Issue #309 / Aug 2026

Open source software has always served as an equalizing force in the IT space. When one company or group gets too much power, the open source ecosystem offers a head start to others who wish to oppose that dominance.

In the news: KDE Linux Drops AUR; California May Exempt Linux from Its Age-Verification Law; Another Logic Bug Found in Linux Kernel; Ubuntu Core 26 Offers Game-Changing Enterprise Features; Flooding the Linux Kernel Security Mailing List; Top Priorities for Open Source Pros Seeking a New Job; Container-Based Fedora Hummingbird Designed for Agent-First Builders; and Linux Kernel Developers Considering a Kill Switch.

Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the Importance of the User.

Firefox 148 introduced an option called "Block AI enhancements." What does that mean, is it really a "kill switch" for AI, and does Firefox live up to its reputation as a browser that exists beyond corporate control? We decided to start up Wireshark and find out.

This month we explore Archcraft 2026.05.12, NetHydra 2026.2, PrismLinux 2026.05.05, and ZenLake OS 26.04.

Old-school performance monitoring won't cut it for today's complex configurations. Extended Berkeley Packet Filter and its suite of surrounding tools are here to help.

With gocryptfs, you can avoid security breaches by encrypting files on your hard disk before uploading them to the cloud.

If you want to run an app from a different distribution or architecture or one that needs different libraries, we show you some tricks to make this work on your Linux machine.

To help Mike Schilli finish watching the movies he's already started, a Go TUI assists him with cross-service home theater scheduling and timekeeping.

We take a close look at the Socket Statistics utility ss and show why it is better than netstat for forensics, troubleshooting, and other networking tasks.