FOSS Weekly #25.38: GNOME 49 Release, KDE Drama, sudo vs sudo-rs, Local AI on Android and More Linux Stuff

We hit a major milestone on our Mastodon account. We crossed the 40,000 mark. It's a pleasant surprise. We have a lot more people on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and even YouTube. But seeing this number on a non-mainstream platform like Mastodon gives a positive uplift🕺

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

Ubuntu making a major change.
A long-time KDE contributor leaving.
The Apache Software Foundation's rebranding.
And other Linux news, tips, and, of course, memes!
This edition of FOSS Weekly is supported by TigerData.

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📰 Linux and Open Source News

Jonathan Riddell has left KDE after 25 years.
The Apache Software Foundation has turned a new leaf.
SUSE's Agama installer recently received a major update.
CUDA will be directly offered via Ubuntu's repositories soon.
Ubuntu has made a move to Dracut, replacing initramfs-tools.
The OpenSearch Foundation has a new Executive Director leading it.

GNOME 49 is released. Ubuntu 25.10 and Fedora 43 will have them. Rolling distros like Arch should have them in a week or so, hopefully.

🧠 What We’re Thinking About

The Rustification of Ubuntu has some performance hurdles to tackle.

🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials, and Learnings

Compose Key in GNOME makes typing € ♥ © and more super easy.
Here's how the classic sudo compares to the Rust-based sudo-rs.
Avoid these 10 mistakes if you are a new Linux user.

👷 AI, Homelab and Hardware Corner

Turn your Pi into a powerhouse with the Pironman 5 Max.

Running local LLMs on your phone isn't science fiction! You can try running a local AI on your Android smartphone. Don't expect a superb experience, but it can help in some cases.

And I tried my hands on a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 kit. It's a well-thought-out device primarily aiming to help children get into STEM.

✨ Project Highlight

Readest is a solid eBook reader choice that runs great on Linux (but is not limited to).

📽️ Videos I Am Creating for You

Learn about using and managing AppImages in Linux in our latest YouTube video.

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🧩 Quiz Time

What's in a Container? A lot, if you can solve it.

Desktop Linux is mostly neglected by the industry but loved by the community. For the past 13 years, It's FOSS has been helping people use Linux on their personal computers. And we are now facing the existential threat from AI models stealing our content.

If you like what we do and would love to support our work, please become It's FOSS Plus member. It costs $24 a year (less than the cost of a McDonald's burger a month), and you get an ad-free reading experience with the satisfaction of helping the desktop Linux community.

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💡 Quick Handy Tip

You can easily save sessions in KDE Plasma. First, go into KDE Settings -> Session -> Desktop Session. Here, under the "Session Restore" section, toggle on the "When session was manually saved" button.

This will add a new "Save Session" button to your Power Menu, as shown in the screenshot above (on the right). Click on it to make Plasma remember the apps that are open and restore them on the next login.

To customize the behavior further, open the apps you need at login and click the button again to change the apps.

🤣 Meme of the Week

You never know when you might need them!

🗓️ Tech Trivia

The Association for Computing Machinery was founded on September 15, 1947. Today it has over 100,000 members worldwide and organizes conferences and workshops to advance computing knowledge and technology.