Distribution Tailored for SBCs
Armbian is built on top of Debian or Ubuntu, providing optimized system images for single-board computers such as Orange Pi, Banana Pi, and ODROID devices. The project focuses on stability, performance, and long-term maintenance for embedded and development boards.
With the 26.02 release, the developers continue that mission by refining support for modern hardware platforms and improving the overall software stack.
Powered by Linux 6.18 LTS
One of the biggest upgrades in Armbian 26.02 is the transition to Linux kernel 6.18 LTS, which brings improved driver support, performance enhancements, and better compatibility for newer SBC hardware.
The newer kernel helps ensure that Armbian remains compatible with evolving chipsets while maintaining stability across its supported devices.
New Board Support
This release expands Armbian’s hardware ecosystem with support for several new boards, including:
SpacemiT MusePi Pro
Radxa Rock 4D
Orange Pi RV2
ODROID M2
These additions reflect Armbian’s ongoing focus on supporting emerging ARM and RISC-V development boards used by hobbyists, developers, and embedded system builders.
Desktop Improvements
Armbian 26.02 also introduces expanded desktop options:
RISC-V XFCE desktop images for supported RISC-V systems
Restored KDE Neon desktop builds
Updated desktop targets based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
These changes give users more flexibility when choosing between lightweight environments or more full-featured desktop setups.
Enhancements to Armbian Tools
The Armbian ecosystem itself has also received improvements. The Armbian Imager utility, used to flash OS images to SBC storage devices, now features:
Faster image decompression
Code signing for improved security on macOS and Windows
AI-assisted translation support
A new settings panel with additional developer options
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- Linux 7.0 Is Coming: What to Expect from the Next Major Kernel Release
by George Whittaker
Excitement in the open-source world is rising as the Linux kernel project moves toward the next major release: Linux kernel 7.0. While a major version number might sound like a dramatic overhaul, the reality is a lot more steady progress, and that’s part of what makes the Linux kernel so reliable and trusted. The first release candidate (RC1) for Linux 7.0 has already been published, and developers are entering the final stretch toward a stable release expected around mid-April 2026.
An Evolution, Not a Revolution
Linus Torvalds, the creator and lead maintainer of the Linux kernel, officially confirmed that the next version after Linux 6.19 will be dubbed Linux 7.0. In the announcement, he made clear that the jump to “7.0” isn’t tied to any monumental architectural upheaval, it’s a practical naming decision made partly to keep version numbers manageable.
That tradition continues a long-standing pattern: kernel series are often numbered until they reach higher minor versions (like 6.19), and then the major number increments, even if the changes are incremental and largely additive rather than breaking.
Inside the 7.0 Development Cycle
The Linux 7.0 cycle opened with the merge window, during which new code from contributors around the world is accepted. With the release candidate phase now underway, the focus has turned toward stabilization and testing.
The 7.0-rc1 announcement notes that this cycle saw a “smooth” merge window with relatively few major boot failures reported on the lead developer’s own test machines, a good sign for the kernel’s broad hardware support.
Expected Improvements
While the final changelog for the stable 7.0 kernel will only be known when it ships, several themes stand out from early previews and reporting:
1. Broad Hardware Enablement
Driver updates make up a significant portion of the changes so far, helping Linux support the latest CPUs and SoCs from vendors like Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. Early testing indicates enablement for new families such as Intel Nova Lake and AMD Zen 6, which will be important for next-generation laptops, desktops, and servers.
2. Performance and Responsiveness
Kernel maintainers and community reports suggest that performance improvements are part of the 7.0 trend. Although specifics are still emerging, the kernel’s scheduler and memory management subsystems tend to see ongoing optimization as workloads diversify.
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- Gentoo Charts a New Path: Moving Away from GitHub Toward Codeberg
by George Whittaker Introduction
The Gentoo Linux project has begun transitioning parts of its infrastructure away from GitHub and toward Codeberg, a Git hosting platform built on open-source principles. The move reflects growing concerns within parts of the open-source community about centralized hosting, proprietary AI integrations, and long-term platform independence.
While Gentoo has used GitHub for collaboration and code hosting in recent years, maintainers are now signaling a preference for a platform that aligns more closely with their philosophical roots.
Why the Shift?
One of the underlying motivations behind the move involves concerns around Microsoft’s expanding integration of AI tools like Copilot into GitHub’s ecosystem. While Copilot is optional and not mandatory for users, its presence has sparked debate within open-source communities about:
Code usage for AI model training
Transparency around data handling
Vendor control over open-source workflows
The long-term independence of community projects
Gentoo, a distribution known for its strong emphasis on freedom, customization, and user control, appears to be taking a cautious approach by diversifying its infrastructure.
Why Codeberg?
Codeberg is a community-driven Git hosting service powered by Forgejo, a fully open-source Git platform. Unlike GitHub, Codeberg operates as a non-profit organization and positions itself as an ethical alternative focused on transparency and sustainability.
Key characteristics include:
Open-source infrastructure
No proprietary AI tooling baked into the platform
Community governance model
Emphasis on privacy and minimal tracking
For a project like Gentoo, deeply rooted in open-source philosophy, these factors carry weight.
What This Means for Gentoo Users
For end users, the transition may not immediately change how Gentoo is installed or maintained. However, it could affect:
Where source code repositories are officially hosted
Where developers submit patches and pull requests
Contribution workflows for maintainers
Over time, the move could also reduce dependency on large corporate platforms, ensuring Gentoo retains autonomy over its infrastructure.
A Broader Trend in Open Source
Gentoo is not alone in reassessing its hosting platforms. Across the open-source world, projects have increasingly explored alternatives such as:
Codeberg
SourceHut
Self-hosted Git solutions
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- AsteroidOS 2.0 Launches: A Community-Driven Linux Revival for Smartwatches
by George Whittaker
The open-source wearable ecosystem just received a major upgrade. AsteroidOS 2.0 has officially been released, bringing new life to Linux-based smartwatches and giving aging hardware a fresh purpose. Built by a passionate community of developers, AsteroidOS continues to push the idea that wearable technology can remain open, customizable, and free from vendor lock-in.
For users who prefer control over their devices, and for those with older smartwatches gathering dust, AsteroidOS 2.0 represents a compelling alternative to proprietary smartwatch platforms.
What Is AsteroidOS?
AsteroidOS is an open-source operating system designed specifically for smartwatches. Originally developed as a replacement for discontinued or unsupported Android Wear devices, the project has grown into a full Linux-based wearable platform.
Unlike closed smartwatch systems, AsteroidOS emphasizes:
Privacy-first design
Minimal background tracking
Full user control
Community-driven development
It runs on supported legacy devices and allows users to repurpose smartwatches that manufacturers have long abandoned.
What’s New in AsteroidOS 2.0
Version 2.0 is one of the most significant updates in the project’s history. While the philosophy remains the same, this release introduces meaningful improvements across usability, performance, and compatibility.
Modernized Interface
AsteroidOS 2.0 brings a refreshed UI that feels smoother and more intuitive. Navigation between apps and watch faces is more fluid, and animations have been optimized for improved responsiveness on older hardware.
Improved Power Management
Battery life is critical on wearables. The new release refines power-saving behaviors and background process handling, helping extend usage time between charges, especially important for devices with aging batteries.
Enhanced Bluetooth Connectivity
Connectivity improvements allow more reliable pairing with companion apps, notifications, and syncing features. Stability and compatibility with modern smartphones have been strengthened.
Updated Core Stack
Under the hood, AsteroidOS 2.0 ships with updated components from the Linux ecosystem, ensuring better hardware compatibility and security fixes.
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- LibreOffice 26.2 Arrives: Faster Performance, Sharper UI, and Better Compatibility
by George Whittaker
The Document Foundation has officially released LibreOffice 26.2, the latest major update to the widely used open-source office suite. With improvements spanning performance, user interface refinements, document compatibility, and accessibility, this version continues LibreOffice’s mission to provide a powerful, community-driven alternative to proprietary office software.
LibreOffice 26.2 is available for Linux, Windows, and macOS, offering consistent functionality across platforms while keeping full control in the hands of users.
What’s New in LibreOffice 26.2
While LibreOffice updates often focus on incremental refinement rather than radical redesign, version 26.2 introduces several meaningful enhancements that improve daily workflows.
Improved Performance and Stability
Performance remains a priority. LibreOffice 26.2 includes:
Faster document loading, especially for large spreadsheets and presentations
Reduced memory usage in complex Calc files
Improved stability when handling heavily formatted documents
These optimizations make the suite feel more responsive across both modern systems and older hardware.
Enhanced Microsoft Office Compatibility
Compatibility continues to improve with each release. LibreOffice 26.2 delivers:
More accurate rendering of DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX files
Better support for advanced formatting and tracked changes
Improved handling of embedded objects and charts
For users collaborating with Microsoft Office users, these refinements reduce formatting surprises and make document exchange smoother.
Refined User Interface
LibreOffice 26.2 builds upon its modern UI framework with:
Polished icon themes and improved scaling on high-resolution displays
Better dark mode integration across platforms
Smoother transitions in NotebookBar layouts
Improved accessibility for keyboard navigation and screen readers
The result is a cleaner, more cohesive experience without disrupting long-time users.
Writer Improvements
LibreOffice Writer gains several practical enhancements:
More reliable footnote and endnote management
Improved table formatting controls
Expanded language and grammar tool integration
These updates benefit users creating academic papers, reports, and long-form documents.
Calc Enhancements
Spreadsheet users will notice:
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