LXer

In an interesting twist, patches this week posted to the Linux kernel mailing list are enabling AMD Zen 6 client desktop and laptop SoCs for the HSMP driver. Up to now the AMD HSMP Linux driver was just used for modern EPYC server processors while now we are seeing this HSMP driver supporting the upcoming Medusa and Olympic Ridge client platforms... Including mentions of overclocking and even noting "Ryzen Master" as the Windows-only software for overclocking and system management...

Fedora is evolving its community leadership structure to better support its ongoing growth. The Red Hat Open Source & AI Program Office is splitting the current Fedora Community Architect role into two focused positions. Shaun McCance will step into the role of Fedora Community Architect, taking over key responsibilities like Fedora Council representation and financial stewardship, while Justin Wheeler transitions to a new focus on AI Alignment.

With the Razer Blade 18 as the first laptop Razer's certifying for (Ubuntu) Linux use while testing it out I was predominantly using the NVIDIA R610 official driver stack. Some users were interested though in how well this laptop is working with the open-source, upstream Nouveau+NVK driver stack given Razer is marketing this high-end laptop for Linux use too. Before sending the review unit back I had run some graphics benchmarks to see how Nouveau+NVK was performing for this Razer Blade RZ09-0582 with the flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU.

The GCC Steering Committee announced today that they have accepted the recommended policy of the GCC AI Policy Working Group, which means no "legally significant" code contributions made via AI/LLM agents will be accepted into this open-source compiler...

Like how gravity works or the ending of the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey,” one of life’s mysteries is why the Turkish Linux distro Pardus isn’t near the top of the list of all-time greats.This week's Distro of the Week is Pardus 25.2 Xfce, which shows all of its strengths.

Valve wasn’t trying to save Linux gaming. It was running from Windows 8. Here’s how that panic move built SteamOS, Proton, and the Steam Machine.

FreeBSD thought it had scrubbed all GPL code, but a few kernel leftovers remained.

Krita 5.3.3 and the experimental Qt 6-based Krita 6.0.3 arrive with crash fixes, animation improvements, and better font handling.

Today's Steam client beta update brings some new game streaming enhancements for Linux gamers...

Sent out today was another week's worth of features and other code changes to the AMDGPU kernel graphics driver and AMDKFD kernel compute driver. We are nearing the cut-off of new feature material for next month's Linux 7.3 kernel but there is some nice feature work in store for this week...

ASUS laptops support a feature called "Whisper Mode" that intentionally slows down the fan speed and lowers the CPU clock speed in order to keep the device running cool and quiet. The open-source ASUS Armoury Linux kernel driver is now seeing patches to properly support this Whisper Mode on Linux...

Radxa has published specifications for two upcoming compute modules based on Qualcomm Dragonwing processors. The compact CM-Q64 combines 12 TOPS of AI performance with multi-camera support, while the larger VMARC-Q9075 uses the SMARC form factor and scales to 200 sparse TOPS for industrial AI, robotics, and machine-vision systems. The Radxa CM-Q64 measures 55 × 40mm […]

Linux hardware vendor System76 released COSMIC 1.5 today as the latest stable version of this open-source, free, and Rust-based graphical desktop environment for Linux-based operating systems.

A new software creation that debuted this summer was YSERVER as a modern X11 server written in Rust largely by AI via Claude Code. This YSERVER implementation has continued implementing more X11 protocol and other functionality to get more desktop environments and apps working surprisingly okay on this vibe coded X11 server. YSERVER 1.4 is now available as the latest in this quest...

The GNU Compiler Collection will reject copyright-significant contributions derived from LLM output, with limited exceptions for trivial changes and test cases.

Espressif has moved the ESP32-S31 into mass production, expanding its wireless microcontroller lineup with a dual-core RISC-V processor, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, Bluetooth Classic, and IEEE 802.15.4 connectivity. The new SoC targets smart-home hubs, audio devices, industrial automation, edge AI systems, and other connected applications requiring higher processing and wireless performance. The ESP32-S31 combines two […]

There's yet another new open-source desktop option for Linux users in the era of new open-source projects largely written via AI/LLMs. Starling is this new project largely written via Claude and using the Swift programming language for the desktop while having its own Wayland compositor implemented in C. It also includes a built-in X11 server for handling X11 clients...

The Linux power management tool expands its graphical interface with monitoring mode, Bluetooth controls, and improved Lenovo laptop support.

A recent mini PC being benchmarked at Phoronix is the BOSGAME VTA-439 that employs the new AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 Gorgon Point SoC. With the BOSGAME mini PC having shipped with Microsoft Windows 11, here are some comparison benchmarks of the out-of-the-box Windows 11 performance up against Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and Fedora Workstation 44 while also tossing the rolling-release, highly-optimized Arch Linux based CachyOS into the benchmarking mix.

Shelly 3.0 has been released today as a major update for this open-source and free pacman alternative for Arch Linux distributions that introduces a completely revamped experience, new features, and many improvements.