TUXEDO Computers Releases TUXEDO OS

TUXEDO Computers is well known for selling Linux-powered laptops that ship with their own Ubuntu-based, in-house operating system, known as TUXEDO OS. However, recently the company made that operating system available to the general public, and it can be downloaded (https://os.tuxedocomputers.com/) and installed on just about any computer.

Although TUXEDO OS was designed specifically for TUXEDO hardware, it does work on general hardware and even as a virtual machine. The OS uses a customized version of KDE Plasma and allows for running in live mode, dual booting, or a standard installation.

The installation of TUXEDO OS is fairly standard, however, when you install it on non-TUXEDO hardware, you will get a warning that states software such as Tomte or the TUXEDO Control Center will not work.

The current version of TUXEDO OS is based on Ubuntu 22.04 and KDE Plasma 5.25, defaults to Pipewire as its sound server, and has a custom GRUB bootloader. You'll also find applications such as Firefox, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, and the standard KDE applications.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that TUXEDO OS does ship with Flatpak, rather than Snap, installed by default.

Find out more about TUXEDO OS from the official TUXEDO Computer website (https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXEDO-OS_1.tuxedo).

Native GPU Driver for Apple Silicon Is Nearly Here

The Asahi Linux Project (https://asahilinux.org/) has taken a giant leap toward getting full-blown graphical Linux running on Apple Silicon M1/M2 chips.

Although not ready for mainstream usage, thanks to a developer who goes by Asahi Lina (https://twitter.com/LinaAsahi), the project is getting very close to releasing a Rust-based GPU driver for Linux.

Asahi Lina only joined the project a couple of months ago and immediately began working on a prototype driver that would allow running GUI apps on Linux.

According to the Asahi Linux news from back in July 2022, "Asahi Lina joined our team and took on the challenge of reverse engineering the M1 GPU hardware interface and writing a driver for it." The announcement continues, "In this short time, she has already built a prototype driver good enough to run real graphics applications and benchmarks, building on top of the existing Mesa work."

Just a few short months later, Asahi Linux is now able to successfully run both Gnome and KDE apps as well as YouTube on Firefox. For those who want to see this in action, check out Asahi Lina's tweet (https://twitter.com/LinaAsahi/status/1575343067892051968) which includes a mini stream where she shows off her work.

The one caveat to Lina's work is that it has, so far, only been tested on the M1 chips.

Because she is writing this driver in Rust, chances are that we won't see a release until the 6.1 kernel is made available.

Linux Kernel 6.0 Officially Released

Over on the Linux Kernel Mail List (https://lkml.org/lkml/2022/10/2/255), Linus Torvalds announced the availability of the latest kernel by saying, "So, as is hopefully clear to everybody, the major version number change is more about me running out of fingers and toes than it is about any big fundamental changes."

That doesn't mean, however, there aren't any changes and new editions to be found in the 6.0 release. In fact, with regards to the number of commits, the 6.0 kernel is one of the biggest releases in a while.

The new additions to the Linux kernel include a new graphics driver for the AMD RDNA 3 GPU, a new audio driver for AMD's "Jadeite" systems, support for PCI buses on OpenRISC and LoongArch systems, improved cache block management for RISC-V, new support for the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 laptop, fixes for TUXEDO and Clevo laptop touchpads, initial support for XP-PEN Deco L Drawing Tablets, support for AMD Sensor Fusion Hub for Ryzen laptops, and functioning Thunderbolt support for Intel Raptor Lake.

Other additions and changes include support for NVMe in-band authentication, improved Meltdown mitigation KPTI code for ARM64, major changes to the scheduler (including improved NUMA balancing for AMD Zen), EFI mirrored memory and ACPI PROM for Arm 64-bit, initial support for Intel Ponte Vecchio, and much more.

For those who are up to the task of running the kernel now, you can download it as source code and compile the kernel manually. Your best bet, however, is to wait until your distribution of choice makes the 6.0 kernel officially available.