GNU/Linux and BSD Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jan 14, 2026

• Desktop/Laptop

  • Crashing 3 times a week and secretly stealing data like crazy? A programmer's journey of migrating to Linux: "I finally deleted Windows 11 completely." [Ed: In Chinese]

    Today, when Microsoft ignores users' anger and continues to "mess up" Windows 11, switching to Linux is no longer exclusive to geeks but a practical choice for more and more developers. If you've been hesitating for a long time, now is the best time to embrace Linux.

• Server

  • Kodi Foundation ☛ Scheduled Maintenance: 12th/13th January, 2026

    The servers didn't come back up for some reason - we've tried a few things, but that didn't work so we're now working with the hosting provider to resolve this. We don't yet have any timeline for resolution.

• Desktop Environments (DE)/Window Managers (WM)

  • GNOME Desktop/GTK

    • It's FOSS ☛ Exploring Dash to Dock: (Probably) The Most Downloaded GNOME Extension

      Considering the vast configuration options it offers, you can guess why so many GNU/Linux users prefer Dash to Dock over others.

• Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Kev Quirk ☛ Linux in the Air

    I think a lot of this Linux revival is thanks to a perfect storm going on in the OS space, namely:

    • Microsoft forcing many users to buy new hardware because of arbitrary hardware requirements, as well as forcing users to have an online accounts.
    • Apple completely screwing up MacOS Tahoe with their Liquid Glass update.

  • BSD

    • Undeadly ☛ LACP mode removed from trunk(4)

      David Gwynne (dlg@) has removed LACP mode from the trunk(4) network driver. The commit message explains the reasoning: [...]

    • Ruben Schade ☛ freebsd-update hanging on “rebuild these ports”

      We’ll soon be moving on from Colin Percival’s freebsd-update(8) mechanism. It’s served us well ever since those 7.x days, and I’m thankful for all the time savings. As its swan song here, I’m using git to upgrade the last of my personal fleet that runs RELEASE to version 15. I’ve done this dozens of times before, and all has gone smoothly.