Latest Linux and open source news from around the web
A set of 36 patches sent out overnight is making big improvements to the Linux kernel's AES library. The patches allow for making use of the kernel's existing architecture-optimized AES code for better performance, that code is also constant-time, lower memory use, and all-around a nice improvement over the status quo...
Besides Debian's aging bug tracker interface, another challenge as the Debian Linux distribution project begins 2026 is that all volunteers have left their Data Protection Team. The Debian Data Protection Team deals with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) issues and related data protection/privacy related matters...
Merged back in December for Mesa 26.0 was RADV now supporting some new performance counters to help game developers and open-source driver developers. That new performance counter support aligned with the AMD GPUOpen Radeon GPU Profiler 2.6 release. At first those new performance counters were wired up for RDNA1 through RDNA3.5 GPUs while now the support has arrived for the latest RDNA4 GPUs...
While veteran open-source developer Keith Packard is known for his X.Org Server contributions over many years, another more recent open-source creation of his is Picolibc as a C library for embedded systems. As the latest achievement on that front, merged this weekend to the GCC 16 compiler codebase is support for using Picolibc...
The 6.19-rc4 kernel prepatch is out for testing. So this rc is still a bit smaller than usual, but it's not _much_ smaller, and I think next week is likely going to be more or less back to normal. Which is all exactly as expected, and nothing here looks particularly odd. I'll make an rc8 this release just because of the time lost to the holidays, not because it looks like we'd have any particular issues pending (knock wood).
9to5Linux Weekly Roundup for January 4th, 2026, brings news about VLC 3.0.23, Devuan GNU+Linux 6.1, Shotcut 25.12, Arch Linux 2026.01.01, GNU Wget 2.2.1, IceWM 4.0, Archinstall 3.0.15, Manjaro Linux 26.0, and more.
Catch up on the latest Linux news: Manjaro 26, Devuan 6.1, IceWM 4.0, Archinstall 3.0.15, Orbitiny Desktop Pilot 8, Shotcut 15.12, key Linux and open-source moments of 2025, MiDesktop brings KDE 1 back to life, and more.
Manjaro 26.0 "Anh-Linh" is now available, bringing Plasma 6.5 and GNOME 49 with Wayland as the default session.
Manjaro 26.0 is now available for download with Linux kernel 6.18 LTS, Xfce 4.20, GNOME 49, and KDE Plasma 6.5. Here’s what else is new!
Following the holidays, Linux 6.19-rc4 was released today in working toward the Linux 6.19 stable kernel release in early February...
These two Linux distributions have not yet reached stability, but I have high hopes for them in 2026.
I like to pretend it's short for "list pretty cool information."
In this jargon buster, we explain what is Liquorix kernel, why it is popular among Linux gamers and if there are any real benefits of using it on your regular Linux desktop.
In this jargon buster, we explain what is Liquorix kernel, why it is popular among Linux gamers and if there are any real benefits of using it on your regular Linux desktop.
Could 2026, finally, really, positively, be the Year of the Linux Desktop?
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