GCC 16 Switches To Using C++20 Standard By Default

Following up on the discussion from earlier this month among GCC developers over switching to C++20 by default for the GCC compiler as the default C++ standard when not otherwise set, that change has indeed happened. Merged now is the change defaulting to C++20 (well, the GNU++20 dialect) rather than C++17/GNU++17 when not otherwise specified when compiling C++ code…

Intel Battlemage Graphics Enjoyed Nice GPU Compute Performance Gains In 2025

In addition to Intel Arrow Lake desktop performance evolving nicely on Linux over the course of 2025, the Intel Arc B-Series graphics that launched last December with the Arc B580 have evolved quite nicely too with their open-source driver stack. With it coming up on one year since the Arc B580 launch, here is a look at how the GPU compute performance has evolved since that point. Similar Intel Arc B580 Linux graphics comparisons are also coming up in a follow-up comparison on Phoronix.

Common Desktop Environment “CDE” 2.5.3 Released After Two Years

Two years and one week since the prior point release, Common Desktop Environment 2.5.3 is now available as the latest iteration of this Unix desktop environment built around the Motif toolkit. CDE has been open-source for more than a decade now but its development not exactly brisk. But for those resisting the likes of Wayland and other modern display tech — especially with KDE announcing today Plasma 6.8 will be Wayland-exclusive — CDE 2.5.3 is now available…

Radeon Software for Linux 25.20.3 Released – “Exclusively Open-Source” With RADV

With the great upstream support for AMD Radeon graphics in the Linux kernel and Mesa, most desktop users / gamers / enthusiasts are best off just using the latest code shipped by their distributions or via the enthusiast-supported third-party archives/repositories. But for those on older enterprise Linux distributions, Radeon Software for Linux 25.20.3 was recently released for shipping that packaged AMD Linux graphics driver stack. This 25.20 series is the big one where they are now officially supporting the Mesa RADV Vulkan driver in place of their own former Vulkan Linux driver…

KDE Plasma 6.8 will be Wayland-only

KDE’s Plasma team has announced
that KDE Plasma will drop X11 session support with Plasma 6.8:

The Plasma X11 session will be supported by KDE into early
2027.

We cannot provide a specific date, as we’re exploring the
possibility of shipping some extra bug-fix releases for Plasma
6.7. The exact timing of the last one will only be known when we get
closer to its actual release, which we expect will be sometime in
early 2027.

What if I still really need X11?

This is a perfect use case for long term support (LTS)
distributions shipping older versions of Plasma. For example,
AlmaLinux 9 includes the Plasma X11 session and will be supported
until sometime in 2032.

See the blog post for information on running X11 applications
(still supported), accessibility, gaming, and more.

Intel Core Ultra 9 285K “Arrow Lake” Linux Performance Up ~9% One Year Later At ~85% Power Use

It’s been just over one year now since the launch of the Core Ultra 9 285K and other Arrow Lake desktop processors. For those that may be considering an Arrow Lake CPU this holiday season for a Linux desktop or just curious how the power and performance has evolved one year later, here are some leading-edge benchmarks of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K compared to the launch-day performance last October.