FOSS Weekly #26.36: Debian CERN Win, Faster Firefox, Free Bash Course, Grub Customization and More Linux Stuff

A faster Firefox is a better Firefox.
Warp Terminal

Firefox 155 has arrived quietly, speeding up page loads with Happy Eyeballs v3 and QUIC v2. And the timing is perfect for you to switch. Google just removed uBlock Origin from the Chrome Web Store, leaving Firefox one of the last non-Chromium browsers still supporting it.

EndeavourOS 'Triton' is running late, so instead of that, the developers have introduced 'Titan Nova' as a release mostly packed with hardware support enablement, misc fixes, Linux 7.1.8, and more.

Vanilla OS 3 'Reunion' is out with first-class ARM64 support, reproducible images, and GNOME 50. New default apps include Ptyxis, Papers, and Resources, while snapshot backups come via the new Vanilla Continuity tool.

Virtual machines add a layer; containers share one kernel, but Multikernel's approach avoids both. It gives each workload its own full kernel on real hardware. The first public release targets servers and SRE teams.

Do you own an Apple iPhone? Well, then you might be missing the Continuity feature on Linux. Luckily, a developer has managed to bring a comparable experience with Tether, an open source app that carries iMessage, SMS, and OTP codes to Linux over Bluetooth.

Debian 11 "Bullseye" has reached end-of-life, which means you have to either upgrade to a newer supported release, or stay on it, manually managing the security of your system.

Speaking of Debian, the CERN lab is migrating 2200 of its control systems to Debian 13. That's a massive win for all of us Linux users.

LibreOffice 26.8 contains no AI features, on purpose. TDF proudly markets its stance, promising that its office suite doesn't need to contact a server.

Germany's Sovereign Tech Agency is putting €508,640 into Flatpak over two years, involving a few other stakeholders. Seems like Flatpak is going to get stronger and more widespread.

This edition of FOSS Weekly is supported by privacy service provider, AdGuard.

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🧠 What We’re Thinking About

AI crawlers are scraping the Linux kernel repo in a way that results in unnecessary compute usage, burning ~4.6 million times more compute for a worse copy of data that was always free to grab.

A community leader in open source, Debian, has voted to allow AI-assisted contributions, and the community response has been predictably split. One long-time Debian developer even quit over it.

Debian AI Vote has Divided the Community
Debian is a big name, a leader in the community, so the decision Debian made is going to set a precedent. It may lead to more projects embracing AI as Debian leads the way.

That's not the only divide. Omarchy is now a foundation backed by several tech leaders, 1Password CEO being one of them. And that has created a divide in both its employees and users. This article provides context.

🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials, and Learnings

How often do you think about which filesystem to install your OS on? Or swapping your kernel for a real-time build when you need it? Or moving your whole install to a different machine without a license headache?

We list ten things Linux does casually that Windows either can't do or actively prevents.

Ubuntu's built-in tiling is more capable than most people realize. We explore the various keyboard shortcuts, window gaps, and active window hints in the default Ubuntu Tiling Assistant, then go further into the Tiling Shell extension for proper layout management.

If you are absolutely new to bash shell scripting, we have a 10-part, hands-on bash learning series for you. Good starting point for Linux users.

Bash Scripting Tutorial for Beginners
Get acquainted with bash scripting in this course for beginners.

Grub Customizer is a handy tool that lets you change boot order in a multi-boot system.

Desktop Linux is mostly neglected by the industry but loved by the community. For the past 14 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.

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👷 AI, Homelab and Hardware Corner

Switched routers, and now your headless Raspberry Pi can't go online? Pull the SD card, mount it on your Linux machine, then follow these steps. 👇

How to Change Raspberry Pi Wi-Fi Details From the SD Card
No need to connect the Raspberry Pi to a display and keyboard. Take out the SD card and modify the WiFi credentials directly.

Canonical has joined NVIDIA's Open Secure AI Alliance, a coalition focused on building open tools for securing AI agents and the software stacks they run on.

✨ Apps and Projects Highlights

Image Toolbox is the app for you if your life revolves around creating and posting content on social media. It is fully open source, doesn't sell you ads, and also has AI powers.

📽️ Videos for You

KDE's default terminal Konsole is an underrated but capable terminal emulator. Check out this video and learn a few new tips.

💡 Quick Handy Tip

gnome files grid view captions tip

If you are using the Nautilus file manager (aka GNOME Files), in the "Icon" options menu (downwards arrow button), go into "Captions..." and select "Size" and "Detailed File Type" captions for the "First" and "Second" options.

This way, you will be shown essential folder/file information without needing to go into the property view or the terminal.

🎋 Fun in the FOSSverse

Seeing that Linux recently turned 35, why not try your hand at a history trivia quiz?

Linux History Trivia Quiz
An enjoyable trivia quiz about Linux history.

Firefox is still a strong force againsta everything Chrome.

🗓️ Tech Trivia: Happy 34th birthday to SUSE! 🎂💚

Founded on September 2, 1992, SUSE made history as the world’s first provider of an Enterprise Linux distribution.

💡 Fun fact: The original name, S.u.S.E. GmbH, stood for "Software- und System-Entwicklung" (Software and Systems Development).

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 From the Community: An old thread on the topic of Linux distros that still support 32-bit has gone active again. Got any missing ones to add to the list?

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About the author
Abhishek Prakash

Abhishek Prakash

Created It's FOSS 13 years ago to share my Linux adventures. Have a Master's degree in Engineering and years of IT industry experience. Huge fan of Agatha Christie detective mysteries 🕵️‍♂️

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