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Canonical/Ubuntu: Dracut, Performance, Avnet, and Download
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Linuxiac ☛ Ubuntu 25.10 Switches to Dracut as Default Initramfs Tool
For readers who aren’t too tech-savvy, I will immediately clarify that the initramfs is the temporary root filesystem the Linux kernel uses at boot. It contains the drivers and scripts needed to mount the actual system and get everything running. And just for reference, Ubuntu has relied on initramfs-tools for nearly two decades.
Surprising to many or not, Dracut was originally developed in the Fedora/Red Hat ecosystem. What makes it stand out is that, instead of relying on big sets of custom shell scripts, it builds the initramfs image using small, reusable modules.
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Extreme Tech ☛ Ubuntu 25.10 Outperforms Windows 11 25H2 in First CPU Benchmarks
There's still about a month before Microsoft's Windows 11 25H2 and Canonical's Ubuntu 25.10 come out, but right now, we've got benchmarks comparing the two. The hardware Phoronix used to test the competing operating systems included an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU with 16 cores and 32 threads, 32GB DDR5-6000 memory, a 1TB Crucial PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD, and an AMD Radeon RX 9070 GPU. For consistency, all other software and hardware configurations remained unchanged between OS installations. The benchmarks focused entirely on CPU performance, avoiding graphics testing for now.
Windows 11 25H2 and 24H2 rely on a shared servicing branch, meaning new code for 25H2 is added in a disabled state during monthly cumulative updates to 24H2 and only enabled with a quick reboot once a user updates to 25H2. This minimizes downtime and attempts to give users a seamless transition experience.
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Avnet and Canonical partner to deliver production-ready embedded Linux solutions with Ubuntu Pro
Avnet, and Farnell Global have announced a strategic partnership with Canonical, the publisher of Ubuntu, to deliver enterprise-grade embedded and edge solutions powered by Ubuntu Pro for Devices. By combining Avnet’s strength in high-volume distribution with Farnell’s focus on high-service and smaller-quantity customers, this collaboration gives customers a direct path to deploy the world’s leading Linux distribution on validated Avnet hardware, backed by deep engineering expertise and a long-term security maintenance commitment.
Ubuntu Pro for Devices delivers up to 10 years of security maintenance, compliance tooling, and device management for embedded devices running Ubuntu. The subscription covers security maintenance for the operating system and open source frameworks and toolchains like Python, ROS and others typically used by IoT developers on Ubuntu. Now available through Avnet, Ubuntu Pro for Devices empowers businesses to achieve compliance with regulations like the EU Cyber Resilience Act.
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TechRadar ☛ Ubuntu users faced severe update delays following 36-minute Canonical server downtime
Canonical has reported a series of outages affecting security.ubuntu.com and archive.ubuntu.com on both September 5 and 7, but despite the minutes-long downtimes, users are reporting ongoing issues.
The brief downtime created a large backlog of requests that servers struggled to process, even though the status page was promptly updated to resolved.
In the days that followed, users continued to experience failed installations, frozen updates and broken repositories.
It's FOSS News:
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Ubuntu Switches to Dracut With 25.10: What Does It Mean for You?
It is only a matter of weeks before Ubuntu 25.10, the second interim release of the year, arrives. There are many niceties in store, like the inclusion of Linux kernel 6.17, two new default apps, and the removal of X11 in favor of Wayland.
But back to the main topic, there is a notable change that sees Ubuntu switch its default initramfs generator from the long-standing initramfs-tools to Dracut.