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1825 Monetary Lane Suite #104 Carrollton, TX
Do a presentation at NTLUG.
What is the Linux Installation Project?
Real companies using Linux!
Not just for business anymore.
Providing ready to run platforms on Linux
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Show Descriptions... (Show All)
(Two Column)
- A massive pile of security updates for Saturday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (.NET 10.0, .NET 11.0, .NET 8.0, .NET 9.0, aspell, bind, bind9.18, container-tools:1.0, container-tools:rhel8, curl, dogtag-pki, ignition, java-21-openjdk, python-pillow, tomcat, and virt:rhel, virt-devel:rhel), Debian (antiword, cyrus-sasl2, dovecot, dpdk, nss, python-git, and thunderbird), Fedora (7zip, aegisub, aom, apptainer, arm-none-eabi-binutils-cs, assimp, avr-binutils, baresip, barman, bind9-next, btrfs-backup-ng, chezmoi, chromium, cifs-utils, clevis-pin-trustee, composer, containerd, curl, docker-buildx, dotnet10.0, evolution, evolution-data-server, evolution-ews, exim, fips-provider, firefox, flare-im, forgejo, freeipa, freerdp, gcc, gegl04, ghostscript, GitPython, glib-networking, gnome-shell-extension-gsconnect, golang-x-mobile, hcloud, helix, httpd, ImageMagick, iperf3, jfrog-cli, jupyterlab, keepassxc, kernel, knot-resolver, krb5, kryoptic, libdigidocpp, libheif, libindi, libinstpatch, libpng12, libpng15, librabbitmq, libre, libXi, libzip, linux-firmware, Lmod, log4net, markdownlint-cli2, mingw-freetype, mingw-gstreamer1, mingw-gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free, mingw-gstreamer1-plugins-base, mingw-gstreamer1-plugins-good, mingw-libpng, mingw-LibRaw, mingw-python-certifi, mingw-python3, mongo-c-driver, mstflint, mutt, nant, nebula, nix, nsd, ntpsec, openbao, openjpeg, openssl3, openvpn, perl-Badger, perl-CLI-Simple, perl-Cpanel-JSON-XS, perl-CSS-Inliner, perl-Encoding-FixLatin, perl-ExtUtils-Typemaps-Default, perl-GD-SecurityImage, perl-HTML-Query, perl-libnet, perl-Markdown-Render, perl-Net-IDN-Encode, perl-Net-Whois-Raw, perl-Plack, perl-Plack-Middleware-ReverseProxy, perl-Text-CSV_XS, pgbouncer, php-getid3, php-pecl-mongodb2, python-boto3, python-botocore, python-cairosvg, python-django5, python-django6, python-jupyter-builder, python-mkdocs-rss-plugin, python-nbdime, python-nh3, python-notebook, python-pydantic-core, python-pypdf, python-uv-build, python3.10, python3.11, python3.12, python3.13, python3.14, qdigidoc, qdl, qt5-qtbase, radicale, rclone, rt, ruff, rust-ammonia, rust-archive-trait, rust-astral-html, rust-astral-ini, rust-astral-mail-headers, rust-astral-pubgrub, rust-astral-version-ranges, rust-astral_async_http_range_reader, rust-astral_async_zip, rust-asyncband, rust-backtrace, rust-blake2b_simd, rust-blake3, rust-cargo-semver-checks, rust-chrono, rust-clap-cargo, rust-constant_time_eq, rust-dua-cli, rust-faster-hex, rust-gengo-bin, rust-gitui, rust-lzma-rust2, rust-object, rust-object0.37, rust-object0.38, rust-object0.39, rust-onefetch, rust-ppmd-rust, rust-quick-junit, rust-rbw, rust-regorus, rust-reqsign, rust-reqsign-aliyun-oss, rust-reqsign-aws-core, rust-reqsign-aws-v4, rust-reqsign-aws-v4a, rust-reqsign-azure-storage, rust-reqsign-command-execute-tokio, rust-reqsign-core, rust-reqsign-file-read-tokio, rust-reqsign-google, rust-reqsign-http-send-reqwest, rust-reqsign-huaweicloud-obs, rust-reqsign-oracle, rust-reqsign-tencent-cos, rust-reqsign-volcengine-tos, rust-routinator, rust-rustls, rust-ruzstd, rust-sccache, rust-tar-codec, rust-tar-framing, rust-tokei, rust-totp-rs, rust-trustfall-rustdoc-adapter, rust-trustfall-rustdoc-adapter57, rust-trustfall-rustdoc-adapter60, rust-typed-path, rust-zip, rust-zip0.6, rust-zip2, rustup, samba, SDL3_image, socat, stargz-snapshotter, stgit, sudo, syncthing, thunderbird, tor, trafficserver, ty, unbound, unshield, uv, webkitgtk, wordpress, xorg-x11-server, xorg-x11-server-Xwayland, zchunk, and zvbi), Mageia (libgit2), Red Hat (go-toolset:rhel8 and rhc), SUSE (ab-av1, ansible-core, aws-nitro-enclaves-cli, bouncycastle, cadvisor, chromium, cifs-utils, coredns, crun, dr_libs-devel-20260901, dssim, epiphany, expat, forgejo, freetype2-devel, fuseiso-20260614, gh, ghostscript, gosec, gvfs, hashcat, hauler, hugo, ImageMagick, kernel-devel, kubevirt1.9, libmikmod, libsoup, percona-toolkit, perl-cpanel-json-xs, perl-dancer2-plugin-auth-extensible, perl-mozilla-ca, pocketbase, putty, python-brotli, python-CairoSVG, python-cairosvg, python-django, python-pypdf, python-urllib3_1, roundcubemail, rsyslog, shadowsocks-rust, shadowsocks-libev, stgit, suseconnect-ng, tailscale, trivy, and vlc), and Ubuntu (brotli).
- How We Could Have Backdoored Bash (Hacktron blog)
The Hacktron blog documents howthe group was able to compromise the GNU Savannah forge and could havepushed malware into any of the projects hosted there.
Using Hacktron, we found that an email address like `touch${IFS}/tmp/savane-rce-proof`@attacker.example gave any registered user code execution on its backend. From there, we made our account a superuser, impersonated Bash's maintainer, and confirmed we could add an SSH key with push access to the upstream Bash repository. An unpatched kernel gave us root access and access to a GNU backup server. We reported it to the FSF on May 11, 2026.
- [$] Removing binder.c
The final talk at Kangrejos 2026 was about the removal of the C implementationof Android'sBinder driver, the primary interprocess communication mechanismused on Android devices. Carlos Llamas announced that he had deleted the Ccode to general applause, and then shared some insights about what went intoreplacing the C implementation. Alice Ryhl, who has worked on the Rustimplementation for some years, added her own thoughts about what the mostdifficult and interesting parts of the transition were.
- Haas: Postgres 19 is late, and it's AI's fault
PostgreSQL developer Robert Haas writesabout the struggles the project has encountered in putting together itsnext release.
In the end, I don't think that the delay in shipping PostgreSQL 19 is particularly concerning. It is not a long delay in the grand scheme of things, and it emerges directly from the project's concern for quality.
The long-term picture is less clear and in some ways more troubling: given that we have forty years of bugs that humans were unable to find but LLMs are quite capable of discovering, how are we ever going to catch up, and how will PostgreSQL continue to innovate? Right now, I'm not sure. What I do know is that I, and many others, are working really hard to figure it out.
LWN looked at the PostgreSQL 19 releaseand its challenges in September.
- Remote code execution on Linux systems with multipath TCP
On October 27, LLM provider Anthropicreportedon aremotely exploitable use-after-free bug affecting systems withmultipath TCP listeners open. The bug works by triggering a response to aretransmitted SYN packet at the same moment that the TCP connection isestablished in another thread, causing the first thread to access theconnection's options structure after the second thread has freed it. The firstthread can then disclose kernel memory or cause a buffer overflow, writing anattacker-controlled payload. The fix wasto only free the structure after an RCU grace period.On October 29, the Go security teamadvisedthat all programs written in Go use multipath TCP by default, so manysystems may be unknowingly vulnerable. And, of course, there is always thepossibility of related bugs in other sections of the TCP stack. Users may bewise to update to a patched kernel as soon as one becomes available for theirdistribution.
- Security updates for Friday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (aspell, cjose, curl, gcc-toolset-15-gcc, httpd:2.4, ignition, java-21-openjdk, libX11, libXi, libXrender, libXtst, mariadb:10.11, nodejs:24, python-pillow, python3.12-urllib3, and webkit2gtk3), Debian (imagemagick, libdatetime-timezone-perl, python-git, tor, tzdata, vlc, and wordpress), Fedora (accessibility-inspector, akonadi-calendar, akonadi-calendar-tools, akonadi-contacts, akonadi-import-wizard, akonadi-mime, akonadi-search, akonadi-server, akonadiconsole, akregator, alligator, analitza, angelfish, applet-window-buttons, arianna, ark, artikulate, audex, audiocd-kio, audiotube, aurorae, baloo-widgets, blinken, bluedevil, bomber, bovo, breeze-gtk, brotli, bup, calendarsupport, calindori, calligra, cantor, colord-kde, cxx-rust-cssparser, dolphin, dolphin-plugins, dragon, elisa-player, eventviews, falkon, fcitx-configtool, ffmpegthumbs, filelight, firefox, flatpak-kcm, francis, ghostwriter, granatier, grantlee-editor, grantleetheme, grub2-breeze-theme, gwenview, incidenceeditor, isoimagewriter, itinerary, juk, k3b, kaccounts-integration, kaccounts-providers, kactivitymanagerd, kaddressbook, kajongg, kalarm, kalgebra, kalk, kalm, kalzium, kamera, kamoso, kanagram, kapman, kapptemplate, kasts, kate, katomic, kbackup, kblackbox, kblocks, kbounce, kbruch, kcachegrind, kcalc, kcalutils, kcharselect, kclock, kcolorchooser, kcron, kde-cli-tools, kde-connect, kde-dev-scripts, kde-dev-utils, kde-gtk-config, kde-inotify-survey, kde-partitionmanager, kdebugsettings, kdecoration, kdeedu-data, kdegraphics-mobipocket, kdegraphics-thumbnailers, kdenetwork-filesharing, kdenlive, kdepim-addons, kdepim-runtime, kdeplasma-addons, kdesdk-kioslaves, kdesdk-thumbnailers, kdevelop, kdevelop-php, kdevelop-python, kdf, kdialog, kdiamond, kdnssd, kdominate, keditbookmarks, keepsecret, keysmith, kf6-baloo, kfind, kfourinline, kgeography, kget, kglobalacceld, kgoldrunner, kgpg, kgraphviewer, khangman, khealthcertificate, khelpcenter, kidentitymanagement, kig, kigo, killbots, kimagemapeditor, kimap, kinfocenter, kio-admin, kio-extras, kio-gdrive, kirigami-gallery, kiriki, kiten, kitinerary, kjournald, kjumpingcube, kldap, kleopatra, klettres, klickety, klines, kmag, kmahjongg, kmail, kmail-account-wizard, kmailtransport, kmbox, kmenuedit, kmines, kmix, kmousetool, kmouth, kmplot, knavalbattle, knetwalk, knights, knighttime, knot, koko, kolf, kollision, kolourpaint, kompare, kongress, konqueror, konquest, konsole, kontact, kontactinterface, kontrast, konversation, kopeninghours, korganizer, kosmindoormap, kpat, kpimtextedit, kpipewire, kpkpass, kpmcore, kpublictransport, kqtquickcharts, krdc, krdp, krecorder, kreversi, krfb, kruler, ksanecore, kscreen, kscreenlocker, kshisen, ksirk, ksmtp, ksnakeduel, kspaceduel, ksquares, ksshaskpass, ksudoku, ksystemlog, ksystemstats, kteatime, ktimer, ktnef, ktorrent, ktouch, ktrip, ktuberling, kturtle, kubrick, kunifiedpush, kup-backup, kwalletmanager5, kwave, kwayland, kwayland-integration, kweather, kweathercore, kwin, kwin-zones, kwordquiz, kwrited, layer-shell-qt, libgravatar, libkcddb, libkdcraw, libkdegames, libkdepim, libkeduvocdocument, libkexiv2, libkgapi, libkleo, libkmahjongg, libkomparediff2, libksane, libkscreen, libksieve, libksysguard, libktorrent, libplasma, libquotient, lokalize, lskat, mailcommon, mailimporter, marble, markdownpart, massif-visualizer, mbox-importer, merkuro, messagelib, mimetreeparser, mingw-python-certifi, minuet, neochat, ocean-sound-theme, okular, oxygen-sounds, palapeli, pam-kwallet, parley, perl-Alien-Brotli, picmi, pim-data-exporter, pim-sieve-editor, pimcommon, plasma-activities, plasma-activities-stats, plasma-bigscreen, plasma-breeze, plasma-browser-integration, plasma-camera, plasma-desktop, plasma-dialer, plasma-discover, plasma-disks, plasma-drkonqi, plasma-firewall, plasma-integration, plasma-keyboard, plasma-login-manager, plasma-milou, plasma-mobile, plasma-nano, plasma-nm, plasma-oxygen, plasma-pa, plasma-phonebook, plasma-print-manager, plasma-sdk, plasma-settings, plasma-setup, plasma-systemmonitor, plasma-systemsettings, plasma-thunderbolt, plasma-union, plasma-vault, plasma-wayland-protocols, plasma-welcome, plasma-workspace, plasma-workspace-wallpapers, plasma5support, plasmatube, plymouth-kcm, plymouth-theme-breeze, polkit-kde, powerdevil, poxml, qmlkonsole, qqc2-breeze-style, qrca, rocs, sddm-kcm, signon-kwallet-extension, skanlite, skanpage, skladnik, spacebar, spectacle, step, svgpart, sweeper, tokodon, trafficserver, umbrello, xdg-desktop-portal-kde, yakuake, and zanshin), Mageia (cfitsio, libsolv, tomcat, and xrdp), Oracle (bind, cjose, curl, dogtag-pki, expat, gcc-toolset-15-gcc, ignition, kernel, libX11, libXrender, libXtst, php, python3.12-urllib3, and webkit2gtk3), SUSE (389-ds, aws-nitro-enclaves-binaryblobs-upstream, brotli, chromium, firefox, flatpak, gnutls, google-osconfig-agent, haproxy, hawk2, kernel, libapr1, libtcnative-1-0, tomcat, liboath-devel, libpcre2-16-0, librecad, libXi-devel, libXtst-devel, python311, python313, python313-markdown2, python313-xhtml2pdf, rabbitmq-server, roundcubemail, rust-keylime, and xen), and Ubuntu (dotnet8, dotnet10, dotnet11).
- [$] Containers as a recognized kernel object
The foundation of the design for containers in the kernel is that thereisn't one; there is no container abstraction that the kernel recognizes.Instead, the kernel provides a long list of components — namespaces,control groups, sandboxing mechanisms, and more — along with a note thatsays, in effect, "some assembly required". There have been attempts (repeatedly) over the years to turn containersinto first-class objects with kernel support, but they have never gottenfar. Now Josef Bacik is making atry with a concept that he calls "cells".
- Security updates for Thursday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (cjose, emacs, expat, gcc-toolset-15-gcc, java-17-openjdk, java-25-openjdk, kernel, kernel-rt, libX11, libXi, libXrender, libXtst, mod_auth_openidc:2.3, pki-deps:10.6, thunderbird, webkit2gtk3, and yggdrasil), Debian (chromium, firefox-esr, and openjdk-25), Fedora (firefox, librabbitmq, libreswan, python-pillow, and unbound), Mageia (fio and python3, python-pip), Oracle (buildah, cjose, container-tools:ol8, emacs, flute, libbase, libfonts, libformula, liblayout, libloader, libreoffice, librepository, libserializer, pentaho-libxml, pentaho-reporting-flow-engine, and sac, kernel, libX11, libXi, libXrender, libXtst, podman, python-urllib3, thunderbird, and yggdrasil), Red Hat (firefox, goose, kernel, kernel package, kernel-rt, librsvg2, multiple packages, php:7.4, sudo, thunderbird, and xorg-x11-server), and SUSE (alsa, ca-certificates-mozilla, chromedriver, cifs-utils, coredns, coreutils, cpupower, curl, cyrus-sasl, docker, dpdk, haproxy, kernel, libpoppler-cpp3, libsndfile-devel, libzbar-devel, mozilla-nss, MozillaFirefox, nginx, openai-codex, and perl-Cpanel-JSON-XS).
- Binance Replenishes 90% of Stolen $6.3B, Pledges They'll Cover It All, Reopen Sunday
"We've now replenished 90% of the stolen assets, and we're committed to covering the remaining 10%," Binance co-CEO Richard Teng posted on X, adding that "Our users will not bear the financial impact of this incident." "Binance said it was able to replace the funds taken in the record hack by using company money to buy new tokens," reports NBC News:The remaining 10% consists of tokens that are less liquid, meaning they may take longer to buy, it said in a statement posted on X... Binance said it has set aside around $6.34 billion of company funds internally to cover the losses. The money spent re-buying tokens came from using part of its $1 billion Secure Asset Fund for Users, a bitcoin reserve it holds to protect customers in the event of security breaches, as well as some of its Futures Insurance Fund, and the company's own corporate treasury, it said on X. NBC News reports that the FBI blames the breach on a North Korea-sponsored group known as TraderTraitor:Members of [TraderTraitor] were observed by law enforcement converting stolen assets into the cryptocurrency ethereum, the FBI said in a statement, adding that it expects "further laundering" of the assets through the use of related technology... After the hack, the exchange stopped allowing customers to withdraw their funds, but it said Saturday it was still on track to reopen withdrawals Sunday. CNBC reports:The world's largest crypto exchange initially said the hack may involve "a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions." However, Co-CEO Richard Teng later said the attack involved a more complex process rather than the misuse of a single engineer's permissions. The New York Times describes what happened when Binance first spotted "a multibillion-dollar deluge of digital coins" pouring out of its accounts:As the news spread, Binance's top executives put together an informal war room on Wea, the company's internal messaging system, with about 100 participants, including specialized cryptocurrency tracers and security personnel. They eventually transitioned to a mass conference call, with 100 boxes on the screen, where employees took turns muting and then unmuting, communicating in a mixture of English and Chinese. Among them was He Yi, Binance's co-chief executive, who is seven months pregnant, and worked through the night from her base in Abu Dhabi, taking a call at 3 a.m. local time.... Much of the drama played out in public. Almost all crypto transactions are recorded on the blockchain, a ledger of money movements that anyone can look up. That meant crypto analysts could see funds leaving Binance in real time... North Koreans have targeted crypto companies for years, using the proceeds of those thefts to fund its nuclear program, according to Western officials. The hackers have developed increasingly complex strategies to steal crypto and launder the proceeds, a painstaking endeavor that can take months to complete. In a blog post on Friday, Chainalysis said the attackers had deployed "laundering patterns we have not seen before," conducting thousands of transactions over a short period, probably with the help of automation. At the same time, Binance's colleagues in the industry mobilized to intercept some of the laundered crypto. Certain digital coin issuers can freeze funds, allowing them to halt a money-laundering operation in its tracks. Soon after the hack, Tether and Circle, two major issuers, announced that they had frozen stashes of their own coins that the hackers had seized from Binance, a combined total of more than $2 billion in crypto. Binance is now working to gain access to those funds, the company said. But $2.4 billion in crypto is already "beyond any issuer's reach," according to [blockchain intelligence firmm] TRM. The article also includes President Trump's reaction when asked Friday about the breach. "I've always felt it was a little bit dangerous. But they say they have it pretty much under control. We'll see."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Computer Simulations Suggest Building Blocks of Life Didn't Arrive on Prehistoric Comets
CNN reports:The popular theory that comets were crucial in kick-starting life on Earth billions of years ago may not hold up, according to new computer simulations that counter decades of scientific thinking. The finding suggests the fragile organic molecules supposedly carried by the icy objects would have been destroyed on impact, upending an established origin of life theory that dates back to at least 1961 [with earlier versions postulated in 1908]... Early in its history — over 4 billion years ago — Earth may have experienced a period of heavy bombardment from more than 100,000 comets larger than 100 meters (328 feet), according to the new study, published Wednesday in the journal Scientific Reports. Those impacts, however, were mostly too heavy for life-starting molecules to withstand. The team used the latest models of comet formation and evolution to simulate this early planetary period 100,000 times. "Given what we know about surface environments on the early Earth, on average, our simulations found that there were no successful impacts," said lead study author Richard Anslow, who conducted the research while completing his doctorate at the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom... "The typical velocities of these comets when they impact the Earth meant that actually very few, if any, would have been able to deliver intact organic molecules, so comets actually don't seem to be as useful for prebiotic chemistry as was previously thought," Anslow said. More precisely, 54% of the simulations showed no impact at all, while the remaining 46% had at least one and a "tiny minority" returned up to three collisions, Anslow said. "We can't rule out confidently that there was never a successful impact — there could have been one of these fluke impacts." However, such flukes had to occur in a "perfect location" that already met several important conditions, including the presence of liquid water and other chemicals needed to support life. That combination makes the overall process unlikely, he added. The article notes his argument that even if a successful impact occurred, it's unlikely an important chemical like hydrogen cyanide (HCN) could survive the impact, and would've dissolved in an ocean impact. Plus, "many other precursor molecules are also needed, such as compounds that contain phosphorus and sulfur, but these are not routinely found in comets, Anslow said."An alternative cosmic source of organic material could have been asteroids, which typically struck Earth more slowly and in greater numbers. Anslow pointed to recent findings on samples from asteroids Bennu and Ryugu, which contain the majority of protein-building amino acids. The recent study also raises another intriguing possibility: While Earth may not have had the ideal conditions to foster HCN from comet impacts, ancient Mars might have been better suited. "Because Mars is much smaller than Earth and further away from the sun, the typical impact velocity of comets is much lower, so while these impacts on Earth were destroying most of the HCN, this wasn't the case so much for Mars," Anslow said. This idea could add another dimension to the long-standing question of whether the red planet once supported life. While the authors closely analyzed how HCN could have survived comet impact, the chemical may have undergone reactions before the icy bodies entered Earth's atmosphere, said Queenie Chan, an associate professor of Earth sciences at Royal Holloway University of London, who was not involved with the study. This process could have created biologically important compounds, such as those protein building blocks, that are less volatile and more likely to survive.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- Recycling ANSI Art: Tracing the Origins of BBS Logon Screens
BBS-era "door" games are preserved by the site Break Into Chat, along with their history. Now the site's actually traced the origins of several ANSI art screens in the 1980s and "how different people later transformed the original images," starting from one of the most popular bulletin board systems in St. Louis, Missouri. Slashdot reader Kirkman14 writes:"Fire Escape" was curator of the authoritative list of bulletin board systems in St. Louis's area code and sysop of the area's most popular board. Like many sysops of that time, Fire Escape enlivened her bulletin board by finding and repurposing older ANSI art. Eventually her BBS had 18 different logon screens in its rotation, many of which featured flames or mushroom clouds or made liberal use of red and yellow. Break Into Chat follows the trail:Some, maybe even most, of Fire Escape's logon screens had actually been adapted from old school "public domain" ANSI art drawn in the late 1980s and early 1990s by folks such as Michael C. Ling, Lora Ruffner (aka "Ebony Eyes") and Violet Stymacks.... Stymacks was unusually generous with her ANSI art. When she first began drawing, she combed through Fidonet node lists looking for bulletin boards with interesting or inspiring names. When she found one, she would draw an ANSI screen that fit the board's theme, then send it to the sysop. Eventually, sysops began seeking her out, too. By late 1990, she claimed that 500 bulletin boards were using her screens. Three years later, that total had tripled, according to Boardwatch . I believe it — I have located more than 1,100 of her pieces so far. She was so prolific that it would be surprising if she hadn't reused or remixed her own work over the years... [D]id they intend for other people to do so? Or would they have considered such borrowing or adapting as "ripping" or just plain "stealing"? These questions have dogged the BBS, ASCII art, and ANSI art scenes from the beginning. A freelance writer named Patrick Grote grappled with this ethical dilemma in 1990. He had begun to publish archives of ANSI art that he had collected from various public messageboards and networks. But what were people allowed to do with the ANSI screens in these collections? Was it okay to modify them? "Tough call," Grote said. "I know some people copyright their screens by inserting a little '(C)' on it," Grote wrote in a README file included in these collections. "Is this 'true' copyrighting? I would say yes, but then again, I don't feel like having any legal action taken against me for using an ANSI screen. In my opinion, I would say leave the ones that say '(C)' alone, but make every effort to contact the artist and ask for permission...." When I corresponded with Fire Escape this year, she admitted her memory wasn't what it used to be, but felt certain that she had not asked any artists for permission because she didn't know who they were or how to reach them. "I figured if anyone had an issue, I'd just remove the screen," she said. "But no one ever said anything about it."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- French Lawmakers Back Per-Gigabyte Internet Traffic Tax
Companies like Google, Netflix, TikTok, and Meta may soon owe the French government, reports Tom's Hardware:France has approved a proposed tax that aims to tax the amount of internet data per gigabyte sent to French users in the country... According to minutes released by the National Assembly, members voted 11-10 in support of the motion on October 30 — which now means the new law has been added to the country's next budget, despite major opposition from the government side and the finance committee rapporteur. The latest amendment, introduced by socialist lawmaker Laurent Lhardit, could see content providers pay €0.055 (roughly $0.06) to the government for every gigabyte of content distributed to French users. With approximately 154 million users and counting in France, the proposal's authors say such a tax could generate around €10 billion ($11.2 billion) in annual revenue for the government. The said proposal, though yet to be passed as it must survive further parliamentary scrutiny, aims at companies that generate substantial internet traffic as opposed to taxing their advertising revenue, profits and subscriptions. Its explanatory notes particularly mention Google, Meta, Netflix, Amazon, and content delivery network Akamai as major potential contributors. Notably, TikTok and other similar platforms could fall under this broader scope depending on how these rules are applied. Internet service providers, including Orange Free and Liad, would be required to measure the volume of data and identify the companies responsible for sending it to French users. The Data will then be collected and submitted quarterly to France's tax administration under the supervision of telecommunications watchdog Arcep. The measure becomes law if it clears the remaining stages of France's budget process, the article points out, "with parliament scheduled to vote on the budget's first section in early November.""VideoLAN, the French nonprofit organization behind the VLC media player, warned that the proposed levy could cost it more than €1 million annually," reports CircleID. "Its response illustrates how traffic-based taxation could affect organizations distributing large volumes of data without corresponding commercial revenue."
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- NASA Seeks Proposals for Reboosting the Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope "will plunge back into the atmosphere in the early-to-mid-2030s," reports Ars Technica. So now NASA has released a Request For Information (RFI) "asking commercial companies for ideas on how to reboost, service, or a controlled disposal of Hubble."Specifically, NASA is looking for information about companies' current and near-term capabilities for capturing Hubble and boosting it to an altitude of at least 373 miles (600 km), enhancing the telescope's performance, or guiding Hubble to a controlled reentry. "The requirement includes that the boost and/or servicing mission must not harm the HST and that this mission is expected to occur by 2032," NASA wrote in the RFI. The contractor would be responsible for providing the launch vehicle, servicing spacecraft, mission operations, and "crew if applicable." NASA is not committing to buying a Hubble rescue mission, but officials want to know who might be interested in mounting such a mission, how much it would cost, and which companies would have a realistic shot at reaching Hubble before it falls out of orbit and burns up on reentry. Orbital dynamicists currently predict that it will likely happen in 2033 or 2034 without intervention, but reentry forecasts can change based on solar activity... A reboost to NASA's requirement of 373 miles (600 km) would likely keep Hubble in orbit for at least 25 more years. "NASA last raised the orbit of Hubble in 2002," the article points out, "when the Space Shuttle Columbia visited the observatory for a servicing mission."The final shuttle servicing flight in 2009 did not reboost the telescope's orbit, and with the retirement of the shuttle fleet two years later, Hubble has steadily lost altitude with no way to stave off eventual destruction... NASA's newer flagship observatories, sometimes described as successors to Hubble, are not actually one-for-one replacements. Hubble is tuned to observe the Universe in visible and ultraviolet light, while the Webb and Roman telescopes peer deeper into the infrared Universe. Astronomers will likely have to wait for the launch of NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory in the 2040s for an improvement on Hubble's visible and ultraviolet vision.
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- Dozens of Unexplained Drones Have Buzzed America's Nuclear Plants Since 2024
Slashdot reader ElectricVs shares this report from American Buildout, a new site covering "the intersection of data centers, energy and power, finance, and Main Street."Dozens of unexplained drones flew over and near U.S. nuclear facilities between February 2024 and March 2026, according to records the Nuclear Regulatory Commission made public this week. In all, facility operators filed 67 reports of drones over or near 28 sites in 17 states. They include the Three Mile Island site near Middletown, Pennsylvania., where Constellation Energy plans to restart Unit 1 as the Crane Clean Energy Center. In one incident, about five drones flew roughly 100 feet above the [970-megawatt] reactor building at River Bend Station in Louisiana. The story was first reported by the publication The Liberation Times. The NRC published the documents on its website in response to the publication's freedom of information request... Every entry carries the status "Closed Unresolved." "Most of the incidents happened after dark," the article points out, "and none of the records identifies a drone operator. About half of the incidents, 33 of 67, occurred in an eight-week window between Dec. 3, 2024, and Jan. 24, 2025." (Virginia's Surry Power Station experienced five different incidents in December of 2024, including one involving "at least eight drones in two waves.") 100 miles west of Chicago, "drone activity" continued for more than two hours at the Byron Nuclear Station, where two separate drones were reported. In Waterford, Connecticut, "security observed four drones flying back and forth..." The article notes a 2024 paper from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission citing a 2019 analysis that "concluded U.S. plants had no risk-significant vulnerabilities that adversaries could exploit with commercially available drones to cause radiological sabotage, or theft or diversion of special nuclear material."
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- Flock Reinstalled Its Cameras After Another City Canceled Its Contract
Earlier The Drive reported a police chief "had to direct his staff to disconnect the power cords from Flock cameras in Plymouth, Minnesota after Flock Safety ignored and failed to respond to the department's notice the city was canceling its service. "But in other instances Flock's gone and reinstalled cameras without permission," The Drive reported this week:On September 29th the city of Dayton, Minnesota posted a community update on its Facebook page alerting residents that Flock had installed and put into service two cameras against the City's direction without authorization... "The City notified Flock on September 18, 2026, that the program was on hold, and no work orders were to be completed. Unfortunately, the City's direction was not followed, and the camera was placed back into service without authorization." The statement continued and noted, "Following the report, City staff reviewed locations throughout the community to determine whether any additional cameras had been reinstalled, and one additional location was identified. The Police Department has been notified, and both cameras will be removed promptly...." The Minnesota cities of both St. Paul and Crystal told Kare 11 that they removed the Flock cameras themselves following their respective city council votes in August and September respectively. The cameras are stored and are still waiting to be picked up by Flock. Crystal Chief of Police Pete Underthun told Kare 11, "Once we made this decision, I personally went to the locations and removed the cameras and poles myself." Chief Underthun noted, "We are still working with the company to close out our contract and for them to pick the cameras up from our garage."
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- Google's AI Overviews Lowered Reddit's Traffic. Its Stock Dropped 29%
Reddit's stock plunged 29.22% on Friday, reports CNBC, its worst drop since becoming a public company in 2024. Thursday Reddit reported a sales growth that was weaker than previous quarters, and also forecast weak sales for the quarter to come (below analysts expectations):The report comes as the company has seen a shift in its search referral traffic with the rise of Google's AI Overview. In an interview with CNBC, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said search-referral traffic from Google went "down meaningfully in this quarter" due to AI... Multiple analysts downgraded the stock following Reddit's disappointing results, with Citizens noting that "search changes highlight the problem with selling content to Google" and that as referral problems worsen, uncertainty around user growth amid the login requirement switch "puts more pressure on user monetization." Reddit's CEO also said that forcing users to login will help the company's advertising business. "Reddit is the last platform to provide basically unfettered logged-out access, and that's largely because of me. I've been holding that line." "I think users will probably go through the same understanding that I have, which is that it's a sign of the times. It's an evolution of how these platforms work."
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- Two US Senators Raise Privacy Concerns About Meta's 'Pervert Glasses'
Meta's smart glasses face new questions from two U.S. Senators, reports Gizmodo. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey "are requesting that Meta provide more information before Thanksgiving on whether it conducted detailed human rights due diligence and safety testing on the product before releasing it," reports Gizmodo. The Senators also requested information from Meta about " how it evaluated the privacy risks posed by the glasses, and what kinds of safeguards are currently in place.""Although Meta identified risks to bystander privacy and vulnerable populations before launching its glasses in 2021, it nevertheless launched a product tailor-made for invading the privacy of its users and bystanders," [the senators wrote in a letter Thursday...] The glasses have also been spotted on ICE agents during raids, and have raised potential surveillance concerns. The surveillance fears were even reportedly raised by the New York Police Department's counterterrorism unit in a memo issued earlier this year.... "Meta's own disclosures confirm that imagery processed through its glasses' visual AI features may be retained and used to train AI systems, including with the assistance of human reviewers," the senators' letter states, calling the practice an invasion of privacy. "Retaining that material for AI development, thereby extending the period during which it can be accessed, disclosed, or misused, exploits people's highly sensitive information for Meta's commercial benefit."
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- Supersonic Airliner In Doubt As Company Shifts to Powering AI Data Centers
Boom Supersonic's plans to launch its Overture passenger jet by 2029 are facing growing doubts as the company pivots toward manufacturing natural gas turbines for AI data centers. Ars Technica reports: One of the company's first customers, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, has expressed doubts about Boom's original plan to deliver the first Overture supersonic airliner in 2029. Kirby's latest frank assessment came during an interview with the Office Hours: Business Edition podcast that appeared on October 28, 2026. "'29 is their official timeline," Kirby told podcast host Monica Langley. "It's not going to happen in '29 -- it's going to take longer." [...] Much of Boom's recent focus has been on developing natural gas turbines to power AI data centers as an additional revenue stream. On October 22, the company unveiled another factory in Centennial, Colorado, dedicated to producing a 42-megawatt natural gas turbine called Superpower for data centers. [...] Boom described its new Superpower factory as making turbine parts while still undergoing construction. It aims to deliver the first gas turbines to AI data center customers in mid-2027 while ramping up annual production to 25 turbines in 2028 and 50 turbines by 2029. [...] Still, Boom has characterized the development of a gas turbine for data centers as being synergistic with its design of the Symphony engine for the Overture airliner. During the October announcement, it also described having completed a prototype turbine core, called Sprint Core, that is intended to eventually power both the Superpower gas turbine and Symphony engine for the airliner. That turbine core is set to undergo testing at the Colorado Air & Space Port, with Boom planning to fire the turbine for the first time before Thanksgiving. That would be a concrete development milestone, but the company still has much to do in proving it can get both its AI data center and supersonic airliner ventures off the ground.
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- Security: Why Linux Is Better Than Windows Or Mac OS
Linux is a free and open source operating system that was released in 1991 developed and released by Linus Torvalds. Since its release it has reached a user base that is greatly widespread worldwide. Linux users swear by the reliability and freedom that this operating system offers, especially when compared to its counterparts, windows and [0]
- Essential Software That Are Not Available On Linux OS
An operating system is essentially the most important component in a computer. It manages the different hardware and software components of a computer in the most effective way. There are different types of operating system and everything comes with their own set of programs and software. You cannot expect a Linux program to have all [0]
- Things You Never Knew About Your Operating System
The advent of computers has brought about a revolution in our daily life. From computers that were so huge to fit in a room, we have come a very long way to desktops and even palmtops. These machines have become our virtual lockers, and a life without these network machines have become unimaginable. Sending mails, [0]
- How To Fully Optimize Your Operating System
Computers and systems are tricky and complicated. If you lack a thorough knowledge or even basic knowledge of computers, you will often find yourself in a bind. You must understand that something as complicated as a computer requires constant care and constant cleaning up of junk files. Unless you put in the time to configure [0]
- The Top Problems With Major Operating Systems
There is no such system which does not give you any problems. Even if the system and the operating system of your system is easy to understand, there will be some times when certain problems will arise. Most of these problems are easy to handle and easy to get rid of. But you must be [0]
- 8 Benefits Of Linux OS
Linux is a small and a fast-growing operating system. However, we can’t term it as software yet. As discussed in the article about what can a Linux OS do Linux is a kernel. Now, kernels are used for software and programs. These kernels are used by the computer and can be used with various third-party software [0]
- Things Linux OS Can Do That Other OS Cant
What Is Linux OS? Linux, similar to U-bix is an operating system which can be used for various computers, hand held devices, embedded devices, etc. The reason why Linux operated system is preferred by many, is because it is easy to use and re-use. Linux based operating system is technically not an Operating System. Operating [0]
- Packagekit Interview
Packagekit aims to make the management of applications in the Linux and GNU systems. The main objective to remove the pains it takes to create a system. Along with this in an interview, Richard Hughes, the developer of Packagekit said that he aims to make the Linux systems just as powerful as the Windows or [0]
- What’s New in Ubuntu?
What Is Ubuntu? Ubuntu is open source software. It is useful for Linux based computers. The software is marketed by the Canonical Ltd., Ubuntu community. Ubuntu was first released in late October in 2004. The Ubuntu program uses Java, Python, C, C++ and C# programming languages. What Is New? The version 17.04 is now available here [0]
- Ext3 Reiserfs Xfs In Windows With Regards To Colinux
The problem with Windows is that there are various limitations to the computer and there is only so much you can do with it. You can access the Ext3 Reiserfs Xfs by using the coLinux tool. Download the tool from the official site or from the sourceforge site. Edit the connection to “TAP Win32 Adapter [0]
- Sculpt OS 26.10 releases
Sculpt OS 26.10 brings quite a few new features, like scalable cursors, support for UK keyboards, better webcam support, and more, but the real meat of this release is much tastier. First, Sculpt 26.10 is the first version based on Genodes custom microkernel instead of relying on a 3rd-party kernel. This kernel designed from the ground up for the needs of Genode and Sculpt OS in particular is not only more micro! than any other of the microkernels supported by Genode, it also solves long-standing deficiencies concerning CPU scheduling and kernel-memory management. Sculpt OS finally stands on Genodes own footing! Finally, Sculpt OS 26.10 pays tribute to this years overall theme of building bridges! by featuring our software development kit (Goa SDK) running directly on Sculpt OS without virtualization. This entails a wealth of tooling including GCC, Binutils, Git, Sequoia, Expect, Curl, man, Make, and CMake having landed on Genode. Although still young and not time-tested yet, it shows whats possible today and allows us developers to gradually shift more and more development routine into this self-hosted environment, stressing the general-purpose qualities of Genode and motivating further optimizations. ↫ Sculpt OS release 26.10 announcement This new release also completes the transition from XML to Genodes own HID language for configuration, moves from VirtualBox 6 to 7, and upgrades a whole slew of its Linux-based drivers
- How long do you need to hold down the power button to turn off a PC?
Raymond Chen published another story from the Windows development trenches, this time about what happens when you hold down the power button. If you hold a PC’s power button for 12 seconds, it will turn off at the hardware level without notifying the operating system. This is a safety feature so that you can turn of the computer even if the operating system’s “Shut down” command isn’t working. After eight seconds of the power button being held down, the Windows kernel realizes that the user is trying to do a force-power-off of the system, and it quickly takes a kernel dump that can be uploaded to the Windows Error Reporting service the next time you turn the system on. ↫ Raymond Chen Im a bit confused by these numbers, because I have never seen a PC take this long to power off when holding down the power button; usually it takes only a few seconds to do so, meaning Windows would never generate said kernel dump. I tried reading through the various ATX specification documents to find more information on this, but then I remembered Im not an electrical engineer so I have no idea what Im looking at. The baseline is that ATX always provides standby power to the motherboard, and pressing the power button shorts the power button pin to ground, telling the PSU to power on fully. Pressing the power button if the computer is running tells the operating system to initiate a shutdown (although you can change this behaviour), but if you hold the button down for a certain number of seconds, it forces a power-off. So far, so good; basic information. It seems that the length of time you need to hold down the power button to force a power-off is dependent on the motherboard in question, handled by a microcontroller or some other IC. Virtually every source I can find says this timing is set to about 4-5 seconds, which is quite a bit shorter than the number of seconds given by Chen. Perhaps motherboard manufacturers consider the 12 seconds to be too long, and just do their own thing, regardless what the ATX specification suggests? What further complicates matters is that Chen details how the kernel dumps created after pressing the power button for 8 seconds do, in fact, get sent to Microsoft once the computer turns on again. In fact, he is one of the people who gets to see these dumps and respond to them, so obviously they are indeed rolling in. Does this mean theres a huge number of computers out there that require you to hold down the power button for 12 seconds to force a shutdown that nobodys ever seen? These emergency kernel dumps are internally classified as “long power button hold” (LPBH) failures. One of the pieces of information recorded in these emergency kernel dumps is whether the screen consists entirely of black pixels. Those failures are sub-classified as “black screen LPBH”, and they go to a special virtual team for analysis. (I happen to be a member of this black screen LPBH team.) ↫ Raymond Chen Whats going on here? Obviously, Im not going to doubt Chen, so there must be something here I dont quite understand or that Im missing. The ATX specification might suggest 12 seconds, but could Windows perhaps adapt its kernel dump behaviour dumping much sooner than 8 seconds based on the motherboard its running on, maybe through information provided by the chipset drivers? I would love it if someone more knowledgeable than me can help us unravel this small mystery.
- How curl was accidentally Turing-complete for nine months
From curl 8.12 through 8.16, config files could slice variable values and include other config files without an explicit depth cap. Together, these features let curl simulate any two-counter Minsky program. Under the usual idealization of unbounded strings and resources, this construction was Turing-complete. Curl 8.17.0 added a five-level include cap that breaks this reduction. ↫ Nicolas Seriot Neat.
- AlpineBSD combines NetBSD with Alpines apk package manager
AlpineBSD is an operating system based on the NetBSD kernel with a userspace inspired by Alpine Linux and the objective of making it possible to use as little AI-generated software as possible. There is no LLM output included in the base system or main package repository (AlpineBSD AI policy). ↫ AlpineBSDs website AlpineBSD uses the NetBSD kernel, libc, and essential tools, and combines them with Alpines apk-tools package manager, busybox, and generlaly preferring GNU tools over their BSD equivalents. It uses the s6 init system, but the project intends to add OpenRC as an alternative. The project is in its very early stages, so dont expect things like an installer; youre on your own, basically.
- My favourite PowerMac is a Nintendo Wii!
The Nintendo Wii (and its related consoles) were already made to run the PowerPC version of Windows NT as well as Mac OS X, but now we can add another milestone to the list: classic Mac OS. So today I reached a nice milestone in one of my projects: my work porting classic Mac OS to PowerPC systems with what I affectionately call ArtX chipsets (Nintendo GameCube, Wii, eventually Wii U; the GameCube’s Flipper integrated chipset was very much designed by ArtX as it was effectively finished when ATI acquired the company, and the Wii’s Vegas (and its later revision Bollywood) and Wii U’s Latte are effectively straight successors) reached the desktop for the first time, most likely the first time since the CHRP clone era that someone outside of Apple brought up classic Mac OS on a new system to the desktop. Despite still being nowhere near ready for a public release, I want to talk about the challenges I faced with this project so far. ↫ Rairii at Virtuallyfun Various versions of Mac OS boot to the desktop, including Mac OS 9.2.2, the last ever version, but theres still a ton or work to be done before this is ready for release. Still, with Rairii amazing track record of porting all kinds of things to various PowerPC machines, including getting the PowerPC version of Windows NT to run on various PowerPC Macs, I have little doubt theyll manager to get this to a releasable state. I absolutely love this kind of work.
- Microsoft hopefully fixes Modern Standby and adds online Windows reinstallation
I think its safe to say that Windows Modern Standby feature isnt exactly free from issues. The biggest problem seems to be that its not very good at actually determining when to transition between regular sleep and hibernation, often leaving users with an empty battery as they open their laptops lid. Microsoft has now released an update to hopefully address this long-standing problem. This update improves the adaptive hibernate policy to provide more instant-on resumes from Modern Standby while helping preserve battery life when the charge is low. Noticeable changes include less hibernation while the battery is above 80% and hibernating sooner when the battery is below 10%. ↫ KB5127936 Among other new features and changes this update brings are Cloud Rebuild, a way for devices to install Windows without needing a local image. Cloud Rebuild can be started form within an existing installation, remotely by administrators, or through the Windows Recovery Environment. Obviously, a working internet connection, wired or wireless, is required for this feature to work. This is the same update that introduces CLAT, which we talked about yesterday, to smooth the transition from IPv4 to IPv6.
- NetBSD adds nano-like text editor to base system
Flag LinuxNetBSD made a seemingly small, but very welcome announcement today: theyre adding a more user-friendly, easier to use command-line text editor to the base install. To ease the transition for new users, NetBSD -current now includes an alternative editor to vi(1) and xedit(1) in its base system, atto(1). It is a modeless screen-based editor similar to nano, pico, xedit, or emacs. It is only 48 kilobytes, making it suitable for inclusion in the rescue system. ↫ NetBSD Foundation on Fedi Most guides and how-to article for operating systems like NetBSD assume the use of vi, and while I dont want to ignite a flamewar, vi isnt exactly the most approachable or friendly piece of software out there. My occassional text editing in the command line is all done through nano, but now Im definitely curious to give atto a go. While other tech news websites are plastered with articles about a PC maker adding a touch screen to one of their laptops, were talking about a new CLI text editor in NetBSDs base system. Priorities, folks.
- Windows CLAT is now generally available
Windows 11 25H2, starting with build 26200.9550, now comes with something called CLAT. As organizations move toward IPv6-only and IPv6-mostly networks, some applications still depend on IPv4-only applications or services. Windows CLAT helps those applications continue to work when a network does not provide native IPv4 connectivity. CLAT is the client-side component of`464XLAT. It statelessly translates IPv4 traffic from the Windows client into IPv6 for transport across the network to a provider-side translator (PLAT), which provides stateful NAT64 translation to IPv4. ↫ Jim Alumbaugh at Microsofts Networking Blog Yet another important component of the long, neverending transition to IPv6. Like endlessly cutting a cucumber in half, youll never quite run out of cucumber to cut.
- Sylphide OS: an operating system for computers based on microcontrollers
Do you want a hobby operating system with a desktop for a microcontroller-based computer? Sylphide OS is a new project aiming to build just that. For the last few weeks, I’ve worked on a new pet project: an operating system for computers based on microcontrollers. There aren’t many yet, but I expect them to be more and more common. Why MCU computers ? You get a relatively very simple platform, booting straight to your code (or almost), and you can understand the whole architecture. Exactly as it was with home computers long ago. And not at all what you get with modern computers. Even booting involves lot of very different systems, black magic, and even blog/proprietary software. ↫ Thomas Capricelli Its very early in development, but by building it atop FreeRTOS, Capricelli had a head-start. Its got a basic desktop, one that might need some changes to avoid the lawyers. The codes open source, of course.
- Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11
Whats the oldest Windows GUI application you can still run on Windows 11 today, without any modifications? For now, the best answer Boris Popik can come up with is an innocuous application from build 347 of Windows NT 3.1, an early prerelease: CDPLAYER.EXE. You cant go any older than that, because earlier prerelease builds had not yet finalised its PE format and calling convention. Neat find. Popik also mentions a few other contenders, but I wont spoil those here.
- KDE Plasma 6.8.2 Released With More KWin and Wayland Fixes
by George Whittaker
The KDE Project has released KDE Plasma 6.8.2, delivering another round of stability improvements for its Wayland-based Linux desktop environment. Released on October 27, 2026, the update arrives one week after Plasma 6.8.1 and two weeks after the anniversary release of Plasma 6.8, which marked 30 years since the KDE project's founding.
This second maintenance release concentrates on correcting regressions discovered after the initial rollout. The largest collection of changes targets KWin, KDE's window manager and Wayland compositor, with fixes involving multi-GPU synchronization, display handling, pointer constraints, color pipelines, and window stacking. Additional improvements address disappearing desktop icons, application launcher behavior, remote desktop sessions, screen recording, accessibility, and system monitoring.
Although Plasma 6.8.2 does not introduce major new desktop features, its corrections are particularly important because Plasma 6.8 completed KDE's transition away from native X11 desktop sessions. With Wayland now serving as Plasma's display foundation, improvements to KWin and its supporting components directly affect the reliability of the entire desktop environment.
KDE Continues Stabilizing Its Anniversary Release
KDE Plasma 6.8 arrived on October 14, 2026, coinciding with the project's 30th anniversary. The release introduced significant desktop changes, including the retirement of native X11 sessions, additional HDR improvements, expanded remote desktop capabilities, NVIDIA graphics optimizations, and further development of KDE's Union theming engine.
The transition represented an important architectural milestone, but major desktop releases frequently expose problems that were not encountered during development or beta testing. Linux desktops must operate across numerous combinations of graphics hardware, display configurations, drivers, input devices, and applications. Even extensive testing cannot always reproduce every environment used by the wider community.
KDE acknowledged this challenge during the development cycle following Plasma 6.8, noting that users had discovered regressions that were not reported during the beta period. Contributors responded with a substantial collection of fixes, many of which have now reached the stable 6.8 branch through its first two maintenance releases.
Plasma 6.8.2 continues that stabilization effort. Rather than changing the desktop's overall direction, it improves the reliability of existing functionality and addresses issues that could affect everyday workflows. The release includes corrections across KWin, Plasma Desktop, Plasma Workspace, Discover, KRDP, KPipeWire, and several other components.
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- RefreshOS 3.1 Strengthens Its Debian Foundation With Independent Package Management
by George Whittaker
The RefreshOS project has released RefreshOS 3.1, bringing an updated Debian foundation, a dedicated software repository, improved 32-bit application compatibility, and several refinements to its KDE Plasma desktop experience. Released on October 27, 2026, the update advances the distribution's 3.x "Colorful Cosmos" series while introducing infrastructure that could significantly improve how RefreshOS delivers its own packages and configuration changes.
The new release moves from Debian 13.4 to Debian 13.7 "Trixie", incorporates Linux kernel 6.12.113, and continues using KDE Plasma 6.3.6. However, the most important development is the introduction of an official RefreshOS APT repository with separate Stable, Testing, and Experimental channels. This gives the project a more structured way to distribute customized software while continuing to benefit from Debian's established package ecosystem.
RefreshOS 3.1 also enables i386 architecture support, making it easier to install compatible 32-bit software and dependencies required by applications such as Steam. Additional changes address desktop localization, KDE integration, installer configuration, package permissions, and installation image cleanup. Together, these improvements represent an effort to make RefreshOS easier to maintain while preserving its focus on a ready-to-use Linux desktop.
RefreshOS Builds on Debian's Stable Release Model
RefreshOS is a Debian-based Linux distribution developed by eXybit Technologies, designed to provide a polished desktop environment without requiring users to configure every component manually. The project combines Debian's stable package foundation with KDE Plasma, preinstalled applications, hardware support, multimedia capabilities, and custom desktop styling.
Unlike distributions that emphasize constant adoption of the newest software versions, RefreshOS prioritizes a relatively predictable desktop experience. Its Debian foundation provides access to established security maintenance, package management, and compatibility practices, while RefreshOS adds its own configuration choices to simplify everyday use.
Version 3.1 continues that philosophy by incorporating Debian 13.7, the seventh point release of Debian 13 "Trixie." Debian published this update on September 12, 2026, primarily to consolidate security corrections and fixes for significant software problems. These point releases do not represent entirely new Debian generations. Instead, they refresh installation media and package selections so newly installed systems begin with a more current collection of fixes.
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- Tails 7.15.1 Blocks Compromised HTTPS Certificates in Urgent Privacy Security Fix
by George Whittaker
The Tails project has released Tails 7.15.1, an emergency security update addressing a compromised certificate authority that could allow attackers to impersonate legitimate HTTPS websites. Released on October 23, 2026, the update focuses on protecting users against a potentially serious man-in-the-middle attack involving certificates associated with eMudhra, an authority whose intermediate certificates were compromised.
The emergency release updates Tor Browser to version 15.0.26, addressing CVE-2026-113470, and modifies the distribution's trusted certificate authorities to block all eMudhra certificates. These changes are particularly important for Tails because the operating system routes internet traffic through the Tor network, where malicious exit nodes or other network intermediaries could potentially exploit compromised certificates to impersonate secure websites.
Unlike a conventional maintenance update, Tails 7.15.1 does not introduce major desktop features, new applications, or significant interface changes. Its purpose is to close a security gap that could undermine the authenticity of HTTPS connections. The developers recommend upgrading promptly, especially for users who rely on Tails for sensitive communications, anonymous research, journalism, or other privacy-critical activities.
Why Tails 7.15.1 Was Released as an Emergency Update
Tails, short for The Amnesic Incognito Live System, is a Debian-based Linux distribution designed to help users preserve their privacy and reduce traces of their computing activity. It typically runs from a USB stick and routes internet connections through Tor, making it useful for people who need stronger privacy protections than those provided by a conventional desktop operating system.
The distribution also emphasizes minimizing persistent data. By default, Tails operates as a live environment and does not retain ordinary session activity after shutdown. Users who need to preserve selected files and settings can configure encrypted Persistent Storage on their USB device, allowing them to maintain important information across sessions without changing the operating system's general amnesic behavior.
Because Tails is built around privacy and secure communication, problems involving HTTPS certificate validation deserve particular attention. Tor helps obscure the relationship between a user's network location and the websites they visit, but it does not automatically guarantee that every website encountered through an exit node is authentic. HTTPS provides an additional layer of protection by authenticating websites and encrypting communications between the browser and the destination server.
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- Omarchy 4.0.5 Released With Better NVIDIA Laptop Support
by George Whittaker
The Omarchy project has released Omarchy 4.0.5, introducing a substantial collection of hardware compatibility improvements, desktop performance optimizations, security fixes, and package updates for the Arch Linux-based operating system. Released on October 18, 2026, the update focuses on refining the existing desktop experience while preparing the distribution for its next major feature release.
Among the most important changes are improved NVIDIA hybrid graphics support for laptops, an updated Linux 7.2.8 kernel featuring the BORE scheduler, and compatibility improvements for Qt 6.12. The release also resolves boot-related black screens, fixes audio problems affecting certain Dell and USB speaker configurations, corrects Steam graphics driver selection, and improves the reliability of several desktop utilities.
Although version 4.0.5 is primarily a maintenance release, its improvements extend across many of the components that determine how smoothly a Linux desktop operates. From faster application launches and more responsive desktop panels to stronger security defaults and more reliable hardware detection, the update demonstrates Omarchy's continued emphasis on delivering a preconfigured Linux environment that requires relatively little manual setup.
Omarchy Continues Refining Its Arch Linux Desktop Experience
Omarchy is an opinionated Arch Linux-based distribution designed to provide a ready-to-use development and desktop environment built around the Hyprland Wayland compositor. Rather than presenting users with a minimal installation that requires extensive customization, Omarchy combines a carefully selected collection of applications, themes, keyboard shortcuts, and system configurations into a cohesive desktop experience.
The distribution has attracted attention among developers and experienced Linux users who appreciate keyboard-driven workflows, tiling window management, and the flexibility of Arch Linux without necessarily wanting to configure every component manually. Its desktop environment emphasizes efficient navigation, integrated development tools, and a consistent visual design, while retaining access to Arch's extensive software repositories.
Version 4.0.5 continues that approach by concentrating on problems that can interrupt everyday workflows. The release improves hardware compatibility, corrects regressions introduced by newer software packages, and reduces unnecessary delays in common desktop operations. Rather than introducing a dramatic redesign, the developers have focused on making the existing environment more predictable and responsive.
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- KDE Plasma 6.8 Marks 30 Years With a Major Shift to Wayland and a More Powerful Linux Desktop
by George Whittaker
The KDE Project has officially released KDE Plasma 6.8, introducing a substantial collection of desktop improvements while celebrating three decades of open-source software development. Released on October 14, 2026, exactly 30 years after Matthias Ettrich announced the original KDE project, this anniversary edition brings significant changes to display management, accessibility, graphics performance, remote desktop functionality, system monitoring, and application theming.
Perhaps the most consequential development is KDE's decision to retire native X11 desktop sessions in Plasma 6.8, completing its transition toward Wayland as the primary display architecture. The release also introduces NVIDIA triple buffering by default, improved HDR support, a more capable remote desktop server, CPU affinity controls in System Monitor, and expanded capabilities for the experimental Union theming engine. These improvements reflect KDE's effort to modernize the Linux desktop while maintaining the customization and flexibility that have defined Plasma for years.
Plasma 6.8 is therefore more than a commemorative release. It represents an important architectural transition for one of Linux's most widely used desktop environments, with changes that affect both everyday users and developers building applications for the next generation of Linux desktops.
KDE Celebrates Three Decades of Open-Source Desktop Development
KDE's history began on October 14, 1996, when Matthias Ettrich proposed creating a consistent graphical desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems. At the time, Linux was becoming increasingly capable as a free operating system, but its graphical experience remained fragmented. Users could choose from several window managers and applications, yet there was no universally integrated desktop environment comparable to the commercial graphical systems available elsewhere.
The original KDE initiative sought to address that limitation by building a cohesive desktop around the Qt application framework. Over the following decades, the project evolved through several major generations, introducing increasingly sophisticated desktop technologies while expanding into applications, development frameworks, mobile interfaces, and other open-source projects.
Plasma 6.8 arrives as KDE marks its 30th anniversary, but its development priorities are focused primarily on the future. Rather than introducing a purely cosmetic anniversary edition, KDE has concentrated on modernizing underlying desktop infrastructure while improving accessibility, usability, and performance. The result is a release that combines immediately visible enhancements with architectural changes intended to support future development.
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- Linux Moves Closer to Retiring the x32 ABI After Years of Limited Adoption
by George Whittaker
Linux kernel developers are renewing efforts to retire the x32 application binary interface (ABI), a little-used compatibility feature that attempted to combine the advantages of 64-bit processors with the smaller memory footprint of 32-bit applications. A revised patch series submitted on October 8, 2026, proposes the first steps toward disabling the interface, potentially ending support for an architecture experiment introduced more than 14 years ago.
The latest proposal comes from Sebastian Andrzej Siewior, a Linux kernel developer at Linutronix who has been working on the removal effort throughout 2026. Rather than immediately deleting every component associated with x32, the proposed approach would first prevent the feature from being enabled through normal kernel configuration. This would give remaining users and distribution maintainers an opportunity to respond before the underlying implementation is removed.
The effort reflects a broader challenge in Linux development: maintaining compatibility with older or rarely used technologies while keeping the kernel manageable, secure, and efficient. Although x32 offered theoretical performance and memory advantages, it never achieved widespread adoption. With conventional x86_64 software dominating modern Linux systems, developers are increasingly questioning whether the additional maintenance burden remains justified.
Understanding the Linux x32 ABI
The x32 ABI was introduced with Linux kernel 3.4 in 2012 as an alternative to conventional 32-bit and 64-bit application environments. Its goal was to provide applications with access to the architectural improvements of x86_64 processors while retaining smaller data types and pointers associated with 32-bit software.
Traditional 32-bit x86 applications use the i386 ABI, which operates with a more limited register set and 32-bit execution conventions. Standard x86_64 applications, meanwhile, benefit from additional general-purpose registers, wider registers, and modern calling conventions, but they normally use 64-bit pointers. Those larger pointers can increase memory consumption in applications that maintain large numbers of pointer-heavy data structures.
The x32 ABI attempted to offer a compromise. Applications would execute using the x86_64 instruction set and its larger register file while retaining 32-bit integers, long values, and pointers. This programming model is commonly described as ILP32, meaning that integers, long integers, and pointers are all 32 bits wide.
The distinction can be illustrated by comparing the expected sizes of common C data types:
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- Google's Kage Project Rethinks Linux Kernel Security With Isolated Device Drivers
by George Whittaker
Google is exploring a new approach to Linux kernel security that could significantly change how device drivers interact with the operating system. The experimental project, known as Kage, uses compiler-based sandboxing to isolate drivers inside the kernel, potentially limiting the damage caused by memory corruption, programming errors, and exploitable vulnerabilities without requiring drivers to run as separate user-space processes.
The research was presented at the Linux Plumbers Conference 2026, held October 5–7, with Stanford University and Google researcher Zachary Yedidia discussing how LLVM's Lightweight Fault Isolation (LFI) technology can create restricted execution environments for native kernel code. Unlike conventional isolation techniques, which often depend on separate processes or virtual machines, Kage attempts to preserve the performance advantages of kernel-space execution while reducing the amount of memory individual drivers can access.
Early prototypes have already demonstrated the concept using NVMe storage, networking, and Wi-Fi drivers. However, Kage remains an experimental research project rather than a feature available in mainstream Linux distributions. Its developers are still investigating performance, hardware access, and compatibility with more complicated drivers, including graphics hardware.
Why Device Drivers Remain a Major Linux Security Challenge
Linux device drivers are responsible for connecting the operating system to hardware components, including graphics cards, network adapters, storage controllers, USB devices, and wireless chipsets. Most traditional Linux drivers execute in kernel space, giving them privileged access to system resources and the ability to interact directly with hardware. This architecture is one reason Linux can deliver high performance across such a broad range of devices, but it also creates a significant security challenge.
When an ordinary application encounters a memory error, the operating system can often terminate that process without affecting the rest of the system. Kernel drivers operate under different conditions. Because they typically share the kernel's address space and privileges, an invalid memory access or exploitable vulnerability can affect unrelated kernel components, potentially resulting in a system crash, privilege escalation, or complete compromise of the operating system.
The challenge becomes more complicated when considering the enormous number of drivers supported by Linux. Some are maintained by large organizations with extensive testing infrastructure, while others receive contributions from smaller development teams or individual maintainers. Even carefully reviewed drivers can contain bugs, particularly when they interact with complicated hardware, asynchronous operations, and memory-management mechanisms.
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- Speech Synthesis on Linux: Adding a Voice to Scripts and Systems
by George Whittaker
Linux users have long had a pragmatic relationship with text-to-speech. The classic open-source engines have been available for years, wired into accessibility tools and the occasional script, dependable but unmistakably robotic. They do the job where the job is simply to convert text to some kind of speech, but the mechanical output has kept them out of anything where the voice actually matters. The arrival of high-quality speech synthesis delivered over an API changes what is possible, letting Linux users add genuinely natural voices to scripts, services, and applications without hosting a heavyweight model themselves.
The Familiar Trade-Off
Anyone who has used the traditional Linux speech engines knows the trade-off. They are free, local, and scriptable, which fits the Linux ethos perfectly, but the voices are clearly synthetic. For accessibility and for utilitarian tasks where intelligibility is all that counts, that has been acceptable. For anything user-facing where the quality of the voice shapes the experience, it has not.
The alternative of running a modern, high-quality speech model locally is possible but comes with real costs: significant computational requirements, model management, and the ongoing maintenance of a demanding piece of infrastructure. For many use cases, particularly on servers, embedded systems, or ordinary workstations, that overhead is disproportionate to the need. This is the gap that an API-based approach fills, offering the quality of a large modern model without the burden of hosting one.
The API Approach on Linux
Delivering speech synthesis over an API fits naturally into how Linux users already build things. Rather than installing and maintaining a model, you make a request to a service and receive audio back, which you can then play, save, or pipe into whatever comes next. A Go to Full Article
- Archinstall 4.5 Released with AArch64 Support, Real-Time Kernels, and Major Installer Fixes
by George Whittaker
The Arch Linux project has released Archinstall 4.5, the latest version of its guided text-based installer, bringing expanded AArch64 support, new real-time Linux kernel options, additional translations, security improvements, and numerous fixes for installation workflows.
Archinstall 4.5 was released on September 29, 2026, roughly three months after Archinstall 4.4. The new version arrives just ahead of Arch Linux's October installation media refresh and has already been packaged as archinstall 4.5-1 for Arch Linux repositories.
While Archinstall remains optional, it provides users with a guided way to configure an Arch Linux installation without manually performing every step described in the Arch installation guide. Version 4.5 concentrates primarily on hardware support, installer reliability, security, and expanding the range of systems that can use the guided installation process.
AArch64 Support Gets a Major Upgrade
One of the biggest changes in Archinstall 4.5 is improved support for AArch64, the 64-bit ARM architecture.
The installer can now handle GRUB and Limine EFI installations on AArch64 systems. It also gains support for the proper AArch64 root partition type GUID.
Previously, parts of Archinstall's bootloader configuration were more heavily oriented toward x86_64 installations. The latest changes make its guided installation workflow more useful on ARM64 hardware.
AArch64 has become increasingly important throughout the Linux ecosystem. The architecture can now be found in cloud servers, development boards, laptops, workstations, and specialized computing platforms.
Supporting both GRUB and Limine EFI installations gives Archinstall more flexibility when preparing these systems.
GRUB Can Now Be Installed on AArch64
GRUB remains one of the most widely used Linux bootloaders, and Archinstall 4.5 extends its installation logic to AArch64 EFI systems.
This allows ARM64 installations to use a bootloader workflow much closer to what Archinstall already provides on conventional x86_64 UEFI computers.
The change doesn't mean every ARM device will automatically become compatible with Arch Linux. ARM hardware can still have highly platform-specific firmware and boot requirements.
It does, however, remove an important Archinstall limitation for AArch64 machines that provide conventional UEFI environments.
Limine EFI Support Expands to ARM64
The same architectural expansion applies to Limine.
Limine is a modern multiprotocol bootloader supported as one of Archinstall's bootloader choices. Archinstall 4.5 extends its EFI installation support to AArch64 as well.
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