📰 Dynamic Music Pill puts slick media controls in your GNOME panel

Dynamic Music Pill is a GNOME Shell extension that embeds a pill-shaped media controller into your desktop panel or dock. It shows album art, artist name and track title alongside an animated waveform visualiser. If that sounds unashamedly blingy, it’s because it is – nothing wrong in that, right? The extension received an update today, which seem a good hook to actually take this off my “to write about” list.

🔗 Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/02/dynamic-music-pill-gnome-panel-media-controller

#gnome

📰 AMD Posts Linux Patches For SEV-SNP BTB Isolation

It's quite a mouthful but today AMD posted Linux kernel patches for preparing SEV-SNP BTB isolation support for further enhancing the security of virtual machines (VMs) for confidential computing...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-SEV-SNP-BTB-Isolation

#amd #linux #kernel

📰 OpenZFS 2.4.1 Released With Linux 6.19 Compatibility, Many Fixes

Following the big OpenZFS 2.4 release back in December, OpenZFS 2.4.1 was released overnight to ship support for the latest Linux 6.19 stable kernel plus a variety of different bug fixes...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/OpenZFS-2.4.1-Released

#linux #kernel

📰 GTK 4.22 In Good Shape With Better SVG Support

Matthias Clasen shared an update today concerning the state of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) within GNOME's GTK toolkit...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/GTK-4.22-SVG-2026

#gnome

📰 Someone is Bringing Fedora Linux to Phones (And It’s Not Red Hat)

A small community project is building immutable Fedora images for tablets and phones.

🔗 Source: https://itsfoss.com/news/fedora-pocketblue-remix-overview/

#linux #fedora

📰 The OpenClaw Hype: Analysis of Chatter from Open-Source Deep and Dark Web

OpenClaw has sparked heavy Telegram and dark web chatter, but Flare's data shows more research hype than mass exploitation. Flare explains how its telemetry found real supply-chain risk in the skills marketplace, yet limited signs of large-scale criminal operationalization.

🔗 Source: www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/the-openclaw-hype-analysis-of-chatter-from-open-source-deep-and-dark-web/

#opensource

📰 systemd 260-rc1 Released: New "mstack" Feature, System V Service Scripts No Longer Supported

The first release candidate of systemd 260 is now available for testing. Systemd 260 finally does away with System V service scripts support. Also notable to systemd 260 is the work around the new "mstack" feature...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/systemd-260-rc1

#systemd

📰 React Moves to the Linux Foundation With Launch of the React Foundation

React and React Native will now operate under the newly formed React Foundation, hosted by the Linux Foundation and backed by major industry members.

🔗 Source: https://linuxiac.com/react-moves-to-the-linux-foundation-with-launch-of-the-react-foundation/

#linux

📰 Kernel 6.19: GPU, SoC, and Rust improvements

Collabora continues to be a key contributor to the Linux kernel, with 125 patches from 21 developers! Highlights include Arm Mali GPU improvements, expanded MediaTek and Rockchip SoC support, Rust integration progress, and new Rockchip video capture functionality.

🔗 Source: https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/news-and-events/kernel-619-gpu-soc-rust-improvements.html

#linux #kernel #arm

📰 Linux 6.18 LTS / 6.12 LTS / 6.6 LTS Support Periods Extended

Greg Kroah-Hartman today extended the planned maintenance periods of the latest Linux 6.18, Linux 6.12, and Linux 6.6 Long Term Support (LTS) kernel series...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.18-LTS-6.12-6.6-Extend

#linux #kernel

📰 RK3588 and RK3576 video decoders support merged in the upstream Linux Kernel

Support for Rockchip’s VDPU381 and VDPU383 decoders is now upstream in Linux, bringing mainline H.264/HEVC decode support, robust IOMMU-reset recovery, and new HEVC V4L2 UAPI controls aligned with Vulkan Video.

🔗 Source: https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/news-and-events/rk3588-and-rk3576-video-decoders-support-merged-in-the-upstream-linux-kernel.html

#linux #kernel

KDE Plasma 6.6 First Look – 9 INSANE Features I Didn’t Expect

—> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe8DXLxFRQY

📰 Showtime video player edges closer to Ubuntu debut

Those testing Ubuntu 26.04 daily builds or monthly snapshots may have noticed that Showtime, GNOME’s spiffy new video player, is not preinstalled in the ‘extended selection’, despite being announced as a replacement for Totem. It’s especially confusing since Resources system monitor, announced as a software swap the same time as Showtime, has been on the ISO for a while.

🔗 Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/02/showtime-video-player-ubuntu-2604-coming-soon

#ubuntu #gnome

📰 GStreamer 1.28.1 Released with Support for the AV1 Stateful V4L2 Decoder

GStreamer 1.28.1 open-source multimedia framework is now available for download with a new Whisper-based speech-to-text transcription element and many other changes.

🔗 Source: https://9to5linux.com/gstreamer-1-28-1-released-with-support-for-the-av1-stateful-v4l2-decoder

#opensource

📰 Some Linux kernels just got a nice LTS end-of-life extension, including 6.12

As much as the FOSS community has an excellent record for maintaining its software for long periods of time after a new version releases, people can't maintain an operating system forever. At some point, you have to cut off the old versions and redirect your efforts onto the newer ones. As such, Linux kernels do have an end-of-life date where support will end for that version.

🔗 Source: https://www.xda-developers.com/some-linux-kernels-just-got-a-nice-lts-end-of-life-date-extension/

#linux

📰 Intel Vulkan Driver Sees Some Minor Optimizations For DX12 Games On Linux

Merged to Mesa 26.1-devel this week is a minor improvement to the Intel "ANV" Vulkan driver providing some slight enhancements to DirectX 12 games running on Linux by way of Valve's Steam Play with VKD3D-Proton...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Mesa-26.1-Intel-ANV-DX12-Minor

#steam #linux #intel

📰 CoreCollective is a New Consortium Bringing the Arm Software Ecosystem Under One Roof

The likes of AMD, Canonical, Google, Huawei, Qualcomm, Red Hat, and others are on board.

🔗 Source: https://itsfoss.com/news/corecollective-launch/

#amd #arm

📰 AlmaLinux Showing Nice Growth With More Than 2M System Update Check-Ins Per Week

AlmaLinux as one of the leading, modern and community-minded alternatives to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) continues enjoying very nice growth. In their 2025 Year In Review they provided a look at their growth with now having more than two million systems per week checking in for software updates...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/AlmaLinux-2M-Weekly-Check-Ins

#linux

📰 Debian 14 will drop Gtk2 – unless Ardour rides to the rescue

Many dependent apps, including FreePascal and Lazarus, face the chop Version 2 of the widely used Gtk toolkit will be dropped from the next Debian release. The problem is that many things still need it, including FreePascal and its Lazarus IDE.…

🔗 Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/02/26/debian_14_will_drop_gtk2/

#debian

📰 Tails 7.5 Updates Tor Browser to 15.0.7 and Improves Thunderbird Security

Tails 7.5, a privacy-focused Linux distro, upgrades Tor Browser to 15.0.7, updates the Tor client to 0.4.9.5, and improves Thunderbird security.

🔗 Source: https://linuxiac.com/tails-7-5-privacy-focused-linux-distro-released/

#linux #distro

📰 Linux 7.1 Looks To Support Extended Attributes On Sockets For New GNOME & systemd Functionality

While the Linux 7.0 feature merge window ended this past weekend and that next kernel release won't debut as stable until April, there are already features out on the horizon that are being positioned for likely merging into the Linux 7.1 kernel assuming no issues appear or objections raised by Linus Torvalds. One of the features already looking like it will be submitted for Linux 7.1 is supporting extended attributes on sockets...

🔗 Source: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.1-Looks-xattrs-Sockets

#linux #systemd #gnome #kernel