Issue #306 / May 2026

We are all accustomed to rapid evolution of the high-tech space, and I'm one of many journalists who have made a career out of talking about it. Computers were an important accessory when I first started doing this, then they became a necessary accessory, and then, for many industries, the server room became the centerpiece for everything – everything else was an accessory as long as the servers kept churning.

In the news: UN Creates Open Source Portal; Latest Linux Kernel RC Contains Changes Galore; Nitrux 6.0 Now Ready to Rock Your World; Linux Foundation Reports that Open Source Delivers Better ROI; Keep Android Open; Kernel 7.0 Now in Testing; Introducing matrixOS, an Immutable Gentoo-Based Linux Distro; and Chaos Comes to KDE in KaOS.

Chronicler Zack Brown reports on compiler optimizations and compatibility.

Immutable Linux distributions protect your system files in ways that an ordinary distro can't. We take a look at four promising alternatives: Aurora, blendOS, NixOS, and Vanilla OS.

This month we explore Lilidog 26.02.06, KaOS 2026.02, NuTyX 26.02.2, and ParrotOS 7.1.

KDE's password manager, KWallet, can be an annoyance. While it can't be completely disabled, the nuisance can be minimized.

FreeBSD is steady and stable – will it work as a desktop system?

If you run a VPS or a home server, you might like to know the status of your services. Gatus provides you with a status dashboard and sends you alerts when something's amiss.

The OpenWrt router OS includes features you won't find with over-the-counter home routers – and you can use it on old hardware that the vendor has abandoned.

To discover where the traffic to his website comes from, Mike Schilli displays it live on an interactive world map.