Dance of the Hours
Welcome

Sometimes the data points in the news come in pairs, or at least they converge into pairs when you stop to think about them. I noticed a story this month on the many layoffs in the tech industry.
Dear Reader,
Sometimes the data points in the news come in pairs, or at least they converge into pairs when you stop to think about them. I noticed a story this month on the many layoffs in the tech industry. According to the report, 50,000 tech employees have lost their jobs so far in 2024. 2023 saw 260,000 lose their jobs, the biggest total since the bust in the wake of the dot-com era [1].
The other story that caught my eye was about a bill in the US Senate to mandate a 32-hour work week instead of the customary 40-hour week [2]. I'm not exactly sure why I think these stories belong together, other than the fact that the rise of AI is often cited as a reason for some of the house clearing. AI reduces the need for human workers. Of course, all companies are always in search of greater efficiency, and efficiency means doing more in fewer hours. Another story in the news notes that Mercedes has entered into a plan to replace humans with robots for "low skill, physically challenging, manual labor" [3].
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.