Homebrew just shipped a major overhaul, and it quietly cut off everyone still on an Intel Mac.
What the article says
- Homebrew 7 is out and installs and upgrades run noticeably faster thanks to more work happening at once instead of one step at a time.
- Security got tighter too. Package operations run in a sandbox now, and a new built in tool checks your installed software against known vulnerabilities.
- There is a real native app for managing packages with a window instead of just the terminal.
- The big trade off: Intel Macs are getting dropped to lowest priority support, and old macOS Catalina is cut off entirely.
- On Linux, Homebrew switches to a lighter, less fiddly sandboxing method that needed extra permissions before.
What HN is saying
- Longtime users are thrilled, several say the speed jump is the first thing they noticed before even reading the announcement.
- The sharpest pushback is from Intel Mac owners who feel abandoned, with a few announcing they are switching to MacPorts instead.
- The maintainer jumped into the comments himself, explaining that Apple and GitHub dropping Intel support left Homebrew with no real choice.
- A recurring side conversation is about mise, a newer tool some commenters now prefer for managing dev tools alongside or instead of Homebrew.
- One user hit a bug with the new app failing to read Homebrew's output, traced it to iTerm2 shell integration, and shared the fix.
Valve's new VR headset runs open Linux instead of Meta's software, and the price is splitting the room.
What the article says
- Valve unveiled the Steam Frame, its new VR headset and a rival to Meta's Quest line.
- It starts above a thousand dollars, higher than people expected for a mass market headset.
- It runs on Linux and stays open, so owners can install their own software instead of being locked in.
- It can work standalone or streamed wirelessly from a gaming PC, using foveated streaming to ease the bandwidth strain.
- Note, the article page itself held no real body text, so this is pulled from the headline and comments.
What HN is saying
- Most commenters are relieved it runs open Linux rather than Meta's closed, data hungry software.
- The price triggered real frustration, with several people saying they expected Quest level pricing and will pass.
- There is a running debate over wireless versus wired, wireless feels freer but wired still wins for flight sims and typing.
- Flight sim fans are excited, though one detailed reply warns VR can actually get in the way in complex cockpits with lots of switches.
- A widely shared review video was praised for laying out just how much friendlier the privacy terms are than Meta's.
A tiny remote control box for your computer just dropped to thirty three dollars, wired or wireless.
What the article says
- JetKVM built a smaller, cheaper version of its remote access gadget that plugs into any computer and lets you control it over the network, even at the BIOS or bootloader level.
- It comes in a wired model and a wireless one, both about the size of a matchbox, starting at thirty three dollars when bought in a three pack.
- A single low power chip now handles video capture and encoding directly, replacing the small Linux computer the original design needed.
- The firmware is fully open source, and it plugs into the same web dashboard, cloud service and update system as the original JetKVM.
- It ships in late October, and a follow up software update will add screen sharing, clipboard syncing and file transfer for the host machine too.
What HN is saying
- Plenty of homelab owners chimed in with reliability stories, some say their JetKVMs have run flawlessly for years, others have had units die or never arrive at all.
- A recurring theme is that this whole category is crowded. People compared it against Intel's built in remote management chip, PiKVM, NanoKVM and several GL.iNet boxes.
- One popular alternative is running the free management chip already built into many Intel processors, though commenters warn the tooling and documentation for it are rough.
- A neat side use case came up repeatedly: handing one of these to a relative so you can fix their computer remotely without walking them through anything.
- A few people wish for basic things it still lacks, like power over ethernet, and joked about the optics of plugging a mystery box into your work laptop.
The site that let you read X without an account just went dark again, and the reason is legal.
What the article says
- XCancel, a free proxy for reading X without logging in, has suspended itself again.
- The notice says a new development in an ongoing legal case forced the shutdown and it cannot share details.
- It points people back to the real X site to find what they were looking for.
- Nitter, the open source project XCancel was built on, had its code repository briefly archived around the same time, though the maintainer says the project will continue after legal advice.
What HN is saying
- Most commenters say the real fix is browser extensions and redirect sites like twiiit.com that bounce you to whichever mirror is still working.
- A recurring theme is that X has made its own site nearly unusable for anyone without an account, which is exactly why people build workarounds like this.
- The sharpest disagreement is over whether using X at all makes sense. Some say governments and companies should never have relied on a platform this locked down, others reply that you have to go where your audience already is.
- A few people question the framing entirely, noting the post never explains what XCancel is and that it was simply a Nitter instance for anonymous browsing.
- One commenter points out the irony that legal pressure keeps landing on read only mirrors while the underlying platform faces no matching obligation to stay open.
Apple's new OS lineup ships a smarter Siri, and commenters have very mixed feelings about everything else.
What the article says
- Apple released the new versions of its phone, tablet, and computer software, all bumped to the same number this year.
- The headline feature is a rebuilt Siri that understands context, sees what is on your screen, and can act across more apps.
- It talks about protecting kids online with new parental tools.
- Apple frames the release as focused on polish and speed rather than flashy new features.
- The new Siri works in English first, with other languages following next month.
What HN is saying
- People who have run the beta for months say this release feels like a genuine quality pass rather than another rocky year.
- The keyboard and search are the running joke. Commenters say Apple has claimed to fix them every year for a decade and they are still broken.
- New Siri gets mixed reviews. Some love that it can pull a bank routing number from Notes and autofill it in Safari, others say it botches simple two step requests like dimming lights that are already on.
- A few people are angry that Apple renamed the year in version numbers to match next year instead of the year of release, calling it more like car marketing than software.
- Several longtime users say last year's release was rough enough that anything better feels like relief, though some report crashes and battery problems persist.