Earlier this year, we talked about a peculiar oddity concerning Flatpaks and Fedora: unlike just about any other distribution, Fedora maintains its own Flatpak repository, while everyone else just defaults to Flathub. While there’s a few technical differences between Fedora Flatpaks and Flathub Flatpaks, the main gist is that the Fedora ones are built using Fedora’s own RPMs, while Flathub’s are built using different means. This is an odd situation, since it does not reflect what users really want – users seem to greatly prefer Flatpaks from Flathub, since they have fewer bugs, are packaged by the applications’ creators, and bugs in Flathub Flatpaks can be reported to the actual developers, whereas bugs in Fedora Flatpaks generally cannot. As such, Fedora users are often surprised to learn that the Flatpak they installed came from Fedora instead of Flathub. Now, since Fedora’s long-term goal is to make their immutable, Flatpak-focused variants the default, this situation needs to be addressed. As such, Fedora and GNOME developer Michael Catanzaro has published an incredibly detailed article outlining all the issues and possible solutions and courses of action. The basic gist is that before Fedora can consider switching from its own Flatpak repository to Flathub, a number of shortcomings in Flathub must be addressed: Some of these points are fairly obvious, but let’s go over them anyway. A lot of binaries on Flathub are pre-built in that they are not built using Flathub’s infrastructure, and as such, you don’t know if anything has been done to the code between, say, the code’s release on GitHub and the Flatpak you install on your computer. This obviously needs to change, and ideally, all Flatpaks on Flathub should be reproducible. End-of-life runtimes should obviously also not be a thing, for entirely obvious reasons. Currently, a little under a third of applications on Flathub use end-of-life runtimes, meaning the runtimes they use are not receiving any security updates. The same applies to external dependencies packaged inside Flatpaks; they can be outdated too, but many Flatpaks do not use the designated tool to deal with this issue. Obviously, holes in the Flatpak sandbox should not exist either, again for entirely obvious reasons. Catanzaro proposes a number of solutions to all of these problems, which require work from both Fedora and Flathub to be implemented. On top of that, even once these issues are satisfactorily addressed, there’s a debate to be had over the exact way in which both the traditional and immutable variants of Fedora move on over to Flathub – the variant I personally like the most is where the core applications installed by default remain in control of Fedora, while everything else gets installed from Flathub. Of course, this is not of much relevance to people who prefer plain, traditional RPMs – such as myself – to whom Flatpaks are more of a “if all else fails” option than a default. While the immutable, Flatpak-based variants of Fedora are definitely on their way to become the default option, the traditional RPM variants will not be going anywhere, and will remain an option as well. I think defaulting new users to the immutable variants is the way to go, even if I personally won’t be using them.
Microsoft wants to know why, exactly, Windows 11 is slow, so it’s adding a feature in the latest Insider Preview to collect data when a Windows 11 machine is experiencing slowness or sluggishness. As part of our commitment to improving Windows performance, logs are now collected when your PC has experienced any slow or sluggish performance. Windows Insiders are encouraged to provide feedback when experiencing PC issues related to slow or sluggish performance, allowing Feedback Hub to automatically collect these logs, which will help us root cause issues faster. Use the Desktop > System Sluggishness category when filing feedback to allow Feedback Hub to automatically pick up these logs. These logs are stored locally (%systemRoot%\Temp\DiagOutputDir\Whesvc folder) and only sent to Microsoft via Feedback Hub when feedback is submitted. ↫ Amanda Langowski and Brandon LeBlanc In case you want to solve performance problems with Windows 11, just go here and follow the steps, and your computer will be spry as a Spring chicken in a few minutes. I am very funny.
Is KDE too much for you? GNOME tries to do too much? Xfce still a bit too fancy? Do you need something smaller? Even more minimalist? What about a mere 20 lines of code which provide the absolute barest possible minimum of window management functionality? You need mwm. This is the smallest, actually usable window manager I know about. Even TinyWM is twice as large. However, it doesn’t let you launch programs, or assign key bindings. mwm does. ↫ Mwm’s GitHub page It will open a window, and let you switch between windows, that are always fullscreen. No titlebars, no virtual desktops, no menus, no nothing. This is the true minimalist’s experience.
The Document Foundation, which developers LibreOffice, is mad at Microsoft for the levels of complexity in the Microsoft 365 document format. They claim Microsoft intentionally makes this format’s XML schema as complex and obtuse as possible to lock users into the Microsoft Office ecosystem. This artificial complexity is characterised by a deeply nested tag structure with excessive abstraction, dozens or even hundreds of optional or overloaded elements, non-intuitive naming conventions, the widespread use of extension points and wildcards, the multiple import of namespaces and type hierarchies, and sparse or cryptic documentation. In the case of the Microsoft 365 document format, the only characteristic not present is sparse or cryptic documentation, given that we are talking about a set of documents totalling over 8,000 pages. All the other characteristics are present to a greater or lesser extent, making life almost impossible for a developer trying to implement the schema. ↫ Italo Vignoli I feel like this was widely known already, since I distinctly remember the discussions around the standardisation process for the Office Open XML file formats. Then, too, it was claimed that Microsoft’s then-new XML file formats were far more complex and obtuse than the existing, already standardised OpenDocument file formats, and that there was no need to push Microsoft’s new file formats through the process. These days, you might wonder how relevant all of this still is, but considering vast swaths of the private, corporate, government, and academic world still run on Microsoft Office and its default file formats, it’s definitely still a hugely relevant matter. As an office suite, you are basically required to support Office Open XML, and if Microsoft is making that more complex and obtuse on purpose, that’s a form of monopoly abuse that should be addressed.
The year before his death in 1994, Gary Kildall—inventor of the early microcomputer operating system CP/M—wrote a draft of a memoir, “Computer Connections: People, Places, and Events in the Evolution of the Personal Computer Industry.” He distributed copies to family and friends, but died before realizing his plans to release it as a book. This week, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, with the permission of Kildall’s children, released the first portion of that memoir. You can download it here. ↫ Tekla S. Perry at IEEE Spectrum Invaluable writing, and I’m so glad it’s getting published.
Introduction It is very important to update your iPhone or iPad if you want to improve performance and security and get new features. However, it is also typical that the iOS update fails. Poor network, little storage, or various bugs are usually the reasons that the update gets interrupted. Most problems can be prevented with some proper preparation. In this guide, we’ll cover why iPhone software update failed error appears, how to prevent them, the best installation methods, and what to do if errors occur — including how Dr.Fone iOS System Repair can quickly fix failed updates without data loss. Why iOS updates fail iOS updates can fail due to numerous reasons. These failures are, in most cases, linked to device or network issues. A few of the most common causes are: Pre-update checklist to avoid failures A few simple preparations can go a long way to prevent an iOS update failure. Before you start, keep in mind that you should have already checked each of these: Recommended installation methods In essence, there are two dependable means to carry out iOS updates, and leveraging the right one would be as simple as a walk in the park: What to do if an iOS update fails Sometimes, even a well-anticipated iOS update can fail without obvious reasons. The cause might be hidden bugs or unexpected issues. When you encounter problems, keep calm and try these solutions: Fixing Update Failures with Dr.Fone iOS System Repair Why Use Dr.Fone iOS System Repair If simple troubleshooting has failed to resolve your iOS update issues, an iOS system repair tool specially made for the purpose can come to your aid. Dr.Fone – iOS System Repair by Wondershare is a product that can resolve over 150 iOS issues, such as failure of updates, continuous restarting, black screen, or a stuck device in Recovery Mode. Why use Dr.Fone iOS System Repair How to fix iOS update failures with Dr.Fone iOS System Repair By using Dr.Fone, here are the steps you should take to fix failed updates and to repair your iPhone or iPad: Step 1: Launch Dr.Fone and connect your device Get Wondershare Dr.Fone opened on your computer after downloading it. In the main dashboard, move to the Toolbox, and select System Repair. Step 2: Select iOS repair mode Pick your device kind (iPhone/iPad) and go along to iOS Repair. You may want to consider Standard/Advanced Repair to solve almost all issues without data loss. Step 3: Activate Recovery Mode By following the directions on the screen, you will turn your iPhone or iPad into Recovery Mode (or DFU Mode if it is necessary). Step 4: Obtain iOS firmware The software will find the right firmware automatically for your device. By clicking on Download, you will take the latest iOS package. After the download is done, Dr.Fone will double-check the firmware to ensure it’s safe and compatible. Step 5: Fix and device reboot Click on Repair Now, so the process of trouble-shooting your device starts. A progress bar will present the installation’s time. Tips to avoid future update failures Conclusion In fact, iOS updates are a must in order to keep the device running smoothly, be safe, and enjoy the new features, but a malfunction can still happen and be quite irritating. Most problems can be prevented if you ‘prepare’ by properly verifying your internet, storage, and battery. If the update is still stuck, some simple methods such as rebooting and switching the network, usually give results and more complex tools like Dr.Fone iOS System Repair are very effective in solving the hard ones without losing the data.
“Why is my burger blue?” I asked, innocently. “Oh! We’re making all of our food blue, all the best restaurants are doing it now.” the waiter explained. But I didn’t want my burger to be blue. ↫ Luna Winters “Blue” food isn’t food.
In this blog post, I have described how I have been using Linux on my Amiga 4000. I hope this information can be of use to anyone who is planning to run Linux on their Amigas. Furthermore, I hope that the existing documentation on the Linux/m68k homepage gets updated at some point. May be the information in this blog post can help with that. Debian 3.1 works decently for me, but everything is much slower compared to a PC. This is not really surprising if you run an operating system (last updated in 2008) on a CPU from the early 90s that still runs at a 25 MHz clock speed :). ↫ Sander van der Burg The blog post in question is from January of this year, but as soon as I saw it I knew I had to post it here. It’s an incredibly intricate and detailed guide to running Linux on a 25Mhz Amiga 4000, including X11, networking, internet access, file sharing, and so, so much more – up to running Linux for Amiga inside FS-UAE. There’s so much love and dedication in this detailed guide, and I love it. In fact, Van den Burg has a similar article about running NetBSD on the Amiga 4000, with the same level of detail, dedication, and information density. A fun note is that while X11 for Linux on the Amiga can’t seem to make use of the Amiga chipset, the X Window System on NetBSD does make us of it. I’m not surprised. Articles like these are useful only for a very small number of people, but having this amount of knowledge concentrated like this will prove invaluable like five years from now when someone else finds an Amiga 4000 in their attic or at a yard sale, and choose to go down this same path. We need more of these kinds of write-ups.
ISO 27001 is like that careful lawyer who never says exactly what they mean – it tells you what needs to be achieved, not how to do it. When it comes to logging, this is particularly telling: Control A.12.4.2 simply states that “logging information and logging facilities shall be protected against tampering and unauthorized access.” Period. How? That’s your problem to solve. ↫ Rafael Sadowski It turns out OpenBSD has a few relatively simple tools to make logs immutable, in a way that not even root can delete or modify them, or change any of the logging schedules. Reading through the blog post, you don’t even need a ton of intricate knowledge to set this up, thanks mostly to just how much innate sense OpenBSD tends to make, and how excellent the documentation is. I have no need for this level of security, but if you do, you can set this up in a few minutes.
With both Exchange 2016 and 2019 going out of support in October 2025, we have heard from some of our customers that they have started their migrations to Exchange Subscription Edition (SE) but might need a few extra months of Security Updates (SU) for their Exchange 2016 / 2019 servers while they are finalizing their migrations. We are announcing that we now have a solution for such customers. Starting on August 1st, 2025, customers can contact their Microsoft account team to get information about and purchase an additional 6-month Extended Security Update (ESU) for their Exchange 2016 / 2019 servers. Your account teams will have information related to per server cost and additional details on how to purchase and receive ESUs, starting August 1st, 2025. ↫ The Exchange Team blog Microsoft is clearly in a place where a lot of their software released over the past ten years or so just kind of works, and people just don’t feel as strong of a need to upgrade to newer versions, especially not if those newer versions come with complex subscriptions. It must be a strange position to be in for Microsoft.
Do you have a Windows XP retro virtual machine or, god forbid, run Windows XP on your primary machine? You’re going to need a sort-of up-to-date browser, and it turns out Mypal68 offers just that. Terrible name aside, it’s Firefox 68 ported to and maintained to run on Windows XP SP3; SP2 and lower are not supported, but some people do seem to have some success getting it to run on those. There are issues, of course: there’s a 1.5GB memory limit, and the browser will crash when it reaches that limit, and 64bit builds simpy don’t work at all, so there’s only a 32bit build. Version 74.1.0 was released a few days ago, but that version number doesn’t actually mean the browser is now based on Firefox 74; they had to change the reported version number for extension compatibility. I’m currently setting up a dedicated Proxmox PC for retro virtual machines, and Windows XP will obviously be one of them. I’m definitely going to try this out.
When it comes to open hardware, choices are not exactly abundant. Truly open source hardware – open down to the firmware level of individual components – that also has acceptable performance is rare, with one of the few options being the Talos II and Blackbird POWER9 workstations from Raptor Computing Systems (which I reviewed). Another option that can be fully open source with the right configuration are the laptops made by MNT, which use the ARM architecture (which I also reviewed). Both of these are excellent options, but they do come with downsides; the Talos II/Blackbird are expensive and getting a bit long in the tooth (and a possible replacement is at least a year away), and the MNT Reform and Pocket Reform simply aren’t for everyone due to their unique and opinionated design. Using an architecture other than x86 also simply isn’t an option for a lot of people, ruling out POWER9 and ARM hardware entirely. In the x86 world, it’s effectively impossible to avoid proprietary firmware blobs, but there are companies out there trying to build x86 laptops that try to at least minimise the reliance on such unwelcome blobs. One of these companies is NovaCustom, a Dutch laptop (and now desktop!) OEM that sells x86 computers that come with Dasharo open firmware (based on coreboot) and a strong focus on privacy, open source, customisability, and repairability. NovaCustom sent over a fully configured NovaCustom V54 laptop, so let’s dive into what it’s like to configure and use an x86 laptop with Dasharo open firmware and a ton of unique customisation options. Hardware configuration I opted for the 14″ laptop model, the V54, since the 16″ V65 is just too large for my taste. NovaCustom offers a choice between a 1920×1200 60Hz and a 2880×1800 120Hz panel, and I unsurprisingly chose the latter. This higher-DPI panel strikes a perfect balance between having a 4K panel, which takes a lot more processing power to drive, and a basic 1080p panel, which I find unacceptable on anything larger than 9″ or so. The refresh rate of 120Hz is also a must on any modern display, as anything lower looks choppy to my eyes (I’m used to 1440p/280Hz on my gaming PC, and 4K/160Hz on my workstation – I’m spoiled). The display also gets plenty bright, but disappointingly, the V54 does not offer a touch option. I don’t miss it, but I know it’s a popular feature, so be advised. While the V54 can be equipped with a dedicated mobile RTX 4060 or 4070 GPU, I have no need for such graphical power in a laptop, so I stuck with the integrated Intel Arc GPU. Note that if you do go for the dedicated GPU, you’ll lose the second M.2 slot, and the laptop will gain some weight and thickness. I did opt for the more powerful CPU option with the Intel Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, which packs 6 performance cores (with hyperthreading), 8 efficiency cores, and 2 low-power cores, for a total of 16 cores and 22 threads maxing out at 4.8Ghz. Unless you intend to do GPU-intensive work, this combination is stupid fast and ridiculously powerful. Throw in the 32GB of DDR5 5600MHz RAM in a dual-channel configuration (2×16, replaceable) and a speedy 7.400 MB/s (read)/6.500 MB/s (write) 1TB SSD, and I sometimes feel like this is the sort of opulence Marie Antoinette would indulge herself in if she were alive today. It won’t surprise you to learn that with this configuration, you won’t be experiencing any slowdowns, stuttering, or other performance issues. Ports-wise, the V54 has a USB-C port (3.2 Gen 2), a Thunderbolt 4 port (with Display Alt Mode supporting DP 2.1), a USB-A port (3.2 Gen 2) and a barrel power jack on the right side, a combo audio jack, USB-A port (3.2 Gen 1), microSD card slot, and a Kensington lock on the left, and an Ethernet and HDMI port on the back. Especially the Ethernet port is such a welcome affordance in this day and age, and we’ll get back to it since we need it for Dasharo. The trackpad is large, smooth, and pleasant to use – for a diving board type trackpad, that is. More and more manufacturers are adopting the Apple-style haptic trackpads, which I greatly prefer, but I suspect there might be some patent and IP shenanigans going on that explain why uptake of those in the PC space hasn’t exactly been universal. If you’re coming from a diving board trackpad, you’ll love this one. If you’re coming from a haptic trackpad, it’s a bit of a step down. A standout on the V54 is the keyboard. The keys are perfectly spaced, have excellent travel, a satisfying, silent click, and they are very stable. It’s an absolute joy to type on, and about as good as a laptop keyboard can be. On top of that, at least when you opt for the US-international keyboard layout like I do, you get a keyboard that actually properly lists the variety of special characters on its keys. This may look chaotic and messy to people who don’t need to use those special characters, but as someone who does, this is such a breath of fresh air compared to all those modern, minimalist keyboards where you end up randomly mashing key combinations to find that one special character you need. Considering my native Dutch uses diacritics, and my wife’s native Swedish uses the extra letters å, ä, and ö (they’re letters!), this is such a great touch. The keyboard also has an additional layer for a numeric pad, as well as the usual set of function keys you need on a modern laptop, including a key that will max out the fan speed in case you need it (the little fan glyph on my keyboard seems double-printed, though, which is a small demerit). I especially like the angry moon glyph on the sleep key. He’s my grumpy friend and I love him. Of course, the
Did you know KDE has a television-focused user interface? It’s been languishing for a while now, but a recent week-long effort by KDE developer Devin has brought a lot of new life into the project. I have been a long time Plasma Mobile contributor, but I have always had a keen interest in having Linux on my TV! I have noticed that in the past few months, the Plasma Bigscreen project has had some interest from people wanting to contribute, but there have not been any active KDE developers working on the project. Since I have some time off school (having just graduated university), I decided to take a swing at improving the project for a week. ↫ Devin, KDE developer It turned out to be one hell of a productive week, because the list of improvements achieved in that one week is kind of amazing. Lots of overhauls of the visual design, a new search view, complete redesign of the settings panels, and a lot more. The idea of running a KDE Plasma-based interface on my TVs sounds incredibly appealing, and I hope the project can make even more progress.
Haiku also survived another month of development, so it’s time for another roundup of what they’ve been doing. Considering it’s the height of Summer, it’s no surprise the list of changes is a bit shorter, consisting mostly of smaller bugfixes and minor improvements. A few standout changes are that cursors can now be properly scaled in HiDPI, the iprowifi3945 driver from FreeBSD has been replaced by the OpenBSD one because it performs better, and several improvements to how colour schemes work. waddlesplash refactored how control edge (borders, etc.) colors are computed inside HaikuControlLook (the class that renders UI controls under the default appearance), cleaning up a lot of convoluted computations. He also fixed some color handling in the progress bar control, and then along with nephele, refactored how control colors are used and computed across the system. The “Control background” color in Appearance preferences now has a new default and is much more properly used across the Interface Kit; under the default colors, renderings should be basically the same as before, but for users on “dark mode” or other custom color schemes, it will now be much easier to pick control colors. ↫ waddlesplash on the Haiku website There’s more, of course, so be sure to read the whole thing.
Late last year, Mishaal Rahman reported that Google was going to merge ChromeOS and Android, and it seems Google itself has now confirmed that’s exactly what’s happening. “I asked because we’re going to be combining ChromeOS and Android into a single platform, and I am very interested in how people are using their laptops these days and what they’re getting done,” Samat explained. ↫ Lance Ulanoff at TechRadar I’m definitely interested to see what using Android across desktops, laptops, tablets, martphones, and smartwatches is going to be like. The same applications on all those form factors? So many have tried, and as many have failed. I just don’t think Google has what it takes.
The latest alpha of the upcoming Blender 5.0 release comes with High Dynamic Range (HDR) support for Linux on Wayland which will, if everything works out, make it into the final Blender 5.0 release on October 1, 2025. The post on the developer forum comes with instructions on how to enable the experimental support and how to test it. If you are using Fedora Workstation 42, which ships GNOME version 48, everything is already included to run Blender with HDR. All that is required is an HDR compatible display and graphics driver, and turning on HDR in the Display Settings. ↫ Sebastian Wick It’s interesting to note that Blender on Windows won’t be getting HDR support, and that’s because Windows’ HDR support is subpar compared to Wayland on Linux, and requires a ton more work which the Blender team isn’t going to do. It seems the Wayland developers made all the right choices when it comes to HDR support. Needless to say, X11 doesn’t have HDR support. The design of the Wayland color-management protocol, and the resulting active color-management paradigm of Wayland compositors was a good choice, making it easy for developers to do the right thing, while also giving them more control if they so chose. ↫ Sebastian Wick Weird. I was told Wayland was an unusable mess.
Tribblix, the illumos distribution that aims to provide a retro feel with modern components, has just released a new update, Milestone 37. At the system level, the max PID is now 99999, so you may see larger PIDs. Usernames exceeding 8 characters are now accepted without warnings. Files with dates after the Y2038 transition are now permitted on ZFS. Notable default version updates: the default Java is now JDK21, postgres is now v17, go is now v1.24, and ruby is v3.4. ↫ Tribblix Milestone 37 release notes See the full list of changes for all the various updated components.
On Windows, there’s an option to show the seconds on the taskbar clock, but it comes with a warning that it might reduce battery life if you switch it on. LTT Labs decided to look into this to see just how much of a thing this really is, and they concluded that yes, it does actually affect battery life. They saw a drop of about 5%-15%, depending on configuration. In percentage terms, the drops weren’t massive. For most people, it probably won’t make or break your day. But if you’re on a long flight, running low on battery, or trying to squeeze out every last bit of endurance, it’s not entirely nothing either. ↫ Woolly Door at LTT Labs I mean, having the second tick away on the click would drive me up the wall when I’m trying to use my computer, but I’m sure quite a few among you do enable the seconds display on your own setups (Windows or otherwise). I’m curious to see if the same battery life reduction is measurable on KDE, GNOME, or macOS.
What if you want to use Wayland, but prefer Window Maker, which is restricted to legacy X11? Enter wlmaker, or Wayland Maker, a Wayland compositor that reproduces the look and feel of Window Maker. It’s lightweight, very configurable through human-readable configuration files, supports dockable applications, and more. It’s actually packaged in FreeBSD and a number of Linux distributions, including Ubuntu and Debian (Fedora’s package is outdated), but of course, you can compile it yourself, too.
In recent weeks and months, you may have noticed that when accessing some websites, you see a little progress bar and a character, performing some sort of check. You’ve most likely encountered Anubis, a tool to distinguish real human browser users from “AI” content crawlers that are causing real damage and harm. It turns out Anubis is quite effective at what it does, but it did come with a limitation: it required JavaScript to be enabled. Well, no more. One of the first issues in Anubis before it was moved to the TecharoHQ org was a request to support challenging browsers without using JavaScript. This is a pretty challenging thing to do without rethinking how Anubis works from a fundamentally low level, and with v1.20.0, Anubis finally has support for running without client-side JavaScript thanks to the Meta Refresh challenge. ↫ Xe Iaso Before this new non-JS challenge, users who disabled client-side JavaScript or browsers which don’t support JavaScript were straight-up blocked from passing Anubis’ test, meaning they couldn’t access the website Anubis was protecting from “AI” scraper abuse. This is now no longer the case.
