Linux as a desktop operating system has largely been framed as exciting, nimble, and endlessly tweakable. Those descriptions aren't wrong, but that's not what everyone needs from their OS, especially if you're just trying to get stuff done. This is why users will sacrifice things like privacy and control by using something like Windows; people want a familiar experience that works how they expect it to, not necessarily in the best way that gives the most options.

Exhaust billows out of a car tailpipe on January 2nd, 2008, in San Francisco. | Photo: Getty Images The Trump administration just eliminated the landmark finding that has underpinned federal regulations on planet-heating pollution since 2009. For nearly the past two decades, the "endangerment finding" has allowed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to craft rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Rather than repealing those rules individually, the Trump administration can undermine them all at once by attacking the endangerment finding.Today, the EPA finalized its plans to overturn the endangerment finding as part of its attempts to overhaul tailpipe pollution standards. The move could also affect efforts …Read the full story at The Verge.

The hours-long closure of El Paso airspace stemmed from the use of an anti-drone laser deployed by Customs and Border Protection, according to reports from The New York Times and the Associated Press. Sources tell The Times that CBP officials didn't give the Federal Aviation Administration "enough time to assess the risks to commercial aircraft," leading to the abrupt shutdown.On Wednesday, the FAA closed the airspace around El Paso International Airport, citing "special security reasons." The move impacted commercial flights and emergency medical transportation. Though the agency initially said the closure would last 10 days, it reopened …Read the full story at The Verge.

Whether you’re considering a 16-inch gaming laptop, or a more compact 14-inch model, there’s a deal with your name on it happening right now at Best Buy. The 2025 models of Acer’s Predator Helios Neo 16S and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 are hundreds off, although it’s the model with the bigger screen that is currently the cheaper of the two. The sale on the Neo 16S will expire at the end of the day, while the Zephyrus G14 discount will likely be available through President’s Day.Starting with the popular Zephyrus G14, which has a 3K resolution Pantone-validated OLED that can display up to a 120Hz refresh rate, you can get a high-end configuration at Best Buy for $1,899.99, down from its original price of $2,399.99. In addition to great screen specs, it has AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor — one of the fastest available on a laptop — plus Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti GPU with 12GB of VRAM, 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM clocked at 8,000MHz and a 1TB SSD. This model is ideal for those who want to be able to play any 2026 title at great frame rates without any (or many) compromises to visual fidelity.For context on the price, Best Buy is offering the step-down configuration for $100 less, with a slightly worse CPU, a significantly less capable GPU (the RTX 5060), and half the RAM. You’re getting a lot of extra power with the discounted model at $1,899.99.Asus ROG Zephyrus G14Where to Buy: $2399.99 $1899.99 at Best BuyThe Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S is bigger and has a larger OLED screen, yet on the whole it’s still fairly thin for a gaming laptop. And, it starts at $1,469.99, down from $1,899.99 at Best Buy. It has comparable specs to the Zephyrus G14 — a capable processor in the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, the RTX 5070 Ti, 32GB of DDR5 6,400MHz RAM, a 1TB SSD — but its 16-inch screen is slightly lower res at 2560 x 1600 (albeit with a 240Hz refresh rate) versus 2880 x 1800 in the Zephyrus G14. Either way, you’ve got two great potential upgrades to consider.Acer Predator Helios Neo 16SWhere to Buy: $1899.99 $1469.99 at Best Buy

We are all guilty of pulling out our phones and doomscrolling through stressful headlines or mindnumbing videos when we should be doing anything else. We know it's bad, but we still do it because it's hard to resist when much of our time is spent living and working on our devices. And even though we understand that we'd be better off with less screen time, our extremely online society doesn't exactly encourage that kind of healthy behavior.These are some of the familiar ideas at work in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, director Gore Verbinski's new sci-fi film about a man's desperate fight to save humanity from an apocalyptic future where m …Read the full story at The Verge.

Spring doesn’t officially kick off until March 20th, but there’s something to be said about getting a head start on your spring cleaning. Lucky for you, Eufy’s X10 Pro Omni is currently on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and directly from Eufy (with promo code WS7DV2D5LF9F) for $449.99 ($450 off), matching its lowest price to date.Eufy X10 Pro OmniWhere to Buy: $899.99 $449.99 at Amazon $899.99 $449.99 at Eufy (with code WS7DV2D5LF9F) $899.99 $449.99 at WalmartAlthough it’s since been dethroned as our favorite midrange robot vacuum / mop hybrid, X10 Pro Omni remains a solid choice thanks to its excellent AI-powered obstacle detection, powerful oscillating mops, and user-friendly app. The dual-spinning brushes are capable of removing dried stains with 1kg of downward pressure, and a built-in water reservoir prevents the robovac from having to frequently return to the dock just to refill its tank. Unlike a lot of bots in this price range, it also benefits from heated drying function — though not heated mop washing — thus preventing the base from smelling after repeated use.On the vacuuming front, the X10 Omni features a single rubber / bristle roller brush and 8,000Pa of suction, resulting in good performance on both carpet and tile surfaces. It offers great AI-powered object recognition, too, allowing it to deftly avoid pet messes, cables, toys, and other objects that might impede performance. Then there’s the Eufy Clean app — which lets you set schedules, establish no-go zones, and create virtual boundaries — culminating in a still-solid midrange vac. The fact that it can automatically empty its dust bin and refill its own water tank via the included multifunction dock just adds to the appeal.Other deals and discountsNothing Phone 3, the company’s “first true flagship phone,” is on sale at Amazon and Nothing’s online storefront with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage starting at $638.99 ($160 off), its best price to date. The newer flagship is really an exercise in form over function, as it’s equipped with a weaker chipset than rival models and a less capable camera array. Still, its circular dot-matrix display is wholly unique, especially if you’re willing to spend time tinkering with the various display pictures and icons. Read our review.Earlier this week, accessory maker Nomad introduced a “cosmic orange” version of its braided, USB-C ChargeKey. If you prefer the original black version, though, Nomad is currently selling a like-new, open-box version for an all-time low of $20 ($9 off). The nifty, keychain-friendly doohickey packs 240W of power and 10Gbps data transfer speeds, which is great if you want to quickly top off your iPhone or use it with an SSD for external video recording.If you or someone you know is an aspiring birder — or, heaven forbid, a twitcher — the Birdbuddy Pro Solar is available at Target and Chewy for around $179 ($120 off), which is the lowest price we’ve seen. The solar-powered version is pretty similar to the standard model in that it can capture 2K video / 5-megapixel stills, offers several viewing angles (115 or 122 degrees), and provides plenty of detail regarding visiting birds; however, unlike the base model, the solar version doesn’t need to be charged every two or three weeks just to keep an eye on your feathery friends.

There are very few things I lose more frequently than my tV remote.

Gail Slater, the top antitrust enforcer at the Justice Department, announced Thursday that she has left her post, just weeks before the agency's next major tech monopoly trial against entertainment giant Live Nation is set to begin."It is with great sadness and abiding hope that I leave my role as AAG for Antitrust today," Slater posted from her personal X account. Slater thanked the staff of the Antitrust Division and called the role "the honor of a lifetime." In a statement, Attorney General Pam Bondi thanked Slater for her service, but did not directly address questions about what precipitated her departure or who would take over as the …Read the full story at The Verge.

When looking at ways to improve a ZFS pool, you'd be forgiven for considering a metadata vdev. This is precisely what I did when I wanted to improve the performance by storing all our data on the network-attached storage (NAS) device. Although ZFS is brilliant for the task, it started to feel sluggish, especially with remote media directory navigation. I also noticed some slowdowns with our virtual machines and containers that relied on this data source.

For a decade now, the Holy Grail of tech has been the single device that does it all. You imagine a future where you dock your Google Pixel at your desk, and your phone becomes your workstation.

When I replaced my dead 5900X with a used 5800X3D last year, I expected an immediate improvement in how games felt. Not necessarily higher average frame rates, but better consistency. The 5800X3D has a reputation for fixing stutter and improving 1% lows, especially in CPU-bound games like Valorant and Counter-Strike 2. At first, the upgrade felt fine, as my GPU usage went up and benchmarks showed the kind of gains you'd expect from removing a CPU bottleneck.

The Epstein files have revealed more about the pedophile’s relationship to 4Chan. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images On October 24th, 2011, Jeffrey Epstein was emailing back and forth with Boris Nikolic, a biotech venture capitalist who would later be named as a backup executor of Epstein's will. The two appeared to be discussing a meeting Nikolic had helped arrange between Epstein and "moot," the screen name for Christopher Poole, who created the platform 4chan in 2003. Nikolic asked Epstein if he liked moot, and Epstein wrote back that he liked him a lot, thought he was very bright, and had driven him home. All of these emails were published for the first time alongside 3.5 million other documents in the latest (delayed) release of Epstein files by the …Read the full story at The Verge.