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(Two Column)
- [$] Kernel hackers at Cauldron, 2025 edition
The GNU Tools Cauldron is almost entirely focused on user-space tools, butkernel developers need a solid toolchain too. In what appears to be adeveloping tradition (started in 2024),some kernel developers attended the 2025 Cauldron for thesecond year in a row to discuss their needs with the assembled toolchaindevelopers. Topics covered in this year's gathering include Rust, betterBPF typeformat (BTF) support, SFrame, and more.
- Seven new stable kernels
Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 6.16.10, 6.12.50, 6.6.109, 6.1.155, 5.15.194, 5.10.245, and 5.4.300 stable kernels. All of these kernelshave lots of important fixes throughout the kernel tree.
- Security updates for Thursday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (perl-JSON-XS), Debian (chromium and openssl), Fedora (bird, dnsdist, firefox, mapserver, ntpd-rs, python-nh3, rust-ammonia, skopeo, sqlite, thunderbird, and xen), Oracle (perl-JSON-XS), Red Hat (kernel, kernel-rt, and libvpx), SUSE (afterburn, cairo, docker-stable, firefox, nginx, python-Django, snpguest, and warewulf4), and Ubuntu (libmspack, libxslt, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.15, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-5.15, linux-gkeop, linux-hwe-5.15, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-5.15, linux-intel-iotg, linux-intel-iotg-5.15, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-tegra, linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15, linux-oracle, linux-raspi, linux-xilinx-zynqmp, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.4, linux-bluefield, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-5.4, linux-hwe-5.4, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-5.4, linux-iot, linux-kvm, linux-raspi, linux-xilinx-zynqmp, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-6.14, linux-hwe-6.14, linux-realtime, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-hwe, linux-azure, linux-azure-4.15, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-4.15, linux-hwe, linux-oracle, linux, linux-aws, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-6.8, linux-gke, linux-gkeop, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-6.8, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-6.8, linux-nvidia-lowlatency, linux, linux-kvm, linux-aws-fips, linux-fips, linux-gcp-fips, linux-azure, linux-hwe-6.8, linux-kvm, linux-oracle-5.15, linux-oracle-6.14, linux-raspi, linux-raspi-realtime, linux-realtime, linux-realtime-6.8, linux-realtime-6.14, and python-django).
- [$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for October 2, 2025
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
Front: Fedora and AI; Linting kernel Rust; openSUSE Leap 16; mmap() file operation; 6.17 statistics; dirlock. Briefs: Bcachefs removal; Alpine /usr merge; F-Droid; Fedora AI policy; OpenSUSE Leap 16; PostgreSQL 18; Radicle 1.5.0; Quotes; ... Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
- Alpine Linux plans /usr merge
The Alpine Linux project has announcedplans to change its base filesystem hierarchy:
In the future, /lib, /bin, and /sbinwill be symbolic links to their /usr counterparts, and every packageshall be installed under the /usr paths. For now,/usr/bin and /usr/sbin will continue to be independent paths,but that might change if the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) getsupdated.
The merge will take place in the upcoming Alpine 3.23 releaseplanned for November; non-merged systems will be consideredunsupported when 3.22 is at its end of life in May 2027.
- [$] Fedora floats AI-assisted contributions policy
The Fedora Council began a process to create a policy on AI-assistedcontributions in 2024, starting with a survey to ask the communityits opinions about AI and using AI technologies in Fedora. OnSeptember 25, Jason Brooks publisheda draft policy for discussion; so far, in keeping with the spirit ofcompromise, it has something to make everyone unhappy. For some it istoo AI-friendly, while others have complained that it holds Fedoraback from experimenting with AI tooling.
- Security updates for Wednesday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (kernel, kernel-rt, mysql:8.0, and openssh), Debian (libcommons-lang-java, libcommons-lang3-java, libcpanel-json-xs-perl, libjson-xs-perl, libxml2, open-vm-tools, and u-boot), Fedora (bird, dnsdist, mapserver, ntpd-rs, python-nh3, and rust-ammonia), Oracle (kernel and mysql:8.0), Red Hat (cups, postgresql:12, and postgresql:13), SUSE (cJSON-devel, gimp, kernel-devel, kubecolor, open-vm-tools, openssl-1_1, openssl-3, and ruby3.4-rubygem-rack), and Ubuntu (linux-azure-5.15 and openssl, openssl1.0).
- OpenSUSE Leap 16 released
The openSUSELeap 16 release is now available.
This major version update of our fixed-release community-Linux distribution has a fresh software stack and introduces an unmatched maintenance- and security-support cycle, a new installer and simplified migration options.
See our look at this release for moreinformation.
- Radicle 1.5.0 released
Version 1.5.0of the Radicle peer-to-peer Git collaboration platform has beenreleased. This release includes better support for bare repositories,structured logging, and improvements in the output of rad patchshow:
The previous output would differentiate "updates", where the originalauthor creates a new revision, and "revisions", where another authorcreates a revision. This could be confusing since updates are alsorevisions. Instead, the output shows a timeline of the root of thepatch and each new revision, without any differentiation. The revisionidentifiers, head commit of the revision, and author are still printedas per usual.
LWN covered Radiclein March 2024.
- [$] Linting Rust code in the kernel
Klint is a Rust compiler extensiondeveloped by Gary Guo to run somekernel-specific lint rules, which may also be useful for embedded systemdevelopment. He spoke about hisrecent work on the project atKangrejos 2025. The next day, Alejandra Gonzálezled a discussion about Rust's normal linter,Clippy. The two tools offer complementary approaches to analyzing Rustkernel code, although both need some additional direction and support fromkernel developers to reach their full potential.
- Security updates for Tuesday
Security updates have been issued by Debian (python-internetarchive and tiff), Fedora (nextcloud), Oracle (kernel, openssh, and squid), Red Hat (kernel, kernel-rt, and ncurses), SUSE (afterburn and chromium), and Ubuntu (open-vm-tools, ruby-rack, and tiff).
- Bcachefs removed from the mainline kernel
After marking bcachefs "externally maintained" in 6.17, Linus Torvalds hasremovedit entirely for 6.18. "It's now a DKMS module, making the in-kernelcode stale, so remove it to avoid any version confusion."
- [$] Development statistics for 6.17
The 6.17 development cycle ended on September 28 with the releaseof the 6.17 kernel. This cycle brought in 13,089 non-merge changesets, aslowdown from its predecessor but still within the normal bounds for recentkernels. The time has come for a look at where those changes came from,with a bit of a side trip into bug statistics.
- NixOS moderation team resigns
The NixOS moderation team, which is theoretically in charge of ensuring that community participation on the project's repositories anddiscussion forum remains welcoming and useful, has releaseda joint resignation statement. This action was motivated by conflict with the project's steering committee (SC), which has repeatedly overridden the moderation team, leading the team members to decide that they could not continue acting as moderators. Arian Van Putten, speaking for the whole team, writes:
The SC has also shown, in private and public conversations, their lack of understanding of basic principles of community management and open communication. They have mistaken quiet and a lack of controversy for success and peace. They have consistently become upset when there is criticism, and gone quiet on crucial issues in between. We have some fundamental conflicts in this community, which absolutely require discussion. Meanwhile, discussion with the SC has only become less effective.
We think that the goal of moderation should not be to avoid difficult conversations - it's to navigate those difficult conversations in ways that remain safe and constructive. We believe we've made considerable progress as a community on making those conversations happen, and we believe they need to happen more for the project to grow, not be suppressed. We thank everyone for the growth that we have seen, and for their efforts to avoid personal focus in discussion, especially recently.
The NixOS project has had problems with community moderation stretching backmore than a year. With the next steering council election coming up soon, it will be interesting to see whether the community selects a council that feels differently or not.
- [$] Managing encrypted filesystems with dirlock
As with a mobile phone, a portable gaming device like the Steam Deck can containlots of personal information that the owner would like to keepsecret—especially given that such devices can do far more than gaming.Alberto Garcia worked with his colleagues at Igalia and people atValve, the company behind the Steam gaming platform, to comeup with a new tool to manage encrypted filesystems for SteamOS, which is a Linuxdistribution optimized for gaming. Garcia gave a talk about that tool, dirlock, at OpenSource Summit Europe, which was held in Amsterdam in late August.In the talk, he looked at the design process forthe encrypted-files feature, the alternatives considered, and why they madethe choices they did.
- Linux Foundation Welcomes Newton: The Next Open Physics Engine for Robotics
Simulating physics is central to robotics: before a robot ever moves in the real world, much of its learning, testing, and control happens in a virtual environment. But traditional simulators often struggle to match real-world physical complexity, especially where contact, friction, deformable materials, and unpredictable surfaces are involved. That discrepancy is known as the sim-to-real gap, and it’s one of the biggest hurdles in robotics and embodied AI... the Linux Foundation announced that it is contributing Newton, a next-generation, GPU-accelerated physics engine, as a fully open, community-governed project. This move aims to accelerate robotics research, reduce barriers to entry, and ensure long-term sustainability under neutral governance.
- SigCore UC Industrial Control Module Prepares for Crowd Supply Launch
Crowd Supply recently featured the SigCore UC, an upcoming universal industrial I/O controller that combines rugged hardware with open-source software for engineers, researchers, and educators seeking a flexible control and data acquisition platform. Unlike typical development boards or expansion modules, SigCore UC arrives as a complete, ready-to-deploy solution. It is capable of handling real-world voltages, […]
- Attack Vector Controls Can Now Manage VMSCAPE Mitigation
Made public and mitigated within the mainline Linux kernel last month was the VMSCAPE vulnerability affecting both AMD and Intel CPUs. Now merged for the in-development Linux 6.18 kernel is adding VMSCAPE to the recently-introduced Attack Vector Controls functionality...
- Forlinx OK3506-S12 Mini SBC Featuring Rockchip RK3506J and Pi-Compatible GPIO
Forlinx Embedded has introduced the OK3506-S12 Mini, a compact single board computer built around the Rockchip RK3506J processor. The board is intended for industrial applications that benefit from modest power consumption, stable operation, and long-term supply availability. The system-on-module integrates the RK3506J, which combines three Cortex-A7 cores running at up to 1.5GHz with a Cortex-M0 […]
- Walmart To Deploy Sensors To Track 90 Million Grocery Pallets by Next Year
Walmart plans to deploy sensors across its 4,600 US stores by the end of 2026 to track 90 million pallets of groceries shipped annually [Editor's note: non-paywalled source]. The retailer and technology vendor Wiliot announced the expansion Thursday. The sensors will monitor the location, condition and temperature of perishables as they move from warehouses to stores. Walmart started testing Wiliot's sensors at a Texas warehouse in 2023 and has expanded to 500 locations. The full rollout will cover the retailer's US store network and 40 distribution centers. The microchips measure 0.7 square millimeters and are embedded in shipping labels. They use Bluetooth to transmit real-time data about pallets. Walmart previously relied on manual scanning and paper checks by employees. The Arkansas-based company employs 2.1 million people but increased revenues by $150 billion over five years without adding workers. Walmart accounts for more than a fifth of US grocery sales.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Linkedin CEO Says Fancy Degrees Will Matter Less in the Future of Work
Top college degrees may no longer provide the edge they once did in the job market, per LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky. "I think the mindset shift is probably the most exciting thing because my guess is that the future of work belongs not anymore to the people that have the fanciest degrees or went to the best colleges, but to the people who are adaptable, forward thinking, ready to learn, and ready to embrace these tools," Roslansky said. "It really kind of opens up the playing field in a way that I think we've never seen before." A 2024 Microsoft survey found 71% of business leaders would choose less-experienced candidates with AI skills over experienced candidates without them. LinkedIn data showed job postings requiring AI literacy increased about 70% year-over-year. Roslansky said AI will not replace humans but people who embrace AI will replace those who don't.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Earth Is Getting Darker, Literally, and Scientists Are Trying To Find Out Why
An anonymous reader shares a report: It's not the vibes; Earth is literally getting darker. Scientists have discovered that our planet has been reflecting less light in both hemispheres, with a more pronounced darkening in the Northern hemisphere, according to a study published on Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The new trend upends longstanding symmetry in the surface albedo, or reflectivity, of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. In other words, clouds circulate in a way that equalizes hemispheric differences, such as the uneven distribution of land, so that the albedos roughly match -- though nobody knows why. "There are all kinds of things that people have noticed in observations and simulations that tend to suggest that you have this hemispheric symmetry as a kind of fundamental property of the climate system, but nobody's really come up with a theoretical framework or explanation for it," said Norman Loeb, a physical scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center, who led the new study. "It's always been something that we've observed, but we haven't really explained it fully." To study this mystery, Loeb and his colleagues analyzed 24 years of observations captured since 2000 by the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), a network of instruments placed on several NOAA and NASA satellites. Instead of an explanation for the strange symmetry, the results revealed an emerging asymmetry in hemispheric albedo; though both hemispheres are darkening, the Northern hemisphere shows more pronounced changes which challenges "the hypothesis that hemispheric symmetry in albedo is a fundamental property of Earth," according to the study.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Japan is Running Out of Its Favorite Beer After Ransomware Attack
Japan is just a few days away from running out of Asahi Super Dry as the producer of the nation's most popular beer wrestles with a devastating cyber attack that has shut down its domestic breweries. From a report: The vast majority of Asahi Group's 30 factories in Japan have not operated since Monday after the attack disabled its ordering and delivery system, the company said. Retailers are already expecting empty shelves as the outage stretches into its fourth day with no clear timeline for factories recommencing operations. Super Dry could also run out at izakaya pubs, which rely on draught and bottles. Lawson, one of Japan's big convenience stores, said in a statement that it stocks many Asahi Group products and "it is possible that some of these products may become increasingly out of stock from tomorrow onwards." "This is having an impact on everyone," said an executive at another of Japan's major retailers. "I think we will run out of products soon. When it comes to Super Dry, I think we'll run out in two or three days at supermarkets and Asahi's food products within a week or so."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Trust in Media at New Low of 28% in US
Americans' confidence in the mass media has edged down to a new low, with just 28% expressing a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in newspapers, television and radio to report the news fully, accurately and fairly, according to Gallup. From the report: This is down from 31% last year and 40% five years ago. Meanwhile, seven in 10 U.S. adults now say they have "not very much" confidence (36%) or "none at all" (34%). When Gallup began measuring trust in the news media in the 1970s, between 68% and 72% of Americans expressed confidence in reporting. However, by the next reading in 1997, public confidence had fallen to 53%. Media trust remained just above 50% until it dropped to 44% in 2004, and it has not risen to the majority level since. The highest reading in the past decade was 45% in 2018, which came just two years after confidence had collapsed amid the divisive 2016 presidential campaign.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Red Hat Investigating Breach Impacting as Many as 28,000 Customers, Including the Navy and Congress
A hacking group claims to have pulled data from a GitLab instance connected to Red Hat's consulting business, scooping up 570 GB of compressed data from 28,000 customers. From a report: The hack was first reported by BleepingComputer and has been confirmed by Red Hat itself. "Red Hat is aware of reports regarding a security incident related to our consulting business and we have initiated necessary remediation steps," Stephanie Wonderlick, Red Hat's VP of communications told 404 Media. A file released by the hackers and viewed by 404 Media suggested that the hacking group may have acquired some data related to about 800 clients, including Vodafone, T-Mobile, the US Navy's Naval Surface Warfare Center, the Federal Aviation Administration, Bank of America, AT&T, the U.S. House of Representatives, and Walmart.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- In a Sea of Tech Talent, Companies Can't Find the Workers They Want
Tech companies are struggling to fill AI-specialized roles despite a surplus of available tech talent. U.S. colleges more than doubled the number of computer science degrees awarded between 2013 and 2022. Major layoffs at Google, Meta, and Amazon flooded the job market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts businesses will employ 6% fewer computer programmers in 2034 than last year. The disconnect stems from companies seeking workers with specific AI expertise. Runway CEO Cristobal Valenzuela estimates only hundreds of people worldwide possess the skills to train complex AI models. His company advertises base salaries up to $490,000 for a director of machine learning. Daniel Park's startup Pickle offers up to $500,000 base salary and expects candidates willing to work seven days a week. The WSJ story includes the example of one James Strawn, who was laid off from Adobe over the summer after 25 years as a senior software quality-assurance engineer. The 55-year-old has had one interview since his layoff. Matt Massucci, CEO of recruiting firm Hirewell, told the publication companies can automate some low-level engineering tasks and redirect that money to high-end talent.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Japan Saw Record Number Treated For Heatstroke in Hottest-Ever Summer
More than 100,000 people were sent to hospitals due to heatstroke in Japan between May 1 and Sunday, according to preliminary data from the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Bloomberg, via Japan Times: The number is the most on record, according to NHK. Transport to hospitals of patients linked to heatstroke over the period rose almost 3% to 100,143 from a year earlier as Japan saw its national temperature record broken twice in a matter of days. The country's average temperature during this summer was the highest since the statistic began being compiled in 1898, the nation's weather agency said last month. Heat waves around the world are being made stronger and more deadly due to human-caused climate change. Government officials in August pledged to boost public health protections and encouraged the installation of more air conditioners in school gymnasiums and the use of cooling centers in communal spaces like libraries. New rules came into effect this summer that require employers to take adequate measures to protect workers from extreme temperatures.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Insurers Are Using Cancer Patients as Leverage
Major health insurers are threatening to drop renowned cancer centers from their networks during contract negotiations, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's president and CEO Selwyn M. Vickers and chairman Scott M. Stuart wrote in a story published by WSJ. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center reported that both Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealthcare prepared to terminate network agreements while patients underwent active cancer treatment. FTI Consulting found that 45% of 133 provider-payer disputes in 2024 failed to reach timely agreements. The disruptions have affected tens of thousands of patients. Research published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that care disruptions lead to more advanced-stage diagnoses and worse outcomes. Similar contract disputes involved Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins University and University of North Carolina Health. New York lawmakers introduced legislation this year requiring insurers to maintain coverage for cancer patients during negotiations and until treatment concludes. Memorial Sloan Kettering's leadership described the practice as using patients as bargaining chips despite record insurer profits.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Google Cuts More Than 100 Design-Related Roles In Cloud Unit
Google has laid off over 100 employees in design-related roles, including user experience research and cloud design teams, as part of broader cost-cutting measures to prioritize AI infrastructure. CNBC reports: Earlier this week, the company laid off employees within the cloud unit's "quantitative user experience research" teams and "platform and service experience" teams, as well as some adjacent teams, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC. The roles often focus on using data, surveys and other tools to understand and implement user behaviors that inform product development and design. Google has halved some of the cloud unit's design teams, and many of those affected are U.S.-based roles. Some employees have been given until early December to find a new role within the company.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Prospect of Life On Saturn's Moons Rises After Discovery of Organic Substances
Scientists have discovered complex organic molecules within the icy plume erupting from Saturn's moon Enceladus, strengthening the case that its hidden saltwater ocean may harbor the conditions for life. The Guardian reports: The sixth largest of Saturn's moons, Enceladus has become one of the leading contenders in the search for bodies that could harbor extraterrestrial life, with the Cassini mission -- which ended in 2017 -- revealing the moon has a plume of water ice grains and vapors erupting from beneath the surface at its south pole. The phenomenon has since been captured by the James Webb space telescope, with the plume reaching nearly 6,000 miles into space. The source of this material is thought to be a saltwater ocean that lies beneath the moon's icy crust. Now researchers studying data from the Cassini mission say they have discovered organic substances within the plume, with some types of molecule detected there for the first time. Dr Nozair Khawaja, a planetary scientist at Freie University Berlin and lead author of the work, said the results increased the known complexity of the chemistry that is happening below the surface of Enceladus. "When there is complexity happening, that means that the habitable potential of Enceladus is increasing right now," he said. Writing in the journal Nature Astronomy, Khawaja and colleagues reported how their previous work had revealed the presence of organic substances and salts within ice grains found in a ring of Saturn, known as the "E-ring," that is composed of material ejected from Enceladus. [...] While the new findings do not show that there is life on Enceladus, Khawaja said they indicate there are complex chemical pathways at play that could lead to the formation of substances that could be biologically relevant. The results, he added, support plans by the European Space Agency (ESA) to investigate the moon for signs of life. "I think all the signals are green here for Enceladus," Khawaja said. The findings add momentum to ESA's proposed mission to directly search for biological signs around 2042. According to the ESA, the mission will consist of an orbiter around Enceladus that will also fly through the plumes, as well as a lander that will touch down in the south pole region of the moon.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Mira Murati's Stealth AI Lab Launches Its First Product
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Thinking Machines Lab,a heavily funded startup cofounded by prominent researchers fromOpenAI, has revealed its first product -- a tool called Tinker that automates the creation of custom frontier AI models. "We believe [Tinker] will help empower researchers and developers to experiment with models and will make frontier capabilities much more accessible to all people," said Mira Murati, cofounder and CEO of Thinking Machines, in an interview with WIRED ahead of the announcement. Big companies and academic labs already fine-tune open source AI models to create new variants that are optimized for specific tasks, like solving math problems, drafting legal agreements, or answering medical questions. Typically, this work involves acquiring and managing clusters of GPUs and using various software tools to ensure that large-scale training runs are stable and efficient. Tinker promises to allow more businesses, researchers, and even hobbyists to fine-tune their own AI models by automating much of this work. Essentially, the team is betting that helping people fine-tune frontier models will be the next big thing in AI. And there's reason to believe they might be right. Thinking Machines Lab is helmed by researchers who played a core role in the creation of ChatGPT. And, compared to similar tools on the market, Tinker is more powerful and user friendly, according to beta testers I spoke with. Murati says that Thinking Machines Lab hopes to demystify the work involved in tuning the world's most powerful AI models and make it possible for more people to explore the outer limits of AI. "We're making what is otherwise a frontier capability accessible to all, and that is completely game-changing," she says. "There are a ton of smart people out there, and we need as many smart people as possible to do frontier AI research." "There's a bunch of secret magic, but we give people full control over the training loop," OpenAI veteran John Schulman says. "We abstract away the distributed training details, but we still give people full control over the data and the algorithms."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Solar Leads EU Electricity Generation As Renewables Hit 54%
Renewables generated 54% of the EU's net electricity in Q2 2025, with solar power emerging as the leading source at nearly 20% of the total mix. Electrek reports: According to new data from Eurostat, renewable energy sources generated 54% of the EU's net electricity in Q2 2025, up from 52.7% year-over-year. The growth came mainly from solar, which produced 122,317 gigawatt-hours (GWh) -- nearly 20% of the total electricity generation mix. June 2025 was a milestone month: Solar became the EU's single largest electricity source for the first time ever. It supplied 22% of all power that month, edging out nuclear (21.6%), wind (15.8%), hydro (14.1%), and natural gas (13.8%). [...] In total, 15 EU countries saw their share of renewable generation rise year-over-year. Luxembourg (+13.5 percentage points) and Belgium (+9.1 pp) posted the most significant gains, driven largely by solar power growth. Across the EU, solar made up 36.8% of renewable generation, followed by wind at 29.5%, hydro at 26%, biomass at 7.3%, and geothermal at 0.4%.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Intel and AMD Trusted Enclaves, a Foundation For Network Security, Fall To Physical Attacks
Researchers have unveiled two new hardware-based attacks, Battering RAM and Wiretap, that break Intel SGX and AMD SEV-SNP trusted enclaves by exploiting deterministic encryption and physical interposers. Ars Technica reports: In the age of cloud computing, protections baked into chips from Intel, AMD, and others are essential for ensuring confidential data and sensitive operations can't be viewed or manipulated by attackers who manage to compromise servers running inside a data center. In many cases, these protections -- which work by storing certain data and processes inside encrypted enclaves known as TEEs (Trusted Execution Enclaves) -- are essential for safeguarding secrets stored in the cloud by the likes of Signal Messenger and WhatsApp. All major cloud providers recommend that customers use it. Intel calls its protection SGX, and AMD has named it SEV-SNP. Over the years, researchers have repeatedly broken the security and privacy promises that Intel and AMD have made about their respective protections. On Tuesday, researchers independently published two papers laying out separate attacks that further demonstrate the limitations of SGX and SEV-SNP. One attack, dubbed Battering RAM, defeats both protections and allows attackers to not only view encrypted data but also to actively manipulate it to introduce software backdoors or to corrupt data. A separate attack known as Wiretap is able to passively decrypt sensitive data protected by SGX and remain invisible at all times.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Apple Shelves Vision Headset Revamp to Prioritize Meta-Like AI Glasses
Apple has paused development of a cheaper, lighter Vision Pro headset to shift resources toward AI-powered smart glasses aimed at competing with Meta. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports: The company had been preparing a cheaper, lighter variant of its headset -- code-named N100 -- for release in 2027. But Apple announced internally last week that it's moving staff from that project to accelerate work on glasses, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The company is working on at least two types of smart glasses. The first one, dubbed N50, will pair with an iPhone and lack its own display. Apple aims to unveil this model as soon as next year, ahead of a release in 2027, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. Apple is also working on a version with a display -- something that could challenge the just-released Meta Ray-Ban Display. The Apple version had been planned for 2028, but the company is now looking to accelerate development, the people said. [...] Apple's glasses will rely heavily on voice interaction and artificial intelligence -- two areas where it hasn't always excelled. It was slow to introduce the Apple Intelligence platform and had to delay upgrades to its Siri voice assistant. The Apple glasses are expected to come in a variety of styles and run a new chip. They'll include speakers for music playback, cameras for media recording, and voice-control features that will work with a connected phone. Apple has also been exploring a suite of health-tracking capabilities for the device. The priority shift to glasses is just the latest change to the company's headset strategy following an underwhelming debut by the Vision Pro. The $3,499 product, which melds virtual and augmented reality, is seen as too heavy and expensive to be a mainstream hit. It's also short on both video content and apps. Apple executives have acknowledged the product's shortcomings in private, viewing it as an overengineered piece of technology.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Apple's AirPods Pro 3 are still chuck-and-buy-again specials
Zero repairability rating: iFixit teardown finds earbuds glued, unfixable, and destined for recycling
Improvements in repairability might have been made elsewhere in Apple's product range, but the AirPods Pro 3 model continue to make repairs virtually impossible.…
- Clop-linked crims shake down Oracle execs with data theft claims
Extortion emails name-drop Big Red's E-Business Suite, though Google and Mandiant yet to find proof of any breach
Criminals with potential links to the notorious Clop ransomware mob are bombarding Oracle execs with extortion emails, claiming to have stolen sensitive data from Big Red's E-Business Suite, according to researchers.…
- Windows 10 refuses to go gentle into that good night
Rage, rage against the dying of the free security updates
With just days remaining until Microsoft discontinues free support, Windows 10 still accounts for 40.5 percent of the Windows desktop market, At the same time, Windows 11 adoption remains at just 48.94 percent.…
- BT promises 5G Standalone for 99% of the UK by 2030
Because 100% would just be silly
BT wants to have 5G Standalone (5G SA) mobile service available to 99 percent of the local population by the end of the decade, but it isn't the only telco with lofty ambitions.…
- Ionos customers fume at mid-contract Plesk hike
Web host blames partner's license fee increase, but users say notice was too short and terms unfair
Exclusive Hosting biz Ionos is hiking the price of its server instances, blaming an increase in Plesk license costs. Customers have a month to accept the increase or else disable Plesk on their account.…
- Irony alert: UK.gov Work dept hires IBM to aid AI projects
Some Big Blue sky thinking needed for tech that promises employment extinction for humanity
Updated The UK's pensions and benefits department has awarded IBM a contract that's worth up to £27 million to explore, deploy and support AI technologies to enhance its services.…
- New Zealand’s Institute of IT Professionals collapses
Discovers debt it didn’t fully understand, leaving skilled migrants and students in limbo
New Zealand’s Institute of IT Professionals has discovered it is insolvent and advised members it has no alternative but to enter liquidation.…
- Meta will listen into AI conversations to personalize ads
Religion, race, health and other dicey topics supposedly exempt
Meta, having committed hundreds of billions to AI infrastructure and talent, says it will start using people's conversations and interactions with its AI services to create personalized content and advertising.…
- Microsoft declares bring your Copilot to work day, usurping IT authority
Use your home subscription with your work Microsoft 365 account
Your job may not support BYOD, but how about BYOC? Microsoft has declared that people can bring their personal Microsoft 365 subscriptions to work to access various Copilot features at companies that fail to provide an AI fix.…
- Aurora immutable KDE Plasma workstation: Big, slow, and confusing
Based on Universal Blue, it's akin to Fedora Kinoite with knobs on… A lot of knobs
Aurora, a relatively young distro from Austria, bills itself as "your stable, privacy-respecting and ultimate productivity OS." These are rather bold claims, though many other Linux distros make the same promise.…
- Hundreds of orgs urge Microsoft: don’t kill off free Windows 10 updates
Petitions pile up on Satya’s desk while Windows 7 mysteriously surges back from the grave
With Windows 10 support set to expire on October 14, hundreds of repair shops, nonprofits, and advocacy groups are urging Microsoft to extend free and automatic security updates instead of stranding hundreds of millions of PCs.…
- SpaceX rockets toward next Starship launch, set for October 13
Once more with feeling...
SpaceX has named the date when it will try for another Starship launch without anything exploding. October 13, which is both the Columbus Day / Indigenous People's Day holiday and the last day of Windows 10 support, is the current target.…
- Taiwan gets chippy about US request it shifts manufacturing
US has threatened even higher tariffs and the possible loss of military support
Taiwan has rejected US demands to shift semiconductor manufacturing so that half of America's chip needs are produced domestically, as tariff negotiations with the Trump administration intensify.…
- Raspberry Pi prices hiked as AI gobbles all the memory
Another thing you can blame on the hypefest: demand sends HBM costs up 120% in a year
Raspberry Pi is upping the cost of some devices by double-digit percentages from today driven by what CEO Eben Upton calls "insatiable demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI applications."…
- JetBrains wants to train AI models on your code snippets
Dangles free product licenses in return for code-related data for its training
IDE and developer tools biz JetBrains believes training AI models on public datasets is insufficient, and is offering free product licenses to organizations that are willing to share detailed code-related data.…
- Explain digital ID or watch it fizzle out, UK PM Starmer told
Politico avoids the topic at Labour conference speech, homes in on AI instead
UK prime minister Keir Starmer avoided mentioning the mandatory digital ID scheme in his keynote speech to the Labour Party conference amid calls for him to put meat on the bones of the plans or risk it failing fast.…
- UK's digital hospital plan meets analog reality check
Experts ask: Where will staff come from, and what about gran's flip phone?
The government has announced a new "digital hospital" service in England that will provide online appointments with consultants as an alternative to visiting a National Health Service (NHS) hospital.…
- Away from Oktoberfest, Munich's museums also serve science on tap
Because sometimes you need a V2 rocket with your schnitzel
Geek's Guide It's September and the German city of Munich is celebrating Oktoberfest. But away from the beer tents, schnitzel, and lederhosen lies a set of museums worth visiting for the price of a few beers.…
- 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]
- Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 released
With Google closing up Android at a rapid pace, theres some renewed interest in mobile platforms that arent either iOS or Android, and one of those is Ubuntu Touch. Its been steadily improving over the years under the stewardship of the UBports Foundation, and today they released Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0. Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 is the first release of Ubuntu Touch which is based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, a major upgrade from Ubuntu 20.04. This might not be as big compared to our last upgrade from Ubuntu 16.04 to 20.04, but this still brings newer software stack to Ubuntu Touch (such as Qt 5.15). ↫ Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 release announcement In this release, aside from the upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, theres now also a light mode for the shell, including experimental support for switching themes on the fly. Applications already supported a light theme since the previous releases, so adding support for it in the main shell is a welcome improvement. Weve also got experimental support for encrypting personal data, which needs to be enabled per device, which I think indicates not all devices support it. On top of that, theres some changes to the phone application, and a slew of smaller fixes and improvements as well. The list of supported devices has grown as well, with the Fairphone 5 as the newcomer this release. The list is still relatively small, but to be fair to the project, it includes a number of popular devices, as well as a few that are still readily available. If you want to opt for running Ubuntu Touch as your smartphone platform, theres definitely plenty of devices to choose from.
- Microsoft conducts Windows reorg that sees core engineering teams back under the same roof as feature experience teams
Microsoft is reorganising the Windows teams. Again. For those unaware, the Windows organization has essentially been split in two since 2018. Teams that work on the core of Windows were moved under Azure, and the rest of the Windows team (those that focused on top level features and user experiences) remained under the Windows org. That is finally changing, with Davuluri saying that the Windows client and server teams are now going to operate under the same roof once again. This change unifies Windows engineering work under a single organization 0 Moving the teams working on Windows client and server together into one organization brings focus to delivering against our priorities.! ↫ Zac Bowden at Windows Central I mean, its obviously far too simplistic to attribute Windows many user-facing problems and failures on something as simple as this particular organisational split, but it sure does feel like it could be a contributing factor. It seems like the core of Windows is mostly fine and working pretty well, while the user experience is the ares that has suffered greatly in recent years, pressured as the Windows team seems to have been to add advertising, monetisation, tons of sometimes dangerous dark patterns, and more. I hope that bringing these two teams back together will eventually lead to an overall improvement of the Windows user experience, and not a deterioration of the core of the platform. In other words, that the core team lifts up the user experience team, instead of the user experience team dragging the core team down. A Windows that takes its users seriously and respects them could be a fine operating system to use, but it reorganisations like this take a long time to have any measurable effect. Of course, it could also just have no effect at all, or perhaps the rot has simply spread too far and wide. In a few years, depressing as it may seem, Windows 11 might be regarded as a highlight.
- How to write a complete GNOME application in Lua
This article is intended to be a comprehensive guide to writing your first GNOME app in Lua using LuaGObject. The article assumes that you already understand Lua and want to get started with building beautiful native applications for GNOME. I also assume you know how to use a command line to install and compile software. Having some knowledge of the C programming language, as well as the Make, Gettext, and Flatpak software will be helpful, but shouldn’t be required to understand this guide. ↫ Victoria Lacroix Exactly what is says on the tin.
- The Encore 91 computer system
Have you ever heard of the Encore 91 computer system, developed and built by Encore Computer Corporation? I stumbled upon the name of this system on the website for the Macintosh like virtual window manager (MLVWM), an old X11 window manager designed to copy some of the look and feel of the classic Mac OS, and wanted to know more about it. An old website from what appears to be a reseller of the Encore 91 has a detailed description and sales pitch of the machine still online, and its a great read. The hardware architecture of the Encore 91 series is based on the Motorola high-performance 88100 25MHz RISC processor. A basic system is a highly integrated fully symmetrical single board multiprocessor. The single board includes two or four 88100 processors with supporting cache memory, 16 megabytes of shared main memory, two synchronous SCSI ports, an Ethernet port, 4 asynchronous ports, real-time clocks, timers, interrupts and a VME-64 bus interface. The VME-64 bus provides full compatibility with VME plus enhancements for greater throughput. Shared main memory may be expanded to 272 megabytes (mb) by adding up to four expansion cards. The expansion memory boards have the same high-speed access characteristics as local memory. ↫ Encore computing 91 system The Encore 91 ran a combination of AT8T’s system V.3.2 UNIX and Encore’s POSIX-compliant MicroMPX real-time kernel, and would be followed by machines with more powerful processors in the 88xxx series, as well as machines based on the Alpha architecture. The company also created and sold its own modified RISC architecture, RSX, for which there are still some details available online. Bits and bobs of the company were spun off and sold off, and I dont think much of the original company is still around today. Regardless, its an interesting system with an interesting history, but well most likely never get to see oe in action unless it turns up in some weird corner of the United States where the rare working examples of hardware like this invariably tends to end up.
- Googles Android developer registration requirement will kill F-Droid
The consequences of Google requiring developer certification to install Android applications, even outside of Googles own Play Store, are starting to reverberate. F-Droid, probably the single most popular non-Google application repository for Android, has made it very clear that Googles upcoming requirement is most likely going to mean the end of F-Droid. If it were to be put into effect, the developer registration decree will end the F-Droid project and other free/open-source app distribution sources as we know them today, and the world will be deprived of the safety and security of the catalog of thousands of apps that can be trusted and verified by any and all. F-Droid’s myriad users will be left adrift, with no means to install — or even update their existing installed — applications. ↫ F-Droids blog post A potential loss of F-Droid would be a huge blow to anyone trying to run Android without Googles applications and frameworks installed on their device. Its pretty clear that Google is doing whatever it can to utterly destroy the Android Open Source Project, something Ive been arguing is what the rumours about Google killing AOSP really mean. Why kill AOSP, when you can just make it utterly unusable and completely barren? Sadly, there isnt much F-Droid can do. Theyre proposing regulators the world over look at Googles plans, and hopefully come to the conclusion that theyre anti-competitive. Specifically the European Union and the tools provided by the Digital Markets Act could prove useful here, but in the end, only if the will exists to use them can these tools be used in the first place. Its dark times for the smartphone world right now, especially if you care about consumer rights and open source. iOS has always been deeply anti-consumer, and while the European Union has managed to soften some of the rough edges, nothing much has changed there. Android, on the other hand, had a thriving open source, Google-free community, but decision by decision, Google is beating it into submission and killing it off. The Android of yesteryear doesnt exist anymore, and its making people who used to work on Android back during the good old times extremely sad. Jean-Baptiste Quéru, husband of OSNews amazing and legendary previous managing editor Eugenia Loli-Queru, worded it like this a few days ago: All the tidbits of news about Android make me sad. I used to be part of the Android team. When I worked there, making the application ecosystem as open as the web was a goal. Releasing the Android source code as soon as something hit end-user devices was a goal. Being able to run your own build on actual consumer hardware was a goal. For a while after I left, there continued to be some momentum behind what I had pushed for. But, now, 12 years later, this seems to have all died. I am sad0 ↫ Jean-Baptiste Quéru And so am I. Like any operating system, Android is far from perfect, but it was remarkable just how open it used to be. I guess good things just dont survive once unbridled capitalism hits.
- Unite: a decades-old QNX-inspired hobby operating system
Unite is an operating system in which`everything`is a process, including the things that you normally would expect to be part of the kernel. The hard disk driver is a user process, so is the file system running on top of it. The namespace manager is a user process. The whole thing (in theory, see below) supports network transparency from the ground up, you can use resources of other nodes in the network just as easily as you can use local resources, just prefix them with the node ID. In the late 80’s, early 90’s I had a lot of time on my hands. While living in the Netherlands I’d run into the QNX operating system that was sold locally through a distributor. The distributors brother had need of a 386 version of that OS but Quantum Software, the producers of QNX didn’t want to release a 386 version. So I decided to write my own. ↫ Jacques Mattheij What a great story. Mattheij hasnt done anthing or even looked at the code for this operating system he created in decades, but recently got the urge to fix it up and publish it online for all of us to see. Of course, resurrecting something this old and long untouched required some magic, and theres still a few things which he simply just cant get to work properly. I like how the included copy of vi is broken and adds random bits of garbage to files, and things like the mouse driver dont work because it requires a COM port and the COM ports dont seem to work in an emulated environment. Unite is modeled after QNX, so it uses a microkernel. It uses a stripped-down variant of the MINIX file system, only has one user but that user can run multiple sessions, and theres a basic graphics mode with some goodies. Sadly, the graphics mode is problematic an requires some work to get going, and because youll need the COM ports to work to use it properly its a bit useless anyway at the moment. Regardless, its cool to see people going back to their old work and fixing it up to publish the code online.
- Why was Windows 3.0’s WinHelp called an online help system when it ran offline?
Some time ago, I described Windows 3.0’s WinHelp as “a program for browsing online help files.” But Windows 3.0 predated the Internet, and these help files were available even if the computer was not connected to any other network. How can it be “online”? ↫ Raymond Chen at The Old New Thing I doubt this will be a conceptual problem for many people reading OSNews, but I can definitely understand especially younger people finding this a curious way of looking at the word online!. Youll see the concept of online help! in quite a few systems from the 90s (and possibly earlier), so if youre into retrocomputing you mightve run into it as well.
- Installing Linux on a PC-98 machine
What if you have a PC-98 machine, and you want to run Linux on it, as you do? I mean, CP/M, OS/2, or Windows (2000 and older) might not cut it for you, after all. Well, it turns out that yes, you can run Linux on PC-98 hardware, and thanks to a bunch of work by Nina Kalinina yes, the same person from a few days ago theres now more information gathered in a single place to get you started. Plamo Linux is one of the few Linux distributions to support PC-98 series. Plamo 3.x is the latest distribution that can be installed on PC-9801 and PC-9821 directly. Unfortunately, it is quite old, and is missing lots of useful stuff. This repo is to share a-ha moments and binaries for Plamo on PC-98. ↫ Plamo98 goodies The repository details upgrading! its a bit more involved than plain upgrading, but its not hard Plamo Linux from 3.x to 4, which gives you access to a bunch of things you might want, like GCC 3.3 over 2.95, KDE 3.x, Python 2.3, and more. Theres also custom BusyBox config files, a newer version of make, and a few other goodies and tools you might want to have. Once its all set and done, you can Linux like its 2003 on your PC-98. The number of people to whom this is relevant must be extraorinarily small, but at some point, someone is going to want to do this, only to find this repository of existing work. Weve all been there.
- UNIX99: UNIX for the TI-99/4A
I’ve been working on developing an operating system for the TI-99 for the last 18 months or so. I didn’t intend this—my original plan was to develop enough of the standard C libraries to help with writing cartridge-based and EA5 programs. But that trek led me quickly towards developing an OS. As Unix is by far my preferred OS, this OS is an approximation. Developing an OS within the resources available, particularly the RAM, has been challenging, but also surprisingly doable. ↫ UNIX99 forum announcement post Were looking at a quite capable UNIX for the TI-99, with support for its sound, speech, sprites, and legacy 9918A display modes, GPU-accelerated scrolling, stdio (for text and binary files) and stdin/out/err support, a shell (of course), multiple user support, cooperative tasks support, and a ton more. And remember all of this is running on a machine with a 16-bit processor running at 16MHz and a mere 16KB of RAM. Absolutely wild.
- Another win for the Digital Markets Act: Microsoft gives truly free access to additional year of Windows 10 updates to EU users
A few months ago, Microsoft finally blinked and provided a way for Windows 10 users to gain free! access to the Windows 10 Extended Security Update program. For regular users to gain access to this program, their options are to either pay around $30, pay 1000 Microsoft points, or to sign up for the Windows Backup application to synchronise their settings to Microsoft’s computers (the “cloud”). In other words, in order to get free! access to extended security updates for Windows 10 after the 25 October end-of-support deadline, you have to start using OneDrive, and will have to start paying for additional storage since the base 5GB of OneDrive storage wont be enough for backups. And we all know OneDrive is hell. Thanks to the European Unions Digital Markets Act, though, Microsoft has dropped the OneDrive requirement for users within the European Economic Area (the EU plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein). Citing the DMA, consumer rights organisations in the EU complained that Microsofts OneDrive requirement was in breach of EU law, and Microsoft has now given in. Of course, dropping the OneDrive requirement only applies to consumers in the EU/EEA; users in places with much weaker consumer protection legislation, like the United States, will not benefit from this move. Consumer rights organisations are lauding Microsofts move, but theyre not entirely satisfied just yet. The main point of contention is that the access to the Extended Security Update program is only valid for one year, which they consider too short. In a letter, Euroconsumers, one of the consumer rights organisations, details this issue. At the same time, several points from our original letter remain relevant. The ESU program is limited to one year, leaving devices that remain fully functional exposed to risk after October 13, 2026. Such a short-term measure falls short of what consumers can reasonably expect for a product that remains widely used and does not align with the spirit of the Digital Content Directive (DCD), nor the EU’s broader sustainable goals. Unlike previous operating system upgrades, which did not typically require new hardware, the move to Windows 11 does. This creates a huge additional burden for consumers, with some estimates suggesting that over 850 million active devices still rely on million Windows 10 and cannot be upgraded due to hardware requirements. By contrast, upgrades from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 did not carry such limitations. ↫ Eurconsumers letter According to the group, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that Microsoft is much more aggressive in phasing out support for Windows 10 than for previous versions of Windows. Windows 10 is being taken behind the shed four years after the launch of Windows 11, while Windows XP and Windows 7 enjoyed 7-8 years. With how many people are still using Windows 10, often with no way to upgrade but buying new hardware, its odd that Microsoft is trying to kill it so quickly. In any event, we can chalk this up as another win for consumers in the European Union, with the Digital Markets Act once again creating better outcomes than in other regions of the world.
- NFS at 40: a treasure trove of documents and other material about Suns Network File System
The contributions of Sun Microsystems to the world of computing are legion definitely more than its ignominious absorption into Oracle implies and one of those is NFS, the Network File system. This month, NFS more or less turned 40 years old, and in honour of this milestone, Russel Berg, Russ Cox, Steve Kleiman, Bob Lyon, Tom Lyon, Joseph Moran, Brian Pawlowski, David Rosenthal, Kate Stout, and Geoff Arnold created a website to honour NFS. This website gathers material related to the Sun Microsystems Network File System, a project that began in 1983 and remains a fundamental technology for today’s distributed computer systems. The core of the collection is design documents, white papers, engineering specifications, conference and journal papers, and standards material. However it also covers marketing materials, trade press, advertising, books, “swag”, and personal ephemera. We’re always looking for new contributions. ↫ NFS at 40 Theres so many amazing documents here, such as the collection of predecessors of NFS that served as inspiration for NFS, like the Cambridge File Server or the Xerox Altos Interim File System, but also tons of fun marketing material for things like NFS server accelerators and nerdy NFS buttons. Even if youre not specifically interested in the history of NFS, theres great joy in browsing these old documents and photos.
- yt-dlp will soon require a full JS runtime to overcome YouTubes JS challenges
If you download YouTube videos, theres a real chance youre using yt-dlp, the long-running and widely-used command-line program for downloading YouTube videos. Even if youre not using it directly, many other tools for downloading YouTube videos are built on top of yt-dlp, and even some media players which offer YouTube playback use it in the background. Now, yt-dlp has always had a built-in basic JavaScript interpreter!, but due to changes at YouTube, yt-dlp will soon require a proper JavaScript runtime in order to function. Up until now, yt-dlp has been able to use its`built-in JavaScript interpreter!`to solve the JavaScript challenges that are required for YouTube downloads. But due to`recent changes on YouTubes end, the built-in JS interpreter will soon be insufficient for this purpose. The changes are so drastic that`yt-dlp will need to leverage a proper JavaScript runtime in order to solve the JS challenges. ↫ Yt-dlps announcement on GitHub The yt-dlp team suggests using Deno, but compatibility with some alternatives has been added as well. The issue is that the interpreter! yt-dlp already includes consists of a massive set of very complex regex patterns to solve JS challenges, and those are difficult to maintain and no longer sufficient, so a real runtime is necessary for YouTube downloads. Deno is advised because its entirely self-contained and sandboxed, and has no network or filesystem access of any kind. Deno also happens to be a single, portable executable. As time progresses, it seems yt-dlp is slowly growing into a web browser just to be able to download YouTube videos. I wonder what kind of barriers YouTube will throw up next, and what possible solutions from yt-dlp might look like.
- Legacy Update 1.12 released
If youre still running old versions of Windows from Windows 2000 and up, either for restrocomputing purposes or because you need to keep an old piece of software running, youve most likely heard of Legacy Update. This tool allows you to keep Windows Update running on Windows versions no longer supported by the service, and has basically become a must-have for anyone still playing around with older Windows versions. The project released a fairly major update today. Legacy Update 1.12 features a significant rewrite of our ActiveX control, and a handful of other bug fixes. The rewrite allows us to more easily work on the project, and ensures we can continue providing stable releases for the foreseeable future, despite Microsoft recently breaking the Windows XP-compatible compiler included with Visual Studio 2022. ↫ Legacy Update 1.12 release notes The project switched sway from compiling with Visual C++ 2008 (and 2010, and 2017, and 2022…), which Microsoft recently broke, and now uses an open-source MinGW/GCC toolchain. This has cut the size of the binary in half, which is impressive considering it was already smaller than 1MB. This new version also adds a three-minute timer before performing any required restarts, and speeds up the installation of the slowest type of updates (.NET Frameworks) considerably.
- Would you trust Google to remain committed to Android on laptops and desktops?
Its no secret that Google wants to bring Android to laptops and desktops, and is even sacrificing Chrome OS to get there. It seems this effort is gaining some serious traction lately, as evidenced by a conversation between Rick Osterloh, Googles SVP of platforms and devices, and Qualcomms CEO, Christiano Amon, during Qualcomms Snapdragon Summit. Google may have just dropped its clearest hint yet that Android will soon power more than phones and tablets. At today’s Snapdragon Summit kickoff, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon and Google’s SVP of Devices and Services Rick Osterloh discussed a new joint project that will directly impact personal computing. “In the past, we’ve always had very different systems between what we are building on PCs and what we are building on smartphones,” Osterloh said on stage. “We’ve embarked on a project to combine that. We are building together a common technical foundation for our products on PCs and desktop computing systems.” ↫ Adamya Sharma at Android Authority Amon eventually exclaimed thats hes seen the prototype devices, and that it is incredible!. He added that it delivers on the vision of convergence of mobile and PC. I cannot wait to have one.! Now, marketing nonsense aside, this further confirms that soon, youll be able to buy laptops running Android, and possibly even desktop systems running Android. The real question, though, is would you want to? Whats the gain of buying an Android laptop over a traditional Windows or macOS laptop? Then theres Googles infamous fickle nature, launching and killing products seemingly randomly, without any clear long-term plans and commitments. Would you buy an expensive laptop running Android, knowing full well Google might discontinue or lose interest in its attempt to bring Android to laptops, leaving you with an unsupported device? Im sire schools that bought into Chromebooks will gradually move over to the new Android laptops as Chrome OS features are merged into Android, but what about everyone else? I always welcome more players in the desktop space, and anything that can challenge Microsoft and Apple is welcome, but Im just not sure if I have faith in Google sticking with it in the long run.
- Benjamin Button reviews macOS
Apples first desktop operating system was Tahoe. Like any first version, it had a lot of issues. Users and critics flooded the web with negative reviews. While mostly stable under the hood, the outer shell — the visual user interface — was jarringly bad. Without much experience in desktop UX, Apples first OS looked like a Fisher-Price toy: heavily rounded corners, mismatched colors, inconsistent details and very low information density. Obviously, the tool was designed mostly for kids or perhaps light users or elderly people. Credit where credit is due: Apple had listened to their users and the next version macOS Sequoia — shipped with lots of fixes. Border radius was heavily reduced, transparent glass-like panels replaced by less transparent ones, buttons made more serious and less toyish. Most system icons made more serious, too, with focus on more detail. Overall, it seemed like the 2nd version was a giant leap from infancy to teenage years. ↫ Rakhim Davletkali A top quality operating systems shitpost.
- Exploring GrapheneOS secure allocator: hardened malloc
GrapheneOS is a security and privacy-focused mobile operating system based on a modified version of Android (AOSP). To enhance its protection, it integrates advanced security features, including its own memory allocator for libc: hardened malloc. Designed to be as robust as the operating system itself, this allocator specifically seeks to protect against memory corruption. This technical article details the internal workings of hardened malloc and the protection mechanisms it implements`to prevent common memory corruption vulnerabilities. It is intended for a technical audience, particularly security researchers or exploit developers, who wish to gain an in-depth understanding of this`allocators internals. ↫ Nicolas Stefanski at Synacktiv GrapheneOS is quite possibly the best way to keep your smartphone secure, and even law enforcement is not particularly amused that people are using it. If the choice is between security and convenience, GrapheneOS chooses security every time, and thats the reason its favoured by many people who deeply care about (smartphone) security. The projects social media accounts can be a bit0 Much at times, but their dedication to security is without question, and if you want a secure smartphone, theres really nowhere else to turn unless you opt to trust the black box security approach from Apple. Sadly, GrapheneOS is effectively under attack not from criminals, but from Google itself. As Google tightens its grip on Android more and more, as weve been reporting on for years now, it will become ever harder for GrapheneOS to deliver the kind of security and fast update theyve been able to deliver. I dont know just how consequential Googles increasing pressure is for GrapheneOS, but I doubt its making the lives of its developers any easier. Its self-defeating, too; GrapheneOS has a long history of basically serving as a test best for highly advanced security features Google later implements for Android in general. A great example is the Memory Tagging Extension, a feature implemented by ARM in hardware, which GrapheneOS implements much more widely and extensively than Google does. This way, GrapheneOS users have basically been serving as testers to see if applications and other components experience any issues when using the feature, paving the way for Google to eventually, hopefully, follow in GrapheneOS footsteps. Google benefits from GrapheneOS, and trying to restrict its ability to properly support devices and its access to updates is shortsighted.
- Linux Foundation Welcomes Newton: The Next Open Physics Engine for Robotics
by George Whittaker Introduction
Simulating physics is central to robotics: before a robot ever moves in the real world, much of its learning, testing, and control happens in a virtual environment. But traditional simulators often struggle to match real-world physical complexity, especially where contact, friction, deformable materials, and unpredictable surfaces are involved. That discrepancy is known as the sim-to-real gap, and it’s one of the biggest hurdles in robotics and embodied AI.
On September 29th, the Linux Foundation announced that it is contributing Newton, a next-generation, GPU-accelerated physics engine, as a fully open, community-governed project. This move aims to accelerate robotics research, reduce barriers to entry, and ensure long-term sustainability under neutral governance.
In this article, we’ll unpack what Newton is, how its architecture stands out, the role the Linux Foundation will play, early use cases and challenges, and what this could mean for the future of robotics and simulation.
What Is Newton?
Newton is a physics simulation engine designed specifically for roboticists and simulation researchers who want high fidelity, performance, and extensibility. It was conceived through collaboration among Disney Research, Google DeepMind, and NVIDIA. The recent contribution to the Linux Foundation transforms Newton into an open governance project, inviting broader community collaboration.
Design Goals & Key Features
GPU-accelerated simulation: Newton leverages NVIDIA Warp as its compute backbone, enabling physics computations on GPUs for much higher throughput than traditional CPU-based simulators.
Differentiable physics: Newton allows gradients to be propagated through simulation steps, making it possible to integrate physics into learning pipelines (e.g. backpropagation through control parameters).
Extensible and multi-solver architecture: Users or researchers can plug in custom solvers, mix models (rigid bodies, soft bodies, cloth), and tailor functionality for domain-specific needs.
Interoperability via OpenUSD: Newton builds on OpenUSD (Universal Scene Description) to allow flexible data modeling of robots and environments, and easier integration with asset pipelines.
Compatibility with MuJoCo-Warp: As part of the Newton project, the MuJoCo backbone is adapted (MuJoCo-Warp) for high-performance simulation within Newton’s framework.
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- Kernel 6.15.4 Performance Tuned, Networking Polished, Stability Reinforced
by George Whittaker Introduction
In the life cycle of any kernel branch, patch releases, those minor “.x” updates, play a vital role in refining performance, patching regressions, and ironing out rough edges. Kernel 6.15.4 is one such release: it doesn’t bring headline features, but focuses squarely on stabilizing and optimizing the 6.15 series with targeted fixes in performance and networking.
While version 6.15 already introduced several ambitious changes (filesystem improvements, networking enhancements, Rust driver infrastructure, etc.), the 6.15.4 update doubles down on making those changes more robust and efficient. In this article, we'll walk through the most significant improvements, what they mean for systems running 6.15.*, and how to approach updating.
Release Highlights
The official announcement of Kernel 6.15.4 surfaced around late June 2025. The release includes:
A full source tarball (linux-6.15.4.tar.xz) and patches.
Signature verification via PGP for integrity.
A changelog/diff summary comparing 6.15.3 → 6.15.4.
This update is not a major feature expansion; it’s a refinement release targeting performance regressions, network subsystem reliability, and bug fixes that emerged in prior 6.15.* builds.
Performance Enhancements
Because 6.15 already brought several ambitious changes to memory, I/O, scheduler, and mount semantics, many of the improvements in 6.15.4 are about smoothing interactions, avoiding regressions, and reclaiming performance in corner cases. While not all patches are publicly detailed in summaries, we can infer patterns based on what 6.15 introduced and what “performance patches” generally target.
Memory & TLB Optimizations
One often-painful cost in high-performance workloads is flushing translation lookaside buffers (TLBs) too aggressively. Kernel 6.15 had already begun to optimize broadcast TLB invalidation using AMD’s INVLPGB (for remote CPUs) to reduce overhead in multi-CPU environments. In 6.15.4, fixes likely target edge cases or regressions in those mechanisms, ensuring TLB invalidation is more efficient and consistent.
Additionally, various memory management cleanups, object reuse, and page handling improvements tend to appear in patch releases. While not explicitly documented in the public summaries, such fixes help reduce fragmentation, locking contention, and latency in memory allocation.
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- Python 3.13.5 Patch Release Packed with Fixes & Stability Boosts
by George Whittaker Introduction
On June 11, 2025, the Python core team released Python 3.13.5, the fifth maintenance update to the 3.13 line. This release is not about flashy new language features, instead, it addresses some pressing regressions and bugs introduced in 3.13.4. The “.5” in the version number signals that this is a corrective, expedited update rather than a feature-driven milestone.
In this article, we’ll explore what motivated 3.13.5, catalog the key fixes, review changes inherited in the 3.13 stream, and discuss whether and how you should upgrade. We’ll also peek at implications for future Python releases.
What Led to 3.13.5 (Release Context)
Python 3.13 — released on October 7, 2024 — introduced several significant enhancements over 3.12, including a revamped interactive shell, experimental support for running without a Global Interpreter Lock (GIL), and preliminary JIT infrastructure.
However, after releasing 3.13.4, the maintainers discovered several serious regressions. Thus, 3.13.5 was accelerated (rather than waiting for the next regular maintenance release) to correct these before they impacted a broader user base. In discussions preceding the release, it was noted the Windows extension module build broke under certain configurations, prompting urgent action.
Because of this, 3.13.5 is a “repair” release — its focus is bug fixes and stability, not new capabilities. Nonetheless, it also inherits and stabilizes many of the improvements introduced earlier in 3.13.
Key Fixes & Corrections
While numerous smaller bugs are resolved in 3.13.5, three corrections stand out as primary drivers for the expedited update:
GH-135151 — Windows extension build failure
Under certain build configurations on Windows (for the non-free-threaded build), compiling extension modules failed. This was traced to the pyconfig.h header inadvertently enabling free-threaded builds. The patch restores proper alignment of configuration macros, ensuring extension builds succeed as before.
GH-135171 — Generator expression TypeError delay
In 3.13.4, generator expressions stopped raising a TypeError early when given a non-iterable. Instead, the error was deferred to the time of first iteration. 3.13.5 restores the earlier behavior of raising the TypeError at creation time when the supplied input is not iterable. This change avoids subtler runtime surprises for developers.
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- Denmark’s Strategic Leap Replacing Microsoft Office 365 with LibreOffice for Digital Independence
by George Whittaker
In the summer of 2025, Denmark’s government put forward a major policy change in its digital infrastructure: moving away from using Microsoft Office 365, and in part, open-source its operations with LibreOffice. Below is an original account of what this entails, why it matters, how it’s being done, and what the risks and opportunities are.
What’s Changing and What’s Not
The Danish Ministry of Digital Affairs has committed to replacing Microsoft Office 365 with LibreOffice.
Earlier reports said that Windows would also be entirely swapped-out for Linux, but those reports have since been corrected: Windows will remain in use on many devices for now.
For LibreOffice, the adoption is being phased: about half of the ministry’s employees will begin using LibreOffice (and possibly Linux in some instances) in the summer months; the rest are expected to transition by autumn.
Why Denmark Is Making This MoveDigital Sovereignty & Dependence
A primary driver is the concern over reliance on large foreign tech companies, especially suppliers based outside Europe. By reducing dependency on proprietary software controlled by corporations abroad, Denmark aims to gain more control over its data, security, and updates.
Cost and Licensing
Proprietary software comes with licensing fees, recurring costs, and often tied contracts. Adopting open-source alternatives like LibreOffice can potentially reduce those long-term expenditures.
Security, Transparency, Flexibility
Open-source software tends to allow more auditability, quicker patching, and the ability to adapt tools or software behavior to specific local or regulatory requirements.
Implementation Plan & TimelinePhase What happens Approximate Timing Phase 1 Begin by moving about 50% of Ministry of Digital Affairs employees to LibreOffice (and in selected cases, using Linux tools) Summer 2025 (mid-year) Phase 2 Full transition of the ministry’s office productivity tasks away from Microsoft Office 365 to LibreOffice Autumn 2025
“Full” here is understood in the scope of office productivity tools (word processing, spreadsheets, slides, etc.), not necessarily replacing all legacy systems or moving everything off Windows.
Challenges & Concerns
While the vision is ambitious, there are several hurdles:
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- Valve Survey Reveals Slight Retreat in Steam-on-Linux Share
by George Whittaker Introduction
Steam’s monthly Hardware & Software Survey, published by Valve, offers a window into what operating systems, hardware, and software choices its user base is making. It has become a key barometer for understanding trends in PC gaming, especially for less dominant platforms like Linux. The newest data shows that Linux usage among Steam users has edged downward subtly. While the drop is small, it raises interesting questions about momentum, hardware preferences, and what might lie ahead for Linux gaming.
This article dives into the latest numbers, explores what may be pushing them to abandon Steam, and considers what it means for Linux users, developers, and Valve itself.
Recent Figures: What the Data Shows
June 2025 Survey Outcome: In June, Linux’s slice of Steam’s user base stood at 2.57%, down from approximately 2.69% in May — a decrease of 0.12 percentage points.
Year-Over-Year Comparison: Looking back to June 2024, the Linux share was around 2.08%, so even with this recent slip, there’s still an upward trend compared to a year ago.
Distribution Among Linux Users: A significant portion of Linux gamers are using Valve’s own SteamOS Holo (currying sizable usage numbers via Steam Deck and similar devices). In June, roughly one-third of the Linux user group was on SteamOS Holo.
Hardware Insights:
Among Linux users, AMD CPUs dominate: about 69% of Linux gamers use AMD in June.
Contrast that with the Windows-only survey, where Intel still has about 60% CPU share to AMD’s 39%.
Interpreting the Slip: What Might Be Behind the Dip
Though the drop is modest, a number of factors likely combine to produce it. Here are possible causes:
Statistical Noise & Normal Fluctuation Monthly survey results tend to vary a bit, especially for smaller share percentages. A 0.12% decrease could simply be part of the normal ebb and flow.
Sampling and Survey Methodology
Survey participation may shift by region, language, hardware type, or time of year. If fewer Linux users participated in a given month, the percentage would drop even if absolute numbers stayed flat.
Language shifts in Steam’s usage have shown up before; changes in how many users set certain settings or respond could affect results.
Latency or delays in uploading or processing survey data might also contribute to anomalies.
External Hardware & Platform Trends
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- Qt Creator 17 Ushers in a Fresh Look and Stronger CMake Integration
by George Whittaker
In June 2025, the Qt team officially rolled out Qt Creator 17, marking a notable milestone for developers who rely on this IDE for cross-platform Qt, C++, QML, and Python work. While there are many changes under the hood, two of the spotlighted improvements are its updated default visual style and significant enhancements in how CMake is supported. Below, we’ll explore these in depth, assess their impact, and offer guidance on how to adopt the new features smoothly.
What's New in Qt Creator 17: A Snapshot
Before zooming into the theme and CMake changes, here are some of the broader enhancements in version 17 to set context:
The “2024” theme set (light and dark variants) — which first appeared in earlier versions — becomes the foundational appearance for all new installs.
General polish across the UI: icon refreshes, more consistent spacing, and better contrast.
Projects now bind run configurations more tightly to the build configurations. That means selecting a build (e.g. Debug vs Release) also constrains which run configurations apply.
Upgraded C++ tooling (with LLVM 20.1.3), improved QML formatting options, enhanced Python (pyproject.toml) support, and refinements in version control & analysis tools.
With that backdrop, let’s dive into the theme and CMake changes in more detail.
A Refreshed Visual Identity: Default “2024” ThemesWhat Has Changed
Qt Creator 17 makes the “2024” light and dark themes the standard look & feel for new installations. These themes had been available previously (since Qt Creator 15) but in this version become the out-of-the-box configuration.
Other visual adjustments accompany the theme change:
Icons throughout the IDE have been reviewed and updated so they align better with the new theme style.
UI consistency is improved: spacing, contrast, and alignment between interface elements have been refined so that the environment feels more cohesive.
Why These Changes Matter
A theme isn't just aesthetics. The look and feel of an IDE affect user comfort, readability, efficiency, and even fatigue. Some benefits include:
Improved clarity for long coding sessions: better contrast helps in low-ambient light or for users with visual sensitivity.
Consistency across elements: less jarring visual transitions when switching between parts of the interface or when using external themes/plugins.
Reduced setup friction: since the “2024” theme is now default, many users won’t need to hunt down or tweak theme settings just to get a modern, usable look.
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- Windows 11 Powers Up WSL: How GPU Acceleration & Kernel Upgrades Change the Game
by George Whittaker Introduction
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) has gradually become one of Microsoft’s key bridges for developers, data scientists, and power users who need Linux compatibility without leaving the Windows environment. Over recent versions, WSL2 brought major improvements: a real Linux kernel running in a lightweight virtualized environment, much better filesystem behavior, nearly full system-call compatibility, etc. However, until recently, certain high-performance workloads, GPU computing, video encoding/decoding, and very up-to-date kernel features, were either limited, inefficient, or unavailable.
In Windows 11, Microsoft has taken bold strides to remove many of these bottlenecks. Two of the most significant enhancements are:
The ability for WSL to tap into the GPU for acceleration (compute, video hardware offload, etc.), reducing reliance on CPU where the GPU is much more suited.
More seamless Linux kernel upgrades, allowing users to run newer kernel versions inside WSL2, bringing performance, driver, and feature improvements faster.
This article walks through each thing in detail: what has changed, why it matters, how to use it, what limitations still exist, and how these developments shift what’s possible with WSL on Windows 11.
What WSL Was, and Where It Needed Improvement
Before diving into recent changes, it helps to understand what WSL (especially WSL2) already provided, and where it lagged.
WSL1: Early versions translated Linux system calls to Windows equivalents. Good for basic command-line tools, scripts, but limited in compatibility with certain networking, kernel module, filesystem, and performance-sensitive tasks.
WSL2: Introduced a real Linux kernel inside a lightweight VM (Hyper-V or a similar backend), better system-call compatibility, better performance especially for Linux tools, and much improved behavior for things like Docker, compiling, etc. Still, heavy workloads (e.g. ML training, video encoding, hardware-accelerated graphics) were constrained by CPU support, lack of passthrough of GPU features, older kernels, etc.
So developers were pushing Microsoft to allow more direct access to GPU functionality (CUDA, DirectML, video decoding), and to speed up how kernel updates reach users.
GPU Acceleration in WSL on Windows 11: What It Means
GPU acceleration here refers to WSL’s ability to offload certain computation or video tasks from the CPU to the GPU, enabling faster, more efficient execution. This includes:
Compute workloads - frameworks like CUDA (for NVIDIA), DirectML, etc., so that things like deep learning, scientific computing, data-parallel tasks run much faster. Microsoft now supports running NVIDIA CUDA inside WSL to accelerate ML libraries like PyTorch, TensorFlow.
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- Harnessing GitOps on Linux for Seamless, Git-First Infrastructure Management
by George Whittaker Introduction
Imagine a world where every server, application, and network configuration is meticulously orchestrated via Git, where updates, audits, and recoveries happen with a single commit. This is the realm GitOps unlocks, especially potent when paired with the versatility of Linux environments. In this article, we'll dive deep into how Git-driven workflows can transform the way you manage Linux infrastructure, offering clarity, control, and confidence in every change.
GitOps Demystified: A New Infrastructure Paradigm
GitOps isn't just a catchy buzzword, it's a methodical rethink of how infrastructure should be managed.
It treats Git as the definitive blueprint for your live systems, everything from server settings to application deployments is declared, versioned, and stored in repositories.
With Git as the single source of truth, every adjustment is tracked, reversible, and auditable, turning ops into a transparent, code-centric process.
Beyond simple CI/CD, GitOps introduces a continuous reconciliation model: specialized agents continuously compare the actual state of systems against the desired state in Git and correct any discrepancies automatically.
Why Linux and GitOps Are a Natural Pair
Linux stands at the heart of infrastructure, servers, containers, edge systems, you name it. When GitOps is layered onto that:
You'll leverage Linux’s scripting capabilities (like bash) to craft powerful, domain-specific automation that dovetails perfectly with GitOps agents.
The transparency of Git coupled with Linux’s flexible architecture simplifies debugging, auditing, and recovery.
The combination gives infrastructure teams the agility to iterate faster while keeping control rigorous and secure.
Architecting GitOps Pipelines for Linux EnvironmentsStructuring Repositories Deliberately
A well-organized Git setup is crucial:
Use separate repositories or disciplined directory structures for:
Infrastructure modules (e.g., Terraform, networking, VMs),
Platform components (monitoring, ingress controllers, certificates),
Application-level configurations (Helm overrides, container versions).
This separation helps ensure access controls align with responsibilities and limits risks from misconfiguration or accidental cross-impact.
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- How DevOps Teams Are Redefining Reliability with NixOS and OSTree-Powered Linux
by George Whittaker
This article explores how modern DevOps teams are redefining stability and reproducibility in production environments by embracing truly unchangeable operating systems. It delves into how NixOS’s declarative configuration model and OSTree’s atomic update mechanisms open the door to systems that are both resilient and transparent. We'll explain the advantages, technologies, comparisons, and real-world use cases fueling this shift.
The Paradigm Shift: From Mutable Chaos to Immutable Assurance
Why the change happened: The traditional model, logging into servers, tweaking packages, and patching in place, has led to unpredictable environments, elusive bugs, “snowflake” systems, and configuration drift as environments diverged over time. Immutable infrastructure treats machines like fungible artifacts: if you need change, you don’t fix the running system, you replace it.
Key benefits:
Reliability at scale: Automated, reproducible deployments, no divergence across servers.
Simplified rolling back: If something breaks, spin up the previous, working version.
Security by design: Core systems are read-only, reducing the attack surface.
Immutable Foundations in ActionNixOS: The Declarative, Version-Controlled Linux
How it works: System configuration, including packages, services, kernels, is expressed in the Nix language in a config file. Rebuilding produces a new system “generation,” which can be booted or rolled back.
Why DevOps teams love it:
Reproducibility: Exact environments can be rebuilt from config files, promoting parity across development, CI, and production.
Speed and consistency gains: In one fintech case, switching to NixOS reduced deployment times by over 50 percent, erased environment-related incidents, shrank container sizes by 70%, and cut onboarding time dramatically.
Edge readiness: Ideal for remote systems or stateless servers rebuilt nightly to ensure fleet consistency with easy rollback.
Personalization meets immutability: With tools like Home Manager, even user-specific configurations (like dotfiles or shell preferences) can be managed declaratively, and consistently reproduced across machines.
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- From Novice to Pro: Mastering Lightweight Linux for Your Kubernetes Projects
by George Whittaker Introduction: Why Lightweight Matters for Kubernetes Devs
When running Kubernetes clusters for development, the operating system’s footprint can make or break performance and agility. Heavy, general-purpose Linux distributions waste memory and CPU cycles on components you’ll never use, while lightweight, container-focused distros keep your nodes lean and optimized. For developers experimenting with k3s, MicroK8s, or full-blown Kubernetes clusters, lightweight Linux offers faster spin-ups, lower overhead, and environments that better simulate production-grade setups.
In this guide, we’ll take a look at the best lightweight Linux options for Kubernetes developers, compare their strengths, and walk through code examples for quick setup. Whether you’re spinning up a local test cluster or building a scalable dev lab, this breakdown will help you pick the right base OS and make the most of your Kubernetes workflow.
Key Considerations for Dev-Focused Kubernetes Nodes
Before diving into individual distros, it’s important to understand what really matters when pairing Linux with Kubernetes:
Minimal Resource Usage: A slim OS footprint leaves more CPU and RAM for pods and workloads.
Container Runtime Compatibility: Built-in or easy-to-install support for containerd, CRI-O, or Docker ensures smooth cluster bootstrapping.
Init System Support: Compatibility with systemd or OpenRC impacts how Kubernetes services are managed.
Immutable vs. Mutable: Immutable systems like Fedora CoreOS or Talos enhance reliability but restrict tinkering, while Alpine and Ubuntu Core offer more flexibility for on-the-fly customization.
Developer Friendliness: A distro should integrate seamlessly with kubectl, Helm, CI/CD agents, and debugging workflows.
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