In a nutshell: Taiwan has said it would be "impossible" to relocate a large percentage of its chip production to the US, but is open to the possibility of expanding its presence in America. Officials in Washington had previously floated the idea of moving nearly half of the country's chipmaking capacity to America, and threatened to significantly increase tariffs if it didn't happen. During a recent interview with Taiwanese television channel CTS, Taiwan Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun said she made it very clear to Washington that the country couldn't move 40 percent of its semiconductor manufacturing capacity to the US. The Chinese chipmaker has spent decades building out its semiconductor footprint. At present, Taiwan accounts for around 90 percent of the globe's advanced semiconductor production. Uprooting a huge chunk of that capacity and moving it elsewhere would likely devastate the local economy, and simply doesn't seem like a logical ask by US officials. Li-chiun said Taiwan's cutting edge technology would not be transferred to other countries, adding that it needs to continue locally for research and development purposes. While open to the possibility of international expansion, Li-chiun said that possibility is based on the premise that they remain firmly rooted in Taiwan and continue to invest locally. Last week, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said it was illogical to have all semiconductor manufacturing "80 miles from China." As such, he said his goal before leaving office is for the US to have a 40 percent market share in leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing. Despite the impasse, the two sides have cooperated as of late. Last month, the US agreed to lower tariffs on Taiwan exports from 20 percent to 15 percent. Conversely, Taiwan agreed to increase its investment in the US. And the world's largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, is already working on $165 billion worth of factories in Arizona. Full terms and conditions of the tariff agreement are expected to be released in the coming weeks. For now, it seems most of Taiwan's manufacturing expertise is staying put.

What just happened? The Linux kernel is once again approaching a new numeric milestone, though as Linus Torvalds would remind observers, the version number is mostly symbolic. The long-running open-source project prepares to pivot from the 6.x line to Linux 7.0 – a transition driven less by technical thresholds than by Torvalds' customary sense of order and humor. For years, Torvalds has managed kernel versioning with a lighthearted logic: increase the major number only when he can no longer keep count on his fingers and toes. The pattern began years ago when the 3.x cycle, which produced 19 releases, gave way to the 4.0 series. That precedent continued with both the 5.x and 6.x series, each concluding at their nineteenth iteration. Now, after Linux 6.19 rolled out, Torvalds declared that the next development branch will advance to 7.0 – not due to radical under-the-hood changes, but because, as he put it, "large numbers" start to get confusing. In a post to the kernel mailing list, Torvalds paired the versioning note with a touch of cultural commentary, joking that the US would soon "come to a complete standstill" for "watching the latest batch of televised commercials" – a nod to the Super Bowl. He speculated that modern TV ads are likely "AI-generated," though he doubted any company would resist the trend toward algorithmic content. Levity aside, the kernel's latest release includes substantial technical improvements, such as the Live Update Orchestrator – a new mechanism for upgrading running kernels without disrupting virtual machines. This represents an important advance for enterprise systems and high-availability environments. The release also adds encrypted communication capabilities between PCIe devices and virtual machines, strengthening security for workloads that rely on direct hardware access. Hardware support remains a central focus. The update improves compatibility with the newest Intel and AMD processors, extends optimizations for emerging RISC-V and Chinese chip architectures, and refines multiple file systems to enhance both performance and reliability. In networking, kernel developers removed a busy lock that previously constrained certain data transfer paths. Under specific conditions, this change can quadruple throughput – a gain that could benefit both data centers and high-traffic servers. Linux 6.19 is now available through the official kernel repository, continuing the tradition of iterative evolution rather than symbolic milestone releases. While version 7.0 will carry the weight of a new number, Torvalds has emphasized that these markers do not signal sweeping rewrites – just the natural rhythm of a project still pacing toward its next 19 steps.

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During a recent interview with Taiwanese television channel CTS, Taiwan Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun said she made it very clear to Washington that the country couldn't move 40 percent of its semiconductor manufacturing capacity to the US. Read Entire Article

For years, Torvalds has managed kernel versioning with a lighthearted logic: increase the major number only when he can no longer keep count on his fingers and toes. Read Entire Article

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

The takeaway: Microsoft quietly signaled a major shift in how printer drivers would work on Windows nearly three years ago. That plan is now becoming reality, though most older third-party printers won't suddenly stop working anytime soon. Starting in January 2026, Microsoft will no longer distribute new "official" printer drivers through Windows Update. First announced back in 2023, the move is meant to improve the reliability and security of Windows printing by pushing the platform toward a single, unified driver standard. Despite early warnings about an extinction-level event for printers, the transition is unlikely to meaningfully disrupt everyday users – or the legacy hardware that continues to churn out pages just fine. Microsoft confirmed in a support document that it is ending active servicing for legacy V3 and V4 Windows printer drivers. The company describes the shift as significant, which explains why it's being rolled out over several years. As of the January 15, 2026 non-security updates, Windows 11 and Windows Server 2025 can no longer install new printer drivers via Windows Update. Existing drivers may still receive occasional updates, but only with explicit Microsoft approval on a case-by-case basis. Beginning July 1, 2026, Windows will be configured to always prefer the built-in Windows IPP class driver. A year later, on July 1, 2027, Windows Update will stop offering new printer drivers altogether aside from major security fixes. Does this mean Microsoft is killing off third-party printer drivers? Not exactly. The company says users will still be able to install existing drivers from Windows Update, and manufacturers can continue distributing their own installation packages directly. In other words, it's business as usual, much as it has been since the Windows 3.x era. Still, the shift isn't nothing. Microsoft introduced a modern Internet Printing Protocol – based driver with Windows 10 21H2, designed to support Mopria-compliant devices. The Mopria Alliance created the standard to streamline printing and scanning across PCs and mobile platforms alike. According to Microsoft, the IPP class driver eliminates the need for traditional third-party drivers and bundled software. Printer makers can still offer a customized experience, but that now means building UWP apps delivered through the Microsoft Store instead of relying on "legacy" Win32 utilities. In practice, that future feels more aspirational than real. As I recently found after purchasing a brand-new Epson ET-8500 multi-function printer, Microsoft's idea about the "future" of printing on Windows feels like wishful thinking at best. Modern printers have indeed switched to an IPP driver model, but you will likely still need to download hefty Win32 software on top to get the most out of your new machine. Meanwhile, Epson's own Print and Scan app on the Microsoft Store has an abysmal user rating and doesn't even support Windows 11.

Starting in January 2026, Microsoft will no longer distribute new "official" printer drivers through Windows Update. First announced back in 2023, the move is meant to improve the reliability and security of Windows printing by pushing the platform toward a single, unified driver standard. Despite early warnings about an extinction-level... Read Entire Article