Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
week 13
24-30
Linux kernel 6.14 released:
24/03/2025
After two months of development, Linus Torvalds released Linux kernel 6.14. Among the most notable changes: ntsync driver with Windows NT synchronization primitives, read operation balancing settings in Btrfs RAID1, reflink support in XFS in realtime mode, the ability to uncache buffered I/O, dmem cgroup for limiting GPU memory, enabling io_uring in FUSE, delegation of attributes in NFS, support for atomic writes in Device mapper, acceleration of symbolic links, control over the ability to execute scripts, support for Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chips, a driver for AMD NPU.
The new version includes 12115 fixes from 1984 developers, the patch size is 39 MB (the changes affected 10170 files, 531586 lines of code were added, 235999 lines were deleted). The previous release had 14172 fixes from 2086 developers, the patch size was 46 MB. About 41% of all changes presented in 6.14 are related to device drivers, about 13% of changes are related to updating code specific to hardware architectures, 14% are related to the network stack, 7% - to file systems and 4% to internal kernel subsystems.
Release of Hyprland 0.48:
24/03/2025
The Hyprland 0.48 composite server using the Wayland protocol is available. The project is focused on tiling window layout, but also supports classic arbitrary window placement, grouping of windows in the form of tabs, pseudo-mosaic mode and full-screen window opening. Features for creating visually attractive interfaces are provided: gradients in window frames, background blur, animation effects and shadows. Plugins can be connected to expand functionality, and socket-based IPC is provided for external control of work. The code is written in C++ and is distributed under the BSD license.
The settings are made via a configuration file, changes to which are picked up on the fly without restarting. To improve the performance of games, you can disable vertical synchronization (VSync) with a frame blanking pulse, used to protect against tearing during output. The following functions are also worth mentioning: dynamically created virtual desktops; modes for arranging elements on the screen; global processing of hot keys; touchpad/touch screen gesture control.
→https://hyprland.org/news/update48/
Linux kernel, libre 6.14:
25/03/2025
The Latin American Free Software Foundation has published a completely free version of the Linux 6.14 kernel - Linux-libre 6.14-gnu, cleared of firmware and driver elements containing non-free components or code sections whose scope of application is limited by the manufacturer. Linux-libre also disables kernel functions for loading external non-free components that are not included in the kernel distribution, and references to the use of non-free components have been removed from the documentation.
To clean the kernel from non-free parts, the Linux-libre project has created a universal shell script that contains thousands of patterns for detecting binary inserts and eliminating false positives. Ready-made patches created using the above-mentioned script are also available for download. The Linux-libre kernel is recommended for use in distributions that meet the Free Software Foundation's criteria for building completely free GNU/Linux distributions. For example, Linux-libre is used in distributions such as GNU Guix System, Dragora Linux, Trisquel, Dyne:Bolic, gNewSense, Parabola, Musix and Kongoni.
Linux-libre 6.14-gnu release introduces code for cleaning blobs in new hx9023s, amdxdna and tas2781 spi drivers. Cleaning of blob names in dts files (devicetree) for Aarch64 architecture was performed. Code for removing blobs in Intel avs, amdgpu, r8169, mt7996 and iwlwifi drivers was updated. Cleaning of wl128x driver was stopped and it was removed from kernel.
→https://www.fsfla.org/pipermail/linux-libre/2025-March/003572.html
GIMP 3.0.2:
25/03/2025
The release of the GIMP 3.0.2 graphics editor has been released, which fixes some of the issues that were discovered after the first release of the GIMP 3.0 branch was published last week. Things like, conflicts with some system themes that caused the interface to display incorrectly have been fixed. The developers have also rolled back a patch with improved support for graphics tablets, since problems with pressure sensitivity on some older devices surfaced when using it. Ready-made builds have been published for Linux (AppImage and Flatpak for x86 and ARM64 architectures), macOS, and Windows.
Currently, the developers are focused on fixing bugs in the GIMP 3.0 branch. However, the development process for the next major release, GIMP 3.2, has already begun, which is expected to support new features for non-destructive work with layers - Link layers and Vector layers . Also, the GIMP 3.2 branch will continue to work on expanding support for the CMYK color model and color management.
→https://www.gimp.org/news/2025/03/23/gimp-3-0-2-released/
MPV 0.40 Released:
25/03/2025
After six months of development, the open source video player MPV 0.40 has been released, forked from the MPlayer2 project codebase in 2013. MPV focuses on developing new features, without worrying about maintaining compatibility with MPlayer. MPV code is licensed under LGPLv2.1+, some parts remain under GPLv2, but the transition to LGPL is almost complete and the “–enable-lgpl” option can be used to disable the remaining GPL code.
→https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/releases/tag/v0.40.0
AerynOS 2025.03 released:
26/03/2025
The release of AerynOS 2025.03 has been presented, which became the first update after the renaming of the Serpent OS project. The distribution uses its own package manager and an atomic system update model. The development is carried out by the old team of developers of the Solus distribution, which includes Ikey Doherty, the creator of Solus, and Joshua Strobl, the key developer of the Budgie desktop environment. The builds are formed for the x86_64-v2 architecture and are supplied with the GNOME desktop. Among the new versions of packages involved are the Linux kernel 6.13.8, GNOME 48.0, Mesa 25.0.2, Firefox 136.0.2, Vulkan SDK 1.4.309.0 and LLVM 19.1.7.
The distribution uses the moss package manager with its own Stone package format and system state management tools. To save disk space when storing multiple versions of packages, hard link-based deduplication is used. The update is performed in atomic mode with replacement of the contents of the /usr partition. In the event of a failure during the installation of the update, the system rolls back to the previous working state.
Most packages, including the Linux kernel, are built using the Clang compiler. With the exception of the kernel and some system components, changes are applied on the fly, without the need to reboot. The project also develops the Lichen installer, the boulder build system, the summit control panel, the blsforme download manager, and the moss-container container system .
→https://aerynos.com/blog/2025/03/25/hello-aerynos/
Release of LibrePCB 1.3.0:
26/03/2025
The release of the free package for automated design of printed circuit boards LibrePCB 1.3.0, is available. LibrePCB is positioned as an intuitive package for rapid development of boards, which lags behind KiCad in functionality, but is much easier to work with and at the same time takes into account the needs of not only beginners, but also professional engineers. The program is supplied in builds for Linux (Flatpak, Snap, AppImage), FreeBSD, macOS and Windows. The project code is written in C++ (Qt interface) and is distributed under the GPLv3 license.
The following features are noted: integration of the schematic editor and project management tools in one package; simple cross-platform graphical interface based on Qt; application of the concept of a “smart” library of elements; use of formats of the library of elements and projects accessible for manual parsing; Multi-PCB mode for parallel development of different board variants based on one schematic; automatic synchronization of the list of electrical connections (netlist) between the schematic and the board layout. The program is equipped with a multilingual interface with support for Russian (translation coverage 96%) and Ukrainian (translation coverage 91%), providing the ability to name elements in different languages.
LibrePCB includes a project management interface; an electronic circuit editor; a multilayer printed circuit board editor; a service for generating data to start production; a command-line utility librepcb-cli for automating typical tasks (for example, checking and exporting data); a library of electronic components with navigation through a tree-like categorized list. There is an interface for connecting various existing element libraries, which can be added both in the form of archives and through integration with repositories. Import of DXF files and export in PDF, SVG and CSV BOM, pick&place X3/CSV, Gerber/Excellon and STEP formats are supported.
→https://librepcb.org/blog/2025-03-24_release_1.3.0/
New login manager in development for KDE to replace SDDM:
26/03/2025
David Edmundson and Oliver Beard presented a project to create a new display manager, Plasma Login Manager, on the KDE developers mailing list. The desire to replace the login manager is explained by the presence of unsolvable architectural problems in the display manager SDDM (Simple Desktop Display Manager), which, starting with Plasma 5, replaced KDM.
GDM (GNOME Display Manager) is noted as the gold standard to which to focus when creating a new login manager. GDM is based on GNOME Shell and Mutter technologies, and is heavily tied to them, which allowed for a level of integration with GNOME that is unachievable using SDDM. Plasma Login Manager attempts to implement a GDM-like architecture, allowing for tighter integration of the login manager with the KDE Plasma desktop environment and the Kwin composite server.
A working prototype of Plasma Login Manager is available for testing, but it has not yet reached a quality level suitable for use in the stable branch of KDE Plasma. The backend based on SDDM code and the new frontend, as well as the module for the configurator (KCM), are currently being developed in separate repositories, which are planned to be merged in the future. In terms of capabilities, Plasma Login Manager has almost reached parity with the old login manager.
→https://blog.davidedmundson.co.uk/blog/a-roadmap-for-a-modern-plasma-login-manager/
New version of DeaDBeeF 1.10.0:
26/03/2025
Almost three years after the publication of the last major branch, the release of DeaDBeeF 1.10.0, music player is presented. The player is written in C and can work with a minimum set of dependencies. The code is distributed under the Zlib license. The interface is built using the GTK library, supports tabs and can be expanded through widgets and plugins.
Features include: automatic recoding of text encoding in tags, equalizer, support for cue files, ability to control via command line or from the system tray, loading and displaying covers, built-in tag editor, flexible options for displaying the required fields in track lists, support for streaming Internet radio, playback mode without pauses, and a plugin for recoding audio files.
→https://deadbeef.sourceforge.io/posts/deadbeef_1.10.0_is_out.html
Zorin OS 17.3 Released:
26/03/2025
After 6 months of development, the release of the Linux distribution Zorin OS 17.3, based on Ubuntu 22.04, has been published. The target audience of the distribution is novice users accustomed to working in Windows. To manage the design, the distribution offers a special configurator that allows you to give the desktop a look typical of various versions of Windows and macOS, and the distro includes a selection of programs close to the programs that Windows users are accustomed to. The size of the bootable iso image is 3.4 GB.
Zorin OS uses GNOME as the base of the desktop with a set of its own add-ons and a panel based on Dash to Panel and Dash to Dock . To integrate the desktop with a smartphone, the Zorin Connect application is supplied (based on KDE Connect). In addition to deb packages and Ubuntu repositories, support for Flatpak, AppImage and Snap formats is included by default, with the ability to install programs from the Flathub and Snap Store catalogs.
→https://blog.zorin.com/2025/03/26/zorin-os-17.3-is-here/
Linux kernel adds support for acting as a host for Hyper-V:
27/03/2025
The Linux kernel code, on which release 6.15 is based, has been modified to add the ability to use Linux as a root environment (Dom0. root partition) for the Hyper-V (Microsoft Hypervisor) hypervisor. The host environment is responsible for managing the hypervisor, for the launch of guest systems, allocating resources, and ensuring the interaction of virtual machines with the hardware. The hypervisor in Linux is managed via the /dev/mshv device. In addition, the same set of patches for virtual machines using Hyper-V adds the ability to disable individual processor cores on the fly (CPU offlining).
The ability to use Linux as a host environment for the Hyper-V virtualization system was initially introduced in 2020. Linux for managing Hyper-V is already used in the Azure Linux distribution and Microsoft infrastructure, but for third-party projects, this feature was only available in the form of separate patches. Now these patches are included in the main kernel. Hyper-V drivers for guest systems were added to the Linux kernel in 2009 and are shipped starting with release 2.6.32 .
The need to use Linux to manage the Hyper-V hypervisor is driven by the desire to simplify maintenance and improve the performance of servers serving Microsoft cloud systems, given that since 2018 the number of Linux guest systems in the Azure cloud service exceeds the number of Windows environments.
Additionally, it is worth noting that the Linux 6.15 kernel branch has adopted a patch with support for block devices whose block size exceeds a memory page. For example, Linux will now be able to work with devices with a 64K sector size on systems with 4K memory pages.
Debian 12 Live images now support repeatable builds:
27/03/2025
The Debian project developers have announced the implementation of repeatable builds for all official Debian 12.10 Live images, as well as for builds of all significant desktop environments from the Debian 11, 12, and 13 (testing) repositories. A guide has been prepared, with wich users can create their own Live images based on the source code available in the repository, which are 100% identical at the binary level to the ready-made Live images provided by the project.
Across the entire Debian 12 repository, which contains 33,223 source packages, support for reproducible builds reached 96.9% for the x86_64 architecture and 96.5% for the ARM64 architecture. In the Debian Testing repositories, the reproducible build rate was estimated at 96.5% for the ARM64 architecture and 96.3% for x86_64, with 37,322 source packages rebuilt. The reproducible build test in the Debian Testing repository failed for 819 packages (2.2%), and 428 packages (1.1%) had general problems compiling from source. By comparison, in Arch Linux, reproducible builds were supported for 86.3% of packages in the core and extra repositories, which contain 12,800 packages. The openSUSE Factory repository, which contains 15,754 packages, has a repeatable build rate of 98.24%.
Repeatable builds allow the user to create their own builds that are bit-for-bit identical to the ready-made builds offered for download. The user can personally verify that the binary files distributed in packages and boot images are compiled from the provided source code and do not contain hidden changes. Checking the identity of the binary build allows you not to rely only on trust in the distribution's build infrastructure, where a compromise of the compiler or assembly tools can lead to the substitution of hidden bookmarks.
When creating repeatable builds, such nuances are taken into account as exact matching of dependencies; using the same composition and versions of the build tools; an identical set of options and default settings; preserving the build order of files (using the same sorting methods); disabling the addition of non-constant service information by the compiler, such as random values, references to file paths, and build date and time data. Build reproducibility is also affected by errors and race conditions in the tools.
→https://lists.reproducible-builds.org/pipermail/rb-general/2025-March/003675.html
Release of Q4OS 5.8:
27/03/2025
The release of Q4OS 5.8 distribution has been published. It is based on Debian and comes with the KDE Plasma 5 and Trinity desktops (continues development of the KDE 3.5.x code base). Both user environments can simultaneously coexist on one system, and the user can switch between them. The distribution is positioned as undemanding to hardware resources and offering a classic desktop design. The boot image size is 1.5 GB (x86_64).
“The package includes several applications of our own development, including 'Desktop Profiler' for quick installation of thematic software sets, 'Setup utility' for installation of third-party applications, 'Software center' for installation of additional programs, 'Welcome Screen' for simplifying initial setup, Lookswitcher for quick switching of appearance, scripts for installation of alternative environments LXQt, Xfce and LXDE. An application for installation of the distribution in a separate Windows directory is provided , which allows to use the distribution in parallel with Windows without allocating a separate disk partition for it.”
The new release brings the package base up to Debian 12.10 with Linux kernel 6.1.0-32. The Desktop Profiler suite installer has been rewritten to work in multithreaded mode and now supports Flatpak packages.
→https://www.q4os.org/blog.html%23news250327
Ubuntu 25.04 Beta Release:
28/03/2025
The beta release of the Ubuntu 25.04 “Plucky Puffin” distribution is out. After this release, the package base was completely frozen, and the developers moved on to final testing and bug fixing. The release is scheduled for April 17 and is classified as an intermediate release, which gets updates over the course of 9 months. Ready-made test images have been created for Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Studio, Xubuntu, UbuntuKylin (China edition), Ubuntu Unity, Edubuntu and Ubuntu Cinnamon.
Changes to note:
The desktop has been updated to GNOME 48, which introduces support for HDR, triple buffering, notification stacking, and global keyboard shortcuts. The configurator has been expanded. Memory and performance optimizations have been added. In Ubuntu Desktop, instead of Evince, the PDF viewer uses Papers (a fork of Evince, translated to GTK4 and partially rewritten in Rust). By default, the xdg-terminal-exec binding is enabled, which simplifies replacing the terminal emulator called by the Ctrl+Alt+T key combination. After the Mozilla Location Service project was phased out, location services were migrated to the BeaconDB database, which contains information about the locations of known wireless access points. The system startup sound is disabled by default.
→https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2025-March/000309.html
Rescuezilla 2.6 Released:
28/03/2025
The release of the Rescuezilla 2.6 distribution is available. It is designed for backup, system recovery after failures and diagnostics of various hardware problems. The distribution is built on the Ubuntu package base and continues the development of the “Redo Backup & Rescue” project, the development of which was stopped in 2012. Live builds for 32- and 64-bit x86 systems (1.3 GB) and a deb package for installation in Ubuntu are offered for download.
Rescuezilla supports backup and recovery of accidentally deleted files in Linux, macOS and Windows partitions. It automatically searches for and connects network partitions that can be used to store backups. The graphical interface is based on the LXDE shell. The format of the created backups is fully compatible with the Clonezilla distribution. When restoring, it supports working with Clonezilla, Redo Rescue, Foxclone and FSArchiver images, as well as with virtual machine images in the VirtualBox VDI, VMWare VMDK, QEMU QCOW2, Hyper-V VHDx and .dd/.img formats.
→https://github.com/rescuezilla/rescuezilla/releases/tag/2.6
Zypper package manager implements parallel download:
29/03/2025
The developers of the openSUSE distribution have implemented the ability to parallelize the download of packages and metadata in the Zypper package manager. Additionally, a new backend has been proposed that more optimally reuses already established connections and increases the efficiency of metadata processing. When updating 250 packages with a total size of 100 MB, the download time after enabling the new backend and parallel mode decreased from 68.7 seconds to 13.1 seconds, and when updating 407 packages with a size of 1 GB - from 281.1 seconds to 119.6 seconds.
Parallelization is available since libzypp 17.36.4 and zypper 1.14.87, currently only available in the Tumbleweed and Slowroll repositories. By default, these features are disabled and are presented as experimental. To enable parallel downloading and the new backend, you can use the environment variables “ZYPP_PCK_PRELOAD=1” and “ZYPP_CURL2=1”, and the number of concurrent connections can be adjusted using the “download.max_concurrent_connections” parameter in the zypp.conf configuration file.
→https://news.opensuse.org/2025/03/27/zypper-adds-experimental-parallel-downloads/
nvtop 3.2.0 and htop 3.4.0 are available:
30/03/2025
The nvtop 3.2.0 console utility has been released. It is designed for interactive monitoring of GPU and hardware accelerators. The utility allows you to visually monitor the load, memory consumption and GPU frequency changes on graphs, as well as view the processes that most actively load the GPU. GPUs and accelerators from AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Apple (M1 & M2), Huawei (Ascend), Qualcomm and Broadcom (VideoCore) are supported.
The new version supports Intel XE and Broadcom V3D (Raspberry Pi) drivers. Support for Google TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) AI accelerator has been added . Options “-P” and “-s” have been added to hide the process list area and save the state in JSON format.
At the same time, the Atop utility was released, designed for interactive monitoring of system operation parameters and display of process activity. The atop program differs from the top utility in greater detail (CPU, GPU, memory, disks, network, streams, containers) and the ability to periodically dump reports to a file for subsequent analysis. The code is written in C and is distributed under the GPLv2 license.
The new version adds GPU activity tracking in Linux; improves performance on Apple ARM computers; resolves build issues for DragonFlyBSD, Darwin, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and Solaris; provides accounting of disk and network activity in DragonFlyBSD; adds information about threads and process status in macOS; expands Unicode support; reworked code for working with temperature sensors; improved performance of code for parsing statistics; added support for hiding cache and buffer data.
→https://github.com/Syllo/nvtop/releases/tag/3.2.0
Week
31 - 6
CachyOS distribution 250330 released:
31/03/2025
CachyOS 250330 release has been published. It is based on Arch Linux and uses a continuous update delivery model. The distribution is notable for its optimizations to improve performance and the ability to install various desktop environments. In addition to the basic KDE-based environment , GNOME, Xfce, i3WM, Wayfire, LXQT, OpenBox, Cinnamon, Cosmic, UKUI, LXDE, Mate, Budgie, Qtile, Hyprland and Sway are available for installation. The size of the installation iso image is 2.7 GB. Separately supplied, are builds (2.8 GB) for wearable devices (Handheld Edition) with a GameMode-style interface and components for computer gamers.
The distribution includes the BORE task scheduler by default, optimized to reduce desktop latency and prioritize interactive processes. The kernel and packages are built with LTO (Link-Time Optimization) optimizations enabled and instructions available in processors based on the x86-64-v3, x86-64-v4, and Zen4 microarchitectures enabled. When building base packages, PGO (Profile-Guided Optimization) or BOLT (Binary Optimization and Layout Tool) optimizations are additionally enabled. The distribution includes the Cachy-Browser web browser, based on Firefox with security and performance patches, as well as changes from the Librewolf project . btrfs, zfs, ext4, xfs, and f2fs can be used as file systems.
→https://cachyos.org/blog/2503-march-release/
OrioleDB developers want to improve the API for alternative PostgreSQL engines:
31/03/2025
OrioleDB developers analyzed the current state of the low-level API used for extensions to access tables and indexes in PostgreSQL (Table/Index Access Method (AM) API) and proposed ways to improve it. Since the introduction of the API in PostgreSQL 12, developers have been able to create alternative data storage engines. However, despite the presence of this API and the known limitations of the built-in storage engine, there are still no fully functional transactional storage engines implemented exclusively as extensions.
→https://www.orioledb.com/blog/better-table-access-methods
Phosh 0.46.0 released:
31/03/2025
Phosh 0.46 has been released, a mobile desktop shell based on GNOME technologies and the GTK library. The environment was initially developed by Purism as an analogue of GNOME Shell for the Librem 5 smartphone, but then became one of the unofficial GNOME projects and is used in postmarketOS, Mobian, Droidian, some firmware for Pine64 devices and the Fedora edition for smartphones. Phosh uses the Phoc composite server running on top of Wayland, as well as its own on-screen keyboard, squeekboard. The project's code is distributed under the GPLv3+ license.
→https://phosh.mobi/releases/rel-0.46.0/
Linux kernel 6.15 introduces major optimizations to the network subsystem and exFAT:
01/04/2025
The Linux kernel code base, on which release 6.15 is based, includes a set of changes with optimizations that significantly improve the performance of network operations in a number of situations:
The GRO (Generic Receive Offload) optimization, which combines several small packets into one large one, is now enabled when switching packet processing to another CPU (for load balancing) when using the XDP (eXpress Data Path) subsystem, which allows packets to be processed at the network driver level before they are transmitted to the network stack. The performance gain for TCP stream processing from using the optimization can be up to two times. Under heavy load, the performance of the connect() function has been increased by up to two times by replacing the spin lock with the RCU (Read-Copy-Update) synchronization mechanism when searching for records with information about the sides of the connection (source and target IP addresses and ports). Additionally, hashing has been optimized, providing a performance increase of another 229%. The implementation of MPTCP (Multipath TCP), an extension of the TCP protocol for organizing the delivery of packets simultaneously along several routes through different network interfaces bound to different IP addresses, has been accelerated. MPTCP in single-stream mode has been accelerated by 29%. In netfilter, when a socket is present, the execution of route lookup operations in the FIB (Forwarding Information Base) has been stopped. Thanks to this optimization, performance has increased by 20%. UDP performance under flood conditions has been increased by 10% by eliminating unnecessary operations with the sk_tsflags structure when receiving packets.
In addition, the Linux kernel 6.15 in development includes a change to the exFAT file system driver that speeds up file deletion operations. Previously, the exFAT driver sent “discard” requests to drives individually for each freed cluster of a file being deleted. The optimized version groups the requests, resulting in a reduction in the time to delete an 80 GB test file from 286 seconds to 1.6 seconds. In Linux 6.15, code has been adopted that uses the io_uring interface to receive network packets directly into the program memory in user space, avoiding unnecessary packet copying operations (“zero copy”). As the authors of the patch note, the change allows for a full 200 Gbit link to be loaded, using one CPU core for all operations.
→https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20250326163652.2730264-1-kuba@kernel.org/
Second preview release of Pidgin 3.0:
01/04/2025
The second experimental release of the instant messaging client Pidgin 3.0 (2.91) is presented . It allows working simultaneously in several networks with different protocols and switching between chats using tabs. The release is marked as having the quality level of a preliminary alpha version, not intended for everyday use. The builds are prepared in the Flatpak format ( only the archive with the code is available for now ).
The Pidgin 3 branch has been in development since 2011, and before that it was discussed (at the level of concepts and ideas) for three years. Pidgin 3 has made the transition to the GObject type system, GTK4 and Adwaita libraries, the Meson build system, GPlugin for processing plugins, SQLite for storing chat history, and GSettings for working with settings. The API has been completely redesigned. GTK Builder XML is used to define interface elements, and a custom widget library, Talkatu, has been created to display chat history.
The interface combines the contact list and chat in one window. The Finch console client has been discontinued (it is possible that it may return in the future). As to the protocols, only IRCv3 is currently supported, and new implementations of the XMPP and Bonjour protocols are being developed, which are still partially supported. The Pidgin 3 branch is incompatible with Pidgin 2 and previously created plugins, but can be installed in parallel, with existing Pidgin 2 builds.
→https://discourse.imfreedom.org/t/pidgin-3-0-experimental-2-2-91-0-has-been-released/262
Betterbird 128.9.0 released:
02/04/2025
The release of the Betterbird mail client is presented. It is a fork of Mozilla Thunderbird, developed by the community and based on Mozilla Firefox technologies. Betterbird 128.9 is built on the code base of the long-term support branch Thunderbird 128.9.0 ESR, with updates released throughout the year. Installation packages for Windows and macOS are available for download, as well as binary builds for Linux.
The Betterbird project was founded by Jörg Knobloch, a former Thunderbird maintainer who had been involved with the project since 2016. In 2020, following accusations of toxic behavior and aggressive attacks on other project participants, the Thunderbird Council suspended him from participating in any Thunderbird-related projects for 3 months (“3 months mandatory ban from participation in Thunderbird communities”). After violating the terms of the suspension, he was removed from the list of maintainers and permanently banned from any participation in projects of MZLA Technologies Corporation , the company that oversees the development of Thunderbird. (cancel culture epidemic)
Betterbird is a set of patches that fix long-ignored or unresolved issues in Thunderbird, and add or return some functionality that was not adopted or was removed from Thunderbird by its developers.
→https://www.betterbird.eu/releasenotes/index.html
Fedora 43's transition to RPM 6:
03/04/2025
The Fedora Engineering Steering Committee (FESCo), the technical body responsible for the development of the Fedora Linux distribution, has approved the transition to the RPM 6 package manager in the fall release of Fedora 43. The release of RPM 6.0 is scheduled for Q3 2025.
The RPM 6 branch is notable for its support of a new format (RPM 6), which allows packages larger than 4 GB (overcoming this limitation is important, since the SRC package with Chromium is close to the limit and is 3.7 GB). The RPM 6 format uses 64-bit size fields, modernizes cryptographic structures, and adds MIME information about files. RPM 5 was skipped to avoid overlap with the RPM5 project , which is not related to Red Hat's RPM and was developed by independent developers.
Support for the RPM 4 format using cpio will be retained in full. Moreover, the RPM 6 branch does not impose a transition to the new package format, and distributions will be able to remain on the RPM 4 format at their own discretion. For example, Fedora 43 will be supplied with the RPM 6.0 package manager, but the package format will remain RPM 4 for now. For those who wish to switch to the new format, support for reading and installing packages in the RPM 6 format has been added to the RPM 4.x branch.
Another significant change in RPM 6 is the inclusion of digital signature verification by default. To ensure that mandatory signature verification does not complicate the installation of self-built packages, RPM 6 adds support for automatic generation of local signatures during the build to the rpmbuild utility. There is also a “–nosignature” option that allows you to force a package to be installed without signature verification.
First public version of Nelm:
04/04/2025
The open source Nelm project, positioned as an “alternative to Helm 3”, has been announced as ready for mass use. Nelm originated during the development of the CI/CD utility werf as a fork of Helm, a package manager for Kubernetes that uses “charts” to deploy applications to K8s. Nelm code is available on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license.
→https://github.com/werf/nelm/
XZ Utils 5.8.1 Update with Vulnerability Fix:
04/04/2025
XZ Utils 5.8.1 has been released, including the liblzma library and utilities for working with compressed data in the “.xz” format. XZ Utils 5.8.1 is the first significant release since the incident with the discovery of a backdoor that organizes login via sshd. Last week, the 5.8.0 tag was created in Git, but the release was not officially announced due to performance issues and compatibility with older versions of GNU make that were discovered after the tag was published.
The XZ Utils 5.8.1 update fixes a vulnerability ( CVE-2025-31115 ) that causes a crash when trying to unpack specially crafted archives. The vulnerability is caused by accessing an already freed memory area (use after free). An attacker can achieve writing their value at an address calculated as “null pointer + offset”. The problem is considered an unintentional error, since the change that caused it was made to the code long before the arrival of developer Jia Tan, whose activities led to the introduction of the backdoor.
→https://www.mail-archive.com/xz-devel@tukaani.org/msg00698.html
Celluloid Video Player 0.28:
04/04/2025
Celluloid 0.28 (former GNOME MPV) is now available, providing a GTK-based graphical interface for the MPV console video player. The player can use MPV configuration files, supports the MPRIS2 playback control protocol, and is fully compatible with Wayland. Celluloid is used in Linux Mint, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Cinnamon, EasyOS, AntiX, and Solus as the default video player. The code is written in C and is licensed under the GPLv3 license.
→https://github.com/celluloid-player/celluloid/releases/tag/v0.28
openHalo, a MySQL to PostgreSQL migration toolkit:
04/04/2025
The openHalo toolkit code has been published. It provides a layer to simplify the migration of applications originally written for MySQL to use the PostgreSQL DBMS. The project is implemented as a proxy that transparently translates MySQL queries into PostgreSQL queries and performs the reverse transformation for responses. The project is written in C and is distributed under the GPLv3 license.
openHalo supports the SQL dialect and MySQL communication protocol, allowing applications written for MySQL to be migrated to PostgreSQL with little or no code changes. Standard MySQL utilities, commands, and drivers can be used with openHalo.
→https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/openhalo-project-is-now-released-3048/
Third experimental release of the Orbitiny desktop environment:
04/04/2025
The third release of the Orbitiny Desktop environment is presented, written from scratch using the Qt framework. The project tries to combine some innovative ideas that have not been seen in user environments before with traditional elements such as the panel, menus and placement of icons on the desktop. The code is written in C++ and is distributed under the GPL license.
→https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1jpnwfy/orbitiny_desktop_10_pilot_3_released_milestone/
Tails 6.14 distribution released:
04/04/2025
The release of the specialized distribution Tails 6.14.1 (The Amnesic Incognito Live System), developed as part of the Tor project, is out. The distribution is based on Debian 12, comes with the GNOME 43 desktop and is designed for anonymous network access using the Tor toolkit. All connections, except for traffic through the Tor network, are blocked by default by the packet filter. Encryption is used to store user data in between launches. An iso image capable of working in Live mode, 1 GB in size, has been prepared for downloading.
Release 6.14.1 was created instead of 6.14 because, during the initial testing of the new branch, at the stage before the publication of the builds, a serious problem was discovered. In Tails 6.14, Tor Browser was updated to version 14.0.9, and the Tor package to 0.4.8.16. The buttons for minimizing and expanding the window were returned to the Tor Browser header.
The AppArmor profile used to protect against exploitation of vulnerabilities in Tor Browser has been reworked. Previously, the browser was granted read access only to individual directories and the ability to write only to the directory for saving downloaded files. In the new version, such restrictions are removed from the AppArmor profile for Tor Browser. Instead, the xdg-desktop-portal package used in Flatpak for organizing controlled selective access to files outside the isolated environment is used. Thanks to the change, secure access to any subdirectories in the home directory and in persistent storage has been implemented.
→https://tails.net/news/version_6.14.1/index.en.html
APT Package Manager 3.0.0 Released:
05/04/2025
The release of the APT 3.0.0 package management tool (Advanced Package Tool) has been announced, which has incorporated changes accumulated in the experimental 2.9 branch. The new release has been accepted into the Debian Unstable branch and will soon be integrated into the Debian Testing repository, which is developing the Debian 13 release and already uses the experimental APT 2.9 branch, and will also be added to the Ubuntu package base.
→https://github.com/Debian/apt/releases/tag/3.0.0
Release of Coreboot 25.03:
05/04/2025
The release of the CoreBoot 25.03 project, developing a free alternative to proprietary firmware and BIOS, is presented. The project code is distributed under the GPLv2 license. The new version includes 1001 changes. 131 developers took part in the release preparation. The post basically just lists the 22 new boards supported.
D language compiler release 2.111:
06/04/2025
DMD 2.111, the reference compiler for the D language, has been released. The compiler code is distributed under the free BSL (Boost Software License). Linux, Windows, macOS, and FreeBSD are supported.
The D language uses static typing, has a syntax similar to C/C++, and provides the performance of compiled languages. The D language also borrows some features of dynamic languages that are useful for improving development efficiency and ensuring security. For example, there is support for: associative arrays, indirect type definition, automatic memory management, parallel programming tools, templates, and metaprogramming components. A garbage collector is optionally available. D programs can use libraries in the C language, as well as some libraries in C++ and Objective-C.
The release includes changes from more than half a year that were not included in the 2.110 release, which was more of a bug fix release.