SteamOS 3.9.5 released with Plasma 6.7, Linux 7.2, Security Fixes, better Steam Frame wireless adapter support
Valve just released SteamOS 3.9.5 as stable for all users across all supported systems, bringing with it many exciting enhancements for Linux gaming.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.ga … ⌘ Read more
Linux’s Early Boot-Time Physical Memory Allocator Sees Big Speed-Up: ~268s To ~50ms
Sent out today for the Linux 7.4 kernel were a set of memblock improvements. Most notable is a performance optimization within mm/memblock.c that implements the kernel’s early boot-time physical memory allocator that is used prior to the bring-up of the full page allocator… ⌘ Read more
539 MM Patches Merged For Linux 7.4 From Optimizations To More DAMON
Andrew Morton sent out the big set of memory management “MM” related patches for the Linux 7.4 merge window. This cycle it topped out at 539 total patches and a reviewed rate of 76%… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Graphics Driver Changes Headlined By AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 Features
Merged overnight were all the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) driver updates consisting of many kernel graphics/display driver improvements. Arguably most exciting with these updates for Linux 7.4 is the AMD Radeon (AMDGPU) driver seeing HDMI 2.1 FRL enabled by default along with other HDMI 2.1 features… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Merges Slab Updates With A Nice Performance Improvement
The slab pull request was just merged for Linux 7.4. For end users nothing too incredibly exciting but there is one change that does yield a 24% throughput improvement in a benchmark exercising the kernel’s memory management subsystem… ⌘ Read more
Left Alone With Nothing To Do, AI Agents Started Playing
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: AI agents left to explore a virtual island without a specific task began inventing challenges of their own. MIT researchers say the behavior bears the hallmarks of play. The researchers put 13 AI agents called Eko, each running on Claude Opus 4.7, alone on a simulated desert island for 30 hours. They describe the ex … ⌘ Read more
Microsoft Announces Per-Hour Cost for Xbox Cloud Gaming Service
Microsoft has revealed pay-as-you-go pricing for Xbox Cloud Gaming, with introductory packages costing $3.99 for 10 hours, $7.99 for 25 hours, or $11.99 for 50 hours. Starting in November, Game Pass subscribers will receive only 5 to 15 included cloud-gaming hours depending on their tier and will have to buy additional time – even to stream games … ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Power Management Preps For AMD Ryzen Zen 6 & Intel Rugged Panther Lake
The power management subsystem updates were merged this week for Linux 7.4 along with the related ACPI and thermal control updates too… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Brings Hibernation Improvement For Helping Meet Energy Certifications
The PCI/PCIe subsystem improvements have been merged for the ongoing Linux 7.4 merge window… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Introduces New Driver For The Nintendo Switch 2 - Thanks To Valve
The HID subsystem updates have been merged for the Linux 7.4 kernel that included a few new drivers… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Fixes AMD CPU TLB Size Reporting For Zen 5 & Newer
As a follow-up to the article in September about a Linux patch for fixing under-reported AMD Zen 5 TLB sizes, that work is now merged for the Linux 7.4 kernel… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Workqueue Changes Bring A “10 To 100 Times Faster” Optimization
Adding to all the exciting performance optimizations and other improvements for Linux 7.4 is an exciting workqueue improvement. It’s not too often getting to talk about “10 to 100 times faster” software improvements… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Improves Scheduling Latency For Short-Slice Tasks, NVIDIA Vera SMT Preference
The scheduler updates have been merged for the in-development Linux 7.4 kernel to deliver several nice scheduling enhancements… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Adapts AMD Zen 6 For Less Costly CPU Security Mitigation
The x86/bugs pull request was merged this week for the Linux 7.4 kernel. Most notable here is adjusting the CPU security mitigations for AMD Zen 6 processors… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Begins Landing Patches To Speed Up The Kernel Build Process
There are notable patches by Arm engineer Lorenzo Stoakes that have begun landing in Linux 7.4 for speeding up the Linux kernel build process. This work can provide some significant reductions in the Linux kernel build time… ⌘ Read more
Linus Torvalds Eliminates Unsafe __get_user() & __put_user() Functions In Linux 7.4
Linus Torvalds continues with his recent uptick in kernel patches himself, assisted in part by AI with Claude Code. Merged today was removing the historical and unsafe __get_user() and __put_user() kernel functions… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Kernel Crypto Library Enjoying Optimized AES Implementations On x86 & RISC-V
The latest Linux kernel cryptographic subsystem performance work carried out by Google engineer Eric Biggers is migrating x86/x86_64 and RISC-V optimized implementations of different AES modes into the lib/crypto kernel crypto library to enjoy faster performance there… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 To Close Files Synchronously For close_range, exec & exit
Of the many VFS changes to be merged for Linux 7.4 is now closing files synchrously for close_range, exec, and exit calls. In turn when needing to close many file descriptors this provides for much lower latency than the status quo… ⌘ Read more
Meta Makes Improvements To Kernfs Scalability With Linux 7.4
Kernfs as the functions/frameworks used for creating pseudo file-systems on Linux like sysfs and configfs have seen some nice scalability work carried out by Meta. After Meta engineers discovered some system daemons getting stuck for minutes on their massive fleet of servers, they uncovered some scalability bottlenecks within Kernfs that now look to be resolved for Linux 7.4… ⌘ Read more
XFS Sees Small Performance Optimizations & Bug Fixes For Linux 7.4
The XFS file-system updates have landed for the in-development Linux 7.4 kernel… ⌘ Read more
Dynamic PAMT Merged For Linux 7.4 To Help Intel Servers Save Precious RAM
Dynamic PAMT has made it for Linux 7.4! Dynamic PAMT is a new feature for reducing memory overhead on Intel TDX servers where there may not be many concurrent virtual machines occupying a majority of the system. In today’s world with high memory prices and tight availability, Dymanic PAMT provides nice memory overhead reduction for modern Intel Xeon servers… ⌘ Read more
Improved Performance & Resource Usage For XFS Checksumming With Linux 7.4
Among the many VFS pull requests merged as the initial material for the in-development Linux 7.4, the VFS IOmap pull introduced lazy bounce buffering for checksummed reads. This improvement is benefiting checksumming on XFS with improved performance and lower resource usage… ⌘ Read more
Linux Coredumps Via Sockets Can Be Much Smaller Now With Sparse Support
Added to the Linux kernel last year was Coredump support via Unix domain sockets as an alternative to the pipe-based Coredumps. With code now merged for Linux 7.4, the core dumps via sockets has the potential of being much smaller thanks to sparse support. In extreme cases they can be 1% of the size without sparse support… ⌘ Read more
BFS Removed With Linux 7.4 As Old UnixWare File-System
Linus Torvalds began honoring pull requests overnight of new code entering the Linux 7.4 kernel – as well as removing old code. BFS is the latest obsolete file-system removed from the mainline kernel… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Adding New Emulation Function For Some Old CPUs That May Soon Be Phased Out
Linux 7.4 is seeing a new emulation function added for cmpxchg() for compare and exchange. This is being done so that two-byte cmpxchg() can be used in common Linux kernel code that is already natively supported on newer CPU architectures. The pull request notes though that these old CPU architectures might no longer be supported by the Linux kernel moving ahead… ⌘ Read more
17k Lines Of New Rust Kernel Code Heading Into Linux 7.4
Miguel Ojeda sent out his pull request of the new Rust kernel code slated for introduction in Linux 7.4. It’s a big one this round due to updating the Zerocopy vendored library plus updating other Rust crates for the kernel… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Sunsetting Old EDAC Drivers Due To “AI Generated Fixes Frenzy”
In addition to introducing the new Intel BFF driver, the Error Detection And Correction “EDAC” kernel subsystem is sunsetting a number of old hardware drivers due to increased noise to AI/LLM-generated bug fixes for these likely unused or minimally used drivers… ⌘ Read more
Btrfs Brings More Performance Improvements For Linux 7.4
With Linux 7.3 there are some nice Btrfs performance improvements to enjoy while the in-development Linux 7.4 kernel is set to bring some additional performance optimizations for this copy-on-write file-system… ⌘ Read more
Linux In 2026 Continues Improving Support For Benefiting Old Atari & Amiga Hardware
The Motorola 68000 “m68k” CPU support continues being maintained in the mainline Linux kernel and continuing to see new hardware support for these vintage systems from the likes of Commodore Amiga, Atari, and early Apple Macintosh models… ⌘ Read more
GNU Linux-libre 7.3-gnu Removes More Firmware Blobs
GNU Linux-libre 7.3 is now available following yesterday’s Linux 7.3 release. The GNU Linux-libre downstream continues stripping out driver/hardware support where dependent upon firmware blobs or other proprietary elements deemed out of line with free software ideals… ⌘ Read more
TAINT_FORCED_BIND Sent In For Linux 7.4 To Deal With Major Fuzzing Attack
Among the early pull requests sent out in advance of the Linux 7.4 kernel merge window opening were the driver core updates. Standing out here is the new TAINT_FORCED_BIND for dealing with the recent major fuzzing “attack” by AI agents/bots testing impractical driver/hardware combinations… ⌘ Read more
Linux kernel 7.3 is out with some nice improvements for gaming
Linux kernel 7.3 has officially been released, bringing with it plenty of improvements for Linux gaming.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Released With Faster I/O Performance, AMD Zen 6 Preparations & More
The Linux 7.3 kernel is out today for an on-time release of this next stable kernel version… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 Features Very Exciting With Radeon HDMI 2.1 By Default, AMD PerfOpt, Apple M4
The Linux 7.3 kernel is expected to be released as stable later today and with that version there are many exciting changes and improvements. However, the Linux 7.4 kernel merge window will then open up and there are even more exciting changes expected to be merged for this follow-on kernel cycle. Here is a preview of some of the many exciting feature changes expected for Linux 7.4… ⌘ Read more
Omarchy Gets The Web Browser Launching Faster By Avoiding XDG Overhead
Omarchy 4.0.5 released this weeekend as the newest version of this Arch Linux based distribution built around the Hyprland desktop. Omarchy 4.0.5 pulls in the latest Linux 7.2 stable kernel with BORE scheduler, updates against the Qt 6.12 toolkit, and a variety of smaller improvements… ⌘ Read more
Linux Lands Fix for Rare, Varying SMP Boot Hangs Affecting Kernels Since 2024
Among the flurry of last minute patch activity ahead of tomorrow’s presumed Linux 7.3 stable kernel release is a fix for addressing some rare hangs at boot time. The reports varied but ultimately tracked down to a kernel change made two years ago… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Lands Last-Minute Fixes For Samsung 990 PRO & 990 EVO Plus SSDs
Ahead of the Linux 7.3 stable kernel expected to be released tomorrow, last minute workarounds were merged for the Samsung 990 PRO and Samsung 990 EVO Plus NVMe solid state drives… ⌘ Read more
The Best Features Of Linux 7.3: Performance Improvements, Lots From Valve
The Linux 7.3 kernel is slated to be officially released on Sunday, 18 October, barring any last minute issues from coming about. With that said, here’s a reminder about some of the most exciting features to look forward to in this next kernel version… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 To Enable Intel Instruction Timeout For Fending Off TDX VM DoS Attacks
Linux 7.4 is enabling support for a new Intel CPU feature for providing safety against possible denial of service attacks using Trust Domain Extensions “TDX” VMs. The new feature is Intel Instruction Timeout and previously in-development known as Notify VM Exit… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Squeezes Even More Performance Out Of The AMD Threadripper PRO 9995WX
With the Linux 7.3 kernel due out for release on Sunday, I’ve continued running more benchmarks recently of this forthcoming kernel version and it looks great. In my Linux 7.3 testing of the Git state it’s been looking great in testing on a variety of hardware shown across multiple systems. Recently I decided to try out this new kernel code on the 96-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9995WX workstation… ⌘ Read more
Ubuntu 26.10 Released
prisoninmate shares a report from 9to5Linux: Ubuntu 26.10 (Stonking Stingray) has been released today, and it is now available for download for those eager to update their Ubuntu systems to a newer release. Powered by the upcoming Linux 7.3 kernel series, Ubuntu 26.10 ships with the latest GNOME 51 desktop environment, TPM-backed full disk encryption (FDE) support on computers without a hardware root of trust, updated Settings to s … ⌘ Read more
Ubuntu 26.10 Released With Linux 7.3 + GNOME 51, Rust Coreutils Migration Complete
Ubuntu 26.10 “Stonking Stingray” is now officially available as the newest six-month non-LTS update to Ubuntu Linux… ⌘ Read more
Skydance’s Discovery+ Prices Increase By Up to 20%
Discovery+ has raised prices for new subscribers, increasing its ad-free plan from $10 to $12 per month and its ad-supported plan from $6 to $7. The hike comes shortly after Paramount Skydance acquired Warner Bros. Discovery. Ars Technica reports: The new prices take effect for new subscribers immediately. Current subscribers to the streaming service, which primarily features … ⌘ Read more
Apple Launches HomeView, Its First Smart Display For the Home
Apple has unveiled the $299 HomeView, a 7-inch smart display that combines Siri AI, FaceTime, customizable widgets, and Apple Home controls in a countertop or wall-mounted design. It also acts as a Matter controller and Thread Border Router, supports up to six facial-recognition profiles, and can use personal context from messages, calendars, and email … ⌘ Read more
NVIDIA’s Nova Driver Continues Leading The Way For Linux Rust GPU Drivers
The DRM Rust changes targeting the Linux 7.4 merge window have been submitted for pulling into DRM-Next ahead of that cycle kicking off (hopefully) next week. The NVIDIA Nova driver continues leading the way for the development of in-kernel Rust GPU drivers and in the process building out the Rust Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) infrastructure… ⌘ Read more
Amazon In Talks To Buy AI Startup Decart For Around $7 Billion
Amazon is reportedly in talks to acquire AI startup Decart in a deal that could value the company at up to $7 billion. Decart’s DOS software helps developers optimize AI models for different processors in weeks rather than months, a capability that could be particularly useful to AWS as it pushes its own Trainium chips. SiliconANGLE reports: The c … ⌘ Read more
Q3 2026 Was Historically Bad For PC Shipments
PC shipments fell 20.1% year over year to 62.7 million units in the third quarter of 2026, the worst Q3 decline IDC has recorded. “The top three PC makers – Lenovo, Dell, and HP – also saw their shipments fall by over 20% year over year,” reports PCMag. From the report: “If looking at all quarters, then we have seen other quarters in recent years with larger declines, such as 2 … ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.4 To Upstream Support For Three Snapdragon X2 Elite Laptops
For those looking to run Linux on new Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 hardware, there are laptops from ASUS, HP, and Lenovo that are powered by the X2 Elite and will be supported with the mainline Linux 7.4 kernel… ⌘ Read more
EXT4 Introducing IOmap Buffered I/O Path With Some Performance Gains
EXT4 with the upcoming Linux 7.4 kernel looks like it will introduce opt-in support for IOmap buffered I/O in replacing the file-system’s buffer_head usage with IOmap… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3-rc7 Released With Linux 7.3 Hopefully Out Next Weekend
Linus Torvalds has made available what is hopefully the final release candidate before Linux 7.3 is ideally minted next Sunday… ⌘ Read more