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- EuroPython 2026 videos published
All of the videos from the EuroPython 2026 conference, heldin Kraków, Poland from July 13 through July 19, are nowonline along with a recap ofthe event from conference organizers.
- [$] Accelerating the kernel's build process
Kernel developers do a lot of kernel builds. Since the kernel is not asmall program, those builds can take a fair amount of time, even on a fastmachine. The kernel also has a complex build system; it is probably fairto say that few developers truly understand it, and fewer still are willingto try to improve it. Lorenzo Stoakes, armed with LLM-based assistance,decided to give it a try, though, and has managed to reduce the time ittakes to build a kernel — and not by a small amount.
- Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (apr-util and qt6-qt5compat), Debian (libevent and ruby-rack), Fedora (bluez, corosync, curl, dokuwiki, grpcurl, libevent, and rest), Oracle (gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free, perl-DBI, python-urllib3, qt5-qtbase, qt6-qt5compat, and thunderbird), Red Hat (osbuild-composer), SUSE (azure-storage-azcopy, chromedriver, corosync, ggml-devel, helm, kernel, libmariadb-devel, libzypp, zypper, opensc, php7, tomcat10, and waylyrics), and Ubuntu (apache2, beets, glibc, kissfft, libebml, linux-nvidia-6.17, php8.1, php8.3, php8.5, and python2.7, python3.4, python3.5, python3.6, python3.7, python3.8, python3.9, python3.10, python3.11, python3.12, python3.14).
- Forgejo 16.0.4 and 15.0.8 address critical security vulnerability
The Forgejo software-forge project has announced therelease of versions 16.0.4and 15.0.8,which fixes two security vulnerabilities. One is a critical flaw that wouldallow remote-code execution (RCE):
When generating a new repository from a template repository, Forgejo clones thetemplate repository, removes the .git folder, performs variable templateexpansion on files listed in .forgejo/template, and initializes a new gitrepository. During this process, variable template expansion could be misused inorder to create a new .git folder, which git would adopt and incorporate duringits initialization of a new git repository. A malicious template repositorycould be used to read arbitrary data from the Forgejo host, and to executearbitrary processes on the Forgejo host, as a remote code execution attack. Toaddress this issue, after variable expansion is completed, any existing .gitfolder is removed from the directory before the git repository is initialized.
The project recommends upgrading to the latest version as soon aspossible.
- [$] PostgreSQL 19's "scary patch contest"
PostgreSQL 19 was expected to be released in September, in keeping with the databaseproject's longstanding tradition of a major release every year. However,some late-breaking concerns about several of the features slated for inclusionhas some developers worried about the quality of the release. On August 25, PostgreSQLcontributor Robert Haas sentan email with the subject "scary patch contest" about several patchesthat have required an unusually large number of bug fixes leading up to therelease, which has raised questions about their readiness for a stablerelease. One of the patches has been reverted, but several are still under heavyrevision, and an extra beta release has been slotted in to allow for additionaltesting.
- Julia 1.13 released
Version1.13 of the Julia programming languagehas been released. Highlights include faster precompilation of packages,improvements to Julia's REPL, and Juliaup,a graphical interface for the Julia version manager. A full list of changes canbe found in the releasenotes. LWN covered Julia1.12 in November 2025.
- Security updates for Thursday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (389-ds-base, ansible-core, buildah, expat, glib2, gpsd, gpsd-minimal, gzip, kernel, kernel-rt, opentelemetry-collector, osbuild-composer, perl-DBI, python-lxml, python3.12-lxml, qt5-qtbase, thunderbird, valkey, vim, and xz), Debian (pyasn1), Fedora (darktable, freeipa, freerdp2, gdk-pixbuf2, GitPython, libsoup3, openssl, perl-Net-DNS, rust-ppmd-rust, samba, and valkey), Mageia (ceph, firefox, nss, perl-DBI, thunderbird, and wget), Oracle (389-ds-base, buildah, expat, git-lfs, glib2, glibc, gpsd, gpsd-minimal, grafana-pcp, kernel, libssh, nginx, perl-GD, python3.14-cryptography, redis:7, skopeo, thunderbird, valkey, xmlrpc-c, and xz), Slackware (xz), SUSE (bzip2, cpio, curl, dracut, fuse-overlayfs, golang-github-vpenso-prometheus_slurm_exporter, helm, java-1_8_0-ibm, kbfs, kernel, kernel-devel, libopenslide-devel, libsoup, libssh2_org, libusb-1_0, libvirt, libzypp, zypper, mcphost, multipath-tools, NetworkManager, opensc, openssl-3, perl-Net-DNS, python-aiohttp, python-Authlib, python-pip, python-sqlparse, python313-dnspython, python313-idna, rpcbind, sssd, strongswan, systemd, tomcat11, ucode-intel, and wget), and Ubuntu (dotnet8, dotnet10, ffmpeg, flatpak, netty, and perl).
- [$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for September 10, 2026
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
Front: Rust's never type; Debian and CERN; memory tiering; testing multithreaded Python; fixing TCMalloc; Typst. Briefs: Rustls; Asahi Linux; Buildroot 2026.08; Grml 2026.09; Audacity 4.0; Jellyfin 12.0; LibreOffice Base; Quotes; ... Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
- A decade of Rustls
Joe Birr-Pixton has written a blog postreflecting on a decade of the Rustls TLS-library project and looking ahead tothe upcoming 0.24 release and an eventual 1.0 release.
Rustls began with afirst commit on May 2, 2016. Progress was quick: a month later, on June 5,it could interoperate with most sites on the web. The first release, 0.1.0,followed on August 27, 2016 – less than four months after the first commit.
[...] From the 0.1.0 release, the project moved through a long series ofreleases over the following eight years, building out functionality, hardeningand refining the API. That sequence of release lines culminated in 0.23,released on February 29, 2024.
The 0.23 release line has been a stable one: in the time since, it hasseen 43 non-breaking releases. That stability didn't come withstagnation. The 0.23 line delivered a wide range of important features,including a FIPS-certified cryptography option, certificate compression,Encrypted ClientHello, post-quantum cryptography, and performanceimprovements.
- LoRa terminal pairs ESP32-S3 with LR1110 and full keyboard
Elecrow’s ThinkNode M9 is a handheld LoRa communication terminal built around an ESP32-S3 processor and Semtech LR1110 transceiver. The device includes a 2.4-inch color display, full QWERTY keyboard, GNSS positioning, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, USB Type-C, and a 2300mAh battery. The ThinkNode M9 is based on an ESP32-S3R8 dual-core processor operating at up to 240MHz. […]
- CachyOS vs. Windows 11 vs. Ubuntu 26.04 LTS On Intel Wildcat Lake + 8GB RAM
Often times when testing different Linux distributions or comparing Windows vs. Linux it's on leading flagship desktop or server hardware, but today we are looking at the Ubuntu vs. CachyOS vs. Windows performance at the opposite end of the spectrum. With the new CHUWI UniBook $449 laptop powered by Intel Core 3 Wildcat Lake and with 8GB of system memory, here is a look at how those three operating systems compare across a variety of workloads.
- Intel Thermald 2.5.13 Restores Accidentally Deleted Wildcat Lake Support
Intel's Thermald released on Thursday as the newest update to this daemon for thermal monitoring on Intel hardware that was also recently extended for beginning to support Qualcomm/ARM hardware too. The main change with Thermald 2.5.13 is adding back Intel Wildcat Lake platform support after it was accidentally removed in the prior release...
- Sam Bankman-Fried, Former Crypto Billionaire, Appeals His Conviction To the US Supreme Court
America's highest court heard Sam Bankman-Fried's request for a new trial on Thursday, CNN reports. But they add that "the former crypto mogul who was convicted of defrauding investors by secretly diverting billions of dollars of their money" also asked America's high court "to throw out a court order requiring him to pay $11 billion as part of his sentence."Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024 after prosecutors said he directed billions of dollars from the crypto exchange FTX to a hedge fund he controlled called Alameda Research, where the funds were used for risky investments, political donations and his own personal benefit. The Supreme Court appeal, which was reviewed by CNN, raises a technical question about evidence that was submitted at his trial, and whether Bankman-Fried should have been permitted to demonstrate that his investments were ultimately sound and would have covered any losses by FTX customers. He also argues that the $11 billion forfeiture violates the 8th Amendment's prohibition on excessive fines. "Where the government pursues a theory of fraud under which it doesn't matter whether any victims lost money, introducing evidence suggesting that people actually lost money is distracting and prejudicial," veteran Supreme Court attorney Jeffrey Fisher told CNN. "All the more so where the truth is the victims did not lose money, and the defendant is unable to make that clear." The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the arguments earlier this year.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Calls For AI Slowdown
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: The chief executive of Anthropic called for a global slowdown of artificial intelligence development in a 3,800-word essay on Saturday, just days after one of the company's employees quit over concerns about the safety of the technology. Dario Amodei, who co-founded Anthropic to focus on securely and carefully building A.I., wrote that while he believed the technology could bring many benefits, it was advancing at too quick a pace for researchers to continue safely. "Over the last few months, I have become convinced that fully addressing the risks requires even more prudence -- not just investing in risk prevention, but pacing the rate of capabilities advancement so that risk prevention has time to keep up," Mr. Amodei said. "We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of A.I. models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain." [...] "Left unchecked, it could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems, and so must be pursued very carefully, if at all," Mr. Amodei said. [...] In his essay on Saturday, Mr. Amodei suggested actions that the industry might take to slow down the pace of development.Mr. Amodei said all A.I. labs could agree to third-party technology assessments from "embedded evaluators," or outside specialists who can verify best safety practices across companies. He also suggested that countries with democratic governance systems coordinate to create safety standards, which could take the form of regulatory action. He added that it would probably require a global effort working with other nations, including authoritarian ones, to properly coordinate a slowdown. Mr. Amodei stressed in his essay that he still finds A.I. capable of bringing "incredible benefits" to humanity, including potentially curing diseases and accelerating economic growth. But even so, Mr. Amodei said the risks of A.I. were too great to not proceed with extreme caution. "The measures I propose to advance the frontier at a safe pace will not be easy," Mr. Amodei wrote. "But I believe we owe it to humanity to try." Amodei's essay comes just hours after Bloomberg reported that Sam Altman told OpenAI employees the company is open to slowing the pace of AI development amid similar concerns.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Automattic's Matt Mullenweg Claims He's Back 'In Control'
Less than 48 hours after Automattic's board placed Matt Mullenweg on leave, Mullenweg told employees he was back "in control" of the company and that the board was again in agreement. 404 Media cited Slack screenshots late Thursday evening where Mullenweg posted "Don't call it a comeback" and linked to LL Cool J's music video for "Mama Said Knock You Out." "Mullenweg's Slack profile picture currently shows him wearing a pirate hat and eyepatch," the report notes. From the report: "Happy to announce the board is back in agreement, and I'm in control of Automattic," Mullenweg wrote in the company-wide Announcements channel on Slack. "A lot happened in the past 48 hours that we need to sort out, and I hope much of it was a misunderstanding, because I have huge respect and regard for those involved." Mark Davies, Automattic's CFO who was set to act as interim CEO according to a statement from Automattic, had his Slack account deactivated as of at least Friday, sources told 404 Media and TechCrunch similarly reported. Davies, Mullenweg, and Automattic did not respond to 404 Media's requests for comment for this story. Techcrunch reported that Mullenweg told them a blog post is forthcoming. On Friday morning, Mullenweg published a blog post on his personal website, titled "Major Life Announcement." In it he announced he's buying a tugboat. "Anybody who's founded a company and had to find good stewards knows that no one will love a thing quite like the original owner, but sometimes you can find the perfect person to carry the torch," he wrote in the blog. He did not address the confusion surrounding his status at Automattic. The back-and-forth follows years of legal fights, layoffs, employee departures, and controversy surrounding Mullenweg's leadership.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- LG Responds to TV Spying Allegations
LG is pushing back against reports that its smart TVs are "spying" on users, saying wake-word detection happens locally and that features such as Automatic Content Recognition, voice recognition, and interest-based ads are optional. But critics note that researchers found TVs keeping logs of ambient conversations, and LG's response "did not address broader concerns about how much data it collects, who it shares it with, the potential for bad actors to exploit its features, or the misleading way in which its privacy options are presented," reports The Verge. Here's an excerpt from LG's statement: Some recent media coverage may have contributed to misconceptions about how LG smart TVs work. As an industry leader, LG believes we have a responsibility to provide customers with clear and accurate information about how our smart TVs operate and the privacy controls available to them. We would like to clarify how our smart TVs operate and explain our approach to user privacy. LG smart TVs do not continuously record or transmit users' conversations. Speech-to-text processing begins only if a user activates a voice interaction through a supported wake-word feature or by pressing the voice (or AI) button on the remote control. Audio used for wake-word detection is processed locally on the TV and, if no wake word is detected, audio is not converted to text, stored, or transmitted. Voice-recognition results and related technical logs may be generated as part of processing a voice command. These records are associated with specific voice interactions and do not indicate continuous recording of conversations occurring outside an active voice recognition session. Speech-recognition results may be used to support voice-related features but are not uploaded later when the TV is offline or when connectivity is restored. Features such as Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), voice recognition, and interest-based advertising are optional. These features are not enabled by default. Users can choose to enable these features and can manage or withdraw consent through TV settings. ACR uses audio fingerprinting technology using the TV's internal audio processor (not a speaker) to identify content and does not collect screenshots, screen recordings, video recordings, voice recordings, or other audio recordings from the TV. Where ACR is available and enabled, ACR-related information may be used for audience segmentation and viewing or audience trend analysis. Interest-based advertising and cross-device advertising require separate user consent through the applicable advertising-related agreements. Protecting user privacy is a fundamental principle in the design and operation of LG products and services. The statement goes on to "provide additional details on how LG smart TV features work, how information may be processed, what choices users have, and how LG continues to strengthen privacy, transparency, and security."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Scientists Create a New Form of Ice At 2,357 Degrees Celsius
Longtime Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot shares a report from ScienceAlert: Scientists have now demonstrated one of the weirdest forms of ice yet -- under preposterous pressures up to 2.3 million atmospheres, and tremendous temperatures up to 2,630 kelvins (2,357 degrees Celsius, or 4,274 degrees Fahrenheit). [...] In their new experiments, a team led by physicist Alexis Forestier of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission subjected tiny samples of water to the sorts of extreme conditions expected in the interiors of ice giant planets. They squeezed the samples between the tips of diamonds to pressures as high as 230 gigapascals, while using lasers to heat them to thousands of degrees. That's 2.3 million times Earth's atmospheric pressure at sea level â" the pressure at the center of Earth, for context, is around 360 gigapascals. Then, using an extremely narrow beam of synchrotron X-rays, they probed for changes in the crystal structure of the ice. What emerged was a configuration predicted theoretically but never unambiguously observed in experiments: hexagonal close-packed, or hcp, ice. As the hcp crystal was heated, its expansion also showed a signature of superionic behavior, suggesting it entered the superionic state at around 1,700 kelvins. [Superionic ice is thought to exist deep inside Uranus and Neptune, where its unusual properties may play a role in generating the planets' equally unusual magnetic fields.] The findings have been published in Physical Review Letters.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Little Mercury May Be Shrinking Faster Than Scientists Expected
A new study suggests Mercury may have shrunk about 30% more than scientists previously thought, losing as much as 14 miles in diameter as its interior cooled and contracted over billions of years. "That's significant for a planet barely 3,000 miles (4,900 kilometers) across," reports the Associated Press. From the report: Mercury's rough surface, continually reshaped by debris hurled from impact craters, may have hidden the true extent of the loss, according to the researchers whose findings appear in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The news comes one week after a pair of European and Japanese spacecraft shed its cruising platform and advanced toward Mercury. Known as BepiColombo, the linked craft are expected to enter orbit around Mercury in November before splitting up for a fuller survey. BepiColombo's laser instrument should confirm how much Mercury is withering as a result of internal cooling, said Gaku Nishiyama, the study's lead author who is taking part in the space mission. The shrinkage could be even more than his team is estimating based on measurements from NASA's Messenger spacecraft in the 2010s. Only one other spacecraft has ever visited Mercury, NASA's Mariner 10 in the 1970s.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Can Red-Light Therapy Treat Brain Injuries?
The Athletic reports that researchers at the University of Utah are studying itPBM, a medical-grade red-light therapy that has shown promising signs of reducing brain inflammation and improving cognition, mood, anxiety, motor performance and neural connectivity. The report centers in part on former BYU football star and University of Utah adjunct professor Larry Carr, who says the treatment helped him after years of brain damage from repeated head impacts. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: ... The knife, the call, the diagnosis in 2013, would lead [Carr] on a life-changing mission -- one in which he and a team of researchers at the University of Utah would eventually compile research that one of those researchers, Elisabeth Wilde, Ph.D, co-director of the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Concussion Center, calls "striking." The treatment they are studying is called photobiomodulation therapy, or itPBM (intranasal transcranial PBM), also known as red-light therapy. It is different from the kind of superficial red-light usage one can find on social media skincare channels or at a wellness boutique, and its application is broader. The research includes multiple studies, and is not just focused on ex-football players, but on women and men in various walks of life. The group recently published their latest results in the Journal of Neurotrauma, based on a study that followed 26 BYU football players throughout a season, suggesting the treatment could "potentially safeguard neurological health without reduced playing time or contact exposure." Definitive clinical trials haven't been run yet; broader research and validation is required, and some in the field are skeptical. Carr acknowledges some have told him that it could be "too good to be true." Still, other outside experts who spoke with The Athletic call the findings promising. They make sure to caution: This is not a cure-all, and there is much more to be tested. But the findings have been compelling enough to justify more research and more speculation. Researchers say 14 peer-reviewed studies have linked itPBM with improvements in cognition, mood, anxiety, attention, executive function, motor performance, and other measures, while brain imaging has shown reduced inflammation and improved connectivity. One of the most striking findings mentioned in the report came from a study of 26 BYU football players during the 2021 season. Players who did not receive treatment developed significant, widespread brain inflammation, while the treated group showed no comparable increase and even demonstrated reduced inflammation in some brain regions. As researcher Michael Carr put it, "I believe our BYU data suggests the players' brains using itPBM are actually healthier after the season." He added: "That is a first." Carr also said treated participants showed fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress and PTSD, along with faster processing, better sustained attention and stronger executive function. Researchers have also observed improvements in balance, motor control and grip strength. Taken together, the findings suggest itPBM may have a neuroprotective effect.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Male Fruit Fly Brain Trained to Play Doom
Last week, Google announced that it managed to produce a detailed 3D reconstruction of an adult male fruit fly's brain and central nervous system. A few days later a software engineer at Coinbase said the fly brain was being trained to play the original Doom. "Each Doom frame stimulates sensory neurons," says Alex Wormuth. "Neural activity is mapped to game controls. Damage triggers a stimulus to two PPL101 dopamine cells as reinforcement." Since then, the digital brain model has been repurposed to control other games like Beat Saber and Super Mario 64. PC Gamer reports: You can even watch the fruit fly play in real time via Wormuth's website, and it not only shows the point of view in Doom, but can also show a third-person render of the fly going around Doom maps. As of the time of writing, the fly is on round 6385 and, well, it's not very good. Sorry, fly. But modders aren't done here. They have also somehow managed to make the fruit fly play Beat Saber, and play it pretty well. Lyra Bubbles on X has used the brain and replays of a song in Beat Saber to teach the fruit fly where to hit and why, via Reinforcement Learning. That does mean it's not organically reacting to the notes popping up on screen, but it is receiving input and responding to stimuli. Lyra says, "Further training is to reduce reliance on external signals and allow it to play fully reactively with no input data." And, after "pivoting to fly engineering in 2026", Jessica Paquette also shared on X their experience running the digital fly brain through Super Mario 64. If you think that is all the game's modders made the fruit fly play, think again, as YouTuber Ro0oney even put it in Minecraft. But this time, Ro0oney used Flywire.AI, a similar project made in collaboration with Princeton University. The number of neurons are different (160,000+ vs 139,255), and Google analyzed a male brain whilst Flywire analyzed a female brain, but the basic idea is the same.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- PlayStation Ditched Hideo Kojima's 'Physint' on Budget Concerns, Missed Deadlines
Sony reportedly pulled PlayStation funding from Hideo Kojima's upcoming espionage game Physint over concerns about its ballooning budget, missed deadlines, profitability, and the fact that it would not remain permanently exclusive to PlayStation. Kojima Productions has since struck a deal with Xbox, which plans to publish the game on both Xbox and PC. It's also secured film and television rights. Bloomberg reports: The new game, Physint, hasn't yet been shown publicly but excited fans when it was announced two years ago with its promise of returning to the "espionage action" genre Kojima pioneered with Metal Gear Solid, the series that propelled him to industry stardom. Kojima surprised fans this week when he announced he would be publishing Physint with PlayStation's biggest rival, Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox. On Wednesday night, Kojima wrote on social media that over the summer his company had "unexpectedly received notice" that PlayStation was pulling out of funding the game. "Physint is an important project both to me personally and to Kojima Productions," he wrote. "Determined to keep the project alive, we have spent the last three months searching tirelessly for a new partner." PlayStation also addressed the split on social media, saying it had made the "difficult decision to step away." Microsoft said it was "honored" that Kojima chose Xbox and that the two teams plan to collaborate beyond games on films and television, too. [...] The decision to part ways with Kojima is a significant move for PlayStation that may have ripple effects. [...] One key factor is the PC platform, where the Death Stranding games have generated some revenue. Earlier this year, Sony decided it will no longer release single-player PlayStation games on PC, Bloomberg reported. Sony would therefore not benefit when Kojima Productions released a PC version of Physint on its own or with a different publisher, as it did for the first Death Stranding. But Xbox releases all of its games on PCs and plans to publish Physint on PC and Xbox, said the people. "Betting on Kojima-san is an easy call," said an Xbox spokesperson. "We believe in his team's ability to build AAA games with groundbreaking, new IP and we believe in OD, Physint, and our growing partnership."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- US Legislators Complain About Secretive British Court and Apple Encryption
Bruce66423 shares a report from The Guardian: A bipartisan pair of American politicians is telling Britain's most secretive court to stop hiding its handling of Apple's legal fight against a government demand to break into its customers' encrypted data, warning that Whitehall's taste for secrecy is 'needlessly' straining relations between the two allies. The letter (PDF), shared with the Guardian ahead of being sent to the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) on Friday, is signed by the Democratic senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and the Republican congressman Warren Davidson of Ohio. The row dates back to January 2025, when the Home Office served Apple with a technical capability notice under the Investigatory Powers Act, which requires companies to assist law enforcement in providing evidence. The UK government demanded that Apple provide a mechanism to access encrypted iCloud backups worldwide, a call the company met by withdrawing its Advanced Data Protection encryption feature from UK users the following month. Apple's challenge to that order at the IPT was later thrown out after the Home Office withdrew the original notice and issued a narrower one targeting only British users' data. "It is wholly inappropriate for a foreign executive body to attempt to dictate the distribution of powers within the US government, nor should it be permitted to use secrecy directives under the Investigatory Powers Act to frustrate Article I powers under the US Constitution," the pair wrote. Wyden and Davidson write that Congress "is not only a co-equal branch of government, it is the First Branch," and argue that no government can be allowed to place "its demands beyond the reach of legislative inquiry." "The UK government," they write, "cannot champion legislative oversight at home while using administrative gag orders to kneecap the constitutional authority of the US Congress."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- 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]
- Age verification exemptions for open source operating systems feel like Phyrric victories
On the Windows side of the age verification question, Microsoft is obviously following trends among lawmakers the world over. To address this, Windows is introducing a new platform capability: the Windows Age API. This API brings age awareness beyond the operating system by making it available across the entire Windows ecosystem so that apps and services can deliver age-appropriate experiences using the same trusted foundation. By making age awareness available as a platform capability, Windows helps developers build safeguards into experiences from the start rather than placing the burden on children and families to manage protections app by app.` ↫ Rob Mauceri at the Windows Blogs Meanwhile, on the Linux side of things, theres been some cheering as at least California passed amendments to its age verification law to exempt open source operating systems. These amendments redefine the term “operating system provider” to exclude any person or entity that distributes an OS or application “under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software.” Any software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses satisfies that test, which removes the likes of Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch, and the BSD family from AB 1856’s scope. ↫ Luke James at Toms Hardware I think this is not at all the good news that many make it out to be. Exempting Linux, BSD, and other open source operating systems from age verification obligations may seem like a good thing at first glance, but in reality, I think services and applications will simply choose to not work at all on platforms that do not implement age verification. The fear of legal ramifications, especially when it involves children, will be enough for existing and future popular services and applications to exclusively work on platforms that implement age verification whether those fears are founded or not. In fact, Im fairly sure a company like Microsoft, which has actually been feeling the squeeze from the Linux side recently even if it is modestly so is quite happy to see open source operating systems excluded from these obligations. Google, too, is probably none too unhappy to see any possible open source mobile operating system competitors not implement age verification. The fear of missing out is real, and most people are not as invested in fighting big tech and government surveillance as the average OSNews reader is going to be. If using Linux means not being able to play the latest hit games or use that new successful service, people will choose to stick with Windows or macOS. Let me be very clear that I do not support these age verification laws in any way, shape, or form, and I definitely do not want the open source world to embrace age verification. What Im worried about is that the open source world will cheer on these exceptions and consider the battle won, when in reality, they feel more like Pyrrhic victories. Age verification laws must be fought and destroyed at ballot boxes the world over, because otherwise I fear they will become just another tool in big techs toolbox, exemptions or not.
- The new Apple Watch is always recording and transcribing everything it hears
Do tech companies ever stop to think about the misery they unleash on people’s lives? The Apple Watch Series 12 uses “Audio Intelligence” that, as well as secretly taking notes, also has a Live Rewind feature that can replay the last 15 seconds of recently detected audio and view a text transcript. ↫ Matt Growcoot at PetaPixel Another win for us Europeans: this dystopian nightmare will not be available in the EU.
- Solaris turnstiles
Although Solaris is now mostly defunct, its influence remains substantial; technologies pioneered by Solaris can still be found across a wide range of software A lot of Solaris inventions have been described and talked about ad nauseam (such as the Slab Allocator), but one I rarely see discussed is its use of turnstiles. Despite being relatively obscure, the idea has quietly spread far beyond Solaris. Variations of it can now be found in major operating systems, web browsers, and language runtimes. In fact, you’re probably using several implementations of the same basic concept right now! ↫ Loïc Grégoire Im not going to pretend to understand all of this, but I know you people do, and many of you will definitely find this interesting to read. Also note that Grégoire develops their own operating system kernel called zag.
- Lotus Notes and the dangers of starting from scratch
Lotus Notes was the future of communications, a decade before laptops had WiFi. Yet of all things, it wasn’t even an email app. It was a notes app, a collaboration tool, an all-things-to-all-people software that let you build apps in the way Access and Airtable later would. That, and the notes could be used for email. Love it or hate it (and there were plenty on both sides of the fence), what you couldn’t do was ignore it. This email-and-everything-else platform showed what the future of digital communications would become — and provoked, as email itself was always doomed to provoke, equal measures of awe and exasperation. ↫ Matthew Guay I have no experience with Lotus Notes, but I do have some vague memories of the software being used at my parents employers back in the late 90s. Note that Notes still exists and is in active development as HCL Domino (server) and Notes (the client). If you really want to, you can still run your company of office on Notes. I wonder how many actually still do.
- FreeBSD working on new service manager
The BSD news will continue until morale improves. I missed this two months ago, but Baptiste Daroussin, creator of pkg and poudriere, is working on a service manager for FreeBSD called rcd. rcd(8) is a service manager daemon called by init(8) (in place of /etc/rc). It reads service definitions from UCL unit files (/etc/rcd.d/*.ucl), builds a dependency DAG, and starts services in parallel. After boot completes, it forks to background and stays running as a supervision daemon (automatically restarting failed services and accepting control commands via a UNIX socket). ↫ Baptiste Daroussin Its fully backwards compatible, and works on any existing FreeBSD system without having to make any modifications to rc.d scripts or configuration files. In fact, you can install it on a running system, make zero changes to your files, and reboot to use it, which is quite impressive. The most immediate benefit is, of course, faster boot times, but youll also get several other benefits already found on similar systems like Solaris smf. Theres a migration path in place, with a hard promise to maintain compatibility with rc.d scripts for as long as needed. This gives maintainers as much time as they need to convert to rcds own unit files.
- FreeBSD 14.5 released
Yesterday we had the final maintenance release for the NetBSD 9.x series, and today we have FreeBSD 14.5 entering the scene. Since this release is occurring late in a legacy stable branch, there are few new features; rather, the focus is primarily on maintenance. As such, changes since 14.4-RELEASE consist mostly of bug fixes, driver updates, and new versions of externally-maintained software. ↫ FreeBSD 14.5 release announcement The adventurous among us are already on the 15.x branch, but those of us running mission-critical systems are most likely still rocking 14.x, and for you, this is a must.
- Antiquated HTML snippets and artefacts
With ever-changing devices, browsers, operating systems, form factors, specifications, personal preferences, tooling, and corporate interests, the web is in a constant state of flux. As a result, so is the HTML we write. For every line of the HTML specification itself that has changed since the language’s inception, there are many more bits of HTML that have seen what I’ll call ‘environmental’ changes. Adaptations to differing browsers, extensions, integrations, and systems which we find HTML existing in. This article doesn’t cover once-specced but now obsolete bits of HTML but instead looks at all the snippets that have wormed their way into websites as result of, or in combat against, third-party integrations, browser competition, vendor extensions, and platform-specific hacks. The bits of HTML that were included for reasons, and which have been forgotten for present irrelevance. The snippets that live on only in the markup of sites from bygone eras and in the minds of those who fought during the browser wars. ↫ Declan Chidlow I dont do any HTML or website development, and even I clearly recognise quite a few of these. Especially the countless relics of the large technology companies trying to worm their way into the various web standards of decades ago serve as a stark reminder of how many times they tried and failed which should tell you something about all the times they tried and succeeded.
- NetBSD 9.5 released
Speaking of NetBSD, the fifth and final 9x release has been released. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons since the release of NetBSD 9.4 in April 2024. It is fully compatible with NetBSD 9.0. This also marks the end-of-support for all NetBSD-9.x releases and the netbsd-9 branch. All users still on this branch are urgently asked to update to a more recent release like NetBSD 11.0 (with 11.1 upcoming at the end of this month) or NetBSD 10.2 (to be released in a few days). ↫ Martin Husemann at the NetBSD blog The full release notes have more information.
- NetBSD 11 from scratch
Why use an installer to install an operating system, when you can just do it yourself, step by step? In this post I will cover the installation process of the NetBSD operating system, including disk level encryption. Instead of using the standard installation program (sysinst), I decided to install NetBSD “from scratch”, as a way to dive into the internals, and learn more about the nuts and bolts of this great operating system. ↫ Luis Falcon A fun weekend project for next weekend.
- Microsoft unveils a Windows variant for developers with 64GB of unified RAM
Zenith is a variant of Windows for developer-class devices!. Project Zenith comes with a set of pre-installed tools spanning languages and runtimes, source control, and productivity tools. Windows Terminal and Visual Studio Code are pinned to the Taskbar by default, putting your favorite tools within immediate reach. We’ve also pre-configured Windows Settings for coding across File Explorer, Search, Start, and the Taskbar. File Explorer shows file extensions, hidden files, the full path in the title bar, and the details pane, with long-path support enabled. Recently used files and folders and sync provider tips are turned off for a cleaner workspace. In Search and Start, Command Palette is enabled, while Start menu tips and account notifications are turned off to reduce distractions. Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) has become foundational for running Linux workloads on Windows. Last year we open-sourced WSL. Building on that momentum at Build 2026, we integrated WSL more deeply into Windows with WSL containers to provide a built-in way to create, run, and interact with Linux containers directly on Windows. ↫ Logan Iyer at the Windows Blogs Its highly unlikely youll be using this Zenith Windows flavour any time soon, as it requires 64GB of unified RAM with 250 GB/s memory bandwidth. In 2026, thats a serious ask. On top of that, its not entirely clear to me if Zenith will be available as a separate Windows variant, without having to buy a complete device. Of course, it would be trivial to set all of this up on any fresh Windows installation.
- KDE Plasma 6.7.5 Released with Discover, KWin, Wayland, and HDR Fixes
by George Whittaker
The KDE Project has officially released KDE Plasma 6.7.5, delivering another round of bug fixes and stability improvements for the Plasma 6.7 desktop series. Released on September 8, 2026, the update contains roughly a month of fixes and updated translations contributed since Plasma 6.7.4 arrived in early August.
Unlike a major Plasma release, version 6.7.5 doesn't introduce a large collection of new desktop features. Instead, KDE has focused on fixing problems affecting Discover, KWin, Wayland, networking, System Monitor, Plasma Desktop, RPM-OSTree systems, Snap updates, HDR rendering, and several other components.
For users already running Plasma 6.7, this makes version 6.7.5 primarily a maintenance upgrade intended to make the desktop more dependable ahead of the next major Plasma series.
KDE Plasma 6.7.5 Arrives as the September Bugfix Release
KDE describes Plasma 6.7.5 as its September bugfix release for the Plasma 6 desktop.
The broader Plasma 6.7 series originally arrived in June 2026, followed by a succession of maintenance releases:
Plasma 6.7.1 on June 23 Plasma 6.7.2 on June 30 Plasma 6.7.3 on July 14 Plasma 6.7.4 on August 4 Plasma 6.7.5 on September 8
KDE's official download infrastructure confirms that the Plasma 6.7.5 source packages became available on September 8.
This slower maintenance cadence later in a Plasma series is normal. Once the most urgent post-release problems have been addressed, KDE generally shifts more development attention toward the next feature release while continuing to provide important fixes for the current branch.
Discover Receives Several Important Fixes
KDE's Discover software center receives some of the most noticeable improvements in Plasma 6.7.5.
One particularly annoying problem could cause Discover to become stuck while checking for updates when its Snap backend was installed but no Snap applications actually had updates available.
That problem has now been corrected.
Discover also behaves more reliably when fwupd, the Linux firmware update service, is unavailable. Previously, a broken or intentionally masked fwupd service could interfere with Discover's normal operation. Plasma 6.7.5 allows the rest of the application to continue functioning correctly in that situation.
This is useful for systems where firmware updating isn't supported, where administrators intentionally disable the service, or where fwupd encounters a configuration problem.
Firmware Updates No Longer Incorrectly Require Reboots
Another Discover correction addresses a regression involving firmware updates.
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- Slackware 16 Alpha 1 Released with Linux 6.18 LTS, GCC 16.2, and Plasma 6
by George Whittaker
One of Linux's oldest surviving distributions is moving closer to its next major release. Slackware 16 Alpha 1 became available on September 5, 2026, marking the first formal alpha milestone on the road toward Slackware Linux 16. The release follows a major rebuild of Slackware-current using a substantially newer GNU toolchain and brings together several upgrades that have accumulated since Slackware 15.0 arrived more than four years ago.
The alpha combines Linux 6.18 LTS, GCC 16.2.0, glibc 2.44, GNU Binutils 2.47, KDE Plasma 6, and numerous updated user-space packages while retaining much of the deliberately traditional architecture that has distinguished Slackware for decades.
For longtime Slackware users, Alpha 1 is particularly significant because it provides the clearest indication yet that the lengthy Slackware 16 development cycle is moving toward an eventual stable release.
Slackware 16 Finally Reaches Alpha
Slackware doesn't operate according to the predictable six-month or annual release schedules used by many other Linux distributions.
Instead, development takes place continuously through the Slackware-current branch. Patrick Volkerding and other contributors update that development tree until it reaches a state considered suitable for a stable release.
The previous major version, Slackware 15.0, was released in February 2022. More than four and a half years later, Slackware-current has now officially reached the first alpha milestone for version 16.
Volkerding marked the milestone following a complete rebuild of the distribution with its newly upgraded compiler, C library, and binary utilities.
The short changelog announcement even suggested there might finally be "a light at the end of the tunnel," a promising indication for Slackware users waiting for version 16.
The Entire Distribution Was Rebuilt
One of the most consequential changes behind Alpha 1 is a complete package rebuild.
Slackware's development toolchain has moved to:
GCC 16.2.0 glibc 2.44 GNU Binutils 2.47
After introducing those components, Slackware rebuilt the distribution's packages against the updated environment.
A full rebuild is much more significant than simply replacing three packages.
GCC is responsible for compiling much of the software distributed with Slackware, glibc provides fundamental C library functionality used throughout Linux user space, and Binutils supplies essential development utilities including the GNU assembler and linker.
Rebuilding the distribution against these versions gives Slackware 16 a considerably newer foundation than its predecessor.
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- Top AEO Tools for Linux and Developer Documentation Teams
by Malana VanTyler
These platforms help teams monitor how technical content appears in AI-generated answers, from brand mentions and citations to accuracy and referral traffic.
Search is splitting into two experiences: one built around ranked pages and another around generated answers. As AI platforms summarize Linux tutorials, open-source project documentation, API references and technical guidance, teams need ways to measure whether their content is mentioned, cited and accurately represented.
An Go to Full Article
- The New Way Security Teams Evaluate Pentesting Vendors
by George Whittaker
Why security buyers are rethinking what matters most.
Security teams typically don’t struggle to find vulnerabilities as much as they have in the past. The harder part usually begins after the report arrives, once dozens of findings land in front of engineering teams already juggling patch schedules, production deadlines, and internal disagreements about urgency. Platforms like Go to Full Article
- New Linux “Steal Governor” Targets CPU Contention in Overcommitted Virtual Machines
by George Whittaker
Linux kernel developers are considering a new “steal governor” designed to improve performance when multiple virtual machines compete for limited physical CPU resources. The proposal uses the amount of CPU steal time observed inside a guest to dynamically reduce or expand the number of virtual CPUs on which that VM prefers to schedule work.
The feature is primarily aimed at heavily virtualized servers where administrators deliberately assign more virtual CPUs than the host can physically execute at once. Under heavy load, that overcommitment can lead to frequent vCPU preemption, lock-holder delays, cache disruption, and ultimately lower overall throughput.
The latest v11 patch series was posted on August 25, 2026, and its developer has proposed consideration during the Linux 7.3 development cycle, potentially targeting Linux 7.4 for inclusion. This means the feature is still under review and is not part of a stable Linux kernel yet.
What Is CPU Steal Time?
CPU steal time is a concept specific to virtualization.
Imagine a virtual machine has eight vCPUs. From inside that VM, the operating system behaves as though those eight CPUs are available. But those virtual CPUs ultimately need to run on the host's physical processors.
If several VMs are competing for the same physical CPU resources, the hypervisor may temporarily prevent one VM's vCPU from running so another VM can use the processor.
The time during which the guest wanted to execute but couldn't because the hypervisor was using the underlying CPU elsewhere is known as steal time.
High steal time is therefore a useful indication that the physical host is experiencing CPU contention.
The “Noisy Neighbor” Problem
The steal governor is designed primarily to address what virtualization engineers commonly call the noisy neighbor problem.
Consider a server hosting several VMs:
VM A has 32 vCPUs. VM B has 32 vCPUs. VM C has 32 vCPUs. The physical server has only 64 CPU threads available to those workloads.
That configuration can work perfectly well when the VMs aren't simultaneously busy.
If all three suddenly become heavily loaded, however, they may collectively request more CPU time than the physical machine can provide.
The hypervisor then has to constantly switch between vCPUs.
Those interruptions can become particularly expensive if a vCPU is preempted while holding a lock or executing another latency-sensitive section of code. Other threads may then wait for a vCPU that isn't currently being allowed to run.
The result can be counterintuitive: giving the VMs more virtual CPUs can sometimes make the combined workloads slower.
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- Thunderbird 154 Released with System Tray Mode, Microsoft Graph Support, and Major Mail Fixes
by George Whittaker
The Thunderbird team has officially released Thunderbird 154, delivering several useful new features alongside a substantial collection of fixes for email, calendars, address books, authentication, and stability. Released on August 18, 2026, Thunderbird 154 is now the latest monthly release of the popular open-source email client.
For Linux users, one of the most interesting additions is a new optional system tray mode, while Microsoft 365 users gain Microsoft Graph support. The release also improves global search, attachment handling, IMAP reliability, Exchange authentication, and CalDAV synchronization.
New Optional System Tray Mode
One of Thunderbird 154's most welcome additions is an optional system tray mode.
When enabled, closing Thunderbird's last window no longer needs to completely terminate the application. Instead, Thunderbird can remain running in the background through the system tray.
This can be particularly useful for users who want Thunderbird available throughout the day without keeping its main window open.
For Linux desktop users, the feature could make Thunderbird feel more like a traditional background email client, especially on desktops where tray-based applications remain part of the normal workflow.
Microsoft Graph Enabled for Microsoft 365
Thunderbird 154 also enables Microsoft Graph for Microsoft 365.
Microsoft Graph is Microsoft's API platform for accessing Microsoft 365 services and data. Its integration is particularly important as Thunderbird continues improving its support for Exchange and Microsoft-hosted email environments.
Thunderbird has been steadily expanding its Microsoft ecosystem compatibility, making the open-source client increasingly practical for users who need to access workplace Microsoft 365 accounts from Linux.
Global Search Gets a Useful New Option
Thunderbird's global search functionality also receives an improvement.
Users can now configure global search results to open in list view by default, providing another option for people who prefer a more traditional message-list workflow when reviewing search results.
It's a relatively small addition, but one that can make repeated searches more convenient for users managing large mailboxes.
Better Attachment Management
Thunderbird 154 introduces several improvements for handling email attachments.
A new "Copy To" folder context menu has been added for message/rfc822 attachments, and these attached messages can now be dragged directly into Thunderbird's folder tree.
These changes should make it easier to organize attached email messages without having to use additional steps or workarounds.
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- Linux Kernel 7.2 Officially Released with Cache-Aware Scheduling, USB4STREAM, and Major AMD Improvements
by George Whittaker
Linux creator Linus Torvalds has officially released Linux Kernel 7.2, opening another chapter in the development of the world's most widely deployed open-source kernel. The final release arrived on August 16, 2026, following seven release candidates and roughly two months of development. Kernel.org now lists Linux 7.2 as the latest mainline release.
Linux 7.2 is a substantial update with improvements spanning CPU scheduling, storage performance, AMD and Intel hardware support, graphics, networking, virtualization, RISC-V, and Apple Silicon. Among its biggest additions are Cache-Aware Scheduling, USB4STREAM, AMD ISP4 support, and initial AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 FRL functionality.
Cache-Aware Scheduling Lands in Linux
One of the most interesting performance additions in Linux 7.2 is Cache-Aware Scheduling (CAS).
Modern processors frequently contain multiple last-level caches shared between groups of CPU cores. Traditional scheduling decisions don't always account optimally for those cache relationships, potentially moving tasks between cores in ways that increase cache misses.
Cache-Aware Scheduling gives the Linux scheduler additional information about cache topology so it can make smarter decisions about where workloads should run.
Early testing during development produced particularly impressive results for some server workloads, including major gains in certain MySQL configurations. The improvement varies significantly by hardware and workload, so users shouldn't expect similarly dramatic gains everywhere.
For modern AMD and Intel systems with increasingly complex CPU topologies, however, CAS provides another tool for extracting better performance from existing hardware.
USB4STREAM Enables High-Speed Connections Between Computers
Linux 7.2 also introduces USB4STREAM, an interesting new capability for transferring data directly between computers over USB4 or Thunderbolt connections.
Rather than treating USB primarily as a traditional host-to-device interface, USB4STREAM can facilitate high-speed communication between systems.
Potential applications include:
Large file transfers Development environments High-speed system-to-system networking Debugging Specialized workstation workflows
With USB4 and Thunderbolt increasingly common on laptops and desktops, this could eventually become a useful option for moving large amounts of data between Linux machines.
AMD ISP4 Finally Reaches the Mainline Kernel
AMD users receive another important addition with the arrival of the AMD ISP4 driver.
ISP stands for Image Signal Processor, hardware responsible for processing camera data before it reaches applications.
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- Linux 7.2 Reverts DRM Scheduler Change After Serious GPU Regressions
by George Whittaker
Linux kernel developers made a significant last-minute graphics change for Linux 7.2, reverting the DRM GPU scheduler back to its previous FIFO policy by default after the newer fair scheduling implementation caused serious performance regressions. The revert was submitted just before the final Linux 7.2 release after users reported severe slowdowns and desktop freezes under sustained GPU workloads.
The decision demonstrates the kernel community’s conservative approach to regressions: when a new feature causes problems this late in a development cycle, restoring known-good behavior can be safer than rushing an incomplete fix.
What Changed in Linux 7.2?
Earlier in the Linux 7.2 development cycle, the DRM subsystem switched its default GPU scheduling policy to a new fair scheduler.
The goal was to distribute GPU execution time more fairly between competing workloads. Instead of relying on the established FIFO scheduling behavior, the new implementation uses a fairness-oriented approach designed to prevent one workload from dominating GPU resources.
However, real-world testing exposed problems that had not appeared during earlier development.
The final DRM fixes for Linux 7.2 therefore:
Revert the fair scheduler changes Restore FIFO as the default Restore selectable scheduling policies Mark the fair scheduling policy as experimental
DRM maintainer Dave Airlie acknowledged that developers may have moved too aggressively when switching to the new scheduler.
AMD Radeon Gaming Exposed the Regression
The problem became particularly noticeable during gaming on an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT.
A regression report described severe performance degradation when the GPU remained close to 100% utilization. A game running through Proton could drop to roughly 10 FPS or freeze, while audio continued playing normally.
The problem could become severe enough that the entire KDE Plasma Wayland session stopped responding, sometimes requiring the compositor to be killed or the computer to be rebooted.
Interestingly, reducing GPU load—such as by opening an in-game menu or switching away from the game—could immediately stop the stuttering.
FIFO Worked, FAIR Did Not
Testing provided strong evidence that the new scheduling policy was responsible.
The reporter compared Linux 7.2 release candidates using FAIR against configurations using the previous FIFO policy. Under otherwise similar conditions:
FAIR: reproduced the performance problem.
FIFO: survived extended stress testing without the regression.
Linux 7.1.x also behaved normally.
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- Intel’s Linux Vulkan Driver Adds AV1 Video Encoding for Arc Alchemist GPUs
by George Whittaker
Intel’s open-source Linux graphics stack has taken another step forward with hardware-accelerated AV1 encoding through Vulkan Video. New code merged for Mesa’s ANV Vulkan driver enables the VK_KHR_video_encode_av1 extension on Intel’s DG2/Alchemist graphics hardware, including Arc A-Series GPUs.
The development expands Intel’s Vulkan Video capabilities on Linux and gives applications another standardized way to access the dedicated video encoding hardware found in modern Intel GPUs.
AV1 Encoding Arrives in Intel ANV
The key change is support for the Vulkan extension VK_KHR_video_encode_av1 in Mesa’s open-source Intel ANV driver.
The extension was finalized by the Khronos Group in 2024 and provides a standardized Vulkan interface for hardware-accelerated AV1 encoding. It complements Vulkan Video’s existing AV1 decoding support and means Vulkan can provide both encoding and decoding interfaces for AV1, H.264, and H.265.
Intel had previously stated that its Arc graphics products would support Vulkan Video AV1 encoding through a future software update.
Initially Targeting Intel Arc Alchemist
The newly enabled Linux support specifically targets DG2, better known commercially as Intel’s Arc Alchemist GPU generation.
These GPUs already contain dedicated hardware capable of AV1 encoding, so the Mesa update does not add AV1 capability through software. Instead, it provides Vulkan applications with another way to access the GPU’s existing hardware video engine.
That distinction is important because hardware encoding can deliver much better performance and efficiency than encoding AV1 entirely on the CPU.
Why AV1 Matters
AV1 has become increasingly important for streaming, screen recording, video conferencing, and online video distribution.
The codec can provide high image quality at relatively low bitrates, making it attractive for applications where bandwidth and storage efficiency matter. It is also royalty-free, which has helped encourage adoption throughout the open-source ecosystem.
Hardware AV1 encoding can be particularly useful for:
Game streaming
Desktop recording
Live broadcasting
Video conferencing
Video transcoding
Content creation
For Linux users with supported Intel Arc hardware, Vulkan Video now has the potential to provide a common API for these workloads.
Building on H.264 and H.265 Support
The AV1 work follows recent improvements to Intel’s Vulkan Video encoding support for other codecs.
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