Version 153.0 of the Firefox web browser has been released. Notable changes in this release include a change to the default local-file-access permissions for extensions, enabling LAN restrictions by default for all users, a visual indicator when a web site has access to the user's location, the ability to merge PDFs and add images as pages within PDFs, as well as experimental support for the JPEG XL image format. See the release notes for developers for all changes that affect web developers, and security advisories for vulnerabilities fixed in this release.
Like many development communities, the kernel community has been struggling to determine how large language models will be used in its development process. The news has been dominated recently by a strongly worded missive from Linus Torvalds on the subject, but the discussion has been rather more wide-ranging and nuanced than that. Topics that have been considered recently include the LLM attribution requirement, code-review tools, dependence on proprietary tools, and whether there is a place for concerns about the ethics of LLMs.
The Fedora Project is known for, among other things, having a well-defined set of processes for just about everything. It has extensive packaging guidelines that deal with the complexities of creating RPMs to install software, as well as processes for managing the legal questions that arise around shipping software. Fedora also has a well-defined change process for dealing with self-contained technical changes as well as major changes to the distribution, and other issues as they arise. At the moment, though, the project seems to be experiencing a sort of midlife crisis as it re-examines several of its change processes at once to determine if they are still effective.
Michael Catanzaro, who has been managing GNOME security issue tracking since November 2020, has written a blog post that details some changes in how he will be managing GNOME vulnerability reports from now on due to an increase in AI-generated security reports. He will be switching from a 90-day deadline for disclosures to 30 days for issues reported on August 1, or later. "The shorter deadline would probably work better for GNOME even if not for the increase in AI-generated issue reports." He also has indicated that he will be stepping away from the task of managing security issue tracking entirely by December 1, 2026, which means that there will be a gap to fill: Currently nobody else is tracking GNOME security issues. If you are an experienced GNOME community member and you are interested in taking over this work, let me know and I will help you get started. (Security tracking is not a good task for newcomers.) This may also be an opportunity to improve our tracking infrastructure.
The famfs filesystem, which is meant to provide shared access to huge memory-resident files on CXL and other devices, returned to the Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit (LSFMM+BPF) in 2026. It was first discussed at LSFMM+BPF 2024 and a new implementation was described at the 2025 gathering, but it still has not made its way into the kernel; LWN looked at a discussion about merging famfs back in April 2026.
The 7.2-rc4 kernel prepatch is out for testing. Linus said: "This whole week I had the feeling that people were starting to go on summer vacation, but running the numbers shows that I must have been wrong - it all looks pretty normal."
Adrian Mastronardi has released a book called Half a Second; it is a detailed look into the XZ backdoor attempt of 2024. The book is freely available under a (non-free) noncommercial, no-derivatives CC license. Half a Second tells that story as one continuous narrative: the burned-out volunteer who maintained the code alone and was patiently, expertly manipulated into giving it up; the engineer whose half-second of curiosity caught the attack through a chain of luck and hard-won instinct; and the operator who built it, who has never been identified and, this book argues, may never be.
Collabora has published a blog post about its work with Valve on Holo Core, which is a port of Arch Linux to aarch64 to be used as the the operating system on Valve's 64-bit Arm Steam Frame gaming system. Collabora has released the sources, binary packages, and a container image for aarch64 devices. The post describes some of the challenges in porting Arch Linux to a new architecture, and what remains to be done: Whilst the infrastructure developed to this point is capable of building from first principles up until a point-in-time snapshot, the next step is to build this into a system which can track Arch Linux as it is developed. This work will serve as the basis of a continuously-operating CI system capable of shadowing Arch Linux itself. We will work with the upstream Arch Linux project to help Arch with their efforts to port the distribution to aarch64 architecture and work towards automated repeatable builds. The post also includes instructions on how to create and test an aarch64
Since 2020, BPF programs have been able to act as Linux security modules (LSMs). Several projects, including systemd, have been working to use that capability to provide more security to users. Christian Brauner spoke at the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory-Management, and BPF Summit about some of the limitations of using BPF in this way, and the changes he would like to see for systemd's use. In particular, he would like a way to make sure that BPF programs cannot be removed or have their private data tampered with.
The extensible scheduler class (sched_ext) allows the installation of custom CPU schedulers as a set of BPF programs. While sched_ext, in its current form, has already led to a lot of interesting scheduler-development work, the subsystem itself is still undergoing rapid evolution. Among other work, the ability to set up a hierarchy of sub-schedulers is approaching completion, and a longstanding incompatibility with proxy execution is coming to an end.
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