Edition of
Thursday, 16 July 2026
Today’s edition gathers 74 stories from the wires of Ars Technica, The Register, Phoronix, and the front page of Hacker News. Headlines lead to the originating publication; where a discussion thread of substance exists, it is linked beneath the summary.
Windows 0-day drops the same day Microsoft releases record number of patches
HiveLegacy is a "powerful primitive" that's likely capable of other nefarious actions.
AMD Releases Lemonade 11.0 Local AI Server With Text-To-Speech, Other New Features
Ahead of the AMD Advancing AI event next week, today AMD released Lemonade 11.0 as the latest feature release of their local AI server supporting AMD Ryzen CPUs, AMD Radeon GPUs, and AMD Ryzen AI NPU acceleration...
FCC to repeal 39% TV ownership cap in boost for Trump-friendly news orgs
FCC chairman claims power to repeal TV ownership limit set by Congress.
In memoriam: 7 of our favorite Sam Neill films
The actor, who starred in 1993's Jurassic Park , died Monday in Sydney, Australia, at the age of 78.
Inkling: Our Open-Weights Model
Article URL: https://thinkingmachines.ai/news/introducing-inkling/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48924912 Points: 250 # Comments: 74
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Salesforce's Agentforce isn't winning over clients, KeyBanc analysts claim
Investment bank cites messy customer data and a product that 'just isn't there'; Salesforce counters by saying it the fastest-growing product in its history
Third-party app stores coming to Google Play next week as Epic settlement withdrawn
With the settlement withdrawn, Google is now bound by the court's full antitrust remedies.
Linus Torvalds tells AI haters to fork off
Linux supremo says contributors opposed to AI use can 'just walk away'
Dark patterns in Windows are steering users to Edge: Mozilla-commissioned report
Report finds regional differences, especially outside the EEA, but it's still a dark tale claiming user manipulation
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS vs. Windows 11 vs. CachyOS Performance On A $5399 Laptop
Earlier this month on Phoronix I reviewed the Razer Blade 18 RZ09-0582 as the first laptop Razer is certifying for Linux use via Canonical's hardware certification program for Linux. It offered very nice performance with the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 graphics albeit costly with a configured price of $5399 USD. That review featured benchmarks on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS…
Codex Micro
Article URL: https://openai.com/supply/co-lab/work-louder/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48923079 Points: 212 # Comments: 180
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
OpenAI's first branded hardware is... a light-up keyboard?
The Codex Micro is designed to monitor multiple agentic threads at a glance.
Running Gemma 4 26B at 5 tokens/sec on a 13-year-old Xeon with no GPU
Article URL: https://www.neomindlabs.com/2026/06/08/running-gemma-4-26b-at-5-tokens-sec-on-a-13-year-old-xeon-with-no-gpu/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48922434 Points: 169 # Comments: 94
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
CISA sounds alarm over trio of exploited SharePoint flaws
Three bugs are under active attack, and two more critical holes could add to the pain
OpenAI loses trademark dispute at EU court
Article URL: https://dpa-international.com/economics/urn:newsml:dpa.com:20090101:260715-930-389143/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48921461 Points: 185 # Comments: 122
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded
Article URL: https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/my-midlife-crisis-corolla-fast-furious-fully-modded/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48921303 Points: 118 # Comments: 251
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Towards a harness that can do anything
Article URL: https://eardatasci.github.io/c/ambiance/index.html Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48921077 Points: 128 # Comments: 66
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Microsoft cancels Patch Tuesday for some Dell users over surprise shutdowns, overheating devices
Mega hardware vendor reports problems - but Windows maker isn't yet naming affected models
Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)
Article URL: https://dev.moe/en/3025 Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48920475 Points: 200 # Comments: 95
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
The Three-Second Theft: Why AI Voice Fraud Outruns Every Defence
Article URL: https://smarterarticles.co.uk/the-three-second-theft-why-ai-voice-fraud-outruns-every-defence Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48920432 Points: 146 # Comments: 181
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
MPs fear Treasury cold feet could sink Whitehall's £1.15B shared services push
'Do as we fund, not as we do' sends 'very poor reputational signal' says damning report
LegacyHive: 'Bone-shattering' zero-day from Microsoft's serial tormentor not the haymaker that was promised
Experts say it’s a useful post-compromise tool, for those with the brain cells required to put it together
Linux Patches Finally Allow Apple Magic Keyboard/Mouse Battery Monitoring Via Bluetooth
Besides the ongoing challenges of enabling newer Apple Silicon SoC support on Linux, Apple peripheral support on Linux remains a mixed bag depending on the product as well. The latest functionality now being addressed is for having battery reporting work for the Apple Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard when connected via Bluetooth...
Briar is in maintenance mode
Article URL: https://briarproject.org/news/2026-maintenance-mode/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48919869 Points: 119 # Comments: 83
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
AWS sustainability claims don't hold water, lawsuit alleges
Ex-staffer accuses Amazon's Virginia datacenters of quietly guzzling H20 all year round, despite 'water positive' PR push
Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration (2023)
Article URL: https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/47/1/zsad253/7280269 Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48919363 Points: 589 # Comments: 296
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
A most improbable astronaut just went to space
"I pretty much, at that point in time, gave up on being an astronaut."
Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important
Article URL: https://ramones.dev/posts/mental-health/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48919198 Points: 235 # Comments: 175
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
EU lets wearables wriggle out of user-replaceable battery rules
Miniaturization means a professional's touch is needed
Weathergotchi – an E-Paper Climate Logger
Article URL: https://github.com/Michael-Manning/E-Paper-Climate-Logger Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48919013 Points: 104 # Comments: 23
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
How hard is it to build orbital data centers, actually?
"The ISS radiators are expensive and heavy. We're focused on making them cheap and light."
A moment of silence, please, for the final release of Debian on x86-32
New Debian versions hit FOSSland in the form of 13.6 and 12.15
Linus Torvalds Reaffirms That Linux Is Not "Anti-AI" & Not A "Social Warrior" Project
Overnight Linux creator Linus Torvalds wrote another well crafted message that reaffirms the Linux kernel position of not being against AI and lashing back against some kernel developers that are against AI/LLM usage within the kernel project...
Sotheby's big T. rex auction raises concerns hype and wealth are upending science
Private buyers are increasingly outbidding museums for fossils.
Vocalinux 0.14 Beta Released For Offline Voice Dictation / Speech-To-Text On Linux
Ubuntu 26.10 is notably working on laying the foundation for a context-aware desktop and their initial deliverable being worked on is Myna as a speech-to-text solution for the Linux desktop. Interestingly there is already a promising voice dictation / speech-to-text solution for the Linux desktop called Vocalinux that continues advancing and is usable right now for those looking at their own…
Telegram Serverless
Article URL: https://core.telegram.org/bots/serverless Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48918534 Points: 151 # Comments: 86
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
EU competition decision hands SAP customers more leverage in contract talks
Truce over maintenance fees is a bargaining chip for ECC holdouts – just don't expect a stampede to third-party support
FreeBSD Laptop Support Continues Improving With WiFi, GPU & Audio Driver Work
The FreeBSD Foundation's Laptop Support and Usability Project, which has received more than $750k USD in funding to improve the experience of FreeBSD on laptops, is out with its newest monthly progress report. A lot continues to happen for improving the FreeBSD laptop story, which in many aspects also benefits FreeBSD on the desktop too...
Mesa's Native Vulkan-To-Metal Driver Now Advertises Vulkan 1.4
KosmicKrisp as the Vulkan API driver built atop Apple's Metal API in Mesa for macOS and iOS systems is now advertising Vulkan 1.4 compatibility...
Software bloat? This elevator needs an 8GB Core i5
This elevator is headed for floor Bork
OpenMandriva's accused repo wrecker says it wasn't sabotage – it was a message
Ex-contributor claims he wasn't a rogue admin, hadn't left the project, and never intended to harm the distro
The Star Wars cantina scene shows we need a new hope for the agentic web
'We don't serve their kind here' protects today's publishers, but won't help rebels destroy the monetization Death Stars built by Google and Meta
At last, a good reason to buy an AI PC: Reining in runaway token bills
Gartner thinks we’re headed to a hybrid AI model where you offload stuff to the desktop whenever possible
South Korea to launch universal basic AI chatbot
Tender calls for providers to power free service with local LLMs, government to supply some GPUs
Australia demands AI companies must produce more energy than they consume, stop ‘theft’ of content
PM frames sweeping new regulations as the equivalent of labour movement touchstones like winning a minimum wage
Stripe and Advent have made a joint offer to acquire PayPal – sources
Article URL: https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/stripe-advent-offer-buy-paypal-more-than-53-billion-sources-say-2026-07-15/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48915953 Points: 189 # Comments: 93
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Khronos Lists First Conformant OpenCL 3.1 Implementation: Apple M1/M2 On Asahi Linux With Rusticl
Back in May OpenCL 3.1 was announced with a focus on AI and HPC workloads. Just over two months later, this incremental update over OpenCL 3.0 now has its first listed conformant OpenCL 3.1 implementation for passing the OpenCL 3.1 conformance test suite cases. It's Apple Silicon M1/M2 graphics running on Asahi Linux with the Mesa Rusticl driver...
Google Cloud's VMware service loses resilience due to a dud update
As VMware itself warns of critical flaw in its load balancer
OpenAI hides Codex agent instructions behind encryption, leaving developers in the dark
Developers worry encrypted MultiAgentV2 messages will make debugging and auditing harder
COSMIC Epoch 1.3 Released With New Frosted Glass Option
For those that were intrigued by the COSMIC desktop's "Frosted Glass" effect, it's now available in released form with today's COSMIC Epoch 1.3 release...
Microsoft’s Secure Boot has been broken for a decade and no one noticed until now
Old and forgotten "shims" Microsoft failed to revoke have made Secure Boot bypasses simple.
Trump admin puts Americans in Congo on "do-not-board" list, barring return
Citizens must now spend 21 days in a third country before they are allowed to come home.
Patchpocalypse Now: Microsoft tops last month's record with 622 Patch Tuesday CVEs
Remember when last month's 206 CVEs seemed eye-watering? Yeah, those were the days
Lawsuit claims Meta's layoff decisions were made by AI, not humans
Meta denies using AI to terminate workers with disabilities and medical problems.
FreeBSD 16 Retires The Last Of Its GPL Code From Its Base System
As of this past week in the FreeBSD source tree for FreeBSD 16, the last of the GNU GPL licensed code from the base system has been retired...
Probe into explosive diarrheal cases points to Taco Bell and bad lettuce
Federal officials have not confirmed a source yet—and there may be multiple sources.
BOSGAME VTA-439: A Great, Linux-Friendly Mini PC Powered By AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470
For those that were intrigued by the recent launch of the AMD Ryzen AI Halo developer platform with a very capable mini PC but looking for something more affordable and not needing quite as much horsepower or AI focus, BOSGAME recently launched their VTA-439 mini PC. The BOSGAME VTA-439 is powered by the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 with Radeon 890M graphics for those wanting still quite a capable mini…
US military sent explosive drone boats into combat for the first time
US military’s drone boats struck an Iranian naval port as war heats up again.
These painted e-tattoos could be the future of wearable biosensors
Conductive ink is painted directly onto the skin in colorful custom designs, drying into working electrodes.
Google revamps image search for its 25th anniversary with more images and more AI
The new Google image search will use your "unique interests" to create an always-updated gallery.
Blender 5.2 LTS Released With Many Great Enhancements
Blender 5.2 is out today as the newest Long Term Support release for this leading, open-source 3D modeling software...
System76 Launches New Adder Pro Laptop With NVIDIA GPU, 2K OLED & Up To 96GB RAM
System76 today announced their new Adder Pro laptop that they are promoting as the "gamer's dream machine" with its NVIDIA graphics, 2K OLED 500 nit display, up to 96GB RAM, and 3.37 lb weight...
New York bans data center construction for a year, rattling AI industry
New York’s data center moratorium may become the blueprint for anti-AI movement.
Linux Foundation's Latest Foray Is To Standardize Internet-Native Payments For AI Agents
There is yet-another-foundation being stewarded by the Linux Foundation that further broadens its scope outside of the typical Linux/open-source umbrella. Today the Linux Foundation announced the launch of the x402 Foundation for aiming to standardize Internet-native payments for AI agents and applications...
Boomers, not Gen Z, are the generation cutting back most on alcohol
New research overturns assumption that abstinent younger drinkers are behind weak demand.
Linux Kernel Graphics Driver Proposed For GlandaGPU: An Open-Source Soft GPU Core
A new Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) kernel graphics driver has been sent out for GlandaGPU, an open-source custom 3D graphics core designed in VHDL and running on FPGA hardware...
Intel IGC 2.38.2 Brings Latest Round Of Graphics Compiler Improvements
Ahead of the next Intel Compute Runtime release, IGC 2.38.2 was released today as the newest feature update to this open-source graphics compiler used by Intel iGPU/dGPU hardware on both Windows and Linux...
Intel Vulkan Driver Now Supports H.265 10-bit Video Encoding
Hyunjun Ko with Igalia continues advancing the Vulkan Video capabilities of the Intel open-source "ANV" Vulkan driver for Linux systems...
Linux Dealing With Apple's Wild Mess Of Sensors On Apple Silicon SoCs
While there has been the Apple System Management Controller "SMC" hardware monitoring driver with the intent on exposing battery/power stats as well as thermal and more for Apple Silicon SoCs on Linux, it hasn't yet been working out properly on the mainline kernel. Between missing Device Tree nodes to the hodgepodge mess of sensors between the different Apple M-Series SoCs, it's a mess...
Haiku Merges NVMM For Initial Virtualization Support, But It Doesn't Yet Fully Work
The BeOS-inspired Haiku open-source operating system project has published their June 2026 status report. In the past month the developers merged their NVMM VM monitor support, hardware driver improvements, and progressed toward the upcoming Haiku sixth beta release...
"Light" GRUB Alternative Package For Confidential Computing Approved For Fedora 45
A month ago there was a change proposal raised for offering a "light" version of the GRUB2 bootloader for use in confidential computing environments. While there were some differing views on the matter for this alternative, stripped-down GRUB package as opposed to just using other bootloaders like systemd-boot, ultimately, the proposal is now approved...
SpaceX is gearing up for Starship's 13th test flight later this week
This flight will put Starship under higher pressure and test out new Starlink satellites in orbit.
US continues to shun Ebola-infected citizens; second American sent to Germany
The man is said to be doing well in a Frankfurt hospital.
The US government warns that Russia state hackers are coming after your router
With residential proxies all the rage, CISA urges router users to be vigilant.