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Latest 30 Comments

News - Only 2 years after release Star Trek: Resurgence is being delisted
By PaldinoX, 15 Apr 2026 at 3:27 pm UTC
Wait, it's already gone? No prior warning or anything? What hellish behavior on the part of the publisher.
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By Grishnakh, 15 Apr 2026 at 3:21 pm UTC
The internet is a series of tubes. We're making sure the children are directed into the right tube.

/s
News - SteamOS 3.7.21 released to stable with security and stability updates
By Grishnakh, 15 Apr 2026 at 3:15 pm UTC
I hate changelogs like that. They are so vague as to be meaningless. Rather than coating it with virtuous-sounding jargon, just say, "We changed some code!" It's probably more accurate, anyway.
News - Only 2 years after release Star Trek: Resurgence is being delisted
By dpanter, 15 Apr 2026 at 3:11 pm UTC
When you read this news post, the game is already gone. Poof.
News - Linux smashes past 5% on the Steam Survey for the first time
By CatKiller, 15 Apr 2026 at 2:35 pm UTC
While India has a large population, it isn't a large Steam market. India's statistic (for comparison with the others I was adding as you were writing your post) is just 15.6 PB. That's the same sort of size as Indonesia or Argentina. Not nothing, but not a market mover.
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By F.Ultra, 15 Apr 2026 at 2:29 pm UTC
Quoting: UltraViolet
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: hardpenguinThis is insane, impractical, and unenforceable under any normal circumstances. What, we want to prevent minors from using technology now? For what purpose? It doesn't make any sense at all.
For what purpose once can speculate, all we know is that this is due to lobbying from Meta who have spent over $2bn on lobbying efforts for this specifically.
Who can then continue to abuse their users, as age-gating will not be in their control (how convenient)
I would always assume that there is money involved. This whole talk about it being implemented for government control falls IMHO quite flat since Palantir reared it's ugly head, with Palantir the Govmnt already have all info and all control.

The same is true for the ChatControl 2.0 legislation that they want to implement here in the EU (thankfully the parliament have watered down it quite well and right now it is in a form of limbo) which can be traced back to Thorn (owned by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore) who sells the software needed to implement it in it's original form and CC2.0 was put forward just days after Ashton had a meeting with then Swedish EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson.

Apple and MS joyfully jumps on the age verification train (AFAIK Apple already have complete implementation of this) in order to put Linux at shame.
News - Linux smashes past 5% on the Steam Survey for the first time
By LoudTechie, 15 Apr 2026 at 2:28 pm UTC
Quoting: CatKiller
Quoting: LoudTechieThnx for the information.
In which case I'll ask how come only the recorded number of Chinese users visibly fluctuates?
With access one can point to some kind of government interference, with measurement issues that doesn't work.
In countries where household PC ownership is standard (such as Europe and North America - the other significant regions on Steam) the measurement issue isn't a factor.

In other countries where PC bang gaming is standard (such as Japan and South Korea, as I mentioned) the Steam market just isn't as big.

China is a huge market, and the historical console ban among other factors has made playing online games in Internet cafes the norm, where measurement is hard (potentially impossible).
And India didn't have such a ban. Good point.

Explanation of what I did wrong:
Spoiler, click me

I wasn't really aware of which regulation had done what.
I just thought size(Chinese market)~=(India market) stabilityLaw(Chinese market)~=stabilityLaw(India market), thus instability is the same.
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By Jarmer, 15 Apr 2026 at 2:23 pm UTC
Ahhhhhhh yes yet another brain dead impossible to implement "bill" from your local congress critters. WEEEEEE HERE WE GO!

This is literally impossible to enforce for any number of the reasons posted by all my friends here. So ..........
News - Linux smashes past 5% on the Steam Survey for the first time
By CatKiller, 15 Apr 2026 at 2:21 pm UTC
Quoting: LoudTechieThnx for the information.
In which case I'll ask how come only the recorded number of Chinese users visibly fluctuates?
With access one can point to some kind of government interference, with measurement issues that doesn't work.
In countries where household PC ownership is standard (such as Europe and North America - the other significant regions on Steam) the measurement issue isn't a factor.

In other countries where PC bang gaming is standard (such as Japan and South Korea, as I mentioned) the Steam market just isn't as big.

China is a huge market, and the historical console ban among other factors has made playing online games in Internet cafes the norm, where measurement is hard (potentially impossible).

Edit: here are some stats from Steam for comparison.
Download traffic over the last 7 days.
UK: 53.9 PB
Japan: 35.9 PB
South Korea: 39.7 PB
China: 380.8 PB
News - Book of Travels from Might and Delight goes offline in July but you'll still be able to play alone
By Jarmer, 15 Apr 2026 at 2:19 pm UTC
This is sad to see it when EA games just totally give up. I for one don't purchase ea games, so even if I was SUPER into or interested in this game, I never would have bought it, and never will because of this. I guess there's reasons for it, but ... I suppose this is a perfect example of "don't buy ea games yall".
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By mr-victory, 15 Apr 2026 at 1:30 pm UTC
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: hardpenguinThis is insane, impractical, and unenforceable under any normal circumstances. What, we want to prevent minors from using technology now? For what purpose? It doesn't make any sense at all.
For what purpose once can speculate, all we know is that this is due to lobbying from Meta who have spent over $2bn on lobbying efforts for this specifically.
Source for the curious:
https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1rshc1f/i_traced_2_billion_in_nonprofit_grants_and_45/
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By LoudTechie, 15 Apr 2026 at 1:11 pm UTC
Quoting: TonyHoyleSo first you've got to define operating system in such a way that it doesn't include half the devices in your house.. (before you can press this doorbell you need to present your passport for verification).

Then you've got to define it so it doesn't make business completely unviable. You're going to make linux illegal?

Then given that narrow definition, if you can even do that, you've got to deal with all the thousands of edge cases..

There *are* solutions coming, like verification apps where the data stays on your device and simply provides attestation that you're over 18, that don't require ham fisted legislation like this. But with lawmakers being typically 80+ they don't understand the problem enough to wait for it.
They're gonna do only the first part.
The amount of doorbells visiting porn sites'll grow explosively.
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By TonyHoyle, 15 Apr 2026 at 1:06 pm UTC
So first you've got to define operating system in such a way that it doesn't include half the devices in your house.. (before you can press this doorbell you need to present your passport for verification).

Then you've got to define it so it doesn't make business completely unviable. You're going to make linux illegal?

Then given that narrow definition, if you can even do that, you've got to deal with all the thousands of edge cases..

There *are* solutions coming, like verification apps where the data stays on your device and simply provides attestation that you're over 18, that don't require ham fisted legislation like this. But with lawmakers being typically 80+ they don't understand the problem enough to wait for it.
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By UltraViolet, 15 Apr 2026 at 12:59 pm UTC
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: hardpenguinThis is insane, impractical, and unenforceable under any normal circumstances. What, we want to prevent minors from using technology now? For what purpose? It doesn't make any sense at all.
For what purpose once can speculate, all we know is that this is due to lobbying from Meta who have spent over $2bn on lobbying efforts for this specifically.
Who can then continue to abuse their users, as age-gating will not be in their control (how convenient)
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By F.Ultra, 15 Apr 2026 at 12:37 pm UTC
Quoting: hardpenguinThis is insane, impractical, and unenforceable under any normal circumstances. What, we want to prevent minors from using technology now? For what purpose? It doesn't make any sense at all.
For what purpose once can speculate, all we know is that this is due to lobbying from Meta who have spent over $2bn on lobbying efforts for this specifically.
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By Lachu, 15 Apr 2026 at 12:33 pm UTC
Idea seems to not be that bad as many people told. Currently there is no mechanism to check age in many places, but should. But any other implementation than field in passwd is bad. Of course - there should been an options to put X into this field, meaning no information, so give full access.
News - X.Org X server and Xwayland security advisory released for multiple issues
By LoudTechie, 15 Apr 2026 at 12:30 pm UTC
Quoting: TurkeysteaksNot sure what the 'TrendAI' part of the Zero Day Initiative is, but nice to see that the ZDI seems to be helping.

On the AI side though I am curious. I despise AI, and a new reason to hate it is that some of the latest models (namely Anthropic's Mythos) is *reportedly* incredibly good at finding and exploiting vulnerabilities. I take that with a huge pinch of salt because clearly it's somewhat marketing, but it does worry me. If it ever gets into the wrong hands (and to be clear, I don't really consider Anthropic to be the RIGHT hands...) and it is even half as powerful as they are claiming, it really could be dangerous - I feel even more so for Open Source projects.

Hopefully not though.

I'm a SWE, and while I still avoid AI in my workplace for the most part, my colleagues are not the same - but even the most enthusiastic are starting to feel quite sour about it. Even on the most personal and maybe selfish level, it makes the job... really damn boring. I don't want to be a 'manager', I want to code! (which again, is partly why I refuse to use AI wherever I can)
Bad news it has gotten acceptable in finding vulnerabilities in source code and it's already in malicious hands and showing real production gains in cyber crime(although currently for social engineering attacks not bug finding).
Meaning it will target only open source projects.
The only good news is that this'll allow for higher code quality in open source projects.

There's one thing I hope AI'll bring the ability for non-technical people to check source code for backdoors.

Edit:
This basically means openness gets super charged.
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By Lachu, 15 Apr 2026 at 12:26 pm UTC
English is not my strong side. I am aware verify could mean check, so maybe OS been forced to check how old are users - not just asks.
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By LoudTechie, 15 Apr 2026 at 12:23 pm UTC
Congress too; sad.

On one side I feel smug.
I knew this would come, so for school I'm working on an anonymous and cryptographically secure functioning Age Verification system.
I already have a good design.
In the spoiler is the written down version
Spoiler, click me

The requirements for a privacy respecting arbitrary static property verification system are that:
System abuse and it's prepretators can be detected.
The way it's used isn't detectable to the verifier of the static property.
The identity of the user isn't revealed to the ones who make the uses possible.

The hashsing algorithm I will be using is sha256, because I can assure that ids will be unique and unrelated.
I will be using the proven slow prngs, because the qualtity of this protocol falls and stands with the qualtity of a prng

The verifying party randomly generates n ids.

The verifying party runs each of the id's through the pseudorandom generator and generates (n-1)*p codes based on it.
It divides this set up in (n-1) subsets, one for each other ringmember.
Each of the subsets is labeled with a within the ring shared pseudonym for one of the other ringmembers.
The codes are send to the individual.
After which it's added to a pool of similarly labeled sets of the other ringmembers, here they are pooled together without saving to which member they originally belonged.

In total n*(n-1)*p=np(n-1)=n^2+pn-n-p codes are generated.
For each receiving server a seed is generated by the verifier and each of the codes is hashed with this seed as pepper.
This set of hashes, labeling and the seed is send to the receiving server, but not the original values.

When an individual connects to an age verifying server the server sends its seed and the individual randomly picks a value from the received ones and hashes it with the seed and sends that hash to the age verifying server.
If it matches the received hash with one of the hashes that hash is removed and the age is labeled as verified.

To determine potential abusers of the system the age verifying servers can simply check whether some of the n labeled subsets are getting abnormally underutelized.
If this turns out the system abusers are apperantly the ones in the underutelized sets.
After which not only the abuse, but also the abuser have been identified and appropiate action can be undertaken.
Many of these could involve reporting the abuse to some authority like the verifier.
This authority would need some proof of appropiate conduct at the side of the reporter.
The best I can offer is pseudonymous labeling for the subsets, so the reporter can't know who they reported.

To avoid birthday attacks p should be at least as large as n and probably larger, because accidentally matching a p row isn't a problem, but an n match allows one to blame other people for sharing codes.
p = 1.000.000
(n-1) = 1000

total storage use is
3 8bit bytes par sha256 hash
order can communicate subcatogrisation, since every other user has the same redundancy
n^2+pn-n-p
10^3^2+10^6*10^3-10^3-10^6=10^6+10^9-10^3-10^6=10^9-10^3=1,0000003*10^10
1,000003*10^10*3=3,0000009*10^10
around 10gb usage for the client
the servers store the hashes everybody and the seed, thus around
(n^2+pn-n-p)*n+1
1,0000009^10*10^3+1
is around 10 terabyte par server

On the other side it's stil yet another way to force mass surveilance and monopolistic behavior.
On te EU one can at least force that they fix the "informationless ID" part themselves(lookup dsa age verification), there is good reason to not trust it, but at least they do it themselves without passing the bug to big tech.
The USA just says "be like Microsoft/Amazon/Google", but I don't want and am unable to surveil someone their whole youth.
Spoiler, click me

You might ask how doe age verification force mass surveilance and monopolistic behavior?
The only ways to reliably verify someone's age are through methodically keep record of them since their birth or some very invasive biometric measurements.
Behavioral tests only work on a case by case basis if at all.
I hope it's clear how "keeping records of someone, since birth" is mass surveillance when not done by a semi-trusted party like the government.
Invasive biometric measurement requires hardware changes and access to someone's person, which are once again great angles for mass surveilance and monopolisation.
Also people don't tend to trust many parties with that kind of access making it a monopolization angle(people are right btw)
News - TRX the open source re-implementation of Tomb Raider is making progress on Tomb Raider 3
By dubigrasu, 15 Apr 2026 at 12:10 pm UTC
I only got around to play the first one, on the SteamDeck, and it was a very good experience.
And to be honest, I cheated in some places (cheats that are so easy with TRX), I no longer have the patience that I once had, I mean doing the same tricky jump 50 times (and fail) kinda kills the joy in me.
Oh, the fact that you save everywhere is just awesome, I so hated those saving crystals on PS1.
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By scaine, 15 Apr 2026 at 12:06 pm UTC
How does this work for servers. Or IOT devices. Or multi-account devices. Or offline devices. Or or or...

Yet another brain dead government proposal from people without a single clue how tech works.

"Think of the children" is simply a dog whistle for "give up your privacy".
News - Linux smashes past 5% on the Steam Survey for the first time
By LoudTechie, 15 Apr 2026 at 11:51 am UTC
Quoting: CatKiller
Quoting: LoudTechieIt could be, but I'm not seeing significant fluctuations, which is what surprises me.
I would expect Indian Steam access to fluctuate comparable, but with a different rhythm, to Chinese Steam access.
Simplified chinese spikes are easy too see, yet there're no visible english and/or Hindi spikes.
The number of Chinese users on Steam doesn't fluctuate.

The number of samples recorded varies, on account of sometimes being wildly wrong.

The issue is that it's difficult to count each machine in a PC bang once and only once per year. You can't count them server-side because they're all behind one IP address. You can't count them client-side because the clients get periodically wiped, which erases your means of seeing that you already counted it. Valve put their hands up on the issue - for a while after that they corrected the issues in the data when they came up, but they stopped doing that a couple of years ago so we get the spikes again.

Japan and South Korea could well have the same issues with data collection, but they aren't ~ a third of Steam, so no one notices.
Thnx for the information.
In which case I'll ask how come only the recorded number of Chinese users visibly fluctuates?
With access one can point to some kind of government interference, with measurement issues that doesn't work.
News - Luanti (formerly Minetest) v5.15.2 brings critical security updates
By scaine, 15 Apr 2026 at 11:47 am UTC
Quoting: RubyRose136Not specifically related to this article, but this may be a concern for you: Luanti is [now being coded with AI](https://github.com/luanti-org/luanti/commit/e6f0377ea2cb60c0c267b9ea570c1b4cc059d5b7) and its ContentDB [allows AI-generated content](https://content.luanti.org/policy_and_guidance/#43-ai-generated-content) as well.
As much as I despise genAI, this kind of commit is how it should be used - security checking existing, well-written code for best practise

And tools like this existed for years before the 2022 genAI "boom", it was simply that the masses couldn't afford them, because they were Enterprise-level CI/CD DevOps tools.
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By tmtvl, 15 Apr 2026 at 11:41 am UTC
How do you verify a user's age in a way that doesn't run head-first into a user's human right to privacy? ...okay, I admit, that's a stupid question, infringing on the right to privacy is kind of the point of the bill.
News - Luanti (formerly Minetest) v5.15.2 brings critical security updates
By RubyRose136, 15 Apr 2026 at 11:37 am UTC
Not specifically related to this article, but this may be a concern for you: Luanti is [now being coded with AI](https://github.com/luanti-org/luanti/commit/e6f0377ea2cb60c0c267b9ea570c1b4cc059d5b7) and its ContentDB [allows AI-generated content](https://content.luanti.org/policy_and_guidance/#43-ai-generated-content) as well.
News - Only 2 years after release Star Trek: Resurgence is being delisted
By Mountain Man, 15 Apr 2026 at 11:29 am UTC
Considering the way Paramount has destroyed the Star Trek brand, it's not surprising to see people losing interest in the franchise. They have actively alienated their core audience in pursuit of a "modern audience" that doesn't exist.
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By Ehvis, 15 Apr 2026 at 11:20 am UTC
Quoting: tfkThis is not the job of a government. This is the job of the parents.
And the article mentions a "parents decide act", which I could theoretically get behind. I don't think it is outside of the governments job to make sure that information and tools are provided by companies to help parents actually parent their children.

Of course this one is .... problematic. It doesn't really take a realistic stance of what operating systems are, what user software is and how things work together. Also giving parents the tools and information is not the same trying to enforce it into everything where it will undoubtedly run into problems of what can technically be achieved.

So again this feels like it was designed by people who's idea of "operating systems" doesn't go beyond phones and tablets.
News - Book of Travels from Might and Delight goes offline in July but you'll still be able to play alone
By Ehvis, 15 Apr 2026 at 11:13 am UTC
When the game released it required an external account (store page actually still says that), which was an immediate "hell no". Especially combining that with early access (which is apparently also still the case). So yeah, for me the game basically sabotaged itself. Probably not what caused the more general lack of interest since I don't think many people are as strict as I am.
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By emphy, 15 Apr 2026 at 10:57 am UTC
It could go either way with it simply asking for people to enter their date of birth ...
The pro and anti big government politicians in the us seem to have settled on bad government as a compromise.

Silly buggers.
News - New US Congress bill proposal requires all operating system providers to verify ages
By tfk, 15 Apr 2026 at 10:56 am UTC
This is not the job of a government. This is the job of the parents.

This has a very good chance of sliding into a 1984 scenario.
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