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- Typst 0.14 released
Version 0.14 of theTypst document processor has been released.
If you need to comply with accessibility-related regulations, Typst 0.14 has your back. Typst now generates accessible documents by default, with opt-in support for stricter checks. For those working with complex illustrations, PDFs are now supported as a native image format. In case you're typesetting a book, the new character-level justification will give your layout the final touch. And if you're building a website or blog, many improvements to Typst's HTML export are waiting for you.
LWN looked at Typst in September.
- Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (webkit2gtk3), Debian (bind9, chromium, python-internetarchive, and tryton-sao), Fedora (dokuwiki and php-php81_bc-strftime), Mageia (firefox, nss & rootcerts and thunderbird), Slackware (openssl), SUSE (bleachbit, chromium, kernel, mozilla-nss, and python311-uv), and Ubuntu (fetchmail, golang-go.crypto, and linux-oracle-5.4).
- [$] GoFundMe to delete unwanted open-source foundation pages
Open-source foundations and projects that have charity status inthe US may want to see if GoFundMe has created a profilefor them without permission. The company has operated since 2010 as aself-service fundraising platform; individuals or groups could createpages to raise money for all manner of causes. In June, the company announcedthat it would expand its offerings to "manage all aspects ofcharitable giving" for users through its platform. That seems toinclude creating profiles for nonprofit organizations without theirinvolvement. After pushback, the company saidon October 23 that it would be removing the pages. It has notanswered more fundamental questions about how it planned to disbursefunds to nonprofits that had no awareness of the GoFundMe pages in thefirst place.
- Date bug affects Ubuntu 25.10 automatic updates
The Ubuntu Project has announcedthat a bug in the Rust-based uutils version of thedate command shipped with Ubuntu 25.10 broke automaticupdates:
Some Ubuntu 25.10 systems have been unable to automatically checkfor available software updates. Affected machines include clouddeployments, container images, Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Serverinstalls.
The announcement includes remediation instructions for thoseaffected by the bug. Systems with the rust-coreutils packageversion 0.2.2-0ubuntu2 or earlier have the bug, it is fixed in0.2.2-0ubuntu2.1 or later. It does not impact manual updates using theapt command or other utilities.
Ubuntu embarked on a project to "oxidize" the distribution byswitching to uutils and sudo-rsfor the 25.10 release, and to see if the Rust-based utilities would besuitable for the long-term-release slated for next April. LWN covered that project inMarch.
- Three new stable kernels for Thursday
Greg Kroah-Hartman has released the 6.17.5, 6.12.55, and 6.6.114 stable kernels. As usual, eachcontains important fixes throughout the tree; users are advised toupgrade.
- [$] Safer speculation-free user-space access
The Spectre class of hardware vulnerabilities truly is a gift that keeps ongiving. New variants are still being discovered in current CPUs nearlyeight years after the disclosure of thisproblem, and developers are still working to minimize the performance coststhat come from defending against it. The masked user-space accessmechanism is a case in point: it reduces the cost of defending against somespeculative attacks, but it brought some challenges of its own that areonly now being addressed.
- Btrfs support coming to AlmaLinux 10.1
The AlmaLinux project has announcedthat the upcoming 10.1 release will include support forBtrfs:
Btrfs support encompasses both kernel and userspace enablement, andit is now possible to install AlmaLinux OS with a Btrfs filesystemfrom the very beginning. Initial enablement was scoped to theinstaller and storage management stack, and broader support within theAlmaLinux software collection for Btrfs features is forthcoming.
Btrfs support in AlmaLinux OS did not happen in isolation. This wasproposed and scoped in RFC 0005, and has been built upon prior effortsby the FedoraBtrfs SIG in Fedora Linux and the CentOS Hyperscale SIGin CentOS Stream.
AlmaLinux OS is designed to be binary compatible with Red HatEnterprise Linux (RHEL); Btrfs, however, has never been supported inRHEL. A technology preview of Btrfs in RHEL 6 and 7 ended with thefilesystem being dropped from RHEL 8 andonward. AlmaLinux OS 10.1 is currentlyin beta.
- Security updates for Thursday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (ipa, kernel, and thunderbird), Debian (gdk-pixbuf, gegl, gimp, intel-microcode, raptor2, request-tracker4, and request-tracker5), Fedora (samba and wireshark), Mageia (haproxy, nginx, openssl, and python-django), Oracle (kernel and thunderbird), Red Hat (redis and redis:7), Slackware (bind), SUSE (aws-cli, local-npm-registry, python-boto3, python- botocore, python-coverage, python-flaky, python-pluggy, python-pytest, python- pytest-cov, python-pytest-html, python-pytest-metada, cargo-audit-advisory-db-20251021, fetchmail, git-bug, ImageMagick, istioctl, kernel, krb5, libsoup, libxslt, python-Authlib, and sccache), and Ubuntu (bind9, linux, linux-aws, linux-azure, linux-azure-6.8, linux-gcp, linux-gkeop, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-6.8, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8, linux-oracle, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.15, linux-gcp-5.15, linux-gcp-6.8, linux-gke, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-6.8, linux-nvidia-lowlatency, and linux-realtime, linux-realtime-6.8).
- [$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for October 23, 2025
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
Front: Git 3.0 topics; Lazy imports for Python; RubyGems; LLMs for patch review; DebugFS. Briefs: Fedora AI policy; OpenBSD 7.8; DigiKam 8.8.0; Forgejo 13.0; KDE Plasma 6.5; RubyGems; Valkey 9.0.0; Quotes; ... Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
- Fedora Council approves AI-assisted contributions policy
The Fedora Council has approvedan AI-assistedcontributions policy. This follows severalweeks of discussion, some of which was covered by LWN onOctober 1. The final policy contains substantial differences fromthe initialproposal, and now requires disclosure of AI tools "when thesignificant part of the contribution is taken from a tool withoutchanges".
- M5Stack PowerHub IoT Development Kit Integrates ESP32-S3 and STM32 Coprocessor
M5Stack has introduced the PowerHub, a compact IoT controller designed for distributed power and device management. The ESP32-based PowerHub is described as providing a stable and flexible control platform that integrates communication interfaces, modular power input options, and precise monitoring capabilities. The PowerHub is built around the ESP32-S3-WROOM-1U-N16R8 module featuring a dual-core Xtensa LX7 processor […]
- The Latest Sheaves Work To Hopefully Improve Linux Performance
Merged for Linux 6.18 was a new feature called Sheaves as an opt-in, per-CPU array-based caching layer. Plus there is a per-NUMA-node cache of Sheaves called a "Barn". In continuing to build out the Linux kernel usage of Sheaves, a set of initial patches were posted this week to replace the CPU slabs with Sheaves within the slub allocator code...
- AMD EPYC Turin vs. Intel Xeon 6 Granite Rapids vs. Graviton4 Benchmarks With AWS M8 Instances
With Amazon recently launching their M8a AWS instances powered by 5th Gen AMD EPYC "Turin", for their M8 class instance types there now are all the latest-generation CPU options with AMD EPYC Turin (M8a), Intel Xeon 6 Granite Rapids (M8i), and their in-house Graviton4 processors (M8g). After recently looking at the M7a vs. M8a performance with Amazon EC2, many Phoronix readers expressed interest in seeing an M8a vs. M8i vs. M8g performance showdown so here are those benchmarks.
- OpenGL Sees New Extensions Added To The Registry
It's been rare in recent years seeing any new OpenGL extensions given the wild success these days of the Vulkan API with its vast hardware adoption and increasing software support around that modern graphics and compute API. Yet this October has been unusual with now seeing multiple new OpenGL extensions merged to the OpenGL registry...
- North Korea Has Stolen Billions in Cryptocurrency and Tech Firm Salaries, Report Says
The Associated Press reports that "North Korean hackers have pilfered billions of dollars" by breaking into cryptocurrency exchanges and by creating fake identities to get remote tech jobs at foreign companies — all orchestrated by the North Korean government to finance R&D on nuclear arms. That's according to a new the 138-page report by a group watching North Korea's compliance with U.N. sanctions (including officials from the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea and the United Kingdom). From the Associated Press:North Korea also has used cryptocurrency to launder money and make military purchases to evade international sanctions tied to its nuclear program, the report said. It detailed how hackers working for North Korea have targeted foreign businesses and organizations with malware designed to disrupt networks and steal sensitive data... Unlike China, Russia and Iran, North Korea has focused much of its cyber capabilities to fund its government, using cyberattacks and fake workers to steal and defraud companies and organizations elsewhere in the world... Earlier this year, hackers linked to North Korea carried out one of the largest crypto heists ever, stealing $1.5 billion worth of ethereum from Bybit. The FBI later linked the theft to a group of hackers working for the North Korean intelligence service. Federal authorities also have alleged that thousands of IT workers employed by U.S. companies were actually North Koreans using assumed identities to land remote work. The workers gained access to internal systems and funneled their salaries back to North Korea's government. In some cases, the workers held several remote jobs at the same time.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- 28 Years After 'Clippy', Microsoft Upgrades Copilot With Cartoon Assistant 'Micu'
"Clippy, the animated paper clip that annoyed Microsoft Office users nearly three decades ago, might have just been ahead of its time," writes the Associated Press:Microsoft introduced a new artificial intelligence character called Mico (pronounced MEE'koh) on Thursday, a floating cartoon face shaped like a blob or flame that will embody the software giant's Copilot virtual assistant and marks the latest attempt by tech companies to imbue their AI chatbots with more of a personality... "When you talk about something sad, you can see Mico's face change. You can see it dance around and move as it gets excited with you," said Jacob Andreou, corporate vice president of product and growth for Microsoft AI, in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's in this effort of really landing this AI companion that you can really feel." In the U.S. only so far, Copilot users on laptops and phone apps can speak to Mico, which changes colors, spins around and wears glasses when in "study" mode. It's also easy to shut off, which is a big difference from Microsoft's Clippit, better known as Clippy and infamous for its persistence in offering advice on word processing tools when it first appeared on desktop screens in 1997. "It was not well-attuned to user needs at the time," said Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Microsoft pushed it, we resisted it and they got rid of it. I think we're much more ready for things like that today..." Microsoft's product releases Thursday include a new option to invite Copilot into a group chat, an idea that resembles how AI has been integrated into social media platforms like Snapchat, where Andreou used to work, or Meta's WhatsApp and Instagram. But Andreou said those interactions have often involved bringing in AI as a joke to "troll your friends," in contrast to Microsoft's designs for an "intensely collaborative" AI-assisted workplace.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Some Startups Are Demanding 12-Hour Days, Six Days a Week from Workers
The Washington Post reports on 996, "a term popularized in China that refers to a rigid work schedule in which people work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week..."As the artificial intelligence race heats up, many start-ups in Silicon Valley and New York are promoting hardcore culture as a way of life, pushing the limits of work hours, demanding that workers move fast to be first in the market. Some are even promoting 996 as a virtue in the hiring process and keeping "grind scores" of companies... Whoever builds first in AI will capture the market, and the window of opportunity is two to three years, "so you better run faster than everyone else," said Inaki Berenguer, managing partner of venture-capital firm LifeX Ventures. At San Francisco-based AI start-up Sonatic, the grind culture also allows for meal, gym and pickleball time, said Kinjal Nandy, its CEO. Nandy recently posted a job opening on X that requires in-person work seven days a week. He said working 10-hour days sounds like a lot but the company also offers its first hires perks such as free housing in a hacker house, food delivery credits and a free subscription to the dating service Raya... Mercor, a San Francisco-based start-up that uses AI to match people to jobs, recently posted an opening for a customer success engineer, saying that candidates should have a willingness to work six days a week, and it's not negotiable. "We know this isn't for everyone, so we want to put it up top," the listing reads. Being in-person rather than remote is a requirement at some start-ups. AI start-up StarSling had two engineering job descriptions that required six days a week of in-person work. In a job description for an engineer, Rilla, an AI company in New York, said candidates should not work at the company if they're not excited about working about 70 hours a week in person. One venture capitalist even started tracking "grind scores." Jared Sleeper, a partner at New York-based venture capital firm Avenir, recently ranked public software companies' "grind score" in a post on X, which went viral. Using data from Glassdoor, it ranks the percentage of employees who have a positive outlook for the company compared with their views on work-life balance. "At Google's AI division, cofounder Sergey Brin views 60 hours per week as the 'sweet spot' for productivity," notes the Independent:Working more than 55 hours a week, compared with a standard 35-40-hour week, is linked to a 35 percent higher risk of stroke and a 17 percent higher risk of death from heart disease, according to the World Health Organization. Productivity also suffers. A British study shows that working beyond 60 hours a week can reduce overall output, slow cognitive performance, and impair tasks ranging from call handling to problem-solving. Shorter workweeks, in contrast, appear to boost productivity. Microsoft Japan saw a roughly 40% increase in output after adopting a four-day work week. In a UK trial, 61 companies that tested a four-day schedule reported revenue gains, with 92 percent choosing to keep the policy, according to Bloomberg.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Myanmar Military Shuts Down a Major Cybercrime Center and Detains Over 2,000 People
An anonymous reader shares this report from the Associated Press:Myanmar's military has shut down a major online scam operation near the border with Thailand, detaining more than 2,000 people and seizing dozens of Starlink satellite internet terminals, state media reported Monday... The centers are infamous for recruiting workers from other countries under false pretenses, promising them legitimate jobs and then holding them captive and forcing them to carry out criminal activities. Scam operations were in the international spotlight last week when the United States and Britain enacted sanctions against organizers of a major Cambodian cyberscam gang, and its alleged ringleader was indicted by a federal court in New York. According to a report in Monday's Myanma Alinn newspaper, the army raided KK Park, a well-documented cybercrime center, as part of operations starting in early September to suppress online fraud, illegal gambling, and cross-border cybercrime.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- EA Partners With Company Behind Stable Diffusion To Make Games With AI
Electronic Arts (EA) has partnered with Stability AI, creator of Stable Diffusion, to co-develop generative AI tools aimed at accelerating game development. "I use the term smarter paintbrushes," Steve Kestell, Head of Technical Art for EA SPORTS said in the announcement. "We are giving our creatives the tools to express what they want." Engadget reports: To start, the "smarter paintbrushes" EA and Stability AI are building are concentrated on generating textures and in-game assets. EA hopes to create "Physically Based Rendering materials" with new tools "that generate 2D textures that maintain exact color and light accuracy across any environment." The company also describes using AI to "pre-visualize entire 3D environments from a series of intentional prompts, allowing artists to creatively direct the generation of game content."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- China's Zhuque-3 Reusable Rocket Passes Key Milestone
China's private space company LandSpace has completed a key static fire test of its Zhuque-3 (ZQ-3) reusable rocket -- a stainless-steel, methane-fueled launcher modeled after SpaceX's Starship. Universe Today reports: The latest milestone took place on Monday, Oct. 22nd at the Dongfeng commercial space innovation pilot zone (where the JSLC is located). It involved another static fire test, where the rocket was fully-fueled but remained fixed to the launch pad while the engines were fired. This kind of testing is a crucial prelaunch trial (what NASA refers to as a "wet dress rehearsal"), and places the company and China another step closer to making an inaugural flight test, which is expected to happen by the fourth quarter of 2025. In traditional Chinese, Zhuque is the name of the Vermillion Bird that represents fire, the south, and summer, and is one of the four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. Like the Starship, the Zhuque-3 is composed of stainless steel and relies on a combination of liquid methane (LCH4) and liquid oxygen (LOX) propellant. The rocket will be powered by nine Tianque-12A (TQ-12A) engines and will measure 65.9 m (216 ft) tall and weigh 550,000 kg (1,210,000 lb). It's payload capacity will be significantly less than the Starship: 11,800 kg (26,000 lbs) in its expendable mode, and 8,000 kg (18,000 lbs) for the recoverable version. This is closer in payload capacity to the Falcon 9, which is capable of delivering 22,800 kg (50,265 lbs) to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). In time, the company hopes to transition to the larger Zhuque-3E, which will be 76.2 m (250 ft) tall and powered by nine TQ-12B engines, and will be capable of delivering to 21,000 kg (46,000 lb) in its expandable mode and 18,300 kg (40,300 lb) recoverable. The long term goal is to create a reusable system that can rival the Falcon rocket family, bringing the country closer to its goal of achieving parity with NASA.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Iceland Just Found Its First Mosquitoes
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Iceland's frozen, inhospitable winters have long protected it from mosquitoes, but that may be changing. This week, scientists announced the discovery of three mosquitoes -- marking the country's first confirmed finding of these insects in the wild. Mosquitoes are found almost everywhere in the world, with the exception of Antarctica and, until very recently, Iceland, due to their extreme cold. The mosquitoes were discovered by Bjorn Hjaltason in Kioafell, Kjos, in western Iceland about 20 miles north of the capital Reykjavik. "At dusk on October 16, I caught sight of a strange fly," Hjaltason posted in a Facebook group about insects, according to reports in the Icelandic media. "I immediately suspected what was going on and quickly collected the fly," he added. He contacted Matthias Alfreosson, an entomologist at the Natural Science Institute of Iceland, who drove out to Hjaltason's house the next day. They captured three in total, two females and a male. Alfreosson identified them as mosquitoes from the Culiseta annulata species. A single mosquito from a different species was discovered many years ago on an airplane at the country's Keflavik International Airport, Alfreosson told CNN, but this "is the first record of mosquitoes occurring in the natural environment in Iceland." Further monitoring will be needed in the spring to see whether the species can survive the winter and "truly become established in Iceland," Alfreosson said. He said he's not sure climate change played a role in the discovery but "warming temperatures are likely to enhance the potential for other mosquito species to establish in Iceland, if they arrive."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- As Texas Power Demand Surges, Solar, Wind and Storage Carry the Load
Texas's electricity demand has surged to record highs in 2025 but renewable energy is meeting the challenge. According to new data from the Energy Information Administration, solar output has quadrupled since 2021, wind continues steady growth, and battery storage is increasingly stabilizing the grid during evening peaks. Electrek reports: ERCOT, which supplies power to about 90% of the state, saw demand jump 5% year-over-year to 372 terawatt hours (TWh) -- a 23% increase since 2021. No other major US grid has grown faster over the past year. [...] The biggest growth story in Texas power generation is solar. Utility-scale solar plants produced 45 TWh from January through September, up 50% from 2024 and nearly four times what they generated in 2021 (11 TWh). Wind power also continued to climb, producing 87 TWh through September -- a 4% increase from last year and 36% more than in 2021. Together, wind and solar supplied 36% of ERCOT's total electricity over those nine months. Solar, in particular, has transformed Texas's daytime energy mix. From June to September, ERCOT solar farms generated an average of 24 gigawatts (GW) between noon and 1 pm -- double the midday output from 2023. That growth has pushed down natural gas use at midday from 50% of the mix in 2023 to 37% this year. The report notes that while natural gas is still Texas's dominant power source, it isn't growing like it used to. "Gas comprised 43% of ERCOT's generation mix during the first nine months of 2025, down from 47% in the first nine months of 2023 and 2024," reports Electrek.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Sweden's Crowd-Forecasting Platform 'Glimt' Helps Ukraine Make Wartime Predictions
alternative_right shares a report from France 24: [Sweden's] latest contribution to the war effort is Glimt, an innovative project launched by the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) earlier this year. Glimt is an open platform that relies on the theory of "crowd forecasting": a method of making predictions based on surveying a large and diverse group of people and taking an average. "Glimt" is a Swedish word for "a glimpse" or "a sudden insight." The theory posits that the average of all collected predictions produces correct results with "uncanny accuracy," according to the Glimt website. Such "collective intelligence" is used today for everything from election results to extreme weather events, Glimt said. [...] Group forecasting allows for a broad collection of information while avoiding the cognitive bias that often characterizes intelligence services. Each forecaster collects and analyses the available information differently to reach the most probable scenario and can add a short comment to explain their reasoning. The platform also encourages discussion between members so they can compare arguments and alter their positions. Available in Swedish, French and English, the platform currently has 20,000 registered users; each question attracts an average of 500 forecasters. Their predictions are later sent to statistical algorithms that cross-reference data, particularly the relevance of the answers they provided. The most reliable users will have a stronger influence on the results; this reinforces the reliability of collective intelligence. "We used this method and research, and we suggested to the Ukrainians that it could improve their understanding of the world and its evolution," said Ivar Ekman, an analyst for the Swedish Defence Research Agency and program director for Glimt. "If you have a large group of people, you can achieve great accuracy in assessing future events. Research has shown that professional analysts don't necessarily have a better capacity in this domain than other people."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Apple Begins Shipping American-Made AI Servers From Texas
Apple has begun shipping U.S.-made AI servers from a new factory in Houston, Texas -- part of its $600 billion investment in American manufacturing and supply chains. CNBC reports: Apple Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan said on Thursday that the servers will power the company's Apple Intelligence and Private Cloud Compute services. Apple is using its own silicon in its Apple Intelligence servers. "Our teams have done an incredible job accelerating work to get the new Houston factory up and running ahead of schedule and we plan to continue expanding the facility to increase production next year," Khan said in a statement. The Houston factory is on track to create thousands of jobs, Apple said. The Apple servers were previously manufactured overseas.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- MPs urge government to stop Britain's phone theft wave through tech
Committee says Apple, Google, and Samsung could render stolen handsets worthless if compelled to act
The UK's Home Secretary should use her powers to push the tech industry to deploy stronger technical measures against the surge in phone thefts, according to a House of Commons committee.…
- Sneaky Mermaid attack in Microsoft 365 Copilot steals data
Redmond says it's fixed this particular indirect prompt injection vuln
updated Microsoft fixed a security hole in Microsoft 365 Copilot that allowed attackers to trick the AI assistant into stealing sensitive tenant data – like emails – via indirect prompt injection attacks.…
- Sora makes slurfect deepfakes of celebs spewing racial epithets
If you listen closely, you’ll realize Sam Altman and the others are only saying sound-alike words
Guardrails? What guardrails? Naughty netizens found a way to trick the Sora 2 video generator into producing deepfakes of public figures, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and billionaire Mark Cuban, that make it sound as though they're spewing racial slurs. The trick works despite Sora's built-in filters meant to block hateful language.…
- Uncle Sam's new power plan will plug AI farms into the grid faster
Proposal would fast-track hookups for the megawatt-hungry datacenters driving US electricity demand
The US Energy Secretary wants to see datacenters connected to the grid faster, and has directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to implement new rules that speed the process.…
- Apple faces £1.5B payout after losing UK App Store case
iPhone maker overcharged devs and users, says competition court
Apple could face claims estimated at around £1.5 billion after it lost a collective case in the UK arguing that its closed systems for apps resulted in overcharging businesses and consumers.…
- AI investment is the only thing keeping the US out of recession
Datacenter infrastructure and model development spending offset high borrowing costs
AI spending is keeping the US economy out of recession, with datacenter infrastructure and model development providing the only significant growth amid trade turmoil, tariff shocks, and high borrowing costs.…
- 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]
- Upcoming Kwin changes extend battery life
I think most of us are aware that compositors use multiple planes to render our user interfaces, and in the case of KDEs Kwin specifically, they use two planes one for the user interface, and one specifically for the mouse cursor. Kwin developer Xaver Hugl has been working on changing Kwin to use more than just two planes, and it turns out this delivers some considerable power use reductions and thus battery life improvements. So, when can you use these changes and test them? Due to various driver issues when trying to use overlays, like slow atomic tests on AMD as well as display freezes on some AMD and NVidia GPUs, this feature is still off by default. However, if you want to experiment anyways or attempt to fix the drivers, starting from Plasma 6.5, you can set the KWIN_USE_OVERLAYS environment variable to enable the feature anyways. If you test it, please report your findings! If there’s problems in the drivers, we’d like to know and have bug reports for the GPU vendors of course, but also if things work well that would be nice to hear. ↫ Xaver Hugl Leave it to Linux graphics-related developers to uncover driver bugs in graphics drivers.
- AI! assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time
An extensive study by the European Broadcasting Union and the BBC highlights just how deeply inaccurate and untrustworthy AI! news results really are. AI! sucks even at its most basic function. Its incredible how much money is being pumped into this scam, and how many people are wholeheartedly defending these bullshit generators as if their lives depended on it. If these tools cant even summarise a text something you learn in early primary school as a basic skill how on earth are they supposed to perform more complex tasks like coding, making medical assessments, distinguish between a chips bag and a gun? Maybe we deserve it.
- Teenager detained at gunpoint by US cops because AI! mistook a chips bag for a gun
If youre eating a bag of chips in an area where AI! software is being used to monitor peoples behaviour, you might want to reconsider. Some high school kid in the US was hanging out with his friends, when all of a sudden, he was being swarmed by police officers with with guns drawn. Held at gunpoint, he was told to lie down, after which he was detained. Obviously, this is a rather unpleasant experience, so say the least, especially considering the kid in question is a person of colour. In the US. Anyway, the AI! software used by the police department to monitor citizens behaviour mistook an empty chips bag in his pocket for a gun. US police officers, who only receive a few weeks of training, didnt question what the computer told them and pointed guns at a teenager. In a statement, Omnilert expressed regret over the incident, acknowledging that the image “closely resembled a gun being held.” The company called it a “false positive,” but defended the system’s response, stating it “functioned as intended: to prioritize safety and awareness through rapid human verification.” ↫ Alexa Dikos and Rebecca Pryor at FOX45 News Ive been warning that the implementation of AI! was going to lead to people dying, and while this poor kid got lucky this time, you know its only a matter of time before people start getting shot by US police because theyre too stupid to question their computer overlords. Add in the fact that AI! is well-known to be deeply racist, and we have a very deadly cocktail of failures.
- OpenBSD 7.8 released
Like clockwork, every six months, we have a new OpenBSD release. OpenBSD 7.8 adds support for the Raspberry Pi 5, tons of improvements to sleep, wake, and hibernate, the TCP stack can now run in parallel on multiple processors, and so much more. DRM has been updated to match Linux 6.12.50, and drivers for the Qualcomm Snapdragon DRM subsystem and Qualcomm DisplayPort controller were added as well. The changelog is, as always, long and detailed, so head on over for the finer details. OpenBSD users will know how to upgrade, and new users can visit the download page.
- What about the icons in pifmgr.dll?
Raymond Chen has another great post about some of the classic icons from Windows 95, this time focusing on pifmgr.dll. In this file, there are a variety of random-seeming icons, and it turns out theyre random for a reason: they were just a bunch a fun, generic icons intended for people to use when creating PIF files. The icons in pifmgr.dll were created just for fun. They were not created with any particular programs in mind, with one obvious exception. They were just a fun mix of icons for people to use for their own homemade shortcut files. ↫ Raymond Chen at The Old New Thing For those of us who didnt grow up with Windows, or who, god forbid, are too young to know, PIF or personal information files are effectively shortcuts to DOS programs for use in a multitasking environment. A PIF file would not only point to the relevant DOS executable, but also contain information about the environment in which said executable was supposed to run. Their history goes back to IBMs TopView, and Microsoft later embraced and adapted them for use in Windows.
- Understanding driver updates through Windows Update
Microsoft has published a set of short questions and answers about driver updates through Windows Update, and theres one tidbit in there I found interesting. Driver dates might look old, but that is not true. The driver date is descriptive info set by the driver provider and can be any date they choose. When determining which driver to install, Windows Update uses targeting information set by the provider inside the driver files to determine the best driver. This lets the device provider promote the best driver, regardless of the chosen date. ↫ Microsoft knowledge base article Whenever I do have to fiddle with Windows machines, I always wondered about why some drivers in Windows Update would show some seriously old dates. It turns out the answer is as obvious as it always tends to be: OEMs.
- KDE Plasma 6.5 released
KDE is on a roll lately, and keeps on rolling with todays release of KDE Plasma 6.5. As the project itself notes, this release focuses on relatively small improvements, refinements, and other niceties, without making any massive changes. With Linux desktops taking accessibility more seriously lately than ever before, I want to focus on the accessibility improvements first. The Orca screen reader now announces caps lock state changes, and screen readers will now describe the Shortcuts and Autostart pages more optimally. Theres also a new grayscale colour filter for people sensitive to colours, developers have done Plasma-wide pass to eliminate bright flashes in the UI, and the desktop zoom feature will now follow the text insertion point as it moves around the UI. Keyboard navigation in various parts of Plasma have been improved, and a few other small changes have been to improve accessiblity. Other changes include rounded bottom window corners (which can be turned off), automatic and scheduled theme and wallpaper transitions (e.g. from light to dark), and a new and improved applications permissions settings panel. A small new feature that will be a massive time saver for me is the ability to favourite items in your clipboard history, so they remain available over time. I reuse certain copied bits of text all the time, and I cant wait to start using this little addition. Remote desktop has also received a ton of love in Plasma 6.5. You can now share your clipboard, and you no longer need to create dedicated RDP user accounts; you can just log in with your normal account credentials as you would expect you could. Plasmas Discover application, used for application and update management, has seen major work to improve its performance very welcome, for sure. Of course, theres a ton of other changes, too. KDE Plasma 6.5 will find its way to your distribution soon enough.
- Intel, AMD to bring memory tagging to x86, at some point
Now that ARMs memory tagging, used extensively by Android ROMs such as GrapheneOS and now also by Apple, is becoming the new norm to aid in improving memory safety, the x86 world cant sit idly by. As such, Intel and AMD have announced a ChkTag, x86s version of memory tagging. ChkTag is a set of new and enhanced x86 instructions to detect memory safety violations, such as buffer overflows and misuses of freed memory (use-after-free). ChkTag is designed to be suitable for hardening applications, operating system kernels, hypervisors for virtualization, and UEFI firmware. ChkTag places control in the software developers’ hands to balance their security needs with operational elements that often become prominent when deploying code. For example, ChkTag provides instruction-granular control over which memory accesses are checked. Compilers can offer optimizations and new language features or intrinsics. ChkTag prepares x86 for a future with increasing amounts of code written in memory-safe languages running alongside code in other languages. Furthermore, ChkTag loads tags from linear/virtual memory that can often be committed on demand. ↫ Intel and AMDs announcement Its important to note that ChkTag why not just call it CheckTag isnt ready yet, nor is there any indication when it will be included in any processors from Intel and AMD. The goal is to catch certain memory safety problems in hardware. According to Intel and AMDs shared announcement, developers will have fine-grained control over the feature, allowing them to tap into the functionality in whatever way they deem necessary or valuable for their software in specific circumstances. My fear is that Intel and AMD will use this feature as a product differentiator, restricting it to either more expensive processors or to Xeon/Threadripper processors, thereby fracturing the market. This would inevitably lead to spotty support for the feature across the x86 landscape, meaning most ordinary consumer wont benefit from it at all.
- This is how much Anthropic and Cursor spend on Amazon Web Services
I can exclusively reveal today Anthropic’s spending on Amazon Web Services for the entirety of 2024, and for every month in 2025 up until September, and that that Anthropic’s spend on compute far exceeds that previously reported.` Furthermore, I can confirm that through September, Anthropic has spent more than 100% of its estimated revenue (based on reporting in the last year) on Amazon Web Services, spending $2.66 billion on compute on an estimated $2.55 billion in revenue. ↫ Ed Zitron These numbers do not even include what the company spends on Googles services. Going through all the numbers and reporting, Zitron explains that the more successful! Anthropic becomes, the bigger the gap between income from paying customers and its spending on Amazon and Google services becomes. Its simply unsustainable, and the longer we keep this scam going, the worse the consequences will be when the bubble pops. Sadly, nobody will go to jail once hell breaks loose.
- Cartridge chaos: the official Nintendo region converter and more!
This post is a combination of looks at several oddities among my pile of NES and Famicom cartridges. Why, for example, do I have a copy of Gyromite when I don’t have a R.O.B.? Did I miss something interesting in my MMC blog post? And while it is the Japanese release of Kid Niki: Radical Ninja, is my Kaiketsu Yanchamaru being a little too radical? Who put the ram in the rama-lama-ding-dong? Some of these questions will be answered! ↫ Nicole Branagan at Nicole Express A well-written post with tons of weird NES nerdery. Branagan delivers, every time.
- VMScape: Cracking VM-Host Isolation in the Speculative Execution Age & How Linux Patches Respond
by George Whittaker Introduction
In the world of modern CPUs, speculative execution, where a processor guesses ahead on branches and executes instructions before the actual code path is confirmed, has long been recognized as a performance booster. However, it has also given rise to a class of vulnerabilities collectively known as “Spectre” attacks, where microarchitectural side states (such as the branch target buffer, caches, or predictor state) are mis-exploited to leak sensitive data.
Now, a new attack variant, dubbed VMScape, exposes a previously under-appreciated weakness: the isolation between a guest virtual machine and its host (or hypervisor) in the branch predictor domain. In simpler terms: a malicious VM can influence the CPU’s branch predictor in such a way that when control returns to the host, secrets in the host or hypervisor can be exposed. This has major implications for cloud security, virtualization environments, and kernel/hypervisor protections.
In this article we’ll walk through how VMScape works, the CPUs and environments it affects, how the Linux kernel and hypervisors are mitigating it, and what users, cloud operators and admins should know (and do).
What VMScape Is & Why It MattersThe Basics of Speculative Side-Channels
Speculative execution vulnerabilities like Spectre exploit the gap between architectural state (what the software sees as completed instructions) and microarchitectural state (what the CPU has done internally, such as cache loads, branch predictor updates, etc). Even when speculative paths are rolled back architecturally, side-effects in the microarchitecture can remain and be probed by attackers.
One of the original variants, Spectre-BTI (Branch Target Injection, also called Spectre v2) leveraged the Branch Target Buffer (BTB) / predictor to redirect speculative execution along attacker-controlled paths. Over time, hardware and software mitigations (IBRS, eIBRS, IBPB, STIBP) have been introduced. But VMScape shows that when virtualization enters the picture, the isolation assumptions break down.
VMScape: Guest to Host via Branch Predictor
VMScape (tracked as CVE‑2025‑40300) is described by researchers from ETH Zürich as “the first Spectre-based end-to-end exploit in which a malicious guest VM can leak arbitrary sensitive information from the host domain/hypervisor, without requiring host code modifications and in default configuration.”
Here are the key elements making VMScape significant:
The attack is cross-virtualization: a guest VM influences the host’s branch predictor state (not just within the guest).
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- Self-Tuning Linux Kernels: How LLM-Driven Agents Are Reinventing Scheduler Policies
by George Whittaker Introduction
Modern computing systems rely heavily on operating-system schedulers to allocate CPU time fairly and efficiently. Yet many of these schedulers operate blindly with respect to the meaning of workloads: they cannot distinguish, for example, whether a task is latency-sensitive or batch-oriented. This mismatch, between application semantics and scheduler heuristics, is often referred to as the semantic gap.
A recent research framework called SchedCP aims to close that gap. By using autonomous LLM‐based agents, the system analyzes workload characteristics, selects or synthesizes custom scheduling policies, and safely deploys them into the kernel, without human intervention. This represents a meaningful step toward self-optimizing, application-aware kernels.
In this article we will explore what SchedCP is, how it works under the hood, the evidence of its effectiveness, real-world implications, and what caveats remain.
Why the Problem Matters
At the heart of the issue is that general-purpose schedulers (for example the Linux kernel’s default policy) assume broad fairness, rather than tailoring scheduling to what your application cares about. For instance:
A video-streaming service may care most about minimal tail latency.
A CI/CD build system may care most about throughput and job completion time.
A cloud analytics job may prefer maximum utilisation of cores with less concern for interactive responsiveness.
Traditional schedulers treat all tasks mostly the same, tuning knobs generically. As a result, systems often sacrifice optimisation opportunities. Some prior efforts have used reinforcement-learning techniques to tune scheduler parameters, but these approaches have limitations: slow convergence, limited generalisation, and weak reasoning about why a workload behaves as it does.
SchedCP starts from the observation that large language models can reason semantically about workloads (expressed in plain language or structured summaries), propose new scheduling strategies, and generate code via eBPF that is loaded into the kernel via the sched_ext interface. Thus, a custom scheduler (or modified policy) can be developed specifically for a given workload scenario, and in a self-service, automated way.
Architecture & Key Components
SchedCP comprises two primary subsystems: a control-plane framework and an agent loop that interacts with it. The framework decouples “what to optimise” (reasoning) from “how to act” (execution) in order to preserve kernel stability while enabling powerful optimisations.
Here are the major components:
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- Bcachefs Ousted from Mainline Kernel: The Move to DKMS and What It Means
by George Whittaker Introduction
After years of debate and development, bcachefs—a modern copy-on-write filesystem once merged into the Linux kernel—is being removed from mainline. As of kernel 6.17, the in-kernel implementation has been excised, and future use is expected via an out-of-tree DKMS module. This marks a turning point for the bcachefs project, raising questions about its stability, adoption, and relationship with the kernel development community.
In this article, we’ll explore the background of bcachefs, the sequence of events leading to its removal, the technical and community dynamics involved, and implications for users, distributions, and the filesystem’s future.
What Is Bcachefs?
Before diving into the removal, let’s recap what bcachefs is and why it attracted attention.
Origin & goals: Developed by Kent Overstreet, bcachefs emerged from ideas in the earlier bcache project (a block-device caching layer). It aimed to build a full-featured, general-purpose filesystem combining performance, reliability, and modern features (snapshots, compression, encryption) in a coherent design.
Mainline inclusion: Bcachefs was merged into the mainline kernel in version 6.7 (released January 2024) after a lengthy review and incubation period.
“Experimental” classification: Even after being part of the kernel, bcachefs always carried disclaimers about its maturity and stability—they were not necessarily recommends for production use by all users.
Its presence in mainline gave distributions a path to ship it more casually, and users had easier access without building external modules—an important convenience for adoption.
What Led to the Removal
The excision of bcachefs from the kernel was not sudden but the culmination of tension over development practices, patch acceptance timing, and upstream policy norms.
“Externally Maintained” status in 6.17
In kernel 6.17’s preparation, maintainers marked bcachefs as “externally maintained.” Though the code remained present, the change signified that upstream would no longer accept new patches or updates within the kernel tree.
This move allowed a transitional period. The code was “frozen” inside the tree to avoid breaking existing systems immediately, while preparation was made for future removal.
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- Linux Mint 22.2 ‘Zara’ Released: Polished, Modern, and Built for Longevity
by George Whittaker Introduction
The Linux Mint team has officially unveiled Linux Mint 22.2, codenamed “Zara”, on September 4, 2025. As a Long-Term Support (LTS) release, Zara will receive updates through 2029, promising users stability, incremental improvements, and a comfortable desktop experience.
This version is not about flashy overhauls; rather, it’s about refinement — applying polish to existing features, smoothing rough edges, weaving in new conveniences (like fingerprint login), and improving compatibility with modern hardware. Below, we’ll delve into what’s new in Zara, what users should know before upgrading, and how it continues Mint’s philosophy of combining usability, reliability, and elegance.
What’s New in Linux Mint 22.2 “Zara”
Here’s a breakdown of key changes, refinements, and enhancements in Zara.
Base, Support & Kernel Stack
Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble) base: Zara continues to use Ubuntu 24.04 as its upstream base, ensuring broad package compatibility and long-term security support.
Kernel 6.14 (HWE): The default kernel for new installations is 6.14, bringing support for newer hardware.
However — for existing systems upgraded from Mint 22 or 22.1 — the older kernel (6.8 LTS) remains the default, because 6.14’s support window is shorter.
Zara is an LTS edition, with security updates and maintenance promised through 2029.
Major Features & EnhancementsFingerprint Authentication via Fingwit
Zara introduces a first-party tool called Fingwit to manage fingerprint-based authentication. With compatible hardware and support via the libfprint framework, users can:
Enroll fingerprints
Use fingerprint login for the screensaver
Authenticate sudo commands
Launch administrative tools via pkexec using the fingerprint
In some cases, bypass password entry at login (unless home directory encryption or keyring constraints force password fallback)
It is important to note that fingerprint login on the actual login screen may be disabled or limited depending on encryption or keyring usage; in those cases, the system falls back to password entry.
UI & Theming Refinements
Sticky Notes app now sports rounded corners, improved Wayland compatibility, and a companion Android app named StyncyNotes (available via F-Droid) to sync notes across devices.
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- Ubuntu Update Backlog: How a Brief Canonical Outage Cascaded into Multi-Day Delays
by George Whittaker Introduction
In early September 2025, Ubuntu users globally experienced disruptive delays in installing updates and new packages. What seemed like a fleeting outage—only about 36 minutes of server downtime—triggered a cascade of effects: mirrors lagging, queued requests overflowing, and installations hanging for days. The incident exposed how fragile parts of Ubuntu’s update infrastructure can be under sudden load.
In this article, we’ll walk through what happened, why the fallout was so severe, how Canonical responded, and lessons for users and infrastructure architects alike.
What Happened: Outage & Immediate Impact
On September 5, 2025, Canonical’s archive servers—specifically archive.ubuntu.com and security.ubuntu.com—suffered an unplanned outage. The status page for Canonical showed the incident lasting roughly 36 minutes, after which operations were declared “resolved.”
However, that brief disruption set off a domino effect. Because the archives and security servers serve as the central hubs for Ubuntu’s package ecosystem, any downtime causes massive backlog among mirror servers and client requests. Mirrors found themselves out of sync, processing queues piled up, and users attempting updates or new installs encountered failed downloads, hung operations, or “404 / package not found” errors.
On Ubuntu’s community forums, Canonical acknowledged that while the server outage was short, the upload / processing queue for security and repository updates had become “obscenely” backlogged. Users were urged to be patient, as there was no immediate workaround.
Throughout September 5–7, users continued reporting incomplete or failed updates, slow mirror responses, and installations freezing mid-process. Even newly provisioning systems faced broken repos due to inconsistent mirror states.
By September 8, the situation largely stabilized: mirrors caught up, package availability resumed, and normal update flows returned. But the extended period of degraded service had already left many users frustrated.
Why a Short Outage Turned into Days of Disruption
At first blush, 36 minutes seems trivial. Why did it have such prolonged consequences? Several factors contributed:
Centralized repository backplane Ubuntu’s infrastructure is architected around central canonical repositories (archive, security) which then propagate to mirrors worldwide. When the central system is unavailable, mirrors stop receiving updates and become stale.
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- Bringing Desktop Linux GUIs to Android: The Next Step in Graphical App Support
by George Whittaker Introduction
Android has long been focused on running mobile apps, but in recent years, features aimed at developers and power users have begun pushing its boundaries. One exciting frontier: running full Linux graphical (GUI) applications on Android devices. What was once a novelty is now gradually becoming more viable, and recent developments point toward much smoother, GPU-accelerated Linux GUI experiences on Android.
In this article, we’ll trace how Linux apps have run on Android so far, explain the new architecture changes enabling GPU rendering, showcase early demonstrations, discuss remaining hurdles, and look at where this capability is headed.
The State of Linux on Android TodayThe Linux Terminal App
Google’s Linux Terminal app is the core interface for running Linux environments on Android. It spins up a virtual machine (VM), often booting Debian or similar, and lets users enter a shell, install packages, run command-line tools, etc.
Initially, the app was limited purely to text / terminal-based Linux programs; graphical apps were not supported meaningfully. More recently, Google introduced support for launching GUI Linux applications in experimental channels.
Limitations: Rendering & Performance
Even now, most GUI Linux apps on Android are rendered in software, that is, all drawing happens on the CPU (via a software renderer) rather than using the device’s GPU. This leads to sluggish UI, high CPU usage, more thermal stress, and shorter battery life.
Because of these limitations, running heavy GUI apps (graphics editors, games, desktop-level toolkits) has been more experimental than practical.
What’s Changing: GPU-Accelerated Rendering
The big leap forward is moving from CPU rendering to GPU-accelerated rendering, letting the device’s graphics hardware do the heavy lifting.
Lavapipe (Current Baseline)
At present, the Linux VM uses Lavapipe (a Mesa software rasterizer) to interpret GPU API calls on the CPU. This works, but is inefficient, especially for complex GUIs or animations.
Introducing gfxstream
Google is planning to integrate gfxstream into the Linux Terminal app. gfxstream is a GPU virtualization / forwarding technology: rather than reinterpreting graphics calls in software, it forwards them from the guest (Linux VM) to the host’s GPU directly. This avoids CPU overhead and enables near-native rendering speeds.
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- Fedora 43 Beta Released: A Preview of What's Ahead
by George Whittaker Introduction
Fedora’s beta releases offer one of the earliest glimpses into the next major version of the distribution — letting users and developers poke, test, and report issues before the final version ships. With Fedora 43 Beta, released on September 16, 2025, the community begins the final stretch toward the stable Fedora 43.
This beta is largely feature-complete: developers hope it will closely match what the final release looks like (barring last-minute fixes). The goal is to surface regression bugs, UX issues, and compatibility problems before Fedora 43 is broadly adopted.
Release & Availability
The Fedora Project published the beta across multiple editions and media — Workstation, KDE Plasma, Server, IoT, Cloud, and spins/labs where applicable. ISO images are available for download from the official Fedora servers.
Users already running Fedora 42 can upgrade via the DNF system-upgrade mechanism. Some spins (e.g. Mate or i3) are not fully available across all architectures yet.
Because it’s a beta, users should be ready to encounter bugs. Fedora encourages testers to file issues via the QA mailing list or Fedora’s issue tracking infrastructure.
Major New Features & Changes
Fedora 43 Beta brings many updates under the hood — some in visible user features, others in core tooling and system behavior.
Kernel, Desktop & Session Updates
Fedora 43 Beta is built on Linux kernel 6.17.
The Workstation edition features GNOME 49.
In a bold shift, Fedora removes GNOME X11 packages for the Workstation, making Wayland-only the default and only session for GNOME. Existing users are migrated to Wayland.
On KDE, Fedora 43 Beta ships with KDE Plasma 6.4 in the Plasma edition.
Installer & Package Management
Fedora’s Anaconda installer gets a WebUI by default for all Spins, providing a more unified and modern install experience across desktop variants.
The installer now uses DNF5 internally, phasing out DNF4 which is now in maintenance mode.
Auto-updates are enabled by default in Fedora Kinoite, ensuring that systems apply updates seamlessly in the background with minimal user intervention.
Programming & Core Tooling Updates
The Python version in Fedora 43 Beta moves to 3.14, an early adoption to catch bugs before the upstream release.
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- 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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