Intel Xeon 600 Workstation Performance vs. AMD Threadripper 9000 In Nearly 400 Benchmarks
Last month I had the chance to test the Xeon 678X workstation processor as my first hands-on opportunity with the Xeon 600 “Granite Rapids WS” series. The Intel Xeon 678X was within the HP Z4 G6i workstation and used it for a number of different benchmarks. In that HP workstation review were also some comparison points to the likes of AMD Ryzen Threadripper while in this article are some much more concentrated … ⌘ Read more

KDE Plasma 6.8 Beta Released With Many Great Improvements, Kup Backup Scheduler
Ahead of the stable release of Plasma 6.8 due out on 14 October that also marks the 30th anniversary of the KDE project, out today is the much anticipated beta release… ⌘ Read more

Intel BFF Driver Slated For Linux 7.4 Introduction
Last month I covered Intel posting a new driver named “BFF” for the Linux kernel. This BFF driver is for a new hardware feature debuting with next-gen Diamond Rapids processors for better dealing with aging CPU silicon where some bits may become stuck over time… ⌘ Read more

NVIDIA NVK Driver Lands Improvement To Help With Valve’s Gamescope
Merged today for next quarter’s Mesa 26.3 release is an improvement for the open-source NVIDIA “NVK” Vulkan driver paired with the Nouveau kernel driver. This latest NVK improvement benefits usage of Valve’s Gamescope micro-compositor and should help with performance during game recording and remote play… ⌘ Read more

X.Org Server 26.1 Moves Closer To Release As Half-Decade Update
We’re getting closer to the X.Org Server 26.1 stable release as the first new tagged feature release since X.Org Server 21.1 debuted back in October 2021. There have been some new features, many code reverts, and many bug fixes merged over the past five years that will culminate with the X.Org Server 26.1 stable release… ⌘ Read more

GNOME 51 Adds Support For Custom Pointer Acceleration Profiles
As a last minute change ahead of next week’s GNOME 51 desktop release, changes to Mutter and gsettings-desktop-schemas have now landed for supporting custom pointer acceleration profiles… ⌘ Read more

COSMIC Epoch 1.8 Provides Latest Fixes & Minor Improvements For This Rust Desktop
Released overnight was the newest version of the Rust-based COSMIC desktop environment developed by System76 as part of the effort on their Pop!_OS Linux distribution… ⌘ Read more

GNU Automake 1.19 Released With More Than One Year Worth Of Fixes
For those continuing to use GNU Automake over the likes of Meson or CMake for your build system, Automake 1.19 is out today as the first new release in 15 months. Among the many fixes in this release is for a bug dating back 14 years… ⌘ Read more

Steam Client Beta Improves Big Picture Mode, Several Linux Enhancements
Tonight Valve released a big Steam client beta update with a number of new features and fixes… ⌘ Read more

ReactOS Dev Gets FEX Running For x86_64 Games On This “Open-Source Windows” OS Under ARM
A ReactOS developer for this open-source operating system project striving for binary compatibility with Windows drivers and applications has achieved an intriguing software stack. With the experimental ReactOS ARM64 build for running on 64-bit ARM hardware like Raspberry Pi SBCs, he’s paired that “open-source Windows” OS with the open-source FEX emulator for in turn being able to run Windows x64 games/apps on ReactOS atop … ⌘ Read more

Running AMD openSIL + Coreboot On The First Available Ryzen AM5 Motherboard
Earlier this year the 3mdeb firmware consulting firm ported AMD openSIL CPU open-source silicon initialization library and Coreboot to an EPYC motherboard, the Gigabyte MZ33-AR1. Their next feat now achieved is bringing AMD openSIL and Coreboot to a desktop AMD Ryzen motherboard with their downstream Dasharo firmware solution. I have been running this alternative firmware on the MSI PRO B850P WiFi motherboard and it’s been working out … ⌘ Read more

XWayland 26.1 RC2 Released For Testing With More Fixes
Following last month’s initial release candidate of XWayland 26.1 with its many new features, a second release candidate is now available with a number of fixes… ⌘ Read more

System76 Launches The Thelio Mira AI With AMD Ryzen + NVIDIA Or AMD Graphics
System76 today unveiled their newest desktop computer as the Thelio Mira AI. The System76 Thelio Mira AI is designed for multi-GPU AI training, model fine-tuning, AI inferencing, computer vision and image generation tasks on tthe AI side. Or with its AMD Ryzen 9000 series CPU and NVIDIA/AMD GPU options is also a good candidate for simulations and other HPC-type workloads… ⌘ Read more

OpenSSL 4.1 Alpha 1 Released With DTLS 1.3, GREASE & More AVX-512 Optimizations
The first alpha release of the upcoming OpenSSL 4.1 release is now available for testing with some GREASE and DTLS 1.3 support along with more AVX-512 performance optimizations… ⌘ Read more

NVIDIA 615.71.09 Linux Driver Released With Vulkan Improvements
NVIDIA today debuted the 615.71.09 Linux driver that comes with a number of improvements, especially from the Vulkan API perspective… ⌘ Read more

A Nice Improvement Coming For Faster Btrfs Zstd Decompression
In addition to the still-pending kernel work for improving the in-kernel Zstd code, sepaarately the Btrfs file-system driver has an improvement on the way in its decompression code path for the Zstd transparent file-system compression… ⌘ Read more

AMD Posts New GCC Compiler Patch For Extended Load Optimization
It’s nice seeing a new GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) patch out of AMD today that is a general optimization for the x86_64 compiler code and not exclusively tied to their Zen processors. It’s an Extended Load Optimization to benefit code where there is a narrower type and then an arithmetic type with a wider type… ⌘ Read more

YSERVER 1.5 Released With Reverse PRIME Support & Other New Features
Announced a few months back was YSERVER as a modern X11 server written in the Rust programming language. In getting the project off the ground quickly and given the size of X11, it was largely vibe coded with Claude Code. The project continues and is attracting contributions from more users with today marking the YSERVER 1.5 release… ⌘ Read more

AI Made A Lot Of “Hideous” Code But Found Major Bottlenecks For Faster Linux Compilation
An ARM Linux engineer leveraged AI/LLMs to help uncover some improvements to “significant speed up” the Linux kernel build times. In the process the LLM used generated “a lot of code, much of it hideous” but in the end was used to find some very significant time savings for faster kernel builds via more task parallelization in different areas of the kernel build process… ⌘ Read more

systemd 262-rc2 Adds An AI Canary For Detecting Unreviewed AI/LLM Code Contributions
One week after releasing systemd 262-rc1, systemd 262-rc2 is now available with further fixes and refinements for this init system and service manager. Systemd is also the latest open-source project introducing an AI canary for aiming to detect AI/LLM-based code contributors that weren’t reviewed by an actual person in advance of the pull request… ⌘ Read more

DLSS5VKLayer Wires Up NVIDIA DLSS 5 For Native Linux Games & Steam Play
An interesting new open-source project for those looking to make use of NVIDIA DLSS 5 on Linux is DLSS5VKLayer. The DLSS5VKLayer is a Linux Vulkan layer that works for both native Linux games as well as Steam Play (Proton) Windows games for experimental DLSS 5 support… ⌘ Read more

KDE’s KWin Merges Wayland Commit-Timing Protocol Support
Merged today to the latest KDE KWin compositor development code is support for Wayland’s important commit-timing protocol that is useful for video playback as well as for gamers relying on Adaptive-Sync/FreeSync support… ⌘ Read more

The Linux Kernel Planning To Remove Around ~55k Lines Of Old ARM Platform Code
For the current Linux 7.3 kernel many older 32-bit ARM platforms are deprecated and in turn orphaning hundreds of drivers only relevant to those out-of-date ARM platforms. The removal of that now deprecated code is planned for the next kernel cycle or two… ⌘ Read more

CHUWI UniBook With Intel Wildcat Lake For A $449 Linux-Friendly Laptop
CHUWI recently launched the UniBook laptop powered by the Intel Core 3 304 “Wildcat Lake” SOC and priced at just $449 USD. Especially with today’s high component pricing, a brand new sub-$500 laptop is extremely rare. Rather than using some dated SoC, it uses Wildcat Lake as Intel’s new value option alternative to the Core 3 Series Ultra “Panther Lake” SoCs. This was our first time testing out Intel Wildcat Lake and that SoC plus the overa … ⌘ Read more

New Patches Provide HDMI 1.4 3D Mode Support For AMD Radeon Graphics On Linux
It turns out one of the feature limitations of the AMDGPU Linux graphics driver is HDMI 1.4 3D output support with frame packing, top-and-bottom, and side-by-side options for transmitting simultaneous video streams. I wasn’t aware of this limitation for the lack of any 3D displays and many Linux enthusiasts/gamers as well, but if you happen to have a compatible HDMI 1.4 3D display, there are pending patches to finally make this a reality … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.4 To Support Realtek RTL8127atf & RTL8116af Networking
Queued this past week into the net-next development tree of the latest networking additions for the Linux kernel is enabling support for Realtek’s newer RTL8127atf and RTL8116af wired networking ASICs… ⌘ Read more

DirectX Support Promoted To Official Target Within LLVM
Over the past four years there has been a lot of work on a DirectX back-end within the LLVM compiler stack. Microsoft has backed the initiative for being able to lower LLVM IR into the DirectX Intermediate Language (DXIL) for execution by Windows DirectX 12 graphics drivers. This back-end is now officially supported… ⌘ Read more

FEX 2609 Released With Speedier JIT Performance, JIT Disk Cache Option
FEX 2609 was released overnight as the newest monthly feature release for this open-source emulator that allows running Linux x86_64 binaries on AArch64, including the likes of Steam and Steam Play (Proton) for enabling Windows games to run rather well on ARM64 Linux systems… ⌘ Read more

LLVM Merges Support For AMD’s RMPCHKD, RMPREAD & RMPOPT Instructions
With the Linux kernel still working toward landing support for AMD’s RMPOPT optimization for helping to reduce overhead on SEV-SNP enabled servers, the LLVM/Clang compiler has in turn prepped for the milestone by landing support for the RMPOPT, RMPREAD, and RMPCHKD instructions for Zen 5 and newer… ⌘ Read more

FreeBSD 14.5 Released With Hardware Support Improvements, Many Bug & Security Fixes
For those that haven’t yet made the move to FreeBSD 15 with still relying on FreeBSD 14 in production, out today is FreeBSD 14.5-RELEASE… ⌘ Read more

Mysterious x86 CPU Already Has APX, x86S Where Intel Left Off For Legacy-Free x86
The mystery deepens around an x86 implementation from a corporate entity other than AMD and Intel and has been making some very intriguing changes for coming from a seeming start-up. Beyond 16 tile and 32 tile AMX implementations that already surpass Intel’s current Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX) capabilities in shipping Xeon CPUs, new disclosures were made today concerning Advanced Performance Extensions (APX), Flexible Return and E … ⌘ Read more

Ubuntu 26.10 amd64v3 Daily ISOs Now Being Published
As an interesting development for Ubuntu 26.10, the daily ISOs of the “Stonking Stingray” now include amd64v3 images… ⌘ Read more

Linux Preps For New AMD Zen 6 BTB CTX Isolation Security Feature
A recently posted Linux kernel patch has revealed a new security improvement with Zen 6 processors… ⌘ Read more

Nouveau Preparations For HDMI 2.1 DSC, AMD HDMI FreeSync Fixes For Linux 7.4
Last week’s set of DRM-Misc-Next changes submitted to DRM-Next with targeting the upcoming Linux 7.4 kernel cycle features HDMI 2.1 related work for both the AMDGPU kernel driver as well as the Nouveau open-source NVIDIA driver… ⌘ Read more

Intel’s Dynamic PAMT Appears Ready For Linux 7.4 To Help With TDX Memory Overhead
Intel’s Dynamic PAMT feature looks like it’s finally going to be ready for mainline with Linux 7.4. The Intel Dynamic PAMT is used for helping to reduce memory overhead when making use of Trusted Domain Extensions (TDX) for confidential VMs… ⌘ Read more

Rustls 0.23.44 Released With ML-DSA Certificates Enabled By Default
Rustls as the modern TLS library implementation written in the Rust programming language is out with a new feature release. This morning’s Rustls 0.23.44 release enables post-quantum secure ML-DSA certificates by default… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.3-rc2 Released Following Another Busy Week
After the Linux 7.3 merge window concluded last weekend, today we are up to the Linux 7.3-rc2 test kernel release in working toward the stable v7.3 kernel during the second half of October… ⌘ Read more

Shotcut 26.9 Video Editor Beta Brings UI Improvements, Better Audio Quality
Following the recent Shotcut stable release with a stock asset library and other improvements, Shotcut 26.9 Beta is out today with yet more improvements for this open-source video editing application for Linux, macOS, and Windows systems… ⌘ Read more

NetBSD 9.5 Released To Cap Off The Series
NetBSD 9.5 released today as the final release of the NetBSD 9 stable branch… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.3-rc2 Scheduler Fix For Cache Aware Load Scheduling Misfits On Hybrid CPUs
Ahead of the Linux 7.3-rc2 kernel being released later today, a set of scheduler fixes have been sent out for this week’s kernel test release. Most notable with the scheduler fixes are dealing with possible misfits for Cache-Aware Load Scheduling on hybrid CPUs like Intel Core (Ultra) processors… ⌘ Read more

Asahi Linux Now Officially Supports Apple M3 Macs - With Caveats
Asahi Linux developers announced today that they are now officially supporting the Linux distribution on Apple M3 powered Macs. With the exception of the Mac Studio M3 Ultra, other M3 / M3 Pro / M3 Max devices should now work with the latest Asahi Linux builds but with some feature caveats… ⌘ Read more

LLVM Developers Discuss Enabling ClangIR Build By Default
ClangIR has been in development for a number of years now as a new intermediate representation for the Clang compiler. ClangIR makes use of MLIR and is higher-level than LLVM IR. With ClangIR able to preserve more C/C++ source semantics, its usage can lead to better diagnostics, code/static analysis, and more performance optimizations compared to everything lowered straight away from AST to LLVM IR. While not enabling its usage by default, LLVM stakehol … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.3-rc2 Transitions More kmalloc Calls To The Superior kmalloc_obj
Ahead of the Linux 7.3-rc2 kernel release due out later today, a merge causing a lot of code churn was pulled in by Linus Torvalds. This tree-wide effort converts more of the kmalloc() function calls over to the newer and superior kmalloc_obj() family of functions… ⌘ Read more

Slackware 16 Alpha 1 Available Following GCC 16.2, Glibc 2.44 & Binutils 2.47 Upgrade
The timing on Saturday’s Slackware-based Zenwalk ISO “current milestone” update is now more clear with upstream Slackware having prepared what is its first alpha release of the upcoming Slackware 16… ⌘ Read more

Slackware-Based Zenwalk ISOs Updated With Linux 7.1, Flatpak Integrated + Xfce 4.20
It’s been over four years since the original release of Zenwalk 15.0 while released today is a new Zenwalk Current Milestone snapshot. This Slackware-based Linux distribution with a long history has an exciting update out for testing this weekend… ⌘ Read more

Ikey Doherty Plans To Show How To “Properly” Build A Modern Linux Distro
Ikey Doherty is back in the Linux distribution space. Sort of. Ikey Doherty who was the founder of the Solus Linux distribution as well as Serpent OS (now AerynOS) as well as having been employed by Intel on their Clear Linux team is back at it again in the Linux space… ⌘ Read more

NVIDIA Posts vGPU Manager & VFIO Variant Driver For Open-Source Nova
NVIDIA continues building out more functionality around the open-source, upstream Nova kernel graphics driver within the Linux kernel. Making it out to the mailing list this Saturday is a set of 13 patches for introducing a NVIDIA vGPU manager and VFIO variant driver… ⌘ Read more

Nouveau Lands Display Fixes For NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs As It Works Toward HDMI 2.1
This week’s Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) fixes that were merged ahead of Sunday’s Linux 7.3-rc2 release contain a number of fixes to the open-source Nouveau driver’s display support for current-generation NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs… ⌘ Read more

Linux Patches Posted For Initial Enablement Of The Apple A18 Pro + MacBook Neo
In addition to Linux developers focused on Apple Silicon being busy enabling functionality for the M3 and newer SoCs under the Linux kernel, there are also developers working on enabling the A18 Pro SoC used by the new, budget-friendly MacBook Neo laptop. Patches were posted this week for initial enablement of the A18 Pro and the MacBook Neo Device Tree… But even with these patches, the Linux support is still severely limited … ⌘ Read more

AMD Working To “Push Rust Deep Into The GPU Stack”
AMD is building out what they are describing as an “elite” team of developers for driving Rust code “deep into the GPU stack” from firmware to drivers, shader compilers, and other GPU software in Rust… ⌘ Read more