Do you waddle the waddle?
Around the world, the Internet Society’s 130 chapters and Special Interest Groups (SIGs) work locally, regionally, and globally to keep the Internet a force for good: open, globally connected, secure, and trustworthy. Each month, we provide a brief overview of just some of the things they have achieved in the previous month.
M5Stack is preparing to launch the Tab5, a 5-inch smart touch terminal powered by the ESP32-P4 RISC-V processor, in early May. Designed as a compact and integrated platform for interactive applications, the device combines a multi-touch display, flexible I/O options, and wireless connectivity within a modular form factor.
OpenEmbed is developing the MeshWalkie, a handheld wireless device built around the ESP32-S3, SX1262 LoRa module, and L76K GNSS, using the enclosure of a Quansheng UV-K6 radio. The device is described as an open-source platform for LoRa, Wi-Fi, and GPS-based applications, including support for Meshtastic.
ASUS has recently unveiled a new ATX motherboard based on the Intel Q870 chipset, designed to support Intel Core Ultra Processors (Series 2) using the LGA1851 socket. While not yet officially launched, this upcoming board targets industrial computing and embedded applications with a combination of modern performance and legacy interface support.
The platform uses the “SoldierCrab” FPGA System-on-Module, which integrates an LFE5U-25F FPGA, PSRAM, a USB PHY, and SPI flash. This module connects to a mainboard that handles power delivery, user input, debugging, and expansion. Users can switch between eight predefined bitstreams using a rotary encoder, with output channels soft-muted during reconfiguration. No computer is required for this process.
HydraLink allows real-time packet forwarding between two interfaces when used in a master-slave pair configuration. This setup can be used to establish a transparent Layer 2 bridge for observing and manipulating traffic between automotive endpoints. Both 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps communication speeds are supported, and users can switch between modes using simple CLI commands.
The VP2430 is a compact, fanless network appliance based on Intel’s N-series platform. As part of the Vault Pro series, it builds on earlier models such as the VP2410 and VP2420, introducing incremental enhancements in processing capability, thermal management, and connectivity.
Highlights of Calibre 8.4 include a new option to generate KEPUB files that have better text justification at the cost of gaps in highlighting when used on a Kobo ebook reader and support for extending the background image specified in the Style section of the E-book viewer preferences under the page margins.
Powered by the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU featuring 24 cores and threads, the new Serval WS laptop features a brand-new 16-inch display with 2560×1600 (2K) resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, and 16:10 aspect ratio, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti graphics, up to 96GB of DDR5 5600 MHz RAM, and up to 12TB PCIe 5.0 and 4.0 storage.
Linux Mint 22.2 “Zara” will be based on Canonical’s long-term supported Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) operating system series, just like the Linux Mint 22 series. The Linux Mint project leader also unveiled the codename of the upcoming LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) 7 distribution as “Gigi”.
KDE Gear 25.04.1 is here to fix the session restore functionality and the background of the new status bar when using non-Breeze styles in the Dolphin file manager, fix a crash in the KOrganizer calendar and scheduling application, and fix a crash during logout in the NeoChat Matrix client.
Highlights of Mesa 25.1 include a fully mainlined Asahi driver as its UAPI was merged into the kernel, support for Mali G720/G925 GPUs in the Panfrost driver, YCbCr, dualSrcBlend, and Vulkan 1.2 support in the PanVK driver for Mali v10+ GPUs (Gxxx), and Zink/NVK as the default driver for NVIDIA GPUs, finally replacing the old nouveau driver.
Coming a month after fwupd 2.0.8, this release introduces support for Intel Arc ‘Battlemage’ GPUs, the ability to allow installing multiple database certificate updates at the same time, support for showing what certificate signed the EFI authenticated variable, new documentation about updating the KEK and database, as well as the ability to use readline to look up inputs from user, and make it optional.
The new Raspberry Pi OS release improves screen locking by adding a custom front end that gives them a bit more feedback as to what is happening, while allowing them to lock the screen by pressing Ctrl+Alt+L, or by via the ‘Lock Screen’ option in the ‘Shutdown…’ dialog.
Slimbook Kymera Black is designed to adapt to the needs of every user, offering them a high level of customization and configurability, without compromising power and reliability. It features a versatile and innovative modular design ideal for professional or gaming use.
As expected, the first Ubuntu 25.10 daily builds are based on the previous Ubuntu release, Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin), which arrived last month on April 17th, which means that they include the same core components and software versions as the Plucky Puffin release, such as Linux kernel 6.14 and GNOME 48 desktop.
Linux Mint is one of the most famous distributions out there, and it’s generally thought of as a beginner-friendly Linux distribution. It indeed is.