The seemingly indestructible fists of the mantis shrimp can take a punch
Specialized structures in the animal's claws can seemingly absorb impact.
Enermax Revolution D.F. 12 750W ATX 3.1 power supply review
The Enermax Revolution D.F. 12 750W power supply delivers excellent power quality, solid efficiency, and compact design but faces stiff competition at its price point. It's an ideal option for performance-focused users.
SystemV Filesystem Being Removed From The Linux Kernel
The SystemV file-system that implements Xenix FS, SystemV/386 FS, and Coherent FS is set to be removed from the Linux kernel. The SystemV file-system was orphaned back in 2023 while now is set to be removed entirely after developers realized the code was fundamentally broken.
Jan Kara of SUSE authored the patch to remove the 3.4k lines of code making up the SystemV "SysV" file-system.
Kara's rationale in the commit was that it's not used as bugged code existed within it for two decades during the Big Kernel Lock "BKL" days:
So with this VFS Git branch slated for the upcoming Linux 6.15 merge window, the SystemV file-system is being removed.
Jan Kara of SUSE authored the patch to remove the 3.4k lines of code making up the SystemV "SysV" file-system.
Kara's rationale in the commit was that it's not used as bugged code existed within it for two decades during the Big Kernel Lock "BKL" days:
"Since 2002 (change "Replace BKL for chain locking with sysvfs-private rwlock") the sysv filesystem was doing IO under a rwlock in its get_block() function (yes, a non-sleepable lock hold over a function used to read inode metadata for all reads and writes). Nobody noticed until syzbot in 2023. This shows nobody is using the filesystem. Just drop it."
So with this VFS Git branch slated for the upcoming Linux 6.15 merge window, the SystemV file-system is being removed.
FreeBSD 13.5 Beta 3 Drops KDE Packages From DVD ISOs
FreeBSD 13.5 Beta 3 is out this weekend in being the newest weekly development version leading towards next month's stable release to cap off the FreeBSD 13 series.
FreeBSD 13.5 Beta 3 upgrades to OpenSSH 9.9p2 and has security fixes for the OpenSSH vulnerabilities disclosed this week.
Besides the OpenSSH update, the only other notable change this week for FreeBSD 13.5 Beta 3 is removing of the KDE desktop packages from the FreeBSD DVD ISOs. The KDE package removal from the DVD ISOs with FreeBSD 13.5 is due to a bit of odd timing as well as facing a battle of needing to fit within DVD size constraints.
FreeBSD will be transitioning to the KDE Plasma 6 desktop and in turn see the KDE Plasma 5 packages removed. But Plasma 6 isn't ready for FreeBSD 13.5. The commit dropping the KDE packages from the DVD ISOs explains:
Downloads and all the details on FreeBSD 13.5 Beta 3 via the FreeBSD mailing list.
Next weekend the FreeBSD 13.5 release candidate is expected to debut. If all goes well FreeBSD 13.5-RELEASE will be out on 11 March and will be maintained through the end of April next year before closing out the FreeBSD 13 series.
FreeBSD 13.5 Beta 3 upgrades to OpenSSH 9.9p2 and has security fixes for the OpenSSH vulnerabilities disclosed this week.
Besides the OpenSSH update, the only other notable change this week for FreeBSD 13.5 Beta 3 is removing of the KDE desktop packages from the FreeBSD DVD ISOs. The KDE package removal from the DVD ISOs with FreeBSD 13.5 is due to a bit of odd timing as well as facing a battle of needing to fit within DVD size constraints.
FreeBSD will be transitioning to the KDE Plasma 6 desktop and in turn see the KDE Plasma 5 packages removed. But Plasma 6 isn't ready for FreeBSD 13.5. The commit dropping the KDE packages from the DVD ISOs explains:
pkg-stage.sh: Remove kde entirely
The package set for FreeBSD 13.5 comes from the 2025Q1 branch, which doesn't have the new x11/kde (aka KDE 6) port; but shipping x11/kde5 (which is still in the 2025Q1 branch) doesn't make much sense either since a few weeks after the release that will no longer be available in either "latest" or "quarterly" package sets.
Just remove KDE packages from the 13.5 DVD entirely; this also makes the DVD image fit into 4.7 GB size limit of physical DVDs again.
Downloads and all the details on FreeBSD 13.5 Beta 3 via the FreeBSD mailing list.
Next weekend the FreeBSD 13.5 release candidate is expected to debut. If all goes well FreeBSD 13.5-RELEASE will be out on 11 March and will be maintained through the end of April next year before closing out the FreeBSD 13 series.
Niri 25.02 & Labwc 0.8.3 Wayland Compositors Released
The Niri and Labwc Wayland compositor projects are both out with new releases this weekend to further their efforts.
Labwc as the Wayland window-stacking compositor is up to version 0.8.3. The new Labwc release adds support for the ext-workspace protocol as well as menu enhancements that include icons and dynamic root menus. Labwc 0.8.3 also brings new configuration options, a "WarpCursor" action, and many bug fixes.
Downloads and more details on Labwc 0.8.3 via GitHub.
Also now available is Niri 25.02 as the newest release for this scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor. Niri adds support for columns presenting windows as tabs rather than vertically stacked tiles, new actions to help navigate tabs, the ability to draw shadows behind windows, drag-and-drop view scrolling, and many other improvements.
Niri 25.02 is quite a packed feature update and more details on it can be found via its GitHub repository.
Labwc as the Wayland window-stacking compositor is up to version 0.8.3. The new Labwc release adds support for the ext-workspace protocol as well as menu enhancements that include icons and dynamic root menus. Labwc 0.8.3 also brings new configuration options, a "WarpCursor" action, and many bug fixes.
Downloads and more details on Labwc 0.8.3 via GitHub.
Also now available is Niri 25.02 as the newest release for this scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor. Niri adds support for columns presenting windows as tabs rather than vertically stacked tiles, new actions to help navigate tabs, the ability to draw shadows behind windows, drag-and-drop view scrolling, and many other improvements.
Niri 25.02 is quite a packed feature update and more details on it can be found via its GitHub repository.
KDE Plasma 6.4 Preps Improvement To Help KWin Reduce Frame Drops
In addition to this week's release of Plasma 6.3.1, KDE developers have been busy preparing more bug fixes for what will become Plasma 6.3.2 next month. Additionally, more feature code for Plasma 6.4 continues to bake.
KDE developer Nate Graham is out with his great weekly recaps of all the interesting Plasma changes for the past week. This week's highlights include:
- Plasma 6.4 KWin's render loop initialization code uses a more precise timer that should reduce frame drops. It's a switch from CoarseTimer to PreciseTimer to avoid a +/- 20% timing offset with coarse timers.
- With KDE Frameworks 6.12, when the KDED6 daemon crashes it will now automatically restart itself.
- Plasma 6.4 de-clutters the Digital Clock widget's context menu.
- Various Plasma 6.3 bug fixes.
A rather light week but those wanting to learn more about these changes can do so via Nate's blog.
KDE developer Nate Graham is out with his great weekly recaps of all the interesting Plasma changes for the past week. This week's highlights include:
- Plasma 6.4 KWin's render loop initialization code uses a more precise timer that should reduce frame drops. It's a switch from CoarseTimer to PreciseTimer to avoid a +/- 20% timing offset with coarse timers.
- With KDE Frameworks 6.12, when the KDED6 daemon crashes it will now automatically restart itself.
- Plasma 6.4 de-clutters the Digital Clock widget's context menu.
- Various Plasma 6.3 bug fixes.
A rather light week but those wanting to learn more about these changes can do so via Nate's blog.
苹果停止为英国 iCloud 用户提供端对端加密
从周五 1500GMT 开始，苹果英国用户打开 iCloud 后会收到一条错误信息，称苹果不再为新用户提供 Advanced Data Protection aka 端对端加密。现有用户的端对端加密功能将在稍后禁用。端对端加密意味着苹果也不知道用户在其云存储服务中储存了什么内容。本月早些时候有报道称英国政府要求苹果创建加密后门，英国内政部对这一报道拒绝证实或否认。关闭端对端加密意味着无需后门英国政府就能搜索 iCloud 中的内容。苹果在一份声明中表示它从未为产品创建后门，以后也永远不会。
Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
This EV could reboot medium-duty trucking by not reinventing the wheel
Modest goals and keeping within the lines have done this startup well.