FOSS Weekly #26.42: AI in Kernel, Ubuntu 26.10 Firefox Business, Mint Release Changes and More Linux Stuff

AI’s role in kernel work is looking more apparent now. Linus Torvalds’ use of Claude Code has tripled read speeds for concurrent file access, while Sasha Levin proposed an agents directory to house AI skills for kernel work.

And that’s just the way AI is progressing, for good or bad. Last week’s most popular news was an open source project that used AI to reverse engineer Adobe’s Photoshop and other tools. Now the same project has used AI to ‘clone’ Microsoft Office.

These days, 9 out of 10 new open source software I come across is created with AI assistance. My inbox is flodded with new software review requests. One glance and I can ‘feel’ that both software and the coverage request email used AI.

So, like Linus Torvalds, I have made my peace with it. Until now, I was trying not to recommend open source tools that were openly developed with help of Claude or other AI tools. I don’t see the point of it anymore now. If an open source software is good and I feel that readers would find it useful, I will feature it regardless. You can then decide on your own if you want to use it or not.

And this is also the time to get moving towards local AI. Where AI and models live in your system locally instead of a cloud. Sure, it won’t match the performance of Claude and other frontier models, but some smaller tasks can still be achieved with local AI. Ubuntu’s AI-based voice input tool Myna is a proof of that.

Do subscribe to the Local AI Weekly newsletter if you want to stay updated and use the AI on your system in true open source spirit.

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📰 Linux news that matters

Ubuntu 26.10 is going to be released today. While we wait for Ubuntu 26.10 ISOs to appear, the next interim release already has a codename, “Tenacious T-Rex,” marking the first time Ubuntu has ever used a dinosaur-themed mascot.

ONLYOFFICE Docs 10.0 brings AI assistance to every editor for text summarization and formula drafting, while adding collaboration features, spreadsheet speed improvements, and modular apps for forms and file management.

Strata is a new keyboard-first file manager for Omarchy and Arch that just hit 1.0, offering column view browsing, vi-key navigation, and a clever feature that remembers each folder’s sort order and icon size.

LibreOffice has come to the rescue after Microsoft’s discontinuation of Publisher for 365 users. Using the Document Liberation Project’s reverse-engineered library, users can now open PUB files and migrate them to open standard formats.

Mozilla is targeting the commercial market with Firefox Enterprise, a product that would let organizations manage Firefox installations across employee devices through a self-hosted console.

Linux Mint has moved to an annual release cycle, with the next one, Linux Mint 27 “Adrien” arriving on Christmas. There won’t be a Mint 23.x

The CachyOS team recently announced that Framework is increasing its support for the project, going from $250 per month to $850, taking the total figure up to $10,200 a year.

Open source boot firmware LibreBoot has a new release supporting more hardware now.

🧠 What We’re Thinking About

Six open source vendors have launched Open Productivity Software to expand openDesk from government use into the enterprise market.

🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials, and Learnings

My Computer is a Shell extension that restores the unified “Computer” view that GNOME dropped from Files (Nautilus) in the GNOME 47 release. It displays drives, network locations, and removable media in one place rather than them being scattered across the sidebar.

Arch users run pacman -Syu for updates because it prevents dependency mismatches when the local package database is stale. Running just -S on an outdated system can leave you with incompatible package versions.

👷 Homelab and Hardware Corner

Pebble completed the full open source release of software, hardware schematics, and mobile apps in 2025, paving the way for its resurrection. Now the Pebble Round 2 smartwatch has entered production and begun shipping to preorders.

Zima, brand behind ZimaOS, ZimaBoard, and ZimaCube, is organizing a self-hosting event on Reddit where you can win homelab gadgets and AdGuard and PhotoPrism licenses just by sharing your self-hosting story. If you already self-host, why not try your luck? Or, at least explore how other people are self-hosting.

✨ Apps and Projects Highlights

BentoPDF is a privacy-first, open source PDF toolkit that processes files locally in your browser instead of uploading to servers.

A new open source GIS tool is here; it lets you chat with an AI Assistant about map data and geographic workflows.

📽️ Videos for You

For people who are working extensively with git, this terminal-based git client is worth a try.

💡 Quick Handy Tip

In the Nautilus file manager, you can carry out a search in the current folder using Ctrl+F or search everywhere using Shift+Ctrl+F. When you find the item you were looking for, you can use the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+O to open its location.

Going further, you can also use the shortcut Ctrl+. to open a terminal at that location.

🎋 Fun in the FOSSverse

Call yourself a true Arch Linux fan? Are you bold enough to prove it?

A reality check for big names like Adobe. 🤭

🗓️ Tech Trivia: Long before IT became the industry we know today, British computing professionals were organizing themselves. On October 14, 1957, the British Computer Society was formally incorporated following a merger of two computing groups.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 From the Community: A very interesting thread surrounding NixOS and Nix has popped up, featuring replies from supporters and skeptics.