Linux Fixes A Performance Regression In The Slab Code
A performance fix has been submitted to the Linux kernel for dealing with a regression in the Slab memory allocation code… ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Has Many Hyper-V Virtualization Improvements For Linux 6.19
For benefiting their Azure cloud and other users of Hyper-V virtualization at large, Microsoft has rolled out a number of feature additions and improvements for their Hyper-V kernel code in Linux 6.19… ⌘ Read more

@prologic@twtxt.net Here you go:

(LTT = “Linus Tech Tips”, that’s the host.)

LTT: There was a recent thing from a major tech company, where developers were asked to say how many lines of code they wrote – and if it wasn’t enough, they were terminated. And there was someone here that was extremely upset about that approach to measuring productivity, because–

Torvalds: Oh yeah, no, you shouldn’t even be upset. At that point, that’s just incompetence. Anybody who thinks that’s a valid metric is too stupid to work at a tech company.

LTT: You do know who you just said that about, right?

Torvalds: No.

LTT: Oh. Uh, he was a prominent figure in the, uh, improved efficiency of the US government recently.

Torvalds: Oh. Apparently I was spot on.

Claude Code Is Coming To Slack
Anthropic is bringing Claude Code directly into Slack, letting developers spin up coding sessions from chat threads and automate workflows without leaving the app. TechCrunch reports: Previously, developers could only get lightweight coding help via Claude in Slack – like writing snippets, debugging, and explanations. Now they can tag @Claude to spin up a complete coding session using Slack context like bu … ⌘ Read more

Mesa 26.0 Lands Initial Support For Adreno Gen 8 - Including For The Snapdragon X2
The newest Mesa 26.0-devel code as of today has landed initial support for Qualcomm Adreno Gen 8 graphics into the Freedreno Gallium3D driver. The Adreno Gen 8 graphics so far are most notably used by the new Snapdragon X2 Elite laptop SoC with its X2-85 GPU as well as the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 with Adreno 840 graphics… ⌘ Read more

Arm MPAM Driver Upstreamed To The Linux 6.19 Kernel
The ARM64 code changes were merged last week into the in-development Linux 6.19 kernel. The most notable of the ARM64 architecture changes this cycle is landing the Arm MPAM driver for Arm’s Memory System Resource Partitioning and Monitoring… ⌘ Read more

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org My theory is that these people simply don’t do “code archeology”. When something breaks, they don’t reach for git log. They simply don’t experience the pain that comes with bad commits / commit messages.

Or is that different in your company? 😅

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Same. :‘-( I just don’t get how people do code archeology with all their shit messages and huge commits changing a gazillion of different things. I always try to lead by setting good examples, but nofuckingbody is picking up on that. At all. Even when bringing this up every now and then.

Linux GPIB Drivers Declared Stable - 53 Years After HP Introduced The Bus
Merged to the mainline Linux kernel last year was GPIB drivers in the kernel’s “staging” area. GPIB is the General Purpose Interface Bus launched by HP back in 1972 for lab equipment and more. After a year of cleaning up the code in the kernel’s staging area, for Linux 6.19 the GPIB drivers have been promoted out of the staging area and into the Linux kernel proper. The Linux kernel now has stable driver support for this 8 Mbyte/s parallel … ⌘ Read more

Using AI To Modernize The Ubuntu Error Tracker Produced Some Code That Was “Plain Wrong”
A week ago I wrote about AI being used to help modernize Ubuntu’s Error Tracker. Microsoft GitHub Copilot was tasked to help adapt its Cassandra database usage to modern standards. It’s worked in some areas but even for a rather straight forward task, some of the generated functions ended up being “plain wrong” according to the developer involved… ⌘ Read more

Rust Drivers In Linux 6.19 Will Now Support… Module Parameters
On top of the Rust driver core changes and other Rust code for Linux 6.19, the modules infrastructure for this new kernel version is also bringing some new code. Surprisingly, it’s taken until now for Rust kernel modules/drivers to support module parameters as is common practice for passing different options when booting the kernel or manually loading kernel drivers with extra non-default options… ⌘ Read more

Linux 6.19 Adds New Console Font To Better Handle Modern Laptops With HiDPI Displays
Sent in for the Linux 6.19 merge window when it comes to the frame-buffer device “FBDEV” subsystem are just a set of “fixes” for FBDEV drivers and code clean-ups. But it does also include a new console font option for better supporting modern laptops with high density displays… ⌘ Read more

Microsoft’s RAMDAX Driver Merged For Linux 6.19 To Carve Out RAM As NVDIMM Devices
The Non-Volatile Memory Device (NVDIMM) subsystem updates were merged today for the in-development Linux 6.19 kernel. Most notable this cycle for the NVDIMM code is a new open-source driver addition courtesy of Microsoft… ⌘ Read more

Linus Torvalds Defends Windows’ Blue Screen of Death
Linus Torvalds recently defended Windows’ infamous Blue Screen of Death during a video with Linus Sebastian of Linus Tech Tips, where the two built a PC together. It’s FOSS reports: In that video, Sebastian discussed Torvalds’ fondness for ECC (Error Correction Code). I am using their last name because Linus will be confused with Linus. This is where Torvalds says this: … ⌘ Read more

@itsericwoodward@itsericwoodward.com Nice to see someone else also participating! 🥳

(Btw, they don’t want us to share our inputs: https://www.reddit.com/r/adventofcode/wiki/faqs/copyright/inputs/ Yeah, it’s a bit annoying. I also have to do quite a bit of filtering on my repo …)

Most of the Advent of Code action happens on the Fediverse, I’m afraid:

https://tilde.zone/@movq/115595022987289988

There’s just way more people over there who participate. 🥴

Printk Improvement For Linux 6.19 Can Significantly Speed-Up Boot Times For Some Systems
The Linux kernel’s printk code for logging kernel messages has some useful improvements with the Linux 6.19 kernel… ⌘ Read more

Linux 6.19 Fixes A Thundering Herd Problem For Big NUMA Servers
The “timers/core” pull requests for updating Linux kernel timer-related code doesn’t tend to be too interesting each kernel cycle, but this time around for Linux 6.19 it is for addressing a problem HPE discovered on big NUMA servers… ⌘ Read more

Working on day 3 of the Advent of Code 2025: https://adventofcode.com/

My solutions repo: https://git.itsericwoodward.com/eric/aoc-2025

Sched_EXT With Linux 6.19 Improves Recovering For Misbehaving eBPF Schedulers
The Linux kernel’s innovative sched_ext code for being able to easily write extensible task schedulers using eBPF programs has some nice enhancements merged for Linux 6.19… ⌘ Read more

Microsoft ACPI Fan Extensions & Configurable Hibernation Threads For Linux 6.19
The pull requests landing the power management subsystem updates for Linux 6.19 along with the ACPI and thermal control code have landed. There is new hardware support, Microsoft ACPI Fan Extensions support, and other new features for Linux power management in this new kernel… ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Acquires Bun In First Acquisition
Anthropic has made its first acquisition by buying Bun, the engine behind its fast-growing Claude Code agent. The move strengthens Anthropic’s push into enterprise developer tooling as it scales Claude Code with major backers like Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, and Google. Adweek reports: Claude Code is a coding agent that lets developers write, debug and interpret code through natural … ⌘ Read more

It’s almost never OK for psychologists to date their clients
A new code of conduct for for Australian psychologists provides updated guidance that it’s almost never OK to date someone who is or has been a client, even if that was years ago. ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Declares ‘Code Red’ As Google Catches Up In AI Race
OpenAI has reportedly issued a “code red” on Monday, pausing projects like ads, shopping agents, health tools, and its Pulse assistant to focus entirely on improving ChatGPT. “This includes core features like greater speed and reliability, better personalization, and the ability to answer more questions,” reports The Verge, citing a memo reported by the Wall S … ⌘ Read more

Google’s Vibe Coding Platform Deletes Entire Drive
A Google Antigravity user says the AI-driven “vibe coding” tool accidentally wiped his entire D: drive while trying to clear a project cache. Google says it’s investigating, but the episode adds to a growing list of AI tools behaving in ways that “would get a junior developer fired,” suggests The Register. From the report: We reached out to the user, a photographer and g … ⌘ Read more

TornadoVM 2.0 Released For Java On NVIDIA PTX, OpenCL & SPIR-V Devices
TornadoVM 2.0 is out today as the newest feature release for this OpenJDK and GraalVM plug-in that allows Java programs to run on heterogeneous hardware. TornadoVM targets continue to be OpenCL, NVIDIA PTX, and SPIR-V compatible devices for a range of accelerator support for use from conventional Java code… ⌘ Read more

@prologic@twtxt.net Using your own language?! That’s really nice! I hope you get home soon so you can give the code a try. 😅

I actually can’t progress to day two till I get home 🤣 – I haven’t pushed the code for the mu compiler yet 🤦‍♂️ So no-one can check my work even if they were so kind 🤣

Kernel Credential Guards Merged For Linux 6.19
Merged yesterday for the Linux 6.19 kernel were “substantial” improvements to the kernel’s credential infrastructure to provide guard-based management that allows for kernel code simplification and avoiding manual reference counting across many subsystems… ⌘ Read more

When I find out the bug comes from a piece of code I never suspected at all ⌘ Read more

completely untested as i have no remote way of running mu code from Vietnam 🤣

Thinking about doing Advent of Code in my own tiny language mu this year.

mu is:

• Dynamically typed
  
• Lexically scoped with closures
  
• Has a Go-like curly-brace syntax
  
• Built around lists, maps, and first-class functions
  

Key syntax:

• Functions use fn and braces:
  

fn add(a, b) {
    return a + b
}

• Variables use := for declaration and = for assignment:
  

x := 10
x = x + 1

• Control flow includes if / else and while:
  

if x > 5 {
    println("big")
} else {
    println("small")
}

while x < 10 {
    x = x + 1
}

• Lists and maps:
  

nums := [1, 2, 3]
nums[1] = 42

ages := {"alice": 30, "bob": 25}
ages["bob"] = ages["bob"] + 1

Supported types:

• int
  
• bool
  
• string
  
• list
  
• map
  
• fn
  
• nil
  

mu feels like a tiny little Go-ish, Python-ish language — curious to see how far I can get with it for Advent of Code this year. 🎄

When the boss asks if my code review of the new junior is going well ⌘ Read more

Netting on apartment complex did not meet fire resistance code, Hong Kong officials say
Hong Kong’s anti-corruption agency has arrested 11 people, including the directors and an engineering consultant of a construction company. ⌘ Read more

Intel Finally Posts Open-Source Gaudi 3 Driver Code For The Linux Kernel
The good news is that Intel tonight posted a pull request for open-source Gaudi 3 accelerator support for the mainline Linux kernel! The bad news is that it’s coming quite late in the product cycle, much later than the former excellent Habana Labs open-source track record, and their hopes of squeezing this code into the Linux 6.19 kernel may be dashed… ⌘ Read more

Amazon Tells Its Engineers: Use Our AI Coding Tool ‘Kiro’
“Amazon suggested its engineers eschew AI code generation tools from third-party companies in favor of its own ,” reports Reuters, “a move to bolster its proprietary Kiro service, which it released in July, according to an internal memo viewed by Reuters.”

In the memo, posted to Amazon’s internal news site, the company said, “While we continue to support ex … ⌘ Read more

Advent of Code 2025 starts tomorrow. 🥳🎄

This year, I’m going to use Python 1 on SuSE Linux 6.4, writing the code on my trusty old Pentium 133 with its 64 MB of RAM. No idea if that old version of Python will be fast enough for later puzzles. We’ll see.

@movq@www.uninformativ.de I see problems with that, yes. Case in point:

New Patches Work To Optimize Code Generation For Linux Context Switching
As some additional enticing Linux kernel patches posted this week for review, an updated patch series is working to optimize code generation during context switching… ⌘ Read more

Why Can’t ChatGPT Tell Time?
ChatGPT can browse the web, write code and analyze images, but ask it what time it is and you might get the correct answer, a confident wrong answer, or a polite refusal – sometimes all three within minutes of each other.

The problem stems from how large language models work. These systems predict answers based on training data and don’t receive constant real-time updates about things like time unless they specifically se … ⌘ Read more

GCC 16 Switches To Using C++20 Standard By Default
Following up on the discussion from earlier this month among GCC developers over switching to C++20 by default for the GCC compiler as the default C++ standard when not otherwise set, that change has indeed happened. Merged now is the change defaulting to C++20 (well, the GNU++20 dialect) rather than C++17/GNU++17 when not otherwise specified when compiling C++ code… ⌘ Read more

Valve-Backed Color Pipeline API For Linux Is Finally Ready For Upstream
For those Linux desktop users in the US needing another reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving, a huge and long-awaited accomplishment is ready for merging to the kernel: the Color Pipeline API that is important for HDR is ready for merging! As of last night the code is queued in DRM-Misc-Next for this years-in-the-making effort… ⌘ Read more

GNU C Library Sees Up To 12.9x Improvement With New Generic FMA Implementation
Just a few days ago I wrote about the Glibc math code seeing a 4x improvement on AMD Zen by changing the used FMA implementation. Merged overnight was a new generic FMA implementation for the GNU C Library and now yielding up to a 12.9x throughput improvement on AMD Zen 3… ⌘ Read more

@prologic@twtxt.net AI is slot machines for coders:

• “Before starting tasks, developers forecast that allowing AI will reduce completion time by 24%. After completing the study, developers estimate that allowing AI reduced completion time by 20%. Surprisingly, we find that allowing AI actually increases completion time by 19%–AI tooling slowed developers down.” https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-study/
  
• “Stack Overflow data reveals the hidden productivity tax of ‘almost right’ AI code”: https://venturebeat.com/ai/stack-overflow-data-reveals-the-hidden-productivity-tax-of-almost-right-ai-code
  

The same intermittent reward operant conditioning that gets people addicted to gambling and thinking that if they follow certain rituals they’ll win “next time” drives people’s beliefs that AI tools are making them more productive when they’re making them less productive. I’m going to guess that a side effect of this is that people think they’re typing less when in the longer term they’re typing the same amount or more when you factor in the productivity loss (as far as I’ve read the studies don’t measure this so I’m only guessing).

People are also being rapidly de-skilled by this technology: the more they use it, the more their actual skills atrophy. “Continuous exposure to AI might reduce the ADR (adesoma detection rate) of standard non-AI assisted colonoscopy, suggesting a negative effect on endoscopist behaviour.” (science speak for saying that radiologists get worse at seeing tumors in scans once they’ve used AI): https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1253(25)00133-5/abstract

Nobody who cares about the future should be using this stuff for anything.

Radeon Software for Linux 25.20.3 Released - “Exclusively Open-Source” With RADV
With the great upstream support for AMD Radeon graphics in the Linux kernel and Mesa, most desktop users / gamers / enthusiasts are best off just using the latest code shipped by their distributions or via the enthusiast-supported third-party archives/repositories. But for those on older enterprise Linux distributions, Radeon Software for Linux 25.20.3 was recently released for shipping that packaged AMD Linux graphics driver st … ⌘ Read more

Urgent ACPI Revert For Linux 6.18 To Deal With Some Hardware Crashing
The Linux 6.18 kernel is anticipated for release this coming Sunday while this week a last-minute crisis was averted following reports of a kernel crash from recent ACPI code changes… ⌘ Read more

@bender@twtxt.net Once Advent of Code starts, I’ll start spamming, don’t worry. 😅

Rust For Linux Kernel Co-Maintainer Formally Steps Down
Alex Gaynor recently announced he is formally stepping down as one of the maintainers of the Rust for Linux kernel code with the removal patch now queued for merging in Linux 6.19… ⌘ Read more

Apple iOS 27 to Be No-Frills ‘Snow Leopard’ Update, Other Than New AI
Apple’s next major iPhone software update will prioritize stability and performance over flashy new features, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who reports that iOS 27 is being developed as a “Snow Leopard-style” release [non-paywalled source] focused on fixing bugs, removing bloat and improving underlying code after this year’s swe … ⌘ Read more

‘We Could’ve Asked ChatGPT’: UK Students Fight Back Over Course Taught By AI
An anonymous reader shared this report from the Guardian:

James and Owen were among 41 students who took a coding module at the University of Staffordshire last year, hoping to change careers through a government-funded apprenticeship programme designed to help them become cybersecurity experts or software engineers. But afte … ⌘ Read more