Open Source

The latest GhostBSD community spin, labeled 25.02-R14.3p2, comes with the latest FreeBSD improvements, such as improved hardware support and security, kernel enhancements, as well as up-to-date wireless networking support. This release also intros Gershwin, an OS X-inspired desktop environment.

Google announces new security measures for Android — a new developer verification requirement. Starting September 2026, sideloading apps from unverified developers will be blocked on Android. Google says it is making this move to combat the spread of malware and financial fraud.

DeepSeek-V3.1 AI LLM has arrived eight months after the initial launch of V3. The chatbot software is able to answer prompts quicker and smarter than before. The model is open source, allowing anyone to use and build upon it for free.

Available since yesterday, CachyOS 250824 is the sixth release of the year and arrives alongside the packages.cachyos.org package versions dashboard. The list of changes includes stability improvements and automated Btrfs boot environments, as well as an option to install the Niri window manager.

After Spotify mercilessly killed the Car Thing, an enthusiast modding community has revived the diminutive audio streaming device with a new firmware that has feature parity with the original Car Thing functionality. Nocturne V3 hopes to revive the Car Thing for those who don't want to waste functional hardware.

PQShield expands post-quantum cryptography hardware with UltraPQ-Suite and PQPlatform-TrustSys, building on its 2024 NIST-approved silicon debut.

Unplugged is set to launch its high-privacy UP Phone in September 2025. Powered by UnpluggedOS (based on AOSP), the triple-camera smartphone features a strong firewall, open-source AV, and physical battery disconnect to help defend users against unwanted data exfil and tracking by big tech and the deep state.

The latest snapshot of the upcoming Linux Mint 22.2 "Zara" release is now available with a revamped login page and a visually enhanced software management center. It also sports a new fingerprint authenticator, Fingwit. Among other changes, the Hypnotix IPTV app now sports two additional modes.

CheckMag One of the best features of Google Photos is the ability to pull your treasured memories into a screensaver on your Android TV or tablet. But for those who prefer self-hosted solutions, here are 3 ways to set up a screensaver to stream photos from your NAS.

For the first time in six years, OpenAI has released two new models with open weights that can be downloaded, for free, and run locally on your PC or laptop. The last model the company open-sourced was GPT-2 in 2019.

Tencent has open-sourced its Hunyuan AI model, releasing four compact language models with 0.5 billion, 1.8 billion, 4 billion, and 7 billion parameters that can run on a single consumer GPU.

Debian 13 Trixie will introduce official support for 64-bit RISC-V CPUs along with 64-bit timekeeping to address the year 2038 clock overflow bug. Trixie continues Debian’s legacy of stability, security, and reliability in a free Linux-based OS.

Zen Browser is a recent fork of Firefox that focusses on privacy, aesthetics, and workflow optimisation. With its latest Twilight beta update, Zen has improved on a bunch of features that differentiate it from Firefox and added a number of bug fixes and features for both Linux and Windows users.

NovaCustom NUC Box is a new mini PC that puts great emphasis on privacy, as can be expected from the brand. Featuring the open-source, coreboot-based Dasharo firmware, the mini PC can be equipped with up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU and 96 GB of DDR5 memory.

New kernel patch brings native power controls to Legion Go S on Linux for much more convenient performance profile switching and more.

Artificial Agency's new behaviour engine introduces adaptive AI to gaming, letting characters and game directors respond in real time to player choices.

OpenAI is ready to launch an Artificial Intelligence-backed browser to compete with the biggest player in the field: Alphabet’s Google Chrome, according to sources consulted by Reuters.

CheckMag Booklore is the Plex or Immich of e-books. A beautiful, self-hosted way to manage and read your own e-book library. But while movies are easy to rip from physical media we own, it's a lot harder to do the same for a book, making Booklore a pipe dream rather than a reality for those wanting to operate on the right side of the law.

CheckMag Want to generate images on your PC without relying on cloud services? This guide walks you through setting up free, open-source tools for complete creative control without any subscriptions.

The misconfiguration in Google's open-source code review system allowed unauthorised code revisions in at least 18 projects, prompting security updates and wider warnings for Gerrit users.

In a major leap for neuroscience, researchers at UCLA have developed a tiny, 3.5-gram microscope that solves a long-standing challenge: simultaneously observing multiple brain regions in a freely moving mouse. The new open-source device, called MiniXL, provides a large field of view — effectively opening a new window into the brain's complex networks.

Mistral AI has launched Magistral, a reasoning AI model that takes more time to think of answers to complex prompts while offering businesses traceability for compliance in finance, law, and medicine. Magistral provides businesses with an alternative to leading US and Chinese AI models.

With multiple 2.5 Gb Ethernet ports, Wi-Fi 7 and software that includes Docker, Tailscale, Wireguard and Adblock, the GL-iNet Flint 3 will give even the best routers a run for their money at a significantly reduced price.

CheckMag Full-fledged Linux on smartphones is far from mainstream, but there are plenty of options from Volla, Fairphone, or installing it on an older device. Asking customers to throw down on an Indiegogo campaign at a price that exceeds most flagships might be a step too far, despite the noble intention.

Yandex has released Yambda, the world's largest open dataset for music recommender systems, containing 4.79 billion anonymized user interactions to help developers create smart music services that play only the songs listeners want to hear.

DeepSeek has announced DeepSeek-R1-0528, the latest version of its R1 AI model, featuring improved reasoning, reduced hallucinations, and enhanced performance across multiple AI benchmarks, positioning it closer to top proprietary models.

Nick Gillard has created one of the world's smallest working Macintosh Classics, using the WaveShare Pico Zero Raspberry Pi board running a modified pico-mac emulator and clever engineering, all housed within a 62 mm-tall 3D-printed case.

The BYOND platform has been hit by sustained DDoS attacks from a group demanding the release of its source code. Disruptions have left services intermittently offline, raising concerns over the ethics of coercive digital activism.

Earlier this week, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0 was released, sporting a Linux 6.12 LTS core, Wayland instead of X11, AI-driven admin tools, enhanced security features, microarchitecture optimizations, and various other changes. A RISC-V Developer Preview is also available.

A new 2T1R memristor-based architecture aims to enable low-power in-memory computing for AI and edge devices. The design integrates current regulation and CMOS compatibility to support analogue VMM and neuromorphic tasks.

The Wii U GamePad was a unique experiment that paved the way for the Switch. However, without the ability to purchase a 1st party replacement, any damage to the GamePad and the Wii U effectively becomes a brick. Thankfully, there is now a Steam Deck compatible open source alternative.

CyberLink has unveiled its latest PowerDirector software for social media creators and business users. Editors can easily turn videos into anime-style videos, generate multilingual videos, and apply creative effects to moving objects using generative AI.

System76, which specialises in Linux devices, is relaunching its Serval WS high-end laptop with an Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti GPU. The Linux notebook is also getting a better 16-inch display and an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU.

Beyond All Reason is redefining large-scale RTS with its open-source Recoil engine, capable of supporting 100-player matches and 10,000-unit battles. With a Steam launch and multilingual localisation underway, it is setting new standards for community-driven strategy games.

The security-focused OpenBSD operating system has just reached the 58th release. Thanks to it, this open-source piece of code now sports new userland features, more accurate documentation, better hibernation support, as well as performance improvements in out-of-memory situations.

The Evertop PC is a new open-source retro PC inspired by the IBM XT. Powered by an ESP32 chip, the Evertop can almost entirely mimic the IBM XT's capabilities, including support for DOS-era software. Thanks to a massive battery, the Evertop system can run for hundreds of hours away from the wall, and even features solar charging support.

Casio US introduces the fx-CG100 ClassWiz, a powerful color-graphing calculator with MicroPython for app programming and 2,900 math functions covering pre-algebra to advanced calculus for students of all levels.

CheckMag As a tech journalist and cybersecurity analyst running Manjaro KDE, these keyboard shortcuts have greatly transformed my workflow. From instant window switching to formatting-free pasting, these tricks save me hours every week—and they’ll supercharge your productivity too.

CheckMag The market for ultra-portables that bridge the gap between a decent desktop and media consumption has dwindled to almost nothing. A space now dominated by iPads and Android tablets with terrible multitasking, file management and mobile browsers. But once you get rid of Windows, the Surface Go can still be a compelling option.

The T-Deck Pro from LilyGo is a new and rather unusual mobile IoT device that is equipped with an e-ink display which is easy to read even in sunlight. It also features wireless connectivity options and should be quite versatile for tinkering.

CheckMag With official Steam OS just around the corner, Bazzite might seem irrelevant. However, Steam OS is currently still in beta, some functions don't work, and it has a far shorter supported device list. Bazzite on the other hand supports almost every x86 based handheld out there, is mature in its development process, and is very easy to set up alongside Windows. Here's how.

The DeepSeek-V3-0324 release comes three months after the initial DeepSeek V3 launch in December 2024. This updated model has improved performance and capabilities, such as creating appealing web pages and well-written reports in Chinese.

Q4OS, often praised as a faster solution for old computers than Puppy or Bodhi Linux, is back with a new update. Labeled 5.8, this refresh is based on Debian Bookworm 12.10 and the 6.1.0-32 kernel. In addition to the Debian-specific changes, Q4OS 5.8 also comes with several translations for Calamares, improved Flatpak app handling, and more.

Roughly three months since elementary OS 8, the 8.0.1 update lands with a new kernel alongside multiple minor changes. The list of areas that received tweaks includes the AppCenter, Files, Terminal, System Settings, Installer, and more. The ISO file is 3.3 GB in size, and the installation needs at least 32 GB.

With a history of over two decades and formerly known as SystemRescueCD, the Arch-based SystemRescue live environment has just received the update labeled 12.00. This refresh comes with the 6.12.19 LTS kernel, bcachefs support, Firefox 128.8.0 ESR, and Xfce 4.20.1, as well as several other package updates.

Unleashed as the sixth and final release of the stable/13 branch, FreeBSD 13.5 focuses on maintenance once again. In addition to the usual list of tweaks and fixes, this update also comes with refreshed third-party apps, including Inkscape 1.4, VLC 3.0.21, GTK 4.16.12, and more.

CheckMag Thanks to Valve and Proton, Linux is becoming a much more viable platform for work and play, but first party support for syncing common cloud services like OneDrive and Google Drive is none existent and unlike TruNAS and Synology this feature isn't built in. However, there is a reliable and relatively straightforward solution. Here's how it works.

Based on Linux Debian 12.9 "Bookworm" and using the 6.8 kernel as default (with 6.11 as an option), Proxmox Mail Gateway 8.2 is now available with SpamAssassin 4.0.1, which packs updated rulesets. Additionally, this new release comes with ZFS 2.2.7, PostgreSQL 15.11, automated/unattended installation, and more.

Framework today announced the latest in its repairable, upgradeable laptop line-up. The Framework 12 is a 12-inch convertible laptop with a touch screen and 360-degree hinge. Despite the convertible nature, the Framework 12 will feature a rugged design, with TPU overmoulding for shock absorption.

Ading2210, a high-schooler who created DoomPDF, has now released LinuxPDF to run Linux on a RISC-V emulator derived from TinyEMU within a PDF file using a combination of C, Python, HTML, and Javascript.