In the past few weeks on Phoronix we have explored a fresh look at the open-source Nouveau/NVK performance compared to the NVIDIA 580 packaged Linux driver as well as a multi-generation Nouveau vs. NVIDIA comparison from the GeForce GTX 980 to RTX 5080 since the forthcoming NVIDIA R590 driver series is ending the GTX 900/1000 series support. Today's article provides another round of fresh open-source NVIDIA Linuc graphics performance data using the upstream open-source Nouveau and Mesa NVK/Zink drivers compared not only to the current NVIDIA packaged driver but also competitively for how the GeForce RTX 50 line-up compares to the current AMD Radeon RX 9000 series graphics cards.

As part of the New Feature Branch, NVIDIA driver version 590.48.01 released today for Linux with a few more fixes.

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TrueNAS CORE (previously known as FreeNAS) is a free and Open Source Network-Attached Storage (NAS) operating system that supports file, block and object storage. TrueNAS CORE is FreeBSD based and is a community-supported branch of the TrueNAS project, sponsored by iXsystems. It also has a commercial branch called TrueNAS Enterprise and a free and HyperConverged storage solution called TrueNAS SCALE. The TrueNAS SCALE branch is based on the Debian Linux distribution.

Flatcar Container Linux is a container-optimized operating system based on Gentoo Linux. It is a minimal operating system image which includes only the tools needed to run containers and it supports all of the popular methods for running containers. The distribution ships an immutable filesystem and includes automatic atomic updates. Flatcar Container Linux runs on most cloud providers, virtualization platforms and bare metal servers.

The Mesa team have released Mesa 25.3.2 as the latest bug-fix release for the current main stable branch of open source Linux graphics drivers.

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They did a Vampire Survivors update, so sure why not Revenge of the Savage Planet too? Two Point Museum has expanded again in a free update.

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A second GIMP 3.2 release candidate (RC) is now available for testing, should you fancy sampling the various changes on course for the upcoming stable release. GIMP 3.2 iterates on the huge GIMP 3.0 release that landed earlier this year, which took more than 7 years to get in to shape. No lengthy gap for GIMP 3.2 or successors as the team switches to an accelerated development cycle. Below I run through what’s changed since GIMP 3.2 RC1. That build, along with the GIMP 3.1.2 & 3.1.4 dev releases, added lots of new features. There are no new features here, as the point […]

You're reading GIMP 3.2 Release Candidate 2 Brings a Glut of Fixes, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Dune: Awakening from Funcom is getting a big free Chapter 3 update early next year, with the details of it now being revealed along with a paid DLC.

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Beyond the Firefox browser to see more changes under its new CEO, the Thunderbird mail client is also expected to see some big changes in the new year...

Qt 6.11 Beta 1 is out on-schedule with the code having entered its feature freeze and code branching earlier this month. This toolkit is working toward the stable Qt 6.11 stable debut in March...

Intel ISPC 1.29 released on Wednesday as the newest feature update to this Implicit SPMD Program Compiler as a C variant able to target Intel hardware from their CPUs to GPUs for SIMD programming...

Just like they promised after adding some classic Total War games to GOG, another has arrived with Total War: THREE KINGDOMS now on the DRM-free store.

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One of my favourite games released in 2025, BALL x PIT from Kenny Sun and Friends / Devolver Digital has sold well enough that it's getting free upgrades.

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One missed from earlier this month is Neath, a roguelike tactical RPG set in a decaying world shadowed by an irradiated, inverted tower.

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The highly rated co-op zombie horde shooter World War Z is set for a big addition with a DLC featuring the The Walking Dead.

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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.

Nyarch Linux is an Arch-based, rolling-release Linux distribution designed for "weebs", or non-Japanese persons interested in anime, manga, cosplay and other aspects of the Japanese culture. Some of the distribution's custom features include "Catgirl Downloader" which downloads random pictures of cute catgirls, "Nyarch Assistant", a digital companion which helps with a range of computing and real-life tasks, "Material UwU" which serves as a desktop wallpaper and theme chooser, and "Nyarch Customize", a tool to facilitate desktop layout customisations and animations. Besides the standard release, the project also provides a special variant with pre-configured proprietary NVIDIA display drivers; both come with the GNOME desktop.

Trace Labs OSINT VM is a Kali Linux-based distribution with specialist open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools to help find missing persons and reunite them with their families. It is provided as a set of pre-built images for VMware and Virtual Box virtual machines. The OSINT tools, which need to be downloaded separately via a helper script, include Email Search (to perform email searches via social media, breach info, and other sources), Multi Search (to perform searches over multiple sources, such as social media, domains, IPs, phone numbers), Username Search (to check username availability across multiple platforms), Social Media (to gather OSINT from popular social media platforms). Also included are Phone Numbers, Images & Video Analysis, Documentation & Capture; Geolocation & Mapping, among various other useful tools.

AMD Ryzen AI Max+ "Strix Halo" is beautifully awesome. Probably my favorite hardware of 2025 whether it's in desktop form with the likes of the Framework Desktop or for very powerful laptops between the Zen 5 CPU cores and very capable Radeon 8060S Graphics within devices like the HP ZBook Ultra G1a. If you are interested by Strix Halo too and looking for a way to obtain one without the high price, AMD is running a holiday special of those contributing PyTorch and vLLM ROCm bug fixes for Strix Halo laptops...

Announced one year ago was KDE Internet of Things "Kiot" with an emphasis on providing nice integration between the KDE Plasma desktop and Home Assistant for handling open-source home automation. Development on Kiot sadly fell through the cracks for most of the year but development on it recently restarted...

OpenShot 3.4 brings 32% faster performance, LUT colour grading, new effects, and on-canvas editing tools. Details on how to get this update inside.

You're reading OpenShot 3.4: New Effects, Better Performance & LUT Support, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Intel's Video Processing Library "libvpl" is out with a new version ahead of the holidays. The only major change with libvpl 2.16 is adding experimental APIs for AI-assisted video encode functionality...

Systemd 259 is out as the newest feature release for this widely-used Linux init system and service manager. Yes, there are more features in tow for this systemd release to top off 2025...

A new set of patches posted today to the Linux kernel mailing list begin adapting the Linux software RAID code paths to begin making use of the folio data structure...