Phoronix·24wUbuntu Studio 26.04 May Modernize Its Desktop Layout
Ubuntu Studio is considering changing its default desktop layout for the upcoming 26.04 LTS release. Currently using KDE Plasma with a top panel (inherited from its previous Xfce setup), the distribution is polling its community to choose between a macOS-like layout with top panel and bottom dock, or a Windows-like layout with a single bottom panel. The change would only affect new installations, not upgrades.
Phoronix·32wGit Developers Talk About Potentially Releasing Git 3.0 By The End Of Next Year
Git developers are discussing plans to potentially release Git 3.0 by the end of next year. Recent conversations among the development team have centered around the timeline and scope for this major version release of the widely-used version control system.
Phoronix·34wLinus Torvalds Vents Over "Completely Crazy Rust Format Checking"
Linus Torvalds criticized Rust's automated formatting tool (rustfmt) for making poor decisions about code organization in the Linux kernel. He specifically objected to the tool's heuristics for formatting 'use' statements, arguing that its compressed format makes future maintenance and conflict resolution harder. Torvalds prefers multi-line formatting that allows clean, single-line additions of new imports, and questions whether the Rust style guide's 'small items' rule is appropriate for independent use directives.
Phoronix·21wUnexpected Surprise: Windows 11 Outperforming Linux On An Intel Arrow Lake H Laptop
Benchmark testing on a Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 with Intel Arrow Lake H processor reveals Windows 11 outperforming Ubuntu Linux in multiple workloads, contradicting years of consistent results showing Linux performance advantages. The unexpected findings persisted across different kernel versions and power management configurations, with Lenovo and Intel teams confirming the hardware is working as expected. This marks a potential shift in the traditional Windows vs. Linux performance landscape, though it's unclear if this is isolated to this specific laptop model or represents a broader trend with newer hardware.
Phoronix·29wHyprland 0.52 Released With New Features For This Wayland Compositor
Hyprland 0.52 has been released with several new features including a forceidle dispatcher, per-device rotation support for input devices, and a modal property for window rules. The development team has been focusing efforts on Hyprtoolkit, which will power future Hyprland GUI applications.
Phoronix·31wValkey 9.0 Released With Ability To Achieve One Billion Requests / Second
Valkey 9.0 has been released, marking a major milestone for the Linux Foundation-backed Redis fork. The new version introduces significant performance improvements, with the capability to handle up to one billion requests per second. This key-value database continues to evolve as a popular alternative in the data storage ecosystem.
Phoronix·1yUbuntu 25.04 vs. Windows 11 CPU Performance For The AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 Review
The AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 was tested for CPU performance on both Ubuntu 25.04 and Windows 11 using a Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. The comparison involved benchmarks of Zen 5(C) cores with configurations left at their defaults. The hardware included 32GB of LPDDR5-7500 memory and a 1TB Kioxia NVMe SSD.
Phoronix·28wThe Linux Kernel Looks To "Bite The Bullet" In Enabling Microsoft C Extensions
The Linux kernel is preparing to enable the -fms-extensions compiler flag in version 6.19, allowing Microsoft C extensions that permit anonymous tagged structs and unions. Two patches have been queued in kbuild-next after years of previous attempts. The change would enable cleaner code and potential stack space savings, with Linus Torvalds showing no opposition. The flag is supported by both GCC and LLVM/Clang compilers.
Phoronix·37wHyprland 0.51 Compositor Released With Reworked Gesture System, New Animations
Hyprland 0.51 introduces a completely reworked gesture system with enhanced flexibility and new 1:1 trackpad gestures supporting fingers, modifiers, and directions. The release includes per-device scroll factor configuration, new DPMS animations, fade effects for Wayland pop-ups, and fixes for Chromium and Firefox screensharing by defaulting to 8-bit color.
Phoronix·33wRust-Written Redox OS Enables Multi-Threading By Default
Redox OS, a Unix-like operating system written entirely in Rust, now enables multi-threaded support by default on x86-based systems. This milestone represents significant progress in the development of this memory-safe, microkernel-based OS that aims to bring modern systems programming practices to operating system design.
Phoronix·43wHyprland Wayland Compositor Launches Subscription Service For "Premium Desktop Experience"
Hyprland, a popular Wayland compositor for Linux, has launched Hyprperks, a paid subscription service offering premium features including member-only forum access, developer Q&A sessions, preconfigured dotfiles with one-click installation and updates, and direct support from the development team.
Phoronix·36wUbuntu 25.10's Rust Coreutils Transition Has Uncovered Performance Shortcomings
Ubuntu 25.10's transition from GNU Coreutils to Rust Coreutils has revealed several performance issues, with the Rust version being significantly slower in some cases. Notable problems include cksum being up to 17x slower for large files and sort command failing to complete for large single-line files. While some issues like base64 performance have been quickly resolved and even improved beyond GNU's performance, developers are actively working to address remaining performance gaps before the stable release.
Phoronix·25wNiri 25.11 Rust-Written Wayland Compositor Adds Alt-Tab Switcher, New Animations
Niri 25.11 introduces an Alt-Tab window switcher with live previews, new fullscreen animations, and true Wayland maximize handling. The scrollable-tiling compositor now supports per-output and per-workspace layout configurations, DisplayLink devices, custom output modes, and improved screen reader accessibility.
Phoronix·28wIntel Core Ultra 7 255H Linux CPU Performance Review
Comprehensive benchmark results for Intel's Core Ultra 7 255H processor (Arrow Lake H) running on Ubuntu Linux. The 16-core mobile processor features 6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, and 2 LPE cores with a maximum turbo frequency of 5.1GHz. Testing was conducted on a Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 in both default and performance modes, comparing performance against 25+ other Intel and AMD mobile processors across multiple generations. The processor supports up to 128GB DDR5-6400 memory and includes Intel Arc 140T graphics.
Phoronix·28wLinux Proposal Aims To Overcome Kernel Limitation Affecting Various Gaming Peripherals
Red Hat engineer proposes a patch to enable Linux kernel's HID subsystem to support multiple batteries per device, addressing current limitations affecting gaming headsets, graphics tablets, wireless earbuds, and multi-device receivers. The architectural change would eliminate the need for proprietary protocols and vendor-specific software while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing single-battery implementations.
Phoronix·35wUbuntu 25.10's Move To Rust Coreutils Is Causing Major Breakage For Some Executables
Ubuntu 25.10's transition to Rust-based coreutils is causing compatibility issues and benchmark failures with checksum errors reported on various executables, highlighting potential stability concerns with the new implementation.
Phoronix·32wPhosh 0.50 Released, GNOME App Aims To Help You Learn Assembly
Phosh 0.50 has been released alongside GNOME 49, bringing updates to the Wayland compositor designed for mobile devices. Additionally, a new GNOME application has been introduced to help developers learn assembly language programming.
Phoronix·25wRust-Written Redox OS Sees Initial Wayland Port
Redox OS, an open-source operating system written entirely in Rust, now has an initial Wayland port. The port includes the Smallvil Wayland compositor, the Smithay framework, and Wayland support for the GTK toolkit, marking a significant milestone in the project's display server capabilities.
Phoronix·32wValve Developer Contributes Open-Source Driver Fixes For 12 Year Old Hawaii GPUs
Valve's open-source Linux graphics team has contributed driver fixes for AMD's 12-year-old Hawaii GPU architecture. This continues their work on improving Linux GPU driver support for legacy hardware that original vendors no longer maintain, alongside recent achievements like enabling NVIDIA DLSS on the open-source NVK driver.
Phoronix·33wPython 3.14 Performance Looking Good In Benchmarks
Python 3.14 shows performance improvements compared to versions 3.12 and 3.13 in benchmark tests. The release includes performance enhancements, debugging improvements, and a new Zstd compression module. Benchmarks were conducted on an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D system running Ubuntu 25.10 with Linux 6.17, with all Python versions built from source in optimized mode using identical testing conditions.
Phoronix·42wLinux 6.17 Getting More Rusty With Many Rust Language Additions
Linux kernel 6.17 continues the trend of expanding Rust language support with new programming language abstractions and additions. This development represents the ongoing integration of Rust into kernel development, building on previous releases that have gradually introduced more Rust capabilities to the Linux ecosystem.
Phoronix·1yTorvalds Frustrated Over "Disgusting" Testing "Turd" DRM Code Landing In Linux 6.15
Linux creator Linus Torvalds expressed frustration over the inclusion of subpar 'hdrtest' code in the Linux 6.15 release. He criticized the code for slowing down builds, leaving unnecessary files, and creating conflicts in the build process. Torvalds suggested that such tests should be run separately and not affect the regular build procedure.
Phoronix·29wRust-Based Redox OS Gets Servo Web Engine Running - Sort Of
Redox OS achieved a milestone by getting the Servo web engine running, though with significant limitations including crashes when loading a second website and no keyboard input support. The project also ported utilities like htop and GoAccess, made progress on device daemon development, updated their Rust fork to version 1.90.x, and implemented features like keyboard layout configuration and RedoxFS partition resizing.