📰 PorteuX 2.5 Is Out with Flatpak Support, Cinnamon 6.6, COSMIC 1.0, and Linux 6.18

PorteuX 2.5 Linux distribution is now available for download with Linux kernel 6.17, GNOME 49.1, KDE Plasma 6.5.2, LXQt 2.3, and more. Here’s what else is new!

🔗 Source: https://9to5linux.com/porteux-2-5-is-out-with-flatpak-support-cinnamon-6-6-cosmic-1-0-and-linux-6-18

📰 Turntable 5.0 Adds Collapsible Player Controls & Year-End Recap

Turntable 5.0 adds collapsible player controls you can hide on-demand, plus a year-end 'wrapped' recap pulling stats from Last.fm, Libre.fm and more. Free on Flathub.You're reading Turntable 5.0 Adds Collapsible Player Controls & Year-End Recap, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

🔗 Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/12/turntable-linux-desktop-media-controls

📰 Intel Open-Source Software Setback: IWD Development Hiatus

Adding to the unfortunate engineering setbacks at Intel this year as part of cost-cutting measures, the Intel IWD software development has been on a hiatus for the past three months. Going from previously seeing monthly releases and almost constant activity to now development ceasing up with no activity in the past three months...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-IWD-Development-Halts

📰 New MongoDB Flaw Lets Unauthenticated Attackers Read Uninitialized Memory

A high-severity security flaw has been disclosed in MongoDB that could allow unauthenticated users to read uninitialized heap memory.The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-14847 (CVSS score: 8.7), has been described as a case of improper handling of length parameter inconsistency, which arises when a program fails to appropriately tackle scenarios where a length field is inconsistent with the.

🔗 Source: https://thehackernews.com/2025/12/new-mongodb-flaw-lets-unauthenticated.html

📰 GitHub Takes Down Rockchip MPP Repository After FFmpeg Copyright Claim

GitHub disabled the Rockchip Linux MPP repository after a DMCA notice from an FFmpeg developer alleging violations of the LGPL license.

🔗 Source: https://linuxiac.com/github-takes-down-rockchip-mpp-repository-after-ffmpeg-copyright-claim/

📰 44% Of GNOME Core Apps Are Written In C, 13% In JavaScript & 10% In Rust

GNOME developer Sophie Herold has shared some interesting end-of-year code stats for the GNOME project. The "GNOME" codebase is up to 6,692,516 lines of code at the end of 2025 with 1,611,526 lines of that being from GNOME apps. Where the data gets interesting is on the programming language breakdown in different areas...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNOME-2025-Code-Stats

📰 MINISFORUM DEG2 is now available (graphics dock with OCulink and Thunderbolt 5 support)

The MINISFORUM DEG2 is a small docking station that lets you connect a desktop graphics card to a laptop, mini PC, or other computer that might not have room inside the case for a dGPU. First introduced in China in October, this graphics dock supports both OCuLink and Thunderbolt 5 (or USB4v2) connections, allowing you to use .

🔗 Source: https://liliputing.com/minisforum-deg2-is-now-available-graphics-dock-with-oculink-and-thunderbolt-5-support/

📰 HarfBuzz 12.3 Released - Nice Performance Improvements To This Text Shaping Engine

HarfBuzz 12.3 was just released for ending out 2025 with some nice performance improvements to this widely-used text shaping engine. HarfBuzz in turn is used by the prominent Linux desktop environments, Java, Flutter, various game engines, and apps like Chrome and Firefox for text shaping needs with OpenType fonts and more...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/HarfBuzz-12.3-Released

📰 Debian Officially Welcomes Loong64 as a Supported Architecture

Debian has officially promoted loong64 from Debian Ports, confirming it will ship as a supported architecture in Debian 14 Forky.

🔗 Source: https://linuxiac.com/debian-officially-welcomes-loong64-as-a-supported-architecture/

📰 Intel Xe vs. i915 Driver Performance On Linux 6.19 For Arc Alchemist GPUs

Similar to AMD GCN 1.0/1.1 GPUs where there was product overlap between the Radeon and AMDGPU kernel drivers (and now using AMDGPU by default for those aging Radeon GPUs with Linux 6.19), the Intel Arc A-Series "Alchenist" graphics cards are in a similar boat. By default the Alchemist and Meteor Lake graphics use the i915 kernel driver by default but they can optionally use the Xe kernel driver instead as what is Intel's modern open-source...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/review/intel-xe-i915-linux-619

📰 10 Hyprland Dotfiles to Transform Your Linux Desktop Bautifully

The Hyprland ecosystem has matured significantly. We are no longer just looking at 'text files', some of these projects are complete desktop shells that outclass macOS in polish.

🔗 Source: https://itsfoss.com/best-hyprland-dotfiles/

📰 New Patches Bring Linux Driver Support To 25+ SteelSeries Arctis Gaming Headsets

Within the mainline Linux kernel already is the SteelSeries HID driver for supporting basic battery monitoring on the Arctis 1 and Arctis 9 gaming headsets. But a new patch series posted this morning to the Linux kernel mailing list overhaul this SteelSeries HID driver support. The patches take the support to 25+ different Arctis headset models and provide more comprehensive driver support...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/SteelSeries-Artis-Linux-Driver

📰 How to Help KDE Improve Plasma Through User Feedback

With a simple setting change, you can help KDE developers make better decisions about Plasma improvements. Here’s how.

🔗 Source: https://linuxiac.com/how-to-help-kde-improve-plasma-through-user-feedback/

📰 Running Proxmox VMs with GPU passthrough is much easier than it used to be

Proxmox includes plenty of advanced options to make your home lab a force to be reckoned with, including everything from clusters and SDN tools to ZFS-powered RAID pools and cloud-init templates. But if you’re working on intensive virtual machine projects, you’ll want to arm them with ample system resources. And I don’t just mean extra v-cores and memory, either.

🔗 Source: https://www.xda-developers.com/running-proxmox-vms-with-gpu-passthrough-is-much-easier/

📰 Make GNOME App Grid Scroll Vertically (Like it Used to)

A new GNOME Shell extension rethinks the app grid (aka the app picker, app drawer, launcher screen – what do you call it?) by making it scroll vertically instead of horizontally. Y’know, the way it used to, pre-GNOME 40. GNOME 40’s switch to horizontal app grid scrolling in 2021 irked a few of the desktop’s mice-favouring aficionados. Their main gripe? Mouse scroll wheel to move horizontally feels off.

🔗 Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/12/gnome-vertical-app-grid-extension

📰 Orbitiny Desktop Pilot 8 Delivers Its Biggest Release Yet

The Orbitiny Desktop Pilot 8 pre-release delivers its most substantial update yet, featuring a new graphical installer and a rebuilt desktop core.

🔗 Source: https://linuxiac.com/orbitiny-desktop-pilot-8-delivers-its-biggest-release-yet/

📰 It Took 6+ Years For Linux's "New" Mount API To Be Properly Documented In Man Pages

In demonstrating one of the gaps of man pages in modern times and likely having hindered the adoption of the Linux kernel's new mount API, it took more than six years for those system calls to be properly documented within man pages. The Linux "new" mount API was introduced back in mid-2019 with Linux 5.2 and since supported by key file-systems after several years but not until weeks ago was this file descriptor based mount API scoped out within...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/New-Mount-API-Man-Pages

📰 NTFSPlus Becomes "NTFS" as Driver Moves Closer to Kernel Integration

The v3 patch series brings improved performance and new features while dropping the "Plus" moniker.

🔗 Source: https://itsfoss.com/news/ntfsplus-becomes-ntfs-linux/

📰 The Open-Source OpenGL & Vulkan Drivers Enjoyed A Rather Remarkable 2025

The open-source OpenGL and Vulkan drivers making up Mesa had another very successful year. Even with all the years being invested into Mesa largely by Intel, AMD, Valve, Red Hat, and others, the upward trajectory continues for Mesa on expanding the hardware support, punctually adding new Vulkan extensions, and racking up other wins...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Mesa-2025-Highlights

📰 Haruna 1.7 Media Player Brings Smarter Playlists

KDE’s Haruna 1.7 media player improves playlist management, audio replay gain support, and overall stability.

🔗 Source: https://linuxiac.com/haruna-1-7-media-player-brings-smarter-playlists/