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FOSS
Kernel, distros, and the wider free and open source software world.
495 stories archived
Fedora 45 Will Not Be Released Next Week
For those eager to run the pristine Fedora 45 media, you will need to wait at least one more week...
Microsoft Defender is now available on Linux desktops
Microsoft Defender is now available for Linux desktops. Shocked? In 2026, you shouldn’t be. Microsoft’s down with the penguins these days: there’s a Linux kernel in Windows, it owns GitHub and makes Edge for Linux (not that too many people use it). Why not some rootin’-tootin’, threat-detectin’ n’ virus-protectin’ software on top, eh? Name: Microsoft Defender for Linux. Age: Public preview, so, pass? Appearance: A line item on an E5 invoice. What is it? Microsoft’s security suite, now available for Linux desktops (albeit in a public preview). Microsoft’s security suite. On Linux…. Where have you been? Defender has been available for Linux servers […] You're reading Microsoft Defender is now available on Linux desktops , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Today's Steam Beta Makes The Linux Client A 64-bit App
Valve just dropped a new Steam client beta and it's a big one for Linux gamers...
Intel Nova Lake S & Nova Lake P To Support SR-IOV With Xe Graphics
A patch has been posted to the Linux kernel mailing list by an Intel engineer confirming that Nova Lake S and Nova Lake P processors with integrated graphics will support SR-IOV in conjunction with the Xe kernel graphics driver...
LPDDR5 5467 vs. 6400 vs. 7467 MT/s Memory Performance Benchmarks For Laptops
With the recently reviewed Star Labs StarFighter Ultra Linux laptop its BIOS allows for configurable memory speeds unlike many other laptop vendor BIOS implementations these days. Star Labs also made the default design decision to run the LPDDR5-7467 rated memory at LPDDR5-6400 speeds in the name of a balanced user experience for power/performance. So I was curious to run some benchmarks quantifying that power and performance impact of LPDDR5-6400 vs. LPDDR5-7467 plus tossed in LPDDR5-5467 testing as well as the third choice offered with this StarFighter Ultra laptop.
Memtest86+ v9.00 Released With Support For ARM64 Memory Testing
The open-source Memtest86+ program that is popular for RAM testing has expanded beyond the x86/x86_64 (and LoongArch64) world to now support memory testing on ARM64/AArch64 hardware...
[$] Vendor hooks in the Android kernel
Since Android's inception, the kernels it has used have diverged significantly from the mainline. While many of those differences have been resolved over time, and the move to the generic kernel image has helped to bring Android closer, current devices still carry a lot of out-of-tree changes. The preferred form for such changes is by way of vendor hooks . At the 2026 Linux Plumbers Conference , Todd Kjos ran a fast-paced session in the Android track to discuss vendor hooks and how they are used.
3mdeb Releases Updated Dasharo/Coreboot Firmware For ASRock Rack SPC741D8-2L2T
3mdeb firmware engineers have been quite busy this year working on porting Coreboot and openSIL to an AMD Ryzen AM5 MSI motherboard and similarly getting openSIL and Coreboot up and running on a Gigabyte server motherboard for AMD EPYC 9005 CPUs. They haven't forgotten about their past projects though and today released an updated version of their Dasharo downstream firmware for the ASRock Rack SPC741D8-2L2T motherboard supporting 4th and 5th Gen Xeon Scalable processors...
Ubuntu 26.10 Has Come Out as a Rust-Packed Interim Release
It ships with Linux 7.3, GNOME 51, an improved App Center, and many other upgrades.
Big Tech Funded a €115 Billion Warning Against Europe’s Digital Independence
Amazon, Google, and Meta funded the study through their lobby group CCIA Europe. The EU Commission's own estimate? €18 billion. Six times less.
Claude Code / AI Shows Potential For Reverse-Engineering Hardware For Linux Support
AI/LLMs like Claude Code are beginning to prove capable of helping to reverse engineer hardware for Linux support, especially when it comes to the tedious reverse engineering tasks...
KDE releases documentary
As part of KDE's 30th anniversary celebration , the project has released The KDE Documentary — A Story of Free Software Underdogs ( YouTube video ): The story starts in 1996, when Matthias Ettrich, a student at the University of Tübingen, posted to a Usenet group asking for programmers to help build a desktop for Linux. What followed became KDE, one of the largest free software communities in the world. KDE made Linux usable as a desktop for people who weren't system administrators, giving it a complete, consistent graphical environment at a time when there was none. The film covers the highs and lows of three decades of KDE: the Qt licensing fight and the rivalry with GNOME; the success of KHTML, the browser engine that became the basis of Apple's WebKit and Google's Chrome; and the contentious release of KDE 4 and the rebuild that followed.
Ubuntu 26.10 released
Canonical has announced the release of Ubuntu 26.10 ("Stonking Stingray"): Ubuntu 26.10 advances enterprise security features, completes the rollout of the Rust-based uutils coreutils , and strengthens integrations for user authentication using Microsoft Entra ID. [...] Ubuntu 26.10 also ships with GNOME 51, bringing a smoother, more responsive desktop, better display handling, improved accessibility, and refinements across core applications. In addition, the Ubuntu App Center now provides a more consistent experience for managing snaps and debs. See the release notes for a list of new features as well as incompatible changes between 26.10 and prior Ubuntu releases.
Seven stable kernels for Thursday with fix for critical vulnerability
Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.2.11 , 6.18.57 , 6.12.113 , 6.6.159 , 6.1.190 , 5.15.223 , and 5.10.272 stable kernels. This series includes, among other things, a fix for a critical vulnerability ( CVE-2026-99999 ). The flaw in skb_checksum_help() would allow an IPv4 packet with bad checksum metadata to " corrupt the network header and cause a bunch of mischief " in the words of patch author Michael S. Tsirkin. As usual, all users are advised to upgrade.
Ubuntu 26.10 released – here’s what’s new
Ubuntu 26.10 has been released with a faster way to tile windows, passkey sign-in on the login screen and a full set of Rust-based core utilities. The newest interim release, which is backed with updates for 9 months, also brings GNOME 51, Mesa 26.2 and the Linux 7.3 kernel. Plus, updated apps, new experimental ISOs for modern Intel, Arm64 and RISC-V hardware and expanded TPM-backed full-disk encryption. Here’s a rundown of what’s new, and what’s worth knowing before you install or upgrade to 26.10. Ubuntu 26.10: What’s New? New window snapping widget Ubuntu 26.10 offers a faster way to tile […] You're reading Ubuntu 26.10 released – here’s what’s new , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Ubuntu 26.10 Released With Linux 7.3 + GNOME 51, Rust Coreutils Migration Complete
Ubuntu 26.10 "Stonking Stingray" is now officially available as the newest six-month non-LTS update to Ubuntu Linux...
Epic Games Wants Linux Gamers. It's Rebuilding EAC For Fortnite
The anti-cheat software is being prepared for the platform, while a native client is already available as a preview.
Huawei Proposes Enabling CPU Boost By Default For ACPI CPPC Linux Driver
For those using the generic ACPI Collaborative Processor Performance Control (CPPC) CPUFreq driver such as on a number of ARM64 Linux server platforms, if the CPUs support a "boost" mode it's disabled by default. But a patch from Huawei is now looking to enable CPU boost mode by default on Linux...
GNOME Mutter Improves Damage Tracking For Secondary GPU Copy Buffers
As an early improvement to Mutter to look forward to with GNOME 52, the compositor is now tracking damage for secondary GPU copy buffers. This should improve the experience for those with multi-GPU setups such as some hybrid laptops...
Microsoft Releases Microsoft Defender For The Linux Desktop
Microsoft's newest software release for Linux is... Microsoft Defender for the Linux desktop. Microsoft Defender has been ported to Linux to "secure Linux desktops" with Microsoft acknowledging that "more developers begin to use Linux desktops" and thus bringing their security application and threat-protection product to Linux desktops to complement their prior ill-used Linux server support...
[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for October 15, 2026
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition: Front : 2026 Maintainers Summit; Rust goals; GCC and LLMs; GCC CFI; systemd; C types in Rust; LTTng; Swap showdown; KDE Linux. Briefs : 64-day certificates; Nix and Lix security; Asterinas 0.19.0; LineageOS 24; KDE 6.8; Python 3.15; Quotes; ... Announcements : Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
A Joint Venture of Open Source Proportions! Open Productivity is Here
The vendors behind the openDesk office suite have formed a company to take it beyond public administration and into commercial use.
Framework Computers Triples Their Financial Support To CachyOS
In addition to providing Framework systems to the CachyOS Linux distribution for optimizing the support, Framework Computers has also been providing monthly donations to the project. CachyOS confirmed today that Framework Computers has now tripled their monthly donations to this independent Linux distribution built atop Arch Linux...
Apple Contributes SSAF Driver To LLVM Clang For Source Code Transformations
Apple compiler engineers have contributed to upstream LLVM/Clang today a Scalable Static Analysis Framework (SSAF) driver for whole-program based analysis and source-to-source code transformations...