Linux NewsWhy I switched from Ubuntu to Garuda Linux
How a niche distro made me realize to never settle.
[$] The exploitation paradox in open source
The free and open-source software (FOSS) movements have always been about giving freedom and power to individuals and organizations; throughout that history, though, there have also been actors trying to exploit FOSS to their own advantage. At Configuration Management Camp (CfgMgmtCamp) 2026 in Ghent, Belgium, Richard Fontana described the "exploitation paradox" of open source: the recurring pattern of crises when actors exploit loopholes to restrict freedoms or gain the upper hand over others in the community. He also talked about the attempts to close those loopholes as well as the need to look beyond licenses as a means of keeping freedom alive.
Motorola announces a partnership with the GrapheneOS Foundation
Motorola has announced that it will be working with the GrapheneOS Foundation, a producer of a security-enhanced Android distribution. "Together, Motorola and the GrapheneOS Foundation will work to strengthen smartphone security and collaborate on future devices engineered with GrapheneOS compatibility.". LWN looked at GrapheneOS last July.
Gram 1.0 released
Version 1.0 of Gram, an "opinionated fork of the Zed code editor", has been released. Gram removes telemetry, AI features, collaboration features, and more. It adds built-in documentation, support for additional languages, and tab-completion features similar to the Supertab plugin for Vim. The mission statement for the project explains: At first, I tried to build some other efforts I found online to make Zed work without the AI features just so I could check it out, but didn't manage to get them to work. At some point, the curiosity turned into spite. I became determined to not only get the editor to run without all of the misfeatures, but to make it a full-blown fork of the project. Independent of corporate control, in the spirit of Vim and the late Bram Moolenaar who could have added subscription fees and abusive license agreements had he so wanted, but instead gave his work as a gift to the world and asked only for donations to a good cause close to his heart in return. This is the
Stay productive on any distro: 6 portable Linux apps I always keep on me
Some I just throw on a USB drive so I can plug in an run them on any Linux computer.
Security updates for Monday
Security updates have been issued by Debian (lxd, orthanc, and thunderbird), Fedora (cef, chromium, gimp, nextcloud, pgadmin4, python-django4.2, python-django5, python3-docs, python3.12, python3.13, and python3.9), Oracle (container-tools:rhel8 and mingw-fontconfig), Slackware (gvfs, mozilla, and telnet), SUSE (avahi, cockpit-356, cockpit-podman, cockpit-podman-120, containerized-data-importer, digger-cli, docker, evolution-data-server, expat, firefox, freerdp2, gimp, glib2, glibc, go1, google-guest-agent, google-osconfig-agent, gosec, gpg2, heroic-games-launcher, ImageMagick, kernel, kernel-firmware, kubevirt, libIex-3_4-33, libjxl-devel, libpng16, libsodium, libsoup, libsoup2, libssh, libudisks2-0, libwireshark19, protobuf, python-pyasn1, python-urllib3, python311, python311-Flask, rust-keylime, thunderbird, ucode-intel, and valkey), and Ubuntu (git).
8 Linux commands so good, they feel like cheating
Replacements for common Linux commands that are so good, you'll wonder how you did without them.
Linux 7.1 Will Power Off The System By Default If A Fatal ACPI Error Occurs
An important default kernel behavior change worth noting in advance for the upcoming Linux 7.1 kernel is that the system will attempt to power-off automatically if encountering any fatal ACPI errors. Up to now the Linux kernel has just logged ACPI fatal errors...
Forget the standard terminal—Kitty is the most powerful tool in my workflow
You're missing out if you've only ever used the default Linux terminal.
IPFire 2.29 Core Update 200 Is Out with Linux 6.18 LTS, IPFire Domain Blocklist
IPFire 2.29 Core Update 200 firewall distribution is now available for download with Linux kernel 6.18 LTS, IPFire Domain Blocklist, and other changes. Here’s what’s new!
IPFire 2.29 Core Update 200 Ships Linux Kernel 6.18 LTS
IPFire 2.29 Core Update 200 introduces Linux kernel 6.18 LTS and a preview of the new IPFire Domain Blocklist for DNS filtering.
LLVM 22.1 Released With Backend, LLDB, and ThinLTO Updates
LLVM 22.1 cross-platform compiler system is out with major backend upgrades, LLDB improvements, and new ThinLTO features.
Linux 7.0 Shows Off Nice Performance Gains For Databases In Small AMD EPYC Servers
Last week with my ongoing testing of the in-development Linux 7.0 kernel I found nice performance improvements for PostgreSQL and other workloads when testing on a 128-core AMD EPYC 9755 "Turin" server. Curious if those wins were due to optimizations focused on better scalability with today's "big" servers, I also ran some comparison Linux 7.0 benchmarks on the smaller AMD EPYC 4005 class servers too. Some nice wins carried over...
Armbian 26.2 Released with Linux 6.18 LTS, Expanded ARM and RISC-V Support
Armbian 26.2 Linux distribution based on Debian and designed for ARM devices is now available for download with support for new boards and various other changes. Here’s what’s new!
Framework 16 Gen1 Seeing Coreboot + AMD openSIL Port, Framework 13 AMD Gen1 To Follow
Work is underway by 9elements on porting Coreboot plus AMD openSIL to the first-generation Ryzen 7000 series Framework 16 laptop and is expected to be followed by a similar port to the Framework 13 Gen1 laptop too...