Ubuntu 26.04 development is progressing rapidly. While there are welcome changes, their decision to remove the classic Software & Updates tool from the upcoming release is unpleasant for me. This was the GUI tool that allowed you to manage the repositories. The reasoning is that it is "dangerous or too complex for normal users". I lowkey disagree with that. Your thoughts are welcome.
Here's the highlight of this edition of FOSS Weekly:
- An open source robotic arm.
- The final Linux release in the 6.x series.
- Tiling window in Ubuntu.
- Trying AI for actual sysadmin works.
- And other Linux news, tips, and, of course, memes!
📰 Linux and Open Source News
Here's a summary of the news this week.
ONLYOFFICE now has an online PDF editor that can be used from a web browser. Their desktop application already has the PDF editing ability.
LibreOffice 26.2 brings faster Calc scrolling, better Excel paste support, and better floating table handling in Writer. You can now import and export Markdown files with clipboard support. XLSX files default to the Excel 2010-365 format.
DI.DAY is a monthly movement to ditch Big Tech, happening on the first Sunday of every month. Launched by Save Social and Chaos Computer Club, the community runs workshops on degoogling phones, installing Linux, and configuring Nextcloud. The next one's on March 1.
Linux kernel 6.19 is out. ASUS ROG handhelds get official Armoury driver support, AMD VMs can now run 4096 vCPUs instead of 512, and older Radeon cards use the AMDGPU driver for better performance.
Group-Office 26.0 brings Collabora Online to the free tier for real-time document editing. The new Kanban board module handles visual workflows, and the Projects module gets time approval so managers can review entries before they're finalized.
Warp terminal (non-FOSS tool) launched a Claude like AI agent for its terminal. Apparently, like Vibe Coding, VibeOps is also a real term, used for AI-assisted DevOps activities. And this is why we will be seeing more AI agents for the terminal workflow.
🧠 What We’re Thinking About
Emacs won over modern AI writing tools for this novelist's sci-fi project. He spent years fighting with Neovim configs, finally switched and got the novel done.
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🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials, and Learnings
Ubuntu's built-in window tiling got better with the 24.04 release. To improve it further, we tried a few tricks to further enhance it.
Want to ditch subscription services and own your ebooks? Self-hosted ebook servers let you organize your library and read from any device.
Explore some amusing Linux commands and have fun in the terminal.
👷 AI, Homelab and Hardware Corner
Qwen Code can replace Claude Code for sysadmin tasks without subscriptions if you can install it locally on a high-end system, of course. Bhuwan tested it on a Golang setup, Caddy with multiple local sites, and BorgBackup automation.
Bhuwan Mishra
Seeed Studio has introduced the reBot Arm B601, open source six-axis robotic arm aimed at students and researchers.
Elecrow is running a user interface design contest for the CrowPanel ESP32 HMI lineup with $2,400 up for grabs.
✨ Apps and Projects Highlights
There is a better way to manage AppImage files on Linux.
Sourav Rudra
We also ditched ClickUp for an "open source" alternative.
📽️ Videos for You
There is a neat, safe way to install Arch User Repository packages in Ubuntu. That's the topic for this week's video.
💡 Quick Handy Tip
In Thunar file manager, you can switch to a split view by pressing the F3 key. This is also doable by going into the View menu and clicking on "Split View."
🎋 Fun in the FOSSverse
Spot the differences in this challenging image puzzle.
Ankush Das
🤣 Meme of the Week: But then Linux is only free if you have time ;)
🗓️ Tech Trivia: On February 10, 1996, IBM’s Deep Blue chess computer defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in the first game of their match, marking the first time a computer ever beat a reigning world champion under tournament conditions.
🧑🤝🧑 From the Community: Regular FOSSer Paul has kicked off an interesting conversation surrounding AI use in creation of content.
