Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian) is a free operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux and optimised for the Raspberry Pi hardware (the armhf processor architecture). Raspberry Pi OS comes with over 35,000 packages, or pre-compiled software bundled in a nice format for easy installation on a Raspberry Pi. The initial build was completed in June of 2012, but the distribution continues to be active developed with an emphasis on improving the stability and performance of as many Debian packages as possible. Although Debian produces a distribution for the arm architecture, it is compatible only with versions later than the one used on the Raspberry Pi (ARMv7-A CPUs and higher vs the Raspberry Pi's ARMv6 CPU).
EasyOS is an experimental Linux distribution which uses many of the technologies and package formats pioneered by Puppy Linux. The distribution features custom container technology called Easy Containers which can run applications or the entire desktop environment in a container. Packages, desktop settings, networking and sharing resources over the network can all be controlled through graphical utilities.
Dictionaries are ubiquitous in Python code; they are the data structure of
choice for a wide variety of tasks. But dictionaries are mutable, which
makes them problematic for sharing data in concurrent code. Python has
added various concurrency features to the language over the last decade or
so—
async,
free threading without the global interpreter lock
(GIL), and
independent subinterpreters—but users must work out their own
solution for an immutable dictionary that can be safely shared by
concurrent code. There are existing modules that could be used, but a recent proposal,
PEP 814 ("Add frozendict
built-in type"), looks to bring the feature to the language itself.
Andreas Schneider has announced
version 2.0 of the cmocka
unit-testing framework for C:
This release represents a major modernization effort, bringing
cmocka firmly into the "modern" C99 era while maintaining the
simplicity and ease of use that users have come to expect.
One of the most significant changes in cmocka 2.0 is the migration
to C99 standard integer types. The LargestIntegralType typedef has
been replaced with intmax_t and uintmax_t from
stdint.h, providing better type safety and portability across
different platforms. Additionally, we've adopted the bool type where
appropriate, making the code more expressive and self-documenting.
Using intmax_t and uintmax_t also allows to print
better error messages. So you can now find
e.g. assert_int_equal and assert_uint_equal.
cmocka 2.0 introduces a comprehensive set of type-specific
assertion macros, including `assert_uint_equal()`,
`assert_float_equal()`, and enhanced pointer assertions. The mocking
system has also been significantly improved with type-specific macros
like `will_return_int()` and `will_return_float()`. The same for
parameter checking etc.
LWN covered the
project early in its development in 2013. See the full list of new
features, enhancements, and bug fixes in cmocka 2.0 in the changelog.
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (expat and libxml2), Debian (openvpn and webkit2gtk), Fedora (gi-loadouts, kf6-kcoreaddons, kf6-kguiaddons, kf6-kjobwidgets, kf6-knotifications, kf6-kstatusnotifieritem, kf6-kunitconversion, kf6-kwidgetsaddons, kf6-kxmlgui, nanovna-saver, persepolis, python-ezdxf, python-pyside6, sigil, stb, syncplay, tinyproxy, torbrowser-launcher, ubertooth, and usd), Mageia (cups), SUSE (cups, gegl, icinga2, mozjs128, and Security), and Ubuntu (ghostscript, kernel, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.15, linux-gcp-5.15, linux-hwe-5.15, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-5.15, linux-intel-iotg, linux-intel-iotg-5.15, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-tegra, linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15, linux-nvidia-tegra-igx, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-5.15, linux-xilinx-zynqmp, linux, linux-aws, linux-aws-hwe, linux-kvm, linux-oracle, linux-aws-fips, linux-fips, linux-aws-fips, linux-fips, linux-gcp-fips, linux-azure-fips, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-4.15, linux-hwe, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-6.8, linux-gke, linux-gkeop, linux-gcp-6.14, linux-raspi, linux-gcp-fips, linux-intel-iot-realtime, linux-realtime, linux-raspi, linux-raspi-realtime, linux-xilinx, and postgresql-14, postgresql-16, postgresql-17).
Proxmox is a commercial company offering specialised products based on Debian GNU/Linux, notably Proxmox Virtual Environment and Proxmox Mail Gateway. Proxmox Virtual Environment is an open-source virtualisation platform for running virtual appliances and virtual machines. Proxmox Mail Gateway is a mail gateway with anti-spam and anti-virus features. The products are offered as free downloads with paid-for support and subscription options.
KDE neon is a Ubuntu-based Linux distribution and live DVD featuring the latest KDE Plasma desktop and other KDE community software. Besides the installable DVD image, the project provides a rapidly-evolving software repository with all the latest KDE software. Two editions of the product are available - a "User" edition, designed for those interested in checking out the latest KDE software as it gets released, and a "Developer's" edition, created as a platform for testing cutting-edge KDE applications.
FunOS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution which features the JWM graphical user interface. The project is intended to be more lightweight than official Ubuntu community editions while providing the same application compatibility and hardware support.
Version:next-20251204 (linux-next)
Released:2025-12-04
LinuxHub Prime is an Arch-based Linux distribution with a customised Openbox window manager as the default desktop environment. Its main feature is a unique installer that provides one-click installation options for several popular window managers and desktop environments, including Awesome, bspwm, Budgie, Cinnamon, Deepin, GNOME, Hyprland, KDE Plasma, MATE, Qtile and Xfce. The installer also includes "Prime Builder", a tool for creating a custom respin of the distribution.
Loris Cro has published
a detailed YouTube video talking about the terminology used to discuss asynchronicity, concurrency, and parallelism in our recent article about Zig's new Io interface. Our article is not completely clear because it uses the term "asynchronous I/O" to refer to what should really be called "non-blocking I/O", and sometimes confuses asynchronicity for concurrency, among other errors of terminology, he says. Readers interested in precise details about Zig's approach and some of the motivation behind the design may find Cro's video interesting.
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
- Front: Rust in Debian; Python comprehensions; asynchronous Zig; BPF and io_uring; C safety; 6.18 statistics; just.
- Briefs: Landlock; Let's Encrypt lifetimes; Last 5.4 kernel; TAB election; AlmaLinux 10.1; FreeBSD 15.0; NixOS 25.11; Django 6.0; Home Assistant 2025.12; PHP 8.5.0; Racket 9.0; Quotes; ...
- Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
Alpine Linux is a community developed operating system designed for routers, firewalls, VPNs, VoIP boxes, containers, and servers. It was designed with security in mind; it has proactive security features like PaX and SSP that prevent security holes in the software to be exploited. The C library used is musl and the base tools are all in BusyBox. Those are normally found in embedded systems and are smaller than the tools found in GNU/Linux systems.
Version
2025.12 of the Home Assistant home-automation system has been released.
This month, we're unveiling Home Assistant Labs, a brand-new space
where you can preview features before they go mainstream. And what
better way to kick it off than with Winter mode? ❄️ Enable it and
watch snowflakes drift across your dashboard. It's completely
unnecessary, utterly delightful, and exactly the kind of thing we
love to build. ❄️
But that's just the beginning. We've been working on making
automations more intuitive over the past releases, and this release
finally delivers purpose-specific triggers and conditions. Instead
of thinking in (numeric) states, you can now simply say "When a
light turns on" or "If the climate is heating". It's automation
building the way our mind works, as it should be.
Parrot (formerly Parrot Security OS) is a Debian-based, security-oriented distribution featuring a collection of utilities designed for penetration testing, computer forensics, reverse engineering, hacking, privacy, anonymity and cryptography. The product, developed by Frozenbox, comes with MATE as the default desktop environment.
Volumio (formerly RaspyFi) is a Debian-based Linux distribution designed and fine-tuned exclusively for music playback. It runs on a variety of devices, typically small and cheap computers like the Raspberry Pi, but also on low-power personal computers, notebooks or thin clients. It aims to fully integrate Music Player Daemon, an open-source music player server, into the current Debian releases and to optimise it for Audiophile-quality music playback. Volumio also makes it simple to play music library directly from a USB storage device or from any network-attached storage and it also enables users to listen to web-based radio stations from Spotify, Last.fm and SoundCloud.
The
Django Python web
framework project has
announced
the release of Django 6.0 including many new features, as can be seen in
the
release
notes. Some highlights include template partials for modularizing
templates, a flexible task framework for running background tasks, a
modernized email API, and a
Content
Security Policy (CSP) feature that provides the ability to "easily configure and enforce browser-level security policies to protect against content injection".
Refracta is a Linux distribution based on Devuan GNU+Linux (a systemd-free fork of Debian), designed primarily for home computer users and also for use as a system rescue and recovery disk. It provides a simple and familiar layout using the Xfce desktop. Other desktop environments and additional software packages are available from the Devuan package repository. Besides providing a Linux distribution on a live CD, the project also develops useful tools, such as refractainstaller, refractasnapshot and refracta2usb which allow users to customize the installation and create custom live CD or live USB images.
Over time, many Linux users wind up with a collection of aliases,
shell scripts, and makefiles to run simple commands (or a series of
commands) that are often used, but challenging to remember and
annoying to type out at length. The just command runner is a
Rust-based utility that just does one thing and does it well: it reads
recipes from a text file (aptly called a "justfile"), and runs the
commands from an invoked recipe. Rather than accumulating a library
of one-off shell scripts over time, just provides a cross-platform tool
with a framework and well-documented syntax for collecting and
documenting tasks that makes it useful for solo users and
collaborative projects.
Security updates have been issued by Debian (containerd, mako, and xen), Fedora (forgejo, nextcloud, openbao, rclone, restic, and tigervnc), Oracle (firefox, kernel, libtiff, libxml2, and postgresql), SUSE (libecpg6, lightdm-kde-greeter, python-cbor2, python-mistralclient-doc, python315, and python39), and Ubuntu (kdeconnect, linux, linux-aws, linux-realtime, python-django, and unbound).
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