The open-source community, especially fans of lightweight desktop environments, has something exciting to look forward to: the Xfce 4.20 pre-release 2 is finally here, gearing up for the stable release on December 15.

Some of the highlights of the Linux 6.13 kernel series include support to run Linux in a protected virtual machine (a.k.a. realm) under the Arm CCA and the user Guarded Control Stack (GCS), support for 6-node sub-NUMA clustering on Intel, a new ACPI backlight quirk for Apple MacbookPro11,2 and Air7,2, and a new feature in the character device uAPI to notify the user-space about changes triggered by in-kernel users.

Coming more than four months after Qt Creator 14, the Qt Creator 15 release is here as a hefty update that introduces a visual refresh for enhanced usability with new light and dark themes that feature higher contrast and optimized spacing. Users can switch between the new themes from Preferences > Environment > Interface > Theme.

The monthly Nitrux release cycle continues and Nitrux 3.8 is here with the latest and greatest Linux 6.12 kernel by default and better support for NVIDIA users by enabling NVIDIA Dynamic Boost and the creation of NVIDIA device nodes, along with new udev rules for NVIDIA hardware.

7-Zip 24.09 open-source file archiver enhances compression with larger default dictionaries, new hash checksums, improved APM/HFS support, and bug fixes.

Lutris 0.5.18 open-source game manager for Linux brings default dark theme, advanced search tags, new game sources, DXVK v2.4 support, and more.

Proxmox Backup Server 3.3 brings faster backups, "push" sync jobs, removable data stores, webhook notifications, and more.

LXD 6.2 system container manager rolls out with GPU passthrough via CDI, enhanced VM migration, TLS fine-grained access, and more.

Calibre 7.22 ebook manager introduces improved Read Aloud features, system tray restart action, and bug fixes for Windows, macOS, DOCX, and PDF input.

Arch Linux 2024.12.01 is out now as the first Arch Linux ISO snapshot to include the latest and greatest Linux 6.12 kernel series by default, which should give you a boost when detecting hardware, especially on newer devices but also older ones where previous Arch Linux ISOs didn’t detect some of your components.

After 18 years on Ubuntu, OpenStreetMap (OSM) migrates its servers to Debian 12 Bookworm for a faster, more stable mapping experience.

Check out this week’s hottest news and access all the distro and package downloads released this past week in the 9to5Linux weekly roundup for December 1st, 2024.

NixOS 24.11 "Vicuna" has been released with over 8100 new packages, GNOME 47, Plasma 6.2, and Darwin SDK updates. Here's more on that!

Recently, both Weston 14.0, and 14.0.1 (bug fix) were released. Here's at look at some of the highlights and changes for this latest release of Wayland's reference compositor.