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<title>Nautilus : slashdot selection</title>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php</link>
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<title><![CDATA[Airbus Migrating 70 Critical Apps From AWS to France's Scaleway]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/07/21/2050242</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/07/21/2050242</link>
<pubDate>2026-07-21</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				Airbus is moving 70 critical applications from AWS to French cloud provider Scaleway as part of a broader digital sovereignty push to keep sensitive data "under European control." Eventually, the migration will cover 900 applications, including ERP, CRM, manufacturing execution, and product lifecycle management systems. Airbus says it will, however, continue using U.S. providers for less sensitive workloads. "We do not intend to move away from all non European solutions; we balance our choices based on the criticality of the data," the company said. The Register reports:  Catherine Jestin, head of digital at Airbus, told us on Thursday: "The selection of Scaleway is a combination of a very strong technical answer and a very strong commercial offer making it competitive compared to hyperscalers' public cloud offerings. In addition, Scaleway is committed to involving Airbus in the definition of its future product roadmap." "The objective is to host Airbus's most critical applications (those required for the Minimum Viable Company). This represents 900 applications and we will start with 70 of them today hosted on AWS."
 
Applications being sent to Scaleway include ERP, manufacturing execution systems, CRM, and product lifecycle management. Finding a cloud provider to host its most sensitive applications for defense and industrial workloads was not a certainty when the process began, Airbus told us last year, because European cloud providers do not have the scale of their US rivals.
 
Jestin said Airbus will continue to work with AWS. Skywise, a platform that aggregates and analyzes aviation data, and Case Management Assistant for customers' technical queries will continue to be hosted by AWS. In a statement, she said: "By integrating a trusted, high performance, cloud environment that keeps our critical data assets shielded from foreign extraterritorial laws, we are ensuring that our digital infrastructure keeps pace with our aerospace innovation, while maintaining control and resilience of our industrial operations."
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Long After Pluto Fly-By, NASA's New Horizon's Probe Wakes Up Again, Starts Doing New Science]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/07/18/0537208</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/07/18/0537208</link>
<pubDate>2026-07-18</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				Launched in 2006, NASA's New Horizons probe flew by the planet Pluto in 2015.  But this week it "awakened from its longest sleep ever," reports CNN.
It's now 5.9 billion miles (9.5 billion kilometers) from Earth...
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft went into a planned hibernation mode on August 7, 2025, and woke up on June 23 using commands stored on its main computer.  The mission's flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, confirmed that New Horizons is in great shape and ready to transmit a stream of science data gathered during hibernation from its location in the region of icy objects known as the Kuiper Belt. 
Pluto is the largest of thousands of frozen, rocky bodies called trans-Neptunian objects, or TNOs, that exist in the Kuiper Belt at the edge of our solar system &mdash; remnants from its formation 4.5 billion years ago... The spacecraft is capturing data about the rotation rates, orientations and shapes...  The measurements provide insights into how planets are born from dust and pebbles, said Pontus Brandt, New Horizons project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
"There seems to be more paired, snowman-shaped bodies, like Arrokoth, out there than anyone expected," Brandt wrote in an email. "Are such binaries the most common planetesimal and is this how larger planets have been built in our own and other stellar systems? These are very deep questions that New Horizons can help answer." 
The spacecraft also measures the distribution of gas in the outer heliosphere, the expansive, protective bubble formed by a steady stream of particles that release from the sun called the solar wind. Meanwhile, an instrument called the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation is measuring galactic cosmic rays, extremely fast particles created when stars explode. The particles pose one of the more severe threats for human activities in space, Brandt said, but the boundary of the heliosphere acts as a shield to protect our solar system from 70% of them. New Horizons' data could help scientists learn more about how this puzzling shielding works, he said.  
Another instrument, the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter, has collected data that has thrown New Horizon's team a curveball, Brandt said. The team expected dust abundance to be high within the Kuiper Belt due to the significant presence of small objects. But New Horizons has traveled beyond the known boundary of the Kuiper Belt &mdash; and it's still in a dusty environment.

		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Windows Drops Under 60% in Global Desktop OS Share]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/07/08/1728229</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/07/08/1728229</link>
<pubDate>2026-07-08</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				StatCounter's June 2026 data shows Windows made up 56.55% of global desktop OS usage, dropping Microsoft's share below 60% for the first time in years. Linux, meanwhile, reached 4.39%, "one of its strongest recent showings in the company's desktop OS statistics," reports Linuxiac. From the report:  Apple's desktop platforms also remain a major part of the picture. StatCounter lists OS X at 11.89% and macOS at 4.48% for June 2026, meaning Apple's combined desktop presence remains comfortably ahead of Linux in the global chart. Chrome OS follows with 1.21%.
 
Of course, StatCounter's numbers should be read for what they are: web usage statistics, not a direct count of installed operating systems. The company calculates its Global Stats from page views across websites using its tracking code, analyzing details such as browser, operating system, and screen resolution. In other words, the figures reflect measured web activity rather than the number of machines actually installed worldwide. 
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Valve Open-Sources Steam Machine's E-Ink Display]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/07/03/1633249</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/07/03/1633249</link>
<pubDate>2026-07-03</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				Valve has open-sourced the design for a customizable e-ink front panel for the Steam Machine, dubbed the "Inkterface." "All of it is available on their GitLab under the MIT license, which goes over everything you need to make your own and stick it on the front of your fancy new Steam Machine," reports GamingOnLinux. From the report: 
They're now calling it the "Inkterface" and there's a good few things you'll need to make it including:
1 x Adafruit ESP32 Feather with 2MB PSRAM.
1 x Adafruit eInk Breakout Friend.
1 x Adafruit 5.83" Monochrome eInk Panel.
13 x M2.5 x 5mm Pan Head Machine Screws.
4 x 1/4" x 1/4" x 3/16" Stepped Magnet SB443-OUT.
 
Valve even provided a video on the GitLab showing it being put together [...].
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Godot Game Engine No Longer Accepts AI Code]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/07/02/1839237</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/07/02/1839237</link>
<pubDate>2026-07-02</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				The Godot Foundation will stop accepting AI-authored code, agent-submitted pull requests, and AI-generated text in contributor communications after maintainers were overwhelmed by low-effort submissions. "It is time for us to recognize that these problems aren't going away and therefore we need to take steps to reduce the burden on maintainers while ensuring we still have a pipeline to mentor new contributors to become future maintainers," the Godot Foundation said in a blog post. Contributors may still use AI for limited "menial things" if they disclose it, but humans must understand, own, and be able to fix the code they submit. PC Gamer reports:  The Foundation says the pileup of Godot pull requests pending review isn't all bad: It's a sign that interest in using and contribution to Godot is increasing. But the influx of contributions authored or submitted by AI is sapping the projects' maintainers of their willingness to confront the "already tedious" work of reviewing pull requests. "If your feedback on PRs is just being absorbed by a machine and not going towards mentoring a potential future maintainer, it becomes much harder to justify spending your free time on PR review," the Foundation said.
 
As the problem becomes increasingly unsustainable, the Godot Foundation says it's in the process of updating its contribution policies, focusing on "adding barriers to low-effort slop" contributions, encouraging maintainers to review code, developing new contributors into future maintainers, and crucially, requiring that all contributions come from humans who are accountable for their code -- and fixing it if it fails. "AI cannot take responsibility, and we can't trust heavy users of AI to understand their code enough to fix it," the Foundation said.
 
The Foundation says we can expect Godot's contributing policy to soon include explicit rejections of AI-authored code, noting that contributors should only use AI assistance for "menial things" and must disclose its use. Additionally, the Foundation will reject any AI-generated text in human-to-human communications, saying it's "a basic principle of respect" -- though it says machine translations "are still acceptable" if the original text was human-authored. "Things change every day with respect to the current suite of AI tools available," the Foundation said. "We will continue taking a conservative approach in our policies towards them, but we will re-evaluate as things evolve."
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Ford Rehires 'Gray Beard' Engineers After AI Falls Short]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/06/29/0321238</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/06/29/0321238</link>
<pubDate>2026-06-29</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				Ford executives said they've hired 350 veteran engineers &mdash; some of them former employees &mdash; after AI and automated systems failed to deliver the desired quality, reports TechCrunch:

Bloomberg reports the company's chief operating officer Kumar Galhotra told journalists that Ford had been "relying more and more on automated quality systems" with disappointing results. So the company "brought back technical specialists," and those specialists "hunt for failure points before a part ever reaches the plant floor." 
Charles Poon, Ford's vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, added, "Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product."
 
The article points out that Ford is using the rehired gray beard engineers to train younger staff &mdash; and, to reprogram its AI tools.
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Valve Will Finally Let You Build Your Own Steam Machine With SteamOS For Desktop]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/06/22/1922207</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/06/22/1922207</link>
<pubDate>2026-06-22</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				With the price of the new Steam Machine starting at $1,049, you might want to consider making your own Steam Machine instead. An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Valve says that "starting with the SteamOS 3.8 release, you can put together your own Steam Machine using whatever PC parts you want." SteamOS 3.8.10 launched last week with a slew of updates, including "improved compatibility with recent Intel and AMD platforms." Alongside that improved compatibility, Valve is giving gamers the green light to install SteamOS on their own desktops. In an interview with The Verge, Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais said Valve has been "rolling out improvements to [SteamOS] so it's more compatible with desktop hardware," including eventual support for Nvidia graphics. Griffais says Valve has "a growing team" working on Nvidia driver support for SteamOS, adding, "We're collaborating with Nvidia very closely." While he mentioned that Nvidia support might not come this year, Griffais emphasized that "it's certainly something that we're working on in the background."
 
It's technically been possible to run SteamOS on your own hardware for a while now, but compatibility has been mostly limited to AMD systems. So far installing it has also required using a Steam Deck recovery image, a process that, speaking from experience, is much less straightforward than the installation process for most other Linux distributions. Trying to run SteamOS on Intel or Nvidia hardware has not been easy so far. According to Griffais, Valve is working to change that, which could mean that down the line, you'll be able to run SteamOS on just about any gaming PC hardware you want, including Nvidia.
 
For the more immediate future, Griffais says SteamOS in its current state should offer a "good experience" on console-like PC setups: "If you have something that is similar to the use case of a Steam Machine, where you have a PC that's gonna be plugged into a TV, and has a single hard drive that you're not going to try and dual boot [] you can put SteamOS on there, and you'll have an experience that is very similar to a Steam Deck docked or a Steam Machine, with some caveats, of course," like a lack of HDMI-CEC support. But "the core bits of the experience are there. The SteamOS graphics driver, the shader precompilation [...] you can get at all of that with the SteamOS." Griffais says SteamOS does not yet offer an easy way to dual-boot alongside Windows or another operating system, but envisions "a time where it's a better experience to install on your desktop and have it coexist with a different operating system."
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Commodore's Callback 8020 Is a $499 Flip Phone That Blocks Social Media and Browsers]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/06/16/201248</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/06/16/201248</link>
<pubDate>2026-06-16</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				Commodore has unveiled the Callback 8020, a $499 Sailfish OS flip phone that runs most Android apps but deliberately blocks social media, browsers, email, and workplace apps to discourage doomscrolling. The "not dumb dumbphone" still supports messaging, music, maps, ridesharing, hotspots, a removable battery, and plenty of Commodore nostalgia. "The phone uses T9-style texting with predictive input, includes Commodore SID ringtones, ships with a selection of Commodore and Sailfish games, and even includes Snake," reports TechSpot. From the report:  Commodore says it has developed patent-pending technology that prevents browsers and social media apps from being sideloaded, while DNS-level blocking should stop them from working even if someone finds a way to install them. Users can still sideload nearly anything else if it's not available on the Commostore, but apps designed for doomscrolling remain off limits. That means useful services such as WhatsApp, SMS, Signal, Telegram, WeChat, Spotify, Uber, Lyft, maps, podcasts, QR scanning, voice notes, and hotspot support work, but the likes of Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Gmail, and browsers do not.
 
The Callback 8020 has a 3.25-inch 480 x 640 internal display, a MediaTek Helio G81 chip, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, a 48MP Sony rear camera, an autofocus front camera, dual SIM support, USB-C, a headphone jack, FM radio, and something many of us miss from flagships: a removable battery. There's no 5G as Commodore argues that 4G VoLTE and Wi-Fi better fit a device meant to discourage constant streaming and scrolling. [...] The main screen is touch-capable but disabled by default, while the outer display keeps things deliberately sparse, showing basics such as time, battery, signal, and notifications via dome LEDs.
 
The 8020 name is a nod to Commodore's 8010 modem from 1980. The phone comes in ProtoPET White, SX Silver, BASIC Beige, a translucent Starlight Edition, and a gold Founders Edition with a 24-karat gold-plated Commodore button. Standard models start at $499, the Starlight version is $549.99, and the Founders Edition costs $640. Preorders open June 30, with shipping targeted for winter. You can watch the launch ad on YouTube.
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Vim Classic 8.3 Launched as an AI-Free Vim Fork]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/06/13/0524209</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/06/13/0524209</link>
<pubDate>2026-06-13</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				This month saw the release of Vim Classic 8.3, the first stable version of a new long-term support fork of Vim maintained without generative AI tools.     Linuxiac reports:
The release is based on Vim 8.2.0148 and includes selected bug fixes and patches backported from later upstream Vim releases. Vim Classic was first announced by [SourceHut's CEO/founder] Drew DeVault in March 2026 after he objected to LLM-assisted development in Vim and Neovim. In his announcement, DeVault said he no longer wanted to use software developed with LLM assistance and introduced Vim Classic as a fork for users who want to continue using Vim without that involvement... Vim Classic follows Vim's charityware model and continues to direct users toward Bram Moolenaar's long-running support for children in Uganda. The release is distributed as a signed source tarball from SourceHut, while future important announcements are expected through the project's mailing list.  
"Vim is important to me..." DeVault wrote in March. (DeVault even tattooed "hjkl" on his right arm.)  "[A]lmost every word I have ever committed to posterity, through this blog, in my code, all of the docs I've written, emails I've sent, and more, almost all of it has passed through Vim." 
But DeVault wrote that he also cares about AI's impact on air pollution, fresh water supplies, global supply chains, and the working conditions of miners in African companies:
And at a moment when the climate demands immediate action to reduce our footprint on this planet, the AI boom is driving data centers to consume a full 1.5% of the world's total energy production in order to eliminate jobs and replace them with a robot that lies... All this to enrich the few, centralize power, reduce competition, and underwrite an enormous bubble that, once it bursts, will ruin the lives of millions of the world's poor and marginalized classes.   
I don't think it's cute that someone vibe coded "battleship" in VimScript. I think it's more important that we stop collectively pretending that we don't understand how awful all of this is. I don't want to use software which has slop in it. I do what I can to avoid it, and sadly even Vim now comes under scrutiny in that effort as both Vim and NeoVim are relying on LLMs to develop the software...  To keep my conscience clear, and continue to enjoy the relationship I have with this amazing piece of software, I have forked Vim... 
Since forking from this base, I have backported a handful of patches, most of which address CVEs discovered after this release, but others which address minor bug fixes. I also penned a handful of original patches which bring the codebase from this time up to snuff for building it on newer toolchains... 
I invite you to use Vim Classic, if you feel the same way as me, and to maintain it with me, contributing the patches you need to support your own use cases.  
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[DuckDuckGo Installs Up 30% After Google Announced AI Search]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/05/30/0511236</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/05/30/0511236</link>
<pubDate>2026-05-30</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				After Google announced AI-emphasizing changes to its search results, many web surfers began defecting to DuckDuckGo, reports TechCrunch.  (They describe DuckDuckGo as "a privacy-focused alternative" that accounts for around 2% of the U.S. search market...)
DuckDuckGo said U.S. app installs went up 18.1% week-over-week on average during the May 20 to May 25 period, compared to May 13 to May 18. The company said that growth was sustained for six consecutive days and peaked at 30.5% on May 25. On iOS, the rate of install is even higher, with week-over-week growth hitting a 33% average, peaking at 69.9%... DuckDuckGo said the trend is stronger in the U.S, and that DuckDuckGo continued to gain users over the Memorial Day weekend, when it usually sees a dip in traffic.   Some of that data is backed up by third parties. App analytics company Apptopia found a 29% increase in average daily downloads in the U.S. and a 12% increase globally over the same period.  
DuckDuckGo also said visits to its AI-free search page, noai.duckduckgo.com averaged 22.7% week-over-week growth, peaking at 27.7% on May 24, according to the article.  ("DuckDuckGo also offers an AI Image Filter that filters out AI-created images from search results.") 
TechCrunch delves into the reason why:
I overheard a woman on the phone saying she was switching to DuckDuckGo because you can "opt out of using AI... Google just isn't Google anymore," she said. It seems that others had the same idea... Some have argued it will kill the open web, while others shared concerns that AI overviews surface inaccurate responses and take away control from users who might not want to use AI. It also overcomplicates simple things. 
A Google spokesperson pointed out that AI Mode isn't the default in their search results.  (And CNET notes Google include an AI-free "Web" choice in its results if you just want a page of ftraditional blue links.) 
TechCrunch adds that DuckDuckGo also offers a separate free tool called Duck.ai offering access to models including Claude, Meta's Llama and OpenAI's GPT-5 mini.  "All chats are private because DuckDuckGo strips the user's IP address before requests reach model providers, deletes conversations within 30 days, and prevents chats from being used for training."
		
	
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<title><![CDATA['Virtual OS Museum' Lets You Try 570 Extinct Operating Systems]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/05/30/2323231</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/05/30/2323231</link>
<pubDate>2026-05-30</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				You can try 570 extinct operating systems at a new "virtual museum," according to a new article by ZDNet.  Their reporter downloaded the ancient OS NeXTStep, and was "shocked" by how easy it was to run it, "and by the sheer number of operating systems to choose from."

Essentially, what you do is download a zipped file, unzip it, change into the newly created directory, and run the executable. VirtualBox then opens to a Debian Linux instance, where you can select from a very long list of operating systems to run...   You can run operating systems like Amiga, Apple I/II/III, Atari, Avigo, Commodore 64, Cray, DEC Alpha, Einstein, Game Boy Advance, GE 200, HP 3000, IBM 1130, iPod touch, Jupiter Ace, Lisa, Macintosh, MIPS-based SBCs, Neo, Newton, NeXT, NORC, Palm, and so many more.   You can test the earliest mainframes, later mainframes and minicomputers, workstations and Unix variants, home computers, personal computer operating systems, mobile and embedded adOSes, and research-based and obscure systems.  As far as Linux is concerned, you can run early Debian and its derivatives, Red Hat and its derivatives, early Slackware, and more...   
There are two editions of the Virtual OS Museum: full and lite. The full edition is currently 174GB and includes everything you need to run these old-school operating systems. The full version does not require a network connection to run. The Lite version is only 14GB and requires an internet connection because it downloads the full OS image you want to use.  
Gizmodo notes "this project is all the more remarkable for being the work of one man: Andrew Wartenkin, who has been collecting OS images for over two decades."

Of course, Wartenkin didn't write all the emulation software himself, and he maintains a list of credits to give credit where it's due...  The Museum itself runs in a virtual machine, which seems kinda fitting &mdash; it opens in a virtualized Linux installation and presents you with the full list of available operating systems. 
Did you know someone has written a GUI for the Commodore 64? Neither did I!  There are simulations of ancient mainframes, like the IBM 1130 (yours for the low, low price of $32,280 &mdash; or $41,230 with a disk drive &mdash; back in 1965).
 
There's also a YouTube channel. 
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader Z00L00Kfor sharing the news.
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Last.fm Goes Independent After Breaking Up With Paramount Skydance]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/05/28/0552205</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/05/28/0552205</link>
<pubDate>2026-05-28</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				Last.fm announced that it is independent again after separating from Paramount Skydance, nearly two decades after CBS acquired the music-tracking service in 2007. The company says accounts, scrobbles, privacy settings, Pro subscriptions, and billing information will remain intact. Additional details are forthcoming. Engadget reports:  "Today, Last.fm begins a new chapter as an independent company," the announcement reads. "Ownership has changed, but the product you use every day has not." It also said that it will keep its current team. Last.fm is a music website that can track what you listen to across platforms, apps and streaming services, including Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music.&#194;
 
[...] Last.fm started as an internet radio station in 2002, and it didn't get scrobbling until a few years later when it merged with the original team that created the tracking process. It operated as an independent company until it was acquired by CBS Interactive, which is now part of the merged Paramount Skydance Corporation, for $280 million in 2007. In 2014, it killed off its $3-a-month subscription radio service to focus on tracking your listening habits on other providers. The company promised to share more about what you can expect from the transition in the coming weeks, but everything will work on Last.fm "exactly as it did yesterday" for now. 
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[KDE Receives $1.4 Million Investment From Sovereign Tech Fund]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/05/13/161242</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/05/13/161242</link>
<pubDate>2026-05-13</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				The German Sovereign Tech Fund has invested 1.2 million euros ($1.4 million USD) in KDE Plasma technologies to help strengthen the structural reliability and security of the desktop environment's core infrastructure, including Plasma, KDE Linux, and the frameworks underlying its communication services. Longtime Slashdot reader jrepin shares an excerpt from the announcement:  For 30 years, KDE has been providing the free and open-source software essential for digital sovereignty in personal, corporate, and public infrastructures: operating systems, desktop environments, document viewers, image and video editors, software development libraries, and much more.
 
KDE's software is competitive, publicly auditable, and freely available. It can be maintained, adapted, and improved in-house or by local software companies. And modifications (along with their source code) can be freely distributed to all users and departments within an organization.
 
KDE will use Sovereign Tech Fund's investment to push its essential software products to the next level, providing every individual, business, and public administration with the opportunity to regain their privacy, security, and control over their digital sovereignty. Slashdot reader Elektroschock also shared a statement from Fiona Krakenburger, Technical Director at the Sovereign Tech Agency.
 
"We have long invested in desktop technologies for a reason: they are the primary way people access and use digital services in everyday life," says Krakenburger. "The desktop holds personal data and mediates nearly every service we depend on, from booking the next medical appointment, to education, to the way we work. We are investing in KDE because it is one of the two major desktop environments used across Linux and plays a key role in how millions of people experience open technology. Strengthening KDE's testing infrastructure, security architecture, and communication frameworks is how we invest in the resilience and reliability of the core digital infrastructure that modern society depends on."
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Valve Releases Steam Controller CAD Files Under Creative Commons License]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/05/06/208231</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/05/06/208231</link>
<pubDate>2026-05-06</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				Valve has released CAD files for the new Steam Controller and its Puck under a Creative Commons license. "The idea is to let enterprising modders create their own Steam Controller add-ons, like skins, charging stands, grip extenders or smartphone mounts," reports Digital Foundry. From the report:  The Valve release includes files for the external shell ("surface topology") of the Controller and Puck, with a .STP, .STL and engineering diagram of each device, with the latter showing areas that must remain uncovered to let the device maintain its signal strength and otherwise function as designed. Valve has previously released CAD files for its Steam Deck handheld, Valve Index VR suite and even the original Steam Controller a decade ago, so this release is welcomed but not unexpected.
 
The release is under a fairly restrictive Creative Commons license which allows for non-commercial use and requires attribution and sharing of designs back to the community. However, the license also suggests that commercial entities interested in making accessories for the Steam Controller or its Puck can contact Valve directly to discuss terms.  You can find the files here.
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Linux Percentage of Steam Users Doubled in One Year]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/05/02/0625247</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/05/02/0625247</link>
<pubDate>2026-05-02</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				Steam on Linux use in March "had skyrocketed to 5.33%..." reports Phoronix, "easily the highest level we've seen Steam on Linux at since its inception more than a decade ago." 
So what happened in April?
[April's results] point to Linux having a 4.52% marketshare on Steam, a drop of 0.81% compared to March.  Year-over-year it's roughly double with Steam on Linux in April 2025 being at 2.27%. Or two years ago for April 2024, Steam on Linux was at 1.9%.

		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Open Source Developer Brings Linux to Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/04/25/179232</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/04/25/179232</link>
<pubDate>2026-04-25</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				Microsoft released the "Windows Subsystem for Linux" in 2016, adding an optional Linux environment into every operating system since Windows 10.  But now an open source developer has brought Linux to Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me, reports the blog It's FOSS, "with Linux kernel 6.19 running alongside the Windows 9x kernel, letting both operate on the same machine at the same time."

A virtual device driver handles initialization, loads the kernel off disk and manages the event loop for page faults and syscalls. Since Win9x lacks the right interrupt table support for the standard Linux syscall interrupt, WSL9x reroutes those calls through the fault handler instead. Rounding it all out is wsl.com, a small 16-bit DOS program that pipes the terminal output from Linux back to whatever MS-DOS prompt window you ran it from. 
The end result is that WSL9x requires no hardware virtualization, and can run on hardware as old as the i486, the article points out.  On Mastodon the developer says they "really got this one in right under the wire, before they start removing 486 support from Linux." 
The source code for WSL9x is released under the GPL-3 license, and was "proudly written without AI."
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Trump Administration Begins Refunding $166 Billion In Tariffs]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/04/20/1711231</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/04/20/1711231</link>
<pubDate>2026-04-20</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				"After a Supreme Court of the United States ruling in Feb. 2026, many tariffs imposed by the Trump administration were declared illegal because the president overstepped his authority," writes Slashdot reader hcs_$reboot. "As a result, the U.S. government now has to refund a massive amount of money, around $160-170+ billion, paid mainly by importers." According to the New York Times, the administration has now begun accepting refund requests, "surrendering its prized source of revenue -- plus interest." From the report:  For some U.S. businesses, the highly anticipated refunds could be substantial, offering critical if belated financial relief. Tariffs are taxes on imports, so the president's trade policies have served as a great burden for companies that rely on foreign goods. Many have had to choose whether to absorb the duties, cut other costs or pass on the expenses to consumers. By Monday morning, those companies can begin to submit documentation to the government to recover what they paid in illegal tariffs.
 
In a sign of the demand, more than 3,000 businesses, including FedEx and Costco, have already sued the Trump administration in a bid to secure their refunds, with some cases filed even before the Supreme Court's ruling. But only the entities that officially paid the tariffs are eligible to recover that money. That means that the fuller universe of people affected by Mr. Trump's policies -- including millions of Americans who paid higher prices for the products they bought -- are not able to apply for direct relief.
 
The extent to which consumers realize any gain hinges on whether businesses share the proceeds, something that few have publicly committed to do. Some have started to band together in class-action lawsuits in the hopes of receiving a payout. Many business owners said they weren't sure how easy the tariff refund process would be, particularly given Mr. Trump's stated opposition to returning the money. The administration has suggested that it may be months before companies see any money. Adding to the uncertainty, the White House has declined to say if it might still try to return to court in a bid to halt some or all of the refunds.  The money will mostly go to importers and companies, since they were the ones that directly paid the tariffs. While individual refunds with interest could take around 60 to 90 days to process, the overall effort will probably move much more slowly because of how large and complicated it will be.
 
There are also legal questions around whether companies would have to pass any of that money on to consumers. Slashdot reader AmiMoJo commented: "This is perhaps the biggest transfer of wealth in American history. Most of those companies will just pocket the refund and not pass any of it on to the consumer. If prices go down at all, they won't be back to pre-tariff levels. You paid the tariffs, but you ain't getting the refund."
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Brave Browser Introduces 'Origin', a Pay-Once 'Minimalist' Browser]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/04/20/0423212</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/04/20/0423212</link>
<pubDate>2026-04-20</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				The Brave browser "has introduced Brave Origin, a stripped-down version of its browser that removes built-in monetization features like Rewards and other extras tied to its business model," writes Slashdot reader BrianFagioli"
The stripped-down browser is available either as a separate browser download or as an upgrade to the existing Brave install, unlocked through a one-time purchase that can be activated across multiple devices. The idea is simple on paper: pay once, and you get a cleaner, more minimal browsing experience without the add-ons that fund Brave's ecosystem.  What makes the move unusual is the pricing model itself. While paying to support a browser is not controversial, charging users specifically to remove features raises questions about whether those additions are seen as value or clutter.  
The situation gets even stranger on Linux, where Brave Origin is reportedly available at no cost, creating an uneven experience across platforms and leaving some users wondering why they are being asked to pay for something others get for free.
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Blue Origin Rocket Launches, Successfully Reuses Booster - But Loses Satellite]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/04/20/0248201</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/04/20/0248201</link>
<pubDate>2026-04-20</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				 SpaceNews reports:
Blue Origin's New Glenn suffered a malfunction of its second stage on the rocket's third flight April 19, stranding its payload in an unrecoverable "off-nominal" orbit and dealing the company a setback as it seeks to increase its flight rate...  AST SpaceMobile had planned to launch 45 to 60 satellites this year for its D2D constellation, but BlueBird 7 is the first to launch since BlueBird 6 launched on an Indian LVM3 rocket in December.
 
AST SpaceMobile still expects to have 45 satellites in orbit by the end of the year, the article notes.  (In an earnings call in March, AST SpaceMobile's CEO had promised they'd soon start "stacking" satellites, "batched in groups of either three, four, six or eight in a single launch.")  He'd added that "To support our launch cadence during 2026, we expect the New Glenn booster to be reused every 30 days or less..." 
There's some good news there, SpaceNews points out, since today saw the first successful reflight of a New Glenn first stage rocket:
The booster, called "Never Tell Me The Odds" by Blue Origin, touched down on the company's landing platform, Jacklyn, in the Atlantic Ocean nearly nine and a half minutes after liftoff. The booster launched NASA's ESCAPADE Mars mission on the NG-2 flight in November.   However, the booster reuse on NG-3 was only partial since the stage's biggest component, its BE-4 engines, was new. "With our first refurbished booster we elected to replace all seven engines and test out a few upgrades including a thermal protection system on one of the engine nozzles," Dave Limp, chief executive of Blue Origin, said in an April 13 social media post. "We plan to use the engines we flew for NG-2 on future flights."
 
The satellite will now be "de-orbited", AST SpaceMobile said in a statement.  (They added that "The cost of the satellite is expected to be recovered under the company's insurance policy.") 
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the news.
		
	
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<title><![CDATA[Voyager 1 is Running Out of Power.  NASA Just Switched Part of It Off]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="false">slashdot_26/04/19/2346255</guid>
<link>https://electriccafe.org/slashdot.php?id=slashdot_26/04/19/2346255</link>
<pubDate>2026-04-19</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[				After 49  years of space travel, Voyager 1 "is running out of power," reports NPR:
The spacecraft runs on a radioisotope thermoelectric generator &mdash; a device that converts heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. It carries no solar panels, no rechargeable batteries. Just the slow, steady release of nuclear warmth, which diminishes by about 4 watts each year. After nearly five decades, that decline has become critical. 
During a routine maneuver in late February, Voyager 1's power levels fell unexpectedly, bringing the probe dangerously close to triggering an automatic fault-protection shutdown &mdash; a self-preservation response that would have forced engineers into a lengthy and risky recovery process. The team needed to act first.   On April 17, mission engineers sent a sequence of commands to deactivate the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment, known as the LECP, which is one of Voyager 1's remaining science instruments. The LECP has measured ions, electrons, and cosmic rays originating from both our solar system and the galaxy beyond it, helping scientists map the structure of interstellar space in a way no other instrument could...  
Voyager 1 now carries two operational science instruments: one that listens for plasma waves, and one that measures magnetic fields. Engineers believe the latest shutdown could buy the mission roughly another year of breathing room.   The team is also developing a more sweeping power conservation plan they informally call "the Big Bang" &mdash; a coordinated swap of several powered components all at once, trading older systems for lower-power alternatives. If testing on Voyager 2, planned for May and June 2026, goes well, the same procedure will be attempted on Voyager 1 no sooner than July. If it works, there is even a slim chance the LECP could once more continue to work. 
The engineers say they hope to keep at least one instrument operating on each spacecraft into the 2030s. It would leave both still reporting from places no machine has ever gone before.111 
Voyager 1 is now 15 billion miles from Earth, the article points out.  (Radio signals take 23 hours to arrive...) 
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot for sharing the article.

		
	
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