The next release of systemd has been percolating for an unusually long time. Systemd releases are usually about six months apart, but v257 came out in December 2024, and v258 just now seems to be nearing the finish line; the third release candidate for v258 was published on August 20 (release notes). Now is a good time to dig in and take a look at some of the new features, enhancements, and removals coming soon to systemd. These include new workload-management features, a concept for multiple home-directory environments, and the final, once-and-for-all removal of support for control groups version 1.
Attendees at EuroPython had the chance to preview part of Python: The Documentary during a keynote panel. The full film, created by CultRepo, is now available on YouTube:
This is the story of the world's most beloved programming language: Python. What began as a side project in Amsterdam during the 1990s became the software powering artificial intelligence, data science and some of the world's biggest companies. But Python's future wasn't certain; at one point it almost disappeared.
This 90-minute documentary features Guido van Rossum, Travis Oliphant, Barry Warsaw, and many more, and they tell the story of Python's rise, its community-driven evolution, the conflicts that almost tore it apart, and the language's impact on... well... everything.
The video of the keynote is also available.
Alyssa Rosenzweig has written a blog post
about her work to help ship a "great driver
" for the Apple M1
GPU that supports OpenGL, Vulkan, and enables gaming with Proton.
We've succeeded beyond my dreams. The challenges I chased, I have tackled. The drivers are fully upstream in Mesa. Performance isn't too bad. With the Vulkan on Apple myth busted, conformant Vulkan is now coming to macOS via LunarG's KosmicKrisp project building on my work.
Satisfied, I am now stepping away from the Apple ecosystem. My friends in the Asahi Linux orbit will carry the torch from here.
Rosenzweig indicates her next project will be working on Intel's Xe-HPG graphics architecture. LWN covered her talk on Apple M1/M2 GPU drivers in October 2024.
The Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) language is used by web browsers to style XML content to make it easily readable; XSLT is part of the HTML living standard that is maintained by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG). Only a small fraction of web sites serve content that requires web browsers to support XSLT, in part because major browser implementations have neglected the technology over the past 25 years. Now, it seems, they would like to rid themselves of it entirely. A plan to disable XSLT in Blink (Chrome's rendering engine) and a pull request by a Google Chrome developer to remove mentions of the specification from the HTML standard have been met with opposition, but arguments in favor of XSLT have proven ineffective.
The GhostBSD project has released version 25.02 of the
FreeBSD-based desktop operating system. This release brings GhostBSD
up to date with FreeBSD 14.3,
includes enhancements for the Software Station package management
application, and introduces an "OS X-like
" desktop environment
based on GNUstep called Gershwin:
This early preview includes:
- GNUstep-based desktop environment with familiar OS X-style interface
- Seamless integration with GhostBSD tools through wrappers for installer, Software Station, Backup Station, and Update Station
- Support for running non-GNUstep applications alongside GNUstep apps
- Several included GNUstep applications to get you started
LWN covered GhostBSD in June 2024.
Starting next year, Android will require all apps to be registered by verified developers in order to be installed by users on certified Android devices. This creates crucial accountability, making it much harder for malicious actors to quickly distribute another harmful app after we take the first one down. Think of it like an ID check at the airport, which confirms a traveler's identity but is separate from the security screening of their bags; we will be confirming who the developer is, not reviewing the content of their app or where it came from.
The PyCon team has announced that all PyCon US 2025 recordings are now available on its YouTube channel.
We had an amazing and diverse group of community members join us for PyCon US 2025, attending from 58 different countries! By the numbers, we welcomed a total attendance of 2,225 Pythonistas to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. We couldn't be more grateful for all who supported the Python ecosystem and helped make PyCon US 2025 a huge success.
See the LWN conference index for coverage of some of the talks from PyCon US 2025.
In July 2024, Let's Encrypt, the nonprofit TLS certificate authority (CA), announced that it would be ending support for the online certificate status protocol (OCSP), which is used to determine when a server's signing certificate has been revoked. This prevents a compromised key from being used to impersonate a web server. The organization cited privacy concerns, and recommended that people rely on certificate revocation lists (CRLs) instead. On August 6, Let's Encrypt followed through and disabled its OCSP service. This poses a problem for Linux systems that must now rely on CRLs because, unlike on other operating systems, there is no standardized way for Linux programs to share a CRL cache.
Even more encouraging, COSS project communities continue along healthy growth paths after the company receives venture funding. In essence, highly valued COSS companies tend to cultivate more vibrant, diverse, and integral open source ecosystems, reinforcing the idea that business value and community value are tightly coupled in successful COSS models.
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