The Notepad app additions for version (version 11.2311.29.0) are as follows:

Edit with Notepad: Easily access Notepad for file modifications directly from File Explorer. Just right-click on any file or multiple files in File Explorer to find the [Edit with Notepad] option in the context menu, a quick and streamlined way to open and edit files in Notepad.

 

 

New Edit with Notepad option in the context menu in File Explorer.

 

Character Count: Keep track of your document’s length with the new character count display in the status bar. When text is selected, the status bar shows the character count for both the selected text and the entire document. If no text is selected, the character count for the entire document is displayed, ensuring you always have a clear view of your document’s length.

 

 

Character count for selected text in Notepad.

Canary and Dev Channel users will also be able to check out some improvements in the Microsoft Store:

Install as you browse: Introducing another quick way to get your favorite products: you can now install directly while browsing. Simply browse through the Store’s Home, Apps, or Games pages and hover over a product and click the install button. There are now fewer clicks to dive into new apps.

 

 

Improving discoverability of instant games: A few months ago, the Microsoft Store introduced games that you can play without downloading. We’re making it easier to discover these games by having a dedicated page you can browse.

 

Performance while browsing: We’ve made performance improvements in the Microsoft Store that will make it smoother for you to browse and scroll through various pages.

Again these improvements are for the Canary and Dev channel Insider build of Windows 11 for now.

Source

The full changelog is given below:

What’s new in Build 23601

New features and improvements for Windows 365 Boot

 

The following improvements are beginning to roll out for Windows 365 Boot. (Local PC and Cloud PC should be on the same build.)

 

Personal mode for Windows 365 Boot: We are now launching a new mode for Windows 365 Boot – personal mode. You can now boot to your Windows 365 Cloud PC from your designated company-owned device. You will be able to seamlessly login to your Windows 365 Cloud PC from Windows 11 login screen using password-less authentication methods like Windows Hello for Business. The new personal mode also comes with fast account switcher experience to effortlessly switch profiles to login in, personalized experience with your username and password, display picture on lock and login screen, remember your username, etc.

 

Login screen showing fast account switching with Windows 365 Boot.

 

Customized company logo and name for Windows 365 Boot: In shared mode, organizations can now customize the login page to include their company branding from Intune.

 

Example of customized logo and name on the login screen.

 

Fail fast mechanism for Windows 365 Boot: You no longer need to wait for the sign in process to the Cloud PC to complete only to find out Windows 365 Boot failed due to network issues or incomplete setup. The smart logic proactively informs users to resolve network issues or complete app setup so users can experience a smooth login to their Cloud PC.

 

Warning at login for setup issues.

 

Notification when there are network issues trying to connect.

 

Manage local PC settings through Windows 365 Boot: With this feature, it is now easier for you to access and manage sound, display, and other device specific settings of their local PC directly from your Cloud PC in under Windows 365 Boot.

 

Button to open local PC settings while in Windows 365 Boot.

 

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (Win + F) under Windows 365.

 

New features and improvements for Windows 365 Switch

 

The following improvements are beginning to roll out for Windows 365 Switch. (Local PC and Cloud PC should be on the same build.)

 

Improved disconnect experience for Windows 365 Switch: You can now disconnect from their Cloud PC directly from their local PC. This can be done by going to Local PC > Task view > Right click on the Cloud PC button > Disconnect. We have also added tooltips on disconnect and sign-out options in the Cloud PC Start menu so that you can differentiate between these functionalities.

 

Disconnect experience for a Cloud PC as shown in Task view.

 

Desktop indicators to differentiate between Cloud PC and local PC for Windows 365 Switch: You will now see the term “Cloud PC” and “Local PC” on the desktop indicator when you switch between your respective PCs.

 

Gracefully handling increased connection time for Windows 365 Switch to Frontline Cloud PC: You will now see updates regarding the Cloud PC connection status and the connection timeout indicator while waiting on the connection screen. In case there is an error, you will now be able to copy the correlation ID using the new copy button in the error screen for quicker resolution.

 

Text indicating the Connection status on the connection screen.

 

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (Win + F) under Desktop Environment > Switch to Cloud PC (From Task view).

 

Improving discoverability of screen casting in Windows 11

 

Casting from your Windows PC allows you to wirelessly extend your display to another nearby PC, TV or other external displays. After trying some improvements to this experience out with Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel with Build 23516, we’re making some additional refinement to those improvements that focus on educating users about the Cast feature and improving its discoverability in Windows 11. Those improvements include:

 

• When doing multitasking activities on your PC such as often switching between windows to complete a task or using Snap Assist to organize your screen space, we will provide the suggestion to Cast via a notification toast.

• We have updated the Cast flyout in Quick Settings with additional support for you in case you face any trouble discovering nearby displays, fixing connections, and more.

 

 

Cast flyout in Quick Settings now shows link for troubleshooting device discovery and other casting issues.

 

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Display and Graphics > Wireless Display and Casting.

 

New widgets board settings

 

We’ve updated the widget settings experience, providing more ways for users to customize their widgets board experience. One of the new settings enables you to just show widgets on your widgets board and another makes it easier for you to discover how to personalize your feed content.

 

New widgets board settings.

 

The new settings experience also allows you to select the account you want to use for your Microsoft Start powered widgets and feeds. This means you are no longer limited to using the account you used to sign into Windows to drive those experiences, just like your other app powered widgets. You can easily manage the account used by Microsoft Start by navigating to ‘Microsoft Start’ settings under the ‘Personalize your content’ section in your widgets board settings. This change allows you to further personalize the experience to your preferences. The new settings experience is not limited by region.

 

[We are beginning to roll this out to Windows Insiders in the Canary, Dev, and Beta Channels this week, so the experience isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback before pushing it out to everyone.]

 

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Widgets.

 

Changes and Improvements

 

[General]

 

• Starting early next week, Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel on Build 23601 will be prompted to reboot to install Windows Configuration Update (KB1234567). Windows Configuration Updates are what we use to new features via Controlled Feature Rollout (CFR) technology. Windows Configuration Update (KB1234567) does not enable any new features as we’re testing the delivery of these updates via our servicing pipeline, and the reboot prompt to install them. After rebooting to install this update, it will be listed under “Other Updates” under Settings > Windows Update > Update History.

 

[Copilot in Windows*]

 

• We are trying out the ability to “undock” Copilot in Windows with Windows Insiders. Just click the new icon to unpin the Copilot panel at the top right in the header. While undocked, Copilot can appear above or below other apps in Windows while maintaining its fixed position on the desktop. This allows users to access Copilot while minimizing disruption to other user activities. Additionally, can resize the Copilot window for a more comfortable experience. Simply click-and-drag the edge of the Copilot window to adjust the width to your needs.

Click the new icon to unpin the Copilot panel at the top right in the header to undock Copilot.

 

• We are trying out a change where when swiping from the right edge of the desktop on a touch display will open Copilot instead of notifications.

 

[Windows Share]

 

• The Windows share window now supports sharing with WhatsApp under the “Share using” section. If you don’t have WhatsApp installed, you can choose to install it from Windows share window directly. Over time, we plan to try this experience out with other apps as well.

Share to or install WhatsApp directly from Windows share window.

 

[Nearby Sharing]

 

• We are introducing the ability to quickly give your device a more friendly name to identify sharing to and from with nearby share under Settings > System > Nearby sharing. This change originally began rolling out with Build 23545, but we are re-rolling it out with improvements to the experience. Let us know what you think.

Give your device a more friendly name to identify sharing to and from with nearby share.

 

[Narrator]

 

• Narrator users can now use voice access to open applications, dictate text and interact with elements on the screen using their voice. Narrator users can use voice access to give Narrator commands using their voice . For e.g., “speak faster”, “read next line”, etc. To get started, search for “voice access” in Windows search and set it up.

 

Fixes

 

[Copilot in Windows*]

 

• Fixed an issue that was causing full screen apps to minimize on secondary monitors when launching Copilot.

 

[Start menu]

 

• Fixed an issue causing the Recommended section to appear blank for some Insiders.

 

[File Explorer]

 

• Fixed an issue impacting explorer.exe reliability.

 

[Taskbar]

 

• Fixed an issue where uncombined taskbar icons were cutting off the title instead of adjusting with the title length.

 

[Task Manager]

 

• When creating a dump file for a process, the dump file location should be selectable now, so you can copy it out.

 

[Settings]

 

• Fixed an issue where if you go to System > Nearby Sharing it was crashing Settings.

 

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

 

Known issues

 

[Copilot in Windows*]

 

• When first launching or after refreshing Copilot in Windows while using voice access, you’ll need to use “Show grid” commands to click in the “Ask me anything” box for the first time.

 

[Widgets]

 

• [NEW] The Microsoft 365, Outlook Calendar, and To Do widgets get stuck in an error state when the Microsoft Start feed is disabled.
• [NEW] You may experience a loading delay when the Microsoft Start feed is reenabled.
• [NEW] Announcements from the Microsoft Start feed are still shown on the taskbar after the feed is hidden.
• [NEW] The Widgets Board should automatically close and reopen when enabling or disabling feeds.
• [NEW] Keyboard navigation from settings subpages back to the top-level Settings page is broken.
• [NEW] Incorrect spacing and fonts used in some settings pages.

You can view the official blog post here on Microsoft's website.

Source

Windows' infamous "Blue Screen of Death" is a bit of a punchline. People have made a hobby of spotting them out in the wild, and in some circles, they remain a byword for the supposed flakiness and instability of PCs. To this day, networked PCs in macOS are represented by beige CRT monitors displaying a BSOD.

But the BSOD is supposed to be a diagnostic tool, an informational screen that technicians can use to begin homing in on the problem that caused the crash in the first place; that old Windows' BSOD error codes were often so broad and vague as to be useless doesn't make the idea a bad one. Today, version 255 of the Linux systemd project honors that original intent by adding a systemd-bsod component that generates a full-screen display of some error messages when a Linux system crashes.

The systemd-bsod component is currently listed as "experimental" and "subject to change." But the functionality is simple: any logged error message that reaches the LOG_EMERG level will be displayed full-screen to allow people to take a photo or write it down. Phoronix reports that, as with BSODs in modern Windows, the Linux version will also generate a QR code to make it easier to look up information on your phone.

It's a small change to a single software project, but systemd manages services and system settings for the vast majority of the big Linux distributions, including but not limited to Debian, Fedora, Arch, Ubuntu, CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and many other downstream distros. The odds are good that whatever Linux version you're using will see this version of systemd eventually, depending on how often and how aggressively it integrates new upstream software packages and how quickly you migrate to new releases when they come out.

Version 255 of systemd has dozens of other features and fixes, most of them more useful and more significant than the new Blue Screen of Death feature. This includes many additions related to TPM support, disk encryption, and the ability to use hibernation with btrfs file systems. But none of these improvements are quite as funny as the thought of a hardcore Linux snob suddenly staring down a blue screen error just as they're typing "Micro$oft" into their latest forum post.

Source

The upcoming December updates will begin Microsoft’s process of dribbling out Windows Copilot.

No question here — I’m raising the MS-DEFCON level to 2.

I’m not sure I understand why Copilot needed to be so deeply embedded in Windows, at least right now. It’s obvious that putting the guts of AI support into the operating system is inevitable, because Microsoft’s apps are rapidly evolving to include Copilot.

However, Microsoft’s icon for Copilot still includes the “PRE” badge, which in effect signals that we’re all still beta testers for a Copilot preview. Besides, with your Microsoft account and Edge, you can play around with Copilot at low risk. Even that generates some uncertainty, because I’ve seen Copilot in Bing deliver wrong answers.

Maybe the bugs should be worked out before Copilot is welded permanently to Windows.

Here are a few general things to keep in mind about Copilot.

If you have multiple displays, the Copilot preview may not be offered to you. There is currently a bug that causes desktop icons to move unexpectedly between displays or causes other icon-alignment issues. I’m not yet aware of a resolution for this problem.

Consumer and home users

Now is the time to defer the upcoming December updates, ensure you have a backup of your machine, and review third-party tools you may be using to adjust the Start Menu or File Explorer on either Windows 10 or 11. The November updates were not kind to those using older tools for these purposes. Ask for guidance in the forums about which tools have handled the updates well. I use Start10 and Start11, which have handled the updates well.

The December updates for Windows 10 also increase the size of News and Interests. As Microsoft notes:

The news and interests feature on your device is now larger! This will help you use the feature more effectively and show the content you care about most on a larger scale.

I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

This month, Microsoft pushed out HP Smart print to many unmanaged computers that didn’t even have HP printers installed. I have Lexmark printers connected to my home PCs. Now, any time I print to either of them, the HP Smart app pops up instead of the Lexmark app indicating the status of the print jobs. Yes, HP Smart can be easily removed in Settings | Apps | Apps & Features. But it concerns me that someone in charge of application deployment at Microsoft wasn’t paying closer enough attention to detail. I hope Microsoft will automatically fix this, but I’m not holding my breath. Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and is investigating. I’ll have more on this in the next Patch Watch column.

Business users

For business users, the good news is that we tend to not get the same “oopsies” that Consumers see. At the office, I haven’t seen the HP Smart app silently install. I haven’t seen Copilot installed on managed Windows 10 or 11 devices unless a Windows 11 PC has been upgraded to 23H2. (Remember: I still do not recommend Windows 11 23H2.)

We will probably get a quieter December release than normal, due to the fact that Microsoft will be in its “holiday” mode — when many of its employees go on vacation.

Because of minimal operations during the Western holidays and the upcoming new year, there won’t be a non-security preview release for the month of December 2023. There will be a monthly security release for December 2023. Normal monthly servicing for both security and non-security preview releases will resume in January 2024.

Microsoft also appears to have pushed out metadata changes to print naming. These impact the name of the printer but not the driver. Reports from some system administrators indicate that “… all printers in the control printers interface reporting as HP M101-104s. It was reported as being seen on a handful of mixed servers (both 2022 and 2016 so far).”

It does not appear to be related to any specific updates. Rather, it’s a metadata change that came down via the Microsoft store. Microsoft has acknowledged the issue.

Perhaps a bigger Christmas gift for us all is Microsoft’s stated intention to offer Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows 10. No details are yet available. I will obviously be watching this closely.

Don’t forget that in January, the final enforcement of KB5008383 will be in effect. If you run an active directory domain, remember to review your event logs and monitor the Directory Service event log for 3044-3056 events on domain controllers.

Here’s hoping that the upcoming year will prove to be more stable and boring for us all.

Resources

Source

What you need to know

• Windows speech recognition has been deprecated and will no longer be developed.
• Microsoft replaced Windows speech recognition with voice access, which first rolled out in 2022.
• Voice access allows you to control your PC with voice commands and is much more capable than Windows speech recognition.

You can say goodbye to Windows speech recognition. Microsoft announced the deprecation of the feature recently. Going forward, Windows speech recognition will not be actively developed and will be replaced by voice access.

"Windows speech recognition is deprecated and is no longer being developed. This feature is being replaced with voice access. Voice access is available for Windows 11, version 22H2, or later devices," explains Microsoft in a support document.

Speech recognition first shipped with Windows Vista to improve accessibility. Voice access is a relatively new feature that replaces Windows speech recognition while also having significantly more capabilities.

Voice access entered testing among Windows Insiders late in 2021 and rolled out to general users in 2022. The feature is available on PCs running Windows 11 version 22H2 or later.

While systems on older versions of Windows do not support voice access, speech recognition should still work. Microsoft has stopped development of the feature, but it has not removed it from older versions of Windows.

Since adding voice access to Windows 11, Microsoft has improved the feature. The company added support for more dialects, including English -UK, English – India, English – New Zealand, English – Canada, and English – Australia. Several commands have been added over time as well.

Windows 11 includes several features that improve accessibility, including voice access, live captions, eye tracking, and Windows narrator. The tech giant announced a five-year commitment to help people with disabilities back in 2021. In addition to efforts to make Windows 11 more accessible, Microsoft has an Xbox Adaptive Controller and the Seeing AI app, which recently launched for Android.

Source

One of the best things about Mastodon is the sheer number of apps available for it. The official Mastodon app is fine, but there’s also Ivory, Mona, Fedilab, Ice Cubes, Elk, Mastoot, and many others. This openness is part of the whole appeal of the ActivityPub-powered social networking ecosystem, and it has already led to some solid new ideas. (I’ve personally been a very happy Ivory user for a while now.)

 

Mammoth won some fans earlier this year with a really nicely designed Mastodon client, and then added a “For You” feed that makes Mammoth a little more automatically personalized. Now, with the launch of Mammoth 2 for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, the app is going even deeper into curation and personalization: it’s launching a series of “Smart Lists” filled with good posts, a set of suggested people and accounts to follow, and more.

 

Smart Lists are a lot like what Twitter lists used to be: users curate groups of people by topic or interest or whatever else, and others can subscribe to those lists. Mammoth has a couple dozen of them so far — everything from “Space” and “Nature” to “Indieweb” and “Queertech” — each of which is curated by a specific Mammoth user. I’ve been beta-testing the app the last few days, and the lists are handy, if not exactly earth-shattering. Most lists are filled with websites and well-known posters, so they’re more like a starting point than a long-term solution.

 

Over time, Mammoth co-founder Bart Decrem says he hopes to pair this human curation with more automated curating, even post by post, with the help of AI. “I would be sort of astonished if we weren’t using AI to help organize and make smart lists,” he says. But he’s also aware that AI begets more AI, and he doesn’t want to bring in bots trying to game the system or incentivize people to flood their posts with hashtags. “I think what Mastodon should stand for is: in a world full of stuff that you don’t know where it came from, I know where this came from.”

 

Finding people on Mastodon can still be tricky — Mammoth’s trying to simplify it.

Image: Mammoth

 

Decrem says one of Mammoth’s goals continues to be making it easier to get started on Mastodon. The default process has improved over time, but it’s still a lot of work to pick a server, sign up, find people, and get your timeline tuned just the way you like. It’s too much for some people. “You need to give people interesting content within, like, a minute,” Decrem says. “They have to be doing interesting stuff with it.” He’s intrigued by some of the ways Threads surfaces people you don’t follow to keep your timeline lively — and then makes it easy to follow those people.

 

The new app is free, but you can also pay $3 a month or $20 a year for some extra app icons, early access to new stuff, and a voice in Mammoth’s product roadmap. Mostly Decrem hopes it’s a way to support the stuff you like: “the superpower of Mastodon and the fediverse is that it’s a community, right?” In a gesture back to that community, Mammoth is also open-sourcing its app and pledging to be transparent in everything it builds.

 

Mammoth won’t just be a Mastodon app forever. Decrem is very excited about the possibility of Threads embracing ActivityPub, for instance, and sees lots of ways Mammoth can do better than the Threads algorithm so many users hate. In general, he says he sees the app as a way to explore the entire fediverse, whether it’s on Mastodon or Pixelfed or anywhere else. Mammoth’s job is to curate and personalize all those feeds and make sure there’s always something good to scroll.

 

Source

In case you are not aware of what it does, Lucid Mode adds a button on top of videos, which you can toggle to enhance the quality of the media. Essentially, it works as a filter that sharpens the image quality. This is particularly useful when you want to watch old videos, TV shows, etc., where the quality of the video can be a dull.

Opera's announcement talks about how Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) affects many people around the world. The medical condition, which was identified by Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal in 1984, is often called Winter Depression, and is related to the amount of daylight that we get. Getting less light might make people irritable, depressed, and generally unhappy.

Opera compares SAD to SDD, which it calls Standard Definition Disorder. That's a bit much in my opinion, as a disorder is actually an illness, not something to throw lightly for the sake of a feature. Anyway, Opera says that many users are depressed by watching poor quality videos, which results in SDD. Well, I suppose if I wanted to relive an old video but found the quality to be unacceptable on a modern display, I guess I would be a little disappointed, but not unhappy.

Opera introduces Lucid Mode 2.0 with improved controls

The point is, Opera says SDD is not a problem if you use the browser's upgraded Lucid Mode. The company claims that Lucid Mode 2.0 delivers better browser performance and battery life.

But it doesn't stop there. In my initial review last year, one of the things that I had mentioned was the lack of controls to adjust the video quality of Lucid Mode. It appears Opera has fixed that problem. You can now adjust the strength of the filter, though it can't be done directly from the toggle that appears over videos. To modify it, click on the Settings button, and then scroll down to the Lucid Mode section.

Drag the dot on the slider to the left to decrease the effect of Lucid Mode, or towards the right to increase the enhancement effect of the video filter. Try it out, if you are not happy with a video's quality, lower the strength of the filter, it may result in a better image.

When you enable Lucid Mode, you will notice a new button that sort of looks like a split-screen button. Clicking it enables the Split Preview feature, a comparison slider that can be moved sideways, which lets you see how the video looks with and without Lucid Mode in real-time. You can optionally disable the Split Preview button from appearing in the pop-up, by turning the feature off from the browser's Settings.

Opera has released two new bright wallpapers to help people with SAD, they are called Sunrise and Sunrise in Motion. You can find them at Opera Wallpapers website. Or, you can head to the wallpapers pages directly (1 and 2) to get them by clicking on the Add to Opera button. You may then enable them from the settings section under the New Tab page. They look pretty good.

Download Opera browser from the official website for Windows, macOS, Linux. The new improvements are available in version 105.0.4970.34 and above.

Do you use Opera's Lucid Mode?

Source

Fueled by over 335 million logged in Yahoo users globally, Yahoo Blueprint leverages years of AI to bid on the right impressions, at the right time, at the right price, with an AI co-pilot that provides recommendations for campaign improvements and auto-optimises to meet advertiser goals.

Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, chief revenue officer at Yahoo, said what sets the AI suite apart is the vast scale of proprietary data Yahoo taps into before considering third-party or customer first-party data.

“In introducing Yahoo Blueprint, we are now allowing advertisers to capitalise on Yahoo’s extensive history of machine learning and data-driven decision-making in a new and accessible way," she said.

"Yahoo Blueprint not only focuses on enhancing performance, but also aims to reduce friction and maintain transparency, ensuring both ease of use and advertiser control.”

Source

The “Help me write” feature will be integrated into Chrome’s user interface, appearing in the browser’s autofill popup and accessible via the right-click menu. This AI-driven tool is designed to analyze the content of the webpage, providing contextually relevant suggestions based on the user’s input. Whether drafting a review or summarizing thoughts, the AI leverages both the page content and user interactions to craft appropriate responses.

Google’s approach to AI writing in Chrome includes options for users to tailor the AI’s output. The feature allows adjustments for text length and style, offering “Shorten” or “Elaborate” commands, as well as toggles between “Casual” or “Formal” tones. While these customization options are somewhat limited compared to those in Google Docs or Messages, they offer users a level of control over the AI’s writing style.

Development and availability of “Help me write”

Currently in development, the “Help me write” feature for Chrome is accessible through two experimental flags in the chrome://flags section.

However, its wider release is pending additional development, with Chrome 122, expected in February 2024, being the earliest potential launch date.

Notably, this browser-based version of “Help me write” will not initially be available on Chromebooks. Google has previously announced a system-wide version of this AI tool, exclusive to Chromebook Plus models. Users of standard Chromebooks may gain access to this in-browser AI writing tool once Google implements a method to differentiate between Plus and non-Plus devices.

Source

KEY TAKEAWAYS
 

• Immutable Linux distributions are read-only operating systems that don't allow writing to the root file system.

•  These distros are more secure, reliable, and stable than ordinary Linux distros but also more complex to use.

•  Servers, container environments, and handheld devices benefit from immutable operating systems.

The Linux world is always evolving. There's one recent concept that's causing quite a stir: immutable distros. Imagine a Linux distribution that's unchangeable. Sounds like a limitation? What if that brings actual benefits for you as a Linux user?

Let's delve deeper into the world of immutable operating systems and discuss whether they're the right choice for you.

What Is an Immutable Linux Distribution?

An immutable Linux distribution is an operating system (OS) that is read-only at its core. That means you can't easily modify the OS. This includes the file system, directories, applications, and even configurations. Even as an administrator, you can't make any modifications to the distribution.

If something gets changed in an immutable distro, it's only temporary and reverts when you reboot. That's why these OSes are called "immutable."

What Are the Advantages of Immutable Distros?

Why should someone consider an immutable Linux distribution over regular ones? That's because these distros come with some extra perks due to their immutable nature. Let's discover some of them.

1. Enhanced Security

One of the reasons many regular users prefer Linux to other operating systems is due to its security. But that doesn't mean your Linux system is immune to vulnerability (especially if you're not following the best security practices).

Immutable Linux distributions offer an additional layer of security by preventing unauthorized modifications to the system, making them more resistant to attacks.

Suppose the wrong person gets administrative privileges on your system. Now they can tamper with it as much as they want, if it's a normal Linux system. But in immutable distros, even the administrator can't modify the system files.

This reduces the attack surface for malicious people since they can't install malware or compromise the system. Your computer becomes more secure and resists unauthorized changes.

2. Easier Maintenance

Immutable distros are easier to manage and deploy. You don't need to take care of complex upgrade processes, dependency issues, or managing system state.

Updates don't work on the live system and only work after you reboot. This reduces the chance of messing something up during an update, which is a common occurrence.

3. Atomic Updates

These distributions follow a different approach when updating the OS. Instead of treating the updates package-wise, updates are done throughout the whole OS. In other words, the entire OS is treated as a single indivisible unit. If there is any kind of failure during the update, the system rolls back to the previous state.

Another interesting aspect is the image-based upgrade process. During the update, the system creates a new image in a separate partition. All the updates take place in that new image while you're using the existing image. In the next boot, you're booted into the new and updated image instead of the old one.

4. Improved Reliability

You or others can't modify the file system. So unlike a normal Linux distribution, you can't permanently break these operating systems easily. Even if you accidentally or purposefully break something, it gets fixed in the next reboot. Third-party programs can't tweak anything behind your back or erase any important system element that could make your system unstable.

This also means that you can't run any dangerous Linux commands, such as the sudo rm rf /* command, that would harm your system. Overall, immutable distros are way more reliable.

How Does Software Installation and Updates Work on Immutable Distros?

If immutable distros are read-only, how do you install applications or update them? Most, if not all, immutable distros use Flatpak, AppImages, or Snaps for managing software, which are self-contained package systems. You can install and run these packages without modifying the file system.

These universal package formats come packed with all the necessary dependencies and libraries so that they don't have to rely on system libraries. They are also isolated from your operating system.

Some immutable distributions use a technique known as "layering" to install packages. In this method, you install applications on a dedicated layer on top of the read-only base system.

This means you have access to the distro's package repositories to install the packages. But instead of using traditional package managers like APT or DNF, you use specialized tools to manage packages within the layering system. These layered packages are kept when you update your system and then get added to the updated image after you reboot.

Another option on some operating systems is installing apps through containers such as Distrobox. You install your software in the container on top of the main distro. This allows you to install and use programs not available in the official repositories.

Best Use Cases for Immutable Distros

Immutable distros are not as rare as you might expect. In fact, Steam Deck uses an immutable Arch Linux-based distribution called SteamOS. Likewise, a lot of handheld devices make use of immutable distros due to atomic updates.

But these aren't the only use cases for these distros. Organizations requiring high security and reliability often opt for immutable distros. Especially in server environments where you need to ensure that the server configurations remain stable and secure, these distros can help you achieve that.

Developers can make great use of these systems to create isolated and reproducible testing environments. DevOps engineers can also deploy software in a consistent environment, reducing overheads in continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.

Immutable Linux distros are often used for containerized environments (like Docker and Kubernetes) to make sure you can maintain and scale applications in a predictable and consistent container runtime environment.

Drawbacks of Immutable Linux Distros

Okay, maybe you're convinced about using immutable distros, or maybe you aren't. You've only seen the good so far. Let's see some of the complexity issues that come up with these operating systems.

The first thing is, of course, the learning curve. Learning Linux can be a bit difficult on its own. Even if you're already experienced with Linux systems, you still need to learn about things that immutable distros do differently. You'll also need to refine some of your workflow, which can be a bit time-consuming at the beginning. And if you're coming from Windows or macOS? That can be a daunting experience.

Updates not taking place on your active system and only applying after a reboot can be reliable. But that also means you must reboot the system to get the updated packages. However, some distros do allow you to apply the updates to your live running system. Another problem you face is juggling between several systems since these distros create a separate bootable system for updates.

Installing software also doesn't work the same as using traditional package managers. If you want to install apps not available as Flatpaks or other universal formats, you need to install a whole new distro in a container just to use a single app. That doesn't sound so good.

In addition, you can't write anything to the system. That includes editing the configuration files. But what if that's a necessity for you? You still can't do that. Some distros allow writing to the /etc directory, but that's about it.

4 Immutable Linux Distributions to Get You Started

If you'd like to get your hands on an immutable Linux distribution to test the waters yourself, here are four you can try right now:

1. NixOS

NixOS is a completely reproducible immutable Linux distro. You use a configuration file that includes all the services, options, packages, partition layout, and other stuff you need to build your system. You can then use this config file to create as many NixOS systems as you like, replicating your choices every time.

2. Vanilla OS

What if you could run multiple Linux distros on a single system? That's Vanilla OS for you. You can access different subsystems like Arch, Fedora, openSUSE, or Alpine to install specific software available in those distros. For that, you use the container for the particular distro. Every time you launch the software, the system runs the container and opens the app.

3. Fedora Silverblue

This is Fedora Workstation's immutable spin. Most of the experience is identical to the regular Fedora version. With every new Fedora release, you also get a new release for Silverblue. This version is more suited for testing and development in a container-based OS.

4. blendOS

blendOS is an Arch-based distro that supports multiple package managers, such as APT, Pacman, DNF, YUM, and Yay. You can either use its own package manager, blend, or the other ones you're familiar with using container systems.

Is an Immutable Distro Right for You?

So should you use an immutable distro? That depends on whether you actually need it or not.

For scenarios that require high security, reliability, and stability, such as cloud infrastructures, containerized environments, and servers, these make a lot of sense. Systems not meant for customization and tweaking (appliances, for example) can benefit from these distros.

But for regular desktop use, immutable distros may not be a good choice. Some of the simple stuff like installing software is much more complex than in a regular distro. You need special workarounds since you can't access the root file system.

Some of the advantages that immutable distros come with are also available in regular Linux distros. You can use Btrfs to roll back to the previous state of a package or even the whole operating system. Installing universal package formats on any Linux flavor is also possible. While more secure in certain ways, these distros are still vulnerable to cyberattacks and malware.

Considering all the pros and cons, you might as well try one of the immutable Linux versions for yourself in a virtual machine to see if you like them.

More Security and Reliability but With More Responsibility

Are immutable Linux distributions the future of Linux? Not likely. They aren't going to replace regular Linux systems any time soon. Not for regular users at least. But with numerous advantages, these are definitely suited for certain niche users and IT organizations.

If you're a Windows user interested in Linux, it's easy to try Linux without actually leaving Windows.

Source

What you need to know

• Windows Package Manager is a command line tool you can use to install and upgrade apps from sources all over the web as well as the Microsoft Store. 
• The latest addition to its arsenal is the ability to upgrade itself, removing the need to leave the command line to do it. 
• This feature will only apply to stable versions for the time being until Windows Package Manager has support for channels. 

My favorite tool on Windows 11 is the Windows Package Manager. I've written before about Windows Package Manager is so good I won't use anything else, but it continues to get better all the time. 

The latest goodness, as communicated by Microsoft's Demitrius Nelon, is that the Windows Package Manager can now upgrade itself.

The addition of this feature also means that the winget upgrade --all command will now incorporate Windows Package Manager if there is a new version of the App Installer available. 

Only stable versions will be published this way for the time being, since there's currently no support for channels. But that said, reading between the lines, it would seem that support for channels is something planned for the tool. 

The best Windows 11 tool you should be using

Windows Package Manager is AWESOME. (Image credit: Windows Central)

The number one reason I recommend the Windows Package Manager to anyone who will listen is speed. It's so fast. Fast to find your apps, fast to install them, you can set it going and mostly leave it alone. 

Sure, the Microsoft Store can do that to some degree, but if you install as much software from outside the Store as I do, Windows Package Manager is the way to do it. This quote from my previous piece linked above demonstrates how it's fit into my workflow. 

The terminal doesn't have to be scary, and Windows Package Manager is actually very simple when you learn the basic commands. There's a built-in help option to guide you, but trust me when I say it doesn't take long to get the hang of. 

The beauty is that because Windows Package Manager doesn't actually host the packages itself, as you would find on a Linux package manager, you're essentially just downloading your apps from source. So instead of going to a website, downloading a .exe file, opening it, running through the installer, you can tell Windows Package Manager to do it for you. The same applies to upgrading all those apps, you can do them all at once with a single command, wherever they came from. 

And now you don't even need to manually update the Package Manager tool itself, it's getting closer and closer to being perfect. Hit the GitHub repo to get yourself rolling for the first time and give it a try!

Source

Back to one feature update per year

"Hudson Valley," the next-gen Windows release, will change (again) how Microsoft updates its operating system with new features. According to the report, Microsoft abandoned the idea of adding new capabilities to the OS with one or two updates every year. Now, it wants to release one yearly update full of new features.

Despite that, Windows 11 will most likely receive one more "moment" update in the first half of 2024 before Microsoft releases "Hudson Valley" somewhere in September or October. "Hudson Valley" will be based on the Germanium platform, and the first computers powered by it and ARM processors should hit store shelves in June 2024. Germanium will bring multiple improvements and platform enhancements that will benefit computers with ARM processors, such as the recently announced Qualcomm Snapdragon G Elite.

In other words, expect a wave of new devices with substantial changes under the hood. The new features planned for "Hudson Valley" will arrive in cumulative updates in a few months. For Windows existing Windows 11 users, "Hudson Valley" will be a major OS upgrade akin to moving from Windows 7 to 10.

What features?

AI, of course. A lot of AI. A big chunk of those features could require dedicated hardware as Neowin previously speculated, such as neural processor units (NPU). Windows Central claims Microsoft plans to introduce an AI-powered shell with an "advanced Copilot" working in the background to improve search, provide contextual insights, and more. Unnamed sources claim "Hudson Valley" will bring "groundbreaking" AI features.

Windows Timeline should make a comeback, this time with AI. Copilot will keep an eye on your stuff, allowing you to search for every instance, screen, app, or file containing a specific word or. Windows Search will get natural language support, giving users the ability to find files using descriptive language, like "a document where I whine about confusing Windows updates."

Other features should include video upscaling for media and games, better live captions, and AI-powered wallpapers with parallax effects. Do not forget about the Start menu and File Explorer. They should get a dedicated area for apps aimed at creators, working as a quick launcher for Microsoft 365.

As for more useful features, expect much-improved energy efficiency, with battery life extended "up to 50% on certain hardware." It appears that Microsoft is already testing some of those bits in the latest Canary builds.

Finally, there is that mockup Microsoft showed last year. The company is toying around with the idea of moving the tray to the top of the screen and turning the taskbar into a dock. Windows Central claims Microsoft is still unsure if making such a radical change is a good idea. Therefore, it might not arrive in 2024, if ever.

Is it Windows 12?

Like with the taskbar, Microsoft has yet to decide what to call the next-generation Windows. Calling it Windows 12 might further segment the market, where Windows 10 currently has about a billion devices and Windows 11 roughly 400 million. Hundreds of millions of computers will not be able to upgrade to Windows 11, so Microsoft can make names simpler to make things look at least a bit tidier.

As it usually goes with unconfirmed reports like this (Microsoft declined to comment), take them with a grain of salt, and do not be surprised if the company decides to change its plans again. Whatever happens next year, 2024 shapes to be an interesting year for Windows and computers in general.

Source: Windows Central

Source

What you need to know

• Microsoft will soon let you disable the news feed within the widgets board on Windows 11.
• The change is in testing among Windows Insiders, though it is rolling out gradually.
• Despite initial concerns of the option being limited to Europe, Microsoft confirmed that "the new settings experience is not limited by region."

A Windows 11 update made its way to Insiders in the Beta Channel yesterday. The build is relatively minor, but it has a welcome change that I can't wait to see make its way to all users. Starting with Windows 11 Build 22635.2841, you can turn off the news feed in the Windows 11 widgets board.

Microsoft didn't herald the new option as the welcome addition that it is. Instead, the company briefly mentioned it in a note about the new widgets board settings page.

"We’ve updated the widget settings experience, providing more ways for users to customize their widgets board experience.  One of the new settings enables you to just show widgets on your widgets board and another makes it easier for you to discover how to personalize your feed content," Microsoft explained (emphasis added).

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Later in its blog post, Microsoft clarified that "the new settings experience is not limited by region." There was some concern that the ability to turn off the news feed in the Windows 11 widgets board would be limited to EU countries because European legislation is what caused the change.

Further inspection of Microsoft's image of the widgets settings page shows a section to "Show or hide feeds." That section isn't expanded, so it's unclear how granular options will be.

I have the latest Beta build on my PC but do not see the option yet. I'll update this post with a screenshot once the option rolls out to my system.

Just a widgets board

The widgets board has always been a bit of a strange thing on Windows 11. When Microsoft first announced the feature, many got excited. Widgets are useful on Android and iOS. They used to be on Windows back in the day as well. But things quickly turned sour when it was clear Microsoft planned to use the widgets board as another way to force content on users.

I'm not sure how Microsoft missed the mark by so much. It's called the widgets board, not the widgets and news feed board. A widget for MSN News would have fit in as an optional widget to enable or disable but an entire news feed that you couldn't hide never made sense.

Microsoft appears to have listened to feedback and relented on its push to put MSN content everywhere on your PC and browser.

Source

That was the case with Windows XP and Windows 7, two legendary operating systems (Windows 7's ESU program ended in January 2023). What was surprising is that Microsoft was about to let "regular customers" join the Extended Security Updates program for a currently undisclosed fee.

For context, Windows 10 is an extremely popular desktop operating system with more than one billion monthly active devices. For comparison, Windows 11, after two years on the market, is installed on only 400 million+ computers. A solid chunk of Windows 10's market share sticks to the old OS only because Microsoft is not force-upgrading them. And even though Microsoft has not made its plans clear, you can safely assume the company will start upgrading eligible Windows 10 users to Windows 11 somewhere in mid-2025, if not earlier.

With Windows 11 having steep hardware requirements, millions of computers, if not hundreds of millions, will remain forever on Windows 10 unless their owners opt for experiments with installing an unsupported OS or Linux. Microsoft knows how big of a problem the situation is. To mitigate it, the company decided to let customers pay for the extended support, a privilege previously available only to enterprise customers. That might become an issue.

Who cares?

If you are a PC or tech enthusiast, you know how important it is to use supported software in the modern world. You are most likely running the latest Windows version with Windows Update left untouched. Sadly, not every Windows user is like you. To be fair, most "regular consumers" rarely pay attention to Windows updates unless they break things.

A solid chunk of Windows 10 users will not care about their PCs running an outdated operating system, not to mention paying Microsoft for abstract security updates. If a computer still checks for emails, plays YouTube, and launches games, I am all good. Even Windows 11, a big OS with new features, not just a random "security update," is free for a reason.

Those accustomed to Windows 10, a "cozy" operating system with updates that bring little to no changes in the shade of the Windows 11's fuss, will soon be forced to pay. If some of them do not care to even check for free updates, will they care enough to pay for them? What are the chances of me getting a virus, right?

Getting under your skin

Microsoft understands the situation, and you will be excused for imagining the final Windows 10 updates delivering a payload of banners and notifications warning users about the inevitable end of support and Extended Security Updates program ads. Microsoft is not shying away from ads in Windows 11, Edge, and other products, so there is no reason to believe it will not fill Windows 10 with more banners. Most likely, Windows 10's final months of mainstream support will turn into a constant fight with ads and notifications.

Do not get me wrong. I understand that Microsoft has no other choice. After all, the company has to notify its customers, who are often stubborn or completely indifferent. Still, we are talking about a company that is not shy of injecting ads into the Chrome website just to make people stick to Edge. Do you really expect it to be "gentle?"

The problem of scam

I can only imagine scammers reading the news on December 5, 2023, and shouting in joy. It will soon become much easier to scam inexperienced people. Paid Windows 10 support, what a gift from Microsoft. Just buy me ten Amazon gift cards to continue receiving updates and keeping your computer free from viruses.

Sure, sure, bad people will always find a way to make one willingly give their money. But that will be much easier in 2025 and onward (I can bet someone somewhere is already getting scammed). Therefore, get ready to upgrade your grandma's laptop or read a lecture about digital hygiene. I guess the silver lining is that we will get more good content on YouTube, where clever content makers annoy scammers and waste their time.

Image credit: Malwaretips.com

No one forced Microsoft to go this way

After years of Windows as a service, the company changed its plans and returned to releasing big Windows versions every three years. Mind you, no one was asking for that, and users were totally okay with an operating system quietly evolving in the background without getting in the way. Now, the company has to figure out what to do with a billion Windows devices running a soon-to-be-dead operating system.

Sure, paid security updates available for regular consumers are still better than nothing. But we are talking about Microsoft, an absolutely enormous company. With its scale and wallet, it can afford to give Windows 10 users a few more years of support. Paid updates are okay for companies whose IT admins know their stuff. But for regular consumers, they look like a lazy attempt to offload the responsibility or enforce unnecessary upgrades. Is that a ransomware-encrypted hard drive? That sucks; you should have purchased our security update subscription, bro, or buy a computer with Windows 12 (even though your desktop PC with a seventh-gen Intel CPU or even older still handles daily tasks with no issues).

Windows 10's ongoing efforts and continuous updates cemented the idea of an ever-evolving operating system. In 2022, Microsoft finally said Windows 10 would not receive big feature updates. Shortly after, it introduced Copilot and a toggle to get non-security updates faster. So, is Windows 10 done or not?

More than one billion monthly active and always-connected devices are too sweet to ignore if you want to boost your usage stats, which is why Copilot is coming to Windows 10. Microsoft does not mind adding half-baked features, but a few years of security updates seem too much.

Microsoft cannot just get rid of Windows 10 and its massive user base, which does not leave this company a choice other than to support Windows 10 for a few more years without resorting to controversial practices like paid updates. After all, days of premium operating system updates are long gone.

We do not know how much Microsoft wants to charge its customers for the Extended Security Updates program. But even if it is just $0.99 per month, heck, year, too many customers would not care. They would either sit with an outdated and unsupported OS or turn their computers into e-waste.

I am not the one to tell Microsoft what to do, and I know that you cannot support a product indefinitely. But you also cannot take hostage a few hundred million computers and extort their often clueless owners to pay for security updates. No one is asking for new features, but at least make sure users do not have to pay to avoid becoming victims of another WannaCry.

Source

Fences 5 introduces Chameleon™️—a Windows desktop icon enhancement that blends your desktop icons into your wallpaper. Icons maintain their functionality but fade into the background to remain easily accessible without being a distraction.

Also new in Fences 5, it is now easier than ever to access your Fence groups by bringing them to the top with a single click. Building on the patented Peek™️ functionality introduced in Fences 4, Fences 5 enables the ability to instantly access your Fence groups by clicking an icon on the taskbar.

Fences is used by thousands of businesses, from Education to Government to Healthcare. To help these businesses deploy organized dashboards of desktop icons, Fences 5 for Business adds all-new tooling that makes it easier than ever to manage these deployments. With the new ability to easily import/export layouts for distribution, tooling to load configurations from a network drive during logon, and kiosk functionality, Fences sets the standard for enterprise desktop icon management.

"Fences 5 is designed to deliver a modern desktop experience," said Brad Sams, General Manager of Stardock Software. "Fences is the best way to organize your desktop and with Chameleon and Peek, we have built a modern workflow that provides you instant access to your content while reducing the distractions of the desktop."

Along with its new features, Fences 5 delivers many additional enhancements to the core Fences desktop engine that results in improved performance and capabilities. Here are just a few of the top new features in Fences 5:

• Chameleon™️ allows you to elegantly blend your desktop content into your wallpaper to reduce desktop distractions while maintaining quick access to your files, folders, and apps.
  • With a wide range of options like mouseover-highlight and more, Chameleon can be customized to your exact specifications.
• Peek™️ toggle on the taskbar enables quick access to the patented Peek™️ functionality, making it even easier to stay in your workflow.
• Taskbar hot corner provides flexibility for accessing Peek with new control options from the taskbar.
• Advanced deployment tooling designed for the enterprise simplifies fleet management with the ability to easily export a configuration and load on login.
• Enhancements to the Fences engine to improve performance.

Fences 5 is available today starting at $9.99 and is also included in the award-winning Object Desktop suite. For more information, visit the Fences 5 website here.

You can also download the entire Object Desktop package. Object Desktop includes programs such as Fences, Start11, Groupy, SoundPackager, DeskScapes and Multiplicity.

Disclaimer: Neowin's relationship to Stardock

Source

The page that opens displays the installed version and installs any update that it finds. A restart is required to complete the update.

Chrome 120: security fixes

Google Chrome 120 includes 10 patches for different security issues. The official announcement on the Chrome Releases website lists five of them only as Google has a policy of not listing internally discovered security issues publicly.

The five listed security issues have an aggregate severity rating of high. The patches address use after free and inappropriate implementation issues in Media Stream and Capture, Side Panel Search, Autofill and Web Browser UI.

Non-Security changes

Chrome 120 introduces a number of important changes that are non-security related. The new version is the first that does not support Android 7 Nougat anymore. Android users who use Nougat devices won't get the update, unless they are able to update to Android 8 or newer versions. Speaking of support changes, Chrome 120 deprecates and also removes Theora support from the browser.

Google is rolling out a "new proactive Safety Check" feature on the desktop that runs checks regularly. The announcement says that it "checks the browser for safety-related issues" and notifies the user about issues discovered during these checks.

There is also a new Safety Check page in Settings that returns the results of the last scan and recommendations.

You can enable this new feature by setting chrome://settings/safetyCheck to Enabled. Users who do not want it can set the flag to Disabled instead. Note that Google will remove the flag eventually, leaving users without option to turn frequent checks off.

Google has also changed the Permission Suggestion Service. It is now sending URL-based signals to Google Servers. Administrators could prevent this in previous versions with the help of the SafeBrowsingProtectionLevel policy, but this has no effect anymore in Chrome 120 in this regard according to Google.

Another new feature in Chrome 120 is the ability to share passwords. This is integrated into Chrome's native password manager and works only for Google Family Group accounts. Members may share one password at a time with other members of the group. Google notes that shared passwords can't be "updated or revoked by the sender".

Google starts the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome 120. About 1% of all Chrome users will have third-party cookies disabled by January 2024. This growth to the entire population by mid-2024.

Chrome 120 includes two iOS specific changes as well. The first enables the saving of images to Google Photos, the second package tracking.

Developers may want to check out the Platform Status entry for Chrome 120, as it lists information about development-related changes in the new stable version.

Now You: do you use Chrome?

Source

Aside from those, the company also finally brings Windows' Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling to its latest and greatest RX 7000 series GPUs with this new driver, though there is no mention of RX 7600 at the moment. The release note says:

Additional OS Feature Support

 

• Support for Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling for Radeon RX 7900/7800/7700 series GPUs.

If you are not familiar with it, Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS), as the name suggests, offloads the GPU scheduling job to the graphics processor itself instead of being handled by a processor/CPU thread. The feature was first introduced in the Windows 10 May 2020 update (version 2004).

The Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) GPU scheduler was designed to efficiently manage graphics-based tasks and workloads in Windows. And as over time, Microsoft's OS became more and more graphically heavy, subsequent improvements also needed to be made to the GPU scheduler to ensure a smooth UI.

It's not hard to understand what Microsoft's intention here was as the upgrade in the GUI (graphical user interface) is quite evident going from Windows XP to Windows Vista/Windows 7, and so on.

In terms of performance improvements with HAGS, Microsoft explains that the feature could improve system latency as a consequence of the reduction in buffering, a technique that was used previously to mitigate scheduling overheads.

However, it will certainly depend a lot on the system you have too; and if you are already having a good experience on Windows, HAGS may not do much or could even make the experience worse. You can check this guide out on how to enable HAGS on your system.

You can read more about the new Adrenalin 23.12.1 driver in our dedicated article.

Source

A non-standard driver carrying support for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora dropped in late November already, but with time to spare for the game's launch, today's WHQL driver also brings support for the Ubisoft game. Moreover, the arena shooter with environmental destruction that gathered a massive fanbase during its beta phase, The Finals, is officially supported by AMD Radeon cards with this driver.

While Embark Studios hasn't announced a firm launch date for The Finals just yet, AMD may have just spilled the beans that a release is quite close.

The Radeon Settings app on Windows is now touting a redesigned The Home and Gaming tab too, specifically to make using HYPR-RX an easier experience:

• HYPR-RX profiles can now be enabled easily on a global basis, or per-game on the Home Tab; additionally, games on the Home tab now will display key art for a more vibrant experience
• When users go to the Graphics section within the Gaming tab, they will be able to learn more about specific features in each HYPR-RX profile by clicking on individual features to display a content block that contains more information about what benefits each feature enables
• Now when you view your performance metrics in AMD Software, you can choose to customize elements such as the background or text colours, default enabled metrics through profiles, as well as select options such as showing the metrics overlay only while a game is open.

In addition, AMD is introducing these features with today's driver:

• Introducing: AMD HYPR-RX Eco – designed with power savings in mind, when HYPR-RX Eco is enabled, AMD Software will enable a suite of features for gamers to experience power savings with one click
  • HYPR-RX Eco will launch initially with support for Radeon™️ 7000 Series graphics support and RDNA™️ 3 platforms
• Expanded OpenGL Interop Support - AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.12.1 expands support for FRTC, Radeon™ Super Resolution, Overlay, Record and Stream features to OpenGL games.
• Additional OS Feature Support
  • Support for Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling for Radeon RX 7900/7800/7700 series GPUs. Click HERE for more information.
• Additional Vulkan® extensions. Click HERE for more information.

The packed driver also has a slate of fixed issues:

• Improvements to high idle power when using select dual monitor display setups with mixed resolutions and high refresh rate displays (such as 1440p @ 120/144Hz + 1080p @ 120/144Hz or 2160p @ 120/144Hz + 1080p @ 120/144Hz) on Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPUs.
• Intermittent micro-stuttering may be experienced when running Chromium-based browsers on systems that pair a Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPU with a secondary display connected to an AMD Ryzen™ 7000 series processor.
• Stars may intermittently fail to appear while playing Crysis Remastered.
• Certain textures may become invisible while playing Final Fantasy X HD Remaster on Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPUs.
• Intermittent corruption may be observed on the racetrack while playing EA Sports WRC.
• Intermittent stutter while playing Overwatch 2 on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 6900 XTX.

Lastly, the known issues of this release are these:

Audio may intermittently become out of sync with video when recording from AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition with AV1 codec.
Intermittent grey screen after driver upgrade with certain monitors (such as Nixeus NX-EDG274K) on Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPUs.
Performance drop may be observed in some DirectML workloads.
Graphics API metric may show as N/A in certain UWP applications.
Intermittent flickering of certain ground textures may be observed while playing War Thunder with 4x SAAA enabled on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 7900 XTX.

The WHQL-certified AMD Adrenalin Edition 23.12.1 driver can now be upgraded to via the Radeon Settings app on Windows. Those looking for standalone download links can find them on the official release notes page here.

The company has also announced that support for AMD Link will be dropped in newer versions of its driver software starting in January.

Source

Linus Torvalds, the founder of Linux, has been keeping a low profile lately. But at the Linux Foundation's Open Source Summit Japan, Torvalds and his good friend Dirk Hohndel, the head of Verizon open source, talked about the current state of Linux.

First up, the two talked about the next Linux kernel release, Linux 6.7. Before flying into Tokyo, Torvalds had released the fourth release candidate for 6.7. This means that if all goes well, and Torvalds sees no reason to think that it won't, the next version of Linux will arrive right around Christmas. 

As Torvalds explained, he didn't want to have the "merge window around Christmas, which destroys Christmas for me." Now, though, "We're just waiting to make sure that we have nothing that's a showstopper." To make sure that the maintainers and developers who are now preparing for the next version, 6.8, won't go into a "panic because they know that after Christmas, my merge window opens, we'll probably delay that by a week or two to make the timing work out better because nobody wants to work over Christmas."

Speaking of maintainers, Hohndel brought up the question of "maintainer fatigue and how draining and stressful this role is." As I reported recently, Linux kernel maintainers are increasingly feeling more strained by this essential, demanding role. 

Torvalds replied, "It's much easier to find developers; we have a lot of developers. Some people think that you have to be a superdeveloper who can do everything to be a maintainer, but that's not actually true." 

"To be a maintainer," Torvalds continued, "You have to have a certain amount of good taste to judge other people's code. Some of that may be innate, but a lot of it just takes practice. You must be able to look at other people's code, and be able to tell, 'Is this a good approach or a bad approach?' It's usually just a matter of having done it for many years."

That said, Torvalds added, "We do have a lot of great maintainers, but the other part is that you have to be there all the time. Or you have to find other maintainers that you can work with so that you schedule around your vacations and things like that." 

Now for Torvalds, "being there all the time is not a problem because I love doing what I'm doing. I was on vacation a few months ago, and I have my laptop. And if I hadn't had my laptop with me, I would have been so bored. It is what I do. But I realized that's not the life for everybody, especially when you have to put years of your life into this."

It's also something Torvalds has had to learn to be better at as well. "Code is easy to write. You have a right answer, and you have a wrong. People relationships are hard, and being able to work with other developers and maintainers, especially when you have maintainers that work on different things with different goals. They want to push their area in one direction, and another maintainer comes in from another area and wants to pull it in another direction. It can be very stressful."

In 2018, Torvalds decided to pull back from his angry young man stance. He took a break from the Linux kernel to work on his behavior toward other developers. After he got a handle on it, Torvalds returned to the kernel. He's been much more mild-tempered since then. As he mentioned in Tokyo, he won't be "giving some company the finger. I learned my lesson."

To sum it up, Torvalds said, "It's one of those things where a lot of people seem to think that open source is all about programming, but a lot of it is about communication, too. Maintainers are the ones who translate. I don't necessarily mean language. I mean, the context, the reason for the code. That makes for a tough job. But, if you want to be a maintainer, trust me, there's room at the top."

A related issue is the graying of the Linux kernel community. Hohndel observed. "If I look five years into the future, a lot of [the top Linux kernel] people will start hitting the 60s, and the first ones will approach the 70s." 

That's true, Torvalds admitted, "a lot of us are going gray, but at the same time, part of the reason is we have maintainers who have been around for more than 30 years. They are still around and still active and still end up coming to me. We have a community where people do stick around." 

Hohndel commented that the aging of the kernel community is a "double-edged sword." Torvalds agreed, but he noted that "one of the things I liked about the Rust side of the kernel, was that there was one maintainer who was clearly much younger than most of the maintainers. We can clearly see that certain areas in the kernel bring in more young people." For example, on the driver side, you'll have a much easier time finding younger people, and that is traditionally how we've grown a lot of maintainers, including Greg [Korah-Hartman, the Linux stable kernel maintainer].

Hohndel and Torvalds also talked about the use of the Rust language in the Linux kernel. Torvalds said, "It's been growing, but we don't have any part of the kernel that really depends on Rust yet. To me, Rust was one of those things that made technical sense, but to me personally, even more important was that we need to not stagnate as a kernel and as developers."

That said, Torvalds continued, "Rust has not really shown itself as the next great big thing. But I think during next year, we'll actually be starting to integrate drivers and some even major subsystems that are starting to use it actively. So it's one of those things that is going to take years before it's a big part of the kernel. But it's certainly shaping up to be one of those."

Looking ahead, Hohndel said, we must talk about "artificial intelligence large language models (LLM). I typically say artificial intelligence is autocorrect on steroids. Because all a large language model does is it predicts what's the most likely next word that you're going to use, and then it extrapolates from there, so not really very intelligent, but obviously, the impact that it has on our lives and the reality we live in is significant. Do you think we will see LLM written code that is submitted to you?"

Torvalds replied, "I'm convinced it's gonna happen. And it may well be happening already, maybe on a smaller scale where people use it more to help write code." But, unlike many people, Torvalds isn't too worried about AI. "It's clearly something where automation has always helped people write code. This is not anything new at all."

Indeed, Torvalds hopes that AI might really help by being able "to find the obvious stupid bugs because a lot of the bugs I see are not subtle bugs.

Many of them are just stupid bugs, and you don't need any kind of higher intelligence to find them. But having tools that warn more subtle cases where, for example, it may just say 'this pattern does not look like the regular pattern. Are you sure this is what you need?' And the answer may be 'No, that was not at all what I meant. You found an obvious bag. Thank you very much.' We actually need autocorrects on steroids. I see AI as a tool that can help us be better at what we do."

But, "What about hallucinations?," asked Hohndel. Torvalds, who will never stop being a little snarky, said, "I see the bugs that happen without AI every day. So that's why I'm not so worried. I think we're doing just fine at making mistakes on our own."

Moving on, Torvalds said, "I enjoy the fact that open source, the notion of openness, has gotten so much more widely accepted. I enjoyed it particularly because I remember what it was thirty years ago when I had started this project, and people would ask me, 'Why?' And people would say, 'But how do you make money? That question never comes up anymore. Openness has become the standard within the industry. And people take it for granted that when you have to have big projects whether they are programming or data, you end up having them so big that you need to share between companies."

Hohndel observed that "Linux Foundation is focused on encouraging collaboration beyond the individual, beyond the company to collaborate on things as a society and without trying to be too hyperbolic here -- there is a huge role in having that neutral place where people can come together and do things."

Torvalds concluded, "That is literally why I'm working at the Linux Foundation because I refused to ever work at a Linux company. Because I did not want to be in a situation where one company or one commercial entity would be a special place. You need to have a neutral place, and that's why I gave my name to the Linux Foundation."

Source

According to Microsoft, all three problems are related to printer configurations on systems with access to the Microsoft Store. Therefore, Windows 10 and 11 installations without the Microsoft Store should continue working as they should, with no changes in printer names or apps. Besides, printing processes "are not expected to be affected" regardless of whether your computer has the Microsoft Store app or not. You should be able to queue printing jobs and use additional features, such as copying or scanning.

As for affected platforms, according to Microsoft, all Windows 10 and 11 versions, both consumer and server editions, are hit. Those include the following:

Sadly, the documentation says nothing about workarounds or temporary fixes. Microsoft only said it is investigating the problem with its partners and it would provide an update when more information is available. Also, the issue is not related to Windows Update, so there is no "originating update" you can uninstall to resolve the situation. But if you noticed the HP Smart App on your system and you do not use HP printers, feel free to uninstall it.

You can find more information about the issue here.

Source

Here is what is new in NVIDIA GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 546.31:

GeForce Hotfix display driver version 546.31 is based on our latest Game Ready Driver 546.29.

This hotfix addresses the following issues:

 

• [Discord] When streaming gameplay, colours may appear muted.
• Intermittent stutter may be observed when V-SYNC is enabled.

You can download NVIDIA GeForce Hotfix Driver 546.31 from the official website. Keep in mind that NVIDIA provides these hotfix releases as-is, so it is better to download them only if you need a specific fix. If the problem is not urgent, you can wait for the next WHQL-certified driver update, which will include fixes from 546.31. Here is what NVIDIA has to say about it:

The GeForce Hotfix driver is our way to trying to get some of these fixes out to you more quickly. These drivers are basically the same as the previous released version, with a small number of additional targeted fixes. The fixes that make it in are based in part on your feedback in the Driver Feedback threads and partly on how realistic it is for us to quickly address them. These fixes (and many more) will be incorporated into the next official driver release, at which time the Hotfix driver will be taken down.

To be sure, these Hotfix drivers are beta, optional and provided as-is. They are run through a much abbreviated QA process. The sole reason they exist is to get fixes out to you more quickly. The safest option is to wait for the next WHQL certified driver. But we know that many of you are willing to try these out. As a result, we only provide NVIDIA Hotfix drivers through our NVIDIA Customer Care support site.

You can find more information about NVIDIA's latest hotfix here.

Source

Kali Linux is a Linux distribution created for ethical hackers and cybersecurity professionals to perform penetration testing, security audits, and research against networks.

With this final release of 2023, the Kali Team says there are not many new features added to the core operating system, but they did bundle fifteen new tools, and the distro now ships with the GNOME 45 desktop environment.

Fifteen new tools in Kali Linux 2023.4

We say it with every release, but it wouldn't be a new Kali Linux release without some new tools toys to play with.

Below are the fifteen new tools added in Kali 2023.4:

• cabby - TAXII client implementation
• cti-taxii-client - TAXII 2 client library
• enum4linux-ng - Next generation version of enum4linux with additional features (a Windows/Samba enumeration tool)
• exiflooter - Finds geolocation on all image URLs and directories
• h8mail - Email OSINT & Password breach hunting tool
• Havoc - Modern and malleable post-exploitation command and control framework
• OpenTAXII - TAXII server implementation
• PassDetective - Scans shell command history to detect mistakenly written passwords, API keys, and secrets
• Portspoof - All 65535 TCP ports are always open & emulates services
• Raven - Lightweight HTTP file upload service
• ReconSpider - Most Advanced Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Framework
• rling - RLI Next Gen (Rling), a faster multi-threaded, feature rich alternative to rli
• Sigma-Cli - List and convert Sigma rules into query languages
• sn0int - Semi-automatic OSINT framework and package manager
• SPIRE - SPIFFE Runtime Environment is a toolchain of APIs for establishing trust between software systems

In addition to the new tools, Kali says they upgraded the Kernel version to 6.3.7.

GNOME 45 is here

If you prefer using GNOME over KDE, you will be happy to learn that Kali Linux now comes with GNOME 45.

GNOME 45, code-named "Rīga," was released in September 2023, bringing new refinements to the interface and increasing performance.

Here are some of the features highlighted by the Kali Team:

• Full-height sidebars in many updated apps
• Highly improved speed of search in nautilus file manager
  • Unfortunately the update for nautilus was not ready for this release, but it will arrive as a later update soon
• Improved settings** app (gnome-control-center)
• Updated colour-schemes for gnome-text-editor
• Updated themes for shell, libadwaita, gtk-3 and gtk-4
• Updated gnome-shell extensions
• Shell updates, including a new workspace indicator, replacing the previous “Activities” button
  • It is also possible to scroll your mouse wheel while hovering over the indicator to switch between workspaces

New builds and deployment options

The Kali Team has also created new builds and made them available on various platforms.

Starting with Kali Linux 2023.4, both Kali Linux AMD64 and ARM64 on Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure marketplaces allowing you to easily deploy Kali to the cloud the way you want.

The devs warn that while ARM64 is increasingly supported by the operating system, not all of its packages are supported under this architecture. So, using an ARM64 distro may make some packages unavailable.

The Kali Team has also added support for deploying Kali Linux on Hyper-V using Vagrant.

"If you are not too familiar with Vagrant, think of it as a command-line interface for VMware, VirtualBox, and now Hyper-V," explains the Kali Team.

Finally, you can now install Kali Linux on Raspberry Pi 5 through a new dedicated image or by building it yourself.

How to get Kali Linux 2023.4

To start using Kali Linux 2023.4, you can upgrade your existing installation, select a platform, or directly download ISO images for new installs and live distributions.

For those updating from a previous version, you can use the following commands to upgrade to the latest version.

echo "deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main contrib non-free non-free-firmware" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y full-upgrade

cp -vrbi /etc/skel/. ~/

[ -f /var/run/reboot-required ] && sudo reboot -f

If you are running Kali on the Windows Subsystem for Linux, upgrade to WSL2 for a better experience, including the ability to use graphical apps.

You can check the WSL version used by Kali with the 'wsl -l -v' command in a Windows command prompt.

Once done upgrading, you can check if the upgrade was successful by using the following command:

grep VERSION /etc/os-release

You can view the complete changelog for Kali 2023.4 on Kali's website.

Source

The last piece of the Windows 10 support puzzle is in place. Well, almost.

In a blog post today, Microsoft's Jason Leznek, principal product manager for Windows servicing and delivery, announced that the company will offer Extended Security Updates (ESUs) for Windows 10 for organizations, just as it did with Windows 7. In a separate message ahead of today's announcement, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that those updates will be available to individual consumers as well.

Those updates won't be free, of course. To receive monthly security updates, customers will have to pay for an annual ESU subscription, with the option to renew that subscription for up to two additional years. That means, in theory, that a paying customer can extend the life of a Windows 10 PC from the official end-of-support date of October 14, 2025, until October 10, 2028.

How much is it all going to cost? Microsoft refuses to say, promising only that further details will be available "at a later date."

After watching Microsoft's messy, confusing ESU program for Windows 7, I hope the company has learned a few lessons. That program, which initially covered only enterprise customers but was ultimately expanded to include small businesses, was expensive. For Windows 7 PCs with Enterprise Edition licenses, the annual price of ESUs started at $25 per device, going up to $100 per device for year three. For PCs running Windows Pro edition, Windows 7 ESU pricing started at $50 per device in year one and reached $200 per device in year three.

The Windows 7 ESU implementation was also extraordinarily difficult for small businesses to implement, as I found out when I tried to document the process at ZDNET back in 2019. Signing up for a Windows 7 ESU subscription required finding a Microsoft partner willing to work with a small number of licenses, with extra complications like signing up for an Azure Active Directory account. (That feature has since been renamed to Entra ID.)

Back then, of course, the option to upgrade a PC for free from Windows 7 to Windows 10 was still available, so those who chose to stick with Windows 7 were either stubborn or tied to hardware and software that wasn't compatible with the newer operating system.

The transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is dramatically different, in that a large number of PCs – perhaps as many as 400 million – will be unable to upgrade because the hardware doesn't meet the higher minimum standards for Windows 11.

(And a quick technical note here: For most Windows 10 PCs, the compatibility dealbreaker isn't the requirement for Trusted Platform Module [TPM] 2.0 support, which has been widely available on PCs for more than a decade. Instead, PCs that fail the compatibility check typically do so because they have a pre-2019 CPU that isn't on Microsoft's approved list.)

I'm disappointed that Microsoft is insisting that its customers pay for what should be a free service. They have to develop the security updates no matter what, if only to serve customers using the Long Term Support Channel editions of Windows. If the ESUs for individuals cost more than a token amount per device, it's a sign of pure greed.

I'm cautiously optimistic that Microsoft can come up with a simple sign-up option for this program, using the same infrastructure that handles services like OneDrive and Microsoft 365 for consumers with Microsoft accounts. I'm even more confident that enthusiasts will figure out a way to hack those subscriptions and make the updates available for free, just as they did with the earlier Windows 7 ESU program.

If you have a Windows 10 PC that doesn't meet Windows 11 upgrade requirements, the easiest option is to replace it before the end-of-support date, of course. If you'd prefer to save your money and not get rid of a perfectly functional older PC, your best option is to use one of the many supported workarounds to install Windows 11 and carry on.

But for anyone in business who wants to stick with Windows 10 after the end of 2025, prepare to pay.

Source

What you need to know

• Microsoft's AI-powered chatbot, Copilot, is about to improve, with many new features shipping to the platform early next year.
• Features include Deep Search, integrating OpenAI's GPT-4 Turbo model into Copilot for a better search experience.
• Some features highlighted, like the DALL-E 3 model, are already available.

Keeping with the celebratory mood and cheer that comes with the holiday season in December, Microsoft's Executive Vice President, Yusuf Mehdi, just announced a host of new features shipping to Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) for its first anniversary early next year.

While it's only been ten months since its inception, Microsoft has been able to redefine how people interact with the web, especially when searching the internet, shopping, improving gaming skills, preparing for job interviews, and more by using Copilot.

Everything new coming to Copilot

Medhi painted a broad picture of Microsoft's roadmap for Copilot as we transition into 2024. Right off the bat, plans are underway to integrate OpenAI's GPT-4 Turbo into Copilot. This will allow users to leverage the chatbot's capabilities to handle complex and longer tasks.

Avid Copilot users might already know that the chatbot leverages DALL-E 3 AI technology to generate high-quality, accurate images. This capability has been available to users for a few months and has been received well. However, multiple users have lodged complaints that the tool is heavily lobotomized.

Other neat features include the capability to efficiently rewrite website content by simply selecting the text you'd like to rephrase and prompting the chatbot to do it for you within the Microsoft Edge browser.

Microsoft is also combining the power of the GPT-4 model with Bing image search and web search data, which will help the chatbot deliver better image understanding for your queries. 

Users will also be able to perform complex tasks like coding, data analysis, visualization, math, and more using Copilot. And finally, a new feature dubbed Deep Search is on its way to Microsoft's Copilot. It leverages GPT-4's capabilities to "deliver optimized search results for complex topics."

This might be a fireproof way for Microsoft to get a bite out of Google's search dominance.

It's unclear when these features will ship to Copilot, but it will likely be within the first few months of 2024 (maybe on or before its official anniversary).

Source

A somewhat obscure guideline for developers of U.S. government websites may be about to accelerate the long, sad decline of Mozilla’s Firefox browser. There already are plenty of large entities, both public and private, whose websites lack proper support for Firefox; and that will get only worse in the near future, because the ’fox’s auburn paws are perilously close to the lip of the proverbial slippery slope.

The U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) provides a comprehensive set of standards which guide those who build the U.S. government’s many websites. Its documentation for developers borrows a “2% rule” from its British counterpart:

. . . we officially support any browser above 2% usage as observed by analytics.usa.gov.

At this writing, that analytics page shows the following browser traffic for the previous ninety days:

I am personally unaware of any serious reason to believe that Firefox’s numbers will improve soon. Indeed, for the web as a whole, they’ve been declining consistently for years, as this chart shows:

Firefox peaked at 31.82% in November, 2009 — and then began its long slide in almost direct proportion to the rise of Chrome. The latter shot from 1.37% use in January, 2009, to its own peak of 66.34% in September, 2020, since falling back to a “measly” 62.85% in the very latest data.1

While these numbers reflect worldwide trends, the U.S.-specific picture isn’t really better. In fact, because the iPhone is so popular in the U.S. — which is obvious from what you see on that aforementioned government analytics page — Safari pulls large numbers that also hurt Firefox.

In my days in tech marketing, we used to worry about how a dominant competitor would take “shelf space” in those large stores where we wanted visibility for our goods and their accompanying point-of-purchase brochures. (Remember point-of-purchase literature, fellow oldsters?) Well, Firefox is quickly losing “web space,” thanks to a perfect storm that’s been kicked up by the dominance of Chrome, the popularity of mobile devices that run Safari by default, and many corporate and government IT shops’ insistence that their users rely on only Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge browser while toiling away each day.

With such a continuing free-fall, Firefox is inevitably nearing the point where USWDS will remove it, like Internet Explorer before it, from the list of supported browsers.

“So what?” you may wonder. “That’s just for web developers in the U.S. government. It doesn’t affect any other web devs.”

Actually, it very well could. Here’s how I envision the dominoes falling:

1. Once Firefox slips below the 2% threshold in the government’s visitor analytics, USWDS tells government web devs they don’t have to support Firefox anymore.
2. When that word gets out, it spreads quickly to not only the front-end dev community but also the corporate IT departments for whom some web devs work. Many corporations do a lot of business with the government and, thus, whatever the government does from an IT standpoint is going to influence what corporations do.
3. Corporations see this change as an opportunity to lower dev costs and delivery times, in that it provides an excuse to remove some testing (and, in rare cases, specific coding) from their development workflow.2

. . . and just like that, in less time than you might think, Firefox — the free/open-source browser that was supposed to save the world from the jackboots of Internet Explorer (which had killed Firefox’s ancestor, Netscape Navigator) — is reduced to permanent status as a shrinking part of the fractured miscellany that litters the bottom of browser market-share charts.

I surely hope I’m wrong about this, but I fear I’m not.

Nearly five years ago, as the news broke that Microsoft had decided to move its Edge browser to the Blink engine that also powers Google Chrome, I wrote:

Supporting multiple browser engines — even if there is a Really Big Dog engine among them that’s about to get even bigger — ain’t always fun, but it goes with the territory; and I firmly believe it will continue to do so, especially for sites that are commercial in nature.

That firm belief remains unchanged, but the meaning of the “multiple browser engines” part is in serious danger of significant change. Unless something dramatically reverses Firefox’s trends, the ’fox could soon be whimpering its way down an ugly, slippery slope to irrelevance.

1. For that matter, there’s also Mozilla’s own “User Activity” chart, which shows the count of active Firefox clients dropping from 244.2 million on December 30, 2018, to 187.3 million on November 19, 2023. That’s a 23.3% drop over just that five-year period. 
2. At least, this is in the case of those companies which did still bother to test their websites on Firefox in the first place. More than a few gave up on it some years ago, if my own anecdotal experiences can provide any guidance. 

Source