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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
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(Two Column)
- Igalia celebrates "Twenty-Five Years Upstream"
The open-source consulting firm Igalia has put out anannouncement celebrating 25 years of working on upstream FOSS projectsfor its clients. The list of projects the company has worked on is rathereye-opening: WebKit, mobile-browser rendering (on Maemo, Moblin, MeeGo, andTizen), the Linux kernel (CPU and GPU scheduling), 3D graphics drivers, theOrca screen reader, GStreamer, and lots more. Beyond that, the company, which is aworker-owned cooperative, does its work in ways that benefit the communityas well as its clients:None of this is charity. Igalia is a consultancy, and most of the work above was paid for by someone with a product to ship: a device maker who needs the web to run well on their hardware, a platform that needs a feature its users keep asking for, a company whose roadmap depends on something deep in the stack working better than it does today. What they get from us is not a patch to carry forever. We do the work upstream, in the project itself, so it arrives in the next release and keeps working long after the contract ends. Our customers ship products built on code that nobody has to maintain alone, and everyone else gets the same code. That has been the arrangement from the start.
- Three new stable kernels
Greg Kroah-Hartman has released the 7.2.7,6.18.53, and 6.12.111 stable kernels. As is usual these days, they arequite large; also no surprise is that they provide many important fixesthroughout the kernel tree. Users of those kernels are advised to update.
- [$] Testing compat_linux on NetBSD with the Linux Test Project
NetBSD has long had support forrunning Linux binaries via its kernel-level compat_linuxfeature, but test coverage for it was less complete than some mighthope. In order to provide better testing for compat_linux,Google Summer of Code (GSoC) participant Henrique Brito opted to workon enabling the Linux TestProject (LTP) test suite to compile and run on NetBSD. At EuroBSDCon 2026, Brito'smentor, Stephen Borrill, provided a report on the project, and thestatus of LTP on NetBSD. The work has already resulted in some minorfixes, and a good list of additional problems to solve.
- Security updates for Monday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (kernel, perl-Net-DNS, sudo, tomcat, and tomcat9), Debian (chromium, gimp, libde265, libevent, linux-6.12, ruby-jwt, and unbound), Fedora (asterisk, chromium, doctl, dovecot, evolution, firefox, forgejo, freeciv, freeipa, gegl04, gimp, libheif, nss, opkssh, parted, ruby, stb, thunderbird, unbound, and webkitgtk), Mageia (bind, gawk, gdk-pixbuf2.0, graphicsmagick, gstreamer1.0-plugins-base, libde265, libpcap, libssh, mpg123, ntfs-3g, ntpsec, patch, perl-YAML, postfix, python-configargparse, and python-httplib2), Oracle (.NET 10.0, .NET 8.0, .NET 9.0, firefox, image-builder, kernel, libevent, libsoup, libsoup3, perl-Net-DNS, python-lxml, sudo, tomcat, tomcat9, and unbound), Slackware (stunnel), SUSE (alloy, dovecot22, ffmpeg-8, firefox, firefox-esr, freeipmi, glibc, google-guest-agent, google-osconfig-agent, helm, ImageMagick, jq, kbd, kernel-devel, libpcap, libsoup, libzypp, zypper, NetworkManager-applet-l2tp, nginx, openCryptoki, pcre2, python311, python313-aiosmtplib, python313-litellm, rpm, and thunderbird), and Ubuntu (linux-aws, linux-aws-fips, linux-azure-5.15, linux-azure-fde-5.15, linux-azure-fips, linux-azure-5.4, linux-gcp-fips, linux-azure-fips, linux-nvidia-tegra, linux-raspi, linux-raspi-realtime, and rclone).
- [$] Looking forward to Git 2.56 — and 3.0
The Git source-code management system isat the core of development processes worldwide, so changes, especiallyincompatible changes, are of great interest to the developers involved.The Git 2.56 release, which can be expected around the end of September, iscurrently available in release-candidate form. Itis not the most earth-shaking of releases, but the one that follows, whichmight be the long-awaited Git 3.0, may well be.
- Systemtap 5.6 released
Version 5.6 of the Systemtap tracing tool has been released.
BPF LSM hooks and XDP packet-processing probes for the --bpf runtime, BTF-based kernel.tracepoint probes, statement execution tracing, a new @enumname() operator, richer runtime error context, dyninst hardware watchpoints, modern systemd service templates, and broad Linux 7.2 runtime/tapset compatibility work. Multithreaded speedups throughout.
- Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (.NET 10.0, coreutils, kernel, libevent, libsoup3, microcode_ctl, perl-Net-DNS, postgresql18, postgresql:16, postgresql:18, tomcat, and unbound), Debian (bind9, chromium, libapache2-mod-auth-openidc, nginx, xz-utils, and zip), Fedora (chromium, freeipmi, GitPython, gnatcoll, nodejs-undici, parted, python-django5, and sblim-cmpi-base), Mageia (imagemagick and python-starlette), Oracle (.NET 10.0, .NET 8.0, .NET 9.0, coreutils, corosync, firewalld, kernel, libevent, libsoup, microcode_ctl, nginx:1.24, perl, perl:5.32, postgresql:16, postgresql:18, redis, rsync, rsyslog, tesseract, and unbound), Red Hat (vim), SUSE (alsa, chirp, chromium, cjose, cups, discount, firefox, gh, glibc, gvfs, jq, kernel, libcjose-devel, libmbedcrypto7, libpcap, mbedtls-2, netcdf, nodejs18, openai-codex, openvpn, pcre2, perl-net-dns, sngrep, tiff, and znc), and Ubuntu (bison, bubblewrap, and gst-plugins-good1.0).
- [$] Thread-identity switcheroo for io_uring
The io_uringsubsystem is all about asynchronous execution; applications count on itto not block — unless explicitly requested to. Within io_uring, maintainingthe "never blocks" guarantee has sometimes been a challenge, given thatmany paths in the kernel were never designed for asynchronous execution.This problem has been worked around, but at a significant cost toperformance. Now, io_uring maintainer Jens Axboe has posted an RFC patch setwith a somewhat radical (and potentially scary) solution to the problem.
- GNOME 51 released
Version 51 of the GNOME desktopenvironment has been released. The list of changes includes a number ofperformance improvements, offline data and better transit information inthe Maps application, a new interface for the file previewer, and more.
- Security updates for Thursday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (.NET 10.0, .NET 8.0, .NET 9.0, corosync, firewalld, kernel, kernel-rt, libevent, libsoup, microcode_ctl, nginx:1.26, python-lxml, rsyslog, tesseract, and unbound), Debian (firefox-esr, mkvtoolnix, thunderbird, and tor), Fedora (open62541, php-pecl-mongodb2, python-django6, python-jwcrypto, and roundcubemail), Mageia (aom, cockpit, libgd, packagekit, and python-h2), Red Hat (corosync, delve, git-lfs, grafana-pcp, gstreamer1-plugins-base, libvirt, opentelemetry-collector, and rhc-worker-playbook), Slackware (mozilla-firefox and mozilla-thunderbird), SUSE (acl, attr, alloy, ansible-core, clamav, containerized-data-importer, corosync, cups, distribution, glibc, google-cloud-sap-agent, govulncheck-vulndb, gvfs, helm, jq, kbd, kubernetes1.34-apiserver, kubernetes1.35-apiserver, lcms2, libcupsfilters, liblzmasdk26, libzypp, zypper, mistral-vibe, opensc, openvpn, pcre2, python-jwcrypto, tomcat, tomcat10, and tomcat11), and Ubuntu (guix, libheif, perl, python-cryptography, sqlite3, and valkey).
- Fedora 45 beta drags the Linux console into the 21st century (Register)
The Register looksforward to the upcoming Fedora 45 release.
The biggest surprise is that Linux's legacy in-kernel console – the text-mode interface normally hidden beneath the GUI – has been replaced with a software-controlled alternative. The replacement is kmscon, a userspace terminal emulator that has been in development for more than a decade.
- [$] Ways to encrypt data on servers
At the 2026 edition of FOSSY, RomeoSolano gave a fast-paced, humorous presentation on what could have been arather boring topic: server encryption. There are a number of threats thatwe face in today's world, from criminals, government overreach, espionage,and more, that can be thwarted with encryption. But encrypting data on asystem that may live elsewhere, without any access to its keyboard at boottime, is rather more difficult than encrypting the disk of a laptop.Solano described the problems and gave a tour of some of the solutions inthe talk.
- Security updates for Wednesday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (kernel, kernel-rt, libkcapi, nginx, nginx:1.24, openssl, osbuild-composer, perl, perl:5.32, python-tornado, rsync, and rust), Debian (cjose and nginx), Fedora (environment-modules, erlang, GitPython, knot, perl-Authen-SASL, python-configargparse, ruby, rubygems, and sblim-sfcb), Oracle (firefox, git-lfs, gstreamer1-plugins-base, kernel, libkcapi, nginx, nginx:1.26, openssl, osbuild-composer, perl, perl-YAML-Syck, postgresql18, python-tornado, and rust), Red Hat (fence-agents, git-lfs, microcode_ctl, osbuild-composer, podman, python-pyasn1, and resource-agents), SUSE (389-ds, ant, bson-devel, chirp-20260911, docker, gimp, google-cloud-sap-agent, hauler, kernel, kimi-code, libpcap, python-GitPython, python310, syncthing, yast2-samba-client, and zstd-jni), and Ubuntu (aom, imagemagick, kitty, openssh, phpseclib, policykit-1, python-sql, python-webob, shibboleth-sp, simplesamlphp, snapcast, srt, and suricata-update).
- Patches Posted With Aim To Mainline Linux Kernel Support For The Amazon Kindle 4
Amazon released the Kindle 4 back in 2011 with a 6-inch E-ink display, 2GB internal storage, and running a modified version of Linux. In the years since the Amazon Kindle 4 has been jail-broken and there are some customized Linux distributions with a patched kernel to run on the Kindle 4. Now in 2026 there are patches on the Linux kernel mailing list looking to mainline support for that fifteen year old e-reader device...
- AMD BC-250 Continues Being Improved Under Linux With Patches Now Enabling The PSP
The AMD BC-250 as the product designed at the time for cryptocurrency mining and based on a cut-down Sony PlayStation 5 APU continues having an interesting second-life being re-tasked for Linux use from general purpose workloads to AI. Sent out this weekend were the latest Linux kernel patches for continuing to enable more of the BC-250...
- Clicks Communicator brings 4.03-inch AMOLED display and physical keyboard to Android 17
Clicks is preparing the Communicator, a compact Android smartphone built around a physical keyboard and a 4.03-inch AMOLED touchscreen. The device uses MediaTek’s 4nm Dimensity 8300 platform, includes 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and is designed to operate either as a standalone phone or alongside another smartphone. The MediaTek Dimensity 8300, identified by […]
- 5-inch HMI and 47 x 114mm SBC run on Dragonwing IQ-2390
SECO has added two compact industrial platforms based on Qualcomm’s Dragonwing IQ-2390 processor: the Compact Vision 5 Dragonwing IQ-2390, a 5-inch panel-mounted HMI, and the SBC-Dragonwing-IQ-2390, a 47 × 114mm single-board computer for custom embedded systems. Both platforms support on-device AI, industrial connectivity and SECO’s Yocto Linux-based Clea OS. The Dragonwing IQ-2390 integrates application processing, […]
- CompuLab i.MX952 Linux-capable module showcases 2.5GbE, Wi-Fi 6 and PCIe Gen 3
CompuLab has introduced the UCM-iMX952, a 28 x 40mm System-on-Module based on NXP’s i.MX952 processor. The module supports up to 16GB of LPDDR5 or LPDDR4X memory and 128GB of eMMC storage, along with PCIe Gen 3, 2.5GbE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and multiple display and camera interfaces. The NXP i.MX952 is available on the module […]
- As KDE Turns 30, Contributors and Commits are Going Strong
"In a few weeks, KDE will turn 30 years old," writes core contributor Kevin Ottens, celebrating with some special KDE community data analytics (including a 30-year graph of the number of contributors):It peaks around 180 on average (and sometimes reaches towards around 200 people) then shrinks again hitting bottom around 110 persons on average in 2017... Since then, we had two major events happening. First, 2018 is the year where we had the first set of KDE Goals being picked by the community, one being "Streamlined onboarding of new contributors". Second, we had the transition to GitLab which was fully delivered early in the second quarter of 2020... Now it seems like the team size is around 140 people on average, so closer to the all time high of 2010 but we didn't fully close the gap yet. Interestingly though, the commit count is much closer to the one we had in 2010, with a bit less people. We even had an all time high commit count in 2023 which surpassed any other week since the creation of the project. And to make things even brighter, the trends at the end of the plot point upwards. Looks like 2026 will be a very good year. Hopefully the growth will stay stable this time and then the community will be the biggest it's ever been... [For the KDE Plasma desktop] We find the 2010 dip but it's much less dramatic than in all the other plots. It stabilized much quicker and managed to stay with an almost identical team size. We also find the increase leading up to 2020. And clearly it's one of the projects which benefitted the most of the GitLab transition. It's average team size almost doubled during the transition! Earlier I asked where the increase we could see on KDE as a whole but not on applications was coming from? Well, this is probably it. Like the rest of KDE, 2026 will be a very good year for Plasma as well. I wonder... will it double in size again next year compared to 2020? "I'm rather happy that KDE as a whole seems very healthy..." the post concludes. "It looks like in almost 30 years KDE built a great community and many awesome products..." "Kudos to all the people involved for the past 30 years! Even if you're not involved any more you helped contribute something beautiful and precious to the world. We're the living proof that large commons can be created and made sustainable thanks to passionate people."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Are Book Publishers Warming Up to the AI Industry?
There's at least 15 author-driven lawsuits underway against AI companies, while publishers have filed roughly 10 more coordinated suits of their own, notes Publisher's Weekly.Yet "While the lawsuits play out, some publishers are building bridges."Google recently announced a partnership with Bloomsbury, De Gruyter Brill, Johns Hopkins University Press, Macmillan, O'Reilly Media, and Penguin Random House to enhance e-books from its Google Play store with AI, allowing readers to interact with the text of the books directly, ask questions and get answers, and develop tools such as quizzes and slideshows... [The CEO of the Author's Guild called the partnership "a positive step forward in the legitimized use of books in the AI ecosystem to the benefit of readers, publishers, and authors alike."] Of even more significance is the growing number of licensing deals publishers are striking with AI companies. In 2024, HarperCollins became the first of the Big Five to publicly reveal that it had signed a deal to license its content for AI training. The three-year agreement paid $5,000 per participating title, split equally between HarperCollins and the authors. Wiley announced its first AI licensing deal in 2024 and has since made several more. For fiscal year 2026, it reported earning $49 million in revenue from the deals. The company also has a number of strategic collaborations with companies including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Anthropic, Perplexity, IQVIA, OpenEvidence, and others. And publishers are even building in-house AI tools for producing royalty statements, proofreading, and providing customer service:In its 2025 Salary and Jobs Report, Publisher's Weekly reported that 63% of industry professionals surveyed said their organizations were using AI... Keith Riegert, president of the Stable Book Group and CEO of Perfect Bound, has been a vocal advocate for the use of AI in publishing — despite calling himself a "hardcore techno-pessimist." He tells PW, "I do this because you use AI or you die at this point...." Like many in the industry, he maintains any use of AI must "start with a human and end with a human," and he draws a clear line, avoiding AI for core creative work, such as selecting titles, designing covers, or creating illustrations — reserving it for developmental editing, formatting, and admin instead... What is known is that each of the Big Five is developing proprietary AI systems for internal use, as proven by the numerous AI-related job openings the companies have posted... [And the parent company of Penguin Random House said in 2025 they used AI for marketing and to forecast demand.] There've been a few high-profile controversies about prominent authors accused of using AI. But Princeton University Press CEO Christie Henry "is less concerned about authors secretly using AI to write than about the time spent policing the situation.""It pulls us away from having focused time to think," she says. Princeton University Press is currently vetting companies that promise to be able to certify that a given book was written by a human, including Created by Humans, Human Authored, and Verify My Writing. Henry adds that the proliferation of plagiarized, copycat, and pirated books online, now supercharged by AI agents mass producing and reproducing content, is further draining resources, as it demands constant vigilance and takedown requests sent to Amazon, YouTube, and others.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Australia Considers Smart Glasses Ban in Government Workplaces, While 70 People Sue Meta Over Unknowing Data Collection
"Australia is considering barring the use of camera-equipped smart glasses in government workplaces..." reports Reuters, "in what it said could be the first ban of its kind." But meanwhile "more than 70 people who bought, used or were recorded with Meta's smart glasses have sued the social media giant," reports the Los Angeles Times, "claiming their intimate and sensitive images were exposed to workers abroad who are paid to review and label photos and videos."The contractors in Kenya work for companies that help train Meta's artificial intelligence, according to a proposed class-action lawsuit amended in late August. The smart glasses users, some in California, allege the gadget captured footage of themselves and family members undressing, going to the bathroom, having sex and entering passwords. In some cases, the people said they weren't aware the camera-equipped glasses were recording. One California user, referred to as PL18 in the lawsuit, alleges his glasses were unknowingly recording after he placed the smart glasses on the bathroom counter. "He noticed that at times photos of his family members using the bathroom and bathing began appearing in his gallery — footage no one in his household intended to take," the lawsuit said.... The 230-page lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Northern California, accuses Meta of fraud and false advertising, along with violating other consumer protection laws in various states. Tina Wolfson, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said the case also centers on Meta's surveillance of people's lives without their consent and the exploitation of their image and likeness. "People who bought these glasses and thought that they were cool gadgets weren't aware that every time they activated AI, video was sent to train Meta's AI," said Wolfson, a principal at law firm Ahdoot & Wolfson in Burbank. Meta disagrees with the allegations and intends to fight them. "If you use Meta AI, we may review that data to help improve our products and people's experiences — this works the same way as many other companies. We take steps to filter this data to help remove identifying information and to protect people's privacy," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement... The lawsuit alleges people wearing the smart glasses were unwittingly transmitting data to Meta whenever they used Meta AI by saying "Hey Meta," or sometimes accidentally when adjusting the glasses. "Every activation of the AI features, intentional or accidental, captures video and audio that is transmitted to Meta's servers, routed overseas, and reviewed by low-paid human workers who watch, label, and embed these moments into Meta's AI models," the lawsuit said... The lawsuit also seeks to block Meta from deploying biometric tools through its glasses. The company has been exploring a controversial feature called "NameTag" that would allow people to identify others... A separate lawsuit, filed in September in a federal court in Illinois, alleges Meta has been using images of people's faces uploaded to their public Facebook and Instagram accounts to train AI that powers NameTag and other AI tools.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- North Korean Hackers Posed as Recruiters. They Infected 30,000 Devices Worldwide
"I would like to verify your technical abilities, so please download the specified file and complete the assigned task..." Fake job listings aimed at software developers and IT professionals led to 30,000 infected devices in over 100 countries — and 7,000 compromised cryptocurrency wallets, leading to over $10 million (USD) transferred to North Korea. Inc. reports:The hacks occurred from December 2025 through July 2026, according to a joint cybersecurity advisory issued Friday by Japanese, Australian, German, and U.S. authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Defense Department's Cyber Crime Center... The group reportedly has been active since 2023, carrying out both financially motivated attacks and cyberespionage... The hackers lure job seekers through social media, online job platforms, gig-work sites and freelance marketplaces. WaterPlum asks responders to take part in virtual technical interviews or complete coding assignments. The attackers then instruct targets to download and run malicious files, sometimes under the guise of completing an assignment or troubleshooting a problem with videoconferencing software. Once the group gains access to a device or network, it uses malware to steal information, including browser passwords, screenshots, files, and cryptocurrency-wallet data. An infected computer can also provide an avenue into the network of the target's employer, opening the door to intellectual-property theft and espionage, authorities said. The operation overlaps with a separate scheme in which North Korean nationals conceal their identities and locations to obtain remote IT work with companies abroad, officials said. The malicious files are "hosted on multiple online collaboration software developer platforms and code repositories," the advisory points out, and includes malicious Node Package Manager (NPM) packages.." Stolen ID images can also be used by North Korean IT workers to impersonate victims to obtain contracts and receive payment in foreign currency, but "The actors can also use stolen sensitive information for extortion." In one case, a North Korean IT worker "extorted a company over payment and published its proprietary source code online. In another case, an IT Worker hired for website maintenance defaced the hiring company's website and rendered the site inaccessible." The advisory provides clues for employers. It warns these malicious IT workers "tend to favor payment in cryptocurrency, and they may request that remuneration be sent to an account in another person's name." During interviews they'd sometimes used Al face-swapping software, then claimed network issues and disabled their video. And "On holidays celebrated in North Korea, the actors played games and watched soccer videos instead of conducting their usual malicious activities."
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- Lawsuit Says Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI And Google Made Illegal Agreement On AI Slowdown
Tom's Hardware reports:Four plaintiffs subscribed to ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, or Gemini filed a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that the developers of these AI models violated antitrust laws when they agreed to slow AI development. According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit argues that this agreement would "reduce the value consumers get for paid AI subscriptions" and that this coordination started in July 2026 after the leading AI labs signed a statement admitting there is "intense competitive pressure not to unilaterally slow" development. The plaintiffs recognize the need for AI development to slow for the sake of safety, but they say that Anthropic founder Dario Amodei's cooperation proposal is a "shortcut" that "substitutes collective restraint for individual accountability." Attorney Nick Rowley, the lead counsel for the plaintiffs, says, "AI will quickly spin out of human control and could kill us all if we allow AI safety and protocol ... to be controlled by private self-serving agreements between the world's most powerful 'for profit' technology companies." "Representatives for Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and SpaceXAI did not immediately respond..."reports the Associated Press:The coordination largely took place on Sept. 12, the lawsuit argues, when Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay urging for industrywide cooperation on decelerating advancements in favor of enhanced safety measures. That same day, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk and Google DeepMind's co-founder and chair Demis Hassabis each publicly responded to Amodei's proposals in agreement. But the lawsuit also alleges that the coordination began to take shape months earlier. It points to a statement from July 2026 that high-ranking employees from several of the leading AI labs signed that acknowledged the "intense competitive pressure not to unilaterally slow" development. That statement called on the government to support a global effort to slow automated AI development. Sam Altman even specificially said "we do not believe we need to wait for an antitrust exemption or legislation to begin the work of providing this confidence," notes Tom's Hardware. However, the Trump administration shot down this idea... Chinese state media also criticized this announcement, saying that the call to put the brakes on AI development is nothing but a response to Chinese competition, especially as Amodei's essay explicitly mentioned the desire to slow China's progress and widen the U.S.'s gap over Beijing
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Democracy vs Digital Infrastructure: Pulitzer-Winning Journalist Charts 'The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State'
The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State ultimately asks the question, "How did we cede control of our democracy to the machines, and can we get it back?" according to the Harvard's Arts and Sciences site, FAS Current:The new title finds Lepore, who used to teach a course at the College titled "The Rise and Fall of the Machine," charting the ascent of what she calls the artificial state: the digital communication infrastructure by which governments and private corporations automate and ultimately control public discourse. Following her Pulitzer Prize win for "We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution" (2025), "I wanted to think about whether liberal constitutional democracies can survive this moment in time," Lepore shared in a phone interview... [In the "current ChatGPT moment"] Lepore found herself asking: "Who are the people who are clamoring to be replaced by machines, to have movies made by machines, and novels written by machines?" And who, she continued, is pushing for our government to be determined by these machines? In the book, Lepore notes that technological tools are increasingly influencing elections around the world...However, she sees the 2026 U.S. midterms as an inflection point. In a recent piece in the Financial Times, Lepore wrote, "This year marks the first AI election. Voters are asking chatbots how they should vote. Campaigns and activists are using AI to analyze the electorate, send micro-targeted messages, produce tailored ads and even deepfakes...." Lepore stresses in the book that "nobody should trust historians to make predictions," but she believes it's possible for democratic citizens to wrest back control. Referencing proposals such as New York's data center moratorium law, Lepore ends by describing a "growing and increasingly noisy tech backlash." "It's not foreordained. This isn't inevitable," she said during the interview. "In the book's epilogue Lepore predicts, as her title suggests, a fall of the Artificial State," writes the California Review of Books. "That argument turns out to be speculative, much more of a hope than a certainty."[Lepore] does support her prediction by positing that the Artificial State is "poorly designed and badly built," that it has not given people safety and happiness but rather a prison of glowing screens, and that a majority of Americans want more control over AI. To escape the Artificial State we will have to imagine a different future by gaining more knowledge of the past in a search for meaning. Of course, powerful forces want to deny that and turn us into servile automatons. The Guardian adds that "While Lepore interprets much classic sci-fi, such as Isaac Asimov, as cautionary, she observes that "the architects of the Artificial State seem to have read these stories, unironically, as instruction manuals, guides for how to build robots that would one day rule the world". (The Atlantic writes that "What one gathers from these misreadings is not so much that science fiction itself is nefarious, but that arrested development might be...") But The Indian Express writes that despite the author's bleak conclusion, "Lepore is not a pessimist. Because the Artificial State is a construct, neither alive, nor truly indestructible, she argues it is still possible to take it apart... [T]his is a clear-eyed reckoning rather than a doomsday tract. It is not an easy read, but an essential one for anyone unsettled by the pace of the AI wave."
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- The Brain Is Actually Two Completely Separate Organs
"New research led by Stanford Medicine reveals that what we call the brain is two distinct organs that evolved independently over hundreds of millions of years," Stanford Medicine announced this week:The new research finding shows that the human brain consists of two ancient nervous systems cleverly packaged together — a more primitive part that regulates our hearts' beating, our breathing and other functions, and another that makes us distinctly human, capable of poetry, mathematics and wondering about our own origins. The discovery could help explain why scientists have struggled for decades to grow certain types of brain cells in the laboratory — and it opens new avenues for studying devastating diseases that affect the brain stem... [S]cientists have struggled for decades to generate human hindbrain neurons in the laboratory. This gap has hampered research into devastating diseases affecting the brain stem, including spinal muscular atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis... The researchers' breakthrough came from studying the earliest moments of embryonic development... [Study co-authors Carolyn Dundes and Rayyan Jokhai] discovered that the hindbrain follows a separate developmental path, running in parallel to — rather than branching off from — the pathway that creates the forebrain and midbrain... This revelation explained decades of frustration in the field — scientists had been trying to turn one type of progenitor cell into another that it is fundamentally incapable of becoming... Armed with this knowledge, the researchers for the first time successfully coaxed human pluripotent stem cells (a kind of cell that can create any cell in the human body) to become functional hindbrain motor neurons in the laboratory... Finally, the researchers looked back over 550 million years of evolutionary time. They found the same two-origin brain pattern in chickens; zebrafish; and, remarkably, in acorn worms, tiny creatures living on the ocean floor that share a distant common ancestor with humans. Jellyfish, which diverged from humans about 600 to 700 million years ago, have two nervous systems at different ends of their body. "Our research suggests that evolution took two existing neural systems and pushed them together spatially," Loh said. "Having the brain as one organ would probably be more efficient, but we rely on this primordial way to make the brain as two separate pieces." Thanks to Slashdot reader Beeftopia for sharing the article.
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- To Enforce Its Proposed Social Media Ban for 450 Million Pre-Teens, EU Builds an Open Source App
The European Commission "proposed on Thursday banning children under 13 from social media, with parent-supervised accounts until 15," reports Reuters. "Enforcement would rely on a tool Brussels built itself" — a free, open-source age verification smartphone app "that tells a platform whether a user meets an age threshold without revealing their identity..."If passed, the proposed Kids Act would create the world's largest social media access restriction, covering 450 million people across 27 countries... [The EU-built age-verification app] is being rolled out through member states, with seven pilot countries: Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain. The Commission expects EU-wide availability by the end of 2026. It will also be used to prove users are over 18 when accessing adult sites, a restriction already implemented under the Digital Services Act... [T]he system itself is decentralised. Member states run it through issuers they designate, and the proofs live on the user's phone. There is no central EU database of ages or of who verified whom... A user proves their age once to a nationally designated issuer — a body vetted by the member state, which can be a digital ID provider, a bank or a post office. At a restricted site, the app certifies that the user is above the required age threshold. The platform receives only a yes-or-no response. Issuance and verification are handled by separate entities. The proof provider is not told which service the proof was used for. Each proof works only once, preventing cross-service tracking. No identity documents or biometric data are retained. The code is open-source, allowing independent scrutiny. The significance of the EU approach is that it provides a common age-verification mechanism rather than leaving individual platforms to develop and enforce their own systems."Online platforms can easily rely on our age verification app. So there are no more excuses," [EU Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen said... The proposal must be approved by EU member states and the European Parliament before becoming law. Non-compliance would risk fines of up to 6% of a tech company's global annual sales, plus supervisory fees, Reuters reported earlier.The EU's plan follows similar initiatives in Australia, Britain, China, India, Turkey and several European Union countries.
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- Tech Industry Scratches Its Head Over Trump's 'AI Force' Proposal
Saturday morning President Trump announced he's creating an AI task force and appointing an AI czar, reports Politico. "I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS," Trump wrote Saturday in what Politico earlier described as "a lengthy Truth Social post on Saturday morning."TRUMP: Over the years, there have been many Hoaxes, all generated by the Radical Left Dumocrats, for purposes of destroying our Country. RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, Global Warming, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2 [...] and now, the decimation, or destruction, of AI, commonly known as Artificial Intelligence — And I, as President of the United States, will not stand by and let this happen. It all began with an attack on our Data Centers, until people realized how wealthy and prestigious they were for the Communities in which they were built. Higher Salaries, Lower Taxes, and Safer Streets, was the result, and the crazed Data Center attack has largely failed, so now [...] they are going straight at AI. We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows! However, we will also be looking for BAD, and we can do that, very easily, with our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System. For this purpose, I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS, in my First Term. To that end, I will be announcing, in the near future, the AI "Czar" — Only High I.Q. individuals need apply! Trump concluded by saying AI "is the next Industrial Revolution, or Internet, but will be even larger and more impactful... We are leading China, and the rest of the World, and I intend to keep it that way!"But what exactly is AI Force? "The White House did not immediately respond to a request to clarify whether the agency would be military or civilian," notes the Washington Post. So now "The tech industry is struggling to make sense of President Donald Trump's surprise announcement," Politico reported Saturday afternoon:Four representatives for the sector, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told POLITICO that the industry was not widely informed of Trump's decision prior to the Truth Social post. "Nobody knows what the idea even is," one of the people said. Another said that feedback on the idea was not widely solicited within the industry. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment... "I think that he clearly feels pressure to say something, but he's torn because he's just spent the last few days saying that the whole thing is a hoax," Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the progressive tech industry coalition Chamber of Progress, said of Trump and his prior dismissal of AI doomsday scenarios. Since the departure of David Sacks, who stepped down as the Trump administration's previous AI czar earlier this year, the White House has been "making up AI policy as it goes," Kovacevich added. "I think it's clear they've really missed the presence of an organized leader like David Sacks was." One of the tech industry representatives said they were confused about whether the task force would be charged with formulating more AI regulations or recommending policies that would further stimulate the tech's development. Taylor Barkley, director of federal government affairs at the industry-aligned Abundance Institute, is eyeing it as a way to solidify a light-touch government approach to the technology he says will foster innovation. "Any AI Force or AI Czar should have one job: keep the field open so entrepreneurs at every scale can compete, free from onerous regulation," he told POLITICO. "Existing criminal and civil law can handle bad actors. New permission regimes will stifle the very activity America needs most." It's worth noting that the day before, California's governor made an announcement. "With Donald Trump and Congress asleep at the wheel, Governor Gavin Newsom is once again taking the lead to strengthen AI safety for all Americans," the governor's office announced Friday. Newsom issued a strong executive order convening experts to help California create new AI safety laws and reporting rules, possibly even requiring safety auditors embedded in labs and emergency "kill switches" in frontier models.
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- Customer-Losing Flock Now Offers Buyouts to Avoid Laying Off Employees
Mashable writes:Flock Safety offered employees voluntary buyouts on Friday, WIRED reported... Without the buyouts, those familiar with the situation suspect the company would have to lay off some of its 1,500 employees. WIRED writes that people familiar with the program "say they believe that a significant number of the startup's roughly 1,500 employees may try to depart."Flock is making the severance offers as it continues to lose customers... The company has had many of its contracts either not extended or dropped this year, which could leave it short of revenue goals, according to two of the people. A wave of vandalism targeting its cameras has unexpectedly increased expenses. Without buyouts, Flock almost certainly would have to lay off some staff, one of the people believes... People familiar with Flock's severance plan tell WIRED that some employees may take the offer amid speculation that the company, which has raised about $1.2 billion in venture capital, might resort to selling off parts or all of its business to stay afloat... One advocacy group identified 93 city and county governments that cut ties with Flock in August alone. Overall in 2026, roughly three times as many local governments have dropped Flock compared to the previous five years. Flock has recently been building products that extend the company beyond its core license plate reader offering. WIRED reported last month that the company has developed AI-powered investigative software to identify drivers, find potential associates based on patterns of movement, and search across police records and other data. A separate WIRED analysis of Flock's software found tools designed to continuously search camera feeds for people matching written descriptions. WIRED's analysis of Flock's code also found potential integrations with drones and other surveillance systems. Flock's financial scrambles might explain an incident in Syracuse, New York. The nonprofit news siteCentral Current discovered the city's contract said its license plate data wouldn't be shared outside the police department, reports Mashable:But the department had granted access to other agencies, which police said was an accident. Over roughly a year, searches by officers around the country reached Syracuse's data nearly 4.4 million times. And that wasn't the only surprise in the paperwork. Central Current also found that Flock could keep using Syracuse data after the contract ended. When the city approved cameras from Axon to replace Flock's, Flock said Syracuse couldn't simply end its agreement early. It warned that the city might have to pay for both systems; so even as officials moved to replace the cameras, they faced questions about what Flock could do with the data and what the city might still owe. Meanwhile, the Texas Department of Transportation "has stopped issuing permits allowing Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers to be installed along state roads..." reports the Texas Tribune. "There were an estimated 13,000 Flock cameras across Texas in August, but hundreds of the devices have been shut down after [governor] Abbott's funding freeze." And in August Florida's Republican Governor "ordered his state's transportation department to remove the cameras from state roads, saying he didn't want 'a surveillance state.'"
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- Developer Abandons 'PS5 Linux' Project After Sony Patches AI-Discovered Exploit
"In April this year, we saw Andy Nguyen turning the PS5 into a Linux-powered gaming PC,"writes the blog It's FOSS. It ran Steam games and emulators using the PS5's on-board hardware. But this week Andy announced he's "stopping all my work on PS5 Linux" and "stepping away from the PS5 scene." stopping work on porting the project to the PS5 Pro, which would've shipped sometime in 2027.Andy Nguyen: After pouring my heart and months of my life into it, including plans to finish PS5 Pro support and release in 2027, it's all down the sink. The scene used to be a group of highly talented researchers, but now it is just a bunch of noobs using LLMs and writing hacks they don't even understand. Slop kiddies found the only hypervisor bug left, which I had also found a while ago, and decided to report to Sony. I asked them to at least wait for GTA 6 to come out so that people would have the opportunity to legally purchase the game and also enjoy Linux. They agreed to wait, but not a day passed and they decided to waste it instead. Or, as It's FOSS tells it:Running Linux on a PlayStation console is possible because the PS5 Linux project was able to find a way past the hypervisor using exploits Sony had already patched, covering firmware 3.00 through 7.61. .. [The bug's discoverer writes it was] found with what he calls his "trusty ai clanker machine" and no help from anyone else. He had even agreed to Andy's request to not disclose the findings. Unexpectedly, a third person, still unnamed, found the same bug using AI a few hours later. Anticipating that there would be more people finding the same bug, [he] decided to post the flaw on HackerOne. The project's GitHub page and all the related repositories are still there. Nothing has been archived as of today, and if you wanted to, you could start contributing to the PS5 Linux project by taking over any pending work or cooking up new improvements... The PS5 Pro support Andy was building never reached the repository, so you would have to start from scratch... While Andy's departure is a blow to the plan for supporting newer PS5 firmware and the PS5 Pro, other contributors have shown that they can deliver work on the loader without him, and I am hopeful more will follow.
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- Fake AI Intelligence Almost Made the US Military Start a War With China
U.S. military intelligence received an inaccurate report this spring that a Chinese ship in the Middle East was transporting components of a nuclear weapons program, reports CNN. "The US military swung into action with plans to intercept the vessel, according to four sources familiar with the episode."Armed members of the US military were preparing to board the ship [according to two of the sources]. Military planes were in the air, one of those sources and another source familiar with the incident said. It was only just before the planned operation that officials dug deeper into the report put together by a special operations command analyst and found it had been generated with the help of AI — and that a chatbot the analyst had used inaccurately identified the material the ship was carrying. The report, according to one of the sources, was "entirely false." But it also "almost started a war," the source said. Any US operation against a Chinese vessel could have risked spiraling into an armed conflict between the two nations. Across the US military and the intelligence community, officials are pushing to weave AI into nearly every facet of their work, from analyzing the huge volumes of raw intelligence the US collects and selecting targets for strikes, to more mundane applications like managing budgeting, logistics and supply chains. But the episode underscores the profound risks of using this powerful, new and relatively poorly understood technology for targeting in the middle of a war... Officials say the US can't afford to fall behind in integrating AI in case it must one day fight China or another adversary who would potentially be able to stay one step ahead of the US. In January, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released his agency's "Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Strategy" in a bid to speed up the military's use of AI. "We will unleash experimentation, eliminate bureaucratic barriers, focus our investments and demonstrate the execution approach needed to ensure we lead in military AI," Hegseth said in a speech announcing the strategy. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader stabiesoft for sharing the news.
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- US Air Force F-16 Crashes in Michigan After Pentagon Orders More Flyovers
The F-16 "experienced an incident," the Texas Military Department said in a statement, adding that "The pilot successfully ejected the aircraft and is receiving care at a nearby hospital." ABC News reports:A Texas Air National Guard F-16 crashed in Michigan during a training mission on Thursday afternoon, sparking an hourslong evacuation near the crash site, according to officials. The incident prompted the evacuation of homes and businesses within 1 mile of the crash site due to a "hazardous chemical spill related to the plane crash," Michigan State Police said... All of the Texas Air National Guard aircraft that were in Michigan for the training were immediately grounded, and will likely remain so for the next 24 hours, according to a U.S. official. America's War Department has said it wanted to see more military flyovers writes The Daily Beast, adding that the F-16 "was due to perform a flyover at a high-school football game on Friday night, the Alpena News reported."The military said it was still investigating the cause of the crash, but one pilot told air traffic controllers that he believes his wingman hit a bird before the crash.... The accident followed a Pentagon X post on Thursday after widespread criticism of low-altitude flyovers and maneuvers. "The flyovers will continue until morale improves," it said.
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- Gemini Breached Three Outside Systems, and Claude-Using Researchers Breached OpenAI
"Software security researchers used Anthropic's Claude AI platform to hack OpenAI's ChatGPT tool," reports CBS News. Using Claude, "On July 25, 2026, we chained two critical vulnerabilities to compromise multiple OpenAI employees' ChatGPT accounts," write researchers at security platform Hacktron AI. "With these accounts, we could then access internal OpenAI repositories, and potentially many other connectors... Until two months ago, any user or OpenAI employee logging into OpenAI's own help forum could have had their ChatGPT and Codex accounts taken over. Since people can connect various services to Codex and ChatGPT, the scope of what we could theoretically access was huge, including GitHub, Slack and emails." The exploit chain included Debian 12, which (with Debian 13) had not received a security-relevant backport for its image-processing pipeline, and Discourse's Docker image was based on Debian 12. Their announcement comes with an additional warning. "If you self-host Discourse, rebuild your installation now. Older Docker images may contain a vulnerable libheif dependency that permits code execution through an image upload." And "To prove we had in fact gained the access we believed without allowing ourselves to learn any sensitive information, we used the employee's Codex to open a PR #1186742 in OpenAI's internal monorepo openai/openai." Meanwhile, Friday Google disclosed the first known instance of its AI software Gemini breaking out of a testing environment and breaching three other companies, reports CNBC:The incident happened as part of a "capture-the-flag" security test run by Israeli startup Irregular, and Google's agents were never supposed to access the broader internet, but a bug in the testing environment made internet access available. The agents stopped their intrusion when they determined they had accessed real company systems, not just part of the testing environment, Google said. More from NBC News: Google said it did not consider the unauthorized logins to rise to the level of misalignment, the AI industry term for software going rogue or not following instructions. Instead, the company said the intrusions resulted from mistaken identity, where Gemini thought it was operating within a test but was actually connected to the real internet. Google said the model corrected itself and the company believed the intrusions did not cause any damage.... Sydney Von Arx, CEO of Nightingale Collective, an organization focused on AI safety, questioned why Google did not disclose the intrusions sooner. "At this point I think it's clear we cannot expect companies to voluntarily come forward and publicly disclose when their agents go rogue, escape, and hack companies," she said. She also said she believed Google was too hasty to say that the incidents don't rise to the level of misalignment. "That's exactly what Anthropic said after their incidents," she said. Anthropic later said its "preliminary analysis was constrained due to our desire to disclose incidents in a timely manner." Google said it investigated when they learned of the attacks from AI-focused cybersecurity company Irregular, then informed the affected organizations and told federal authorities, according to the article.
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- Has the James Web Space Telescope Discovered a New 'Black Hole Star'?
The James Webb Space Telescope has been picking up little red dots in almost every image,writes Quanta magazine. And now two teams of astronomers propose they're looking at a new astronomical object: a black hole star. It shines with the light of billions of suns — and hides a black hole in its core.But Quanta adds that "not everyone agrees with this bold interpretation."[Two Webb telescope surveys of distant objects included little red dots] for hours at a time. They tabulated precisely what shades of light were coming from each dot, and how bright the shades were... The bombshell discovery in the little red dot spectra was that the colors of hydrogen were smeared out across multiple shades. Usually, seeing such an effect means you're looking straight at an exposed black hole. Black holes whip hydrogen clouds around them at furious rates, with the clouds emitting slightly different colors depending on their speed... Then, in the spring of 2025, [two of the paper's astronomers] de Graaff and Naidu's teams unveiled the two strangest dots yet... The new little red dots couldn't literally be stars — they were way too bright. And they didn't look much like black holes either. Black holes have an assortment of ringlike structures of different temperatures... Naidu and de Graaff concluded that they were[ looking at the first examples of something combining the vigor of a black hole with the outward appearance of a star: a black hole star... This black hole would pull gas around it, dramatically heating it and pushing light and energy outward, which would keep the outer layers of hydrogen from collapsing inward. In this way, the black hole would form the "engine" of the star, analogous to the fusion-powered core of our sun... "We are seeing the seed," Naidu said. "This is the birth of potentially every massive black hole in the universe." "Astronomers have spent the last year in a lively debate about what's really going on," Quanta adds. And this week simulations using the Japanese Supercomputer ATERUI III "have explained the nature of the Little Red Dots without requiring any exotic assumptions," writes Phys.org — by conducting the most detailed cosmological simulations yet of conditions in the early universe:The simulations show that the Little Red Dots are black holes growing at a rate that would be impossible today because of conditions in the early universe. The simulations show that in the early universe, intense far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation from nearby galaxies suppresses star formation in gas clouds, so rather than forming many small stars, the gas can form a single supermassive star, which then collapses into a black hole seed. The simulations show that, once formed, these black hole seeds are surrounded by dense gas disks. This environment traps radiation, enabling the black holes to grow at rates dozens of times faster than would be possible in the modern universe. The simulated properties of these rapidly growing black holes provide a good match to the Little Red Dots (LRDs) observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
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- 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]
- You know the GDPR is good based on who hates it
It is impossible to go anywhere in a technology space online without hitting a wave of commentary about how stupid GDPR is. It was written by bureaucrats who dont understand the amazing potential of unrestricted technology. These US-based critiques almost always lean on the oldest trick in cyberlibertarianism: we dont have time to regulate, we must simply adapt and ride the wave. Nobody has time for government. Of all GDPRs consequences, none gets more attention than the cookie banner, which critics present as the inevitable result of government meddling. Blaming GDPR for the cookie banner is like blaming the health inspector for the roaches. The banner is deliberate vandalism, a dark pattern engineered to exhaust you before you can learn anything about the surveillance apparatus humming behind the OK.! Ironically the banner designed to hide the machine has taught the public more about the machine than a thousand podcasts ever will. Even non-technical people stop at your data is shared with 996 partners.! ↫ Mat Duggan There is so much misinformation about the cookie banner, its honestly quite hard to believe its not deliberately spread. You dont need a cookie banner for functional cookies, so as long as you dont share your users data with anyone else, you dont need a cookie banner at all. On top of that, most cookie banners you encounter are actually not compliant with the GDPR at all, because they dont present a single-click option to block your data from being shared with those 996 partners. What the cookie banner has done is inform millions maybe even billions of people the world over of just how insipid the online advertising and data harvesting industry really is. It put the issue on the map, and by now, everyone, no matter their level of computer literacy, is fully aware of whats happening to their data every time they see one of these (non-compliant) banners. No else had the guts to do this except for the European Union. The wider GPDR has set the baseline for online privacy protections, and while we have a long way to go before weve fully solved this issue, the EU at least gave us a good point to jump off from. Smoking and asbestos werent banned in a day, either.
- Googlebook OS: Google launches its Android-powered laptop effort
A few months ago, Google announced it was going to put Android on laptops (and eventually, desktops), serving as eventual replacements for Chromebooks. Unlike those, though, these new Android laptops wouldnt be low-quality, cheap, underpowered devices for school children to spill milk on, but devices actually competitive with Windows and macOS laptops. Today, the company finally allowed the press to use these new things. Google describes Googlebook as a “totally fresh approach to computing,” bringing together Android, ChromeOS, Gemini, and premium laptop hardware from major manufacturers. The idea is to create a laptop that feels more natural to use for Android phone users while retaining what makes a desktop OS useful, such as a full Chrome browser, desktop apps, a proper file manager, Linux support, and a full terminal environment. Google is also trying to solve some of the biggest problems Android users have had when moving between their phone and laptop, and make the two devices feel like part of the same ecosystem. ↫ Adamya Sharma at Android Authority Ive been looking at some of the videos of people using and playing with these new Android laptops, and to be honest, Im not impressed. Im seeing quite a bit of jank, a complete lack of consistency, and apparently, a lack of Android applications optimised for desktop use. The close integration with your Android phone are nice, but of course, this also means another dollop of slimy lock-in, as I highly doubt Google will make it easy or even possible at all for, say, iPhones or other platforms to integrate quite as nicely as Android devices will. Worse yet, theres the elephant in the room: for just how long will Google care about this new platform? These laptops start at $900 and go all the way up to $1300 (and will be considerably more expensive here in Europe), which is a lot to ask for something Google might get bored of and abandon in a few years time. Ten or more years ago, in a slightly more innocent time, I mightve been excited about Google bringing Android to laptops and desktops, but in 2026, I just cant be bothered to care. Also, and this doesnt really matter, but Googlebook OS!?
- Lets stop debating the GnuImp Manipulation Program
The GIMP will never magically become software beloved by artists—not without radically changing its culture, and making the artists the ones who call the shots. The GIMP will remain what it has always set out to be: a tinkerer’s toolbox, more concerned with the purity of its software politics than with garnering a loyal userbase of photographers and designers. But because everyone insisted to poise it as a viable Photoshop killer, Linux is left with an obvious hole in its software offering, a hole nobody managed to fill with their own challenger. ↫ Aria Salvatrice Excellent article, and spot-on conclusion.
- I dont like passkeys!
Passkeys are a fantastic technology. Since they are bound to the site they are created for, they cannot be phished by a hacker’s fake login screen. If a site suffers a data breach, passkeys are asymmetric and cannot be recovered from the server-side details. This leads to passkeys being the perfect fit for a corporate environment, but a poor fit for personal security. To an individual, the greatest risks are instead permanent account lockout, automated account bans, and device loss. By using passkeys, you gain better security against man-in-the-middle attacks but face the higher probability scenario of losing access to your accounts. Phishing through the standard login flow is eliminated by passkeys, but it creates a false sense of security. An account’s security is still dictated by the weakest recovery method: SMS, email links, security questions, and so on. If these recovery methods aren’t enabled, then the risk of permanent lockout remains for the user. ↫ Ethan Hawksley Ive always felt something was off about passkeys, and have never used them. Theyve become or were always intended to be tools for further lock-in by especially Google and Apple, tying their entire usage flow to their respective operating systems. They also dont seem to work well if you often work on devices not your own, which is a major hassle. None of these shortcomings come into play when using a traditional password manager, even if they require more manual work. Just let me use a password manager with random password generation, instead of trying to force passkeys down my throat.
- Java 27 released
Speaking of unsexy programming, weve got a new Java release. Featuring thousands of performance, stability, security, and productivity improvements, Java 27 (Oracle JDK 27) provides a strong foundation for continued Java innovation. To help organizations prepare for more secure communications in a post-quantum world, Java 27 advances its post-quantum cryptography (PQC) capabilities with hybrid key exchange for TLS 1.3. ↫ Oracle press release The OpenJDK release page has more information.
- Performance improvements in .NET 11
Look, nobodys going to argue .NET is sexy, but the truth of the matter is that its quite popular in less visible circles, so any new release is going to have a big impact on a ton of people and product. In other words, performance improvements in .NET 11 are going to matter. In contrast, .NET 11 is actually one higher, one louder. The sections that follow are full of real improvements. A bounds check removed, an allocation that no longer happens, a lock that isn’t taken, a loop that runs in fewer cycles than it did a year ago, a comparison folded to a constant here, a redundant check hoisted out of a loop there, a couple of instructions fused into one, a syscall sidestepped, an array copy handed off to SIMD, and on and on. That’s how real performance work goes, accumulating gain after gain, each compounding on the last, until the whole thing is measurably, provably louder. And so, in this post, as I’ve done in past years with .NET 10, .NET 9, .NET 8, .NET 7, .NET 6, .NET 5, .NET Core 3.0, .NET Core 2.1, and .NET Core 2.0 before it, we’ll take an unhurried tour through hundreds of them. ↫ Stephen Toub at Microsofts Dev Blogs My eyes glaze over at all of this, but even here on OSNews, theres going to be countless people working with .NET at their jobs.
- GNOME 51 released
GNOME 51 has been released, with a whole slew of new features and improvements. Most notably, at least in my experience, will be the work done on GNOMEs graphics stack, which seems to stutter and jitter more than KDEs on the same hardware at least in my experience. In particular, GNOMEs compositor, Mutter, has improved frame scheduling for smoother animations, even under load. This hopefully addresses the stutters I generally experience when using GNOME. Theyve also done a lot of work on the Settings, Maps, Calendar, Web, and other applications. Of note to many will be the array of improvements to GNOMEs file manager, including better performance, although I doubt it will convince those of us who arent particular fans of Nautilus in general. Theyve also improved the remote desktop experience by, among other things, adding support for smart cards and improving support for Kerberos. GNOME 51 will make its way to your distribution of choice soon enough.
- Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils
Ubuntu has been replacing core utilities with Rust rewrites, and its now completed the process. cp,`mv`and`rm`were held back on`their GNU versions in`Ubuntu 26.04 LTS due to a crop of`TOCTOU (time-of-check to time-of-use) issues that needed to be fixed in the`uutils`versions.` With those issues resolved upstream,`Ubuntu 26.10 finishes the job. The ‘Stonking Stingray’ ships a full set of Rust core utilities, which encompasses common command-line tools like ls,`cat,`chmod and `du. ↫ Joey Sneddon at OMG! Ubuntu Im definitely not qualified enough to make any useful remarks about this, but the idea of replacing such foundational, battle-tested utilities with brand new ones, even when written in a memory-safe language, does make feel a little hesitant. Still, at least this way Ubuntu users can work out any issues so that if and when other distributions like the one I use, Fedora follows suit.
- The terrible menu bar in the Windows 11 Notepad
When I used Windows for a month because you people paid me to do so, the utter lack of consistency in the way applications and the operating system itself looks, feels, and behaves was a major sticking point. It turns out, though, that I was only scratching the surface of just how bad things really are on Windows. Case in point: the new WinUI Notepad application that replaced the classic Win32 one. I had no idea just how bad it really is. It’s been seven weeks since I last complained about something in Windows on this blog. That feels like too long, so here’s a post about menus – specifically, the menu bar in the modern version of Notepad in Windows 11. That menu bar has, unfortunately, quite a few regressions compared to the menu bar in the old Win32 version of Notepad. ↫ Reupen Shah Im not going to spoil any of it, because theres no way youd believe any of it without the videos Shah provides. Im aghast.
- GEFS on OpenBSD: a very early preview
The Good Enough File System, originally developed for 9front, is being ported to OpenBSD. For those who havent watched my talk, GEFS is a new, crash-safe, snapshotting, copy on write FS that I wrote for 9front, and which I am in the process of moving to OpenBSD. The file system is described in full here. ↫ Ori Bernstein One of OpenBSDs shortcomings is its rather archaic filesystem, so any work on something more modern and especially more performant is quite welcome. While any process of replacing FFS is going to be a long one, even having GEFS as an option could be a great addition to OpenBSD.
- Apple releases iOS 27, macOS Golden Gate 27 with Siri AI! and Liquid Glass refinements
Apple releases its yearly cluster of operating system updates today, with the two most prominent of course being macOS and iOS/iPadOS. These new versions focus heavily on Apples AI! stuff, but there are a few actual improvements and changes to the actual operating systems as well. Across both iOS and macOS, users now have a slider to affect how transparent or opaque the “Liquid Glass” design is across the operating system. And on the macOS side especially, Apple has made numerous small design tweaks to address user feedback, which has been accumulating since Liquid Glass was introduced. There’s nothing radically new in terms of design here, but this is a much-needed polish pass. Across all the releases, but in particular macOS and also iOS, there are a bunch of quality-of-life or performance improvements. For example, macOS now supports HDR for all system UI elements and gets more robust support for a wider range of display modes for external monitors. ↫ Samuel Axon at Ars Technica If youre not into AI!, theres not a lot of meat on these bones, but at least you can turn the AI! nonsense off through a switch buried deep in the settings applications of Apples operating systems (which will probably be flicked back on whenever the next update comes).
- Switching to GNU Guix: a beginners perspective
Want to run something a little more exotic on your server? How about GNU Guix? It has been a month since migrating my home server to GNU Guix. Managing OS state declaratively through Git has eliminated configuration drift, and Guile Scheme provides a cohesive environment that complements Emacs. While adapting to a smaller package ecosystem and managing substitute timing requires occasional adjustments, the stability, reproducibility, and container isolation make it a dependable foundation. ↫ Wai Hon Im definitely noticing an increase in interest in Guix lately.
- The BeBox: one of the most beautifully overbuilt computers of the 1990s
Late 2000. There is a grey and blue tower PC on my dorm-room desk like nothing anybody who walks into the room has ever seen. The Be logo on the front, a 3.5″ floppy peeking out the bottom of the drive bays, and the vertical grille that hides two columns of green LEDs (blinkenlights) dancing with the CPU load. This was a dual-PowerPC workstation running an operating system you didn’t see in the wild. I was studying computer science at the time and this was a fun piece of hardware. ↫ J.D. Hodges As a BeOS user in and around 2001 or so, the BeBox was the holy grail of the little community I was a part of. There were some people here and there in online circles who had one, but they were rare even when new, and by 2001, they had become rarer still. This rarity made them mysterious and exciting from almost from the day they were launched, like a small volume halo car few people will ever get to see, let alone experience, first-hand. Its 2026 now, and more and more of the small number of BeBoxen made must be succumbing to degradation and hardware failures. I hope everyone who has one takes good care of them, because these are some of the rarest, most coveted computers of all time. Ive still never seen one, and here in Arctic Europe I most likely never will. Still, I remain hopeful. One day.
- Age verification exemptions for open source operating systems feel like Phyrric victories
On the Windows side of the age verification question, Microsoft is obviously following trends among lawmakers the world over. To address this, Windows is introducing a new platform capability: the Windows Age API. This API brings age awareness beyond the operating system by making it available across the entire Windows ecosystem so that apps and services can deliver age-appropriate experiences using the same trusted foundation. By making age awareness available as a platform capability, Windows helps developers build safeguards into experiences from the start rather than placing the burden on children and families to manage protections app by app.` ↫ Rob Mauceri at the Windows Blogs Meanwhile, on the Linux side of things, theres been some cheering as at least California passed amendments to its age verification law to exempt open source operating systems. These amendments redefine the term “operating system provider” to exclude any person or entity that distributes an OS or application “under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software.” Any software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses satisfies that test, which removes the likes of Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch, and the BSD family from AB 1856’s scope. ↫ Luke James at Toms Hardware I think this is not at all the good news that many make it out to be. Exempting Linux, BSD, and other open source operating systems from age verification obligations may seem like a good thing at first glance, but in reality, I think services and applications will simply choose to not work at all on platforms that do not implement age verification. The fear of legal ramifications, especially when it involves children, will be enough for existing and future popular services and applications to exclusively work on platforms that implement age verification whether those fears are founded or not. In fact, Im fairly sure a company like Microsoft, which has actually been feeling the squeeze from the Linux side recently even if it is modestly so is quite happy to see open source operating systems excluded from these obligations. Google, too, is probably none too unhappy to see any possible open source mobile operating system competitors not implement age verification. The fear of missing out is real, and most people are not as invested in fighting big tech and government surveillance as the average OSNews reader is going to be. If using Linux means not being able to play the latest hit games or use that new successful service, people will choose to stick with Windows or macOS. Let me be very clear that I do not support these age verification laws in any way, shape, or form, and I definitely do not want the open source world to embrace age verification. What Im worried about is that the open source world will cheer on these exceptions and consider the battle won, when in reality, they feel more like Pyrrhic victories. Age verification laws must be fought and destroyed at ballot boxes the world over, because otherwise I fear they will become just another tool in big techs toolbox, exemptions or not.
- The new Apple Watch is always recording and transcribing everything it hears
Do tech companies ever stop to think about the misery they unleash on people’s lives? The Apple Watch Series 12 uses “Audio Intelligence” that, as well as secretly taking notes, also has a Live Rewind feature that can replay the last 15 seconds of recently detected audio and view a text transcript. ↫ Matt Growcoot at PetaPixel Another win for us Europeans: this dystopian nightmare will not be available in the EU.
- Solaris turnstiles
Although Solaris is now mostly defunct, its influence remains substantial; technologies pioneered by Solaris can still be found across a wide range of software A lot of Solaris inventions have been described and talked about ad nauseam (such as the Slab Allocator), but one I rarely see discussed is its use of turnstiles. Despite being relatively obscure, the idea has quietly spread far beyond Solaris. Variations of it can now be found in major operating systems, web browsers, and language runtimes. In fact, you’re probably using several implementations of the same basic concept right now! ↫ Loïc Grégoire Im not going to pretend to understand all of this, but I know you people do, and many of you will definitely find this interesting to read. Also note that Grégoire develops their own operating system kernel called zag.
- Fedora Linux 45 Beta Released with Python 3.15, GCC 16.2, and Major Security Changes
by George Whittaker
The Fedora Project has officially released Fedora Linux 45 Beta, giving users an early look at the technologies expected to form the foundation of the final Fedora 45 release. The beta became available on September 15, 2026, after Fedora's Quality team approved Release Candidate 1.3 for publication.
Fedora 45 Beta brings significant changes throughout the operating system, including Python 3.15, GCC 16.2, glibc 2.44, GNU Binutils 2.47, Go 1.27, LLVM 23, Podman 6, stricter RPM signature verification, improved DNF5 protections, a new userspace virtual console, standardized desktop secret storage, and substantial installer improvements.
The release is available across Fedora Workstation, KDE Plasma Desktop, Server, Cloud, IoT, Atomic Desktops, Spins, and Labs, although a few prerelease images are excluded.
Fedora 45 Beta Is Now Available
Fedora Linux 45 Beta represents the final major public testing milestone before Fedora 45 reaches stable status.
Fedora describes its beta releases as code-complete previews that closely represent what users should expect from the final version. Development isn't finished, however, and bugs or incomplete migrations can still be discovered during real-world testing.
Fedora 45 Beta is currently available in several major editions:
Fedora Workstation 45 Beta Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop 45 Beta Fedora Server 45 Beta Fedora Cloud 45 Beta Fedora IoT 45 Beta Fedora Atomic Desktops Fedora Spins Fedora Labs
Existing Fedora installations can also be upgraded to the beta using Fedora's DNF system-upgrade process.
Fedora's official Workstation download page confirms Beta 1.3 images for both x86_64 and AArch64 systems.
A New Virtual Console with kmscon
One of Fedora 45's more unusual system-level changes is the replacement of the traditional in-kernel console with kmscon.
Fedora describes kmscon as a modern userspace virtual terminal implementation that provides smoother rendering, better internationalization and font handling, improved visual integration, and security improvements compared with the older console infrastructure.
This affects the virtual terminals users encounter outside their normal graphical desktop session.
Most desktop users spend relatively little time interacting directly with these consoles, but they remain important for troubleshooting, system administration, servers, recovery operations, and systems running without a graphical environment.
Moving that functionality into userspace also gives Fedora more flexibility for future development instead of relying entirely on the legacy kernel console implementation.
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- Thunderbird 156 Released with OAuth Improvements, OpenPGP Updates, and Major Linux Fixes
by George Whittaker
The Thunderbird team has officially released Thunderbird 156, bringing another round of new features, security improvements, authentication enhancements, and reliability fixes to the popular open-source email client. Released on September 15, 2026, the update is available for Linux alongside Windows and macOS.
Thunderbird 156 is not a dramatic redesign of the desktop mail client. Instead, it concentrates on improving areas that matter to everyday users and system administrators, including OAuth authentication, OpenPGP, POP3, IMAP, Exchange Web Services, SMTP, attachments, calendars, enterprise policies, and security.
For Linux users in particular, the release delivers several fixes affecting common mail protocols and account configurations while retaining support for Linux environments using GTK+ 3.14 or newer.
Thunderbird 156 Arrives on Linux
Thunderbird 156 follows version 154, which arrived in August with features including optional system tray operation and Microsoft Graph support for Microsoft 365.
Version 156 continues the project's monthly release cycle with a more targeted collection of authentication, security, compatibility, and reliability improvements.
According to Thunderbird's official release notes, version 156 requires:
Linux: GTK+ 3.14 or newer Windows: Windows 10 or newer macOS: macOS 10.15 or newer
Thunderbird 156 was officially released on September 15.
Linux distribution availability will vary because distributions can package Thunderbird according to their own schedules. Users receiving Thunderbird through another packaging channel may therefore see version 156 at a different time.
Custom OAuth Support Expands
One of the most significant areas of development in Thunderbird 156 is OAuth authentication.
Thunderbird now supports custom OAuth configurations containing an issuer ID and client secret for IMAP and POP3 accounts. Custom OAuth support has also been extended specifically to POP3.
OAuth has become increasingly important as email providers move away from conventional username-and-password authentication toward token-based authentication.
For Thunderbird, broader custom OAuth support means users and organizations have greater flexibility when connecting the client to mail services that don't fit Thunderbird's predefined provider configurations.
This can be particularly useful in enterprise environments, self-hosted infrastructure, and organizations operating their own identity systems.
Exchange Custom OAuth Setup Fixed
Exchange users receive an important related correction.
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- KDE Plasma 6.7.5 Released with Discover, KWin, Wayland, and HDR Fixes
by George Whittaker
The KDE Project has officially released KDE Plasma 6.7.5, delivering another round of bug fixes and stability improvements for the Plasma 6.7 desktop series. Released on September 8, 2026, the update contains roughly a month of fixes and updated translations contributed since Plasma 6.7.4 arrived in early August.
Unlike a major Plasma release, version 6.7.5 doesn't introduce a large collection of new desktop features. Instead, KDE has focused on fixing problems affecting Discover, KWin, Wayland, networking, System Monitor, Plasma Desktop, RPM-OSTree systems, Snap updates, HDR rendering, and several other components.
For users already running Plasma 6.7, this makes version 6.7.5 primarily a maintenance upgrade intended to make the desktop more dependable ahead of the next major Plasma series.
KDE Plasma 6.7.5 Arrives as the September Bugfix Release
KDE describes Plasma 6.7.5 as its September bugfix release for the Plasma 6 desktop.
The broader Plasma 6.7 series originally arrived in June 2026, followed by a succession of maintenance releases:
Plasma 6.7.1 on June 23 Plasma 6.7.2 on June 30 Plasma 6.7.3 on July 14 Plasma 6.7.4 on August 4 Plasma 6.7.5 on September 8
KDE's official download infrastructure confirms that the Plasma 6.7.5 source packages became available on September 8.
This slower maintenance cadence later in a Plasma series is normal. Once the most urgent post-release problems have been addressed, KDE generally shifts more development attention toward the next feature release while continuing to provide important fixes for the current branch.
Discover Receives Several Important Fixes
KDE's Discover software center receives some of the most noticeable improvements in Plasma 6.7.5.
One particularly annoying problem could cause Discover to become stuck while checking for updates when its Snap backend was installed but no Snap applications actually had updates available.
That problem has now been corrected.
Discover also behaves more reliably when fwupd, the Linux firmware update service, is unavailable. Previously, a broken or intentionally masked fwupd service could interfere with Discover's normal operation. Plasma 6.7.5 allows the rest of the application to continue functioning correctly in that situation.
This is useful for systems where firmware updating isn't supported, where administrators intentionally disable the service, or where fwupd encounters a configuration problem.
Firmware Updates No Longer Incorrectly Require Reboots
Another Discover correction addresses a regression involving firmware updates.
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- Slackware 16 Alpha 1 Released with Linux 6.18 LTS, GCC 16.2, and Plasma 6
by George Whittaker
One of Linux's oldest surviving distributions is moving closer to its next major release. Slackware 16 Alpha 1 became available on September 5, 2026, marking the first formal alpha milestone on the road toward Slackware Linux 16. The release follows a major rebuild of Slackware-current using a substantially newer GNU toolchain and brings together several upgrades that have accumulated since Slackware 15.0 arrived more than four years ago.
The alpha combines Linux 6.18 LTS, GCC 16.2.0, glibc 2.44, GNU Binutils 2.47, KDE Plasma 6, and numerous updated user-space packages while retaining much of the deliberately traditional architecture that has distinguished Slackware for decades.
For longtime Slackware users, Alpha 1 is particularly significant because it provides the clearest indication yet that the lengthy Slackware 16 development cycle is moving toward an eventual stable release.
Slackware 16 Finally Reaches Alpha
Slackware doesn't operate according to the predictable six-month or annual release schedules used by many other Linux distributions.
Instead, development takes place continuously through the Slackware-current branch. Patrick Volkerding and other contributors update that development tree until it reaches a state considered suitable for a stable release.
The previous major version, Slackware 15.0, was released in February 2022. More than four and a half years later, Slackware-current has now officially reached the first alpha milestone for version 16.
Volkerding marked the milestone following a complete rebuild of the distribution with its newly upgraded compiler, C library, and binary utilities.
The short changelog announcement even suggested there might finally be "a light at the end of the tunnel," a promising indication for Slackware users waiting for version 16.
The Entire Distribution Was Rebuilt
One of the most consequential changes behind Alpha 1 is a complete package rebuild.
Slackware's development toolchain has moved to:
GCC 16.2.0 glibc 2.44 GNU Binutils 2.47
After introducing those components, Slackware rebuilt the distribution's packages against the updated environment.
A full rebuild is much more significant than simply replacing three packages.
GCC is responsible for compiling much of the software distributed with Slackware, glibc provides fundamental C library functionality used throughout Linux user space, and Binutils supplies essential development utilities including the GNU assembler and linker.
Rebuilding the distribution against these versions gives Slackware 16 a considerably newer foundation than its predecessor.
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- Top AEO Tools for Linux and Developer Documentation Teams
by Malana VanTyler
These platforms help teams monitor how technical content appears in AI-generated answers, from brand mentions and citations to accuracy and referral traffic.
Search is splitting into two experiences: one built around ranked pages and another around generated answers. As AI platforms summarize Linux tutorials, open-source project documentation, API references and technical guidance, teams need ways to measure whether their content is mentioned, cited and accurately represented.
An Go to Full Article
- The New Way Security Teams Evaluate Pentesting Vendors
by George Whittaker
Why security buyers are rethinking what matters most.
Security teams typically don’t struggle to find vulnerabilities as much as they have in the past. The harder part usually begins after the report arrives, once dozens of findings land in front of engineering teams already juggling patch schedules, production deadlines, and internal disagreements about urgency. Platforms like Go to Full Article
- New Linux “Steal Governor” Targets CPU Contention in Overcommitted Virtual Machines
by George Whittaker
Linux kernel developers are considering a new “steal governor” designed to improve performance when multiple virtual machines compete for limited physical CPU resources. The proposal uses the amount of CPU steal time observed inside a guest to dynamically reduce or expand the number of virtual CPUs on which that VM prefers to schedule work.
The feature is primarily aimed at heavily virtualized servers where administrators deliberately assign more virtual CPUs than the host can physically execute at once. Under heavy load, that overcommitment can lead to frequent vCPU preemption, lock-holder delays, cache disruption, and ultimately lower overall throughput.
The latest v11 patch series was posted on August 25, 2026, and its developer has proposed consideration during the Linux 7.3 development cycle, potentially targeting Linux 7.4 for inclusion. This means the feature is still under review and is not part of a stable Linux kernel yet.
What Is CPU Steal Time?
CPU steal time is a concept specific to virtualization.
Imagine a virtual machine has eight vCPUs. From inside that VM, the operating system behaves as though those eight CPUs are available. But those virtual CPUs ultimately need to run on the host's physical processors.
If several VMs are competing for the same physical CPU resources, the hypervisor may temporarily prevent one VM's vCPU from running so another VM can use the processor.
The time during which the guest wanted to execute but couldn't because the hypervisor was using the underlying CPU elsewhere is known as steal time.
High steal time is therefore a useful indication that the physical host is experiencing CPU contention.
The “Noisy Neighbor” Problem
The steal governor is designed primarily to address what virtualization engineers commonly call the noisy neighbor problem.
Consider a server hosting several VMs:
VM A has 32 vCPUs. VM B has 32 vCPUs. VM C has 32 vCPUs. The physical server has only 64 CPU threads available to those workloads.
That configuration can work perfectly well when the VMs aren't simultaneously busy.
If all three suddenly become heavily loaded, however, they may collectively request more CPU time than the physical machine can provide.
The hypervisor then has to constantly switch between vCPUs.
Those interruptions can become particularly expensive if a vCPU is preempted while holding a lock or executing another latency-sensitive section of code. Other threads may then wait for a vCPU that isn't currently being allowed to run.
The result can be counterintuitive: giving the VMs more virtual CPUs can sometimes make the combined workloads slower.
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- Thunderbird 154 Released with System Tray Mode, Microsoft Graph Support, and Major Mail Fixes
by George Whittaker
The Thunderbird team has officially released Thunderbird 154, delivering several useful new features alongside a substantial collection of fixes for email, calendars, address books, authentication, and stability. Released on August 18, 2026, Thunderbird 154 is now the latest monthly release of the popular open-source email client.
For Linux users, one of the most interesting additions is a new optional system tray mode, while Microsoft 365 users gain Microsoft Graph support. The release also improves global search, attachment handling, IMAP reliability, Exchange authentication, and CalDAV synchronization.
New Optional System Tray Mode
One of Thunderbird 154's most welcome additions is an optional system tray mode.
When enabled, closing Thunderbird's last window no longer needs to completely terminate the application. Instead, Thunderbird can remain running in the background through the system tray.
This can be particularly useful for users who want Thunderbird available throughout the day without keeping its main window open.
For Linux desktop users, the feature could make Thunderbird feel more like a traditional background email client, especially on desktops where tray-based applications remain part of the normal workflow.
Microsoft Graph Enabled for Microsoft 365
Thunderbird 154 also enables Microsoft Graph for Microsoft 365.
Microsoft Graph is Microsoft's API platform for accessing Microsoft 365 services and data. Its integration is particularly important as Thunderbird continues improving its support for Exchange and Microsoft-hosted email environments.
Thunderbird has been steadily expanding its Microsoft ecosystem compatibility, making the open-source client increasingly practical for users who need to access workplace Microsoft 365 accounts from Linux.
Global Search Gets a Useful New Option
Thunderbird's global search functionality also receives an improvement.
Users can now configure global search results to open in list view by default, providing another option for people who prefer a more traditional message-list workflow when reviewing search results.
It's a relatively small addition, but one that can make repeated searches more convenient for users managing large mailboxes.
Better Attachment Management
Thunderbird 154 introduces several improvements for handling email attachments.
A new "Copy To" folder context menu has been added for message/rfc822 attachments, and these attached messages can now be dragged directly into Thunderbird's folder tree.
These changes should make it easier to organize attached email messages without having to use additional steps or workarounds.
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- Linux Kernel 7.2 Officially Released with Cache-Aware Scheduling, USB4STREAM, and Major AMD Improvements
by George Whittaker
Linux creator Linus Torvalds has officially released Linux Kernel 7.2, opening another chapter in the development of the world's most widely deployed open-source kernel. The final release arrived on August 16, 2026, following seven release candidates and roughly two months of development. Kernel.org now lists Linux 7.2 as the latest mainline release.
Linux 7.2 is a substantial update with improvements spanning CPU scheduling, storage performance, AMD and Intel hardware support, graphics, networking, virtualization, RISC-V, and Apple Silicon. Among its biggest additions are Cache-Aware Scheduling, USB4STREAM, AMD ISP4 support, and initial AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 FRL functionality.
Cache-Aware Scheduling Lands in Linux
One of the most interesting performance additions in Linux 7.2 is Cache-Aware Scheduling (CAS).
Modern processors frequently contain multiple last-level caches shared between groups of CPU cores. Traditional scheduling decisions don't always account optimally for those cache relationships, potentially moving tasks between cores in ways that increase cache misses.
Cache-Aware Scheduling gives the Linux scheduler additional information about cache topology so it can make smarter decisions about where workloads should run.
Early testing during development produced particularly impressive results for some server workloads, including major gains in certain MySQL configurations. The improvement varies significantly by hardware and workload, so users shouldn't expect similarly dramatic gains everywhere.
For modern AMD and Intel systems with increasingly complex CPU topologies, however, CAS provides another tool for extracting better performance from existing hardware.
USB4STREAM Enables High-Speed Connections Between Computers
Linux 7.2 also introduces USB4STREAM, an interesting new capability for transferring data directly between computers over USB4 or Thunderbolt connections.
Rather than treating USB primarily as a traditional host-to-device interface, USB4STREAM can facilitate high-speed communication between systems.
Potential applications include:
Large file transfers Development environments High-speed system-to-system networking Debugging Specialized workstation workflows
With USB4 and Thunderbolt increasingly common on laptops and desktops, this could eventually become a useful option for moving large amounts of data between Linux machines.
AMD ISP4 Finally Reaches the Mainline Kernel
AMD users receive another important addition with the arrival of the AMD ISP4 driver.
ISP stands for Image Signal Processor, hardware responsible for processing camera data before it reaches applications.
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