Tech News Digest - 2025-03-21
Dallas SpohnPlease rise for the Spohnz theme song
Security updates for Friday
Category: Linux
Tags: Linux
Published: Fri, 21 Mar 2025 13:13:26 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a 2-sentence summary:
Various Linux distributions have released security updates to address vulnerabilities in their respective packages. The affected distributions include Debian, Fedora, Mageia, Oracle, Red Hat, Slackware, SUSE, and Ubuntu, with fixes ranging from minor patches to more significant updates.
Security updates have been issued by Debian (chromium), Fedora (fluent-bit, openssh, php, and webkitgtk), Mageia (freerdp), Oracle (libreoffice and webkit2gtk3), Red Hat (kernel-rt), Slackware (libarchive), SUSE (apptainer, gitea-tea, libxml2, tomcat, webkit2gtk3, and wpa_supplicant), and Ubuntu (libxslt and pam-pkcs11).
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[$] MM medley: huge page allocation, page promotion, KSM, and BPF
Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Thu, 20 Mar 2025 14:54:31 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a summary of the text in 2 sentences:
The Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory-Management, and BPF Summit (LSFMM+BPF) has seen an increase in patches related to memory management, including improvements to huge-page allocation and tiered-memory systems. The patches also aim to enhance reliability and performance by introducing new approaches to deduplication and replacing the BPF memory allocator.
As the 2025 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory-Management, and BPF Summit (LSFMM+BPF) approaches, the density of memory-management patches on the mailing lists has increased. Included among those are patches aimed at improving the reliability and performance of huge-page allocation, implementing page promotion on tiered-memory systems, adding a different approach to deduplicating memory, and replacing the BPF memory allocator. Read on for an overview of each.
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Security updates for Thursday
Category: Linux
Tags: Linux
Published: Thu, 20 Mar 2025 14:15:56 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a 2-sentence summary:
Multiple Linux distributions have issued security updates to fix various vulnerabilities, including Debian, Fedora, Mageia, Oracle, Red Hat, SUSE, and Ubuntu. The updates address issues in software such as PHP, Python, Firefox, Thunderbird, Chromium, and others, aiming to improve the security of these operating systems.
Security updates have been issued by Debian (php7.4, python-django, and python3.9), Fedora (bluez, iwd, libell, and radare2), Mageia (chromium-browser-stable, mosquitto, tomcat, tomcat packages, and vim), Oracle (firefox, grub2, python3, thunderbird, and webkit2gtk3), Red Hat (fence-agents, php:7.4, and python-jinja2), SUSE (assimp-devel, crane, ffmpeg-4, freetype2, helm, kernel, kured, python-Django, python-Jinja2, python311-Django4, and tomcat), and Ubuntu (alpine, djoser, libxslt, postgresql-9.5, and valkey).
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[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for March 20, 2025
Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Thu, 20 Mar 2025 00:04:22 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a summary of the article in 2 sentences:
The latest edition of LWN.net Weekly Edition features articles on various open-source topics, including Oxidizr, Spectre mitigations, Frozen pages, and Open-source risks. The issue also includes briefs on recent releases and updates, such as SystemRescue 12.00, GIMP 3.0, Git 2.49.0, and more, along with announcements about newsletters, conferences, security updates, and patches.
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
Front: Oxidizr; Spectre mitigations; Frozen pages; Mapcount madness; Open-source risks; /e/OS.
Briefs: Supply chain attacks; SystemRescue 12.00; Casual Make; GIMP 3.0; Git 2.49.0; GNOME 48; PeerTube 7.1; Quotes; ...
Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
[Read more](https://lwn.net/Articles/1013956/)
GNOME 48 released
Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Wed, 19 Mar 2025 18:14:05 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a summary of the text in 2 sentences:
The GNOME 48 release, also known as "Bengaluru", includes various new features and enhancements, such as support for shortcuts in the Orca screen reader on Wayland, new fonts, and image editing capabilities in Image Viewer. Additionally, the release features notable performance improvements, including dynamic triple buffering, which enhances the concurrency capabilities of Mutter and improves the smoothness of changes on screen.
GNOME 48 ("Bengaluru") has been released. As usual, this release includes a number of new features and enhancements including support for shortcuts in the Orca screen reader on Wayland, new fonts, addition of image editing to Image Viewer, and more.
GNOME 48 includes a number of notable performance improvements. The most significant of these is the introduction of dynamic triple buffering. This change has undergone significant review and testing over a period of five years and improves the perceived smoothness of changes on screen, with fewer skipped frames and more fluid animations. This has been achieved by enhancing the concurrency capabilities of Mutter, the GNOME display manager, and is particularly effective at handling sudden bursts of activity.
The GNOME 48 release also adds new applications to the GNOME Circle collection, such as Drum Machine and the Iotas note-taking application. See "What's new for developers" a rundown of improvements for developers in GNOME 48.
[Read more](https://lwn.net/Articles/1014799/)
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Written by
Dallas Spohn
Dallas Spohn
Dallas, a seasoned professional with a diverse background, transitions seamlessly between roles as a systems admin turned developer, technical writer, and curriculum developer at Red Hat. With a knack for unraveling complex concepts, he crafts engaging materials primarily in DocBook, guiding enthusiasts through the intricacies of Red Hat's certification courses. In his earlier days, Dallas's passion for Anime led him to contribute to Anime News Network, channeling his creativity and expertise into captivating content. His contributions extended beyond writing as he interviewed prominent figures in the Anime industry, offering insights into their creative processes and visions. Beyond his professional pursuits, he's a devoted husband and father, cherishing moments with his loved ones. Dallas's journey in the tech industry spans various roles, from a security developer at NTT Security to an operations architect overseeing Linux servers for commercial transcoding. His tenure at esteemed institutions like Goldman Sachs and Lockheed Martin has honed his skills as a systems engineer, instilling in him a deep-rooted understanding of complex systems. An avid FPV pilot, Dallas finds exhilaration in soaring through the skies with his drones, often contemplating the lessons learned from his aerial adventures. His diverse experiences, including serving as a naval submariner aboard the USS Alexandria and pursuing higher education in England, enrich his perspective and fuel his thirst for knowledge.