Applets Are Officially Going, But Java In the Browser Is Better Than Ever
“The entire java.applet package has been removed from JDK 26, which will release in March 2026,” notes Inside Java.

But long-time Slashdot reader AirHog links to this blog post reminding us that
“Applets Are Officially Gone, But Java In The Browser Is Better Than Ever.”

This brings to an official end the era of applets, w … ⌘ Read more

Oracles Releases Updated “bpftune” For BPF-Based Auto-Tuning Of Linux Systems
The past few years Oracle has been working on bpftune as a solution for BPF-based, automatic tuning of Linux systems. Bpftune has been available via Oracle Linux and GitHub while finally their open-source GitHub code has seen the first new tagged release in a while… ⌘ Read more

US To Mandate AI Vendors Measure Political Bias For Federal Sales
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. government will require artificial intelligence vendors to measure political “bias” to sell their chatbots to federal agencies, according to a Trump administration statement (PDF) released on Thursday. The requirement will apply to all large language models bought by federal agencies, wi … ⌘ Read more

Wine 11.0-rc2 Released With 28 Known Bug Fixes
Following last week’s Wine 11.0-rc1 release that marked the feature freeze as well in working toward Wine 11.0 in January, out today is Wine 11.0-rc2… ⌘ Read more

The best video games of 2025, from Ghost of Yotei to Hades 2
There were hundreds of great games released this year, but these are my favourite 15. ⌘ Read more

New Patches Lay Out Linux Kernel Adjustments For RISC-V RVA23 Hardware
With the first of RISC-V RVA23-compatible hardware expected to be released in 2026, we are beginning to see more Linux developers prepare for this RVA23 profile and the now-mandated extensions. Sent out this week was an initial “request for comments” patch series on RVA23 adjustments for the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more

AMD ROCm 7.10 Released - Strix Point APUs Now Officially Supported
Sure enough, yesterday’s inaugural TheRock 7.10 release tag ended up being a precursor to ROCm 7.10 as predicted in the earlier article. Overnight ROCm 7.10 was released as a new developer preview and with it comes expanded hardware support – including for Ryzen AI 300 Strix Point APUs finally being officially mentioned… ⌘ Read more

Windows WSL 2.7.0 Released With Newer Linux 6.6 LTS Point Release, Many Fixes
Microsoft today released WSL 2.7.0, the newest version of their Windows Subsystem for Linux code that enables running Linux binaries atop Windows 11 hosts… ⌘ Read more

AMD ROCm’s TheRock 7.10 Released
TheRock is an interesting open-source build platform for ROCm and HIP that has taken shape over the past year. It’s become an official ROCm effort albeit still in early stages and relying on community contributions for enhancements for different consumer GPU targets and more. To date its users have largely relied on running the latest TheRock Git while today TheRock v7.10 was tagged… ⌘ Read more

GPT-5.2 Arrives as OpenAI Scrambles To Respond To Gemini 3’s Gains
OpenAI on Thursday released GPT-5.2, its latest and what the company calls its “best model yet for everyday professional use,” just days after CEO Sam Altman declared a “code red” internally to marshal resources toward improving ChatGPT amid intensifying competition from Google’s well-received Gemini 3 model. The GPT-5.2 series ships in three tiers: … ⌘ Read more

System76 Launches Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS With COSMIC Desktop
Back in October System76 announced a planned release date for Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS and the COSMIC Desktop… And they’ve made it! The new Pop!_OS 24.04 is now available for download as the long-awaited update atop an Ubuntu 24.04 LTS base while using their Rust-based COSMIC desktop environment… ⌘ Read more

D7VK 1.0 Released For “Production Ready” Direct3D 7 On Vulkan
The D7VK project recently started as the Direct3D 7 API implemented atop the Vulkan API akin to DXVK and VKD3D-Proton with newer versions of Microsoft Direct3D. Today marks the D7VK 1.0 release for this project in now declaring itself “production ready” for Linux gamers… ⌘ Read more

AMD GAIA 0.14 Released With Native Support For Linux & macOS
Early this year AMD announced the open-source GAIA project for “Generative AI Is Awesome” as a showcase of AI support atop their Ryzen AI NPUs and other hardware. That began as a Windows-only project but in September AMD added Linux support to GAIA but only using Vulkan acceleration for AI on Radeon GPUs. Now today GAIA 0.14 is available with “native” support for both macOS and Linux… ⌘ Read more

Ubuntu 26.04 Snapshot 2 Released As Latest Monthly ISOs
It was just at the end of month that Ubuntu 26.04 Snapshot 1 ISOs were published for the first “Resolute Raccoon” milestone. Out already is now Snapshot 2 with Canonical releasing these images ahead of their engineers having time off for end-of-year holidays… ⌘ Read more

LibreOffice 26.2 Beta 1 Now Available For This Free Software Office Suite
LibreOffice 26.2 Beta 1 is now available for testing in working toward the stable release in February for this cross-platform, open-source office suite solution… ⌘ Read more

KDE Gear 25.12 Released For Shipping The Latest KDE Applications
KDE Gear 25.12 is out today as the collection of the latest KDE desktop/mobile applications for running nicely on the Plasma 6 desktop… ⌘ Read more

Intel llm-scaler-vllm Beta 1.2 Brings Support For New AI Models On Arc Graphics
Following yesterday’s release of a new llm-scaler-omni beta there is now a new beta feature release of llm-scaler-vllm that provides the Intel-optimized version of vLLM within a Docker container that is set and ready to go for AI on modern Arc Graphics hardware. With today’s llm-scaler-vllm 1.2 beta release there is support for a variety of additional large language models (LLMs) and other improvements… ⌘ Read more

ChatGPT Is Apple’s Most Downloaded App of 2025
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Apple on Wednesday released its annual list of the most downloaded apps and games for the year. For the U.S. market, OpenAI’s ChatGPT topped the ranks of free iPhone apps (not including games) with the most installs in 2025. The AI app was followed by Threads, Google, TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, and … ⌘ Read more

India Proposes Charging OpenAI, Google For Training AI On Copyrighted Content
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: On Tuesday, India’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade released a proposed framework that would give AI companies access to all copyrighted works for training in exchange for paying royalties to a new collecting body composed of rights-holding organ … ⌘ Read more

Qualcomm Acquires RISC-V Chip Designer Ventana Micro Systems
Qualcomm has acquired RISC-V startup Ventana to strengthen its CPU ambitions beyond mobile, “reinforcing its commitment and leadership in the development of the RISC-V standard and ecosystem,” the company said in a press release. CRN Magazine reports: The San Diego-based company said Ventana’s expertise in RISC-V, a free and open alternative to the A … ⌘ Read more

Ubuntu Will Have Native AMD ROCm AI/ML and HPC Libraries In Next LTS Release
Longtime Slashdot reader MadCow42 writes: Canonical just announced that they’re packaging AMD’s ROCm libraries (for AIML and HPC with both data-center GPUs as well as desktop/laptop GPUs), directly into the Ubuntu Universe archive. You can run ROCm on Ubuntu today but you have to install it via a script from AMD and manuall … ⌘ Read more

Cable Channel Subscribers Grew For the First Time In 8 Years Last Quarter
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Monday, research analyst MoffettNathanson released its “Cord-Cutting Monitor Q3 2025: Signs of Life?” report. It found that the pay TV operators, including cable companies, satellite companies, and virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) like … ⌘ Read more

FreeBSD 15.0 vs. Ubuntu Linux For AMD EPYC Server Performance
Given the recent release of FreeBSD 15, I started off my testing in looking at how FreeBSD 15.0 improves performance versus FreeBSD 14.3. Now it’s onto the next important question: how is FreeBSD 15.0 performing relative to Linux on servers? Here are some benchmarks exploring that topic today. ⌘ Read more

AMD FSR SDK 2.1 Released With FSR Redstone - Windows-Only For Now
AMD FSR SDK 2.1 is now available that includes their “FSR Redstone” machine learning based upscaling tech for gaming.. ⌘ Read more

2nd Release Candidate Build of iOS 26.2 Available for Testing
Release candidate builds typically match the final version of an operating system, unless a last minute bug or issue has been found anyway, and that’s perhaps what happened in this case, as a 2nd release candidate build for iOS 26.2 has been made available for testing. macOS Tahoe 26.2 RC remains on the first release … [Read More](https://osxdaily.com/2025/12/10/2nd-release-candidate-build-of-ios-26-2-available … ⌘ Read more

Fishing
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More People Crowdfunded Basic Needs In 2025, GoFundMe Report Shows
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fast Company: More and more people are turning to GoFundMe for help covering the cost of housing, food, and other basic needs. The for-profit crowdfunding platform’s annual “Year in Help” report, released Tuesday, underscored ongoing concerns around affordability. The number of fundraisers started to he … ⌘ Read more

US judge clears release of grand jury documents against Ghislaine Maxwell
The judge granted the Justice Department’s request under a new law requiring the release of files related to Jeffery Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. ⌘ Read more

**Judge rules Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury records can be unsealed **
In his ruling, Judge Paul Engelmayer cited a new law passed last month requiring the release of files on Jeffrey Epstein. ⌘ Read more

Canonical To Distribute AMD ROCm Libraries With Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
AMD previously talked of simplifying the in-box Linux support for ROCm during the second half of 2025. So far we haven’t seen any groundbreaking changes from that initiative besides AMD working on various package archives/repositories to make it easier to install the latest ROCm on different Linux distributions. But today a big announcement is now public that Canonical with next year’s Ubuntu 26.04 LTS release will provide official ROCm packages al … ⌘ Read more

Firefox 147 Beta Released With XDG Base Directory Support
With Firefox 146 released, which is exciting for delivering fractional scaling on Wayland, Firefox 147 Beta is now available and it’s also quite exciting to Linux users for another reason… ⌘ Read more

**Judge rules Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury records can be unsealed **
In his ruling, Judge Paul Engelmayer cited a new law passed last month requiring the release of files on Jeffrey Epstein. ⌘ Read more

**Judge rules Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury records can be unsealed **
In his ruling, Judge Paul Engelmayer cited a new law passed last month requiring the release of files on Jeffrey Epstein. ⌘ Read more

Phone calls by criminally neglectful mother showed ‘callous disregard’ for sick daughter
A South Australian court releases audio of prison phone calls made in the lead-up to the death of a six-year-old girl in 2022. WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains the first name and image of a person who has died. Readers are also advised this story contains content which may be distressing. ⌘ Read more

Firefox 146 Now Available With Native Fractional Scaling On Wayland
Firefox 146 has been released with native fractional scaling support on Wayland – finally giving Linux users crisp UI rendering. Other new additions include GPU process improvements on macOS, developer-focused CSS features, and broader access to Firefox Labs. Phoronix reports: Firefox 146 also now makes Firefox Labs available to all users, … ⌘ Read more

Meson 1.10 Build System Adds OS/2 Support, Experimental C++ “import std”
Meson 1.10 is out today as the newest feature release for this popular cross-platform build system… ⌘ Read more

Firefox 146 Now Available With Native Fractional Scaling On Wayland
The Mozilla Firefox 146.0 release binaries are now available with a very exciting improvement for Linux users relying on Wayland… ⌘ Read more

One hundred abducted schoolchildren released in Nigeria
Details of the release of the schoolchildren are still unclear and 165 people remain unaccounted for. ⌘ Read more

One hundred abducted schoolchildren released in Nigeria
Details of the release of the schoolchildren are still unclear and 165 people remain unaccounted for. ⌘ Read more

Iced 0.14 Released For Popular Rust Cross-Platform GUI LIbrary
Released today is a new version of Iced, the popular cross-platform GUI library for the Rust programming language. Iced is notably used by the COSMIC desktop environment and a growing variety of different Rust apps… ⌘ Read more

No Rise in Radiation Levels at Chernobyl, Despite Damage from February’s Drone Strike
UPDATE (12/7): The New York Times clarifies today that the damage at Chernobyl hasn’t led to a rise in radiation levels:

“If there was to be some event inside the shelter that would release radioactive materials into the space inside the New Safe Confinement, because this facility is no longer sealed t … ⌘ Read more

How Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s From the Ashes expansion aligns with the new film
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’s From the Ashes game expansion is directly connected to James Cameron’s upcoming film, Avatar: Fire and Ash. 9news.com.au spoke with its creators to learn more about the new game update ahead of its release on December 18. ⌘ Read more

New FreeBSD 15 Retires 32-Bit Ports and Modernizes Builds
FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE arrived this week, notes this report from The Register, which calls it the latest release “of the Unix world’s leading alternative to Linux.”

As well as numerous bug fixes and upgrades to many of its components, the major changes in this version are reductions in the number of platforms the OS supports, and in how it’s built and how its … ⌘ Read more

This is an example of the kind of garbage release notes from this conventional commit autogenerated crap 🤣

New Jolla Phone Now Available for Pre-Order as an Independent Linux Phone
Jolla is “trying again with a new crowd-funded smartphone,” reports Phoronix:

Finnish company Jolla started out 14 years ago where Nokia left off with MeeGo and developed Sailfish OS as a new Linux smartphone platform. Jolla released their first smartphone in 2013 after crowdfunding but ultimately the Sailfish OS focus the pa … ⌘ Read more

FEX 2512 Released With More Improvements For Gaming On ARM64 Linux
FEX 2512 is out toda as the newest monthly update for this software that enables running x86/x86_64 Linux binaries on ARM64 Linux, including the likes of Wine and Valve’s Steam Play (Proton) for being able to run Windows games on 64-bit ARM Linux devices… ⌘ Read more

Solaris 11.4 SRU 87 Released With New Security Features, GCC 15
For anyone still relying on Solaris in production or just nostalgic Solaris users from the grand Sun Microsystems days, Solaris 11.4 SRU 87 was released by Oracle this week as one of the heavier stable release updates in recent memory… ⌘ Read more

Trump’s new security strategy warns Europe faces ‘civilisational erasure’
The Trump administration releases a document saying its goal is to “help Europe correct its current trajectory”, adding that it faces “civilisational erasure” due in part to “mass migration”. ⌘ Read more

Company pauses plan to release controversial genetically modified mosquitoes
An organisation that planned to sell “friendly” mosquitoes to reduce the spread of diseases like dengue withdraws its licence application after backlash from scientists and health experts. ⌘ Read more

Wine 11.0-rc1 Released With TWAINDSM 64-bit Module For Scanners
As anticipated the first release candidate of Wine 11.0 is now available in working toward the annual stable release in January… ⌘ Read more