If you run a lightweight distro and you do not like the fact that Wayland will probably become the default, PeppermintOS has some news you should know about. It's switching its display server from the soon-to-be-retired Xorg to XLibre for its next round of ISO refreshes.
It may look like a sensible call as it keeps X11 alive and skips Wayland (for now). However, XLibre is one of the divisive projects in the Linux world right now. Choosing XLibre won't sit well with some people, at least.
Moving away from Wayland and Xorg
In a recent blog, PeppermintOS announced it's shifting the display server from xorg-server to XLibre across its upcoming builds.
Reason is simple. Development on the original Xorg has stalled and most distributions have switched to Wayland. XLibre exists with the aim to keep maintaining, modernizing, and cleaning up the codebase for people who still prefer X11.
XLibre is built as a drop-in replacement for xorg, and it aims not to break standard desktop environments, window managers, or older drivers, and PeppermintOS says its testing so far has gone as expected.
PeppermintOS says it has no immediate plans to move to Wayland, pointing to XFCE's roadmap of supporting both Xorg and Wayland natively. Xfce is the default offering from PeppermintOS.
By the way, this is the project's first Debian-based ISO built without Debian's traditional live-build tools, moving instead to mmdebstrap, mirroring what PeppermintOS already did for its Devuan edition.
The important point for existing PeppermintOS users is that the interface and overall experience stay identical to the current stable release. The change is under the hood.
Choosing Xlibre will get some eyerolls
Why? Because critics argue XLibre is more of a political fork than a technical one. Also, Xlibre has been in the news for some not-so-positive reasons.
XLibre is a fork of the X.Org server started in mid-2025 by Enrico Weigelt, who was the top commit contributor to Xorg in 2024. Weigelt was banned from freedesktop.org's GitLab around the time the fork went public.
Artix Linux made XLibre its default X server in April 2026, then reversed course. With its August 2026 release it switched back to Xorg as the default, a decision it says it took after an unusually high volume of XLibre-related bug reports.
Artix then went further and announced it would stop packaging XLibre entirely. They shared that the switchback drew backlash from XLibre, and a veteran Artix developer known as "Artist" was targeted and harassed to the point of resigning. Existing XLibre users on Artix are being moved back to the corresponding Xorg packages.
What next?
XLibre being controversial doesn't make it technically broken. The controversy is about the project's conduct and politics, not whether it draws windows. PerppermintOS is testing it and found to be working well. Let's hope it stays that way and we keep on getting choices on the display server scene.
That's very interesting to see considering OpenSearch began as a fork.
When Elastic relicensed Elasticsearch and Kibana in 2021, AWS built an open alternative, keeping it under the Apache 2.0 license. Three years later, the project moved to neutral governance after the Linux Foundation launched the OpenSearch Software Foundation in September 2024 as its vendor-neutral steward.
Now, reflecting on the journey so far, Linux Foundation Research and the OpenSearch Software Foundation have jointly published The 2026 Open Data Infrastructure Report, examining how organizations are building out data infrastructure and what role OpenSearch plays in that picture.
The survey, conducted in May 2026, covered 294 respondents across diverse categories like IT vendors, end-user organizations, and independent consultants.
The report, briefly
Generative AI and LLM-powered applications lead all AI use cases at 82% of organizations surveyed.
At least 83% of respondents across every region are already running AI workloads or have plans to. Among current OpenSearch users, 62% are already using it in AI workloads, and 44% consider it core AI infrastructure rather than a supporting component.
By 2026, 89% of organizations had heard of OpenSearch, up from 68% two years prior. Production deployments went from 19% to 36% over the same period, with another 36% running tests or assessing adoption.
Cost and vendor independence are what organizations weigh most when picking a data infrastructure platform. Total cost of ownership tops the selection criteria for 80% of organizations, security and compliance for 79%, and vendor independence for 69%.
71% also say running infrastructure outside any single cloud provider's control is a strategic priority for their organization, while average annual data infrastructure spend across the sample sits at around $2.4 million.
Among active users, search and retrieval leads at 91%, followed by log analytics and observability at 83%, real-time analytics at 70%, and AI-related workloads at 62%.
Whereas hybrid search is the go-to approach for 68% of organizations.
What now?
Most current deployments are not yet deeply embedded. Six in ten users say their OpenSearch setup is either experimental or something they could swap out; only 36% call it deeply embedded or mission-critical.
Among non-users, 81% say they are open to evaluating OpenSearch, though only 14% are actively planning to do so.
Alongside the report, the OpenSearch Software Foundation has announced three new members; one of them being Intel, and the other two being the new long-term support vendors.
We asked Bianca Lewis, Executive Director of the OpenSearch Foundation, what she thought about where agentic AI's headed next and how OpenSearch would fit into it:
The technology stack powering agentic AI is shifting rapidly, and with growing uncertainty around AI costs, long-term commitments to proprietary platforms present both a financial and architectural risk. Now, leaders are turning to an open, vendor-neutral platform to strategically mitigate risk.
An open data layer provides cost data and full visibility into which services are being called, giving teams the clarity needed to accurately cost and manage their infrastructure.
This delivers the flexibility to innovate without vendor lock-in, ensuring organizations maintain sovereignty over both their data and their spend as the future of AI takes shape.
Signal is an end-to-end encrypted messenger that doesn't really need an introduction in this age of authoritarian overreach. Since the beginning, it has required a phone number at signup, even after it gained username support.
It's been quite weird to see, given that other privacy-focused messengers like Session and Matrix have never required a phone number to get started.
The beta release of Signal 8.28 for Android changes that with Signal Login, an optional registration path that skips the phone number requirement entirely. The existing flow remains in place for anyone who wants to stick with the standard registration method.
How numberless logins work
The pricing shown changes according to your device's region.
Instead of asking for your mobile number, Signal will ask you to pay a one-time $2.99 fee via Google Pay, and the exact pricing depends on your device's region.
I say that because even with an active VPN connection that was pointing to the United States, Signal still showed me pricing in INR instead of USD.
And if you are worried about Google's involvement in this, Greyson Parrelli of the Signal team points out that the payment runs through the same zero-knowledge proof setup it uses for donations.
This way, no link is created between the purchase and the new account.
Once payment completes, Signal generates two keys. A 32-character Account ID and a 64-character Recovery Key replace the phone number as the account's identity. Keep in mind that Signal doesn't have a recovery mechanism for these if either is lost.
Two-factor authentication via TOTP can be added after registration as extra protection, and passkey support, including hardware keys, has been confirmed.
If you were looking for the details on iOS support, then know that Signal Login won't be arriving on that platform anytime soon.
The Play Services caveat
The feature currently requires Google Play Services, as payments run through the Play Store, making it such that devices without Play Services cannot access it. If you are running a de-Googled smartphone, then you will have to wait as more payment methods are planned.
While the support documentation for this feature lists Apple Pay alongside Google Pay as a payment option, this contradicts what I saw in the beta app, as well as what Greyson has written in the Signal forum.
You can test it now
The latest packages in the 8.28.x beta series can be downloaded from Signal's GitHub releases page. To sideload it on your Android device, follow these instructions:
Find the latest version in the 8.28.x series and download the universal-release APK file from the "Assets" dropdown.
Install it on your Android device; you might need to allow installs from unknown sources to get this done.
Open Signal, tap "Continue", then select "Register Without Phone Number."
Complete the $2.99 purchase via Google Pay.
Save your Account ID and Recovery Key on a notepad or a password manager before proceeding.
No Starch Press is one of my favorite indie tech publishers. I am a fan of their Linux titles like How Linux Works and System Programming in Linux. This is why I get excited when I see a new book from them.
You can start with 4 books for $11.80 or get all 18 for $47.20. The full tier includes Think Like a Programmer, The Rust Programming Language, 3rd Edition, and How Computers Really Work, along with books on C, ARM assembly, algorithms, and computer architecture.
Part of your purchase automatically goes to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The books are DRM-free downloads in PDF, EPUB, and MOBI formats.
⏲️ The deal ends on September 28, 2026, at 11:30 PM IST (6:00 PM UTC).
📋
The article contains affiliate links. Please read our affiliate policy.
Tier 1: Pay $11.80 or More for 4 eBooks
The first tier is a compact introduction to programs, software, and the machine underneath.
The title "Think Like a Programmer" starts to make sense here as this tier focuses on problem-solving instead of a single programming language. How Software Works explains common software ideas in plain terms, while The Secret Life of Programs and How Computers Really Work walk through what your code is actually doing on real hardware.
If you want a foundation before picking up a language like C, Rust, or even assembly, this is the small but useful starting point.
Tier 2: Pay $23.60 or More for 10 eBooks
The second tier includes the first 4 books and adds 6 more on top of that.
Effective C, 2nd Edition and Write Great Code, Volume 2, 2nd Edition move you into C and lower-level implementation. Data Structures and Algorithms in JavaScript covers the usual structures and algorithm patterns in a language many people already know.
The math side includes Math for Programming and The Art of Randomness. Computer Graphics from Scratch still fits in this trier if you like seeing algorithms draw something on screen.
Tier 3: Pay $47.20 or More for 18 eBooks
The top tier adds 8 more books and brings the total to 18. This is where Rust, compilers, ARM, and heavier CS material show up.
For languages and compilers, you get the Rust book, Total TypeScript, and Writing a C Compiler. Algorithmic Thinking, 2nd Edition is the extra algorithms title if you want more practice than the JavaScript data structures book.
The hardware group includes Computer Architecture, Introduction to Computer Organization: ARM Edition, and The Art of ARM Assembly, Volume 1. Quantum Computing is the most specialized add-on in this tier.
Paying above $47.20 can increase your contribution, but it doesn't add more books.
Your purchase supports EFF
EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is a nonprofit defending digital rights, i.e., free speech, privacy, security, and innovation online. Founded in 1990, it fights surveillance and censorship in court, lobbies for encryption rights and net neutrality, builds free privacy tools like Privacy Badger, and defends coders and researchers facing legal threats.
Your bundle purchase funds this work directly. The lawyers, policy experts, and technologists keeping the internet open, which lines up closely with FOSS community values.
So you are not just purchasing DRM-free ebooks. You are also contributing to a better digital world.
🛒 Get the Bundle
This bundle gives you DRM-free ebooks in PDF, EPUB, and MOBI files, so you can keep the books and read them on Linux or an e-reader or use the MOBI files on Amazon Kindle device. As mentioned above, part of the purchase goes to EFF.
Garuda Linux has started nudging its userbase toward Nix. The distro's maintainers have just renamed the Garuda Nix Subsystem to Garuda Nix, and you will find that the move is more nuanced than something purely cosmetic.
What used to be a side project for dual-booting NixOS is now also its own bootable installer. The flake ships a dedicated ISO with a Calamares GUI, alongside a command-line install-garuda-nix tool for scripted setups.
This isn't something new. As a subsystem, it has offered a way to run NixOS alongside Garuda on the same drive, keeping both separate through a BTRFS subvolume rather than a dedicated partition.
So what does it offer?
Garuda Nix 'Mokka' and 'Dr460nized' flavors (Source: dr460nf1r3).
Suggested Read 📖: Get started using NixOS with us.
If you set out to install this, you will find that Calamares handles most of it, asking you to select an edition, Dr460nized or Mokka, and letting you opt for extras to gain better gaming and printing support along the way.
The CLI tool is where it gets interesting; it covers the basics of installing a Linux distro such as this one, while also providing presets for desktop, laptop, server, and handheld setups, plus eight partition layouts spanning ext4 and BTRFS, encrypted and unencrypted alike.
Impermanence, though, is the real draw. Switch it on, and the root filesystem gets wiped clean each time the machine restarts, either through a BTRFS rollback to a saved snapshot or by running root out of tmpfs on ext4 systems.
Don't worry, those wipes don't touch login credentials. Both the user and root passwords go through yescrypt hashing before landing in the generated config, which is what lets them persist across a rollback.
Garuda Nix also keeps a handful of essentials persistent by default, so things like your Wi-Fi credentials and per-user config folders stay safe. Anything outside that short list needs to be declared manually, or Impermanence deletes it along with everything else on the next restart.
It's already live
Both editions are available now as daily ISO builds. Anyone already running NixOS can skip the download entirely and pull the installer straight from the published flake with a single nix run command.
That flake reference points at the same stable branch by default, irrespective of the installation method you used to set things up. Keeping a system current from there is nothing exotic, just the usual nixos-rebuild switch command NixOS users already know.
On the other hand, if you are new to NixOS, then you will have to take some time out to learn your way around, since nearly everything here gets configured through text files rather than a settings panel.
Also, this isn't the first time the Garuda Linux team has done something of this magnitude. Their FireDragon offering is a web browser that was rewritten from scratch to deliver an improved browsing experience.
Ubuntu 26.10 is changing what your machine kills when memory runs out. Applications are meant to go first, and the services that hold the session together now sit behind them. Thirty-nine of those services move to an OOM score of -500, with GNOME Shell and two D-Bus services among them.
That makes them a far less likely pick for the kernel's OOM killer. Instead, something like a web browser holding the majority of the memory on your machine becomes the likelier candidate to be pruned.
Canonical has also switched off the systemd-oomd check that could take out your whole session on memory pressure alone. Though that change comes with a caveat where apps can still be terminated when memory runs out.
Under pressure, the kernel draws up a list of every process. It scores each one on the memory it can account for, then adds a user-space number on top. That second number is the one Ubuntu gets to set for you. It runs from -1000 up to 1000, and staying at the bottom of that range means a process is kicked out of the running order.
An earlier report cited by Canonical shows what that list looked like on an Ubuntu 24.10 desktop in 2024. GNOME Shell sat at 100, so did Firefox, and so did every content process it spawned.
The system daemons already sat far lower. dbus-daemon and systemd-oomd were at -900, and systemd-journald at -250. What caused the squeeze was a logic error in the reporter's own code, which set off a run of virtual machines and left the machine starved of memory.
It resulted in the killer picking one small app, gnome-characters, and killing it, leaving the virtual machines untouched.
Scores were only half of it
The kernel is not the only thing on a desktop that kills. systemd-oomd watches memory pressure instead, and it acts earlier than the kernel does without ever looking at those scores.
Ubuntu ships it set to act on the user session at 50% pressure, so the -500 values could not have saved anything on their own. The same ubuntu-settings patch handles the oomd side as well.
ManagedOOMMemoryPressure is now set to auto on user@.service, over systemd-oomd's "kill" setting it had before. In Canonical's own testing, seven out of ten sessions died without the fix, and none died with it.
Want to try it?
If you want to see the new behavior now, the change is already in the development release. Canonical is asking people to put it to the test under workloads that eat memory on a machine short of RAM or swap.
If you face any unexpected behavior, like abrupt terminations or session crashes, then you can report those via Launchpad.
I have been (mostly) happily running Home Assistant in my homelab for a while now. There is a tiny issue, though. While my wife and I can manage most devices through the companion app, kids or guests cannot.
Reaching out for a phone is not always convenient, and of course, I cannot handover my phone to guests. Home Assistant's own Voice Preview device is not a capable device if you are not connected to the cloud.
So when I got my hands on the Elecrow CrowPanel Advanced 10.1", a big ESP32-P4 touchscreen, I got some ideas. I could configure this device to allow access to some connected devices and put it in a common area where anyone in the household could use it.
It's an ESP32 device, and I already tinkered a little with ESPHome on my ZimaBoard so it was kind of a natural fit.
Note that this is a developer board with a screen. It's not an out-of-the-box smart home panel you just take out of the box and mount on your wall. If you enjoy tinkering, building things, you will like the device. If you want something that just works, it's not for you.
📋
Elecrow sent me this device for review. The views expressed are my own.
Hardware specification
Here is a quick look at what this device is packing inside it:
Component
Detail
Main SoC
ESP32-P4 (dual-core RISC-V)
Wireless
ESP32-C6 co-processor (WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5)
Display
10.1" IPS, 1024x600, MIPI-DSI
Touch
Capacitive (GT911 controller)
Memory
16MB flash, 32MB PSRAM
Audio
Onboard speaker output (dedicated connector) and microphone
Camera
Camera connector (add-on)
Expansion
Exposed I2C, UART, and GPIO headers
Power
USB-C, plus a battery connector
Model
DHE04310D (hardware revision V1.1)
Price
Around $60
It has interesting hardware, especially since it also offers a camera connector. My package came with a camera as well, not sure if it is included in all the boxes.
And then you also get the options to connect speakers on their own port. Which means that if you connect a LLM to your Home Assistant, and get a reply in audio format. There is a battery connector in case you want to use the device without direct power connection. The I2C, UART, and GPIO pins are accessible, too.
📋
I am using Home Assistant everywhere because this is what I am using this device for. However, this Elcrow display can be configured and used in a number of projects. You just have to put your tinkerer hat on.
Setting up the display with Home Assistant
This is where I spent most of my time, and where you should set your expectations.
Out of the box the board runs Elecrow's demo firmware, which shows off the screen but does nothing useful really. But it is still good enough to test the touchscreen and its connectivity. You would at least know that the device is working.
The demo gives you enough to test its functionality before you build on it
To make it as control panel for the Home Assistant, I flashed it with my own firmware. I went the ESPHome route, since ESPHome talks to Home Assistant over its native API and does not need the Supervisor add-on setup, which matters because I run Home Assistant in a container on Zima OS.
I will be honest, the first flash was not smooth. Getting WiFi up on this board took real work, because the ESP32-P4 has no radio of its own and leans on the ESP32-C6 over an internal SDIO link. On my V1.1 unit, the data line order was reversed compared to the reference configs I was following. Until I sorted that out, the board just kept rebooting. But that's really my fault.
One thing worth mentioning is that the stock demo firmware did not remember my WiFi after a reboot. I had to enter the credentials again. Once I moved to my own ESPHome firmware, it remained connected after reboots. So, if you only ever run the demo, do not expect it to hold settings. Perhaps that's the intentional behavior?
My first test project was really simple. I coded a single button on the screen to work as a switch in Home Assistant for my geyser plug. Tapping it toggled the real device. Also, when I flipped the geyser from the Home Assistant app instead, the button on the screen updated to match. So, things worked as expected.
I am new to LVGL, and thus I tried with a very basic project
Elecrow recommends SquareLine Vision for building the UI visually, which should be easier (more intuitive) than coding in LVGL in Arduino IDE.
📋
The quick test shows that the core promise of the Elecrow CrowPanel works. With ESPHome you can build a touch dashboard that controls real Home Assistant devices and reflects their live state, all running on the board itself with no extra server.
The display in everyday use
The screen itself is fine. It's not top-notch like an iPad. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like an entry-level tablet.
The 1024x600 IPS panel is bright enough and the viewing angles are okay, but it is not going to impress anyone who has looked at a modern premium phone recently. For a control panel stuck on a wall showing buttons, that is completely acceptable.
Touch response was good in my testing. Taps registered reliably and I did not have to poke twice.
Ports, audio, and the room to grow
The CrowPanel display is meant to be more than just a display.
The two small speakers, when paired with the onboard microphone, can work as a voice satellite for Home Assistant Assist. So you get both a screen and a voice endpoint in one device.
Of course, I am limiting it to Home Assistant but you can have more usage in godowns, factories, and even in homelab setups. Your imagination and creativity can be better than me.
Then there is the battery connector. A battery option gives it more flexibility and portability. It may be a good fit where you need the device to survive during a power cut. I did not test battery life as I did not have a spare battery to connect.
The exposed I2C, UART, and GPIO means you can plug in extra sensors, another microcontroller, or your own hardware off this board. For a DIY audience, that flexibility is worth more than a prettier screen.
Elecrow suggests various scenarios where it could be used
The camera and the AI question
Elecrow also mentions "integrated AI vision capabilities" because it has the scope for an add-on camera. The 2 MP camera is optional but it came in the package. I plugged the camera in and it worked.
I have not properly tested the on-device AI feature. The ESP32-C6 is supposed to give edge AI capability to embedded devices. Now this could work with simpler cases like facial recognition for unlocking access, my thinking is that instead of running AI on the display board itself, use it as an interface and let a vision model run on a more capable device.
Is it worth getting?
🚦
Who is it for: Homelab owners and makers who see the setup work as part of the fun. Who is it NOT for: Anyone who wants to mount a panel on the wall in ten minutes and thinks of using Android style apps to control their set up.
This is a decent offering for DIY makers. From homelab to actual industry usage, this device has potential that can be utilized by your requirements and imagination.
If you already tinker with ESPHome or ESP32 projects and you want a large touchscreen to build a project, this board gives you a lot to work with.
Play with LVGL and you can configure the device as per your need. And you don't even need to know coding. LLMs these days can easily help you generate code you want for your project.
I am repeating myself. This is not a plug-and-play smart home panel. You have to build on it. I started with a working control panel, and I plan on expanding that dashboard well beyond one button.
But if you are not comfortable flashing firmware, writing/generating code, it's not for you.
