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Do a presentation at NTLUG.
What is the Linux Installation Project?
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(Two Column)
- [$] Considering the OpenMDW license
The open-source world has been struggling for a few years now to understandhow to approach large language models (LLMs) and the licensing applied tothem. What constitutes "freedom" with respect to a black box filled withnumerical weights? The process taken by the Open Source Initiative (OSI)in the development of its Open Source AIDefinition was controversial at best, as was its output. Now, theLinux Foundation's Mike Dolan has broughta new license to the OSI for approval. It is called the OpenMDW ("OpenModel, Data, and Weights"), and it aims to clarify licensing for thedistribution of LLMs and related materials, but consensus is proving hardto find for this license as well.
- Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (ansible-core and pcp), Debian (chromium, libgit2, python-httplib2, and sabnzbdplus), Fedora (dokuwiki, domoticz, dotnet10.0, dotnet8.0, dotnet9.0, firefox, i2c-display, libgit2, lyx, ntpsec, openssh, perl-DBI, php-phpseclib3, python-alembic, python-asyncmy, python-sqlalchemy, python3.13, roundcubemail, trafficserver, wireshark, and wordpress), Red Hat (compat-openssl10, compat-openssl11, fence-agents, gnutls, kernel, kernel-rt, libarchive, libreswan, multiple packages, openssl, python-idna, python-pillow, qemu-kvm, resource-agents, rh-podman-desktop, ruby, unbound, and vim), SUSE (buildah, chromium, container-suseconnect, containerd, cosign, ctop, docker, firefox, forgejo-cli, gitea-tea, go1.25, go1.26, helm, kubernetes, kubernetes-old, kubevirt1.8, podman, python-pytest-html, python-unearth, python311, python313, rootlesskit, and rsync), and Ubuntu (linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.4, linux-azure, linux-bluefield, linux-fips, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-5.4, linux-hwe-5.4, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-5.4, linux-iot, linux-oracle, linux-raspi, linux-raspi-5.4, linux-xilinx-zynqmp, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-7.0, linux-ibm, linux-oem-7.0, linux-raspi, linux-realtime, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-fips, linux-azure-fips, linux-gkeop, linux-ibm-5.15, linux-intel-iot-realtime, linux-intel-iotg, linux-intel-iotg-5.15, linux-kvm, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-tegra, linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.15, linux-realtime, linux-xilinx-zynqmp, linux, linux-aws, linux-kvm, linux-lts-xenial, linux-aws-6.8, linux-azure-5.15, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-fips, linux-hwe-5.15, linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-4.15, linux-gcp-fips, linux-gcp, linux-gke, linux-gke, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8, linux-hwe-6.8, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-7.0, linux-nvidia-bos, linux-raspi, linux-raspi-realtime, netty, postgresql-14, postgresql-16, postgresql-18, vim, and wget).
- [$] A look at the Quickshell desktop-component toolkit
Quickshell is a toolkit forbuilding desktop components, such as toolbars or menus. It uses QML, which is a declarative languagefor designing GUI applications. Quickshell helps developers create graphical toolsfor common desktop use cases with a focus on ease of development. It offers aconvenient method for writing user interfaces and has been adopted by a numberof projects, such as caelestia-shell and DankMaterialShell, thatprovide desktop environments for minimal window managers like Sway and niri.
- KDE Gear 26.08 released
Version 26.08 ofthe KDE Gearcollection of applications has been released. Notable changes in this releaseinclude improvements in the signingfeatures of Okular, improved file-groupingfeatures in the Dolphin filemanager, and a number of enhancements to the Kdenlive video editor. See the changelog fora full list of updates, enhancements, and bug fixes.
- Supply chain attack on arrayref (Rust blog)
The Rust blog reportson a malicious crate, called proc-macro1, that was uploaded to thecrates.io repository.
Furthermore, we discovered that the popular arrayref crate had recently been republished and made to depend on this crate, with the most recent versions yanked. We have removed the malicious version and unyanked the maliciously-yanked versions. Other crates by that author (internment, append-only-vec) were also affected so we have done the same for those, and locked the account as a precaution. We do not believe the author of arrayref to be acting maliciously, but their computer or credentials are likely compromised, and we are attempting to contact them.
- RPM 6.1.0 released
Version 6.1.0 of the RPM Package Manager has been released. Notablechanges include the ability to provide modifiers to RPM macros at definitiontime, improved build and verification error handling, support for signing fileswith PKCS11 tokens using rpmsign, as well asthe addition of several new man pages. The 6.1.0 release also debuts a new release modelinspired by the Linux kernel's.
- [$] The beginning of the 7.3 merge window
As of this writing, 2,346 non-merge changesets have been pulled into themainline repository for the 7.3 kernel release. That, clearly, is a meredown payment on the flood that is to come. Even so, those early pullsbrought in some noteworthy changes, including (but not limited to) asignificant reworking of how group scheduling works on multiprocessorsystems.
- Security updates for Thursday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (bind9.18, glib2, gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free, gstreamer1-plugins-good, kernel-rt, libcupsfilters, mysql8.4, mysql:8.4, pcp, perl-Date-Manip, php8.4, php:7.4, php:8.2, php:8.3, python3, and yggdrasil), Debian (designate, firefox-esr, and swift), Gentoo (acl, attr, Emacs, libssh2, and quickjs-ng), Oracle (.NET 10.0, .NET 9.0, attr, bind9.18, curl, glib2, gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free, gstreamer1-plugins-good, kernel, libXfont2, mysql8.4, nghttp2, nodejs:22, nodejs:24, pam, pcp, perl-Date-Manip, php8.4, python3, sg3_utils, and yggdrasil), Slackware (mozilla-firefox and mozilla-thunderbird), SUSE (open-iscsi, podman, python311, and python313), and Ubuntu (bind9, capnproto, curl, libheif, libpng, libpng1.6, libssh, nginx, and tiff).
- Go 1.27 released
Go 1.27, the most recent version ofthe Go programming language, has been releasedwith a number of new tools, the addition of support for the ML-DSA post-quantum algorithm,new JSON-processing packages, language updates, and more.
- [$] Debian weighs eight options in vote on LLM usage
The Debian Project is voting on the usageof large language models (LLMs) to make contributions to the project. The firstproposal, sent in late July by Matthias Geiger, would expressly forbid anycontributions to Debian that are created by or with the assistance of LLMs. Thatkicked off a firestorm of discussion and a flood of alternate proposals. Debiandevelopers are now voting oneight proposals in total that range from banning LLM-assisted contributionsto explicitly approving them, as well as the standard "none of the above" optionthat would leave Debian with no agreed policy.
- Tuba 0.11 released
Version0.11 of the Tubafediverse client has been released. Notable changes in this release includesupport for Mastodon collectionsand quotes,ability to create custom thumbnails for attachments, a new emoji picker, a buildfor Android, as well as many other enhancements.
- [$] Representing Python paths using pathlib
At the outset of his PyCon US 2026talk, Trey Hunner said that his goal was for attendees to stop representingfilesystem paths as strings and to use pathlibinstead. That's kind of a tall order, at least for longtime Python users,since string-based paths have been pervasive—and mostly work. It is that"mostly" part that makes Hunner want to see things change, of course, so heset out to describe a lesser-known corner of the language and to try tochange some minds.
- Security updates for Wednesday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (.NET 10.0, .NET 9.0, 389-ds-base, attr, curl, glib2, gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free, gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free and gstreamer1-plugins-ugly-free, gstreamer1-plugins-good, gstreamer1-plugins-ugly-free, haproxy, kernel, libssh, libXfont2, nodejs22, pam, php, php8.4, sg3_utils, and unbound), Debian (librabbitmq, ruby-grape, spip, srt, and swift), Fedora (GitPython, lemonldap-ng, libgit2, libnfs, perl-Imager, perl-List-SomeUtils-XS, python3.12, python3.14, and radsecproxy), Oracle (.NET 10.0, 389-ds-base, 389-ds:1.4, bind, curl, gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free, gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free and gstreamer1-plugins-ugly-free, gstreamer1-plugins-good, gstreamer1-plugins-ugly-free, haproxy, libssh, libXfont2, nodejs22, nodejs:22, pcp, and unbound), Red Hat (golang, grafana, grafana-pcp, osbuild-composer, and rhc), SUSE (erlang, forgejo-cli, go1.25, go1.26, htop, python-pypdf2, python313-tablib, and snphost), and Ubuntu (c3p0, dotnet8, dotnet10, kernel, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-fips, linux-aws-hwe, linux-fips, linux-hwe, linux-kvm, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-fips, linux-azure, linux-fips, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-6.8, linux-gcp-fips, linux-gkeop, linux-oracle, linux-realtime, linux-realtime-6.8, linux-xilinx, linux-hwe-7.0, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-6.17, and linux-oracle-6.8).
- K230 handheld couples AMOLED display with LoRa and keyboard
LILYGO has updated its T-Display K230 handheld, packaging its Kendryte K230-based development platform into a compact enclosure with a physical keyboard. The device combines dual-core 64-bit RISC-V processing with a 4.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen, LoRa, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, camera support, HDMI output, and an nRF52840 companion microcontroller. The T-Display K230 is based on the Kendryte K230 SoC, […]
- Framework Laptop 16 With GeForce RTX 5070 12GB, One-Piece Keyboard & Haptic Touchpad
While the past few weeks have been quite busy with the new Framework Laptop 13 Pro testing with that all-new laptop model and paired with Intel's Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake", at the same time Framework Computer has begun shipping some updated components for the Framework Laptop 16 laptop. If looking for a bit more GPU compute power hor larger form factor than the 13-inch model, the Framework Laptop 16 can now be equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 GPU as well as a haptic touchpad and one-piece keyboard for improving the input experience.
- EPIC SBC packs Ryzen AI X100 with dual 2.5GbE and triple M.2
IEI has detailed the NANO-X100, a compact EPIC single-board computer based on AMD’s Ryzen AI Embedded X100 Series. The 115 × 165mm board integrates 64GB of LPDDR5X memory, dual 2.5GbE networking, three M.2 expansion slots, four USB 3.2 ports, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, and multiple serial interfaces for embedded and industrial applications. The preliminary specifications […]
- Linus Torvalds Endures A Debug Session From Hell, "Enormously Helped" By AI
It's pretty rare to see Linus Torvalds author patches himself pertaining to the open-source Linux graphics drivers, but waking up this morning I was surprised to see he authored and committed an Intel Xe kernel graphics driver change himself. It ended up being after he encountered a "debug session from hell" but was ultimately helped by AI in fixing a bug that had been irking him...
- ESP32-S3 handhelds with 3.97-inch e-paper and optional LoRa/NFC
M5Stack’s new PaperMono and PaperMono-Lite are compact ESP32-S3-based e-paper development platforms built around a 3.97-inch grayscale touchscreen. Both models include Wi-Fi, microSD storage, an IMU, real-time clock, frontlight, microphone, buzzer, and an integrated 1150mAh battery, while the higher-end PaperMono adds LoRa and NFC connectivity. Both devices are based on the ESP32-S3R8, which integrates a dual-core […]
- Linux 7.3 Network Changes Merged But Developers "Completely Overwhelmed" Due To AI/LLMs
All of the networking subsystem feature updates were merged today for the Linux 7.3 kernel's merge window. There are a lot of wired and wireless networking improvements this cycle but also a ton of bug fixes -- including many not so important fixes spun up by AI/LLM agents. The networking subsystem maintainers admit now they are "completely overwhelmed" due to this code churn from the output of AI large language models...
- Intel Mesa Linux Drivers Now Treating Nova Lake S / U / H / HX As Stable
Intel's open-source Mesa drivers for Iris Gallium3D (OpenGL) and ANV (Vulkan) on Linux are no longer treating next-gen Nova Lake processors with integrated graphics as experimental and off-by-default. With today's Mesa 26.3-devel code, the Intel driver code across Nova Lake's S, U, H, and HX product families are considered stable and enabled by default...
- 9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: August 16th, 2026
The 305th installment of the 9to5Linux Weekly Roundup is here for the week ending August 16th, 2026, keeping you updated on the most important developments in the Linux world.
- Over 1 Million People Have Clicked LinkedIn's AI Slop Button
According to a post from chief product officer Hari Srinivasan, "over a million people" have clicked on LinkedIn's new "Seems like AI slop" button, which launched after one analysis found 41% of the platform's longform posts were fully AI-generated. The Verge reports: In Thursday's post, Srinivasan said that users are overall "now experiencing 40% less views on what we classify as AI slop from just a few weeks ago." LinkedIn is also adding a new message that will tell users who make a post if "Some members told us this post seems like AI." "We approached this assuming good intent; I know I'm increasingly conscious on how to not sound like AI & the goal is to provide helpful feedback," Srinivasan said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- 'Off the Charts' El Nino Is Already the Strongest Since Records Began
A rapidly developing El Nino is already reaching record-setting levels for this time of year and is expected to intensify further over the coming months. "The El Nino has blossomed. It is off the charts. Usual measures of El Nino have blown past prior record levels in the period with good data, even though maximum effects are still several months in the future," writes renowned climate scientist James Hansen at Columbia University in New York in a newsletter sent today. Climate scientists disagree over whether it has already surpassed previous "super El Nino" events on every metric, but several say the signal is unprecedented in forecasts and could ultimately become the strongest modern event on record. New Scientist reports: There are different ways of measuring El Ninos, which occur when warm surface waters spread eastwards along the equator across the surface of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Hansen thinks the best measure is how much warmer than usual the upper 300 meters of the eastern tropical Pacific becomes. "Our preferred metric, the heat anomaly in the upper 300 meters of the Equatorial Pacific Ocean... already exceeds the 1997-98 super El Nino," he writes. [...] What's clear is that this developing super El Nino will soon exceed previous events on all measures. "I have never seen an El Nino signal this intense in our forecasts," [Adam Scaife at the Met Office, the UK's national weather service] said in a statement released today. "If the forecast is accurate... then 2026 will far exceed our recent experience of El Nino and its worldwide climate influences." While Hansen is comparing the developing super El Nino to other modern events for which we have direct temperature records, Hayley Fowler at Newcastle University in the UK thinks it could also exceed historical events suspected to be even larger. "The super El Nino evolving in the Pacific will likely be the biggest ever recorded, reaching or exceeding the levels of the 1877-1878 El Nino which caused widespread impacts, including famines and around 50 million deaths (3-4 percent of the global population at the time), mostly across Asia and South America," Fowler said in a statement.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- China Joins Europe In Scrapping Windows For Linux
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: According to a Bloomberg report, attributed to China's Ministry of State Security, the country has ordered some government agencies to drop Windows 10 China Government Edition for Chinese-made Linux distributions. Why not Windows 11? Because China, like many other non-US governments, no longer trusts American companies with their software and services. This approach is all about digital sovereignty. In addition, even before the recent trend of governments outside America moving away from Windows, Beijing has started a long-running push to replace foreign technology in sensitive systems with domestic, open-source alternatives. [...] The Chinese government did not specify which Linux versions would replace Windows 10. However, the stock prices of Chinese Linux suppliers, Kylin Software and Tongxin Software Technology (commonly known as UnionTech), immediately jumped. These companies' respective operating systems, Kylin OS (no relation to Ubuntu Kylin) and UnionTech OS (UOS), were already positioned as domestic desktop and server replacements for Windows in government, state-owned enterprise, and critical-infrastructure environments. [...] Huawei's HarmonyOS 2, which began as an Android variant but is now a proprietary mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) operating system, is also being developed into a PC platform. HarmonyOS 2 won't be deployed anytime soon. Kylin and UOS are the only mature desktops that are ready for institutional desktop deployments. [...] ... this transition won't be easy. For agencies now moving off the government Windows build, the issue will be more demanding than simply swapping one desktop interface for another. Migration requires application testing, peripheral and driver validation, identity system integration, document-format compatibility, staff retraining and, in many cases, replacement or adaptation of Windows-dependent line-of-business software. The report provides no details on exactly how this transformation will occur. But the speed of the shift suggests that these issues are already being addressed in China's centralized managed desktop stack.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Township Fights Nuclear Weapons Data Center By Passing a Moratorium on Electrical Infrastructure
Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, has imposed a six-month moratorium on "major electric utility infrastructure" in its latest attempt to delay a proposed $1.2 billion University of Michigan-Los Alamos data center that would support nuclear-weapons research. Township leaders, who have already paused water service for data centers, say the project has moved forward without adequate consultation and want more time to study noise, grid impacts, and other effects on residents. 404 Media reports: Last year, the university announced it was partnering with LANL on the construction of a massive 220,000 square foot hyperscale data center in Ypsilanti Township and residents have been fighting it ever since. During a meeting of the Township Board on August 18, the council unanimously passed a resolution that will delay the construction of new electrical infrastructure for 180 days. Data centers need a lot of energy, and Michigan's power authority will have to build new substations in the Township to power the proposed facility. The moratorium asked the local power authorities to use the six month delay to study noise pollution and how the new infrastructure would affect existing customers. The moratorium is narrowly focused on "the nature and scale of electrical infrastructure necessary to serve new high-energy-demand land uses [...] including infrastructure associated, but not limited to hyper-scale data centers, mid-sized data centers, artificial intelligence computing facilities, and high-performance computational centers, industrial facilities, and other intensive electrical users." Earlier this month, the University of Michigan announced it had settled on a specific plot of land in Ypsilanti Township -- a 144-acre plot on Textile Road. In a press release about the decision, the University said the data center would have the "capacity to change the world" and insisted it would not be a "high value target risk" in a war, that it would not store any hazardous nuclear material, and was not a weapons production facility. LANL previously confirmed that the data center will be used for nuclear weapons research. Ypsilanti Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo told WEMU news that the selection of the site was a "travesty of justice" because it ignores constituents' concerns about environmental impact. During the August 18 moratorium vote, the Board projected a large stock photograph of an electric substation behind its members. The photo was meant to remind people of the size of the incoming infrastructure and the lack of communication from the university about it. "This picture's really important to think about because U of M has been so crystal clear that they've been communicating to us abundantly -- which is not true," Township clerk Debbie Swanson said during the meeting. "That speaks to the lack of respect."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Apple Cuts Jobs In Siri, Vision Pro Immersive Video and Gaming Teams
Apple is cutting more than 200 jobs as it shifts resources toward a rebuilt, AI-powered Siri and other future products. Roughly 100 positions are being eliminated from the Vision Pro organization, including much of its gaming team and some immersive-video staff. Another 100 cuts are hitting the Siri and software teams. Bloomberg reports: In a statement, Apple acknowledged that it was realigning some teams "to evolve our business to deliver the best experiences for our users." "While we will create new roles as part of this change, it will also impact a limited number of existing roles," the company said. "We are grateful to these team members for their contributions, and we are committed to supporting them throughout their transition, including opportunities to apply for other roles at Apple." The Siri reshuffling is tied to an upcoming AI-infused version of the assistant, which is built on a new technical architecture. That shift requires a change in the necessary expertise, prompting the company to eliminate a small number of existing roles, reallocate resources and create new positions supporting the updated Siri. The changes to the Intelligent Systems Experience team reflect an effort to reorganize work on AI-powered capabilities. As more groups bring AI functions to apps, features and services, Apple is realigning teams to match priorities and accelerate development. The restructuring will eliminate some existing positions while creating new roles.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- American Who Wiped His Phone With 'Duress' Password During Border Search Gets Felony Charges
Federal prosecutors have charged activist Samuel Tunick with obstruction after he gave Customs and Border Protection officers a duress passcode that wiped his GrapheneOS-powered Pixel during a border search. "His prosecution is one of the earliest known instances of the federal authorities charging a person with destroying evidence using a program designed to wipe a device clean after a specific code is entered," reports The New York Times. From the report: "Obstructing federal law enforcement is a serious matter that has serious repercussions," Theodore Hertzberg, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said in a statement. "Individuals who destroy or attempt to destroy property, including data, to prevent lawful search and seizure should expect to face prosecution and punishment for their actions." A spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that the agency had the authority to search the electronic devices of anyone entering or leaving the United States, regardless of citizenship, to enforce laws addressing terrorism, child exploitation, drug- and human-smuggling, visa fraud and national security threats. "The border search will only include an examination of information that is present on the device at the time it is presented for inspection," the spokeswoman said, adding that it searched the electronic devices of fewer than 0.01 percent of all arriving international travelers in the last fiscal year. "Just the knowledge that the government is peering into your private life in this way, trying to dig up dirt on you, even though it's unsuccessful, is creepy," Tunick said, in response to a question about how the charges have affected him. His message: "The government doesn't own our communications, our relationships, as hard as they might try to. We have to defend our fundamental right to privacy; otherwise we can't say that we really live in a democracy."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- AI Boosted Homework Scores, Then Exam Scores Dropped
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Economist: Students and school children are increasingly using artificial intelligence. A survey last year by Chegg, an ed-tech firm, found that 80% of rich-world undergraduates used it in their studies. More recent polls put the figure at 94% in Britain and 93% in Germany. Such widespread adoption has fueled concerns about the impact the technology might be having on learning. Teachers report marking identikit essays that they suspect are churned out by ChatGPT. Yet firm evidence on AI's educational effects has been lacking. David Stromberg of Stockholm University and Victor Lei and Wu Yanhui of the University of Hong Kong set out to fill the gap. They tracked 27,000 pupils aged 12-18 in China, where AI adoption has been fast. Around 80% reported using models such as Doubao and DeepSeek; the other 20% formed the control group. The results are eye-opening. After six months, pupils using AI saw their average homework score rise by 18% across all subjects. The time they took to complete each assignment fell from an average of 64 minutes to 45. But come exam time, the same students scored 20% below their classmates who had not called on AI's help. Homework scores once predicted exam performance; now those who score highest are, perversely, more likely to do worse in exams. The takeaway: "AI can boost learning productivity, but only for those who use the technology intelligently," reports The Economist. "Students must resist the temptation to reach for an AI-generated answer before thinking things through for themselves."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Man Dressed As Darth Vader Defends Flock Cameras to San Diego City Council
A man dressed as Darth Vader used a Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee meeting in San Diego to mock the city's use of Flock surveillance cameras, sarcastically arguing that the technology would help the "emperor" track "rebel scum" and find Luke Skywalker. "This is what the emperor needs. This technology will help us find the rebel scum and the hidden base on Hoth," he said. The Hill reports: He urged that the cameras be used to surveil any "rebel scum as they move from playground to playground, from playground to pool, from pool to gymnasium, because we all know that the Flock cameras are not only following the license plate readers, they are following children." The plea for the cameras shifted to raising taxes to clear out storm drains and to the clearing of homeless encampments in the city. The man said the council members can use "doublespeak" to say the police department is humanitarian. "And how will the people trust this City Council when this City Council continues to vote for surveillance technology that imprisons them? Ms. Campbell, you must work on your Jedi mind tricks," he said, addressing City Council member Jennifer Campbell, before waving his hand to the audience. "Do it like this." His last plea was for the Flock cameras to be used to "help us find Luke Skywalker as he traverses the universe in his X-wing." "This technology is a necessary, necessary force," he concluded. According to DeFlock, San Diego has more than 550 Flock cameras across the city.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Micron Unveils $10 Billion AI Memory Research Lab In Boise
Micron says it will spend $10 billion over the next decade on a new research lab in Boise focused on advanced memory technologies, computing systems, and future chip manufacturing. Here are some details, as reported by Reuters: - Micron Research Labs will bring together customers, academia, government and the broader semiconductor ecosystem to pursue breakthroughs, the company said. - The latest investment builds on the more than $250 billion that Micron had separately committed to manufacturing and R&D across the United States. - The lab will be connected to Micron's research and technology footprint across the U.S., Europe, Japan, India, Singapore and Taiwan. - Growing adoption of AI workloads and infrastructure buildout have boosted demand for high-bandwidth memory, which rapidly feeds data to AI accelerators, making it a critical component of modern computing infrastructure. - The Trump administration has prioritized domestic chip manufacturing in a bid to reduce foreign dependence, boost the economic output and maintain its lead in the AI race. - Micron expects to break ground on the facility in 2027, which will be capable of hosting hundreds of researchers and facilitating international conferences and workshops.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Linus Torvalds Endures A Debug Session From Hell, 'Enormously Helped' By AI
Linus Torvalds says AI "enormously helped" him track down a stubborn Intel Xe graphics driver bug that took 24 debugging patches and 18 kernel boots to isolate. "I'd like to call it my tireless helper, but the AI several times stated flat out that this was impossible and unsolvable and that we should just write a report about it," wrote Torvalds on the commit. "I suspect those things have been trained by people who may not be quite as stubborn as I am..." Phoronix reports: The patch by Linus Torvalds is for the Xe kernel driver and the change is no longer hand out the flat Compute Command Streamer (CCS) storage as usable vRAM. On a Battlemage G21 graphics card, he was hitting a scenario where there was a mismatch where the usable memory ended and hit a case where the GDM display manager would end up being endlessly restarted. [...] Linus Torvalds views AI as a useful tool and in this case reaffirmed he found it "enormously helped" his effort in tracking down this Intel graphics driver bug. The Intel Xe driver fix is merged to Linux 7.3 Git and is also marked to back-porting to the stable kernel branches.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Walmart To Finally Start Accepting Apple Pay and Google Pay
After years of refusing to adopt tap-to-pay technology in its stores, retail giant Walmart announced today that it is finally accepting payments via both Apple Pay and Google Pay. The rollout begins August 24 at select Walmart and Sam's Club locations and is expected to reach all stores by year-end. It will then expand to fuel stations by mid-2027. TechCrunch reports: The news is a surprise, as Walmart has long refused to adopt the ubiquitous payment technology to instead promote its own in-house solutions, like Walmart Pay and Scan-and-Go. In years past, Walmart even teamed up with other big retailers in an attempt to take down Apple Pay entirely with an alternative mobile payment system of their own, called CurrentC. The effort failed and was shut down back in 2016. All the while, Walmart customers have begged the company to support modern tap-and-pay technology, like Apple Pay, which is now accepted at 85% of retailers across the U.S., including most larger stores. For Walmart, the decision reads as a defeat. As one of the world's largest retailers, it believed it could push customers to its own payment solutions despite the growing adoption of Apple Pay and others of its kind. Ultimately, it had to admit that it was disadvantaging its own customers in the process.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Google Gives Publishers a 'Preferred Sources' Button to Fight AI-Driven Traffic Losses
Google is giving publishers a new way to fight declining referral traffic from AI-powered search by letting them embed a "Preferred Sources" button that readers can use to favor their sites across Search, Discover, and Google News. "The idea is to make it easier for readers to find links from the sites they know and trust when they're searching for content or interacting with Google's AI to learn about a topic or read the latest news," reports TechCrunch. "As of May's launch, the company said that people across the web had already selected over 345,000 unique sources through this method." From the report: Becoming a preferred source can drive more traffic to publishers' websites, Google said. In earlier studies, it found that people are twice as likely to click through to a preferred source when available. By offering publishers these additional tools, Google is trying to assuage the damage that the rapid growth of AI-powered search features has had on traffic-dependent businesses. Alongside the new button, Google said that readers will soon be able to customize their Discover feed in Google's app in their own words. To use this feature, readers will tap any three-dot menu in the feed and then tell Google what topics they'd like to see more or less of, using natural language commands. This helps Google refine the feed in real time.
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- Microsoft Gives Task Manager Another Task: Watching AI Workloads
Microsoft is expanding Windows Task Manager to show per-process NPU and GPU neural-engine usage, giving users more visibility into which apps are consuming hardware for AI workloads. The Register reports: The Processes tab can show NPU use alongside CPU and GPU activity, while the Performance tab displays overall utilization. [...] Microsoft was keen to point out the metrics that can be monitored. "As AI workloads become more common on Windows devices, visibility into NPU and GPU neural engine utilization can help you make better-informed decisions," the company said. "With the latest Task Manager improvements, you can monitor AI processing activity alongside CPU, memory, storage, and networking data from a familiar interface."
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- China Is About to Launch Its Most Ambitious Moon Mission Yet
China's Chang'e 7 mission is set to launch for the moon's south pole, where it will attempt the first-ever landing directly at the pole and search the region's dark craters for water ice. "It's an amazing mission," says Norbert Schorghofer, a Hawaii-based senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. "There has never been a landed mission to find water [on the moon]." If successful, China "will be the leader in lunar science," Schorghofer adds. Scientific American reports: Chang'e 7, China's seventh moon mission, is scheduled to launch on a Long March 5 rocket from the coastal Wenchang Space Launch Site on the island of Hainan, with the launch window opening on the morning of August 24 local time (the evening of August 23 EDT). The mission includes an orbiter, as well as a lander, which totes a rover and a novel "hopping" robot. The spacecraft will take up to six days to reach lunar orbit, where it will then spend two months preparing for a November landing meant to be a near bull's-eye on the lunar south pole. The mission also includes equipment from several international partners, highlighting China's growing global influence -- both on and off Earth. The mission's lunar target is Shackleton Crater, a 21-kilometer-wide (13-mile-wide) pit with a rim that grazes the moon's south pole. No other spacecraft has ever landed so close. That proximity should allow Chang'e 7 to prospect for water ice trapped in smaller depressions near Shackleton that, because of the moon's tilt, never see sunlight and have temperatures just a few dozen degrees above absolute zero. "There are big reservoirs of ice water at the poles," says Simone Dell'Agnello, a physicist at Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics. No one knows, however, just how big those reservoirs are or what their actual distribution is across the lunar south pole's crater-pocked desolation. And because that ice might be used as for manufacturing rocket fuel or to make potable water for thirsty astronauts, answering those questions is key for the U.S.'s and China's competing plans to construct crewed lunar outposts.
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- Are You Sure You Want a Car With a Giant Touch Screen?
RAMageddon could soon push car prices higher as modern vehicles rely on ever more RAM and powerful centralized computers to run everything from infotainment to driver-assistance systems. Analysts cited by The Atlantic estimate the shortage could add a few percentage points to vehicle prices, which might not sound like much, but could potentially translate to around $2,000 on a $50,000 vehicle. The broader shift toward software-heavy vehicles could also make used cars even less affordable. An anonymous reader quotes an excerpt from the report: Just like laptops, cars depend on microprocessors and RAM, or random-access memory, to run all of their computations. "There's just a baseline level of tech, and thus a baseline level of cost, required of every vehicle," Karl Brauer, the executive analyst at iSeeCars, an automotive-research platform, told me. Technology is a major reason the average price of a new car in the U.S. has reached some $50,000, and that was before RAM became one of the most prized commodities in the world. AI companies are snatching up as much memory as possible for their data centers, causing a RAM shortage that has significantly raised the prices of phones, laptops, and just about any consumer-electronic device. Cars are next. [...] Over the next year, the memory shortage -- sometimes known as RAMageddon -- will likely raise vehicle prices by a few percentage points, on average, [said Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst at Telemetry and a former automotive engineer]. The relative amount would be smaller than the shocking double-digit jumps for gaming consoles and MacBooks but in some ways more significant: A 4 percent price hike for cars amounts to some $2,000 on average. Cars with those centralized computers will be affected the most, but no vehicle will be spared. "Even if you don't need the high-end chips, you're going to pay more even for the low-end chips just because of the supply constraint," Abuelsamid said. On a recent earnings call, Ford's chief financial officer said that the company had paid $1 billion in higher materials costs due to the memory shortage and inflation. GM and Volkswagen, too, have noted rising chip costs to investors. (Ford and GM did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Volkswagen told me that the company has "recognized an increased demand for memory chips, primarily driven by growing requirements in other industries," and that in recent years, Volkswagen has taken measures to "mitigate supply risks.") RAMageddon is poised to last for several years, but the consequences for car buyers may be permanent. Consider what happened during the pandemic, when supply-chain disruptions and rising demand for electronics produced a major chip shortage. Nearly every major car company had to slash production because they simply couldn't procure enough chips, and shifted their focus to selling higher-end and higher-profit vehicles. Potential customers already willing to spend six figures on a car are much less likely to care about a 5 or 10 percent price hike, [said Ivan Drury, the director of insights at Edmunds]. Even now, car companies are continuing to focus on selling more profitable models. Since the pandemic, the average price of a new vehicle has jumped $11,000. The AI-fueled chip crisis could play out more severely. The average price of a new car could, before long, jump to $60,000 and beyond. These rising costs are making cars even more similar to computers and all of the software they run: Perhaps in an effort to mitigate higher prices, some automakers are also introducing in-car advertisements and putting certain features, such as heated seats, behind a paywall. As cars have morphed into computers, the inevitable next step is for automakers to behave like modern tech companies.
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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]
- Windows news sites are reviewing context menus and its perversely delightful
When I wrote about using Windows 11 for a month as part of the ongoing OSNews fundraiser (keep donating to get me to do the same for macOS!), one of the things I mentioned was that the modern desktop context menu has its own classic Win32 context menu!. This is, in fact, a long-standing complaint Ive repeatedly used as the perfect example of just how chaotic and low-quality Windows has become. Thankfully, and naturally I fully attribute this to my repeated complaints (*), Microsoft has been working on a brand new, faster, configurable context menu, and Neowin actually reviewed it. If you ask me, this revamped context menu addresses just about the biggest problem users had with the one in Windows 11, and that is the need to click through more buttons than necessary to do simple things like renaming a file or opening its properties. That problem is now basically gone. I have no issues with the new design. It looks modern, it feels more consistent with the rest of Windows, and even though all the new sections can still make it look a little busy, you now have the option to make it as simple or as button-packed as you want. That should cover most use cases and preferences well. I’d even say that when the new context menu becomes available to everyone, my guide on how to bring back the classic context menu might become obsolete. ↫ Ivan Jenic at Neowin The biggest reason Im linking to this is not because I care about whatever monster of a context menu Windows users are having to deal with. No, Im only linking to this because I never in my life imagined Id be linking to a review of a context menu. I mean, at least its not the chess application icon. That would be embarrassing. I get a perverse sense of joy out of this.
- The road to MS-DOS 2
A great and concise history of the run-up to MS-DOS 2.0. Yet, there was a nagging feeling that a single-tasking CP/M clone was inadequate for the new generation of personal computers. Digital Research released multi-user, multitasking MP/M-86 in September 1981 and announced the single‑user multitasking Concurrent CP/M in early 1982. In response, Microsoft came up with a plan for tiered approach to its operating systems: single-user/single-tasking MS-DOS at the bottom; multi-user/multitasking XENIX at the top; and in the middle, something called XEDOS: a single-user version of XENIX. This “pyramid of upward-compatible operating systems” was announced in a Byte Magazine editorial in January 1982. ↫ Nemanja Trifunovic Ive always found this tiered approach fascinating, and the world surely wouldve looked quite different had Microsoft been able to make it work. I doubt Windows NT would ever have existed, and most of the world would probably be running a XENIX-based Windows today (all else being equal, which is of course unlikely and silly). Regardless, MS-DOS 2.0 contained a few UNIX-like utilities to deal with its brand new support for directory trees and other new features, and even had a /dev directory.
- PervertPods: Apple is adding cameras to AirPods
If you thought pervert glasses werent bad enough, Apple is taking it up a notch by adding cameras to its AirPods. Apple is working on camera-equipped AirPods that appear to be nearly ready to launch, based on a video MacRumors found in the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate. In a short demo, a man holds a book up so the camera in the AirPods can see the title. With Visual Intelligence, your world becomes savable. See something you like? Just ask me to save it for later,! says the voiceover text. ↫ Juli Clover at MacRumors AirPods are tiny. Ive seen people use them at the gym. Ive seen them on playgrounds. Ive seen them around swimming pools. People use them at the beach. Theyre used at schools. In locker rooms. Tiny cameras in tiny AirPods that can photograph anything in front of the user are a perverts wet dream. Abusers are going to love this. Why wear bulky glasses anyone can see and try to demand you take off, when you can wear tiny AirPods that have already been fully normalised in society? Was there not a single woman or parent on the team that made this? All over the United States, people are destroying Flock surveillance cameras. More and more communities are rising up and demanding these things removed from their streets and neighbourhoods. The awareness of just how pervasive mass government surveillance has become is growing, and Silicon Valleys complicity is not exactly a secret. And in this climate of rapidly growing concern and anger, Apple is going to add tiny cameras to its tiny AirPods. Was there not a single person of colour or protester on the team that made this? How detached from reality do you have to be to greenlight something like this? Does anyone regardless of skin colour, gender, or political leaning want even more cameras around them?
- Quake shareware, a CD-ROM just a little too full
I was around when Quake was launched, but I was entirely unaware of this story. By June 1996, after three years of hard work, id Software had completed their next title, Quake. As for their previous title, they were going to release both a shareware version and a full version of their game. Since it used a mere 22 MiB of storage, people at id Software had the idea of leveraging the remaining capacity of a CD-ROM. Why not include encrypted versions of the full id catalogue of games? Not only this would cut out the middlemen, it would give instant access to gamers with a simple phone call and a credit card. The concept was implemented. The CD was announced on July 3, 1996 and released on August 30th. The hacker group GNOMON released Quakecrk.zip only 39 days later. The archive contained QCRACK.EXE, a tool allowing to decrypt every single game on the CD-ROM. ↫ Fabien Sanglard The system id employed turned out to be incredibly primitive and simple, and hackers found out quite easily that the system required no secret sauce from id at all the code youd get over the phone contained no secret, and all the validation program on the disk did was check to ensure the code received over the phone matched the code generated by the disk. No wonder it took them only 39 days to crack this.
- Beyond the limits of physical VRAM
Earlier this year, Natalie Vock made a splash with a set of patches to the Linux kernel that greatly increased performance on AMD GPUs with lower amounts of VRAM. With that work now accepted by upstream, Vock decided to turn their attention to another interesting problem: what if you run out of VRAM, and how can we improve performance when we do? Regardless, what I hope this blogpost can demonstrate is that even if you end up with some memory evicted to system RAM, the slowdown can be manageable. There’s measures that drivers (particularly, the kernel driver) can take to make overcommit work as fast as possible, and even applications can do their part in coordinating with the driver stack to mitigate the effects of their memory being evicted. With everything in place, VRAM overcommit isn’t really as big of a deal as one may think it is at first sight. ↫ Natalie Vock The work Vock has done has already been in SteamOS for a while, and theyre currently in the process of upstreaming it to the vanilla kernel as well. Since this is a complex set of patches and changes, this may take a while, and as such, theyve prepared custom kernel and Mesa branches for adventurous users. Do note that these branches wont be maintained much, and are entirely experimental, not as well-tested as the SteamOS kernel, and probably wont yield the same performance improvements. Still, this is the kind of work that has a material impact for users. Not everyone has a 16GB monster GPU, especially not today with supply chains ravaged and ruined by slopmakers, so its great to see the Linux world working to improve performance for everyone, not just the wealthy few.
- Were Touch Bar’s problems software rather than hardware?
The Touch Bar arrived in 2016 seemingly already pre-doomed, on a generation of machines that had a “we’ve run out of ideas” smell all around them. The arrow keys were reshaped, the keyboard got a slimming down, and even the beloved MagSafe wasn’t, in fact, safe. All of these changes would prove unpopular and get reverted in time, and the axe would eventually come for the Touch Bar, too. With an enormous benefit of hindsight, a decade after its arrival, and on the (rumored) eve of fully multitouch MacBooks, I wanted to look critically at the Touch Bar in more detail. I put a spicy title above this post, and while I’m not sure I can answer it in the affirmative, I feel I got surprisingly close to that. ↫ Marcin Wichary I have never spent this much reading about and pondering a technology seemingly nobody liked and that I never really used. I still think theres merit to the idea of screen on a keyboard, but only if the screens are integrated into the individual keys (as some products have tried over the years). Of course, this would also be astronomically expensive, delicate, and virtually impossible to repair, so Im not sure something like that can be reasonably made at an affordable price.
- Linux 7.2 released
Version 7.2 of the Linux kernel has been released. Significant features in this release include common attributes support in the bpf()vsystem call, cache-aware load balancing for the CPU scheduler, large-folio support in the Btrfs filesystem, further swap subsystem improvements, improvements to the Landlock security module, support for block devices with inline encryption hardware via the dm-inlinecrypt device-mapper target, and much more. ↫ corbet at LWN.net If you run Linux, youll get it sooner or later.
- Pascal for small machines
We talked about the latest release of Delphi a few days ago, and that brought me to Hans Ottens website. This site is about my experience with the Wirth school of languages, based on the ideas and implementations of Prof Niklaus Wirth, Kenneth Bowles, Per Brinch Hansen,`colleagues,`and their students. And my experience with the various variants, from the P2 and P4 compilers originating in Zürich ETH, via UCSD Pascal P-System to the Borland compilers and Modula and Oberon systems. All applicable to small computers and device control. On this website you will find information on Pascal for small machines, like Wirth compilers, the UCSD Pascal system, many scanned books and other files on UCSD Pascal,`Pascal on MSX and CP/M, Delphi programming on PC, Freepascal and Lazarus on Windows and Raspberry Pi, Oberon systems. Many sources of early Pascal compilers! And last but not least my Pascal-M system! ↫ Hans Otten If youre into Pascal and its related languages and technologies, this is a treasure trove of information.
- Super Mario derivations
One of the most surprising aspects of the Nix language is that it is lazy, especially if you have never used a lazy language before. This laziness is what makes much of Nixpkgs possible, and its complexity. I decided to take that idea and make the attribute path a sequence of button presses in Super Mario Bros. 3. Each node in the tree is a frame of the game, and each child is a button press that produces a new frame. Game states are recursive by nature. ↫ Farid Zakaria This has zero practical applications, and yet, its absolutely genius. I love this.
- The worst PDA of all time
Today, you can get low-quality knockoffs of just about any popular smartphone on sites like AliExpress or Temu, whether they be iPhones, Galaxy phones, or whatever else. They have terrible build quality, bottom-of-the-barrel components and specifications, and all run outdated versions of Android badly. At the same time, various consumer electronics brands, once popular in a bygone era, sell the rights to their brand name to unknown companies, who then put these brands on generic hardware to give their products a sheen of legitimacy. Thats why today, you can still buy Nokia smartphones, Polaroid cameras, and low-effort Hi-Fi equipment from various once-respected brands. None of this is new, however. In the late 90s and early 2000s, companies were already doing the same thing. In fact, theres one device from this era which combines both business practices its both a cheap knockoff of a wildly successful device, and it carries a once-revered brand name. Also, just to add some juice, this story involves stolen source code. Lets take a look at the worst PDA of all time, the Olivetti daVinci. In 1997, Palm launched the Palm Pilot, and it and its successors proved to be a massive hit. Where countless before it had failed, Palm found the magic formula to make pocket computing work. I wrote an in-depth article about Palm over 13 years ago which goes into much (much) more detail, but the reason the Palm Pilot succeeded where things like the Newton, PenPoint OS, and Windows for Pen Computing failed, is that Palms founder, Jeff Hawkins, realised that they were competing with paper, not with desktop computers. Instead of trying to shove the capabilities of a full personal computer into a (barely) pockatable device, a pocket computer had to be as fast and convenient as paper, and therefore extremely strict about which features to add, and which to omit. To this day, the entirety of smartphone computing stands on the shoulders of Palm. Palms ideas, implementations, approaches, paradigms, and even people were absorbed by Apple and Google, where they shaped both iOS and Android. The phone youre looking at right now has a ton of Palm DNA in it, still. After all, youre still using the homescreen-with-apps paradigm Palm already perfected in the late 90s and early 2000s. The success of the Palm Pilot and its successors did not go unnoticed. Microsoft, most prominently, felt incredibly threatened by Palms success: The success of Palm’s products got the attention of Microsoft, and the company pretty much announced it was going to crush Palm. According to Hawkins, Microsoft had a sales conference, where, at some point, a big target appeared on the projector screen, with the Palm logo dead in the centre of it: “we are going to crush and kill these guys”, was the central message. Hawkins recalls that he got condolence letters after that, stating things like “Sorry Jeff. Too bad.” ↫ Thom Holwerda While Microsoft proved to be unable to kill and crush! Palm, it did manage to build a relatively successful business selling PDAs running various incarnations of Windows CE. Together, Palm and Microsoft dominated the PDA market pretty much throughout its entire existence, and while the market was a mere fraction of the smartphone market of today, other companies still wanted a piece of this pie too. One of these companies was Olivetti, a storied Italian company with a long history making typewriters, computers, and other electronics. Im not going into detail about Olivettis history, but the company was renowned for its attention to design, creating iconic products like the Lexikon 80, Lettera 22, Elea 9003, Programma 101, and so, so many more. Olivetti also entered the personal computer market, first with a variety of custom machines featuring Z80 and later Motorola 68000 processors running a variety of custom operating systems developed by Olivetti (including its own UNIX variant, X/OS). After a few machines using MIPS and Alpha processors in the early 90s, the company would eventually focus entirely on Intel-based PCs (including this amazing failure) running Windows. Like so many other computer makers from that era, Olivetti eventually left the PC business by selling it off in 1997. To this day, Olivetti PCs tend to cost more on the used market than those from other brands, despite no technical merits dictating so. At around this time, our current story begins. Seeing the success of the Palm Pilot and the emergence of copycat devices running Microsofts Windows CE, Olivetti wanted in on the action. And so, in the late 90s, the company introduced the Olivetti daVinci, a line of PDAs whose software looked suspiciously like Palm OS. Theres not a ton of information out there about the development history, but it seems that while Olivetti designed the hardware, it contracted the development of the operating system out to a company from Hong Kong, Echolink Design. And this is where things went horribly wrong for Olivetti. The software Echolink Design developed for the daVinci didnt just look like Palm OS, it was Palm OS at least, according to Palm. After being on the market for about a year, the Palm Pilot maker, then a subsidiary of 3Com, filed for an injunction, alleging that the daVinci operating system designed by Echolink Design contained actual Palm OS source code. In addition, Palm also filed suit against CompanionLink Software, the company that developed the Outlook synchronisation software for the daVinci. Palm won handily, and within a day of the filing, temporary restraining orders were put in place on both Olivetti and CompanionLink, stopping sales of the daVinci and its software dead in its tracks. It seemed to have been a pretty clear-cut case. From The Wall Street Journal at the time: U.S. District Judge James Ware ruled Olivettis Royal daVinci organizer contains software that appears to have been copied from the operating system for 3Coms Palm organizers. Judge Ware said a review by a software expert found the daVinci software contains private Palm code and even grammatical
- Making a game on a custom bytecode VM in 7 days and 3kB
In the last few days, I built a shoot ’em up game by embedding a tiny custom bytecode VM and rendering the graphics using a fullscreen pixel shader. The result is a 3kB Windows executable. This was done for Langjam Gamejam, a 7-day challenge where you create a programming language and then use it to build a game. The project combines several interests of mine: language tooling, game development, procedural graphics, and demoscene-style size constraints. The game jam format forced me to keep the scope small and explore new ideas. Also, it was fun! ↫ Laurent Le Brun In seven days, Le Brun created a brand new programming language, compiler, bytecode interpreter, a game written in the new language, and rendered it, ending up with a 3kB self-contained executable. Its amazing what humans can do.
- Why tiny JPEGs look different in Chrome
A while back, when chatting with a colleague over their computer, I noticed that a logo did not look exactly the same as it did on mine. It looked thinner on theirs and more faithful to the original image. It was rendered at 15px; here is an upscaled version. If you squint, or take a step back, the one from Chrome looks thicker. A bit weird, but swapping the image for an SVG fixed it. Still, I was curious: why was it rendering like this in the first place? I did some digging and found a nifty optimization that Chrome uses when rendering JPEGs at small scales. ↫ Guillaume Técher I love it when people detail their discoveries like this.
- Redox gets installer improvements, merges new CPU scheduler
Another month started almost two weeks ago, so weve got a new monthly report from Redox, the general purpose operating system written in Rust. The month of July it seems the report was published with a bit of a delay, regardless of what the date on their site says brought improvements to the installer, with new options commonly found in most installers, such as a choice of installation method, network-based installation, and more. The Google Summer of Code work on the new CPU scheduler has also been merged, including a number of related performance enhancements. Theres improvements to the ARM port, Amlogic Meson UART ARM64 support, and uutils grep and sed have been successfully built on Redox, replacing their their GNU counterparts in the os-test test suite. In addition, a whole slew of demos were ported as well, from Ratatui demos to various Iced demos covering things like reading QR codes and processing Markdown. Of course, this is all topped off with the usual long list of lower-level, smaller changes and improvements to the kernel, drivers, Relibc, and more.
- The OSNews Fundraiser continues: you made me use Windows, now make me use macOS
The OSNews Fundraiser, to celebrate the fact I posted 20000 stories in 21 years, is still underway. The first major incentive was reached, and I, a long-time Linux user, published my experiences using Windows 11 for a month. It wasnt a success. Keep donating if you want to find out what a Linux user thinks of the current state of macOS! Why support OSNews? I want to make sure I can run OSNews for another two decades and another 20000 posts, and I need your help to do so. Since my wife, who has a tough, underpaid job in elderly care, is largely unable to work due to health reasons caused by that very same job, my income has become a lot more crucial for our kids, my wife, and myself. With OSNews readers being more skeptical of subscription-like things like our Patreon than most people, it’s exactly these one-time donations that make up the bulk of your support. Thank you.
- The little-known winstart.bat batch file
Raymond Chen explains what, exactly, the file winstart.bat in Windows 95 is used for. In Windows 95, you could create a winstart.bat file in your Windows directory. During startup, the virtual machine manager initializes and creates the so-called “System virtual machine” (the “System VM”), which is the virtual machine that all Windows programs run in. But before running the user-mode kernel in that virtual machine, the virtual machine manager runs the winstart.bat batch file if it exists. ↫ Raymond Chen Chen needs to use several diagrams to really explain what the batch file is used for, but as a very crude summary, it allows you to load TSRs that only apply to Windows programs, while not affecting any additional DOS command prompts you may load later after Windows is already running. While many think its a Windows 95 feature, it was already present in Windows 3.x. A unique feature that I doubt many people made active use of.
- Delphi 13 Community Edition released
Delphi is still very much a thing, and still very much in active development. The current stewards of Delphi, Embarcadero, released the Delphi 13 Community Edition today. Delphi Community Edition is a full-featured, free edition of Delphi for building native applications with the Delphi language. It includes a professional IDE, visual designers, integrated compilers and debuggers, the VCL framework for Windows development, and the FireMonkey framework for creating native applications from a shared codebase across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. It is designed for students, hobbyists, freelancers, and small teams that meet the Community Edition license requirements. ↫ Marco Cantu at the Embarcadero blog Delphi has been around since 1995, first released for Windows 3.1. Its both a programming language, a variant of Object Pascal, and the accompanying IDE and related tooling and frameworks, originally developed by legendary company Borland. This latest version of course adds a number of new features to the programming language, and further improves the IDE as well, this time with a brand new 64bit version. The two frameworks for visual application development, VCL and FireMonkey, have also been updated and improved. Sadly, its not open source, and the Community Edition is intended for mostly non-commercial, hobbyist use. If you want to actually earn any money using Delphi, youre going to have to step up to Delphi 13 Florence, which isnt free.
- 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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- Linux 7.2 Reverts DRM Scheduler Change After Serious GPU Regressions
by George Whittaker
Linux kernel developers made a significant last-minute graphics change for Linux 7.2, reverting the DRM GPU scheduler back to its previous FIFO policy by default after the newer fair scheduling implementation caused serious performance regressions. The revert was submitted just before the final Linux 7.2 release after users reported severe slowdowns and desktop freezes under sustained GPU workloads.
The decision demonstrates the kernel community’s conservative approach to regressions: when a new feature causes problems this late in a development cycle, restoring known-good behavior can be safer than rushing an incomplete fix.
What Changed in Linux 7.2?
Earlier in the Linux 7.2 development cycle, the DRM subsystem switched its default GPU scheduling policy to a new fair scheduler.
The goal was to distribute GPU execution time more fairly between competing workloads. Instead of relying on the established FIFO scheduling behavior, the new implementation uses a fairness-oriented approach designed to prevent one workload from dominating GPU resources.
However, real-world testing exposed problems that had not appeared during earlier development.
The final DRM fixes for Linux 7.2 therefore:
Revert the fair scheduler changes Restore FIFO as the default Restore selectable scheduling policies Mark the fair scheduling policy as experimental
DRM maintainer Dave Airlie acknowledged that developers may have moved too aggressively when switching to the new scheduler.
AMD Radeon Gaming Exposed the Regression
The problem became particularly noticeable during gaming on an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT.
A regression report described severe performance degradation when the GPU remained close to 100% utilization. A game running through Proton could drop to roughly 10 FPS or freeze, while audio continued playing normally.
The problem could become severe enough that the entire KDE Plasma Wayland session stopped responding, sometimes requiring the compositor to be killed or the computer to be rebooted.
Interestingly, reducing GPU load—such as by opening an in-game menu or switching away from the game—could immediately stop the stuttering.
FIFO Worked, FAIR Did Not
Testing provided strong evidence that the new scheduling policy was responsible.
The reporter compared Linux 7.2 release candidates using FAIR against configurations using the previous FIFO policy. Under otherwise similar conditions:
FAIR: reproduced the performance problem.
FIFO: survived extended stress testing without the regression.
Linux 7.1.x also behaved normally.
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- Intel’s Linux Vulkan Driver Adds AV1 Video Encoding for Arc Alchemist GPUs
by George Whittaker
Intel’s open-source Linux graphics stack has taken another step forward with hardware-accelerated AV1 encoding through Vulkan Video. New code merged for Mesa’s ANV Vulkan driver enables the VK_KHR_video_encode_av1 extension on Intel’s DG2/Alchemist graphics hardware, including Arc A-Series GPUs.
The development expands Intel’s Vulkan Video capabilities on Linux and gives applications another standardized way to access the dedicated video encoding hardware found in modern Intel GPUs.
AV1 Encoding Arrives in Intel ANV
The key change is support for the Vulkan extension VK_KHR_video_encode_av1 in Mesa’s open-source Intel ANV driver.
The extension was finalized by the Khronos Group in 2024 and provides a standardized Vulkan interface for hardware-accelerated AV1 encoding. It complements Vulkan Video’s existing AV1 decoding support and means Vulkan can provide both encoding and decoding interfaces for AV1, H.264, and H.265.
Intel had previously stated that its Arc graphics products would support Vulkan Video AV1 encoding through a future software update.
Initially Targeting Intel Arc Alchemist
The newly enabled Linux support specifically targets DG2, better known commercially as Intel’s Arc Alchemist GPU generation.
These GPUs already contain dedicated hardware capable of AV1 encoding, so the Mesa update does not add AV1 capability through software. Instead, it provides Vulkan applications with another way to access the GPU’s existing hardware video engine.
That distinction is important because hardware encoding can deliver much better performance and efficiency than encoding AV1 entirely on the CPU.
Why AV1 Matters
AV1 has become increasingly important for streaming, screen recording, video conferencing, and online video distribution.
The codec can provide high image quality at relatively low bitrates, making it attractive for applications where bandwidth and storage efficiency matter. It is also royalty-free, which has helped encourage adoption throughout the open-source ecosystem.
Hardware AV1 encoding can be particularly useful for:
Game streaming
Desktop recording
Live broadcasting
Video conferencing
Video transcoding
Content creation
For Linux users with supported Intel Arc hardware, Vulkan Video now has the potential to provide a common API for these workloads.
Building on H.264 and H.265 Support
The AV1 work follows recent improvements to Intel’s Vulkan Video encoding support for other codecs.
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- New AMD P-State Patch Delivers Major Linux Gaming Performance Boost
by George Whittaker
A newly proposed patch for the Linux kernel's AMD P-State CPU frequency scaling driver is showing impressive gaming performance improvements, potentially delivering a noticeable boost for Ryzen users without requiring new hardware. Early benchmarks indicate that the optimization can significantly improve frame rates in CPU-bound games by allowing processors to respond more quickly to changing workloads. (phoronix.com)
Although the patch has not yet been merged into the mainline Linux kernel, the initial results have generated considerable excitement among Linux gamers and kernel developers alike.
What Is AMD P-State?
AMD P-State is the modern CPU frequency scaling driver for AMD Ryzen processors on Linux. Rather than relying on the older ACPI CPUFreq driver, AMD P-State communicates directly with the processor to adjust clock speeds based on workload demands.
Its goals include:
Faster frequency scaling Improved power efficiency Better responsiveness Higher performance during demanding workloads Lower power consumption when the system is idle
Most modern Linux distributions already support AMD P-State on compatible Ryzen processors. (kernel.org)
A Focus on Gaming Performance
The new patch specifically targets how quickly AMD P-State responds when a game suddenly demands additional CPU performance.
Many games rapidly alternate between light and heavy CPU workloads. If the processor takes too long to increase its clock speed, short performance dips can occur.
The proposed optimization reduces that delay, allowing the CPU to boost more aggressively when needed and helping maintain smoother gameplay. (phoronix.com)
Promising Benchmark Results
According to early testing, the patch delivers meaningful improvements across several Linux gaming workloads.
Reported benefits include:
Higher average frame rates Better 1% low FPS performance Faster CPU frequency response Improved responsiveness during gameplay More consistent frame delivery
The biggest gains appear in CPU-limited games where processor performance has a greater impact than GPU performance. Systems that are already GPU-bound may see smaller improvements. (phoronix.com)
Designed for Modern Ryzen CPUs
The patch targets systems using the AMD P-State driver, which supports many recent Ryzen processors.
Compatible platforms generally include:
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- Linux Kernel Begins Phasing Out the crypto_rng Layer to Simplify Random Number Generation
by George Whittaker
Linux kernel developers are moving forward with plans to remove the crypto_rng API layer, a long-standing component of the kernel's cryptographic subsystem. The proposed change is part of a broader effort to simplify the kernel's internal architecture by eliminating redundant code paths and encouraging developers to rely on the kernel's modern random number generation interfaces instead. (phoronix.com)
Although the change happens entirely behind the scenes, it reflects the Linux kernel community's ongoing commitment to reducing technical debt, improving maintainability, and modernizing core infrastructure.
What Is the crypto_rng Layer?
The crypto_rng framework is an API within the Linux kernel's Crypto API that provides random number generation services for kernel components.
Historically, it allowed different kernel subsystems and drivers to request random data through a generic cryptographic interface. Over time, however, the kernel's dedicated random number generator has matured considerably, making much of the crypto_rng abstraction unnecessary. (kernel.org)
Today, developers generally recommend using the kernel's built-in random number generation functions directly instead of routing requests through the older crypto layer.
Why Developers Want to Remove It
According to discussions on the Linux kernel mailing list, the crypto_rng layer has become largely redundant.
Modern kernel code already relies on well-established interfaces such as:
get_random_bytes() get_random_u32() get_random_u64()
These functions are maintained as part of the kernel's primary random number generation subsystem and are widely used throughout Linux. Maintaining an additional abstraction layer increases code complexity without providing significant practical benefits. (phoronix.com)
Removing unnecessary infrastructure also makes the kernel easier to maintain and audit over the long term.
Simplifying the Crypto API
The Linux Crypto API has evolved significantly over the years as new algorithms, hardware accelerators, and security features have been introduced.
Kernel maintainers have increasingly focused on:
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- GNU Binutils 2.47 Released with New RISC-V Features, Linker Improvements, and Reproducible Builds
by George Whittaker
The GNU Project has officially released GNU Binutils 2.47, the latest version of its essential collection of binary development tools for Linux and other Unix-like systems. The release delivers numerous bug fixes alongside new assembler, linker, and disassembler capabilities, expanded RISC-V support, reproducible source archives, and continued modernization of the GNU toolchain.
Used by developers worldwide, GNU Binutils forms a core part of the software development ecosystem, providing the low-level tools needed to assemble, link, inspect, and manipulate executable programs and object files.
What Is GNU Binutils?
GNU Binutils is a collection of command-line utilities that work closely with compilers such as GCC and Clang. While a compiler translates source code into object files, Binutils provides the tools needed to transform those object files into executable programs and libraries.
The package includes well-known utilities such as:
ld (GNU Linker) as (GNU Assembler) objdump objcopy readelf nm strip ar strings
Together, these tools are used daily by Linux distributions, embedded developers, operating system projects, and software engineers building applications in C, C++, Rust, Go, and many other languages.
Expanded Support for RISC-V
One of the biggest improvements in Binutils 2.47 is expanded support for the rapidly growing RISC-V architecture.
The release adds support for several additional standard RISC-V extensions, allowing developers targeting modern RISC-V processors to work with newer instruction sets and hardware capabilities. These additions continue the GNU toolchain's strong commitment to one of the fastest-growing open processor architectures.
As more Linux distributions, development boards, and enterprise hardware adopt RISC-V, keeping development tools current is becoming increasingly important.
New Assembler Options
GNU Assembler (gas) gains several useful enhancements in version 2.47.
Among the most notable is a new command-line option:
--reloc-section-sym=[all|internal|none]
This option gives developers finer control over how relocations referencing locally bound symbols are converted to section symbols, improving flexibility for certain assembly and linking workflows.
The release also introduces numerous assembler improvements across multiple CPU architectures.
Better Disassembly for AArch64
Developers working with Arm-based systems also benefit from new functionality.
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- GOG Officially Expands Linux Support with Native Galaxy Client in Development
by George Whittaker
After years of requests from the Linux gaming community, GOG has officially confirmed that it is developing native Linux support for the GOG Galaxy launcher. The announcement marks one of the biggest shifts in the company's history and signals a stronger commitment to Linux as a first-class gaming platform. While GOG has offered DRM-free Linux game downloads since 2014, its Galaxy launcher has remained exclusive to Windows and macOS—until now.
Although the company has not announced a release date, GOG says Linux has become a major area of investment, with development already underway.
A Long-Requested Feature Finally Becomes Reality
Native GOG Galaxy support has consistently ranked among the most requested features from Linux users. Until now, players who wanted to use Galaxy's library management, cloud saves, achievements, and automatic updates had to rely on compatibility layers or community-developed launchers.
In a statement to GamingOnLinux, GOG joint CEO Krzysztof Papliński said the company has hired a dedicated specialist and is actively exploring the best approach for bringing Galaxy to Linux. He described Linux as "one of the topics we hear the most about from our community," emphasizing that the project is now an active development priority.
Why GOG Galaxy Matters
Unlike the web-based game downloads that Linux users already have access to, GOG Galaxy serves as a full-featured game management application.
The launcher currently offers features including:
Automatic game installation and updates Cloud save synchronization Achievement tracking Playtime statistics Game library organization Integrated storefront browsing Friends lists and social features Cross-platform launcher integration
Today, Linux users typically access these capabilities through community projects such as Heroic Games Launcher, Lutris, or Bottles. A native Galaxy client would provide an officially supported alternative with direct integration into GOG's ecosystem.
Linux Is No Longer an Afterthought
GOG's announcement reflects the growing importance of Linux gaming over the past several years.
The rapid adoption of Valve's Steam Deck, continuous improvements to Proton, and increasing hardware compatibility have significantly expanded Linux's role in PC gaming. As Linux's share of Steam users has grown, more developers and publishers have begun treating the platform as a viable target rather than a niche operating system.
For GOG, supporting Linux more fully aligns with its philosophy of giving users greater control over their purchased games.
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- Linux Kernel 7.1.4 Released with Bug Fixes, Security Updates, and Hardware Improvements
by George Whittaker
Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of Linux Kernel 7.1.4, the latest stable maintenance update for the Linux 7.1 series. As with other stable kernel releases, version 7.1.4 focuses on fixing bugs, improving hardware compatibility, and addressing security and reliability issues without introducing new features. The update became available on July 18, 2026, and users of the Linux 7.1 branch are encouraged to upgrade as soon as possible.
Rather than changing the kernel's feature set, Linux 7.1.4 delivers dozens of targeted fixes collected from developers across multiple kernel subsystems, helping ensure a more stable experience for desktops, servers, embedded devices, and cloud deployments.
Another Important Stable Maintenance Release
The Linux stable branch exists to provide safe updates between major kernel versions. Every stable release undergoes review before being published and contains fixes that have already been tested in the mainline kernel.
Linux 7.1.4 continues this process by incorporating patches that resolve regressions, improve system stability, and fix issues reported by users since the release of Linux 7.1.3.
For most users, these maintenance updates are recommended because they improve reliability without altering existing functionality.
Bug Fixes Across Multiple Kernel Subsystems
Like previous stable releases, Linux 7.1.4 includes fixes spanning many areas of the kernel.
The update addresses issues affecting:
Memory management File systems Networking Device drivers Architecture-specific code Core kernel infrastructure USB and storage subsystems
These targeted patches help eliminate crashes, improve compatibility with newer hardware, and resolve edge cases that may only appear under specific workloads.
Improved Hardware Compatibility
One of the ongoing goals of Linux stable releases is expanding support for existing and newly released hardware.
Linux 7.1.4 includes updated drivers and compatibility fixes for various devices, helping improve support for:
Graphics hardware Storage controllers Networking devices USB peripherals Laptop components ARM development boards
Although no major driver additions are expected in a maintenance release, incremental improvements like these often resolve hardware-specific bugs reported by users after earlier releases.
Security and Reliability Updates
Stable kernel releases also include security-related fixes that have been accepted into the maintenance branch.
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- Firefox 153 Released with HDR Video, Smarter PDF Tools, Better Privacy, and New Linux Improvements
by George Whittaker
Mozilla has officially released Firefox 153, bringing another round of improvements to its open-source web browser. The latest version introduces new multimedia capabilities, enhanced PDF editing tools, stronger privacy protections, better support for modern web technologies, and several features aimed at improving the browsing experience across Linux, Windows, and macOS. Firefox 153 became available on the stable release channel on July 21, 2026.
While this isn't a major redesign, Firefox 153 delivers a collection of practical updates that benefit both everyday users and web developers.
HDR Video Playback Comes to Windows
One of the headline features in Firefox 153 is support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) video playback on compatible Windows systems.
Users with HDR-capable displays and Windows HDR enabled can now enjoy richer colors, improved contrast, and brighter highlights when watching supported online video content. Mozilla notes that certain laptop displays offering only "HDR video streaming" are not currently supported, and some HDR videos recorded on mobile phones may still have limitations.
Although this feature is Windows-specific, it represents another step toward bringing Firefox in line with modern multimedia standards.
PDF Editing Becomes Even More Powerful
Mozilla continues expanding Firefox's built-in PDF editor, eliminating the need for third-party applications in many situations.
Firefox 153 introduces the ability to:
Merge multiple PDF documents Insert images as new PDF pages Continue using existing editing tools such as annotations, page organization, and text editing
These additions make Firefox an even more capable document viewer and editor, especially for users who frequently work with PDF files.
Stronger Privacy and Permission Controls
Privacy remains one of Firefox's biggest selling points, and version 153 introduces several enhancements designed to give users more visibility and control over website permissions.
New improvements include:
A visual indicator when a website is actively accessing your location More restrictive default permissions for browser extensions accessing local files Local Area Network (LAN) restrictions enabled by default for all users
These changes reduce unnecessary exposure of local resources while making it easier to understand what websites and extensions can access.
Experimental JPEG XL Support
Firefox 153 also adds experimental support for the JPEG XL image format, which many developers consider a promising successor to older image standards.
JPEG XL offers several advantages, including:
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