October 11 Tech news roundup: Discord breach leaked thousands of ID photos, Ubuntu 25.10 Questing Quokka released, Could ChatGPT evolve into an operating system?

Discord data breach results in 70,000 government-ID images stolen

Discord announced that one of its customer service providers suffered a data breach. While it wouldn’t confirm the name of the third party, rumors allege that it was a Zendesk instance. The instant messaging service said it reacted quickly and shut down the affected provider’s access to its customer data. Discord said it was working with law enforcement, a computer forensics firm, and other experts to investigate the matter.

However, the announcement mentioned that the attackers had managed to gain access to photos of government IDs that were submitted by users. This likely has to be related with the U.K.’s Online Safety Act. In order to comply with local laws, certain internet-based services have to verify the age of their users, to ensure that they are over 18. Later in the week, Discord denied that millions of IDs were leaked, but also confirmed that the hackers had gained access to approximately 70,000 government-ID images. The fact that the data breach exposed the photos of government IDs has drawn a lot of criticism from users, security experts, who questioned why the images were stored on the server, when the company’s policy says the images would be deleted upon verification.

Firefox is testing a free VPN for its browser

Mozilla is testing Firefox VPN, a free VPN service, that will encrypt all internet traffic in its web browser. The feature is currently in beta, and only a few users seem to have access to it. Mozilla VPN already exists, but it’s a paid service, the new one will be free, likely with some limitations. It will require users to sign in with their Mozilla account. It is unclear if Firefox VPN will also use Mullvad’s servers, but given their history, it’s a possibility.

The main thing to remember is that Firefox VPN is a browser-only VPN, so it won’t protect web traffic from other apps. But this has its own set of pros and cons. Having a browser-only VPN means you don’t need to worry about accidentally accessing services that forbid them. Steam, for example, may suspend accounts if users buy games while connected to a VPN server from a different Country. On the other hand, if you do need a VPN to use a different app, you should consider looking at alternatives, or perhaps upgrade to Mozilla VPN.

Firefox VPN should provide some competition for the likes of Microsoft Edge, Opera, Brave, and Vivaldi, who all offer VPN services of their own within their browsers.

Vivaldi for iOS adds Reader View, improved Tab Stacks management

Vivaldi 7.6 for iOS brings several new features. You can now read web pages without distracts by tapping the Reader View button, aka Reader Mode in other browsers. It has some customization options that users can tweak to improve the readability. The update adds a new section to Vivaldi’s tab switcher, it’s called the Tab Stack pane.

As the name suggests, this button lists all Tab Stacks (tab groups) on a single screen, allowing you to switch and manage them quickly. Adding a tab to a stack is easier, you can do it by long-pressing on a URL, and selecting the relevant option. This gesture also brings up a link preview of the page, which is useful if you want to know the contents of the page without leaving the current one. Users can now add custom search engines to Vivaldi on iOS from the Settings. Android users can now create a new bookmark folder quickly, when choosing to save a bookmark.

Ubuntu 25.10 Questing Quokka update released

The Ubuntu 25.10 Questing Quokka update is now available for all users. Canonical says it will support Ubuntu 25.10 with 9 months of updates, until July 2026. The update ships with GNOME 49 desktop environment, which uses Wayland as the only session, ditching support for X11/Xorg. Ubuntu 25.10 includes the Linux kernel 6.17, Mesa 25.2.3 drivers for newer Intel GPUs. The update reduces blur while using fractional scaling, reduces the default monospace font site to match the UI’s in terminals and apps. Ubuntu 25.10 replaces the GNOME terminal with the Ptyxis terminal emulator. Similarly, the Eye of GNOME has been replaced by Loupe image viewer.

Canonical has also released the official flavor distros like Kubuntu 25.10, Edubuntu 25.10, Lubuntu 25.10, etc.

Microsoft may announce Xbox Cloud Gaming free version with ads

After raising the prices of Xbox Game Pass to astronomical levels, Microsoft still has another shocker left. The Redmond company is testing a free Xbox Cloud Gaming version, but there is a catch. Users will have to put with advertisements. If users watch ads for two minutes, they will be allowed to play a game. The free ad-supported tier will limit play sessions by 1 hour per session, with a cap of 5 hours free per month. The platform will allow players to stream games that they own, along with some titles that are temporarily free during weekends.

Xbox was bleeding money, losing over $300 million in Call of Duty sales because players played it as part of their Game Pass subscription, instead of buying the game. In stark contrast to this, Sony’s PlayStation led the sales with 82% of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 sales, because there was no Game Pass.

Xbox fans are furious after the recent price hikes, and are protesting the change by cancelling their subscriptions. Several users have questioned the controversial changes, and the very future of Xbox. Microsoft seems to be unconcerned, and says it is working on new console hardware for the future.

OpenAI wants to build an operating system around ChatGPT

OpenAI launched support for apps on ChatGPT.  It believes this is the start of something big. OpenAI says it wants to create an operating system with ChatGPT in the center of focus. AI companies are rapidly improving their services, by introducing new options like AI-assisted shopping, automation of tasks, and more. OpenAI wants to do more, a ChatGPT-powered operating system could transform the way users interact with regular apps.

OpenAI is also rumored to be working on its own browser with ChatGPT integrated deeply into it, similar to agentic AI browsers like Perplexity’s Comet, Google Chrome with Gemini, etc.