|
1825 Monetary Lane Suite #104 Carrollton, TX
Do a presentation at NTLUG.
What is the Linux Installation Project?
Real companies using Linux!
Not just for business anymore.
Providing ready to run platforms on Linux
|
Show Descriptions... (Show All)
(Two Column)
- Debian Bookworm: Chromium Low Denial Of Service Risk DSA-6100-1
Security issues were discovered in Chromium which could result in the execution of arbitrary code, denial of service, or information disclosure. For the oldstable distribution (bookworm), these problems have been fixed in version 144.0.7559.59-1~deb12u1.
- [$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for January 15, 2026
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
Front: SFC v. VIZIO; GPLv2 requirements; Debian and GTK 2; OpenZL; kernel scheduler QoS; Rust concurrent data access; Asciinema. Briefs: OpenSSL and Python; LSFMM+BPF 2026; Fedora elections; Gentoo retrospective; EU lawmaking; Git data model; Firefox 147; Radicle 1.6.0; Quotes; ... Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
- The State of OpenSSL for pyca/cryptography
Paul Kehrer and Alex Gaynor, maintainers of the Python cryptography module, have put out some stronglyworded criticism of OpenSSL. Itcomes from a talk they gave at the OpenSSL conference in October 2025 (YouTube video). Thepost goes into a lot of detail about the problems with the OpenSSL codebase and testing, which has led the cryptography team toreconsider using the library. "The mistakes we see in OpenSSL'sdevelopment have become so significant that we believe substantial changesare required — either to OpenSSL, or to our reliance on it." They gofurther in the conclusion:First, we will no longer require OpenSSL implementations for new functionality. Where we deem it desirable, we will add new APIs that are only on LibreSSL/BoringSSL/AWS-LC. Concretely, we expect to add ML-KEM and ML-DSA APIs that are only available with LibreSSL/BoringSSL/AWS-LC, and not with OpenSSL.
Second, we currently statically link a copy of OpenSSL in our wheels (binary artifacts). We are beginning the process of looking into what would be required to change our wheels to link against one of the OpenSSL forks.
If we are able to successfully switch to one of OpenSSL's forks for our binary wheels, we will begin considering the circumstances under which we would drop support for OpenSSL entirely.
- [$] Format-specific compression with OpenZL
Lossless data compression is an important tool for reducing the storagerequirements of the world's ever-growing data sets. Yann Collet developedthe LZ4algorithm and designed the Zstandard (or Zstd)algorithm; he came to the 2025Open Source Summit Japan in Tokyo to talk about where data compressiongoes from here. It turns out that we have reached a point wheregeneral-purpose algorithms are only going to provide limited improvement;for significant increases in compression, while keeping computation costswithin reason for data-center use, turning to format-specific techniqueswill be needed.
- [$] Debian discusses removing GTK 2 for forky
The Debian GNOME team would like to remove the GTK 2 graphicstoolkit, which has been unmaintained upstream for more than fiveyears, and ship Debian 14 ("forky") without it. As one mightexpect, however, there are those who would like to find a way to keepit. Despite its age and declared obsolescence, quite a few Debianpackages still depend on GTK 2. Many of those applications areunlikely to be updated, and users are not eager to give themup. Discussion about how to handle this is ongoing; it seems likelythat Debian developers will find some way to continue supportingapplications that require GTK 2, but users may have to lookoutside official Debian repositories.
- Radicle 1.6.0 released
Version1.6.0 of the Radicle peer-to-peer, local-first code collaborationstack has been released. Notable changes in this release includesupport for systemdcredentials, use of Rust's clap crate forparsing command-line arguments, and more. LWN covered the project in March2024.
- Security updates for Wednesday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (sssd), Debian (linux-6.1 and python-parsl), Fedora (chezmoi, complyctl, composer, and firefox), Oracle (kernel), Red Hat (buildah, libpq, podman, postgresql, postgresql16, postgresql:13, postgresql:15, and postgresql:16), SUSE (avahi, curl, ffmpeg-4, ffmpeg-7, firefox, istioctl, k6, kubelogin, libmicrohttpd, libpcap-devel, libpng16, libtasn1-6-32bit, matio, ovmf, python-tornado6, python311-Authlib, and teleport), and Ubuntu (angular.js, python-urllib3, and webkit2gtk).
- [$] A high-level quality-of-service interface
Quality-of-service (QoS) mechanisms attempt to prioritize some processes (ornetwork traffic, disk I/O, etc.) over others in order to meet a system'sperformance goals. This is a difficult topic to handle in the world of Linux,where workloads, hardware, and user expectations vary wildly. Qais Yousef spokeat the 2025 Linux Plumbers Conference, alongside his collaborators John Stultz,Steven Rostedt, and Vincent Guittot, about their plans for introducing ahigh-level QoS API for Linux in a way that leaves end users in control of itsconfiguration. The talk focused specifically on a QoS mechanism for thescheduler, to prioritize access to CPU resources differently for different kindsof processes.(slides;video)
- Firefox 147 released
Version147.0 of the Firefox web browser has been released. Notablechanges in this release include support for the XDG BaseDirectory specification, enabling localnetwork access restrictions for users with enhancedtracking protection (ETP) set to "Strict", and a fix that improvesFirefox's rendering with GNOME on fractionally scaleddisplays. Firefox 147 also includes a number of securityfixes, including several sandbox-escape vulnerabilities.
- Security updates for Tuesday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (mariadb10.11, mariadb:10.11, mariadb:10.3, mariadb:10.5, and tar), Debian (net-snmp), Fedora (coturn, NetworkManager-l2tp, openssh, and tuxanci), Mageia (libtasn1), Oracle (buildah, cups, httpd, kernel, libpq, libsoup, libsoup3, mariadb:10.11, mariadb:10.3, openssl, and podman), SUSE (cpp-httplib, ImageMagick, libtasn1, python-cbor2, util-linux, valkey, and wget2), and Ubuntu (google-guest-agent, linux-iot, and python-urllib3).
- [$] Asciinema: making movies at the command-line
In open-source circles there are many situations, such as bugreports, demos, and tutorials, when one might want to provide aplay-by-play of a session in one's terminal. The asciinema project provides a set oftools to do just that. Its tools let users record, edit, and shareterminal sessions in a text-based format that has quite a fewadvantages compared to making and sharing videos of terminal sessions. Forexample, it is easy to use, offers the ability to search text fromrecorded sessions, and allows users to copy and paste directly fromthe recording.
- Security updates for Monday
Security updates have been issued by Debian (chromium and sogo), Fedora (chromium, foomuuri, libpng, libsodium, mariadb10.11, musescore, nginx, python-pdfminer, python-urllib3, python3.12, seamonkey, wasmedge, and wget2), Mageia (curl, libpcap, sodium, wget2, and zlib), Slackware (lcms2), SUSE (chromedriver, chromium, noopenh264, coredns, curl, dcmtk, fontforge, gdk-pixbuf-loader-libheif, gimp, kernel, libheif, libpng16, libsoup-2_4-1, libvirt, mariadb, php8, poppler, python-filelock, python-tornado6, python311-aiohttp, qemu, sssd, and traefik), and Ubuntu (libheif, libtasn1-6, linux-azure-nvidia, linux-kvm, linux-raspi, linux-raspi-realtime, and php7.2, php7.4, php8.1, php8.3, php8.4).
- The LSFMM+BPF 2026 call for proposals is out
The 2026 edition of the Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, andBPF Summit will be held May 4-6 in Zagreb, Croatia. The call forproposals has gone out for anybody who would like to attend thisinvitation-only meeting. "We are asking that you please let us know youwant to be invited by February 20, 2026".
- Evans: A data model for Git (and other docs updates)
On her blog, Julia Evans writes aboutimproving Git documentation, including a new datamodel man page she wrote with MarieLeBlanc Flanagan, and updates to the pages for several other Git sub-commands(add, checkout, push, and pull). Aspart of the process, she asked Git users to describe problems they had run intoin the documentation, which helped guide the changes that she made.I'm excited about this because understanding how Git organizes its commit and branch data has really helped me reason about how Git works over the years, and I think it's important to have a short (1600 words!) version of the data model that's accurate.
The "accurate" part turned out to not be that easy: I knew the basics of how Git's data model worked, but during the review process I learned some new details and had to make quite a few changes (for example how merge conflicts are stored in the staging area).
- [$] READ_ONCE(), WRITE_ONCE(), but not for Rust
The READ_ONCE() and WRITE_ONCE() macros are heavily usedwithin the kernel; there are nearly 8,000 call sites forREAD_ONCE(). They are key to the implementation of many lockless algorithms and can be necessary for sometypes of device-memory access. So one might think that, as theamount of Rust code in the kernel increases, there would be a place forRust versions of these macros as well. The truth of the matter, though, isthat the Rust community seems to want to take a different approach toconcurrent data access.
- Intel Panther Lake GSC Firmware Published Ahead Of Laptop Availability
While Intel has been upstreaming various Panther Lake firmware bits to linux-firmware.git for pairing with their open-source kernel drivers ahead of Core Ultra Series 3 laptops shipping, one piece of the puzzle only published today is the GSC firmware for the Panther Lake graphics...
- $99 BeaglePlay Board Achieves "100% Open-Source" Upstream PowerVR Graphics
Going back many years Imagination PowerVR graphics were widely despised by open-source enthusiasts and Linux desktop users for their lack of an open-source GPU driver. But over the past few years the Imagination PowerVR driver focused on their Rogue graphics IP has matured nicely within the Linux kernel and the PowerVR Vulkan driver in Mesa taking shape too. Paired with Zink for OpenGL over Vulkan, there's a robust open-source PowerVR graphics experience now possible. For those interested in trying out said open-source driver stack, the TI AM62-powered BeaglePlay is an affordable way of doing so for that $99 USD single board computer...
- Popular Python libraries used in Hugging Face models subject to poisoned metadata attack
The open-source libraries were created by Salesforce, Nvidia, and Apple with a Swiss groupVulnerabilities in popular AI and ML Python libraries used in Hugging Face models with tens of millions of downloads allow remote attackers to hide malicious code in metadata. The code then executes automatically when a file containing the poisoned metadata is loaded.…
- ReactOS Receives Fix For A Very Annoying Usability Issue
ReactOS began 2026 with another "major step" towards Windows NT 6 compatibility with updating its MSVCRT implementation from Wine for the Microsoft C Runtime DLL library. That improved support for a number of Windows applications running on this open-source OS. ReactOS is taking another step-forward now with addressing a very annoying usability issue where up until now you may need to refresh the file manager for seeing folder changes...
- JPEG-XL Image Support Returns To Latest Chrome / Chromium Code
To the frustration of many developers and end-users, back in 2022 Google deprecated JPEG-XL support in Chrome/Chromium and proceeded to remove the support. That decision was widely slammed and ultimately Google said they may end up reconsidering it. In November there was renewed activity and interest in restoring JPEG-XL within Google's image web browser and as of yesterday the code was merged...
- Warhammer Maker Games Workshop Bans Its Staff From Using AI In Its Content or Designs
Games Workshop, the owner and operator of a number of hugely popular tabletop war games, including Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar, has banned the use of generative AI in its content and design processes. IGN reports: Delivering the UK company's impressive financial results, CEO Kevin Rountree addressed the issue of AI and how Games Workshop is handling it. He said GW staff are barred from using it to actually produce anything, but admitted a "few" senior managers are experimenting with it. Rountree said AI was "a very broad topic and to be honest I'm not an expert on it," then went on to lay down the company line: "We do have a few senior managers that are [experts on AI]: none are that excited about it yet. We have agreed an internal policy to guide us all, which is currently very cautious e.g. we do not allow AI generated content or AI to be used in our design processes or its unauthorized use outside of GW including in any of our competitions. We also have to monitor and protect ourselves from a data compliance, security and governance perspective, the AI or machine learning engines seem to be automatically included on our phones or laptops whether we like it or not. We are allowing those few senior managers to continue to be inquisitive about the technology. We have also agreed we will be maintaining a strong commitment to protect our intellectual property and respect our human creators. In the period reported, we continued to invest in our Warhammer Studio -- hiring more creatives in multiple disciplines from concepting and art to writing and sculpting. Talented and passionate individuals that make Warhammer the rich, evocative IP that our hobbyists and we all love."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Britain Awards Wind Farm Contracts That Will Power 12 Million Homes
The UK government has awarded guaranteed electricity prices to offshore wind projects totaling 8.4 GW in a bid to revive wind development, attract nearly $30 billion in private investment, and stabilize energy costs. The New York Times reports: On Wednesday, the British government said that it would provide guaranteed electricity prices for a group of wind farms off England, Scotland and Wales that would, once built, provide power for 12 million homes. The 8.4 gigawatts, a power capacity measure, that won support is the largest amount that has been achieved in an auction in Britain. The government said that these wind farms could lead to 22 billion pounds, or almost $30 billion, in private investment. The government holds regular auctions, roughly on an annual basis. Results have been improving after a failed auction in 2023 that produced no bids from developers. The government almost doubled its original budget for the recent auction to about 1.8 billion pounds per year. To encourage renewable energy sources like offshore wind, Britain offers a price floor to provide certainty for investors. The average floor, or strike price, from the auction on Wednesday was about 91 pounds, or $122 per megawatt-hour, in 2024 prices, up about 11 percent from the last auction. Over the past year the wholesale price for electricity in Britain was on average about 79 pounds, according to Drax Electric Insights, a market analysis website. The bulk of the planned wind farms that won price supports will be off eastern England. Support will also go to wind farms off Scotland and Wales. The British government wants at least 95 percent of the country's electricity generation to come from clean sources by 2030. Political consensus for ambitious climate goals is eroding in Britain, but the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer believes that an enormous bet on clean energy, especially offshore wind, is necessary to protect consumers from volatile fossil fuel prices.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- The Swedish Start-Up Aiming To Conquer America's Full-Body-Scan Craze
An anonymous reader quotes a report from DealBook: Fifteen years ago, Daniel Ek broke into America's digital-content wars with his streaming music start-up, Spotify, which has turned into a publicly traded company with a $110 billion market value. Now he and his business partner, the Swedish entrepreneur Hjalmar Nilsonne, aim to crack a higher-stakes consumer market: American health care. The pair plan to bring Neko Health, the health tech start-up they founded in 2018, to New York this spring, DealBook is first to report. Mr. Ek and Mr. Nilsonne hope to capitalize on the growing number of prevention-minded Americans who are hungry to track their biometric data. Whether through wearables like Oura rings or more intensive screenings, consumers are turning to technology to improve their health and help spot the early onset of some big killers, including cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The United States will be the third market, after Sweden and Britain, for Neko Health, which offers full-body diagnostic scans and is valued at roughly $1.7 billion. [...] Mr. Nilsonne and Mr. Ek said Neko Health's big aim was to change the health care model, in which spending across much of the developed world skyrockets but longevity gains have stalled. They want to make their noninvasive scans as routine as an annual checkup. The company, which advertises its service as "a health check for your future self," did not say what the U.S. scans would cost. But in Stockholm, an hourlong visit at one of its clinics costs 2,750 Swedish krona (about $300). Prenuvo's and Ezra's most comprehensive scans can cost $3,999. [...] Neko Health's technology differs from that of many of its U.S. rivals. It does not use M.R.I. or X-rays, instead relying on scores of sensors and cameras and a mix of proprietary and off-the-shelf technologies to measure heart function and circulation, and to photograph and map every inch of a patient's body looking for cancerous lesions. At the moment, the company's biggest challenge is scaling. [...] Mr. Nilsonne said Neko Health scans have detected the early onset of diseases or serious medical conditions for thousands of its patients. But the medical community is divided on the need for proactive screening technologies. The fear is that mass adoption could spur a wave of false positives and send healthy people to seek follow-up medical advice, overwhelming an already swamped health care system. Mr. Ek and Mr. Nilsonne believe they have built a better solution. And now they're ready to test it in the U.S. market.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Are QWERTY Phones Trying To Make a Comeback?
After nearly two decades of touchscreen dominance, QWERTY smartphones are staging a niche comeback, with Clicks and Unihertz unveiling new physical-keyboard phones at CES 2026. Gizmodo reports: At CES 2026, Clicks, the company behind the Clicks keyboard case and the new Power Keyboard, announced plans to sell the Communicator, a "second phone" with a QWERTY keypad. Clicks pitches the $500 phone, launching later this year, as a device primarily intended for messaging -- sending texts, DMs, Slack messages, whatever. The company didn't have a functional unit -- only a mockup dummy to fondle at the show -- but it looked cool enough, even if it'll be a very niche product. It's a cool idea, but how many people will carry a companion phone to their main phone just to shoot off a few DMs? $500 is a lot to ask for that satisfaction. But Clicks isn't the only one trying to bring back QWERTY phones. Unihertz, makers of the really tiny Jelly Android phones and also Tank phones with massive battery capacities, also teased a new phone with a physical keyboard. The Titan 2 Elite seems to be a less gimmicky version of the Titan 2, which itself was a BlackBerry Passport knockoff but with a bizarre square screen on the backside. Look closely, and there are some weird similarities between the Clicks Communicator and the Titan 2 Elite. We don't have dimension specs yet, but the screens seem to have the same rounded corners, and even the hole-punch camera is in the same upper-left corner. The only difference seems to be the keyboards; the Communicator uses individual keys, whereas the Titan 2 Elite's keyboard is more BlackBerry-esque. After digging into the Clicks Communicator's specs, a few other features stood out that Slashdotters might appreciate. There's a dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack, a physical "kill switch" (essentially an alert slider), fingerprint scanner and even a customizable notification LED. The last time we saw a phone with a dedicated notification LED was around 2019!
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Digg Launches Its New Reddit Rival To the Public
Digg is officially back under the ownership of its original founder, Kevin Rose, along with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. "Similar to Reddit, the new Digg offers a website and mobile app where you can browse feeds featuring posts from across a selection of its communities and join other communities that align with your interests," reports TechCrunch. "There, you can post, comment, and upvote (or 'digg') the site's content." From the report: [T]he rise of AI has presented an opportunity to rebuild Digg, Rose and Ohanian believe, leading them to acquire Digg last March through a leveraged buyout by True Ventures, Ohanian's firm Seven Seven Six, Rose and Ohanian themselves, and the venture firm S32. The company has not disclosed its funding. They're betting that AI can help to address some of the messiness and toxicity of today's social media landscape. At the same time, social platforms will need a new set of tools to ensure they're not taken over by AI bots posing as people. "We obviously don't want to force everyone down some kind of crazy KYC process," said Rose in an interview with TechCrunch, referring to the 'know your customer' verification process used by financial institutions to confirm someone's identity. Instead of simply offering verification checkmarks to designate trust, Digg will try out new technologies, like using zero-knowledge proofs (cryptographic methods that verify information without revealing the underlying data) to verify the people using its platform. It could also do other things, like require that people who join a product-focused community verify they actually own or use the product being discussed there. As an example, a community for Oura ring owners could verify that everyone who posts has proven they own one of the smart rings. Plus, Rose suggests Digg could use signals acquired from mobile devices to help verify members -- for instance, the app could identify when Digg users attended a meetup in the same location. "I don't think there's going to be any one silver bullet here," said Rose. "It's just going to be us saying ... here's a platter of things that you can add together to create trust."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Cerebras Scores OpenAI Deal Worth Over $10 Billion
Cerebras Systems landed a more than $10 billion deal to supply up to 750 megawatts of compute to OpenAI through 2028, according to a blog post by OpenAI. CNBC reports: The deal will help diversify Cerebras away from the United Arab Emirates' G42, which accounted for 87% of revenue in the first half of 2024. "The way you have three very large customers is start with one very large customer, and you keep them happy, and then you win the second one," Cerebras' co-founder and CEO Andrew Feldman told CNBC in an interview. Cerebras has built a large processor that can train and run generative artificial intelligence models. [...] "Cerebras adds a dedicated low-latency inference solution to our platform," Sachin Katti, who works on compute infrastructure at OpenAI, wrote in the blog. "That means faster responses, more natural interactions, and a stronger foundation to scale real-time AI to many more people." The deal comes months after OpenAI worked with Cerebras to ensure that its gpt-oss open-weight models would work smoothly on Cerebras silicon, alongside chips from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. OpenAI's gpt-oss collaboration led to technical conversations with Cerebras, and the two companies signed a term sheet just before Thanksgiving, Feldman said in an interview with CNBC. The report notes that this deal helps strengthen Cerebras' IPO prospects. The $10+ billion OpenAI deal materially improves revenue visibility, customer diversification, and strategic credibility, addressing key concerns from its withdrawn filing and setting the stage for a more compelling refile with updated financials and narrative.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- DoorDash and UberEats Cost Drivers $550 Million In Tips, NYC Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gothamist: City regulators on Tuesday accused Uber and DoorDash of deliberately altering their app interfaces to discourage customers from tipping food delivery workers, a move that has cost the employees more than $550 million over the last two years. A report (PDF) published by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection argues that food delivery app giants retaliated against minimum wage rules for delivery drivers that took effect in December 2023 by implementing "design tricks" that obscure opportunities to offer a tip in their mobile apps. DoorDash explicitly blames the new wage rules for removing the simpler tipping option. "In response to regulations in New York City, you will now only be able to add a tip for your Dasher after they have been assigned," a message on the app's checkout page states. Other food delivery apps like GrubHub allow customers the option to add a tip before checking out. The average tip for DoorDash and Uber Eats drivers in the city fell from $2.17 to 76 cents per delivery after the companies made the changes to their apps, the report found. Both companies also issue messages to customers in the city telling them the prices for their orders were "set by an algorithm using your personal data." Further reading: Uber and DoorDash Try To Halt NYC Law That Encourages Tipping
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- US Approves Sale of Nvidia's Advanced AI Chips To China
The U.S. has approved limited sales of Nvidia's H200 AI chips to China, the Department of Commerce said on Tuesday. Exports will be allowed to "approved customers" with security safeguards and a 25% U.S. government cut. The company's most advanced Blackwell chips will remain restricted. The BBC reports: The H200, Nvidia's second-most-advanced semiconductor, had been restricted by Washington over concerns that it would give China's technology industry and military an edge over the U.S. The Commerce Department said the chips can be shipped to China granted that there is sufficient supply of the processors in the U.S. Nvidia's spokesperson told the BBC that the company welcomed the move, saying it will benefit manufacturing and jobs in the U.S. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security said its revised export policy applies to Nvidia's H200 chips, as well as less advanced processors. Chinese customers must also show "sufficient security procedures" and cannot use the chips for military uses. Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu told the BBC on Wednesday that Beijing has consistently opposed the "politicization and weaponization of tech and trade issues." "We oppose blocking and restricting China, which disrupts the stability of industrial and supply chains," he said. "This approach does not serve the common interests of both sides."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Bandcamp Bans AI Music
Bandcamp has announced a ban on music made wholly or substantially by generative AI, aiming to protect human creativity and prohibit AI impersonation of artists. Here's what the music platform had to say: ... Something that always strikes us as we put together a roundup like this is the sheer quantity of human creativity and passion that artists express on Bandcamp every single day. The fact that Bandcamp is home to such a vibrant community of real people making incredible music is something we want to protect and maintain. Today, in line with that goal, we're articulating our policy on generative AI. We want musicians to keep making music, and for fans to have confidence that the music they find on Bandcamp was created by humans. Our guidelines for generative AI in music and audio are as follows:- Music and audio that is generated wholly or in substantial part by AI is not permitted on Bandcamp.- Any use of AI tools to impersonate other artists or styles is strictly prohibited in accordance with our existing policies prohibiting impersonation and intellectual property infringement. If you encounter music or audio that appears to be made entirely or with heavy reliance on generative AI, please use our reporting tools to flag the content for review by our team. We reserve the right to remove any music on suspicion of being AI generated. We will be sure to communicate any updates to the policy as the rapidly changing generative AI space develops. Given the response around this to our previous posts, we hope this news is welcomed. We wish you all an amazing 2026. [...]
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- House Sysadmin Stole 200 Phones, Caught By House IT Desk
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: According to the government's version of events, 43-year-old Christopher Southerland was working in 2023 as a sysadmin for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. In his role, Southerland had the authority to order cell phones for committee staffers, of which there are around 80. But during the early months of 2023, Southerland is said to have ordered 240 brand-new phones -- far more than even the total number of staffers -- and to have shipped them all to his home address in Maryland. The government claims that Southerland then sold over 200 of these cell phones to a local pawn shop, which was told to resell the devices only "in parts" as a way to get around the House's mobile device management software, which could control the devices remotely. It's hard to find good help these days, though, even at pawn shops. At some point, at least one of the phones ended up, intact, on eBay, where it was sold to a member of the public. This member of the public promptly booted the phone, which did not display the expected device operating system screen but instead "a phone number for the House of Representatives Technology Service Desk." The phone buyer called this number, which alerted House IT staff that government phones were being sold on eBay. According to the government, this sparked a broader investigation to figure out what was going on, which revealed that "several phones purchased by Southerland were unaccounted for." The full scheme is said to have cost the government over $150,000. Southerland was indicted in early December 2025 and arrested on January 8, 2026. He pled not guilty and has a court date scheduled for later this month.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- UK Scraps Mandatory Digital ID Enrollment for Workers After Public Backlash
The UK government has abandoned its controversial plan to require workers to sign up for a mandatory digital ID system to prove their eligibility to work in the country, opting instead to move existing document-based checks -- such as biometric passports -- fully online by 2029. The reversal follows a dramatic collapse in public support; polling showed approval falling from just over half the population in June to less than a third after Prime Minister Keir Starmer's announcement. Nearly 3 million people signed a parliamentary petition opposing the scheme. The government says it remains committed to mandatory digital right-to-work checks but will no longer require enrollment in a new ID system.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Dell Tells Staff To Get Ready For the 'Biggest Transformation in Company History'
Dell's chief operating officer Jeff Clarke has informed employees that the company is preparing for what he calls the "biggest transformation in company history," a sweeping systems overhaul scheduled to launch on May 3 that will standardize processes across nearly every major division. The initiative, dubbed One Dell Way, will replace Dell's existing sprawl of applications, servers and databases with a single enterprise platform designed to unify the 42-year-old company's operations. Clarke's memo, sent to staff on Tuesday and obtained by Business Insider, said Dell has spent the past two years building toward this transition. The May 3 launch will affect the company's PC business, finance, supply chain, marketing, sales, revenue operations, services, and HR. The ISG division, which handles cloud and AI infrastructure, will follow in August. "We need one way -- simplified, standardized and automated -- so we can be more competitive and serve our customers better," Clarke wrote. Mandatory training begins February 3.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- NASA Acknowledges Record Heat But Avoids Referencing Climate Change
An anonymous reader shares a report: Global temperatures soared in 2025, but a NASA statement published Wednesday alongside its latest benchmark annual report makes no reference to climate change, in line with President Donald Trump's push to deny the reality of planetary heating as a result of human activities. That marks a sharp break from last year's communications, issued under the administration of Democrat Joe Biden, which stated plainly: "This global warming has been caused by human activities" and has led to intensifying "heat waves, wildfires, intense rainfall and coastal flooding." Last year's materials also featured lengthy quotes from the then-NASA chief and a senior scientist and included graphics and a video. By contrast, this year's release only runs through a few key figures, and amounts to a handful of paragraphs. According to the US space agency, Earth's global surface temperature in 2025 was slightly warmer than in 2023 -- albeit within a margin of error -- making it effectively tied as the second-hottest year on record after 2024.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Widespread Verizon Outage Prompts Emergency Alerts in Washington, New York City
Verizon said on Wednesday that its wireless service was suffering an outage impacting cellular data and voice services. From a report: The nation's largest wireless carrier said that its "engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly." Verizon's statement came after a swath of social media comments directed at Verizon, with users saying that their mobile devices were showing no bars of service or "SOS," indicating a lack of connection. Verizon, which has more than 146 million customers, appears to have started experiencing services issues around 12:00 p.m. ET, according to comments on social media site X. Users also reported problems with Verizon competitor T-Mobile. But the company said that it was not having any service issues. "T-Mobile's network is keeping our customers connected, and we've confirmed that our network is operating optimally," a spokesperson told NBC News. "However, due to Verizon's reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Beijing Tells Chinese Firms To Stop Using US and Israeli Cybersecurity Software
An anonymous reader shares a report: Chinese authorities have told domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software made by roughly a dozen firms from the U.S. and Israel due to national security concerns, two people briefed on the matter said. As trade and diplomatic tensions flare between China and the U.S. and both sides vie for tech supremacy, Beijing has been keen to replace Western-made technology with domestic alternatives. The U.S. companies whose cybersecurity software has been banned include Broadcom-owned VMware, Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet, while the Israeli companies include Check Point Software Technologies, the sources said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- AWS flips switch on Euro cloud as customers fret about digital sovereignty
EU-only ops, German subsidiaries, and a pinky promise your data won't end up in Uncle Sam's hands
Amid continued trade and geopolitical volatility between Europe and the US, Amazon Web Services is making its European Sovereign Cloud generally available today and plans to expand so-called Dedicated Local Zones.…
- Dell wants £10m+ from VMware if Tesco case goes against it
Retail giant's disty, reseller, and vendor all say they can't and won't sell
Exclusive Dell has filed a claim against VMware in the software licensing dispute brought by supermarket giant Tesco and wants the virtualization giant should fork over at least £10 million under certain circumstances.…
- Maker fight! SparkFun cuts ties with Adafruit in harassment dispute
Adafruit claims SparkFun aims to shoot the messenger for criticizing corporate tolerance of intolerance
Retailer SparkFun Electronics last month said it would no longer do business with electronics kit-maker Adafruit Industries, citing violations of SparkFun's Code of Conduct during online interactions.…
- CrowdStrike shareholders lose battle to recoup losses from 2024 outage
Investors didn't present a valid claim, says judge, but they're welcome to try again
A group of CrowdStrike shareholders who sued the company over losses sustained following its 2024 global outage will have to head back to the drawing board if they hope to recoup losses, as a Texas judge has deemed they failed to adequately state a claim.…
- New Linux malware targets the cloud, steals creds, and then vanishes
Cloud-native, 37 plugins … an attacker's dream
A brand-new Linux malware named VoidLink targets victims' cloud infrastructure with more than 30 plugins that allow attackers to perform a range of illicit activities, from silent reconnaissance and credential theft to lateral movement and container abuse. …
- There was so much fraud on COVID loans, the feds trained an anti-fraud AI on the applications
Had it been around in 2020, it could have flagged tens of billions before payouts, PRAC tells Congress
A fraud-detection AI model trained on COVID-19 loan data could have flagged potentially tens of billions of dollars in payments before they went out, reducing the feds' pay-and-chase cleanup, the US government's Pandemic Response Accountability Committee told Congress on Tuesday.…
- UK backtracks on digital ID requirement for right to work
U-turn leaves questions on costs, funding, and benefits unanswered
The UK government has backed down from making digital ID mandatory for proof of a right to work in the country, adding to confusion over the scheme's cost and purpose.…
- Stop dragging feet on AI nudification ban, UK government told
Committee raises concerns over delays and loopholes in proposed law
The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee has criticized the UK government's handling of AI nudification tools, saying it is taking too long to ban apps, and that expedited legislation does not encompass multi-purpose platforms used to create nude images.…
- Buy servers now or cry later: DRAM price spike threatens infrastructure budgets
Component up 63% since September, more pricey memory coming to a supply chain near you
Enterprise IT infrastructure buyers are bracing for hefty price hikes across servers, storage systems, and networking kit, driven by steep inflation in memory component costs that industry analysts warn will soon cascade through the supply chain.…
- Windows 2000 rusts in peace by the sea
When salty coastal air meets memory errors in one of Portugal's rail ticket machines
Bork!Bork!Bork! It's back to the railways of Portugal for today's bork. Remember how we called Windows 2000 the unkillable cockroach of the IT world? Seems it's been upset by software peeking at memory where it shouldn't.…
- Memory shortage could push PC shipments to pre-pandemic lows
Could be back to 2016 levels
The rising cost of memory due to shortages is likely to persist into late 2027, driving higher device prices and lackluster configurations for PCs, tablets, and phones, IDC research manager Jitesh Ubrani told The Register.…
- Popular Python libraries used in Hugging Face models subject to poisoned metadata attack
The open-source libraries were created by Salesforce, Nvidia, and Apple with a Swiss group
Vulnerabilities in popular AI and ML Python libraries used in Hugging Face models with tens of millions of downloads allow remote attackers to hide malicious code in metadata. The code then executes automatically when a file containing the poisoned metadata is loaded.…
- Moon hotel startup hopes you get lunar lunacy, drop $1M deposit for 2032 stay
Step 1: Ask for deposit. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Build Moon hotel empire
Everest has been turned into a run-of-the-mill tourist attraction. Space tourism is over now that any celebrity can blast off into orbit. Next up: a hotel on the Moon, now taking reservations for only about six years from now, if you're willing to make a small deposit.…
- SK Hynix's $13B packaging facility promises more HBM for the AI bubble
Great news for AMD and Nvidia, less so for cash-strapped consumers
Memory makers just can't churn out their DRAM fast enough. On the heels of an AI-driven shortage, SK Hynix on Tuesday announced a new 19 trillion Korean won (about $13 billion) advanced packaging and test facility in South Korea that could offer some relief - just not for consumer products like laptops and phones.…
- Cloud to be an American: Congress votes to kick China off remote GPU services
US House backs bill to regulate remote access to export-controlled chips
Chinese companies may be unable to import the best US GPUs, but they have found a workaround: renting access to that hardware via cloud services. Now, the US House of Representatives is moving to bring that loophole under the export-control law.…
- AI and automation could erase 10.4 million US roles by 2030
Forrester models slow, structural shift rather than sudden employment collapse
AI-pocalypse AI and automation could wipe out 6.1 percent of jobs in the US by 2030 – equating to 10.4 million fewer positions that are held by humans today.…
- Court tosses appeal by hacker who opened port to coke smugglers with malware
Dutchman fails to convince judges his trial was unfair because cops read his encrypted chats
A Dutch appeals court has kept a seven-year prison sentence in place for a man who hacked port IT systems with malware-stuffed USB sticks to help cocaine smugglers move containers, brushing off claims that police shouldn't have been reading his encrypted chats.…
- Birmingham pauses Oracle relaunch to get staff on board
Europe's largest council delays Fusion reimplementation four years after go-live disaster
Birmingham City Council has pushed back the relaunch of its troubled Oracle Fusion ERP system, saying staff need more time to adapt to the vendor's standard processes.…
- Britain goes shopping for a rapid-fire missile to help Ukraine hit back
Project Nightfall aims to deliver a UK-built long-range strike capability at speed
The British government is asking defense firms to rapidly produce a new ground-launched ballistic missile to aid Ukraine's fight against Russia - hardware that might also be adopted by UK's armed forces in future.…
- Fujitsu scores place on £984M UK government framework despite bid boycott
Turns out the voluntary pledge to restrict public sector tendering during Horizon scandal inquiry has loopholes
Fujitsu has won a place on a UK government framework despite its commitment not to compete for new public sector contracts during the ongoing inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal.…
- No fire sale for firewalls as memory shortages could push prices higher
In SEC filings, Fortinet and Palo Alto show shrinking product margins taking hold.
PCs and datacenters aren't the only devices that need DRAM. The global memory shortage is roiling the cybersecurity market, with the cost of firewalls expected to balloon and hit both customers and vendors in the pocketbook in 2026, according to research analysts Wedbush.…
- 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]
- Just the Browser: scripts to remove all the crap from your browser
Are you a normal person and thus sick of all the nonsensical, non-browser stuff browser makers keep adding to your browser, but for whatever reason you dont want to or cannot switch to one of the forks of your browser of choice? Just the Browser helps you remove AI features, telemetry data reporting, sponsored content, product integrations, and other annoyances from desktop web browsers. The goal is to give you just the browser! and nothing else, using hidden settings in web browsers intended for companies and other organizations. This project includes configuration files for popular web browsers, documentation for installing and modifying them, and easy installation scripts. Everything is open-source on GitHub. ↫ Just The Browsers website It comes in the form of scripts for Windows, Linux, or macOS, and can be used for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. Its all open source so you can check the scripts for yourself, but there are also manual guides for each browser if youre not too keen on running an unknown script. The changes wont be erased by updates, unless the specific settings and configuration flags used are actually removed or altered by the browser makers. Thats all theres to it a very straightforward tool.
- Haikus 6th beta is getting closer, but you really dont need to wait if you want to try Haiku
Despite December being the holiday month, Haikus developers got a lot of things done. A welcome addition for those of us who regularly install Haiku on EFI systems is a tool in the installer that will copy the EFI loader to the EFI system partition, so fewer manual steps are needed on EFI systems. Support for touchpads from Elantech has also been improved, and the FreeBSD driver compatibility layer and all of its Ethernet and WiFi drivers have been updated to match the recent FreeBSD 15 release. Of course, theres also the usual long list of smaller fixes, improvements, and changes. As for a new release milestone, beta 6 seems to be on the way. Not quite. There has been some discussion on the mailing list as the ticket list gets smaller, but there’s still at least some more regressions that need to be fixed. But it looks like we’ll be starting the release process in the next month or two, most likely… ↫ Haikus December 2025 activity report To be fair, though, Haikus nightly releases are more than able to serve their duties, and waiting for a specific release if youre interested in trying out Haiku is really not needed. Just grab the latest nightly, follow the installation instructions, and youre good to go. The operating system supports updating itself, so youll most likely wont need to reinstall nightlies all the time.
- Can you turn Windows 95s Windows 3.10-based pre-install environment into a full desktop without using Microsoft products?
Its no secret that the Windows 95 installer uses a heavily stripped-down Windows 3.10 runtime, but what can you actually do with it? How far can you take this runtime? Can it run Photoshop? It is a long-standing tradition for Microsoft to use a runtime copy of Windows as a part of Windows Setup. But the copy is so stripped-down, it cannot run anything but the setup program (winsetup.bin). OR IS IT? A mini-challenge for myself: create a semi-working desktop only based on runtime Windows 3.10 shipped with Windows 95 installer but not using any other Microsoft products. ↫ Nina Kalinina A crucial limitation here is that Kalinina is not allowing herself to use any additional Microsoft products, so the easy route of just copying missing DLLs and other files from a Windows 95 disk or whatever is not available to her; she has to source any needed files from other sources. This may seem impossible, but during those days, tons of Windows (and even DOS) applications would ship with various Microsoft DLLs included, so there are definitely places to get Windows DLLs that arent coming directly from Microsoft. As an example, since theres no shell of any kind included in the stripped-down Windows 3.10 runtime, Kalinina tried Calmira and WinBar, which wont work without a few DLLs. Where to get them if you cant get them straight from Microsoft? Well, it turns out programs compiled with later version of MSVC would include several of these needed DLLs, and AutoCad R12 was one of them. WinBar would now start and work, and while Calmira would install, it didnt work because it needs the Windows Multimedia Subsystem, which dont seem to be included in anything non-Microsoft. It turns out you can take this approach remarkably far. Things like Calculator and Notepad will work, but Pain or Paintbrush will not. Larger, more complex applications work too Photoshop 2.5.1 works, as does Netscape, but without any networking stack, its a little bit moot. Even Calmira XP eventually runs, as some needed DLLs are found inside Mom For Windows 2.0!, at which point the installation starts to look and feel a lot like a regular Windows 3.x installation, minus things like settings panels and a bunch of default applications. Is this useful? Probably not, but who cares its an awesome trick, and that alone makes it a worthwhile effort.
- Modern HTML features on text-based web browsers
Theyre easily overlooked between all the Chrome and Safari violence, but there are still text-based web browsers, and people still use them. How do they handle the latest HTML features? While CSS is the star of the show when it comes to new features, HTML ain’t stale either. If we put the long-awaited styleable selects and Apple’s take on toggle switches aside, there’s a lot readily available cross-browser. But here’s the thing: Whenever we say cross-browser, we usually look at the big ones, never at text-based browsers. So in this article I wanna shed some light on how they handle the following recent additions. ↫ Matthias Zöchling Text-based web browsers work best with regular HTML, as things like CSS and JavaScript wont work. Despite the new features highlighted in the article being HTML, however, text-based browser have a hard time dealing with them, and its likely that as more and more modern features get added to HTML, text-based browsers are going to have an increasingly harder time dealing with the web. At least OSNews seems to render decently usable on text-based web browsers, but ideal it is not. I dont really have the skills to fix any issues on that front, but I can note that Im working on a extremely basic, HTML-only version of OSNews generated from our RSS feed, hosted on some very unique retro hardware. I cant guarantee itll become available Im weary about hosting something from home using unique hardware and outdated software but if it does, yall will know about it, of course.
- The DEC PDP-10
The PDP-10 family of computers (under different names) was manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation between 1964 and 1983. Designed for time-sharing, batch and real-time systems, these computers were popular with universities, scientific companies and time-sharing bureaux. Several operating systems were available, some from DEC and some built by its users. It had a large influence on operating system design, artificial intelligence (especially at MIT and Stanford), programming languages (LISP, ML), applications (TeX, Emacs), online communication (ARPANET, Compuserve), games (Advent, Zork) and even helped development of Microsofts first version of BASIC. ↫ Rupert Lane The importance, impact, and legacy of the PDP series of computers cannot be understated, running like a red thread through the early days and development of several important and crucial technologies. Lane is going to cover a number of the operating systems created for the PDP-10, so if youre interested keep a bookmark.
- You are not required to close your `p>, `li>, `img>, or `br> tags in HTML
Are you an author writing HTML? Just so we’re clear: Not XHTML. HTML. Without the X. If you are, repeat after me, because apparently this bears repeating (after the title): You are not required to close your 8lt;pb, 8lt;lib, 8lt;imgb, or 8lt;brb tags in HTML. ↫ Daniel Tan Back when I still had to write OSNews stories in plain HTML yes, thats what we did for a very long time I always properly closed my tags. I did so because I thought you had to, but also because I think it looks nicer, adds a ton of clarity, and makes it easier to go back later and make any possible changes or fix errors. It definitely added to the workload, which was especially annoying when dealing with really long, detailed articles, but the end result was worth it. I havent had to write in plain HTML for ages now, since OSNews switched to WordPress and thus uses a proper WYSIWYG editor, so I havent thought about closing HTML tags in a long time until I stumbled upon this article. I vaguely remember I would fix! other peoples HTML in our backend by adding closing tags, and now I feel a little bit silly for doing so since apparently it wasnt technically necessary at all. Luckily, its also not wrong to close your tags, and I stick by my readability arguments. Sometimes its easy to forget just how old HTML has become, and how mangled its become over the years.
- Windows Explorer likely to get Copilot AI! sidebar
We all knew this was going to happen, so lets just get it over with. Microsoft is testing a new feature that integrates Copilot into the File Explorer, but it’s not going to be another ‘Ask Copilot’ button in the right-click menu. This time, Copilot will live inside File Explorer, likely in a sidebar or Details/Preview-pane-like interface, according to new references in Windows 11 preview builds. ↫ Mayank Parmar at Windows Latest What am I even supposed to say at this point? Who wants this? Why utterly destroy what little reputation and goodwill Windows has left? Has the hype bubble become this clouded and intoxicating? Even system administrators who want to turn off Copilot in their organisations or device fleets in an official, supported way are getting punched in the face by Microsoft. The company rolled out a new Group Policy to disable Copilot, but its such a useless mess it might as well not be there at all. This essentially means that IT admins will only be able to uninstall the Copilot app for customers where their device has both Copilot apps installed by either a clean install or by the IT team itself, as long as the Copilot app has not been opened in a month. So, even if you accidentally open the Copilot app for a second because its there in your Windows taskbar, the Copilot app wont be uninstalled. ↫ Usama Jawad at Neowin You shouldnt be using Windows.
- Phosh 2025 in retrospect
Posh, GNOMEs mobile shell, published a look back on the projects 2025. The Phosh developers focus from day one was to make devices running Phosh daily drivable without having to resort to any proprietary OSes as a fallback. This year showed improvements in some important areas people rely on like cell broadcasts and emergency calls, further improving usability and starting some ground work we’ll need for some upcoming features. ↫ Phosh developers In 2025, Posh gained support for cell broadcasts like the emergency messages regarding storms, or alerts about missing persons, that sort of stuff which is a pretty important feature in this day and age. Posh also improved its support for per-source audio volumes and one source of audio muting another, its on-screen keyboard, its compositor, and much more. Of course, the main problem for shells like Phosh is hardware support, which is handled by the underlying operating system, like PostmarketOS. These Linux mobile operating systems are fighting an uphill battle when it comes to hardware support, and while Android application support can fill some of the application shortcomings, youre going to be making pretty significant concessions by switching to mobile Linux at the moment. When even Android ROMs not sanctioned by Google are having issues with banking applications or government ID stuff, using mobile Linux will be even more of a problem. None of this is the fault of any of the people dedicating their free time to things like Phosh or PostmarketOS, of course its just a sad reality of a market we once again just gave up to a few megacorporations, with our governments too cowardly to stand up and fix this issue.
- Budgie 10.10 released
Budgie has fallen a bit by the wayside in recent years, but its still in development and making steady progress. The projects just released Budgie 10.10, the final release in the 10.x series which also marks the end of the transition to Wayland. Budgie 10.10 is a brand new release series for Budgie Desktop, marking our first release to migrate Budgie from X11 to Wayland. This release series brings to a close just over a decade of Budgie 10 development; we are formally putting Budgie 10 into maintenance mode to focus our efforts on Budgie 11. ↫ Joshua Strobl Budgie is taking a very interesting approach for its move to Wayland; instead of writing every single component of their desktop environment from scratch or porting their X11 tools, the project opted to reuse and implement a ton of established, well-tested, and popular Wayland tools like swaybg, swayidle, labwc, and so on. This obviously saves on development time, but also ensures the transition to Wayland is relatively smooth. Things like the panel, applets, the Budgie Control Center, and so on, have been updated or rewritten. Theres also some new features, as well as a ton of bug fixes and smaller improvements. As noted, this release marks the end of the road for the 10.x series, with development now shifting to Budgie 11. Upcoming releases of major distributions will have Budgie 10.10 in their repositories.
- OpenBSD on the Sharp Zaurus SL-C3100
OpenBSD on a Sharp Zaurus Linux-based PDA from 2005? Of course, why not? Installing OpenBSD was easy. The instructions in INSTALL.zaurus are pretty straightforward. My 5.6 install was smooth. Installing sets took ~10-15 minutes. The Microdrive is really slow. Ill replace it with a CF card soon, which should be slightly faster (and more reliable). ↫ goldfish Of course, it includes a working X desktop, which is neat and makes the device a lot more useful. I have a slightly older Zaurus PDA, and this post has made me interested in doing something similar to it.
- GNU/Hurd gets dhcpcd port, further SMP improvements
Since we entered a new year, we also entered a new quarter, and that means a new quarterly report from the Hurd, the project that aims to, to this day, developer a kernel for the GNU operating system. Over the course of the fourth quarter of 2025, an important undertaking has been to port dhcpcd to Hurd, which will ultimately bring IPv6 support to Hurd. For now, the port only supports IPv4, only works on Ethernet, and is still generally quite limited when it comes to its functionality. Its a great start, though, and an amazing effort. Furthermore, Q4 2025 also saw improvements in symmetric multiprocessing support on x86, not exactly a small feat. Theres a ton of work left to be done, but progress is being made and thats important considering todays processor landscape. Theres also the usual load of fixes, smaller improvements, and changes all over the operating system, and the report makes it clear that Debians recent announcement that APT will start requiring Rust is not a major issue for Hurd, as it already has a Rust port.
- MenuetOS 1.58.00 released
MenuetOS, the operating system written in x86-64 assembly, released version 1.58.00. Since the last time we talked about MenuetOS, the included X server has been improved, networking performance has been increased, theres now native versions of classic X utilities like XEyes, XCalc, and others, and more. Theres also the usual smaller improvements and bug fixes.
- The world is on fire, so lets look at pretty Amiga desktops
Theres so much shit going on in the world right now, and we can all use a breather. So, lets join Carl Svensson and look at some pretty Amiga Workbench screenshots. Combining my love for screenshots with the love for the Amiga line of computers, Ive decided to present a small, curated selection of noteworthy Amiga Workbenches Workbench being the name of the Amigas desktop environment. ↫ Carl Svensson I love how configurable and flexible the Amiga Workbench is, and how this aspect of it has been embraced by the Amiga community. All of these screenshots demonstrate a sense of purpose, and clearly reflect the kind of things their users do with their Amigas. I think Graphics Card Workbench #1 (1997)! speaks to me the most, striking a great balance between the blocky, pixelated old! Amiga look, and the more modern late 90s/early 00s Amiga look. The icon set in that one also vaguely reminds me of BeOS, which is always a plus. That being said, all of them look great and are instantly recognisable as Amiga desktops, and make me wish I had a modern Amiga capable of running Amiga OS 4.
- Improving the Flatpak graphics drivers situation
The solution the Flatpak team is looking into is to use virtualisation for the graphics driver, as the absolute last-resort option to keep things working when nothing else will. Its a complex and interesting solution to a complex and interesting problem.
- Firefox on POWER9: the JIT of it
Four years ago, I reviewed a truly fully open source desktop computer, from operating system down to firmware: the Raptor Blackbird, built entirely around IBMs POWER9 processor. The overall conclusion was that using was mostly an entirely boring experience, which was a very good thing usually ideologically-fueled computers come with a ton of downsides and limitations for average users, but Raptors POWER9 machines bucked this trend by presenting a bog-standard, run-of-the-mill desktop Linux experience, almost indistinguishable from using an x86 machine. Almost indistinguishable. The one thing that was missing from using desktop Linux on POWER9 was Firefox JIT, which meant that many websites, especially more complex ones, would bring the browsing experience down to a crawl. One area where this affected me quite a bit was our own WordPress backend, which is effectively unusable on Firefox without its JIT. The only other option was to use Chromium, which was fully ported to POWER9 but I dont like Chromium, and want to use Firefox to be able to share tabs, history, passwords, and so on. Since then, back in 2021, things have improved. The ongoing effort to port Firefox JIT to POWER9, led by Cameron Kaiser, made a ton of progress, to the point where community Firefox builds with Kaisers JIT integrated became available through a dedicated Fedora copr. Sadly, the last build is from four months ago, and covers Firefox 128.14.0-1, an old ESR release. Since I recently set up the other machine Raptor sent to me a Talos II workstation with two POWER9 processors I was curious what the state of the POWER9 JIT effort was, so I inquired on the related bug report for Firefox. Kaiser replied, and explained that due to a critical error with wasm against later versions of the JIT, as well as a change in his personal circumstances forcing him to work on this effort remotely obviously not great for a client application like Firefox there simply hasnt been much progress, until last week (what a coincidence!). Last week I took some time off work and dragged the JIT up to the current ESR. This compiles and links. However, although it passes the majority of the test suite, there are still too many serious failures to make it useable. Im continuing work on this in whatever free time I actually have on my workstation. If I can restore test compliance in Baseline mode, this would suffice for a community third-party build like what Dan Horak generates now, since that is what is in 128. To get it in tree, however, I would also need to solve that critical wasm fault which manifested in the interim and fix the remaining gaps in the CodeGenerator to get it to a point of sufficient quality. ↫ Cameron Kaiser There are two main problems at the moment that make it harder than it needs to be to work on this effort. First, the state of debugging tools on ppc64le to which POWER9 belongs is apparently not great, requiring Kaiser to step through thousands of instructions manually using gdb just to fix the last bug he discovered. Thats clearly deeply suboptimal, not fun, and not something somebody should spend their precious free time on. At this point in the discussion, Raptors Timothy Pearson jumped in and noted that getting rr-debugger to work on POWER9 is something Raptor would be interested in, but it wouldnt be cheap: On the topic of the debugger (rr-debugger), while this isnt on our internal roadmap at the moment it is something that Raptor could do under a development contract. The main question is whether there is enough interest to make that viable; the work is significant so the cost would probably be in the mid to upper 5 figures range (USD), assuming no major roadblocks are discovered. When I was looking into it before I was fairly certain the PMU on POWER9 supports the overall structure of rr-debuggers methods, and that our load-store idioms are generally compatible. The former is what stops it working on most arm64 devices IIRC, and the latter is relevant mainly to non-POWER RISC architectures. ↫ Timothy Pearson Kaiser noted that while having rr-debugger available wouldnt be a magic bullet, it would make the whole process a lot easier. The second major issue is, of course, the same one as it always is for such niche efforts: a lack of manpower. According to Kaiser, theres enough interest and awareness in getting Firefox JIT ported to POWER9, with the real problem being that there simply arent a lot of people with enough knowledge of both Firefox JIT and the modern ppc64le ISA. Understandably, Kaiser would like to avoid having to deal with people who are well-intentioned but dont fully grasp the complexity of the undertaking at hand. This is not exactly an easy effort, and its honestly downright amazing how far along the project already is. Even if its an older version, being able to run Firefox 128ESR on POWER9 with a working JIT makes such a huge difference to the overall desktop user experience, and Im sure I speak for the entire POWER9 community when I say Im incredibly grateful for it. Still, it would be amazing if we could find someone with just the right skillset to help Kaiser out, to be able to get the JIT stable enough again for community Firefox builds and perhaps even look at what lies beyond: getting it upstreamed into Firefox as a whole. The odds of finding that person are slim if youre into this sort of stuff, youre most likely already aware of the POWER9 JIT effort but who knows, maybe shining some renewed light on this task will make a difference. If you happen to have the right skillset and appreciate the complexities involved in this effort, you might want to reach out.
- Google takes next big leap in killing AOSP, significantly scales back AOSP contributions
About half a year ago, I wrote an article about persistent rumours Id heard from Android ROM projects that Google was intending to discontinue the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). AOSP has been gutted by Google over the years, with the company moving more and more parts of the operating system into closed-source, non-AOSP components, like Google Play Services. While you can technically still run bare AOSP if youre really hardcore, its simply unusable for 99% of smartphone users out there. Google quickly responded to these widespread rumours, stating that AOSP is not going away!, and a lot of people, clearly having learned nothing from human history, took this at face value and believed Google word-for-word. Since corporations cant be trusted and lying is their favourite activity, I drew a different conclusion at the time: This seems like a solid denial from Google, but it leaves a lot of room for Google to make a wide variety of changes to Android’s development and open source status without actually killing off AOSP entirely. Since Android is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license, Google is free to make “Pixel Android” – its own Android variant – closed source, leaving AOSP up until that point available under the Apache 2.0 license. This is reminiscent of what Oracle did with Solaris. Of course, any modifications to the Linux kernel upon which Android is built will remain open source, since the Linux kernel is licensed under the GPLv2. If Google were indeed intending to do this, what could happen is that Google takes Android closed source from here on out, spinning off whatever remains of AOSP up until that point into a separate company or project, as potentially ordered during the antitrust case against Google in the United States. This would leave Google free to continue developing its own “Pixel Android” entirely as proprietary software – save for the Linux kernel – while leaving AOSP in the state it’s in right now outside of Google. This technically means “AOSP is not going away”, as Chau claims. ↫ Thom Holwerda at OSNews Ever since the claim that AOSP is not going away!, Google has taken numerous steps to further tighten the grip it has on Android, much to the detriment of both the Android Open Source Project and the various ROM makers that depend on it. Device-specific source code for Pixel devices is no longer being released, Google dabbled with developer certification even for developers outside of Google Play, and Google significantly scaled back the release of security patches to AOSP. And now its early 2026, and Google is about to take the next step in the slow killing of the Android Open Source Project. On the main page of the Android Open Source Project, theres now a new message: Effective in 2026, to align with our trunk stable development model and ensure platform stability for the ecosystem, we will publish source code to AOSP in Q2 and Q4. For building and contributing to AOSP, we recommend utilizing android-latest-release instead of aosp-main. The android-latest-release manifest branch will always reference the most recent release pushed to AOSP. This means that instead of four AOSP code releases every year, Google is now scaling back to just two every year. The gutting and eventual killing of AOSP has now reached the point where the open source nature of AOSP is effectively meaningless, and were yet a few more big steps closer to what I outlined above: eventually, Google will distance itself from AOSP entirely, focusing all of its efforts on Pixel Android alone without any code contributions to AOSP at all. If you still think AOSP is not going away!, youre delusional. OASP is already on life support, and with this latest move Google is firmly gripping the plug.
- Introducing Loss32: A New Lightweight Linux Distro With a Focus on Legacy Hardware
by George Whittaker Introduction
A fresh entry has just appeared in the world of Linux distributions: Loss32, a lightweight operating system built from scratch with one goal in mind — giving old and low-resource computers a new lease on life. Announced by its small but passionate development team, Loss32 aims to be fast, respectful of older hardware, and friendly to users who want simplicity without sacrificing modern usability.
Whether you’re rediscovering an old laptop in a drawer or building a tiny home server, Loss32 promises to deliver a capable computing experience with minimal overhead.
A Distribution Born from a Simple Idea
Loss32 began as a personal project by a group of open-source enthusiasts frustrated with how quickly modern software has moved past older machines. They noticed that even relatively recent hardware can struggle with mainstream operating systems, leaving many devices underutilized.
Their solution: build a distro that boots fast, uses minimal RAM and disk space, and still provides a complete desktop environment for everyday tasks.
The name Loss32 stems from its focus on “losing” unnecessary bloat — keeping only what’s essential — and the fact that it targets 32-bit and low-resource systems that many other distros are abandoning.
Key Features of Loss321. Runs on Older CPUs and Low Memory
Loss32 supports:
32-bit and 64-bit CPUs
Machines with as little as 512 MB of RAM
Hard drives and SSDs down to 4 GB usable space
These minimums open the distro up to machines that newer Linux distros won’t even install on.
2. Lightweight Desktop — Fast and Simple
Instead of heavy desktop environments, Loss32 ships with a customized Xfce/XF-Lite hybrid:
Classic panel layout for easy navigation
Small memory footprint for snappy response
Simple app launchers and taskbars
This ensures a familiar feel while staying lean.
3. Essential App Suite Included
Out of the box, Loss32 includes a careful selection of applications:
Web browsing — light browser with Web standards support
Email and calendar — basic, responsive client
Media playback — audio and video codecs included
Simple document editing and PDF viewing
File manager optimized for speed
Go to Full Article
- Linux Kernel 6.19-rc4 Released as Development Marches On
by George Whittaker
The Linux kernel development cycle continues with the release of Linux 6.19-rc4, the fourth release candidate in the lead-up to the final 6.19 stable kernel. As with previous RC builds, this release is aimed squarely at developers, testers, and early adopters who help identify bugs and regressions before the kernel is finalized.
Release candidates are not feature drops — they are checkpoints. And rc4 reflects exactly that role.
What Does rc4 Mean in the Kernel Cycle?
By the time the fourth release candidate arrives, the merge window is long closed. That means all major features for Linux 6.19 are already in place, and the focus has shifted entirely to:
Fixing bugs introduced earlier in the cycle
Addressing regressions reported by testers
Refining drivers, subsystems, and architecture-specific code
In other words, rc4 is about stability and correctness, not surprises.
What’s Changed in Linux 6.19-rc4
While rc releases don’t usually headline major features, they do include a steady stream of important fixes across the kernel tree.
Driver and Hardware Fixes
Many of the changes in rc4 focus on hardware support, including:
GPU driver fixes for stability and edge-case behavior
Networking device driver cleanups
Updates for input devices and platform-specific drivers
These changes help ensure Linux continues to run reliably across a wide range of systems, from desktops and laptops to servers and embedded hardware.
Filesystems and Storage
Several filesystems see incremental fixes in this release, addressing corner cases, error handling, and consistency issues. Storage-related updates also touch block-layer code and device-mapper components, helping improve reliability under load.
Architecture-Specific Updates
As usual, rc4 includes fixes tailored to specific CPU architectures, such as:
x86 refinements
ARM and ARM64 cleanups
RISC-V and other platform-specific adjustments
These changes may not affect all users directly, but they’re crucial for maintaining Linux’s broad hardware compatibility.
Regression Fixes and Testing Feedback
A large portion of rc4 is dedicated to resolving regressions reported by testers running earlier release candidates. This includes:
Fixes for boot issues on certain configurations
Corrections for performance regressions
Cleanup of warnings and build errors
Go to Full Article
- Top 6 B2B Software Comparison Websites for Software Vendors (2026)
by George Whittaker
As a software vendor, getting your product in front of the right audience is crucial. One of the best ways to reach business buyers is by leveraging B2B software comparison and review platforms. These websites attract millions of in-market software buyers who rely on peer reviews and ratings to make purchasing decisions. In fact, 88% of buyers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations [1]?. By listing your software on these platforms, you can gather authentic user feedback, build credibility, and dramatically improve your visibility to potential customers. Below we rank the top six B2B software comparison websites – and highlight what makes each one valuable for vendors looking to boost exposure and win more business. Now updated for 2026.
1. SourceForge
SourceForge tops our list as a powerhouse platform for software vendors. Why SourceForge? For starters, it boasts enormous traffic – over 20 million monthly visitors actively searching for software solutions [2]?. In fact, SourceForge drives more traffic than any other B2B software directory (often more than all other major sites combined!) [2]?. Semrush even estimates SourceForge's November 2025 traffic at 27.51 million visitors[3]?. This means listing your product here can put you in front of a vast pool of potential business buyers. SourceForge offers a complete business software and services comparison platform where buyers can find, compare, and review software. As the site itself says: “Selling software? You’re in the right place. We’ll help you reach millions of intent-driven software and IT buyers and influencers every day.” For a vendor, this translates into incredible visibility and lead generation opportunities.
Go to Full Article
- Looking Ahead: What 2026 Holds for the Linux Ecosystem
by George Whittaker
Linux has always been more than just a kernel, it’s a living, breathing world of innovation, community collaboration, and divergent use cases. As we roll into 2026, the landscape is poised for exciting growth. From continuing evolution of core kernel infrastructure to newfound momentum in areas like gaming, AI-augmented tooling, hardware support and security, the coming year promises both refinement and transformation. Whether you’re a developer, system administrator, gamer, or casual user, here’s what you can expect from the Linux world in 2026.
1. Kernel Evolution: Performance, Security, and AI-Driven Behavior
The Linux kernel remains the beating heart of the OS. In 2026, we’ll likely see:
New Long-Term Support (LTS) Baselines: With releases like 6.18 already declared LTS and successor branches maturing, distributions will rally around kernels that offer both performance gains and security longevity.
AI-Driven Infrastructure: Kernel subsystems may start experimenting with machine-learning-informed scheduling, resource management, or dynamic power/performance tuning, not via heavy inference at runtime, but via control-plane advice integrated at build or boot time.
Security Innovation: Hardware vulnerabilities like VMScape and speculative execution side channels have taught us that kernel mitigations remain crucial. Expect continued work on microarchitecture hardening, pointer tagging, and improved isolation.
The overall trend points to a kernel that is both more performant and more robust, without compromising the modularity that makes Linux adaptable across systems from supercomputers to handhelds.
2. The Desktop Experience: Polished, Consistent, and Accessible
For desktop users, 2026 should bring visible improvements to everyday workflows:
Wayland Maturity: Wayland adoption continues to solidify across distributions, with fewer fallbacks to legacy X11 backends. Compositors and toolkits will refine scaling, multi-monitor behavior, and screen capture APIs.
Accessibility Gains: Distros will invest more in accessibility, bringing improved screen reader support, better keyboard navigation, and wide internationalization.
Distribution Diversity: More polished newcomers and revitalizations of existing distros will continue, especially projects aimed at lowering the barrier to entry for users migrating from Windows or macOS.
The promise here is a Linux desktop that feels friendly without diluting depth for advanced customization.
3. Cloud, Edge, and Server Infrastructure: Linux Everywhere
Linux powers the backbone of the modern server and cloud world. In 2026:
Go to Full Article
- Top Linux Distributions for Beginners: Friendly, Stable, and Easy to Learn
by George Whittaker Introduction
Linux has long been known as the operating system of developers and power users, but today it’s far more accessible than ever before. Thanks to user-friendly distributions that prioritize simplicity, stability, and support, even someone who’s never used Linux can get up and running quickly. In this guide, we’ll explore some of the best Linux distributions (distros) for beginners, what sets them apart, and who each one is best suited for.
Whether you’re switching from Windows or macOS, using a PC for the first time, or simply curious about Linux, there’s a distro here that fits your comfort level and workflow.
1. Ubuntu: The Standard for New Users
Why it’s great: Ubuntu is one of the most recognizable Linux distributions, and for good reason. It offers a polished graphical interface, a massive community, and extensive documentation. If you’ve ever wanted a desktop that “just works,” Ubuntu delivers with minimal setup.
Key Features:
Intuitive GNOME desktop environment
Regular releases and a Long-Term Support (LTS) version with five years of updates
Large software repository and excellent hardware support
Strong community forums and extensive official documentation
Good for: Users completely new to Linux or those switching from Windows or macOS.
Best for: Desktops, laptops, beginners.
2. Linux Mint: Familiar Feel for Former Windows Users
Why it’s great: Linux Mint focuses on a familiar desktop experience. Its Cinnamon edition resembles the classic Windows layout, making the transition easier for users coming from that platform. Mint is stable, fast, and comes with many tools that simplify daily tasks.
Key Features:
Traditional desktop layout (like Windows)
Comes bundled with multimedia codecs and essential apps
Excellent performance on older hardware
Multiple desktop options (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce)
Good for: Windows switchers looking for a gentle introduction.
Best for: Desktops, older machines, learners.
3. Zorin OS: A Windows-Like Experience With Style
Why it’s great: Zorin OS is designed with newcomers in mind. It’s polished, modern, and “comfortable” for users who may find traditional Linux desktops intimidating. Its interface can mimic Windows or macOS out of the box, and Zorin includes tools to effortlessly install popular applications.
Key Features:
Look-and-feel switcher (Windows, macOS styles)
Go to Full Article
- What’s New in KDE Gear 25.12 — A Major Update for KDE Software
by George Whittaker Introduction
The KDE community has just published KDE Gear 25.12, the newest quarterly update to its suite of applications. This refresh brings a mix of enhancements, bug fixes, performance refinements, and new features across many popular KDE apps, from Dolphin file manager and Konsole terminal to Krita and Spectacle. With this release, KDE continues its tradition of incremental yet meaningful upgrades that make everyday use smoother and more productive.
KDE Gear updates are not limited to the KDE Plasma desktop; they also benefit users of other desktop environments who install KDE apps on their systems. Whether you’re running KDE on Linux, BSD, or even Windows via KDE Windows builds, Gear 25.12 delivers improvements worth checking out.
Highlights from KDE Gear 25.12Dolphin: Better File Browsing and Thumbnails
Dolphin, KDE’s file manager, receives several enhancements in this update:
Improved thumbnail generation for more file types, making previews quicker and more dependable.
UI polish in the sidebar for easier navigation between folders and mounted drives.
Better handling of network shares and remote locations, improving responsiveness and reducing hangs.
These changes combine to make everyday file exploration more responsive and visually informative.
Konsole: Productivity Boosts
The KDE terminal emulator, Konsole, gets attention too:
Search field improvements help you find text within long terminal scrollbacks faster and with fewer clicks.
Tab and session indicators are clearer, helping users manage multiple tabs or split views more easily.
Stability fixes reduce crashes in edge cases when closing multiple sessions at once.
For developers and power users who spend a lot of time in a terminal, these refinements are genuinely useful.
Krita: More Painting Power
Krita, KDE’s professional painting and illustration application, also benefits from this release:
Improvements to brush performance, reducing lag on large canvases and complex brush sets.
Better color management and palette handling, smoothing workflows for digital artists.
Fixes for certain configuration edge cases that previously caused settings not to persist across sessions.
Artists and digital illustrators should notice fewer interruptions and smoother performance when working on large projects.
Go to Full Article
- 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.
Go to Full Article
- 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.
Go to Full Article
- 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.
Go to Full Article
|
