Open Source

As its fifth anniversary draws near, EndeavourOS gets a new update. Labeled 2024.06.25, this software refresh comes with Plasma 6.1 (both offline and live), Firefox 127.0.1-1, and Calamares 24.06.1.2-1, as well as a few fixes. Also, the r8168 legacy driver package has been removed in this update.

System76's Cosmic Linux desktop environment now has an official logo. The development team confirms that a first alpha version of the Rust-based desktop is planned for the end of July.

Deepin is one of the most popular AI-enabled Linux distros in the world. In this latest release, the developers give Deepin new powers such as additional fonts and video decoding improvements while keeping the spotlight on the custom desktop environment that has won so many hearts.

A Red Hat developer has shown the first images of what a Blue Screen of Death could look like under Linux in the event of a kernel error. The error screen does not necessarily have to be blue, as we know it from Windows.

The Linux desktop environment KDE Plasma has been updated to version 6.1, which includes an improved desktop editing mode and session recovery under Wayland. Remote desktop connections have also been simplified.

If you own a Framework Laptop 13, you can soon run it with a RISC-V mainboard. The DIY laptop maker has announced a collaboration with DeepComputing to bring a new motherboard with a StarFive JH7110 processor. It's a quad-core 64-bit chip with SiFive U74 cores, BXE-4-32 graphics, and a max speed of 1.5 GHz.

Taking its level of security one step further, Tails 6.4 comes with a random seed on the USB stick that strengthens all its cryptographic functions. Thanks to it, the Persistent Storage, Tor, or HTTPS are now more secure. Additionally, this new release comes with multiple minor tweaks and fixes.

Although it targets only Linux fans for the time being, postmarketOS continues to receive regular updates. Released yesterday, the latest one is labeled 24.06 and comes with support for more than 250 devices. Its highlights include KDE Plasma Mobile 6.0.5, GNOME Shell on Mobile 46_git20240610, Phosh 0.39, and much more.

Recycle instead of dispose: A detailed DIY guide shows how the smart speaker from Sonos can be brought back to life. Afterwards, it is also much more versatile, so it's actually upcycling.

Until next year's announced arrival of the Adaptable Linux Platform-based Leap 16, openSUSE Leap keeps moving forward with version 15.6. Released yesterday, it comes with maintenance and security updates guaranteed until the end of 2025, OpenSSL 3.1 as default, Podman 4.8, KDE Plasma 5.27.11, and more.

The Framework laptops are best known for their modular and repairable design. Now, the company has taken things to the next level by open-sourcing the 3D CAD files for its 16-inch laptop. This will enable users with 3D printers to make their own accessories.

Unleashed earlier today, Firefox 127.0 comes with enhanced screenshot capabilities that can also handle files rendered in the browser such as SVG or XML, HTTPS Media upgrades on HTTPS pages, improved support for DNS prefectching, authentication when firing up the built-in password manager, a Close duplicate tabs option, and more.

The MNT Pocket Reform is a particularly compact notebook that is now available. The system follows an open source approach and thus allows for extensive modification by users.

Unveiled at the end of last week, NixOS 24.05 comes with version 6.6 of the Linux kernel, Gnome 46 alongside KDE Plasma 6, as well as support for the Lomiri and Mate 1.28 desktops. Another highlight worth mentioning is the introduction of ztsd compression for firmware blogs.

Security and forensics-focused Kali Linux is back with bug updates and tweaks, as well as new tools and desktop updates. Released yesterday, Kali 2024.2 includes Gnome 46 and Xfce updates for Kali-Undercover and HiDPI, as well as no less than 18 new tools, including coercer, horst, netexec, and snort.

Unleashed yesterday, FreeBSD 14.1 is the second release of the stable/14 branch. Available for multiple architectures, from servers and desktops to embedded platforms, it comes with improvements to the sound subsystem, upgraded versions of OpenZFS, Clang/LLVM, OpenSSH, and more.

The worst results that a privacy check by Mozilla has ever produced. And it's not at all surprising that all the car manufacturers tested were criticized - some, fortunately, less so.

DARPA has released its deepfake detection tools developed in its Semantic Forensics program to counter AI threats. Nearly two dozen tools help detect deepfake photos and videos as well as AI-generated text and voice. Collaborative AI FORCE challenges released every four weeks encourage public researchers to help develop innovative solutions to the generative AI threat.

LineageOS 21 has launched for the repair-friendly Fairphone 5, making it yet another custom ROM to beat the original OEM to the Android 14 punch. Unlike most other Android makers, though, Fairphone welcomes bootloader unlocking and custom ROM support.

Modos has announced the pre-launch of its 13.3" e-ink Modos Paper Monitor with 60 Hz refresh rate. The main drawback of slow e-ink displays has been tackled with low-latency technology that enables smooth video playback. A separate Modos Development Kit with open-hardware and open-source software hackability will also be available.

Initially released at the end of April 1997, Winamp has been intermittently dormant for nearly a decade ever since. The latest stable release is one year old and carries the 5.9.2 version number. A new Winamp version, described as "the best player to listen to all types of audio," is set to arrive on the 1st of July.

Version 1.49 of the Eclipse Theia development platform has been released, with 53 pull requests incorporated into the update. New features include support for dev containers, a Docker image for the Theia IDE and the so-called Dirty Diff Peek View.

CheckMag Some might argue that YouTube adverts are getting ridiculous. With 2 ads often up to 20 seconds each at the start of a video and another one slapped in your face if you try to scrub through a section, it's no surprise that ad blockers are so popular. In response, Google is clamping down on their use by effectively ruining the experience, but there are still effective ways to bypass them.

The popular command line tool Neofetch has not been actively developed for several years, and the source code has now been archived on GitHub by programmer Dylan Araps. However, there are a number of alternatives for displaying your Linux system information in the terminal.

Gaming on Linux can be a little complicated, but the open-source community has put into the software surrounding the Linux gaming experience. Here is a pick of four of the best tools and software packages to make the most of your gaming hardware running on Linux.

Canonical has officially released Ubuntu 24.04, which will receive critical security updates for 5 years thanks to Long Term Support (LTS). In addition to the latest, slightly modified GNOME 46 desktop, Ubuntu 24.04 comes with the Linux 6.8 kernel.

Bazzite Linux 3.0 has officially launched, bringing with it Gnome 46, KDE Plasma 6, as well as improved HDR gaming on the Steam Deck OLED and more features for more handhelds, including the Lenovo Legion Go, Asus ROG Ally, and two Ayn handhelds.

ProtonDB is the Linux gaming community's attempt at trying to fix Steam's lack of compatibility documentation surrounding Windows games on Linux. It is a fantastic tool for Linux gamers, but unfortunately, it only adds to the chaos, thanks to how games are labelled.

The Fedora 2 Slimbook is available in 14-inch and 16-inch models with Intel Core i7-13700H processors and up to 64GB of DDR5 memory. The 16-inch model also comes with an Nvidia Geforce RTX 4060 notebook GPU.

Fedora 40 and the various spins of this Linux distribution are officially available and can be downloaded from the Fedora Project website. The main new feature is an update to the GNOME 46 desktop; the KDE spin also switches to KDE Plasma 6.

System76's COSMIC desktop, designed to run on the Pop!_OS Linux distribution now plays better with Nvidia GPUs, has fully fledged theming capabilities, and as well as a number of exciting third party contributions.

The "pylyzer" analysis tool tests Python scripts for errors and is said to be very performant thanks to its programming in Rust. The open source project's development team also provides a Visual Studio Code extension.

The KDE Plasma 6 development team has released the April bugfix release in the form of version 6.0.4. Amongst other things, it is now easier to use URLs via drag & drop, and bugs in the system monitor and battery applet have been fixed.

The AI assistant "aider" is using ChatGPT 3.5 or 4 and can incorporate entire Git repositories into AI-based development. The open source tool is used in the terminal and should be able to perform commits independently with automatically generated descriptions.

A simple spelling error in the source code of the Telegram Messenger Windows application let attackers bypass a security warning. This enabled the automatic execution of Python scripts after clicking on a link disguised as a video.

Microsoft's Visual Studio Code source code editor has been updated to version 1.88, adding new features such as scrolling synchronisation between windows and separate labels for opened editors.

A recently discovered vulnerability in the Linux kernel could allow an attacker to gain root privileges. Exploits are available for several Linux distributions, but the vulnerability does not appear to be fully patched.

Eclipse's Theia web-based platform and Theia IDE have been updated to version 1.48. A total of 53 enhancements have been made to the cloud platform and IDE, including support for floating second windows in the code editor.

The beta version of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS has been released a week late and is now available for download. The final version of Canonical's Linux distribution is scheduled for release on 25 April 2024.

For the second month in a row, Linux on the desktop has reached a market adoption rate of over 4%, according to Statcounter.com. Will 2024 be the much-touted "year of the Linux desktop"?

Future versions of Firefox may include a new feature that translates selected text in other languages. This feature recently appeared in Firefox Nightly 126.

EndeavourOS, a Linux distribution based on Arch Linux, has announced that it will discontinue development of its version for ARM processors. Maintainers are more urgently needed for the x86_64 edition of EndeavourOS.

The JavaScript and TypeScript toolkit Bun has been released in version 1.1 with a number of improvements. These include support for Windows 10 and higher, as well as optimised performance.

The upcoming Ubuntu 24.04 LTS will include an updated version of the Power Profiles Daemon. Laptop users in particular, especially those with the latest Intel or AMD components, should benefit from the power management improvements.

Released in November 2023, Fedora Linux 39 will reach its end of life this November. Its successor is already in the works, and a new beta has just surfaced online. Fedora Linux 40 beta comes with Gnome 46, KDE Plasma 6, Podman 5, as well as multiple other changes. The final version is set to launch next month.

KDE Plasma's Global Themes can run scripts in the background, which can run commands as a root user, including the infamous “sudo rm -rf" which wipes the user's root partition, causing significant data loss. KDE is aware of the issue, but no fix has been issued.

CheckMag Batocera has been around since 2016 but has reached a level of polish unmatched by its competitors. Great background music, boot animations and box art. Combined with the power of the Raspberry Pi 5, there’s never been a more pleasing, easy or cheap way to enjoy retro games.

The GNOME team has released version 46 of its desktop environment for Linux and Unix systems. GNOME 46 "Kathmandu" brings, among other things, an improved search function and experimental support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR).

System76 says that while it will skip the alpha 1 release for its Cosmic desktop, essentially pushing the alpha release back to May, it is still planning on a full release of Cosmic by the end of September. The developer of the Pop!_OS Linux distribution also gave us a sneak peek at recent progress on the Cosmic apps, and things are looking quite tidy.

Elon Musk's latest move in his legendary spat with OpenAI sees xAI's Grok go open-source. The move comes after Musk's repeated criticism of OpenAI for moving away from the company's original mission and prioritising profit.