fidzu : Operating Systems

The hottest and most promising operating system kernel in development, the GNU Hurd, has published another summary of its most recent quarter of development. Hurd has experimental support for 9pfs now, a work-in-progress port of OpenNTPD, the NTP daemon from OpenBSD, a port of Neovim, and a few more ports here and there. Diving deeper into the actual kernel itself, there's a major improvement to how the Hurd handles entries in /dev/: Mikhail Karpov added some checks for mmap in several places. He also worked on adding storeio to the bootstrap chain. This is actually quite interesting. Currently the Hurd sets device entries in /dev/ statically. For example, I am writing this qoth on a Hurd machine that is using two /dev/ entries for my filesystem: /dev/wd0s1 for swap and /dev/wd0s5 for my root filesystem. However, /dev/wd0s1 through /dev/wd0s16 exist on my computer! Once Mikhail's project is done, then the Hurd will dynamically populate SATA devices at boot time! No more need for static translators! ↫ The Hurd's quartely report The dhcpcd port we talked about earlier this year keeps improving too, which is quite important for future IPv6 support. Of course, there's way more to dive into, and reading about a bunch of people developing their own thing without any regard for or interest in the mainstream always feels a little bit like a cold glass of tonic - the best soft drink - in the depths of hell. Keep at it.

24 Jul 2026 10:44pm GMT

Given that Android phones have been around for nearly two decades now, there comes a time when Google has to end support for one of its older software versions. For a couple of years now, Google Play services has been supported on devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow or newer. That has changed over the past few weeks, with Google deciding to retire this software version after a nearly 11-year run. ↫ Chethan Rao at Android Authority At some point, an operating system version needs to be left behind - and I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to no longer support Google Play Services on an operating system version that's 11 years old. However, this is Android we're talking about, and devices running Android 6.0 were probably sold much more recently than 11 years ago, when the operating system version was new. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if devices running Android 6.0 are still being sold today. I doubt this is something that will affect many people who read OSNews, but there's bound to be edge cases - Android 6.0 devices silently doing their job that are now just a little less useful. I'm thinking of really cheap tablets that can still play video just fine, retro gaming handhelds that don't magically lose the ability to emulate SNES games, that sort of stuff. The numbers will be small, but if you happen to be among them, this can be a really annoying deprecation.

24 Jul 2026 10:22pm GMT

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 a result, core@ made the decision to implement a temporary freeze of the ports tree in order to implement some clean up efforts. The commit in question severed our ports tree mirroring to github.com due to their filesize hard limit of 100MB, and introduced a blob of questionable licensing into the repository history. ↫ Kyle Evans in freebsd-announce While FreeBSD's ports tree is not hosted by GitHub - it's merely mirrored there - the FreeBSD team believes the community values the GitHub mirror too much, and as such, steps had to be taken to fix this. Ports has not been compromised and users' systems do not appear to be at risk in any way due to this occurrence, which is good news. Curiously, the official announcement makes no mention of which 150MB file, exactly, was committed to ports, but it didn't take for people long to pinpoint the offending commit (screenshot). It turns out someone committed the entire github-copilot-cli Linux binary to ports, as part of the github-copilot-cli port. This FreeBSD port is effectively a way to easily install and run this tool on FreeBSD using Linuxulator, FreeBSD's Linux compatibility layer that allows you to run unmodified Linux binaries on FreeBSD. It's important to note this FreeBSD port is not actually a port of the Linux version of github-copilot-cli to FreeBSD; the FreeBSD "port" merely acts as a setup script to run the unmodified Linux binary using Linuxulator. It's not a "real" port because the tool isn't open source and its license doesn't allow for modifications. That's why the announcement specifically mentions "questionable licensing" - github-copilot-cli is licensed under some custom license specifically made for this tool, and is not open source. Anyway, for whatever reason, the maintainer of this FreeBSD port accidentally made a commit that added the actual, full 150MB Linux binary to FreeBSD ports. I'm assuming that under normal circumstances, building and installing the github-copilot-cli FreeBSD port would merely download the binary off GitHub and set Linuxulator up so that it could run it. Mistakes happen, and since there's clearly nothing malicious going on, there's not much to worry about. In fact, this may lead to new checks and balances to prevent this from happening in the future, which would be good news. The FreeBSD team is working on rolling back, fixing the issue, and investigating how this could have happened. Ports is still frozen at the time of writing, but I'm sure we'll have a more detailed account soon.

23 Jul 2026 8:33pm GMT

We all know the original Amiga was far ahead of its time, and the Amiga really doesn't need more retrospectives and glazing. However, that doesn't mean we don't want more Amiga retrospectives and glazing. I'm not sure I even saw an Amiga in person until 1987, but I knew just from reading about it that I wanted one. I wasn't able to make it happen until 1991, so I was pretty late to the game. But even in 1991, an Amiga felt like living in the future. I could load several programs and switch between them effortlessly, with the only limit being the amount of memory I had. I could connect to a BBS with a terminal program, start a download, then switch it to the background, fire up a word processor, and do my homework while the download was happening. In some cases, I could even fire up a game and play a game while a download happened in the background. I could download stuff while I played Civilization, which was pretty great. ↫ David L. Farquhar It's 2026, I have an incredibly powerful Linux gaming computer, but since I grew up on DOS and Windows, to this day, I still feel the need the close every other application before launching a game. I don't need to - modern operating systems handle such things just fine, mostly - but it's so ingrained in me it's hard to drop this habit. I wonder if people who grew up with more capable computers than whatever DOS nonsense I grew up with are less inclined to do things like this? Or did memory constraints act as an equaliser? Anyway, the linked article doesn't mention it, but the Amiga is still, somehow, going relatively strong for a platform that's supposed to be dead. Modern(-ish) hardware is getting a bit harder to come by, but AmigaOS 4 and especially MorphOS are still actively being developed, and even running them in virtual machines on x86 has become about as easy as it could be.

23 Jul 2026 11:33am GMT

This post is about the evolution of Futhark's type checker, motivated by a large refactoring I am about to merge. It is probably mostly of interest to other language designers, and contains some lessons I wish I had known when we first got started - although I am not particularly well-read in the type checking literature, so it's possible all of this is old hat. ↫ The Futhark Programming Language blog That's a clear introduction - you know what to expect.

23 Jul 2026 8:42am GMT

Honestly, it feels like only yesterday that System76, Linux OEM and the company behind pop!_OS, announced it was going to develop its own desktop environment, COSMIC. We're about seven months into the more general availability of COSMIC, and the company has put up a nice overview of the various improvements that have already made their way into the code since then. Of course, there's a ton of visual improvements have been made to COSMIC, as well as a slew of new features: improved search, a brand new system monitor, drag and drop for tabs throughout COSMIC, and much more. COSMIC's file manager and terminal have also seen a lot of work, with a ton of new small features and additions to bring them up to par with what people expect form a modern file manager and terminal emulator. There's a ton more listed in the article, so it serves as a nice "while you were away" if you've not been following development.

22 Jul 2026 6:56pm GMT

What happens when programmers get to vote on a complete ban on slopcoded software on their code platform? Members of Codeberg were asked to vote on a proposal to completely ban slopcoded projects from Codeberg, and in what should not be a surprising outcome to anyone not overcome with "AI" hysteria, the vast majority voted in favour of the complete ban: over 70% of Codeberg members voted to ban slopcoded projects entirely (358 in favour, 144 against, 14 abstentions). Of course, this is not a surprising outcome. Stripped down, programming is a form of artistic expression, and programming is no different than writing, painting, composing, or any other artistic endeavour. I think it's safe to say writers, painters, composers, and similar creatives are against "AI", so it's only natural programmers feel the same; poll after poll shows the overwhelming majority of respondents - usually well over 70-80% - are against "AI". The pro-"AI" accounts on OSNews often try to paint my anti-"AI" position as extremist, but in reality, I'm just voicing how 70-80% of people clearly state they feel. I have zero skin in this game, zero outside pressure to please any bosses to get that promotion, zero pressure to conform to avoid getting laid off, zero pressure to not contradict upper-management. I can speak freely, openly, and without fear of retaliation. And as Nikhil Suresh explains in his harrowing from-the-trenches article AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making, that's a massive asset. The vast majority of people - including your friends, family, and co-workers - really hate "AI". You can either accept this, or be left behind.

22 Jul 2026 6:41pm GMT

If you want to develop an application for AmigaOS 3.x but don't want to deal with real hardware, virtualisation and emulation are your friends. Apropos of nothing, I decided to set up an Amiga development environment. Since figuring things out wasn't straightforward, I wrote down instructions for Linux about how to compile the first program and run it in an emulator. Enjoy! ↫ Daniel Kochmański It's a great guide, easy to follow, and you'll be up and running quickly. The emulator the guide uses - AmiBerry, a fork of WinUAE - contains slopcode, so you may want to consider alternatives. This doesn't change much for the guide though, as whatever tasks you need to do outside and inside AmigaOS itself remain unchanged.

22 Jul 2026 12:36pm GMT

Drivers of cars from the Volkswagen Group using alternative Android versions like GrapheneOS, LineageOS, or /e/OS have been unable to use the VW app for some time. This means they can neither check their vehicle's remaining range from their phone, schedule service appointments, nor control charging and air conditioning. The car manufacturer has made changes to the app's backend that only allow devices with Google's pre-installed Play Services. When asked by heise online, VW stated that affected users should not expect a timely reopening. "However, they are looking into it." ↫ Andreas Floemer at Heise.de Clearly, this should be illegal. Then again, that has never stopped Volkswagen before.

22 Jul 2026 12:05pm GMT

Sam Altman seems to be making OpenAI way more non-profit than before: Even as the AI bubble becomes a mainstream talking point on Wall Street, tech companies continue to peddle the fantasy that AI is poised to become an almost magical money-maker. Case in point, OpenAI wants you to believe that by 2030, it'll be raking in $100 billion a year just from ads alone - even though it's currently struggling to reach just $1 billion. ↫ Joe Wilkins at Futurism The US tech giants fueling this "AI" bubble are trying to hide the true extent of their debt: Hidden debt at U.S. tech giants swelled eightfold in four years to an estimated $1.65 trillion as artificial intelligence investments ballooned, a Nikkei study shows, exceeding actual debt and making it tougher for investors to assess risk. The five companies' hidden debt, which does not appear on balance sheets, totaled $1.65 trillion in the most recent quarter, exceeding the roughly $1.35 trillion in debt reflected on their balance sheets. The data includes some estimates. ↫ Kohei Yamada at Nikkei Asia The bubble is expanding to comical proportions: The American stock market is booming, thanks to artificial intelligence. Tech giants are borrowing billions to acquire AI talent, purchase chips and hardware, and construct data centers. And market watchers are starting to get worried. They see financiers bulldozing giant piles of money to private AI start-ups with no realistic path to profitability, tech companies reliant on other tech companies for revenue growth, and non-tech businesses without a lot to show for their AI investments. The value of AI-linked firms has climbed $27 trillion in the past three years-an astonishing amount, equivalent to 36 percent of the value of the entire U.S. stock market today. Although future earnings could justify those valuations, as Dominic Wilson and Vickie Chang of Goldman Sachs argued in a note to clients, the profit expectations require Panglossian optimism. No less an authority than Sam Altman is arguing that we are in an AI bubble. The International Monetary Fund is citing it as a significant risk to financial stability and warning about what might happen when it bursts: diminished investment, tighter credit, reduced consumption, disrupted trade flows. ↫ Annie Lowrey at The Atlantic I'm not worried, though. I have it on good authority that "AI" increases productivity by 10x, so surely, none of the above is a problem. Any day now, we will be inundated with waves of brand new, high-quality, valuable software. Any day now, existing software will increase in quality by 10x, leading to a huge surge in software sales. Any day now, productivity in factories will increase rapidly thanks to "AI" freeing up workers' time, driving prices down 10x, leaving consumers with 10x more money to spend. Any day now, everyone will be able to produce the next Citizen Kane or write the next Anna Karenina, causing an explosion in magnificent, timeless art that will have historians of the future marvel at our civilisation's ingenuity and artistry. In the meantime, these companies can just ask their "AI" how to become profitable. Should be table-stakes for a 10x force multiplier. I'm not worried.

22 Jul 2026 12:01pm GMT

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 scan image seems to work almost everywhere. ↫ maurycyz.com Yes, you can abuse the mentioned feature to create a really odd type of video. Or animation? Well, it allows you to create something resembling a really low-resolution GIF. Useless, yes, but very novel.

20 Jul 2026 9:46pm GMT

The Verge reviewed the latest Surface Laptop, which only comes with 8GB of RAM at a higher price than the previous 16GB model, and they conclude that Windows isn't really usable on 8GB of RAM. Whether that's true or not I do not know - I would assume it depends a lot on your usage - but this quote from the review I found quite peculiar: I was on a Microsoft Teams call (using the app, not a browser) when the host streamed a brief video, which made the whole laptop hang for several seconds. At the time, I had about 10 Chrome tabs open across two desktops, alongside Slack and Signal - not an obscene level of multitasking. ↫ Antonio G. Di Benedetto at The Verge Excuse me, but that is actually an obscene level of multitasking because every single one of those "applications" is a complete Chrome browser. Just in the paragraph above, there's four individual complete Chrome browsers running, with little to no optimisation. Why would anyone be surprised this scenario strains a mere 8GB of RAM? This isn't merely a Windows problem; this is a programmers choosing suboptimal tooling × managers have no idea what they're doing problem. If Teams, Slack, and Signal had been proper, native applications instead of websites running in terrible frameworks, Windows 11 would have handled this scenario just fine.

20 Jul 2026 9:30pm GMT

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. ↫ Stefan Sperling Only the second implementation of WPA3 will be supported, which requires some explanation: WPA3 has a complicated history. There are two versions of WPA3. The initially standardized version suffered from side-channel leaks found by Mathy Vanhoef and dubbed "Dragonblood". A revised and fixed version has been standardized and is mandatory in the 6 GHz band as of Wifi 6e (11ax) and mandatory on all bands as of Wifi 7 (11be). ↫ Stefan Sperling Obviously, WPA3 is a very welcome addition to OpenBSD.

20 Jul 2026 9:06pm GMT

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.

19 Jul 2026 9:08pm GMT

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 any consent, because Silicon Valley inherently does not understand nor respect consent. Windows Update first installed LG extension and software component packages. Windows Reliability Monitor showed that LG Monitor App Installer appeared one minute later. The installation did not display a consent prompt or require the user to approve the download. Gamers Nexus tested the application across 32 consecutive system boots. It displayed a McAfee promotion during 31 of them. On the remaining boot, it promoted one of LG's own monitor utilities. The McAfee popup offered a 30-day trial that would convert into a paid subscription. ↫ WhyCry at VideoCardz Don't use Windows.

19 Jul 2026 8:47pm GMT

It was only a few weeks ago that we got a massively improved Alpha emulator, capable of running VMS, Windows 2000, and Tru64, including X11 support and a variety of other exciting features. Today, we've got another major emulation milestone (update: sadly, with "AI" support, so odds are this will fizzle out. Bummer!). The emulation space is going crazy, after my previous post on Windows booting on DEC Alpha es40 emulator, there is now another huge breakthrough in the emulation of other non-x86 CPU emulation. Yufeng Gao with help from gdwnldsKSC (the man behind the updated es40-fork) has released version 0.1 of his Intel Itanium (IA-64) emulator that boots the Itanium version of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP 64-bit. No OpenVMS or HP-UX yet and Linux/BSD also don't boot. But Windows is amazing already. ↫ Remy van Elst Much like Alpha hardware, Itanium hardware is quite hard to come by - especially Itanium workstations are a nightmare to find; I think I've only ever seen one or two Itanium workstation come up for sale on eBay in recent years, and their rarity obviously commanded hefty prices. The sooner we are able to run Itanium version of operating systems comfortably in a virtualised environment the better. As long-time OSNews readers know, my heart beats for HP-UX, but the Itanium versions of Windows and VMS would be of more interest to most people, I'm sure. Excellent news.

19 Jul 2026 7:54pm GMT