In 2024 the Python3.13release added an experimentaljust-in-time (JIT) compiler to optimize the way that CPython executes Pythoncode. Since then, work has proceeded on the JIT, albeit perhaps less formallythan some might like. In June, Python's steeringcouncil (SC) put out an announcementthat no new development on the JIT land (with the exception of bug and securityfixes) in Python's main branch, until it accepts a Python Enhancement Proposal (PEP)that would make the case for the JIT as a supported part of CPython. That hasled to the creation of PEP836 ("JIT Go Brrr: ThePath to a Supported JIT Compiler for CPython"), which is currently underdiscussion. As it stands, it seems likely that work on JIT will continue, butwhen that will happen is less certain.
Version155 of the Firefox web browser has been released. Notable changes include acount in the address bar of how many ad trackers Firefox has blocked, containerreordering, and ensuring that mailto: links are only opened by explicituser actions. There is also a change of the domain used for "captive portals"(such as the ones used to sign into hotel WiFI): Firefox now uses"firefox-portal-detection.com" instead of "detectportal.firefox.com", which mayrequire a change in network allow lists.The release also includes a number of changesthat may impact web developers, as well as a number of bug fixes and securityfixes.
The Netdev 0x1A conference washeld in Rome, Italy from July13 through July16. Conference organizerJamiHadiSalim has let us know that the videos and slides for all sessions are nowavailable. Topics include Linux QUIC, shared memory socket transport, eBPF-basedDDoS protection, and more.
By the time Linus Torvalds released7.3-rc1 and closed the merge window for this release, 15,267 non-mergechangesets had been pulled into the mainline repository. That is thesecond-highest commit count for an -rc1 release in the kernel's history;only the 6.7-rc1 release, which included nearly 3,000 commits of bcachefshistory, had more. About 13,000 of those commits entered the mainlineafter the first 7.3 merge-window summarywas written so, needless to say, there are a lot of changes to cover.
Linus has released 7.3-rc1 and closed themerge window for this release. "Nothing really stands out - except forthe fact that it's big. It's not the biggest rc1 we've ever had, but it'scertainly up there, at least in number of commits." He pulled 15,267commits during this merge window, making it the second busiest ever; only6.7 has exceeded it.
The results of theDebian general-resolution vote on the useof large language models have been posted; the winner is choice 5:Responsible Use of Generative AI.
Meven Car has written a pair of interesting blog posts (part1,part2). Thefirst post is largely about some of the recent new features and performance workthat have gone into the Dolphin filemanager 26.08 release, as well as the KIO framework. The second looks atthe performance improvements and benchmarks for previous, current, and upcomingreleases.
Thenull blockdriver (null_blk)is a small driver that is mostly useful for benchmarking block-layerimplementations. It accepts all requests and marks them complete as quickly aspossible, doing as little work as possible. In June2026, Andreas Hindborg shareda patch set implementing the same functionality in Rust, in order to showthat a simple block driver is now possible to write using the kernel'sRust APIs and to enable comparisons between the C and Rustimplementations.A minimal version of the "rnull" driver is already present in the mainlinekernel, but Hindborg's patch set brings it up to feature parity with the Cversion.
Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.2.2, 7.1.12, 6.18.48, 6.12.107, 6.6.155, 6.1.186,5.15.219, and 5.10.268 stable kernels.Each of these contains asingle fix for avulnerability (CVE-2026-80590)that allows marking IPv4 or IPv6 fragments as GSO,which can allow an unprivileged user to cause a kernel panic. This vulnerabilityhas been present since Linux2.6.27. Users are advised to upgrade.
Virtualization can increase CPU utilization by allowing a large number ofvirtual CPUs to share a smaller number of physical CPUs. The amount of CPUtime that is actually available does not change, though, so heavy activityon too many virtual CPUs can lead to contention and significant performanceloss. The steal governorpatch series from Shrikanth Hegde is an attempt to address that problemwith a mechanism that allows virtual machines to voluntarily reduce thenumber of virtual CPUs they use when contention is high.
Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.2.1, 7.1.11, 6.18.47, 6.12.106, 6.6.154, 6.1.185,5.15.218, and 5.10.267 stable kernels. Each of these hasimportant updates throughout the tree; users are advised to upgrade.
At FOSSY 2026, several people from theSoftware Freedom Conservancy (SFC),which organizes the conference, gave a presentation about an ongoingviolation of the Affero General PublicLicense version 3 (AGPLv3). Bradley Kuhn, Karen Sandler, and DenverGingerich spoke about different aspects of the violation, which is inregard to 3D-printer software from Bambu Lab, and what is beingdone to try to provide users with alternatives. One aspect that isparticularly interesting is that the circumvention that the company isemploying is precisely what the AGPL was written to prevent.
Remind is acommand-line calendar and alarm program, with an optional Tk-based graphicalinterface, for Linux and Unix-like operating systems. It has its own scriptinglanguage that allows users to create reminders that are difficult (if notimpossible) to specify in other calendaring programs. It is wholly unsuitable for use incorporate environments that require calendar sharing and exchanging meetinginvitations; however, it may be precisely the calendaring tool for users whoprefer the command line and fast, flexible tools that can help keep track ofmessy schedules.
VanillaOS 3, an immutable desktop Linux distribution, has been released. Notablechanges in this release include support for Arm64, introduction of a VanillaOSSDK,a rewrite of the Apx packagemanager using the new SDK, and much more. LWN covered VanillaOS2 in2024.
Practical quantum computers have been ten years away for the last severaldecades. Now, however, it's beginning to look as though they will bepossible in just a few years. Recentresearch with obfuscated results demonstrated much lower memory requirements to factorECDSA keys on a quantum computer, withwork by other researchers in the open more than halving memory use comparedto the state of the art in 2023.At the same time, computermanufacturers areboasting quantum processors that retain viable superpositions over longer periods.Given how slowly software updates filter out to stable systems, it's worthlooking at what configuration changes and protocol updates are needed to be safefrom quantum computers now.
Version 31.1 of the Emacs editor has been released. There is a long list ofchanges including the removal of the Emacs dumper, a new user Lispdirectory feature, a "Send to..." menu item in context-menu-mode, andmany other changes; see the NEWS file formore information. Mickey Petersen, author of Mastering Emacs, also hasa rundownof some of the quality-of-life features appearing in this release.
From Jeremy Allison we have thesad news of the passing of Steve French. He was the maintainer of thekernel's SMB filesystem code for many years, having only dropped thatrole due to health issues in the last week. "I've known Steve forover 20 years. He was a legend in the community, and a really goodfriend. He will be greatly missed. Farewell Steve." He will indeed be missed.
The open-source world has been struggling for a few years now to understandhow to approach large language models (LLMs) and the licensing applied tothem. What constitutes "freedom" with respect to a black box filled withnumerical weights? The process taken by the Open Source Initiative (OSI)in the development of its Open Source AIDefinition was controversial at best, as was its output. Now, theLinux Foundation's Mike Dolan has broughta new license to the OSI for approval. It is called the OpenMDW ("OpenModel, Data, and Weights"), and it aims to clarify licensing for thedistribution of LLMs and related materials, but consensus is proving hardto find for this license as well.
Quickshell is a toolkit forbuilding desktop components, such as toolbars or menus. It uses QML, which is a declarative languagefor designing GUI applications. Quickshell helps developers create graphical toolsfor common desktop use cases with a focus on ease of development. It offers aconvenient method for writing user interfaces and has been adopted by a numberof projects, such as caelestia-shell and DankMaterialShell, thatprovide desktop environments for minimal window managers like Sway and niri.
Version 26.08 ofthe KDEGearcollection of applications has been released. Notable changes in this releaseinclude improvements in the signingfeatures of Okular, improved file-groupingfeatures in the Dolphin filemanager, and a number of enhancements to the Kdenlive video editor. See the changelog fora full list of updates, enhancements, and bug fixes.
Version 6.1.0 of the RPM Package Manager has been released. Notablechanges include the ability to provide modifiers to RPM macros at definitiontime, improved build and verification error handling, support for signing fileswith PKCS11 tokens using rpmsign, as well asthe addition of several new man pages. The 6.1.0 release also debuts a new release modelinspired by the Linux kernel's.
As of this writing, 2,346 non-merge changesets have been pulled into themainline repository for the 7.3 kernel release. That, clearly, is a meredown payment on the flood that is to come. Even so, those early pullsbrought in some noteworthy changes, including (but not limited to) asignificant reworking of how group scheduling works on multiprocessorsystems.
Go 1.27, the most recent version ofthe Go programming language, has been releasedwith a number of new tools, the addition of support for the ML-DSA post-quantum algorithm,new JSON-processing packages, language updates, and more.
Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the7.1.9,6.18.45,6.12.104,6.6.152,6.1.183, 5.15.216, and 5.10.265 stable kernels. Each contains importantfixes throughout the tree; users are advised to upgrade.
The Debian Project is voting on the usageof large language models (LLMs) to make contributions to the project. The firstproposal, sent in late July by Matthias Geiger, would expressly forbid anycontributions to Debian that are created by or with the assistance of LLMs. Thatkicked off a firestorm of discussion and a flood of alternate proposals. Debiandevelopers are now voting oneight proposals in total that range from banning LLM-assisted contributionsto explicitly approving them, as well as the standard "none of the above" optionthat would leave Debian with no agreed policy.
Version0.11 of the Tubafediverse client has been released. Notable changes in this release includesupport for Mastodon collectionsand quotes,ability to create custom thumbnails for attachments, a new emoji picker, a buildfor Android, as well as many other enhancements.
At the outset of his PyCon US 2026talk, Trey Hunner said that his goal was for attendees to stop representingfilesystem paths as strings and to use pathlibinstead. That's kind of a tall order, at least for longtime Python users,since string-based paths have been pervasive-and mostly work. It is that"mostly" part that makes Hunner want to see things change, of course, so heset out to describe a lesser-known corner of the language and to try tochange some minds.
Version154.0 of the Firefox browser has been released. Changes includeextending local network access protections to WebSocket connections, moreflexible, per-site configuration of cookie and data clearing, and more.
The Linux kernel's user-space interface(AF_ALG) to the CryptoAPI has been linked to a number of recent high-profile security problems,including Copy Fail and successorvulnerabilities. It was deprecatedearlier this year. Eric Biggers, and other kernel developers,have been working to remove itfrom the kernel. With that in mind, the Fedora Project is planning torestrict use of AF_ALG in the next Fedora release in the hopes of nudgingremaining users of the API to prepare for its eventual removal.
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (.NET 8.0, 389-ds:1.4, bind, haproxy, kernel, kernel-rt, libXfont2, nghttp2, and unbound), Debian (calibre, expat, ironic, and linux-6.12), Fedora (coturn, linux-firmware, php-phpseclib, and sqlite), Red Hat (fence-agents, osbuild-composer, pam, resource-agents, and sg3_utils), SUSE (ffmpeg, jetty-minimal, open-iscsi, python, python313-h2, python313-pysaml2, redis, redis7, rsync, sccache, texlive, and wasm-bindgen), and Ubuntu (engrampa, linux-aws-7.0, and linux-azure-fde-5.15).
Linus Torvalds releasedthe 7.2 kernel on August17, after noting that the number of fixescoming in was still "bigger than I would have wished for". In fact,7.2 was one of the busiest development cycles in the kernel's history,adding nearly 600,000 lines of code. It's time to look at some statisticsto get a handle on how the kernel's development community is changing.
LWN.net