frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Latest SteamOS Beta Now Includes Ntsync Kernel Driver

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Steam-OS-Beta-NTSYNC
93•LorenDB•11h ago

Comments

p10a•10h ago
Can you please explain like 5 year old what it means to players?
zamalek•10h ago
Games that have problems with the previous approach might have hitches or stalls, though it could manifest in many ways.

Edit: I am running a kernel with it on, as well as Proton-CachyOS which has it opt-in. I have yet to see it make an improvement of any kind. Maybe it might help on lower-spec hardware such as the Deck.

seba_dos1•9h ago
You likely won't see any improvement aside of resolving some bugs in some very specific edge cases that you may have never stumbled on personally.
shmerl•9h ago
Cyberpunk 2077 used to stall on shutdown with esync. No such problem with ntsync.
pseudosavant•10h ago
From my reading, it will be replacing a user-space sync emulation handler with a kernel-space sync module. Generally, kernel space will be faster or more efficient than user space. Whether this matters in any appreciable way (more than 1% improvement) in reality will have to be seen.
entropicdrifter•9h ago
It's more that FSync was close to but subtly different from the Windows synchronization primitives when used in certain specific ways and NTSync is a 100% accurate implementation of those same exact Windows synchronization primitives. It should resolve hitching and other minor issues in older games, especially.

Basically it will have no performance improvement, in some cases minor degradation, but it resolves some compatibility issues with older multi-threaded programs.

rowanG077•7h ago
I don't understand. You say it's no perf improvement yet it resolves hitching. Hitching to me is a pretty clear perf problem.
fluoridation•7h ago
It's not a performance improvement, it's fixing a performance regression (compared to the Windows baseline).
YY4879347•10h ago
Just reading about it now, it implements some system calls from Windows NT normally emulated via Proton in user-space to the kernel which should reduce overhead. Very cool.
actionfromafar•10h ago
Sounds like it would be useful for that new Linux/Win32 user space distribution.
kcb•9h ago
The Linux Subsystem for Windows
imcritic•2h ago
I think he meant the recent distro called Loss32.
johnbellone•8h ago
That absolutely makes sense. Thanks for a quick TLDR!
shmerl•9h ago
Better performance and less bugs.

For more info, see here, including a link to Youtube video with more details: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20241213193511.457338-1-zfigura...

WalterGR•9h ago
Yeah, the page could use some inline context.

It does link to this page, which has a bit more info and links to further info. Not at all 5-year-old level, but should help: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.14-NTSYNC-Driver-Ready

semiquaver•7h ago
Faster games
saidinesh5•9h ago
If anyone from Valve is reading this, my biggest wishlist from Steam OS is a proper general purpose browsing tab. Please make it happen ..

I currently use that web browser from Decky loader, but that keeps breaking so often. Plus it would be nice to have something that i can login my YouTube, Netflix etc.. accounts ..

naoru•9h ago
What's wrong with Desktop mode?
wolrah•8h ago
Having to switch to desktop mode and back.

It's not exactly rocket science to add a "browser app" to the Steam system to use certain web sites in an appliance-ish mode, but it's not great for general purpose browsing.

A slightly more advanced browser frontend that offered an experience comparable to Edge on Xbox would be very nice.

johnbellone•8h ago
Did you try loading the browser as a non-game application?

To be honest, I primarily do my browsing offline, and I installed https://localsend.org using Flatpak to move files to/from the Steam Deck. It works amazingly well.

LeoPanthera•8h ago
You can install Microsoft Edge from Flathub. (And I think maybe Chrome too?) Edge has the advantage that XBox Cloud Gaming works on it.
sph•7h ago
Why Edge? You can get Firefox from Flathub, and it's a better browser.
hbn•6h ago
“Better” is debatable.

With Google doing everything in its power to end ad blocking, I’ve made a real attempt to switch to Firefox and Firefox-based browsers. I unpinned Chrome from my taskbar and only popped into it when I needed to. Over the span of a couple months, eventually the Chrome window never got closed… Eventually it was pinned to my taskbar again… And at some point it was my default browser again and all I was using.

I don’t like how Firefox handles tab groups, I don’t want to rely on extensions to fix that, I don’t like their dev tools, I don’t like how their private window shortcut is different from what every other browser uses with no way to change it, I personally think it’s ugly, I could go on.

I tried alternatives like Zen but I end up not liking their weird ideas of how a browser should be used, and trusting small FOSS project maintainers to ship a stable, secure browser has not been great in my experience.

Chrome is boring and reliable which is really what I want. Edge is a slightly worse version of it due to Microsoft incompetence/lack of taste but I’d still rather use that than Firefox.

LeoPanthera•6h ago
The Steam Deck is a gaming device.
sogen•8h ago
Install in Desktop mode, then add as a “non steam game”

https://beebom.com/how-install-google-chrome-steam-deck/

ece•8h ago
This works for any cloud gaming services too. Another hack is putting a link in your profile comments.
shmerl•9h ago
Nice. I've been using ntsync with Wine for a while since Wine merged the support. It works better than esync, especially for Cyberpunk 2077.
CodesInChaos•8h ago
Explanation of what this kernel API does and why it's beneficial:

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/f4cc1a38-1441-62f8-47e4-0c67f5a...

SomeHacker44•8h ago
I could not pass the making sure you are not a bot on an airline flight mid Atlantic. So stupid.
no-reply•7h ago
https://archive.is/c0k7v
hhh•6h ago
weird, i’ve passed plenty of these on flights.
andrekandre•3h ago
that was an awesome read; so professional/ organized (and super interesting)... kind of makes me want to work at codeweavers ^_^
cyberax•7h ago
BTW, this driver is genuinely useful even for Linux code. WaitForMultipleObjects is super-helpful if you want to do sane thread cancellation without jumping through POSIX hoops.
2OEH8eoCRo0•7h ago
Still no 64 bit steam client?
hyperion2010•6h ago
Nope, the client is now 64bit as of Dec 19th 2025 https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail....

Unless you mean linux client, but that is presumably coming at some point now that the windows client is 64bit.

2OEH8eoCRo0•6h ago
TIL thanks!

AI Flatters with Fidelity

https://lucent.substack.com/p/ai-flatters-with-fidelity
1•surprisetalk•1m ago•0 comments

Lidify: Self-hosted, on-demand audio streaming platform like Spotify

https://github.com/Chevron7Locked/lidify
1•thunderbong•3m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Rank up your local business on Google Maps

https://www.mapclimb.com/
1•bagusfarisa•4m ago•0 comments

The world has too much oil – Will companies want Venezuela's?

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/07/nx-s1-5668491/venezuela-oil-global-markets
3•geox•9m ago•0 comments

Elon Musk's Grok Has Friends in High Places: US Patent Office chief AI officer

https://jacobin.com/2026/01/grok-hayes-artificial-intelligence-deepfakes
1•wahnfrieden•11m ago•0 comments

Checks and Balances Are Dead

https://rall.com/2026/01/08/checks-and-balances-are-dead
4•SanjayMehta•11m ago•0 comments

M2.1: Multilingual and Multi-Task Coding with Strong Generalization

https://www.minimaxi.com/news/m21-multilingual-and-multi-task-coding-with-strong-general
1•gmays•14m ago•0 comments

Character.ai and Google agree to settle lawsuits over teen suicides

https://www.ft.com/content/ac518567-d901-4fae-86a3-eab54b12a81d
1•1vuio0pswjnm7•23m ago•0 comments

Demystifying Evals for AI Agents

https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/demystifying-evals-for-ai-agents
1•vinhnx•24m ago•0 comments

Best Practices for Coding with Agents

https://cursor.com/blog/agent-best-practices
1•vinhnx•24m ago•0 comments

Microsoft revealed as company behind controversial data center proposal in MI

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/07/microsoft-behind-controversial-data-center-in-michigan-township.html
4•1vuio0pswjnm7•26m ago•0 comments

A man powers his home for 8 years using 1,000 recycled laptop batteries

https://scienceclock.com/a-man-powers-his-home-for-8-years-using-1000-recycled-laptop-batteries/
2•ashishgupta2209•28m ago•0 comments

OLED Not for Me

https://nuxx.net/blog/2026/01/09/oled-not-for-me/
2•c0nsumer•29m ago•1 comments

Discover Forgotten Subscriptions

https://www.dropsubs.com/
1•insomnie•31m ago•1 comments

Dymaxion Chronofile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_Chronofile
1•treetalker•31m ago•1 comments

High Agency Engineering

https://edtw.in/high-agency-engineering/
1•Eong•33m ago•0 comments

Lies Screenwriters Tell Themselves About AI

https://elliotgrove.substack.com/p/7-lies-screenwriters-tell-themselves
2•matthewsinclair•40m ago•1 comments

Show HN: JavaScript interpreter that pauses and explains code for learners

https://www.codesteps.dev/learn-javascript/editor?s=p6klVe
1•maujood•48m ago•0 comments

Spec-Driven Development with AI

https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/generative-ai/spec-driven-development-with-ai-get-started-with-a-ne...
2•ekosz•51m ago•0 comments

AI Is Intensifying a 'Collapse' of Trust Online, Experts Say

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/experts-warn-collapse-trust-online-ai-deepfakes-venezuela-...
4•m463•57m ago•2 comments

Public Money Public Code

https://publiccode.eu/en/
2•pabs3•57m ago•0 comments

Autofocusing Smart Glasses with Eye Tracking Tech Could Make Bifocals Obsolete

https://hothardware.com/news/autofocusing-smart-glasses-with-eye-tracking-tech-could-make-bifocal...
2•WaitWaitWha•59m ago•0 comments

2. Title: Show HN: First Modern Nvidia Driver for IBM POWER8 via OCuLink

https://github.com/Scottcjn/nvidia-power8-patches
1•AutoJanitor•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: A Base44-style builder for data workflows (DuckDB-powered)

https://www.gptbeyond.com/try
1•vibecoding101•1h ago•0 comments

An mRNA Shot Turned Back the Clock in Mice

https://singularityhub.com/2026/01/08/aging-weakens-immunity-an-mrna-shot-turned-back-the-clock-i...
1•WaitWaitWha•1h ago•1 comments

It's Your Job to Keep Your Secrets

https://www.overcomingbias.com/p/its-your-job-to-keep-your-secrets
1•paulpauper•1h ago•0 comments

The Permanent Emergency

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-permanent-emergency
1•paulpauper•1h ago•0 comments

How I Learned to Love Reading

https://www.honest-broker.com/p/how-i-learned-to-love-reading
1•paulpauper•1h ago•0 comments

MIT Whirlwind I: A High-Speed Electronic Digital Computer (1951)

https://dome.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.3/40245/MC665_r12_R-209.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
1•stmw•1h ago•1 comments

Freelance Contract Management Software

https://www.plotform.cc/
1•abdullah9•1h ago•1 comments