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Nothing makes it easy to share files between any Android phone and a Mac

2026-04-15T09:31:33-04:00

Images and text upload in seconds, but for bigger files Warp is too slow compared to direct device-to-device connections.

I test Android phones for a living, but I write about them using a company-supplied MacBook Air. Both platforms are great in their own right, but they're not so great at talking to one another. On a handful of Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones you can now AirDrop files directly to Apple machines; Nothing's new Warp app hopes to solve the problem for the rest of us, offering a seamless(ish) way to send files and text between one machine and the other.

Warp is the combination of an Android app and a browser extension, which means it'll only be helpful if you use a Chrome-based browser capable of installing the extension - but that does m …

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Little Snitch’s software counter surveillance jumps from Mac to Linux

2026-04-10T15:41:43-04:00

The popular macOS app Little Snitch brought its network-monitoring tools over to Linux this week. In a blog post announcing the launch, one of the developers at Objective Development shared some early results from using the app on Linux: "On Ubuntu, I found 9 system processes making internet connections over the course of one week. On macOS, we counted more than 100."

While the Linux version of Little Snitch provides the same basic functionality for viewing and disabling unwanted connections, it's not exactly the same. Objective Development says it's "not a security tool," unlike the macOS version.

According to Objective Development, Lin …

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Framework is teasing a lot of Linux for its April 21st event

2026-04-10T05:58:29-04:00

Modular PC maker Framework is hosting a "Next Gen" event on April 21st at 1:30PM ET, and it looks like it might have something to do with Linux. Alongside a newsletter announcing the event, Framework posted a video on Thursday titled "Follow the white penguin." It features a few clear references to Linux, including the iconic penguin, the "I use Arch btw" meme, and a shot cycling through several Linux distro logos, including Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, CachyOS, and Bazzite.

It also said its products are available in four new countries (New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and Singapore), although it suggested holding off on orders until people see w …

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I saved a doomed Windows laptop by embracing Linux

2026-04-03T11:08:09-04:00

Two weeks ago I set aside my M4 MacBook Air and picked up a nine-year-old ThinkPad. It's one of an estimated 200 to 400 million Windows 10 PCs that don't meet Microsoft's requirements for Windows 11. When Microsoft officially ended support for Windows 10 in October, it became "obsolete." The solution, according to Microsoft, is to get rid of it and buy a computer that can run Windows 11.

But that's not good enough. This ThinkPad - like millions of other PCs in the same boat - is still perfectly functional. Its hardware is more than capable of everyday tasks. I've been using it for web browsing, writing in Google Docs, talking to my Verge c …

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Google Chrome is coming to Arm-powered Linux devices later this year

2026-03-13T05:39:19-04:00

You can download Chrome for Linux, and you can download Chrome for Arm devices - but if you've got a computer running Linux on Arm, not so much! Now, Google says it's finally bringing Chrome to ARM64 Linux machines in Q2 2026, following Chrome for Arm Macs in 2020 and Chrome for Windows on Arm in 2024.

Why Arm + Linux now? In a blog post, Google only says that it "addresses the growing demand for a browsing experience that combines the benefits of the open-source Chromium project with the Google ecosystem of apps and features." What we're left wondering is whether Google's talking about existing demand, or demand yet to come.

There's cert …

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Linux 6.19 arrives with a teaser for Linux 7.0

2026-02-09T11:28:20-05:00

Fedora systems like this one running Linux kernel 6.17 could soon get an update. | Image: Stevie Bonifield / The Verge

On Sunday, Linux developer Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 6.19, which will be the last update in this kernel cycle, as previously reported by Phoronix. It adds support for the modern AMDGPU driver for older AMD GCN 1.0 and 1.1 graphics cards, like Radeon HD 7000 series GPUs, along with Vulkan support through the RADV driver, and improved power management.

Linux 6.19 also includes improved HDR support with the addition of the DRM Color Pipeline, an updated Asus Armoury driver, expanded support for newer Intel Wildcat Lake and Nova Lake chips, PCIe link encryption and device authentication, and more.

Along with the launch of …

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GOG is already working on native Linux support

2026-02-09T05:36:39-05:00

GOG recently posted a job listing for a senior software engineer focused on porting its Galaxy desktop client to Linux. Now, in reply to a Reddit AMA, the GOG team has revealed that work on native Linux support is already underway.

It's still too early to give an ETA, according to the Reddit thread. But founder and CEO Michał Kiciński said, "personally, I'm a big fan of Linux." The job listing also calls Linux the "next major frontier" in gaming. It's obvious at this point that Linux is becoming an increasingly important part of the PC gaming landscape. Especially as Microsoft continues to frustrate users by cramming every nook and cranny …

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I went back to Linux and it was a mistake

2026-02-09T10:48:14-05:00

Even when it wasn’t failing quietly, Ubuntu was throwing truly useless errors. | Image: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge

It's a complete coincidence that I installed Linux around the same time as my colleagues Nathan Edwards and Stevie Bonifield. A few months ago, I decided to breathe new life into a 2019 Dell XPS 15 that had been collecting dust for a couple of years.

Despite its (at the time) high-end Core i7 CPU and 32GB of RAM, Windows was frustratingly slow on it. The fan was constantly at full throttle even when the machine was idle, and it regularly failed to install updates. So in early 2024, I gave up and switched to an M1 MacBook Pro.

But I wanted to give my oldest child something to practice typing on. Plus, I'd been trying to find a suitable di …

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Linux gaming developers join forces to form the Open Gaming Collective

2026-01-29T11:36:51-05:00

Gaming on Linux has already come a long way over recent years, with improvements to Valve's Proton and more gamers switching to Linux, but the newly-formed Open Gaming Collective (OGC) is aiming to take it even further.

Universal Blue, developer of the gaming-focused Linux distribution Bazzite, announced on Wednesday that its helping to form the OGC with several other groups, which will collaborate on improvements to the Linux gaming ecosystem and "centralize efforts around critical components like kernel patches, input tooling, and essential gaming packages such as gamescope."

The other founding members of the OGC include Nobara, Chimer …

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I spent a year on Linux and forgot to miss Windows

2026-02-11T11:53:15-05:00

It was an overcast January morning in 2025 the day I decided to delete my operating system.

The Ubuntu installer warned me that it would remove everything on my hard drive, permanently wiping the entire Windows 10 installation I'd been running for years at that point. I hesitated for a second - maybe I should just dual-boot? No, I'm going all in! Finally, I hit the button to install Linux. One year later, I still don't regret that choice. I even resurrected an old Windows 10 laptop by installing Linux on it.

My decision to try out Linux was driven by a growing dislike for modern Windows more than anything else. However, I've come to appr …

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