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FOSS
Kernel, distros, and the wider free and open source software world.
663 stories archived
Intel Hyper Threading Performance On The Xeon 678X "Granite Rapids-WS"
With the Intel Xeon 678X "Granite Rapids WS" processor that I have been recently testing within the HP Z4 G6i workstation, there are 48 cores plus with Hyper Threading is a total of 96 threads for this high-end workstation processor with a 300 Watt TDP. For those curious about the performance impact of HT/SMT on this Intel Xeon 600 series workstation processor, here are some comparison benchmarks.
KDE Gear 26.08 released
Version 26.08 of the KDE Gear collection of applications has been released. Notable changes in this release include improvements in the signing features of Okular , improved file-grouping features in the Dolphin file manager, and a number of enhancements to the Kdenlive video editor. See the changelog for a full list of updates, enhancements, and bug fixes.
Supply chain attack on arrayref (Rust blog)
The Rust blog reports on a malicious crate, called proc-macro1 , that was uploaded to the crates.io repository. Furthermore, we discovered that the popular arrayref crate had recently been republished and made to depend on this crate, with the most recent versions yanked. We have removed the malicious version and unyanked the maliciously-yanked versions. Other crates by that author ( internment , append-only-vec ) were also affected so we have done the same for those, and locked the account as a precaution. We do not believe the author of arrayref to be acting maliciously, but their computer or credentials are likely compromised, and we are attempting to contact them.
RPM 6.1.0 released
Version 6.1.0 of the RPM Package Manager has been released. Notable changes include the ability to provide modifiers to RPM macros at definition time, improved build and verification error handling, support for signing files with PKCS11 tokens using rpmsign , as well as the addition of several new man pages. The 6.1.0 release also debuts a new release model inspired by the Linux kernel's.
FSCRYPT Sees Cleanup With Linux 7.3 To Open Door For More Features Like Btrfs Encryption
FSCRYPT is the Linux file-system encryption framework for supporting per-directory, transparent encryption. FSCRYPT so far is used by the likes of EXT4, F2FS, and CephFS. For Linux 7.3 there is an important clean-up to the FSCRYPT code to simplify it while also opening the door for new features moving forward into future kernel versions...
[$] The beginning of the 7.3 merge window
As of this writing, 2,346 non-merge changesets have been pulled into the mainline repository for the 7.3 kernel release. That, clearly, is a mere down payment on the flood that is to come. Even so, those early pulls brought in some noteworthy changes, including (but not limited to) a significant reworking of how group scheduling works on multiprocessor systems.
Linux Driver Posted For The PreSonus Quantum 2626: A ~$700 Thunderbolt Audio Interface
The PreSonus Quantum 2626 is a high-end, Thunderbolt 3 based audio interface. PreSonus just maintains Windows and macOS drivers for this high-end audio interface while now an open-source Linux driver has been posted after being independently developed via reverse engineering...
RPM 6.1 Released With Clang Build Fixes, New Release Model
RPM 6.1 is out today as the newest feature release for this package management system. With RPM 6.1 comes a number of features and improvements as well as a new release model...
PINE64 is Halting its Linux Hardware Line, and The AI Bubble is to Blame
They are blaming DRAM and eMMC shortages, with nothing coming back before mid-2027.
Mesa 26.2.1 Released With Dozens Of Fixes
For those preferring the tradition of waiting for the first point release of a new Mesa feature release before upgrading, Mesa 26.2.1 is available today with a healthy round of bug fixing...
Linux 7.3 Cleans Up The Code For Disabling Of Legacy 32-bit Time Support
The Linux kernel has supported the CONFIG_COMPAT_32BIT_TIME Kconfig build time option for optionally disabling of legacy 32-bit time system call support. This is intended to disable the code that uses a 32-bit integer for time that is thus not Year 2038 safe, but at the cost of breaking compatibility for legacy 32-bit applications. Even if building without Linux 32-bit time support, it turns out some 32-bit time code persisted but that is now being fixed with Linux 7.3...
KDE Gear 26.08 Delivers The Latest KDE App Experience
KDE Gear 26.08 was released today to deliver the latest collection of KDE application updates...
Warp Launches Factories to Let Engineering Teams Build Their Own Cloud Software Factories
The platform is open at every layer, letting teams bring their own models, harnesses, and compute while Warp handles the orchestration.
X.Org Server 26.1 RC1 Prepares For First Feature Release In Five Years
Following today's release of XWayland 26.1 RC1, X.Org Server 26.1 RC1 was tagged. This xorg-server 26.1 release is aiming to become the first major feature release in five years, succeeding the xorg-server 21.1 series...
Tuba 0.11.0 released with full Mastodon quote support
A big update to Tuba, the GTK4/libadwaita Fediverse client, has landed – along with an experimental version for Android. Tuba 0.11.0 is the first major update to the social app in a year and brings full support for Mastodon quotes. Quoting posts, whether others can quote your posts and revoking consent from those who have are all supported in the composer. While the app had offered it own approach to “quote tweet” sharing of other people’s posts, adding support for Mastodon’s “consent-based” version means you will quote whilst respecting the needs/wishes of other users on the decentralised social media service. […] You're reading Tuba 0.11.0 released with full Mastodon quote support , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
EXT4 Preps More Performance Improvements For Linux 7.3
In addition to the IOmap improvements helping EXT4 performance in Linux 7.3, the main EXT4 feature pull request has now been submitted for this next kernel version. That pull is set to land yet more performance optimizations for EXT4...
[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for August 20, 2026
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition: Front : Debian AI GR; Python pathlib; bootstrappable builds; Fedora and AF_ALG; Arm 128-bit PTEs; BPF CI; 7.2 statistics. Briefs : Brief news items from throughout the community. Announcements : Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
Two Very Exciting Memory Management Optimizations Going Into Linux 7.3
Andrew Morton on Tuesday sent out all of the memory management "MM" updates for the Linux 7.3 merge window. The MM pull was particularly heavy as he noted 1,250 "added-to-MM" emails were sent out this cycle compared to 920 the prior cycle. With a lot of patch churn, he also turned to Google's Gemini AI for writing his patch summaries. In going through the very verbose AI-generated summary, there are two patch series that get me excited on the performance front with Linux 7.3...
Go 1.27 released
Go 1.27 , the most recent version of the Go programming language , has been released with a number of new tools, the addition of support for the ML-DSA post-quantum algorithm, new JSON-processing packages, language updates, and more.
Go Language 1.27 Adds Generic Methods, Struct Improvement & More SIMD
Go 1.27 was released today as the newest version of this programming language from Google's Go team...
Seven stable kernels for Wednesday
Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.1.9 , 6.18.45 , 6.12.104 , 6.6.152 , 6.1.183 , 5.15.216 , and 5.10.265 stable kernels. Each contains important fixes throughout the tree; users are advised to upgrade.
Btrfs Ready With More Performance Improvements For Linux 7.3: Some ~3x To ~5x Wins
David Sterba of SUSE sent in the Btrfs file-system feature updates today that target the Linux 7.3 merge window. Among other changes are more performance improvements for this next version of the Linux kernel...
[$] Debian weighs eight options in vote on LLM usage
The Debian Project is voting on the usage of large language models (LLMs) to make contributions to the project. The first proposal , sent in late July by Matthias Geiger, would expressly forbid any contributions to Debian that are created by or with the assistance of LLMs. That kicked off a firestorm of discussion and a flood of alternate proposals. Debian developers are now voting on eight proposals in total that range from banning LLM-assisted contributions to explicitly approving them, as well as the standard "none of the above" option that would leave Debian with no agreed policy.
Tuba 0.11 released
Version 0.11 of the Tuba fediverse client has been released. Notable changes in this release include support for Mastodon collections and quotes , ability to create custom thumbnails for attachments, a new emoji picker, a build for Android, as well as many other enhancements.