There are reports all over the net about free-software projects that are scrambling to keep up with the LLM bug flood. But perhaps we should also spare a moment's thought for the hidden people who must be running hard to keep the enterprise-distribution frankenkernels secure in the face of all this. They cannot be having much fun trying to figure out what to backport and how to do it. That, perhaps, is why certain enterprise distributors have yet to ship a fix for CVE-2026-98432, while Debian patched it almost two weeks ago.

I have long wondered how long the frankenkernel model would be sustainable ... the answer has been "a lot longer than I would have ever thought". Even so, I have to wonder how likely the deluge is to make this whole model fail catastrophically. Those kernels are far from the mainline at a time when it seems clear that one wants to run as close to current mainline kernels as one can get.

Stewart, when the walls fell. We, our faces wet.

I was just recommended this Wired article, "Please let the Internet die":

https://www.wired.com/story/let-the-internet-die/

...but I have not read it. First I get the malicious-compliance "we see your do-not-track setting" popover that must be dismissed. Then there was another one full of "privacy choices". I stopped there; I think that Wired has already made its point quite nicely.

Somebody is dumping huge piles of kernel bugs onto maintainers...

https://lwn.net/ml/all/20261028164415.1262013-1-axboe@kernel.dk
https://lwn.net/ml/all/20261027-fixes_core-v1-0-6f74bec9a5bb@kernel.org
https://lwn.net/ml/all/20261027-tty-llm-v1-0-99b0202ae546@linuxfoundation.org
https://lwn.net/ml/all/20261027-pgalloc-ai-hotfixes-v1-0-9c7d1aca801e@kernel.org

...and so on. This onslaught will continue for a while, it seems.

Edit: looks like it’s been shuttered.

pyconf dot org is a fake event, a scam.

Notes:

- Domain registered after CFP closed.

- Venue doesn't admit its existence: https://fortmason.org/events/

- AI gen headshots, and speakers who aren't, in 100% of the the companies my network can see into, employees at those companies and never have been. Those people don't exist.

A couple of the listed "sponsors'" corporate legal teams have already been advised and word is they're furious.

Scanning the linux-kernel mailing list just now (a bad habit I have), I see patches to add significant features to the Alpha architecture, convert Perl scripts that haven't been touched in decades to Python, and replace user and group IDs with UUIDs.

Not sure how we ever got by without these wonderful new tools.

Perhaps never quite getting around to setting up that LWN Facebook account was a good move after all? :)

https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/10/metas-new-commercial-terms-will-allow-the-scraping-of-news-sites-legal-experts-say/

"No text that is AI-generated may be published in our magazine. No AI-generated art may be used as a Current Affairs illustration. When you read Current Affairs, you are going to be reading the thoughts of a human, and seeing the results of human artistry."

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/why-were-banning-ai

Nice to see, even if they partake in the — wait for it — vilification of em-dashes ...

The updated version of my plot of first-time contributors per kernel release. It seems this trend is not slowing down anytime soon. I wish I felt better about all of the stuff these folks are putting into the kernel...

Debian issued a security advisory stating that "several vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Linux kernel:

https://lwn.net/Articles/1097401/

Here, evidently, "several vulnerabilities" means "1,313 CVE numbers".

I conclude that it is a bad sign when your airline sends you a cheery note asking if you have any data from Air Tags and the like that might give them a clue as to where your suitcase is.

(1/2) The dust has settled, the coffee cups are washed, but the good vibes are here to stay:

All the talk videos are online : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVVgAZOU9P8

The slides, with more landing over the next few days (some speakers are still polishing 😉) - check the schedule to catch it : https://kernel-recipes.org/en/2026/schedule/

The drawings from our amazing attendees (https://kernel-recipes.org/en/2026/attendees-sketches/) and speakers (https://kernel-recipes.org/en/2026/speakers-sketches/)

Tons of photos: https://kernel-recipes.org/en/2026/2026-speakers-on-stage/ and https://kernel-recipes.org/en/2026/in-the-room/

This, evidently, is what I look like when giving a talk these days.

“Millions of people around the world will soon consider large models ‘hoovering up’ all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions,” an internal Microsoft document cited in the case read, adding “almost no one intended for content they created to be used in this fashion, nor are they compensated for its use.”

https://www.404media.co/doom-loop-openai-and-microsoft-admits-llms-are-destroying-the-web-and-built-on-theft/

TRUTH!
#scifi #sciencefiction

RE: https://mastodon.social/@nixCraft/117241250895962141

Ok, genuinely, tech journalists need to investigate why so much money is being laundered into Omarchy. A bunch of slopware from a white supremacist does not deserve $18 million when real Linux projects have gone unfunded for years. There has to be something else going on here.

The US federal government, it seems, is worried that the Chinese are engaged in "distillation" from US large language models

https://media.defense.gov/2026/Sep/08/2003992823/-1/-1/1/CSA_CHINA_BASED_AI_COMPANIES_MALICIOUS_DISTILLATION_AGAINST_US.PDF

"China-based AI companies route distillation requests through multiple pathways to gain
unauthorized access, consequently violating U.S. AI companies’ terms of use."

I'm shocked that an AI company would do such a thing. Certainly no US-based AI company would route requests through multiple paths to gain access...right...?

I miss the old-fashioned FOSS drama, where if you knew someone’s three-letter initials and they were an asshole, you just called them an asshole or ignored them, and didn’t worry that (1) they were a vengeful billionaire and/or (2) that they represented the pending downfall of democracy

Just got a nifty bit of spam from a bot claiming to represent Weedmaps (a site for people trying to find cannabis products). They were, it seems, much impressed by an LWN article on hash collisions and were wondering if we could find it in our hearts to mention them there.

I am still trying to understand just what a "hash collision" would mean in that context; perhaps I don't have enough weed in the house to obtain the necessary insight.

Some talks just write themselves, @KernelRecipes is going to be fun this year!

(not that it's not fun every year, but you get the idea...)