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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 6 declined, 5 accepted (11 total, 45.45% accepted)

Submission + - Ubuntu Unity faces possible shutdown as team member cries for help (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: Ubuntu Unity is staring at a possible shutdown. A community moderator has gone public pleading for help, admitting the project is “broken and needs to be fixed.” Neowin reports the distro is suffering from critical bugs so severe that upgrades from 25.04 to 25.10 are failing and even fresh installs are hit.

The moderator admits they lack the technical skill or time to perform a full rescue and is asking the broader community, including devs, testers, and UI designers, to step in so Ubuntu Unity can reach 26.04 LTS.

If no one steps in soon, this community flavor might quietly fade away once more.

Submission + - Windows 10 refugees flock to Linux in what devs call their "biggest launch ever" (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: Windows 10 is officially dead, and the vultures are circling. Or maybe they are liberators, depending on your point of view. Zorin Group strategically released its major upgrade, Zorin OS 18, on October 14, the exact day Microsoft pulled the plug on its old OS. The company is now reporting a massive influx of new users.

In a recent post, Zorin Group said:

Zorin OS 18 just reached 100,000 downloads in a little over 2 days... Over 72% of these downloads came from Windows, reflecting our mission to provide a better alternative... Thank you for making this our biggest launch ever!

For months, groups like The Document Foundation and the "End of 10" campaign have been trying to poach Microsoft customers, arguing that Linux is a better home for the millions of PCs that cannot officially run Windows 11.

Zorin OS 18 sweetens the deal with features aimed at switchers, including a familiar desktop, a new window tiling manager that improves on Windows 11s Snap Layouts, and better compatibility for running Windows apps.

Submission + - KDE is removing all colorful third-party app icons from its Breeze icon theme (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: KDE is removing colorful third-party app icons from the Breeze theme starting with Frameworks 6.18, Neowin reports.

According to KDE devs, the change is meant to respect original app branding and reduce the ongoing work of chasing updates whenever logos change. Instead of maintaining its own versions, Breeze will now defer to the icons provided directly by apps.

Plasma 6.5 brings smaller quality-of-life improvements, while Plasma 6.4.5 and Gear 25.12.0 focus mainly on bug fixes and polish.

Submission + - Volkswagen wants you to pay monthly to unlock more horsepower (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: Volkswagen is offering a subscription model for extra horsepower on its ID.3 electric cars. Want to bump your ride from the standard 201 bhp to the full 228 bhp? That will be about £16.50 per month or £165 per year, or a one-time £649 "lifetime" fee that is tied to the car, not you. If you sell it, you have to pay again.

VW defended this by saying you are basically paying for a sportier experience without buying a higher powered model upfront, calling it "nothing new." Nothing changes mechanically. You are just paying VW to essentially flip a boolean somewhere in the car's software.

Submission + - Feds Used Local Cop's Password to Do Immigration Surveillance With Flock Cameras (404media.co)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: According to a report by 404 Media, a DEA agent on a Chicago-area task force used a Palos Heights police detective’s Flock automated license plate reader login to search for someone suspected of an “immigration violation” and did it without the officer’s knowledge. That password belonged to Detective Todd Hutchinson and has now been changed.

This is problematic on multiple levels. First, using license plate reader systems for immigration enforcement is illegal under Illinois law. Second, casually sharing access between local cops and federal agents violates Flock’s terms of service.

An internal Palos Heights PD memo confirmed that Hutchinson routinely allowed others on the task force to use his login for narcotics cases. In late January 2025, one of those DEA agents ran 24 searches using the term “immigration violation.” Even after the incident came to light, the officer “remains one of our greatest officers,” according to a deputy chief.

Submission + - Syncthing 2.0 released with major changes, switching from LevelDB to SQLite (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: Syncthing 2.0 is out, and the headline change is a switch from LevelDB to SQLite for its database backend. The devs say this should make the codebase easier to maintain, improve reliability, and simplify the data layer. On first launch after upgrading, expect a database migration that can take a while if you have a lot of files.

Other changes include structured logging with key-value pairs, per-package log level control, and a new WARNING level between INFO and ERROR. Deleted items are now forgotten after six months by default, the default folder no longer appears automatically, and rolling-hash detection has been removed for faster scanning and syncing.

Under the hood, devices running v2 can now maintain multiple connections by default, delete conflicts can take priority, Ed25519 keys are supported for secure sync, bandwidth limiting has been added, and QUIC UDP port mapping is supported.

One catch is that some platforms have lost prebuilt binaries due to SQLite build complexity, including DragonFly BSD, Illumos/Solaris, Linux ppc64, various BSDs, and Windows ARM.

Submission + - Mozilla under fire for Firefox AI "bloat" that blows up CPU and drains battery (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: Firefox 141 rolled out a shiny new AI-powered smart tab grouping feature (it tries to auto-organize your tabs using a local model), but it turns out the local "Inference" process that powers it is acting like an energy-sucking monster. Users are reporting massive CPU spikes and battery drain and calling the feature "garbage" thats ruining their browsing experience.

As one Redditor puts it: "I dont want this garbage bloating my browser, blowing up my CPU, and killing my battery life. There is absolutely no reason for it, its not a good feature, and its absolutely humiliating for Firefox to be jumping on this bandwagon. The point of a browser is to DOWNLOAD AND RENDER WEB PAGES."

If your laptops fans sound like a jet taking off, you can kill the AI tab groups by heading to about:config and setting browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled to false.

Might be worth keeping that in mind before letting generative AI roam free in your browser.

Submission + - Ubuntu 25.10 May Ship with an "Unstable" Linux Kernel (omgubuntu.co.uk)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: Ubuntu 25.10 “Questing Quokka” may launch using a kernel still marked as a release candidate (RC) rather than a final stable version. That’s because the kernel freeze is set for September 25, 2025, while Linux 6.17 is only expected to go stable shortly afterward. According to OMG! Ubuntu, the Canonical Kernel Team is proceeding with the assumption of shipping that RC version unless conditions change.

"The Kernel Team are announcing that Ubuntu 25.10 will potentially be an Unstable Release from the perspective of the kernel and will be henceforth working with that assumption until such time as conditions warrant a change." – Brett Grandbois, Canonical Engineer

Users may get the intended stable kernel later via updates. For most, the impact should be minor.

Submission + - Bitcoin briefly retakes $120,000 (cnbc.com)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: Bitcoin pushed past $122,000 today, boosted by heavy inflows into crypto exchange-traded funds and a new executive order that could make it easier for Americans to hold digital assets in their 401(k) plans. According to CNBC, the White House also released a 160-page crypto blueprint aimed at speeding up adoption and removing some of the regulatory barriers that have slowed the industry.

Submission + - Promising Linux Project Dies After Dev Faces Harassment (neowin.net)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: Kapitano, a user-friendly GTK4 frontend for the ClamAV scanner on Linux, has been killed by its developer ‘zynequ’ following a wave of harsh, personal attacks from a user. The tool was meant to simplify virus scanning but quickly became a flashpoint when a user claimed it produced malware.

After defending the code calmly, the developer was nonetheless met with escalating accusations and hostility, leading to burnout. The project is now marked as “not maintained,” its code released into the public domain under The Unlicense, and it’s being delisted from Flathub.

From the article:

This was always a hobby project, created in my free time with none of the financial support. Incidents like this make it hard to stay motivated.


Submission + - GitHub is no longer independent at Microsoft after CEO resignation (theverge.com)

Submitted by darwinmac
darwinmac writes: GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke has announced he will step down, saying he wants to return to his startup roots. He will remain through the end of 2025 to assist with the transition. Microsoft, which acquired GitHub in 2018, will fully integrate the platform into its CoreAI division, ending GitHub’s semi-independent status. From The Verge:

"Microsoft has no plans to appoint a new GitHub CEO. Instead, GitHub’s leadership team will report directly to the CoreAI organization."


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