Latest Linux and open source news from around the web
The 2026 Python Language Summit was held on July 14 in Kraków, Poland; there is now a series of reports available on the topics that were discussed there. They include the memory buffer protocol, garbage collection, free-threaded Python, and "Spicycrab".
Sharon Yang is a Chromium developer who worked at Google on the browser and now works on it at Igalia. On the final day of FOSSY 2026, she gave a presentation on her experiences with both of those companies, comparing and contrasting the ways the each operates and how that affects work on the code base. She enjoyed working at Google and feels the same about Igalia, so the talk was not aimed at complaints—instead it was meant to give a feel for two companies that are rather different.
The election for members of the Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board will be held electronically after the close of the upcoming Linux Plumbers Conference. The call for candidates is is open, with a nomination deadline of October 7. There are six seats to fill this time instead of the usual five due to the unfortunate passing of Dan Williams. Serving on the TAB is a good way to help the kernel-development community. Please see this article from last year for an overview of what the TAB does and why membership is rewarding, then consider putting in your nomination.
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (389-ds:1.4, container-tools:rhel8, go-toolset:rhel8, grafana, httpd:2.4, nodejs:22, postgresql:12, and postgresql:15), Debian (libwebsockets, openssl, and pcre2), Fedora (adwaita-icon-theme, cinnamon, dconf, epiphany, flatpak-builder, gcr, gdm, gjs, glib-networking, glib2, gnome-backgrounds, gnome-calendar, gnome-characters, gnome-chess, gnome-clocks, gnome-connections, gnome-console, gnome-contacts, gnome-control-center, gnome-desktop3, gnome-initial-setup, gnome-keyring, gnome-kiosk, gnome-maps, gnome-remote-desktop, gnome-settings-daemon, gnome-shell, gnome-shell-extensions, gnome-system-monitor, gnome-text-editor, gnome-user-docs, gnote, gnucash, gnucash-docs, gsettings-desktop-schemas, gtk4, hplip, libadwaita, libdex, libsecret, libshumate, libxmp, mingw-llvm, mutter, nautilus, parted, perl-Imager, quadrapassel, rootlesskit, rygel, shotwell, sngrep, sushi, sysprof, tecla, thunderbird, xdg-desktop-portal-gnome, and xdotool), Red Hat (
Version 157.0 of the Firefox browser has been released. It features "Firefox's biggest visual refresh in years", the ability to use hardware AV1 decoding with WebRTC calls, and a number of fixes.
Christian Legnitto is the maintainer of rust-gpu and Rust CUDA, two libraries that make it possible to program a computer's graphics processing unit (GPU) from Rust. He isn't satisfied with the current state of GPU support in Rust, however. In a talk at RustConf 2026, he explained his vision for how the GPU could become an ordinary compiler target for normal Rust code, without the need for any special libraries or new ecosystem support. That vision is not yet fully implemented, but he does have a prototype that he is preparing to release.
Andres Freund has a few claims to fame, but chief among them is his many years of work to improve the performance of the PostgreSQL relational database management system. That work requires working with — or around — many Linux kernel features and behaviors. He put in an appearance at the 2026 edition of Kernel Recipes to talk about his experience working with the kernel project, how the kernel could better support applications like PostgreSQL, and some interesting developments in the PostgreSQL world.
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (cockpit-image-builder, expat, ipa, kernel, kernel-rt, resteasy, ruby, ruby4.0, ruby:3.3, and ruby:4.0), Debian (dovecot, flatpak, glance, kernel, libdbi-perl, lxml, rsync, swift, and wordpress), Fedora (chromium, freeipa, freerdp, grub2, NetworkManager-iodine, NetworkManager-l2tp, perl-Catalyst-Plugin-Static-Simple, perl-Dancer2, perl-HTML-FormFu, python-quart-trio, python-streamlink, python-urllib3, and vlc), Mageia (libxml2, p11-kit, pam, and php), Slackware (groff and pcre2), SUSE (389-ds, amazon-ssm-agent, erlang27, exiv2, glib2, gnome-shell, hplip, ImageMagick, kernel, libheif, libsodium, libtpms, nodejs16, perl-DBI, python-soupsieve, redis, redis7, swtpm, and wireshark), and Ubuntu (curl, libevent, linux-aws, linux-aws-6.8, linux-aws-5.15, linux-azure-5.15, linux-azure-fde-5.15, linux-intel-iotg-5.15, linux-aws-hwe, linux-azure, linux-azure-4.15, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-7.0, linux-oem-7.0, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-6.8, linux-nvidia-l
Version 2.56 of the Git distributed version-control system has been released. It has 748 non-merge commits since Git 2.55 was released back in June; those commits came from 104 developers, 39 of whom are first-time contributors. New features include a safer workflow for conflict resolution, smaller path-walk repacks, a new git history drop sub-command, and much more. LWN looked at Git 2.56 recently and the GitHub blog has a lengthy look at 2.56 as well.
As a professor of biomedical engineering, Martin Uecker perhaps does not fit the profile of a typical presenter at Kernel Recipes. He is, however, a longtime Linux user, and works on free software for controlling magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners. He was at the conference to talk about the C programming language, the specific problem of undefined behavior in C, and whether it can eventually be made into a memory-safe language.
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (firefox, ipa, kernel, libxml2, perl-DBI, python-cryptography, thunderbird, and unbound), Debian (chromium, evolution-data-server, exim4, ghostscript, incus, lemonldap-ng, libheif, nodejs, php8.4, ruby-oj, swift, and vlc), Fedora (chromium, cinnamon, cinnamon-desktop, cinnamon-session, cinnamon-settings-daemon, ckermit, dnf5, forgejo, goose, gssntlmssp, libheif, libpcap, librsvg2, mingw-gstreamer1, mingw-gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free, mingw-gstreamer1-plugins-base, mingw-gstreamer1-plugins-good, mingw-python3, mongo-c-driver, muffin, nemo, nemo-extensions, nextcloud, pgadmin4, postgresql16-postgis, postgresql17-postgis, postgresql18-postgis, rust-librsvg, rust-xml5ever, sipp, suricata, tesseract, and xreader), Mageia (erlang, gpsd, libreswan, python3 & python-pip, and udisks2), Oracle (abrt, buildah, cockpit-image-builder, corosync, ipa, kernel, libxml2, openexr, perl-DBI, perl-DBI:1.641, postgresql, thunderbird, unbound, and yelp), SUSE (38
The 7.3-rc5 kernel prepatch is out for testing. Linus said: "I don't think there's any real pattern to it other than 'big'. But nothing looks particularly alarming, I think that despite the diffstat it's just the same old, same old."
Version 18.1 of the GDB interactive debugger has been released. Changes include new commands to manipulate the environment of the subprocess, the ability to save the command history to a file, support for a couple of new targets, several Python API additions, and more. See the NEWS file for the complete list.
The Sovereign Tech Agency (STA) is investing nearly €1.3 million in KDE through 2027. At Akademy 2026 in Graz, Austria, Nate Graham and Kevin Ottens, two of the contributors who helped bring in the investment, explained how the funding was secured, provided tips on how projects should approach organizations like STA, and talked about how that money will be improving KDE for everyone. In addition to keeping the community informed about the work, the pair hoped to pass on what they have learned to encourage others to help raise funds for development as well.
Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.2.8 and 6.18.54 stable kernels. Each contains a number of important fixes throughout the tree; users are advised to upgrade.
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