KDE Plasma 6.8 arrived timed with the project’s 30th anniversary and brings a mix of visible new features and practical improvements. New user tools include Kup, an integrated backup utility for automated external backups, and Spectacle now captures system audio and microphone along with video. The Steam client gets visual polish with shadows and rounded corners, accessibility adds a “click dwell” hover-to-click option, the Digital Clock can show the Hindu Bikram Sambat calendar, and the on-screen keyboard gains Amharic support. The System Monitor now lets users set CPU affinity per process via a right-click “select affinity” option.
Under the hood, NVIDIA GPUs default to triple-buffering, HDR playback respects ICC colour profiles, and Plasma Shell starts faster and uses less memory when many widgets run. A major platform change drops native X11/Xorg desktop sessions - legacy X apps continue to work through XWayland and KDE applications remain usable on X11 - but the move follows trends set by other desktops. Plasma 6.8 will roll out to rolling-release distributions immediately and reach KDE neon via updates in the coming weeks; Kubuntu 26.10 missed inclusion and ships with the latest 6.7.x point release instead.
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Ubuntu 26.10, codenamed 'Stonking Stingray', introduces enhanced security, hardware support, and new features like Rust-based coreutils and Myna speech-to-text. The release also includes updates to GNOME 51, improved enterprise authentication, and expanded AI workload support. (lists.ubuntu.com)
Unfenced offers listings of 13,626 properties that border public land across the US, checked against official boundary maps. The platform allows users to browse, view satellite imagery, and explore land for sale near public forests and wilderness areas. (unfenced.land)
Social media engagement for Reform UK figures has declined following Ukrainian strikes on Russian data centres, which significantly reduced bot activity linked to Russian networks. The drop in automated activity appears to have impacted the reach and engagement of Reform UK posts in the UK. (thelondoneconomic.com)
Flipflop is an open-source project that creates persistent tunnels for filesharing using Iroh technology. It aims to facilitate secure and reliable file sharing in physical spaces. (github.com)
Terminalthemes.com is a web app offering over 800 terminal themes in nearly 40 formats, with live previews and accessibility features. It is free to use, with community contributions and options for users to submit and claim themes. (news.ycombinator.com)
RunInfra offers open models optimized for agents with fast response times and low costs, utilizing caching to improve efficiency. Their session-aware routing keeps repeat calls warm, reducing latency and cost for agents using their API. (runinfra.ai)
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