Linux NewsRocky Linux 10.1 release brings soft reboots and new toolchains
These are some updates to make things better.
KDE Plasma 6.8 Drops X11 Session, Goes Wayland-Only
KDE Plasma 6.8 will be Wayland-only, joining GNOME 50 in removing support for running the desktop session on the legacy X display server. As with GNOME, the change does not mean X11 applications will no longer work in Plasma 6.8 as they will run on Wayland using Xwayland. But a Plasma X11 desktop session will not be provided. “For most users, this will have no immediate impact,” the KDE team say, adding that “the vast majority of our users are already using the Wayland session, it’s the default on most distributions, and some of them have already dropped — or […]
KDE Plasma 6.8 will be Wayland-only
KDE's Plasma team has announced that KDE Plasma will drop X11 session support with Plasma 6.8: The Plasma X11 session will be supported by KDE into early 2027. We cannot provide a specific date, as we're exploring the possibility of shipping some extra bug-fix releases for Plasma 6.7. The exact timing of the last one will only be known when we get closer to its actual release, which we expect will be sometime in early 2027. What if I still really need X11? This is a perfect use case for long term support (LTS) distributions shipping older versions of Plasma. For example, AlmaLinux 9 includes the Plasma X11 session and will be supported until sometime in 2032. See the blog post for information on running X11 applications (still supported), accessibility, gaming, and more.
After 30 years, KDE says goodbye to X11
Wayland is becoming the future of KDE.
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 stack. This 25.20 series is the big one where they are now officially supporting the Mesa RADV Vulkan driver in place of their own former Vulkan Linux driver...
KDE Plasma 6.8 Will Go Fully Wayland, Ending Nearly 30 Years of X11 Sessions
KDE shifts the upcoming Plasma 6.8 release to a Wayland-only setup, keeping X11 apps running via Xwayland and maintaining X11 session support only until early 2027.
Security updates for Wednesday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (bind, binutils, delve and golang, expat, firefox, haproxy, kernel, libsoup3, libssh, libtiff, openssh, openssl, pam, podman, python-kdcproxy, shadow-utils, squid, thunderbird, vim, xorg-x11-server-Xwayland, and zziplib), Debian (cups-filters, libsdl2, linux-6.1, net-snmp, pdfminer, rails, and tryton-sao), Fedora (chromium, docker-buildkit, docker-buildx, and sudo-rs), Gentoo (librnp), Mageia (webkit2), SUSE (amazon-ssm-agent, buildah, curl, dpdk, fontforge-20251009, kernel, libIex-3_4-33, librnp0, python311, rclone, and sssd), and Ubuntu (linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-6.8, linux-ibm, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-6.8, linux-nvidia-lowlatency, linux-oracle, linux-aws-6.14, linux-oracle-6.14, linux-aws-fips, linux-fips, linux-gcp-fips, linux-realtime, linux-realtime-6.8, mupdf, openjdk-17, openjdk-8, and openjdk-lts).
AMD ROCm 7.1.1 Released With RHEL 10.1 Support, More Models Working On RDNA4
Following the release of ROCm 7.1 from just under one month ago, ROCm 7.1.1 is now available with expanded Linux operating system support, continued Instinct MI350 series work, more large language models working on RDNA4 GPUs, and other enhancements...
Collabora Launches Desktop Office Suite for Linux
The new office suite uses modern tech for a consistent online-offline experience; the existing offering is renamed 'Classic' and it maintains a traditional approach.
Rocky Linux 10.1 Arrives with Soft Reboots, XFS Enhancements, and More
Rocky Linux 10.1 Linux distribution is now available for download as a free alternative to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.1. Here’s what’s new!
LibreOffice-based Collabora Office gets a reboot on Linux, Windows, and Mac
A new simplified word processor, spreadsheet tool, and presentation editor for you to try.
Open Source Never Dies: 11 of My Favorite Linux Apps That Refused to Stay Dead
These Linux apps were popular once. And then they were abandoned. And then they came back with a new generation tag.
Rocky Linux 10.1 Released with Soft Reboots, XFS Improvements
Rocky Linux 10.1 introduces soft reboots, expanded post-quantum crypto, and new XFS scrubbing and shrinking capabilities for enterprise workloads.
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K "Arrow Lake" Linux Performance Up ~9% One Year Later At ~85% Power Use
It's been just over one year now since the launch of the Core Ultra 9 285K and other Arrow Lake desktop processors. For those that may be considering an Arrow Lake CPU this holiday season for a Linux desktop or just curious how the power and performance has evolved one year later, here are some leading-edge benchmarks of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K compared to the launch-day performance last October.
KDE Plasma 6.8 Will Go Wayland-Exclusive In Dropping X11 Session Support
KDE developers announced they are going "all-in on a Wayland future" and with the Plasma 6.8 desktop it will become Wayland-exclusive. The Plasma X11 session is going away...