Brief items

Kernel release status

The 6.2 kernel is out, released on February 19. Linus said:

Please do give 6.2 a testing. Maybe it's not a sexy LTS release like 6.1 ended up being, but all those regular pedestrian kernels want some test love too.

Headline features in this release include the ability to manage linked lists and other data structures in BPF programs, more additions to the kernel's Rust infrastructure, improvements in Btrfs RAID5/6 reliability, IPv6 protective load balancing, faster "Retbleed" mitigation with return stack buffer stuffing, control-flow integrity improvements with FineIBT, oops limits, and more.

See the LWN merge-window summaries (part 1, part 2) and the KernelNewbies 6.2 page for more information.

Stable updates: 6.1.13, 5.15.95, 5.10.169, 5.4.232, 4.19.273, and 4.14.306 were all released on February 22.

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No more Flatpak (by default) in Ubuntu Flavors

The Ubuntu Flavors offerings (Kubuntu and the like) have decided that the way to improve the user experience is to put more emphasis on the Snap package format.

Going forward, the Flatpak package as well as the packages to integrate Flatpak into the respective software center will no longer be installed by default in the next release due in April 2023, Lunar Lobster. Users who have used Flatpak will not be affected on upgrade, as flavors are including a special migration that takes this into account. Those who haven’t interacted with Flatpak will be presented with software from the Ubuntu repositories and the Snap Store.

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Distributions quote of the week

Leap is dependent on the SLE [SUSE Linux Enterprise] codebase in order to exist.

That SLE codebase is transforming into ALP, or to put a more dramatic spin on it, SLE as we know it is ending.

This is an unavoidable fact - it's decisions made by SUSE, for SUSE's business, to make SUSE money.

Therefore, Leap as we know it, is ending.

What comes next is not so set in stone.

— Richard Brown

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GDB 13.1 released

Version 13.1 of the GNU GDB debugger has been released. Changes include support for the LoongArch and CSKY architectures, a number of Python API improvements, support for zstd-compressed debug sections, and more.

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An RFC for governance of the Rust project

The Rust community has been working to reform its governance model; that work is now being presented as a draft document describing how that model will work.

This RFC establishes a Leadership Council as the successor of the core team and the new governance structure through which Rust Project members collectively confer the authority to ensure successful operation of the Project. The Leadership Council delegates much of this authority to teams (which includes subteams, working groups, etc.) who autonomously make decisions concerning their purviews. However, the Council retains some decision-making authority, outlined and delimited by this RFC.

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Systemd 253 released

Systemd 253 has been released. As always, the list of changes is extensive. Support for version-1 control groups and separate /usr systems is going away later this year. There is a new tool for working with unified kernel images, a number of new unit-file options have been added, and much more; click below for the full list.

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