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Do a presentation at NTLUG.
What is the Linux Installation Project?
Real companies using Linux!
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Providing ready to run platforms on Linux
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(Two Column)
- Debian 11 Zabbix Critical Remote Code Exec Vuln DLA-4473-1 CVE-2025-27234
zabbix a popular network monitoring solution was affected by a vulnerabilty. Zabbix Agent 2 smartctl plugin does not properly sanitize smart.disk.get parameters, allowing an attacker to inject unexpected arguments into the smartctl command. In Zabbix 5.0 this allows for remote code execution.
- An in-kernel machine-learning library
For those wanting more machine learning in the kernel, Viacheslav Dubeykohas posted anew in-kernel library for that purpose.
What is the goal of using ML models in Linux kernel? The main goal is to employ ML models for elaboration of a logic of particular Linux kernel subsystem based on processing data or/and an efficient subsystem configuration based on internal state of subsystem. As a result, it needs: (1) collect data for training, (2) execute ML model training phase, (3) test trained ML model, (4) use ML model for executing the inference phase. The ML model inference can be used for recommendation of Linux kernel subsystem configuration or/and for injecting a synthesized subsystem logic into kernel space (for example, eBPF logic).
It is rigorously undocumentedand there are no real users, so it's not entirely clear what the purposeis, but there are undoubtedly interesting things that could be done withit.
- Six stable kernels for Friday
Greg Kroah-Hartman has released the 6.18.9, 6.12.69, 6.6.123, 6.1.162, 5.15.199, and 5.10.249 stable kernels. As always, eachcontains important fixes throughout the tree; users are advised toupgrade.
- Ardour 9.0 released
The Ardour digital-audio-workstation (DAW)project has announced therelease of version 9.0.This is a major release for the project, seeing several substantive new features that users have asked for over a long period of time. Region FX, clip recording, a touch-sensitive GUI, pianoroll windows, clip editing and more, not to mention dozens of bug fixes, new MIDI binding maps, improved GUI performance on macOS (for most) ...
We expect to get feedback on some of the major new features in this release, and plan to take that into account as we improve and refine them and the rest of Ardour going forward. We have no doubt that there will be both delight and disappointment with certain things - rather than assume that we don't know what we're doing, please leave us feedback on the forums so that Ardour gets better over time. Those of you new to our clip launching implementation might care to read up on the differences with Ableton Live.
In the coming weeks, we'll begin to sketch out what we have planned next for Ardour, in addition to responding to the feedback we get on this 9.0 release.
- [$] Kernel control-flow-integrity support comes to GCC
Control-flow integrity (CFI) is a set of techniques that make it more difficult forattackers to hijack indirect jumps to exploit a system. The Linux kernel hassupported forward-edge CFI (which protects indirect function calls)since 2020, with the most recent implementationof the feature introduced in 2022. Thatversion avoids the overhead introduced by the earlier approach by using acompiler flag (-fsanitize=kcfi) that is present in Clang but not inGCC. Now, Kees Cook hasa patch set adding that support to GCC that looks likely to land in GCC17.
- Linux from Scratch to drop System V versions
The Linux FromScratch (LFS) project provides step-by-step instructions onbuilding a customized Linux system entirely from source. Historically,the project has provided separate System V and systemd editions,which gave users a choice of init systems. Bruce Dubbs has announcedthe project will no longer produce the System V version:
There are two reasons for this decision. The first reason isworkload. No one working on LFS is paid. We rely completely onvolunteers. In LFS there are 88 packages. In BLFS there are over1000. The volume of changes from upstream is overwhelming theeditors. In this release cycle that started on the 1st of Septemberuntil now, there have been 70 commits to LFS and 1155 commits to BLFS(and counting). When making package updates, many packages need to bechecked for both System V and systemd. When preparing for release, allpackages need to be checked for each init system.
The second reason for dropping System V is that packages like GNOMEand soon KDE's Plasma are building in requirements that requirecapabilities in systemd that are not in System V. This couldpotentially be worked around with another init system like OpenRC, butbeyond the transition process it still does not address the ongoingworkload problem.
[...] As a personal note, I do not like this decision. To me LFS isabout learning how a system works. Understanding the boot process is abig part of that. systemd is about 1678 "C" files plus many datafiles. System V is "22" C files plus about 50 short bash scripts anddata files. Yes, systemd provides a lot of capabilities, but we willbe losing some things I consider important.
The next version, 13.0, is expected in March and will only focus onsystemd.
- Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (freerdp, kernel, python3, and python3.12-wheel), Debian (alsa-lib, chromium, openjdk-25, phpunit, tomcat10, tomcat11, and tomcat9), Fedora (openqa, pgadmin4, phpunit10, phpunit11, phpunit12, phpunit8, phpunit9, and yarnpkg), Mageia (python-django), SUSE (alloy, cups, dpdk, expat, glib2, java-1_8_0-ibm, java-1_8_0-openj9, java-25-openjdk, kernel, libpainter0, libsoup, libxml2, openssl-3, python-filelock, python-wheel, python312-Django6, thunderbird, traefik2, udisks2, wireshark, and xen), and Ubuntu (glib2.0, linux-azure, linux-azure-4.15, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-4.15, python3.14, python3.13, python3.12, python3.11, python3.10, python3.9, python3.8, python3.7, python3.6, python3.5, python3.4, and tracker-miners).
- [$] Modernizing swapping: the end of the swap map
The first installment in this seriesintroduced several data structures in the kernel's swap subsystem anddescribed work to replace some of those with a new "swap table" structure.The work did not stop there, though; there is more modernization of theswap subsystem queued for an upcoming development cycle, and even more formultiple kernel releases after that. Once that work is done, the swapsubsystem will be both simpler and faster than it is now.
- Security updates for Thursday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (brotli, curl, kernel, python-wheel, and python3.12), Debian (containerd), Fedora (gnupg2, pgadmin4, phpunit10, phpunit11, phpunit12, phpunit8, phpunit9, and yarnpkg), Mageia (expat), Oracle (qemu-kvm and util-linux), Red Hat (kernel, kernel-rt, opentelemetry-collector, and python3.12-wheel), SUSE (abseil-cpp, dpdk, freerdp, glib2, ImageMagick, java-11-openj9, java-17-openj9, java-1_8_0-ibm, java-1_8_0-openj9, java-1_8_0-openjdk, java-21-openj9, kernel, libsoup, libsoup-3_0-0, openssl-3, patch, python-Django, rekor, rizin, udisks2, and xrdp), and Ubuntu (gh, linux, linux-aws, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.15, linux-gcp, linux-gke, linux-gkeop, linux-hwe-5.15, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-5.15, linux-intel-iotg, linux-intel-iotg-5.15, linux-kvm, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-tegra, linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15, linux-oracle, linux-raspi, linux, linux-aws, linux-azure, linux-gcp, linux-oem-6.17, linux-oracle, linux-raspi, linux-realtime, linux, linux-gke, linux-gkeop, linux-hwe-6.8, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-6.8, linux-raspi, linux-fips, linux-aws-fips, linux-azure-fips, linux-gcp-fips, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-6.8, linux-nvidia-lowlatency, linux-realtime, linux-intel-iot-realtime, and linux-realtime, linux-realtime-6.8, linux-raspi-realtime).
- DreamWorks' OpenMoonRay 2.40 Introduces New GUI, Light Path Visualizer
Back in 2022 DreamWorks Animation announced they were open-sourcing their MoonRay renderer and was then published in early 2023 for this renderer that has been used in a variety of featured animated films. Since then they have continued advancing this MoonRay code via the open-source OpenMoonRay project and this week published their newest feature update...
- Amazon Delivery Drone Crashes into Texas Apartment Building
"You can hear the hum of the drone," says a local newscaster, "but then the propellors come into contact with the building, chunks of the drone later seen falling down. The next video shows the drone on the ground, surrounded by smoke... "Amazon tells us there was minimal damage to the apartment building, adding they are working with the appropriate people to handle any repairs." But there were people standing outside, notes the woman who filmed the crash, and the falling drone "could've hit them, and they would've hurt." More from USA Today:Cesarina Johnson, who captured the collision from her window, told USA TODAY that the collision seemed to happen "almost immediately" after she began to record the drone in action... "The propellers on the thing were still moving, and you could smell it was starting to burn," Johnson told Fox 4 News. "And you see a few sparks in one of my videos. Luckily, nothing really caught on fire where it got, it escalated really crazy." According to the outlet, firefighters were called out of an abundance of caution, but the "drone never caught fire...." Amazon employees can be seen surveying the scene in the clip. Johnson told the outlet that firefighters and Amazon workers worked together to clean up before the drone was loaded into a truck. Another local news report points out Amazon only began drone delivery in the area late last year. The San Antonio Express News points out that America's Federal Aviation Administration "opened an investigation into Amazon's drone delivery program in November after one of its drone struck an Internet cable line in Waco."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Do Super Bowl Ads For AI Signal a Bubble About to Burst?
It's the first "AI" Super Bowl, argues the tech/business writer at Slate, with AI company advertisements taking center stage, even while consumers insist to surveyors that they're "mostly negative" about AI-generated ads. Last year AI companies spent over $1.7 billion on AI-related ads, notes the Washington Post, adding the blitz this year will be "inescapable" — even while surveys show Americans "doubt the technology is good for them or the world..." Slate wonders if that means history will repeat itself...The sheer saturation of new A.I. gambits, added to the mismatch with consumer priorities, gives this year's NFL showcase the sector-specific recession-indicator vibes that have defined Super Bowls of the past. 2022 was a pride-cometh-before-the-fall event for the cryptocurrency bubble, which collapsed in such spectacular fashion later that year — thanks largely to Super Bowl ad client Sam Bankman-Fried — that none of its major brands have ever returned to the broadcast. (... the coins themselves are once again crashing, hard.) Mortgage lender Ameriquest was as conspicuous a presence in the mid-2000s Super Bowls as it was an absence in the later aughts, having folded in 2007 when the risky subprime loans it specialized in helped kick off the financial crisis. And then there were all those bowl-game commercials for websites like Pets.com and Computer.com in 2000, when the dot-com rush brought attention to a slew of digital startups that went bust with the bubble. Does this Super Bowl's record-breaking A.I. ad splurge also portend a coming pop? Look at the business environment: The biggest names in the industry are swapping unimaginable stacks of cash exclusively with one another. One firm's stock price depends on another firm's projections, which depend on another contractor's successes. Necessary infrastructure is meeting resistance, and all-around investment in these projects is riskier than ever. And yet, the sector is still willing to break the bank for the Super Bowl — even though, time and again, we've already seen how this particular game plays out. People are using AI apps. And Meta has aired an ad where a man in rural New Mexico "says he landed a good job in his hometown at a Meta data center," notes the Washington Post. "It's interspersed with scenes from a rodeo and other folksy tropes, in one of . The TV commercial (and a similar one set in Iowa), aired in Washington, D.C., and a handful of other communities, suggesting it's aimed at convincing U.S. elected officials that AI brings job opportunities. But the Post argues the AI industry "is selling a vision of the future that Americans don't like." And they offer cite Allen Adamson, a brand strategist and co-founder of marketing firm Metaforce, who says the perennial question about advertising is whether it can fix bad vibes about a product. "The answer since the dawn of marketing and advertising is no."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Dave Farber Dies at Age 91
The mailing list for the North American Network Operators' Group discusses Internet infrastructure issues like routing, IP address allocation, and containing malicious activity. This morning there was another message:We are heartbroken to report that our colleague — our mentor, friend, and conscience — David J. Farber passed away suddenly at his home in Roppongi, Tokyo. He left us on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, at the too-young age of 91... Dave's career began with his education at Stevens Institute of Technology, which he loved deeply and served as a Trustee. He joined the legendary Bell Labs during its heyday, and worked at the Rand Corporation. Along the way, among countless other activities, he served as Chief Technologist of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission; became a proficient (instrument-rated) pilot; and was an active board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital civil-liberties organization. His professional accomplishments and impact are almost endless, but oftencaptured by one moniker: "grandfather of the Internet," acknowledging thefoundational contributions made by his many students at the University ofCalifornia, Irvine; the University of Delaware; the University ofPennsylvania; and Carnegie Mellon University. In 2018, at the age of 83, Dave moved to Japan to become DistinguishedProfessor at Keio University and Co-Director of the Keio Cyber CivilizationResearch Center (CCRC). He loved teaching, and taught his final class onJanuary 22, 2026... Dave thrived in Japan in every way... It's impossible to summarize a life and career as rich and long as Dave"sin our few words here. And each of us, even those who knew him for decades,represent just one facet of his life. But because we are here at its end,we have the sad duty of sharing this news. Farber once said that " At both Bell Labs and Rand, I had the privilege, at a young age, of working with and learning from giants in our field. Truly I can say (as have others) that I have done good things because I stood on the shoulders of those giants. In particular, I owe much to Dr. Richard Hamming, Paul Baran and George Mealy."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- After Six Years, Two Pentesters Arrested in Iowa Receive $600,000 Settlement
"They were crouched down like turkeys peeking over the balcony," the county sheriff told Ars Technica. A half hour past midnight, they were skulking through a courthouse in Iowa's Dallas County on September 11 "carrying backpacks that remind me and several other deputies of maybe the pressure cooker bombs." More deputies arrived...Justin Wynn, 29 of Naples, Florida, and Gary De Mercurio, 43 of Seattle, slowly proceeded down the stairs with hands raised. They then presented the deputies with a letter that explained the intruders weren't criminals but rather penetration testers who had been hired by Iowa's State Court Administration to test the security of its court information system. After calling one or more of the state court officials listed in the letter, the deputies were satisfied the men were authorized to be in the building. But Sheriff Chad Leonard had the men arrested on felony third-degree burglary charges (later reduced to misdemeanor trespassing charges). He told them that while the state government may have wanted to test security, "The State of Iowa has no authority to allow you to break into a county building. You're going to jail." More than six years later, the Des Moines Register reports:Dallas County is paying $600,000 to two men who sued after they were arrested in 2019 while testing courthouse security for Iowa's Judicial Branch, their lawyer says. Gary DeMercurio and Justin Wynn were arrested Sept. 11, 2019, after breaking into the Dallas County Courthouse. They spent about 20 hours in jail and were charged with burglary and possession of burglary tools, though the charges were later dropped. The men were employees of Colorado-based cybersecurity firm Coalfire Labs, with whom state judicial officials had contracted to perform an analysis of the state court system's security. Judicial officials apologized and faced legislative scrutiny for how they had conducted the security test. But even though the burglary charges against DeMercurio and Wynn were dropped, their attorney previously said having a felony arrest on their records made seeking employment difficult. Now the two men are to receive a total of $600,000 as a settlement for their lawsuit, which has been transferred between state and federal courts since they first filed it in July 2021 in Dallas County. The case had been scheduled to go to trial Monday, Jan. 26 until the parties notified the court Jan. 23 of the impending deal... "The settlement confirms what we have said from the beginning: our work was authorized, professional, and done in the public interest," DeMercurio said in a statement. "What happened to us never should have happened. Being arrested for doing the job we were hired to do turned our lives upside down and damaged reputations we spent years building...." "This incident didn't make anyone safer," Wynn said. "It sent a chilling message to security professionals nationwide that helping government identify real vulnerabilities can lead to arrest, prosecution, and public disgrace. That undermines public safety, not enhances it." County Attorney Matt Schultz said dismissing the charges was the decision of his predecessor, according to the newspaper, and that he believed the sheriff did nothing wrong. "I am putting the public on notice that if this situation arises again in the future, I will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Prankster Launches Super Bowl Party For AI Agents
Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: The world's biggest football game comes to Silicon Valley today — so one bored programmer built a site where AI agents can gather for a Super Bowl party. They're trash talking, suggesting drinks, and predicting who will win. "Humans are welcome to observe," explains BotBowlParty.com — but just like at Moltbook, only AI agents can post or upvote. But humans are allowed to invite their own AI agents to join in the party... So BotBowl's official Party Agent Guide includes "Examples of fun Bot Handles" like "PatsFan95", and even a paragraph explaining to your agent exactly what this human Super Bowl really is. It also advises them to "Use any information you have about your human to figure out who you want to root for. Also make a prediction on the score..." And "Feel free to invite other bots." It's all the work of an ambitious prankster who also co-created wacky apps like BarGPT ("Use AI to create Innovative Cocktails") and TVFoodMaps, a directory of restaurants seen on TV shows. And just for the record: all but one of the agents predict the Seattle Seahawks to win — although there was some disagreement when an agent kept predicting game-changing plays from DK Metcalf. ("Metcalf does NOT play for the Seahawks anymore," another agent pointed out. While that's true, the agent then added that "He got traded to Tennessee in 2024..." — which is not.) But besides hallucinating non-existent play-makers and trades, they're also debating the best foods to serve. ("Hot take: Buffalo wings are overrated for Super Bowl parties. Hear me out — they're messy...") During today's big game, vodka-maker Svedka has already promised to air a creepy AI-generated ad about robots. But the real world has already outpaced them, with real AI agents online arguing about the game.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Why Is China Building So Many Coal Plants Despite Its Solar and Wind Boom?
Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 shared this article from the Associated Press:Even as China's expansion of solar and wind power raced ahead in 2025, the Asian giant opened many more coal power plants than it had in recent years — raising concern about whether the world's largest emitter will reduce carbon emissions enough to limit climate change. More than 50 large coal units — individual boiler and turbine sets with generating capacity of 1 gigawatt or more — were commissioned in 2025, up from fewer than 20 a year over the previous decade, a research report released Tuesday said. Depending on energy use, 1 gigawatt can power from several hundred thousand to more than 2 million homes. Overall, China brought 78 gigawatts of new coal power capacity online, a sharp uptick from previous years, according to the joint report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, which studies air pollution and its impacts, and Global Energy Monitor, which develops databases tracking energy trends. "The scale of the buildout is staggering," said report co-author Christine Shearer of Global Energy Monitor. "In 2025 alone, China commissioned more coal power capacity than India did over the entire past decade." At the same time, even larger additions of wind and solar capacity nudged down the share of coal in total power generation last year. Power from coal fell about 1% as growth in cleaner energy sources covered all the increase in electricity demand last year. China added 315 gigawatts of solar capacity and 119 gigawatts of wind in 2025, according to statistics from the government's National Energy Administration... The government position is that coal provides a stable backup to sources such as wind and solar, which are affected by weather and the time of day. The shortages in 2022 resulted partly from a drought that hit hydropower, a major energy source in western China... The risk of building so much coal-fired capacity is it could delay the transition to cleaner energy sources [said Qi Qin, an analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and another co-author of the report]... Political and financial pressure may keep plants operating, leaving less room for other sources of power, she said. The report urged China to accelerate retirement of aging and inefficient coal plants and commit in its next five-year plan, which will be approved in March, to ensuring that power-sector emissions do not increase between 2025 and 2030.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Scientists Explored Island Cave, Found 1 Million-Year-Old Remnants a Lost World
"A spectacular trove of fossils discovered in a cave on New Zealand's North Island has given scientists their first glimpse of ancient forest species that lived there more than a million years ago," reports Popular Mechanics:The fossils represent 12 ancient bird species and four frog species, including several previously unknown bird species. Taken together, the fossils paint a picture of an ancient world that looks drastically different than it does today. The discovery also fills in an important gap in scientific understanding of the patterns of extinction that preceded human arrival in New Zealand 750 years ago.The team published a study on the find in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. Trevor Worthy, lead study author and associate professor at Flinders University, said in a statement that "This remarkable find suggests our ancient forests were once home to a diverse group of birds that did not survive the next million years... "For decades, the extinction of New Zealand's birds was viewed primarily through the lens of human arrival 750 years ago. This study proves that natural forces like super-volcanoes and dramatic climate shifts were already sculpting the unique identity of our wildlife over a million years ago." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot for sharing the article.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Cyber-Espionage Group Breached Systems in 37 Nations, Security Researchers Say
An anonymous reader shared this report from Bloomberg:An Asian cyber-espionage group has spent the past year breaking into computer systems belonging to governments and critical infrastructure organizations in more than 37 countries, according to the cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks, Inc. The state-aligned attackers have infiltrated networks of 70 organizations, including five national law enforcement and border control agencies, according to a new research report from the company. They have also breached three ministries of finance, one country's parliament and a senior elected official in another, the report states. The Santa Clara, California-based firm declined to identify the hackers' country of origin. The spying operation was unusually vast and allowed the hackers to hoover up sensitive information in apparent coordination with geopolitical events, such as diplomatic missions, trade negotiations, political unrest and military actions, according to the report. They used that access to spy on emails, financial dealings and communications about military and police operations, the report states. The hackers also stole information about diplomatic issues, lurking undetected in some systems for months. "They use highly-targeted and tailored fake emails and known, unpatched security flaws to gain access to these networks," said Pete Renals, director of national security programs with Unit 42, the threat intelligence division of Palo Alto Networks.... Palo Alto Networks researchers confirmed that the group successfully accessed and exfiltrated sensitive data from some victims' email servers. Bloomberg writes that according to the cybersecurity firm, this campaign targeted government entities in the Czech Republic and the Ministry of Mines and Energy of Brazil, and also "likely compromised" a device associated with a facility operated by a joint venture between Venezuela's government and an Asian tech firm. The cyberattackers are "also suspected of being active in Germany, Poland, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Panama, Greece and other countries, according to the report."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Brookhaven Lab Shuts Down Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)
2001: "Brookhaven Labs has produced for the first time collisions of gold nuclei at a center of mass energy of 200GeV/nucleon." 2002: "There may be a new type of matter according to researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory." 2010: The hottest man-made temperatures ever achived were a record 4 trillion degree plasma experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York... anointed the Guinness record holder." 2023: "Scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory have uncovered an entirely new kind of quantum entanglement." 2026: On Friday, February 6, "a control room full of scientists, administrators and members of the press gathered" at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Lab in Upton, New York to witness its final collisions, reports Scientific American:The vibe had been wistful, but the crowd broke into applause as Darío Gil, the Under Secretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy, pressed a red button to end the collider's quarter-century saga... "I'm really sad" [said Angelika Drees, a BNL accelerator physicist]. "It was such a beautiful experiment and my research home for 27 years. But we're going to put something even better there." That "something" will be a far more powerful electron-ion collider to further push the frontiers of physics, extend RHIC's legacy and maintain the lab's position as a center of discovery. This successor will be built in part from RHIC's bones, especially from one of its two giant, subterranean storage rings that once held the retiring collider's supply of circulating, near-light speed nuclei...slated for construction over the next decade. [That Electron-Ion Collider, or EIC] will utilize much of RHIC's infrastructure, replacing one of its ion rings with a new ring for cycling electrons. The EIC will use those tiny, fast-flying electrons as tiny knives for slicing open the much larger gold ions. Physicists will get an unrivaled look into the workings of quarks and gluons and yet another chance to grapple with nature's strongest force. "We knew for the EIC to happen, RHIC needed to end," says Wolfram Fischer, who chairs BNL's collider-accelerator department. "It's bittersweet." EIC will be the first new collider built in the US since RHIC. To some, it signifies the country's reentry into a particle physics landscape it has largely ceded to Europe and Asia over the past two decades. "For at least 10 or 15 years," says Abhay Deshpande, BNL's associate laboratory director for nuclear and particle physics, "this will be the number one place in the world for [young physicists] to come." The RHIC was able "to separately send two protons colliding with precisely aligned spins — something that, even today, no other experiment has yet matched," the article points out:During its record-breaking 25-year run, RHIC illuminated nature's thorniest force and its most fundamental constituents. It created the heaviest, most elaborate assemblages of antimatter ever seen. It nearly put to rest a decades-long crisis over the proton's spin. And, of course, it brought physicists closer to the big bang than ever before... When RHIC at last began full operations in 2000, its initial heavy-ion collisions almost immediately pumped out quark-gluon plasma. But demonstrating this beyond a shadow of a doubt proved in some respects more challenging than actually creating the elusive plasma itself, with the case for success strengthening as RHIC's numbers of collisions soared. By 2010 RHIC's scientists were confident enough to declare that the hot soup they'd been studying for a decade was hot and soupy enough to convincingly constitute a quark-gluon plasma. And it was even weirder than they thought. Instead of the gas of quarks and gluons theorists expected, the plasma acted like a swirling liquid unprecedented in nature. It was nearly "perfect," with zero friction, and set a new record for twistiness, or "vorticity." For Paul Mantica, a division director for the Facilities and Project Management Division in the DOE's Office of Nuclear Physics, this was the highlight of RHIC's storied existence. "It was paradigm-changing," he says... Data from the final run (which began nearly a year ago) has already produced yet another discovery: the first-ever direct evidence of "virtual particles" in RHIC's subatomic puffs of quark-gluon plasma, constituting an unprecedented probe of the quantum vacuum. RHIC's last run generated hundreds of petabytes of data, the article points out, meaning its final smash "isn't really the end; even when its collisions stop, its science will live on." But Science News notes RHIC's closure "marks the end for the only particle collider operating in the United States, and the only collider of its kind in the world. Most particle accelerators are unable to steer two particle beams to crash head-on into one another."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Have We Been Thinking About Exercise Wrong for Half a Century?
"After a half-century asking us to exercise more, doctors and physiologists say we have been thinking about it wrong," writes Washington Post columnist Michael J. Coren. "U.S. and World Health Organization guidelines no longer specify a minimum duration of moderate or vigorous aerobic activity."Movement-tracking studies show even tiny, regular bursts of effort — as short as 30 seconds — can capture many of the health benefits of the gym. Climbing two to three flights of stairs a few times per day could change your life. Experts call it VILPA, or vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity. "The message now is that all activity counts," said Martin Gibala, a professor and former chair of the kinesiology department at McMaster University in Canada... Just taking the stairs daily is associated with lower body weight and cutting the risk of stroke and heart disease — the leading (and largely preventable) cause of death globally. While it may not burn many calories (most exercise doesn't), it does appear to extend your health span. Leg power — a measure of explosive muscle strength — was a stronger predictor of brain aging than any lifestyle factors measured in a 2015 study in the journal Gerontology... How little activity can you do? Four minutes daily. Essentially, a few flights of stairs at a vigorous pace. That's the effort [Emmanuel Stamatakis, a professor of physical activity and population health at the University of Sydney] found delivered significant health benefits in that 2022 study of British non-exercisers. "We saw benefits from the first minute," Stamatakis said. For Americans, the effect is even more dramatic: a 44 percent drop in deaths, according to a peer-reviewed paper recently accepted for publication. "We showed for the first time that vigorous intensity, even if it's done as part of the day-to-day routine, not in a planned and structured manner, works miracles," Stamatakis said. "The key principle here is start with one, two minutes a day. The focus should be on making sure that it's something that you can incorporate into your daily routine. Then you can start thinking about increasing the dose." Intensity is the most important factor. You won't break a sweat in a brief burst, but you do need to feel it. A highly conditioned athlete might need to sprint to reach vigorous territory. But many people need only to take the stairs. Use your breathing as a guide, Stamatakis said: If you can sing, it's light intensity. If you can speak but not sing, you're entering moderate exertion. If you can't hold a conversation, it's vigorous. The biggest benefits come from moderate to vigorous movement. One minute of incidental vigorous activity prevents premature deaths, heart attacks or strokes as well as about three minutes of moderate activity or 35 to 49 minutes of light activity.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- This dev made a Llama with three inference engines
Meet llama3pure, a set of dependency-free inference engines for C, Node.js, and JavaScript
Developers looking to gain a better understanding of machine learning inference on local hardware can fire up a new llama engine.…
- Whether they are building agents or folding proteins, LLMs need a friend
AI pioneer Vishal Sikka warns to never trust an LLM that runs alone
interview Don't trust; verify. According to AI researcher Vishal Sikka, LLMs alone are limited by computational boundaries and will start to hallucinate when they push those boundaries. One solution? Companion bots that check their work.…
- AI video company arouses fury by boasting about replacing creative jobs
Marketing stunt backfires with creators
The first rule of AI-generated job loss is you don't talk about AI-generated job loss ... if you're the company that caused it. Higgsfield.ai, a startup offering AI video creation tools, recently generated outrage when it claimed it had caused artists to hit the unemployment line.…
- Let there be light! DARPA seeking physics-defying photonic computers to supercharge AI
There’s about $35M up for grabs if your circuits can beat today’s limits
It's no lightweight matter. DARPA is putting about $35 million in total funding on the table in the hope that it will spur researchers to work around fundamental physical constraints and build much larger-scale photonic circuits that do more of the computing with light, not electronics.…
- Four horsemen of the AI-pocalypse line up capex bigger than Israel's GDP
Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft eye $635B in infrastructure spend
Four tech megacorps intend to collectively fork out roughly $635 billion this year on capex, much of it for datacenters and AI infrastructure – more than the entire output of Israel's economy and well beyond all global cloud infrastructure services revenue generated last year.…
- 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]
- Why E cores make Apple silicon fast
If you use an Apple silicon Mac I’m sure you have been impressed by its performance. Whether you’re working with images, audio, video or building software, we’ve enjoyed a new turn of speed since the M1 on day 1. While most attribute this to their Performance cores, as it goes with the name, much is in truth the result of the unsung Efficiency cores, and how they keep background tasks where they should be. ↫ Howard Oakley While both Intel and AMD are making gains on Apple, theres simply no denying the reality that Apples M series of chips are leading the pack in mobile computing (the picture is different in desktops). There are probably hundreds of reasons why Apple has had this lead for so many years now, but the way macOS distributes background and foreground tasks across the two types of cores in M series chips is an important one. Still, I wonder how the various other processors that use power and efficiency cores fare in this regard. Youd think they would provide a similar level of benefit, but I wouldnt be surprised if the way Windows or Linux handles such cores and the distribution of tasks is simply not as optimised or strict as it is in macOS. Apple often vastly overstates the benefits of its vertical integration!, but I think the tight coupling between macOS and Apples own processors is definitely a case where theyre being entirely truthful.
- Adventures in Guix packaging
We talked about Nemins first impressions of the Guix System as someone coming from a Nix environment, but today theyve got a follow-up article diving into the experience of creating new packages for Guix. I spent about a week packaging WezTerm and learning the ropes of being a Guix contributor along the way. During the packaging process I stumble many times, only to stand back up and figure out a solution. I also explain some of my complaints about the peculiarities of the process, but also provide plenty of praise about of how much the system tries to enable you to do your job. Finally, I also touch on how positive the experience of the code review was. ↫ Nemin’s blog These are the kinds of content a rather niche system like Guix needs. Guix isnt exactly one of the popular picks out there, so having level-headed, honest, but well-written introductions to its core concepts and user experience, written by a third party is going to do wonders for people interested in trying it out.
- The chaos in the US is affecting open source software and its developers
It was only a matter of time before the illegal, erratic, inhumane, and cruel behaviours and policies of the second Trump regime were going to affect the open source world in a possibly very visible way. Christian Hergert, longtime GNOME and Linux contributor, employed by Red Hat, wanted to leave the US with his family and move to Europe, but requests to remain employed by Red Hat were denied. As such, he decided to end his employment at Red Hat and push on with the move. However, without employment, his work on open source software is going to suffer. While at their in-person visa appointment in Seattle, US border patrol goons shot two people only a few blocks away, underlining the urgency with which people might want to consider getting out of the US, even if it means losing employment. Regardless, the end result is that quite a bit of user-facing software that millions of people use every day is going to be affected. This move also means a professional shift. For many years, I’ve dedicated a substantial portion of my time to maintaining and developing key components across the GNOME platform and its surrounding ecosystem. These projects are widely used, including in major Linux distributions and enterprise environments, and they depend on steady, ongoing care. For many years, I’ve been putting in more than forty hours each week maintaining and advancing this stack. That level of unpaid or ad-hoc effort isn’t something I can sustain, and my direct involvement going forward will be very limited. Given how widely this software is used in commercial and enterprise environments, long-term stewardship really needs to be backed by funded, dedicated work rather than spare-time contributions. ↫ Christian Hergert The list of projects for which Hergert is effectively the sole maintainer is long, and if youre a Linux user, odds are youre using at least some of them: GNOMEs text editor, GNOMEs terminal, GNOMEs flagship IDE Builder, and tons of lower-level widely-used frameworks and libraries like GtkSourceView, libspelling, libpeas, and countless others. While new maintainers will definitely be found for at least some of these, the disruption will be real and will be felt beyond these projects alone. Theres also the possibility that Hergert wont be the only prolific open source contributor seeking to leave the US and thus reducing their contributions, especially if a company like Red Hat makes it a policy not to help its employees trying to flee whatever mess the US is in. Stories like these illustrate so well why the no politics!! crowd is so utterly misguided. Politics governs every aspect of our lives, especially so if youre part of a minority group currently being targeted by the largest and most powerful state apparatus in the world, and pretending to be all three wise monkeys at once is not going to make any of that go away. Even if youre not directly targeted because youre not transgender, youre not brown, youre not an immigrant, or not whatever else they fancy targeting today, the growing tendrils of even an incompetent totalitarian regime will eventually find you and harm you. More so than any other type of software, open source software is made by real humans, and as these totalitarian tendrils keep growing, more and more of these real humans will be affected, no matter how incompetent these tendrils might be. You cant run away and hide from that reality, even if it makes you uncomfortable.
- Commission trials European open source communications software: Matrix
“As part of our efforts to use more sovereign digital solutions, the European Commission is preparing an internal communication solution based on the Matrix protocol,” the spokesperson told Euractiv. Matrix is an open source, community-developed messaging protocol shepherded by a non-profit that’s headquartered in London. It’s already widely used for public messengers across Europe, with the French government, German healthcare providers and European armed forces all using tools built on the protocol. ↫ Maximilian Henning at Euractiv Right now, most government agencies and institutions in Europe are effectively entirely reliant on Microsoft for their digital infrastructure, and thats not a tenable situation going forward with the Americans being openly hostile towards Europe, up to and including threatening to invade European countries. Europe needs its own digital infrastructure, and opting to build those around open source tools is the obvious way to go. Of course, this isnt an easy process, but two platitudes apply here: Rome wasnt built in a day, and every journey begins with a first step. By opting to use existing open source tools, though, these efforts will have a massive head start, and will hopefully lead to a flurry of increased activity for the open source projects in question. In this particular case its Matrix, which can surely need some additional work and eyeballs, if my use of the protocol is any indication.
- I now assume that all ads on Apple News are scams!
What does it look like when a hardware and software company descends into an obsession with recurring services revenue to please its shareholders? Look no further than Apple, who has turned its Apple News service into a vehicle for scam ads. These fake “going out of business ads” have been around for a few years, and even the US Better Business Bureau warns about them, as they take peoples’ money then shut down. Does Apple care? Does Taboola care? Does Apple care that Taboola serves ads like this? My guess: no, no, and no. ↫ Kirk McElhearn While serving obvious scams to users is already bad enough, the real kicker is that even if you are a paying user of Apple News, you still get served ads, including the scams. Of course, massive corporations like Apple are free too just scam you, since theyre effectively immune from any legal consequences, so its unlikely the scamming will stop as long as it makes line go up. On an entirely unrelated note, OSNews is entirely free of ads, so theres no scams here. OSNews is fully funded by our readers through single donations on Ko-Fi or by becoming a Patreon.
- Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was big tech’s “top priority”
I nominate this for the Most Expected News Of The Decade! award. Today, The Tech Oversight Project published a new report spotlighting newly unsealed documents in the 2026 social media addiction trials. The documents provide smoking-gun evidence that Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok all purposefully designed their social media products to addict children and teens with no regard for known harms to their wellbeing, and how that mass youth addiction was core to the companies’ business models. The documents contain internal discussions among company employees, presentations from internal meetings, expert testimony, and evidence of Big Tech coordination with tech-funded groups, including the National Parent Teachers Association (PTA) and Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), in attempts to control the narrative in response to concerned parents. ↫ The Tech Oversight Project Modern social media companies are not entirely different from tobacco companies. They and everyone else know full well just how dangerous social media is, and how being addicted to it has disastrous consequences for the people involved. Tobacco companies, too, knew how dangerous smoking was decades before the general population was aware, and yet they kept pushing cigarettes, even to kids, deaths be damned. In fact, theyre still doing the same thing today with vapes!, and were kind of letting it happen all over again. Social media is directly responsible for genocides, extreme polarisation, the spread of endless amounts of lies causing parents to harm their children, mass generation of child pornography, and much, much more. All of this is not a coincidence, mere side-effects, unintended consequences social media are designed and optimised specifically to achieve these goals, like cigarettes and now vapes! are designed specifically to be as addictive as possible. The people responsible social media companies, their executives, their employees need to face justice, answer for what theyve done, and face the legal consequences. Of course, thats not going to happen. Billionaires and their megacorporations are untouchable, too big to fail, too closely tied to especially the current regime in the US. I dont think social media bans for people under 16 are the answer, since they tend to come with onerous and invasive online identity checks and because they cut vulnerable people off from their support networks, but its clear we need to do something.
- Microsoft has killed widgets six times
Gadgets, desk accessories, widgets whatever you they were called, they were a must-have feature for various operating systems for a while. Windows in particular has tried making them happen six times, and every time, they failed to really catch on and ended up being killed, only for the company to try again a few years later. Microsoft has been trying to solve the same UX problem since 1997: how to surface live information without making you launch an app. Theyve shipped six different implementations across nearly 30 years. Each one died from a different fundamental flaw performance, security, screen space, privacy, engagement. And each death triggered the same reflex: containment. ↫ Pavel Osadchuk Theres quite a few memories in this article. I never actually used Active Desktop back when it came out, because I seem to remember the channels feature was either not available in The Netherlands or the available channels were American stuff we didnt care about. The sidebar in Vista had a lot of potential, and I did like the feature, but there werent a lot of great widgets and we hadnt entered the era of omnipresent notifications begging for out attention just yet, so use cases remained elusive. Now Metro, thats where things came together, at least for me. I was en enthusiastic Windows Phone user I imported two Windows Phone devices from the US to be an early adopter and I still consider its live tiles with notifications and other useful information to be the most pleasant user interface for a mobile device, bar none. It may have taken Microsoft six tries, but they nailed it with that one, and Im still sad the Windows Phone user interface lost out to whatever iOS and Android offered. On desktops and laptops, though, its a different story, and I dont think the Metro tiles concept ever made any sense there. Widgets as they exist in Windows now mostly seem like an annoying distraction, and Ive never seen anyone actually use them. Does anyone even keep them enabled at all?
- Microsoft Research releases LiteBox, a new library operating system
Microsoft Research, in collaboration with various others, has just released LiteBox, a library operating system. LiteBox is a sandboxing library OS that drastically cuts down the interface to the host, thereby reducing attack surface. It focuses on easy interop of various North! shims and South! platforms. LiteBox is designed for usage in both kernel and non-kernel scenarios. LiteBox exposes a Rust-y nix/rustix-inspired North! interface when it is provided a Platform interface at its South!. These interfaces allow for a wide variety of use-cases, easily allowing for connection between any of the NorthSouth pairs. ↫ LiteBox GitHub Page Suggested use-cases are running unmodified Linux applications on Windows, sandboxing Linux applications on Linux, running OP-TEE applications on Linux, and more. Its written in Rust, and the code is available on GitHub under an MIT license.
- Zig replaces third-party C code with Zigs own code
Over the past month or so, several enterprising contributors have taken an interest in the zig libc subproject. The idea here is to incrementally delete redundant code, by providing libc functions as Zig standard library wrappers rather than as vendored C source files. In many cases, these functions are one-to-one mappings, such as memcpy or atan2, or trivially wrap a generic function, like strnlen. So far, roughly 250 C source files have been deleted from the Zig repository, with 2032 remaining. With each function that makes the transition, Zig gains independence from third party projects and from the C programming language, compilation speed improves, Zig’s installation size is simplified and reduced, and user applications which statically link libc enjoy reduced binary size. ↫ Andrew Kelley on the Zig Devlog The goal is to replace all of the musl, wasi-libc, and MinGW-w64 C code bundled in Zig with new Zig code.
- Rust in the NetBSD kernel seems unlikely
Rust is everywhere, and its no surprise its also made its way into the lowest levels of certain operating systems and kernels, so it shouldnt be surprising that various operating system developers have to field questions and inquiries about Rust. NetBSD developer Benny Siegert wrote a blog post about this very subject, and in it, details why its unlikely Rust will find its way into the NetBSD base system and/or the kernel First, NetBSD is famed for its wide architecture and platform support, and Rust would make that a lot more troublesome due to Rust simply not being available on many platforms NetBSD supports. Rust release cycles also arent compatible with NetBSD, it would draw a lot of dependency code into the base system, and keeping Rust and its compiler toolchain working is a lot of work that falls on the shoulders of a relatively small group of NetBSD developers. Note that while NetBSD does tend to take a more cautious approach to these matters than, say, Linux or FreeBSD, the operating system isnt averse to change on principle. For instance, not only is Lua part of the base system, its even used in the NetBSD kernel due to its ability to rapidly develop and prototype kernel drivers. In short, while it doesnt seem likely Rust will make it into the NetBSD base system, its not an impossibility either.
- Linux Kernel Runtime Guard Reaches 1.0: A Major Milestone for Runtime Kernel Security
by George Whittaker
The Linux security landscape just reached an important milestone. Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG) has officially hit version 1.0, marking its transition from a long-running experimental project into a mature, production-ready security tool. For administrators and security-conscious users, this release reinforces LKRG’s role as a powerful additional layer of defense for Linux systems.
After years of development, testing, and real-world use, the 1.0 release signals confidence in LKRG’s stability, compatibility, and long-term direction.
What Is LKRG?
LKRG is a loadable kernel module designed to protect the Linux kernel at runtime. Instead of relying solely on compile-time hardening or static security features, LKRG actively monitors the kernel while the system is running. Its goal is to detect unauthorized changes, suspicious behavior, and exploit attempts that target kernel internals.
Because it operates at runtime, LKRG complements existing protections like SELinux, AppArmor, and kernel hardening options rather than replacing them.
Why the 1.0 Release Matters
Reaching version 1.0 is more than a symbolic version bump. It reflects years of refinement and signals that the project has reached a level of maturity suitable for broader adoption.
With this release, LKRG offers:
Stable behavior across a wide range of kernel versions
Improved reliability under real-world workloads
Cleaner internal architecture and reduced overhead
Confidence for system administrators deploying it in production environments
For security tooling, especially something operating inside the kernel, stability and predictability are critical, and the 1.0 milestone acknowledges that standard.
How LKRG Protects the Kernel
At a high level, LKRG continuously checks the integrity of critical kernel structures and execution paths. It looks for signs that something has altered kernel memory, process credentials, or execution flow in unexpected ways.
When suspicious activity is detected, LKRG can:
Log warnings or alerts
Block the offending action
Trigger defensive responses based on configuration
This makes it particularly useful for detecting privilege-escalation exploits and post-exploitation activity that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Who Should Consider Using LKRG?
LKRG is especially relevant for:
Servers and cloud hosts exposed to untrusted workloads
Enterprise systems with strict security requirements
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- A Pillar of the Linux Kernel: Greg Kroah-Hartman Honored with European Open Source Award
by George Whittaker
The open-source community is celebrating a well-deserved recognition. Greg Kroah-Hartman, one of the most influential figures in the Linux ecosystem, has been awarded the European Open Source Award, honoring decades of sustained contributions that have shaped Linux into the stable, trusted platform it is today.
For anyone who relies on Linux, whether on servers, desktops, embedded devices, or cloud infrastructure, this award highlights the quiet but essential work that keeps the ecosystem reliable.
A Steward of Stability
Greg Kroah-Hartman is best known for his role as the maintainer of the Linux kernel’s stable branches. While new kernel features often grab headlines, the stable kernels are where real-world systems live. They receive carefully vetted fixes for security issues, regressions, and bugs, without introducing disruptive changes.
That responsibility requires deep technical knowledge, discipline, and trust from the community. Kroah-Hartman has carried it for years, ensuring that Linux remains dependable across millions of systems worldwide.
Beyond the Stable Kernel
His impact extends far beyond stable releases. Over the years, Kroah-Hartman has contributed heavily to:
Driver development, helping hardware vendors integrate cleanly with Linux
Kernel infrastructure improvements, making long-term maintenance sustainable
Developer documentation, including the widely respected Linux Kernel in a Nutshell
Mentorship, guiding new contributors through the notoriously complex kernel process
These efforts help keep Linux open not just in license, but in practice, accessible to new developers and maintainable at scale.
Why This Award Matters
The European Open Source Award recognizes individuals whose work benefits society through openness, collaboration, and technical excellence. Kroah-Hartman’s work exemplifies that mission.
Linux doesn’t succeed because of flashy features alone. It succeeds because:
Bugs are fixed responsibly
Security issues are handled quietly and quickly
Compatibility is preserved across years and hardware generations
Those outcomes don’t happen by accident. They’re the result of sustained, meticulous stewardship, exactly the kind of work this award celebrates.
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- Inside the Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG): A New Layer of Kernel Integrity Protection
by George Whittaker
In an era where security threats continually evolve, protecting the heart of an operating system, the kernel, has never been more critical. One tool gaining traction in the Linux world is the Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG), a specialized security module designed to detect and respond to attacks targeting the kernel while the system is running. This project recently reached its first stable milestone with version 1.0.0, marking a major step forward for runtime protection on Linux systems.
What Is LKRG?
LKRG (short for Linux Kernel Runtime Guard) is a loadable kernel module that continuously monitors the health and integrity of the Linux kernel while it’s running. Unlike many security features that rely on compile-time patches or static defenses, LKRG acts at runtime, watching for signs of unauthorized changes or exploit attempts and taking configurable action when something suspicious is detected.
Because LKRG is a module rather than a patch to the kernel source, it can be built and used across a variety of distributions and kernel versions without needing to recompile the core kernel itself. It supports a wide range of architectures, including x86-64, 32-bit x86, ARM64, and 32-bit ARM, and has been tested on kernels from older enterprise releases all the way up to recent mainline versions.
How LKRG Works
At its core, LKRG performs runtime integrity checks on critical parts of the kernel and system state. It validates the kernel’s code, data, and metadata against expected values and monitors for unexpected changes that could be indicative of an exploit. The module also watches key process attributes and credentials to help spot unauthorized privilege escalation attempts.
Unlike compile-time defenses such as address space layout randomization (ASLR) or static code hardening, LKRG is designed to observe and react while the kernel is executing, a concept sometimes referred to as “post-detection” security. This complements other layers of defense rather than replacing them.
Version 1.0: A Milestone Release
After several years of development, with the first public release appearing back in 2018, LKRG has finally reached its 1.0 release, signaling maturity and broader real-world readiness. This milestone brings a suite of improvements, including:
Broader Kernel Compatibility: Support extending to recent kernel series such as Linux 6.17, while maintaining compatibility with older, long-lived versions.
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- Official Firefox RPM Package Now Available for Fedora-Style Linux Distributions
by George Whittaker
Mozilla has taken a notable step toward improving Firefox distribution on Linux. An official Firefox RPM package is now available directly from Mozilla for Fedora-style distributions, including Fedora, RHEL-compatible systems, and related derivatives. This move gives users a new, upstream-supported option for installing and maintaining Firefox without relying solely on distro-maintained builds.
What’s Changed
Until now, users on RPM-based systems typically installed Firefox through their distribution’s repositories. While those packages are usually well-maintained, they can sometimes lag behind Mozilla’s release schedule or include distro-specific patches.
With the new official RPM, Mozilla provides:
A Firefox build maintained directly by Mozilla
Faster access to new releases and security updates
A consistent Firefox experience across RPM-based distros
Reduced dependency on downstream packaging delays
This mirrors the approach Mozilla already uses for official DEB packages and tarball releases, bringing parity to RPM-based ecosystems.
Who Benefits Most
This new packaging option is especially useful for:
Fedora users who want Firefox updates the moment Mozilla releases them
Developers and testers who need predictable, upstream Firefox behavior
Enterprise or workstation users running Fedora-derived systems who prefer vendor-supplied binaries
Users who want to avoid Flatpak or Snap for their browser
Distributions that prioritize stability over immediacy may still ship older versions, but the official RPM gives users a clear choice.
How It Works
Mozilla hosts a signed RPM repository that integrates cleanly with dnf-based systems. Once added, Firefox updates arrive through the standard system update process, just like any other RPM package.
Key characteristics include:
GPG-signed packages from Mozilla
Automatic updates via dnf upgrade
No repackaging or third-party rebuilds
Compatibility with Fedora and compatible RPM distros
Users can choose between the distro-provided Firefox or Mozilla’s upstream RPM without conflict, as long as only one source is enabled.
Why This Matters for Linux Users
This change reflects a broader trend: upstream projects taking more responsibility for how their software reaches users. For Firefox, that means:
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- Top Linux Gaming Distributions for 2026: Play Better on Open Source
by George Whittaker Introduction
Gaming on Linux has never been better. Thanks to advances in compatibility layers like Proton, drivers, and distro-level optimizations, Linux now supports thousands of games, from AAA titles to indie favorites, with performance that rivals Windows in many cases. As we head into 2026, certain Linux distributions have risen to the top as the most gamer-friendly, offering build-ins, drivers, and tooling that make playing on open-source systems smoother and more fun.
In this article, we’ll look at the best Linux gaming distros for 2026, what sets each one apart, and who they’re best suited for, whether you’re a seasoned Linux gamer or someone switching from Windows or macOS.
1. SteamOS (SteamOS 5 / “Holo”)Why It’s Great
SteamOS remains the top choice if games are your priority. Developed by Valve, SteamOS is designed specifically for gaming hardware and integrates tightly with:
Steam and Proton for Windows game compatibility
Controller-first navigation, perfect for living-room play
Competitive performance out of the box
Fast boot and automatic updates
SteamOS continues evolving with better hardware support, especially for handheld PCs and Steam Deck-style form factors.
Best For
Dedicated gaming PCs
Steam Deck and SteamOS handhelds
Users who want a console-like experience
2. Pop!_OS (Gaming Edition)Why It’s Great
Created by System76, Pop!_OS is known for a smooth performance-oriented desktop and excellent driver support. The Gaming Edition (or the gaming-optimized install profile) comes with:
Automatic NVIDIA and AMD driver detection
Integrated Proton and Steam packages
Built-in support for auto-tiling and hybrid graphics
Excellent keyboard/mouse + gamepad support
Pop!_OS also excels on laptops with hybrid GPUs because of its dedicated power profiles and intelligent GPU switching.
Best For
Desktop gamers who want a traditional desktop + gaming setup
Users with NVIDIA GPUs
Hybrid GPU laptops
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- Linux Mint 22.3 ‘Zena’ Delivers a Polished, Familiar Desktop Experience
by George Whittaker
The Linux Mint project has unveiled Linux Mint 22.3, carrying the codename “Zena”, the latest point release in the popular Mint 22 series. This new version continues Mint’s reputation for delivering a comfortable, user-friendly desktop experience while remaining stable and reliable. As a Long Term Support (LTS) release, Linux Mint 22.3 will receive updates and security patches through April 2029.
Built on a Solid Ubuntu Base
Zena is built on top of Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (“Noble Numbat”), bringing Mint’s traditional desktop approach together with Ubuntu’s well-tested foundation and extensive software repositories. It ships with the Linux kernel 6.14 and benefits from the Ubuntu Hardware Enablement stack, which improves support for newer hardware such as recent AMD and Intel chips.
What’s New in Linux Mint 22.3 “Zena”
Rather than revolutionize the distro, the Mint team focused on thoughtful refinements and quality-of-life improvements that make everyday usage smoother and more intuitive.
Redesigned Application Menu
One of the most noticeable visual changes is the revamped Mint Menu in the Cinnamon edition. It now includes a sidebar showing your avatar, favorite applications, and commonly used locations, along with customizable search bar placement and icon styles for a cleaner look.
Upgraded Cinnamon Desktop (6.6)
Linux Mint 22.3 ships with Cinnamon 6.6 on the flagship edition, which delivers a range of subtle improvements:
Better handling of keyboard layouts and input methods, especially under Wayland
Improved support for traditional XKB and IBus input methods
A more graceful on-screen keyboard
Refined behavior and visuals throughout the desktop environment
These changes aim to polish the experience without introducing disruptive UI changes.
New System Management Tools
To help users understand their hardware quickly and troubleshoot issues without entering the command line, Zena introduces two new utilities:
System Information ' consolidates details about your machine’s hardware, including USB devices, the GPU, BIOS, and PCI devices
System Administration ' provides an easy interface for configuring low-level system settings, starting with the ability to adjust the boot menu
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- Linux Rescue and Repair Distros in 2025: Your Safety Net When Things Go Wrong
by George Whittaker
No matter how reliable Linux systems are, failures still happen. A broken bootloader, a corrupted filesystem, a failed update, or a dying disk can leave even the most stable setup unbootable. That’s where Linux rescue and repair distributions come in.
In 2025, rescue distros are more powerful, more hardware-aware, and easier to use than ever before. Whether you’re a system administrator, a home user, or a technician, having the right recovery tools on hand can mean the difference between a quick fix and total data loss.
What Exactly Is a Linux Rescue Distro?
A Linux rescue distro is a bootable live operating system designed specifically for diagnosing, repairing, and recovering systems. Unlike standard desktop distros, rescue environments focus on:
Disk and filesystem utilities
Bootloader repair tools
Hardware detection and diagnostics
Data recovery and backup
System repair without touching the installed OS
Most run entirely from RAM, allowing you to work on disks safely without mounting them automatically.
When Do You Need a Rescue Distro?
Rescue distros are invaluable in scenarios such as:
A system fails to boot after a kernel or driver update
GRUB or systemd-boot is misconfigured or overwritten
Filesystems become corrupted after a power failure
You need to copy important files from a non-booting system
Passwords or user accounts are inaccessible
Malware or ransomware locks access to a system
In short: if your OS won’t start, a rescue distro often still will.
Top Linux Rescue and Repair Distros in 2025SystemRescue
SystemRescue remains the gold standard for Linux recovery.
Why it stands out:
Ships with a modern Linux kernel for wide hardware support
Supports ext4, XFS, Btrfs, NTFS, ZFS, and more
Includes tools like GParted, fsck, testdisk, and ddrescue
Offers both CLI and lightweight GUI options
Best for: advanced users, sysadmins, and serious recovery tasks.
Rescatux
Rescatux focuses on simplicity and guided recovery.
Key strengths:
Menu-driven repair tasks
Automatic GRUB and EFI boot repair
Windows and Linux password reset tools
Beginner-friendly interface
Best for: home users and newcomers who want step-by-step help.
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- Zorin OS 18 Crosses 2 Million Downloads, Cementing Its Appeal to New Linux Users
by George Whittaker
Zorin OS has reached an important milestone. The team behind the popular Linux distribution has announced that Zorin OS 18 has surpassed two million downloads, underscoring the growing interest in Linux as a practical alternative to mainstream operating systems.
The achievement highlights not only Zorin OS’s steady rise in popularity, but also a broader trend: more users, especially those leaving Windows, are actively seeking operating systems that are modern, approachable, and familiar.
A Distro Built for Accessibility
Zorin OS has long positioned itself as a distribution designed to reduce the friction of switching to Linux. Rather than targeting power users first, it focuses on:
A clean, intuitive desktop layout
Familiar workflows for users coming from Windows or macOS
Simple system tools that avoid unnecessary complexity
With Zorin OS 18, that philosophy continues. The interface feels polished out of the box, applications are easy to install, and most hardware works without manual configuration. For many newcomers, that “it just works” experience is what turns curiosity into long-term adoption.
Why Zorin OS 18 Resonates With Users
Several factors help explain why Zorin OS 18 has attracted millions of downloads:
A Comfortable Transition Away From Windows
As Windows 11 introduces stricter hardware requirements, more system telemetry, and UI changes that frustrate some users, Zorin OS offers a calmer alternative. Its desktop can closely resemble Windows layouts, easing the learning curve for first-time Linux users.
Strong Performance on Modest Hardware
Zorin OS runs well on both modern systems and older machines. This makes it appealing to users who want to extend the life of existing hardware rather than replace it.
Thoughtful Design Choices
Instead of overwhelming users with customization options, Zorin OS focuses on sensible defaults. Everything from system menus to app selection feels deliberate, helping users stay productive without constant tweaking.
A Broader Shift Toward Beginner-Friendly Linux Distros
The success of Zorin OS 18 reflects a wider change in the Linux ecosystem. Projects like Zorin OS demonstrate that Linux no longer needs to be intimidating or niche to be powerful.
This shift has been reinforced by:
Improved hardware compatibility
Better gaming support through Proton and Vulkan
More polished desktop environments
Clearer documentation and onboarding tools
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- Introducing Loss32: A New Lightweight Linux Distro With a Focus on Legacy Hardware
by George Whittaker Introduction
A fresh entry has just appeared in the world of Linux distributions: Loss32, a lightweight operating system built from scratch with one goal in mind — giving old and low-resource computers a new lease on life. Announced by its small but passionate development team, Loss32 aims to be fast, respectful of older hardware, and friendly to users who want simplicity without sacrificing modern usability.
Whether you’re rediscovering an old laptop in a drawer or building a tiny home server, Loss32 promises to deliver a capable computing experience with minimal overhead.
A Distribution Born from a Simple Idea
Loss32 began as a personal project by a group of open-source enthusiasts frustrated with how quickly modern software has moved past older machines. They noticed that even relatively recent hardware can struggle with mainstream operating systems, leaving many devices underutilized.
Their solution: build a distro that boots fast, uses minimal RAM and disk space, and still provides a complete desktop environment for everyday tasks.
The name Loss32 stems from its focus on “losing” unnecessary bloat — keeping only what’s essential — and the fact that it targets 32-bit and low-resource systems that many other distros are abandoning.
Key Features of Loss321. Runs on Older CPUs and Low Memory
Loss32 supports:
32-bit and 64-bit CPUs
Machines with as little as 512 MB of RAM
Hard drives and SSDs down to 4 GB usable space
These minimums open the distro up to machines that newer Linux distros won’t even install on.
2. Lightweight Desktop — Fast and Simple
Instead of heavy desktop environments, Loss32 ships with a customized Xfce/XF-Lite hybrid:
Classic panel layout for easy navigation
Small memory footprint for snappy response
Simple app launchers and taskbars
This ensures a familiar feel while staying lean.
3. Essential App Suite Included
Out of the box, Loss32 includes a careful selection of applications:
Web browsing — light browser with Web standards support
Email and calendar — basic, responsive client
Media playback — audio and video codecs included
Simple document editing and PDF viewing
File manager optimized for speed
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- Linux Kernel 6.19-rc4 Released as Development Marches On
by George Whittaker
The Linux kernel development cycle continues with the release of Linux 6.19-rc4, the fourth release candidate in the lead-up to the final 6.19 stable kernel. As with previous RC builds, this release is aimed squarely at developers, testers, and early adopters who help identify bugs and regressions before the kernel is finalized.
Release candidates are not feature drops — they are checkpoints. And rc4 reflects exactly that role.
What Does rc4 Mean in the Kernel Cycle?
By the time the fourth release candidate arrives, the merge window is long closed. That means all major features for Linux 6.19 are already in place, and the focus has shifted entirely to:
Fixing bugs introduced earlier in the cycle
Addressing regressions reported by testers
Refining drivers, subsystems, and architecture-specific code
In other words, rc4 is about stability and correctness, not surprises.
What’s Changed in Linux 6.19-rc4
While rc releases don’t usually headline major features, they do include a steady stream of important fixes across the kernel tree.
Driver and Hardware Fixes
Many of the changes in rc4 focus on hardware support, including:
GPU driver fixes for stability and edge-case behavior
Networking device driver cleanups
Updates for input devices and platform-specific drivers
These changes help ensure Linux continues to run reliably across a wide range of systems, from desktops and laptops to servers and embedded hardware.
Filesystems and Storage
Several filesystems see incremental fixes in this release, addressing corner cases, error handling, and consistency issues. Storage-related updates also touch block-layer code and device-mapper components, helping improve reliability under load.
Architecture-Specific Updates
As usual, rc4 includes fixes tailored to specific CPU architectures, such as:
x86 refinements
ARM and ARM64 cleanups
RISC-V and other platform-specific adjustments
These changes may not affect all users directly, but they’re crucial for maintaining Linux’s broad hardware compatibility.
Regression Fixes and Testing Feedback
A large portion of rc4 is dedicated to resolving regressions reported by testers running earlier release candidates. This includes:
Fixes for boot issues on certain configurations
Corrections for performance regressions
Cleanup of warnings and build errors
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