AMD PerfOpt Makes it Into Linux 7.4 As A Nice Performance Boost For AMD iGPUs
As anticipated, the AMD PerfOpt feature was picked up for the Linux 7.4 kernel. As shown already in multiple Phoronix benchmarks, AMD PerfOpt makes for a nice performance boost for AMD integrated graphics, especially for AI workloads… ⌘ Read more

Vulkan 1.4.367 Released With VK_KHR_maintenance12
Vulkan 1.4.367 is out this morning as the newest spec revision for this high performance graphics and compute API… ⌘ Read more

I3C Hub & HDR-DDR Support Merged For Linux 7.4
The I3C changes for Linux 7.4 were submitted this week by Bootlin’s Alexandre Belloni and subsequently merged… ⌘ Read more

RISC-V Has A Nice Portable Performance Optimization With Linux 7.4
The RISC-V architecture changes were merged today for the Linux 7.4 kernel with one nice optimization standing out… ⌘ Read more

Fedora Linux 45 Shipping Next Week On 3 November
Fedora 45 is ready to ship! It will be formally released on Tuesday, 3 November… ⌘ Read more

F2FS Adds Opt-In Multi-Grain Timestamps With Linux 7.4, Other Improvements
The F2FS (Flash Friendly File-System) improvements have been merged for Linux 7.4 to further enhance this flash-optimized solution… ⌘ Read more

NVIDIA Vera Single vs. Dual Socket CPU Performance
For those curious how NVIDIA Vera is scaling between single and dual socket deployments, here are some benchmarks I carried out a while back exploring the power and performance from one to two Vera CPUs. ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.4 Networking Brings Hardware Pacing Offload, New Drivers & More Performance
The many Linux wired and wireless networking driver improvements were merged this week for the ongoing Linux 7.4 merge window…. ⌘ Read more

AMD’s ROCm HRX Loom v0.1 Released For Targeting AMD CPUs, GPUs & NPUs
At this year’s AMD Advancing AI event Hyperloom was announced among the ROCm improvements to expect. Hyperloom aims for agentic workload optimizations and more with quote powerful abilities if everything works out right. As part of the latest round of ROCm advancements, the Loom SDK v0.1 release was released today… ⌘ Read more

FAT32 File-System Seeing As Much As 265x Improvement With Linux 7.4
A change merged for Linux 7.4 is showing some mighty big speed-ups for the FAT32 file-system… ⌘ Read more

Graphics/NPU Driver Changes Already Begin Queuing Up For What Will Be Linux 7.5
Since last week drm-misc-next pull requests have already been sent out to DRM-Next to begin staging new feature code for what’s intended for the Linux 7.5 kernel cycle kicking off at the end of the year… ⌘ Read more

KSMBD Adds New Options With Linux 7.4
A number of improvements to KSMBD, the in-kernel SMB3 file server, were merged for the Linux 7.4 kernel… ⌘ Read more

GXVK: 3Dfx Glide API Implemented Atop Vulkan For Modern Usage
The open-source D7VK project that implements the Direct3D 7 / 6 / 5 / 3 APIs atop the Vulkan API for faster, modern performance is out with a new release. This new D7VK 2.4 release came as a bit of a surprise since it was just last month D7VK announced its maturity status and more or less in maintenance mode. But brought up in today’s D7VK 2.4 announcement is an even bigger surprise: there’s now an implementation of the 3Dfx Glide API atop Vulkan… ⌘ Read more

Linux Kernel Developers Considering Removal Of KGDB Debugging Functionality
Merged to the kernel all the way back in Linux 2.6.26 in 2008 was KGDB for improving the kernel debugging experience. KGDB works in conjunction with the GNU Debugger (GDB) to debug the kernel in a similar fashion to user-space debugging. KGDB requires the use of a second computer connected via serial or network cable. KGDB isn’t widely used in recent years and a patch was floated today to remove it from the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more

System76 Introducing AMD-Powered Linux Small PC
System76 began teasing today the new Thelio Prime Desktop as an AMD-powered Linux mini PC that will begin shipping in November… ⌘ Read more

Canonical Reviving Their Immutable Ubuntu Core Desktop
Canonical engineers back in 2023 outlined plans for Ubuntu Core Desktop as their immutable Linux desktop. They made some good initial progress but since 2024 it went rather silent. Now they are reviving Ubuntu Core Desktop as their immutable desktop OS offering and with grand plans for the future… ⌘ Read more

CachyOS vs. Fedora 45 vs. Ubuntu 26.10 Performance On AMD Ryzen 9
With the recently released Ubuntu 26.10 and the nearly-released Fedora Workstation 45, Phoronix readers have begun inquiring about fresh benchmarks looking at how they stack up against the performance-optimized, Arch Linux based CachyOS. Up today are our first CachyOS vs. Fedora 45 vs. Ubuntu 26.10 benchmarks on an AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D2 desktop system. ⌘ Read more

NetBSD Adds Alternative Text Editor To vi & xedit For Easing New Users
NetBSD-current has added a new command line text editor to its base set of packages for helping out new users as an alternative to their vi and xedit editors currently included… ⌘ Read more

X.Org XCB Co-Creator Praises Wayland’s Protocol Design
Open-source developer Jamey Sharp who is a longtime X.Org developer and co-creator of the X protocol C-language Binding (XCB) finally had the need to write a Wayland client and ended up praising its design… ⌘ Read more

Provenance Time Proposed As A New Timestamp For Linux
While the Linux kernel and various file-system drivers already support the notion of the birth time for tracking a file/directory’s birth/creation time, a slightly different provenance time “ptime” is now being proposed for the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more

Hyprland 0.57 Released With Compiz Inspired Wobbly Windows
For those that want to reminisce over the days long ago of Compiz and Beryl on the Linux desktop, the Hyprland 0.57 Wayland compositor released today and has added Compiz-inspired wobbly windows support… ⌘ Read more

VKD3D-Proton 3.1 Released With New Features Ahead Of Big v3.2 Release
Hans-Kristian Arntzen of Valve’s Linux team just tagged the VKD3D-Proton 3.1 release. This version comes with a number of new features and performance optimizations while being the stable point ahead of VKD3D-Proton beginning to see a lot of new feature code for what will then become VKD3D-Proton 3.2… ⌘ Read more

GhostBSD 26.2 Released As FreeBSD 15.1 Powered OS With New Installer
GhostBSD 26.2 is out as the latest feature release of this FreeBSD-powered desktop operating system… ⌘ Read more

Retiring BSD-Compress Proposed For Linux PPP Network Code
A patch has been proposed to remove the BSD-Compress support from the Linux kernel for the Linux networking point-to-point protocol (PPP) due to being unmaintained and having fundamental issues with the code that can lead to a fatal error… ⌘ Read more

Wine Merges Support For MESA_map_buffer_client_pointer To Improve WoW64 32-bit OpenGL
An initiative led by CodeWeavers this year has come to fruition for improving OpenGL support with WoW64 for bettering Windows 32-bit application/game support while using 64-bit system libraries… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.4 Introduces DMA-BUF Support To I/O Path With IO_uring
Merged today for the ongoing Linux 7.4 merge window is the infrastructure for enabling DMA-BUF support in the kernel’s I/O path with the wonderful IO_uring framework… ⌘ Read more

Raspberry Pi Zero 3 W & Raspberry Pi 4 Model A Surface In Linux Kernel Patches
It looks like a next-generation Raspberry Pi Zero is about to surface, the long-awaited Raspberry Pi Zero 3 W. And in an interesting twist in these times amid high PC component costs and supply chain constraints, a Raspberry Pi 4 Model A… ⌘ Read more

KDE Fixes 15 Year Old Bug Over Inaccurate Notifications When Copying Files To USB Drives
A long-standing KDE bug is set to be resolved with next month’s KDE Frameworks 6.32 release… ⌘ Read more

Pavee OS: Ikey Doherty’s New Daily-Driver Desktop Distro Being Built Atop Barney
Back in September Ikey Doherty of Solus Linux and Serpent OS notoriety as well as being a former Intel Clear Linux developer announced Barney as his planned showcase for how to “properly” build a modern Linux distribution in 2026+. Today he’s provided an update on this Barney distro tooling effort as well as announcing Pavee OS as his planned daily-driver desktop distribution built atop it… ⌘ Read more

KDE Plasma 6.8.2 Released With Dozens Of Additional Bug Fixes
Debuting two weeks ago on the 30th anniversary of the KDE project was the Plasma 6.8 desktop with many exciting improvements. Last week it was succeeded by Plasma 6.8.1 with dozens of bug fixes and this week now brings Plasma 6.8.2 with yet more bug fixing… ⌘ Read more

AMD EPYC Zen 6 PML Support, ARM64 On s390 Merged For Linux 7.4 KVM
The many Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) improvements have been merged for Linux 7.4 to deliver a number of new features for different server processors… ⌘ Read more

Accelerating HTTP Web Servers With In-Kernel eBPF Deliver Up To 4.5x Throughput
An interesting new open-source project born out of university research is Beeper to provide application-layer parsing within the in-kernel eBPF. With an HTTP parser implemented by Beeper in eBPF and providing an in-kernel HTTP cache, the throughput for web servers could be improved by 3x at high rates… ⌘ Read more

Linux’s Modern NTFS Driver Now Supports Alternate Data Streams (ADS)
Merged back in Linux 7.1 was the new NTFS kernel driver implementation for better supporting Microsoft’s NTFS file-system on Linux. Since then new features and improvements have continued to land for this NTFS driver with some more notable additions also coming in Linux 7.4… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.4 Expands Sensor Monitoring For More ASUS & MSI Motherboards, New Minisforum Driver
With the Linux 7.4 kernel there are more MSI and ASUS motherboards with sensor monitoring support along with a variety of other additions to help broaden the selection of supported systems for hardware sensor monitoring under Linux. It’s another busy cycle for the HWMON subsystem… ⌘ Read more

Firefox 159 Released With AMD Linux Graphics Fix For Excessive Memory Use
Firefox 159 is out today as the latest bi-weekly feature release for Mozilla’s web browser… ⌘ Read more

Initial Support For The Apple M4 & Apple A18 Pro Make It Into Linux 7.4
The many SoC patches have landed within the Linux 7.4 kernel providing support for dozens of new boards as well as a number of new SoCs like the Apple M4 and the A18 Pro as found in the MacBook Neo. The Google Tensor 5 was also finally mainlined along with Pixel 10 devices. Plus some unreleased Qualcomm SoC support rounds out the bunch… ⌘ Read more

Steam Frame VR Headset Sees Mainline Support With Linux 7.4
The mainline Linux 7.4 kernel will be capable of running on the Steam Frame VR headset… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.4 Preps CXL For Very Neat Dynamic Capacity Devices “DCD”
The Compute Express Link (CXL) subsystem changes were merged today for the Linux 7.4 kernel. The fun work this cycle is preparing to support Dynamic Capacity Devices… ⌘ Read more

KMSCON 10.1 Released With Support For Per-Monitor Configurations
KMSCON as the user-space terminal emulator targeting Linux DRM/KMS interfaces as an alternative to the in-kernel VT now is able to individually configure monitors in multi-monitor setups. Plus a variety of other improvements with today’s KMSCON 10.1 release… ⌘ Read more

Intel IPU8 Support Upstreamed In Linux 7.4 For Nova Lake Laptops
The media subsystem changes have been merged for the Linux 7.4 kernel. Most notable is Intel IPU8 support being introduced for the next-gen image processing unit in high-end Nova Lake laptops.. ⌘ Read more

KWin-Type Introduced To Address KDE Wayland Usability Gap For Auto-Typing Text
Open-source developer Jason Donenfeld known for his work on WireGuard announced today the release of kwin-type. KWin-type is a new Wayland-compatible program for auto-typing text from the standard input under the KWin Wayland compositor… ⌘ Read more

Mesa 27.0 Switching To Kraid Compiler By Default For Arm Mali GPUs
In development for a number of months now has been Kraid as a modern graphics compiler for recent Arm Mali GPUs. Kraid was merged for Mesa 26.2 back in June while in Mesa 27.0 due out in Q1 it will be switching to this new shader compiler by default… ⌘ Read more

Snapdragon X1 Elite / Acer Swift 14 AI Performance On The Ubuntu 26.10 X1E Concept
For those curious about the Snapdragon X1 Elite performance on the recently released Ubuntu 26.10 Concept X1E ISO, here are some benchmarks showing the performance relative to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS X1E state on the same hardware. ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.4 EFI Brings Improvement For Helping Systemd When Kernel Booted Directly
The EFI updates have been merged for the Linux 7.4 kernel and include an improvement for when the system was booted directly into the kernel on EFI-based systems without using a bootloader like GRUB or systemd-boot… ⌘ Read more

Nouveau-DKMS Aims For Better NVIDIA Open-Source Experience On Old GPUs
Nouveau-DKMS is in development as an out-of-tree spin-off of the open-source NVIDIA “Nouveau” driver focused on providing better support for NVIDIA GeForce 400/500 “Fermi” series graphics processors and potentially other generations too pre-Turing where the modern Nova driver is in development by NVIDIA… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.4 Begins Employing New “Core MM” Tree
Core memory management patches to the Linux kernel have typically been routed to mainline via Andrew Morton’s “MM” branch, which is where also a variety of broader memory management related patches are also queued like all the ongoing work to DAMON/DAMOS. Kernel maintainers have now agreed to a new “Core MM” tree as the home for all of the core memory management changes moving forward… ⌘ Read more

Linux Fixes AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 Regression Due To Cache Aware Scheduling
Merged for Linux 7.4 Git and marked for back-porting to Linux 7.2/7.3 stable is a regression fix affecting at least the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 “Strix Point” laptop SoC when making use of Cache Aware Scheduling… ⌘ Read more

Moxnox: NT-Like, POSIX-Compatible Hobby OS Running Atop Btrfs
Open-source developer Mark Harmstone who is known for his work on developing a Btrfs file-system driver for Windows has spent the past few years working on a new hobby operating system. Moxnox is an HT-like, POSIX-compatible operating system… ⌘ Read more

EXT4 Lands Optional Buffered IOmap For Significant Performance Win With Large Writes
The EXT4 file-system changes were merged Sunday night for the ongoing Linux 7.4 merge window. The headline feature of EXT4 in this new kernel version is opt-in support for buffered IOmap usage that can lead to “significant” performance improvements for large writes… ⌘ Read more

Redox OS Landed Nice Performance Improvements In September
The Rust-based open-source operating system Redox OS had a very eventful September as they outlined in a status update published this weekend… ⌘ Read more