A new essay contends that computational science and open source software are effectively the same activity, since scientific claims can only be tested and systematized if the underlying code is open, inspectable, and reproducible. The author argues that treating software as a mere afterthought to publishing papers undermines the scientific method itself, and calls for academia to prioritize open, reproducible code as core scientific output rather than a side task.
jepedersen.dk
· 2026-09-19
At the FOSSY conference held this year at the University of British Columbia, developer Timothy Sample presented on bootstrappable builds, a lesser-known cousin of reproducible builds. He explained the concept as a chain of increasingly capable compilers that starts from a tiny, fully auditable seed program and eventually builds an entire modern Linux user space. Sample traced his own decade-long involvement in the effort back to his early use of GNU Guix, a functional package manager similar to Nix.
lwn.net
· 2026-08-28
The Vanilla OS project has launched version 3, codenamed Reunion, a Linux distribution built around an immutable and reproducible system design. The release was shared as a Show HN post, with the project's site listing download links and community/contribution resources for users to get involved.
vanillaos.org
· 2026-08-24
GoKawiil