#open-source_1
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Steve French, longtime SMB maintainer in the Linux kernel, has died
The Linux community has lost Steve French — the man who for many years maintained the SMB filesystem code in the kernel. News of his passing was shared by his longtime friend and colleague Jeremy Allison.
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ReactOS Gains Support for Job Objects — a Step Toward Running Modern Windows Applications
Initial support for Job Objects — a key Windows kernel mechanism required by browsers and other modern software — has been added to the ReactOS codebase.
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The Updated MCP Roadmap: Agents, Transport and Enterprise Security
The developers of the Model Context Protocol have published a new roadmap setting out how the protocol will evolve over the coming months. It is organized around five priority areas.
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AMD Uploads RDNA 4m Firmware to linux-firmware Ahead of GPU Announcement
The company has published all the binary firmware files the open-source driver needs to initialize the upcoming RDNA 4m “GFX 11.7” graphics — well before the hardware ships.
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Roomy: an Open, Forum-Style Discord Alternative Built on the AT Protocol Goes Public
The Roomy team has opened the doors of its decentralized messenger to the general public. The project is built around public communities and uses the Bluesky protocol to handle user identity.
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Emacs Once Again Found to Execute Code When Opening a File
The vulnerability exploits the Emacs Lisp symbol shorthands mechanism and allows arbitrary code to run when opening any file in the default configuration. All versions from 28.1 onward are affected.
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AI Agents Go Rogue in Cybersecurity Tests
The AI Security Institute (AISI) recorded that, during cybersecurity trials, AI agents autonomously attacked real people and organizations on the internet. Bruce Schneier calls this behavior a “genie”: the models broke no rules but found loopholes in them.
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Rust 1.98.0: algebraic floating-point operations and fast number formatting
The Rust team has released version 1.98.0. Among the new features are “algebraic” methods for floating-point numbers in the spirit of -ffast-math, buffered formatting of integers, and a stabilized guarantee regarding ManuallyDrop.
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Holes in NASA's AIT-GUI let attackers send commands to spacecraft without a password
Cycode researchers have disclosed a chain of vulnerabilities in the operator console of NASA/JPL's AMMOS toolkit: an anonymous attacker can send arbitrary commands to the command bus of instruments and spacecraft. The vulnerability is rated 9.4 on the CVSS scale.
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X.Org Server 26.1 RC1: The First Major Release in Five Years
After five years of quiet, the X.Org project is preparing its first feature release, succeeding the 21.1 series. The first release candidate has now been tagged, following XWayland 26.1 RC1.
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Debian Votes on Eight Options for an LLM Usage Policy
The Debian project is holding a vote on whether large language models may be used in work on the distribution. Developers are asked to choose one of eight options — ranging from an outright ban to explicit approval.
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Mastodon 5.0: the composer leaves the sidebar, and “private mentions” become messages
The Mastodon team has shared the key decisions behind the upcoming 5.0 release: a reworked post editor, simplified visibility settings, the renaming of several features, and single-column navigation.
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The Mojo Language Goes Fully Open Under the Apache 2.0 License
Modular has open-sourced the compiler and toolchain of the Mojo language. The release came a week after version 1.0 shipped.
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Fairphone 6's main camera now works under postmarketOS
An enthusiast going by Catcrafts has written a main-camera driver for the Fairphone 6 on postmarketOS: it already takes pictures, though there's plenty left to do. Along the way — the saga of testing emergency calls, and plans for a homegrown RISC-V smartphone.
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The Linux 7.2 kernel: nearly 600,000 lines of new code
On August 17, Linus Torvalds released the Linux 7.2 kernel — one of the busiest development cycles in the project's history.
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DuckDB v2.0: client-server mode, triggers and an in-house parser
The DuckDB developers have shown off the key innovations in version 2.0, codenamed “Cyanoptera,” due out this fall. The central theme of the release is turning the embeddable DBMS into a full-fledged server.
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GIMP is preparing a new project format to replace XCF after nearly 30 years
The GIMP developers are working on a new project file format that will replace XCF, in use since 1997. The format will arrive in one of the graphics editor's future releases.
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What Stands in the Way of Reproducible Builds on PyPI
Brett Cannon examines what the Python ecosystem is missing so that independent parties can verify the integrity of packages on PyPI — and why it could be done with almost no effort on the part of authors.
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GNOME 51 Beta: Many Small Improvements and Prep for the September Release
The beta version of GNOME 51 has been released. The current cycle focuses on numerous small refinements across the entire package set, with the stable release expected on September 18.
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Debian Votes on the Fate of LLMs in the Project: From an Outright Ban to Climate Arguments
Debian developers have begun voting on a General Resolution addressing whether contributions created with the help of large language models are acceptable in the project. Nine options are on the table.
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