Open Source

The Video Game History Foundation was recently struck a massive blow when the US Copyright Office shot down its argument that game preservation is a valid reason to bypass DMCA protections. In response, the Video Game History Project called out "lobbying efforts by rightsholder groups" for "holding back progress." The VGHF sought to break copyright protections to allow libraries to digitally distribute out-of-print games.

The SteamOS 3.6.19 release adds more functionality to the Asus ROG Ally and moves the gyro controller driver into the kernel, outside of Steam's proprietary driver stack, suggesting that support for third-party gaming handhelds is inching closer to reality. At the same time, the Steam Deck OLED becomes more Windows-friendly.

Parrot OS is back with multiple improvements and updates, as well as a new launcher. Unleashed yesterday, version 6.2 of this Debian-based distro that targets ethical hackers brings forward Rocket, a launcher for Docker containers written entirely in Python, which uses a PyQt6 GUI and can also run on Windows and macOS machines.

While there are multiple guides on manually bypassing the TPM, Secure Boot, or processor compatibility checks performed when installing Windows 11, Flyby11 does everything automatically. With the help of this straightforward patcher, users with outdated hardware can effortlessly transition to Windows 11 24H2.

Covered by the terms of the Apache 2.0 license, the IBM Granite 3.0 family of AI models targets enterprise customers and provides top performance alongside (allegedly) the most comprehensive set of risk and harm detection capabilities on the market. Those interested can download the models from Hugging Face.

Less than two months since the release of version 1.6, PorteuX 1.7 arrives with several fixes, sub-500 MB ISOs, as well as updates to most of the seven desktop environments supported. The seven are GNOME, Cinnamon, KDE, LXDE, LXQt, MATE, and Xfce. The Linux kernel 6.11.4 is used for all these flavors.

CheckMag Nintendo has a long history of screwing over its fans, whether it’s releasing underpowered hardware, suing fan projects, shutting down services older consoles rely on, and constantly re-selling its back catalogue of games to people who have bought these same titles over and over. But where Ryujinx and Yuzu are concerned, it’s not hard to see why these projects got shut down.

The Ploopy Trackpad is a 3D printed trackpad with multi-touch gesture support and a high degree of customisability, thanks to its QMK firmware and 3D printed construction. All of the part files, QMK firmware, and build instructions are available online for free, but Ploopy also sells a $72.50 DIY build kit and a pre-assembled trackpad for $94.25

Based on the barely released Ubuntu 24.10, Voyager Live 24.10 comes to add a stylish twist to the live distro paradigm by combining GNOME and Xfce while including out-of-the-box visual elements and Conky widgets. This update includes the Linux kernel version 6.11 beneath a redesigned layout designed for both PCs and tablets.

Thanks to the kv4p HT project, radio hobbyists can now extend their phones functionally to include off-grid communication. The radio module, which costs only $35 to build, will allow operators to send SMS-like messages and communicate over long distances without the need for a cell tower.

Hailing from China, Pyramid Flow is an open-source AI model capable of creating virtual hi-resolution (768p) videos. According to the team behind it, this model can generate a five-second 384p video in less than a minute. The MIT License covers Pyramid Flow, which underwent training on open-source datasets.

Hailing from Germany and based on Arch Linux, Bluestar is a distro that comes in three editions (Desktop, Deskpro, and Developer) and has just been updated to version 6.11.3. The list of changes consists mostly of updated packages, as well as a series of tweaks and fixes.

The excruciatingly long road to the release of GIMP 3.0, along with its revolutionary new non-destructive editing features, is finally drawing to a close. The GIMP development team has announced that it only has eight bugs reports left to resolve before the first release candidate goes live.

Yesterday, Ubuntu 24.10 finally came out of beta. Codenamed "Oracular Oriole," it sports the latest kernel (version 6.11), expanded toolchains with versioned Rust and Java TCK, tighter security controls via improved permissions prompting, GNOME 47, support for OpenVEX and OSV vulnerability reporting, and more.

Released yesterday, Ubuntu Budgie 24.10 will receive nine months of support. This update focuses on refining the Budgie desktop while paving the way for Wayland. Consequently, the developers removed the X11 plank dock, defaulted the top bar to a dark theme, and added support for Apple HEIF image files.

In a recent performance review comparing Intel's Lunar Lake Core Ultra 200 series laptop processors on Linux and Windows 11, performance on Linux was consistently better across almost all benchmarks. Linux was on average 14% faster, and Blender 3D rendering and heavily multi-threaded workloads saw the biggest performance gap.

Boasting AI features and a focus on privacy and security, Gnoppix comes in both a community-supported free version (Core) and a Pro flavor that includes several premium features for a moderate fee. Based on Debian and Kali Linux, Gnoppix 24.10 comes with multiple updated packages, as well as various tweaks and fixes.

It looks like the promised SteamOS ISO release is closer than we might have thought. Valve's Gamescope microcompositor recently received support for the Asus ROG Ally and Ally X displays and making them fully compatible with the SteamOS overlay and refresh rate slider.

The 57th release of the open-source, security-focused OpenBSD operating system is now available and carries the 7.6 version label. Its highlights include support for the Milk-V Pioneer board and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, multiple tweaks and fixes, improved video acceleration support, and more.

CheckMag Google is notorious for tracking people across websites, and this extends to almost every service it offers, including Android and YouTube. If you are on a quest to escape Google's aggressive data practices, you might want to consider hosting your own YouTube front end. But how easy is it, and is it worth it?

Samsung has ported the Tizen OS to the open-source RISC-V CPU architecture. This brings developers one step closer to releasing Tizen smart devices on royalty-free CPUs. The company joined the RISE (RISC-V Software Ecosystem) open-software development project in 2023.

Lately, government agencies have been cracking down on privacy-oriented messaging services, leaving many with a sense of uncertainty surrounding their online privacy. Fortunately, SimpleX Chat has taken to solving this issue, and in his latest video, Mental Outlaw explores the unique privacy features that set SimpleX Chat apart.

Developer Gabriel Chua has released his answer to Google's increasingly popular PDF to podcast converter notebookLM. Open NotebookLM replicates Google's capabilities by combining various open-source models.

Less than four months after the arrival of version 24.0 "Wynsdey," Manjaro Linux 24.1 is ready to be unleashed. Dubbed "Xahea," the arrival of the updated is imminent, as today's stable refresh removes the kernel with version 6.9 alongside many other changes. The new ISOs are expected to come out soon.

Based on Manjaro and inspired by CrunchBang and taking advantage of a few BunsenLabs utilities, Mabox Linux comes with a lightweight, ready-to-use software environment that works great on old, slow computers. Using Openbox, tint2, and Jgmenu, it has just been updated to version 24.09.

A fully functional file manager, density options, new UI scaling and density options, and focus follows cursor! System76 has addressed a ton of complaints and small bugs related to its new Rust-based Cosmic desktop environment and added a host of customisation and configuration options to the desktop. Cosmic apps also got some much-needed attention, bringing the user experience almost on-par with the likes of GNOME.

A new YouTube channel has popped up with an incredible video detailing how to convert an old Apple Desktop Bus mechanical keyboard from an outdated wired connector to a USB type-C/wireless keyboard. He also managed to add in some nifty features, like an OLED display and open-source ZMK firmware for endless customisability. All project files are also available on GitHub.

Although the source code became public yesterday, it's far from having been released as open source. However, while the Winamp Collaborative License (WCL) Version 1.0 forbids distribution of modified versions, a few forks are already online. Since WCL contradicts GitHub's ToS, the future looks interesting for Winamp and its forbidden versions.

With a short history that started in 2023, Liya Linux is a one-man effort based on Arch with reduced system requirements alongside modern looks and improved security. Released yesterday, version 2.1 comes with the 6.11.0-1 kernel, also updating various packages such as openssh, openssl, perl, samba, wayland, and many others.

With a history of over a decade, KaOS is a niche distro that has just received an update. Version 2024.09 was released yesterday, and its highlights include Calligra, which replaces LibreOffice as the default office suite, as well as an updated VirtualBox package.

On the way for the public release of Ubuntu 24.10 "Oracular Oriole," which is scheduled for October 10th, the Ubuntu team unveiled a new beta for the desktop, server, and cloud products. Ubuntu 24.10 beta allows users to test GNOME 47, including a new version of the Nautilus file manager, and much more.

Zorin OS and Zorin OS Pro have both been updated to version 17.2, which brings with it the latest Linux Kernel. Touted as one of the easiest Linux distros to theme, the update brings even more customization options as well as improved performance and security.

One month before the stable release, Fedora Linux 41 beta arrives with a preview of what's about to come. Some of these changes are Python 2's removal, Valkey replacing Redis, the ability to install the proprietary Nvidia video driver with Secure Boot, DNF5 alongside bootc in Fedora IoT and the Atomic desktop versions, and more.

The latest maintenance release for the 13.x series brings FreeBSD up to version number 13.4 and, sadly, doesn't include any major changes. However, today's update comes with multiple bug fixes, driver updates, as well as more than a few updated versions of apps maintained by third parties.

Based on Arch Linux but also packing a few proprietary pieces of code, such as the Swirl web browser, SDesk received a new update yesterday. Alongside the new drivers, which focus on supporting touch interfaces, this software refresh comes with a move from the Calamares installer to the GNOME first-run wizard.

The TI-84 is a powerful graphing calculator in its own right, but modder ChromaLock saw even more potential for the platform. Exploiting some of the calculator's built-in functionality, he found a way to introduce features never before seen in a calculator.

Available since late March 2014, Debian-based MX Linux has just reached version 23.4. Based on Debian 12.7, the update packs a generous list of fixes, application updates, tweaks, kernel updates, as well as updated language packs. The Xfce, KDE, and Fluxbox ISOs come with the 6.1.106 kernel, while AHS sports the 6.10.10 kernel.

With a history of over two decades and previously known as OpenBeOS, today's Haiku is pushing forward with the release of the R1 Beta 5 preview version. This community-driven project aims to provide a modern open-source operating system that's also backward-compatible with BeOS.

Initially supposed to arrive two weeks ago, Ubuntu 22.04.5 was delayed until yesterday. This point-release for the 22.04 LTS branch comes with multiple updates and fixes, as usual. The list of updated components includes Ruby 3.0, PHP 8.1.2, BIND 9.18.1, Apache 2.4.52, PostgreSQL 14.2, MySQL 8.0.28, and more.

Bringing no less than 11 additional tools, Debian-based Kali Linux 2024.3 is an update that also comes with support for the Qualcomm Snapdragon SDM845 SoC. Additionally, it begins the transition to the Python 3.12 update, which removes some deprecated APIs but also breaks some packages, so it needs more work before being released.

Born back in 2015, Redox OS is still in a testing stage, but the latest update, labeled 0.9.0, brings it one step closer to the public release. Written in Rust, it now sports COSMIC desktop apps, a custom web server, as well as performance and stability improvements. Redox OS 0.9.0 also comes with a Nano text editor port.

As X/Twitter remains banned in Brazil, new users from this country helped Bluesky exceed 9 million subscribers while also recording almost 5 million monthly active accounts. Founded in early October 2021, this US-based decentralized microblogging social platform opened signups for everyone this year, in early February.

The sixth update to Q4OS 5 Aquarius is now available with the Debian Bookworm 12.7 updates, the Debian stable 6.1.0-25 kernel, as well as various fixes. The Calamares installer now sports custom desktop profiles, while all the live media now sport new Debian Shim and Grub bootloader binaries.

While it continues to keep things spartan by providing just the old-school command-line interface, Peropesis 2.7 comes with file system archiving and ISO management tools, as well as various updated components, tweaks, and fixes. Although larger than for previous versions, the Peropesis 2.7 ISO file has just 282 MB in size.

Arriving a tad later than anticipated, GhostBSD 24.07.1 promises increased performance and stability thanks to the transition from using packages based on the team's own ports to using FreeBSD PKGBSD packages. Additionally, this update comes with an improved NetworkMGR, two security tweaks for OpenSSH, and more.

In response to the rise of Linux gaming, primarily due to the Steam Deck, the Dolphin team has decided to collaborate with the community to make the widely used unofficial Flatpak distribution of the Dolphin emulator official.

More and more companies have started to introduce RISC-V products, but there isn't much focus on gaming with these open-source CPUs, mostly due to compatibility issues. But that didn't stop Box86/Box64 developers from running The Witcher 3 on Milk-V Pioneer paired with an AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT.

With a history of no less than 14 years, Polish-made 4MLinux is a lightweight distro that includes a collection of classic Linux games, support for virtually all multimedia formats, and can also be used for troubleshooting and rescue purposes in a live bootable environment. Version 46.0 comes with GTK 4 and greatly improved file support.

DeepComputing has started taking pre-orders for its upcoming DC-ROMA Pad II. The tablet, which starts at $149, is focused on providing an advanced RISC-V development platform. RISC-V is becoming exceedingly popular among developers because it lacks licensing fees and is open-source.

The Open Source Media Center (OSMC) Debian-based Linux distro has just been updated with Kodi 21.1 Omega. In addition to a set of bug fixes, the new version, labeled 2024.08-1, comes with improved remote keymap messages, updated and improved translations, Vero V full range video output, and more.