I understand that the Epstein Files are an extremely sensitive subject. However, unusual and sometimes unintentionally amusing things can surface even in very serious matters. Some people noticed that the Epstein Files dump released by the U.S. Department of Justice also included the Bash Reference Manual. This isn’t alarming, as such dumps often contain a wide variety of unrelated files.
Abhishek Prakash
Here's the highlight of this edition of FOSS Weekly:
- A new Linux-focused start-up by systemd- creator.
- Linux gaming becoming great.
- France ditching Teams and Zoom.
- Thunar tips for Xfce users.
- VS Code not cleaning up its trash.
- And other Linux news, tips, and, of course, memes!
- This edition of FOSS Weekly is supported by Sonatype.
AI coding assistants agents were built for speed, not security or quality - which is part of why 1 in 4 upgrades recommendations made by AI code assistant are hallucinated. They aren’t open source experts and are often trained on outdated data. This blind spot matters. Sonatype has identified over 850k malicious components in the wild.
Their new tool, Guide, integrates with leading open source intelligence with AI coding assistants to help AI build high quality applications at the point of code generation.
Try it for free to avoid turning five lines of code into a security nightmare.
📰 Linux and Open Source News
Here's a summary of the news this week.
VS Code's Snap version hoards disk space by storing deleted files in a hidden trash folder that never clears automatically. Those files also stick around after updates. Switch to the DEB, RPM, or Flatpak version to avoid this.
Clawdbot had to rebrand as Moltbot after Anthropic's lawyers came calling. Then crypto scammers hijacked the founder's GitHub username. Security researchers are now warning it stores sensitive data in plaintext and is vulnerable to prompt injection attacks.
Major Linux gaming projects like Bazzite, Nobara, and ChimeraOS have teamed up to form the Open Gaming Collective. They are working together on shared gaming components instead of duplicating efforts.
Systemd creator Lennart Poettering left Microsoft to launch Amutable, a Berlin-based Linux security startup. The company focuses on building proactive security into systems from the ground up instead of relying on reactive threat detection.
France is ditching Microsoft Teams and Zoom for government use. Their new open source platform, Visio, will replace all non-European videoconferencing software across departments. It runs on French servers for data sovereignty and claims Zoom-level performance.
Calibre 9.0 brings a visual bookshelf view, in-viewer editing for EPUB and AZW3 files, and direct page jumps. Linux users get momentum-based touchpad scrolling. The update also improves EPUB3 metadata handling and SVG export.
Greg Kroah-Hartman, one of the people who keeps the Linux kernel stable, just won the European Open Source award. Pretty well deserved for someone maintaining critical infrastructure.
Windows PowerToys is getting a Command Palette Dock that looks suspiciously familiar. The proposed dock gives quick access to pinned extensions and can sit anywhere on screen edges.
GNU Hurd, the 36-year-old microkernel project everyone thought was gone, is actually making progress. It compiles 80% of Debian packages, runs major desktop environments, and now supports 64-bit and multi-core.
Firefox finally listened and is adding a kill switch for all the AI stuff people keep complaining about. One toggle nukes everything, or you can pick what stays.
🧠 What We’re Thinking About
For years, the community has wondered about an uncomfortable but inevitable question: what happens if Linus Torvalds is no longer around? That question has finally been answered.
Sourav Rudra
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✅ 5 FREE eBooks on Linux, Docker and Bash
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✅ Badges in the comment section and forum
✅ To support creation of educational Linux materials
🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials, and Learnings
Nano isn’t the only beginner-friendly terminal editor anymore. I hate to say it but Microsoft's Edit is a surprise.
Pulkit Chandak
Xfce users will want to read this to improve their Thunar experience.
Ever wondered what a cron job in Linux is? Decades later, this is still a reliable tool for automatically scheduling tasks.
👷 AI, Homelab and Hardware Corner
As building a homelab is my goal for 2026, I finally tried dedicated NAS hardware, a TerraMaster F4-425 Plus. It's a solid device that performs very well and stays surprisingly silent. Their software can be more polished, though.
Abhishek Prakash
Your retro computer doesn't need to languish; this $69 addition can rejuvenate it.
✨ Apps and Projects Highlights
Pulkit has come up with a "stoopid" font, jk, check it out will you?
Your terminal can be cool if you take note of this Bash framework, that is.
Jasper Nuyens from Linux Belgium shared his experiment with AI-generated music made specifically for Linux fans. It’s an interesting concept and one that really makes you pause and think about how far AI has come in content creation.
If you are into terminal-based tools, explore this download manager that claims to beat aria2 by 1.4x in speed.
📽️ Videos for You
In this video, I go down the path of creating a bootable Windows 11 USB drive on Linux. Don't get me wrong. I am not trying to move people away from Linux with such a tutorial. You would be able to help someone make a bootable Windows USB if they asked you to.
💡 Quick Handy Tip
If you are using GNOME Boxes, then you can send keyboard shortcuts like CTRL+ALT+F6, CTRL+ALT+DEL, etc., without affecting the host system.
Click on the keyboard button on the top-right of the GNOME Boxes Guest window. Here, select the required signal from the drop-down menu. This is useful if you want to access a TTY in a guest.
🎋 Fun in the FOSSverse
Which Linux distro describes you the best?
Abhishek Prakash
🤣 Meme of the Week: But I like the experience ;)
🗓️ Tech Trivia: On February 4, 1943, computer legend Ken Thompson was born, the man who co-created UNIX and built the basic blueprint that almost every modern computer and smartphone still runs on today.
🧑🤝🧑 From the Community: FOSSers are discussing the ban on social media for users under 16.
