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9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: March 1st, 2026

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AerynOS 2026.02 Released with GNOME 49.4, KDE Plasma 6.6, and COSMIC 1.0.8

Powered by the long-term supported Linux 6.18.15 LTS kernel, AerynOS 2026.02 ships with the latest GNOME 49.4 desktop environment by default on the live ISO, but it also includes support for the latest KDE Plasma 6.6 desktop environment, which is accompanied by KDE Frameworks to 6.23 and KDE Gear 25.12.2.

Slackware-Based PorteuX 2.6 Released with Linux 6.19, TLP Support, and More

Coming two months after PorteuX 2.5, the PorteuX 2.6 release is powered by the latest and greatest Linux 6.19 kernel series, and features the KDE Plasma 6.5.5, GNOME 49.4, Xfce 4.20, LXQt 2.3, Cinnamon 6.6, COSMIC 1.0.8, MATE 1.28.2, and LXDE 0.11.1 desktop environments as standalone flavors.

BunsenLabs Carbon Is Here with Support for Wayland Sessions, Based on Debian 13

Based on the latest and greatest Debian GNU/Linux 13 “Trixie” operating system series and powered by the long-term supported Linux 6.12 LTS kernel series, BunsenLabs Carbon introduces support for launching Wayland sessions, along with a wrapper script for pkexec to run under Wayland.

LinuxGizmos.com

DFI IRN556 3.5-inch SBC supports Atom x7000RE and Twin Lake CPUs

DFI has introduced the IRN556, a 3.5-inch single board computer supporting Intel Atom x7000RE “Amston Lake” processors and Intel Processor N-series “Twin Lake” parts. The board targets industrial and embedded deployments requiring extended temperature operation and flexible I/O expansion.

Rockchip RK3588 and RK3576 video decoder support lands in mainline Linux

Collabora has announced that support for the VDPU381 and VDPU383 video decoder IP cores used in Rockchip’s RK3588 and RK3576 SoCs has been merged into the upstream Linux kernel. The update brings improved hardware decoding support for H.264 and HEVC to mainline Linux on these platforms.

ESP32-P4-PC board from Olimex offers HDMI and MIPI support

The ESP32-P4-PC is an embedded development board based on Espressif’s ESP32-P4 RISC-V processor. Developed by Olimex and measuring 90 x 60 mm, the board provides HDMI output, MIPI CSI and DSI interfaces, Ethernet, USB host ports, audio, storage, and expansion headers in a compact form factor.

LILYGO Unveils RISC-V ESP32-P4 T-Halow Board and ESP32-S3 E-Paper S3 Pro Lite

LILYGO has released two new ESP32-based products: the T-Halow P4, a compact development board built around Espressif’s ESP32-P4 RISC-V SoC with integrated Wi-Fi HaLow support, and the T5 E-Paper S3 Pro Lite, a 4.7-inch ESP32-S3 e-paper device positioned as a simplified version of the Pro model introduced in 2024.

news

I thought I knew Linux… until I tried this distro

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Mar 02, 2026

Quoting: I thought I knew Linux… until I tried this distro —

Most Linux distros evolve. NixOS shows up, cracks its knuckles, and politely questions that entire premise. If you have spent any serious time bouncing between Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, and whatever experimental ISO you impulse-downloaded after midnight, you probably feel like you know the rhythm by now. You install packages, tweak configs, break something, fix something, and pretend the breakage was character-building. That muscle memory runs deep. Which is exactly why NixOS feels so weird the first time you bump into it.

Because this is not just another distro with clean defaults and a slightly opinionated installer. NixOS is one of those rare projects that does not try to polish the familiar Linux experience. It quietly steps sideways and asks a more uncomfortable question: what if your entire operating system behaved like something you could actually describe, reproduce, and rebuild on demand?

That is usually the moment seasoned Linux users lean back a little and squint in curiosity.

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