Best of Linux — April 2026

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   Collections·6w

   Little Snitch is now available on Linux

   Objective Development has released a Linux version of Little Snitch, their popular macOS network monitor. The Linux port uses eBPF for kernel-level traffic interception and is written in Rust, with a web-based UI that also supports remote server monitoring. The tool is positioned as a privacy tool rather than a security tool due to eBPF limitations preventing deep packet inspection. It is partially open source — the eBPF kernel component and web UI are open source, while the rules and blocklist backend is closed source. Requires Linux kernel 6.12+ with BTF support, meaning Ubuntu 25.04 or newer in practice. Packages are available for x86-64, ARM64, and RISCV64.

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   Article

   Collections·4w

   Ubuntu 26.04 LTS: what changed since 22.04 and 24.04

   Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 'Resolute Raccoon' is the 11th long-term Ubuntu release, shipping with Linux kernel 7.0, GNOME 50, and a complete drop of Xorg — making Wayland the only supported desktop session. Key highlights include TPM-backed full-disk encryption now GA, sudo-rs and uutils coreutils replacing their GNU counterparts, Dracut replacing initramfs tooling, and five new default GNOME apps all written in Rust. NVIDIA CUDA and AMD ROCm are now installable directly via apt. The developer toolchain includes GCC 15.2, OpenJDK 25, Rust 1.93, Golang 1.26, and an official .NET snap. ARM64 gets an official desktop ISO. Direct upgrades from 24.04 LTS are delayed until the 26.04.1 point release in July 2026.

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   Article

   All Things Open·6w

   How Linux Mint gave five “obsolete” library PCs a second life

   Five Dell OptiPlex 9030 All-in-One PCs from 2015, deemed obsolete because they don't meet Windows 11 requirements, were given a second life by installing Linux Mint Cinnamon 22.3. The machines, featuring i5 CPUs, 8 GB RAM, 23-inch displays, and built-in wireless, now run smoothly with full access to modern browsers, web conferencing tools, and hundreds of open source applications. One unit has already been donated to a local historical society for research and remote learning. The project illustrates how open source software can extend hardware lifespan, reduce e-waste, and provide communities with capable, secure computing at no cost.

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   It's Foss·4w

   The Awesome New Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is Here

   Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 'Resolute Raccoon' has been released, powered by Linux kernel 7.0 with five years of standard support (extendable to 10 via Ubuntu Pro). Key highlights include GNOME 50 with exclusive Wayland support (X11 dropped from GDM), fractional scaling now stable, five new default apps (Ptyxis terminal, Loupe image viewer, Papers document viewer, Showtime video player, Resources system monitor), TPM-backed full disk encryption now generally available, post-quantum cryptography via OpenSSH 10.2, an official ARM64 desktop ISO, NTSYNC driver for better Wine/Proton gaming performance, and updated bundled apps including Firefox 149, LibreOffice 25.8, Thunderbird 140, and GIMP 3.0.

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   XDA Developers·4w

   Linux doesn't need the terminal anymore, and that's actually great

   Linux has matured to the point where the terminal is no longer a necessity for everyday use. Modern desktop environments like GNOME and KDE Plasma expose all common settings through GUIs, hardware compatibility has improved dramatically with plug-and-play support, and app management tools like Flatpak, Snap, and AppImage make installing software straightforward without any command-line knowledge. Even traditionally terminal-heavy tasks like package management on Arch Linux now have GUI frontends. The author argues this accessibility is a positive development, lowering the barrier to entry for new users without taking anything away from those who prefer the terminal.

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   Article

   omg! ubuntu!·5w

   Zorin OS 18.1 released, new Lite edition available

   Zorin OS 18.1 has been released, arriving six months after the original launch with 3.3 million downloads. Built on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, it brings improvements to Advanced Window Tiling (reordering layouts, edge snapping, foreground grouping), a tray icon toggle, and right-to-left script support for Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu users. LibreOffice 26.2 is preinstalled, and the Windows-to-Linux app suggestion database has grown by over 40% to cover 240+ apps. A new Lite edition based on Xfce 4.20 is also available, targeting older and lower-spec hardware, with a restyled file manager, fingerprint reader support, and a refreshed theme. Both editions are supported until at least April 2029.

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   Phoronix·5w

   Linus Torvalds Rejects Performance Fix "Hack" & Kconfig "Terrible Things" For Linux 7.1

   During the Linux 7.1 merge window, Linus Torvalds rejected two pull requests with characteristically blunt commentary. The first addressed a performance regression in the audit subsystem on high core count CPUs caused by excessive spinlock contention from repeated path_get/path_put calls. Torvalds called the proposed fix a 'hack' that exposed broken audit code assumptions to non-audit users, particularly around how pwd and root paths are treated differently. The submitter agreed and dropped the patches. The second rejection involved a new BOOTPARAM_RCU_STALL_PANIC Kconfig option for triggering kernel panics on RCU stalls. Torvalds forcefully rejected it, reiterating his long-standing position that Kconfig files should not be cluttered with options that can be handled via sysctl or boot parameters, as they represent the most visible interface for new kernel developers.

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   XDA Developers·6w

   I switched to Ghostty and discovered Linux terminals could actually be fun

   A personal account of switching from KDE's Konsole to Ghostty as a daily Linux terminal emulator. Ghostty stands out for its GPU-accelerated performance, keyboard-driven customization, built-in theme browser (ghostty +list-themes), and out-of-the-box support for nerd fonts and Unicode — all without needing plugins or external downloads.

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   omg! ubuntu!·6w

   Ghostty terminal is now available in the Ubuntu repos

   Ghostty, the fast open-source GPU-accelerated terminal emulator by Mitchell Hashimoto, is now available in the Ubuntu 26.04 LTS universe repository. Users can install it with a simple `apt install ghostty` or via App Center. Ghostty 1.3.0 is packaged (not the latest release) and sits in the universe section, meaning it gets security coverage via Ubuntu Pro but no official Canonical support. Key features include native GTK4/libadwaita UI on Linux, Wayland compatibility, tabs, splits, ligature support, Kitty graphics protocol for in-terminal image rendering, and text-file-based configuration. It's particularly appealing for developers who switch between macOS and Linux.

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    David Heinemeier Hansson·7w

    Panther Lake is the real deal

    Intel's Panther Lake chipset delivers impressive efficiency gains for Linux users. A 2026 Dell XPS 14 with Panther Lake achieves just 1.4W idle power draw running Omarchy, translating to 47+ hours theoretical battery life and ~16 hours in real-world mixed use — a massive improvement over the ~6 hours seen on AMD-powered Framework laptops. The new chips also feature strong integrated graphics capable of running triple-A games. Omarchy 3.5 ships with optimizations specifically for Panther Lake, developed with help from Dell and Intel engineers. The author also highlights that Panther Lake CPUs are manufactured in Arizona, reducing dependence on TSMC fabs near Taiwan.

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    David Heinemeier Hansson·5w

    The malleable computer

    AI is finally delivering on open source's original promise: letting anyone modify the software they run. Even non-programmers can now fork and customize local open-source apps with AI assistance. The author argues this is most powerful on Linux, where the entire OS — window managers, menu bars, notifications — is open to modification, unlike Windows or macOS. As AI models improve, the idea of a fixed, unchangeable computer may soon feel outdated.

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    It's Foss·5w

    A PHP Dev Just Solved a 20+ Year-Old KDE Plasma Problem No One Else Would

    A 20+ year-old KDE bug requesting per-screen virtual desktops has finally been resolved. The fix was implemented by Hynek Schlindenbuch, a PHP developer with minimal C++ experience and no prior KDE contributions. Each screen can now independently show a different virtual desktop in KWin, with the feature landing in the master branch and slated for Plasma 6.7. The implementation is Wayland-only, as X11's EWMH specification has no concept of multiple simultaneous active virtual desktops, and X11 support is being dropped in Plasma 6.8 anyway.

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    It's Foss·6w

    Even in 2026, Linux Is Still Adding Support for Sega Dreamcast’s GD-ROM from the '90s

    The Linux kernel is adding a patch to fix support for the GD-ROM driver used by Sega's Dreamcast console from 1999. This reflects Linux's long-standing tradition of supporting legacy and niche hardware driven by open source community enthusiasm. The post highlights how FOSS philosophy enables developers to maintain support for obscure hardware with minimal user demand, and touches on Linux's broader retro gaming ecosystem including RetroArch and RetroPie.

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    The Linux Cast·5w

    Is Linux Only for Developers?

    Linux is not just for developers — it's a viable platform for musicians, photo editors, video editors, and office workers. While Linux uses different applications than Windows or macOS (e.g., LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Word, GIMP/Krita instead of Photoshop, Kdenlive/DaVinci Resolve instead of Premiere), these alternatives allow non-developers to get real work done. The command line is also not a barrier, as most tasks can be accomplished through graphical interfaces.

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    Chris Titus Tech·5w

    Sorry Windows 10 Users...

    A sysadmin with 25 years of experience revisits his earlier warnings about Windows 10 end-of-life security risks. After attempting to exploit an unpatched Windows 10 1607 instance using Metasploit and the EternalBlue/DoublePulsar exploit, he found it surprisingly difficult — largely because a secure, business-grade network with deep packet inspection blocked the attacks even when the OS firewall was disabled. He softens his previous stance: while updating is still recommended, unpatched Windows 10 is not as immediately exploitable as commonly feared, especially on a secure network. He recommends Windows 10 LTSC for legacy use cases and encourages users who dislike Windows 11 to consider switching to Linux.

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    Grafana Labs·7w

    Observability in Go: Where to start and what matters most

    Engineers from Grafana Labs and Isovalent discuss practical observability strategies for Go systems. The conversation covers starting with logs and deriving metrics from them (e.g., counting panics), when to reach for distributed tracing and how context propagation works, Go's error handling tradeoffs for observability, effective use of pprof for CPU and memory profiling (including common pitfalls like profiling when the bottleneck is actually I/O wait), and how eBPF enables visibility into kernel-level behavior beyond what user-space instrumentation can provide.

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    Article

    Collections·7w

    Wayland Protocols 1.48 adds session management after six years

    Wayland Protocols 1.48 has been released, with the headline feature being xdg-session-management — a protocol that allows desktop environments and applications to save and restore window states, positions, and sizes across restarts or crashes. The pull request was first opened in February 2020 and took six years to merge. This closes a long-standing gap between Wayland and X11, where session restoration had been available for decades. KDE's KWin already has an early implementation. The release also includes text input protocol updates, and three experimental protocols (xx-cutouts for display notches, xx-zones for advanced windowing, and xx-keyboard-filter for intercepting keyboard events) marked with the xx- prefix to indicate instability.

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    selfh.st·6w

    Self-Host Weekly (27 March 2026)

    A weekly self-hosting newsletter covering GitHub Copilot's new AI training opt-out setting, OpenAI shutting down Sora and pivoting to coding tools, LibreOffice's response to donation banner complaints, a critical Dockhand security release, Booklore's discontinuation and emerging forks (Grimmory, BookLite), Plex mobile metadata editing, a Zoom privacy scandal, and a spotlight on Kaneo, a self-hosted project management tool. Also includes curated videos on WireGuard, Proxmox vs XCP-ng, and homebrew routers following the FCC ban on Chinese-made consumer routers.

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    XDA Developers·7w

    LibreOffice proved that paying for Microsoft 365 was my biggest mistake

    A freelancer shares their experience switching from Microsoft 365 to LibreOffice, finding it more capable than expected. Key highlights include responsive UI with consistent toolbars, solid .docx/.xlsx compatibility, powerful features like advanced styles, templates, and macro support, plus offline-first privacy benefits. The conclusion is that LibreOffice is a fully capable productivity suite that saves money without sacrificing workflow quality.

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    The Linux Cast·5w

    I Don't Care What Linux Kernel You Use

    A casual opinion piece arguing that Linux kernel versions don't matter for the vast majority of users. The author shares their personal experience trying a custom kernel and noticing no difference in gaming or boot times. They push back against the culture of bragging about running the latest kernel version, noting that bleeding-edge kernels can introduce instability. The only legitimate reason to run the latest kernel is for brand-new hardware support. The takeaway: stick with LTS or a reasonably modern kernel and don't stress about version numbers.

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    Collections·5w

    Rust 1.95 released: cfg_select! macro, if-let guards, and new stable APIs

    Rust 1.95.0 is now stable, introducing the built-in `cfg_select!` macro for compile-time conditional configuration (replacing the need for the external `cfg-if` crate), if-let guards in match expressions, and several newly stabilized APIs including atomic update methods, `MaybeUninit` array conversions, mutation helpers for `Vec`/`VecDeque`/`LinkedList`, `core::hint::cold_path`, and new `Layout` methods. Support for custom JSON target specs on stable has been removed. Cargo and Clippy also received updates, and the Linux kernel has been updated to support this release.

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    Hacker News·6w

    pgit: I Imported the Linux Kernel into PostgreSQL

    pgit, a Git-like CLI that stores repository history in PostgreSQL using delta compression, successfully imported the entire Linux kernel history: 1,428,882 commits, 24.4 million file versions, and 20 years of development in 2 hours on a Hetzner dedicated server. The resulting 6.6 GB PostgreSQL database (2.7 GB actual data) enables SQL queries across the full history in seconds. Analysis reveals: 38,506 unique authors with 25:1 contributor-to-committer ratio, 90% of commits touching 5 or fewer files, Intel i915 and Btrfs as the most tightly coupled subsystems, David S. Miller merging 7.9% of all commits, Intel leading corporate contributions, and quirky findings like 7 f-bombs in commit messages (from 2 people), 665 bug fixes pointing to the initial git import commit, and bcachefs taking 13 years to merge into mainline.

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    Nick Janetakis·4w

    Combine Tmux, btop and a GPU Monitoring Tool for System Monitoring — Nick Janetakis

    A short guide on creating a shell script that combines tmux, btop, and GPU monitoring tools (nvtop, amdgpu_top, nvidia-smi, or intel_gpu_top) into a unified system monitoring setup. The script detects available GPU tools, then programmatically creates or attaches to a tmux session with btop in one pane and the GPU tool in a split pane below. It also handles the case where the script is run from within an existing tmux session by opening a new window instead.

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    It's Foss·3w

    Linux is Getting a New Default Folder in Your Home Directory

    The xdg-user-dirs 0.20 release introduces a new standard 'Projects' directory in the Linux home folder, alongside the existing Documents, Pictures, Videos, and Downloads folders. This change, originally requested in 2014, aims to give users and applications a predictable location for project files such as code repositories and CAD designs. Beyond organization, it enables IDEs and build tools to default to a common workspace, simplifies Flatpak permission grants, and allows backup tools to treat Projects as a meaningful data category. GLib support is planned to let desktops and Flatpak apps take full advantage of the new directory.

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    Golang Weekly·4w

    Golang Weekly Issue 598: April 24, 2026

    Issue 598 of Golang Weekly covers several Go-focused articles: building a minimal container from scratch using Linux namespaces, a deep dive into the Go runtime's network poller (covering epoll/kqueue/IOCP and goroutine parking), a comparison of Go and Rust startup times, a production-grade Raft implementation designed to fail, and real-time goroutine tracing with eBPF.

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