
Linux Hardware Reviews, Performance Benchmarks & Open-Source / Free Software News
Updated: 1 hour 51 min ago
Google Supports Getting Rust Into The Linux Kernel
It should come as little surprise -- especially given the recent news of Google allowing Rust to be used for Android system-level code -- but engineers at the search giant are in support of Rust code being used within the mainline Linux kernel...
LLVM 12.0 Released With Alder Lake + Sapphire Rapids Support, More C++20
After the release cycle dragged on an extra month due to blocker bugs, LLVM 12 was officially tagged on Wednesday night as the latest half-year update to this open-source compiler stack...
Hangover 0.6.5 Released For Running Windows Software On ARM64, POWER
A new release of Hangover is now available for getting Wine up and running with cross-architecture support so you can enjoy the likes of Windows games and applications under 64-bit ARM and IBM POWER hardware on Linux...
Metro Exodus Launches For Linux But Off To Bumpy Start
As scheduled, Metro Exodus saw its native Linux port debut today. This first person shooter from 4A Games launched on Windows and consoles in 2019 while the 4A Engine powered game only debuted today for macOS and Linux. Previously it would work with Steam Play but now there is a native Linux port albeit with some kinks still to work out...
Rust Support In The Linux Kernel Undergoing Another Round Of Discussions
Last month the initial infrastructure for allowing the Rust programming language to be used within the Linux kernel landed in the Linux-Next tree for more widespread testing ahead of its possible inclusion in the mainline kernel. Now a "request for comments" has been started again on the kernel mailing list around the prospects of Rust code for the Linux kernel...
Chrome 90 Released With AV1 Encode, New APIs
Google officially promoted Chrome 90 to its stable channel today as the latest feature update to their cross-platform web browser...
Mesa 21.1-rc1 Released With RADV Optimizations, Faster Zink, Many Other New Features
Feature development for this quarter's Mesa 21.1 release is now over with it having been branched from main and the first release candidate issued...
The Linux Kernel & GNOME Desktop Preparing For Privacy Screen Support
Over the past year there has been an uptick in Linux developers from different vendors working on laptop privacy screen support under Linux. When it comes to the support with newer Lenovo ThinkPad laptops, it looks like that kernel support could soon land and the GNOME desktop is already preparing to support this feature...
NVIDIA 465.24.02 Linux Driver Released As Stable
At the end of March NVIDIA released the 465 beta Linux driver while today has been promoted to stable in the form of the 465.24.02 release...
Windows 10 Rockets Ahead Of Ubuntu Linux On The Core i9 11900K For Some Workloads
For those wondering how the Windows vs. Linux performance compares with Intel's new Rocket Lake processors for both the CPU performance and some initial cross-platform exposure for the Xe Graphics, here are some preliminary benchmarks with the Core i9 11900K.
Gigabyte Motherboard WMI Temperature Driver Queued Ahead Of Linux 5.13
Earlier this month I reported on a WMI temperature driver for Gigabyte motherboards being worked on by an independent developer. That "gigabyte-wmi" driver is now slated for inclusion in the upcoming Linux 5.13 cycle...
Mesa 21.1 Squeezes In Improvements For Direct3D 9 (Gallium Nine)
The feature freeze and code branching for Mesa 21.1 is imminent but last minute feature work continues to pour in. Hitting Mesa Git this morning as the latest activity were some fixes and improvements in Gallium Nine for providing Direct3D 9 support atop Gallium3D drivers to Wine/Windows programs...
Mesa's Virgl Straps On A Simple Disk Cache
The "Virgl" virtual 3D GPU project for providing OpenGL (and work-in-progress VirtIO-GPU Vulkan) acceleration within guest virtual machines continues to mature for improving the open-source Linux desktop virtualization stack...
Linux 5.13 To Allow For OpenBMC Development With A Lower-Cost ASRock Rack Motherboard
The Linux Foundation's OpenBMC project to provide an open-source BMC firmware stack is quite exciting for freeing this low-level aspect of servers, but finding a supported motherboard that works well with OpenBMC can be a challenge at this stage. Fortunately, Linux 5.13 is set to support a lower-cost motherboard option in hopes of boosting OpenBMC development/usage...
FreeBSD 13.0 Brings Better Performance, LLVM Clang 11, Obsolete GNU Bits Removed
FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE is now officially available as the debut of the big FreeBSD 13 feature update...
System76 Developing "COSMIC" Desktop Environment For Pop!_OS
System76 has their in-house Pop!_OS Linux distribution derived from Ubuntu and have long been customizing their GNOME-based desktop. However, the Linux PC vendor is now taking things a step further by developing their own desktop environment dubbed COSMIC...
X.Org Server 1.20.11 Released Due To New Security Advisory
Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative has uncovered another security issue with the X.Org Server...
SiFive Tapes Out Their First 5nm RISC-V Processor Core
SiFive's OpenFive business unit announced today they have completed their first tape out of a RISC-V processor core using TSMC's 5nm process...
Vulkan Video Arrives For New Industry-Standard Video Encode/Decode
For years we have been eager to learn more about the long mentioned Vulkan Video API, which was supposed to come in H1-2020, but now has finally arrived with today's v1.2.175 update in provisional form. The new Vulkan Video extensions allow for GPU-accelerated video encode/decode. The initial public work is treated as a provisional specification and with limited codec coverage but will be expanded upon in time...
Multigenerational LRU Code Updated For Enhancing Linux Kernel Performance
Last month Google engineers proposed multi-generational LRU for Linux to enhance the kernel performance and today the work has advanced to a second version...