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FOSS
Kernel, distros, and the wider free and open source software world.
428 stories archived
Seven stable kernels for the first day of June
Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.0.11 , 6.18.34 , 6.12.92 , 6.6.142 , 6.1.175 , 5.15.209 , and 5.10.258 stable kernels. As usual, each contains important fixes throughout the tree, including a fix for the "CIFSwitch" vulnerability ( CVE-2026-46243 ) which could allow a local-privilege exploit . Users are advised to upgrade.
Flathub bans AI-coded apps and automated submissions
You’ll have to sift through fewer vibe-coded apps on Flathub in future, as the store has announced a policy change on software made using AI tools. Flathub, the de-facto place to find and install Flatpak applications, is banning the use of “AI” coded applications and automated submissions going forward. It’s not a blanket ban – mature projects with AI code are allowed A change to the store’s policy note says “applications containing AI-generated or AI-assisted code, documentation, or other content are not allowed”. A carve out will allow “mature, well-maintained projects” to include AI generated code and use AI tools […] You're reading Flathub bans AI-coded apps and automated submissions , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
DistroWatch turns 25
The DistroWatch site is celebrating its 25th anniversary . " All in all, it has been an incredible ride. Many of you who read these pages regularly know that downloading and testing distributions is a highly addictive pastime. I have been an avid distro-hopper for the last 25 years and I don't see myself abandoning this activity for many more years to come. " Congratulations to Ladislav Bodnar and all the others who have kept that resource going for so long.
[$] Reconsidering x32 — again
The x32 ABI was meant to be the best of both worlds, providing the expanded registers and instruction set of the x86-64 architecture while preserving the lower memory use of 32-bit systems. The Linux kernel has supported x32 since the 3.4 release in 2012. The initial excitement around x32 did not last, though, and kernel developers are considering removing that support — and not for the first time. Even the most unloved features tend to have a few users, though, making removal hard.
Multiple redhat-cloud-services npm packages compromised (StepSecurity Blog)
StepSecurity is reporting that a number of npm packages in the @redhat-cloud-services scope include malware that runs automatically on every npm install : The payload is a multi-stage credential harvester that sweeps GitHub Actions secrets along with AWS, GCP, Azure, Kubernetes, HashiCorp Vault, npm, and CircleCI tokens, and it is purpose-built to evade detection, including an explicit attempt to bypass StepSecurity Harden-Runner. StepSecurity analyzed @redhat-cloud-services/host-inventory-client@5.0.3 in full. Its index.js , executed at install time, is 4.2 MB, a file that should weigh a few kilobytes, with the real payload buried under three separate layers of obfuscation. The malware is also a self-propagating worm: using stolen npm tokens and npm's bypass_2fa parameter, it republishes backdoored versions of other packages on its own, even against accounts protected by two-factor authentication, so every infected machine can seed the next wave with no attacker involvement. All affected packages were published via GitHub Actions OIDC from the RedHatInsights/javascript-clients repository, indicating the upstream CI/CD pipeline itself was compromised. Analysis of the remaining packages is ongoing. A blog post from SafeDep has additional analysis about the incident. We did not find an advisory from Red Hat on this yet.
Intel Preparing WiFi 8 "UHR" Support For Their IWLWIFI Linux Driver
Intel open-source software engineers have been busy beginning to prepare their upstream IWLWIFI wireless driver in the Linux kernel for supporting their next-gen WiFi adapters supporting the WiFi 8 "Ultra High Reliability" standard...
Fedora F44 election interviews published
The Fedora Project has published interviews with candidates running for the open seats on the Fedora Council , Fedora Engineering Steering Committee , Fedora Mindshare Committee , and EPEL Steering Committee . Voting is open through Friday, June 12 at 23:59 UTC.
Linux 7.2 Proceeding To Deprecate AF_ALG Due To "Massive Attack Surface", Drops Offloading
The Linux kernel's AF_ALG interface for user-space applications to directly access the Linux kernel's built-in cryptographic engine is proceeding with a quick deprecation cycle due to a "massive attack surface" with increased vulnerabilities coming to light due to AI/LLM-based tooling...
Phoronix Marking 22 Years Of Linux Hardware Coverage This Week
On 5 June marks 22 years since starting Phoronix.com for covering the Linux hardware space and open-source news...
Some Elements Of Intel APX Not Proving Beneficial On Nova Lake / Diamond Rapids
Some compiler tuning merged today to the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is disabling some features of Advanced Performance Extensions (APX) for upcoming Intel Nova Lake and Diamond Rapids processors as they are not proving worthwhile for performance...
This Credit Card-Sized Linux Box Has a Keyboard, Camera, and AI Capability
M5Stack's offering has already pulled in over 10,000 Kickstarter backers.
NBD-VRAM Provides Swap Space On Your NVIDIA GeForce GPUs
An open-source developer has created NBD-VRAM as a way to create swap space on your consumer NVIDIA GPU's video memory under Linux...
FreeBSD 15.1-RC2 Restores PadLock RNG For VIA & Zhaoxin CPUs
A second release candidate of FreeBSD 15.1 was warranted and in turn released this weekend which now pushes the stable release back by one week...
NVIDIA Announces RTX Spark Superchip For Laptops & Desktops
Jensen Huang used his Computex keynote today to formally announce RTX Spark as their new superchip for compact desktop PCs and laptops...
AI-Driven Security Disclosures, NVIDIA Vera & Linux 7.1 Features That Made An Exciting May
May 2026 is now in the books after writing 275 original Linux/open-source minded news articles and another 20 featured-length benchmark articles / Linux hardware reviews. There was a lot of exciting topics in May to keep the month interesting and as we approach the Phoronix 22nd birthday this week...
Kernel prepatch 7.1-rc6
The 7.1-rc6 kernel prepatch is out for testing. Linus said: " Well, I wouldn't call this 'small', but it is certainly smaller than rc5 was. And I don't think there's anything particularly scary here, so maybe we're still on track for a normal release cycle. Let's see. "
Intel Xeon 6+ & Intel Ethernet E835 Launch
Last year at Tech Tour Arizona, Intel announced Clearwater Forest as the Xeon 6+ series. Details were rather light then while for Computex, Intel is announcing that Xeon 6+ is now "launching" beginning tomorrow, 1 June. In addition to Xeon 6+, the new Intel Ethernet E835 is also launching while there are updates on Crescent Island and Diamond Rapids.
Dell Uses Intel Wildcat Lake To Deliver Their Cheapest XPS 13 Ever
Dell is using Computex to announce their new XPS 13 that comes at their lowest price ever of $599 USD for students and $699 for everyone else. The new Dell XPS 13 aims to compete directly with the Apple MacBook Neo while leveraging the new Intel Wildcat Lake processors as cut-down from Panther Lake...
AMD Announces Radeon RX 9070 GRE, Ryzen AI Max PRO 400 Series
AMD is kicking off the busy Computex 2026 week with some new product announcements. The embargo is now up so meet the Radeon RX 9070 GRE and other new wares coming out this summer and later in the year from AMD.
Linux App Release Roundup (May 2026)
May 2026 delivered a sizeable set of Linux software updates, including the set I’ve rounded up for your reading pleasure in this post. The month also saw a buffet of big browser updates, including Firefox 151 with new-look new tab page, Vivaldi 8.0 with a new-look generally and a new public beta of Kagi’s Orion. Elsewhere, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS support was added to VMware Workstation (and Fusion for macOS), while open-source system cleaner BleachBit debuted a TUI for interactive command-line based spring cleaning. Below, I run through a crop of other Linux app releases that landed in May and caught my eye. […] You're reading Linux App Release Roundup (May 2026) , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Linux 7.1-rc6 Released Following Another "Larger-Than-I'd-Wish-For Size" Week
The Linux 7.1-rc6 kernel is now available for closing out the month of May and approaching the Linux 7.1 stable release that should be out by mid-June...
KDE Linux Prunes Its Insecure & Unused Software
With the end of the month comes a new KDE Linux status report from prominent KDE developer Nate Graham...
Linux 7.1-rc6 To Support The ASUS ROG RAIKIRI II & Nova 2 Lite Controllers
Ahead of the Linux 7.1-rc6 test kernel due out later today, this week's batch of input subsystem fixes have been sent out that includes enabling a few newer input devices...
Linux Might Finally Disable The Microsoft RNDIS Protocol Drivers In 2026
Going back to early 2023 there were efforts to disable all the Linux drivers for Microoft's RNDIS protocol. Remote NDIS has proven to be a real security concern while superior, modern alternatives exist...