GOG has long since confirmed that it was working on a Galaxy game launcher for Linux, but it has officially just previewed the updated GOG Galaxy launcher in a new announcement on X. According to the post, not only has GOG Galaxy received a proper Linux version for the first time ever, the macOS and Windows versions have also been updated with a new UI, faster loading, and new library management tools. The new launcher has yet to be made available to the public, even in testing, but the announcement video showed off the new game launcher's UI and announced a 2027 launch window.

GOG.com on XGOG GALAXY is officially heading to Linux. At the same time, we've reworked the client on Windows and Mac to be simpler, run faster, and give you cleaner ways to view your library. Most importantly, our core promise stays untouched: GOG GALAXY is entirely optional. Your games are yours to download and keep through offline installers, exactly as they've always been.

Discord is rewriting its desktop app in Rust and dropping Electron, and the early numbers look very promising. Discord CTO and co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy posted a Task Manager screenshot on X showing the new client, listed as "Discord Phoenix," using just 290.2 MB of RAM. In the same screenshot, Steam's WebHelper sits at 856 MB and Battle.net at 344 MB. That's a big drop, as Discord said late last year that its current Windows client normally stays under 1 GB, and it even tested auto-restarting the app once it crossed 4 GB. Vishnevskiy also shared a side-by-side clip on two laptops showing the new client booting much faster, adding that clicking around "feels instant."

Mobile is getting the same treatment. According to Vishnevskiy, Discord is dropping React Native as well, so the mobile apps will keep their native interface while sharing app code with the desktop client through Rust. The new client is built on GPUI, the Rust UI framework from the team behind the Zed code editor, rather than Tauri as many had guessed. There's no release date yet, and Discord only says it hopes to get it into testing with users soon.

Valve now requires developers to launch their game through the Steam client and run it for at least five minutes before submitting it for review, as part of several new additions to Steam's pre-release checklist. It doesn't have to be the developer playing, since anyone's playtime counts, as long as it was logged within the past seven days, or since the last build upload if that's older. Apparently, Valve keeps getting builds that were never run through Steam at all, which is how games end up with broken launch options or missing depots.

The changes are meant to cut down Steam's review backlog. Valve says store page and build submissions have jumped over the last few months, and it's quite obvious why that would be. For Valve, build reviews that usually take three to five days are now taking up to 12 business days, largely because games that fail basic checks have to be reviewed again. Other new checks include at least five screenshots tagged as gameplay, a test save written to Steam Cloud for games that support it, a list of required redistributables like DirectX or Visual C++, and complete achievement setup.

Intel is moving some manufacturing capacity away from consumer chips to keep up with demand for its Xeon server processors. During its Q3 2026 earnings call, the company said it will convert some Intel 18A resources at its Oregon facilities to Intel 3, the node behind Xeon 6 "Granite Rapids." According to CFO Dave Zinsner, those 18A wafers "are generally going to build Panther Lake products." Zinsner also indicated that weaker PC demand gives Intel room to make the switch, as the company expects the PC slowdown to last at least through the first half of next year. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the added Intel 3 capacity should be in production in the second half of 2027.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu TanThe industry continues to navigate one of the most significant supply shortages in the history, driven by the unprecedented demand for Super Intelligence. Against this backdrop, I am pleased by the progress we made growing our server supply in Q3. I'm mindful about the ongoing challenges we face in the future quarters to keep pace with the server demand.

Even while Valve transitioned its Steam client to 64-bit, its Linux client has remained stuck in 32-bit land, but it appears as though that is finally slated to change, with a new 64-bit Steam client for Linux finally launching in the beta branch. This follows on the recent announcement of the beta RT3 client earlier in 2026 marking the start of the transition and promising a more consistent experience across different Linux distributions.

The launch of the 64-bit beta comes alongside Steam's new Achievement Sets update that allows developers to group base game, DLC, and other achievements based on categories. There is also a new achievements page to more easily track game achievements. Ahead of the latest beta launch, Valve also responded to Epic Games's new vibe-coded Epic Games Launcher beta with a mainline Steam client update that resulted in significantly faster cold-start times.

KDE Plasma is arguably one of the most widely used desktop environments in the Linux world, especially since the Valve Steam Deck introduced many gamers to the world of Linux using KDE Plasma in SteamOS when it launched the Steam Deck. Now, KDE has officially announced Plasma 6.8, the latest iteration of the Plasma DE, which comes with a number of improvements, including better accessibility options, a new system monitoring tool, the next step in the KDE Union theming engine, and new tricks to make misbehaving app windows look more aesthetically pleasing.

One of the smaller, but more impactful UI updates in KDE Plasma 6.8 is support for window rules that allow users to add rounded corners, shadows, and outlines to client-side-decorated applications that can't otherwise obey KDE's themes. In the blog detailing the updates in Plasma 6.8, the development team says that the Union theming engine is designed to look identical to the standard KDE theming, but with the ability to theme Qt Widgets applications, making it easier to achieve a unified look across different applications and frameworks. KDE also notes that Wayland has now been fully adopted, but that KDE will continue to work with X11 apps thanks to XWayland. Additionally, Plasma 6.8 will use less memory and load faster, and NVIDIA GPUs now use triple buffering by default with KWin. There are also under-the-hood improvements to HDR and ICC profile handling that will make HDR content look better when using ICC profiles.

Jailbroken PS5 owners can now stream Xbox games on Sony's console. Developer RafaelNGP has released PSBox Cloud Gaming on GitHub, an unofficial Xbox Cloud Gaming client that runs natively on homebrew-enabled PS5s through a loader such as ShadowMountPlus. Sign-in works through a code entered at microsoft.com/link, and a Game Pass Ultimate subscription is still required. The DualSense acts as an Xbox controller, rumble included, and the latest build even adds voice chat through the DualSense mic. Streams run at 1080p60 by default, with 720p for slower connections and an experimental 1440p mode where Microsoft offers it. Interestingly, the app can also use the PS5's GPU to upscale the stream to 4K, with a choice between AMD FSR 1 and the Anime4K upscaler.

The project is moving fast, too. Version 0.5.0, which brought the 4K upscaling, landed on October 8, and version 0.9.5 followed just two days later, picking up Remote Play to your own Xbox along the way. Video is H.264 decoded on the CPU, so there's no HDR for now, and bitrate sits at around 10 to 12 Mbps at 1080p. Some early testers reportedly ran into macroblocking, pink artifacts, and DualSense vibration issues. It's the latest in a busy stretch for PS5 homebrew, following emulators that run Nintendo Switch games, load PS2 discs, and even get Halo 2 running on the console. Of course, Microsoft could change or block the services the client relies on at any time, something the developer notes in the project's own README notes.

Seemingly as part of the ongoing efforts to streamline and polish Steam and SteamOS, Valve has published a new beta update for the Steam client that fixes a handful of issues with the library, Steam Input, the Steam Controller's BLE mode, and Big Picture mode. More notably, with this update, Steam clients installed on Linux machines will automatically set Windows programs added to Steam as non-Steam games to launch via Proton by default.

This change only removes one step in the installation process, but it may help shift the compatibility burden away from the consumer, since they would only have to go digging for the compatibility options if the program doesn't initially launch. This simplification seems to be part of Valve's strategy to bring in more users and more or less goes hand-in-hand with recent changes that give developers more tools to optimize their games for Valve's hardware and SteamOS—again, taking some of the fiddliness out of running Linux and SteamOS by placing optimization in the hands of developers. The full update notes follow.

PC GPU shipments are actually increasing despite record-high prices, according to Jon Peddie Research. However, the details reveal more complexity. JPR measures shipments of all PC GPUs, and since PCs come in various forms, so do GPUs. Overall, in Q2 of this year, there was a significant 10.4% increase quarter-over-quarter and about 1.1% year-over-year compared to Q2 2025, reaching 75.5 million GPUs this quarter. This large increase is primarily driven by shipments in the notebook graphics card sector, which saw a massive 16.8% jump, while dedicated desktop GPUs experienced a 4% reduction on a quarterly basis.

Looking at the per-vendor statistics of PC GPUs, the three major GPU designers—AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA—show some changes compared to the same period a year ago, with slight adjustments to quarterly changes. Intel continues to dominate, with 56% of all PC GPU shipments being Intel-derived. Although the discrete desktop GPU segment might not be Intel's strongest area, it's important to remember that Intel sells millions of GPUs in laptop form factors and with integrated graphics across its SoCs. Most modern Intel CPUs include some form of integrated graphics. However, Intel's lead decreased by 1% quarter-over-quarter and about 5% year-over-year. NVIDIA saw a 0.46% increase, while AMD experienced a marginal 0.6% increase in market share quarterly.

Following the launch of the Valve Steam Deck, there has been a growing tide of game and software developers looking to bring their products and projects to the growing body of Linux gamers. Epic Games is no different, with the company previously revealing in a job listing that it was looking to expand Easy Anti-Cheat support on Linux. Following an announcement that Epic Games was rebuilding its game launcher with a new framework that promises 5× faster launch speeds, there has also been speculation that the Fortnite company could be launching a native Linux version of the Epic Games Launcher.

Now, as reported by Steam Deck HQ, an Epic Games employee has revealed in a Discord Q&A that a Linux version of the launcher is in development and would be launching "soon," when asked about the possibility by a Discord member. This doesn't actually give anyone a timeline or state of a native Linux version, but it serves as confirmation that Epic Games is actively working on Linux support. It's also an indicator that Epic Games is starting to take Linux more seriously as a gaming platform, despite CEO Tim Sweeney's prior dismissive remarks about Linux.

Following the launch of the Steam Machine, Valve has finally rolled out its compatibility rating system for its living room gaming experience in Steam, with a new UI that shows both Steam Machine and SteamOS compatibility ratings. The new UI is only available in SteamOS in the Steam Deck client or in Big Picture mode, which makes sense, since the update is more than likely targeted around the launch of the Steam Machine. It's unclear if Valve will add a similar SteamOS compatibility indicator to the desktop and web clients, although it does display SteamOS and Steam Deck compatibility in the library on both desktop and the web, so it seems likely that the feature is planned for later.

Currently, the SteamOS and Steam Machine compatibility ratings are hidden in a fly-out window under a UI block called "SteamOS compatibility." The window shows three tabs, for the Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and then general SteamOS, all of which have their own specific compatibility requirements. While the Steam Machine tab shows information relating to the Steam Machine Verified program, the SteamOS tab simply notes whether the game will run on SteamOS via the Proton compatibility layer and whether it needs an internet connection for initial setup or gameplay. The SteamOS rating is likely to apply to most other modern Linux distributions, so it is a welcome addition to Valve's Linux gaming feature set.

Since the launch of the Steam Deck, Valve has poured a lot of effort into not only developing SteamOS but also making the Steam Store and client more user-friendly on handheld devices. Valve's latest Steam Deck Client update builds on this, introducing a number of small changes that make the Steam Deck all the more useful as a console-like gaming experience. Some of the highlights in this latest update include a new optional "Switch to Desktop" button on the login screen—a change that should make the Steam Deck that much easier to user as a docked workstation when necessary. The update also adds a wireless gamepad battery indicator and a low battery level toast notification.

In addition to the aforementioned new UI features, the Steam quick access menu now also houses Steam chat, making in-game socials easier, and there is now a new quick chat feature in Steam Deck and Big Picture mode. Users can access user-configurable quick chats by holding down the view button and selecting the appropriate response. The Steam Deck also now supports Remote Downloads management, allowing you to manage, for example, the downloads on your gaming desktop from the comfort of a couch across the room or the discomfort of an airport across the country. The update also includes a number of bug fixes and UI changes to features like the Steam Input controller customization settings, which can all be viewed in the full update changelog.

Kioxia Corporation today announced the KIOXIA BG8 Series solid state drives (SSDs), the next evolution of its client SSD lineup designed for PC OEM customers. Delivering PCIe 5.0 speed to the mainstream segment, the KIOXIA BG8 Series combines next-generation capability with efficient operation and broad design flexibility for slim laptops, commercial and consumer notebooks, and desktop systems.

Built with Kioxia's BiCS FLASH generation 8 TLC-based 3D flash memory, the KIOXIA BG8 Series advances both performance and power efficiency. Compared to the previous generation, the KIOXIA BG8 Series achieves up to 47 % higher sequential read, 67 % higher sequential write, 44 % higher random read, and 30 % higher random write performance.b

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a strategic collaboration with Arm to develop new dual-architecture hardware that helps enterprises run future AI and data intensive workloads with greater flexibility, reliability, and security.

IBM's leadership in system design, from silicon to software and security, has helped enterprises adopt emerging technologies with the scale and reliability required for mission-critical workloads. As AI moves deeper into core business operations, IBM continues to invest in hardware platforms such as the Telum II processor and Spyre Accelerator, which are designed to bring AI from experimentation into everyday enterprise use.

Samsung has developed a new SSD controller based on the open-source RISC-V instruction set, moving away from the Arm ISA in some of its SSD controllers. With the introduction of the BM9K1 PCIe 5.0 QLC NAND SSD, Samsung has officially created a proprietary RISC-V IP that will serve as a foundation for many SSDs the company plans to release. Announced at the China Flash Market Summit 2026, the BM9K1 SSD has been showcased with just one metric: sequential read speed. Achieving a maximum sequential read speed of 11.4 GB/s, Samsung has reached impressive speeds for QLC NAND Flash. While the sequential write speed is unknown, it is expected to be around 10 GB/s, varying slightly depending on Samsung's design. Typically, high-performance SSDs use TLC NAND, as seen in Samsung's own 9100 Pro SSD, which we reviewed. It features 3D TLC V-NAND V8 with 236 layers. While this SSD uses TLC NAND and has a proprietary Samsung Presto 5 nm controller running on Arm-based cores, Samsung might transition a significant portion of its SSD lineup to a RISC-V based design with the BM9K1, offering satisfactory performance with QLC NAND.

Interestingly, Samsung has designed this SSD with considerations for size, power, and AI. For instance, the BM9K1 PCIe 5.0 SSD replaces the previous BM9C1 PCIe 4.0 SSD controller. Although both use QLC NAND, the newer BM9K1 features a new RISC-V controller and a fresh PCIe 5.0 interface, doubling the performance in sequential reads on average. The power efficiency of the new RISC-V design is also improved. Samsung claims a 23% increase in power efficiency, thanks to the flexibility of RISC-V, which allows for greater customization and optimization of the controller firmware to match I/O patterns with the QLC NAND, resulting in nearly a quarter less power consumption. This improvement is expected to have a significant impact on small form factor PCs and client laptops. The main drawback of the design is the use of QLC NAND, but Samsung may introduce TLC NAND SSDs with RISC-V controllers in the future. For now, these remain on the 5 nm Presto Arm-powered controllers.

Valve has been on a roll, delivering handy UI changes and tweaks to the Steam experience in the name of a more cohesive user experience. The latest in the series of updates comes by way of a Steam client beta update that allows users to include their system specs when leaving a review. PC specs are already commonly mentioned in reviews where performance or optimization are a chief complaint, but the new Steam UI change would offer a standardized approach to leaving those specifications. Theoretically, it could also allow other Steam users with similar hardware to offer optimization tips in response to reviews with performance complaints, and it may help developers who don't collect user system information to optimize their games when performance problems become obvious.

In addition to the PC specs, the February 12 Steam Beta client update also includes the option to allow Steam to collect anonymized framerate data "without connection to your Steam account," but with hardware information included. Valve says it will use this data to "learn about compatibility and improve Steam," but the feature is still in beta and will focus on devices running SteamOS for the time being. This data could conceivably be used in the development of Proton and to optimize games and hardware for the upcoming Steam Machine and existing Steam Deck machines. Valve will also now allow Steam Deck users to optionally submit a reason for why they disagree with a Deck Verified rating when submitting such feedback.

Yesterday, after the equity market closed, Intel announced its Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings, along with weaker-than-expected guidance for Q1 2026. As a result, Intel's stock is anticipated to open 11% lower today. During the Q4 earnings call, Intel's CFO, David Zinsner, explained the reasons behind the reduced outlook, despite the increasing demand for Intel products. The situation arose due to hyperscalers demanding more units. Intel's discussions with these customers indicated a preference for high core count solutions rather than increased unit shipments. Consequently, Intel adjusted its inventory and internal wafer supply to maintain reasonable stock levels while consistently shipping new units. However, hyperscalers have since been ordering larger quantities, leading to a temporary shortage of Xeon processors for the Data Center and AI (DCAI) group. To address this, Intel plans to redirect some resources from the Client Computing Group (CCG) to support Xeon CPU production.

Intel CFO David ZinsnerBoth (DCAI and CCG) will be down as a function of supply. Obviously, we're shifting as much as we can over to data center to meet the high demand, but we can't completely vacate the client market. So we're trying to support both as best we can and obviously work our way out of this supply issue. I do believe that the first quarter is the trough. We will improve supply in the second quarter. Part of the challenge is that in the third and fourth quarter of 2025, we lived off of supply, but we also had a reasonable chunk of finished goods inventory to also work through. Unfortunately, that is now down to kind of 40% of what it was at peak levels.

Valve has published a stable Steam Deck Client update on January 21 that merges many controller- and accessibility-related features that have shown up in prior beta updates, like the ability to filter your library by language and accessibility features. The official update notes do cite a number of bug fixes that mostly relate to edge cases, like the Format SD Card button occasionally not showing up or and a few quality-of-life features, like changing the public group chat setting so that users can't send other members private messages by default. However, the more interesting additions come by way of new controller and gyro input support. For starters, the Steam Deck now once again supports both the Nintendo Switch 2 wired controller, it now supports the Razer Raiju V3 Pro, and it no longer hangs periodically when connecting the Nacon PS4 Compact controller. The Steam Deck will also now update controller schemes immediately when a new controller is connected, instead of waiting until the first input from that controller.

There has been decent movement on the accessibility and controller configuration side, as well. Users can now more easily access the Analog Trigger Output option in the Trigger Mode select options. There is also now a toggle to enable or disable the "Smooth Fine Movements" filter in the controller calibration settings. Valve recommends using this option for controllers with older IMUs, where it has previously noted high resting signal noise. The Joystick Mode's Stick Response Curve settings also now have a Response Axis Style option, which allows users to select between Per Axis or Circular. The latter is the default unless the response curve is set to linear. There are also a handful of other small fixes, changes, and new options, which you can read about in the full update notes below. Given that many of the components that were updated are not exclusive to the Steam Deck, many Linux and even Windows desktop users will be able to take advantage of these changes as well.

North American CSPs' continued investments in AI infrastructure are expected to increase global AI server shipments by more than 28% YoY in 2026, according to the latest market research from TrendForce. The rapid growth of AI inference services is boosting demand for general-purpose servers, supporting both replacement and expansion efforts. Consequently, TrendForce predicts that total global server shipments, including AI servers, will accelerate from 2025, with a 12.8% YoY growth in 2026.

The server market from 2024 to 2025 primarily centered on training advanced large language models (LLMs), utilizing AI servers with GPUs and HBM for parallel computing. However, starting in the second half of 2025, the growth of AI agents, LLaMA-based applications, and Copilot upgrades shifted CSP's focus toward inference services as a monetization strategy. AI inference workloads are now deployed not only on dedicated AI server racks but also on general-purpose servers that handle pre- and post-inference computing and storage.

Kioxia showcased its latest BG7 line of client mainstream NVMe SSDs, which will be aimed mostly at PC OEMs and range in capacities from 256 GB to 2 TB. The Kioxia BG7 series is actually the first client SSD solution to use the latest BiCS Gen 8 3D flash memory with CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology. Thanks to the new BiCS Gen 7 3D flash, the Kioxia BG7 series SSDs promise random read and write of up to 1,000,000 IOPS and sequential performance of up to 7,000 MB/s, which is up to 10 and 16 percent higher random and sequential performance compared to its BG6 series predecessor. These are PCIe 4.0 Gen 4 x4 NVMe SSDs that will be coming in various M.2 form factors, including 2230, 2242, and M.2 2280, that will probably find their way into many workstations, desktops, laptops, and all-in-one PCs.

In addition to the new BG7 SSD series, Kioxia also showcased its LC9 245.76 TB enterprise SSD, which we have seen at the FMS 2025 show and uses the same BiCS Flash Generation 8 QLC 3D flash memory. It features a 32-die stack of 2 terabit (Tb) 3D flash memory with the same CBA technology, which enables industry-first 8 TB capacity in a small 154 BGA package. The Kioxia LC9 comes in a 2.5-inch and Enterprise and Datacenter Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) E3.L form factor, and since it packs 245.76 TB in such a small package, we could not pass up the opportunity to take a picture of holding almost 1 PB in our hand.

TrendForce's latest investigations indicate that DRAM suppliers in 1Q26 will continue to reallocate advanced process nodes and new capacity toward server and HBM products to support rising AI server demand. This shift has significantly limited supply in other markets, causing conventional DRAM contract prices to increase by about 55-60% QoQ. Meanwhile, disciplined capacity management by NAND Flash suppliers, along with robust server demand that is displacing other applications, is likely to increase contract prices across all NAND Flash product categories by 33-38%.

Despite weaker notebook shipments and slower growth in memory demand due to potential specification downgrades, PC DRAM prices are still set to rise sharply in the first quarter. DRAM suppliers have simultaneously tightened supply to PC OEMs and module makers, forcing some OEMs to procure memory at higher prices through modules makers. This is expected to raise DRAM suppliers' module pricing and significantly drive up PC DRAM prices.

TrendForce's latest research indicates that the global foundry industry continued to profit in 3Q25, fueled by strong demand for AI in HPC and new consumer-electronics chips and IC peripherals. Revenue was primarily driven by advanced processes at 7 nm and below, with support from high-value wafers. Chinese foundries also expanded their business through supply-chain diversification. As a result, total revenue for the top 10 foundries increased by 8.1% QoQ to nearly US$45.1 billion.

TrendForce notes that expectations for 2026 demand have become cautious amid geopolitical headwinds. Furthermore, DRAM shortages and quarterly price increases since mid-2025 continue to strain downstream production costs. Even though automotive and industrial-control segments are preparing to resume restocking toward the end of 2025, the 4Q25 uptick in foundry utilization will be limited. Consequently, revenue growth among the top 10 is projected to narrow significantly in the fourth quarter.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT), the data streaming pioneer, today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which IBM will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Confluent for $31 per share, representing an enterprise value of $11 billion. Confluent provides a leading open-source enterprise data streaming platform that connects, processes and governs reusable and reliable data and events in real time, foundational for the deployment of AI.

IDC estimates that more than one billion new logical applications will emerge by 2028, reshaping technology architectures across industries. To fuel meaningful outcomes and drive productivity in operations, these applications, as well as AI agents, need access to connected and trusted data - in real time. IBM and Confluent will enable end-to-end integration of applications, analytics, data systems and AI agents to drive intelligence and resilience in hybrid cloud environments.

Intel's 14A node is a critical product for Intel Foundry, currently under development and slated for release in 2027. As Intel collaborates on the 14A node design with customers, these potential Foundry clients can evaluate whether the upcoming node meets their needs. Patrick Moorhead, from Moor Insights & Strategy, who frequently engages with industry executives, reports that two Intel customers are very satisfied with the node's development so far. "Intel customers I've spoken to who have seen this node say that 14A is the real deal. It should be highly competitive not only in the datacenter and PC markets but also in mobile chips, which marks an important shift for the company."

He further commented, "I am eager for Intel to release its 14A 0.5 PDK and start gathering feedback. However, even without the PDK available, I'm already hearing very positive things, especially considering the progress with 18A, as each new node builds upon the previous ones." Intel is manufacturing the 14A node using High-NA EUV lithography, becoming the first in the industry to transition from Low-NA. Previously, Intel revealed that it processed over 30,000 wafers in a single quarter, achieving simplified manufacturing by reducing the required steps for a particular layer from 40 to fewer than 10, which naturally resulted in much faster cycle times.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking, and storage solution innovator, today released QuTS hero h6.0 Beta, the latest ZFS-based NAS operating system which offers a new level of enterprise resilience and intelligence.

"As data volumes soar and AI transforms business operations, enterprises need storage that's secure, intelligent, and future-ready," said Tim Lin, Product Manager at QNAP. "QuTS hero h6.0 demonstrates why QNAP remains the most comprehensive NAS solution for the AI era - combining resilience, cybersecurity, and intelligent data management in one unified platform."