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Last Notes

2026-11-02 16:35:51 GMT

Sam Altman wants to take your RAM
"From a global allocation perspective, actually, it's quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world's limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer and being used 5% of the time," Altman said. "You want maximum utilization in the cloud if you're trying to deal with this very supply-constrained environment. And somehow many people's intuition i
https://www.osnews.com/story/146277/sam-altman-wants-to-take-your-ram/
#Technofascism

2026-10-31 07:10:06 GMT

How curl was accidentally Turing-complete for nine months
From curl 8.12 through 8.16, config files could slice variable values and include other config files without an explicit depth cap. Together, these features let curl simulate any two-counter Minsky program. Under the usual idealization of unbounded strings and resources, this construction was Turing-complete.
Curl 8.1
https://www.osnews.com/story/146271/how-curl-was-accidentally-turing-complete-for-nine-months/
#Internet

2026-10-30 00:16:34 GMT

AlpineBSD combines NetBSD with Alpine’s apk package manager
AlpineBSD is an operating system based on the NetBSD kernel with a userspace inspired by Alpine Linux and the objective of making it possible to use as little AI-generated software as possible. There is no LLM output included in the base system or main package repository (AlpineBSD AI policy).
↫ AlpineBSD's website
https://www.osnews.com/story/146267/alpinebsd-combines-netbsd-with-alpines-apk-package-manager/
#NetBSD

2026-10-20 17:50:58 GMT

OpenBSD 8.0 released
Hot on the heels of Wine being ported to OpenBSD, we now have the release of OpenBSD 8.0. It adds hibernate support for arm64, switches the soarc64 toolchain to LLVM, and updates the DRM graphics drivers to Linux 6.18.53, which also adds support for Intel Arc A-Series (DG2/Alchemist) graphics cards. There's a whole bunch of improvements, fixes, and changes for RISC-V and ARM in general, of cour
https://www.osnews.com/story/146200/openbsd-8-0-released/
#OpenBSD

2026-10-19 06:38:44 GMT

Wine ported to OpenBSD, runs modern Windows games
In what is quite a major achievement, Wine has been ported and made to work on OpenBSD.
We have since tested several dozens of 64-bit Windows software, mostly successfully. See screenshots, livestream recordings for example. Even the Remaster of The Witcher 3 which released just last month runs, and runs well (requires adding in vkd3d
https://www.osnews.com/story/146195/wine-ported-to-openbsd-runs-modern-windows-games/
#OpenBSD

2026-10-19 06:31:26 GMT

Single-partition encrypted NetBSD 11 root
What if a regular, normal NetBSD installation is too plebeian for you?
This is a quick overview which attempts to synthesize DW Armstrong's tutorial on NetBSD encryption with the cgdroot page from the NetBSD wiki in a single MBR partition, divided into multiple disklabel slices to preserve MBR entries.
↫ indigoparadox Web Zone
What if you need thi
https://www.osnews.com/story/146193/single-partition-encrypted-netbsd-11-root/
#NetBSD

2026-10-19 06:21:10 GMT

Linux 7.3 released
Significant changes in this release include some significant binfmt_misc extensions, some group-scheduling work aimed at improving performance on large systems, the new failfs filesystem that fails all operations, the fchroot() system call, global per-CPU data for BPF programs, the completion of the sched_ext subscheduler feature, working-set tracking for virtual machines, alternative data-stream sup
https://www.osnews.com/story/146191/linux-7-3-released/
#Linux

2026-10-16 20:47:09 GMT

Palm OS developer archive: Palm OS development resources, SDKs, documentation, and utilities
This repository contains approximately 1 GB of historical Palm OS development material, collected over many years of working with the platform.
The archive includes a mixture of publicly distributed development resources, personal development material, te
https://www.osnews.com/story/146174/palm-os-developer-archive-palm-os-development-resources-sdks-documentation-and-utilities/
#Mobile

2026-10-15 13:20:23 GMT

Costa: a modern, maintained graphical shell for DOS
Graphical user interfaces for DOS were a dime-a-dozen back in the '90s, but of course faded into irrelevance as time went on. But what if you still run DOS today, and want a maintained graphical shell instead of the rather limited DOS command line?
Costa is a small and lightweight application which runs on top of MS-DOS or compatibl
https://www.osnews.com/story/146160/costa-a-modern-maintained-graphical-shell-for-dos/
#OSNews

2026-10-14 15:03:51 GMT

KDE Plasma 6.8 released
KDE turns 30 today, and they're celebrating it with a brand new KDE Plasma release: version 6.8 is here. On the accessibility front, 6.8 brings a new dwell clicker function (meaning a click will register if the pointer is held still for a short while) and support for the Bikram Sambat calendar and the Amharic language. I always love it when I see support for new languages and scripts, especia
https://www.osnews.com/story/146152/kde-plasma-6-8-released/
#KDE

2026-10-05 21:41:21 GMT

Windows’ legacy 8.3 filename support actually negatively affects performance
To this day, Windows retains full support for the old MS-DOS 8.3 filename limitation, and it does this by creating 8.3 aliases for files with longer names. Apparently, this has a measurable effect on performance, so naturally, people are going to turn it off to make their Windows ins
https://www.osnews.com/story/146073/windows-legacy-8-3-filename-support-actually-negatively-affects-performance/
#Windows

2026-09-28 18:17:19 GMT

MotifCentral: all things Motif/Xt/Xlib
Over the last few days and weeks or so, a few of the people I follow and interact with on Fedi have been talking about centralising information, tools, applications, and expertise from the Motif (and Xt, Xlib, and X11) ecosystem. There's a ton of information, resources, and actively maintained applications out there, but it's all spread out and sometimes difficul
https://www.osnews.com/story/146041/motifcentral-all-things-motif-xt-xlib/
#Unix

2026-09-25 23:10:18 GMT

Amiga screens: a primer
One of the unwritten rules of the Internet seems to be that whenever something Amiga-related is mentioned, at least one Amiga fan (myself included) must show up and try to explain the concept of screens. Amiga screens can have different resolutions, we'll tell you, and one can drag them, we'll say, and other Amiga users rally in agreement, while non-Amiga users probably still don't get w
https://www.osnews.com/story/146031/amiga-screens-a-orimer/
#AmigaAROS

2026-09-25 22:44:17 GMT

Redox runs Qemu, gets multicore support for ARM
It's time for an overview of another month of Redox OS progress, and over the month of August - they're a bit late, don't believe the publication date - they've implemented multicore support for ARM, and considerably improved the I/O performance for the NVMe driver, RedoxFS, and RAMFS by implementing a ring buffer communication API. There's a
https://www.osnews.com/story/146029/redox-runs-qemu-gets-multicore-support-for-arm/
#RedoxOS

2026-09-25 06:31:00 GMT

We’ve been here before: Qualcomm promises Linux support for Snapdragon X2
Qualcomm, yesterday, promising Linux support for the new Snapdragon X2 processors:
Linux on Snapdragon X2 Series is moving from early bring-up toward a more complete upstream developer experience. Core support is landing, Hexagon NPU and Adreno GPU work is progressing, and real laptops wi
https://www.osnews.com/story/146022/weve-been-here-before-qualcomm-promises-linux-support-for-snapdragon-x2/
#Linux

2026-09-23 22:40:27 GMT

The state of scrollbars in Windows makes even longtime Microsoft engineers sad
Raymond Chen, longtime Microsoft employee and author of the very popular The Old New Thing blog, published an interesting post about the Win32 scrollbar. It turns out there's actually quite a few interesting shortcuts and useful hidden features, like clicking inside a scrollbar wh
https://www.osnews.com/story/146018/the-state-of-scrollbars-in-windows-makes-even-longtime-microsoft-engineers-sad/
#Windows

2026-09-07 18:00:06 GMT

NetBSD 11 from scratch
Why use an installer to install an operating system, when you can just do it yourself, step by step?
In this post I will cover the installation process of the NetBSD operating system, including disk level encryption. Instead of using the standard installation program (sysinst), I decided to install NetBSD “from scratch”, as a way to dive into the internals, and learn more about the nuts
https://www.osnews.com/story/145917/netbsd-11-from-scratch/
#NetBSD

2026-08-27 20:19:04 GMT

EasyEffects should be part of every Linux distribution and desktop environment to massively improve laptop speaker sound quality
Virtually all laptop speakers suck. It's the one area where even really expensive laptops tend to fall on their ass, leaving users with a tinny, harsh, and hollow sound experie
https://www.osnews.com/story/145883/easyeffects-should-be-part-of-every-linux-distribution-and-desktop-environment-to-massively-improve-laptop-speaker-sound-quality/
#MultimediaAV

2026-08-18 09:59:23 GMT

The road to MS-DOS 2
A great and concise history of the run-up to MS-DOS 2.0.
Yet, there was a nagging feeling that a single-tasking CP/M clone was inadequate for the new generation of personal computers. Digital Research released multi-user, multitasking MP/M-86 in September 1981 and announced the single‑user multitasking Concurrent CP/M in early 1982. In response, Microsoft came up with a plan for tiered a
https://www.osnews.com/story/145852/the-road-to-ms-dos-2/
#LegacyOSes

2026-08-18 09:41:15 GMT

PervertPods: Apple is adding cameras to AirPods
If you thought pervert glasses weren't bad enough, Apple is taking it up a notch by adding cameras to its AirPods.
Apple is working on camera-equipped AirPods that appear to be nearly ready to launch, based on a video MacRumors found in the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate.
In a short demo, a man holds a book up so the camera in the Ai
https://www.osnews.com/story/145850/pervertpods-apple-is-adding-cameras-to-airpods/
#Apple

2026-08-18 09:25:00 GMT

Quake shareware, a CD-ROM just a little too full
I was around when Quake was launched, but I was entirely unaware of this story.
By June 1996, after three years of hard work, id Software had completed their next title, Quake. As for their previous title, they were going to release both a shareware version and a full version of their game. Since it used a mere 22 MiB of storage, people a
https://www.osnews.com/story/145848/quake-shareware-a-cd-rom-just-a-little-too-full/
#Games

2026-08-12 18:40:36 GMT

The OSNews Fundraiser continues: you made me use Windows, now make me use macOS
The OSNews Fundraiser, to celebrate the fact I posted 20000 stories in 21 years, is still underway. The first major incentive was reached, and I, a long-time Linux user, published my experiences using Windows 11 for a month. It wasn't a success. Keep donating if you want to find ou
https://www.osnews.com/story/145747/the-osnews-fundraiser-continues-you-made-me-use-windows-now-make-me-use-macos/
#OSNews

2026-08-11 22:45:31 GMT

Google hammers another, extremely petty nail in the Android Open Source Project’s coffin
The slow but steady march to the grave for the Android Open Source Project continues. Every few months Google hammers another big nail in the coffin of Android as an open source effort, and I've documented them all here on OSNews (nail, nail, nail, nail, nail),
https://www.osnews.com/story/145738/google-hammers-another-extremely-petty-nail-in-the-android-open-source-projects-coffin/
#Android

2026-08-10 13:18:18 GMT

First version of Word for Windows ported to modern 64bit Windows
Back in 2014, Microsoft released the source code to the first Windows version of Word, version 1.1a. Now, Justin Marshall has ported this code to modern versions of Windows, so you can run it as if it were any other modern application.
This project is a fully working native Windows x64 port of Microsoft W
https://www.osnews.com/story/145715/first-version-of-word-for-windows-ported-to-modern-64bit-windows/
#Office

2026-08-03 12:19:39 GMT

“A big win for Android interoperability”
Whenever the EU steps in to regulate the big technology companies, the response from news outlets and bloggers (often funded or outright owned by right-wing extremists) is to claim it's just a bunch of dumb , tech-illiterate bureaucrats telling the vastly more intelligent and superior technology companies what to do. Of course, this is just propaganda.
https://www.osnews.com/story/145665/a-big-win-for-android-interoperability/
#Android

2026-08-01 21:14:53 GMT

NetBSD 11.0 released
NetBSD, the operating system specifically designed to run on anything from a supercomputer to a toothpick, just released version 11.0. There's a ton of changes and improvements here, such as a brand new port to RISC-V, which supports a number of the more popular RISC-V SoCs (sadly, not the one I have just yet). NetBSD 11.0 also adds initial support for the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite platform, a
https://www.osnews.com/story/145663/netbsd-11-0-released/
#NetBSD

2026-07-29 12:48:52 GMT

Windows 11 is quietly installing OneDrive Photos on your machine
It's that time of the week again, I guess.
The year is 2026, and I’m still amazed when I find a new entry in my Start menu’s All apps list for an app I don’t remember installing. This time, it’s Microsoft again, and the product is OneDrive Photos, which appears to be yet another photo viewer and editor f
https://www.osnews.com/story/145628/windows-11-is-quietly-installing-onedrive-photos-on-your-machine/
#Windows

2026-07-27 23:38:01 GMT

Windows NT got its name from one of Intel’s failed x86 replacements
Dave Farquhar published an article today about Windows NT 3.1's place in the market when it was originally released, and while the article is interesting and a fun read, it does mention this:
[...] Microsoft took its nascent code that it intended to form the base of OS/2 3.0, renamed it Windows Ne
https://www.osnews.com/story/145617/windows-nt-got-its-name-from-one-of-intels-failed-x86-replacements/
#Windows

2026-07-27 11:34:30 GMT

Mozilla gives Haiku permission to use the Firefox name
Haiku has a Firefox port, but due to Mozilla's trademark policies, it's actually called Iceweasel. After some back-and-forth with Mozilla, the browser maker has now given Haiku permission to officially use the Firefox name for the port.
But don’t worry, Iceweasel isn’t going anywhere. I plan to maintain both. The idea is to ke
https://www.osnews.com/story/145611/mozilla-gives-haiku-permission-to-use-the-firefox-name/
#Haiku

2026-07-27 11:18:18 GMT

10 REM”_(C2SLFF4
That is the first line of the 80s microcomputer BASIC game The Wizard's Castle initially written for the Exidy Sorcerer platform.
It's a REMark statement, a comment in that particular language. 10 is the line number, if you're unfamiliar with languages that had such things.
But the interesting part was this "_(C2SLFF4 mess. A typo or garbage? No. It appears verbatim in the source code
https://www.osnews.com/story/145607/10-rem_c2slff4/
#GeneralDevelopment

2026-07-23 20:33:29 GMT

FreeBSD ports frozen after someone commits the entire 150MB Linux Copilot binary
A rather unusual announcement was made late last night: the FreeBSD project has frozen their ports repository. For more than 48 hours now, no changes have been accepted or made to the tree, and here's why.
A 150MB binary file was recently committed to the ports tree and, as
https://www.osnews.com/story/145593/freebsd-ports-frozen-after-someone-commits-the-entire-150mb-linux-copilot-binary/
#FreeBSD

2026-07-20 21:46:35 GMT

Regressive JPEGs
One of the cool features of JPEG files is that there's the option to save low frequency components first. This means that a partially downloaded image will be displayed at low resolution instead of being cut off.
↫ maurycyz.com
Oh I know where this is going...
Doing this, I can get Chrome to render around 90 frames before giving up. Other browsers like Firefox have more patience, but a 90 s
https://www.osnews.com/story/145568/regressive-jpegs/
#MultimediaAV

2026-07-20 21:06:37 GMT

OpenBSD tests WPA3 support
The NLnet Foundation's NGI0 Commons Fund supported an effort to add WPA3 support to OpenBSD, and the work's payed off.
All drivers which support PMF can use WPA3, which are: iwm, iwx, and qwx. So far, I have tested this patch on iwx AX200 only. I will roll out this patch to more of my devices now. Help with testing is welcome.There are both userland and kernel changes involved.
https://www.osnews.com/story/145564/openbsd-tests-wpa3-support/
#OpenBSD

2026-07-19 21:08:33 GMT

DOSBox ported to OpenVMS for Alpha
Speaking of OpenVMS and Alpha - and we like speaking about OpenVMS and Alpha, don't we? - there's now a port of DOSBox that runs on the Alpha version venerable operating system. Astr0baby has published both binaries and source code for the port, as well as a lovely set of screenshots to show it off working.
https://www.osnews.com/story/145562/dosbox-ported-to-openvms-for-alpha/
#OSNews

2026-07-19 20:47:14 GMT

LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without user consent
Well, this is new - but not at all unexpected considering the state of Windows and the wider technology industry. When you connect certain LG monitors to a Windows machine, Windows Update will pull in a bunch of adware promoting antivirus trash. Of course, all done without a
https://www.osnews.com/story/145560/lg-monitors-silently-install-software-through-windows-update-without-user-consent/
#Windows

2026-07-16 20:51:32 GMT

Asbestos is a tool, just like any other
Linus Torvalds, on the Linux Kernel Mailing List:
Asbestos is a tool, just like other tools we use. And it's clearly a useful one.
[…]
The solution is to make sure asbestos tools help maintainers instead of just causing them pain. There's no question on that side.
We're not forcing anybody to use it, but I will very loudly ignore people who try
https://www.osnews.com/story/145530/asbestos-is-a-tool-just-like-any-other/
#ClownCar

2026-07-15 22:11:57 GMT

Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail
After I mentioned a Jurassic Park anecdote the other day, I watched the movie again. I must have seen it at least ten times now. This time, I researched every computer/software I spotted.
↫ Fabien Sanglard
We are all aware of the infamous "This is a UNIX system, I know this!" meme, but many more computers make their appearance in Jurassic
https://www.osnews.com/story/145526/jurassic-park-computers-in-excruciating-detail/
#Hardware

2026-07-15 21:55:29 GMT

Twitter’s “AI” translate feature is deep into hardcore pornography
As a former translator with two rock-solid university degrees in the subject, there was never a universe in which I would not talk about Twitter's new autotranslation feature turning the tamest things into hardcore pornography.
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok has long garnered a reputation for experie
https://www.osnews.com/story/145523/twitters-ai-translate-feature-is-deep-into-hardcore-pornography/
#ClownCar

2026-07-09 11:18:24 GMT

OSNews relies entirely on your support to stay alive. We have no ads, no corporate daddies, no rich benefactors. We are truly independent, not beholden to any interests. A rarity, these days.
Support my work! Donate through Ko-Fi:
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Or through a direct SEPA bank transfer:
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OSNews is my full-time job. Since my wife is sick at the moment and can't work, your support is more important than ever. ♥️

2026-07-08 22:28:16 GMT

You paid me, a long-time Linux user, to use Windows 11 exclusively for a month: here’s how it went
You all donated en masse to have me use Windows 11 for a month, and so I did. What was it like for a long-time Linux user to go back and experience Windows as it exists now? Is it really as bad as we've collectively made it out to be? Did my m
https://www.osnews.com/story/145459/you-paid-me-a-long-time-linux-user-to-use-windows-11-exclusively-for-a-month-heres-how-it-went/
#Windows

2026-07-08 22:24:00 GMT

The state of accessibility in GNOME
With July being Disability Pride Month, GNOME's Sophie Herold published a blog post taking stock of where GNOME stands on this front, progress that's been made, as well as areas where the project comes short. One particular paragraph from her introduction really hits the nail on the head about accessibility discussions in tech circles:
The reality of tech communi
https://www.osnews.com/story/145481/the-state-of-accessibility-in-gnome/
#Gnome

2026-07-07 23:18:10 GMT

Most slopcode projects are abandoned and deleted within months of release
About a month ago, Flathub announced a ban on slopcoded applications. Evangelos "GeopJr" Paterakis, developer of a number of popular Linux applications and ton of other things, did some research into just how many applications tagged with "AI slop", a tag Flathub reviewers used to keep tra
https://www.osnews.com/story/145469/most-slopcode-projects-are-abandoned-and-deleted-within-months-of-release/
#ClownCar

2026-07-07 21:06:41 GMT

Linux ported to the Atari Jaguar
Only a few days ago we had Linux on the Mega Drive, and someone took that as a challenge, so now we have Linux on the Atari Jaguar. The Jaguar has a very different architecture than the Mega Drive, but does happen to use a processor from the same 68000-family.
Interestingly enough, to this day, Linux has architecture code for the 68000-family of processors. 68040, 6803
https://www.osnews.com/story/145467/linux-ported-to-the-atari-jaguar/
#Linux

2026-07-05 20:11:12 GMT

LineageOS and Android’s upcoming developer verification: what it is, and how it affects you
LineageOS, the de-Googled Android ROM that serves as the backbone for pretty much the entire custom Android ROM community, has published an article about what the Android developer verification changes mean for them. I really like the factual tone of their
https://www.osnews.com/story/145443/lineageos-and-androids-upcoming-developer-verification-what-it-is-and-how-it-affects-you/
#Android

2026-07-03 21:39:02 GMT

ReactOS implements very first NT6 system call
A fairly big moment for the ReactOS project: it has just received its very first system call from NT6.
The system call that has been added is NtGetCurrentProcessorNumberEx, which is used for returning the processor number of the logical processor that a caller is running on. It’s unclear how long it will take ReactOS to become compatible wit
https://www.osnews.com/story/145428/reactos-implements-very-first-nt6-system-call/
#ReactOS

2026-07-01 22:27:17 GMT

OSNews statement on slopcoded “operating systems”
Recently, there has been a surge in slopcoded new/hobby "operating systems". Such slopcoded projects - which, due to the nature of "AI" tools, effectively consist of stolen code - will not be featured on OSNews and submitting them is fruitless.
Other websites may choose to employ lower standards, as is their prerogative, but OSNews w
https://www.osnews.com/story/145407/osnews-statement-on-slopcoded-operating-systems/
#OSNews

2026-07-01 22:21:33 GMT

European digital ID wallets are a gift to Google and Apple
European governments are rolling out digital identity wallets, which are to be used by citizens to access services, and to verify their age online. As reported by Follow the Money and Android Authority, there is a serious problem with this: these wallets rely on safety services of Google and Apple. These are known as Goog
https://www.osnews.com/story/145405/european-digital-id-wallets-are-a-gift-to-google-and-apple/
#Legal

2026-07-01 18:59:39 GMT

Linux ported to Sega’s Mega Drive
If you have a Sega Mega Drive, you obviously want to run Linux on it. That's something you can do now. You do need to have an EverDrive, but don't worry, the port in question contains a custom fork of Qemu for those of us that don't.
I don't know what else to say, other than I wonder why nobody did this sooner.
https://www.osnews.com/story/145401/linux-ported-to-segas-mega-drive/
#Linux

2026-06-15 19:21:43 GMT

Haiku enables AVX512 support
We're a little deep into June already, but it's only now that Haiku published its monthly progress report for May. There's a bunch of fixes for drag-and-drop behaviour in Tracker, AVX512 support can now be enabled thanks to changes to the kernel’s FPU handling, some low-level changes were made for the Rust and Zig compilers, and further improvements were made to the boot process o
https://www.osnews.com/story/145306/haiku-enables-avx512-support/
#Haiku

2026-06-15 19:10:10 GMT

Tribblix Milestone 40 for x86 released
Tribblix, the Illumos distribution focused on giving you a classic UNIX-style experience, has been updated with the release of Milestone 40.
This version has some major component updates. Perl in now 5.42 instead of 5.34, and the default Python is now 3.13. The GCC suite is now version 14.2.0, go is version 1.26, Xfce has been updated to version 4.18, nod
https://www.osnews.com/story/145304/tribblix-milestone-40-for-x86-released/
#Solaris

2026-06-15 14:01:16 GMT

“Your EPUB is fine. Kobo disagrees. Blame Adobe.”
An infuriating story about something most of us don't really stop to think about: e-books and the rendering engines companies and software use to display them.
It’s the year 2026. Thanks to the horrendous [Adobe] RMSDK which Kobo decided to use as their backbone for all book rendering (probably for DRM reasons), a single li
https://www.osnews.com/story/145302/your-epub-is-fine-kobo-disagrees-blame-adobe/
#GeneralDevelopment

2026-06-14 21:36:57 GMT

Running DOS on the Behringer DDX3216 with a DIY BIOS from scratch
In 1994 I got my first computer: an Intel i486 DX2-66 with 4 MB RAM and a 512MB harddisk. The software was IBMs OS/2 and Microsofts Windows 3.11. In the next four years I was upgrading this machine every few months with more RAM (up to 16MB), a CD-ROM-drive and a soundblaster card. So I learned upgradin
https://www.osnews.com/story/145297/running-dos-on-the-behringer-ddx3216-with-a-diy-bios-from-scratch/
#LegacyOSes

2026-06-11 14:14:01 GMT

MacOS 27 drops Intel support, will be last release with Rosetta 2
With the announcement of an upcoming new macOS release also come the usual changes in which Macs will still be supported. MacOS 27 Golden Gate is an important release in this regard, as it will be the first release of Apple's desktop operating system that will be entirely ARM-only, dropping support for all In
https://www.osnews.com/story/145279/macos-27-drops-intel-support-will-be-last-release-with-rosetta-2/
#macOS

2026-06-10 23:12:27 GMT

Once again, Apple blatantly lies about the EU’s DMA
Apple recently announced its next crack at integrating "AI" into its operating systems, this time opting to simply whitelabel Google's Gemini "AI" tools instead of developing its own LLM technology. Called "Siri AI", Apple also stated it's not coming to the EU, and the company stated that's because the EU's basic consumer protection le
https://www.osnews.com/story/145275/once-again-apple-blatantly-lies-about-the-eus-dma/
#Apple

2026-06-10 22:46:35 GMT

Google Chrome is killing all uBlock Origin bypasses, Microsoft Edge, Opera to follow
For a while now the transition away from Manifest V2 (MV2) to MV3 has been on-going and it looks like it is entering its final phase of deprecation, at least, in the case of Google Chrome. A recent discussion thread in the w3c WebExtensions Community Group GitHub repo h
https://www.osnews.com/story/145273/google-chrome-is-killing-all-ublock-origin-bypasses-microsoft-edge-opera-to-follow/
#Internet

2026-06-10 19:37:44 GMT

A raycasting first-person shooter written in COBOL
On a related note, what about a raycasting first-person shooter written in... COBOL?
Can you think of a better programming language than COBOL to implement an FPS from scratch? I know I can't, so buckle up and enjoy what can only be described as an out-of-body experience for COBOL enthusiasts as I set out to make a Wolfenstein3D-like
https://www.osnews.com/story/145271/a-raycasting-first-person-shooter-written-in-cobol/
#Games

2026-06-10 19:14:33 GMT

Microsoft makes Windows printing easier with Windows Ready Print
Microsoft has detailed that Windows 11 is going to switch away from dedicated printer drivers to its Windows Ready Print system. This should make it a lot easier and less cumbersome to get printers running on Windows 11.
At the core of Windows Ready Print is a transition away from legacy, third party dri
https://www.osnews.com/story/145266/microsoft-makes-windows-printing-easier-with-windows-ready-print/
#Windows

2026-06-07 17:57:24 GMT

x86CSS: a working CSS-only x86 CPU/emulator/computer
x86CSS is a working CSS-only x86 CPU/emulator/computer. Yes, the Cascading Style Sheets CSS. No JavaScript required.
What you're seeing above is a C program that was compiled using GCC into native 8086 machine code being executed fully within CSS.
↫ Lyra Rebane
Hand-written CSS, no JavaScript, and effectively no HTM
https://www.osnews.com/story/145224/x86css-a-working-css-only-x86-cpu-emulator-computer/
#GeneralDevelopment

2026-06-05 12:57:08 GMT

When su replaced login for becoming another UNIX login
I've mentioned it before, but Chris Siebenmann is basically the Raymond Chen of the UNIX world, and today he's filling that role perfectly once again.
I recently read Simon Tatham's Nitpicking the shell history scene in Tron: Legacy, where one thing that surprised Tatham was the film using 'login -n root' to become root instea
https://www.osnews.com/story/145218/when-su-replaced-login-for-becoming-another-unix-login/
#Unix

2026-06-03 18:03:48 GMT

Rsync opens the slopgates, regressions and bugs ensue
Andrew Tridgell, developer of rsync, has published a blog post addressing the massive surge in "AI" code submissions and the string of regressions supposedly caused by them. He explains rsync was flooded with "AI"-generated security reports, and he couldn't handle the volumes anymore.
As this flood started to get mo
https://www.osnews.com/story/145198/rsync-opens-the-slopgates-regressions-and-bugs-ensue/
#GeneralDevelopment

2026-06-03 14:52:27 GMT

WinUtils: shell-powered CLI tools for Windows 95
WinUtils started in 1996-1997 as a way to build my programming chops. I was poking around the Windows 95 shell APIs, found the file operation functions, and thought it would be cool to have CLI tools that called them instead of doing raw file I/O. The payoff was practical: because the operations went through the shell, the same confirmation
https://www.osnews.com/story/145196/winutils-shell-powered-cli-tools-for-windows-95/
#Windows

2026-06-02 18:08:12 GMT

Preparing for KDE Plasma’s last X11-supported release
With KDE Plasma 6.7 almost ready for release, developers have moved on to working on 6.8, and with that release comes probably one of the biggest deprecations in KDE's history: as of today, the X11 session is gone from KDE. Of course, this change won't make it to people's computers until 6.8 actually releases, but as far the code go
https://www.osnews.com/story/145190/preparing-for-kde-plasmas-last-x11-supported-release/
#KDE

2026-06-01 18:45:03 GMT

Happy pride month! Yes, let's all be gay and do crimes etc. etc., but also remember that Stonewall was a riot and in many places around the world, more such riots are going to be needed.
Until every last person can freely be who they really are, we got work to do.

2026-05-31 13:09:29 GMT

Remember when people said open video codecs would never win?
The Alliance for Open Media has published the first version of the AV2 specification.
AV2 is the next-generation video coding specification from the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia). Building on the foundation of AV1, AV2 is engineered to provide superior compression efficiency, enabling high-quality video
https://www.osnews.com/story/145160/remember-when-people-said-open-video-codecs-would-never-win/
#MultimediaAV

2026-05-30 19:41:46 GMT

Settlers of Catan, TUI edition
A beautiful TUI might not be particularly accessible, and there's effectively zero consistency between how different TUI applications look, feel, and behave, but damn if an amazing TUI isn't a work of art. Case in point: El Poblador. This is a TUI version of Settles of Catan, written in Go.
That's it. That's the post.
https://www.osnews.com/story/145154/settlers-of-catan-tui-edition/
#Games

2026-05-28 14:45:20 GMT

Open source project contains hidden instruction for “AI” agents: delete my code
It's no secret there's a war going on inside the open source community, with people adopting "AI" on one side, and those that want nothing to do with it on the other. While the former are, by nature, using destructive tactics like mass website scraping, license washi
https://www.osnews.com/story/145130/open-source-project-contains-hidden-instruction-for-ai-agents-delete-my-code/
#GeneralDevelopment

2026-05-27 22:58:51 GMT

Gemini, gophers, and fingers: alternative internets beyond HTTPS
But what I want to write about today are three protocols that have their own ecosystems, their own communities, and their own aesthetics. finger://, gopher://, and gemini://. Two predate the World Wide Web entirely, but one was created in 2019, the same year the first black hole photograph circled the planet.
https://www.osnews.com/story/145124/gemini-gophers-and-fingers-alternative-internets-beyond-https/
#Internet

2026-05-25 16:11:28 GMT

On C extensions, portability, and alternative compilers
Anyone who's written C knows that full ISO C standard-adhering code is an impractical rarity. Most real world C code out there relies on non-standard behaviors and language extensions to varying extents, and a lot of this isn't for extra features, but just to work around bugs and gaps in different compilers and libra
https://www.osnews.com/story/145083/on-c-extensions-portability-and-alternative-compilers/
#GeneralDevelopment

2026-05-24 15:05:31 GMT

Flatpak will depend on systemd
If you visit the Flatpak website today, it lists, as the very first advantage of the project: "Build for every distro: create one app and distribute it to the entire Linux desktop market." If you then move on to the list of supported distributions, you'll see the usual suspects, but also distributions like Void Linux, Guix, and Alpine. These last three all have one thing in co
https://www.osnews.com/story/145071/flatpak-will-depend-on-systemd/
#Linux

2026-05-23 23:36:56 GMT

“Long-term support” does not mean what you think it does
You may think you know what "long-term support" means when picking a Linux distribution and version, but judging by the multitude of utterly wrong takes and deeply confused users I come across online, I'm starting to get the feeling that in fact, no, you don't know what it means. KDE's Nate Graham is seeing the same confusi
https://www.osnews.com/story/145069/long-term-support-does-not-mean-what-you-think-it-does/
#Linux

2026-05-23 22:03:09 GMT

Gnutella: a protocol outliving the world that created it
Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.
Gnutella is a file sharing protocol that many have forgotten and it has the story of a decentralized technology adopted by millions of casual users who did not care to learn what a peer-to-peer system was. Users showed up because the protocol solved real problems at scal
https://www.osnews.com/story/145066/gnutella-a-protocol-outliving-the-world-that-created-it/
#Internet

2026-05-21 21:43:21 GMT

Twelve ways to be wrong about “AI”-assisted coding
Suppose your manager asks you next week to demonstrate that the AI coding tools your company signed up for are worth the subscription cost. Would you measure lines of code generated, or tickets closed? Or would you send out a survey asking whether developers feel more productive? Each of those approaches is flawed in a different wa
https://www.osnews.com/story/145044/twelve-ways-to-be-wrong-about-ai-assisted-coding/
#InTheNews

2026-05-20 23:21:37 GMT

Get your passwords out of BitWarden while you still can
I was a long-time Bitwarden user, until a year or so ago when I started migrating my passwords first to Firefox/LibreWolf, and recently from there to a KeePass database I can transfer and use with whatever password manager application is compatible with KeePass' file format. It seems I was accidentally on time, as it'
https://www.osnews.com/story/145029/get-your-passwords-out-of-bitwarden-while-you-still-can/
#PrivacySecurity

2026-05-19 21:36:55 GMT

Google kills its search engine
We can inter Google Search to the Google Graveyard.
At its Google I/O conference on Tuesday, Google unveiled an AI-powered overhaul of Search centered around a reimagined “intelligent search box” — what the company describes as the biggest change to this entry point to the web since the search box debuted more than 25 years ago.
Instead of returning a simple list of li
https://www.osnews.com/story/145004/google-kills-its-search-engine/
#Google

2026-05-19 17:25:07 GMT

OpenBSD 7.9 released
The world's best BSD (I'm kidding, I love them all equally) has released version 7.9, now available through your update tools and on mirrors the world over. OpenBSD 7.9 brings a ton of changes, fixes, and improvements, such as delayed hibernation support on amd64. This will allow OpenBSD laptops to briefly wake up from sleep, to then immediately drop into hibernation. A small but incredibly wel
https://www.osnews.com/story/144996/openbsd-7-9-released/
#OpenBSD

2026-05-18 18:03:48 GMT

We're running a big fundraiser for @nprofile…ewcz, in honour of my 21 year tenure and 20000th post! Since my wife can barely work due to health issues (caused by her work, ugh), my family has to rely on my income much more heavily. And that means OSNews donations.
We've also got a bunch of fun incentives!
More details:
https://www.osnews.com/story/144982/the-21-years-and-20000-posts-osnews-fundraiser-a-euro-for-every-post/
Donate:
https://ko-fi.com/thomholwerda/goal?g=2

2026-05-15 20:53:25 GMT

Google’s new “AI” Health Coach started making shit up right away
Google recently launched something called Health Coach, an "AI" thing that's part of the company's new Fitbit products. Let's check in with how that's going.
Put simply, Google’s paid replacement for Fitbit Premium immediately began hallucinating, even admitting to having made up the data before aski
https://www.osnews.com/story/144959/googles-new-ai-health-coach-started-making-shit-up-right-away/
#ClownCar

2026-05-13 19:52:12 GMT

EU weighs restricting use of US cloud platforms to process sensitive government data
The European Union is considering rules that would restrict its member governments’ use of U.S. cloud providers to handle sensitive data, sources familiar with the talks told CNBC.
↫ Kai Nicol-Schwarz at CNBC
The fact that this is only just become a possible reality n
https://www.osnews.com/story/144943/eu-weighs-restricting-use-of-us-cloud-platforms-to-process-sensitive-government-data/
#Legal

2026-05-11 20:32:37 GMT

GitHub is sinking
Microsoft acquired GitHub and applied their unique brand of enshittification. Amongst their achievements was the spawning of the Copilot circle of hell. Now they’re effectively DDoSing themselves with slop. I won’t dwell on what else went wrong. I don’t know and I don’t care. GitHub is impressively bad now. It’s embarrassing. Shameful.
↫ David Bushell
Luckily, there's really very little
https://www.osnews.com/story/144928/github-is-sinking/
#GeneralDevelopment

2026-05-11 09:08:09 GMT

Debian embraces reproducible builds
Big news from the Debian release team: Debian is going for reproducible package builds.
Aided by the efforts of the Reproducible Builds project, we've decided it's time to say that Debian must ship reproducible packages. Since yesterday, we have enabled our migration software to block migration of new packages that can't be reproduced or existing packages (in te
https://www.osnews.com/story/144925/debian-embraces-reproducible-builds/
#Debian

2026-05-08 23:36:26 GMT

Google is tying reCAPTCHA to Google Play Services, screwing over de-Googled Android users
The ways in which Google can lock you into their ecosystem are often obvious, but sometimes, they're incredibly sneaky and easily missed.
CAPTCHA tests are annoying, but at the same time, they can help protect websites from bots. While these tests are alre
https://www.osnews.com/story/144909/google-is-tying-recaptcha-to-google-play-services-screwing-over-de-googled-android-users/
#Android

2026-05-05 22:03:15 GMT

The text mode lie: why modern TUIs are a nightmare for accessibility
There is a persistent misconception among sighted developers: if an application runs in a terminal, it is inherently accessible. The logic assumes that because there are no graphics, no complex DOM, and no WebGL canvases, the content is just raw ASCII text that a screen reader can easily pa
https://www.osnews.com/story/144892/the-text-mode-lie-why-modern-tuis-are-a-nightmare-for-accessibility/
#GeneralDevelopment

2026-04-24 20:24:55 GMT

How hard is it to open a file?
Sebastian Wick has a great explanation of why opening files - programmatically - is a lot more complex and fraught with dangers than you might think it is.
It’s a question I had to ask myself multiple times over the last few months. Depending on the context the answer can be:
very simple, just call the standard library function
extremely hard, don’t trust a
https://www.osnews.com/story/144825/how-hard-is-it-to-open-a-file/
#PrivacySecurity

2026-04-24 20:13:54 GMT

AI as a fascist artifact
In that reading „AI“ is a machine for the creation of epistemic injustice and the replacement of truth with what a tech elite wants it to be in order to control the population. This is a Fascist project that not so subtly aligns with Fascism’s totalitarian will to power and control as well as its reliance in replacing reasoning and debate with belief in power and the leader.
↫ Jür
https://www.osnews.com/story/144823/ai-as-a-fascist-artifact/
#Technofascism

2026-04-14 21:28:27 GMT

Microsoft isn’t removing Copilot from Windows 11, it’s just renaming it
A few weeks ago, Microsoft made some concrete promises about fixing and improving Windows, and among them was removing useless "AI" integrations. Applications like Notepad, Snipping Tool, and others would see their "AI" features removed. Well, it turns out Microsoft employs a very fringe defin
https://www.osnews.com/story/144793/microsoft-isnt-removing-copilot-from-windows-11-its-just-renaming-it/
#Windows

2026-04-13 12:19:24 GMT

Linux 7.0 released
Version 7.0 of the Linux kernel has been released, marking the arbitrary end of the 6.x series.
Significant changes in this release include the removal of the "experimental" status for Rust code, a new filtering mechanism for io_uring operations, a switch to lazy preemption by default in the CPU scheduler, support for time-slice extension, the nullfs filesystem, self-healing support for the XFS f
https://www.osnews.com/story/144785/linux-7-0-released/
#Linux

2026-04-05 13:59:08 GMT

Adobe secretly modifies your hosts file for the stupidest reason
If you're using Windows or macOS and have Adobe Creative Cloud installed, you may want to take a peek at your hosts file. It turns out Adobe adds a bunch of entries into the hosts file, for a very stupid reason.
I found that in my hosts file the other day too, and I investigated to find why they're doing
https://www.osnews.com/story/144737/adobe-secretly-modifies-your-hosts-file-for-the-stupidest-reason/
#ClownCar

2026-04-04 06:42:47 GMT

How Microsoft vaporized a trillion dollars
This is the first of a series of articles in which you will learn about what may be one of the silliest, most preventable, and most costly mishaps of the 21st century, where Microsoft all but lost OpenAI, its largest customer, and the trust of the US government.
↫ Axel Rietschin
It won't take long into this series of articles before you start won
https://www.osnews.com/story/144729/how-microsoft-vaporized-a-trillion-dollars/
#Microsoft

2026-03-25 21:07:38 GMT

The reports of age verification in Linux are greatly exaggerated, for now
Several US states, the country of Brazil, and I'm sure other places in the world have enacted or are planning to enact laws that would place the burden of age verification of users on the shoulders of operating system makers. The legal landscape is quite fragmented at this point, and there's n
https://www.osnews.com/story/144653/the-reports-of-age-verification-in-linux-are-greatly-exaggerated-for-now/
#Legal

2026-03-23 14:44:12 GMT

The OpenBSD init system and boot process
In recent weeks, systemd has both embraced slopcoding and laid the groundwork for age verification built right into systemd-based Linux distributions, there's definitely been an uptick in people talking about alternative init systems. If you want to gain understanding in a rather classic init system, OpenBSD's is a great place to start.
OpenBSD has a
https://www.osnews.com/story/144646/the-openbsd-init-system-and-boot-process/
#OpenBSD

2026-03-06 21:31:53 GMT

Haiku inches closer to next beta release
And when a Redox monthly progress report is here, Haiku's monthly report is never far behind (or vice versa, depending on the month). Haiku's February was definitely a busy month, but there's no major tentpole changes or new features, highlighting just how close Haiku is to a new regular beta release. The OpenBSD drivers have been synchronised wit upstream
https://www.osnews.com/story/144556/haiku-inches-closer-to-next-beta-release/
#Haiku

2026-03-05 19:19:39 GMT

DOS memory management
The memory management in DOS is simple, but that simplicity may be deceptive. There are several rather interesting pitfalls that programming documentation often does not mention.
↫ Michal Necasek at the OS/2 Museum
A must-read for people writing software for earlier DOS versions.
https://www.osnews.com/story/144545/dos-memory-management/
#RetroComputing

2026-03-03 23:38:33 GMT

Never bet against x86
Chips and Cheese has an excellent deep dive into Arm's latest core design, and I have thoughts.
Arm now has a core with enough performance to take on not only laptop, but also desktop use cases. They’ve also shown it’s possible to deliver that performance at a modest 4 GHz clock speed. Arm achieved that by executing well on the fundamentals throughout the core pipeline. X925’s branch pre
https://www.osnews.com/story/144527/never-bet-against-x86/
#Hardware

2026-03-02 20:17:47 GMT

Microsoft really doesn’t want you to use the name “Microslop”
Microsoft is pushing "AI" hard in Windows, Office, and in their other products, and it's earned them a cute new nickname: Microslop. It turns out the company really doesn't like it when you use this nickname, however, and its official Copilot Discord server - yes, there is an official one - has gone into a co
https://www.osnews.com/story/144518/microsoft-really-doesnt-want-you-to-use-the-name-microslop/
#Microsoft

2026-02-27 22:19:23 GMT

US lawmakers push for age verification at the operating system level
Encryption backdoors, social media bans for children, creepy age verification for applications - what will they think of next? The latest brilliant idea by US lawmakers sure is a hell of a doozy: legally mandated age verification in every single operating system.
Colorado's SB26-051, introduced
https://www.osnews.com/story/144501/us-lawmakers-push-for-age-verification-at-the-operating-system-level/
#ClownCar

2026-02-27 21:59:30 GMT

Jails for NetBSD
FreeBSD has its jails technology, and it seems NetBSD might be getting something similar soon.
Jails for NetBSD aims to bring lightweight, kernel-enforced isolation to NetBSD.
[...]
The system is intended to remain fully NetBSD-native. Isolation and policy enforcement are integrated into the kernel’s security framework rather than implemented in a separate runtime layer.
It does not aim to
https://www.osnews.com/story/144499/jails-for-netbsd/
#NetBSD

2026-02-26 22:35:11 GMT

“Linuxulator on FreeBSD feels like magic”
You may not be aware that FreeBSD has a pretty robust set of tools to run Linux binaries, unmodified.
The result? A fast, smooth, fully-featured remote development experience on FreeBSD running Linux binaries transparently via the Linuxulator.
It genuinely feels like magic.
More importantly, it’s a testament to how stable the Linux ABI itself
https://www.osnews.com/story/144492/linuxulator-on-freebsd-feels-like-magic/
#FreeBSD

2026-02-09 13:44:31 GMT

The Scriptovision Super Micro Script video titler is almost a home computer
Cameron Kaiser comes in with another amazing article, this time diving into a unique video titler from Canada, released in 1985.
The Super Micro Script was one of several such machines this company made over its lifetime, a stylish self-contained box capable of emitting a 32x16 sma
https://www.osnews.com/story/144364/the-scriptovision-super-micro-script-video-titler-is-almost-a-home-computer/
#Hardware

2026-02-05 21:52:42 GMT

Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was big tech’s “top priority”
I nominate this for the "Most Expected News Of The Decade" award.
Today, The Tech Oversight Project published a new report spotlighting newly unsealed documents in the 2026 social media addiction trials. The documents provide smoking-gun evidence that Meta, Google, Snap, and TikT
https://www.osnews.com/story/144340/unsealed-court-documents-show-teen-addiction-was-big-techs-top-priority/
#InTheNews

2026-02-03 21:47:18 GMT

Rust in the NetBSD kernel seems unlikely
Rust is everywhere, and it's no surprise it's also made its way into the lowest levels of certain operating systems and kernels, so it shouldn't be surprising that various operating system developers have to field questions and inquiries about Rust. NetBSD developer Benny Siegert wrote a blog post about this very subject, and in it, details why it's unlike
https://www.osnews.com/story/144326/rust-in-the-netbsd-kernel-seems-unlikely/
#NetBSD