The Asahi Linux project development team has long been working on bringing Linux to Apple Silicon MacBooks and desktops, going so far as to show off games on the Arm-powered laptops. The latest patches to Asahi add proper support for USB4 and Thunderbolt on MacBooks with the M1, M2, and M3 SoCs, and that support is now making its way to the mainline Linux kernel, as per an upstream patch by prominent Asahi developer, Sven Peter.

A 16-year-old Linux kernel vulnerability, dubbed Januscape, allows attackers to escape a virtual machine and execute arbitrary code on the host.

Following the recent release of FSR 4 support on RDNA 3 GPUs, Valve engineer, Pierre-Loup Griffais, has announced in a post on Bluesky that the same support has officially been added to Linux via Steam's Proton compatibility layer. Support for FSR 4 on RDNA 3 comes by way of the latest version of Proton Experimental, so it's by no means a stable implementation just yet, but the engineer specifically calls out SteamOS and the Steam Machine as the target system for the new upscaler support, suggesting that Valve will invest development resources into getting the support into a more complete state ahead of the full roll-out of the Steam Machine.

Valve's SteamOS 3.8.6 Beta update has officially been announced, and although it brings the usual list of bug fixes and stability updates, the new update also adds support for a host of new hardware and some software features. For one, it looks as though AMD's work to get HDMI 2.1 functional on Linux is progressing, with SteamOS 3.8.6 bringing support for VRR over HDMI on devices with native HDMI output. The HDMI VRR support is noted as preliminary, so it may still be an imperfect experience, but it seems as though the work is coming along. VRR frame pacing has also been improved, and TCL TVs will now more reliably connect to the handheld via the Steam Deck Dock.

Multiple researchers using the same tools to find the same bugs are creating ‘unnecessary pain and pointless work’

Two council members have retracted their approval votes after people raised concerns.

One area that's lacking on Linux right now is support for later versions of HDMI with AMD GPUs, but it seems expanded features are coming.

Google Sites lure leads to bogus root certificate

It's finally time: a patch queued into one of the development branches ahead of the upcoming Linux 7.1 merge window is set to finally begin the process of phasing out and ultimately removing Intel 486 CPU support from the Linux kernel. Anyone still using an i486 CPU with an upstream Linux kernel would be incredibly rare and no known Linux distribution vendors are still shipping with i486 CPU support, but in case you are, you can continue to be running one of the existing Linux LTS kernel versions.

Investigation into Amutable GmbH founding documents, undisclosed conflicts in the systemd birthDate merge, EUR 855K in undisclosed government funding, and $42.2M in corporate lobbying.

A single pull request turned a quiet open source contributor into the unlikely target of one of the Linux community's most heated controversies. We interacted with Dylan Taylor to hear his side of the story.

In the lead-up to the official launch, Gnome 50 has been previewed in beta via distributions like the Fedora 44 beta, but the updated version of the desktop environment, dubbed Tokyo, has officially launched in stable form, bringing with it a slew of long-expected changes—although some features did not make the cut for Gnome 50 and will be pushed back to Gnome 51. The biggest additions to Gnome 50 are the official launch of variable refresh rate and fractional scaling, both of which are enabled as long as the hardware supports it. Beyond implementing VRR and fractional scaling, Gnome 50 also features a low-latency cursor mode that allows the cursor to refresh independently from the window behind it when VRR is active. It also features workarounds for the NVIDIA driver for stuttering and frame timing issues, which should result in "noticeably smoother window animations and general desktop fluidity for users with NVIDIA GPUs."

Dial back to the 1990s with this Debian Linux clone in your browser

We have known for a while that the Linux 6.19 development cycle has been a bit disruptive with Christmas and New Year disrupting the early stages of development. Now, with the sixth release candidate just arriving, Linus Torvalds has more or less confirmed that an eighth release candidate, which is not the norm, looks very likely.

A big breakthrough for Adobe Creative Cloud on Linux.

VoidLink includes an unusually broad and advanced array of capabilities.

Wine 11.0 arrives with a year of development work, more than six thousand changes, and broad improvements across graphics, WoW64 compatibility, gaming, and system performance. From Vulkan and Direct3D tweaks to new Wayland desktop features and better device support, this release marks a confident leap forward for Windows application support on Linux.

It has been a while since they started the fundraising, but it's heartwarming to see it reaching such a level by the end of the year!

...with varying definitions of "usable," anyway.

Link: https://riedstra.dev/static/unixv4/

A heart-warming story for cold, stony sysadmin hearts.

An attempt to provide vendor-neutral oversight as the agent train barrels on

After bearing with a very slow laptop, I tried out Fedora Xfce and the results were staggeringly good.

Linux Torvalds has released the last kernel update for the year. The merge window for Linux 6.19 is now open, but it's expecting some delays.

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS will feature a revamped set of default applications. Canonical has confirmed that both the Totem video player and GNOME System Monitor

How does turbowarp desktop help in handling scratch ?