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Do a presentation at NTLUG.
What is the Linux Installation Project?
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(Two Column)
- Debian: Important DoS Vulnerabilities in FFmpeg DSA-6080-1 Advisory
Several vulnerabilities have been discovered in the FFmpeg multimedia framework, which could result in denial of service or potentially the execution of arbitrary code if malformed files/streams are processed. For the oldstable distribution (bookworm), this problem has been fixed in version 7:5.1.8-0+deb12u1.
- [$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for December 11, 2025
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
Front: Rust in CPython; Python frozendict; Bazzite; IETF post-quantum disagreement; Distrobox; 6.19 merge window; Leaving the TAB. Briefs: Let's Encrypt retrospective; PKI infrastructure; Rust in kernel to stay; CNA series; Alpine 3.23.0; cmocka 2.0; Firefox 146; 2024 Free Software Awards; Quotes; ... Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
- 10 Years of Let's Encrypt Certificates
Let's Encrypt has publisheda retrospective that covers the decade since it published its firstpublicly trusted certificate in September 2015:
In March 2016, we issued our one millionth certificate. Just two yearslater, in September 2018, we were issuing a million certificates everyday. In 2020 we reached a billion total certificates issued and as oflate 2025 we're frequently issuing ten million certificates perday. We're now on track to reach a billion active sites, probablysometime in the coming year.
- Kroah-Hartman: Linux CVEs, more than you ever wanted to know
Greg Kroah-Hartman is writinga series of blog posts about Linux becoming a CertificateNumbering Authority (CNA):
It's been almost 2 full years since Linux became a CNA (CertificateNumbering Authority) which meant that we (i.e. the kernel.orgcommunity) are now responsible for issuing all CVEs for the Linuxkernel. During this time, we've become one of the largest creators ofCVEs by quantity, going from nothing to number 3 in 2024 to number 1in 2025. Naturally, this has caused some questions about how we areboth doing all of this work, and how people can keep track of it.
So far, Kroah-Hartman has published the introductory post, as wellas a detailedpost about kernel version numbers that is well worth reading.
- [$] Mix and match Linux distributions with Distrobox
Linux containers have made it reasonably easy to develop, distribute, anddeploy server applications along with all the distribution dependencies that theyneed. For example, anyone can deploy and run a Debian-based PostgreSQL container on a Fedora Linux host. Distrobox is a project that is designed tobring the cross-distribution compatibility to the desktop and allow users tomix-and-match Linux distributions without fussing with dual-booting, virtualmachines, or multiple computers. It is an ideal way to installadditional software on image-based systems, such as Fedora's Atomic Desktopsor Bazzite, and alsoprovides a convenient way to move a development environment orfavorite applications to a new system.
- Security updates for Wednesday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (abrt and kernel), Debian (libpng1.6, libsoup2.4, pdns-recursor, webkit2gtk, and wordpress), Fedora (imhex, libwebsockets, lunasvg, python3-docs, and python3.14), Mageia (python3 and webkit2), Red Hat (abrt, firefox, mysql8.4, and postgresql:15), Slackware (mozilla), SUSE (gegl, gnutls, go1.24, go1.25, libpng16-16, openssh, postgresql13, python-Jinja2, and sssd), and Ubuntu (fonttools and netty).
- The (successful) end of the kernel Rust experiment
The topic of the Rust experiment was just discussed at the annualMaintainers Summit. The consensus among the assembled developers is thatRust in the kernel is no longer experimental — it is now a core part of thekernel and is here to stay. So the "experimental" tag will be coming off.Congratulations are in order for all of the Rust for Linux team.
(Stay tuned for details in our Maintainers Summit coverage.)
- The 2024 Free Software Awards winners
The Free Software Foundation has announcedthe recipients of its 2024 (even though 2025 is almost over) Free SoftwareAwards. Andy Wingo won the award for the advancement of free software, AlxSa is the outstanding new free-software contributor, and Govdirectory takesthe award for projects of social benefit.
- [$] Bazzite: a gem for Linux gamers
One of the things that has historically stood between Linux and thefabled "year of the Linux desktop" is its lack of support for videogames. Many users who would have happily abandoned Windows have,reluctantly, stayed for the video games or had to deal with dualbooting. In the past few years, though, Linux support forgames—including those that only have Windows versions—hasimproved dramatically, if one is willing to put the piecestogether. Bazzite, an image-basedFedora derivative, is a project that aims to let users play games anduse the Linux desktop with almost no assembly required.
- Firefox 146 released
Version146.0 of the Firefox web browser has been released. One feature ofparticular interest to Linux users is that Firefox now nativelysupports fractional scaled displays on Wayland. Firefox Labs has alsobeen made available to all users even if they opt out of telemetry orparticipating in studies. "This means more experimental featuresare now available to more people."
This release also adds support for Module-Lattice-BasedKey-Encapsulation Mechanism (ML-KEM) for WebRTC. ML-KEM is"believed to be secure against attackers with large quantumcomputers". See the release notes for all changes.
- Security updates for Tuesday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (kernel, kernel-rt, and webkit2gtk3), Fedora (abrt and mingw-libpng), Mageia (apache and libpng), Oracle (abrt, go-toolset:rhel8, kernel, sssd, and webkit2gtk3), Red Hat (kernel and kernel-rt), SUSE (gimp, gnutls, kubevirt, virt-api-container, virt-controller-container, virt-exportproxy-container, virt-exportserver-container, virt-handler-container, virt-launcher-container, virt-libguestfs-t, and postgresql13), and Ubuntu (gnupg2, python-apt, radare2, and webkit2gtk).
- [$] Disagreements over post-quantum encryption for TLS
TheInternet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the standards body responsiblefor the TLS encryption standard — which your browser is using right nowto allow you to read LWN.net. As part of its work to keep TLS secure, the IETFhas been entertainingproposals to adopt "post-quantum" cryptography (that is,cryptography that is not known to be easily broken by a quantum computer) for TLSversion 1.3. Discussion of the proposal has exposed a large disagreement betweenparticipants who worried about weakened security and others who worried aboutweakened marketability.
- Addressing Linux's missing PKI infrastructure
Jon Seager, VP of engineering for Canonical, has announceda plan to develop a universal Public Key Infrastructure tool calledupki:
Earlier this year, LWN featured an excellent article titled"Linux's missing CRLinfrastructure". The article highlighted a numberof key issues surrounding traditional Public Key Infrastructure (PKI),but critically noted how even the available measures are effectivelyignored by the majority of system-level software on Linux.
One of the motivators for the discussion is that the OnlineCertificate Status Protocol (OCSP) will cease to be supported by Let'sEncrypt. The remaining alternative is to use Certificate RevocationLists (CRLs), yet there is little or no support for managing (or evenquerying) these lists in most Linux system utilities.
To solve this, I'm happy to share that in partnership with rustlsmaintainers Dirkjan Ochtmanand Joe Birr-Pixton, we're starting thedevelopment of upki: a universal PKI tool. This project initially aimsto close the revocation gap through the combination of a new systemutility and eventual library support for common TLS/SSL libraries suchas OpenSSL, GnuTLS and rustls.
No code is available as of yet, but the announcement indicates thatupki will be available as an opt-in preview forUbuntu 26.04 LTS. Thanks to Dirjan Ochtman for the tip.
- Security updates for Monday
Security updates have been issued by Debian (ffmpeg, krita, lasso, and libpng1.6), Fedora (abrt, cef, chromium, tinygltf, webkitgtk, and xkbcomp), Oracle (buildah, delve and golang, expat, python-kdcproxy, qt6-qtquick3d, qt6-qtsvg, sssd, thunderbird, and valkey), Red Hat (webkit2gtk3), and SUSE (git-bug, go1, and libpng12-0).
- [$] An open seat on the TAB
As has been recently announced,nominations are open for the 2025 Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board(TAB) elections. I am one of the TAB members whose term is coming to anend, but I have decided that, after 18 years on the board, I will notbe seeking re-election; instead, I will step aside and make room for afresh voice. My time on the TAB has been rewarding, and I will be sad toleave; the TAB has an important role to play in the functioning of thekernel community.
- Linux Kernel 5.4 Reaches End-of-Life: Time to Retire a Workhorse
One of the most widely deployed Linux kernels has officially reached the end of its lifecycle. The maintainers of the Linux kernel have confirmed that Linux 5.4, once a cornerstone of countless servers, desktops, and embedded devices, is now end-of-life (EOL). After years of long-term support, the branch has been retired and will no longer receive upstream fixes or security updates.
- Updated Intel LLM-Scaler-Omni Improves ComfyUI Performance For Arc Graphics
The past several months Intel software engineers have been quite busy with LLM-Scaler as part of Project Battlematrix. LLM-Scaler is a Docker-based solution for AI workloads on Intel graphics hardware to ship an optimized vLLM stack and other AI frameworks. Out today is a new LLM-Scaler-Omni release to help enhance ComfyUI performance on Intel hardware...
- FreeBSD 15.0 vs. Ubuntu Linux For AMD EPYC Server Performance
Given the recent release of FreeBSD 15, I started off my testing in looking at how FreeBSD 15.0 improves performance versus FreeBSD 14.3. Now it's onto the next important question: how is FreeBSD 15.0 performing relative to Linux on servers? Here are some benchmarks exploring that topic today.
- Monado 25.1.0: Enabling tomorrow’s OpenXR experiences
Released as UnitedXR wraps up in Brussels, this latest update to the cross-platform Open-Source OpenXR runtime delivers major improvements across hand tracking, device support, and the core runtime infrastructure. Whether you are an XR platform maker, XR OEM, researcher, developer, or XR enthusiast, version 25.1.0 introduces new capabilities that make Monado even more reliable, more flexible, and better prepared for tomorrow’s XR experiences.
- Find out how your Fedora system really feels (with the linux-mcp-server!)
Generative AI systems are changing the way people interact with computers. MCP (model context protocol) is a way that enables generate AI systems to run commands and use tools to enable live, conversational interaction with systems. Using the new linux-mcp-server, let’s walk through how you can talk with your Fedora system for understanding your system […]
- Window Maker Live 13.2 brings 32-bit life to Debian 13
Trixie may have gone 64-bit for installs, but WMLive still ships an i686-bootable buildWindow Maker Live 13.2 is stubbornly keeping 32-bit PCs alive on Debian 13 "Trixie," shipping a new release that boots on i686 hardware.…
- NASA Loses Contact With MAVEN Mars Orbiter
NASA has lost contact with its MAVEN Mars orbiter after it passed behind Mars. When it remerged from behind the planet, the spacecraft never resumed communications. SpaceNews reports: MAVEN launched in November 2013 and entered orbit around Mars in September 2014. The spacecraft's primary science mission is to study the planet's upper atmosphere and interactions with the solar wind, including how the atmosphere escapes into space. That is intended to help scientists understand how the planet changes from early in its history, when it had a much thicker atmosphere and was warm enough to support liquid water on its surface. MAVEN additionally serves as a communications relay, using a UHF antenna to link the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on the Martian surface with the Deep Space Network. NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft also serve as communications relays for the rovers, but are both significantly older than MAVEN. The spacecraft has suffered some technical problems in the past, notably with its inertial measurement units (IMUs) used for navigation. In 2022, MAVEN switched to an "all-stellar" navigation system to minimize the use of the IMUs. MAVEN has enough propellant to maintain its orbit through at least the end of the decade. NASA's fiscal year 2026 budget proposal, though, zeroed out funding for MAVEN, which cost $22.6 million to operate in 2024. MAVEN was one of several missions "operating well past the end of prime mission" the proposal would terminate, despite MAVEN's role as a communications relay.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- ChatGPT Is Apple's Most Downloaded App of 2025
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Apple on Wednesday released its annual list of the most downloaded apps and games for the year. For the U.S. market, OpenAI's ChatGPT topped the ranks of free iPhone apps (not including games) with the most installs in 2025. The AI app was followed by Threads, Google, TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, and Google's Gemini. ChatGPT made it to No. 4 last year, but the top spot was taken by Chinese shopping app Temu. In 2023, the AI app didn't make the top-10 list despite being released on the iPhone in May 2023 to a strong debut.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Operation Bluebird Wants To Relaunch 'Twitter' For a New Social Network
A startup called Operation Bluebird is petitioning the US Patent and Trademark Office to strip X Corp of the "Twitter" and "tweet" trademarks, hoping to relaunch a new Twitter with the old brand, bird logo, and "town square" vibe. "The TWITTER and TWEET brands have been eradicated from X Corp.'s products, services, and marketing, effectively abandoning the storied brand, with no intention to resume use of the mark," the petition states. "The TWITTER bird was grounded." Ars Technica reports: If successful, two leaders of the group tell Ars, Operation Bluebird would launch a social network under the name Twitter.new, possibly as early as late next year. (Twitter.new has created a working prototype and is already inviting users to reserve handles.) Michael Peroff, an Illinois attorney and founder of Operation Bluebird, said that in the intervening years, more Twitter-like social media networks have sprung up or gained traction -- like Threads, Mastodon, and Bluesky. But none have the scale or brand recognition that Twitter did prior to Musk's takeover. "There certainly are alternatives," Peroff said. "I don't know that any of them at this point in time are at the scale that would make a difference in the national conversation, whereas a new Twitter really could." Similarly, Peroff's business partner, Stephen Coates, an attorney who formerly served as Twitter's general counsel, said that Operation Bluebird aims to recreate some of the magic that Twitter once had. "I remember some time ago, I've had celebrities react to my content on Twitter during the Super Bowl or events," he told Ars. "And we want that experience to come back, that whole town square, where we are all meshed in there." "Mere 'token use' won't be enough to reserve the mark," said Mark Lemley, a Stanford Law professor and expert in trademark law. "Or [X] could defend if it can show that it plans to go back to using Twitter. Consumers obviously still know the brand name. It seems weird to think someone else could grab the name when consumers still associate it with the ex-social media site of that name. But that's what the law says."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Google Faces Fines Over Google Play If It Doesn't Make More Concessions
EU regulators say Google's Play Store changes still don't meet fairness rules and are preparing a potentially hefty 2026 fine unless Google makes deeper concessions. Reuters reports: Google Play has been in the European Commission's crosshairs since March, with regulators singling out technical restrictions preventing app developers from steering users to other channels for cheaper offers. Another issue is the service fee charged by Google for facilitating an app developer's initial acquisition of a new customer via Google Play which the regulator said goes beyond what is justified. Tweaks to Google Play announced in August to make it easier for app developers to direct customers to other channels and choose a fee model are still falling short, the people said, with the EU antitrust regulator viewing Apple's recent changes to its App Store as a benchmark. [...] Google can still offer to make more changes before regulators impose a fine, likely in the first quarter of the next year, the people said, adding that the timing of any sanction can still change. "We continue to work closely with the European Commission in its ongoing investigation but have serious concerns that further changes would put Android and Play users at risk of malware, scams and data theft. Unlike iOS, Android is already open by design," a Google spokesperson said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- India Proposes Charging OpenAI, Google For Training AI On Copyrighted Content
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: On Tuesday, India's Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade released a proposed framework that would give AI companies access to all copyrighted works for training in exchange for paying royalties to a new collecting body composed of rights-holding organizations, with payments then distributed to creators. The proposal argues that this "mandatory blanket license" would lower compliance costs for AI firms while ensuring that writers, musicians, artists, and other rights holders are compensated when their work is scraped to train commercial models. [...] The eight-member committee, formed by the Indian government in late April, argues the system would avoid years of legal uncertainty while ensuring creators are compensated from the outset. Defending the system, the committee says in a 125-page submission (PDF) that a blanket license "aims to provide an easy access to content for AI developers reduce transaction costs [and] ensure fair compensation for rightsholders," calling it the least burdensome way to manage large-scale AI training. The submission adds that the single collecting body would function as a "single window," eliminating the need for individual negotiations and enabling royalties to flow to both registered and unregistered creators.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Qualcomm Acquires RISC-V Chip Designer Ventana Micro Systems
Qualcomm has acquired RISC-V startup Ventana to strengthen its CPU ambitions beyond mobile, "reinforcing its commitment and leadership in the development of the RISC-V standard and ecosystem," the company said in a press release. CRN Magazine reports: The San Diego-based company said Ventana's expertise in RISC-V, a free and open alternative to the Arm and x86 instruction set architectures, will enhance its CPU engineering capabilities and complement "existing efforts to develop custom Oryon CPU technology." Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Qualcomm, which has already been using RISC-V for some products outside the PC and server markets, said Ventana's contributions will boost its "technology leadership in the AI era across all businesses," indicating the broad impact expected by this acquisition. "We believe the RISC-V instruction set architecture has the potential to advance the frontier on CPU technology, enabling innovation across products," Durga Malladi, executive vice president and general manager of technology planning, edge solutions and data center for Qualcomm, said in a statement. "The acquisition of Ventana Micro Systems marks a pivotal step in our journey to deliver industry-leading RISC-V-based CPU technology across products." Further reading: Qualcomm Is Buying Arduino, Releases New Raspberry Pi-Esque Arduino Board
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Ubuntu Will Have Native AMD ROCm AI/ML and HPC Libraries In Next LTS Release
Longtime Slashdot reader MadCow42 writes: Canonical just announced that they're packaging AMD's ROCm libraries (for AIML and HPC with both data-center GPUs as well as desktop/laptop GPUs), directly into the Ubuntu Universe archive. You can run ROCm on Ubuntu today but you have to install it via a script from AMD and manually remove and reinstall for any upgrades or bug fixes. Having it in Ubuntu as a normal Debian package will make it much easier to install and also to maintain in the long run via normal apt tooling ('apt upgrade'). This also means that ROCm can be an automatically-installed dependency for other packages, which doesn't happen today. And, interestingly, Canonical has committed to providing long-term-support for ROCm in Ubuntu -- which is particularly exciting for edge and IoT devices that may have a long life in the field and need regular security patches and updates.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Adobe Integrates With ChatGPT
Adobe is integrating Photoshop, Express, and Acrobat directly into ChatGPT so users can edit photos, design graphics, and tweak PDFs through the chatbot. The Verge reports: The Adobe apps are free to use, and can be activated by typing the name of the app alongside an uploaded file and conversational instruction, such as "Adobe Photoshop, help me blur the background of this image." ChatGPT users won't have to specify the name of the app again during the same conversation to make additional changes. Depending on the instructions, Adobe's apps may offer a selection of results to choose from, or provide a UI element that the user can manually control -- such as Photoshop sliders for adjusting contrast and brightness. The ChatGPT apps don't provide the full functionality of Adobe's desktop software. Adobe says the Photoshop app can edit specific sections of images, apply creative effects, and adjust image settings like brightness, contrast and exposure. Acrobat in ChatGPT can edit existing PDFs, compress and convert other documents into a PDF format, extract text or tables, and merge multiple files together. The Adobe Express app allows ChatGPT users to both generate and edit designs, such as posters, invitations, and social media graphics. Everything in the design can be edited without leaving ChatGPT, from replacing text or images, to altering colors and animating specific sections. If ChatGPT users do want more granular control over a project they started in the chatbot, those photos, PDFs, and designs can be opened directly in Adobe's native apps to pick up where they left off.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Cable Channel Subscribers Grew For the First Time In 8 Years Last Quarter
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Monday, research analyst MoffettNathanson released its "Cord-Cutting Monitor Q3 2025: Signs of Life?" report. It found that the pay TV operators, including cable companies, satellite companies, and virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) like YouTube TV and Fubo, added 303,000 net subscribers in Q3 2025. According to the report, "There are more linear video subscribers now than there were three months ago. That's the first time we've been able to say that since 2017." In Q3 2017, MoffettNathanson reported that pay TV gained 318,000 net new subscribers. But since then, the industry's subscriber count has been declining, with 1,045,000 customers in Q2 2025, as depicted in the graph [here]. The world's largest vMVPD by subscriber count, YouTube TV, claimed 8 million subscribers in February 2024; some analysts estimate that number is now at 9.4 million. In its report, MoffettNathanson estimated that YouTube TV added 750,000 subscribers in Q3 2025, compared to 1 million in Q3 2024. Traditional pay TV companies also contributed to the industry's unexpected growth by bundling its services with streaming subscriptions. Charter Communications offers bundles with nine streaming services, including Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max. In Q3 2024, it saw net attrition of 294,000 customers, compared to about 70,000 in Q3 2025. Other cable companies have made similar moves. Comcast, for example, launched a streaming bundle with Netflix, Peacock, and Apple TV in May 2024. For Q3 2025, Comcast reported its best pay TV subscriber count in almost five years, which was a net loss of 257,000 customers. "Traditional pay TV -- i.e. cable and satellite -- still declined quarter over quarter in Q3, but again, by less," noted SteamTV Insider. "The [year-over-year] rate of attrition dropped from -12.4 percent to -10.2 percent over 12 months." MoffettNathanson added: "Yes, Q3 saw a positive net add number for [pay TV for] the first time in eight years, but that positive result came in the year's seasonally strongest quarter. We're not yet close to seeing the category actually grow again..."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Wells Fargo CEO Says More Job Cuts Coming at the Bank as AI Prompts 'Efficiency'
Wells Fargo expects more job cuts and higher severance costs in this quarter that ends in three weeks, bank CEO and President Charlie Scharf said Tuesday at an investors conference in New York. He's also betting on AI to drive efficiency and, eventually, further workforce reduction.From a report: "As we've gone through the budgeting process, and even pre AI, we do expect to have less people as we go into next year," Scharf said at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference in New York City. "We'll likely have more severance in the fourth quarter." The fourth quarter runs Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 for the San Francisco-basaed bank. Wells Fargo already has shrunk from 275,000 employees to about 210,000 since Scharf joined the bank in 2019 -- about a 24% decrease. Its largest employee base remains in Charlotte, with about 27,000 workers.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Democrats Warn Their Party May Try To Unravel Any Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery Deal
As the battle over Warner Bros. Discovery grows, two Democratic lawmakers are warning that their party may try to block or unravel anyacquisition by Paramount when it returns to power. Semafor: In a letter to the WBD board and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent first shared with Semafor, Reps. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said they were concerned about the national security risk of letting foreign entities control a large portion of the US entertainment and media industry. They also hinted that a future Democratic Congress and administration could try to unravel any Paramount-WBD deal. "Future Congresses ... will review many of the decisions of the current Administration, and may recommend that regulators push for divestitures, which would undermine the strategic logic of this merger," they wrote. "We urge the Board to weigh these national security and regulatory liabilities in evaluating a transaction burdened by uncertain but potentially extensive mitigation obligations, foreign influence risks, or adverse regulatory action."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Amazon Changes How Copyright Protection is Applied To Kindle Direct's Self-Published Ebooks
Amazon says it will allow authors to offer their DRM-free ebooks in the EPUB and PDF formats through its self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing. Starting on January 20, 2026, authors who set their titles as DRM-free will see their books made available in these more open formats. From a report: The decision to use Digital Rights Management (DRM), a copyright protection mechanism, is set by the authors when they publish their ebooks on Amazon's platform. The company notes these changes won't impact previously published titles. If authors want to change the status of older titles, they'll have to log into the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) author portal and change an option in the settings. (Instructions on how to make that change are on Amazon's KDP support site here.) This move may actually incentivize authors to apply DRM to their ebooks.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- HDMI Forum Continues To Block HDMI 2.1 For Linux, Valve Says
New submitter emangwiro shares a report: The HDMI Forum, responsible for the HDMI specification, continues to stonewall open source. Valve's Steam Machine theoretically supports HDMI 2.1, but the mini-PC is software-limited to HDMI 2.0. As a result, more than 60 frames per second at 4K resolution are only possible with limitations. In a statement to Ars Technica, a Valve spokesperson confirmed that HDMI 2.1 support is "still a work-in-progress on the software side." "We've been working on trying to unblock things there." The Steam Machine uses an AMD Ryzen APU with a Radeon graphics unit. Valve strictly adheres to open-source drivers, but the HDMI Forum is unwilling to disclose the 2.1 specification. According to Valve, they have validated the HDMI 2.1 hardware under Windows to ensure basic functionality.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Meta's New AI Superstars Are Chafing Against the Rest of the Company
Meta's newly recruited AI "superstars" have developed an us-versus-them mentality against the company's longtime executive leadership, creating internal friction over whether the team should focus on catching up to rivals like OpenAI and Google or improving Meta's core advertising and social media businesses. Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg hired in June to be chief AI officer, leads a team called TBD Lab from a siloed space next to Zuckerberg's office. In meetings this fall, Wang privately told people he disagreed with chief product officer Chris Cox and chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth, according to the New York Times. Cox and Bosworth wanted Wang's team to use Instagram and Facebook data to train Meta's new foundational AI model for improving feeds and advertising. Wang pushed back, arguing the goal should be catching up to rival models before focusing on products. TBD Lab researchers view many Meta executives as interested only in the social media business, while the lab's ambition is to create "godlike A.I. superintelligence." Bosworth was recently asked to slash $2 billion from Reality Labs' proposed budget for next year to fund Wang's team -- a claim Meta disputes.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Same Product, Same Store, but on Instacart, Prices Might Differ
A study this week has found that shoppers using Instacart are often charged different prices for identical products at the same store at the same time, even when selecting in-store pickup rather than delivery. The Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive policy group, and Consumer Reports organized nearly 200 volunteers across four cities to simultaneously check prices on 20 grocery items. Price differences appeared on nearly three-quarters of the items tested. In one test, more than 40 participants selected the same Safeway in Washington, D.C. and the same brand of eggs. Prices ranged from $3.99 to $4.79 -- a 20% spread. At a Target in North Canton, Ohio, Skippy peanut butter was $2.99 for some shoppers and $3.59 for others. The full 20-item basket varied by about 7% within each store. An Instacart spokeswoman said retailers on its platform set their own prices and that some run short-term, randomized pricing tests. The company said tests were "never based on personal or behavioral characteristics." Instacart acquired Eversight, an AI-driven pricing optimization company, in 2022. A Target spokesman said the company is not affiliated with Instacart and bears no responsibility for prices on the platform. Safeway and parent company Albertson's declined to comment.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- NASA loses contact with MAVEN Mars orbiter
Didn’t phone home as expected on December 6th and nobody knows why
Houston, we have a problem: NASA has lost contact with the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft.…
- Oracle raises AI spending estimate, spooks investors
But if you assume cloud IOUs will be fulfilled, business is booming
Oracle expects its FY 2026 capital expenditures will be $15 billion higher that previously predicted, as the cloudy database biz invests to accommodate AI workloads.…
- US teens not only love AI, but also let it rot their brains
Yeah, not shocking, but with other studies linking AI to weaker learning and mental-health risks, it’s a worry
Alongside TikTok and Instagram, teens have added ChatGPT to the mix. Pew says about two-thirds of US teenagers have tried an AI chatbot, with nearly a third using one every day. Negative mental-health warnings be damned!…
- Really Simple Licensing spec lets web publishers demand their due from AI scrapers
Publishers now have more comprehensive tools for managing automated content harvesting
Most big AI providers scrape the open web, hoovering up content to improve their chatbots, which then compete with publishers for the attention of internet users. However, more AI orgs might have to pay up soon, because the Really Simple Licensing (RSL) spec has reached version 1.0, providing guidance on how to set machine-readable rules for crawlers.…
- US extradites Ukrainian woman accused of hacking meat processing plant for Russia
The digital intrusion allegedly caused thousands of pounds of meat to spoil and triggered an ammonia leak in the facility
A Ukrainian woman accused of hacking US public drinking water systems and a meat processing facility on behalf of Kremlin-backed cyber groups was extradited to the US earlier this year and will stand trial in early 2026.…
- Welcome to America - now show us your last five years of social media posts
Countries subject to newly proposed rule include supposed trusted friends like the UK, France, and Germany
The next time someone visits the US, customs may ask to see their passport, their Facebook feed, and all of their Instagram posts. The United States maintains a list of 42 countries whose citizens are allowed to enter without a visa, but visitors from those nations may soon have to provide five years' worth of their social media history in order to gain entry. …
- Crisis in Icebergen: How NATO crafts stories to sharpen cyber skills
1,500 military digital defenders spent the past week cleaning up a series of cyberattacks on fictional island
feature Andravia and Harbadus – two nations so often at odds with one another – were once again embroiled in conflict over the past seven days, which thoroughly tested NATO's cybersecurity experts' ability to coordinate defenses across battlefield domains.…
- Vibe coding will deliver a wonderful proliferation of personalized software
They're now good enough to do things well, if you take the time to learn how to steer them
Opinion For most of the last year, the phrase 'vibe coding' seemed more punchline than possibility. That outlook altered significantly over the last month after step-changes in quality mean vibe coding tools now generate code that’s good enough to rewrite expectations about how IT will operate before the end of this decade.…
- Rocket Lab ready to send a Hungry Hippo into space
Signoff for re-usable faring should help Neutron launcher get off the ground
Space outfit Rocket Lab says its Hungry Hippo is ready to go into space, a fillip for the company’s plans to fly its new Neutron launch vehicle.…
- Microsoft reports 7.8-rated zero day, plus 56 more in December Patch Tuesday
Plus critical critical Notepad++, Ivanti, and Fortinet updates, and one of these patches an under-attack security hole
Happy December Patch Tuesday to all who celebrate. This month's patch party includes one Microsoft flaw under exploitation, plus two others listed as publicly known – but just 57 CVEs in total from Redmond.…
- Australia bans teens from social media, but nobody thinks it'll really work
Still, the ban has reset expectations and may reduce harm, and that’s kind of enough
Australia's ban on children under 16 holding active social media accounts comes into force on Wednesday. While nobody expects this world-first policy to stop every kid using their favorite online communities, its backers take solace in the mere fact it's sparked global debate.…
- How to answer the door when the AI agents come knocking
Identity management vendors like Okta see an opening to calm CISOs worried about agents running amok
The fear of AI agents running amok has thus far halted the wide deployment of these digital workhorses, Okta's president of Auth0, Shiv Ramji, told The Register.…
- Linux Foundation aims to become the Switzerland of AI agents
An attempt to provide vendor-neutral oversight as the agent train barrels on
The Linux Foundation on Tuesday said it has formed the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) to provide vendor-neutral oversight for the development of AI agent infrastructure.…
- Window Maker Live 13.2 brings 32-bit life to Debian 13
Trixie may have gone 64-bit for installs, but WMLive still ships an i686-bootable build
Window Maker Live 13.2 is stubbornly keeping 32-bit PCs alive on Debian 13 "Trixie," shipping a new release that boots on i686 hardware.…
- Activist groups urge Congress to pause US datacenter buildouts
Bad for consumers, bad for the environment, 230+ groups say
More than 230 organizations across America have signed a letter calling for a moratorium on the construction of datacenters, claiming the current building boom represents a huge environmental and social threat.…
- Google's AI training tactics land it in another EU antitrust fight
Brussels probes whether unpaid web and YouTube content – and rivals' lock-outs – amount to abuse of dominance
The European Commission is launching an antitrust probe at Google for allegedly using web and YouTube content to train its AI algorithms while putting competitors at a disadvantage.…
- NASA nominee Isaacman moves to full Senate vote amid budget carnage
Billionaire's bid progresses while agency braces for sweeping reductions and program uncertainty
Jared Isaacman has cleared another hurdle on his way to becoming the next NASA Administrator after the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation gave the billionaire SpaceX customer the nod.…
- SAP users in the dark about vendor's plan for data analytics
February product launch fails to register, with concerns remaining about integration
SAP users admit they know very little about the vendor's data and analytics plans since the launch of the new product platform, Business Data Cloud (BDC), in February.…
- Affection for Excel spans generations, from Boomers to Zoomers
Younger finance pros are just as loyal to Microsoft's venerable spreadsheet app as their elders
Despite its advancing years, Microsoft Excel is proving a hit with young finance professionals, many of whom reckon the aging number-cruncher has a bright future.…
- Whitehall rejects £1.8B digital ID price tag – but won't say what it will cost
Officials insist OBR relied on 'early estimate' and real figure won't emerge until next year
The head of the department delivering the UK government's digital identity scheme has rejected the £1.8 billion cost forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), but is not willing to provide an alternative until after a delayed consultation on the plans.…
- Google says Chrome's new AI creates risks only more AI can fix
'User Alignment Critic' will review agentic actions so bots don't do things like emptying your bank account
Google plans to add a second Gemini-based model to Chrome to address the security problems created by adding the first Gemini model to Chrome.…
- Bezos-backed Unconventional AI aims to make datacenter power problems go away
Startup wagers the path to sustainable AI might be found in nature’s most amazing design - the brain
Interview Naveen Rao founded AI businesses and sold them to Intel and Databricks. He’s now turned his attention to satisfying AI's thirst for power and believes his new company, Unconventional AI, can do it by building chips inspired by nature.…
- Publishers say no to AI scrapers, block bots at server level
The open web is closing down for unwanted automated traffic
A growing number of websites are taking steps to ban AI bot traffic so that their work isn't used as training data and their servers aren't overwhelmed by non-human users. However, some companies are ignoring the bans and scraping anyway.…
- DJ Garman drops the ball instead of the bass in AWS re:Invent keynote
But the 25 announcements in the last 10 minutes included a few well worth waiting for
AWS CEO Matt Garman's annual re:Invent keynote was the best kind of keynote, in that you could have slept in for nearly all of it and still been thrilled to pieces, provided you caught the last ten minutes. He concluded what was otherwise an AI-palooza chock full of boring guest speakers with an Andy Jassy style "twenty-five releases in ten minutes," complete with a basketball-style ten-minute shot clock counting down the time.…
- Meta and Google turn to NextEra to feed insatiable datacenter power hunger
The Chocolate Factory will also put its AI to work inside one of America’s biggest utilities
NextEra Energy on Monday tightened its grip on hyperscaler power demand, adding 2.5 GW of new renewable projects for Meta while deepening its partnership with Google, which already covers about 3.5 GW of capacity.…
- 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]
- FreeBSD debates sunsetting power64/power64le support
I have some potentially devastating news for POWER users interested in using FreeBSD, uncovered late last month by none other than Cameron Kaiser. FreeBSD is considering retiring powerpc64 prior to branching 16, which would make FreeBSD 15 the last stable version to support the architecture. (32-bit PowerPC is already dropped as of FreeBSD 14, though both OpenBSD and NetBSD generally serve this use case, and myself I have a Mac mini G4 running a custom NetBSD kernel with code from FreeBSD for automatic restart.) Although the message says powerpc64 and powerpc64le! it later on only makes specific reference to the big-endian port, whereas both endiannesses appear on the FreeBSD platform page and on the download server. ↫ Cameron Kaiser Theres two POWER9 systems in my office, so this obviously makes me quite sad. At the same time, though, its hard not to understand any possible decision to drop powerpc64/powerpc64le at this point in time. Raptors excellent POWER9 systems the Blackbird, which I reviewed a few years ago, and the Talos II, which I also have are very long in the tooth at this point and still quite expensive, and thanks to IBM royally screwing up POWER10, we never got any timely successors. There were rumblings about a possible POWER11-based successor from Raptor back in July 2025, but its been quiet on that front since. In other words, there are no modern powerpc64 and powerpc64le systems available. POWER10 and brand new POWER11 hardware are strictly IBM and incredibly expensive, so unless IBM makes some sort of generous donation to the FreeBSD Foundation, I honestly dont know how FreeBSD is supposed to keep their powerpc64 and powerpc64le ports up-to-date with the latest generation of POWER hardware in the first place. Its important to note that no final decision has been made yet, and since that initial report by Kaiser, several people have chimed in to argue the case that at least powerpc64le (the little endian variant) should remain properly supported. In fact, Timothy Pearson from Raptor Engineering stepped up the place, and stated hes willing to take over maintainership of the port, as Raptor has been contributing to it for years anyway. Raptor remains committed to the architecture as a whole, and we have resources to assist with development. In fact, we sponsor several FreeBSD build machines already in our cloud environment, and have kernel developers working on expanding and maintaining the FreeBSD codebase. If there is any concern regarding hardware availability or developer resources, Raptor is willing and able to assist. ↫ Timothy Pearson Whatever decision the FreeBSD project makes, the Linux world will be fine for a while yet as IBM contributes to its development, and popular distributions still consider POWER a primary target. However, unless either IBM moves POWER hardware downmarket (extremely unlikely) or the rumours around Raptor have merit, I think at least the FreeBSD powerpc64 (big endian) port is done for, with the powerpc64le port hopefully being saved by people hearing these alarm bells.
- US government switches to Times New Roman because Calibri is woke!
Secretary of State Marco Rubio waded into the surprisingly fraught politics of typefaces on Tuesday with an order halting the State Department’s official use of Calibri, reversing a 2023 Biden-era directive that Mr. Rubio called a “wasteful” sop to diversity. While mostly framed as a matter of clarity and formality in presentation, Mr. Rubio’s directive to all diplomatic posts around the world blamed “radical” diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs for what he said was a misguided and ineffective switch from the serif typeface Times New Roman to sans serif Calibri in official department paperwork. ↫ Michael Crowley and Hamed Aleaziz at The New York Times
- What do Linux kernel version numbers mean?
If youre old enough, you no doubt remember that up until the 2.6.0 release of the Linux kernel, an odd number after the first version number indicated a pre-release, development version of the kernel. Even though this scheme was abandoned with the 2.6.0 release in 2003 and since then every single release has been a stable release, it seems the ghosts of this old versioning scheme still roam the halls, because prominent Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman just published an explainer about Linux kernel versions. Despite having a stable release model and cadence since December 2003, Linux kernel version numbers seem to baffle and confuse those that run across them, causing numerous groups to mistakenly make versioning statements that are flat out false. So let’s go into how this all works in detail. ↫ Greg Kroah-Hartman I genuinely find it difficult to imagine what could possibly be unclear about Linux kernel version numbers. The Linux kernel uses a very generic major.minor scheme, but thats not where the problems lie its the actual development process of each of these numbered release thats a bit more complex. This is where we have to talk about things like the roughly 10-week release cycle, containing a 2-week merge window, as well as Torvalds handing off the stable branch to the stable kernel maintainers. The other oddity is when the major version number gets incremented the first number in the version number. Theres no real method to this, as Kroah-Hartman admits Torvalds increments this number whenever the remaining numbers get too high and unwieldy to deal with. Very practical, but it does mean that going from, say, 5.x to 6.x doesnt really imply theres any changes in there that are any bigger or more disruptive than when going from 6.8.x to 6.9.x or whatever. Theres a few more important details in here, of course, like where LTS releases come from, but thats really it nothing particularly groundbreaking or confusing.
- Microsoft will allow you to remove AI! actions from Windows 11s context menus
With the current, rapidly deteriorating state of the Windows operating system, you have to take the small wins you can get: Microsoft is now offering the option of removing AI! actions from Windows 11s context menus. buried deep in the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7344 release notes, theres this nugget: If there are no available or enabled AI Actions, this section will no longer show in the context menu. ↫ Windows Insider Preview release notes If you then go to Settings > Apps > Actions and uncheck all the AI! actions, the entire submenu in Windows 11s context menus will vanish. While this is great news for those Windows users who dont want to be bothered by all the AI! nonsense, I wish Microsoft would just give users a proper way to edit the context menu that doesnt involve third party hackery. KDEs Dolphin file manager gives me full control over what does and does not appear in its context menu, and I cant imagine living without this functionality theres so many file-related operations I never use, and having them clutter up the context menu is annoying and just slows me down. Theres more substantial and important changes in this Insider Preview Build too, most notably the rollout of the Update Orchestration Platform, which should make downloading and installing application updates less cumbersome, but since its a new feature, application wont support it right away. This release also brings the new Windows MIDI Services, and Microsoft hopes this will improve the experience for musicians using MIDI 1.0 or MIDI 2.0 on Windows. Theres a slew of smaller changes, too, of course. Im not exactly sure when these new features will make their way to production installations who does, honestly, with Microsofts convoluted release processes but I hope its sooner rather than later.
- The anatomy of a macOS application
When Mac OS X was designed, it switched to the bundle structure inherited from NeXTSTEP. Instead of this multitude of resources, apps consisted of a hierarchy of directories containing files of executable code, and those with what had in Mac OS been supporting resources. Those app bundles came to adopt a standard form, shown below. ↫ Howard Oakley A short, but nonetheless informative overview of the structure of a macOS application. Im sure most people on OSNews are aware that a macOS application is a bundle, which is effectively a glorified directory containing a variety of files and subdirectories that together make up the application. I havent used macOS in a while, but I think you can right-click on an application and open it as a folder to dig around inside of it. Im trying to remember from my days as a Mac OS X user 15-20 years ago if there was ever a real need to do so, but Im sure there were a few hacks you could do by messing around with the files inside of application bundles. These days, perhaps with all the code-signing, phoning-home to Apple, and other security trickery going on, such acts are quite frowned upon. Does making any otherwise harmless changes inside an application bundle set off a ton of alarm bells in macOs these days?
- Applets are officially gone, but Java in the browser is better than ever
The end of an era, perhaps. Applets are officially, completely removed from Java 26, coming in March of 2026. This brings to an official end the era of applets, which began in 1996. However, for years it has been possible to build modern, interactive web pages in Java without needing applets or plugins. TeaVM provides fast, performant, and lightweight tooling to transpile Java to run natively in the browser. And for a full front-end toolkit with templates, routing, components, and more, Flavour lets you build your modern single-page app using 100% Java. ↫ Andrew Oliver As consumers, we dont really encounter Java that much anymore unless we play Minecraft, but that doesnt mean Java no longer has a place in this world. In fact, it still consistently ranks in the top three of most popular programming languages, so any tools to make using Java easier, both for programmers and users, are welcome.
- OSNews needs your donations to survive
OSNews is funded entirely by you, our readers. There are no ads on OSNews, we are not part of a massive corporate publishing conglomerate like virtually every other technology news website, there are no wealthy (corporate) benefactors its just whatever funds you, our readers, send our way. As such, I sometimes need to remind everyone about this, and December, the holiday month, seems as great a time as any to do this. If you want to support a truly independent technology news website, free from the corrupting influences of corporate interests, advertising companies, managers pushing AI!, and all the other nonsense destroying the web we once loved, you can do so by donating to keep OSNews alive. This gives me the time and means to write 9000 words about dead computer ecosystems, and Im already working on an article about the next final UNIX workstation. Every single donation, large or small, is deeply appreciated and keeps the lights on around here. There arent many websites like OSNews left, especially not independent ones that answer to nobody. Your support keeps OSNews going, with June 2026 marking a special moment for me: it will mark twenty years since I took over this place. Im not expecting a party youre paying me to work, not to party but it is still a meaningful anniversary for me personally.
- Porting rePalm to Pixter devices
Some of you may be aware of rePalm, a project by Dmitry Grinberg to port the PalmOS to various devices it was never supposed to run on. We covered rePalm back in 2019 and again in 2023. His latest project involved porting PalmOS to a set of digital toys that were never intended to run PalmOS in any way. Fisher-Price (owned by Mattel) produced some toys in the early 2000 under the Pixter brand. They were touchscreen-based drawing toys, with cartridge-based extra games one could plug in. Pixter devices of the first three generations ( classic!, plus!, and 2.0!) featured 8080 black-and-white screens, which makes them of no interest for rePalm. The last two generations of Pixter ( color! and multimedia!) featured 160160 color displays. Now, this was more like it! Pixter was quite popular, as far as kids toys go, in USA in the early 2000s. A friend brought it to my attention a year ago as a potential rePalm target. The screen resolution was right and looking inside a Pixter Color! showed an ARM SoC a Sharp LH75411. The device had sound (games made noises), and touch panel was resistive. In theory a viable rePalm target indeed. ↫ Dmitry Grinberg Considering the immensely limited ARMv7 implementation he had to deal with no cache, no memory management unit, no memory protection unit its a miracle Grinberg managed to succeed. To make matters even harder, the first revision boards of the color! model only had 1MB of flash, which is incredibly small even for PalmOS 5, so he had to rewrite parts of it to make it fit. Implementing communication over infrared was also a major difficulty, but that, too he managed to get working on a device that doesnt have IrDA SIR modulation. Wild. Grinberg went above and beyond, making sure the buttons on the devices work, developing and building a way to put PalmOS on a game! cartridge, reverse-engineering the display controller to make sure things like brightness adjustment works, adding screen type detection for that one small run of Pixter Color devices that came with a TFT instead of an STN screen, and so, so much more. Until you read the article, you have no idea how much work Grinberg put into this project. I continue to be in awe of Grinbergs work every time I come across it.
- Haiku highlights interesting stalled commits you might want to adopt
Now this is a great initiative by the Haiku team: highlight a number of stale commits thatve been without interaction for years, explain why theyve stalled, and then hope renewed interest might grow (part 1 and part 2). Recently some discussions on the forum led to asking about the status of our Gerrit code review. There are a lot of changes there that have been inactive for several years, with no apparent interest from anyone. To be precise, there are currently 358 commits waiting for review (note that Gerrit, unlike Github and other popular code review tools, works on a commit-by-commit basis, so each commit from a multiple-commit change is counted separately). The oldest one has not seen any comments since 2018. Today, let’s have a look at some of these changes and see why they are stalled. Hopefully it will inspire someone to pick up the work and help finishing them up. ↫ Pulkomandy at the Haiku website Browsing through the highlighted stalled commits, theres a few that seem quite interesting and relatively easy for a (new?) contributor to seek their teeth into. For instance, theres a stalled commit to remove GCC from Haiku images built with clang/llvm, which stalled mostly because there are still other issues when building Haiku with clang/llvm. For a more complex problem, theres the issue of how every menu in BeOS/Haiku is also a window, including its own thread, which means navigating deeply nested menus creates and destroys a lot of threads, that all need to be synchronised, too. If you want to get really ambitious, theres the stalled commit to add initial 64bit PowerPC support. Theres more of these, of course, so if you have the skills and will to contribute to a project like Haiku, this might be a great place to start and get your feet wet. Now that these commits are back in the spotlight, theres sure to be team members and regular contributors lined up to lend an extra hand, as well.
- Oracle Solaris 11.4 SRU 87 released
Oracle has released Solaris 11.4 SRU 87, which brings with it a whole slew of changes, updates, and fixes. Primarily, it upgrades Firefox and Thunderbird to their latest ESR 140.3.0 releases, and adds GCC 15, alongside a ton of updated other open source packages. On more Solaris 11-specific notes, useradds account activation options have been changed to address some issues caused by stricter enforcement introduced in SRU 78, theres some preparations for the upgrade to BIND 9.20 in a future Solaris 11 release, a few virtualisation improvements, and much more. If youre unclear about the relationship between this new release and the Common Build Environment or CBE release of Solaris 11.4 for enthusiasts, released earlier this year, the gist is that these SRU updates are only available to people with Oracle Solaris support contracts, while any updates to the CBE release are available to mere mortals like you and I. If you have a support contract and are using the CBE, you can upgrade from the CBE to the official SRU releases, but without such a contract, youre out of luck. A new CBE release is in the works, and is planned to arrive in 2026 which is great news, but I would love for the enthusiast variant of Solaris 11.4 to receive more regular updates. I dont think making these SRU updates available to enthusiasts in a non-commercial, zero-warranty kind of way would pose any kind of threat to Oracles bottom line, but alas, I dont run a business like Oracle so perhaps Im wrong.
- APL9: an APL for Plan 9
This is the website for APL9, which is an APL implementation written in C on and for Plan 9 (9front specifically, but the other versions should work as well). Work started in January 2022, when I wanted to do some APL programming on 9front, but no implementation existed. The focus has been on adding features and behaving (on most points) like`Dyalog APL. Speed is poor, since many primitives are implemented in terms of each other, which is not optimal, but it helped me implement stuff easier. ↫ APL9 website I honestly have no idea what to say.
- Microsoft drops AI sales targets in half after salespeople miss their quotas
Microsoft has lowered sales growth targets for its AI agent products after many salespeople missed their quotas in the fiscal year ending in June, according to a report Wednesday from The Information. The adjustment is reportedly unusual for Microsoft, and it comes after the company missed a number of ambitious sales goals for its AI offerings. ↫ Benj Edwards at Ars Technica Im sure this is fine and not a sign of anything at all.
- On recreating the lost SDK for a 42-year-old operating system: VisiCorp VisiOn
I would think most of us here at OSNews are aware of VisiOn, the graphical multitasking operating system for the IBM PC which was one of the first operating systems with a graphical user interface, predating Windows, GEM, the Mac, and even the Apple Lisa. While VisiOn was technically an open! platform anybody could develop an application for, the operating systems SDK cost $7000 at the time and required a VAX system. This, combined with VisiOn failing in the market, means nobody knows how to develop an application for it. Until now. Over the past few months, Nina Kalinina painstakingly unraveled VisiOn so that she she could recreate the SDK from scratch. In turn, this allowed developer Atsuko to develop a clean-room application for VisiOn which is most likely the very first third-party application ever developed and released for VisiOn. Ive been following along with the pains Kalinina had to go through for this endeavour over on Fedi, and it sure was a wild ride few would be willing (and capable) to undertake. It took me a month of working 1-2 hours a day to produce a specification that allowed Atsuko to implement a`clean-room`homebrew application for VisiOn that is capable of bitmap display, menus and mouse handling. If youre wondering what it felt like: this project is the largest Sudoku puzzle! I have ever tried to solve. In this note, I have tried to explain the process of solving this puzzle, as well as noteworthy things about VisiOn and its internals. ↫ Nina Kalinina The article contains both a detailed look at VisiOn, as well as the full process of recreating its SDK and developing an application with it. Near the end of the article, after going over all the work that was required to get here, theres a sobering clarification: This reverse-engineering project ended up being much bigger than I anticipated. We have a working application, yes, but so far Ive documented less than 10% of all the VisiHost and VisiOp calls. We still dont know how to implement keyboard input, or how to work with timers and background processes (if it is possible). ↫ Nina Kalinina Id love for more people to be interested in helping this effort out, as its not just an extremely difficult challenge, but also a massive contribution to software preservation. VisiOn may not be more than a small footnote in computing history, but it still deserves to be remembered and understood, and Kalinina and Atsuko have done an amazing amount of legwork for whomever wants to pick this up, too.
- Google is experimentally replacing news headlines with AI clickbait nonsense
Did you know that BG3 players exploit children? Are you aware that Qi2 slows older Pixels? If we wrote those misleading headlines, readers would rip us a new one — but Google is experimentally beginning to replace the original headlines on stories it serves with AI nonsense like that. ↫ Sean Hollister at The Verge Im a little teapot, short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout. When I get all steamed up, hear me shout. Tip me over and pour me out!
- Micron is ending its consumer RAM business because of AI!
You may have noticed that due to AI! companies buying up all literally all the RAM in the world, prices for consumer RAM and SSDs have gone completely batshit insane. Well, its only going to get worse, since Micron has announced its going to exit the market for consumer RAM and is, therefore, retiring its Crucial brand. The reason? You know the reason. “The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage. Micron has made the difficult decision to exit the Crucial consumer business in order to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments,” said Sumit Sadana, EVP and Chief Business Officer at Micron Technology. ↫ Microns press release First it was the crypto pyramid scheme, and now its the AI! pyramid scheme. These MLMs for unimpressive white males who couldnt imagine themselves out of a wet paper bag are ruining not just the environment, software, and soon the worlds economy when the bubble pops, but are now also making it extraordinarily expensive to buy some RAM or a bit of storage. Literally nothing good is coming from these techbro equivalents of Harlequin romance novels, and yet, were forced to pretend theyre the next coming of the railroads every time some guy who was voted most likely to die a middle manager at Albertsons in Casper, Wyoming, farts his idea out on a napkin. I am so tired.
- Redox takes first baby steps towards a modesetting driver for Intel graphics
An exciting tidbit of news from Redox, the Rust-based operating system. Its founder and lead developer Jeremy Soller has merged the first changes for a modesetting driver for Intel graphics. After a few nights of reading through thousands of pages of PRMs I have finally implemented a modesetting driver for Intel HD graphics on Redox OS. There is much more to do, but there is now a clear path to native hardware accelerated graphics! ↫ Jeremy Soller Of course, all the usual disclaimers apply, but its an important first step, and once again underlines that Redox is turning into a very solid platform that might just be on the cusp of becoming something we can use every day.
- Linux Kernel 5.4 Reaches End-of-Life: Time to Retire a Workhorse
by George Whittaker
One of the most widely deployed Linux kernels has officially reached the end of its lifecycle. The maintainers of the Linux kernel have confirmed that Linux 5.4, once a cornerstone of countless servers, desktops, and embedded devices, is now end-of-life (EOL). After years of long-term support, the branch has been retired and will no longer receive upstream fixes or security updates.
A Kernel Release That Defined a Generation of Linux Systems
When Linux 5.4 debuted, it made headlines for bringing native exFAT support, broader hardware compatibility, and performance improvements that many distributions quickly embraced. It became the foundation for major OS releases, including Ubuntu LTS, certain ChromeOS versions, Android kernels, and numerous appliance and IoT devices.
Its long support window made it a favorite for organizations seeking stability over bleeding-edge features.
What End-of-Life Actually Means
With the EOL announcement, the upstream kernel maintainers are officially done with version 5.4. That means:
No more security patches
No more bug fixes or performance updates
No regressions or vulnerabilities will be addressed
Some enterprise vendors may continue backporting patches privately, but the public upstream branch is now frozen. For most users, that makes 5.4 effectively unsafe to run.
Why This Matters for Users and Organizations
Many devices, especially embedded systems, tend to run kernels for much longer than desktops or servers. If those systems continue using 5.4, they now risk exposure to unpatched vulnerabilities.
Running an unsupported kernel can also create compliance issues for companies operating under strict security guidelines or certifications. Even home users running older LTS distributions may unknowingly remain on a kernel that’s no longer protected.
Upgrading Is the Clear Next Step
With 5.4 retired, users should begin planning an upgrade to a supported kernel line. Today’s active long-term support kernels include more modern branches such as 6.1, 6.6, and 6.8, which provide:
Better CPU and GPU support
Significant security improvements
Enhanced performance and energy efficiency
Longer future support windows
Before upgrading, organizations should test workloads, custom drivers, and hardware, especially with specialized or embedded deployments.
Go to Full Article
- Linux Distros Designed for Former Windows Users Are Picking Up Steam
by George Whittaker
For years, Windows users frustrated with constant changes, aggressive updates, and growing system bloat have flirted with switching to Linux. But 2025 marks a noticeable shift: a new generation of Linux distributions built specifically for ex-Windows users is gaining real traction. One of the standout examples is Bazzite, a gaming-optimized Fedora-based distro that has quickly become a go-to choice for people abandoning Windows in favor of a cleaner, more customizable experience.
Why Many Windows Users Are Finally Jumping Ship
Microsoft’s ecosystem has been slowly pushing some users toward the exit. Hardware requirements for Windows 11 left millions of perfectly functional PCs behind. Ads on the Start menu and in system notifications have frustrated many. And for gamers, launcher problems, forced reboots and background processes that siphon resources have driven a search for alternatives.
Linux distributions have benefited from that frustration, especially those that focus on simplicity, performance and gaming readiness.
Gaming-First Distros Are Leading the Movement
Historically, switching to Linux meant sacrificing game compatibility. But with Valve’s Proton layer and Vulkan-based translation technologies, thousands of Windows games now run flawlessly, sometimes better than on Windows.
Distros targeting former Windows users are leaning into this new reality:
Seamless Steam integration
Automatic driver configuration for AMD, Intel and NVIDIA
Built-in performance overlays like MangoHUD
Proton GE and tools for modding or shader fixes
Support for HDR, VR and modern controller layouts
This means a new Linux user can install one of these distros and jump straight into gaming with almost no setup.
Bazzite: A Standout Alternative OS
Bazzite has become the poster child for this trend. Built on Fedora’s image-based system and the Universal Blue infrastructure, it offers an incredibly stable base that updates atomically, similar to SteamOS.
What makes Bazzite so attractive to Windows refugees?
Gaming-ready out of the box no tweaking, no driver hunts
Rock-solid performance thanks to an immutable system layout
Support for handheld PCs like the Steam Deck, ROG Ally and Legion Go
Friendly workflows that feel familiar to new Linux users
Customization without the risk of breaking the system
It’s no surprise that many “I switched to Linux!” posts now mention Bazzite as their distro of choice.
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- Linux Kernel 6.18 Is Out: What’s New and Important
by George Whittaker
The stable release of Linux Kernel 6.18 was officially tagged on November 30, 2025.
It’s expected to become this year’s major long-term support (LTS) kernel, something many users and distributions care about.
Here’s a breakdown of the most significant changes and improvements in this release:
Core Improvements: Performance, Memory, Infrastructure
The kernel’s memory allocation subsystem gets a major upgrade with “sheaves”, a per-CPU caching layer for slab allocations. This reduces locking overhead and speeds up memory allocation and freeing, improving overall system responsiveness.
A new device-mapper target dm-pcache arrives, enabling use of persistent memory (e.g. NVDIMM/CXL) as a cache layer for block devices, useful for systems with fast non-volatile memory, SSDs, or hybrid storage.
Overall memory management and swapping performance have been improved, which should help under memory pressure or heavy workloads.
Networking & Security Enhancements
Networking gets a boost: support for Accurate Explicit Congestion Notification (AccECN) in TCP, which can provide better congestion signals and more efficient network behaviour under load.
A new option for PSP-encrypted TCP connections has been added, a fresh attempt to push more secure transport-layer encryption (like a more efficient alternative to IPsec/TLS for some workloads) under kernel control.
The kernel now supports cryptographically signed BPF programs (eBPF), so BPF bytecode loaded at runtime can be verified for integrity. This is a noteworthy security hardening step.
The overall security infrastructure and auditing path, including multi-LSM (Linux Security Modules) support, has been refined, improving compatibility for setups using SELinux, AppArmor, or similar simultaneously.
Hardware, Drivers & Architecture Coverage
Kernel 6.18 brings enhanced hardware support: updated and new drivers for many platforms across architectures (x86_64, ARM, RISC-V, MIPS, etc.), including improvements for GPUs, CPU power management, storage controllers, and more.
In particular, support for newer SoCs, chipsets, and embedded-board device trees has been extended, beneficial for people using SBCs, ARM-based laptops/boards, or niche hardware.
For gaming rigs, laptops, and desktops alike: improvements to drivers, power-state management, and performance tuning may lead to better overall hardware efficiency.
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- Wine 10.19 Released: Game Changing Support for Windows Reparse Points on Linux
by George Whittaker Introduction
If you use Linux and occasionally run Windows applications, whether via native Wine or through gaming layers like Proton, you’ll appreciate what just dropped in Wine 10.19. Released November 14 2025, this version brings a major enhancement: official support for Windows reparse points, a filesystem feature many Windows apps rely on, and a host of other compatibility upgrades.
In simpler terms: Wine now understands more of the Windows filesystem semantics, which means fewer workarounds, better application compatibility, and smoother experiences for many games and tools previously finicky under Linux.
What Are Reparse Points & Why They MatterUnderstanding Reparse Points
On Windows, a reparse point is a filesystem object (file or directory) that carries additional data, often used for symbolic links, junctions, mount points, or other redirection features. When an application opens or queries a file, the OS may check the reparse tag to determine special behavior (for example “redirect this file open to this other path”).
Because many Windows apps, installers, games, DRM systems, file-managers, use reparse points for features like directory redirection, path abstractions, or filesystem overlays, lacking full support for them in Wine means those apps often misbehave.
What Wine 10.19 Adds
With Wine 10.19, support for these reparse point mechanisms has been implemented in key filesystem APIs: for example NtQueryDirectoryFile, GetFileInfo, file attribute tags, and DeleteFile/RemoveDirectory for reparse objects.
This means that in Wine 10.19:
Windows apps that create or manage symbolic links, directory junctions or mount-point style re-parsing will now function correctly in many more cases.
Installers or frameworks that rely on “when opening path X, redirect to path Y” will work with less tinkering.
Games or utilities that check for reparse tags or use directory redirections will have fewer “stuck” behaviors or missing files.
In effect, this is a step toward closer to native behavior for Windows file-system semantics under Linux.
Other Key Highlights in Wine 10.19
Beyond reparse points, the release brings several notable improvements:
Expanded support for WinRT exceptions (Windows Runtime error handling) meaning better compatibility for Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps and newer Windows-based frameworks.
Refactoring of “Common Controls” (COMCTL32) following the version 5 vs version 6 split, which helps GUI applications that rely on older controls or expect mixed versions.
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- Firefox 145: A Major Release with 32-Bit Linux Support Dropped
by George Whittaker Introduction
Mozilla has rolled out Firefox 145, a significant update that brings a range of usability, security and privacy enhancements, while marking a clear turning point by discontinuing official support for 32-bit Linux systems. For users on older hardware or legacy distros, this change means it’s time to consider moving to a 64-bit environment or opting for a supported version.
Here’s a detailed look at what’s new, what’s changed, and what you need to know.
Major Changes in Firefox 145End of 32-Bit Linux Builds
One of the headline items in this release is Mozilla’s decision to stop building and distributing Firefox for 32-bit x86 Linux. As per their announcement:
“32-bit Linux (on x86) is no longer widely supported by the vast majority of Linux distributions, and maintaining Firefox on this platform has become increasingly difficult and unreliable.”
From Firefox 145 onward, only 64-bit (x86_64) and relevant 64-bit architectures (such as ARM64) will be officially supported. For those still running 32-bit Linux builds, Mozilla recommends migrating to 64-bit or switching to the Extended Support Release (ESR) branch (Firefox 140 ESR) which still supports 32-bit for a limited period.
Usability & Interface Enhancements
Firefox 145 brings several improvements designed to make everyday web browsing smoother and more flexible:
PDF viewer enhancements: You can now add, edit, and delete comments in PDFs, and a comments sidebar helps you easily navigate your annotations.
Tab-group preview: When you hover over the name of a collapsed tab group, a thumbnail preview of the tabs inside appears, helpful for reorganizing or returning to work.
Access saved passwords from the sidebar, without needing to open a new tab or window.
“Open links from apps next to your active tab” setting: When enabled, links opened from external applications insert next to your current tab instead of at the end of the tab bar.
Slight UI refinements: Buttons, input fields, tabs and other elements get more rounded edges, horizontal tabs are redesigned to align with vertical-tab aesthetics.
Privacy, Security & Under-the-Hood Upgrades
Mozilla has also doubled down on privacy and risk reduction:
Fingerprinting defenses: Firefox 145 introduces new anti-fingerprinting techniques that Mozilla estimates reduce the number of users identified as unique by nearly half when Private Browsing mode or Enhanced Tracking Protection (strict) is used.
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- MX Linux 25 ‘Infinity’ Arrives: Debian 13 ‘Trixie’ Base, Modern Tools & A Fresh Installer
by George Whittaker Introduction
The team behind MX Linux has just released version 25, carrying the codename “Infinity”, and it brings a significant upgrade by building upon the stable base of Debian 13 “Trixie”. Released on November 9, 2025, this edition doesn’t just refresh the desktop, it introduces modernized tooling, updated kernels, dual init-options, and installer enhancements aimed at both newcomers and long-time users.
In the sections that follow, we’ll walk through the key new features of MX Linux 25, what’s changed for each desktop edition, recommended upgrade or fresh-install paths, and why this release matters in the wider Linux-distribution ecosystem.
What’s New in MX Linux 25 “Infinity”
Here are the headline changes and improvements that define this release:
Debian 13 “Trixie” Base
By moving to Debian 13, Infinity inherits all the stability, security updates, and broader hardware support of the latest Debian stable release. The base system now aligns with Trixie’s libraries, kernels, and architecture support.
Kernel Choices & Hardware Support
The standard editions ship with the Linux 6.12 LTS kernel series, offering a solid baseline for most hardware.
For newer hardware or advanced users, the “AHS” (Advanced Hardware Support) variants and the KDE Plasma edition adopt a Liquorix-flavored Linux 6.16 (or 6.15 in some variants) kernel, maximizing performance and compatibility with cutting-edge setups.
Dual Init Option: systemd and SysVinit
Traditionally associated with lighter-weight init options, MX Linux now offers both systemd by default and SysVinit editions (particularly for Xfce and Fluxbox variants). This gives users the freedom to choose their init system preference without losing new features.
Updated Desktop Environments
Xfce edition: Ships with Xfce 4.20. Improvements include a revamped Whisker Menu, updated archive management tools (Engrampa replacing File Roller in some editions).
KDE Plasma edition: Uses KDE Plasma 6.3.6, defaults to Wayland for a modern session experience (with X11 still optionally available), adds root-actions and service menus to Dolphin, and switches TLP out for power-profiles-daemon to resolve power widget issues.
Fluxbox edition: Offers a more minimal, highly customizable environment: new panel layouts, updated “appfinder” configs for Rofi, toolbar changes and themes refined. Defaults the audio player to Audacious (instead of the older DeaDBeeF).
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- Arch Linux November 2025 ISO: Fresh Snapshot, Smarter Installer (Archinstall 3.0.12) & Pacman 7.1
by George Whittaker
Arch Linux has shipped its November 2025 ISO snapshot (2025.11.01), and while Arch remains a rolling distribution, these monthly images are a big deal, especially for new installs, labs, and homelab deployments. This time, the ISO lands alongside two important pieces:
Archinstall 3.0.12 – a more polished, smarter TUI installer
Pacman 7.1 – a package manager update with stricter security and better tooling
If you’ve been thinking about spinning up a fresh Arch box, or you’re curious what changed under the hood, this release is a very nice jumping-on point.
Why Arch Still Ships Monthly ISOs in a Rolling World
Arch is famous for its “install once, update forever” model. Technically, you could install from a two-year-old image and just run:
sudo pacman -Syu
…but in practice, that’s painful:
Huge initial update downloads
Possible breakage jumping across many months of changes
Outdated installer tooling
That’s why the project publishes a monthly snapshot ISO: it rolls all current packages into a fresh image so you:
Start with a current kernel and userland
Spend less time updating right after install
Get the latest Archinstall baked in (or just a pacman -Sy archinstall away)
The 2025.11.01 ISO is exactly that: Arch as of early November 2025, ready to go.
What’s Inside the November 2025 ISO (2025.11.01)
The November snapshot doesn’t introduce new features by itself, it’s a frozen image of current Arch, but a few details are worth calling out:
Ships with a Linux 6.17.x kernel, including improved AMD/Intel GPU support and updated Btrfs bits.
Includes all the usual base packages plus current toolchains, drivers, and desktop stacks from the rolling repos.
The image is intended only for new installs; existing Arch systems should keep using pacman -Syu for upgrades.
You can download it from the official Arch Linux download page or via BitTorrent mirrors.
One small twist: the ISO itself still ships with Archinstall 3.0.11, but 3.0.12 was released the same day – so we’ll grab the newer version from the repos before running the installer.
Archinstall 3.0.12: What’s Actually New?
Archinstall has evolved from “nice experiment” to “pretty solid way to install Arch” if you don’t want to script everything yourself. Version 3.0.12 is a refinement release focused on stability, storage, and bootloader logic.
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- AMD Confirms Zen 5 RNG Flaw: When ‘Random’ Isn’t Random Enough
by George Whittaker
AMD has officially confirmed a high-severity security vulnerability in its new Zen 5–based CPUs, and it’s a nasty one because it hits cryptography right at the source: the hardware random number generator.
Here’s a clear breakdown of what’s going on, how bad it really is, and what you should do if you’re running Zen 5.
What AMD Just Confirmed
AMD’s security bulletin AMD-SB-7055, now tracked as CVE-2025-62626, describes a bug in the RDSEED instruction on Zen 5 processors. Under certain conditions, the CPU can:
Return the value 0 from RDSEED far more often than true randomness would allow
Still signal “success” (carry flag CF=1), so software thinks it got a good random value
The issue affects the 16-bit and 32-bit forms of RDSEED on Zen 5; the 64-bit form is not affected.
Because RDSEED is used to feed cryptographically secure random number generators (CSPRNGs), a broken RDSEED can poison keys, tokens, and other security-critical values.
AMD classifies the impact as:
Loss of confidentiality and integrity (High severity).
How the Vulnerability Works (In Plain English)What RDSEED Is Supposed to Do
Modern CPUs expose hardware instructions like RDRAND and RDSEED:
RDRAND: Gives you pseudo-random values from a DRBG that’s already been seeded.
RDSEED: Gives you raw entropy samples suitable for seeding cryptographic PRNGs (it should be very close to truly random).
Software like TLS libraries, key generators, HSM emulators, and OS RNGs may rely directly or indirectly on RDSEED to bootstrap secure randomness.
What’s Going Wrong on Zen 5
On affected Zen 5 CPUs:
The 16-bit and 32-bit RDSEED variants sometimes return 0 much more often than a true random source should.
Even worse, they simultaneously report success (CF=1), so software assumes the value is fine rather than retrying.
In cryptographic terms, this means:
Entropy can be dramatically reduced (many key bits become predictable or even fixed).
Keys or nonces derived from those values can become partially or fully guessable.
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- The Most Critical Linux Kernel Breaches of 2025 So Far
by George Whittaker
The Linux kernel, foundational for servers, desktops, embedded systems, and cloud infrastructure, has been under heightened scrutiny. Several vulnerabilities have been exploited in real-world attacks, targeting critical subsystems and isolation layers. In this article, we’ll walk through major examples, explain their significance, and offer actionable guidance for defenders.
CVE-2025-21756 – Use-After-Free in the vsock Subsystem
One of the most alarming flaws this year involves a use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel’s vsock implementation (Virtual Socket), which enables communication between virtual machines and their hosts.
How the exploit works:A malicious actor inside a VM (or other privileged context) manipulates reference counters when a vsock transport is reassigned. The code ends up freeing a socket object while it’s still in use, enabling memory corruption and potentially root-level access.
Why it matters:Since vsock is used for VM-to-host and inter-VM communication, this flaw breaks a key isolation barrier. In multi-tenant cloud environments or container hosts that expose vsock endpoints, the impact can be severe.
Mitigation:Kernel maintainers have released patches. If your systems run hosts, hypervisors, or other environments where vsock is present, make sure the kernel is updated and virtualization subsystems are patched.
CVE-2025-38236 – Out-of-Bounds / Sandbox Escape via UNIX Domain Sockets
Another high-impact vulnerability involves the UNIX domain socket interface and the MSG_OOB flag. The bug was publicly detailed in August 2025 and is already in active discussion.
Attack scenario:A process running inside a sandbox (for example a browser renderer) can exploit MSG_OOB operations on a UNIX domain socket to trigger a use-after-free or out-of-bounds read/write. That allows leaking kernel pointers or memory and then chaining to full kernel privilege escalation.
Why it matters:This vulnerability is especially dangerous because it bridges from a low-privilege sandboxed process to kernel-level compromise. Many systems assume sandboxed code is safe; this attack undermines that assumption.
Mitigation:Distributions and vendors (like browser teams) have disabled or restricted MSG_OOB usage for sandboxed contexts. Kernel patches are available. Systems that run browser sandboxes or other sandboxed processes need to apply these updates immediately.
CVE-2025-38352 – TOCTOU Race Condition in POSIX CPU Timers
In September 2025, the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.
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- Steam Deck 2 Rumors Ignite a New Era for Linux Gaming
by George Whittaker
The speculation around a successor to the Steam Deck has stirred renewed excitement, not just for a new handheld, but for what it signals in Linux-based gaming. With whispers of next-gen specs, deeper integration of SteamOS, and an evolving handheld PC ecosystem, these rumors are fueling broader hopes that Linux gaming is entering a more mature age. In this article we look at the existing rumors, how they tie into the Linux gaming landscape, why this matters, and what to watch.
What the Rumours Suggest
Although Valve has kept things quiet, multiple credible outlets report about the Steam Deck 2 being in development and potentially arriving well after 2026. Some of the key tid-bits:
Editorials note that Valve isn’t planning a mere spec refresh; it wants a “generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life”.
A leaked hardware slide pointed to an AMD “Magnus”-class APU built on Zen 6 architecture being tied to next-gen handhelds, including speculation about the Steam Deck 2.
One hardware leaker (KeplerL2) cited a possible 2028 launch window for the Steam Deck 2, which would make it roughly 6 years after the original.
Valve’s own design leads have publicly stated that a refresh with only 20-30% more performance is “not meaningful enough”, implying they’re waiting for a more substantial upgrade.
In short: while nothing is official yet, there’s strong evidence that Valve is working on the next iteration and wants it to be a noteworthy jump, not just a minor update.
Why This Matters for Linux Gaming
The rumoured arrival of the Steam Deck 2 isn’t just about hardware, it reflects and could accelerate key inflection points for Linux & gaming:
Validation of SteamOS & Linux Gaming
The original Steam Deck, running SteamOS (a Linux-based OS), helped prove that PC gaming doesn’t always require Windows. A well-received successor would further validate Linux as a first-class gaming platform, not a niche alternative but a mainstream choice.
Handheld PC Ecosystem Momentum
Since the first Deck, many Windows-based handhelds have entered the market (such as the ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go). Rumours of the Deck 2 keep spotlight on the form factor and raise expectations for Linux-native handhelds. This momentum helps encourage driver, compatibility and OS investments from the broader community.
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