# Tech News Digest - 2025-03-17 > Federal law prohibits closing this window! ## Kernel prepatch 6.14-rc7 **Category:** Linux **Tags:** General **Published:** Sun, 16 Mar 2025 23:19:55 +0000 **TL;DR:** Linus Torvalds has released the seventh and likely final prepatch for the Linux kernel's 6.14 release, indicating that things are looking calm and he expects to finalize the release next weekend. He stated that nothing unexpected would need to happen between now and then to prevent the final release from going out. Linus has released [the seventh](https://lwn.net/Articles/1014316/) (and probably last) prepatch for the 6.14 release. "Things continue to look quite calm, and I expect to release the final 6.14 next weekend unless something very surprising happens". [Read more](https://lwn.net/Articles/1014317/) ## Git 2.49.0 released **Category:** Linux **Tags:** General **Published:** Fri, 14 Mar 2025 18:27:43 +0000 **TL;DR:** Here is a 2-sentence summary: Git version 2.49.0 has been released, featuring 460 non-merge commits and contributions from 89 people, including 24 new contributors. The release includes numerous improvements and bug fixes, with more details available in the highlights blog on GitHub. [Version 2.49.0](https://lwn.net/ml/all/xmqqfrjfilc8.fsf%40gitster.g/) of the Git source-code management system has been released. This release comprises 460 non-merge commits since 2.48.0, with contributions from 89 people, including 24 new contributors. There is a long list of improvements and bug fixes; see the [highlights blog](https://github.blog/open-source/git/highlights-from-git-2-49/) from GitHub's Taylor Blau for some of the more interesting features. \[Read more\]([https://lwn.net/Articles/1014226/](https://lwn.net/Articles/1014226/)) ## \[$\] The burden of knowledge: dealing with open-source risks **Category:** Linux **Tags:** General **Published:** Fri, 14 Mar 2025 13:54:04 +0000 **TL;DR:** Here is a 2-sentence summary: Max Mehl argued that relying solely on objective information and data to assess risks in an open-source supply chain is insufficient, as it doesn't provide options for improvement and encourages a passive mindset. Instead, he advocated for using qualitative data and direct participation in the open-source community to better understand and address risks. Organizations relying on open-source software have a wide range of tools, scorecards, and methodologies to try to assess security, legal, and other risks inherent in their so-called supply chain. However, Max Mehl [argued recently](https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback25/talk/9ZBSUM/) in a short talk at [FOSS Backstage](https://25.foss-backstage.de/) in Berlin (and online) that all of this objective information and data is insufficient to truly understand and address risk. Worse, this information doesn't provide options to improve the situation and encourages a passive mindset. Mehl, who works as part of the CTO group at [DB Systel](https://www.dbsystel.de/dbsystel-en/about-us/profile-3714990#3714990), encouraged better risk assessment using qualitative data and direct participation in open source. \[Read more\]([https://lwn.net/Articles/1013614/](https://lwn.net/Articles/1013614/)) ## Security updates for Friday **Category:** Linux **Tags:** Linux **Published:** Fri, 14 Mar 2025 12:56:10 +0000 **TL;DR:** Here is a 2-sentence summary: Multiple Linux distributions have issued security updates to address various vulnerabilities, including Fedora, Mageia, Oracle, Red Hat, Slackware, SUSE, and Ubuntu. The updates affect a range of packages, including web browsers, libraries, and kernel components, in order to improve system security and protect against potential threats. Security updates have been issued by **Fedora** (iniparser, thunderbird, trafficserver, and xorg-x11-server), **Mageia** (opensc), **Oracle** (.NET 8.0, .NET 9.0, gcc, kernel, and libxml2), **Red Hat** (firefox, grub2, and krb5), **Slackware** (libxslt), **SUSE** (amazon-ssm-agent, bsdtar, build, ffmpeg-4, forgejo-runner, kernel, python, python3, python313, rubygem-rack-1\_6, and tailscale), and **Ubuntu** (linux-azure, linux-azure-5.15, linux-azure-fde, linux-azure-fde-5.15). [Read more](https://lwn.net/Articles/1014183/) ## Choi: announcing Casual Make **Category:** Linux **Tags:** General **Published:** Thu, 13 Mar 2025 18:10:59 +0000 **TL;DR:** Here is a summary of the text in 2 sentences: Charles Choi has announced the release of Casual Make, a menu-driven interface for Makefile Mode in GNU Emacs that provides a more user-friendly way to edit and understand makefiles. The release is part of Casual 2.4.0, which also includes documentation in Info format, and is available from MELPA. Charles Choi has [announced](http://yummymelon.com/devnull/announcing-casual-make.html) the release of the [Casual Make](https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual/blob/main/docs/make-mode.org): a menu-driven interface, implemented as part of the [Casual](https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual?tab=readme-ov-file#casual) suite of tools, for [Makefile Mode](https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MakefileMode) in GNU Emacs. > Emacs supports makefile editing with make-mode which has a mix of useful and half-baked (though thankfully obsoleted in 30.1) commands. It is from this substrate that I'm happy to announce the next Casual user interface: [Casual Make](https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual/blob/main/docs/make-mode.org). > > Of particular note to Casual Make is its attention to authoring and identifying automatic variables whose arcane syntax is un-memorizable. Want to know what $> means? Just select it in the makefile and use the . binding in the Casual Make menu to identify what it does in the mini-buffer. Casual Make is part of [Casual 2.4.0](https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual/releases/tag/2.4.0), released on March 12 and is available from [MELPA](https://melpa.org/#/casual). The 2.4.0 update to Casual also includes documentation in the Info format for the first time. \[Read more\]([https://lwn.net/Articles/1014065/](https://lwn.net/Articles/1014065/))