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News, guides and releases from the free software world
The history of Linux: from a 1991 hobby to running the world
How Linus Torvalds built the Linux kernel in 1991, the GPL license, the first distributions and why it now powers servers, phones and supercomputers.
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The history of BSD: from Berkeley to FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD
The other great free-software lineage. How Berkeley turned UNIX into BSD and gave rise to the systems powering Netflix, the PlayStation and half the internet.
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UNIX: the operating system that started it all (1969)
Before Linux, before BSD, before macOS there was UNIX. The story of the system born in 1969 that laid the foundations of almost every modern operating system.
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Why are there so many Linux distributions?
Hundreds of distros, a single kernel. Explore the Linux family tree: where Debian, Red Hat, Arch and Slackware come from, and why all that variety is a real strength.
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Livepatch now patches the kernel on Arm64 with no reboots
Canonical brings Livepatch to Arm64: critical kernel patches without rebooting, landing with Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and Ubuntu Core 26.
Read more →XCP-ng 8.3 LTS: second batch of June 2026 updates
XCP-ng ships its second June patch set for 8.3 LTS: it fixes XSA-491 and XSA-492, an SMB kernel driver flaw and an lldpd over-read, and bumps DRBD, XAPI, the Intel ice driver and the Windows Guest Tools.
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How to use RISC-V custom instructions on Ubuntu
Canonical explains how Ubuntu supports RISC-V custom instructions, with PPAs for stateless cases and an image cookbook when you need your own kernel.
Read more →postmarketOS 26.06 'Alpen Avocado' Arrives with GNOME 50 and KDE Plasma Mobile 6.6
postmarketOS 26.06 'Alpen Avocado' moves to Alpine Linux 3.24, ships GNOME 50, Plasma Mobile 6.6.5 and Phosh 0.55, switches to Plymouth and systemd 261, and reaches 254 devices in testing.
Read more →PorteuX 2.7: the Slackware-based portable distro ships Linux 7.1 and KDE Plasma 6.7
PorteuX 2.7 arrives with the Linux 7.1 kernel, KDE Plasma 6.7, GNOME 50.2 and eight desktops as standalone flavors. NTFS-plus driver, a native cursor theme and more.
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How to choose the right Ubuntu LTS version
Ubuntu LTS versions get 5 years of support. We explain what LTS means, how often they ship and which one fits your case.
Read more →SparkyLinux 2026.06 "Tiamat": rolling release with optional Linux 7.1 kernel
SparkyLinux 2026.06 arrives based on Debian Testing "Forky", with the Linux 7.0 kernel by default, support for Linux 7.1, and Calamares 3.4.2.
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Windows 11 26H2 reaches the Experimental channel: 19 June 2026 builds
Microsoft starts moving Experimental channel devices to Windows 11 26H2 via an enablement package. Builds 26300.8697 and 26220.8690, the Dev channel shift, and why 26H1 machines are left out.
Read more →Raspberry Pi OS 2026-06-18 Ships with Linux Kernel 6.18 LTS
The latest Raspberry Pi OS image arrives with the 6.18.34 LTS kernel, Labwc 0.9.7, and desktop refinements on top of the Debian 13 Trixie base. Here's what changed.
Read more →Canonical brings fleet management down to microcontrollers with Golioth and Ubuntu Core
Canonical integrates Golioth as a snap on Ubuntu Core to manage Nordic and STM32 microcontrollers running Zephyr: OTA with rollback, mutual TLS, and the Pouch protocol.
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Anbox Cloud 1.30.0 brings virtualized Android: full VMs in the cloud
Anbox Cloud 1.30.0 adds virtualized Android, letting you run complete system images in lightweight VMs with their own kernel, alongside the existing container model.
Read more →Canonical's answer to vulnerabilities found by AI
Lech Sandecki lays out how Canonical handles the wave of flaws surfaced by AI models: security updates in 24 hours, coordinated disclosure and up to 15 years of support with Ubuntu Pro.
Read more →KDE Plasma 6.7.1 Fixes Kickoff, Discover, and KWin Bugs
The first point release for Plasma 6.7 fixes a Discover crash on rpm-ostree distros, two Kickoff regressions, and several clipboard and KWin issues.
Read more →KDE Plasma 6.7 Is Out: Per-Screen Virtual Desktops, the Air Theme and More
The KDE Project ships Plasma 6.7 with independent virtual desktops per monitor, a global push-to-talk shortcut, Wayland session restore and the return of KDE 4's Air theme.
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Build a local AI inference appliance with Ubuntu Core 26 in a VM
Canonical walks through turning Ubuntu Core 26 into a local AI inference appliance using Multipass and the gemma4 snap, with an OpenAI-compatible API before touching real hardware.
Read more →VirtualBox 7.2.10 lands with initial Linux kernel 7.1 support
Oracle ships VirtualBox 7.2.10 with initial Linux 7.1 support, better RHEL 9.8 compatibility, and several fixes for Linux hosts and guests.
Read more →GNU Linux-libre 7.1: the blob-free kernel is now available
The GNU Linux-libre project ships version 7.1 based on Linux 7.1, deblobbing new drivers for Lontium LT8713SX, Realtek 802.11be chips and Qualcomm SoCs.
Read more →Linux 7.1 Is Here: New NTFS, Landlock for UNIX Sockets, and More
Linus Torvalds announces Linux 7.1 with a new NTFS implementation that supports full write, improved amd-pstate and intel_idle drivers, exFAT changes, and security hardening.
Read more →Peppermint OS Devuan Moves to Devuan 6 Excalibur, No systemd
The Devuan edition of Peppermint OS now builds on Devuan 6 Excalibur, with Xfce 4.20, kernel 6.12 LTS, three init systems and Calamares on Qt 6.
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Windows 11: unified Windows Update and fewer reboots in the 12 June 2026 builds
Microsoft ships new Insider builds with a Windows Update that bundles drivers, .NET and firmware into one monthly restart, more typo-tolerant search, and per-app release notes.
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AI at the edge: Cisco and Canonical ship a validated Ubuntu design
Cisco and Canonical publish a Cisco Validated Design for deploying AI at the edge with Ubuntu Server 24.04.3 LTS, Cisco Unified Edge hardware and an automated operator stack.
Read more →Proxmox Mail Gateway 9.1: reworked spam quarantine and encrypted backups
Proxmox Mail Gateway 9.1 ships on Debian 13.5 with Linux kernel 7.0, an improved spam quarantine interface and native encryption to Proxmox Backup Server.
Read more →Alpine Linux 3.24 Arrives with GNOME 50, KDE Plasma 6.6, and COSMIC
Alpine Linux 3.24 ships the Linux 6.18 LTS kernel, the GNOME 50, KDE Plasma 6.6, and COSMIC desktops, Sway 1.12, and Limine bootloader support with IPv6 in the installer.
Read more →What is RoCE (RDMA over Ethernet), and how Ubuntu supports it
Canonical breaks down RDMA over Converged Ethernet: the difference between RoCEv1 and RoCEv2, why Ethernet needs PFC and ECN, and the kernel drivers Ubuntu ships for AI and HPC networking.
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Windows 11 26H1 splits into separate Beta and Experimental branches (8 June 2026 builds)
Microsoft splits the Beta and Experimental channels for Windows 11 26H1 with new build series and lets Insiders switch branches without a clean reinstall.
Read more →GNOME 50.2 Adds Rate Control to VA-API H.264 Screencast
GNOME 50.2 ships rate control for VA-API H.264 screencast pipelines, plus fixes across Mutter, Nautilus, GDM, GNOME Software, and Orca.
Read more →Ubuntu 26.04 LTS wants to take the GPU setup pain out of AI work
Canonical explains how Ubuntu 26.04 LTS installs CUDA and ROCm with a single apt install and integrates DOCA-OFED, with an eye on squeezing every watt of AI hardware.
Read more →Ubuntu Core 26 brings AI to the edge on Renesas RZ/V processors
Canonical walks through compiling, packaging and deploying AI models on Renesas RZ/V microprocessors with Ubuntu Core 26 and the DRP-AI accelerator.
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Build 2026: Windows doubles down as a development platform
At Build 2026 Microsoft shows Microsoft Execution Containers, WSL Containers, post-quantum cryptography in TLS and WHCP-certified drivers by default for Windows.
Read more →Ubuntu and Ubuntu Pro now run on Microsoft's Azure Cobalt 200 VMs
Canonical brings Ubuntu and Ubuntu Pro to Microsoft's second-generation Arm silicon from day one of preview, with kernel Livepatch on Arm64.
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Windows gets platform security for AI agents: the MXC SDK
Microsoft introduces Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC), a policy-driven execution layer to sandbox AI agents on Windows and WSL, with process isolation, session isolation and hypervisor micro-VMs.
Read more →XCP-ng 8.3 LTS: first batch of June 2026 updates
XCP-ng ships its first June 2026 update for the 8.3 LTS branch: kernel patches against local root escalation, the end of ssh-rsa support, USB smartcard passthrough and a higher UEFI vCPU ceiling.
Read more →Canonical and NVIDIA bring OpenShell to Ubuntu as a snap for AI agents
Canonical packages the NVIDIA OpenShell runtime as a snap on Ubuntu to sandbox AI agents. One command to install, and it runs on DGX Spark, DGX Station and RTX PRO.
Read more →The History of ReactOS: the Dream of a Free Windows
History, key versions and curiosities of ReactOS, the free operating system recreating Windows with binary compatibility for apps and drivers since 1998.
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Palm's webOS: The Operating System Ahead of Its Time
The story of webOS, Palm's groundbreaking operating system: cards multitasking, Synergy, its journey through HP and its rebirth on LG smart TVs.
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BlackBerry OS: The Fallen King of Mobile Email
The history of BlackBerry OS: from RIM's 1999 pager to the reign of push email and physical keyboards, the famous BBM, and its fall to iOS and Android.
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Windows Mobile and Pocket PC: the PDA era before the iPhone
The history of Windows Mobile and Pocket PC: Windows CE roots, key versions, the stylus, and why they faded away against iOS and Android.
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Symbian OS: the System That Once Ruled Smartphones
The history of Symbian OS: from Psion's EPOC to the operating system that dominated Nokia smartphones in the 2000s. Versions, S60, UIQ and trivia.
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Palm OS: the system that put computing in your pocket
The history of Palm OS, the operating system behind the PalmPilot PDAs: origins, key versions, Graffiti handwriting and its legacy before smartphones.
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Caldera OpenLinux and the SCO Lawsuits: From Friendly Desktop to Courtroom
The story of Caldera OpenLinux, a pioneer of commercial Linux, its versions and its turn into SCO Group, the source of the 2000s lawsuits against Linux and IBM.
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Knoppix: The Pioneering Live CD That Changed Linux
The story of Knoppix, the first popular Live CD built by Klaus Knopper in 2000: key releases, its legendary hardware detection and surprising trivia.
Read more →Mandrake and Mandriva: the Linux that won over beginners
The story of Mandrake Linux and Mandriva: born in 1998 from Gaël Duval, the lawsuit over its name, MandrakeSoft, its key versions and its legacy in Mageia and OpenMandriva.
Read more →Red Hat Linux (1994-2003): The Story of the Red Hat
The history of Red Hat Linux: from version 1 to 9, the birth of RPM and the 2003 split into Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Versions and trivia.
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The Early Versions of Debian: History and Curiosities
A journey through Debian's origins: from Ian Murdock in 1993 to the legendary 1.1 Buzz, the Toy Story codenames, and the birth of dpkg and apt.
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Slackware 1.0 (1993): The Story of the Oldest Linux Distribution
Discover the history of Slackware 1.0, released by Patrick Volkerding in July 1993. Its SLS origins, key versions, trivia and why it's still alive today.
Read more →Yggdrasil: the first Linux ever shipped on CD-ROM
The story of Yggdrasil Linux/GNU/X, the 1992 distribution that brought Linux to CD-ROM with automatic hardware detection and live booting.
Read more →SLS: The First Complete Linux Distribution in History
The story of Softlanding Linux System (SLS), the first Linux distro to bundle the kernel, GNU and X Window on floppies. Versions, trivia and its legacy in Slackware and Debian.
Read more →Linux 0.01: The Story of the Kernel That Began as a Hobby
The history of the Linux 0.01 kernel from 1991: origins, its 10,000 lines of 386-only code, the Freax name, and curious facts about Torvalds' first Linux.
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KolibriOS: The Operating System That Fits on a Floppy Disk
The history, versions and curiosities of KolibriOS, the assembly-written operating system that fits on a 1.44 MB floppy disk and boots in just seconds.
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TempleOS: Terry A. Davis's One-Man Masterpiece
The story of TempleOS, the operating system Terry A. Davis wrote entirely by himself over a decade: the HolyC language, 640x480 graphics and one of computing's strangest legends.
Read more →IBM OS/360: The Operating System That Nearly Sank IBM
The history of IBM OS/360, the operating system of the System/360 (1964): its PCP, MFT and MVT options, its chaotic development and The Mythical Man-Month.
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VMS and OpenVMS: The Operating System That Never Goes Down
The story of VMS and OpenVMS: born at DEC in 1977 for the VAX, famous for its clustering and legendary reliability, and still maintained today by VSI on x86-64.
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Multics, the Grandfather of Unix: The OS That Changed Everything
The history, versions and curiosities of Multics, the ambitious MIT, GE and Bell Labs operating system whose complexity inspired the creation of Unix.
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AIX, IBM's Unix: History, Versions and Curiosities
The story of AIX, IBM's Unix born in 1986 for POWER systems. Key versions, the SMIT tool and trivia about one of the longest-lived commercial Unix operating systems.
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HP-UX: HP's Enterprise Unix That Outlived PA-RISC and Itanium
The history of HP-UX, Hewlett-Packard's Unix born in 1984: its key versions, the leap from PA-RISC to Itanium, VUE, SAM and its final shutdown in 2025.
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IRIX: The Silicon Graphics Unix That Conquered Hollywood
The history, versions and curiosities of IRIX, Silicon Graphics' Unix for high-end graphics workstations that powered movie effects like those in Jurassic Park.
Read more →SunOS and Solaris: The Story of Sun Microsystems' Unix
The history of SunOS and Solaris: from the BSD workstation to Sun's System V Unix, with NFS, ZFS, DTrace, OpenSolaris and its legacy in illumos.
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Xenix, Microsoft's Forgotten Unix That Ruled the 1980s
The history of Xenix, the Unix Microsoft licensed from AT&T in 1980: its origins, key versions, the handover to SCO and why it became the most widespread Unix of its era.
Read more →Berkeley's original BSD: the Unix that shaped the internet
The history of the original Berkeley BSD: from 1BSD to 4.4BSD, 4.2BSD's TCP/IP, the CSRG group, the AT&T lawsuit and a legacy that lives on today.
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Unix V6 and V7: The Code That Seeded Modern Computing
The history of Bell Labs' Unix V6 (1975) and V7 (1979): the versions that escaped AT&T, conquered universities and shaped today's Linux and BSD systems.
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The History of RISC OS: Acorn's System That Gave Birth to ARM
RISC OS, Acorn's operating system for the Archimedes in 1987, was the cradle of ARM processors. Its history, key versions and real curiosities.
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GEOS: The 8-Bit GUI That Stunned the Commodore 64
The story of GEOS, Berkeley Softworks' graphical OS that brought windows, a mouse and desktop publishing to the Commodore 64 and Apple II back in 1986.
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OS/2: IBM's Bold Bet That Was Ahead of Its Time
The history of OS/2: the operating system IBM and Microsoft built together, its Warp releases, why it lost to Windows, and how it lives on in ArcaOS.
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The History of BeOS: the Multimedia OS That Nearly Became Apple
BeOS, the 1990s multimedia operating system from Be Inc. and Jean-Louis Gassée. Its history, key versions, Apple's rejection and its rebirth as Haiku.
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Commodore 64 and Its KERNAL: The Best-Selling Computer Ever
The story of the Commodore 64 and its KERNAL: 1982 origins, the best-selling 8-bit computer in history, ROM revisions, legendary chips and real trivia.
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Apple II and ProDOS: the computer that democratized computing
The story of the Apple II (1977) and its operating system: from Apple DOS 3.3 to ProDOS. Versions, VisiCalc, Wozniak's legacy and trivia of the 8-bit classic.
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The Classic Mac OS: from System 1 to Mac OS 9
History of the classic Mac OS, from System 1 (1984) to Mac OS 9 (1999): key versions, the graphical interface that changed computing, and its quirks.
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Atari ST and TOS: the Amiga's Rival That Conquered Music
The history of the Atari ST and its TOS operating system: Jack Tramiel's origins, Digital Research's GEM, its versions, and the MIDI ports that made it a legend.
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AmigaOS and the Commodore Amiga: a machine ahead of its time
The story of AmigaOS and the Commodore Amiga: real preemptive multitasking in 1985, the Agnus, Denise and Paula chips, Workbench and the legendary Boing Ball.
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CP/M: The Operating System That Ruled Before DOS
The history of CP/M, Gary Kildall and Digital Research's system that dominated 8-bit microcomputers before IBM chose DOS for its PC.
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The History of FreeDOS: The Free DOS That Refused to Die
The story of FreeDOS: how Jim Hall kept DOS alive since 1994 with a free system. Key versions, real trivia, and its enduring use for flashing the BIOS.
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The History of PC DOS: IBM's DOS That Outlived MS-DOS
Origins, key versions and curiosities of PC DOS, IBM's operating system for the PC. From PC DOS 1.0 to PC DOS 2000 after the split with Microsoft.
Read more →The History of DR-DOS: the rival that nearly beat MS-DOS
The story of DR-DOS, Digital Research's operating system that challenged MS-DOS: its versions, pioneering multitasking and the infamous AARD code.
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MS-DOS 6.22 (1994): the last standalone DOS
The story of MS-DOS 6.22, the final standalone version of MS-DOS. The Stac lawsuit, the end of DoubleSpace and the birth of DriveSpace in 1994.
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The History of MS-DOS: the OS That Conquered the PC
The story of MS-DOS: from QDOS and Seattle Computer Products to Microsoft, its key versions, its 1980s reign and lesser-known curiosities.
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Windows XP (2001): History, Versions and Curiosities
The story of Windows XP: the 2001 OS that unified the NT branch, popularised the Luna interface and lasted until 2014. Editions, the Bliss wallpaper and fun facts.
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Windows NT (1993): The Kernel That Changed Windows Forever
The history of Windows NT, the 32-bit OS built by Dave Cutler in 1993: origins, key versions and curiosities of the kernel that still powers Windows today.
Read more →Windows Me (2000): The Bumpy Farewell to the MS-DOS Era
The story of Windows Millennium Edition: the last of the 9x line, new features like System Restore and Movie Maker, and the reputation for instability it earned.
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Windows 98: History, Versions and Curiosities of the Microsoft Classic
A look back at Windows 98: its 1998 release, Internet Explorer integration, USB and FAT32 support, the Second Edition update and the famous blue screen demo.
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Windows 95: The Operating System That Changed the PC Forever
History, versions and trivia of Windows 95: the Start menu, Plug and Play and the Rolling Stones' Start Me Up campaign that defined an era of computing.
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Windows 3.0 and 3.1: The OS That Brought the GUI to the PC
History of Windows 3.0 and 3.1 (1990-1992): Microsoft's first big hit, Program Manager, 386 protected mode, TrueType fonts, multimedia and curiosities.
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Windows 2.0 (1987): The Release That Learned to Overlap Windows
The history of Windows 2.0, released in 1987: overlapping windows, keyboard shortcuts, the /286 and /386 editions, Apple's lawsuit, and the first Word and Excel.
Read more →Windows 1.0 (1985): The Story of Microsoft's First Windows
Windows 1.0 (1985), Microsoft's first graphical environment over MS-DOS: its history, versions, tiled windows and the lesser-known curiosities behind it.
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