A Red Hat build engineer has ended his second experimental effort at using a high-end Arm64 desktop computer as his daily driver. His conclusions are instructive. Marcin Juszkiewicz’s series of posts on his tech blog about running a Fedora-powered beast of an Arm desktop computer has been interesting reading for about a year now. Almost exactly a year ago, he built a beast of an Arm workstation. He spent some €1,800 building a machine around an Ampere Altra, which as The Register described in 2020 is a serious bit of kit. And even at €1,800 (£1550, or $2000) quite a bit of it was second-hand, including the CPU and RAM. He described the machine’s capabilities in Arm desktop: 2025 attempt, part one. We were considering a story about the sheer cost of the kit, but his latest update describes The end of the AArch64 desktop experiment. That means it’s now more of a post mortem. To cut to the chase, he has switched back to using his AMD Ryzen 5 3600 system: the six cores of a $199 chip from 2019 outperforms an 80-core Arm64 powerhouse. Juszkiewicz, who also goes by the rather easier to spell hrw, knows his stuff, and he is a man of strong opinions. Indeed, his Mastodon profile gives a clue: “Tired of Seriously Bad Computers (SBC) so moved to Arm servers and virtualization.” SBC, of course, more normally stands for “Single Board Computers” in this industry, and by far the best-selling Arm SBC is the Raspberry Pi. As it happens, we’ve met him: the Reg FOSS desk attended a talk by Mr Juszkiewicz at the 2016 Flock to Fedora conference. We already knew that he wasn’t a fan of the Raspberry Pi devices. Also, for any doubters out there, this Altra box was not his first attempt to build an Arm64 daily-driver machine. That was back in 2015, as he described over three posts. AArch64 desktop: day one talked about the spec, involving a Mustang motherboard – which means an Applied Micro X-Gene X-C1. By day two, he started to cover issues with his distro: "I use Fedora on my machines. And as lot of people know this distribution has strange rules when it comes to multimedia support. Forget about MP3, H264 and few other things." The post talks about needing to build his own codecs and media player applets, the lack of Macromedia Flash support, and more. We note this just in case anyone is tempted to jump to the conclusion that his more recent Arm experiment failed due to a lack of knowledge or skills – he definitely has both in large amounts. After just four days, he wrote AArch64 desktop: last day, discussing the performance issues of an eight-core, circa 2.4 GHz ArmV8 computer: "OK, I can be spoiled by speed of my i7-2600k desktop but situation when Firefox with less than 20 tabs open is unable to display characters I type into textarea fast enough shows that something is wrong (16GB ram machine). And tell me that this is not typical desktop use of web browser…" He spares judging the machine too harshly: "I think that results may be affected by a fact that all I have here is Applied Micro Mustang based on X-Gene 1 cpu. It is one of first ARMv8 processors in Linux world and it is optimized for server use rather than desktop." Well, fast forward to 2025, and he still has no choice but to use a manycore Arm64 chip aimed at servers, rather than the desktop. As The Reg reported earlier this month, they are now a serious force in the server and datacentre market… but aside from Apple Silicon, not on the desktop or in laptops. This time around, in Arm desktop: 2025 attempt, part one, he starts by setting the context: "Almost ten years ago, I tried to use an Applied Micro Mustang as a desktop. And it was painful. " He also starts out with some of the problems. Even a decade on, he still has problems with missing codecs and client apps. The steps needed to work around them have changed, but the situation is not massively better. Last time, for instance, it was a problem that there was no Flash player; now, there’s no Arm Spotify client. In the second installment, Arm desktop: emulation he looks at the problems of using the latest x86-on-Arm emulation tools in trying to run x86 games on even a high-end Arm chip: "Test results were awful: Single core: 459 Multi core: 4110 That’s the level of an Intel Atom CPU from 2021." He concludes: “Let me be honest: without tweaking FEX-Emu config it was unplayable.” The third installment moves on to the issues of this server part: Arm desktop: so many cores, not enough speed. "Having 80 cores sounds nice, doesn’t it? But not so much during actual use… You see, building Fedora packages was flying by. With all cores in use, ccache buffers filling up (in case of rebuilds), and 128 GB of RAM in constant use, etc. "But at the same time, 100 percent load on all cores means you cannot listen to music on Spotify or watch online videos, etc. All that because the CPU cores are occupied by the build processes." His summary is short but not very sweet. The main issue: “The lack of single-thread speed.” And the bottom line: “To use a desktop system you do not need many cores. As long as they are fast.” In the final instalment, The end of the AArch64 desktop experiment, he looks at some of the issues in depth. He built his own custom specially patched kernels; he tried two different GPUs – both an AMD Radeon RX6700XT, a high-end card that was $479 when new in 2021, and then an Nvidia RTX 2060, a card that was $349 in 2019. With both cards, some apps wouldn’t run, due to missing OpenGL libraries, or they ran very badly: “Watching YouTube videos became impossible due to 720 out of 750 frames being dropped, etc.” He hasn’t pensioned off the machine: "The 'wooster' system stays powered on, churning through RISC-V package builds. It may be weak in single-thread, but it flies when it comes to multi-core load. " But this is the end for now: "As for the Ampere Altra, I am not planning to repeat this experiment. Another AArch64 desktop attempt would require a completely new hardware platform. And I have no plans to spend over twenty thousand PLN to buy an Nvidia DGX Spark system." (Twenty thousand Polish złoty was around $5,305, £4,020, or €4,660 at current exchange rates at the time of publication.) Our original plan when “hrw” started this series was to look into the lack of commodity-priced Arm64 hardware. At last year’s Ubuntu Summit, System76 presented its nearly ready COSMIC desktop, but it also demonstrated its 128-core Altra workstation, the formidable Thelio Astra. With half a terabyte of RAM and 40 TB of storage, it’s a snip at just over $6,000 (£4,600). We have to admit, after reading Hrw’s in-depth stories of what went wrong, we no longer covet one. Perhaps paying £168 for an 8 GB Pi 5 isn’t so bad after all. ®

Door nieuwe regels die op 1 juli ingaan, is een stormloop ontstaan op verzwaarde stroomaansluitingen. Het aantal aanvragen door particulieren en kleine ondernemers nam de laatste tijd fors toe en daarmee de wachttijden ook. "We begrijpen dat het voor klanten vervelend en onzeker is", zegt Thom Hofstede namens netbeheerder Stedin.

SergioQ79 - Osanpo Photographer - posted a photo:

A Nagoya piove forte, ma dentro Osu Kannon-dori la giornata continua. Lo shotengai tiene insieme negozi, ristoranti, supermercati e persone che attraversano il quartiere senza fermarsi troppo. La pioggia resta fuori solo in parte: entra nei riflessi, nei vestiti bagnati, nel passo piu rapido di chi cammina. In una giornata cosi si capisce bene a cosa serve una galleria commerciale giapponese: non solo comprare, ma continuare a vivere la citta anche quando il tempo cambia.

名古屋では強い雨が降っているが、大須観音通の中では一日がそのまま続いている。商店街には店、飲食店、スーパーが並び、人々はあまり立ち止まらずに通りを歩いていく。雨は完全に外にあるわけではない。床の反射、濡れた服、少し速くなる足取りの中に残っている。こういう日に、日本の商店街が何のためにあるのかがよくわかる。買い物の場所であるだけでなく、天気が変わっても街の生活を続けるための場所でもある。

It is raining heavily in Nagoya, but inside Osu Kannon-dori the day keeps moving. The shotengai brings together shops, restaurants, supermarkets, and people crossing the neighborhood without stopping for long. The rain stays outside only partly: it appears in the reflections, in wet clothes, in the quicker pace of people walking. On a day like this, it becomes clear what a Japanese shopping arcade is for: not only buying things, but keeping city life going when the weather changes.

SergioQ79 - Osanpo Photographer - has added a photo to the pool:

A Nagoya piove forte, ma dentro Osu Kannon-dori la giornata continua. Lo shotengai tiene insieme negozi, ristoranti, supermercati e persone che attraversano il quartiere senza fermarsi troppo. La pioggia resta fuori solo in parte: entra nei riflessi, nei vestiti bagnati, nel passo piu rapido di chi cammina. In una giornata cosi si capisce bene a cosa serve una galleria commerciale giapponese: non solo comprare, ma continuare a vivere la citta anche quando il tempo cambia.

名古屋では強い雨が降っているが、大須観音通の中では一日がそのまま続いている。商店街には店、飲食店、スーパーが並び、人々はあまり立ち止まらずに通りを歩いていく。雨は完全に外にあるわけではない。床の反射、濡れた服、少し速くなる足取りの中に残っている。こういう日に、日本の商店街が何のためにあるのかがよくわかる。買い物の場所であるだけでなく、天気が変わっても街の生活を続けるための場所でもある。

It is raining heavily in Nagoya, but inside Osu Kannon-dori the day keeps moving. The shotengai brings together shops, restaurants, supermarkets, and people crossing the neighborhood without stopping for long. The rain stays outside only partly: it appears in the reflections, in wet clothes, in the quicker pace of people walking. On a day like this, it becomes clear what a Japanese shopping arcade is for: not only buying things, but keeping city life going when the weather changes.

Dagelijks stromen duizenden foto’s uit de hele wereld onze beeldbanken binnen. Van gruwelijke actualiteit tot verstilde landschappen, van breaking news tot ogenschijnlijk kleine momenten. Elke maand selecteert de fotoredactie van NRC de foto’s die de meeste indruk maakten.

Het nieuwe onderzoek laat zien dat vooral het gevoel van eenzaamheid het brein en de levensverwachting onder druk zet – niet simpelweg het feit dat iemand vaak alleen is

Wat hebben de onderzoekers gevonden?

Onder leiding van psycholoog Tomiko Yoneda (Universiteit van Californië, Davis) analyseerden onderzoekers gegevens van ruim 175.000 vooral middelbare en oudere volwassenen uit 18 landen in Noord‑Amerika en Europa. De deelnemers, gemiddeld 64,5 jaar oud, werden tot 26 jaar gevolgd in elf langlopende studies naar veroudering en cognitieve gezondheid. Daarbij werd onderscheid gemaakt tussen sociaal isolement – weinig contact met anderen – en eenzaamheid, het innerlijke gevoel dat het sociale leven tekortschiet.

Voor elke 10 procent toename in ervaren eenzaamheid steeg de kans op ernstige cognitieve stoornissen, zoals dementie, met ongeveer 8 à 9 procent. Tegelijk nam de kans op overlijden met circa 5 procent toe. Opvallend is dat deze verbanden bleven bestaan nadat was gecorrigeerd voor sociaal isolement, depressie, leeftijd, geslacht en opleiding.

Waarom telt gevoel zwaarder dan feit?

Sociaal isolement bleek op zichzelf slechts zwak samen te hangen met cognitieve achteruitgang en overlijden, en dat verband verwaterde grotendeels zodra eenzaamheid werd meegewogen. Eenzaamheid had juist het grootste effect in het vroege stadium van cognitieve problemen: mensen zonder beperkingen hadden bij meer eenzaamheid een duidelijk hogere kans om milde geheugen‑ en denkproblemen te ontwikkelen. Wie zich vaker eenzaam voelde, herstelde bovendien minder vaak van lichte cognitieve problemen naar een normale functie.

De auteurs benadrukken dat het om observationeel onderzoek gaat: er is een sterk verband, maar geen keihard bewijs dat eenzaamheid cognitieve achteruitgang veroorzaakt. Mogelijk versterken vroege geheugenproblemen op hun beurt het gevoel van eenzaamheid, waardoor een neerwaartse spiraal ontstaat.

Breder maatschappelijk signaal

De studie sluit aan bij waarschuwingen van de Amerikaanse Surgeon General, die eenzaamheid al bestempelde als een ‘epidemie’ met gezondheidsrisico’s die vergelijkbaar zijn met stevig roken. Artsen en beleidsmakers krijgen hiermee extra munitie om standaard te vragen naar hoe vaak patiënten zich eenzaam voelen, niet alleen naar het aantal sociale contacten. Want als het om het brein gaat, lijkt vooral de vraag te zijn: niet hoeveel mensen u ziet, maar hoe alleen u zich voelt.

Great piece by Andrea Pitzer on how lost Ezra Klein is in this current moment, newly relevant because he interviewed fascist activist Christopher Rufo on his NYT podcast (JFC!) “If you don’t know what your core beliefs are, you’re going to get played.”

Germany once scored 22 consecutive penalties in major tournament shootouts. They missed three as Paraguay won 4-3 from the spot

Germany were knocked out of the 2026 World Cup on penalties, an outcome that feels unbelievable to anyone who has watched international football over the past 50 years. Paraguay beat them 4-3 in a shootout in Boston on Monday after their last-32 clash ended 1-1 following extra time.

Germany had won six consecutive shootouts in all competitions before this, their only previous defeat occurring in 1976. Antonín Panenka’s legendary spot-kick condemned West Germany to a 5-3 shootout defeat in the semi-final of the European Championship.

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