As we work toward the stable Linux 6.18 kernel release expected around the end of December, out today is the Linux 6.18-rc5 test kernel.

Linus Torvalds christened the Linux 6.18-rc5 kernel just minutes ago. It's been another week of mostly small changes throughout kernel space. The changes on my radar this week include many DRM kernel graphics driver fixes, electronic privacy screen hotkey handling for some Dell laptops, and partially addressing a performance regression that is most prominent on IBM POWER CPUs.

The MX Linux team has officially released MX Linux 25 “Infinity”, the next major version of the popular Debian-based distribution, now built on Debian 13 “Trixie”.

The new version ships in several editions—Xfce, KDE Plasma, and Fluxbox—each updated to their latest stable versions. The release includes Xfce 4.20, Plasma 6.3.6, and Fluxbox 1.3.7.

Most ISO images come with the Linux kernel 6.12 LTS from Debian’s stable repositories, while the AHS (Advanced Hardware Support) variants feature the 6.16 Liquorix kernel for better performance on newer hardware.

The major change is that all releases now include systemd by default, although SysVinit variants of the Xfce and Fluxbox editions are still available for users who prefer the traditional init system. According to developers, this will improve compatibility and simplify future maintenance.

Catch up on the latest Linux news: MX 25, Devuan 6, IncusOS, Hyprland 0.52, Plasma 6.5.2, NPM 2.13, GNOME 50 ends the X11 era, Mint's new Cinnamon menu, and more.

Welcome to the 45th week of Linuxiac’s 2025 Weekly Roundup — your go-to source for all things Linux & Open Source. Here’s a look at the biggest Linux and FOSS highlights from the past week (Nov 3 – 9).

from +972’s Sunday Recap
from +972Magazine [published in #Israel]
Nov. 9, 2025

The Israeli army’s top legal official is being hounded over her role in leaking a video of Israeli prison guards raping a #Palestinian captive inside the Sde Teiman detention facility last year, a scandal that has split the nation. Yet both sides of the debate ignore her complicity in the genocide, Ori Goldberg argued — a reflection of #Israel’s moral decay.

Also:

• How to end Israeli apartheid
• In a tent in central Gaza, a women’s film festival is born
• The genocide through their eyes: An illustrated timeline
• PODCAST: What happened to the Palestinian popular struggle?

Nobody is immune to plane crashes, terrorist attacks, or fatal heart failure – not even Linus Torvalds, who still has the final say in the development of the kernel he named Linux. This worries many, as there is no public record of who or what would take over leadership in case of an emergency.

Archive link: https://archive.is/mZQg2

MyMan: A simple Pac-Man clone

NetHack: A very text-based rougelike

nudoku: Unlimited Sudoku puzzles

Queued into the platform-drivers-x86 "for-next" Git branch ahead of the Linux 6.19 merge window is introducing the handling for the "Rapid Charge" USB-C charging mode to the Lenovo IdeaPad laptop driver.

For anyone dealing with Minix file-systems still for this nearly 40 year old creation, the upcoming Linux 6.19 kernel is expected to bring some fixes to the Minix driver for better handling corrupted file-system images.

Syzbot has uncovered some corruption bugs within the Linux kernel's Minix file-system driver. When trying to mount and deal with corrupted Minix file-systems, some problems were uncovered that are now being addressed to be able to report said corruption and fixing the underlying bugs detected.

Two patches queued into the Linux kernel's build system development tree, kbuild-next, would enable the -fms-extensions compiler argument everywhere for allowing GCC and LLVM/Clang to use the Microsoft C Extensions when compiling the Linux kernel. Being in kbuild-next these patches will likely be submitted for the Linux 6.19 kernel merge window next month but remains to be seen if there will be any last minute objections to this change.

The -fms-extensions compiler option honored by the GNU Compiler Collection and LLVM/Clang allow enabling some non-standard C/C++ constructs used within Microsoft header files and honored by the the Microsoft Visual C/C++ compiler. For Linux kernel development purposes, enabling the Microsoft C Extensions would allow including a tagged struct or union anonymously in another struct/union.

The lightweight Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE), a continuation of the classic KDE 3.5 desktop, designed for users who value traditional layouts without the overhead of modern desktop shells, has announced the release of version 14.1.5, the fifth maintenance update in the R14.1 series.

Among the most notable highlights, TWin, TDE’s window manager, now supports tiling when multiple monitors are in use, bringing better workspace organization for users with complex setups.