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[$] An early look at the Graphite 2D graphics editor

2025-12-26 23:45:31

Graphite is an effort to unify illustration, raster editing, desktop publishing, and animation in one browser-based application. The project has been in development since 2020 and announced its first alpha release in 2022. According to creator Keavon Chambers, the project's mission is to become "the 2D counterpart to Blender", by bringing a node-based, non-destructive workflow to 2D graphics. The project, currently still in alpha, is a long way from complete; but it is worth testing for anyone involved with open-source-graphics production. Current builds, from September 2025, include vector-illustration tools, a node-based compositor, and early brush tooling, with broader pixel-based- and photo-editing work still in progress.

Security updates for Friday

2025-12-26 22:07:19

Security updates have been issued by Debian (gst-plugins-good1.0, postgresql-13, and python-urllib3), Fedora (chezmoi, docker-buildkit, ov, and subfinder), Oracle (httpd:2.4), Slackware (net), and SUSE (apache2, buildah, kernel, and mariadb).

A partial ruling in the Vizio GPL suit

2025-12-26 01:11:31

The judge in the Vizio GPL-compliance lawsuit has ruled, in a summary judgment, that the GNU General Public License, version 2, does not require the provision of signing keys needed to install modified software on a device.

Read as a whole, the Agreements require Vizio to make the source code available in such a manner that the source code can be readily obtained and modified by Plaintiff or other third parties. While source code is defined to include "the scripts used to control compilation and installation," this does not mean that Vizio must allow users to reinstall the software, modified or otherwise, back onto its smart TVs in a manner that preserves all features of the original program and/or ensures the smart TVs continue to function properly. Rather, in the context of the Agreements, the disputed language means that Vizio must provide the source code in a manner that allows the source code to be obtained and revised by Plaintiff or others for use in other applications.

As the Software Freedom Conservancy, the plaintiff in the case, has pointed out, the judge has ruled against a claim that was never actually made.

SFC has never held the position, nor do we today hold the position, that any version of the GPL (even including GPLv3!) require "that the device continues to function properly" after a user installs their modified version of the copyleft components.

Linus Torvalds, meanwhile, has posted his own take on the ruling that has, as one might imagine, sparked an extended discussion as well.

Ruby 4.0 released

2025-12-25 22:09:17

Once again there is a brand-new release under the tree from the Ruby programming-language project: Ruby 4.0 has been released with many new features and improvements. Notable changes include the experimental Ruby Box feature for in-process isolation of classes and modules, a new just-in-time compiler called ZJIT, and improvements to Ruby's parallel-execution mechanism (Ractor). There are a number of language changes as well. See the documentation for Ruby 4.0 for more.

Security updates for Thursday

2025-12-25 21:59:43

Security updates have been issued by Fedora (httpd, retroarch, and roundcubemail), Oracle (container-tools:rhel8, grafana, httpd, kernel, python3.12, python39:3.9, thunderbird, and uek-kernel), and SUSE (cheat, go-sendxmpp, and kernel).

[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for December 25, 2025

2025-12-25 08:53:24

Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:

  • Front: 2025 retrospective; Dirk and Linus talk; successful open-source documentation projects; verifier-state pruning in BPF; Linux 32-bit timeline; BPF state visualizer; systemd v259.
  • Briefs: linux-next maintainer; 2025 TAB; Git in Debian; Elementary OS 8.1; Qubes OS 4.3.0; GDB 17.1; Incus 6.20; systemd v259; Quotes; ...
  • Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.