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Windows users have it easy. The XTU (Intel Extreme Tuning Utility) allows laptop users to undervolt their laptop processors. On Linux, you have to rely on either a good fan setup in your notebook, or on intel-undervolt , the unofficial undervolting project. It seems like Intel is considering to implement their own Kernel driver solution for undervolting Intel CPUs in laptops. See this Kernel mailing list:  https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20200907094843.1949-1-Jason@zx2c4.com/T/#u There is some discussion going on about the undocumented MSR and if it should be permitted to play around with it for the sake of cooler laptop CPUs. Most developers seem to agree that it would be indeed a good idea to implement CPU undervolting on the Kernel level. Intel needs to provide better documentation of their CPU features, including MSR. Since Intel has a huge team of open source developers on their payroll, the development of a new Intel undervolting solution for Linux users seems to be very likely ...

On October 18th, NetBSD 9.1 was released. A few of the highlights included in the latest NetBSD upgrade are listed below: Parallelized disk encryption with cgd(4) Added support for Xen 4.13 Added support for more hardware RNGs in the entropy subsystem Various reliability fixes and improvements for ZFS X11 improvements, default window manager switched to ctwm(1) Improved framebuffer console performance on amd64 Various instances of kernel memory corruption and information leakage were fixed Many other miscellaneous bug fixes, and additions to existing device drivers see the full changelog here NetBSD 9.1 was released on the same day as OpenBSD 6.8 , giving BSD users an interesting choice between two very stable operating systems based on a BSD Kernel. The last update before 9.1 was NetBSD 9.0 in February 2020. NetBSD is known to support dozens of different host machines and architectures. The following are probably the most no...

Linux 5.7 will probably soon become available as a stable release, until then the new 5.7-rc7 Kernel has been distributed to toy around with and reports bugs. The full message regarding Linux 5.7-rc7 can be found here: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=whan1CiRtcgBt-5SkW-ga_GeLH5+AO26RmK7vOA5yw9ng@mail.gmail.com/ The quoted part is about Linus Torvalds looking forward to getting more performance out of his rig, now sporting an AMD Threadripper 3970x instead of an Intel processor. In fact, the biggest excitement this week for me was just that I upgraded my main machine, and for the first time in about 15 years, my desktop isn't Intel-based. No, I didn't switch to ARM yet, but I'm now rocking an AMD Threadripper 3970x. My 'allmodconfig' test builds are now three times faster than they used to be, which doesn't matter so much right now during the calming down period, but I will most definitely notice the upgrade during the next merge window.

We try to cover mostly Linux news but since we love all open source projects , sometimes there are news and gossip not related to a specific Linux distribution. Recently, we reported on Hyperbola becoming a BSD , so the following ReactOS news fit right in here. The official changelog is bursting with cool additions, critical fixes, and loads of new hardware supported. Read the full changelog here , we'll only provide a preview with the best of the best features: Improved USB storage handling Fixed various boot problems (especially Live CD related) Lots of love for HP laptop hardware (also AMD SB600) Many BSOD issues have finally been closed Fixed hundreds of critical regressions Another impressive release, although the cynics among the open-source community might not see this. Download the updated ReactOS 0.4.13 ISO from SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/reactos/files/ReactOS/0.4.13/ BTW, the ReactOS project recently re-launched their website, now based o...

Although this blog has its focus on Linux operating systems, we don't want to exclude other excellent operating systems. NetBSD 9.0 has been released a few days ago , on Valentine's Day. The NetBSD project ("Of course it runs NetBSD") dates back to 1993 . Founded by Chris Demetriou, Theo de Raadt (going his own ways with OpenBSD later), Adam Glass and Charles M. Hannum, the NetBSD project has released 17 major versions of their operating system. NetBSD 9.0 includes: + support for AArch64 machines + enhanced hardware support for Armv7-A + upgraded GPU drivers on x86 (Linux 4.4 DRM/KMS) + new GPU drivers for Arm + support for hardware-accelerated virtualization via the NVMM hypervisor + loads of other improvements (see release notes) Installing NetBSD 9.0 is relatively easy and I found a short video that illustrates the process of installing NetBSD 9.0. NetBSD 9.1 was released in October, 2020.

MX Linux 19.1 is available now and, according to the release notes , is packed with useful software updates and loads of bugfixes. If you're already running MX Linux 19, there is no need to wipe your HD and start fresh. You should be able to update normally. The MX Linux 19.1 release contains all the goodies from both the Debian 10.3 (Buster) repositories and the MX repos. MX Linux 19.1 comes with: Xfce 4.14 Mesa 18.3.6 Kernel 4.19 The standard applications coming with the default MX installation: - GIMP 2.10.12 - Firefox 73.0 - VLC 3.0.8 - Clementine 1.3.1 - Thunderbird 68.4.0 - LibreOffice 6.1.5 (+ security fixes!) Not many users know this, but MX Linux provides not only 32-bit and 64-bit ISOs, but also the AHS (Advanced Hardware Support) ISO which ships with bleeding-edge software, including the 5.4 Kernel and Mesa 19.2.1. Read about AHS here . Get MX Linux here and have fun.

Firefox 73.0 was released yesterday as the new stable Firefox browser version used by millions of people around the globe. Whether it's to avoid yet another Google spyware product (like Chrome) or just because Firefox offers so much more flexibility through extensions, Firefox is still going strong. With the new update, Mozilla introduces several useful things that users might have missed before. One feature seems to be extremely useful for web developers: the console has become smarter, according to the Firefox devs. Console output can be styled pretty easily via options added to the console.log() function. The following is the example from the Mozilla blog: console.log('There has been a problem with your fetch operation: %c' + e.message, 'color: red; padding: 2px 2px 2px 20px; background: yellow 3px no-repeat url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAwAAAAMCAYAAABWdVznAAAACXBIWXMAAA 7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAApUlEQVQoz5WSwQ3DIBAE50wEEkWkABdBT+bhNqwoldBHJ...

Tesla uses multiple open source projects in its soft- and hardware. One of these examples is the adoption of Coreboot, adding to the Linux Kernel , LMMS, and lots of other software. The full self-driving (FSD) chip is made by Samsung, Tesla's partner in that area. The source code of the Github repository shows Coreboot references to a "Turbo TRAV" SoC and also a "Turbo Sentinel" which seem to be new iterations of motherboards. You can find the repo here . It's interesting to see that this company uses open source software extensively. And it's nice to know that Mr. Musk and his company pay respect to the developers of projects used in the electrical cars. Self-driving cars are the future, so it seems. We'll see how Linux and other open source projects like Coreboot improve the Tesla ecosystem in the years ahead. There a many open source alternatives out there, and we're sure that Tesla continues to implement solutions based on free soft...

In a recent post on the offical GIMP news blog, the dev team explained what they did in 2019 and what they're planning for the coming years, especially 2020. Most importantly, the development is still in progress. Some think that The GIMP is dead , or that the developers may have given up on their beloved GNU image manipulation program. Nothing could be further from the truth, and according to the post linked here , the 2.99.x series is going to be released soon. Some of the noteworthy changes in the past year: - edit and display pixels outside the canvas - transformation tools can be adjusted after zooming in or out - free select has become more dynamic and flexible - improved curves tool - 32-bit parametric brushes - Bucket Fill is smarter now with colorization (finally) - lots of performance improvements - GEGL enhancements - improved file support - and lots of other stuff explained in detail in the blog post But whatever is coming to The GIMP, the software has ...

If you haven't been a Linux user for a long time, you're probably on Ubuntu or any of the other "standard" Debian derivatives (Xubuntu, Kubuntu, or even Devuan). The standard kernel that ships with the LTS variants of Ubuntu operating systems is not optimized for performance but rather for compatibility. If you want to get more out of your hardware, it's recommended to install an optimized kernel for that purpose. There are several alternatives to the mainline kernel. The XanMod Kernel is one of these alternatives and relatively easy to install on your own Ubuntu / Debian machine. You can learn more about the XanMod Kernel here: https://xanmod.org The latest release by the XanMod developer team includes the following changes : - Preemptive Full Tickless Kernel at 500Hz w/ Tuned CPU Core Scheduler. - Tuned Multi-Queue Block Layer w/ Low-Latency BFQ I/O Scheduler. - Caching, Virtual Memory Manager and CPU Governor improvements. - RCU Boost for bett...

If you're born in the 90s or even earlier, you know about Mario Kart for the SNES or even N64. But do you know SuperTuxKart, the open source alternative to the popular racing game? It has come a long way since it was first created. Today, SuperTuxKart 1.1 was released with the following changes: * lots of UI improvements * brand-new arena called "Pumpkin Park" * mobile enhancements and even a iOS client available via Apple's testflight * emoji support * new "speedrunner mode" with story mode timer * lots of minor fixes and improvements You can read the full changelog here: https://github.com/supertuxkart/stk-code/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md You can download the game here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart/files/SuperTuxKart/1.1 Or (if you're using one of the popular Linux distributions), you can just install it via your software center or whatever it's called in your distro. If you're still on the fence about downlo...

Over at opensource.com I found a useful article outlining many open source alternatives for established software used by end users and professionals. Instead of focusing on just the typical comparisons (choice of office suite, operating system, etc.), the article goes deeper. There is a mention of alternatives to social media applications and networks, but also vegans can find something valuable in the article titled "10 open source software alternatives for the new year" Going forward in 2020, it's going to be interesting to see new open source technologies emerge.

The long-awaited reposurgeon tool is still not ready and although Maxim Kuvyrkov has developed an alternative set of scripts to go further with the project of converting GCC's code base from SVN to Git. See  https://medium.com/linux-gossip/gcc-aiming-to-switch-from-svn-to-git-over-the-holidays-c09a6ca7e55e  for details. A few weeks ago it was decided to put a stop to the discussions and pick one of the working solutions (apparently both versions indeed work, but often not as intended due to the SVN design differing from Git). Now, with the year almost over and the new one approaching hastily, there is still no consensus. The GCC mailing list can attest to this:  https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2019-12/msg00538.html

GNU nano is a replacement for the Pico text editor which was part of the Pine email suite from The University of Washington. According to the GNU nano FAQ , Richard Stallmann added nano to the offical GNU program catalogue in February 2001. And even eighteen years later, GNU nano still receives updates. Beginning in March 2019, the developers added more features, squashed more bugs, and cleaned up documentation, coming to a total of eight releases in this year alone. GNU nano 4.0 "Thy Rope of Sands" (March 2019) GNU nano 4.1 "Qué corchos será eso?" (April 2019) GNU nano 4.2 "Tax the rich, pay the teachers" (April 2019) GNU nano 4.3 "Musa Kart" (June 2019) GNU nano 4.4 "Hagelslag" (August 2019) GNU nano 4.5 "Košice" (October 2019) GNU nano 4.6 "And don't you eat that yellow snow" (November 2019) GNU nano 4.7 "Havikskruid" (December 2019) Giving releases the weirdest names is t...

As reported in multiple publications over the course of the last three weeks, the long-awaited conversion of the GCC code base from SVN to Git has been stalled several times now since it was since proposed years ago. The author of the reposurgeon tool said today that it is now feature-complete and that it should be possible to use it for a correct GCC conversion. The conversion itself is taking so long because the SVN base dates back to the late 80s and is full of stuff that cannot be "translated into Git slang" automagically. Another developer supplied patches to svn-git and maybe he didn't create the ultimate solution to the conversion problem, but he definitely turned the heat up for the developers in the reposurgeon team. A GCC SVN to Git conversion is unlikely to actually happen over the holidays, but maybe we'll get a nice new year's gift?

The FSF-approved Hyperbola Linux distribution is maintaining the "Milky Way" branch until 2022 but is considering to switch the kernel from Linux to BSD due to various reasons. The main reasons being: Linux DRM and other unfree approaches to kernel design (including HDCP) Linux rapidly depending on components that are not optional anymore (systemd, PulseAudio, etc.) It's going to be interesting to see how this experiment turns out. Hyperbola switching to a BSD kernel is quite the surprise. The HyperBK kernel was updated only hours ago. Read more about the kernel switch on the official Hyperbola website:  https://www.hyperbola.info/