FOSS Weekly #25.30: AUR Poisoned, Linux Rising, PPA Explained, New Open Source Grammar Checker and More

I know readers in the US will find it difficult to believe but it seems that Linux desktop usage are all time high in the United States of America. That's worth a celebration 🥂

💬 Let's see what else you get in this edition

Firefox trying to redeem itself.
A RAT making its way into Arch Linux.
Intel's Linux distribution being discontinued.
And other Linux news, tips, and, of course, memes!

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📰 Linux and Open Source News

Intel's Clear Linux OS is no more after the silicon giant pulls the plug on it.
NVIDIA has teamed up with RISC-V International to bring CUDA to RISC-V CPUs.
Firefox has finally added support for WebGPU. You can now try it out on the Firefox 141 release.

A malicious actor managed to slip in some malware into the AUR. It was quickly discovered and disabled. One more reason to stick with the official repositories of your distribution.

🧠 What We’re Thinking About

An Italian YouTuber is facing jailtime over retro-gaming handheld reviews. Those devices come pre-installed with emulators and retro games.

🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials, and Learnings

Don't know if you already use it, but creating templates in LibreOffice saves time in creating new document on a repetition. From invoices to letters, make good use of the template feature.

Speaking of templates, you can add the missing 'create new document' option in right-click context menu in Ubuntu and other distros using GNOME desktop. I don't understand why it was removed in the first place. Just GNOME things.

I understand that in the age of Snaps and Flatpaks, PPAs don't have the same charm as they used to have before the 2020s. Still, blindly adding PPAs creates havoc for new Ubuntu/Mint users.

And that's why I recommend reading this PPA guide I wrote a few years ago. Once you understand how it works, you won't have the repository related error with the updates.

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👷 AI, Homelab and Hardware Corner

If you are unsure of Windsurf's fate, you can opt for one of these alternative editors instead.

Here are 17 cool project ideas for your Arduino.

I came across this cool NAS plus local AI device for homelab starters on Kickstarter. Out of my budget but hey, we can window shop once in a while, right?

Explore ORICO on Kickstarter

✨ Project Highlight

A new way to game on Linux is here. GeForce Infinity allows Linux gamers to play games using GeForce NOW.

Here's a new open source grammar checker which is surely worth a try. It has a great future ahead as it is backed by the makers of WordPress.

📽️ Videos I am Creating for You

And I reviewed the magnificent Pironman 5 Max case.

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🧩 Quiz Time

Seeing that a new Debian release is around the corner, can you recall all its codenames?

💡 Quick Handy Tip

For GNOME apps like Nautilus file manager, Software, and several others, you can use the shortcut CTRL+? (which is CTRL+SHIFT+/) on your keyboard to get a list of available keyboard shortcuts for that app.

If the app in focus has some keyboard shortcuts available, it will be opened in a new app window.

🤣 Meme of the Week

That's how it feels on some Linux subreddits and forums. Thankfully, It's FOSS Community forum is much more welcoming.

🗓️ Tech Trivia

When Apple released Mac OS 8 on July 26, 1997, it was a huge hit, selling over 1.2 million copies in two weeks. This success significantly boosted the company during a tough time, as it faced financial struggles and strong competition from Microsoft.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 FOSSverse Corner

A long time FOSSer has become active again; it's good to see people return.

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