Untitled Linux Show 243: Only a Few Things Crashed (Feb 22, 2026)

Episode Overview

This week, host Jonathan Bennett and panelists Rob, Ken, and Jeff discuss the latest happenings in the Linux ecosystem, including KDE Plasma 6.6 (with a live upgrade on-air), Blender 5.1 beta, Pipewire 1.6, the experimental Matrix OS Gentoo project, intriguing stories about AI making tangible kernel improvements, Intel's renewed Linux hiring push, and much more. True to the episode title, "only a few things crashed" during their hands-on demos.

Key Discussion Highlights

1. Red Hat’s Digital Sovereignty Assessment Tool

[02:05 - 08:42]

• Rob explains Red Hat’s new tool: The Digital Sovereignty Readiness Assessment, a questionnaire (21 multiple-choice questions) open-sourced for self-hosting.
  • Measures your organization's digital sovereignty readiness across domains like data, operations, open source, and executive oversight.
  • Scored on a four-stage maturity scale.
  • Can be used with Red Hat’s hosted version (with a sales pitch) or self-hosted.
• Discussion clarifies 'digital sovereignty': It’s essentially about how much control you have over your (or your organization’s) data—where it’s stored, who manages it, how easily you can move it.
  • "I see it as being in control of your own data. That's my quick breakdown." — Rob [05:24]
• Panelists try the assessment live: Results range from 0% ("early stages") to 62%.
  • "Opportunities exist to strengthen capabilities across multiple domains and reduce dependencies on external providers." — [Red Hat assessment feedback, paraphrased by Ken, 07:24]
• Takeaway: A lightweight but instructive tool for organizations thinking about their cloud and data dependencies.

2. KDE Plasma 6.6 Released — and a Live Upgrade!

[09:08 - 17:32]

• Jeff narrates KDE Plasma 6.6’s headline changes:
  • New login manager (better multi-monitor & HDR support, SystemD-only, but not mandatory for all).
    • "The new manager does only support System D, which did cause some ruffling of feathers..." — Jeff [09:42]
  • Save your custom theme setups as named themes.
  • Improved animation smoothness (high refresh monitors), memory usage reduction (by 100MB via removing unused wallpapers).
  • Ambient light sensor auto-brightness, selective screencast hiding, better external display scaling, advanced GPU monitoring, per-process I/O and CPU scheduler controls.
• Jonathan does a live upgrade in Fedora 43:
  • "I did do the install. I have had a couple of things tell me it's crashed since I did the install, but nothing that I can see. Gave me a nice popup..." — Jonathan [15:46]
  • Welcome popup celebrates the KDE contributors' release efforts.
• Discussion of display managers: SystemD requirement a non-issue for most, but offers choice for those who object.
• Reflections: KDE continues its march towards polish, performance, and flexibility—Jonathan, Jeff, and Ken discuss upgrade experiences across different distros.

3. Blender 5.1 Beta — Major Ray Tracing & Performance Boosts

[20:17 - 23:12]

• Ken spotlights Blender 5.1 beta:
  • Hardware ray tracing now enabled by default for AMD GPUs (via HIP RT).
  • Animation system gets a boost; Vulkan OpenXR rewritten for more speed.
  • EEVEE materials compile faster due to GPU pipeline precompiling and shader source processing.
  • "Blender 5.1 promises to improve font filling for 3D text objects, add support for lasso/box/circle selection in curve scope mode, snapping with Ctrl and precision with Shift keys..." — Ken [21:06]
  • Encourages follow-up to Marcus Nestor’s article for full feature details.
• Panel’s consensus: Blender remains a flagship open-source project, and AMD’s progress on ray tracing is exciting.

4. Matrix OS: Gentoo Goes Immutable & Atomic

[23:27 - 33:49]

• Rob describes Matrix OS: An experimental Gentoo-based distro from original Sabayon creator Fabio Erciliani.
  • Features: 'Emerge once, deploy everywhere'—build binaries once then roll them out, immutable atomic updates using OSTree, GNOME desktop, preloaded Steam for gaming.
  • Not recommended for production yet, but intriguing for Gentoo-curious users intimidated by classic compiling.
  • "Matrix OS is described as emerge once, deploy everywhere..." — Rob [26:58]
• Panel reflects on difficulty of Gentoo vs. Linux From Scratch: Gentoo praised for customization, but daunting for newcomers.
• Technical digression: OSTree explained as the 'atomic switch' technology for system updates.
  • "That's pretty typical for immutable Linuxes...essentally what it does, where it’s got a root image and you just swap..." — Jonathan [32:33]
• Naming warning: There are other “Matrix OS” projects—look for the GitHub one by LXNAY.

5. Intel Hires for Linux & Gaming — Is a Comeback Coming?

[34:19 - 42:19]

• Jeff covers Intel’s job postings: After hard times and layoffs, Intel is hiring six Linux programmers to work on compute, AI, graphical stack (focus on Mesa, DRM, Wine/Proton), and cloud/server optimization.
  • "These jobs are looking for 5+ years of experience...if you've already contributed there, that's a leg up." — Jeff [37:43]
• Panel contemplates Intel’s motives: Retaking relevance in gaming (where Valve/Steam Deck, Xbox, PlayStation use mostly AMD) and in Linux/AI is a strategic move.
  • "I think somebody at Intel said they're really tired of everything Valve does having AMD processors and AMD stuff in it." — Jonathan [41:25]

6. Pipewire 1.6 Released — Key Multimedia Upgrades

[42:32 - 47:17]

• Ken summarizes the Pipewire 1.6 changelog:
  • Support for capability negotiation, LDAC decoding for Bluetooth, dropping v0 client support, raising channel count to 128.
  • New FFMPEG and Onyx plugins in filter graph, improved packet loss handling via Span DSP.
• Video streaming with Pipewire: Still some permission/peripheral kinks to work out; OBS integration is progressing but not production-ready.

7. AI in the Kernel! Claude (the LLM) Helps Fix IO_uring Bug

[47:37 - 61:49]

• Rob’s AI story: Maintainer Jens Axboe used Anthropic’s Claude to help untangle a tricky IO_uring performance bug in Linux/QEMU. Claude aided reasoning, suggested a 1-line code fix that boosted idle system performance by up to 80x (by preventing a half-second "nap" in the event loop).
  • "The wild part: the fix that delivers a huge improvement is basically one line of code..." — Rob [52:15]
  • Also, Claude accidentally erased a VM disk ("proceeded to blow away /dev/vda") but helped recover it.
• Panel’s mixed takes on AI:
  • Useful for optimization, but its frictionless contributions are overwhelming open-source maintainers.
    • "With AI...it becomes so easy to open a pull request...that basically anybody can do it. It removes all of that friction." — Jonathan [55:13]
  • Some projects are now limiting PRs to existing contributors.
  • Quote: "AI is like a toddler holding a Swiss Army knife." — Jonathan [61:14]

8. Running AI Locally: GPT4All GUI Review

[62:12 - 70:35]

• Ken demos GPT4All: A local AI chatbot able to load various open LLMs (Llama 3, etc.), chat with local files, and reference your own docs for queries or scripting help.
  • Not especially fast on CPU; GPU usage recommended.
  • Can cite sources when giving script/answer suggestions.
  • "I've actually used it off and on...just generate random data for trying out another command line tip..." — Ken [69:43]

9. Linux Kernel 6.19.3: Don’t Rush Unless You Need To

[71:12 - 79:37]

• Jeff recaps a flurry of 6.19 point releases:
  • 6.19.1: Fixes for wireless, audio, SMB, etc.
  • 6.19.2: Emergency fix for non-booting systems caused by a bad device lock commit.
  • 6.19.3: More niche fixes: Android swap crash, swap file corruption, SCSI kernel panics, and a USB memory copy security bug.
  • Greg Kroah-Hartman says "all users must upgrade," but panel advises: unless you need bleeding edge or run into bugs, let your distro handle it.
  • Quote: "Unless the new kernel has a very specific piece of hardware you’re trying to enable...just let the distribution you’re on handle it." — Jeff [78:20]
  • Only three main reasons to upgrade: critical security, needed feature, or Linux enthusiast status.

Command Line Tips & Tricks

Who's There? — Console Network Scanner

[79:51 - 84:11]

• Rob’s favorite TUI LAN scanner: whosthere
  • Quickly scans your network, shows device IPs, MACs, manufacturer, open ports, etc.
  • "Quickly see what's on your network...see if there's something weird out there." — Rob [81:39]

Mirror Speed Test: rate-mirrors

[84:11 - 89:20]

• Jeff recommends rate-mirrors: Finds and configures fastest mirrors for your Arch/Caché-based (and custom) distros. Improves update speeds significantly.

AC Power Status in Systemd

[90:30 - 92:10]

• Ken demos: systemd-ac-power
  • Check if your laptop/PC is on AC or battery, script triggers for low battery, etc.

Classic: unzip

[93:10 - 94:40]

• Jonathan’s quick tip: The unzip command—flags to list (-l), test (-t), extract to directory (-d), and more.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On KDE’s new login manager: "They're not encouraging, they're not saying you should, they're saying you can. And that's as far as they took it." — Jeff [10:09]
• On AI’s double-edged sword: "AI is like a toddler holding a Swiss Army knife." — Jonathan [61:14]
• On the realities of upgrading kernels: "Unless the new kernel has a very specific piece of hardware...just let the distribution you’re on handle it." — Jeff [78:20]

Episode Timestamps (Selected)

• Red Hat’s Digital Sovereignty Tool: [02:05]
• KDE Plasma 6.6 release & live upgrade: [09:08]
• Blender 5.1 beta: [20:17]
• Matrix OS/Gentoo atomic: [23:27]
• Intel’s Linux hiring: [34:19]
• Pipewire 1.6: [42:32]
• AI fixes in the kernel: [47:37]
• Running GPT4All locally: [62:12]
• Kernel 6.19.3 explained: [71:12]
• Whosthere network scanner: [79:51]
• Rate-mirrors/mirror ranking: [84:11]
• systemd-ac-power tip: [90:30]
• End plugs and wrap: [95:24]

Final Notes and Resources

• Show notes: Contain relevant links for every topic and tool mentioned, including job postings, release details, and project homepages.
• Panel plugs:
  • RobertPCampbell.com for more from Rob.
  • [Xubuntu wallpaper contest link] (see show notes) via Ken for aspiring open source artists.
  • Jonathan continues to host FLOSS Weekly on Hackaday (when the family’s not under the weather).

Summary prepared for those wanting a detailed rundown of technical updates, geeky moments, and practical Linux advice from a friendly team of experienced hosts.