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Planet News Roundup

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Key points

openSUSE News has posted its weekly roundup of openSUSE community posts from planet.opensuse.org for Oct. 16–22, 2026. It covers seven Tumbleweed snapshots, new Plasma releases, the Agama 25 installer, event reports and assorted community writing.

Tumbleweed, week 42

  • Seven snapshots were published. The main updates are Linux kernel 7.2.10, KDE Gear 26.08.2 and Mozilla Firefox 157.0.1.
  • The weekly review by Dominique Leuenberger and Victorhck also lists libvirt 12.8.0, libnettle 4.0, WebKitGTK 2.54.1, GStreamer 1.28.8 and Nautilus 50.4.
  • A change in mutter was reverted, which brought clipboard copy and paste back.
  • The review also covers an ABI fix in ktextaddons and hardening of cups-filters.
  • Plasma 6.8.0 and Qt 6.12.0 are among the packages being prepared in staging.

Agama 25 installer

  • This is the first Agama release after openSUSE Leap 16.1. Development now moves toward Tumbleweed, Slowroll and Leap 16.2.
  • New features:
  • a terminal in the web interface
  • a way to exit before installation starts
  • searchable multi-select when choosing ports for bonds and bridges
  • riscv64 support, contributed by Andreas Schwab
  • The installer depends less on YaST packages.
  • The OpenAPI specification and JSON schemas are now published at stable URLs, so editors can use them for autocompletion and validation.

KDE Plasma

  • Plasma 6.8.1, the first bugfix release of the 6.8 series, came out on Oct. 20, 2026. The post recaps the 6.8 features:
  • Hanabi wallpaper
  • Nepali calendar support
  • fixes for GTK4 window decorations
  • AppStream previews in Discover
  • a redesigned Flatpak permissions page
  • Plasma 6.6.7, the seventh maintenance release for 6.6, came out on Oct. 16, 2026.
  • The 6.6 series is getting extra updates through an agreement with KUbuntu Focus.
  • Recalled 6.6 features include Plasma Keyboard, OCR in Spectacle, Plasma Setup, custom global themes and colorblind filters.
  • A translated "This Week in Plasma" by Nate Graham covers changes coming in Plasma 6.9:
  • a new weather widget with hourly forecasts and Open-Meteo support
  • a redesigned on-screen keyboard
  • a temporary night-light toggle
  • smaller tray icons
  • The same post covers fixes in 6.8.1, reorganised clipboard shortcuts and better font hinting in Qt 6.13.

KDE history

  • Tellico marks 25 years. Its timeline runs from Bookcase 0.1 in November 2001, through the rename to Tellico and the move to KDE Extragear, to Tellico 4.0, which is built on Qt6 and KDE Frameworks 6.
  • The post also explains how the collection manager works, including custom fields and built-in collection types.
  • CultRepo's documentary "A History of the Underdogs of Free Software" premiered on Oct. 14 for KDE's 30th anniversary. It covers:
  • Matthias Ettrich's 1996 Usenet post
  • the Qt licensing dispute
  • the path from KHTML to WebKit
  • the KDE 4 controversy
  • Martin Schlander recommends the film. He notes that it also touches on Qt, GNU, Linux and GNOME, and that SUSE developers appear in it.

Events and community

  • Akademy-es 2026 Madrid, the event's 20th edition, is held at Camping Arco Iris in Villaviciosa de Odón.
  • The two posts give different dates: one says Oct. 23–25, the program post says Oct. 23–24.
  • openSUSE is the gold sponsor and Slimbook the silver sponsor.
  • The program includes a QML workshop and talks on KDE España, Plasma and low vision, Okular, Autofirma on Flathub, and data-center sustainability.
  • An openSUSE News report covers the openSUSE.Asia Summit in Yogyakarta and Open Source Summit Europe in Prague.
  • Asia summit items: community news, a quiz, an offsite turtle release, a batik workshop and the adoption of Kudos.
  • There is a new meeting time: Tuesdays at 14:00 CEST.
  • The Prague booth showed a 64-core RISC-V workstation running Tumbleweed and QtRvSim.
  • The September Kudos report says 14 users received 14 kudos and 136 contributors were awarded 152 badges.
  • Thank-you notes went to Adrian Schröter, Bernhard Wiedemann, Dominique Leuenberger, Santiago Zarate and others.
  • Badges for Tumbleweed, Leap 16.0/16.1 and LinuxDays are highlighted.

Call for testing

  • Peter Czanik notes that the FreeBSD port of syslog-ng uses ivykis from ports. The syslog-ng project carries FreeBSD-specific fixes in its own ivykis fork.
  • He is working on making the bundled ivykis a selectable option and is asking for testers and help.

Other posts

  • A look at vllm.cpp, LocalAI's C++20 inference engine:
  • It offers vLLM-style continuous batching, a paged KV cache and an OpenAI-compatible server, with no Python or PyTorch inside the engine.
  • It is compared with vLLM and llama.cpp, with notes on its C API, formats and hardware backends.
  • Multi-GPU support, multimodal input and some KV-cache features are still incomplete.
  • Linux Saloon 224 was an open mic session. Mike Chilson demonstrated DevsFTP and talked about backup options.
  • Santiago Zarate wrote an essay on how LLMs and agents may change knowledge work. He argues that automation changes jobs more than it removes them and that developers still need solid fundamentals.
  • Peter Czanik reported from the third Budapest Audio Expo. His favourite room paired NCS Audio, Qualiton and Pixel cables; he also praised 72 Audio, the Natural Distortion prototype DAC and amp with Popori Acoustics speakers, and a Heed Audio Helikon and Zellaton setup, and criticised overprocessed room-correction demos.
  • Jakub Steiner shared drone footage of the rebuilt Harcovská přehrada dam in Liberec, Czechia. The reconstruction removed 26,000 cubic metres of silt and replaced the outlets; the dam is now rated for a 10,000-year flood.

Summary by DistroNews, based on the original post.

This is a roundup of articles from the openSUSE community listed on planet.opensuse.org. This community blog feed aggregator lists the featured highlights below from Oct. 16 - 22.

This week highlights seven Tumbleweed snapshots for week 42 headlined by Linux Kernel 7.2.10, KDE Gear 26.08.2 and Mozilla Firefox 157.0.1, the first Plasma 6.8 update and the seventh Plasma 6.6 update, Tellico’s 25th anniversary, the KDE documentary, Agama 25, the Akademy-es 2026 Madrid program and preview, a report from the openSUSE.Asia Summit and Open Source Summit Europe, September Kudos, a deep look at vllm.cpp and more.

Here is a summary and links for each post:

Akademy-es 2026 Madrid 20th Anniversary Begins Tomorrow

The KDE Blog reminds readers that Akademy-es 2026 Madrid kicks off tomorrow, Oct. 23, and runs through Oct. 25 at Camping Arco Iris in Villaviciosa de Odón. Baltasar Ortega recaps the build-up, including the talk program, gold sponsor openSUSE, silver sponsor Slimbook, registration and 10 reasons to attend. He notes he cannot attend in person this year and will live vicariously through the photos and updates from Madrid.

Building syslog-ng with bundled ivykis on FreeBSD

Peter Czanik’s blog explains that the syslog-ng FreeBSD port currently uses ivykis from ports, even though the project carries FreeBSD-specific fixes in its own ivykis fork. He is working on making the bundled ivykis selectable and invites testing and help.

VLLM.CPP: A New Engine Is Born

Alessandro’s blog examines vllm.cpp, LocalAI’s C++20 inference engine that brings vLLM-style continuous batching, paged KV caching and an OpenAI-compatible server without requiring Python or PyTorch inside the engine. It compares the project with vLLM and llama.cpp, reviews its C API, formats and hardware backends, and cautions that multi-GPU support, multimodal input and some KV-cache features remain incomplete.

First Plasma 6.8 Update

The KDE Blog announces Plasma 6.8.1, the first bugfix update to Plasma 6.8, released on Oct. 20, 2026. It recaps the 6.8 highlights, including the Hanabi wallpaper, Nepali calendar support, GTK4 decoration fixes, Discover’s AppStream previews and the redesigned Flatpak permissions page.

Releasing Agama 25

The Agama Installer announces Agama 25, the first release after openSUSE Leap 16.1 and the start of work toward Tumbleweed, Slowroll and Leap 16.2. It adds a web-based terminal, an exit option available before installation begins, searchable multi-select bond and bridge port selection, riscv64 support contributed by Andreas Schwab, and reduced reliance on YaST packages. It also publishes the OpenAPI specification and JSON schemas at stable URLs for autocompletion and validation in editors.

Seventh Plasma 6.6 Update

The KDE Blog covers Plasma 6.6.7, released Oct. 16, 2026, as the seventh maintenance update in the 6.6 series. It notes that the series has received extra updates through an agreement with KUbuntu Focus and lists 6.6 features such as Plasma Keyboard, OCR in Spectacle, Plasma Setup, custom global themes and colorblind filters.

Budapest Audio Expo 2026

Peter Czanik’s blog reports on the third Budapest Audio Expo, where his favorite room paired NCS Audio, Qualiton and Pixel cables for a clear, lively sound at a relatively affordable price. He also praises 72 Audio, the Natural Distortion prototype DAC and amp with Popori Acoustics speakers, and a Heed Audio Helikon and Zellaton setup, while criticizing overprocessed room-correction demos.

September Kudos, Recognition

openSUSE News publishes the September Kudos report, noting that 14 users received 14 kudos and 152 badges were awarded to 136 contributors. It lists thank-you notes for contributors such as Adrian Schröter, Bernhard Wiedemann, Dominique Leuenberger and Santiago Zarate, and highlights Tumbleweed, Leap 16.0/16.1 and LinuxDays badges.

New Weather Widget and On-Screen Keyboard – This Week in Plasma

The KDE Blog translates Nate Graham’s latest “This Week in Plasma,” covering the new Plasma 6.9 weather widget with hourly forecasts and Open-Meteo support, a redesigned on-screen keyboard, a temporary night-light toggle and smaller tray icons. It also covers Plasma 6.8.1 fixes, clipboard shortcut reorganization and Qt 6.13 font hinting improvements.

Tellico Turns 25 – Long Live Tellico!

The KDE Blog celebrates Tellico’s 25th anniversary with a timeline from the first Bookcase 0.1 release in November 2001 through its renaming to Tellico, its move to KDE Extragear and the Qt6/KDE Frameworks 6-based Tellico 4.0. The post also explains how the collection manager works and highlights its customizable fields and built-in collection types.

Linux Saloon 224 | Open Mic Night

Nathan Wolf hosts Linux Saloon 224 as an open mic night, where Mike Chilson demonstrated DevsFTP and discussed backup solutions. Participants shared their Linux experiences, and the show invites community suggestions for future application topics.

On GenAI LLMs and Knowledge Workers

Santiago Zarate reflects on how LLMs and agents may reshape knowledge work, starting from a Telegram poll of Venezuelan programmers about whether the future remains human. He compares the change to spreadsheets, factory robots and automated telephone exchanges, argues that automation changes jobs more than it eliminates them, and urges readers not to panic while warning that developers still need real fundamentals.

Tumbleweed – Review of the Week 2026/42

Dominique Leuenberger and Victorhck detail the seven snapshots and major arrivals such as libvirt 12.8.0, libnettle 4.0, KDE Gear 26.08.2, WebKitGTK 2.54.1, GStreamer 1.28.8 and Nautilus 50.4. They also explain the mutter revert that restored clipboard copy and paste, the ktextaddons ABI fix and the cups-filters hardening, and previews staging work on Plasma 6.8.0, Qt 6.12.0 and more.

The KDE Documentary

Martin Schlander’s blog recommends the KDE 30th-anniversary documentary, calling it a high-quality production that covers the project’s most significant events. He notes that it also touches on Qt, GNU, Linux and GNOME and features legendary SUSE developers.

Akademy-es 2026 Madrid 20th Anniversary Talk Program #akademyes

The KDE Blog shares the talk program for Akademy-es 2026, taking place Oct. 23-24 at Camping Arco Iris in Villaviciosa de Odón, Madrid. The 20th-anniversary event includes a QML workshop, talks on KDE España, Plasma and low vision, Okular, Autofirma on Flathub, data-center sustainability and plenty of time for socializing.

Liberec Dam

Jakub Steiner shares a drone video of the restored Harcovská přehrada dam in Liberec, Czechia, after a major reconstruction that removed 26,000 cubic meters of silt and replaced the dam’s outlets while preserving its landmark appearance. He also recalls filming the drained basin in 2022, notes the dam is now rated for a 10,000-year flood, and admits the dam has claimed another one of his drones.

KDE Documentary: A History of the Underdogs of Free Software

The KDE Blog highlights CultRepo’s KDE documentary, “A History of the Underdogs of Free Software,” which premiered on Oct. 14 for KDE’s 30th anniversary. The film traces KDE from Matthias Ettrich’s 1996 Usenet post through the Qt licensing struggle, the KHTML-to-WebKit story, the KDE 4 controversy and the community’s role in today’s Linux desktops.

From Yogyakarta to Prague: openSUSE.Asia Summit and Open Source Summit Europe 2026

openSUSE News reports on a two-continent trip to the openSUSE.Asia Summit in Yogyakarta and Open Source Summit Europe in Prague. The post covers the Asia summit’s community news, quiz, offsite turtle release and batik workshop, the adoption of Kudos, a new 14:00 CEST Tuesday meeting time, and a busy Prague booth featuring a 64-core RISC-V workstation running Tumbleweed and QtRvSim.

View more blogs or learn to publish your own on planet.opensuse.org.

By [email protected] (Douglas DeMaio), from openSUSE News, reproduced under CC BY-SA 3.0. Formatting is simplified and images in the text are omitted.

Read the original at news.opensuse.org