Haiku gets fixes for NFS4, improves its BSD driver compatibility layer
Another month, another activity report from the Haiku project. This past month, a lot of work went into the FreeBSD/OpenBSD network driver compatibility layer, opening the door to drivers using interfaces other than PCI or USB. Support for NFS4 took a bit of a hit with last month’s changes to VFS, and these have been addressed, and other aspects of NFS4 have been improved as well. On top of t … ⌘ Read more

Google changes how ads in Search are shown, and surprisingly it doesn’t make things worse
Text ads on the search results page will now be grouped with a single “Sponsored results” label. This new, larger label stays visible as people scroll, making it clear which results are sponsored — upholding our industry-leading standards for ad label prominence. We’re also adding a new “Hide sponsored results” control that allows you to collapse text ads … ⌘ Read more

Old Blue Workbench adds a ton of improvements to your old Amiga
Are you still using your Amiga with the 1.3 version of Kickstart, but would you prefer an updated version of Workbench with a long list of additional features, improvements, and other niceties? Old Blue Workbench is a Workbench replacement for Amigas running Kickstart 1.3 written by Mats Eirik Hansen. It adds a ton of features and improvements, such as enhanced menus in the Workbench 2.0 style, improved w … ⌘ Read more

9front Release released
The world’s best operating system, 9front, has released a new release called Release. 9front is a maintained fork of Plan 9. The new release Release brings atomic(2) functions for arm, arm64, mips, 386 and amd64, improved stability when the kernel runs out of memory, memdraw and devdraw now support affine warp primitive, and more. You can download Release from the usual mirrors. ⌘ Read more

LineageOS 23 released
The LineageOS project has released version 23 of their AOSP-based Android variant. LineageOS 23 is based on the initial release of Android 16 – so not the QPR1 release that came later – because Google has not made the source code for that release available yet. Like other, similar projects, LineageOS also suffers from Google’s recent further lockdown of Android; not only do they not have access to Android 16 QPR1’s source code, they also can’t follow along with the latest security patche … ⌘ Read more

Liquid Glass is cracked, and usability suffers in iOS 26
With iOS 26, Apple seems to be leaning harder into visual design and decorative UI effects — but at what cost to usability? At first glance, the system looks fluid and modern. But try to use it, and soon those shimmering surfaces and animated controls start to get in the way. Let’s strip back the frost and look at how these changes affect real use. ↫ Raluca Budiu I have not yet used Apple’s new “Liquid Glass” graphical … ⌘ Read more

In bizarre move, Framework embraces deeply extremist views
Framework, the maker of repairable laptops, is embroiled in a controversy, as the company and its CEO are openly supporting people with, well, questionable views. If you know a little bit about PR in social media space, you might note that, right out of the gate, a project by a vocal white nationalist known for splitting communities by their mere presence, is not a great highlight choice for an overtly non-left-righ … ⌘ Read more

Running FreeBSD using Windows Subsystem for Linux
What if you are forced to use Windows, but want to use a real operating system instead? You could use WSL2 to use Linux inside Windows, but what if FreeBSD is more your thing? It turns out someone is working on making FreeBSD usable using WSL2. This repository hosts work-in-progress efforts to run FreeBSD inside Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) with minimal to no changes to the FreeBSD base system. The project builds on the open-s … ⌘ Read more

Fedora’s “AI” policy process highlights rift between IBM/Red Hat and Fedora
A lot of open source projects are struggling what to do with the “AI” bubble, and Fedora is no different. This whole past year, the project’s been struggling to formulate any official policies on the use of “AI”, and LWN.net’s Joe Brockmeier has just done an amazing job summarising the various positions, opinions, and people influencing this process. His conclusion: There appears to b … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft closes another loophole to enable local accounts in Windows 11
It seems like Microsoft is continuing its quest to force Windows users to use Microsoft accounts instead of local accounts, despite the fact Microsoft accounts on Windows are half-baked and potentially incredibly dangerous. In the most recent Windows 11 Insider Preview Build (26220.6772), the company has closed a few more loopholes people were using to trick the Windows installer into al … ⌘ Read more

Servo GTK: a widget to embed Servo in GTK4
Servo, the Rust-based browsing engine spun off from Mozilla, keeps making progress every month, and this made Ignacio Casal Quinteiro wonder: what if we make a GTK widget so we can test Servo and compare it to WebKitGTK? As part of my job at Amazon I started working in a GTK widget which will allow embedding a Servo Webview inside a GTK application. This was mostly a research project just to understand the current state of Servo and whether it was … ⌘ Read more

Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs after NAS sales plummet
Earlier this year, popular NAS vendor Synology announced it would start requiring some of its more expensive models to only use Synology-branded drives. It seems the uproar this announcement caused has had some real chilling effect on sales, and the company just cancelled its plans. Synology has backtracked on one of its most unpopular decisions in years. After seeing NAS sales plummet … ⌘ Read more

MicroPythonOS: an Android-like operating system for microcontrollers like the ESP32
MicroPythonOS is a lightweight, fast, and versatile operating system designed to run on microcontrollers like the ESP32 and desktop systems. With a modern Android-like touch screen UI, App Store, and Over-The-Air updates, it’s the perfect OS for innovators and developers. ↫ MicroPytonOS’ website It’s quite neat to see this running in such a constrained environment, e … ⌘ Read more

Qualcomm gobbles up Arduino
It was good while it lasted, I guess. Arduino will retain its independent brand, tools, and mission, while continuing to support a wide range of microcontrollers and microprocessors from multiple semiconductor providers as it enters this next chapter within the Qualcomm family. Following this acquisition, the 33M+ active users in the Arduino community will gain access to Qualcomm Technologies’ powerful technology stack and global reach. Entrepreneurs, businesses, tech profess … ⌘ Read more

That small sliver of time where a QNX desktop was a real thing we did
Bradford Morgan White has published an excellent retrospective of QNX, the realtime microkernel operating system focused on embedded use cases. The final paragraph made me sad, though. QNX is a fascinating operating system. It was extremely well designed from the start, and while it has been rewritten, the core ideas that allowed it survive for 45 years persist to this day. While I am sad that … ⌘ Read more

Redox now multithreaded by default
Can these months please stop passing us by this quickly? It seems we’re getting a monthly Redox update every other week now, and that’s not right. Anyway, what have the people behind this Rust-based operating system been up to this past month? One of the biggest changes this month is that Redox is now multithreaded by default, at least on x86 machines. Unsurprisingly, this can enable some serious performance gains. Also contributing to performance improvements t … ⌘ Read more

The case against generative AI: the numbers just don’t add up (i.e., it’s a scam)
Every single “vibe coding is the future,” “the power of AI,” and “AI job loss” story written perpetuates a myth that will only lead to more regular people getting hurt when the bubble bursts. Every article written about OpenAI or NVIDIA or Oracle that doesn’t explicitly state that the money doesn’t exist, that the revenues are impossible, that one of the companies involved bur … ⌘ Read more

Under pressure from US government, Apple removes ICEBlock application from the App Store
Your lovely host, late last night: Google claims they won’t be sharing developer information with governments, but we all know that’s a load of bullshit, made all the more relevant after whatever the fuck this was. If you want to oppose the genocide in Gaza or warn people of ICE raids, and want to create an Android application to coordinate such efforts, yo … ⌘ Read more

Google details Android developer certification requirement, and it’s as bad as we feared
Google has been on a bit of a marketing blitz to try and counteract some of the negative feedback following its new developer verification requirement for Android applications, and while they’re using a lot of words, none of them seem to address the core concerns. It basically comes down to that they just don’t care about the consequences this new requiremen … ⌘ Read more

Dutch judge to Facebook: stop secretly disregarding your users’ settings
And here we have yet another case of the EU’s consumer protection legislation working in our favour. Dutch privacy and consumer rights organisation Bits of Freedom sued Facebook over the company’s little trick of disregarding a user’s settings under a variety of circumstances, such as when a user opts for a chronological, non-profiled timeline, only to have Facebook reset itself to the pro … ⌘ Read more

Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 released
With Google closing up Android at a rapid pace, there’s some renewed interest in mobile platforms that aren’t either iOS or Android, and one of those is Ubuntu Touch. It’s been steadily improving over the years under the stewardship of the UBports Foundation, and today they released Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0. Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.0 is the first release of Ubuntu Touch which is based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, a major upgrade from Ubuntu 20.04. This might not be as big compared … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft conducts Windows reorg that sees core engineering teams back under the same roof as feature experience teams
Microsoft is reorganising the Windows teams. Again. For those unaware, the Windows organization has essentially been split in two since 2018. Teams that work on the core of Windows were moved under Azure, and the rest of the Windows team (those that focused on top level features and user experienc … ⌘ Read more

How to write a complete GNOME application in Lua
This article is intended to be a comprehensive guide to writing your first GNOME app in Lua using LuaGObject. The article assumes that you already understand Lua and want to get started with building beautiful native applications for GNOME. I also assume you know how to use a command line to install and compile software. Having some knowledge of the C programming language, as well as the Make, Gettext, and Flatpak software will be hel … ⌘ Read more

The Encore 91 computer system
Have you ever heard of the Encore 91 computer system, developed and built by Encore Computer Corporation? I stumbled upon the name of this system on the website for the Macintosh like virtual window manager (MLVWM), an old X11 window manager designed to copy some of the look and feel of the classic Mac OS, and wanted to know more about it. An old website from what appears to be a reseller of the Encore 91 has a detailed description and sales pitch of the machine still onl … ⌘ Read more

Google’s Android developer registration requirement will kill F-Droid
The consequences of Google requiring developer certification to install Android applications, even outside of Google’s own Play Store, are starting to reverberate. F-Droid, probably the single most popular non-Google application repository for Android, has made it very clear that Google’s upcoming requirement is most likely going to mean the end of F-Droid. If it were to be put into effect, the … ⌘ Read more

Unite: a decades-old QNX-inspired hobby operating system
Unite is an operating system in which everything is a process, including the things that you normally would expect to be part of the kernel. The hard disk driver is a user process, so is the file system running on top of it. The namespace manager is a user process. The whole thing (in theory, see below) supports network transparency from the ground up, you can use resources of other nodes in the network just as easily a … ⌘ Read more

Why was Windows 3.0’s WinHelp called an online help system when it ran offline?
Some time ago, I described Windows 3.0’s WinHelp as “a program for browsing online help files.” But Windows 3.0 predated the Internet, and these help files were available even if the computer was not connected to any other network. How can it be “online”? ↫ Raymond Chen at The Old New Thing I doubt this will be a conceptual problem for many people reading OSNews, but I can de … ⌘ Read more

Installing Linux on a PC-98 machine
What if you have a PC-98 machine, and you want to run Linux on it, as you do? I mean, CP/M, OS/2, or Windows (2000 and older) might not cut it for you, after all. Well, it turns out that yes, you can run Linux on PC-98 hardware, and thanks to a bunch of work by Nina Kalinina – yes, the same person from a few days ago – there’s now more information gathered in a single place to get you started. Plamo Linux is one of the few Linux distributions to support PC-98 … ⌘ Read more

UNIX99: UNIX for the TI-99/4A
I’ve been working on developing an operating system for the TI-99 for the last 18 months or so. I didn’t intend this—my original plan was to develop enough of the standard C libraries to help with writing cartridge-based and EA5 programs. But that trek led me quickly towards developing an OS. As Unix is by far my preferred OS, this OS is an approximation. Developing an OS within the resources available, particularly the RAM, has been challenging, but also surprisingly doab … ⌘ Read more

Another win for the Digital Markets Act: Microsoft gives truly free access to additional year of Windows 10 updates to EU users
A few months ago, Microsoft finally blinked and provided a way for Windows 10 users to gain “free” access to the Windows 10 Extended Security Update program. For regular users to gain access to this program, their options are to either pay around $30, pay 1000 Microsoft points, or … ⌘ Read more

NFS at 40: a treasure trove of documents and other material about Sun’s Network File System
The contributions of Sun Microsystems to the world of computing are legion – definitely more than its ignominious absorption into Oracle implies – and one of those is NFS, the Network File system. This month, NFS more or less turned 40 years old, and in honour of this milestone, Russel Berg, Russ Cox, Steve Kleiman, Bob Lyon, Tom Lyon, Joseph Moran, Br … ⌘ Read more

yt-dlp will soon require a full JS runtime to overcome YouTube’s JS challenges
If you download YouTube videos, there’s a real chance you’re using yt-dlp, the long-running and widely-used command-line program for downloading YouTube videos. Even if you’re not using it directly, many other tools for downloading YouTube videos are built on top of yt-dlp, and even some media players which offer YouTube playback use it in the background. Now, yt-dlp has alway … ⌘ Read more

Legacy Update 1.12 released
If you’re still running old versions of Windows from Windows 2000 and up, either for restrocomputing purposes or because you need to keep an old piece of software running, you’ve most likely heard of Legacy Update. This tool allows you to keep Windows Update running on Windows versions no longer supported by the service, and has basically become a must-have for anyone still playing around with older Windows versions. The project released a fairly major update today. Legacy Up … ⌘ Read more

MacOS 26 is the final Intel version, sucks to be a 2023 Intel Mac Pro owner
macOS Tahoe is the final software update that Intel-based Macs will get, as Apple works to phase them out following its transition to Apple silicon. During its Platforms State of the Union event, Apple said that Intel Macs won’t get macOS 27, coming next year, though there could still be updates that add security fixes. ↫ Juli Clover at MacRumors Not particularly surprising, but def … ⌘ Read more

Windowing, menu bar, and background processes come to iPadOS
For years now – it feels more like decades, honestly – Apple has been trying a variety of approaches to make the iPad more friendly to power users, most notably by introducing, and subsequently abandoning, various multitasking models. After its most recent attempts – Stage Manager – fell on deaf ears, the company has thrown its hands up in the air and just implemented what we all wanted on the iPad anyway: a norm … ⌘ Read more

FreeBSD 14.3 released
FreeBSD 14.3 has been released, an important point release for those of us using the FreeBSD 14.x branch. This release brings 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) support to many modern laptop wireless chips, OCI container images are now available in Docker and GitHub repositories, and a number of cornerstone packages have been updated to their latest versions. ⌘ Read more

‘Dystopian tales of that time when I sold out to Google’
If you ever wanted to know what it was like to be an engineer at Google during the early to late 2000s, here you go. Now even though Google is fundamentally a spyware advertising company (some 80% of its revenue is advertising; the proportion was even higher back then), we Engineers were kept carefully away from that reality, as much as meat eaters are kept away from videos of the meat industry: don’t think about it, jus … ⌘ Read more

Apple introduces new Liquid Glass design language
Apple at WWDC announced iOS 26, introducing a comprehensive visual redesign built around its new “Liquid Glass” concept, alongside expanded Apple Intelligence capabilities, updates to core communication apps, and more. Liquid Glass is a translucent material that reflects and refracts surroundings to create dynamic, responsive interface elements, according to Apple. The new design language transforms the Lock Screen, where the time f … ⌘ Read more

Windows 7: a 2025 perspective (rose-tinted or not)
Quite often, I wonder how much nostalgia plays part in our perception of past events. Luckily, with software, you can go “back” and retest it, and so there’s no need for any illusions and misconceptions. To wit, I decided to reinstall and try Windows 7 again (as a virtual machine, but still), to see whether my impressions of the dross we call “modern” software today are justified. ↫ Igor Ljubuncic The conclusion is that, yes, you can … ⌘ Read more

A critical look at NetBSD’s installer
NetBSD is an OS that I installed only a couple of times over the years, so I’m not very familiar with its installer, sysinst. This fact was actually what led to this article (or the whole series rather): Talking to a NetBSD developer at EuroBSDcon 2023, I mentioned my impression that NetBSD was harder to install than it needed to be. He was interested in my perspective as a relative newcomer, and so I promised to take a closer look and write about it. While … ⌘ Read more

Redox gets X11 support, GTK3, and Mesa3D EGL
We’ve cleared another month by the skin of our teeth, so it’s time for another month of progress in Redox, the Rest-based operating system. They’ve got a big one for us this month, as Redox can now run X11 applications in its Orbital display server, working in much the same way as XWayland. This X11 support includes DRI, but it doesn’t yet fully support graphics acceleration. Related to the X11 effort is the brand new port of GTK3 and the arriv … ⌘ Read more

New EU rules mandate five years of OS updates for smartphones and tablets
Starting 20 June 2025, new rules and regulations in the European Union covering, among other thins, smartphones and tablets, will have some far-reaching consequences for device makers – consequences that, coincidentally, will work out pretty great for consumers within the European Union. The following “ecodesign requirements” will come into force on 20 June: Especially the requirements … ⌘ Read more

“AI” coding chatbot funded by Microsoft were Actually Indians
London-based Builder.ai, once valued at $1.5 billion and backed by Microsoft and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, has filed for bankruptcy after reports that its “AI-powered” app development platform was actually operated by Indian engineers, said to be around 700 of them, pretending to be artificial intelligence. The startup, which raised over $445 million from investors including Microsoft and the Qatar Investm … ⌘ Read more

To comply with the DMA, Microsoft rolls out tons of Windows improvements, but only for users in the EU
As part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to compliance with the Digital Markets Act, we are making the following changes to Windows 10, Windows 11, and Microsoft apps in the European Economic Area (EEA). We’ll update this post as these changes are shipped, first in Windows Insider builds and then in retail builds. ↫ Windows Insid … ⌘ Read more

Ice-T 2.8.0 released: a VT-100 terminal emulator for the Atari 8-bit
Ice-T is a terminal emulator, allowing Atari computers with extended memory (128KB or more) to connect to remote dialup and Telnet hosts, such as Unix shells and BBSs. A limited version for machines without extended memory is also available. ↫ Ice-T 2.8.0 release announcement Version 2.8.0 was released a few days ago, the first new release in almost twelve years. It comes with a ton of improvemen … ⌘ Read more

Fvwm3 1.1.3 released, completes transition from autotools to meson
Fvwm3, the venerable, solid, configurable, no-nonsense window manager for X, has been updated: fvwm3 1.1.3 has been released. While the version number indicates that this is a minor release, there’s one reason why 1.1.3 is actually a much bigger deal than the version number suggests: it switches the build system from autotools to meson. Fvwm is very old, and has been using autotools since 1996 (befor … ⌘ Read more

Sony’s NEWS UNIX workstations
The first prototype was ready in just six months. By October 1986, the project was announced, and in January 1987, the first NEWS workstation, the NWS 800 series, officially launched. It ran 4.2BSD UNIX and featured a Motorola 68020 CPU. Its performance rivaled that of traditional super minicomputers, but with a dramatically lower price point ranging from ¥950,000 to ¥2.75 million (approximately $6,555 to $18,975 USD in 1987). Competing UNIX workstations typically cost clo … ⌘ Read more

That time “AI” translation almost caused a fight between a doctor and my parents
What if you want to find out more about the PS/2 Model 280? You head out to Google, type it in as a query, and realise the little “AI” summary that’s above the fold is clearly wrong. Then you run the same query again, multiple times, and notice that each time, the “AI” overview gives a different wrong answer, with made-up details it’s pulling out of its metaphorical ass. Ev … ⌘ Read more

GNOME OS ready for more extensive testing
While it’s still early days and it’s not recommended for non-technical audiences, GNOME OS is now ready for developers and early adopters who know how to deal with occasional bugs (and importantly, file those bugs when they occur). ↫ Tobias Bernard This is great news, and means GNOME OS is progressing nicely. I’m a proponent of this and KDE’s equivalent project, because it allows the people working on GNOME and KDE to really showcase their work in … ⌘ Read more

Harpoom: of course the Apple Network Server can be hacked into running Doom
Of course you can run Doom on a $10,000+ Apple server running IBM AIX. Of course you can. Well, you can now. Now, let’s go ahead and get the grumbling out of the way. No, the ANS is not running Linux or NetBSD. No, this is not a backport of NCommander’s AIX Doom, because that runs on AIX 4.3. The Apple Network Server could run no version of AIX later than 4.1.5 and there are substan … ⌘ Read more