Kernel prepatch 6.13-rc7
Linus has released 6.13-rc7 for testing.
"So unless
something odd happens the upcoming week, I expect to release a final 6.13 next
week as per the normal schedule". Read the full announcement for your details
on how to get a free guitar pedal assembled by Linus himself.
Git v2.48.0 released
Version 2.48.0 of the Git source-code management system has
been released. There is a long list of incremental improvements and bug fixes;
see the announcement and the highlights blog from GitHub for details.
Paolo Mantegazza RIP
We have just now received word of the passing of Paolo
Mantegazza, the driving force behind the Real Time Application Interface project
and a key figure in the development of realtime Linux.
Paolo used to
describe himself as a simple practitioner of software development, one of
whose missions was to contribute a free real-time system his students could
use, study and improve for their research work at the university, welcoming
others to join. Many Linux users and businesses owe him a lot, because
under his leadership, the RTAI project has always defended the freedom of
developers to implement real-time systems, particularly at times when it
was threatened. His fierce will for RTAI served the Xenomai project, as well
as others.
He will be missed.
(LWN interviewed Mantegazza in 2001).
[$] The state of Vim
The death of Bram Moolenaar, Vim founder and benevolent
dictator for life (BDFL), in 2023 sent a shock through the community, and raised
concern about the future of the project. At VimConf 2024 in November, current
Vim maintainer Christian Brabandt delivered a keynote on "the new Vim project"
that detailed how the community has reorganized itself to continue maintaining
Vim and what the future looks like.
Automattic reduces WordPress contributions
Automattic has announced that it is reallocating its
resources away from contributing to the WordPress project as a response to the
WP Engine lawsuit: As part of this reset, Automattic will match its
volunteering pledge with those made by WP Engine and other players in the
ecosystem, or about 45 hours a week that qualify under the Five For the Future
program as benefitting the entire community and not just a single company. These
hours will likely go towards security and critical updates.
LWN last covered
the ongoing WordPress saga in December. [Thanks to Paul Wise for the heads-up on
this latest development.]