Tech News Roundup — June 21, 2026 (AM)

Linux kernel work dominates the headlines this morning: kernel 7.2 finally retires the long-deprecated strncpy() interface after six years and 360+ patches, while Broadcom lands a parallel efficiency win on the VMware side with zero-copy buffer sharing between guest VMs and the host hypervisor. Gaming readers get a controversial split-screen twist for Halo: Campaign Evolved on PS5, and Windows Central runs an essay arguing Age of Empires II exhibits the same human-like properties its author — a Microsoft Principal Scientist — studies in modern AI. The Verge covers three longer-reads — a searchable Atlantic music-training database, an experimental musician’s “Dark Souls of synthesis” practice, and a jazz-noir dice RPG — without links, per house style.

Linux & Open Source

• Linux 7.2 finally eliminates strncpy() from the kernel. After six years of work and more than 360 patches, no remaining in-tree callers of the long-deprecated strncpy interface remain — kernel 7.2 deletes it entirely. The function, originally intended for fixed-size buffer copies, is well known for the trap of leaving destination buffers un-terminated when the source is shorter than the bound, and replacing it with safer alternatives (strscpy, memcpy with explicit bounds checks, etc.) is one of the kernel’s longest-running cleanups. Phoronix

• Broadcom lands zero-copy buffer sharing for VMware VMs and the host hypervisor on Linux. New work from Broadcom targets the data-copy overhead between guest VMs and the Linux host, aiming to let them share buffers without bouncing through redundant memory regions. The change is positioned as an efficiency and performance win for VMware virtualization under Linux, with the patches targeting the upstream kernel and VMware’s hypervisor components. Phoronix

Gaming

• Halo: Campaign Evolved’s PS5 split-screen requires two PlayStation Plus subs. Halo Studios confirmed that both local players in the title’s PlayStation 5 split-screen co-op must hold active PlayStation Plus subscriptions and link both PSN and Microsoft accounts — a configuration requirement that has drawn baffled pushback from players who expected a single subscription to cover two controllers on one couch. Windows Central

AI / ML

• An Age of Empires II essay is going viral — and its author is a Microsoft Principal Scientist. Adrian de Wynter’s essay argues that Age of Empires II is just as human-like as the AI systems he studies professionally. Windows Central’s piece breaks down what the comparison means for AI researchers and the players who have been inadvertently teaching the game how they think for two decades. Windows Central

• The Atlantic publishes a searchable database of music used to train AI. Reporter Alex Reisner uncovered four datasets feeding AI music models — two enormous ones at 12 million and 9 million tracks, plus two smaller ones over 100,000 songs each — and made them fully searchable for the public. The piece continues Atlantic’s ongoing AI-watchdog investigation into training-data provenance for generative music tools. [The Verge]

Self-Hosted & NAS

• Reframe lands on Synology NAS via Marius Hosting’s walkthrough. Reframe is a self-hosted web app that acts as a complete video toolkit for cropping, formatting, and enhancing videos for social media — converting 16:9 to 9:16, square, or custom aspect ratios via a browser-based editor with FastAPI, Vue 3, and FFmpeg (GPU-accelerated). Marius Hosting’s step-by-step guide walks through the Synology NAS install. [Marius Hosting]

In Brief

• Portugal considers lowering urban speed limits as part of a road-safety proposal aimed at reducing accidents and protecting vulnerable road users such as pedestrians. Pplware
• EU regulators reportedly plan to classify EVs with more than 10% WLTP-range shortfall as defective. New rules would treat the gap between lab-rated and real-world driving range as a manufacturing defect. Pplware
• Portuguese Multibanco ATM network raises minimum purchase floor to €5 — minimum-tap rules and the legal reasoning behind them, summarised. Pplware
• Gmail Android app bug blocks replies — users report the app refusing to send or even compose replies, with workarounds focused on clearing cache and reinstalling. Pplware
• C-DAYS 2026 cybersecurity conference closes with 1,400 participants and platform announcements for MyCiber. Pplware
• THQ Nordic preps Expeditions: Samurai launch — the publisher’s historical strategy follow-up. Pplware
• Fitness wearables keep working through tattoos — Portuguese-language explainer on optical sensor behaviour over inked skin. Pplware

Long Reads (The Verge, no links)

• Musician and YouTuber Hainbach on “Breath of the Wild” and Swiss Army Knives. Stefan Paul Goetsch — known as Hainbach — describes his practice as the “Dark Souls of synthesis,” making music from telephone-line test sets and gear salvaged from nuclear testing facilities; the profile traces his gear, his prolific Bandcamp catalogue, and the surprising conversation he had with Nintendo about Breath of the Wild’s sound design. [The Verge]
• Moves of the Diamond Hand is an unfinished, irresistibly weird dice-based RPG. Musician and game designer Cosmo D’s Early Access title combines 2000s-era first-person-RPG aesthetics with jazz-noir conversation trees; the dice mechanics and improvisational dialogue carry a 2027 promise of resolution for the mysteries it sets up. [The Verge]

Roundup compiled from the TTRSS Tech feed. 16 articles from 5 sources summarized (The Verge items summarised without links per house style).