03 Feb 2026
Hacker News
Xcode 26.3 unlocks the power of agentic coding
03 Feb 2026 6:04pm GMT
Slashdot
'Vibe Coding Kills Open Source'
Four economists across Central European University, Bielefeld University and the Kiel Institute have built a general equilibrium model of the open-source software ecosystem and concluded that vibe coding -- the increasingly common practice of letting AI agents select, assemble and modify packages on a developer's behalf -- erodes the very funding mechanism that keeps open-source projects alive. The core problem is a decoupling of usage from engagement. Tailwind CSS's npm downloads have climbed steadily, but its creator says documentation traffic is down about 40% since early 2023 and revenue has dropped close to 80%. Stack Overflow activity fell roughly 25% within six months of ChatGPT's launch. Open-source maintainers monetize through documentation visits, bug reports, and community interaction. AI agents skip all of that. The model finds that feedback loops once responsible for open source's explosive growth now run in reverse. Fewer maintainers can justify sharing code, variety shrinks, and average quality falls -- even as total usage rises. One proposed fix is a "Spotify for open source" model where AI platforms redistribute subscription revenue to maintainers based on package usage. Vibe-coded users need to contribute at least 84% of what direct users generate, or roughly 84% of all revenue must come from sources independent of how users access the software.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 Feb 2026 6:01pm GMT
Hacker News
I made 20 GDPR deletion requests. 12 were ignored
03 Feb 2026 5:48pm GMT
Deno Sandbox
03 Feb 2026 5:33pm GMT
Ars Technica
Upset at reports that he'd given up, Trump now wants $1B from Harvard
Hefty "fine" comes in wake of NY Times reporting of money-free settlement.
03 Feb 2026 5:08pm GMT
Slashdot
YouTube Kills Background Playback on Third-Party Mobile Browsers
YouTube has confirmed that it is blocking background playback -- the ability to keep a video's audio running after minimizing the browser or locking the screen -- for non-Premium users across third-party mobile browsers including Samsung Internet, Brave, Vivaldi and Microsoft Edge. Users began reporting the issue last week, noting that audio would cut out the moment they left the browser, sometimes after a brief "MediaOngoingActivity" notification flashed before media controls disappeared. A Google spokesperson told Android Authority that the platform "updated the experience to ensure consistency," calling background play a Premium-exclusive feature.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 Feb 2026 5:00pm GMT
PayPal's CEO Change Blindsided HP's Board
An anonymous reader shares a report: PayPal said on Tuesday it was booting its CEO and replacing him with its board chair Enrique Lores, sparing no ambiguity as to why: "The pace of change and execution was not in line with the Board's expectations," it said in a statement. One group that was blindsided was HP, where Lores was until Tuesday serving as CEO, according to people familiar with the matter. Lores' switchup sent them rushing to launch a search process, those people said. HP's board does have internal candidates which it's considering for the top job, according to a person familiar with the board's thinking. As chair of PayPal's board, Lores played a role in a process evaluating internal and external candidates. It was unclear when or if he recused himself from the final decision to name him as CEO. But HP's board was only made aware that Lores was taking the CEO role at PayPal in recent weeks, the people said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 Feb 2026 4:00pm GMT
Ars Technica
China bans all retractable car door handles, starting next year
The pop-out door handle ban starts in 2027 for new cars, 2029 for existing models.
03 Feb 2026 3:33pm GMT
Senior staff departing OpenAI as firm prioritizes ChatGPT development
Resources are redirected from long-term research toward improving the flagship chatbot.
03 Feb 2026 2:02pm GMT
02 Feb 2026
Linuxiac
Git 2.53 Released With New Maintenance Checks and Faster Diff Paths

Git 2.53 introduces maintenance "is-needed", expands repo tooling, and ships performance work in diff, packs, and object database internals.
02 Feb 2026 6:10pm GMT
Linux From Scratch Drops System V Init, Calls Decision Regrettable

Linux From Scratch reluctantly confirms a systemd-only future, ending System V init development due to mounting maintenance pressure and upstream changes.
02 Feb 2026 4:28pm GMT
Origami Linux Introduces an Immutable OS Built Around COSMIC

Origami Linux is a new experimental Fedora Atomic-based distribution using rpm-ostree and the COSMIC desktop.
02 Feb 2026 11:11am GMT